Re: McCain vs Carney

The trouble is that this clip has now appeared on every news site there is. McCain isn't going away until people start ignoring him. When I asked the folks at Time why he was always on TeeVee, they insisted that it's because he always "makes news". Unfortunately as long as we consider crap like this "news" they will continue to be right.

Ask Time Magazine

#AskTime My Grandfather was Methodist Minister, a noted leftist, and dedicated his life to helping the less fortunate as Director of the Indianapolis Goodwill for 35 years. I attended Church as a youth and was taught in no uncertain terms that Jesus's mission was one of mercy and forgiveness. I then attended a summer camp run by Wheaton College and was presented with an entirely different and (to me) alien version of Christianity. 

My question is simply this: What happened to allow the word "Christian" to become a synonym for "Right Wing"? I know for a fact that there are literally millions of Liberal Christians but any close look at the media and the words they choose, makes it seem like such people are insignificant to the point of non-existence. 

What we do to help journalists write more carefully so they aren't lazily conflating two very different concepts?

Another way "Centrism" equals dishonesty.

It appears that every news outlet that covering the Lerner story is ignoring the fact that the subject of the conversation was "the whacko wing of the GOP". That does not mean 'Conservatives". That does not mean 'Some Republicans" The fact that they are pretending that it does means that the MSM INCLUDING Time is willing to lie in order to push a false narrative. Lois Lerner's e-mails acknowledged a simple fact that is also apparent to most mainstream Republicans. The fact that they are unwilling to admit it makes them liars as well.

Reminder

Of course Benghazi wouldn't be nearly the obsession it has become if Mitt Romney hadn't made a complete a$$ of himself the night it happened. Accusing the Commander in Chief of the Armed forces of siding with the enemy is NOT something you should be doing if you happen to be a loyal American. The real cover up is the fact that no one remembers that little slip because of all the chaff that's been deployed since.

I'm posting this here and now so that my bragging rights are preserved

Today the Senate eliminated the filibuster for judicial nominees. I am therefore compelled to make this prediction: The senate is NOT going to change hands in 2014 OR 2016. There is no question that the problems with the Federal exchange will be worked out WELL before springtime and the Party of NO will be relegated to hoping to cancel policies that are written and in place.

You heard it here first (08-20-13 to be precise)

@ggreenwald If you need to avoid a law against spying on your own citizens, you can just ask a foreign government to do it for you.

— Paul Dirks (@phd9) August 20, 2013

Regarding Eric Holder's new sentencing strategies.

 It's apparently difficult for people to fully comprehend how important this is. It matters not whether it's a DOJ idea or a State idea and sniping over timing is just plain stupid. For decades, the most reliable way politicians could pander for votes is to promise to lock up more of "those" people. The strategy was always unsustainable, but the fact that people can reliably talk about reversing the trend without inviting virulent attacks is HUGE. I never would have believed I'd see it in my lifetime.

Swampland

A Republican Senate?

I want to emphasize that the possibility of Republicans taking over the chamber does NOT change my mind about the filibuster. The only way that Congresscritters are actually held accountable to their constituents is if they pass laws that they don't like. The number one argument against Republican rule is what happens when they have it.

The games people play with votes and procedure targeting nothing than opportunities for soundbites is disgusting. The best way around that is to allow whichever party is in control to actually implement their agenda. Temporary pain is the only way to actually fix what's wrong with current thinking.

Re: Guantanomo

It's worth remembering while the Right Wing rends it's garments over informing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev that he has rights under the Constitution, the reason these people can't be dealt with is precisely because Bush ignored the Constitution in dealing with them in the first place. Once you've tortured someone you no longer can use the evidence they provide to try them. And since the policy going in was always err on the side of locking up anyone suspicious, what's left is a massive mess that no one wants responsibility for. 

"Blame Bush" may be regarded as a copout in some circles but anything less is gross negligence.

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/01/president-obama-sides-with-his-guantanamo-bay-protesters/#ixzz2S2YtlojE

Re Michael Grunwald

Tread On Me 

There are two threads of though that seem to be missing from the current debate. One is the fact that private actors if they act in concert can be just as threatening to freedom as government. Though I can pee in a cup, free from fear, the fact that I need to even think of such things if I want to fully participate in society is a serious erosion of Freedom. If Government forbids employers from asking me for my Facebook password, then it's pretty clear that the government is DEFENDING my Freedom against Private sector infringement.

The second thing that seems to be severely misunderstood is Miranda. The point of Miranda is to prevent Police from beating confessions out of suspects who may or may not be guilty. It doesn't even prevent police from beating confessions out of people. It just stipulates, that if they do so, they can't use those confessions in court. 

It's a very important right to preserve for obvious reasons, but it the idea that we can't question someone without reading his rights, when we already have more than enough evidence to convict WITHOUT his statements, is to blow the problem up out of proportion. Miranda is an  important right to defend. This is not a good case on which to hang your defense.

For the record......

To make it official, I am not among the one's who's immediately clamoring for stricter gun control laws, but the people who are arguing against them might just change my mind. What a heaping pile of idiocy!

Just sayin.......

As long as news organizations think that the causes of Global Warming are worthy poll questions, misinformation will continue to run rampant. The planet itself really doesn't CARE whether people think temperature trends are caused by human activity or not. Science is not a matter of opinion.

Oops

Those of us who pay attention to the political landscape on a daily basis have trouble understanding the viewpoint of people who don't pay any attention at all. The entire Romney campaign is based on the assumption that his target audience doesn't know any better. His most severe miscalculation was thinking that Ohio autoworkers might be among those who don't pay attention.

TPM Prime

TalkingPointsMemo has a new 'prime' site up. The first thread was full of introductions. Here's mine:

I'm 54 years old. I spent 17 years working in manufacturing, working my way up from QC technician to Production Manager. In that capacity I was instrumental in helping to resist several Union organizing drives. I was convinced that Labor Unions had performed an important service in the past but had outlived their usefulness. Then the company was acquired by a much larger entity. Needless to say, within two years I was busy deciding the order to let people go as we shuttered the plant. Having no particular ties to the area, my wife and I then relocated to the US Virgin Islands where I split my time as an Office Manager by day and a Musician in the evenings. I feel very fortunate, but I nevertheless have strong opinions about how the dire state of our economy is directly related to the fact that we have allowed our manufacturing capacity to be outflanked. It's an issue that NEITHER party seems willing to address in any forceful manner.

More on Romney's tax plan.

It's no secret that I don't think that the deception inherent in Mitt's tax plan is getting enough coverage. He's refused to say how he would offset the revenue losses. But more importantly he's relying on the same "growth fairies" that the GOP has been selling for as long as I've been paying attention to politics (Hint: that's 40 years) Here's the question. If tax cuts invariably lead to growth that in turn leads to more revenue, then why aren't the Bush tax cuts doing JUST THAT for us now? They're still in place. If they worked, then they're still working. If they aren't working then what possible basis do we have to believe that we just need more of the same to make things right?

Fact check?

There's a fundamental problem with Romney's tax plan which is creating havoc among the "fact-checkers" His plan is basically this: 1 Keep all the Bush tax cuts 2 Cut all tax rates by 20 percent across the board 3 ? 4 Continue to collect as much revenue as you had been. As long as CNN et al are willing to pretend that "?" represents an acceptable enunciation of a tax policy then they are going to continue to get their "facts" horribly wrong. This is NOT an acceptable situation!

As long as national reporters are willing to believe 6 impossible things before breakfast, Romney will get away with asserting 6 impossible things before breakfast.

And the Hits keep coming.

There are many different words you can use to describe slandering 146 Million working Americans. Patriotic is not on the list. Wrapping yourself in the flag means nothing if you don't also respect that we are a Government of the People.

Why is Romney getting bad press? Because he's earned it.

The New Rupublic

But the stories about this episode have made Romney look bad because, you know, Romney looked bad. Even staunch conservatives and Republicans, like Peggy Noonan, were taken aback at Romney’s reaction. It was based on false premises and, these conservatives felt, it was wildly inappropriate. (As Sophie Quinton noted in the Atlantic, it was the very nearly the opposite reaction that Ronald Reagan had in 1980, after the failed mission to rescue the Iranian hostages.)

Found Via Eschaton

One of the most blatant paradoxes of today's Republican party is how they like to scream and moan about deficit spending but that the moment anyone mentions that increasing revenues would address the problem they utterly clam up. The following article is a long read but it explains clearly the History behind this particular brand of doublethink: PDF File The money quote comes from Milt Friedman:

There is an important point that needs to be stressed to those who regard themselves as fiscal conservatives. By concentrating on the wrong thing, the deficit, instead of the right thing, total government spending, fiscal conservatives have been the unwitting handmaidens of the big spenders. The typical historical process is that the spenders put through laws which increase government spending. A deficit emerges. The fiscal conservatives scratch their heads and say, “My God, that’s terrible; we have got to do something about that deficit.” So they cooperate with the big spenders in getting taxes imposed. As soon as the new taxes are imposed and passed,the big spenders are off again, and there is another burst in government spending and another deficit. (1978b, 11)