Category: Politics

Senator Bernie Sanders Calls Larry Kudlow a Socialist

No Comments

Considering the fact that Bernie Sanders is actually a card carrying socialist, just called Larry Kudlow a socialist:

Larry, if I ask you that the government should intervene like every other industrialized country does and provide health care for all people, you’d say ‘oh no!’ And if I ask you to support government intervention so that we don’t have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the world, you’d say ‘oh no!’ But when Wall Street screws up because of their greed, you say, ‘oh yes, it’s a great idea!’

PWN3D!

Does Kudlow need someone to cut his meat for him or something?

I wouldn’t want him around a plastic butter knife.

Maliki Says that Bush Wanted Changes in Withdrawal for Electoral Advantage

No Comments

So Nouri al Maliki said in an interview with al-Iraqiya:

MALIKI: Actually, the final date was really the end of 2010 and the period between the end of 2010 and the end of 2011 was for withdrawing the remaining troops from all of Iraq, but they [the Bush administration] asked for a change [in date] due to political circumstances related to the domestic situation [in the US] so it will not be said to the end of 2010 followed by one year for withdrawal but the end of 2011 as a final date. Agreement has been reached on this issue. They are willing to respond positively because they, too, are facing a critical situation.

Impeach Cheney today.

Impeach Bush tomorrow.

I Wish This Were My Congresscritter

No Comments

Matt Stoller, of Open Left, got the following missive from an unnamed Congressman:

Paulsen and congressional Republicans, or the few that will actually vote for this (most will be unwilling to take responsibility for the consequences of their policies), have said that there can’t be any “add ons,” or addition provisions. F$#@ that. I don’t really want to trigger a world wide depression (that’s not hyperbole, that’s a distinct possibility), but I’m not voting for a blank check for $700 billion for those mother f$#@ers.

Nancy said she wanted to include the second “stimulus” package that the Bush Administration and congressional Republicans have blocked. I don’t want to trade a $700 billion dollar giveaway to the most unsympathetic human beings on the planet for a few f$#@ing bridges. I want reforms of the industry, and I want it to be as punitive as possible.

Henry Waxman has suggested corporate government reforms, including CEO compensation, as the price for this. Some members have publicly suggested allowing modification of mortgages in bankruptcy, and the House Judiciary Committee staff is also very interested in that. That’s a real possibility.

We may strip out all the gives to industry in the predatory mortgage lending bill that the House passed last November, which hasn’t budged in the Senate, and include that in the bill. There are other ideas on the table but they are going to be tough to work out before next week.

I also find myself drawn to provisions that would serve no useful purpose except to insult the industry, like requiring the CEOs, CFOs and the chair of the board of any entity that sells mortgage related securities to the Treasury Department to certify that they have completed an approved course in credit counseling. That is now required of consumers filing bankruptcy to make sure they feel properly humiliated for being head over heels in debt, although most lost control of their finances because of a serious illness in the family. That would just be petty and childish, and completely in character for me.

I’m open to other ideas, and I am looking for volunteers who want to hold the sons of bitches so I can beat the crap out of them.

Number 3421 on the List of Things that I’d Never Say

No Comments

God Bless Jerry Brown.

He’s always rubbed me the wrong way, but his decision to accurately label the Califoria hate initiative is a very good thing:

Those voters were much more likely to oppose the measure when read Brown’s wording (58 percent against it and 30 percent for it) than those in the same category who were read the old version of Prop. 8 (42 percent against and 37 percent for it), according to the Field Poll.

The Brown language reads, in part: “Eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry.” The original version read, in part: “Limit on marriage.”

No big surprise here…If you tell the truth people vote now on this abomination.

Ukrainian Government Coalition Collapses

No Comments

It appears that President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko* have a major difference of opinion regarding foreign policy.

It appears Yushchenko is natavist Ukrainian nationalist bellicose nut, and Tymoshenko merely hates the Russians with a white hot passion, so she doesn’t want to start shooting at Russians today, so the President thinks the PM is some sort of traitor.

*Why can’t news happen in places where I can spell the damn names.

What the War Nerd Said

No Comments

Gary Brecher makes a very good point, that the Neocons who are suggesting that Georgia needs to be reorganized along the lines of Hezbollah do not have the best interest of the Georgians at heart.

Rather, as the War Nerd so eloquently puts it, “America’s chickenhawks are ready to turn Georgia into a nation of missing-relative-seeking refugees.”:

I’m pretty sure if you asked any Georgians, they’d screech, “Agh! No! We don’t want to live like Hezbollah, cowering in our huts under constant bombardment, raising kids with no prospects but martyrdom!” But then the neocons haven’t asked anybody in Georgia. Safe in their living rooms, they think it’d be a great idea for Georgia, a very unwarlike little middle-class country, to try to imitate the Lebanese Shia who make up Hezbollah’s suicide squads.

So, Now Bush and His Evil Minions&trade Are Claiming that the GSE Collapse is all the Fault of Congress

No Comments

What a group of WATBs.

But the White House blond bimbo, Dana Perino, is claiming that they could have fixed Fannie and Freddie, if not for those meddling kids Congress.

You know, this all occurred during a Republican controlled Congress…..You know….the folks who had their tongue so far up their ass that you never had to veto them even once.

Canada Calls Snap Elections

No Comments

Here and here.

Here is his political calculus in calling snap elections:

  • If Obama wins, Canadians will favor someone who is closer ideologically to the new president.
  • If the sick old man wins, then Canadians will want someone who will do their best to oppose 4 more years of Bush and His Evil Minions™ without the military restraint.

Thus holding Canadian elections after the US election is simply a losing proposition.

I hope that this doesn’t work for Harper, because he really wants go with Bushonomics, and we can say “buh-bye” to the best health care system in North America if he wins another term.

Palin Nomination: Bad for the Jews

No Comments

Actually, the title is a joke, but it does reflect a sort of American Jewish political idiom that Palin will have to deal with.

The problem is that her church hosted a talk from David Brickner, and unlike Obama and Jeremiah Wright, Palin was in the audience listening happily (see also here)

David Brickner is the controversial founder of Jews for Jesus, a front group for evangelicals targeting Jews for proselytization. Additionally, while speaking before her church, and Palin, he, “told the congregation that terrorist attacks in Israel are God’s ‘judgment of unbelief’ for Jews who reject Christianity.”

Let me be clear, there are some politically conservative Jews who might find a way to alibi for Brickner’s quote, but never for a church inviting the founder of Jews for Jesus.

In American Jewish life, inviting him to your church crosses a line that cannot be uncrossed.

This trumps any concerns about Obama’s middle name for the bulk of American Jews.

I Agree with John Stewart

No Comments

Basically, he is calling the political reporters a bunch of wankers:

As Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” descends on Denver for four days of coverage, Jon Stewart took after the “established” media for getting too cozy with candidates and regurgitating campaign spin when it comes to political coverage.

In a breakfast with reporters, Stewart directed most of his ire at the 24-hour cable news networks, which he called “gerbil wheels,” and said the media at-large had “abdicated” to what he called the “slow-witted beast.”

He said the never-ending television news cycle creates a “false sense of urgency” and forces reporters to “follow the veins that have been mined,” instead of pursuing serious and in-depth reporting.

Seriously, I get to a point where I can’t take it any more, and use the mute button too much, and then I can’t stand their faces, and I change the channel watch Alton Brown on Food Network, and check in with the blogs.

Yesterday, I did keep checking in because I felt that Kennedy deserved the eyeballs, but during political coverage, even Maddow and Olbermann get on my nerves, because they spend so much time repeating themselves.

Funny Strange, Not Funny Ha Ha

No Comments

Mithras notes:

Know What’s Funny?
Upper middle class white liberal bloggers who think that their political opinions matter to people trying to win an election. That is really funny.

Actually, I’ve now thought of something even funnier (again, funny strange, not funny ha ha): Why upper class white conservative pundits keep trying to give electoral advice to Democrats.

As to my giving advice to anyone, this upper middle class Jewish blogger’s opinions don’t even matter to my Sharon*….And they matter to my 11 year old daughter even less, but she takes after her mother at her age.

My almost 9 year old son though, he cares what I think….but we are both science geeks, and we talk science, and I am an engineer…..But he keeps asking me about things like quantum entanglement (really), and I have to tell him, “call uncle Stephen, he’s the physicist.”

Actually, they all respect my cooking skills though, which is some consolation.

*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.

Zimbabwe: Something Good Happened Today

No Comments

Well, as announced by Mugabe, the Zimbabwean parliament met today, and as feared, some (2) of the MPs were detained by the police, though one was released later.

That being said, what did happen once they were seated was surprising, Lovemore Moyo, of the MDC Tsvangerai won the election for speaker in a secret ballot, 110 to 98, which means that MDC Mutambara voted against Mugabe, as did at least one ZANU-PF member, though ZANU-PF won the Senate presidency, though since most of those members are appointed by Mugabe, or by provincial governors appointed by Mugabe, this came as no surprise.

Coalition in Pakistan Collapses

No Comments

Nawaz Sharif has withdrawn his Pakistan Muslim League-N party from its coalition with the Pakistan People’s Party.

It’s not surprising. The one thing that Sharif demanded from the start was the restoration of all judges, and the refusal of PPP party head Asif Ali Zardari to reinstate all the judges, particularly Iftikar Muhammad Chaudhry.

They also agreed to reduce the power of the Presidency, and to have a non-partisan candidate for the office.

What this is really about in my mind is that Zardari is remarkably corrupt, even by the standards of Pakistani governance (as if that concept is not a mind f&%$), his nick name is “Mr. 10%”, and he is afraid that Chaudhry, who by all accounts is honest and non-partisan, will invalidate the grant of immunity for his corruption.

To be fair, it wasn’t just him who was corrupt. His late wife, Benazir Bhutto, was hip deep in all of this too, but since she went to Harvard, and spoke excellent English, she was labeled a democratic hope for Pakistan.

What Chris Bowers Said

No Comments

In reswsponse to the news that Lieberman would speak at the Republican convention, Mr. Bowers noted:

I believe this is what some Senate Democrats were waiting for before deciding to strip Lieberman of his committee chair next year. I still remain skeptical that they will actually strip him of his committee chair, since it will demonstrate self-respect and a willingness to stand up to conservative Democrats. This just isn’t something you see much of from our representatives in Congress, particularly the latter.

I agree. If I would argue that not only should he be stripped of his committee chairmanship, but of his seniority too.

Of course, that would require a spine, an unlikely event.