A Celebration Of Shrill
by digby
Since it's Krugman day here at Hullabaloo, I thought I'd share this little graph which he calls "a tale of two presidencies." It illustrates perfectly for every average Joe (except Sam the plumber) why they should put their hands over their ears and start chanting "shut up, shut up, shut up" whenever they see Republicans with the chutzpah to even raise a peep about what to do about the economy:
They have no credibility on anything and they should not be driving this debate, most of all. In fact, they should not even have the nerve to say a word, but rather slink back into their corners and contemplate why every single thing they touch turns to garbage.
They have the right to make their case, of course, but there is absolutely no necessity that the press gives them not just equal, but more air time, to further brainwash the public and there's certainly no reason why the "centrist" Goldilocks faction should have the final word by pretending that the other side isn't behaving as if it's completely insane.
And watching John McCain, the man who said "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" just a few months ago, being equally ignorant today in sanctimoniously proclaiming today that the bill is a "spending bill, not a stimulus bill," makes me want to go all Elvis and shoot out the TV screen. That was the man they chose to lead the country during this crisis. Imagine what would have happened if they had succeeded. It's enough to keep you up at night.
Update: After listening to Alex Castellanos speak some gibberish about how George Bush's tax cuts were a huge success, Paul Begala just said that the Republicans couldn't lead, they refuse to follow, so they should get out of the way. At this point, I agree. They aren't debating in good faith, they are following their leader in trying to make the president (and by extension the country) fail.
Update II: Just in case Krugman's chart didn't indicate just how bad this is, get a load of this one, (via Swampland)
This chart compares the job loss so far in this recession to job losses in the 1990-1991 recession and the 2001 recession -- showing how dramatic and unprecedented the job loss over the last 13 months has been. Over the last 13 months, our economy has lost a total of 3.6 million jobs – and continuing job losses in the next few months are predicted.
By comparison, we lost a total of 1.6 million jobs in the 1990-1991 recession, before the economy began turning around and jobs began increasing; and we lost a total of 2.7 million jobs in the 2001 recession, before the economy began turning around and jobs began increasing.
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