Balancing Act

House Speaker John Boehner bowed to tea party congressmen on Friday when he agreed to add a constitutional balanced budget amendment to his plan to solve the debt ceiling crisis.

The move came 20 hours after Boehner was forced to abandon a vote on his proposal when he realized he could not get it through the Republican-controlled chamber.

Now the two-stage vote will include the constitutional amendment, announced House Rules Committee chairman, Rep. David Dreier.

...But even if the vote passes in the House it has virtually no chance of getting through the Senate and President Barack Obama would almost certainly veto it.

A national balanced budget amendment, you recall, will force Americans to choose. Want to go to war with Iran? Pull out from Iraq and Afghanistan first! More CIA? Less FBI! If you want subsidies for the oil companies better stop spending so much on repairing highways.

Of course, what will actually happen is the clock will run out, Obama will invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling, and all we'll remember is that Republicans can't even agree with each other enough to pass a law. And they're running for election again next year.

I'm For Not Raising the Debt Ceiling

Because if it doesn't happen, the economy will noticeably sputter and almost nobody will blame it on the President. Sure some will believe whatever Fox is saying THIS week, but the rest will remember. 2012 draws ever closer! Besides, he economy will tank anyway for all kinds of reasons, but this is a big dramatic event to pin it on.

Also A Jeer To Fox News Online

Roku has a Fox News channel, which I would watch only it's not the one you want it to be. It's this instead. Fox News has deals with cable providers but they have this little internet channel which runs for about eight hours a day. It's kind of a Fox News Bush League, where they try out their rookies to see if they can keep on message without the potential for damaging the brand, because nobody watches.

The one thing it doesn't offer is those signature O'Reillys and Hannitys and Friends. You know, the crazy stuff that everyone wants from Fox. So the Roku feed is really, really boring. It's like bland junk food. You can't blame me for preferring the BBC, which is boring but at least good for you.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Show

Another benefit of Hulu Plus subscription is that it's allowed me access to the only thing that I missed about giving up cable - The Daily Show and Colbert Report. They were the only things I watched on a regular basis.

I have to say, I'm still reacclimating to Jon Stewart. The mugging! Good lord, I don't want to second guess ratings success, but is that really necessary? Still, the writing is as sharp as ever, and it's nice to see that they still value laughs at the expense of hypocrisy over laughs at the expense of conservatives. Like any good comedians, they know that you have to establish a consistent character before you generate punchlines. The Daily Show is a character that ridicules politicians who lie. This remains an excellent choice, no matter how painful it is.

Then there's the perpetual tightrope walk that is the Colbert Report. Colbert has to simultaneously impersonate an ultraconservative Fox News host AND keep the audience on his side by letting them know that is is not one. But if he winks too much, it spoils the joke. I think the only reason he pulls this off is because right wing talking points are so absurd that, like certain dry dog foods, they make their own gravy. Colbert could just read transcripts straight and get an easy half hour of comedy.

But he doesn't do easy. So there's always the punchline that goes a half step farther, to push it over the edge. Plus Colbert really shines during the interviews, where he feels free to go full-bore conservative. These things are at least part improv (no TV interview is completely improv - the only reason anything unexpected happens in those things is because they don't get enough rehearsal time) and Colbert has a lock on his character. It's sheer magic to see.

Kudos To Our Media Friends Across The Pond

Last week, I got myself a Roku player, the cable box for people who are too cheap to pay for cable. Among the many charms of the device is that it gives me access to the BBC World News, a 24-hour news network. I can't watch Fox News, but I can watch the News Of the World hearings live! Which I wouldn't find on Fox News anyway.

Right now Rebekah Brooks (former NOTW chief)  is insisting that they only found out last December that there even might have been a a phone hacking policy at the paper, and only two weeks ago about the Dowler case, where freelance investigators hacked into a murdered girl's cell messages, and erased them to make room for new messages. As you'd expect, this assertion is being met with skepticism by the labor MPs and cautious sympathy by the conservative ones. It would be fawning sympathy if the polling was more on Murdoch's side.

The BBC is the only government-run news source I will ever trust. They have an insane policy of covering their own bosses as if they were any other corporate entity. Even if doing their job well means they could lose their job, they barrel ahead with fair and accurate reportage. In fact, in 2004 a BBC radio reporter was made to resign over reporting that later turned out to be true. It kind of reminds me of Bridge On The River Kwai, where Alec Guinness is a British POW who is charged by his Japanese captors with building a bridge to help their war effort. Guinness insists on his men doing the best job they can, to prove the moral superiority of the British.

This coverage of the hearings is a perfect example of BBC reportage - it's embarrassing to the highest levels of British governance, many of whom are very chummy with News Corp and probably owe their elections to it. If a for-profit were covering the story, you wouldn't trust them because they have a dog in the hunt - they want to demolish News Corp and get their market share. The BBC is paid for already, and doesn't need big numbers. On the other hand, they have a stake in honest fair reporting, because otherwise why not just turn the whole operation over to the commercial providers? The competition from SkyNews and Channel 4 and what have you does help keep them honest, as well as providing a place for potentially fired reporters to go, so they can afford to report honestly.

So the takeaway: BBC news - noble, honest, and a testament to the moral superiority of the British.  Good on ya, mate!

Some Guy Used To Own A Newspaper

Well, it turns out Fox News IS covering the News Of The World unpleasantness, after a fashion.


I just got a few questions:

1. If hacking is a serious problem, should we really just move on?
2. Is it illegal at all?
3. Who is this "Merdock" fellow? Does he own any other newspapers?
4. What are they, kiddin' me?

Some Guy Kept America Very, Very Safe For the Past Decade

With exception of a little thing.


Details, details...

If Elected, I Refuse To Serve

McConnell demonstrates the qualities that have made him a leader:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has proposed creating an escape hatch for Congressional Republicans, who have put themselves in a box by threatening not to raise the national debt limit if Democrats don't agree to trillions of dollars in cuts to popular social programs.

The plan would require Congress to pass a bill allowing Obama to raise the debt limit on his own, contingent on a series of steps: Obama would have to notify Congress of his intent tor raise the debt limit -- a high-sign to Congress that would be subject to an official censure known as a "resolution of disapproval," and which Obama could veto. If he vetoed the resolution, and if Congress sustained the veto, then Obama would also have to outline a series of hypothetical spending cuts he'd make, equal to the amount of new debt authority he'd give himself. Only then would the Treasury be allowed to issue new debt.

McConnell proposes rolling out this process in three tranches, to force Obama to request more borrowing authority, and to force debt limit votes in Congress, repeatedly through election season.

Here's how McConnell explained it at his weekly Capitol press conference:

"The way it would work is the legislation would authorize him to get to the amount he says he needs based upon the advice of his Secretary of the Treasury in three tranches: The first tranche, $700 billion, the second tranche $900 billion, the third tranche $900 billion.

Once the request is made it would be appropriate in either or both houses for a resolution of disapproval to be taken up on an expedited procedure. If that expedited procedure in both the House and the Senate -- if the resolution of disapproval achieved a majority -- it would go down to him where he could either sign it or veto it. My assumption is he would veto it. And that veto would be sustained by one-third-plus-one in either of the houses."

Please Mr Socialist, take care of our economy for us! And while you're at it, please rewrite Obamacare! And give more money to the automakers! WE NEED TO BLAME YOU FOR IT!

News Of the World From Outside the Bubble

Those who get all their information from Fox News may not be aware that Britain's venerable tabloid, News Of The World, abruptly ended publication this week. And if you read that final edition of News Of the World, you won't find any particular reason for the sudden demise, which comes in spite of a relatively high circulation numbers.

This is the reason.

Cheer up though! Any staff that has been fired over the incidents have been encouraged to reapply at Rupert Murdoch's other tabloid The Sun, which currently publishes every day except Sunday. NOTW only published on Sunday. Hey, here's an idea - why not expand the Sun to 7 days? It'll be almost as if NOTHING WAS DONE AT ALL!

Oh anyway, you can't blame Fox News for not picking up this story - really no one is involved who is even familiar to Americans.

Win!

It's so easy to reduce the size of government: just dig your heels in until it shuts down completely!

A couple of months from now, Minnesota Republicans will be reaping the benefits of goodwill from a grateful state. Who wanted state services anyway? Muslims and socialists, that's who!

Oy.

It's that darn Nazi analogy again!

A Massachusetts state representative has apologized for comparing lobbyists with Holocaust victims when he was commenting on a proposal to require lobbyists to wear badges.

“The idea of the badge by lobbyists to me, I kind of find that revolting,” Binienda told the State House News Service in article posted this morning. “Hitler during the concentration camps tattooed all of the Jewish people so he would know who was a Jew and who wasn’t, and that’s something that I just don’t go along with.”

Representative John Binienda, a Worcester Democrat, said he had made an “inappropriate analogy” on Wednesday when he criticized the badge proposal.

“No comparison can be made between the Nazi regime and a rules proposal made by members in good faith. I apologize to the sponsors as well as the people of Massachusetts for my words,” he said.

“The idea of the badge by lobbyists to me, I kind of find that revolting,” Binienda told the State House News Service in article posted this morning. “Hitler during the concentration camps tattooed all of the Jewish people so he would know who was a Jew and who wasn’t, and that’s something that I just don’t go along with.”

So A: defending lobbyists. B: Comparing the treatment of lobbyists to the treatment of holocaust victims. Let us hope that this guy doesn't make it onto the national stage again, unless it's by saying something else at the state level that's entertainingly awful. And then, let's hope he goes into the private sector and has no more access to politics.

Aloha Glenn

Today marks Glenn Beck's final broadcast on lamestream media outlet Fox News - after it's over (I mean RIGHT AFTER) he fires up GBTV, his online media empire. Online media empires are fun! I have one.

Anyway, Beck was so astute it's amazing Fox is letting him go. Who can forget last year's "summer of rage?"


Where were you when it broke out? I stayed indoors and missed it. Glad they didn't set MY building on fire!
And wow, that hyperinflation has really hurt us since Obama came into office huh?


Goodness now that my paper money is useless scrip, I had to sell my fillings just to get in line for a loaf of bread!

Of course, it's even worse now that we're under Sharia Law.


Glenn says GBTV is going to take off like a rocket! Keep your eyes slightly over the horizon for that.

Michele Bachmann - So Far Right, She Can't Be Wrong

Long dead serial killer John Wayne Gacy weighed in last night, attempting to defend Michele Bachmann!

Hey, I wasn't really ever "from" Iowa. I spent a year there, got arrested for the first time, then went back to Chicago (where I was born). Did you know that I also used to be a Democratic Party precinct captain? And that I shook hands with Rosalyn Carter?

The Clown/molester may have misjudged his effect here - what he's saying is that Michele Bachmann not only admires a serial killer, but a DEMOCRAT serial killer.

In any event, he needn't have bothered. There are better ways to deal when your candidate makes a statement that diverges from the facts. Melt the facts down and forge new ones. Yes, that pun is intended.

Several strange edits have shown up on Wikipedia entries pertaining to famed Americans referenced by Republican presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann -- specifically, it appears that her fans have attempted to rewrite the lives of actor John Wayne and President John Quincy Adams to fit her woefully inaccurate retellings of history.

Bachmann, who officially launched her campaign yesterday in Waterloo, Iowa, told a Fox News reporter that she was proud to be in the town where John Wayne was from, because she embodies his ideals. Unfortunately for her, it turns out that the actor John Wayne was not from Waterloo, but serial killer John Wayne Gacy was.

Shortly after the gaffe, the Wikipedia page for actor John Wayne was altered to change his birthplace from Winterset, Iowa to Waterloo, apparently as an effort to cover for the misguided politician.

Another edit came after she declared Tuesday morning that the nation's sixth president, John Quincy Adams, was a "founding father," even though he was just a child when his father, the nation's second president, signed the Declaration of Independence.

Sure enough, in short order Adams's Wikipedia entry was changed to call him a "founding father." The page's administrator quickly struck down the revision, insisting that users not make edits "based on current events."

Michele Bachmann could have avoided this kind of brute historical revisionism had she simply said, "I misspoke. I obviously meant John Adams, not John Quincy Adams." It's an easy and harmless thing to say you were wrong about. But SHE CAN'T DO THAT. Therefore, she has trapped herself into claiming that a 9-year-old boy helped draft the Declaration of Independence, and her followers into pretending that they believe it.

Quote of the Day - We Can't Trust Americans With America Edition

Stephanopoulos: In your announcement you said 'my voice is part of a movement to take back our country.' From whom?

Bachmann: Well, from the people all across the nation.

-Michele Bachmann, on ABC's This Morning

A Tea Party Wish Is Granted

Georgia has achieved something conservatives have long dreamed of - they've chased their illegal immigrants away! How's that working out, Georgia?

After enacting House Bill 87, a law designed to drive illegal immigrants out of Georgia, state officials appear shocked to discover that HB 87 is, well, driving a lot of illegal immigrants out of Georgia.

...Thanks to the resulting labor shortage, Georgia farmers have been forced to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions, melons and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields. It has also put state officials into something of a panic at the damage they’ve done to Georgia’s largest industry.

...According to survey of 230 Georgia farmers conducted by Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, farmers expect to need more than 11,000 workers at some point over the rest of the season, a number that probably underestimates the real need, since not every farmer in the state responded to the survey.

In response, (Gov. Nathan) Deal proposes that farmers try to hire the 2,000 unemployed criminal probationers estimated to live in southwest Georgia.

I'm always leary of editorials used as reportage, so you might want to check this story with other sources. Still let's assume the facts are accurate - farmers complain of a labor shortage, Governor suggests that farmers hire ex-cons. What about the other 10,000 or so workers? Assuming they can find enough of them, it's an employee's market and they can negotiate higher than minimum wage for their services. Therefore, expect the price of sugar beets and peanuts to really shoot up next year. And whatever else they grow in Georgia. Coca Cola? I can't wikipedia everything for you people!

On the other hand, this could result in an influx of desperate unemployed from other states, which would bring down the general per capita income in GA but on the whole benefit the economy. I'm no psychic. Most likely the whole thing will bring on bad results and good, with a net result of less miserable immigrant farm workers and more miserable white trash farm workers. And higher grocery bills for all.

Keep an eye on sugar beet futures.

How MUCH Do You Love State's Rights?

I'm dying to see how this plays out.

Congressmen Ron Paul, Barney Frank and others will introduce legislature Thursday that aims to end a major part of the war on drugs -- namely the battle against marijuana.

Reps. Paul (R-Texas) and Frank (D-Mass.), though technically on opposite sides of the aisle, have often spoken out against the war on drugs and will propose a bill "tomorrow ending the federal war on marijuana and letting states legalize, regulate, tax, and control marijuana without federal interference," according to a statement from the Marijuana Policy Project via Reason.

The bill would allow the individual states to decide how they want to deal with pot. Currently the federal government bogarts U.S. law, oftentimes arresting owners and employees of medical marijuana facilities, for example, who thought they were operating legally under city, county and/or state laws.

"The legislation would limit the federal government’s role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling, allowing people to legally grow, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal," according to the MPP statement.

So in summary, pot would still be illegal if your state lawmakers deem it so but this keeps the Feds out of it.

I know that the right of states to regulate themselves is cherished by Republicans, unless it involves choosing reproductive rights (they want a federal law forbidding it) or insurance regulation (they want to stop states from blocking competition) so this one could go either way. I'm predicting that the pundits on the right will ignore this one, because it's too difficult to navigate. So will it pass? Probably not. Who wants to be labeled the pro-joint candidate?

By the way, for the record, I'm for it. I never touch the stuff myself but I also don't drink Rye, and I don't see any reason to Federally regulate that.

Herman Cain Makes A Couple of Tactical Errors

1. "Some of these idiotic reporters thought I was serious. The joke’s on them. The message was short bills. Understandable bills. No it’s not literally going to be three pages." So from now on, any Cain press conference must be re-vetted by reporters. "When you said X at the beginning, was that literal or a joke? Then in the next sentence, serious? What about sentence 3?"

2. If I followed the argument correctly, the basis for believing Obama is a racist is that he says that some white people harbored racist feelings towards him. So, isn't Cain delivering a racist screed here against John Stewart? Who's not only white, but Jewish?

Labeling Matters

This is what drives me nuts about right wing talking points. I'm going to quote the redoubtable WAMK, who is echoing a (presumably right-wing) radio personality in El Paso.

...one of the local radio guys was talking about taxes on California businesses, and the mass exodus of residents from the State.

Italics mine, of course. The radio guy's point was prefaced on this exodus of people moving from Calfornia. They're being driven out by high taxes! It's a difficult point to argue because unless you interview all those people leaving the State, how do you prove they left because of taxes? But you'd be missing a more important point, which is what does a "mass exodus" look like exactly?



This, apparently.

Of course, this only goes up to 2009 and in fact population growth is slowing.

Between July 2009 and July 2010, there were 72,000 more people who left California for other states than came here. Those losses were outweighed, however, by people coming from other countries - both legally and illegally - and by births in the state. Overall, the California population increased by about 350,000 in the past year, with 81 percent of that growth new births.

Demographers studying population trends in California say the state will not return to the days when large numbers of people move here from other states and said that policy makers have yet to adjust to that. They point to the cost of housing, along with the state's 12.4 percent unemployment rate, as factors contributing to the change.

When you consider what housing costs in this place, it's amazing the millionaires can find locals to make their iced tea for them. So there is a point to be made about the State's shaky economy driving people away, but to call growth a mass exodus is just plain lying. And who lies while they're arguing? People who don't believe their own arguments.

ADDENDUM - I don't want WAMK to think I'm accusing him of lying, because I sincerely am not. I'm accusing him of taking the word of radio talk show hosts without questioning it. If you're the kind of person who worries about media bias, this is the worst kind of trust.

Governor Rick Scott Invites You To Write To The Editor

Dear Editor!

When Rick Scott ran for Governor he promised to create jobs and kill off the olds. I voted for Rick because he’s always been a hideous demon of death, not a politician. While politicians usually disappoint us and rarely keep their promises, Rick is refreshing because he bulldozes ahead with crazy solutions to problems that don't exist. His policies are helping to attract hurricanes to our state and get millionaires back to paying absolutely no taxes under any circumstances. Some of the special interests are attacking the Governor for making tough decisions, showing leadership, and doing what he told us he would do such as dismantling government and installing anarchy. Rick Scott deserves our blind, unthinking support. How can we expect to elect leaders who will keep their word and do what’s right for our state if we don’t stand up for those with the courage to set priorities, make difficult choices, and actually deliver on their promises made? And how can we make people forget that Rick Scott is polling lower than almost any Governor who has ever existed? Pretend it's a good thing, that's how.

Memo to Gay Activists

Stop with the glitter bombs already. It's scary to throw things at politicians, and Republicans will freak out if you show up with a handful of glitter. Next time, just bring guns to the rallies. THAT'S acceptable free speech.