You have to bring back Groucho to explain this one. In a classic scene, he and Chico negotiate a contract by tearing off items from long sheets of paper until they are down to a sliver each.
“If any of the parties to this agreement,” Groucho reads, “have been shown not to be in their right mind, this contract is automatically nullified. That’s in every contract—-it’s called a sanity clause.
“You can’t fool me,” Chico answers, tearing it up. “There is no sanity clause.”
As the President announces a deficit deal, and Congressional leaders try to sell it to their factions, all concerned are well past sanity into a cuckooland of compromises and contingencies that will leave almost everyone unhappy, with the possible exception of the financial markets and credit raters.
The Marx Brothers routine is from a 1935 movie, “A Night at the Opera,” which has another scene that foreshadowed the weekend leading to what President Obama announced tonight.
In a small cabin, the brothers keep ordering up all kinds of deliveries and services until the space is a writhing mass of bodies that finally explodes when someone opens the door.
In this Washington remake of the chaos, however, nobody is laughing and tomorrow promises to be a day of bitter recriminations on all sides, unhappy with the agreement they will have vote into law, combined with face-saving posturing by their leaders claiming dubious victories and self-serving criticism by 2012 presidential hopefuls.
In another context, Groucho may have made the most trenchant of commentaries about the members of Congress: “I don’t want to belong to any club that takes people like me as members.”
If only this bunch had a fraction of his wit.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
A Contrarian Case for Government
This of all weekends might not be the time to do this, but as George Will piles on with a column arguing that “government and the sectors it dominates have made themselves ludicrous” and “opened minds to the libertarians’ argument,” someone should say a few words in defense of a beleaguered political system that has kept this country the most free and prosperous in the world for centuries.
In the 1950s, best-sellers like “The Hidden Persuaders” and “The Organization Man” excoriated Big Business as the root of American evil, just as fringe arguments for Socialism and Communism were doing, in overheated attacks that boiled down to the naïve discovery that society was organized and that large organizations, while conferring benefits, were not always friendly to the best interests of individuals.
Now, in Ron Paul and his ilk, we have the mirror image of all that, fueled by the shambles of a total politicization of everything that has gone wrong in a period of economic upheaval that was not created by and won’t be totally solved by government.
Blaming Bush for creating and Obama for not overcoming a recession miss the point that government certainly affects the economy but doesn’t control it. (In the 1970s, Gerald Ford promoted “WIN (Whip Inflation Now)" buttons and Jimmy Carter talked about a national malaise, but neither did much to improve the financial state of the nation.)
As Paul, the Ayn Rand caucus in Congress and the Tea Party rail against government as the root of all evil, it might help to remember that a case can be made against all institutions.
In my own experience in recent months, I have been treated atrociously by such free-market bastions as Best Buy and the Geek Squad and, in a question about back taxes, with the utmost courtesy and helpfulness by “bureaucrats” who work for my state government.
But I wouldn’t want to stake a grand theory on the anecdotal evidence of where I have been encountering fallible and/or competent human beings. Neither should the nation.
In the 1950s, best-sellers like “The Hidden Persuaders” and “The Organization Man” excoriated Big Business as the root of American evil, just as fringe arguments for Socialism and Communism were doing, in overheated attacks that boiled down to the naïve discovery that society was organized and that large organizations, while conferring benefits, were not always friendly to the best interests of individuals.
Now, in Ron Paul and his ilk, we have the mirror image of all that, fueled by the shambles of a total politicization of everything that has gone wrong in a period of economic upheaval that was not created by and won’t be totally solved by government.
Blaming Bush for creating and Obama for not overcoming a recession miss the point that government certainly affects the economy but doesn’t control it. (In the 1970s, Gerald Ford promoted “WIN (Whip Inflation Now)" buttons and Jimmy Carter talked about a national malaise, but neither did much to improve the financial state of the nation.)
As Paul, the Ayn Rand caucus in Congress and the Tea Party rail against government as the root of all evil, it might help to remember that a case can be made against all institutions.
In my own experience in recent months, I have been treated atrociously by such free-market bastions as Best Buy and the Geek Squad and, in a question about back taxes, with the utmost courtesy and helpfulness by “bureaucrats” who work for my state government.
But I wouldn’t want to stake a grand theory on the anecdotal evidence of where I have been encountering fallible and/or competent human beings. Neither should the nation.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Nostalgia for the Silly Season
This time of year when people are away on vacation has always been known as the silly season for journalists. News is scarce, but time and space still have to be filled between commercials and ads, so they usually give us the odd, the trivial and outlandish.
But no two-headed snakes or lions cuddling with lambs are needed this year. The Tea Party is serving up what John McCain calls the “bizarre-o” and providing headlines by the hour from Washington.
Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell play out the equivalent of a runaway bride story by embracing and breaking up in less than a news cycle, while John Boehner sulks over having his wedding gift returned by the Senate.
And Barack Obama in his Weekly Address is still searching for the normal by quoting an e-mail from such a person:
“I keep my home clean, work hard at a full time job, give my parents any monies I can so they can afford their medications, I pay my bills and by all appearances I am a responsible person. All I’m asking is that you be responsible. I have my house in order and all I’m asking is that you get yours the same way.”
To this the President adds: “Here in Washington, we need to get our house in order. And I have to say, Democrats in Congress and some Senate Republicans have been listening and have shown themselves willing to make compromises to solve this crisis. Now all of us--including Republicans in the House of Representatives--need to demonstrate the same kind of responsibility that the American people show every day.”
Lots of luck with that one. The Silly Season is far from over down there, and “responsibility” is not on the news menu.
But no two-headed snakes or lions cuddling with lambs are needed this year. The Tea Party is serving up what John McCain calls the “bizarre-o” and providing headlines by the hour from Washington.
Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell play out the equivalent of a runaway bride story by embracing and breaking up in less than a news cycle, while John Boehner sulks over having his wedding gift returned by the Senate.
And Barack Obama in his Weekly Address is still searching for the normal by quoting an e-mail from such a person:
“I keep my home clean, work hard at a full time job, give my parents any monies I can so they can afford their medications, I pay my bills and by all appearances I am a responsible person. All I’m asking is that you be responsible. I have my house in order and all I’m asking is that you get yours the same way.”
To this the President adds: “Here in Washington, we need to get our house in order. And I have to say, Democrats in Congress and some Senate Republicans have been listening and have shown themselves willing to make compromises to solve this crisis. Now all of us--including Republicans in the House of Representatives--need to demonstrate the same kind of responsibility that the American people show every day.”
Lots of luck with that one. The Silly Season is far from over down there, and “responsibility” is not on the news menu.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Boehner Is Ready for His Closeup
We’re in “Sunset Boulevard” territory now, with John Boehner coming down the Capitol steps, primping for the cameras completely unaware that there’s a dead body in the swimming pool.
“The quickest way for Congress to eliminate the possibility of default and ease the growing turmoil in our economy,” he emotes, “is for the Senate to take up the House-passed bill and send it to the president today.”
This outdoes Gloria Swanson’s coming down for her closeup by “Mr. DeMille” when the news cameras are actually aimed at her before being taken away for madness and murder.
The words are barely out of Boehner’s mouth before the Senate kills his deformed bill and embarks on a weekend attempt to bring forth a viable solution to the debt-ceiling crisis that will force Boehner and his waxwork compatriots to sign on or leap into an open grave.
“Sunset Boulevard” won all kinds of Academy Awards 60 years ago for portraying lunacy in Hollywood, but this Tea Party production won’t be nominated for any prizes for a Washington remake.
“The quickest way for Congress to eliminate the possibility of default and ease the growing turmoil in our economy,” he emotes, “is for the Senate to take up the House-passed bill and send it to the president today.”
This outdoes Gloria Swanson’s coming down for her closeup by “Mr. DeMille” when the news cameras are actually aimed at her before being taken away for madness and murder.
The words are barely out of Boehner’s mouth before the Senate kills his deformed bill and embarks on a weekend attempt to bring forth a viable solution to the debt-ceiling crisis that will force Boehner and his waxwork compatriots to sign on or leap into an open grave.
“Sunset Boulevard” won all kinds of Academy Awards 60 years ago for portraying lunacy in Hollywood, but this Tea Party production won’t be nominated for any prizes for a Washington remake.
It Hurts to See a President Beg
George W. Bush’s Imperial Presidency is long gone, as Barack Obama pleads with the nation.
“There are a lot of crises in the world that we can’t always predict or avoid,” he tells Americans today after being missing in action all week. “This isn’t one of those crises...
“If you want to see a bipartisan compromise, make a phone call, send an e-mail, tweet. Keep the pressure on Washington and we can get past this.”
The man who killed Osama bin Laden only weeks ago is being held captive by a few dozen Tea Party terrorists, most of whom couldn’t find the Capitol six months ago. There are no Navy Seals, only befuddled John Boehner, to disarm them and keep them from blowing up the economy like the Twin Towers.
But Boehner is looking more and more like bin Laden these days, making plans in his bunker but unsure of who will carry them out.
It’s enough to make you nostalgic for Dick Cheney, who never had to appeal to social media to work his will in Washington.
Update: Even Peggy Noonan, who can usually be counted on for civility, burbles that “the White House seems desperate to be seen as consequential. They're trotting out Press Secretary Jay Carney, who stands there looking like a ferret with flop sweat as he insists President Obama is still at the table, still manning the phones and calling shots.”
Her conclusion about the President? “He is not a devil, an alien, a socialist. He is a loser. And this is America, where nobody loves a loser.”
Reading Noonan’s lips today is depressing.
“There are a lot of crises in the world that we can’t always predict or avoid,” he tells Americans today after being missing in action all week. “This isn’t one of those crises...
“If you want to see a bipartisan compromise, make a phone call, send an e-mail, tweet. Keep the pressure on Washington and we can get past this.”
The man who killed Osama bin Laden only weeks ago is being held captive by a few dozen Tea Party terrorists, most of whom couldn’t find the Capitol six months ago. There are no Navy Seals, only befuddled John Boehner, to disarm them and keep them from blowing up the economy like the Twin Towers.
But Boehner is looking more and more like bin Laden these days, making plans in his bunker but unsure of who will carry them out.
It’s enough to make you nostalgic for Dick Cheney, who never had to appeal to social media to work his will in Washington.
Update: Even Peggy Noonan, who can usually be counted on for civility, burbles that “the White House seems desperate to be seen as consequential. They're trotting out Press Secretary Jay Carney, who stands there looking like a ferret with flop sweat as he insists President Obama is still at the table, still manning the phones and calling shots.”
Her conclusion about the President? “He is not a devil, an alien, a socialist. He is a loser. And this is America, where nobody loves a loser.”
Reading Noonan’s lips today is depressing.
Palin Crowds Into Lawmaker Lampoon
In Washington, they are reenacting a famous magazine cover, the National Lampoon of January 1973 with a gun pointed at a dog’s head and the caption, “If You Don’t Buy This Magazine, We’ll Kill This Dog.”
The dog is the American economy, and Sarah Palin is urging her Tea Party friends to pull the trigger, with a Facebook post to “remember us ‘little people’ who believed in them, donated to their campaigns, spent hours tirelessly volunteering for them, and trusted them with our votes. This new wave of public servants may recall that they were sent to D.C. for such a time as this.”
With Palin on the scene, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, David Letterman et al should be donating their salaries to lower the deficit. These days Tea Party parody practically writes itself.
Take freshman Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois jumping on John McCain for criticizing his House brethren: "Folks like him...have no clue as to the troubles Americans are going through right now. They don't understand this crisis anymore."
He may have a point. McCain, who has been in Congress 28 years, has a wife who owns eight houses while Walsh, with six months in Washington, was elected to the House after his home was foreclosed, and the Chicago Sun-Times reports that he owes over $100,000 in child support to his ex-wife.
Now, after reducing the Illinois unemployment rate by one, Walsh is all over cable TV, telling Americans how to manage their money and bad-mouthing McCain for trying to talk sense about a balanced budget amendment.
As John Boehner goes into overtime to strong-arm his Tea Party cadre to pass a bill that will be immediately shelved in the Senate, the Alice-in-Wonderland scene keeps get zanier by the hour and no one knows what the final punch line will be. However it turns out, there won't be much laughing.
The dog is the American economy, and Sarah Palin is urging her Tea Party friends to pull the trigger, with a Facebook post to “remember us ‘little people’ who believed in them, donated to their campaigns, spent hours tirelessly volunteering for them, and trusted them with our votes. This new wave of public servants may recall that they were sent to D.C. for such a time as this.”
With Palin on the scene, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, David Letterman et al should be donating their salaries to lower the deficit. These days Tea Party parody practically writes itself.
Take freshman Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois jumping on John McCain for criticizing his House brethren: "Folks like him...have no clue as to the troubles Americans are going through right now. They don't understand this crisis anymore."
He may have a point. McCain, who has been in Congress 28 years, has a wife who owns eight houses while Walsh, with six months in Washington, was elected to the House after his home was foreclosed, and the Chicago Sun-Times reports that he owes over $100,000 in child support to his ex-wife.
Now, after reducing the Illinois unemployment rate by one, Walsh is all over cable TV, telling Americans how to manage their money and bad-mouthing McCain for trying to talk sense about a balanced budget amendment.
As John Boehner goes into overtime to strong-arm his Tea Party cadre to pass a bill that will be immediately shelved in the Senate, the Alice-in-Wonderland scene keeps get zanier by the hour and no one knows what the final punch line will be. However it turns out, there won't be much laughing.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
When Will Wall Street Weigh In?
A Dow drop of almost 200 points yesterday could be the first tremor of panicky bears preparing to escape an economic conflagration that Congress seems intent on setting off. Will the markets be full of investors with their hair on fire today, tomorrow or Monday as the debt-ceiling deadline looms?
While the House and Senate continue to play chicken, Wall Street (Heaven help us all) looks like the last hope for sanity, as it was in September 2008 when the biggest single-day market crash ever spurred approval of the Paulson bank bailout for unfreezing credit after the House failed to pass it. A loss of $1.2 trillion in market value got their attention.
Now, as the Washington game goes on to avoid default, with the stakes even higher, will the “Greed is good” gang react any differently?
“Investors,” says a New York Times report cautiously, “are seeking alternatives to United States Treasury bonds as worries escalate that lawmakers will fail to reach an agreement...Some have shifted funds into corporate bonds, others are forgetting about yields entirely and parking their money in cash, and more are looking to those classic safe havens of yore, gold and the Swiss franc.
“Investors are getting leery of stocks...”
No one wants to talk openly about a market panic, for fear of being accused of helping to set one off, but the signs are there.
If Boehner and Reid can’t get a deal done and the President is helpless, will the Gordon Gekkos of the financial world step up and twist their arms to get something done?
Friday Update: The stock market's fear factor--the CBOE Market Volatility Index (VIX)-- is up 5% to 25.03 by midday, still below 30, which denotes high fear in the marketplace, but the index has gone up more than 42% in the past five days.
While the House and Senate continue to play chicken, Wall Street (Heaven help us all) looks like the last hope for sanity, as it was in September 2008 when the biggest single-day market crash ever spurred approval of the Paulson bank bailout for unfreezing credit after the House failed to pass it. A loss of $1.2 trillion in market value got their attention.
Now, as the Washington game goes on to avoid default, with the stakes even higher, will the “Greed is good” gang react any differently?
“Investors,” says a New York Times report cautiously, “are seeking alternatives to United States Treasury bonds as worries escalate that lawmakers will fail to reach an agreement...Some have shifted funds into corporate bonds, others are forgetting about yields entirely and parking their money in cash, and more are looking to those classic safe havens of yore, gold and the Swiss franc.
“Investors are getting leery of stocks...”
No one wants to talk openly about a market panic, for fear of being accused of helping to set one off, but the signs are there.
If Boehner and Reid can’t get a deal done and the President is helpless, will the Gordon Gekkos of the financial world step up and twist their arms to get something done?
Friday Update: The stock market's fear factor--the CBOE Market Volatility Index (VIX)-- is up 5% to 25.03 by midday, still below 30, which denotes high fear in the marketplace, but the index has gone up more than 42% in the past five days.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Rejuvenation of John McCain
The titular head of the Republican Party, known for his short-fused temper, has exploded after two and a half years of volcanic quiescence.
John McCain, who had to placate far-right opposition to keep his Senate seat last year, is finally blowing his lid over “Tea Party Hobbits” for their “foolish” and “deceiving” behavior in pushing a balanced-budget amendment.
Moreover, he has also freed himself from being polite about his disastrous running mate by blasting “the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into G.O.P. nominees,” two Sarah-Palin backed candidates in 2010.
It may come as a surprise to Palin as well as Mitch McConnell and John Boehner that, by tradition, the presidential nominee of a defeated party is considered its titular head and spokesperson.
Not that such an arrangement has always been honored without resistance or deviation. In 1964, retired President Eisenhower, in six hours of frank political talk, could not bring himself to mention his Vice President, Richard Nixon, by name.
Instead, he kept referring to him with distaste as “the titular head of our party,” based on Nixon’s 1960 loss to JFK.
Present-day GOP leaders don’t seem to have any more respect for McCain, but for former admirers in his Maverick days, it’s good to see that there are limits to where his backsliding has taken him. They can thank the Tea Party for rejuvenating him.
John McCain, who had to placate far-right opposition to keep his Senate seat last year, is finally blowing his lid over “Tea Party Hobbits” for their “foolish” and “deceiving” behavior in pushing a balanced-budget amendment.
Moreover, he has also freed himself from being polite about his disastrous running mate by blasting “the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into G.O.P. nominees,” two Sarah-Palin backed candidates in 2010.
It may come as a surprise to Palin as well as Mitch McConnell and John Boehner that, by tradition, the presidential nominee of a defeated party is considered its titular head and spokesperson.
Not that such an arrangement has always been honored without resistance or deviation. In 1964, retired President Eisenhower, in six hours of frank political talk, could not bring himself to mention his Vice President, Richard Nixon, by name.
Instead, he kept referring to him with distaste as “the titular head of our party,” based on Nixon’s 1960 loss to JFK.
Present-day GOP leaders don’t seem to have any more respect for McCain, but for former admirers in his Maverick days, it’s good to see that there are limits to where his backsliding has taken him. They can thank the Tea Party for rejuvenating him.
Boehner's Place in History
The Speaker, with his feat of displeasing almost everyone in the debt-ceiling mess--the White House, Tea Party, GOP Senators, even the Congressional Budget Office--is earning his place in a volume that was in the making years ago to commemorate historic feats of mismanagement, “They Must Know What They’re Doing or They Wouldn’t Be Where They Are.”
It would have honored the Captain of the Titanic, Herbert Hoover in the Great Depression, LBJ’s handling of the Vietnam War, and Jimmy Carter during the Iran hostage crisis, among other monumental mishaps.
In this century, the list would include Heckuva Job Brownie’s work at FEMA during Hurricane Katrina and, of course, the Master himself—-George W. for the Iraq War. (The jury is still out on Barack Obama's pyrrhic victory in health care reform.)
Garden-variety incompetence does not qualify a public figure for this pantheon. Stunning stubborness has to be compounded by a total lack of foresight and an unerring instinct to misread possible outcomes.
Which brings us to John Andrew Boehner, the 61st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, who now finds himself besieged on all sides in a crisis on his own making as the U.S. economy heads toward a cliff, with friends and foes trying to grab the steering wheel.
As the Aug. 2 deadline nears, the suspense is over whether it will all end with a bang (a stock market plunge) or a whimper (some meaningless face-saving deal) but for the next few days, Boehner will be working frantically in his laboratory like some demented Dr. Frankenstein, along with his Igor, Eric Cantor, to breathe life into some legislative monstrosity.
Meanwhile, Boehner's place in the history of disastrous unforeseen consequences is assured.
It would have honored the Captain of the Titanic, Herbert Hoover in the Great Depression, LBJ’s handling of the Vietnam War, and Jimmy Carter during the Iran hostage crisis, among other monumental mishaps.
In this century, the list would include Heckuva Job Brownie’s work at FEMA during Hurricane Katrina and, of course, the Master himself—-George W. for the Iraq War. (The jury is still out on Barack Obama's pyrrhic victory in health care reform.)
Garden-variety incompetence does not qualify a public figure for this pantheon. Stunning stubborness has to be compounded by a total lack of foresight and an unerring instinct to misread possible outcomes.
Which brings us to John Andrew Boehner, the 61st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, who now finds himself besieged on all sides in a crisis on his own making as the U.S. economy heads toward a cliff, with friends and foes trying to grab the steering wheel.
As the Aug. 2 deadline nears, the suspense is over whether it will all end with a bang (a stock market plunge) or a whimper (some meaningless face-saving deal) but for the next few days, Boehner will be working frantically in his laboratory like some demented Dr. Frankenstein, along with his Igor, Eric Cantor, to breathe life into some legislative monstrosity.
Meanwhile, Boehner's place in the history of disastrous unforeseen consequences is assured.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Mixed Messages: Obama, Boehner Infomercials
As the President and the Speaker gave competing pitches on prime time, they were aiming at different audiences.
Barack Obama was urging millions of indifferent Americans to pressure Congress against taking the economy over a cliff, while John Boehner was trying to keep a handful of his Tea Party mavericks in line for the same purpose.
The chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee had already announced opposition to the Speaker’s two-step plan to raise the debt ceiling, with some members vowing to vote against it on the grounds of ideological impurity.
The President himself slyly pointed up this conflict by praising “the kind of approach the Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, was working on with me over the last several weeks.
“The only reason this balanced approach isn’t on its way to becoming law right now is because a significant number of Republicans in Congress are insisting on a different approach--a cuts-only approach-–an approach that doesn’t ask the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to contribute anything at all. And because nothing is asked of those at the top of the income scale, such an approach would close the deficit only with more severe cuts to programs we all care about–-cuts that place a greater burden on working families.”
In this odd conflict, Boehner has Tea Party terriers tugging at his leg while he tries to wrestle Democrats for political advantage in averting a disaster for the economy.
Early reactions are promising for Obama as websites of conservative Republicans were crashing under heavy traffic after the President’s address and, to build on such momentum, Democrats are running attack ads against GOP Congress members in districts that the President won in 2008.
In this overheated atmosphere, selling sanity is not easy, but the White House is giving it a good try.
Update: Capitol Hill phones are ringing off the hook today, reports the Times’ Caucus, suggesting that Boehner may have goofed by “demanding--and receiving--time before the same audience to respond” to Obama’s appeal to the prime-time millions who watched their duel over the debt-ceiling.
GOP talking points seem to work better in sound bites than speeches, however brief, with context.
Barack Obama was urging millions of indifferent Americans to pressure Congress against taking the economy over a cliff, while John Boehner was trying to keep a handful of his Tea Party mavericks in line for the same purpose.
The chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee had already announced opposition to the Speaker’s two-step plan to raise the debt ceiling, with some members vowing to vote against it on the grounds of ideological impurity.
The President himself slyly pointed up this conflict by praising “the kind of approach the Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, was working on with me over the last several weeks.
“The only reason this balanced approach isn’t on its way to becoming law right now is because a significant number of Republicans in Congress are insisting on a different approach--a cuts-only approach-–an approach that doesn’t ask the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to contribute anything at all. And because nothing is asked of those at the top of the income scale, such an approach would close the deficit only with more severe cuts to programs we all care about–-cuts that place a greater burden on working families.”
In this odd conflict, Boehner has Tea Party terriers tugging at his leg while he tries to wrestle Democrats for political advantage in averting a disaster for the economy.
Early reactions are promising for Obama as websites of conservative Republicans were crashing under heavy traffic after the President’s address and, to build on such momentum, Democrats are running attack ads against GOP Congress members in districts that the President won in 2008.
In this overheated atmosphere, selling sanity is not easy, but the White House is giving it a good try.
Update: Capitol Hill phones are ringing off the hook today, reports the Times’ Caucus, suggesting that Boehner may have goofed by “demanding--and receiving--time before the same audience to respond” to Obama’s appeal to the prime-time millions who watched their duel over the debt-ceiling.
GOP talking points seem to work better in sound bites than speeches, however brief, with context.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Children on Their Summer Vacations
In Norway, a blond young man who might have stepped out of a Calvin Klein ad kills 93 people with dum-dum bullets, most of them kids at a lakeside camp, to call attention to his 1500-page online rant, some of it plagiarized from the Unabomber.
His politics are beside the point, as were those of the lunatic who shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head last January, killing six in Tuscon, including a nine-year-old girl.
For such random slaughtering of innocents, the medium is the message: In the era of the Internet, 24/7 cable TV and semi-automatic guns for everyone, mass murder is a form of expression available to the kind of people who, less than a century ago, might have been handing out pamphlets or just muttering in the streets.
As we celebrate freedom of expression, people like Anders Behring Breivik remind us of the price we pay for having the power to turns words into lethal body rhetoric and, in sane societies, might shock us into tempering our use of language.
In coming days, we will have to endure days of watching him parade his madness for the TV cameras but by then, our own politicians may have stopped exhibiting theirs in Washington, and our children and grandchildren may be safely back in schools like Columbine.
Update: As police lower the death toll to 76, over 100,000 gather in Oslo to mourn the victims and repudiate the killer’s hatred of immigrants. “The streets are filled with love,” Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon tells the crowd.
His politics are beside the point, as were those of the lunatic who shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head last January, killing six in Tuscon, including a nine-year-old girl.
For such random slaughtering of innocents, the medium is the message: In the era of the Internet, 24/7 cable TV and semi-automatic guns for everyone, mass murder is a form of expression available to the kind of people who, less than a century ago, might have been handing out pamphlets or just muttering in the streets.
As we celebrate freedom of expression, people like Anders Behring Breivik remind us of the price we pay for having the power to turns words into lethal body rhetoric and, in sane societies, might shock us into tempering our use of language.
In coming days, we will have to endure days of watching him parade his madness for the TV cameras but by then, our own politicians may have stopped exhibiting theirs in Washington, and our children and grandchildren may be safely back in schools like Columbine.
Update: As police lower the death toll to 76, over 100,000 gather in Oslo to mourn the victims and repudiate the killer’s hatred of immigrants. “The streets are filled with love,” Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon tells the crowd.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
President Boehner Turns His Back on Obama
Tomorrow’s headline, as written by the Tea Party, would be, “Congress Saves Economy; President Signs On.”
As their bunch crowds the White House out of the driver’s seat on debt-ceiling negotiations, the Sunday talk shows are dominated by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Chief of Staff William Daley insisting that Barack Obama is still in the game, not only standing by to veto any loony compromise but still taking an active part in the talks.
This spectacle of John Boehner presiding over a national crisis should be enough to make political pundits wonder if they owe Rep.Sheila Jackson Lee an apology for ridiculing her when she suggested there was racism in the way the GOP is treating the President during the crisis.
If Republican disdain for Obama has not reached that level, they are showing unprecedented disrespect for the man Mitch McConnell has vowed to make “a one-term president.” By trying to take the reins during a potential national calamity that they themselves have created, they want to make him a half-term president in the eyes of anxious voters.
Whatever happens by the end of the day, it’s clear that these clowns are attempting a clumsy coup, trying to replace Presidential authority with that of a “Super Congress.”
Like greedy children, Tea Party members can’t wait until next November for their ice cream and cake. If the nation has any luck, it will all have melted by then.
Update: President Boehner is being magnanimous. "It may be pretty hard to put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” he tells Fox News, “but my last offer is still out there. I have never taken my last offer off the table," a proposal neither the Senate nor the White House will accept.
Talk about delusions of adequacy!
As their bunch crowds the White House out of the driver’s seat on debt-ceiling negotiations, the Sunday talk shows are dominated by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Chief of Staff William Daley insisting that Barack Obama is still in the game, not only standing by to veto any loony compromise but still taking an active part in the talks.
This spectacle of John Boehner presiding over a national crisis should be enough to make political pundits wonder if they owe Rep.Sheila Jackson Lee an apology for ridiculing her when she suggested there was racism in the way the GOP is treating the President during the crisis.
If Republican disdain for Obama has not reached that level, they are showing unprecedented disrespect for the man Mitch McConnell has vowed to make “a one-term president.” By trying to take the reins during a potential national calamity that they themselves have created, they want to make him a half-term president in the eyes of anxious voters.
Whatever happens by the end of the day, it’s clear that these clowns are attempting a clumsy coup, trying to replace Presidential authority with that of a “Super Congress.”
Like greedy children, Tea Party members can’t wait until next November for their ice cream and cake. If the nation has any luck, it will all have melted by then.
Update: President Boehner is being magnanimous. "It may be pretty hard to put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” he tells Fox News, “but my last offer is still out there. I have never taken my last offer off the table," a proposal neither the Senate nor the White House will accept.
Talk about delusions of adequacy!
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Death and Taxes, Now and Then
Try this for perspective on the two great inevitabilities of life: At my birth, life expectancy was 58 years. For a baby today, it’s over 75.
When I started earning in the Eisenhower era, the top tax rate was 84 percent rather than the current 35, and hardly anyone complained.
The only audible grumbles came from cartoon figures in upper-crust men's clubs and, on one occasion, John Wayne, the celluloid cowboy, whom I told, "If I could get millions for making faces at cameras, I wouldn't complain about giving most of it back to people who buy tickets to see me do it."
But that was when patriotism was about loving America rather than hating other Americans, when most of those elected to serve in Washington were working against prejudice rather than stoking it for political gain, when class warfare was being promoted only at the lunatic fringes of Communism and McCarthyism.
John Wayne paid his high taxes and kept making movies that exalted the red, white and blue. (That may come as news to Michele Bachmann, who praised his values in her announcement speech, mistakenly placing him in Waterloo, Iowa, where the serial killer John Wayne Gacy lived.)
How did we get from those days to this fractured, fractious parody of American values being played out in Washington today?
When the President talks about shared sacrifice (i.e., taking back a few percent of the Bush tax cuts from billionaires), how did that get to be a do-or-die issue for the Republican Party?
Why are so many patriots ready to take away actually do-or-die protections of Social Security and Medicare from their fellow citizens with those longer life spans?
Back then, we had just come out of a World War, where lives and limbs were sacrificed for American freedoms, and those at home uncomplainingly endured food shortages and gasoline rationing.
When and how did we morph from a nation of John Waynes to a parody of Clint Eastwoods (“Read my lips: No new taxes”)?
Whatever happens between now and August 2nd, it might help to look ahead to August 6th, the sixty-sixth anniversary of the day we exploded an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. That was a moral issue that makes today’s debt-ceiling crisis look like a sandbox fight among squabbling children.
When I started earning in the Eisenhower era, the top tax rate was 84 percent rather than the current 35, and hardly anyone complained.
The only audible grumbles came from cartoon figures in upper-crust men's clubs and, on one occasion, John Wayne, the celluloid cowboy, whom I told, "If I could get millions for making faces at cameras, I wouldn't complain about giving most of it back to people who buy tickets to see me do it."
But that was when patriotism was about loving America rather than hating other Americans, when most of those elected to serve in Washington were working against prejudice rather than stoking it for political gain, when class warfare was being promoted only at the lunatic fringes of Communism and McCarthyism.
John Wayne paid his high taxes and kept making movies that exalted the red, white and blue. (That may come as news to Michele Bachmann, who praised his values in her announcement speech, mistakenly placing him in Waterloo, Iowa, where the serial killer John Wayne Gacy lived.)
How did we get from those days to this fractured, fractious parody of American values being played out in Washington today?
When the President talks about shared sacrifice (i.e., taking back a few percent of the Bush tax cuts from billionaires), how did that get to be a do-or-die issue for the Republican Party?
Why are so many patriots ready to take away actually do-or-die protections of Social Security and Medicare from their fellow citizens with those longer life spans?
Back then, we had just come out of a World War, where lives and limbs were sacrificed for American freedoms, and those at home uncomplainingly endured food shortages and gasoline rationing.
When and how did we morph from a nation of John Waynes to a parody of Clint Eastwoods (“Read my lips: No new taxes”)?
Whatever happens between now and August 2nd, it might help to look ahead to August 6th, the sixty-sixth anniversary of the day we exploded an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. That was a moral issue that makes today’s debt-ceiling crisis look like a sandbox fight among squabbling children.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Boehner in a Box, Obama in a Rage
The Tea Party can’t take yes for an answer. Even as the President caves in to their debt-ceiling demands, the Speaker of the House comes out like a ventriloquist’s dummy and demolishes the deal they were making.
“I have decided,” John Boehner harrumphs, “to end discussions with the White House and begin conversations with the leaders of the Senate in an effort to find a path forward...
“The president is emphatic that taxes have to be raised. As a former small businessman, I know tax increases destroy jobs.”
The Speaker’s lips are moving, but clearly Eric Cantor is pulling the strings for the House’s class of 2009, which has put Boehner into a box with no room for negotiation of any kind.
Barack Obama shows his anger: “Can they say yes to anything?...I have been left at the altar a couple of times now.”
The word “insatiable” comes to mind. We are well beyond politics here in a Kafkaesque game of raw power for its own sake.
The President has summoned Congressional leaders to the White House again tomorrow morning. Will they show up or just send a recorded message?
Update: In his Weekly Address, the President is back in Never-Never Land, urging “serious cuts, balanced by some new revenues,” which he describes as “the position of every Democratic and Republican leader who has worked to reduce the deficit, from Bill Clinton to Ronald Reagan.
“In fact, earlier this week, one of the most conservative members of the Senate, Tom Coburn, announced his support for a balanced, bipartisan plan that shows promise. And then a funny thing happened. He received a round of applause--from a group of Republican and Democratic senators. That’s a rare event in Washington.”
When Tom Coburn is held up as the voice of reason, we are in deep, deep trouble.
Saturday Update: The White House meeting lasts less than an hour, and the picture of Obama and Boehner tells it all--a glum couple not looking at each other. You could see more warmth in any divorce lawyer’s office.
“I have decided,” John Boehner harrumphs, “to end discussions with the White House and begin conversations with the leaders of the Senate in an effort to find a path forward...
“The president is emphatic that taxes have to be raised. As a former small businessman, I know tax increases destroy jobs.”
The Speaker’s lips are moving, but clearly Eric Cantor is pulling the strings for the House’s class of 2009, which has put Boehner into a box with no room for negotiation of any kind.
Barack Obama shows his anger: “Can they say yes to anything?...I have been left at the altar a couple of times now.”
The word “insatiable” comes to mind. We are well beyond politics here in a Kafkaesque game of raw power for its own sake.
The President has summoned Congressional leaders to the White House again tomorrow morning. Will they show up or just send a recorded message?
Update: In his Weekly Address, the President is back in Never-Never Land, urging “serious cuts, balanced by some new revenues,” which he describes as “the position of every Democratic and Republican leader who has worked to reduce the deficit, from Bill Clinton to Ronald Reagan.
“In fact, earlier this week, one of the most conservative members of the Senate, Tom Coburn, announced his support for a balanced, bipartisan plan that shows promise. And then a funny thing happened. He received a round of applause--from a group of Republican and Democratic senators. That’s a rare event in Washington.”
When Tom Coburn is held up as the voice of reason, we are in deep, deep trouble.
Saturday Update: The White House meeting lasts less than an hour, and the picture of Obama and Boehner tells it all--a glum couple not looking at each other. You could see more warmth in any divorce lawyer’s office.
Obama Blinks
Word is oozing out that the President has apparently caved in to Tea Party blackmail. If true, as White House leaks tend to be, the cliché about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory has become a working principle in Washington, and the future outlook could be even worse with many of the details yet to unfold.
Behind news of ”a package calling for as much as $3 trillion in savings from substantial spending cuts and future revenue produced by a tax code overhaul” is the reality that Barack Obama, with his party controlling the Senate, has apparently given in to the intractability of smug thugs who were elected to the House last year and handed them the reins of government.
In such a deal, the cuts in services would be real and immediate, with “future revenue” a cloudy rationalization to obscure the fact that this GOP minority has succeeded in preserving the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans--a resolution of the debt ceiling dilemma that makes no economic or moral sense.
Beyond that, it portends even worse for the future, as Paul Krugman notes:
“The disappearance of unemployment from elite policy discourse and its replacement by deficit panic has been truly remarkable. It’s not a response to public opinion. In a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, 53 percent of the public named the economy and jobs as the most important problem we face, while only 7 percent named the deficit. Nor is it a response to market pressure. Interest rates on U.S. debt remain near historic lows.”
Senate Democrats are expressing fury at the “sellout,” as well they should, but if the President has signed on, their options are limited.
If this is Barack Obama’s response to a manufactured crisis in which public opinion was behind him to do the right thing, he may have just raised the odds on a one-term presidency.
“Never get into a pissing contest with skunks” is the advice of country wisdom. But if you do, make sure you win and worry about cleaning up later. Right now, the White House in in bad odor.
Behind news of ”a package calling for as much as $3 trillion in savings from substantial spending cuts and future revenue produced by a tax code overhaul” is the reality that Barack Obama, with his party controlling the Senate, has apparently given in to the intractability of smug thugs who were elected to the House last year and handed them the reins of government.
In such a deal, the cuts in services would be real and immediate, with “future revenue” a cloudy rationalization to obscure the fact that this GOP minority has succeeded in preserving the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans--a resolution of the debt ceiling dilemma that makes no economic or moral sense.
Beyond that, it portends even worse for the future, as Paul Krugman notes:
“The disappearance of unemployment from elite policy discourse and its replacement by deficit panic has been truly remarkable. It’s not a response to public opinion. In a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, 53 percent of the public named the economy and jobs as the most important problem we face, while only 7 percent named the deficit. Nor is it a response to market pressure. Interest rates on U.S. debt remain near historic lows.”
Senate Democrats are expressing fury at the “sellout,” as well they should, but if the President has signed on, their options are limited.
If this is Barack Obama’s response to a manufactured crisis in which public opinion was behind him to do the right thing, he may have just raised the odds on a one-term presidency.
“Never get into a pissing contest with skunks” is the advice of country wisdom. But if you do, make sure you win and worry about cleaning up later. Right now, the White House in in bad odor.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Obama's Excessive Anger Management
With their fabricated debt ceiling fiasco, the GOP has tested the President’s patience and not found it wanting. As the deadline nears, the question is: What will it take to enrage him?
Barack Obama is edging into testy now: "This is actually a self-created crisis in some ways. It has to do with folks who are digging into set positions rather than saying how do we solve a problem.”
But as polls show overwhelming majorities of voters worried and disgusted at Tea Party antics, why is their President not reflecting their emotions and why is he still acting more like a mediator than a leader rallying them to put pressure on their addled legislators?
Die-hard ideologues keep shooting down each possible solution (the Gang of Six proposal is the latest), making it clear that the country is being held hostage with the clock ticking, but Obama is still sounding relatively sanguine.
“My interest here is not scaring people,” he says about the possibility of not sending out Social Security checks next week, but goes only as far as to say "there is no reason this should be a problem" if all the parties take "a sensible approach" to the issue.
This legislative farce went past “sensible” weeks ago, and the President still keeps backing away from the direct confrontation that seems inevitable. Now he has retreated from his vow against short-term deals, opening the door for an intractable House to keep the country tied in knots indefinitely.
Is there an anti-anger management course he can take that would spur him to make a prime-time speech calling out Boehner, McConnell, Ryan and their gang for what they are doing?
Nobody expects Barack Obama to sound like Harry Truman in his attacks on a “do-nothing, good-for-nothing Congress” that won him reelection in 1948, but in not confronting this Congress head-on, he is letting down the vast numbers of Americans who want sanity in Washington and damaging his own chances at the ballot box next year.
Barack Obama is edging into testy now: "This is actually a self-created crisis in some ways. It has to do with folks who are digging into set positions rather than saying how do we solve a problem.”
But as polls show overwhelming majorities of voters worried and disgusted at Tea Party antics, why is their President not reflecting their emotions and why is he still acting more like a mediator than a leader rallying them to put pressure on their addled legislators?
Die-hard ideologues keep shooting down each possible solution (the Gang of Six proposal is the latest), making it clear that the country is being held hostage with the clock ticking, but Obama is still sounding relatively sanguine.
“My interest here is not scaring people,” he says about the possibility of not sending out Social Security checks next week, but goes only as far as to say "there is no reason this should be a problem" if all the parties take "a sensible approach" to the issue.
This legislative farce went past “sensible” weeks ago, and the President still keeps backing away from the direct confrontation that seems inevitable. Now he has retreated from his vow against short-term deals, opening the door for an intractable House to keep the country tied in knots indefinitely.
Is there an anti-anger management course he can take that would spur him to make a prime-time speech calling out Boehner, McConnell, Ryan and their gang for what they are doing?
Nobody expects Barack Obama to sound like Harry Truman in his attacks on a “do-nothing, good-for-nothing Congress” that won him reelection in 1948, but in not confronting this Congress head-on, he is letting down the vast numbers of Americans who want sanity in Washington and damaging his own chances at the ballot box next year.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Murdoch Channels George W. Bush
In the Parliamentary hearing about media misdeeds yesterday, Rupert Murdoch resembled his favorite American President.
During eight years in office, George W. Bush, who called himself the Decider, never took responsibility for anything that went wrong. At the low point of the Iraq war, he would go only as far as to admit, “Mistakes were made.”
In the same way, Murdoch and his son blame underlings for abuses of power, just as Bush let Scooter Libby, Alberto Gonzales and Karl Rove take the fall when things went wrong in such misadventures as the outing of Valerie Plame and the firing of U.S. attorneys.
This is a redefinition of Harry Truman’s “The buck stops here.” For today’s chief executives (call it the Enron principle), the buck, as blame, stops somewhere down there. Only the bucks, as the fruits of an enterprise, reach the top.
This separation of power and responsibility is endemic in the 21st century (see Tea Party and the debt-ceiling crisis), leaving so-called leaders to take all the bows and, when things go wrong, hide behind the stupidity and/or stubbornness of their followers.
For the rest of us, there are few outlets for frustration at this lack of accountability. The clown who pie-pelted Rupert Murdoch is reminiscent of the Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at President Bush in Baghdad during his last month in office.
Neat symbolism, but it only hurts when we laugh.
During eight years in office, George W. Bush, who called himself the Decider, never took responsibility for anything that went wrong. At the low point of the Iraq war, he would go only as far as to admit, “Mistakes were made.”
In the same way, Murdoch and his son blame underlings for abuses of power, just as Bush let Scooter Libby, Alberto Gonzales and Karl Rove take the fall when things went wrong in such misadventures as the outing of Valerie Plame and the firing of U.S. attorneys.
This is a redefinition of Harry Truman’s “The buck stops here.” For today’s chief executives (call it the Enron principle), the buck, as blame, stops somewhere down there. Only the bucks, as the fruits of an enterprise, reach the top.
This separation of power and responsibility is endemic in the 21st century (see Tea Party and the debt-ceiling crisis), leaving so-called leaders to take all the bows and, when things go wrong, hide behind the stupidity and/or stubbornness of their followers.
For the rest of us, there are few outlets for frustration at this lack of accountability. The clown who pie-pelted Rupert Murdoch is reminiscent of the Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at President Bush in Baghdad during his last month in office.
Neat symbolism, but it only hurts when we laugh.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The Mental Health of Michele Bachmann
Politics and psychiatry converge as a conservative website reveals that the surging Republican candidate “frequently suffers from stress-induced medical episodes that...occur once a week on average and can ‘incapacitate’ her for days at time. On at least three occasions, Bachmann has landed in the hospital as a result.”
Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller reports Michelle Bachmann’s history of frequent and severe mood swings that raise questions about her fitness for a campaign, let alone service in the White House.
Doubts about her state of mind keep multiplying after stories of her participation in an anti-gay sect and her fervent prayer five years ago predicting an apocalypse:
“Lord, the day is at hand. We are in the last days. You are a Jehovah God. We know that the times are in your hands. And we give them to you...The day is at hand, Lord, when your return will come nigh. Nothing is more important than bringing sheep into the fold.”
Her admirers may shrug off such revelations as prejudiced attacks on a highly spiritual candidate, but Bachmann has exceeded the speed limit for normal since she was elected to Congress in 2006.
Only weeks afterward, she drew attention at the State of the Union by groping the President and not letting go. A Minneapolis TV station reported what national viewers could plainly see, that Bachmann “put her hand on Bush's shoulder. However, it wasn't just a tap. After he signed an autograph for her, Bachmann grabbed the president and did not let go for almost 30 seconds.
“After signing the autograph for Bachmann, the president turns away, but Bachmann doesn't let go. In fact, the video shows her reaching out to get a better grip on him.
“Bush then leans over to kiss another congresswoman, but Bachmann is still holding on. Bachmann then gets more attention, a kiss and an embrace from the president. A few seconds later, Bachmann's hand finally comes off the presidential shoulder.”
Couple this manic behavior with what her staff describes as “the significant amount of medication Bachmann takes to address her condition,” which they describe as migraine headaches but sounds suspiciously like depression, and questions arise about the possibility of a bipolar President and the nuclear button.
In 1972, Democratic candidate George McGovern had to drop Thomas Eagleton as his running mate after revelations of his treatment for depression. We are more sophisticated now, but Michelle Bachmann’s mental health is an issue that will have to be addressed.
Update: When an ABC reporter tries to question Bachmann about her “migraines,” he is roughed up by her bodyguards. Asked if he has been treated this way before, Brian Ross says, “A few times. Mostly by Mafia people.”
Cocooned this way from the media and supplied with plausible sound bites by GOP veteran Ed Rollins, Michele Bachmann is making the Sarah Palin of 2008 look accessible.
Now she is running Tea Party-crazy commercials, bragging about voting against raising the debt limit:
“It goes completely contrary to common sense and how I grew up in Iowa...We have to deal with the economic reality.”
Or is she just trying to help her “Jehovah God” hasten the last days for the U.S.?
Update II: The Bachmann campaign releases a doctor’s letter telling her: “Your migraines occur infrequently and have known trigger factors of which you are aware and know how to avoid. When you do have a migraine, you are able to control it well, as needed with medication.”
All fine, as far it goes, but the lingering question about her mental health is underscored by recent research that “there is a genetic predisposition by people with migraines to be depressed"--46 percent, about four times higher than the rate in the overall population.
Coupled with Bachmann’s manic and erratic behavior, controlling migraines does not go very far toward answering the question of her overall stability.
Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller reports Michelle Bachmann’s history of frequent and severe mood swings that raise questions about her fitness for a campaign, let alone service in the White House.
Doubts about her state of mind keep multiplying after stories of her participation in an anti-gay sect and her fervent prayer five years ago predicting an apocalypse:
“Lord, the day is at hand. We are in the last days. You are a Jehovah God. We know that the times are in your hands. And we give them to you...The day is at hand, Lord, when your return will come nigh. Nothing is more important than bringing sheep into the fold.”
Her admirers may shrug off such revelations as prejudiced attacks on a highly spiritual candidate, but Bachmann has exceeded the speed limit for normal since she was elected to Congress in 2006.
Only weeks afterward, she drew attention at the State of the Union by groping the President and not letting go. A Minneapolis TV station reported what national viewers could plainly see, that Bachmann “put her hand on Bush's shoulder. However, it wasn't just a tap. After he signed an autograph for her, Bachmann grabbed the president and did not let go for almost 30 seconds.
“After signing the autograph for Bachmann, the president turns away, but Bachmann doesn't let go. In fact, the video shows her reaching out to get a better grip on him.
“Bush then leans over to kiss another congresswoman, but Bachmann is still holding on. Bachmann then gets more attention, a kiss and an embrace from the president. A few seconds later, Bachmann's hand finally comes off the presidential shoulder.”
Couple this manic behavior with what her staff describes as “the significant amount of medication Bachmann takes to address her condition,” which they describe as migraine headaches but sounds suspiciously like depression, and questions arise about the possibility of a bipolar President and the nuclear button.
In 1972, Democratic candidate George McGovern had to drop Thomas Eagleton as his running mate after revelations of his treatment for depression. We are more sophisticated now, but Michelle Bachmann’s mental health is an issue that will have to be addressed.
Update: When an ABC reporter tries to question Bachmann about her “migraines,” he is roughed up by her bodyguards. Asked if he has been treated this way before, Brian Ross says, “A few times. Mostly by Mafia people.”
Cocooned this way from the media and supplied with plausible sound bites by GOP veteran Ed Rollins, Michele Bachmann is making the Sarah Palin of 2008 look accessible.
Now she is running Tea Party-crazy commercials, bragging about voting against raising the debt limit:
“It goes completely contrary to common sense and how I grew up in Iowa...We have to deal with the economic reality.”
Or is she just trying to help her “Jehovah God” hasten the last days for the U.S.?
Update II: The Bachmann campaign releases a doctor’s letter telling her: “Your migraines occur infrequently and have known trigger factors of which you are aware and know how to avoid. When you do have a migraine, you are able to control it well, as needed with medication.”
All fine, as far it goes, but the lingering question about her mental health is underscored by recent research that “there is a genetic predisposition by people with migraines to be depressed"--46 percent, about four times higher than the rate in the overall population.
Coupled with Bachmann’s manic and erratic behavior, controlling migraines does not go very far toward answering the question of her overall stability.
Talking Congress Off the Ledge
We have seen this scene before: the deranged figure threatening to take the plunge from on high as a negotiator tries to talk him down by taking all his rambling complaints seriously and trying to reason them away as if they were not totally loopy.
Barack Obama keeps calmly engaging Congress, the would-be jumpers, with promises to work on grievances once they come in off the ledge, as the crowd below holds it breath, hoping for a happy outcome.
Polling shows two-thirds of Americans, majorities of both parties, want an agreement with both spending cuts and tax increases, and most would settle for even one they themselves don’t fully support rather than have the United States default.
But, as in every such scene, there are onlookers yelling, “Jump! Jump!” in a Tea Party version of the kind of auto-da-fe stirred up by the burning of heretics during the Spanish Inquisition to purify deviations from the true faith.
As the President maintains his calm rationality in the face of an approaching deadline, other nerves are getting frayed.
“What will it take,” asks Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, “for my Republican colleagues to wake up to the fact that they’re playing a game of political chicken with the entire global economy?”
It’s too bad that, in this situation, the president doesn’t have the Mel Gibson option in the original “Lethal Weapon,” of calling the jumper’s bluff by grabbing him and diving together into a safety net below.
But there isn’t a safety net that big available and, if Republicans have their way, there won’t be any for anybody in the future.
Barack Obama keeps calmly engaging Congress, the would-be jumpers, with promises to work on grievances once they come in off the ledge, as the crowd below holds it breath, hoping for a happy outcome.
Polling shows two-thirds of Americans, majorities of both parties, want an agreement with both spending cuts and tax increases, and most would settle for even one they themselves don’t fully support rather than have the United States default.
But, as in every such scene, there are onlookers yelling, “Jump! Jump!” in a Tea Party version of the kind of auto-da-fe stirred up by the burning of heretics during the Spanish Inquisition to purify deviations from the true faith.
As the President maintains his calm rationality in the face of an approaching deadline, other nerves are getting frayed.
“What will it take,” asks Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, “for my Republican colleagues to wake up to the fact that they’re playing a game of political chicken with the entire global economy?”
It’s too bad that, in this situation, the president doesn’t have the Mel Gibson option in the original “Lethal Weapon,” of calling the jumper’s bluff by grabbing him and diving together into a safety net below.
But there isn’t a safety net that big available and, if Republicans have their way, there won’t be any for anybody in the future.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Tea Party Fantasy Flick
On the nation’s movie screens, the Sarah Palin-as-saint movie is running a dismal second to Harry Potter, but in Washington, the Tea Party is offering its own fantasy to entertain Americans until the economic apocalypse premiers on Aug. 2.
“The House and Senate this week,” reports The Caucus, “plan to hold politically charged but largely symbolic votes on fiscal policy in what Congressional leaders hope is a prelude to moving ahead with a plan to increase the federal debt limit...
“Given the likelihood of attempts to filibuster any proposal in the Senate, just moving legislation through to passage could consume the next two weeks, including the weekends.”
This gives new meaning to the traditional dramatic category of “dumb show,” a silent pantomime. The GOP actors have all kinds of words like “cap, cut and balance” and “balanced budget amendment,” but they are all gibberish to serve as background to squeeze the last possible moments of posturing on stage before the vote to raise the debt ceiling.
“At the end of the day,” says their Senate No. 2 Jon Kyl, “Republican leaders have made it clear that we will not be the ones to put the government into default. Now the House of Representatives has to make its decision about what it will do.”
Says the White House Budget Director, “There will be a fringe that believes that playing with Armageddon is a good idea, but I don’t think that’s where the majority will be.”
Just so, but the Tea Party troupe will be stretching its time in the spotlight to the last possible moment, even though most Americans clearly find Harry Potter and Sarah Palin more mesmerizing.
Update: Everybody in Washington is getting bad reviews for the Deficit Follies so far, with Republicans in Congress garnering the worst. A new poll shows 71 percent disapproval, with the President at only 48 percent. But Tea Party performers can’t or won’t read, and the show will go on.
“The House and Senate this week,” reports The Caucus, “plan to hold politically charged but largely symbolic votes on fiscal policy in what Congressional leaders hope is a prelude to moving ahead with a plan to increase the federal debt limit...
“Given the likelihood of attempts to filibuster any proposal in the Senate, just moving legislation through to passage could consume the next two weeks, including the weekends.”
This gives new meaning to the traditional dramatic category of “dumb show,” a silent pantomime. The GOP actors have all kinds of words like “cap, cut and balance” and “balanced budget amendment,” but they are all gibberish to serve as background to squeeze the last possible moments of posturing on stage before the vote to raise the debt ceiling.
“At the end of the day,” says their Senate No. 2 Jon Kyl, “Republican leaders have made it clear that we will not be the ones to put the government into default. Now the House of Representatives has to make its decision about what it will do.”
Says the White House Budget Director, “There will be a fringe that believes that playing with Armageddon is a good idea, but I don’t think that’s where the majority will be.”
Just so, but the Tea Party troupe will be stretching its time in the spotlight to the last possible moment, even though most Americans clearly find Harry Potter and Sarah Palin more mesmerizing.
Update: Everybody in Washington is getting bad reviews for the Deficit Follies so far, with Republicans in Congress garnering the worst. A new poll shows 71 percent disapproval, with the President at only 48 percent. But Tea Party performers can’t or won’t read, and the show will go on.
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