Month: October 2011

Judicial Tyranny
by David Atkins (“thereisnospoon”)

In a blow for the freedom of crops to rot, kids to go uneducated and bigots to hate, a federal appeals court has blocked parts of the patriotic Alabama immigration law:

A federal appeals court Friday temporarily blocked portions of Alabama’s strict immigration law, most notably a provision requiring public schools to check the immigration status of students.

But the court also upheld a provision requiring police to check the residency status of suspected illegal immigrants during traffic stops.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the order after the Justice Department requested that the court block the law until the court could consider it fully. Government lawyers contended, as they have in challenges of similar laws in other states, that the legislation was preempted by federal immigration laws.

The legislation, known as HB 56 and signed by Republican Gov. Robert J. Bentley in June, is widely considered the toughest of the handful of immigration laws in the nation.

Republicans are already asserting that the Founding Fathers would be shocked. Founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson who said things like this:

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Establish a law for educating the common people. This it is the business of the state and on a general plan.”

I’m sure Thomas Jefferson and his many-hued children would protest mightily at the notion that the common people who work 12 hours a day in the fields be considered children of God to be educated on a common plan. That would be a denial of basic liberty.

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To all the libertarians who told me that I “shouldn’t worry” about Ron Paul wanting to deny a woman’s right to choose because all he wants to do is let the states decide, I think this settles the question what it is he thinks ought to be the decision:

Your inequality chart ‘o the day

by digby

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Dehumanizing the protesters

by digby

Amato has been watching Bill O’Reilly so you don’t have to:

Bill O’Reilly had his wingnut mojo working Thursday night. He tries to paint Occupy Wall Street protesters as drug trafficking potheads who are also boffing each other outdoors in the squalid conditions of Zuccotti Park.

Billo asked one of his favorite culture warriors Margaret Hoover, who lives a few blocks away from the riff-raff if she smelled the weed. She says, yes, but really no since she didn’t actually smell it, but her friend did.

O’Reilly:…three weeks is enough. It’s dirty and filthy, there’s rats running all over, there’s dope all over the place. They’re having sex outside at night around. (inaudible) Does that say anything about the entire movement?

This is the oldest story in the wingnut playbook. During the anti-war movement, the cries of “smelly, dirty hippie” were everywhere. Famous case in point: “a hippie is someone who looks like Tarzan, walks like Jane, and smells like Cheetah” — Ronald Reagan.

I think most people believed that this aversion to hippies probably went away around the time that country music stars started growing their hair long and smoking pot. But the stereotype as it applied to the left never really went away. Back in 2004, you’ll surely recall this lovely Ann Coulter bon mot: “My pretty-girl allies stick out like a sore thumb amongst the corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie-chick pie wagons they call ‘women’ at the Democratic National Convention.” Liberal women are commonly derided as being smelly, hairy and fat, regardless of the reality of the situation. In fact, according the Coulter, they aren’t even women.

Around the same time, there was this widely held sentiment about the journalist in Iraq who reported the shooting of an unarmed Iraqi by American marines. You may recall that the journalist had shoulder length hair (which is fine when Ted Nugent sports the style.)

The Marine who killed the wounded insurgent in Fallujah deserves our praise and admiration. In a split second decision, he acted valiantly.

On the otherhand, Kevin Sites of NBC is a traitor. Beheading civilians, booby-trapped bodies, suicide bombers?? Sorry hippie, American lives come first. Terrorists don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt. This Marine deserves a medal and Kevin Sites, you deserve a punch in the mouth.

So, these derisive stereotypes of smelly, traitorous hippies have had remarkable staying power.

There are a couple of images, however, that seem to really get these people going. The first is the idea that protesters are having sex in the open. I don’t need to explain why that would excite them. But they seem to get even more stimulated by the notion that protesters are relieving themselves in public. When I was a kid living in the South, I remember my parents looking at a book that was being passed around featuring alleged pictures of civil rights protesters defecating in the streets. The thing had the neighborhood all aquiver, it was like pornographic contraband. Just recently, Fox Nation got very overexcited by a story from San Antonio about homeless migrants without toilet facilities using an alley.They really love to show pictures of this sort of thing for some reason.

Billo didn’t specifically refer to this, but this ridiculous story was circulating all over the rightwing web swamp last week and they were clearly extremely energized by the idea. The police car isn’t from Manhattan, so it doesn’t appear to be related to the Wall Street protests at all, but the truth of it has never mattered. It’s the idea. (On Bill Maher last week, GOP spokesperson Nicolle Wallace said her main worry about Occupy Wall Street was where people were going to the bathroom.)

The left gets dinged, sometimes fairly, for wrongly imputing racist motives to the right wing. But it’s clear that there is a strain of rightwing thinking that needs to see their rivals as as traitorous, animalistic beasts who screw and defecate in public. They cannot even be acknowledged as human beings who observe the most basic levels of decent behavior. I’m not sure that has anything to do with race, but it is a very primitive form of tribalism nonetheless. And it’s exceedingly creepy to see famous talk show hosts evoke those images. If history is any judge, I would expect to see more of it.

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No empathy for lack of empathy
by David Atkins (“thereisnospoon”)

Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler has been a sometime critic of mine since I started writing here. The general thrust of his critiques has been that my rhetoric is too forceful, and that I lack an adequate respect for the feelings of my fellow Americans in the Republican Party and the Tea Party. His latest lengthy post is best distilled here:

We thought that made good sense, although we’d advise this fiery young man to clean up his fiery language! But just like that, Atkins began to savage a very bad person—someone who almost surely hails from the 99 percent! Unfortunately, this person also comes from the other political tribe; rather plainly, she tends to vote Republican. In a post devoted to empathy, note the way Atkins started his discussion of this beast:

ATKINS (continuing directly): I can’t even imagine what it must be like to live in the moral vacuum inhabited by people like this…

You’ll have to admit that’s a little bit funny. His headline announced the need for empathy. But halfway through the post, Atkins announced that he “can’t even imagine what it must be like” to see the world in a way which differs from his point of view!

With all due respect, the assertion that those with empathy must be able to empathize with those who lack empathy lest they be considered hypocrites is a ludicrous one. It’s in the same line of “reasoning” that allows homophobes to declare that gays and lesbians who ask for marriage equality are bigots against their free exercise of religion. It’s the same line of fallacious argument that leads conservatives to claim that failure to teach bogus creation “science” is proof of liberal hypocrisy out of failure to respect academic freedom.

Bill Maher may have said it best when he quipped that one should never become so tolerant as to tolerate intolerance. Similarly, I should hope that decent human beings never aspire to such a pinnacle of moral relativism that they can empathize with those who turn a blind eye to mass human suffering, even as the villains who directly caused that suffering walk away laughing with all the loot.

Future generations will look back on this era one day with the same moral revulsion that we have today for Dickensian England, for the Confederacy during the time of slavery, and for Salem during the witch trials. The culture that has produced the renaissance of Ayn Rand and the celebration of human misery that cheers on executions and the death of the uninsured will one day be viewed with no more fair regard than the Gilded Age culture of the late 19th century that produced J.P. Morgan and the Massacre at Wounded Knee. Equanimity in the face of such an abdication of basic human compassion and moral anomie is not a sign of emotional maturity, but rather a retreat into the safe, sanctimonious sepulchers of the church of the savvy.

Somerby has more than once compared me with Diomedes of Homeric fame, the warrior who became so enraged in battle that he fought mortal and immortal alike indiscriminately. As a student of the Classics who has read much of the Iliad in the original Greek, I find the comparison most amusing. First, the aristeia of Diomedes in fighting even the Gods if necessary helped save the Greek ships from the Trojan flame. But more importantly, the appeal to Homeric archetypes is itself deeply flawed. In modern times Greeks and Trojans no longer square off against one another, needing the counsel of wise advisers like Nestor to calm fervid warrior spirits. In modern times, the elite rulers Agamemnon and Priam have joined forces to steal all the wealth of the Greeks and Trojans together, then sail away to offshore havens in contempt of divine or terrestrial justice. And they have raised a deluded army of soldiers who have swapped out their boar’s tusk helmets for tri-cornered hats, willing to wish them Zeus-speed so long as they can remain, in their squalor, superior to their helot slaves. In this situation, it is well past time to reclaim from our modern-day Agamemnons what is not rightfully theirs, without much regard for the minority who stand in the way.

Or perhaps, to use another Homeric analogy, the better metaphor for what Wall Street is doing to America lies not in Iliad at all, but in the Odyssey, in which hordes of wealthy suitors eat Odysseus’ family and the people of Ithaca out of house, home and land. Homer understood exactly what sort of justice awaited such men.

Fortunately, as a liberal I don’t believe in that vision of retributive justice. But I might be able to empathize with those who do.

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“Vertically Integrated Grassroots Strategy”

by digby

In microeconomics and management, the term vertical integration describes a style of management control. Vertically integrated companies in a supply chain are united through a common owner. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or (market-specific) service, and the products combine to satisfy a common need. It is contrasted with horizontal integration.

Here’s the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity answer to Occupy Wall Street:

Dear NAME,The Left is back to its 1960s play book of fringe politics—this time with a radical class-warfare mob called “Occupy Wall Street.”Their demands look an awful lot like the Left’s tried-and-failed policies of the last two years:

• Trillions of dollars for new entitlements we don’t need and can’t afford,
• Government picking winners and losers in the economy,
• And, of course, massive tax hikes that will crush the middle class and strangle job creation—all in the name of “fairness.”

Despite these agitators coming straight out of the Left’s central casting, liberals in Washington are desperately trying to frame this as “widespread middle-class support” for their failed economic agenda—even though this unruly mob is anything but.And, of course, even the left-wing media has climbed aboard the propaganda machine, calling these radicals everything from the “American Autumn” to the “Left’s Tea Party.”The Left is coming out swinging, doing anything they can to distract from their radical agenda—and it’s absolutely critical that you and I stand strong and continue our fight for spending sanity in Washington.That’s why AFP is launching our new nationwide Cut Spending Now tour.Cut Spending Now uses AFP’s tried-and-true vertically integrated grassroots strategy—combining rallies in 19 states, a petition, and national media attention—to put unprecedented grassroots pressure on Congress and their deficit-cutting “super committee” to cut wasteful spending and keep taxes low on American families.You can sign the petition by clicking here.Let me tell you—it’s more urgent than ever that you and I build the practical grassroots effort necessary to make sure Congress hears from everyday Americans, not just a fringe mob like “Occupy Wall Street.”Next month, Congress’s super committee will announce their plans on how to cut $1.2 trillion from our deficit. And if radical Left-wing groups win the debate today, we could wind up with a trillion dollars in new job-killing tax hikes—instead of them making the necessary cuts to wasteful spending.So far, Cut Spending Now has received a tremendous response nationwide. In the last few weeks, the tour has already turned out thousands of activists in seven critical states—Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, andColorado. And that’s just the beginning.But we can’t keep this nationwide project going at full-strength without your help right now.Please click here to donate $25, $50, $100 or more right away.Thank you so much for standing with Americans for Prosperity and Cut Spending Now. As part of our nationwide, 1.8 million-strong grassroots army, you’re helping us put real pressure on Congress—and stop the Left’s propaganda machine dead in its tracks.Sincerely,JP DeGance, AFPP.S. We’re counting on you to help AFP’s nationwide Cut Spending Now project change the debate in Washington—and help bring economic freedom and spending sanity back to Washington.

And they’re fundraising off of this … never leave a dollar on the table, I guess.

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Politico Hackery
by David Atkins (“thereisnospoon”)

The always-useless Politico has a breathless headline today: Dem groups can’t quit Durkee. For those not familiar with the dreary story, Durkee and Associates was the treasurer for a large number of Democratic organizations and politicians’ campaign committees in California. Durkee apparently embezzled millions of dollars, wiping out Dianne Feinstein’s bank account and a number of others’, including the Ventura County Democratic Party of which I’m the 1st vice chair.

The implication of the Politico story is that there’s some sort of funny business going on, or perhaps loyalty to Ms. Durkee in spite of the mass theft among groups that have not yet selected a new treasurer. Of course, nothing of the sort is the case. As the actual quotes show, the simple reality is that after having used Durkee and Associates based on the advice of people who supposedly knew what they were doing, many groups are taking their time and doing more due diligence before hiring and naming a new treasurer:

“We’re literally in the process of switching over right now, too. We literally just signed a new treasurer,” said Nick Anas, chairman of the Orange County Young Democrats, which has Durkee still named as its treasurer. “We had to contact lawyers, interview new treasurers. It wasn’t easy.”

But “Dem Groups Can’t Quit Durkee” is such better Drudge bait than “Dem Groups Methodically Doing Due Diligence Before Selecting Next Treasurer.” Politico is not lazy journalism, as many have argued. It’s yellow journalism.

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That would be the point

by digby

People are busy:

After a test run in Madison of the new state voter ID law led to lines so long some voters abandoned the effort, the city’s clerk is encouraging other municipalities to do tests of their own.

Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl told The Post-Crescent the same issues that arose during their mock election Tuesday would come up across the state during the spring primaries on Feb. 21. The primaries will be the first time Wisconsin voters are required to show photo identification and sign a poll book before casting their ballot.

That’s one of the effects of arduous voting procedures. Vote suppressors know all the tricks.

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Why Wall Street Should be Nervous
by David Atkins (“thereisnospoon”)

Whatever one thinks of the Occupiers and the Tea Partiers (and most Americans view the Occupiers far more favorably), one thing should be painstakingly clear to the crowd on Wall Street: the likelihood of their getting bailed out again is next to nil.

While most of the goals of the Tea Party and the Occupy movement are diametrically opposed, Joe Biden did identify the one common thread:

“There’s a lot in common with the tea party,” Biden said at forum in Washington, D.C., when asked about the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. “The tea party started why? TARP. They thought it was unfair — we were bailing out the big guy.”

Both the Left and the Right in this country are furious about the bailouts of the financial sector. Both sides, amazingly, view Wall Street figures variously as pawns and/or puppetmasters of the other side. In modern America, that’s about as close to legitimate popular bipartisanship as anyone is likely to get.

Which leads to an interesting dynamic. No, the “too big to fail” banks have not been broken up. No, naked credit default swaps haven’t been banned, nor has high-frequency trading been even taxed, to say nothing of banned. Logistically speaking, nothing is preventing the financial sector from blowing up another bubble.

But the common person can take solace in this at least: there is no more Greenspan put. If the financial sector blows up again, there won’t be anyone but establishment Republicans and Third Way Democrats (the same thing, really, on everything but LGBT and abortion issues) to back them up. And increasingly in America, establishment Republicans and Third Way Democrats don’t amount to enough of a coalition to push back against the base of either party. True, the conservative base is currently stronger and has a louder voice than the progressive base. But the Progressive Caucus in Congress is growing, not shrinking, and the Occupy movement has re-energized core progressive Dems.

From a legislative point of view, Wall Street may still be able to get away with murder and crash the economy again. From a political point of view, there won’t be enough legislators willing to catch that falling knife. The financial sector is finally starting to realize that.

In a world full of half-empty glasses, that glass at least is half full.

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Plutocrat Whine in A Flat minor

by digby

I’m collecting these now. Unfortunately, there are so many that it’s hard to keep up these days:

Walking down New York’s 55th Street near Park Avenue last Friday evening, our group of seven men in suits and ties was approached by a panhandler asking for money.”Here are a bunch of Wall Street guys,” he said, straight out. “Give me some money.”Although we were not all “Wall Street guys,” all except one kept walking, ignoring the panhandler as we typically do, as instructed by “experts.” Yet over the past 30 years of living in the city, I often have disregarded this advice, and so once more I gave instinctively. I pulled out a dollar, handed it to the man, smiled, and resumed walking.But next came a revelation.”A dollar?” the man shouted. “You Wall Street fat cats! This is what the problem is with this country. Take your damn dollar.” With that, he threw it on the sidewalk.Apparently, street charity now has a minimum.Not only have I never had anyone refuse my donation under such circumstances, but recipients are generally quite appreciative regardless of the amount. Not this time. It was as if the class-warfare rhetoric of the left had surfaced on 55th Street, while I was just trying to show some goodwill and help a guy out. He didn’t even ask for a little more, as sometimes happens. (“How about $5 for a meal? . . . $20 for a bus ticket?”) He simply judged that my $1 gift was not sufficient and threw it on the ground. I had not given my “fair share.”

Perhaps he should have told this ungrateful wretch to go down to Magnolia Bakery and buy himself a delicious red velvet cupcake? Where’s the gratitude?

Where did this script—and its concomitant anger—come from?Like most people I know, I think President Obama’s tax increases on the wealthy would make sense if we believed he was sincere about—and could be successful at—reforming Washington’s overspending, out-of-control entitlements and regulation. Instead, his attacks on Wall Street bankers (“fat cats,” a phrase Mr. Obama now owns and was eloquently repeated by the panhandler on Friday night), Las Vegas, oil companies, jet manufacturers and “millionaires and billionaires” are inflaming both sides and placating no one. They seriously undermine the chances for reasonable compromise.

Indeed. It’s the president asking meekly for the billionaires to delay the write off of their corporate jets that’s inflaming everyone. (This should scare the hell out of him. )

(By the way Mr Master of the Universe — Obama doesn’t “own” the phrase fat cats. Not only has it been around for centuries, it’s owned by the people who are coming to hate your guts for being such a selfish gluttonous asshole. My only complaint is that it is an insult to cats to be compared to these hideous fools.)

I do not recall another president in my lifetime whose negative drumbeat about large segments of the population has been so relentless. I do not recall another president (even those similarly frustrated by congressional gridlock and the stifling of their agendas) repeatedly targeting a specific economic class, complaining as loudly and using his bully pulpit so consistently for bashing those who disagree with him.Presidents, once elected, instantly become president of all the people. They are the ultimate parental figures who should show no favoritism while always reaching across the dinner table to keep the family together. Even when they are confident their plan is the right one, they must communicate it such that everyone in the family knows they care equally about each of them. Painting important parts of our economy and population with such a negative brush is not only un-presidential, it is destructive to the fabric of our nation.

I don’t know how old this sensitive little fellow is, but he’s been very sheltered.

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