I'll be there; come on down and have some fun with us.
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Saturday, February 04, 2012
Flagler Fest
Today is the 11th annual Flagler Fest in downtown Miami.
I'll be there; come on down and have some fun with us.
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I'll be there; come on down and have some fun with us.
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Stop That Noise!
Good Jobs
The January unemployment report is, according to Ezra Klein, all good.
Not to worry, Roger; the Republicans in Congress will find some way to sabotage the recovery just so they can run on it.
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The headline numbers are great, of course: payrolls are up by 243,000 jobs. Unemployment is down to 8.3 percent. But the inside numbers are good, too.Further evidence that the GOP is flat-out lying when they claim that President Obama has made the economy worse. Or, as Roger Ebert tweeted: "Stock market up, jobless rate falls again, most troops home, bin Laden dead. Over to you, GOP."
Let’s start with where the jobs were created. Professional and business services added 70,000 positions. Manufacturing added 50,000. Leisure and hospitality was up by 44,000. Health care was up by 33,000. For comparison, in the December jobs report, more than 40,000 of the 200,000 new jobs were “messengers and couriers,” which seemed likely to be seasonal hiring. Not so this month.
Revisions are positive, too. November goes from 100,000 new jobs to 157,000 new jobs. December goes from 200,000 new jobs to 203,000 new jobs. So the real number for the just-released jobs report is 303,000 jobs: that’s how many we added in January, plus what we just added to the numbers from November and December. Nicely done, economy.
Not to worry, Roger; the Republicans in Congress will find some way to sabotage the recovery just so they can run on it.
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Charity Choice -- Ctd.
The Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation announced yesterday that they were reversing their earlier decision to exclude Planned Parenthood from their grant recipient pool. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to be funding them, either.
I have to say that there has always been something a little off-putting about the Komen foundation. I can't put my finger on it, but they've always been far more visible in their self-promotion -- and some weird ones at that -- than they have been about actually finding a cure for breast cancer. That's not to say they're not trying, but all I see are the pink ribbon promotions and very little news about the research they're funding.
The foundation has done a lot of damage to their public image this week; first by pissing off the progressives by dissing Planned Parenthood for political reasons, and now the other side by seeming to cave to pressure. And none of it has advanced the cause of curing or treating breast cancer.
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As some were quick to point out, the statement put out by Komen doesn’t really clarify whether Planned Parenthood will actually continue to get money from the group. The original rationale for barring Planned Parenthood was that it was under investigation (a witch-hunt probe undertaken by GOP Rep Cliff Stearns). Komen said today that the group would “amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political.”All that means is that Planned Parenthood is eligible to apply for the grants, not that they'll get them. So it's not exactly a concession, and Komen can still turn them down.
I have to say that there has always been something a little off-putting about the Komen foundation. I can't put my finger on it, but they've always been far more visible in their self-promotion -- and some weird ones at that -- than they have been about actually finding a cure for breast cancer. That's not to say they're not trying, but all I see are the pink ribbon promotions and very little news about the research they're funding.
The foundation has done a lot of damage to their public image this week; first by pissing off the progressives by dissing Planned Parenthood for political reasons, and now the other side by seeming to cave to pressure. And none of it has advanced the cause of curing or treating breast cancer.
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Short Takes
They're marching in Moscow.
The UN reports that civilian deaths in the Afghan war have hit a record high.
Israel rattles its sabre at Iran.
An explosion at a California Marine base has killed one person and injured several others.
Yip yah, it's caucus day in Nevada.
Stocks rally after the news on the unemployment rate falling in January.
The Florida House approved the new district maps and braces for a court challenge.
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The UN reports that civilian deaths in the Afghan war have hit a record high.
Israel rattles its sabre at Iran.
An explosion at a California Marine base has killed one person and injured several others.
Yip yah, it's caucus day in Nevada.
Stocks rally after the news on the unemployment rate falling in January.
The Florida House approved the new district maps and braces for a court challenge.
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Friday, February 03, 2012
Quote of the Day
White House press secretary Jay Carney when asked about Donald Trump's endorsement of Mitt Romney:
HT to Ed Kilgore.
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I'm not going to comb over that question![rimshot] Thanks, folks, he'll be here all week.
HT to Ed Kilgore.
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One Picture:Thousand Words
Last weekend I went to a reunion at the University of Miami's Ring Theatre for those of us that were there between 1970 and 1983. I saw friends I hadn't seen since 1974 and a lot of great memories, laughter and even a few tears were shared.
We all met up at the theatre on campus and at one point each of us stood up and told our names, our year of graduation, and a quick note about what we're doing now. So when it was my turn, I stood up, said my name and my year (1974), said I was still writing, and sat down. That's all I did; I swear. But the photographer caught me at a moment when it looked like I was declaiming... and I immediately thought of a quote from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice:
"I am Sir Oracle, and when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!"
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We all met up at the theatre on campus and at one point each of us stood up and told our names, our year of graduation, and a quick note about what we're doing now. So when it was my turn, I stood up, said my name and my year (1974), said I was still writing, and sat down. That's all I did; I swear. But the photographer caught me at a moment when it looked like I was declaiming... and I immediately thought of a quote from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice:
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The Best Argument for Single Payer
The recent flap from the Catholics over paying for contraception in the new healthcare bill got my brother thinking about paying for healthcare overall. He shared his thoughts with me, and with his permission, I'll share them with you.
But that doesn't mean that the two cannot co-exist. We already have a good model of single-payer healthcare up and running, and it has been for nearly fifty years: Medicare. Despite its size and despite the flaws that have been found -- no system with that much money floating around is going to be without thievery -- it has a lower administrative cost and higher efficiency return than many for-profit insurance plans. The Veterans Administration healthcare system too is a comparative model of efficiency. For large government bureaucracies, they do pretty well, and they deliver: just try and talk a senior citizen or veteran out of their medical care and see what happens. As the apocryphal Tea Party sign goes, "Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare!"
One solution would be to provide a Canadian style health insurance system: publicly funded but privately administered. Doctors are not government employees, and the system does not pay for everything -- coverage varies from province to province -- and private insurance to provide for services beyond the basics is available. It's essentially a version of U.S. Medicare but without an age limit. That could be the foundation of the healthcare system, providing services to all citizens regardless of income or employment. For those who want more and can afford it, private health insurance would be available, much like the Medicare supplement, but the bottom line would be that no one in this country would be denied medical treatment because of their inability to pay or a lack of employment.
Centuries ago this nation decided that education was so essential to the growth and well-being of the population that we made it mandatory and free. I would be the first to admit that public education has its flaws and problems, and I could write any number of posts about what's right and what's wrong with it. But the idea of we the people providing for the general welfare of the country through something as basic as keeping people alive and healthy is just as essential as education, if not more so.
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I've struggled for a long time to understand why we make health care the responsibility of the employer. I understand historically that this grew out of the original labor strife that caused the rise of the unions, and got some employers to offer it as an incentive. From there it grew to an essentially universal perk, and begat the incredibly powerful insurance industry that is lobbying hard to keep it that way. I get that.Let me throw in a couple of thoughts. I think we can all agree that the United States will never have a sole single-payer healthcare insurance system. Not only would it face the opposition that we saw in 2009 and 2010 when "Obamacare" was being debated and there were screams about "socialism!" and "death panels" (despite the fact that the bill that was passed doesn't get anywhere near the single-payer model), it would require an entire re-wiring of the system if we were to start from the ground up. Besides, as long as there is a profit motive in healthcare, it will never change more than it already has. Capitalism always wins.
But this system creates a host of problems:
• people without a job have limited access to health care
• employers are forced to care about the health issues/habits of people whose only relation to them is their employment
• people make job choices based on the health care plan, not on the merits of the job or their career aspirations
• companies in financial difficulty through no fault of the employee create health and/or financial concerns for their employees
• pension plans are burdened with health care for an aging population that many simply can't meet.
And so on. These alone make, for me, a powerful argument for a single-payer system. But alas that's not enough for some conservatives.
Then today, I heard about the Catholic Bishops chafing against certain health care rules on NPR. The rules require employers to provide a health plan that includes family planning assistance, with birth control. Of course these rules don't require the church to do that for church employees, as that is a self-contained enterprise. But they do require it of their hospitals or other services that serve the public.
I understand both sides of this issue. Why should the church be forced to pay for services they find morally reprehensible? And yet why should employees be forced to agree with all their employer's philosophical positions? Do we want employers having a moral litmus test for each employee? Clearly not. And still there is clearly some minimum standard of health care we as a society should encourage, provide, even enforce, especially when it comes to issues as vital as this.
None of this would be an issue if the employer wasn't involved in the health care system. If we had a federal single-payer system, the hospital would be free to offer (and not offer) the services they choose. They could hire the best people to provide those services without regard to their personal morality or health needs. And employees could be insured a consistent high level of care regardless of where they work.
Simple, isn't it?
- CLW
But that doesn't mean that the two cannot co-exist. We already have a good model of single-payer healthcare up and running, and it has been for nearly fifty years: Medicare. Despite its size and despite the flaws that have been found -- no system with that much money floating around is going to be without thievery -- it has a lower administrative cost and higher efficiency return than many for-profit insurance plans. The Veterans Administration healthcare system too is a comparative model of efficiency. For large government bureaucracies, they do pretty well, and they deliver: just try and talk a senior citizen or veteran out of their medical care and see what happens. As the apocryphal Tea Party sign goes, "Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare!"
One solution would be to provide a Canadian style health insurance system: publicly funded but privately administered. Doctors are not government employees, and the system does not pay for everything -- coverage varies from province to province -- and private insurance to provide for services beyond the basics is available. It's essentially a version of U.S. Medicare but without an age limit. That could be the foundation of the healthcare system, providing services to all citizens regardless of income or employment. For those who want more and can afford it, private health insurance would be available, much like the Medicare supplement, but the bottom line would be that no one in this country would be denied medical treatment because of their inability to pay or a lack of employment.
Centuries ago this nation decided that education was so essential to the growth and well-being of the population that we made it mandatory and free. I would be the first to admit that public education has its flaws and problems, and I could write any number of posts about what's right and what's wrong with it. But the idea of we the people providing for the general welfare of the country through something as basic as keeping people alive and healthy is just as essential as education, if not more so.
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Short Takes
America's role in Afghanistan is winding down.
It's still very cold in Europe.
Backlash is building against Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
The Senate approved a ban on insider trading by members of Congress.
Mortgage rates hit a 30-year low.
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It's still very cold in Europe.
Backlash is building against Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
The Senate approved a ban on insider trading by members of Congress.
Mortgage rates hit a 30-year low.
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Thursday, February 02, 2012
Welcome New Readers
My post on David Brooks's screed the other day got picked up and quoted by Tim Mak at Politico. He even used it as the closing quote of the post. Very nice.
Next thing you know, my readership will go through the roof, I'll get noticed by the big bloggers, maybe even The Maddow Blog, and then I'll get invited to be a pundit on some cable show and maybe even go on MSNBC and see if Phil Griffin remembers me from high school. Then I'll be famous and I'll make tons of money and I can quit my job and do nothing but blog all day from my patio.
Or not.
If this is your first time stopping by, welcome.
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Next thing you know, my readership will go through the roof, I'll get noticed by the big bloggers, maybe even The Maddow Blog, and then I'll get invited to be a pundit on some cable show and maybe even go on MSNBC and see if Phil Griffin remembers me from high school. Then I'll be famous and I'll make tons of money and I can quit my job and do nothing but blog all day from my patio.
Or not.
If this is your first time stopping by, welcome.
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Washington State Senate Says Yes
Way to go, Evergreen State!
The Washington state Senate, in an historic action, voted 28 to 21 on Wednesday night to legalize marriage between same-sex partners.
"We ask for your support tonight because marriage is the way society says you are family," said state Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, chief sponsor of the legislation and a gay man in a two-decade partnership.
Regardless of how his colleagues voted, Murray added, they will receive a wedding invite from him. A practicing Catholic, Murray has said he is pained that he will not be able to marry in his church.
The House of Representatives is expected to approve the legislation within a week. Gov. Chris Gregoire, who watched Wednesday night's debate, has become a passionate advocate of marriage equality at the end of what she described as a "personal journey."
The bill passed with support from 24 Democrats and four Republicans. Eighteen Republicans and a trio of Democrats -- State Sens. Jim Hargrove, Tim Sheldon and Paull Shinn -- voted no.Happy dance, happy dance.
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"We ask for your support tonight because marriage is the way society says you are family," said state Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, chief sponsor of the legislation and a gay man in a two-decade partnership.
Regardless of how his colleagues voted, Murray added, they will receive a wedding invite from him. A practicing Catholic, Murray has said he is pained that he will not be able to marry in his church.
The House of Representatives is expected to approve the legislation within a week. Gov. Chris Gregoire, who watched Wednesday night's debate, has become a passionate advocate of marriage equality at the end of what she described as a "personal journey."
The bill passed with support from 24 Democrats and four Republicans. Eighteen Republicans and a trio of Democrats -- State Sens. Jim Hargrove, Tim Sheldon and Paull Shinn -- voted no.Happy dance, happy dance.
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Poor Mitt -- Ctd
By now everyone's seen the clip of Mitt Romney saying that he's not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net, nor is he concerned about the very rich because, well, whatever, we're cool. He just cares about the rest of us Americans.
A lot of people are calling this a gaffe, and the right wing is throwing up its collective hands because, once again, Mr. Romney has handed out a sound bite like "I like firing people." And even if you give him the benefit of the doubt and accept that he's saying he cares about the vast middle class, it still comes across as if he's just done an inventory of the bakery and there is plenty of cake to go around.
The message isn't the problem. We get it: he cares. The problem is that he can't articulate it very well, which tells me that he really doesn't get it. And when you don't get it, chances are you don't really mean it. If you did, you'd know it by heart and wouldn't have to twist yourself into a pretzel to explain it.
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A lot of people are calling this a gaffe, and the right wing is throwing up its collective hands because, once again, Mr. Romney has handed out a sound bite like "I like firing people." And even if you give him the benefit of the doubt and accept that he's saying he cares about the vast middle class, it still comes across as if he's just done an inventory of the bakery and there is plenty of cake to go around.
The message isn't the problem. We get it: he cares. The problem is that he can't articulate it very well, which tells me that he really doesn't get it. And when you don't get it, chances are you don't really mean it. If you did, you'd know it by heart and wouldn't have to twist yourself into a pretzel to explain it.
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Groundhog Day
Whether or not the large rodent sees its shadow, we're still going to have six more weeks of winter. Here in South Florida that means cool evenings, pleasant days, and not a lot of rain. Bring it on.
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Short Takes
Egypt -- A riot at a soccer match left over 70 dead.
It may be warm in the Midwest, but it's deadly cold in Europe.
Facebook's IPO seeks to raise $5 billion.
President Obama asks Congress to give aid to homeowners in trouble.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) signed the state's right-to-work law.
American Airlines is set to lay off up to 13,000.
South Florida gambling is not a sure bet.
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It may be warm in the Midwest, but it's deadly cold in Europe.
Facebook's IPO seeks to raise $5 billion.
President Obama asks Congress to give aid to homeowners in trouble.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) signed the state's right-to-work law.
American Airlines is set to lay off up to 13,000.
South Florida gambling is not a sure bet.
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Wednesday, February 01, 2012
On This Date
February 1, 1989: Twenty-three years ago today, Sam was born somewhere in Oklahoma.
Sam
February 1, 1989 - July 20, 2002
We didn't actually know his real birthdate, but he was about ten weeks old when Allen and I got him in April, so we just made February 1 his birthday. He was a true friend.
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February 1, 1989 - July 20, 2002
We didn't actually know his real birthdate, but he was about ten weeks old when Allen and I got him in April, so we just made February 1 his birthday. He was a true friend.
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Can't Buy Me Love
Charlie Pierce on how Mitt Romney won the Florida primary:
Elections shouldn't be based on likability or the wanna-have-a-beer-with factor. That doesn't mean a whole lot when you're dealing with the Taliban or trying to keep the European debt crisis from tanking the American economy. (Besides, we had a recent president that everybody thought would be a riot at a kegger and look what happened. He trashed the place, puked on our shoes, and stuck us with the bill.) But if that is what it takes, Mr. Romney has a lot of work to do. He still has to convince the rest of the base of the GOP that he's their guy, and they already have made it clear that's a tough hill to climb. And in the general election, he's going to have to face off against a president that most people in the country find to be much more likable than he is, regardless of the policies, and that's after three years of non-stop demonizing and sewage from the very powerful instruments of the right wing and Fox News.
Elections have been getting more expensive with each passing year, and this one has already raised the level of funding to giddy heights. So far it has been the ones with the money who have won, but at some point it is going to get to where it doesn't matter: no amount of money is going to make people actually like Mitt Romney any more than they already do -- or don't.
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Romney won because he had the most money. And because he had the most money, enough of the Tea Party "base," which was supposed to hate him like gum disease, decided thusly: What the hell? The important thing is to get the Muslim Kenyan Usurper Negro out of the White House, so this is the horse we have to ride. There were something like 13,000 commercials aired in Florida over the past couple of weeks. Ninety-two percent of them were negative, the overwhelming number of which said negative things about N. Leroy Gingrich, Definer of Civilization's Rules and Leader (Perhaps) of the Civilizing Forces, on behalf of the man who told us on Tuesday night that we should follow him into the old America of hope and joy and not bumper stickers. That is how you win the Inevitability Primary. You buy Inevitability. It doesn't come cheaply.Besides a lot of money, the other thing that Mitt Romney has going for him is that he is running against thoroughly unlikeable opponents. Mr. Romney is no Mr. Personality, but the striking thing is how lucky he was to run against people like Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum, all of whom generated a hateful vibe, even for Republicans. It's hard to imagine carrying on a pleasant conversation with any of them, but at least with Mitt Romney, you know he's going to be able to pull off the cocktail party chatter until you're hammered enough not to care. I think one of the big factors in his win last night was that Florida Republicans saw Newt Gingrich bombasting on TV and thought Wow, do I want to watch that asshole for the next four years? Mitt Romney didn't need to outspend Newt Gingrich five to one: all he had to do was pay for his TV time and let him talk.
Elections shouldn't be based on likability or the wanna-have-a-beer-with factor. That doesn't mean a whole lot when you're dealing with the Taliban or trying to keep the European debt crisis from tanking the American economy. (Besides, we had a recent president that everybody thought would be a riot at a kegger and look what happened. He trashed the place, puked on our shoes, and stuck us with the bill.) But if that is what it takes, Mr. Romney has a lot of work to do. He still has to convince the rest of the base of the GOP that he's their guy, and they already have made it clear that's a tough hill to climb. And in the general election, he's going to have to face off against a president that most people in the country find to be much more likable than he is, regardless of the policies, and that's after three years of non-stop demonizing and sewage from the very powerful instruments of the right wing and Fox News.
Elections have been getting more expensive with each passing year, and this one has already raised the level of funding to giddy heights. So far it has been the ones with the money who have won, but at some point it is going to get to where it doesn't matter: no amount of money is going to make people actually like Mitt Romney any more than they already do -- or don't.
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Charity Choice
I was asked recently to donate to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation.
Sorry, but when a charity caves in to political pressure and virtually guarantees that more women will not get the health care they need, they're not getting a penny from me. I'm funny that way.
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Sorry, but when a charity caves in to political pressure and virtually guarantees that more women will not get the health care they need, they're not getting a penny from me. I'm funny that way.
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Moving Right Along
Rep. Allen West (R-FL) knows he probably can't win re-election in his current district now that his constituents know that he's batshit crazy, so he's going to find another district.
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It's tough getting elected as a Republican in the People's Republic of Broward County, one of the bluest stretches of Florida's political real estate. Still, US Rep. Allen West pulled it off in 2010, when he bested Rep. Ron Klein.As I noted previously, this is just his stepping stone to his show on Fox.
But now the Florida Senate's proposed map for Congressional seats indicate it could be even tougher for the tea-party favorite to win District 22. The proposed district is 4 percent more Democratic than it currently is.
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Short Takes
Russia is backing Syria against the rest of the UN.
The BBC is reporting on the links between the Taliban and Pakistan.
The Senate got the annual security report: al-Qaida is fading, but other threats are out there.
Florida primary results by county.
A lawyer representing the passengers of the Costa Concordia says they're suing for $460 million.
Facebook is scaling down its IPO.
It was the warmest January on record in parts of the Midwest.
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The BBC is reporting on the links between the Taliban and Pakistan.
The Senate got the annual security report: al-Qaida is fading, but other threats are out there.
Florida primary results by county.
A lawyer representing the passengers of the Costa Concordia says they're suing for $460 million.
Facebook is scaling down its IPO.
It was the warmest January on record in parts of the Midwest.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Romney Wins Florida
It's 8:00 p.m. ET and MSNBC is calling the Florida primary for Mitt Romney.
All the talking heads are saying how it was such an ugly race with all the negative ads and the vitriol between the Romney and Gingrich PAC's. Well, what were you expecting, a tea party? Oh, sorry, bad example.
But seriously, what else did you expect from them? The Republicans have been like this for years, and this year especially, going after President Obama, who represents everything they despise: an intelligent black man who laughs at them. It's driving them completely around the bend. How else can you explain a field of candidates that started out with the likes of Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Donald Trump and is now winnowed down to a pompous hypocrite with delusions of lunar dictatorship and a bobble-headed automaton whose only genuine quality is his phoniness?
Anyway, I'm glad that the circus is packing up and getting out of town. My next-door neighbor with the Santorum sign will be sorely disappointed. I almost feel like going over and telling him, "Cheer up; you'll find someone else you can channel your homophobia through soon enough. The Republicans never fail at that."
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All the talking heads are saying how it was such an ugly race with all the negative ads and the vitriol between the Romney and Gingrich PAC's. Well, what were you expecting, a tea party? Oh, sorry, bad example.
But seriously, what else did you expect from them? The Republicans have been like this for years, and this year especially, going after President Obama, who represents everything they despise: an intelligent black man who laughs at them. It's driving them completely around the bend. How else can you explain a field of candidates that started out with the likes of Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Donald Trump and is now winnowed down to a pompous hypocrite with delusions of lunar dictatorship and a bobble-headed automaton whose only genuine quality is his phoniness?
Anyway, I'm glad that the circus is packing up and getting out of town. My next-door neighbor with the Santorum sign will be sorely disappointed. I almost feel like going over and telling him, "Cheer up; you'll find someone else you can channel your homophobia through soon enough. The Republicans never fail at that."
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Is There A Draft In Here?
David Brooks goes for the Gross Generalization Cup, using Charles Murray's book Coming Apart as his guide:
Mr. Brooks has a suggestion:
If President Obama tried to bring back the draft, the conservatives would go nuts: Slavery! Indoctrination! Social engineering! Guys showering with other guys! Oh, the horror!
For that reason alone, and despite my history as a conscientious objector, I'm all in favor of it.
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The upper tribe is now segregated from the lower tribe. In 1963, rich people who lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan lived close to members of the middle class. Most adult Manhattanites who lived south of 96th Street back then hadn’t even completed high school. Today, almost all of Manhattan south of 96th Street is an upper-tribe enclave.He's describing the WASP's, regardless of the fact that in the last fifty years, there are a lot more non-white, non-Anglo, non-Protestants in those enclaves. But why let that ruin the Cultural Stereotypes Festival?
Today, Murray demonstrates, there is an archipelago of affluent enclaves clustered around the coastal cities, Chicago, Dallas and so on. If you’re born into one of them, you will probably go to college with people from one of the enclaves; you’ll marry someone from one of the enclaves; you’ll go off and live in one of the enclaves.
Mr. Brooks has a suggestion:
...we need a National Service Program. We need a program that would force members of the upper tribe and the lower tribe to live together, if only for a few years. We need a program in which people from both tribes work together to spread out the values, practices and institutions that lead to achievement.Guess what; we had that once. It was called the draft. It brought together the "tribes," and it seemed to work pretty well. (The only downside was that if that if there was a war, some of them ended up dead.)
If we could jam the tribes together, we’d have a better elite and a better mass.
If President Obama tried to bring back the draft, the conservatives would go nuts: Slavery! Indoctrination! Social engineering! Guys showering with other guys! Oh, the horror!
For that reason alone, and despite my history as a conscientious objector, I'm all in favor of it.
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Quote of the Day
Sarah Palin says:
So please, yes, Florida Republicans: vote for Newt today! Please please please.
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Annoy a liberal, vote for Newt!If by "annoy" she means make liberals break out in paroxysms of maniacal glee, then she's right. The idea that this guy is seen as a serious contender for the office of President of the United States is hilarious on a scale that makes Mel Brooks jealous.
So please, yes, Florida Republicans: vote for Newt today! Please please please.
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Goose and Gander
This is a great idea.
HT to David Atkins.
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To protest a bill that would require women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion, Virginia State Sen. Janet Howell (D-Fairfax) on Monday attached an amendment that would require men to have a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test before obtaining a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication.Heh, indeedy.
"We need some gender equity here," she told HuffPost. "The Virginia senate is about to pass a bill that will require a woman to have totally unnecessary medical procedure at their cost and inconvenience. If we're going to do that to women, why not do that to men?"
HT to David Atkins.
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Miss Piggy vs. Fox News
Charlie Pierce has the details.
(This is posted for my dad, who loves the Muppets.)
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Eric Bolling, who hosts something called Follow The Money on the Fox Business Channel, accused The Muppet Movie of undermining capitalism. (Out there in this great land of ours, there are people who marinate in this swill for several hours every day.) After a decent interval, the Muppets have now taken Bolling's arguments apart at their own press conference, proving, among other things, that Mr. Murdoch's media empire has given a television show to someone who can't win a debate against two piles of felt:
(This is posted for my dad, who loves the Muppets.)
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That's Rich
Via the AP:
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Just how rich is Mitt Romney? Add up the wealth of the last eight presidents, from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. Then double that number. Now you're in Romney territory.It really doesn't matter to me how rich someone is. The true test of character is what they do with their fortune once they've got it.
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When Pandering Hits 11
Mitt Romney tells Fox & Friends he wishes he could claim to be Hispanic.
Oddly enough, the folks at Fox seem to find Mr. Romney's father's place of birth to be perfectly acceptable, whereas Barack Obama's father being born in Kenya disqualifies him from public office. So where are the birthers claiming that Mitt Romney isn't a citizen?
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Host Steve Doocy highlighted the fact that Gov. Romney hasn’t exactly bragged about his Mexican roots before. “The other night when I saw you at one of the debates in Florida,” Doocy said, “you mentioned for the first time in my memory, where you were talking about that anti-immigrant allegation by Newt Gingrich. You were talking about how your father was born in Mexico. It’s the first time I’d heard you say that. Is that helping you with the Latino community in Florida?”Let's see what he says when he gets to a state with a large Mexican population. I've heard him speak Spanish -- ejole -- and I can't wait for him to greet the crowd with a rousing iAl rato, vato! That should be fun.
Romney replied “You know, I wish I could claim that I’m Hispanic…”
That’s a bit of a weird thing to say, but let’s hear him out. Does he admire the rich cultural heritage, the strong current of faith, the diverse culinary tradition? Romney continued “…and it would help me with the Latino community here in Florida and around the country, but my dad was born of American parents living in Mexico.”
Oh, right, he didn’t say he wished he was Hispanic, just that he wishes he could claim it.
Oddly enough, the folks at Fox seem to find Mr. Romney's father's place of birth to be perfectly acceptable, whereas Barack Obama's father being born in Kenya disqualifies him from public office. So where are the birthers claiming that Mitt Romney isn't a citizen?
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Bad Blood
Chris Matthews thinks that Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney will not kiss and make up when the primaries are over.
There doesn't seem to be anything in Mr. Gingrich's outward personality that indicates he won't carry a grudge for a long time if he loses... or if he wins. Publicly at least he's shown that he bears personal slights like a big wound, and he's not given to reticence about expressing them. He talks in maximum terms; everything is "fundamental" or "the most important;" there's no middle ground with him, and he's shown that he can be a sore loser, and an even worse winner.
With the polls indicating that Mr. Gingrich will lose here today in Florida, he's vowed to carry on to the convention, and when I say "carry on," I mean it in all ways: at some point he's going to get to the dramatic event horizon and transmorgrify into this primal Hulk-like candidate, storming through the land, smashing and laying waste to state primaries like Godzilla going through Tokyo.
I can't wait until it comes out on Blu-Ray.
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There doesn't seem to be anything in Mr. Gingrich's outward personality that indicates he won't carry a grudge for a long time if he loses... or if he wins. Publicly at least he's shown that he bears personal slights like a big wound, and he's not given to reticence about expressing them. He talks in maximum terms; everything is "fundamental" or "the most important;" there's no middle ground with him, and he's shown that he can be a sore loser, and an even worse winner.
With the polls indicating that Mr. Gingrich will lose here today in Florida, he's vowed to carry on to the convention, and when I say "carry on," I mean it in all ways: at some point he's going to get to the dramatic event horizon and transmorgrify into this primal Hulk-like candidate, storming through the land, smashing and laying waste to state primaries like Godzilla going through Tokyo.
I can't wait until it comes out on Blu-Ray.
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Short Takes
The Euro-- Leaders agree to new discipline measures.
Afghan leaders consider talks with the Taliban.
The U.S. embassy in Cairo is shielding three Americans.
Polls show Romney ahead in Florida.
Experts warn about lack of preparation in case of an oil spill off Cuba.
Facebook's IPO could be huge. Or not.
Pythons are wiping out mammals in the Everglades.
It's really, really cold in Alaska.
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Afghan leaders consider talks with the Taliban.
The U.S. embassy in Cairo is shielding three Americans.
Polls show Romney ahead in Florida.
Experts warn about lack of preparation in case of an oil spill off Cuba.
Facebook's IPO could be huge. Or not.
Pythons are wiping out mammals in the Everglades.
It's really, really cold in Alaska.
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Pop Quiz
Is it more important to amend the Constitution to A) prevent two people of the same sex from getting married and enjoying the same rights and responsibilities as two people of the opposite sex, or B) to prevent the enshrinement of granting personhood to corporations and thereby giving them unlimited purchasing power in an election?
If you answered "A", then you're probably heavily invested in sweater vests.
If President Obama wins re-election because the GOP was buried in a landslide of Super PAC spending that kept Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney fighting through the convention, expect a number of Republicans to switch from "A" to "B".
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If you answered "A", then you're probably heavily invested in sweater vests.
If President Obama wins re-election because the GOP was buried in a landslide of Super PAC spending that kept Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney fighting through the convention, expect a number of Republicans to switch from "A" to "B".
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Quote of the Day
Grover Norquist on what will happen if the Bush tax cuts expire:
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Obama can sit there and let all the tax [cuts] lapse, and then the Republicans will have enough votes in the Senate in 2014 to impeach.There's nothing so pathetic as the yawp of someone who's fifteen minutes of fame was twenty minutes ago. The fact that he's considered a "major figure" in Washington tells you more about the state of things at the Kool Kidz table than anything else.
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Florida Primary Notes
Tomorrow is the big day for the GOP here in Florida. Some notes from the campaign trail:
-- Former Gov. Jeb Bush is staying on the sidelines, which tells you everything and nothing. He's either disgusted by the candidates, or he's playing it safe so that he can be on the winning side when the dust settles and the blood pools.
-- Unable to get Jeb's endorsement, Mitt Romney was happy to get the backing of Jon Voight. This insures that he'll do well with the devotees of washed-out movie stars from the 1970's. (Anybody heard who Robby Benson is backing?)
-- Newt Gingrich is planning to go all the way to the convention, describing Mitt Romney as "pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax-increase moderate from Massachusetts." Really? If that's true, I might vote for him. On Saturday, Mr. Gingrich showed up at the central Florida retirement community called The Villages, which is basically a theme park based on the 1960's TV series The Prisoner. There he claimed to be the "legitimate heir of the Reagan movement."
-- According to TPM's poll tracker, Mitt Romney has a 10-point lead as of yesterday.
-- Rick Santorum went home to tend to his sick child, who was hospitalized with pneumonia.
-- NBC's Tom Brokaw is "extremely uncomfortable" with the Romney campaign's use of footage from the Nightly News broadcast that told of Newt Gingrich's ethics problems when he was the House Speaker in 1997. That didn't stop the ads from running incessantly on cable TV.
-- Money talks: The Romney campaign and its PAC's are outspending the Gingrich campaign five to one. A couple of more months of this and Florida's debt crisis would be over. Of course, we'd all be driven to bedlam by then, but hey, who's to say we're not there already?
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-- Former Gov. Jeb Bush is staying on the sidelines, which tells you everything and nothing. He's either disgusted by the candidates, or he's playing it safe so that he can be on the winning side when the dust settles and the blood pools.
-- Unable to get Jeb's endorsement, Mitt Romney was happy to get the backing of Jon Voight. This insures that he'll do well with the devotees of washed-out movie stars from the 1970's. (Anybody heard who Robby Benson is backing?)
-- Newt Gingrich is planning to go all the way to the convention, describing Mitt Romney as "pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, pro-tax-increase moderate from Massachusetts." Really? If that's true, I might vote for him. On Saturday, Mr. Gingrich showed up at the central Florida retirement community called The Villages, which is basically a theme park based on the 1960's TV series The Prisoner. There he claimed to be the "legitimate heir of the Reagan movement."
-- According to TPM's poll tracker, Mitt Romney has a 10-point lead as of yesterday.
-- Rick Santorum went home to tend to his sick child, who was hospitalized with pneumonia.
-- NBC's Tom Brokaw is "extremely uncomfortable" with the Romney campaign's use of footage from the Nightly News broadcast that told of Newt Gingrich's ethics problems when he was the House Speaker in 1997. That didn't stop the ads from running incessantly on cable TV.
-- Money talks: The Romney campaign and its PAC's are outspending the Gingrich campaign five to one. A couple of more months of this and Florida's debt crisis would be over. Of course, we'd all be driven to bedlam by then, but hey, who's to say we're not there already?
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Allen West's Audition for Fox News
For those of you who just can't get enough of the comic stylings of Rep. Allen West, (R-FL), check out this laugh riot where he tells liberals to get out of the U.S.
Chances are that when Florida's redistricting plan is finalized, Mr. West's district will either shrink or change dramatically so that he's on the way out of a job. But even if it doesn't, he's still considered a fluke and a flake by a lot of voters in Broward County.
If he does lose, he'll likely land his own show on Fox. Things have been a little too quiet since Glenn Beck was let go.
HT to Betty Cracker.
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Chances are that when Florida's redistricting plan is finalized, Mr. West's district will either shrink or change dramatically so that he's on the way out of a job. But even if it doesn't, he's still considered a fluke and a flake by a lot of voters in Broward County.
If he does lose, he'll likely land his own show on Fox. Things have been a little too quiet since Glenn Beck was let go.
HT to Betty Cracker.
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Short Takes
Droning On -- The U.S. is using the unmanned aircraft to protect property and personnel in Iraq.
Syria -- The government forces are hunting the rebels in the suburbs.
Mitt Romney is opening up a lead in polling in Florida.
At least 10 people were killed in a multi-car pile-up on I-75 in northern Florida on Sunday.
Party On -- Raul Castro defends the one-party system in Cuba.
Here are the results from the SAG awards.
The AFC beat the NFC in the Pro Bowl.
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Syria -- The government forces are hunting the rebels in the suburbs.
Mitt Romney is opening up a lead in polling in Florida.
At least 10 people were killed in a multi-car pile-up on I-75 in northern Florida on Sunday.
Party On -- Raul Castro defends the one-party system in Cuba.
Here are the results from the SAG awards.
The AFC beat the NFC in the Pro Bowl.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday Reading
Between the Extremes -- Ryan Lizza examines how Washington has changed Barack Obama.
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In 2006, Obama published a mild polemic, “The Audacity of Hope,” which became a blueprint for his 2008 Presidential campaign. He described politics as a system seized by two extremes. “Depending on your tastes, our condition is the natural result of radical conservatism or perverse liberalism,” he wrote. “Tom DeLay or Nancy Pelosi, big oil or greedy trial lawyers, religious zealots or gay activists, Fox News or the New York Times.” He repeated the theme later, while describing the fights between Bill Clinton and the Newt Gingrich-led House, in the nineteen-nineties: “In the back-and-forth between Clinton and Gingrich, and in the elections of 2000 and 2004, I sometimes felt as if I were watching the psychodrama of the Baby Boom generation—a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago—played out on the national stage.” Washington, as he saw it, was self-defeatingly partisan. He believed that “any attempt by Democrats to pursue a more sharply partisan and ideological strategy misapprehends the moment we’re in.”Public vs. Private -- Michael Kinsley discusses the boundaries between a politician's public and private life.
If there was a single unifying argument that defined Obamaism from his earliest days in politics to his Presidential campaign, it was the idea of post-partisanship. He was proposing himself as a transformative figure, the man who would spring the lock. In an essay published in The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan, a self-proclaimed conservative, reflected on Obama’s heady appeal: “Unlike any of the other candidates, he could take America—finally—past the debilitating, self-perpetuating family quarrel of the Baby Boom generation that has long engulfed all of us.”
Obama was not exaggerating the toxic battle that has poisoned the culture of Washington. In the past four decades, the two political parties have become more internally homogeneous and ideologically distant. In “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama wrote longingly about American politics in the mid-twentieth century, when both parties had liberal and conservative wings that allowed centrist coalitions to form. Today, almost all liberals are Democrats and almost all conservatives are Republicans. In Washington, the center has virtually vanished. According to the political scientists Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal, who have devised a widely used system to measure the ideology of members of Congress, when Obama took office there was no ideological overlap between the two parties. In the House, the most conservative Democrat, Bobby Bright, of Alabama, was farther to the left than the most liberal Republican, Joseph Cao, of Louisiana. The same was true in the Senate, where the most conservative Democrat, Ben Nelson, of Nebraska, was farther to the left than the most liberal Republican, Olympia Snowe, of Maine. According to Poole and Rosenthal’s data, both the House and the Senate are more polarized today than at any time since the eighteen-nineties.
It would be hard for any President to reverse this decades-long political trend, which began when segregationist Democrats in the South—Dixiecrats like Strom Thurmond—left the Party and became Republicans. Congress is polarized largely because Americans live in communities of like-minded people who elect more ideological representatives. Obama’s rhetoric about a nation of common purpose and values no longer fits this country: there really is a red America and a blue America.
So what’s the standard today? And what should it be? The Internet virtually guarantees that any gamey information about a politician will probably come out. It has accelerated the so- called race to the bottom: Even if a news outlet makes a decision to suppress some information, less scrupulous competitors make that impossible. (The Washington Post once declared in an editorial that, while it didn’t report news based on rumors, sometimes the existence of a rumor, true or not, was itself news. This got the Post in tremendous trouble, but it’s actually quite true.)The Mousetrap keeps on going... Ben Brantley checks in on the longest-running play in modern history.
What has changed since 1980 is my basic premise: that many voters — enough to matter — would find information about a politician’s private (i.e., sex) life politically relevant. Many, probably most, don’t. It turns out that the real sophisticates here are the voters. It’s the journalists who are prudes. I’m not saying this is a good thing. But it does change the equation.
When even evangelical Christians are willing to overlook a politician’s three marriages spiced with open adultery as long as he’s good on school prayer, we clearly have moved to a new point in this ongoing discussion.
LONDON — It was a dark and stormy afternoon when I ventured into the old building with the twisting staircases, on one of those London side streets that always seems to be in different places when you look for them. Oh, I knew what I was in for: screams, gunshots, a whistling psychopath, fraught minutes in the dark and rigid postures of fear. But I hadn’t come to St. Martin’s Theater to be frightened or even stimulated. I was there for comfort.Doonesbury -- WWND.
Well, that and the chance to pay my respects to a woman who had given me bountiful comfort since my childhood: Agatha Christie, whose play “The Mousetrap” was just about to begin its 24,655th performance. Hundreds of thousands before me, starting before I was born, had followed this same path, making a cheerful pilgrimage to a mecca of sanitary murder.
The house was hardly full on this Tuesday afternoon. But there were 90 or so schoolchildren in attendance, many of whom I was told were seeing their first play. I heard several foreign languages (including American, of course) being spoken by the adults seated near me. More than at any point in my career as a theater critic, going to a play felt like being part of a field trip to a historic site.
“The Mousetrap” was something I had never sought out in the past. I knew it was there – the longest-running play in modern history (it opened in 1952) – in the way that I knew Big Ben and the Tower of London were there. But now that the show was coming up on its diamond anniversary – as is, may I remind you, the reign of a certain pigeon-shaped monarch – I felt it was time to make a courtesy call, and see how the old girl was holding up.
I mean the play, not the queen, though parallels between the two are encouraged by the management. The program includes a large picture of a be-gowned and be-pearled Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh standing on the grand but shabby country-house set of “The Mousetrap” on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 2002. And many of the values that “The Mousetrap” would seem to embody are not unlike those associated with the Queen herself: perseverance, stately coziness and equanimity in the face of disaster.
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Short Takes
A UN nuclear inspection team is in Iran.
The Arab League is pulling its monitoring team out of Syria under threats of violence.
Greek debt talks are on the verge of a deal.
Hundreds of Occupiers were arrested in Oakland.
Nail:Coffin -- Herman Cain endorses Newt Gingrich.
Mitt Romney holds his lead in polling in Florida.
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The Arab League is pulling its monitoring team out of Syria under threats of violence.
Greek debt talks are on the verge of a deal.
Hundreds of Occupiers were arrested in Oakland.
Nail:Coffin -- Herman Cain endorses Newt Gingrich.
Mitt Romney holds his lead in polling in Florida.
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