Texas Gov. Rick Perry considers 2012 presidential run

Does the welfare mama really think he has a chance? The GOP already has the guy who created Obama-care at the state level in Massachusetts running, so why not? Go figure.

"I'm going to think about it," the Texas governor told reporters at a bill signing in Austin today, per the Austin American Statesman. "But," he added, "I think about a lot of things."

NOTE FROM JOHN: It's hard to imagine Rick Perry being a serious candidate for the GOP nomination. There have been serious rumors for years about Perry's sexual orientation, and in today's hardline GOP even the rumor of being gay would pretty much nix getting the nomination. Read the rest of this post...

Rick Perlstein on Hubert Humphrey and "the road not taken"

Historian Rick Perlstein has a terrific article in the New York Times commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Hubert Humphrey.

But the article is also about us, Democrats and progressives, the road we took in the Johnson-to-Clinton years, and the road we didn't. In the process, Perlstein reshuffles the list of "saints and sinners" who got us to this place. For many, chief on the sinners list is Hubert Humphrey.

Humphrey is one of the most misunderstood Democratic politician of the 20th century (along with, in my view, Robert Kennedy and that old Pendergast fellow, Harry Truman). Humphrey's reputation went through three stages. He started as a strong Minnesota New Dealer and fierce advocate for civil rights, rose as a prominent Senate liberal to become Lyndon Johnson's VP, then became tarred by the Vietnam War prosecuted hard by Johnson's determined muscular anti-communism.

By 1968, when he was eventually nominated for president, he was either an old-style FDR pol in the eyes of older voters, or a Johnson-picked sell-out in the eyes of younger ones. He narrowly lost to Nixon and never attained the national stage again.

Humphrey's "third age" occurred again in the Senate, where he argued unsuccessfully for economic (New Deal–style) coalitions in a time poised between (1) the New Dems of the then-present, whose push for quotas in hiring threatened to split the interests of struggling whites from those of struggling blacks, and (2) the coming white-collar pro-corporate types for whom Jimmy Carter (a current saint) is John the Baptist to both Reagan and Clinton.

All in all, it's a fascinating look at how we, as Democrats, made the journey from FDR to Clinton, seen through the career of the last surviving faithful New Deal politician. He was screwed by Johnson (my term, not Perlstein's) but in many respects, the shifting Humphrey reputation is a mirror in which we read ourselves.

I'll close with one of Perlstein's observations:

In 1976 [Humphrey] joined Representative Augustus Hawkins, a Democrat from the Watts section of Los Angeles, to introduce a bill requiring the government, especially the Federal Reserve, to keep unemployment below 3 percent — and if that failed, to provide emergency government jobs to the unemployed.

It sounds heretical now. ... “Government cannot eliminate poverty or provide a bountiful economy or reduce inflation or save our cities or cure illiteracy or provide energy,” President Carter said in his 1978 State of the Union address, a generation before Bill Clinton said almost the same thing, cementing the Democrats’ ambivalent retreat from New Deal-based government activism.

Mr. Carter saw to it that only a toothless Humphrey-Hawkins law passed — one that made fighting inflation the government’s implicit policy goal while the toll of high unemployment was given much lower priority.

And the Fed's been theirs ever since.

We're now back to a time of New Deal opportunity, when economic concerns can unite a progressive coalition across race and cultural boundaries. As Perlstein says:

With unemployment once again at 9 percent, inflation minimal, corporate profits at record levels even in the face of criminal perfidy by bankers, the trade deficit at $48.2 billion and racial resentment running as high as ever, shouldn’t we perhaps spare a thought, on Hubert Humphrey’s 100th birthday, for his road not taken?

The "road not taken" is shockingly, once more an option. Shall we take it? After all, a progressive coalition that unites economic interests is how Cairo came to Wisconsin.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Where is the "caring Republican"?

From GOP consultant Alex Castellanos, on the 2012 presidential race.

Campaigns don’t pick candidates; they make candidates. Kill the king, become the king. Stand up to power and power becomes yours. This is the moment for a new generation of Republicans to release the past and inherit the future.

The opponent Obama needs to run against, the only one he can beat, is the old, uncaring Republican. It is not a caricature he needs to create. It lives, it walks, it breathes. It’s the Gingrich. In this operatic campaign of seduction, he is the devil in a red dress, a temptress who would lead Republicans to ruin.

It's not just the Gingrich. It's pretty much every serious GOP presidential candidate. Romney felt the need to suddenly become a neanderthal, denying his decades of gay rights support, and turning on his own health care reform success story in Massachusetts because it was a tad too much like President Obama's, all because he wanted to be the nominee of a party controlled by fellow neanderthals at any cost. Giuliani, same story. Now Rudy is suddenly anti-gay (ish). Sure he is.  You don't win GOP nominations, to the presidency, a congressional seat, or much else by caring for much of anyone who isn't rich. Read the rest of this post...

Barcelona police resort to violence to move peaceful protesters

Somehow the excuse of "we need to clean the public square" doesn't sound very convincing, so it's no wonder some of the protesters decided to stay. Keep in mind that unemployment in Spain is over 20% and for the younger generation, it's over 40% so they have legitimate arguments against the political class. Who in the west isn't upset with the free ride that the bankers have received after the destruction that they left behind? The only real surprise is that the protests have been so limited. Read the rest of this post...

Projected GDP growth downgraded to 2.8%

Thanks to Brad DeLong, we notice this from the Wall Street Journal blog (my emphasis):

Another shoe drops: Worse-than-expected durable-goods orders in April pushed Macroeconomic Advisers to cut their forecast for second-quarter GDP growth to 2.8% from 3.2%.

As the article observes, the slowdown case is gathering steam (ok, having fun with metaphors here).

Remember — GDP growth of 2.5% is one of our magic numbers. That's the number needed to keep the current rate of unemployment stable. DeLong comments:

Time to PANIC!!: Second-Quarter Real GDP Growth Looks Slow Enough to Put No Upward Pressure at All on the Employment-to-Population Ratio

And that's just his headline. Paul Krugman adds:

Last year I warned that we seemed to be heading into the “Third Depression” — by which I meant a prolonged period of economic weakness[.]

Click the link to see what "Third Depression" means and what shape it could take. Suffice it to say, hard times ahead. If you can, plan accordingly.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Classy

Over at the Nation:

[Ed] Schultz works hard, producing three hours of radio programming every day, along with an hour of television each night. Along with Fox’s Sean Hannity, he maintains a dramatically busier schedule than is common or expected of major media personalities. And sometimes, in the midst of all that talking, he says the wrong thing.

That happened Tuesday when Schultz was in the midst of a radio rant about right-wing criticism of President Obama’s European trip. Schultz was taking apart the conservatives who were attacking Obama for being out of the country when tornados were hitting Oklahoma and Missouri, noting that they had not been angry with George Bush for taking trips at similar points. In the midst of the conversation, Schultz said, “President Obama is going to be visiting Joplin, Mo., on Sunday, but you know what [Republicans are] talking about, like this right-wing slut, what’s her name? Laura Ingraham? Yeah, she’s a talk slut. You see, she was, back in the day, praising President Reagan when he was drinking a beer overseas. But now that Obama’s doing it, they’re working him over."

Schultz agreed, issuing one of the most heartfelt apologies ever aired by a television personality. Decrying his own use of “vile and inappropriate language,” he opened Wednesday night’s “Ed Show” on MSNBC by saying: “I am deeply sorry, and I apologize. It was wrong, uncalled for, and I recognize the severity of what I said. I apologize to you, Laura, and ask for your forgiveness.”

And Ingraham accepted that apology, showing some class of her own by saying of Schultz's statementt: "It seemed heartfelt, it seemed like he really wished he hadn't said it, and I accept that apology.

Two interesting points. First, MSNBC reportedly got on Schultz's case about what he'd said. When do you find that on FOX? Second, have you ever heard Limbaugh, or any conservative blowhard, give that heartfelt, and immediate, an apology? There's usually a difference between making a single mistake and revealing your character. In this case, Schultz did both - and the latter in a good way. Read the rest of this post...

What happens when you put a camera on the helmet of a US soldier in Afghanistan

A fascinating video from the NYT. I told my nephew it reminded me of his first-person shooter game, Call of Duty. His response? "Doesn't seem as fun." The video doesn't embed, you need to watch it here, I think it's fascinating. Read the rest of this post...

Clyburn: Racism to blame for Obama's problems

I suspect some of Obama's reticence, that drives us insane, is also due to his response to racism. From The State:

“You know, I’m 70 years old,” he said. “And I can tell you — people don’t like to deal with it, but the fact of the matter is – the president’s problems are in large measure because of the color of his skin.”

Clyburn cited the hate mail, racist phone calls and offensive faxes he said he gets on a regular basis. Asked how that relates to Obama, Clyburn retorted: “We have the same skin color — that’s how it relates to him.”

Great rejoinder. Read the rest of this post...

Robert Cruickshank on progressive coalitions, Democratic coalitions, and Obama

This is a fascinating discussion by Robert Cruickshank of Calitics about how coalitions work, and how a progressive coalition can be built and strengthened in the age of Obama.

The kick-off for the interview is this article in Daily Kos, also by Cruickshank, and the recent dust-up over the Cornel West comments on Obama. About coalitions, Cruickshank writes, correctly I think (my emphasis):

Conservatives simply understand how coalitions work, and progressives don't. Conservative communication discipline is enabled only by the fact that everyone in the coalition knows they will get something for their participation. A right-winger will repeat the same talking points even on an issue he or she doesn't care about or even agree with because he or she knows that their turn will come soon, when the rest of the movement will do the same thing for them.

Progressives do not operate this way. We spend way too much time selling each other out, and way too little time having each other's back. ... But within our own movement, there is nothing stopping us from exhibiting the same kind of effective messaging - if we understood the value of coalitions.

About Democrats and the so-called "Democratic coalition" Cruickshank writes:

The bigger problem is that it is very difficult to successfully maintain a coalition in today's Democratic Party. Michael Gerson has identified something I have been arguing for some time - that the Democratic Party is actually two parties artificially melded together. I wrote about this in the California context last fall - today's Democratic Party has two wings to it. One wing is progressive, anti-corporate, and distrusts the free market. The other wing is neoliberal, pro-corporate, and trusts the free market. ... The only reason these two antithetical groups share a political party is because the Republicans won't have either one.

It's clear that the "Democratic coalition" can never function as Cruickshank prescribes above, since many of goals of the two groups are actually opposite. The Cruickshank rule, if you want to define it, is that in every compromise with the other side, every member of the coalition either advances his goals, or at least, never suffers a loss. With Democrats, every advance of the DLC-corporate agenda is automatically a loss for progressives; and every progressive victory on taxes, for example, is always a loss for neoliberals. That baby can't be split.

Cruickshank says that Obama has his own coalition, which isn't quite identical with the Democratic "coalition." In the Obama coalition, progressives are considered always expendable by Team Where Else You Gonna Go? (They're also hated and sneered at, I'd add, but why pile on?)

Into that context comes this interview. It starts with "What's a coalition?" and considers what progressives can do to strengthen theirs — and also strengthen their hand vs. Obama's eight-dimensional machinations.

A very good conversation. The interviewer is Sam Seder, who is doing excellent work at Majority.fm. (If you want to help him out, click here; they're member-funded over there and just getting on their feet.)



Note that there's both negative and positive in the conversation. Negative: Failing to protect ACORN. Positive: Wisconsin and Planned Parenthood. We can learn.

It's a three-sided game — Obama, Dems, and us. The stronger we are — not Dems, but progressives — and the more united as a coalition, the more we have to be taken into account. I'm in a different place with Obama than Cruickshank is, but I agree 100% with his tactical recommendations.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Obama signs Patriot Act with minutes to spare

Another great day for freedom and democracy. Hooray for no debate because it only raises questions. It also raises unnecessary hope that Congress might do something smart.

US President Barack Obama has signed a four-year extension of the Patriot Act from Paris, extending post-September 11 powers allowing the government to secretly search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of alleged terrorists or their supporters.

Hours after the US Senate and House of Representatives passed the law, through votes taken in rapid succession, and just minutes before the law was to expire at midnight in Washington DC, Obama sent in a digital signature, finalising the renewal on Thursday.

During congressional debates, legislators rejected attempts to temper the law enforcement powers to ensure that individual liberties would not be abused.

Read the rest of this post...

Yemen on edge of civil war as US tells Americans to leave

This is going to get ugly and the US was supporting the wrong leader. The difficulty here is that there are violent, religious extremists operating in Yemen but that is still no excuse for supporting a dictator.

The United States continues to press for a political transition in Yemen, with President Obama joining other leaders of G-8 countries Thursday in urging Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to give up power and avert rising violence.

But with Mr. Saleh digging in his heels – despite an earlier agreement to step down – and the Arabian Peninsula country careening toward what some fear could be civil war, the US is ordering nonessential personnel and all employees’ family members to leave. It is also urging US citizens in Yemen to depart while commercial transportation is still available.

In other words, the US government now foresees worsening conflict and instability in a country where Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has gained a foothold in recent years.

Read the rest of this post...

Tory-Lib Dem coalition showing more signs of strain

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has recently discovered his spine after his key voting issue was trounced in elections thanks to the Tories. The Conservatives have been attempting to ram through major changes to the NHS but Clegg is now pushing it back for a more in depth review. If the coalition crumbles, it's not clear that the Conservatives could hold the government together so while they can complain, their options are limited.

Clegg told patients and medical professionals at University College London hospital that it would be wrong to force the bill through parliament after the government's "listening exercise" on the NHS proposals ends next month.

"I don't think it would be right for us to hold this listening exercise – to make big changes to the legislation – and then to seek to bounce it through parliament," he said. "It is very important that MPs, who represent millions of patients up and down the country, have the opportunity to really look at the details that we are proposing.

"I think we will need to send the bill back to committee. I have always said that it is best to take our time to get it right rather than move too fast and risk getting the details wrong."

Read the rest of this post...

Ratko Mladic arrested in Serbia for war crimes

It took much longer than it should have to catch up, but he is now in The Hague. The Guardian:

Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect, General Ratko Mladic, was arrested in a north Serbian village 16 years after commanding the worst atrocity on the continent since the Nazi era.

The surprise arrest of the genocide suspect, wanted for the mass murder of almost 8,000 men in Srebrenica, turned a page in the history of the Balkans, offering Serbia closure on decades as a virtual international pariah and giving the country a chance to take its place as a pivotal regional democracy eventually anchored in the European Union.

"We have lifted the stain from Serbia and from Serbs wherever they live," said President Boris Tadic, announcing the arrest of the fugitive who had been living in a cousin's cottage in a village north-east of Belgrade under the alias Milorad Komadic. "We have ended a difficult period in our history," Tadic added.

Read the rest of this post...

Older Japanese engineers ask to fix Fukushima to save younger generation

Every culture has its positives and negatives, but stories like this is what makes Japan amazing. These people know that they have a high risk of dying yet they are asking for the job. From the team leader of the over-60 nuclear engineers:

"We shouldn't leave the work only to young engineers," he said. "Young people, especially those who have children in future, should not be exposed to radiation." More than 1,000 people, including young subcontractors, are currently working in sensitive conditions at Fukushima in an on-going bid to restore control at the damaged six-reactor plant.

Read the rest of this post...