Day: July 21, 2011
The Dull Throb
Michele Bachmann is the Tea Party’s queen of sass,
But alas, her presidency might not come to pass.
Seems stories of her migraines
Are causing her campaign pains —
Not in the head, but in the ass!
On Sacrificing the Goal for the Sake of the Principle
If it’s an all-or-nothing strategy, you’re likely to end up with nothing. The notion of just standing firm for your principle at the expense of achieving your goal is just wrong.
— Former Rep. Vin Weber (R-MN), quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
Mitt’s Pitch to Prospective Donors
Obama was a nice guy and America did something they like to do and that is trust a likable guy, well spoken guy, handsome guy, and well meaning guy, but it turns out he’s clueless about handling the sophisticated economics stuff… Obama has never had a business job, never had to lead an organization. Never, not once.
— According to a top donor, this is the message Mitt Romney repeats consistently when pitching to prospective campaign donors behind closed doors, as reported by ABC News.
: “
During DOMA Hearing, Sen. Franken Catches Anti-Gay ‘Expert’ Citing False Data
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) took on a representative of the conservative group Focus on the Family for mischaracterizing a study on “nuclear families” at a hearing on a bill which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Sen. Franken noted that the group’s testimony listed the benefits of children “living with their biological and/or adopted mothers and fathers” as surpassing those of children “living in any other family form.” He observed they listed a Department of Health and Human Services study as backing that up.
“I actually checked it out,” Franken said in reference to the study FOF’s Thomas Minnery has cited. He then observed it uses the term “nuclear families” without specifically mentioning “opposite sex married families.”
“Isn’t it true, Mr. Minnery, that a married same-sex couple that has had or adopted kids would fall under the definition of a nuclear family in the study that you cite?” Franken asked.
“I think that the study, when it cites nuclear families would mean a family headed by a husband and wife,” Minnery said.
Talking Points Memo on Facebook“It doesn’t,” Franken said, getting laughs from the audience.
View of Deficit Default Crisis from Britain: ‘GOP Seems Even Loonier, Crazier and More Reckless Than They Do Stateside’
British ex-pat Andrew Sullivan, a lapsed supporter of the Republican Party who lives in Washington, has been back home in England for the past couple of weeks. He says the tea-party driven deficit default crisis looks even more bizarre from across the pond:
When I explain the details of Obama’s last Grand Bargain … most Brits see it as a Cameron-conservative-style austerity measure.
From this side of the Atlantic, the great game of chicken now being played by the American political class with the debt ceiling is regarded as a sign that America — or rather, America’s Republicans — has gone completely insane. Everyone in Europe is desperately trying to stave off default — and here is the most powerful economy on earth actually hoping for it! When I explain the details of Obama’s last Grand Bargain – a debt reduction built on a ration of 3:1 spending cuts and tax increases – most Brits see it as a Cameron-conservative-style austerity measure. They simply cannot understand why the GOP doesn’t take what would for any sane conservative in any civilized country be a no-brainer. I’m reduced to trying to explain what passes for “conservatism” in America is nothing of the kind – just know-nothing, fundamentalist, Manichean pseudo-conservatism. From this distance, the GOP seems even loonier, crazier and more reckless than they do stateside.
Mrs. Juan Williams Says NPR, Not All-White FOX, is Racist
The Fox gatherings are much [more] diverse. They have both African-American and whites. It’s great because when I sometimes go down to Fox and wait for Juan in the green room, they all speak to me as if they know me and are very friendly. I feel very comfortable there. With the NPR people, I did not feel comfortable.
Delise Williams, wife of FOX News darling Juan Williams, who is held up by FOX as proof of liberal hypocrisy. Mrs. Williams’ anger with NPR seems to leave her unbothered by the fact that there are zero non-white show hosts on FOX. Williams was fired by NPR after a series of comments at his “other job,” including that people in traditional Muslim garb on planes make him nervous and that Michelle Obama has this, “Stokely Carmichael-in-a-designer-dress thing going…her instinct is to start with this…you know, I’m the victim.” Williams is on tour promoting his new book, “Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate” which details the harassment and victimization he says he experienced at NPR, where he continues to be a guest on the Diane Rehm Show.
Debt Ceiling Default Is a ‘Chosen Crisis’ Created by the Radical Tea Partyists
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Rachel Maddow on MSNBC Wednesday night:
MADDOW: It’s worth remembering this is a crisis created by Congress. Option A for dealing with raising the debt ceiling has always been, hey, let’s raise the debt ceiling. Congress did it seven times under George W. Bush. I said five times the other night, forgive me, it was seven. Eighteen times under Ronald Reagan, 17 times since the 1960s, and 130 Republicans in Congress right now voted happily throughout the George W. Bush era to raise the debt ceiling without so much as a peep. This time however for some reason, no. This year they have decided for political reasons that they are just not going to do it.
That’s the whole crisis here. That’s the origin of the crisis, that’s where it comes from, and Option A for solving this crisis has always been let’s not choose to have this crisis. This is a chosen crisis. Let’s choose not to have it. That has always been Option A.
GOP Tax Boss Grover Norquist: Allowing Bush Tax Cuts to Expire ‘Not Technically a Tax Increase’
Washington Post, via Jonathan Chait:
[According] to [Grover] Norquist’s interpretation of the Americans for Tax Reform pledge, lawmakers have the technical leeway to bring in as much as $4 trillion in new tax revenue — the cost of extending President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for another decade — without being accused of breaking their promise. “Not continuing a tax cut is not technically a tax increase,” Mr. Norquist told us. So it doesn’t violate the pledge? “We wouldn’t hold it that way,” he said.
Chait responds: “It’s pretty strange, isn’t it? Apparently Norquist interprets his pledge in some ultra-literal way that precludes it, in the case, from fulfilling its primary purpose. On the other hand, a plan to pass a one-dollar tax hike while cutting federal spending in half would violate the pledge.”
