South Pol

"In his third term of office Mubarak has still not picked a vice-president. The reason for this,..."

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:20:59 -0500

“In his third term of office Mubarak has still not picked a vice-president. The reason for this, according to another typically bad joke, is that throughout Egypt he could not find a man dumber than himself. Before the recent referendum granting Mubarak a third presidential term a story made the rounds that Clinton presented Mubarak with a monkey saying: “I’ll double your aid program if you make this monkey laugh and cry.” Soon after, the monkey laughs and cries. “How on earth did you do this?” Clinton asks. “I told him that I am president,” Mubarak says. “He laughed. Then I told him that I am trying for a third term. And he cried.””

- One Foot on the Moon by Amos Elon | The New York Review of Books

It doesn't really matter what Obama says

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:07:00 -0500

He’s a leftie. Therefore, he hates America.

Here’s John Boehner oh so earnestly confused as to why Obama just doesn’t understand how great America is.

BOEHNER: Well, they — they’ve refused to talk about America exceptionalism. We are different than the rest of the world. Why? Because Americans have — the country was built on an idea that ordinary people could decide what their government looked like and ordinary people could elect their own leaders.

And 235 years ago that was a pretty novel idea. And so we are different. Why is our economy still 20 times the size of China’s? Because Americans have had their freedom to succeed, the freedom to fail. We’ve got more innovators, more entrepreneurs, and that is exceptional but you can’t get the left to talk about it. They don’t — they reject that notion.

PARKER: Why do you think that is?

BOEHNER: I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know if they’re afraid of it, whether they don’t believe it. I don’t know.

When will we lefties get it? WHEN?

"Conservatives are trained not to use the language of liberals. Liberals are not so trained. Liberals..."

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:57:34 -0500

“Conservatives are trained not to use the language of liberals. Liberals are not so trained. Liberals have to learn not to stick to their own language, and not move rightward in language use. Never use the word “entitlement” — social security and medicare are earned. Taking money from them is stealing. Pensions are delayed payments for work already done. They are part of contracted pay for work. Not paying pensions is taking wages from those who have earned them. Nature isn’t free for the taking. Nature is what nurtures us, and is of ultimate value — human value as well as economic value. Pollution and deforestation are destroying nature. Privatization is not eliminating government — it is introducing government of our lives by corporations, for their profit, not ours. The mission of government is to protect and empower all citizens, because no one makes it on their own. And the more you get from government, the more you owe morally. Government is about “necessities” — health, education, housing, protection, jobs with living wages, and so on — not about “programs.” Economic success lies in human well-being, not in stock prices, or corporate and bank profits.

These are truths. We need to use language that expresses those truths.”

- The “New Centrism” And It’s Discontents

"The government fails the people of New Orleans when they are hit by a hurricane, fails to notice the..."

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:44:43 -0500

“The government fails the people of New Orleans when they are hit by a hurricane, fails to notice the cadmium paint in the marketplace, does a lousy job educating our kids, can’t keep the libraries open or the park lawns mowed, overlooks the catastrophic shortcuts taken by its pals in the oil-drilling industry — and all we can do to express sour frustration is elect candidates who promise to hack it down even more.”

- Thomas Frank

What's $100 billion between political enemies?

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:47:00 -0500

Steve Bell, Visiting Scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center:

Republicans risk over-promising and drastically under-achieving. Simple arithmetic condemns most of the $100 billion and “back to FY08″ ideas.

Without wanting to be a curmudgeon on the subject, I still fall back on simple numbers.

The United States will spend approximately $450 billion on “non-security” discretionary spending programs in the fiscal we now occupy–FY11. We are about 4 months into the fiscal year. In the 8 months remaining, then, a linear approach gives us about $300 billion remaining to be spent from already appropriated funds for these discretionary domestic programs.

Thus, the pledge to find $100 billion in cuts, or to return to FY08 levels, means a reduction of one-third of all remaining spending in the targeted programs.

To find $100 billion in outlays (after all, it is outlays compared to revenues that gives us deficits), I estimate that one would have to really cut about 50 per cent of all remaining monies. This begins to be technical, so you have to trust me here–most members of the House and Senate have no idea that outlays (spending) by agencies in any given fiscal year varies dramatically from new appropriations annually. That is a problem of immense proportions.

When I tried to explain this to my friend–a graduate of Brown University with his Ph.D. from Cambridge–he asked me to stop after about 10 minutes. It made his head hurt and it made no sense.

Bottom line–if you want to cut $100 billion from spending in FY11, you will have to start with immediate furloughs of hundreds of thousands of government workers, stop paying the government’s share of the TSP savings programs, close down most government funded operations, and stop most of the research grants the U.S. funds.

It can be done. But if it is done, President Obama and the Democratic Party will have been given one of the great electoral gifts of all time.

"Stupormarket is The Seldoms’ new dance theater work about the economic blowout and the ongoing..."

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:24:00 -0500

“Stupormarket is The Seldoms’ new dance theater work about the economic blowout and the ongoing wobbly recovery. From the luxury market to the unemployment line, and the trading floor to the housing market, Stupormarket ranges broadly across the economic terrain and two different camps of economic thought – New Keynesian and Neoclassicist - neither of which warned loudly enough of the impending crisis.”

- Stage 773

I can’t be the only person who wants an animated gif of this performance with which I can “settle” all future economics debates on tumblr.

"You need to understand how insidious this bill is,” Gohmert said. “This was written by smart people..."

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 09:56:32 -0500

““You need to understand how insidious this bill is,” Gohmert said. “This was written by smart people hoping that there would only be a few things removed.””

- Congressman Gohmert On Healthcare: This Was Written By Smart People | Capitol Annex

Probably the best hope for a repeal strategy. Blame shit on smart people.

Repealing Health Care Reform: Bring It On

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:35:25 -0500

Jonathan Chait:

Ahead of a vote on repeal in the GOP-led House this week, strong opposition to the law stands at 30 percent, close to the lowest level registered in AP-GfK surveys dating to September 2009.

The nation is divided over the law, but the strength and intensity of the opposition appear diminished. The law expands coverage to more than 30 million uninsured, and would require, for the first time, that most people in the United States carry health insurance.

The poll finds that 40 percent of those surveyed said they support the law, while 41 percent oppose it. Just after the November congressional elections, opposition stood at 47 percent and support was 38 percent.

As for repeal, only about one in four say they want to do away with the law completely. Among Republicans support for repeal has dropped sharply, from 61 percent after the elections to 49 percent now.

"The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that repealing the reform law would drive up..."

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:21:00 -0500

“The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that repealing the reform law would drive up the deficit by $230 billion over the first decade and much more in later years. For all his claims of fiscal rectitude, John Boehner, the House speaker, immediately dismissed the budget experts’ report as “their opinion.” In a particularly cynical move, Mr. Boehner and his new team have exempted the repeal bill from their own rule that any increase in spending be offset by cuts in other programs.”

- The Truth and Consequences of Repeal

Same as it ever was: the deficit is a campaign issue, not a governing priority.

"I don’t think the right’s rhetoric is responsible for the shooting in Arizona. Long before this..."

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:50:11 -0500

“I don’t think the right’s rhetoric is responsible for the shooting in Arizona. Long before this incident, however, I was arguing that the right does have a rhetoric problem. I still think that is true, and the aggrieved attitude of conservative commentators the last couple days is too much for me. Yes, I agree with many of them that Palin and friends aren’t responsible for this assassination attempt. Sadly, that is the most you can say in their favor. But it isn’t an entirely partisan impulse that causes some people to think otherwise.

Since Barack Obama took office, prominent voices on the right have called him an ally of Islamist radicals in their Grand Jihad against America, a radical Kenyan anti-colonialist, a man who pals around with terrorists and used a financial crisis to deliberately weaken America, an usurper who was born abroad and isn’t even eligible to be president, a guy who has somehow made it so that it’s okay for black kids to beat up white kids on buses, etc. I haven’t even touched on the conspiracy theories of Glenn Beck. The birthers excepted, the people making these chargers are celebrated by movement conservatives – they’re given book deals, awards, and speaking engagements.”

- Tone Versus Substance

"Calls to Twitter and YouTube were not returned on Thursday."

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:37:19 -0500

“Calls to Twitter and YouTube were not returned on Thursday.”

- FoxNews.com

"The Tea Party Express endorses “The Constitution Made Easy,” a translation into colloquial English..."

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:32:57 -0500

“The Tea Party Express endorses “The Constitution Made Easy,” a translation into colloquial English made by Michael Holler, and available on Holler’s Web site for eight dollars and ninety-five cents. Holler studied at Biola University, a Christian college offering a Biblically centered education. Much of his translation, which appears side by side with the original, is forthright… Holler’s Second Amendment is less straightforward; he inverts the language of the original, so that it reads, “The people have the right to own and carry firearms, and it may not be violated because a well-equipped Militia is necessary for a State to remain secure and free.” Holler is an N.R.A.-certified handgun instructor who, in addition to offering courses on the Constitution, sells classes in how to obtain a concealed-handgun permit.”

- The battle over the Constitution

Jared Lee Loughner released after not breaking any Arizona laws.

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:06:16 -0500

Jared Lee Loughner released after not breaking any Arizona laws.:

TUCSON, AZ—Jared Lee Loughner was released from custody this afternoon when it was determined that the suspect—accused of a shooting spree that left six dead and 14 injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords—had not technically broken any Arizona state laws. “While Loughner is clearly a deranged madman who, with this heinous, tragic act, has proved to be a danger to himself and others, he has not explicitly violated any statutes currently on the books in Arizona,” Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall said of the man whom witnesses saw murdering a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge. “We can only hope that if he acts out again, another Arizona citizen will be legally carrying a concealed firearm and be able to stop him.” LaWall told reporters that the only way her state would have any legal recourse in the brutal slayings would be if Loughner were Mexican.

"[F]or the past two years, many conservative leaders, activists, and media figures have made a habit..."

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 11:41:20 -0500

“[F]or the past two years, many conservative leaders, activists, and media figures have made a habit of trying to delegitimize their political opponents. Not just arguing against their opponents, but doing everything possible to turn them into enemies of the country and cast them out beyond the pale. Instead of “soft on defense,” one routinely hears the words “treason” and “traitor.” The President isn’t a big-government liberal—he’s a socialist who wants to impose tyranny. He’s also, according to a minority of Republicans, including elected officials, an impostor. Even the reading of the Constitution on the first day of the 112th Congress was conceived as an assault on the legitimacy of the Democratic Administration and Congress.

This relentlessly hostile rhetoric has become standard issue on the right. (On the left it appears in anonymous comment threads, not congressional speeches and national T.V. programs.) And it has gone almost entirely uncriticized by Republican leaders. Partisan media encourages it, while the mainstream media finds it titillating and airs it, often without comment, so that the gradual effect is to desensitize even people to whom the rhetoric is repellent. We’ve all grown so used to it over the past couple of years that it took the shock of an assassination attempt to show us the ugliness to which our politics has sunk.

The massacre in Tucson is, in a sense, irrelevant to the important point. Whatever drove Jared Lee Loughner, America’s political frequencies are full of violent static.”

- Interesting Times: It Doesn’t Matter Why He Did It - George Packer

It's best if crazy people don't find their craziness rationalized

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:11:00 -0500

Something David Neiwert has been saying for some time:

When the conservative movement’s True Believers are fed a steady diet of extraordinary warnings intended to induce a paranoiac, panicked fear — They’re Destroying America! They Want to End Your Liberty! Health Care Reform is the End of America! — and simultaneously fed a diet of suggestions that the solution is simply to do away with them (see Sean Hannity’s recent bit of eliminationist “humor”), then what other outcome should you expect?

People are acting out in an eliminationist manner because they have been inundated with, and have naturally internalized, a broad range of eliminationist ideas and talking points. Such speech is being bandied about in every cultural bandwidth—from talk radio, to the local press and in letters to the editor, to blogs and national mainstream media.

"We are again dealing with difficulties in a contentious, partisan time. We are more connected than..."

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:37:00 -0500

“

We are again dealing with difficulties in a contentious, partisan time. We are more connected than ever before, more able to spread our ideas and beliefs, our anger and fears. As we exercise the right to advocate our views, and as we animate our supporters, we must all assume responsibility for our words and actions before they enter a vast echo chamber and reach those both serious and delirious, connected and unhinged.

Civic virtue can include harsh criticism, protest, even civil disobedience. But not violence or its advocacy.

”

- President Bill Clinton, Op-Ed on the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing. Apropos to the day’s events. (h/t Dave Weigal)

"I think it’s important for all leaders, not just leaders of the Republican Party or the Democratic..."

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:36:51 -0500

“I think it’s important for all leaders, not just leaders of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party … community leaders, figures in our community to say, ‘Look, we can’t stand for this.’ I mean, this is a situation where people really need to realize that this rhetoric, and firing people up, and even things … For example, we’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list, but the way she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gunsight over our district. And when people do that, they’ve gotta realize that there’s consequences to that action.”

- Representative Gabrielle Giffords on Violent Political Rhetoric, March 2010 « Student Activism

(via Sarah Benincasa on Facebook)

Do gas taxes, tolls, and auto registration fees ensure that...

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:59:30 -0500

Do gas taxes, tolls, and auto registration fees ensure that America’s highways “pay for themselves?” Not at all. A new report by U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, shows the cumulative net subsidy that U.S. taxpayers have paid for the interstate highway system since its inception—a sum that is fast-approaching $700 billion. (via The Ever-Rising Cost of America’s Highways)

But hey… [hilarious Amtrak joke].

Surely that would be an Arkestra.

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:13:29 -0500

Surely that would be an Arkestra.

Today’s song is ”I Hate Myself and Want to...

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:00:37 -0500

Today’s song is ”I Hate Myself and Want to Die”.