Yo, Willard

I didn't watch the "debates".  I'll go along with the many people who say these things are little more than 90 minutes of dueling campaign ads.  Altho', this time, we did get a new wrinkle in that Willard turned it into a more conventional sales pitch.  It really does look and sound like Romney's in there pimping a deal for his group to take over USA, Inc.  Which I think may be a lot closer to the truth than I'm comfortable with.  My biggest problem is that whenever we elect Repubs, we get way too many freakazoids in the bargain (NeoCons, TheoCons, Cold War Retreads, et al) - we gotta remember that the prez isn't the only guy we're handing power to.  So it's iffy enough when you put a guy in the Oval Office who doesn't know his way around Capitol Hill; or doesn't know much about Foreign Affairs; or isn't particularly up on International Trade.  Obama was a big risk 4 years ago because his resume was pretty damned thin, but he seemed like he had his own shit together enough to be trusted to dig into the details to the point where he wouldn't just get railroaded into making supremely stoopid decisions (I'm talkin' Iraq-level stoopid, not Healthcare Reform-not-getting-everything-we-wanted stoopid).

Putting a guy like Mitt Romney in the White House means we start over again.  Plus, Willard may have several more pounds of brain matter than Jr Bush, but the way he's been jerked around by the Wingnuts for the last 6 years makes me think he'll continue trying to shoehorn himself into just about any position these characters want him to take.

Experience matters.  And there's nothing better to get you ready to be POTUS than actually being POTUS.

And BTW, Willard - you've been runnin' your mouth about "Obama's foreign policy unravelling" for months.  What happened?  Focus Group got your tongue?

One last thing - about how "the women" were turned off by the aggressiveness and the confrontational aspects of the campaigns in general.  Because, of course, the ladies are just too genteel; they're bound to suffer a spell of some kind; I do declare they'll get the vapors if the menfolk continue this unpleasant belligerence.

Bullshit.

If somebody was physically assaulting you, and I walked up and planted my fist in the prick's eye socket 4 or 5 times, would you be just a tiny bit relieved, or would you insist on feeling put off by my aggressive behavior?  And who says I need to do that anyway?  Who says women are so frail they can't possibly fend for themselves?  Sorry guys - pretending that "the women" are always hiding behind their powder puffs and are desperately in need of your protection just don't cut it anymore.

Gettin' It Done - 14

One of the things that didn't work out so well when everybody was busily hacking away at "all that Washington red tape that strangles commerce" was that we ended up boondoggling the financial sector to the point that we might as well have nationalized the banks.

It's interesting to me that the "conservatives" are always accusing their opponents of hiding a socialistic agenda, when they're the ones making it impossible for banks to operate without a guaranty of government help.  The banks borrow money from the government at ridiculously low rates to begin with, and then If the borrower defaults, Uncle Sugar steps in to pay off the loan.  So who the fuck is the socialist in all of this?

14. Kicked Banks Out of Federal Student Loan Program, Expanded Pell Grant Spending: As part of the 2010 health care reform bill, signed measure ending the wasteful decades-old practice of subsidizing banks to provide college loans. Starting July 2010 all students began getting their federal student loans directly from the federal government. Treasury will save $67 billion over ten years, $36 billion of which will go to expanding Pell Grants to lower-income students.

If you ask me what I think of American Capitalism, I'd have to answer - I think we should try it.  (the good ones know what to borrow, and the great ones know what to steal)

Pick 'Em

Once upon a time, there was a thing called The 4th Estate.

But now it's just a flea market where you pick and choose your own message, your own messenger, and whatever "facts" you need to build your own reality.  Unless you're prepared to spend most of your day trying to figure out what's real and what ain't, you're forever relegated to the giant pile of nuthin' under the heading: Low Information Voter.

We are so fucked.

Today's Pix

Gin Wingmore

Music is recyclable and derivative, but that's not a bad thing in a lot of cases.  As long as people come up with this kinda stuff, Buddy Holly and Bo Diddley will never die.



hat tip = Crooks & Liars

Reset

3 Dead and 4 wounded.

Today's Krugman

Lifted all of it - short and sweet and oh so tasty (NYT):

David Dayen makes a very good point, which I missed: during the Hofstra debate, in which questions were posed by members of the public rather than the Beltway elite, there wasn’t a single question about the deficit. Not one.

The public really doesn’t care.

And you know what? Neither do financial markets, which continue to lend to the U.S. government at incredibly low rates.

Meanwhile, the results from austerity are in — and it’s now clear that the adverse economic impacts of austerity in a depressed economy are much worse than the elite imagined (although Keynesian economists knew better), and are in fact so severe that austerity is largely self-defeating, having little impact on the budget deficit even in the short run because reduced revenue takes away much of the initial savings. Once you take long-run effects into account, austerity is almost surely self-defeating.

Yet deficit fever, with demands for spending cuts right away, has dominated policy discussion for almost three years, with all the Very Serious People believing that by pounding on this issue they were demonstrating their Very Seriousness.

Gettin' It Done - 15

I think it's a good idea whenever you put real money into public schools.  But I don't like things like privatization and high-stakes testing.  I'm fairly sure the people advocating for Race To The Top mean well - people who dive in and fuck things up always mean well - I just don't think you improve the schools if you don't improve the neighborhoods.

15. Created Race to the Top: With funds from stimulus, started $4.35 billion program of competitive grants to encourage and reward states for education reform.

Lying For The Lord

Google that - "lying for the lord".

Read thru a few of the hits and after you make the easy connection to Willard being a lying sack of shit, tell me it has nothing to do with the basics of what we know about a "ruling elite" (ala Leo Strauss) and the sense of entitlement engendered by a system of intergenerational wealth transfer.

Then ask the questions.

Does Meghan McCain get to where she is without mommy's money and daddy's connections?

What about Luke Russert?

GW Bush can trace his lineage back to Franklin Pierce.

If this is to be the meritocracy we like to believe it should be, then we have to re-establish rules that require the Idiot Offspring of The Nobles to start at the same place as everybody else, and to meet the same criteria as everybody else, and to do the work everybody else is required to do.

If you're in favor of "Equal Opportunity and not Equal Outcomes", then stop supporting a system that practically guaranties inequality.

Gettin' It Done - 17 & 16

This one means there's a fair probability that my cost for for a fill-up won't increase by much.  That is, of course, as long as Big Oil allows the Free Market to work the way it's supposed to work (always a little iffy).

16. Boosted Fuel Efficiency Standards: Released new fuel efficiency standards in 2011 that will nearly double the fuel economy for cars and trucks by 2025.
 

I'd forgotten about this one.  There's plenty to worry about when it comes to trying to put out a fire by pouring several hundred tons of money on it, but sometimes all you can do is take the least bad option on a menu filled with really shitty alternatives.  I just wish I felt more assured that Obama's team is doing something to make the next meltdown less likely to happen, and less damaging when it does.

17. Coordinated International Response to Financial Crisis: To keep world economy out of recession in 2009 and 2010, helped secure from G-20 nations more than $500 billion for the IMF to provide lines of credit and other support to emerging market countries, which kept them liquid and avoided crises with their currencies.