Vacation
To the Mtns. Woo!
Talk amongst yourselves.
Keep an eye on that Shurtleff guy until we get back.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
The Obama Justice System
Bad policy is no longer Bush's Policy.
Disappointing.
Political Lean: America Left, Europe... Right?
Sphere: Related ContentIn the midst of the worst continent-wide economic slump since World War II, the European Council, which includes the leaders of all 27 EU member nations, met in Brussels June 18 and 19. Despite the fact that Europe's GDP fell by over 4 percent in the first quarter, and unemployment in the Eurozone could top 11 percent in the next year, the Council chose to focus on deficit reduction rather than jobs or social protections.
This comes as no surprise to Professor David R. Cameron, director of the Yale Program in European Union Studies, who says this "Hooverian" response is symptomatic of Europe's ineffective approach to the crisis. A few days after the European Parliament elections resulted in near universal defeats for socialist, social democrat, and labor parties across Europe, TAP Online talked to Cameron about the European left's "existential crisis," the effect of Muslim immigration on European politics, and how Europe's response to the economic crisis differs from that of the U.S.
Marie Diamond: In the recent elections for European Parliament, socialist and social democratic parties suffered significant loses in nearly all 27 member states. Do these results represent a fundamental shift toward the right in European politics?
David R. Cameron: They certainly represent a short-term switch. I don't know that it necessarily means a long-term defection from the left to the right, but certainly there were significant losses in France, Portugal, Spain, and of course the Labor Party in Britain. They lost a lot of seats and they took the biggest hit in the election by far, and the vote certainly moved to the center or the right. But keep in mind that European Parliament elections are basically second-order national elections. Even though everyone would love it to be about European issues, in fact they are run by national parties and they are about national politics.
The Week in Polls
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Reid to Senate: Stop Chasing Republican Votes
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday ordered Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to drop a proposal to tax health benefits and stop chasing Republican votes on a massive health care reform bill.[...] According to Democratic sources, Reid told Baucus that taxing health benefits and failing to include a strong government-run insurance option of some sort in his bill would cost 10 to 15 Democratic votes; Reid told Baucus it wasn't worth securing the support of Grassley and at best a few additional Republicans.
Al Franken's swearing in opens the doors to an actual progressive influence against the vanity of "centrists" and pomp-and-circumstance showmen like Lieberman, hoping to oppose every vote from the White House agenda.
Good news for progressive policy, but public opinion is fickle, and many are already hand-wringing over what this means for 2010. Admittedly, super-majorities are generally short lived at the federal level, but as for 2010, Democrats will be defending less seats against an opposition party that still doesn't seem to have crafted a message beyond tea-parties and doubling down on policy a majority of the country has rejected in full two election cycles and running. In addition, it's very difficult to put faith in Reid. Remember the FISA rollover, shutting out Dodd, and the "don't expect too much" speech? I'm not convinced that Reid is gone.
There's an opportunity here to push through much needed reform and more forward thinking policy in several areas (health care, immigration, infrastructure, as just a start) and a 4 to 6 year window to do so without souring Obama's popularity.
8 to 10 if the Michelle Bachman and Jim Demint keep talking.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Lawsuits You Deserve to Lose
Via WhiskeyFire.
"Enforced Patriotism" sucks.
And be sure to take note of the first comment on the post.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Can Someone Please Explain
What the hell Sarah Palin is talking about here?
Huh? Sphere: Related Content[William] Seward withstood such disdain as he chose the uncomfortable, unconventional, but right path to secure Alaska, so Alaska could help secure the United States.
Alaska’s mission – to contribute to America. We’re strategic in the world as the air crossroads of the world, as a gatekeeper of the continent. Bold visionaries knew this – Alaska would be part of America’s great destiny.
Our destiny to be reached by responsibly developing our natural resources. This land, blessed with clean air, water, wildlife, minerals, and oil and gas. It’s energy! God gave us energy.
Shurtleff's Tea Baggers vs. Clarity, Focus, Dignity and A Message
I love populism. Citizen activism is the most inspiring thing a political junkie can ever see or be a part of. On the flip-side, unhinged idiocy, backed by confused anger, and politicians eager to exploit it (Yes, you, Mark) is simply comedic. From the July 4th "tea parties": Beware the Seat Belt Laws!
In Bemidji, Minnesota, a headline speaker for their "Freedom Over Socialism" rally was state Rep. Mary Seifert, one of the leading Republican candidates for Governor, who warned of government taking away everyone's personal freedom: "Now suddenly we tell you that you have to wear your seat belts or someone is gong to come racing down the road and fine you." Another speaker, former state legislative candidate John Carlson, spoke favorably of the Articles of Confederation.
The tea party in Boiling Springs, South Carolina, featured a colorful cast of characters. The headline speaker was Alan Keyes, who has been a leading name of the "Birther" movement. Lead organizer Michael Brady came dressed up as Thomas Paine -- who in real life was a left-winger in favor of progressive taxation and opposed to traditional religion. One attendee took out a flyer that said, "Zelaya today, Obama tomorrow," but said he was advocating impeachment of Obama after he was asked directly whether he was in favor of a coup.
Proving once again that it's not enough to meet in angry mobs. You actually have to be saying something. Preferably something rational.
And when Sen. John Cornyn and Gov. Rick "Let's Secede!" Perry are booed for not being Wingnutty enough... well, your movement's future is not very bright (pun intended).
Sphere: Related ContentOil Companies All Talk, Little Action on Renewable Energy
CAP, in the inbox:
[...]London's Daily Telegraph reported last week that "[c]ompany records for 2008 show that ExxonMobil gave $75,000 to the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) in Dallas, Texas and $50,000 to the Heritage Foundation in Washington. It also gave $245,000 to the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington." Similarly, ExxonMobil has devoted millions to ad campaigns touting clean energy without actually investing significantly in renewable energy. In 2007, for example, ExxonMobil spent $100 million on advertising and "green-washing" campaigns in an attempt to exaggerate its commitment to renewable energy. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil spends just $10 million per year on renewable energy research -- a tenth of the amount it spent talking about investing in clean energy. This latest evidence of ExxonMobil's continued opposition to clean energy comes less than a month after the American Petroleum Institute released a report revealing just how little the top Big Oil companies invest in renewable energy -- and how far they'll go to claim otherwise.Sphere: Related Content
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Bush/GOP Legacy: The Naughts
On the '00s (the "Naughts") ...Sphere: Related Content
Employment Dec 1999: 130.53 million
Employment Jun 2009: 131.69 million
A gain of just 1.16 million. What are the odds that the economy loses another 1.16 million jobs over the next 6 months? Pretty high. That would mean no net jobs added to the economy for the naughts: Naught for the Naughts!
And for the stock market?
S&P 500, Dec 31, 1999: 1469.25
S&P 500, July 2, 2009: 897.29
Equity investors wish they went Naught for the Naughts.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Happy SB81 Day!
The law that no one but the Minute Men and a few lawmakers wanted, but no one had the integrity to vote against in an election year.
Utah Legislature: Solving problems that don't exist for more than two decades!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Nixon's Gift That Keeps On Giving
Just take a look at the most recent harvest from the tapes that the Nixon Presidential Library has released from the early months of 1973. The impressive thing is that even in the smallest details, the obsessive nastiness and criminality of the bigger picture is further delineated. The foulness of Nixon's mind was not "compartmentalized" between one issue and another. For example, like most "family values" Republicans, he was distressed by the Supreme Court's finding in Roe v. Wade. But, like almost anybody, he could imagine an exception where abortion might be excusable or even desirable. "There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white. Or a rape." The association of ideas between the first mental picture and the second one is so clear as to be—if it were not so hideous—pathetically laughable in an individual, and really quite alarming in a president of the United States.Sphere: Related Content
As so often, his remarks about black Americans are crude and often sexual, while his innuendoes about his Jewish fellow citizens are more sinister. And, as ever, the worst interludes of anti-Semitism occur when Nixon is chatting to his friend Billy Graham. This time—February 1973—the two cronies are discussing Jewish opposition to the evangelical Campus Crusade movement. What the Jews don't seem to get, observes Nixon, is that they bring dislike on themselves. Why, just look at the record—disliked in Spain, disliked even in Germany. It could be America next. "What I really think is deep down in this country, there is a lot of anti-Semitism, and all this is going to do is stir it up." To this aperçu (incidentally suggesting that anti-Semitism "in this country" is not located all that "deep down," since it's being vented in the Oval Office), he adds, "It may be they have a death wish. You know that's been the problem with our Jewish friends for centuries."
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Side-by-Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals
Brought to you by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Sphere: Related ContentFriday, June 26, 2009
1.5 Million with One Tweet
Sphere: Related ContentThe president’s semi-active Twitter account just sent out this message:
Twitter has been burning up with conservative and Republican messages telling followers how to call to ask their representatives for “no” votes on the bill. This is notable because the Obama account has more than 1.5 million followers. The far-more-active Republican accounts can’t compete.The House is voting on a historic clean energy bill today. Have you called your representative about it? http://bit.ly/aWcDK
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Health Care "Free Market" No One Wants
UDP's Todd Taylor:
The net of our current "free market" system is a tacit agreement between insurers and care providers. The insurers take the premiums and profits from statistically healthier groups while providers financially squeeze the uninsured and underinsured remainder into poverty or bankruptcy. The result is that nearly two-thirds of U.S. bankruptcies are health care-related.
Such a market allocation would ordinarily violate restraint of trade laws. Yet, our very laws and regulations are used as a shield to protect insurers and providers when coverage is denied and exhorbitant individual payment later extracted.
For example, in this past Utah legislative session, laws were passed with respect to insurance coverage requirements and exclusions for selected illnesses, thus legislatively allocating and regulating risk. In addition, the rules on patient record confidentiality allow insurers to obtain access to confidential patient information providing a basis for coverage exclusion. Yet, when coverage denial is challenged, these very "confidentiality" rules are used as a shield to deny accountability.
And in a continued effort to continue that denial, conservatives like Orrin Hatch have memorized the Frank Luntz talking points like trained monkeys. Luntz is a smart man. He's had success crafting vapid bullet point messaging strategies before. But this time around his sound bytes, repeated ad naseum, are falling on a majority of suspicious ears. Why? I think Iglesias explains it best:
This stuff is all red herrings. The main health reform ideas will not cause anyone to lose the insurance they already have and will not do anything to change people’s relationships with their doctors. Its about changing people’s relationships with their insurance companies, and about providing some subsidies so that everyone can afford insurance. Free market health care is about letting people die of treatable ailments if they don’t happen to have the money to pay. As Kyl says, it’s not a very compelling message.
Multiple public opinion polls (even when answering loaded questions in a GOP poll) show a majority support reform that includes a public option. Conservatives (and a few Democrats, alas) are again fighting tooth and nail for maintaining the status quo while calling it reform, much like they did during the stimulus debates, the original TARP bailouts (where they opposed the oversight they now urge unhinged Tea Baggers to rally against), and -- most recently -- the financial industry reforms the administration recommended.
Add to this their latest meme that Iran is "benefitting" from our so keeningly exacted indefinite occupation of Iraq, and comparing the Iranian protests to "tea parties" it's getting very difficult to take any of them seriously on any issue, let alone something as important as the future of our health care.
UPDATE: Have you signed Dr. Dean's public option petition?
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Fox News, Unethical or Incompetent?
Take your pick.
If this were the first time -- or anywhere close to it -- we might be able to chalk this one up as an inadvertent mistake. But this isn't the first time Fox News has tried to label a Republican facing a tremendous scandal a Democrat. Back in 2006, during the heat of the Mark Foley scandal, Fox labeled the embattled Republican "D-FL" -- the same type of "mistake" they made with regards to Sanford today. No, Mark Sanford is not a Democrat. Get it right.
The SideTrack @ Netroots Nation
Just got word from Democracy for America that I've been granted a Netroots Nation scholarship to attend.
The conference (formerly known as YearlyKos) will be in Pittsburgh, PA, August 13th through the 16th.
Only a partial agenda of events is available currently, but I'd welcome feedback from the Utah blogosphere and politicos on what events to attend. From what I am told, it's impossible to see it all, and the training available is overwhelming. I have several "must sees" myself already, but if there are events on the Netroots Nation agenda you think would be important or just interesting to hear more about, please shoot me an email or leave a comment.
I'll post more information as they send it to me.
And thanks to everyone who endorsed my scholarship application (can you spot the two Republicans? Heh) It was quite an ego boost to read them all, and I'd like to return the favor, if only by making this as much of a community experience as possible.
Socialist Gnomes
Swing State Project (emphasis mine):
UT-Sen: Democrats nailed down a candidate in dark-red Utah, not a likely place for a pickup but somewhere we want to be standing by to clean up in case the Republican primary turns into an insane bloodbath: Sam Granato, the head of the state Liquor Control Board.Speaking of which, a third challenger just got into the GOP primary against long-time incumbent Bob Bennett: businesswoman and activist Cherilyn Eagar, who's never run for office before but seems connected to some of the fringier members of Utah's legislature, such as state Senator Margaret Dayton, who praised Eagar in that: "She's a very impressive woman in her looks, intelligence and presentation." Eagar's rationale is that, in her words, "Utah's conservative principles are no longer being represented in the U.S. Senate and no conservative has entered this race," which seems bizarre considering that AG Mark Shurtleff and former Utah County GOP chair Tim Bridgewater are already challenging the very conservative Bennett from the right. Eagar also offered up this very strange mix of literary allusions: "Gulliver has been tied down by socialist gnomes for many years, but he's starting to wake up."
Please oh please oh please let Eager win the primary!
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