Daddy Issues: The Reality of China’s Challenge to the United States

Michele Bachmann needs to learn a lot of things. First off, among those members of the Republican Party who can read books, her approval rating hovers tenuously between Rick Perry and genital warts. Slightly less immediately, she needs to know that puns are the absolute lowest form of humor… on Earth. And making any sort of puns relating to President Hu Jintao’s name is an exquisite means of saying “I am not, and will never be, by any definition of the words, an intentionally funny person.” I didn’t think anything could make Michele Bachmann’s already groan-inducing remarks at CPAC all the more objectively more painful when she was able to stop talking about lightbulbs long enough to touch on the subject of China, and how they hold a “vast amount” of American debt. Bachmann insisted that, “Hu is your Daddy.”

Keep On Rockin' in the Third World!

It is difficult to convey to people here in the United States the severity of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Somalia. When the average American hears that there are people starving to death somewhere in Africa it comes as no surprise. We have heard this so many times throughout our lives that we have come to expect it and sadly, to even accept it as an inevitability. It is for this reason that we here at the Liberal Mob have blogged about the situation taking place on the Horn of Africa a couple of times in recent weeks. First about the Failed State status of Somalia and how it compounds and worsens the ecological and humanitarian crises taking place there, and later why the United Nations & the International community had trouble responding quickly and decisively declaring a famine.

Standard & Very, Very Poor

Over the weekend, and into today, there has been much sound and fury about Standard and Poor's downgrade of the United States' credit rating to AA.  Unfortunately for S&P (or fortunately for the rest of us), it turns out that it is signifying nothing.  It is now left to the rest of us to wonder: what is happening here, what does it mean for us, and what does it mean for S&P?

Our Long National Nightmare Is Finally Over

It appears to be the beginning of the end for this round of debt ceiling talks.  The House has now passed a plan, and the Senate should shortly do the same.  This bill will presumably be signed by President Obama as well.  Finally, we can stop dealing with this stupid, stupid manufactured crisis and move on to other things.  So the real question is: what's in this (hopefully final) deal, and what does it mean?  It seems to me that while this deal is bad, it's...somewhat less bad than it could or should have been.

Lost Transcript of Rep. Boehner's Actual Speech

Good evening.  I’m John Boehner, and you may remember me as the most orange man in America.  I serve as Speaker of the whole House – of the members of both parties that you elect – but I try to pretend the Democratic members don’t exist.  These are difficult times in the life of our nation, which is at least half the fault of my inability to deal with the raving psychos that inhabit my party.   

Balance This!

So I'm watching Meet The Press today and listening to Jim DeMint (R-SC) blather on about his truly idiotic balanced budget amendment that he's been championing for a while now.  After I stopped laughing, it occurred to me that maybe, not everyone realizes why it's a stupid idea, even if it is exceedingly inane.  What does the balanced budget amendment actually do, and why is it stupid?