News Roundup for 11/22/10

One of the craziest of a new batch of crazies

-Headline of the Day-
"Rep.-Elect Allen West: In D.C. 'You Don't See People Getting Laid Off' And 'You Don't See Anyone Suffering.'"

That's because it's easier to see if you actually look. A little background here: Allen West may be the craziest fucking teabagger who actually managed to get elected. Hands down, period, the end.

But West totally gets the economy -- and, by "gets," I mean "doesn't have a clue." On Meet the Press Sunday, he basically said that, economically speaking, DC's riding the gravy train and that's why Washington doesn't understand what's up with the economy. "I think that we need to extend those tax cuts permanently across the board," he said. "Look, I come from a -- an area down in South Florida where unemployment is at 13 percent, foreclosures are absolutely high. We are seeing closed upon closed storefronts. But yet, when you walk around here in Washington, D.C., you don't see people getting laid off, you don't see, you know, anyone suffering, you don't see the foreclosures."

According to the report, "In Ward 8, which lies just south of Capitol Hill, the unemployment rate topped 28 percent last year, 'one of the highest in the nation.' West's comments about foreclosures are equally misguided, as local blog DCist shows with a video of residents lining up around the block and crowding into the Convention Center to receive free home loan counseling.

"It is extraordinarily easy for congressmen like West to arrive in Washington, ingratiate themselves in lobbyist luncheons and the cocktail circuit, and assume that economic hardship somehow passed over our nation's capital. As a result, it is no surprise that West would argue for permanent tax breaks for billionaires while -- in the very same breath -- denying the existence of poor people in D.C."

Congrats, Florida's 22nd district, you really picked a winner.

And by "winner," I mean "lunatic." (Think Progress)


-Let me put that another way-
Military spending explained simply:



Any questions? (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal)


-Bonus HotD-
"Suck on This."

This is pretty good; as Ireland goes under, Matt Yglesias reminds us that Thomas Freidman argued they had the best economic policy going. Bad pundit is bad. (Yglesias)