Marshall Nails It.

TPM has hit the nail on the head with this one.

But there's a very big problem with this strategy above and beyond the absurdity of the argument. "Congress" may be really unpopular. And the Democrats now control Congress. But politics is a zero sum game. At the end of the day, in almost every case, you've got to pick a Republican or a Democrat when you vote. And if you look at the numbers, congressional Democrats are pretty popular. And congressional Republicans are extremely unpopular. If you look at the number, the Dems are at about 50% or higher in most recent polls, while the GOP is down in the 30s.

The city remains wired for the GOP. Not that it's done them a great deal of good of late. But it remains a key part of understanding every part of what is happening today.

This is a very, very, very important point, and it really does explain a lot of the disconnect, and why, when I listen to Republicans, any Republicans: on the radio, on TV, on the internet, there is this cognitive dissonance that makes my head explode. Ten minutes of Rush Limbaugh, 15 seconds of Sean Hannity, hearing Mark Lavin's name raises my blood pressure 20 points. The only Republican I actually enjoy listening to is Michael Savage, and that's just because he overshoots hyperbole and leaps into the realm of batshit insane.

When Republican ideology has failed so spectacularly, in theory and in practice, I guess you have every right to live in your delusional world where as long as you say it seriously, you somehow remove all sense of irony. The problem is, nobody is cutting their mic.

They really should get the fuck out of the way until they return from the wilderness with a workable plan for the country, but they just can't bring themselves to do it.

I'm trying to be helpful here; they need a sabbatical from their dialogue with the country until they sort things out for themselves. Does conservativism stand as a bulwark for personal liberty, or does it seek to legislate who marries whom, while making sure we don't talk about terrorism on the phone? Are conservatives serious about governmental spending, or just about tax cuts?

Until they work these problems out, and until they can figure out a way to become serious about the issues that matter, it does the country absolutely no good for the press to give Republicans carte blanche to lie. That's all they're doing, really. Lying with impunity, which makes the non contexualizing press complicit. Their role is to be skeptical of whatever a politican says. When the last time you've seen that? They're stenographers.

It really does remind me of when your drunk uncle grabs the microphone at your wedding reception to air family secrets. They are embarrassing themselves and hurting others. All you have to do is cut the mic.

Surprise.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.—Sen. Roland Burris admitted Saturday that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's brother asked him for a campaign contribution before the governor appointed Burris to the Senate.

The disclosure is at odds with Burris' testimony in January when an Illinois House impeachment committee specifically asked if he had ever spoken to Robert Blagojevich or other aides to the now-deposed governor about the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.

Burris issued a statement Saturday saying he voluntarily gave the committee a Feb. 4 affidavit disclosing the contact with Robert Blagojevich because "there were several facts that I was not given the opportunity to make during my testimony to the impeachment committee."

Social Security

The conventional wisdom is that Obama will trade health care reform to the conservatives in exchange for some change to programs like social security and welfare. Obama feels he can do this because he feel the left will chant "Yes We Can" to selling out. Again, this is just the conventional wisdom.

Digby, in particular, has been uncharacteristically livid about it.

I think a lot of the preemptive lefty outrage is a shot across the bow of the administration in the wake of the preemptive capitulation of the stimulus, which is fine and ought be done.

I don't want any of this shit touched no matter what, but I'm pretty serene about it, because I know when this is brought up, all hell will come down on Obama. His ability to fuck with the left will be completely destroyed from that moment going forward. There is no better way to get lefties frothing at the mouth than to try to touch social security. And America has our backs on it.

One of these days he'll realize that if he wants something, he just just say that's what he wants and we'll push him over the line. That's the great thing about being a president of the majority with a 70% approval rating; you don't always have to kowtow to the shrine of William F. Buckley.

Politics anymore is nothing more than a rugby scrum, and America trusts liberals when it comes to entitlement programs.

By the way, "entitlement" is about to become a dirty word, but I will not stop using it. Every American is fucking entitled to health care even if they're poor, and some sort of way to pay the bills when they're old. Non-negotiable.

So, without a hint of irony, I say "bring it on." The harder they push, the harder it will be for Rahm to keep his job.

Again;


If we're going to go with the wildly unpopular privization approach, bring it on. You will not win the privatization fight.

Whatever problems you are seeing with paying the interest on social security bonds could be easily dealt with by removing the cap on contributions.

Intermittent Picture

Quote of the Day

Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

Diderot (not really)

Honey we're the big door prize.

Poor Arlen

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who broke with his party to support President Obama's stimulus package last week, said before the final vote Friday that more of his colleagues would have joined were they not afraid of the political consequences.

"When I came back to the cloak room after coming to the agreement a week ago today," said Specter, "one of my colleagues said, 'Arlen, I'm proud of you.' My Republican colleague said, 'Arlen, I'm proud of you.' I said, 'Are you going to vote with me?' And he said, 'No, I might have a primary.' And I said, 'Well, you know very well I'm going to have a primary.'"

Another casualty of the South rising again, otherwise known as "what hath conservatives wrought."

To sum up, the entire stimulus bill has been junked by Republicans, of whom, Obama has received 0 votes from the House, and presumably 3 votes in the Senate.

Statesmanship, indeed.

Next time, make these motherfuckers filibuster.

$650 billion.

That's how much it's going to cost you for Obama to learn his lesson about bipartisanship.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel conceded President Barack Obama and his team lost control of the message for selling their massive stimulus bill last week, fixating on bipartisanship while Republicans were savaging the legislation.

Assuming any kind of stimulus could help at this point, the stimulus bill appears to be a wasted opportunity. In the end, only about $150 billion would go towards infrastructure projects which would be the best use of stimulus funds. It isn't that the other $650 billion or so was absolutely wasteful--the vast majority of it will be spent on good things. However, with the concessions and tax cuts gained by the Republicans, who will still vote nay, I'm afraid we're left with a spending bill which, in addition to not doing nearly enough to make up for consumer spending in any meaningful way, will also do very little to make it easier to pay back the money.

So the question is, was there a real opportunity to pick up bipartisan support that Obama and the democrats completely flubbed, or was every concession in the process only doomed to weaken the stimulative effects of the bill?

Appearing on CNBC the day after he abruptly withdrew his nomination for Commerce Secretary, Sen. Judd Gregg made a rather blunt admission about the partisan intransigence that the Obama administration is forced to deal with.

From the transcript:

Carl Quintanilla: Well, Senator, since you were nominated it's become quite clear that the margin that the president is going to rely on in the Senate has come down to really three Senators."

Sen. Gregg: I think it's always been that margin.

The point Sen. Gregg seems to be making, is that, no matter what, Obama was never going to get any of the 38 Republican votes he was seeking.

This leads to an important question: if the Republicans had no intention on voting for the bill, no matter what it contained, what was the point in bringing them into the legislative process at all? What Gregg is saying is, and what Limbaugh has emphatically stated, is that the Republicans' only interest is that the Democratic agenda fails, regardless of its intention, or regardless to the interests of the American people.

For the sake of being charitable, allow me to posit that it would seem unfair to say that Republicans value partisan advantage over national interest. After all, would not partisan opposition to a party, whom you believe are not acting in the national interest, be in the national interest?

I would accept this theory, had I not considered their record of governance.

While enjoying a comfortable majority in Congress and the Supreme Court, and with control of the executive, Republicans should have balanced the budget, cut government spending, in particular, cut entitlement programs like social security and medicare, given states more latitude to adopt their own policies, increased individual freedom, repealed gun control legislation, and worked to outlaw gay marriage and abortion. In short, accomplish their agenda.

In fact, we see that Republicans have done none of these things. They do not seem to be interested in enacting their own agenda, let alone that of the opposition's.

Therefore, since they do not seem interested in advancing what they believe to advance the national interest, can we not conclude, then, that their entire philosophy is maintaining partisan advantage?

Intermittent Picture

Quote of the Day -- Existential Crisis Edition

That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

Carl Sagan

I am good-natured and provide satisifaction.

I am loved.

I bet none of you plebeians, after you lose your job, get the President to come to your town to tell you that everything's gonna be all right.

Transcript

Intermittent Picture

Quote of the Day

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln

La Guerre de Sécession en 4 minutes - Vidéos insolites

Catharsis

Blagojevich throws down the gauntlet.

I caught a little bit of it this morning, and, frankly, I believe he's innocent of all charges (he might have something on me, too). It's absolutely amazing what politicians can say once they no longer give a fuck.

Blagojevich says a bunch of them cheat on their spouses, drink too much and blindly follow their legislative leaders because they don't know what's going on in Springfield.

That's pretty much verbatum what he said, so I don't know why the AP article paraphrases here.

This will get really, really good at the criminal trial

Intermittent Picture

Goddamn aww.

Hate.

Last year, a 58-year-old unemployed man named Jim Adkisson drove to the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. In his small SUV was a guitar case.

He brought his guitar case into the church, and as worshippers were enjoying a children's musical performance, Adkisson retrieved his shotgun from the case, along with 76 shells. He managed to murder 2, and wound 6 others before he was tackled and detained until his arrest.

Yesterday, he was sentenced to life in prison.

His motive, according to his handwritten manifesto, was to kill liberals. The Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church is known for its tolerance of homosexuals and political refugees.

He wrote, “Liberals are a pest like termites, millions of them … the only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is kill them in the streets, kill them where they gather.”

If you read over his stated motive for what he explicitly says is a "hate crime," you will find a collection of right wing radio coded words and talking points. I've listened to enough AM radio, that I'm comfortable saying Adkisson parroted directly from Hannity, who has long called into question the "American-ness" of groups like MoveOn.org and Code Pink (whom he specifically mentions by name ad nauseum), two groups mentioned in Mr. Adkisson's manifesto. In fact, Hannity uses the phrase, "groups like Code Pink and MoveOn.org" like a blues guitarist uses riffs as turnarounds between progressions.

The irresponsibility of Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Hannity, Mr. Savage, Mr. Levin et al. has forever changed the lives of those families in Knoxville. Having listened to these men peddle their poison for years, it is not unfair to lay this at talk radio's feet. The vieled and not so vield racism, sexism, homophobia and ideological hate these men spew into their microphones every night is far beyond the pale. The difficult part to understand is not why Mr. Adkisson's murderous hatred was screwed up by talk radio--what is surprising is that their listeners have so far show such restraint.

Quote of the Day

If [the Southern people] want eternal war, well and good; we accept the issue, and will dispossess them and put our friends in their places [...]

Three years ago, by a little reflection and patience, they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well. Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late. All the powers of earth cannot return to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their lands will be taken; for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too, and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives [...]

To those who submit to the rightful law and authority, all gentleness and forebearance; but to the petulant and persistent secessionists, why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better. Satan and the rebellious saints of Heaven were allowed a continuous existence in hell merely to swell their just punishment. To such as would rebel against a Government so mild and just as ours was in peace, a punishment equal would not be unjust. [...]

Read to them this letter, and let them use it so as to prepare them for my coming.

Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman

Trilla!

Don't let anybody tell you different.

Apple pears are extremely delicious.

Dispatches from stupid sumbitchin tax cheats.

Pathetic.

Administration officials were greeted with sarcasm and laughter Monday night when they briefed lawmakers and congressional staff on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's new financial-sector bailout project, according to people who were in the room.

When Congress of all people laugh at you for mismanagement, you know you done fucked up.

Inexplicably, the administration has severe anal-cranial impaction.

sigh.

This is going to be a long four-year scrum.

Intermittent Picture

Link

Creeping Realization.

All of this shit is simply prelude to the nationalization of the banks. Everything you see between now and then is tactical.

The bailout is retarded. The stimulus is retarded.

Meanwhile nothing is being addressed except for laying the groundwork for the Swedish model.

Gonna be a long year.

Wow.

Good start to the market today, in preparation of the official announcement that our economy is run by a criminal sumbitch assclown.

Top 25 Conservative Movies of the Last 25 Years

According to William F Buckley's magazine.

1. The Lives of Others
2. The Incredibles
3. Metropolitan
4. Forrest Gump
5. 300
6. Groundhog Day
7. The Pursuit of Happyness
8. Juno
9. Blast from the Past
10. Ghostbusters
11. Lord of the Rings
12. The Dark Knight
13. Braveheart
14. A Simple Plan
15. Red Dawn
16. Master and Commander
17. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
18. The Edge
19. We Were Soldiers
20. Gattaca
21. Heartbreak Ridge
22. Brazil
23. United 93
    
24. Team American: World Police
25. Gran Torino
    

Hi. Fucking. Larious.

Assclown announcement.

Later today we'll find out the extent of how the new boss is the same as the old boss.

Geithner is a goddamn criminal.

Some People Say

It's not just Fox News, but still incredibly grating to the ear, particularly after you watch this. Outfoxed is a great piece of attack film, by the way.

When I took Journalism 101, I was always told to never quote or paraphrase the words of others without attribution. While in certain situations the use of unnamed sources is ethical, as in the case of whistle blowers, one should quote or paraphrase them very, very rarely, extremely carefully, and only as a last resort, i.e. if the information they present cannot be obtained through any other source. It's also important, when using unnamed sources, to provide some context to what you do decide to use, and provide justification for your source remaining unnamed. The ethical foundation of this is self evident.

Apparently if I had pursued this degree, I would have learned in a 400-level class that it's completely ethical to insert my own opinion, or my boss's, using this phrase.

Boo.

I am so tired of this bullshit.

Obama Administration Maintains Bush Position on 'Extraordinary Rendition' Lawsuit

The Obama Administration today announced that it would keep the same position as the Bush Administration in the lawsuit Mohamed et al v Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.

A source inside of the Ninth U.S. District Court tells ABC News that a representative of the Justice Department stood up to say that its position hasn't changed, that new administration stands behind arguments that previous administration made, with no ambiguity at all. The DOJ lawyer said the entire subject matter remains a state secret.

This is not going to please civil libertarians and human rights activists who had hoped the Obama administration would allow the lawsuit to proceed.

Fucking idiots. I'm sure there's a bigger story here--there's absolutely no context at all, anywhere I clicked inside of this story, but this shit is non-negotiable with me.

Job Losses

Very interesting diary on DailyKos by bonddad attempting to explain what the impact of the recession has been on jobs.

Now, as clearly as I understand it, the US economy needs to grow at the rate of 250,000 jobs a month to keep pace with population growth--and I think, I think!, this this would translate to 0.0% growth in GDP per capita. The addition of 250,000 jobs would make the pie bigger, but you'd have to cut it in more pieces. Its fuzzy, but basically just think of 250,000 new jobs per month as a 0.0% increase in standard of living.

This means that looking at the creation or deletion of jobs needs to take into account the historical nature of a growing economy, as, say, the lost of 10,000 of 1,000,000 jobs is not on the same scale of 10,000 of 100,000, even though those 10,000 are SOL and deserve your sympathy. More later on this.

I've noticed lefties try to use raw data, and indeed the graph in a previous post from the speaker, when percentages are key to understanding the economic impact on job losses. Which is not the whole story, obviously, and in reality looking at one is like looking at the reflection of the other. But I think its perfectly acceptable to use raw data to show the amount of current pain.

Quote of the Day II

Here's the facts--and we don't even talk about these things. On Thursday [September 15, 2008], at about 11 o'clock in the morning, the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw down of money market accounts in the United States; to the tune of $550 billion, was being driven out, in the matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help, it pumped in $105 billion into the system, and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the bank. They decided to close the operation--close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic out there; and that's what really happened.

If they had not done that, their estimation was that by 2 o'clock that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours, the world economy would have collapsed. [...] It would have been the end of our economic system and political system as we know it.

-Rep. Kanjorski, D-Pennsylvania

Quote of the Day

Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggie," until you can find a rock.

Will Rogers

I didn't mean no trouble, I didn't mean no harm.

Intermittent Picture

Madeira

TED #3

George Tyson on the Orion Project, which is effin' awesome.

Quote of the Day

Stop quoting laws, we carry weapons!

Pompey

Yeah my baby she wrote me a letter

Intermittent Picture

Link

Quote of the Day

Now now, my good man, this is no time to be making enemies.

Voltaire, on his deathbed, in response to a priest asking him to reject Satan.

Cause America can, and America can't say no.