Category: Politics

I Wish That I Could Write Like Matt Taibbi

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He has a post up, The Tea Party is Perverted and Irrelevant, and he notes that the tea-baggers‘ fascination with mythical reverse racism mirrors these sick f%$#s:

Years ago a friend of mine in the media told me a story about an experience he had covering the execution of John Wayne Gacy in Joliet, Illinois. You won’t find anyone in the world who’d have been sad to see serial child murderer in a clown suit like Gacy die, but this reporter friend of mine said the crowd outside the prison on execution night freaked him out almost as much as Gacy had. There were something like 400 people outside the gates at Joliet and there were people selling commemorative t-shirts and pounding beers and chanting (“Kill the Clown!” was a popular one) all night.

At the moment of truth the crowd cheered and my friend turned to interview a scraggly-looking twenty-something with thinning long hair whom he described as looking like a too-old version of the Todd Ianuzzi mean-teenager character in Beavis and Butthead. The guy was into his second six-pack and smiling goofily like he’d just gotten a half-price rub-n-tug from a Thai massage parlor. He says to my friend: “You’re not against capital punishment, are you?”

“I’m not against capital punishment,” my friend says. “I’m against enjoying capital punishment.”

I’m with my friend on this one. As far as I see it, there are three positions on capital punishment. There’s being against it. There’s being for it. Then there’s putting six-packs of beer in a cooler and driving to a hideous prison complex in the middle of the night with four hundred strangers to cheer like fans at a baseball game for the execution of some fat old child killer. Dude, if that’s what you call recreation, you’re either dangerously bored or seriously fucked up.

Taibbi notes that these people really get off on this, though he is rather more optimistic than I am, he sees them as “Basically see are a bunch of middle-aged white people who spent their teens listening to Eddie Murphy albums and deep down are a lot more worried about their credit card debt than they are about ACORN taking over the government,” but I disagree.

I see them as a lost generation, and absent a cataclysm on par with the Axis defeats during WWII, I do not see these people returning to normalcy.

In any case, go and read the whole thing.

The Taiwanese Assesment of Sarah Palin

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I’m not sure if it’s the same folks as “Apple Daily,” who did those animations of a prominent golfer who is on my list of They Who Must Not Be Named which Olberman featured prominently, but the style, as well as the cultural sensibilities, seem to be very similar.

I’m not sure if this means that they Don’t understand the United States, or if it means that they Do understand the United States.

If the producers of this video do actually understand us, we are in for a world of hurt as a nation.

What BTD Says

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There seems to be a push by the blue dogs and DINOS to try to make some portion of the disastrous Bush tax cut permanent.

Of course, most the Republicans won’t vote for it unless it keeps tax cuts for millionaires, and so it needs liberal Democratic votes to pass.

Well, the the blogger formerly known as Armando has this right, the best course of action absent some major concessions from the Blue Dog types is to do nothing, and let taxes go up, particularly the inheritance tax, which will pay for the loss of revenues this year in about 18 months if it returns to its old levels:

But it is not for progressive Dems. In short, to hell with Baucus and Reid on this issue, Progressives can get what they want by simply making sure nothing happens. They have the bargaining power now. Time to use it.

All that needs to happen for the taxes to be repealed is to do nothing.

Doubtless, the Obama administration will twist arms over this, since he promised people making less than $¼ million a year that he would not raise taxes, but he also promised to support a public option, to get us out of Iraq, repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and have a serious look at torture and other war crimes by Bush and His Evil Minions™.

I don’t see any reason for liberals in Congress to go out of their way to support Obama on bad policy promises if he won’t fight on good policy promises.

And Now the Truth Comes Out

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And the Obama administration is now falling all over itself to apologize to Shirley Sherrod.

Not panicking in the first place, and getting the facts right would have been better, but I think that what happened is that they realize that they are now looking like a bunch of bed-wetting cowards.

The problem is not that they are looking like a bunch of bed-wetting cowards, it is that they are a bunch of bed-wetting cowards.

Not only is it bad policy, but it is bad politics, because, as Josh Marshall notes in his “Bitch slap theory of electoral politics, because it makes the voters think that, “Someone who can’t or won’t defend themselves certainly isn’t someone you can depend upon to defend you.”

I’m waiting for the the response from Stewart, Letterman, and Leno.

Shakespeare?

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Click for full size

The Sun Glasses Conceal the Tears

After using a non-existent word, “Refudiate,” in a twitter post, Sarah Palin compares herself with William Shakespeare, who she notes may have made up some words too.

In related news, it now turns out that Sarah Palin knows nothing about Alaska either, claiming that Kodiak is the largest island in the United States. (It isn’t, it’s Hawaii, aka the “Big Island,” where Palin lived briefly)

Oh for the day when she gets a few wrinkles, and fades into well deserved obscurity, so that I can put her on my list of They Who Must Not Be Named, but as she is still a political figure about which people speculate on her Presidential prospects, I do not feel comfortable putting my hands over my ears and saying, “I can’t hear you!”

Not Gonna Happen……

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Now that financial reform is due to become law, the word is that gadfly for the common folk Elizabeth Warren is the most likely candidate to head up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPFB, it was originally going to be a full agency called the CPFB).

This is not going to happen.

The Obama administration, particularly Timothy “The Bankers’ Bitch” Geithner, hate her.

She has embarrassed then by publicly reporting on how the TARP has been too easy on big banks, she has embarrassed them by advocating for real reform, and she has embarrassed them by lobbying aggressively for the CPFAB, which the Obama administration does not really want as a meaningful entity, because they actually believe the talking points from the finance industry about the need for “innovation”.

I should note that Something Awful is reporting that Ben Nelson asked for, and got, a veto on the head of the CPFB in exchange for his vote on financial reform, and that Nelson has flatly stated that Warren is not acceptable.

Honestly, I can see members of the protesting Nelson’s as vehemently as Br’er Rabbit asked not to be thrown into the briar patch.

Why You Should not Give to the DSCC

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Because, will throw money at people like Blanche Lincoln, who, now that the primary challenge is done, is once again throwing her lot in with the rich bankers who are in the process of destroying our country.

This time, she and John Kyle, he of the “never need to pay for tax cuts for rich folk,” fame, have introduced an inheritance tax bill that is a big wet kiss for the richest families in the United States:

Their proposal would require Democratic leaders to amend the small-business jobs bill with a provision that sets the estate tax at 35 percent with a $5 million exemption. These amounts will be phased in over a 10-year period and also be indexed for inflation. In addition, inherited assets would be taxed at their worth upon transfer, not when the deceased purchased them.

Of course, because of the way the Bush and His Evil Minions™ wrote his tax cuts, there is no inheritance tax at all this year, but next year, it goes back to 55% and a $1 million exemption, and, quite honestly, the “liberal” proposal is a $3.5 million exemption and a 45% rate.

Of course, when given a choice between giving something to rich heirs, and giving everything to those same heirs, Blanche Lincoln goes with giving money to the useless heir class.

The first broad based tax adopted by the founding fathers was an inheritance tax. They did it because they realized that dynastic wealth was corrosive to the republic.

But Blanche Lincoln needs those campaign dollars, so f%$# the budget and American people.

It goes without saying that the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is backing her to the hilt, which is why you shouldn’t give to the DSCC when they come calling.

The NAACP Has Discovered That There Are Racists Amongst the Teabaggers

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I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here!

I wonder what took NAACP this long to issue what is a remarkably tepid statement:

“We take no issue with the Tea Party. We believe in freedom of assembly and people raising their voices in a democracy,” Ben Jealous, president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said in a statement.

“We take issue with the Tea Party’s continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements. The time has come for them to accept the responsibility that comes with influence and make clear there is no space for racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in their movement,” Jealous said.

This statement is long overdue, and might have been appropriate about a year ago, but now, it is awfully weak tea.

Still, it’s fun to see teabagger heads explode over this is amusing.

There is No Room for Compromise on Abortion

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The same folks who bought you the draconian restrictions on abortion in Barack Obama’s healthcare bill are now lobbying to ban federal coverage for all forms of birth control.

Let’s be clear here, this is not about meaningful policy. They just want to punish women for having sex:

Polls suggest the majority of Americans would support such a policy. But the Daily Beast has learned that many conservative activists, who spent most of their energies during the health-care reform fight battling to win abortion restrictions and abstinence-education funding, are just waking up to the possibility that the new health care law could require employers and insurance companies to offer contraceptives, along with other commonly prescribed medications, without charging any co-pay. Now the Heritage Foundation and the National Abstinence Education Association say that, like the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, they oppose implementation of the new provisions.

This why there is no meaningful space for discussion for these people.

They use terrorism against doctors, they are working to make birth control unavailable at pharmacies, and now they are trying to exclude birth control from prescription coverage.

Enough is enough. These people are not the opposition, they are the enemy.

H/t Atrios

When Calls Harry Reid You a Wimp………

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You have a very serious problem:

In an interview on Friday with Jon Ralston, one of the top political reporters in Nevada, Reid was asked for examples of things he disagreed with Obama on. Reid said there are multiple things. When asked for a further explanation by Ralston, Reid’s answer came down more to process and style, rather than substance.

“I think that he is on many occasions — I shouldn’t say on many occasions, on a few occasions — I think he should have been more firm with those on the other side of the aisle,” said Reid. “He is a person who doesn’t like confrontation. He’s a peacemaker. And sometimes I think you have to be a little more forceful. And sometimes I don’t think he is enough with the Republicans.”

Ralston asked Reid for an example.

“Health care,” Reid responded. “That went on for many months. And I think much of that early on scrimmaging was done in the Senate itself, and the White House didn’t come in until later. Now, we came up with a great product, and I’m sure he can look back and say I was right, but boy for me down in the trenches, I know it was a time when I wanted a few folks in the White House behind me.”

Ralston then suggested that Reid was saying Obama wasn’t strong enough.

“He’s a very strong man. He’s calm, he’s cool, he’s deliberate,” Reid responded. “But as I just said, I think sometimes he — I would like him to be more confrontational. He isn’t, that’s who he is. My saying this isn’t gonna make him that way. I know who he is, and I understand him.”

Harry Reid just called Barack Obama a wimp, though I think that he pointedly stayed away from calling him a “bitch”. (The strong man comment)

Seriously, it’s time for an intervention with Barack Obama.

We need to send him for a few weeks to the Betty Ford Mike Ditka clinic.

Barack Obama In Trying for Credibility in Defense, Destroys Our Military

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Because Barack Obama and His Stupid Minions™ are terrified about being accused of being soft on defense,* that his future budgets will by expensive high tech weapons systems at the expense of operations, maintenance, and readiness:

U.S. spending on weapons through 2016 likely will grow faster than the overall defense budget, which will have annual increases of only about 1 percent above inflation, according to Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale.

“Our goal would be to get forces and modernization to grow by 2 or 3 percent,” Hale said in an interview, while saying that “it’s not a given.”

So Obama intends to spend money on crap we don’t need, thereby diverting money from the crap we do need

Of course, the fact that we are already spending more money on defense than at any time since the end of the 2nd World War, and he’s still trying to increase the defense budget in real terms just buggers the mind.

Republicans support wasteful defense spending because:

  • It’s easy to demagogue.
  • They find defense contractors an easy touch for donations.
  • They want to ruin our finances so that we have to make cuts in social programs.

The Democrats support wasteful defense spending because:

  • They are afraid that Republicans will call them names.

Truth be told, I am not sure which one is more pathetic.

*It won’t work, the Republicans will run against you as soft on defense anyway. As the saying goes, “The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave man only one.”

Quote of the Day

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It is remarkable. I had expected that we economists would have to fight Democratic political advisors who would be pushing for policies that were bad in the long run but that gained votes in the short run. I had never expected to be fighting Democratic political advisors who are pushing policies that are:

  • bad in the long run.
  • bad in the short run.
  • lose votes too.

—-J. Bradford Delong, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration

<Tinfoil Hat>I’m beginning to wonder if Obama isn’t some sort of Republican Manchurian Candidate</Tinfoil Hat>

I don’t really believe this, but his policy of cozying up to bankers, BP, and other corrupt centers of power in our society while cock punching the DFH’s* that are his base seems to be a pretty good job of sabotaging his party.

*Dirty F%$#ing Hippies.

Why Aren’t The Dems Hammering This Every Day?

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Georgia Democratic Gubernatorial candidate, and former Governor, Roy Barnes, is now explaining to the voters that wingnut Republicans are more than poor stewards of the public trust, but that they they are actually an embarrassment to the people, and the state, of Georgia.

Some text from his ad:

It’s hard for industry to take us seriously when the Legislature attempts to outlaw stem cell research, passes bills about microchips in the brain, and talks about seceding from the Union.

………

We can’t bring jobs to Georgia with the rest of the country laughing at us.

An appeal to civic pride, reminding folks that these folks are f%$#ing nuts, and that we should be embarrassed that they win elections, is a simple and easily understood: They are laughing at you, not with you because of these clowns.

This is a message that can, and should, be hammered at every day until election day.

Tin Foil Hat time

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I think that it is fairly clear by the way that Barack Obama has stacked the “deficit reduction commission,” so as to be a “very serious person.”

The two chairs, Erskine Bowles, and Alan Simpson, have both been long time advocates of privatizing and otherwise gutting Social security.

Well, we now have an oddity in statistical reporting, because the Annual Report of the Trustees of Social Security for 2010 has not yet been released.

This is the document that gives an expiration date on the Social Security trust fund, and normally, it’s released on March 31, 3 months ago.

The Angry Bear finds this odd:

I find this odd in the extreme, particularly since Social Security is front and center in the news with the ongoing meetings of the Catfood Commission with their strong suggestions that cuts to Social Security are definitely on the table. You would think that repeated delays in the release of this key Report would at least require SOME explanation and that someone in the media might be asking questions. But no like the proverbial tree falling in the forest no one was close enough to hear the sound. If any. Well the silence is deafening. The lead press item on the Social Security website is the news that Isabella is the number one name for baby girls this year. http://www.ssa.gov/ Which I guess is fascinating news for fans of the Twilight franchise but not quite satisfying for us data driven types.

I think that this is all a part of a desire to give cover to the “Cat food commission,”* so called because that is what seniors will eat if their proposals are adopted cover for their proposal.

I am not sure if the intent is to bury a good report, of if it is to release an alarmist report at the most opportune moment, but my money is on skulduggery.

*In the interest of health, I would suggest that people eat dog food, and not cat food. Cats because they are one of the few true carnivores, do not need the complex carbohydrates and fats that people, and dogs do. As such, dog food is better for you than cat food because it provides carbs and essential fatty acids. A dog can go blind if it is fed on cat food, but a cat lives just fine on dog food. The pnenomenon is known as rabbit starvation.

Republicans and Hookers Go Together Like Chocolate and Peanut Butter in a Reese’s

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We have another scandal in the GOP, this one involving embezzlement of Florida State Party funds, and we have now reached the now inevitable hooker stage of the story:

According to a female party official who spoke to investigators, Greer organized a men-only trip to the Bahamas with major donors and “women were involved and paid.” Gov. Charlie Crist, who was on the same trip and hand-picked Greer for the top GOP job in 2007, said today that the charge there were escorts or other paid women involved is “absurdly false.”

You know, if I had been a Republican party operative when I was single, I would have gotten a lot more action.

Hell, the debauchery would have continued after I got married if I had been a ‘Phant operative.

Angela Merkel is Lucky That

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The bar for worst German leader ever is so high.

In the latest episode of this show, Ms. Merkel screwed the pooch on a political beauty pageant:

Chancellor Angela Merkel licked her wounds Thursday after rebels in her coalition turned a straightforward presidential election into a humiliating debacle that made her look weaker than ever.

In theory, Merkel’s coalition had more than enough votes in an assembly of lawmakers and public figures to secure comfortably on Wednesday an election of the conservative Christian Wulff to the largely ceremonial job of head of state.

She may have a future as a reverse barometer in her next job.