Who are we rooting for?
Archives for January 2013
The Dead Horse Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves/Open Thread
I know that the general human failure to assess risks appropriately is one of those things we dweebs kvetch about all the time (and certain kinds of insurance purveyors profit from), but what the hell. Might as well blather on about it again.
Here’s a graphic disinterred from Newsweek’s gravefrom way back in 2010.
I’m really posting this as an addendum to Doug J’s take on the lead/crime story. He noted that Americans don’t actually realize how much crime rates have dropped over the last couple of decades; the graphic below widens the net of things Americans (and people in general) have trouble accepting in our inevitable encounters with risk. I’m sure pointing this old story out once again will do as much good to the how-great-it-is-to-be-armed as young Kevin Bacon achieved in this scene. Still, one must but try, so here it is:
Just as a hint to where some posting thoughts are going — I was struck in reading both Kevin Drum’s lead story and looking over the juxtapositions above by the number of times the appropriate response to the data comes from the world of public health. That’s hardly the glamour end of medicine or social policy, but considering the returns we’ve already got from things like clean water and childhood vaccination, public health becomes one way to thin k about essential medicine, social policy — even justice, and economic returns.
The dicey bit, of course, is that if you accept for the moment Drum’s argument that lead in the environment drives all kinds of consequences over decades-long timescales, it becomes brutally obvious that the GOP approach is hopeless. There’s no government-free market solution to the problem. Which means that there is no solution to be had from our current Republican party. Which, I suppose, is why it’s important to repeat what’s been said so often before — the GOP has a fundamentally failed conception of government and society, and hence it’s time as a political force must come to an end. More to come on this theme.
And with that, it’s the cocktail hour,* and — why not?! — time for an open thread.
*Satan’s Whiskers? Really? Did folks drink that and live?¹
¹Which prompts the hideous and blasphemous pun: if Jesus were an organ donor would he have said “surely my liver redeemeth?” OK. I’m sorry. I’ll shut up now.
The Dead Horse Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves/Open ThreadPost + Comments (113)
Open Thread: Pointing, Laughing, Fearing for the Future
Dave Weigel (he reads their crap so I don’t have to) has been keeping track of the “maximally humiliating fashion” in which Boehner retained his Speakership:
The tiny rebellion started early in the roll call, when the chair presiding over the House called on Rep. Justin Amash. Every Republican was supposed to vote John Boehner for speaker. But the Michigan sophomore cast a vote for Rep. Raul Labrador, an Idaho sophomore who happened to be sitting stony-faced next to him. The House floor filled with awkward “Oooohs” and the occasional “Who?”
The early part of the alphabet turned out to be trouble. Rep. Paul Broun voted for Allen West—who lost his seat last year—to become speaker. John Bridenstine, a new member from Oklahoma who upset an incumbent in a 2012 primary, voted for Eric Cantor. When Cantor’s turn came, he said “John. Boehner.” with the tone of voice you’d use on a telemarketer who put you on hold for three hours.
But that didn’t stop the dissents. Rep. Louie Gohmert voted for West; Rep. Steve Pearce and Rep. Ted Yoho voted for Cantor; Rep. Tom Massie, elected with help from Ron Paul’s PAC, voted for Amash. Rep. Tim Huelskamp voted for former Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, and anti-war Rep. Walter Jones voted for former Comptroller General David Walker, though the name was so unfamiliar that the chair made him repeat it. Reps. Mick Mulvaney and Raul Labrador didn’t bother voting. For a few frantic moments it looked like defections would force a second ballot—something that has not happened for 90 years—but a few stragglers (Michele Bachmann included) showed up late to end the damn thing…
When you’re depending on Michele Bachman as the Vote of Sanity, well… Weigel added, this afternoon, “Just How Incredibly Incompetent Was the Anti-Boehner Coup Attempt?“:
[NR’s] Robert Costa has (as one would expect) the best, ugliest look at the motley group of Republicans who kinda-sorta tried to overthrow John Boehner. The revelation: The conservatives were about as adept at planning a coup as Richard Reid was at setting off shoe bombs. I use the analogy advisedly, because despite his failure, Reid ended up changing our footwear’s relationship with the TSA…Politico‘s story from last night, based on Rep. Tim Huelskamp’s live whip count, revealed that the rebels hadn’t counted votes. “I only heard about it from a reporter,” Rep. Phil Gingrey told Costa. “I’m one of the most conservative guys here, and I find out about this thing 15 minutes before the vote?” said Rep. Trent Franks. Both members are outsiders who can be counted on to oppose the party’s compromises. Neither of them was courted. And as Josh Green points out, neither they nor the coup-planners had an alternative candidate, and they plotted all of this in short notice and in public.
Open Thread: Pointing, Laughing, Fearing for the FuturePost + Comments (49)
Call the question…
The fiscal cliff curb has been stepped over. And now the chatter is focused on the coming trio of Wingnut-manufactured points of doom: the Debt Ceiling, the Sequester and keeping the Federal Government funded. Of the three, two have firm deadlines for action. Without new legislation, the Federal Government will need to shut down after March 27, 2013 and the automatic budget cuts of the 2011 Sequester will begin on March 1, 2013. Failing to resolve either (or both) of these flashpoints would be a bother and cause some trouble, but it would also be in the zone of normal impotent Wingnut foolishness. The GOP would be blamed for any and all problems. I expect they will eventually capitulate as more and more folks realized that the only objective of the modern Conservative movement is chaos.
That brings us to the debt limit. The wingnuts have very little leverage when it comes to the Sequester and a Government shutdown, but they have convinced themselves that taking the global economy hostage might improve their chances. And even here they are a deeply silly and insane group of grifters. They demand that the President agree to pay a ransom before they’ll allow the USA to pay its bills, but they also refuse to say what that ransom should be. They are like kidnappers who demand that you guess how much you’ll have to pay to get get back your daughter while promising to kill her if you guess wrong. It would be impossible to negotiate with such criminals and it is impossible to negotiate with the GOP over the Debt Ceiling.
The GOP (and many in the media) would like to link all three of these items in one new “Grand Bargain” negotiation/crisis/deal and drag it out through March, but that would be crazy. The Debt Ceiling is not like the other two flashpoints–there is nothing about it that can or should be negotiated. It is just about paying for the things that you’ve already bought (while the other two are about what you might or might not buy–or earn–in the future).
The wingnuts are like an inept sitcom Father who decides that he’ll stop paying all the family’s bills as a way to force them to agree to his budget/plan for a family vacation to Wally World. Every time he argues that he’s being “financially responsible” the laugh track gets turned to eleven.
There isn’t any reason to wait until February or March to have the Debt Ceiling fight. President Obama should call the question. Let’s have the Debt Ceiling fight now. It won’t be any uglier now than it will be later, so let’s get it over it.
Technically we hit the Debt Ceiling last Monday. The Treasury Department has some tricks and dodges they can use to buy time for Congress to act, but they do not need to use them all. They could pick any date in the near future and say that this is when we can no longer pay our bills unless Congress takes action. I say, make that date January 29, 2013 and refused to have a single negotiation with Congress about the matter. If Congress doesn’t act by then, then February’s Social Security checks and everything else will not be paid. I don’t think that the Wingnuts have the sand for this fight (and if they do, you can always lay down the coin as a way to buy time until they fold).
Raising the debt limit is going to invoke a wingnut frenzy of self-destruction and stupidity whenever it happens and waiting (or linking it to other issues) will not improve things.
Let’s call the question and get this Debt Ceiling fight behind us.
Cheers
Why Didn’t I Think of This 10 Years Ago? (Open Thread)
I work at home, and during holiday and summer breaks, I have to deal with screeching children and people who are inconsiderate with the TV volume. I have a home office, but I don’t like to be confined to it, and besides, the noise carries in there as well. The solution? White noise.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner…so much easier (and less contradictory) than screaming, “STOP SCREAMING!” or “TURN THAT DOWN!” every two minutes.
Please feel free to discuss whatever…
Why Didn’t I Think of This 10 Years Ago? (Open Thread)Post + Comments (170)
Oh Yes, Please! Please, Please, Please!
Come on, Deval. You know you want to:
Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), whose 32 year career in the House of Representatives came to an end yesterday, said Friday that he’s told Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) that he would welcome an interim appointment to the seat expected to be vacated by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).
Frank said that the fiscal cliff deal that passed the House of Representatives earlier this week and set the stage for a return to the same legislative fight in a matter of months “means that February, March and April are going to be among the most important months” for the American economy….
“I’m not going to be coy. It’s not anything I’ve ever been good at,” Frank said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I’ve told the governor that I would now like, frankly, to do that because I would like to be a part of that. It’s only a three-month period. I wouldn’t want to do anything more. I don’t want to run again.”
If this happens, it will be proof that the Flying Spagetti Monster is a kind and generous fiction. I can’t believe I’ve been good enough to merit a benison* such as this.
*Yes, that does raise images of rack of benison, but this is a family show, so I’m not going there.¤
¤And yeah, I would pick your pocket.
Image: Francisco de Zurbarán, St. Francis in Meditation, 1635-1639.
Oh Yes, Please! Please, Please, Please!Post + Comments (101)
Coin Collectors
Kevin Drum throws some cold water on the platinum coin movement. (There’s a possible loophole in the coinage law that allows the Treasury to strike platinum coins of any denomination. We create a trillion dollar one, put it in our bank account, and presto, no issue with the debt ceiling.):
No particular restrictions were placed on the design or issuance of platinum coins, but this paragraph was plainly intended to apply to bullion and commemorative issues for coin collectors. That’s all.
There is, apparently, a widespread belief that courts will uphold a literal, hypertechnical reading of legislative language regardless of its obvious intent, but I’m quite certain this isn’t true. Courts are expected to rule based on the most sensible interpretation of a law, not its most tortured possible construction. I don’t think there’s even a remote chance that any court in the country would uphold a Treasury reading of this law that used it as a pretense for minting a $1 trillion coin.
Read the whole thing because, in context, it’s pretty clear that he’s probably right. My response is, yes, and so what? The court case that would result would take months to resolve, and it’s probably a big political win for Obama. At a the most common-sense level, people can see how stupid the whole debt ceiling hostage taking is, and with Congress’ popularity hovering between anal warts and communism, Obama’s use of a technicality to get out of a hostage crisis would make him look like a problem solver.
The President has said plainly and repeatedly that he isn’t going to have a debt ceiling fight. He’s been far more willing to issue executive orders to change immigration policy, for example. I haven’t seem any other way for Obama to use executive power to avoid the debt ceiling, so why not give this a shot. At a minimum, perhaps he can use it to drive a concession where the platinum coin power is modified and the debt ceiling is abolished, as Josh Barro recommends.