Gettin' It Done - 22

Lotsa hand-wringing and pearl-clutching over this one, but here's what I don't get when I hear "conservatives" bitchin' about it:  isn't this what you always refer to as "Creative Destruction"?  If we decide to move from one way of doing something to another way of doing it, we generally welcome that as progress.  You guys have been saying exactly that for 35 years.

22. Created Conditions to Begin Closing Dirtiest Power Plants: New EPA restrictions on mercury and toxic pollution, issued in December 2011, likely to lead to the closing of between sixty-eight and 231 of the nation’s oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power plants. Estimated cost to utilities: at least $11 billion by 2016. Estimated health benefits: $59 billion to $140 billion. Will also significantly reduce carbon emissions and, with other regulations, comprises what’s been called Obama’s “stealth climate policy.”

It just makes good sense to acknowledge that an economy that's all Dig It Up, Burn It Up, Chop It Down, Break It Down is not something that can go on forever.  So y'know what?  Call it whatever you wanna call it - re-tooling for an economy that's pointed more towards sustainability is one of the best job-creating policies there is.

The Political Stage

Episode 3 from Andrea Seabrook and Decode DC:

Gettin' It Done - 23

23. Passed Credit Card Reforms: Signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (2009), which prohibits credit card companies from raising rates without advance notification, mandates a grace period on interest rate increases, and strictly limits overdraft and other fees.

It seems like such a good thing - transparency and a reinforcement of requirements to treat people fairly; to codify the plain truth that honesty is pretty important when we're doing business with each other.

Of course, this was passed in May of 2009, when certain politicians were still thinking they needed to get something done to fix some of the problems that nearly dragged us over the cliff in 2008, and to put aside their petty ambitions and empty pursuit of power for the sake of power.

So the Credit CARD Act* passed with a level of bi-partisan support that scared the shit outa the Repubs.  They had to figure that they were helping Obama create a legacy that would put him on Rushmore if they weren't careful.  So they decided to stall.  And I think it's really just that simple.  If they keep stimulus bottled up, then they keep consumer demand bottled up too.  And the longer you can hold it off, the bigger the jump will be when you finally uncork it.  The economy will not stay bad for ever.  If Obama is gone and their guy's in the Oval Office when things really start cookin' again, they'll stand in front of a giant banner every month when the jobs report comes out proclaiming that everything good that happens from now on is because of they helped America put the steel back in our spines blah blah blah.

*the warping, twisting and torturing of the language in order to come up with memorable  titles for these laws illustrates part of the problem - I guess I understand that we can expect the American public to shade towards being Issue-Stoopid, but if we took the time and effort necessary to create the mnemonics, and put it into...fuck it, never mind.  "Issue-Stoopid" kinda says it all.

Gettin' It Done - 24

What's the controversy over Equality?  I really don't get how you oppose something like that.

24. Eliminated Catch-22 in Pay Equality Laws: Signed Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, giving women who are paid less than men for the same work the right to sue their employers after they find out about the discrimination, even if that discrimination happened years ago. Under previous law, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the statute of limitations on such suits ran out 180 days after the alleged discrimination occurred, even if the victims never knew about it.

You can spin it or turn it around and claim that anybody who's trying to get the same rights as everybody else is "pushing a radical agenda" or "wants special rights" or whatever, but that's just truly empty political word vomit.  There's absolutely nothing weird or out of the ordinary about wanting to be treated fairly.

So wait a minute.  Hey, GOP - are you saying that keeping people down is actually the way it should be?  The way you want it to be?  Do you really mean that we need to maintain a system that ensures inequality so some of us will always enjoy an advantage that others don't have and will never even have a shot at getting?

You're saying the Republican Party no longer stands for values like Fairness and Equality.

And you're saying the Republican Party doesn't support the notion that people caught breaking the law should be held to account for it.

That's what you're saying.

Gettin' It Done - 25

At the risk of sounding way too "centrist":  I'm not a fan of the Liberal vs Conservative thing, especially where the courts are concerned.  I have to be able to make whatever judgment call I need to make based on what my gut and my brain tell me is the right thing to do without a lot of clutter and noise caused by ideology or party alignment.  I'd like judges to do the same.

I don't like thinking Scalia and Aleto and Roberts are crafting decisions based on what political impact they believe it might have on the the other 2 branches.  If I'm against "conservatives" doing that, then I have to be against "my side" doing it too.

Seems like we're kinda forced into it though; forced into thinking we have to take one side or the other, but if it's just always Us vs Them, how are we supposed to get past the conflict?  How do we move towards compromise and then onto resolution?

25. Protected Two Liberal Seats on the U.S. Supreme Court: Nominated and obtained confirmation for Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic and third woman to serve, in 2009; and Elena Kagan, the fourth woman to serve, in 2010. They replaced David Souter and John Paul Stevens, respectively.

Gettin' It Done - 26

26. Improved Food Safety System: In 2011, signed FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which boosts the Food and Drug Administration’s budget by $1.4 billion and expands its regulatory responsibilities to include increasing number of food inspections, issuing direct food recalls, and reviewing the current food safety practices of countries importing products into America.

Seems like your basic no-brainer, don't it?  Here's the problem with letting a free market take care of these things:  dead people.  

It makes perfect sense that any company is going to do whatever it can do to protect its reputation.  There's a solid incentive to do things right and to try to ensure the safety of your customers - the thinking is that if your product causes harm to your customers, you won't have customers for very long, and so the problem fixes itself.  But every time we've decided it's not necessary to be proactive about these things, we end up with the same result - dead people.

All these smart business guys keep reminding us how smart they are, but they seem totally unaware of one of the absolute rock-hard fundamentals of the production process - no matter what it costs or how long it takes, doing it right the first time is always quicker and cheaper than having to go back and do it again.  And it's no different when you apply it to product safety.  Prevention is far more cost-effective than remedy.

But here's the kicker:  BizGuy knows his math, and he actually is fully aware of the Prevention-vs-Remedy Formula.  He's walked himself thru the exercise and he's decided to attack the problem of Remedial Cost by purchasing a few Coin-Operated Politicians, who'll simply block the consumer's path to the remedy.  PR, De-Regulation and Tort Reform make for a winning combination.

Throw in some Union Busting and we're right back where we started 240 years ago.

Gettin' It Done - 27

Remembering that nothing in Washington happens without the GOP saying OK at some point, Obama managed to get the new START treaty OK'd.  So lemme see if I've got the basic GOP position on armaments right.  We wanna limit the numbers of nuclear weapons and delivery systems - and we wanna commit to these limits as a way to demonstrate to the world that we're peace-loving and law-abiding, and we expect everybody else to do the same; because we believe that when we reduce the number of weapons in the world, the world becomes a safer place.  Is that about it?  You can see where I'm goin' with this cantcha?

The world is safer without so many weapons, but here in the US, we have to make sure that everybody in every saloon, every school, every library, bus station, every church is packin' a gat.  Cuz that's what'll keep us all safe.

They say that shit with a straight face too.

27. Achieved New START Treaty: Signed with Russia (2010) and won ratification in Congress (2011) of treaty that limits each country to 1,550 strategic warheads (down from 2,200) and 700 launchers (down from more than 1,400), and reestablished and strengthened a monitoring and transparency program that had lapsed in 2009, through which each country can monitor the other.

Gettin' It Done - 28

The GOP has tried to blocked everything Obama's tried to do, and they've done it in their typical way.  They vote in favor of the bill, which gives them cover (nobody needs an attack ad saying they voted against trying to give people a good incentive to Serve America), but then when the budget bill comes up, they vote against funding the thing, or they vote for an amendment that cuts the funding (doing all this in committee, of course - again for the purpose of hiding their actions from public view).  Then, if it comes up later, they can point at it and say, "the president has failed to deliver on what he promised" -or- "this represented an unacceptable expansion of the nanny state and we have to make a stand somewhere blah blah blah".

28. Expanded National Service: Signed Serve America Act in 2009, which authorized a tripling of the size of AmeriCorps. Program grew 13 percent to 85,000 members across the country by 2012, when new House GOP majority refused to appropriate more funds for further expansion.

Fact remains, we need to make sure Americans have honorable ways of serving this country that don't have to involve guns and bombs, and making other people bleed and die.

And oh yeah - putting people to work for a year or two at public expense has always been very good for the economy and for neighborhoods and for people.

Gettin' It Done - 29

Because the planet is a system that needs all of its pieces and parts in good working order.  Because a healthy soul requires a place that seems to have no boundaries.  Because horizons are essential.

29. Expanded Wilderness and Watershed Protection: Signed Omnibus Public Lands Management Act (2009), which designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, created thousands of miles of recreational and historic trails, and protected more than 1,000 miles of rivers.

Gettin' It Done - 30

One of the things that's working against Obama is that he's fallen from favor with some of the Big Industry players because he's been willing to take 'em on a bit (his reputation among the Lefties for always caving on everything notwithstanding).

Regulation is a very touchy subject in case you hadn't noticed, so if you can do anything that helps get some of the more toxic WIld Rangers of the Totally Unfettered Market to be a little more human-friendly, then you should get a coupla points for it.

30. Gave the FDA Power to Regulate Tobacco: Signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (2009). Nine years in the making and long resisted by the tobacco industry, the law mandates that tobacco manufacturers disclose all ingredients, obtain FDA approval for new tobacco products, and expand the size and prominence of cigarette warning labels, and bans the sale of misleadingly labeled “light” cigarette brands and tobacco sponsorship of entertainment events.

Gettin' It Done - 31

A 30% reduction in transport fuel consumption translates to saving $7 Billion/year just for the US Military.  Applied to the whole of the Government Facility, that 30% reduction saves enough money in one year to rebuild every elementary school in the US, and to keep Big Bird on the air for another 99 Gazillion fucking years.

31. Pushed Federal Agencies to Be Green Leaders: Issued executive order in 2009 requiring all federal agencies to make plans to soften their environmental impacts by 2020. Goals include 30 percent reduction in fleet gasoline use, 26 percent boost in water efficiency, and sustainability requirements for 95 percent of all federal contracts. Because federal government is the country’s single biggest purchaser of goods and services, likely to have ripple effects throughout the economy for years to come.

Pound sand, Willard.

Smart People

...talking about stuff that matters.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A Voice Of Reason

Repubs have Frank Luntz to teach them how to fuck people over by using the language of resentment and victimhood and entitlement.

The rest of us have George Lakoff to reveal what guys like Luntz are trying to pull, and to explain how we can resist the noxious effects of (mostly GOP) rhetoric.

All politics is based on moral values, with strict conservatives and progressives having different moral values.

There are also morally complex voters — moderates, independents, swing voters — who are progressive on some issues and conservative on others.

All issues are conceptually “framed” — that is, they have a mental structure that fits one’s moral system.

Facts matter, but only when they clearly fit one’s morally-based frames. Facts and figures, when used, should create a moral point in a memorable way. And if the facts don’t fit your frames, the frames stay and the facts are ignored or ridiculed.

--and--

A number to remember: Most people may not be aware of it, but 96% of all Americans make use of what other citizens provide through our government: 96 percent of us have received tax deductions for mortgages, education, and dependent children, business subsidies, unemployment insurance, veterans’ benefits, as well as all the other benefits that we all enjoy because of what we give and have given each other. This applies to almost all Americans, rich or not, Republican or Democrat. If your work contributed, or will contribute, to our country, you have earned, or will earn, whatever you have gotten. You are the 96 deserving percent. The other 4 percent are youngsters — too young to have benefitted yet, but they will inevitably join the 96 percent soon.

Gettin' It Done - 32

It surprises me a little that the Right Radicals didn't kick up more of a fuss on this one.  It is, after all, "just what we might expect from the angry black man."

32. Passed Fair Sentencing Act: Signed 2010 legislation that reduces sentencing disparity between crack versus powder cocaine possession from 100 to 1 to 18 to 1.

Gettin' It Done - 33

Defend what's really worth defending - and defend it against threats that are real.

It's easy to see Iran and N Korea as nothing more than The Paranoid Insular Regimes du Jour.  It's also pretty easy to be dismissive, and to see Kim and Ahmadinejad as petty tyrants we could squash like gnats.  But guess what - it ain't about Iran or N Korea.  It's about countering China's ability to use Iran and N Korea as surrogates to project power.

33. Trimmed and Reoriented Missile Defense: Cut the Reagan-era “Star Wars” missile defense budget, saving $1.4 billion in 2010, and canceled plans to station antiballistic missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic in favor of sea-based defense plan focused on Iran and North Korea.

I don't claim any special knowledge or expertise about US Foreign Policy, but I'm not about to vote for Romney when he tries to tell me our greatest "enemy" in the world is Russia.  Even at the height of the Cold War, we were kinda "back-channel allies" with the Soviets where China was concerned because they were always so scared Mao would try to pull something on their eastern flank - the Ruskies came in pretty handy helping us keep the Chinese bottled up.  Pretty smart play - using one major component of The Red Menace to contain the power and influence of The Red Menace.  So let's not go out of our way to piss off the Russians when it's more than a little likely we're gonna need 'em.

Gettin' It Done - 34

I'm a small c conservative on things like Defense and National Security.  I want an Intel system that knows what's going on in the world, and I want military capabilities that make it very painful for bad actors to fuck with us.  Also, I don't mind so much that the defense industry makes for a bunch of decent jobs.

Unfortunately, that's not what we've got now.  If you've paid any attention at all, you have to know what a horrendous boondoggle it's become - a lot of it anyway.  It actually kinda surprises me that the Right Radicals haven't been more snarly about Obama's moves on this subject:

34. Began Post-Post-9/11 Military Builddown: After winning agreement from congressional Republicans and Democrats in summer 2011 budget deal to reduce projected defense spending by $450 billion, proposed new DoD budget this year with cuts of that size and a new national defense strategy that would shrink ground forces from 570,000 to 490,000 over the next ten years while increasing programs in intelligence gathering and cyberwarfare.

Spin Doctoring

This is not new.  it just bears repeating.  And repeating. And Repeating.

From DecodeDC:

Gettin' It Done - 36 & 35

Not sure what I think about cutting back on the space stuff.  An awful lot of good things come out of the pure science that has to be done to put people and hardware into space, so in some ways, it feels a little like Walter Mondale saying we should dump the Apollo program and spend the money on social needs.  At the same time, I'm not convinced we should be making it a big priority to put a permanent base on the moon.

35. Let Space Shuttle Die and Killed Planned Moon Mission: Allowed the expensive ($1 billion per launch), badly designed, dangerous shuttle program to make its final launch on July 8, 2011. Cut off funding for even more bloated and problem-plagued Bush-era Constellation program to build moon base in favor of support for private-sector low-earth orbit ventures, research on new rocket technologies for long-distance manned flight missions, and unmanned space exploration, including the largest interplanetary rover ever launched, which will investigate Mars’s potential to support life.

This one I can get next to:

36. Invested Heavily in Renewable Technology: As part of the 2009 stimulus, invested $90 billion, more than any previous administration, in research on smart grids, energy efficiency, electric cars, renewable electricity generation, cleaner coal, and biofuels.

Gettin' It Done - 38 & 37

I truly hate the Performance Test model for improving schools.  Teachers and Administrators are actually pretty smart people, and it doesn't take a long time before they figure out the game.  I'm not saying they're all just a buncha short-cutters and cheats, I'm saying they know that about the only thing that gets improved in any big way is the balance sheets of companies that suddenly pop up to peddle Assessment Software and their new-found "expertise" as Education Consultants - the teachers and admins figure out how to do what they need to do to keep the doors open, and how to make it look like they're toeing the line as prescribed by power-drunk law-makers and self-designated "experts" who have practically no fuckin' clue how any given school actually works.

And here's the kicker:  You don't fix the schools until you fix the neighborhoods - maybe we could concentrate on that for a minute or two, eh?

37. Crafting Next-Generation School Tests: Devoted $330 million in stimulus money to pay two consortia of states and universities to create competing versions of new K-12 student performance tests based on latest psychometric research. New tests could transform the learning environment in vast majority of public school classrooms beginning in 2014.

And speaking of schooling, this one I can get behind in a pretty big way.  "Higher" education is becoming (if it isn't already) the new High School.  Since there are practically no jobs in the traditional sectors where lots of non-college-track kids could catch on, you don't get any job that doesn't require Spatula Skills if you don't have at least a coupla years beyond K-12.  By trying to do something about the Loan Sharks, Obama is trying to make it a little harder to chain these kids to a lifetime of servitude just so a few bankers' kids get new Mustangs for graduation.

38. Cracked Down on Bad For-Profit Colleges: In effort to fight predatory practices of some for-profit colleges, Department of Education issued “gainful employment” regulations in 2011 cutting off commercially focused schools from federal student aid funding if more than 35 percent of former students aren’t paying off their loans and/or if the average former student spends more than 12 percent of his or her total earnings servicing student loans.

Gettin' It Done - 39

Because you can't concentrate well enough to learn everything you need to learn when food is competing for the top spot on your brain's list of priorities.

39. Improved School Nutrition: In coordination with Michelle Obama, signed Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010 mandating $4.5 billion spending boost and higher nutritional and health standards for school lunches. New rules based on the law, released in January, double the amount of fruits and vegetables and require only whole grains in food served to students.

And btw -  
It has given us the iced doughnut, the burger and the fattest people on Earth.

But now America is outdoing even itself when it comes to unhealthy food, by trying to claim pizza is a vegetable.

A school lunches Bill going before Congress aims to reclassify the junk food due to the tomato paste on the dough.

Read more: The Daily Mail