2nd City nails it:
Category: Politics
The Republican Senate Caucus Blinks
After announcing her write in bid for the Alaska Senate, the Senate Republican caucus threatened to yank Lisa Murkowski’s position as rinking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, but they have now backed away from that:
In a surprise move, Senate Republicans did not vote to drop one of their own, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, as top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Senator Murkowski’s decision to mount a write-in campaign after losing her primary to “tea party” backed attorney Joe Miller angered many of her Senate colleagues. Even a failed bid risks splitting the Republican vote in Alaska, giving Democrats an unexpected pickup and curbing GOP prospects for taking back the Senate.
On Wednesday, the caucus did replace Murkowski with Sen. John Barrasso (R) of Wyoming as vice chair of the Republican Conference – the policy wing of Senate Republicans – but it declined to go further.
So they went with a largely symbolic slap on the wrist, because losing her ranking status would have made it far more difficult for her to campaign in Alaska on the political currency of that realm, pork barrel spending.
I don’t know what went on behind closed doors, 24 hours ago her being stripped of her position was thought to be a done deal.
Jon Stewart Answers the Questions that Need to Be Answered
We Have Found Obama’s Kryptonite
At a CNBC town hall, hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci asks Barack Obama, “When are we going to stop whacking at the Wall Steet piñata?
Well, Jon Stewart has the answer:
How long will we on Wall Street be hit like a piñata with a stick????
How about until the f%$#ing candy comes out!
How about that!
That’s how piñatas work!
…………
What you call a stick on Wall Street? I guess Amercans call a Trillion dollar bailout of your industry.
…………
Until your paper mâché bellies are no longer stuffed with government candy, walk it off!
Jon Stewart is not a man I ever want angry with me.
Non-Combat Role My Ass, Part XVII
Barack Obama’s claim that combat troops are of Iraq is a lie, as is made clear by a letter from a soldier:
“The reason I’m sending this out is because I have had a few people ask if I left Iraq early because all of the combat troops are out of Iraq and I wanted to let everyone know the real deal.
Take our Brigade for example. We were originally called a HBCT (Heavy Brigade Combat Team). Well, since Obama said he would pull all of the “combat” troops out by Aug, all they did before we left was change our name from a HBCT to an AAB (Advise and Assist Brigade). We have the same personnel/equipment layout as before and are doing the same missions. The ONLY difference is that they changed our name from a HBCT to an AAB and that’s how we pulled all of the ‘combat’ troops out.
There are other Brigades just like ours that are doing the same missions that are still over here. So anyway now you know the REAL story, so that’s why I’m not coming back early.”
Obama does not realize that being commander-in-chief of the military means to command.
Unfortunately, he is dealing with a military which, like pretty much all militaries, is culturally incapable of seeing a conflict beyond the prism of “winning”, and so by compromising, we simply dig ourselves deeper.
Larry Summers to Resign After November Elections
It looks like Obama needed to make some change, though it looks like they will be changes for the worse, because they are looking to replace him as director of Obama’s National Economic Council with someone who is even more of a wall street insider than Summers:
Administration officials are weighing whether to put a prominent corporate executive in the NEC director’s job to counter criticism that the administration is anti-business, one person familiar with White House discussions said. White House aides are also eager to name a woman to serve in a high-level position, two people said.…
Because appeasing whining bankers is job 1 at the White House, I guess, because we are all just little people.
… They also are concerned about finding someone with Summers’ experience and stature, one person said.
Well, if they want someone who can match Summers’ record of being right, and his record of moral rectitude, I might suggest Dick Cheney, Ben Stein, or Vlad Tepes.
As I have said many times, remember, the Cossacks work for the Czar, and I think that the basic problem here is top down, not bottom up.
A Sincere and Honest Takedown of Obama
Blah, blah, blah!
The questioner, Velma Hart is asking for a reason to keep believing:
“I’m one of your middle-class Americans, and quite frankly I’m exhausted. I’m exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now. I had been told that I voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I’m one of those people and I’m waiting, sir. I’m waiting. I don’t feel it yet, and I thought that — while it wouldn’t be in great measure — I would feel it in some small measure.”
Obama’s response is a laundry list of accomplishments, but this misses the bigger point, which is that people are no longer willing to believe that he is willing to fight for them, because he appears to be unwilling to fight at all.
When looking at situations where there are real malefactors involved, his solution is to find common ground, whether it is health care, Wall Street, or BP, and some times, actually a lot of the time, that is simply not enough.
I Write Letters
So, the New York Times has an article where they bemoan the fact that Wall Street financiers could not buy 3 New York State Senate elections for “educational reformers”:
They were the candidates of riches, flush with hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wall Street investors who believed in the promise of charter schools.
But when the election results came in on Tuesday, all three State Senate candidates supporting education reform — Basil Smikle, Lynn Nunes and Mark H. Pollard — lost by huge margins, with none cracking 30 percent of the total vote in primary contests against union-backed rivals.
The three New York races amounted to some of the country’s first proxy wars between labor groups and Wall Street financiers pushing for education reform, and in the end, the time-tested union machine prevailed.
You see the message here: something is wrong with America if a bunch of rich pukes from Wall Street cannot buy elections in order to privatize an essential public service, in this through for-profit charter schools, and generate taxpayer subsidized profits.
It’s worked so well for prisons, and for military contractors, that we must feed our children to feed the Wall Street beast yet again.
In any case, it pissed me off enough to write a letter to the editor on the subject, which is almost certainly not going to get published:
I found the article one sided. While it is clear that unions played a role in the elections, you make it sound as if this was somehow unfair, while relegating those who donated, “hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wall Street investors” to these candidates who lost as somehow simply being people of good will, “who believed in the promise of charter schools.”
The promise of charter schools that attracts ” Wall Street investors” is its creation of an educational-industrial complex and its associated revenue streams.
There have been numerous studies of charter schools over decades, and they do not meaningfully outperform public schools in properly constructed studies.
There are real problems in our schools, but neither the mindless focus on test scores nor bringing Wall Street profiteers into the equation are the solution.
How Not to Bury an Effective Ad
Robin Carnahan, who is running against, Roy “I f%$#ed a lobbyist and took money from Abramhoff” Blunt released a pretty damn effective ad with Fox News’ Chris Wallace cutting Roy Blunt a new one on his conflicts of interest.
Well, Fox sued, claiming “copyright infringement and that the ad “compromises “Fox’s integrity. (I have to clean my screen now)
Of course, now everyone wants to see the video. Smooth move, Fox.
In any case, here is the video:
Where I Wish I Could Be on October 30
Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity
Stephen Colbert’s March to Keep Fear Alive
At Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity on the National Mall in Washington, DC, heckling people at Stephen Colbert’s March to Keep Fear Alive on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
Unfortunately, I have a prior appointment, I will be at the SCA event, TNT,* and my kids love that event, so I will be there instead.
Still, I think that anyone who can make there should, because if this outdraws Glen Beck and his racist psychopathic ilk, it shows what his numbers really mean.
*Yes, I know that this year, it’s technically the, “Treaty of Troyes,” but it’s TNT and has been TNT for well over a decade.
Posted Without Comment
Vote For Me You C@cksucking Losers Is Not a Good Campaign Slogan…
But it is the apparent strategy of Barack Obama and His Stupid Minions™ for the mid terms.
Here’s the story, a group of activists lobby the Obama administration to put Jimmy Carter’s solar panels back on the White House. They do a tour with a panel, and get people to sign a petition, and the panel gets on Letterman.
Truth be told, this is precisely the sort of guerrilla theater agitprop that I hate, but you know, whatever floats their boat.
So, they get their meeting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and what what happens next is illustrative: They meet with a couple of low level drones, who try to filibuster the meeting by reading Washington Post articles to them about how pro-environment they are, and then they refuse to have their pictures taken with either the panel or for the presentation of the petition.
When asked why, their response is, “If reporters call and ask us, we will provide our rationale,” and then they, “pass out Xeroxed copies of a 2009 memorandum from Vice President Biden,” and end the meeting.
So, here is your pamphlet, now get the f%$# out.
You know, whoever decided on this response, because it is clear that the drones were just following orders, are as Ronald Reagan, Jr. said about Dick Cheney, “[Not] a mindful human being. That’s probably the nicest way I can put it.”
Beating a Bald Eagle to Death With a Koran
Best metaphor for the Democratic Party ever.
I love Jon Stewart.*
*In a 110% purely heterosexual kind of way, of course, as the General would say.
Why is the Federal Reserve Freaking Out?
It appears that the Federal Reserve is putting out signals that it will be engaging in more quantitative easing (printing money) toward the end of this year:
The U.S. Federal Reserve could announce a new program of asset purchases to support a weak economy as early as November, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
“We don’t expect this at the Sept. 21 meeting, but in November or December there’s certainly a possibility that it will be announced,” Jan Hatzius, chief economist at the bank, said Tuesday. He added the Fed is likely to buy U.S. Treasurys worth around $1.0 trillion to kick-start the economy.
Maybe I am being alarmist, but I as Ben Bernanke and the rest of the Fed have already proven themselves to be remarkably blase about the unemployment levels, so I have to assume that they are expecting to see someting major shake loose in the financial markets, and they want to restart their sh%$pile for cash program to forestall this.
It might not be an economic or financial issue that is getting them to move though, as they are currently hamstrung by the intersection of the law and Barack Obama’s general unwillingness to challenge republicans on the stonewalling of even the most benign nominees.
As a result, 3 nominees for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors are cooling their heels, and with the retirement of Donald Kohn, the board membership is down to 4 members, which means that they cannot make the emergency loans that they did following the collapse of Lehman:
Here’s a scary thought: Let’s say the European sovereign debt crisis flares up again, and one or two Euro banks fail. (Not a bank like UBS or Deutsche Bank, but a medium-sized bank like Bank of Greece or a Landesbank.) That, in turn, causes a U.S. money market fund — many of which have large exposures to Euro banks — to “break the buck,” which leads to another run on money market funds.
The Fed would be powerless to help. The Fed’s emergency lending authority (the famed Section 13(3)) requires that any emergency lending facility to non-banks be approved “by the affirmative vote of not less than five members” of the Fed Board of Governors. Currently, there are only four members of the Fed board: Bernanke, Warsh, Elizabeth Duke, and Dan Tarullo. Donald Kohn retired earlier this month, and the Senate has yet to vote on Obama’s three nominees (Janet Yellen, Peter Diamond, and Sarah Bloom Raskin).
Indeed.
Of course, Obama could fix this by making a recess apportionment, I would suggest that he actually appoint Jamie Galbraith, because it would freak the Republicans out, but he doesn’t have the guts for that, or much else.
I Now Know How The Daily Show Writers Feel…
The Mustache of InsanityBecause former recess appointee UN ambassador John Bolton is saying that he might run for President:
During recent appearances on Fox News, Bolton has been asked whether he would run for president. “Well, you know it’s a great honor when people ask me that question, and I have been asked that question,” Bolton said on Wednesday. “I don’t think anybody involved with politics should worry about that until after the elections this fall.”
He also said: “I’m not saying no. That’s right.”
This promises to be easier to ridicule, and even more funny, than the Freddie Thompson Clown Show presidential campaign of 2008.
I so want him to run.
Do you know that it’s been over 100 years since we elected a president with facial hair (Taft, 1908).
IRS Investigates Chamber of Commerce for Tax Fraud
The Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether or not, “the group mixed funds for charitable and noncharitable political purposes in violation of tax codes.”
It’s pretty clear that most of the 501(c)3s that are attached to lobbying groups have nothing to do with what should be educational purposes:
Cyrus Mehri, a Washington lawyer who brought the I.R.S. complaint on behalf of U.S. Chamber Watch, said in an interview that the chamber’s current political activities were, in effect, being underwritten with money intended for charitable work.
The complaint focuses on loans and grants totaling about $18 million that were made beginning in 2003 to a nonprofit affiliate, the National Chamber Foundation, by the Starr Foundation, a charity started by the founder of A.I.G. and now led by Maurice R. Greenberg, the insurer’s former chairman.
Lawyers for Chamber Watch said their research, based largely on public tax filings, found that none of the principal on some $12 million in loans had been paid back and that the money appeared to have been given to the chamber’s foundation for unrestricted use.
This actually strikes close to home for me, as I actually incorporated a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization, Arisia, and while I don’t regret doing so, it got the organization a lower postal rate in its early, pre everyone-has-email, days, which helped a lot.
That being said, it’s a group that basically holds a science fiction convention every year, and the fact that it was legal to register as a tax exempt educational organization, as opposed to a non-profit membership organization, a 501(c)7 where contributions are not tax deductible, still bothers me.
There is a lot of abuse in the tax exempt organization regulations, whether it is science fiction conventions generally, the Chamber of Commerce’s faux charity, or the various think tanks out there, and it really needs to be fixed.
How Barack Obama Could Appoint Elizabeth Warren, and Why He Won’t
Under the Dodd-Frank bill, there is a provision that allows Timothy Geithner to appoint a head to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau until such time as the Senate approves a nominee:
According to the bill’s language, the Treasury Secretary has sole authority to build the new agency before it’s ultimately transferred to the Federal Reserve. That includes anointing a person to head the effort on his behalf, and under his authority. The interim head would serve until the President’s nominee is confirmed by the Senate.
That person could be Elizabeth Warren.
And the legislation doesn’t appear to contain a deadline for a Presidential nomination, experts say, which means Warren could start the agency from scratch, put her people in, begin cracking down on predatory and abusive lenders, and initiate a culture that would put consumers’ interests above those of the nation’s most powerful financial institutions.
What is interesting here is that this is not a recess appointment, and so is not subject to the limitations, such as the requirement that their appointment expires at the end of the current Congress in January, 2010.
Theoretically, if Warren were appointed, she could serve for decades without Senatoriual approval.
So, Warren could be appointed, and be on the job, tomorrow, and the only way to remove her would be for the Republicans not to filibuster her in the Senate, and hope that she is defeated by 51 votes on the floor, which won’t happen, because any Democrat who votes against her has the party base campaigning against him or her in the next election cycle.
So, why don’t I think that Obama will do this? Because in so doing, he would energize the Democratic Party base, who would then come out and vote for Democrats in 2010:
Within hours and possibly minutes I expect the president will name Elizabeth Warren to lead the new consumer protection agency, and if he does, the Democratic base will erupt and turn out to vote in far greater numbers than any current poll suggests.*
The thing is that I believe that there are two dominant schools of thought in the White House:
- Those who believe that appealing the the base will always be a net loser in terms of elections. (Rahm)
- Those who actively hate the Democratic Party base, which they see as irrational, unrealistic, a part of the hyper-partisan atmosphere in Washington, and terrifying to the fictitious middle of the road voters in off year elections. (Barack Obama)
Basically, in order for such an act to be taken, the core philosophies of the power centers in the White House have to be repudiated by the people who hold them.
This won’t happen, because even if these decisions help the party, they diminish the power of Emanuel and Obama’s philosophies within the party, which makes it a sort of perverse manifestation of the Iron Law of Institutions, (on edit see this Google link, because one of the purity asshole brigade at Wikipedia deleted the link) which states that, “the people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself.”
*I would note that the author is already wrong, having posted this on Thursday, September 9, and we have had no announcement.
Boehner Blinks
After threatening to take down any tax proposal that did not keep the tax breaks for the Leona “Only the little people pay taxes” Helmsley rich folk, David “Nicotine Stained Face” Boehner has agreed to support tax cuts for the remaining 98% of us.
I think that this is really a change in tactics: He knows that he cannot stop the tax cuts from expiring in the House, and that there is a realistic chance of taking the house, so he will go with the electoral politics that show that over ⅔ of voters support letting the “rich bitch” tax cuts expire, so he will let the Senate, where the chances of a Republican take over are smaller, filibuster this to death.
My response to both of them would be to remind them that the inheritance tax goes way up next year if nothing is done, and if something reasonable does not get through the Congress, then there all the taxes come back full force, but of course, I’m not being all hopey-changey and attempting bipartisanship.
Personally, I’d take the top rate, cutting at somewhere north of 10 million a year, back to around 94%, but then again, I’m just a DFH.*
*Dirty F%$#ing Hippy.
This is a Google Adsense On Drugs, Any Questions?
One Step Forward, One Step Back
Well, Google™ Adsense™ gets one right, for a change.
I live in Maryland, and I am a Democrat, and in any case Robert “Bad Hair” Ehrlich is a complete prat.
I would also note that in 2004, I exchanged about 20 words with Martin O’Malley, and was convinced that he would be president one day.
He is an impressive candidate, and I think that it is likely that he will throw his hat into the ring in 2012 2016.
This ad takes you to Martin O’Malley/Anthony Brown campaign’s home page.
But after they get one right, they put up an ad for the Freedom Works teabagger AstroTurf 9/12 rally. (sorry, no link to those evil f%$#s, not even with the “nofollow” tag.)
I wonder why about 95% of the political ads that show up on my page are all about conservative causes though.
As for the rest, they seem to be HAMP scams.
**sigh**
I Haven’t Posted, Because I Have Nothing to Say
Claire McCaskill tweets the following about the burn the Koran guy:
The Senator from the great state of Missouri captures my feelings to a “t”.
H/t David Kurtz at TPM.
Dummies on 51 Park and Religious Tolerance
Not The Daily Show, but close.
It had to be put up on September 11.
BTW, watch the entire thing. There is this bit at the end that is prize.