Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Tuesday Mashup (12/14/10)

  • This Op-Ed appeared in the New York Times last Sunday from author Ishmael Reed, including the following (the title is “What Progressives Don’t Understand About Obama”)…

    "I thought of them when I pointed out to a leading progressive that the Tea Party included neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers — and he called me a ‘bully’.”
    Really? Does this "progressive" have a name? A blog? A pulse?

    But wait - there's more...

    One progressive commentator played an excerpt from a Harry Truman speech during which Truman screamed about the Republican Party to great applause. He recommended this style to Mr. Obama. If President Obama behaved that way, he’d be dismissed as an angry black militant with a deep hatred of white people. His grade would go from a B- to a D.
    Two points: 1) Progressives don't necessarily want Obama to be angry, though that might not be a bad thing (actually, we'd settle for him not being snide and dismissive to us, who, after all, did have a thing or two to do with his election in the first place). Progressives just wanted him to stand firm on the issue of the ridiculous Bush tax cuts that had a lot to do with getting us into this financial mess to begin with (to say nothing of the estate tax, which now, amazingly, has a more beneficial rate to the rich than it did under Dubya). And we know Obama's explanation, that he felt he needed to cave to get an extension of unemployment benefits (though, as K.O. noted last week, nothing for the so-called "99ers" who have been out of work for nearly 100 weeks). This flies in the face of the fact that the Repugs, though not without their typical belly-aching and obstruction, have extended unemployment benefits five times in the last two years.

    And by the way, 2) The people who would dismiss Obama as an "angry black militant" have done so already, in more PC, Frank-Luntz-poll-tested language (questioning his place of birth, his religion, trying to imply that those who support him are part of a cult, with many more frequent comparisons to Hitler than any leveled at Number 43, and on and on). As Michael Moore pointed out earlier this year on "Real Time With Bill Maher," the only white demographic Obama won in the 2008 election was from 18-29, and you'd better believe that the Repugs took note of that.

    And I love Reed's line at the end of "unlike white progressives, blacks and Latinos are not used to getting it all." In response, I have two words to say: public option.

    Yeah, this is a "whale" of a lot of pundit dookey from Reed (get it, "Ishmael," "whale"...never mind).


  • Next, I know it’s old news that Virginia District Judge Henry Hudson (a Dubya appointee, natch) has ruled that the individual mandate in the health care reform law is unconstitutional (here). However, I’m a little surprised (though I guess I shouldn’t be) over the fact that Hudson’s ties to a conservative-friendly law firm have been pretty much ignored by our corporate media – Sam Stein of HuffPo told us the following here last July…

    From 2003 through 2008, Hudson has been receiving "dividends" from Campaign Solutions Inc., among other investments. In 2008, he reported income of between $5,000 and $15,000 from the firm. (Data from 2009 was not available at the Judicial Watch database.)

    A powerhouse Republican online communications firm, Campaign Solutions, has done work for a host of prominent Republican clients and health care reform critics, including the RNC and NRCC (both of which have called, to varying degrees, for health care reform's repeal). The president of the firm, Becki Donatelli, is the wife of longtime GOP hand Frank Donatelli, and is an adviser to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, among others.

    Another firm client is Ken Cuccinelli, the Attorney General of Virginia and the man who is bringing the lawsuit in front of Hudson's court. In 2010, records show, Cuccinelli spent nearly $9,000 for Campaign Solutions services.
    But just remember, IOKIYAR, and rules apply only to Democrats (and I thought Jed L. at Daily Kos had some nice perspective on this here).


  • Update: Good (and more here).

  • Also, the no-longer-Moonie-but-still-hopelessly-conservative Washington Times continues to give column space to Ted Nugent, and you can guess the results (here – he’s steamed that the Obama Administration has imposed a seven-year moratorium on drilling in a portion of the Gulf of Mexico)…

    One of the contributing factors for the (BP) oil spill was that Fedzilla mandated that oil companies drill in deep water where there is arguably more risk instead of the more pragmatic drilling in shallow water, thereby contributing to the cost of drilling and increasing the risk.
    Of course, if we were looking at this logically considering that Nugent is bent out of shape presumably over the deep water exploration, you would think he would actually give Obama credit for the moratorium.

    Silly me to think that logic would have anything to do with Nugent’s pundit flatulence, I know…

    Meanwhile, for the reality-based perspective, I give you the following (here)…

    (The SAFE Act introduced in the House in 2001 included) a suspension of royalties on tens of millions of barrels of oil produced in the Gulf of Mexico—especially from deepwater wells like the one (that spewed) into the gulf (Sec. 6202)

    Just after the (2002) midterms, Republicans guided (the SAFE Act) through the House, with (former House Speaker and now convict Tom) DeLay twisting arms as needed. With Democrats safely in the minority, the conference committee was able to exempt all oil and gas construction activities from the Clean Water Act, force BLM lease approvals within 10 days, grant unprecedented authority to the Department of Interior to fast-track permits, and allocate $2 billion for oil companies to drill in ultra deepwater areas.
    As C&L also tells us, the “Deadeye Dick” Cheney energy bill “exempted oil companies from paying royalties on oil produced from deepwater wells.”

    Also, it should be noted from 2006 here that “In the private sector, studies show that energy companies have a long tradition of eschewing long-term technology quests because of the lack of short-term payoffs.”

    And “Fedzilla,” as Nugent puts it, has nothing whatsoever to do with that.


  • Finally, I give you more hilarity from Moon Unit Bachmann (here)…

    Even during this lame duck session, Democrats have failed to see the urgency of getting tax increases off the table. They’ve dithered with dozens of bills naming post offices and honoring athletes, while around kitchen tables, in company offices, and on family farms, taxpayers still don’t know what the tax rates will be in just a matter of weeks.
    On the subject of “dithering with bills,” this tells us that Bachmann introduced legislation to “prohibit the President from entering into a treaty or other international agreement that would provide for the United States to adopt as legal tender in the United States a currency issued by an entity other than the United States.”

    Even though this story appeared the day before she chose to waste time in the House allegedly doing “the people’s business” (and I believe you could safely consider this to be the last word on this subject).
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