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State of the Nation

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Holidays (or at least the Christmas part) are officially over at the CTBlue household; our last guest having departed this morning. Time for me to ease back into the world of blogging, spreading the gift of my punditry far and wide, like Santa spreading presents, or Republicans spreading lies.

So I take this opportunity to start again, by sharing something my wife found at a Northampton bookstore yesterday. Now, I have been known to be somewhat critical of our current president, but I think it only fair to acknowledge that this postcard accurately depicts the country that somehow managed to elect him president, and with which he must deal each and every day:


So, we must acknowledge that the Dumbfuckistanis do make it difficult to govern, though pandering to them doesn’t seem to help.

This postcard engendered some debate at our household this morning as to the extent to which we here in America should aggressively point out to the citizens of our neighboring country exactly what dumb fucks the majority of them really are. My position is that we should be as aggressive at calling out their ignorance as they are about heaping scorn on us. I acknowledge, of course, that there are pockets of blue in all that red, but that doesn’t change the facts on the ground much. I also acknowledge that parts of Dumbfuckistan, such as Ohio and (I know it sounds crazy) Texas are primed to flip. We shall welcome them when they do, but until that happy time, we must both fear and loathe them.

The Mencken quote, by the way, should give those of us hoping for a Palin nomination, some pause. She may be just the moron America has been waiting for.

The flip side of the postcard suggests that the founding principle of Dumbfuckistan is not hard of find.


Somewhat unfair to the Western states, since we hadn’t finished slaughtering the Indians there, so they hadn’t really had a chance to weigh in on the slavery issue. Still, for the rest of the country, it certainly appears that racism and stupidity go hand in hand.

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A Brilliant Idea

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

This is the best idea I’ve heard in a long time. Brad Lander from District 39 on the New York City Council:

Here in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg has proposed laying off over 4,000 public school teachers, closing 20 fire companies at night, closing dozens of child care centers, eliminating over 2,000 summer youth jobs and leaving more runaway homeless youth to sleep on the streets.

So it is time for cities and states to step up. That’s why the New York City Council’s Progressive Caucus, which I co-chair, has introduced a plan to place a temporary city/state income tax surcharge on the wealthiest New Yorkers—precisely the amount of the tax windfall they are getting from incoming Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

We are encouraging other legislators around the U.S. to do the same. We will repeal the surcharge the minute that Congress and the President end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest and restore some tax fairness to the federal tax system.

Our proposal would raise over $8 billion annually. For that amount, we can keep the child care center open. We can avoid laying off thousands of school teachers. We can keep the fire companies open at night. We can keep shelter beds in place for homeless teens who are sleeping on the street. We can keep our libraries open 6 days a week (the Mayor’s proposal would likely reduce some branches to just 2 or 3 days next year). And we could still reduce the City’s budget deficit.

Every state should do this. Of course, any state, any part of which is controlled by Republicans, will not do it, meaning that those states like Connecticut, which will be Republican free in a couple of weeks, have a golden opportunity to improve their economies relative to their afflicted-with-Republicans neighbors. From an economic point of view this is a no-brainer. Circulating this money, which would be stashed away rather than spent, back into the economies of the taxpayer’s home state could do nothing but good. In addition, for states like Connecticut, this would be a double bonus, since we are normally net exporters of federal tax dollars. If the federal government doesn’t want to send our money down South to the Yahoos, we can use it here, to help solve our budget problems without putting people out of work.

We could also, particularly if several states adopted similar laws, demonstrate that Obama’s original plan made more sense than the compromise.


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Jon Stewart breaks the filibuster, why couldn’t Obama.

Monday, December 20, 2010

According to today’s Times, the First Responders in New York may have Jon Stewart to thank if the bill to provide medical care for them makes it through our dysfunctional Senate. Why? Because Stewart shone a light on a particularly nasty piece of Republican obstructionism, and he put a human face on it to boot. As he pointed out, the Republicans voted to deprive the first responders of medical care, after wrapping themselves in 9/11 for almost 10 years, not to mention that they constantly tried to appropriate the heroism of those New Yorkers for themselves.

Which raises the question. Why did Jon Stewart have to do this? How hard would it have been for Obama to get in front of the cameras with the same New Yorkers that Stewart had on his show, and call the Republicans out? Part of what comes with the presidency is the bully pulpit, but Obama seems to have a great deal of difficulty getting into that pulpit, never mind preaching effectively. Sure he can still give vapid campaign speeches, but when it comes to actually pushing an issue, he’s AWOL.

If the thinking was that they had more important priorities than these hapless New Yorkers, it is still the case that they missed an opportunity. You don’t stop them from obstructing by sweet reason. You make them look bad, one filibuster at a time, and where best to start but with the sacred memory of the day that changed everything (except, of course, all the things it really didn’t change). Stewart has apparently done, in about 12 minutes of airtime, what the Democrats in the White House and Senate couldn’t bother to do: call the Republicans out on what must be one of the most cynical political maneuvers of all time. (This, of course, assumes that the White House might want to stop the obstructionism, something we now have reason to doubt.)

The media, by the way, despite Stewart’s prodding, is not, even now, exactly covering itself in glory on this story. Witness Time magazine, which repeats without comment this Republican BS:

The bill passed the House but has been stalled in the Senate due to GOP concerns that it would, in essence, create a new — albeit relatively tiny — entitlement.

As Stewart reported, not a single Republican stepped forward to justify the filibuster, leaving us to conclude, correctly, that as with all the other bills they filibustered, this was all about extorting a tax cut for the rich. It is journalistic malpractice of the highest order for Time to report this after the fact cover story without even a suggestion that it might be a tad disingenuous.

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Obama and Liberals

Monday, December 20, 2010

The Washington Post reports on how the White House has kept in touch with its base:

Much of the White House’s interaction with liberal groups has taken place at a weekly meeting at a downtown Washington hotel. The “common purpose” gatherings are closed-door sessions between top Obama aides and officials from dozens of left-leaning interest groups such as unions, youth voting groups, women’s organizations, gay rights advocates and civil rights activists. Attendees are required to keep all proceedings secret and off the record.

This, it seems to me, is where Obama differs from Clinton, who had an almost intuitive ability to understand the mood outside the beltway. Obama is beltway all the way, even in how he chooses to communicate with the people that elected him.

Of course, I don’t know what goes on in those meetings, and presumably never will until it no longer matters, but it strikes me that it raises the same kinds of issues as does so much of beltway journalism. The price of getting access to people in the know is to report only what those in the know want you to report. Stray from the reservation, and you lose that precious access, which is all some of those journalists live for. The representatives from the “dozens of left-leaning interest groups”, Washington denizens by definition, will, wittingly or unwittingly, trade their principles for continued access to the “closed-door sessions” that marks them out as being special. That’s good for Obama, in that those same folks will go back to their organizations and run interference for him, but if anyone thinks that liberals won’t think these things through for themselves, they are sadly mistaken. It’s easier to herd cats than liberals.

There will be nowhere to go for the left in 2012. As a practical matter, we can do nothing other than re-nominate Obama. He’ll have no problem raising money either, since the corporate money he absorbs will more than make up for the grassroots money that won’t be forthcoming. While he’s working hard at throwing the election away, I still think he’ll win, as the Republicans seem hell bent on nominating someone that not even this country can stomach.

But for the candidates down the line, especially the Democrats running for Congress in the districts in which Republicans might otherwise be vulnerable, things might be a little more difficult. They are the ones who rely on the money from activists, as well as their shoe leather. The fact is, it’s those who feel strongly that donate money and time, and Obama has been working hard to curb their enthusiasm. If, as seems likely, Obama leads an assault on social security (see the Post article on that issue), it’s going to be hard for those folks to see the use in getting a Democratic Congress for him, particularly in light of his passive acceptance of obstructionism in the U.S. Senate. The conclusion seems inescapable that the only priority of the Administration is re-election. Beyond that, well, let’s just say their principles, if you can find them, are truly flexible.

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A refreshing piece of work

Friday, December 17, 2010

There is one news organization that makes it a habit to actually get at the facts, and ignore the right wing spin that everyone else reports in, at best, a “he said, she said” style, assuming that they don’t buy it hook, line and sinker. Not the New York Times, not the Washington Post, and certainly not any of the television networks. It is lonely little McClatchey. McClatchey purchased Knight Ridder, which was the sole news outlet actually looking for the truth before the benighted adventure began in Iraq.

Recently, the Republican members of the “bi-partisan commission” tasked with figuring out the reason for the economic collapse (which as Paul Krugman points out, are painfully obvious to any sentient non-Republican) decided to break with the commission, which had just refused their request that the terms “Wall Street”, “deregulation” and “shadow banking” be left out of the groups report. The Republicans, never letting the facts get in the way, intend to issue their own report, blaming the collapse on Freddie and Fannie Mae, a pet delusion of the right. Note that one reading the article at the link, from Bloomberg’s this time, would never know just how intellectually dishonest that assertion is.

But if you read McClatchy here is what you get:

As the economy worsens and Election Day approaches, a conservative campaign that blames the global financial crisis on a government push to make housing more affordable to lower-class Americans has taken off on talk radio and e-mail.

Commentators say that’s what triggered the stock market meltdown and the freeze on credit. They’ve specifically targeted the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the federal government seized on Sept. 6, contending that lending to poor and minority Americans caused Fannie’s and Freddie’s financial problems.

Federal housing data reveal that the charges aren’t true, and that the private sector, not the government or government-backed companies, was behind the soaring subprime lending at the core of the crisis.

See! Is that so very hard? No on the one hand and on the other hand. Just the facts, just like Joe Friday.

Starting in January we will see Congressional investigations that will prove beyond doubt that the private banks were blameless for the mess they caused. With some honorable exceptions they will be accorded respect in the media and treated as if they should be taken seriously. As a result, and at best, we will lay the groundwork for an repetition of the crisis that has left everyone but the bankers far poorer than they were. It’s the way it is in America. If the Republicans said it, the media would report without quibble that shit doesn’t stink. Come to think of it, with this story, that’s exactly what they’re doing.

Thanks to Matt Berger for picking up on the McClatchy story in his ongoing coverage of the mortgage mess. (Unfortunately, no link to Matt, his stuff comes via an email newsletter)


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Friday Night Music, Christmas Again

Friday, December 17, 2010

I’ve probably done this before, but it’s one of the better rock and roll Christmas songs, and anyway, Christmas is a time for traditions.

This is likely the last music post before Christmas, inasmuch as a week from tonight is Christmas Eve and I’ll be otherwise engaged, so to anyone reading this, have a Happy Holiday.

This is not to say, of course, that I won’t be doing a bit of ranting next week. The last few weeks have gotten me discouraged, I’ll allow, but sooner or later I always bounce back. Hope springs eternal.


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They can dish it out, but they can’t take it

Thursday, December 16, 2010

I realize that I should be writing about stuff that matters, but things are really just too depressing out there, what with the “compromise” and all down there in Washington. So, I prefer to celebrate a tiny victory.

Down in Fort Worth, in Texas, the state where they inflict prayer on you at high school football games, the persecuted Christians got all upset when a group of atheists put an ad on a bus that read “Millions of Americans are Good Without God”. Well, suddenly all those Christians got all sensitive-like about having someone else’s religion (or lack thereof) shoved down their throats.

Unfortunately, even in Texas the courts aren’t likely to say that you can let religious ads on the busses (and of course there have been plenty) and bar atheistical ads. Not yet of course, though I’d give even money that the current Supreme Court could find a way. But, not wanting to bear the cost, the Transportation Authority has banned all religious ads. Reminds me of the school board in Utah that banned all extracurricular groups because the courts wouldn’t let them ban a gay and lesbian group. What was that about a nose and a face?

Perhaps this is one way to impose reason on this benighted land. Atheists and non-Christians everywhere should put up displays next to creches, demand their turn to give the benedictions or prayers at public meetings, even, if they have the guts, demand equal time at those Texas football games. Now folks, if they do that, only two things can happen. The whole country might become tolerant and realize the error of its ways and that really the government ought to just stay out of religion for everyone’s good, or, more realistically, the country will double down on intolerance by following the Fort Worth example. Either way, we win.


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It has served its purpose

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Remember when the fate of America and/or Christianity rested on whether an Islamic community center would be built somewhere close to both ground zero and a strip club? Seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it? The threat is technically still hanging over us, yet for some reason it doesn’t seem to bother the bloviators anymore. TPM reports that Judicial Watch is still pursuing a mosque related FOIA request, but this paragraph struck me:

Judicial Watch filed a request under New York’s Freedom of Information Law, or FOIL, back in August, when the street outside the Park51 Islamic center was packed daily with protesters and Islamophobia in general was rising throughout America. The furor over the project has died down considerably since, with only the fiercest anti-mosque folks voicing opposition.

The “mosque” is yesterday’s news. It has served its purpose; having ratcheted up the fear and loathing going into the election. Suddenly, all those Fox commentators that felt so threatened have other things to worry about, likely things that actually strike closer to their own homes, like tax cuts for themselves and their rich friends. But we should have no fear that the fear and loathing has come to an end. Come 2012 new threats from the other will appear, and the attention of this ADD nation will be diverted once again, in service to the interests of the upper 2%.

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It’s a topsy turvy world

Monday, December 13, 2010

It’s hard to believe that it’s not yet three years since Hillary Clinton proved she was incapable of being president by choking up a bit when she made the point that elections and their consequences actually mattered to real people. The fact that she came close to-might even have-shedding a few tears was all we heard about on the news.

Fast forward three years and here’sJohn Boehner once again shedding copious tears for no discernible reason. Nary a word do we hear about his unfitness for the office to which he aspires. Whatever happened to that sentiment I heard from my (female, as it happened) Dentist, as she prepared to drill my un-anesthetized teeth: “Big Boys Don’t Cry”? Were the Four Seasons right after all? Is it only Big Girls Who Don’t Cry?

Perhaps I’m revealing my age. Yes Virginia, I remember a time when it was considered “unmanly” to cry. In that long ago time, a woman was permitted, within reason, to shed a few tears no questions asked. Now, it seems, the rules are reversed. Imagine, if you will, what we would have heard had Nancy Pelosi ever shed a single tear in response to the vicious assaults against her, not to mention what would have been said had she broken down like Boehner did.

But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe this has nothing to do with gender. Maybe this is simply one more facet of a rule of political life that seems to have become cast into concrete: IOKIYAR.


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Fighting back in Great Britain

Monday, December 13, 2010

Last week I had jury duty. While we were in the “jury assembly room” we were, of course, subjected to the inevitable television, which appears to be the chief method used in this country to tranquilize people in waiting rooms. I suppose I should be thankful that we were spared the almost inevitable Fox channel. Instead of that hyper-irritant, they inflicted CNN on us.

CNN was reporting on the British student protests, and the court employee (a recent student himself judging by his age) who inflicted the television on us made a remark to the effect that they had nothing to complain about since our state universities, nowadays, typically charge four times what the British will be asked to pay.

I kept my mouth shut of course, but in my own humble opinion, the question is not why the British students are protesting, but why American students have been so quiescent while their right to acquire an education without acquiring massive debt has been slowly eroded. These mounting fees are just one more brick in the wall that is steadily being erected between the 2% who are about to secure their tax cut, and the rest of us, who are about to pay for that tax cut.

It’s time, it seems to me, for our kids to join this 15 year old Britisher (who has a future as a politician; let us hope he stays on our side). Our generation is screwing them big time, and it really seems like they should start fighting back.



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