California Dreaming

(Editorial cartoon by Mike Luckovich and published 4/26/13 by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.  Click on image to enlarge and then return for an explanation.)

Yes, yes, I know.  I used this same cartoon for yesterday's post.  But I do so for a reason.  It's to bring one possible specific application from yesterday's post to today's California.

I spotted an interesting op-ed piece over the weekend from Garry South, a longtime Democratic strategist and commentator who ran Gov. Gray Davis' campaigns in 1998 and 2002.  Clearly Mr. South has a political bias, but he does raise some interesting issues.

First, a history lesson. In three of the last four non-presidential elections, Republicans actually nominated Latinos for statewide office: Ruben Barrales for controller in 1998, Gary Mendoza for insurance commissioner in 2002 and Maldonado for lieutenant governor in 2010. All three were attractive, articulate candidates with compelling personal stories.

But all three went down in flames, receiving an average of only 37.9% of the vote. And there is no indication in postelection analyses that they received any meaningfully higher share of the Latino vote than a white male GOP candidate would have gotten. ...

Now for some data. Part of the GOP problem with Latinos is generational. Latinos are, on average, the youngest-skewing voters of all, and Republicans are in deep trouble with young voters of all ethnicities. Data indicate that more than 70% of all Latino voters in the Golden State have registered since 1994, when the divisive, anti-immigrant Proposition 187 campaign was spearheaded by Republican Gov. Pete Wilson. Proposition 187 was a watershed event in California political history, as it turned an entire generation of Latinos into reliable Democratic voters.

How reliable? Some voter blocs in California tend to be swing voters; not Latinos. A huge majority of California Latinos vote generically Democratic, whether the Democratic candidate is strong or weak, pretty or ugly, wins or loses. ...

In further bad news for the California GOP, Latinos also are the fastest-growing segment of the electorate. Whites have been declining in terms of the composition of the turnout for years. In 1994, with Wilson seeking a second term and Proposition 187 on the ballot, whites constituted 82% of the state's voters, Latinos only 8%. In the 2012 general election, whites were just 55%, while Latinos were 22%, a historic high. And since 1994, GOP nominees for president and governor in the state have received only, on average, 25.5% of the Latino vote. As Bill Clinton would say, do the math.

Latino voters, by any analysis — historical or statistical — are just not available for Republican candidates in California at this time, whether Latino-surnamed or not.    [Emphasis added] 

Like I said, South has a bias, but I have no reason to doubt his statistics and for one particular reason.  The state was smart enough to pass a proposition which took redistricting out of the hands of the state legislature (prone to gerrymandering) and into the hands of a non-partisan citizen's commission.  Districts were fairly and sensibly drawn.  The result was to make California reliably blue in most districts.

Also, his comments on the effect of Prop 187 is and will continue to be a thorn in the side of Republicans.  The party didn't want Latinos then and presumably still doesn't, unless they promise to vote for Republicans.  Young people just aren't willing to take the risk of depending on the Goofy Old Paranoids, not matter what their ethnicity.  Young people, who have grandparents here without papers surely won't.

And that's one of the reasons I'm glad I live in California.

Facing Which Direction?

(Editorial cartoon by Mike Luckovich and published in the Atlanta Journal Consitution April 26, 2012.  Click on image to enlarge, and then be good enough to return.)

Sometimes the editorial board of the Washington Post gets it right, and this is one of those times.

AT ABORTION clinics, the presence of awnings, the width of doorways and the dimensions of janitorial closets have little to do with the health of patients. But by requiring that Virginia’s 20 abortion clinics conform to strict licensing standards designed for new hospitals, the state has ensured that many or most of them will be driven out of business in the coming months. ...

...According to a survey by the state Health Department, just one of the 19 surviving clinics meets the requirements. Fifteen of the remaining facilities estimated their combined costs of compliance at $14.5?million.

Some of the clinics, including those operated by Planned Parenthood, which has a national fundraising network, will survive. Many others, which are run as small businesses, probably will not. Most have no means to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to widen corridors, install state-of-the-art surgical sinks and expand parking lots.

What’s more, the upgrades they face are arbitrary manifestations of the state’s overweening power. Other types of walk-in clinics, including those that perform oral and cosmetic surgery, are unaffected by the regulations. ...

Regulation is essential for all health services. But there is no evidence that unsanitary conditions or slapdash procedures are common at abortion clinics in Virginia nor that women who seek services from them are at risk. The state’s assault on women’s reproductive rights is an ideological crusade masquerading as concern for public health.   [Emphasis added]

Exactly so.

The Republican  Party continues to claim it is returning to its roots, that it has much to offer minorities and immigrants and women, but those claims are usually offset by its basest base:  Limbaugh, the Tea Partiers, the Religious Reich.  So who are we to believe?

I guess we'll have to wait until 2014 to find out.

Sunday Poetry: Langston Hughes

Will V-Day Be Me-Day Too?

Over There,
World War II.

Dear Fellow Americans,
I write this letter
Hoping times will be better
When this war
Is through.
I'm a Tan-skinned Yank
Driving a tank.
I ask, WILL V-DAY
BE ME-DAY, TOO?

I wear a U. S. uniform.
I've done the enemy much harm,
I've driven back
The Germans and the Japs,
From Burma to the Rhine.
On every battle line,
I've dropped defeat
Into the Fascists' laps.

I am a Negro American
Out to defend my land
Army, Navy, Air Corps--
I am there.
I take munitions through,
I fight--or stevedore, too.
I face death the same as you do
Everywhere.

I've seen my buddy lying
Where he fell.
I've watched him dying
I promised him that I would try
To make our land a land
Where his son could be a man--
And there'd be no Jim Crow birds
Left in our sky.

So this is what I want to know:
When we see Victory's glow,
Will you still let old Jim Crow
Hold me back?
When all those foreign folks who've waited--
Italians, Chinese, Danes--are liberated.
Will I still be ill-fated
Because I'm black?

Here in my own, my native land,
Will the Jim Crow laws still stand?
Will Dixie lynch me still
When I return?
Or will you comrades in arms
From the factories and the farms,
Have learned what this war
Was fought for us to learn?

When I take off my uniform,
Will I be safe from harm--
Or will you do me
As the Germans did the Jews?
When I've helped this world to save,
Shall I still be color's slave?
Or will Victory change
Your antiquated views?

You can't say I didn't fight
To smash the Fascists' might.
You can't say I wasn't with you
in each battle.
As a soldier, and a friend.
When this war comes to an end,
Will you herd me in a Jim Crow car
Like cattle?

Or will you stand up like a man
At home and take your stand
For Democracy?
That's all I ask of you.
When we lay the guns away
To celebrate
Our Victory Day
WILL V-DAY BE ME-DAY, TOO?
That's what I want to know.

Sincerely,
GI Joe.

--Langston Hughes

Sunday Funnies: 4 by 4

(Editorial cartoon by Tom Toles and published in the Washington Post 4/24/13.  Click on image to enlarge.)

(Political cartoon by Jen Sorensen and published at Daily Kos 4/24/13.  Click on image to enlarge.)

(Editorial cartoon by Jack Ohman and published 4/25/13 in the Sacramento Bee.  Click on image to enlarge.)

(Editorial cartoon by Jim Morin / Miami Herald (April 26, 2013) and featured at McClatchy DC. Click on image to enlarge.)

Bonus Critter Blogging: Wolf

(Photograph by Brian Montalbo, Your Shot, and featured at National Geographic.  Click on image to see the fine details.)

Coming To A Clothing Store Near You

(Editorial cartoon by Joel Pett / Lexington Herald-Leader (April 26, 2013) and featured at McClatchy DC.  Click on image to enlarge.)

This is what unrestricted globalization leads to:

The death toll in Bangladesh rose to more than 300 people Friday following the collapse this week of a building that housed five apparel factories, officials said, as protests by workers at other garment plants intensified.

Bangladesh police fired tear gas and rubber bullets as hundreds of stick-wielding workers in the Dhaka area stopped highway traffic, smashed vehicles and vandalized garment factories that refused to close during a declared day of mourning. Traffic was clogged for hours as demonstrators, some waving black flags, called for the arrest and punishment of the owner of Rana Plaza, which collapsed Wednesday morning just outside Dhaka, the capital. ...

Human Rights Watch said the government hasn’t made factory oversight a priority. In June 2012, the labor ministry’s inspection department had 18 inspectors to police an estimated 100,000 factories in Dhaka district. The garment industry has approximately 4,500 factories, employs around 4.2 million workers and accounts for a whopping 80% of the country’s $24 billion in exports.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Thursday that this week's accident underscores the urgent need for the Bangladesh government, factory owners, buyers and workers to find ways [to] improve working conditions.   [Emphasis added]

300 bodies, and they haven't finished looking.  The total of dead and injured will continue to climb.  And, according to the article, no one will be prosecuted.  The owner of this factory has, you see, good connections with the government.

And the clothing they made is sold abroad.  Probably to companies like KMart, JC Penney, maybe even Nordstrom and Macy's.  We'll be buying the clothing these people died making.

Think about that when you pick up that sweater and say, "It's to die for!"

It's the capitalist way.

Friday Cat Blogging

He's No FDR

(Editorial cartoon by Mike Luckovich and published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution 4/12/13.  Click on image to enlarge and then get back here.)

Michael Hiltzig reminds us that it is a Democratic president who is willing to lower Social Security benefits by using the chained CPI method in order to cut the deficit, even after the discovery that the whole "austerity" idea is based on a deliberately false study.

Washington's tug of war over the federal budget has many wonders, but the biggest one of all must be the lengths to which politicians and pundits will go to deprive Granny and Grandpa of $30 a month.

That's the amount by which benefits for the average Social Security retiree would be reduced by 2023 under a provision in President Obama's new budget. It might not sound like much to the president or fans of the proposal in both parties and the Washington commentariat. For the retiree trying to stretch an average monthly check of about $1,200 to cover housing, healthcare and every other necessity under the sun, it looms rather larger.

The idea that Social Security benefits should be on the table in budget talks arises from the fear that America's national debt, driven by its budget deficit, is growing to the point that it will push us over the economic brink.

Here's the tragedy of it: That fear is based on junk economics. ...

Front and center among his proposed deficit-reduction tools were changes to Medicare and Social Security. The former involved increasing premiums paid by higher-income seniors. The centerpiece of his Social Security rollback was a change in the index for cost-of-living increases from the traditional consumer price index to the "chained" CPI.

If you've been following the Washington debate, you know that the uncanny popularity of the chained CPI as a deficit nostrum lies in its supposed "accuracy." The idea is that it incorporates certain changes people make in their purchasing behavior when prices rise — when apples go up in price, they buy bananas instead. Therefore it typically yields a lower inflation number.

What you may not know is that these behavioral changes are very hard to track and the conclusions applied by the index-makers often conjectural. (What if you like apples but not bananas?) Experts also debate whether consumers respond to absolute price changes or relative price changes — if hamburger is cheaper than steak but its price rises faster, people may actually buy more steak. And under many circumstances people may not have a choice: If gasoline goes up, you may not have the option to take the bus to work instead. ...

It's rare for bad research, bad economics and bad politics to come together to produce something so just plain bad. And it's sad that Obama proposed a budget that undermined his credibility with the progressives who should be providing him with his firmest support, and even gave some Republicans the latitude to attack him from the left, as someone willing to balance his budget on the backs of the elderly. Who would have thought that Barack Obama, of all people, would be going for the title of Democratic president least likely to be mistaken for Franklin Roosevelt?   [Emphasis added]

FDR?  Hell!  Obama wouldn't even be mistaken for Dwight Eisenhower.  What is so galling about the president's position is that he continues to offer to cut the programs for the elders and the poor even after the disclosure that the study allegedly forming the basis for cutting the budget has been shown to be based on errors, presumably intentional errors.

I can only assume that he wants to grind the poor and the elders, that he's on the same side as the GOP in that regard, and that he serves someone other than the 99% of us.  He's aiming for a Grand Bargain, but it's not for our benefit.

Nightmare Scenario

(Click on image to enlarge and then return, please.)

David Horsey has presented us with a possible scenario that is frightening in its implication.  All things considered, it is certainly conceivable that the GOP could take over both houses of Congress and the White House by 2016.

Since Mitt Romney lost to President Obama on Nov. 6, the conventional wisdom has been that the Republican Party is in trouble. The less conventional truth is that it is the Democrats whose chances many be more bleak. ...

In the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans won big in state legislative races, picking up 675 seats nationwide. Before that election, the GOP was in full control of 14 state legislatures while Democrats were in charge in 27. After the election, Republicans had won control in 26 states and Democrats' number had dropped to 17. As a result, Republicans were able to redraw congressional districts more to their liking in several key states. Redistricting has given Republicans such an advantage that they do not need to command anything close to a majority nationwide in order to retain control of the House of Representatives for years to come.

Republicans are also positioned well to take back power in the U.S. Senate in 2014. Here, again, being unpopular with a majority of Americans does not matter so much. Because each state gets two senators, no matter what their population may be, and because Republicans dominate in states such as Alaska and Wyoming that have fewer people than they have wild animals, the GOP has a built-in head start in the competition for Senate control.

In the coming election, there appears to be no Republican senator who is in dire risk of losing his seat, and the two who are retiring are from the GOP-leaning states of Nebraska and Georgia. Democrats, meanwhile, have six incumbent senators who are retiring, four of them from states that are favorable ground for Republicans – West Virginia, South Dakota, Iowa and Montana. ...

Republicans might blow an opportunity for victory by going crazy and nominating a man to please their fevered base -- Rand Paul or Rick Santorum -- but they could also make their pick someone from vote-rich Florida – Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio – and stand a good chance of winning the White House. Bush is the smarter brother in his famous political family and would appeal to the centrist voters who swing elections. Rubio is a youthful, fresh face of conservatism. Either man could cut into the Democrats’ Latino vote enough to sway an election.   [Emphasis added]

 All of this assumes that the Republican Party will finally be able to shake off the hold its basest base has on the incumbents who fear being primaried by Tea Party candidates.  Right now, a lot of money from folks like Karl Rove and his pals and the Koch Brothers is flowing like cheap wine at a toga party in order to do just that.  Nods toward immigration reform is one sign of that strategy.

And, as I mentioned yesterday, the revisionists are busily scrubbing the Bush name squeaky clean to leave a Jeb Bush path to the White House.

The biggest element, however, is one which Horsey rightfully emphasizes:  Republican control of state legislatures and governorships.  With the help of ALEC, districts were gerrymandered in most states, and legislation passed since then which makes Democratic victories even more unlikely.  Ironically, the Republican Party adapted the Howard Dean 50-state strategy to their own ends, while the Democrats decided to go with Rahm Emmanual's "muscle" a few states plan. 

So, yes, this nightmare could very well be coming up.  We won't want popcorn.  Just plenty of cat food.

Revising History, Just In Time

(Editorial cartoon by Mike Luckovich and published 4/23/13 by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.  Click on image to enlarge and then return.)

George W. Bush's presidential library is opening just in time for the GOP to revise history further.  After all, there's an election coming up in 2014 and an even bigger one coming up in 2016.  The Bush name has to be burnished for a return by the family.  W has spent the last four plus years quietly and far beyond the ken of the people in this country.  That really hasn't been much of a problem, especially since Obama has pretty much continued with the agenda initiated by W and his NeoCon buddies.

Since then, Bush has absented himself from both policy disputes and political battles. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll suggests that the passage of time and Bush’s relative invisibility have been beneficial to a chief executive who left office surrounded by controversy.

Days before his second term ended in 2009, Bush’s approval rating among all adults was 33 percent positive and 66 percent negative. The new poll found 47 percent saying they approve and 50 percent saying they disapprove. Among registered voters, his approval rating today is equal to President Obama’s, at 47 percent, according to the latest Post-ABC surveys.

Majorities said they still dis­approve of Bush’s performance on the Iraq war and the economy, but his economic approval numbers nearly doubled between December 2008 and today, from 24 percent to 43 percent, with 53 percent disapproving. Iraq remains the most troublesome part of his legacy. Today, 57 percent say they disapprove of his decision to invade, though that is down from 65 percent in the spring of 2008, the last time the question was asked. ...

Last week’s Boston Marathon bombing was a tragic reminder of the episode that changed Bush’s presidency. After 9/11, Bush implemented aggressive anti-terrorism policies, many of which were embraced by the Obama administration, though not the controversial interrogation measures authorized under Bush. A recent report by the Constitution Project concluded that those policies resulted in torture of some detainees.   [Emphasis added]

Obama may not be authorizing water boarding, but he is obviously OK with keeping Gitmo and force-feeding its current inhabitants, many of whom are innocent of the charges under which they are kept.  And Obama is still backing and supporting the odious provisions of the Patriot Act and warrantless searches.  Is it any wonder that the GOP is finding it relatively easy to rehabilitate W?

And that means Jeb Bush's son will run for a state post in Texas in 2014 to test the waters, and then Jeb himself will be persuaded (ha-ha) to enter the 2016 primaries to save the Republicans from themselves.

See?  Easy.

Unknown Unknowns

(Click on image to enlarge and then waddle on back.)

David Horsey is a bit naive in this column, even more naive than I am.  The shift from college student to terrorist under our way of thinking is really not as simple as Horsey seems to be suggesting.

It’s not hard to concoct a scenario for Tamerlan that ends with a bombing. But Dzokhar?

Seven years younger than Tamerlan, Dzokhar came to the U.S. when he was 8 years old. Recently, he became a citizen. In between, he lived a relatively normal American life.

He was a successful student and competed on his high school wrestling team. He had many friends. Those friends say he was upbeat, always smiling. He was enrolled at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. He lived in a dorm. He went to parties. He worked out at the gym.

To one teacher, he did express an interest in the troubled history of his distant family homeland, but he seems to have been happy living a well-adjusted American life.

How could Dzokhar have pivoted from that to the vicious act of which he is accused?

It is good that police were able to apprehend him alive. If and when he recovers from his serious wounds, Dzokhar may be able to enlighten us about his apparent turn to heartless violence. In the meantime, there will be plenty of speculation. ...

Dzokhar is 19 years old, an age when many young men act on impulse and sudden passions.

It is the age when boys trying to prove their manhood are easy to recruit. It may be to the military, it may be to religion, it may be to the brotherhood of a hard-drinking fraternity or it may be to a cause that promises them the chance to change the world.   [Emphasis added]

While, like David Horsey, I am interested in Dzokhar's motivation for the bombing, I am doubtful that a simple "phase of life" change is behind it.  I am also not certain that even if that is the case the reasoning will be particularly helpful to our understanding of just why this kind of incident can occur.

Echidne too is curious about the motivation, but also about the semantics we are using to discuss the case of the two brothers from Chechnya.

So.  At the time I write this we don't know what may have motivated the Tsarnaev brothers, in any case, but the flag of war has already been raised.   Even if the older brother had raised such a flag himself, taking that seriously would be a mistake.  It would give him (and any copycats) exactly the kind of martyrdom and glory they desire.  Being called a criminal is not glamorous.  It is also much closer to the truth.   [Emphasis added]

Echidne's entire post should be read because it makes a pretty solid case that the way we frame the issue clarifies the issue, or at least should.  An attack on our soil is terrorism.  Our attack (via drone, say) on another country's soil? Simply a rational attack to protect our interests.  This kind of analysis can be very useful because it makes how Dzokhar will be charged and will be treated part of the discourse.  It should also cause us to extend the analysis to our own behavior.

More Michele

(Cartoon by Sack and published 4/14/2012 by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.Click on image to enlarge and then return.)

Our Michele has been packing her bags, with money instead of clothes, as Jim Graves has announced that he will be running against her again in next year's election for that House seat.

The expected rematch is on between Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann and DFL businessman Jim Graves, who came within a single percentage point of an upset in last November's race for her U.S. House seat.

 

The new Graves campaign issued a statement Thursday morning announcing that he will make another run at the four-term congresswoman, a lightning rod for Democrats who faces ethics and campaign finance allegations stemming from her 2012 presidential run.

 

Bachmann reacted to the news with a fundraising email to supporters announcing “He’s Back.”

 

Her initial statement -- and hard-hitting video -- presaged a tough campaign:

 

“Just a few moments ago, after receiving his marching orders from the Pelosi-Obama campaign machine, my Democratic opponent from last election announced he will again try to defeat me in 2014,” Bachmann told supporters.

 

Graves emphasized his business background as founder and former CEO of the AmericInn Hotel chain. “These days Congress is all about and scoring political points rather than actually solving problems,” he said in a statement. “I’m not interested in celebrity, only in solutions.”

 

Graves came within 4,296 votes of upending Bachmann in November, a contest that featured a presidential election at the top of the ticket. President Obama will not be on the ballot in 2014. But as seen from the video her campaign released immediately upon Graves' announcement, it is clear she is going to try to morph Graves into Obama, a target that's better suited to her conservative base.   [Emphasis added]

The state DFL party has already sent money to Graves with the caveat that the campaign funds would not foreclose any other party member from running.  It just wants some parity with the lies and smears our Michele will be doling out from this point onward.

 

This is a good start.  It would be nice if the Democratic Party would ship some campaign funds as well.  Howard Dean showed how a 50-state strategy could work.  Rahm Emmanual showed how limited campaign funding fails.

 

I have no illusions that Jim Graves will be as liberal as Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, but he has to be better than Bachmann, she who would rather raise money and lie than actually, you know, engage in rational legislation.  And wouldn't it be nice to have her off the Intelligence Committee?  I mean, the cognitive dissonance is just too much for my old brain to process.

Sunday Poetry: T. S. Eliot

(From The Wasteland)

"Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi
in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent: Σιβυλλα
τι θελεις; respondebat illa: αποθανειν θελω."

For Ezra Pound
il miglior fabbro.



I. The Burial of the Dead

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar kine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

   What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
               Frisch weht der Wind
               Der Heimat zu,
               Mein Irisch Kind,
               Wo weilest du?
"You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
"They called me the hyacinth girl."
–Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Oed' und leer das Meer.

   Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
Had a bad cold, nevertheless
Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,
With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,
Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
(Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
The lady of situations.
Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:
One must be so careful these days.

   Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying: "Stetson!
"You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!
"That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
"Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
"Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
"Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
"Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!
"You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable—mon frère!"

-- T.S. Eliot

"Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi
in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent: Σιβυλλα
τι θελεις; respondebat illa: αποθανειν θελω."

For Ezra Pound
il miglior fabbro.

I. The Burial of the Dead

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar kine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.
   What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
               Frisch weht der Wind
               Der Heimat zu,
               Mein Irisch Kind,
               Wo weilest du?
"You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
"They called me the hyacinth girl."
–Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Oed' und leer das Meer.
   Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
Had a bad cold, nevertheless
Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,
With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,
Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
(Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
The lady of situations.
Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:
One must be so careful these days.
   Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying: "Stetson!
"You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!
"That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
"Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
"Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
"Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
"Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!
"You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable—mon frère!"
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/18993#sthash.nEAyjsPL.dpuf

"Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi
in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent: Σιβυλλα
τι θελεις; respondebat illa: αποθανειν θελω."

For Ezra Pound
il miglior fabbro.

I. The Burial of the Dead

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar kine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.
   What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
               Frisch weht der Wind
               Der Heimat zu,
               Mein Irisch Kind,
               Wo weilest du?
"You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
"They called me the hyacinth girl."
–Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Oed' und leer das Meer.
   Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
Had a bad cold, nevertheless
Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,
With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,
Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
(Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
The lady of situations.
Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:
One must be so careful these days.
   Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying: "Stetson!
"You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!
"That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
"Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
"Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
"Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
"Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!
"You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable—mon frère!"
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/18993#sthash.nEAyjsPL.dpuf

Sunday Funnies: 3-By-Mike

(Cartoons by Mike Luckovich and published by the Atlanta Journal-Consitution April 17, 2013)

(Published April 18, 2013)

(Published April 19, 2013)

Bonus Critter Blogging: White Tailed Eagles

Photograph by Sylwia Domaradzka, My Shot, and featured at National Geographic.

Out From Under A Rock

(Click on image to enlarge and then return.)

Actually, the title for this post is not very accurate.  The critters living under rocks and skitter away when the rock is moved fulfill a useful function in the biosphere.  The critters David Horsey references in this column do not.

Nearly as soon as I heard about the bombings on Monday, I was certain that somewhere in the nutty right-wing blogosphere someone was already concocting a storyline that would blame the crime on President Obama and the federal government. Alex Jones came through with impressive rapidity.

Jones runs a radio show from Austin, Texas. He describes himself as a libertarian and an “aggressive constitutionalist.” The Southern Poverty Law Center says he has stirred up racial animus “to appeal to the fears of the antigovernment Patriot movement.” He certainly appeals to fear. Jones asserts that both the Oklahoma City bombing and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were perpetrated by the U.S. government as part of a scheme to promote a New World Order through “exploitable hysteria.”

So it is no surprise that he is now pushing the idea that the Boston bombings were the nefarious handiwork of federal agents. ...

Jones is asking Americans to believe that their own government is responsible for all of the worst terrorist attacks in the country’s history and that the motivation for the latest one is a desire to grope sports fans. All of this is, of course, total ping-pong-balls-for-brains nonsense. It would be laughable if it were not for the fact that this conspiracy kook claims 2 million radio listeners and more online followers than Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh combined.

Jones is a purveyor of the neo-Confederate brand of “patriotism” that has gained currency on the far starboard side of American politics. I do not think he should shut up or be shut down; he has the same 1st Amendment rights as I do. But he deserves to be exposed for what he is: a delusional, self-promoting bully who is slandering the very people who are right now doing the truly patriotic work of bringing the Boston bombers to justice.   [Emphasis added]

To be fair, people like Alex Jones, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh find it easier to garner an audience when the press stumbles and bumbles as it has from the very start of this horrendous event.  Speculation, baseless assertions, flat-out wrong assumptions kept pouring out from all of the MSM outlets, often by way of streaming tweets.  Yes, tweets.  One wag at Eschaton referred to the "twitterfication" of the news. And,, several days later,  the "news" still keeps pouring out in that fashion.

And we haven't even had the blasts from the Religious Reich now that we know the suspected perpetrators are Chechnyans, i.e. Mooslims.

And we haven't heard yet what our federal government has in store for us after all of the suspects, however many there may be, are captured/killed.

Interesting times, these.  Far too interesting.

Friday Cat Blogging

All In All, A Lousy Week

(Click on image to enlarge and then please return.)

This has been a very trying week for a lot of us.  The Boston Bombing, the ricin mailings, and now the failure of the Senate to pass even a minimal gun control bill.  David Horsey was obviously not amused by the last item.

The nation has just gone through two years of unusually awful slaughter that began with the near-fatal shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, continued on with the terrible attack at a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and climaxed with the mass murder of first-graders in Newtown, Conn. Yet, even after all of that and even with the support of an overwhelming majority of voters, it is clear that Congress will do nothing of significance to address the ongoing bloodbath that hits a different town every few months.

The National Rifle Assn., which in the 1990s actually supported a background check scheme, went all out to defeat the idea this time. Over the last decade, the NRA has become more radical on the issue of gun control, and most Republican elected officials have drifted to the extreme side with them. Just four GOP senators voted for the background check plan. ...

Once again, the win went to the bellowing paranoids on the right who see any proposal to deal with gun violence as a covert attempt to disarm law-abiding citizens. Most Americans disagree with them, but that matters little to our cowardly Congress.    [Emphasis added]

Yes, yes ... I am aware that the Republicans control the House, but even their constituents were on board with closing the loopholes in registration.  We weren't going to eliminate military style automatic weapons or large ammunition delivery systems, just require the same registration on line and at shows that we have for purchasing a gun at a dealer.  I don't think even my Libertarian nephew would object to this.

But that was too much for Wayne LaPierre and the gun manufacturers lobby and the spineless Senate caved.  What the people want doesn't matter.  Only our corporate overlords and their campaign dollars matter.  Only the wackiest of the wackaloons count.

And that is shameful.

This And That

I don't have anything to add to yesterday's post, but I did find several other people's thoughts both interesting and useful.

Like Digby's,

And Hecate's,

And Echidne's,

And Libby's.

I urge you to check them out.

And if you want the cartoonists' take, you can flip through these.

Kyrie Eleison.

Evil Abounds

I wasn't going to post on the horrific tragedy which occurred Monday in Boston.  It seemed just too painful.  But after reading David Horsey's column on it, I figured it might help take the edge of the pain I am feeling.

The terrorist bombing at the Boston Marathon is yet another cause for despair. It places the hometown of Paul Revere, Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty in company with Mumbai, Karachi and Baghdad, as well as Oklahoma City. ...

The central question now is, who is that person or group? Is this the action of a foreign terrorist organization with a gripe against the United States or, like Nidal Malik Hasan, a homegrown killer in sympathy with a distant cause? Is it someone like Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, a coldblooded militant sprung from the darkest cesspool of American paranoia? Or is the perpetrator in the mold of Ted Kaczynski, a sociopathic loner with a purpose that makes sense only in his own sick mind?

Whoever it is, we do know this: If anything in this world qualifies as evil, this is it.    [Emphasis added]

Yes.

One of the three dead is a child.  A child who did not get to see his father finish the race.  A child who will not grow up.  And the carnage took limbs from racers and viewers alike, presumably for some agenda, one we may never know about.

There were some remarkably fine actions and reactions to the horror.  Marathoners who saw what happened ahead of them kept running past the finish line to the medical aid tent to give blood right then and there.  So did some bystanders.  The angelic nature kicked in immediately.

But now we will go through the anxiety of the investigation phase.  Will the perpetrator be a home-grown terrorist (because I believe this was terrorism), or a foreign agent?  Will the feds identify him?  And will this country and the rest of the world respond the way it did after 9/11 and roll back even more of our rights?

I cried, and still cry when I consider all of this.

Short American Century

Back on April 5, I posted about my concerns with the erratic behavior of Kim Jon Un.  Like David Horsey, I doubted that he could actually blow up Los Angeles, but he certainly could make a mess of that part of the world.  His behavior hasn't moderated since then, but I think there's still some danger.  It's just that my opinion has moderated a little.  Here's David Horsey's updated column on the issue.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seems like a fictional character out of a satirical doomsday movie -- maybe a sequel to “Dr. Strangelove.” That fact that this immature brat and his gaggle of grim, aging generals actually rule a country and have the capacity to disturb the international order seems absurd in an era of global interdependence.

In the 21stcentury, humankind should have moved beyond this, but apparently we need a few more centuries of progress before all countries are led by comparatively rational, democratically elected leaders -– or at least by boring, one-party bureaucrats whose main goal is to preserve stability and promote economic growth.

Kim is a throwback to medieval times when young, cocky princes claimed a divine right to lord it over defenseless peasants. The only reason those princes could claim that power, in truth, was because they were surrounded by troops of big guys with swords, armor and horses with a license to kill any peasant who complained too loudly. It really had nothing to do with God’s blessing and everything to do with which family was ruthless enough to take from the poor and make themselves rich. ...

Little Kim’s belligerent threat to start a thermonuclear war that would consume South Korea, Japan and various outposts of the United States is the tough talk of a tyrant in the ancient mold. But Kim is all bluff. He does not have the bombs or the missiles to carry out his threats. His country is a geopolitical pipsqueak and an economic charity case. If the real world powers, China and the United States, chose to make it happen, his regime could be snuffed out.   [Emphasis added]

In my earlier post, I suggested that the US would have to work with the UN to rein Bratty L'il Kim in.  I still believe it will take diplomacy, but not necessarily though the UN.  We will have to partner with China.  Kim Jon Un is part of that country's sphere of influence.  And that is where my thoughts moved to.

Do you remember 13 years ago when Dick Cheney and his Merry Band of NeoConservatives took office?  Their philosophy was that since the fall of the Soviet Union, the US was the only world power and could do whatever it wanted to.  That philosophy was detailed in their Program for the New American Century ("PNAC").  And with that theoretical framework, they justified wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, paid for off-budget by loans from China.  All they needed was a "Pearl Harbor" event, which they got on 9/11, and they were off.

At the same time, our corporate behemoths began shifting jobs and increasing business ties with our largest creditor until now we are no longer the "only world power."  Shortest damned century on record!

So now we have to rely on the other world power to rein in Kim so that there is no conflagration involving South Korea.  I'm not too comfortable with that notion.

Blowback

(A Cagle cartoon published 4/13/13 and snagged from All Voices.  Click on image to enlarge.)

Here's today's punch in the gut from the Los Angeles Times

Overall, at least 349 U.S. service members committed suicide last year, the most since the Pentagon began releasing statistics about a decade ago. In comparison, 295 Americans were killed in combat last year in Afghanistan. So far this year, 99 more suicides have been confirmed. 

Even for the Army, where soldiers have little privacy, the Ft. Bliss program is intrusive.

Each company-sized unit and above must submit a monthly list of soldiers with known emotional, financial or drug problems. Other soldiers may be assigned to watch those considered high-risk. Ranking officers follow up.

Soldiers are trained to recognize warning signs in themselves and others, and told to inform superiors if they suspect a potential suicide. Mental health counselors have set up offices near brigade headquarters. Troops are tested for drugs up to eight times a year; the Army normally does only one. The hospital doubled the beds in its psychiatric ward to 28 after complaints about long waits for treatment.

The system seems to help. Ft. Bliss saw only five suicides last year, down from seven in 2011. The number of suicides rose sharply at nearly every other major Army base, including Ft. Bragg, Ft. Hood and Ft. Campbell.

"If you get a soldier to treatment, the chances are he'll live," said Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard, a West Point graduate who commands Ft. Bliss and once served as President Clinton's military aide. "We're really emphasizing getting help." ...

For decades, the suicide rate in the Army was less than half the male civilian rate. It began rising as the Army expanded to meet manpower needs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan..  [Emphasis added]

OK, so the Fort Bliss program seems to work, which is a good thing.  The problem is that other bases don't have the same program, primarily because there isn't the money and manpower available right now for the development of comparable programs, either because of the sequester or the knowledge that the defense budget is going to be cut anyway and this Congress isn't going to cut those fancy tank and fighter jets out of the picture, thereby angering the defense contractors.  (Hence the cartoon.)

But I think there is more going on here.  You will notice that there are still American troops in Afghanistan and there will be for the foreseeable future.  Why?  Well, when the Taliban was running the country, locals discovered their country was sitting on an amazing amount of rare and very valuable minerals.  The locals didn't tell the Taliban about the find, but the Americans sure know about it.  In the long run, those minerals may be worth more than the oil in Iraq.  Thats why I think we'll stay in the country known as the place empires go to die.

Yes, that's cynical, jaded, and (perhaps) just a little tin-foil chapeau-ish.  But it certainly would explain a lot, wouldn't it?

Occam's Razor at work.

Sunday Poetry: William Blake

The Tiger

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forest of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And What shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?


--William Blake

Sunday Funnies: 2-fer

(Political cartoon by Jen Sorensen and published 4/10/13 at the Daily Kos. Click on image to enlarge or click on link to get an easier to see image.)

(Editorial cartoon by Jim Morin / Miami Herald (April 10, 2013) and featured at McClatchy DC.)

Bonus Critter Blogging: Portuguese Man-Of-War

(Photograph by O.S.F./Animals Animals—Earth Scenes and published at National Geographic.  Click on link to learn more about these creatures.  Click on image to enlarge.)

Say What?

(Click on image to enlarge and then head back, please.)

First, some back story.  California never gets the benefits of regular campaign stops from presidential candidates or either party's campaign committee.  California is considered a lock for the Democrats, so to actually speak to us peasants would be a waste of time.  Candidates and  their committees come here only to raise money.  We're like a huge ATM machine.

So you can imagine my surprise (and that of David Horsey) when the RNC selected Hollywood, California for it's annual Spring Conference.

Like Nixon going to China, the Republicans have entered hostile territory. Ostensibly, this interesting choice of venue is part of RNC Chairman Reince Priebus’ outreach to communities that Republicans have long considered unreachable. But Priebus and his party have about as much chance picking up votes in Hollywood as they would in Harlem.

The location is merely symbolic, akin to Barack Obama showing up at a National Rifle Assn. conclave just to prove he is man enough to do it. Assembling the party’s governing body in such an unexpected place is really meant to focus attention on the findings of the GOP’s Growth & Opportunity Project. That report, released by Priebus a couple of weeks ago, says the party organization needs to make its message more appealing to Latinos, blacks, women and young people and then figure out ways to deliver that message in technologically innovative ways.

The underlying concern is that in 2012, the Obama campaign sank Mitt Romney’s presidential bid by scooping up the vast majority of nonwhite voters, micro-targeting other likely Obama voters, such as single women, and driving up turnout among heretofore undependable young voters by smartly exploiting social media. The report says Republicans need approaches to match what the Democrats have done.

The report also bears an implicit message that not all Republicans want to hear. The message is that the party can no longer be held hostage by tea party zealots and the religious right. The party establishment managed to move in that direction at the national convention in August when several measures were approved that gave more clout to party officials and enhanced their ability to maintain order in the rowdy process of choosing a presidential candidate.   [Emphasis added]

 Rules changes were debated during the early part of the conference, and the far right wackaloons got mostly beaten back.  On a couple of issues, including releasing convention delegates to vote their conscience rather than represent the caucus or primary vote, they got a hearing, but it will take a 75% vote to get those stands through.  That doesn't look likely.

Whether the GOP will remain fractured remains to be seen.  I suspect 2014 will be key in that regard.  In the mean time, Republicans held a convention here, pouring dollars into our economy.  This is getting funnier and funnier.

More popcorn, please.

Friday Cat Blogging

Chain Of Fools

(Editorial cartoon by Mike Luckovich and published 4/10/13 by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  Click on image to enlarge and then return.)

Doyle McManus had a very instructive column up in the Los Angeles Times dealing with the president's offer to convert the cost of living increase formula for Social Security to the Chained CPI.  He suggests that Obama is using this to get his "Grand Bargain" on the budget, a major aim for his second term.

In an attempt to meet Republicans halfway in the battle over taxes and spending, Obama has offered to change the formula for calculating Social Security's annual cost-of-living increase — an "entitlement reform" GOP leaders have long asked for.

The result would not change current Social Security benefits, but it would reduce future raises by an estimated three-tenths of 1% in the first year, or about $42 for the average beneficiary. Over the long run, thanks to the magic of compounding, a lower rate of increase would have a substantial effect. After 20 years, estimating very roughly, a retiree might be looking at a yearly payout more than $1,000 less than he or she would have received without the change. ...

Many economists say chained CPI is a more accurate way to measure the cost of living for retirees and therefore it should be the basis for Social Security adjustments.

Greenstein, the patriarch of liberal budget experts, doesn't agree. In fact, in a paper he issued on Tuesday, he argued that chained CPI is probably less accurate as a measure of inflation's impact on the elderly and the poor. Older people spend more on healthcare than on chained CPI measures, he noted. And poor people — who gave up steak long ago — can't substitute cheaper goods as easily as the middle class. ...

Even if GOP leaders buy in, the public will take some convincing. A Pew Research Center poll last month found that 55% of Americans think preserving Social Security and Medicare benefits is more important than cutting the deficit, including 73% of Democrats. (A slim majority of Republicans, 52%, believe cutting the deficit is more important.)   [Emphasis added]

I suspect that the elder Republicans are all among the 48% who don't believe that the deficit is more important than Social Security benefits, or would if they knew just how the shift to chained CPI is going to affect them.  McManus's column can be useful in that regard.

What is especially helpful in McManus's column is the history of Social Security increases over the years and his exposition on why the chained CPI is not such a good idea.  For that reason alone I'd recommend you click on the link and read the rest of the piece.

So, as Luckovich's brilliant cartoon points out, Obama's opening gambit is a loser all the way around, but the president apparently doesn't see it that way.  If he thinks getting a "Grand Bargain" is the most important thing in the world to put on his resume after 2016, he may be disillusioned come 2014.  Already the GOP has started airing comments about the Dems cutting Social Security.  If those comments seep into the public's consciousness, the next election could be a blood bath and that might be the last agreement of any kind that Obama gets.

I guess that doesn't bother him either, but it has made me angry enough to call my DC reps once again.  I hope you will do the same.

Meeeeeee-chele

(Cartoon by Steve Sack and published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune 4/4/13.  Click on image to enlarge and then hustle back.)

Generally, when the home town newspaper publishes a story setting forth the lack of veracity of a politician, that politician is in some kind of hot water.  Michele Bachmann is about to find out whether that holds for her as well.

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Congressional ethics watchdogs are looking into allegations of financial misdeeds in her presidential campaign. Separately, a former Bachmann Iowa campaign worker has sued over her campaign's use of an email list. That matter has also resulted in a criminal investigation.

In answer to a question about the concerns, Bachmann said on Tuesday that none of the allegations are true.

"There’s political motivations that are involved because I've been named as the number one target (for) defeat by the Democrat Party, by Nancy Pelosi and also by SuperPACs so, you know no one can know anyone’s thoughts or intents, but clearly it looks like it’s politically motivated. And they’re not true," she said. "I’m working very closely with the people that are involved to make sure that we answer all the questions and we get to the bottom of it and I’m thoroughly convinced that I'll be cleared."

Despite Bachmann’s assertions to the contrary, the legal and ethical charges that have been leveled against her have all come from members of her own presidential campaign staff.

On Tuesday, Bachmann denied that the questions about her campaign have come from Republicans, not Democrats.   [Emphasis added]

Michele, Michele, Michele.  Never lie about something that can be checked out or easily verified, especially if there are court records involved.  Waffle a little, but don't categorically deny.

And here's the sad part for the rest of us.  The Democratic Party decided not to spend money to support the Dem running against here in 2012.  If it had funded the campaign, Bachmann would not be sitting in the House of Representatives right now and wouldn't be gearing for another presidential run in 2016.

Oh, well.

Proof Of The Multiverse

(Click on image to enlarge and then be so kind as to return.)

David Horsey has once again taken aim at the dilemma the Republican Party faces with respect to the upcoming elections.  He has even taken on the job of reading some of the wackaloon web sites so we don't have to.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, says his party needs to be retooled. Republicans, he says, need to reach out to minorities, show a willingness to work with those who do not agree with them 100% and find a way to convince young people that the GOP does not stand for Goofy Old Paranoids.

He is not the only Republican leader to worry about the future of the party. If a course correction is not made, they fear, there are many more lost elections to come.

But the Republicans who want to update their image have one very big obstacle: The most vocal, militant GOP voters do not agree there is a problem -- or, more precisely, they believe the problem is not that Republicans are out of touch, but that Republicans need to get more in touch with a whole different version of reality. ...

...The trouble for Republicans is that these cranks are shaping the opinions of a significant share of the party faithful. Many GOP luminaries such Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Rand Paul cater to these people, and more than a few GOP members of Congress and a legion of state legislators share the same wacky ideas.    [Emphasis added]

Go read the entire column to see the various examples Horsey unearthed in support of his conclusion.  You can decide whether to click on the links he provides in support of his position.

Sadly, however, I don't think it will make such a big difference if the GOP loses another couple of elections.  Most of the Democrats currently in Congress and the White House seem to have little care for the 99% of us who are being sold down the river.  And I don't see that changing any time soon unless we lose the DLC and Third Way yahoos.

Granny Bird Award: Barach Obama

This Granny Bird Award, given from time to time to those who go out of their way to harm the interest and benefits of the elders, goes to President Obama for his unconscionable proposal to cut Social Security benefits.

From the Los Angeles Times:

As part of his new budget, President Obama will propose cutting Social Security and other government benefits by lowering the cost-of-living adjustment, putting a key GOP negotiating demand into a formal White House proposal for the first time.

The proposed change to the government's inflation measure, the consumer price index, is opposed by many congressional Democrats, although House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) recently suggested she was willing to consider it, if it could be done in a way that did not hurt the poor. ...

A senior administration official said that the president’s budget, which he will send to Congress next week, was not his “ideal deficit reduction plan,” but also said, “This is a compromise proposal built on common ground, and the president felt it was important to make it clear that the offer still stands.” ...

Organized labor, as well as seniors and veterans groups, has raised objections, and the Senate unanimously rejected the proposal in a symbolic vote last month as Republicans, too, appeared uninterested in pursuing it.   [Emphasis added]

Of course the Republicans are uninterested in pursuing it:  conservative elders already on Social Security and those 55 and older don't want it.  They all know that the chained CPI actually lowers the benefit appreciably, especially over the life-time of the plan.  It is simply bad for elders, all elders.

And by opening negotiations with this "capitulation," President Obama has made it clear that he simply doesn't care about Social Security or the elders.  He just wants his "Grand Bargain" as detailed by Simpson and Bowles.

What he also doesn't care about is the 2014 elections, during which the GOP will run campaign ads pointing out that it was the Democrats who want to destroy this key benefit, thereby making it difficult for Democrats running for the House and Senate.

Congratulations, Mr. President.  You've gotten this Award the old-fashioned way:  you earned it.