Afternoon, Liberals!

Yesterday Robot Man Mitt Romney accused President Obama of spreading a "prairie fire" of debt. Next up, crybaby Boehner announced that he would hold the the debt ceiling hostage again this year--firing up his extremist base. And today both the AP and a non-partisan budget group threw cold water on Romney's "prairie fire of debt" nonsense by pointing out: "Romney’s tax and spending plans don’t support his vow to dampen the debt fire. He proposes to cut taxes and expand the armed forces, putting yet more stress on the budget, and his promise to slash domestic spending isn’t backed by the big specifics. Romney’s tax plan would cut the top income tax rate to 28 percent from 35 percent and other rates by 20 percent each."

So things are heating up in this election year. We hope you'll take some time to chill out with us this and every Thursday night at 7:00 at the BBC for Drinking Liberally!

DL Louisville Blog

Your Dear Leaders in Peace,
Vicki and Ron

Alex Pareen writes a very funny column in Salon that argues for doing just that.

I am just not really clear on the role JPMorgan has in a healthy and functioning economy, whether it is making billions in high-stakes gambling or losing billions in high-stakes gambling. It seems like America was actually doing pretty well with there not being any such thing as credit-default swaps, which JPMorgan invented, in the 1990s, right before investment banks were allowed to merge with retail banks and do whatever they wanted with everyone’s money.

I’d also like Mr. Dimon to have to explain whether he knew he was about to have to admit to losing billions of dollars when, on May 3, he complained about the “discrimination” faced by bankers. Dimon also argued a few days later that the economy would’ve added twice as many jobs in the last 24 months if it weren’t for a “constant attack on business” from various unnamed hippies and government bureaucrats. I would like to know how many jobs were created when JPMorgan accidentally lost some unknown amount of money that is likely to end up being more than $2 billion? Also did Dimon lie during his first-quarter earnings call last month, or did he have no idea what sort of things his chief investment office was up to (even after their actions were reported in the press)?

There are probably a lot of psychopaths on Wall St. like him who are so rich and powerful that they are divorced from the real world where the rest of us live.

Hahahahaha! Seems as if Americans Elect is about to go bust

Basically everyone not affiliated with No Labels finds the failure of Americans Elect amusing (so it has succeeded in uniting the Weekly Standard and Paul Krugman!), but I actually feel kind of bad for those Americans Elect goobers. It’s not their fault that Americans don’t actually want an independent moderate unity presidential ticket. (It is their fault that they spent $10 zillion pushing the idea.) But there is really no excuse for the bizarre belief that anyone wants Joe Lieberman to be president.

Yes, according to Kenneth Vogel, AE recently sought to interest the soon-to-be former senator from Connecticut in mounting a run on the AE ticket, because what Americans are crying out for is a moralizing hawkish lifelong politician with no fixed ideology beyond reflexive baby-splitting and bombing everywhere forever. (It also reached out to Lamar Alexander, because it is beyond parody.)

A lot of the more prominent AE supporters and many of the people involved in organizing the group are disillusioned Republicans — like former Giuliani speechwriter John Avlon and former Bush strategist Mark McKinnon — which helps explain why AE keeps going after people who only appeal to … disillusioned moderate Republicans.

In other words, it's over. America has had it the the Joe Losermans of this world.

Things are starting to get interesting in the Treyvon Martin murder case. The FBI is gathering evidence that George Zimmerman was racially profiling Martin. And then there's the matter of 67 CDs of evidence turned over to Zimmerman's lawyers

Late Monday, Zimmerman attorney Mark O'Mara confirmed he had received the evidence at his office. It consists of dozens of CDs and "numerous" paper documents.

"It's 67 CDs. That's about all I know," O'Mara said.

Most names were redacted from the witness and evidence document obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, but six civilian witnesses were named: Trayvon's parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin; his brother, Jahvarius Fulton; and Zimmerman's neighbor Frank Taaffe, friend Joe Oliver and father, Robert Zimmerman.

The document listed 18 Sanford police officers as primary witnesses, including lead Investigator Chris Serino. Corey's office also turned over five reports prepared by him, as well as written reports prepared by four other Sanford officers.

The list includes new video evidence from the night of the shooting — both from the 7-Eleven store where Trayvon reportedly purchased Skittles and Arizona iced tea and from a clubhouse in Retreat at Twin Lakes, the townhouse complex where the teen was killed.

Other video, showing Zimmerman being taken into the Sanford Police Department after the shooting, has already been made public. Crime-scene photos of both Zimmerman and the teen are also listed in the document filed Monday, as is Trayvon's autopsy report.

From what we've already heard from 911 tapes, it seems pretty clear that the FBI has ample evidence that a hate crime was committed.

Here we go again. House Speaker Boehner has a speech planned in Ohio today where he will once again threaten to hold the debt ceiling hostage to spending cuts

Last August, the nation narrowly avoided hitting its debt limit thanks to a last minute deal cut by Congress. House Republicans had threatened to push the country into a default unless Democrats agreed to spending cuts that were larger than the amount of the debt limit increase.

The episode is widely regarded as an embarrassment for good governance and a blow for the economy. Standard & Poor’s, even with the deal, downgraded America’s credit rating, citing the GOP’s complete intransigence regarding revenue increases. But it seems Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) is ready to write the sequel, as he will reportedly demand today that the next increase in the debt limit follow the same GOP criteria

Just like last summer, our credit rating will once again be threatened. Does he really want the U.S. to go into default? These idiots keep doing the same bad things over and over again.