Remember when Fox News was furious that other networks did not properly cover the Tea Bagger 9/12 circle jerk protest? Fox was so fed up with people not covering their self-promoted protests against the American government that it ran full-page ads in newspapers crying about the other networks' lack of coverage. For the record, other networks did cover the Tea Baggers but Fox wanted it promoted as the largest protest in world history, that millions attended, that Obama is unpopular and that Tea Baggers are Freedom Fighting Warriors. Unless Fox and their loonies are portrayed that way, they get really mad and throw hissy fits.

It's still debatable, but Fox's protest brought in about 60-80 thousand Tea Baggers to slap nut sacks with each other, talk about small government, balanced budgets, war without end and how Obama is a foreign-born enemy. You know, to reminisce about the good ol' days when George Bush and the Republicans reined in spending, shrunk government, fought evil doers, put women in their place and launched America into the forefront of the 21st century. To Fox News, this was the largest crowd ever assembled in one place equivalent to the Civil Rights marches in the 60s. Hemorrhoid Glenn Beck reported without hesitation that the crowd numbered 1.7 million. Of course none of that is true. Fox has yet to issue any sort of correction to its lies and has moved on to promoting their next Tea Bagger protest scheduled in November.

Incredibly, it takes a comedian to level the playing field with Fox News. When 75 thousand people showed up in DC last weekend to march for gay rights, Fox News did not even send a camera crew to cover the event. A march of people equally attended as their Tea Bag protest and Fox does not even bother to cover it. They did the exact same thing they accused the other networks of doing last month, except for the fact that other networks didn't ignore it like Fox just did.

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According to Fox News' math, people marching for queers was the largest protest in history attended by millions. Networks that didn't cover this historical event should be ashamed. Fox News, how did you miss it?

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One of the things I routinely hammer conservative bloggers and even my conservative friends for is their total lack of care for anything during the Bush years. Especially when it comes to fiscal matters, so-called conservatives were almost entirely absent during the 8 years of complete fiscal mismanagement that embodied two full terms of Republican rule. Blogs are the easiest to hit because of archives and their noticeably absent criticism of a president that took the largest surplus in history and turned it into the largest deficit in history while also doubling our national debt. I would think it would be hard to overlook such things if you considered yourself even the slightest bit conservative or fiscally concerned.

And then you come across something like this that explains how the people who cheered on George Bush sleep at night.

It's not that the very fiscally conservative Republicans objected to Bush's economics, it's that it never happened. In their world, the deficit became a concern on Jan. 20, 2009 when Barack Obama tripled it. It was then, too, that Iraq became a mess, Afghanistan became important, and unemployment turned into a national nightmare. Their Fox News teevees tell them so.

They get to pretend that it was Obama that tripled the deficit. Somehow, and this is only possible in the Republican Fantasy World, but somehow a president that inherits a $1.2 trillion deficit and then takes it to $1.4 trillion has tripled it. The fact that George Bush gave Obama a budget that was already $1.2 trillion in debt never happened. Instead, all of it is because of Barack Obama. It's so easy being Republican. All you have to do is pretend the last 8 years never happened and that anything wrong today is entirely because of the last 8 months.

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Let's take a stroll through the mindset of the modern Republican Party.

The other day I wrote about how Republicans were in a tizzy because Democratic governor's candidate in Virginia referred to a female journalist as "young lady" instead of the accepted Republican term "feminazi." That's a big no-no for the 21st century.

Next we have the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spinning out of control that Speaker Nancy Pelosi dared to realistically speak about escalating the 8 year war in Afghanistan. Such a public comment from Pelosi led the NRCC to hope that Gen. McChrystal would "put her in her place." What "place" could that be? The kitchen? At home? Breastfeeding? The place for the Speaker of the House of Representatives is to make tough decisions about endless war, despite what Republicans may think. In their world, women dare not publicly appear in charge so as not to emasculate any men that might be around.

One of the more telling signs, though, of the mindset of the modern Republican Party is Virginia's Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell and his graduate thesis. In it, McDonnell wrote that working women, like Speaker Pelosi for instance, destroyed the family. That government should not reward things that destroys families and that contraception for "un-married" couples should be illegal. It's quite a dandy. Now, we can forgive McDonnel because surely this was written eons ago, right? Not exactly. He wrote it in 1989 when he was 34 years old.

This is the opposition party in America. Women are to be put in their place. Women that work are destroying the family and sinning against God. Those who do work and demand equal treatment are "feminazis." Referring to them as young ladies is a kick in the nuts to every man that struggles daily to provide for his family like God intended. When can we start this over?

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As you can see from the hastily put together chart I made this morning, job losses over the last year have been horrific. In 2008, we lost 3.6 million jobs. So far for 2009, we have lost 4.0 million. It's absolutely ridiculous we should expect another year of job losses before things get better.Though this one calendar year really doesn't hit the entirety of job creation/losses we have been through this decade.

From 2001-2009, the American economy for the first time since records have been kept, had a net job loss of 298,000. Compare that to a net gain of 23 million the previous decade, and you can really see the depth of just how bad the last 8 years of have been. I don't see how we can sustain another year like the last 8.

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ABC News almost did their job last night. I say almost because they actually ran a story on World News Tonight about the 100% tax payer funded health care coverage Members of Congress enjoy, but left out the most important part. They failed to ask one Member of Congress why the American people don't deserve the same tax payer funded coverage they give themselves. It's a simple question that has to jump right out at anyone even remotely concerned with health care reform. It wouldn't be all that hard just to ask why do you deserve it but no one else.

Alas, at least ABC News made somewhat of an effort to do a story on a topic that no one, especially Republicans, wants to talk about: A government run health care program for Congress.

For a small fee, Members of Congress can "opt out" of their quasi-private but still tax payer funded plans to partake in an entirely government-run program that covers everything without co-pays or ever filing claim forms. Must be nice. What's more is that even the Members of Congress that don't "opt out" still get, now get this, FREE health care through this government-run program. It happens every single day.

I actually have experience with this wonderful government program. One time while riding the Metro into the District, I got the worst headache ever. By the time I got off at Capitol Hill, I was spinning and nauseous. One of my friends noticed I was not feeling too well and walked me right to the clinic. Seemed like a nice enough place and they gave me Imitrex and something else for the spins. Within a few hours I was better. By the next day I was as good as new. I didn't pay anything. But I did miss out on my meetings that afternoon.

What's surprisingly so simple about this whole debate is that this is normal every day stuff for Congress. They raise their entire families off of government-run programs but want to spread fear and lies about granting such programs to anyone else. What would it hurt to ask the question, why do you deserve tax payer funded health care but no one else?

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This screen capture of Fox News this morning says it all about how Republicans now view dissent with a war time president. But more importantly, it still shows us those who gave us 8 years of George Bush, the catastrophe of Iraq and the endless war in Afghanistan still think they matter.

Disagreeing with George Bush's many wars would have landed you in the hot seat on Fox News just nine months ago. The Bush administration viewed a wartime president's power as plenary. His right wing base of support viewed Bush's war time powers as "near dictatorial." They even advocated more war that would further more of the president's dictatorial power. But now, questioning the war president and still listening to the very people who were wrong about everything the last 8 years and who chest-thumped all of Bush's decisions is the most patriotic thing anyone can do.

Touching again on my post below about Rep. King posting a socialist picture of the president on the House Floor.

I have a master's degree in American history, but I'm by no means the end-all when it comes to speeches on the House Floor. The question is, has there ever been another speech where a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives actually hung a socialist indoctrinated photo of the President of the United States? Maybe there has. Maybe during the Cold War it was a regular thing for Members to stand up and portray the president as a socialist commie. Maybe McCarthy did it. I have no idea. I just think it's a pretty low point, much lower than Wilson heckling the president, that we have now entered in our national discourse. Just to be certain that Rep. King's portrait of President Obama was designed to portray him as a socialist, here is the original.

I think it's fine for National Review to do whatever is they want to. There's certainly nothing wrong with their cover story. For a Member of Congress to actually take that picture and post it on the House Floor is another thing altogether. Obama is a war president. He inherited two on-going wars from his predecessor. He is now in the process of ordering more and more troops into battle. Anyone who dared depict George Bush as a socialist while he led our Great Armies into battle would have been spayed or neutered. The GOP would have been the first to jump all over something like this had it happened to one of their own. Where are the Obama surrogates at in defending the president?

I can write all day long about the disgusting behavior of the Republican Party. They have moved so far into fringe territory that their idea of honest debate is saying the president wants to kill old people. That's crazy territory not seen in a long time in America. But the true failure here is the Democratic Party. The true point of where it all went wrong was the weakness of the Democratic Party to hold together a caucus and defend their presidents. And I stress the plurality of "presidents."

The GOP has long been on a path of conspiracy theorists and right wing extremism. It didn't start this year. All throughout the 90s Republicans did the same exact things they are doing now. Did we all forget that Republican Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana actually held a 10-day hearing on whether or not President Clinton's Christmas cards were being mailed to people with moral values? Not only that, as bizarre as it may be, Burton-- an incumbent Congressman-- actually "fired a bullet into a 'head-like object' -- reportedly a melon -- in his backyard to test the absurd notion that former White House counsel Vince Foster was murdered," by First Lady Hillary Clinton. This is not a whackjob nut on the street. Burton was a ranking Republican. He actually took to the House Floor the conspiracy theory the First Lady murdered someone. Incredible and sad if it wasn't so true.

The 90s were a crazy time and the GOP was sure to add just the right mix of insanity to the decade. Not only were the Clinton's murderers, a claim proudly displayed by Republican Christian Conservative and Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell that he sold copies of a documentary about it. A preacher with a huge conservative following led a crusade against the president built entirely on lies. Sound familiar?

There is no shortage of Republican conspiracy theories. They govern with them. They run their campaigns on them. They build their movement by spreading the lies. Now today with a black president running the country their fantasy world has spun out of control thinking their extremely moral value party is no longer in charge, and worse yet, lost it to a black man named Barack Hussein Obama. Their tactics have been known for quite some time. They did the very same things to Clinton; it was 8 solid years of one conspiracy theory after another. Nothing has changed. But it needs to. The only way to change it is to make them own their behavior. Why is no one defending President Obama from these lunatics? There is no other way other than to make them own it. Allowing this to continue is really a Democratic failure of the worst kind.

How long before Sarah Palin's no media allowed speech in a communist country becomes a stirring Freedom Fighting demand to a communist country for the spread of Freedom and less government intervention?

She's on the front lines fighting for freedom talking sternly to our enemies. She's very tough and patriotic.

Why lie about attendance? Seriously why do Republicans have to claim there were 1-2 million people marching in DC over the weekend when clearly there wasn't. The DC Fire Department is claiming the attendance was 60-80 thousand. What's wrong with that? That's a lot of people. Why even try to lie about something so false. Would it not hurt to tell the truth one time?

I was in DC on Jan. 20th when there were 2 million people inside the park. There were another 2 million outside the park trying to get in. During that day, the Metro was totally overwhelmed running nonstop, even bringing in extra trains just to keep up. None of that happened this past Saturday. Mass transit wasn't even affected.

All throughout Bush's two terms, there were numerous protests well close to the million mark. None of these marches, of course, were advertised on cable news 24/7, or being promoted by one of the most popular cable talk shows on television. They were simply spontaneous grass roots movements organized not by the media. We can't say the same about the Tea Baggers so I can understand their embarrassment when their attendance numbers are dwarfed by silly war protesters and people full of Bush hatred syndrome. I'm almost embarrassed for them.

The last time George W. Bush stood before a joint session of Congress he had approval ratings in the mid-20s. Three-quarters of the population disapproved of the job he was doing. No president in history, not even Nixon, had such high disapproval ratings. His two terms were complete failures. Yet not one person in that joint session of elected American officials yelled that he was a liar or stood up and walked out on him because he wasn't saying things they agreed with. The man who led us to war on nothing but lies was never treated with such utter disrespect.

My how far we've come.

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) said President Obama is trying to setup an "authoritarian government" by implementing a national police force, taking guns away, and stifling the media.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) agrees with, if not encourages, a constituent to compare Obama to Hitler for wanting to create a "superior race."

Once again, these are not wackos on the street. These are elected Republican Members of Congress. They are mainstream Republicans and their views represent current Republican ideas.

In 2007, Congressional Democrat Pete Stark was forced to apologize and routinely called anti-American by Republican Members of Congress for remarks he made about our Great and Powerful Leader George Bush.

When Bush was in power, any effort to criticize him, his plans for endless war, Freedom Bombs or economically destroying the country, were viewed as the most outrageous of insults to ever be libeled against the republic. But today, we have Republican Members of Congress proudly suggesting that President Obama is a socialist, a fascist, wants to setup death panels, wants to build concentration camps, is trying to form an authoritarian government, and whose very presence as president is a direct attack on American soil by a foreign-born enemy. All that in 8 months time too. Eight years into Bush's presidency and Pete Stark was forced to publicly apologize and was nearly censored by the House for openly criticizing the president. How far we've come in 8 months time where openly disagreeing with the president meant you were a traitor to now it's perfectly acceptable to say the president is an enemy of the nation. Wheee!

Let's make sense of this. Wear a John Kerry shirt to a Bush rally and you get arrested. Show up at an Obama rally with an assault rifle and you are Freedom Fighting Revolutionary