Iowa Liberal

Bobby Jindal, Republican folk hero for turning down stimulus cash on principle, has decided against letting the invisible hand deal with his state’s current ecological disaster. Jindal has gone to Washington, hat in hand, and begged for tax payer assistance. Shame on him! Any self-respecting capitalist would pull himself up by the bootstraps and realize that only individual self-interest is best equipped to remedy these ills. Enterprising, rational actors will see the obvious need for coastal cleanup and act accordingly by provided that service at fair market value.

-mg

I’m happy to be wrong but when I read this the first thought that sprung to mind was “fat fucking chance”:

“We are taking full responsibility for the spill and we will clean it up, and where people can present legitimate claims for damages we will honor them. We are going to be very, very aggressive in all of that,” Tony Hayward told Reuters in an interview on Friday.

Like Exxon, BP will be fighting this in court for the next twenty years trying to defer as much of the coasts of cleanup onto the federal and state governments. Considering that they’ve already spent considerable sums fighting regulations that would have prevented this disaster it’s hard to believe that they’ll be going out of their way to admit fault.

So what is geological and energy security expert Sarah Palin’s take on all of this? As Digby has humorously remarked, “How’s That Wishin’ Prayin’ Thing Workin’ Out For Ya?”
-mg

Sorry about the dearth in posting but I’ve been working on a new fishing website called Walleye Wisdom for a client. Things are coming together nicely so I’ll be able to spend more time here on Iowa Liberal in the not so distant future.

Bush speechwriter/torture apologist/hacktacular piece of shit (three reasons he’s got an op-ed in the Washington Post) Marc Thiessen tells Republicans to act as soon as possible to repeal health care reform because there’s some time yet before benefits start kicking in.

Steve Benen points out that benefits are already starting to materialize, but the reader comments are where Thiessen gets roasted for the unbelievable cynicism behind this message. Repeal it quickly, so that Americans won’t know what they were missing? Really?

-hw

Sullivan readers are the bomb:

Leviticus 19:33-34 (NIV)
When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt.

A reader adds:

Also see:

Leviticus 19:33
Exodus 22:21
Exodus 23:9
Deuteronomy 24:17-18
Leviticus 19:9-10
Deuteronomy 24:19-22
Deuteronomy 10:18-19
Hebrews 13:2

I, not being a Biblical sort, would have a good excuse for waving all these passages off. Not too many supporters of the Arizona bill could say the same.

Look, Arizona was already cracking down on employers, which is the way to go if you’re really concerned about this issue. Expecting all citizens to walk around with proof that they are such is simply a fool’s game, and it’s going to cost Arizona a lot, as well as the GOP.

BTW, I’ve driven through border checkpoints dozens of times. Always get waved through. What are they looking for? Whatever it is, I have a strong suspicion my sickly white face ain’t never hurt…

-hw

I’m trying to listen for tea partiers complaining about fascism in Arizona…

Be very, very quiet…we wouldn’t want them to be drowned out. It’s just weird, because normally I hear every stupid thing that comes out of their mouths…

-hw

The Republicans have decided to cravenly filibuster financial reform and the right-wing blog amen chorus has uttered nary a peep. I take this to mean either one or two things; that Limbaugh hasn’t yet uttered an opinion on the subject or the McConnell technique has crashed into the mountain and burned.

Uber-Beltway hack Halperin knows which way the wind is blowing. If he’s not scared Dick Cheney is going to be mad at him anymore and is willing to write this even-handed piece on Obama’s success in office, then I predict more will follow.

As Halperin notes, those of us on the left are still steamed under the collar over a variety of Obama’s centrist maneuvers that leave liberals out in the cold to appease some damned incalcitrant Republicans who never give in anyway, but one can’t deny that for a middle-of-the-roader, Obama’s pretty damn good at the job and more than willing to throw the left some victories (health care, health care, health care…still a great victory despite the corporate surrender).

The thing is, I just think Obama can do so much better without losing ground. On things the public supports, things he could easily get away with, he still hedges and holds back. Now it’s bank reform time, and we’re about to see who’s really in charge, us or the big banks. Not that 41 Republicans aren’t doing their damnedest to fight for the big banks, but Obama and the Democrats are holding all the aces.

Let’s hope and pray Obama’s got more long games in mind, because a second great crash in the next ten years will likely be due to the fact that too little is being done now. Bill Clinton thought he could sign a repeal of the Glass-Steagall act and make everybody happy, and lost sight of the real purpose of governing: to find and enact the best policies.

-hw

Wanna point something out to our friends across the right-leaning spectrum, from teaparty invitees to birthers to free-market evangelists and libertarians and all stripes in between: the recovering economy means game over for your side. Holler, yell, stomp your feet, protest, locate the last slippery slope in the furthest-flung corner of the galaxy: everybody who was out of work in the Bush years who gets a job during the Obama admin will vote Democratic this fall, and will bend over backwards to reelect Obama. The people who contributed to the largest surge in sales of new homes since April 1963 don’t care about gay marriage, or the supreme court, or the mysterious new strain of posited socialism that occurs without a revolution but through parliamentary procedure. The people who sold the homes and people who live in them know what’s up. Republican economics are terrible; Democratic ones are marginally less terrible. That’s a wrap, wingnuts. Enjoy your tea parties. They are all you’re gonna get.

…and environmentalists are the true polluters…the women’s lib movement was sexist, etc, etc, etc.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele: “For the last 40-plus years we had a ‘Southern Strategy’ that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South.”

I’m glad he said it because if I did I’d be accused of reverse, double-plus proto-racism.

No fact-checker can do anything other than deem McConnell’s statements a massive whopper. Even Mark Halperin couldn’t come up with a rationalization.

Perhaps might our media actually dare declare a controversy over overt and conscious lying? Dare the Republicans actually pay a price for dishonesty? So far they’ve always been rewarded. The noise machine is trying to keep the idea alive, but all it’s become is a barometer of who in D.C. and the establishment has a scrap of honesty left.

-hw

PONY!

Because Obama remains obsessed with his “bipartisanship” magic pony. Republicans know this, and continue to use that obsession to their advantage. Whether it was watering down health care reform, or watering down financial services reform, Obama and his congressional allies will continue giving concessions to obstructionist Republicans with zero reciprocity.

I don’t mind concessions in exchange for votes. But concessions in exchange for nothing more thatn continued GOP lies and smears? I can’t, for the life of me, understand why Democrats keep doing this.

It’s true, Republicans keep getting something for nothing. Oh, dear, there’s 41 Republican Senators opposed to Obama’s plan to (insert whatever here)!?!?! Better start backing down…oh, wait, there’s still 41 opposed??? Hmm, back down some more…um, eh…any better yet? No? Er, arrghh! How long can I repeat this???

In Obama’s case, the answer may be four to eight years. Until a Republican is willing to spell out exactly what it will take to get their vote, without it being, “Start over and do it all my way!” there’s little to say. Frank Luntz told them to say “TEH BALIOUTS WILL NEVAH END!!!” no matter what the financial reform bill says, and that’s what they’re going to do. Republicans who want to deal need to be aggressive about it, because I just say let’s shove Wall Street right up their asses in November.

-hw

Sullivan:

I cannot see how a movement that still supports George W Bush has much credibility on fiscal sanity. And the total absence of any proposals to, you know, cut spending or even, gasp, raise some taxes … well, it doesn’t help prove they’re not all just whiny, enraged utopians with a race problem, does it?

The link is a pretty neat look at how some of the most socialist countries like Canada and Sweden are behaving with the most fiscal responsibility. Trust in government, in a democratic society, can be beneficial:

Counterintuitively, the relatively strong Canadian trust in government may have paved the way for government spending cuts, a pattern that also appears in Scandinavia. Citizens were told by their government leadership that such cuts were necessary and, to some extent, they trusted the messenger.

It’s less obvious that the United States can head down the same path, partly because many Americans are so cynical about policy makers. In many ways, this cynicism may be justified, but it is not always helpful, as it lowers trust and impedes useful social bargains.

Unsurprisingly, the tea party steady stream of insane horseshit is counterproductive. Obama offers tax cuts, they freak out about taxes (plus, tax cuts are part of the reason we’re in deficit, but their concern about the deficit leads them to demand more tax cuts). Obama loosens gun restrictions, they’re convinced he’s coming after their guns. Obama offers a health care bill that pays for itself, they scream about government spending. No matter what our government does, if a Democrat is in office and has the intent to use the government to better serve the people, it’s their intent to derail it. A twofold purpose is served: a) rightwinger rhetoric about the government being the problem sounds better when the government is prevents from solving a problem and b) it’s harder to elect Republicans when Democrats succeed.

Of course, b) is way more important to them than a), but it’s all good!

-hw

You can’t make this shit up.

About 75 people, many of them carrying firearms, gathered for the start of the “Restore the Constitution” rally Monday morning at Gravelly Point Park in Alexandria.

The protesters say they will keep their handguns holstered and rifles unloaded at the event. Organizers say it’s the first armed rally in a national park since a law was passed allowing people to carry firearms in national parks.

The bill allowing these yahoos to play soldier and march around national parks with guns was signed by Barack Obama; the man who in their fevered imaginations is plotting and planning to take their guns away.

The neo-Confederates are going to protest taxes even when their taxes haven’t gone up and they’ll look straight into a television camera and complain about the media not covering their events and giving them a voice. They’ll protest the preponderance of the federal government while cheering on telecom immunity, the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act. It should be obvious to everyone that facts simply don’t matter to these dead-enders and that their patriotic posturing is an easy way for them to rationalize their violent fantasies.

-mg

Is Howie Kurtz a hack, or is the White House really acting like being gay is a bad thing? Both? Or is there simply no way to deny a rumor that somebody is gay without acting like gay = cooties?

To answer my third question, there is. You simply say, not that there’s anything wrong with being a big rug-munching lesbo, but Elena Kagan doesn’t happen to be one. Okay, try it like that without the rug-munching comments, else Republicans suddenly decide they’re going to be offended on behalf of lesbians.

If Elena Kagan is gay, it would behoove the WH to stand by her and stand by her sexuality and let the hate come out. Don’t add to it.

And yes, Howie Kurtz is a hack.

-hw

Where as David Bowie only pretended, Klaus Nomi actually was from outer space.

He was only being a Republican. Taking some word cues from Frank Luntz to do the bidding of Wall St. is simple reflex for these guys.

Is this evidence that Tea Party rhetoric is actually paying some dividends? Not really. America as a whole has been outraged over Wall Street’s behavior, left entirely and right somewhat. Always lurking is their decades-long servitude and ingrained impulses to do whatever Wall Street wants. It’s at the heart of the Republican Party and the preachings of the Limbaugh right: Wall Street knows best. It’s what pushed us headlong into a credit nightmare of bad loans wrapped inside incomprehensible formulae. It’s what needs to be fought to actually, as the teabaggers claim to desire, get our country back.

Unfortunately, I think we’ll hear mostly silence from the teabaggers here because they are, of course, the same old Republicans repackaged. Useless as ever, with new stupid added.

-hw

O’Reilly claimed that his crack research team couldn’t find an instance of their network claiming that people who don’t purchase health insurance would be sent to prison. Ben Craw spent some time putting this together as a friendly reminder.

The little catty bitches never seem to get it. It’s not about them. After groveling and chortling for eight years of the liars Bush paraded in front of them (Ari Fleischer, Scott McClellan, Tony Snow, Dana Perino), now the WH press has finally found a reason to be mad at a WH press secretary: Not kissing their asses. The result? This hit piece, somehow delivered as serious analysis.

In reality, it’s all a bunch of self-centered whining from the press corps over petty business. Apparently it’s Gibbs’ job to make the press feel good about themselves and insure that they get all scoops first. Releasing info via Twitter? Not taking silly questions seriously? Asking to get back to reporters with info later? The horror never ends.

This is all treated as “contempt for the press,” but there’s little to make the case that there’s any contempt for journalism. Were the WH press a little more interested in doing that, as they clearly weren’t during eight years of stenography for the Bush press secretaries, and as they still aren’t, fainting about Obama going to his daughter’s soccer game without the press, perhaps they’d be treated a bit more seriously.

Do yourself a disfavor and read it yourself. If you spot an ounce of substance, feel free to let me know.

-hw

One man in 1865 was the same as ten today! They were just, uh, cooler or something…

Really, this trope gets on my tits:

625,000 Americans died in the Civil War–two percent of the country’s population. To put that in perspective, it would be as though we lost six million soldiers in a war today.

No, it would as though we lost 625,000 soldiers in a war today. Last I checked, every human life is equal, so there’s no “perspective” to be gained by saying losing one person in the 1800s is anything other than equivalent to losing one person today. It’s rather a distortion, really.

-hw

It’s getting to the point where a candidate for high office can’t circulate photos depicting bestiality and racist imagery involving the President without getting called a bigot. This liberal lunacy must stop!

-mg

Self-reflection is quite in vogue among Catholics lately, what with the recent revelations that the church has been an international child rape ring obsessed with covering up the crimes of priests rather than atoning for them. So perhaps Catholics partaking in transcendental meditation will catch on a bit more.

In college a professor of mine who seemed to be a knowing atheist in every way told me privately that he was actually a Catholic. What could have been the rationale behind that, I asked? He said he had attended Mass, and nowhere else had he felt the touch of divinity so profoundly. Since then I’ve been to Mass a few times, and I’ve been able to place myself in that professor’s shoes and understand how the rite could have evoked such a sense. In a way without being the same, Mass is meditative and somewhat transcendental. That Catholics could find appeal in transcendental meditation (which isn’t actually religious or in conflict with any kind of doctrine) isn’t surprising. If one presumes much of what Christianity says to be true, or just its core tenets, the value of going within to find divinity should not be questioned. Long sessions of prayer undoubtedly strive for the same state of being, but perhaps the emptiness of meditation allows one to access what is truly there vs. heading towards such a state with an agenda…

Anyhow, some contemplation and self-reflection would do many in our country a deal of good in these somewhat loosely hinged days…

-hw

Government money going to programs I like: Capitalism.
Government money going to programs I dislike: Socialism.

Another tea-partier on welfare:

In that same vein, we’ve now got the spectacle of an aspiring tea party leader, Tennessee congressional candidate Stephen Fincher, who’s actually been collecting $200,000 a year in farm subsidies from the federal government. He’s not the only one, either. Indiana Republican state Sen. Marlin Stutzman, who’s running for U.S. Senate and is another conservative purist favorite, hauled in $156,907.54 from 1997 to 2006.

Add to that list our own Chuck Grassley who, to his credit, freely admitted that while he was a farmer he fed at the government trough. But as they say, it’s only wasteful spending when it happens in somebody else’s district and it’ll be a warm day in hell when Grassley starts applying his “government is the problem” rhetoric to his own contentedly subsidized constituents.

-mg

Just to wonder again, has anybody actually figured out what the “Tea Party” is supposed to represent?

1. It can’t be about freedom, as these people were nowhere to be found while Bush shredded our protections from arbitrary surveillance, arrest and torture. Additionally, Obama has added no further restrictions of freedom, save the freedom to commit insurance fraud. Unless you’re willing to renounce all insurance and pay for health care out of pocket the rest of your life, you’ve got nothing to say about being compelled, via extra taxes, to get health insurance.
2. It can’t be about taxes, since Obama has given some rather generous and unnecessary tax breaks, especially in light of #3:
3. It can’t be about the deficit, as these people were nowhere to be seen for eight years of Bush credit card spending, and have nothing to say about two wars and Medicare Part D, nor are they fighting for collective bargaining power against drug companies and insurers. “Obamacare” has made some of the most serious strides towards fiscal responsibility and cost controls in memory, certainly well beyond anything that came from GWB.
4. It can’t be about socialism. People screaming, “Keep your hands off my Medicare,” aren’t talking about socialism. A Republican bill utilizing private markets and without even a public option can’t be stirring socialist fever. Especially not from a group who venerates Sarah Palin, who championed a socialist program that siphoned money from oil companies and fed it directly to Alaskan citizens. Not from people who have lots of free time to protest because they’re collecting Social Security and unemployment checks.
5. Is there something else it’s supposed to be about?

Yes, there is. It’s about a gang of fucking loudmouth Republicans and Republicans who won’t say they’re Republicans who are simply out to be opposed to Obama, no matter what Obama does, no matter what they have to say to remain opposed to Obama. They’re the same rightwing reactionaries who bristled with hatred and formed the John Birch society, who boiled against Kennedy, Carter, Clinton, and who will rage against any other president with a (D) after his name, regardless of how liberal or conservative the policies actually are. They talk about “our” country and disenfranchise Americans like us. They hate the coasts and cities where over half of all Americans live.

They were nothing until January 20, 2009, and they will be nothing once a Republican is in office again. Policies will not matter. Nothing they say has ever mattered, and nothing they say will ever matter.

-hw

I’m sure mea culpas will be in the mail from Andrew Breitbart and Fox News for their crusade against ACORN based on the O’Keefe tapes, and their tirades against the NYT for missing this “huge” non-story:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Really, can anybody be surprised anymore? I’m worn out. Day after day, year after year, all I’ve learned is that if you give rightwingers credit for even one thing, you will be made a fool of. I knew already about the one employee immediately contacting the police after the shady proposal O’Keefe made, but I hadn’t heard enough to vindicate the lady who was trying to be nice to O’Keefe.

So when the headline should have been, “Right wing smear merchants try to gin up a fake scandal with edited video and omitted facts,” we had to listen to the disgusting cunt Andrew Breitbart lecture the NYT about journalism. Truly, the fact that a few low-level employees might have veered off the beaten path wasn’t very surprising or big news to begin with, but now we find out it was even less than that. The real story here is the right’s complete lack of any professional standards whatsoever. They don’t believe in journalism. They believe in propaganda, period. Everything else is just noise. They were mad at the NYT because something they found politically useful didn’t get treated as headline news. Seriously, had anyone heard of ACORN before the right started making up things continuously about them?

People on the left just want journalists to do their job: fact check, question, scrutinize, report. The right has lectured actual journalists for years and the end result is a channel designed for nothing other than to be the Republican Pravda and a fiercely loud idiot like Breitbart championing a goon with some creatively edited video. Did Breitbart even look at the unedited tapes?

While it took an immunity deal for O’Keefe and cohort to get them to turn over the unedited tapes, they are still vulnerable to civil law. Ultimately, though, the truth is out, and yet will we be any wiser? Or will journalists still keep running with their tails tucked between their legs, doing the bidding of rightwingers in order to prevent that which cannot be prevented, being labeled “liberal.” You’re either with the conservatives or against them in their eyes. Thus if you’re not actively propagandizing, you’re a liberal. A journalist’s only real choice is to do their job and let the chips fall.

-hw

Michael Steele, picked as RNC chairman for no discernible reason other than being black in the age of Obama, now vexes the GOP, as they fear firing him…because he’s black. The wages of tokenism…

Democrats happen to have a high-profile embarrassment of their own, and he, too, is black. It’s telling that New York governor David Patterson got forced out of his reelection campaign with barely a peep being made about his race. Patterson was judged on the merits, as he should have been, and found lacking. It’s remarkable that Republicans, after a generation of complaining about racial quotas and political correctness, seem paralyzed by Steele’s race. They appear to have internalized the very “liberal mindset” they once warned against. Steele presents a perfect opportunity for them to leave race aside and make a judgment strictly on merit. And they’re flinching.

Really, I do think it might come at any moment. Surely it must! Steele has engaged in so much ass-clownery that even many black people must be wishing he’d be fired. The bigotry of soft expectations is no less apparent.

-hw

You know, it’s really beside the point that CNN should have already known Erick Erickson is a giant douchebag. And I say, “douchebag,” in the most objective manner possible. If there ever be a scientifically verifiable measure of douchebaggery, Erick Erickson shall score highly on every indicator.

The point is, he’s such a douchebag that having him out there as an example of how far out to sea the rightwingers are is beneficial to me. Politically, anyway.

But is that all I want? Mere political advantage? I always have to believe everybody in the country would be better off if we had two viable parties with honest philosophical differences. And yet an “important voice” in our culture is raving like an absolute lunatic about brandishing shotguns at poor census workers for doing their constitutionally mandated job. It’s so over the top that Erickson debunks himself, thus my political advantage. Yet the end result of the jabbering madness from fistheads like Erickson and airheads like Michelle Bachman is low census return rates for Republican regions. Again, politically advantageous for me, but it ends up meaning less representation and money for those regions. And despite all the red state rhetoric, it’s the red states who end up needing government aid the most. Dad’s idiotic allegiance to rightwing conspiracy theories means his kids may receive less aid. And that’s not better for the country by any stretch.

So yes, please make my opponents smarter, able to wield policy smarts as well as rhetorical muscle. Idiots like Erickson make short-term political prospects brighter, but if Democrats can’t be kept on their toes, they’ll get fat and lazy and lose again anyway.

-hw

p.s. Counter-argument: Erickson’s brand of stupidity worked well in 2002 and 2004, which is a large reason why much of the Republican party is unrepentant about the Bush years. The repeated defeat of Democrats was the kindling that the internet lit on fire, resulting in the re-awakening of the left. The Republicans really thought they had it all figured out back then. The tactics were short-term and short-lived, but they figure that another major terrorist attack will recharge their batteries and return screaming banshee morons like Erickson to the top of the heap.

But as I said, the resulting boost to the Democrats resulted in a great deal of harm to the country. Sure, we got big majorities and Obama in office (thus health care reform), but Bush and the GOP had damn near taken the country down with them. So again, better opponents means better governance overall, thus a land better served.

I thought I’d interrupt my two week long love affair with my new iPhone to mention one of the best apps: AOL Radio, for no other reason than I’m able to access AM 1090 out of Seattle, which has a full roster of liberal talk radio all week. Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller and many other good shows are available each day. Cost of the app? Free.

I’m not one who advocates surrounding oneself with liberal talk all day every day and shutting out all opposing views, but for most Americans liberal talk is itself walled off from them. It can be instructive to tune into one of the three or four stations here and listen to the crazed fever-dreams of the right, but it’s important to once in awhile hear actual liberals talking.

Incidentally, the ten dollar Crosswords app is well worth the money. You pay once and it automatically downloads around a dozen new crossword puzzles each day. But I could go on, having seven pages of apps already…

-hw

Hey, look at the shiny health care reform…!

Okay, no public option, but…what’s the upside to a few more barrels of oil? Was anybody really calling for this right now? Must we tolerate this as more of “the long game,” eventually settling for some halfway version of a carbon tax?
Should we always come out of the gate with a compromise Republicans will try to compromise?

Thought, phlegm welcome in comments.

-he

Lefties were shrill and unhinged throughout George W. Bush’s presidency. We were told this with great regularity, to shut us down.

Perhaps all the wonderful people out there plotting violent revolution against the Commie Fascist Tyrant Barack Anti-Christ Obama might take a moment to reminisce about how they condemned angry leftists during the Bush years.

And then chill the hell out. Because…the gig is up:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

All you’re really going to do is send Republicans spinning circles trying to explain why white terrorists shouldn’t be tortured.

-hw