Dear Senator Collins:
Yesterday, you voted against the very large Defense Authorization Bill, telling your constituents and the rest of us affected that it was because there were important amendments that you or others did not get to offer.
Please show us the amendments that you mean.
This bill was amended in committee in two houses of Congress and has over 1500 provisions, integral to the functioning and good order of the military, during a time of war.
Please show us what amendment is so urgent that you had to hold up this huge piece of legislation, amendments that you couldn't offer on another bill or on a less pressing bill.
Sincerely,
Citizens against GOP Leadership = Lies you can get away with
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Senator Collins, Show us the Amendments!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
File Under GOP Leadership = Lies you can get away with
Hang-on Senator John McCain, pretty much a bystander in his own career since he had to enlist Palin to campaign for him in Arizona, had one of his distempered rages, first misstating the facts on gay and lesbian dismissals from service, what must be a deliberate lie, then angrily retreating into some generic statement about the intent of the policy.
Separately, has anyone asked John McCain about beheadings in the desert? Does he know the desert of Arizona as well as he "knows" the military?
GOP DEFUNDS MILITARY IN TIME OF WAR
GOP CONTEMPT FOR MILITARY SAY-SO AND READINESS
Senators blocked the authorization bill from even coming to the floor. (It looks like it was a denial of the Motion to Proceed...still checking).
Why?
Jealousy? Jealous of their own power? They are unwilling to let the Military itself, the Joint Chiefs, decide, on the matter of finally integrating gay and lesbian service members fully.
So, who is holding the military captive to a political agenda, then? Well, after today, it is the Right's contempt of letting the military decide how best to proceed that puts them behind the eight ball, no?
Here is the long list of the business of the people held up today by lack of leadership by the GOP. (If you think it is just money that was held hostage today, think again...).
File Under GOP Leadership = Lies you can get away with
CORKER FAIL - CHEEK TOO BIG
This joins the chorus of the GOP's non-intervention massive failures, including the Rubin-Clinton bailout of Mexico, which turned out aces.
Separately, I just can't imagine the cheek of a guy who would make a political stop like this. It really does boggle.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Monday, September 20, 2010
"Small Government" - Is it also a "symbolic" birther poll?
I read this and all its backgrounders (this and this), to see if there is anything new.
Nope.
"Small government" remains the cattle call and sometime disinformation campaign for duping those who 'don't have enough' into thinking that government, "Washington", is taking it away, rather than "redistributing" it to them.
There is this Reagan Devolution popularized notion that "small government" is about who we look to to solve our problems.
But, one could easily make the case that the electorate never looked to the government first, outside of, say, true communist aspirations, which were never sizable in America. What I mean is that no one ever said, "Oh, our life is so good, but it would be so much better with a government solution!"
Does anyone thoughtful really believe that there is an organizing principle to be found in "small government"?
What people want is a just society, no? At least as much as can be afforded.
But, in a Republic for which the top 1% is taking a share up to three times more of the national income today than just 30 years ago, it is easy to see why our current financial situation is eyed so closely:
Of course, correctness isn't the idea. The idea is to make it true by persuading enough Americans to believe it.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Why do Tea Party Leaders Hate Americans?
They won't take questions from them.
Sarah Palin only talks to FOX, the propaganda arm, the "news organization" that is actively involved in political organizing.
Leadership? This is leadership?
How can these people aspire to lead all of "We the People", if they only take questions from a few, from propagandists?
Real Authentic Pleather
Andrew Sullivan has this interesting insight that the Tea Party folks are looking for something "real" and have found "authenticity" in ... Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, and a slew of other pretenders to high office, who make one cringe with their elevation of non-excellence, of dis-education, of the less than noble aspects of the commonplace.
That does seem correct - there is great energy in authenticity, especially in an environment seemingly missing it.
But the next layer of the onions is that their rally cries are propaganda, which has been spoon fed into a ressentiment, one that feeds on a general and irrational anxiety. That's a kind of authenticity that is dangerously rooted.
"Burgeoning Federal Government" is a joke, in the short time that Obama has had the reins. What has burgeoned is the debt, and that has been to the great benefit of many of the FOX-stirred-up and Koch-funded "Tea Baggers".
The straightforward way to reduce debt of this size is to raise taxes, at the right time.
Hence, these people, who cling without insight to a mantra that has long outlived its usefulness, "no new taxes", are going to end up cutting the very social benefits that they are probably counting on for their old age. If not, they will probably end up with a regressive $4-5/gallon gas tax.
It's a fine day, when you can get people to screw themselves (and the Republic), by voting for you, in a three pointed hat.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
How weak is Progressivism in America?
Charlie Rose just had on some guest who uttered that we've just been through a 'radical expansion of Government'. The statement went completely unchallenged, by host and other guest.
Despite having the reins of power, in Washington at least, there is no "liberal lion" who is directing or has control of the message, is there?
Whitehouse.gov is full of things that the President is doing. What seems to be missing is anyone who can pull them all together into a message or two, one that resonates, one that emotes.
Here's the sadest picture of the day, Obama saying goodbye to Christina Romer. Following the departure of Peter Orzag, one of the few with some media skills, Obama is left with his private Hoover (and Harvard buddy?), Larry Summers. Gulp. This is the guy who may be recommending that Democrats embrace the GOP's failure, unfunded tax cuts ... good grief.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The Bankruptcy of the GOP
Speaking of bankruptcy, heard this from Judd Gregg this morning, who was making the rounds to get out the GOP's message (didn't hear a single person getting the non-GOP message out):
"We don't believe that raising taxes makes sense under any scenario."
Think about that.
1. Ronald Reagan, patron saint of the Devolution, raised taxes.
2. If you want to know the true inflation risks in a robust recovery scenario, look to the GOP's own...nobody asked him whether he would raise taxes to fight inflation
3. No acknowledgement of the unpaid debts run-up, most of them under GOP leadership
Monday, September 6, 2010
The strategic imperative: Why the GOP *must* win the next two election cycles
Everyone who is thinking a step ahead knows that higher taxes are coming, in America.
It's imperative for the GOP to make sure the burden of that falls principally on America's middle class, aka "consumers" or "consumption".
Otherwise, taxes on wealth and high income are a real and frightening prospect for the owners of today's political parties, etc.
The implications are left to the reader. (Including the paradox of the GOP electoral rut on "no new taxes" and their eventual enactment of a huge gas tax, most likely, with Dem support...)
*"win" includes frightening or buying off Democrats, yes?
Sunday, September 5, 2010
The White House Problem
In a nutshell: failed communications.
So much has been written, already, one barely dares to add more "nutshells".
In contrast, for example, FDR sent out a small team of photographers, to get pictures of the New Deal in action and the hardship in the country. He understood it takes 50% getting the policy/message right, and 50% to get the message out.
But, the White House regulars perhaps don't realize that getting the policy right is probably just about half of the whole task.Seriously, just about half.
The rest is getting the message out, often before your opponents have time to shape the field. And that's before you factor in the end of a functioning MSM in getting information out.
If you stop and think about it, they haven't had really good messaging. You could make the case that it's been below average on some issues (especially healthcare).
Now, clearly, this Presidency is time-strapped. But, that's just an assessment of what is/was possible, not what is really required.
And the Democrats, as a group, seem to not have a strategy to get the message out, a costly endeavor in terms of time and money, against formidable headwinds, like the huge spend that has come from groups like the Chamber of Commerce.
In contrast, for example, FDR sent out a small team of photographers, to get pictures of the New Deal in action and the hardship in the country. He understood 50% getting the policy/message right, and 50% to get the message out.
To be a transformative figure, to practice transformative politics, the balance is probably about 80% time/cost on messaging and 20% on getting policy/message right. Some people are noticing that team Obama and the Democratic Congress haven't been up to the challenge of that.
[Headwinds include $3-million/wk from the Chamber of Commerce:
]
Friday, September 3, 2010
This Fall's GOP: Leadership = Lies You Can Get Away With (Again)
Personally, I think team Obama should revive the meme from the campaign that included a President, "who won't just tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to know."
FACT FREE LEADERSHIP
Here's Jan Brewer, incumbent GOP Governor of Arizona, caught spreading lies about "beheadings in the desert". (see below). "Fighting the liberal press" is really code for unaccountable leadership.
Real news about conflicts of interest gets financially punished (!). This is not fighting a liberal slant or spin. It is fighting to not be held accountable, to not answer questions, to be "above everyone".
CARLY, THE CUTOUT - UNTHINKING LIES
Enter stage left, Carly Fiorina, who hit Barbara Boxer with the labels of "big government" and "raise taxes". A more subtle set of lies in pursuit of power, no?
These labels are so dull and long-in-the-tooth from the Reagan Devolution, that they are now "lies", outright slight-of-hand.
George Bush was in office for eight long years. If "Government" were so big and bloated, how come it didn't get slashed and fixed? A better take is that the GOP focus on "Big Government" causes them to not be sound custodians of the Government. That's how we ended up with, say, regulators who were too deferential to industry and real danger to the public, including problems with the FAA and problems with oil-rig manipulation.
Last, income taxes are the lowest they've been in decades. If Democrats are abject tax hikers, it's not in the historical record.
The list goes on. Here are a few more.
- "Tax cuts pay for themselves."
Truth: everyone who has cut taxes and waited for growth to cover the resulting deficit has eventually had to face their "Mankiw Moment", when it's plain that the cuts are NOT going to pay for themselves.
[More from ThinkProgress, with special mention of Fiorina] - "Compassionate conservative"
Truth: long list includes recent attempt to balance the budget on the backs of the unemployed; it's okay for people to lose health care coverage; Obama owes an apology to Big Oil, we need a federal amendment to protect us from gays; ... - The Estate Tax will destroy the nations' farmers
Truth: maybe 2% of farmers will have some impact from the estate tax; the rest, none.
See ThinkProgress, here and here. - The "War on Brains"
TPM Muckraker has a sizable list. - Casual lies - if it easier than the truth
Glen Beck cops to lie, paradoxically told at "Restoring Honor" rally...(!)
Sunday, August 29, 2010
A National "News" Company Involved in Direct Political Organizing
THE SELF AGGRANDIZEMENT OF FOX NEWS, GROWS AND GROWS
The quasi-religious aspect of the Propaganda Arm called "FOX NEWS" was on full display, as Tea Partiers blended faith, fury, and "freedom", into an event called "Restoring Honor".
T-shirts were passed out, proclaiming, "I was there". Parents brought their children, lots of them. If any social scientist needed proof that the kids are given beliefs, in these matters, rather than offered an education, they could have found it on full display, with fathers and teenage sons wearing three-pointed hats, other t-shirts, or "Nobama" buttons, to display their inter-generational political concurrence.
There are secular mullahs in America.
Afterall, what have Beck or Palin done that could anoint them in such a way that they could pass out say-so on "honor"?
Meanwhile, parents everywhere, who seek to instill the values in their kids of getting an education, at least a college level education as good as can be achieved, are treated to the dumbed-down aphorisms and phraseology of a Sarah Palin, exemplar of the faith-filled in politics, at least at this end of the spectrum.
Beck, following his overlord's general propaganda, instills a sense of common purpose, by developing a siege mentality among his faithful "listeners", who are allowed to imagine that they are beset on all sides by iniquities and the threat of loss, both of which are conveniently drawn to help this misled flock to vote against their own economic self-interest, in many instances.
And, frankly, there seems to be NO ONE at the DNC, who is capable of running a well concerted counter-propaganda message to these adherents, one that dispels the "siege mentality" and invites faith-filled people into a more discerning politics.
Monday, August 16, 2010
The War Drums Are Beating, Again
Jeffrey Goldberg writes a cover for The Atlantic that probably should have been titled, "Why Israel Will Go to War with Iran, Rather than Sit at a No-preconditions Table with Palestinians".
Continuing settlement in the West Bank is apparently just that important and immediate a principle.
A few observations.
An overall situation is more risky with nuclear bombs than without, because of the potential for escalation. Two follow-ons. One, it's not at all clear that a deterrence regime won't "work". (With the size of today's hydrogen bombs, I don't by the Rafsanjani assertion about damage versus total destruction). Second, it's not at all clear that the struggle to prevent the acquisition of technology isn't going to be as large scale as anything that might happen, otherwise.
It is pretty clear that Israel doesn't want to act alone. But more than that, it is the emergence of a situation of such scale that they really must not act alone, that must be at the heart of the matter, politically. Being unable to act is a sentiment so counter their state founding principles, it is probably most at the source of the current anxiety, rather than the ubiquitous assertions of "existential threat". This general anxiety appears to focus itself on Obama, who is more disciplined a thinker than Bush. Even worse, perhaps, might be a sense of feeling it unwise to act, even as threats seem to gather. Sadly, there is no 100% security, no perfectly pre-emptive world.
Surprisingly, for a piece hailed as an 'intellectual coup', no mention of the cost that the world will pay, through spiked oil prices, for ... well, either an unwise Israeli pre-emption or the world's collective failure to persuade Iran to abide by international nuclear standards. No mention of a lot of other things, as well. Jordanian airspace. The fact that the Iranians might understand many of these "strategic" calculations and seek non-ballistic weapons, as the first wave of bombs developed. No historical precedent for Lebanese Hizballah to attack out of sympathy for Iran.
Last, the politics of telegraphing a "we're-going-to-bomb-if-you-don't" stance is precisely calibrated to put pressure on the American President and no one else.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Robert P. George and the Corporate Mobile
Beautiful people, motherhood, and apple pie, painted on the side of a shiny new van.
Nothing like traveling in comfort and style, the purportedly oppressed religious minorities of NOM-coalition.
Maybe, someone has a Pride Love Bug that can shadow the van?
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Sorry, Barney
Recall that when Israel ended its occupation of Gaza, it did not impose a blockade. Indeed it left behind agricultural facilities [greenhouses] in the hope that the newly liberated Gaza Strip would become a peaceful and productive area. Instead Hamas seized control over Gaza and engaged in acts of warfare against Israel.
-Alan Dershowitz, with the necessary context
Given the Karine-A affair, the history of Gaza blockades in general, I find it hard to understand why some think that Israel - and the allies of peace - should be anything less than aggressive in pressuring the Hamas.
Monday, May 3, 2010
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