Curiouser About Mr O'Keefe

James O'Keefe is quite a piece of work.  Via the watchdogs at One People's Project, here's a new twist.

Reality Will Out

The wingers tho't they had the perfect gift in the way Obama approached the Undies Bomber.  Of course, ya gotta remember they count on us having short attention spans and even shorter memories.  Anyway, it was just amazing to hear them criticize Obama for how he handled it - especially the part about Mirandizing Abdulmutallab.

Take a look at this from The Washington Monthly.

Political hypocrisy knows no bounds when they're just trying to stay outa jail.

Call Their Bluff

Here's Sully's whole post today about politicians who're all style and no substance; and the Press Poodles who can't quite figure out what to do with all that airtime.

In my view, every single Republican who appears on cable or radio and who complains about the debt and rules out any tax hikes should be directly and specifically asked every single time what they propose to cut. Specifically. Every single time. Equally, every single Democrat who says they want to tackle the debt needs to be asked every single time which taxes they propose raising. Specifically. Every single time. If the journalist looks like an asshole, get over it. It is our job to look like assholes. We are professional assholes. We get paid to be rude. In order to expose the truth.

One reason this country is in a fiscal crisis is that journalists are not doing their job.

They chase ratings and politician "gets" more than they chase the truth. Why did it take the president to expose the Republicans' appalling fiscal record and lack of seriousness on spending rather than the press? Why are these politicians allowed to go on the air without being pressed relentlessly for their actual proposals.

And by relentlessly, I mean - if they fail to answer, or offer vague generalizations, ask again. And again. And again. And again. On air. Refuse to move on. Put them on the spot. Both parties. Every time.

Demand Question Time

Obama did a good and right thing by standing up and taking the heat.  I think if we could  get a lot more of this, then we might begin to see something that more closely resembles the government we ought to have.  It's worth a try anyway.

Democracy requires participation. Spend 30 seconds filling in just 3 fields and let's see what happens.

http://demandquestiontime.com/

The KOS Poll

Here it is.

Sadly, The South shows up as looking pretty fuckin' stupid.

Ten Years Of Hell

From Allison Kilkenny at True/Slant:
She quotes extensively from a couple of sources that are definitely "left-leaning", but nonetheless make substantive points.

The people who committed the fraud that led to the collapse aren’t going to jail, the press is ignoring this fact, and that’s a bad thing.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are severely weakening the economy.

The U.S. has the greatest income inequality, highest per capita prison population and worst health conditions of all high-income countries, and yet the poor remain politically invisible domestically, and abroad.

And while Obama plans a budget freeze, economists are saying a second stimulus and increased entitlements are badly needed, which requires government understanding that deficits — in the short run — are a good thing.

Then she links to Dan Froomkin at Harvard's Nieman Watchdog (yeah, yeah it's Froomkin, but the guy still knows a few things, and we hafta relearn how to listen to guys who actually know things)

No. 1: The middle class may never be the same again
No. 2: The recovery could take a really long time
No. 3: The recovery could only be temporary
No. 4: Then what? This time, we don’t have the tools to get out of a recession
No. 5: The ‘very serious’ people in Washington are still obsessed about the deficit
No. 6: Whatever is making the stock market go up could go away
No. 7: The hugely irresponsible financial sector remains unchastened

Tricksterism And Thuggery

Ok, so I posted about Lil Jimmy O'Keefe and his newest escapade in NoLa; and I wondered at the time who would come forward and help him out. Well, soo-prize, soo-prize, soo-prize. He suddenly and magically appears on Cluster Fox claiming he was only trying to help Sen Landrieu's constituents get the good government they deserve; and that getting busted and then charged with a few FEDERAL FELONIES was just a big misunderstanding. Gosh.


So now, I'm thinking this has become a national story with national press exposure, and it'll be harder to seat a jury that isn't at least partly aware of the politics involved; and that makes it harder to prosecute the crimes. Gosh, you don't suppose that's what Cluster Fox had in mind, do ya?

Next question: who's paying this guy? What're his means of support?

Into The Lions' Den Again

So Obama goes to the Repub Retreat and knocks 'em around so bad that Cluster Fox has to cut away from their live coverage.

Now he's planning to go to the National Prayer Breakfast, and the lefties are semi-indignant and saying he's lending credence to a bunch of fratfucks like The Family. Roll tape:


I'm interested to see if Obama will call these guys out too. He runs the risk of being labeled preachy, but he gets that from a lot of wingers anyway, so that's a wash. But he could score some real points with 'moderates and independents' who haven't paid much attention to these kinds of seriously sketchy power groups that operate in the shadows. It'd be good for all of us if he shines a nice bright light on The Family and it's direct ties to some really shitty things going on in politics. Could be fun.

But the real, real story here is probably that Obama is busily working behind the curtain - he's got all his guys on the phones, calling all the wingers in the database, telling them that he feels perfectly comfortable smackin' the shit out of 'em in their own kitchen (and on camera) unless they dial down the bullshit and start working with him. I think we'll know how it's going by what he says at the event. If he hits 'em over the head with a chair like he did with the Repubs, then he's trying to give them some additional schooling. If he's warm and fuzzy, then he prob'ly got some level of commitment from them at least to ease up on the knee-jerk obstruction crap.

The Spending Freeze

Cutting the budget by demanding cuts in "discretionary spending" always sounds like a great idea until you realize you're not likely to find the biggest number of wasted dollars in the smallest of the budget items.

I haven't looked at Obama's new budget proposal yet, but does anybody really believe there's gonna be a whole lotta change in the percentages?  So here's the basic layout in a package totaling $3.8 Trillion:

$906 Billion = Defense, DHS, VA
$790 Billion = Social Security
$418 Billion = Safety Net Programs
$760 Billion = Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP
$304 Million = Debt Service
--------------
$3,178,000,000,000.00 (subtotal)

$622 Billion is what we have left for everything else (Agriculture, Treasury, Commerce, Labor, Education, State, Justice, Transportation, Interior, HUD, Energy).  So go ahead - cut the crap out of it.  Don't just freeze it and not let it grow with inflation; cut it back by 10%.  No, let's cut it by 20%.  If that's all that happened, it looks like we'd make up the current deficit in about 15 years.  Unfortunately, drastic cutbacks actually have the opposite effect on an economy.  If you take a lot of money out of the economy, then you make it harder for everybody to make any headway.  The truth is that while you can spend your way to oblivion, you can't save your way to prosperity.

It's all pretty fucked up, guys.  We're not gonna fix anything until we step up and take a long hard look at all of the budget, including Defense and Medicare and Social Security.  No sacred cows allowed.  It's painful and the ramifications will be felt deeply for a long time.

We Are So Fucked

We get a taste of things to come from a story in The Denver Post today.

In spite of the obvious to the contrary, this gives the Grover Norquists of the world another chance to spin it out as further 'evidence' that any and all government is worthless and should be discontinued.

Anatomy Of "The News"

Ten Years Of Hell

Maybe this is why I still feel shitty even tho' we got good news about GDP growth.
(click for larger image)

Focus On The Tebow

It Came From Davos

It's not likely to get any traction here because we're having a really hard time getting out of our own way, but the consensus emerging from Davos is that economies need guidance, and that  free markets need supervision if they're to stay free.

But hey - ever hopeful.  Read this: David Ignatius, WaPo

The Teleprompter Meme

Via FactCheck.org, Obama's addiction to the teleprompter isn't quite what the wingers want us to believe.  Well, I'm shocked - y'mean the wingnuts would actually make shit up!?!

The picture circulating thru the blogosphere:

The reality of the part of Obama's visit that was spent with the 6th graders:

SOTU 2010

A few items:
Obama took a shot at the Supreme Court's decision in favor of corporate campaign spending, and the "conservatives" have their panties in a bunch.  When he started the job as President, he didn't stop being a citizen - the guy has an opinion; he gets to tell us what it is.

"you're here to serve the needs of your constituents, not your own political ambitions"

Obama may have tricked the Repubs on the jobs thing.  He says employment is the top priority for 2010, which of course gets everybody on their feet, and then he tacks on the bit about wanting a Jobs Bill on his desk ASAP.  I'm thinkin' the Repubs need to be seen as favoring employment, but they don't wanna be in favor of a Dem effort to get The Gummint to provide jobs for people.

The best part tho' was when Obama talked about the proposed Transaction Fee to get some of our bailout money back from the banks. All the Dems were up and applauding, while all the Repubs were sitting on their hands.  True or not; stereotyping or not - the image was pretty stark.  Obama wants the banks to pay us back, and Repubs just wanna keep giving tax dollars to their rich buddies on Wall Street.

What If

We rearrange the borders of the states to reflect changes in population - the way we do it with Congressional Districts.  (click on the picture to enlarge)

SOTU 2010

One of the highlights:

Our most urgent task upon taking office was to shore up the same banks that helped cause this crisis. It was not easy to do. And if there's one thing that has unified Democrats and Republicans, it's that we all hated the bank bailout. I hated it. You hated it. It was about as popular as a root canal.

But when I ran for President, I promised I wouldn't just do what was popular -- I would do what was necessary. And if we had allowed the meltdown of the financial system, unemployment might be double what it is today. More businesses would certainly have closed. More homes would have surely been lost.

So I supported the last administration's efforts to create the financial rescue program. And when we took the program over, we made it more transparent and accountable. As a result, the markets are now stabilized, and we have recovered most of the money we spent on the banks.

To recover the rest, I have proposed a fee on the biggest banks. I know Wall Street isn't keen on this idea, but if these firms can afford to hand out big bonuses again, they can afford a modest fee to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.

As we stabilized the financial system, we also took steps to get our economy growing again, save as many jobs as possible, and help Americans who had become unemployed.
That's why we extended or increased unemployment benefits for more than 18 million Americans; made health insurance 65% cheaper for families who get their coverage through COBRA; and passed 25 different tax cuts.

Let me repeat: we cut taxes. We cut taxes for 95% of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses. We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college. As a result, millions of Americans had more to spend on gas, and food, and other necessities, all of which helped businesses keep more workers. And we haven't raised income taxes by a single dime on a single person. Not a single dime.

Tricksterism And Thuggery

There was a lot of noise when a kid named James O'Keefe came into the light with his "ACORN sting" - he's the guy who went into a Baltimore ACORN office, posing as a pimp and asking questions about how to evade taxes - but of course, there was a lot less noise about how the video from his hidden camera had been creatively edited to make ACORN look as bad as Cluster Fox needs them to look.

(BTW: ACORN has some big problems and it's never a bad idea to bust people doing wrong things; I'm just saying we need to follow our own rules - Due Process keeps us all free.)

Now we have this from NOLA.com.

We should make a point of watching who steps up to take care of this guy.  In one way, he's the Henry Hill of conservatives - willing to do anything to get in good with the mob boss.  I wonder though, about the publicity.  If he gets too famous, it should be harder for him to pull off his tricks in future.  So what's he really up to?

Get Some Balls