Other Than The Occasional Hooker

Just how many jobs do you think Dick Morris ever created?

The draconian tax increases on the segment of the population that pays most of the taxes, generates most of the jobs, employs most of the workforce, and accounts for much of the consumer spending will chill whatever small warmth the stimulus package can generate.

This guy needs to join Karl Rove on a long vacation to the other end of the world.  Preferably without internet access. 

Together they make up the world's worst political consulting gurus.  If the idea that you get paid what you are worth is at all valid, that there is any semblance of merit within our system, neither one would be complaining that they aren't part of the 95% of Americans who will get a tax cut because they make too much money.

Sad to think that there are so many equally deluded conservatives roaming Washington DC who will never get the chance to get paid to write nonsensical prose -- almost.

We Should Welcome The Oppo Party Posturing

John Cole asks a thought provoking question:

You know, I keep wondering- was the opposition party this petty and stupid during the great depression? When FDR proposed his budget, did some rich prick with a fake tan get up in front of microphones an hour after it was proposed (mind you, this is the same guy who whinged he did not have enough time to read the stimulus bill after a month, but an hour was sufficient time to read the budget), and say “OH MY GOD THE ERA OF BIG GOVERNMENT IS BACK!” Was there a John Boehner of that time period? And this is a serious question- was our politics always this stupid, and were we always suffering from morons like this?

During the depression, were there organizations of idiots running around having little tea parties and chanting porkulus? Or are we as a nation intent on proving Darwin wrong?

From what I can glean, the answer is an unsatisfactory, "Yes, and No."  Roosevelt did not seem to face any significant opposition just for the sake of appearances at the onset of his administration, but by the time he took office in March of 1932 the economics of the Depression and humiliation of the Republican Party were complete and all but irreversible.  Economically, today, we're not there yet, and hopefully we won't dive that deep - but it's getting close.

When things were "only" as bad as they are today, there was still a lot of political posturing and the usual nonsense.  By the time FDR was sworn in, things were much worse than now -- primarily due to an administration that took the political/ideological games seriously and was on the wrong side of the argument while the nation sank into despair for over three years.  If we had another 2-3 years of George W. Bush doing nothing to look forward to, there would barely be a country to hand off to Barack Obama.  That's was Hoover's gift to Franklin Roosevelt.

Historical parallels are never exact, but often instructive.  Consulting my handy 6 volume collection by James Truslow Adams, The March Of Democracy, at least this contemporary historian notes no significant obstructionists to FDR's initiatives at the beginning of his presidency.  The attitude of the population had undergone a remarkable transformation between the Crash and FDR assuming office and Congress reflected that change.  From Adams, Vol. IV, Pg. 338:

In 1928 we had been told we were within sight of perpetual prosperity and the abolition of poverty.  By 1932 we seemed to see nothing but poverty and to be faced by stark ruin on every side.  Few nations, if any, have ever had to drop with such appalling swiftness from superhuman hopes to blank despair.

This was a different time, the nation was in full-blown panic.  The day FDR took office, the national banks of New York and Pennsylvania were added to an ever growing list of financial institutions whose doors were shuttered.  This was fully 3-1/2 years after the infamous stock market crash of 1929 during which the Hoover administration was exposed as inept, Congress completely discredited and the Wall Street types we hate today were even more hated then. 

Institutions familiar even now like National City Bank of New York and Chase National Bank were found to be scandalously mismanaged by their front offices, leading to "collosal losses" just coming to light at the beginning of 1933.  Back then, there was no New Deal era device to protect depositers like the FDIC.  The panic was real, the losses palpable and real hysteria did not need to be pumped up by bloviating pundits and Congressional leaders for political exploitation.

FDR's Cabinet was approved without committee hearings by 6:00 pm on Inauguration Day, March 4, 1933, including Cordell Hull, the first southerner serving as Secretary of State since John C. Calhoun in 1845, and the first woman Cabinet official, Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor.  Less than a week later, during a special session after only 40 minutes of "debate" the House passed by acclimation the President's banking initiatives, conferring peace-time financial regulation authority previously only considered legal under war conditions through the Trading with the Enemies Act.  The measure passed the Senate 73-7 after considering the act only three hours. 

This was more than a mere reflection of the Democratic Party's gains from the election four months earlier.  There was a new psychology at work, an acknowlegement that something, anything must be done -- and done right then and there.  Yes there were substantial critics, vocal groups and editors who fought FDR every step as the commentors at Balloon Juice point out -- Father Caughlin and the Liberty League for example -- but no truely effective opposition on Capitol Hill at that point.

This was a stark reversal of the previous years' political battles.  In 1932, "The debates over the problem of meeting the hitherto unheard-of deficit in the Treasury by taxation became so wild and acrimonious that Congress had to be adjourned for tempes to cool and reason to reassert itself."  While electorally, we are now in the post-inauguration after-glow/honeymoon period -- the carnival and trade-show atmosphere at CPAC notwithstanding -- economically it's 1930, and hopefully we can steer a different course than Hoover.

In a way, we should point to the nonesense from Republicans like Boehner, Cantor, and, Jindal as a healthy sign.  If things were really as bad as they were when FDR took over, they would have already shut their yap.

Please Use "GAH!!!" In A Complete Sentence

With the tsunami of Washington DC Journalist inundating Twitter along with a flurry of Senators, CongressCritters and political has-beens getting in on the act, there is growing speculation that the cute little social media engine may be in danger of "Jumping the Shark."  It may well be true, it certainly has changed what once was a bulletin board for bloggers and chat room for friends. 

Now that it's a phenomenon, it's making news more and more, and certainly that is evolving the culture -- it's own and ours -- which is true of any social entity as it dynamically adds members.  Indeed, I don't think it would survive without growth.  No organization thrives without growing and evolving.

That said, one worries about the fate of some early adopters like the original Wonkette, Ana Marie Cox, who is as responsible for the style and snark found there as anyone.  Not to fear as she promises to live-blog her own demise as long as she retains enough strength in her thumbs to type on her iPhone before they pry it from her cold-dead hands. 

Cox's 95,862 followers are relieved beyond belief -- and aren't buying the idea that legislators tweeting the "NOT" State of the Union Address was THE moment when Twitter Jumped the Shark Fail Whale.  They all know better since she pinpointed the event days before.

anamariecox: At 3:15pm on MSNBC @davidgregory will demonstrate the precise trajectory for jumping a shark. Also he will teach someone how to use Twitter.

We Have Their Number

Very interesting list BooMan put together using data from Progressive Punch on a tip from the indispensable Chris Bowers, ranking the top and bottom ten Democratic Congress Critters and Senators based on their lifetime progressive voting record relative to the political leanings of their voting districts.

On the Senate side, I was pleased as Punch (pun inadvertent) to see my Senator, Sherrod Brown, leading the pack.  Ohio boasts THE most progressive Senator in the United States.

Brown's liberal bona fides are beyond doubt, but I never thought to factor in irritatingly conservative bent of my fellow Buckeyes to appreciate just how lucky we all are to have such a strong voice for reason in a legislative body famous for it's lack thereof.

What surprised me is that Brown' score ranked him fully five places ahead of self-described socialist, Bernie Sanders of Vermont.  No doubt this must take into account the fact that all of New England is generally more progressive than Ohio.  Notably missing from the top ten were either Massachusetts Senators, Kennedy or Kerry, although Rhode Island's Whitehouse and Reed along with Tom Harkin join Sanders and Brown in the top five most liberal Senators relative to their constituency.

Yeah, Lieberman was nearly the least progressive "Democrat." beaten only by Ben Nelson of Nebraska.  Midwestern cornfield values mitigate Nelson's Blue-doggedness, but really -- Lieberman (I-Conn-Everyone) has no excuse.  Neither does Hawaii's Inouye or Tom Carpenter (Delaware).  Since Chris Dodd didn't make either the top or bottom ten, for a New England Democrat, he must have found the Goldilocks zone of progressiveness.

One the House side, Heath Shuler (QB-NC) being the fourth least progressive democratic Congressman will make no news.  But John Murtha making the bottom ten might raise an eyebrow or two.  Since he came out so strongly against the war a few years back he's been a favorite target of wingnut bloggers everywhere.  Typical stooges, they don't know they're beating up on one of their own.  The way I see it, every time they go after his for this or that (I hear there's some new rumblings lately) they bump him further left or they bump him out and we get a better Democrat in his place.

BooMan has one more thing we should keep in mind:

... six out of ten worst performing Democrats are Rahm Emanuel recruits. Only one of the best performing Democrats is a possible Rahm recruit (Keith Ellison). Thanks a lot, Rahm, for recruiting crappy Democrats.

There's a lot of room for a lot of better, more libers representation out there yet.

Best Of The Blogs

I just wanted to send a quick shout-out and thank you to Jerry Bowels and the crew at The Best Of The Blogs, an online community for progressive bloggers for inviting me in and welcoming me as their latest featured blogger.

If you enjoy what you've been reading at Dispassionate Liberal, no doubt the like-minded folks at Best of the Blogs will meet your approval as well.

YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION!

Best of the Blogs is now a free moderated online community for progressive bloggers who are fed up with with the erosion of American rights and values and are more than ready for a new beginning.  If you want to reach more readers with the message of change, join us. Sign up and then add your blog feed to the automatic flow of posts or create a new post here instantly. Join a community of concerned peers, expand the reach of your blog, rate posts, comment, connect. Make a difference.  Hey, we all can't be Kos but there is strength in numbers.

In the short time I've been a member, I've already been impressed with the quality of the commentariate and the strength and diversity of the featured authors there.  I hope you'll join us, adding Best of the Blogs to your usual travels around Blogtopia (y!sctp!).

Jindal Says Thx But No Thx 4 Unemployed

Louisiana's radical right wing agenda to nowhere. 

In all, Jindal turned away nearly $100 million in federal aid for his state’s unemployed residents. Further, as the National Employment Law Project projected on Febuary 13, EUC extension alone would have benefited 24,981 Louisiana residents. Jindal justified his decision by claiming that expanding unemployment benefits would result in tax increases for businesses.

As Oliver Willis Tweets, "Jindal is running for president or vice-president, so screw Louisiana!"

Ya'll got yer FEMA trailers, suck it up already.  It's Mardi Gras, time to Par-Tay! KTHXBAI

Some Things On the Intertubez Are Not True

OUTRAGEOUS!!

For instance, "Obama's Elf" is not the original title to this song, but you'll never hear this song the right way again.

Also, Google Earth did NOT find the Lost City of Atlantis -- or so they want you to believe.

Being pissed off at the Republicans for wrecking the world is not "partisanship, it is analysis.

Prawo Jazdy is not the world's worst driver -- unless he's really Keyser Söze.

Hip Hip will not save the Notorious G.O.P.

Barack Obama is not bigger than the Beatles.

Joe the Wall Street Analyst is not going to gain much sympathy from guys really named Joe who really do plumbing work.

Roland Burris is not going to last another week.

Republicans are not being shut out of the health care negotiations -- they just refuse to show.

Norm Coleman will not be able to get elected dog catcher after all this crap.

Nowhere are they really promoting what Americans really want to debate.

Finally, it must be pointed out that  "John Gibson never compared Eric Holder to a monkey with a bright blue scrotum," - Huffington Post, February 19, 2009.

What Did You THINK 'United We Stand' Meant Anyway?

We're all in this together?  Shared sacrifice?  Rising tide floats all your boats ... or something?  Preposterous!

How dare Barack Obama suggest that we try to save ourselves by having those who are still on relatively sound financial footing throw a rope to the folks drowning in debt before they pull us all over the abyss.

When you come across an insane diatribe from a ridiculous meat puppet like Alan Keyes calling the President of the United States a "radical communist," the first instinct is to dismissively snicker at this strange little man and his ilk.  But put in context with the over-the-top screeds of someone like Rick Santelli touting virtues of the poor, down-trodden commodities traders being unfairly forced to buy their neighbor's homes so their own condo suite values don't bottom out makes it all clear -- Obama is Doctor Evil, hell bent on taking over the world.

Good enough for me.  I'm convinced.  I can't bear to think what the world would look like if the guys who make their living speculating that the price of bacon will out perform today's spot price on Light-Sweet Crude might have to play roulette or (gasp) the Lottery to equal the same bang-for-buck prospects they usually enjoy in what they refer to in all seriousness as "work."

In fact, Obama's no better than any other petty tyrant and dictator we've know throughout history, as bad if not worse than the man whose diabolical genius orchestrated his meteoric rise to power -- George W. Bush.

How else could a country as decadent as America elect a man whose polyglot ancestry bears not one hint of the elite aristocracy that the American peasantry recognizes as entitled to rule our Commercial Republic?  Why would the tribal fiefdoms of Hyannisport and Kennebunkport unite with Wall Street to allow someone, anyone who promised change to their entrenched hegemony come to power?  Inconceivable.

It must have been a Rovellian plot.  The sheer scale of the deception may never be known.  The level of plans within plans is hard to appreciate, tarnishing the brand of the entire conservative apparatus, destroying the entire world's economy, convincing  everyone on the planet that the Land of Liberty was hell bent on becoming an expansionist empire, allowing only the most two-dimensional buffoons to run in the GOP primaries  ... the mind boggles.

Only the folks who were able to pull off the most amazing illusions in modern history -- the Supreme Court appointment of the loser of the 2000 election to the White House AND the reelection of that same miserable failure in 2004, not to mention drumming up enough support for a war against a country that never had anything to do with attacking us -- could possibly have brought Barack The Imapler to power.

It's a plot I tell you, an evil Darwinian plot to redistribute our precious bodily fluids.... GAH!

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Tweeting @ The Gates

I'm beginning to detect a certain resistance by the new media folks to the really new media.  Long form bloggers are finding that instead of merely a promotional tool, Twitter is now competing for their audience's attention.  I've no fear blogs will survive as fully developed thoughts are more often something that takes more than 140 characters to explain.  Books and magazines haven't disappeared with the surge in online media, neither will blogs.  Newspapers may have to realign their business model, but they aren't going away.  TV's been around a long time, yet the most powerful Conservative in America is a radio host. 

But there are murmurs.

Ezra Klein Tweets: "As a blogger I feel about Twitter the way MSM journos felt about blogs. Could probably get someone to pay good money for an essay on that."  However, his dicta in a thoughtful piece about the economy betrays a mild hint of superiority:

Andrew Golis twitters, “assuming (for sake of arg) the stimulus stops the bleeding, what replaces the actual day to day GDP lost in finance and housing.” If I were twittering back, I'd probably says, "nothing totally replaces it. Consumption will be lower." But I'm not Twittering. I'm blogging. So: More words!

Atrios has a style that fits perfectly with Twitter, mastered the short-form blog years ago.  Although he "Deeply Thinks" The revolution will not be Twittered, the short, snide comment with a link or TwitPic attached mimics the brevity and provocative nature of Eschaton for all to exploit.  We can all be Duncan Black and enjoy a far-flung commentariate with this new social-media tool.  It's really made for him, and every one of us who wants our blog to grow up just like his.  On the right Professor Instalinker detects the same phenomenon, but in a much more paranoid and delusional way.

There are more than a few bloggers who see Twitter as just a way to get more hits for their stat counters and engage in annoying self-promotion without the courtesy of actually interacting with their would-be audience (I'm talking to you Mr. Sirota).  I did the same thing until recently, just setting up an autofeed from my blog to tweet what I posted.  But like all things social, be it meeting the significant other's folks or gathering an audience to read your stuff, ya gotta actually talk to people for them to care what you have to say -- and that means listening to them and responding like something more than a computer generated automaton.

There are people out there. Why are you blogging if not to reach out and make them think/laugh/cry or praise your awesomeness?  Talk to them.  Tweet with the Tweeple, it'll do you good. Best way to get started is to start following folks who are following people you already like.  If you're reading this and liking it, check these folks out.  Twitter is the world's largest comment section, and the world is the blog -- but you only need to read the comments of Tweeple you like.

I discovered that you can sync your Facebook status with Twitter and the output from your blog's RSS feed a while back -- but wait, there's more!  You can also automatically tweet items you share on Google Reader.  That's my latest discovery.  Before, when I'd see an article I liked, with a click a link would appear on my blog's sidebar, but that was it -- now it can go viral on Twitter too.

For Breaking News, I've seen nothing like Twitter.  America has become a nation of citizen reporters armed with Blackberries and iPhones that posted word (and pictures) of a plane landing in the Hudson and Fireballs over Texas on Twitter before any other media, period. 

As most "real" news agencies were just beginning to spread word that we might be seeing debris of a satellite collision over Siberia raining down on Dallas, Bad Astronomer (Dr. Phil Plait) was debunking that theory on Twitter as unfounded speculation and pronounced it impossible from pictures he saw and the video he was linking to -- on Twitter.  His long form explanation was blogged - and he's still putting out fires on this.  Oh he got "Dugg" and "Up'd" on Reddit, even picked up via SlashDot, but the horse's mouth was Twittering as it happened.

As a link aggravater, peanut gallery, and shameless self-promotion tool, Twitter has found the niche all the other social media sites have been looking for -- an actual interactive community that matters.  I've heard it said that Twitter is like  cross between a chat room and instant messaging.  Many turorials abound, I like this one.  To me, it's like a blog with no front-pager and you are the moderator choosing which rabble you listen to and what the topic should be.  It matters because you can shape it to matter to you.

I participated in a Twitter "event" this weekend that had me clucking in laughter as I gave my wife a play-by-play description of two people tweeting their disastrous blinddate -- live as it happened --between a rightwing guy and a lady he didn't know was the very liberal girl he called a "feminazi" online some weeks ago.  "Geez. This jackass is ORDERING FOR ME. Red flag. Plus I can't order porkulus now"  Comedy gold. 

I say "participate" because I, like everyone else following along in real time, could chime in with the audience and get responses from the couple -- at least from her since he didn't have one of those smartphones, just "old-fashioned" text tweets.  The hundreds of Tweeple following along were having a ball at his expense, deservedly so when he Tweeted this at the end:

Starting to think this doesnt end with me scoring. WHY ELSE WOULD YOU DATE A LIBERAL

Right he was.  She was already looking for a cab home.

In the past few weeks, I've exchanged Tweets with reporters right inside the White House during the daily press briefing -- and not just with Ana Marie Cox when she deigns to put on pants and show up at the gaggle.  But that's fun too.  So is chatting with Joe Trippi as he starts another day of saving the world or getting David Shuster or Rick Sanchez to ask your question of a guest on CNN or MSNBC.  Keeping up to date with the behind the scenes action on the Rachel Maddow Show or joking around with John Hodgman (the PC guy in the Mac commercials and Daily Show contributor) while watching him perform brain surgery on Battlestar Galactica, it's all good.

But the best is virtually "meeting" new fun folks and laughing at the absurdity of the rest of the world along with them-- especially all those right wingers like Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove and Ken Blackwell who think they've found the Rosetta Stone of online organizing/marketing/netroots-astroturfing on Twitter.  Here's a hint from Frank Rich: "Overdosing on this culture can be fatal."

In other words, bringing your echo chamber online only makes your bad ideas zip around faster, not better, because they remain part of "a largely white Southern male party with talking points instead of ideas and talking heads instead of leaders,"  exposing them to well deserved ridicule with a click and a smirk -- in 140 characters or less.

$787 Stimzilla Passes Senate 60-38

This is "only the beginning," according to President Obama.

An ailing Ted Kennedy couldn't make the vote (although he did make the cloture vote yesterday) which was held open so Sherrod Brown (my hero) could fly back from his mother's memorial service. The President himself had the Senator flown back on a government plane.

Not one House Republicans and only three Republican Senators voted on the the bill, the single largest domestic spending act in America's history -- which the White House estimates will create or save 3.5 million jobs. Obama's promise to give tax breaks to 95% of working Americans has now been fulfilled -- only three weeks into his presidency.

Not bad. Much better than the completely unserious alternative offerend by the GOP (twice the jobs for half the price via their usual tax-cut only method) that no independent economist will sign off on.  You can see the details of their plan here -- try it, you'll like it.

Salary caps on executive pay were added in at the last minute while Congressional Republicans complained that no one had the chance to read the over 1000 page bill. A specious argument at best since none of them were ever going to vote for it no matter what was in the actual text. Minority Leader John Boehner was instructing his brethren to oppose the President's stimulus plan even before negotiations even started. Rush Limbaugh must be proud of how well his party dances to his orders. Party and power above country or even their corporate masters.

I admit that I was critical of Hillary Clinton acknowledged that she hadn't read the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) before she voted for the Iraq war "which included caveats and dissents about reports of Iraq's weapons program." But you don't need to read something to vote no when your only goal is to make the Democrats look bad.  Anyone think there was a magic bullet hidden on page 549 that would have changed the GOP's hive mind?  Anyone? Anything?  Beuhler?  Boehner?

I've no doubt there's enough in Stimzilla for everyone to hate. Hords of bloggers will be furious to learn that Diane Feinstein snuck in an attack on net neutrality as they finalized the compromised bill.  There's more, like Susan Collin's stunt when she got the protections for whistleblowers excised.  Funny that something like a new rail line from Los Angeles to Harry Ried's Las Vegas threw Mitch McConnell into a fit.  How dare we was money spending it on a infrastructure project in a spending bill desigend to stimulate the economy by investing in infastructure projects.  I'm guessing that the Kentucky Senator's monorail project between Lexington and Bowling Green didn't make the cut.

But hey, rejoice.  Obama and the Democrats are going to save the world, one slice of pie at a time.  Ohio's Governor, Ted Srickland thinks it will benefit me and mine, giving 4 million of us a tax break, almost a billion dollars to fix our roads and bridges, buy some more of those pollution-free busses and produce/protect about 133,000 jobs in the Buckeye State.

For a beginning, this is a pretty good start.



Getting a Piece of the pie

Hot Off The Presses

http://is.gd/jq9e
Get Your Stimzilla text here at this overwhelmed download site.

I still haven't been able to verify if my sacrifice to the gods of recovery will still include cutting off traffic to my bar -- again. (Kinda makes the effort expanding the parking area a bit moot.)

The original wish list of projects that were "shovel-ready" within 90 days from the US Conference of Mayors was the basis for Stimzilla. See if your neighborhood is included, download the whole thing in pdf format or view projects sorted wither by type or city.

This is THE plan folks. There is no plan "B." Plan B is: Make Plan "A" work! If it doesn't, we won't need a Commerce Secretary anyway, with or without an Abramoff problem, because there won't be any commerce.

Collins Overrules Bipartisan House Stimzilla Oversight Amendment

No doubt one of the most disconcerting aspects of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act (The Stimulus/StimPak/Stimzilla) is the idea that many of those same government bureaucrats who brought us $800 ash trays and no-bid contracts will be charged with overseeing this massive program.

When the numbers get too big to contemplate, I remember how voting for $87 billion before he voted against it let the air out of John Kerry's presidential hopes. This thing is ten time bigger. It would take forever to count (or spend) that much money, but one sure can appreciate the power such an amount of cash commands.

We've been promised unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability by the Obama administration in distributing the money efficiently and where it will be most effective. To that end, in a rarely seen display of bi-partisanship, the House of Representatives unanimously approved an amendment to the Stimulus Bill protecting whistleblowers.

Senator Susan Collins, one of the three Republicans who crossed party lines to get the act passed insisted the Amendment be withdrawn from the final bill.

The bipartisan amendment will protect federal employees who report waste, fraud and abuse in government. Maine freshman Rep. Chellie Pingree supported the amendment.

Now it is up to the Senate to agree to strong whistleblower protections in the final stimulus package. We expect Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a new member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a longtime proponent of transparency and accountability in government contracting, to be key to the final version.

The House amendment incorporates the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and then-Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va. The House approved the bill by a vote of 331 to 94.

The Senate stimulus package, while offering whistleblower protections to state and local employees involved in stimulus spending, does not extend these protections to federal whistleblowers.

Collins is the ranking member of Joe Lieberman's Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee, with oversight responsibilities for the federal spending associated with Stimzilla. TPM Muckracker reports,

But, according to a person following the bill closely, Collins used today's conference committee to drastically water down the measure, citing national security concerns as the reason for her opposition. In the end, the protections were so weakened that House negotiators balked, and the result was that the entire amendment was removed.

According to the person following the bill, Collins was the "central roadblock" to passing the protections.

"National Security concerns?" This thing smells.

At a time when the FBI has 38 pending investigations of big banks and Wall Street firms in the wake of the TARP bailout, with an additional 500 fraud cases and some 1500 mortgage cons overwhelming the white collar crime division, a little help from whistleblowers who are legally protected from retaliation would be most welcome. As it stands now, the current system has only protected 2 out of 55 fired employee whistleblowers in the last eight years who otherwise have little incentive to do the right thing.

BooMan notes how vastly disproportional the power of the Senate "GOP moderates" has become compared to the rest of their Republican brethern. It's simply a function of the dynamics of the GOP caucus decision to oppose the President -- hoping he fails.

I know there is not much choice for the Republican leadership, but when they refuse to work with the administration as a matter of strategy, they wind up inadvertently investing tremendous power in just a few moderates within their caucus. If they keep this up, we'll see a cycle repeat itself where Sens. Collins, Snowe, and Specter consistently wins concessions for their concerns and their constituents, while the rest of the Republicans are left with almost nothing to show for themselves.

Having veto power over the nearly unanimous verdict of the entire House of Representatives, holding sway over the majority of all Congressional Republicans in both houses -- Wow. I had no idea just how powerful these moderate cross-over Senators had become. It's gonna be a long four/eight years for hardliners like Cornyn, Inhofe and McConnell.

And by the way, WTF is her problem with whistleblowers anyway?

What Else Happened Besides StimPak Deal?

Andy Card proven to be an Asshat...

A shirtsleeves-only George W. Bush discusses his dry cleaning
with his maid in the Oval Office.

(Hat Tip Wonkette) [According to Olbermann, the above was snapped on day two of the Bush Presidency -- much like the picture of President Obama at the top right of D-Lib.]

• Not just your average Gay Republican Child Molester, this one messed with a 5yr old boy (via) right there at the local Pueblo, CO, GOP HQ as the rest of the staff went to ogle Palin's new dress -- whose hubby TAAHHHdd Palin was just found in contempt today.

• In a move designed to drive the Christianists batty, President Obama appointed an openly gay man to the faith-based initiatives office.

• The White House also told the kvetching konservatives that they'll start publishing non-emergency legislation online as promised, five days before signing, as soon as they get the kinks out of the system. Hey, stfu! They're trying to establish a 21st century communication hub and computer-driven central command post for organizing the Million Man Mouth that is Obama's netroots support ... with stone knives and bear-skins.

• Freshman Congress Critter Frank Kratovil (D-Md.) is Rockin'!

• This should give you a clue if you still think the administration is just crying wold or using scare-tactics. I'm talking to you Ms Malkin. Click this for original version.

"If you are having trouble reading the fine print: The blue line shows job losses in the 1990 recession; the red line is 2001, and the green line is the path we are on now."

Finally, Beyond FuckYeahNeilPatrickHarris.com is Neil Patrick Harris for Governor!

The Presider

I think Sully has it exactly right in describing the role President Obama sees for himself in the Constitutional scheme is "Presider," not decider/dictator/party leader or omniscient messiah, but president -- one who presides.  Both the word preside and president, naturally, come from the same Latin root: [praesident-, from present participle of praesidre, to preside; see preside.]

As the media obsesses on artificial measures of Obama's success hinging on how he does in his first 100 days, measuring each trend in the daily news cycles as a tremendous setback or stunning victory, neither they nor Congress seems to appreciate the truly revolutionary, uhm ... change ... the President has brought to the dynamic of governing already. 

He hasn't been there a month yet, and they're working on a spending bill ten times larger than the initial appropriation for the Iraq War.  (Remember that $87 Billion Senator Kerry voted for before he voted against it.  This one will be around $870 Billion.)  Indeed, any of the five news anchors who interviews the President this week would acknowledge that Obama's handling of the economy will be a large part of his legacy decades from now, which is dependent to an enormous degree on the Stimulus Bill -- yet they emphasized the withdrawal of Tom Daschle's nomination in their interview questions; a blip in the grand scheme.

Everyone in the Capitol is going to get a chance to take their shot, and they're taking them.  That's the way it's supposed to work.  Critiques that Obama lost control of the message, that his bipartisan outreach has failed or even (dare I suggest) that the GOP is not so much being obstructionist rather than grounding their dissent on valid concerns that the Democrats are trying to ram this stimulus bill though as a liberal wish-list is at best premature.

Mind you, many of the GOP positions are indeed ludicrous. 

“It’s a rare day when the President goes to the Capitol to meet only
with members of the other party,” noted CBS correspondent Chip Reid.
Reid’s story included plenty of doubting Republicans—Minority Leader
John Boehner said the bill was doomed by “spending pushed by liberal
Democrats.” But the story also conveyed a sense that the White House
outreach might pay dividends down the road.

As the President noted you cannot be upset because the recovery bill spends too much ... because "that's the point," to spend a lot and prime the economic pump.  As Presider, the President is correctly moving the debate back to productive (and sane) parameters.

In a world of horse-traders we have elected a negotiator who is more focused on results than "winning."  In then final analysis, at the risk of projecting too far into the future, Obama will be judged by the accomplishments of his government than whether his championed agenda wins the day.  Constructing a deal that everyone can live with, and over which no one necessarily can claim total victory, is the goal of a "presider."  The deal itself, authority for a massive amount of domestic spending, is what the President wants.  And that's what he will eventually get in this process that is really only half-way done.  Conference Committee markup and final approval by both Houses loom after we get a Senate bill.

If you have any experience with mediation, you'll quickly recognize what is going on.  Obama has taken sides to be sure, but he's not so much "negotiating" in the traditional horse-trading sense as he is "mediating" from inside.

I would often adopt a conciliatory style as divorce counsel with a goal towards avoiding expensive litigation (costly both emotionally and in dollars) in favor of the much less expensive push towards an agreement that no one would walk away claiming they had "won" their divorce case.  Realistically you can't win a divorce.  You lost your hopes and dreams for your now destroyed family long before you ever showed up at an attorney's office.

I found that by starting with a reasonable offer, one that did not overreach, would either quickly result in a separation agreement (when I had experience family lawyers on the other side) or break down to attempts at horse trading that backfired (with noobies that didn't specialize in domestic relations).  Once the more naive opposing counsels would try and up the ante, they weren't met with the expected counteroffer, but a more hardened position and withdrawal of some of my more generous giveaways.  As they got less and less from me, the pressure to cut their losses brought the folks to the table. 

The only times this didn't work was when the other lawyer was more interested in milking a cash cow than any good faith settlement.  Those cases that went to trial invariably resulted in a ruling nearly identical to my initial offer -- and that counts as a win to me.

I've no doubt that Obama is mediating for a result rather than fighting for a "win."  That smacks the sensibilities on many a progressive, myself included.  But that's the POTUS we've got, and he's adopted a pretty effective way of moving the agenda as far as I can tell.  Maybe that's the best we can hope for, or maybe next time we'll work even harder for a fighter in the Howard Dean/John Edwards/Dennis Kucinich mold of crusader. 

Then again, it's still entirely possible that this Hope/Change guy knows just what he's doing, because the ol ways of doing things haven't worked all that well.

GOP Destroying Jobs

Their own.

Top staffers at the Republican National Committee were told to submit their resignations today, with some being told they will not get their jobs back in what insiders call a top-to-bottom review of the entire organization.

State victory directors will be jobless after tomorrow, according to sources inside the RNC, while other staffers in the political and communications departments have been told they may be rehired.

The moves are the first major staffing decisions made under new RNC chairman Michael Steele. Steele ousted former chairman Robert "Mike" Duncan and outlasted four other candidates last Friday to capture the chairmanship.

Hey Mike, there's more of these guys than you want to know.  Good luck rooting them out and throwing them to the curb - Srsly.

Meet Florida’s state committeewoman Carol Carter, “a hard-working, loyal Republican for many years.” This loyal Republican, Carol Carter, forwarded a whimsical email to her loyal Republican colleagues around Tampa Bay about the very convenient ability of many black people to travel to Washington D.C. for Obama’s inauguration, despite the fact that many blacks drowned when Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans.

From: Carol Carter
Friday, January 30, 9:30 AM
Subject: FW: Amazing!

I’m confused

How can 2,000,000 blacks get into Washington, DC in 1 day in sub zero temps when 200,000 couldn’t get out of New Orleans in 85 degree temps with four days notice?

Carol Carter

HAHAHAHAHA. Get it?! Because black people are … lazy? They like cold weather? Jesus fucking christ.

Good luck Chairman Steele, I mean it. You got some house cleaning to do cuz this crap has no place in our political discourse.  May I suggest the, "Say it to my face, dickhead" approach.

Will Petreas Stage A Mutiny?

Some might call this treason:

A network of senior military officers is also reported to be preparing to support Petraeus and Odierno by mobilising public opinion against Obama's decision [to abide by the promises he made to the people who elected him and require] the military leaders to come back quickly with a detailed 16-month plan [to withdraw from Iraq].

Just a reminder to the jingoistic war bloggers who think St. Petraeus is infallible, the people of this great land are sovereign, and they have spoken. Their elected representative is General Petreaus's Commander, and he has spoken. This stuff is a damn sight closer to actually betraying our nation than anything the New York Times ever dreamed of doing.

What a horrible state of affairs that President Obama's first major military challenge would come from within the ranks of our own troops. You really should read the whole article and see how political influences have infiltrated the command structure of the General Staff, already geared to undermine the President.

Keane, the Army Vice-Chief of Staff from 1999 to 2003, has ties to a network of active and retired four-star Army generals, and since Obama's Jan. 21 order on the 16-month withdrawal plan, some of the retired four-star generals in that network have begun discussing a campaign to blame Obama's troop withdrawal from Iraq for the ultimate collapse of the political "stability" that they expect to follow U.S. withdrawal, according to a military source familiar with the network's plans.

The source says the network, which includes senior active duty officers in the Pentagon, will begin making the argument to journalists covering the Pentagon that Obama's withdrawal policy risks an eventual collapse in Iraq. That would raise the political cost to Obama of sticking to his withdrawal policy. [my bold ~Mark]

The fact that they are conspiring openly enough that the press can track their mutinous mission and name the names speaks volumes about the arrogant disrespect they have for the will of the people they are charged to protect, the Constitution they swore to defend, and the command structure of civilian leadership over uniformed personnel.

Of course, in a more authoritarian regime, like Soviet Russia, North Korea, or the Bush Administration, Keane would be thrown in Gitmo as an enemy agitator and Petreaus and Odierno would be sacked. But not here, not anymore, and the conspirators are taking full advantage of a malleable press that would never question their counsel lest they risk the wrath of a modern day Ceasar returning victoriously from Gaul, which is exactly what the Petreaus wing of the GOP wants to do.

Keane had operated on the assumption that a Democratic president would probably not take the political risk of rejecting Petraeus's recommendation on the pace of troop withdrawal from Iraq. Woodward quotes Keane as telling Gates, "Let's assume we have a Democratic administration and they want to pull this thing out quickly, and now they have to deal with General Petraeus and General Odierno. There will be a price to be paid to override them." [again, my bold ~Mark]

MacArthur acted much the same way the generals are threatening today, commanded much the same deference from the press, and completely undermined his President. Truman's conflict with MacArthur destroyed Harry's popular appeal, for a while, but it also ended Mac's political ambitions. I hope that both Obama and Petreaus will avoid a similarly costly show-down. Somehow I'll bet that military folks will push the envelop, however, and Petreaus will kill his chances of being Sarah Palin's running mate.

America won't tolerate losers, especially sore ones -- not two of them.

I also trust that Obama is as good or better politician than Petreaus is a general, and I've no doubt that Petreaus cannot match Obama in the political arena where he has no legions to command and Obama can unleash the many-million-mouthed dog. The old-timers at the Pentagon may sneer at Obama's lack of military experience, but they really are in misunderestimating territory if they really believe they can outflank him politically by insisting on prolonging this deeply unpopular war.

I wonder if they even recognize Obama's pronouncement that a "substantial number" of our troops would be home for the next Superbowl as the shot across their bow that it was. While the General was on the field in Tampa, flipping a coin, the President was speaking to tens of millions of Americans directly about living up to his promise.

Petraeus was visibly unhappy when he left the Oval Office, according to one of the sources. A White House staffer present at the meeting was quoted by the source as saying, "Petraeus made the mistake of thinking he was still dealing with George Bush instead of with Barack Obama."

I guess Petreaus got his own version of "I won."