All of the time you hear from liberals, "Americans overpay for inferior care" etc, etc, but is this true? One of my favorite talk show hosts, Dennis Prager, explores the issue.
If you believe that Americans have lousy health care, it is probably not because you have experienced inferior heath care. It is probably because you were told America has lousy health care.
Last week, major news media featured these headlines:
Reuters: "U.S. scores dead last again in healthcare study"
Los Angeles Times: "U.S. is No. 1 in a key area of healthcare. Guess which one ..."
NPR: "US Spends The Most On Health Care, Yet Gets Least"
The Week: "US health care system: Worst in the world?"
Now let's delve into this widely reported headline as written by Reuters.
For those readers who rely on a headline to get news -- and we all do that sometimes -- the issue is clear: America is rated as having the worst health care "again."
For those who read the first sentence or two, an even more common practice, the Reuters report begins this way: "Americans spend twice as much as residents of other developed countries on healthcare, but get lower quality, less efficiency and have the least equitable system, according to a report released on Wednesday. The United States ranked last when compared to six other countries -- Britain, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, the Commonwealth Fund report found."
For those reading further, the claim of the headline and of the first two sentences is reinforced. The third sentence offers commentary on the study by the head of the group that conducted it: "'As an American it just bothers me that with all of our know-how, all of our wealth, that we are not assuring that people who need healthcare can get it,' Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis told reporters ..."
Only later in the report does the discerning reader have a clue as to how agenda-driven this report and this study are. The otherwise unidentified Karen Davis, president of the never-identified Commonwealth Fund, is quoted as saying how important it was that America pass President Obama's health care bill.
Could it be that Ms. Davis and the Commonwealth are leftwing?
They sure are, though Reuters, which is also on the Left, never lets you know.
Here's how the Commonwealth Fund's 2009 Report from the president begins: "The Commonwealth Fund marshaled its resources this year to produce timely and rigorous work that helped lay the groundwork for the historic Affordable Care Act, signed by President Obama in March 2010."
As for Davis, she served as deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Jimmy Carter administration all four years of the Carter presidency. And in 1993, in speaking to new members of Congress, she advocated a single-payer approach to health care.
I could not find any mainstream news report about this story that identified the politics of Karen Davis or the Commonwealth Fund. If they had, the headlines would have looked something like this:
"Liberal think tank, headed by single-payer advocate, ObamaCare activist, and former Carter official, says America has worst health care"
Conversely, imagine if a conservative think tank had released a study showing that, in general, Americans had the best health care in the world. Two questions: Would the media have reported it? And if they did, would they have neglected to report that the think tank was conservative? The answer is no to both.
In microcosm, we have here four major developments of the last 50 years:
1. The Left dominates the news media in America; and around the world, leftwing media are almost the only news media.
2. The media report most news in the light of their Leftwing values (whether consciously or not).
3. Most people understandably believe what they read, watch or listen to.
4. This is a major reason most people on the Left are on the Left. They have been given a lifetime of leftist perceptions of the world (especially when one includes higher education) and therefore regard what they believe about the world as reality rather than as a leftwing perception of reality.
The same thing happened on a far larger scale in 2000 when the world press reported that the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) ranked America 37th in health care behind such countries as Morocco, Costa Rica, Colombia and Greece.
This WHO assessment was reported throughout the world and regularly cited by leftwing critics of American health care. Yet, to the best of my knowledge, no one other than a few conservatives noted that Cuba was ranked 39th, essentially tied with the United States.
Which means that the WHO report is essentially a fraud. Who in his right mind thinks Americans and Cubans have equivalent levels of health care? For that matter, how many world leaders travel to Greece or Morocco instead of to the United States for health care?
The answer is that WHO doesn't assess health care quality; it assesses health care equality, exactly the way any organization on the Left assesses it. And since the world's and America's news media are on the Left, they report a Leftist bogus assessment of American health care as true.
Imagine this headline around the world: "World Health Organization declares America and Cuba tied in health care."
Of course, only Leftists would believe that. But since non-Leftists would realize how absurd the claim was, that is not what anyone was told. Instead, the world and American media all announced "America rated 37th in health care by World Health Organization."
These two reports illustrate why so many people in America and around the world think America's health care is inferior and why they support movement toward nationalized health care.
But these two reports are only one example of the larger problem -- the world thinking is morally confused because it is informed by the morally confused. How else explain, for example, why America, the greatest force for good among nations, is hated, while China, never a force for good, isn't?
The answer is, unfortunately, simple: Garbage in, garbage out.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Good Riddance...
Today, Robert "KKK" Byrd joined Ted Kennedy in the firey pits of hell for eternal damnation. I have a smile on my face today now that this scum of a human is no longer among the living. Am I being harsh because he's a democrat? No, I'm being harsh because he was a fucking KKK member who FILIBUSTERED the Civil Rights Act of 1964. From Ben Smith of Politico
President Obama recalled meeting Sen. Robert Byrd — and thinking about his past in the Klan — in one of the strongest passages of "The Audacity of Hope," but today he remembered him more simply:
He had the courage to stand firm in his principles, but also the courage to change over time.
That's an extremely generous way of looking at it. This may not be the appropriate day to review the details of Byrd's history, and his disavowal of the Klan was, by the accounts of West Virginia civil rights activists, quite thorough, his change also came so late that it's as easy to credit it to expediency as it is to courage. He could hardly have remained in the Senate in 2010 — or even in 1980 — with the views he'd held earlier in his career.
"He did a complete about-face and you couldn't ask for a better man," said the president of one local NAACP chapter, George Rutherford, this morning, dating the change to 1968.
Byrd's involvement in the past is hard to see as a youthful error, as he cast it. He wasn't just a member of the Klan: He founded and led a Klan chapter as a young man, and Klan officials first pushed him into politics. He opposed the integration of the armed forces in World War II, writing, "Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds." He wrote the Klan's imperial wizard in 1946 that "the Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia."
He filibustered the Civil Rights Act in 1964. He embraced Martin Luther King Jr. only after his assassination. Before a planned 1968 march on Washington, he warned, "If this self-seeking rabble-rouser is allowed to go through with his plans here, Washington may well be treated to the same kind of violence, destruction, looting, and bloodshed."
All this isn't to say that politicians and critics shouldn't have granted him the forgiveness he sought in his later decades. At the same time, they don't really have to.
I won't. Mostly because of these words...
SEN. ROBERT BYRD (D), WEST VIRGINIA: My ol' mom told me, Robert, you can't go to heaven if you hate anybody. We practiced that. There are white niggers, I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time, if you want to use that word, but we've all -- we just need to work together to make our country a better country. And I just a soon quit talking about it so much.
Rot in Hell Byrd.
President Obama recalled meeting Sen. Robert Byrd — and thinking about his past in the Klan — in one of the strongest passages of "The Audacity of Hope," but today he remembered him more simply:
He had the courage to stand firm in his principles, but also the courage to change over time.
That's an extremely generous way of looking at it. This may not be the appropriate day to review the details of Byrd's history, and his disavowal of the Klan was, by the accounts of West Virginia civil rights activists, quite thorough, his change also came so late that it's as easy to credit it to expediency as it is to courage. He could hardly have remained in the Senate in 2010 — or even in 1980 — with the views he'd held earlier in his career.
"He did a complete about-face and you couldn't ask for a better man," said the president of one local NAACP chapter, George Rutherford, this morning, dating the change to 1968.
Byrd's involvement in the past is hard to see as a youthful error, as he cast it. He wasn't just a member of the Klan: He founded and led a Klan chapter as a young man, and Klan officials first pushed him into politics. He opposed the integration of the armed forces in World War II, writing, "Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds." He wrote the Klan's imperial wizard in 1946 that "the Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia."
He filibustered the Civil Rights Act in 1964. He embraced Martin Luther King Jr. only after his assassination. Before a planned 1968 march on Washington, he warned, "If this self-seeking rabble-rouser is allowed to go through with his plans here, Washington may well be treated to the same kind of violence, destruction, looting, and bloodshed."
All this isn't to say that politicians and critics shouldn't have granted him the forgiveness he sought in his later decades. At the same time, they don't really have to.
I won't. Mostly because of these words...
SEN. ROBERT BYRD (D), WEST VIRGINIA: My ol' mom told me, Robert, you can't go to heaven if you hate anybody. We practiced that. There are white niggers, I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time, if you want to use that word, but we've all -- we just need to work together to make our country a better country. And I just a soon quit talking about it so much.
Rot in Hell Byrd.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Panasonic Toughbook Test, this is my new laptop baby!
After treating my previous laptop like a man beats his wife I have gotten the INDESTRCUTIBLE toughbook. Now everyone shhh. I am going to try and win a lot of bets at school with this fucker. you can literally shower and or bathe with this thing and it will still work.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Media selective outage...
Imagine if this was say, a conservative, 2nd amendment activist, who had attended a tea party rally, this wasn't even picked up in the US media, outside of one 30 second piece I saw on Fox
AFP - A 37-year-old Toronto man was charged on Wednesday with possession of explosives alleged to be part of a plot to bomb a G20 summit being held this week in the Canadian city, police said.
In a statement, the Integrated Security Unit (ISU) responsible for summit security said Byron Sonne, 37, was arrested after a raid on a home in midtown Toronto, several kilometers (miles) from the June 26-27 summit site.
"The investigation is ongoing as part of the Toronto Police Service's efforts to ensure a safe and secure G20 Summit," said a statement. "There is no risk to public safety and this time."
ISU spokesman Sergeant Tim Burrows told AFP the charges -- intimidation, threat against the justice system, possession of explosives and dangerous weapons, and mischief -- are "very serious."
"We had information that linked this to the G20 and G8," Burrows said.
Local media said more than 50 officers were involved in the raid on the million-dollar Toronto home midday Tuesday. Officers continued to search the home on Wednesday, said Burrows.
The suspect was to appear in court Wednesday morning.
AFP - A 37-year-old Toronto man was charged on Wednesday with possession of explosives alleged to be part of a plot to bomb a G20 summit being held this week in the Canadian city, police said.
In a statement, the Integrated Security Unit (ISU) responsible for summit security said Byron Sonne, 37, was arrested after a raid on a home in midtown Toronto, several kilometers (miles) from the June 26-27 summit site.
"The investigation is ongoing as part of the Toronto Police Service's efforts to ensure a safe and secure G20 Summit," said a statement. "There is no risk to public safety and this time."
ISU spokesman Sergeant Tim Burrows told AFP the charges -- intimidation, threat against the justice system, possession of explosives and dangerous weapons, and mischief -- are "very serious."
"We had information that linked this to the G20 and G8," Burrows said.
Local media said more than 50 officers were involved in the raid on the million-dollar Toronto home midday Tuesday. Officers continued to search the home on Wednesday, said Burrows.
The suspect was to appear in court Wednesday morning.
Remember history
Remember this quote... from 1965...
"Your children will live under communism." Khrushchev said.
"On the contrary," Secretary Benson replied, "My grandchildren will live in freedom as I hope that all people will."
Khrushchev then retorted: "You Americans are so gullible. No, you won't accept Communism outright; but we'll keep feeding you small doses of Socialism until you will finally wake up and find that you already have Communism. We won't have to fight you; we'll so weaken your economy, until you fall like overripe fruit into our hands."
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Left in full meltdown mode...
You KNOW things are bad when KEITH FUCKING OLBERMANN LEAVES DAILY KOS!. I mean wow. More posting next week. I had it toned down because I now work for a congressional candidate. I choose to not say who now but if you know me you probably know who it is.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Obama is in TROUBLE!
When MSNBC turns on you man, you be fucked. Period.
RealClearPolitics - Video - MSNBC Trashes Obama's Address: Compared To Carter, "I Don't Sense Executive Command"
Wow, KO and Chris "Tingles" Matthews turn on you? Damn dude, you just lost your base.
oh and here's Ed Schultz being an idiot saying Obama should act like a "dictator" (and people think Glenn Beck is dumb, Glenn doesn't hold a candle to this drooling piece of shit)
RealClearPolitics - Video - Ed Schultz: Obama Should Act Like A "Dictator" In Oval Office Address
brilliant, and finally in this video group, Frank Luntz, expert poller, takes the temperature of what people thought of the speech
RealClearPolitics - Video - Frank Luntz Focus Group On Obama's Address: "Negative"
RealClearPolitics - Video - MSNBC Trashes Obama's Address: Compared To Carter, "I Don't Sense Executive Command"
Wow, KO and Chris "Tingles" Matthews turn on you? Damn dude, you just lost your base.
oh and here's Ed Schultz being an idiot saying Obama should act like a "dictator" (and people think Glenn Beck is dumb, Glenn doesn't hold a candle to this drooling piece of shit)
RealClearPolitics - Video - Ed Schultz: Obama Should Act Like A "Dictator" In Oval Office Address
brilliant, and finally in this video group, Frank Luntz, expert poller, takes the temperature of what people thought of the speech
RealClearPolitics - Video - Frank Luntz Focus Group On Obama's Address: "Negative"
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Sunday movie reviews
This is something new I'm starting for the summer. I will be reviewing the movie I have seen in theaters and at home on DVD. The two for this week are From Paris With Love and Get Him to the Greek.
First the movie I saw on DVD last night, From Paris with Love. It is a rip-off of the James Bond title "From Russia with Love" back in the early 60's. Other than that it has nothing in common with the movie Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors) plays James Reece, a semi-spy that is the main assistant in Paris for the US Ambassador to France. Enter Charlie Wax, John Travolta's character that is basically Jack Bauer bald and on steroids. He is hilarious and walks away with the movie hands down. Director Pierre Morel (who also directed Taken back in 2008) does a great job letting Travolta be his crazy self. Wax also makes refrence to the last character Travolta did that was any good in Pulp Fiction. All I'm going to say is Royal with Cheese and people who have seen the movie will understand what I'm talking about. This is a solid action movie with a twist that is telegraphed. Also the red-haired woman who plays the Secretary of State does a REALLY good Hillary Clinton impression. Me and my Dad both agreed it was an obvious slam on her. Solid movie, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes basic action movies i.e. diehard and such.
IMDB- 6.4/10
rottentomatoes.com-37%
me- 8/10
Get Him to the Greek is a "sequel" to Fogetting Sarah Marshall, which I never saw, but this was a great little movie too. This isn't original but it is this summer's version of The Hangover. This movie will do just fine and while blockbusters will come and go this movie should remain in the top 5 for at least a couple more weeks because it just will be one that people will want to see. Russel Brand as Aldous Snow is great and if the Academy had any balls they'd give him a nomination for best actor. He has the rockstar attitude down cold and there is even a cameo by Lars Ullrich of Metallica which is funny as hell. The songs are Spinal Tapesque with the best being "We got the Clap" which he sings on the Today Show. Paul Krugman and Merdith Vierra have a couple funny cameos too. Jonah Hill plays Aaron Green a lame low-level record executive who evolves as much as the story does. He is genuine and has to deal with his boss Sergio Roma, P.Diddy, who seriously steals every scene he is in. He should get a best supporting actor nod but won't because the Academy is filled with a bunch of left-wing pussies. Anyway go see this movie now. It is the best comedy of the summer (for older people). Oh and DONT bring anyone under 15 to the movie. While funny it is a massively hard R with everything from nudity to drug use (shocking I know for a movie about a rock star). Have fun with this one people, I know I did
IMDB- 7.1
rottentomatoes.com-73%
me- 9/10
Next week I hope to review these movies....
In theaters
Shrek Forever After
The A-Team
DVD
Alice in Wonderland
TBD by Dad's Netflix queue...
First the movie I saw on DVD last night, From Paris with Love. It is a rip-off of the James Bond title "From Russia with Love" back in the early 60's. Other than that it has nothing in common with the movie Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors) plays James Reece, a semi-spy that is the main assistant in Paris for the US Ambassador to France. Enter Charlie Wax, John Travolta's character that is basically Jack Bauer bald and on steroids. He is hilarious and walks away with the movie hands down. Director Pierre Morel (who also directed Taken back in 2008) does a great job letting Travolta be his crazy self. Wax also makes refrence to the last character Travolta did that was any good in Pulp Fiction. All I'm going to say is Royal with Cheese and people who have seen the movie will understand what I'm talking about. This is a solid action movie with a twist that is telegraphed. Also the red-haired woman who plays the Secretary of State does a REALLY good Hillary Clinton impression. Me and my Dad both agreed it was an obvious slam on her. Solid movie, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes basic action movies i.e. diehard and such.
IMDB- 6.4/10
rottentomatoes.com-37%
me- 8/10
Get Him to the Greek is a "sequel" to Fogetting Sarah Marshall, which I never saw, but this was a great little movie too. This isn't original but it is this summer's version of The Hangover. This movie will do just fine and while blockbusters will come and go this movie should remain in the top 5 for at least a couple more weeks because it just will be one that people will want to see. Russel Brand as Aldous Snow is great and if the Academy had any balls they'd give him a nomination for best actor. He has the rockstar attitude down cold and there is even a cameo by Lars Ullrich of Metallica which is funny as hell. The songs are Spinal Tapesque with the best being "We got the Clap" which he sings on the Today Show. Paul Krugman and Merdith Vierra have a couple funny cameos too. Jonah Hill plays Aaron Green a lame low-level record executive who evolves as much as the story does. He is genuine and has to deal with his boss Sergio Roma, P.Diddy, who seriously steals every scene he is in. He should get a best supporting actor nod but won't because the Academy is filled with a bunch of left-wing pussies. Anyway go see this movie now. It is the best comedy of the summer (for older people). Oh and DONT bring anyone under 15 to the movie. While funny it is a massively hard R with everything from nudity to drug use (shocking I know for a movie about a rock star). Have fun with this one people, I know I did
IMDB- 7.1
rottentomatoes.com-73%
me- 9/10
Next week I hope to review these movies....
In theaters
Shrek Forever After
The A-Team
DVD
Alice in Wonderland
TBD by Dad's Netflix queue...
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Picture (ok headline) is worth a thousand words...
From the front page on DrudgeReport...
BRIT KNEELS BEFORE AMERICA!More from the UK tabloids later tonight :)
BRIT KNEELS BEFORE AMERICA!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
SOTW #13 Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare (Lyric Video)
Very rarely does a song come along that absolutely defines a band (at least in my opinion) and it helps me know who I have similar music tastes as. There hasn't been a group defining song this hardcore since Seether's song Remedy back in 2005. Last year I found Cage The Elephant's song "Ain't no rest for the wicked' good but not like this. This is the music I LOVE. It is a fine line between thrash metal and hard rock. Basically an inbetween of Slayer (without the solos that go on for 3 minutes) and Metallica (who I classify as hard rock, not metal, it's a debate I'm willing to have if anyone cares). This album doesn't even drop until July 27th but this song is just too kick-ass to not be put on. And once the music video is released I'll probably put it up again. Anyway enough of me talking enjoy the music, and FYI if you are at work please put the headphones on, they do drop the f-bomb about half a dozen times in this song.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Dems are scared, and pussies...
Honestly if I had not come across this article I would not have believed it. This is shit you cannot make up and speaks to what liberals think of the average american in today's political culture. This is the NYT people, not the Journal or Newsmax.com
And as you all know I LOVE the comment section of these things, so check out these gems.
BEL AIR, Md. — The reception that Representative Frank Kratovil Jr., a Democrat, received here one night last week as he faced a small group of constituents was far more pleasant than his encounters during a Congressional recess last summer.
Then, he was hanged in effigy by protesters. This time, a round of applause was followed by a glass of chilled wine, a plate of crackers and crudités as he mingled with an invitation-only audience at the Point Breeze Credit Union, a vastly different scene than last year’s wide-open televised free-for-alls.
The sentiment that fueled the rage during those Congressional forums is still alive in the electorate. But the opportunities for voters to openly express their displeasure, or angrily vent as video cameras roll, have been harder to come by in this election year.
If the time-honored tradition of the political meeting is not quite dead, it seems to be teetering closer to extinction. Of the 255 Democrats who make up the majority in the House, only a handful held town-hall-style forums as legislators spent last week at home in their districts.
It was no scheduling accident.
With images of overheated, finger-waving crowds still seared into their minds from the discontent of last August, many Democrats heeded the advice of party leaders and tried to avoid unscripted question-and-answer sessions. The recommendations were clear: hold events in controlled settings — a bank or credit union, for example — or tour local businesses or participate in community service projects.
And to reach thousands of constituents at a time, without the worry of being snared in an angry confrontation with voters, more lawmakers are also taking part in a fast-growing trend: the telephone town meeting, where chances are remote that a testy exchange will wind up on YouTube.
God forbid they face dissent, because everyone knows its the highest form of patriotism, unless conservatives do it...
For incumbents of both parties facing challenging re-election bids, few things receive more scrutiny than how, when and where they interact with voters. Many members of Congress err on the side of being visible, but not too visible, and make only a few public appearances while they are back in their districts.
In other words they are SCARED :)
In New Hampshire, where open political meetings are deeply ingrained in the state’s traditions, Representative Carol Shea-Porter’s campaign Web site had this message for visitors: “No upcoming events scheduled. Please visit us again soon!”
Note to anyone who is represented by her, please visit her (peacefully of course) at her office. at any of these 3 locations...
Washington D.C. Office
1330 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
p. (202) 225-5456
f. (202) 225-5822Dover Office
104 Washington Street
Dover, NH 03820
p. (603) 743-4813
f. (603) 743-5956Manchester Office
33 Lowell Street
Manchester, NH 03101
p. (603) 641-9536
f. (603) 641-9561
Ms. Shea-Porter, a Democrat, attended a state convention of letter carriers on Saturday, but she did not hold a town-hall-style meeting during the Congressional recess. In 2006, when she was an underdog candidate for the House, she often showed up at the meetings of her Republican rival, Representative Jeb Bradley, to question him about Iraq.
so basically she can dish it out but can't take it...
In Iowa, where voters also are accustomed to coming face to face with elected officials,Representative Leonard L. Boswell, a Democrat, provided few opportunities for voters to see him last week. His itinerary included a groundbreaking for a new law enforcement center and a renaming ceremony for a Des Moines post office.
In Maryland, where Mr. Kratovil endured considerable heckling last year over the health care legislation, which he ultimately opposed, he did not hold any large gatherings with voters. After returning from a visit to Afghanistan, he held two events with veterans before arriving at an evening discussion here at the credit union in Bel Air, north of Baltimore.
“It’s dramatically different this break than it was in August of last year,” Mr. Kratovil said in an interview after he finished speaking about financial regulatory legislation. “At town halls, there was a group of people who were there to disrupt, purely politically driven, not there because they wanted to get answers or discuss the issues.”
Mr. Kratovil said seeing voters in their workplace, or in casual settings like soccer fields, actually provided a broader sampling of public opinion than simply holding formal town-hall-style meetings, which often attract only political activists.
An examination of public schedules for dozens of members of Congress last week showed that more House Republicans held open meetings, including several in a series of forums called America Speaking Out, which is intended to help write the party’s agenda if it wins control of Congress in November.
The anger that erupted at meetings last summer — focused, particularly, on the health care legislation — helped draw attention to Tea Party activists. A year later, some of the images are resurfacing once again and will almost certainly be used against lawmakers in television advertisements over the next five months.
Representative Rick Boucher, a Democrat who has represented a wide part of southwestern Virginia for 28 years, has often encountered fierce criticism during his sessions with voters. But he said it was worth listening to the critiques, which often sound nearly identical as he travels across the 23 counties of his district.
“Obviously the town meetings are magnets for people who have a political agenda, but it’s worth putting up with the talking-point-induced political dialogue to get good ideas,” said Mr. Boucher, who was one of the few Democrats last week who did hold a wide-open meeting, which took place Saturday at the high school in Floyd, Va.
“I guess I’m old-fashioned,” said Mr. Boucher, adding that he preferred visiting with voters in person, rather than communicating with them through “tele-town-hall” meetings, a sort of conference call that can include thousands of homes that has been on the rise since the technology was first used in 2006. “I have no plans of changing my approach to this.”
Representative Tom Perriello, a first-term Virginia Democrat, held 21 open meetings last August during the heat of the health care debate. He said that each of the sessions lasted an average of five hours, often ending well after midnight.
“We thought that the best strategy was to let people talk,” Mr. Perriello said. “It was important to stay until people had everything off of their minds.”
Not last week. The meetings were traded for other stops in Mr. Perriello’s central Virginia district, including an elementary school that received broadband Internet through the economic stimulus plan. He also dropped by several businesses, hoping to take the pulse on what he said were the chief issues for his constituents: jobs and the economy.
Without so many lengthy meetings on his agenda, he said he had more time for impromptu encounters with voters. Constituents who were following along received updated information on Twitter, including this bulletin just before lunchtime one day: “Now stopping for a hot dog at Moore’s Country Store!”
And as you all know I LOVE the comment section of these things, so check out these gems.
Bravo for the democrats in refusing to give the neanderthals from the Tea Party their Warhollian twenty minutes of fame. They create a circus atmosphere at these meetings because, after all, they are the clowns. By the way, it's about time that the Times stop giving them attention out of proportion to their numbers.
The Democrat party elite and Obama know what is best for the American public. There is no need for meetings with the people.
(With it being the NYT I can't tell if this person is being serious or sarcastic)
Only Ignorant New York liberals would think it is a good idea for REPRESENTATIVES to avoid the electorate. If your chicken hearted Democratic reps had REAL and HONEST answers to questions, they would not have to hide.
I find it extremely humorous that otherwise intelligent people support a rep's 'right?' to dodge the populace. Must be the kool aid!
I find it extremely humorous that otherwise intelligent people support a rep's 'right?' to dodge the populace. Must be the kool aid!
So Kratovil has an INVITATION ONLY meeting and is happy? He is too cowardly to have an open town hall. And he criticizes those voters, angry with his ramming the health care destruction bill down their throats, as disruptive? My, what courage.
So what part of Maryland is this politician from? Moscow? St. Petersburg?
NY Times, where are the opposing opinions to these self-serving ones you allow the Democratic politicians to make?
So what part of Maryland is this politician from? Moscow? St. Petersburg?
NY Times, where are the opposing opinions to these self-serving ones you allow the Democratic politicians to make?
My, my, my, all of a sudden the Democrats (Socialists) don't want to use the democratic process, like meeting their constituents face on. They are skipping the town halls because it now is not in their best interests as it once was when democracy was the framework of the Democratic and Republican parties. The Democrats are into ruling now, not leading, so it makes sense to rule from the bull pit rather than shaking hands and getting out their "compassion". Of course we now know that compassion is not part of the Democratic Party. The like to get elected citizens into office through HORSE TRADING. After all, isn't that how OBAMA became president, through HORSE TRADING.
The Obamatrons keep saying that the "insurance industry" and other nefarious corporate interests are behind what these automatons sexually slur as "teabaggers." I guess that's why the latest Gallup Poll has the Republicans at 49% generically and the Democrats 43%, giving the Republicans the HIGHEST EVER generic percentage of the voters' allegiance since the Gallup Poll began monitoring this stat 60 years ago in 1950.
Yes, in the funhouse mirror of the loyal NYT agitprop-victim, it has to be a big conspiracy, but maybe, just maybe it's because Obama and his merry band are robbing from the Middle Classes to rob the rich, not so rich, middle-income, all to pay the unions and other Democrat constituencies. And to grow a government as big as Greece or Spain or Italy or Ireland or Portugal and become one of the PIIGS, just like California has already done through weak venal liberal politicians giving the state to CALPERS.
Yes, in the funhouse mirror of the loyal NYT agitprop-victim, it has to be a big conspiracy, but maybe, just maybe it's because Obama and his merry band are robbing from the Middle Classes to rob the rich, not so rich, middle-income, all to pay the unions and other Democrat constituencies. And to grow a government as big as Greece or Spain or Italy or Ireland or Portugal and become one of the PIIGS, just like California has already done through weak venal liberal politicians giving the state to CALPERS.
an old Reason Magazine article about Obama...
Last week I meant to do this post but time got away. anyway here it is...
Obama’s Glamour Problem
Former reason editor Virginia Postrel on the economics of health care and the intersection of glamour and politics.
Virginia Postrel has a knack for changing the way people think about everyday phenomena. As editor of reason during the 1990s, Postrel predicted how Western enthusiasm for Marxism would, in the wake of communism’s collapse, transfer seamlessly to a top-down, regulatory brand of environmentalism. When the World Wide Web triggered the excitable imaginations of censorious legislators, she calmly explained that thick strains in both major political tendencies cling to the precautionary principle at the expense of liberating progress.
In The Future and its Enemies (1998), Postrel tossed aside the traditional left-right paradigm and posited a new post–Cold War divide between “dynamists” and “stasists,” in which the former championed choice and creativity and the latter clung to fear and control. In The Substance of Style (2003), she unpacked the economics of design and offered an appreciation of the Age of Aesthetics. And when she donated her own kidney to a woman on the organ waiting list in 2006, Postrel introduced tens of thousands of people to the once radical idea of organ markets in a way no academic treatise ever could. In each of these cases, those who encounter Postrel’s work will never look at the subject the same way again.
In 2009 Postrel launched a new website called Deep Glamour to probe (as its motto says) the “intersection of imagination & desire.” In a typically eclectic selection from March, the site discussed female body image, the universal hatred for Oscar speeches, the power of nonverbal rhetoric, and whether cuteness and glamour can co-exist. By changing the way we think about glamour, Postrel is helping us better understand, among other things, the allure and frustration of the current American president.
Now 50, Postrel has spent her post-reason career writing for The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, and her popular personal blog (vpostrel.com/weblog). reason.tv producer Ted Balaker caught up with Postrel last February in Los Angeles, where she returned in 2007 after living for several years in Dallas. You can watch an edited video of this interview at reason.tv.
reason: Tell us about DeepGlamour.net.
Virginia Postrel: DeepGlamour.net explores glamour in its many manifestations. We write essays; it’s not a street fashion blog or something like that. My view of glamour is that it is not a style, it is not just about movie stars, and it is in fact a powerful form of visual rhetoric and persuasion, an imaginative process like humor that takes place between an audience and an object. It takes many different forms, depending on the audience and what they find glamorous—the cultural context.
reason: You’ve called glamour a beautiful illusion. A lot of people would say that describes President Obama.
Postrel: Yes, President Obama is a very glamorous figure. Glamour is a particular form of illusion. It’s an illusion that tells a truth about the audience’s desires, and it requires mystery and distance. During the campaign people projected onto Barack Obama whatever they wanted in a president or even in a country. Lying is usually a bad thing, but they would project onto him that he was lying about his positions because he secretly agreed with them: “Anyone that smart has got to be a free trader at heart. He’s just saying this to pander to those idiots. He can’t really mean it.”
You’ve seen, as he’s taken office and tried to govern, this back and forth where he is consciously or unconsciously trying to maintain his glamour—which requires a kind of distance from the political process so that people can continue to see him as representing them, regardless of their contradictory views—while actually trying to be president, which means you have to decide what to do about Guantanamo. You have to decide what health care bill you’re going to back. You have to decide all these things, and you’re going to make somebody disillusioned. This morning I saw that the former editor of Harper’s is about to write a book, The Mendacity of Hope, attacking Obama from the left. That’s the power and the downside of glamour.
reason: I’m going to read you something you wrote in an April 2008 column: “Obama’s glamour gives him a powerful political advantage, but it also poses special problems for the candidate and, if he succeeds, for the country.” Can you explain what you meant and how it has played out?
Postrel: The flip side of glamour is horror. People say, “Oh, there’s something he’s hiding. It must be something terrible.” They say “he’s secretly a radical Muslim” or “he’s secretly really born in Kenya.” As opposed to saying he has policies that are bad for the country. So that is one type of disadvantage.
The other is the one that I just talked about, which is that there is always this capacity for disillusionment. People have projected so much of what they think, including things that are sort of impossible, onto a glamorous figure, that when any flaw shows up the glamour is dispelled and suddenly he becomes terrible.
reason: Is glamour bad for a president seeking re-election, after people have realized he couldn’t possibly live up to all of our hopes?
Postrel: There were two glamorous presidents in my lifetime besides Obama. The first was JFK, and he dealt with this problem by getting killed. That was something I didn’t want to mention in an article about Obama. There were lots of problems in the Kennedy administration and lots of secrets that were being hidden that came out later. But because he was assassinated, the glamour stayed.
The other glamorous president of my lifetime, I would argue, was Ronald Reagan. And he managed to govern because he actually did stand for some specific ideas that brought a broad consensus of supporters together. He was still a figure of distance and mystery, to the extent that his authorized biographer, who followed him around for years, was unable to get at what the man was really like and wrote a semi-fictionalized biography with fake characters. But there was a core of identifiable beliefs that enabled him to govern and to maintain this sort of glamour, particularly to the Reagan coalition. Libertarians would say, “well, he’s really more libertarian,” and social conservatives would say, “well, he’s really more socially conservative.” But he did have specific beliefs that held those people together. They didn’t hold together so well after him.
How interesting...
Sunday, June 06, 2010
RIP John Wooden
What an amazing man, I could go on and on about his influence on college basketball and even our national culture but I, at 23, cannot even begin to capture the greatness of this amazing man. He holds countless NCAA basketball coaching records, ones that will NEVER be even approached, wrote a couple books, and most importantly stayed humble through it all. I don't think I have ever heard a bad word about him. He is truly one of a kind and there will never be another like him
Friday, June 04, 2010
Failblog/FML Friday
Again, because we all need to laugh
Today, a buttmunch customer brought in $7 worth of pennies I had to count and roll. As I was putting them in the deposite box at the end of my shift, I fumbled and dropped the rolls. All but one broke, spilling their contents on the floor. FML
Today, I was in a bad mood after being stuck in traffic for 2 hours and late for work. I was walking to my building when I saw a 100 dollar note flying my way. A man called after me for it, but being selfish I took the note in my pocket as a little reward. That man was my boss. Yes, I'm fired. FML
Today, my boyfriend called me and told me he wanted me to stay the night. I decided to wear my sexiest outfit for him so I put on my kinky nurse outfit and drove over to his house. I let myself in his front door, to which I found 40 of my closest friends staring at me for my surprise birthday party. FML
Today, I had to pretend to give birth in a play. I wanted to make it a realistic as possible but ended up crapping myself on stage by accident. FML
Today, my mom said I was the worst of her 5 children. My IQ is 130, an honor student, I don't smoke, I don't drink alcohol, or do drugs. I'm the "worst" because I don't go to church every Sunday. FML
Today, I was at soccer camp and was hit in the face with a ball. I walked to the nurse and asked for a napkin or tissues to help stop the bleeding. The only thing she could come up with? A tampon. I spent 20 minutes with a tampon shoved up my nostril in front of my laughing teammates. FML
Today, I locked my keys in my car. My spare keys are 45 minutes away in my dorm room. My dorm room keys are attached to my car keys locked in my car. Security said they would let me in as long as I had my school ID. It's on my keychain. FML
Today, I was playing FarmTown and got into a fight with a 14 year old boy. I threatened him with physical violence, and he reported me. I'm 23 years old and got banned from a virtual farming game for threatening children. FML
Today, I had a Biochemistry quiz. I studied all night but took a nap to get some rest because my quiz was in the morning. I woke up at 10 feeling very confident. My quiz was at 9. FML
Today, I realized that my virus protection program now has a virus. FML
Today, I was involved in a wreck. How quickly did the police arrive at the scene? Very quickly, considering he was the one who rear-ended me at a red light. FML
Today, I found out that if you let your son install a new shower head, he won't tighten it properly. So when you turn the shower on, it will shoot out at rocket speed, hitting you in the face. Then when you grab the shower handle to prevent yourself falling backwards, you will just rip that out and hit your head again. FML
Today, I found out who the father of my sister's 4 year old son is. My husband of 7 years. FML
Today, I discovered that when you're the maid of honor giving a toast at your best friend's wedding, it's important to make sure the zipper on your dress is secured. Otherwise, your bare breasts and Hello Kitty panties could end up exposed to a wedding party of 600 people. FML
Today, a girl I've liked for several years gave me her number. Finally, I worked up the courage to call her. It was a suicide help line. FML
Today, my husband's daughter told us that she's 5 months pregnant. I'm going to be a step grandmother and I'm only 23 years old. FML
Today, in Biology, my teacher had asked me what "any living thing" was. Instead of saying "Organism", I blurted out "Orgasm". Which, as I might add, is now my new nickname. FML
Today, I was playing with my cat and holding her upside down. She started frantically meowing, but I still continued on playing with her. Seconds later, she got explosive diarrhea everywhere, including my hair, face, shirt, and mouth. FML
Today, I cut my finger open with a spoon. After waiting for 4 hours in the emergency room, the doctor told me I was missing too much flesh to qualify for stitches. He then called 2 other doctors in to examine it. Apparently they had a contest for patient with most ridiculous injury. I won. FML
Today, I confronted my boyfriend, suspecting that he has been cheating on me during the past few months. He vehemently denied it. Then told me it would never happen again. What? FML
Today, I found my checking and savings account to both read $0.00. My parents transferred all my money to theirs because "I'm irresponsible, and not fit to handle money." I'm a 3.8 college student and have a full-time job. They are currently unemployed. FML
Today, my mom tells my sister that she is worried about her because she has a headache and feels like she might be getting a slight cold. I have had the flu for two weeks and have a 103 degree fever. I ask, "What about me?" Her response? "Stay away from your sister." FML
Today, I decided to adopt a 11 year old dog that has been in need of a home for several months. Two hours after I got him home, I discovered him dead in the backyard. FML
Today, at my school's Midnight Madness, I was selected to show my school spirit in a contest. Being drunk, I decided to hump the school mascot in front of 300 people. FML
Today, my 5 year old daughter figured out how to use the microwave, microwaving my brand new 3G iphone. It was completely wrecked. So was the microwave. FML
Today, my 5 year old daughter figured out how to use the microwave, microwaving my brand new 3G iphone. It was completely wrecked. So was the microwave. FML
Today, I went to a family counseling session because my parents are getting a divorce. I told the counselor that I feel guilty because I feel like I caused it. She says that there is no way I could have caused it, that it's my parents' problem when my mom interrupts her to say "Yes she did." FML
Today, I stepped away from my desk for a few minutes only to return to find the general manager installing updates on my computer. This wouldn't have been an issue had I not pulled up a website explaining in great detail the effects and causes of vaginal yeast infections. FML
Today, a buttmunch customer brought in $7 worth of pennies I had to count and roll. As I was putting them in the deposite box at the end of my shift, I fumbled and dropped the rolls. All but one broke, spilling their contents on the floor. FML
Today, I was in a bad mood after being stuck in traffic for 2 hours and late for work. I was walking to my building when I saw a 100 dollar note flying my way. A man called after me for it, but being selfish I took the note in my pocket as a little reward. That man was my boss. Yes, I'm fired. FML
Today, my boyfriend called me and told me he wanted me to stay the night. I decided to wear my sexiest outfit for him so I put on my kinky nurse outfit and drove over to his house. I let myself in his front door, to which I found 40 of my closest friends staring at me for my surprise birthday party. FML
Today, I had to pretend to give birth in a play. I wanted to make it a realistic as possible but ended up crapping myself on stage by accident. FML
Today, my mom said I was the worst of her 5 children. My IQ is 130, an honor student, I don't smoke, I don't drink alcohol, or do drugs. I'm the "worst" because I don't go to church every Sunday. FML
Today, I was at soccer camp and was hit in the face with a ball. I walked to the nurse and asked for a napkin or tissues to help stop the bleeding. The only thing she could come up with? A tampon. I spent 20 minutes with a tampon shoved up my nostril in front of my laughing teammates. FML
Today, I locked my keys in my car. My spare keys are 45 minutes away in my dorm room. My dorm room keys are attached to my car keys locked in my car. Security said they would let me in as long as I had my school ID. It's on my keychain. FML
Today, I was playing FarmTown and got into a fight with a 14 year old boy. I threatened him with physical violence, and he reported me. I'm 23 years old and got banned from a virtual farming game for threatening children. FML
Today, I had a Biochemistry quiz. I studied all night but took a nap to get some rest because my quiz was in the morning. I woke up at 10 feeling very confident. My quiz was at 9. FML
Today, I realized that my virus protection program now has a virus. FML
Today, I was involved in a wreck. How quickly did the police arrive at the scene? Very quickly, considering he was the one who rear-ended me at a red light. FML
Today, I found out that if you let your son install a new shower head, he won't tighten it properly. So when you turn the shower on, it will shoot out at rocket speed, hitting you in the face. Then when you grab the shower handle to prevent yourself falling backwards, you will just rip that out and hit your head again. FML
Today, I found out who the father of my sister's 4 year old son is. My husband of 7 years. FML
Today, I discovered that when you're the maid of honor giving a toast at your best friend's wedding, it's important to make sure the zipper on your dress is secured. Otherwise, your bare breasts and Hello Kitty panties could end up exposed to a wedding party of 600 people. FML
Today, a girl I've liked for several years gave me her number. Finally, I worked up the courage to call her. It was a suicide help line. FML
Today, my husband's daughter told us that she's 5 months pregnant. I'm going to be a step grandmother and I'm only 23 years old. FML
Today, in Biology, my teacher had asked me what "any living thing" was. Instead of saying "Organism", I blurted out "Orgasm". Which, as I might add, is now my new nickname. FML
Today, I was playing with my cat and holding her upside down. She started frantically meowing, but I still continued on playing with her. Seconds later, she got explosive diarrhea everywhere, including my hair, face, shirt, and mouth. FML
Today, I cut my finger open with a spoon. After waiting for 4 hours in the emergency room, the doctor told me I was missing too much flesh to qualify for stitches. He then called 2 other doctors in to examine it. Apparently they had a contest for patient with most ridiculous injury. I won. FML
Today, I confronted my boyfriend, suspecting that he has been cheating on me during the past few months. He vehemently denied it. Then told me it would never happen again. What? FML
Today, I found my checking and savings account to both read $0.00. My parents transferred all my money to theirs because "I'm irresponsible, and not fit to handle money." I'm a 3.8 college student and have a full-time job. They are currently unemployed. FML
Today, my mom tells my sister that she is worried about her because she has a headache and feels like she might be getting a slight cold. I have had the flu for two weeks and have a 103 degree fever. I ask, "What about me?" Her response? "Stay away from your sister." FML
Today, I decided to adopt a 11 year old dog that has been in need of a home for several months. Two hours after I got him home, I discovered him dead in the backyard. FML
Today, at my school's Midnight Madness, I was selected to show my school spirit in a contest. Being drunk, I decided to hump the school mascot in front of 300 people. FML
Today, my 5 year old daughter figured out how to use the microwave, microwaving my brand new 3G iphone. It was completely wrecked. So was the microwave. FML
Today, my 5 year old daughter figured out how to use the microwave, microwaving my brand new 3G iphone. It was completely wrecked. So was the microwave. FML
Today, I went to a family counseling session because my parents are getting a divorce. I told the counselor that I feel guilty because I feel like I caused it. She says that there is no way I could have caused it, that it's my parents' problem when my mom interrupts her to say "Yes she did." FML
Today, I stepped away from my desk for a few minutes only to return to find the general manager installing updates on my computer. This wouldn't have been an issue had I not pulled up a website explaining in great detail the effects and causes of vaginal yeast infections. FML
But.... But... The Jobs went up?
The Dow is in a complete free fall right now, but the unemployment went down from 9.9% to 9.7%. The problem? Yahoo article explains below
Ah so basically its a inflation that won't last.
Virtually all the job creation in May came from the hiring of 411,000 census workers. Such hiring peaked in May and will begin tailing off in June.
By contrast, hiring by private employers, the backbone of the economy, slowed sharply. They added just 41,000 jobs, down from 218,000 in April and the fewest since January.
Ah so basically its a inflation that won't last.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
THIS is gonna be FUN
Hey democrats, remember HIM?!?
Yep just when things might be turning around for democratic prospects (despite the fact they are down 49-43 in the generic GALLUP poll, the highest level they have EVER BEEN) the trial of Rod Blagojevich who was accused of trying to sell Obama's Senate seat or get something in return for it, starts. From the Chicago Tribune:
Yep just when things might be turning around for democratic prospects (despite the fact they are down 49-43 in the generic GALLUP poll, the highest level they have EVER BEEN) the trial of Rod Blagojevich who was accused of trying to sell Obama's Senate seat or get something in return for it, starts. From the Chicago Tribune:
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's federal corruption trial will feature prosecutors feeding voters a steady reminder of the worst elements of Illinois' political culture — allegations that money, insider influence and personal interest drive public policy in this state.
From charges of trying to shake down a children's hospital for campaign cash to trying to peddle President Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for profit, the case will once again put Illinois politics on trial.
For Democrats, the trial represents a long-feared day of reckoning after 18 months of a Blagojevich-fueled circus. The challenge is to weather months of testimony involving pay-to-play charges as the party tries to maintain its control of state government, led by Gov. Pat Quinn, who replaced Blagojevich as governor after twice serving as his running mate.
"It's not a plus. It's not a plus," acknowledged House Speaker Michael Madigan, the veteran Southwest Side lawmaker who is chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party.
From charges of trying to shake down a children's hospital for campaign cash to trying to peddle President Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for profit, the case will once again put Illinois politics on trial.
For Democrats, the trial represents a long-feared day of reckoning after 18 months of a Blagojevich-fueled circus. The challenge is to weather months of testimony involving pay-to-play charges as the party tries to maintain its control of state government, led by Gov. Pat Quinn, who replaced Blagojevich as governor after twice serving as his running mate.
"It's not a plus. It's not a plus," acknowledged House Speaker Michael Madigan, the veteran Southwest Side lawmaker who is chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party.
YA THINK!?!? It continues...
For Republicans, it's the down-and-out party's best chance in a decade to convince voters they deserve another shot at running Illinois. The GOP is trying to regain relevancy that evaporated after a federal corruption investigation that ended with the imprisonment of former Republican Gov. George Ryan.
Watch for Republicans to run TV ads that link Blagojevich and any damaging trial testimony to their Democratic opponents. It's the same approach that Blagojevich used in winning two statewide elections, tarring both his opponents with the taint of the Ryan scandal. And some GOP campaigns already are exploring the possibility.
Democrats know they will be forced to play defense, and some will try to point out ties between Blagojevich and longtime Republicans to contend that corruption was not unique to one political party.
"I don't think it's going to be good for Democrats," said Christopher Mooney, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. "Quinn inoculated himself pretty well from Blagojevich. But Blagojevich, himself, wrote the book on this. He's taught us how to take a person not associated in any way with taint and link them at the hip."
Amid the attempts at political opportunism, the Blagojevich trial also threatens to drag into the spotlight prominent national Democrats, from former Chicago congressman and current White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his top deputy, Illinois' senior senator, Dick Durbin.
The Blagojevich defense team contends those leaders can show that the former governor's conversations about the Senate seat were political horse trading and not a crime. Though Emanuel, Reid and Durbin are not accused of any wrongdoing, any association with Blagojevich carries its own political baggage. If nothing else, the trial will resurrect the controversy over Democratic leaders' ineffective efforts to prevent Blagojevich's choice, Sen. Roland Burris, from being seated.
"It's just an embarrassment that the state has to go through this. It's certainly something that will be politically good for us, but it's not good for the state," said Pat Brady, the state's Republican chairman. "I don't want Rahm Emanuel and other people from the White House coming to testify. It doesn't help the country."
Yet Republicans are working to use the trial to resuscitate a political organization that was eviscerated by voters following Ryan's tenure.
Just days before the trial was set to begin, the state GOP compiled an assemblage of photos of current political candidates buddying up to the disgraced former Democratic governor. There's Quinn, a former running mate, standing with Blagojevich at a political rally; Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, the DemocraticU.S. Senate nominee, posing with Blagojevich in tuxedos at an event; and other photos with Blagojevich and Attorney General Lisa Madigan and her father, Michael Madigan.
"The Blagojevich Trial. Starting June 3rd. Check Your Local Listings for Details," the state GOP noted in an e-mail to supporters that included the photos.
A strategist with one Republican statewide campaign said they expect the trial will provide "opportunities" to tag the current crop of Democratic candidates with problems that go back to the Blagojevich administration, from the state's mountain of unpaid bills to Blagojevich hires still on the public payroll.
"It may not be a focal point of the trial, but it does shine a spotlight on the problems of the Democratic Party and the excesses of one-party rule with Blagojevich at the top of it," said the GOP strategist, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the campaigns.
During the February primary for governor, challenger Dan Hynes looked to take advantage of Quinn's former status as a Blagojevich running mate to raise questions in the minds of voters. But Hynes' campaign discovered, and a Tribune poll showed, that Democratic primary voters did not view Quinn negatively over his ties to the former governor.
Though such linkage didn't have any traction for Democratic voters, it is independent voters who decide statewide elections in Illinois, and they will be the target for Republican attempts to tie Blagojevich to Democratic opponents.
A Democratic consultant to one statewide campaign noted that Democrats running at the top of the ticket were not particularly close to Blagojevich but said it would be difficult to explain that to voters.
"The biggest wild card is Rod, himself," said the consultant, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss strategy. "Will he try to take others down with him?"
As is often the case in Illinois' political environment, there is a bipartisan flavor to the Blagojevich scandal.
Blagojevich had dealings with prominent Republican Bob Kjellander, a former member of the GOP National Committee. Prosecutors say he also cultivated a relationship with Stuart Levine, a major fundraiser for Blagojevich and for Republicans who pleaded guilty to trying to use his position on state boards to extract kickbacks from contractors. Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a top Blagojevich fundraiser and adviser who also was convicted of corruption in 2008, was a donor to GOP candidates as well.
To that extent, the trial may serve to remind voters that they share some responsibility for electing him twice.
"Blagojevich is just a public buffoon, but he's all of ours," the Democratic consultant said. "He's not just an issue for Illinois Democrats. Everyone shares ownership."
Watch for Republicans to run TV ads that link Blagojevich and any damaging trial testimony to their Democratic opponents. It's the same approach that Blagojevich used in winning two statewide elections, tarring both his opponents with the taint of the Ryan scandal. And some GOP campaigns already are exploring the possibility.
Democrats know they will be forced to play defense, and some will try to point out ties between Blagojevich and longtime Republicans to contend that corruption was not unique to one political party.
"I don't think it's going to be good for Democrats," said Christopher Mooney, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. "Quinn inoculated himself pretty well from Blagojevich. But Blagojevich, himself, wrote the book on this. He's taught us how to take a person not associated in any way with taint and link them at the hip."
Amid the attempts at political opportunism, the Blagojevich trial also threatens to drag into the spotlight prominent national Democrats, from former Chicago congressman and current White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and his top deputy, Illinois' senior senator, Dick Durbin.
The Blagojevich defense team contends those leaders can show that the former governor's conversations about the Senate seat were political horse trading and not a crime. Though Emanuel, Reid and Durbin are not accused of any wrongdoing, any association with Blagojevich carries its own political baggage. If nothing else, the trial will resurrect the controversy over Democratic leaders' ineffective efforts to prevent Blagojevich's choice, Sen. Roland Burris, from being seated.
"It's just an embarrassment that the state has to go through this. It's certainly something that will be politically good for us, but it's not good for the state," said Pat Brady, the state's Republican chairman. "I don't want Rahm Emanuel and other people from the White House coming to testify. It doesn't help the country."
Yet Republicans are working to use the trial to resuscitate a political organization that was eviscerated by voters following Ryan's tenure.
Just days before the trial was set to begin, the state GOP compiled an assemblage of photos of current political candidates buddying up to the disgraced former Democratic governor. There's Quinn, a former running mate, standing with Blagojevich at a political rally; Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, the DemocraticU.S. Senate nominee, posing with Blagojevich in tuxedos at an event; and other photos with Blagojevich and Attorney General Lisa Madigan and her father, Michael Madigan.
"The Blagojevich Trial. Starting June 3rd. Check Your Local Listings for Details," the state GOP noted in an e-mail to supporters that included the photos.
A strategist with one Republican statewide campaign said they expect the trial will provide "opportunities" to tag the current crop of Democratic candidates with problems that go back to the Blagojevich administration, from the state's mountain of unpaid bills to Blagojevich hires still on the public payroll.
"It may not be a focal point of the trial, but it does shine a spotlight on the problems of the Democratic Party and the excesses of one-party rule with Blagojevich at the top of it," said the GOP strategist, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the campaigns.
During the February primary for governor, challenger Dan Hynes looked to take advantage of Quinn's former status as a Blagojevich running mate to raise questions in the minds of voters. But Hynes' campaign discovered, and a Tribune poll showed, that Democratic primary voters did not view Quinn negatively over his ties to the former governor.
Though such linkage didn't have any traction for Democratic voters, it is independent voters who decide statewide elections in Illinois, and they will be the target for Republican attempts to tie Blagojevich to Democratic opponents.
A Democratic consultant to one statewide campaign noted that Democrats running at the top of the ticket were not particularly close to Blagojevich but said it would be difficult to explain that to voters.
"The biggest wild card is Rod, himself," said the consultant, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss strategy. "Will he try to take others down with him?"
As is often the case in Illinois' political environment, there is a bipartisan flavor to the Blagojevich scandal.
Blagojevich had dealings with prominent Republican Bob Kjellander, a former member of the GOP National Committee. Prosecutors say he also cultivated a relationship with Stuart Levine, a major fundraiser for Blagojevich and for Republicans who pleaded guilty to trying to use his position on state boards to extract kickbacks from contractors. Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a top Blagojevich fundraiser and adviser who also was convicted of corruption in 2008, was a donor to GOP candidates as well.
To that extent, the trial may serve to remind voters that they share some responsibility for electing him twice.
"Blagojevich is just a public buffoon, but he's all of ours," the Democratic consultant said. "He's not just an issue for Illinois Democrats. Everyone shares ownership."
Sorry buddy he is YOURS, this is going to get goos people. I'm going to follow this trial as close as I can
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Are you FUCKING kidding me?!?!?!
Yes this is about sports but still this truly goes into the category of shit
Maybe Paul Krugman isn't God...
I can honestly say I have never cared for Krugman. He is the epitome of why I loathe liberals. If you disagree with them you aren't just wrong; you are a knucle-dragging, mouth-breathing, moron, who is evil and needs to be stopped. I only care about him because he, sadly, has wayyyy too much influence and people take his word as gospel. I listen to a bunch of people on the right side of the aisle but I almost always fact check them. Why don't libs do the same with their influential members? I think its because they simply know they are right, facts and statistics be damned. One line I like to use is never let the facts get in the way of a liberals idea or belief because it might just change their mind. Word to the wise, this article has charts and lots of mind-numbing economic talk but if you are reading this blog odds are you aren't dumb so I think you can handle it.
As President Obama’s bipartisan fiscal commission gets set to convene, the Greek budget disaster has triggered the predictable flood of cautionary notes about how we’re spending too much and heading toward a debt crisis. Should these concerns illuminate the commission’s work—or are they merely alarmist?
Paul Krugman harbors no doubts: “Despite a chorus of voices claiming otherwise,” he writes, “we aren’t Greece.” But that’s not as encouraging as it sounds, he adds: “We are however, looking more and more like Japan. ... [Recent data] suggest that we may be heading for a Japan-style lost decade, trapped in a prolonged period of high unemployment and slow growth.”
This diagnosis of our economic disease has implications for the policy prescription, Krugman argues. “For the past few months, much commentary on the economy ... has had one central theme: policy makers are doing too much. Governments need to stop spending, we’re told. ... Meanwhile, there are continual warnings that inflation is just around the corner and that the Fed needs to pull back from its efforts to support the economy.”
Krugman will have none of this: “[T]the truth is that policy makers aren’t doing too much; they’re doing too little.” We should enact another stimulus plan, and administration officials would push for one if Congress had not been “spooked by the deficit hawks.” For its part, he adds, the Fed should abandon its groundless fears of inflation and work instead to ward off the threat of deflation—the true cause of Japan’s failure to regain economic vitality.
So is Japan really a better baseline for U.S. policymakers than Greece, and is it close enough to serve as a guide for policy? To be sure, there are some important resemblances. Like the U.S., Japan experienced a sharp run-up in equity and real estate, followed by a collapse. As in the U.S., this reverse weakened the banking system and coincided with a sharp contraction in commercial lending. Like their American counterparts, Japanese policymakers responded with substantial fiscal and monetary stimulus.
These are qualitative similarities. But there are quantitative differences, and they are large enough to warrant caution about direct policy inferences. Stocks in the U.S. are down about 40 percent from their all-time high, versus 75 percent for Japan. While U.S. real estate is down about 30 percent from its peak, Japanese land values are down more than 80 percent. In Tokyo, residential real estate has fallen by more than 90 percent, and commercial real estate in the heart of the financial district sells for 1 percent of its 1989 value. Brookings economist and former CEA director Barry Bosworth estimates that as a share of GDP, the destruction of wealth in Japan from peak to trough was about five times what it has been in the United States. Given the key role of stocks as well as real estate loans in the balance sheets of Japanese banks, it’s reasonable to assume that the Japanese banking system experienced a disruption far worse than ours.
It would stand to reason, then, that restoring Japan’s economy to health would require an even larger policy response than the one we’ve seen in the United States thus far. In some respects, that is what happened. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked.
After falling from its 1989 peak, the Japanese “bubble economy” collapsed in 1991. The government responded with a long series of stimulus packages and (after a lag) interest rate reductions as well. Between 1993 and 2005, Japan’s budget deficit averaged 6.3 percent per year, and the government’s gross debt rose from 67.6 percent to more than 175 percent of GDP. Nonetheless, economic growth averaged an anemic 1.1 percent during that period—the worst performance in the industrialized world.
Japan’s Deficit, Gross Debt, and Growth, 1989 to 2008
Year | Budget deficit (as percentage of GDP)* | Debt (as percentage of GDP) | Annual rates of economic growth |
1989 | 1.3 | 66.7 | 5.3 |
1990 | 2.0 | 63.9 | 5.2 |
1991 | 1.8 | 63.2 | 3.4 |
1992 | 0.6 | 67.6 | 1.0 |
1993 | -2.5 | 73.9 | 0.2 |
1994 | -3.8 | 79.0 | 1.1 |
1995 | -4.7 | 86.2 | 2.0 |
1996 | -5.1 | 93.8 | 2.7 |
1997 | -4.0 | 100.5 | 1.6 |
1998 | -11.2 | 113.2 | -2.0 |
1999 | -7.4 | 127.0 | -0.1 |
2000 | -7.6 | 135.4 | 2.9 |
2001 | -6.3 | 143.7 | 0.2 |
2002 | -8.0 | 152.3 | 0.3 |
2003 | -7.9 | 158.0 | 1.4 |
2004 | -6.2 | 165.5 | 2.7 |
2005 | -6.7 | 175.3 | 1.9 |
2006 | -1.6 | 172.1 | 2.0 |
2007 | -2.5 | 167.1 | 2.4 |
2008 | -2.7 | 172.1 | -0.7 |
*A negative figure indicates a deficit
Source: OECD Factbook 2010: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics
As one might imagine, these disappointing results sparked debate within Japan’s economic establishment. Writing in a special 2003 issue of the journal World Economy, Japanese scholars Toshihiro Ihori, Masume Kawade, and Toru Nakazato summarize the debate as follows: “One hypothesis is that the effects of fiscal policy were very large and hence recession would have deepened without fiscal expansion. Alternatively, it may be that fiscal policy did not have enough of an expansionary effect to push up macroeconomic activity, and hence unlimited public expenditures simply made the fiscal crisis worse.” Using quarterly economic data, which enabled them to track the effects of successive stimulus packages, they concluded that the second hypothesis is far more plausible than the first: “[I]ncreasing public investment in the 1990s crowded out private investment to some extent and did not increase private consumption much. ... The overall policy implication is that the Keynesian fiscal policy in the 1990s was not effective.” The problem wasn’t that the stimulus packages weren’t big enough; it was that they were mistaken in principle, because they rested on the incorrect assumption that sustained deficit spending would stimulate aggregate demand.
It’s not clear whether Krugman would accept this conclusion. In a series of blog posts written while he was still at MIT in 1998 and 1999, he diagnosed the Japanese situation as a rare real-world example of Keynes’s famous “liquidity trap” in which monetary policy loses its effectiveness: while interest rates can’t be reduced below zero, it turns out that zero isn’t low enough to stimulate economic activity. At the same time, Krugman expressed deep (and as it turned out, warranted) skepticism about the effectiveness of the conventional Keynesian response—namely, expanding public expenditures to compensate for decreased private spending (fiscal “pump-priming”)—both in Japan and in other future troubled economies. His reason is interesting: for pump-priming to work, “it must lead to large increases in private demand, so large that the economy begins a self-sustaining process of recovery that can continue without further stimulus.” Any policy that depends on open-ended stimulus is a failure.
On the other hand, he continues, “None of this should be read as a reason to abandon fiscal stimulus—in fact, one shudders to think what would happen if Japan were not to provide further packages as the current one expires.” But why should we think that? If Ihori et al are right—if the ongoing Japanese fiscal policy displaced private demand rather than stimulate it—then Japan might well have been better off abandoning that policy altogether. And, indeed, based on their analysis of fiscal crises through the ages (This Time It’s Different), Carmen Reinhardt and Kenneth Rogoff argue that rising debt to GDP levels eventually slows economic growth. By the late 1990s, Japan was well into what they identify as the zone of danger, when the debt to GDP ratio reaches 90 percent. The U.S. is not there yet, but we’re on track to get there by the end of this decade unless we change course.
Krugman has a different analysis. The root of the Japanese crisis, he contends, is deflation, and the only remedy is a credible shift to a long-term inflationary policy. The Japanese Ministry of Finance should publicly commit to such a policy and back it up with whatever policies are necessary to make it real, including unusual monetary devices such as scrip whose value declines and then expires on a fixed timetable. This is why heemphasizes the most recent report on U.S. consumer prices, which showed inflation at a 44-year low. Japan, he argues, got stuck in a deflationary trap more than a decade ago and can’t get out. And, unless the Fed sheds its unwarranted fear of inflation and embraces a monetary policy whose principal objective is to prevent deflation, “it could happen here.”
The issues I’ve raised in this piece are more than academic. If the deficit hawks are right, we need to shift gears toward fiscal restraint, starting with the upcoming fiscal year. If Krugman is right, restraint would only make matters worse, and besides, it misses the point: the last thing the Fed should do is retreat from the extraordinary measures it adopted to boost the supply of money after its reduction of interest rates to zero proved insufficient.
I’m no economist; neither are most policymakers. And one may well believe that just as war is too important to leave to the generals, the economy is too important is leave to the economists. Nonetheless, the dismal science has a key role to play. Krugman has flung down the gauntlet; others should rush to pick it up. We need our best economists to enter a robust, focused, and publicly accessible debate about the fundamentals of our current ills, and the media should serve the public interest by featuring this debate on a regular basis.
At the same time, there’s a role for the rest of us. For what it’s worth, my preferred policy would link continued stimulus for another year or two (including basic safety net programs such as extended unemployment insurance) with credible commitments to shift our long-term fiscal course. Until someone refutes Reinhardt and Rogoff, our operating presumption must be that excessive debt accumulation will eventually reduce economic growth. Besides, if CBO is right that we’re on track to incur annual interest payments of more than $900 billion by 2020, and if foreigners continue to hold nearly half our debt, we’ll be transferring about 2 percent of GDP overseas every year in interest payments alone. And how can we afford the substantial increases in future-oriented investment—in infrastructure, basic research, science and technology, and education—if we stay on our current path?
The future of our economy and society depends on getting these large judgments right—the need to make decisions is getting more urgent, and our margin for error is steadily shrinking. We’ll soon find out whether our economists and policymakers can do any better than BP’s experts.
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