Day: August 3, 2010

Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty

I sat down, and they said on the back of your Social Security card, there’s a number. That number indicates the bank that bought you when you were born based on a projection of your life’s earnings, and you are collateral. We are all collateral for the banks. I have this look like, “What the heck are you talking about?” I’m trying to hide that look and look clueless. I figured clueless was better than argumentative. So they said, “You don’t know this?! You are a member of Congress, and you don’t know this?!” And I said, “Please forgive me. I’m just ignorant of these things.” And then of course, it turned into something about the Federal Reserve and the Bilderbergers and all that stuff. And now you have the feeling of anti-Semitism here coming in, mixing in. Wow.

–and–

I refused to use the word [socialist] because I have this view that the Ninth Commandment must mean something. I remember one year Bill Clinton—the guy I was out to get [when serving on the House judiciary committee in the 1990s]—at the National Prayer Breakfast said something that was one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard from anybody at a gathering like that. He said, “The most violated commandment in Washington, DC"—everybody leaned in; do tell, Mr. President—"is, ‘Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.’” I thought, “He’s right. That is the most violated commandment in Washington.” For me to go around saying that Barack Obama is a socialist is a violation of the Ninth Commandment. He is a liberal fellow. I’m conservative. We disagree…But I don’t need to call him a socialist, and I hurt the country by doing so. The country has to come together to find a solution to these challenges or else we go over the cliff.

Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty

Breaker 1-9

A

“The bottom line is I’m not an expert [on coal mining], so don’t give me the power in Washington to be making rules. You live here, and you have to work in the mines. You’d try to make good rules to protect your people here. If you don’t, I’m thinking that no one will apply for those jobs. I know that doesn’t sound…” […] “I want to be compassionate, and I’m sorry for what happened, but I wonder: Was it just an accident?”

–Rand Paul

B

Until about 1900, nearly all anthracite coal breakers [removed] impurities [in the mined coal] by hand, usually by boys between the ages of eight and 12 years old known as breaker boys. […] The breaker boys would sit on wooden seats, perched over chutes and conveyor belts, picking slate and other impurities out of the coal. Breaker boys worked 10 hours a day for six days a week. The work was hazardous. Breaker boys were forced to work without gloves so that they could handle the slick coal better. The slate, however, was sharp, and boys would leave work with their fingers cut and bleeding. Many breaker boys lost fingers to the rapidly moving conveyor belts, while others […] had their feet, hands, arms, and legs amputated when they moved among the machinery and accidentally slipped under the belts or into the gears. Many died when they fell into the gears of the machinery, their bodies only retrieved at the end of the working day. Others were caught in the rush of coal, and crushed to death or smothered. The “dry” coal kicked up so much dust that the breaker boys sometimes wore lamps on their heads to see, and asthma and black lung disease were common. […] The practice of employing children in coal breakers largely ended by 1920 because of the efforts of the National Child Labor Committee, sociologist and photographer Lewis Hine, and the National Consumers League, who educated the public about the practice and succeeded in passing child labor laws.

–Wikipedia on Breaker Boys.

See, I always thought that the practice ended because 8-12 year olds simply quit applying for such dangerous work.

Constitutional Conservatives

I guess the name is meant to imply they are really focused on changing the Constitution in every conceivable way. Jonathan Chait helpfully collects the most recent examples:

  1. The Flag Desecration Amendment
  2. Balanced budget amendment
  3. Supermajority to raise taxes
  4. “Parental rights” amendment – the right of parents to “raise their children as they see fit, introduced last year by Jim DeMint and Peter Hoekstra.
  5. Human life amendment, banning abortion
  6. The Federal Marriage Amendment, banning gay marriage
  7. Believing that the DC Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional, Lisa Murkowski proposed an amendment giving the District a single voting representative.
  8. Last year, Jim DeMint introduced a term limits amendment (3 terms in the House, 2 in the Senate).
  9. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told The Hill on Monday that Congress “ought to take a look at” changing the 14th Amendment, which gives the children of illegal immigrants a right to U.S. citizenship.
    McConnell’s statement signals growing support within the GOP for the controversial idea, which has also recently been touted by Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Added to the necessary questions queue: To save us some time, which parts of the Constitution do you actually like and wish to preserve?

Point: mrgan submits an amusing logo for The League of Internet Commenters.

Counterpoint: This comment (made in response to Kevin Drum):

The idea of a backlash against “crazy town conservatism” makes about as much sense as a backlash against professional wrestling.
What is called “conservatism” in America today is no longer a political or ideological movement. It is an entertainment demographic.
The so-called “leaders” of so-called “movement conservatism” are less and less interested in actual political leadership, and more and more interested in schemes for separating the Ditto-Head rubes from their money.

You can laugh at the Tea Party if you want to.
But Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are laughing even harder.
All the way to the bank.

Sublime and timely. Suggest adding at least one tooth to said logo. Also maybe a kitten.

…we wanted [journalists] to ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported. And when I get on a show and I say send me money to SharronAngle.com, so that your listeners will know that if they want to support me they need to go to SharronAngle.com.

Sharron Angle. At least she’s honest about being a television huckster aiming for nothing more than separating the far right’s manifold rubes from their money.

Profiles in Compromise

tl;dr: Deval Patrick should be whisked away to Washington DC as executive legislative adviser to The Democrat caucus. The man knows how to run a compromise.

Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem

We here in the People’s Republic of MA (like innumerable other rubes around Our Republic) seem to believe that if we cast our lot into the already saturated “high end” casino market that all Our Problems will be solved, preferably overnight.
In fact, Governor Deval Patrick tried to run a plan along these very lines through the General Court (what serious people know to be the actual name of our legislative branch) pre-meltdown.
But before we get to the rest of the story, let’s just get out of the way that Lemkin firmly believes MA will, no matter how the exact terms of the legislation turn out, be left with a single, already run down on opening day “racino” (e.g. some cheap-o brand™ slot machines in a temporary out-building clumsily tacked on to an existing track for the horsey racing. Suffolk Downs, perhaps. For those of you scoring at home, we’re now two years and counting on this particular semi-crazed belief.)

First Compromise

Being a state full of legislative do-nothings who want to do nothing that might possibly rock the boat and, if possible, not even build or look at or refer to the boat lest it also be rocked by one or some of those actions, naturally did nothing about the governor’s casino proposal. It was an early and stinging defeat for the then-new and popular governor facing, uh, stern opposition from a General Court massively dominated by his own party…
But, what do you know, then-Speaker (one Salvatore DiMasi) more or less got dragged off in manacles (seemingly) as a direct result of this inaction.

Second Compromise

So the meltdown. Like many states, about 190 trillion dollars has come out of teacher pay, bridge spackle, food for babies, and most definitely libraries. Unlike many states, MA actually has a well managed rainy day fund, though any and every use of same faces seemingly daily disputes about whether or not this crisis is, in fact, a rainy day. Anywho, interest in all that “free money” from casinos is unsurprisingly revived.
Hey, I was for it before I was for it, says Governor Patrick. Let’s dust of old dusty here and run it through again: the original plan called for three casino licenses put up for competitive bids; we can now set about arguing over the wheres and hows.
New Speaker Robert DeLeo sees a golden opportunity right there in his very own district: Suffolk Downs can get slots! Perhaps even in a ramshackle “temporary” outbuilding! Lots of arguing ensues. Sooner or later, a deal emerges that lays out a surprisingly evenhanded compromise: one racino (that will be put out for bid, thus ensuring some extra revenue) plus, of course, the original three casino resort licenses (and all the aforementioned wheres and hows).
Then: Surprise! DeLeo sees to it that the legislation arrives on Patrick’s desk with provisions for two, count ‘em TWO racinos. Since there would then be no bidding (as exactly two existing tracks want to add slots), this is a direct handout that costs the Commonwealth at least some amount of money and further dilutes an already diluted gambling audience that we plan to dilute some more and then laugh all the way to the bank about. But surely the governor will wilt like a Typical Democrat, take his medicine, and get his long beloved three casinos at the seemingly small expense of two (dread) racinos.

The Reply

Now, what do you imagine happened? We all know that The Democrat is the undisputed king of still accepting a compromise even after the terms compromise itself are rescinded to the point of mockery (usually this boils down to promised GOP support that evaporates and but so the GOP-demanded provisions are left in there anyway). Well, it turns out we’ve got a version of the line item veto here. So Deval dusts off old dusty: not one but two racinos are removed from the bill. What is essentially his initial three casino plan is returned to the General Court. Take it or leave it. One can only assume the word “motherfuckers” figures in there somewheres.

DC could learn a lot from this man.

While we appreciate your desire to revise the statute to reflect your expansive vision of it, the fact is that we must work with the actual language of the statute, not the aspirational version of Section 701 that you forwarded to us.

Mike Godwin, general counsel to Wikimedia, in response (NB: PDF link) to an FBI request to take down an image of the FBI seal that accompanies a Wikipedia entry.
When, and only when, this sort of push-back becomes the norm (and not some delightful instance-of) will we get anywhere.