Category: Politics

Labor Joins Israeli Coalition

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Benyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak have come to an agreement for a coalition government, and the Labor Party central committee voted to approve the deal, so it appears that there is now a governing coalition is Israel.

It appears that Netanyahu gave labor much more than just the Defense portfolio:

  • 5 Cabinet posts, including the Defense and Trade and Industry Ministries.
  • 2 Deputy ministry positions.
  • A fairly liberal economic policy, which includes:
    • Money for retraining workers
    • Funding for child care
    • A commitment not to cut salaries in the public sector
    • A commitment to increases in benefits for pensioners
    • An increased political role for the Histadrut, Israel’s organization of trade unions.

It’s clear from this deal that Netanyahu was desperate to have this, given Labor’s poor showing (only 13 seats), and it also represents a return by the Labor Party to the interests of, well, (small l) labor, which may go a long way towards distinguishing themselves from Kadima.

I think that Netanyahu could have gone right for the coalition, but the idea of actually having to follow up on his hard line rhetoric during the campaign scares him.

Netanyahu is Terrified of His Campaign Promises

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Benyamin Netanyahu is aggressively pursuing a coalition with Labor, and strange as it sounds, it might happen because Ehud Barak really wants to stay on as head of the Defense Ministry, though some of his fellow Laborites are aghast at the prospect.

I would also take issue with one of the points that the author of the second link, Jeff Barak, has with Avigdor Lieberman being the Foreign Minister: It’s actually one of the two positions where his positions are least likely to cause a problem, because his three basic planks are a two state solution (and as FM he won’t get to draw those boundaries), hostility to the Arab population inside the Green Line, and staunch secularism.

I’d much rather see him being the Minister of Religious Services, but when all is said and done, the FM position keeps him away from internal Israeli politics.

Governor Paterson Gets Clue

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So, we now have a New York Post reporter breathlessly reporting that he is planning a “secret” tax hike on the rich.

Well, considering the fact that the Wall Street masters of the universe upon whom he hoped to fund his reelection bid are now less popular than either Dick Cheney or a case of the clap,* this is not surprising, though according to Dicker, Paterson wants to appear to be against the tax hikes while pushing them through, which indicates once again that he has the political instincts of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, or a packet of Fleishmann’s active dry yeast.*

My guess is that he’s flailing around because the polls show him being crushed by Andrew Cuomo in the primary, and by Rudolph Guiliani in the general by numbers that exceed what a banker can supply to him by the way of campaign funds.

*For some reason, I always confuse the two.†
†I love it when I get to “twofer” footnotes.

Great Googly Moogly: Larry Summers Wants to be Fed Chairman

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It appears that Barney Frank and Chris Dodd have differences in the future course of regulation.

Specifically, Frank favors giving the Federal Reserve the job of managing “systemic risk” under any new regulations, and Dodd thinks that the Fed, with its history of unresponsiveness and opacity is ill suited to the task.

Well, it now appears that much of the smear campaign against Dodd may have come from Larry Summers, who would be first in line to be Federal Reserve chairman if Obama does not reappoint Bernanke, and so he went after Dodd in order to strengthen Frank’s hand in making the Fed the chief regulator.

I’m beginning to think that anyone who has “friend of Robert Rubin” on their resume should be barred from any position of authority.

Un-dirtyword-believable.

What Prima Donnas

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Well, it appears that Senator Evah Bahy’s (DINO-IN) new moderate caucus is getting some pushback from their constituents, and they are crying like a bunch of “girlie men”, to quote the governator.

It appears that Rachel Maddow covered this, and called them “conservadems”, and they are getting some calls from voters in their states telling them to get with the program.

How many calls are they getting?

Maddow’s five-minute “conservadem” segment last Thursday provoked at least 20 calls Monday to Udall’s office and more than a dozen e-mails to Democratic Party headquarters in Colorado.

So now they are crying about how awful people are to them.

Seriously, these folks are used to obstructing progressive programs, and then getting a pat on the head from villagers inside the beltway, but now, with someone pointing them out as trying to stifle change, they get 20 phone calls and more than a dozen emails, and they are whining about how people are mean to them.

Listen, if you suck up to Wall Street, who destroyed our 401(k)s, and you suck up to large food processors, who put poison in our peanuts, because they contribute to your campaign, you deserve whatever flak that you catch.

Cry me a fracking river.

House Passes Bonus Tax Bill

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Just over half of the ‘Phants voted against it, and all but 6 Democrats (I’ll post who and what should be done later) voted for a 90% tax on bonuses of companies getting bailed out by the government.

On some level I understand just how this is really a very small part of the bailout, but from news, to outrage, to bill passing the house is about 4 days, and it means something, though I’m not sure who gets that yet.

Have I Mentioned that I Love Barney Frank?

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In a completely heterosexual kind of way, as the General would say.

In any case, the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts asks, “Is There an Antidote to the Republican Amnesia?“

Memory eventually fails us all, but apparently the decline strikes one party far more than the other.

In recent weeks, my friends across the aisle have expended a lot of breath proclaiming that the Democrats caused the present financial crisis by failing to pass legislation to regulate financial services companies in the years 1995 through 2006.

There is only small one problem with this story — throughout this entire period the Republicans were in complete charge of the House and for the most critical years they controlled the House, the Senate, and the Presidency.

In the House of Representatives, the majority party has almost unlimited power over the minority party. The majority party owns the committee chairmanships; it controls what bills come to a vote; and it is under no obligation to consider the ideas of the beleaguered minority. When the Republicans were in the majority they ruled with an iron first; it is no accident that Tom DeLay was known as “The Hammer.”

That is why I find it particularly flattering the Republicans now claim that in the years 1995 to 2006 I personally possessed supernatural powers which enabled me to force mighty Republican leaders to do my bidding. Choose your comic book hero — I was all of them.

…..

Brutal and very funny.

Pakistan Chief Justice Reinstated

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Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was removed by former president Musharraf because he was seen as non-corrupt and independent of the executive, and current Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari reneged on his promise to reinstate him because he was afraid that he would investigate his own personal corruption, and that he would likely overturn the ban on rival opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.

Well, with a massive protest converging on the capital, Islamabad, and police unwilling to enforce his ban on the protest in many places, Zardari has backed down and will reinstate Chaudhry.

This is good news for Pakistan on a number of levels, it reinforces the rule of law, it is a step away from dictatorship, and it reinforces the concept of an independent judiciary.

Likud and Israel Beiteinu Sign Coalition Deal

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This is the first deal signed, and it takes Netanyahu to 42 of the 61 seats needed to govern.

About the only bright side on this is the possibility, however slight, that Israel Beiteinu rather militant secularism will to some degree inform the political discourse regarding the Heredim* Schnorers.†

But that still does not excuse IB’s rather militant racism.

*Ultra-orthodox.

†A beggar who would chide a donor for not giving enough.

On Receiving the Largess of the House of Saud

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I have followed the entire “rent-a-crowd” hysteria regarding Charles Freeman’s appointment as chair of the National Intelligence Council, but I really haven’t had anything to add, but in commenting on this Ken Silverstein of Harper’s Magazine asks the following:

So why is the Middle East Policy Council any more intellectually corrupt than AEI or WINEP? And why is employment at the former a bar to government employment, but a job at the last two is not?

The answer here is not is not that the MEPC is in any way more corrupt, either legally or intellectually than the AEI or WINEP.

Rather, it is that Saudi money is perceived as dirty, while the money going to the AEI and WINEP is largely domestic wingnut, which is perceived as “cleaner”.

As corrupt as domestic wingnuts are, and they are very corrupt, their history of selling opinions to big bucks backers has long been document, but the House of Saud is a poster child for bad governance, bad policy, and bad governmental structures, being one of the few remaining absolute monarchies in the world, and even by that standard it is remarkably venal and corrupt.

I think that the hit on Freeman was wrong and stupid, but the idea that Saudi money should be viewed as both corrupt and corrupting is very close to the truth of the matter.

If an organization wants to be taken seriously, it should steer clear of Saudi money.

Do Not Reward the Incompetent

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While I’ve heard complaints about the people who campaigned against Proposition 8 in California, I’ve not followed it closely, but the following is unbelievable. Anyone who had anything to do with the “No on 8” campaign should never be hired as a political consultant ever again:

At the forum, Kors said turning the campaign over to the consultants was “a huge mistake.”

Smith also acknowledged that the campaign should have used then-presidential candidate Barack Obama’s stated opposition to Prop 8. Instead, little use was made of Obama’s opposition in a letter last June to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, and right before Election Day the Yes on 8 campaign sent out a mailer featuring Obama’s image and quotes that he is opposed to same-sex marriage.

“That was a close call,” Smith said. “Maybe we should have.”

Maybe you should have? Maybe you should have?

This is so phenomenally stupid it beggars the imagination.

Smith said that people outside the Bay Area wouldn’t know what the Alice Club was, but club Co-Chair Susan Christian spoke up and said that in fact, Obama’s letter to the club been widely reported, including in the New York Times.

Win or lose at the California Supreme Court, and the indications are that it will be a lose, this will be on the ballot as an initiative petition in 2010, and job 1 is to ensure that the folks who ran “No on 8” don’t get into positions of authority on this.

See here, here, here, and here for better written outrage.

The Tanker Competion is Back

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Yes, the 767-A330 competion rebid advanced, as the Joint Requirement Oversight Council is reviewing the new requirements for the recompete.

This is going to be a long and expensive process, and the A330 is superior (more flexible, longer range, carries more fuel, and the tanker is flying now), and Murtha’s suggestion for a dual buy to forestall another challenge is ruinously expensive over the life of the program.

Won’t be pretty.

Update on the Santelli Story

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So, Playboy pulled the posts, but it remains up at the Exiled, and Mssrs. Ames and Levine confirm pretty much every aspect of the story, though, to be fair, Rick Santelli has disavowed any involvement with any of the AstroTurf sites.

That being said, Santelli also canceled tomorrows appearance on The Daily Show, and is declining interviews, which is a polite way of saying, “That’s a fair cop, officer.”

I recommend that you read the whole article, if just for the delightful evisceration Megan McArdle’s attempted to refute a Freedomworks connection, despite the fact that she, you know, shares bodily fluids a man who was only recently running AstroTurf campaigns for Freedomworks, but finally even she is forced to admit that Freedomworks is hip deep in this:

Meanwhile, I’ve spoken with Brendan Steinhauser, the chap at FreedomWorks who has helped organize the tea parties. FreedomWorks has been, as far as I can tell, completely open about their interest in furthering the tea parties, which is not surprising because they’ve been completely open about opposing bailouts since before Obama took office. As Brendan describes it, he and FreedomWorks were calling for demonstrations against the stimulus even before it passed, but he got the teaparty idea from Michelle Malkin’s blog. FreedomWorks emailed its members and set up a website to encourage people to join in. This seems like pretty standard political organization tactics.

Ms. McArdle must thank her lucky stars every day for Amity Shlaes, because it’s only in comparison to Mrs. Lipsky that she does not come across as a complete tool.