Category: Politics

More College Republican Bull Sh%$

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Remember James O’Keefe, he dressed up like a pimp, and got those videos of ACORN helping him and his “Ho” buying a whore house.

I believe that at the time, I thought that I didn’t have much to add, and besides, College Republican guerrilla theater bullsh%$ just wasn’t particularly interest, so I limited my self to the bill of attainder that Congress passed.

Well, James O’Keefe has now taken College Republican antics straight to the felony level, by attempting to wiretap the office of Senator Mary Landrieu with three friends, Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan.

They pretended to be phone repair guys, and they tried to tap phones, so it appears to be a clear case of, “entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony,” which can get you 10 years, and if they have more evidence of tapping equipment, then the jail time can go to 20 years.

Oops! It’s all fun and games until someone puts an eye out, I guess.

The kicker on all this, Robert Flanagan is, “the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana.”

Any wonder what political discussions are like in the Flanagan house?

Do you wonder, just a little bit, if maybe Flanagan the elder might be inclined to make politically motivated prosecutions? Do you wonder even a little?

This is why the decision not to review the illegal political hirings at the DoJ was a bad idea.

It sounds hopey-changey to let bygones to be bygones, but what this means is that the legal toxic waste that are Bush DoJ hires remains on site.

Sent to My Senators, Re: Bernanke (Please Vote No)

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I sent them the following:

I am writing to ask you to vote against reappointing Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Additionally, I am requesting that you support a filibuster of his nomination.

While I believe that he is a very talented economist, I believe that his outlook, and his prior performance, make him unsuited for continued service in this position.

First, and most importantly, he has made it clear that he will not move on unemployment if it means moving away from a 2% inflation target by the Federal Reserve.

His statements saying that his goal was to preserve, “the anchoring of inflation expectations,” is simply dangerous and wrong in the midst of the worst downturn since the Great Depression.

By expressly stating that he will choose to ignore the 2nd mission of the Federal, the maintenance of full employment, he has shown himself to be ideologically unsuited to the post.

Given that unemployment is at 10% by the U-3 measure, or 17.3% by the more representative U-6 measure, and there is little if any indication that there will be significant improvement in the jobless rate this year, this is short sighted and destructive.

Additionally, his fierce opposition to reforms of the financial system, particularly his opposition to the Financial Consumer Protection Agency (FCPA) shows that he is out of touch with the need to protect consumers from predatory institutions marketing dishonest financial instruments.

His suggestion that the Federal Reserve would fulfill this role, when it had that role pre-crisis, and refused to act on credible evidence of fraud and deception, is simply nonsense.

This is further compounded by his position on transparency at the Federal Reserve, where he is clearly stonewalling every effort for investigators to understand the nature of the financial meltdown of 2008.

The unwillingness to come clean on the failures that might have happened at the Federal Reserve Board and the regional banks means that there will be no meaningful disclosure, and without disclosure, no lessons will be learned, and this cycle will be repeated, particularly given his record of being an enthusiastic cheerleader for the housing bubble, and the associated dodgy mortgage bubble, before they popped.

The primary argument for his reappointment is that if he is not reappointed, it will somehow shake the financial markets, and trigger another disaster.

This analysis assumes two things:

  1. That he has been thoroughly captured by Wall Street, and so the large investment banks are demanding that he kept to serve their interests, and not those of the people.
  2. That he is simply indispensable, and as Charles de Gaulle said, “The graveyards are full of indispensable men.”

If there are lessons to be learned from Alan Greenspan’s disastrous tenure, it is that the “Greenspan Put”, where the expectation of bailout created moral hazard that led to reckless behavior, and that the “Rock Star” Fed Chair is to be avoided at all cost.

I followed up with a phone call to both offices.

What the Hell is it With South Carolina

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First they start the Civil War, then there is the entire Confederate flag thing, which is followed by the Governor who makes the phrase, “hiking the Appalachian Trail,” suspect, and now we have their Lieutenant Governor, and candidate for Governor calling for a eugenic program to exterminate poor people:

GREENVILLE – Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer has compared giving people government assistance to “feeding stray animals.”

Bauer, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor, made his remarks during a town hall meeting in Fountain Inn that included state lawmakers and about 115 residents.

“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better,” Bauer said.

In South Carolina, 58 percent of students participate in the free and reduced-price lunch program.

I know Southerners of all stripes, and whether they are young or old, or conservative or liberal, they are generally very offended by what they see as the insinuation that Southerners are somehow stupid as a people.

They are correct, of course, there are some stupid people in any group that you define.

That being said, electing Andre Bauer to any office, including dog catcher or head of the PTA, would tend to reinforce that unfortunate stereotype.

This Should Scare the Crap Out of You

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Josh Marshall got a letter from an anonymous staffer, and while the whole letter is profoundly disturbing, the excerpt that Mr. Marshall put before the break is f%$#ing terrifying:

The worst is that I can’t help but feel like the main emotion people in the caucus are feeling is relief at this turn of events. Now they have a ready excuse for not getting anything done. While I always thought we had the better ideas but the weaker messaging, it feels like somewhere along the line Members internalized a belief that we actually have weaker ideas. They’re afraid to actually implement them and face the judgement of the voters. That’s the scariest dynamic and what makes me think this will all come crashing down around us in November.

This is a recipe for disaster for the Democratic party, and by extension, for the country, because people want politicians to stand for something, even if it’s wrong, and the Republicans waiting in the wings are far less moderate than Bush/Cheney/Rove.

Think about that: Republicans in power who would make us fondly remember the moderation of George W. Bush.

You may change your underwear now.

Josh Marshall is Right, and Was Right in 2004

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In the aftermath of the Massachusetts debacle, a lot of people are wondering what the hell happened.

The talking heads inside the Beltway are sure that it’s because Obama is too Librul™, of course, but I think that Josh Marshall talked about the core problem in August of 2004.

He was talking about the Bush-Kerry campaign, and he characterized it as follows:

Let’s call it the Republicans’ Bitch-Slap theory of electoral politics.

It goes something like this.

………

Consider for a moment what the big game is here. This is a battle between two candidates to demonstrate toughness on national security. Toughness is a unitary quality, really — a personal, characterological quality rather than one rooted in policy or divisible in any real way. So both sides are trying to prove to undecided voters either that they’re tougher than the other guy or at least tough enough for the job.

………

One way — perhaps the best way — to demonstrate someone’s lack of toughness or strength is to attack them and show they are either unwilling or unable to defend themselves — thus the rough slang I used above. And that I think is a big part of what is happening here. Someone who can’t or won’t defend themselves certainly isn’t someone you can depend upon to defend you.

………

Hitting someone and not having them hit back hurts the morale of that person’s supporters, buoys the confidence of your own backers (particularly if many tend toward an authoritarian mindset) and tends to make the person who’s receiving the hits into an object of contempt (even if also possibly also one of sympathy) in the eyes of the uncommitted.

………

Only now, it isn’t the Republicans bitch slapping anyone. It’s the Democrats who bitch slap themselves.

Or as Zaid Jilani’s southern ConservaDem friend says:

And can I say this? F*ck the Democrats. They couldn’t get s%$# done with 60 seats, why the hell would I care if they have 59? F%$# them seriously we deserve to lose Congress this year. And don’t bitch and whine about it either how much has changed since we took over in 2006? Ain’t s%$# as far as I can tell. We capitulated to Bush, then capitulated to Republicans and now are just capitulating to ourselves.

F%$# it dude, I mean Republicans get whatever the f%$# they want with 50 seats and we can’t do f%$# all we deserve to lose

(“%$#” mine, “*” original)

Fundamentally, when we look at what is going on in DC, it looks like no one in the Senate or the White House is even trying to make substantive change. (Pelosi, at least, creates the appearance that she is trying to do something)

What’s more, among the DC Dems, there has been near constant bitch slapping of the Party Base, whether it’s the capitulation on the public option, the labor union insurance surtax, or the constant drum beat of how “the left” hates the Democratic Party because they want to primary DINOs (Democrat In Name Only) who have safe seats.

The central campaign platform of the Republican Party is that government can’t do anything. The Democratic Party seems to try very hard to prove them right.

41

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The Boston Globe calls it for Scott Brown, so he will be the 41st Republican in the Senate.

I was right with my prediction, and that sucks. Normally I’m wrong.

For the optimists, refer to my earlier take on potential positives of Coakley losing, (the bullet points toward the end of the post) but for me, this just sucks.

Two words: Budget Reconciliation.

Jon Stewart captures the essence of what is wrong with both candidate Coakley (first 5½ minutes), and the Democratic Party (after).

OK ……………… Weird

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Pyrofarmer, one of the regulars on the Shortskoolbus BBS had the following exchange:

My nearby farmer was asking me if I watched some Obermann segment the other night about health care?

‘No, but aren’t you going to loose your GOP membership for watching him?’

‘Have you tried to watch Beck or listened to Rush lately? They’re out of their f%$#ing minds!

(%$# mine)

You don’t have to be a Democratn to realize that Fox News resides in Bizarro World.

Good Point

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When we look at Pat Robertson, and his delusional bits of wing-nut spew, it is important to note that he is, and remains a very significant figure in American politics:

You can sneer all you want at Pat Robertson. You can condemn him all you want. And I’ll join right in. He deserves everything you care to say about him, and much, much more. He is a seriously disturbed man.

But you dismiss and ignore him at your peril. Remember: this man used to call up the f@#&ing president of the United States. And he got through. And the president listened to him.

You ever had that kind of access to power? Got it now? Thought not. Me, neither. You got his hundreds of millions of dollars? Got millions of fans giving you hard-earned- bucks? Nope, I don’t have them either.

(emphasis original, @#& mine)

The fact that people do not take him seriously, even though he could, for many years, pick up the phone and in a few minutes have a conversation, or arrange a meeting, with the President United States is a not trivial thing.

People who should not be allowed to use a butter knife are achieved positions of outsize influence in the United States, and more often than not, these days at least, they speak to, and for, Republicans.

Not Enough Money

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New York Governor David Paterson says that he has $3 million in cash on hand for his reelection bid.

When I say, “not enough money,” I don’t mean that that $3 million dollars at this point in the election cycle is not impressive, and sufficient for a state wide election in New York.

Under most circumstances, this would be an impressive haul, but the problem is that there isn’t enough money in the world for him to get reelected.

If Andrew Cuomo runs against him in the primary, he loses the primary.

If Andrew Cuomo doesn’t run against him in the primary, he loses the general election, whether his opponent is Rick Lazio, Rudy Giuliani, indicted former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, or Biff the Wonder Dog,* he loses the election.†

The electorate find him incompetent, ineffectual, and they don’t like him personally, and it’s not going to change in the next 11 months.

*A virtual kewpie doll to whoever gets the geek reference toward said dog.
†OK, if the Republicans nominate Sarah Palin to run against him, I give him a 60% chance of winning, but that dog will kick his ass.

Nibble on Iris Robinson’s Chocolate Balls

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Seriously, I have to invoke South Park!

Remember a few days back, when I referenced Americablog’s story about how a right-wing Irish anti-gay bigot was herself sleeping with a 19 year old boy?

It’s legal, but real hypocrisy, and it just got worse:

Meanwhile, it emerged this weekend that Iris Robinson also had an affair with 19-year-old Kirk McCambley’s father, a butcher who died from cancer. She had another affair with a fellow DUP member in the 1980s which was witnessed by the security forces.

(emphasis mine)

It appears that the founder of the DUP, and fellow bigot, Rev. Ian Paisley is in full “going postal” mode over this.

Well, the story gets even weirder, because bloggers with way too much free time on their hands have uncovered her recipe for “chocolate balls, and this, in turn has uncovered the coverage of her recipe at the time in the Belfast Telegraph, which is just full of double entendre:

Iris Robinson’s chocolate balls to melt our hearts

Wednesday, 12 November 2008

Food lovers across Northern Ireland are being given the chance to nibble on Iris Robinson’s chocolate balls, included in a new charity cookbook.

……………

(emphasis mine)

No, this is not The Onion.

Reality is very odd sometimes.

H/t AMERICAblog News

Schwarzenegger’s Latest Corrupt Disaster

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Click for full size

Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.

In addition to the fiscal meltdown going on in California, Governor “Ahnuld” has been talking up a water shortage that largely does not exist so that his billionaire friends can make a profit from a manufactured crisis:

We’ve been lied to for years now about the severity of California’s water shortage. The media and state officials have been ringing the alarm, warning that the state was in the grips of the quite possibly the “worst California drought in modern history,” when in fact the state nearly pulled in its average rainfall in 2009. The fearmongering is about to go into overdrive, as powerful interests start whipping up fears of drought to push through a $11 billion bond measure on the upcoming November elections, setting up the Golden State for a corporate water grab.

One of the big boosters promoting the drought scare is Gov. Schwarzenegger, who declared a state of emergency in early 2009, and promised to reduce water deliveries across the state by a whopping 80 percent.

Basically, 80% of water consumption in California is by agriculture, and this water is largely controlled by corporate farm cartels, and these get supplied water from the government at below cost prices, and frequently sell this resell water to the taxpayers at a significant markup.

Making farmers pay something approaching the real cost of supplying the water would solve this problem, because much of the shortage has been driven by corporate farms that have turned to water intensive crops, because they believe that they have the political pull to continue their back-door subsidy.

Proof that the British Banker “Supertax” is the Right Thing

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Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, and perhaps the stupidest man in England, has come out against the proposal:

Boris Johnson threw down the gauntlet to shadow chancellor George Osborne today, urging him to rule out extending the supertax on bonuses.

The Mayor is seeking reassurances that Gordon Brown’s tax would not be imposed by a Tory government. The showdown comes after Mr Johnson claimed that up to 9,000 bankers could leave London to escape paying.

Mr Osborne has said he does not oppose the tax, and the Conservatives have not ruled out imposing it again if they win the general election.

If the Tories come out against the tax, they may very well snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

On a more utilitarian note, when a rich banker leaves for Switzerland (only Switzerland does not want them either) it means that that 2500 square foot penthouse flat in London becomes 4, or 5 more modest flats, increasing the supplies of housing, and drives down rents, making London a better place for the Londoners.

The rich bankers, and the expat tax dodgers who live in London in very large numbers, don’t make London better, they make it worse: They push out the middle class, and productive industry.

Funny, That

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The Republicans for Choice political action committee (PAC) collects money to support pro-choice Republicans running for office.

The odd part of this is that Republicans for Choice PAC doesn’t actually give much of the money to said candidates:

Since the PAC’s formation in 1990, documents show that Republicans for Choice has raised and spent more than $5.5 million. But a Center for Public Integrity analysis of the PAC’s more recent filings — along with data from CQ MoneyLine, which tracks political giving — reveals that over the past decade less than five percent of the committee’s spending has gone to political candidates, other political committees, or independent expenditures. Since 2005, just about one-half of one percent of the PAC’s nearly $1 million in spending has gone to federal or state campaigns, according to a review of records. By comparison, Federal Election Commission data show the average federal PAC in the recent 2007-2008 cycle dedicated about 35 percent of spending to contributions aiding federal candidates. A comparison to other PACs on both sides of the abortion debate shows that similar groups spend a much greater portion of their funds on candidates and campaigns.

Where did RFC’s money go? Much of the group’s spending has been for consulting companies owned by the PAC’s chairwoman, Ann E. W. Stone. Those firms — along with payments to reimburse Stone’s expenses for travel, entertainment, and automobile repairs — comprise more than two-thirds of RFC PAC’s expenditures since 2006. And hundreds of dollars more went to pay for Stone’s parking tickets.

This should not be a surprise.

For folks who follow Talking Points Memo, this sort of self dealing is rather common among Republican fund raising groups.

Linda Chavez has earned a healthy living doing this, as has a PAC dedicated to electing minority Republicans.

Basically, if you are donating to pro-life or minority Republicans through a 3rd party firm, you should assume that less than ½% makes it to candidates.

Here’s to You, Mrs. Robinson

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Hey, hey, hey…hey, hey, hey

No, really. In this case however, the Mrs. Robinson in question is Iris Robinson, wife of Peter Robinson, the head of the, “conservative Northern Ireland Unionist party.”

She has spent much of her public life campaigning against gays, implying that they will molest children and young adults.

Well, now, this 60 something paragon of morality has been caught having an affair, and, I almost forgot to mention this, she was screwing a 19-year old boy.

Lovely people, wot?

H/t Americablog and The Stranger.