;)
The Commentariat -- Dec. 11, 2012
** Frank Bruni: "In a country that supposedly draws a line between church and state, we allow the former to intrude flagrantly on the latter. Religious faith shapes policy debates. It fuels claims of American exceptionalism. And it suffuses arenas in which its place should be carefully measured." CW: which raises the question -- how can a guy like Bruni, who is usually so fatuous, suddenly be so right? I guess the Lord works in mysterious ways.
Local News -- Race to the Bottom
Reuters: "Michigan legislators on Tuesday approved laws that ban mandatory membership in public and private sector unions, dealing a stunning blow to organized labor in the home of the U.S. auto industry. Republican Governor Rick Snyder was poised to sign the bills into law within days."
The Detroit Free Press & Lansing State Journal have live coverage of events surrounding the anticipated passage & signing of a state right-to-work bill.
John Flesher & Jeff Karoub of the AP: "Authorities in Lansing were bracing for an onslaught of demonstrators Tuesday at the Michigan Capitol as the Legislature reconvenes for what could be final votes on bills. Hundreds of people gathered early Tuesday to get inside."
Chad Livengood, et al., of the Detroit News: "Democrats also were upset by a memo that was sent to state workers explaining Snyder's position on right to work and urging safety precautions during protests at the Capitol. The memo ... was sent to thousands of state employees just as Snyder and Republican legislative leaders last Thursday announced their support for the legislation.... The memo plugged the benefits of right to work and warned state employees, some of whom are unionized, to keep their cellphones charged, avoid walking alone and follow other safety practices. Ray Holman, legislative liaison for UAW Local 6000, which represents 17,000 state employees objected state-owned equipment was used to send what he called a political message. 'It talked about the virtues of the right-to-work legislation, and the undercurrent is that union people are going to be engaging in criminal activities,' he said."
Michael O'Brien of NBC News: U.S. Rep. Sander "Levin [D-Mich.] said Democrats want Republicans to change their proposal to allow for voters to repeal the law through a ballot initiative, as voters did in Ohio. The Michigan law is coupled with an appropriations bill that would exempt it from a popular vote challenge.... Supporters of organized labor ... believe they would be able to use a citizens initiative under Michigan law to eventually challenge the right-to-work law. Under such a scenario..., they could force a vote to undo the law in 2014." ...
... Levin has an op-ed in the Free Press, in which he notes that Gov. Snyder has no idea how unions work: "The governor has said that under current law Michigan workers 'have to join a union and pay dues' and that if they choose not to they 'can lose their jobs.' In fact, for many decades federal and state laws have made it clear that no one is required to join a union or to pay dues. And no one can lose his or her job for refusing to do so. Workers pay dues if they join the union, but if they choose not to, the most that can be required of them ... is that they pay an 'agency fee' for their share of administering the contract."
** Detroit Free Press: a "Koch-funded group, the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC], which promotes a radical right-wing agenda in states across the country, supplying 'model legislation' to sympathetic lawmakers [appears to be behind the Michigan bill]. Michigan's proposed right-to-work bills mirror the ALEC language practically word-for-word.... [Gov.] Snyder says right-to-work was put on his agenda. But he owes his constituents more detail about who put it there, and how they got his ear."
Rich Yeselson of American Prospect: "If union adversaries can pass a right-to-work law in the home of the once-powerful United Auto Workers, they can pretty much do it anywhere.... 'Right to work' laws, which permit employees working at a unionized workplace to refuse to join the union or to pay the union the cost of representing the worker, are designed to weaken the economic and political power of organized labor and, by extension, wage workers. Full stop. They allow workers to 'free ride' all the benefits of a collective-bargaining agreement ... negotiated by the union without paying any of the union dues their fellow employees pay."
"The Freedom to Freeload Law":
Marcy Wheeler of Emptywheel: "Making MI a RtW state effectively embraces a vision of the state as Indiana or Mississippi or Bangladesh. Making MI a RtW state embraces the idea that we should be dumb labor, not innovative technology, just another entry in the race to be the cheapest, most desperate state."
Ed Kilgore: why have Michigan Republicans jammed through the right-to-work bill in an extraordinary lame duck session? They "were rightfully afraid they wouldn't have the votes in the House had they taken this up as normal legislation in the next session of the legislature."
Here's President Obama talking to workers at Detroit Diesel Monday. He got enthusiastic but not extraordinary applause till he got to this part:
... Video of the full speech is beneath today's Ledes.
Charles Pierce: "We have had almost 30 years of Democratic politicians holding unions at arms-length. Between lax environmental regulations, non-existent workplace rules, and sweetheart local corporate tax breaks, the 'race to the bottom' that the president derided has been going on for decades, with no end in sight. This country is a company town now." Thanks to James S. for the link.
Cliff Notes
Frank Newport of Gallup: "Americans continue to give higher approval ratings to the way President Obama is handling the fiscal cliff negotiations than they give to the Democratic leaders or the Republican leaders in Congress." Favorables: Obama: 48 percent; Congressional Democrats 38; Congressional Republicans: 26. Bear in mind that about 75 percent of those polled have no idea what the "fiscal cliff" is all about.
How Gerrymandering Kills Democracy. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times on why House members won't go along with raising taxes on the rich: they represent -- often gerrymandered -- districts where they won by large margins on a promise of no new taxes. CW: the members Weisman cites claim their constituents don't want them to raise taxes on the rich; I don't know that there's proof they're right. Indeed, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), an early advocate of passing the middle-class tax cut as a stand-alone bill, says they're wrong:
I don't think voting to cut spending, restrain and reform entitlements and make the Bush tax cuts permanent for 98 percent of the American people is voting against the will of anyone's constituents, including my own.
** The Audacity of Dopes. Everything Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says is a lie. Steve Benen breaks down Graham's mendacious performance on Fox "News." Watch the video. Best part: Lindsey urges Obama to "man up." Benen writes, "... even looking past all [the lies], the eight words to remember here are these: 'We're not going to raise the debt ceiling.' In other words, according to Lindsey Graham, Republicans intend to hurt Americans on purpose. They will, quite deliberately, hold the global economy and the full faith and credit of the United States hostage -- again -- until the president agrees to take benefits away from senior citizens."
Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "... there are four parts to Medicare: Part A (hospital insurance), Part B (medical insurance), Part C (Medicare Advantage -- private plans for parts A and B), and Part D (prescription drug plans). When Graham speaks about the 'imminent bankruptcy' of Medicare, he is only speaking about the Part A trust fund, which would be exhausted by 2024.... Moreover, though the fund would be 'depleted,' it would not be 'bankrupt.' ... Not only did he repeat the error of treating all of Medicare as one entity, but he did the same with Social Security. Moreover, his reference to Medicaid makes little sense, even if one has very expansive definitions of the words 'bankruptcy' and 'imminent.'"
Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Obama administration gave conditional approval on Monday to health insurance marketplaces being set up by six states led by Democratic governors eager to carry out President Obama's health care overhaul. The six are Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington. At the same time, the administration rejected pleas from other states that want to carry out a partial expansion of Medicaid, to cover fewer people than the president and Congress originally intended."
What's the Matter with Genachowski? Bill Moyers and Bernie Sanders discuss FCC Chair Julius Genachowski's plan to give a huge gift to Rupert Murdoch:
... The transcript is here. P.S. I wrote to Genachowski. If you'd like to write, too, his e-mail address is "Julius.Genachowski@fcc.gov Clicking on the link should call up your mail program. Link fixed.
Hoist on Their Own.... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The high court's decision last week to hear two cases relating to same-sex marriage puts that issue at the center of the national debate. And it does so at an exceedingly awkward time for Republicans, many of whom are trying to downplay or moderate their party's views on social issues to chart a path back to electoral success. In June, the House of Representatives told the Supreme Court that the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act 'is an issue of great national importance' that urgently requires the justices' attention. The 1996 law denies federal benefits to same-sex married couples. But when the court agreed on Friday to hear one of the DOMA cases early next year, the Republican leadership had nothing to say about it."
Greg Sargent: "... sources tell me the legal team representing the plaintiffs in the Proposition 8 case -- Ted Olson, David Boise, and Ted Boutrous -- plan to lobby the administration to publicly declare that the right to gay marriage is protected by the constitution, and to file a legal brief supporting their argument to that effect."
Desmond Butler of the AP: "After years of battling each other on trade issues, U.S. and European officials are contemplating a dramatic change in direction: joining together in what could be the world's largest free trade pact in an attempt to boost their struggling economies. Discussions are in the most preliminary of stages and there would be significant obstacles to overcome, including sharp differences on agriculture, food safety and climate change legislation. Still, top EU and U.S. officials have said they want to see it happen. And America's main labor group, often the biggest opponent of U.S. trade pacts, says it wouldn't stand in the way."
The other day I ran a video of President Obama's visit with a Virginia family, & I mentioned he did all the talking. Turns out they got to speak, too. Pretty sweet:
AND Mitt Romney is a winner after all! AND the first runner-up! (Okay, he's already the first runner-up in that other contest known as the presidential race. So this is just icing on the cake someone left out in the rain.) Mother Jones: Romney made "the most notable quote of the year, according to the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations." Read the linked article for the full Top Ten. Romney's winning remark:
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what...who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims. ...These are people who pay no income tax. ...and so my job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.
And his runner-up entry:
We took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet (in Massachusetts). I went to a number of women's groups and said, 'Can you help us find folks?' and they brought us whole binders full of women.
Right Wing World
We Have No Idea Where We Get Half Our Money. David Corn of Mother Jones: Both Dick Armey, the recently department chair of the tea party funder FreedomWorks, and Matt Kibbe, its president, claim they have no idea of the identities of the two big donors who gave them $12 million, or slightly more than half of their annual income. So they're a front group that doesn't know who they're fronting for? Uh-huh.
Katrina vanden Heuvel in the Washington Post: "The Republicans' unreconstructed paranoia about an organization dedicated to global cooperation isn't new.... No, now it's just been mainstreamed in the GOP's circulatory system, another example of the party's increasingly delusional, and ossified, worldview.... It's mean, it's mental and, frankly, it's a menace."
Right Wing World, where facts are left-wing propaganda. Paul Krugman on Mary Matalin.
News Ledes
New York Times: " said Tuesday that the United States would formally recognize a coalition of Syrian opposition groups as that country's legitimate representative, in an attempt to intensify the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to give up his nearly two-year bloody struggle to stay in power."
New York Times: "North Korea defied the likelihood of more sanctions by the United Nations Security Council to launch a rocket on Wednesday, demonstrating that the government of its new leader, Kim Jong-un, was pressing ahead to master the technology needed to deliver a nuclear warhead on intercontinental ballistic missiles."
New York Times: "... three months after the assault that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, the investigation into the attacks has been hobbled by the reluctance of the Libyan authorities to move against Islamist extremist suspects who belong to powerful militias.... While the F.B.I. has identified several suspects, none have [sic.] been arrested and some have fled Benghazi."
New York Times: "Fourth- and eighth-grade students in the United States continue to lag behind students in several East Asian countries and some European nations in math and science, although American fourth graders are closer to the top performers in reading, according to test results released on Tuesday."
Reuters: "Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who is 94 and has been in hospital since Saturday for tests, has suffered a recurrence of a lung infection but is responding to treatment, the government said on Tuesday."
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Reader Comments (22)
Charles Pierce's take on the Michigan race to the bottom is insightful.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/obama-michigan-visit-right-to-work-121012
Rachel reported last night that Dick Morris's Super Pack is really a scam––money collected goes back to Morris. Seems the same kind of thing is true of Dick Army's Freedom Works––which he is no longer a part of––money given goes back to FW to pay for their booklets, food,golf and in pockets? etc.––in other words THEY profit from monies that people give for candidates. All of this is a little fuzzy, but it seems pretty clear we have scam operations here. Par for the course?
Yesterday Kate gave us a Sexton Palindrome, a favorite of Kurt's; Today I give you an Anagram, a favorite of my long deceased Auntie Gert.
THEDA BARA*––Black Death
*the flicker film star––played Cleopatra––I think they called her "The Vamp"
Re: For God's sake; I don't have a problem with God, I like God, God likes me.
Frank Bruni's essay is interesting to me because I believe the facts have it that the more education one has the less one believes in a "god". That doesn't bode well for the future leaders of our Armed Forces.does it?
Taking a worldly view, believing in the superior qualities of Christianity over the other world religions will result in bad policy decisions.
What really chaps me up is the use of "God" to justify godless actions. When are humans going to accept responsibility? Never.
Couldn't be better timing! Here's Charlie Pierce's 'Morning Dooley"
" 'Well,' says I, 'whin I was growin' up, half th' congregation heard mass with their prayer books tur-rned upside down, an' they were as pious as anny. Th' Apostles' Creed niver was as con-vincin' to me afther I larned to r-read it as it was whin I cudden't read it, but believed it.'"
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/#ixzz2EkvzkOW2
@JJG: You've nailed it. Comforting as it might be to some, religion is often dangerous to many precisely because it lets the human race off the hook. Aside from the easy path it offers to an unwarranted sense of superiority--I know I've said that before--it takes responsibility out of the equation for all, and especially ironically for the many churched folk--I'm thinking Douthat and his brethren here--who preach personal responsibility loudly and often.
Responsibility becomes religious roadkill in two ways. Not only does it provide, as you say, cover, justification, for the most inhumane of human acts, but it also serves as an excuse to do nothing at all when circumstances clearly demand action. In this sense religion sins by both commission and omission. Trusting that the Lord will provide is nothing more than letting Daddy do it, eschewing responsibility by taking refuge in perpetual childhood. Deal with population or environmental concerns? Not me. All that hard stuff is up to God.
And, another irony, we often encounter this deferral of duty in those on the Right--businessmen and their hirelings--who pose as tough realists, when in fact they are supremely dangerous moral and intellectual chicken hawks, unwilling and afraid to take responsibility for anything.
"If God did not want them fleeced, He would not made them sheep." I do not know who said that but it seems like a mantra of the Republican party. Destruction of unions of workers is just part of the road to serfdom for American workers.
Lower pay to workers and a decade of spending cuts by federal, state and local governments guaranties a fast decline in our economy. We need only watch Great Britain slide back into recession to see our future.
At some point, fear, hunger and desperation will stampede the sheep and they will follow some leader that promises them a future. We may be lucky and get a Roosevelt, on the other hand we may get a General.
The future is not pretty without a New Deal.
The right may have lost a big one recently, but no one can accuse them of not staying the course, no matter how crazy. They will fight with everything they have to ensure that the rest of us are forced to live by their rules. Thus the debacle in Michigan.
Snyder won't be the last Republican governor to try to dismantle unions. Anything the GOP can do to decrease the power of average Americans to thwart their dreams of glory will be trotted out. In the name of "FREEDOM", natch.
Election stealing and vote suppression schemes for the next round of national elections are likely already in the works. The tactics that didn't seem to work as well as predicted will be tweaked and re-tested in two years. GOP "leaders" have already stated outright that they would rather see the country go down in economic flames than give in to the Black Satan in their White House, even if it means hurting Americans. This is a zero sum game.
I hope any appeasers on the Democratic side realize that. Republicans would rather shiv a Democratic pol than bend even a tiny bit in the interest of the nation. Take that to the bank. Early signs are that the right-leaning idiots are going to double down on all their mistakes, believing that they were somehow screwed out of their rightful victory.
And here is where unreasonable, wild-eyed attachment to religion comes into play as well. Every time I read Douthat or someone like him, I just know that he's sitting in his room (with his inflatable doll on the bed) saying to himself "But we just CAN'T be wrong. God is on our side! He HATES those people. They can't ever be right! God told me so. I know it, I know it...."
Now extend that kind of mindset out to the millions who believe that god will take care of them and will punish the evildoers (that means us, yo), so all they have to do is remain righteous. Somehow it never occurs to many of these people, especially the Christians, that the ideology they support with such febrile intensity is nearly always in direct opposition to the most basic teachings of Jesus. When was the last time you heard a Christian politician talk about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, comforting the afflicted? For them, the afflicted are the Wall Street Masters of the Universe bothered incessantly by the little ants (the 99%) who should be thankful they are allowed to live and not crushed like the insects they are.
That's some very special Christian values at work there.
But decades ago, the GOP geniuses wedded their plans for domination first to an out of control religious fundamentalism, then to an even more off the chain teabagger crowd. The inbreeding going on for the last generation has produced a three headed, blind, infantile monstrosity that is pounding its way across the country threatening all manner of terrible things if it doesn't get its way.
Democrats need to stand tall here and not be bullied by bullshitters and swayed by pusillanimous pundits.
@Carlyle: "At some point, fear, hunger and desperation will stampede the sheep and they will follow some leader that promises them a future. We may be lucky and get a Roosevelt, on the other hand we may get a General."
You have reiterated this prediction of doom & gloom many times. I feel personally responsible for your recent foray into the Weimar Republic; after all, I've asked writers to back up their opinions with facts. I do think it's fairly safe to say that without the aid of a pretty sophistical statistical model, predictions are not particularly useful.
If you want to repeat your scary predictions, feel free. But it might be polite to limit the same ole, same ole to once a week or so.
Marie
Okay, so I was beginning to write something about the fragility of predictions until something popped up that will make you either laugh or cry. Or both.
The other day I posted a comment about SCOTUS' consideration of gay marriage (making no predictions myself). I did note, however, with a fair amount of confidence, the way at least one justice, Scalia, might vote. He's the guy who refers to gay marriage in his own garrulous idiom, as "homosexual sodomy".
Well, it seems that funny old avuncular Nino has put another bullet in the chamber (so to speak). He now places gay marriage on the same plane as murder.
Don't ever say you've seen or heard it all where right-wingers are concerned.
Speaking at Princeton on Monday, funny man Scalia tried to explain to a gay student that he is just wrong, wrong, wrong, and VERY naughty. AND in order to prove why it's necessary for the United States to hold the line against immoral slugs (like this student), Scalia finger-wagged his way into the moral argument during which he drew a parallel between gay marriage (registered in his own personal glossary as homosexual sodomy) and...murder.
O-kay.
http://www.salon.com/2012/12/11/scalia_its_effective_to_draw_parallels_between_murder_and_sodomy/
These fuckers can never just disagree. They can never just say, well, you know, I don't agree with gay marriage and I'm uncomfortable around gays and lesbians. No. They have to eviscerate the other side. Not only do they have to be right, they have to prove that opposing views are simply immoral.
As I wrote earlier, this is a zero sum game.
Chastised. I will no longer mention that any deficit reduction agreement including any level of spending reductions will depress the economy. I will not point out that every dollars of reduced spending comes from some ones paycheck and reduces demand for goods and services.
I will not suggest that in the intermediate term, many unemployed Americans may object to their treatment and behave like those OWS protester and be treated to the pepper spray widely in use. I will pretend that the rules for "homeland security" will not be used against them. I will suggest to all that our biggest problem is reducing the deficit, not lack of demand for goods and services and unemployment. I will accept that taking dollars from the economy is not depressing.
Chastised, I will never hope for a true leader. Personally I hope Marie is right and everything will end with a society of peaceful lambs.
@Carlyle: "I will no longer mention that any deficit reduction agreement including any level of spending reductions will depress the economy. I will not point out that every dollars of reduced spending comes from some ones paycheck and reduces demand for goods and services."
I didn't write a word about that, did I? I think if you look at (a) your reaction to what I wrote & (b) your multiple predictions of impending pitchfork democracy, you'll see a connection. In case the connection eludes you, here it is: exaggeration.
Exaggeration is just the ticket when it's used as satire or some other type of humor, We use it all the time here. But when exaggeration becomes part of a personal philosophy, it is not particularly enlightening, IMHO.
Marie
Enough of this crabbing around. I am giving y'all a present right now to chew on--'specially Akhilleus. Here's a headline from Crooks and Liars , and I expect each of you to turn tables in your always sardonic, astute, erudite, idiosyncratic fashion:
..."Sen. Graham: Obama Is a 'Small Ball Guy' Who Needs to 'Man Up' on Medicare Cuts...."
HAVE AT IT!
Kate,
At first glance, I'm wondering exactly how Sen. Graham is so familiar with the president's, er, personal anatomy, both in size and number.
Just sayin'...
Aside from that, complaints that the president plays "small ball" seems to be inaccurate in the extreme when considering things like the ACA and his current duel with Graham's fellow mouth breathers over the future of the American economy.
That being said, "small" can be used to describe a great deal about the senator from SC: intellect, spirit, heart, vision, etc. All except for his taxonomic classification. As Monty Python might have it, he is a wonderful example of the species "Biggus Dickus", of which there has been an enormous evolutionary resurgence on the right.
Unnatural selection, methinks.
@ Marie:
My wife of fifty seven years agrees with you. She does not want to hear any more of this gloom and doom either. However...
@Carlyle: sounds as if you married up.
Marie
@JJG, re "...I believe the facts have it that the more education one has the less one believes in a 'god.'" Actually, the reverse, at least in the U.S. :
Religiosity and Education
I quote: "Sociologist Bradley Wright reviewed results from the 2008 Pew US Religious Landscape Survey and noted that religious groups normally have significant levels of education compared to those who are non-religious."
Re state/church separation, it would help a lot if folks like Bruni made a distinction between the govt.'s stance on faith and the individual voter's. The Constitution weighs in on the former but, decidedly, not the latter, so conflating the two makes for a pointless debate, imo. A more tolerant, better educated electorate would be nice, but we don't have one of those.
As long as many presidents of the US invoke the name of God, what are the chances of a separation of church and state?
@Marie: I'm real tried of the exaggeration as well.
FYI, this commenters appears to be MAG II.
@Raul
Correlation does not imply causation. And a quick read of that wikipedia page shows just how muddy the correlation's can be. I do think it influences to what people choose to believe however. I would postulate that more education gravitates an individual toward more open religious experiences that involve questioning and examination. Indeed, Bradley's finding that "Evangelicals are somewhat below the national average." supports that thesis. It's why grifter's like Santorum and Bachmann can play them for such fools.
I feel like the old grandfather in "Moonstruck" who is dumbfounded at the goings-on in his family and sitting at the kitchen table, looking soulful, says, "I'm Confused!" The conversation between Carlyle and Marie is the same type of conversation she had with Calyban yesterday. Are Calyban and Carlyle one of the same?
@ P. D. Pepe & @ Carlyle. You're quite right. I owe Carlyle an apology. He gets his Doom & Gloom comment for the week. It was Calyban who was going on about how we're one step away from the Weimar Republic, not Carlyle.
Marie
Okey Dokey. @ MAG II
... it's game on. (Note to Marie, from now on I'm including my state with my handle), and MAG II bettah be from elsewhere!
I spent the day making tamales - about 15 dozen. Down from the usual 40lbs of masa to 25lbs this year. Age and laziness I guess. At any rate, there are plenty of tamales to go around and I sincerely wish I could share them with you all. With beans and rice, I think it would be just the ticket.