None of the projects that the CCC or the WPA engaged in were "make-work" projects; the work needed to be done, or directly benefited society. In the WPA, in particular, the government sought a new idea of how to deal with the unemployed: not to simply put them on the dole, but to put them to work in work that related to the work they were used to doing.

The great examples of these, of course, were the art projects. The Federal Writers Project turned out state guides that are still not only models of beautiful writing but useful descriptions of the states; the Federal Theatre Project created startling shows (the famous "Swing Mikado" and "Voodoo Macbeth" being only two examples) while putting thousands of unemployed theatre artists to work in their professions. The result was Shakespeare and vaudeville, an encouragement of African-American theatre with original scripts that dealt with the real problems of black people in America, and the ideas that would come forward again in the regional theatre movement in America in the 1960s.

Republicans then, and Republicans now, simply lie about the results and consequences of these work projects. HUAC investigated the WPA Federal Theatre, with the ludicrous moment of conservatives demanding that Aristophanes be brought forward to testify. Now we see the GOP resorting to the Big Lie once, that the Depression was lengthened and deepened by the Roosevelt Administration.

Have these people no shame? After seeing them practice eight years of torture, imprisonment without trial, and creating the beginnings of a police state in America, I think we all know the answer to that.

These people disgust me.

When government bails out workers, it's socialism.

When government bails out banks, it's fascism.

As for the government not creating jobs, where did DARPA come from? And what did they create?

Well, boys and girls, what are you using to communicate with right now?

That's right: the Intertubes.

That's it's Microsoft which is the Evil Empire.

It's Microsoft that upgrades without backward compatibility.

It's Microsoft that cares about the bottom line.

It's Microsoft that doesn't offer you choices.

Have another shot of Kool-Aid, and everything will be fine.

Apple: The New Blue Pill

The volume of the shouting increases.

The use of hot-button terms increases.

The utter unwillingness to compromise takes shape.

The insults get more degraded.

They attempt to polarize the country.

There was never meant to be any serious attempt at "bipartisanship" by the GOP. And the Dems should wise up to this fact: these people are about power, pure and simple.

"I really wish American politics weren't so much about "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" and more about "let's run this country as best as possible.""

I'd like a pony. And an end to world hunger. And world peace. Oh, and not to have to worry about whether I'd locked my door. Why don't we get rid of money, too, while we're at it, and just take what we need, and give to others what they need?

Let's change everything we know about human nature and biology. This survival of the fittest stuff--I really wish nature weren't so much about it, and more about "live and let live."

Politics, my dear boy, is about people. Not stuffed animals, not rainbows and unicorns, not people the way we wish they would be, but people the way they are.

Which means good public policy has to be fought for, argued for, compromised for, and finally, in one sense or another, bought.

Wishing for people to behave properly is precisely what Democrats have done since the time of Reagan's ascendancy.

Finally, I'd rather be a cynical jerk than a hopeless naif.

"The President was boring."

John Dickerson, over in Slate, ran much the same article (albeit at much greater length).

You guys!

Politics *should* be boring. There *shouldn't* be any drama to it. It shouldn't be about evoking emotion and big dramatic flourishes--that's when you know that people are trying to bullshit you rather than sitting you down and having a long talk about good public policy.

For the last eight years--and really, even for years and years beyond that--we've had politics played "from the gut." You had to be tough. You had to take a stand against the terrarists, smoke 'em out, get 'em dead or alive.

What crap. But hey, it made for lively headlines and good political "theatre", right?

You get competent and "boring" or incompetent and theatre. Make up your fracking mind as to which one you think is better. And then sit down and shut the frack up.

"It was a lot more thrilling than his prime-time press conference."

Maybe a replay of the Nuremberg rallies of the Bush administration would please you instead of an hour of reasoned, rational, civil discourse about good public policy.

Gregg's withdrawal was the plan from the beginning, to attempt to make the Obama administration look bad. Unfortunately, Gregg's reason for leaving--"I'm taking my ball and going home because I can't have it all my own way"--undercuts the whole strategy.

No doubt the GOP is congratulating itself tonight on the "success" of their plan. We'll see them attack the reputation of the administration on this for the next couple of months.

Look, SNL has been only very rarely funny since sometime in the mid-80s--I think that "Reagan the genius runs everything" sketch was the last time I laughed out loud for more than a second. Through most of this century, SNL has backed way way off from taking on the Republicans, the war, and the looting of the Treasury. Even now, when there's no real downside to mocking the GOP, SNL simply can't get it up. Isn't there some kind of comic Viagra they could use?

Oh, as for Tina Fey: yeah, I'd tap that.