Call your wife the c-word and you don't get to diss the "war on women"

Here's John McCain claiming that the "war on women" is poppycock.

Here's more on John McCain's own alleged war on women:



(The un-bleeped version is here.)

As ThinkProgress shows in this video, clearly the GOP doesn't have a problem with women.

Krugman calls out Ben Bernanke—"he's been assimilated by the Borg"

This is another state of the Krugman post. You and I, flies on the insider walls, know that Ben Bernanke is a full professor at Our Betters U. — in other words, deeply involved in running his chunk of the State for the lords and ladies who govern us. Like all retainers Bernanke works for a living, but as Chairman of the Fed he's very high up.

Paul Krugman is now acknowledging the same thing, and becoming less and less collegial in the process. Why do I say "less collegial"? Because Krugman and Bernanke are fellow academics; in fact, Bernanke used to be Krugman's boss at Princeton.

As you read the following, remember that the Fed has twin legal mandates — low inflation (for the money crowd) and low unemployment (for the masses). In reality, of course, the Fed works only for the money crowd, keeping their pockets lined.

Krugman recently called him on that in the magazine piece linked below, and Bernanke has responded. As Krugman tells the tale [bracketed inserts mine]:

Ben Bernanke responds to my magazine piece; as I see it, in effect he declared that he has been assimilated by the Fed Borg:

I guess the, uh, the question is, um, does it make sense to actively seek a higher inflation rate in order to, uh, achieve a slightly increased pace of reduction in the unemployment rate? ...

To risk that asset [by "asset" he means "low inflation," though he's actually referring to the money crowd's well-lined pockets], for, what I think would be quite tentative and, uh, perhaps doubtful gains [by "gains" he means "work and food for the masses"], on the real side would be an unwise thing to do [because the world is ruled by "wisdom" and not, say, "greed"].

Notice the framing — “a slightly increased pace of reduction in the unemployment rate”. It’s basically an assertion that we’re doing all right[.] ... Disappointing stuff.

In other words, Bernanke is saying, Why trade a known-bad like inflation for something as ephemeral as improved employment? After all, my friends are fully employed right now.

So much for Bernanke. But again, this post isn't about the Ben — he's a known made man already. This is about the Krugman, who dares to say so using his Times blog-inches.

Thanks, Professor. And welcome. Soon you'll be as radical as you were in 2003, when Bush was king and we were still naïve.

GP

(To follow on Twitter or to send links: @Gaius_Publius)

Good morning from Stockholm

A nice park through the center of the boulevard. People
walking to work in the morning.

I was invited to the Netroots Sweden conference in Stockholm that starts today, and the Swedes are graciously picking up the tab for the trip.  I'll be doing three talks about various political Internet topics, basically explaining to the Swedes the kind of advocacy I/we have done here in the states.  They've have a very good nascent blogosphere/Netroots.  The challenge now is how to lift it to the next level.

Stockholm is a nice city.  Pretty in its own right, but in a subtle way at places. It's a different city.  Different from a lot of other towns I've been in, architecturally.  Really a mix of influences, from my point of view.  As I've noted on previous trips, some of the architecture makes me think of St. Petersburg in Russia, some of it brings back memories of Rome with the striking reds and oranges and yellows of ancient Rome that are still favored by modern Romans.

A quick word about the Swedes.  Truly the tallest people on the planet.  Good God.  In America, at 5-10, I often feel average height, to maybe a little short at times.  Here I'm a midget.  It's not at all unusual to see guys well over, and I mean WELL over, 6 feet tall and then some.  Just a very tall people, and healthy, skinny, good-looking, but not all blonde.  Though certainly more blondes than you see in America.  They're a nice people, good English of course.  Rather mild-mannered.  You even see it in the way they walk down the street (I tend to notice the gait of different cultures).  For men at least, very unassuming, regular guy, and seemingly happy.

Sweden is also shockingly expensive for an American. The cab ride from my hotel to my friends' office, which is about ten minutes away, is $30. A hamburger in many places is $25. Want a mojito, try $20. Hell, I was looking at a dog toy in a pet shot, a cute little ball with a hole in it that you can put food... $50.  My friends tell me that Sweden is not known for its food.  And while it's not exactly England (i.e., it's better than that), it's also not quite France or Italy in terms of culinary expertise and tastes.  But you can still get a solid meal, if you can afford it :)

Anyway here are a few photos from around town.  Enjoy.

Sasha the night before my trip, looking like
she knows something is up.

PS Sorry I've been blogging a bit less this week, but now that Google has launched Blogger's new interface, which is incompatible with both the iphone and the ipad, I'm only able to blog when I have my computer with me, which limits things greatly.  We're planning to finally move to WordPress.  It was a great 8 years with Blogger, but this latest upgrade was such a step backwards, we really have no choice but to move.

Take the iphone app (please), which is the fall-back for mobile blogging - it's a joke.  It doesn't even let you schedule posts, or worse, unpublish them (your only option is to delete them). It also doesn't show posts that are already scheduled, so you have no idea if you need to post something at all.  Seriously not ready for prime time.  I've said before, whoever approved this new Blogger Web site, and didn't see a problem with it being incompatible with the iphone and ipad - who builds a web site in 2012 that doesn't work on the iphone and ipad? - should be fired.  Same goes for whoever built the iphone app (and whoever approved it).  Google, and Blogger, are better than this.  At least they used to be.

Now on to Stockholm...

Interesting architecture.

Even more interesting architecture.  Note the black clothing.  If
you ever come to Sweden, bring your black and navy
blue clothes.  Anything else and I feel
out of place.

Stockholm has wonderful light. I've noticed it
in previous trips as well. A very mid-winter's shocking
yellow/orange.

A night view of Stockholm from restaurant suspended on
a walkway far above the city.

A rather large park in the middle of town. And of course
it's safe to walk through at night.

A large, cool, school near my hotel.  Some of the architecture makes
me think of the old Soviet, fascist architecture.  Not in a bad
wal, per se - it's just the strength, and imposing nature
of some of the buildings, like this one.

People cycling to work.  More dark clothes.

Sasha doing her best to thwart my packing.

Romney foreign policy concerned about country that doesn't even exist

Romney's foreign policy expert on a call today expressed concerned about President Obama's policies concerning Czechoslovakia.  And he should be concerned, as Czechoslovakia ceased existing nearly 20 years ago.

Obama to make climate change a campaign issue

Hmm. I think some would have liked the President to make climate change an issue before the campaign.

President Barack Obama says the amount of money poured into fighting the scientific consensus on climate change will push the issue into the presidential campaign.

In an interview with Rolling Stone published Wednesday, Obama also says he's worried about the lack of international progress to address global warming and believes that is tied to frustration with the Keystone XL pipeline.

Romney ran to the right in the Republican primary on global warming, saying in October that the causes of climate change are unknown.

"My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet," Romney said at a fundraiser last fall. "And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us."

This is all well and good. But I do think the President treated climate change like he treats, or treated, any controversial issue. He didn't push very hard, and then walked away and blamed failure on how strong the opposition was, without ever really trying to beat the opposition.

Murdoch blames everyone else for hacking problem

Now here's some classic leadership skills for you by Rupert Murdoch. Either he's a completely clueless executive and should be sacked immediately for having no idea what has been happening within his organization for years or he's a liar. You choose.

It's gutless to blame everyone else and fail to accept responsibility as the CEO but this is Murdoch that we're talking about. How could it be possible to have so many hacking scandals within the News Corp organizations - allegedly across borders as well - yet he knew nothing about it? How weak to suddenly be the tough guy.

With wife Wendi and son Lachlan watching he said that he, his son James and other senior News Corp executives were “misinformed and shielded” about the extent of phone hacking at the tabloid. He also blamed “a clever lawyer” at News International for stopping people coming forward and admitted that the culture had left too much in the hands of the editor and lawyer. “I should have gone there and thrown all the lawyers out of the place and seen Mr Goodman (the reporter jailed over phone hacking) one-on-one - he had been an employee for a long time - and cross-examined him myself and made up my mind, maybe rightly, maybe wrongly, was he telling the truth,” Murdoch told the court. "And if I had come to the conclusion that he was telling the truth, I would have torn the place apart and we wouldn't be here today.

Obamacare making insurers pay $1.3 billion in rebates to customers

Sounds like socialism.

Where do I get some?

Wash Post's Kaplan for-profit college division was an ALEC member

Well, this is starting to get interesting. All the spotlight on ALEC is really paying off. This is not only a Washington Post story, it's a for-profit college industry story. (Our ALEC backgrounder is here.)

David Halperin at the amazing Republic Report (my emphasis and some reparagraphing):

Republic Report has learned that the Washington Post Company’s Kaplan for-profit college division, was, last year, a member of the controversial business advocacy group the American Legislative Exchange Council. Other major for-profit education companies also joined ALEC.

Republic Report has obtained a July 2011 document showing Kaplan Higher Education and other for-profits as members of ALEC’s Education Task Force. This morning, in an email message to Republic Report, Mark Harrad, Vice President of Communications at Kaplan, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Washington Post Company that includes Kaplan Higher Education, wrote, “A unit of Kaplan was a member of ALEC for a one year period, which ended in August 2011.”

Remember that ALEC's role in "education" is what drew the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to ALEC as well. Stripping down public education and feeding on the bones must be a major ALEC attraction. Here's Halperin on this:

For-profit colleges are the ultimate special interest. Many receive around 90 percent of their revenue from federal financial aid, more than $30 billion a year, and many charge students sky-high prices.

In recent years, it has been fully documented that a large number of these schools have high dropouts rates and dismal job placement, and many have been caught engaging in highly coercive and deceptive recruiting practices.

Yet when the bad actions of these predatory schools got publicly exposed, the schools simply used the enormous resources they’ve amassed to hire expensive lobbyists and consultants, and to make campaign contributions to politicians, in order to avoid accountability and keep taxpayer dollars pouring into their coffers.

We reported over a year ago on for-profit colleges — "For-profit colleges fight back against gov’t attempt to make them deliver education". A great many are simply vultures. Doubt me? Click and read.

Because ALEC specializes in enacting law at the state level, it makes a perfect place to end-around state investigation into their predatory business model:

Much of the action on for-profit colleges takes place at the federal level, where the money comes from, but states are increasingly taking an interest in protecting their residents from predatory practices – through accreditation of schools, investigations of fraud, and other oversight. So for-profit colleges have come to ALEC to seek influence at the state level.

The Republic Report article has more, including a list of major for-profit education players with ALEC ties.

ALEC is deeply involved in the "Stand and Fire" laws associated with the Trayvon Martin shooting, and the Washington Post Company's secret membership in ALEC raises many questions:

ALEC, which advanced model laws on Stand Your Ground, the provision that could influence the outcome of George Zimmerman’s criminal case for the killing of Trayvon Martin, and on Voter ID, which makes it harder for low-income people, people of color, young people, the elderly, and the disabled to vote.

Why did the Washington Post Company, whose CEO proclaimed that Kaplan was committed to aiding the disadvantaged, support through Kaplan an organization that was doing these things?

And why hasn’t the Post disclosed in its coverage of ALEC that its Kaplan division was recently an ALEC member?

Halperin has more; please do read the rest.

The public ALEC lists are fascinating (feel free to click). The non-public list, even more so. Excellent work.

GP

(To follow on Twitter or to send links: @Gaius_Publius)
 

Austerity promises fail as UK hits double dip recession

Despite all of the big talk about how austerity creates an economic miracle, as usual, miracle talk was nothing more than a lie by snake oil salesmen. The Tories, much like the US Republicans, are happy playing economic games with everyone else and the results are clear. Austerity during these conditions doesn't work, it only makes the recession more severe. If only the Democrats weren't so afraid of making this point early and often. Running a country is not the same as running a household, but this is somehow news for the GOP. During times like this, stimulus spending is a must to keep the economy going until the private sector can rebound. The Guardian:

"We consistently warned that their austerity plan was self-defeating and that cutting spending and raising taxes too far and too fast would badly backfire. David Cameron and George Osborne arrogantly and complacently dismissed people who warned of the risk of a double-dip recession and the country is now paying a very heavy price. Their economic credibility is now in tatters." Responding to news that a big fall in construction output and a smaller decline in manufacturing production had caused the economy to shrink for the fourth quarter in the last six, the prime minister told MPs: "These are very, very disappointing figures. I don't seek to excuse them, I don't seek to try and explain them away."

When did Blue Dogs become "moderate"?

The head of the Blue Dog Democrats in the House, Mike Ross, is that Democrats are facing "a terrifying reign of their own as liberal activists and unions keep hounding moderate members out of office." (emphasis added)

Well, let's get a few things straight. Most importantly, Blue Dog does not equal moderate. In Democratic circles we have three major types. Conservatives (Blue Dogs), liberals (Kennedy was a good example), and everyone else in between who could potentially be called "moderates." But nowhere does being a Blue Dog (i.e., a right-wing Democrat) make you a moderate, any more than being a conservative (i.e., right-wing) Republican - the GOP version of the Blue Dog - make you a moderate.

It's a cute lie that people like Ross would like you to believe, and it's a cheap lie too. It's the same thing as Republicans always fighting to see who's the "real" Republican, meaning of course, the furthest to the right. And Blue Dogs play the same games. No one is "moderate" except them, they'd like you to believe. Really?

If Blue Dog Democrats in the House are "moderate" Democrats, then I'd like Ross to explain to us who the "conservative" Democrats are to the right of the Blue Dogs?  Because there are none.

Perlstein: Is Obama's "religion of Secular Humanism" this election's viral RW meme?

Yes, you read that right. Seems really stupid doesn't it, that something so ... stupid ... could suck all the air out of an election campaign. Yet that's exactly what happened in 2004, with the swiftboatage of John Kerry. Stupid; and so very effective.

For Perlstein, the Kerry part of the story — the analogy that sets up the Romney prediction — started with a stupid little self-published booklet he discovered in 2004 floating around the fringes of a right-wing event.

Here's his intro (my emphasis and paragraphing):

Once upon a time, in early 2004, I attended one of hundreds of "Parties for the President" organized nationwide for grassroots volunteers who wanted to help reelected George W. Bush, at a modest middle class home in Portland, Oregon.

At one point, a nice old lady politely pressed into my hand a grubby little self-published pamphlet she had come upon, purporting to prove that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry had faked the heroics that had won him three purple hearts in Vietnam. I added it to my mental store of the night's absurdities that I expected to hear rattling across the wingnutosphere the entire fall: "I still believe there are weapons of mass destruction"; "There is an agenda—to get rid of God in this country"; "John Kerry attended a party in which there was bad language!"

What I didn't expect was to see Kerry's war-hero cred earnestly debated night after night on CNN. Then came August and "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" — and that little old lady's fever dream began dominating the media discussion of the campaign, and the rest, as they say, is history.

That's the way, in my experience, the ecology of right-wing smears works: Insane horror stories – Clinton is running cocaine out of an Arkansas airport! Barack Obama had gay sex in the back of a limo! – bubble up from the collective conservative Id at the outset of an election year; professional conservatives in Washington identify the ones that seem most promising and launder them through the suckers in the "balance"-hungry mainstream media; and presto, before you know it, it's death-panel-palooza, 24/7.

Presto; yet this is not magic, but art. These are professionals. Watch and learn — here's how the process breaks down. They:

• Figure out how the rubes want to be lied to
• Figure out which lies have "legs"
• Figure out which lies also advance the Movement Conservative Project
• Focus-test all of the swamp-meat prose they come up with
• Deliver the stinkiest rot to the eager flies using the fly-seeking "professional" press
• Count the money (note to students: the MoveCon Project pays extremely well)

This is how it's done when the pros do it. There is nothing uncalculated about advertising. (Hint: Ask yourself why there are so many black men in the "can't get hard" ads. Go ahead, ask. There's an answer, and it's perfectly thought through.)

Perlstein has much more. He traces the history of this particular fantasia — from a 1961 Supreme Court decision footnote; to a 1974 near-miss court challenge to the "religion of Secular Humanism"; to its demonization in a 1984 right-wing classic; to ... well, read on. It's Perlstein doing what Perlstein does quite well — tell a great story.

I can't close without giving you this, the current season's seed, from the Rolling Stone article I've been quoting and Crooks and Liars. (If by chance you listen to this vid twice, ask yourself if the questioner isn't a shill, a ringer.To my ear she sounds way too focused on asking the question from a very precise angle.)

Romney in Wisconsin (that's Paul Ryan on stage with him):



In defense of Perlstein's prediction, the Catholic Bishops PAC is all over this one. I agree with Perlstein — it's not going away on its own.

GP

(To follow on Twitter or to send links: @Gaius_Publius)
 

House Tea-partyers want to let student loan payments double

Greg Sargent at the Post:

Is the battle over student loans shaping up as a rerun of the payroll tax cut fight, which by all accounts badly damaged the GOP? Consider the parallels. Just as in the payroll tax cut battle, there’s a looming deadline: On July 1st, interest rates on federally funded student loans is set to double. Barack Obama and Democrats, confident that the politics are on their side, are signaling that they intend to remain on offense on the issue.

Meanwhile, House conservatives — just as during the payroll battle — are beginning to signal that they oppose the extension, period, full stop. Check out this quote from GOP Rep. Todd Akin, who is running in a GOP primary for the right to take on Dem Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri.

Akin said the government should be out of the student loan market altogether. “America has got the equivalent of the stage three cancer of socialism because the federal government is tampering in all kinds of stuff it has no business tampering in,” he said.

You know who else wanted kids to go to college? Hitler.

Kidding. But only just.

This is sadly typical of the radical fringe running today's Republican party.  Every thing they don't like is socialism (which, to their simple minds means, of course, Soviet communism).  And everything they do like is Reaganism (even if Reagan, but today's GOP standards, would be a socialist).

8 reasons why Romney is more right-wing than Bush

From ThinkProgress - here's three of the eight:

1. Bush passed a huge tax cut plan, mostly benefiting the wealthy. Romney’s tax cut plan is four times larger, more heavily weighted to benefit ultra wealthy.

GEORGE W. BUSH: Passed $2.5 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years, 12.5% benefiting the top 1/10 of 1%. [ThinkProgress, 2/22/12; David Cay Johnston. 3/1/12]

MITT ROMNEY: Proposing $10.7 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years, 33% benefiting the top 1/10 of 1%. [ThinkProgress, 2/22/12; David Cay Johnston. 3/1/12]

2. Bush signed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. Romney supports repealing virtually all campaign finance laws.

GEORGE W. BUSH: Signed into law the landmark McCain–Feingold campaign finance reform, which put restrictions on “soft money” and limitations on spending from outside groups. [White House, 03/27/02]

MITT ROMNEY: Strongly defended the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which overturned key provisions McCain–Feingold. Supports repealing virtually all campaign finance laws. [Mitt Romney, 2/18/10; ThinkProgress, 12/21/11]

3. Bush supported comprehesive immigration reform, a path to citizenship for 12 million undocumented immigrants and provisions of the DREAM Act. Romney opposes all of it.
GEORGE W. BUSH: Supported comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for 12 million undocumented immigrants and provisions of the DREAM Act. [Reuters, 6/29/07; White House, 10/24/07]

MITT ROMNEY: Opposes comprehensive immigration reform and opposes providing a path to citizenship to undocumented immigrants and the DREAM Act. [Fox News, 04/03/12; ABC, 12/31/12]

Former DC Mayor Marion Barry labeled a racist for anti-Asian comments

The man appears to have series issues with Asian people.  There's just too much of a trend of nasty anti-Asian comments.  And he's a city council member of a minority-majority city.

At a hearing Monday on the University of the District of Columbia’s budget, he spoke about the need to train more African Americans to become nurses. In a video of his remarks aired by WTTG-TV, Barry noted a growing number of nurses are “immigrants” from the Philippines.

“[I]f you go to the hospital now, you’ll find a number of immigrants who are nurses, particularly from the Philippines,” said Barry (D-Ward 8). “And no offense, but let’s grow our own teachers, let’s grow our own nurses, and so that we don’t have to go scrounging in our community clinics and other kinds of places, having to hire people from somewhere else.”

The National Federation of Filipino American Associations called Barry’s remarks “racist” and “bigoted.”

HuffPost puts the comments in the larger context of Barry's other nasty quips about Asians.

“We got to do something about these Asians coming in and opening up businesses and dirty shops,” Barry said. “They ought to go. I’m going to say that right now. But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.”

Why write about this idiot? Because there's a larger history of bad relations between the black and Asian communities in this country, and the notion of Asian businesses somehow carpetbagging their way into black neighorhoods. That's what's likely influencing Barry's comments, and he's only feeding the racism, and mutual dislike and distrust, between the communities by speaking like this, repeatedly.

The man really is an idiot. I was asked by a Swedish friend last night how idiot conservatives were elected to parliament in his country. I told him that it happened in politics wordlwide. Marion Barry is a great, local, example.

If the GOP candidates were teens on Twitter

From College Humor (an excerpt):

Orszag on the impending "Taxmageddon"

Former OMB director Peter Orszag, who's now with Citigroup:

The nation is hurtling toward what has been called “taxmageddon,” the enormous tax increases and spending cuts scheduled for the beginning of 2013. At around the same time, we will also be spending some more quality time with our old friend: the debt limit.

At the end of this year, all the Bush tax cuts expire -- amounting to about $250 billion a year. The payroll-tax holiday, at more than $100 billion a year, ends too, as do expanded unemployment-insurance benefits. And we face other spending cuts of about $100 billion, from the sequester set up by the 2011 debt-limit deal. All told, this fiscal tightening adds up to about $500 billion -- or more than 3 percent of gross domestic product. The economy will be in no shape to handle that much of a squeeze. If we do nothing to reduce or stop it, the economy could be thrown back into a recession. As if that were not challenging enough, we are expected to bump back up against the debt limit, which currently stands at $16.4 trillion. Projections suggest we will approach the limit in the fourth quarter of 2012. Then, the Treasury secretary will take temporary measures to allow continued issuance of debt. The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates those actions will get us to February 2013 -- at which point we will hit the debt-limit wall. If the economy is weaker than expected, it will widen the deficit faster, and we’ll hit the wall sooner.

GOP committee chair calls Obama admin "most corrupt government in history"

And House Committee chair Darrel Issa knows a thing or two (or three) about corruption.

Last year Rep. Darrell Issa retracted his statement that President Barack Obama was one of the most corrupt presidents in modern history, saying he should have parsed his words more carefully.

Tuesday, the California Republican's more careful parsing apparently included declaring Obama's government the most corrupt in history.

"We are busy in Washington with a corrupt government, with a government that I said more than a year ago was perhaps -- because of the money, because of the amount of TARP and stimulus funds -- was going to be the most corrupt government in history, and it is proving to be that, just exactly that," Issa said in a Bloomberg television interview.

Horrid House Blue Dog Tim Holden defeated by Progressive Matt Cartwright

In fracking-filled Pennsylvania (check this map), blood-red Blue Dog Tim Holden lost last night in his primary battle against real progressive Matt Cartwright.

First from AP (my emphasis everywhere and some reparagraphing, 'cause, you know):

U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, Pennsylvania's longest-serving congressman, lost his re-election bid in the Democratic primary[.] ... Holden, who was elected to Congress in 1992 and was one of its conservative, so-called Blue Dog Democrats, lost Tuesday to personal injury attorney Matt Cartwright, who spent nearly $400,000 in the race.

A lot of that money came from BlueAmerica. Here's Howie Klein, BlueAmerica treasurer, on the victory:

Something very rare happened tonight, something that will send a chill down the spines of members of the Democratic establishment: a true blue progressive unseated a tired Blue Dog congressman. We were told it was impossible. Pennsylvania's Matt Cartwright just proved them all wrong. ...

They had a choice and they chose the progressive candidate who would stand up for working families instead of corporations and who believes that individual liberty applies to women as well as men.

Here's something a little more direct (from the same Facebook page):

Tonight Democrats in Pennsylvania told Hoyer and Israel and Wasserman Schultz to go take a flying leap as they defeated their hackish corrupt Blue Dog, Tim Holden, and replaced him with progressive Matt Cartwright for U.S. Congress.

With 447 of 449 precincts reporting, Cartwright beat Hoyer's corrupt Blue Dog 33,102 (57%) to 24,871 (43%). Holden lost all the big population centers. Cartwright ran up solid majorities in Lackawanna (78%). Luzerne (71%), Northampton (55%) and Monroe (64%). Grassroots Democrats in other states should take up the banner.

Don't trust anyone endorsed by the DCCC. Check them out carefully first. Most will be worthless shills like the majority of the people on the Red-to-Blue List of Shame.

Hmm, DCCC ... DCCC ... Where have we heard that name before?

Ah yes, DCCC are the so-called Democrats taking "oppose the War on Women" money and then supposedly standing aside in the MI-03 primary — a battle between proven Planned Parenthood defunder Steve Pestka (yes, he actually cast that vote) and real progressive Trevor Thomas.

Two choices, folks — we can fight (as Matt Cartwright did) or bail (as many of us would like to do; I get that). Me, I'm in a fighting frame of mind. If you're the same, join the battle in Michigan and support Trevor Thomas. His primary is August 7.

Want to learn more on the DCCC and the Michigan-03 race? Go here; it'll curdle your morning milk. Yes, that DCCC.

(Update: Fixed donate link.)

GP

(To follow on Twitter or to send links: @Gaius_Publius)
 

It's art, but is it racist?

A mini-scandal here in Sweden over the Minister of Culture, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, showing up at an event and cutting a cake that's a caricature of an obese African minstrel woman.  At first glance, it sure looks racist.

Of course, the issue is a bit more complicated.

The artist who made the cake is black (does that matter?). And he's actually the head of the cake.  Each time a guest slices a piece of the blood red cake, the artist moans in agony (see video below).  The message seems pretty clearly one lampooning the cake-cutters as racist, rather than a message that's racist against blacks or Africans.



But.

It's not entirely clear to me that, when a government official is presented with the prospect of carving up a caricature of a black person, the government official should happily oblige. I get that the art is intended to fight racism. But does it?  And what happens when a government official plays along with the joke/art?  Some have asked whether the government would play along with a cake carving up a Jew, or a Muslim?  How about a fetus?

I do think, first of all, that the minister is an idiot for carving the cake. She must have known what the optics would be like, and that the photos of her carving the cake would look per se racist. But is she racist for carving the cake and going along with the joke/political lesson? Of that I'm not so sure. In the end, the cake seems to have been made so that the guest would cut it up, and that the visual would send an anti-racism message. One could argue that the minister was simply a willing pawn in helping to spread that message.

In the end, is this a cake that was never intended to be eaten at all?  Wasn't the point to make the guests uncomfortable carving the cake, so that the only "good" person is one who refuses to carve the cake, period?  In a way, I'm starting to find the cake quite a brilliant statement. The guests who were willing to carve the cake with a laugh, less so.

What do you think? Take a look at the video and let me know what you think in the comments.

The return of mad cow in the US?

Let's hope this is an isolated incident and nothing more. Besides the obvious health impact, this is likely to have a negative impact on US beef exports not to mention a slow down in the US.

Clifford, the government's chief veterinary officer at the agriculture department, had quickly called his counterparts in Mexico and Canada, the first and second-largest buyers of U.S. beef, to tell them about a California cow found to have an "atypical" type of the brain-wasting disease. Having taken up his post in May 2004, just six months after the first U.S. case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy was discovered, he knows that sharing information quickly during the next 24 hours -- and in the weeks ahead -- will be vital for reassuring consumers, both domestic and foreign. "It's critically important for the trust and continuing of the trade between those countries," Clifford said in an interview, trying to pre-empt concerns about the nation's herd that could send the multi-billion U.S. industry into another tailspin.

Video: Mitt Romney's awkward bonding tour of America

This is awfully good.  And it just get worse and worse as the video goes on.  Watch the entire thing.

Russian scientists search for only known white killer whale

You have to click through to see the video of Iceberg, the killer whale. It's amazing to see the what they claim is the only all white killer whale in the world. (Which sounds doubtful, but possible.)

Video: Greedy Hamster

In addition to funky cats, the Russians apparently have quite interesting hamsters as well.  (I still think I prefer these videos without the music added.)

Video: 56 episodes of Star Trek simultaneously

I made it through 2 minutes 30. (Geek alert) Sounded a bit like another Star Trek episode when Data heard a thousand voices at once.

EU debt increasing, even with austerity

In yet another sign of trouble for the wisdom of harsh fiscal austerity (along with the CNN report), Commerzbank has noted the destructive impact of austerity. The story by conservatives that austerity cures all problems is proving false, just as many liberal economists stated from the beginning. It doesn't work that way and there are no solid examples to show it working in modern history either. The Democrats need to ramp up the discussion on austerity and its human cost because it's ugly. Read more about the Commerzbank report via CNBC:In a note to clients, analysts at Commerzbank said data is now clearly showing that government debt in the euro zone’s periphery is rising, despite the imposition of tough austerity at the behest of the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Union. Following data showing Portuguese debt rose in the first quarter of 2012, Christoph Weil, the chief economist at Commerzbank says it is unlikely Lisbon will meet its targets without even more spending cuts.

Mitt Romney's plan for the nation is so secret even he doesn't know it

The Obama campaign has been hitting Romney hard on his "secret strategy" for America - meaning, they're hitting Romney hard for not dealing plans for much of anything. Romney would understandably prefer to keep the conversation on Obama.  But at some point, the man needs to spell out his vision for the country.  And having run for President, and office, for so many years, it's disturbing that he doesn't seem to have one.

AP really lets Romney have it in this rather long story detailing policy after policy about which Romney has little detailed to say.

How rude of Ron Paul to keep beating Mitt Romney in the primaries

It's so mean of Ron Paul to keep winning. Winning is for losers. From Dave Weigel:

Not quite yet. Over the weekend, Minnesota held congressional district conventions. Now, the state's February caucus -- one of the trio of non-binding contests Santorum won early that month -- went 45 percent for Santorum, 27 percent for Paul, and only 17 percent for Romney. The Associated Press and other groups went on to estimate that Santorum would win 17 of Minnesota's delegates, Paul would win 10, and Romney 6. Wrong. Ron Paul dominated the CD conventions. According to a tweet from RNC committeewoman Pat Anderson, Paul took 20 of the 24 delegates available in the CDs.

Mitt Romney's Latino Problem

Mitt Romney has a Latino problem. No, it's nothing along the lines of disgraced Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu's affair with an undocumented Mexican immigrant. Mitt's problem is that while he desperately needs Latinos to make up for his voter deficit to President Barack Obama, Latinos just don't like Mitt very much.

In fact, Fox News' own Latino division found that if the general election were held today, only 14 percent of Latino voters would cast their ballots for Romney (assuming Republicans hadn't already forced those voters to self-deport). A whopping 70% would cast their ballots for incumbent Obama.

Mitt's problem with the Latino voting bloc mostly likely stems from a deep distrust in his attitudes towards them - and that is "attitudes," as in plural. Over the course of the GOP primary, Mitt's stances on immigrants and Latinos have shifted ever more to the right to compete with the lunacy of the now-dead campaigns of Rep. Michele "Double Fence" Bachmann and Herman "Electrocute Them Already" Cain. Remember Mitt's "self-deportation suggestion," gente?

So what's Mitt to do? Always in search of his own bailout (like when he asked the federal government for cash in order to save his Winter Olympics), Romney may be hoping that possible VP pick Marco Rubio, the Cuban freshman senator from Florida, will come to his rescue.

There's just one problem with Mitt possibly picking Rubio as his running mate: Latinos aren't falling for the pandering. Recent polling finds that even with Rubio on the ticket, Mitt loses Latinos to President Obama in the general election. In fact, the GOP ticket loses to the Democratic ticket by seven points in Rubio's own home state of Florida.

Part of the problem lies with Rubio's own disingenuous attempt to duplicate the Democrats' popular DREAM Act, while still trying to keep a rabid, anti-immigrant GOP base at bay. Rubio's proposed alternative, which John called the Ream Act, would offer no path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States against their own volition as kids. This isn't even including the fact that Mitt himself refuses to comment on whether or not he endorses his possible running mate's legislation.

Latinos' distrust of Mitt could ultimately lie with Arizona's infamous "Papers Please" law. While he named its author Kris Kobach an "advisor," and called the law a "model for the nation" as recently as February, Mitt has pulled out the Etch-A-Sketch and changed the mariachi tune, saying that he was only referring to the E-Verify system. He even threw the author under the bus, saying that he was a "supporter" and nothing more (Mitt's spokesperson was later forced to recant).

Kobach himself tried to staple down Mitt's position, saying that in reality Mitt does want the "Papers Please" law nationwide. “He stated very publicly that Arizona’s law should be a model for how the federal government enforces its immigration laws. And he’s correct there too."

Only Mitt knows how much pandering is left for a man who flips more than a jumping bean (someone please let Mitt know that that's not Mexico's national symbol). He's already claimed his Mexico-born dad was a poor immigrant (minus that whole actually being Mexican stuff). He'll continue to erase and distort, even though we all remember he's someone who fired an undocumented gardener - a man simply trying to make a living - just to save himself some GOP votes.

Say, Mitt, you think Menudo needs any new members?

Obama in NC today, won't mention huge anti-gay ballot initiative taking place in two weeks

Well that isn't very nice. As Joe notes over at AMERICAblog Gay:

Today, President Obama will be at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to give a speech on student loan interest rates, which will double in July if Congress doesn't act. That's not the big issue in North Carolina right now. North Carolinians are currently voting on the viciously anti-gay Amendment 1, which will ban marriage equality and more in the state. Early voting began on April 19th for the May 8th election. Much of the opposition is coming from students. The President's campaign issued a statement a couple weeks ago, which stated Obama's opposition to Amendment 1.

It's not just not helpful. It sends a terrible message, having the President in the state, and NOT talking about the biggest issue in the state. It makes it look as if he's afraid to talk about the issue. And it sends the message to voters, especially certain constituencies deeply aligned with the President, that he just might not care how they vote on the issue.

I get that the White House wants to stay on message and talk about the economy rather than gay stuff.  Okay.  Then don't go to North Carolina two weeks before a crucial anti-gay vote.  To go anyway, and ignore a massive civil (and human) rights violation in the making, is somewhat ugly, to say the least.  It's also asking for political trouble with a constituency that knows how to make it.

Please thank the Catholic church for throwing the US election to Obama

It's that time, every four years, when the Catholic leadership tries to throw the US elections to the Republicans.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called for two weeks of public protest in June and July against what it sees as growing government encroachment on religious freedom.

The protests are expected to include priests and nuns and thousands of Catholic parishioners. Some activists expect civil disobedience, which could lead to powerful images of priests and nuns being led away in hand restraints.

Can't be long now until they start cutting off communion to Democrats.

I always get a kick out of two things when the Catholic leadership tries to influence US elections on behalf of Republicans.

1. That the Catholic leadership actually acts as if it still has any moral authority whatsoever after aiding and abetting, and continuing to cover up, the decades-long serial rape of children; and

2. That it pretends to represent some huge Catholic constituency when it views don't even represent a majority of US Catholics.  Meaning, if you want to do the bidding of American Catholics, watch these people protest then do the opposite of what they're asking for.

Key findings from the [PPP] survey include:

-57% of Catholic voters support the new policy President Obama announced yesterday allowing women who work for religiously-affiliated hospitals and universities to receive coverage for prescription birth control without requiring Catholic institutions to pay for the coverage directly. Only 29% oppose the policy because they believe it still goes too far in requiring birth control coverage; additionally 5% oppose it because they think Catholic hospitals and universities should be required to pay for this coverage. Catholic women are particularly positive toward the policy, with 59% of them expressing support.

-With the inclusion of President Obama’s solution for religiously-affiliated institutions, Catholics favor the requirement that health plans cover prescription birth control by a  margin of 54% to 42%. Catholic Democrats (80% - 17%) favor the requirement by virtually the same margin that Catholic Republicans (16% - 79%) oppose it; significantly, politically independent Catholics favor the requirement by an 18-point margin (56% to 38%). Catholic women also favor it by an 18-point margin, while Catholic men favor it by a 4-point margin.

But even better?  The more the fringe Catholic leadership rabble-rouses on this issue, the more it actually hurts Romney, according to PPP:

-This issue has the potential to cause Mitt Romney trouble with Catholic voters in the fall. 51% say they side with Barack Obama on this issue, while only 38% prefer
Romney’s position. Hispanic Catholics, a group Romney must make in roads with, go with Obama 59/32 on the policy and Catholic women do so by a 54/35 margin. Catholics ave been a key swing voting group in recent elections, supporting George W. Bush in 2004  and then Obama in 2008. Obama’s even-handed approach on this issue has him positioned  well with Catholics for the fall.

And it may just throw control of the US House to Democrats, again from PPP:

-Congressional Republicans risk losing their majority in the House and squandering any opportunities in the Senate by continuing attacks on the popular birth control benefit.

The trick here for the Obama administration, and campaign, is to make sure that any stories about the Catholic protests explain WHY people are protesting - namely, the Obama birth control benefit policy that most Catholics agree with.

As for the protests themselves, someone needs to counter-protest with a group of five year old boys holding signs saying "you lost your moral authority when you covered up my rape." The only way to chasten the Catholic leadership is for them to know that every single time they try to force all Americans to live under Catholic doctrine Americans will be reminded that these are the same people who to this day still protect child rapists.

Dow CEO: If you ignore fracking problems, shale gas is awesome!

Only on CNBC's Kudlow Report can you get such priceless discussions that completely ignore the problem of earthquakes and polluted water sources. In the fantasy land known as The Kudlow Report, it's all about the wet dreams of Big Energy including the usual demands for scrapping pesky regulation, as in the already anemic regulation that is supposed to protect people.

Forget if you can that ever so small problem of cities like Youngstown, Ohio purchasing earthquake insurance or the EPA study that linked fracking to water pollution. Clean drinking water is probably overrated anyway, right?

What is missing (again) from this pro-fracking love fest on CNBC is a debate about why it's OK for business to pass on costs of fracking to everyone else. If Big Energy wants to destroy the environment to make a few bucks, why shouldn't they also be responsible for funding the cleanup and after effects of their destructive practices? With the economy still weak and Americans wondering about job security, how is it fair to push these costs onto others rather than asking the always profitable energy industry to foot the bill?

The Tokyo Tea Party (shivers)

From Molly Ball in the Atlantic:

Aeba, one of the leaders of Japan’s right-wing Happiness Realization Party, was accompanied by Yuya Watase, the founder of the Tokyo Tea Party; their interpreter, a Happiness Realization Party official named Yuki Oikawa; and Bob Sparks, their American political consultant. Together, they said, they were on a mission to export American-style conservatism—the gospel of small government, low taxes, and free enterprise—to the Land of the Rising Sun.

The Tokyo Tea Party uses the same slogan as its American counterpart—“Taxed Enough Already”—and even goes by the same name (though I was assured that there was no danger of confusion with the traditional Japanese tea ceremony). Aeba’s Happiness Realization Party, meanwhile, is the political arm of a new-wave religious movement called Happy Science, whose founder claims to be a reincarnation of the Buddha. The Happies, as they are called, envision a Japan that is at once more muscular on the world stage—they propose eliminating the constitutional ban on waging war—and more religious at home. “The best analogy would be the Christian Coalition, Buddhist-style,” Sparks offered helpfully.

Yes, because that's what the world needs is a newly militaristic evangelical Japan.

CNN's Zakaria: Europe suffers from too much austerity

I'm not saying that CNN's Fareed Zakaria is wrong. But after all of these years of the West, via the IMF, forcing developing countries to decimate their budgets and thus their economies, at the expense of their people, now that the tough love medicine is hitting too close to home, suddenly it's time to revisit the notion that there's no such thing as too much, or ill-timed, austerity.

Fareed Zakaria at CNN:

Consider that data we started with. The U.S. economy, which received monetary and fiscal stimulus, will grow at well over 2% this year. European economies that have followed the path of cutting spending and raising taxes to reduce deficits are finding themselves in a downward spiral: cutting spending means laying off people, which means less demand for good and services, which means the economy shrinks, which - ironically - means lower tax revenues and thus larger budget deficits.
Take a look at Britain. Britain has followed a brave austerity plan, cutting government spending across the board and raising taxes. The result, British growth has stalled; the economy will grow barely 0.8% this year. And while its budget deficit was predicted to be under 13 billion dollars in February, it was in fact 24 billion dollars for that month alone.
After its austerity programs, Spain has hit 20% unemployment - 50% youth unemployment - and now has a much larger budget deficit than projected.

Video: Buster's box FAIL

This is quite adorable.

TV Ads begin in campaign against NC's anti-gay Amendment 1

On May 8th, voters in North Carolina will decide the fate of Amendment One, a viciously anti-gay measure put on the ballot by the GOP nut jobs in the legislature. It's so poorly written that it will have an impact beyond same-sex couples. We've been writing about this campaign extensively at AMERICAblog Gay.

Actually, North Carolinians are already going to the polls. Early voting began last Thursday.

There's a broad, very active coalition of over 100 organizations, including the NAACP, fighting the amendment. And, here's been a groundswell of opposition to Amendment One, from unlikely sources. The CEO of Duke Energy, a fortune 500 company, blasted it -- as did the former GOP mayor of Charlotte, Richard Vinroot, who did a video against Amendment One with a former Democratic mayor of Charlotte, Harvey Gantt.

Last night, the campaign to defeat Amendment One held a conference call to discuss its t.v. ads, which began airing today.  On the call to discuss the ads and the strategy for the next two weeks were the media consultants, Mark Amour and Chad Griffin (who will soon be President of HRC), producer Dustin Lance Black and the pollster, Josh Ulibarri from Lake Research. Our side did some pretty intense research to figure out the messages that moved voters. And, these ads, according to testing, worked. One other thing, Dustin Lance Black said, with which I agree, is that before major donors go the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte and spend $100,000 on VIP parties and functions, they need to donate to defeat discrimination in NC now. After all, even President Obama is against Amendment One. 

Here are the ads from Protect All NC Families:

And:

The other side start airing its ads today, too. They are using the same consultant, Frank Schubert, from Prop. 8 and the Maine marriage campaign. So, we're expecting the usual lies (in fact, the leader of the anti-marriage side in Maine, who works for the Catholic Bishop, basically admitted his campaign lied in 2009, "We use a lot of hyperbole and I think that's always dangerous.")

The campaign against Amendment one is Protect All NC Families and the website is here. Already, the campaign has raised $600,000 online -- far more than expected. Thanks to everyone who made that happen. And, you can still donate to buy more air time here. 

The campaign is also running an aggressive field program, focusing on get-out-the-vote. And, there are lots of other allies doing their own outreach via radio and mail. More from North Carolinian Pam Spaulding on some of the grassroots efforts here.

If you family or friends there, urge them to vote early AGAINST Amendment One. And, if you live there, vote now.

Romney spokesman made sexist and homophobic remarks about Mrs. Obama, Hillary Clinton

Would you expect anything less from the Republican nominee?

Interesting that we haven't heard boo from Mitt or Ann Romney.  You'll recall two weeks ago they were more than happy to talk non-stop about how they felt Democratic consultant Hilary Rosen had shown disrespect to women.  But when the Romney campaign's own spokesman - and mind you, Hilary Rosen doesn't even work for the Obama campaign, this guy does work for Romney - is found to have tried to cover up a series of sexist and homophobic comments about First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, and the wife of Romney's remaining serious (well, somewhat serious) opponent in the GOP primary, you don't hear boo from Mr. or Mrs. Romney.

Wonder why that is?  Maybe Mitt and Ann Romney don't care about women at all. We'll find out if they keep this spokesman on staff.

Romney, flip flopper or "severe conservative"?

President Clinton is urging the Obama campaign to label Romney a "severe conservative," as Romney recently described himself, rather than focusing as much on the flip-flopper label.  The thought is that Romney is going to redefine himself to the middle for the general election, and this preempts him from doing that.

I've always been concerned that Romney's flip-flop nature would help him in the general election.  I've heard more than one Democrat or Independent say that Romney wouldn't be that bad a President since we all know he's "really" a liberal who's just pretending to be a conservative.  The thing is, how do we know that Romney wasn't simply pretending to be a liberal all those years he was in Massachusetts?  After all, what better beard for someone who wants to rise in Massachusetts politics?

And ultimately, that's the great danger of a Romney presidency.  It's not entirely clear whether he'd govern as a liberal Democrat or a "severe conservative," as he oddly, and comically, put it.  And while President Obama hasn't always been as wedded to his convictions as we'd like, Romney makes Obama look downright mono-maniacal.


More here.

Trayvon, Zimmerman and a word about photos

By now we're probably all familiar with the iconic photos of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman.  The one, undated, dressed in Hollister and looking all of 12 years old.  The other, just as undated, dressed in Gitmo orange, unshaven, wearing an earring, and looking a bit like an immigrant.

Then I saw another photo of Zimmerman leaving the courthouse this past weekend, and he looks nothing like goofy Gitmo guy.

It's interesting how photos influence our judgment.

Have we even seen a photo of what Travyon Martin looked like this year?

Why does it matter, you ask?  It mattered when everyone thought Trayvon looked like he was 12 in that ubiquitous undated photo. By looking 12, he looked all the more innocent, and the crime become all the more outrageous.  The sense of loss and outrage was greater.  But we never did find out when that undated photo was taken (I never could figure out why no one in the media simply asked his family).  And don't tell me that the Gitmo-esque faux mug-shot of Zimmerman didn't influence a few minds either.

Photos are magical.  But they don't always tell a truth.

Lieberman declines to endorse in presidential race

We're supposed to be thankful that Senator Joe Lieberman is being less jerkish than usual.

Yeah, kind of like the way you're thankful your most recent flare up of herpes is milder than usual. It doesn't change your opinion of the underlying problem.

Lieberman is pompous, and worse, an ingrate. President Obama saved his behind when Democrats were ready to jettison Lieberman from the Dem caucus after his betrayal of endorsing McCain over Obama. And what thanks did President Obama get in return? Lieberman scuttled a last minute deal to improve health care reform.

Thanks Joe!

So this time, as thanks to Obama, Lieberman isn't endorsing the President's re-election, but rather sitting this one out.

Lieberman has been helpful on gay issues, and I'm thankful for that.  But on so much more, he's just so smug and arrogant.  I'm glad he helped us on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, but for the sake of the party, it'll be good to see him go.

Flight of the Conchords: "It's Business Time"

With all this "sexytime" talk that icks out the Right, I want put a stake in the ground.

Here's what icks me out, and Flight of the Conchords puts a very fine point on it. Listen:



No plaid-shoed golfers were harmed in the making of that song.

The lyrics are a hoot. For example:

Oh yeah, that's right baby.
Tonight we're gonna make love.
You know how I know, baby?
Cause it's Wednesday.

And:

You know it's time for business
when I'm down to just my socks.
That's why they call it
business socks.

You don't want to miss the ending. Thanks, guys; nicely done.

GP

To follow on Twitter or to send links: @Gaius_Publius
 

Usual two parties pass first round in French elections

In recent weeks there was a lot of talk about the left and the hard right making progress, but in the end it was the usual center-right and center-left who moved into the second (and final) round in France. The left did not fair as well as expected though the extreme right National Front gathered 20% of the vote, trailing the center-left and the center-right on Sunday. Some have suggested that Sarkozy will push to the right with the anti-immigration voters who strongly supported the extreme right though others believe his moves to the far right have done more harm than good. The Guardian:

Partial results from the beginning of the count showed Hollande – a former Socialist party leader, rural MP and self-styled Mr Normal – with a clear lead at more than 28%, compared with Sarkozy on about 26%. Hollande's is one of the left's best ever results and will raise momentum for next month's final run-off. The Socialist party is seeking to return to the presidency for the first time since François Mitterrand's re-election in 1988. But Sarkozy's total will be seen as a personal failure. It is the first time an outgoing president has failed to win a first-round vote in the past 50 years and makes it harder for Sarkozy to regain momentum. The final runoff vote between Hollande and Sarkozy now depends on a delicate balance of how France's total of rightwing and leftwing voters line up.

A key point to note from Sunday's vote is that this was the first time since 1958 that the incumbent did not receive the most votes in the first round. Even though Sarkozy was not far behind Hollande, many consider the first round a defeat for the current president.

Stupid utilities: National Grid

My wife just berated me for not paying the electricity bill: Evidence of which was a call from a company asking to talk to me about the electricity bill. So I check the online payment and find they were paid. It turns out that the call about my bill was not about arrears at all, it was a company cold calling to ask me to 'switch' to them as a supplier.

Now there are many reasons why I would not switch to the company in question, not least the fact that I never ever do business with companies that use a robot dialer to cold call me. It may be the same company that has been sending people door to door to ask if they can see people's electricity bills so that they can demonstrate the savings they offer. That might be the reason they are asking or it might be (as my neighbors report) because they want to see the account number needed to authorize a switch.

I am not going to switch to that particular company but I must admit to being tempted to switch because National Grid won't let me pay electronically. Or to be exact, they will let me pay electronically if I give them the ability to deduct arbitrary amounts from my bank account on the day of their choosing. What they refuse to do is to co-operate with the automatic payment scheme offered by my bank, a scheme that gives me control.

Even though the bank I use is small, the Web bill payment system they offer is run by a division of Quicken. It is one of the largest payment processing houses in the business. National Grid refuse to work with them because they want to try to force me to use their system to make electronic payments. All that National Grid need do is to send the electricity bill to the payment center where it will be scanned and entered into the payment system. The gas division of National Grid does this but the electricity division ignores the requests.

Of course there are much better ways of doing electronic payments than sending paper bills to a payment center that mails out checks. But National Grid does not seem interested in supporting those either. This might because their antiquated billing system would be costly to modify to produce anything other than paper mails or it might be because the management of an old style utility have never had to consider customer service in the past.

Now of course they will and it is going to be very interesting to see the results.

Update: Yes, I know I can send a check using the Internet, that is exactly what I want to do. The problem is that National Grid will only mail the invoice to my home address where it gets lost in the junk mail. All my other bills go to Quicken where they are processed automatically.

Video: Demon pendulum

This is just too cool.

Odd update: I've just arrived in Stockholm for the Netroots Nation Sweden conference, and flew in via Amsterdam this morning.  What do I run into in the Amsterdam airport, but an exhibit demonstrating the very pendulum wave thing that I posted about the night before. (Bad iPhone photo at left.)  Bizarre coincidence.

Dems on Hill have "buyer's remorse" about health care reform

Not anything close to the buyer's remorse a lot of us have about them. First this excerpt from The Hill:

“I think we would all have been better off — President Obama politically, Democrats in Congress politically, and the nation would have been better off — if we had dealt first with the financial system and the other related economic issues and then come back to healthcare,” said Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), who is retiring at the end of this Congress.

Well, we did deal with the economic crisis first. That's what the stimulus was about. And had the administration sold the stimulus harder, and more wisely, to the public, both before and after it was passed, people would, in retrospective, have perceived the stimulus as worthy and effective, and thus would have perceived that the Congress DID in fact deal with economic issues first.

The second problem was the way they handled health care reform. The administration did a lousy job selling the legislation to the public, and an equally lousy job demonizing Republicans and insurance companies (and Big Pharma et. al.), both during and after the legislative battle. So we ended up with legislation that no one understands, that the administration has, at times, seemed almost embarrassed of mentioning, and that the Republicans have outright lied about, continually, and about which the public now believes many of the lies.

The fault, dear congressman, is not in our legislation, but in ourselves.

A lot of us predicted exactly how the health care reform battle, and every other battle, was going to go down if the Democrats continued to refuse to fight.  Yet refuse a lot of them did, especially the administration (and then when the administration backed away, Dems on the Hill were left hanging out to dry, making them less willing and able to fight).

Then there's Barney. Always ripe for an annoyingly certain opinion:

The most recent wave of misgivings from Democrats began with Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who told New York magazine that Democrats “paid a terrible price for healthcare.”

Frank said Obama had erred in pushing the legislation after GOP Sen. Scott Brown’s January 2010 victory in Massachusetts, which took away the Senate Democrats’ 60th vote.

Yes, how crazy of President Obama to actually push for something after one guy won an election against a really bad Democratic candidate, and a race in which the White House refused to help until the last week or two, when all was already lost.

Again, post hoc ergo propter hoc reasoning has its flaws. Maybe we didn't lose because we attempted to pass a particular piece of legislation. May we lost because we did it poorly.

Romney's slogan isn't working

As you might have heard, Romney's latest campaign slogan is 'Obama isn't working'. This appears to be both a reference to the famous 'Labour isn't Working' slogan created by the brothers Saatchi for the 1979 Conservative campaign in the UK, and a none-too-subtle dog whistle to remind voters of a common racist stereotype (i.e., the black man doesn't work).

The Saatchi slogan was also a double entendre. It pointed to the fact that UK unemployment had reached over a million under Labour, and the country had been crippled by strikes for months, the so-called 'winter of discontent'. It was a powerful slogan because it reminded voters of the two facts that were central to the Tory campaign.

While the Romney campaign is also attempting a double entendre, neither meaning is likely to resonate outside the Conservative base. Most voters remember that the recession started under the Bush administration (that didn't stop Romney from trying to blame President Obama for a factor that was closed under Bush). Claiming that Obama has not done enough to clean up the mess made by the last Republican President does not have quite the same punch as pointing to the collapse of British manufacturing under Labour.

There is also the fact that voters don't (at least not yet) seem to think Romney has any better economic expertise than Obama. A recent MSNBC poll found that there was essentially no difference between voters assessment of Romney and Obama on the economy. The Romney slogan might even backfire if people consider the Thatcher government as precedent: 18 months after the 1979 election, UK unemployment hit three million as the country's manufacturing base was destroyed and Britain became a net importer of manufactured goods for the first time since the industrial revolution.

The dog whistle aspect of the slogan might also backfire. Does it really make sense for a man who left business in 1999 and hasn't had a real job since 2007, because he's so rich he doesn't need to work, to accuse the President of being lazy?

The Band - The Weight

A fantastic performance by The Band at Woodstock.

It's election day in France. It's likely the first step in voting current president Sarkozy out of office after only one term. If this happens, he will be the first president of France since the early 1980's to be a one and done.

Dylan: "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"

I just finished watching season 1 of Mad Men, which ended with Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" — and that reminded me of this, the stunning "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)." A modern masterpiece, a legitimate precursor to rap, and one of the greatest songs written by an American, in my opinion.

This is a live performance, probably from 1964, and one of the best I found. Turn up the sound; it's on the quiet side, but very well performed, and similar to the studio version.



Dylan at the top of his pre-electric form. He's said that he couldn't write this song any more. Not sure many could.

Just one aspect of many to note — aside from the stunning content. It's often said that English is a rhyme-poor language, especially compared to any Latinate language for instance. Yet here's just the first verse (with chorus):

Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying

Temptation’s page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover that you’d just be one more
Person crying

So don’t fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing

Even the last lines of each stanza rhyme with each other — trying / dying / crying / sighing — with lots of fun "feminine rhymes" like these. Note the internal rhyme in the line "So don't fear if you hear" — internal rhyme is a Dylan specialty.

The rhyme scheme for each stanza-set is:

• AAAAAB
• CCCCCB
• DDDDDB
• (Chorus) MMB

Verse after verse, that's an lot of rhymes, and effective ones, on four sounds per each 21 lines. Some of the rhymes are partial (the hole that he's in / if I can't please him), but even those work. I'm in awe.

GP

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Citibank sued by shareholders over excessive pay

Earlier this week shareholders rejected the bloated Citibank pay, but the vote was only a suggestion. Citigroup management chose to ignore the vote so now shareholders are taking their case to court. Reuters:

The complaint filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court accuses directors of breaching their fiduciary duties by awarding more than $54 million of compensation in 2011 to the executives, including $15 million to Pandit, though the bank's performance did not necessarily justify it. At Citigroup's annual meeting on Tuesday, about 55 percent of shareholders participating in an advisory vote rejected Pandit's pay package. That marked the first time that investors had rejected a compensation plan at a major U.S. bank. That vote "has cast doubt on the board's decision-making process, as well as the accuracy and truthfulness of its public statements," the complaint said. "Absent this (lawsuit), the majority will of the company's stockholders shall be rendered meaningless."

Was there really any doubt that the Citi management decision-making was already a disaster?