If It's Politics It Must Be SSDD

Ugh

USA Today 

WHAAAATT?
USA Today

Oh goody.
USA Today 

But there IS good news!

Great News for Great Pitchers

USA Today 

SSDD Translation:  Same Shit Different Day

Now That We Have a Republican Majority in Both Houses of Congress...

...how about a little reality check?

I. Am. Back.

I am totally unable to account for MIA since January 6th , the date of my last post.    I was out of ideas and needed a break.  It happens a lot.  Many bloggers never return.  I contemplated quitting as I felt I no longer had anything to say.  I've never worked to promote my blog and have often wondered if my lack of focus, i.e. the focus needed to categorize my writing, is a drawback to developing a large readership.  I write because I want a place to make observations and, yes, vent from time to time.

Lately I've been re-thinking the process.  Topics are beginning to jell in my brain and they are truly all over the place.  I guess that's just me and I should embrace it.

I realize writing is my avocation so, why not continue?  Also, I miss you guys.  So here's to getting back in the groove.  I may experiment with short quick posts more often and I may get back to writing in depth about the things for which I feel great passion.

Today, I embed a short but sweet one from the great Stephen Colbert.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Colbert Report on Facebook

Bipartisan deal to help USPS is “very close”

I have always been under the impression the postal service was its own worst enemy because of a top heavy bureaucracy, inefficiencies and other wasteful practices.  But maybe I'm wrong.

Of late, I've been reading some pretty good quotes in defense of the USPS.  Just the other day, I retweeted one from Chuck Todd:

The Political Carnival recently posted the list below, followed by quoted paragraphs of letters to the L.A. Times.

"It’s called the U.S. Postal Service because it is a service, not a corporation. Who decided the Postal Service must be profitable? Do other government agencies, like the Defense Department and the Department of Education, have to turn a profit?"

  from Arlen Grossman  Monterey, CA

You see, the post office is required by law to provide universal delivery, regardless of geography and regardless of whether or not they’re going to make a profit. It’s a big service for America. This is a rights issue. This is more not so much about convenience, this is about what you in Real America voted for: Tea Party America.  Ed Schultz

GOP: What Took So Long?

Liberal Californians could have told the GOP they were ignoring a large and growing class of potential voters 33+ years ago.  

At that time, I worked in the marketing dept of FOTOMAT, a cutting edge company when it came to marketing.  FOTOMAT's creative was by the then fledgling Chiat Day in Venice California who later became famous for the Apple "1984" ad.  We carefully targeted our customers in 80 markets throughout the U.S. by age, geographic location and...race.   We were producing commercials en Espanol and buying Hispanic and Black formatted radio stations when few main stream companies even bothered.  

lifted from 2/11/13 feed of Political Carnival

Forty of the eighty markets were my responsibility, i.e. targeting, visiting and buying newspaper and radio according to the statistical research in each.  We went a step farther taking into account the demographic makeup of each area and producing accordingly.  I bought radio and newspaper advertising in forty markets including Chicago, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Detroit, New Orleans, Cleveland.  

When I see the GOP going after  groups of voters they've long ignored, I can't help but wonder 

"What took them so long?"   and

"Are we buying this?"

Sheryl Crow gets it right

Thank you to my good friend Bill Lisleman for sending me the url to this awesome song by Sheryl Crow.

Hillary 2016!

 

Give A Gal A Chance

Not only do we have a presidential debate tonight, there's a debate about the debate process.  Candy Crowley is the chief political correspondent for CNN; highly respected and knowledgeable.     There's concern her agenda differs from that of the Commission on Presidential Debates and whether or not she'll break the rules.  (fingers crossed!)

 

Politico 10/15/12

Big Bird & the Political Theatre of Presidential Politics

While I was disappointed in the President's debate performance last night, I was also surprised by the over-the-top reaction of the "talking heads" on both sides of the political spectrum.  I actually thought the Democratic leaning press were more critical than the Republican leaning press who seemed elated and relieved.

Before I fell into a stupor, I perked up when Romney said the following:

He said to moderator Jim Lehrer, who works for PBS: “I’m sorry, Jim. I’m going to the stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too. But I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it.”  Washington Post  10-4-12

I was surprised he said this.  I was surprised because it was coyly defiant; a slap in the face, really to the moderator and, possibly, many undecideds who grew up on or raised their children on Sesame Street.

While criticisms of Obama's such as "listless" and "he looked as though he didn't want to be there" are accurate, they don't address the substance of the debates.  I heard a politico on NHPR this morning say he thought Romney looked "amped".  A Massachusetts caller who teaches public speaking and body language, thought Romney showed "agitation" while the President appeared "calm".  In the end, it was theatre.

... it seems to me Romney thrived in large part because he abandoned the pretense of honesty. And as it turns out, winning a debate is surprisingly easy when a candidate decides he can say anything and expect to get away with it.

Romney told viewers his proposed $5 trillion tax cut isn't really his proposed $5 trillion tax cut. He suggested he could eliminate a $1 trillion deficit by going after Big Bird. He said his non-existent health care plan protects those with pre-existing conditions when in reality the exact opposite is true. He cited trumped up "studies" from far-right ideologues as if they're legitimate, assuming the public won't know the difference. He said a deficit that's shrunk has actually "doubled."   The Maddow Blog 10-4-12

All in all, it may be best summed up with the following cartoon seen on the internet today.

GOP National brand "a mess"...

If the latest swing state polls are to be believed, President. Barack Obama has New Hampshire sewn up.

He is also significantly ahead nationally.

This morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe,  Chuck Todd asserted  the GOP brand is "a mess" and Romney's campaign is scrambling to spin the increasing loss of support.   Eugene Robinson's op-ed today in the Washington Post addresses the President's ever widening lead in the pending election:

Conservative activist circles are abuzz with a new conspiracy theory: Polls showing President Obama with a growing lead over Mitt Romney are deliberately being skewed 

Romney's campaign is the screwiest I've ever seen.  I think I preferred McCain/Palin's.  At least that was entertaining.  This is just sad.

And to think I voted for Ross Perot in 1992!

The Big Dog Brings Down the House (Oh yes he does!)

                                  President William Jefferson Clinton speaking to the DNC 9/05/12

As wildly anticipated as was the Clinton speech, he did not disappoint.  He nailed every single aspect of the GOPs criticisms of the past four years.  And he did it with facts.  

Bill Clinton’s 48-minute speech at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night was, as FactCheck.org put it, “a fact-checker’s nightmare: lots of effort required to run down his many statistics and factual claims, producing little for us to write about.”

Clinton’s numbers checked out, according to most fact-checking outlets, including Politifact, which has been accused of unfair exaggeration by liberals before. Though he frequently departed from the script, the former president correctly cited the statistics on Obama’s job growth, decreasing health costs since 2010, and the stimulus tax cuts for 95 percent of Americans.  ThinkProgress.com 

By the way, I channel surfed between Fox and MSNBC & NHTV (public television) and the biggest complaint I heard was "He talked too long."  Even the pundits at Fox News could not find anything substantial last night or this morning on which to call him out.  

Gender Pay Gap

Thanks Republicans!    

Proponents of the pay equity bill failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the legislation. 

The 52-47 vote split along party lines with no Republican in support and no Democrat opposed.    Las Vegas Review Journal/Washington Digest  June 10, 2012

Morning Headline on Huff Post

Wonder if he and Ann are trying to get green cards for the domestic help in their five homes before he decides on a position?

Seen Today on the Internet, Blogs, Twitter

GOD, no!



Romney: 'Borrow Money From Your Parents'

I Voted Today in the "1st in the Nation" NH Primary

I just returned from voting in the New Hampshire Primary.  

"Primary?" you say.  "You're voting in the Republican primary?"

I'm voting in the NH Primary and there is a Democratic ballot.  It's one of 17 states designated "Open Primary" although it is technically a "semi-Open Primary" state for reasons stated below: 

It is not a closed primary, in which votes can be cast in a party primary only by people registered with that party. Undeclared voters — those not registered with any party — can vote in either party primary. However, it does not meet a common definition of an open primary, because people registered as Republican or Democrat on voting day cannot cast ballots in the primary of the other party.^{[1]  Wikipedia}

Reported results thus far from our two smallest precincts who voted 12:01AM this morning.

Dixville Notch, NH  has 9 registered voters. They turn out 100%.

         Barack Obama    3 votes

         Mitt Romney        2 votes

         Jon Huntsman      2 votes

         Newt Gingrich      1 vote                                 

         Ron Paul              1 votes          

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Indecision 2012 - New Hampshire GOP Debates - Moderate Extremes
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Mad Magazine: The More Things Change...

Click to enlarge.

I "borrowed" this from Coffee Messiah.

At first I thought it was a spirochete trying to penetrate an amoeba (if that's even possible IDK).  

On closer inspection, I see what it really is.  

Coffee says he's had this since...wait for it...1972.  

Herman Cain: Adios M.F.

There is no other way to express it, Herman Cain is an egotistical, narcissistic, womanizing, lying disgrace for a human being whose "campaign" succeeded only in wasting tax payer money (body guards), debate time, tv time and the collective conscience of a certain demographic and psychographic constituent who actually considered voting for him.  Not that I care about their loss.

Rather than carry on with the rant, I'm re-posting tweets from Andy Borowitz, whose humor makes the whole thing almost palatable.   

Some Andyisms:

• BREAKING: As Cain Drops Out, Pro-Adultery Voters Switch to Gingrich http://bit.ly/sKnH9D
  
• Cain has suspended his campaign after his wife refused to suspend her disbelief. 
• BREAKING: Cain Quits Race; Comedians Declare Day of Mourning #Cain
  
• Gingrich is the intellectual of the GOP field in the same way that Moe was the intellectual of the Stooges.
• POLL: Majority of Americans Beginning to Think Republicans are 'Just Kidding'

I said "almost". 

Class Warfare???

I don't understand this "class warfare" sound bite coming from the mouths of members of the GOP.  It's a catchy phrase, to be sure, but in the context it's used, it seems oxymoronic.

The term expression now used by many politicos on the Right is a refutation of  the tax proposals put forth by the President last Monday.  President Obama wants to tax anyone making a million dollars plus to pay at least the same effective tax rate as many of those who work for them.  Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

There was a hue and cry from the GOP with (R) Rep. Paul Ryan leading the charge with his own tax program "which would slash taxes for the rich as well as funding for food stamps and other low-income assistance programs".  Huh?  When asked if he was engaging in his own "class warfare", his said

“...the president is using rhetoric that divides people, that preys on people’s sense of anxiety, fear, envy.” He said: “what we’re trying to do is appeal to people’s sense of hope, aspiration. We want an equal- opportunity society. We want a society of upward mobility, and that is what we’re striving for.”

Wait.  Whose hopes and aspirations is he talking about?   Upward mobility?  Right now, many of us would be happy with a job, food on the table and a permanent place to sleep.

Speaker of the House Boehner was not to be denied his moment in the sun; of course, he always looks like he's been in the sun.  

“I don’t think I would describe class warfare as leadership. The government has a spending problem and I don’t believe it makes any sense to tax the people we expect to invest in our economy.”

Uh, that would be a shitload of GOP supporters and opposition to environment protection, social welfare and less government oversight like the billionaire Koch brothers.

They couldn't possibly mean these people.  The ones the US Census Bureau say are now 46,000,000  strong in what is still considered by many the "richest country in the world":

The pain was not evenly distributed, however. Black households suffered the greatest decline, losing 10.1% of household income since 2007. Those over the age of 65 saw household income increase by 5.5% since 2007.

Roughly 9.4 million individuals have lost their full-time jobs since 2007. There are roughly 6.6 million fewer men in the full-time workforce and 2.8 million fewer women.

The national poverty rate has hit 15.1% of the population now lives in poverty — up from 14.3% in 2009 and from 12.5% in 2007. 

The Census reports that 46.2 million individuals now live in poverty, up from 43.6 million in 2009. This is the highest number of people living in poverty since statistics were first kept in 1959 — a 52-year highRead more: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/devil-details/census-report-income-down-poverty-up/5140/#ixzz1YobLjsa6

You get the idea.  And the idea is we, the people of the United States of America, are circling the downward economic drain while the country burns and the GOP, lobbyists, bankers, corporations and Wall Street fiddle.

Who's Gonna Level the Playing Field?

I can't say it as well or as knowledgeably as Robert Reich.  After President Obama's Rose Garden press conference this morning, subject:  The Economy, Reich had this to say.

Trickle-down economics has been a cruel joke.

On the other hand — given projected budget deficits — if the rich don’t pay their fair share, the rest of us will have to bear more of a burden. And that burden inevitably will come in the form of either higher taxes or fewer public services.

If anyone’s declared class warfare it’s the people who inhabit the top rungs of big corporations and Wall Street (and who comprise a disproportionate number of America’s super rich). They’ve declared it on average workers.

The ratio of corporate profits to wages is higher than it’s been since before the Great Depression. And even as corporate salaries and perks keep rising, the median wage keeping dropping, and jobs continue to be shed.

You’ve got the chairman of Merck taking home $17.9 million last year. This year Merck announces plans to boot 13,000 workers. The CEO of Bank of America takes in $10 million, and the bank announces it’s firing 30,000 workers.

Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but the way I see it we’ve got a huge budget deficit and a giant jobs problem. And under these circumstances it seems to me people at the top who have never had it so good should sacrifice a bit more, so the rest of us don’t have to sacrifice quite as much.

Yeah.  Those salaries.  Those layoffs.  Those Congressmen who won't level the playing field.

Where the hell did THIS GUY go?

 

Health Care: Who Really Cares?

:"Talking Heads" by Anita Kunz for The Greatest Album Covers
That Never Were at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame

Have you ever noticed the people recommending we cut medicare, social security and other social services are the ones who don't need them?
Conservative talking heads screaming the loudest about reducing the deficit aren't willing to go after the top 1% income earners.

"...in the lead op-ed piece in today’s Wall Street Journal, Cato Institute fellow Alan Reynolds claims a higher marginal tax on the super rich will bring in less revenue.Reynolds uses my tax proposal from last February as his red herring. “Memo to Robert Reich,” he declares, “The income tax brought in less revenue when the highest rate was 70 percent to 91 percent [between 1950 and 1980] than it did when the highest rate was 28 percent."  robertreich.org  6/16/2011

Reich goes on to explain how Alan Reynolds plays with the facts of Reich's proposal, skewing the argument to support not taxing the super rich.

The Pew Research Center for People and Press conducted studies about the media coverage of health care and its ultimate effects. 

■The health care debate was tailor-made for ideological talk shows. No media sector devoted as much time to health care as the political and polarizing talk show hosts. Accounting for 31% of the airtime from June 2009 through March 2010, the subject was more than twice as big in the talk show sector as it was in the overall media (14%).

■Liberal talk show hosts devoted more airtime to health care than conservative hosts. Left-leaning talk hosts, who broadly supported health care legislation, spent 44% of their time talking about health care issues during the time studied. The right-tilting hosts, who vigorously opposed it, devoted 26% of their time to the subject.

■Opponents of health care legislation won the message war. A Nexis search of key terms in the health care debate finds that opponents' terms appeared almost twice as often (about 18,000 times) as supporters' top terms (about 11,000). In short, the opponents' attacks on government-run health care resonated more widely than the supporters' attacks on the insurance industry.

■The debate centered more on politics than the workings of the health care system. Fully 41% of health care coverage focused on the tactics and strategy of the debate while various reform proposals filled another 23%. But only 9% of the coverage focused on a core issue -- how our health care system currently functions, what works and what doesn't. How the Press Covered Health Care Reform  6/21/2010  Pew Research Ctr Publications

Congress hasn't stepped up to the plate either.  They don't have to.  They have a sweet deal through the federal government.

Lawmakers can choose among several plans and get special treatment at federal medical facilities. In 2008, taxpayers spent about $15 billion to insure 8.5 million federal workers and their dependents. . Among the advantages: a choice of 10 healthcare plans that provide access to a national network of doctors, as well as several HMOs that serve each member's home state. By contrast, 85% of private companies offering health coverage provide their employees one type of plan -- take it or leave it.
LA Times 8/2/2009

Health care reform is a political football for offensive and defensive plays by parties of both sides.  Glenn Kessler, The Fact Checker for the Washington Post wades through the rhetoric:

President Obama had promised that his health care plan would not increase the deficit, so the White House last year was on pins and needles waiting for the official CBO score. The final verdict: in the first ten years the health care bill would reduce the deficit by $143 billion. The CBO did not even try to offer a deficit-reduction number for the second decade, but gave a vague response that Democrats have translated into a hard figure of $1.2 trillion. . .In many ways, the focus on the numbers is silly. The CBO has a respectable track record, but CBO's numbers are based on models, and models can be flawed. No one really knows exactly what the impact of legislative changes will be ten years from now, let alone how population growth, economic growth or other factors ultimately will affect the bottom line. It would be more logical to offer a range, but CBO is expected to produce an actual number. Washington Post  1/13/2011

The only reform we'll get is the reform we demand.  As you can see from the above, whoever controls the message controls the conversation.  In order to do this effectively, we need to understand the facts about health care reform; what it costs, how it works, who is eligible.  Only then will we be able to make informed decisions and insist they be carried out by our elected officials.

The Field Negro

A favorite political blog, The Field Negro, has highlighted Women of A Certain Age in his side bar "Blog I Am Feeling".  This author is a Philadelphia lawyer who posts a variety of political commentary on issues we all care about.  His writing is observant, witty and he provokes alot of follow up commentary.  Alot.  

His post today is about Jon Stewart's recent interview with Chris Wallace and the follow up controversy.  I was drawn like a bee to honey when I saw Stewart's face in the blogroll.  You know how I love the guy, even when I don't like what I consider his pandering to certain guests or topics.  

I won't play modest, I'm psych'd to be recognized.  Thank you for the honor!