Month: August 2012

It’s about women being able to make decisions

by digby

It’s hard to believe we have to make that point in the 21st century, but we do:

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Stand your ground with grandpa’s ashes

“When you’re rich, you want a Republican in office”

Multimillionaire Jenna Jameson says it all:

“I’m very looking forward to a Republican being back in office,” Jameson said while sipping champagne in a VIP room at Gold Club in the city’s South of Market neighborhood. “When you’re rich, you want a Republican in office.”

True. At least until the lack of demand sinks the entire economy. But that’s OK, because when that happens the rich will get bailed out anyway.

But you know, it’s not surprising that Ms. Jameson is a fan of Mitt and the GOP. Utahns, Alaskans and other family-values red staters are her biggest fans, too.

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Values have been adjusted

by digby

This is just sad:

GREENE: Another person who felt the economic squeeze in Atlanta, is Jason Palmer. When I first met him, he had just taken a new job with the Federal Reserve in Atlanta, after being unemployed for nine months. To make ends meet during that time, he searched the streets for scrap metal to sell. Now, since I first met Jason, he and his wife had a son. Jason told me last week that he has friends who are out of work, or struggling with homes that are underwater. He’s counting his blessings.

JASON PALMER: I think even if I get a lot of stability, I have a tendency to – it creates doubt. Once you’ve been shaken up, it’s hard to see stability and embrace it. It almost feels foolhardy to me. I know that sounds pessimistic, but that’s kind of the way I feel. But what it does do is, it makes me thankful for every day that I’m able to go to work and do what I do. I’m totally thankful for that.

GREENE: There was a time when things were very unstable…

PALMER: Correct.

GREENE: …for you. You had been laid off, and you were out searching for scrap metal.

PALMER: That’s correct, yeah. I still scrap metal occasionally. Again, I’m not afraid to roll up my sleeves and get some stuff done. Yeah, that was a tough time. I was. I was back looking for jobs. I would – I’d put on my Sunday best, go to some job interviews; and kind of fight the market that way. And if I saw some scrap metal on the side of the road, I’d just try to pick it up without getting my suit dirty. And it definitely – it definitely put food on the table, at times. And it helped pay utility bills, and put gas in the car, that type of thing. But yeah, that was a real trying time.

But I look back on it, and I don’t – it’s not that I necessarily pride myself over it. I just know when you’ve got to do hard work. I just know when you’ve got to be humbled. There’s merit in hardship. There’s new perspectives in times that aren’t easy. I’m not saying desperate is a way to go. I’m saying that when you only have a few tools in your life, you learn how to use those tools more efficiently. And you learn how to use a crescent wrench like a hammer, you know?

As reader Steve D pointed out: it’s the “Mellonization” of the nation:

“Liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate… it will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted.”

I guess they know when they’ve been humbled …

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This story in Mother Jones about the small handful of gazillionares who are trying to buy the election is astonishing. I honestly don’t know how anyone can call this democracy anymore.

Click over to read the story, but here are the accompanying charts.

But keep something important in mind here. Romney may very well lose and everyone will say this shows that they failed, despite all their money. But these PACs and 501cs are not just about the presidential race. They are spreading this money around from the top of the ticket all the way to local races and their themes and talking points are all coordinated. I doubt they ever really believed this election was a shoo-in (or even really wanted to rock the boat — it’s not as if they haven’t been doing very, very well under Obama.) But they are setting up a system for the future:

During sessions of the “Weaver Terrace Group,” representatives of the embryonic Crossroads organization gathered with counterparts from groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, Americans for Tax Reform, and Americans for Prosperity, the funding vehicle affiliated with the billionaires David and Charles Koch. Crossroads served as referee, says CEO Law. “Conservative activists tend to act like six-year-olds on soccer teams,” he explains, “with everyone grouping around the ball and getting in each other’s way. Karl’s idea was that all of these organizations should share information, coordinate polling, reduce redundancy.”

Together with a follow-on ruling by the federal appeals court in Washington, Citizens United knocked several crucial holes in McCain-Feingold. Corporate and union money, for example, could now be used without restriction for “electioneering communications,” meaning radio and TV ads that mention a candidate’s name within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election.

More important than the incremental increase in campaign-law porosity, though, was the passionately phrased celebration by Justice Anthony Kennedy of political spending in its manifold forms. Kennedy’s majority opinion declared that “the appearance of influence or access … will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy.” Kennedy continued: “The fact that a corporation, or any other speaker, is willing to spend money to try to persuade voters presupposes that the people have the ultimate influence over elected officials.” In Kennedy’s syllogism, democracy benefits from more speech. Political money is speech. Therefore democracy benefits from more political money.

That’s so true. I certainly feel a new found faith in democracy knowing that this handful of billionaires are finally allowed to have the same influence over our government that I do.

And for all this cash they’re spending, it’s chump change to them. They are that rich.

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Paul Ryan and the Grand Poobahs were horribly wrong on S&P downgrade. But nothing changes.

by David Atkins

NPR’s Marketplace had an interesting report yesterday on the foolishly dire predictions that were made about the S&P downgrade of U.S. credit last year. Regular Hullabaloo readers will remember that Digby and I roundly, repeatedly and consistently mocked both S&P’s rationale for downgrading U.S. credit, and the notion that the downgrade itself would hurt the economy. Paul Krugman made the same points.

It turns out–surprise, surprise–that we were right and the big names in lights were wrong:

It’s been about year since the twin fiascos of the debt ceiling debate and the subsequent Standard and Poor’s downgrade of this country’s credit rating. You remember: No more AAA, only AA+.

It was, indeed, historic. And forecasters in business and politics made dire predictions about how the downgrade would whack your wallet…

As far as worst predictions, it would take a medal stand the size of a swimming pool to hold all the people who were wrong. But we’ve only got room for one, so the gold goes to Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, speaking on Fox just after the downgrade.

Paul Ryan: Obviously, not only does it hurt the federal government in its ability to close the deficits, but it hurts people. You know, car loans, home loans, all these things are gonna go up.

Didn’t happen. In fact, the opposite occurred. Home loan interest rates are now at record lows, in large part because global investors kept faith that America would always pay its debts.

And yet it’s still fashionable for the Very Serious People to wring their hands over the S&P downgrade. Erin Burnett still puts up the tracker of the number of days since the downgrade, as if it mattered a whit. Centrist politicians still say preposterous things like this:

Congress needs to stop the brinkmanship politics and work together to balance our nation’s budget and restore our bond rating. This will give businesses the certainty they need to invest in capital projects and expand their workforce. This in turn will create demand for goods and services that will buoy our economy. If Congress can’t pass a budget on time, they shouldn’t be paid.

And no one “serious” calls them out for being as demonstrably wrong as if they declared the sky was green.

And year after year, partisan conservative crazies like Paul Ryan and the centrist Grand Poobahs will be treated with utmost deference and respect, while Paul Krugman and silly progressive bloggers like us will be sidelined and marginalized as rabid know-nothings. A year later shows like Marketplace will make a brief note of the horrible wrongness of the conventional wisdom while making some false equivalences between left and right, and the cycle will repeat.

When it comes to being “serious”, you can never be too wrong. You can only be too shrill about the facts.

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Paul Ryan worries about the Makers vs the Takers

by digby

Hey, remember when Paul Ryan said he was all over Ayn Rand and now he’s all Catholic and stuff? Well, it may have become the love that dare not speak its name but it’s clear that Ryan still has deep, deep feelings for the old girl:

Here, let me translate that into the original Randroid:

“The man who attempts to live for others is a dependent. He is a parasite in motive and makes parasites of those he serves. The relationship produces nothing but mutual corruption. It is impossible in concept. The nearest approach to it in reality — the man who lives to serve others — is the slave. If physical slavery is repulsive, how much more repulsive is the concept of servility of the spirit. The conquered slave has a vestige of honor. He has the merit of having resisted and of considering his condition evil. But the man who enslaves himself voluntarily in the name of love is the basest of creatures. He degrades the dignity of man, and he degrades the conception of love. But that is the essence of altruism.– Ayn Rand”

Shhhh. Don’t tell Jesus.

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Culture in the sovereign states

by digby

Earlier this week there was a torrent of discussion about Mitt’s remarks in Israel about the differences in “culture” between two neighboring countries making the difference in economic performance. If you would like to read a thoughtful take on the issue, I’d recommend James Fallows’ piece in The Atlantic.

There was also a lot of discussion about the US and Mexico example, but I didn’t see anyone except Blue Gal Texan at Crooks and Liars take the example of what the right wingers insist upon seeing as the “sovereign” states of America. (Many of these people including governors of big states are Tenthers, which means they see this quite literally.)

Dear David Sirota

By tristero

You write:

We [Sirota and radio co-host/former Bush Administration official Michael Brown] both come to the microphone with a desire to dial down the rhetorical volume and engage in an honest dialogue about the toughest issues of the day.

Do you seriously think an “honest dialogue” can take place on “the toughest issues of the day” when conservatives frame misogynists as “pro-life,” bigoted fanatics as “Christians,” and cynical paid liars as “global warming skeptics?” Do think it is possible to speak with any substance at all “at a lower rhetorical volume” when even many liberals thoughtlessly repeat these outrageously misleading frames? I don’t.

Expecting an honest dialogue with a Bush administration hack is a lot like expecting honest financial reporting from Bernie Madoff. But hey, it’s a gig.

Love,

Tristero

As much as I’d like to say that I’m shocked that some self-righteous so-called liberals are joining the right in their condemnation of Harry Reid for baiting Romney but I’m not. It’s just how they roll. The wingnuts are kicking up a lot of dust in the hope that this might shut down the tax issue. If they can get Reid to apologize for “crossing the line” I suppose it might even be possible. And yes, they will be able to find even more timorous Villagers and others who vaguely position themselves on the left side of the dial to wring their hands and clutch their pearls over Harry Reid’s alleged ethical downfall.