It's not that Venezuela is all that popular....only 42% of Americans have a favorable view of Venezuela, that ole bwutal dictatorship.

It's the fact that America has woken up and realized just how intellectually bankrupt the Republican Party of 2009 is....you guys stand for NOTHING. Your party is hemmorhaging supporters. You're not even a national party any longer by most measurements: the Republican party of today is the "shrinking tent" of primarily over-50 dyspeptic Southern males. Republicans have withered from a national party to a large regional party, not unlike the Dixiecrats in the 1950s.

Heck, just two weeks ago you took down your Jindal/Palin avatar and put up your shiny new Libertarian avatar. If the Republicans have lost lying cowards like you, they've truly lost their way.

39% favorable rating and falling every day...

Meanwhile, public opinion continues to reflect favorably upon Obama, his policies and his first 100 days in office...

It sucks to be you right now!

Let me tell you about what I know that is going on in good ol Venezuela.
This story is from a gentleman that works with my wife at the airport, his brother lived in Venezuela. His brother is a large land owner in Venezuela (owned 3 farms, about 300,000 acres) and about a month ago he went missing. No one saw or heard from him, two weeks went by and he finally got a call about his brother. Seems that he was found buried in the backyard of his house and the government was accusing his 17 year old son. By the time my wife's co-worker could get down there the government had already come in and taken title to all of the land and a large sum of cash. Once there he was not able to talk with the son and found out he was being followed, he immediately got his bags and went to the airport and got on the first flight out. After talking with the co-worker we found out that the brother was not a loyal Chavez supporter and was most likely taken out by the government. When I talked with this guy you could see that he was most visibly shaken when talking about the Chavez government, in fact when talking about being followed he becomes very upset. I know that this doesn't have anything to do with what you two are arguing about, but I just thought I'd share something about that Ole bwutal dictatorship. On more thing, when you go to Venezuela you can exchange your dollars for their currency but when you leave you may not exchange it back to dollars.

Obama's weapon of Choice!

Date 04/24/2009 01/21/2009
Strongly Approve 36% 44%
Strongly Disapprove 31% 16%
Total Approve 55% 65%
Total Disapprove 44% 30%

Sniff doesn't live in reality. barry's approval ratings continue to slip every day. Strongly disapprove % has nearly doubled, total disapproval ratings are up 14%.

Strongly Approve ratings are down 8%, and total approve ratings down 10%.

I guess if you live in bizarro world, this shows an upward trend.

Meanwhile, the democratic party led congress approval rating continues to hover in the 39% range, and seems to go down every time Pelosi opens her pie hole.

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a
happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the
other. -- Ronald Reagan

Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, two major polls were released yesterday on President Barack Obama's 100th day in office:

Gallup: In First 100 Days, Obama Meets or Exceeds Expectations

and

Pew Research: Obama at 100 Days: Strong Job Approval, Even Higher Personal Ratings

These numbers are all the more impressive when you consider the fact that Fox News has been dogging the President since his first day in office, and small-minded America hating agents of intolerance such as MeanOldConservative, "Fred Garvin", SLindsey and virtually every single syndicated Citizen columnist have been bellowing about any perceived missteps the Obama administration has made.

Meanwhile, the Republican party continues to circle the drain and the Republican brand is so toxic that fewer and fewer people each day identify with it......

"These numbers are all the more impressive when you consider the fact that Fox News has been dogging the President since his first day in office, and small-minded America hating agents of intolerance such as MeanOldConservative, "Fred Garvin", SLindsey and virtually every single syndicated Citizen columnist have been bellowing about any perceived missteps the Obama administration has made."

Oh yeah, this is no doubt a new phenomenon. You mean like CNN and all the network news channels dogging Bush? And like all the small-membered hating agents of tolerance like Sniffer who bellowed for eight years about ANYTHING Bush did? What goes around comes around Sniffer. It's our turn now. Or did you forget all the whining and crying you did? Gee whiz, your memory must be REEEEEEEEEEEALLY short. One would suspect you suffer from other similar maladies.....

60% Say Government Has Too Much Power, Too Much Money
Not surprisingly, the Political Class sees things a lot differently. While 85% of Mainstream Americans say the government has too much power and money, just two percent (2%) of the Political Class agree. Nearly one-our-of-four members (24%) of the Political Class, in fact, believe the government has too little money and power, but 68% say it has about the right amount of each.

70% Say Big Government and Big Business On the Same Team
While those results are interesting, it’s worth noting that 70% of U.S. voters believe that big business and big government generally work together against the interests of investors and consumers, according to Rasmussen Reports surveying. Just 14% disagree with the assessment, and 17% are not sure.

58% Say Release of CIA Memos Endangers National Security
Fifty-eight percent (58%) believe the Obama administration’s recent release of CIA memos about the harsh interrogation methods used on terrorism suspects endangers the national security of the United States. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 28% believe the release of the memos helps America’s image abroad.

45% View Homeland Security’s Napolitano Unfavorably
Forty-five percent (45%) of U.S. voters now have an unfavorable opinion of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano following her department’s release of a controversial report on right-wing extremist groups last week. Twenty-three percent (23%) say their view of her is Very Unfavorable.

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a
happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the
other. -- Ronald Reagan

...needs a high-priced elite team of PR consultants for a serious makeover.

Warts and all, a guy like Newt Gingrich is someone the Repubs should rally behind. He's someone who isn't afraid of new thinking and ideas and is one of the more intelligent guys out there in politics. Yeah, he made enemies and did some dumb things in his personal life, but if the Repubs are holding out for the perfect combination of fiscal sanity, very social conservative, popular, intelligent, etc....they will be leaderless forever. Folks like Palin(are u kidding me??!!!) and Aw Shucks Mike Huckleberry ain't the answer.

Another one is Mitt Romney. To me, he was way more qualified than any other Repub in the field to be Prez. Of course, him being a Mormon is a deal-killer with some of the GOP base and that doomed him. Repubs need to either bring that part of the base back in line with a reality-check or forget about them because they aren't enough to win elections and they stunt future growth of the "brand" itself. That same base had huge problems with Giuliani who-definite flaws and all himself-at least had a track record of success under very difficult conditions of NYC and then 9/11. Repubs are too enamored with platitudes and absolutes and not enough on proven records of running government successfully. Romney and Giuliani were about results but that doesn't get you far when the Repub base wants to hear about a few social issues more than anything else. The Huckabee faction doesn't care if you overspend and hike taxes every chance you get as long as you tell everyone you love God. I'm not knocking anyone's faith, but in politics, you need more of a platform than the love of God and country. It's not too much to expect some real ideas and proposed solutions.

Repubs have a mess at the national level and better get serious about a real platform that the voters can understand as a viable alternative. 8 years of neo-conservatism betrayed a lot of the ideas of conservatism and those voters are now starting to look elsewhere and give up on the repubs. Young people are avoiding the Repubs because they don't have a lot in common on social issues with the hard right social conservatives. Tearing apart the Dems and Obama isn't enough to right the ship without some ideas that have some substance.