Today's Political Scene

The world media covered the signing of the new nuclear arms reduction treaty from beginning to end. Global commentary was enormously positive and momentum is growing for further restrictions on nuclear materials in the next four years. Both Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev spoke about a new regime of "smart" sanctions against Iran, presumably targeted at the Revolutionary Guard rather than the Iranian people. This Monday, Barack Obama is to talk to the Chinese premier in Washington on the new package of sanctions. While planet Earth thought the new nuclear pact was a breakthrough development, our own media gave it short shrift and conservatives are trying out lines they think will work in blocking it. Joe Lieberman managed to tweet that he had certain conditions before he will vote to approve. Gibbs tweeted out the vote counts on the last three nuclear arms bills, which passed with overwhelming majorities in the Senate. It's clear the White House is challenging the GOP to take a war-time President on in a matter of national security.

Israeli leader Bibi Netanyahu was supposed to arrive on Monday to the nuclear summit. But word is that he has cancelled because they were rumors Arab states were going to raise the issue of why Israel was not a partner to the Non-Proliferation Pact. Others claimed he wanted to avoid Obama because of news the President was working on a new Middle East Peace Proposal. One pro-Israel blogger hinted that with moves like these and the recent snub of Joe Biden Israel risks becoming as isolated on the world scene as South Africa was under apartheid. Unfortunately, I think there is some truth to this. The three nuclear powers and powers-to be not at the summit will be Israel, Iran and North Korea. Not great company to be with. Of course, we can add the usual mendacity of a Pakistan and an India to counter the argument.

If you rent "W", you might want to fast forward to the scene where Richard Dreyfuss, playing Dick Cheney, explains the Bush Administration's geostrategic view of Central Asia. It is a brilliant imitation of Cheney and unfortunately it is an accurate rendering of the political view at that time. Central Asia was the future energy hub of the world with its gas and oil reserves sustaining Europe and China. The plan for an American version of empire in the region got a jolt with the overthrow of the government in Kyrgystan. What is at immediate risk is our airbase there to re-supply troops in Afghanistan. But the whole situation underscores the fliminess of the geostrategic overview in the first place.

You knew it would have to happen. Liberal darling Alan Grayson is now having a new challenger for his congressional seat. Steve Gerritzen on a platform of "education reform and the fair tax"will be running as a Whig. He will be the first Whig candidate since the 1850s. Good Luck!

A Gallup poll has been released that the media is hyping as bad news for sitting congresspeople. It shows that 49% of Americans would re-elect their incumbent representative; and the low 40% would not. I know that past polls would be higher for incumbents but isn't this really good news instead of the negative headline that accompanied the piece. Especially with all the hype over voter rage and anger.

The Atlanta Constitution interviewed Mitch McConnell and Saxbe Chambliss about the Republican desire to repeal the healthcare bill. The Senators said they were for preventing health insurance companies from excluding patients because of pre-existing conditions. The reporters asked how they would accomplish this. They went on about tort reform, which was shown to save about $30 billion a year in healthcare costs but would not affect coverage. The reporters kept asking and the Senators clearly didn't have a clue. The reporters later blogged about this concluding that it wasn't that the Senators were dumb and didn't know what was in the healthcare bill. But they just didn't care. Amen to that.

Michelle Bachmann, truly one of the crazed people on our political scene, may have let slip the plan for Republicans if they take back the House is "to starve Obamacare". She told Fox News that Republicans plan to de-fund it because they know they can't repeal it.

Nevada Senator John Ensign is facing more federal subpoenas over his affair/payoff scheme. Ranking GOP leaders in Nevada have now openly called for his resignation "before it's too late".

The same applies to sexytime Michael Steele. For the first time, a committeeman from North Carolina has openly called for him to step aside because of the continuing series of scandals involving funds. Today's little goodie was the bill for jewelry from Tiffany's.

The University of Washington conducts surveys on race and politics. The latest concerns the tea party gang. The survey tried to measure the anger and rage of the tea party at government. 36% of the tea baggers are angry at the federal government because it does too much for Blacks. 45% of them against healthcare reform because it does too much for "others".
Southerners are more likely to be tea party members than any other region.
Among the whites who approve of the tea party movement:
35% believed Blacks were hardworking;
45% thought Blacks intelligent;
41% thought Blacks were trustworthy.

Rush Limbaugh said today that Barack Obama was against America and getting even for what it did to his "brothers and sisters".

Michell Bachmann told a rally in Minnesota that Barack Obama was anti-America and leaving the country defenseless.

The elderly representative Sons of the Confederacy leader in Virginia said we were too political correct about slavery because it wasn't that big a deal.

The state of Missouri in its House passed a "nullification "bill that said that the state would refuse to obey any federal law or regulation it opposed. "Nullification" happens to have provoked the civil war and even Tony Scalia said the matter had been resolved for once and all by the Supreme Court.

And so much for a post-racial America.

The Chinese, who did so much to furnish the labor to build our railroads, is negotiating with the state of California to build high speed trains in the state. They now boast being the cutting edge country in the world on high-speed rail.

Paul Volker, now identified by the right-wing media as Obama's adviser, has urged the adoption of the VAT tax to reduce the national deficit. Unfortunately for Republicans, their House budget proposal also calls for a "national consumption tax" of 8%. it's double unfortunate since they are urging the Republican Attorney-Generals to fight the healthcare bill on the unconsitutionality of a mandate across state lines to purchase health insurance. Cleverly, they argue Romneycare is different because of the Tenth Amendment. What's going to be the counterargument for their national consumption tax? They are against Volker's VAT tax on tenth Amendment grounds. It seems they are in a pickle.

Fox News has picked up on the Drudge story that 47% of Americans didn't pay federal income taxes this year and still received government services. Republican Senators and congresspeople weighed in charging this was unfair and unjust. It was only a short while ago that this was the party of tax cuts. That is about to change--except when it comes to the wealthy and corporations.

The Heritage Foundation has downgraded Barack Obama's America to "mostly free" because of increased regulations, taxes (?) and threats to private property. Canada now is number 1 in this hemisphere. The Heritage Foundation with 680,000 members launched today a policy advocacy group, which will allow them to lobby for "small government, fiscal conservatism and deficit reduction".

The war against Medicare and Social Security has begun. The Brookings Institute has published a study saying we can not tax our way out of our deficit. The details of the report are actually quite convincing. Fed Chairman Bernanke has fired a shot across the bow of Congress, saying that the deficit is not sustainable and that taxes have to be increased and services cut. He singled out Medicare and Social Security but hinted that defense spending may have to be cut. As I wrote elsewhere Erskine Bowles of President Obama's Deficit Commission has already singled that he will be urging cuts in both Medicare and Social Security. As I have written many times, Social Security can be handled very easily and President Obama should make no concessions on this. The strong urge by Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans is to phase out Social Security after the Baby Boomers. The Republicans want to privatize but that is for the deeper agenda of bankrupting the remains of the social welfare state.