Hey, Democraps. Coakley lost because people got the impression she felt entitled to the position; and because people tho't the Mass Dems gave her the nomination because they felt entitled to public support for any stupid fucking thing they do; and because people are gettin' a little pissed off, thinking they haven't seen much of the change they were promised when they voted for Obama, so they're still voting for change.
Yes, there was an awful lot to do. And yes, political headwinds have been fierce. But while Obama has managed to get some good things done, his messaging hasn't hammered any of it home, and his supporting players in Congress have looked weak and timid. Also, he's seen as being way too cozy with Wall Street assholes and K Street pimps - basically, it seems like nobody's really sure whose side he's on.
It's a little weird, but it's like people got so used to being spoon fed Republican Brand Bullshit for so long, they're exhibiting some kind of withdrawal symptoms. I guess they all voted for Bush because he helped 'em believe the issues were cut-and-dried, and all you needed was some common sense and a firm commitment to a few simple principles - that we don't really have to do any thinking or any real work to make decisions about how we govern ourselves.
The system is in a major state of flux again. I think what's really going on here is that we're trying to make some decisions on what exactly we want this little experiment in self-government to look like. I guess you could say that's always what's going on in a democracy, but I think there are times when we really have to concentrate on it. Like now.
One quick tho't: democracy stops working when people stop participating.
Jan 20, 2010
Jan 19, 2010
Jan 18, 2010
Divisive Is As Divisive Does
A couple of posts from RedState.com (first and then second) indicate some interesting dynamics are at work in Republand.
It strikes me as positively karmic that the Karl Rove school of wedge-and-pick-off politics is now being practiced in earnest within the Repub ranks; and that it's scarin' the crap outa people like Erick Erickson. This guy has made a name for himself over the last several years by demanding obedience and lockstep agreement with his vision of Party Orthodoxy. Now, suddenly, he's begging forbearance as he gets a taste of his own medicine.
It strikes me as positively karmic that the Karl Rove school of wedge-and-pick-off politics is now being practiced in earnest within the Repub ranks; and that it's scarin' the crap outa people like Erick Erickson. This guy has made a name for himself over the last several years by demanding obedience and lockstep agreement with his vision of Party Orthodoxy. Now, suddenly, he's begging forbearance as he gets a taste of his own medicine.
Jan 17, 2010
Who Do You Trust?
My oldest is on some kind of list, and it makes things just that much more difficult for the whole family every time we fly. We've been told he's on this list, but nobody will tell us what it is or what we can do about it.
On the one hand, it seems nice for an onerous government agency to offer a way to fix problems. But what if they're just gathering more info on people to use it against us?
Where are the Reaganites? Why are the Teabaggers and Libertarians not attacking TSA as an example of "Government's Not The Solution, It's The Problem"?
Just tho't I'd throw ya a little extra paranoia today - enjoy.
TSA - Travelers Redress Inquiry Program
On the one hand, it seems nice for an onerous government agency to offer a way to fix problems. But what if they're just gathering more info on people to use it against us?
Where are the Reaganites? Why are the Teabaggers and Libertarians not attacking TSA as an example of "Government's Not The Solution, It's The Problem"?
Just tho't I'd throw ya a little extra paranoia today - enjoy.
TSA - Travelers Redress Inquiry Program
Jan 15, 2010
Ten Years Of Hell
More from Calculated Risk.
Industrial production increased 0.6 percent in December. The gain primarily resulted from an increase of 5.9 percent in electric and gas utilities due to unseasonably cold weather. Manufacturing production edged down 0.1 percent, while the output of mines rose 0.2 percent. The change in the overall index was revised up in October, but it was revised down in November; for the fourth quarter as a whole, total industrial production increased at an annual rate of 7.0 percent. At 100.3 percent of its 2002 average, output in December was 2.0 percent below its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for total industry edged up to 72.0 percent in December, a rate 8.9 percentage points below its average for the period from 1972 to 2008.
Industrial production increased 0.6 percent in December. The gain primarily resulted from an increase of 5.9 percent in electric and gas utilities due to unseasonably cold weather. Manufacturing production edged down 0.1 percent, while the output of mines rose 0.2 percent. The change in the overall index was revised up in October, but it was revised down in November; for the fourth quarter as a whole, total industrial production increased at an annual rate of 7.0 percent. At 100.3 percent of its 2002 average, output in December was 2.0 percent below its year-earlier level. Capacity utilization for total industry edged up to 72.0 percent in December, a rate 8.9 percentage points below its average for the period from 1972 to 2008.
It continues to be a hard place to find - the space between having to sell confidence in the system, and the need to tell the truth about how things really are.
Ten Years Of Hell
I don't know what exactly we need to do to fix the economy, but here's another indication that there are some real problems (in this case, it's mortgages and loan modification at JP Morgan). This particular difficulty seems to stem from the tendency of large organizations to become disconnected from the people they are supposed to be all about.
From Calculated Risk, here's Jamie Dimon on why it's hard to get through all of the adjustments to their borrowers' mortgages:
"We have not thought of a better way to do it than loan by loan, which is does the person want to live there, can they afford to live there, and we really think that the payment, how much you're paying is more important than principal. Even if you are going to do something on principal, to do it right you have to do it loan by loan and it effectively comes a similar kind of thing. The difficulty is the loan by loan part and we've asked the government and I think they tried to streamline a little bit to have programs because there's too much paperwork involved in it so a lot of the reasons we're not getting to final modifications half the time we don't finish the paperwork, so they need the lower payments but they weren't finishing the paperwork so we're trying to get better at it, honestly, we rack our brains to figure out if there's a better way to do it and you can do it more macro than loan by loan but once you start talking about macro, you're going to get involved in a lot of issues about whether the people live there, whether they have the ability to pay, whether they were honest when they first told people how much their incomes were, so we're working through it."
Administering such a huge number of loans one by one (micro) is not manageable, so you have to take them in batches (macro). But you can't really bundle them together because then you can't pick out the 'good ones' from the 'bad ones'.
Inadvertently or otherwise, these guys keep making the argument in favor of breaking up the big houses, and we keep ignoring the necessity of doing just that.
From Calculated Risk, here's Jamie Dimon on why it's hard to get through all of the adjustments to their borrowers' mortgages:
"We have not thought of a better way to do it than loan by loan, which is does the person want to live there, can they afford to live there, and we really think that the payment, how much you're paying is more important than principal. Even if you are going to do something on principal, to do it right you have to do it loan by loan and it effectively comes a similar kind of thing. The difficulty is the loan by loan part and we've asked the government and I think they tried to streamline a little bit to have programs because there's too much paperwork involved in it so a lot of the reasons we're not getting to final modifications half the time we don't finish the paperwork, so they need the lower payments but they weren't finishing the paperwork so we're trying to get better at it, honestly, we rack our brains to figure out if there's a better way to do it and you can do it more macro than loan by loan but once you start talking about macro, you're going to get involved in a lot of issues about whether the people live there, whether they have the ability to pay, whether they were honest when they first told people how much their incomes were, so we're working through it."
Administering such a huge number of loans one by one (micro) is not manageable, so you have to take them in batches (macro). But you can't really bundle them together because then you can't pick out the 'good ones' from the 'bad ones'.
Inadvertently or otherwise, these guys keep making the argument in favor of breaking up the big houses, and we keep ignoring the necessity of doing just that.
Chalk Up Another One For Obama
The President just keeps moving (stumbling?) forward. The Nobel Committee threw the Peace Prize at him because they think he's at least trying to undo some of the damage of George & Dick's Odious Adventure, and now The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has moved their Doomsday Clock back one minute, acknowledging Obama's approach to - and initial successes with - the problems of proliferation.
“A key to the new era of cooperation is a change in the U.S. government’s orientation toward international affairs brought about in part by the election of Obama. With a more pragmatic, problem-solving approach, not only has Obama initiated new arms reduction talks with Russia, he has started negotiations with Iran to close its nuclear enrichment program, and directed the U.S. government to lead a global effort to secure loose fissile material in four years. He also presided over the U.N. Security Council last September where he supported a fissile material cutoff treaty and encouraged all countries to live up to their disarmament and nonproliferation obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
Let the wild rumpus start!
He'd better have lots of people keeping track of everything he's doing to warrant the accolades, and those people had better be really good at packaging the pluses into good campaign ads.
“A key to the new era of cooperation is a change in the U.S. government’s orientation toward international affairs brought about in part by the election of Obama. With a more pragmatic, problem-solving approach, not only has Obama initiated new arms reduction talks with Russia, he has started negotiations with Iran to close its nuclear enrichment program, and directed the U.S. government to lead a global effort to secure loose fissile material in four years. He also presided over the U.N. Security Council last September where he supported a fissile material cutoff treaty and encouraged all countries to live up to their disarmament and nonproliferation obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
Let the wild rumpus start!
He'd better have lots of people keeping track of everything he's doing to warrant the accolades, and those people had better be really good at packaging the pluses into good campaign ads.
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