Month: February 2011

Solidarity!

by digby

Move On and a whole slew of liberal groups have decided to join the Wisconsin protests. It’s time:

In Wisconsin and around our country, the American Dream is under fierce attack. Instead of creating jobs, Republicans are giving tax breaks to corporations and the very rich—and then cutting funding for education, police, emergency response, and vital human services.

On Saturday, February 26, at noon local time, we are organizing rallies in front of every statehouse and in every major city to stand in solidarity with the people of Wisconsin. We demand an end to the attacks on worker’s rights and public services across the country. We demand investment, to create decent jobs for the millions of people who desperately want to work. And we demand that the rich and powerful pay their fair share.

We are all Wisconsin. We are all Americans.

This Saturday, we will stand together to Save the American Dream. Be sure to wear Wisconsin Badger colors—red and white—to show your solidarity. Sign up today to join in!

Here in LA it’s downtown in front of the courthouse. I’d get there early.

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King of California

by digby

Meet Sutter Brown, who handles the press perfectly:

OK, so Sutter turns out to be only slightly less revealing than Daddy Jerry about his pension reform plans. Indeed, this is the FIRST time in our journalistic career that a subject has fallen asleep DURING an interview.

Smart doggie.

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If it walks like a lame duck …

by digby

Gloria Borger wrote a column today about “the arrogance of the budget cutters” which CNN flogged on the afternoon show. It sounded promising, but I’m sure you won’t be surprised to find out that it is warmed over conventional wisdom about nothing with a huge dollop of gibbering nonsense. You can read the column for yourself, but you might want to save yourself the trouble and just let her explain it to you:

Borger: … Let’s give them [budget cutters] credit Brooke, because they really came to Washington and came to their state houses that they can change the way an inefficient government operates. I think they have to be applauded for that. In theory it’s a very good idea.

But they have to be careful, and those of us who’ve covered politics for a while know this. Where they have to be careful is in the overreach and thee arrogance of power, if you will.

Now I’ve been around Washington for a while and I saw the overreach when Newt Gingrich took over as Speaker of the House. And even you might say when Barack Obama became president of the United States and he had Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate. There were lots of people who would say that he overreached in his own agenda and didn’t end up doing himself any favors. He only became more popular when he started getting things done in the lame duck session.

Brooke Baldwin: You say overreach, but in you column say “arrogance.”

Borger: It is arrogance. It is the arrogance of power.

Baldwin: What does the public say?

Borger; Well, well, the public is kind of sitting back right now. But if you look at all the polls you’ll see that the public does not want to end collective bargaining for public employees and it doesn’t want a government shut down. What the public wants is what it voted for. And that was to see members of both parties actually working together to get things done.

You know, they didn’t vote for Republican control of the House because they were in love with Republicans. It was because they wanted a check on Barack Obama. And they wanted to see some progress on policy —- and on deficit cutting!

Brooke: it’s an important distinction.

Oh Lord. Where to begin?

First of all, wealthy TV celebrities who daily prescribe “sacrifice” for the plebes even mentioning the “arrogance of power” is always amusing. But be that as it may, the analogies she uses to describe it are a he said/she said stretch of epic proportions.

Newt Gingrich overreached by shutting down the government and impeaching a president over a blowjob. This is not comparable to Barack Obama trying to enact the agenda he ran on over the obstinate obstruction of the GOP. It just isn’t. Moreover, her analysis of his approval ratings as a result of this alleged overreach is simply not borne out by the facts. Once Obama’s honeymoon was over (it lasted for five months or so) his ratings came down to more or less reflect the numbers of those who voted for him. And it has stayed there solidly ever since.

But never let that get in the way of an established village narrative. Numbers be damned, as far as they are concerned, Obama was buried until he “worked with Republicans” to extend the tax cuts for the rich, thus doing exactly what the American people wanted, which was to check his own power. Or something.

Furthermore, Borger and the rest of her cohort seem to truly believe that the people who voted for all these Republicans weren’t really voting for their agenda. I don’t know on what basis they make that claim. More Republicans than Democrats voted in 2010 and while they certainly wanted to stop Obama, there’s no reason to believe they didn’t want their elected officials to do what they said they were going to do. (Now as to whether they fully grasped the ramifications of what they were going to do is debatable — I suspect they truly believe that the deficit is causing the bad economy.) They don’t care if Democrats sign on. Indeed, they delight in homing in on Democratic sacred cows and explicitly taking them apart. And they aren’t punished for it — they are rewarded! (The Democrats unfortunately fret about what Gloria Borger is going to say …)

In her column she insists that people want to them work together and “just want results”
But nobody out here in America gives a damn if these people work together or hack each other to pieces — and there’s a significant disagreement about what those “results” should be. But since Villagers don’t really care about anything of substance, that just seems absurd. What’s the difference? If only everyone could go back to the days of Tipnronnie and Tilertoo when everything was so much better.

In the Village, there are grown-ups and bad boys and girls. And all that’s required to be extolled as a grown-up is to pretend to slap the silly children senseless. Nothing makes them happier:

One of the most level-headed public officials in all of this budget frenzy is Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels. He’s a grownup, having served both outside and inside Washington. Yes he also dealt with the public employee union issue, by signing an executive order ending collective bargaining for Indiana state workers, which cost him politically early on in his tenure.

Yet when state Republicans called for a vote on a proposal to weaken unions in the private sector — and Democratic members started heading for the hills — Daniels decided to lower the temperature and shelve the bill. “I thought there was a better time and place to have these very important and legitimate issues raised,” he said.

Daniels is right. And at a recent speech in Washington before a conservative group, he was right again: “Purity in martyrdom,” he warned his GOP audience, “is for suicide bombers.”

That’s right. The man who dictatorially signed away the rights of public employees is a level-headed compromiser who understands the middle ground — because he felt that the wholesale destruction of the union movement in one swoop might be a tad too far for one year. Big of him. (And I have a sneaking suspicion that the good little CPAC children know that daddy loves them.)

Borger just picked up the goalposts, which were already at the far conservative end, and moved them completely off the field.

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He Never Met the Man

by digby

Do you suppose that Governor Walker really talks the way he did with “David Koch” to every strange constituent he finds himself on the phone with? Because he says very clearly in this interview that he doesn’t know Koch —- indeed, had barely heard of him until he took his call in the middle of the biggest crisis of his life and chatted casually about everything from the GOP’s secret strategy to Mika Breszinski’s ass, even agreeing to go out to “Cali” and celebrate when the whole thing was over. Sure. That makes sense.

And then there’s this ongoing little issue over who suggested that he bring in some outside agitators, which he still fails to adequately explain. Here’s what he said to Greta Van Susteran, via Heather at C&L:

WALKER: No. I’ve never met the Koch brothers before so this is obviously why someone calling could prank me because I’ve never talked to him before. I know he’s an employer in the state and in the end, I mean, I think it’s interesting because the prankster there tried to insinuate at least that this person was going to push for people to come in and cause a disturbance amongst the protesters. I made it very clear, that’s not right. That doesn’t work. That has no value. VAN SUSTEREN: But you thought about it. When you brought up the part about doing dirty tricks with the crowd, you said well, at least you’re quoted as saying, you know well the only problem with that, because we thought about that, the problem that, my only gut reaction that is right now the lawmakers I’ve talked to have completely had it with them. The public isn’t really fond of this. WALKER: Right because in the end the protesters have not overwhelmed them. They’ve realized they’ve come in from other states. VAN SUSTEREN: But you thought about it. WALKER: Well yeah, we had people contact us, I had people, I even had lawmakers in other states suggesting riling things up. When I pointed out, increasingly and I’ve said this all over the media, I’ve said it in all my interviews, is that we’ve had a civil discourse amongst people here in the state of Wisconsin. My great fear was of people coming from other states. My biggest fear was last Saturday when you had protesters both for and against the bill coming in. I thought you were going to have some major collisions between the two and thank god, we didn’t have any disturbances. I think it’s because the people of the state are the ones thriving.

I guess that’s believable since he apparently blindly answers every call and blabs uncontrollably no matter who it is. Who knows how many people both in the state and outside it were suggesting that he get some outside agitators in to “rile things up”? It sounds like several. And in the phone call, it sounds like he considered it. I think maybe he ought to come clean and tell people who these dirty tricksters are. Certainly, if they are people who work for him, he needs to fire them immediately. That’s extremely unethical behavior. Richard Nixon was driven from office for doing things like that.

But seriously, folks. Are we supposed to believe that he doesn’t really even know who Koch is or how much he contributed to his campaign, but that he picked up the phone and had this extremely intimate strategic discussion with him? Really?

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MSM Missing The Story — As Usual

by digby

The national press still seems to be running from the “David Koch” phone call, confused as usual. I suspect it’s because they unable to tell the difference between an edited, misleading set-up like Brietbart’s ACORN hoax and a prank that reveals a politician telling the truth.

But the local Wisconsin press gets it. Big time. TPM reports:

Around the Capitol, the phone call is something people are talking about — a lot. From the protestors yelling about Walker’s “Koch habit,” to reporters who kept asking him about the call during Wednesday’s brief press conference. Indeed, it seems likely Walker will find it difficult to put the call behind him anytime soon — from his discussion of political gamesmanship, brief considerations about planting fake protesters to start trouble, or his passion for busting the public employee unions in the mold of Ronald Reagan’s firing of the air traffic controllers, this thing, as they say, has legs. Enter the AFL-CIO’s ad: “Gov. Walker is set on eliminating collective bargaining for nurses, teachers, people who live and work in our communities,” the announcer says. “He tells us it’s for the taxpayers of Wisconsin. But to wealthy GOP funders like David Koch, it’s a different story.”

There’s a lot of gold in that phone call. Hopefully this won’t be the only ad we see from that material. The guy revealed himself to be a slimy, ideological, corporatist, undemocratic, potentially corrupt, creepy sexist jerk. That’s a list of qualifications for Republicans, of course, but for Independents, it might not be quite as attractive.

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Village Psy-ops

by digby

Wow. If you want to see some Village circling of the wagons, take a look at this “report” on the Army Psy-ops program against congressional leaders by Norah O’Donnell:

Tamron Hall: Norah, I saw you on Morning Joe talking about this This is a real buzz story, for many reasons, but now you have General David Petraeus calling for an investigation regarding the seriousness of what was going on.

O’Donnell: That’s right Tamron, it was a very serious allegation because of course it’s against the law for the United States military to use propaganda with American citizens and that’s why we saw this very quick response from the top General in Afghanistan, general David Petraeus who is no preparing to order and investigation int these charges that there was an Army unit that was trained in psy-ops that was ordered to manipulate American senators even members of the joint Chiefs of Staff.

Now that said, I have been talking to a number of sources today who have said one, that any report coming from The Rolling Stone and this author Michael Hastings, who also “went after” another general, Stanley McCrystal, shoud be met with a healthy dose of skepticism. The title of this Tamron, is “Another Runaway General” remember that Michael Hastings already brought down another General, Stanley McCrystal.

Two, this general isn question in question, General Michael Caldwell, he is the head of training the Afghan security forces.This is the lynchpin, Tamron! The lynchpin of the war in Iraq [sic]. This is how we get out of Iraq [sic] and make sure Afghan security forces are trained. Just this last week, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was praising Caldwell, saying he’d done such a great job training many of these Afghan forces.

And the finally, this Rolling Stone article has Michael holmes as its source, he led this allegedly this five man psy-ops team. he said that he was ordered to plant information in these people’s heads. I think that he was there was a number of people who will be looking into his allegations, they are taking it very seriously but I can tell you that a number of people in the military and the defense department who are not happy with The Rolling Stone because of what happened earlier with general Stanley McCrystal.

Hall: They can’t be happy with it, but if it’s what happened, the person is reporting it and it’s factual, then that’s what they have to deal with. You’re not always happy with the truth.

O’Donnell: That’s true, but remember that they, they still question a lot of the previous article even though that brought down General Stanley McCrystal.

Norah O’Donnell seemed very agitated.

Think about this. You have a big story that claims the military was using propaganda and psychological training on US Senators. If it’s true, it’s a big deal. And the military is logically very upset that the story has been reported and they are busily spinning reporters that the reporter and the publication are unreliable and they shouldn’t be believed. Ok fine.

But what’s truly amazing about this is that they are apparently selling this as a “national security” necessity since the General who is implicated in this is allegedly the “lynchpin” of the Afghan training program, which I guess we’re supposed to take on faith — and overlook any little unpleasantness like illegally trying to brainwash US Senators. Unbelievable.

I realize that everyone hates the fact that Michael Hastings breaks the Village rules and reports what he’s heard and seen rather than keeping the government’s secrets. Nothing upsets most journalists more than that. After all, if you fail to keep everything important off the record how ever will you get the little irrelevant tidbits you need for those sycophantic beat sweeteners?

As far as I know nothing Hastings reported about what McCrystal said wasn’t true. What the military — and most of the press corps are mad about is that he was apparently supposed to let that “sort of thing” go because it’s a breach of protocol to reveal what your sources are telling you when they are just “blowing off steam.” Moreover, it’s got a sanctimonious air about it in that reporting accurately on what these General really do could ‘endanger the troops” or American national security, which is just cheap.

In fact, now that I think about it, it might be worth considering whether the military tried out this “psy-ops” program on the American press corps before then unleashed it on the US Senate. It explains a lot.

Update: Oh, I forgot. That last is literally true.

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One More Elite Institution Goes Batty

by digby

I think we’ve all be fairly well educated about the ongoing failure of elite institutions like banking, government and religion. But aside from the usual philosophical differences I had thought the military was the mast more or less functional institution. Now, not so much. This is just wacky:

The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in “psychological operations” to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators. The orders came from the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops – the linchpin of U.S. strategy in the war. Over a four-month period last year, a military cell devoted to what is known as “information operations” at Camp Eggers in Kabul was repeatedly pressured to target visiting senators and other VIPs who met with Caldwell. When the unit resisted the order, arguing that it violated U.S. laws prohibiting the use of propaganda against American citizens, it was subjected to a campaign of retaliation. “My job in psy-ops is to play with people’s heads, to get the enemy to behave the way we want them to behave,” says Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, the leader of the IO unit, who received an official reprimand after bucking orders. “I’m prohibited from doing that to our own people. When you ask me to try to use these skills on senators and congressman, you’re crossing a line.”

This is obviously unconstitutional. The elected representatives are their bosses. (It is insubordination at the very least.)

But sadly, I would guess that most of the congresspeople don’t really care. In fact, they are probably relieved — they want to be spun on this. Going against the military is a career ender for most of them and they know it. It’s sacred, right up there with Jesus and Nascar.

So this is actually quite silly — and a reflection of a dysfunctional institution. The governing elites don’t need to be spun, propagandized or brainwashed. They are more than willing to carry the military’s water.

Read the whole article. It’s astonishing.

Update: Ok fuggedaboudit. The military has been off the deep end for some time. I was being naive. Read this piece by Sarah Posner about the Islamophobia Industrial complex and its relationship to the military. Creepy.

Sammon’s Going To Hit The Roof

by digby

Earlier I wondered whether or not MSNBC and CNN were afraid of the Koch brothers because they had failed to properly report what Governor Walker said on his phone call with “David Koch.” They seemed to think the whole thing was a silly prank not worth following up.

Well, look who’s asking the right questions. (Hint: it isn’t their newest house liberal.)

This is why they are doing it, no doubt about it. In fact, the whole controversy about public employee unions is nothing more than one prong of their “defund the left” strategy. (If you wonder why the plutocrats are going along with efforts to cut Planned Parenthood and the like, that would be it. it’s not like they care one way or the other — rich women will always get abortions if they need them.)

Smith,0f all people, gets right to the heart of what’s happening in Wisconsin. I suspect he’s going to get a talking to.

h/t to @pauldotkelleher

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New Life

by digby

Yay:

Click over to Mother Jones for the full story and more pictures of the Polar bears emerging.

It is a horrific comment on our species that we would allow these magnificent creatures to go extinct when we could stop it. But that’s how we roll.

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Limbaugh’s Lying Calorie Counter

by digby

Following up on glass McMansion owner Rush Limbaugh hypocritically calling Michelle Obama fat, it turns out that he’s lying as usual:

A restaurant owner in Colorado is calling for a calorie recount after conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh slammed First Lady Michelle Obama for a reported après ski pig out over the weekend. The portly host called out Obama on his radio show Monday after it was reported she dined on 1,500 calorie-per-serving short ribs at the restaurant Kelly Liken in Vail, where the First Lady and her daughters were on a ski trip. But the ancho chili short ribs were actually more like 600 calories, the owner, Kelly Liken, told the Vail Daily on Monday. “A proper 5-ounce portion of protein is what nutritionists say we should have,” she said, adding that braising usually cooks most of the fat off the meat. Liken also pointed out that the dish came with a side of sautéed local kale, which was grown by students at a nearby elementary school. “Kale is one of nature’s super foods,” she told the Daily. “There are more nutrients in the 3 ounces of kale we serve than you’ll get in a massive green salad.” Plus, Obama and the girls may have earned a little splurge after spending the day carving up the slopes, which can burn thousands of calories. A report about the meal was first published in the newspaper on Sunday. Along with the short ribs, which came with kale and hominy wild mushrooms, Obama also ate a pickled pumpkin salad with arugula. The paper didn’t publish a calorie count, but that didn’t stop Limbaugh from going on the attack.

The lying jackass made it sound as though she’d eaten a full rack of sugary, greasy pork ribs at Tony Romas, not braised short ribs, ferchristsake. And, it turns out that the restaurant is involved in a schoolyard garden project so Limbaugh’s entire thesis that she’s a hypocrite is total bullshit too.

But I’m sure his racist, sexist listeners got a big old belly laugh out of it. There’s nothing like dishonestly disparaging a black woman to make their day.

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