“I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama by attacking Republicans.”

2012-01-19T23:09:00.002-05:00

Well that's good, because being asked about cheating on your second wife with your current one (while touting your "real-conservative," "good Christian," "values") is actually not the "elite media protecting Barack Obama." It's them calling you on your bullshit. And they would call you on that no matter who was in the White House. Nice play rallying your base with that tired "elite" media schtick though. Because you know who's not elite at all? Wealthy life-long politicians. They're just like us!

Also, I suppose I could also throw in a comment about the fact that the republican candidates are "attacking Republicans" more than CNN, but that would be too easy, right?

This is Best Line Newt Gingrich Has

2012-01-17T19:52:00.002-05:00

Oh boy, I can’t believe I’ve been able to restrain myself sofar, but with the last/only seemingly sane person recently out of the game, itlooks like our Republican Presidential Nominee Candidates are really upping theante. I think most upsetting for me recently though is good old reliable NewtGingrich. He’s always there to say something either horribly offensive orinaccurate, and then act incredulous as hell as to why you would be offended orcall him out on his misstatements.

So that brings me to his re-hashing of the “Food Stamps President” line. There are just so many things wrong with the whole thing, butI suppose I should start with the quote, as if you haven’t heard it, so as tonot be decried as taking it out of context.

"Over here you have a policy which, with Reagan and meas speaker, created millions of jobs — it's called paychecks. Over here youhave the most successful food stamp president in American history, BarackObama.”

Note that this is after Mr. Gingrich generously offered togo to the NAACP and help teach them what a paycheck is. Because that’s notoffensive at all. But racial things aside, because I know that even mentioningthat would get a GOB-Bluth-worthy “come on!” from Gingrich, this is still just such a willfully dumb thing to say.

First of all, can I just calmly point out that "paychecks" isn't a policy? Paychecks are things. They're pieces of paper, that entitle the denoted recipient to the denoted amount of money, as compensation for some kind of service or work performed. So they don't "create jobs" either. They are given, as a result of jobs being done by people.

Also, can we talk about the fact that the fact that there are more people on food stamps is for a lot of different reasons, and not entirely a bad thing. No, I don't mean that we should all be "lazy" and get food stamps for fun so that we can choose not to work, or whatever the going rhetoric is in conservative-land these days. I just mean that yeah, a shit-ton of people are unemployed, and while that is extremely unfortunate, and I don't think any sane person could argue that any president — much less one up for re-election — would be actively trying to keep things that way. The good thing is that we have programs like that to provide people with something in the way of a safety net, so that they can eat. So while I'm sure that everyone, President Obama included, would like there to be more employed people earning paychecks, I'm also glad that we don't have a government that is so wholly against social programs that food stamps and other useful programs don't exist when we need them.

The next point is that, as noted by PolitiFact, the number in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients started climbing during President Bush's tenure, because the economy was already tanking by 2007:

"The number of food stamp beneficiaries had started to head upward under Bush, partly because of more aggressive efforts to get eligible Americans to apply for benefits, and partly because of changes in the rules that had the effect of broadening eligibility. The experts we spoke to agreed that both policies began under Bush but were retained by Obama."

So not only are there simply more people alive in this country than at any other time (so it stands to reason there would be more people in need of services as a population increases while its economy collapses), but before President Obama even became president, there was a push by the outgoing administration to get more people who were eligible for the program to claim their benefits (because, after all, that's what the program is for). And you know what? That's good. As much as I might want to badmouth the Bush administration for other things, good for them for reaching out to people and trying to de-stigmatize "food stamps" so that people who need them won't be held back from their pride. The children of proud adults shouldn't have to suffer or starve for the pride of their parents, and furthermore, no one should have to feel ashamed to use social programs that they are legitimately eligible for. It's a shame that not only is Mr. Gingrich being dishonest, but that he's also adding more stigma to a program that is actually helping people, and that his suffering countrymen should be able to use without fear of shame and judgement. It is always striking to me that the supposed party of "patriotism" is the one that seems to hate helping their fellow Americans.

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“I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama by attacking Republicans.”

This is Best Line Newt Gingrich Has