January 2012
14 posts
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The Invisible Hand →
Charles Pierce has some suggestions for a simple, straightforward set of debate questions:
Mr. Romney, please explain in detail how $56 million diverted [by PG&E] from safety measures to incentive bonuses [and directly resulted in an explosion that killed eight and destroyed 38 homes] really is a victory for all Americans in pursuing their American dream in this, the greatest country on...
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“Gingrich’s staff has these five file cabinets, four big ones and this little...”
– Bob Dole, presumably pre-Kodos, commenting on Newt’s filing system.
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“Would [a Constitutional amendment for campaign finance reform] be a good idea on...”
– Kevin Drum.
I’d tend to agree, were it not for ideas like Lawrence Lessig’s 28th Amendment: it’s partly targeted at stripping corporations of their status as individuals party to all the protections afforded to “regular” citizens. To me, just that section would go a...
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Why They Fail
Mitt Romney:
“What’s the effective rate I’ve been paying? It’s probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything,” Romney, a GOP presidential candidate, said. “My last 10 years, I’ve — my income comes overwhelmingly from investments made in the past rather than ordinary income or rather than earned annual income. I got a little bit of income from my book, but I gave that all away. And then...
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“Newt Gingrich knows exactly what he is doing when he calls Obama the “food...”
– James Fallows on Disgraced Former Speaker Gingrich. I think this is exactly right. Using this language is a cynical decision; a means to an end, not an overt display of deeply held beliefs on the part of (in this case) DFS Gingrich. He’s a political operator grasping at straws, and selecting...
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Selective Stenography →
Glenn Greenwald, writing a sort of response to yesterday’s NYT Ombudsman piece (in which he wondered whether NYT journalists should challenge the “facts” they are presented when working stories), really nails the MSM’s ongoing stenography problem. It’s not so much that MSM journalists dutifully and uncritically write down (and then print) what they’ve been told,...
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Half Measures
ilyagerner:
“So I think this is going to a very, very difficult year and I think, honestly, that HALF-MEASURES LIKE ASSASSINATIONS or sanctions are only going to produce the crisis more quickly. The better way to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons is to attack its nuclear weapons program directly, break their control over the nuclear fuel cycle.” — John Bolton, who has endorsed Mitt...
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A Lot of Young People Here Today →
Ron Paul shows up to local diner, hoping to find regular ‘Mericans who, we are informed, actually eat in such places; he is instead greeted by ~97 high school students. From Massachusetts. Whose teacher had reserved the entire restaurant. Circus ensues. Vermin Supreme was even in the parking lot, which was also the location of the (apparently) sole New Hampshire voter:
Karen Heller had...
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Uh, We Did Elect Him
jeffmiller:
“First, in addressing global terror and violent extremism, we need the kind of comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy I called for last August. We need to strengthen security partnerships to take out terrorist networks, while investing in education and opportunity. We need to give our national security agencies the tools they need, while restoring the adherence to rule of law that...
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I Think He's Got It! →
Dave Weigel points out the lesson from Iowa and, as I read it, the broader outlines of the GOP primary thus far:
Four years ago, a depressed GOP went to the precinct caucuses, very well aware that Democrats had all the energy. The total GOP vote: 119,188. This year, Republicans should be psyched about the chance to uproot Barack Obama. There will be something above 122,000 total votes. An...
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The DFS Gingrich Who Stole Mittmas
Disgraced Former Speaker Gingrich: [Mitt Romney] is a man whose staff created the PAC, his millionaire friends fund the PAC, he pretends he has nothing to do with the PAC - it's baloney. He's not telling the American people the truth. It's just like this pretense that he's a conservative. Here's a Massachusetts moderate who has tax-paid abortions in 'Romneycare,' puts Planned Parenthood in 'Romneycare,' raises hundreds of millions of dollars of taxes on businesses, appoints liberal judges to appease Democrats, and wants the rest of us to believe somehow he's magically a conservative. [...] But, let's be clear, which part of what I just said to you is false? Why is it that if I'm candid in person and I wanted to be honest in person, that's shocking? If [Romney's] PAC buys millions of dollars in ads to say things that are false, that's somehow the way Washington plays the game. Isn't that exactly what's sick about this country right now? Isn't that what the American people are tired of?
Very Serious Person Bob Schieffer: But Mr. [Disgraced Former] Speaker, what you're saying is 'Folks, Barack Obama is so bad that we'd be better off electing a bald-faced liar to the presidency, somebody that we would never know if he was telling the truth.' That is pretty strong stuff
DFS Gingrich: Well, I'll let you go and check his record, Bob. Look, you're a professional reporter. Did he support Reagan in the '80s or not? The answer is no. Did he vote as a Democrat for Paul Tsongas in '92 or not? The answer is, yes, he did. Did he say that he didn't want to go back to the Reagan-Bush years in '94? Yes, he did. Did he run to the left of Teddy Kennedy? Yes he did. Now, why is it politically incorrect to tell the truth?
Lemkin: I've seen no evidence that Bob Schieffer is a "professional reporter," Newt. Why do you lie so much? I'm surprised Schieffer didn't punch him right in the nose. Shrill, I suppose. Better not to take sides...
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“In short, the choice in this election is between a candidate who wants to have...”
– Dean Baker describes the upcoming election campaign with typical insight and simplicity. Unfortunately, all that’s left for us is documenting the atrocities. Because the mainstream media is fundamentally incapable of describing the two candidates in language that even approaches this level of...
December 2011
15 posts
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“I’ve talked to enough members over the last 24 hours who believe that, ‘Hey, we...”
– John Boehner, completely misunderstanding the position of his caucus. Either it’s exactly what we want or we blow up the country. Right, John? Right?
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A Sacrifice! A Sacrifice! →
Dean Baker:
In total, the economy has lost close to $1.3tn in annual demand as a result of the collapse of the housing bubble. This explains the economy’s weak growth and high unemployment. There is no simple way to replace this demand.
We can gather together a coven of market-worshipping Republicans and sacrifice all the workers and retirees we want, it still will not replace the...
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All of a Piece
I’m not sure how many times the Republicans have to say the same stuff, plainly and in modern English, before it begins to sink in to the minds of those in the media that they, the Republicans in Congress, want Obama to fail in his bid for reelection and to achieve that goal, they need the American economy to fail.
You, as a GOP House mover-and-shaker (aka Tea Klan fanatic), are faced with...
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“I actually had [the number 33 jersey in my hands] for about 10 seconds and then...”
– Sammy Morris, newly minted Dallas Cowboy running back, who has worn the hallowed number 33 in the past. He’ll do well in Dallas, even if it is for a swan song of a season or two.
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Both Sides Not Equally at Fault →
TNR’s Timothy Noah has a nice piece up detailing polls that show the general public largely gets that it’s the GOP being more obstructive, more extreme, and (even among Republicans) ultimately less popular and more deserving of being shown the door. But then Noah writes the funniest thing I’ve read in a while:
I hope the “objective” press reports these findings...
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“On top of the terrible politics, they even admit that [Ryan/Wyden] dismantles...”
– A “Very Senior” Democratic Aide weighs in on the Ryan/Wyden “plan” to save Medicare by dismantling and replacing it with a system already shown to be at least 25% more costly. The problem here is that Serious People know that Medicare must be destroyed. The only thing they...
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Rotten Discourse the Third
politicalprof:
“I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time [my grandchildren are] my age they will be in a secular, atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.” — Newt Gingrich. Because if anything says secular atheism, it’s radical Islam.
h/t:...
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Should the Republic Survive...
Newt Gingrich, GOP debate 12/10/11: If we do survive, it will be in part because of people like Rick [Santorum] who've had the courage to tell the truth about the Iranians for a long time.
Dan Drezner, Foreign Policy: Even a nuclear-armed Iran led by the current regime of nutball theocrats cannot threaten America's survival. I get why the United States is concerned about Iran going nuclear, and I get why Israel is really concerned about Iran going nuclear. The only way that developments in Iran could threaten America's survival, however, would be if the US policy response was so hyperbolic that it ignited a general Middle East war that dragged in Russia and China. Which... come to think of it, wouldn't be entirely out of the question under a President Gingrich.
Lemkin: Yep. In line with suddenly making this "rotten discourse day" around here, this is just one more symptom, to be filed under "imaginary foreign policy | Serious Person edition." Yes, existential threats to the United States and to "civilized" life on Earth as we know it are real and do exist. Climate change is very, very high on that list and may, in fact, far outweigh any other risk currently facing either the United States or, more generally, humanity itself in a truly existential fashion. That one party is allowed to categorically deny its very existence in defiance of the preponderance of evidence and inevitably in the name of journalistic integrity or "not taking sides" will be, perhaps, marveled at by whatever future race digs through the ashes of our long forgotten society. But there is simply no way a nuclear Iran poses an existential threat to these United States at any time in the near- to mid-term future. It is the height of folly to think otherwise and utterly laughable to suggest it on the national stage in the hopes of being taken seriously. And yet one party is allowed to do so frequently and in direct contradiction to any reasonable estimation of the empirical reality of the Iranian situation specifically or Middle Eastern policy in general. And, what do you know, here we are, back at our rotten discourse again. Funny that.
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A Vision of America
Matt Yglesias:
Loser liberalism, by implying that all fortunes are created equal, alternately goes too easy on scoundrels and comes down too hard on people who are merely prosperous. [Even “low” paid] folks working on Wall Street are making a living in an industry that’s systematically dependent on implicit and explicit government guarantees. Making a living as a patent troll...
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A Jobs Pipeline →
This kind of crap (linking the payroll tax cut extension to the Keystone XL pipeline) is precisely why we’d be better off as a nation if Obama had come to the Rose Garden back on Day Two and announced his immutable opposition to wind power, trains, mass transit of any kind, single payer health care, mortgage adjustments and cram-down, and massive civil and criminal penalties for the...
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“President Obama is replacing our merit-based, opportunity-based society with an...”
– Mitt Romney, accurately describing the inevitable and country-destroying results of going from a 35% top marginal rate to a 39.6% top marginal rate. Let’s not have anyone ask him about or call him on this issue specifically. Shrill.
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Basic Human Rights
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:
Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct; but, in fact, they are one and the same. […] Like being a woman, like being a racial, religious, tribal, or ethnic minority, being LGBT does not make you less human. And that is why gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.
It is violation of human...
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“Really poor children, in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and...”
– Newt Gingrich, disgraced former Speaker, defends his opposition to child labor laws in truly convincing fashion. Ladies and gentlemen, your GOP-2012 front runner.
November 2011
17 posts
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“The surtax would impact around 345,000 taxpayers, roughly 0.2 percent of...”
– Citizens For Tax Justice runs the numbers on the proposed funding mechanism that would extend the payroll tax “holiday” currently scheduled to end December 31, 2011. I don’t have to remind you that Republicans are categorically against this tax increase, because it harms the...
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“A mature society is one that can distinguish between 1) times when lawbreaking...”
– Conor Friedersdorf, weighing in on SOPA and other draconian “law and order” approaches to the innerwebs. Which, of course, must be destroyed such that it may better serve our Galtian Overlords.
Sadly, we’re not even close to assessing the three points he lays out, because doing so...
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“She’s not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of a President. And...”
– Newt Gingrich, disgraced former Speaker and loving husband, describes his first wife in a Katharine Q. Seelye profile. Ladies and gentlemen, your next GOP frontrunner.
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“I think it’s going to be Obama’s 99% versus the 1%, and Romney sort of...”
– Joe McQuaid, publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, on why his publication endorsed disgraced former Speaker Newt Gingrich instead of Mitt Romney. I think he’s right. But let’s not have The Democrat get to messaging this way or anything.
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Upstairs/Downstairs
John Kyl (R, AZ), Saturday: [tax increases are] the wrong medicine for our ailing economy, [...] [any possibility of a potential future increase only serves to] put a wet blanket over job creation and economic recovery.
John Kyl (R, AZ), Sunday: The payroll tax holiday has not stimulated job creation. We don’t think that is a good way to do it. [Thus we want to raise taxes on every American that currently receives a paycheck]. The best way to hurt economic growth is to impose more taxes on the people who do the hiring. As a result, the Republicans have said, ‘Don’t raise the existing tax rates on those who do the hiring.’ [That is to say, the 1%. Who aren't, uh, actually hiring. But still. Don't raise THEIR taxes. Raise the 99%'s taxes. Only that will get the old economy going again!]
Lemkin: Again, the MSM will see no dissonance whatsoever in these positions. Of course raising taxes on most everyone in the country to avoid a tiny tax increase on a tiny fraction of the country makes the best economic sense in an aggregate demand-based economic downturn. What other conclusion is even possible given this data? Surely both sides are at fault for low aggregate demand in the 99%; this is only fixable if both sides agree to lower taxes on the 1%. Again: what other conclusion is even possible?
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The Rub
In all the rush to cast a pox on both houses, most Serious People seem to be missing the underlying point here.
The Republicans want tax rates to remain at current (i.e. Bush/Obama tax cut) levels or to be lowered. To do that without collapsing the Federal Government, they have to end Medicare. Period, the end, no other way to do it. Zero the non-military discretionary budget and you still...
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“A country that has been now since 1963 relentlessly in the courts driving God...”
– Newt Gingrich, disgraced former Speaker of the House and occasional front-runner in the race for the GOP nomination of 2012, sharing his thoughts on what the real problems facing the country are.
Last I checked, the founders were the ones that attempted to create a secular country. What part of...
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“Here’s how it works- Obama says something, Republicans completely lie about it,...”
– John Cole, to whom I’d only add that, should Obama fail to win reelection in 2012, his decision to nationally televise the “Lazy Speech” from the Oval Office while wearing an overly earth-toned, almost certainly focus group chosen sweater will be held out as a prime reason American...
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Tanned, Rested, and Ready →
Brad DeLong gets emails:
I’m pretty sure if Aquaman dropped into the race right now and just said “Washington outsider” and “regulations are killing us” for two weeks, he would be the frontrunner for the Republican Presidential nomination through December.
Sure, sure. But he’d just as quickly be inexplicably captured by some two-bit villain with no powers...
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“Frankly, half of [the automatic cuts] is aimed at national security. Leon...”
– Jeb Hensarling, (R, TX) GOP chair of the “Super-committee” reassuring everyone that the automatic cuts scheduled by the all but inevitable failure of the “Super-committee” will, in fact, be coming out of Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare. The latter two are the only...
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“the current hand wringing about the administration’s pledge [not to raise...”
– Jared Bernstein agrees that we can achieve neutral debt/GDP ratios without savaging middle class rates. Serious People sure love to wring hands. It’s as though they have a vested interest in the tax rates of the trans-$250k class. Oh, right.
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Again with the Middle Class →
It’s almost as if our media aristocracy of inbred Serious People have a vested interest in seeing to it that the middle class, and only the middle class, gets soaked in any economic “compromise.” Amidst reacting to a particularly poor NYT Magazine piece, Dean Baker nails it:
…the piece too quickly dismisses the possibility of getting substantial additional tax revenue...
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McRibs and McFibs →
Pretty much says it all:
The curious thing is that both McDonald’s and Smithfield know that gestation crates are bad news for a pig.
Though I admit considerable astonishment that McRib actually contains pork products of any kind. I was thinking smaller. And more legs.
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“The question of whether the Herman Cain sexual harassment story will hurt his...”
– Jonathan Chait clearly and succinctly tells you everything you need to know about the Cain Train.
October 2011
21 posts
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“On the domestic side, both Democrats and Republicans have really made it very...”
– Bill Daley, White House Chief of Staff. This is why they fail.
Anyone, and I mean anyone who holds this opinion, much less speaks of it to a journalist of any stripe, should resign immediately or have been fired long ago. You think this is frustrating Bill? You think “your” side is...
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“Yeah, I’ve drank bathtubs full of hooch, but I never craved it. I...”
– Pete Dexter, journalist, novelist, writer, and former circus aficionado on his relationship to hooch and hooch purveyors.
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Dear NPR, →
Compare and contrast Jonathan Chait’s approach to Paul Ryan’s fantasyworld with dread Liberal Mouthpiece NPR’s view from nowhere approach in which Ryan is simply allowed to say whatever he wants, without challenge or even follow up of any kind.
Day by day, hour by hour, brick by brick NPR is building its own tomb. Once they’ve chased off all thinking individuals from...
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“…this is the way the right goes after everyone who stands in their way:...”
– Paul Krugman, sole member of the mainstream media who seems to understand this simple concept.