Month: March 2010

Playing To The Mob

by digby

It would appear that the Republicans have decided that America is now a Hobbesian hellhole so devoid of decency and good will that they can repeatedly hold unemployed people hostage for political purposes and be rewarded for it.

Remember Jim Bunning’s one-man government shut down earlier this month? Remember how everyone — even Republicans — condemned it?

Well, it seems the GOP has had a change of heart. According to a report by Politico’s Manu Raju this morning, multiple Republicans in the Senate are now preparing to repeat Bunning’s scheme to block unemployment benefits if Democrats attempt to pass an emergency extension of them again, a move that could come as early as this week.

Playing the role of Bunning next time will likely be Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK). But he’ll have an ensemble cast to help.

The unemployed only comprise 10% of the working population so a good portion of the other 90% will probably agree that they’re all just freeloaders (“I got me a job, why can’t they get one too?”) And a few more are so mind-bogglingly ignorant that they’ll go along with the rationale that the biggest problem we face right now is a future debt. But most of the people who will respond positively to this are the shock troops who simply don’t believe that anyone but their team has a legitimate claim to govern this country. The whole thing is a base motivation strategy (in both senses of the word “base”)but it’s really just another bit of proof that the right wing of this country has become a nihilistic force with no remaining pretensions of virtue.

And god help us if these people are rewarded for this behavior at the ballot box. They are so morally twisted at this point that I’m not sure what they’ll do, but it isn’t a good idea to take any chances. Considering their overwrought reaction to the passage of a health care bill, I think we can see how easily their deluded sense of besiegement could turn very ugly if they have the power of the state at their disposal.

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The Fix

by digby

Short term there is no problem with social security. Long term the fix is easy. All the rest of this sky-is-falling mumbo jumbo is propaganda.

Teresa Ghilarducci, director of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research, is the author of “When I’m 64: The Plot Against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them.”

Because baby boomers pay more payroll tax than the system is paying out in benefits, boomers have saved for their own retirement most of their working years. They may have run up their credit cards, but they saved through the Social Security system. These excess payroll taxes bought special-issue government bonds that always paid above the market rate for risk-free government noncallable bonds; these bonds were created especially for the Social Security taxpayers.

In 2016, we are going to cash them out like every retired person does with their retirement money. When a person cashes out their pension fund it is not called “a problem” and neither is redeeming the assets in the Social Security system a problem.

In another 25 or so years, the system will not have enough money in the system to pay full benefits. Now that would be a problem. And there are two types of fixes: cut benefits or raise revenue. Given that pensions have collapsed and are not getting better any time soon and more old people are going to be poor, benefit cuts are off the table.

Since most of the earnings growth in the last two decades went to the top paid people, those earning much more than the Social Security taxable salary of $106,800 the system lost revenue. A quick fix is to gradually increase the taxable earnings base from current coverage of just 85 percent of earnings to 100 percent by 2045. That would solve the entire predicted Social Security deficit for 75 years. Done.

Blaming The Victims

by digby

I thought I’d seen every permutation of “I know you are but what am I” politics, but this “why do you make me beat you?” comment by Eric Cantor takes the cake:

I want to stress this and it’s very important. Legitimate threats should be treated as security issues and should be dealt with by the appropriate law enforcement officials. It is reckless to use these incidents as media vehicles for political gain.

That is why I have deep concerns that some, Chris Van Hollen and Tim Kaine in particular, are dangerously fanning the flames by suggesting that these incidents be used as a political weapon. Security threats against members of Congress is not a partisan issue and they should never be treated that way. To use such threats as political weapons is reprehensible.

I’m not naive enough to think that letters, statements or press releases will prevent anyone disturbed enough to commit violence from acting. But I do know that such letters, statements and press releases can very easily fan the flames. By ratcheting up the rhetoric, some will only enflame these situations to dangerous levels. Enough is enough. It has to stop.

That makes my head hurt. So, threats should be taken seriously, but not discussed publicly because it might make the threatening thugs who mad and then they might get violent. And sadly, it would then be the victim’s fault for complaining. In fact, the Democrats are being completely irresponsible for even bringing this up and the Republican grown-ups have rightly stepped to put a stop to it before they provoke any more violence.

In fact, they’re mad as hell too and they’re not going to take it any more:

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Andy Sere said that while his organization doesn’t condone the actions of the person or people who cut a gas line at Perriello’s brother’s house (apparently under the impression that the home was the congressman’s), Perriello is not the victim.

“Central and Southside Virginians are the ones who are going to have the bear the burden of increased taxes,” Sere told The Roanoke Times. “What you’re seeing is a frustration among his constituents who believe he’s not listening to them.”

… “we’re not going to allow Tom Perriello to use one isolated incident as a cynical ploy to distract Virginians from the higher taxes and Medicare cuts he just imposed on them.”

Well that’s a relief. These Democrats who are forcing good people to threaten and intimidate them need to know that this wouldn’t happen if they’d just do as they are told. There’s nothing unreasonable about that.

Update: Check out this email. Ugh. The “murderers” (Democrats) have made daddy very mad and now he’s going to have to hurt them.

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Scraping The Bottom Of The PVC Tube

by tristero

One more classy Glenn Beck advertiser::

Are the teabaggers ready to stop throwing tomatoes and start growing tomatoes? Glenn Beck’s latest sponsor, The Survival Seed Bank, is banking on Tea Party paranoia to sell a product it calls the “Full Acre Crisis Garden.” As Stephen Colbert noted on Wednesday, “nothing moves product like the hot stink of fear.”

For $164, you get a vacuum-sealed tube of PVC pipe filled with enough seed “to feed friends and family forever,” because, “in an economic meltdown, non-hybrid seeds could become more valuable than even silver and gold!”…

The Survival Seed Bank claims to offer “the peace of mind knowing that if things were to get scary, that you and your family could still eat.” But those vacuum-packed seeds “will be dead within the first year,” according to Seed Bank Scams, because “seeds need an airtight, but not airless environment…if you take away all the air, you will kill the seeds.”

… there’s no shortage of greedy, dishonest individuals and companies eager to profit by preying on people’s worst instincts. Take Bill Heid, the guy behind the Survival Seed Bank. The Federal Trade Commission fined him $400,000 “in consumer redress” back in 2005 for making “false and unsubstantiated claims for the “Himalayan Diet Breakthrough.”

Heid made $4.9 million in sales off The Himalayan Diet Breakthrough, a dietary supplement containing “a paste-like material” called Nepalese Mineral Pitch that “oozes out of the cliff face cracks in the summer season” in the Himalayas. Heid promised buyers that this miraculous product would enable them to achieve rapid and substantial weight loss without dieting or exercise, while still consuming unlimited amounts of food.

Who could possibly buy the notion that you could sit on your ass all day eating crap and still lose weight by ingesting some mysterious substance harvested in the Himalayas?

Maybe the same folks who think that slashing taxes and shredding regulations is a dandy way to shore up our crumbling bridges and highways, boost our children’s flagging academic performance, clean up our environment, guarantee affordable health care, protect consumers from makers of defective products (like, say, cars that accelerate unexpectedly, or a diabetes drug that’s known to cause heart attacks); and prevent financial institutions from ripping people off through fraudulent, predatory practices.

Blue Dog Blues

by digby

Blue America’s campaign to “send the Democrats a message they can understand” is designed to support progressive primary challengers in the hopes that this year of incumbent danger will usher in some new blood from the left and make the party realize that they have a base that will exert itself to unseat conservatives of both parties. The country is polarized and has been for some time and the Democrats still don’t seem to recognize the nature of the battle they’re in.

Howie wrote about one of our Blue America candidates yesterday, and this race seems quite promising. A Georgia Blue Dog may have finally crossed his constituency one too many times:

Although John Barrow is a new resident to Savannah with no roots in the community, he knows that the Morning News‘ Larry Peterson is the political reporter with his finger on the pulse. So the scared little man who has thrown his lot in with the rich white Republican establishment– which has never really been enamoured of him to begin with– must be shaking like a leaf today. Peterson says aloud what everyone in GA-12 but Barrow knows: a backlash among African-Americans, a major part of the Democratic base in the district (perhaps 60% of primary voters), is looming large because of his health care vote. For one thing, Barrow’s vote against healthcare reform, opens up the need to look at his whole, despicable, anti-working family voting record. And his Democratic opponent, former state Senator Regina Thomas, whose roots in the community and long and deep, has been helping community leaders to understand who John Barrow really is.

Resentment is seething among black political leaders against Democratic U.S. Rep. John Barrow after his vote against a major health care bill.

The measure, the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s agenda, passed the House narrowly Sunday; Obama signed it into law Tuesday.

At least two black state lawmakers who backed the Savannah congressman in 2008 – or were neutral – now favor Regina Thomas, his July 20 primary election foe.

And Savannah Mayor Pro Tem Edna Jackson, long a key Barrow ally, says she won’t be in the primary. She wouldn’t elaborate, but had sought his vote for the health bill.

Other black leaders accused him of abandoning his black constituents.

“He has no respect for the people of color who are the majority of people who voted for him,” said the Rev. Bennie Mitchell Jr., pastor of Connor’s Temple Baptist Church. “There is no way I can support him.”

Chatham County Democratic chairman Tony Center said Barrow is in “a lot of trouble” because of his vote… State Rep. Bob Bryant, D-Garden City, who backed Barrow two years ago, has endorsed Thomas. So has state Rep. Mickey Stephens, D-Savannah, who didn’t take sides when Thomas, who is black, ran– and lost– against Barrow in 2008.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Craig Gordon, D-Savannah– also neutral in 2008– said he’s now less likely to support Barrow.

The legislators– who represent parts of the 12th District– and Mitchell were among those who tried during a Saturday conference call persuade Barrow to reconsider his vote.

“His mind was made up and he wasn’t willing to listen,” said Bryant, who said he’ll vote for a Republican– or not at all– if Thomas loses. At least four people are seeking the GOP nomination.

“(Barrow) really ticked me off,” said Stephens. “I have people in my district call me every day. They don’t have health insurance. They’re hurting.”

Barrow was able to win the 2008 primary for two reasons: people tend to vote for incumbents of their own party unless they have a strong reason not to (and not enough was known about Barrow at the time for voters to make a rational choice; Regina having almost no budget to get out the message); and because Obama made a you-scratch-my-back/I’ll-scratch-yours with him. Obama thought he needed Barrow’s help to defeat Hillary, so he bought him off– just the way every special interest buys him off. Obama cut a radio spot for Barrow. That was his whole campaign. This year, with Barrow having voted consistently with the GOP on almost all of the close, substantive votes, it’s not likely Obama will save Barrow’s ass again– especially not against a beloved state Senator whose whole political career has been dedicated to the very issues Obama has been championing. Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia political scientist who watches Georgia politics carefully predicts that “if the African American community turns its back on him,” Barrow will be defeated.

Evidently, Barrow has senatorial ambitions so he has to preserve his standing among the white privilege crowd which makes him a less than stellar choice to represent a large African American constituency. And it makes him someone we should work hard to remove while we have the chance.

Saturday, Regina will be the Blue America special guest at Crooks and Liars for a live blogging session at 2pm (est). If you’d like to help her get out her message, and help her alert Georgia voters that there’s a fox on the henhouse, please think about contributing to her campaign here.

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Wow

by tristero

Looks like we may have a new cousin.

As recently as 30,000 years ago, it now appears, there were five human species in the world: Homo erectus, the little Floresians, Neanderthals, modern humans and the new lineage from the Denisova cave…

“We think it’s normal to be alone in the world as we are today,” Dr. [Ian] Tattersall said, and to see human evolution as a long trend leading to Homo sapiens. In fact, the tree has kept generating new branches that get cut off, presumably by the sole survivor. “The fossil record is very eloquent about this, and it’s telling us we are an insuperable competitor,” Dr. Tattersall said.

Indeed. Given our refusal to address human-caused global warming and climate change, we’re so insuperable we’ll even compete ourselves into extinction.

Reconciliation Update

by digby

Back to the House

A spokeswoman for Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said the provisions struck out by the parliamentarian were minor. “The parliamentarian struck two minor provisions tonight from the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act,” the spokeswoman, Kate Cyrul, said. “These changes do not impact the reforms to the student loan programs and the important investments in education. We are confident the House will quickly pass the bill with these minor changes.” The Senate adjourned at 2:55 a.m.

There’s some discussion of having the House put back in the public option since they’re going back anyway. It’s the sort of in-your-face move the Republicans would make, but I have a hard time imagining the Democrats having the chutzpah. But you never know.

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Serious Business

by digby

It’s 12:30 in the morning and the Republicans just keep the amendments coming. McConnell finally suggests they just go home for the night and take it up tomorrow. Reid says no:

MR. REID: MY FOCUS IS ON THIS LEGISLATION AND I KNOW THAT THERE’S OTHER THINGS THAT WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH BEFORE WE LEAVE HERE. BUT I’M NOT CONCERNED ABOUT THOSE AT THIS STAGE. I WANTTO FINISH THIS LEGISLATION. AND I WANT TO DO THAT AS QUICKLY AS WE CAN. AND SO I WOULD ASK THAT WE JUST PROCEED. … I WOULD HOPE THAT MY FRIENDS UNDERSTAND THAT IT WOULD BE TO THE BENEFIT I THINK OF MOST EVERYONE IF WE COULD GET OUT OF HERE AT A DECENT HOUR TODAY. IF IT’S NOT, IF WE’RE
GOING TO KEEP GOING, THAT’S THE WAY IT IS IS, I’M AN OLD MARATHONER AND GETTING OLDER EVERY DAY.

THE PRESIDING OFFICER: THE REPUBLICAN LEADER IS RECOGNIZED.

MR. McCONNELL: I WOULD JUST ADD, THERE’S SOME OBVIOUS DISADVANTAGES TO THE MINORITY TO BE IN A RECONCILIATION CONTEXT, BUT ONE OF THE ADVANTAGES, WE’VE HAD MORE AMENDMENT VOTES TODAY THAN WE HAD IN THE ENTIRE MONTH OF DECEMBER ON THE PREVIOUS HEALTH CARE BILL, AND SO THE MAJORITY LEADER MAY NOT THINK WE’RE SERIOUS ABOUT CHANGING THE BILL BUT WE’D LIKE TO CHANGE THE BILL. AND WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS ON THE OTHER SIDE, WE COULD IMPROVE THIS BILL SIGNIFICANTLY...

Yes, they’re just trying to improve the bill. You’ve undoubtedly heard about the important improvement to keep Viagra from sex offenders. Here are just a few more:

Brownback 3653 –“To promote the production of renewable fuel.”
Brownback 3690 — “To provide for the relocation of the United State Embassy to Jerusalem.”
Vitter 4872 – “To repeal the law that provides automatic pay increases for members of Congress.”

I hope Reid keeps them there all night. After listening to these idiots drone on and on about the horrors of abusing the rules of the Senate, this nonsense is just embarrassing.

They are clowns. Evil clowns.

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Always And Forever Wrong

by digby

Chris Matthews never admits that he was wrong about anything. And considering that he is wrong about almost everything, that’s quite an accomplishment. Here’s one of my favorite blasts from the past:

CM:And when Marty Peretz’s daughter wrote that story in Vanity Fair a couple of months ago, I’m sorry, she didn’t make the case. Gore got himself in those problem areas by vanity and showing off an trying to make himself cool. But John Kerry got unfair treatment. I think it’s a big difference guys.

Crowley: that may be so, but it’s not how many Democrats feel.

CM: Well, why would expect a partisan to think anything more than partisan? That’s what partisans think? Of course they think they were rooked. Everyone who loses an election thinks they were rooked and they blame it on the umpire.

Crowley: That’s the audience they’re speaking to.

CM: Yeah, well how about getting into the land of truth and understanding?.

Yes, he said that in 2007. He’s absolutely wrong in every instance — it’s been documented six ways to Sunday how the press created those stories about Gore. But he won’t believe it because he is convinced that anything that doesn’t comport with his bad memory of events is some conspiracy by “partisans.”

So, this doesn’t surprise me:

If Matthews had paused to take a breath back in January, he might have heard Grayson struggling to point out that he had talked to Democratic leaders who had researched ways to defeat a filibuster and pass healthcare.

Instead, the interviewer boasted about his knowledge of Senate procedure and his own talks with congressional leaders. He accused Grayson of “pandering to the netroots” — liberal activists clamoring online for passage of the law without understanding the Ways of Washington. Matthews ridiculed the idea that Grayson, filled with “outsider talk,” could know anything substantial about the inside Washington scene.

When I spoke to Matthews after his show Tuesday evening, he said that he intended to have Grayson back on “Hardball,” probably soon. But don’t set your DVR in anticipation of some Potomac-sized mea culpa.

Matthews told me that, smoldering YouTube clip notwithstanding, it was Grayson who got it wrong back in January. He said the congressman was obviously referring back then to the House passing a new piece of legislation, rather than signing on to the approved Senate health bill and then having differences reconciled.

“He denied the House had to pass the Senate bill and then have reconciliation,” Matthews said at one point. “I never got an answer from him, all I got was a posture. He wasn’t helping me explain it. He was just taking a position.”

Let’s just say that seems a tad, uh, ungenerous. Especially because the lawmaker had to make do mostly with sentence fragments, in the face of Matthews’ unrelenting inquisition. When pressed by Matthews, though, Grayson did manage to suggest taking further action on a bill “already passed with 60 votes.” That would seem to refer to the health reform passed by the U.S. Senate, not launching entirely new legislation.

Matthews further theorizes that Grayson wanted to use the reconciliation process as a backdoor to fulfill his goal of enacting the so-called “public option,” giving Americans a government-run alternative to private health insurance. I’m not sure how the MSNBC star would know that, though, since the congressman never mentioned the public option. And his interviewer never asked about it.

Finally, Matthews urged me to take more time and to speak to Senate leaders and parliamentarians. I would understand that he had it right all along. But it seems to me Matthews created this mess all on his own, just by being too much of himself.

Grayson is not one you would expect to shrink from this sort of high-tech, high-noon showdown. This is the guy who had to apologize after calling a female lobbyist “a K Street whore,” who suggested the Republican plan for healthcare amounted to “die quickly if you get sick” and who compared Dick Cheney to a vampire with “blood that drips from his teeth.”

But the onetime lawyer and telecom executive exhibited a marked restraint Tuesday when I asked about Matthews. “You have seen the clip,” he said. “I described exactly what has happened and I did it two months ago. I don’t think there is a single thing I said that didn’t turn out to be the God’s honest truth.”

Not quite. Grayson did predict the reconciliation would be completed in “30 days or less.” Unless something goes haywire in the Senate, it now looks like the process will be complete in a little more than two months.

I wrote about it minutes after it happened. Here is the exchange:

Mathews: Ok, ok. This show is about reality. Tell me how you pass this bill with 41. You just got a guy elected in Massachusetts …

Grayson: Reconciliation takes 51

Matthews: … he signs his name 41. It means it’s enough to ..

Grayson: Reconciliation needs 51 Senators

Matthews: What procedure do you know that Harry Reid doesn’t know?

Grayson: What makes you think Harry isn’t going to do it?

Matthews: … that all those top guys, that Ted Kennedy didn’t know..

Grayson: They said they’re not going to move to reconciliation?

Matthews: This secret move to the Indies that only you know about …

Grayson: What are you talking about? They’ve been talking about this …

Matthews: These Senators can’t do it!

Grayson: Why do you think they can’t use reconciliation?

Matthews: Because you talk to any one of these Senators. Have you talked to any of them lately? And what do you think they’ll tell you?

Grayson: What do you think, I’m their confessor?

Matthews: Have you ever called up a Democratic Senator and said why don’t you do this by reconciliation?

Grayson: What makes you think they’re not going to do it? What do you know that I don’t know?

Matthews: Because they refuse to do it because they cannot get past the filibuster rule. The United States Senate is different from the House.You’re allowed to talk as long as you want in the Senate. Unless you get cloture.

Grayson: Reconciliation is 51 votes not 60 votes.

Matthews: You can’t create a program through reconciliation! Congressman just name me the program that’s ever been created through reconciliation!

Grayson: Tax cuts for the rich!

Matthews: That’s not a program. Under reconciliation you’re allowed to do two things. Change fiscal numbers, raise taxes or cut spending.

Grayson: You’re saying that. You don’t know that. Nobody else thinks that.

Matthews: I just spent three years in the Senate budget committee when I was a kid and you can’t do it. By the way, have you asked any Senator this question? This plan you have?

Grayson: I’m in the other place, I’m in the House.

Matthews: I know, that’s why you’re not in the senate

Grayson: Oh that’s why I’m not in the Senate…

Matthews: This is netroots talk. This is outsider talk and you’re an elected official and you know you can’t do it. You are pandering to the netroots right now. I know what you’re doing.

Grayson: You are wrong. This is something we talk about with our leadership in our caucus meetings every week! …

Matthews: …I know what I’m talking about and you ask anybody in the Senate right no. Go call the Senate legislative counsel’s office and ask him if you can do this. Go ask the parliamentarian is you can do this. You haven’t bothered to do that.

Grayson: No my leadership has done that ..

It went on that way. Matthews was a total jackass. And despite the fact that they are doing the rest of the health care bill through reconciliation right now, he still won’t admit it.

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Palin Goes Nukular

by digby

The latest from Rumproast

WASILLA, ALASKA: Not content to figuratively put Democratic lawmakers in her gun sights, Fox News analyst and former Half-Governor Palin doubled down today, releasing a chilling new image on her website:

A companion Facebook post threatened a full-blown nuclear “Sarahpocalypse” to “take back” America.

The Facebook post urged Palin supporters to consider the benefits of decimating certain sections of the country to achieve a return to founding values:

“With the most pro-abortion president in the history of the world ‘transforming’ our country into an socialist abortion-lovers’ paradise and installing abortion vending machines and death panels on every corner, our country is being ‘transformed’ in unwanted ways. It’s time for Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America to take a stand.

Now some might say exploding nuclear bombs on non-pro-America parts of America is a drastic solution. I say you can’t make a pro-America omelet without literally breaking some anti-American eggs and frying up some elitist bacon.”

While many reacted to Palin’s proposal with shock and horror, others seemed nonplussed:

“I don’t think it’s particularly helpful,” President Obama said. “But we’ll continue to reach across the aisle and try to work with Republicans in a bipartisan way. That’s clearly what the American people expect.”

Others expressed support and even enthusiasm for Palin’s “Sarahpocalypse” plan:

“This will be better than the little starbursts,” said Rich Lowry, National Review Online editor. “I’m sure I won’t be the only male in America who will sit up a little straighter on the couch when viewing Sarah’s radiant glow.”

News analysts were divided about the possible effect of simultaneous nuclear detonations on Democratic strongholds: read on

This is clearly what the founders would have wanted.

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