Treat Yo Self, 2011!

It's the last day to Treat...Yo...Self - 2011. So enjoy it everyone and have a Happy New Year!

 

This is how Republicans govern

Clock in, clock out. Not like they have any bills to discuss. It's all in a hard day's work in the U.S. Congress run by people who don't believe in it.

Rest in peace Hitch

The great Christopher Hitchens has died. The columnist was a great advocate for freedom, reason and atheism. He is probably most known for his support of the Iraq War and had the strongest argument for it. Even though to this day I remain opposed (the war officially ended yesterday - yay!), Hitch always forced me to reconsider my view. He was also known for his fervent atheism and his belief that the modern world would be vastly better without religion and its influence. Whether we're religious or not, we pray for Hitch. He is neither in heaven or hell, but we hope that Mr. Hitchens' great acerbic wit lives on forever.

Long live Hitch.

I guess Keynesianism is dead after all. Wait...what?

Six major central banks, including ours, announced that they would coordinate their efforts to increase liquidity in the European market, to stave off the economic collapse of Greece, Italy, and Portugal and thus halt spreading the contagion to stronger parts of Europe and the world as a whole. Yet conservative politicians worldwide (and especially in the U.S.) want us (the economy) to jump off the top of the building (Keynesian counter-cyclical stimulus), hoping that we'll bounce all the way across to the building rooftop across the street.

However, confronting a true worldwide economic collapse just for the sake of moral superiority, would look like this. (Hint: We're Neo)

 

Essay of the Day

"In the aughts, Republicans held more power for longer than at any time since the twenties, yet the result was the weakest and least broadly shared economic expansion since World War II, followed by an economic crash and prolonged slump."

Quote from the must-read essay by former speechwriter and adviser to President Bush, David Frum.

U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments on ObamaCare

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear the case concerning the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) commonly known to teabaggers and Americans alike as "ObamaCare." It will be interesting to see what this ideologically divided court does with the rulings. The court has instructed the parties to prepare briefs surrounding three main questions:

1. Is the requirement to purchase insurance (individual mandate) allowable under the interstate commerce clause?
2. Did the federal government overstep its bounds by only making Medicaid funds available upon states' acceptance of the new laws and regulations in the ACA?
3. If only the individual mandate is struck down (which is a legal option), does the healthcare law become de facto null and void as it is the primary funding mechanism for getting rid of pre-existing conditions, recission and young adult regulations?

Overall, I feel like the ACA will be held as constitutional. Most appellate courts have held it to be so, including the D.C. Court of Appeals. Here's Reagan's Solicitor General, Charles Fried explaining while, although in a democracy we may disagree on this politically, this law is surely constitutional.



I'm going to do the layman's argument.
Q. Can a government force you to buy something through regulation?
A. Yes, most state governments force people who have cars to purchase car insurance, so that when people get in accidents the costs to both health and property are borne by the people and not the state.
Q. A-ha! I have two points. One that's state governments have more lee-way to impose regulations; and two, I can opt out of the car insurance mandate by not having a car!
A. Here's the crux of why the mandate matters and is legal. Everyone has a body. NO ONE has the ability to opt out of the healthcare market. And if people promised never to move outside of their state, then maybe we could have health insurance administered on a purely state level, but the market of American people move frequently between states and thus the costs and risks of accidents, disease, and age are spread across the nation so it's not outside the bounds of Congress to consider national solutions to national problems. You may disagree with the solution, but that does not make it unconstitutional.

Boo f'n hoo...

Welcome to the economy fellas...you got a three year head start. Hope you like your new digs in Williamsburg.

Quote of the Day

"To rid the world of Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki and Moammar Qaddafi within six months: if Obama were a Republican, he'd be on Mount Rushmore by now."

- Andrew Sullivan, "The Dish", 10.20.11

Goodbye Steve...

You will be missed. Thanks for all of the cool gadgets and changing the modern computing experience as we know it.

President Barack Hussein Reagan

This video speaks for itself as a reminder of how far the Republican party has moved to the right.

 

A Microcosm of What's Happening Within the Republican Party

If you haven't seen this video yet, it's absolutely hilarious. Hank Williams Jr. of Monday Night Football fame compares President Obama to Hitler and the Fox and Friends crew are absolutely stunned!

I think it's a pretty good example of what's happening on a grander scale within the Republican party. Normal Republicans, who are too busy planning to make lots of money and shooting varmints with Mitt Romney (that's code for actually making lots of money), are thinking that they might end up with a normal centrist nominee that could feasibly win the Presidency and help them make even more money (if some gays are shebanging or getting married during this process these Republicans don't really care so long as the stock market is up). But what they don't realize is, is they have a good chunk of crazies in their midst like Hank Williams Jr., who will nominate a crazy person who can't get elected.

On Chris Christie's Weight...

There's a lot of blog and lamestream media buzz going around discussing and dissecting columns by Michael Kinsley and Eugene Robinson posing that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is too fat to be President of the United States.

I for one don't really care. I think the main hurdles to the presidency for Chris Christie revolve around the lack of time and lack of organization needed to mount a successful campaign (see Fred Thompson).

The discussion of Chris Christie's weight is not a referendum on him or fat people at all. The discussion is a referendum on US; the stupid and superficial American voter, who requires their candidates to look a certain way post-JFK. Trust me, McCain definitely lost some votes because he couldn't lift his arms above his shoulders and has old man posture. Unfortunately, looking good matters a great deal in American politics, which is why candidates like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann even have a shot and the current GOP front runners are Mitt Romney and Rick Perry.

American money stinks

This video is depressingly hilarious. 
It's important for us to remember that well designed policy matters, even on a microlevel; and to understand that we can make a positive difference in peoples' lives by making small changes.

See below for how the Euro successfully deals with the problem.

The bills are different sizes! Who woulda thought?

You stay classy, Republican party...

The videos speak for themselves...Shameful

Society is crumbling from within! Save yourself!

Today marked the first day that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was officially repealed. A Clinton-era compromise (Republicans and centrist Democrats didn't want gay men and women serving in the military at ALL) that allowed gay people to serve in the military starting in the early 90s, DADT has utterly failed to make the military more stable, us safer, and cost the U.S. government millions of dollars in lost investment in trained personnel and more importantly the loss of tens of thousands of brave men and women who were willing to fight and die on behalf of our country.

This is indeed an historic moment; one that gets close to Truman's achievement of desegregating the Army in the 1950s. So here comes the mass moral decay of our country and the dissolve of unit cohesion, right? Watch the video below of a current U.S. soldier being unburdened by just telling the truth about who he is.

My favorite moment -

Soldier: "Do you want to tell Mom for me?
Dad: Laughter..."I don't believe so..."

Republican logic - new stimulus to cost close to $0

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the small-ball initiatives that President Obama will propose tonight in his "Jobs Address" will cost roughly $300-$400B. However, due to the fact that President Obama is choosing to lay out a distinctly bipartisan plan instead of a dramatic liberal jobs agenda, much of the proposed legislation is comprised of - you guessed it - tax cuts!


And we know from our favorite congressional Republicans, that tax cuts that they propose, don't qualify as government spending! Tax cuts merely allow you to keep more of your freedom money, that you earned. And luckily, none of that money that you consented to spending by voting for representatives who spent it on political priorities you agreed with is currently allocated to funding two and a half (Libya) wars, social security payments, medicare payments, an unpaid prescription drug bill, aging infrastructure, increased veterans healthcare benefits due to said wars anything at the moment.

So forget that big fairly modest amount considering the high unemployment figure number! When all is said and done Republicans will not agree to the $130B in infrastructure spending which will actually do more to create jobs than any other stimulative policy, as today's CNN article on the stimulus stated,

"The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the parts of the program that got the most criticism -- actual spending on projects and aid packages -- was the most effective in creating jobs." (emphasis mine)

So of the roughly leftover $170B in tax cuts, by the Republicans own logic will cost the government $0, because it won't be spending any money.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy your $0 stimulus. It's not costing you anything.

My 2012 Map So Far

After getting Pawlenty wrong, I thought I might just go ahead and predict the whole shebang!

Predictions so far: Definite Republican flips - New Hampshire, Indiana and Iowa
New Repulican lean: North Carolina
Possible curveball Republican win - New Jersey
Possible curveball Democratic win - Georgia

2012 Presidential Election: Electoral Map: This map displays the projections of the sender and does not reflect the opinions of 270toWin.

Well I was wrong about THAT one...

I'm not going to lie. 2008 was a very good politically predictive year for me. I bet that Mike Huckabee, the more religiously conservative, yet less well known, former Governor of Arkansas would win the Republican Iowa caucus.

And when every pundit in the land declared that it would be a "New York" election race between Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton (see here, here and here), I successfully predicted in early March that the final Presidential contest would be a race between moderates with John McCain and a young pragmatic upstart Barack Obama. And although many had doubts about whether a black man with Hussein as his middle name could win the presidency, I bet that Obama would eventually be the final winner of the whole shebang. Because let's face it, after eight long years of the Bush administration, you could poop in a bag, write the letter D on it and you'd have a better than 50% shot at winning the Presidency in 2008.

So at the end of 2008, shortly after Obama's election, I proclaimed to my Republican colleagues at the RLO in the Massachusetts State House, that 2012 would continue to be a centrist election and not a base election and that the Republican nominee would be the promising moderate Governor from Minnesota, and almost Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Tim Pawlenty; because a former governor of a desired purple state could be much more easily sold to the more socially conservative base than former Massachusetts Governor, Willard "Mitt" Romney, who behind the scenes in the Republican party, most people dislike for his inability to take stand on anything that matters to them (this political shrewdness is one of the qualities I admire most in Mr. Romney - but I digress).

Anywho, lo and behold I look at today's news after the (inconsequential) Ames Iowa Straw Poll, that Tim Pawlenty is dropping out of the GOP race. So not counting Donald Trump, who wasn't really running anyway, my final Republican nominee was the first to drop out! Sarah Scalese, I probably owe you $5 bucks! (When I brought up T-Paw as my 2012 nominee, Sarah said something to the effect of, "snooze-fest"), and it appears that her reading of the Republican electorate was right.

However, this momentum shift probably bodes well for President Obama. Most political parties have two basic choices when battling an incumbent President: crazy heart (see Howard Dean), or safe bet (see John Kerry). And the early indicators show that the Republican Party is leaning crazy heart with Michele Bachmann's win and T-Paw's exit. For the sake of the country, I hope the GOP nominates either Mitt Romney or Jon Huntsman, men who I disagree with but who I know at least have good noggins on top of their shoulders. But the early rumblings of Bachmann and Texas Governor Rick Perry show a party reaching for its heart and not its mind.

It's Gonna be Fine

I thought about posting a negative, sad and angry post about how the drop in the Dow is a complete reflection of the utter dysfunction of the House of Representatives, but instead I thought I'd post a piece of music performed by my absolute favorite ensemble while studying music at school. Here's a piece by jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, performed by the amazing Northwestern Brass Ensemble. Enjoy.

A Crappy Deal

I'm too bummed to go into it now...but we got our five-year-old back (the economy). He may have been molested and possibly raped (drastic cuts as he's very sick), but he wasn't murdered which he would have been if the hostage takers didn't get everything they wanted, so unfortunately Obama paid the full ransom (the same thing with the bankers & TARP 1 [Bush] and 2 [Obama]).

Yet at least, the crazy liberal, George W. Bush's chief speechwriter, David Frum agrees with me.

Sigh.

Pop Quiz...Pick the bigger spender

Remind me, which party created the deficit again?

Economic Terrorists

This is what happens to dealmaking when the terrorist wants to kill the hostage regardless. No ransom is high enough. President Obama's "grand bargain" deficit deal is "indefensible" for House Republicans, even though it's to the right of the Gang of Six bi-partisan group in the Senate.

Look, we all know what needs to be done.

- Eliminate tax loopholes and superfluous exemptions in exchange for lowering the corporate and income tax rates generally. I'm looking at you yacht depreciation write-off! (Gang of Six / Obama proposals)

- Raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 in slow, steady increases over 5 years with reasonable exemptions for people that actually work do physical labor for a living (like coal mining and firefighting).

- Spend some immediate funds on INFRASTRUCTURE - we're still in a recession people. Unemployment in the construction market is roughly 22%, borrowing costs are at historically low rates (Unless House Republicans blow up the economy due to the fact that President Obama won't let them personally steal DeShawn's breakfast from him "Because that's MY HARD EARNED MONEY!!!"), and those construction workers will end up - yes that's right - buying some stuff which will grow the economy and reduce our deficit.

- But I'm sick of the "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" Congress, because they've actually been the "abortion, unions, deficit" Congress and have achieved absolutely jack.

Belated Happy 4th of July - U.S. Women's Soccer Kicking Butt

[UPDATE: New video because FIFA sucks]



If you didn't see it last weekend, after every terrible call the U.S. Women's Soccer team came back from a 2-1 deficit to tie - a beautiful header by Abby Wambach in the 122nd minute - due to Brazil's Erika and her fake injury attempt to eat up the last 2 minutes of play (the game should have ended at 120mins), which poetically ended up being Brazil's downfall. Great penalty kicks by the US team and a great save by Hope Solo won the game for the US.

As of right now our ladies are up 1-nil against the ladies of France.

Let's go USA!

I told you so!

As I said late last year, the new tea-party led Republican congress would be hard to deal with and they have completely proven me right in this debt ceiling fight.

Before I go on, let's clear the air regarding the debt ceiling. This isn't to raise money for things that we may or may not appropriate (purchase) in the future, as I believe most Americans understand it. The debt ceiling is the amount of money we need to approve to pay the bills Congress has already SPENT, whether it be on the payroll tax cut or the bridge being rebuilt in your town.

Various news outlets are reporting that President Obama and Republican Speaker Boehner hammered out a deal with roughly $4 trillion, yes that's a T, trillion dollars worth of spending cuts in exchange for a couple hundred billion dollars worth of tax increases, and most of those tax "increases" would be getting rid of distorting tax exemptions for things like yacht depreciation, corporate jet subsidies, oil subsidies which started back when oil drilling was in its infancy and other big agriculture subsidies that are either outdated or no longer needed. Sounds like a pretty good deal for Republicans, right? Three dollars in spending cuts for roughly every 0.80 cents in revenue - not bad.

But the tea party led by Rep. Eric Cantor won't have it. Apparently they won't sign on to ANY tax increases, even though these various corporate subsidies are exactly the kind of "waste" they bitch and moan about every year.

And conservative columnists David Brooks and Ross Douthat are calling congressional Republicans on their bullshit that this is anything but a deal that is favorable to them. These guys are holding the entire United States' economy hostage because they think they deserve 100% of what they want at the negotiating table, when they hold a slim majority of one house of one branch of government.

Nobody wins if the U.S. defaults on its debt (the first time in its history), but I would love to see what would happen to Republicans if they followed the right wing of their base into economic oblivion. We'd all be screwed, but we'd see their true colors concerning deficits and debt which is to say, they'd rather keep some random tax subsidies for the ultra-rich than cut $4 trillion dollars worth of spending, including major entitlement reform.

THIS is the debate we should be having about Government

I haven't posted about Massachusetts State Government in awhile (although I was a former employee of the great Commonwealth). This news prompted a post...

Former Speaker of the House, Salvatore diMasi was convicted of corruption charges regarding kick-backs related to a State deal with a software company named Cognos.

The conversation about the role of government for most Americans is not about liberal vs. conservative. It's about government that works on behalf of the public good and government used for the benefit of the most powerful in government. Sal diMasi didn't steal from the taxpayers because he was a Democrat. He abused his position because he was the most powerful person in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The major reforms we need to make now are the ones related to money and the easy purchase of political power in government. We need to have open discussions about the public financing of elections which will allow candidates to be more accountable to their constituents and not beholden to whatever corporate interest or union interest has given the most to their campaign. The most common complaint about public financing is, "I don't want my tax money to help elect a Democrat / a Republican!" But what happens is that Cognos or DuPont, or the big bad Labor UNION funds the Rep or Senator that is most favorable to their position and they could care less whether that candidate is a Democrat or a Republican so long as that newly minted Representative or Senator makes sure that X law is passed giving them a huge tax break or in this case a huge government contract. What about your tax break or your company getting a fair shake at the contract? Well, you'll probably need a lobbyist because Democracy doesn't come free unless we demand it.

We need stricter rules on lobbying and the exchange of money, and we need a lot more transparency when campaign donations are related to upcoming legislation before the chamber. I LOVE what the European Union does, unlimited lobbying hours, no restriction on how often a lobbyist can meet with a representative, but once that institution decides to lobby, they cannot give one - whatever a Euro cent is - cent to that representative.

But if our democracy can just go to the top bidder, then policy will not be made by our citizenry and we will be further and further removed from the process. It's time for legalized bribery to end. It's time to start thinking seriously about major election law reform (including public financing) in states across the country.

Go Bruins!

We won our first Stanley Cup since 1972! Yeah!

I should have taken this pic when the cigar was longer but I was enjoying it too much before I remembered that a post would be fun to celebrate.

Yeah! (yeah) - Peter yeah

Not afraid to be simple

One of my favorite composers, Eric Whitacre has transcribed one of his newer choral pieces "The Seal Lullaby" for Youth Wind Ensemble (Grade 2-3)  The grade level for band music goes up to level 6 as the highest difficulty to play. In an era when many composers of modern music write complex music for complexity's sake, it's nice to know that some composers understand that music at its core is an emotional enterprise, and not an intellectual one.

Enjoy!

Seal Lullaby (Wind Symphony Transcription) by ericwhitacre

Talking about our Weiner...

First of all, let me say that I love Anthony Weiner. He is one of two or three Democrats who is actually proud to be a liberal Democrat, and for that I thank him.

Here's a quick refresher of him castigating House Republicans, who didn't want to help pay for the healthcare of 9/11 first responders who got sick due to all of the toxins that the explosion and collapse of the towers caused. (To be fair, Dems were being complete wimps about not including a Republican "kill pill" amendment to cover 9/11 first responders who were illegal immigrants because it might look bad for the 2010 elections.)



However, Rep. Anthony Weiner did a yucky thing, tweeting various pics of his wiener to random ladays across this fine country of ours.

Should he step down from his Congressional seat? Meh... I guess so. Remember, you only have to step down after cheating on your wife if you're a Democrat. If you're a Republican you love your family and it doesn't matter if you cheated on your wife with a prostitute (Sen. David Vitter R-LA) or your best friend's wife (Sen. John Ensign R-NV) and then paid your best friend with severance pay with taxpayer money as an apology, YOU can stay in office...because you love the American family and must fight for it! (I mean -- that's probably why you cheated on your wife in the first place, because you were so focused on fighting for the American family).

Just to be clear, Senator Ensign didn't resign recently because he was sorry or ashamed of his actions. He stepped down because he was about to face a Senate ethics investigation that uncovered potentially illegal activity during the affair.

Look, I'm fine with having a moral expectation for our Representatives and Senators. We vote for them and they must earn our trust. When they lie about personal matters it is still a violation of that trust. But this expectation should be for everyone in Congress, not just one party. So unless David Vitter resigns, I see no moral argument that Weiner should.

Right now the U.S. Congress is as it should be: A reflection of the United States public in all of its many  flaws and vices, infidelity being chief among them.

Why Repubs will have trouble winning in 2012

Because they're going to derail the only nominee they have capable of winning the whole shebang, because he says totally non-controversial (to me) things like this:

Just sayin...

The Onion hits the nail on the head with this one. I honestly think this is how even the most sane Republicans think about domestic economic affairs.

A Former U.S. Marine is Killed in His Own Home

A former U.S. Marine, Jose Guerena, who served two tours in Iraq, died in his own home after 70 rounds were fired at him - 60 of them hit their mark - in a marijuana drug bust gone awry.

But hey, there's a few ounces of pot no longer on the streets, right?

God, sometimes I hate how dumb our country is. No apologies, right Mitt?

No, nothing to apologize for here.

U.S.A.?

Disney Navy Seal "Team 6" Movie?

I wonder what that would have looked like. Oh well...

What would your Disney Navy Seal movie been like? Be imagineers in the comments!

Happy B-Day Jimbo! / Doomsday Watch...

It's my good friend's birthday and perhaps our last day on earth before the apocalypse and there's no better way to celebrate both than with Kyrie [eleison], by Mr. Mister. Translation "Lord, have mercy..." This counts as a religious song right?

Why we'll win the war on terror

This photo-journalism story by Rebecca Frankel about our four-legged warriors, is a must read/see.

I think this story proves that we can both be ruthless in our fight to hunt down and kill terrorists while maintaining our essential humanity. Because if by covering people in their own feces and other methods of torture is the only way we can win this long battle, then I believe we've already lost.

THIS is the way we win.

Just one more...

And then I'll stop "being a douche" like the tarot card reader told me in Austin, TX.

Just so we remember what it was like before.


President Bush - 0
Pretzel - 1

http://articles.cnn.com/2002-01-14/politics/bush.fainting_1_pretzel-vital-signs-white-house?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS

AND...


President Obama - 1
Osama bin Laden - 0

GAME...SET...MATCH

Osama bin Laden is D E D...Dead! Who killed him? Weak, bad-at-war namby-pamby Democrats.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-is-killed.html?hp

Suck it Romney! No apologies. Good luck in 2016 guys...

U.S.A!

Sinclair bait...

This was good. Everyone should at least be versed in the main differences between Keynesian and Hayekian thought when it comes to economic crisis or recession.



Now remember, just because Hayek is economically conservative (which is technically small "l" liberal) doesn't mean that Republicans are. Most modern Republicans are Keynesian, but believe in stimulus in tax cut form as opposed to artificial priming of employment programs (ye olde WPA) and other safety net programs (unemployment insurance, medicaid, food stamps, etc...)

For the crazies...

Soundtrack for this post required click here.

His Mom's first name is legally Stanley. It's sort of when I learned that Tina Fey's real name was Elizabeth Stamatina Fey. This won't put any crazy birthers to bed, as Dave Weigel notes on his blog on Slate.com, they'll likely want to see a baby footprint (even though Hawaii never did that).

Now where was the 2008 Republican Presidential nominee born? Oh that's right, I forgot, in PANAMA! But it's OK because he's white and that feels more American. And it's also OK because he was born on a U.S. naval base which makes it diplomatically and legally a teeny, teeeeny, tiny slice of America, but don't tell conservative Republicans to hold the same view about Guantanamo Bay,  because they can't have both a naval base that IS America and another base that is most definitely NOT America, because then they would have to follow U.S. federal law and no one in Congress likes doing that.

Where are the liberal town hall outbursts?

Dave Weigel in an article on Slate.com, wrote this column chastising Democrats for not being able to scrounge enough "grassroots" outrage to Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan, like the summer town halls where the newly emerging tea party folks screamed and hollered about the injustice of President Obama's healthcare plan, which failed on a policy level but won on a political level as it energized Republican voters for 2010. (I'm sorry tea partiers are comprised of a WIDE cross-section of American political tradition.)



Now, I hate to slam a fellow NU wildcat, but the reason that there are no liberal town hall outbursts is because liberals actually believe in compromise. And although we're willing to call Republicans out on the things we disagree with, we at least let the debate happen. See below for how "angry" liberals face off with their Representative Ryan below:



There you have it. Sighs of "ah...come on Paul" and boos that calm down within 2 or 3 seconds.

This is both the Democratic Party's biggest strength and biggest weakness. It's the "I see your point" quality that most Democrats have. Politically it doesn't make for the strongest case and Republicans use this weakness to play to win as the healthcare debate showed where conservative ideas to reduce costs (such as online exchanges, individual mandates, and living will planning) were all reduced to "death panels" and "government takeover".

Mental Health Break

It's always good to take a time out every now and then. Enjoy America's own Lenny Bernstein leading the Vienna Philharmonic in the 4th movement of Gustav Mahler's 5th Symphony. All about suspension and tension in this one. If this doesn't convey longing, I don't know what can. How bad do you want that last note?

Not your call to make

With all of the hoopla over Planned Parenthood these past few weeks, I thought I might share my thoughts on this controversial subject. If I were a candidate, here's what I would say when it comes to abortion:

No one from the most liberal senator in the country to the most scared teenager in the heartland is FOR ABORTION. Women choose this option as a very last resort and I'd be willing to guess that few are happy when they feel it's the most appropriate option or choice for them.

Then I would either play the video like above or read one of the "It's so personal" essays collected on Andrew Sullivan's blog during a discussion about the moral challenges and justifications concerning the vilified "late-term" abortions and the D&X procedure (where the baby's head is severed before removing the fetus from the uterus). But for now, I will reference the above video.

(ahem, speech):

Now, if Danielle and Robb had been able to induce labor or perform an abortion, I don't know if Danielle and Robb would burn in hell for their sin. And some people have every religious right to identify that as sin.

I don't know if God would look down at their decision with shame or sadness.

Personally, I don't believe so, and personally I believe that God knows what is in their hearts if they had to make that terrible decision.

Abortion was essentially illegal where they lived, and if they had been able to get one I don't know whether they really would have committed a crime worth penalizing them for. I would feel that they have been through enough pain already.

But here's what I do know.

I know that this decision is NOT MINE TO MAKE.

I know that this decision is NOT MITT's (Romney)'s to make.

In many ways, it's really not CONGRESS's decision to make.

And frankly America, it's not YOUR DECISION TO MAKE.

The ONLY people who should be making this decision and are capable of making this decision are Danielle, Robb, and their doctor. As President Clinton once said, "Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare." And I wholeheartedly agree that it should be rare, and we should encourage young women when it's appropriate to look into adoption services as there are many families in America who would love to take care of and raise a child. But the choice is not OURS to make, it's theirs. And I'll fight to ensure it stays that way.

The Ernie Tax Reform Plan

Hey Everybody, with Rep. Ryan's plan and the President announcing his plan. I thought I would propose my own plan to fiscal sanity.  The Ernie plan couples liberal ideas with conservative ideas and none of these things will pass without the other attached to it, the goodies for both parties are only enforced if the others become law. Again, as fake president I veto any bill that only has one side of the equation.

- Conservative idea - Cut taxes for current tax brackets by 5% with the current top rate for those making over $379,000 at 30%. (Currently at 35%)

- Liberal idea - In order to get those tax cuts for the new American (upper) middle class add 3 more brackets to compensate for the new economic reality of those who have multi-million dollar salaries.

- 40% tax bracket for taxable income over $750,000
- 45% tax bracket for taxable income over $1,500,000
- 48.5% tax bracket for taxable income over $3,000,000

Now remember, a person who makes $3M pays the same amount taxes on their first $16,000 as the person who makes $16,000. So if a person made $3,000,001 a year, under the Ernie plan they would only pay a 48.5% rate on the $1 that they earned above the bracket.

Conservative idea - Strongly cut corporate taxes. I would cut the corporate rate from 35% to 15%.

Liberal idea - close all of the BS corporate loopholes and get rid of any tax subsidies and credits to those firms who are extremely healthy and making massive profits.

Crazy Ernie idea - tie a reduction in corporate taxes to either direct domestic hiring statistics (tailored to company size of course) or the percentage of domestic research & development investment by said corporation. "The more you invest in America, the more America will invest in you." Companies that show strong investment in domestic production and hiring could receive a corporate rate as low as 5%.

Primer for next idea, there are those who only make money off of stocks and bonds and such - these are called capital gains. Capital gains were taxed between 20 and 28% under Bill Clinton, with the Bush tax cuts they are now at 15%. Warren Buffett famously said "I pay less in taxes as a share of my income (15%) than my secretary (mix of 10-30%)."

Crazy Ernie idea - Capital gains tax for those with incomes under $100K will be 0%. After 100K, capital gains tax will be taxed at the person's marginal tax rate. For example, for 2011 Ernie was taxed at 10%, 15%, and 25%, but my marginal rate was something like 17.2% when all was said and done. So if I made more than 100K this year my capital gains tax would be 21.1% (It is currently 15%)

Lemme know what you think!

Republicans Are Not Serious About the Deficit

News outlets are noting that budget negotiators are "inches away" from a deal to avert a government shutdown, but that the one item holding a full deal back is the Republican's policy rider for fully de-funding Planned Parenthood, under the auspices that no tax dollars should go to fund abortions.

Unfortunately, there's just one small hitch. It is already federal law that no federal dollars go to funding abortion services; it's called the Hyde Amendment. And in fact abortion services makeup only 2% 3% of the services Planned Parenthood provides. So what does Planned Parenthood do, you ask? They largely provide basic health services for low-income women. Things such as mammograms and standard GBYN health exams and drum roll please...birth control! Perish the thought!

Most economists have called the funding of Planned Parenthood a deficit reducer. Why?

What do you think costs more? The $10-15 subsidy a month so a low income young woman can buy birth control? OR... The cost of the Child Income Tax Credit for 18 years? Let's also assume that this young woman is a single mother who has to stay home from high school and will probably never end up paying a tax dollar in her life. Hmmmmm... I wonder.

Methinks the birth control pills are cheaper for the government to help pay for.

Now, you might say maybe teens shouldn't be having sex at all! But your problem is not with Planned Parenthood, but with the man upstairs. It is His PERFECT design (right?) to make teens hornballs with larger and more active amygdalas and less active frontal lobes during this crucial timeframe. Too bad he designed humans so poorly to have intercourse when they were most fertile and physically healthy.

So Republicans, take the deal. We can argue (again) about abortion in 2012. And if you're serious about reducing the deficit, buy the damn birth control. Isn't having fewer poor people walking around the U.S. your favorite thing ever, anyway?

Venting about the response to Rep. Paul Ryan's 2012 Budget Roadmap

All over the blogosphere, the reviews of Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) 2012 "Path to Prosperity" are in and they are summarized as follows. "Some things are good, some things are bad, but let's give Paul Ryan applause for being so brave about forwarding tough solutions to tough problems vis-a-vis entitlement reform." Fareed Zakaria's recent column is a perfect example.

Below is what I wrote to Andrew Sullivan's blog (now at The Daily Beast/Newsweek) venting about this blather:

"I'm sorry but liberals came up with various serious proposals for healthcare. Yes, many of those plans either were rejected or dumbed down by the political process, but I don't remember many conservative thinkers (other than yourself) giving the liberals much credit for "policy bravery."

Hmmmm...if I seem to remember correctly, Republicans uniformly tried to negate an adult conversation about a serious policy topic by alleging that Democrats just wanted to "pull the plug on Grandma." Even though finding more honest ways to talk about end of life planning is the most philosophically "conservative" and cost-cutting policy in the bill. Being adult enough to confront one's own death and weigh the costs of useless treatment in the last few months is probably the bravest we'll have to be in our lives.

But I forgot, the Dems just wanted to kill Grandma.

Ryan isn't going to get any applause from me for being a f***ing ADULT legislator willing to seriously talk about the problems we face. Welcome to the intellectual honesty club. I'm glad someone from that party has joined."

For Becs...

"That's all I'm asking for...one night with your Mother on Mother's Day"

The Obam-"duh" Doctrine, Ctd...

All the way back in December of 2009, President Obama received the Nobel Peace prize and I noted that conservatives were stunned that the President would advocate for the use of force in defense of this country and in limited times when the humanitarian call for action was too great. And I said way back then, that this was unveiling of the Obama doctrine. And I was right.

President Obama proved last night that he's a man of his word. He does not oppose the use of military force but he understands that military force alone cannot, and we as a country cannot, force political change. We can create conditions where mass violence is minimized, but we cannot through our military might form a brand new government for a country out of whole cloth. And for god sakes, we don't need to save the whole world by ourselves! It's OK to ask friends for some help. One of my favorite quotes during the 2004 Presidential campaign, John Kerry mused regarding Iraq, "Mr. President, it's not leadership if no one is following."

Some conservatives and liberals argue that by imposing the "no-fly zone" implicitly calls for regime change. I disagree. We are not taking part in a civil war. We are merely making it a fair fight. We have removed Gaddaffi's ability to attack from the air (which is imprecise and kills more civilians) and limited his ability to use mass artillery.  The Obama Doctrine is essentially limited strategic force with a cooperative massive effort on the diplomatic end to ensure foreign policy goals. Last night, the President essentially said "Gaddaffi must go, but we don't have to kill him for that to happen." After the sobering lesson of Iraq, we've learned that the U.S. Armed Forces are really good at blowing stuff up. They are not good at making a government for a foreign country.

Meanwhile, France and the U.K. are taking the reins, because this is in their backyard and the conflict is a more vital interest to them. We are also supplying our high tech know-how with radar jamming and other advanced rescue capability.

I think it's a pretty sensible policy. We will stop mass murder where and when we can. We are in the business of stopping things from happening not making things happening. The military is responsible for destructive capability and constructive capability will be the purview of our state department and diplomatic efforts in the region, which by definition, includes partners willing to help and help pay for those shared goals.

The era of the superpower died in 1990 and really died on September 11, 2001. With actual threats that are so defuse and varied, no one nation will be able to fight it all by itself. The new era requires cooperation with friends and allies, which happens to be the best for security and fiscally. And if working with our friends is called weakness by some conservatives, than so be it. I'd rather have a stronger America that looks weak than a weak America that pretends to be strong.

It's only a war if we stay...

Although I'm a bit apprehensive about the No-Fly Zone in Libya (which I think is ultimately the right decision), I think as long as we leave the job to our NATO allies Britain and France I'm fine with it.

That's the benefit of having a strong Europe. It means that the U.S. doesn't need to police the whole world anymore. They bitched and moaned about what arrogant bullies we were in Iraq - and they were right - but now they get to take care of a mess and be responsible for cleaning it up. This new world order will allow "The Great Satan" to save some Arab and African lives (a two-fer!) and then sit on the couch for the hard part.

Just think of the economic benefit of having the U.S. Armed Forces single-handedly underwriting your entire regional security. Sorry Europe, we have our own country to rebuild.

Go U Northwestern! Break right through that line...

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Ah, Dr. Michael Bailey's Human Sexuality class, which this li'l Ernie got an A in. Celebrating crossing the line as always.

By the way, this fight song has "you might see a sex demonstration after class" written ALL over it. Come on people, we're the WILDcats not the LAMEcats. Cue the music!

The Republican Jobs Congress

1st order of business, set up the rules. 2nd order of business, repeal healthcare bill. 3rd order of business, redefine rape?

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Every time Republicans run for Congress, they promise to focus on jobs, jobs, jobs. But what they always really do is focus on culture war, culture war, culture war. Remember everyone, the REAL problem facing this country is not systemically high unemployment, it's that women who are date-raped shouldn't be able to use their pre-tax federal flexible spending account (FSA) for their abortion.

The Next President of the United States

...2016 style coming back to TV for a 2nd Season. You heard it here first. Mayor Cory Booker of Newark (the next President), just kicking butt and taking names. Bam!



For a little background, Cory Booker pretty much worked his butt off to drop the crime rate in Newark and under his leadership the city had its first month without a murder in 44 years.

What he said...

Every now and again (only rarely ;) I find someone who's punditry work is better than my own. Need to Know co-anchor Jon Meacham easily meets that bar in this video column. Amen brother. What he said...

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

On the Right's worship and eroticization of guns in America

"My countdown: No one read this! Jizz stain" - Jared Loughner

This is the last thing Jared Loughner wrote on his MySpace page before the shooting. It was the caption for the image of the ammunition clip extension he had purchased online which would enable him to shoot 30 bullets instead of the cartridge's initial capacity of 15.



I wanted my first post of 2011 to be on a happy or funny note. But unfortunately, due to the combination of my procrastination and the events that happened in Tucson, Arizona last weekend, it has to begin on a serious one. Before I start my post which attempts to think some things through, I want to start out with some ground rules for discussion.

1. The attempted assassination of Representative Giffords (D-AZ) was ultimately NOT politically motivated. Jared Loughner is a psychopath.

2. The tea party, Sarah Palin, the Republican party, and the NRA are in no way responsible for the deaths and injuries of the victims. The responsibility alone falls upon Mr. Loughner.

3. The tea party, Sarah Palin, and the Republican party ARE responsible for heated and violent political rhetoric that portrays moderate policies like Romneycare and some sort of immigration compromise as leading towards the apocalyptic collapse of this nation and its democracy. (As a leader, Sarah Palin should apologize for her irresponsible "gun sights" congressional PAC advertisement and Joe Manchin (D-WV) should apologize for this ad shooting the cap and trade bill as well).

4. The Democratic Party is also responsible for heated rhetoric and the demonization of those across the aisle. In many ways, the Democratic Party invented the practice at the Supreme Court nomination hearings of Robert Bork, and our nation and its political dialogue is worse off because of it.

5. This is NOT an isolated event. Just as the rough framework of religious ideology provided the environs for the deranged mind for the Fort Hood shooter, Nadal Hassan, political ideology provided the cultural ether for Loughner's mind to operate in.

I would argue that our main problem is the ether of the Right's worship and eroticization of guns and gun culture.  When I talk about the Right, I'm not talking about a political party or political ideology but the elements in generic American cultural Right that sees the 2nd Amendment as the Amendment that defends all the others and the sole reason our Republic survives.  (Liberals tend to view the 1st Amendment as the primary right that defends all others) 

I've used guns.  For me, it's fun to shoot at targets and I understand families who hunt for tradition.  I know people who own guns and 99% of the people that own guns use them properly and with respect.  However, the Right's worship and eroticization of guns combined with the paranoia that Government is not only negligent toward its citizenry but actively out to get them and take away their freedom is a dangerous mix.  Remember, for some on the Right, the TRUE definition of the 2nd Amendment is to protect U.S. citizens not from a simple break-in, or even from a foreign invasion, but from their own tyrannical United States government as Tom Tancredo (R-CO) said, "Mr. Obama is a more serious threat to America than Al Q'aida."

What this country needs is for both political parties to tone down their own heated rhetoric and stand up forcefully against rhetoric that goes too far, or is too explicit in its imagery a la Sharron Angle's "Second Amendment remedies" comment.

We also need to enact common sense gun laws that allow our citizenry full access to their constitutional right to own a firearm while enforcing reasonable restrictions against assault rifles and advanced weaponry as well as new regulatory mechanisms to weed out potentially mentally ill customers of guns and ammunition.

Your thoughts are not only appreciated but encouraged.

And allow yourself to enjoy the Little Britain clip...it is funny.  There'd be fewer Jared Loughner's if we all laughed at ourselves a bit more.