Politics Plus

Yesterday, I was so out of it that I forgot to upload the Open Thread to the site.  Fortunately, I received an unexpected phone call from a friend, who shall remain nameless, to check on me.  Today is a high holy day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, but I slept through yesterday’s meditations. :-(  I’m current with replies.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:03 (average 4:42).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Maddow Blog: I feel like I hear this from GOP lawmakers fairly regularly: they keep creating crises, on purpose, because they’re eager for an epic fight over "the direction and the vision of this country." At a certain level, that’s understandable — in a democracy, these fights over the future can be healthy and necessary.

But what Graham and too many of his allies seem to forget is that we already had "one hell of a contest about the direction and the vision of this country."

It was a little something called "the 2012 election cycle," and though Graham may not have liked the results, his side lost…

…But wait, Republicans say, didn’t the electorate also elect a right-wing House majority? To a certain extent, yes, but in raw vote totals, Americans cast 1.362 million more votes for Democratic House candidates than GOP House candidates, which hardly points to a powerful Republican mandate.

We had an epic fight, and one side won. To pretend the election didn’t happen, and then say it’s time for another epic fight that disregards the will of American voters, is bad for the country — and for democracy.

I have little to add, except that Steve Benin could not be more spot on here.

From The Guardian: Why Paul Krugman should be President Obama’s pick for US treasury secretary.

Not only is he the world’s best-known economist, Krugman has the intellect and integrity to resist Wall Street’s calls for austerity.

President Obama hasn’t picked a treasury secretary yet for his second term, so he has a chance to do something different.

He could ignore what Wall Street and conservative media interests want and pick somebody who would represent what the electorate voted for.

Now who is that infamous fellow who has been suggesting that very thing since Obama’s error in picking Timmy the Tool? That’s right! It is I.

From MSNBC: Alan Grayson on the Debt Ceiling and the 113th Congress

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Grayson’s return is a breath of fresh air. Like Dennis Kucinich, he knows no fear when it comes to speaking his mind. Unlike Dennis, I don’t think Alan would ever be so foolhardy as to chose that phony, racist misanthropic gnome, Ron Paul, as a running mate.  Welcome back Alan.  Good riddance Ron.

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Sadly, I have no changes to report.  I’m current with replies.  One of these days…

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:22 (average 4:16).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The Oregonian: This is more classic Senate-in-Action: The fight over filibuster reform launched by Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall won’t be settled on the first day of the new congressional session after all.

Although rules changes that only require a simple majority are supposed to be taken up on the first day of the session –  occurring on Thursday — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, is putting that off until Jan. 22, the day after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech.

How can Reid do that?  Simply by recessing the legislative day on Thursday until Jan. 22 instead of adjourning while lawmakers flock back to their states (or head off to other locales).  That means that, in Senate parlance, the "legislative day" will last for at least 19 calendar days.

So add the fact that a day is just not a day to another curiousity about the Senate, a body where 41 of the 100 senators can block just about anything thanks to its exuberant use of the filibuster.

This means we need to keep the pressure on Senators until the 22nd. Remember that the last time Reid reached an accommodation with Republicans on this matter, the Republicans reneged by breaking their word in less than two weeks.

From NY Times: For the reality is that our two major political parties are engaged in a fierce struggle over the future shape of American society. Democrats want to preserve the legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — and add to them what every other advanced country has: a more or less universal guarantee of essential health care. Republicans want to roll all of that back, making room for drastically lower taxes on the wealthy. Yes, it’s essentially a class war.

The fight over the fiscal cliff was just one battle in that war. It ended, arguably, in a tactical victory for Democrats. The question is whether it was a Pyrrhic victory that set the stage for a larger defeat.

Why do I say that it was a tactical victory? Mainly because of what didn’t happen: There were no benefit cuts.

Click through for the rest of this excellent editorial by Paul Krugman. Chained CPI must be off the table. This year, the CPI increased 1.7%. My rent increased 4%. My groceries increased over 10%. The cost of my Medicare advantage plan increased 3%. Even before reducing the CPI, the COLA is not keeping pace with prices on the items for which seniors spend the most money.

From MSNBC: And the lies begin again (as if they ever stopped).

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

No President can spend a dime that Congress did not budget. And the party responsible for over 2/3 of that debt are the Republicans. The debt ceiling only authorizes paying the bill for money Congress has already spent. Republicans only want to give the money you already paid for your Social Security and Medicare to the 1% instead of spending it on your retirement. They are lying for one reason. If they tell the truth, even brainwashed sheeple won’t support them.

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I’m still down, and I’m going to skip the monthly report this month, because the numbers are so bleak.  I was ill for overt half the month.  I’m current with replies.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:46 (average 5:09).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Official Washington was in celebration mode on New Year’s Day after kind of averting a completely unnecessary crisis that was entirely of its own creation.

“This deal proves that if we all procrastinate long and hard enough, we can semi-solve any self-inflicted problem at the very last minute in a way that satisfies no one,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky).

But even as Sen. McConnell basked in self-congratulation, he warned Congress against the complacency that could come with having sort of fixed its own completely avoidable mess.

Don’t forget that the fiscal speed bump was created to satisfy Republican economic terrorism, when they blackmailed America over the debt ceiling, wrecking our credit rating.

From The White House:

Fact Sheet: The Tax Agreement: A Victory for Middle-Class Families and the Economy

At this make or break moment for the middle class, the President achieved a bipartisan solution that keeps income taxes low for the middle class and grows the economy. For the first time in 20 years, Congress will have acted on a bipartisan basis to vote for significant new revenue. This means millionaires and billionaires will pay their fair share to reduce the deficit through a combination of permanent tax rate increases and reduced tax benefits. And this agreement ensures that we can continue to make investments in education, clean energy, and manufacturing that create jobs and strengthen the middle class.

I disagree, because I think millionaires and billionaires still pay far less than their fair share. Click through. This info is worth the time to read it.

From Huffington Post: Wisconsin state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) slammed Kwanzaa, claiming "almost no black people" care about the holiday.

"Almost no black people today care about Kwanzaa — just white left-wingers who try to shove this down black people’s throats in an effort to divide Americans," Grothman said in a press release, according to Patch.

"Why must we still hear about Kwanzaa?" Grothman asked. "Why are hard-core left wingers still trying to talk about Kwanzaa — the supposed African-American holiday celebration between Christmas and New Year’s?"

What can I say? Happy belated Kwanzaa to our African American friends from a white left winger who did not shove it down your throats, because I forgot all about it.  And to racist Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian hate mongers, Happy Holidays.

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I’m still down, but will have at least two articles tomorrow.  I’m current with replies.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:34 (average 5:07).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Religious Ecstasy:

They clinched the top seed in the AFC, giving them home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Howls of protest filled the halls of the U.S. Senate today as dozens of Senators expressed their outrage at having to work through the weekend to save the United States from financial Armageddon.

“We’re hearing a lot about the country plunging back into recession and millions of people being thrown out of work,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). “What we’re not hearing much about is how our Sunday is being completely and irrevocably ruined.”

Senator McConnell said that when President Obama called the Senate back to work on a budget deal this weekend, “At first I thought he was kidding. Not only have I never worked on a weekend, I’ve never met anyone who’s done such a damn fool thing.”

It must be horrible for Bought Bitch Mitch to be called on to save the economy, especially since he has already expended so much effort in the opposite direction.

From MSNBC: Jeff Merkley (D-OR) discussed fiscal speed bump negotiations.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I agree completely with my Senator. although I could accept a higher income cutoff level on the Bush tax cuts, as high as $500,000. However no deal is acceptable unless it extends unemployment benefits. He is also right that more people working is the fastest way to reduce the deficit.

From The Nation: “We’re not going to have any Social Security cuts,” the Senate majority leader said on the floor of the chamber Sunday. “It’s just doesn’t seem appropriate at this time.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, had attempted Saturday to use the “fiscal cliff” fight to advance a proposal to adopt a chained consumer price index—“chained CPI”—scheme that would slash cost-of-living increases for Americans who rely on Social Security and other government programs. The Obama administration had entertained the “chained CPI” switch earlier in December. But as the critical point when a deal to cut Social Security might have been made, Reid said “No.”

That simple rejection of the false premises of Paul Ryan and all the other fantasists who have tried to push Social Security over the “fiscal cliff”—and into the grips of the Wall Street speculators—confounded the political pawns and the “expert” pundits who imagined that “entitlement reforms” (Washington for Social Security cuts) were “inevitable.”

Within hours of Reid’s Sunday announcement, McConnell and the Republicans backed down and it was clear, finally, that Social Security was “off the table.”

Kudos to Reid. I’m glad he finally grew a pair.

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