Hullabaloo

noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:01:33 PST

The Thrill (Up The Leg) Is Gone

by digby

..it turns out that Obama is a limp girly man after all.

Chris Matthews: He is leading with his chin on just about every issue out there -- healthcare, terror trials, job losses, even the breast cancer report. He's exposed and vulnerable. His poll numbers are dropping.

Is he just too darned intellectual? Too much the egghead? Why did he bow to that Japanese emperor? Why did he pick Tim Geitner to be his economic front man? Why all this dithering over Afghanistan? And who thought it was a wonderful idea to bring the killers of 9/11 to New York City, the media capital of the world ... so they could tell their story?

Is Obama channeling Adlai Stevenson for heaven sake?

He and Ron Brownstein and Susan Page of USA today went on to discuss the fact that Obama is an egghead and an elitist who's listening to Ivy Leagers who think they know everything instead of Real Americans who "went to state schools." (I'm not kidding, that's what they said.) I guess Matthews hasn't heard that song for a while and as with his favorite Pat Boone album, he just has to get it out and play it now and again.

Not that I think Obama is doing a terrific job of speaking to the everyday concerns of Americans. But it's not because he's too smart and went to Harvard fergawdsakes. (As I wrote yesterday, one of the smartest populist reformers around is Elizabeth Warren, who also happens to be a Harvard professor.)

But if what you want is stupid, folksy, common touch know-nothingness, here's a memorable little pile of dumb:

Matthews: I've been so impressed by Lincoln's words this week --- government of, by and for the people. It isn't government of, by and for the people. This is being decided, the biggest issue of our time, this economic crisis, the worst, according to the wall Street Journal,since the 1930s, by people so much bigger headed than most voters, than most members of congress, certainly than me. This is being decided by people like Hank Paulson.

THANK GOD this president has this secretary of treasury and not the one other ones he had before, perhaps. But Richard, the people can't vote on things like this.

Wolf: (nods sagely)

Matthews: We can't understand it. I'm one of them. I don't get it. What are all these derivatives and all this short selling and all this complicated financial ... skigamadoo or whatever you call it. What is it?

Wolf: Even the candidates have problem getting through this alphabet soup. I mean, they've both mangled the players and the key terms of those involved here. Are they talking about firing the right person when he talks about Chris Cox? Is it Fannie Mac or Freddie Mae?

Matthews: I'm just wondering if it's above our pay grade? I think Carly Fiorina may have been right. These guys can run for president but they can't be Secretary of the Treasury.

Matthews: Even elected presidents can't master this financial game. It's too complicated. Shouldn't they come out and tell us who their economic team's gonna be? ... The reason I ask is because we saw the president this week and Bush has all the native intelligence you can have. He doesn't want to touch it because for a layman to start talking about the economy right now is very dangerous. Right Lynn?

Lynn Sweet: It's tough. It's interesting because who would have thought that his treasury secretary would emerge from this crisis...

Matthews:the third secretary, two are gone...

Sweet: Right. That he would emerge from this looking as the strong person in the administration, who's pulling it together. And we'll see if the congress gives him the power to run the economy.

Matthews: Is congress willing to make him King Henry as they put on the one of the magazine covers?

Wolf: the cover of Newsweek...

Matthews: Will they let him be King Henry?

I don't think anyone's going to mistake Matthews for an intellectual any time soon, so he's safe from the Stevenson curse. No egghead is he, this man who was ready to name the Treasury Secretary King at the first sign of trouble.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:58:44 PST

Dance With Them That Brung You

by digby

Looks like Sarah Palin has disappointed some of her fans:

She's making a big mistake. One of the most important things a country star does is cater to the fans. It's expected that they will stay for long hours and sign memorabilia and get their picture taken:

Have you ever wondered why careers of country stars last a long, long time? The biggest reason, of course, is great songs. Another reason is that country stars know how to treat fans. Look at Kenny Chesney, one of the hottest out there, who is always ready with a smile at a meet-and-greet. George Jones and Willie Nelson are always ready to give an autograph or have a photo snapped. One year during Fan Fair, Garth Brooks signed autographs for 23 hours without a taking a pee break. Amazing! Alan Jackson, tall, country and shy, will always allow a photo and share an autograph. It's just part of being country.

I've reported before when young artists refused to give fans autographs. Once again, I have to remind you youngsters that fans are the reason you are allowed to go onstage and sing. You owe your career to the fans. Sorry, but I've got to call names, and it makes me angry.

Maybe there were extenuating circumstances and legitimate reasons that some of these situations occurred, but artists -- especially young artists -- deserve to be told how the public views their off-stage behavior. They need to know what the word is on the street.

A case in point is the recent Indiana State Fair. It runs for 10 days in Indianapolis, and country stars perform there each and every day. It's wonderful to get a report back that says, "Darryl Worley is the nicest guy you will ever meet."

Then I hear Miranda Lambert refused to give autographs for security reasons. How crazy is that? Security? I have become a fan of this girl, and she has lots of fans, but will they stay around if she refuses to give autographs? I doubt it.

Yep. Indiana.

Palin may have felt she could walk away from her Alaskan constituents after less than two years, but she's better not walk away from her fans. Being a big shot country celebrity is a very ritualistic pursuit and she had better learn the rules.

And unfortunately for her, country stars have to have a very, very strong work ethic. They work hard for their money and always put the fans first.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:01 PST

Talking Points For Turkey Day

by digby

Campaign For America's Future does yeoman's work on many important issues, most recently their campaign to bring back America's manufacturing base. They are committed progressives who put their time and effort into making the country better for average people every day.

But for all the important things they do, this may be the most immediately useful and practical for you and me:

Dear Heather,

For millions of Americans, Thanksgiving is home, food, and family. And for many of us, the inevitable polite conversation with the uncle who has squandered too many hours listening to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

How are you to survive an evening with your Uncle Mortimer?

You know, the uncle who looks vaguely like Dick Cheney. He worships Ronald Reagan, considers "French" an insult, and wants to know where Obama was really born. Neither he nor his wife, Aunt Minerva, ever tips more than ten percent.

Uncle Mort knows you're a "liberal," and he eagerly sits next to you at the Thanksgiving table, armed and ready with the usual conservative tripe. Not surprisingly, he starts with what's hot:

***

Thanksgiving Day: Gearing up for the Chat with Uncle Mort

Mort: You hear about Sarah Palin's new book?

Heather: Uhhh...

Mort: She's on the march! Giving Republicans some backbone. Given the mess Obama has made of things, Americans are going to sweep Democrats out in the fall.

Heather: We'll see. Didn't work out for Republicans very well in upstate New York.

Mort: You watch. A Palin-Beck ticket will cast out Obama and his socialist crowd. The turkey.

Heather: Please, Obama's no turkey, he...

Mort: No, no. Pass the turkey. The problem with Barack Hussein Obama is that he's spending us into bankruptcy. And it hasn't worked!

Heather: How long did it take you to get that shop of yours to turn a profit? Two, three years. So Obama inherits the worst economy since the Great Depression, two wars, a broken health care system, an economic hole that took years to dig - and you want miracles in 10 months? In fact, he staved off the crash and the economy is showing some signs of life. More needs to be done.

If it weren't for the Recovery Act, layoffs at your nieces' schools would be twice as bad. In fact, what we need is more federal help - for states, for jobs rebuilding schools and roads. We need more jobs programs, not less. The gravy...

Mort: More spending isn't gravy, America can't afford it.

Heather: No, no, pass the gravy please.

Actually, we need more federal spending now. Unemployment could remain over 10 percent through all of next year unless Congress creates jobs. We need to put young people to work, aid states and localities to prevent layoffs of police and teachers, and expand investments in new energy and infrastructure to boost our economy.

We can afford it. Interest rates aren't soaring. And our debt and deficits will get worse if we don't get the economy going.

Mort: Ha! Your party is already going to create a one-trillion dollar deficit with its plan for a government takeover of all health care.

Heather: It's funny you say that. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the health care reform legislation will lower the federal deficit by more than $100 billion over the next ten years.

And it's not just about cost. Aunt Mary is terrified about losing her job because she won't get insured with her current ailments.

Well, under the reform, insurance companies no longer can deny people insurance for pre-existing conditions, or cut them off of insurance when they get sick. We've got a stake in this right here around this table.

Mort: Baloney.

Heather: I don't think that's on tonight's menu.

Mort: You know what I mean. Like "global warming," or does Al Gore call it "climate change" now? Nothing but an excuse for a giant Pelosi energy tax.

Heather: Come on, you can't believe this stuff. You don't want America to remain dependent on foreign oil, running up foreign debts to buy oil from countries that help finance the terrorists.

You laugh about ice caps melting - but I can tell you farmers care, and now insurance companies are starting to charge higher rates because of the cataclysms to come.

We both want America to succeed. Well, the green industrial revolution will be the engine of growth over the next decades. Obama's saying let's invest in new energy, new technology, new efficiency - both to get us off of our addiction to foreign oil and to help lead this new revolution. That's the way America built its prosperity - and its middle class.

Mort: Yea, but private companies provide jobs, not government. We don't capture new markets with government spending.

Heather: Yes, private companies will profit and expand. But government investment has always been key to our industries.

Think airlines out of World War II. The Internet, which started as a Pentagon program. Computers, and now biotechnology.

If we want to compete in the new energy field, we need public and private leadership to drive this forward. If we don't, our grandchildren will inherit a frightening world. And the countries that work to capture these industries - the Chinese, the Germans - will eat our lunch in the new economy.

Mort: I'll think about lunch later. Look, what we need now is leadership to get us out of this hole. Obama is taking us into a free-fall.

Heather: Leadership? Please. Where is the leadership on the Right? Limbaugh said on Day One he wanted Obama to fail. This while the country was in the midst of an economic crisis and two wars. Conservatives decided from the beginning that they would bet on his failure, and obstruct everything he tried to do - spurning his offers to negotiate. They chose to be the Party of No.

Mort: We conservatives have a plan. Cut spending, cut taxes. Let's get back to small government, free markets. A strong military. Dithering over Afghanistan isn't what made America strong.

Heather: I understand, we'll have to agree to disagree. But remember, we tried that way for eight years, and let's face it, the result was calamity.

The longest and deepest recession and the worst financial crisis since the 1930's. One of the worst foreign policy mistakes in American history - the preemptive war in Iraq.

An unprecedented rejection of fundamental human rights, a culture of sleaze, and Watergate-style abuses of power. Gilded Age economic inequality and a blind rejection of science.

And in the aftermath of one of our nation's worst natural disasters, Hurricane Katrina, there was sheer incompetence and indifference to human suffering.

The free-fall happened, and now we give thanks that the worst is over.

Next fall, Americans will have to decide if they want to go back that way. That's a debate I'll look forward to having.

Mort: Me too. We can agree to disagree. Pass me more of that turkey. I do agree it's particularly good this year.

Heather: Thanks, I knew you'd like it. It's local and organic!

***

To all of you, whether your dinner companions shine red or blue, we at the Campaign for America's Future wish you a happy Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,

Robert L. Borosage, Co-director
Campaign for America's Future

Send it along to all of your liberal friends. You know they're going to need it.

Seriously, CAF does a number of really useful things that sometimes fly below the radar but really make a difference. This, for instance.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:58:08 PST

Auntie Andrea And Little Luke

by digby

More sage insights from the spawn of Russert:

Andrea Mitchell: Luke, you've been watching all of the vote counting up there. Harry Reid is bring a vote to the floor, most people think he's a pretty good vote counter. With Ben Nelson indicating that he'll at least let it get to the floor, they're going to get this up for debate.

Little Luke:That's what all signs are point to right now. But the interesting thing we can take away from this is a point that NBC producer Ken Strickland made that I think is great. It's that Harry Reid, no matter what happens, he is showing to the liberal base that he has done everything in his power to get a bill with a public option to the floor at least up for debate.

This satisfies the liberals, this satisfies the MoveOn.org crowd, and really, I think it will show him to be the standard bearer of the liberal cause, Andrea.

Andrea Mitchell: Luke Russert, you're in the right place with the best story in town. Thanks so much.

Young Luke is quite the analyst. You can see why he was vaulted to the top of the American news business over the heads of others who have far more training, brains and ability. It's in the blood.

Just in case anyone missed it, Little Luke thinks that actually getting a public option in the bill isn't important to liberals--- the real victory is that the public option got to the floor. Apparently, Villagers think this whole thing was simply a bid for attention and now that the savvy Reid has delivered that, it doesn't matter what the bill has in it, we just love him to death. After all, liberals would certainly would never be so bold as to forget our place and think we might actually win something. How silly.

To the wise and worldly Little Luke, liberals are children to be appeased with gestures and shiny objects. I wonder where he learned that?

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:25:07 PST

Circus Circus

by digby

Republican strategis Cheri Jacobs said on MSNBC that the KSM trial will be a "referendum on torture." If only. Evidently, she was riffing on her piece this morning in The Hill in which she compared KSM to OJ Simpson and accused the Obama administration of having the trials in NYC in order to get a liberal jury to acquit Khalid Sheik Mohammed because they hate Bush and are trying to distract from their failed presidency:

Obama will retread his “blame Bush” message to shift attention from his own failures. We will be implored to feel sympathy for al Qaeda after dramatic testimony of terrorists undergoing enhanced interrogation techniques. What we won’t hear are the far more horrific details of the deaths of thousands of Americans killed on Sept. 11, 2001. And, sadly, an American defense attorney will object to descriptions of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed putting his sword to the throat of Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl, slicing open his neck and beheading him, leaving his pregnant wife widowed and his unborn son fatherless. An American judge may be compelled to sustain the objection.
War crimes are uniquely brutal. They require a unique form of justice. Obama and Holder have confidence in war commissions for some terrorists, but not for others. Why? Is Obama preparing to exploit the deaths of 3,000 Americans killed by an act of war in order to score politically with yet more “anti-Bush” campaign camouflage? For a juror, will a guilty vote on an al Qaeda terrorist who was waterboarded seem like support for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney — and a vote against Obama?
We are at war. Holder acknowledged that fact at Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his fellow enemy combatants are war criminals, yet Obama and Holder have decided these terrorists are more like O.J. than Osama. Remember what happened to justice by a jury of peers with O.J. Simpson.

I don't think Sarah Palin could have made a worse argument. But nevermind --- in the 24 -addled minds of wingnuts, their violent bloody fantasies are all fact and should be recognized in any court of law as a form of "truth" beyond a reasonable doubt. Pornographic violence shall set you free. OJ and Osama, a tainted jury of Obama worshippers. All we need is Oprah and the wingnuts would pass out from the biggest "O" of their lifetime.

I'm beginning to wonder if this was a good idea too but obviously not for those reasons. The problem is that everyone who's defending these trials is saying that there is no possible way that KSM and the others won't be put to death at the end, which basically translates into the idea that these are going to be kangaroo courts with a pre-determined outcome. That doesn't exactly promote the basic tenet of out justice system --- innocent until proven guilty. (Chris Matthews went crazy after Jerry Nadler used the words "alleged" to describe the prisoners.)

I get that Holder says they will receive the maximum punishment --- he's the prosecutor. That's what they say. But rather than saying something like "we have faith in the rule of law" or that "justice will prevail," everyone else is indicating that the trial is just a silly formality as well. A little bit of sober respect for the process would go a long way right now. Otherwise, you really can't blame even decent people of principle (as opposed to twisted political opportunists) for wondering if the "show" actually is worth doing.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:44:48 PST

Big Ben

by digby

Ben Nelson has evidently decided not to join the Republicans and filibuster his own Party's historic health care reform bill. Huzzah.

Mary? Blanche?

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:09:30 PST

Desperation Is A Lagging Indicator

by digby

Atrios notes that politicians should probably try to seriously address this problem if only because it tends to create a testy electorate:

From the BLS: Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary
Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, 13 states registered rate decreases, and 8 states had no rate change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the year, jobless rates increased in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
...
Michigan again recorded the highest unemployment rate among the states, 15.1 percent, in October. The states with the next highest rates were Nevada, 13.0 percent; Rhode Island, 12.9 percent; California, 12.5 percent; and South Carolina, 12.1 percent. The rate in California set a new series high, as did the rates in Delaware (8.7 percent) and Florida (11.2 percent). The District of Columbia also set a series high, 11.9 percent.

It is literally all over the map.

And even if unemployment turns around sharply in the next few months, it takes many, many more months before people begin to really grok that the worst is over. This is a bad one and yet you get the sense that everybody's just in a sort of suspended animation waiting for everything to be end.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:50:05 PST

Grand Old Party Training

by digby

In this interesting post Amanda Marcotte considers the case of the 10 year old who was tasered for refusing to take a shower (which I wrote about here.) She correctly defines this as child abuse and discusses the authoritarian mindset that informs this behavior.

This seems significant to me. As does this. Tasering children is simply beyond my comprehension.

Reading those pieces made me wonder something: has anyone ever asked America's hockey mom if she believes in hitting her kids? I'd be interested to know.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:00:01 PST

The Sound Of Worms Turning

by digby

It's getting ugly here in Lalaland:

LOS ANGELES — Some University of California regents who approved a student fee increase are trapped inside a UCLA building as protesters block the exits.
The demonstrators are being confronted Thursday by lines of baton-wielding campus police, California Highway Patrol officers and metal barriers.
University spokesman Phil Hampton says chains of demonstrators have linked arms to block the exits. One person inside the building says the regents have been held there for two hours. It is unclear how many remain inside.
Hampton says he can't confirm any injuries, although television footage shows one person was treated after being sprayed by an unknown substance.
Hundreds of protesters have marched at the campus for the past two days to oppose $2,500 in undergrad fee hikes through fall of next year.

And there's no end in sight:

In what's become a depressingly familiar story over the last 2 years, California faces another big budget deficit:
Less than four months after California leaders stitched together a patchwork budget, a projected deficit of nearly $21 billion already looms, according to a report to be released Wednesday by the state's chief budget analyst.
The new figure -- the nonpartisan analyst's first projection for the coming budget year -- threatens to send Sacramento back into budgetary gridlock and force more across-the-board cuts in state programs.

As the article points out, the deficit for 2009-10 (current fiscal year) is $6.3 billion, and the projected deficit for 2010-11 is $14.4 billion. Arnold is already talking about closing it with cuts:
"I think that there will be across-the-board cuts again," he said at a San Jose news conference....
"I can't think of any good solutions," said Assemblywoman Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), who chairs the budget committee. Although the projected deficit would be smaller than the last one, she said, "the cuts are going to be harder to make because we've already made such substantial cuts."

Well, that's comforting. Keep in mind that if California were a country it would be a member of the G8. This can't go on without affecting the rest of the country.

Once again, with feeling: cutting government spending during a recession makes the recession worse.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:00:02 PST

Historical Amnesia

by digby

Eric Alterman offers a timely little history lesson for the villagers who evidently were in some sort of giddy fugue state during the Bush years and think that Obama came into office with peace and prosperity instead of a smoking wreck of an economy. He tees off on this obnoxious article in Politico in which they characterized the deficit as Obama's "spending spree" without even mentioning that he's spent the money in an effort to stave off global economic collapse. I have my criticisms of the way they've gone about it, but to perpetuate the idea that they've just gone shopping is infuriating, particularly since it was that miscreant Bush who inherited peace and prosperity and then gave all the money away to his wealthy friends and then started two expensive wars --- which also enriched his wealthy friends.

Alterman corrects the record:

Even if the Politico editors are not interested in what may have happened in the past eight years to cause some of the deficits with which the Obama administration is forced to deal, we are. And here are just a couple of examples we found:
The Bush tax cuts: When the Bush tax cuts sunset at the end of 2010, the previous administration will have left the government holding the bag for well over $2 trillion in lost revenue. The extraordinary debt and deficits accrued during Bush’s tenure have been compounded by the implosion of the financial system. In addition, the estimated eventual costs of the costly, unnecessary, and counterproductive Iraq war are now in the trillions to say nothing of the costs of more than six years of failure in Afghanistan. What have they done for America?

As The New York Times’ David Cay Johnston recently noted, based on data compiled by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, by the time the Bush tax cuts expire next year, people in the top one percentile of annual household incomes will have received 23.5 percent of all the savings in the cuts. The combined savings of the bottom three income brackets was less than that.

In 2004, Peter Orszag, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote extensively on the costs of the Bush tax cuts as a fellow at the Brookings Institution. He explained that the only way to make the tax cuts permanent and fill the budget gap would be to make enormous cuts in vital government services or to institute new regressive taxes.

Were the cuts paid for, the burden would fall on those in the lower income brackets in both spending cuts to services and increased taxes. Up to this point, the Bush tax cuts have not been paid for in either significant cuts in spending or tax increases—merely with increased debt. David Johnston pointed out that the interest on that debt equals “a month worth of income taxes paid to the government by individuals.”

read on ...

The result of the mischaracterization about "spending sprees" and the deficit boogeyman that we see all over the media (and sadly, even among members of the administration) is this:

As the policy debate has unfolded in Washington this year, voters have consistently believed that tax cuts would do more than increased government spending to stimulate the economy and create jobs. Now that the nation’s unemployment rate has reached 10.2%, voters continue to hold that view.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 62% believe tax cuts are a better way to create jobs and fight unemployment. Only 21% believe that additional stimulus spending is a more effective tool. Earlier this year, as the first stimulus package was being debated in Congress, 62% of voters wanted the plan to have more tax cuts and less spending.

Given a different choice today, 51% believe canceling the rest of the stimulus money would create more jobs while 32% say spending the money would be the better approach to job creation. These findings are consistent with earlier polling. Most Americans say that, generally speaking, increased government spending is bad for the economy.

This is an intuitive response, and perfectly understandable. Everyone should tighten their belts when times are tough --- even the government, right? That is, of course, wrong, but this notion has been fed by conservative propaganda and exacerbated by the total failure of liberals to explain why they are wrong. People don't speak Keynesian --- someone has to translate it for them. And nobody has. The elites all blather to one another about cost curves and credit default swaps, the media midlessly drool over Palin's legs while passing on lazy narratives about "taxnspend" liberals without context or explanation --- and the people are left listening to their guts at best --- and Glenn Beck at worst. It's a problem.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:55:49 PST

The Real Deal

by digby

This is a must read profile of Dr Elizabeth Warren, a genuine great American populist reformer (who happens to teach at Harvard -- I know, shocking.)

In Elizabeth Warren’s world, credit card contracts would be so simple a teenager could read and understand them in four minutes. Loans would be as easy to compare as toasters, and online credit scores would be free.

“We need a new model: If you can’t explain it, you can’t sell it,” said Warren, 60, a Harvard University law professor who is head of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, in an interview.

The 1966 high school debate champion of Oklahoma may get what she wants. The House of Representatives will vote in December on her idea. She suggested a Financial Product Safety Commission in a 2007 article in the magazine Democracy. President Barack Obama proposed it to Congress in June as the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

I urge you to read the whole thing. Her mind is so lively and so finely tuned to the real economic environment that I wish I could lock every Democrat in Washington in a room with her for as long as it takes to get them to hear what she is saying and learn how to think along these lines. She's one of the very few who articulates the kind of reform populism that makes sense to average citizens and which might keep the know-nothing Palinite freakshow from looking good to increasingly desperate, working people in this country.

Update: Here's some neat post partisan populism: The Ron Paul, Alan Grayson bill to audit the fed just passed through the committee. Baby steps, folks.

h/t to bb

noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:00:01 PST

Where's Blanche?

by digby

As the Christian Science Monitor and virtually every other new organization is reminding us today, the success of health care reform is coming down to the wire and will depend on whether a very few perfidious Democrats decide to marginalize themselves by being teabagging heroes and blowing it up in the name stopping an impending socialistic takeover by the ACORN queens:

Where’s Blanche? Some moderate Democratic senators have yet to commit to voting in favor of letting debate on the bill to begin. In particular, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, have expressed varying degrees of skepticism about the costs and possible government intrusiveness related to healthcare reform.

If Senator Lincoln and her fellow moderates abandon the majority leader, the health effort is toast. Reid must bring them into line if he is to have a chance of convincing the notoriously independent Independent Joe Lieberman of backing the bill, as well.

Blanche Lincoln, as you all know, is the scourge of Blue America PAC, which has been dogging her mercilessly since the 4th of July. Howie Klein saw from the beginning that she was the weakest link in the perfidy chain --- she's up for reelection. Maybe she figures she can afford to lose her Democratic base which supports the public option --- lord knows the Creigh Deeds strategy is a winner. But she should do some thinking about that. Republicans always prefer to vote for Republicans and that doesn't leave many voters left for her.

This ad is running there now:

All anybody wants at this point is for Lincoln and her cohorts to not join Republican filibusters. It's not too much to ask.

If you want to keep this ad on the air over these next days, you can contribute here.

More here from the ad makers.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:06:15 PST

Wingnut Pork Is Bad For Your Health

by digby

So much for evidence based medicine:

While the Senate toned down the House's language on abortion restrictions, it may have ratcheted things up with another controversial reproductive-health issue: abstinence-only education. Sec. 2954 of the Senate health-reform bill, released Wednesday evening, restores funding for abstinence education.

It doesn't matter if it works or not. There are social conservatives out there depending on taxpayers money to sell medical voodoo for profit. And anyway, this is just one small provision among many that have been put in to the health care reform bill to push some dollars toward completely useless procedures that religious zealots and forced pregnancy entrepreneurs insist upon.

But it could have been worse. As far as I can tell the faith healing provision isn't in the Senate bill. Since Hatch was the one insisting that both abstinence-only education and prayer be covered as a health expense, maybe they got him to drop one of them.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:14:55 PST

Illegitimacy

by digby

Republicans have been working on a theory of voter fraud for decades, which is designed to suppress the vote and call into question the legitimacy of any Democratic victories. We know this. It is documented. I and many others have been writing about this for years. So this should not surprise anyone who follows this issue:

PPP's newest national survey finds that a 52% majority of GOP voters
nationally think that ACORN stole the Presidential election for Barack
Obama last year, with only 27% granting that he won it legitimately...

Overall 62% of Americans think Obama legitimately won the election to only 26% who think ACORN stole it for him, as few Democrats or independents buy into that line of thinking.

I had always thought they were gearing up for a full blown assault on "illegal immigrant" voting (and I would imagine that's in the pipeline as the demographics continue to shift.) But with the election of an African American, the ACORN thing was more salient to the racist base.

The conservative movement has long held that Democrats can never be legitimate office holders because it is an article of faith that a majority of the country believes as they do. The Village agrees --- they are always going on about how "this is a conservative country." So they can't compute how a person who doesn't run openly and proudly as a conservative Republican could possibly legitimately win an election.

Policy is irrelevant to all this, by the way. This is about tribal identity and culture, not politics and governance.

Update: Greenwald has more on the assault on ACORN today.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:30:01 PST

Which Way Will They Go?

by digby

The proposed Senate health bill is getting a good going over and I'm sure we'll all know the good the bad and the ugly before too long. Unfortunately, this is yet another small step to completion. They still have to vote, then it goes to conference and then both houses have to vote again. And each step is like having a fingernail slowly removed. Let's hope it's worth it.

The only thing I know at this point is that Wall Street hates it, and that's probably a good sign. Some of the the money that's going to health industry shareholders is going to go toward covering citizens instead. They naturally aren't going to like that but it's better for the health of the country in a million different ways.

There have been two analyses recently made public about the financial health of the health care sector after reform. The first by McKinsey and Co doesn't suggest Armageddon by any means and pretty much says that after some adjustments the industry is going to do just fine. Certain areas will actually improve while others will shrink a bit, but nothing cataclysmic will happen --- except more people will be covered.

Today another analysis appeared (pdf)called The Time Has Come to Kill This Bill which notes that the insurance companies have huge cash reserves and suggests that they will gouge their customers as much as possible before the reforms take place in order to build them even higher (much as the credit card companies are doing right now.) This will result in insurance becoming unaffordable for even more people and businesses in the short term which will be a good thing for the insurance industry. In the event of passage, it would seem they think the best way to protect their profits going forward is to make their customers so miserable that the government will be forced to repeal the act, a la Medicare Catastrophic.

So there you have it. Either the insurance companies are going to listen to McKinsey, which says that everyone will make out just fine under the new regime and not to panic or they will listen to those who not so subtly suggest that they screw their customers as hard as they can and build up as much cash as they can to keep fighting the reform.

I'll leave it to you to decide which path you think they're likely to take.

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noreply@blogger.com (tristero) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:46:13 PST

A Liberal's Ruff Tuff Creampuff Rhetoric

by tristero

Dave Neiwert discusses the first of a three part series by CNN on the resurgent militia movement, and what he has to say is very interesting. But I noticed something different.

Here's what the militia members got to tell America:

We're practicin' target acquisition...

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...

BRIAN", SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN VOLUNTEER MILITIA: Well, any time we get a Democratic president in the office, people become concerned, including myself and we get a resurgence out here.

MICHAEL LACKOMAR, SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN VOLUNTERR MILITIA: In short, I think he [Obama] could be dangerous for the nation.

Pretty scary stuff, especially considering these bozos are armed to the teeth with semi-automatics and the like.

And here's what the designated Liberal offered in response:

MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: The truth is, is that these groups are popping up like mushrooms after a spring rain.

Mushrooms. After a spring rain.

Mr. Potok, with all due respect...

The election of President Obama was not a spring rain, and rightwing paramilitary groups are not cute, little mushrooms. New militias are more like the slop from an overflowing sewage system after a drought-ending deluge.

In short, the simile Mark Potok used was completely, thoroughly, and dangerously weak and inadequate. Surely, it not only made the militia members double-up with laughter - "Hey, Chanterelle, bring me a beer!" - but also emboldened them to push further. If training more rightwingers to fire rifles is as benign as spring mushrooms, let's really show 'em what we can grow!

But wait! Mr. Potok is given another sound bite... well, actually a nibble:

There really is this kind of terrible fear mixed with fury about the idea that President Obama is somehow leading a kind of socialistic, you know, takeover of America.

Mark Potok must think this is self-evidently nutty thinking. It's not, not in an America that gives a lunatic like Glenn Beck a top-rated television show and a best-selling book.

And we wonder why screwball ideas and people like Sarah Palin dominate our discourse. Oh, yes, the celebrity media aid and abet them, but liberals need to realize something else. More often than we know, the fault lies not in the stars, but in ourselves.

We just don't talk too good, a lot of the time.

noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:30:00 PST

Rewarding Bad Behavior

by digby

What will this buy them? Another kick in the teeth?

Former press secretary to President George W. Bush Dana Perino was appointed as a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) Wednesday evening.

The board governs all government sponsored, non-military international broadcasting outlets, such as Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and Alhurra. The BBG is a nine member, bipartisan panel.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged the Obama administration to appoint Perino.

Perino is currently a Chief Issues Counselor for the United States at Burson-Marsteller, an international public relations firm, and is a contributor to Fox News.

I'm sure you'll recall Perino's latest:

Perino says it "feels un-American" for White House to criticize a news outlet, but as Bush's press secretary she blasted NBC

Not that saying such a thing matters. She's a member of the club. Just playing the game.

And she's an asset that America can't afford to lose:

Q: And one more. You mentioned that there are health benefits to climate change. Could you describe some of those?

MS. PERINO: Sure. In some cases, there are — look, this is an issue where I’m sure lots of people would love to ridicule me when I say this, but it is true that many people die from cold-related deaths every winter. And there are studies that say that climate change in certain areas of the world would help those individuals. There are also concerns that it would increase tropical diseases and that’s — again, I’m not an expert in that, I’m going to let Julie Gerberding testify in regards to that, but there are many studies about this that you can look into.

and ...

"I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . . the Cuban Missile Crisis," said Perino, who at 35 was born about a decade after the 1962 U.S.-Soviet nuclear showdown. "It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure."

So she consulted her best source. "I came home and I asked my husband," she recalled. "I said, 'Wasn't that like the Bay of Pigs thing?' And he said, 'Oh, Dana.' "

noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:30:00 PST

Premieres

by digby

The past couple of days have featured a lot of super excited fans on TV totally thrilled at the opportunity to meet their idols.

This was Monday:

It's not exactly a national holiday, but there are some people who are treating tonight's New Moon premiere in Los Angeles as if it were one.

Kestlie Stefanelli, a 14-year-old from Truckee, Calif., has taken three days off from school so she could camp out near the theater in the Westwood Village neighborhood of L.A. She and her mother, Laurie, are two of an estimated 500 people who started arriving on Thursday with pup tents, lawn chairs and sleeping bags in hopes of securing a good spot on or near the red carpet?

"Only one of my teachers knows what I'm actually doing," Kestlie told us yesterday. "I told her I was going to L.A. and she just gave me my homework ahead of time."

Mom Laurie said she thinks "half of the teachers would be very excited if they knew what she was doing."

Many made the same pilgrimage trip last year for the Twilight premiere. And this time around, a couple is said to have come all the way from Australia to camp out. Amy Oeklers, 27, flew in from Minneapolis, while her friend actually made the 30-hour drive by car.

Oeklers plans on dressing as a certain vampire tonight.

"I like to dress up as Alice Cullen so I have two Twilight costumes," said Oeklers, a mom and grad student. "But they're from last year, so I have an Alice New Moon costume I'll be wearing. It's the same outfits she wears in the cardboard stand-ups and the action figures."

This was today:

College students ditched class, employees skipped work and some huddled in the cold overnight just to make sure they get an orange wristband Wednesday that would let them meet Sarah Palin.

A line of more than a thousand people -- some sporting Palin Power stickers and Palin T-shirts -- moved slowly into a Barnes & Noble store Wednesday to see the former Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor on the first stop of her "Going Rogue" book tour. During the hours they waited, some broke out in chants of "Palin! Palin! Palin!"

Scores more who couldn't get wristbands awaited Palin's arrival outside, braving the cold and yelling. "USA!" and "Sarah, Sarah!" at an event that took on the feel of a political pep rally.

"She's a person of faith, she has a family, she has gone through a lot of the trials and tribulations we have. I'd vote for her in a heartbeat," said Lana Smith, a dispatcher at a bus company who took the day off work and had been waiting in line since 5:30 a.m.

"Someday I hope her name is up in lights and I'll have had the privilege of meeting her," Smith said.

I don't really have a point except to note that entertainment figures mean a lot to people during hard economic times.

And vampires of all kinds can be very attractive.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:34:56 PST

Moonbeams And Starshine

by digby

Jessica Yellin is batting a thousand this week. She just did a story on Jerry Brown holding a big Hollywood fundraiser for his Governor's bid tonight, reminding everyone that he used to rub shoulders with entertainers when he was Governor back in the 1970s (unlike most California governors -- Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzennegger to name two.) Then she said:

Back then he was known as Governor Moonbeam.

I have no doubt the Republicans are planning to bring that up, but the least the press could do is explain where the name came from:

As Governor, Brown proposed the establishment of a state space academy and the purchasing of a satellite that would be launched into orbit to provide emergency communications for the state—a proposal similar to one that would indeed eventually be adopted by the state. In 1978, Mike Royko, at the time a Chicago Sun-Times columnist, nicknamed Brown "Governor Moonbeam" because of the latter idea. The nickname quickly became associated with his quirky politics, which were considered eccentric by some in California and the rest of the nation. In 1992, almost 15 years later, Royko would disavow the nickname, proclaiming Brown to be "just as serious" as any other politician.

There are plenty of criticisms to be made about Brown, who in many respects is no longer even close to being a liberal. But dredging up the "Moonbeam" nonsense is typical, lazy hippie punching. The fact that Brown's allegedly silly stoner talk about communications satellites was prescient apparently is meaningless.

It's the same idiocy they pulled on Al Gore. Anyone who actually thinks about the future is derided as some kind geeky of hippie freak. We should be spending all of our time wallowing in Leave It To Beaver nostalgia and cold war sentimentality like the kewl kidz do.

BTW: Yellin went on to say that the man "the haters call Darth Vader" has become a grandfather for the seventh time. His daughter Mary and her partner Heather have welcomed a new baby. Wolf congratulated them too.

No mention of the "haters" among Cheney's staunchest supporters who think that Mary and Heather are condemned to hell and shouldn't be allowed to marry or adopt children. No need to bring up all that unpleasantness. It's different for villagers.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:30:00 PST

Shhh, Don't Make Trouble

by digby

If Democrats can't make something out of this they deserve to lose their majority and be sued for political malpractice.

Moments ago, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic proposal to freeze credit card rates on existing balances through the holiday season. The bill, sponsored by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), would prevent credit card companies from hiking rates and fees on existing balances until the industry reforms passed by Congress earlier this year take effect. Although a few provisions of that law took hold in August, most don’t launch until February or August of 2010. In the meantime, many card companies are hiking rates and fees to beat the law.

“The industry has tried to make one last grab at their customers’ pocketbooks,” Dodd said, just before asking for the consent of Republicans to pass the bill unanimously.

No dice. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) objected “on behalf of several senators on this side of the aisle.” There’s no word yet which other lawmakers he was referring to.

These people are sticking up for credit card companies who are gouging their customers during the holidays in the middle of a recession! What do they have to do to provoke some outrage from the Democrats, gun down Tiny Tim? (Of course, the Republicans would simply say they were defending their constitutional right to bear arms.)

Honestly, this should provoke a Democratic outcry of epic proportions because it's good policy and it's good politics. They missed the boat by failing to draw attention to the fact that the Republicans blocked the unemployment insurance extension for over a month but this issue is hitting both the employed and the unemployed, all across the country. It's a perfect example of the "give them and inch and they'll take a mile" attitude of the banking industry and jamming the Republicans for helping them do it would go a long way to getting the public to understand that for all the GOP harping on spending as the cause of the downturn, they are helping their rich buddies shaft average Americans every step of the way when it comes to actual policy.

noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:00:00 PST

Profiling High

by digby

Amanda Carpenter ably defended Sarah Palin's stunning comments today that Scott Roeder, Dr George Tiller's assassin, could have been stopped if the authorities had been willing to profile those who belong to radical anti-abortion Christian groups.

Carpenter: All the signals were there. And this gets into the divide of whether or not you think this was an act of terror and if he was motivated by a radical ideology. If you think that someone should have asked him about how his religion was impacting his thinking, that gets into the debate against political correctness. Can you ask him questions about his religious identity? That is the issue here.

Tim Fernholz:I don't know where political correctness comes into this. If the FBI had evidence that he was talking to extremists, you don't need to profile him, he's saying things that are warning signs. A profile is a generalization across the board about an entire group.

Carpenter: But it's a factor of whether or not his religion had an impact on this. And I think people are afraid to broach that subject because you can get in trouble for religious discrimination and all kinds of other things. That's what I think the real issues is...

Oh wait, I guess I got that wrong. They were talking about the Ft Hood shooter.

But I certainly do agree that people are afraid to broach all kinds of subjects because you get into trouble for religious discrimination. It's a real minefield isn't it?

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:30:00 PST

Torture For Tantrums

by digby

Yesterday, I wrote about the taser incident in which a police officer tasered a 10 year old girl. There are more details today:

An Ozark police officer used a stun gun on a 10-year-old girl Thursday, an action the child's father has publicly spoken against.

Officer Dustin Bradshaw used a stun gun to subdue the girl, whose mother had called police in response to her daughter misbehaving at the woman's residence, according to an Ozark police report.

Bradshaw stated in the report that when he arrived at the scene, he found the girl "balled up in the floor crying and screaming (sic)," according to the report.

"I made several attempts to speak with her and she continued to behave in this manner," Bradshaw stated.

Bradshaw said the child's mother attempted to place the girl in the shower to get her ready for bed.

"I witnessed (the child) screaming, kicking and resisting every time her mother tried to touch her," Bradshaw stated. "Her mother told me to Tase her if I needed to."

Bradshaw said he and the mother carried the child to the shower, but the child refused to cooperate.

Bradshaw said after realizing there would not be a "peaceful resolution," he moved the child to the living room and told her he was going to place her under arrest, according to the report.

"She was jerking her arms away from me violently while I was trying to cuff her and thrashing about wildly," Bradshaw stated. "While she was violently kicking and verbally combative, (she) struck me with her legs and feet in the groin."

Bradshaw said because he had difficulty placing handcuffs on the girl, he administered a brief drive stun to the child's back with his stun gun, the report states.

"She immediately stopped resisting and was placed into handcuffs," Bradshaw stated. "She would not walk on her own and I had to carry her to my police car."

Well, why didn't they say so? The little girl was having a tantrum and got even more upset when her mother and a strange man in a uniform tried to carry her into the shower. She's lucky she wasn't pistol whipped.

This is a new parenting technique I think every mom should try. But you needn't call the police when your kid refuses to bathe or clean up her room or has a tantrum. Just stick her finger in an electrical outlet for a few seconds and she'll turn right around. After all,it's not like it hurts them or anything:

The girl, who hasn't been identified, wasn't hurt and is now at the Western Arkansas Youth Shelter in Cecil.

I am very much against tasering, but I honestly believe that any mother who tells a policeman to taser her child should be tasered first, just so she knows what she's asking them to do. And if she then says it's ok to do that to her own child, the child should be removed from her custody immediately.

Electricity shooting through the human body is excessively painful, which is why people fall to the ground screaming in agony when it happens. People who purposefully do that to children for any reason are sadistic and abusive. It's torture.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:33:03 PST

Choke On It

by digby

One of the benefits of making government spending and deficits the big villains in the economic downturn is that you can position yourself to be a populist while simultaneously helping out your rich pals:

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says there is no support within his party for the financial overhaul plan outlined last week by Democrats.

Republicans say they believe the bill goes too far and could limit the availability of credit.

McConnell's declaration puts on shaky ground legislation that President Barack Obama has made a top priority. The bill by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd would extend government oversight of financial institutions and empower regulators to dismantle failing firms that threaten the broader economy.

Democrats hold a majority in the Senate, although some of their more conservative members might be tempted to side with Republicans if they think the proposal could hurt the financial industry.

If Democrats had spent more time naming the culprits and less time coddling billionaires, this would be a tough go for the Republicans. As it is, people are convinced that the recession was caused by Obama bailing out the banks and raising the deficit. Once you go down that rabbit hole the Republicans can defend Wall Street and the banks as the "engine of recovery" and insist that the government not only refrain from disrupting the "free market" but actually roll back whatever lame regulations currently exist.

Can't you see that we simply can't hold back the most productive members of society when they are saving us from the financial ruin that Obama's socialist policies have created?

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:00:51 PST

Keynes Schmeynes

by digby

I've been writing for some time that Americans are confused about the recession and furthermore that the Republicans are making headway with their easy explanation that the cause of all their pain is government spending. I have felt for years that the Democrats needed to explain economics better because the free lunch supply siders and deficit hawks are on the verge of turning America into a dysfunctional state akin to California.

I guess that's not going to happen:

Obama warned the United States' climbing national debt could drag the country into a "double-dip recession," though he said he's still considering additional tax incentives for businesses to reverse the rising unemployment rate.

Let's hope he just misspoke or the story is mischaracterizing his statement. If the Democrats really are so spooked by the Virginia and New Jersey results that they feel they need to cut spending with 10% unemployment and explicitly adopt the GOP's false implication of the deficit being the cause of recessions then we have a problem. A big one.

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noreply@blogger.com (digby) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:00:58 PST

Freaky Little Factoid

by digby

Most of you probably know that Ben Nelson is former CEO of Central National Insurance Company. But did you know that Central National Insurance Company is located on John Galt Blvd in Omaha?

I think that pretty much sums up everything you need to know about Nelson and the insurance industry in Omaha.

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