Five myths about Dodd-Frank - The Washington Post

I'm putting this up for reference, since it comes from the horse's mouth of the Dodd-Frank Act. Blaming Dodd-Frank for the financial meltdown (even though it came after the meltdown) and for our sour economy is an example of how the current GOP deflects blame away from its financial sector sources ... and likely protect its donors.

Five myths about Dodd-Frank - The Washington Post

The last word: Why old dogs are the best dogs - The Week

Having gone through the natural death of a longtime canine companion this year, this article struck a particular nerve. Peanut was about 17 years old, we think, at his passing. He was so mellow yet so happy the last year of his life, with no guile or pretense about him. An old dog defines the word "companion" to me, with echoes of his past combined with the simple enjoyment of just being with his human. Young dogs have the fire of life, but old ones glow like embers and warm you constantly with their presence.

The last word: Why old dogs are the best dogs - The Week

Callousness from the Top Down

I'm astounded this morning by two accounts of callous attitude from the political right and/or the so-called upper class. First, something I've mentioned before on this blog from someone I've mentioned before: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who previously insisted that Joplin tornado victims get no relief unless it was offset elsewhere in the federal budget, told his constituents that any relief from this week's Virginia earthquake would have to be taken from elsewhere in the budget. Further, with the approach of massive Hurricane Irene to the east coast, Cantor preemptively announced that any disaster relief would have to be offset with budget cuts (see link below). Even Tom "the Hammer" DeLay did not go this far when he led House Republicans, denying disaster relief unless the federal budget was cut somewhere else.

Second, National Review writer David French said what many have thought the well-to-do and/or modern conservatives really felt: the poor are at fault for their lot because of personal defect or deficiency. Seriously. French wrote August 24 (see link below) "It is simply a fact that our social problems are increasingly connected to the depravity of the poor. If an American works hard, completes their education, gets married, and stays married, then they will rarely — very rarely — be poor. At the same time, poverty is the handmaiden of illegitimacy, divorce, ignorance, and addiction." Such outrageous twaddle would be laughable except that too many people are anxious to believe it. In a time when job opening announcements often have some variation of "unemployed need not apply" on them, it is apparent that blame-the-victim attitudes have taken much too firm a root in our society.

A sense of responsibility is essential in a society. So is a sense of compassion. What I see happening lately is a sense of smackdown.


The Sources of Poverty - By David French - The Corner - National Review Online

Political Animal - Cantor’s callousness turns preemptive

Analysis: Why Congress and Standard & Poors deserve each other - Yahoo! News

Bill Saporito of Time.com offered his thoughts on S&P and Congress. S&P contributed to the Great Recession by giving AAA ratings to collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) backed by "garbage mortgages" from " Alt A subprime pond scum." Congress gave the ratings agencies their power and left it intact even after the financial meltdown. "After all, this is a Congress that let the banking industry run amok, bailed it out with access to trillions of dollars of credit, and has since done precious little to ensure that the process won't be repeated. Nor would Congress reform the ratings industry, which played vital role in the crisis. Nor did it agree a deal worked out between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner that would have preserved the AAA rating. If our Congress is that dumb, perhaps we deserved the downgrade."

Analysis: Why Congress and Standard & Poors deserve each other - Yahoo! News

Alan Grayson: Devil Take the Hindmost

Although this piece is at times political, Grayson offers up a good primer of the history of the phrase and concept "the devil take the hindmost," dating back to a 1610 play performed by the Shakespeare's troop The King's Men. As such, it asks if we as a people want to let the least of us fall ... and if that doesn't also threaten the strongest of us as well.

Alan Grayson: Devil Take the Hindmost (Huffington Post)

Humor on Walkabout

Something keeps crossing my mind now and again: what happened to my sense of humor?

I don't think I lost it per se. It's not that my face would break if I smile because it's unfamiliar. Yet I think back to my younger self, before the weight of responsibility and failures and little victories and aspirations the door has closed on, and I think how that person was easier to laugh, much more into comedy and less likely to be mistrustful.

The old me never missed a chance to watch comedians on TV like George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Paula Poundstone, and Jim Carrey. But contemporary comics and comedic actors like Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, and Adam Sandler leave me utterly cold. I wonder, though, if it's the comics that have changed or is it me. I don't listen to music at home on a stereo like I used to, either; habits change over time, but so do perspectives.

The world just seems a more serious place than when I was twentysomething. Back then there wasn't much weight in not succeeding, not as much as the weight of failing seems now. When the world seems a precarious place, it's hard not to see humor as a luxury. Kinda like when a child has to finish the vegetables before dessert, I subconsciously feel there's something undone or unearned when there are troubles in life that give me a "not now" feeling about humor and comedy.

Maybe I'm more contemplative than my younger self was. I used to get into all manner of double entendre jokes, never missed the Airplane movies, and so forth. Yet Carlin remains my favorite comedian of all time, and his offerings were as cerebral as they were irreverent. So I've always enjoyed humor that makes one think. I still enjoy Carlin's books. I suspect a book by Tracy Morgan would not interest me in the least. The Plato and a Platypus books are the only ones that I've enjoyed the way I used to.

If I can get to a point where I tell myself it's okay to let myself enjoy a pleasure that now would make me feel guilty, I could embrace the thorough cleansing benefits of the belly laugh. I'm just not so sure how to get there.

Public Split Evenly on Urgency of Debt Limit Debate | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

The results of this Pew Research poll are disturbing since it shows so many people simply don't understand the grave danger to the world economy of a U.S. default. Perhaps it's a product of our highly polarized political climate, with more people getting their news from Fox News and MSNBC and fewer from CNN. Perhaps it's as Washington Post analysts Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake wrote, that Republicans don't put any stock in Wall Street or the federal government so the dire warnings coming from both have been seen as Chicken Little saying the sky is falling.

Public Split Evenly on Urgency of Debt Limit Debate | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

Pornography and the "Marriage Vow" Pledge

There is probably no cultural issue that tests First Amendment freedom of speech protection than pornography. While there were some infamous examples of the need for freedom of speech after the 9/11 attacks (especially Bill Maher being told by then-Press-Secretary Ari Fleischer to "watch what you say"), the enduring attempts to censor pornography are the perennial example of how unpopular speech needs First Amendment protection for there to be free speech for everyone.

The latest public skirmish on this front is the Marriage Vow pledge concocted by an Iowa group called the Family Leader. Presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum have signed this pledge, which includes references to "humane protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy — our next generation of American children — from human trafficking, sexual slavery, seduction into promiscuity, and all forms of pornography and prostitution, infanticide, abortion and other types of coercion or stolen innocence." Bachmann made a point of equating pornography with human trafficking and slavery, according to Larry Flynt (link below). Moralists have long targeted pornography for elimination, and this pledge makes some wild assumptions to link porn with slavery. But if an unpopular form of expression is banned by government, it's that much easier to start curbing or banning less controversial speech (like the Bill Maher example I mentioned) until freedom of speech is largely meaningless.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58591.html#ixzz1RnnfsSYH

Larry Flynt: Shame on Michele Bachmann for Anti-Porn Pledge - The Daily Beast

Obama calls the GOP’s bluff - The Washington Post

Eugene Robinson gently chides President Obama for what wholesome-sounding government programs will be cut if Republicans don't come off their no-tax-increase demand on the debt ceiling negotiations. Nevertheless, Robinson says Obama is right to call out the GOP (finally, I might add) for their intransigence on revenues and spending cuts. "Every independent, bipartisan, blue-ribbon panel that has looked at the deficit problem has reached the same conclusion: The gap between spending and revenue is much too big to be closed by budget cuts alone. With fervent conviction but zero evidence, Tea Party Republicans believe otherwise — and Establishment Republicans, who know better, are afraid to contradict them."

Obama calls the GOP’s bluff - The Washington Post

The Truth About The Economy In 2 Minutes | MoveOn.Org

Here is a quick but potent visual view of how the economy has fallen, given by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich ... this is distributed by MoveOn.org, so you're forewarned that this is not a Fox News version of events:

The Truth About The Economy In 2 Minutes | MoveOn.Org

Lawmakers’ fiscal gambles are worse than the sexual ones - The Washington Post

Dana Milbank gives us some definite food for thought in this commentary. He makes the case that, whether it's sexual scandal or professional misconduct or misjudgment, politicians are guilty of their transgressions because of a sense of invincibility. The more some succeed, the more they "become thrill-seeking adolescents, taking ever-greater risks until they retire or get caught."

Lawmakers’ fiscal gambles are worse than the sexual ones - The Washington Post

Scroogian Insensitivity

When did the Republican Party and the conservative movement cease to care whether they came across as heartless bastards?

Just this week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor suggested that Congress won't pay for relief for tornado-ravaged Joplin, Missouri unless the budget is cut elsewhere. On Monday, May 23, Cantor linked any aid to the area to offsetting budget cuts, stating "if there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental." Even Tom "The Hammer" DeLay favored disaster funding as House Majority Leader, supporting disaster relief -- amid his own party's criticism -- for Hurricane Katrina victims without offsetting budget cuts. DeLay stated, “It is right to borrow to pay for it.” I guess things have changed among GOP leaders between 2005 and 2011.

At least equally outrageous was a statement in the Kansas legislature by Rep. Pete DeGraaf (R-Mulvane). The Kansas House passed a bill banning abortion coverage in insurance companies' general health insurance policies. DeGraaf answered a fellow pro-life representative's question whether women would buy abortion-only policies in a shocking way, saying "I have a spare tire on my car." DeGraaf's crude entreaty for women to plan ahead for rape, incest, or any other unwanted pregnancy reportedly drew a few groans from fellow lawmakers.

Our culture -- at least our political culture -- is in a season of vilification from the right. Unemployed are not victims of the Great Recession but lazy bums that won't get a job; some businesses that are starting to hire have bought it and put "unemployed need not apply" on their help wanted ads. Government employees suffer similar disdain even though they are actually working. Women are accused of having abortions merely to fit into prom dresses. Some Hispanic Americans try to pass themselves as Native American due to the irrational anti-immigration sentiment currently gripping us.

Certainly we haven't been free of such positions in the past. What we haven't seen before is the matter-of-fact defamation of ordinary people or groups that would make Scrooge proud. To a Joplin resident, Cantor's remarks probably sound pretty similar to "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

Leonard Pitts Jr.: Bin Laden changed us, but did not destroy us - Leonard Pitts Jr. - MiamiHerald.com

We were bent by bin Laden. But we have not broken, and we can heal if we will. Pitts made a great summation, so I'm linking it to my blog.

Leonard Pitts Jr.: Bin Laden changed us, but did not destroy us - Leonard Pitts Jr. - MiamiHerald.com

The Bipartisan March to Fiscal Madness - NYTimes.com

David Stockman, the face of Reaganomics as the OMB Director, offered this analysis in this morning's New York Times of the shortcomings of the budget plans of both President Obama and Representative Ryan and how both approaches foster class warfare. The sharpness and comprehensive scope of Stockman's analysis causes me to link this column, for we will need clear, partisanship-be-damned vision to get our fiscal and economic house in order.

The Bipartisan March to Fiscal Madness - NYTimes.com

Budget Battles - Tax and Spending Myths and Realities - NYTimes.com

I include this column here because the enduring perspective that tax cuts are always good and tax hikes always kill the economy needs a cold water splash of fact, and this New York Times column outlines the record under Reagan, Clinton, and Bush the younger in a useful way. By the way, I was a Reagan Republican (before the GOP scared me out of the party in 1992) so seeing his record is a bit painful for me. But the record under Clinton's budget-surplus years is irrefutable.

Budget Battles - Tax and Spending Myths and Realities - NYTimes.com

Political Cartoons December - US News and World Report

I'm including this here simply for the Dalai Lama cartoon ...

Political Cartoons December - US News and World Report

An atheist view of December – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

I found this fascinating and worth a thorough reading. Quoting one passage from David Silverman, president of American Atheists: 'Silverman says it’s a problem that Christmas is a religious holiday that’s also a U.S. federal holiday. “If you’re going to force Jews, atheists, Hindus to observe Christmas by shutting down the country, what we’re going to observe is the most secular parts of the holiday,” he explains.'

An atheist view of December – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

Of Conflicts and Keith Olbermann

Journalists and editorial commentators have become embroiled in incidents that call their impartiality in question. Juan Williams was shown the door at NPR for saying on a Fox News program that obvious Muslims on airplanes make him nervous. He responded by telling Bill O'Reilly that he was viewed disfavorably at NPR because he appeared on Fox News programs.

Now it's Keith Olbermann's turn. The host of Countdown and one of MSNBC's brightest stars was suspended indefinitely last Friday for contributing to three Democratic candidates for Congress in violation of NBC policy. As it turned out, indefinitely lasts only a few days; buoyed by hundreds of thousands of protest messages, Olbermann was reinstated as of Tuesday, November 9.

There are those who argue that the old rules of impartiality should not apply to commentators who have a partisan point of view; only transparency is necessary. I do not agree.

I first became a fan of Countdown because of Olbermann's razor-sharp humorous sarcasm, honed by his ESPN days. He was an equal-opportunity spotlighter of the foibles of all public figures, whether celebrity or political. But his Special Comments developed against the excesses of the Bush Administration, and he rocketed to cable TV stardom.

However, it became clear during the 2008 presidential campaign that Olbermann showed favoritism toward Democrats in general and then-candidate Barack Obama in particular. What I once saw as righteous indignation toward Bush-era outrages had disintegrated into mere partisanship. As a result, I now watch MSNBC less and CNN more (and Fox News not at all).

Olbermann has castigated Fox News over owner Rupert Murdoch's $1 million donations to the Republican Governors Association and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. How can he now claim the moral high ground when he himself has contributed to political candidates he has covered on Countdown? There is no difference. And this is why journalists and commentators should not contribute to those who they cover.

False Belief

Nothing is as frustrating and deflating in public policy debate as false belief -- either in the form of willful ignorance or those taken in by deliberate misinformation. Never in my lifetime has there been such an overabundance of false belief as now.

Our politically polarized world has gone beyond a difference of opinion to a place of malicious fictions where demons abound, anger is easy, and ignorance fuels the flames. As one reporter put it, how can the president get people behind his policies when he can’t convince a third of the people he’s a Christian.

So we have Rick Santelli's famous call for a tea party because of "losers' mortgages," blaming the housing crisis on the victims and not the predatory lenders. Forbes magazine stated "the U.S. is being ruled according to the dreams of a Luo tribesman of the 1950s" in a cover story. Proposed mosques are frantically opposed from Manhattan to Murfreesboro, and even wild charges have been made of Sharia law coming to Dearborn, Michigan. Such fears of terrorist havens were never leveled at Christians after Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building.

This naked deception by some and willingness to ostracize by others is poisonous to the health of our society. The only way it stops is for enough people to stand up to malicious falsehoods and demand "enough."

Letter to Daily News, 9/10/10

This was a letter I wrote to the Daily News in Bowling Green KY and published on September 10, 2010:

Your Sept. 1 editorial “Hope and Change Was Disappointing” sounded wearily like the constant drumbeat of automatic opposition that has come to characterize the Republican Party.

The editorial’s language – “ram a stimulus package down the American people’s throats,” “Chicago-style politics” – came straight from GOP talking points rather than thoughtful analysis of current events.

If “the country is angry” as the Daily News stated, it is from the constant stream of Beckian diatribes, official GOP revisionism and death panel and birther nonsense designed to appeal to people’s fears rather than their aspirations. It is also due to President Barack Obama’s lack of vigor in standing up for his policies. Whether his energy was sapped by the health care bill debate or the pro forma Republican stonewall of opposition, Obama needs to buck up and be as motivating in the Oval Office as he was on the campaign trail.

Someone should send Obama a DVD of “The American President.” In that movie, Andrew Shepherd refused to answer allegations from his political opponents and became defined by them since, like the real-life conservative blowhards and angry tea partiers, the public only heard their voice.

Obama needs to forcefully advocate his policies so the public knows his vision, not Fox News Channel’s take on his vision. And he needs to tell the tea party movement that, in Shepherd’s words, “your 15 minutes are up.”