Month: August 2010

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.

So the next question is simply, “What do the experts on your staff tell you that the top marginal tax rate should be in order to maximize tax revenues, leaving everything else about the tax code the same?” Journalists should relentlessly ask it of the Republican leadership in Congress who continue to make fallacious claims, and the Democratic leadership in Congress ought to ask it politely in a letter to CBO Director Doug Elmendorf.

Andrew Samwick, nailing the Laffer Curve. Add to the list of things an agile Democratic party could positively eviscerate the GOP with by attacking their perceived strengths and, you know, turning them into colossal weaknesses. See: Marriage, getting the government completely out of.

DiversiTea

Steve Benen brings it:

Though [Uni-Tea Party event] organizers said the event’s website had been visited more than 2 million times in the days leading up to today’s rally outside Independence Hall, for most of the afternoon there were fewer than 500 in attendance.

I’ve haven’t seen Fox News reports on this, but one can assume it will tell viewers that 17 billion people attended the event.

Zing.

Also worth noting that:

Of the 500 or so attendees, McMorris-Santoro and Jillian Rayfield said fewer than 20 had “non-white faces.”

If 7% of those 20 were actually there by their own design, I’d call it an unqualified success…

DiversiTea

The Media’s Obsession with Tax Reform

KRUGMAN: No, I think it’s fair enough. But, you know, let me ask — there’s something I don’t understand about this whole thing. There are actually two major investigations of members of Congress underway right now. There’s Charlie Rangel, who’s accused of some fairly petty, although stupid and wrong, ethical violations, and there’s Senator John Ensign, who’s facing a criminal investigation and which actually — it’s even a story that involves sex. And you get no publicity whatsoever on the Ensign investigation. Why is Rangel getting all this attention?
AMANPOUR: Is that fair, George?
WILL: Well, Rangel is much more important, because he’s chairman of an important committee. And in fact, Rangel’s misfortune is a national misfortune, because we desperately need — and after the deficit commission reports in December, we might have had — serious tax reform in this country. That requires a cooperative member leading that committee in the House.

Message Consistency

Bob Corker (R ,TN) 2009: After the president forced the firing of General Motors chief executive G. Richard Wagoner Jr., Republican Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.) proclaimed Obama’s actions “truly breathtaking” and said the government ownership roles at Chrysler and GM “should send a chill through all Americans who believe in free enterprise.”
Bob Corker (R, TN) 2010: The ideas we [Republicans] laid out there were followed through. I take some pleasure out of helping make that contribution. . . . I think what we did is we forced a debate and we forced a hard look at these companies.