Panic stations. Every election turns on the economy, of course.

More Americans say Republicans would be better for the economy, taking a position Democrats had held through Barack ObamaÂ’s presidency, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research poll out Friday.

Forty-eight percent of the 1,009 adults surveyed nationwide said Republicans would “do a better job” of dealing with the economy, topping Democrats by three percentage points.

The number is a contrast from August, when Democrats were rated as better on the economy by 52 percent compared with 39 percent for Republicans.

...

In the poll, 78 percent said the economy is either in “very poor” or “somewhat poor” condition. Twenty percent said the economy is in a “somewhat good” condition while only 1 percent said it was “very good.”

That 1 percent was made up exclusively of liberals selling "Health Care is a BFD" t-shirts.

Thanks to AHFF Geoff.

Posted by: Ace at 10:20 AM | Comments (68)
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My brother sent me this, which, as he knows full well, means the rest of my day is pretty much shot.

Some Dude (definately not to be confused with someguy) reproduced Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" album using a Nintendo.

Mario Brothers never rocked so hard.

Great Gig in the Sky is also pretty well done.

Time to dig the Atari 2600 out of the attic. Record contract here I come!

Text-Based Super Mario Brothers... [ace] Remember Zork? Okay, well, what if Mario Brothers was a text-based game?

Yup.

Dumb but sort of funny, for like 90 seconds. The concept is funny, not the execution so much, except that it's funny anyone really bothered executing the concept in the first place.

Posted by: Jack M. at 10:08 AM | Comments (34)
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But I was assured that political violence and fascist impulses were a phenomenon confined almost entirely to the right?

Most of the indicted militia members accused of being anti-government extremists have active voting records, a check with area voter registration offices showed yesterday.

One is a registered Democrat, and the party affiliations of the rest could not be determined.

Jacob J. Ward, 33, of Huron, Ohio, voted as a Democrat in the 2004 and 2008 primary elections, and in 10 other elections since 2000. Voters' political affiliations in Ohio are determined by which party's ballot they request during even-year primary elections.

Posted by: Ace at 09:46 AM | Comments (89)
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When congressional leaders start talking like this, hold onto your wallet.

The second-ranking House Democrat said "the single most pressing challenge" for the public and lawmakers was "putting our fiscal house in order."

"The subject we were discussing [healthcare] was not as important as the subject we're discussing here," said Hoyer at a University of Maryland forum Thursday on the country's fiscal future.

Â…Hoyer said that the health bill should help the fiscal picture; the Congressional Budget Office expects savings of about $140 billion this decade and far more in the bill's second decade.

Hoyer acknowledged Republican concerns that those savings may not be realized, as they're based on measures lawmakers may be reluctant to enact. The health bill's savings come through Medicare cuts, which Democrats said won't affect seniors' quality of care, and through new taxes on high-income earners.

He called on lawmakers to have the "courage" to stick by them.

"Those savings are contingent on Congress keeping its pledge to take hard votes," Hoyer said.

"Congress does not have a good track record on that objective," he added.

In other words when it comes to the savings in the health care law, “You fucked up... you trusted us! Hey, make the best of it!”

So how does Steny expect us to get out of this? Why, tax increases of course.

"Both Republicans and Democrats have to come to the table without preconditions," he said. "You can't rule out any solution, on the revenue side or the spending side. We can't give into the temptation to turn this defining challenge to the subject of demagoguery."

The funny thing is, Democrats are now talking about renewing the evvvvilllll “Bush tax cuts”, at least for the “middle class”.

So what taxes does Hoyer think will be raised? Oh right.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:40 AM | Comments (58)
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It's at least Round 2, maybe more.

The most thin skinned POTUS in recent memory really doesn't like be criticized. At all. Naturally the lapdogs at CBS News gave the Whiner In Chief a chance to talk how mean everyone is. Obama obliged and name checked Limbaugh and Beck.

Rush responded to Politico.

"I and most Americans do not believe President Obama is trying to do what's best for the country," he wrote. "Never in my life have I seen a regime like this, governing against the will of the people, purposely. I have never seen the media so supportive of a regime amassing so much power. And I have never known as many people who literally fear for the future of the country."

It's actually pretty scary when the President of the United States of America calls out individual citizens by name for doing nothing more than exercising their 1st Amendment rights.

Obama's horror at the 'vitriol' of public debate is pretty selective. I don't seem to recall him taking say, Keith Olbermann to task over his rantings about Bush (which I'm pretty sure Bush never whined about like a little bitch). Hell, Obama could slap Olby around right now for calling Tea Party participants racists.

But Obama doesn't.

In part it's because he agrees with Olbermann to one degree or another but more importantly, Rush, Beck and the rest are talking about Him. How dare they! Who the hell are these bastards to criticize God's gift to mankind?

This most un-presidential of presidencies continues apace with Obama attacking citizens because his so damn thin skinned and of course, it helps with the base.

Disgusting.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:13 AM | Comments (241)
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You know who knows a heck of a lot about farming? Michelle Obama.

And you know what every good farmer knows? Screw sun, soil, water, fertilizer and insecticide...all you really need to do to ensure a bountiful crop is bust a righteous move.

Don't believe me? Wouldja believe the "Christian Science Monitor"? (You have to. It's Good Friday and if you don't you'll go to Hell. Ah, y'all are probably all heathen pagans anyway.)

She told the students that no matter where people live or how old they may be, they can still garden, noting the fun of spending time outdoors and digging in the dirt.

To illustrate that point, the first lady knelt in the 1,500-square-foot garden and planted two rows of broccoli as well as some rhubarb.

After the rhubarb was in the ground Mrs. Obama and some of the children performed what she called a "growing dance" around the wooden planter. The group chanted "grow, rhubarb, grow" several times, then circled the planter and finished by throwing their hands in the air.

White House assistant chef Sam Kass, who oversees the garden, joined in for the last round of the dance.

Here is a picture of the harvest ritual for any doubters that remain:

Now many of you probably think I am going to bust on the First Lady for indoctrinating little school children in Druidic cultural norms. But I'm not. It would be hypocritical, after all. I have a lvl 80 Druid in Warcraft. Instead, I'm going to suggest a few ways that Mrs Obama may wish to help out other aspects of the White House agenda with her innovative example. more...

Posted by: Jack M. at 08:11 AM | Comments (85)
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Well, this is the least surprising news of the week:

Last week, President Obama signed historic health care reform legislation into law -- but his legislative success doesn't seem to have helped his image with the American public.

The latest CBS News Poll, conducted between March 29 and April 1, found Americans unhappier than ever with Mr. Obama's handling of health care - and still worried about the state of the economy.

President Obama's overall job approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 44 percent, down five points from late March, just before the health bill's passage in the House of Representatives. It's down 24 points since his all-time high last April. Forty-one percent of those polled said they disapproved of the president's performance.

When it comes to health care, the President's approval rating is even lower -- and is also a new all-time low. Only 34 percent approved, while 55 percent said they disapproved.

Independents, for the most part, hate the health care bill. Despite that, the White House chose to have a self-congratulatory signing ceremony that resembled a political pep rally. To make matters worse, the press secretary smugly dismisses any criticism or public opinion rather than answer questions from the press. Capping this perfect storm of bad PR is the president himself, who continues to go out on the road to sell this wreck of a law while mocking those who have legitimate concerns about it in a fashion thatÂ’s unbecoming of his office.

The president and Democrats in Congress seem to believe that if they tell us how awesome this law is often enough, eventually we'll come around to their point of view. Instead, their rhetoric seems to be having the opposite effect - people didn't want this passed and are beginning to react to the arrogance shown by the president and his allies as they try to convince us to eat the crap sandwich they created.

(h/t: Hot Air)

Posted by: Slublog at 07:49 AM | Comments (96)
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If the news weren't so damaging to so many people it would be hysterical how the ObamaMedia covers this stuff.

So far (and it's still early) CNN has the best Obama spin on today's job figures.

The U.S. economy gained more jobs in March than any other month in the last three years, according to a government report released Friday.

The Labor Department said the economy gained 162,000 jobs in the month, compared to a revised reading of a 14,000 job loss in February. That makes March only the third month of gains since the recession began.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a gain of 184,000 jobs. But despite missing forecasts, the March number was generally not seen as a disappointment by economists, because revisions in January and February readings added a combined 62,000 additional jobs.

The unemployment rate remained stubbornly high, holding steady at 9.7%, matching economist expectations.

The lack of a decrease in the unemployment rate is unexpected because if you read on, you find that almost 50,000 of these jobs are temp gigs associated with the census. Some had expected the rate to drop by up to half a point because of that temporary hiring. My guess is they had to scramble this morning to rework administration talking points away from a drop in the rate and focus solely on the raw jobs created number.

Creating some non-census jobs is better than shedding them, so that's good but 9.7% unemployment? The adverb they elected to go with to describe the unemployment rate is 'stubbornly'? 'Devastating' comes to mind, as does 'well above what Obama promised when he forced the so-called 'stimulus' through last year'. Funny how that chart the media touted when they were flacking the thing for Obama never seems to appear anywhere except on blogs.

The Wall Street Journal has a more straight forward recap of the numbers and it's basically what you'd expect...job growth is meh.

Beyond government jobs, the report showed that manufacturing continued to trend up, rising by 17,000. The industry, which is leading the economy's recovery, has added 45,000 jobs in the past quarter. Construction, a sector that's been suffering, added 15,000 jobs in March.

However, investors should be cautious to conclude from the March data that the jobs market is now out of the woods. The U.S. Federal Reserve expects the unemployment rate to stay high for a long time as the economy recovers only slowly.

The jobs report shouldn't change the Fed's view that short-term interest rates must remain at a record low for several months at least. Fed officials project the unemployment rate will fall only to 8.3% at the end of 2011 from about 9.6% in the final quarter of this year.

Until now, most companies have preferred to meet rising demand by having existing employees work more instead of taking on new workers, which is behind the recent surge in productivity. Firms want to see more evidence that demand for their products and services is picking up before they take on more employees—and that could take time.

When you are talking numbers in the tens of thousands in a country of over 300 million people, you are talking about job growth that amounts to rounding errors. It certainly good news for the people who got jobs but for the economy as a whole, not much to cheer about.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:22 AM | Comments (89)
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If:

CBS's Jeff Probst hosted a very special episode of "Survivor:Guam" in which the dueling tribes were composed of the cast of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" and the first elimination vote was held over a slow motion montage of Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton singing "Islands in the Stream"...

Would:

Rep. Hank Johnson's head explode like in "Scanners" or melt like in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"?

Posted by: Jack M. at 05:46 AM | Comments (158)
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FRIDAY!!!

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:14 AM | Comments (91)
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