Tip O'Neill, Andrew Jackson, and Nate Silver

Mon. Dec. 31, 2012:


Dear Readers,

Legendary former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill's famous bromide, that "All Politics Is Local," looms even larger on Dec. 31, 2012, than Tip could have imagined, whenever he said it.  
The following story stars President Andrew Jackson in 1832, and
columnist Nate Silver in 2012:
                                              ______________________________________

The current malaise on Capitol Hill, which has you & me contemplating a vote against every incumbent in whatever is the next election, reminds us not to lose our focus on THE REAL CULPRIT -- local, provincial anger & bias, fueled mostly by Fox News, MSNBC, and Talk Radio ["90% hard conservative" according to a recent media study].

                                                             General Andrew Jackson

Way back in 1832, during Andrew Jackson's 2 biggest crises as president -- South Carolina's tariff nullifications, and AJ's defiant veto of Congress's bill to renew the 20-year charter of the 2nd Bank of the United States -- President Jackson reminded the nation that he [and his vice-president, if John C. Calhoun hadn't resigned in a South Carolina huff over the 1832 Tariff] were the ONLY federal elected officials whom every voter in the whole country had a legitimate chance to vote up or down.  And this made the President's voice the most authentic measure of the whole nation's democratic popular will -- NOT a bunch of what FDR in 1936 dubbed "a few willful men" who at most represented just one Congressional district, with all its indigenous selfish biases.

MAKE NO MISTAKE:  The G.O.P. deserves way more blame for our current "Fiscal Cliff" debacle than
Barrack Hussein Obama.

But, that said, Obama's main weakness is failing to point out, repeatedly,
Andrew Jackson's 1832 point -- fundamental to the way our democratic republic is supposed to work.

Instead, this task is left to a freakin' newspaper columnist:

The fresh new Nostradamus of U.S. politics -- The New York Times's now-famous "FiveThirtyEight" Columnist NATE SILVER, who correctly predicted the election results in all 50 states despite all the absurd Fox Noise fed by Rasmussen and even Gallup pollsters.
It is columnist Nate Silver who has had to make the Andrew Jackson point FOR Obama.

And here it is.  So elegantly simple, as nearly all of Nate Silver's research has been:

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/as-swing-districts-dwindle-can-a-divided-house-stand/

The U.S.A. is victimizing itself by allowing its most extremist local ideologues -- represented in the national

House of Representatives and the Senate -- to hold hostage the whole democratic republic's 

Nation-wide Popular Will!

If you have read nothing else in 2012, Dear Readers, please read Nate Silver's one column above, and weep.
As Walt Kelly's Pogo said in the comics, "We have met the enemy, and they are us."

Thu. Dec. 27, 2012:

Dear Cowering & Faithful Readers,
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman of the NYT, in a column titled "When Prophecy Fails," recently compared deficit/debt doomsday scolds to the delusional Mayan Calendar predictions that the world would end on December 21, 2012.

Here is a cogent nonpartisan reaction to Krugman, from a recently retired Illlinois businessman:


I read this column by Krugman in the Steamboat paper. I think that budget deficits do matter even though Cheney and Krugman do not agree. We have been borrowing about 1/3 of our annual expenditures and the only reason that this debt has not overpowered our economy by now is that the Fed has kept interest rates low. Also, foreign countries are willing to loan us the money by buying US Treasuries in spite of very low interest rates because the dollar is still considered a much safer currency than the euro and a lot of other currencies. 

Most economists believe that it is just a matter of time before inflation starts to rise and the Fed will be forced to raise interest rates to combat this inflation. And then the cost of servicing the national debt will get much more expensive. 

                                   

The federal government can do what no state or family can do and that is to print money. But deficits do matter and I don't see how we will be able to reduce these deficits. Krugman is right that we should not try too hard in a fragile economy to deal with the deficit and that we do need to make sure that the economy is strengthening. But, once again, why didn't the country pay down debt when times were better. Bush made things look better than they were by not even including the cost of the Iraq war in his budgeted expenses. 

Not every expert thinks that Bernancke has lost his mind with his easy money policies but many do. The fed is keeping interest rates at artificially low levels and this is distorting the economic picture and also making it difficult for seniors and others depending on investments in savings accounts or government  bonds to earn a decent return on their investments.
 

In time, it will be difficult to service the government debt - let alone pay down the debt. It is very important that we start to deal in a serious way with the  national debt and it is going to take a lot more than raising taxes on the rich.  We must start cutting expenses and that means entitlement programs. And the politicians would rather continue the charade that deficits don't matter and instead act as though only reelection  matters. Congress and the President are creating an incredible amount of uncertainty with their failure to deal with real problems and this has impacted the economic and job recovery.  

Romney was a lousy candidate but his private speech to big donors in which he said that he could not win the votes of the 47% that rely on government programs was probably very accurate but not smart to say. Why would those dependent on government programs - social security, medicare, medicaid, food stamps, unemployment benefits, etc - not vote for Democrats that vow to keep intact all of these programs and criticize Republicans that say we cannot afford all of this government spending?


Just as I believe that the NRA is losing its popularity with its supporters, I also believe that the politicians are risking their standing with the public. Most Americans thought that a compromise could be reached after the election and are frustrated and angry that we are again delaying and not appearing to be serious about solving problems. I know what I will do - not vote for any incumbent until I see some real progress in dealing with big problems and not kicking them down the road until another election has come and gone.  

"Axis of Evil" # II: The NRA/Republican Complex

Wed. Dec. 26, 2012:


Eisenhower left the White House too early for his 1960 Farewell Address to foresee the USA's
2nd most dangerous "complex" -- not the Military/Industrial complex,
but the NRA/Republican complex.  And George W. Bush should have applied his phrase
"Axis of Evil" to it, too -- not just Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.

If you're too busy, just read the first two of the following four articles:

1.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-20/why-does-the-nra-fear-the-truth-about-gun-violence-.html?alcmpid=view

2.  http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/n-r-a-leaders-defiant-in-television-appearances/

Wayne LaPierre, VP of the NRA:  The 1994-2004 Assault Weapons Ban "is a phony piece of legislation . . . it's all built on lies that have been found out."

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York:  LaPierre "blames everything but guns . . .
Trying to prevent shootings in schools without talking about guns is like trying to prevent lung cancer without talking about cigarettes."

If you're an old duffer, trying to get out of grandparenting, then also read the following, and weep:

3.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/business/real-and-virtual-firearms-nurture-marketing-link.html

4.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/nyregion/gun-makers-based-in-connecticut-form-a-potent-lobby.html



But once again, Dear Readers, it's the Auzzies who hold the key to gun control --
Nixon to China, Revisited.

                                          FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA

If Barack Obama has any intention of pushing serious gun control he will face enormous political resistance, because that is just the direction to which his opponents are already attuned. Nixon could go to China; Bill Clinton could "end welfare as we know it"; Obama, even, could escalate drone warfare. All those moves brought political gains, but confirming people's fears carries only risk.


This is why the comparison with John Howard after Port Arthur is so inapt. Howard was taking on his natural supporters with the support of his usual opponents -- for Obama it would be the reverse. Almost nothing excites the paranoia of the American Right so much as the idea of a black man taking away their guns.

It was not always thus; once upon a time, gun control was promoted by the white establishment to keep guns out of the hands of vengeful blacks (there was a fascinating account in The Atlantic). But now that gun ownership is widespread, the priority in the heartland -- fuelled by such well-funded lobby groups as the National Rifle Association and the even more extreme Gun Owners of America -- is to hold onto their own weapons to fight off the black/Muslim/communist hordes.

"No Comment" & "No Questions": "Time to Mourn"

Sat. Dec. 22, 2012:

The National Rifle Association is no stranger to this blog.
But does anyone else, Dear Readers, sense a new low in the NRA's silence since Newtown?

Item:
"Many Owners Say Semiautomatic Weapons are Just Another Hobby"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/us/owners-of-assault-weapons-dismiss-idea-of-federal-ban.html?_r=0

Patrick Mason of Las Vegas uses his AR-15 ["assault"?] rifle for target practice with fruit in the desert.
"I don' want to shoot holes in pieces of paper.  I want to watch a watermelon be destroyed," he said.

Item:
"Minnesota:  Man Charged In Deaths of Intruders"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/us/minnesota-man-charged-in-deaths-of-intruders.html

A Little Falls homeowner was charged for shooting two unarmed teenagers in the midst of an apparent Thanksgiving Day break-in.  Byron David Smith, 64, acknowledged firing "more shots than I needed to" and appeared to take pride in "a good clean finishing shot" for one teenager.  After the teenager fell down the basement stairs, Mr. Smith said he shot him in the face.  His 18-year-old female companion also fell down the stairs after Smith shot her, whereupon his rifle jammed.  So he pulled out his revolver and shot her several times in the chest, according to the complaint.  The Morrison County sheriff said Mr. Smith waited until Friday to report the deaths, explaining that "he didn't want to trouble us on a holiday."


NYT:
"Leaders of the [NRA] organization have declined interview requests since the shootings, the group's Twitter account has gone silent, and it has deactivated its Facebook page."

From the moment the shooting stopped -- Friday Dec. 14, 2012 -- the NRA refrain has been "No Comment."
Same is true of every single Republican in both Houses of Congress.

But then on Friday Dec. Dec. 21, we were treated to what days of hype had advertised
would be "a major contribution" from the NRA regarding the "tragedy of Newtown."

At 11:00 a.m. Fri. Dec. 21, NRA president David Keene [who threatened to punch a filmmaker in 2009, above] introduced NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre, stipulating that there would be "No Questions" after
Mr. LaPierre's long-awaited NRA reaction to Newtown a week earlier.

                   You know your press conference didn't go well if the Murdoch tabloids blast you!

BY ANY MEASURE, THE GOP & NRA SILENCE REPRESENTS THEIR OWN SHAME
ON HOW THE PUBLIC MIGHT RECEIVE THEIR POSITION ON GUNS.


Whether it's guns, abortion, Citizens United, climate control, fiscal cliff, waterboarding
-- AM I CRAZY, OR ARE REPUBLICANS ON THE EVIL SIDE OF EVERY ISSUE?

1.  See Paul Krugman's "Grand Old Planet," on Republicans' biblical geology & climate-change denial -- Marco Rubio says the earth may be just 6000 years old.

2.  See the Boston Globe's "GOP's National Game Doesn't Play Well Locally" -- "birthers," gay marriage,  immigration, you name it.  Evil, Evil, EVIL?

'Tis The Season, and "Bites" Won't Disappoint

Fri. Dec. 21, 2012:


Exhibit A [but only pertinent in tandem to Exhibit B, Below]:

AMAZING GRACE CHRISTMAS HOUSE <http://www.flixxy.com/best-christmas-lights-display.htm>  > > > > Exhibit B:

But Maybe the Ass@#%es Are All G.O.P.?

Thu. Dec. 13, 2012:


Gentle readers, we try to be fair-minded on this site.
But maybe "fair-minded" itself is a concept suffering abuse?
Consider, and softly weep:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-froomkin/republican-lies-2012-election_b_2258586.html

And this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/23/opinion/krugman-grand-old-planet.html

Missing Our Politicians? Think Scatology

Mon. Dec. 10, 2012:

Gentle Readers,
Thankyou for your patience.
As I was saying . . .  [at the risk of tarnishing Bitesfromedwin's pristine reputation,
a couple faithful readers have requested clarification about Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, the Koch Brothers, and various Democratic politicians as well.  Time for a bipartisan discussion of an important distinction in the English language]:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=asswipe