;)
The Commentariat -- Jan. 10, 2013
Steve Coll of the New Yorker: "... the statistical election-modeller Samuel Wang, of the Princeton Election Consortium, has argued that we are in an 'asymmetric' period of Republican manipulation of electoral maps. According to Wang's math, twenty-six seats out of the thirty-three-seat Republican advantage in the House can be attributed to gerrymandering in states with legislatures controlled by Republicans. He estimates that, in 2012, the number of American voters disenfranchised by this mapmaking ... was in the neighborhood of four million."
Gail Collins: "Forty years ago this month, the Supreme Court handed down the great abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade.... Every time the anti-abortion movement pushes too far, it reminds people that its cause, no matter how filled with moral fervor, is basically about imposing one particular theology on the rest of the country. Over the long run, the nervous, ambivalent, uncomfortable public won't let that happen." CW: I would argue, as did E. J. Graff is a column I linked the other day, that it is basically about a primitive purity culture, which holds that if women are going to have sex -- consensual or not -- they have to accept the consequences.
** Linda Greenhouse: Robert Bork was one crazy bastard. Or something like that. A very good read.
Kevin Freking of the AP: "The United States suffers far more violent deaths than any other wealthy nation, due in part to the widespread possession of firearms and the practice of storing them at home in a place that is often unlocked, according to a report released Wednesday by two of the nation's leading health research institutions. Gun violence is just one of many factors contributing to lower U.S. life expectancy...." ...
... Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The White House is working with its allies on a well-financed campaign in Washington and around the country to shift public opinion toward stricter gun laws and provide political cover to lawmakers who end up voting for an assault-weapons ban or other restrictions on firearms." ...
... Amie Parnes of The Hill: "President Obama will likely take executive action in an effort to tamp down the recent rash of gun violence, Vice President Biden said Wednesday. 'The president is going go act,' said Biden, who is conducting meetings all week on gun control. 'There are executive orders, executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet, but we're compiling it all.'" ...
... Linda Feldmann of the Christian Science Monitor: "The Drudge Report website responded with this display: 'White House threatens "executive order" on guns.' Pictured above were two notorious dictators from the 20th century, Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin." CW: because in the mind of Drudge, curbing mass murder by homicidal maniacs is akin to genocide. This is about as upside-down as a mind can go -- which probably means Matt Drudge will be mentally disqualified from owning firearms & ammo. ...
... Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: "... a Republican congressman warned on Wednesday the idea sounded like 'dictatorship' to him.... 'The Founding Fathers never envisioned Executive Orders being used to restrict our Constitutional rights,' Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) said in a statement Wednesday. 'We live in a republic, not a dictatorship.'" CW: Hey, Jeff, the Founding Fathers never envisioned your having a Constitutional right to carry an assault weapon loaded with 100 rounds. ...
... David Firestone of the New York Times: "Most changes to the current system ... has to come through legislation.... But there are several significant steps the president can take on his own." Firestone lists those steps. ...
... Maggie Haberman of Politico: "Former President Bill Clinton said Wednesday he hopes former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and other gun-control activists bring change to the country in the wake of the Newtown massacre, calling the proliferation of high-capacity weapons 'nuts.' 'Why does anybody need one of those things that carries 100 bullets? The guy in Colorado had one of those,' said Clinton, referring to the movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colo., last year. 'Half of all mass killings in the U.S. occurred since the assault weapons ban expired in 2005.'" ...
... E. J. Dionne on gun control: "A large share of ... Republicans, particularly those from the Northeast, are growing impatient with the extent to which their party's image is being shaped by the wishes and opinions of its most right-wing members, many of them from one-party districts in the South. Suburban Republicans especially need to declare their independence from viewpoints antithetical to those held by the vast majority of their constituents." Dionne thinks some of these MOCs may voice their support for gun legislation. CW: However, they -- and the public -- will have to press the House leadership to even bring up legislation for a vote.
... Wal-Mart Finds Time for Biden. Abram Brown of Forbes: "Wal-Mart has now decided that it will, after all, attend week-long talks about gun legislation at the White House. At first, Wal-Mart declined the Oval Office overtures, a direct invitation from the task force led by Vice President Joe Biden, saying no executives were available.... Wal-Mart [is] ... the nation's largest seller of munitions.... Wal-Mart says it won't make any changes to the way it sells firearms." ...
... Thomas Kaplan & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislative leaders believe they are close to an agreement on a package of gun laws that includes a restrictive ban on assault weapons, and lawmakers hope to vote on it as soon as next week."
Obama 2.0
NEW. Obama & Lew both mentioned Lew's "penmanship" during the President's nomination announcement today. Lew also mentioned Geithner's. Here's what they're talking about. Oliver Cox of NBC News: "We have ... confirmed that Jack Lew's signature is a series of looped scribbles that resembles the markings left on a notepad when you can't seem to get your pen working. As Treasury secretary, Mr. Lew's signature will be printed on all bills minted during his tenure."
Jackie Calmes & Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "President Obama will announce on Thursday that he intends to elevate his chief of staff and former budget director, Jacob J. Lew, to be his next secretary of Treasury, according to officials familiar with the decision."
Mark Landler & Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced on Wednesday that she was stepping down, becoming the latest woman to leave President Obama's cabinet at a time when his personnel choices are drawing scrutiny for their lack of female candidates." CW: looks like the President could use some of those binders full of women.
Steven Mufson & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "White House aides said, however, that [Attorney General Eric] Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki would remain in their current posts. People familiar with Holder's thinking said he does not expect to stay in office for Obama's entire second term, and perhaps for as little as a few months." CW: the less time, the better. ...
... CW Update. Okay, Holder can stay as long as he wants if he will realize the NRA's fears -- Jordy Yager of The Hill: "... gun-rights groups are suspicious of Holder's involvement and fear he is pushing the White House toward tougher restrictions on gun ownership and increased penalties for illegal firearms." This would at least leave Holder with a legacy of doing something besides whacking whistleblowers & fighting a few state voter suppression laws.
Here's the link to commentary by Noam Scheiber of The New Republic, which P. D. Pepe mentions in today's Comments, on Obama's nomination of Jack Lew. Scheiber, who has written on budget negotiations in which Lew was a principal, writes a balanced assessment.
Juli Weiner of Vanity Fair: "Fun fact: Lew is also a practicing Orthodox Jew, so John McCain and Lindsey Graham's go-to strategy of opposing Obama's nominees on the basis of apathy toward Israel is going to be. . . trickier. Not that John McCain and Lindsey Graham won't try."
Jim Kuhnhenn of the AP: "In selecting Lew to replace Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Obama not only picks an insider steeped in budget matters but also a tough bargainer. Some Republicans complain that Lew has been unyielding in past fiscal negotiations.... Lew, 57, has often been described as a 'pragmatic liberal' who understands what it takes to make a deal even as he stands by his ideological views."
Alex Massie of The Spectator: "Republicans objecting to Chuck Hagel’s nomination to serve as the new US Defense Secretary have only themselves to blame. Having run Susan Rice out of the running to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, there's no way President Obama could stomach losing a second high-profile nomination before he's even formally accepted his second term.... More importantly, the objections to Hagel's nomination are a useful reminder why, at least in terms of foreign policy, this present bunch of Democrats is preferable to their Republican opponents." Via Jonathan Bernstein.
Jamelle Bouie in the Washington Post: "Barring extraordinary circumstances, cabinet nominations are almost always confirmed, as they should be -- the chamber's role is to give advice and consent, not set policy for the administration. But if the mounting opposition to Lew -- and current opposition to Hagel -- is any indication, Republicans are prepared to jettison that norm so that they can block Obama's ability to pursue his agenda.... If the GOP wants to pick cabinet members, then it should start by winning a presidential election."
Good for Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times! "In Washington's running battles over taxes and spending..., [leaders of] Fix the Debt have lent a public-spirited, elder-statesman sheen to the cause of deficit reduction.... But ... many of the campaign's members will be juggling their private interests with their public goals: they are also lobbyists, board members or executives for corporations that have worked aggressively to shape the contours of federal spending and taxes, including many of the tax breaks that would be at the heart of any broad overhaul. While Fix the Debt criticized the recent fiscal deal between Mr. Obama and lawmakers..., companies and industries linked to the organization emerged with significant victories on taxes and other policies.... Close to half of the members of Fix the Debt's board and steering committee have ties to companies that have engaged in lobbying on taxes and spending, often to preserve tax breaks and other special treatment." Some of the more high-profile miscreants: former Senators Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) & Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Erskine Bowles & Honeywell CEO David Cotes.
Thomas Edsall in the New York Times: "The slow implosion of the Republican Party -- along with the growing strength of a Democratic coalition dominated by low-to-middle-income voters -- threatens the power of the corporate establishment and will force big business to find new ways to reassert control of the policy-making process." And find it they will, as they always have.
Coin Tease. Michael Scherer of Time: "Despite repeated questioning [during yesterday's briefing, Obama Press Secretary Jay Carney] refused to rule out categorically the possibility of minting [a trillion-dollar coin]. But he also made clear that it is not a current option under consideration. 'The option here is for Congress to pay its bills,' Carney said, after flipping to a page in his briefing book that appeared to anticipate the question. 'There is no Plan B. There is no backup plan. There is Congress's responsibility to pay the bills of the United States.'" ...
... Scott Lemieux of the American Prospect provides more argument about why the trillion-dollar coin is legal. Besides, "in the context of a minority party transforming what has always been a symbolic vote into a yearly threat to destroy the functioning of the American government, it's difficult to take the argument that norms should preclude a lawful but unprecedented response from the Obama administration seriously." ...
... In case I've never mentioned it, Congressional Republicans Are Incredibly Stupid. Matt Yglesias of Slate: "The biggest and weirdest myth out there about the $1 trillion platinum coin is the idea that it would require a large quantity of platinum to make one. The National Republican Campaign Committee, for example, is out there warning that 'The amount of platinum needed to mint a coin worth $1 trillion would sink the Titanic.' ... Saying that the government would need a lot of platinum is like saying a $100 bill needs to have 100 times as much cotton in it as a $1 bill. Nobody would be able to fit them into their wallets.... [Ergo,] the metallic content of a coin is entirely irrelevant to its monetary value and has been for a long time." CW: mmm, is that a $100 bill in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? If you missed it, read Joe Weisenthal's piece I linked yesterday. This idea that the trillion-dollar coin has to be as big as the Titanic comes from that same misunderstanding of what money is. It's a very short hop from this misapprehension to believing the federal deficit is "immoral." (See Jon Chait's post on that, also linked yesterday.)
Michael de la Merced & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "The American International Group will not join a lawsuit against the federal government over its $182 billion financial crisis bailout, the company said on Wednesday. The decision by A.I.G.'s board follows a public uproar that erupted after The New York Times reported on Monday night that the company was weighing whether to join a $25 billion lawsuit filed by its former chief executive, Maurice R. Greenberg, on behalf of fellow shareholders."
Happy Birthday, Richard Nixon -- RIP, Campaign Finance Law. Kathy Keily & Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation in the Huffington Post: "It was actually Nixon who, in 1971, signed into law the Federal Election Campaign Act, limiting the amount of money that could be donated to congressional and presidential campaigns and requiring that those donations be reported. And he was also responsible for the strengthening of that law: The Watergate scandal that drove the nation's 37th president to resign on Aug. 9, 1974, in the middle of his second term, also prompted Congress to pass more regulations on campaign contributions and to create the Federal Election Commission."
Inauguration
Josh Israel of Think Progress: "The Presidential Inauguration Committee announced Tuesday that the President Obama has selected Pastor Louie Giglio of the Georgia-based Passion City Church to deliver the benediction for his second inauguration. In a mid-1990s sermon identified as Giglio's, available online on a Christian training Web site, he preached rabidly anti-LGBT views." Includes audio of sermon. CW: couldn't Obama get somebody to vet these yokels? Really, he has to lose Louie. ...
... ** So Long, Giglio. Update. Ali Weinberg & Andrew Mach of NBC News: "A pastor chosen by President Obama to deliver the inaugural benediction later this month has withdrawn amid controversy over anti-gay remarks he made more than a decade ago. In a mid-1990s sermon, Rev. Louie Giglio, an Atlanta minister and founder of the Passion Conferences, a group dedicated to uniting students in worship and prayer, advocated for 'ex-gay' therapy and urged listeners to prevent the 'homosexual lifestyle' from becoming accepted."
Henry Jackson of the AP: "Tickets to President Barack Obama's inauguration are supposed to be free, but they're being peddled on eBay and Craigslist for up to $2,000 apiece. Congressional offices and the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which are both distributing tickets to inaugural events, are trying to clamp down on the black market. So far, their efforts haven't stopped online entrepreneurs."
Barry Svrulga of the Washington Post: "... on Wednesday, [Barry] Bonds and [Roger] Clemens were denied entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame, a sharp rebuke not only to those two stars, but an apparent condemnation of the steroids-tainted period in which they played the game.... For the first time since 1996, the baseball writers elected no one to the Hall. Among those rejected were Sammy Sosa, the slugger who sits eighth on the all-time home run list and who joined Clemens and Bonds on the ballot for the first time. Mark McGwire, who sits 10th on the all-time home run list, failed again, receiving his lowest percentage in seven years of eligibility. McGwire has admitted steroid use. Sosa was widely suspected of it. The vote was the latest emphatic, if expected, pronouncement that the vast majority of the 569 writers who cast ballots are not ready to elect even the best performers if there are fears they used drugs."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Bomb blasts in two Pakistani cities killed at least 115 people on Thursday and wounded more than 270, offering harrowing evidence of how the country's myriad internal conflicts could destabilize it as elections approach."
Boston Globe: Boston "Mayor Thomas M. Menino declared a public health emergency Wednesday morning because of the expanding flu outbreak. Health care centers across the city will be offering free vaccines to anyone who hasn't yet been immunized. The city has 700 confirmed cases of flu so and four flu-related deaths. Last year Boston had only 70 confirmed cases."
Reuters: "Afghan lawmakers said on Wednesday disaster and civil war would follow if Washington pushed ahead with a suggestion to withdraw all its troops from the country after 2014." CW: also, they feared there would be no way for them to steal any more American cash.
New York Times: "Three Kurdish women, including a founding member of a leading militant group fighting for autonomy in Turkey, were shot to death at a Kurdish institute in central Paris, police officials said on Thursday, potentially complicating fragile efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in the decades-old conflict.
AP: "A community in Quebec's Far North is calling for outside help to free about a dozen killer whales trapped under a vast stretch of sea ice. Locals in Inukjuak said the mammals have gathered around a single hole in the ice -- slightly bigger than a pickup truck -- in a desperate bid to get oxygen." CW: cue climate deniers to cite this as disproof of global warming.
AP: "Junior Seau, one of the NFL's best and fiercest players for nearly two decades, had a degenerative brain disease when he committed suicide last May, the National Institutes of Health told The Associated Press on Thursday. Results of an NIH study of Seau's brain revealed abnormalities consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)."
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Reader Comments (19)
Jacob Lew--Eeeew! Gimme a fuckin' break!
To cheer us up, here is the latest on the Clintons from Right Wing World (via my facist brother-in-law).
A reporter asks Bill Clinton: "How's Hillary's head?" Bill replies:
"Well, she's no Monica."
Are we having fun yet?
...and Charlie P. sez:
Read more: Nixon 100th Birthday - Happy Birthday And I'm Glad You're Still Dead - Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/nixon-100th-birthday-010913#ixzz2HWx3P0Db
In Pierce's post he quotes from Lewis Lapham:
"... I remember watching his helicopter rise for the last time from the White House lawn and thinking that his fellow citizens wouldn't soon forget the constitutional moral of the tale.
The assumption was mistaken."
Ain't that understatement?
Yo, Kate. The last name I heard being bandied about to replace Li'l Timmy was Catfood Commissioner Erskine Bowles. So Jack Lew is looking mighty good to me. Besides, I recall reading that he actually cares about poor people. I guess time will tell.
Marie
I have thought that Obama's rationale in appointing Chuck Hagel as SecDef was to make more possible an Israel/Palestine peace accord, and to be a major player in establishing a two-state solution. This would be his legacy--something the last two Democratic presidents, Carter and Clinton, were unable to accomplish. Along comes Justin Raimando on www.Anti-War.com with the following: (a brief snippet in a long article titled: "The Hagel Battle: Why is Obama Doing This?
***********
..."In spite of all the "I have Israel’s back" rhetoric, the President no doubt recognizes what any objective observer of the region has to acknowledge: that the expansionist designs of the current Israeli government are the main obstacle to regional peace and stability. Stubbornly defying the US on the settlements issue, and now openly considering annexing much of the West Bank, the Israelis don’t want an accord: they want a Greater Israel.
Up until now, the President has had both hands tied behind his back when it comes to this issue: facing pressure not only from the far right but also from within his own party, he hasn’t dared cross the Israelis. With the election over, and with the Israelis moving rapidly into a suicidal ultra-nationalism, Obama can now make his move – and the Hagel appointment is his opening shot.
Before he can formulate a workable peace plan, one that is acceptable not only to the Palestinians but to an increasingly pro-Palestinian world audience, he must first break the power of the Israel lobby on the home front. Their over-reaching has made them vulnerable, and their inability to block the Hagel nomination is going to unleash a series of developments that would have been unthinkable but a few months ago.
Whether Obama will achieve his goal, and cement his Legacy firmly in place, remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: the neocons and the Israel lobby are being handed a big defeat, and their dominance in the foreign policy field is ended – and for that we have not only Hagel, but this President, to thank. Not that he did it on purpose, or on principle: not that he’s an anti-interventionist (he clearly isn’t): but sometimes History thrusts the most unlikely tasks on the most unlikely people, and this is one of those times."
***********
I hope this proves true. It would be an incredible accomplishment for Obama and for us all. And just maybe it would end the NeoCon strangle-hold on American politics.
Kate, don't fret. Lew might be just what the doctor ordered.
"By nominating Jack Lew to succeed Geithner, it may look like the president has substituted one technocrat for another. Lew is a two-time White House budget director and 30-year Washington veteran whose formative professional experience was helping Tip O’Neill bring Social Security into actuarial balance in a deal with Ronald Reagan. (He was all of 27 at the time.)
In fact, Lew has a well-deserved reputation for homing in on the values that lurk behind the numbers. Progressives in and out of government in the late 1990s recall him as one of the key defenders of Medicare and Medicaid from the designs of axe-wielding Republicans. “There was no bigger supporter,” one liberal policy maven told me. “He saved Medicaid.” More recently, as a top Obama emissary to the deficit negotiations of the last few years, he’s been dogged in his insistence that Democrats won’t entertain the tiniest pinprick to these programs unless Republicans put revenue on the table."
the above from Noam Scheiber (TNR) who interviewed him some years back and has followed his career. Scheiber likens him to Obama with coke glasses. Will he be the good taste that lingers or just more sugar without substance. Bottoms up!
Re: less cents than most; Hey, don't spill the beans. I've been trading nickels for dimes for over fifty years. Starting with my younger, smarter brother who offered me; " his great, big nickel for my tiny, little dime." It wasn't more than a week of Sundays before I caught on to his idea of high finance. Being a bit of a wheeler-dealer type myself I have offered the same deal to every kid I've run across for the last fifty years. I did not know it works on Republicans.
Yahoo! there's gold in dem dar hills; Capitol Hill that is.
Marie, while I agree with Gail Collins and your addition to the reasons for 'pro life' let me add one more. A really cheap, no real effort to prove your moral superiority. And to prove the point, remember that most of those 'pro life' wonders don't give a damn about a life after 9 months.
The February issue of Vanity Fair has a great article: "The Accidental Activist" —'Forty years ago, Roe v. Wade made a historic footnote of Norma McCorvey—“Jane Roe.” It turned out to be the role of her life.' "—which, doesn't appear to be accessible on their Web site as of yet. Fascinating history about all the players in Roe v. Wade —and the woman we got to know as "Roe." Interesting reading if you can find it on the news stand....or maybe they'll post it later.
The story about the National Republican Campaign Committee's misunderstanding (and that's a very generous description) of how currency works is just additional support for a comment I posted the other day about the frightening number of complete imbeciles operating on the right. And this isn't a simple "misunderstanding" (more exactly it's an example of woeful, disgraceful, unaccountable ignorance) by some way-out fringe group, "Propeller Head Conservatives", this stupidity originated from an official organ of the Republican Party.
And these people are just steps away from Republicans butchering, er, creating economic policies for this country. Lucky for us they aren't electricians. They'd want to install multiple sizes of electrical receptacles depending on how much power was required for different uses.
I've been trying to get my head around just how stupid you'd have to be to think like this because this doesn't require an aptitude for deep critical thought, it doesn't even require much in the way of an ability for abstract thought. Pre-schoolers would have little trouble with the idea of using a symbol to represent an amount. After all, they don't write tiny little ones and twos and gigantic tens and elevens.
And the people these guys work for are not much better. It appears that no one on the right can accurately describe the rationale or workings of the debt ceiling (or why we needed it in the first place, and why we don't now).
M o r o n s.
@ The Titanic-sized coin reminds me of Joe Barton (R-Texas) asking Steven Chu how oil & gas got to Alaska in the first place, presumably because Barton is so smart he knows liquids can't flow uphill. Chu, a physicist, tries to be as polite as possible explaining tectonic plates to a dumb shit.
Hilariously, Barton is so fucking stupid he couldn't understand the schoolboy-level explanation Chu gave him. Barton actually thought he had stumped Chu, & posted this video, which he titled "Energy Secretary puzzled by simple question."
I'm afraid that even if there were a will -- which there isn't because these guys can't hear anybody who isn't writing them checks -- many MOCs are just not teachable.
Marie
@JJG: I found the tale of your younger, smarter brother––back then––hoodwinking you in high finance so funny had to read your post to my mister who stopped doing what he does best in figuring out our high finances and we both had a good laugh.
Did Hitler confiscate guns? Yes if you were a Jew, no if you were a German citizen of known reliability. Actually, it appears the Nazis wanted more guns in private hands, not fewer. Shooting was "manly."
Here are two references on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Germany
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=557183
The second one is an abstract which includes a link to download the full paper. If you read the full paper, it shows that LaPierre, et.al. are blowing smoke. It was the victorious Allies who confiscated the guns.
I'm not defending Hitler--he was a monster. In researhing this subject, I could find no reference to Stalin or Mao confiscating guns, either.
The fondness for referencing 1776 shows no understanding of history on pro Second Amendment crowd. Why were the British troops marching to Concord in April 1775? To seize strored military supplies, not individual weapons. The British were defeated at Concord by a "well-regulated militia" not a motley crew of individuals. The history of the American Revolution is far too complex to be reduced to a bumper sticker.
Also the Boston Tea Party wasn't objecting to taxes per se, it was "No taxation withhout representation", which the modern Tea Part leaves out
Marie,
I'd heard about the Barton/Chu encounter but had never seen it. I don't know what's more staggering, the fact that Barton, an oil ball licker from Texas from way back, has no clue about the origin of fossil fuels, or his self-satisfied smirk betraying his confidence that he knows more than Chu, who is trying mightily not to treat Barton like the drooling imbecile he is.
I also love the description of this encounter on YouTube:
When Rep. Joe Barton asked the Nobel Prize winning Energy Secretary, Dr. Steven Chu, where oil comes from - he got a puzzling answer.
Puzzling for whom? First graders? Lobotomy recipients? Dead dogs? Oh wait....of course....Republican members of congress.
The tide goes in the tide goes out. Who can explain it?
It also displays the smarmy disrespect on the right for anyone with smarts. If you're smart, you're somehow not someone who needs to be taken seriously, and certainly not a Real American. When thinking of Barton discussing issues that require at least a room temperature IQ, I'm reminded of the old Three Stooges insult:
"Everytime you open your mouth, you weaken the nation."
Hear, hear.
@JJG & @PD Pepe: I hope JJG is able to pull this scam on a slew of Republicans because that is probably the only old-age benefits he'll get out of 'em. I also hope JJG has the sense to hide his stash of dimes under a mattress; if he takes them to the bank for safekeeping, the bank will confiscate them & try to pay him back in worthless pieces of paper.
Marie
Barbarossa,
Thanks for your historical clarifications, especially the last one which I have always found particularly galling. Teabaggers who have a barely tenuous grasp of historical fact are always going on about how colonial Bostonians revolted against taxation, which they most decidedly did not. They revolted against being taxed while being denied representation in Parliament.
M o r o n s.
@Barbarossa. I second @Akhilleus' comment re: the tea party. The "without representation" part was the only part that concerned most of the original "tea party" members (it wasn't called a "tea party" until about 50 years later). Because of a complicated series of tax repeals & rebates, the tea that got dumped was actually less expensive to American purchasers than the tea they had been buying from well-established smugglers, so the only people who had any financial interest in dumping the tea were a few smuggler/merchants.
Indeed, the Parliament's main purpose of imposing the small tax was to re-assert its right to tax the colonies, something it had been doing sporadically for a decade or so. The secondary purpose was to pay colonial governors & other British retainers in the colonies. The Americans, naturally, mightily objected to that secondary purpose, too; that meant their own governors' first loyalty was to Britain -- which paid their salaries -- rather than to the colonists whom they governed.
Of course there is an element of "without representation" in the modern tea party's philosophy, too. They don't think that Obama & Democrats are their legitimate representatives. I think it was something like 25% of Republicans said after the 2012 election that Obama had stolen the election. This is the purpose of birtherism, too; Obama is not a legitimate president; ergo, the tea partiers are being taxed "without legitimate representation."
The other day Akhilleus remarked on a letter he received from some tea party winger arguing that no one who gets government benefits (which, eventually, means almost everyone, but never mind) has a "right" to vote because they have a "conflict of interest." This is one reason Republicans feel perfectly justified in suppressing minority, student & old folks' votes -- these are precisely the people who are apt to have a "conflict of interest"; i.e., they receive some kind of government benefits.
When you feel aggrieved, you can make up a lot of shit to justify your crazy grievances. The tea party movement doesn't hang on a lie; it hangs on a web of lies & misrepresentations of fact. It is an emotional movement, not a rational one.
Because the original tea party has legitimate, philosophically consistent grievances, it was a lot more intellectually supportable that the cobbled-together, nonsense grievance agenda of today's tea party movement.
Marie
As I continue with my concerns about Jack Lew, there is this from Michael Hirsh at National Journal:
..." Into this den of super-sophisticated—and savage—lions of finance will walk the gentle-mannered figure of Jack Lew, who is expected to be easily confirmed. Hopes for change—any real progress in containing the power and systemic size of the banks—are not high. “By going with Jack Lew, Obama is making the decision: ‘I don’t want a fight over Treasury secretary. I want someone who’s going to maintain the status quo.’ That’s what Jack Lew represents,” says Jeff Connaughton, who as a senior Senate staffer fought for financial reform and later, in despair, wrote a book titled "Wall Street Always Wins."
And this:
The Examiner’s Timothy Carney points out:
..."Obama’s nominee for Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is a revolving-door lobbyist who worked at Citigroup in 2008, and then got a $944,518 check from the failed bank on January 15, 2009, according to his financial disclosure statement. That was just weeks after Congress passed the Wall Street bailout, funneling $45 billion in taxpayer money to the bank.
Lew claims that his work at the firm was administrative. “My position at Citi was a management position. I was not an investment adviser. My compensation was in line with other management executives at the firm and in similarly complex operations.” That’s a nice taxpayer payday for guy who shuffled around some papers."
Dunno for sure, I admit, but I see another Rubinesque guy coming to Treasury. A friend to "the Street." Ewwww!
Marie,
Chiodo sulla testa.
Grazie molto.
N.
"When you feel aggrieved, you can make up a lot of shit to justify your crazy grievances.".
Marie, that is the definition of sociopath.