Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
by Tim F| 31 Comments
This post is in: Democratic Stupidity
Why won’t Democrats defend their own damn bill? Even if the Dems have some intricate strategy they still lose when Republicans run all over then in the media space. If public relations is such an important part of saving the effing country from complete economic collapse then it makes no goddamn sense to let Republicans set the terms by which the public discusses the bill.
Don’t just wring your stupid hands when Republicans dominate the cable shows. You have the big mic now. Use it.
I have been reading the Daily Howler for years now. Some times I agreed with him, some times I did not, most of the time I misspelled his name. Over the years, though, I never really understood his constant outrage over the treatment Al Gore got in 2000. If you have read him for a while, as I have, you will notice it always comes up sooner or later, and I never understood it and sometimes made jokes about it in the comments section here and elsewhere.
Until now. The past few weeks, DougJ’s frequent posts about the WaPo chat rooms and other encounters with the chattering classes have been really eye-opening. His most recent post, in which Ruth Marcus creates a false equivalency to the eight year crime spree we just endured with some woman not paying a couple hundred in taxes really just sums up how twisted the conventional wisdom is in DC.
I know many of you keep saying we should just ignore the talking heads and the chattering classes, and we should just tune them out, but that is ridiculous. We can’t. They control the debate, and their silliness, their inconsequential bullshit, and their tit for tat false equivalencies are really destroying this nation. I got a phone call last night from someone, and the gist of the conversation was “Well, so much for hope and change. That didn’t take long. How about Obama’s performance officer not paying her taxes, either?” This wasn’t an uneducated, uninformed person- this is someone who follows the new, which is precisely the problem.
Don’t get me wrong- I think it is insane these three candidates were not vetted better, but what is driving me truly and utterly to the brink of madness is the notion that the sins of these people is somehow on par with the real sins of the past eight years. The “shoe on the other foot” comment from Marcus almost made me spit up. Of course I got that phone call last night, and the reason I did was because HE IS INFORMED, at least by the standards of the day. He reads the newspapers and watched the nightly news shows on the cable networks. When you are getting your information from folks like Ruth Marcus, what could possibly go wrong?
The problem is who is informing us with what. Our media is simply failing us. Why have they not asked the Republicans how tax cuts are going to provide jobs? Why are they not laughing openly when the Republicans bring up capital gains tax cuts as part of a stimulus package. Why are they not asking the Republicans to explain how infrastructure spending is not stimulus? Why are they pretending this woman’s minor tax oversight is on par with outing a CIA agent or letting tens of thousands of people soak for a week in New Orleans. Why are they gleefully reporting about Joe the Plumber giving economic advice to the House republicans while their colleagues are writing about the Republicans being unified in opposition to the stimulus and putting two and two together and realizing that the opposition to the stimulus from Republicans is based on the deep thoughts of a drug addled radio host and a guy who installs toilets?
You can call me naive all you want, and I know I have a habit of falling for BS talking points, but I guess it is finally clear to me- it really is all just a game to these people. We’re all Bob Somerby now.
by DougJ| 39 Comments
This post is in: Media, Assholes, The Failed Obama Administration (Only Took Two Weeks)
Another lively Q&A with Villager Ruth Marcus today:
New York: I could care less about Daschle, who is a sleazy lobbyist in all but title, but this Killefer woman’s withdrawal over a $500 tax lien demonstrates conclusively how dishonest and worthless our Washington opinion makers are. Where was the outrage when Bush took millions from the crooks of Enron? When the FDA was turned into a criminal enterprise, and FEMA into a dumping ground for incompetent hacks? When Cheney conspired in secrecy with corporate crooks to design this disastrous energy policy? When Bush lied us into war? How about a president with a criminal felony conviction, by the way! This is our Ground Hog Press: our guardians of public morality fall asleep for eight years, and awaken when a Democrat is inaugurated. What person over six years old sees the logic in dwelling on minor technical departures from high standards, and saying nothing about leaders who immerse themselves in dishonesty and sleeze as a matter of policy?
Ruth Marcus: Sorry, I think you’re forgetting a huge amount of important reporting and critical commentary about the Bush administration over the last eight years. It feels different when the shoe is on the Demoratic foot but, really, not like there’s been a silent, complaisant press.
[….]
Get real, Ruth: The only political leaders you folks in the media ever want to see pay a price for wrongdoing are those who get caught in titillating sex scandals (Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer) or other fun and tawdry episodes that are easy and entertaining to report (Rod Blagojevich, Duke Cunningham). You firmly believe (and write!) that actual abuse of power and the commission of true felonies should be ignored and forgotten when committed by the Serious and Powerful leaders of the royal court you apparently think you serve.
Ruth Marcus: Sorry, but that’s ridiculous. Personally, I hope I never have to cover another sex scandal in my life. But “royal court”?–what, we just serve Bush & Co. in your view and then switch to Obama? I just don’t think that every bad action is the proper subject for criminal prosecution.
Despite what at least one of our commenters thinks, it’s important to push back against these shitheads. I’m glad to see some readers doing that here.
by Tim F| 69 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Politics, Previous Site Maintenance
Picture Tom DeLay, somewhere in Texas, tuning in to CNN FOX in between meeting with his lawyers. DeLay’s party could rewrite the Constitution with the kind of majority that Democrats just won, and the left bench is still getting rolled. He still has that indictment to worry about and nobody calls other than NewsMax, but for all that it’s hard to imagine that Delay does not watch and laugh.
Republicans Walking All Over Dems Increasingly Looks Like A Consensual ActPost + Comments (69)
by John Cole| 88 Comments
This post is in: Republican Stupidity, Clown Shoes
Chief Republican economic advisor Joe the Plumber speaks:
And no reason to be subtle, he said, as long as folks inform themselves. “I don’t believe there’s two sides to every story. It’s black and white,” Wurzelbacher explained. “There’s right and wrong.”
One thing that needs to be done, he said, is killing this stimulus package, because it’s just another example of “American government” — Republicans and Democrats — “kicking our butts left and right.” He also called it welfare.
As for his own political career, America will just have to wait six years until his son grows up.
“I don’t know if the American public deserve me,” he said, “but my son definitely deserves my time now.”
Normally, I would agree that the American public doesn’t deserve to be governed by someone like Joe the Plumber, but these days I am not so sure. If there was a way I could have the Republicans governed by Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin, and the rest of us led by others, I would do it in a heartbeat.
*** Update ***
BTW, as many commenters have pointed out, black and white and right and wrong are two sides to a story.
This post is in: Media, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Democratic Stupidity, The Failed Obama Administration (Only Took Two Weeks)
Obama has been humbled! Obama can not live up to his ethical standards! Obama is fleeing the White House! A scalp is claimed, and the Victor Davis Hanson at the NRO predicts the end of the Obama administration:
We are quite literally after two weeks teetering on an Obama implosion—and with no Dick Morris to bail him out—brought on by messianic delusions of grandeur, hubris, and a strange naivete that soaring rhetoric and a multiracial profile can add requisite cover to good old-fashioned Chicago politicking.
***At home, Obama is becoming laughable and laying the groundwork for the greatest conservative populist reaction since the Reagan Revolution.
Abroad, some really creepy people are lining up to test Obama’s world view of “Bush did it/but I am the world”: The North Koreans are readying their missiles; the Iranians are calling us passive, bragging on nukes and satellites; Russia is declaring missile defense is over and the Euros in real need of iffy Russian gas; Pakistanis say no more drone attacks (and then our friends the Indians say “shut up” about Kashmir and the Euros order no more “buy American”).
This is quite serious. I can’t recall a similarly disastrous start in a half-century (far worse than Bill Clinton’s initial slips). Obama immediately must lower the hope-and-change rhetoric, ignore Reid/Pelosi, drop the therapy, and accept the tragic view that the world abroad is not misunderstood but quite dangerous. And he must listen on foreign policy to his National Security Advisor, Billary, and the Secretary of Defense. If he doesn’t quit the messianic style and perpetual campaign mode, and begin humbly governing, then he will devolve into Carterism—angry that the once-fawning press betrayed him while we the people, due to our American malaise, are to blame.
Let me first note that considering the NRO and VDH have proclaimed victory in Iraq so many times and for so long all while screaming that removing the troops will “lose” Iraq that I think the Democrats don’t have much to worry about here, and that they are safe and secure for a long, long time.
But on to the more important point- I find it absolutely mind-boggling that the village and the GOP are now actively and openly rooting for this administration to fail. I admit that Daschle sure looked to me like he was committing tax evasion, and he never should have put his name in the mix knowing full well that this could be a problem. You all can call him a nice guy all you want, but he screwed Obama. President Obama, for his part, stood by him for too long, and while it is nice to see loyalty in the face of right-wing criticism, this was a bad place to spend political capital. I would also note that it sure is refreshing to see President Obama do what Bush never in eight years could- acknowledge the obvious and admit to and take responsibility for a mistake.
Second, I find this “gotcha” nonsense on the ethics question maddening. Has anyone pointed out that the point of high ethical standards is not just publicly setting them, but it is setting them and living up to them. In the Geithner case, I think Obama failed, as did the Senate when they confirmed him. I was ambivalent at the time (and my judgment may have been shaded by knee-jerk opposition to the frothing nutters on the right), but now, looking back, they should have put the kaibosh on him. But with the Daschle issue, even though Obama is admitting a mistake, this was not an ethical lapse.
Let me be clear. Tom Daschle was never in the administration. He was never confirmed. This was not failing to adhere to ethical standards, this WAS adhering to them. Same with that woman who withdrew her name yesterday for not paying a couple hundred taxes (and the stupidity of that can be covered some other time and place- our tax laws make no damned sense whatsoever). But again- this wasn’t a failure to follow ethical standards, this was adherence to them. Say it again- Tom Daschle never was confirmed. Obama set ethical standards, and Daschle did not meet them. Obama’s mistake was supporting him, but in the end, we had the ethical outcome- no Daschle in the administration.
And for some perspective, this was not an administration official outing a CIA agent and then engaging in perjury and obstruction of justice for several years, all with numerous willing accomplices high in the WH power structure. This was not an administration pursuing illegal firing of justice department employees for ideological reasons. This was not, well, do I really need to go through all of them again?
I really can not wait to see what happens on Friday when the unemployment numbers hit 8%, and the Republicans have spent the week blocking the stimulus package and lying about government spending not being stimulus all while getting their economic advice from a plumber, and the village has spent two weeks playing the same old games- “Is he smoking again? Did they break their word on transparency by only having five members of the media present for the second oath?”
Just shoot me now. DougJ, a couple of weeks ago when discussing the Broders and the Milbanks and the rest of the crowd noted the following:
I’m watching Monica Crowley and Pat Buchanan on the McLaughlin group and so help me God, I am praying for a dirty bomb in Georgetown.
These people will destroy us all.
Don’t be fooled by Obama—we are fucked.
Go read the op-ed pages today at the WaPo and the NYT and tell me he is wrong. Watch CNN or MSNBC or Fox News for 15 minutes and tell me you come away with a different opinion.
Quite literally, everything in this country is melting down, we are in two wars we can not afford, the market is dead, the jobs market is horrible, we are probably going to foolishly dump trillions into more bad banks, no one has any money and the economy is so bad that IBM is working to send out-of-work employees to India to find jobs, large portions of Appalachia are still frozen over and without power, and, it turns out that for the past eight years our entire food system in the United States has been completely and wholly unregulated, and the village and the GOP are back to business as usual.
So just blow it out your ass if you think I am shirking my “responsibilities” as a blogger by posting pet pics and talking about the Steelers all the time. I have to keep sane somehow.
*** Update ***
This got rantier and disjointed as I wrote it. Sorry. I am smacked up on coffee and the idiots on CNN were giving me chest pains while I wrote it.
by DougJ| 22 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics
I’m not sure this numbers are publicly available yet or not — I can’t find them with a google search. But my economics guru writes:
So, Dec jobs revised up to 659,000 (from 500) while January came in at 522,000. Why do they keep doing this revision stuff? How can one be off by 30%?
So, I guess Dec people really did fire everyone.
659 is a big number…..
I don’t know if the 522K is a projection or what they’ll actually announce tomorrow. (Of course, whatever it is, it’s likely to get revised upwards later.)
Probably not enough jobs lost to get Joe and Mika’s attention.
Update: ChrisB explains these numbers:
The jobs numbers come from the ADP Employment Report, which ADP derives from its payroll data. It’s not the official jobs report from the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, which comes out on Friday.