Informal Survey- Teabaggers clueless when it comes to taxes

I'd love to see their version of reality when it comes to other stuff too, but this is fascinating.

CONFUSION-BASED RAGE, CONT'D.... Former Bush speechwriter David Frum enlisted some interns this week to survey Tea Party activists protesting in D.C. earlier this week. The goal was to get a sense of the activists' understanding of taxes -- ostensibly, the "movement's" raison d'etre -- and factual knowledge.

Bruce Bartlett reported today on the survey's results, and found that for an anti-tax group, "they don't know much about taxes."

Indeed, it appears much of the Tea Party crowd is simply clueless about the issues they claim to care the most about, wildly exaggerating federal tax rates, how much a median family pays in taxes, and what's changed since President Obama took office.

In short, no matter how one slices the data, the Tea Party crowd appears to believe that federal taxes are very considerably higher than they actually are, whether referring to total taxes as a share of GDP or in terms of the taxes paid by a typical family.

Tea Partyers also seem to have a very distorted view of the direction of federal taxes. They were asked whether they are higher, lower or the same as when Barack Obama was inaugurated last year. More than two-thirds thought that taxes are higher today, and only 4% thought they were lower; the rest said they are the same.

As noted earlier, federal taxes are very considerably lower by every measure since Obama became president.... No taxpayer anywhere in the country had his or her taxes increased as a consequence of Obama's policies.

Clueless, the Sequel... starring John McCain

By GottaLaff

I am so far into WTF mode that even my brain is agape:

"I wouldn't know."

-- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in an interview on the Today Show, when asked about former aides claiming to the authors of Game Change that Sarah Palin was not adequately vetted.

This man was not qualified to be in office if he didn't have so much as a blastocyst of a clue-ette about the vetting of his own running mate.

Of course, we already knew he jumped headlong into choosing her without knowing much more than her name (and that was probably with prompting and/or visual aids). Impulsiveness is not a good thing to put on one's wannabe presidential resume.

These two herrings were running for the highest offices in the land, and would have been running our military, our economy, our everything.

And yet neither took the time to educate themselves in their respective Very Important Issues, whether it be daily reading material or getting to know the person who would take over if the president-elect died.

"I wouldn't know" are the last words Americans want to hear in regard to, well, anything coming out of the mouths of (even former) presidential/vice presidential candidates.

Video- MSNBC Interviews Clueless Sarah Palin Supporters At Book Signing

Man oh man.

Video- Fox's Carlson compares health insurance reform to illegal immigration enforcement

I wonder what they use to suck the brains out of their spokesmodels...

Audio- Michelle Bachmann: Obama's policies are 'fitting' future generations with 'shackles and chains.'

She has no freaking clue. Via Think Progress.

Paul Ryan Refuses To Give Deficit Projection Under His Plan

They really are totally clueless. Via Think Progress.

ADDED- Video replace with more recent version.

Obama not qualified to be president. IWRC* Palin says so.

By GottaLaff

Pot. Kettle. Black. Oy.

Sarah Palin said Friday several of Barack Obama's comments about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been "reckless" and disqualify the Illinois senator for consideration as the next commander-in-chief. [...]

"Some of his comments that he has made about the war…I think, in my world, disqualifies someone from consideration as the next commander-in-chief," Palin told Fox News Friday. "Some of the comments he's made about Afghanistan, what we are doing there, supposedly just air-raiding villages and killing civilians — that's reckless."

"In my world". "In my world"? IWRC World, or should I say "IRWC planet", is the only place in the universe in which that would even begin to make sense. This is one of a multitude of reasons this Winky Twinkie Downhome Hockey Mommin' Folksy-Talkin' TrooperGatin' note-reader shouldn't be anywhere near the White House.

Palin was referring to an answer Barack Obama gave at a August 2007 town hall meeting with New Hampshire voters, during which the Illinois senator was asked whether he had plans to shift U.S. troops out of Iraq to other terrorist hotspots like Afghanistan.

"We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there," Obama said of the U.S.'s mission in Afghanistan.

Those comments were immediately seized by GOP critics. The Republican National Committee sent out a press release shortly after calling them "offensive," and demanding he apologize. The McCain campaign has also highlighted the comments several times this campaign season. An AP Fact Check later reported Western forces had been killing civilians at a higher rate than insurgents.

So Gramm-pa McCain and his granddaughter IWRC were wrong. Again. Surprise!

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

VIDEO: IWRC* Palin reads debate answers from notes

By GottaLaff


Last night, one of my comments was that IWRC* Palin was literally reading her answers. Of course, that way, when she recycled her talking points in between inappropriate pasted-on smiles, she could get it "right". Apparently Think Progress noticed the same thing:

Because the cable and network television stations did not show a split screen of the debate, most viewers could not see that, during Joe Biden’s answers, Palin spent almost all her time looking down and studiously reading her notes. But viewers did see that when Palin delivered her answers, she would repeatedly glance down to check her talking points.

ThinkProgress has compiled a video documenting some of the instances where it was clear to the audience that Palin was propped up by written responses.

While Mr. Laffy thought she came off well enough by answering some questions, I disagreed. She didn't so much answer as offer up a kaleidoscope of affectations and word-chains that seemed cut-and-pasted into what was left of her oversaturated memory. Gramm-pa McCain's Debate Camp took its toll.

And whatever happened to that bandage?

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

(Laffy Note: I can't get any videos to play today, so I'm trusting that Think Progress put together a good one)

IWRC* Palin answers questions during cheesesteak run

By GottaLaff

I told you what happened outside the Philly restaurant where IWRC* got heckled. Here's what happened inside, which was like, awesome:

While waiting in line with her daughter Willow to place her order, a reporter asked Palin if she watched Friday's debate, and what her impressions were.

"I did, I did," she said. "McCain did awesome. He was great. He was absolutely on his game."

He did awesome. That's awesome. She did awesome when she answered that awesome question.

Palin added that she is ready to debate Joe Biden next Thursday in St. Louis.

"I am," she said. "Look forward to it. Look forward to getting to speak to Americans through that debate, absolutely."

The governor got a more serious interrogation moments later when Temple graduate student Michael Rovito approached her to inquire about Pakistan.

"How about the Pakistan situation?," Rovito asked her. "What's your thoughts about that?"

"In Pakistan?," she asked, looking surprised.

"What's going on over there, like Waziristan?"

"It's working with [Pakistani president] Zardari to make sure that we're all working together to stop the guys from coming in over the border," she told him. "And we'll go from there."

Rovito wasn't finished. "Waziristan is blowing up!," he said.

"Yeah it is," Palin said, "and the economy there is blowing up too."

"So we do cross border, like from Afghanistan to Pakistan you think?," Rovito asked.

"If that's what we have to do stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should," Palin responded, before moving on to greet other voters.

Awesome. She says we have to stop the guys and cross the border. You know, the very thing Gramm-pa McCain chastised Obama for daring to suggest "out loud".

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Quote-O'-The-Day: Where's IWRC* Sarah? edition

By GottaLaff

Mr. Laffy said the same thing last night. Maybe he should start his own blog:

Andrew Sullivan: "Did anyone notice that in the TV spin afterwards, Biden was everywhere as you would expect of a vice-presidential nominee, but Palin was nowhere to be found? They can't even rely on her to spin without tangling herself in knots and adding new layers of lies to her existing web of untruth."

IWRC* Palin is "clueless". Just ask the McCain campaign. They wouldn't trust her alone, without a script, in front of a camera for two minutes. Katie Couric can attest to that.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Gramm-pa McCain Camp insiders say IWRC* Palin "clueless"

By GottaLaff

Oh my, oh dear, oh goody! Via progressive radio host Ed Schultz:

Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as "disastrous." One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, "What are we going to do?" The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is "clueless."

Of course, Gramm-pa Sid's Big Important Faux Campaign Suspension was all about helping the taxpayers. IWRC* had nothing to do with it. That's just a conspiracy theory.

H/t: Mudflats

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Heart Doesn't "Heart" McCain

These guys are just so freaking clueless. Do they have anyone that has actually ran a campaign before? Add Heart to the list of Chuck Berry, John Mellancamp and Van Hagar.

Ann and Nancy Wilson are pissed at the Republican Party and have fired off a cease and desist letter to the McCain/Palin campaign.

Specifically, the Heart women are upset that the GOP has used their classic "Barracuda" as a theme song for Sarah Palin. TMZ obtained a statement from Heart's rep, who says "The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted that permission."

The statement goes on: "We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored."

(snip)

UPDATE: Twenty minutes after we posted this story, the GOP ended the evening after McCain's speech with the song, "Barracuda."

Alaska Delegate: Palin Has Dealt With Mongolia and Iceland

It just boggles the mind that these are considered serious people. I'd pretty much bet that Dave Barry's head exploded immediately after this conversation.

Earlier today Mead Treadwell and Nick Stepovich, members of the Alaska delegation, were talking with noted humorist Dave Barry on the floor of the Republican National Convention, when the issue of Sarah Palin's national security experience came up.

Feeling humorous himself, when asked if Alaska's proximity to Russia made Palin more prepared for national office, as some supporters have suggested, Stepovich asked, “If you stand next to Einstein, does that make you a genius?”

Treadwell, chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, quickly interjected. Alaska, he said, shared a billion dollar fishing industry with Russia and is the home of a national missile defense system.

He said he had personally participated with Palin in meetings with foreign leaders. Asked which countries, he said, “Iceland and Mongolia. Admittedly, not major nations."