The Spit Shine

/* Google Analytics Code asynchronous */

Friday, November 5, 2010

The New Teapublican Extremism

EXTREMIST NARRATIVES OF SPENDING AND GOVERNMENT GROWTH - HYPE BUILT ON HOOEY

Yglesias, dark lord of the liberal mobs, puts up a self-confessing chart of Obama's massive big government takeover:

Jobs:

Add to this the inconvenient truth that the U.S. will not lead the global recovery for the first time in a long time. (Martin Wolf had some good charts, but I'm sure the OECD or IMF's are as good).

China (and Asia) are leading the global recovery, and Europe's growth is faster, even though their downturn was deeper. Yes, autocratic capitalistic China, the people who did well calibrated stimulus with ease and who didn't pass out poorly designed tax cuts because they don't share government with Grover Norquist...

[+/-] Show Full Post...

Glenn Beck : The Master of Propaganda

WE DO NOT LIVE IN END TIMES, BUT IN HARD TIMES - HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!

I'm not trying to scare you, but there are people plotting a New World Order, and they don't have to be in the shadows, any longer. They want to do away with capitalism.

Let me mention George Soros, several times, ... randomly ... or maybe not! >:0)

I'm not trying to scare you, but harken - harken - to the real possibility and be prepared.

Seriously, there are books and papers that people write - have you seen them, no you probably haven't heard, but do your homework on the 60s - books that are worse than, worse than, well, I'd say the book of Revelations, but that would be an unwanted overtone, something that wouldn't help the point, so I won't say that.

I won't say how many people are involved or anything. Some people say the probability is high, but you have to do your own research. (Some people, my guest, won't even answer the question of how probable it is that China stops buying Treasury bonds suddenly one Monday, but let me rush on to "panic", anyway)

"The forces are trying to get us to turn on each other." "Until you see the roots of Obama's rage."

"Liberalism is an impulse control disorder".

"What is coming is profound." Darkness or love. It's up to you which direction we go.

"Goodnight, America"

[+/-] Show Full Post...

More on Restoring Fiscal Sanity

ARRRRRRRG!

Andrew Sullivan keeps saying that Obama is the adult in the room, but this (KOS-link) is not a politically savvy "compromise", is it? "Adult" is not the label I would use.

Here's what the President and all the "Democratic Leaders" need to come out and say:

The Republicans are going to tell you what you want to hear, that we can "afford" a tax cut for everyone and you "deserve it".

(Because I'm The President,) I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear, but I'm going to tell you what you need to know.

For every dollar in fraud, waste, and abuse that the Teapublicans find and cut, Senate Democrats (not Obama) should offer to lower the marginal tax rate on the top 2% by just that much, immediately. Nothing more. That's the Andrew Mellon plan, not the "Mankiw Moment" plan.

Now that's a political compromise.

What Jed has written is not a "fair compromise'. In fact, it is a landmine, because, as I've argued, it makes the Democrats complicit in the GOP's inanity.

The GOP are not offering a compromise. They are offering an old fashion hold-up. Why is Jed so ready to accept a compromise position, rather than demand that the GOP offer up a compromise position first? The Democrats must try to make their case. They cannot shy from this fight. It has to be done visibly, publicly, and with full force.

[+/-] Show Full Post...

The New Teapublican Extremism

VOTERS DIDN'T LOOK BEFORE THEY LEAPED

You don't need religion to be a wingnut. Birther is now Majority Leader in Missouri.

If I had to build a subversive, Beckian counter-theme, like the one they built against the Democrats, this would be the foundation: "the new teapublican extremism"

[+/-] Show Full Post...

The Education of a President

What's missing in Obama's spirit, these days?

Two words: Ted Kennedy.

I like the fact that Obama is a "philosopher-king" (NYT), but he's missing that senior statesman who has the perspective to say, "now. this. push. win."

[+/-] Show Full Post...

Why Democrats MUST fight to restore "sanity" to tax rates

SOMETIMES YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE TO TEMPORIZE

The Democrats, led by Obama, must visibly, publicly, and loudly fight the extension of tax cuts for the top 2% and the Bush-era revisions to estate taxes.

To not do so will make them complicit. They will be complicit in selling out the middle class, complicit in using "the ATM of the next generation".

To become complicit is to basically give the GOP back its mojo, right?

LEADERSHIP YOU CAN BELIEVE IN

They have to find their voice on long-term fiscal issues, too, and this is a key opportunity to do it, no matter what Geithner, Summers, or Orzag say. They don't need to wait-and-see for a mystery bipartisan group report, that may never arrive.

A strong President can, like Reagan, go over the GOP leadership, appealing directly to people to "Call your new Republican Congressman and tell them you don't want your kids future mortgaged so that the top 2% can have a tax break"

The polling is good enough. A strong President can, like Reagan, go over the GOP leadership, appealing directly to people to "Call your new Republican Congressman and tell them you don't want your kids' future mortgaged so that the top 2% can have a tax break" or people with massive estates should pass them on at Bush-level tax rates.

If the Democrats eventually want to compromise, after they have put up a fight, then let it be the top 1.5%, not the top 2%. But, if they don't fight, they risk complicity in the GOP's inane posture on debt-free tax cuts.

CAN'T SWEEP IMPORTANT CHOICES UNDER THE TABLE

It's not a question of scoring political points, of putting principle needlessly or mindlessly ahead of progress. It IS a question of doing what is right by the country, in the long term. There is no need for that question to be postponed.

It will give the Democrats a chance to remind the public that they already got a tax cut, as part of the stimulus.

The President, perhaps used to a breakneck pace, needs to slow down, pick some battles to win.

This one is a good start, even if it hasn't been teed-up well, for the lame duck.

A quick, backroom compromise is going to make it look like they deliberately put the issue off until after the election, so they didn't have to "come clean" with the base.

Some strange calculation that their election prospects in 2012 will be better by extending everything is misguided. A rebounding economy in 2012 is not guaranteed and the base will remember that they didn't put up a fight. Look at the union-voter returns for 2010 in the heartland. Folks notice when the people who are supposed to have their back in Washington are busy doing other things...

[+/-] Show Full Post...

Rachel Maddow Gets It - Clear Problem Identification At Last

Unfortunately, the prescription of what to do is not so clear or easy.

I did try to warn all those who cheered on the way to the end of the mainstream media to be careful what they hoped for, because the noise when it was silenced would be deafening, and the tug-o-war, like going back 100 years.

This goes beyond Manufacturing Consent. This seems like a new, old ball of wax. What would happen if the disinformation machine started in with truly seditious propagation?

[+/-] Show Full Post...

Thursday, November 4, 2010

HuffPo Editors Fall Right Into Baited Trap

Here they go with 'McConnell versus Obama'.

This is exactly what the GOP want the "narrative" to be, and now the media are obliging ('cause nothing sells like a grudge-match?). Better headline? "McConnell addresses Heritage Foundation, Fails to Produce Credible Birth Certificate" Mock back, perhaps with the goal that at sometime someone will actually take responsibility for the irresponsible politics of the past two years.

McConnell doesn't need a promotion. He is not a President. He's a Senator. He should be talking to other Senators. He should be pictured with them. Get it? Do you understand why this is critical?

Next up to fall into the trap? I'll bet Gibbs just can't discipline himself...

[+/-] Show Full Post...

"Scoring Political Points"

I'm confused about what the President thinks of as 'scoring political points'.

While I agree with Sullivan that he shouldn't become something he isn't, you cannot lead without passion, with just masked firmness.

Someone might nicely remind Obama that, if he has no "points" at the end of the game, not only will he not get elected, but the Democratic Party is going to be seriously damaged.

Ike had hatchet men that did his work for him, people who did the pushing and played 'the heavy'. Bush had Cheney, to some degree. So far, Obama doesn't have his bearings on the whole equation, at least as much as is obvious to a casual observer.

One has to understand, as did Lincoln, the difference between venting, especially in public, and showing visibly that you care and are anchored and will not be pushed around easily, as Reagan did so well.

And FDR and Lyndon Johnson, both great legislators, played "the game" for political points.

Someone might nicely remind Obama that, if he has no "points" at the end of the game, not only will he not get elected, but the Democratic Party is going to be seriously damaged.

[+/-] Show Full Post...

Will Republicans Repeal Their Own Amendments to the Health Security First?

How many amendments to the Health Security legislation were Republican? Over 100?

Reuters

White House

""If the administration wants cooperation, it will have to begin to move in our direction," - Mitch McConnell, speaking at Heritage today.

[+/-] Show Full Post...

The Rise of the Indecent Right

The Right would have you believe the Left is "Godless".

But, frankly, apart from their pious pretenses, the Right are happy to do whatever.

In a memoir due out Tuesday, Bush makes clear that he personally approved the use of that coercive technique against alleged Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed, an admission the human rights experts say could one day have legal consequences for him.
....
Bush writes that his reply was "Damn right" ...

-WaPo

Torture is way out of bounds.

The "vengeance" implied in "damn right" and the treatment given to the disturbed travel agent? Same.

Separately, the religious Left still not energized, perhaps, as yet another rightwing "let us question your faith" goes by. I hope Chait keeps watching and watching, until the light goes on one day, there (about the threat of this one-sided "toleration").

[+/-] Show Full Post...

O'Reilly Propaganda Watch: Liberal Policies Will Get You Killed

ARE FOX OPINION POLLS THE ONLY REALITY?

Remember Glen Beck threatening that Obama or liberals or whomever was leading people to "a place of slaughter" (biblical reference, too)?

Well, O'Reilly didn't learn anything from that.

According to his "memo" tonight, some liberals are in a bubble, with policies they believe in that apparently always fail. There may be some nonliberals in a bubble, but it's still called "San Francisco Syndrome", so that minimizes them - there isn't even a name for them - and no need to enumerate them for the listener!

"The bubble world can get people killed and lead to economic devastation."

Throw in an unexplained, unsubstantiated reference to Jimmy Carter and Warren Harding. Did Jimmy Carter get someone killed? Did Warren Harding create "economic devastation"? Were they the only liberals in history? Did Jack Kennedy not get us to the moon?

Indeed, the only thing according to O'Reilly that delineates reality from bubble is the fact that some people have different opinions than you might. Somehow, I think any psychologist would reject that definition of accepting reality. Hence, the question, "Are FOX opinion polls the only reality?"

But, he's played the Beck fear card, with one of the key lynchpins of the mental grip of propaganda: listening to and/or following liberal bubble policies may get you killed.

People who say that secularism has a higher bar, that religious people are the real nuts, need to listen to the propaganda from FOX. What we think of as secular, non-religious discussion is no better at protecting us from the unreasonable than is "religion".

I'm looking at the Media Matters website. They need to reorganize thematically, rigorously. They might consider finding a professor who knows this stuff, who can organize their criticism into the various types of propaganda.

Their service, keeping track, is invaluable.

They also need to find ways to get their message out to people who are "passive" listeners, beyond people who actively go to their website. It's all of our responsibility to expose the propaganda. I'm getting ahead of myself, but the appropriate response is not to remain calm, as Jon Stewart suggests, it's to get animated.

Separately, I don't watch the "Ed Show". But, I heard a snippet, tonight. Ed, I don't care who you trust or don't and whether you think Boehner is an "enemy". You're not my mullah. If his actions make him out to be untrustworthy, show it. If he is petty or mean or mindless or narrow, show it or give examples, because a label of "enemy" is just cheap.

[+/-] Show Full Post...

Bernanke - our age of ridiculous?

He's willing (required?) to buy over a trillion dollars - so far - of government debt, but he couldn't come up with $4 billion or so to keep Lehman afloat when JPM made a collateral call.

[+/-] Show Full Post...

Team Obama, I'm about to give up

Not an easy job! But, it's past time to take it up a skill level notch.

IMMEDIATE CAPITULATION? COMMUNICATIONS FAILURE? LEADERSHIP VACUUM?

Apparently, Gibbs today started to talk about what the President would give away in a negotiation on the expiration of Bush's ruinous tax cuts.

The GOP haven't even had to argue or defend their proposal in public, yet the leader of the Democrats is already making concessions in public.

This is so ridiculous, at so many levels, that I'm about ready to give up.

First of all, Obama has a campaign promise on the table. Letting his press secretary violate that during a no-cameras "gaggle" is the kind of communications failure that this White House will not be forgiven a second time around. If Gibbs doesn't have the rhetorical skill to avoid "negotiating in the press" when the cards are stacked, he's got to go.

Second, shouldn't the Senate be running interference for the President, so we can avoid the President-versus-McConnell routine that's only going to play to the GOP's advantage? The list goes on and on, from a communications perspective. It's fine the the President is having the new leadership to the White House, but, more often than not, Senators should talk to Senators and the President should be, well, the President of the United States, not "super Senator from Illinois".

Everyone does not "deserve" a tax cut. So much for shutting down the "ATM of the next generation" - do you think that the middle class isn't going to be asked to pay the check in 2012?

If Obama has a coherent set of reasons to make a concession, he'd better articulate them, fully. If he thinks people are going to "trust him twice" about his campaign promise, he's not understanding how long a memory people have on this.

[+/-] Show Full Post...

Teapublicans Eschew Accountability in Government

Seems as though some people are glad that the teapublicans aren't responsible to anyone, being decentralized. There is no one person or thing they are accountable for.

Some appear to think they are well-served as part of the blameless, those, like Palin, who travel in the GOP-financed "iconosphere".

Meanwhile, the Chamber of Commerce recently called on Teapublicans to accept that bribing foreign officials and businessmen is a good idea, when they took aim at the foreign corrupt practices law. I wonder how 'Aqua Buddha' feels about the ethics of that.

[+/-] Show Full Post...

Mitch McConnell : Glittering Generalities

"Big government"
"Listen to the people"
"End Bailouts"
"Concern over spending and debt"

So, "where's the beef", Senator?

Like Obama said yesterday, posturing on these glittering generalities might have fooled some of the people some of the time, but it isn't going to fool all of the people all of the time.

We've got your number. The gig is up on this kind of stuff.

Update1: President Bush is out defending TARP (i.e. "bank bailout"), GM bailout will have saved millions of jobs and cost the taxpayer nothing, afterall (Mexico "bailout" was a huge success during Clinton era, also viscerally opposed by GOP).

Update2: Cutting government the way the Tory's have might cost a huge number of federal worker jobs (well into the hundreds of thousands, at a time when the private sector is limping along).

[+/-] Show Full Post...

Why the midterms defy analysis

One possible reason: the propaganda from the Right is "working" and one function of propaganda is to separate people from reality. They didn't reason from 'what is really happening or in my interest', they chose instead to vote a "narrative".

[+/-] Show Full Post...

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)