Hullabaloo

Saturday, October 15, 2011

 

What's in a name?

by digby

I'm fairly sure Rush Limbaugh has hit a new low in reflexive Democrat bashing, and that's saying something. Here's Yglesias:

I don’t have a really strong view on whether or not it’s advisable to dispatch a small number of US combat troops to help fight the Lord’s Resistance Army. My instinct is to be skeptical. I want to see less military intervention, not more. But Rush Limbaugh’s instinct is to embrace brutal murderers:

Now, up until today, most Americans have never heard of the combat Lord’s Resistance Army. And here we are at war with them. Have you ever heard of Lord’s Resistance Army, Dawn? How about you, Brian? Snerdley, have you? You never heard of Lord’s Resistance Army? Well, proves my contention, most Americans have never heard of it, and here we are at war with them. Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. It means God. I was only kidding. Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. That’s what the lingo means, “to help regional forces remove from the battlefield,” meaning capture or kill. [...]

Lord’s Resistance Army objectives. I have them here. “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people.” Now, again Lord’s Resistance Army is who Obama sent troops to help nations wipe out. The objectives of the Lord’s Resistance Army, what they’re trying to accomplish with their military action in these countries is the following: “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people; to fight for the immediate restoration of the competitive multiparty democracy in Uganda; to see an end to gross violation of human rights and dignity of Ugandans; to ensure the restoration of peace and security in Uganda, to ensure unity, sovereignty, and economic prosperity beneficial to all Ugandans, and to bring to an end the repressive policy of deliberate marginalization of groups of people who may not agree with the LRA ideology.” Those are the objectives of the group that we are fighting, or who are being fought and we are joining in the effort to remove them from the battlefield.

Considering that Rush is a leader of a rather large group of people who insist that Hitler was a leftist, I'm not entirely surprised. Rightwingers' worldview is so Manichean they literally cannot conceive of anyone a Democrat or liberal might oppose not being the good guys --- particularly if that enemy calls itself "Christian." (Again, the proof offered for Hitler's alleged leftism is that the word "socialism" appears in the name of the Nazi Party. So there you go.)

Yglesias has all the goods on the genocidal hideousness that is the LRA if you want all the gruesome details. I'm sure Limbaugh doesn't give a damn. This is the most stimulating thing he's seen in eons --- Africa ... Christians ... Muslims ... Obama. He's delirious.

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digby 10/15/2011 01:30:00 PM |

 
Ordained by God

by digby

It looks as thought the Perry camp is just going flat out for the Christian Right what with his not-very-subtle anti-Morman campaign and now his wife going way beyond the normal dogwhistles to proclaim Perry has been ordained by God. Get a load of this from Sarah Posner:

About contemplating a run for president in 2010, "God was already speaking to me," she said, "but he [Rick] didn't want to hear it."

But, she went on, "he was hearing from other people, too." In the first of several biblical references, she added, "he needed to see the burning bush."

Her husband prayed, Perry insisted. "He threw that fleece out there twice to make sure it came back with what he needed to do." This is a reference to Gideon's fleece, which, as Anthea Butler explained:

refers to an account in Judges 6:33-40. Gideon sets fleece on a threshing floor, using it as a way of asking God for a sign whether or not to go into battle against the Midianites. God gives Gideon the sign to smite the Midianites and to do battle with his Baal-worshiping neighbors.

Setting out Gideon's fleece, then, "is a way for believers to seek God's approval for their own ambitions or 'calling,' and to claim they are carrying out God's purposes in conquering heathens and idol-worshipers."

Who might the heathens be? Perry made the case that they may be lurking within the GOP: "We truly feel he was called to do this; we still feel called to do this," she said, adding, "We're being brutalized by our opponents, by our party. . . because of his faith. He's the only true conservative."

Unless Perry ends up as the Fred Thompson of this cycle and gets no votes, I'm guessing this is going to be quite a fight. That is a direct appeal to the religious right in language that suggests Perry is God's choice. It's pretty bold.


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digby 10/15/2011 12:00:00 PM |

 
Blue America welcomes Joe Miklosi

by digby

Howie makes the introduction:

Watch that video above of Colorado state Rep Joe Miklosi announcing his candidacy for the congressional seat passed from Tom Tancredo to an even further right crackpot, Mike Coffman. When he ends it with "God bless you," he means it. The first time I spoke with him, we spent more time talking about Jesus' message than I've talked about with every other candidate Blue America has ever endorsed-- not because we endorse people who don't embrace Jesus' message... just because it isn't a topic progressives usually talk about publicly. But Joe isn't "usual." As his campaign motto says, "not your ordinary Joe." Before I tell you what his favorite Bible verse is (the one above is one of mine), let me tell you how I met Joe.

Gloria Totten heads up Progressive Majority, an organization that does on the state legislature level what Blue America does on the congressional level. She told me about Joe months ago when he was considering running. "Joe is an outstanding progressive who has stood firm on the progressive issues we care most about," she told me. "He is a proven leader who is committed to building our movement for the future-- as Progressive Majority's Colorado state director, Joe helped 60 progressives win state and local office. We were proud to support Joe in his bid for the State House and I'm thrilled to back his campaign for the U.S. Congress. Trust me, Washington, DC needs more public servants like Joe-- smart, energetic, committed and passionate for the people."

For the people... and more. This is one of Joe's favorite Bible verses. It comes from the prophet Micah who Christ quoted when asked what does the Lord require of you? You probably don't hear many on the "religious" right espousing this one:
To love justice, to seek mercy, and to walk humbly with the Lord.

Joe is perfectly comfortable talking about messages from Jesus like that-- even if conservatives (see my favorite Bible verse up top) have tried to coopt Jesus for their ideology of selfishness and bigotry, greed and hatred. "This theme," Joe told me this week, "has motivated me to pursue public policy that is more fair and just for every person. It clarifies, for example, my stance to repeal the unjust ‘Don’t Ask, Don't Tell’ law because all people should be able to serve in the United States military regardless of how they were born. The aspiration toward these goals helped to inspire my sponsorship of the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act beneficiaries are good kids, who play by the rules, earn good grades point averages and want to contribute to our society. By creating educational and workforce development opportunities for students we can energize and empower individuals and families and grow our economy for all Americans."

Who would Jesus kill? Joe doesn't seem to find Jesus wanting to kill anyone. "I oppose the death penalty because we can do better as a society," he said. "We have killed innocent people as DNA testing has verified. We disproportionately kill people from communities of color, as the U.S. Supreme Court recently confirmed. A person rightfully convicted of murder or heinous act should spend the rest of their life in prison."

Prison is pretty horrible. But our business elites have behaved (badly) knowing full well that the chances that they-- regardless of what they do-- aren't likely to spend much time there. So what about Wall Street? What about OccupyWallStreet. I asked Joe what he thinks about the whole movement. His response:

"In regard to Wall Street and economic reform, I respect those that take peaceful action to advocate for an economy that rewards hard work, encourages innovation and investment in education, retools Americans, and produces livable wages.

"We can not allow Wall Street elitists to break the rules, change the rules, and keep moving the goalpost, away from hard working families. Because of Wall Street greed and arrogance in 2008, millions of families were robbed of the dreams they worked and saved for, our nation was hobbled, and the Wall Street crowd sauntered into Washington to rewrite the rules again-- to give themselves a bailout. That’s not thrift, it’s theft.

"It is amazing to see so many inspired people-- from and for various points of view-- advocating for change and a fair financial system."

We're going to have Joe over at Crooks and Liars today at noon (Mountain Time, 11am here in L.A.) to talk about his campaign and why he's running for Congress. I hope you'll join us. And I hope I've presented Joe attractively enough so that you'd like to help him beat that crackpot Coffman. You can do that here on the Blue America page.

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digby 10/15/2011 10:45:00 AM |

 
Occupy the Boardroom --- Give the 1% a piece of your mind

by digby



There's a lot of Occupying going on today all over the world. In London they are trying to take the stock exchange. In Rome there are clashes with police. All over the US there are demonstrations. (Check here for one near you.) If you can, you should get out and join them in solidarity.

But before you leave the house today, you need to do one more thing: help us Occupy the Boardroom:

105 US cities occupied. 1499 MeetUps around the world. 50,000 people in the streets of New York and tens of thousands more in cities across the country. Wall Street occupied continuously for one month.

The Occupy Wall Street has struck a deep chord with ordinary people around the world and changed our idea of what we, the people, can accomplish by doing one simple thing: bearing witness on the very doorstep of those responsible for the global economic crisis.

Today is the biggest action yet-- the #OccupyWallStreet Global Day of Action. Today the 99% are joining together to stand up to Wall Street and the 1% who control it. In a world where the 1% prospers obscenely while the rest of us fall behind, we are demanding accountability for their crimes and telling them exactly how their actions have affected our lives.

Click here to OccupyTheBoardRoom and join in the Global Day of Action online.

Despite our growing strength, the Wall Street CEO’s and their cronies who crashed our economy still act like they can ignore us. So we're aiming our voices directly at the people who caused this global crisis by filling up their inboxes with stories of how their recklessness affected our lives.

Last year (2009), Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorganChase, received $17.5 million in pay-- not bad, especially considering that his company took $100.7 billion in taxpayer bailouts and that since then JPMorganChase has made a profit of $29.1 billion (2009-'10). Since 2009, JPMorganChase has spent tens of millions of dollars in lobbying Congress and in campaign "contributions." At the same time Chase has foreclosed on thousands of families ($74 billion worth of foreclosed homes). Millions at the top, homeless shelters at the bottom. That’s how the 1% plays the game.

Click here to Occupy the Boardroom by sharing your 99%er story with the executives at Chase.

But OccupyWallStreet has allowed us to stand up and point out, loudly and powerfully, how the greed of the 1% has trumped the need of the 99%. So while hundreds of thousands of people around the world take action in the streets, we are joining in by virtually Occupying the Board Rooms and filling up the inboxes of the 1% with the stories of the 99%.

Click here to deliver your truth to the inbox of the Executives at Chase.

This is our moment. Seize it.

That letter went out this morning to all members of Blue America and to members of online organizations all over the country. Even if you are unable or unwilling to take to the streets, this is one thing we can all do --- send the top 1% a piece of our minds. Occupy the Boardroom will make sure that they get these messages and that they are aware that the 99% is on to them.


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digby 10/15/2011 09:00:00 AM |

 
Right Wing "Brilliance"
by David Atkins ("thereisnospoon")

It has been amusing to watch conservatives attempt to characterize the Occupy Wall Street protests. Some portray the movement as a collection of shiftless, ne'er-do-wells. Others paint it as the orchestrated creation of George Soros and the Democrats. Still others claim the unions are behind the protest. There is even the insinuation thrown around from time to time that the protesters are guilt-ridden trustafarians.

The right-wing is essentially throwing accusations against the wall to see what sticks, which isn't entirely surprising given the popularity of the movement.

But this isn't actually out of the ordinary for conservatives. For all their reputation for careful framing and targeted messaging, the conservative strategy has mostly been to throw the kitchen sink at liberal targets and just run with what works. Barack Obama is both evil Anti-Christ mastermind egghead, and clueless affirmative action dunce who can't give a speech without a teleprompter. Bill Clinton was both cunning serial killer mob boss, and stupid rural hick not worth gracing the prestigious halls of the White House. Democrats are both the party of the class-warring mob, and of the liberal elite looking to take advantage of the common man.

Messaging for the right-wing has always had less to do with deductive determination of the best language and avenue of attack, and much more to do with throwing just about every potential attack out there to see what gets traction. Often, there will be multiple contradictory attacks happening simultaneously, designed to appeal to different species of ignorant or bigoted audiences.

That is also why their messaging largely works. They have absolutely no problem "Othering" anyone who disagrees with them in any way possible in order to shift as many people as possible into their camp. Liberals like Bob Somerby tut tut at this sort of dualistic approach to politics even as they moderate themselves into political irrelevance.

The Left need not need be as intellectually dishonest and inconsistent as the Right. But it should be as forceful in its revulsion for the "values" of the other side, and force a clarifying division of America into one camp or the other. Because when all is said and done, if the Left carries a progressive populist message, at the end of the day there will be more people in our camp than in theirs. Meanwhile, in a political world of moral clarity, Democrats will have greater success in actually implementing progressive policies and claiming mandates when they win elections, just as the Right continues to do after every successful election.

Above all, the Left should not fear the Right's vaunted message machine. Throw enough attacks out there, and some of them will stick more than others. All one need do is be unafraid to go on the attack in the first place.


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thereisnospoon 10/15/2011 07:30:00 AM |

Friday, October 14, 2011

 

"The whole world is watching"

by digby

It's probably important to document this stuff far and wide so I'm just throwing it out there.

This video says that the police assaulted a woman today, but it was actually a man named Felix Rivera-Pitre. Watch both videos, you can see it from different angles:

During the chaotic Occupy Wall Street march through the financial district this morning, we witnessed a protester on William Street get punched in the face by a police officer, seemingly without provocation. He says the officer hit him so hard his earring got knocked out, but he managed to escape arrest. We caught up with the protester later: his name is Felix Rivera-Pitre, and he told us what happened and how he got away.

Rivera-Pitre, who is HIV positive and used to be a dancer, tells us he was walking a little bit in front of the police on William Street, and admits he "shot the cop a look." But then, according to Rivera-Pitre (and this is in line with what we witnessed), "The cop just lunged at me full throttle and hit me on the left side of my face...

Update: Animal New York published this video which appears to show what happened just before Rivera-Pitre was allegedly slugged in the face. At the 1:30 mark, an officer in a white shirt approaches Rivera-Pitre from behind, touches his arm, and tells him, "Get on the sidewalk." Rivera-Pitre does indeed "shoot him a look"... and then the camera pans away. Cue horrified screaming and unified chanting "THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!"

I don't know why that white shirt went nuts, but he went nuts.

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digby 10/14/2011 07:30:00 PM |

 
Some things just don't mix

by digby

I can still hardly believe that anyone thinks it's a good idea to allow loaded guns in bars, but this really takes the cake:

State Rep. Curry Todd (R-Collierville), chief sponsor of the controversial "guns in bars" bill, was arrested in Nashville Tuesday night. Todd was picked up by Metro Police and charged with DUI and possession of a handgun while under the influence. He was released on $3,000 bond.

Todd's GMC Envoy was stopped near the corner of 21st and Blair at about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday. Police say they detected a strong odor of alcohol coming from the vehicle.

In performing a field sobriety test, police said Todd "demonstrated numerous indicators of impairment and the officer noted that the subject was unsteady on his feet, almost falling down at times. His speech was slurred, his eyes were red, watery and bloodshot." Todd refused a field sobriety test.

According to an affidavit, police also found a loaded Smith and Wesson .38 Special between the driver’s seat and the car’s center console.

Wyatt Earp was famous for being a handgun confiscator. He did it because a bunch of drunken yahoos kept shooting up the saloons and killing people. I see no reason to believe that human nature has changed significantly and this inebriated fool seems to prove it. He's just lucky he didn't decide to brandish his loaded weapon at them and everyone else was lucky he didn't try to shoot somebody or kill someone with his car.


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digby 10/14/2011 06:00:00 PM |

 
One Good One Down

by digby

From the "nobody could have predicted" file:

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Friday that the department is calling for a halt to the implementation of the CLASS Act — a stunning end to the financially troubled long-term care insurance program and a major setback to the health care reform law.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Sebelius said the department did everything it could to find a way to make the program self-sustaining — as the law requires it to be.

But the department’s analysis, she said, concluded that there was no way to do that.

“For 19 months, experts inside and outside of government have examined how HHS might implement a financially sustainable, voluntary and self-financed long-term care insurance program under the law that meets the needs of those seeking protection for the near term and those planning for the future,” Sebelius said in the letter. “But despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time.

”After 19 months of research, "what we've determined is we do not have a path forward," Assistant Secretary for Aging Kathy Greenlee said on a conference call with reporters. The law requires Sebelius to certify that the program would be fiscally solvent for 75 years.

I'm sure that many people are thrilled to see this horrific intrusion on American liberty scuttled. And I'm sure they will be just as thrilled when their geriatric parents and grandparents literally have nowhere to go when they get too sick to take care of themselves.

This was always one of the weak links in the health care reforms. As anyone who has dealt with elderly relatives with serious illnesses knows, the long term care system is rapidly falling apart and nobody wants to deal with it. And as long as we insist on having a health care system run by the profit motive this is going to remain the case.

My advice to young people today is to get a degree in nursing. You're going to need it.

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digby 10/14/2011 04:30:00 PM |

 
Judicial Tyranny
by David Atkins ("thereisnospoon")

In a blow for the freedom of crops to rot, kids to go uneducated and bigots to hate, a federal appeals court has blocked parts of the patriotic Alabama immigration law:

A federal appeals court Friday temporarily blocked portions of Alabama's strict immigration law, most notably a provision requiring public schools to check the immigration status of students.

But the court also upheld a provision requiring police to check the residency status of suspected illegal immigrants during traffic stops.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the order after the Justice Department requested that the court block the law until the court could consider it fully. Government lawyers contended, as they have in challenges of similar laws in other states, that the legislation was preempted by federal immigration laws.

The legislation, known as HB 56 and signed by Republican Gov. Robert J. Bentley in June, is widely considered the toughest of the handful of immigration laws in the nation.

Republicans are already asserting that the Founding Fathers would be shocked. Founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson who said things like this:

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Establish a law for educating the common people. This it is the business of the state and on a general plan."

I'm sure Thomas Jefferson and his many-hued children would protest mightily at the notion that the common people who work 12 hours a day in the fields be considered children of God to be educated on a common plan. That would be a denial of basic liberty.


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thereisnospoon 10/14/2011 03:00:00 PM |

 

Libertarian intrusion

by digby

To all the libertarians who told me that I "shouldn't worry" about Ron Paul wanting to deny a woman's right to choose because all he wants to do is let the states decide, I think this settles the question what it is he thinks ought to be the decision:

I don't know where Ron Paul was doing his medical training where they were throwing living babies into buckets but it wasn't in the United States unless it was before the 1880s (which I suppose is possible.) Abortion was illegal from that time until 1973, so I don't know what he's talking about.

Basically Ron Paul believes that it's an infringement against fundamental liberty for the long arm of the state to reach into your wallet, but it's just fine to stick its hands into your uterus in the name of freedom. Libertarianism should be so proud to have such a coherent spokesman.

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digby 10/14/2011 01:30:00 PM |

 
Your inequality chart 'o the day

by digby




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digby 10/14/2011 12:00:00 PM |

 
Dehumanizing the protesters

by digby

Amato has been watching Bill O'Reilly so you don't have to:

Bill O'Reilly had his wingnut mojo working Thursday night. He tries to paint Occupy Wall Street protesters as drug trafficking potheads who are also boffing each other outdoors in the squalid conditions of Zuccotti Park.

Billo asked one of his favorite culture warriors Margaret Hoover, who lives a few blocks away from the riff-raff if she smelled the weed. She says, yes, but really no since she didn't actually smell it, but her friend did.

O'Reilly:...three weeks is enough. It's dirty and filthy, there's rats running all over, there's dope all over the place. They're having sex outside at night around. (inaudible) Does that say anything about the entire movement?

This is the oldest story in the wingnut playbook. During the anti-war movement, the cries of "smelly, dirty hippie" were everywhere. Famous case in point: “a hippie is someone who looks like Tarzan, walks like Jane, and smells like Cheetah” --- Ronald Reagan.

I think most people believed that this aversion to hippies probably went away around the time that country music stars started growing their hair long and smoking pot. But the stereotype as it applied to the left never really went away. Back in 2004, you'll surely recall this lovely Ann Coulter bon mot: "My pretty-girl allies stick out like a sore thumb amongst the corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie-chick pie wagons they call 'women' at the Democratic National Convention." Liberal women are commonly derided as being smelly, hairy and fat, regardless of the reality of the situation. In fact, according the Coulter, they aren't even women.

Around the same time, there was this widely held sentiment about the journalist in Iraq who reported the shooting of an unarmed Iraqi by American marines. You may recall that the journalist had shoulder length hair (which is fine when Ted Nugent sports the style.)

The Marine who killed the wounded insurgent in Fallujah deserves our praise and admiration. In a split second decision, he acted valiantly.

On the otherhand, Kevin Sites of NBC is a traitor. Beheading civilians, booby-trapped bodies, suicide bombers?? Sorry hippie, American lives come first. Terrorists don't deserve the benefit of the doubt. This Marine deserves a medal and Kevin Sites, you deserve a punch in the mouth.

So, these derisive stereotypes of smelly, traitorous hippies have had remarkable staying power.

There are a couple of images, however, that seem to really get these people going. The first is the idea that protesters are having sex in the open. I don't need to explain why that would excite them. But they seem to get even more stimulated by the notion that protesters are relieving themselves in public. When I was a kid living in the South, I remember my parents looking at a book that was being passed around featuring alleged pictures of civil rights protesters defecating in the streets. The thing had the neighborhood all aquiver, it was like pornographic contraband. Just recently, Fox Nation got very overexcited by a story from San Antonio about homeless migrants without toilet facilities using an alley.They really love to show pictures of this sort of thing for some reason.

Billo didn't specifically refer to this, but this ridiculous story was circulating all over the rightwing web swamp last week and they were clearly extremely energized by the idea. The police car isn't from Manhattan, so it doesn't appear to be related to the Wall Street protests at all, but the truth of it has never mattered. It's the idea. (On Bill Maher last week, GOP spokesperson Nicolle Wallace said her main worry about Occupy Wall Street was where people were going to the bathroom.)

The left gets dinged, sometimes fairly, for wrongly imputing racist motives to the right wing. But it's clear that there is a strain of rightwing thinking that needs to see their rivals as as traitorous, animalistic beasts who screw and defecate in public. They cannot even be acknowledged as human beings who observe the most basic levels of decent behavior. I'm not sure that has anything to do with race, but it is a very primitive form of tribalism nonetheless. And it's exceedingly creepy to see famous talk show hosts evoke those images. If history is any judge, I would expect to see more of it.


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digby 10/14/2011 10:12:00 AM |

 
No empathy for lack of empathy
by David Atkins ("thereisnospoon")

Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler has been a sometime critic of mine since I started writing here. The general thrust of his critiques has been that my rhetoric is too forceful, and that I lack an adequate respect for the feelings of my fellow Americans in the Republican Party and the Tea Party. His latest lengthy post is best distilled here:

We thought that made good sense, although we’d advise this fiery young man to clean up his fiery language! But just like that, Atkins began to savage a very bad person—someone who almost surely hails from the 99 percent! Unfortunately, this person also comes from the other political tribe; rather plainly, she tends to vote Republican. In a post devoted to empathy, note the way Atkins started his discussion of this beast:

ATKINS (continuing directly): I can't even imagine what it must be like to live in the moral vacuum inhabited by people like this…

You’ll have to admit that’s a little bit funny. His headline announced the need for empathy. But halfway through the post, Atkins announced that he “can’t even imagine what it must be like” to see the world in a way which differs from his point of view!

With all due respect, the assertion that those with empathy must be able to empathize with those who lack empathy lest they be considered hypocrites is a ludicrous one. It's in the same line of "reasoning" that allows homophobes to declare that gays and lesbians who ask for marriage equality are bigots against their free exercise of religion. It's the same line of fallacious argument that leads conservatives to claim that failure to teach bogus creation "science" is proof of liberal hypocrisy out of failure to respect academic freedom.

Bill Maher may have said it best when he quipped that one should never become so tolerant as to tolerate intolerance. Similarly, I should hope that decent human beings never aspire to such a pinnacle of moral relativism that they can empathize with those who turn a blind eye to mass human suffering, even as the villains who directly caused that suffering walk away laughing with all the loot.

Future generations will look back on this era one day with the same moral revulsion that we have today for Dickensian England, for the Confederacy during the time of slavery, and for Salem during the witch trials. The culture that has produced the renaissance of Ayn Rand and the celebration of human misery that cheers on executions and the death of the uninsured will one day be viewed with no more fair regard than the Gilded Age culture of the late 19th century that produced J.P. Morgan and the Massacre at Wounded Knee. Equanimity in the face of such an abdication of basic human compassion and moral anomie is not a sign of emotional maturity, but rather a retreat into the safe, sanctimonious sepulchers of the church of the savvy.

Somerby has more than once compared me with Diomedes of Homeric fame, the warrior who became so enraged in battle that he fought mortal and immortal alike indiscriminately. As a student of the Classics who has read much of the Iliad in the original Greek, I find the comparison most amusing. First, the aristeia of Diomedes in fighting even the Gods if necessary helped save the Greek ships from the Trojan flame. But more importantly, the appeal to Homeric archetypes is itself deeply flawed. In modern times Greeks and Trojans no longer square off against one another, needing the counsel of wise advisers like Nestor to calm fervid warrior spirits. In modern times, the elite rulers Agamemnon and Priam have joined forces to steal all the wealth of the Greeks and Trojans together, then sail away to offshore havens in contempt of divine or terrestrial justice. And they have raised a deluded army of soldiers who have swapped out their boar's tusk helmets for tri-cornered hats, willing to wish them Zeus-speed so long as they can remain, in their squalor, superior to their helot slaves. In this situation, it is well past time to reclaim from our modern-day Agamemnons what is not rightfully theirs, without much regard for the minority who stand in the way.

Or perhaps, to use another Homeric analogy, the better metaphor for what Wall Street is doing to America lies not in Iliad at all, but in the Odyssey, in which hordes of wealthy suitors eat Odysseus' family and the people of Ithaca out of house, home and land. Homer understood exactly what sort of justice awaited such men.

Fortunately, as a liberal I don't believe in that vision of retributive justice. But I might be able to empathize with those who do.


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thereisnospoon 10/14/2011 07:30:00 AM |

Thursday, October 13, 2011

 
"Vertically Integrated Grassroots Strategy"

by digby

In microeconomics and management, the term vertical integration describes a style of management control. Vertically integrated companies in a supply chain are united through a common owner. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or (market-specific) service, and the products combine to satisfy a common need. It is contrasted with horizontal integration.

Here's the Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity answer to Occupy Wall Street:

Dear NAME,

The Left is back to its 1960s play book of fringe politics—this time with a radical class-warfare mob called "Occupy Wall Street."

Their demands look an awful lot like the Left's tried-and-failed policies of the last two years:

• Trillions of dollars for new entitlements we don't need and can't afford,
• Government picking winners and losers in the economy,
• And, of course, massive tax hikes that will crush the middle class and strangle job creation—all in the name of "fairness."

Despite these agitators coming straight out of the Left's central casting, liberals in Washington are desperately trying to frame this as "widespread middle-class support" for their failed economic agenda—even though this unruly mob is anything but.

And, of course, even the left-wing media has climbed aboard the propaganda machine, calling these radicals everything from the "American Autumn" to the "Left's Tea Party."

The Left is coming out swinging, doing anything they can to distract from their radical agenda—and it's absolutely critical that you and I stand strong and continue our fight for spending sanity in Washington.

That's why AFP is launching our new nationwide Cut Spending Now tour.

Cut Spending Now uses AFP's tried-and-true vertically integrated grassroots strategy—combining rallies in 19 states, a petition, and national media attention—to put unprecedented grassroots pressure on Congress and their deficit-cutting "super committee" to cut wasteful spending and keep taxes low on American families.

You can sign the petition by clicking here.

Let me tell you—it's more urgent than ever that you and I build the practical grassroots effort necessary to make sure Congress hears from everyday Americans, not just a fringe mob like "Occupy Wall Street."

Next month, Congress's super committee will announce their plans on how to cut $1.2 trillion from our deficit. And if radical Left-wing groups win the debate today, we could wind up with a trillion dollars in new job-killing tax hikes—instead of them making the necessary cuts to wasteful spending.

So far, Cut Spending Now has received a tremendous response nationwide. In the last few weeks, the tour has already turned out thousands of activists in seven critical states—Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, andColorado. And that's just the beginning.

But we can't keep this nationwide project going at full-strength without your help right now.

Please click here to donate $25, $50, $100 or more right away.

Thank you so much for standing with Americans for Prosperity and Cut Spending Now. As part of our nationwide, 1.8 million-strong grassroots army, you're helping us put real pressure on Congress—and stop the Left's propaganda machine dead in its tracks.

Sincerely,

JP DeGance, AFP

P.S. We're counting on you to help AFP's nationwide Cut Spending Now project change the debate in Washington—and help bring economic freedom and spending sanity back to Washington.

And they're fundraising off of this ... never leave a dollar on the table, I guess.

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digby 10/13/2011 07:30:00 PM |

 
Politico Hackery
by David Atkins ("thereisnospoon")

The always-useless Politico has a breathless headline today: Dem groups can't quit Durkee. For those not familiar with the dreary story, Durkee and Associates was the treasurer for a large number of Democratic organizations and politicians' campaign committees in California. Durkee apparently embezzled millions of dollars, wiping out Dianne Feinstein's bank account and a number of others', including the Ventura County Democratic Party of which I'm the 1st vice chair.

The implication of the Politico story is that there's some sort of funny business going on, or perhaps loyalty to Ms. Durkee in spite of the mass theft among groups that have not yet selected a new treasurer. Of course, nothing of the sort is the case. As the actual quotes show, the simple reality is that after having used Durkee and Associates based on the advice of people who supposedly knew what they were doing, many groups are taking their time and doing more due diligence before hiring and naming a new treasurer:

“We’re literally in the process of switching over right now, too. We literally just signed a new treasurer,” said Nick Anas, chairman of the Orange County Young Democrats, which has Durkee still named as its treasurer. “We had to contact lawyers, interview new treasurers. It wasn’t easy.”

But "Dem Groups Can't Quit Durkee" is such better Drudge bait than "Dem Groups Methodically Doing Due Diligence Before Selecting Next Treasurer." Politico is not lazy journalism, as many have argued. It's yellow journalism.

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thereisnospoon 10/13/2011 06:00:00 PM |

 
That would be the point

by digby

People are busy:

After a test run in Madison of the new state voter ID law led to lines so long some voters abandoned the effort, the city's clerk is encouraging other municipalities to do tests of their own.

Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl told The Post-Crescent the same issues that arose during their mock election Tuesday would come up across the state during the spring primaries on Feb. 21. The primaries will be the first time Wisconsin voters are required to show photo identification and sign a poll book before casting their ballot.

That's one of the effects of arduous voting procedures. Vote suppressors know all the tricks.

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digby 10/13/2011 04:30:00 PM |

 
Why Wall Street Should be Nervous
by David Atkins ("thereisnospoon")

Whatever one thinks of the Occupiers and the Tea Partiers (and most Americans view the Occupiers far more favorably), one thing should be painstakingly clear to the crowd on Wall Street: the likelihood of their getting bailed out again is next to nil.

While most of the goals of the Tea Party and the Occupy movement are diametrically opposed, Joe Biden did identify the one common thread:

"There's a lot in common with the tea party," Biden said at forum in Washington, D.C., when asked about the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. "The tea party started why? TARP. They thought it was unfair -- we were bailing out the big guy."

Both the Left and the Right in this country are furious about the bailouts of the financial sector. Both sides, amazingly, view Wall Street figures variously as pawns and/or puppetmasters of the other side. In modern America, that's about as close to legitimate popular bipartisanship as anyone is likely to get.

Which leads to an interesting dynamic. No, the "too big to fail" banks have not been broken up. No, naked credit default swaps haven't been banned, nor has high-frequency trading been even taxed, to say nothing of banned. Logistically speaking, nothing is preventing the financial sector from blowing up another bubble.

But the common person can take solace in this at least: there is no more Greenspan put. If the financial sector blows up again, there won't be anyone but establishment Republicans and Third Way Democrats (the same thing, really, on everything but LGBT and abortion issues) to back them up. And increasingly in America, establishment Republicans and Third Way Democrats don't amount to enough of a coalition to push back against the base of either party. True, the conservative base is currently stronger and has a louder voice than the progressive base. But the Progressive Caucus in Congress is growing, not shrinking, and the Occupy movement has re-energized core progressive Dems.

From a legislative point of view, Wall Street may still be able to get away with murder and crash the economy again. From a political point of view, there won't be enough legislators willing to catch that falling knife. The financial sector is finally starting to realize that.

In a world full of half-empty glasses, that glass at least is half full.


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thereisnospoon 10/13/2011 02:48:00 PM |

 
Plutocrat Whine in A Flat minor

by digby

I'm collecting these now. Unfortunately, there are so many that it's hard to keep up these days:

Walking down New York's 55th Street near Park Avenue last Friday evening, our group of seven men in suits and ties was approached by a panhandler asking for money.

"Here are a bunch of Wall Street guys," he said, straight out. "Give me some money."

Although we were not all "Wall Street guys," all except one kept walking, ignoring the panhandler as we typically do, as instructed by "experts." Yet over the past 30 years of living in the city, I often have disregarded this advice, and so once more I gave instinctively. I pulled out a dollar, handed it to the man, smiled, and resumed walking.

But next came a revelation.

"A dollar?" the man shouted. "You Wall Street fat cats! This is what the problem is with this country. Take your damn dollar." With that, he threw it on the sidewalk.

Apparently, street charity now has a minimum.

Not only have I never had anyone refuse my donation under such circumstances, but recipients are generally quite appreciative regardless of the amount. Not this time. It was as if the class-warfare rhetoric of the left had surfaced on 55th Street, while I was just trying to show some goodwill and help a guy out. He didn't even ask for a little more, as sometimes happens. ("How about $5 for a meal? . . . $20 for a bus ticket?") He simply judged that my $1 gift was not sufficient and threw it on the ground. I had not given my "fair share."

Perhaps he should have told this ungrateful wretch to go down to Magnolia Bakery and buy himself a delicious red velvet cupcake? Where's the gratitude?

Where did this script—and its concomitant anger—come from?

Like most people I know, I think President Obama's tax increases on the wealthy would make sense if we believed he was sincere about—and could be successful at—reforming Washington's overspending, out-of-control entitlements and regulation. Instead, his attacks on Wall Street bankers ("fat cats," a phrase Mr. Obama now owns and was eloquently repeated by the panhandler on Friday night), Las Vegas, oil companies, jet manufacturers and "millionaires and billionaires" are inflaming both sides and placating no one. They seriously undermine the chances for reasonable compromise.

Indeed. It's the president asking meekly for the billionaires to delay the write off of their corporate jets that's inflaming everyone. (This should scare the hell out of him. )

(By the way Mr Master of the Universe -- Obama doesn't "own" the phrase fat cats. Not only has it been around for centuries, it's owned by the people who are coming to hate your guts for being such a selfish gluttonous asshole. My only complaint is that it is an insult to cats to be compared to these hideous fools.)

I do not recall another president in my lifetime whose negative drumbeat about large segments of the population has been so relentless. I do not recall another president (even those similarly frustrated by congressional gridlock and the stifling of their agendas) repeatedly targeting a specific economic class, complaining as loudly and using his bully pulpit so consistently for bashing those who disagree with him.

Presidents, once elected, instantly become president of all the people. They are the ultimate parental figures who should show no favoritism while always reaching across the dinner table to keep the family together. Even when they are confident their plan is the right one, they must communicate it such that everyone in the family knows they care equally about each of them. Painting important parts of our economy and population with such a negative brush is not only un-presidential, it is destructive to the fabric of our nation.

I don't know how old this sensitive little fellow is, but he's been very sheltered.

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digby 10/13/2011 01:30:00 PM |

 
Your Daily Grayson

by digby

Show up!

digby 10/13/2011 12:00:00 PM |

 
Moneybags Projection

by digby


Reuters should be roundly ripped for this ridiculous article which will have the effect of forever changing the way the Wall Street protests will be characterized. It starts off with this:

Who's behind the Wall St. protests?

There has been much speculation over who is financing the disparate protest, which has spread to cities across America and lasted nearly four weeks. One name that keeps coming up is investor George Soros, who in September debuted in the top 10 list of wealthiest Americans. Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda.

Soros and the protesters deny any connection. But Reuters did find indirect financial links between Soros and Adbusters, an anti-capitalist group in Canada which started the protests with an inventive marketing campaign aimed at sparking an Arab Spring type uprising against Wall Street. Moreover, Soros and the protesters share some ideological ground.

Wow! That sounds pretty shocking. How many millions has he devoted to the cause? (And where can I get my hands on it?)

Here's the "connection":

According to disclosure documents from 2007-2009, Soros' Open Society gave grants of $3.5 million to the Tides Center, a San Francisco-based group that acts almost like a clearing house for other donors, directing their contributions to liberal non-profit groups. Among others the Tides Center has partnered with are the Ford Foundation and the Gates Foundation.

Disclosure documents also show Tides, which declined comment, gave Adbusters grants of $185,000 from 2001-2010, including nearly $26,000 between 2007-2009.

Aides to Soros say any connection is tenuous and that Soros has never heard of Adbusters. Soros himself declined comment.

So Daddy Warbucks has given money to the Tides Foundation, which gave the grand sum of $27,000 since 2007 to Adbusters, --- which had a hand in starting the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011. Clearly this is a Soros funded astroturf movement. Might as well write it off.

Dear Reuters,

This is what an astroturf movement looks like. (From Adele Stan's epic expose of the Tea Party)

Though billed as a people's movement, the Tea Party wouldn't exist without a gusher of cash from oil billionaire David H. Koch and the vast media empire of Rupert Murdoch. Many of the small donations to Tea Party candidates have been cultivated by either Fox News Channel, a property of Murdoch's News Corporation, or the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, chaired by Koch. The movement's major organizations are all run, not by first-time, mad-as-hell activists, but by former GOP officials or operatives.

Taken together, Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks (another far-right political group seeded by the Kochs) and Murdoch's News Corp, owner of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, form the corporate headquarters of a conglomerate one might call Tea Party, Inc. This is the syndicate that funds the organizing, crafts the messages, and channels the rage of conservative Americans at their falling fortunes into an oppositional force to President Obama and to any government solution to the current economic calamity. Groups such as Tea Party Express, Tea Party Nation, and the FreedomWorks-affiliated Tea Party Patriots; the bevy of political consultants for hire; and various allied elected officials can be understood as Tea Party Inc.'s loosely affiliated subsidiaries. The Web sites of FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity and the Tea Party side projects of Fox News Channel's Glenn Beck* are linked with those of Tea Party Express and Tea Party Patriots, all of which in turn solicit support for Tea Party candidates.

The armies of angry white people with their "Don't Tread on Me" flags, the actual grassroots activists, are not the agents of the Tea Party revolt, but its end-users, enriching the Tea Party's corporate owners just as you and I enrich Google through our clicks.

Tea Party Inc. was on full display in our nation's capital in late August, when Glenn Beck gathered his angry white multitudes at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's historic "I Have a Dream" speech. The tens of thousands of Tea Partiers who showed up for this political revival were mobilized by untold hours of free promotion on Murdoch's network, while a related "Take America Back" convention, held the day before at Constitution Hall, was convened by FreedomWorks.

The mainstream media forget to tell that story. But they're all over that 20k that Adbusters has received since 2007 from a foundation that also gets money from George Soros.

It wouldn't bother me so much if it weren't for the fact that every silly Villager will now breath a sigh of relief that they can wave a "both sides do it" he said/she said sign on the movement whenever anyone brings up the pernicious and deadly influence of big money. It's just so darned convenient.


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digby 10/13/2011 11:00:00 AM |

 
Hippie approval rating

by digby

It looks as though the worm has turned with public opinion. Here's Greg Sargent:

Time released a new poll this morning finding that 54 percent view the Wall Street protests favorably, versus only 23 percent who think the opposite. Interestingly, only 23 percent say they don’t have an opinion, suggesting the protests have succeeded in punching through to the mainstream. Also: The most populist positions espoused by Occupy Wall Street — that the gap between rich and poor has grown too large; that taxes should be raised on the rich; that execs responsible for the meltdown should be prosecuted — all have strong support.

Meanwhile, the poll found that only 27 percent have a favorable view of the Tea Party. My handy Plum Line calculator tells me that this amounts to half the number of those who view Occupy Wall Street favorably.

Sargent points out that the Tea party has been around a lot longer and, therefore, made a clearer impression. But considering how amorphous the Occupy Wall Street movement is, I think one has to conclude that it's the name and the target that people agree with. No surprise there.

Update: if they keep this up, I think they can expect the approval rating for OWS to rise:

"If the economy continues to slow ... I expect companies probably to continue to keep payroll very lean and for the unemployment rate to bump to 9.25 percent, conceivably it could go to 9.5 percent," said Michael Yoshikami, CEO of YCMNET Advisors a San Francisco investment house with $1 billion under management. "As CFOs and (human resources) managers are planning going forward, you can't avoid the human dynamic here. And if the outlook is very uncertain, they're going to be very, very hesitant to make broad hiring decisions. It's not good timing because budgets are being set right now."

One warning sign that more belt-tightening could be ahead is that profit growth seems to be slowing down. Most U.S. public companies report quarterly results in the coming weeks, and earnings season has gotten off to a weak start.

Analysts have lowered their growth forecasts for the companies of the S&P; 500 and now look for overall profit for the group to rise 12.5 percent in the third quarter, less than the 17 percent they expected at the start of July.

So, unless these companies are getting a 17% quarterly profit they're going to lay people off?

Can we say "disconnect"?

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digby 10/13/2011 09:30:00 AM |

 
Class Warfare
by David Atkins ("thereisnospoon")

Benjy Sarlin at TPM has a great article on the Republican move to play class warfare in pitting the 53% who pay income taxes against the 47% who don't. Digby and I have already gone into detail on why this supposed fault line is so bogus. Basically, the lower 47% of Americans are mostly poor, young, soliders, parents or some combination thereof. That 47% pay all sorts of other taxes besides income taxes that take up just as much or more of their total income as the total tax burden for other segments.

Sarlin's thesis boils down to the fact that since Democrats are playing "class warfare," Republicans have to as well. Democrats are trying to unite the poor and the middle class against the top 1%. In defense of the top 1% and their mostly ill-gotten gains, Republicans are attempting to united the 1% and the middle class against the poor.

The amorality of that stance aside, the fact that Republicans are forced to take this approach is remarkable in and of itself. Usually, Republicans simply scoff at Democratic attempts to point out the problems with income inequality. It's something new for Republicans to actually play class warfare themselves.

What it proves is that even Republicans know that the status quo system is broken. People used to be able to aspire to the American Dream. Now that dream is a distant joke for most Americans. There used to be enough money to have nice things in this country. Now there isn't. Somebody is to blame for that. Democrats know it. And even Republicans know it.

The new Republican push to raise taxes on 47% of the public is a clear admission by the GOP that the system isn't working, and somebody is getting away with something. Conservatives are pushing one last hurrah of ethnic and class-based resentment to save the goose of the top 1%. But it's a desperate gamble.

This isn't politics as usual, and it proves that Dems and progressives have a golden opportunity to capitalize on a key turning point. Everyone knows that one class or another is getting away with something. And the politics of pointing out mass disparities in income inequality and putting the blame on the uber-wealthy of Wall Street is insanely easy. The politics to raising taxes on the poorer half of Americans while letting Wall Street crooks skate free is infinitely harder. The progressive side of the argument also has the added benefit of being true.

This one should be a cakewalk for Democrats, if they only have the guts to ignore the fifth column that is the Third Way, and go for broke with a progressive populist message.


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thereisnospoon 10/13/2011 07:30:00 AM |