Daily Archives: November 8, 2011

Israel Leads – Who Will Follow?

On October 30th, the Israeli cabinet voted to shift the tax burden from the poor and middle class to the wealthy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet approved the taxation portion of the Trajtenberg report on Sunday, levying heavier taxes on both corporations and the extremely wealthy.

Earlier this month, the cabinet approved in principle the report by the Trajtenberg Committee for socioeconomic change, the result of a social protest movement which swept Israel all summer.

It seems as though Israelis of all shades were occupying the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities all summer to protest the inequality of only a few people controlling most of the wealth in the country. On August 6, over 300,000 Israelis took to the streets around the country.

Critics say their demands are unrealistic, especially when there is a deeper, global, economic crisis.

Others insist this is a battle for the soul and direction of Israel.

They say their “movement” is deliberately non-political. It is not about Israel and the Palestinians but normal Israelis concerned that their country is losing all sense of moral and collective responsibility.

Sound familiar?

Among the supporters of the movement is Hadash, which is an Israeli-Arab political party that holds 4 seats in the Knesset.

(NOTE: this is not a thread about Israeli-Palestinian issues. If you want to spout off about that, do it in an Open Thread. Off-topic comments will be moved).

If You Aren’t Reading Charles Pierce You’re Missing Out

Here are some highlights, but you need to read the whole article.

First, Mitt…

On Friday, Mitt Romney, the Republican frontrunner and a man who could be mugged for his wallet through the mail, and a man of such iron will that he wrote a book called No Apologies in which he changed positions on several issues between the hardcover and paperback editions, went before the Koch Brothers hobby-horse Americans for Prosperity banquet and bravely promised to do everything he could not to do anything he bravely promised to do when he was running in any of the several other political campaigns that have kept him from ever being “a professional politician.

Moving on to Gingrich…

“Think about going to McDonald’s,” Gingrich said. “We have no national hearings on fraud at McDonald’s. You show up and say, ‘I’d like a Quarter Pounder with Cheese.’ You give them money. They are happy. You are happy. If you open up your bag and there’s no Quarter Pounder with Cheese, you are unhappy.”

This is the “philosopher-politician” demonstrating his “mastery of policy matters.” I’m sorry, would you like to super-size your colonoscopy? Some day, volumes will be written about how Gingrich managed to get everyone in the Washington smart set to believe he is a public intellectual with actual ideas, and not just the guy at the club whose life gets changed for him every time he reads a new book.

The Beltway Press…

My god, Caligula died centuries too soon. Today, if he’d brought his horse into the Senate, some careerist Beltway journo would find that the horse had whinnied some “interesting new approaches” to our “entitlement crisis.” The horse would be on Meet the Press the following Sunday with David Gregory, who would ignore the fact that there is a fking horse sitting across the table from him and concentrate instead on something the horse had whinnied five years ago that seems to have been contradicted by something the horse whinnied the day before. And then Tom Brokaw would come on to mumble something about how horses were more politically savvy back in his day.

The man is simply brilliant… and clever.

There’s more.  Now… go read.  Consider it my gift to you!

Tuesday Open Thread [11.9.11]

It’s Election Day in Philadelphia, where Mayor Nutter will be reelected easily; in Ohio, where God willing the anti-worker SB 5 will be rejected soundly by he voters; in Kentucky, where Democratic Governor Beshear is expected to win in a landslide; in Mississippi, where there is a gubernatorial election to replace Haley Barbor and a vote on that evil yet stupid personhood amendment; as well as legislative races in Virginia and New Jersey. If you live in any of those places, you have no excuse not to vote.

You know what the title of Jerry Sandusky’s auto-biography is? Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story I am not joking.

Another poll confirms what we saw yesterday in Iowa. A new JMC Enterprises poll in Iowa shows Herman Cain and Mitt Romney tied at 20% each, with Newt Gingrich at 16%. The rest of the field is at 6% or below.

The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows Mitt Romney leading by 1 point nationally over Herman Cain, 28% to 27%, followed by Newt Gingrich at 13%, Ron Paul at 10% and Rick Perry at 10%. The remainder of the field received less than 5% support. In the same poll, President Obama leads Romney by six points, 49% to 43%, and tops Cain by 15 points, 53% to 38%.

Democrats in North Dakota score a recruiting coup, and the race to replace retiring Senator Kent Conrad is now a toss up to lean Democratic. Former Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp (D) has announced she will run, The Hill reports.

Paterno Needs To Leave In Disgrace

As the story of sexual abuse against children unfolds at Penn State I find myself wondering how Paterno and crew are still standing.  In fact, he’s holding his weekly press conference today.  Should be interesting.  Perhaps he’ll take a page out of Herman Cain’s book and scold the reporters.

Lawyers, Guns & Money breaks it down:

In any event Paterno did acknowledge in his grand jury testimony that he’s known since at least 2002 that Sandusky was a child molester, although incredibly enough now he’s even trying to walk back that admission. He testified that Mike McQueary told him he had seen Sandusky “fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy” in the PSU football locker room showers (McQueary testified that he saw Sandusky anally raping the child). Now in his statement Paterno is trying to get people to believe that he was told that his 58-year-old lifelong friend and co-worker was doing something “inappropriate” to a ten-year-old boy in a shower, but that he had no idea it was anything all that bad: certainly not bad enough to cause Paterno — by far the most powerful person in the PSU AD and arguably the most powerful person on campus — to wonder why the only thing that happened to Sandusky was that he was told not to bring the kids he was raping into the locker room any more (Sandusky retained all his access privileges to the campus until yesterday, and indeed was running football camps for young boys on Joe Paterno’s hallowed football field until two years ago).

Hmm… He testified that Mike McQueary told him he had seen Sandusky “fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy” in the PSU football locker room showers, but now says that he was told that his 58-year-old lifelong friend and co-worker was doing something “inappropriate” to a ten-year-old boy in a shower, but that he had no idea it was anything all that bad.

Perhaps Paterno could give us a list of “not all that bad” stuff a grown man does in a shower with a young boy.  Seriously, what the hell?  I’ve reached the conclusion, given the behavior of everyone involved who didn’t think calling the police was necessary, that molesting children wasn’t that big of a deal.

Time has more (including the the grand jury report):

The assistant (identified by the Harrisburg Patriot-News as current recruiting coordinator/wide receiver’s coach Mike McQueary) reported the incident to Paterno, but Paterno testified that the assistant left out the more graphic details. “It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the Grand Jury report,” Paterno said in a statement. “Regardless, it was clear that the witness saw something inappropriate involving Mr. Sandusky.” Paterno knew it was sexual in nature, according to the grand jury report.

Paterno then informed his boss, Curley, about the incident.  The prosecution did not charge Paterno with any crimes, and he will reportedly testify for the prosecution at Sandusky’s trial. “I did what I was supposed to with the one charge brought to my attention,” Paterno said.

Hey, he did what he was “supposed” to do.  Perhaps he should apply that philosophy now and resign… in total disgrace.

Smackdown – Round 2

In today’s main event, we find House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf knocking the white shoe polish off of St. Bodie Girl’s high heels.

The purpose of this letter is not to render judgment. I want to comment on what was said after the night in question. I was stunned to hear one of the GOP leaders, Eric Bodenweiser, go on the radio and proclaim that this kind of action was “great publicity for the Republican Party.”

He said quite a few things that morning that I found to be incredibly alarming. He made light of the physical altercation saying, “That’s how we settle things” in Sussex. Having been a police officer in our state for 25 years, that is not only unacceptable, but you have to wonder what kind of message he is sending to the kids of our county — if someone disagrees with your position, then just duke it out? We are better than that.

St. Bodie Girl has shown his true colors – that of a violent moron. I guess he thinks that the Sussex GOP is more manly because they take their disagreements outside to settle.

Then I read The News Journal article on Oct. 29 that said: “One GOP leader suggested Friday that Phillips should offer Christopher a deal: Give the sheriff what he seeks politically… in exchange for Christopher’s not pressing charges.” Also, “If I was the county councilman… right now I’d be looking to get this thing taken care of. I’d say, ‘Gee, Jeff, what is it going to take to get this going away?’ ‘Well, how about some training and certification for my deputies? What about some squad cars?’ ” said Eric Bodenweiser, chairman of the 37th District Republican committee, on a local talk radio show. “Sometimes business gets done this way.”

Yeah, St. Bodie Girl suggested, live from Jimmy’s Grill in Bridgeville, that Vance Phillips bribe the sheriff with new cars and training to “make this go away.”

We always knew that St. Bodie Girl was a bit crooked. But to publicly advocate for one elected official to bribe another is beyond belief. He has (had) plans to challenge Joe Booth again for the Senate seat next year. My guess is that St. Bodie Girl has shot himself in those high heels once again.