A quick Google-search reveals Chris LaCivita worked for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004. Glad to see people doing what they love.

American fundamentalists have always had an openly declared distrust of reason, which they regard as something that is generally in controposition to faith as a tool for making decisions.
Therefore, unsurprisingly, conservative Christian groups are often inadvertently comical when they attempt to "prove" something to a public outside their particular pesuasion. Michele Bachmann did the same thing the other day and even got the math wrong.
They appear to be saying "Even if you don't believe Jesus, the numbers don't lie", but they use statistical "evidence" in such a sophomoric way that it's frankly laughable.

OK - Cost of Iraq war in lives and money- discuss.How many years? oh I see, that's different.

Check out this clip of David Shuster having a panel discussion about how stupid the Republican arguments were against the stimulus. And it revealed that they really don't have any new ideas, just silly smears that they think are clever. And thats why they aren't winning people over to their side of the argument. Especially satisfying was Shuster's smack down of Amanda Carpenter a FauxNooz favorite.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/29289927#29288618

You can decry this talking point as much as you want, but it is the kind of thing that has worked extremely well for Republicans. Remember how Clinton's health care plan was disparaged for having too many pages - an amount comparable to many bills?
These talking points have a simplistic logic which a lot of people will accept UNLESS THEY HEAR A COUNTER ARGUMENT. Sadly Democrats and the media rarely offer one.

That is how Republicans have been able to convince a huge number of Americans that tax cuts are a magic elixir which pay for themselves, free markets are god, the government is Satan, the New Deal was a flop, Reagan single-handedly ended the Cold War, Democrats are wimpy girlie-men, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.,etc. As for the media, they are beyond irresponsible.

Even after Republican policies have been proven to be an unmitigated disaster, Democrats are still allowing the right to frame the debate and control the terms of our public dialogue. They allow powerful talking poinst to go unchallenged (American corporations do not pay the highest tax in the world nor do tax cuts pay for themselves).

Our nation will never get back to living in the reality-based world until Democrats learn how to communicate and the media is pressured to start informing the public accurately about important issues. If our current crisis is not enough to make this happen, I give up.

Will Jesus to appear at the end and tell us he approves this message?

It's hard to resist responding with simple mockery.

"But if you spend an extra $10,000 per day, just 10% more, then you'd have spent more than the stimulus. Anyone can see that that's a really good deal, right? Just 10% per day!"

What if you started spending a Million Dollar a day every from the time the Earth was created, 6,000 years ago until today?

How much would have been spent in that Case Mitch?

Of course, McConnell was fine with spending that much on Bush's Iraq disaster, and paying for it with a tax cut.

Well, if they're going to drag Jesus into this they are going about it the wrong way. What if we give Jesus the money and let Him spend a million bucks a day. I wonder how big the budget for war making would be then.

These fools always want to talk about Jesus, but they seem to have no idea who He is or what He said.

I'm saying conservatives are foolish for ignoring the good arguments and embracing transparent nonsense.

Communications 101: "Know your audience." The republicans know that the audience they are gearing that ad to are not critical thinking types, and they don't care what the rest of think.

I suspect the 'since-Jesus' argument is actually pretty effective for its target audience-- the problem with it is that, like most Republican arguments these days, it connects only to the Republican true believers. Everyone else will note that it's just another chocolate-covered shit sandwich.

The GOP and Jesus... ever notice that the louder someone alludes to righteousness, the further away from it they actually are?

There should be a law -- every time a congressman uses the word "Jesus" when speaking officially on the House or Senate floor, their district or state would get charged $100,000 by the Fed for conflict of Church and State.

Mitch may have been thinking of Dorothy Thompson's review of a Yale prom: If all of the girls at the prom were laid from end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Mitch is so laid-back, isn't he? But I don't think he will get lucky with his approach.

So play their game. To summarise the ammount spent on the Iraq War, you've go to past Jesus, through Moses, back to Adam and Eve.

($730B vs $2100B, assumes 6000 years to Adam and Eve :)

MMMM.. chocolate covered.....

shag...
i thought it was "if you laid all the economists in the world end-to-end, the still wouldn't reach a conclusion."

Do the math it's just over $2 billion. How easy is it to counter that, "If you spent $20 million a day since jesus was made up, you get Bush's tax cuts for a year."

I know that's not the point, but if they are seriously going to argue non-sense. Better yet, "If you spent a million a day since the creations think the earth was formed, you would have enough to support the war in Iraq for a day or two."

The GOP and Jesus... ever notice that the louder someone alludes to righteousness, the further away from it they actually are?

Jesus sure did.

Mellowjohn, the thought of economists laid end to end is disgusting. But on the other hand, ... (as Harry Truman might fret in his search for a one-handed economist).

Since the current national debt is over $10 trillion dollars, I would say that we've exceeded expectations.

Two things:

1. President Jesus W Bush blew a trillion dollars in his 8 years in office, just on the War in Iraq.

2. If you were to lay off three employees ever day since Jesus was born you'd match the number of jobs lost in 2008 in the US.

Wow. If this ad is as successful as their attacks on Bill Ayers, we might just end up with another stimulus bill by the end of spring.

Even after Republican policies have been proven to be an unmitigated disaster, Democrats are still allowing the right to frame the debate and control the terms of our public dialogue.

BernieO - Which public dialogue are you watching? We're totally winning this one. The stimulus is popular. Obama is popular. Even Congressional Democrats are fairly popular. And Republicans are still tanking. Isn't it about time we adopted a framework that shows that we're winning and they're losing? Sure, much of the media is still buying into the Republican noise, but a majority of the American people aren't.

As a reminder, the stimulus is so popular that many Republicans who openly opposed it are now bragging about the money it's bringing to their state. They are fully admitting that it was a good idea and will stimulate their economy, even if they refuse to admit that it was a good idea for the entire country to partake in what they know is good for their state. Again, we won this debate. Now is the time to do a quickie victory lap before getting out there and pressing for yet another win.

One of the best ways to be a winner is to act like a winner. We're winning. Let's act like it.

It is a good illustration - spending is clearly out of control. Government cannot fix the postal system, the IRS can't get government employees to pay their taxes, and according to Obama the Whitehouse cannot even manage to get the latest computer system.

Yet liberals still think government can fix the economy by spending money that doesn't exist.

This is insanity.

The obvious response would be to tie Bushco/Republicans to the actual problem: They screwed up the economy so bad, that if you spent $1 million a day since Jeebus was born, it still would not be fixed.

For one thing, the package is nowhere near $1 trillion.
Probably will get up around $20 trillion (twenty thousand billion) if you include loan guarantees and other shenanigans.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aGq2B3XeGKok

'U.S. Taxpayers Risk $9.7 Trillion on Bailout Programs

By Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.

[...]

“We’ve seen money go out the back door of this government unlike any time in the history of our country,” Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, said on the Senate floor Feb. 3. “Nobody knows what went out of the Federal Reserve Board, to whom and for what purpose. How much from the FDIC? How much from TARP? When? Why?” '

I know this will probably fall on deaf ears Orwell but do you have a plan at all that doesn't depend on the lame and stupendously unsuccessful idea of just lowering taxes?

Conservatives are still in the permanent political campaign mindset. They are so focused on what has traditionally worked best for them that they fail to see the need for new strategy. Considering what they've done for us, I'm quite okay with that.

Do you know that if you spend a million bucks every other day since Jesus was born, you would spend as much as the Republicans were proposing in tax cuts for the wealthiest 5%?

but my favorite argument was John Thune's, when he noted how tall a stack of a trillion dollar bills would be, or how many times it would wrap around the earth. Wouldn't 50% of whatever height be just as astounding if pulled out of context, which is what the republicans proposed?

If you spent a million dollars a day since Alexander the Great was born, that would be more than the stimulus package. Or China's First Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Or Siddhartha Gautama. All depends on who you pick.

P.S.
"Wouldn't 50% of whatever height be just as astounding if pulled out of context, which is what the republicans proposed?"

LOL. Excellent point, Bruce.

Something else to consider in all this: Not all of the stimulus is spending. A large portion of it is tax cuts that Republicans wanted, yet they cite the entire number when complaining how big the stimulus is. It's quite obvious that conservatives want to blur this distinction and attack Obama for making the biggest tax cut in history, but I fail to see why anyone would find that convincing.

Republicans have stopped preaching to the choir a few years ago, and are now just preaching to the preachers. And even that group is starting to shrink.

I object! The use of the term 'crayons' is defamatory...to children. It should always be remembered about these buffoons that they are dangerous; polls or no polls, and not just politically.

What Would Jesus Do?

So, sticking with the million dollars a day imagery, but in the context of George W. Bush's $1.3 trillion tax cuts pushed through in 2001:

With that money, gathered up from tax receipts, you could give $1 million dollars to the richest Americans...everyday...since the day Jesus was born...until the year 3561.

And surely, this is what Jesus would do too.

It's time for another episode of Supply Side Jesus!

Can you provide this for us Senator Franken?

And if you put $2 million in a stack and set it on fire every day beginning on the day Jesus Christ was born, you still wouldn't have burned through as much money as the fucking geniuses on Wall Street have in the last year.

INCORRECT, or THIS IS WHY WE NEED SCIENCE IN THE CLASSROOMS

365 days per year times 2,000 years equals 730,000 total days in 2,000. 730,000 days times $1,000,000 equals 730,000,000,000 or $730 billion.

2,000 X 365 = 730,000. 730,000 X 1,000,000 = 730,000,000,000

OR $55 billion less than the $785 billion of the stimulus package.

Gregory : "ever notice that the louder someone alludes to righteousness, the further away from it they actually are?

"Jesus sure did."

Right on, Gregory. That's the typical Republican tack, though. Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty.

Capt Kirk: "What if we give Jesus the money and let Him spend a million bucks a day. I wonder how big the budget for war making would be then.
These fools always want to talk about Jesus, but they seem to have no idea who He is or what He said."

Right. America would look very different. How many bombers would Jesus pay for? None. The 9th Ward Katrina victims would all have had their houses rebuilt before anything was done to fix up the damaged homes of the rich. No child (or adult) in this country would be hungry or lack health care.

Another tack to counter these idiots would be to ask, with the $3.8 million the American Issues Project has wasted on its last two campaign ads, what could we have done to help the American people?

Where were these guys when Bush was spending and spending and spending? Do they only believe that our money should be spent in Iraq and, if so, do they then consider themselves Iraqis? What a bunch of babbling old fools the Republicans are. Makes me want to stand next to them yelling "Go Home, Whitey!", and if I was any paler, you'd lose me in the snow...

I'm surprised he didn't say, "Suppose you spent $1 million every single day starting from the day the earth was created, six thousand years ago..."

Some very good, and funny points were made in the comments.

I don't mind that Republicans / conservatives / right wingnuts, are spending another million dollars on a laughable ad. It's only meant for the no-brainers in society and they already got that information from good ol' Rush.

So... it's a good waste of money. That way they aren't spending it on serious business, where it actually counts.

Conservatives are right.

We need to tighten our belts and wait until the labor market recovers and unemployment is low again before we hire millions of people to fix national infrastructure so we can pay the higher wages that low unemployment is likely to cause.

Wait, that didn't come out right.