mccain parties like it's 2008 and the shortest leader the GOP will never have

a few interesting items from the wash post this morning.  first, a piece on mitch daniels - who, at 5'6" - would defy all sorts of non-sensical trends if he ran for president and actually won.  the indiana governor, who 10 years ago would seem a conservative fringe kook, is actually looking too "leftist" for the party these days, as illustrated by his statement, "Purity in martyrdom is for suicide bombers," in describing the need to work with democrats on the budget problems.  how DARE he "compromise" with the evil pinkos!  no wonder he's hesitant to run.  well, we at B&B are not surprised at the foolishness of the GOP voters - who at this time rate donald trump as their strongest candidate.  no commentary needed beyond that, methinks. 

the second article is an overview of the sunday talk shows, where mccain stated that "hope is not a strategy," in Lybia.  sadly, B&B is reporting that mccain has finally fallen off the wagon of lucidity as he obviously thinks that it's still 2008.  maybe he's re-playing that election in his head under the assumption that he didn't choose palin as a running mate.  that would drive anyone nuts. 

daddy's credit ain't no good here

so it turns out that standard and poor's are warning us about the real possibility of downgrading america's bond rating from AAA due to our looming "deficit crisis".  jesus, how did we get here?  i thought cheney said no one cares about deficits?  well, the obvious thing to do is to cut spending, and decrease taxes to sput economic grown then, right?  right.  when newt's crew starting chanting this crap back in '94, it rang much more true to me (not that i agree with it in hindsight, but at least there was some principal behind it).  well, we cut taxes alright, and as they ALWAYS say, it led to economic growth - but for who?  the rich just got a lot richer and the middle/lower class got poorer.  is this the "real" economic growth that we want?  the manta to continue to cut taxes for the rich in an effort to spur economic growth no longer has the traction is used to have - even in this new tea party universe.  in other words, you can only go to the well so many times before it runs dry - and it's starting to get dry now.  i mean, tax receipts and rates are as lows as they've been since 1950, and hell, there USED to be an ethic by the wealthy that they should pay back their share in progressive taxes since they reap the benefits of all the services provided by government and infrastructure that allowed them to gain their wealth.  but now wealth isn't created by "doing" a goddamn thing - now it's just numbers and finance sleight-of-hand that leads to "growth" and wealth - primarily for the ultra-rich.  where's the pride in re-investment from the nouveau riche?  these bastards got us into this mess and won't even help to pay and clean it up.  i guess it's consistent with all the environmental damage they do and don't pay for.  typical. 

b & b on the scene

b & b politcos is up and running, ready to review today's political landscape and make predictions on things like the situation in lybia, the budget "crises" and when boehner will cry next (my prediction is that it will be somewhere between noon and 2pm today - they're showing re-runs of the gilligan's island where the skipper loses an arm to diabetes - it's very touching, people).  other items we'll be forecasting include the 2012 prez race, if michelle bachmann will, in fact, fall upon her own sword literally and figuratively, and the chances of donald trump to win the nuthouse republican nomination.  dear lord, there's a lot of material here, even after spectre of glenn beck has effectively eaten his own baby to lead to his own demise.  the mayans may have just been predicting the beckapolypse in 2012.  i'll take that.