Headlines - Saturday July 16

Paul Krugman explains how the White House has this exactly backwords:

Greg Sargent tells us that the White House is promoting a Gerald Seib piece which summarizes the political strategy thus:

A big deal would reassure independents who fear the country is out of control; position Obama as the adult who made Washington work again; allow the President to tell Dems he put entitlements on sounder financial footing; and clear the decks to enact other priorities later.

[Bangs head against wall]

What I learn from political scientists is that this is all fantasy - albeit a kind of fantasy beloved of political pundits, who love to imagine that complicated psychodramas are playing out in the minds of voters. Well, here's a little secret: most voters don't sit around reading Clive Crook columns or debating the Bowles-Simpson plan. They have a gut sense - things are getting better or they're getting worse - and mainly vote on that basis. They're not paying attention at all to this stuff.

Wait, it gets worse. Even if voters were trying to make decisions based on things like fiscal responsibility, how likely are they to have remotely accurate information? Not at all if they watch Fox; but the truth is that even if they watch a reputable network, or for that matter even if they read the Times the way most people read it, getting fast impressions rather than scanning articles carefully for the nuances hidden in the 12th paragraph, they probably have only the vaguest sense of what's going on.

How many Americans truly understand just how extreme and dangerous a game the GOP is playing with the debt limit? Surely it's a small minority - partly because conventions of "balance" prevent most media outlets from ever saying too clearly what's happening.

Oh, and about independent voters: if you think that they're strong-minded, solid citizens repelled by the partisanship - well, there may be a guy like that somewhere in America. But by and large, given the vast differences between the parties these days, independent voters are basically confused, clueless people - not exactly the kind of people likely to take reassurance from Obama's stance on entitlement programs. On the contrary, they're the sort of people likely to be stampeded by "Obama wants to raise the Medicare age!"

When pundits talk this kind of stuff, it's mainly funny in a tiring sort of way. But if the White House actually believes this stuff - well, that's scary.

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Sarah Palin Spent $14,000 Of Other People's Money On Stickers

Hooray, is the Internet pooping out more documents filled with juicy details about Sarah Palin's pointless and yet self-serving political projects? Why yes! Palin's latest SarahPAC filings with the FEC are a Political Topic today, because everyone's favorite grifter quitter queen spent $14,000 just for the goofball decals on her "Road Accident Death Tour of America" bus, which is GEE, A LOT OF MONEY to pimp out the RV for a "family vacation," which is what Sarah Palin told everyone this was, over and over. What else does $14,000 buy these days that would be more fun than a shitload of stickers? A temporary tornado victim shelter? A year or two of vocational school? Two warehouses full of methamphetamines? We do not know, we have never seen this much money at one time. READ MORE »

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Palin documentary opens to an empty theater. In Orange County, California. Where they named their airport after John Wayne, the beatification of St. Ronnie of RayGuns originated and they are still proud of Nixon. Something tells us Sister Sarah is in that uncomfortable 16th minute of fame, where everyone except her and her own personal Waylon Smithers realize that the sun is setting. Meanwhile, in Iowa ....

 

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"Tea Party Presidential Twitter debate" sounds like a) a terrible orgy of hollering wingnuts furiously flinging spelling errors around at each other like the clap going around a trailer park or b) something worthy of contenders for our nation's highest office? The Tea Party candidates are going to show half-assed Twitter clown Barack Obama "how it is done" next Wednesday, by allowing the entire Internet to yell at them for a solid hour and a half using the handle @140townhall. READ MORE »

 

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Newt's Sham-paign is over a million in debt "Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign is over $1 million in debt, nearly half of which -- $451,946 -- is attributable to his preference for private jets. ... That's how much the Gingrich campaign owes to Moby Dick Airways, the same company he used for flights paid for by his former 527 group, American Solutions. In April, May and June of last year, American Solutions gave $677,539 to Moby Dick Airways. ... Adding in the $41,453 and $10,478 payments Gingrich's campaign already made to Moby Dick in April and May brings the total amount he paid the private plane company over the half-million mark. His list of campaign expenditures includes 30 separate travel-related payments, most of them for thousands of dollars each."

 

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California Will Also Teach Gay History Instead of Just American Wars

Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 48 into law yesterday, which means that California schools must somehow squeeze gay history into its schools' curriculum, which up until this point have followed the standard formula of 97% white men kicking ass, 2% Martin Luther King, Jr. and 1% bad things happening to America that encourage white men to kick additional ass. The Governor says he did this because he wants to teach students the "broad diversity of the human experience," which honest, God-fearing people know is heathen-speak for MOLEST ALL THE CHILDRENZ. READ MORE »

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Bristol Palin: People Are Jealous Of My Mom Because God Is On Her Side

"I think that people treat her poorly, they treat her with no respect, and I think it's because they're envious of her. She's got a good family, she's got a good husband, she's got awesome support, she's got God on her side, and I think people are envious of that." - Snowbilly pass-out party bottom and unwed teen mother Bristol Palin, revealing her insider knowledge of God's political affiliation.

Hold on a minute...you mean to tell us that after banksters melted down the economy and damned near made paupers of us all, the republican House voted to cut funding for the SEC? Un. Fucking. Believable. "A few weeks ago, the Republican-controlled appropriations committee cut the Securities and Exchange Commission's fiscal 2012 budget request by $222.5 million, to $1.19 billion (the same as this year's), even though the S.E.C.'s responsibilities were vastly expanded under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Charged with protecting investors and policing markets, the S.E.C. is the nation's front-line defense against financial fraud. The committee's accompanying report referred to the agency's "troubled past" and "lack of ability to manage funds," and said the committee "remains concerned with the S.E.C.'s track record in dealing with Ponzi schemes." The report stressed, "With the federal debt exceeding $14 trillion, the committee is committed to reducing the cost and size of government.""

 

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Wingnuts Just Love This 'American Dream' Facebook Photo Contest Thing

The American Chamber of Commerce is running a photo contest on Facebook asking people to "submit a photo of the American Dream as it is embodied by your small business or a business in your community." HUUNNHHH? Apparently this was sort of a tough assignment for folk, correctly figuring out what the words in that sentence mean. "So you want us to send you our vacation photos and blingees?" is how that sentence apparently actually reads. "SURE!" So here we go: READ MORE »

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Texas traded to Mexico
We get Baja and some Yucatan Link

The State Department announced that the state of Texas, a perennial all-pro in energy and cattle production,
was traded to Mexico in a four state deal involving Baja California and much of the Yucatan Peninsula.
 
Texas, who has quarreled with the front office in Washington D.C. in recent decades, was given over to the
Mexican government in a deal expected to be completed within the month. In exchange for the Lone Star State,
the U.S. will receive the two Mexican states on the Baja Peninsula, which lie just south of California, and Yucatán,
a popular destination for vacationers situated on the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
 
As part of the deal the U.S. will be given an option next season to select any Mexican state that has not been
given franchise status. Foreign policy experts believe the U.S. may shore up it's Yucatan Peninsula position
next spring by picking up Quintana Roo, home to vacation spots such as Cancún and the island of Cozumel.


I have friends in Texas, but this sure sounds good to me.
I have friends in Florida - maybe Mexico would be interested in their problems, too?

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You Can't Fight Crazy -- But You Can Vote it Out of Office

 

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Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair has banned his parishes and schools from participating in any fundraising for breast cancer research. Because one day, maybe, some of that money might be used for stem cell research.

Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair sent a letter banning the fundraising for Susan G. Komen for the Cure to all priests and parishes in the 19-county diocese over the weekend. Cincinnati's archbishop earlier this year decided that schools and parishes in the 19-county Cincinnati Archdiocese cannot raise funds for Komen for the same reason. Scientists say research on embryonic stem cells, which are usually taken from discarded embryos at fertility clinics, may lead to cures for diseases. The Catholic Church maintains that the destruction of the embryo amounts to the killing of human life.

The Komen Foundation says it has never funded stem cell research.