++Mike Barnicle has a piece in the Daily Beast likening Rudy Guiliani to Jake LaMotta after he lost to Sugar Ray Robinson.
++Daryl Issa thinks Guiliani should be thanked for questioning President Obama's patriotism.
++Glenn Kessler gives Rudy 4 Pinnochios for his statements about President Obama's speeches and saying he doesn't love the country since the man says it every opportunity he can.
++I received an email from a conservative that thanks Guiliani for raising the issue of patriotism because progressives have a more relativist view of patriotism that takes in a person's experience while traditional patriots just know what is their duty and what is right for the nation. Say, like Torture.
++Stormy Monday at Democratic Underground previews this week with CPAC opening on Wednesday with their star-studded conservative speakers, Rahm Emmanuel faces a tough re-election campaign on Tuesday. The Homeland Security Department will furlough about 30,000 people if Congress doesn't pass funding and others will serve without pay. That's patriotism.
++My problem with the oscars this year is that I haven't seen any of the nominees. So I vote for Boy,Linklater's epic film shot over the entire life of a boy growing up and in documentary for Kennedy's account of the last days of Saigon. But I am sure I will be wrong.
Showing posts with label CPAC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CPAC. Show all posts
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Day Light Savings Time
++It's that time of year when my servers go down twice a day and the political rhetoric goes off the charts into insanity.
++We have escaped AIPAC and CPAC this year. CPAC got more media coverage than they have political support. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo should be commended for telling it like it is. Media outlets don't have to spend money to cover like Netroots. DC is a Republican biased town. And besides CPAC organizers know "crazy" sells.
++Andrew Sullivan at his Dish tells us that just as you think the Obama era is over,it is now reaching its maximum impact in the economy. Check out his charts.
++Liberal blogger Bartcop,Terry Coppage, died at the age of 60 from pneumonia and leukemia. It is amazing that he had been blogging since 1999. Democratic blogs have spent two days genuinely mourning his loss.
++We are in the final stretch of signing up for Obamacare. Rather than avoid it, Democrats are fighting back against crooked ads bought by the Koch Brothers. Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats are now openly attacking the Koch Brothers. Effective ads refuting their healthcare ads are running in North Carolina,Alaska, Michigan and Louisiana.
++The I.G. of the Post Office has endorsed the idea of having the Post Office provide cash checking services for customers and same-day loans. The idea was actually used in the early 20th Century . His report supports Senator Warren's proposal of the same.
++We were entertained by the CPAC attacks on Obama as a tyrant who is weak. One thing I noticed was that CPAC seemed to go out of its way to invite felons. Ollie North, Scooter Libby and Bernard Kerik were in attendance.
++2 million people on the White House website signed a petition against the Keystone Pipeline. Bill McKibben thanked the millions who have demonstrated against or signed the petition,saying the grassroots came through.
++Rand Paul romped to victory in the CPAC poll. Republicans are now split between the Paul-Snowden wing and the Putin supporters. Peter King is upset by the Paul victory because it means that the isolationist wing of the party is growing.
++Obama won a plurality of Americans 48 to 43 on his handling of the Ukraine situation.
++But the Sunday shows wanted Blood and Guts Cheney to advocate a military option. I guess that means thermonuclear war.
++The Crimean Tatars have vowed jihadist actions if Russia takes over the Crimea permanently. Terrific!
++Senator Feinstein is very angry that the CIA spied on the Senate. Spare us the melodrama. Just release the Detention and Torture Report. The public has the right to know. It's a little late in the game to cry that the CIA violated the constitution. When hasn't it?
++There is a little Cold War by Saudi Arabia against Qatar for their not treating the Moslem Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
++The Iraqi President al-Maliki charged that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are terrorists themselves for supporting Sunni insurgents in Iraq.
++Refugees from Syria now number 4 million and counting.
++We have escaped AIPAC and CPAC this year. CPAC got more media coverage than they have political support. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo should be commended for telling it like it is. Media outlets don't have to spend money to cover like Netroots. DC is a Republican biased town. And besides CPAC organizers know "crazy" sells.
++Andrew Sullivan at his Dish tells us that just as you think the Obama era is over,it is now reaching its maximum impact in the economy. Check out his charts.
++Liberal blogger Bartcop,Terry Coppage, died at the age of 60 from pneumonia and leukemia. It is amazing that he had been blogging since 1999. Democratic blogs have spent two days genuinely mourning his loss.
++We are in the final stretch of signing up for Obamacare. Rather than avoid it, Democrats are fighting back against crooked ads bought by the Koch Brothers. Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats are now openly attacking the Koch Brothers. Effective ads refuting their healthcare ads are running in North Carolina,Alaska, Michigan and Louisiana.
++The I.G. of the Post Office has endorsed the idea of having the Post Office provide cash checking services for customers and same-day loans. The idea was actually used in the early 20th Century . His report supports Senator Warren's proposal of the same.
++We were entertained by the CPAC attacks on Obama as a tyrant who is weak. One thing I noticed was that CPAC seemed to go out of its way to invite felons. Ollie North, Scooter Libby and Bernard Kerik were in attendance.
++2 million people on the White House website signed a petition against the Keystone Pipeline. Bill McKibben thanked the millions who have demonstrated against or signed the petition,saying the grassroots came through.
++Rand Paul romped to victory in the CPAC poll. Republicans are now split between the Paul-Snowden wing and the Putin supporters. Peter King is upset by the Paul victory because it means that the isolationist wing of the party is growing.
++Obama won a plurality of Americans 48 to 43 on his handling of the Ukraine situation.
++But the Sunday shows wanted Blood and Guts Cheney to advocate a military option. I guess that means thermonuclear war.
++The Crimean Tatars have vowed jihadist actions if Russia takes over the Crimea permanently. Terrific!
++Senator Feinstein is very angry that the CIA spied on the Senate. Spare us the melodrama. Just release the Detention and Torture Report. The public has the right to know. It's a little late in the game to cry that the CIA violated the constitution. When hasn't it?
++There is a little Cold War by Saudi Arabia against Qatar for their not treating the Moslem Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
++The Iraqi President al-Maliki charged that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are terrorists themselves for supporting Sunni insurgents in Iraq.
++Refugees from Syria now number 4 million and counting.
Monday, February 22, 2010
My New Take on 2012
The Supreme Court decision on corporate campaign funding and word that the RNC aims to take out Palin next year have made me change my opinion about the 2012 race. The 2012 election will be between New America, one which wants to make a transition in its political economy, versus Old America, one which will seek to preserve the financial status quo. All the teabaggers and religious right are just noise--although they may have an impact in the 2010 elections. The Republican financial backers will ensure that no populist wins and that the religious right's influence will appear to be minimal. The thinking is that the base has no where to go and if the mortal enemy is Barack Obama, they must accept the decision of Republican elders.
Let's take CPAC. The only "straight" Republican who did well was Mitt Romney, who had won the straw poll three times in a row. His second-pace finish was basically the same percentage by which he won over the past three years. What I found striking in his speech was his homage to George W. Bush, which appealed to the conservatives who attended the first few days. Romney himself had benefited from former President George H.W. Bush giving him a podium during the 2008 election to make a declaration concerning his Morman faith, a major stumbling block in a party dominated by fundamentalist Christians. The Romney-Bush connection is likely to linger during the 2012 elections. If you remember, John McCain had to beg George W. Bush to fund raise for him during the campaign and even that was a bomb. Romney isn't going to forget this and the money machine the Bush Family still has access to.
Quietly, the thinkers behind the Republican triumph in Massachusetts were all from the Romney campaign and Scott Brown paid homage at CPAC in his introduction to Romney.
2012 will look similar to the two previous elections to 2008. If one recalls the Obama campaign, it's important to remember that Democrats controlled the key posts of attorney-general in vital states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia,and New Jersey. This was important so as to prevent voter suppression efforts by the Republicans against minorities and college students. Major fights occurred in Virginia and Ohio over allowing college-age students to vote on their campuses. By 2012, all four states probably will have Republican governors and attorney-generals, thereby ensuring voter suppression efforts.
A minor note at CPAC, which I believe the Republicans will run on in 2012, is the theme of Obama's incompetence. It allows them to bury the racism deeper in their campaign and on the surface it benefits only Mitt Romney who will tote his success in the financial sector. If you look at the Tea Partiers sponsored by Freedomworks led by Dick Armey, you will find most of the major corporate donors to the Republican Party. These will swing big-time behind Romney.
Basically, the Republican formula right now is to recruit photogenic candidates who made a fortune in the private sector. Mitt is the role model.
Republicans are basically an authoritarian party, who support only those who have run in the primaries before. They are not going to risk the Party to people who do not share their class and their views or who might not be controllable.
Romney has to overcome the perception he is remote, too rich and a mannikin. He will have been removed from political office over eight years, which would be a liability in most years but an asset after a polarized four years of combat in D.C. He is not a creationist and is now pro-life but religious conservatives don't believe it. His own version of health care reform in Massachusetts will be a moot issue because we should have something in the next few months. His No Apologies, his defense of America's greatness, will give him a book tour opportunity this Spring, where he is expected to attack Obama's foreign policy. He has already given a major address at the Heritage Foundation lamenting the fact that Obama has cut (that's what he claims) the defense budget. Romney should be picking up the remains of the neoconservatives for his campaign and has had the support of the National Review.
What he learned during the last campaign was that he needs a stalking horse candidate to draw votes away from his major competitor. McCain used Huckabee to do this to deprive Romney of primary victories and he will adopt the same strategy. Facing the religious right in Iowa and South Carolina off the bat, Romney will have to quietly back a Christian Right candidate like Rick Santorum to siphon off the votes to allow him to remain competitive before the larger states.
I believe Romney will have a bottomless campaign chest throughout the primaries and the general election. The oil companies with George W.'s help will be pouring money into his campaign to stop any efforts at climate change policies offered by the Obama Administration.
Barack Obama himself will be handicapped by his own responsibilities as President from waging the type of insurgent campaign he did in 2008. He will also be looking at an economy that may have recovered but with unemployment hovering between 7 and 8%, a situation likely to linger for years to come. Romney will campaign as a successful businessman who "knows" how to create jobs and will be "trusted" by Wall Street to set the economy in the right direction. I would suggest that Obama run right at this since Romney's personal wealth has come from turning around companies through massive lay-offs. Even McCain snapped at him that he profited by making people unemployed.
Strangely, the Obama advantage by 2012 may well be his national security policy. If he hasn't taken out Bin Laden by then, he will have severely crippled Al Qaeda and will have withdrawn from Iraq and should be down-sizing our troop levels in Afghanistan. However, Iran will remain an issue--one which the neoconservatives will be poundng on. To counter the advantage the Democrats have in national security, I expect Romney--after conducting the usual ballet on the vice presidential choice--to pick General Petraeus.
Then Romney can promise the Religious Right their usual booty with faith-based initiatives and defense of marriage amendments. He will also have the Morman mafia at his disposal to form the underground links to the fundamentalists.
It's important to realize that there are two basic strongholds of the Republicans--the military-terrorist complex, which is a $1 trillion enterprise; and Wall Street, particularly oil and oil-related industries. These have to be preserved at all cost. While such things as the common good demand attention to social welfare , health and education, these are no longer Republican concerns. It is clear that the congressional Republicans now want to eliminate Social Security and Medicare. What will appear to be a cultural war in 2012 really will be a struggle over the fate of America as a viable political economy.
Just to give you some idea, American corporations created ZERO jobs in the last TEN years but had record profits. Romney will be putting a pretty face on dismantling all social programs, a process that will be accelerated by Republican governors.
I was puzzled in the last campaign why Republicans never mentioned the word "middle class". The 2008 Convention was a stunning return of Republicans to their 1920s economics, something that surfaced again at CPAC. Social Darwinism is the platform of the GOP. As someone who knows the Romney people very well and is a born-again Morman, Glenn Beck said,"You have a right to fail." The Republicans are committed to preserving and extending the tax cuts to the very rich and to eliminate as many corporate taxes as possible, even though this will create no jobs.
The electoral college landscape will revert to an approximation of 2004. The race will depend on the line from Minnesota through New Jersey. Obama's victories in Iowa, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida will be in doubt. This will be a red-blue election. The Dailykos did a follow-up review of the 2008 that showed that McCain won counties that George W. did by larger margins and Obama won Clinton counties by even larger margins. The polarization of the country had deepened not lessened.
The Romney campaign will have to resort to large-scale voter suppression to minimize Obama's overwhelming advantages among Blacks, Hispanics and college-age voters. Right now, the GOP only has a demographic advantage among voters age 65 and above and among Generation Xers, who came of age during Reagan. By 2012, the GOP should have the ability in key states to engage in this.
It will come down to who would you rather hang out with. The tipping points will be the debates as always, where Obama should do his usual excellent self. What the GOP will bank on is that Obama's self-regulations against taking money from lobbyists will doom his effort. If Romney gets really swarmy, he will use his wife's MS and his position of being a minority religion to get sympathy. And if he does choose Petraeus, a Rockfeller Republican, expect him to claim the General as the real generator of Obama's foreign policy successes. I also expect the race to be as vicious as you will see. The stakes will be the future of the country and we have seen the entrenched financial interests throw everything they have at Obama.
Let's take CPAC. The only "straight" Republican who did well was Mitt Romney, who had won the straw poll three times in a row. His second-pace finish was basically the same percentage by which he won over the past three years. What I found striking in his speech was his homage to George W. Bush, which appealed to the conservatives who attended the first few days. Romney himself had benefited from former President George H.W. Bush giving him a podium during the 2008 election to make a declaration concerning his Morman faith, a major stumbling block in a party dominated by fundamentalist Christians. The Romney-Bush connection is likely to linger during the 2012 elections. If you remember, John McCain had to beg George W. Bush to fund raise for him during the campaign and even that was a bomb. Romney isn't going to forget this and the money machine the Bush Family still has access to.
Quietly, the thinkers behind the Republican triumph in Massachusetts were all from the Romney campaign and Scott Brown paid homage at CPAC in his introduction to Romney.
2012 will look similar to the two previous elections to 2008. If one recalls the Obama campaign, it's important to remember that Democrats controlled the key posts of attorney-general in vital states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia,and New Jersey. This was important so as to prevent voter suppression efforts by the Republicans against minorities and college students. Major fights occurred in Virginia and Ohio over allowing college-age students to vote on their campuses. By 2012, all four states probably will have Republican governors and attorney-generals, thereby ensuring voter suppression efforts.
A minor note at CPAC, which I believe the Republicans will run on in 2012, is the theme of Obama's incompetence. It allows them to bury the racism deeper in their campaign and on the surface it benefits only Mitt Romney who will tote his success in the financial sector. If you look at the Tea Partiers sponsored by Freedomworks led by Dick Armey, you will find most of the major corporate donors to the Republican Party. These will swing big-time behind Romney.
Basically, the Republican formula right now is to recruit photogenic candidates who made a fortune in the private sector. Mitt is the role model.
Republicans are basically an authoritarian party, who support only those who have run in the primaries before. They are not going to risk the Party to people who do not share their class and their views or who might not be controllable.
Romney has to overcome the perception he is remote, too rich and a mannikin. He will have been removed from political office over eight years, which would be a liability in most years but an asset after a polarized four years of combat in D.C. He is not a creationist and is now pro-life but religious conservatives don't believe it. His own version of health care reform in Massachusetts will be a moot issue because we should have something in the next few months. His No Apologies, his defense of America's greatness, will give him a book tour opportunity this Spring, where he is expected to attack Obama's foreign policy. He has already given a major address at the Heritage Foundation lamenting the fact that Obama has cut (that's what he claims) the defense budget. Romney should be picking up the remains of the neoconservatives for his campaign and has had the support of the National Review.
What he learned during the last campaign was that he needs a stalking horse candidate to draw votes away from his major competitor. McCain used Huckabee to do this to deprive Romney of primary victories and he will adopt the same strategy. Facing the religious right in Iowa and South Carolina off the bat, Romney will have to quietly back a Christian Right candidate like Rick Santorum to siphon off the votes to allow him to remain competitive before the larger states.
I believe Romney will have a bottomless campaign chest throughout the primaries and the general election. The oil companies with George W.'s help will be pouring money into his campaign to stop any efforts at climate change policies offered by the Obama Administration.
Barack Obama himself will be handicapped by his own responsibilities as President from waging the type of insurgent campaign he did in 2008. He will also be looking at an economy that may have recovered but with unemployment hovering between 7 and 8%, a situation likely to linger for years to come. Romney will campaign as a successful businessman who "knows" how to create jobs and will be "trusted" by Wall Street to set the economy in the right direction. I would suggest that Obama run right at this since Romney's personal wealth has come from turning around companies through massive lay-offs. Even McCain snapped at him that he profited by making people unemployed.
Strangely, the Obama advantage by 2012 may well be his national security policy. If he hasn't taken out Bin Laden by then, he will have severely crippled Al Qaeda and will have withdrawn from Iraq and should be down-sizing our troop levels in Afghanistan. However, Iran will remain an issue--one which the neoconservatives will be poundng on. To counter the advantage the Democrats have in national security, I expect Romney--after conducting the usual ballet on the vice presidential choice--to pick General Petraeus.
Then Romney can promise the Religious Right their usual booty with faith-based initiatives and defense of marriage amendments. He will also have the Morman mafia at his disposal to form the underground links to the fundamentalists.
It's important to realize that there are two basic strongholds of the Republicans--the military-terrorist complex, which is a $1 trillion enterprise; and Wall Street, particularly oil and oil-related industries. These have to be preserved at all cost. While such things as the common good demand attention to social welfare , health and education, these are no longer Republican concerns. It is clear that the congressional Republicans now want to eliminate Social Security and Medicare. What will appear to be a cultural war in 2012 really will be a struggle over the fate of America as a viable political economy.
Just to give you some idea, American corporations created ZERO jobs in the last TEN years but had record profits. Romney will be putting a pretty face on dismantling all social programs, a process that will be accelerated by Republican governors.
I was puzzled in the last campaign why Republicans never mentioned the word "middle class". The 2008 Convention was a stunning return of Republicans to their 1920s economics, something that surfaced again at CPAC. Social Darwinism is the platform of the GOP. As someone who knows the Romney people very well and is a born-again Morman, Glenn Beck said,"You have a right to fail." The Republicans are committed to preserving and extending the tax cuts to the very rich and to eliminate as many corporate taxes as possible, even though this will create no jobs.
The electoral college landscape will revert to an approximation of 2004. The race will depend on the line from Minnesota through New Jersey. Obama's victories in Iowa, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida will be in doubt. This will be a red-blue election. The Dailykos did a follow-up review of the 2008 that showed that McCain won counties that George W. did by larger margins and Obama won Clinton counties by even larger margins. The polarization of the country had deepened not lessened.
The Romney campaign will have to resort to large-scale voter suppression to minimize Obama's overwhelming advantages among Blacks, Hispanics and college-age voters. Right now, the GOP only has a demographic advantage among voters age 65 and above and among Generation Xers, who came of age during Reagan. By 2012, the GOP should have the ability in key states to engage in this.
It will come down to who would you rather hang out with. The tipping points will be the debates as always, where Obama should do his usual excellent self. What the GOP will bank on is that Obama's self-regulations against taking money from lobbyists will doom his effort. If Romney gets really swarmy, he will use his wife's MS and his position of being a minority religion to get sympathy. And if he does choose Petraeus, a Rockfeller Republican, expect him to claim the General as the real generator of Obama's foreign policy successes. I also expect the race to be as vicious as you will see. The stakes will be the future of the country and we have seen the entrenched financial interests throw everything they have at Obama.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Sunday Grab Bag
I may have to cave and become a Yankees' fan. A lifelong Dodger fan, I got a kick out of the World Series and seeing the Yankees this past year at Camden Yards. But now that Nick Johnson is going to be the DH, I may have to go all in. For years, I always picked an obscure player to root for. When I was a kid, this person was Ron Fairly, the short first baseman for the Dodgers. A fairly solid hitter, my bet was always on whether Ron would bat .300. I think he did once. I have been following Nick Johnson since his days as an Expo and then when he was here in D.C. with the Senators. The interest has always been that Johnson has never played a whole season while healthy. A natural .300 hitter and potential gold glover, I've always wanted to see him play a whole season to see what his real numbers would look like. Whenever I've watched him, he always has gotten a hit and made great plays. So now with Nick and my hero Mariano Rivera, the Yankees may be my team. It also looks like the Yankees have about two years before they will have to clean house again.
Will I have to invoke the Doug Payne principle now with Henning Mankell? This principle affects all cutting-edge writers when they finally get reviewed by the New York Times Sunday Book Review. I remember Doug would turn off on a series of writers we both loved--J.G. Ballard, Tom McQuane, Don DeLillo, Elmore Leonard, and James Ellroy. Once they were accepted by the Times their day was done as far as Doug was concerned. I thought this was a mistake. As a consequence, he missed out on DeLillo's Underworld and James Ellroy's political trilogy. J.G. Ballard retained his glory but his later novels went unread. Now with Henning Mankell I may be forced with the same dilemma. People are now supposed to "talk" about The Man From Beijing. I hoped to keep him as my own secret. I feel the same thing is happening with Ian Rankin.
Yesterday Barack Obama adopted the McColm solution to Social Security--tax higher levels of income. In his remarks, he said Social Security has only 20 years left at the current expenditures. That means that the Bush Adminisration actually ran through 17 years in the last year and a half to cover the deficit.
At least we are now free of the CPAC madness. Christopher Buckley ,writing in the Daily Beast, slams his first cousin Brent Bozell for a lackluster job on the Mount Vernon Declaration,comparing the prose of the Sharon Statement written by Bill Buckley and Brent's father with the boilerplate drudge of the contemporary conservatives. Conservative Mickey Edwards wrote that not only would he not go to CPAC but neither would Ronald Reagan--ouch. But at least we have a new form of conservativism--Conservative Constitutionalism. After the last administration shredded the constitution, conservatives have rediscovered the document now that a black man is President.
One of the interesting sidebars to CPAC was the the issue of gays. Liberty University threatened to boycott the conference if a gay GOP group attended. The group did and Liberty University pulled out. The one speaker who went gay-bashing was booed from the floor. Liz Cheney after a stint cheerleading for torture voiced support for dropping Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I found this all somewhat puzzling but understandable. Libertarians dominated the conference as Ron Paul's triumph in the straw vote showed and the younger generation of conservatives like their liberal counterparts could care less about gays. But it also marked the diminished power of social conservatives, a subject I will get to in another post.
Tim Pawlenty introduced a series of new principles for conservatives. The only one I remember is that God is in charge. Over the last two years, Pawlenty has increasingly been courting the fundamentalist vote. He now is a creationist, while in his entire previous life he wasn't. Perhaps he picked this up hanging around John McCain, who blurted out in the 2008 campaign that America was "a Christian nation", even though John never believed that either his entire life. With Glenn Beck about to resurrect the Christian revisionists, we should hear more about this. One question I would have for Tim is that if all our civil liberties come from God,what does the recent Supreme Court case on corporate donations to campaigns say about God's views about corporations?
For the record, the last real Christian Republican I knew was former Senator Danforth of Missouri. But that didn't do us much good since we got Clarence Thomas from him.
This week is the Health Care Summit--which should be a non-starter. Republicans have virtually no interest in health care reform or anything else the President wants. If some form of health care passes in the next two months, look to the 2010 elections being less of a Republican victory as has been advertised by our corporate media.
Looking at the ballot for the CPAC presidential preferences I noticed a lot of House members and a couple Senators on the ballot. You can forget anyone like Mike Pence or John Thune. No Republican member of Congress has a chance in 2012. First, because they will have virtually no record of achievement since they are the Party of "No" and you can't very well argue how good your ideas are if you never offer them up as legislation. The other reason is that 2008 was as rare an election as 1960 when a sitting Senator or member of Congress was elected. It won't happen again for quite sometime.
Will I have to invoke the Doug Payne principle now with Henning Mankell? This principle affects all cutting-edge writers when they finally get reviewed by the New York Times Sunday Book Review. I remember Doug would turn off on a series of writers we both loved--J.G. Ballard, Tom McQuane, Don DeLillo, Elmore Leonard, and James Ellroy. Once they were accepted by the Times their day was done as far as Doug was concerned. I thought this was a mistake. As a consequence, he missed out on DeLillo's Underworld and James Ellroy's political trilogy. J.G. Ballard retained his glory but his later novels went unread. Now with Henning Mankell I may be forced with the same dilemma. People are now supposed to "talk" about The Man From Beijing. I hoped to keep him as my own secret. I feel the same thing is happening with Ian Rankin.
Yesterday Barack Obama adopted the McColm solution to Social Security--tax higher levels of income. In his remarks, he said Social Security has only 20 years left at the current expenditures. That means that the Bush Adminisration actually ran through 17 years in the last year and a half to cover the deficit.
At least we are now free of the CPAC madness. Christopher Buckley ,writing in the Daily Beast, slams his first cousin Brent Bozell for a lackluster job on the Mount Vernon Declaration,comparing the prose of the Sharon Statement written by Bill Buckley and Brent's father with the boilerplate drudge of the contemporary conservatives. Conservative Mickey Edwards wrote that not only would he not go to CPAC but neither would Ronald Reagan--ouch. But at least we have a new form of conservativism--Conservative Constitutionalism. After the last administration shredded the constitution, conservatives have rediscovered the document now that a black man is President.
One of the interesting sidebars to CPAC was the the issue of gays. Liberty University threatened to boycott the conference if a gay GOP group attended. The group did and Liberty University pulled out. The one speaker who went gay-bashing was booed from the floor. Liz Cheney after a stint cheerleading for torture voiced support for dropping Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I found this all somewhat puzzling but understandable. Libertarians dominated the conference as Ron Paul's triumph in the straw vote showed and the younger generation of conservatives like their liberal counterparts could care less about gays. But it also marked the diminished power of social conservatives, a subject I will get to in another post.
Tim Pawlenty introduced a series of new principles for conservatives. The only one I remember is that God is in charge. Over the last two years, Pawlenty has increasingly been courting the fundamentalist vote. He now is a creationist, while in his entire previous life he wasn't. Perhaps he picked this up hanging around John McCain, who blurted out in the 2008 campaign that America was "a Christian nation", even though John never believed that either his entire life. With Glenn Beck about to resurrect the Christian revisionists, we should hear more about this. One question I would have for Tim is that if all our civil liberties come from God,what does the recent Supreme Court case on corporate donations to campaigns say about God's views about corporations?
For the record, the last real Christian Republican I knew was former Senator Danforth of Missouri. But that didn't do us much good since we got Clarence Thomas from him.
This week is the Health Care Summit--which should be a non-starter. Republicans have virtually no interest in health care reform or anything else the President wants. If some form of health care passes in the next two months, look to the 2010 elections being less of a Republican victory as has been advertised by our corporate media.
Looking at the ballot for the CPAC presidential preferences I noticed a lot of House members and a couple Senators on the ballot. You can forget anyone like Mike Pence or John Thune. No Republican member of Congress has a chance in 2012. First, because they will have virtually no record of achievement since they are the Party of "No" and you can't very well argue how good your ideas are if you never offer them up as legislation. The other reason is that 2008 was as rare an election as 1960 when a sitting Senator or member of Congress was elected. It won't happen again for quite sometime.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
The Love Revolution Triumphs
So for a few days,torture,gitmo and God made a comeback at the CPAC meeting, then things went awry. Bob Barr showed up and defended the trial of terrorist suspects in court and denounced waterboardiing as torture while being soundly booed. Ron Paul appeared and gave his campaign for liberty speech. College Kids attended en masse and Ron Paul wins the presidential straw vote hands down with such favorites as Sarah Palin, Tom Pawlenty barely making single digits. And the past three-time winner Mitt Romney sank to second, ten points behind Paul. KABOOM! So much for the juggernaut of conservative constitutionalism. What started as a strong endorsement of Bush-Cheney politics ended up in mayhem.
To top the whole thing off was the appearance as keynote speaker of Glenn Beck. Beck, with newly dyed blond hair, riffed on his theme that progressives starting with TR and Woodrow Wilson purposely embarked on destroying the constitution--something progressives do to this day. He even whipped out his famous chalkboard. He demanded that Republicans adopt a 12-step program like he did at AA and cease to be a party of "not tax and spend". He said that worst times made be coming and that it was good that Americans fail, lose their homes and jobs. "Failure made me a success", he said. He also said that he was the first member of his family ever to go to college--although he didn't specify for only one semester. He also talked about past generations of Americans who had lost everything and that this made people stronger. His ideal President--believe or not--was Calvin Coolidge. He told the audience that America wasn't a circus so the Republican Party should not become a big tent party. It should not be a clown car.
CPAC was a raving success for its organizers. They got full coverage on all major networks and received full analysis on the political blogs. But you have to ask,"where's the Beef? Strogonoff?"
At the end, the conservative movement is fractured. They only seem united by their hatred of Barack Obama. So where does that get you?
To top the whole thing off was the appearance as keynote speaker of Glenn Beck. Beck, with newly dyed blond hair, riffed on his theme that progressives starting with TR and Woodrow Wilson purposely embarked on destroying the constitution--something progressives do to this day. He even whipped out his famous chalkboard. He demanded that Republicans adopt a 12-step program like he did at AA and cease to be a party of "not tax and spend". He said that worst times made be coming and that it was good that Americans fail, lose their homes and jobs. "Failure made me a success", he said. He also said that he was the first member of his family ever to go to college--although he didn't specify for only one semester. He also talked about past generations of Americans who had lost everything and that this made people stronger. His ideal President--believe or not--was Calvin Coolidge. He told the audience that America wasn't a circus so the Republican Party should not become a big tent party. It should not be a clown car.
CPAC was a raving success for its organizers. They got full coverage on all major networks and received full analysis on the political blogs. But you have to ask,"where's the Beef? Strogonoff?"
At the end, the conservative movement is fractured. They only seem united by their hatred of Barack Obama. So where does that get you?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Afternoon Delights
The CPAC meeting continues to produce its hits. Dick Armey charges that Obama is an incompetent President, can't speak in complete sentences and is only interested in the distribution of wealth and control over our lives. A Young conservative believes that conservatives can win the younger generation because unemployment runs at 20% and that young people don't snort cocaine anymore like Barack Obama. Rachel Maddow was actually spotted trapsing among the little booths by the different organizations and was waylaid by people at the John Birch Society booth.
I guess Mitt Romney decided to revert to the racist legacy of Mormanism by delivering a speech with code words. He claimed Obama doesn't understand America--drumroll for the "real America", which is nice white and rich. CPAC leader Keene admitted he felt sullied by having relations with the Bush Republican Party. Little W once remarked about CPAC when told it was the base of the party," What are you talking about, I rebuilt the party." Oh yes, Dick Cheney made a surprise visit and was greeted by a thunderous applause . Cheney attacked Obama and claimed he was a one-term President.
Fox News was surprised that a man with an "American-sounding" name flew a plane into the IRS offices in Austin, Texas. His suicide note was posted on the web. A bitter scree against the Government and the IRS. Does Richard Reid sound "American". Actually, he was a Brit.
Glenn Beck has been at it again, claiming "progressives" are supporting euthanasia in Canada and what would happen to Sarah Palin's child if they succeeded here. Not to be outdone, Rush likens Obama to Hitler and the press operation in support of the stimulus package to Goebbels. He better not see Quentin Tarantino on the Rachel Maddow Show evince admiration for Goebbels as a film producer. The persistance of Glenn Beck and now Rush thinking Nazism was left-wing has become a new meme among conservatives. The person responsible for this is Jonah Goldberg, who wrote Liberal Fascism. I promise to re-post my little booklist of academic studies which demonstrate that fascism is clearly a right-wing phenomenon and that it has unique characteristics--some of which are now emerging on our right.
Poor Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League. Abe has been trying to build a Republican constituency for Israel for years and he himself leans that way. But he has raised the redflags about the anti-semiticism and proto-fascist leanings of many of the teabaggers. He voiced alarm the other day about the Republicans actively courting them for the 2010 elections. There is soon to be a new report coming out by the Southern Poverty Leadership Committee exposing the upswing in radical right groups and their role in the teabaggers.
Michael Steele met with representatives of the teabaggers on Capitol Hill. Teabaggers were forced to hold their press conference at the corner of the South Capitol Metro station where the press and teabaggers froze in bitter cold weather, while they could have been indoors at the RNC.
Freedomworks and the Club of Growth are actually mounting a rightwing challenge to Senator Bob Bennett, Republican from Utah. Bennett was one of the Senators who stayed up for days to try and get the original bank bailout right. He is conservative as all hell but actually possesses some expertise. Also, trolling for support at CPAC is JD Hayworth, the primary challenger to John McCain. The John McCain punching bag apparently is more popular at CPAC than Harry Reid.
A CIA historian blasted Marc Thiessen today for calling the "enhanced interrogation program" the finest achievement in its the Agency's long history. The historian was livid, saying the "program brought shame on our nation." So there. I also agree.
This nonsense usually drives me crazy but I figure since this stuff has absolutely no appeal or resonance with me that I take that as a sign of mental health. I also look forward to President Obama serving until I'm at least 63 so I have someone to listen to. It's clear to me that all these clowns I've mentioned above have little or no interest in listening to the President and clearly they never have.
I guess Mitt Romney decided to revert to the racist legacy of Mormanism by delivering a speech with code words. He claimed Obama doesn't understand America--drumroll for the "real America", which is nice white and rich. CPAC leader Keene admitted he felt sullied by having relations with the Bush Republican Party. Little W once remarked about CPAC when told it was the base of the party," What are you talking about, I rebuilt the party." Oh yes, Dick Cheney made a surprise visit and was greeted by a thunderous applause . Cheney attacked Obama and claimed he was a one-term President.
Fox News was surprised that a man with an "American-sounding" name flew a plane into the IRS offices in Austin, Texas. His suicide note was posted on the web. A bitter scree against the Government and the IRS. Does Richard Reid sound "American". Actually, he was a Brit.
Glenn Beck has been at it again, claiming "progressives" are supporting euthanasia in Canada and what would happen to Sarah Palin's child if they succeeded here. Not to be outdone, Rush likens Obama to Hitler and the press operation in support of the stimulus package to Goebbels. He better not see Quentin Tarantino on the Rachel Maddow Show evince admiration for Goebbels as a film producer. The persistance of Glenn Beck and now Rush thinking Nazism was left-wing has become a new meme among conservatives. The person responsible for this is Jonah Goldberg, who wrote Liberal Fascism. I promise to re-post my little booklist of academic studies which demonstrate that fascism is clearly a right-wing phenomenon and that it has unique characteristics--some of which are now emerging on our right.
Poor Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League. Abe has been trying to build a Republican constituency for Israel for years and he himself leans that way. But he has raised the redflags about the anti-semiticism and proto-fascist leanings of many of the teabaggers. He voiced alarm the other day about the Republicans actively courting them for the 2010 elections. There is soon to be a new report coming out by the Southern Poverty Leadership Committee exposing the upswing in radical right groups and their role in the teabaggers.
Michael Steele met with representatives of the teabaggers on Capitol Hill. Teabaggers were forced to hold their press conference at the corner of the South Capitol Metro station where the press and teabaggers froze in bitter cold weather, while they could have been indoors at the RNC.
Freedomworks and the Club of Growth are actually mounting a rightwing challenge to Senator Bob Bennett, Republican from Utah. Bennett was one of the Senators who stayed up for days to try and get the original bank bailout right. He is conservative as all hell but actually possesses some expertise. Also, trolling for support at CPAC is JD Hayworth, the primary challenger to John McCain. The John McCain punching bag apparently is more popular at CPAC than Harry Reid.
A CIA historian blasted Marc Thiessen today for calling the "enhanced interrogation program" the finest achievement in its the Agency's long history. The historian was livid, saying the "program brought shame on our nation." So there. I also agree.
This nonsense usually drives me crazy but I figure since this stuff has absolutely no appeal or resonance with me that I take that as a sign of mental health. I also look forward to President Obama serving until I'm at least 63 so I have someone to listen to. It's clear to me that all these clowns I've mentioned above have little or no interest in listening to the President and clearly they never have.
One Day Before The Operation
Not as dramatic as Three Days Before The Shooting, but tomorrow at dawn I'll see whether my African-American female doctor can restore the sight in my left eye. She has the most amazing hands I've ever felt--she'll probably coax the sight back. And her sidekick is Chinese. I imagine my brother-in-law would run screaming down the street seeing both of the doctors. He's still afraid Obama is going to take his guns and he is furious at illegal immigrants but couldn't answer me when I asked him if they were deported, who would do his lawn on Marco Island. The pre-op exam at Johns Hopkins was spooky-another Doctor, who I believe was a Gypsy, rattled off how many times I had malaria, amoebic dysentary, and proclaimed my cardiac event two years ago a massive case of heart burn. That's before I started talking. Maybe the CIA is doing something useful like keeping tabs on my medical history since she could not have gotten it from any recent doctor of mine. Actually I'm confident the Great Dr. Scott will pull it off.
If America does decline in my lifetime, we might start the date of the decline with the impeachment of Bill Clinton, a thoroughly shabby affair with everyone behaving badly. I can't imagine someone spending nine years researching this episode but Ken Gormley did and has offered up about 800 pages in The Death of American Virtue: Clinton Versus Starr (Crown, 2010). All the seedy details are here with some of the tragic aftermath for players like Webb Hubbell and Jim McDougall. I urge no one be sucked into reading this tome because it gets addictive just like the real saga itself and you could spend your time more constructively thinking about the paintings of Agnes Martin.
After the impeachment, the timeline would go something like this: the 2000 Presidential elections and the Brooks Brother riots in Miami to stop the vote counting; 9/11; and the multi-year wind-up to the Iraq War; Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans, and the vaporising of the global economy in 2008. Rush Limbaugh ridiculed Obama for calling this the lost decade. For Rush and Drudge and the right-wing echo chamber it was boom times, but for our country it was a time, as George Will wrote today, our luck ran out.
CPAC, the conservative political action committee, starts its meetings today with a unique co-sponsor--the John Birch Society. I guess now Bill Buckley is dead conservatives can feel free again to swim among the conspiracy theories. The meeting started off with Marco Rubio, conservative candidate for the Republican Senate primary in Florida, attacking Obama for using teleprompters ,while he used one himself. South Carolina's neo-confederate Senator Jim DeMint barely could contain himself when Rubio spoke.
There are wonderful workshops like "We need a Catholic teaparty." and " Nullification when we are faced with tyranny." Ken Blackwell, the Attorney-General in Ohio during the 1984 presidential elections, lamented "anti-Christian pogroms in the United States". Richard Viguerie slapped down the Mount Vernon Declaration of yesterday as "pablum". And for younger conservatives there are game rooms where you can punch Harry Reid and take target practice against Nancy Pelosi. They expect that celebrities like Joe the Plumber might surprise the younger folks during their games.
Yesterday, the Washington Post printed Justice Scalia's response to a screenwriter trying to work up a teabagging script, which would lead to nullification and secession. Scalia politely answered that he could be of no help on this issue since the Civil War ended the issue for the Supreme Court once and for all.
A South Carolina Republican has introduced a bill in that state's legislature to refuse any payments in dollars in the state. Rather the only currency would be gold and silver coins. Of course, this is all unconstitutional but when have conservatives cared about the constitution.
The Senate Republicans have been meeting with lobbyists to tell them they are even trying to kill a stripped down Jobs Bill because Harry Reid decided the larger one had too many tax breaks for the wealthy, corporations and those with large estates. Lobbyists expressed anger that their work had been in vain.
Brarack Obama finally had to create a Deficit Commission by executive order because the original Senate Republicans who sponsored the original bill had voted against it. His first nominees were former Republican Alan Simpson and Clinton administration official Erskine Bowles. Simpson sniped that if his party had been interested in deficits they could have vetoed something when they held the Presidency for eight years and Congress for six. Alan Simpson always had a great sense of humor. When challenged about a past youthful indiscretion in an election, he responded," I said I had experience. Some of it is good and others bad."
If you want a mind-boogling read, go into Andrew Sullivan's the Daily Dish and scroll down to Marc Thiessen's explanation to a Catholic news service how torture is in line with Catholic teachings and the theory of Just War. No one ever expects the Spanish Iniquisition! But even the Catholic Church has changed its tune since then. Apparently, Thiessen forgot.
Liz Cheney, the daughter of Darth Vader, now says that Clinton's trial of the first Twin Tower bombers in New York City subsequently caused 9/11.
Meanwhile, the Black Man continues to clean up with the capture of several of the top military leaders of the Taliban and more executions of Al Qaeda leaders by drones.
The Republicans continue in high dungeon with a concerted attack on the first anniversary of the stimlus package. As I've written before, the stimulus package was not big enough but was the only one possible given the politics of the time. Republicans, while bragging on stimulus projects in their own districts, claim the stimulus actually caused job loss. In fact, it saved or created 2 million jobs and will end up preserving 2.5 million jobs according to the Congressional Budget Office. But apparently the constant attacks are paying off. The Tea Baggers are now holding rallies that the stimulus actually caused the Recession. The Republicans are banking on people forgetting their own, pivotal role in creating what would have been the next Great Depression. Maybe with enough lying, they will convince the voters.
Meanwhile in the great Commonwealth of Virginia, our new Republican Governor has decided to gut educational programs for k-12 and eliminate mental health programs--started after the VTech killings--all for the purpose of saving the slight lowering of the car tax two years ago. No other purpose. Virginia will also be the first state to challenge in court the EPA's authority to monitor carbon emissions. Why? Because they can.
The great deconstruction continues. Tim Pawlenty, the Governor of Minneapolis and a born-again creationist, wants to project his national image by completely gutting the state's welfare and educational system. The local papers in Minnesota have warned voters that the very high standard of life in the state would be permanently damaged by these actions. Minnesota has always bragged about their enlightened policies to health care, education and mental illness. All of this built up over generations would be completely destroyed for one man's national ambitions.
The new Republican governor of New Jersey, Karl Rove's buddy, aims to make the state a model for the South. Without any consideration of alternatives, he has taken an ax to the state's budget with a special emphasis on eliminating education.
Finally, congratulations to Rachel Maddow for being named the Commencement speaker at Smith College. The announcement was greeted by shrieks of joy by the Senior class. Rachel Maddow is one of the few fresh faces in our media that provides sound and thoughtful analysis with a sense of humor. She deserves all good things.
If America does decline in my lifetime, we might start the date of the decline with the impeachment of Bill Clinton, a thoroughly shabby affair with everyone behaving badly. I can't imagine someone spending nine years researching this episode but Ken Gormley did and has offered up about 800 pages in The Death of American Virtue: Clinton Versus Starr (Crown, 2010). All the seedy details are here with some of the tragic aftermath for players like Webb Hubbell and Jim McDougall. I urge no one be sucked into reading this tome because it gets addictive just like the real saga itself and you could spend your time more constructively thinking about the paintings of Agnes Martin.
After the impeachment, the timeline would go something like this: the 2000 Presidential elections and the Brooks Brother riots in Miami to stop the vote counting; 9/11; and the multi-year wind-up to the Iraq War; Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans, and the vaporising of the global economy in 2008. Rush Limbaugh ridiculed Obama for calling this the lost decade. For Rush and Drudge and the right-wing echo chamber it was boom times, but for our country it was a time, as George Will wrote today, our luck ran out.
CPAC, the conservative political action committee, starts its meetings today with a unique co-sponsor--the John Birch Society. I guess now Bill Buckley is dead conservatives can feel free again to swim among the conspiracy theories. The meeting started off with Marco Rubio, conservative candidate for the Republican Senate primary in Florida, attacking Obama for using teleprompters ,while he used one himself. South Carolina's neo-confederate Senator Jim DeMint barely could contain himself when Rubio spoke.
There are wonderful workshops like "We need a Catholic teaparty." and " Nullification when we are faced with tyranny." Ken Blackwell, the Attorney-General in Ohio during the 1984 presidential elections, lamented "anti-Christian pogroms in the United States". Richard Viguerie slapped down the Mount Vernon Declaration of yesterday as "pablum". And for younger conservatives there are game rooms where you can punch Harry Reid and take target practice against Nancy Pelosi. They expect that celebrities like Joe the Plumber might surprise the younger folks during their games.
Yesterday, the Washington Post printed Justice Scalia's response to a screenwriter trying to work up a teabagging script, which would lead to nullification and secession. Scalia politely answered that he could be of no help on this issue since the Civil War ended the issue for the Supreme Court once and for all.
A South Carolina Republican has introduced a bill in that state's legislature to refuse any payments in dollars in the state. Rather the only currency would be gold and silver coins. Of course, this is all unconstitutional but when have conservatives cared about the constitution.
The Senate Republicans have been meeting with lobbyists to tell them they are even trying to kill a stripped down Jobs Bill because Harry Reid decided the larger one had too many tax breaks for the wealthy, corporations and those with large estates. Lobbyists expressed anger that their work had been in vain.
Brarack Obama finally had to create a Deficit Commission by executive order because the original Senate Republicans who sponsored the original bill had voted against it. His first nominees were former Republican Alan Simpson and Clinton administration official Erskine Bowles. Simpson sniped that if his party had been interested in deficits they could have vetoed something when they held the Presidency for eight years and Congress for six. Alan Simpson always had a great sense of humor. When challenged about a past youthful indiscretion in an election, he responded," I said I had experience. Some of it is good and others bad."
If you want a mind-boogling read, go into Andrew Sullivan's the Daily Dish and scroll down to Marc Thiessen's explanation to a Catholic news service how torture is in line with Catholic teachings and the theory of Just War. No one ever expects the Spanish Iniquisition! But even the Catholic Church has changed its tune since then. Apparently, Thiessen forgot.
Liz Cheney, the daughter of Darth Vader, now says that Clinton's trial of the first Twin Tower bombers in New York City subsequently caused 9/11.
Meanwhile, the Black Man continues to clean up with the capture of several of the top military leaders of the Taliban and more executions of Al Qaeda leaders by drones.
The Republicans continue in high dungeon with a concerted attack on the first anniversary of the stimlus package. As I've written before, the stimulus package was not big enough but was the only one possible given the politics of the time. Republicans, while bragging on stimulus projects in their own districts, claim the stimulus actually caused job loss. In fact, it saved or created 2 million jobs and will end up preserving 2.5 million jobs according to the Congressional Budget Office. But apparently the constant attacks are paying off. The Tea Baggers are now holding rallies that the stimulus actually caused the Recession. The Republicans are banking on people forgetting their own, pivotal role in creating what would have been the next Great Depression. Maybe with enough lying, they will convince the voters.
Meanwhile in the great Commonwealth of Virginia, our new Republican Governor has decided to gut educational programs for k-12 and eliminate mental health programs--started after the VTech killings--all for the purpose of saving the slight lowering of the car tax two years ago. No other purpose. Virginia will also be the first state to challenge in court the EPA's authority to monitor carbon emissions. Why? Because they can.
The great deconstruction continues. Tim Pawlenty, the Governor of Minneapolis and a born-again creationist, wants to project his national image by completely gutting the state's welfare and educational system. The local papers in Minnesota have warned voters that the very high standard of life in the state would be permanently damaged by these actions. Minnesota has always bragged about their enlightened policies to health care, education and mental illness. All of this built up over generations would be completely destroyed for one man's national ambitions.
The new Republican governor of New Jersey, Karl Rove's buddy, aims to make the state a model for the South. Without any consideration of alternatives, he has taken an ax to the state's budget with a special emphasis on eliminating education.
Finally, congratulations to Rachel Maddow for being named the Commencement speaker at Smith College. The announcement was greeted by shrieks of joy by the Senior class. Rachel Maddow is one of the few fresh faces in our media that provides sound and thoughtful analysis with a sense of humor. She deserves all good things.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Impotent, old, rich white men shout at clouds
I can't wait until Wednesday when 80 prominent conservative "thinkers" will unveil "the Mount Vernon Statement" in homage of George Washington. The organizers of this historic event bill it as the next generation of the 1960 "Sharon Statement", which was produced at Bill Buckley's house in Connecticut by a group of young conservatives. The "Sharon Statement" served to define the conservative movement for years.
To appeal to the new generation,the headliners of the Mount Vernon Statement are well-known conservative foundation "welfare queens" Ed Feulner, who receives several times the salary of the President of the United States as the President of the non-profit Heritage Foundation, former Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and former head of the commission on pornography Ed Meese, Media Research Center leader Brent Bozell, leading American Wahhabist and President of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist, Christian Right leader Tony Perkins of the Family Research Center and American Conservative Union head David Keene, who puts on CPAC every year. Almost all of them now qualify for Social Security and Medicare. All they are missing is David Horowitz, the 71-year old veteran of Ramparts magazine and a born-again conservative. This is a very exciting line-up, which would qualify as the Old Timers' Game.
One of the intriguing elements of the original "Sharon Statement" and Bill Buckley's role in building a conservative mvement was the exclusion of the John Birch Society. Bill Buckley, with the permission of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, wrote a long manifesto against the John Birch Society and had it read into the Congressional record with the approval of Senator Tower. The diatribe was then widely distributed to alert conservatives that the John Birch Society was beyond the pale.
That's what makes this crew's association with the Sharon Statement intriguing. David Keene's CPAC this year is being co-sponsored by the John Birch Society for the first time I remember. It's probably the promise of funding from the Koch Industries, whose family members always funded the John Birchers in the past. Buckley's original statement was also a salvo against the old conservatives like the Taft Republicans. It was a young man's challenge to the Old Guard. Here is the Old Guard, very old in fact. Are they just declaring their position as the leaders of American conservatism or are they in fact actually interested in drawing anyone new to their ranks? I guess you would have to pass a class, race and age test.
A coalition of tea party groups and right-wing activists will be using Keene's CPAC this year to support a guiding document of their own--The Contract from America. Semantically, I'm not sure whether this is a secessionist document, or a message from "real Americans". And the old ambulance chaser himself Newt Gingrich is following up his 1994 Contract with America , with another "New Contract with America" in the hopes that his student Eric Cantor can recapture the House, reliving Newt's glory days before he fell because of a sex scandal.
All this nonsense only underscores what I have said before that the conservative nomenklatura is too fossilized to change. Reminiscing about the Gipper is fine but two younger generations will have no clue what they are talking about. Intrestingly, all but Meese turned against Ronald Reagan in his last two years because of his changing stance to the Soviet Union and his desire for the reduction in nuclear arms. None of these men have produced an original idea in years and now they sure retire to their porches and shout at people on their lawns.
To appeal to the new generation,the headliners of the Mount Vernon Statement are well-known conservative foundation "welfare queens" Ed Feulner, who receives several times the salary of the President of the United States as the President of the non-profit Heritage Foundation, former Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and former head of the commission on pornography Ed Meese, Media Research Center leader Brent Bozell, leading American Wahhabist and President of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist, Christian Right leader Tony Perkins of the Family Research Center and American Conservative Union head David Keene, who puts on CPAC every year. Almost all of them now qualify for Social Security and Medicare. All they are missing is David Horowitz, the 71-year old veteran of Ramparts magazine and a born-again conservative. This is a very exciting line-up, which would qualify as the Old Timers' Game.
One of the intriguing elements of the original "Sharon Statement" and Bill Buckley's role in building a conservative mvement was the exclusion of the John Birch Society. Bill Buckley, with the permission of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater, wrote a long manifesto against the John Birch Society and had it read into the Congressional record with the approval of Senator Tower. The diatribe was then widely distributed to alert conservatives that the John Birch Society was beyond the pale.
That's what makes this crew's association with the Sharon Statement intriguing. David Keene's CPAC this year is being co-sponsored by the John Birch Society for the first time I remember. It's probably the promise of funding from the Koch Industries, whose family members always funded the John Birchers in the past. Buckley's original statement was also a salvo against the old conservatives like the Taft Republicans. It was a young man's challenge to the Old Guard. Here is the Old Guard, very old in fact. Are they just declaring their position as the leaders of American conservatism or are they in fact actually interested in drawing anyone new to their ranks? I guess you would have to pass a class, race and age test.
A coalition of tea party groups and right-wing activists will be using Keene's CPAC this year to support a guiding document of their own--The Contract from America. Semantically, I'm not sure whether this is a secessionist document, or a message from "real Americans". And the old ambulance chaser himself Newt Gingrich is following up his 1994 Contract with America , with another "New Contract with America" in the hopes that his student Eric Cantor can recapture the House, reliving Newt's glory days before he fell because of a sex scandal.
All this nonsense only underscores what I have said before that the conservative nomenklatura is too fossilized to change. Reminiscing about the Gipper is fine but two younger generations will have no clue what they are talking about. Intrestingly, all but Meese turned against Ronald Reagan in his last two years because of his changing stance to the Soviet Union and his desire for the reduction in nuclear arms. None of these men have produced an original idea in years and now they sure retire to their porches and shout at people on their lawns.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Jesus Wept. Senator DeMint calls for Revolution
Senator De Mint today said that conservatives might have to take to the streets to stop" the slide into socialism" in the country. Can you imagine engaging in mass action so the top 2% in wealth aren't taxed more--and only by an increase of 4% at that? John Boehner, who has that old retro black-and-white television look, cried that Obama's budget was the downpayment on a New Form of American Socialism. What did the old form look like?
Revolution was definitely in the air at CPAC. Joe the Plumber, the new Karl Rove of the GOP, said that certain congressmen should be shot for disrespecting the military. John Bolton suggested it might not be a bad thing if terrorists took out the city of Chicago. Huckabee said that the GOP now can be the party of the little guy (?). Freepers are encouraging Tea Parties to protest tax hikes--for whom, please?
One of the birther lawyers wants Obama deported when he wins his case. And Cliff Kincaid said he remembered when presidents were born in the United States and were anti-Communists and not....fill in the blank. Patrick Henry (yes, a relative) said that the GOP won the stimulus debate and would come back to power through Facebook. Rush Limbaugh again asserted he wants Obama to fail.
If you want an idea of how braindead the Republican Party is, read the list prepared by Toby Harnden of the Daily Telegraph of the 10 top anti-Obama conservatives. They run in order: 1. Rush Limbaugh, 2. Matt Drudge, 3. Sean Hannity, 4.Karl Rove, 5. Michelle Malkin, 6. Patrick Ruffini, 7. Michael Savage, 8.Ann Coulter,9. David Brooks and 10. Rick Santelli.
The last appeared on the Gordon Liddy show to suggest the Obama White House threatened him only to say this morning that it wasn't true. Now, aside from David Brooks,none of these people are thinkers, writers or conservative intellectuals in any way. In fact, the majority of them have never graduated from college. These are thought to be the "brains" of the party. I count at least 8 racketeers, people who use their media exposure simply for self-aggrandizement and profit.
These are the people that conservatives are banking on to fuel a reaction to Obama. Unfortunately, the tenor of the conservative rhetoric these days is increasingly violent. When you have adult members of Congress actually incite street actions,one should be prepared for localized acts of violence appearing.
We have had the report of neo-Nazi recruitment increasing in these perilous times as well as the resurrection of the KKK. Today a U.S. Marine was arrested for planning to shoot President Obama. Another man was arrested for sending HIV-infected blood to the White House. These episodes sky-rocketed during the fall campaign as Sarah Palin whipped up her crowds with incendiary rhetoric.
The "birthers" has been enlisting active military officers to join their lawsuit as plaintiffs. In a late night call out, one of the lawyers realized that these people risked being courtmartialed so he put out a request for JAGs to help these men. A little late in the day to be concerned about using people.
No such concern is expressed by those exploiting relatives of those slain on the U.S.S. Cole, asking them to generate letters claiming that President Obama is weak on terrorists and is releasing them. Be forewarned these are not the spontaneous eruptions of upraged citizenry but fraudulent endeavors to raise money.
The concern here really is that this brainlessness has all the ingrediants to become a home grown fascist movement. Many of these people have already abandoned the Republican Party as too compromised and weak. Others are into an alternative political fantasy world, hungering for the time that a resurgent Christian movement will emerge to restore the values of Western civilization against the regime of gays, porn and abortion. What's dangerous here is that they have access to large amounts of money and to media outlets that tend to rationalize their opinions. If our own economic situation worsens even more,these people will become a dangerous force.
Revolution was definitely in the air at CPAC. Joe the Plumber, the new Karl Rove of the GOP, said that certain congressmen should be shot for disrespecting the military. John Bolton suggested it might not be a bad thing if terrorists took out the city of Chicago. Huckabee said that the GOP now can be the party of the little guy (?). Freepers are encouraging Tea Parties to protest tax hikes--for whom, please?
One of the birther lawyers wants Obama deported when he wins his case. And Cliff Kincaid said he remembered when presidents were born in the United States and were anti-Communists and not....fill in the blank. Patrick Henry (yes, a relative) said that the GOP won the stimulus debate and would come back to power through Facebook. Rush Limbaugh again asserted he wants Obama to fail.
If you want an idea of how braindead the Republican Party is, read the list prepared by Toby Harnden of the Daily Telegraph of the 10 top anti-Obama conservatives. They run in order: 1. Rush Limbaugh, 2. Matt Drudge, 3. Sean Hannity, 4.Karl Rove, 5. Michelle Malkin, 6. Patrick Ruffini, 7. Michael Savage, 8.Ann Coulter,9. David Brooks and 10. Rick Santelli.
The last appeared on the Gordon Liddy show to suggest the Obama White House threatened him only to say this morning that it wasn't true. Now, aside from David Brooks,none of these people are thinkers, writers or conservative intellectuals in any way. In fact, the majority of them have never graduated from college. These are thought to be the "brains" of the party. I count at least 8 racketeers, people who use their media exposure simply for self-aggrandizement and profit.
These are the people that conservatives are banking on to fuel a reaction to Obama. Unfortunately, the tenor of the conservative rhetoric these days is increasingly violent. When you have adult members of Congress actually incite street actions,one should be prepared for localized acts of violence appearing.
We have had the report of neo-Nazi recruitment increasing in these perilous times as well as the resurrection of the KKK. Today a U.S. Marine was arrested for planning to shoot President Obama. Another man was arrested for sending HIV-infected blood to the White House. These episodes sky-rocketed during the fall campaign as Sarah Palin whipped up her crowds with incendiary rhetoric.
The "birthers" has been enlisting active military officers to join their lawsuit as plaintiffs. In a late night call out, one of the lawyers realized that these people risked being courtmartialed so he put out a request for JAGs to help these men. A little late in the day to be concerned about using people.
No such concern is expressed by those exploiting relatives of those slain on the U.S.S. Cole, asking them to generate letters claiming that President Obama is weak on terrorists and is releasing them. Be forewarned these are not the spontaneous eruptions of upraged citizenry but fraudulent endeavors to raise money.
The concern here really is that this brainlessness has all the ingrediants to become a home grown fascist movement. Many of these people have already abandoned the Republican Party as too compromised and weak. Others are into an alternative political fantasy world, hungering for the time that a resurgent Christian movement will emerge to restore the values of Western civilization against the regime of gays, porn and abortion. What's dangerous here is that they have access to large amounts of money and to media outlets that tend to rationalize their opinions. If our own economic situation worsens even more,these people will become a dangerous force.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Thursday Ice Coffee--Spring Training Starts
Yeehaw! We in Virginia already have the right to openly carry guns into restaurants. Now Richmond proposes to allow concealed weapons into restaurants. I want to know what girly-men are behind this. I had proposed that the law bearing open weapons be limited to antique six-shooters so to give us the air of the frontier again. Apparently, my neighbors want Uzis and Glocks. But isn't the issue whether you can really shoot and not spread the customers?
I have been told by my conservative friends that fund-raising for the NRA is going through the roof as they maintain that Obama is plotting to take all their guns away. An alternative answer to this is that the NRA has a great dental plan and people want to take advantage of it in a bad time. Gun sales are going gang-busters (maybe not the right word) since the Mexican cartels have been importing alot of weaponry from the States. The State of Montana in an attempt to get around any federal restrictions is encouraging the local manufacture of munitions and guns. My brother-in-law, a recent citizen of the United States, reports that there is an ammunition shortage in Florida. Why he should be interested remains an open question.
I received e-mail flashes that Senator DeMint's amendment on the Fairness Doctrine passed 87-11. A great triumph for conservatives. Well, step back. It was appended to the bill that would give the District of Columbia a house seat, something all but moderate Republicans oppose. Since Obama opposed the re-introduction of the Fairness Doctrine but supports voting rights for D.C., who came out ahead? And now the talk radio heads can't use the Fairness Doctrine as a way to raise funds.
Mary Matalin, whose last campaign venture was Dick Allen's epic fail for the Senate ("Remember the Macaca Moment"), says that the U.S. faces a "mini-crisis" in the financial system. Let's see the entire global financial system collapsed, credit vanished, 19 million homes are empty and millions more are being foreclosed, and the unemployment rates in states are topping 10% and above. It's just a tad incovenient.
Rep. Boehner is still at it. He now says that the Republican agenda is a tough sell because Americans are like "Welfare Queens", who just want handouts. We heard of the Blame American First San Francisco Democrats. Now we have the Hate America First Republicans. We could have a new category "Self-Hating Americans".
Obama is a tax-raiser. He intends to raise the top marginal rates, tax the wealthy for health care and proposes a tax increase ("dramatic according to the Wall Street Journal") on overseas profits by American corporations. We applaud the last move.
As we explained previously, there is about $2.5 trillion of tax revenues hiding offshore. The fact that no one who earns under $250,000 will pay a penny more escapes his critics. For me that is the salient point if you are a Republican figuring out who you lost. Obama just stole the middle and upper-middle class away from the Republicans and they haven't discovered it yet.
You knew this was coming. The agribusinesses, mining companies and other corporate interests who feel their ox is about to be gored are gearing up big time with the lobbying firms to kill Obama's initiatives in Congress. The chances are they will succeed with the Blue Dog Democrats doing their bidding along with the Republicans.
The case against Texas billionaire Allen Stanford's multi-billion scam has taken some interesting turns as analysts comment that the SEC and the Feds were told to stand down by John Negroponte, the commissar for intelligence under Bush. Also interesting is that the Biden family is in this episode up to their elbows. It's looking more like an intelligence plot everyday.
For your amusement, you might try to log onto the CPAC conference here in Washington where you can laugh along with tales of how amateurish the Obama Administration is and how Biden doesn't know the difference between a website and a phone number. Rush Limbaugh will be given an award for his defense of the Constitution. It should be fun for all!
Did Bobby Jindal diss volcano monitoring to get at Sarah Palin, who now is sitting on a live volcano in Alaska? Sarah Palin is saying now that Jindal is really a closet Moslem. (Actually Hindu). Little Billy Kristol says the new Republican strategy is to slow everything down and to tie everything up in procedural debates so that not everything Obama wants can be enacted. In that way, he hopes lightning will strike --eventually.
Anyway, catch the Stevie Wonder Concert on PBS if you can. Stevie surprises by playing a mean classical piano. Maybe he should have a duet with Condi Rice.
I have been told by my conservative friends that fund-raising for the NRA is going through the roof as they maintain that Obama is plotting to take all their guns away. An alternative answer to this is that the NRA has a great dental plan and people want to take advantage of it in a bad time. Gun sales are going gang-busters (maybe not the right word) since the Mexican cartels have been importing alot of weaponry from the States. The State of Montana in an attempt to get around any federal restrictions is encouraging the local manufacture of munitions and guns. My brother-in-law, a recent citizen of the United States, reports that there is an ammunition shortage in Florida. Why he should be interested remains an open question.
I received e-mail flashes that Senator DeMint's amendment on the Fairness Doctrine passed 87-11. A great triumph for conservatives. Well, step back. It was appended to the bill that would give the District of Columbia a house seat, something all but moderate Republicans oppose. Since Obama opposed the re-introduction of the Fairness Doctrine but supports voting rights for D.C., who came out ahead? And now the talk radio heads can't use the Fairness Doctrine as a way to raise funds.
Mary Matalin, whose last campaign venture was Dick Allen's epic fail for the Senate ("Remember the Macaca Moment"), says that the U.S. faces a "mini-crisis" in the financial system. Let's see the entire global financial system collapsed, credit vanished, 19 million homes are empty and millions more are being foreclosed, and the unemployment rates in states are topping 10% and above. It's just a tad incovenient.
Rep. Boehner is still at it. He now says that the Republican agenda is a tough sell because Americans are like "Welfare Queens", who just want handouts. We heard of the Blame American First San Francisco Democrats. Now we have the Hate America First Republicans. We could have a new category "Self-Hating Americans".
Obama is a tax-raiser. He intends to raise the top marginal rates, tax the wealthy for health care and proposes a tax increase ("dramatic according to the Wall Street Journal") on overseas profits by American corporations. We applaud the last move.
As we explained previously, there is about $2.5 trillion of tax revenues hiding offshore. The fact that no one who earns under $250,000 will pay a penny more escapes his critics. For me that is the salient point if you are a Republican figuring out who you lost. Obama just stole the middle and upper-middle class away from the Republicans and they haven't discovered it yet.
You knew this was coming. The agribusinesses, mining companies and other corporate interests who feel their ox is about to be gored are gearing up big time with the lobbying firms to kill Obama's initiatives in Congress. The chances are they will succeed with the Blue Dog Democrats doing their bidding along with the Republicans.
The case against Texas billionaire Allen Stanford's multi-billion scam has taken some interesting turns as analysts comment that the SEC and the Feds were told to stand down by John Negroponte, the commissar for intelligence under Bush. Also interesting is that the Biden family is in this episode up to their elbows. It's looking more like an intelligence plot everyday.
For your amusement, you might try to log onto the CPAC conference here in Washington where you can laugh along with tales of how amateurish the Obama Administration is and how Biden doesn't know the difference between a website and a phone number. Rush Limbaugh will be given an award for his defense of the Constitution. It should be fun for all!
Did Bobby Jindal diss volcano monitoring to get at Sarah Palin, who now is sitting on a live volcano in Alaska? Sarah Palin is saying now that Jindal is really a closet Moslem. (Actually Hindu). Little Billy Kristol says the new Republican strategy is to slow everything down and to tie everything up in procedural debates so that not everything Obama wants can be enacted. In that way, he hopes lightning will strike --eventually.
Anyway, catch the Stevie Wonder Concert on PBS if you can. Stevie surprises by playing a mean classical piano. Maybe he should have a duet with Condi Rice.
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