Category: Politics

The South Should Be Irrelevant in American Political Discourse

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Brad Delong finds some graphs that show a big difference between the South and the rest of the nation.

As he aptly puts it, “The whites in the heartland of today’s Republican Party just do not vote–and do not think–like the rest of us do.”

Simply put, in the rest of the nation, the greater contact with black people in your daily lives, the less bigoted you are, and in the south, the he greater contact with black people in your daily lives, the more bigoted you are.

One of the founding principles of the United States is the melting point. At the core of the melting pot is the idea that once you know the other, you will accept the other.

Anything else is un-American, and should have no part in our public policy discourse.

This is About Pork, Nothing Else

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Well, it looks like the US Navy is looking at moving a carried from Hampton Roads, Virginia to Mayport, Florida, near Jacksonville, and the Virginia Congressional delegation is throwing a fit over this.

This is not surprising, the presence of that carrier pumps something like ½ a billion dollars into the local economy.

The Navy is arguing that, “The five East Coast carriers should be dispersed as a hedge against a natural disaster or attack that could shut or cripple the sprawling Norfolk base.”

So, in order to hedge against natural disaster, you want to move the ships into hurricane alley, otherwise known as Florida.

Of course the idea that foreign power will launch a sneak attack on the base is ludicrous.

SecNav John Lehman did this in the 1980s, on the argument that it would make more difficult for Soviet subs to shadow fleet movements, but it was a crap argument then.

Of course, these days the USSR is no more, and the Russians can’t deploy a significant portion of their fleet and the Chinese are a decade from a meaningful submarine fleet, so there is no risk of attack.

The reality was that Lehman wanted to do this because it created more constituencies for his vision of a 600 ship navy, because a large number of small bases gets you the support of many congresscritters, where as one large base just gets you 1 or 2 districts support.

With the Navy claiming that their ships and aircraft are wearing out and need to be replaced, they still want to drop a billion dollars on the move, not because of military need, but because of political need.

Republican Party Has Lost The Economist

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In an editorial, they call the ‘Phants, a Ship of fools, and lambast them for systematically becoming anti-idea and anti-thought over the past 30 years.

It’s a good read, and the last sentence, “Richard Weaver, one of the founders of modern conservatism, once wrote a book entitled “Ideas have Consequences”; unfortunately, too many Republicans are still refusing to acknowledge that idiocy has consequences, too,” had me cleaning my screen.

While there is much wrong with the Republican party, they are correct that the anti-intellectual anti though bent of the modern Republican party is at the core of much of this.

It’s a good read.

Hank Paulson, Go Cheney Yourself

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So now Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson is warning that the financial meltdown might create too restrictive a regulatory environment for financial companies:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called the financial crisis now plaguing the world economy a “once or twice” in a 100 years event, even as he warned Thursday against imposing too-strict regulations to prevent a repeat calamity.

The translation for this is, “I made my money because the SEC and the CFTC were muzzled, so I could use deception and extortion to get money out of the average working Joe’s pocket, and this should not change, because I have relatives.”

Paulson is an idiot. While the financial crisis we’re having right now mirrors the stock market crash in 1928, almost 80 years ago, the fact is that these fiscal implosions have gotten more common as we have backed off regulation, and before 19289, they happened every decade or so.

The reason that nothing has happened in the past 80 years is because of the regulations you dispise, and the reason that it is happening now is because of the slow deregulatory movements from about 1975-2001, and the rush to deregulate since then.

Because they Have Lost the People Who Worship Power

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If you thought that the Republican Party’s poll numbers could not go any lower, you would be wrong, they can, and they have.

Favorable/Unfavorable has gone from 40/53 to 34/61.

The real change is that a month ago, Obama had not won the election, so people who cling to power were still with them.

There are always people who want to hang with the winning team, not matter how repugnant, and those rats have boarded the lifeboats.

And Round One of Waxman – Dingell Is Called for Waxman

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As you may be aware, Henry Waxman is challenging John Dingell for chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and today, the Democratic Steering Committee went 25 to 22 for Waxman.

I think that there are a number of things that may trump Dingell’s seniority (He’s the longest serving Dem in Congress).

  • He has been awful on global warming, because he’s the Big 3 (2½) auto makers’ bitch.
  • The recognition that one of the reasons that the Big 3 (2½) auto makers are in such bad shape is that the Congress never took steps to move beyond the 1970s CAFE regulation, because Dingell is Big 3 (2½) auto makers’ bitch.
  • There is also, I think, a desire for a bit of a shakeup, to better reflect what is now a relatively young Democratic caucus in Congress.
  • The vote was a secret ballot, so there is little chance for retribution.
  • Waxman’s ability to count votes is legendary, and the mere fact that he is challenging Dingell makes people wonder if he already has this sewn up. If so, they do not want to be on the losing side.

Me, I’m rooting for Waxman.

Circular Firing Squat*

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Gee, following a crushing electoral defeat, conservative windbag Kathleen Parker goes and blames it all on the what she sees as right wing medieval religious types:

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

….

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn’t soon cometh.

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth — as long as we’re setting ourselves free — is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.

….

So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners.

Ouch!!! Reading further it appears that her problem with the Religious right is that it is insular, nativist, and so is hostile and frightening to the majority of the population who are not a part of this. Well put

However, honesty forces me to note that her argument would be far more convincing if she hadn’t endorsed the idea of fear and hatred of those who don’t look like us using a right wing evangelical just this May:

“A full-blooded American.”

That’s how 24-year-old Josh Fry of West Virginia described his preference for John McCain over Barack Obama. His feelings aren’t racist, he explained. He would just be more comfortable with “someone who is a full-blooded American as president.”

…

Full-bloodedness is an old coin that’s gaining currency in the new American realm. Meaning: Politics may no longer be so much about race and gender as about heritage, core values, and made-in-America. Just as we once and still have a cultural divide in this country, we now have a patriot divide.

Maybe she’s just pro bigotry, and since it’s no longer acceptable, at least not in the Washington Post OP/Ed pages to call the President-Elect a n*gg*r (yet), she just needed someone else to hate.

It’s circular firing squad time, and unlike in 1964, there are no moderates left to target….

I’m going to get some popcorn.

*It was a typo, then I realized that I was funnier by accident than I was on purpose.

Did Howard Dean Just Deliver a Steaming Helping of F%$# You to Barack Obama?

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Howard Dean gave an interview on the Senate’s cave to Lieberman, and said that the action was, “in the spirit of unification, which is what the President-elect wanted” and that, “He called the shots, and that’s fine.”

There are doubtless a more than a few people with steam pouring out of their ears right now, and it sounds like the good doctor just painted a target on Obama’s back.

IMHO, Obama deserves to catch grief over this. It’s clear that he figured that he wanted Lieberman in the tent pissing out, but he’s been in the tent, pissing in, for the past 4 years.

Lieberupdate

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One of Lieberman’s frequent allies in the Senate, Tom Carper (D-DE), is saying that there should be real consequences to Lieberman’s behavior.

You think? Not only did Lieberman campaign for McCain, he campaigned for Republican candidates for the Senate, and he has publicly said that the Democratic Party breaking 60 Senators would be a catastrophe.

One interesting development in all this is that the caucus vote to decide this will be a secret ballot.

Secret ballot….Hmmmm…This means either that the Senators in the Democratic caucus can use this to avoid enmity* from Lieberman, or they can use it to avoid consequences with their constituents.

I do not know what way this will cut.

*Except to the degree that he has been vindictive, retributive, and evil son of a bitch towards Democrats ever since he got skunked in the 2004 Presidential primaries, so they will be the victims of his bile regardless of how they choose.

The South Fell This November

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Kevin Drum makes a very good point about the south, specifically from 1932 on, reactionary southerners have controlled much of American politics.

First, they were the tail wagging the dog for the Democratic party through until 1994, when they had completely become Republicans, and from 1968 or so through the present, they were, and are, the backbone of the Republican party.

This is the first time since at least the 1930s, and Kevin Drum argues that it’s since Reconstruction, when we have had a government in power which was not beholden to them.

I am sure that Democratic strategist, and advocate for capitulation to so-called Southern values, Dave “Mudcat” Saunders is crushed, but for the rest of us, and for the nation, the idea that a group of reactionary, bigoted, and small minded Neo-Confederate assholes are out of power is a very good thing.

Joementum Update

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Well, now it appears that Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) has said that Lieberman’s behavior is unacceptable for a committee head:

As a chairman of one of our significant committees in the Senate, not just going off and supporting a presidential candidate of the other side but also criticizing the candidate on our side, and also involving himself in a couple of senate races on the other side. The question is, is that acceptable? The answer is no.

I think the thing that may tip the Senate is his campaigning for Republicans in Senate races.

While the only two Senators to explicitly call for his removal as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Dorgan, from North Fracking Dakota, comes pretty close to it.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: The Don Siegelman Case

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Well, it now appears that in addition to the fact that Leura G. Canary, the U.S. Attorney in Montgomery, was having regular contacts with the prosecutors, despite having “recused” herself from the prosecution, it now appears that prosecutors had ex-parte communications with the jurors:

Next month in Atlanta, a federal court will hear the high-profile appeal of former Alabama governor Don E. Siegelman, whose conviction on corruption charges in 2006 became one of the most publicly debated cases to emerge from eight years of controversy at the Bush Justice Department. Now new documents highlight alleged misconduct by the Bush-appointed U.S. attorney and other prosecutors in the case, including what appears to be extensive and unusual contact between the prosecution and the jury.

(emphasis mine)

It does not get any more unethical and illegal in a case than this. There were contacts, which are generally unethical, and they went unreported to the judge and the defense, which is illegal.

We need to to reform our drug laws in order to make space for Bush and His Evil Minions&trade, because they all need to go to prison, and not a country club prison, but, to quote Office Space, a, “Pound me in the Ass.” prison.

Lieberman Update

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Well, most importantly it appears that Obama dodged a call from Lieberman to congratulate him on his election victory, and so Lieberman talked to Biden instead.

Not sure if it means anything, but fact that Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders have both now publicly come out and said that his chairmanship should be pulled is significant.

Both Klobuchar and Bayh have said that they think that he should be allowed to keep his chairmanship if he apologizes for his behavior, but you will never, ever, see contrition from Joe, so I’m not sure if that means that they are creating an way to support him, or to oppose him.

Dodd, is still working very hard to keep Lieberman in the tent.

It’s Worse Than a Crime, It’s a Mistake

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To quote Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, there are reports that Democrats in the Senate, and Barack Obama, are now scrambling to find a way to do let Joe Lieberman keep hisposition as Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

You know the old saying, better to be inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in, but Joe Liberman will be in the tent, and he will continue to piss inward.

Joe has been acting out of vindictiveness and ego ever since his Presidential bid crashed and burned in 2004, and his primary loss in 2006 only made this worse.

He does not care about policy, all he cares about is puffing himself up and hurting those who he believes have slighted him.

There is now a report on Rollcall (paid subscription required) that strongly implies that Obama is making calls in support of Lieberman.

If true, and this could be (I hope it is) some sort of head fake, it does now bode well with regard to how Obama, or the Senate Democrats intend to govern.

It feeds straight into the meme that Democrats are wimps. If they don’t stand up for themselves, how can we expect them to stand up for us.

Why Do People Hire Michael Barone?

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In a just world, people would leave when he walked into the room, because anyone who would say this:

A roomful of academics erupted in angry boos Tuesday morning after political analyst Michael Barone said journalists trashed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republicans’ vice presidential nominee, because “she did not abort her Down syndrome baby.”

Is not a functioning member of humanity.

He later claimed that it was a joke, which makes it worse, because if he actually believes that, he is sick, and if it’s a joke, he’s just evil.