Category: Politics

26 July 2011, 9:58 PM

The Koch Suckers are Flooding the Zone in Wisconsin

No, I do not mean boots on the ground, the Kochs don’t work that way.

I mean money, and lots of it:

If you want to get a good sense of what’s really happening in the Wisconsin recall wars, keep an eye on the right wing money that’s now flooding into the races, in a last ditch effort to keep the state senate in Republican hands.

Club for Growth Wisconsin has dumped at least $1.5 million into the recall races, according to the progressive group One Wisconsin Now, which tells me it got the information from its ad tracker.

Even more tellingly, the Club has poured a surprising $400,000 into the battle to recall state senator Alberta Darling, who was once viewed as safe, One Wisconsin Now’s executive director Scot Ross tells me. Ross adds that his media tracker found that the Club sank the money into the race right after a Dem poll found that Darling is getting edged by her Dem recall challenger, Rep. Sandy Pasch.

If true, this is significant. If labor and Dems can knock off Darling, it would be a major coup: She is the co-chair of the legislative committee that passed Scott Walker’s union-busting proposals. Of all the GOP state senators targeted for recall, she’s been in office the longest. And Dems privately admit that they think the chances are slim that she can be defeated. But if the Club is pouring massive cash into an effort to prop her up, this could mean Dems have succeeded in widening the playing field beyond the most vulnerable GOP recall targets, meaning that cash being spent on Darling could have otherwise been spent elsewhere.

Obviously, the fact that they have lots of money to throw around is not good, but the fact that they feel compelled to throw it at what should be slam dunks is good.

If the Democrats want to win this, they need to focus on boots on the ground, and I mean locals, not hired guns, because the ‘Phants will have more money for the foreseeable future.

25 July 2011, 9:04 PM

Helmut Kohl Excoriates Angela Merkel

And it’s not just the former German Chancellor, (with the caveat that he is denying that he said this now) who was at one point considered her mentor, as well as much of the CDU’s old guard have not taken to harshly criticizing her behavior in the crisis.

This is rather unsurprising.

Unlike in America, the mainstream right (the CDU) finds the idea of hosing down taxpayers to pay off bankers, particularly when it won’t solve the problem, to be a bad thing.

Hopefully this is a step in realizing that the problems with the Eurozone, at least those not centered in EU HQ in Brussels, flow from Germany, and how it used its influence to structure the Eurozone.

24 July 2011, 8:45 PM

Bernie Sanders Calls for a Primary Challenge to Barack Obama

Roll tape

Yes, he did say that, on the Thom Hartmann radio show:

SANDERS: Brian, believe me, I wish I had the answer to your question. Let me just suggest this. I think there are millions of Americans who are deeply disappointed in the president; who believe that, with regard to Social Security and a number of other issues, he said one thing as a candidate and is doing something very much else as a president; who cannot believe how weak he has been, for whatever reason, in negotiating with Republicans and there’s deep disappointment. So my suggestion is, I think one of the reasons the president has been able to move so far to the right is that there is no primary opposition to him and I think it would do this country a good deal of service if people started thinking about candidates out there to begin contrasting what is a progressive agenda as opposed to what Obama is doing. […] So I would say to Ryan [sic] discouragement is not an option. I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.

Admittedly, Sanders is not technically a Democrat, he’s a Socialist (really, JFGI) but he does caucus with the Democrats, and he is a sitting US Senator, so the idea that Obama needs a primary challenge is starting to gain a bit of mainstream traction.

If someone credible announces, they go on my Act Blue page.

H/t Think Progress.

24 July 2011, 6:53 PM

Did a Not-Krugman Times OP/Ed Writer Just Call Republicans Domestic Terrorists?

Why yes, I think that Nicholas Kristof just wrote that:

IF China or Iran threatened our national credit rating and tried to drive up our interest rates, or if they sought to damage our education system, we would erupt in outrage.

Well, wake up to the national security threat. Only it’s not coming from abroad, but from our own domestic extremists.

We tend to think of national security narrowly as the risk of a military or terrorist attack. But national security is about protecting our people and our national strength — and the blunt truth is that the biggest threat to America’s national security this summer doesn’t come from China, Iran or any other foreign power. It comes from budget machinations, and budget maniacs, at home.

House Republicans start from a legitimate concern about rising long-term debt. Politicians are usually focused only on short-term issues, so it would be commendable to see the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party seriously focused on containing long-term debt. But on this issue, many House Republicans aren’t serious, they’re just obsessive in a destructive way. The upshot is that in their effort to protect the American economy from debt, some of them are willing to drag it over the cliff of default.

…………

So let’s remember not only the national security risks posed by Iran and Al Qaeda. Let’s also focus on the risks, however unintentional, from domestic zealots.

BTW, I think that he’s wrong: This is intentional.

They want to win in 2012, and they are attempting to destroy the nation to do so.

23 July 2011, 7:17 PM

Quote of the Day

Courtesy of John Cole:

I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years.

Word up.

20 July 2011, 7:05 PM

This Joint Kills Fascists

Click for full size

This is your brain

This is your brain on drugs … Any Questions

About 5 years ago, a couple of young twins (about 14) achieved some notoriety as the singing group called “Prussian Blue.”

It was a white white supremacist group.

Well, these days, the girls have renounced racism, and they credit marijuana for their change of heart:

Lamb and Lynx Gaede, whose band Prussian Blue was popular back in 2005 among those inclined to like such things, ascribed their unsavory past to having been “home schooled country bumpkins” heavily influenced by their domineering white supremacist mother, reports Neurobonkers.

The twins back when they were little 13-year-old Nazis about six years ago
Since then the twins, who turned 19 on June 30, have moved to Montana to attend high school, where in her first year Lynx was diagnosed with both cancer (which led to removal of a tumor) and cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS). Lamb developed scoloiosis and back pain, “as well as lack of appetite and intense emotional stress.”

Both of the girls, who sort of became the white supremacist equivalent of the Olsen Twins, began using marijuana after Lynx had a bad reaction to the harsh pharmaceutical narcotics Oxycontin and morphine, which a doctor had prescribed to treat her pain.

“I have to say, marijuana saved my life,” Lynx said. “I would probably be dead if I didn’t have it.”

Lynx became one of the first five minors in Montana to get a medical marijuana card, and Lamb now has one, too. One can only wonder what will become of the girls now that Montana’s conservative Republican-controlled Legislature has all but repealed the state’s compassionate medical marijuana law, approved by 62 percent voters in 2004.

Apparently, the marijuana didn’t just ease the physical pain, but also quelled the psychological hatred that had been inculcated in the girls by their racist upbringing.

No, this is not The Onion.

19 July 2011, 7:48 PM

I’m Going Long On Republican Crazy

First, we have Allen West, who just unleashed a truly unhinged tirade against Debbie Wasserman-Schultz:

A Republican congressman from Florida turned to email on Tuesday to call a Democratic colleague from the state “vile, despicable and cowardly” after she called into question his stance on Medicare during the debate over a spending cap and balanced budget bill before the House.

Rep. Allen West, a first-term Republican from south Florida, wasn’t shy about his online outburst. He sent his peppery email to numerous lawmakers as well as his target, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

The subject line of the email: “Unprofessional and Inappropriate Sophomoric Behavior from Wasserman Schultz.”

The e-mail said: “Look, Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me. Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige. You are the most vile, unprofessional and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up.”

Is it me, or did he just challenge her to a fight?

It certainly sounds like Zell Miller challenging someone to a duel. The only difference is that it was email, which means that it’s less likely to end up on Stewart.

And then there is Michelle Bachmann’s staff, who in response to a reporter asking about the reports that she is taking a veritable pharmacy of drugs for her stress related migraines, which regularly incapacitate her for days at a time, roughed up the reporter, and not just any reporter, but ABC’s Brian Ross:

Bachmann said 30 million Americans suffer from migraines and that “nearly 1 in 4 American households” have a migraine sufferer. “While I appreciate the concern for myself and for my health,” she added, looking to climb back down to safer ground, “the greater concern should be the debate that is occurring today in Washington, D.C., over whether or not we will increase our debt spending and taxes.” Bachmann reiterated that she would not vote to raise the debt ceiling. And with that, she departed without taking questions.

That’s when things got interesting. Ross dashed after Bachmann, repeatedly asking whether she had ever missed a House vote due to a migraine. She ignored him. Ross pursued her into a parking area behind the stage. Her aides grew alarmed. When Ross made a beeline for the white SUV waiting to carry Bachmann away, two Bachmann men pounced on him, grabbing and pushing him multiple times with what looked to me like unusual force. In fact, I have never seen a reporter treated so roughly at a campaign event, especially not a presidential one. Ross was finally able to break away and lob his question at Bachmann one more time, but she continued to ignore him.

Afterward, I asked Ross — a hard-nosed pro who nevertheless seemed slightly shaken — whether he had ever been treated so roughly. “A few times,” he told me. “Mostly by Mafia people.”

(emphasis mine)

Does anyone know if someone out there has a futures market where I can invest in Republican crazy?

Something like the Iowa Electronic Markets, only one that would allow bigger bets.

I’d make out like a raped ape.

18 July 2011, 6:43 PM

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?!? Rudy Giuliani Seizes the Moral High Ground?!?!

No, this is not a joke. Rudolph Giuliani really said the right thing, and there will very likely be a not inconsiderable political cost, because the right thing has very little intersection with the Republican party:

Rudy Giuliani, always a critic of his party’s social agenda, urged Republicans to “move on” from social issues after New York State’s recent approval of gay marriage.

“I think that marriage should be between a man and woman, but I think that the Republican Party would be well advised to get the heck out of people’s bedrooms and let these things get decided by states,” said the former New York mayor, who’s considering another bid for the Republican presidential nomination, in an interview aired Sunday.

Giuliani said that he thinks the New York vote was “wrong,” but “there are other things that I think are wrong that get decided by democratic vote.”

The libertarian streak of the Republican party, he added, should want to avoid “getting involved in people’s sexual lives.”

We live in strange times.

18 July 2011, 5:47 PM

Quote of the Day

Courtesy of George Packer:

Weber’s terms perfectly capture the toxic dynamic between the President, who takes responsibility as an end in itself, and the Republicans in Congress, who are destructively consumed with their own dogma. Neither side can be said to possess what Weber calls a “leader’s personality.” Responsibility without conviction is weak, but it is sane. Conviction without responsibility, in the current incarnation of the Republican Party, is raving mad.

Word.

15 July 2011, 12:21 PM

Yiddish It’s Not for Blithering Idiots…

So not a Yid!

It is pronounced “Hoot” (same vowel sound as book) “Spah”.

It’s not pronounced chute-spa!

I don’t expect her to get the guttural “h”, she is, after all a gentile, a Minnesotan, and a Lutheran,^* so she has at best limited experience in that consonant, but seriously, don’t speak Yiddish unless you understand Yiddish.

I’d call her a schmuck, but a schmuck has a head.

^*Specifically, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), which is arguably the most antisemitic and anti-Catholic Lutheran sect in the united states.

13 July 2011, 8:10 PM

Murdoch Drops BSkyB Bid

With almost every member in Parliament, of all the parties, chomping at the bit to pass a law to ban his bid to take over the UK’s biggest satellite network, he has announced that he will withdraw the bid:

Rupert Murdoch withdrew his bid for broadcaster BSkyB on Wednesday, as outrage over alleged crimes at his newspapers galvanized a rare united front in parliament against a man long used to being courted by Britain’s political elite.

The Australian-born billionaire’s U.S.-based News Corp, thwarted in a key move to expand its media empire in television, said it would keep its 39 percent of the highly profitable pay-TV network, but left investors guessing over whether it might try again to buy up the rest, or even sell up.

The withdrawal removes the most pressing political conflict the company faced. But a police probe and new public inquiries into the scandal and into media regulation as a whole may keep an unflattering spotlight on it and weaken the influence the 80-year-old media magnate has enjoyed in Britain for decades.

I think that this is a tactical move. He’s holding onto his 30% stake in BSkyB, so if everything is back to business as usual in 9 months, I expect him to go for another bite at the apple.

I’m kind of hoping that things won’t be back to “business as usual” in 9 months.

10 July 2011, 9:47 PM

A Non-Wisconsin Wingnut Recalled

In this case, it’s the wingnut Arizona state Senate president, Russell Pearce, one of the main architects of the radical right wing agenda in that state:

A citizens’ group that opposes the Arizona senate president because of his stance on illegal immigration and other issues has collected enough signatures to force a recall election for him, officials said on Friday.

Republican state Senator Russell Pearce rose to national attention as the chief architect of the state’s tough anti-immigration law that was signed into law last year, but has been blocked by the courts.

Maricopa County elections officials certified the group Citizens for a Better Arizona has collected over 10,300 signatures in their effort to force a recall election for Pearce, said Yvonne Reed, a county elections spokeswoman.

The group only was required to collect 7,756 valid signatures under state law, Reed said.

Barring any successful legal challenges, officials said the recall election for Pearce, who represents Mesa, Arizona, could be called for November or March.

I think that this is actually a long shot, unlike other states, there is no separate ballot for the recall and the election, just a new election, and if no serious Republican runs against him, it’s unlikely that a Democrat, even a ConservaDem, would prevail, but it’s nice to put the fear of the electorate into this ratf%$#’s heart.

8 July 2011, 7:20 PM

Wisc ‘Phants Try to Redistrict Ahead of Recall

Now here’s a surprise.

Facing the possibility of the control of the Senate flipping back to the Democrats with the recall elections, the Republicans are calling a special session to get it done before the August elections/:

Republican leaders released their plan Friday to redraw districts for the Legislature, setting up possible votes on them over the next two weeks and more controversy at the Capitol.

A quick vote would allow GOP lawmakers to approve the maps before recall elections are held this summer that could shift control of the Senate from Republicans to Democrats. That would let Republicans lock down advantages at the ballot box for the next 10 years by drawing maps in their favor.

Democrats in the Legislature won’t necessarily have a say in what the maps look like. But a lawsuit has already been filed, meaning a federal court could still weigh in on the process.

A hearing on the new maps is scheduled for Wednesday, and the Legislature could act on it as early as July 19 in extraordinary session.

Somehow, I don’t think that they are particularly sanguine regarding their chances during the recall elections.

The interesting thing here is that redistricting is supposed to be a sort of bottom up activity in Wisconsin, with local authorities drawing up wards before the legislature draws districts, but they are rushing the process.

I’d love to see their internal polling data, because they are so scared that they are willing to allow a vote on emergency unemployment benefits too.

6 July 2011, 9:49 PM

When Ron Paul Sounds Sane…..

We are living in strange times, and he just suggested that the Federal Reserve destroy the $1.6 trillion in Treasury notes that it bought as a part of quantitative easing program:

Representative Ron Paul has hit upon a remarkably creative way to deal with the impasse over the debt ceiling: have the Federal Reserve Board destroy the $1.6 trillion in government bonds it now holds. While at first blush this idea may seem crazy, on more careful thought it is actually a very reasonable way to deal with the crisis. Furthermore, it provides a way to have lasting savings to the budget.

The basic story is that the Fed has bought roughly $1.6 trillion in government bonds through its various quantitative easing programs over the last two and a half years. This money is part of the $14.3 trillion debt that is subject to the debt ceiling. However, the Fed is an agency of the government. Its assets are in fact assets of the government. Each year, the Fed refunds the interest earned on its assets in excess of the money needed to cover its operating expenses. Last year the Fed refunded almost $80 billion to the Treasury. In this sense, the bonds held by the Fed are literally money that the government owes to itself.

Unlike the debt held by Social Security, the debt held by the Fed is not tied to any specific obligations. The bonds held by the Fed are assets of the Fed. It has no obligations that it must use these assets to meet. There is no one who loses their retirement income if the Fed doesn’t have its bonds. In fact, there is no direct loss of income to anyone associated with the Fed’s destruction of its bonds. This means that if Congress told the Fed to burn the bonds, it would in effect just be destroying a liability that the government had to itself, but it would still reduce the debt subject to the debt ceiling by $1.6 trillion. This would buy the country considerable breathing room before the debt ceiling had to be raised again. President Obama and the Republican congressional leadership could have close to two years to talk about potential spending cuts or tax increases. Maybe they could even talk a little about jobs.

In addition, there’s a second reason why Representative Paul’s plan is such a good idea. As it stands now, the Fed plans to sell off its bond holdings over the next few years. This means that the interest paid on these bonds would go to banks, corporations, pension funds, and individual investors who purchase them from the Fed. In this case, the interest payments would be a burden to the Treasury since the Fed would no longer be collecting (and refunding) the interest.

This would be a change in plan for the Fed, the intent was to sell those bonds at a later date to soak up currency, but the same thing can be done by raising reserve requirements.

Needless to say, this won’t happen. It makes too much sense.

H/t Naked Capitalism.

6 July 2011, 6:48 PM

Steny Hoyer tells Boehner to Go Cheney Himself

Hoyer just said that Boehner won’t get the votes for raising the debt limit from his teabagger freshman, so he needs Democratic votes, and he won’t get any without a tax increase:

“I’ve told Mr. Boehner that I will help,” Hoyer said. “Now I’m not going to help on some draconian do it my way or the highway vote, but we Democrats are prepared to co-operate in order to assure that the creditworthiness of the United States is not put at risk and to move towards a fiscally responsible path…everything needs to be on the table, and when I say everything I mean everything…. Revenues need to be a significant part of it.”

…………

The Democrats’ vote-counter in the House of Representatives says the GOP will need his help to raise the national debt limit — but they won’t get it if they don’t put everything on the table, including tax revenues.

“Speaker Boehner needed Democratic votes to pass keeping government running, even at minimal levels,” Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told reporters at his weekly Capitol briefing, in response to a question from TPM. “So my presumption is [Senator] Schumer is right.”

That’s more balls than I expected from Hoyer, who seems to spend most of his time sabotaging the efforts of real Democrats.

5 July 2011, 7:59 PM

The Clown Show that Keeps on Giving…

Pass the Popcorn

The Republican Presidential Primaries.

Case in point, David Duke, former Klansman and Nazi, is looking at throwing his hat in the ring:

Add to the growing list of candidates considering a bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012 America’s most famous white-power advocate: David Duke.

A former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and Republican executive-committee chairman in his district until 2000, Duke has a significant following online. His videos go viral. This month, he’s launching a tour of 25 states to explore how much support he can garner for a potential presidential bid. He hasn’t considered running for serious office since the early ’90s, when he won nearly 40 percent of the vote in his bid for Louisiana governor. But like many “white civil rights advocates,” as he describes himself to The Daily Beast, 2012 is already shaping up to be a pivotal year.

I have no idea what Jon Stewart will do with this, but his writing staff has to be high-fiving each other, because David Duke just covered a dozen of their boat payments.

3 July 2011, 4:21 PM

And the Wisconsin Supreme Court Gets Weirder and Weirder………

This is technically assault

Now it appears that Republicans on the court wanted to proceed with an official photograph session before reporting anything to the capitol police:

In the wake of a physical altercation between two state Supreme Court justices, several of the judges discussed whether a planned photo session for the court should take priority over a meeting with the Capitol police chief.

The email exchange among all the justices came late in the afternoon on June 14, one day after the incident between Justices Ann Walsh Bradley and David Prosser. The emails were released to the Journal Sentinel first by Prosser and then by Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson after a request was made to each justice under the open records law.

The response to the request for Abrahamson’s emails also suggests that she had considered putting out a public statement in response to the incident but did not release it.

Bradley told the Journal Sentinel that in the June 13 incident Prosser put his hands around her neck in what she called a “chokehold.” Prosser has said other accounts quoting anonymous sources would be proved false, but he has not directly responded to Bradley’s description of the incident.

So, one side says that Prosser put her in a choke hold, and the other says that she attacked his hands with her throat. (Which one sounds more credible to you, particularly since Prosser called the Chief Justice a “bitch” whom he would “destroy”)

It gets weirder, because Prosser assaulted a reporter asking him about the matter, by grabbing a microphone out of his hands (yes, it is assault). (See vid)

Prosser is not presenting the image of a person who is in control of his behavior.

H/t TPM (also here) .

2 July 2011, 9:03 PM

Things are About to Get Interesting in Lebanon

The UN Tribunal investigating the assassination of Rafik Hariri in 2005 has indicted 4 people, including 2 senior Hezbollah members:

A United Nations-backed tribunal investigating the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister delivered indictments to prosecutors here on Thursday, naming four men, including two suspected members of Hezbollah, in a six-year-old case that remade the country’s politics and unleashed years of discord.

The naming of members of Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim movement that is the most powerful actor here, was expected for months. But the indictments marked the beginning of a judicial process that could bring unprecedented pressure on the group and its ally Syria, which faces growing isolation over its crackdown on a nearly four-month uprising.

Although the statements of Lebanese leaders were restrained, details of the indictment could prove inflammatory in a country still deeply divided between Hezbollah and its allies, on the one hand, and a disparate group of its critics and opponents. Only the names were leaked; the details of the indictment, so far, remain secret.

“It’s the beginning of something big, not small,” said Paul Salem, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. But, he added: “Names without a story doesn’t have much impact. If the public comes to see there’s massive evidence of a terrible story, that will have a big public impact by itself, but that hasn’t happened yet.”

According to legal experts, Lebanon has 30 days to serve the arrest warrants. If the suspects are not arrested in that time, the tribunal will make the indictments public and summon the suspects to court.

The facts of the case are no surprise, Hezbollah, and Syria’s, finger prints are all over this, but the formal indictment certainly complicates things.