Hyper partisanship in the U.S. House

Apparently each day starts with both sides launching minute-long invectives at one another. To both parties: this is really, really dumb.

Op-Ed Columnist - State of Paralysis - NYTimes.com

"California, it has long been claimed, is where the future happens first. But is that still true? If it is, God help America."

A fascinating look at California's self-imposed budget crisis and the potential ramifications for addressing major social challenges through the political system.

You can get more of this flavor from Minnesota, where the Republican governor is "unalloting" the state budget after he resolutely vetoed all budget measures from the state's DFL majority, all in the name of preserving his already soiled "no taxes" pledge.

Go ahead, Texas

In case you missed it, Texas governor Rick Perry suggested recently that Texas may want to secede from the Union because the stimulus bill is such a blow to the Constitution.

One election blogger suggests that the Democrats should seriously consider this idea.

Food and conversation

Wife (+baby) and I just got invited to a splendid little dinner and it was just the kind of dinner conversation I like.  Topics included:

• Instant runoff voting
• The McGovern-Fraser Commission
• David Duke
• The 200 year history of our primary election system

Awesome.

MAPlight: connecting money with politics

Ever hear of a bill passing and wonder how much your senator or representative got paid to vote for it?  Now you can find out.  I think the interface is clunky, but if you watch the tutorial video, you can pretty quickly get a sense of how folks voted, who was lobbying them, and how much they were paying. 

I used MAPlight to critique the FISA bill vote in June.

Identify this famous person

My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was [the] investment in Darfur with some of our [fund] dollars.

Disclosure: the brackets are where I excised a couple words that make it a dead giveaway.

Read on for the answer, another perspective on this famous person, and a chance to read the phrase "sizzling loins" on a page with the NY Times header.

Whassup: 2008 edition

And in case you forgot the original...

Cleaning Blog House - #2

I started this in July and clearly hold my career in too high a regard to prioritize a reduction in my "I should blog this" bookmark folder. Well, here's the second post. At this rate I'll be done in 2023.

So now the administration knows that it can make unsubstantiated claims, without paying a price when those claims prove false, and that saber rattling gains it votes and silences opposition. Maybe it will honorably refuse to act on this dangerous knowledge. But I can't help worrying that in domestic politics, as in foreign policy, this war will turn out to have been the shape of things to come.

Paul Krugman, writing in 2003 about the domestic impact of the Bush Administration's success with lying into Iraq.

It is time for some campaignin'

Courtesy of JibJab

If you heard about the New Yorker cartoon

Then you must watch this video (hat tip to Shadoweyes):

To Bear Stearns stockholders: STFU

Dear Bear Stearns Whiners,

A week ago, your "investment bank" was in danger of going belly up because of really stupid gambles such as subprime mortgages and "highly leveraged" (read: debt-financed) speculation.

My government stepped in and gave $30 billion in loan guarantees to JP Morgan Chase to buy you out at $2 a share, saving you from bankruptcy.

This week, you whined that the price was too low. And so the Fed relented and said that JP Morgan could pay up to $10 a share.

Excuse me? But for the Federal Reserve and $30 billion in taxpayer collateral, you were about to be worthless. If you'd like to go without a bailout, be my guest.

So do us all a favor and shut the fuck up.

-jff

P.S. And for the Fed: what the fuck? Let them sink if they don't want $2 a share.

Two words from political theater: denounce, renounce

Bill Clinton says something dumb. The media wants to know if Hillary denounces him. Does she denounce him vigorously enough? How much vigor was there?

Obama's pastor says something dumb. The media wants to know if he renounces the words. The man himself. The church. Pastors. God.

The denounce/renounce game is stupid:

This denouncing and renouncing game is simply not serious. It is a media-staged theater, produced not in response to genuine concerns...but in response to the needs of a news cycle. First you do the outrage (did you see what X said?), then you put the question to the candidate (do you hereby denounce and renounce?), then you have a debate on the answer (Did he go far enough? Has she shut her husband up?), and then you do endless polls that quickly become the basis of a new round.

Get over it. I want to know how we're going to get out of Iraq, shore up our efforts in Afghanistan, rebuilding the American image abroad, provide universal health care, balance the budget, protect our borders, respect our immigrants, make college affordable, reduce carbon emissions, and save the whales.

Iowa Caucus results: season with salt (a lot of salt)

One of the best political writers you will ever read, should you choose to follow the link, is Eric Black. Bringing valuable context to all things political, he offers a substantial salt appetizer to the Iowa caucus results that will dominate the news tomorrow. A few thoughts for those feeling pressed for time:

In a sense, the pundits will be making a big deal about not very much. Very few national convention delegates are at stake Thursday night (and none will actually be chosen in a binding way until June

In other words, the results being trumpeted on the news Friday morning will be the media-manufactured "momentum." In terms of getting your party's nomination, Iowa's like winning $1.50 on a $1 lotto ticket.

As meaningless as are the results, so are the polls coming out now. No one knows who will actually caucus.

Reading polls as predictions is always hazardous, and for several reasons that you may not be thinking about (details below), it's especially hazardous in the Iowa caucuses... it is harder to identify likely caucus-goers (who must spend an entire evening doing their civic duty). Various polls have "found" that, as a percentage of all the adult Iowans they interviewed, the percentage that could be classified as likely caucus participants ranged from under 10 percent in many polls, to more than 30 percent in some.

And then there's the caucus process itself.

After a few other items of business, the caucus-goers get out of their seats and gather in bunches around the room according to which presidential candidate they support. A first count is taken. In most precincts, any candidate whose gaggle of supporters represents less than 15 percent of the total is declared non-viable, which means that candidate won't be getting any delegates out of that precinct. That candidate's supporters are given a chance to join up with one of the viable candidates' gaggle (presumably reflecting their second preference). The precinct captain for each of the viable candidates gives a speech, imploring the non-viables to come on over.

According to all recent polls, only Clinton, Obama and Edwards are attracting more than 15 percent support among Iowa Democrats statewide.

But, results are based on individual precincts, so there may be caucuses where Richardson, Kucinich or Biden can garner 15 percent to remain viable. And if that wasn't enough, the number you see on TV isn't even a real number:

The percentage reported to the media is a weird statistic that Iowa Democrats call "State Delegate Equivalents." State delegate equivalents project how many delegates to the Iowa State Democratic Convention in June that candidate is likely to have. Here's the next catch. Each county has a preset number of delegates to the next level of conventions. The number does not reflect how many Iowans turned out in that county on caucus night.

Looking at the Iowa caucus for our next president is like asking NFL fans to caucus to select the Superbowl winner. It's not worth a bucket of warm spit.

Let's at least wait until the New Hampshire primary, where people just vote.

Are Congressional Republicans that ashamed of the Constitution?

In response to legislation curtailing the warrantless wiretapping and other illegal surveillance techniques used by President Bush's administration, many Congressional Republicans have expressed dismay:

The measure "extends our Constitution beyond American soil to our enemies who want to cut the heads off Americans," said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.).

I thought that Iraq represented an opportunity to spread democracy and American political values beyond our borders. So why would we be ashamed to extend our Constitution - the enumeration of our values - beyond American soil?

Humpdty Dumpty

The Humpdty-Dumpty administration

“This government does not torture people,” the president said

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,’ it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.’

‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master - that’s all.’

And this is why you need to read Krugman's blog.

When righteous judgment cometh down

Paul Wolfowitz has resigned, coming as most neocons do to ethical behiavor - under duress.

Courtesy of Queen, this ode's for you, Mr Wolfowitz:

Related reading: try the Dead Racists Weekly

This "week's" featured blog is called Dead Racists Weekly. Hosted over at Live Journal, this lively author posts on the politics of race, religion and science, with a generous nod to some of the more idiotic maneuvers in public policy (a big fav of yours truly). The posts aren't just random ravings, but include some interesting quotes and show a good commitment to backing things up (e.g. with facts, unlike some of the politicians frequently mentioned here).

A product of skemono, DRW first came to my attention via his/her link to my embedded Youtube video showing Senator Boxer verbally skewering Senator Inhofe. This suggests to me that mirroring Youtube videos is going to be the key to my blogging success...

Senator Franken from Minnesota?

Comedian Al Franken announced his intention to challenge Norm Coleman (R) for his U.S. Senate seat in 2008. I've been a skeptic ever since rumors emerged that he was considering it, but his announcement statement was pretty darn good. I'll be interested to hear how he proposes to pursue many of these "bread and butter" Democratic issues as a senator.

Let's try a post 9/11 government

As usual, you can count on Bill Clinton to be articulate when describing the need to switch the party in control of government. Who's really interested in the security of Americans? It's not our administration!

Suffragists are suffering

If people are dumb enough to sign away their right to vote, should we let them?