White House: We accept Simpson's apology; he'll continue to serve

The White House has reacted (some would say predictably) to Alan Simpson's Macaca Moment, making it (I would say) their own (h/t Gridlock; my emphasis):

Jennifer Psaki, the deputy communications director, said, “Alan Simpson has apologized and while we regret and do not condone his comments, we accept his apology and he will continue to serve.”

What's to say? They're doing it because they want to.

A Krugman reminder (again my emphasis):

At this point, though, Obama is on the spot: he has to fire Simpson, or turn the whole thing into a combination of farce and tragedy — the farce being the nature of the co-chair, the tragedy being that Democrats are so afraid of Republicans that nothing, absolutely nothing, will get them sanctioned.

When you have a commission dedicated to the common good, and the co-chair dismisses Social Security as a “milk cow with 310 million tits,” you either have to get rid of him or admit that you’re completely, um, cowed by the right wing, that IOKIYAR [It's OK if you're a Republican] rules completely.

And no, an apology won’t suffice. Simpson was completely in character here; it was perfectly consistent with everything else he’s said, and with his previous behavior. He has to go.

Is this an admin throw-down? You decide.

GP

UPDATE: Hmm. As Teddy Partridge points out, the White House can't accept Simpson's "apology" since it wasn't the White House he insulted. Nice catch. Read the rest of this post...

Another chance for Obama DOJ to support Prop 8 in court

Joe reports over at AMERICAblog Gay:

Team Obama keeps hoping to avoid the issue of marriage equality. But, they can't ignore it. Over the next few months, we're going to find out if the DOJ is defending DOMA's constitutionality in the Massachusetts cases. And, we'll find out if Obama meant it when he said he supported the Prop. 8 decision. The crack team of lawyers in Obama administration can go on-the-record with its support of Judge Walker's decision. They can. But, will they?

Read the rest of this post...

New forecast shows Dems losing 6 to 7 Senate seats

Not enough to lose their majority, but pretty damn close.

On average, over the model’s 100,000 simulation runs, the Democrats are projected to lose a net of six and a half Senate seats, which would leave them with 52 or 53 senators. (Even though the G.O.P. primary in Alaska remains too close to call, that outcome is unlikely to alter the model.)

It seems we're not the only ones disappointed with the way the Democrats have led the past two years. It's really quite abominable that we, the people, handed them overwhelming control of the House and Senate, the presidency with a 70% approval rating, a GOP in shambles, and this is what they've done with it.

And before anyone blames it on the economy, the reason the economy is in so much trouble is because the President refused to even try to get the larger stimulus that everyone knew was needed. And the Democrats in Congress should have never ceded power to a President fearful of wielding it.

They're all to blame. Read the rest of this post...

Cops were reportedly told to shoot looters in New Orleans

I tend to not be terribly sympathetic to the looting thing. Having said that, it depends on the situation. If people are starving in a disaster, I'd much more sympathetic. If folks are out having a joy ride, taking advantage of the disaster to get something for free, I'm much less sympathetic. Pro Publica:

In the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, an order circulated among New Orleans police authorizing officers to shoot looters, according to present and former members of the department.

It's not clear how broadly the order was communicated. Some officers who heard it say they refused to carry it out. Others say they understood it as a fundamental change in the standards on deadly force, which allow police to fire only to protect themselves or others from what appears to be an imminent physical threat.

Your thoughts? Read the rest of this post...

Former RNC chair Ken Mehlman comes out as gay

Holy cow. And good for him. More of my thoughts on this over at AMERICAblog Gay. Read the rest of this post...

The Deficit Commission's 'Macaca Moment'

NOTE FROM JOHN: Krugman is ticked.

At this point, though, Obama is on the spot: he has to fire Simpson, or turn the whole thing into a combination of farce and tragedy — the farce being the nature of the co-chair, the tragedy being that Democrats are so afraid of Republicans that nothing, absolutely nothing, will get them sanctioned.

When you have a commission dedicated to the common good, and the co-chair dismisses Social Security as a “milk cow with 310 million tits,” you either have to get rid of him or admit that you’re completely, um, cowed by the right wing, that IOKIYAR [it's okay if you're a Republican] rules completely.

There's a reason that Obama picked right-wingers to run the commission, and it's not because he's going to fire them when they come to right-wing conclusions. This is what Obama does, on every single issue. He caves to the right (be it the Democratic right or the Republican right) in the hopes they'll stop being mean to him. It's no longer very surprising, but it's still sad as ever. It's not entirely clear why Krugman still holds out hope that there's some other explanation.
________________

Joe covered this last night, when the boil first burst. (All the news, no matter how painful; that's us these days.) Forgive me if I repeat — the story is that outrageous. My emphasis throughout.

Per Huff Post, in an email he "sent to the executive director of National Older Women's League Tuesday morning," Deficit Commission Co-Chairman Alan Simpson wrote:

If you have some better suggestions about how to stabilize Social Security instead of just babbling into the vapors, let me know. And yes, I’ve made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know ‘em too. It’s the same with any system in America. We’ve reached a point now where it’s like a milk cow with 310 million tits! Call when you get honest work!

This is Simpson's Macaca Moment. I bolded several items in the quote. All but one refer to mature women and their parts, written to the (female) head of the National Older Women's League. The "310 million tits" image, just by itself, is hideously grotesque. Know anyone "milking" Social Security? And "the vapors"? No sir, today they call it "demonstrating for suffrage"; these women think they should actually vote.

From a man approaching 80, this whole screed reeks of psycho-drama, in a stunning, ugly — and revealing — physical way.

But this is also the Commission's Macaca Moment. Let's count the ways:

1. Alan Simpson, whose views on Social Security are well known, was appointed by Barack Obama as the commission's Co-Chair. Simpson has very close ties to Pete Peterson and the generation-long campaign to gut "entitlement" programs* like Social Security. Together, they've been working on this for years. Simpson co-runs the thing; he carries Peterson's water; and Obama put him there.

(*What's an "entitlement" program in Washington–speak? Something they're entitled to, and you're not.)

Jane Hamsher on Simpson and Peterson:

Simpson and Peterson were appointed to Bill Clinton’s Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement Reform in 1994. Both voted to recommend partial privatization of Medicare, and raising Social Security age of eligibility to 70, Simpson [was] awarded “Economic Patriot” award by Peterson’s Concord Coalition in 1996.

2. Peterson also provides the staff for the Deficit Commission, and he's pushed hard forever to free himself and his friends of the burden of these programs. (Again, thank you Mr. President.)

More on Peterson, and Simpson, from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard:

Mr. Peterson has been on a decades-long crusade against Social Security. The day after the first meeting of the commission, which focused heavily on the need to cut Social Security, the co-chairs and two other members of the commission participated in a Peterson event that reinforced the same message. A Peterson-funded foundation is supplying commission staff.

The Macaca Comment characterizes the whole Deficit Commission. It was rigged to do what George Bush failed to do — destroy the inter-generational contract. It wants to take on all three elements of the safety net. Simpson again:

We are going to stick to the big three [Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid].

Say bye-bye, folks. It's Hello Friskies for grannie, punishment for "milking" Social Security.

Mr. President, don't fire Simpson; kill the Commission. If you do anything less, you will put your stamp on these comments, these attitudes.

The Macaca has tarred Simpson, and it tars the Commission. If you endorse the Commission, the Macaca tars you too.

And frankly, if that happens, any non-Teabagger Republican with an ounce of charisma will make you the one-term guy who fed catfood to gramps. And that will tar you for life.

Kill this Commission, before it kills you.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Videoblogger BicycleMark reports for us from Afghanistan (almost)

NOTE FROM JOHN: My friend Mark Fonseca Rendeiro, a rather prolific and good videoblogger pen-named BicycleMark, is on his way to Afghanistan for a month. I've asked Mark if he'd consider blogging about his experience here on AMERICAblog, and he's graciously accepted. Here is Mark's first post from Dubai, on his way to Afghanistan.
____________________

"You're going to work in Afghanistan.... now?" my good friend back in Amsterdam shouted into the phone, "The Dutch troops are getting out, all my other friends are getting out, but you're going?.... Fantastic." He meant it of course, the idea of starting a job in Kabul now, even if it will only last for one month, will no doubt be interesting, maybe even fantastic.

That was two days ago back in the Netherlands. Today I type these words from a semi-posh hotel in the Las Vegas of the middle east- Dubai. A staging ground for most any international aid worker or contractor, Dubai is one of the few places where one can get a same-day Visa for Afghanistan. Perhaps not by coincidence, a place with multiple flights to Kabul everyday. For me it is also a place for one last day of wearing my regular clothes, wandering streets and alleyways with a camera in my hand, and eating what may be the last good vegetarian meal for the coming month.

Over the past ten years or so that I've been travelling in different parts of the world, writing, doing podcasts, and speaking about citizen journalism, I have always proudly identified myself as a journalist. Starting tomorrow and even when I filled out the Visa papers today, I gave up the title for the possibly much less eye-catching: teacher and consultant. Of course I'm still a journalist, as reporting is my calling in this life, but if anyone on Afghan soil asks me what I do, I am anything BUT a journalist.

Where was I? Oh yes, Dubai, at least for another 8 hours. So much has been said about this economic post modern el dorado, even in these few words I'm repeating the same old song. Still, can I just tell you in case you haven't seen it, Dubai is like an ant farm; interesting to watch, useful to study, impressive in all its layers, oh oooh I'd hate to see what would happen if it dropped, so to speak. I won't go too much further on this my first post on AMERICAblog during this journey, I need my sleep during which I will no doubt dream about Afghanistan, where I will land for the first time ever, tomorrow morning.

When I next speak with you I will be in Kabul. That might also be a good time to explain more about what I'm going to do there and who I am. Until then, you'll find more of my writing, as well as podcasts, and the occasional video entry, on my site: citizenreporter.org Read the rest of this post...

F is for...

Rick Scott won the Republican primary for governor in Florida last night:

A businessman who became an outspoken critic of President Obama's health care law has won Florida's GOP primary for governor, besting the state's attorney general.

Health care executive Rick Scott, who pumped $39 million of his own money into the race, hammered opponent Bill McCollum with a series of attack ads after jumping into the competitive race this spring and positioning himself as a conservative outsider.

Scott, 57, will face Florida's chief financial officer, Alex Sink, who is running to become the Sunshine State's first female governor. Also in the race: Independent candidate Bud Chiles.

Let's take a quick trip down reminder lane. NYT:

Once lauded for building Columbia/HCA into the largest health care company in the world, Mr. Scott was ousted by his own board of directors in 1997 amid the nation’s biggest health care fraud scandal. The company’s guilty plea and payment of $1.7 billion to settle charges including the overbilling of state and federal health programs was taken as a repudiation of Mr. Scott’s relentless bottom-line approach.

“He hopes people don’t Google his name,” said John E. Hartwig, a former deputy inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services, one of various state and federal agencies that investigated Columbia/HCA when Mr. Scott was its chief executive.

Oh, we Googled. Forbes:

[HCA] increased Medicare billings by exaggerating the seriousness of the illnesses they were treating. It also granted doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. In addition, it gave doctors "loans" that were never expected to be paid back, free rent, free office furniture, and free drugs from hospital pharmacies.

(...)

Under former Chief Executive Richard Scott, it bought hospitals by the bucketful and promised to squeeze blood from each one.

Scott was forced to resign in the wake of the initial fraud charges in 1997.

Media Matters has a full dossier. Florida voters should be particularly interested in this kind of information:

Columbia/HCA Eliminated 1,000 Hospital Beds In Dade County, Florida. According to the Omaha World Herald, "Columbia/HCA has bought eight general hospitals in Dade County since December 1988. It closed two hospitals and transferred some general medical services out of a third to eliminate 1,000 acute-care hospital beds." [Omaha World Herald, 3/19/95]

Scott sacrificed patient care to cut costs. In Florida. And guess where he made a good chunk of the money he's now spending to run for office:

According to the Florida Times-Union, Richard L. Scott left Columbia/HCA "with a $10 million severance package and 10 million shares of stock valued at more than $300 million." [Florida Times-Union, 6/21/06]

This is Rick Scott:



From my letter to The Hill about Scott published 5/6/09:

In what is perhaps the most outrageous claim of Rick Scott’s latest diatribe, the former hospital chain CEO who was forced to resign just before his company paid out $1.7 billion in penalties and fines — the largest in U.S. history — for defrauding the government, making illegal deals, filing false data, granting kickbacks to doctors, and overbilling Medicare — accuses Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) of wanting to “cook the books” to pay for healthcare reform. Just because Scott ran a corporation that believed in making money at the expense of honesty and good healthcare does not mean anyone else believes that’s a justifiable strategy.

The Nation on Scott from March 11, 2009 titled Healthcare Enemy No. 1:

Having Scott lead the charge against healthcare reform is like tapping Bernie Madoff to campaign against tighter securities regulation. You see, the for-profit hospital chain Scott helped found--the one he ran and built his entire reputation on--was discovered to be in the habit of defrauding the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

It took a little while, but eventually the news caught on, and even Fox couldn't ignore Scott's shady past:



When Scott didn't like the TV ad HCAN ran against him, he sent out a fundraising email saying Comcast pulled the ad off the air, and people should give him money. Small problem there. It wasn't true. None of it. The ad came down because the ad buy ended as scheduled, and Comcast had to issue a statement countering Scott's b.s. claims. Here's more from The Huffington Post.

Scott likes words that begin with "f": fraud, falsification, fabrication. Now he wants to be governor of Florida.

I say we teach him one more "f" word. Fail. Read the rest of this post...

Koch Industries gave funding to the DLC and served on its Executive Council

Last March, Chris wrote a post explaining how Greenpeace uncovered massive anti-climate change payouts of $73 million to right wing think tanks from an obscure company, Koch Industries. This week, Koch Industries is in the news again following an expose by Jane Meyer at the New Yorker titled, "Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama":

The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.” The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.

Meyer's article has been generating a lot of attention.

But, here's a key piece of information: the Kochs haven't just given to right-wingers. Back in April of 2001, The American Prospect's Bob Dreyfuss reported that the Kochs also funded the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC):

And for $25,000, 28 giant companies found their way onto the DLC's executive council, including Aetna, AT&T;, American Airlines, AIG, BellSouth, Chevron, DuPont, Enron, IBM, Merck and Company, Microsoft, Philip Morris, Texaco, and Verizon Communications. Few, if any, of these corporations would be seen as leaning Democratic, of course, but here and there are some real surprises. One member of the DLC's executive council is none other than Koch Industries, the privately held, Kansas-based oil company whose namesake family members are avatars of the far right, having helped to found archconservative institutions like the Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy. Not only that, but two Koch executives, Richard Fink and Robert P. Hall III, are listed as members of the board of trustees and the event committee, respectively--meaning that they gave significantly more than $25,000.

The DLC board of trustees is an elite body whose membership is reserved for major donors, and many of the trustees are financial wheeler-dealers who run investment companies and capital management firms--though senior executives from a handful of corporations, such as Koch, Aetna, and Coca-Cola, are included.

I added the emphasis.

Fitting, isn't it? The entity that tries to undermine the progressive agenda from within the Democratic Party was getting funding from the guys who are trying to destroy the Democratic Party from the outside.

Just a side note: The DLC's long-time CEO, Bruce Reed, is now the Executive Director of the Obama administration's Debt Commission, a.k.a. the Cat Food Commission. Read the rest of this post...

NY cab driver stabbed by passenger who asks 'are you Muslim?'

No one saw that one coming.

Police say the passenger asked the driver, "Are you Muslim?" When the driver said yes the passenger pulled a knife and slashed him in the throat, arm and lip.

I'm looking forward to ADL's and the Weisenthal Center's statements on this.

As Peter Daou explains, hate breeds violence. Especially right-wing hate. Read the rest of this post...

Are Dems really afraid of Republicans?

I'm actually presenting this to make a contra-point (my first contra-pointal post, I guess).

Digby presents this article for consideration, from Michael Tomasky, the America-watcher at The Guardian. I would class it in the "Dems need to sack up" genre of political exhortation. Tomasky:

The narrative in Washington today could very easily be "Obama holding his own under tough circumstances". But instead it's "Obama teetering on edge of collapse as more Americans catch on to his socialist-Muslim schemes". The electoral view is that the Democrats are going to be wiped out at the polls this November. The Republicans might take control of the House of Representatives (one respected handicapper, Charlie Cook, said last week that it's no longer a might, but a will). They could even capture the Senate. The sharks of 2012, when Obama must seek reelection, are beginning to pick up the scent of blood.

Why is this so?

Tomasky has several answers, including the jobless numbers. But he assigns the bulk of the blame to fear:

But the bottom line is this: the Democrats are afraid of the Republicans. They – all of them, from Obama on down – are afraid of Rush Limbaugh and Michele Bachmann and you name it. You hear Democratic operatives talk strategy, and there's always a "logical" reason why this or that aggressive attack might not work. But it's nothing to do with logic. They're just afraid. Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman who wants the government out of everything, is a good case in point. It's been revealed that her family farm has received $250,000 in federal subsidies. If she were a Democrat, the Republicans would make sure the entire country knew it.

Digby's conclusion implies that, sadly, she has to agree with Tomasky. I'll leave you to decide if you agree with either. The case can indeed be made, and if true, it is sad.

Me? I think the Dems are fully sacked already. They just have different goals than the ones we want them to have. Goals like these, for example.

You might start with this great 2006 Harpers print piece by Ken Silverstein. Yep, 2006. Just a heads-up — we'll be back to Mr. Silverstein in a bit.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Marine commandant talks about segregating barracks, again

Last time we wrote about increased talk from the Pentagon about the possibility of segregating gay troops - racist 1950s bigot style - the Pentagon (and the White House) acted as if we were nuts. You know those bloggers, lie lies lies. Even some other bloggers poo-poo'd our report, believing the denials of a Pentagon spokesman who has lied to our community before.

Well, if they're lies, then the military head of the entire US Marine Corps is now repeating those lies. More from AMERICAblog Gay:

[A]s the White House and the Pentagon spokesman told us, repeatedly and quite vociferously when we first reported on this concern, it's not only untrue, but they just can't figure out where we come up with this crazy stuff.

Uh huh. Perhaps we get it from the head of the Marine Corps. Here's ThinkProgress' latest:

On a different, but related subject, Conway suggested that if the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” law is repealed, the Marines may consider allowing Marines not to share quarters with homosexuals.

Conway said the Marines may make such housing arrangements “voluntary” to accommodate any “moral concerns.” He said many Marines are “very religious” and because of their moral concerns “don’t want to room” with homosexuals.

But Conway stressed that if the law is repealed, the Marines would take the lead in implementing it. “We cannot be seen as dragging our feet. We’ve got two wars to fight. We’ll implement it and move on,” said Conway.

See, he's not talking about segregating gay and straight troops, the way the bigots segregated white and blacks fifty years ago. He's simply talking about letting the majority segregate itself from the minority, and not permitting the minority to integrate itself if the majority objects, just like racists did to blacks fifty years ago. See the difference? Me neither.

I'll say it again. We have an inter-racial President. How is anyone in this administration keeping their job after advocating segregation, repeatedly? Is there no limit to the affront one can make against this President, and get away with it? Read the rest of this post...

DNA test suggests Hitler may have been Jewish and North African

There goes the Fatherland.

The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph says that saliva samples were collected from 39 Hitler relatives:

A chromosome called Haplogroup E1b1b1 which showed up in their samples is rare in Western Europe and is most commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews ...

Haplogroup E1b1b1, which accounts for approximately 18 to 20 per cent of Ashkenazi and 8.6 per cent to 30 per cent of Sephardic Y-chromosomes, appears to be one of the major founding lineages of the Jewish population.

Read the rest of this post...

Besides adding 3.3 million jobs and boosting growth by 4.5%, what else did the stimulus do?

Maybe John Boehner could tell us more since he's criticizing the stimulus so much. Washington Post:

President Obama's much-maligned economic stimulus package added as many as 3.3 million jobs to the economy during the second quarter of this year, and may have prevented the nation from lapsing back into recession, according to a report released Tuesday by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

In its latest quarterly assessment of the act, the CBO said the stimulus lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 and 1.8 percentage points during the quarter ending in June and increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million. The higher figure would come close to making good on Obama's pledge that the act would save or create as many as 3.5 million jobs by the end of this year.

Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Obama is still on the Vineyard. This morning, Biden is holding an event with small business from the DC area. According to the Daily Guidance:

The Vice President will emphasize the Administration’s tax cuts for 95 percent of working families, the importance of preserving tax cuts for the middle class, and the need for Congress to pass legislation to give small businesses additional tax relief and access to capital.

I have a feeling most Americans aren't aware of that 95% of them have received a tax cut.

So, John McCain defeated GOP right-wing butthead JD Hayworth by a 56% - 32% margin. The DNC's Hari Sevugan sent a statement via email last night that captures the essence of McCain:

“Today, the Republican party of Arizona nominated for Senate JD Hayworth in the shell of a politician that was once John McCain. The complete takeover of the Republican party by the Tea Party has included taking over the soul of a Senator who was once the face of comprehensive immigration reform and who now would just build the ‘danged fence;’ a man who once reveled in being a maverick and who now is a rubber stamp for the extreme rightwing; a man whose name was synonymous with campaign finance reform and who now barely registers a notice when the law that bears his name was gutted by the Supreme Court to favor corporate America. So, we congratulate JD Hayworth on his nomination tonight,” said DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan.

Excellent. The Washington Post headline states, McCain crushes primary foe. But, McCain morphed into his primary foe. Also in AZ, Ben "Brock Landers" Quayle won his congressional primary.

Right now, with 84% of the vote in, incumbent Lisa Murkowski is behind in Alaska's GOP Senate primary by approximately 2,500 votes. Sarah Palin's endorsed candidate, Joe Miller, has the lead. Things don't look good for Murkowski, but the results won't be known for at least a week according to the Anchorage Daily News:

The Alaska Division of Elections said over 16,000 absentee ballots were requested and as of Monday night 7,600 had been returned. The first count of absentees will be next Tuesday and there will be two subsequent counts as the absentee votes trickle in on Sept. 3 and on Sept. 8.

We link to ADN.com a lot. The Murkowski's must really hate Palin.

So, lots of news for late August. What else? Read the rest of this post...

UK austerity programs hit the poor the most

Surely nobody thought the rich bankers who caused the financial meltdown would foot the bill, did they? Besides, poor families with kids are already too busy making ends meet to find time to voice their opposition and it's not as though they have the spare cash to throw at political parties to plead their case. If the GOP wins in November we should expect to see a lot more out of them that will look much like this. Wall Street has been sending cash to the Republicans who are revving up their engines, preparing to throw more handouts and tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.

So does anyone still like Nick Clegg? Somehow he makes Blair sound honest and sincere and that's no easy task. The Guardian:

In a direct challenge to Treasury claims that the package of spending cuts and tax increases announced in June was fair, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said welfare cuts meant working families on the lowest incomes – particularly those with children – were the biggest losers.

The IFS said it had always been sceptical about Osborne's claim that the budget was "progressive" but added that this instant judgment had been reinforced by a study of proposed changes to housing benefit, disability allowances and tax credits due to come in between now and 2015.

Passing judgment that is likely to make uncomfortable reading for the Liberal Democrats, the IFS concluded: "Once all of the benefit cuts are considered, the tax and benefit changes announced in the emergency budget are clearly regressive as, on average, they hit the poorest households more than those in the upper middle of the income distribution in cash, let alone percentage, terms."

Read the rest of this post...

US general pleads case for Banana Republic

Putting aside his typical Republican talking point for the moment, why is this behavior tolerated? Outside of the US, senior generals criticizing the president is Banana Republic territory. It's creepy and has no place in a functioning democracy. The last time I checked, General James Conway works for the president. Criticism is fine in the right context but this is not it. Maybe we've all become too accustomed to blowhard generals thinking they're above the system but the older I get the less I like hearing from them in public. If they can't accept one of the most basic functions of their job (accepting orders from the president) or they don't like it, resign. Is it posturing for a political career or a new job? Who knows but it turns my stomach to see this garbage and then watch it be tolerated. BBC:

A senior US general has warned President Barack Obama's deadline to begin pulling troops out of Afghanistan is encouraging the Taliban.

US General James Conway, head of the US Marine Corps, said the deadline was "giving our enemy sustenance".

Gen Conway warned that US forces in southern Afghanistan will likely have to stay in place for several years.

His comments are likely to fuel debate over US strategy in Afghanistan and Mr Obama's July 2011 withdrawal date.

Read the rest of this post...

David Cay Johnston on the Bush tax cuts

Countdown had a nice Bush tax cuts segment, including an interview with David Cay Johnston (this guy). Johnston is always very clear and very specific. (I'm including the whole piece, including the lead-in bit from Meet the Press. The Johnston interview starts at 3:58.)



So from Johnston we learn:

The Bush tax cuts were financed with $2.4 trillion in borrowed money.

Interest alone on that: All income taxes paid in January & February of this year. (That's 1/6th, if you got through grade school math.)

Right now, Small Business needs domestic demand, not tax cuts, to be profitable.

Which prompts me to ask, does Big Business need domestic demand? Because the rich are doing everything they can to kill it, and when the subject is money, those folks aren't stupid. (That's not a facetious question, by the way; it's worth pursuing. Do the rich still need the U.S. consumer?)

About that "relentless questioning" by David Gregory, I have the same media curiosity I had before. Assuming Gregory's not off the reservation, it seems he's busting Boehner's chops because:

1. The fix is in to kill the Big Boy tax cuts, and this is his piece of it; or
   
2. The fix is in to extend the tax cuts, and he's burnishing populist cred in spite of that.

Either way, he's leaving an actual mark on GOP chops — not something you normally see on the Sunday talks.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Late night Paris

An evening with friends in Paris usually consists of dinner or a bar, or on the weekend, dancing. I decided to grab a few videos of nights out with the friends, in order to share with you guys a typical Parisian night on the town.

One evening last week, I took a visiting American friend to Marcus' favorite new bar, Les Souffleurs, in the Marais. From what I can tell, Souffleurs comes from souffle, to blow. A souffleur is actually a prompter in the theater - someone off stage who gives the actors their lines, or "blows" the words to the actors. Souffleur has also been used as the name of a French submarine, because of the "blow spout." So it's hard to know the intent. Hell, it could even be a sexual pun.

I guess you'd call Les Souffleurs a "gay bar," except it's really just a very cool bar that just happens to have a pretty gay clientelle. Maybe calling it straight-friendly would be more appropriate. It's a skinny little hole in the wall with all sorts of charm and ambience. A nice, cute, relatively young - and friendly - crowd, and dancing in the very small basement cave until the hour is late. (And the mojitos are good, and not outrageously priced, for Paris.) Here's a quick video of Marcus sharing a story at the bar.



Saturday night we had arranged with Friday night's picnic crowd to meet at a bar where, before midnight, they dance Tango and waltzes. It was a total hoot. Then at midnight, they switch for a few minutes to a line dance that they call "the Madison." It sounded awfully familiar to me until an American friend mentioned "it's the Hustle!" I unfortunately did not get a video of the Frenchies doing the Hustle, as I had been grabbed onto the dance floor by my friend Clément, and was trying desperately to remember the dance steps I learned in 8th grade (a long time ago). I failed miserably.

After midnight, the music switched to "Rock" as the French call it. Which isn't really rock. It's oldies from the French and American 60s, 70s, and a wee bit from the 80s (too wee a bit). It was great fun. Basically a healthy mix of American and French 70s discos (and more). Here's the gang dancing to Claude François' "Magnolias for Ever." Which, best as I can gather, is a cheesy French disco song.

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CNBC: tax cuts *do* add to deficit

Of course they do but who wants to get in the way of a good rant by the Republicans? As you can read inside the link, even many top Republican economic advisers going back to the Reagan years admit tax cuts add to the deficit. CNBC:

I was very encouraged to read an article last Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Voters Back Tough Steps to Reduce Budget Deficit.” What is discouraging is that some people, mostly Republican politicians, are trying to convince people that tax cuts do not contribute to the deficit. This is not only misinformation, it is dangerous misinformation.

The misinformers’ claim is that tax cuts pay for themselves and thus do not impact the deficit negatively. They claim that lower tax rates stimulate the economy and job growth so much that you wind up with more tax revenues at lower rates than you do at higher rates. While President Bush was telling the public that tax cuts pay for themselves, his 2003 Economic Report of the President, pages 57-58, told a very different story...

Yes, the GOP politicians are dangerous. Read the rest of this post...