++Darren Wilson has resigned from the Ferguson police department, ending his career in law enforcement. That didn't stop protests from continuing around the country.
++George Will had a bizarre op-ed in the Washington Post on President Obama's Caesarism even though he has only signed one-half the executive orders of President Reagan and an amazing 1/5th of Silent Cal Coolidge,the conservative's favorite president.
++The Washington Post tried to debunk the myths about a lame duck president not accomplishing much.
++The New York Times does point out that President Obama may be the most consequential environmental President in modern history because of his "adroit" use of the Clean Air Act. This past week the EPA released new guidelines on ozone which had been postponed the last three years.
++A customer at Politics and Prose yelled to President Obama "Close Guantanamo" to which the President responded "we're doing just that". In the past week, more prisoners have been released bring the total left to 167. While off the radar, these moves have started a backlash in the rightwing blogs. Now we hear that these people have been released without any consideration of the national security threat to the United States. No mention is made that all have been released with multiple approvals by various agencies.
++More problematic these coming weeks is the lame duck Congress. The Post is urging the President to go to the Center and not to pander to his base with the tax reform bill that Dave Camp and Harry Reid have cooked up. This would mean $550 billion in corporate tax breaks over 10 years and mean cutting out the Earned Income Tax credit for the lower middle class. This reminds me of President Clinton's welfare reform gambit.
++Congress still has to release the torture report. Dozens of judges and ambassadors are still not confirmed. If they are not,forget about it during the next two years.
++Under the radar has been the GOP's effort to get the head of the Congressional Budget Office removed. This bipartisan group is the main obstacle to Paul Ryan's budget because they would be compelled to show how he increases the national debt to around $30 trillion. Ryan is advocating a return to Reagan era's "dynamic scoring" to avoid any catastrophic conclusion. This is the fight in the next two years.
++The GOP wants to show they are constructive so they want Congress to pass a full budget for the next fiscal year before they present the double whammy of the Ryan Budget. Watch this space because the GOP will want to trigger a recession before the next election.
++Rand Paul's move to declare war on ISIS has a little trick clause. I want a real declaration of war but he limits the extent of the war and then calls for armed troops to be sent to fight ISIS. I'll take the limit until the end of President Obama's term but let's leave troops for another day.
++The GOP is turning itself into a pretzel over the immigration executive orders. Naturally 90% of Hispanic voters approve of President Obama's acts. But the GOP has to serve its xenophobic base and so wants to restrict any expenditure on enforcing these orders. The problem is how to structure a year-long budget with this small item in it.
++With the Iranian nuclear talks postponed until June of next year, expect more Senate mischief on tightening sanctions on Iran.
++SCOTUS should be nuts this year with their attempt to gut Obamacare like they did the Voting Rights Act. I fear for same sex marriage despite recent moves to declare its prohibition unconstitutional in both Arkansas and Mississippi.
++The 2016 Presidential race is off and running. Rick Perry, Chris Christie,Scott Walker are already geared up. Rand Paul claims he can run for Senate and the President but Kentucky law is doubtful.
++My Senator Mark Warner is been appointed to a Democratic Senate Post to counter Elizabeth Warren. This ought to be good.
Showing posts with label George Will. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George Will. Show all posts
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Chock Full of Nuts
++This afternoon's Impertial Post allowed the voices of wingnuttery sway. We have Allen West write that President Obama doesn't understand the meaning of his own signing statements since West is such a great constitutional lawyer. George Will weighed in on how the President has gone rogue. Judge Michael Mukasy defends the great fortress Gitmo and laments the grotesque display at the Rose Garden and how the leaders of a terrorist group have gone free. The Judge thinks that President Obama doesn't understand the significance of what he has done.
++Marco Rubio earlier in the day said that President Obama was acting as an Emperor.
++The bottom-line since 2008 has been to impeach President Obama and to make sure he can not carry out any of his policies. There is no doubt about this.
++What you see are people seeing their worldview and the instruments they created to box in the President crumble around them. In a way,the disturbing trend of Post op-eds for the past two months on foreign affairs indicates this--an entrenched interest of the national security state trying to save the war machine and hype military interventionism at a drop of the hat.
++There is no alternative vision. They just think that if Obama disappears a return to the old foreign policy will materialize. What worries them is that the structures they depended upon to implement policies abroad are disappearing and can't be replaced. The Times They are A-changin' and they don't know why.
++Josh Rogin has written how Hillary Clinton had disagreed with President Obama over this deal two years ago--which is a different deal than in 2014. This really goes to the media elites still not accepting the legitimacy of President Obama. Hillary Clinton's view is the Democratic Party view. It reminds me of Lady Rothschild's lunatic ravings against President Obama. Hillary Clinton did say she approve this deal and ,yes, then sidestepped it more recently.
++This is a bizarre episode in American history. This is the first time there is a major fight--to the point of calls for impeachment--over a return of a POW. Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly tries to run down the thinking on this as expressed by Lindsey Graham. So the bottom line is that the GOP must fight to preserve the last remnant of the George W. Bush years, the prison at Guantanamo, even if it means impeaching a sitting President of the United States. What an idea! The GOP admits Iraq is gone and soon Afghanistan. Lindsey said that Obama is "losing the wars". So the whole apparatus they have constructed over more than a decade is crumbling so the President must go.
++This is the normal retributions we saw after the Vietnam War, when the United States withdrew and the North Vietnamese won. The Nixon-Ford White House tried to blame the Democrats. In fact, there are Nixon papers outlining this strategy. Then blame the Left. Then blame Hollywood culture. A lot of the memes from today come from that period in our history. But for the GOP today,they see President Obama has the existential threat to everything they hold dear on the economy and national security. Expect more of this.
++Meanwhile,the gay roadrunners keep moving along. The Supreme Court rejected NOM's petition to hear their objections to Oregon's decision to allow same sex marriage. I couldn't understand what standing NOM had in the case since the Oregon Attorney-General made it clear the state did not want defend their ban on same sex marriage.
++This afternoon Chester Nez,the last of the original Navaho "Code Talkers" died at the age of 93.
++So we finish today in Washington with the desire to impeach President Obama on the following grounds:
1. Like his predecessors he rescued the last POW in Afghanistan.
2. He didn't save the Ambassador and colleagues at Benghazi when they were attacked by someone the Bush Administration released from Gitmo.
3. He had a terrible healthcare. gov website.
4. He ended two wars.
5. He adopted the biggest restrictions on carbon emissions in American history.
6. He didn't know that the IRS was evaluating Dark Money 501-C-4s. He should have if he were like Nixon.
So ending two wars,rescuing a POW and providing health insurance to millions of Americans. Like Fox Shrink Ablow said today, President Obama doesn't want to be part of America.
Sometimes I think they should impeach President Obama because it would give themselves something to do. But I can't imagine this crew even conveying the necessary fake gravitas.
++Marco Rubio earlier in the day said that President Obama was acting as an Emperor.
++The bottom-line since 2008 has been to impeach President Obama and to make sure he can not carry out any of his policies. There is no doubt about this.
++What you see are people seeing their worldview and the instruments they created to box in the President crumble around them. In a way,the disturbing trend of Post op-eds for the past two months on foreign affairs indicates this--an entrenched interest of the national security state trying to save the war machine and hype military interventionism at a drop of the hat.
++There is no alternative vision. They just think that if Obama disappears a return to the old foreign policy will materialize. What worries them is that the structures they depended upon to implement policies abroad are disappearing and can't be replaced. The Times They are A-changin' and they don't know why.
++Josh Rogin has written how Hillary Clinton had disagreed with President Obama over this deal two years ago--which is a different deal than in 2014. This really goes to the media elites still not accepting the legitimacy of President Obama. Hillary Clinton's view is the Democratic Party view. It reminds me of Lady Rothschild's lunatic ravings against President Obama. Hillary Clinton did say she approve this deal and ,yes, then sidestepped it more recently.
++This is a bizarre episode in American history. This is the first time there is a major fight--to the point of calls for impeachment--over a return of a POW. Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly tries to run down the thinking on this as expressed by Lindsey Graham. So the bottom line is that the GOP must fight to preserve the last remnant of the George W. Bush years, the prison at Guantanamo, even if it means impeaching a sitting President of the United States. What an idea! The GOP admits Iraq is gone and soon Afghanistan. Lindsey said that Obama is "losing the wars". So the whole apparatus they have constructed over more than a decade is crumbling so the President must go.
++This is the normal retributions we saw after the Vietnam War, when the United States withdrew and the North Vietnamese won. The Nixon-Ford White House tried to blame the Democrats. In fact, there are Nixon papers outlining this strategy. Then blame the Left. Then blame Hollywood culture. A lot of the memes from today come from that period in our history. But for the GOP today,they see President Obama has the existential threat to everything they hold dear on the economy and national security. Expect more of this.
++Meanwhile,the gay roadrunners keep moving along. The Supreme Court rejected NOM's petition to hear their objections to Oregon's decision to allow same sex marriage. I couldn't understand what standing NOM had in the case since the Oregon Attorney-General made it clear the state did not want defend their ban on same sex marriage.
++This afternoon Chester Nez,the last of the original Navaho "Code Talkers" died at the age of 93.
++So we finish today in Washington with the desire to impeach President Obama on the following grounds:
1. Like his predecessors he rescued the last POW in Afghanistan.
2. He didn't save the Ambassador and colleagues at Benghazi when they were attacked by someone the Bush Administration released from Gitmo.
3. He had a terrible healthcare. gov website.
4. He ended two wars.
5. He adopted the biggest restrictions on carbon emissions in American history.
6. He didn't know that the IRS was evaluating Dark Money 501-C-4s. He should have if he were like Nixon.
So ending two wars,rescuing a POW and providing health insurance to millions of Americans. Like Fox Shrink Ablow said today, President Obama doesn't want to be part of America.
Sometimes I think they should impeach President Obama because it would give themselves something to do. But I can't imagine this crew even conveying the necessary fake gravitas.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Discharge Petitions
++House Democrats at their winter retreat happened on a device to bring the minimum wage and immigration reform to the floor. They want to use a discharge petition, where 218 votes are needed to bring a bill to the floor. John Boehner's spokesman claims that the "scheme" will not work.
++George Will in a rare moment of sobriety writes today in the Amazon Post about why immigration reform is vital to the future of both the country and his party. Last week Charles Schumer tried a compromise where the House could vote on immigration and wait for the bill to take in effect after President Obama leaves office. In a raw vote count,the bill would pass the House now with full Democratic support, which is what happened with the debt ceiling.
++George Will made the excellent point that immigration from Mexico is now zero and that 9-11 unleashed the funds to secure the border and allow President Obama to deport an obscene about of people--2 million and counting.
++The NYTimes weighs in on ACA, saying 80% of enrollees have paid for it--the rightwing spin is that few are paying for it. ACA has surpassed its target for January, the first time that happened. The Right truly believe like in 2010 Obamacare is the ticket to ride to victory.
++It was South Dakota who wants to jail doctors for life. North Dakota allowed doctors to use hospitals.
++Kansas is passing a Gay segregation bill, which would allow anyone with "genuine religious conditions" to discriminate against gays in employment,providing services or even benefits. They should just add in African-Americans to make the law clear as to its origins.
++Missouri is backing a bill against teaching evolution. Next they will make it illegal to teach any history after the 19th Century.
++Acela Joe Biden happened to speak the truth today at the Democratic conference that the GOP doesn't exist and that by wide margins the American people back the Democratic Party on the issues from raising the minimum wage to gun checks. He urged the Democrats to remain united for 2014.
++George Will in a rare moment of sobriety writes today in the Amazon Post about why immigration reform is vital to the future of both the country and his party. Last week Charles Schumer tried a compromise where the House could vote on immigration and wait for the bill to take in effect after President Obama leaves office. In a raw vote count,the bill would pass the House now with full Democratic support, which is what happened with the debt ceiling.
++George Will made the excellent point that immigration from Mexico is now zero and that 9-11 unleashed the funds to secure the border and allow President Obama to deport an obscene about of people--2 million and counting.
++The NYTimes weighs in on ACA, saying 80% of enrollees have paid for it--the rightwing spin is that few are paying for it. ACA has surpassed its target for January, the first time that happened. The Right truly believe like in 2010 Obamacare is the ticket to ride to victory.
++It was South Dakota who wants to jail doctors for life. North Dakota allowed doctors to use hospitals.
++Kansas is passing a Gay segregation bill, which would allow anyone with "genuine religious conditions" to discriminate against gays in employment,providing services or even benefits. They should just add in African-Americans to make the law clear as to its origins.
++Missouri is backing a bill against teaching evolution. Next they will make it illegal to teach any history after the 19th Century.
++Acela Joe Biden happened to speak the truth today at the Democratic conference that the GOP doesn't exist and that by wide margins the American people back the Democratic Party on the issues from raising the minimum wage to gun checks. He urged the Democrats to remain united for 2014.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Wingnuts Ahoy
++The reason President Obama persuaded the American people in his State of the Union address was, according to the American Family Association, he possessing supernatural powers.
++Rand Paul after his homage to Ayn Rand in his response to the State of the Union doubled down on his criticism of Bill Clinton by saying he is a "serial philanderer."
++Charles Pierce writes today of how much he will miss the Obama presidency because of the entertainment provided by the GOP clown car in their responses to the State of the Union.
++George Will today found an obscure legal clause in the Affordable Care Act that might be used to cripple it. He argues subsidies are only allowed for the state exchanges but not the federal and that Red states might use this to sue.
++Ted Cruz says that the time is right to repeal Obamacare because he established the language of the national debate over the terrible things the healthcare law does. He even says he will fight his own attempts to close the government.
++PPP shows that "Sugar Uncle" Mike Huckabee is in the lead for the GOP presidential nomination and that his call for woman to keep their libidos in check pushed his approval rating among the GOP up to 64%. In second is Jeb Bush and third is Chris Christie.
++In the National Journal, Ron Fournier apologized for his 2013 support of Chris Christie as the savior of the GOP.
++Rinse Penis has ordered all RNC staff and board members not to appeal on MSNBC.
++Some wag noted that GOP responder to the State of the Union wanted government out of healthcare but neglected to mention she had government healthcare through her Navy husband, which took care of the expenses for her son who was born with Downs Syndrome. Also, while she wanted the government out of healthcare decisions, she voted only hours before to prevent any insurance coverage for abortions.
++The Tan Man wants to throw in the towel over the debt ceiling. The House can't agree to any appropriate ransom. Ted Crus says he will go for a fight on this.
++The Tan Man told the House retreat that the GOP has to be an alternative to Obama, not the opposition. Good luck with that one.
++Quinnipiac reports that Governor Medicare Fraud Rick Scott is down 46 to 38 to Charlie Crist.
++The Post/ABC poll shows Hillary Clinton trouncing Chris Christie 53 to 41.
++In a generation of polling, Hillary Clinton has the largest primary lead of all-time. Among Democrats she is 73 to Joe Biden's 12 and Elizabeth Warren's 8.
++Michelle Nunn is in the lead against all GOP opponents in Georgia.
++Democratic Senator Kay Hagen is now down 7 points to any Republican challenger.
++The number of federal employees is almost the same number as during the time of Reagan. The Post reports that more than a third of current Federal employees will be eligible to retire in 2017.
++A man named James Meachem appeared on Morning Joe to say that FDR and Lincoln would never use executive orders to improve the economy. FDR is the champion of executive orders, while President Obama has less than George W. Bush.
++Rand Paul after his homage to Ayn Rand in his response to the State of the Union doubled down on his criticism of Bill Clinton by saying he is a "serial philanderer."
++Charles Pierce writes today of how much he will miss the Obama presidency because of the entertainment provided by the GOP clown car in their responses to the State of the Union.
++George Will today found an obscure legal clause in the Affordable Care Act that might be used to cripple it. He argues subsidies are only allowed for the state exchanges but not the federal and that Red states might use this to sue.
++Ted Cruz says that the time is right to repeal Obamacare because he established the language of the national debate over the terrible things the healthcare law does. He even says he will fight his own attempts to close the government.
++PPP shows that "Sugar Uncle" Mike Huckabee is in the lead for the GOP presidential nomination and that his call for woman to keep their libidos in check pushed his approval rating among the GOP up to 64%. In second is Jeb Bush and third is Chris Christie.
++In the National Journal, Ron Fournier apologized for his 2013 support of Chris Christie as the savior of the GOP.
++Rinse Penis has ordered all RNC staff and board members not to appeal on MSNBC.
++Some wag noted that GOP responder to the State of the Union wanted government out of healthcare but neglected to mention she had government healthcare through her Navy husband, which took care of the expenses for her son who was born with Downs Syndrome. Also, while she wanted the government out of healthcare decisions, she voted only hours before to prevent any insurance coverage for abortions.
++The Tan Man wants to throw in the towel over the debt ceiling. The House can't agree to any appropriate ransom. Ted Crus says he will go for a fight on this.
++The Tan Man told the House retreat that the GOP has to be an alternative to Obama, not the opposition. Good luck with that one.
++Quinnipiac reports that Governor Medicare Fraud Rick Scott is down 46 to 38 to Charlie Crist.
++The Post/ABC poll shows Hillary Clinton trouncing Chris Christie 53 to 41.
++In a generation of polling, Hillary Clinton has the largest primary lead of all-time. Among Democrats she is 73 to Joe Biden's 12 and Elizabeth Warren's 8.
++Michelle Nunn is in the lead against all GOP opponents in Georgia.
++Democratic Senator Kay Hagen is now down 7 points to any Republican challenger.
++The number of federal employees is almost the same number as during the time of Reagan. The Post reports that more than a third of current Federal employees will be eligible to retire in 2017.
++A man named James Meachem appeared on Morning Joe to say that FDR and Lincoln would never use executive orders to improve the economy. FDR is the champion of executive orders, while President Obama has less than George W. Bush.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
The Right in Disarray over Obamacare
++Jack Cassidy in the New Yorker writes that "liberalism will survive Obamacare" because it really is a technocratic solution, not a liberal one.
++Rep. Cole complains that the Democrats are now moving left on health care.
++The rightwing websites are all over the place. Few put Obamacare as the lead this morning. The new meme is that the problems of the website are in "the back" linking the user to the insurance company.
++George Will says all hell is going to break out when employers drop millions from health insurance.
++Obamacare doesn't treat the unborn according to Cardinal Dolan, which is untrue. What about prenatal care for mothers? And the fact it doesn't cover abortion?
++Obamacare encourages veneral disease. This new meme is because sex workers are getting it and Colorado is running ads encouraging young people to sign up and the young women will get birth control. The young man gets VD.
++The Obamacare website can be hacked.
++The Obamacare website was really not fixed in time.
++The Obamacare website only works for 80%, not 90% of the people.
++Drudge says that the website is sluggish.
++The beat goes on and you'll hear more in the days ahead.
++Rep. Cole complains that the Democrats are now moving left on health care.
++The rightwing websites are all over the place. Few put Obamacare as the lead this morning. The new meme is that the problems of the website are in "the back" linking the user to the insurance company.
++George Will says all hell is going to break out when employers drop millions from health insurance.
++Obamacare doesn't treat the unborn according to Cardinal Dolan, which is untrue. What about prenatal care for mothers? And the fact it doesn't cover abortion?
++Obamacare encourages veneral disease. This new meme is because sex workers are getting it and Colorado is running ads encouraging young people to sign up and the young women will get birth control. The young man gets VD.
++The Obamacare website can be hacked.
++The Obamacare website was really not fixed in time.
++The Obamacare website only works for 80%, not 90% of the people.
++Drudge says that the website is sluggish.
++The beat goes on and you'll hear more in the days ahead.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
August is for the Insane Asylum
++Detroit's favorite son, novelist Elmore Leonard died this morning at the age of 87. He had a stroke while working on another novel. Thanks for dozens of good reads!
++Mariano Rivera overcame blowing three straight saves, something he never has done in his career, and saved one against the Bosox, while A-Rod blasted a homer.
++Meanwhile, catch those Dodgers.
++I was at an empty Russell Building a few days ago, reminding myself we are all safe when Congress in not in session. I remain skeptical that Congress can reach a budget agreement before September 30. Conventional wisdom has a continuing resolution and a whale of a fight over the next phase of sequestration in January. Mitch McConnell says he's saving the real battles for the debt ceiling clash.
++Teabag town halls are not going the way the GOP thought. Republican representatives have been challenged about their lies about Obamacare. Meanwhile, the immigration reform blowback has not materialized.
++Jim DeMint and his Heritage Action has targeted six states for the remained of the month to mobilize reaction to Obamacare. While on vacation, President Obama in his Saturday address said that efforts to defund Obamacare are not a game and he vowed to implement the bill as efficiently as possible. George Will claimed that Obama is as bad as Nixon in postponing the implementation of the individual mandate since that was law. Unfortunately for Will, the Supreme Court twice ruled that the executive has the power to decide when to implement a law because it is more aware of the concrete circumstances and problems involved in such a maneuver.
++Jim DeMint said today he didn't know whether President Obama would sign a bill that would defund Obamacare. Then again no one can explain how you defund Obamacare because it is mandatory spending.
This simple fact has not stopped the Teaparty from mounting primary challenges to Mitch McConnell,Lamar Alexander and Lindsey Graham.
++Maine's Teabagger Governor LePage said that Obama hates white people. LePage yesterday faced half the Maine Republicans in the legislature resigning from the party because he dared raise taxes in his budget.
++Ted "Calgary" Cruz released his short form birth certificate that showed he was born in Canada to an American mother. When it was brought to his attention that he was a Canadian citizen by law,he said he would renounce his Canadian citizenship.
++Conservatives are jubilant that there exists another fabricated study that showed the "Invinciables", younger voters with no health insurance, could save $1,000 a year by not signing up for Obamacare. Of course, they didn't figure on costs if these younger people actually got sick. Freedomworks, Americans for Prosperity continue their campaign to get younger people to to enroll in health insurance exchanges because they would sabotage the cost-savings of the program.
++There is another fierce fight among the Right. Diana West wrote a new book that suggests that American politics was occupied by the Soviet Union under FDR. She points the figure at Harry Hopkins as a Soviet agent. The counter-attack was blistering. Conrad Black, a conservative who wrote a biography of FDR, called her worse than Oliver Stone, and Ron Radosh dissected her claims with the existing scholarship on the subject. Interestingly, a younger generation of college professors who do not know the primary literature thought she did a splendid job.
++The weekend brought more drama from Glenn Greenwald. Glenn's husband,a Brazilian man named Miranda, was held up at Heathrow having come from Berlin with thumb drives of more Snowden material. This act got Andrew Sullivan and Rachel Maddow up in arms when Miranda was detained under the UK's terrorist act. Naturally, equating journalism with terrorism raises legitimate concerns. But it gets murkier because Miranda isn't a journalist. Glenn says that he will expose more of the UK's secrets in revenge. Also both Miranda and the Guardian are suing the UK authorities. Somehow I get the sense there is less here than meets the eye.
++The Washington Post published an investigative piece that showed the NSA "violated privacy rights" over 3,000 times last year. Pretty bad, hey. Except the computer geeks who know this game claim that all such violations combined would equate to illegally downloading a Justin Beiber album. or about 58MgB. Pretty slim stuff.
++Meanwhile Julian Assange won the hearts and minds of the Left by backing Rand Paul and the libertarian wing of the Republican Party as the only hope for America. Assange's Wikileaks Party in Australia decided to back white supremacists in the parliamentary elections. Who's goofing whom?
++Meanwhile Snowden remains in Moscow and alerted the world that they should not listen to his father. He is surrounded by a team of the world's leading lawyers and will not be represented by Bruce Fein, the libertarian lawyer from D.C.
++The basic problem still remains--the United States farms out its intelligence to private contractors like Booz-Hamilton who are not responsible to anyone. This costs us $50 billion a year. To prevent another Snowden, the DOD can not even estimate the cost of its preventive program. Meanwhile the FISA court said that it could not determine whether the NSA is really in compliance with the law. Down the rabbit hole we go.
++Meanwhile, Howard Dean is in Iowa. No, not for a 2016 run but Howard wants to revive his 50-state strategy to elect Democratic legislators in Red States. In case, you have missed it Republican legislators have had a field day in the states passing the most onerous anti-abortion laws, anti-voting laws, and primitive educational laws. Basically, these legislatures are passing a vision of life the Right wants to believe--with catastrophic results for anyone else.
++Democrats in Washington believe they have a secret weapon against House Republicans. Next year's sequestration will hit defense spending far greater than domestic spending because of changes this year that eased defense sequestration. They believe that the Republicans will have to suck it up and eliminate tax loopholes for corporations and the oil industry. I don't believe it.
++The Chamber of Commerce is moaning that going Big behind Republicans has not paid off the way they wanted. They were behind the Jobs bill, the Highway Bill,and Immigration Reform and now they have nothing to show from the millions they contributed to GOP campaigns.
++The Cooch has doubled down on his attempt to revive Virginia's Sodomy Law. Now he explains that this was an instrument to prosecute pedophiles. Don't believe it.
++A special prosecutor is investigating Governor Perry's abuse of power in Texas.
++Mariano Rivera overcame blowing three straight saves, something he never has done in his career, and saved one against the Bosox, while A-Rod blasted a homer.
++Meanwhile, catch those Dodgers.
++I was at an empty Russell Building a few days ago, reminding myself we are all safe when Congress in not in session. I remain skeptical that Congress can reach a budget agreement before September 30. Conventional wisdom has a continuing resolution and a whale of a fight over the next phase of sequestration in January. Mitch McConnell says he's saving the real battles for the debt ceiling clash.
++Teabag town halls are not going the way the GOP thought. Republican representatives have been challenged about their lies about Obamacare. Meanwhile, the immigration reform blowback has not materialized.
++Jim DeMint and his Heritage Action has targeted six states for the remained of the month to mobilize reaction to Obamacare. While on vacation, President Obama in his Saturday address said that efforts to defund Obamacare are not a game and he vowed to implement the bill as efficiently as possible. George Will claimed that Obama is as bad as Nixon in postponing the implementation of the individual mandate since that was law. Unfortunately for Will, the Supreme Court twice ruled that the executive has the power to decide when to implement a law because it is more aware of the concrete circumstances and problems involved in such a maneuver.
++Jim DeMint said today he didn't know whether President Obama would sign a bill that would defund Obamacare. Then again no one can explain how you defund Obamacare because it is mandatory spending.
This simple fact has not stopped the Teaparty from mounting primary challenges to Mitch McConnell,Lamar Alexander and Lindsey Graham.
++Maine's Teabagger Governor LePage said that Obama hates white people. LePage yesterday faced half the Maine Republicans in the legislature resigning from the party because he dared raise taxes in his budget.
++Ted "Calgary" Cruz released his short form birth certificate that showed he was born in Canada to an American mother. When it was brought to his attention that he was a Canadian citizen by law,he said he would renounce his Canadian citizenship.
++Conservatives are jubilant that there exists another fabricated study that showed the "Invinciables", younger voters with no health insurance, could save $1,000 a year by not signing up for Obamacare. Of course, they didn't figure on costs if these younger people actually got sick. Freedomworks, Americans for Prosperity continue their campaign to get younger people to to enroll in health insurance exchanges because they would sabotage the cost-savings of the program.
++There is another fierce fight among the Right. Diana West wrote a new book that suggests that American politics was occupied by the Soviet Union under FDR. She points the figure at Harry Hopkins as a Soviet agent. The counter-attack was blistering. Conrad Black, a conservative who wrote a biography of FDR, called her worse than Oliver Stone, and Ron Radosh dissected her claims with the existing scholarship on the subject. Interestingly, a younger generation of college professors who do not know the primary literature thought she did a splendid job.
++The weekend brought more drama from Glenn Greenwald. Glenn's husband,a Brazilian man named Miranda, was held up at Heathrow having come from Berlin with thumb drives of more Snowden material. This act got Andrew Sullivan and Rachel Maddow up in arms when Miranda was detained under the UK's terrorist act. Naturally, equating journalism with terrorism raises legitimate concerns. But it gets murkier because Miranda isn't a journalist. Glenn says that he will expose more of the UK's secrets in revenge. Also both Miranda and the Guardian are suing the UK authorities. Somehow I get the sense there is less here than meets the eye.
++The Washington Post published an investigative piece that showed the NSA "violated privacy rights" over 3,000 times last year. Pretty bad, hey. Except the computer geeks who know this game claim that all such violations combined would equate to illegally downloading a Justin Beiber album. or about 58MgB. Pretty slim stuff.
++Meanwhile Julian Assange won the hearts and minds of the Left by backing Rand Paul and the libertarian wing of the Republican Party as the only hope for America. Assange's Wikileaks Party in Australia decided to back white supremacists in the parliamentary elections. Who's goofing whom?
++Meanwhile Snowden remains in Moscow and alerted the world that they should not listen to his father. He is surrounded by a team of the world's leading lawyers and will not be represented by Bruce Fein, the libertarian lawyer from D.C.
++The basic problem still remains--the United States farms out its intelligence to private contractors like Booz-Hamilton who are not responsible to anyone. This costs us $50 billion a year. To prevent another Snowden, the DOD can not even estimate the cost of its preventive program. Meanwhile the FISA court said that it could not determine whether the NSA is really in compliance with the law. Down the rabbit hole we go.
++Meanwhile, Howard Dean is in Iowa. No, not for a 2016 run but Howard wants to revive his 50-state strategy to elect Democratic legislators in Red States. In case, you have missed it Republican legislators have had a field day in the states passing the most onerous anti-abortion laws, anti-voting laws, and primitive educational laws. Basically, these legislatures are passing a vision of life the Right wants to believe--with catastrophic results for anyone else.
++Democrats in Washington believe they have a secret weapon against House Republicans. Next year's sequestration will hit defense spending far greater than domestic spending because of changes this year that eased defense sequestration. They believe that the Republicans will have to suck it up and eliminate tax loopholes for corporations and the oil industry. I don't believe it.
++The Chamber of Commerce is moaning that going Big behind Republicans has not paid off the way they wanted. They were behind the Jobs bill, the Highway Bill,and Immigration Reform and now they have nothing to show from the millions they contributed to GOP campaigns.
++The Cooch has doubled down on his attempt to revive Virginia's Sodomy Law. Now he explains that this was an instrument to prosecute pedophiles. Don't believe it.
++A special prosecutor is investigating Governor Perry's abuse of power in Texas.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Enter The Floorwalker
With Newt now six to eight weeks away from really declaring whether he will run for the nomination, Mitt Romney has now raised his head. Yesterday the Los Angeles Times had a piece about the many faces of Romney and whether we can choose one that is winning. The New York Times today obligingly reported that Romney feels his ticket to ride is on "Job creation". Worth some $140 million, Mitt Romney has had to overcome his usual wooden personality and appearance. His new strategy is an old one in Republican circles--create the New Romney. Like Nixon appearing on Laugh-In and saying "Sock It To Me", Romney has appeared on all the talk shows and comedy venues with his own lines and jokes to appear more human at the age of 65.
His latest gambit is to refer to Obama's Misery Index. Remember that old game during the 1980 elections? Carter had a misery index around 20, combining inflation and unemployment. So I guess Obama's is 8.9 with little inflation. As unemployment goes down, the index should remain about the same with increases in inflation. An almost perfect misery index would be 7--4.5 unemployment and about 2.5% inflation. Somethng tells me that this campaign stunt by Romney won't last long because someone is going to get wise to the phoney nature of the enterprise. It was clever with about 15% inflation but it doesn't work otherwise.
The other hurdle, which remains hidden right now, for Romney is to demonstrate he actually created jobs. He attacks Obama as "not having a clue about creating job" and mocks his new Jobs Council, which he would not need because he "knows" how to create jobs. But how accurate is that? He's made his fortune as a partner of Bains Investment Funds. I recall his speciality was corporate takeovers, which always led to massive layoffs to increase the company's profitability. Perhaps I'm wrong but I've never heard of Romney as a great job creator.
I think Romney's big Achilles heel in the Midwest is his opposition to bailing out the auto industry. When it comes time for the general election, I hope the Obama people run the videos of Romney denouncing the auto bailout night and day. People always say Romney has a lock on Michigan because his father was a well-liked Governor there but times may have changed.
Strangely enough, I think Romney will face today greater opposition because he is a Mormon. Polls still show Americans are less likely to vote for a Mormon than a black or a Jew as President. I happen to think anti-Mormon thinking is higher today than when his father ran for the Republican nomination in 1968. The reason for this is the rise of fundamentalist Christians after the Roe v. Wade case and their decades long quest to secure hegemony over the Republican Party. Mitt has established committees early on to act as liaison with evangelicals but given the teabaggers syndrome I still think this will be a huge hurdle to get over.
His advantage is that with his glossy black hair he doesn't look 65, unlike the grey visaged Newt. He also isn't unpleasant but when he tries to get tough it looks ugly.
What will be interesting is to see who Romney pretends he is. As a potential vice-president in 2008,suburban,college-educated Republicans began to lean toward McCain because they thought Romney knew about economics and was moderate. Once McCain went with Palin, these people were lost to the GOP. That can't fly with the Republicans today who have gone farther right than even Ronald Reagan. So what will be fascinating is to watch how Romney tries to defend his pro-choice position from his Senate campaign against Ted Kennedy and his Romneycare, which served as the model for the Obama Administration's healthcare reform. The problem with a Romney is that he is on video with positions that are diametrically opposed to each other. How does he square it? And does it matter when Republicans only want to win?
When your biggest financial backer is named Cock and your most visible leader is Boner, then why be surprise when someone is now named the Vibrator. George Will opened this can of worms by saying that the Republican candidates are vibrating weirdness and the biggest Vibrator was Mike Huckabee. Huckabee has tried to dig himself out of his week-long attacks on Obama's unAmericanness--first claiming he was raised in Kenya and had an anti-imperialist point of view, then saying he grew up near Madrassas and not Rotary Clubs. Huckabee's defense to O'Reilly was priceless--only the Left were interested in these statements. Obviously only the Left believe Obama was born in Hawaii and played on an all-state basketball team. Chris Matthews finally had enough of this by blasting Newt, Huckabee and Beck for being anti-American in their assertions. Matthews pointed out how typically American was Obama and noted he had most eloquent defense of American exceptionalism--"Only in America could my story ever happen."
But if leading candidates for a once major party still are slinging birther nonsense,the case is lost with a significant portion of the population. The half-governor of Alaska denounced Obama this week as inexperienced. I guess compared to her deep experience. This will be the meme during the primary season. Romney has stated he personally likes Obama but that the President doesn't have a clue as to the economy.
Meanwhile, the recovery is the fastest since the days of----drumbeat--Ike. It's strange how almost all the statistics for the recovery, the percentage of government employees per GDP and tax rates all go back to Eisenhower. It's beginning to sound like Hilary Clinton's campaign which waxed nostalgic about the Eisenhower era.
This week Barack Obama revved up his money-raising machine, which declares as their goal some $1 billion. But more ominously there is another phenomenon--22 states are trying to pass stricter laws on so-called voter fraud. The whole Wisconsin disaster started with massive voter suppression campaigns that brought Walker to power. The aim of these states is to suppress the votes of the young, the black and the Hispanics. All of them are aimed at Obama and not any real problem. The problem in the voter area has to do with voter registration and not those who cast the votes. This is a struggle removed from center stage and why you see all the nonsense about the New Black Panthers and the drumbeat of stories on the Right about so-called voter fraud. The majority of teabaggers honestly believe that President Obama came to power because of ACORN's efforts at voter registration. The same group had no problem with the 2000 elections.
A better index of the political fate of the country may be the Gallup Poll printed in today' New York Times about where the happiest people are--those that smile the most. It is bummer city throughout the South and grim through the key swing states in the Midwest. Even in Maine, it's happy from Portland to Bath in the south coast but dark everywhere else. Organizing for America might be better off using the Gallup happiness map for their 2012 plans.
His latest gambit is to refer to Obama's Misery Index. Remember that old game during the 1980 elections? Carter had a misery index around 20, combining inflation and unemployment. So I guess Obama's is 8.9 with little inflation. As unemployment goes down, the index should remain about the same with increases in inflation. An almost perfect misery index would be 7--4.5 unemployment and about 2.5% inflation. Somethng tells me that this campaign stunt by Romney won't last long because someone is going to get wise to the phoney nature of the enterprise. It was clever with about 15% inflation but it doesn't work otherwise.
The other hurdle, which remains hidden right now, for Romney is to demonstrate he actually created jobs. He attacks Obama as "not having a clue about creating job" and mocks his new Jobs Council, which he would not need because he "knows" how to create jobs. But how accurate is that? He's made his fortune as a partner of Bains Investment Funds. I recall his speciality was corporate takeovers, which always led to massive layoffs to increase the company's profitability. Perhaps I'm wrong but I've never heard of Romney as a great job creator.
I think Romney's big Achilles heel in the Midwest is his opposition to bailing out the auto industry. When it comes time for the general election, I hope the Obama people run the videos of Romney denouncing the auto bailout night and day. People always say Romney has a lock on Michigan because his father was a well-liked Governor there but times may have changed.
Strangely enough, I think Romney will face today greater opposition because he is a Mormon. Polls still show Americans are less likely to vote for a Mormon than a black or a Jew as President. I happen to think anti-Mormon thinking is higher today than when his father ran for the Republican nomination in 1968. The reason for this is the rise of fundamentalist Christians after the Roe v. Wade case and their decades long quest to secure hegemony over the Republican Party. Mitt has established committees early on to act as liaison with evangelicals but given the teabaggers syndrome I still think this will be a huge hurdle to get over.
His advantage is that with his glossy black hair he doesn't look 65, unlike the grey visaged Newt. He also isn't unpleasant but when he tries to get tough it looks ugly.
What will be interesting is to see who Romney pretends he is. As a potential vice-president in 2008,suburban,college-educated Republicans began to lean toward McCain because they thought Romney knew about economics and was moderate. Once McCain went with Palin, these people were lost to the GOP. That can't fly with the Republicans today who have gone farther right than even Ronald Reagan. So what will be fascinating is to watch how Romney tries to defend his pro-choice position from his Senate campaign against Ted Kennedy and his Romneycare, which served as the model for the Obama Administration's healthcare reform. The problem with a Romney is that he is on video with positions that are diametrically opposed to each other. How does he square it? And does it matter when Republicans only want to win?
When your biggest financial backer is named Cock and your most visible leader is Boner, then why be surprise when someone is now named the Vibrator. George Will opened this can of worms by saying that the Republican candidates are vibrating weirdness and the biggest Vibrator was Mike Huckabee. Huckabee has tried to dig himself out of his week-long attacks on Obama's unAmericanness--first claiming he was raised in Kenya and had an anti-imperialist point of view, then saying he grew up near Madrassas and not Rotary Clubs. Huckabee's defense to O'Reilly was priceless--only the Left were interested in these statements. Obviously only the Left believe Obama was born in Hawaii and played on an all-state basketball team. Chris Matthews finally had enough of this by blasting Newt, Huckabee and Beck for being anti-American in their assertions. Matthews pointed out how typically American was Obama and noted he had most eloquent defense of American exceptionalism--"Only in America could my story ever happen."
But if leading candidates for a once major party still are slinging birther nonsense,the case is lost with a significant portion of the population. The half-governor of Alaska denounced Obama this week as inexperienced. I guess compared to her deep experience. This will be the meme during the primary season. Romney has stated he personally likes Obama but that the President doesn't have a clue as to the economy.
Meanwhile, the recovery is the fastest since the days of----drumbeat--Ike. It's strange how almost all the statistics for the recovery, the percentage of government employees per GDP and tax rates all go back to Eisenhower. It's beginning to sound like Hilary Clinton's campaign which waxed nostalgic about the Eisenhower era.
This week Barack Obama revved up his money-raising machine, which declares as their goal some $1 billion. But more ominously there is another phenomenon--22 states are trying to pass stricter laws on so-called voter fraud. The whole Wisconsin disaster started with massive voter suppression campaigns that brought Walker to power. The aim of these states is to suppress the votes of the young, the black and the Hispanics. All of them are aimed at Obama and not any real problem. The problem in the voter area has to do with voter registration and not those who cast the votes. This is a struggle removed from center stage and why you see all the nonsense about the New Black Panthers and the drumbeat of stories on the Right about so-called voter fraud. The majority of teabaggers honestly believe that President Obama came to power because of ACORN's efforts at voter registration. The same group had no problem with the 2000 elections.
A better index of the political fate of the country may be the Gallup Poll printed in today' New York Times about where the happiest people are--those that smile the most. It is bummer city throughout the South and grim through the key swing states in the Midwest. Even in Maine, it's happy from Portland to Bath in the south coast but dark everywhere else. Organizing for America might be better off using the Gallup happiness map for their 2012 plans.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Thursday Coffee--New Guinea
MID-TERMS. There seems to be a crack in Charles Cook's armor--he is flummoxed by the GOP loss in Pennsylvania's 12th District. This district had been trending toward Republicans for years and if this year was going to be a landslide GOP year that seat was easy pickings.
Former moderate-conservative congressman Tom Davis, who used to run the GOP house elections, agrees and claims that the tsunami will probably look more like tornedoes hitting ground in sporadic areas of the country. Davis had the good observation that the Republican candidate Burns ran against the "Obama-Pelosi agenda", while the Democrat Critz ran on local issues with a good dollop of economic populism. Davis thinks that the GOP's effort to "nationalize" the House elections is a disaster and that if Democrats keeping plugging away district by district on the concerns of consituencies they will minimize their losses this year.
While Obama had an approval rating of about 30% in the district, Bush and Cheney had only 24% saying they did a good job. The Republican brand still suffers a hangover from those years, even in a district that is almost all white, middle-class. Overall, Republicans still only have an approval rating of 32%, which raises doubts whether voters see them as viable alternatives.
Republicans did have a higher intensity for the primaries. Their turnout was 48% and Democrats 44%. The difference is that 2008 was a record year for Democratic registrations so the universe of Democrats is far larger than that of Republicans.
How bad was it for Republicans? We heard the dulcet tones of Ann Coulter eviscerating Tan Man Boehner, who she calls Boner, and the Republican Party for speaking only to conservatives on Fox News and bragging about how awesome their victories are going to be when they have over-promised and can't deliver. "If we gain 30 seats now, it will look like a loss." She's right. She also blasted the party for backing Linda McMahon, the owner of the World Wrestling Federation, for Senate in Connecticut, "one of the wealthiest and best educated states in the union." She favors Yale-educated Simmons, who had served in the CIA and had been a real Colonel in Vietnam. No tea-party for Ann as she launched her vitriol at the Republicans for a change saying they were a bunch of incompetent boobs.
Patrician George Will claimed Tuesday elections were as good as it gets for Democrats. He claimed that Critz won because he distanced himself from Obama and endorsed an anti-abortion position. The latter is true, the former is false. George Will has discovered three "trophy races', which Democrats will lose. Guess which coveted seats they are? Well, of course, Joe Biden's former seat in the Senate from Delaware, Barack Obama's Senate seat in Illinois, and Harry Reid's seat in Nevada. He then went on to mock those who criticize Rand Paul because he says that Paul's position are now mainstream. The proof of this is the blurb on Rand Paul's book to abolish the Fed-- by none other than Arlo Guthrie. This proves Rand Paul's popularity.
Rand Paul got himself into immediate hot water by implying that he did not think the Civil Rights Bill should have included private businesses. He was immediately blasted by Democrats, while the Republicans had no comment. Personally, I do not believe he is racist. He is a libertarian ideologue who can not envision any other threat to freedom except from the state. His lovable father, however, is a racist and did vote against the Civil Rights bill.
The President of the Tea Party Express, the former Nixon dirty trickster Mark Williams said that "Islam is a 7th Century Death Cult coughed up by a psychotic pedophile." Pretty vivid.
Family Values Vin Fossella has received the endorsement of the Staten Island GOP for his bid to return to Congress. Vin loves families so much he has two of them--one on Staten island, the other here in Virginia.
Mark Souder said in his resignation speech that he was resigning because he didn't want the publicity of his adultery to overshadow the good work he has devoted his life to in defending family values. He claims these eternal values are more important than him. This argument seems hypocritical to outsiders but to the social conservatives there is nothing odd about it. Love the sinner--sort of--condemn the sin and legislate against others.
Rasmussen has a poll out today that shows Admiral Joe Sestak leading Pat Toomey 46 to 42.
The bottom-line on Tuesday's primaries is that the Senate races in Kentucky and Pennsylvania are tied and in Arkansas the Republicans have the lead. In Oregon basically voters chose all incumbents for their legislature and a former Governor as the Democratic nominee to return. Republicans chose former Portland Trailblazer Chris Dudley, who is tall.
Glenn Beck has created an independent website that tries to smear Congressman Weiner. Did Beck killed that girl in the 1990s? Just wondering. Pass it on.
The GOPosaurs filibustered the Finance Reform Bill yesterday. Scott Brown went back on his word to Harry Reid. Otherwise we would have had a vote. So far the GOP has killed a cap on ATM fees, with Senators admitting they don't use ATMs; caps on predatory lending on payday loans; caps on credit card rates; and they have stalled the amendment on derivative trading. Russ Feingold joined the Republicans in voting against closure because he felt the bill was not strong enough.
Most outsiders believe the bill has gotten stronger by the day but progressives are disappointed in the lack of provisions to prevent To Big To Fail and its lack of strict regulations of derivative trading. The Roosevelt Institute criticized people like me saying let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good, saying that Democrats filibustered FDR's first financial reform bill until the FDIC was created. Good point.
Hapless Harry will try again today for cloture because the legislative calender is getting tight.
Former moderate-conservative congressman Tom Davis, who used to run the GOP house elections, agrees and claims that the tsunami will probably look more like tornedoes hitting ground in sporadic areas of the country. Davis had the good observation that the Republican candidate Burns ran against the "Obama-Pelosi agenda", while the Democrat Critz ran on local issues with a good dollop of economic populism. Davis thinks that the GOP's effort to "nationalize" the House elections is a disaster and that if Democrats keeping plugging away district by district on the concerns of consituencies they will minimize their losses this year.
While Obama had an approval rating of about 30% in the district, Bush and Cheney had only 24% saying they did a good job. The Republican brand still suffers a hangover from those years, even in a district that is almost all white, middle-class. Overall, Republicans still only have an approval rating of 32%, which raises doubts whether voters see them as viable alternatives.
Republicans did have a higher intensity for the primaries. Their turnout was 48% and Democrats 44%. The difference is that 2008 was a record year for Democratic registrations so the universe of Democrats is far larger than that of Republicans.
How bad was it for Republicans? We heard the dulcet tones of Ann Coulter eviscerating Tan Man Boehner, who she calls Boner, and the Republican Party for speaking only to conservatives on Fox News and bragging about how awesome their victories are going to be when they have over-promised and can't deliver. "If we gain 30 seats now, it will look like a loss." She's right. She also blasted the party for backing Linda McMahon, the owner of the World Wrestling Federation, for Senate in Connecticut, "one of the wealthiest and best educated states in the union." She favors Yale-educated Simmons, who had served in the CIA and had been a real Colonel in Vietnam. No tea-party for Ann as she launched her vitriol at the Republicans for a change saying they were a bunch of incompetent boobs.
Patrician George Will claimed Tuesday elections were as good as it gets for Democrats. He claimed that Critz won because he distanced himself from Obama and endorsed an anti-abortion position. The latter is true, the former is false. George Will has discovered three "trophy races', which Democrats will lose. Guess which coveted seats they are? Well, of course, Joe Biden's former seat in the Senate from Delaware, Barack Obama's Senate seat in Illinois, and Harry Reid's seat in Nevada. He then went on to mock those who criticize Rand Paul because he says that Paul's position are now mainstream. The proof of this is the blurb on Rand Paul's book to abolish the Fed-- by none other than Arlo Guthrie. This proves Rand Paul's popularity.
Rand Paul got himself into immediate hot water by implying that he did not think the Civil Rights Bill should have included private businesses. He was immediately blasted by Democrats, while the Republicans had no comment. Personally, I do not believe he is racist. He is a libertarian ideologue who can not envision any other threat to freedom except from the state. His lovable father, however, is a racist and did vote against the Civil Rights bill.
The President of the Tea Party Express, the former Nixon dirty trickster Mark Williams said that "Islam is a 7th Century Death Cult coughed up by a psychotic pedophile." Pretty vivid.
Family Values Vin Fossella has received the endorsement of the Staten Island GOP for his bid to return to Congress. Vin loves families so much he has two of them--one on Staten island, the other here in Virginia.
Mark Souder said in his resignation speech that he was resigning because he didn't want the publicity of his adultery to overshadow the good work he has devoted his life to in defending family values. He claims these eternal values are more important than him. This argument seems hypocritical to outsiders but to the social conservatives there is nothing odd about it. Love the sinner--sort of--condemn the sin and legislate against others.
Rasmussen has a poll out today that shows Admiral Joe Sestak leading Pat Toomey 46 to 42.
The bottom-line on Tuesday's primaries is that the Senate races in Kentucky and Pennsylvania are tied and in Arkansas the Republicans have the lead. In Oregon basically voters chose all incumbents for their legislature and a former Governor as the Democratic nominee to return. Republicans chose former Portland Trailblazer Chris Dudley, who is tall.
Glenn Beck has created an independent website that tries to smear Congressman Weiner. Did Beck killed that girl in the 1990s? Just wondering. Pass it on.
The GOPosaurs filibustered the Finance Reform Bill yesterday. Scott Brown went back on his word to Harry Reid. Otherwise we would have had a vote. So far the GOP has killed a cap on ATM fees, with Senators admitting they don't use ATMs; caps on predatory lending on payday loans; caps on credit card rates; and they have stalled the amendment on derivative trading. Russ Feingold joined the Republicans in voting against closure because he felt the bill was not strong enough.
Most outsiders believe the bill has gotten stronger by the day but progressives are disappointed in the lack of provisions to prevent To Big To Fail and its lack of strict regulations of derivative trading. The Roosevelt Institute criticized people like me saying let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good, saying that Democrats filibustered FDR's first financial reform bill until the FDIC was created. Good point.
Hapless Harry will try again today for cloture because the legislative calender is getting tight.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Blue Rain*--The Final Cut
Hooray! President Obama has delayed his trip to focus on health care. We're becoming a banana republic when the President flies overseas and has to worry what mischief is going to play out in D.C.
Thank you , Frank Schaeffer. On http://www.frankschaeffer.blogspot.com/ , my favorite repentent co-creator of the Religious Right morphs back into his Calvinist mode to sternly lecture us all that under our "fickle noses" this is a time of national rebirth and he's delighted with President Obama, even more than he has been. He rips the shrivelled old conservatives abnd blasts the left for dumping on Obama. He proceeds to list all his achievements in the past year and taunts Obama's critics as they say" that's not good enough."
Rachel Maddow interviewed Nancy Pelosi last night. While not my favorite politician, the Speaker has been ferociously effective as a leader. Every one of the President's campaign promises except immigration reform passed the House last year. Now over 290 bills are bottled up in the Senate.
Could some one please muzzle Larry O'Donnell? Last night was another bummer about the health care bill. This was after a day when Harry Reid sent a blistering letter to Mitch McConnell on why he is going to use reconciliation and the House leadership walked away from dealing with Bart Stupak and the anti-abortion crowd. But Larry focused on the strange news yesterday that the Republicans say that Republicans asked the Parliamentarian whether President Obama would have to sign the Senate bill before reconciliation. Now we have no statement from the Senate Parliamentarian on this and on the face of it it doesn't make any sense considering past uses of reconciliation. But never mind, let's all worry..
The CBO price tag came in. The Healthcare bill saves about $190 billion over ten years and another $1 trillion in the second ten years. And it comes in under $900 billion. So the Speaker of the House is beginning to mark it up on Monday.
Democratic pollsters Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen warn Democrats about passing healthcare because of the dire consequences in the fall. Their long column in the Washington Post recites the depth of American opposition to health care reform.. Interesting thing is that they only quote our friend Mr. Rasmussen on his polling data--which conveniently didn't ask about the specific provisions of the bill. Last night Nancy Pelosi effectively laid out the meaning of healthcare in her interview with Rachel Maddow. She pointed to both the human and fiscal necessary for it and did it in great detail.
Now as I turn the curve on my taxes, let's make healthcare costs personally. Remember my eye operation is being billed this year. For 2009, the McColm family, which takes no medicines and last year had nothing wrong, spent cash out of pocket for medical expenses and insurance--$25,100. That is over half the average income of the American family. It is no joke to say that if anything serious happened, I would have to declare bankruptcy. That's why I want healthcare reform.
All is not well in GlennBeckistan: After the Jesuit dog whistle, conservative Catholics followed suit in their criticism of his positions on religion. Wakening from his deep slumber, Jim Wallis of the Sojourners, called on Christians to boycott Beck. His own church said that the Book of Morman was almost entirely a book about social justice. Let's not carried away guys. However, the term "social justice" does appear some 180 times in Morman doctrinal texts.
After "changing American history"--that was his promise--with the Eric Massa interview, Glenn Beck decided to go after FDR. We know from the Wall Street Journal and Amity Schlaes that FDR prolonged the Depression. Actually, we know from economists trained in the period that FDR cut the unemployment rate from 25-12% and did other things like create Social Security and the FDIC. But Beck's complaint about this President who was as popular as Obama was that he hired Communists. Yes, he did after the U.S. formed an alliance with the Soviet Union in World War II. In my mind, I always wondered why the Communists ended up in the Department of Agriculture.
Anyway, Beck then extolls Joe McCarthy's crusade against these characters and mentions the Dies Committee. (He should have disclosed his mentor the Morman" historian" was a staffer for the Dies Committee and was subsequently fired by J.Edgar Hoover from the FBI for being "paranoid and too extreme in his anti-Communism".) And he brings up the conservative's favorite hero Whittaker Chambers. A little dirty secret--Whittaker only ratted out the NKVD cells that were not longer functional to protect the one left behind. Conservatives love the rumpy looking Whittaker Chambers for bringing down fancy pants Alger Hiss. But they love him even more for saying that the United States already lost the Cold War in the 1950s.
Now how this relates to Barack Obama I don't know. But he gets around to Woody Guthrie and the song "This Land Is Your Land". I wrote about how delighted I was last year when Pete Seegar sang the uncensored version of the song at the Lincoln Memorial. A year later Beck picked this up. And said that this was a song about the Communist dream. He told his audience that Barack Obama's initiative to save millions of acres for the wilderness was a Maoist plot. Actually this was an extension of Theodore Roosevelt's vision , a man Beck hates worse than Mao.
Beck also decided to attack the union movement for harboring communists. For future shows I hope he mentions that the AFL-CIO's international department was led by the former head of the American Communist Party , Jay Lovestone. This could provoke another Jesuit-style backlash by older union types.
Howell Raines finally wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, chastising his fellow journalists for not mentioning that for the first time in modern American history we have a self-proclaimed news agency identified with a single political party. He called on his feloow journalists to start going after Roger Ailes and his right-wing Echochamber. A little late but welcomed.
My interest in Rep. Paul Ryan's Blueprint for the Future was only reinforced yesterday as the American Spectator and other conservative publications have endorsed it. Ryan asked the CBO to score his budget plan--using only his revenue figures. The plan called for the total dismantling of all entitlement programs, an increase in taxes on the Middle Class, a substantial reduction in taxes on the rich and corporations. Even people like Andrew Sullivan seem infatuated with the Ryan plan. Maybe it's like figuring out some mathematical formula to eliminate our deficit.
The final results for the Ryan plan were ruinous. If adopted, the federal government would be gasping for air and deficits would run so large through 2019 we couldn't ever recover. That's using his revenue figures. This is the new Supply-Side theory and I promise you it will be part of the Republican platform in 2012. I call it Aircraft Carrier Economics. The United States would become a gigantic platform from which one can launch endless wars but there would be no benefit to any Americans. I think Paul Ryan would have gotten along great with Brezhnev. They share the same worldview.
Leonard Pitts wrote a column lamenting the fact the GOP's own campaign now is based on fear. Sentimental guy that he is he waxed nostalgic for the days when politicians from both the right and left encouraged us to adopt higher principles that united us. It's not morning in America, he writes, it's now High-Noon every day.
To my conservative friends who believed President Obama would not donate his Nobel Prize money to charity, yesterday he did and the charities are all posted on line. Actually he made some good choices, emphasizing educational funds for minority students, including Native Americans. He also gave a sizeable gift to the Clinton Haiti Fund. Conservatives always liked to brag about how Dick Cheney gave his earnings from Halliburton to charity when he took office. The charity was the Richard Cheney Vice Presidential Library--believe it or not.
You will have noticed that I have not been referring to the FreeRepublic website lately. Yesterday their bloggers said that if health care reform passes they can't wait until 2012. They must engage in armed struggle now. At this point, I can't help but believe the Secret Service is n camped out at that website and in Jim Robinson's office.
A retired General sent me his latest article , which called for Revolution, because Washington is adopting progressive socialism and we constitutionalists must stop it. It reminds me of Sterling Hayden's great performance as a right-wing general with a private army in Winter Kills, which was about the JFK assassination. I don't respond because his notion of constitutionalism is based on the white nationalist movement and he doesn't even know it.
On President's Day, leading ministers of the Southern Baptist Church prayed to God for the death of President Obama. They think he is either the one to usher in the age of the Anti-Christ or the anti-Christ himself. Nero was the real Anti-Christ because he persecuted early Christians and inspired the Book of Revelations. Tim Lahaye of the Left Behind Series said it was Gorbachev because he had the mark of the beast on his forehead. Sarah Palin's minister believes the Anti-Christ is gay,which, I guess brings us back to the Vatican. But all this contradicts some of the think of the Southern Baptists, who believe the rapture ic coming in May 2012, before our next election. So no need for armed struggle or assassination--everything is solved.
Our Texas School Board problem hasn't been solved by the defeat of the wingnuts. They still refuse to include a section in the American History text why we have separation of church and state. They also want to include a section on the Emancipation Proclamation that it raised expectations of minorities too high.
George Will writes that Roberts should boycott the State of the Union address and wants more people to do so. After all we have a Black President and he's too uppity--I'm just translating. But Roberts, who is miffed by Obama's justified criticism of the Citizens United decision, should have been on the court of John Marshall when he ruled for the Cherokee Nation against its forced removal to Oklahoma. Andrew Jackson ignored him and the press asked about the Supreme Court Decision. Jackson said,"Let him (Marshall) enforce it."
Drudge reminds us that Obama's approval rating fell to its lowest point in Gallup of all time! Gallup reminds its readers that Obama's weekly approval ratings are very consistent and holding up. Rasmussen must be pleased he's getting traction--imaginary though it is. RS2000 has Obama where he was last week with a slight drop in the disapproval ratings.
We have an immediate consequence of the Citizens United ruling. Millions of dollars are flowing through front organizations with the usualy names like Americans for Free Donuts. The Corporate flood is a last gasp to defeath healthreform. I have never seen a time when corporate America has waged such an unrelenting war against the American people. Whether it's health reform or fiscal reform. And they don't even pay taxes or create jobs here!
The Democrats pledged they will not use earmarks for corporate funding anymore. The Republicans came in a day late and said they would do this also--for one year! The group of Republicans who signed onto this plan netted over $400 million in earmarks last year. K Street is in deep mourning and generating op-eds to defend their work on behalf of corporations.
* Hendrix's last cut on the album.
Thank you , Frank Schaeffer. On http://www.frankschaeffer.blogspot.com/ , my favorite repentent co-creator of the Religious Right morphs back into his Calvinist mode to sternly lecture us all that under our "fickle noses" this is a time of national rebirth and he's delighted with President Obama, even more than he has been. He rips the shrivelled old conservatives abnd blasts the left for dumping on Obama. He proceeds to list all his achievements in the past year and taunts Obama's critics as they say" that's not good enough."
Rachel Maddow interviewed Nancy Pelosi last night. While not my favorite politician, the Speaker has been ferociously effective as a leader. Every one of the President's campaign promises except immigration reform passed the House last year. Now over 290 bills are bottled up in the Senate.
Could some one please muzzle Larry O'Donnell? Last night was another bummer about the health care bill. This was after a day when Harry Reid sent a blistering letter to Mitch McConnell on why he is going to use reconciliation and the House leadership walked away from dealing with Bart Stupak and the anti-abortion crowd. But Larry focused on the strange news yesterday that the Republicans say that Republicans asked the Parliamentarian whether President Obama would have to sign the Senate bill before reconciliation. Now we have no statement from the Senate Parliamentarian on this and on the face of it it doesn't make any sense considering past uses of reconciliation. But never mind, let's all worry..
The CBO price tag came in. The Healthcare bill saves about $190 billion over ten years and another $1 trillion in the second ten years. And it comes in under $900 billion. So the Speaker of the House is beginning to mark it up on Monday.
Democratic pollsters Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen warn Democrats about passing healthcare because of the dire consequences in the fall. Their long column in the Washington Post recites the depth of American opposition to health care reform.. Interesting thing is that they only quote our friend Mr. Rasmussen on his polling data--which conveniently didn't ask about the specific provisions of the bill. Last night Nancy Pelosi effectively laid out the meaning of healthcare in her interview with Rachel Maddow. She pointed to both the human and fiscal necessary for it and did it in great detail.
Now as I turn the curve on my taxes, let's make healthcare costs personally. Remember my eye operation is being billed this year. For 2009, the McColm family, which takes no medicines and last year had nothing wrong, spent cash out of pocket for medical expenses and insurance--$25,100. That is over half the average income of the American family. It is no joke to say that if anything serious happened, I would have to declare bankruptcy. That's why I want healthcare reform.
All is not well in GlennBeckistan: After the Jesuit dog whistle, conservative Catholics followed suit in their criticism of his positions on religion. Wakening from his deep slumber, Jim Wallis of the Sojourners, called on Christians to boycott Beck. His own church said that the Book of Morman was almost entirely a book about social justice. Let's not carried away guys. However, the term "social justice" does appear some 180 times in Morman doctrinal texts.
After "changing American history"--that was his promise--with the Eric Massa interview, Glenn Beck decided to go after FDR. We know from the Wall Street Journal and Amity Schlaes that FDR prolonged the Depression. Actually, we know from economists trained in the period that FDR cut the unemployment rate from 25-12% and did other things like create Social Security and the FDIC. But Beck's complaint about this President who was as popular as Obama was that he hired Communists. Yes, he did after the U.S. formed an alliance with the Soviet Union in World War II. In my mind, I always wondered why the Communists ended up in the Department of Agriculture.
Anyway, Beck then extolls Joe McCarthy's crusade against these characters and mentions the Dies Committee. (He should have disclosed his mentor the Morman" historian" was a staffer for the Dies Committee and was subsequently fired by J.Edgar Hoover from the FBI for being "paranoid and too extreme in his anti-Communism".) And he brings up the conservative's favorite hero Whittaker Chambers. A little dirty secret--Whittaker only ratted out the NKVD cells that were not longer functional to protect the one left behind. Conservatives love the rumpy looking Whittaker Chambers for bringing down fancy pants Alger Hiss. But they love him even more for saying that the United States already lost the Cold War in the 1950s.
Now how this relates to Barack Obama I don't know. But he gets around to Woody Guthrie and the song "This Land Is Your Land". I wrote about how delighted I was last year when Pete Seegar sang the uncensored version of the song at the Lincoln Memorial. A year later Beck picked this up. And said that this was a song about the Communist dream. He told his audience that Barack Obama's initiative to save millions of acres for the wilderness was a Maoist plot. Actually this was an extension of Theodore Roosevelt's vision , a man Beck hates worse than Mao.
Beck also decided to attack the union movement for harboring communists. For future shows I hope he mentions that the AFL-CIO's international department was led by the former head of the American Communist Party , Jay Lovestone. This could provoke another Jesuit-style backlash by older union types.
Howell Raines finally wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, chastising his fellow journalists for not mentioning that for the first time in modern American history we have a self-proclaimed news agency identified with a single political party. He called on his feloow journalists to start going after Roger Ailes and his right-wing Echochamber. A little late but welcomed.
My interest in Rep. Paul Ryan's Blueprint for the Future was only reinforced yesterday as the American Spectator and other conservative publications have endorsed it. Ryan asked the CBO to score his budget plan--using only his revenue figures. The plan called for the total dismantling of all entitlement programs, an increase in taxes on the Middle Class, a substantial reduction in taxes on the rich and corporations. Even people like Andrew Sullivan seem infatuated with the Ryan plan. Maybe it's like figuring out some mathematical formula to eliminate our deficit.
The final results for the Ryan plan were ruinous. If adopted, the federal government would be gasping for air and deficits would run so large through 2019 we couldn't ever recover. That's using his revenue figures. This is the new Supply-Side theory and I promise you it will be part of the Republican platform in 2012. I call it Aircraft Carrier Economics. The United States would become a gigantic platform from which one can launch endless wars but there would be no benefit to any Americans. I think Paul Ryan would have gotten along great with Brezhnev. They share the same worldview.
Leonard Pitts wrote a column lamenting the fact the GOP's own campaign now is based on fear. Sentimental guy that he is he waxed nostalgic for the days when politicians from both the right and left encouraged us to adopt higher principles that united us. It's not morning in America, he writes, it's now High-Noon every day.
To my conservative friends who believed President Obama would not donate his Nobel Prize money to charity, yesterday he did and the charities are all posted on line. Actually he made some good choices, emphasizing educational funds for minority students, including Native Americans. He also gave a sizeable gift to the Clinton Haiti Fund. Conservatives always liked to brag about how Dick Cheney gave his earnings from Halliburton to charity when he took office. The charity was the Richard Cheney Vice Presidential Library--believe it or not.
You will have noticed that I have not been referring to the FreeRepublic website lately. Yesterday their bloggers said that if health care reform passes they can't wait until 2012. They must engage in armed struggle now. At this point, I can't help but believe the Secret Service is n camped out at that website and in Jim Robinson's office.
A retired General sent me his latest article , which called for Revolution, because Washington is adopting progressive socialism and we constitutionalists must stop it. It reminds me of Sterling Hayden's great performance as a right-wing general with a private army in Winter Kills, which was about the JFK assassination. I don't respond because his notion of constitutionalism is based on the white nationalist movement and he doesn't even know it.
On President's Day, leading ministers of the Southern Baptist Church prayed to God for the death of President Obama. They think he is either the one to usher in the age of the Anti-Christ or the anti-Christ himself. Nero was the real Anti-Christ because he persecuted early Christians and inspired the Book of Revelations. Tim Lahaye of the Left Behind Series said it was Gorbachev because he had the mark of the beast on his forehead. Sarah Palin's minister believes the Anti-Christ is gay,which, I guess brings us back to the Vatican. But all this contradicts some of the think of the Southern Baptists, who believe the rapture ic coming in May 2012, before our next election. So no need for armed struggle or assassination--everything is solved.
Our Texas School Board problem hasn't been solved by the defeat of the wingnuts. They still refuse to include a section in the American History text why we have separation of church and state. They also want to include a section on the Emancipation Proclamation that it raised expectations of minorities too high.
George Will writes that Roberts should boycott the State of the Union address and wants more people to do so. After all we have a Black President and he's too uppity--I'm just translating. But Roberts, who is miffed by Obama's justified criticism of the Citizens United decision, should have been on the court of John Marshall when he ruled for the Cherokee Nation against its forced removal to Oklahoma. Andrew Jackson ignored him and the press asked about the Supreme Court Decision. Jackson said,"Let him (Marshall) enforce it."
Drudge reminds us that Obama's approval rating fell to its lowest point in Gallup of all time! Gallup reminds its readers that Obama's weekly approval ratings are very consistent and holding up. Rasmussen must be pleased he's getting traction--imaginary though it is. RS2000 has Obama where he was last week with a slight drop in the disapproval ratings.
We have an immediate consequence of the Citizens United ruling. Millions of dollars are flowing through front organizations with the usualy names like Americans for Free Donuts. The Corporate flood is a last gasp to defeath healthreform. I have never seen a time when corporate America has waged such an unrelenting war against the American people. Whether it's health reform or fiscal reform. And they don't even pay taxes or create jobs here!
The Democrats pledged they will not use earmarks for corporate funding anymore. The Republicans came in a day late and said they would do this also--for one year! The group of Republicans who signed onto this plan netted over $400 million in earmarks last year. K Street is in deep mourning and generating op-eds to defend their work on behalf of corporations.
* Hendrix's last cut on the album.
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