Monthly Archives: October 2009

An Old Dog Learns A New Trick?

Senator Arlen Specter today called for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act in Huffington Post reports The New York Times.

The time has come to repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Enacted 13 years ago when the idea of same sex marriage was struggling for acceptance, the Act is a relic of a more tradition-bound time and culture.

Representative Joe Sestak, Specter’s primary opponent, was quick to point out Specter strongly supported the Defense of Marriage Act back in ’96 as well as was a supporter of a constitutional amendment to make marriage  . . . you know . . . a hetero thing.

Is this just political opportunism or is this a come to Jesus moment or a combination of both?

Something To Chew On

With the latest Gallop Poll out that Obama’s approval rating is at a “dismal” 53%, Republicans and media hacks are beginning to declare the end of the Obama Presidency. Media Matters puts this little spin on Obama’s approval rating:

Not that anyone cares, but in October 1981, Ronald Reagan’s job approval rating stood at almost the exact same point as Obama’s today. And this was after Reagan enjoyed a huge spike in popularity following an assassin’s attempt on the president’s life.

[snip]

In other words, Obama is on the exact job approval path as Ronald Reagan, whom most Republicans and journalists claim to be among the most successful, and popular, presidents of the last half-century. The only twist is that for Obama, this is all very bad news. The press harps on the dip in Obama’s job approval rating since the spring, but remains silent on the fact that Reagan’s polling looked exactly the same.

F U Joe Lieberman

Joe Lieberman announces that he may filibuster the health care reform bill with the Republicans because he doesn’t like it:

“I told Senator Reid that I’m strongly inclined–i haven’t totally decided, but I’m strongly inclined–to vote to proceed to the health care debate, even though I don’t support the bill that he’s bringing together because it’s important that we start the debate on health care reform because I want to vote for health care reform this year. But I also told him that if the bill remains what it is now, I will not be able to support a cloture motion before final passage. Therefore I will try to stop the passage of the bill.”

Personally I think Lieberman is actually maneuvering, trying to get some concession out of Harry Reid. I hope Harry Reid is prepared to play hardball with the so-called moderates. Why is it even an issue that a Democratic bill get a vote with a 60-seat supposed Democratic caucus?

Silly Democrats, Tricks Are For GOPers

In Connecticut where it is more rare to meet a Republican than in Delaware, the CT GOP is up to their Lee Atwater in dirty tricks, reports the Hartford Advocate. The Democrats lead the Republicans in the state House, 114-27, and the state Senate, 24-12, thought it would be a good idea to create Twitter accounts in the names of 33 state Democratic elected officials. Twitter shut down the accounts after being notified of the impersonations.

The Connecticut GOP State Chair said, “I’m not quite sure what the issue is, other than that the Democrats were successful in stopping free speech.”

A Twitter spokesperson — yes, that is an actual job, maybe — said, “A person may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse or deceive others. … Impersonation is against our terms unless it is a parody. The standard for defining parody is, ‘Would a reasonable person be aware that it’s a joke?’ ”

h/t Wonkette

The Wise Antonin Scalia Speaks

Supreme Court Justice and model for Republican judges Antonin Scalia:

In an appearance at the University of Arizona, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia “said he likely would have dissented from the historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that declared school segregation illegal and struck down the system of ‘separate but equal’; public schools,” the East Valley Tribune reports.

“He said that decision, which overturned earlier precedent, was designed to provide an approach the majority liked better.”

“I will stipulate that it will,” Scalia said. But he said that doesn’t make it right.

Scalia doesn’t get to pretend anymore that he’s all about adhering to precedent. The conservative wing of the court has overturned many, many precedents including ones on abortion and gun rights. The conservative wing is set to make a huge change to campaign finance laws. Scalia is a judicial activist.

Scalia is still a scumbag but it appears he was misquoted:

As I suspected, Justice Scalia did not say he would have dissented in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. The newspaper account is incorrect and took his remarks out of context. The author of the article, Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services, owes Justice Scalia an apology.

And I apologize for quoting this incorrect article in my original post.

Here is the video of the event:

At 23:45 Justice Scalia is clearly misquoted. He says that he stands with Justice Harlan, who dissented in Plessy v. Ferguson. He argues that the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits racial discrimination.

Red States, Blue States – Who Gets The Green

Take a look at the chart below.  The Commonwealth Fund has released its 2009 state health care scorecard.

cf_heatlh_09_map_f9f0f.JPG

Notice anything interesting.  A whole lot of Red States (you know, the ones threatening to opt out of the Public Option) don’t score so well on health care.

Since I’m in a charty mood, let’s look at another one…

fed_spending_by_state_10_5d594_6bff7.jpg

Hmm… more interesting figures.  Perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the secessionist talk since it appears that Red States need Blue States more than Blue States need them.  And I can’t help but think, if this data were reversed, how quickly Republicans/Conservatives would label Blue States Welfare States.

Crooks and Liars breaks it all done.  (Go on, you lazy clickers!  Clink on the link and read the whole thing.)

My favorite line, and one worth considering, given all the chest-thumping when it comes to opting out of the Public Option, is this…

Will they put blue state money where their red state mouths are?

Another Poll from The Fix

As we all know, Gov. Jack Markell won the Fix’s Most Underrated Governor poll last week. This week, The Fix is asking who the nation’s most overrated governor is. The choices are Ed Rendell (D-Pa.), Charlie Crist (R-Fla.), Mitch Daniels (R-Ind.), Martin O’Malley (D-Md.), Rick Perry (R-Texas) and Brian Schweitzer (D-Mont.).

I’ve already put in my vote for Perry, how about you?

Remember vote early and vote often.

Congratulations All Around for Fisker

The press conference/Pep rally for the announcement that the Boxwood Rd. auto plant has just concluded.  We will now refer to the plant as the Fisker plant.  I am still in a state of shock.  It was a tour de force of Delaware politicos.  Huge kudos are in order for Governor Markell for his attention to this issue and for putting together this event.  Getting Joe Biden was the perfect touch.

Some key points:

  • Joe Biden still has it
  • Delawareonline may not have a future as a newspaper, but as a broadcaster they rock
  • Jack Markell knows how to woo businesses
  • Combining this with the smart grid announcement today by President Obama will position Delaware in the catbird seat (remember Willett Kempton? He’s back…)
  • Geeks are cool again
  • Fast cars don’t have to burn through gas at a rate of 10mpg
  • Healthcare reform is essential to bringing this economy back from the brink

If you missed it, don’t sweat it.  Here it is.  Watch it and feel the goosebumps.

Tuesday Open Thread

What is there to look forward to on a Tuesday? A fresh, shiny new open thread that’s what. Also, Drinking Liberally on Thursday at the Homegrown Cafe in Newark!

Republican economist Bruce Bartlett has advice for the Republicans, not that they’ll take it. The advice is that the economy needs spending, not cuts:

According to the Council of Economic Advisers, as of August the actual budgetary effect of the February stimulus was to reduce revenues by $62.6 billion and raise spending by $88.8 billion. Of the spending, the vast bulk went to transfers such as extended unemployment benefits and aid to state and local governments, which may have prevented cuts in spending that would otherwise have occurred but probably didn’t do anything to increase spending. Only $16.5 billion in stimulus funds went to investment outlays for things such as public works. This is a trivial amount of money in a $14 trillion economy.

As if we needed further evidence that transfers have virtually no stimulative effect, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just issued a report on the 2008 tax rebate showing that only 30 percent of the money was spent; the rest was saved, thus providing no stimulus to short-run growth. (See also this CBO report and this new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research confirming this analysis.) On January 24, 2008, George W. Bush assured the country that a tax rebate was just the right medicine to prevent an economic downturn.

It continues to amaze me that no one on the left or right seems to have noticed that the essential factor causing the economic downturn is a decline in velocity: the number of times that money turns over in the economy, which is measured as the ratio of the money supply to GDP. In 2006 and 2007 this ratio was 1.9. I take that as normal. In 2008, velocity fell to 1.76 and currently is 1.69. (I divided end of year M2 into 4th quarter GDP; the latest figure is 2nd quarter GDP divided by end of June money supply.)

If velocity were 1.9 instead of 1.69, 2nd quarter GDP would have been $1.6 trillion higher. Therefore, no recession. The output gap would have simply disappeared. From this I conclude that a lack of spending in the economy is the central problem and the only policies that will help are those that increase spending – consumer spending, investment spending, net exports or government spending. How tax cuts would have helped – or at least the type of tax cuts advocated by Republicans – is a mystery to me.

Thank you Bruce. It looks like good advice for the Democrats, too. Go read the whole article if you can, it’s that good.

Also worth reading is TPM’s interview with Chuck Schumer about how the opt-out public option compromise came together and the White House role.

This evening I spoke with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who was in that infamous Thursday night meeting with President Obama and other Senate leaders–and who has been one of the most persistent advocates of a public option on Capitol Hill. As Schumer explains it, the disagreement between the White House and Senate wasn’t substantive so much as it was tactical: The White House had its doubts that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could really get 60 votes for a public option with an opt out for states.

“The President listened very carefully,” Schumer said in an interview moments ago. “He wanted to make sure that the strategy upon which we were embarking had the ability to carry through.”

Schumer has been at the center of the fight over the public option from the earliest days of the health care debate–always there to pull it back from the brink when it at times seemed on the verge of collapse. This situation was no different. After the Thursday meeting, four sources in different Democratic offices told me that the White House had suggested they believed a strategy of pursuing Sen. Olympia Snowe’s preferred compromise–a triggered public option–might be an easier path to 60 votes. In the end, though, Schumer and the rest of leadership seem to have prevailed upon President Obama that they’ve picked the right strategy.

“I think substantively the White House probably preferred a stronger public option than a trigger,” Schumer said. “We talked about this for a while in leadership and the White House wanted to hear our thoughts–and when they heard them they thought that this was the right strategy to get our caucus together.”

Again, this is from the progressive caucus coming together and collectively saying “no” to anything but a public option. There were at least 30 senators who signed a letter saying “no” to no public option.

Dodd Pushes for Credit Card Law Sooner Than Later

The House Financial Services Committee has passed legislation that will push up the start date of the credit card law from February 22nd to December 1st, reports The New York Times. The credit card law is an attempt to regulate the fees charged and other practices implemented by  credit card companies (let’s not call them banks) that some may label as unfair and predatory.

The credit card companies say that the recent activity of raising interest rates has nothing to do with the impending implementation of the credit card law. Yeah, right.

Republican In-fighting

What’s a liberal to do except watch as Republicans eat their own.  And I’m not even getting into the NY-23 race.

First we have Dobbs vs Rivera.

Rivera accuses Dobbs of “almost single-handedly responsible for creating, for being the architect of the young-Latino-as-scapegoat for everything that ails this country.”

And now Dobbs fires back:

DOBBS: I’m just still fuming over something that Geraldo Rivera said. I shouldn’t let — This guy is nothing but a fiction of his own imagination and a figment of whatever he sees in the mirror. But, I gotta tell you — the guy is so annoying. I should not let people get to me like this, but you know what? I’m starting to get short of patience with them. […]

Geraldo Rivera wouldn’t know a fact if it hit him in the rear end — and that would probably be an appropriate place if you wanted him to absorb the information. … This is the kind of vile stupidity and ignorance that he spews everywhere he goes.

Pass the popcorn, I have nothing to do but sit back and enjoy the fight.  Also, might I point out, I agree with both men’s statements.  Victim runs deep.

And speaking of victims…

South Florida Republicans held a weekly meeting at a gun range, shooting at targets including cut-outs of a Muslim holding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

The GOP candidate to replace U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz fired at a full-body silhouette with “DWS” written next to its head. […]

Robert Lowry, who’s vying for Wasserman Schultz’s seat, initially described his target as a joke. Minutes later, he called it a mistake.

Others refused to apologized [sic] for the Southeast Broward Republican Club event, featuring assault rifles and handguns. A conservative activist said they should stand up for their beliefs in the heavily Democratic county.

Before I go on, could someone explain to me how shooting at a target identified as your political opponent equates to standing up for your beliefs?  And isn’t it this mentality that makes sane people uneasy with the sudden trend of bringing guns to Health Care rallies?  Hey, I’m just connecting the dots.  And while the words and actions are the protected, the message is clear.   Democrats and Muslims are fair game, and pretending to shoot them is simply standing up for your beliefs.

But the story gets better.

Republican activist Ed Napolitano, who runs the club where the target practice occurred is now claiming he was “pushed out” of all his party positions.

While he’s stepping away from the party, Napolitano said today he’s not ending his political activism. “I’m not going to be going away. You’re still going to see me around.”

He expressed frustration with Republican Party leadership, which he said doesn’t stand by and defend volunteer Republican activists – like himself – when they’re attacked.

“The leadership in the Republican Party is lacking in courage, and they do not stand by their people,” Napolitano said. “We’re volunteers. We volunteer our time and we volunteer our money. They’re there to facilitate us. We’re not there to facilitate them. They act like we’re their servants.”

Forget about the stalker-esque comment for a minute, and focus on yet another split.  This guy isn’t angry with an individual, he’s furious with the entire party.

Which begs the question… can the GOP rein in their base without losing them?  I’m thinking, no.  I’m also thinking that their 20% ranking might not look so bad in a few months when they hit 15%.

Another fissure is Jane Hall citing Glenn Beck as one of the reasons she left FOX.  True to form, Beck ups the crazy language:

BECK: Well, don’t let the door hit you on the ass when you leave. I’m going to miss you, I am, whatever your name is. My language is scary! Since when did language become scary? Boy, I put a lot of that language in books. Maybe we should gather all those books together and burn them as well. Because there is language in there. I wouldn’t want to scare anyone. Read our Founding Fathers. You want scary language, read the Founding Fathers. We haven’t even gotten to the scary language yet.

Can you imagine any of these people living next door to you?