Nice try: it’s a straw man argument to say that is what the opposition wants. It is not. No one I know or read has advocated that. Rather, we’re advocating “shared sacrifice” as a strategy for paying down the debt.

Along the same lines, you hear people say that there is $49 trillion in unfunded mandates from the Federal government. This usually has the desired effect of scaring people into agreeing with the following statement: “We’re broke.”

We’re not broke. The table below lays it out for you.

What this means: The debt argument is a political/ideological argument not a financial one. Boehner and Friends are using their majority to try to dismantle the social safety net once and for all.

This is why you get headlines like this:

Christina Aguilera Totally Messes Up National Anthem

…on HuffPo’s Politics page.

Or this sort of in depth reporting…

Natalie Portman Looks Very Pregnant

…on the Entertainment page.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course. But I will say this: Tina Brown’s Daily Beast (which recently took over Newsweek) has a sassier, crisper, version of this sort of thing. She’s intellectual AND gossipy without being predictable …like Arianna.

And — quick show of hands — who’s using Instagram, PicPlz and/or Path?

Seven Technologies That Will Rock 2011.

Krugman:  

[H]ere’s what Newt Gingrich, the Republican former
speaker of the House — a man celebrated by many in his party as an
intellectual leader — had to say: If Democrats pass health reform,
“They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered
the Democratic Party for 40 years” by passing civil rights legislation.

While the Poorman went to Google to debunk Mitt RomneyCare’s greatest threat beyond the Wassilla Hillbilly, I took a gander at Wikipedia and noted the Democratic Party held on to it’s 60+ super-majority in the Senate well past the Johnson years, right up until 1979. They didn’t lose the majority until 1981, gaining it back in ’87.  The House remained safely Democratic until 1995 when Clinton lost both Houses.  Bush (43) gave them both right back to the Democrats of course in 2007.

So yeah, if by saying, “Johnson shattered
the Democratic Party for 40 years” Gingrich meant the Republicans were able to stall progress and prevent the completion of the Great Society for 40 years by gaining the White House for all but 12 of those years and it taking 30 years after the Civil Rights Act before the GOP won control of both houses of Congress, completely failing to roll-back a single tenant of the Great Society or the New Deal even when they won the White House five years later — then sure Newt, LBJ shattered the Democratic Party. 

What. Ev. Er.

• For instance, “Obama’s Elf” is not the original title to this song, but you’ll never hear this song the right way again.
• Also, Google Earth did NOT find the Lost City of Atlantis — or so they want you to believe.
• Being pissed off at the Republicans for wrecking the world is not “partisanship, it is analysis.
• Prawo Jazdy is not the world’s worst driver — unless he’s really Keyser Söze.
• Hip Hip will not save the Notorious G.O.P.
• Barack Obama is not bigger than the Beatles.
• Joe the Wall Street Analyst is not going to gain much sympathy from guys really named Joe who really do plumbing work.
• Roland Burris is not going to last another week.
• Republicans are not being shut out of the health care negotiations — they just refuse to show.
• Norm Coleman will not be able to get elected dog catcher after all this crap.
• Nowhere are they really promoting what Americans really want to debate.
• Finally, it must be pointed out that  “John Gibson never compared Eric Holder to a monkey with a bright blue scrotum,” – Huffington Post, February 19, 2009.

But there are murmurs.

Ezra Klein Tweets: “As a blogger I feel about Twitter the way MSM journos felt about blogs. Could probably get someone to pay good money for an essay on that.”  However, his dicta in a thoughtful piece about the economy betrays a mild hint of superiority:

Andrew Golis twitters, “assuming (for sake of arg) the stimulus stops the bleeding, what replaces the actual day to day GDP lost in finance and housing.” If I were twittering back, I’d probably says, “nothing totally replaces it. Consumption will be lower.” But I’m not Twittering. I’m blogging. So: More words!

Atrios has a style that fits perfectly with Twitter, mastered the short-form blog years ago.  Although he “Deeply Thinks” The revolution will not be Twittered, the short, snide comment with a link or TwitPic attached mimics the brevity and provocative nature of Eschaton for all to exploit.  We can all be Duncan Black and enjoy a far-flung commentariate with this new social-media tool.  It’s really made for him, and every one of us who wants our blog to grow up just like his.  On the right Professor Instalinker detects the same phenomenon, but in a much more paranoid and delusional way.

There are more than a few bloggers who see Twitter as just a way to get more hits for their stat counters and engage in annoying self-promotion without the courtesy of actually interacting with their would-be audience (I’m talking to you Mr. Sirota).  I did the same thing until recently, just setting up an autofeed from my blog to tweet what I posted.  But like all things social, be it meeting the significant other’s folks or gathering an audience to read your stuff, ya gotta actually talk to people for them to care what you have to say — and that means listening to them and responding like something more than a computer generated automaton.

There are people out there. Why are you blogging if not to reach out and make them think/laugh/cry or praise your awesomeness?  Talk to them.  Tweet with the Tweeple, it’ll do you good. Best way to get started is to start following folks who are following people you already like.  If you’re reading this and liking it, check these folks out.  Twitter is the world’s largest comment section, and the world is the blog — but you only need to read the comments of Tweeple you like.

I discovered that you can sync your Facebook status with Twitter and the output from your blog’s RSS feed a while back — but wait, there’s more!  You can also automatically tweet items you share on Google Reader.  That’s my latest discovery.  Before, when I’d see an article I liked, with a click a link would appear on my blog’s sidebar, but that was it — now it can go viral on Twitter too.

For Breaking News, I’ve seen nothing like Twitter.  America has become a nation of citizen reporters armed with Blackberries and iPhones that posted word (and pictures) of a plane landing in the Hudson and Fireballs over Texas on Twitter before any other media, period.

As most “real” news agencies were just beginning to spread word that we might be seeing debris of a satellite collision over Siberia raining down on Dallas, Bad Astronomer (Dr. Phil Plait) was debunking that theory on Twitter as unfounded speculation and pronounced it impossible from pictures he saw and the video he was linking to — on Twitter.  His long form explanation was blogged – and he’s still putting out fires on this.  Oh he got “Dugg” and “Up’d” on Reddit, even picked up via SlashDot, but the horse’s mouth was Twittering as it happened.

As a link aggravater, peanut gallery, and shameless self-promotion tool, Twitter has found the niche all the other social media sites have been looking for — an actual interactive community that matters.  I’ve heard it said that Twitter is like  cross between a chat room and instant messaging.  Many turorials abound, I like this one.  To me, it’s like a blog with no front-pager and you are the moderator choosing which rabble you listen to and what the topic should be.  It matters because you can shape it to matter to you.

I participated in a Twitter “event” this weekend that had me clucking in laughter as I gave my wife a play-by-play description of two people tweeting their disastrous blinddate — live as it happened –between a rightwing guy and a lady he didn’t know was the very liberal girl he called a “feminazi” online some weeks ago.  “Geez. This jackass is ORDERING FOR ME. Red flag. Plus I can’t order porkulus now“  Comedy gold.

I say “participate” because I, like everyone else following along in real time, could chime in with the audience and get responses from the couple — at least from her since he didn’t have one of those smartphones, just “old-fashioned” text tweets.  The hundreds of Tweeple following along were having a ball at his expense, deservedly so when he Tweeted this at the end:

Starting to think this doesnt end with me scoring. WHY ELSE WOULD YOU DATE A LIBERAL

Right he was.  She was already looking for a cab home.

In the past few weeks, I’ve exchanged Tweets with reporters right inside the White House during the daily press briefing — and not just with Ana Marie Cox when she deigns to put on pants and show up at the gaggle.  But that’s fun too.  So is chatting with Joe Trippi as he starts another day of saving the world or getting David Shuster or Rick Sanchez to ask your question of a guest on CNN or MSNBC.  Keeping up to date with the behind the scenes action on the Rachel Maddow Show or joking around with John Hodgman (the PC guy in the Mac commercials and Daily Show contributor) while watching him perform brain surgery on Battlestar Galactica, it’s all good.

But the best is virtually “meeting” new fun folks and laughing at the absurdity of the rest of the world along with them– especially all those right wingers like Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove and Ken Blackwell who think they’ve found the Rosetta Stone of online organizing/marketing/netroots-astroturfing on Twitter.  Here’s a hint from Frank Rich: “Overdosing on this culture can be fatal.”

In other words, bringing your echo chamber online only makes your bad ideas zip around faster, not better, because they remain part of “a largely white Southern male party with talking points instead of ideas and talking heads instead of leaders,“  exposing them to well deserved ridicule with a click and a smirk — in 140 characters or less.

David ANSEN, NEWSWEEK: Do any of you guys ever Google yourself?

Brad PITT: Dear God, no.

ANSEN: Never?
PITT: Never. First of all, I don’t really know how to operate a computer.

Do you have a BlackBerry?
PITT: Oh, yeah, I have a BlackBerry.

Anne, what about you? Do you Google yourself?
Anne HATHAWAY: No.

Frank LANGELLA: It’s not a good idea. It can be painful and it can be self-aggrandizing.

Sally HAWKINS: What do they say about don’t believe any of it?

Robert DOWNEY: Oh, I love all that s–––, personally. Sorry. I just love it. Because it’s a hoot. Some people overstate their support, like they know you. Other people are busy doing something else and just want to go on this chat site and say some despicable character assassination, which I honestly think they kind of nailed it. I do have that shortcoming. It’s really fun.

I still say that the opening 3 minutes of Ironman, with Tony Stark sipping a cocktail in the back seat of that Humvee in Afghanistan like he’s in a limo on his way to the Vanity Fair Oscar party, that’s the performance that should win him the Oscar this year. Yes, Tropic Thunder is outrageous and over the moon (“I don’t read the script, the script reads me!”) and he actually, you know, got nominated for an Oscar; but give me Tony Stark any day, hitting on the driver of that armored vehicle:

Tony Stark: I feel like you’re driving me to court-martial, this is crazy. What did I do? I feel like you’re going to pull over and snuff me. What, you’re not allowed to talk? Hey. Forrest.

Male Soldier: We can talk, sir.

Tony Stark: Oh, I see. So, it’s personal.

Female Soldier: No. You intimidate them.

Tony Stark: Good God, you’re a woman. I honestly couldn’t have called that. I mean, I’d apologize, but isn’t that what we’re going for here? I thought you were a soldier first.

Female Soldier: I’m an Airman.

Tony Stark: Well, you have excellent bone structure there. I’m kinda having a hard time not looking at you now. Is that weird?

[They all laugh]

Tony Stark: Come on! It’s okay, laugh. Hey!

“Good God, you’re a woman!” Heh.

So, thanks to Teh Awsum leadership of The Decider Guy, the C+ Augustus wants us to remember:

1. No more American cities have drowned since Katrina.
2. Battlestar Galactica will (finally) return on his watch.
3. Madonna is single again, and available.
4. The Earth is still spinning on its axis and revolving around the sun.
5. No New Texas.
6. “Misunderestimate” is now a real word.
7. Google disarmed the Miserable Failure Google Bomb.
8. Smart is finally cool.
9. The Daleks and Cybermen did not exterminate us.
10. February Second will come and go this year without a time/space portal opening up and making us relive the last eight years over and over.
11. Mars Bitches!
12. O.J., finally locked up.
13. New CAFE standards reduced VP Cheney’s warm virgin blood requirement to a quart a month.
14. Twitter.com gives Anna Marie Cox something to do between jobs.
15. Paved the way for bloggers to bring the hate to Sarah Palin.
16. The lost city of Atlantis has finally returned to Earth from the Pegasus Galaxy.
17. Full employment for Israeli and Palestinian arms suppliers.
18. Helen Thomas had time to write up a whole lotta questions for the next POTUS, and knit a sweater.
19. Friday Cat Blogging to kill time waiting for Friday Document Dumps.
20. TARP!  It’s not just for covering furniture anymore.
21. Now any hack can do science.
22. Twilight sequel appears just in time to grab Harry Potter fan base.
23. SNL found the funny again.
24. I Can Haz Failblog!
25. We now give a damn when Paul Krugman gets wonkish.
26. Joe Scarborough fully outed as a sociopath.
27. Stepford 1st Lady will be back home in Texas by the time the Final Cylon is revealed, so we got that going for us.
28. Pulitzer Prize worthy scandals to write about.
29. “Truthiness” not just a new word, but a way of life.
30. Paris Hilton’s wisdom and maturity finally appreciated.
31. Ozone Layer still intact, mostly.
32. Got one Bush Twin married off … one to go.
33. Dumbledore Avenged!  Snape lies dead.  (oops, spoiler alert.)
34. Avian flu pandemic from China averted, exchanged for tainted toothpaste and dog food.
35. Missile shield going ahead as planned, even though it still doesn’t work.
36. Wii: new epicentercenter of domestic violence outbreaks for the holidays.
37. Rachel Maddow now Queen of all Media.
38. Black hole did not eat the entire planet when they turned on the Giant Haydron Collider — yet.
39. Virtual Bubble Wrap.
40. Budweiser now a fine Belgian lager instead of cheap American swill.
41. Blackberry rip offs of the iPhone interface still not as cool as iPhone.
42. Gas cheap again — jawboning Saudis musta worked.
43. Money found to be an excellent mattress padding.

With the exception of a few races around the country (most notably Coleman v. Franken) the results below are pretty much a done deal.

I would presume that Google will update this map to reflect the outcome of unresolved races at some point.

Same goes for MSNBC’s election results, below.

MSNBC’s Fancy Flash Widget