Not sure what you all are up to, but it will be a dull one for me.
BTW- I was just watching CNN while eating dinner, and Arlen Specter is already running ads against Pat Toomey.
This post is in: Open Threads
Not sure what you all are up to, but it will be a dull one for me.
BTW- I was just watching CNN while eating dinner, and Arlen Specter is already running ads against Pat Toomey.
by Tim F| 76 Comments
This post is in: General Stupidity
Obviously this could have some ordinary explanation (outside the obvious), so there is nothing gained by jumping to conclusions.
Gov. David Paterson says “12 or 13” people were killed in an attack on an immigration services center in Binghamton, N.Y.
A federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity also says the shooter has been found dead in the building.
Officials and media reports have said as many as 41 hostages were taken.
The law enforcement official says the gunman entered the building through the front while firing. He had already blocked the back door with his car.
You have to wonder why a person would do something like that.
by DougJ| 143 Comments
This post is in: Media
Personally, I don’t care very much about Michelle Obama one way or the other, though she certainly seems like a nice person. But the punditocracy thinks that the popularity of the first lady is uber-important in general. Here’s Halperin two years ago:
In the twenty-year history of Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton(?) American politics, here are the five biggest stories respresenting the greatest political achievements, from greatest to less great:
1. George W. Bush’s fundraising, 1999-2000.
2. The large governor of a small Southern state (a/k/a “Bill Clinton”) defeating an incumbent Republican president, 1992.
3. George W. Bush’s consolidation of the Republican base, 1999-2004.
4. Bill Clinton’s surviving impeachment and thriving in his last two years in office, 1998-2000.
5. Laura Bush’s enduring popularity, 1999-present.
This post is in: Politics, Republican Stupidity
I joked about this yesterday, but these people are clinical:
Gov. Sarah Palin and the head of the Alaska Republican Party said Thursday that Sen. Mark Begich should give his Senate seat up to a special election now that prosecutors have abandoned their case against Ted Stevens. “Alaskans deserve to have a fair election not tainted by some announcement that one of the candidates was convicted fairly of seven felonies, when in fact it wasn’t a fair conviction,” Palin said in a Thursday interview with the Daily News.
The governor said she does not want to “split hairs” on whether Begich should resign or not but agrees with the Republican Party’s call for a special election.
This isn’t about a new election, because they all know that will not happen. There is no law that can be invoked, there was no wrongdoing, the election was clean and fair. The only thing they are trying to do is to marginalize and de-legitimize Mark Begich. I sometimes wish these guys would man up and look at their Sore/Loserman t-shirts from 2000 and think for a minute.
BTW- someone could have a lot of fun looking at the multiple stances of Sarah Palin regarding Ted Stevens. I vaguely remember her maverick creds being polished for going against him while she took all the money he sent back then she ran away from him during the trial and now, of course, she will probably be erecting statues in his name. If I am wrong on that, fill me in, but I would love to see a timeline with her positions and public statements regarding Stevens.
*** Update ***
From the comments:
The guy she said should resign before the election ended up losing. Now she wants the guy who won to resign so that the guy she originally said should resign can get a fair election. What a maverick!
You betcha!
by John Cole| 67 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Politics, Popular Culture
The gay marriage ban was overturned as unconstitutional. I’m sure Sullivan will have more, and this seems notable:
The Vermont House of Representatives passed a bill late on Thursday that would legalize gay marriage, but supporters failed to get enough votes to override a veto threat from the governor.
Lawmakers in the Democratic-led House voted 95-52 in support of the measure, which had already passed the state Senate by a 26-4 vote. Advocates were five votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.
The bill, which faces a largely procedural vote on Friday before heading to the desk of Republican Governor Jim Douglas, would have made Vermont the third U.S. state, after Connecticut and Massachusetts, to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.
It passed with overwhelming support in both houses, but Douglas is going to veto it so it is not a “distraction.” The Republicans are so hopeless they can’t even come up with believable bullshit anymore. And you wonder why this sort of thing is often decided in courtrooms.
Also, activist judges!
by John Cole| 21 Comments
This post is in: Politics, Democratic Stupidity
Remember when the Blago scandal hit a couple month backs and there were some exceptionally limp efforts to try and tie Blago to Obama, when in all likelihood it was the Obama team who went to Fitzgerald after finding out he was shopping Obama’s former seat? Some more background:
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was the target of attempted extortion by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, according to a source and a federal indictment filed Thursday alleging a state grant for a Portage Park neighborhood school was used as bait for a fundraising demand.
Emanuel, a confidant to both Blagojevich and President Barack Obama, is described by prosecutors as “Congressman A,” an identity confirmed by a White House aide.
The former North Side congressman, picked by Obama in November as his top staff member, was allegedly the subject of extortion in 2006 after he inquired about a $2 million state grant to benefit a school in his district. Prosecutors say Blagojevich instructed a top aide to block the release of the money, even though it had been included in the state’s budget.
Blagojevich also allegedly told a high-ranking state official that Emanuel’s brother needed to host a fundraiser for him. The indictment does not say which of two brothers was mentioned, but the White House aide said it was Ari Emanuel, a high-powered Hollywood agent active in political fundraising.
This will be interesting to follow.
by John Cole| 55 Comments
This post is in: Excellent Links, Politics
Paul Krugman and David Brooks are worth a read today. Let’s start with Krugman:
The best single encapsulation of the greed narrative is an essay called “The Quiet Coup,” by Simon Johnson in The Atlantic (available online now).
Johnson begins with a trend. Between 1973 and 1985, the U.S. financial sector accounted for about 16 percent of domestic corporate profits. In the 1990s, it ranged from 21 percent to 30 percent. This decade, it soared to 41 percent.
In other words, Wall Street got huge. As it got huge, its prestige grew. Its compensation packages grew. Its political power grew as well. Wall Street and Washington merged as a flow of investment bankers went down to the White House and the Treasury Department.
The result was a string of legislation designed to further enhance the freedom and power of finance. Regulations separating commercial and investment banking were repealed. There were major increases in the amount of leverage allowed to investment banks.
The U.S. economy got finance-heavy and finance-mad, and finally collapsed. When it did, the elites did what all elites do. They took care of their own: “Money was used to recapitalize banks, buying shares in them on terms that were grossly favorable to the banks themselves,” Johnson writes.
In short, he argues, the U.S. financial crisis is a bigger version of the crises that have afflicted emerging-market nations for decades. An oligarchy takes control of the nation. The oligarchs get carried away and build an empire on mountains of debt. The whole thing comes crashing down. Johnson’s remedy is clear. Smash the oligarchy. Nationalize the banks. Sell them off in medium-size pieces. Revise antitrust laws so they can’t get back together. Find ways to limit executive compensation. Permanently reduce the size and power of Wall Street.
Just kidding. That wasn’t Krugman, that was Brooks. I’m not sure what it says when David Brooks is even entertaining these notions of a corrupt oligarchy and not outright dismissing them, although Brooks does insist that the actual cause of this mess was incompetence, but I thought it was stunning to see this option displayed this clearly in a major newspaper. This sort of talk just a couple months ago would get you called a left-wing pinko commie America-hating traitor, and probably still is too blunt for the delicate flowers defending the status quo at Fred Hiatt’s editorial page.
Krugman is also worth a read.