Kaminsky: Wingnut Concentrate

Ross Kaminsky never fails. I read everything he writes on the Denver Post website and it is always the most batshit crazy wingnut jibberish that I regularly read. Today he goes above and beyond even his usual crazy,

Do you work for AIG or GM? For Citigroup or the Department of Education? If so, then I wish you happy Dependence Day. Same if you work at a company which uses lobbyists to steer federal earmarks your way…or if you are that lobbyist. And, not to sound cruel, but if you’re on welfare (especially if you could with a little effort get off it), or if you’re getting unemployment benefits or food stamps, then welcome to Dependence Day.

And if you voted for Barack Obama and Democratic congressional candidates and still are proud of your vote, most of all I welcome youto Dependence Day...

While I will celebrate what independence I have left, I’ll always have in the back of my mind the destruction that you and yours are wreaking on our republic. You have a lot to answer for, and I trust that history – and my children and yours – will judge you no more kindly than I do.

You may think I sound angry and bitter. Well, I am

It just goes on from there. It would be nice if the Post bothered to get around to replacing David Sirota in the token lefty blogger slot. Ross has had the run of the place for a few weeks and it's really getting ugly.

Truly a bridge to nowhere

Reading a lot of the commentary on Palin it has really struck me how she has tried to work from George W. Bush's playbook in terms of public image and the ways they appeal to the base. Bush was the Aww-Shucks Evangelical just working on his ranch in Texas like any other man. Don't forget the overly done Texas accent.

Palin is trying to tap into that vein of resentment that the corp base of the GOP has thrived on since Nixon. The thing is though, Nixon, Reagan, Bush - they were all playing to that base but they were not from that base. Sarah Palin isn't just some typical politcian playing the old tunes about the Liberal Media and Liberal Elites in a folksy cadence. At her core Sarah Palin is truly a part of the base of the GOP.

There are local and state candidates and office holders as conservative as Palin is and just as unqualified as Palin is in every state. From a national political stand point these are useful foot soldiers but you're not really interested in letting them hog the national spotlight. The GOP establishment is pretty structurally sound, you earn your stripes over periods of decades to rise up in the ranks. Palin represents the id of that base. They've finally gotten one of their own into a position of political power and prestige.

A commenter at Yglesias' place said it well,

By the way, I agree that the one comment element between Palin and Dubya, Reagan, and Nixon is that she capitalizes to some degree on the resentments that define the GOP base. In other words, she is very much a Southern Strategy candidate. The problem is that is ALL she is, which probably wouldn’t have been sufficient for any of her predecessors, and certainly isn’t sufficient going forward in light of shifting demographics and ideological trends among young people.

Village media and conventional wisdown poster boy blames Letterman for Palin

Howie Kurtz is a totally fascinating human being to me. The shit that comes out his mouth is just so patently absurd most of the time and yet he delivers it in his best Serious Journalist Voice with the requisite Serious Journalist Concerned Look. The fact that this guy gets paid huge money to do whatever the hell it is that does is pretty troubling. He just encapsulates everything that has gone horribly, horribly wrong in our elite media.

I truly appreciate good journalism, I have relationships with some reporters and have worked closely with others. A huge number of them are hard-working, intelligent and driven people. Truly, the folks who cover state and local politics in this state work their tails off. So t's not as if I simply hate journalists in general or assign an overt bias to most of them. No, what's dangerous is when the media becomess entirely co-opted by the political establishment as vast numbers of the Washington Press corps appears to be. Kurtz and the DC political press are so close to power and so cozy with it that it severely impairs their judgment. The media, especially guys like Kurtz, are simply no match intellectually or strategically for the top communications and message people that elite politicians and political organizations employ. It's frequently embarrasing for them as Kurtz shoud be today.

A look at life for White House staff

Interesting piece in today's NY Times on the work-life balance issues that come with working in the White House. I've been a staff person before at a decent level in a modestly important office, thinking about my work I'm awed at anyone working at this level. I have the utmost respect for the people who have taken these positions. It must be incredibly grueling and destructive in so many ways to normal relationships and marriages.

One thing that did jump out at me though,

White House advisers often work 60 to 70 hours a week...

That actually surprises me. I would have expected more like 60 for many of the staff but I'd guess the top advisers are working much more than 70. Maybe not, but I sort of doubt Rahm Emmanual, Robert Gibbs or David Axelrod work less than 80 hours in a week. And those are just the "name" folks at the top. There are many other working behind the scenes but who are nonetheless absolutely critical to the functioning of the office and our government.

Anyway it's an interesting article and recommended weekend reading.

Honduras' top military leader admits coup was illegal

This isn't a huge surprise but it's worth noting,

The military officers who rushed deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya out of the country Sunday committed a crime but will be exonerated for saving the country from mob violence, the army's top lawyer said.

In an interview with The Miami Herald and El Salvador's elfaro.net, army attorney Col. Herberth Bayardo Inestroza acknowledged that top military brass made the call to forcibly remove Zelaya -- and they circumvented laws when they did it.

It was the first time any participant in Sunday's overthrow admitted committing an offense and the first time a Honduran authority revealed who made the decision that has been denounced worldwide.

I anxiously await Larison's response, he's a smart and honest intellectual who's just had a major blow inflicted to his position.

Non-apology apology Hall of Fame nominee

Some guy names Erik Sean Nelson who is apparently a professional author comedy writer of some sort wrote an offensive post about Trig Palin over at HuffingtonPost. He has now apologized... sort of,

Within ten minutes of my post I received some emails from the loved ones of the retarded and I saw that my piece was hurtful. Therefore, I removed the post right after receiving the first 2 emails.

I don't know maybe it's just me but an apology for making fun of a mentally handicapped infant which includes the phrase "the retarted [sic]" doesn't strike me as much of an apology at all.

UPDATE: Skippy the Bush Kangaroo was on this earlier,

ah, the "offensive stuff written ironically so it's not offensive any more" defense, eh?

and we are aghast that nelson would actually write that some "loved ones of the retarded" sent emails.

it's rather like saying, "i heard from some jungle bunnies, and they were upset. i apologize."

look, folks, we know the left has had an amazing amount of good luck lately, w/ensign, sanford, and palin's troubles, not to mention franken getting seated, but that's no excuse to be rude. nothing is less appealing than an ungracious winner.

firstly, as someone related to a differently-abled american, skippy is incensed that the perjorative "retarded" is being used in a top blog like huffpo.

but secondly, if the idiot who used the offensive word continues to use it in his apology, he obviously hasn't learned a damned thing about human beings.

Deep thought

In 20 years will today's Republicans be more embarrassed to tell their grandchildren that they voted for George W. Bush twice or Sarah Palin once?

Tragic news for local politico

I heard the terrible story of the accidental toddler drowning in Vail last weekend on the news but until just now I hadn't realized that the victim was the 2 1/2 year old son of the Denver Metro Chamber's Sara Cassidy. My condolences to Sara and her family at this tragic time. Face The State has the details on the memorial fund for anyone interested.

Celebrating the 4th...

Headed out to Red Rocks to see Wilco tonight. Should be a great way to ring in Independence Day, I hope all of you enjoy your weekends as well.

Last post on Honduras, really...

Larison today,

Does it really make any sense to say that the collective response of all of the country’s political institutions to remove Zelaya from power, which reflected an overwhelming majority consensus of the population, resulted in an attack on democracy?

Yes. Yes it does.

Arguing that because a president was unpopular in an opinion poll (remember Larison and the people peddling this meme are only citing a, as in one, single poll) that all of the instiutions of democracy may be suspended and a military coup justified is insanity. I don't know any other way to describe it. How anyone could argue that the entire democratic system of a nation would be justifiably short-circuited because of the popularity of a president is absolutely beyond me. This is an absurd and desperate argument.

Would Larison have supported a coup against George W. Bush and the abolition of our 1st, 4th and 14th Amendments after his removal? Bush's popularity was, statistically speaking, just as low as Zelaya. Applying the absurdist "logic" of Larison's position one could argue for a myriad of miliatry actions against duly elected leaders around the globe. What would that do for the spread of democracy, the protection of civil and human rights and geo-political stability?

A democratic society is built to outlast and withstand even the most incompetent or dangerous of leaders. It is the system itself that allows the democratic ideals and principles to survive and to thrive. Arguing that the systems and rules of law can be just discarded by judicial fiat and military coup is to argue against the very essence of what a democratic society is to stand for.

It's not all that different from the arguments that were pushed by Bush and Cheney to justify torture, wireless surveliance and the like in the aftermath of 9/11. They believed (or at least they argue) that democracy itself was threatened by Islamic terrorism and that to defend democracy they must subvert our traditions and instiutions of democracy. How is that any different than what the defenders of the coup are arguing today?

Like I said, it's insanity.

Relatedly, Sullivan has linked us to Dr. Greg Weeks take on the matter. He makes a handful of very succint points and is a bit of a subject matter expert, I highly recommend clicking through.

The rule of law. Honduran style

Defending a military coup based on arguments that it somehow was about "the rule of law" prevailing is proving to be a fairly credulous argument. The Honduran Congress has just removed five constitutional articles dealing with basic civil and human rights.

Measuring the health of the economy through jobs numbers

The worse than expected June jobs numbers are out. You can find commentary all over the web and the blogosphere on how we should judge these numbers. The most interesting analysis I've read though as come from Harvard Economist Jeff Frankels,

There is no lying in US government statistics. But there are always commentators who will use the numbers to make whatever point they want. One should learn enough to be able to interpret the numbers for oneself. That is the only way to prevent being misled.

Of the many numbers contained in the BLS reports, I view three as especially important.

The most salient figure politically is the unemployment rate...

The second important number in the labor market reports is employment...

...the third indicator is my personal favorite for gauging the business cycle in real time: the rate of change of total hours worked in the economy. Total hours worked is equal to the total number of workers employed, multiplied by the length of the workweek for the average worker. The length of the workweek tends to respond at turning points faster than does the number of jobs. When demand is slowing, firms tend to cut back on overtime, and then switch to part-time workers or in some cases cut workers back to partial workweeks, before they lay them off. The phenomenon is called “labor hoarding.” Conversely, when demand beings to rise, firms tend to increase the workweek, before they hire new workers. (To take two historical examples, the “change in total hours worked” improved in both April 1991 and November 2001, which on other grounds were eventually declared to mark the ends of their respective recessions.)

The workweek reached a historically short level in June: 33.0 hours. Not a good sign. As one consequence, total hours worked fell 0.8% that month, continuing the same rapid deterioration we have seen since last September, the month when Lehman Brothers failed and the recession worsened sharply.

The bottom line for the economy: despite signs in other areas that the recession is leveling out – most importantly, production — the labor market indicators in themselves are not yet signaling a turning point.

Emphasis mine.

Frankels' analysis gets us to the same place as the other numbers but I think he gets us there in a way that is far more precise than the other more commonly cited measurements. That precision should, as Frankels notes, lead to a more accurate and real time measurement of the job situation as we slog through this recession.

At the very least it's a measurement that will make you look smart when you cite it at your Independence Day barbecue.

Senatorial

That's really the only way to describe Al Franken's behavior since the election ended 7 months ago. You can mock him for being just a comedian (a Harvard educated comedian I should add) but he's clearly demonstrated restraint and leadership throughout this mess.

Palin in a flight suit

I shit you not. The whole thing is really just completely delusional.



Also, note the not so subtle juxtaposition of King Kong with President Obama. Classy lady they've got there.

Framing the filibuster

The local NBC affiliate has twice now (at 10pm last night and just a few minutes ago) discussed the Franken outcome in terms of Democrats reaching 60 votes, "the number needed to block a Republican filibuster."

I can't be the only Democrat who cringes when I hear that phrase. In truth 60 votes gets Democrats (theoretically) enough votes to end GOP filibusters. The phrase "block" denotes, to me at least, that Democrats are obstructing the GOP. In reality it's exactly the opposite of course, it's the GOP who is engaging in unprecedented obstructionism (with the occasional assist from the Mary Landrieu's of the world) and it pains me to hear media discussing the filibuster issue while using such a GOP friendly frame.