I Love This

Some conservatives are unhappy that Sen. Scott Brown voted for The Jobs Bill:

Not long ago, Scott Brown (R-Mass.) was elected to the United States Senate and a nation rejoiced, because he was going to drive down to Washington D.C. and become the President of Filibusters. But a funny thing happened yesterday, when Brown decided not to cast the 41st vote, and instead to vote as if he'd like to one day get re-elected to office in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. . . .

That was enough to earn Brown the Drudge banner, complete with the demon-red tint of betrayal! And, subsequently, Scott Brown's honeymoon came to an end like all political honeymoons: amid hotheaded recriminations on Twitter. Ken Layne at Wonkette documented the carnage.

Over at Scott Brown's Facebook page, the mood is much the same, probably because David Broder hasn't written a column yet telling America that the jobs in this jobs bill are so much more awesome than the jobs that came before them because they are "bipartisan." Some of Brown's fans are giving him some support, but the lion's share of comments read like "LYING LOW LIFE SCUM HYPOCRITE!" and "What a bummer dude. We didn't need another Olympia Snowe," and "BROWN, YOU JUST REMEMBER YOU DOUCHEBAG...WE ARE WATCHING YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! AND YOU FAILED AT THE FIRST CHANCE...YOU SCUM SUCKING ASS!!! GUESS MY 10-15 HOUR WORK DAYS WILL HELP PAY FOR THIS TOTAL BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!"

The bill did include a tax credit for businesses that hire unemployed workers, something that you'd think the right wing would like, but I guess they don't.

And speaking of jobs, this is really going to piss off the GOP:

The Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus bill created up to 2.1 million jobs during the final three months of last year, according to a new report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

During the fourth quarter of 2009, the stimulus added “between 1.0 million and 2.1 million to the number of workers employed in the United States,” the CBO said.

The stimulus also boosted the country’s economic growth by 1.5 to 3.5 percent during the time period and lowered the nation’s unemployment rate by between 0.5 and 1.1 percentage points.

In the report, the CBO noted that economic growth in 2009 was worse than they had predicted at the time that the stimulus was enacted, but that was due to a weaker economy than originally expected, rather than any failings of the stimulus. * * *

As Colbert once said, the facts have a well-known liberal bias.

Can't Wait To See How The Republicans Will Criticize This . . . (With Update)

. . . but I'm sure they will find a way:

The Taliban’s top military commander was captured several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials.

The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks. * * *

All Americans, regardless of political party, should be proud and happy that this guy was caught, but I can guarantee you that certain members of the GOP are furious that this happened because it gives Obama a big victory. I find that both hilarious and sad.

UPDATE: They got another one:

Another leader of the Afghan Taliban has been captured by authorities in Pakistan working in partnership with U.S. intelligence officials. Taliban sources in the region and a counterterrorism officials in Washington have identified the detained insurgent leader as Mullah Abdul Salam, described as the Taliban movement's "shadow governor" of Afghanistan's Kunduz province.

Taliban sources told NEWSWEEK's Sami Yousafzai that Salam was grabbed by Pakistani security forces in the city of Faisalabad about a week ago—close to the same time that Pakistani forces, again with American support, captured the Afghan Taliban's No. 2 leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Karachi. The Taliban sources said that Mullah Salam was arrested with three other militants.
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According to the Taliban sources, at the time of his capture Mullah Salam was preparing to travel to meet Mullah Baradar. Some sources suggested that the arrests of the two insurgent leaders might be linked, though this could not be confirmed in Washington.

Mullah Salam was one of the Taliban's most effective commanders in northern Afghanistan and therefore one of the men most wanted by U.S. and NATO forces fighting there. Salam's soldiers are reputed to have been particularly deadly in their attacks on German troops fighting in northern Afghanistan. ***

Another GOP talking point bites the dust.

How Should Republicans Respond Now That Obama Is Killing More Terrorists Than Bush?

That's easy -- criticize him for killing too many terrorists:

Marc Thiessen, former President Bush's speechwriter and the author of Courting Disaster, now complains that President Obama is killing too many terrorists. "Today, the Obama administration is no longer attempting to capture men like these alive; it is simply killing them. This may be satisfying, but it comes at a price. With every drone strike that vaporizes a senior al Qaeda leader, actionable intelligence is vaporized along with him. Dead terrorists can't tell you their plans to strike America."

Here is an interesting article by Spencer Ackerman on the GOP's failed attempts to attack Obama on national security issues in the wake of the Christmas Day Crotch Bomber:

Very little of whatever Keep America Safe can throw at the Obama administration has survived the Christmas-Day pushback. Even Dennis Blair’s epic Congressional fail hasn’t damaged the administration. Instead, it’s plainly and thoroughly refuted most every conservative national-security article of faith. Mirandizing terrorists inhibits intelligence collection? Wrong. Charging a terrorist in criminal court is a danger? Hundreds have been convicted that way. Non-torturous methods of interrogation fail? They work better. Call the Obama team pussies and they’ll back down? They’ll smack the tartar off your teeth. The public will rally around Republicans if they just ignorantly yell OMG TERRORISM loud enough? They’ll go to the other guy.

There’s just nothing left. Guantanamo, I guess. But there, if they thought about it, they would be happy with Obama’s approach. Instead, the GOP, for the first time in decades, is completely discredited on national security, without any credible spokespeople, after the public remembers the experience of how Republicans started an unnecessary war at the expense of a necessary one. And now it’s all exposed.

The reason the Republicans are looking so bad on national security issues right now is because they've decided to oppose Obama on everything, even on stuff they previously supported. I guess they've made the political calculation that it is better for them to look like complete idiots than it is for them to concede that Obama is doing a good job at something. I have no doubt that the Tea-Baggers love this strategy.

This Is Retarded

From McClatchy:

The flap between Sarah Palin and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel over his use of the word "retarded" has spilled over into the Texas governor's race.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's campaign has not been shy in recent days about letting media outlets know that Gov. Rick Perry's political consultant, David Carney, repeatedly used the word "retarded" in a conference call with Dallas television station KERA in advance of last month's television debate.

The incident, which the Perry campaign has confirmed, didn't get much attention.

But with Palin scheduled to campaign for Perry at a Houston-area rally on Sunday, news outlets are devoting time and energy to whether Palin is only offended when Democrats use the word inappropriately.

"It was an unfortunate choice of words and the Governor is extremely disappointed," campaign spokesman Mark Miner said.

Politico reported Thursday that rocker Ted Nugent has also used the word "retarded" in a way some might find offensive. Nugent is scheduled to play the national anthem at Sunday's Perry/Palin event.