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Apparently This Debt Ceiling Thing Is Important

I’m intentionally avoiding the news – partially due to the fact that Lawrence O’Donnell looks like a melting wax statue in HD and also that it got old a long time ago.

The Guardian catches everyone up by declaring the battle between Obama and the Republicans over the national debt has reached a new level and claimed that both sides were kind of pushing each other out of the spotlight.

At least that’s how the media played it yesterday. Chris Matthews called it a “slingshot operation by Republicans” on Lawrence O’Donnell (don’t ask why I watch MSNBC), more specifically implying that it was staged by Boehner & Co. to look like a knock off of Obama’s Prime Time address. Matthews also got pissed at Obama for going on national TV to do this; as if an address to the American people had anything to do with the American people.

What I took away from Obama’s speech was that he wanted our current and future creditors to know that he would get a debt ceiling increase, just let me pretend I’m going to cut some spending so we can get more money. It had very little to do with Americans or our perception of what debt means to our day-to-day lives, except for the part where he declared we’d have higher interest rates, more trouble securing loans and huge unemployment numbers.

Obama also got really dirty and quoted Ronald Reagan.

Apparently, at the end of this America banded together and crashed a bunch of Congressional websites. Not quite sure what that was supposed to accomplish but I guess it’s cute to see us working together for a change to accomplish something.

Just what I thought I saw.

Lawrence O’Donnell Is Practically Giddy Over Ethanol Tax Credit Repeal, Suggests That ATR’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge is Meaningless

This aired last last week after the Senate voted to repeal tax credits for the ethanol industry and you tell that LO’D can barely contain his glee over the result.

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ATR is characterizing this as a three-way makeout session between Coburn, O’Donnell and Reich so they do appear be getting a tad defensive.

[via ATR]

Alan Grayson Attempts to Explain Why He Doesn’t Support the Tax Cut Deal

The only problem is, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell (an unabashed Democrat who supports the deal) IS NOT HAVING IT.

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Some favorite moments:

• “I use that term specifically, ‘caved in.'” – Because that’s what Dems do, baby!


• Circa :54 – any use of the term ‘pernicious’ is welcome in our book; Some bald guy is shaking his head incessantly; Arianna Huffington looks like an amused heiress (which is what she always looks like).

• At 2:27 – Larry officially starts flipping out.

• “You are WRONG, sir.” – Grayson is already fanning the heat with his hands at this point.

• “When you’re out of office in January and watching this from the sidelines.” – Too soon!

• At 3:25 there’s an audible sigh by Grayson that gives us the impression he can’t keep from laughing.

• “BE AN ADULT ABOUT THIS CONGRESSMAN!”

[via BI]