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.

Today's Pix

Student Voting

Yes, ya bonehead.  Your vote counts.  You can rationalize all you want about how it's just a drop in the bucket, but try to remember the simple truth that even tho' it takes more time than you prob'ly think it should, drops have filled the oceans.

Make a grownup commitment, and then get up off your dead butt and go vote.

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.

Correction

In a post I put up yesterday, I ran with the erroneous assumption that Willard is actually the cheatin' douche nozzle that he seems to be.

Right here and right now, I wanna set the record straight - Willard has been, is, and apparently will always remain a lyin' sack o' shit, but of all the examples of Willard being a cheatin' douche nozzle, I chose the wrong one to illustrate what a cheatin' douche nozzle Willard is.   So - he wasn't a cheatin' douche nozzle on that one particular occasion.  He was a lyin' sack o' shit, but not a cheatin' nozzle while on stage for 90 minutes Wednesday night.  I stand corrected.  Sorry for my error.

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The Backfire Effect

Posted by sofa king at Democratic Underground today:
(and pasted into this post in its all-together cuz it's awesome)

"But why would people so woefully lacking in the basic facts of an issue think they were the best informed? Social scientists call the effect, 'pseudo-certainty.' I call it, 'being a fucking moron.'" --Al Franken

The use of cognitive bias against the public can probably be traced back to the United States' foundation. Consider, for example, the rapier-like tact Americans used in the Declaration of Independence, directing all of their ire against Great Britain's slowly maddening King instead of the Parliament that they knew had wronged them. I think it is a classic example of misdirection, in the same family of dishonesty as mentioning Osama bin Laden in the same paragraph every time one mentions Saddam Hussein.

Last night, Mitt Romney made the most of a particular cognitive bias which we all need to know about. It is called the Backfire Effect. Here is a link to the paper.

People have a bad habit of clinging to disinformation, particularly if they are fed the disinformation first. If the disinformation is refuted, many of us simply give up trying to figure the problem out and default to the first thing we learned, and if the first thing we learned is crap, we believe the crap.
We are all vulnerable to some degree to the Backfire Effect, but there is a critical difference in the way the Backfire Effect works between conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans.

The shortest version I can give is this: when a conservative lies and a liberal refutes the lie, conservative observers become more likely to believe the lie. This effect does not work in reverse--because liberals have better thinking skills, I say, but I'm biased. This is part of the reason why an alarming number of American doofuses are still shambling about thinking that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11, and why the vast majority of them are Republicans.

Up to now, Mitt Romney's biggest problem has been that he hasn't won over the right-wing authoritarians who make up the most important voting bloc in the Republican Party, and maybe in all of American politics. They are diligent voters and can be easily programmed with lies, fear, and racism, of which they are fed a steady diet by Fox News and AM radio. Almost one in four Americans fits the profile of a right-wing authoritarian.

Despite every effort, right down to nominating arch-conservative darling Paul Ryan, Romney just hasn't been able to convince them that he's their guy.

And why should they think so, when Romney gamed the nomination process, knocked off the conservative authorities they trust one by one, and silenced all dissent at the convention? He had to steal it from them before he can steal it from us, and they haven't easily forgotten.

Last night was Romney's last big chance. He's got the press and the pollsters pulling for him to make it a closer race, because it is to their personal, professional, and financial advantage. He has finally assembled the captive audience of right-wing authoritarians he needs to win over. All he needed to do was to finally, permanently, establish himself as a conservative authority, someone the conservatives can trust.

He needed President Obama to help him, by doing what every Democrat, including myself, wanted him to do: call Mitt a liar.

So Mitt Romney went out and did what he's best at. He lied his ass off. He changed a central plank of his platform at the debate in an attempt to draw out President Obama, to encourage the President to raise his voice and express outrage at such malicious dishonesty.

But President Obama wouldn't bite.

Instead, the President stuck to his own policy, his own platform, and pointed out only the most basic and agreed-upon flaws in whatever Romney's so-called plan is today (or rather, last night, because I'm sure he's walking back half of what he said right now). He tried not to show flashes of anger or disgust, as Al Gore so tragically did in 2000.

It was probably disappointing to all of us here to see the President steer away from direct confrontation, but it probably also sealed the election for him.

Consider what would have happened had the debate swung a different way.

Gov. Romney: "I'm not in favor of a $5 trillion tax cut. That's not my plan...."

President Obama: "That's bullshit. You've run on that all year."

Millions of Democrats would have stood up and cheered at that moment, to be sure, but it wouldn't have done a damned thing to change the political landscape because we're all already going to go out and vote for President Obama, and every other Democrat on the ballot. We're all registered now, right?

Just as certainly, a giant mob of tea-partiers would have been on their feet and whooping. That would have been the signal they needed, the sign from baby Jesus that Mitt Romney was the anointed one. They would have dusted off their IDs and registrations, and they would have come out and voted--at a higher frequency, unfortunately, than we do. Millions of our votes would have been canceled out.

We need to realize that right now an unusually high number of right-wing voters are far closer to reality than they usually are. They don't trust Mitt Romney, and they shouldn't, and it is to their credit that they do not in spite of the enormous psyops being run on them.

But we also need to acknowledge that these voters unfortunately tend strongly toward racism, and are highly motivated to vote against President Obama simply because he is a person of color. President Obama will never win their vote--but he might win their non-vote.

So that is why President Obama didn't "win" last night's debate. Because this debate wasn't about us. But do you know who is going to refute Mitt Romney's bullshit? We are. In the voting booth.

J'accuse!

Aha - Willard's not just a lyin' sack o' shit - he's a cheatin' douche nozzle to boot.



Rules is rules, bubba - from the agreement that both sides signed up for:

"No props, notes, charts, diagrams or other writings can be used by the candidates"

(hat tip = Democratic Underground)

Bummer, Willard

Ya gotta know that deep down, even a lyin' sack o' shit like Willard isn't really rooting for the country to go up in flames, but ya gotta know also that deeper downer, Willard was praying hard for a few well-timed signs that he could at least spin to make his gang feel a little surer that the country's demise is imminent unless they blah blah blah.



Jobs number is up (except Manufacturing Sector), unemployment number is down, Dow flirting again with record highs, Corporate Profits are up almost across the board, Average Hourly Earnings is up, Consumer Spending is up, Public Confidence is improving, etc etc etc.

Oops

The Question Is

Where the hell was this guy Wednesday nite?  Was this the plan?  To let Romney do all the point-scoring, and then go out and spend a week counter-punching?  Not buyin' it.  Seems like he's admitting he was prepared for a very different debate.  He just flat got beat.

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.

Today's Pix

The Debate #1 - Cont'd

More reactions.

Wonkette:

9:33 PM — "Why aren’t both of you embracing Simpson-Bowles", the Washington beltway debate moderator asks about deficit reduction plan that no one else in the country gives a shit about. Why aren’t you licking Alan Simpson’s lesion-caked bald head, Mitt Romney? Why around you sitting on Erskine Bowles’ face right now, Barack Obama?

9:40 PM — Obama doesn’t get why Exxon Mobil gets tax breaks. (The answer is because they’re Exxon Mobil.) He also met a poor lady in Las Vegas, who does not get any tax breaks. An autistic kid, a hobo, a cooper, a barnsmith, a crackhead! President Obama meets a lot of fuck-ups on the trail.

Angry Black Lady at Balloon Juice:

Romney, who just a couple of weeks ago was caught on tape saying that he believes 47 percent of this country are moochers, spoke beautifully about how he wants to create jobs and help the middle class. But he lied. He doesn’t give a shit about the middle class and everything he has said and done up until 6 p.m. EST tonight when he tried to recreate himself as some populist people-lover proves it.

Remember how he lied about supporting the auto bailout when, in fact, he said, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”?

Remember when Scott Walker won the recall election, and Mitt Romney claimed that Walker’s win meant Wisconsinites were tired of hiring firefighters, police officers, and teachers? And remember how Walker was all, “WTF bro?!” and Romney was all, “Wait, What’d I Say? I didn’t meant it!”

Remember how he told students to just borrow money from their parents if they wanted to start a small business?

Remember how Romney told students that they should get as much education as they can afford?

But tonight—for these 90 minutes, Mitt Romney wants you to think he feels your pain. Pffft.

Mitt Romney lied.

Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone:

Mitt Romney turned in a polished performance in last night's presidential debate - and revealed himself to be an accomplished and unapologetic liar. In an evening where he sought to slice and dice the president with statistics, Romney baldly misrepresented his own policy prescriptions, made up numbers to fit his attacks, and buried clear contrasts with the president under heaping piles of horseshit.

The Debate #1

Meh.  Didn't watch it.  Haven't seen much "analysis" of it.  From what little I've heard so far, you'd think Obama stopped about 2 minutes in, picked his nose and flicked a giant green booger onto the camera lens, and then mooned poor old Jim Lehrer.

Two things.  First, the election was beginning to look a lot like a blowout, and that means there's a greatly diminished opportunity for the cable and network guys to sell ad time to anybody but the campaigns.  So you can insert your favorite Horse Race meme here.

Secondly - the day before yesterday, Willard was a full-time candidate; he was a full-time candidate last nite; and he's a full-time candidate again today.  Obama has another gig that keeps him pretty busy.

I'll give the Press Poodles credit for one thing - Chuck Todd (of all people -and I'm paraphrasing) said this: in a re-election debate, the challenger gets to paint a nice big flowery picture of how he thinks it oughta be, while the Prez has to show us what the reality of being POTUS actually looks like.

Finally, here's a quickie from Andrea Seabrook at Decode DC:

The incessant, yammering analysis of all these post-game shows is meaningful only in this way -- everyone else in the media watches it. What you see in that gum-flapping, jabber-jaws hour after the debate is the media talking to the media about what the media thought of the debate. Over time, they will come to agreement, and by tomorrow morning, they'll let you know what YOU should think about it.
Have a good night, folks.

In light of some pretty heavy freak-outs coming from people who seem to be solid Obama supporters - eg: Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, Andrew Sullivan - here's something to think about:  Obama is patient.  His whole time in office, he's "left himself open" to attack.  He's let the other side take shots.  He's done everything he can to mollify and accommodate his opposition, and he "just gives it away every fuckin' time".  And yet, after all that terrible performance, somehow he's kickin' the other guys' asses all over the parkin' lot.

Here's a little tip - watch a clip or two of Ali in his prime.  The fight against Cleveland Williams has always been a favorite of mine.

Ali jabs and backs off - dancing, back-pedalling, jabbing, side-stepping.  It goes on for a round and a half.  And then at about 5:15 - boom.  It's like Williams got used to following Ali around, and Ali just had to wait for the right time to plant his right foot and go off on him.  And then it all started over, and then boom again. And again and again and again.

Here's hoping it works out just like that for Willard (seen here in the black trunks).