August 2011
38 posts
9 tags
“As settings go, [addressing a joint session of Congress] is in the...”
– Steve Benen reads the tea leaves on the venue choice for the upcoming Obama “jobs” speech.
I hope Steve realizes this is the very same spot the annual State of the Union address is given. Seems to me the admittedly august podium there in the House is precisely the place for warmed-over...
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Perry's Millions →
Rick Perry has quite a nose for land speculation:
Discharged from the Air Force in 1977 aged 27, he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives seven years later, in 1984. At that time, the Perry family reported income of $45,000, largely from Mrs. Perry’s work as a nurse.
[…]
in 1993, there was a piece of ground that computer billionaire Michael Dell needed to connect...
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“Results [matter]. If I were the one in charge of this pop stand, I’d...”
– Duncan Black, being exactly right. The key thing that needs to happen in the immediate future (e.g. the imminent “jobs speech”) is for Obama to set the stage such that the eventual legislative outcome makes very clear exactly who is obstructing economic growth and recovery efforts.
The...
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On the bright side.
ilyagerner:
A world without functioning traffic signals is preparing me for Ron Paul’s America. So far, lots of accidents, not much in the way of the emergent order that I’ve been promised.
I feel like this is almost certainly a confidence issue. The emergent order knows, deep down, that an alphabet soup of government regulatory agencies will soon descend upon said nascent and entirely...
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Not so much, Neil →
danielholter:
“There is an asteroid, discovered in December 2004, called Apophis. Named for the Egyptian god of death and darkness. It was named only after its trajectory was identified to intersect that of Earth… Turns out, in the year 2029, in the month of April… Apophis will come so close to Earth that it will dip below our orbiting communications satellites. And it is the size of the Rose...
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“What kind of man are you? You’re weak, spineless, a man of temptations. But what...”
– Cosmo Kramer derives George’s ATM code.
Cut to Kramer, P.I., in which the perennially rumpled detective is employed by an apparently wealthy but forever shadowy figure who generally leaves Kramer with plenty of free time to wander around figuring stuff out as it pleases him.
Pitch it as...
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“The problem is I’m older now, I’m 40 years old, and this stuff doesn’t change...”
– Steve Jobs, talking to Wired in 1996.
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Fallows on the GOP and Taxes →
James Fallows weighs in on the GOP finally finding a tax hike they love, the elimination of the Obama-initiated payroll tax “holiday” that would affect every employed individual in the country:
I had thought that Republican absolutism about taxes, while harmful to the country and out of sync with even the party’s own Reaganesque past, at least had the zealot’s virtue of...
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“…first a Keynesian observes that fiscal stimulus can increase growth in a...”
– Matt Yglesias, leaving out the next line in the exchange; the one where the conservative screams “that’s socialism,” makes a lot of unfounded claims about runaway spending, and then says government initiated stimulus has never worked, and most especially never worked in the guise...
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“This is true: It is not clear how George Pataki would win over Republican voters...”
– David Weigel ponders Patakimentum.
America is not ready for a President who prefers flat soda. Ten years, maybe; 2012, no way.
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“Finally, it is not clear why it views the fact that the [proposed EU financial...”
– Dean Baker nails it. The very existence of this sort of trading apparatus, which benefits only the company deploying it, relies entirely on what should be privileged knowledge (e.g. foreknowledge of trade patterns about to happen that can only be extracted and acted upon through either initiating...
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“I’m sorry if I offended a congressman but the fact of the matter is I’m...”
– Rick Perry, apparently apologizing for publicly accusing Ben Bernanke of treason. That’d be Ben S. Bernanke, 14th Chairman of the Federal Reserve and most definitely not one of the several others apparently serving in government .
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GOP Loves Tax Hikes →
Marginal Revolution’s Alex Tabarrok:
If Republicans have their way, taxes will increase next year by $120 billion. Republicans in favor of tax increases? Sadly, yes.
The post goes on to lay out its theories on the GOP loving only tax cuts for the rich and so forth. But I think this is wrong.
The House GOP is against this particular tax cut continuing solely because Obama wants it to...
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Diamond Rick Perry
Gail Mitchell: You said Social Security was unconstitutional.
Rick Perry: Social Security’s going to be there for those folks [currently receiving it]
Gail Mitchell: But you said Social Security is unconstitutional
Rick Perry: I don’t think I — I’m sorry, you must have... [and then stuffs his mouth full of popover]
Gail Mitchell: ???
Rick Perry: I’ve got a big mouthful [...] I’m sorry, sweetheart
Lemkin: The old stuff-your-mouth-full dodge. This guy has a bright future in politics. That and this Gail Mitchell is tougher than any journalist on the bus.
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Chait's Venetian Blind Alley
Jon Chait unleashes the snark over a suggestion that we have a seperate Super Committee tasked only with “[encouraging] the new supercommittee to ‘go big, or go home.’”
What if we determined the membership of the meta-committee via some non-political selection method — perhaps through the creation of a new group containing, Republicans and Democrats, dedicated to finding the...
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“Rick Perry’s an idiot, and I don’t think anyone would disagree with that”
– Bruce Bartlett, former H.W. Bush Treasury official and Reagan adviser, minces words when asked his thoughts on Rick Perry. More evidence of Turd Blossom’s tentacles? Or just the party apparatus trying to help Perry out by appearing to denigrate his intellect while hedging bets against his...
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“You could greatly improve [your] understanding of finance by not reading the...”
– David Frum, the last of the honest conservative thinkers. Being honest. About the WSJ and its rampant BS
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What Perlstein Said →
So good:
There are few or no historical instances in which saying clearly what you are for and what you are against makes Americans less divided. But there is plenty of evidence that attacking the wealthy has not made them more divided. After all, the man who said of his own day’s plutocrats, “I welcome their hatred,” also assembled the most enduring political coalition in U.S. history.
...
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Pity the Poor Corporations
jeffmiller:
“Romney is absolutely right. And this means that taxes on corporations are taxes on people. I’m not getting at the subtle point—and I don’t think Romney was either—that if capital is highly mobile internationally, a national government can’t make capital bear much of the burden of taxes and so the incidence is on laborers and consumers. No, I’m making the simple point that a tax on...
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File Under: Cogent →
Hendrik Hertzberg deftly summarizes why Obama is systematically losing the left (the only folks who supported his Presidency to begin with):
Obama’s seeming refusal to hold [invoking the 14th Amendment to the Constitution] in reserve (“like the fire axe on the wall,” in Garrett Epps’s words) is emblematic of his all too civilized, all too accommodating negotiating strategy—indeed, of his whole...
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“The Republicans are serious budget reformers; the lady from Washington,...”
– Grover Norquist, primary driver of conservative economic policy in the form of his idiotic anti-tax pledge. In every way that matters, this is who they are.
He’s referring to the second highest-ranking member, male or female, of the Senate Budget Committee, Senator Patty Murray. You stay...
12 tags
“You don’t want these candidates moving so right in the Republican primary that...”
– Karl Rove, old turd blossom hisself, opining on the GOP Presidential primary field.
Sorry to be the one to tell you this, Karl, but the “sensibility” ship has sailed, been round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames, and...
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“If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what...”
– Rick Perry, governor or Texas and candidate for the GOP nomination for President, apparently accusing Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke of treason.
He really is going to invigorate the GOP primary. What a strong field they have.
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Read Up →
Yglesias details the 10 “Weirdest Ideas” in Rick Perry’s Fed Up. It’s a must-read post that I’ll tease with this single, highly representative sentence:
The propriety of a federal role in regulating the banking industry has been the subject of bipartisan agreement since the Madison administration.
Says it all.
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Robert Reich: Why the New Healthcare Law Should... →
robertreich:
So what do Obama and the Democrats do if the individual mandate in the new health care law gets struck down by the Supreme Court?
Immediately propose what they should have proposed right from the start — universal health care based on Medicare for all, financed by payroll taxes. The public will be behind them, as will the courts.
This is utterly wrong on all counts. It utterly...
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Cokie's Law vs. Social Security
Dean Baker at Beat the Press:
… it was incredibly irresponsible for NPR to tell listeners in its top of the hour news segment that the market plunged because Standard and Poor’s downgrade of U.S. debt. NPR does not know this to be true and it certainly is not obviously the case.
The market that should have been most immediately affected by the S&P downgrade was the U.S....
12 tags
S&GOP
Ezra Klein:
My hunch is that S&P was making a political argument and felt the need to cast it as deficit arithmetic. Then, when their arithmetic proved wrong, they were left looking foolish. As it stands, you actually can’t coherently merge the first and second versions of S&P’s explanation of the downgrade. That should tell you something about how rigorous their framework is, even if...
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“[Rather than a double dip recession] we may be looking at 2 years or more where...”
– Dean Baker is either giving great analysis of the nation’s near term economic outlook and policy options —or— reciting a litany of facts, large and small, that you will never, ever hear on any MSM outlet. Even by accident.
I’m not sure which, though.
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Who's To Blame? →
Jay Bookman wants to know a few things:
Who rejected “the comprehensive fiscal consolidation program,” with cuts to entitlements accompanied by higher revenues, producing a debt reduction of $4 trillion, proposed by President Obama? That would have produced twice the debt reduction promised in the deal that was finally accepted.
Who rejected the very notion of compromise, making “the...
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This Is Why →
Standard and Poors to downgrade US credit rating:
A source says Republicans [steadfast refusal] to accept any tax increases as part of a larger [deficit] deal will be part of the reason cited [for the historic downgrade].
How do you imagine the radical Socialist Obama administration plans to respond on behalf of The Democrat?
[An administration] official says that S&P made a...
4 tags
Obama Wants To Take Whitey's Money →
Adam Serwer dutifully summarizes every episode of the Rush Limbaugh program since 2009. A thought piece, if you will.
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Four Words that Only Seem Cheerful
1: Jejune
2: Meretricious
3: Spendthrift
4: Crepuscular
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“The first [thing Michael Jordan’s oddly vindictive Hall of Fame induction...”
– Chuck Klosterman, writing for Grantland. One of the more perceptive paragraphs about sports (in general) and people like Jordan (in particular) that I’ve read.
4 tags
Capital Gains Taxes make Baby Jesus Cry →
Just a few details on the beliefs of those involved in Rick Perry’s Prayer Rally:
Oprah is a sign of the Apocalypse: In his channel on GOD TV, Mike Bickle
called Oprah a “forerunner to the harlot movement.”
Blackbirds are dying because of gay soldiers: Dr. Cindy Jacobs recorded a
video declaring a connection between the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and
the...
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Number Two
LA Times: "Investors are looking past the budget situation and realizing this is an austerity plan," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago. "We have an economy that's struggling to stay afloat and we don't have the ammunition to keep prodding it forward."
Kevin Drum: Oh really? Now you tell us? There are really only two options here. (1) The Times is wrong. (2) The Times is right and America has the stupidest goddamn investors on the planet. For months they sat around cheering on the tea partiers and declaring solemnly that the federal budget was just like a household budget and we needed "real action" on the debt in order to build confidence in the economy. Then, suddenly, when they got it, they realized that what they really wanted wasn't dumb slogans but actual policies that would help spur the recovery. And that means looser monetary policy and fiscal stimulus.
Lemkin: I'll take #2 for $1000, Alex. Tea Klan nonsense works because it feels good. It's fun to rage away and tilt at grand conspiratorial windmills. Never you mind that actions have consequences, many of which will have direct and painful consequences in your lives. FOXnews and its political wing, the GOP, have a President to defeat. Nothing else matters. Pure electoral nihilism.
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Cuts from the Baseline are Still Cuts.
ilyagerner:
It is very amusing to watch people who typically spend a considerable portion of their day shrieking about inflation post a graph that has a discretionary spending rising at less than 2% per year in non-adjusted terms and then claim this doesn’t represent a cut in spending.
Inflation has a well known Liberal bias.
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“We’re seriously talking about defaulting on our debt, and cutting Medicare and...”
– Matt Taibbi (via paxamericana)
No, Matt, we haven’t lost our minds. Instead, we’ve all been told for twenty years that government can do nothing right, that taxes are the root of all evil, and that anyone else receiving so much as one red cent of guvmint money is a freeloader and likely... 