Wednesday Open Thread [3.20.13]
“Obama’s greatest setback to date has been the 2010 midterm elections. Gains that Republicans scored in the House and Senate still circumscribe his agenda. It is no surprise, then, that the Obama White House wants to achieve something no other president has ever done: Retake full control of Congress in a midterm… Yet as next year’s battle for Congress begins to intensify, the odds favor the Republicans holding the House and getting yet another shot at the Senate.”
“At this point in the cycle, Democrats probably need to put at least another two dozen additional districts into play… and hold most of their own vulnerable seats to have a chance of netting 17 seats in the midterm elections. It’s a very tall order.”
All these pundits assume the President’s party will suffer losses in the 6-Year Itch midterm because that’s what’s always happened. Except it hasn’t. In 1998, the President’s party (i.e. the Democrats), picked 5 House seats and stayed even in the Senate. Further, all of our two term Presidents in modern times have had pretty horrible fifth and six years, or ongoing scandals, which have influenced how their party performed in the 6th year midterm. For example, President Johnson had Vietnam going to shit. President Nixon and Ford had the whole Watergate scandal and Ford’s pardon of Nixon right before the election. President Reagan had the Iran-Contra scandal going on. President Clinton had the whole Monica Lewinsky Affair, although he gained seats. President Obama has no scandals going on.
And chances are the only thing voters will be tired of come 2014 is Republican obstruction.
“It may not be too melodramatic to say that over the next couple of years, the Republican Party faces a fork in the road. Following one path, the GOP can seek to address what has gone wrong, the narrowness of the party’s appeal, and the intolerance that has alienated so many minority, female, young, and moderate voters that Republicans have a hard time prevailing in federal races outside of carefully drawn conservative enclaves. Taking the other road could lead the party over a cliff in 2016, in much the same way Barry Goldwater led Republicans to disaster in 1964.”
I wrote about his several weeks ago, about but how our “right to vote” is illusionary as it is not enshrined in the Constitution as a right and that is why racist Republicans can get away with passing laws that burden the exercise of the privilege to vote. Well, now Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellows Jonathan Soros and Mark Schmitt agree with me and argue that we need a Right to Vote Amendment to the Constitution to focus the activist movement and help ensure that you can participate in our political system even if you don’t have an “Inc.” after your name.
The Worst Band in the History of the World, or at least one of them, is at the Queen tonight. The band that virtually invented ‘corporate rock’–the Jefferson Starship. Only one original member, Paul Kantner. But, don’t worry, the new members aren’t any better than the old members…just more anonymous.
I would be tempted to go, if only to see what kind of clueless ’70’s refugees would actually go to such an event. But that would be defeating the purpose. I already saw them once, the early ’70’s, just as the Airplane was morphing into the Starship. They were the worst band in the world then, too.
While many bands constantly vie for the title of “The Worst Band in the History of the World” only Jefferson Starship can claim clear title to the “The worst Pop/Rock song in the History of the World.”
“Obama’s greatest setback to date has been….”
Avoiding every damn fight worth having for the American people. From healthcare to fiscal cliff and beyond its been one long capitulation.
Perhaps Senator Elizabeth Warren could lend him a pair.
I know exactly what Starship is and how it got that way, and I like both Airplane and Starship for completely different reasons (haven’t heard them recently though). But I would never look down on a well-crafted pop song. Don’t get me started about old and new Genesis though.
Fine. But you are wrong to like them. The worst Pop/Rock song in the History of the World is the The worst Pop/Rock song in the history of the world. That is an objective fact.
So, Jason: You’re saying they didn’t build that?
From the Sheriffs for Freedom File: At a Massachusetts Republican Party St. Patrick’s Day breakfast Sunday, Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald, Jr. (R) “joked” that the nation would be better off if President Obama were assassinated.
The Boston Globe noted the stunning comment Sunday:
McDonald offered a joke about Barack Obama being visited in a dream by three past presidents, who offered advice on how to improve the country. Lincoln’s advice: “Go to the theater.”
McDonald later defended himself by saying that the joke had been around since the Andrew Johnson administration, and was told by southerners who were unhappy with Reconstruction.
Glad he added that last part, as evidence that not all the Southern-sympathizing peckerwoods live in the old Confederate states.
No, the worst Pop/Rock song surely comes from the crop of moaning, meandering, tuneless pop ballads from the 80s and 90s.
“The worst Pop/Rock song in the History of the World is the The worst Pop/Rock song in the history of the world. That is an objective fact.”
Justin Bieber is in Starship now?
this thread is begging to be rickrolled
Rickrolled indeed. Speaking of which – the header of tomorrow´s contribution in The Delaware Referendum is “Politicians on drugs”.
Until then you can read about why Niklas Nordström loves America, but dislikes the Tea Party movement:
http://delawarereferendum.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/sweden-can-learn-delaware-and-washington/
Part 1 of 2
It’s the politicians’ fault.
Politicians are shoveling coal, gushing oil and blowing gas – for polluter’s profits. Fossil fuel industries couldn’t do it without their enablers – their fossil fuel politicians. Delaware (the coal state of DEnial) doesn’t have clean energy leadership. It has fossil fuel enablers.
America was the world leader in CO2 releasing; now Americans follow China – in over releasing CO2 pollution.
February 2013 atmospheric level – 396.80 ppm CO2 – An increasingly alarming measurement of political failure and lack of leadership.
By definition, ‘conservatives’ should be disposed to preserve existing conditions, restore traditional ones, and to limit, be against change and – should be against the greatest change of all – climate change. But even their party label was hijacked and is now a lie. So called ‘conservatives,’ should be called, the ‘anti-conservatives,’ – and the greatest supporters of climate change. The fossil fuel industries ‘own’ climate change and need to stop it and pay for it.
Republicans excrete in their own nests as well as all nests, and most foully and fatally, on the poorest and those whose lives depend most directly on their climate. Their livable temperatures, normal weather conditions, historical water supplies, their crops, herds, seafood, forests, industries, their livelihoods, their coastal areas, their lands, health, lives, will be taken from them, as fossil fuel industries – profit by pollution.
A changed climate at one location, is a result of fossil fuel dollars made at other locations with free-for-all, anything goes, industrial hazardous waste by-product (CO2) pollution releasing – the cause. The anti-conservatives deny climate change altogether,then lie about the causes of climate change while continually exerting political pressures against calling anthropogenic CO2 a pollutant, as well as objecting to having anthropogenic CO2 regulated by the Environmenta Protection Agency. Anti-conservatives fight to keep CO2 out of the Clean Air Act, while promoting fossil fuels, and fighting against a CO2 tax, covering all profit bases. To hell with people, the environment, the livable planet, however.
Here’s a shameful example of an American politician.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=IAaDVOd2sRQ
‘Anti-conservatives’ defile the very definition of the word ‘conservative,’ by promoting un regulated pollution, aka ‘business-as-usual,’ as they are destroying the planet’s natural systems. Who is allowing it? The politicians.
‘Anti-conservatives’ (and their politicians) throw their own generation under a diesel bus, while hurling all future generations, towards a six degree Celsius rise in global temperatures – and into the realm of ungodly changes. That is not/cannot be called ‘conservative.’
continued…..
Part 2 of 2
It’s the politicians’ fault
Climate change wasn’t out of mind and sight, as ‘anti-conservatives’ lied and denied it’s existence or, as they now – question the cause of climate change. They’ve worked hard and long, at trying to convince the public – “It’s a hoax.” as greenhouse gases rise directly due to denial, lies and decades of delays, as the tipping points of no return, are closer than expected. And the politicians stand aside and allow laws that enable continuing CO2 pollution.
Americans think of climate change – dismissively (8%,) doubtfully (13%,) dis engagingly (8%,) cautiously (25%,) with concern (29%) or alarmingly (16%.)
http://billmoyers.com/episode/encore-ending-the-silence-on-climate-change/
Time for people to hold accountable those responsible of the most corrupt, un natural change – the changing of the planet’s climate; the most immoral change – in the history of mankind. Who are these irresponsible parties? Who permits the use of our air as a CO2 disposal sight? Who allows the over- development of coastal areas? Who has allowed the flood plain stockpiling of hazardous wastes? Who allows the continuing over use and dependency on fossil fuels instead of developing clean energy alternatives?? Who allows the delays in clean energy, conservation, adaptation?
Greedy men knowingly change the world’s global temperature. They knowingly and purposefully change ice masses around the world; change permafrost to uncontrollable methane gas releases; change the chemical composition of the atmosphere; change the chemical composition of the oceans, change polar ice caps, mountain tops, melt glaciers; change the earth’s currents; change the world’s shorelines; change lands; and change the life to death conditions of where man, flora and fauna have thrived for millennia. The greedy ‘anti’ entities, would like you to accept those changes and refer to them as ‘conservative’ instead of evil.
Man caused anthropogenic climate change is deadly, greed driven, world encompassing and is permanently altering the planet. And that changes everything. Everything. Since when is changing everything called – ‘conservative’ instead of calamitously destructive, liable, deadly?
Republican has become the “anti’ party – anti-climate, anti-freedom, anti-truth, anti-regulation, anti-education, anti-democracy, anti-health, anti government, anti-civilization, anti-nature, anti-planet. And politicians have become their enablers – so they can have another term in office. To this end, the American system of government – is a failed experiment. America’s CO2 pollution, causes America not to be a leader against climate change, but instead a threat to the planet’s future.
Through paid messengers of the world’s richest corporations, the fossil fueled industries knowingly and purposefully have called climate change – a hoax. Decades later, as CO2 levels approach 400 ppm, the world changes. Former ‘deniers’ have become the ‘we don’t know why, liars.’ Politicians never bother to mention it. Question for politicians: When, how and why did climate change stop being a “hoax” and become something politicians don’t know the cause of? I can answer that. When? Climate change never was a hoax and it’s cause has been known for decades. How? By fossil fuel interests, pretending the science was unsettled, offering bogus science instead. Why? Profits by free-for-all pollution – no responsibility, no disposal costs.
Such men cannot claim to be men of science, or ‘conservatives’ but only greedy impostures interested instead in wealth and position, who are anti-truth, anti-science, anti- mankind, anti-life. Would you call that ‘conservative? ‘Would you call the politicians – leaders? Leaders of what? Profits by pollution and climate change.
It is said, there is a coal fired hell and it is one’s opinion that the ‘anti’ party promotes and profits by such a place – while stoking flaming fossil fuels.
All said, there are two things the ‘Anti’ Party, their politicians positively stand for – almighty greed and destructive power of catastrophic proportions.
What Atrios said.
“Contemporary Politics
The current Republican party will never let a dem president get a “win” if they can stop it, especially if that democratic president is a Kenyan Muslim Socialist. Our great pundits generally conclude from this that a) we should not have Dem presidents or b) Dem presidents should just implement Republican agenda, and take responsibility for it.
There is a bright side. The Republicans might just save Social Security. Good for them.”
“anonymous” is Delaware Liberal’s counter to DP’s “mynym.”
I find both of them exhausting.
Part 3
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Koch_Industries#Tea_Party_Movement_and_Funding
The Delaware Referndum campaign continues: Patric Källman PhD and senior partner in Vasco Advisers, European business and strategy advisers in healthcare, and member of the Delaware Referendum committee, writes about “politicians on drugs”.
http://delawarereferendum.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/politicians-on-drugs/
Follow the Dexit campaign on twitter. And please retweet, such that the Delawareans can soon be reunited with the old country.
https://twitter.com/DelawareReferen
Would you take just Sussex County?
I don’t buy it. Sven’s campaign is some kind of student project to see how many hits they can get or something. This is my last comment on the topic. I’m out
If I can be ‘reunited’ with that Noxsema blond from the ’80’s (‘Take it off, Joe, take it ALL off’), I’m ready to be Stockholm-Syndromed.
Keep fighting the good fight, Sven.
Jason, I’m sure many of the members of the committee would be flattered by the idea of being seen as students, since we are all middle-age. 🙂
No, the whole thing is quite serious – to the extent that our objective is to find a mix of seriousness and humour. In fact, the people in the committee are leading Public Affairs advisers, authors and columnists, elected officials, businessmen etc, both conservative and social Democrats – with an interest in American politics and society. The authors that are presented in the posts are real people and these are their proper identities.
However, we are also all established political bloggers with a decent number of readers. (And we are used to communicate political messages with a bit of humour). Consequently, the new blog has had a good start in terms of number of visits.
So I hope that you will continue to follow the new blog, our hope is that it’s going to be interesting. We and would actually be looking forward to someone from Delaware giving his/her view on Delawarean as well as US politics. The Swedish audience would be interested in hearing what goes on at the local level in Delaware. In fact, it’s by understanding the grassroots movements one can understand national politics.
Sorry, middle-aged of course, we’re not medieval.
Delaware politics is like that period in pre-history when Cro-Magnon man coexisted with Neanderthals. Delaware is a narrow state less than 100 miles long, with the north is a post-industrial center now populated by relatively cosmopolitan liberals, many of them originally from New Jersey, and a more agaricultural and conservative population in the south, with a large military base between the two. However, members of each species may appear in either north or south.
The southern population is socially conservative and religious in the modern Christian Right sense, and prone to crackpot economic and constitutional theories, but are the heaviest beneficiaries of direct government benefits per capita.
However, the northern liberals (represented by Democrats) are socially liberal but often favor programs that benefit corporations rather than people, and offer a thin veneer of support for labor, with the largest unions suffering repeated setbacks. Despite this, Democratic incumbents are re-elected by huge margins and are the majority party in Delaware – mainly because the opposition platform is so implausible.
Delaware celebrates its tradition of political civility and cooperation known as the “Delaware Way,” but which is used most often as a cover for incumbents to implement policies that are more conservative than the people who elected them. Direct partisanship and advocacy of the Democratic platform is seen as a faux pas to be avoided.
Delaware’s revenue comes in large part from its long reputation of being a host to the nominal home offices of out-of-state corporations, part of which is honestly earned by having an excellent court system, and partly earned the old-fashioned way, with tax breaks. Delaware is also the home of many large banks, due to its fairly recent legalization of usury.
Delaware is also very small and intimate; a politician is reluctant to go against the interests of a powerful millionaire, because he knows that person by name and he will see that person in his office the next morning, or on the golf course.
Delaware is also centrally located on the East Coast between New York and Washington, leading to the unofficial state marketing slogan: “Delaware: So close to where you’d rather be.”
Well said Puck
I see, so it’s First Man, rather than First State. Well formulated BTW. Would you like us to post it on the blog? In that case we will need to know who you are in order to write a short introduction.
You can email us at: delawarereferendum@gmail.com
Post it if you want, I am an open-source pseudonymous blogger and all my comments are public domain. No, I am not going to de-cloak, not even for Sweden.
Here we go: http://delawarereferendum.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/cro-magnon-and-neanderthals/
They love me in Sweden!
It is possible for individuals from the north and south to interbreed, as long as one has a beach house.
One could add that many Sussex county so called, ‘conservative’ voters, are folks who will vote because of a particular issue – Obama the Muslim, prayers in public schools, NRA, no gov’ment, coal plants are good, anti union, low/no minimum wage for workers, anti gay, women’s non-rights, etc. Rural poor, low/middle income Sussex county is the land of ‘low information voters, (who go to the polls because Rush/Fox tells them they need to.)
But the reality is, the tea party is the party of the 1% richest, who don’t live in rural Sussex county. You would more likely find the 1% richest (if in Delaware at all,) in multi million dollar mansions in Chateau country of Greenville, Westover Hills, Centerville, Yorklyn,in New Castle County, Delaware – not poor rural Sussex. Perhaps one should mention the real tea party, the 1% richest Americans – their ‘issues.’ The 1% richest, of course, lacks voter numbers, so the 1% so called ‘conservatives’ are always rapping attention and the American flag around any sub group ’cause’ – for another republican vote. (Let me dig up flag waving birth-er Eileen video for you.) The poor republican voter just can’t understand that they are being ‘used’ for a vote. Nut job, puppet mentality, ‘want-a-be’ candidates, who just need a job, are eager to jump aboard that fat 1% gravy train however, and ‘be for’ anything the 1% says. Typical of many politicians – their own ‘special interest’ is getting the ‘money’ support to get themselves a term in office.
Longtime Delaware Republican Mike Castle faced a primary election against the Delaware tea party darling Christine O’Donnell. Republican Castle was challenged – because – he believed climate change was real – a 1%er no-no.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/opinion/03rich.html?_r=0
Mike Castle had supported lowering CO2 emissions and backed Cap and Trade, (No-no nooooo.) Well hello tea party candidate, Christine O’Donnell, who had no opinion on climate change. (2010 no opinion, ha.) Fortunately, that attempt backfired, hence Delaware now has Delaware Democrat US Senator Chris Coons – holding Castle’s former title.
Flashback:
http://mediamatters.org/research/2006/05/23/du-pont-limbaugh-distorted-scientific-research/135776