Are the Tea Party's Days Numbered?

Well, let's certainly hope so. It is getting harder and harder to stomach the absurdly incongruous rants spewed by these skid marks. Eh, on second thought, perhaps I’m being too rough on them. After all, they do make for great comedy:



I happened to catch a Gallup poll today that shows a declining favorable opinion in regards to the Tea Party. I’m not surprised though. It’s difficult to take somebody wearing a powdered wig and knickers seriously.

Maybe Things Aren’t So Bad…

While it’s no secret that Bush left the country with historical rates of unemployment and exploding deficits, there is some good news to report. And no, Obama hasn’t magically cured our fiscal woes...

Today I decided to gauge the direction the economy is heading by looking at a few economic indicators. What I saw were signs that things are starting to slowly pick back up.

First we have the Consumer Sentiment Index. Basically, this is a measure of consumer confidence as reported through survey data. Though, it has been on rise since 2009, it’ll be awhile until we see the confidence levels from the pre-Bush era.




Next we have expected inflation. This figure is currently floating around fewer than 3% and is much lower than Fox News would have us believe. So yea, we don’t need to worry about hyperinflation. There are, however, certain negative implications associated with low rates of inflation.

Our current economic climate is often compared to that of Japan’s during the 1990s. In this case, some economists worry that the US might actually be heading towards the same deflation Japan suffered from. And deflation isn’t good. Among other things, deflation offsets borrowing and spending because the dollars of tomorrow are worth more than the dollars of today. There are other reasons, but I won’t get into them now. My point here is that hyperinflation isn’t an issue.




Thirdly, the Financial Stress Index is indicating that the financial markets are recovering nicely (surprise surprise). For more information on what this index is, check out:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/net/NETJan2010Appendix.pdf




Lastly, I would like to mention the home vacancy rate. This indicator is often a good measure of the direction of economy, especially after a recession. And it’s crucial to the recession we’re recovering from now because of its housing origins. According to the graph, we’ve seemed to have hit the peak of the vacancy rate and are starting to slide back down. This is good and it’s implying that the number of foreclosures, property seizures, and homes waiting to be sold in the market are starting to come back down. This is phenomenal news and I want to continue seeing this rate drop.



So, in the end, maybe things aren’t so bad. Though the right wing media keeps their Campaign of Fear alive, the state of the economy really isn’t as bad as it seems. However, that is not to understate the implications of the vast unemployment and slow job creation. And for some reason, these seem to be the topics that don’t get much attention in Washington these days. In fact, there isn’t much talk of the economy going on at all. Our leaders, for some reason, are more worried about short term solutions to the federal budget woes than about jobs for the true drivers of the economy. It just goes to show the level of disconnect.

Will the Birthers Finally Shut the #%@! Up?

Well, here we are folks. Barry finally released his birth certificate. If it were me, I probably would have waited closer to the 2012 election. He's basically given the Republicans enough time to find a different platform to run on. But what can ya do? At any rate, maybe now the birthers will finally shut up.

*UPDATE*
Nope the birthers still won't shut the #%@! up!!

It's hilarious to see conservative squirm. Some Republicans are now saying that Obama's mom wasn't a citizen when she gave birth to him. Therefore, Obama is still an immigrant unworthy of the presidency. Yea, I can’t believe it either.

Others, like Donald Trump, are now considering the birther topic a “distraction” from real policy issues. This, of course, is ironic because these are the people who brought it up in the first place. Who doesn’t love the circular logic taught in Republican 101?

The Fight is Back On!

It’s time for Democrats to start having the courage of their convictions and stand up for what is right. The Obama Administration is too fixated on what the polls say. And for good reason too. They don’t want another defeat like the November elections. But guess what will happen when 2012 rolls around and Obama hasn’t convinced the constituents that voted for him that he’s actually on their side?? If the administration wants that second term, they’re going to need to convince the voting college students and Latino constituents that he fights for their interests. Because these groups are among the voters that showed up to vote in historically high numbers in the 2008 elections (and who failed to show up during the November elections). Voting patterns are a huge cornerstone of political science. I’m not sure where Obama is getting his advice from, but they need to wake up.

And this budget proposal is a testament to how far the right is willing to go. Paul Ryan’s budget plan is a complete farce and a disgrace to working Americans. The Republicans aim to marginalize poor and elderly health care recipients in order to facilitate additional tax cuts for the wealthy. It’s a classic move. This isn’t adult conversation about balancing the budget; it’s a ploy to redistribute more wealth to the top.

Sure, Obama’s deficit speech was moving. He made a stand and voiced his ideological position. But that was just the beginning of the debate. If it’s true that history is cursed to repeat itself, than the final copy of the budget won’t be close to Obama’s alleged stance. It’ll be somewhere to the far right of it after he gives the Republicans countless more concessions.

I still say Hilldog should have won the primary.