I guess the NY Times has nothing better to do than write fluff pieces about wingnut provocateurs.
Archives for February 2013
Bob Woodward is Still A… Hack
Don’t just take my word, ask a professional (or two). Dave Weigel explains “How Bob Woodward’s Book Debunks His Big Washington Post Op-Ed”:
Bob Woodward’s been banging the tables of various talk shows for weeks, making the same fairly banal point: The White House proposed sequestration as part of a package to raise the debt limit in 2011. Watching Woodward in action has been disconcerting for the many reporters who covered the story in real time. Did the White House float sequestration as a “trigger” to force a better, later deal from Congress? Yes. Would this have ever become an issue if Republicans hadn’t chosen to hogtie the debt limit and hold a sixgun to its head for six months? No. So who cares?
Banal, like I said, until Woodward’s Friday Washington Post column on the topic. The Post blasted this out to its news alert list with the subject “EXCLUSIVE: Obama Misled; He and Jack Lew Planted Seeds For Disastrous Sequester.” That cranked it up from banal to outright strange. First, Woodward’s been talking about Obama’s slippery denial of ownership of sequestration all year. Second, as Brian Beutler points out, Woodward himself gets the point of sequestration totally wrong…
To argue that the White House is “moving the goal posts” when it now asks for revenue in a sequestration replacement, you have to toss out the fact that the White House always wanted revenue in the supercommittee’s sequestration replacement. This isn’t confusing unless reporters make it confusing.
Here’s Ezra Klein, on those “moving goalposts”:
… The sequester was a punt. The point was to give both sides a face-saving way to raise the debt ceiling even though the tax issue was stopping them from agreeing to a deficit deal. The hope was that sometime between the day the sequester was signed into law (Aug. 2, 2011) and the day it was set to go into effect (Jan. 1, 2013), something would…change.
There were two candidates to drive that change. The first and least likely was the supercommittee. If they came to a deal that both sides accepted, they could replace the sequester. They failed.
The second was the 2012 election. If Republicans won, then that would pretty much settle it: No tax increases. If President Obama won, then that, too, would pretty much settle it: The American people would’ve voted for the guy who wants to cut the deficit by increasing taxes.
The American people voted for the guy who wants to cut the deficit by increasing taxes.
Open Thread
I know you don’t care, but I almost just died. Ok, maybe not. But I felt like it. I had the hiccups for 45 minutes and was very seriously close to ending it all, but I chugged a bunch of warm club soda, let out a solid belch, and seem to be ok. Big middle finger to the moron who thought sugar under my tongue while bending over would solve the hiccups.
What have you all heard of the movie the Impossible? I think dad and I are going to go break the hearts of the poor Asian ladies and go for manicures with our mangled ass calloused feet, then hit lunch, and then to the movies.
Open Thread: Professor Krugman Is Really Tired of This…
(D.B. Echo at Another Monkey)
The network suits may have to put a time-delay on the Sunday morning bobblehead shows, because the good Professor is losing his patience with hacks and idiots:
As I’ve written on previous occasions, the Bernie Madoff phenomenon helped me understand a lot about the persistence of bad economics. Madoff flourished through “affinity fraud”; his investors thought he was their kind of guy, so they didn’t look hard at how he was allegedly making money. And I realized that a similar phenomenon explains the enduring popularity of goldbugs and fiscal doomsayers — including, say, the Wall Street Journal editorial page — despite years of being wrong about everything; their devotees, who consist in large part of cranky old white men, see kindred spirits and can’t see past that to the consistently terrible analysis.
But it’s not just the goldbugs who benefit from affinity fraud, a point driven home by Ezra Klein’s piece on Alan Simpson. Simpson is, demonstrably, grossly ignorant on precisely the subjects on which he is treated as a guru, not understanding the finances of Social Security, the truth about life expectancy, and much more …
So what is it that makes Simpson the figure he is? Clearly, it’s an affinity thing: never mind his obvious lack of knowledge, his ludicrous track record, reporters trust and idolize Simpson because he’s their kind of guy.
And think about what it says about them that their kind of guy is this cantankerous, potty-mouthed individual, who evidently feels not a bit of empathy for those less fortunate.
And, on the NYT op-ed page, “Sequester of Fools“:
…As always, many pundits want to portray the deadlock over the sequester as a situation in which both sides are at fault, and in which both should give ground. But there’s really no symmetry here. A middle-of-the-road solution would presumably involve a mix of spending cuts and tax increases; well, that’s what Democrats are proposing, while Republicans are adamant that it should be cuts only. And given that the proposed Republican cuts would be even worse than those set to happen under the sequester, it’s hard to see why Democrats should negotiate at all, as opposed to just letting the sequester happen.
Open Thread: Professor Krugman Is <em>Really</em> Tired of This…Post + Comments (54)
Proof of Life
For reasons that remain a complete mystery to me, some of you are worried about Tunch with this new cat. I have no idea why, the fat guy weighs 20lbs and has been with me for eleven years, weathered two dogs, and a 7.7 lb cat is not really something that is going to get in the way of his busy schedule of jumping on my bed and headbutting me until I let him out at 7 am, eating, and denting the couch:
Zsa Zsa (who is now wandering the house and now exploring the basement as she expands her comfort zone in the house) is in no way a threat to the fat man. She was hissing at him through the gate, and rather than respond, he rolled over and fell asleep. The big man is fine.
Also too, I think this was a good picture.
Zsa Zsa Update
Yes, I know I take shitty pictures:
She’s a real sweetheart, and a night owl. The dogs slept through it, but I caught her on several occasions last night carousing around the bedroom while everyone else was sleeping. She was just exploring the space.
*** Update ***
One amusing anecdote- every time I go to pick up Zsa Zsa I almost launch her through the ceiling because she is only 7.7 lbs and so much lighter than what I am used to when picking up a cat. I’m used to bending at the knees and using my legs to lift when I pick up Tunch, but with this one I try the same strategy and almost launch her into the air she is so light.