All the Current 2016 Presidential Candidates, in 15 Words or Less:

Bluntly and Crankily summarized, here are the likely candidates for President in 2016:

Bernie Sanders: If there are more smart people in America than the polls indicate, he’s in.

Hillary Clinton: Meet the new Democratic President, same as the old Democratic President.

Jim Webb: Might as well be a Republican.

Lincoln Chafee: Pretty much still IS a Republican.

Joe Biden: Good at calming shoulder rubs. Would like to calm the entire country.

Marco Rubio: Can’t even handle a water bottle. Wants to run an entire country.

Mike Huckabee: Optimistic hypocrite who doesn’t have the nerve to quit.

Ben Carson: All Brains. No Heart.

Ted Cruz: Because Birthers and Teavangelicals are complete idiots.

Rand Paul: Because Libertarians and Teabaggers are even bigger idiots.

Carly Fiorina: Proud of her failure in Tech, wants to proudly fail the entire country.

Chris Christie: Christ in name only. Still unindicted.

Jeb Bush: Helped steal the White House in 2000. Would love to do it again.

Scott Walker: Will destroy everything Americans hold dear. Will get votes anyway.

Donald Trump: Told his hair stylist, “You’re Fired!”

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Joe Biden Schools NPR Reporter, and Squashes the NRA

NPR’s Melissa Block got herself pretty well embarrassed by our Vice President yesterday. Mr. Biden did what politicians rarely do: he pushed back against her repetitious quoting of NRA propaganda with his own facts and viewpoint, without flinching, yelling or screaming. You can listen to it or read it here.

The “journalist” kept on trying to steer the conversation back to Gun Loony Land, but Joe was having none of it. Time and time again, he called BS on her “questions” (all too often, they were statements masquerading as questions) and responded with the facts.

As someone who is fed up with the sorry state of the “news” in this day and age, it was a treat to hear a politico nut up and school one of these biased, unprofessional weasels.

Mr. B & C

Hey, Wingnuts who are Freaking Out over the Election Results: Waaaah.

Both times Bush The Dumber managed to get his butt planted in the Oval Office, Mr. Blunt and Cranky heard lots and lots of people on the Left and in the Center losing their gourds. Threats, despairing recriminations, and of course, lots of bitter gloom-n-doom; all of these were present and accounted for in 2000 and 2004. Not much came of them, and the country limped along until that jackass exited the building.

Now, it’s the turn of the Raging Righties in Their Tightie Whities to barf out their weeping, wailing, useless and pathetic diatribes. Not much will come of their declarations, and the country will survive another four years of this Prexy, as it has dozens of his predecessors.

News Flash: sometimes you win, and sometimes you don’t. That’s what happens in contests. The only people who get a pass for acting like two-year-olds when they lose are, well, two-year-olds. The rest of us are quite reasonably expected to act like, well, grownups. Suck it up, Buttercup.

Mr. B & C

Why I Voted Against Mitt Romney

Note first that Mr. Blunt and Cranky did, in fact, vote against Romney, rather than for Obama. He last voted for a Presidential candidate in1976;  since then, it’s always been a vote against the greater of two evils. So it was this year. Reasons being:

Number A: We cannot trust Romney. He changes positions and direction more often than a weathervane in a tornado; he lives a life of secrecy and untruths; and there have been multiple reports and recordings of his speeches when he thinks he is among his “own kind”. These speeches show a man who is nothing like the image he presents to the rest of us.

Letter 2: His proposed policies either are the same as Obama’s; or they don’t stand up to scrutiny.  His policy on Iran is the same as Obama’s (and Shrub’s), for example. His tax policy is mathematically impossible. These are talking points meant to persuade the gullible members of the electorate, instead of serious policies to be used when in office. Bottom line: we do not know what he’d do if he got into the Oval Office.

Thirdly: Romney’s case of foot-in-mouth disease is right up there with Bush the Dumber or Dan Quayle. He has offended our allies, our trading partners, and vast swaths of the American population. And he Does. Not. Understand. Why. Someone that clueless might make a good venture capitalist, but cannot possibly be a good President: the leader of a diverse nation must possess the ability to understand different points of view, and communicate effectively across cultural and political lines.

This writer may not be a particularly huge fan of Obama, but we know what we’ll be getting if he is re-elected. With Romney, there is no way of knowing what he’ll do if he gets his mitts (pun intended) on the reins of power; but it is not likely to be good for the country.

Mr. B & C

Lying Sack of S*** of The Week – Politicians who Promise “Small Government”

“Republicans” would have you believe that they are for smaller government. Mister Blunt and Cranky hates to bust your bubble, but this is not at all true. Not anymore, anyway.

Don’t believe it? Look at what they propose doing: monitoring and controlling women’s gynecological care; forcing us all to either be evangelical “Christians” or second-class citizens; making us all carry ID papers (like they did in Nazi Germany); criminalizing our bedroom activities, and so on. What is “small” about a government like that? Nada.

The Democrats are not for small government either. They are not as intrusive in our private lives, but they do like big programs and projects that the government either runs or facilitates. Mind, many Dems at least have the grace to openly embrace the idea of big government, so we can’t call them liars (in this one instance).

And what, I hear you cry, of “libertarians” like Ron Paul? Sorry to break it to you, but a quick look at his voting record reveals that he is just another bought-and-paid-for shill of the oil companies that control his district. And he loves nothing better than funneling our tax dollars to his cronies. Nothing “small” about that.

So, to any and all politicos who claim to be for small government, we hereby bestow this week’s Crown O’ Polished Turds. Wear it with pride, you lying sacks of s***.

Mr. B & C

One in the Eye for Those Who Want to Steal Your Right to Vote

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/02/14182503-judge-blocks-pennsylvania-voter-id-law?lite

After a key Keystone State Legislator came out and said that their new Voter ID law would allow “Mitt Romney to win Pennsylvania”, one would have thought that any sane judge would have squashed the law out of hand; obviously, it was politically motivated and a bold-faced attempt to rig an election. But noooooooo.

Instead, there have been expensive and time-consuming hearings, rulings and counter-rulings, media circuses and so on. Finally, yesterday morning, a judge put a stay on part of the PA Voter ID Law. Half a loaf for those who believe in free, fair, and un-rigged elections, but you know what they say about half a loaf.

As an Independent, Mr. Blunt and Cranky really dislikes parties. A lot. He thinks, in fact, that they should be outlawed, because they have turned out to be just as insidious an infection as President Washington warned us about (“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion”).

In this case, one of the parties (“Republicans”) have spent most of the past two years working on behalf of their party’s interest, to the detriment of the nation.The modern “Republican” party bears no resemblance to the party we once knew. The party of fiscal discipline has become the party of Voodoo Economics. The party of minding our own business has become the party of foreign wars of choice. And the party that trumpeted the rule of law has become the party of lawlessness, influence selling, election rigging and voter suppression.

The right to vote is one of the foundational rights of our nation. When one weakens the foundation of a structure, how long can the structure stand? Read President Washington’s words once again, and ask yourself if you really want to vote for people who would take away your rights; using the law of the land to weaken the nation for the benefit of a few corrupt politicos and those who buy them.

Again: “Republicans” don’t want you to vote. They want to take away your right to vote. If you care about your rights, you cannot afford to vote for these crooks.

Mr. B & C

Hellz NO, Romney’s Plan Won’t Work

It won’t work because it has been tried before and has never, repeat NEVER worked. Not once. (If you think you can argue the point, please submit a peer-reviewed economic paper showing where Supply-Side has actually worked for more than a year or so before it came crashing down. Pardon us for not holding our breath.) All the Romney/Ryan plan boils down is to Bush The Dumber’s plan, minus the compassion. And the Shrub’s Economic record was a cluster-f***ing train-wreck of thermonuclear proportions.

As we did yesterday, here are some actual numbers from the Feds and Wall Street to back Mr. Blunt and Cranky’s thesis statement (oh, and Congress changed control a number of times during the past 20 years, so don’t try blaming one party or the other over there):

Date:	Day One of Bubba 1/20/1993	Day One of Dubya    1/20/2001	Inauguration Day (End of Dubya’s Reign) 1/20/2009	Today (3 + Years of Obama) 9/5/2012
Unemployment Rate	7.3%	4.2%	7.8 % (rising)	8.3 % (fluctuating, down from 10.0 % in 2009)
Dow Jones	3,241.95	10,578.24	7,949.09	13,045.46
Nasdaq	697.44	2757.91	1440.86	3069.27
Stanford &   Poor’s	433.37	1432.90	805.22	1403.45
Inflation Rate	2.7%	1.6%	0.1 %	1.4%
National Debt	$4.1 Trillion	$5.7 trillion	$10.6 Trillion	$15.9 Trillion
Budget Deficit	$255 Billion (4.4% of   GDP)	-$128 Billion (3.0%   of GDP) (IOW, a Surplus)	$1.2 Trillion (8.3 %   of GDP)	$1.1 Trillion (7.6 % of GDP)
Job Expansion/ Contraction	63,000 added in 1/94   (Earliest available from BLS)	268,000 added in   1/2001	527,000 Jobs   lost  from 1/1/09 to 1/20/09	163,000 Jobs added in 6/12 (latest figures available from   BLS)

 

 

Please note that during Bubba’s time in office, things got better – Hell, even the national debt slowed its growth. That is because practicality trumped ideology. The Reagan/Bush The Smarter years were ideological, yes, but at least tempered with reality-based thinking and actions, so Clinton did not have as big of a mess to clean up. But clean it up he did, along with the adults in the Legislative Branch who managed to keep the ideologues in check part of the time.

Then along came Bush The Dumber. All ideology and whack-a-doodle theories, all the time, nary a pragmatist in the White House to utter a discouraging word. The result: each and every economic indicator went to Hell in a handbasket, and we are still trying to dig our way out of the resulting crisis that the Shrub and his crew of Supply-Siders caused.

Now we have Obama. Not this writer’s fave Prexy, but he’s done a darned good job of crisis management and even started addressing some of the underlying causes of the Bush Economic Collapse. His plan is to keep doing what has been proven to work, and do it for another four years. Kind of hard to argue with success, innit?

So, here’s the choice: Pick one or the other, there is no third option:

Number A: Romney, doing what has always failed before.

Letter 2: Obama, doing what always works.

(Hint: If you pick A, then you really ARE a stupid f***.)

Mr. B & C