You Have A Funny Definition Of Victory

My inbox has received more than a few e-mails touting the Senate Dems’ big “victory” yesterday. Seems they were finally able to pass the FMAP extension which gave states money for Medicaid and prevented teacher layoffs. [Full disclosure: what really passed was some procedural bullshit which clears the way for the bill's passage, yada yada.]

Amazingly, it’s another one of those bills Republicans have been blocking for no earthly reason save to be dicks. The Democrats had to weaken the package until the usual suspects, the two Senators from Maine, agreed to vote Aye. And there was much rejoicing across the internet.

Here’s how the bill passed:

The two moderate Republicans were drawn to support the measure after Democratic leaders scaled back the measure from $24 billion to $16.1 billion and provided offsets for the entire cost of the legislation, which includes $10 billion for education programs to prevent teacher layoffs.

For liberals, the offsets came at a price: Almost $12 billion of the $26.1 billion tab is covered by cutting food stamp benefits to low-income Americans beginning in 2014. 

Food stamps. We paid for preventing teacher layoffs and Medicaid cuts by cutting food stamps.

Fuck you very much.

This isn't a victory, it's a tragedy. Quit telling me to be happy! Own up to the sorry state of the modern American legislative process! Teachable moments, people! Hell, point fingers if you want: it's perfectly okay to say, "Hey, this is what your Republican Party represents: taking food from needy families to pay for teachers and Medicaid." Last time I checked it was an election year, and aren't these the same assholes refusing to budge on letting the Bush tax cuts expire? Hello?

I know I’ve been a bit of a downer lately but it makes me nuts to get e-mails trumpeting the Senate’s “bold step forward” when I know better. Can’t we please be honest with ourselves for crying out loud?

Once again I’m being told a shit sandwich is filet mignon. It’s wearing thin, people. I know it’s been tough slogging, and I know this is a battle we very nearly didn’t win. I'm not saying it shouldn't have passed at all. But let's not pop the champagne corks. You are paying for teachers and state Medicaid by cutting food stamps. This is not a high-five moment. This is a moment to stand up and say, “we were forced to make a terrible choice today because Republicans have their priorities messed up.”

I mean for crying out loud, people. If the Republicans insist on being dicks then at least make them own it.

Zach Wamp Gets Colbert'd

And Basil Marceaux rides the late night comedy circuit to greater glory. Dang I wish I could stay up this late:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Republican Gubernatorial Primary Battle Watch '010 - Basil Marceaux.com
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

Nashville Is Hell

And when I say "hell" I do mean that in the Hieronymous Bosch sense of the word. Holy mother of all flaming cauldrons but it’s hot out there: 8 pm as I write this and it’s 95 degrees! Daytime temps exceeding 100 degrees until Thursday. Every time I go outside it's like being flayed by a flaming cat o' nine tails.

You know, I grew up spending my summers in Palm Desert and Joshua Tree. I know what 125 degrees feels like. My mom spent her summers in Death Valley. We are hardy people where heat is concerned; when you grow up knocking around places named Furnace Creek and Badwater, you’re not a thermometer wimp.

But this ... this ... this is something else altogether. This is quite literally what it must feel like to be sealed in a plastic bag and stuck in the microwave on high for 5 minutes.

And what the fuck is this crawling across my lawn?

I Named Him Pestilence

It looked like the mother of all wasps, as big as my thumb, with thick yellow stripes on its fat body. It was crawling around in the grass like it was looking for its wallet.

I also have a platoon of ants marching across my driveway. They came out of a crack in the pavement I didn't even know existed, a slowly spreading stain which, when I bent down to examine it, revealed that ... Oh my God! IT'S ALIVE!!!! By this morning it was gone. I guess the heat has brought all the nasties out of hiding; even they know when it's this hot, it's time to head somewhere else.

And to make matters even worse, the pump on my pond blew and the replacement I ordered is a lemon. The motor is jammed, so until a replacement comes via UPS, my poor fish are slowly boiling alive in water that feels like a piping hot bathtub.

Add to this the loveliness that is our wackadoodle contingent racing each other to the bottom to be the Republican candidate for X, Y, Z office and all I can say is: beam me up.

I am definitely not doing another summer in Nashville. No way, no how.

This sucks.

We Are Better Than This

Seriously, liberals? Burn a Confederate Flag Day? Please tell me this is a joke. Please tell me this is satire (and if it is, it's very bad satire).

In case it's not, though, I think I’m going to sit this one out. Not because I have any love for the Confederate flag but because this kind of protest is a) inflammatory (no pun intended); and b) counterproductive.

Here’s a better way to annoy conservatives on Sept. 12:

• Register other liberals to vote. You know where to find them.
• Canvass for your favorite liberal candidate or cause.
• Host a house party, a letter-writing party, a fundraiser or a discussion group to support your favorite candidate or cause.
• Gather some friends, make anti-war signs, and stand on a prominent street corner.
• Organize a community teach-in about an issue you care about: healthcare, climate change, etc.
• Plant a peace garden or community vegetable garden.
• Organize friends, coworkers, or a church or community group for a service project: pick up trash in a park, hand out sandwiches and bottled water to the homeless, help your neighbors winterize their homes. Winter is just around the corner.

I’m sure you can think of plenty of others. Look, folks. I know you’re angry but that’s no reason to stoop to the Tea Baggers’ level here. The one thing that characterizes the Teanuts is that they stand for nothing save anger. They have no ideas, no policy, no platform save anger.

We’re better than that. While they rally with their misspelled signs and vent their hate, we can turn our anger into action.

You know how to annoy a conservative? Make sure they lose the next election.

Best Worst Campaign Spokesman Ever

Okay I confess I haven’t paid too close attention to the Tennessee congressional races. It’s not like I’m voting in the Republican primary, and near as I can tell from the TV ads, they’re all jumping over themselves to prove they’re the real conservative and everyone else in the field is a fucking hippie poseur.

But George Flinn’s TV ads just crack me up. He’s running for John Tanner’s seat in Tennessee’s 8th Congressional district. His use of wingnut dog whistles are hilarious, like how he throws around the names “Obama” and “Pelosi” -- no need for titles like “President” or “Speaker Of The House,” thank you; such niceties are reserved for real honest patriots not socialist anti-American trash -- and I love how we’re reminded over and over again how he created jobs jobs jobs, even though no one explains how many jobs a radiologist who also owns a bunch of radio and TV stations (most of them out of state) can create.

But the absolute best part of George Flinn’s ads has to be recurring “Southern folksy” guy Otis Griffin. Yes, his name is Otis and you can see him in this Flinn ad which has been playing non-stop in Nashville. The money quote comes at the very end:



I’d like to know what time portal George Flinn’s campaign pulled Otis Griffin from, perhaps one leading straight to the set of the 1960s era Andy Griffith Show. I just want to give Otis Griffin a hug when he says of Flinn:

”Just give him a chance! That’s all the man wants, just give him a chance!”

Hmm ... maybe not the most winning campaign slogan, but perhaps that's just me. Griffin also has a starring role in this ad, which is maybe even more hilarious than the first one.

I did a web search and learned Griffin has penned a few homespun columns for the Covington Leader; I can't read them, unfortunately, because I'm not a subscriber, but the teasers give you an idea.

I’ve asked a few West Tennessee folks if they know who Otis Griffin is and they don’t, which is a shame, because someone with this down home Southern charm needs to ditch the dweeby George Flinn and run for office himself, or at the very least be a spokesman for Cracker Barrel. He’s certainly more articulate than Basil Marceaux.

American Morans, TNDP Edition

[UPDATE]:

The TNDP regrets the error:



-------------------------------

This cracked me up. From a TNDP e-mail:



Yeeesh.

(h/t, Post Politics)

This Day In War

Twenty years ago today:

On August 2, 1990, Iraqi troops led by dictator Saddam Hussein invaded the oil-producing nation of Kuwait. Like Noriega in Panama, Hussein had been a US ally for nearly a decade. From 1980 to 1988, he had killed about 150,000 Iranians, in addition to at least 13,000 of his own citizens. Despite complaints from international human rights group, however, the Reagan and Bush administrations had treated Hussein as a valuable ally in the US confrontation with Iran. As late as July 25 - a week before the invasion of Kuwait - US Ambassador April Glaspie commiserated with Hussein over a "cheap and unjust" profile by ABC's Diane Sawyer, and wished for an "appearance in the media, even for five minutes," by Hussein that "would help explain Iraq to the American people."

Ah yes, good times:

Hey whatever happened to Rumsfeld, anyway?

Not long after, America was at war with Iraq -- our first great, glorious war against Saddam Hussein. Let’s rewind the tape and recall how Saddam was repositioned from BFF to Evildoer in the mind of the American public in just a few short months:

In fact, the most emotionally moving testimony on October 10 came from a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, known only by her first name of Nayirah. According to the Caucus, Nayirah's full name was being kept confidential to prevent Iraqi reprisals against her family in occupied Kuwait. Sobbing, she described what she had seen with her own eyes in a hospital in Kuwait City. Her written testimony was passed out in a media kit prepared by Citizens for a Free Kuwait. "I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital," Nayirah said. "While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where . . . babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die."

Three months passed between Nayirah's testimony and the start of the war. During those months, the story of babies torn from their incubators was repeated over and over again. President Bush told the story. It was recited as fact in Congressional testimony, on TV and radio talk shows, and at the UN Security Council. "Of all the accusations made against the dictator," MacArthur observed, "none had more impact on American public opinion than the one about Iraqi soldiers removing 312 babies from their incubators and leaving them to die on the cold hospital floors of Kuwait City."

At the Human Rights Caucus, however, Hill & Knowlton and Congressman Lantos had failed to reveal that Nayirah was a member of the Kuwaiti Royal Family. Her father, in fact, was Saud Nasir al-Sabah, Kuwait's Ambassador to the US, who sat listening in the hearing room during her testimony. The Caucus also failed to reveal that H&K; vice-president Lauri Fitz-Pegado had coached Nayirah in what even the Kuwaitis' own investigators later confirmed was false testimony.

Hill & Knowlton is one of America’s oldest PR firms, responsible for countering scientific claims about tobacco’s adverse health effects and other corporate propaganda. In 1990 they represented the government of Kuwait (for more, see the "Citizens for a Free Kuwait” hoax.
)

That's pretty incredible client service for a PR firm: getting America to go to war for your client! I mean, how awesome is that?

And for arranging false testimony before Congress the PR firm of Hill & Knowlton received ... sanctions? A fine? A slap on the wrist? How about some government PR contracts? Ding ding ding! Thank you for playing!

Meanwhile, Lauri Fitz-Pegado served as one of the Obama campaign's foreign policy experts, though thankfully not for the Middle East. She is now a lobbyist for the Livingston Group. Her latest coup--pardon the pun:

In 2008, Fitz-Pegado was part of Livingston's team for the non-profit Council for a Democratic Iran, which paid the firm $300,000 in the third quarter of 2008 alone.

If America goes to war with Iran I think we all know who we have to thank.

I think it’s important to remember that this shit has been going on for decades. Who’s pulling your strings, America? Why do you keep letting them?

Woefully Deficient In Leadership & Ingenuity

[UPDATE]:

What I've been saying, courtesy of Krugman.

----------------------------

I have been meaning to do a post on our incredibly stupid U.S. Senate which failed to do anything on climate and energy legislation, and then Robert Redford went ahead and did it for me. Man, that is one awesome rant. Go read it now.

Here’s the part that got me:

In the middle of the biggest oil disaster in American history, the hottest summer on record, and a war with an oil-rich nation, this group of cynics blocked efforts to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation. This was the moment brimming with potential for new jobs, a more robust economy and cleaner environment -- this bill would have guided America down a profoundly safer and more productive path.



So therefore, the Senate is left to vote on an anemic energy bill of such remarkably limited scope that it could have been passed during the Bush era.

Compare this to the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, and the “societal punch” it packed. The contrast is striking. Our cowardly U.S. Senate caved to Big Oil, even as oil gushed out of the sea floor and coastal regions reeled from the loss of their tourism and fishing industries.

How far we’ve fallen in 40 years. I’m angry, and so is Redford. He writes:

The elected officials who steered this turnaround have abdicated their responsibility to uphold our nation's best interests, and have shown us, and the world, an America woefully deficient in both leadership and ingenuity.

Tough medicine, but true. And the truth is, we've been woefully deficient in these areas for years. It is, in fact, a reference to a larger, far more nefarious decline in American public life: our inability to solve our national problems.

For this discussion I direct readers to this heartbreaking Financial Times article, which I found courtesy of John Cole at Balloon Juice. It’s a depressing read, and I hate to start the week off on such a downer note, but it’s also terribly enlightening. For starters:

Nowadays in America, you have a smaller chance of swapping your lower income bracket for a higher one than in almost any other developed economy – even Britain on some measures. To invert the classic Horatio Alger stories, in today’s America if you are born in rags, you are likelier to stay in rags than in almost any corner of old Europe.

[...]

The barometer is economic. But the anger is human and increasingly political. “I have this gnawing feeling about the future of America,” says Spence. “When people lose the sense of optimism, things tend to get more volatile. The future I most fear for America is Latin American: a grossly unequal society that is prone to wild swings from populism to orthodoxy, which makes sensible government increasingly hard to imagine. Look at the Tea Party. People think it came from nowhere. While I don’t agree with their remedies, most Tea Party members are middle-class Americans who have been suffering silently for years.”

As for how we got here, the article presents several ideas: globalization, outsourcing, automation.

Or:

Then there are those, such as Paul Krugman, The New York Times columnist and Nobel prize winner, who blame it on politics, notably the conservative backlash which began when Ronald Reagan came to power in 1980, and which sped up the decline of unions and reversed the most progressive features of the US tax system.

Fewer than a tenth of American private sector workers now belong to a union. People in Europe and Canada are subjected to the same forces of globalisation and technology. But they belong to unions in larger numbers and their healthcare is publicly funded. More than half of household bankruptcies in the US are caused by a serious ­illness or accident.

I can buy that 20+ years of conservatism has caused our economic problems, but has it made us unable to solve them? Well, it’s certainly responsible for today's political paralysis in Washington, where Republicans operate in lockstep to block everything and anything in an effort to sink a Democratic President.

But the Democrats don’t get off scott-free. They were handed clear majorities in the last two elections -- the mandate Bush pretended he’d had. The fact is, they’ve failed to lead. They’ve failed to engage the American public. That we can’t pass climate and clean energy legislation in the midst of the worst oil spill in American history isn’t the fault of Republicans, it’s the fault of Democrats, including the President, for failing to make this a priority.

And if we can’t do this, right now, I fear we won’t be able to do anything at all.

Tax Cuts Of The Wealthy, By The Wealthy, For The Wealthy

Bob Cesca cites the Wall Street Journal on letting the Bush tax cuts expire:



He writes:

It turns out that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire will only hurt people earning more than $300,000 per year. And it appears as if keeping the Bush tax cuts in place would force people earning $60-150,000 to pay slightly more.

Oh those poor Tea Baggers. Pwned again by their corporate overlords. You silly, silly fools.

(h/t, Libby Spencer)

Jane Austen's Fight Club

This cracked me up: