Obama recovery going so well, shutdown the only answer, says GOP

 The Daily Edge
With leading economists forecasting an acceleration of the US economy heading into the 2014 midterms, Republicans are publicly admitting that their four-and-a-half-year effort to fuck America’s middle class in every orifice has failed.
“Obama is just too good for us,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, an attendee at the secret GOP dinner on Inauguration Night in 2009 at which 15 leading Republicans plotted to make sure America’s middle-class would be well-and-truly screwed by the Bush crash for generations to come. “You have to remember, America was in crisis,” added Cantor. “We really wanted to kick the country when it was down, and blame Obama.”
Paul Ryan, one of the patriots who attended that dinner, admitted: “Things are going so well right now that a complete government shutdown is the only option. It’s getting harder than ever to convince people we must kill Medicare and Social Security. In all these years, Obama hasn’t allowed me to throw a single grandma off a cliff, for Chrissakes.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, facing a tough Democratic challenger in 2014, was despondent: “The Federal Reserve says the economy is accelerating. In 2014, it will grow as fast as 3-3.8%. We cannot allow that to happen. It would be a travesty if all the filibustering I’ve been doing was allowed to go to waste.”
Senator John McCain declined to speak on economic issues, but expressed regret that Syria had agreed to give up its WMDs without a shot being fired. “I was hoping for a least one more pointless, ill-planned overseas war,” he said. “I didn’t even care where, as long as a lot of expensive missiles could be dropped. Because of Obama, I haven’t even been able to use the word ‘quagmire’ since 2008.”
House Speaker John Boehner reeled off a spate of impressive economic statistics: “Obama has delivered 42 straight months of private sector job growth, delivering 7 and a half million jobs. Manufacturing has added 500,00 jobs under Obama. We tried to kill the US auto industry, but Obama saved it and it’s doing way better than anyone predicted.  Stocks are up 100%. People’s 401(k)s are higher than before the crash. The housing market is rebounding. Consumer confidence is soaring. If we don’t give the economy a huge kick in the balls right now, even Fox News might have to start giving Obama a little credit.”
Boehner then burst into tears, although experts said that wasn’t unusual.




FULL STORY: Economists say US economy will zoom in 2014 (unless Republicans fuck everything up): http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/24/news/economy/economy-recovery-2014/index.html

 

John McCain Writes Pravda Op-Ed

John McCain Writes Pravda Op-Ed        

                                                                                                    

By Ashley Alman




Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for siding with "tyrannies," perpetuating bigotry, censoring the media and endorsing the Syrian regime in an opinion piece published on Russian news site Pravda.
In the op-ed, titled "Russians deserve better than Putin," McCain claimed he's "more pro-Russian" than the country's own leaders.
"I make that claim because I respect your dignity and your right to self-determination," he wrote. "I believe you should live according to the dictates of your conscience, not your government. I believe you deserve the opportunity to improve your lives in an economy that is built to last and benefits the many, not just the powerful few."
Reminding readers that a Russian citizen would not have been allowed to publish such a statement, McCain criticized the Russian government for failing its constituents with an unsustainable economy, discriminatory laws and destructive alliances. He pointed to Russia's support for the Syrian regime as an example.
"How has [Putin] strengthened Russia’s international stature? By refusing to consider the massacre of innocents, the plight of millions of refugees, the growing prospect of a conflagration that engulfs other countries in its flames an appropriate subject for the world’s attention," McCain wrote. "He is not enhancing Russia’s global reputation. He is destroying it. He has made her a friend to tyrants and an enemy to the oppressed, and untrusted by nations that seek to build a safer, more peaceful and prosperous world."
The op-ed comes a week after Putin wrote his own opinion piece for The New York Times, in which he warned against military intervention and American exceptionalism.
"It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation," Putin wrote.
After reading Putin's op-ed, McCain told CNN's Jake Tapper that he'd "love" to respond.
"We have to remember who Putin is," McCain said. "He's a KGB colonel apparatchik, who has never abandoned the Russian ambitions for an empire, and influence in the world."

Also on HuffPost:

Cenk Uygur on Conservatives' Reaction to President Obama's Syria Speech

Cenk Uygur on Conservatives' Reaction to President Obama's Syria Speech

By Heather      



The Young Turks and Cenk Uygur put together a nice mashup of the right wing and Fox pundits' reaction to President Obama's speech on Syria this Tuesday and as Cenk noted, they're really pissed off that they're not going to get their bombing any time soon.
After getting criticism from all sides who did not necessarily agree on whether the United States ought to use air strikes in Syria or not, now that President Obama has given his speech saying he wants to give diplomacy a chance first, the right is all in agreement that it's a reason to attack him, call him weak and claim that his presidency is doomed. It seems the only way these wingers believe we can show we're not weak is by lobbing a few bombs on some more people's heads in the Middle East, because that's what tough guys do, don't ya' know.
Like Uygur, I'm so sick of these Republicans and the fact that the only thing consistent about their policies is that if President Blackenstein (as Bill Maher calls him) is for something, they're going to be against it, even if they were for it a year, or week, or even a day before.
Our government would function a whole lot better if we had some people running it who actually cared about what was good for their constituents who are not part of the one percent instead of governing by sabotage to make a Democratic president look bad, consequences be damned, with this goon squad on Fox cheerleading for them all the way.




Cenk Uygur on Conservatives' Reaction to President Obama's Syria Speech http://t.co/8gvuQShvJz