Say What?! Bachman economics

It seems like with this current field of GOP candidates, that I have infinite material to work with, and today proves no different. Michele Bachman, the woman who can’t get basic American history right is at it again, this time failing Economics 101. ThinkProgess reports that at a campaign rally, Bachmann made the ultimate in gaffs, saying that $1 today should be equal to $1 in 1911. You need to see this to believe this:

The shorthand way of describing to you what quantitative easing is is a license to print money without any value behind it…In the last two years of the Obama administration, if you pull a dollar out of your pocket, you have lost 14 percent of the value of that dollar. That means the federal government has stolen that money from you… They’ve been printing essentially valueless money and flooding it into the money supply. I don’t stand for that. A dollar in 2011 should be the same as a dollar in 1911. A dollar should be worth a dollar.

I seriously thought she couldn't get any dumber. As the article at ThinkProgress notes, because of natural inflation, $1 in 1911 equals $23 today. Even her argument to go back to the gold standard is null because gold prices fluctuate because of inflation, with prices being at record highs right now. And to blame the president for inflation is absolutely absurd. Inflation always happens, its part of the economic cycle. It happens based on market conditions, not because of one single person. If that was the case, don’t you think the president would change that?

The scary thing about Bachmann is that while she is an idiot when it comes to economics and history, she can make a very convincing argument and is very well articulated. People can take her seriously as opposed to Palin, who you can’t take anything she says seriously. Hopefully people can see through the smoke and mirrors and realize that Bachmann is as bad as Palin.

Election 2012: Thaddeus Who?!

In case you missed it this weekend, Thaddeus McCotter, Republican Congressman from Michigan entered the race for the Republican nomination to challenge President Obama next Fall. Who is Rep. McCotter? I asked that very same question when Rachel Maddow reported on this Friday night on her show. Take a look:

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This man has the personality of a kumquat, he makes Tim Pawlenty look like the most charismatic man on earth. And yet he is running for president. And what is with that comment on how conservatism is the absence of ideology? He can’t be serious, conservatism is an ideology, not the lack there of. In fact, reality has a known liberal bias, so conservatism is the opposite of that. As Rachel said, he will make an interesting addition to the field already filled with nut jobs like Michele Bachman, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich. It seems that with every new addition to the race, the front runner Mitt Romney looks better and better. In fact, with each new candidate that comes out from the fringe, Romney is closer to securing the nomination, without any primaries yet. As crazy as it might sound, with so many Tea Party and ultra-conservative candidates in the race, it will split that vote, leaving all the sensible moderate Republicans in Romney’s camp. Either this is pure genius, by putting so many fringe candidates into the mix it will give the nomination to the best candidate, or it’s pure stupidity, that all these people think they have even a snowball’s chance in hell of defeating a sitting president. As more about McCotter comes out, I'll keep you informed about him and the other candidates. I have a feeling we're not done yet with new candidates, something tells me I'll soon be writing about former half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and/or Texas Governor Rick Perry.

Feelings on the election

Hello Folks,

This is your diabolic friend the Devil's advocate posting after a particularly long hiatus.

What I'd like to talk about is making a difference. As I write this, election results are still coming in throughout the country. I don't know about the rest of you, but the Election Fairy did bring me a few presents, and took away others.

This is one election that I have had a difficult time becoming enthused with. Is it that half of the things that the GOP campaign sent out about the Democratic Congressional Candidate were attacks on Nancy Pelosi? Not really. Would it be that the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates reminded me of the Vote or Die episode of Southpark? That would be a big part. Though, on to more useful things like the upcoming diatribe.

I'm one of the many Americans that is presently not satisfied with the two party system that is the current state of affairs. While I'm not a fan of the Tea Party in general, I do like several aspects about them. Unfortunately the 'Tea Party Candidates," that tend to make national news have a few things in common, ignorance in their field of expertise is the most disheartening. Honestly, when you are making a major point of wanting to follow the constitution closely and contradict yourself in the next statement when talking about the 1st Amendment.... But I digress there. Another troubling feature would be the association of bigotry which is particularly disconcerting. What I do like about them is that they are shaking things up. They are changing the status quo for the Republican candidates. My personal wish is that both major parties begin to change their ways. I also am quite fond of the stance that many tea party members have of Issues over Parties.

I would wish to see actual liberals running for high office in the Democratic party. I would also wish to see actual conservatives running in the Republican party. As opposed to the Neo-liberal and Neo-conservative that seem to be the general rule. I would also wish to see the current political parties become less relevant in favor of more specific smaller scale parties.