Let The Circus Begin

I have little to say. It will be a bad day. I have this image in my mind of watching a teabagger reading his portable Constitution. I still don’t understand how people can read the same document over and over and never understand it. Of course, without reading the Federalist Papers it is kind of hard to understand what it is really all about. But it’s kind of long. Anyway, as we know: facts don’t much matter to people who have made up their minds—especially people who have little education. Our country deserves the government it is about to elect. Unfortunately, the majority of the people do not.

Reid Wins!

This is very exciting: Harry Reid won in Nevada—and it looks like it is by a much wider margin than expected. I’m still hopeful for McAdams up in Alaska—but it is really hard to say. Colorado keeps going back and forth; it is currently slightly Buck (Republican), but I’ll keep hoping. Regardless, the Democratic Party keeps control of the Senate. Now they had better get rid of the filibuster, because with it, Rand Paul alone could destroy the world’s economy (this is not joke).

And, of course, we keep hearing how the teabaggers have been so important in this election. This is total bullshit. As we have seen again and again, the teabaggers are just the most conservative Republicans. They aren’t for the Constitution. (They don’t even understand it!) They aren’t for fiscal responsibility. They aren’t against Wall Street. Why do we know this? Because they believe in many things that are flat out against the Constitution; they want to balance the budget at the same time they want to cut taxes without cutting 80% of the federal budget that is Social Security, Medicare, and the military; are they were eager to vote for candidates who were bankrolled by Wall Street. This election had nothing to do with the teabaggers. It had everything to do with the 9.6% unemployment rate.

Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues

I couldn’t find Bob Dylan doing this, but this young man—Rex Noble—does a fine job. I fear we are back to this level of thinking. The question is: where are the beats?

More on Lauren Valle Attack

It bothers me that the attack on Lauren Valle is repeatedly referred to as a “stomping.” It was not a stomping, it was an attack, or if you prefer a more legal term: assault. There is more news on the attack, though. According to KTAR, the man accused of tackling her is Mike Pezzano. (It also bothers me that this act is repeatedly referred to as her being “held down”—sure, she was held down—right after she was tackled.)

When asked if he thinks he should apologize to Ms. Valle, Tim Profitt said, “I would like for her to apologize to me to be honest with you.” He did not go on to explain that he felt this way because he’s an ignorant, bigoted, small-minded man with a penis the size of his world view.

No Control of 50 ICBMs: Who Cares?

According to the LA Times, a computer glitch caused 50 ICBMs to go “off-line” at a Wyoming Air Force for 45 minutes. Given that the US has roughly ten thousand ICBMs, I don’t see why we care. The glitch did not put us in any danger of the missiles being launched. Just in case you were wondering.

Jack Conway’s Brother Matthew

The Louisville Courier-Journal recently reported that the brother of Kentucky Democratic Senatorial candidate Jack Conway’s was under investigation for drug trafficking. Even after almost 3000 words, the article never mentions what that drug might be. What’s more, the definition of trafficking is so broad that this could mean that Matthew Conway shared a joint with a friend once. Regardless of all this, there doesn’t seem to be any there here. There were two complaints, and the first seems to have come from Conway’s recently divorced wife. Certainly the narcotics officer investigating concluded that it was a case of revenge. He said, ““It just seemed like [the complaint} was a BS … domestic kind of issue.”

The conservative blogosphere is all over it, though. They are trying to make the case that Rand Paul’s campaign member’s stomping on the head of a Move-On protester is just a pretense to cover up the drug trafficking case. This is all sounding very much like those claims that Bill Clinton was a big-time drug dealer while governor of Arkansas.

And remember, this whole “scandal” is about Jack Conway’s brother—not about the candidate himself. So the real question is, “Who cares?” And the real answer is, “Conservatives, who never care about facts—who only care about winning.”

Teabag Crazy

This is just too good not to watch. It is an almost endless list of the teabagger craziness.

I Can Be a Writer!

I just saw a review on Amazon by one Jon R. Stosser, commenting on S. E. Cupp’s Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity. Stosser writes, “I just [saw] Ms. Cupp on RealTime [with] Bill Maher and watched in amazement at her surprise that communism was akin to a State religion. She didn’t seem to know very much. I guess I am just jealous, cause I now know if I was conservative I too could be an author. Unfortunately, I live in the world where things are complex and grey.”

I feel much the same way. Last night, I did a good deal of writing on a book I have been putting off for too long. It’s hard work because I know that the book has to be good. I too am jealous; I know that I could write an un-researched conservative polemic in a couple of months, get it included in the Conservative Book Club and make enough money to live on for the next ten years—with health insurance! I also know that it would be trivial to create teaching materials for Christian home schoolers. It just isn’t right that people in the reality-based community have to work so much harder.

GOP No Longer Pretends to be “Big Tent”

Indiana Govenor Mitch Daniels suggested a value-added tax at a speech at the Hudson Institute. Daniels had been a possible Republican candidate for President in 2012. But not any more, it would seem. According to Grover Norquist, “[T]his is disqualifying. This is beyond the pale.”

The Assassination of Dr. Tiller

The Rachel Maddow Show presented a special documentary called The Assassination of Dr. Tiller. It is very sad, but very much worth watching. I highly suggest spending 45 minutes watching it.

Obama on the Attempt to Repeal Wall Steet Reform

I disagree with this guy so much. He would be conseridered very conserviative in, say, Finland (you know, the best country in the world). But I really like him. He could sell me a Peter Motteux translation of Don Quixote—he’s just that good. This week he discusses attempts to repeal wall street reform. Listen to your president!

Is America Really Number 11?

If you go to Newsweek’s interactive map of the World’s Best Countries, you will see some interesting things. One of the criteria is “Economic Dynamism” and America is ranked number two here, and this is responsible for it getting a rating of eleventh overall. The other category where America does reasonably well is in “Quality of Life.” That sounds pretty good until you see the list of what makes up quality of life:

• Income Inequality
• Gender Equality
• Percent Living on $2/Day
• Consumption Per Capita
• Homicides per 100,000
• Environmental Health
• Unemployment Rate

Apparently, “Consumption Per Capita” is weighed really heavily in this list. For example, France—rated below America at number 16 (it is number 12 to American’s 10 in this category)—rates above America in everything other than “Consumption Per Capita” and “Unemployment Rate” (which is 9.7% compared to 9.4% for America). So “Quality of Life” really comes down to economics—and not even economics that matter for most people given that America has inequality that is almost 25% greater than France. What’s more, those unemployed in France are far better taken care of then they are in the good ol’ USA.

It is also worth noting America has a high homicide rate. Despite the war that is going on there, Mexico’s 11.2 homicides per 100,000 doesn’t sound that bad compared to America’s 6.0. And America looks really bad compared to most stable nations. France’s number is 0.7. Even Saudi Arabia (64 overall) is only 3.2. Egypt (74 overall) is 1.2. Could it be that we have 9 guns for every 10 people in this country? I know there is no clear correlation between gun ownership and homicide rates internationally but there sure does seems to be one within the US. It especially affects kids. But that doesn’t really matter, right? After they are out of the womb, who gives a fuck?

I think that Newsweek had to go out of its way to get America up as high as 11 on their list. It’s an American magazine, after all.

More on Juan Williams

I have a couple of things to say about our friend Juan. First, I don’t have that much of a problem with what he said. It was more stupid than offensive. One thing I remember about the 9/11 hijackers is that they went out of their way to not appear to be Muslim. The idea that a hijacker would bring his burka-wearing wife onto a plane is ridiculous. His statement about that was just dumb. I think he should have been fired from NPR long ago, because he has been saying dumb things for years.

Second, there are a lot of conservatives who are making a lot of noise about Williams’ firing. They are trying to make it out to be some kind of First Amendment issue, which is ridiculous. But they are also hypocrits. They applauded with Bill Maher and Helen Thomas were fired. This is nothing new for conservatives.

Third: I was right about Juan Williams’ future. He has already been hired by Faux News fulltime for two million dollars over the next three years—a hell of a lot more than NPR pays.

Fourth, I’d like to she how this embed works:

Strange Conservatives

In conversations with conservatives where I ask for a justification for their beliefs, they will respond, “I’m just a Republican.” I call these Popeye moments: I yam what I yam. I have received this response a number of times. I have never received a corresponding response from a liberal. At very least, liberals always think they have reasons for their beliefs. Most conservatives do too. But what is it about a small, but notable fraction of conservatives, that make them think of their beliefs as either a gift or curse from God—something they have no control over?

Another strange thing about conservatism is the number of radically conservative—Rush Limbaugh worshiping—people who are on the government dole. In general, I’m talking about people on SSI. These are people who Rush Limbaugh and his ilk would hate. These are people who favor a political party that would eliminate the very programs that make their lives possible. It seems that these conservative welfare recipients always carve out a neat exception for themselves, but they are usually extremely hostile towards other welfare recipients. This is not that unusual, I suppose. Older people are generally conservative—except when it comes to Social Security and Medicare. It has begun to make me think that conservatism has something to do with bitterness and selfishness. Selfishness is the baseline of what it takes to be conservative. To be really conservative, you need a good dose of bitterness or plain, old-fashioned hatred.

NPR fires Juan Williams

Finally! I’ve been waiting for NPR to get rid of the ignorant, racist commenter Juan Williams for years. He’s been fired for comments he made on Bill O’Reilly’s show. Now Faux News will probably hire him. I mean, on the down side, he’s black; on the up side, he’s a bigot!

Jerry Brown’s Echo Ad

Will called this morning and asked if I had seen the new Brown ad that equates Meg Whitman with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I hadn’t but I quickly found it. It is a very exciting ad, because, as we have seen over and over, Whitman has made the same claims that Arnold did regarding how “independent” he would be because he was financing his own campaign. (Of course, both Schwarzenegger and Whitman have taken lots of money from other people, but we’ll deal with that issue another time.)

The Real Issue with Joe Miller

Joe Miller won’t answer any questions about his past and apparently won’t engage in debate with his rivals—he was not present for the Alaska Senatorial debate held last night by the Alaska Dispatch (check out their Palin Watch blog). But then, Joe Miller doesn’t much like the Dispatch as indicated by his refusal to answer reporters’ questions (some of which he has been willing to answer for national media like CNN and Faux News). Also: earlier yesterday, Miller’s security detail handcuffed and detained Dispatch reporter Tony Hopfinger for almost a half-hour.

Miller went of Faux News to justify this reprehensible act. He repeatedly referred to Hopfinger as a blogger—he is a reporter. He also claimed that Hopfinger was so out of control that he followed Miller into the bathroom. According to Hopfinger, he did not follow Miller into the bathroom—he simply had to use it before Miller’s event, which he was covering. For a man who is forever claiming that just about everything the government does is unconstitutional, Miller is quick to brush aside the First and Fourth Amendments. (This is hardly surprising: Teabaggers are mostly focused on the Tenth Amendment—you know: states’ rights.)

Miller also claims that Hopfinger pushed one of his security guards (although Miller wouldn’t know since he was long gone by the time of the incident). Hopfinger claims he pushed back only after being butted by one of the security guards. Regardless, there is no question that the reporter was being surrounded by a large, antagonistic crowd. Pushing them away seems like a reasonable response.

The big question is not about this incident, however; it is about the story Hopfinger was trying to cover: Miller’s unethical behavior while working at the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Are we to accept his word that he was not fired for using Borough computers for political purposes? Are we to disregard the word of former Fairbanks Mayor Jim Whitaker, who says that he was? This is a huge scandal. We’ll see if this gets any media traction.

The Teabagger Constitution

Markos “Kos” Moulitsas reports on a radio program he was on when a caller defended the Teabaggers, claiming that she had gone to an event where she had learned a great deal about the Constitution. The host asked her what she learned. Kos continues:

Clarence Thomas’ Wife Leaves Offensive Message for Anita Hill

Virgina Thomas, wife of the the Supreme Court Justice, left a message on Anita Hill’s voicemail that she referred to as, “Extending an olive branch to her after all these years.” Here is the olive branch she left:

Mrs. Thomas is a loon. Note that there is no doubt that Anita Hill was telling the truth in this matter. Any questions about this were eliminated in David Brock’s book, Blinded by the Right.

Rush Feingold Tied With Johnson!

TV’s Frank on Countdown!

Aftershock

I’ve heard Robert Reich speak about his new book Aftershock about a half-dozen times. I never tire of listening to him; he’s right up there with Paul Krugman. Last night, he was on The Colbert Report and they talked about something that one never hears: if the middle class keeps losing its economic power, they may revolt and elect truly liberal or (Gasp!) socialist leaders who will actually enforce labor laws and bring the top income tax rate back up to 90% and make Social Security an equal or ever progressive tax instead of the regressive tax that it is. One thing you can say about Americans is that they feel entitled to a high standard of living. They will only accept this level of economic inequality as long as their lives are pretty good. Then it’s Europe time!

I look forward to this. My only concern is that somehow, such changes would get in the courts and in another 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court would find such legislative changes unconstitutional. If that happened, I would hope we would have a constitutional convention and not an armed rebellion. Because if there is armed revolt, you’ll find me cowering in my room—just like always.

Chris Coons

Christine O’Donnell is getting all of the press in Delaware because she’s a wingnut. Her opponent, Chris Coons, is expected to win just because he is not her. But the New York Times wrote an excellent profile of him yesterday. I find him almost irresistible.

End of DADT?

U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips issued a worldwide injunction, ending the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the US military. My understanding from past discussions of this expected ruling is that the Whitehouse will put off making a decision about whether to appeal until after the elections. I’m not sure why they would do that, though. On most issues, the American people are far more liberal than their leaders. Why is that?

The Power of Nightmares

I just got the first episode of this series (just like NetFlix to have it on three different one-hour disks when it is sold with all three episodes on a single disk at Amazon) by Adam Curtis about the use of fear to enslave people. It, along with other fun reads like The Shock Doctrine and C Street make me think that Niccolo Machiavelli had it right in The Prince back in 1513: power is all that matters. Watch a group of pigeons fighting over a slice of bread if you want to know everything important about political and economic power (the same thing, really) in the human world.

Justice Stevens Regrets Capital Punishment Ruling

In an interview with NPR’s Nina Totenberg, Justice John Paul Stevens admitted to regretting one of his decisions:

It is worth listening to the whole story, which is only about eight minutes long.

The Worst Twenty Years—ever!

From an article by Peter Coy in Bloomberg Businessweek, “Robert J. Gordon of Northwestern University belongs to the committee of distinguished economists who officially declared on Sept. 20 that the U.S. recession ended way back in June 2009. Don’t mistake that pronouncement for optimism. According to Gordon’s research into the long-term determinants of growth, America’s next two decades are going to be disappointing. He predicts that between 2007 and 2027, gross domestic product per capita will grow at the slowest pace of any 20-year period in U.S. history going back to George Washington’s Presidency.”

Welcome to fourth-world America…

Gooo team!

Stupid Jew Boy

I was looking for something to listen to while I cooked dinner and I came upon Sam Seder on The Young Turks Network, because he was going to have Chris Hayes on, and I really like him. It was on YouTube, so I looked at some of the comments. Two, right in a row where: (1) “lol stupid jew boy” and (2) “air america fell because of jews like YOU!!” I still can’t get my head around this. Or Rick Sanchez? I’m all for blasting Israel, but Jews? I know they have retractable horns, but come on!

Physics and Economics

Paul Krugman writes in Math, Models, and Mystification about economists who consider the likes of Brad DeLong and him ignorant of modern macroeconomic theory. Krugman’s theory about these people is that they understand the math of their models, but not the theory that underlies them. This rings true to me. When I used to teach physics, students commonly complained that they understood the concept, just not the math. But when I removed the math, I found they understood neither. Higher-level students tend to understand the math. The concepts are the hard part of physics. This seems at least as true of economics.

Glenn Beck: Making “Wingnut” Normal

Are we Surprised by James O’Keefe?

I don’t even understand this. What is this about? I know that James O’Keefe and Andrew Breitbart are worse than liars. But what exactly dose this attempt to get sex video of CNN correspondent Abbie Boudreau have to do with furthering the conservative cause? I think it is telling. Maybe this means that there really is nothing behind conservative ideology other than bile and hatred.

Libertarian Fire Control

I got this via DailyKOS:

This is a typically libertarian argument: insurance, insurance, insurance! The obvious problem here, and the reason that the $75 yearly payment should be mandatory is that Cranicks may be perfect libertarian rights-responsibilities examples: they had the right not to pay and the responsibility of keeping their own home from burning. But their next-door neighbors are what? Perfect examples of the other side of libertarianism: lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits? Their fields would never have burned if the fire department had responded to the Cranicks’ fire. Now what do they do? Sue the Cranicks, who probably have very little money (liquid and non-liquid)? What do they do if the Cranicks have to file for bankruptcy? They just lose. So much for the libertarian utopia.