Right on cue, the victorious Rand Paul delivered a Tea Party rallying cry as he celebrated victory in the Kentucky Senate primary last night. Paul, his state's new Republican nominee, told the crowd:
"We've come to take our
countrygovernment back."
(Misquote from a faulty transcription fixed and link replaced. In an e-mail to voters yesterday, Rand wrote of wanting to "begin anew the work of taking back our country.")
Viewer Brandon Green has a response to that idea, making use of the famous bikini graph of jobs gained and lost and a line from Bill Maher's "New Rules" segment.
And tonight: Rand Paul's coming on our show! Paul announced his candidacy on the show last May.
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This is one Kentuckian who is not rejoicing over this. I find the atmosphere here in Kentucky to be very frightening. I believe it is highly likely that this whacked out fruitcake will beat Conway this fall. I know some Republicans who are planning to vote Democrat this fall. I hope there are more than I think or we will be stuck with this clown in Washington. I simply could not believe the signs all over the place for Paul. People don't actually sit down and listen to what he is saying or read his views. They just react emotionally and go with it. I have to really wonder about people, some who are otherwise intelligent people, too.
There's some more encouraging news. Keith Olbermann pointed out last night at the end of Countdown (a minute and a half into <a href=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/#37222648>this clip</a>) that while Rand Paul handily won his primary, the numbers in the Democratic primary went largely overlooked.
Rand Paul won his primary 150k to 89k, but on the Democratic side, Jack Conway beat out Daniel Mongiardo 179k to 157k. The losing Democratic candidate got more votes than Rand Paul. Which bodes well for the general election.
Still, back to the OP: I love that graphic. The Bikini Nessie Graph was beautiful enough already, but this just makes it all the more awesome.
kygal: I feel you. I grew up in Texas and lived in Ohio for a while. Now I'm in NY and everything is topsy turvy. The hate speech and ignorance seems to be prevailing in what was once a blue state, but Texas is making a turnaround under the radar and becoming more progressive (even though that's not what people like to say about Texas). Its time for level headed, educated and decent people that believe in a better future for us, to finally come together. This fall. In two years. Vote your conscience, not what the talking heads tell you.
Re the KY Democrat and Republican numbers - those are actually very deceptive. In KY, registered Democrats vastly outnumber registered Republicans. Primary voting is limited to party registration, so the numbers are very different. However, in fall general elections, the state tends to vote Republican, e.g. Bunning and McConnell. and Bush. So fall elections cannot be predicted by looking at the number of votes received in the primaries.
I do want to make one thing clear however - not ALL Kentuckians vote Republican, especially THIS one.
To be fair to Paul, what he said last night was "We've come to take our GOVERNMENT back." I think there's a difference. Nevertheless, so many people are saying "take our country back" that I still think this makes for a good t-shirt.
Yea; back before the age of logic and reason, back to when you pay a man a dollar a day to risk his life and blatantly kill minorities. Well, they're welcome to go...anywhere but America where freedom is priority.
Thank you Brandon. This is so funny! I was just questioning Mr. "Random" Paul in my mind last night after listening to his victory speech Palin-style word salad, and this is exactly what I came up with. I mean, you can tell from what he says that he is a reactionary in sheep's clothing. Therefore, the Freudian slip is exactly this: he wants our country to slip into the past... the past of overspending in the GOOD times instead of Pay-Go, of deregulation of mines, oil exploration and old dirty energy, of $1 Trillion military budgets and good old Republican jingoism and saber rattling--more than that, likely wars of adventurism in the wrong countries. No thanks, Mr. Random. We'll go forward. Because we still can!
I get a real kick out of charts like these, that show job "growth." MANY of those jobs are GOVERNMENT jobs! It's NOT a good sign when the fastest growing sector of your economy is the government.
It's not surprising that those who were blind enough to fundamental economic realities to run the American economy into the ditch are now having a hard time grasping the incremental processes by which sighted folk are now seeking to get it back underway.
Steve, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Stats the government job growth was due to the hiring of temporary census workers and constituted the smaller portion of overall job growth for the past two months.
Your capitalized comment indicates you believe the opposite is true, so please provide the source of your information.
Are you including teachers, police, fire, parks, highways, air traffic controllers, maintenance guys, secretaries and nurses among your GOVERNMENT jobs? These jobs are part of the economy too.
Yeah, I don't mean to pile on, Steve, but I don't see the problem with government jobs as long as people are doing something useful to society. I'd much rather create public jobs cleaning up the environment or helping people in need than give that money to Goldman-Sachs so they can continue to dismantle our economy.
I'd like to know why conservatives hate working class people so much. What's wrong with teachers, policemen, firemen, postal workers, librarians, etc.?
You know whats wrong with working people---they don't come from the "right" families, didn't go to the "right" schools, and they just smell funny, (they don't smell like money).
OK libs, too bad Steve hurt your feelings, but you're totally out to lunch on this one. I don't think that Steve was making a moral judgment of government jobs as you suspect. Your reaction proves that libs can be just as reactionary as neo-cons.
I think that what Steve means is that government jobs don't contribute to the economy because they are payed for by tax dollars. Private sector jobs on the other hand are the wellspring from which all tax dollars arise. So really, government jobs are also payed for by private sector jobs- ergo, the latter are more important to economic growth. When gov't jobs are on the rise it indicates that those in power are not really interested in growing the economy, or that they are misguided.
Indy Ted
Money is money regardless of it's source. Taxpayer money based jobs still put money in the economy. Government employees buy food, gas, clothes just as any other employed person. When roads, bridges etc are built and maintained they are just as important, for they maintain the infrastructure which is imperative to economic growth as anything in the private sector.
Kygal2009--I experience this same reaction when watching people moon over Palin. I cannot figure out what they see and what they hear. I've come to the sad conclusion that they hear and understand next to nothing but the politician has successfully identified themselves with the voter's imagined pain and sense of helplessness. And unfortunately, there is plenty of pain to go around. It sort of helps me to know this but it doesn't make me feel more safe knowing I'm surrounded by emotionally charged and unthinking fearful people. Good luck finding more folks that think and believe as you do!!
:)
This is a good start. Paul's views should be pilloried and shown to be reactionary and bat@!$%# crazy. It's only true. At the same time, Conway's name should be blasted all over the airwaves so people are familiar with his name. I strongly agree with the Hollywood idea that there is no such thing as bad publicity--anything that gets your name out there helps. If only Rand Paul's name is mentioned, then those who go into the voting booth with a vague idea, end up voting for the name that rings a bell.
Oh yes, and keep your fingers crossed for more good employment numbers this month. It wouldn't hurt to keep your ears open for someone at the water cooler saying something about a nice spring day. Your response is: "Spring day? Spring day? Talk about a spring day! Did you see the good job numbers last month?"
All aboard the hypocrisy train, with Rand Paul stoking the engine. His win and the populist rise of the Tea Party and Sarah Palin remind me of the book, What's the matter with Kansas, by Thomas Frank (2004).
Rand Paul has already, using SP word salad, tried to rationalize the use of a country club for his victory celebration. This seems like a perfectly valid question to ask of someone who campaigns as a poor man's populist, but doesn't seem to bother the folks that voted for him.
How difficult would it have been for his campaign to arrange for the victory celebration to be held in a local legion hall, the same kind of place that most of the folks who voted for him would use for their wedding receptions because they don't belong to a country club?
They want their country back, do they? And they did SUCH a good job of caring for it the first time, too!
Well said, fellow Tar Heel.
Why, thank y'all! (flutters fan)
I think the graph is starting too look like a bull's skull. Like a Georgia O'Keefe skull painting.
http://monica.manolescu.free.fr/Pictures/AmArt/AmArt-Class7/Photo-Keeffe-Skull.jpg
That is the first thing that I noticed. It does remind me of a bull skull. A symbol of a new fronteir? A symbol of desolate? A symbol of what once was, is now a blank canvas for creating. A call of the wild. Grab the horns.
I remember the teachings of my nana and my great aunt. Especially from my great aunt - she was very very smart for being a farm girl. Buy American. And education is important.
Support the mom and pop shops. Try to buy the items that are American made, not just American assembled. Get your hands into creating. America needs to be more then just money pushers.
what am i missing here? I have a friend that said she wanted 'her country back' - I asked her what part was missing? her vote? nope still got that, her freedom? nope she still has that, her right to choose her own religion? nope, still has that, protection from evil doers? nope, still have police, firefighters, EMTs, nope still has that, right to a public eduation? nope, still has that, so to speak, but we're in AZ whose education system rivals that of AL and MS for being at the bottom of the pack. After a bit, she said, well, I guess I still have my freedom. Yes, I said, but your civil rights were curtailed by the Bush administration in the Patriot Act, and where were you then? Nuf said.
I wonder about the same thing -- what do these folks think has been taken away by Obama? Of course, I've had otherwise sane-seeming people tell me that the vast majority of Americans opposed the health-care bill, so maybe it's just drinking from the Fox-Limbaugh info-sewer.
I wish I could rule out the possibility that what they really want back is an all-white succession of Presidents.
Hypocrisy, the inconsistency of arguments, is a reliable, consistent characteristic of the Teabaggers.
I seem to remember the president asking folks to stop making destructive commentary around politics. Looks like libs are only interested in part of his message.
Please follow this link regarding UNEMPLOYMENT
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=usunemployment&met=unemployment_rate&tdim=true&dl=en&hl=en&q=unemployment+rate
Color me cynical, but anytime anybody says they've got "the truth" about something, at best, I view their position with a jaded eye, because far more times than not, there's little to no actual truth to it, just their belief of what is and don't have a full grasp of the situation.
In your case, it seems -- well, I'm entirely guessing, given the dearth absence of actual information provided -- that you want to blame the current administration for failing to magically stopping the surge of unemployment started as the previous one was getting ready to leave, like a driver who slams down on the gas toward a ditch and then bails out, leaving someone else to jump into the seat and slam on the brakes; the car cannot stop immediately.
I also suspect that you're simply a conservative guerilla poster, creating a random one- or 2-time use account and then bailing that ID before making "Truth Teller #1820371", and so on, without the desire (or ability) to make an informed case and discourse, so this has all be a waste of 2 minutes, and your "'truth' grenade" is a dud.
I am not sure what Rand Paul's policies are, but when I hear Ron Paul I hear SOME intriguing things that I can understand what people see in him. There is a definite "anti invasion" of foreign countries factor I can embrace.
Mind you, I heard and read PLENTY I did not like, but if the entrenched Republicans promote other candidates and Ron Paul gets groans and eye rolling from them, I am interested in why.
There is definitely a case for why are they saying they want their country back.
I think people are FEELING like they are voting and not getting that for which they voted.
They are feeling like we the people are getting the short end of the stick, and many of us ARE. Jobs, prices rise while wages lower.
The trouble is, the remedy is not going back to Reagan and Bush policies, it's going forward OR to pre Reagan days.
Z facts shows a graph of presidencies and budget deficit.
The tax cuts are causing the deficits and they are not getting that picture, so they feel that because they're losing ground, it must be taxes and look to assign blame.
Easy to blame taxes, because if you have a paycheck, you see it. They are looking mostly at State and local taxes, sales taxes. They see Welfare and it burns them up.
I believe the goal of the Newts and Bushes and Palins etc, is starve the beast, which means dire consequences. Newt shut down gov't. and was PROUD of it!
They want to gut Social Security! This is something I cannot stand to see, since I am a baby boomer, paid my full share and now they try to take it away, after promising it is there for years, but save some, too. Did that, thanks but stock market is like going to Vegas or AC.
This is the stuff that young folks need to hear. Social Security, Medicare is INSURANCE, just like any other for when you NEED it. I will be needing mine, so better find the fraud, raise the upper income cap and stop trying to stop it.
Elderly people do not want to be burdens on family and cannot work, so they NEED it so they don't freeze or have to eat cat food.
Sorry, but Social Security stands out because I hear people today being told you won't get it, so why have it?
A job is a job.
The money spends the same at WalMart and Target and your local diner. Gov't workers (middle class folks) make money and then they go out and spend money which helps business stay in business so they can hire more people who can go out and spend money.
BTW 44,000 of those jobs were in manufacturing...the highest that has been since 1998.
A job is a job, but not all are created equal. As strong and as rich Wal-Mart is, they would improve the economy by raising their wages - so their emplyees could spread their wealth in the various communites...instead of being a vacuum taking wealth straight to the top.
Corporations that are huge, have the means to flow down to stimulate our economy....but they rather stimulate share holders...like BP.
Monopoly at it's finest.
I wish every Tea Party member, Rand Paul supporter, Palin worshipper would read Naomi Klein's book "Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism". If they did so, perhaps they would see that the very policies they are pushing for, such as massive cuts in government spending, social programs and taxes for the rich, have been tried in other countries over the past few decades, and without exception, have led to catastrophes that put even this current recession to shame. They can see the examples of Poland, or Argentina or Chile, and see that they enacted many of the policies that Tea Partiers want here, and those countries collapsed economically, with unemployment rates of 20 or 30%. They will long for the "good old days" of 10% unemployment then. Of course, that caused widespread poverty, but the social safety nets had been dismantled too, so the unemployed were also starving. And who benefitted? The small sector of the ultrarich, who were given sweetheart deals to purchase formerly nationalized assets. Of course, just like here on Wall Street, they then made very bad, very risky decisions, which necessitated government bailouts with even more taxpayer money. In the end, the rich and powerful became much richer and more powerful, and the rest of the populace became poorer, often on the verge of starvation and working for virtual slave wages in terrible conditions if they were lucky enough to find a job. This is the land that the far right in this country wants to create, because their benefactors will get all the benefits from such policies. Meanwhile, those in the Tea Party have absolutely no idea of the consequences if the policies they want were actually enacted. They would suffer the same fate as the citizens in the countries who had tried this in the past. At that point, they'd see that having a black president was a thousand times better than they ever imagined it was. Unfortunately, by that time, they won't have the ability to protest the new and far worse conditions.
Uffdaguy, uhhhhh, how does Loozerio put this- OUTSTANDING COMMENTARY! Loozerio has also read Naomi Klein's courageous, diligently researched book. We must remember that the "Tea Party" movement is a pseudo-grass roots movement funded and not so discretely cloaked by the very plutocrats and right-wing power brokers that would benefit from disaster capitalism. As if they needed more wealth and power. Loozerio urges blue collar tea party advocates to read the following: YOU ARE CHUMPS/SUCKERS. How's that being usedee thingee goin' for ya?
It seems to me that this "tea party", "libertarian" mentality is rife with hypocrisy. How can Rand Paul claim to want to shrink the size of government while also opposing minor rate cuts paid to medicare doctors? Just like the majority of all conservative arguments, it seems based in greed and not on making our society more healthy and happy.
www.getsomejosh.com
why doesnt rand & the teapartiers cut red state ag subsidizes & stim projects?
from what i've read he does.
Pretending for a moment that the whole 'vote 'em all out' idea isn't delusional or simply disingenuous, I've never particularly grasped how an anti-incumbency movement is supposed to work exactly. You vote the new guy in and next election, violá, he's the incumbent at the next election and has to be voted out; nobody would be able to serve more than one term. And I believe that would be contrary to getting things done in Washington as politicians would recognize that they have an extremely limited time to "get theirs." And I guess it would have to be a case of, to paraphrase Warhol, "in the future, everybody will be a politician for 15 minutes."
... and for that 15 minutes will be allowed to fetch water for the masters, who used to be called "lobbyists."
Rand Paul. The fruit does not fall far from the tree.
Neither does the nut!
amen
Oh! Touche'!
So when does the T-shirt come out? Someone needs to Zazzle this one right away!
I resent Rand saying that he and the tea party movement will take back their country. This country does not and did not ever belong to the tea baggers. This country does not belong to any movement or any party,this country belongs to the people, all the people and the majority of this country does not majority of the support Mr Rand nor the tea party. This country belongs to the poor, the middle class, the rich, the gays, the straights, the religious and the non believers and all minorities. You can speak out for what you believe in, you can march in protest for anything you want and you can vote for those you support but you can not tell me or anyother citizen in this country that this country ever belonged to the tea bag party and it sure as hell is not thiers to take back, no matter how far back they want to take it. No friggin way and it's about time people stood up and told both Mr Rand and every other tea bagger that if they don't want to be tread on then they better not try to tread on others.
100% on the money.
I think that you get too worked up about things that politicians say to get elected. Just look at President Obama- how many of his campaign promises/ideals has he backed off on? Of course you can just blame the GOP for that, but I think it would be giving them too much credit.
Thanks guys! When I caught Bill Maher's "I want my country Forward ", I knew I had to do something with it, and I thought the "bikini graph" was a perfect fit.
@Peter Hardy: I considered having a t-shirt for myself printed with this design, but I ended up settling on just doing a bumper sticker with just the bottom portion, "I want my country Forward".
It's funny the "oh yea, they're all gubment jobs!" gets brought up now, I actually just got done arguing with a huge Ron Paul fan I go to school with who, when I showed him the bikini graph, made the assertion that most of the jobs created are probably government jobs. Aside from telling him that I know these jobs figures are reliable, but his "probably" doesn't really hold muster as a contradiction to the point I use the graph to make; I also have to take issue with the fact that it seems the same people who are paranoid about exploding federal government also scoff and claim we're practicing class warfare when we bring up the increasing concentration of wealth in the U.S.
As in, it's totally okay that the top 1% are quietly absorbing the vast majority of wealth and power in the U.S., BUT, increase government spending in programs that predominantly benefit the underprivileged? Hell no! THAT attitude, if you ask me, is class warfare. The least risky financial investments of the rich still manage to outpace inflation, while at the same time, the poor who stuff their cash in their mattress or get screwed with bank fees, practically nonexistent interest rates, and whose minimum wage job, year after year is worth less and less. THAT is class warfare.
If government spending does need to be cut back, why are we not allowed to cut it from, by a long shot, the largest sector of Federal spending, the Pentagon's budget? We are still bogged down propping up cold war era weaponry and defense strategies to the tune of $739 Billion per year, but can only muster $7 Billion for job training and $2.4 Billion to reduce our reliance on foreign oil? We throw over 23 TIMES more money at the Pentagon then we do at humanitarian and foreign aid, and then scratch our heads that so many of these countries that are worse off end up being breeding grounds for terrorism. Until someone makes a nutritious edible bullet, that doesn't seem all that likely to change; but what do you want, I'm a nutty fact-waving, reality-hugging liberal. What can I say.
I think it's hilarious that libs claim ownership of the truth and of reality.
"As in, it's totally okay that the top 1% are quietly absorbing the vast majority of wealth and power in the U.S., BUT, increase government spending in programs that predominantly benefit the underprivileged?"
Who pays all of the taxes? Of course, that's righteous in your world I expect, nevermind that your apple iPad was not produced by the government.
You know who pays all of the taxes, Indy? We do. We ALL do.
Not quiet everybody. Many major corporations payed absolutely no tax last year. 25%, if I recall correctly. Fortunately, that didn't stop them from receiving corporate welfare.
Sorry. You're absolutely right about that, Uffdaguy.
I'm confused why this graph is continuously being used to tout Obama's success. You all do realize that the y-axis reprensents CHANGE in jobs, and not total jobs, right? Thus that implies that just as many jobs were LOST during the first year of Obama's tenure as were lost during the last year of Bush's tenure. That's something to be proud of? Jobs were only added in the last two months, but the total number added is negligible when compared to the total number of jobs lost over the preceding 22 months. This implies to me that, even in the best of interpretations, Obama MIGHT have stopped the loss of jobs, but they certainly have NOT come back and certainly will not come back in the acute phase.
One might even posit that if one did absolutely nothing, we'd see the exact same distribution just perhaps over a difference x-axis range (eventually jobs would stop being lost when everyone is unemployed). We simply don't know. Either rate, the graph suggests the the economy continues to be bad news for everyone.
You aren't pointing out anything that hasn't been pointed out before, even by the President. How on earth would you expect a massive economic collapse like the one we have just experienced to miraculously disappear the moment a new president is elected? The factors that caused the collapse took a long time to be addressed, and some of them, like financial reform, are still being held up by repubs. If you are trying to stop a boulder rolling downhill, you aren't going to instantly stop it. You have to slow it down, bring it to a stop, and then start moving it back uphill. That is what the graph is showing...that slowing of job losses, and then the slow reversal. Everyone, from the President on down, acknowledges that while the job situation is getting better, we still aren't creating enough to even match the number of new workers entering the work force each month. The big fight between the right and left right now is how you change that equation. The right believes that reduction or elimination of corporate taxes will spur job growth, despite the undeniable fact that this trickle down economics has proven to be a massive failure for the past 30 years, enriching the rich while the average wage for middle class workers has actually dropped $2000 in inflation-adjusted value since Ronald Reagan came to power. Trickle down economics is wealth redistribution upwards, impoverishing the lower and middle classes in order to enrich the top 1% of wage earners in this country. The left believes that it is necessary to provide incentives for small business, and improve the lot of workers, by increasing the minimum wage, providing tax cuts to those making less than $225K per year, and improving the healthcare system so that individuals and businesses will all see lower costs over time.
Look, I'm not arguing policies. I have nothing in this fight. I could care less about the left and right arguing. I'm a quantitative scientist who is simply pointing out that whoever chose to officially use this graph as propaganda to suggest that the policies of the Obama administration has resulted in an economy recovery is ignorant or willfully misleading the public. This graph is the first derivative plot of the data people really care about (http://www.pollster.com/blogs/JobsPlots-21.php). If one is to believe that the upward trajectory towards zero has any meaning (the trajectory will always eventually move to zero as zero is no change), than we have to admit the following: (1) Obama "got lucky" and the rate of unemployment bottomed out immediately prior to or at his election. (2) IF the upward trajectory resulted from any direct governmental policy, then that policy must have occurred prior to Obama's election. Even the Obama administration claims the job situation lags the gross economic situation. If they really want to abide by that premise, than the economic situation was "fixed" prior to the 2008 election. (3) If the Obama stimulus resulted in stopping the job loss, than the slope should have become steeper after the stimulus occurred, but it doesn't. In fact, it appears to become more shallow. Besides my lab was granted ARRA money, and we haven't even received it yet alone hired any people. I imagine other ARRA recipients are in a similar position.
Besides, even the "I want my country forward" title on this chart is ignorant. Given that the data is nearly symmetric, going back in time (as long it is prior to Jan 2008) is an equally good proposition.
The American people might have more confidence in its government if policymakers and governmental officials didn't insult our intelligence with presentations of data like this. This is as silly as the evidence the Bush administration presented to support the invasion of Iraq.
Don't waste your breath RegisteringSucks2. People don't listen to facts but simply claim to 'own' them by virtue of their politics.
Looks like Attorney General Jack Conway has an excellent opportunity to become Senator Conway. Jack is running against an opponent, Dr. Rand Paul, who is willing to commit Politically Assisted Suicide. Vote 4 a future Conway not a PASt revisionist Paul.
Hey guys - I setup a quick shop with my high resolution source images if anyone wants to grab a t-shirt, bumper sticker, or coffee mug with the design above. I reduced the markup to ZERO, so I am literally making no profit from this. All I ask is that if you decide to purchase, please consider making even a small donation to your favorite lefty organization. Democracy for America, Moveon.org, and the Human Rights Campaign are great examples.
http://www.cafepress.com/TheGreenEffect
Yah, right "great" examples of organizations...moveon.com...all you odumbo suck@$$es...you got your panties in a wad when a student painted a hitler mustache on obaMAO. Maddow, the best looking man on TV even denied moveon aired the video. Another lying, left-wing scum bag. Check it out for yourself and look at some of the still pictures of bush & cheney. And you hypocrites were whining about a little mustache. What a bunch of losers, just like the one-term loser odumbo.
He's going get bounced out on his @$$ in 2012 and so are many of the demoslobs in Nov. 2010 along with other career hookers in the republicant party. You losers just can't take the truth.
http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/bstein80/moveonorgs-ad-comparing-bush-to-hitler
Seriously, calling names turns everything into a playground debate. Let's all get out of the sandbox.