The only group happy about this debacle are the turkeys roaming around Washington. They’ll be safe this Thanksgiving:
At least this “Ready, Aim, Misfire” is better than the more typical “Ready, Fire, Aim” we had under Bush and Cheney.
– Iron Filing
One of the reasons we, as a nation, can’t agree on the answers is we’re not even clear on the questions. Is the economy for the 1% or should it work for 100%?
The Center for Communication and Civic Engagement at the University of Washington has an interesting project called “What’s the Economy for Anyway?” which asks:
Is it about having the biggest GDP or the highest stock market average?
Is it about producing a healthy, happy, fair and sustainable society?
Or is it about something else all together?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a sincere national conversation about real issues instead of just talking past each other.
– Iron Filing
Photo of an employee of the law firm of Steven J. Baum mocking homeowners who have been foreclosed on.
AP reports that the large foreclosure mill, Steven J. Baum P.C., will close laying off all of it’s employees:
The firm’s demise began after photographs surfaced of employees dressed like homeless people for a Halloween party in 2010, which prompted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, to stop referrals.
In October, the firm agreed to pay a $2 million fine after a federal probe. Its practices are being investigated by the New York attorney general.
It is ironic that employees may become homeless themselves but there is no pleasure in seeing them lose their jobs. Hopefully they will not have to become unemployed in order to join the unemployed in spirit and action calling for change. Unless they’ve swallowed too much Rand juice, they must be regretting their prior careless lack of empathy. I sincerely hope they find new work in a more useful and productive field.
– Iron Filing
The new poverty figures are arriving just in time to show the success of many of the very programs that are being subject to budget cuts and scrutiny at the federal and state level,” Arloc Sherman, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities
©Jeff Koterba
This cartoon is from a very interesting series sponsored by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists called “Cartoons for the Classroom. Each segment is a downloadable lesson plan with a few cartoons, background information and talking points. Public school teachers have less freedom in lesson planning now than 50 years ago when I was a kid. I hope teachers are squeezing this excellent resource between the mandated skills testing.
– Iron Filing
“Top Ten Ways The World Would Be Different If Everyone Were Named Newt”
10. Goodbye eggs Benedict; hello eggs Newt
9. Beatles broke up because ‘Newt’ couldn’t get along with ‘Newt’
8. Trump would be known as ‘The Newt’
7. Still have a tattoo of your ex-girlfriend’s name? No problem!
6. Santa now says, ‘On Newt, on Newt, on Newt and Newt, on Newt, on Newt, on Newt and Newt’
5. The mother on ‘How I Met Your Mother’: Newt
4. When you tell your iPhone to call Newt, it says, ‘Be more specific, Newt’
3. On ‘Jeopardy,’ people just keep buzzing in and saying, ‘Who is Newt?’
2. When you just say, ‘Newt’ with no last name, people know you’re referring to Newt Winfrey
1. You know who ain’t gonna be President? Newt Perry
“Top Ten Thoughts That Went Through Herman Cain’s Mind During The ‘Libya’ Moment”
10. “Libya? I remember Lydia, but I don’t remember a Libya”
9. “I told them politics was off limits”
8. “Maybe if I hold perfectly still, everybody will think their DVRs are on pause”
7. “Why the heck am I in Milwaukee?”
6. “Uh, 9-9-9?”
5. “What would Rick Dees do?”
4. “I’m gonna be on YouTube!”
3. “I should have called Bob Costas”
2. “These things are a lot funnier when it happens to Rick Perry”
1. “Well, it’s been fun, see you in 2016!”
One difference between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney is that Mitt’s stand on issues changes whenever convenient whereas Newt holds conflicting opinions simultaneously, for a price. Mitt doesn’t have a strong core but he does seem sincere as he swings in the breeze. On the other hand, Newt has a very strong core but it’s all about him and, like a bad apple, his core is rotten.
The only thing stable within the Republican electorate is the 22% that support Mitt Romney. Given the fickle nature of the other 78%, Newt’s time on top will be short. If the party eventually congeals around Romney, enthusiasm may be hard to muster.
– Iron Filing
©Jim Morin
The scale of response is clearly different but mayors around the country are having similar results trying to oust Occupiers as shown below.
Police brandishing assault rifles arrest 8 protestors and evict others from a vacant building in Chapel Hill, North Carolina November 13.
Click on the image to read an article from the local news media which have reported this event far more accurately than national news outlets.
– Iron Filing
UPDATE: This shocking video of the repugnant behavior of police at UC Davis makes the point that we are more like China than I feared and less like China than some folks want. Local police are over-reacting to overwhelmingly nonviolent protests from New York To Chapel Hill and Portland to California. Let’s hope local governments calm down and reassess and that the Federal authorities behave better.
“Occupy Wall Street protesters are planning to occupy the subway in New York City. Because if there’s one place to confront the nation’s wealthiest 1 percent, it’s the subway.” – Conan O’Brien
“New York City police went into Zuccotti Park in a midnight raid, and the mayor rode in on his pet Chihuahua. … No more sleeping or no camping in New York City parks. Hooker, crack dealers, not a problem.” – David Letterman
“Police in New York City cleared Zuccotti Park of the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Why don’t we let them occupy basketball arenas around the countries. We’re not using them.” – Jay Leno
“Someone shot a bullet at the White House. The Secret Service ruled out Jon Huntsman because that guy has no shot at the White House.” – Conan O’Brien
“The Republican Presidential candidates have really been fighting for attention this week. In fact, Rick Perry proposed cutting the president’s salary in half. Yeah, Perry was like, ‘What do I care? It’s not like it’ll affect me!'” – Jimmy Fallon
“People attending a Rick Perry event in New Hampshire had to prove they were American citizens. They asked a math or science question and if you get it wrong, you were born here.” – Jay Leno
“In a new interview, Herman Cain said that if Rick Perry were an ice cream flavor, he’d be ‘Rocky Road.’ I don’t know, Perry’s not really any flavor of ice cream. He’s just the brain freeze part.” – Jimmy Fallon
“People say Herman Cain was rambling and embarrassed himself while trying to answer a question about Libya. Some say it proves he’s not qualified to be president. But the good news is, rambling and embarrassing himself does qualify him to be vice president.” – Jay Leno
“Cain’s only real foreign policy experience is from when he ran the National Restaurant Association and had to deal with the manager from the International House of Pancakes.” – Jay Leno
“President Obama is in Australia. When he’s in Australia, his approval ratings go down the toilet in a counter-clockwise motion.” – Craig Ferguson
“Last week President Obama was in Hawaii. Now he’s in Australia. Next week he’s in Indonesia. I think he watched the Republican debates and went, ‘This is going to be a piece of cake,’ and went on vacation” – Craig Ferguson
In an American Public Media Marketplace commentary, P.J. O’Rourke accurately identifies concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement when he states, “people are right about the sins of the financial system and right about the evil of government supporting and subsidizing this malfeasance.” But he runs off the rails when he claims that Occupiers also “believe in the Zero Sum Fallacy — the idea that there is a fixed amount of the good things in life.”
Where did O’Rourke get the idea that even one Occupier, much less Occupiers as a whole, believe the ludicrous Zero Sum Fallacy. Probably FOX, maybe lazy mainstream media but certainly not a General Assembly at any Occupy site.
I don’t think what Occupiers are saying is all that hard to understand … if you actually talk to enough of them. Of course they are very hard to understand if their opinions go through a right-wing filter that strains hearsay and false assumptions down to witty irrelevant sound bites.
Even worse, O’Rourke goes on to illustrate his misunderstanding of Occupier concerns about economic justice by this condescending interchange with his 13-year-old daughter: “all I (P.J.) hear, ‘That’s not fair,’ she says. ‘That’s not fair! That’s not fair!’ And one day I snapped, and I said, ‘Honey, you’re cute, that’s not fair. Your family is pretty well off, that’s not fair. You were born in America, that’s not fair. Darling, you had better get down on your knees and pray things don’t start getting fair for you.’”
Granted, Kai Ryssdal asked a remarkably stupid question, “If the 1% had less, would the 99% be better off?”, so a stupid answer can be expected. Except, O’Rourke is a brilliant political satirist, he should do better. Satire is just mediocre standup unless it’s point is a significant truth, preferably a truth embarrassing to the powerful. O’Rourke would have done himself a big favor if he’d listened carefully to Robert Reich answer the same question the day before: “With all due respect that’s exactly the wrong question. It plays into the false idea that the economy is a giant zero-sum game.” O’Rourke and Reich both see the falsehood, but Reich knew it was the banksters who act like the economy is zero-sum, not the protestors.
Ironically, modern economic history demonstrates that the wealthy will be better off when the less wealthy are better off since A Rising Middle Class Tide Raises All Boats.
O’Rourke’s quick wit is well suited for … ummm … wait … hmmm … wait … don’t tell me … oh yeah, well suited for ‘Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me’ but this commentary demonstrated the danger of a clever mind speaking from a position of comfort about uncomfortable realities.
– Iron Filing
Another quote from P.J. O’Rourke:
Economic history since the Industrial Revolution proves — be the rich however stinking rich — we ordinary people can make more of the good things in life. But we have to make them ourselves, with our knowledge, skills and hard work. Government can’t give us good things. Government doesn’t make things, it just redistributes them.
I just don’t get this sort of thinking at all. Yes, self reliance is great, is to be encouraged and is to be admired. We as individual members of society have a responsibility to take care of ourselves as best we can. However, if that was all that was needed for survival then we wouldn’t need government at all. Government doesn’t just redistribute things! But when it does, it should redistribute fairly and rationally. Right now, government redistribution is tilted further towards the rich and powerful than any time since the Great Depression.
Like Elizabeth Warren said,
there is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. … You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You are safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces the rest of us paid for. … You built a factory and it turned into something terrific, God Bless. Keep a big hunk of it but part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay it forward for the next kid who comes along.
Just as the government protects factory owners, the government should protect consumers. It doesn’t matter whether “we ordinary people can make more of the good things in life” if those gains in productivity are redistributed up to the folks that can afford the lobbyists who actually write many of our laws.
It is implausible to credit 1% of population for virtually all productive gain since 1979 yet 1% received virtually all benefit.
– Iron Filing
“They had a midnight raid and they cleaned out Zucotti Park where the Occupy Wall Streeters were camped out for about two months. So if you’re keeping score, here’s what the score is now: Eighty down in Zucotti Park; Wall Street executives arrested: Zero.” – David Letterman
“Last night Occupy Wall Street protesters were removed by Cesarean. The Founding Fathers never intended indefinite free speech. They assumed after two weeks any protest would be wiped out by smallpox.” – Stephen Colbert
“Some have criticized pepper spraying a pregnant woman, but don’t forget, the cops were spraying for two.” – Stephen Colbert
“Yesterday President Obama urged his supporters to watch the Republican debates. Though legally he was forced to add, ‘But not while operating heavy machinery.'” – Jimmy Fallon
“One by one the Republican candidate potentials have been shooting themselves in the foot making huge, horrible gaffes and they just look silly. It’s gotten so bad that President Obama is now worried he may actually be re-elected.” – David Letterman
“It makes sense that Gingrich is rising. He is the only candidate who appears to be made of dough.” – Stephen Colbert
“Newt Gingrich is so confident about his chances that he’s already working on his concession speech.” – David Letterman
“Today Rick Perry introduced a new plan to overhaul all three branches of government. Just as soon as he comes up with a plan to remember all three branches of government.” – Jimmy Fallon
“Herman Cain flubbed a question on Libya yesterday and then tried to cover by saying, ‘Oh, I thought you meant Libya Newton-John.'” – Jimmy Kimmel
“Herman Cain’s campaign insists there are more women out there waiting to charge him with harassment. They figure people can take a sex creep in the White House, but not someone who says, ‘Libya, hmm,’ and just sits there.” – Daily Show correspondent Herman Cain
©Lee Judge
Commenting on racial bias is full of pitfalls and traps because it is so very difficult for us to recognize our own biases. Any idiot political shock jock can use some comment on race to get attention but even carefully crafted, well intended discussion can provoke hurt feelings and outrage due to misunderstanding (or perhaps understanding!) on either side.
I like the ambiguity of this Lee Judge cartoon. Are the elephants defending Cain because he’s black or using his blackness to defend themselves? Is Cain’s support partially based on the conservative movement’s need to demonstrate they’re not racist? Is Cain being attacked because he is a black conservative or defended because he is a black conservative? Progressives should not be too quick to dismiss the possibility of racial bias in our own response. A conservative African-American? He cain’t be legitimate or Cain he?
– Iron Filing
Fox News needs to study up on Article V of the United States Constitution. Unless Fox is aware of a clause written using invisible ink saying “a rightwing faux news service may amend this document to provide rhetorical cover for baseless opinion”, Articles cannot be added by Fox fiat.
Fox national correspondent Steve Centanni said Kagan’s recusal may be required by “Article 28 of the Constitution.” Fox’s graphics department provided the relevant quote from the “U.S. Constitution, Article 28, Sec. 144”:
Three glaring problems with this argument: The Constitution has no Article 28, has no Section 144, and does not contain the language quoted.
However, the quote is not imaginary, just it’s link to the Constitution. It comes from Title 28 of the U.S. Code, section 455. Must have been a typo. Even so, editing out the context makes a dubious case for recusal seem uncontroversial. Funny how Fox typos and editing both trend to supporting the Right or vilifying the Left.
– Iron Filing
“If we have to sit through any more of these Republican debates, I’m ready for a dictatorship.” – David Letterman
“I am addicted to all the Republican Presidential candidates. They are all like crack, in that they will devastate black communities.” – Stephen Colbert
“Ron Paul’s campaign is upset because during last week’s Republican presidential debate, he only got to speak for 89 seconds. Meanwhile, Rick Perry’s campaign is upset because during last week’s debate, he got to speak.” – Conan O’Brien
“There was another Republican debate on Saturday, and listen to this: Ron Paul only got 89 seconds to speak. Seriously? Rick Perry gets more time than that to try to remember something.” – Jimmy Fallon
“People are still talking about Rick Perry’s memory lapse. And it happened a couple of months ago too, when he had trouble remembering the name of his hunting camp.” – David Letterman
“I’m thinking Herman Cain doesn’t get it. He brought a date to the debate.” – David Letterman
“Cain also says that he’s in favor of waterboarding — as long as it is consensual.” – David Letterman
“Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman accused his Republican opponents of coming up with easy sound bites just to get applause. In response, Mitt Romney was like, ‘That is ridiculous. Clap if you like bacon!'” – Jimmy Fallon
“Over the weekend President Obama was in Hawaii, his ‘birth place.’ Ha ha.” – Craig Ferguson
©Ed Stein
Commentary by Ed Stein
It appears that the supercommittee isn’t any more super than the weak-kneed Congress that created it in the first place. With the deadline fast approaching for the group of twelve to agree on how to cut/raise $1.2 trillion, the likelihood is they won’t agree on anything except a cowardly formula for kicking the can down the road, if they can even agree on that. If they come up empty, an equal likelihood, Congress is already starting to signal that it might find ways to spare the defense budget the automatic cuts that are supposed to take place without an agreement, and you can be sure the other cuts will also be on the block, meaning the whole thing was an exercise in futility, the one thing this Congress has excelled at. I find myself in the awkward position of praising Newt Gingrich, of all people, who’s the only one of the presidential candidates, Republican or Democratic, with the courage to ridicule both parties for the creation of this Frankenstein’s monster, and for their failure to do the jobs they were elected to perform. If he’s the lone voice of sanity, we are in deep, deep trouble.
We don’t need Superciliousman. We need determined, dedicated and hardworking Clark Kents but with backbones. Too many crooks spoil the super.
– Iron Filing
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