Lanny's dictators

It's hard to know who's a bigger creep: A guy who would take a dictator as a client, or a dictator who would take Lanny Davis as a consultant. Read the rest of this post...

Taibbi on Boehner

Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone:

The irony is, no one — no one — represents all of these bile-inspiring qualities better than John Boehner. His most striking achievement is that there's a check mark next to his name on virtually every entry on the list of common public complaints about Congress. And yet, when the Republicans rolled back into the control of the House this past November on the strength of a nationwide Throw-the-Bums-Out movement, it was Boehner, the prototypical bum, who somehow clambered onto the congressional throne. It's hard to imagine that in all of American political history there has been a more unlikely marriage than John Boehner and the pitchfork-wielding, incumbent-eating Tea Party, whose blood ostensibly boils at the thought of business as usual. Because John Boehner is business as usual, a man devoted almost exclusively to ensuring his own political survival by tending faithfully to the corrupt and clanking Beltway machinery. How? Let us count the ways.

Forget about free haircuts: Boehner was soon caught literally handing out checks from the tobacco lobby on the floor of the House. This was 1995; the House was voting to consider an end to federal subsidies of the tobacco industry, and Boehner, at the time the fourth-ranking Republican in the party hierarchy, went on the floor and handed out, by his own admission, "a half-dozen" donation checks from the tobacco lobby to various members.

Boehner only got busted when former-football-star-turned-GOP-congressman Steve Largent got wind of the check-passing and confronted Boehner about it. The fallout from the incident reveals the future House speaker at his absolute finest: While being interviewed by a television reporter about what he had done, Boehner with a straight face tries to turn the tables and present himself as an opponent of the practice.

"It's a practice that's gone on here for a long time that we're trying to stop, and I know that I'll never do it again," he deadpans. Asked how he feels about the episode, he says, "It's a bad practice. We've gotta stop it."

Read the rest of this post...

The wisdom of a 93 year old Frenchman

A 93 year old Frenchman has created a sensation by writing a best-selling 13 page book. From the Independent:

Indignez vous! (Cry out!), a slim pamphlet by a wartime French resistance hero, Stéphane Hessel, is smashing all publishing records in France. The book urges the French, and everyone else, to recapture the wartime spirit of resistance to the Nazis by rejecting the "insolent, selfish" power of money and markets and by defending the social "values of modern democracy".

* "I would like everyone – everyone of us – to find his or her own reason to cry out. That is a precious gift. When something makes you want to cry out, as I cried out against Nazism, you become a militant, tough and committed. You become part of the great stream of history ... and this stream leads us towards more justice and more freedom but not the uncontrolled freedom of the fox in the hen-house."

* "It's true that reasons to cry out can seem less obvious today. The world appears too complex. But in this world, there are things we should not tolerate... I say to the young, look around you a little and you will find them. The worst of all attitudes is indifference..."

* "The productivist obsession of the West has plunged the world into a crisis which can only be resolved by a radical shift away from the 'ever more', in the world of finance but also in science and technology. It is high time that ethics, justice and a sustainable balance prevailed..."

Read the rest of this post...

House GOP to waste $1m reading US Constitution

I'm seriously sick of the Republicans playing Patriotism Theater on the taxpayer's dime. They care about flag-burning, but ask them about the freedoms the flag represents and Republicans are much less interested. And yes, they're going to have someone read the Constitution on the House floor, but the Bill of Rights (beyond the 2nd Amendment) - not so important.

The high theater, and empty-headedness, that is the modern Republican party just sickens me sometimes. Our country cannot survive as a world leader with leaders who refuse to focus on any of our problems - with leaders who refuse to admit that we have any problems at all. "We're number one!" might play well at the ballot box, but it (along with prayer) are lousy strategies for the long-term survival of a superpower. Read the rest of this post...

O'Reilly suggests that God is behind ocean tides

A very weird comment by Bill O'Reilly, about 1:50 into this video. He not only seems to be suggesting that God is behind the ocean's tide, but he also says, repeatedly, that we don't know what causes the tides. Uh, yes we do - it's the moon (along with the sun and the spin of the earth).

Read the rest of this post...

Howard Dean says outgoing WH advisers have too much 'contempt'

Huff Post:

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean took broad swipes at what he called the "contempt" of some senior, departing White House advisers while, curiously, praising the possibility of former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley taking over as chief of staff.

Speaking at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast series, the former Vermont governor said he expected President Barack Obama's sometimes-rocky relationship with his base to improve once the aides who accompanied him to office left his administration. The problem, Dean stressed, was not that the president's policies had failed an ideological litmus test, but that he had surrounded by insiders who were dismissive of progressives and failed to change the business of governance.

"[M]ost of the people who were [causing the friction] are either out of the White House or going," Dean said. "So I guess I would say there is in process a huge senior staff shakeup going on at the White House. I think that is a very good thing and I think that will help."

While Obama may differ with progressives on certain policy issues, Dean said, "The core issue is the contempt, which not just the progressives were treated by but lots of people were treated by, by senior advisers around the president who have been here for 20 years and thought they knew everything and we knew nothing. That is a fundamental flaw in any kind of administration. As they say, 'Don't let the door hit you in the you-know-what on the way out.'"

Read the rest of this post...

House GOP: Spending cut promise was only 'hypothetical'

Their election promises were only hypothetical. Uh huh.

As they prepare to take power on Wednesday, Republican leaders are scaling back that number by as much as half, aides say, because the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, will be nearly half over before spending cuts could become law.

While House Republicans were never expected to succeed in enacting cuts of that scale, given opposition in the Senate from the Democratic majority and some Republicans, and from President Obama, a House vote would put potentially vulnerable Republican lawmakers on record supporting deep reductions of up to 30 percent in education, research, law enforcement, transportation and more.

Now aides say that the $100 billion figure was hypothetical...

Read the rest of this post...

Americans are rude

I'm not sure if it's simply a symptom of getting older, but I find that people have become more rude. The lack of the use of turn signals while driving is one prime example. They used them when I was a kid. Not any more. Drivers have become more rude, pedestrians, corporations, voters.

The other day a friend tweeted some Web site where you were supposed to spin a virtual wheel and then do the New Years' good deed the wheel landed on. The good deed it selected for me was "hold a door open for a stranger." Who wouldn't do that anyway? Since when did common courtesies become the thing of "special New Years promises"?

I also remember a time, seven years ago or so, when I found a bank card sticking out of an ATM, with the screen asking me if I wanted to withdraw more money. Someone, oddly, had left their card in the machine, still logged in to their account. So I took the card, clicked "no" on the screen, and called the bank the next morning to report it. The bank person was shocked that I called. I was shocked that she was shocked - you expected me to steal from someone else's bank account, I asked her? When common courtesy becomes extraordinary, we have a problem.

Dr. Douglas Fields via Huff Post:

The contrast between the brash, comparatively disrespectful behavior of Americans today and the courtesy, formal manners, civil discourse, polite behavior and respect for others regardless of social status that is evident in Japanese society is striking. The contrast hits an American like a splash of cold water upon disembarking the airplane in Japan, because it clashes so starkly with our behavior. For an American, Japanese manners and courtesy must be experienced.

American children today are raised in an environment that is far more hostile than the environment that nurtured today's adults. Children today are exposed to behaviors, profane language, hostilities and stress from which we adults, raised a generation ago, were carefully shielded. When I was a boy, there were no metal detectors at the entrance to my school. The idea was inconceivable, and there was indeed no need for them. Not so today. I wonder: how does this different environment affect brain development?

And there are implications for bullying.

A series of studies by a group of psychiatrists and brain imaging scientists lead by Martin Teicher, of Harvard Medical School, shows that even hostile words in the form of verbal abuse can cause these brain changes and enduring psychiatric risks for young adults. In a study published in 2006, the researchers showed that parental verbal abuse was more strongly associated with these detrimental effects on brain development than was parental physical abuse. In a new study published in the July issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, they report that exposure to verbal abuse from peers is associated with elevated psychiatric symptoms and corpus callosum abnormalities. The main causes are stress hormones, changes in inhibitory neurotransmitters, and environmental experience affecting the formation of myelin electrical insulation on nerve fibers. The most sensitive period for verbal abuse from peers in impairing brain development was exposure during the middle school years. Why? Because this is the period of life when these connections are developing in the human brain, and wiring of the human brain is greatly influenced by environmental experience.

Read the rest of this post...

Obama admin. backs off end of life planning, fearing 'death panel' criticism

The Republicans were lying about death panels before - dropping the end of life planning provisions won't stop them from lying about it again. Lies, and liars, need to be destroyed, stood up to, so they realize it's just not worth lying again. We're talking about people who lie. Changing the fact pattern won't stop them from lying. That's kind of the point.

GOP [to a very skinny Democrat]: You're fat.

Dem: No I'm not. But I'll go lose ten pounds, then you'll stop lying about my weight.

GOP [to a now even skinnier Democrat]: You're fat.

Read the rest of this post...

Gibbs is going. Will leave White House job in February.

The White House staff shakeups continue.

Robert Gibbs announced today that he is leaving his job as Press Secretary:

Robert Gibbs is leaving the White House after serving as press secretary for two years.

"It's true," the Obama adviser confirmed to CBS News.

Gibbs will depart in February, and he plans to become an outside political adviser to President Obama. He will also give private sector speeches, according to the Associated Press.

No replacement has been named.

Via Mark Knoller, CBS News:

Leading contenders for WH Press Secretary seen as Deputy Press Secy Bill Burton and VP Biden Communications Dir Jay Carney.

Read the rest of this post...

Bachmann 'seriously weighing' run for President in 2012

Well, this could get interesting. A favorite of the teabaggers may enter the GOP race for President -- and it's not Sarah Palin. It's Michele Bachmann:

ABC News has learned that Bachmann, R-Minn., also is seriously weighing whether to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012.

A source close to the three-term congresswoman said Bachmann will travel to Iowa this month for multiple meetings to seek advice from political forces there and party elders close to the caucus process before coming to a final decision regarding a potential presidential run. Bachmann, a native of Waterloo, Iowa, also is set to deliver a keynote speech at an Iowans for Tax Relief PAC fundraiser Jan. 21 in Des Moines, Iowa.

According to an invitation to the fundraiser obtained by ABC News, tickets cost $25 per person or $40 per couple, and donors are able enhance their standing by coughing up $1,000 to become an honorary "host" or by donating $250 to become a "watchdog." Proceeds from the fundraiser will go to the Iowans for Tax Relief PAC, a political action committee working to elect pro-taxpayer Iowa legislators.

I say: go for it, Michele. Read the rest of this post...

Galbraith: 'Actually, the retirement age is too high'

It's about time someone made the common sense argument, that if you want more jobs for the young, you want increased retirement of older workers. James K. Galbraith makes just that point in an interesting article, collectively written, called "Unconventional Wisdom" in the magazine Foreign Policy (h/t digby):

The most dangerous conventional wisdom in the world today is the idea that with an older population, people must work longer and retire with less.

This idea is being used to rationalize cuts in old-age benefits in numerous advanced countries -- most recently in France, and soon in the United States. The cuts are disguised as increases in the minimum retirement age or as increases in the age at which full pensions will be paid.

Such cuts have a perversely powerful logic: "We" are living longer. There are fewer workers to support each elderly person. Therefore "we" should work longer. ...

In the United States, the financial crisis has left the country with 11 million fewer jobs than Americans need now. No matter how aggressive the policy, we are not going to find 11 million new jobs soon. So common sense suggests we should make some decisions about who should have the first crack: older people, who have already worked three or four decades at hard jobs? Or younger people ... The answer is obvious.

Galbraith also addresses the false argument of the the aging populaton:

"[W]e" are not living longer. Wealthier elderly are; the non-wealthy not so much. Raising the retirement age cuts benefits for those who can't wait to retire and who often won't live long. Meanwhile, richer people with soft jobs work on: For them, it's an easy call.

It's all very sensible — unless your goal is to punish the under-privileged elderly. But that would only be true in a society that rewards the over-privileged elderly; oops.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Well, this is the big day for the House GOPers. They officially take control. Festivities begin at noon ET. We'll get the first speech from Speaker Boehner. I suspect we'll see tears. Lots of tears. Tomorrow, the House GOPers are going to read the U.S. Constitution from the floor.

The Senate also convenes today, but its first day of business won't conclude today. There will be a number of speeches about changing the rules on the filibuster and the notorious secret holds. Something has to be done -- but, it won't be done today. The Senate will be in recess until January 24th. That's when we'll probably learn what, if any, changes will be made. Just imagine if Senators actually had to stay on the floor to filibuster legislation. That should be the least of the changes.

And, we're still waiting to see what changes Obama is making to his staff at the White House.

Never dull...frustrating, annoying, but not dull. Read the rest of this post...

Firefox overtakes Internet Explorer in Europe

Why would anyone want to use IE if they didn't have to? Bloomberg:

Mozilla Corp.’s Firefox topped Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer in Europe for the first time last month to become the region’s most-used web browser, according to StatCounter, a market-research firm.

In December, Firefox’s share of the European market was 38.1 percent, with Internet Explorer at 37.5 percent and Google Inc.’s Chrome at 14.6 percent, according to StatCounter, which is based in Dublin and Boston.

It’s the first time Internet Explorer has been “dethroned from the number-one spot in a major territory,” Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “This appears to be happening because Google’s Chrome is stealing share from Internet Explorer.” Firefox is maintaining its existing share, he said.

Read the rest of this post...

Is this fence really worth $4 million per mile?

Talk about a bad return on investment. Read the rest of this post...