Boy, I Have Underestimated The Fun Factor

of the family values crowd here in South Carolina.

First we have our Governor exploring the joys of an open marriage and now we have his choice to head the S.C. Board of Education who, it appears, enjoys publishing erotica.

Hypocrisy in action, right here is South Carolina.


Tags
Republicans, Sex

Absolutely Situationaly Unaware

This is a perfect example of one of the many problems with the modern Republican party. To many of their thinkers are as dump as posts. One of the standard questions in polling is the 'is the country moving in the right direction'. In the last month a number of polls have presented us with the response.

Wall St Journal - Wrong Direction 76%
Bloomberg - Wrong Direction 84%
Newsweek - Wrong Direction 86%
Pew - Wrong Direction 86%

AP, CBS, CNN and other have similar numbers. It is clear that the American public, by an overwhelming percentage, are very dissatisfied with the direction our nation is headed.

Now listen to what online editor of the National Review had to say.

We're One Day Away from Changing America

[Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Obama said that a few ago in Florida. Am I the only one who doesn't want to change America in any fundamental way? Does that make me crazy? And alone?

Crazy? well based on much of her work, maybe; Alone, not at all, about 15% of the population are happy with the direction of the country. So she is not alone, but seeing a statement like this from a person who is supposed to be intimately involved in the daily public discourse is astounding.

How stupid and detached from reality do you have to be to say this? Even the Republican candidate try to run on a platform based on change. Yet she apparently is totally unaware of the massive dissatisfaction of the people of Americia with our Republican leadership.

Someone buy this lady a subscription to some media outlet other than Faux News, she needs to be exposed to truth and not dogma based fantasy.



Tags
Election 2008, Republicans, Stupidity

A Republican Does Good

I have to spend a moment praising Florida Governor Charlie Crist for doing the right thing and extending the hours of operation of Florida's early voting. The demand has been so great it has been overwhelming the system, it is good to see him making sure those who want to vote have a reasonable time doing so


Tags
Republicans, Vote

Vote Fraud, A Guilty Plea

This might be a bigger issue than I once thought. We now have a whole organization (actually at least 3) that admits that they conspired to illegally manipulate the vote.

And the best part is, it's not Acorn, it's not one, not two, but at least three branches of the Republican party.

An agreement announced today by Obama for America, the Republican National Committee, the Democratic National Committee, the Michigan Republican Party, the Michigan Democratic Party, the Macomb County Republican Party, the Macomb County Democratic Party, and plaintiffs Duane Maletski, Sharon Lopez, and Frances M. Zick protects the voting rights of foreclosure victims. The settlement acknowledges the existence of an illegal scheme by the Republicans to use mortgage foreclosure lists to deny foreclosure victims their right to vote. This settlement has the force of law behind it and ensures that Republicans cannot disenfranchise families facing foreclosure.

So the updated score those arrested or confessed to have committed election fraud (by party)

Republicans 2 (incidents, many more people)
Democrats 0

For those who actually fell for the Acorn hoo-haw and wonder about where it came from, I recommend you look into the term projection.


Tags
Election 2008, Fraud, Republicans

What Lovely People These Republicans Are

Check out this charming little bit from a GOP newsletter.

The latest newsletter by an Inland Republican women's group depicts Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama surrounded by a watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken, prompting outrage in political circles.

The October newsletter by the Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated says if Obama is elected his image will appear on food stamps -- instead of dollar bills like other presidents. The statement is followed by an illustration of "Obama Bucks" -- a phony $10 bill featuring Obama's face on a donkey's body, labeled "United States Food Stamps."

And listen to some of these folks.

Kinda disgusting aren't they.

Tags
Racism, Republicans

Republicans Now In Full Retreat

Just look at this; GOP ditches recruits to save incumbents.

Darren White and Erik Paulsen were prized Republican recruits, House candidates poised to be the new face of the GOP on Capitol Hill.

But as the two head into the homestretch of their campaigns, GOP operatives say they’ll probably have to win — or lose — on their own. The money national Republicans earmarked for White in New Mexico and for Paulsen in Minnesota will likely go instead to protect GOP incumbents who once looked like locks for reelection.

GOP Reps. John B. Shadegg of Arizona, Lee Terry of Nebraska, Henry Brown Jr. of South Carolina and Dan Lungren of California are all fighting for their political lives

The RNC is stuck in a life boat and the food is gone. They are now having to eat each other in order for a few to survive.

On average, I just don't see this as a long term winning strategy.

Tags
Election 2008, Republicans

So, What Did Go Wrong On Wall St.

How did out economy end up so screwed up.

Some of the dimmer bulbs on the right have tried to argue that is was a mid 90s change in mortgage law to make home mortgages more accessible to the underclasses. After a little research it was clear that this was absurd. First off, a great number of loans in these programs are over ten years old, and most of the mortgage failures were 5 or less years old. Second of all, there was never enough money in this market for it to greatly impact the system.

While it makes a great attack point for the right, like so many attack points from the right it is based on prejudice, racism and lies.

My view it is a number of factors were involved, that, in the end, come back to a failure in over-sight and regulation.

And this article makes it clear that my instinct was dead on.

Many events in Washington, on Wall Street and elsewhere around the country have led to what has been called the most serious financial crisis since the 1930s. But decisions made at a brief meeting on April 28, 2004, explain why the problems could spin out of control.

...

On that bright spring afternoon, the five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission met in a basement hearing room to consider an urgent plea by the big investment banks.

They wanted an exemption for their brokerage units from an old regulation that limited the amount of debt they could take on.


...

The five investment banks led the charge, including Goldman Sachs, which was headed by Henry M. Paulson Jr. Two years later, he left to become Treasury secretary.

A lone dissenter — a software consultant and expert on risk management — weighed in from Indiana with a two-page letter to warn the commission that the move was a grave mistake. He never heard back from Washington.

...

Mr. Goldschmid, an authority on securities law from Columbia, was a behind-the-scenes adviser in 2002 to Senator Paul S. Sarbanes when he rewrote the nation’s corporate laws after a wave of accounting scandals. “Do we feel secure if there are these drops in capital we really will have investor protection?” Mr. Goldschmid asked. A senior staff member said the commission would hire the best minds, including people with strong quantitative skills to parse the banks’ balance sheets.

...

In loosening the capital rules, which are supposed to provide a buffer in turbulent times, the agency also decided to rely on the firms’ own computer models for determining the riskiness of investments, essentially outsourcing the job of monitoring risk to the banks themselves.

Over the following months and years, each of the firms would take advantage of the looser rules. At Bear Stearns, the leverage ratio — a measurement of how much the firm was borrowing compared to its total assets — rose sharply, to 33 to 1. In other words, for every dollar in equity, it had $33 of debt. The ratios at the other firms also rose significantly.

...

The supervisory program under Mr. Cox, who arrived at the agency a year later, was a low priority. The commission assigned seven people to examine the parent companies — which last year controlled financial empires with combined assets of more than $4 trillion. Since March 2007, the office has not had a director. And as of last month, the office had not completed a single inspection since it was reshuffled by Mr. Cox more than a year and a half ago.

...

Drive to Deregulate

The commission’s decision effectively to outsource its oversight to the firms themselves fit squarely in the broader Washington culture of the last eight years under President Bush.

A similar closeness to industry and laissez-faire philosophy has driven a push for deregulation throughout the government, from the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency to worker safety and transportation agencies

...

Christopher Cox had been a close ally of business groups in his 17 years as a House member from one of the most conservative districts in Southern California. Mr. Cox had led the effort to rewrite securities laws to make investor lawsuits harder to file. He also fought against accounting rules that would give less favorable treatment to executive stock options.

...

Mr. Cox dismantled a risk management office created by Mr. Donaldson that was assigned to watch for future problems. While other financial regulatory agencies criticized a blueprint by Mr. Paulson, the Treasury secretary, that proposed to reduce their stature — and that of the S.E.C. — Mr. Cox did not challenge the plan,

It was the removal of restrictions, the lack of over-sight that created this mess, and the only real way to fix it is to put regkations back in place at once and then get back on the job with enforcement.

We have had to learn a lesson that will cost us into the trillions of dollars, lets hope our leadership is smart enough to learn it.





Tags
Economics, Regulation, Republicans

Kathleen Parker, Pot or Kettle?

This is to darn Funny, from The State's Op-Ed page.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a traitor and an idiot. Also, my mother should have aborted me and left me in a dumpster, but since she didn’t, I should “off” myself.

Those are just a few nuggets randomly selected from thousands of e-mails written in response to my column suggesting that Sarah Palin is out of her league and should step down.

Who says public discourse hasn’t deteriorated?

It seem that this right wing talking (writing) head had offended the base. She has looked at Palin and found her to be lacking, in about everything. She has gone on record asking her to resign from the ticket so that McCain could find a qualified candidate.

And she is shocked I tell you, shocked to her very soul by this outburst of hate, irrational anger and threats of violence.

the past few days have produced responses of a different order. Not just angry, but vicious and threatening.

...

The picture is this: Anyone who dares express an opinion that runs counter to the party line will be silenced. That doesn’t sound American to me, but Stalin would approve.

You have to wonder what has caused this type of outburst. How has our society fallen this low? Why are we unable to engage in civil discourse?

Well, how about we consider this, another Op_ed written Mrs. Parker about 5 years ago. This was about the Democrats running for President in 2003. So what did she talk about then (I have not tried to see if it was published by The State)?

Here's a note I got recently from a friend and former Delta Force member, who has been observing American politics from the trenches: "These bastards like Clark and Kerry and that incipient ass, Dean, and Gephardt and Kucinich and that absolute mental midget Sharpton, race baiter, should all be lined up and shot.

Yep, she is shocked when she is attacked, but fails to see how her own past actions, cheerleading partisan violence and promoting it to a national audience, is one of the key factors in the decline she now fears. She appears to think that this hate and vitriol is fine when aimed at others but when aimed at her, it's another matter.

The right wing talking heads have been working at this since the late 70s, creating a double standard for discussions. It has been very effective and about the only time that anyone on the right notices is when they are the target of the attack, and not the attacker.



Tags
Republicans, Violence

Since We Are Taking A Second Swing

(or third) at getting an emergency bail out in place and we have a couple a days to consider our options, I would like to add my voice to the mix.

I am one of those who is disgusted by the thought of bailing out this industry but I think we have little choice but to take some action. As I told a friend; It is like having a advanced case of gangrene in your leg. You can end up with two very unpleasant options, cut off the leg or die.

So it looks like we have to find a way to cut off the leg, but it doesn't mean we should not try to save as much as we can. So what is the smart way to fix this mess, but save as much as we can?

My first thought is; Why are we giving $700,000,000,000.00 to the same people who screwed up in the first place? Maybe the new bill should address this in some manner. It is possible to let the bad firms fail, but protect the overall credit markets? Keeping bad businesses open and bad business-persons in place is not smart and prior to giving money away this has to be looked at.

My second thought is; Why are we expecting oversight from the same people who let this happen on their watch? Maybe a few new regulators would not be a bad idea. Lets start with the man who's initial thought was: Yall, just give me $700,000,000,000.00 and bugger off, while I decide what to do with it. Anyone who thinks this is a rational reaction to a situation that occurred on his watch is not thinking clearly. This is another example of the Republican style of regulation and oversight biting middle America on the ass, and can not be allowed to continue.

My third thought is; Why are we expecting a better outcome after the bail-out when we have not changed the way the rules of the game are written. How about some real regulation, starting with a return to the rules in place in the mid 90s. Otherwise I think the end result is throwing good money after bad. A business's job it to make money, in any way it can, no matter what. The only boundaries that exist for them are the ones that society forces on them by rules and then enforcing the rules. For the last 30 years we have been removing the rules and over the last 7 years the Bush administration have simply refused to enforce the few rules left in place. This has to change or our efforts will make no long term difference.

These are not detailed solutions, simply a starting place on issues to address prior to giving the folks who paid them self's billions of dollars a year for losing trillions of dollars a year, another $700,000,000,000.00 to play with.




Tags
Bush Administration, Economics, Republicans

John McCain - A History of Fighting Regulation

And getting the American Taxpayer to pay for his mistakes

Another One Bites The Dust

This one hit close to home. I had friends who worked for WaMu when they had operations here.

As the debate over a $700 billion bank bailout rages on in Washington, one of the nation's largest banks — Washington Mutual Inc. — has collapsed under the weight of its enormous bad bets on the mortgage market.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized WaMu on Thursday

.....

Seattle-based WaMu, which was founded in 1889, is the largest bank to fail by far in the country's history.

What amazing sights and wonders the Republican economic model brings us.

Tags
Economics, Republicans

Conservatives Are Cowards

I have noted before how fear filled the right wing's bed wetting brigade can act with something goes bump. I have always considered it to be a notable factor in the make-up of many of those on the right.

Well, it appears I was right.

a new study in the prestigious journal Science says that people with right wing views blink and flinch far harder than liberals when confronted with startling stimuli.

In the first study to directly link politics and physiology, the University of Nebraska led study suggests that people who hold conservative views on things like foreign policy and gun control, are more frightened than those with a more left-leaning bent on those issues.

This clearly would not apply across the board to everyone who has conservative views and it does appear to apply to protective issues more than broader issues. That said, this is the first step in confirming a detail that I have long suspected; Many of those on the right who have been screeching the loudest are doing so because they are afraid.

As s follow up to this study I think that there is another effect that should be reviewed. I would love to see the effect that ever increasing scare tactics has on how voters vote. I bet it moves them to the right, at least a little, no matter where they are on the political spectrum.

And that is why the Bush administration worked so hard to keep everyone freaked out from 2001 to 2006; It help in their political efforts.




Tags
Conservatism, Republicans, Right Wing

Time To Reap What We Have Sewn

For over the last twenty five to thirty years one of the primary screeds of the Republican party is that government was evil, and one of the most heinous things that our government does is regulate business. In all honesty I have to admit that a significant minority of the Democratic party has also taken an anti-governmental regulation position. It has been a basic operating concept of every administration since 1980 and has been supported by a slim majority of Americans.

The result is plain to see. We have mega consolidation in almost every industry. We have gotten to the point that almost all rules regulating businesses are basically written by the business groups themselves. We are rapidly becoming a welfare state for corporations where the job of the citizen is to keep corporations healthy.

We have also gotten to the point where, in many business sectors, the competitors have consolidated to the point where, on a national level, there are only a couple of major players left. For a business this near monopoly is a great situation, for the consumer it has it's advantages and disadvantages, for a society it is a dangerous nightmare.

Economies of scale that develop when a business becomes a Goliath can offer benefits to the consumer but there are a number of costs. One of these was made crystal clear with the recent bailouts that have been offered to mismanaged businesses. At times an economy and society become so dependant on a company that the risk of it's failure is so great it can not be allowed. This is the reality we now face with Freddie, Fanny and AIG. If we had 20 or 30 companies doing the work of Fanny and Freddie do then if one or two failed it would hurt some, but it would not have cost the whole nation. If we had prevented these companies from becoming so large and in some cases basically the only provides of a services, then we could allow them to fail. However, the push to get government out of business regulation has allowed for consolidation and hyper growth that has created a situation where a business failure is a risk to the nation as a whole. The trouble is, failure is a central tenant of capitalism. We have ignored this truth and the cost for this inaction is now into the hundreds of billions of extra tax exposure for a nation that is already vastly overstretched. And the frightening truth is, there are still a large numbers of firms, in various business areas, that are very very sick.

So, next time you hear about a mega merger or other consolidation and hear about how they hope to get regulatory approval, the next time you hear people complaining about government rules, remember this very expensive lesson and scream at your elected officials to do their jobs.

Unless you like watching corporate offices getting hundreds of millions in bonuses and the having the tax payer bail them out.


Added On

This point is made very clear at Seeing the Forest

Since Reagan almost all of us are getting poorer, while a very few get vastly richer. Wages have largely stagnated since Reagan's election even as GDP and productivity have gone up. Pensions are a thing of the past. Health insurance is becoming a thing of the past as well.

As a result of the Reagan and now Bush tax cuts for the rich the government's debt is just about $10 TRILLION.

Skippy has also noticed what our tax dollars are buying

Tags
Economics, Republicans

McCain Tabs Corrupt Republican

To serve as his running mate

She appears to be a classic example of corrupt power abusing Republican

Tue, 07/29/2008 - 13:27 — Judicial Watch Blog
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is being investigated for abruptly firing the state’s public safety commissioner because he wouldn’t get rid of a state trooper who had gone through a bitter divorce with the governor’s sister.

As the mayor of Wasilla, the Republican governor had written a letter of recommendation for her ex brother-in-law (Mike Wooten) to get the trooper job in 2000, but her sister went through a nasty divorce and custody battle in 2005 that some say led Palin to push for the trooper’s firing.

Tags
Culture of Corruption, Election 2008, McCain, Republicans

Polling, Defining and Stupidity

"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public"

This is a lesson that the Democratic Party seems unable to learn.

Recent polling data shows that the presidential race it getting tighter. John McCain has been able to define Obama as a 'celebrity', the whisper campaigns keep the false issue of his faith in play and of course old fashioned racism has an impact. The end result is both Candidates, on a national level, are neck and neck.

Then you see polls focused on issues, and it is a landslide for the left. The American people want the product that the Democrats are selling. The trouble is, the Democrats have not been able to get their message heard over the noise coming from the Republicans.

The debate is again focused on style over substance. We hear arguments about elitism and college papers, vacations and parents faith but we don't hear about health care, the budget, civil rights or any other issue that matters.

This year has been just like every election that I have followed. The Democrats have gone in thinking that they can debate the issues, failing to recognise that the Republican party, the traditional media and even the American public don't want to hear it. Talking about Social Security, health care systems, defense budgets and national infrastructure takes time, it not that exciting, it demands thought and grown-up behavior. To make these efforts work will require compromise and nuanced ideas. It takes time and effort devise workable solutions, there is no quick easy fix.

While vital and important these issues are not what most citizens seem able to focus on. They are complex, hard to understand and are not fun to think about or work on. These issues are not real good for TV and radio either. They don't translate well into sound bites and are far to complex for most talking head arguments. Simply put they are not nearly as easy as gossiping about a candidates elementary school or private life.

So while the Democrats offer up a plan of attack that focus on ideas, the media and the Republicans offer a cage of poo flinging monkeys. We all know where the American public, and thus the political debate will choose to focus.

They want poo flinging monkeys and some still wonder how the polls could be narrowing.

"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public"





Tags
Democrats, Election 2008, Republicans

Classic Republican Stupidity

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Ks) is mad!

It seems that the government in China is demanding that hotels install surveillance devices that will allow them to monitor Internet usage and data transfers. Well Sen. Brownback wants us to know that this is spying and spying is wrong.

This is the public security bureau in China requiring the installation of hardware that they can listen to anybody and everybody’s and their communications and their recordings that are sent over the Internet in a real-time purpose or over long-term. That’s spying, John. […] Your Internet communications can all be monitored in a real time basis by the public security bureau of the Chinese government. I think they’re clearly intent upon spying. they’re going to be spying.

He is upset, he is offended, he is shocked. He is also a lying two faced idiot.

He seems to have forgotten that the Bush administration did just about the same thing almost 8 years ago. In fact they Bush Administration went China one better and placed their spying devices where they could intercept all communication, not just that coming out of hotels.

Please remember this man, who is now shocked and offended by China's actions, voted to allow the US government to spy on electronic communication of it's citizens without any oversight. He refused to take any action to help stop the Bush spying efforts and voted to not hold responsible those companies who broke the law by spying on our communications in the US. Yet, this man is livid about China's actions.

Stupid and dishonest, two defining traits of so many current members of the Republican party.

Tags
Domestic Spying, FISA, Kansas, Republicans

Want A Perfect Example of the Class of South Carolina

Republicans?

Just click over to Representative Kevin Bryant's Blog (R-Anderson) for a sample.

Yes, we did have the bigoted preacher who tried the same stunt, but Kevin is an elected Representative of the state.

Just more evidence that getting elected doesn't increase ones intelligence.

A tip of the hat to and an acknowledgment that we in South Carolina can often be Not Very Bright


Tags
Election 2008, Obama, Republicans

It's Friday

and your links to interesting reading are below.


This is not a single post, but a collection of post. At Barbecue & Politics a review of how much money one man will spend in an effort to buy control of the South Carolina House.


An ode to a nation that is gone Can be found at BadTux the Snarky Penguin


Could the Vets for Freedom, a Republican AstroTurf group be lying?. Seeing the Forest point to a good reason to think they may be.


Rob's Blog looks at the Oil, Banking and the effects of deregulation.


Tags
History, Politics, Republicans

Cheney Meddled On Climate

I hope no one is surprised.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases

Typical Republican behavior, when the facts become a nuisance, hide them or lie about them.

Tags
Climate Change, Cheney, Republicans

The Republicans Just Keep Lying

One of the newer little diddies running around is the lie that Obama has voted 94 times for higher taxes. Well, as one would expect, when you dig a little deeper you find out it is just not true.

The McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee both claim that Obama has voted 94 times "for higher taxes." We find that their count is padded.

......

If this type of claim sounds familiar, it's because George W. Bush's campaign used a similar refrain against John Kerry in 2004, charging that Kerry voted for "higher taxes" a whopping 350 times. We found that claim to be incorrect as well. This time around, Republicans are using some of the same tricky accounting to beef up the number of votes.

Another example of how John McCain is simply a continuation of the Bush administration, with an even nastier disposition.




Tags
Bush, Election 2008, McCain, Republicans