Monthly Archives: January 2010

Krugman: Pass The Bill Already

Congressional Democrats, please listen to this man:

A message to House Democrats: This is your moment of truth. You can do the right thing and pass the Senate health care bill. Or you can look for an easy way out, make excuses and fail the test of history.

A message to House Democrats: This is your moment of truth. You can do the right thing and pass the Senate health care bill. Or you can look for an easy way out, make excuses and fail the test of history.

Tuesday’s Republican victory in the Massachusetts special election means that Democrats can’t send a modified health care bill back to the Senate. That’s a shame because the bill that would have emerged from House-Senate negotiations would have been better than the bill the Senate has already passed. But the Senate bill is much, much better than nothing. And all that has to happen to make it law is for the House to pass the same bill, and send it to President Obama’s desk.

Right now, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, says that she doesn’t have the votes to pass the Senate bill. But there is no good alternative.

Some are urging Democrats to scale back their proposals in the hope of gaining Republican support. But anyone who thinks that would work must have spent the past year living on another planet.

I have no idea why Democrats want to draw defeat out of the jaws of victory because of a defeat in Massachusetts. They need to quit freaking out (especially in public) and just get back to work.

I kept telling people during Bush’s term (especially during the 2004 campaign): don’t judge by his words, judge by his actions. Well, I have the same judgment on Democrats. Just because they talk about things I agree with, like fixing the problems with our health care system, doesn’t mean they are on our side. It’s time for action now. The Democratic Party should be more than a debating club – all talk and no action. They have the power to do something right now. Pass the bill. Prepare fixes for the current bill and introduce them. Make ConservaDems and Republicans say no.

Just do it. If it isn’t done the American people will still face the following:
1. If you get sick you could lose your coverage
2. If you don’t have coverage you could go bankrupt
3. After you’re bankrupt you won’t be able to get coverage
That’s just unacceptable to me.

There is no win for progressives if this bill doesn’t pass. Health insurance corporations will still make profits. People will still be thrown off of insurance plans for being sick. Joe Lieberman will still be a Senator.

How Low Can He Go?

Rush Limbaugh, commenting on Obama’s plan for regulating banks:

On Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh accused Barack Obama of waging an anti-Semitic campaign against Jewish people. Limbaugh’s logic?

There are a lot of people, when you say banker, people think Jewish. … People who have a little prejudice about them. … To some people, banker is a code word for Jewish; and guess who Obama is assaulting? He’s assaulting bankers. He’s assaulting money people. And a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish. So I wonder if there’s – if there’s starting to be some buyer’s remorse there.

My question: will any Republicans dare to criticize Limbaugh?

Thursday Open Thread

It’s Thursday open thread time. Today’s open thread has a theme: racism. The floor is yours.

Oh, what is this world coming to when you can’t make a good racist joke among friends?

Bill O’Reilly is very very sad that you can’t make “Arab jokes” anymore:

O’REILLY: So 48 years ago — 48 years ago in this country we could make fun of Arabs. … We could make fun of people in a general way, and certainly, Ahab was the Arab was a general parody. But now, we can’t. What has changed in America?

The subtext of this lament is O’Reilly mourning the demise of what he refers to as the “white Christian male power structure.” It’s not really that you “can’t” make racist jokes anymore; it’s that you when you make them, you can’t expect everyone to remain silent as you assert your cultural or racial superiority through humor.

Remember, O’Reilly is one of the more sane ones on Fox.

Welcome to post-racial America:

A new professional basketball league called the All-American Basketball Alliance (AABA) sent out a press release on Sunday saying that it intends to start its inaugural season in June, with teams in 12 U.S. cities. However, the AABA is different from other sports leagues because only players who are “natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league.” AABA commissioner Don “Moose” Lewis insists that he’s not racist, but he just wants to get away from the “street-ball” played by “people of color” and back to “fundamental basketball.”

Oh no, definitely not a racist. Not everyone is happy about this, and at least one proposed city has said no thanks:

The AABA is targeting Southern cities, but one proposed city — Augusta, GA — is opposed to the league. Several other cities have reportedly told Lewis to “stay out of town.”

It’s Worse Than That, It’s Dead Jim

Well Nancy Pelosi has just come out to say that there aren’t enough votes for the Senate bill in the House.  So the Kill the Bill people have won.  I am sure that Jane Hamsher is sitting on a barstool next to Jim DeMint slapping each other on the back about how much they just F’ed up Obama’s presidency.  I hear that David Anderson and A1 will be getting together for milk and cookies later.

For all of you with pre-existing conditions or vulnerable to recission, sorry.  For those of you that don’t have insurance, best of luck.  Take lots of vitamin C and don’t call in the morning.

Breaking: Supreme Court Opens The Floodgates

Instead of fighting amongst ourselves, perhaps we might want to keep our eye on the ball.

The long-awaited 5-4 ruling, in the Citizens United v. FEC case, presents advocates of regulation with a major challenge in limiting the flow of corporate money into campaigns, and potentially opens the door for unrestricted amounts of corporate money to flow into American politics.

In the case at issue, Citizens United (CU), a conservative advocacy group, was challenging a ruling by the FEC that barred it from airing a negative movie about Hillary Clinton. CU received corporate donations and the movie advocated the defeat of a political candidate within 60 days of an election. CU argued that the FEC ruling violated its freedom of speech, and that the relevant provision of McCain-Feingold was unconstitutional.

This doesn’t bode well.

Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show-Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010

Post-Game Wrap-Up

I interrupt this report to start out today with a raging screed. To the surprise of absolutely nobody.

Yesterday, the Delaware State Senate unanimously approved the nomination of Diane Clarke Streett to become a judge on Superior Court. I know this because the Governor’s office sent out a congratulatory release about this. However, not a word of this is in the official Session Activity Report that is posted on the General Assembly’s website. And, to make matters worse, the Senate still does not post its Daily Journal (the official session record) online. The House has posted its Journal online forever. There simply is  no excuse for this. It is time for the Senate to stop deliberately withholding basic information from the public.  It serves no purpose other than to make the Senate look like it’s hiding something.

It is possible that the Senate approved other nominations yesterday, but I don’t know as there no official record of them. If a confirmation takes place and nobody hears of it, did it really happen?

OK, that major cavil aside, here’s what I know happened yesterday, aka the official, although incomplete, record.

The Senate passed a key piece of legislation designed to hasten the implementation of table gaming in Delaware. SB 188 (Sen. DeLuca) establishes criminal offenses and penalties relating to cheating at table games and/or avoiding taxes on winnings. It is a companion piece to HB 310 (Rep. Schwartzkopf), which authorizes the introduction and operation of table games in Delaware. HB 310 was released from House committee yesterday, and is expected to be worked today. It is clearly the intent of the General Assembly leadership and the Governor to have this legislation enacted into law before the General Assembly breaks for Joint Finance Committee hearings at the end of January.

Also, both House and Senate committees released a myriad of bills yesterday. I will defer discussion on them until and unless they surface on an agenda.

Pre-Game Show

Governor Jack Markell delivers his State of the State Address today at 2 p.m. It is not likely to cause anyone to well up with unbridled optimism. A reworking of the state’s Blue Collar Jobs Act will provide upfront financial incentive for businesses creating new jobs. The News-Journal’s Jeff Montgomery reports the story here. While admirable, the $10 million available for this initiative really is just a drop in the bucket and illustrates how circumscribed the state is in jump-starting economic development.

No doubt the address and reaction to it will highlight today’s activities.

SENATE AGENDA

Of primary interest to me are SB 189 (Sen. McDowell) and SB 81 (Sen. Sokola), both previously discussed in detail here. McDowell’s bill will likely move through with little or no opposition. Sokola’s nutrition labeling bill appears likely to encounter some opposition.

HOUSE AGENDA

The first two items on the agenda are notable. Rep. Schwartzkopf’s table gaming bill, HB 310, is expected to be worked today, and should pass with a comfortable margin, although there will almost certainly be a few ‘no’s.

HB 300, sponsored by Rep. Bennett, requires a timely (within 10 days) response by state agencies to FOIA requests. The bill was released from committee yesterday. It likely will meet with unanimous approval.

BTW, this is not only good policy, but smart politics. Kids, if you’re looking to protect your freshman legislators, you make sure that they get bills like this to sponsor. Bennett can now run as a good/open government advocate. No downside whatsoever.

For me, I’m on the downside until Tuesday, when the next legislative wrap-up/preview comes your way.

Obama To Deal With “Too Big Too Fail”

This is a good move. I feel a lot of resentment against these banks that put our economy on the brink of collapse and then reward their executives for getting taxpayer money.

The president, for the first time, will throw his weight behind an approach long championed by Paul A. Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve and an adviser to the Obama administration. The proposal will put limits on bank size and prohibit commercial banks from trading for their own accounts — known as proprietary trading.

The White House intends to work closely with the House and Senate to include these proposals in whatever bill dealing with financial regulation finally emerges from Congress.

Mr. Volcker flew to Washington for the announcement on Thursday. His chief goal has been to prohibit proprietary trading of financial securities, including mortgage-backed securities, by commercial banks using deposits in their commercial banking sectors. Big losses in the trading of those securities precipitated the credit crisis in 2008 and the federal bailout.

We haven’t seen any details yet, but here is the outline of the proposal:

Now the concern is a new type of activity in which financial giants like Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase engage. They now operate on two fronts. On the one hand, they are commercial banks, taking deposits, making standard loans and managing the nation’s payment system. On the other hand, they trade securities for their own accounts, a hugely profitable endeavor. This proprietary trading, mainly in risky mortgage-backed securities, precipitated the credit crisis in 2008 and the federal bailout.

Mr. Volcker, chairman of the president’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a panel of outside advisers set up at the start of the Obama administration, has gradually lined up big-name support for restrictions on such trading.

Do Delaware Democrats Have A Plan B?

We are now more than halfway through the month of January and there is still no announced Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Ted Kaufman. How much longer do we have to wait? If Beau Biden isn’t planning to run he’s really putting the Democratic candidate at a disadvantage, Castle has been raising money since October.

So, let’s read the tea leaves.

Factors leaning against a Beau Biden run for Senate:
– Dr. Bradley child molestation case
– Panicked Democratic mood right now
– The long time with no announcement

Factors leaning towards a Beau Biden run for Senate:
– The long time with no announcement makes it difficult for another Democrat to get into the race
– The sense of inevitability

So, what do you think – will Beau run? If he doesn’t run, who will?

Hitting Our Children; It’s What We Do

Sometimes I wonder why we keep on having the same discussions over and over again. For instance, Scientific American reports on a new study that says parents and caregivers should “eliminate their use of any physical punishment as a disciplinary measure.”

The study by the American Psychological Association task force “found correlations between physical punishment and an increase in childhood anxiety and depression, an increase in behavioral problems, including aggression, and impaired cognitive development . . .” Who’d have thunk that physically hurting your child could have lasting effects?

I guess we can put this to bed. Well, not exactly.  Psychologist Robert E. Larzelere of Oklahoma State University says that the study is flawed and, “Premature bans against spanking may undermine loving parental authority.” A big WTF there, backward-thinking Oklahoman.

Sadly Learzele is not alone in his medieval thinking. With 90% of US parents using corporal punishment at one point and 70% of the US population approving its use, we have a long way to go.