Fetch more...
Sunday, July 31, 2011
A Little Night Music
Ten years ago tonight, about the only thing I had in common with this video is that I was driving east across the Southwest in a Pontiac with a dog. But you get the idea.
Fetch more...
Fetch more...
Stop That Noise!
Ten Years in Miami
Ten years later, I still have the Pontiac and the plants. Sam is gone, and the computer -- a Gateway PC -- has been replaced three-fold. I don't have the same job I did when I came to Miami, and I'm living in my third residence. I have made a lot of new friends, renewed some old ones, and maintained contact with the people I left behind in Albuquerque who still mean as much to me now as they did then.
Ten years is the longest I've lived in one city since I graduated from high school. My current job is the longest I've worked in one place at basically the same job; it will be nine years in October. For someone who is staring down the barrel of his 59th birthday in six weeks, that probably makes me sound like a flake; I know people who are my age who have worked at the same place since they graduated from college and I'm being invited to their retirement party hosted by their grandchildren. But I wouldn't trade my life experiences for anything. Yeah, there are some things I could have done better, and I have a few regrets, including my failed relationship with Allen. But even there, we had fifteen good years and wonderful memories -- and a lot of growing up for both of us -- that can't be discarded because we're apart. Although I'm not doing exactly what I planned to do with all those years of studying theatre, I am very proud of the work I do, and I feel like I'm making a genuine contribution to the education of the 340,000 students of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. I owe a lot of that to the experience I gained working in Albuquerque and Michigan. As for the theatre, moving to Miami gave me the inspiration to write the play that gave me my first New York production in 2008. So all in all, life is in balance.
In a way, it's hard to believe it's been a decade that I've been back in Miami. In a lot of ways I still feel like a newcomer. I still have a strong connection with New Mexico, including being the defender of New Mexico Spanglish among a lot of other different accents and dialects. I still miss the glory of the mountains and the spectacular New Mexico sunsets, and I still have yet to find a place in South Florida that does huevos rancheros the right way. But I'm glad to be here and able to look back at all the amazing blessings that have come my way.
Fetch more...
Sunday Reading
Holy Wars -- The latest boogedy-boogedy about Others is being orchestrated by a lawyer in Brooklyn.
More below the fold.
Leonard Pitts, Jr. on losing the War on Drugs.
Doonesbury -- A message to parents.
Fetch more...
A confluence of factors has fueled the anti-Shariah movement, most notably the controversy over the proposed Islamic center near ground zero in New York, concerns about homegrown terrorism and the rise of the Tea Party. But the campaign’s air of grass-roots spontaneity, which has been carefully promoted by advocates, shrouds its more deliberate origins.Isn't it ironic that a Hasidic Jewish lawyer, in concert with evangelical Christians, would be whooping up a holy war against Muslims? Cue the music: "What a day, what a day for an auto da fe..."
In fact, it is the product of an orchestrated drive that began five years ago in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in the office of a little-known lawyer, David Yerushalmi, a 56-year-old Hasidic Jew with a history of controversial statements about race, immigration and Islam. Despite his lack of formal training in Islamic law, Mr. Yerushalmi has come to exercise a striking influence over American public discourse about Shariah.
Working with a cadre of conservative public-policy institutes and former military and intelligence officials, Mr. Yerushalmi has written privately financed reports, filed lawsuits against the government and drafted the model legislation that recently swept through the country — all with the effect of casting Shariah as one of the greatest threats to American freedom since the cold war.
The message has caught on. Among those now echoing Mr. Yerushalmi’s views are prominent Washington figures like R. James Woolsey, a former director of the C.I.A., and the Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann, who this month signed a pledge to reject Islamic law, likening it to “totalitarian control.”
Yet, for all its fervor, the movement is arguably directed at a problem more imagined than real. Even its leaders concede that American Muslims are not coalescing en masse to advance Islamic law. Instead, they say, Muslims could eventually gain the kind of foothold seen in Europe, where multicultural policies have allowed for what critics contend is an overaccommodation of Islamic law.
More below the fold.
Leonard Pitts, Jr. on losing the War on Drugs.
There was a quake last week, but you likely didn’t feel it.U-Turn at Chrysler -- How Fiat saved the American car company.
See, this particular quake was not of the Earth, involved no shifting of the planetary crust. No, what shifted was a paradigm, and the implications are hopeful and profound.
On Tuesday, you see, the NAACP passed a resolution calling for an end to the War on Drugs.
Said NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous in a written statement, “These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African-American communities must be stopped and replaced with evidence-based practices that address the root causes of drug use and abuse in America.”
Here’s why this matters. Or, more to the point, why it matters more than if such a statement came from Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. The NAACP is not just the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. It is also its most conservative.
That word is used here not in the modern sense of tea party antics or Fox “News” rantings but, rather, in the original sense, denoting a propensity toward caution and a distrust of the bold, the risky, the new. And that’s the NAACP all over.
[...]
By now, two things should be neon obvious where the drug war is concerned.
The first is that it failed. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an advocacy group, reports that after 40 million arrests and a trillion dollars spent to fight drug use, the number of those who have used drugs is up 2,800 percent since 1970.
The second is that it has come down like a hammer on the African-American community while leaving the white community, which does most of the buying, selling and using of drugs in this country, unscathed. The Sentencing Project, another advocacy group, reports that while two-thirds of regular crack users are white or Latino, better than 80 percent of those sentenced in federal court for crack-related crimes are black. That is absurd, obscene and unjust.
It is time to concede what has long been apparent: you cannot jail people out of wanting what they want. But, you just might be able to treat and educate them to that purpose. Granted, that will require a paradigm shift some of us will find difficult to get our heads around.
But if the NAACP can do it, you and I have no excuse.
In what surely ranks as one of the most remarkable turnarounds in the annals of American business history, this week Chrysler reported adjusted net income of $181 million and a 30 percent rise in revenue, to $13.7 billion, even in a still-soft global car market. Its June sales jumped 30 percent from the previous year, its 15th consecutive month of increases. Its market share has grown to 10.6 percent, from under 6 percent. Chrysler repaid its outstanding government loans in May, six years ahead of schedule, and last week Fiat paid $500 million for the Treasury’s remaining 6 percent stake in the company. The American government has recouped $11.2 billion of its $12.5 billion investment in Chrysler, and would probably have made a profit had it held the debt to maturity. Meanwhile, Chrysler employs 56,000 people and has added 9,000 jobs since the bailout.And then there's the new version of the Fiat 500, the ubiquitous cinquecento that many tourists may remember dodging during their first trip to Italy back in the 1960's and '70's. No matter what you may think of the looks of the car, it's good to see Chrysler back and on its feet.
“This is an amazing success story,” the assistant secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Massad, told me this week. “We’ve fully exited Chrysler at a very small loss. When you look at the options we had, they were very stark: provide assistance or face the immediate liquidation of the company. That would have been disastrous in the context of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.”
How did Fiat do it after so many had failed? Mr. Kelleher [a Chrysler dealer from Pennsylvania] said the first months were frightening. Fiat and Chrysler’s chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, “stopped the rebates, stopped the bad loans. We felt the change immediately.” Chrysler’s market share plunged. But Mr. Kelleher said he felt better after he met the new chief executive at Mr. Marchionne’s first dealer meeting in Orlando, Fla., in early 2010. A native of Abruzzo, Italy, whose family moved to Canada when he was 14, Mr. Marchionne speaks fluent English and Italian. “He has a presence. He looks like a kindly grandfather, but he has a grip that will take your hand off,” Mr. Kelleher said. Mr. Marchionne immediately put his stamp on new models. At the Orlando meeting, he reviewed plans for a revamped Sebring. “I’m not going to allow you to sell this,” he bluntly told the dealers, according to Mr. Kelleher. The Jeep Grand Cherokee “was on the drawing board, but Marchionne changed the car dramatically. He knew it was a good product, but it wasn’t up to his standards,” especially the plastic-laden interior, Mr. Kelleher said. At its debut last fall, the revamped model drew strong reviews and was an immediate hit. New quality controls cut customer complaints in half from the previous model. “We started to take off right then,” Mr. Kelleher said.
After the meeting, the Sebring got a new engine, a new suspension, a new transmission and a new interior. About the only thing that survived was the chassis. It also got a new name, the Chrysler 200, and Mr. Marchionne made the bold but controversial decision, criticized by some Republicans in Congress, to spend $2 million for a commercial in January’s Super Bowl.
The day of the game, Mr. Kelleher was attending a dealer convention in St. Louis, where dealers were clamoring for a glimpse of the ad. Chrysler leadership finally agreed on condition of confidentiality. A few hours before kickoff, the dealers watched as a camera panned through the industrial ruins of Detroit to the ominous pulse of “Lose Yourself” by the rapper and native son, Eminem.
Doonesbury -- A message to parents.
Fetch more...
Short Takes
Rumor has it that negotiators are closing in on a debt ceiling deal.
There are reports of more deadly clashes in Syria.
The detained hikers in Iran could be released soon, according to their lawyer.
Darwin Award: Fisherman dies after sampling a floating brick in the Keys.
Cuba: Let's talk real estate.
Budget cuts could cut back on hurricane hunter flights.
Tropical Update: Not much movement from the little disturbance in the Atlantic.
The Tigers lost to the Angels.
Fetch more...
There are reports of more deadly clashes in Syria.
The detained hikers in Iran could be released soon, according to their lawyer.
Darwin Award: Fisherman dies after sampling a floating brick in the Keys.
Cuba: Let's talk real estate.
Budget cuts could cut back on hurricane hunter flights.
Tropical Update: Not much movement from the little disturbance in the Atlantic.
The Tigers lost to the Angels.
Fetch more...
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Now What?
Now that we've basically wasted two weeks in this pointless exercise of coming up with a debt ceiling bill in the House that had to be rejiggered so many times to make the crazies happy that the final version couldn't pass the laugh test only to have it die within seconds in the Senate, what's next? Platinum coins? Kited checks? A late-night raid at Gringotts? (Watch out for the dragon!)
Aside from all the inside-the-Beltway juvenile behavior and tantrums, all the intricate economic measures and soothsaying from the portfolio managers and Wall Street denizens who vultch over the markets waiting for something to drop, there are millions of people who don't know a hedge fund from a hedgehog or care about the hurt feelings of John Boehner but who rely on the government and its services to make it through their daily lives. If the checks don't come, they are in real trouble. Everyone from the retired nurse in Boise, Idaho, on Social Security who budgets her monthly check down to the penny, to the little company in Waterville, Ohio, that is keeping their employees paid through a contract with the federal government to provide food to the local school system for Title I is counting on the money to be there next week.
The folks in the Tea Party say that we shouldn't be so dependent on the government; that we should all be self-reliant and strong, and maybe this intentionally-manufactured crisis on their part is a good lesson on how we should wean ourselves away from it. That's idiocy (not to mention breathtaking hypocrisy), and it demonstrates a basic lack of understanding of economic reality. No one is asking for a hand-out; the nurse earned her pension throughout her career and paid into it, and the company, like millions of other businesses in the country, is doing business with the government just like they'd do it with any other private business. It's how our economy works.
We saw such rank stupidity from the Tea Party in microcosm when the auto industry was in trouble in 2009 and they said it would be a good thing if GM and Chrysler went belly-up; for one thing, it would be sweet revenge for the Chevette and the K-car. As in that case, they didn't get it, and just like the auto business has a larger footprint beyond Detroit, a huge segment of the economy relies on providing goods and services to government-run facilities such as schools, hospitals, construction projects, road maintenance, utilities, airports, harbors, police and fire departments, and hundreds of other businesses. If they stop getting paid, then the employees don't get paid, and then they're not buying food at the grocery store, gas at the filling station, or paying their rent or mortgage. The ripples become a tsunami.
We have had plenty of lessons in hard times economically, most notably the Great Depression of the 1930's, and the measures we have in place such as Social Security and Title I are what we came up with to help us through such times. Like it or not, this is how We The People decided how to run our country. We've also seen what "smaller government" brings us. It's not Paradise.
What's most galling and enraging is that the Republicans did this not because of a philosophical difference of opinion in macroeconomics. If that were the case, they wouldn't have let President Bush run up the huge deficits he did or raise the debt ceiling all those times when they were in the majority. No, they did it out of pure spite and to try to ensure their political future. No one is naive to think that they wouldn't do it, and given the chance, the Democrats, if they had any balls, would have played their political cards as well if it was a Republican in the White House. It happens all the time. But to bring it to the level of endangering the economic welfare of this nation and possibly the global economy is ratcheting it up to the level of bring a nuclear weapon to a mugging.
It's one thing to demonize Muslims with hysteria about an Islamic center in lower Manhattan, scare the fools with stories about anchor babies in Arizona, and ostracize an entire segment of the population with horror stories about the wrath of God over marriage equality. But to intentionally wreck the economy because they hate the idea of a Democrat -- and a black man -- in the White House deserves swift and wrathful retribution.
They should be held accountable for this kind of terrorism, and a year from now, long after this moment of brinksmanship has passed, we should be reminding every voter of who it was that held the country hostage while they played with the nuke. Given the short attention span of the American public -- oh, look, another white woman is in trouble -- I don't hold out a lot of hope, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do everything we can to limit their contribution to politics to calling in on C-SPAN or baying at the moon.
Fetch more...
Aside from all the inside-the-Beltway juvenile behavior and tantrums, all the intricate economic measures and soothsaying from the portfolio managers and Wall Street denizens who vultch over the markets waiting for something to drop, there are millions of people who don't know a hedge fund from a hedgehog or care about the hurt feelings of John Boehner but who rely on the government and its services to make it through their daily lives. If the checks don't come, they are in real trouble. Everyone from the retired nurse in Boise, Idaho, on Social Security who budgets her monthly check down to the penny, to the little company in Waterville, Ohio, that is keeping their employees paid through a contract with the federal government to provide food to the local school system for Title I is counting on the money to be there next week.
The folks in the Tea Party say that we shouldn't be so dependent on the government; that we should all be self-reliant and strong, and maybe this intentionally-manufactured crisis on their part is a good lesson on how we should wean ourselves away from it. That's idiocy (not to mention breathtaking hypocrisy), and it demonstrates a basic lack of understanding of economic reality. No one is asking for a hand-out; the nurse earned her pension throughout her career and paid into it, and the company, like millions of other businesses in the country, is doing business with the government just like they'd do it with any other private business. It's how our economy works.
We saw such rank stupidity from the Tea Party in microcosm when the auto industry was in trouble in 2009 and they said it would be a good thing if GM and Chrysler went belly-up; for one thing, it would be sweet revenge for the Chevette and the K-car. As in that case, they didn't get it, and just like the auto business has a larger footprint beyond Detroit, a huge segment of the economy relies on providing goods and services to government-run facilities such as schools, hospitals, construction projects, road maintenance, utilities, airports, harbors, police and fire departments, and hundreds of other businesses. If they stop getting paid, then the employees don't get paid, and then they're not buying food at the grocery store, gas at the filling station, or paying their rent or mortgage. The ripples become a tsunami.
We have had plenty of lessons in hard times economically, most notably the Great Depression of the 1930's, and the measures we have in place such as Social Security and Title I are what we came up with to help us through such times. Like it or not, this is how We The People decided how to run our country. We've also seen what "smaller government" brings us. It's not Paradise.
What's most galling and enraging is that the Republicans did this not because of a philosophical difference of opinion in macroeconomics. If that were the case, they wouldn't have let President Bush run up the huge deficits he did or raise the debt ceiling all those times when they were in the majority. No, they did it out of pure spite and to try to ensure their political future. No one is naive to think that they wouldn't do it, and given the chance, the Democrats, if they had any balls, would have played their political cards as well if it was a Republican in the White House. It happens all the time. But to bring it to the level of endangering the economic welfare of this nation and possibly the global economy is ratcheting it up to the level of bring a nuclear weapon to a mugging.
It's one thing to demonize Muslims with hysteria about an Islamic center in lower Manhattan, scare the fools with stories about anchor babies in Arizona, and ostracize an entire segment of the population with horror stories about the wrath of God over marriage equality. But to intentionally wreck the economy because they hate the idea of a Democrat -- and a black man -- in the White House deserves swift and wrathful retribution.
They should be held accountable for this kind of terrorism, and a year from now, long after this moment of brinksmanship has passed, we should be reminding every voter of who it was that held the country hostage while they played with the nuke. Given the short attention span of the American public -- oh, look, another white woman is in trouble -- I don't hold out a lot of hope, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do everything we can to limit their contribution to politics to calling in on C-SPAN or baying at the moon.
Fetch more...
Short Takes
The U.S. had some "constructive" talks with North Korea.
The UN is considering unfreezing some of Libya's assets to use as aid.
The White House and the auto industry have struck a deal on fuel efficiency.
Like everybody else, South Florida would be hit by a government default.
Gonna need a bigger bong -- Cops raid a huge pot farm in California.
Tropical Update: What's left of Don is over south Texas; the next disturbance is still way out in the Atlantic.
The Tigers get back at the Angels.
Fetch more...
The UN is considering unfreezing some of Libya's assets to use as aid.
The White House and the auto industry have struck a deal on fuel efficiency.
Like everybody else, South Florida would be hit by a government default.
Gonna need a bigger bong -- Cops raid a huge pot farm in California.
Tropical Update: What's left of Don is over south Texas; the next disturbance is still way out in the Atlantic.
The Tigers get back at the Angels.
Fetch more...
Friday, July 29, 2011
A Little Night Music
Not sure what to make of it, but this song is in the current rotation on Miami's "easy-listening" station.
Fetch more...
Fetch more...
No Vote
After a day of herding cats on crack, House Speaker John Boehner cancelled the meaningless vote on his DOA debt ceiling plan.
If it's possible to feel sorry for John Boehner, I suppose you could sympathize with his way-too-late realization that he's been run over by the Klown Kar, and if he fails to deliver on this vote, his tenure as House Speaker is pretty much over. But that's cold comfort in light of the real possibility that in less than a week we could be facing an economic crisis that is not only completely preventable but was created on purpose by a small number of people with big mouths who are doing it just to try to bring down a president that they hate.
This isn't new. They brought the government to screeching halt in 1998 in order to put Bill Clinton through impeachment for getting a blow job, and Newt Gingrich shut down the government in 1995 because he had to fly coach on Air Force One. So the question arises: who is at fault? The right-wing nutsery for being way out there, or the rest of us for not only putting up with it, but enabling them. They can't help it if they're lunatics, but the rest of us bear the burden of their damage by letting them run loose in the halls of Congress.
Fetch more...
The vote had been scheduled for around 6 p.m. Thursday, but as that hour neared, GOP leaders realized they didn’t have the 217 votes needed to send the measure on to the Senate.According to Steve Benen, the reason the vote is falling short is because a lot of the Tea Party folks think the plan Mr. Boehner is offering is too liberal.
So the House suddenly took up a series of non-controversial measures, leaving befuddled lawmakers debating whether to rename a post office in Hawaii before finally going into recess for an indefinite time.
Apparently, several far-right House Republicans believe Boehner’s plan is too generous when it comes to Pell Grants. Helping low-income students go to college is, as they see it, “welfare,” and therefore makes his bill unacceptable.While it's all fun and games watching the little dramas going on on Capitol Hill and collecting points for spotting tell-tale signs of life ("Look! They ordered pizza with extra pepperoni! That means something!"), what is being lost is the fact that there is still a looming deadline to raise the debt ceiling and prevent the rest of the world from thinking that the full faith and credit of the United States can be undermined by a bunch of right-wing whackos whose understanding of economic theory never got beyond "2+2=?" (But then, what can you expect from a party where a lot of their members believe the Earth is 6,000 years old and started out with two naked people and a talking snake.)
If it's possible to feel sorry for John Boehner, I suppose you could sympathize with his way-too-late realization that he's been run over by the Klown Kar, and if he fails to deliver on this vote, his tenure as House Speaker is pretty much over. But that's cold comfort in light of the real possibility that in less than a week we could be facing an economic crisis that is not only completely preventable but was created on purpose by a small number of people with big mouths who are doing it just to try to bring down a president that they hate.
This isn't new. They brought the government to screeching halt in 1998 in order to put Bill Clinton through impeachment for getting a blow job, and Newt Gingrich shut down the government in 1995 because he had to fly coach on Air Force One. So the question arises: who is at fault? The right-wing nutsery for being way out there, or the rest of us for not only putting up with it, but enabling them. They can't help it if they're lunatics, but the rest of us bear the burden of their damage by letting them run loose in the halls of Congress.
Fetch more...
Quote of the Day
Jon Stewart on the GOP culture of victimhood:
Fetch more...
That is, if I may say, some of the most free-range, organically grown, disingenuous, ideologically marinated, un-self-awareness I’ve ever seen in the wild.
Fetch more...
A Soft Chewy Center
Paul Krugman doesn't see any merit in being a "centrist."
Another part of this discussion is that the needle has moved far to the right on the scale. What used to be considered way-out far-right extremism is the new normal to the point that Ronald Reagan wouldn't stand a chance with the Tea Party crowd, and Richard Nixon, who gave us such things as the EPA and wage and price controls in an attempt to control inflation, was a Commie (ironic, given how he rose to power as a red-baiting acolyte of Joe McCarthy). If Barack Obama, who's to the right of Bill Clinton and right-wing compared to Lyndon Johnson, is considered a lefty, then the scale hasn't just moved to the right; it's tipped over.
Fetch more...
Many pundits view taking a position in the middle of the political spectrum as a virtue in itself. I don’t. Wisdom doesn’t necessarily reside in the middle of the road, and I want leaders who do the right thing, not the centrist thing.There is no virtue in being in the center if it means you have no convictions of your own. Too many people are willing to substitute being reasonable with being mushy. It is possible to hold fast to a position without being inflexible, but it helps if you have some core beliefs and aren't willing to give them up just to gain a few yards on the political gridiron.
But for those who insist that the center is always the place to be, I have an important piece of information: We already have a centrist president. Indeed, Bruce Bartlett, who served as a policy analyst in the Reagan administration, argues that Mr. Obama is in practice a moderate conservative.
Mr. Bartlett has a point. The president, as we’ve seen, was willing, even eager, to strike a budget deal that strongly favored conservative priorities. His health reform was very similar to the reform Mitt Romney installed in Massachusetts. Romneycare, in turn, closely followed the outlines of a plan originally proposed by the right-wing Heritage Foundation. And returning tax rates on high-income Americans to their level during the Roaring Nineties is hardly a socialist proposal.
True, Republicans insist that Mr. Obama is a leftist seeking a government takeover of the economy, but they would, wouldn’t they? The facts, should anyone choose to report them, say otherwise.
So what’s with the buzz about a centrist uprising? As I see it, it’s coming from people who recognize the dysfunctional nature of modern American politics, but refuse, for whatever reason, to acknowledge the one-sided role of Republican extremists in making our system dysfunctional. And it’s not hard to guess at their motivation. After all, pointing out the obvious truth gets you labeled as a shrill partisan, not just from the right, but from the ranks of self-proclaimed centrists.
Another part of this discussion is that the needle has moved far to the right on the scale. What used to be considered way-out far-right extremism is the new normal to the point that Ronald Reagan wouldn't stand a chance with the Tea Party crowd, and Richard Nixon, who gave us such things as the EPA and wage and price controls in an attempt to control inflation, was a Commie (ironic, given how he rose to power as a red-baiting acolyte of Joe McCarthy). If Barack Obama, who's to the right of Bill Clinton and right-wing compared to Lyndon Johnson, is considered a lefty, then the scale hasn't just moved to the right; it's tipped over.
Fetch more...
Annals of Asshattery - Continued
It's gotten to the point where it's a cliche; yet another shining example of right-wing hypocrisy.
No, that's not from The Onion.
Fetch more...
Freshman U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, a tax-bashing Tea Party champion who sharply lectures President Barack Obama and other Democrats on fiscal responsibility, owes more than $100,000 in child support to his ex-wife and three children, according to documents his ex-wife filed in their divorce case in December.When asked about it on CNN yesterday, he blamed the liberal media and said that being a deadbeat dad qualified him to be an advocate for fiscal responsibility and family values: "I have had financial troubles and I talked about them throughout the campaign. This is where real America is."
No, that's not from The Onion.
Fetch more...
Short Takes
The leader of the Libyan rebels has been killed.
An AWOL soldier has been arrested for plotting to bomb Fort Hood.
An explosion at a mine in the Ukraine has killed 16 people.
Another phone-hacking scandal has been revealed in Britain.
New claims for unemployment fell last week.
Tropical Update: Tropical Storm Don is headed for south Texas. Meanwhile, there's an area of disturbed weather out in the Atlantic.
The Dolphins sign Reggie Bush.
The Tigers got pummeled by the Angels.
Fetch more...
An AWOL soldier has been arrested for plotting to bomb Fort Hood.
An explosion at a mine in the Ukraine has killed 16 people.
Another phone-hacking scandal has been revealed in Britain.
New claims for unemployment fell last week.
Tropical Update: Tropical Storm Don is headed for south Texas. Meanwhile, there's an area of disturbed weather out in the Atlantic.
The Dolphins sign Reggie Bush.
The Tigers got pummeled by the Angels.
Fetch more...
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Furious Bid
If the entire full faith and credit of the United States wasn't at stake, it would be just plain schadenfreude fun to watch House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) trying his version of herding cats with attitudes.
So, what is Plan C?
Fetch more...
House GOP leaders mounted a furious bid Wednesday to win support for legislation designed to ease the nation’s debt crisis, delivering a tongue-lashing to their most conservative lawmakers and casting Thursday’s roll call as nothing less than a vote of confidence in their stewardship of the chamber.If Boehner's re-write passes the House, it's still DOA in the Senate.
[...]
Republicans claimed that momentum was on their side as Boehner spent Wednesday afternoon huddling with members of the 87-strong class of freshmen that delivered him the gavel after the 2010 midterm elections. But aides and lawmakers suggested the decisive votes could belong to about two dozen veterans with no strong allegiance to their leadership. Some estimates showed nearly 20 Republicans declaring their intent to oppose the bill.
So, what is Plan C?
Fetch more...
Speaking of Bizarre
That would be Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on the floor of the Senate carrying on against the Tea Party.
Fetch more...
“To hold out and say we won't agree to raising the debt limit until we pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the constitution. It’s unfair, it's bizarre,” McCain railed on the Senate floor, “And maybe some people have only been in this body for six or seven months or so really believe that. Others know better."Remind me again who it was that selected the leading proponent of the insurgent don't-retreat-reload Tea Partiers as his vice presidential running mate in 2008.
Fetch more...
Your Moment of Wonkery
Ezra Klein explains the differences between the two debt ceiling plans being battered about on Capitol Hill.
Fetch more...
Both the Reid and Boehner plans cut about $850 billion in discretionary spending. The major difference — at least in terms of immediate cuts — is that Reid’s plan tells the Congressional Budget Office that he’s winding down the wars, which nets him $1 trillion, while Boehner doesn’t say anything about the wars. But this isn’t a policy difference between the two men. Boehner’s office calls that $1 trillion “war money that would never have been spent.”And please, let this be the only context in which we discuss "Boehner's package" without inducing an involuntary gag reflex.
[...]
And so here’s the bottom line: If we use the Democrats’ package, Boehner’s dollar-for-dollar demand is met. If we use Boehner’s package, the plan is about $1.5 trillion short of meeting the dollar-for-dollar requirement, and thus Republicans can demand more cuts and concessions. But the specific cuts that will happen if we implement the first round of the two packages are pretty much the same.
Fetch more...
No Need For Make-Up
This is why it is stupid to mock Michele Bachmann for her hair and make-up bills:
Fetch more...
Just a few weeks before Bachmann called for dismantling the programs [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] during a House Financial Services Committee hearing, she and her husband signed for a $417,000 home loan to help finance their move to a 5,200-square-foot golf-course home, public records show. Experts who examined the loan documents for The Washington Post say they are confident that the loan was backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.There you go; plenty of hypocrisy to go around without getting near sexism.
[...]
They also have other loans, including a home equity line of credit, a business mortgage and another business loan for their Christian counseling clinics, bringing their liabilities to more than $1 million, according to the most recently available public records.
She is also a leading critic of expanding the federal debt limit. “When managing your family budget, you don’t spend money you don’t have,” she said in a statement last year, “and our government should be no different.”
Fetch more...
A Lesson in Democracy
Norwegian Prime Minister Jen Stoltenberg on freedom in his country:
Isn't it ironic that we're taught a lesson in democracy by a nation that all the tough-guy butch wingers dismiss as bunch of lily-livered liberal wussies?
Fetch more...
At a press conference at his Oslo residence, Stoltenberg underlined his commitment to openness, defending freedom of thought, even if includes extremist views such as those held by the 32-year-old who confessed to Friday's bomb blast and to the shooting massacre.Now remember the absolute freak-out the Republicans in Congress and the Orcosphere went through when President Obama's Justice Department decided to hold a civilian trial in New York for a terror suspect, and how they all got the vapors after some whack-job tried to ignite his Underoos.
"We have to be very clear to distinguish between extreme views, opinions that are completely legal, legitimate to have, [and] what is not legitimate is to try to implement those extreme views by using violence," he said.
"I think what we have seen is that there is going to be one Norway before and one Norway after 22 July," he said. "But I hope and also believe that the Norway we will see after will be more open, a more tolerant society than what we had before."
Isn't it ironic that we're taught a lesson in democracy by a nation that all the tough-guy butch wingers dismiss as bunch of lily-livered liberal wussies?
Fetch more...
Oh, The Horror
In one very short post, David Frum shows why a lot of people think that conservatives are racists.
Fetch more...
Fetch more...
Short Takes
Norway's prime minister says that the terrorist attacks will not shut down that country's freedoms.
South Korea had some deadly rains and mudslides.
After over a century of treating soldiers, Walter Reed Army Hospital closes its doors.
Of course Rick Perry is going to run for president.
There was rioting on the streets in Hollywood. No, really.
Wall Street isn't liking the delay on the debt ceiling deal.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools cuts staff to balance the budget.
Tropical Update: That disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico is now Tropical Storm Don and is tracking towards central Texas. Hopefully it will stay at that level to bring much-needed rain and nothing more.
The Tigers lost to the White Sox.
Fetch more...
South Korea had some deadly rains and mudslides.
After over a century of treating soldiers, Walter Reed Army Hospital closes its doors.
Of course Rick Perry is going to run for president.
There was rioting on the streets in Hollywood. No, really.
Wall Street isn't liking the delay on the debt ceiling deal.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools cuts staff to balance the budget.
Tropical Update: That disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico is now Tropical Storm Don and is tracking towards central Texas. Hopefully it will stay at that level to bring much-needed rain and nothing more.
The Tigers lost to the White Sox.
Fetch more...
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
At The Movies - The GOP Caucus
The House Republicans are trying to rally the troops by showing them motivational clips from gangster movies.
Doug at Balloon Juice suggests that if we'd shown them the volleyball scene from Top Gun, we'd have ended DADT years ago. I'd go with the shower scene from Starship Troopers, but to each his -- or her -- own.
Fetch more...
The House GOP leadership team, often described as fractious, showed complete unity behind closed doors and in public Tuesday. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told Republicans he was “150 percent” behind Boehner and his plan, according to Republicans who attended Tuesday morning’s closed-door meeting. He told Republicans to “stop grumbling and whining and to come together as conservatives” to support the Boehner proposal.But as Brian Beutler notes, that's not the full quote from the film.
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the party’s vote counter, began his talk by showing a clip from the movie, “The Town”, trying to forge a sense of unity among the independent-minded caucus.
One character asks his friend: “I need your help. I can’t tell you what it is. You can never ask me about it later.”
“Whose car are we gonna take,” the character says.
After showing the clip, Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), one of the most outspoken critics of leadership among the 87 freshmen, stood up to speak, according to GOP aides.
“I’m ready to drive the car,” West replied, surprising many Republicans by giving his full-throated support for the plan.
Doug MacRay: I need your help. I can't tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we're gonna hurt some people.Maybe that part about hurting some people was so obvious they didn't need to say it. And using a gangster film seems to fit right in.
James Coughlin: ...Whose car we takin'? [Emphasis added.]
Doug at Balloon Juice suggests that if we'd shown them the volleyball scene from Top Gun, we'd have ended DADT years ago. I'd go with the shower scene from Starship Troopers, but to each his -- or her -- own.
Fetch more...
Off Balance
Paul Krugman knocks the wind out of the "both sides do it" meme.
It is perfectly acceptable to point out that there are extremists in the United States Congress without calling your objectivity into question. Hell, some of those whack jobs like Louie Gohmert of Texas and Steven King of Iowa are counting on being called on to go on TV and expound their crackpot theories. To them, it's their meal ticket.
The world will not come to an end and Edward R. Murrow would not rise out of his grave in horror if some newsperson were to call out a politician of either party on their lies and misstatements. In fact, that's their job. So why don't they do it?
Fetch more...
Think about what’s happening right now. We have a crisis in which the right is making insane demands, while the president and Democrats in Congress are bending over backward to be accommodating — offering plans that are all spending cuts and no taxes, plans that are far to the right of public opinion.There is a big difference between being objective, which is an admirable goal in journalism, and being unable to distinguish between lucidity and lunacy. It's like seeing headlines, "Does Sun Cause Daylight? Experts Disagree."
So what do most news reports say? They portray it as a situation in which both sides are equally partisan, equally intransigent — because news reports always do that. And we have influential pundits calling out for a new centrist party, a new centrist president, to get us away from the evils of partisanship.
[...]
You have to ask, what would it take for these news organizations and pundits to actually break with the convention that both sides are equally at fault? This is the clearest, starkest situation one can imagine short of civil war. If this won’t do it, nothing will.
And yes, I think this is a moral issue. The “both sides are at fault” people have to know better; if they refuse to say it, it’s out of some combination of fear and ego, of being unwilling to sacrifice their treasured pose of being above the fray.
It is perfectly acceptable to point out that there are extremists in the United States Congress without calling your objectivity into question. Hell, some of those whack jobs like Louie Gohmert of Texas and Steven King of Iowa are counting on being called on to go on TV and expound their crackpot theories. To them, it's their meal ticket.
The world will not come to an end and Edward R. Murrow would not rise out of his grave in horror if some newsperson were to call out a politician of either party on their lies and misstatements. In fact, that's their job. So why don't they do it?
Fetch more...
The Best-Laid Plans...
It looks as if getting the Democrats and the president to go along with his plan is the least of the worries for House Speaker John Boehner.
Fetch more...
House Republicans delayed a vote on Boehner’s bill, which had been set for Wednesday, after congressional budget analysts dealt the legislation a potentially devastating setback by saying it would save far less over the next decade than the $1.2 trillion advertised. The Congressional Budget Office projected that the spending cuts would save only about $850 billion over that period.Meanwhile, Josh Marshall is reporting that Wall Street is bringing to bear some of its considerable influence on Capitol Hill to get something done, even if it isn't exactly what the Republicans want. In short, they've had enough of this silliness and they don't want these antics to threaten their livelihood. It's not because it's good for the country or that they are suddenly in love with President Obama. A default could be bad for their bottom line, and that's what really matters to them.
The news from the CBO alarmed conservatives, who were already balking at what they considered timid spending reductions. It also meant Boehner’s bill would not meet his own demand that the cuts exceed the size of the $900 billion debt-limit increase.
House Republicans were racing Tuesday night to rewrite portions of the measure to bring the numbers into line. The vote could now come Thursday.
As Boehner (R-Ohio) pressed toward a cliffhanger vote in the House, President Obama signaled that would veto the measure because it would force another battle over the debt limit early next year. Meanwhile, Reid (D-Nev.) pronounced the proposal “dead on arrival” in the Senate, where Democrats were struggling to rally votes for their own plan to raise the debt limit by $2.7 trillion — enough additional borrowing authority to cover the nation’s bills into 2013.
Fetch more...
Hair Today...
There are so many things wrong with Michele Bachmann running for president that gossiping about how much money she spent on her makeover is just stupid, not to mention sexist.
I'm with Melissa on this: please stop making me defend Michele Bachmann.
Fetch more...
I'm with Melissa on this: please stop making me defend Michele Bachmann.
Fetch more...
Short Takes
Kiting checks? -- The Treasury may be able to delay the default by a week.
Anders Breivik, the suspect in the Norway shootings, also wanted to use anthrax but didn't know how.
Rep. David Wu (D-OR) will resign over sexual assault charges.
Keep 'em flying -- They're trying to come up with a bill in Congress to fund the FAA.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools trims the budget but spares the teachers.
People are lining up for trips to Cuba under the new rules.
R.I.P. Dan Peek, 60, one of the original members of rock band America.
Tropical Update: Invest 90 is moving west and could bring some rain to Texas, which needs it.
The Tigers beat the White Sox as Justin Verlander gets his 14th win.
Fetch more...
Anders Breivik, the suspect in the Norway shootings, also wanted to use anthrax but didn't know how.
Rep. David Wu (D-OR) will resign over sexual assault charges.
Keep 'em flying -- They're trying to come up with a bill in Congress to fund the FAA.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools trims the budget but spares the teachers.
People are lining up for trips to Cuba under the new rules.
R.I.P. Dan Peek, 60, one of the original members of rock band America.
Tropical Update: Invest 90 is moving west and could bring some rain to Texas, which needs it.
The Tigers beat the White Sox as Justin Verlander gets his 14th win.
Fetch more...
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Quote of the Day
Pat Buchanan, frequent guest on MSNBC, defending accused mass murderer Anders Breivik:
Fetch more...
As for a climactic conflict between a once-Christian West and an Islamic world that is growing in numbers and advancing inexorably into Europe for the third time in 14 centuries, on this one, Breivik may be right.And MSNBC dropped Cenk Ugyur because they didn't like his "tone"?
Fetch more...
Go Ahead and Do It
I like this idea from Eric A. Posner and Adrian Vermeule.
HT to Steve M.
Fetch more...
President Obama should announce that he will raise the debt ceiling unilaterally if he cannot reach a deal with Congress. Constitutionally, he would be on solid ground. Politically, he can’t lose. The public wants a deal. The threat to act unilaterally will only strengthen his bargaining power if Republicans don’t want to be frozen out; if they defy him, the public will throw their support to the president. Either way, Republicans look like the obstructionists and will pay a price.At least one congressman has announced that if the president does this, he will be impeached. Fine, go ahead. After all, it worked out so well for the Republicans the last time.
HT to Steve M.
Fetch more...
Random Thoughts
I don't have a lot to add to what I wrote last night about the debt ceiling impasse, but I do have a couple of random thoughts that keep popping up. They're sort of in the manner of the New Rules that Bill Maher uses to close his show, but not nearly as clever or profane.
* Any politician who compares running the government to running a small business knows nothing about running government or a small business. And chances are that any politician who got out of his small business to run for office probably did so because they sucked at running their business.
* A president shouldn't have to explain the nuts and bolts of the crisis he's addressing in a nationally televised address. By the time you get to that point, people need resolution and a solution, not a tutorial on budgeting and a plea to call 1-800-CONGRESS.
* I liked it better when John Boehner cried on TV. This bombastic false bravado schtick comes across like he's being told by his captors to make a ransom tape to prove to the world that he's still alive and they haven't chopped off an ear.
* Every time a Tea Party member of Congress appears on TV, there should be a Google map of his district behind him or her so the rest of the world can see where they live and we can either mock the people who elected this idiot or avoid the area altogether.
* Any pundit who says "both sides are equally to blame" should be fired for being an incompetent and an enabler. In this particular situation, even the few remaining moderate Republicans left in this world (which is roughly akin to being an Ivory-billed Woodpecker) know that no, both sides are not equally to blame.
* The next Congressperson who says "we don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem" should be thrown into a pit and pecked to death by ducks.
* Right-wing columnists like George F. Will should just drop all the pretense and call the president "uppity" and tell us that he obviously doesn't know his place. This pussyfooting is just too cute by half.
* Any politician who begins a sentence with "The American people want/don't want..." has no idea what the American people want or don't want.
Feel free to add your own.
Fetch more...
* Any politician who compares running the government to running a small business knows nothing about running government or a small business. And chances are that any politician who got out of his small business to run for office probably did so because they sucked at running their business.
* A president shouldn't have to explain the nuts and bolts of the crisis he's addressing in a nationally televised address. By the time you get to that point, people need resolution and a solution, not a tutorial on budgeting and a plea to call 1-800-CONGRESS.
* I liked it better when John Boehner cried on TV. This bombastic false bravado schtick comes across like he's being told by his captors to make a ransom tape to prove to the world that he's still alive and they haven't chopped off an ear.
* Every time a Tea Party member of Congress appears on TV, there should be a Google map of his district behind him or her so the rest of the world can see where they live and we can either mock the people who elected this idiot or avoid the area altogether.
* Any pundit who says "both sides are equally to blame" should be fired for being an incompetent and an enabler. In this particular situation, even the few remaining moderate Republicans left in this world (which is roughly akin to being an Ivory-billed Woodpecker) know that no, both sides are not equally to blame.
* The next Congressperson who says "we don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem" should be thrown into a pit and pecked to death by ducks.
* Right-wing columnists like George F. Will should just drop all the pretense and call the president "uppity" and tell us that he obviously doesn't know his place. This pussyfooting is just too cute by half.
* Any politician who begins a sentence with "The American people want/don't want..." has no idea what the American people want or don't want.
Feel free to add your own.
Fetch more...
Stay Classy
My guess is that Glenn Beck shouldn't plan on going to Norway any time soon.
This just in: Glenn Beck is now the scheduler and organizer for Fred Phelps.
HT to CLW.
Fetch more...
Glenn Beck, the leading Right-wing American broadcaster, has prompted outrage after comparing the teenage victims of the Utoya Island massacre to the Hitler Youth."Who does a camp for kids that's all about politics?" he asks. Well, the Tea Party, for one.
Beck said that the Labour party youth camp on the island, where 68 people were murdered, bore "disturbing" similarities to the Nazi party's notorious juvenile wing.
Beck, a multimillionaire darling of the Tea Party movement, said on his nationally-syndicated radio show: "There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler youth. I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing."
Torbjørn Eriksen, a former press secretary to Jens Stoltenberg, Norway's prime minister, described the comment as "a new low" for the broadcaster, who has frequently been forced to apologise for offensive remarks.
"Young political activists have gathered at Utoya for over 60 years to learn about and be part of democracy, the very opposite of what the Hitler Youth was about," he told The Daily Telegraph. "Glenn Beck's comments are ignorant, incorrect and extremely hurtful."
This just in: Glenn Beck is now the scheduler and organizer for Fred Phelps.
HT to CLW.
Fetch more...
Short Takes
The accused shooter in Norway had his first court appearance.
The Postal Service may close as many as 3,600 post offices across the country.
A congressional stalemate over the FAA is a bonanza for the airlines.
Charter schools get $55 million for upkeep in Florida; public schools get $0.
The heat wave may be over in the East, but it's being followed by storms.
The NFL lockout is over.
Tropical Update: Invest 90 is moving west, south of Cuba.
The Tigers lost to the White Sox.
Fetch more...
The Postal Service may close as many as 3,600 post offices across the country.
A congressional stalemate over the FAA is a bonanza for the airlines.
Charter schools get $55 million for upkeep in Florida; public schools get $0.
The heat wave may be over in the East, but it's being followed by storms.
The NFL lockout is over.
Tropical Update: Invest 90 is moving west, south of Cuba.
The Tigers lost to the White Sox.
Fetch more...
Monday, July 25, 2011
Instant Replay
President Obama didn't make any news tonight in his prime-time speech about the debt ceiling except point out the obvious: it's a stalemate. About all he could do was ask the viewers to call their congresscritters.
John Boehner did a Michele Bachmann-like where's-the-camera performance, and if you thought he was deadly dull before, he went way beyond that. He also made the claim that the president has raised the spending beyond all previous levels, which is demonstrably false (in other words, a lie), he said the president wanted to raise taxes, which is pointedly not in the Reid proposal (another lie, but who's counting), and he tried to sell the "Cut, Cap, and Balance" bill as if it was a reasonable approach to the problem, which it is if you think that it's 1911 and William Howard Taft is a radical Socialist.
I'm not sure why President Obama thought it was worth the time to make this pitch. He was clearly trying to talk over the heads of the Republicans while Mr. Boehner was talking down to us, but on the whole it was a waste of time. We're no closer to solving the problem.
Fetch more...
John Boehner did a Michele Bachmann-like where's-the-camera performance, and if you thought he was deadly dull before, he went way beyond that. He also made the claim that the president has raised the spending beyond all previous levels, which is demonstrably false (in other words, a lie), he said the president wanted to raise taxes, which is pointedly not in the Reid proposal (another lie, but who's counting), and he tried to sell the "Cut, Cap, and Balance" bill as if it was a reasonable approach to the problem, which it is if you think that it's 1911 and William Howard Taft is a radical Socialist.
I'm not sure why President Obama thought it was worth the time to make this pitch. He was clearly trying to talk over the heads of the Republicans while Mr. Boehner was talking down to us, but on the whole it was a waste of time. We're no closer to solving the problem.
Fetch more...
A Little Night Music
I was on a conference call this afternoon with someone from the Department of Education, and when he put us on hold to conference in another participant, this is what played while we waited.
Aside from the fact that it has so many degrees of awesome sauce for being the On-Hold music for the DOE, it reminded me of the time thirty years ago when I was teaching middle school English. When we came to the part in the grammar book that dealt with conjunctions, the entire class burst into this song.
Fetch more...
Aside from the fact that it has so many degrees of awesome sauce for being the On-Hold music for the DOE, it reminded me of the time thirty years ago when I was teaching middle school English. When we came to the part in the grammar book that dealt with conjunctions, the entire class burst into this song.
Fetch more...
Boehner Drops A Load
So after all the talk, all late-night and weekend trips to the White House, all the back-room chatter, the best that House Speaker John Boehner can come up with is a polished turd?
This has all the appearance of a hashed-together did-his-homework-on-the-bus plan that Mr. Boehner came up with by grabbing everything that sucked out loud in the "Cut, Cap and Balance" silliness that they horked up last week and tried with straight face to pass as a real attempt at fiscal management. That's probably because they got caught with their lips on the Tea Party tuchus when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid came up with a plan that basically called the GOP's bluff.
President Obama is going to address the nation at 9:00 PM EDT from the East Room on the debt ceiling. I don't think he's going to give the "This is bullshit" speech, but I wouldn't be surprised if he basically told the Republicans to stuff it and put the pressure on them to come up with something that doesn't stink of rank adolescent petulance.
*
By the way, if you think that the spending under the Obama administration is beyond the pale, let this chart from the New York Times present facts before a candid world.
Tell me once again how President Obama is the one who blew up the economy.
Fetch more...
Here’s the two-step proposal Boehner is circulating. Note that the title isn’t “An approach to raising the debt ceiling,” or “An approach to reducing the deficit and cutting spending.” It’s the:Okay, at the risk of being breathtakingly obvious, the debt ceiling process is not about holding President Obama "accountable." (What is up with the middle-school neener-neener nyah-nyah name of this bill anyway?) The debt ceiling is the responsibility of the Congress, which, unless they've changed the Constitution in the last eight hours (which is certainly not outside the realm of possibility), is the branch of government that holds the purse strings. They are the ones who write the budget and allow the the spending, not the Executive branch. So this passing-the-buck for their profligate ways, including the indulgences under the Bush administration (see below), is just infantile.
Two-Step Approach to Hold President Obama Accountable
Republicans insisted that if the president wants his debt ceiling increase, the American people will require serious spending cuts and reforms. This two-step approach meets House Republicans’ criteria by (1) making spending cuts that are larger than any debt ceiling increase; (2) implementing spending caps to restrain future spending; and (3) advancing the cause of the Balanced Budget Amendment – without tax hikes on families and job creators. Although this is not the House-passed “Cut, Cap, and Balance,” it is a package that reflects the principles of Cut, Cap, and Balance.
This has all the appearance of a hashed-together did-his-homework-on-the-bus plan that Mr. Boehner came up with by grabbing everything that sucked out loud in the "Cut, Cap and Balance" silliness that they horked up last week and tried with straight face to pass as a real attempt at fiscal management. That's probably because they got caught with their lips on the Tea Party tuchus when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid came up with a plan that basically called the GOP's bluff.
It's a cuts-only bill (no tax revenue) that Dems believe will score $2.7 trillion in savings. But it will likely rely on a projected "peace dividend" -- the expected drawdown of forces in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and Republicans have indicated in the past they don't support counting reduced war expenditures as savings.In other words, it's everything the GOP has been demanding, and still they say No with cheese on it.
"In an effort to reach a bipartisan compromise, we are putting together a $2.7 trillion deficit reduction package that meets Republicans' two major criteria," Reid said. "[I]t will include enough spending cuts to meet or exceed the amount of a debt ceiling raise through the end of 2012, and it will not include revenues. We hope Speaker Boehner will abandon his 'my way or the highway' approach, and join us in forging a bipartisan compromise along these lines."
President Obama is going to address the nation at 9:00 PM EDT from the East Room on the debt ceiling. I don't think he's going to give the "This is bullshit" speech, but I wouldn't be surprised if he basically told the Republicans to stuff it and put the pressure on them to come up with something that doesn't stink of rank adolescent petulance.
By the way, if you think that the spending under the Obama administration is beyond the pale, let this chart from the New York Times present facts before a candid world.
Fetch more...
Of No Consequence
From the New York Times:
Fetch more...
The man accused of the killing spree in Norway was deeply influenced by a small group of American bloggers and writers who have warned for years about the threat from Islam, lacing his 1,500-page manifesto with quotations from them, as well as copying multiple passages from the tract of the Unabomber.It sounds to me like Mr. Spencer is saying that all the stuff he wrote on his blog about the evils of Islam were really of no consequence and weren't meant to influence anybody. Which makes me wonder why he bothered to write them in the first place.
In the document he posted online, Anders Behring Breivik, who is accused of bombing government buildings and killing scores of young people at a Labor Party camp, showed that he had closely followed the acrimonious American debate over Islam.
His manifesto, which denounced Norwegian politicians as failing to defend the country from Islamic influence, quoted Robert Spencer, who operates the Jihad Watch Web site, 64 times, and cited other Western writers who shared his view that Muslim immigrants pose a grave danger to Western culture.
[...]
The revelations about Mr. Breivik’s American influences exploded on the blogs over the weekend, putting Mr. Spencer and other self-described “counterjihad” activists on the defensive, as their critics suggested that their portrayal of Islam as a threat to the West indirectly fostered the crimes in Norway.
Mr. Spencer wrote on his Web site, jihadwatch.org, that “the blame game” had begun, “as if killing a lot of children aids the defense against the global jihad and Islamic supremacism, or has anything remotely to do with anything we have ever advocated.” He did not mention Mr. Breivik’s voluminous quotations from his writings.
Fetch more...
Nowhere Fast
After a weekend of meetings in the White House and on Capitol Hill, we are still no closer to a deal on the debt ceiling than we were on Friday night.
The offers and the counter-offers are getting to the point where it's hard to keep track of them. The Democrats sound like they're on the verge of giving the GOP everything they want -- huge cuts with no revenue -- and still the Republicans aren't buying it.
What this saga does is emphasize just how much of a gap there is between the Democrats and the Republicans, not just on this particular issue, but on everything. And it's not just ideology that's doing it. It's visceral.
During the Bush administration, the right wing used to accuse the Democrats of Bush Derangement Syndrome: that they hated George W. Bush for everything he did, including the way he got into office, and used every opportunity, every malapropism, every little thing he did to mock him and try to destroy him. There was a lot of that, but then, when the subject provides such rich fodder and virtually invites it, it's hard to refuse. And while there were a lot of policy differences and a lot of strong words that came out of the years of the Bush administration from the progressives and the Democrats, it was mere child's play compared to the vitriol and unvarnished hatred that we're seeing as a matter of course from the right wing and the Republicans.
Where the Democrats and the liberal blogosphere were snarky and enjoyed the late-night monologue fodder at the expense of Mr. Bush, the Republicans have made hatred of Barack Obama their party platform. They have codified their Obama Derangement Syndrome into the legislative process to the point that they are willing to wreck the economy, turn back decades of environmental progress, deny women control over their own bodies, destroy nearly a century of progress in workers rights and union representation, dismantle the public safety net, tear down public schools and higher education, give back the robber barons all the control they once had over vast swaths of the economy, and dream up new ways of demonizing undocumented immigrants and gay people, all because they hate "That Man in the White House." (It's not the first time they've used that term. They did the same to FDR; the phrase came about because certain Republicans couldn't even say the name "Roosevelt." To them, he was their Voldemort: "He Who Must Not Be Named.")
The racially-tinged elements of it are, at this point, almost beside the point. Even if the whole birth certificate thing had never come up, there is still the mindset in the Republican party, now calcified into party platform bedrock, that any president who is not a Republican is not a legitimate leader of the country. His election is tainted, his motives are evil, he has somehow usurped the powers vested in him by the Constitution, and therefore there is no reason whatsoever to work with him.
By all accounts, we are eight days away from a real fiscal crisis that could damage the lives of just about every person in this country and have a tsunami impact on the global economy as well. (Of course, there are hard right-wing deniers, and even those who say it would be a good thing; it would teach us a lesson.) The fact that we are even to this point of crisis tells you that they're doing it purely out of spite.
I still remain optimistic that an agreement, albeit an ugly and deformed one, will come out of this and the debt ceiling will be raised and somehow a crisis will be averted. I say that not because I believe the Republicans will finally come to their senses and decide, to paraphrase Spock, that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the Tea Party. They'll do it because somewhere, somehow, someone in the bowels of the Capitol or Grover Norquist's mind, they'll come up with a way to turn it to their political advantage and use it to try to defeat President Obama next year. That's been their goal all along.
Fetch more...
Mr. Reid, the Senate’s top Democrat, was trying on Sunday to cobble together a plan to raise the government’s debt limit by $2.4 trillion through the 2012 elections, with spending cuts of about $2.7 trillion that would not touch any of the entitlement programs that are dear to Democrats or raise taxes, which is anathema to Republicans.Each side accused the other of playing politics; each side tried to come up with a plan that would not totally alienate their base of voters; each side tried to come up with something to say on the Sunday morning chat shows that would go viral on the blogs to keep the pressure on the other; and each side tried to come up with a solution that would prevent their respective leaders from being painted as too conciliatory to the other side because, after all, the most important thing is that they appear reasonable while the other side is painted as the lunatic hostage-taker.
President Obama could endorse such a plan, even though it would fall far short of the ambitious goal of deficit reduction and entitlement changes that he says are necessary to shore up the nation’s finances.
At the White House on Sunday evening, Mr. Obama spent about an hour meeting in the Oval Office to try to hash out details of the Democratic proposal with Mr. Reid and the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi. The two emerged from the meeting with nothing to say to the throngs of reporters who had been encamped there for the third consecutive weekend, awaiting an agreement on the debt ceiling.
But administration and Congressional officials said that during the meeting, Mr. Obama and the Democratic leaders had resolved to hold firm against any short-term agreement that did not raise the debt ceiling beyond next year’s presidential elections.
The offers and the counter-offers are getting to the point where it's hard to keep track of them. The Democrats sound like they're on the verge of giving the GOP everything they want -- huge cuts with no revenue -- and still the Republicans aren't buying it.
What this saga does is emphasize just how much of a gap there is between the Democrats and the Republicans, not just on this particular issue, but on everything. And it's not just ideology that's doing it. It's visceral.
During the Bush administration, the right wing used to accuse the Democrats of Bush Derangement Syndrome: that they hated George W. Bush for everything he did, including the way he got into office, and used every opportunity, every malapropism, every little thing he did to mock him and try to destroy him. There was a lot of that, but then, when the subject provides such rich fodder and virtually invites it, it's hard to refuse. And while there were a lot of policy differences and a lot of strong words that came out of the years of the Bush administration from the progressives and the Democrats, it was mere child's play compared to the vitriol and unvarnished hatred that we're seeing as a matter of course from the right wing and the Republicans.
Where the Democrats and the liberal blogosphere were snarky and enjoyed the late-night monologue fodder at the expense of Mr. Bush, the Republicans have made hatred of Barack Obama their party platform. They have codified their Obama Derangement Syndrome into the legislative process to the point that they are willing to wreck the economy, turn back decades of environmental progress, deny women control over their own bodies, destroy nearly a century of progress in workers rights and union representation, dismantle the public safety net, tear down public schools and higher education, give back the robber barons all the control they once had over vast swaths of the economy, and dream up new ways of demonizing undocumented immigrants and gay people, all because they hate "That Man in the White House." (It's not the first time they've used that term. They did the same to FDR; the phrase came about because certain Republicans couldn't even say the name "Roosevelt." To them, he was their Voldemort: "He Who Must Not Be Named.")
The racially-tinged elements of it are, at this point, almost beside the point. Even if the whole birth certificate thing had never come up, there is still the mindset in the Republican party, now calcified into party platform bedrock, that any president who is not a Republican is not a legitimate leader of the country. His election is tainted, his motives are evil, he has somehow usurped the powers vested in him by the Constitution, and therefore there is no reason whatsoever to work with him.
By all accounts, we are eight days away from a real fiscal crisis that could damage the lives of just about every person in this country and have a tsunami impact on the global economy as well. (Of course, there are hard right-wing deniers, and even those who say it would be a good thing; it would teach us a lesson.) The fact that we are even to this point of crisis tells you that they're doing it purely out of spite.
I still remain optimistic that an agreement, albeit an ugly and deformed one, will come out of this and the debt ceiling will be raised and somehow a crisis will be averted. I say that not because I believe the Republicans will finally come to their senses and decide, to paraphrase Spock, that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the Tea Party. They'll do it because somewhere, somehow, someone in the bowels of the Capitol or Grover Norquist's mind, they'll come up with a way to turn it to their political advantage and use it to try to defeat President Obama next year. That's been their goal all along.
Fetch more...
Short Takes
Wall Street and other markets worry about the debt ceiling impasse.
There will be a slight break in the heat on the East Coast.
Rep. David Wu (D-OR) faces sexual assault allegations.
Back up -- Gas prices jumped 8.5 cents in the last two weeks.
Hugo Chavez is back in Venezuela after a round of Cuban chemo.
Budget cuts in Miami-Dade County target county employees.
On the other hand, maybe they can get a job working at the new Marlins stadium.
The Tigers take the series against the Twins.
Fetch more...
There will be a slight break in the heat on the East Coast.
Rep. David Wu (D-OR) faces sexual assault allegations.
Back up -- Gas prices jumped 8.5 cents in the last two weeks.
Hugo Chavez is back in Venezuela after a round of Cuban chemo.
Budget cuts in Miami-Dade County target county employees.
On the other hand, maybe they can get a job working at the new Marlins stadium.
The Tigers take the series against the Twins.
Fetch more...
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Scenes From Childhood
Today is my car club's annual summer picnic, and we're expecting a good crowd. It's also the first year that I'm taking the Pontiac as an almost-antique; with the 2012 models in the showroom, it is one year shy of the 25 years required to be an antique in the car collector world, but who's counting?
It's a bit of serendipity to see this article by Mark Phelan in the Detroit Free Press about the American Station Wagon Owners Association having their annual meet in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit.
Whatever. I just think that big old station wagons are cool.
HT to Marquette John.
Fetch more...
It's a bit of serendipity to see this article by Mark Phelan in the Detroit Free Press about the American Station Wagon Owners Association having their annual meet in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit.
Growing up in the 1950's and '60's in the suburbs, my family had wagons, including one just like the 1963 Ford Country Squire above. They were standard equipment in the 'burbs, along with the country club, the madras golf pants, the charge account at Brooks Brothers, boarding school, and the martini shaker. Not to get all pop-psych on it, but maybe that's why I still hold on to my station wagon; it's my link to my childhood and fuzzy retouched memories of simpler and happier times, even though they were not that simple, and happiness is always relative.Station wagons were the farthest thing from cool when Mike Bonkowski drove his mother's 1975 Dodge Coronet Crestwood wagon to Detroit Catholic Central High School in 1985.
But a gathering of wagons from the 1950s to the present drew admirers Saturday in Dearborn.
In addition to the Coronet, Bonkowski brought his 2007 Dodge Magnum wagon. He was the only multi-wagon exhibitor at the annual convention of the American Station Wagon Owners Association. It took place in Dearborn in conjunction with the Telegraph Cruise.
The association has about 400 members -- including some in Sweden, Germany and Australia -- said association president Tim Cleary. He drove his 1988 Mercury Colony Park wagon from Charlotte, N.C. Cleary has owned nine '88 and '89 Mercury wagons.
Club members planned to finish the weekend with a car show at a Dearborn motel, cruises with other classics on Telegraph, and burgers Saturday night.
Station wagons stand out at classic car gatherings, said Dave Marchioni, who drove his '68 Ford LTD Country Squire from St. Clair Shores. "If you take a wagon to any cruise, you'll be the rare car, not the Mustangs or Camaros," he said.
A two-tone 1953 Chevrolet Tradesman with a surf board on top of its chopped roof stood out among the wagons Saturday in Dearborn. Gary Koscielniak of Belleville spent about 14 years restoring the Tradesman, his third wagon.
"I like it because of the lowered roof," Koscielniak said. "The stock model has such a high roof, it looks like an ambulance."
Prices for classic wagons have begun to rise -- sometimes topping those for old convertibles and sedans on eBay, Cleary said. The most sought-after wagons on the association's Web site are full-size models from the 1960s and '70s with wood-grain sides, he said.
Whatever. I just think that big old station wagons are cool.
HT to Marquette John.
Fetch more...
Sunday Reading
James Fallows suggests that it's time for President Obama to deliver a tough speech.
Good Dog -- Rose Russell of the Toledo Blade reports that therapy dogs make a difference.
Fetch more...
Years ago I saw this headline in The Onion: "AMISH GIVE UP. 'This is Bullshit,' Elders Say."More below the fold.
It may be time for President Obama to give a "This is bullshit" speech about the debt-ceiling negotiations. Merrill Goozner has done an item worth noticing. It's a proposed Presidential Address next week about the folly of Congress failing to authorize an increase in the debt ceiling, to pay for programs and tax cuts that Congress has already voted to enact. The speech begins:"My fellow Americans. It is my sad duty to report that the House of Representatives, having voted over many years to establish this vast enterprise we call the federal government, which touches each one of our lives, has under its new leadership decided not to pay for the programs it voted to create. I now must carry out my constitutional duties, which are twofold. I must honor the commitment that the United States government has made to millions of lenders here at home and abroad. And, I must carry out the programs that Congress has voted to create.And it builds to this conclusion about the steps the President will take to ensure that the nation honors its debts, as it has through war, depression, and strife through the preceding two centuries:
"Unfortunately, Congress' failure to raise the debt ceiling means there is insufficient money to do both. Therefore, I must do the best I can with the resources at hand, while not violating the constitution...""I am by law required to honor the obligations of the U.S. government, which were appropriated by Congress and signed into law by me and previous presidents. Even as I am distraught beyond words at the pain the irresponsible actions of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives have brought on the American people, I must do my duty....Or more plainly, "This is bullshit." That is how it looks to all the rest of the world, and to the great majority of Americans. When it came to intervening in Libya, President Obama decided to do what he considered proper first, and worry about the Constitutional niceties second. In this instance the case for acting in the nation's interest first, and letting people complain later -- if they want, even start impeachment hearings -- is much stronger. We are talking about a wholly unnecessary shock to the worldwide economic system and to America's short- and long-term prospects, brought about by a wholly artificial debt-ceiling law. I suggest that the White House speechwriting office take a look at Goozner's draft. Maybe the President too.
Good Dog -- Rose Russell of the Toledo Blade reports that therapy dogs make a difference.
Whoever said dogs are man’s best friend got it only partly correct.Hacking the Rupester -- Carl Hiaasen listens in on Rupert Murdoch's voice mail.
Dogs are not only man’s, and woman’s, best buddies but they also seem to be miracle workers in their ability to soothe our anxieties and calm us when we are upset. They have special insight, as they often seem to know when something is wrong.
And they are social experts because they pull the reserved outside of themselves, a role that is becoming increasingly common for therapy dogs.
That’s why Jill and Mike Perretti acquired a therapy dog for their son Matthew, 14, a ninth grader at Anthony Wayne High School this fall, who has Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism.
"I wanted to give him something that would make him responsible for something outside of himself," said Ms. Perretti, Matthew’s mother.
Matthew, who has a 3-year-old male golden doodle named Tango, communicates with animals better than people. And Tango, of course, accepts the teenager unconditionally.
"That’s why we went with a therapy dog," she said.
Matthew got his first therapy dog when he was about 7. Onyx, a black Labrador, has since died, but having her was a rewarding experience for the Perrettis, and Matthew asked for another one.
"We didn’t realize at the time the impact Onyx had on being able to calm him down," Ms. Perretti said. "The dog was a source of him thinking outside himself. We didn’t need to remind him to feed or brush the dog."
Tango doesn’t go to school with Matthew. He does not have public access rights. But Matthew talks about Tango.
"We found that he was approaching and interacting with people without having to be prompted," Ms. Perretti said.
BEEP: “Rupert, this is Wendi. Guess what? Piers Morgan called and he wants me to do a whole hour about me punching that pie-thrower at Parliament! I know you’d rather I give the interview to Fox but, darling, Piers and I go way back. Please be a love and say yes. I’ll be in my private fitting room at Harrod’s if you need to reach me.”Doonesbury -- The cloak of invisibility.
BEEP: “Dad, this is James. Sorry I wasn’t much help the other day when that nitwit attacked you with the cream pie. As you know, ever since I was a small boy I’ve had a deathly fear of pastry. Otherwise I would have hurled myself between you and that madman. Honest.
BEEP: Mr. Murdoch, this is Hugh Grant. Yes, Hugh Grant the actor. Remember how your dirtbag reporters kept hacking my phones a few years ago while I was dating that super-hot socialite whose name now escapes me? Well, you shriveled old goat, guess what. Now I’ve got your voicemail code and I’m eavesdropping on all your personal messages. Ha!”
BEEP: “Mr. Murdoch, this is Dr. Entwistle, the urologist. We got your tests back today and I’d like to schedule an appointment at your earliest convenience.”
BEEP: “Ha, Rupert, I heard that! Hugh Grant here again and, speaking on behalf of all the celebrities whose phones got hacked by your hacks, let me just say that I hope your prostate gland is the size of a croquet ball!”
BEEP: “Rupert, this is Prime Minister David Cameron. I want to personally apologize for the inexcusable security lapse that allowed that impudent pie-thrower to smack you in the face the other day. (But bravo for Wendi, eh?) Listen, Rupe old boy, you understand that despite our close friendship and all the self-serving advice that you’ve given me since I took office, I must continue condemning your newspapers publicly every chance I get, in order to save my own political hide. Please know that I still consider you a dear chum . . . whoa — this line is secure, right?”
BEEP: “Mr. Murdoch, this is Jude Law. Yes, Jude Law the actor. You might recall that I’m suing one of your papers for stealing my private phone messages. I just wanted to tell you how distressed I was to hear that your prostate apparently is now the size of a cantaloupe. Oh, and Hugh Grant says cheers.”
Fetch more...
Short Takes
The gunman in Norway claims he acted alone.
They're still trying to come up with a deal on the debt ceiling.
A lot of people got married in New York at midnight.
R.I.P. Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, 75, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Amy Winehouse, 27, singer.
Red-light cameras aren't the cash cows that a lot of Florida cities thought they were.
The heat wave is still on in the Midwest and East.
Tropical Update: Invest 90 is west of the Leewards.
The Tigers lost to the Twins.
Fetch more...
They're still trying to come up with a deal on the debt ceiling.
A lot of people got married in New York at midnight.
R.I.P. Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, 75, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Amy Winehouse, 27, singer.
Red-light cameras aren't the cash cows that a lot of Florida cities thought they were.
The heat wave is still on in the Midwest and East.
Tropical Update: Invest 90 is west of the Leewards.
The Tigers lost to the Twins.
Fetch more...
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Kabuki Kablooie
The debt talks got to the tantrum stage yesterday when House Speaker John Boehner took his balls and went back to the House, presumably to give them back to Eric Cantor.
It's theatre; as predictable as a traditional Japanese kabuki. We know how it will end. (Ezra Klein lays out the three scenarios.) The stock characters all know their roles and their actions, the audience knows exactly what they're going to see, the outcome is preordained. And still we watch because we wait to see if there's any enlightenment for us by observing the characters in their roles.
Fetch more...
Facing the specter of the government’s first default, President Obama summoned congressional leaders to the White House for an emergency meeting Saturday morning, and Senate leaders rushed to revive a fallback strategy for raising the debt limit before the Aug. 2 deadline.This whole thing is playing out the way these crisis situations always do; lurid bits of gossip being floated by reporters on the White House lawn and trying to come up with some reason to justify staying on the air and preempting a rebroadcast of a 2003 episode of Lockdown.
“We have now run out of time,” a visibly angry Obama said during an impromptu White House news conference held after Boehner (R-Ohio) called to say he was walking out on the talks for the second time in two weeks — again citing differences over taxes. Now, Obama said, “one of the questions that the Republican Party is going to have to ask itself is: Can they say yes to anything?”
It's theatre; as predictable as a traditional Japanese kabuki. We know how it will end. (Ezra Klein lays out the three scenarios.) The stock characters all know their roles and their actions, the audience knows exactly what they're going to see, the outcome is preordained. And still we watch because we wait to see if there's any enlightenment for us by observing the characters in their roles.
Fetch more...
Short Takes
The death toll in Norway has reached 91. A suspect identified as a Christian fundamentalist has been taken into custody.
The heat wave continues in the East.
Cuba: "Imprisoned U.S. contractor Alan Gross told Cuba's Supreme Court Friday he had no intention of hurting the island's government or people when he worked on Internet technology there, traveling as a tourist."
Doggone: A former state rep is in the doghouse over a Weimaraner being kept in a custody dispute.
Tropical Update: Cindy has fizzled out in the Atlantic; the next disturbance is starting up down by Barbados.
The Tigers beat the Twins. They are still in first place in the AL Central.
Fetch more...
The heat wave continues in the East.
Cuba: "Imprisoned U.S. contractor Alan Gross told Cuba's Supreme Court Friday he had no intention of hurting the island's government or people when he worked on Internet technology there, traveling as a tourist."
Doggone: A former state rep is in the doghouse over a Weimaraner being kept in a custody dispute.
Tropical Update: Cindy has fizzled out in the Atlantic; the next disturbance is starting up down by Barbados.
The Tigers beat the Twins. They are still in first place in the AL Central.
Fetch more...
Friday, July 22, 2011
Bombing In Norway
Via The New York Times:
Fetch more...
Norway suffered two shocking attacks on Friday, when powerful explosions shook the government center in the capital and, shortly after, a gunman stalked youths on an island summer camp for children of members of the governing Labor Party. Police were treating the assaults, which together killed at least 16 people, as connected, according to Norweigian news media, though it remained unclear who was behind them.Live updates here.
The explosions, presumably from one or more bombs, turned the ordinarily placid Scandinavian capital into a scene reminiscent of terror attacks in Beirut or Baghdad or Oklahoma City, blowing out windows of several government buildings, including one housing the office of the Norwegian prime minister, who was unharmed. The state television broadcaster, citing the police, said seven people were killed and at least 15 injured in the explosions.
Even as police locked down a large area of the city, a man dressed as a police officer entered the camp on the island of Utoya, about 25 miles northwest of Oslo, a Norwegian security official said, and opened fire.
“The situation’s gone from bad to worse,” said Runar Kvernen, spokesman for the National Police Directorate under the Ministry of Justice and Police, adding that most of the children at the camp were 15 and 16 years old. Panicked youths jumped in to the water to escape or went into hiding on the island, which has no bridge to the mainland, a witness said. Many could not flee in time.
Oslo police said that 9 or 10 people were killed at the camp, according to The Associated Press. A witness on the island told the state broadcaster that he saw between 20 and 25 bodies on the island, The A.P. reported; the full extent of the carnage remained to be learned.
Fetch more...
How To Treat A Lady
Pawlenty of Sexism
Tim Pawlenty is trying to get some attention in the presidential race.
Fetch more...
Tim Pawlenty became the first candidate to address the highly sensitive issue of rival Michele Bachmann's chronic migraines, saying on Wednesday that potential presidents need to work "all of the time."Well, at least he didn't say that he has concerns about her "female troubles," so I suppose that doesn't make him a complete jerk.
"All of the candidates I think are going to have to be able to demonstrate they can do all of the job all of the time," he told reporters, per Politico. "There's no real time off in that job."
Fetch more...
The Deal Dealing: Rumor Has It
Rumors are flying about the possibility of a "grand deal" being struck between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending.
I've lost count of the number of times in the last month that I've read something that a final deal is in the works and that President Obama has sold out to the GOP or that the Tea Party is revolting (Cue Mel Brooks: "You said it! They stink on ice!"), or that it's 90% spending cuts and 10% revenue hikes that will happen later but never happen at all, or any number of variations in between.
But until something actually happens, there's no point in getting worked up, especially in this heat.
Fetch more...
The status of negotiations has Democratic aides on both sides of the Capitol nervous and unhappy. And the notion that the impasse over the debt limit may be nearing an end is sparking denials from both the White House and Boehner's office -- in part, perhaps, because neither side has buy-in from their parties on a consensus plan.A lot of people are getting tired and freaked out about waiting to see about the wait-and-see game that's going on. No one who is talking really knows what's going on. There's a fair share of people on both sides of the debate going to the mattresses on their side selling out to the other; I turned on Ed Schultz last night and he was in full rant mode. (But then, he always seems to be. That's his schtick, bless 'em.)
A White House spokesman called the claims from aides "not credible" -- the result of having a "third-hand version of the facts."
Later, White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer tweeted that reports of a $3 trillion deal without revenues were incorrect. "POTUS believes we need a balanced approach that includes revenues," he wrote. However, what the President believes and what he may ultimately feel compelled to sign off on are not necessarily the same. Equally, Pfeiffer's tweet would not seem to rule out the idea of "aspirational" revenues that would come at some unspecified time in the future, while coupled with cuts that could begin immediately.
Two aides and a third source close to the principals confirmed that Obama has been emphatic with Democratic negotiators that his preference is to negotiate a big deal with Boehner and squeeze it through Congress.
Lacking still, including among Democratic sources, is any sense of what's in the still-forming plan -- vis a vis both spending and revenue. And Democrats, particularly in the House, will have a lot to say over whether the deal is acceptable -- their votes will be necessary for Boehner to pull off a grand bargain.
I've lost count of the number of times in the last month that I've read something that a final deal is in the works and that President Obama has sold out to the GOP or that the Tea Party is revolting (Cue Mel Brooks: "You said it! They stink on ice!"), or that it's 90% spending cuts and 10% revenue hikes that will happen later but never happen at all, or any number of variations in between.
But until something actually happens, there's no point in getting worked up, especially in this heat.
Fetch more...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
