Saturday, November 23, 2013

P.M. Headlines



(Los Angeles Times): "New breed of Senate Democrats drove filibuster change"

(The Hill): "Left emboldened by nuclear move"

(Fox News): "Republicans cry foul over Obamacare 2015 enrollment period pushback"

(BBC News): "Iran nuclear talks: Hague bids to close 'narrow gaps'"

(Daily News): "Hours after JFK was assassinated, NFL commish Pete Rozelle made the decision he would live to regret"

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On the Hustings


(Politico): "Embattled Cheney books TV time"

(Anchorage Daily News): "NY lawyer takes on Begich - without leaving home"

(The Times Picayune): "Mary Landrieu approval ratings drop, Bobby Jindal's rise in latest polling data"

(USA Today): ""ACLU sues Kansas over voter registration requirements"

(Roll Call): "Trey Radel’s would-be primary challengers"

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Cameras, cameras everywhere

By Richard K. Barry


News out of Minnesota is that some poor sap by the name of Stewart Mills, who is the likely GOP nominee to run against Democratic incumbent Rep. Rick Nolan,  knows how to party, and there are pictures to prove it. 

Apparently, the source of the photos of Mills doing a beer bong is his wife's Facebook page. They were posted in 2009 and taken down sometime after he announced his congressional run, but nothing ever really goes away on the Internet, right?

There's also a creepy picture of him licking the lips of a woman not his wife at a party, but I'm sure there's an explanation. 

Maybe the Democratic source who released the pictures thinks this will have some kind of impact. I suspect not. I have to say, as someone who spent a few years living in a college dorm in the '70s, I'm sure glad everyone wasn't running around with cell phone cameras at the time. Not that I have political aspirations, but it's still a good thing.

As for the beer bong, the article in the Minneapolis City Pages where the story appears had a cute quip, which was that it "takes the 'I want to vote for a candidate I can have a beer with" thing to a whole new level, doesn't it?'"

Like I said, this ain't no thing. And you should take my word for it because I live in Toronto where we know what bad behaviour from a politician looks like. 

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A.M. Headlines


(CNN): "And credit for the nuclear option goes to..."

(The Atlantic): ""The filibuster's demise is great news for judicial confirmation hearings"

(New York Times): ""Kerry to join Iran nuclear talks, in sign of progress"

(CBC Evening News): ""Older people sign up for California's health exchange; younger people hold back"

(Washington Post): "Powerful storm system blasts US West; 4 killed"

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Friday, November 22, 2013

My November 22, 1963

Guest post by Robert Stein 

Ed. note: This is Bob's second guest post here at The Reaction. His first was "A life in black and white: Personal reflections on race in America." We will have more of his reflections on JFK in the days to come. -- MJWS 

Robert Stein has had a long career as an editor, publisher, media critic, and journalism teacher. A former chair of the American Society of Magazine Editors, he currently blogs at Connecting the Dots. 

**********

I woke up feeling good that Friday morning. Someone using my face had been on an eight-day swing of Minneapolis, Detroit and now Chicago, like a politician, selling a version of himself in hotel dining rooms, on morning TV and late-night radio, in offices and auditoriums, not for votes but pages of magazine advertising by making himself more affable to strangers than the equally fictitious other guys.

By nightfall I would be heading home to my real self, family, friends, life and work. To celebrate I treated myself to a barber-shop shave, savoring that prospect of release after a luncheon speech to 300 ad people in the ballroom of the Ambassador East.

Shortly after noon, food was being served when a waiter whispered into my ear, "Kennedy’s been shot."

I followed him into the kitchen where cooks, waiters and chambermaids, many with tears in their eyes, were staring at a small black-and-white TV set, frozen in attitudes of holding cleavers, platters and mops as if the world had suddenly stopped.

President Kennedy was on his way to Parkland Hospital, badly wounded.

In the ballroom, I went up to the stage, took the microphone and said, "I'm very sorry to have to tell you that the President's been shot in Dallas. It looks serious. I'm sure you'll want to go where you can follow what"s happening."

When I returned to my table, the waiter said, "I kept your lunch warm." When I shook my head, he vanished and returned a minute later with a large goblet of brandy.

A silver-haired man in an expensive suit came up and asked, "Does this mean you're not going to give your speech?" I nodded and went upstairs where I could be alone to watch Walter Cronkite, in a breaking voice, say "The President is dead."

The assassination was a shock not only to my nervous system but the nation's. The powerful, rich and famous, embodiments of what we dream for ourselves, are supposed to be safe. We are not prepared to see their skulls exploding before our eyes.

In a railroad dining car that evening, I was still in a daze, watching people eating, drinking and laughing as if nothing had happened, as if the world hadn't changed.

Back in my Pullman bed, stretched out for a night of sleepless sleep, I felt as if I were laid out in a tomb.

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P.M. Headlines


(New York Times): "Democracy returns to the Senate"

(Dana Milbank): "The Democrats’ naked power grab"

(Real Clear Politics): "Senate Dems placate dispirited core with nuclear option"

(CNN): "Extended: Obamacare enrolment deadline for January 1 coverage"

(Dallas Morning Star)
: "From George W. Bush the painter, a holiday ornament for sale"

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Behind the Ad: Liz Cheney doth protest too much about her roots


Who: The Liz Cheney campaign for the U.S. Senate

Where: Wyoming

What's going on: Liz Cheney may have deep family roots in Wyoming, where she is contesting the GOP nomination for a Senate seat against incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Enzi, but she had been living in Virginia until a short while ago.

Sure, she bought a home in Wyoming last year. And, no doubt, her family has a long history there. Her father represented Wyoming in Congress in addition to being vice president.

Some people care when a persons moves into a district for the specific person of running for office. Others care not so much. Ms. Cheney's clearly thinks it's an issues because she defends herself vigorously in the ad below.

Maybe it was the words in an editorial by the Gillette News Record that got under her skin.
Hey, Liz Cheney: If you want to run for U.S. Senate, try it from Virginia or some other state.

We already have a U.S. senator - one who has spent his life in Wyoming, one who took on the unenviable job of leading Gillette through the boom in the '70s and '80s, one who served for years in the Wyoming House and Senate before he ran for the U.S. Senate, one who could be in line for chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee, and most importantly, one who says he wants to run again.

Maybe too it was the results of a recent poll that shows her 53 points behind Enzi that led her to work so hard to convince Wyomingites that she belongs.

Not for nothing, but Liz Cheney seems like a real shit. I hope the voters in the state don't reward her for it.

 

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On the Hustings


(Roll Call): "Stark's revenge: Bad blood lingers with former foe"

(Washington Examiner): "Chris Christie takes over GOP governors association, moves to national stage"

(Politico Magazine): "The race that broke the Cheney family"

(Political Capital): "Perry on presidential debate overhaul: `hell, yeah”"

(Real Clear Politics): "Sen. Tim Scott refuses to endorse Lindsey Graham"

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November 22, 1963

By Mustang Bobby


There has already been a lot written about the events fifty years ago today. The media has flooded us with recollections, remembrances, commemorations, and the inevitable resurgence of conspiracy theories and speculation. We can relive that day minute by minute on YouTube, including the soap operas and commercials that were interrupted by the controlled panic from the newsroom as they tried to make sense of the bulletins clattering in on the AP teletypes.

I thought a lot about how to mark this day and put it in perspective: what it means and how it has changed our world. But I keep coming back to what I first wrote on the fortieth anniversary: where I was, what I was doing, and how an eleven-year-old kid’s view of the world changed on that day.

Friday, November 22, 1963. I was in the sixth grade in Toledo, Ohio. I had to skip Phys Ed because I was just getting over bronchitis, so I was in a study hall when a classmate came up from the locker room in the school basement to say, “Kennedy’s dead.” We had a boy in our class named Matt Kennedy, and I wondered what had happened – an errant fatal blow with a dodgeball? A few minutes later, though, it was made clear to us at a hastily-summoned assembly, and we were soon put on the buses and sent home. Girls were crying.



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A.M. Headlines


(Los Angeles Times): "Why JFK still matters"

(Washington Post): "Nine reasons the filibuster change is a huge deal"

(The Nation): "Obamacare: Too small to succeed?"

(New York Times): "Partisan fever in Senate likely to rise"

(CNN): "Obama approval rating sinks to new low"

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Thursday, November 21, 2013

P.M. Headlines


(New York Times):"Landmark Senate vote limits filibusters"

(The Atlantic): ""Why Harry Reid went nuclear"

(National Journal): "Love it or hate it, Obamacare redistributes Americans' wealth"

(Greg Sargent): "Dems try going on offense: It’s Obamacare versus ‘Cruz Care’"

(Newsweek): "Justice at Scottsboro, 82 years later"

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On the Hustings


(Politico): "Obama ‘12 vets to share some, not all, data"

(BuzzFeed): "Nancy Pelosi says Democrats won’t run only on Obamacare in 2014"

(USA Today): "Before 2016, Christie has to position himself carefully"

(The Week): "Is Jeb Bush gearing up for 2016?"

(Roll Call): "GOP operatives pile into Florida special election"

(Politico): "Bill Nelson: Charlie Crist ‘trouble’ could spur run for governor"

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Audit finding

By Mustang Bobby

Reuters did a piece investigating how the Department of Defense uses our money.
The Defense Department’s 2012 budget totaled $565.8 billion, more than the annual defense budgets of the 10 next largest military spenders combined, including Russia and China. How much of that money is spent as intended is impossible to determine.

In its investigation, Reuters has found that the Pentagon is largely incapable of keeping track of its vast stores of weapons, ammunition and other supplies; thus it continues to spend money on new supplies it doesn’t need and on storing others long out of date. It has amassed a backlog of more than half a trillion dollars in unaudited contracts with outside vendors; how much of that money paid for actual goods and services delivered isn’t known. And it repeatedly falls prey to fraud and theft that can go undiscovered for years, often eventually detected by external law enforcement agencies.

The consequences aren’t only financial; bad bookkeeping can affect the nation’s defense. In one example of many, the Army lost track of $5.8 billion of supplies between 2003 and 2011 as it shuffled equipment between reserve and regular units. Affected units “may experience equipment shortages that could hinder their ability to train soldiers and respond to emergencies,” the Pentagon inspector general said in a September 2012 report.

Meanwhile, the Republicans want to cut $40 billion from food stamps because of waste, fraud, and abuse.

For what it’s worth, I spent two hours yesterday gathering supporting documentation and preparing a transfer of expenditures to recover $468 in salary and fringes spent on a closed program. Your tax dollars at work.

(Cross-posgted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

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A.M. Headlines


(Washington Post): "Why reselling Obamacare won’t be easy"

(The Hill): "Obama hits new low with Dems"

(Politico): "John Boehner holds fire on Trey Radel cocaine controversy"

(New York Times): "Senate Democrats poised to block filibusters of presidential picks"

(ThinkProgress): "Illinois governor signs marriage equality into law"

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Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Time to write your representatives

By Frank Moraes
With a new filibuster fight before us, I knew that it was time to contact my problem Senator Dianne Feinstein. She is one of the old Democrats who always stands in the way of filibuster reform. If Harry Reid is having a hard time finding the votes to counter the Republicans, you can count on Feinstein being missing from his caucus.

For the umpteenth time, writing to your Senator or Representative is really easy. Just go to Who Is My Representative. You enter your zip code (depending upon where you live, you may need your extended 9-digit code), and it will tell you who represents you in Congress. But more than that, it will give you links that take you right to where you can contact your representative. If you care enough to vote, you should definitely care enough to write your representative, because doing so gives you extra influence because most people don't write.

What's more, you don't have to say much. I try to dash off a couple of breezy paragraphs. But a sentence or two is all you really need to do. This is what I wrote to Feinstein today:
Dear Senator Feinstein:

I know you are not keen on filibuster reform. But look: the little things that have been tried, have not worked. If anything is going to happen, you must at least support Harry Reid in his showdown with the Republicans. The current situation with the DC Court nominees is totally unacceptable.

You are cautious. I get that. But what I want is the end to the filibuster altogether (which I think we will get as soon as the Republicans are back in control, anyway). But moving forward on nomination filibusters mustbe done. Please support real filibuster reform and not more of the weak tea that hasn't done anything to help the situation.

Thank you!

-Frank Moraes

But like I said, you don't even need to do that much. Just say, "You need to support Harry Reid in his fight against the Republican misuse of the filibuster!" It's not going to mean any less than what I write. And remember that you have two Senators in this case. I will go and send a nice note to Barbara Boxer now. (My letters to her are always nice because she mostly does what I want.)

(Cross-posted at Frankly Curious.)

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On the Hustings


(The Hill): ""DCCC hits Republicans for blank-page agenda"

(Quinnipiac): "Colorado governor has early lead in reelect bid"

(National Journal): "Mary Landrieu and the art of backing away"

(Public Policy Polling): "Montana Republicans well positioned for 2014"


(The Hill): "Iowa GOP to Christie: Don’t skip caucuses"

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No excuses

By Mustang Bobby

Rep. Trey Radel, a Tea Party congressman from Fort Myers, Florida, gets busted for buying cocaine in Washington, D.C., and he blames it on “struggling with the disease of alcoholism.”
As the father of a young son and a husband to a loving wife, I need to get help so I can be a better man for both of them.

Setting aside the obvious cracks about having to be shitfaced to believe Tea Party crap in the first place, I’m not buying the line about excusing it because of his disease. I’ve sat through too many meetings where someone claims that the fault is laid somewhere else and that’s why they’re still using or drinking. It doesn’t work. Saying “I need help” is not enough.

It’s nice, I suppose, that Mr. Radel is getting support from his Republican colleagues and they’re asking for understanding and privacy, going so far as to say that now is not the time to consider the political ramifications. After all, the GOP has a fine collection of serial adulterers, johns, and self-loathing closet cases to pack all the available 12-step programs in every church basement or Quaker meeting house, so why should Mr. Radel be hounded from office?

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

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A.M. Headlines


(CBS News): "Supreme Court allows Texas to keep enforcing abortion restrictions"

(Politico): "Hope grows for budget deal"

(Wall Street Journal): "Obama backs piecemeal immigration overhaul"

(National Journal): "Did the shutdown even matter?"

(Real Clear Politics): "Rep. Trey Radel facing drug charges"

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Tuesday, November 19, 2013

P.M. Headlines


(New York Times): "Virginia political figure stabbed by son, authorities say"

(Miami Herald): "Tea party Rep. Trey Radel busted for cocaine in DC"

(Greg Sargent): "Harry Reid is set to go nuclear"

(National Journal): "Poll: Most Americans oppose Obamacare repeal despite rollout troubles"

(Charlie Cook): "Why is Cheney running for Enzi's Wyoming senate seat? Better question: Why not?"

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As if things in the Middle East weren't crazy enough...

By Carl

A bomb went off by the Iranian consulate in Beirut:

Two explosions, at least one caused by a suicide bomber, rocked Iran's embassy in Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least 23 people, including an Iranian cultural attaché, and hurling bodies, cars and debris across the street.

A Lebanese-based al Qaeda-linked group known as the Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for what it described as a double suicide attack on the Iranian mission in southern Beirut.

Lebanon has suffered a series of bomb attacks and clashes linked to the 2-1/2-year-old conflict in neighboring Syria.

Security camera footage showed a man in an explosives belt rushing towards the outer wall of the embassy before blowing himself up, Lebanese officials said. They said the second explosion was caused by a car bomb parked two buildings away from the compound.

Now, here’s the thing: The two bombers were Sunni members of al Qaeda. Lebanon is in a struggle for freedom against Syria and Bashar al-Assad – a Shi’ite – who is backed by Iran, a Shi’ite nation.

We’re going to need a scorecard soon.

This might tend to complicate matters for our talks with Iran, to be certain, particularly if al Qaeda and her affiliates perceive Iran as capitulating to the secular West. There may be more flies in the ointment before this all smoothes over. Remember that al Qaeda has in the past gotten (and likely continues to get) strong financial and logistical support from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Again, nations closely aligned with western interests. This is not just about Sunni/Shi’a. This becomes more of a focus on the future of Islam in totality, and which sect gains the upper hand and by extension, gets the candy of dealing with the rest of the world.

And there’s a wild card and likely the only reason Iran is even bothering to discuss its nuclear program: China, which has grown over the past decade to become Iran’s closest strategic partner, giving Iran cover to develop ties in Asia. China’s permanent position on the UN Security Council gives it a fairly dominating position in influencing how the world treats Iran. It’s no coincidence that the moment China expressed even tepid support for sanctions (2010) against Iran that the ayatollahs moderated their language and allowed a moderate presence in the secular government and open demonstrations by liberal Iranian factions.

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

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On this date

By Mustang Bobby

One hundred and fifty years ago today, President Abraham Lincoln delivered some remarks at a cemetery dedication in Pennsylvania.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

He was wrong on one point: the world did note and will long remember what he said there.

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

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On the Hustings


(BuzzFeed): "Elizabeth Warren isn’t running for president, top financial backer tells Democrats"

(CNN): "Hillary Clinton and the sisterhood"

(The Hill): "Ryan blasts ObamaCare in return to Iowa"

(Roll Call): "Phil Berger Jr. to announce congressional bid in North Carolina"

(Roll Call): "Mitt Romney endorses in House GOP primary in Idaho"

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Obamacare website on the mend

By Frank Moraes

Jonathan Chait has written a welcome salve for us liberals still bothered by the problems that have
plagued the Healthcare.gov website, Obamacare Hyperventilation to Continue Forever! It is important to remember the "dog bites man" aspect of modern journalism. Things that don't go wrong are not news. Thus we hear about what's going wrong with Obamacare and completely miss everything that is going right with it.

Chait mentions any number of the "right" things. Perhaps the biggest thing is that Obamacare has been in effect for years. It is only the exchanges that are six weeks old. And these other parts have been going really well. Healthcare costs have been lower than expected. People with preexisting conditions have been able to get insurance. And kids have been able to stay on their parents policies. Even since the rollout of the exchanges, things have gone pretty well. People are signing up for the Medicaid expansion at a good clip. The state run exchanges are working really well. And the website is getting fixed.

The main point of his article is that it just isn't true that Democrats are abandoning Obamacare. It is all just wishful thinking on the part of conservatives with a major assist by the mainstream press who would just love the feeding frenzy of an actual Democratic Party war. After the coverage of the supposed civil war in the Republican Party, you would think that everyone would just calm down. But no. And in a couple of months it will be like it never happened.

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A.M. Headlines


(Huffington Post): "Obama's gift to the Republicans"

(Washington Post): "Obama’s ratings tumble after health-care flaws"

(Los Angeles Times): "Healthcare plan enrollment surges in some states after rocky rollout"

(ABC News): "Chris Christie knocks GOP, says Washington is full of ‘absolutists’"

(New York Times): "Obama pick for Court is 3rd in a row blocked by Republicans"

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Monday, November 18, 2013

P.M. Headlines


(National Journal): "President Obama and his gang that (still) isn't shooting straight"

(NBC Politics): ""Former VP Cheney weighs in on daughters' same sex marriage feud"

(Daily Beast): "John Kerry defies the White House on Egypt policy"

(Roll Call): "Abortion dilemma in ‘nuclear option’ debate"

(CBC News): "Peter Wintonick, Canadian documentary great, dead at 60"

(USA Today): "NASA's orbiter lifts off on its way to Mars"

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Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of creeps

By Carl

So Liz Cheney, Senate candidate from Wyoming, and sister Mary, an out-of-the-closet lesbian, have begun a war of words over same-sex marriage.

The simmering feud between the daughters of former Vice President Dick Cheney over same sex marriage has reignited on social media.

Mary Cheney and her wife Heather Poe took to Facebook to express their disappointment after Liz Cheney - a GOP candidate for Senate in Wyoming - repeated her opposition to same sex marriage during a television interview.

"Liz - this isn't just an issue on which we disagree - you're just wrong - and on the wrong side of history," Mary Cheney wrote.

In a separate Facebook post, Heather Poe called her sister-in-law's comments "offensive."

The Cheney family has struggled with Mary’s lifestyle “choice” for nearly a decade now. In terms of the potential for her marriage, you may recall in 2004 Dick Cheney was about it, and famously responded, “With respect to the question of relationships, my general view is that freedom means freedom for everybody.”

Apparently, the apple fell far from the tree.

It’s no secret, I think, that the Cheneys are Machiavellian by nature, with a stubborn inability to change a single opinion even in the face of overwhelming evidence that they are wrong. It seems this tendency, valuable in western state politics, could come back to haunt them in their own backyards.

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

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No comparison

By Mustang Bobby

No, the roll-out of Obamacare is not comparable to Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq war, or the troubles of Mayor Rob Ford.

Making such comparisons only proves that Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was more of a documentary than people give it credit for.

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

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On the Hustings


(The Hill): "Plagiarism charges test Paul’s 2016 run" 

(Reuters): "Analysis: Republicans plan 2014 campaign around Obamacare chaos"

(The Telegraph): "Bill Clinton tells China forum he hopes for female US president"

(Roll Call): "DSCC outraised NRSC in October"

(Real Clear Politics): "Unions sets sights on Ohio governor's race"

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Stagnation is still all income inequality

By Frankly Moreas

Paul Krugman has written quite a laudatory article about a recent talk given by Larry Summers. I think part of this is just an attempt for Krugman to make nice after being fairly critical of Summers as a possible Federal Reserve chair. But there is no denying that what Summers has to say is interesting. You can read Krugman's description of it, Secular Stagnation, Coalmines, Bubbles, and Larry Summers. But the basic idea is pretty simple. And troubling.

What Summers noted was that since Reagan, the only time that our economy has been at full employment has been when some kind of bubble is going on. Part of this goes along with our huge increase in private debt over that time. But it is has not caused inflation. Summers suggests that we have a new normal where the economy is depressed. The takeaway from all of this is what we already know: individual saving during bad economic times is bad for the economy generally. Given that individuals won't spend, the government ought to be spending more. This is all very basic Keynesian theory.


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Behind the Ad: The Republican National Committee tries to go all hip and stuff

By Richard K. Barry

Who: The Republican National Committee

Where: The Washington D.C. area on selected cable programs

What's going on: The only reason I don't like Obamacare is that it's not a single-payer system, which was a bridge way to far for America. Only socialists would even contemplate such a thing.  And okay, fine, Obama and team blew the rollout, which is exactly what we needed: Give the GOP something to attack so they don't have to talk about the fact they are offering nothing to provide healthcare for the millions who don't have it.

A couple of weeks ago the RNC began airing ads based on the old and popular  "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" commercials. I've seen at least four of them. Maybe that's all there is. And maybe they're even sort of funny, though I find conservatives have no idea how to do humour. Every now and then they try a political comedy program on Fox and it ends up being either stupid or mean in that way that Fox likes to be.

Besides only running in D.C., the ads appeared on the Jon Stewart show in order to appeal to his younger demographic. Maybe it's been a long time since I knew what young people find funny, but I'll bet this isn't it. Come on, they have to have someone younger than 50 developing ads for the GOP. 

And, um, not to quibble, but the ads set up the adversaries as "the private sector" vs. "Obamacare." How does that even make sense? Oh, it's not supposed to. 

Here's one of the four. Laugh your ass off, if you are so inclined. 

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A.M. Headlines


(The Hill): "Three's a crowd"

(Roll Call): ""How much did Snowden leak?"

(Mediaite): "David Plouffe to ABC: GOP plan to run against Obamacare an ‘impossibility’"

(NBC News): "Midwest tornadoes: Communities count cost as deadly storms head northeast"

(New York Times): "The city with a death wish in its eye: Dallas’s role in Kennedy’s murder"

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Sunday, November 17, 2013

P.M. Headlines


(Washington Post): "Cheney sisters trade barbs over same-sex marriage"

(Wall Street Journal): "White House soul-searches as errors mount"

(The Hill): "McAllister wins La. House special election"

(Boston Herald): "JFK tragedy defines a generation"

(New York Times): "Doris Lessing, novelist who won 2007 Nobel, is dead at 94"

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On the Hustings


(ABC News): "Scott Walker on the ideal GOP 2016 presidential candidate: members of Congress need not apply"

(BuzzFeed): "Martin O’Malley takes “Believe” campaign to the presidential stage"

(Politico): "GOP’s third shot at Senate: Charm or bust?"

(New York Times): "In fracas on health coverage, some Democrats feel exposed"

(Washington Post): "Democrats lay groundwork for Clinton 2016"

(The Hill): "Ky. race fractures conservatives"

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Socialist, communist, and doodie pants

By Frank Moraes

There has been a lot of excitement about the fact that Kshama Sawant seems to have one her race for the Seattle City Council. The reason is that she ran as a socialist. But here's the thing: it doesn't mean that much. The world "socialist" has lost most of its meaning both on the left and on the right. And it is mostly a very good thing.

The Republicans are mostly to blame. They are experts at vilifying words. But they tend to take it too far. As I found myself asking conservatives a lot during the first two years of his presidency, "If Obama is a socialist, what was Stalin?" If you listen carefully to conservatives, you will quickly notice that to them, any deviation from their current ideology is, "Socialism! Socialism, I tell you!"

Obama was called a socialist. Clinton was called a socialist before him. Is there any doubt that any Democratic president will be vilified as a socialist? This kind of name calling can only work for so long. After a while, the word becomes nothing more than "doodie pants." Okay, we get it: you don't like the Democrats so you call them socialists. But it doesn't mean anything more than that.

Look, it would be one thing if Republicans actually did stand for some kind of libertarian utopia. But they don't. They are among the biggest supporters for the three biggest socialist programs we have: Social Security, Medicare, and the military. That's 80% of the federal budget, folks. So if the difference between "Socialist!" and "Patriotic American!" is that remaining 20%, I think we can say that the Republicans are being a mite hyperbolic. (And note: the Republicans are also for most of the remaining 20% too.)


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A.M. Headlines


(The Hill): "'Safety net' hinders farm bill talks"

(Roll Call): "The 39 House Democrats who defied Obama’s veto threat"

(NBC News): "Typhoon Haiyan: A crisis by the numbers"

(Reuters): "Netanyahu to lobby world powers against Iran nuclear deal"

(Politico): "Obamas, Clintons to visit JFK grave"

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