Crazy

I’m reading Jonathan Chait’s new book “The Big Con: The true story of how Washington got hoodwinked and hijacked by crackpot economics” in which he lays out the sordid disaster that is “Supply-side economics” and details how such a loopy and discredited economic policy became the guiding principle of a major political party (i.e. Republicans). Chait begins his book this way:

"I have this problem. Whenever I try to explain what's happening in American politics - I mean, what's really happening - I wind up sounding a bit like an unhinged conspiracy theorist. But honestly, I'm not... so please give me a chance to explain myself when I tell you that American politics has been hijacked by a tiny coterie of right wing economic extremists, some of them ideological zealots, others merely greedy, a few of them possibly insane"

Insane is probably putting it mildly. Supply side economics - the idea that there is some inverse correlation between cutting taxes and increasing government revenue (i.e. the more you cut, the more revenue that will come in) - has been discredited more times than I can count. Starting with the Reagan tax cuts in the 1980s that brought us into the era of runaway deficits and repeated again by W. Bush whose tax cuts made the Clinton-era surplus vanish only to be replaced with record deficits once again.
And still, Republicans in power today insist that all we need to do is cut taxes more and that it will magicly solve all of our problems.

There is a scene in “The Bee Movie” in which Jerry Seinfeld’s bee character gets trapped in a house and trys to fly out through a closed window. He slams into the glass and is shocked that he can’t get through. He trys again with the same result, at which point he starts banging into the glass repeatedly over and over, each time saying “Maybe this time, maybe this time, maybe this time...”
It’s hilarious because that is exactly what bugs tend to do, but it is also a good description of your typical wingnuts who never let something like repeated failures dissuade them from pushing the same discredited theories over and over again.

What strikes me about all of this is how the same people who continue to buy into supply-side economics are typically the same ones who are going to deny that global warming is a problem, or who still believe that going into Iraq was a good idea, or who favor teaching “intelligent design” in the schools; etc.
Don’t try to confuse these people with the facts. They are immune to such arguments. They will just continue to smash themselves into that window over and over again, dragging us along with them if they can.

Blue Skies

It’s Looking Like Blue Skies All Over Again

Blue skies smiling at me. Nothing but blue skies do I see.
— Irving Berlin

Just over a year ago, Democrats seized control of Congress because of the voters’ exhaustion with the war in Iraq and disgust at the Republican majority’s increasingly brazen manipulation of the levers of power. Now, less than a year from the next election, little has happened to elevate the voters’ mood — or their impression of the party that ruled the federal government from 2003 through 2006.

The GOP remains burdened with a highly unpopular war; President Bush’s troop “surge” in Iraq, initiated over strong Democratic objections, appears to have diminished the violence but has given no sign that it will lead to a big reduction in U.S. troops anytime soon. The corruption scandals, ethical challenges and settled Beltway mentality that helped drive Republicans into the wilderness have yet to dissolve from public memory.

So, even if Democrats have done little to burnish a reputation for running things any better — as reflected in the extraordinarily low public approval ratings for the Congress they now control — the fact remains: They may not have to.

That’s because every traditional indicator of election forecasting — from public opinion polls and issue resonance to candidate recruitment and the “over/under” balance of seats in play — suggests that congressional Democrats have just as much going for them in 2008 as they had in 2006, if not more. They now have the power of incumbency to give them added advantages in raising money, attracting top-tier candidates, controlling the legislative agenda and capturing the political zeitgeist.

All this leads Democrats to profess clear confidence that they’ll retain majority control next fall. And not only that, but they may now harbor realistic visions of emerging with 55 to 58 seats in the Senate (pushing them within arm-twisting distance of the 60 votes needed to bust a filibuster) as well more than 240 seats in the House, a cushion that neither party has enjoyed since the end of the last Democratic era in the House, in 1994.

Sounding off

The Express-News was good enough to print my letter to the editor the other day.

Macy's Broadway Revue

The network coverage of the Thanksgiving Day Parade gets worse and worse every year. It is practically unwatchable now. They absolutely will not show the parade itself. No floats, no marching bands. Just one canned, lip-synched broadway show commercial after another, interspersed with mindless blather from the "hosts" and wall-to-wall commercials. Yuck!

Mom's Art

My mom has dabbled in painting for all of my life, but lately she has gotten more serious with it. She and an artist friend have set up a studio in Old Town Spring - 318C Main St. - where they are exhibiting their art.

McClellan: Bush is a LIAR!!!!

Scott McClellan, the former White House spokesperson, is coming out with a book in which he calls President Bush a liar.
Here is the excerpt:

"The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.
"There was one problem. It was not true.
"I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself."

I’m glad that he finally cleared that up.

IPCC final report

The IPCC issued its final report on global warming over the weekend with even more certainty and more dire warnings of catastrophe if we don’t act soon. The report concludes that if we don’t take action before 2012 that will be too late.
So let’s see. Bush is out of office at the end of 2008. The new administration, assuming it’s not another Republican, will need a few months to get established before it can start pushing any kind of climate proposals, and whatever is proposed will have to wind its way through a possibly hostile Congress. So that means we will have about two years to turn things around at that point. No wonder the scientists are not sounding very optimistic!

Meanwhile, on a related topic, I was watching a NOVA special last night on the fight over intelligent design in Dover, Pa. and every time they would interview one of the creationists it would immediately bring to mind the people fighting tooth and nail today to deny that global warming is a) a real threat and/or b) that there is anything we can do about it.
Most of the wingnuts I’ve come across seem to hold these two positions simultaneously. First, they deny that global warming is happening at all, and when that position becomes untenable, they fall back on the second contention which is that the warming is not caused by humans and therefore we can’t do anything about it anyway. And then they will mindlessly flip back and forth between these two positions depending on whatever nugget of news their rightwing agitprop sources are spooning out to them that day.
In fact, if you read the wingnut websites you would have assumed that the IPCC’s final report would have said something like “Oops, Never Mind” because it’s been proven that either contentions a or b or perhaps both have been firmly established by valiant pseudoscientists and bloggers who know much more about this subject than a bunch of internationally renowned climate experts.
And, in fact, there were some scientists who dissented from the final report. Unfortunately, they only dissented because they thought the report was too optimistic about our chances to turn things around.

Republicans stall and delay and the E-N blames Democrats

I wanted to pull my hair out this Saturday after reading this editorial in the San Antonio Express-News.
The piece is entitled "Democrats flunk fiscal responsibility" and it unfairly bashes Democrats for being late in passing budget resolutions before the beginning of the new fiscal year.
The editorial starts out by noting the past failure of Republicans to complete their budget work on time while they were in charge of the Legislature. Calling the GOP “fiscally irresponsible,” the editorial goes on to say:

Nothing exemplified that irresponsibility better than the failure of the GOP-led Congress to pass in a timely manner the annual appropriations bills that fund the federal government.
In 2004, Congress passed only one of 13 appropriations on time. In 2005, it passed only two of 12 appropriations on time. Last year, it passed only one spending bill before the 2007 fiscal year began.
With a record that poor, you'd think the new Democratic majority would find it easy to distinguish itself, deliver on campaign promises about fiscal responsibility and burnish its credentials with voters. Evidently, Republicans set the bar too high.
When the new fiscal year began Oct. 1, the Democrat-led Congress had passed no spending bills.

But hold on a minute! First off, this has nothing to do with fiscal discipline. If anything, I guess you could criticize them for their time management skills, but even this would be unfair to Democrats in light of the way the Republican opposition has behaved all year.
As this article from the Center for American Progress makes clear, it has been a Republican strategy this year to gum up the legislative process, slow things down and generally try to make Democrats look bad by throwing up as many roadblocks and legislative delays as possible. The artcile notes that Republicans sponsored 209 amendments to appropriation bills this session, more than four times as many as Democrats sponsored in 2006 when they were still in the minority.
Many of these amendments did not garner majority support from their own party and appear to have been little more than delaying tactics.

All of these efforts in the House did not stop the approval of appropriation measures this year, nearly all of which passed by wide margins. They did, however, delay transmission of those measures to the Senate. Had the House been able to meet its target of completing action on all appropriations by the end of June, which is its normal goal, it would have more than doubled the number of legislative days available to the Senate for the completion of those bills before the beginning of the new fiscal year. As it is, the delays in the House will strengthen the ability of senators allied with the White House to use obstructionist tactics to cause even greater mischief.

And once in the Senate, the appropriation bills are subject to filibusters and cloture votes which Republicans have been employing this year in record numbers according to McClatchy News Service.

The power of a determined minority in the Senate can block completion of the work of the entire Congress, and this power is increasing as the year is passing. Obstruction in one area of legislative activity increasingly affects Congress’ ability to finish its work in other areas. By the beginning of the August recess, the Senate had been forced on 13 occasions to vote on motions to proceed. That is more than six times the average number of cloture votes required over the same time period in the previous two Congresses. Each one of those votes required wasted days that could have been used to consider appropriation measures. Most of the measures that were filibustered eventually passed the Senate by huge majorities, such as legislation fulfilling the 9/11 Commission Recommendations, which was adopted 97-0; a bill improving security in U.S. Courts, which passed 93-3; and the Clean Energy Act, which passed 91-0. The problem in each instance was shutting off the filibuster so that the Senate could do its work.

On the same day the E-N editorial ran, it was reported that Republicans had successfully blocked the Farm Bill with yet another filibuster.

Typically a bipartisan bonanza for rural America, the agriculture policy measure was stalled by a Republican filibuster that summed up the dismal state of relations in Congress. The bill joined an income-tax repair, a children’s health insurance program, energy measures, terrorist surveillance and Pentagon policy — not to mention financing for every agency except the Pentagon — as issues needing attention next month.

Why block a Farm Bill that will ultimately pass with overwhelming bi-partisan support? Simple politics. Sen. Tom Harkin some it up thusly:
“Republicans sense they are going to have a tough time next year,” Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, said. “So any way they can stain Democrats and anything they can do to make this place look dysfunctional and blame everybody for it, they think that is going to help them.”

And obviously the tactic is working when the GOP can play these delaying games and then get the Express-News to publish editorials bashing Democrats for being “fiscally irresponsible” for failing to pass these appropriations bills on time.
My one question is whether the E-N wrote this editorial out of ignorance - not realizing what is really going on. Or if they are well aware of what is happening and are simply playing their part in a coordinated partisan effort.

They love us, they really love us!

This new poll explains very clearly why the Congress has approval ratings rivaling those of President Bush. There are too damn many Republicans in it!

Despite a slew of recent polls findings Americans unhappy with Congress, a new USA Today/Gallup poll finds that the majority of Americans still hold a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party. 54% of respondents viewed Democrats favorably with only 37% holding an unfavorable opinion of the party. The Republicans faired far worse, receiving a favorable opinion from only 40% of Americans while being viewed negatively by half.

A liberal blogger

It looks like my post the other day ilicited a reaction from my old friends at ATC.

In related news, ATC read Mark Harden points out this statement from a liberal blogger:
The Iraq war was a disaster and no matter what happens from this point forward that fact will not change.
The Left is so open-minded. 
So, by this theory, if no one dies in Iraq tomorrow, that'll be a disaster?  Nice.

That’s funny. Bill is still so upset with me that he won’t even refer to me by name anymore. I’m just “a liberal blogger” now.

Here is Mark’s comment:

Here is a good example of the "stick my fingers in my ears, nyah nyah nyah, I cannot hear about good things happening in Iraq!" psychological denial from the left:

The Iraq war was a disaster and no matter what happens from this point forward that fact will not change. We’ve already spent too much in blood and tax dollars for even the rosiest outcome to compensate. No matter what happens at this point, it was NOT worth it.

"No matter WHAT happens..." Now, there is an "open mind" for ya...

Posted by: Mark Harden | November 14, 2007 at 02:11 PM

To correct their misunderstanding of my post, I did not say that it would be a disaster tomorrow if no one dies. I said the invasion and occupation of Iraq has been a disaster period. And there is no good news that can come out of Iraq at this point that can change that reality for most Americans.
It would be great if the Sunnis and the Shia would all join hands tommorrow and sing “Kumbaya”, but even if they did it would mean little to the average American and would not justify Bush’s decision to sacrifice the lives of thousands of U.S. servicemen and blow through nearly $1 trillion in U.S. taxdollars.
The stakes for the U.S. fell to nothing once it was demonstrated beyond any doubt that Iraq did not pose any kind of threat to the U.S. or event to its neighbors.
The sad thing is that many people saw before the invasion that there was no threat, but the Bush administration was intent on going to war at all costs. Well, now we are finally starting to get a clear picture of those costs and most Americans don’t like it. That is why Bush and the Republicans in Congress have less than a 30 percent approval rating today.

More Bush Budget Bluster

President Bush has issued the 5th veto of his presidency just days after having his 4th veto overridden by Congress.

Bush rejected a $606 billion bill to fund education, health and labor programs, complaining that it is too expensive and is larded with pork.

Wow! $606 billion! That’s a lot of money. Those porkers! But wait! How big a difference is there between this bill and the amount that Bush wants to spend?

He said that the bill spends nearly $10 billion more than his proposed budget

Nearly $10 billion?!? Bush is vetoing this bill and posing as a fiscal conservative for less than $10 billion? That’s chickenfeed compared to the amount that Bush wants to spend in Iraq!

Why $10 billion is so small that the Bush team can’t even keep track of it over in Iraq. That’s about the same amount that they lost track of last year. I guess Bush is going to make up for the money they lost track of in Iraq by chopping it out of domestic spending bills back home. Thanks, Mr. President! You’re incompentent and we suffer for it!

Oh, and then there is this...

At the same time, Bush signed a $459 billion annual Defense Department spending bill that increases the Pentagon's budget 9.5 percent to fund operations other than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A 10 percent increase (nearly $5 billion) on military spending NOT RELATED to Iraq and Afghanistan. And that is not counting the $200 billion we are spending in Iraq this year alone! So who is spending money like a teenager with his parents’ credit card?

The education-health bill he rejected included entitlement spending for programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, as well as $150.7 billion in discretionary spending. Congress sought to restore $3.6 billion that Bush had cut from those discretionary programs in his proposed budget and add $6.2 billion on top of that, for a net 4.3 percent increase in spending. Among the additions was more money for Bush's own No Child Left Behind school-accountability program.

So Democrats are trying to add back in funds for Bush’s own education program and Bush is vetoing it.

Oh, and Bush is decrying the earmarks in the bill even though some of the biggest pieces of pork are sponsored by Republicans. I suppose if the Democrats wanted to be mean they could make up the $10 billion difference by stripping out all the earmarks sponsored by Republican lawmakers.

Billions and billions and billions...

Some interesting news today in the WaPo.
'Hidden Costs' Double Price Of Two Wars

The economic costs to the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far total approximately $1.5 trillion, according to a new study by congressional Democrats that estimates the conflicts' "hidden costs"-- including higher oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars.

That amount is nearly double the $804 billion the White House has spent or requested to wage these wars through 2008, according to the Democratic staff of Congress's Joint Economic Committee. Its report, titled "The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War," estimates that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have thus far cost the average U.S. family of four more than $20,000.

Meanwhile, the wingnuts are flustered because more people aren’t acknowledging that the surge has been a success in light of the fewer number of deaths this past month in Iraq. Nevermind that there has still been little to no progress towards the kind of reconciliation necessary to establish any kind of long-term government solution for the debacle over there. I’m thrilled that there are fewer deaths, but since we should have been out of there several years ago anyway it is not something I’m going to celebrate as some kind of vindication of Bush’s policies.
The Iraq war was a disaster and no matter what happens from this point forward that fact will not change. We’ve already spent too much in blood and tax dollars for even the rosiest outcome to compensate. No matter what happens at this point, it was NOT worth it.

At this point, Iraq is like a money-losing salvage operation with the sole purpose of saving face for Bush and Republicans. To claim now that the Iraq invasion was a success would be like someone going out and using modern technology to raise the Titanic from the bottom of the ocean and then sailing it back to England and claiming the voyage was not a disaster after all.

The cultural divide

I see from Taegan Goddard's Political Wire that there is a new survey out purporting to show a measurable difference in the forms of entertainment preferred by self-described conservatives and liberals.
According to the survey, conservatives prefer Fox News while liberals like MSNBC and Comedy Central (The Daily Show, Colbert Report). No real surprise there.
But conservatives allegiance to Fox News also carries over to the Fox network despite its heavy reliance on profane, anti-authority shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy and MADtv. However, conservatives definitely do not want their MTV with 82 percent saying they never watch it. Of course, I don’t either since they stopped showing music videos.

The survey seems to bolster some stereotypes by noting that Liberals tend to like “cerebral material” such as documentaries, the arts, and educational programming as well as comedies and dramas. Conservatives, on the other hand, prefer action/adventure shows and sports programming. They also like game shows and reality shows that liberals tend to avoid.
On the music front, liberals like a broad range of genres including world, punk, Latin, hip-hop and rap, blues, reggae, electronica, R&B and soul, jazz, folk and traditional music. But Rock was still the most popular genre among liberals at 67 percent. Conservatives, meanwhile, seem to dislike most forms of music with the exception of country and gospel.
Overall, liberals seem to be more diverse in their tastes while conservatives seem to be most notable in what they won’t watch or listen to.
But I disagree with the sentiment expressed here that “you can safely bet that if conservatives like it, liberals hate it.” I certainly like action/adventure shows and sports as much as the next guy or gal. It’s just not the only thing I watch 24-7 like some seriously close-minded people.

Not so Random Notes

The Express-News has a regular feature on its Op-Ed section every Sunday called Random Notes that hasn't been so random since it was taken over by right-wing columnist Jonathan Gurwitz. And now even more so during the past few weeks when I've noticed that my good friend Bill Crawford is getting credited with contributing items for the section.
Perhaps I'm just overly sensitive, but it would appear now that most of the "random notes" are carefully chosen items meant to either laud President Bush and/or zing the Democrats/liberals.
But I also find it ironic that Bill, who writes the rightwing blog All Things Conservative would now be a regular contributor to the section when he has regularly bashed the E-N on a consistent basis. In fact, his blog used to be called Anti-Express News Blog and he still celebrates to this day anytime there is a story about newspaper circulation numbers going down.
Ironic, but not all that surprising considering the E-N's consistently pro-Republican editorial stances over time.

Numb to it all

I read about this in the WSJ this morning and was shocked dumbfounded apalled, OK I guess I’m just numb to it by now. Anyway, here it is:

The Committee had invited Lt. Col. Stuart Couch, a former Guantanamo Bay prosecutor, to testify about his experiences. The Wall Street Journal reports, “Asked last week to appear before the panel, Col. Couch says he informed his superiors and that none had any objection.” But Counch’s appearance was blocked by Cheney-backed Pentagon counsel William Haynes:

Yesterday, however, [Couch] was advised by email that the Pentagon general counsel, William J. Haynes II, “has determined that as a sitting judge and former prosecutor, it is improper for you to testify about matters still pending in the military court system, and you are not to appear before the Committee to testify tomorrow.“

Haynes has been a forceful advocate and key architect for the administration’s harsh interrogation techniques. Couch’s potential testimony posed a serious danger to Haynes’ work.

$9 trillion debt

Wow! US debt tops $9 trillion for first time

Congratulations George “Worst President Ever” Bush and all the “fiscally conservative” Republicans out there. Heck uv a job!
I’m sure we will reach the $10 trillion mark before Bush leaves office the way we are gushing funds for the Iraq boondoggle.

I think President Bush has made our country worse off in just about every conceivable way during his tenure. Militarily we are weaker, with an Army that is overstretched and in desperate need of about two or three years downtime to recover. On the foreign affairs front, more people hate us today than ever before.

And now with the stock market plunging and the economy on the brink of yet another Bush recession, we are saddled with $9 trillion in public debt that will make it very hard to dig ourselves out of our current predicament.

Fortunately, the electorate seems to have finally regained its senses beginning in 2006 and has been pitching out Republicans and electing Democrats at every opportunity. Nevertheless, we will still have to suffer through another whole year of the Bush nightmare before we can begin to see very much relief.

Veto override

It looks like Bush will have a veto overriden for the first time.
Unfortunately, it is not for the SCHIP bill. Republicans can’t be bothered to fight for children’s health care. But a nice pork bill for their home districts?? No problem!
Actually, it was stupid and hypocritical that Bush chose to veto this $23 billion water infrastructure bill that had passed the House and Senate by overwhelming margins. Especially when at the same time he is demanding that we spend an additional $200 billion on the boondoggle in Iraq.
The veto override in the House wasn’t even close at 361-54 and unless the Republican’s in the Senate can be forced to bite the bullet this one is almost certain to be overriden later this week.
I imagine there will be more to follow provided that Bush continues to veto bills such as this one.

A sample of things to come

The Democratic tidal wave that began in 2006 has not slowed down if yesterday’s elections are any indication.
The very red state of Kentucky overwhelmingly elected a Democratic governor, while the very red state of Virginia gave Democrats control of the state Senate for the first time in 12 years. Democrats also held strong in state elections in New Jersey. The only bright spot for Republicans seems to be an upset victory in the Indianapolis mayors race and the re-election of Haley Barbour as governor of Mississippi.
In Texas, the constitutional amendment funding cancer research that had been opposed by wingnuts passed overwhelmingly, as did all of the amendments as I expected.

In other news, there was an odd scuffle in the U.S. House yesterday that I got to see in part on C-SPAN when far-left Rep. Dennis Kucinich brazenly put forward a resolution calling for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney. The Democratic leadership attempted to table the measure only to have Republicans put the House through a long drawn out vote in which each GOP member took turns one at a time switching their vote from Yes to No so that the measure would remain alive. Apparently, they thought by doing so they could embarrass Democrats by forcing a debate on Cheney’s impeachment.
Well, I have news for the clearly out-of-touch GOP leadership. If that measure had been put up for a straight up or down vote by the people, it would have passed overwhelmingly. Cheney is a deeply unpopular figure today and I have no doubt that a majority of people would say “Sure, let’s impeach the SOB.” Fortunately, for him, it doesn’t work that way, and the Democratic leadersip did not want to waste more time on the matter so they had it sent to committee where it will be buried.

Bush passes Nixon

Good news for fans of former President Richard Nixon!
No longer will he bear the historical ignominy of being the most unpopular president of modern times. That ill distinction is now where it rightly belongs, with George W. Bush.
I think it is only right that the worst president ever should also have the distinction of being the most unpopular president. Nixon was pretty bad, but at least he did not combine his malfeasance with gross stupidity and boneheaded incompetence.

I agree with Robert Novak!

Robert Novak wrote a column today that I never expected to read... a glowing tribute to former President Jimmy Carter. At least with respect to his efforts to bring peace in the long-running struggle between Israel and the Palestinians.
It is partly a review of the new Jonathan Demme documentary “Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains.” But it also makes some stinging points about the current administration that I would not have expected to come from the pen of Mr. Novak. This line in particular stands out:

“...the former president's clarity on the Palestinian question contrasts sharply with George W. Bush's refusal to face reality...”

Bush’s “refusal to face reality” is the key to why his entire presidency has been an unending disaster. The refusal to face reality about WMDs (or lack thereof) in Iraq. The refusal to face reality about the war in Iraq. The refusal to face reality that his massive tax cuts for the rich have left us with an enormous deficit in a time of war. The refusal to face reality with respect to global warming and many other scientific issues that fail to mesh with his fundamentalist warped view of the world.

Novak goes on to make some very reality-based observations about the Israeli-Palestinian situation including this one:

”...Carter repeatedly and unequivocally states what Palestinian and Israeli peace advocates view as undeniable: to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace, with all its benefits for the world, Israel must end its illegal and oppressive occupation of the West Bank. That is a prerequisite that neither President Bush nor congressional leaders of both parties can approach for fear of being labeled anti-Israeli or even anti-Semitic (as Carter has been).”