FOX Gets Coburrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrned!

Well, well, well...it's a good thing he's on the wrong side:

The Fox News playbook calls for the promotion and evisceration of its critics. If the White House bad mouths the network, Glenn Beck adds a red phone to his set so its staff can call in. If LL Cool J objects to Sarah Palin rehashing an old interview of him for her show, a Fox spokesperson wishes Cool J "the best with his fledgling acting career," while bemoaning his lack of interest in inspiring others. It's hard to imagine what Bill O'Reilly would talk about if not for all the liberals and elites who regularly point out his network's failings.

So what is Fox News going to do with Tom Coburn, that upstanding conservative poster-senator from Oklahoma. Capitol News Connection has acquired audio of a recent Town Hall Coburn held in Oklahoma, in which the Senator, who is well-respected on both sides of the aisle, did not hide his disdain for the conservative info-tainment industry. After a woman said she did not want to go to jail for refusing health care, Coburn told her she was misinformed. “The intention is not to put any one in jail. That makes for good TV news on FOX but that isn't the intention,” Coburn responded.

“What we have to have is make sure we have a debate in this country so that you can see what's going on and make a determination yourself,” Coburn added and then again warned the crowd against the myths perpetrated on FOX News.

“So don't catch yourself being biased by FOX News that somebody is no good. The people in Washington are good. They just don't know what they don't know,” Coburn said.

He even had nice things to say about Nancy Pelosi, who has all but been equated to a devilish harpy hell-bent on emasculating every man and woman in the heartland.

 

Yes, apparently in the middle of America, even the women have dicks. At least the Republican ones, which would explain Larry Craig.

 

Coburn is showing enormous courage for a Republican. Goodness knows, the way they march in lockstep with each other, in ranks that would make a fascist tear up a little, makes dissent difficult. Just look at the way the Teabaggers jumped ugly on "RINOs" like Olympia Snowe when she voted HCR out of committee or Arlen Specter before he switched parties to avoid a primary against an avowed economic royalist with designs on scrapping the Smithian free market system nominally in place with a more Ferengi-oriented economic system, ethics and oversight be damned.

 

Coburn is an enormously respected conservative Senator from Oklahoma, who's enough of a crackpot to warn that healthcare reform will allow sex offenders to obtain Viagra (they can already), whose economics is questionably simplistic,  and who threw a temper tantrum to try to stop the Easter recess in the Senate for reasons that are wholly unclear.

 

In other words, he's one of them.

 

This would be similar to an Al Franken hissy fit about Air America Radio, to extend a hypothetical.

 

The Republican party has gone to great lengths in the past to keep its ducks in line, something we lefties can only marvel at. We're a fractious bunch and we are not afraid of dissension among the ranks if it helps us hammer out a solid policy that is palatable to independents without selling out too badly our principles.

 

Sometimes we even succeed and don't look like buffoons. Healthcare reform is one of those issues. When we're on, we're very hard to beat. When we are not on, we beat ourselves.

 

I often repeat a theory that the Republican party runs about thirty years behind the Democrats when it comes to party evolution. I think this is continuing: Obama is our Reagan, and the Republicans have now split into what amounts to the "Jesse Jackson Faction" (the hard left that back Ted Kennedy in 1980 in the primaries) and what became the Democratic Leadership Council, which eventually got Bill Clinton and Barack Obama elected (after the party reconsolidated under Bush's tyrannies).

 

The right, in other words, has a long way to go to heal. The "JJF" of the GOP is the Teabag faction. The ur-DLC are the RINOs, and it is the RINOs that will eventually win this fight. Coburn is merely choosing the winning side.

 

And Into Plowshares...

God bless him for the effort:

 

President Obama says the Nuclear Posture Review his administration releases today is part of his long-term goal -- very long-term -- of a world without nuclear weapons.

 

That dream is "unlikely to be achieved even during my lifetime," Obama told The New York Times. But in the meantime there are "a series of specific steps that we could start taking to move in a direction that lessens the threat of nuclear weapons."

[...]

As part of the review, the U.S. pledges not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear nations that are abiding by the global non-proliferation treaty.

That pledge should bind most countries more tightly to the goals of the non-proliferation treaty, Obama said, while sending a message to "outliers" like Iran and North Korea.

It's a START, as they say. Certainly, if he's willing to pursue this diligently, he will have earned his Nobel in arrears.

To use a weapon against a nation that does not have it and has shown no propensity or capability for causing extensive damage to the United States is the height of bullying...which is precisely why you will see Republicans bleat about "not even in self-defense????" Bullies, the lot of them. It doesn't matter that we have a military twice as large as the next eight nations combined. It doesn't matter that we are currently the only nation who could commit significant numbers of troops and amounts of materiel to two conflict theaters and still have enough left in reserve for a couple of other sorties.

 

No, these jackasses want to bomb the planet into oblivion, if need be.

 

Why? Because America is better than everybody else, and damned if we aren't going to set out to prove it by wasting the rest to smithereens!

 

Isn’t it sad that a nation founded on the precept that “All men are created equal” would develop a national sense of pride that is grounded largely in its superiority? That we can't extend the hand of egalitarianism writ large into both our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and play fair with not only the people in our own country, but people around the world?

 

That "all men are created equal" to these numbnuts nimrods means that they all turn to the same white ash when incinerated by a weapon no one has any business having?

 

Yes, I'm aware that American exceptionalism is posited to mean that our values, of equality, of democracy, of opportunity for all, are superior to the constructs, concepts, and conceits that had ever been put forth before.

 

That was 235 years ago. What have we done for us lately?

 

I submit that we, in our hubris, have caused the world not only to envy us, but to despise us just as the little rich girl in your neighborhood is despised every time she trots out a new bicycle or a fur coat, for her conspicuous consumption.

 

I submit that we, in our humility, should dial it down a notch and start repudiating some of these masterful marvels we've unleashed on an unready planet. In our egalitarian spirit, we owe it to the world to try to coax the genie back into the bottle. It can't happen, I know that, but we can try, and the closer we get to shoving him back in the bottle and putting a cork in it, the safer the world will be.

 

Let's turn that exceptionalism into a show of grace.

Game, Set, And (Almost) Match

With a victory on healthcare firmly in his back pocket, and embarassing the crap out of the GOP who thought they had it lock, stock, and barrel, wither Barack Obama?

 

For one thing, despite our grousing about Congress and the Democratic leadership, he owes a few chits from the healthcare reform battle, and he will have to mend a few fences for Congresscritters back home, but the news for Dems this year is looking better and better.

 

That said, there are landmines out there:

 

1) Justice John Paul Stevens - Republicans have already made it clear they will be obstructionist...gee, what a shock! An avowed and confirmed liberal is leaving the bench and rather than give it a pass, the Republicans have decided to try to move the court further to the Fascist, errr, I mean, right! While Stevens hasn't given a date certain beyond 2012, the sense between the lines is that this retirement may come as early as this summer. Before the midterm elections, forcing a Senatorial spectacle, something Obama really doesn't need. His options would be limited: either fight a nasty fight over an avowed liberal to replace Stevens' ideology, or choose a warm body that Republicans can't put up that much of a fuss over.

 

I have a suggestion that solves both aspects: Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo. It would be hard to pin him as a true-blue liberal when he is personally pro-life (altho supporting choice for women,) but he's old enough (nearing 80) that his service to the bench would be short in duration.

 

2) Immigration reform - This is the real trap for Obama, but one he can sidestep in the short term. Immigration reform is the most polarizing issue on the national political landscape after healthcare reform. The Teabaggers are licking their lips...er, maybe that's an image you don't need...in anticipation of letting the racist-freak flag fly. Democrats are running scared because on the one hand, a significant bloc of their new-found strength is the Hispanic vote and on the other, immigration reform that doesn't include strong penalties for illegal immigration will rally Teabaggers and allies, as well as some normally perfectly liberal people who see immigration as yet another pool of people taking advantage of a bountiful society.

 

My suggestion: duck and weave. This is not a fight you need to take on until after November, despite the gathering momentum. If you could delay healthcare for over a year, as unfair as this may be, you can delay taking up immigration until the end of this year. John McCain needs this issue, so maybe throwing him a bone in exchange for his help on the Teabaggers would make a little sense, but don't risk your Congressional majority over this. Not until you run for re-election and can take the heat off them in 2012.

 

3) Jobs - There was desperate good news on jobs last week, in that the jobs report was very positive, based on the hiring of temporary census workers. Obama needs momentum in this direction, and while he's actually lost fewer jobs in his first year than Reagan did in his, the perception is strong that bankers came first. Obama needs a big win here.

 

Fortunately, Obama has a little political cover on this one: no one wants to see unemployed Americans, no matter how desperate they are for power.

 

4) Financial reforms - This, I think, will be Obama's next stump speech topic. He can paint any opposition as anathemic to the American people, and simultaneously distance himself from the dance he had to do after Bush's bailout in 2008. The GOP will be painted into a corner, and he picks up an easy win.

 

Come November, the American people will want to see a government that works. They are less concerned with ideology so long as they see legislators earning their pay and keeping the problems of Americans front and center. We're an adventurous group when the chips are down, and I suspect that if Obama can reel off a few wins in a row this spring and summer, the 2010 elections will be seen less as a referendum on the direction the country is going and more as an endorsement of how fast its getting there.

Nobody Asked Me, But...

1) Of course, yesterday was April Fools Day. And Google pulled one of its better pranks.

2) An expansion to 96 teams??? It's hard enough filling a bracket out now!

3) The best car in the world, as selected by the jury of the New York Auto Show. And you can't buy it in the US.

4) The March jobs report is coming out this morning. Projections call for a growth in jobs. Perhaps November won't be the Democratic bloodbath people were worried about after all.

5) Obama sure seems to think so. I like a man who can hand out sarcasm with a smile.

6) And if you need further proof...

7) The Teabaggers are running out of steam.

8) Why is your Internet access so s-l-o-w? Hey, blame the not-free market! It's funny how so many right-wingers grouse about socialism and how the free market solves all problems, but then fail to make the connection that, in the United States, there is no free market, so we may as well have socialism.

9) His name alone should have been a clue.

10) Thank you, Jesus.

Explosive boobs

Hm, I didn't think Swedes needed breast implants...

For Your April Fool's Celebrations

 

Unpaid Spanish air hostesses strip in protest

 

Oh. Wait. That's a true story!

 

And They Call Liberals "Slackers"...

...but it turns out the uberpatriot right-wing Teabaggers are the ones who seem to have lots of time on their hands.

 

And with good reason!

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — When Tom Grimes lost his job as a financial consultant 15 months ago, he called his congressman, a Democrat, for help getting government health care.

Then he found a new full-time occupation: Tea Party activist. [...]

Mr. Grimes is one of many Tea Party members jolted into action by economic distress. At rallies, gatherings and training sessions in recent months, activists often tell a similar story in interviews: they had lost their jobs, or perhaps watched their homes plummet in value, and they found common cause in the Tea Party’s fight for lower taxes and smaller government.

Um, you'll notice some of the rather intriguing notes here: lost his job in January, 2009, based on the Bush failures in financial oversight; called his Democratic congressman to get Medicare; turns traitor on the same government when things don't work out so well for him, along with millions of other people who have had problems finding a job and paying for medical care, but who DON'T act treasonously.

PS Grimes receives Social Security now. But hey, Big Government is the problem, not the solution!

In the 1930s and '40s, people appropriately looked to the government for a hand out and a hand up. This is as it should be. Government should be the last thing between a citizen and starvation or death. End of discussion. For all its wonder, the free market is notoriously brutal when it comes to the individual. Agglomerations of money and power create pockets of inequity, and it is into these pockets of inequity that people fit rather nicely.

I'll get back to that in a minute, but I wanted to share something else from the article: the hatred of right-wing media and how its influenced this yahoos:

“Even if I wanted to stop, I just can’t,” said Diana Reimer, 67, who has become a star of the effort by FreedomWorks, a Tea Party group, to fight the health care overhaul. “I’m on a mission, and time is not on my side.”

A year ago, Ms. Reimer’s husband had been given a choice — retire or be fired. The couple had been trying to sell their split-level home in suburban Philadelphia to pay off some debt and move to a small place in the city.

But real estate agents told them the home would sell for about $40,000 less than they paid 19 years ago — not enough to pay off their mortgage.

Then Ms. Reimer saw a story about the Tea Party on television. “I said, ‘That’s it,’ ” she recalled. “How can you get this frustration out, have your voices heard?”

She liked that the Tea Party was patriotic, too. “They said the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the national anthem,” she said.

Right. It's true saying the Pledge of Allegiance is free and so is singing the same damned song they sing before wrestling matches and demolition derbies.

Both of which demean a national anthem, I should add. But think about it: she's in the most dire, desperate straits she can imagine, about to lose her home, her husband's out of work (and presumably now collecting Social Security, as is Ms Reimer), and the best she can do is...turn to a bunch of angry old people?

That hardly seems to be a rational decision to make. I can understand it, though. You work and struggle all your life to put together a family and maybe a little nest egg for retirement, and you figure you can sell your house when the time is right and you'll make back your investment plus a little extra.

The American dream. And it all collapses under the weight of the same free market that enticed you in with the promise of, well, living the American dream. Anger is understandable, and if you're an idiot, you blame the people who are trying to help cushion the blows at the expense of perhaps not living as volatile an existence as you have. You feel entitled to more, and rather than blame the people who have taken it all away from you, you blame the people who tried to help you keep it.

Which brings me back around to the other point I want to make here: this is neither the first, the worst, or the last banking-based crisis we will experience in America.

Free Speech TV is showing an incredible documentary this month called Life On The Edge Of A Bubble, which posits that the economic cycle is designed to create bubbles and bursts cyclically every twenty years or so, and there is nothing in the current system that will stop it. From the 1700s forward, the program traces the various market expansions and contractions, with particular emphasis on the United States since 1776 (you can watch part 1 here. It's twenty minutes well spent.)

Look, the Reimers and Mr. Grimes are not unique. Even the most intelligent people in history have gotten caught up in speculative bubbles. For example, Isaac Newton invested 7000 pounds in the South Sea Bubble, doubling his money, and then plowed the entire sum back in, only to lose all of it plus an additional 20,000 pounds.

Historically speaking the South Sea Trading bubble is probably the closest analogy to our current situation: Too big to fail, it went on a buying spree, snapping up national debts with the promise of 6% return. It then "collateralized" this debt by taking itself public and selling shares on the open market. It was "can't miss" investing, except, well, it missed.

There's a sucker born every minute, and someone pops up to bleed them dry. I won't get into the gruesome details (these folks do). Suffice it to say that, if one of the three brightest men in history could be had, then anyone can be had.

It was a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff lick his lips. It started with good intentions, saving England, and ended destroying a generation.

Just like the current mortgage schemes. Human history is rife with stories of greed and stupidity, and the one factor the markets cannot work out in their derivatives and calculus is stupidity and greed.

Indeed, with the advent of computing power, markets are designed to feed off those emotions, which create inefficiencies that programmers can spot and exploit. Expect these market busts to come more and more frequently.

And expect more and more heartbreaking stories like the Reimers and the Grimes. Our job as liberals is to educate these people to the real enemy.