Category: Wing Nuts

Media a big help to debt-limit loonies

~ odd man out ~ 1 Comment

Interesting blog yesterday by Paul Krugman, a bit edgier than his op-ed columns, sparked by his gloomy conclusion that “the cult of balance, of centrism” is hurting the country more than the cult of right-wing loonies pushing for default on the national debt:

Think about what’s happening right now. We have a crisis in which the right is making insane demands, while the president and Democrats in Congress are bending over backward to be accommodating — offering plans that are all spending cuts and no taxes, plans that are far to the right of public opinion.

So what do most news reports say? They portray it as a situation in which both sides are equally partisan, equally intransigent — because news reports always do that. And we have influential pundits calling out for a new centrist party, a new centrist president, to get us away from the evils of partisanship.

The reality, of course, is that we already have a centrist president — actually a moderate conservative president…

You have to ask, what would it take for these news organizations and pundits to actually break with the convention that both sides are equally at fault? This is the clearest, starkest situation one can imagine short of civil war. If this won’t do it, nothing will.

I suspect Krugman, in denouncing faux centrism, was thinking of his colleague Thomas Friedman, a jack-ass of the first order whose latest pipe dream involves a Washington, D.C. “political start-up” called Americans Elect that wants to hold an “internet convention” to select a centrist third-party presidential candidate for 2012.

And how would this third-party force obtain the multimillions of dollars needed to develop an infrastructure that would get out the vote? Friedman doesn’t address this and many other questions, just as he never addressed the devastating downside of globalization in The World Is Flat, his wet dream about our glorious future in a world run by multinational corporations.

I AM LAUGHING SO HARD I THINK I MADE PEEPEE

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

Did anyone else listen to John Boner’s response to the President? He sounds somewhere between a gay Ward Cleaver and Tom Brokaw channelling a more-drunk-than-usual Robert Goulet trying to sell me a 1978 Volare.

If anyone has a clip, please post in comments, this is HILARIOUS.

Roller Coaster

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot of this in the coming week:

U.S. stock futures fell, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will drop after rallying within 1.4 percent of a three-year high, as President Barack Obama and Congress failed to reach an agreement on raising the federal debt limit, intensifying concern the nation will default.

S&P 500 futures expiring in September declined 1 percent to 1,327.20 at 2:31 p.m. in Tokyo. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 127 points, or 1 percent, to 12,494.
[…]
The impasse has boosted the chance S&P will cut the U.S. credit rating from AAA within three months to 50 percent, the company said July 21.

“It’s a major disappointment that they can’t come to a compromise of some sort,” James Dunigan, chief investment officer in Philadelphia for PNC Wealth Management, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees $109 billion. “We came down to the 11th hour. There’s an increasing likelihood that without a significant deal the chances of a debt downgrade will rise. If you re-rate the safest security in the world, everything else gets re-rated against that.”

And all of this, I will remind you, is because Republicans see their pledge to Grover Norquist as more important than their oath of office.

There’s a word for people like that: Benedict Arnold.

You tell ’em, Harry

~ susie

I love this speech Harry Reid gave today after the Republican senators began whining that extending votes into the Christian holidays was making the baby Jesus cry, or something like that:

In just a few minutes we’re going to proceed to the START treaty. I’m told the Republicans are going to make us read the entire treaty in an effort to stall us from passing it. Isn’t that wonderful? That piece of — that treaty has been here since April or May

{14:10:49} (Mr. Reid) { not an official transcript } of this year. Plenty of time to read it. These are additional days of wasted time we could be using to pass legislation to get home for the holidays. Yet some of my Republican colleagues have the nerve to whine about having to stay and actually do the work of the American people. We make large salaries, madam president. We could work as most Americans do during the holidays. Perhaps Senators Kyl and DeMint have been in

{14:11:22} (Mr. Reid) { not an official transcript } Washington too long because in my state, Nevadans employed in casinos and hotels and throughout the state of nevada and on ranches, basically every place have to work hard on holidays, including Christmas, to support their families. The mines don’t shut down in nevada on Christmas. People work. They get paid double time a lot of times when they have good contracts, but they work on Christmas holidays. Most people don’t get two weeks off on any time, let alone Christmas week. And these

{14:11:54} (Mr. Reid { not an official transcript } people who are lucky enough to have a job in these trying times need to work extra hours to make ends meet. So it’s offensive to me and millions of working Americans across this country for any senator to suggest that working through the Christmas holidays is somehow sacrilegious. They decide to work with us, we can all have a

{14:12:30} (Mr. Reid) { not an official transcript } happy holiday. If they don’t, we’re going to continue until we finish the people’s business. Madam President, i move to proceed to executive session to calendar number 7, the START treaty. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Juan Williams is worried about our self-respect

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that Juan Williams is sincere when he says this. To a certain extent, it’s true. As someone who’s been unemployed for more than two years now, I don’t feel anywhere near as polished and professional as I used to be.

But here’s the thing, Juan, something you may not have noticed: There aren’t enough real jobs for all the people out of work. And people are struggling even with the unemployment checks. Yet you and a Fox News talking blonde say that for the sake of some theoretical self-respect (which apparently involves living in a cardboard box on the curb), you’re urging people to take low-paying part-time jobs with no security instead of unemployment checks — a decision that’s clearly against their economic self-interest.

Because you can’t take self-respect to the electric company, or to your landlord. It won’t put gas in the car, or food on the table. Sometimes you just have to swallow your self-respect to keep enough cash flow coming, right?

You, of all people, should understand. After all, you work for Fox!

Juan Williams told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that extended unemployment benefits are harmful to peoples’ work ethic and basic values.

The two were speaking about the fight over the extension of the benefits on Thursday’s “America Live.” Kelly told Williams that a man she knows is staying on unemployment because his jobless benefits bring him more money than a potential job.

“To me it’s crazy because the longer that person is unemployed the more difficult it is then for them to get a job,” Williams said. He continued:

“Because employers, potential employers, will look and see that gee, they’ve been out forever, it doesn’t make sense. And I think that’s partly playing in to this cycle. And at some point then it becomes a matter of you lose your work ethic, your values are impacted, you know, getting up, showing up, dressing well, all that good stuff. So I don’t know that that’s smart.”

Fiat currency

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

One of the things that’s so difficult about trying to talk to a teabagger is their dogmatic devotion to certain false “facts”, and one of them is their veneration of the gold standard as the only “true” currency. (It’s of course a coincidence that so many of the right-wing talking heads who push this ideas are hawking gold through their radio, TV and internet shows.)

So here’s a good explanation of how paper money has worked for the United States, and why Benjamin Franklin thought it was progressive.

Karma

~ susie

We can dream, right?

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CGE) – A federal subpoena, issued by Ohio attorney Cliff Arnebeck and sanctioned by the Office of Ohio Secretary of State, was served last Sunday in Washington to Karl Rove on his way to an appearance on the CBS news program Face the Nation.

The process service for the subpoena reported that CBS and CNN camera men “captured video” of the event.

In an article written by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman and published at OpEdNews.com, the federal subpoena orders Rove to testify in deposition about his role in the alleged theft of the 2004 election, and to discuss his orchestration of tens of millions of corporate/billionaire dollars in this year’s General Elections on November 2.

Contacted Wednesday to comment, Arnebeck, a Columbus attorney with a long history of involvement in election related cases, notably as plaintiff attorney in the on-going King-Lincoln-Bronzeville federal lawsuit that Fitrakis and Wasserman have used to try to question Rove on an election they say the Republican campaign expert stole for George W. Bush in 2004, said of his role in the 2010 election cycle, “Rove has asked for all this money on behalf of the Republican candidates’ campaigns. Under Citizens United that still constitutes a gift to those campaigns and is still subject to limits and prohibitions of campaign finance laws. Camouflaging the gifts by running them through nice sounding non-profit corporations is nothing but the latest form of money-laundering.”

Responding to a question on the involvement of the Office of Ohio Secretary of State and the Secretary herself, Media Relations Coordinator Kevin Kidder issued CGE this statement: “Because we are a defendant in that lawsuit I can’t really talk about the specifics of the case. Sorry I can’t be of more help.”

In a telephone conversation, Arenbeck confirmed that top officials in both the offices of Secretary of State and Attorney General who were familiar with the case approved him issuing the subpoena to Rove.

Arnebeck says Rove will now likely contact his attorney, Bob Luskin, who will file a motion in federal court in Washington, D.C. to quash the subpoena. A hearing date will be assigned at which the parties will make their arguments, Arnebeck said.

Wingnut wisdom

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Is it a good idea in general to elect people who have taken numerous shots to the head on a regular basis? And of course, Runyan picked the Dred Scott decision because it’s an anti-abortion dog whistle:

Jon Runyan, a former pro football player and now the Republican nominee against freshman Rep. John Adler (D-NJ), has added his voice to the recent constitutional jurisprudence of GOP candidates — listing the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sanford Supreme Court decision as a recent case that he disagreed with.

As the Asbury Park Press reports, from a debate last night:

“Jon, it’s a different branch of government, but can you give me an example from the last 10 or 15 years of a Supreme Court decision in which you strongly disagree?” Adler asked.

“That I strongly disagree with?” Runyan asked, pausing for a moment to consider the question. “Dred Scott.”

There was some laughter in the audience.

Adler then asked the question again, pointing out that he asked for decisions in the previous 10-15 years. Runyan was reportedly unable to give an answer.

Because he doesn’t know how to think. He only knows how to repeat wingnut talking points — and there are, indeed, far too many wingnut voters in South Jersey.