Open Thread

23 Comments

1. 

   DaveW on August 23, 2012 at 6:48 pm

   Don’t know what there is to write about, but here’s some pleasant reading from a local Wisconsin newspaper columnist. Well worth reading the whole thing.

   Paul Ryan is a favorite of conservatives because he’s against government doing for people what they should do for themselves. He argues for self-reliance while he’s been living on taxpayer money for 34 out of his 42 years.

   After his father died he received his father’s Social Security money and admits those payments and student loans helped pay for his education. He worked in the private sector for about two years altogether. One of those years he was a marketing consultant for his family’s construction firm, which made huge profits from government highway construction contracts. Soon after he graduated he became a speech writer and aide for Republican politicians, receiving his pay from — you guessed it — the taxpayers.

   At age 28 he was elected to Congress, where he continues to receive his paycheck from the government. After he retires he’ll enjoy a generous, taxpayer-funded pension as well as full health care benefits for the rest of his life. All politicians take taxpayer money, but few of them are as rabid as he is against government programs that help the needy.

   It goes on to catalog a long list of Ryan’s hypocrisies and lies. Would that the national press told told the truth half as well as this writer from a small town in Wisconsin.

2. 

   panhuwu on August 23, 2012 at 6:58 pm

   How about this?

   http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/23/1123481/-Nate-Silver-Calls-B-S-on-U-of-Colorado-Election-Pr
   ediction-Model

   I heard this guy talking on Colorado Public Radio yesterday.

   • 

     on August 23, 2012 at 7:17 pm

     Silver sounds like counter-propaganda!  Give specifics on why the U of C model is different.  I didn’t see any.

     • 

       The Voice In The Wilderness on August 23, 2012 at 9:06 pm

       Read the link.

          The U. of Colo. model fits the equivalent of 7 unknowns to 8 elections. That’s not a good idea. (3/5)

           The Colo. model also assumes huge effects from unemployment if incumbent is a Dem., but none if he’s GOP. Hard claim to defend. (4/5)

       UC  might be right on point 2, although I don’t know why, but fitting 7 variables to 8 data points? Any science student would laugh out loud, much less an actual scientist.

       • 

         Errol on August 24, 2012 at 12:34 am

         you’re replying to our new troll (don’t know what happened to the other 2)

         • 

           The Voice In The Wilderness on August 24, 2012 at 6:03 am

           Yes. He asked a fair question that had a factual answer. Of course, he could have read the link himself.

           I don’t answer the questions/statements that come out of Fantasyland.

         • 

           Errol on August 24, 2012 at 12:38 pm

           Yes, exactly, why not read the link instead of complaining? Also, he doesn’t seem to know who Nate Silver is.

         • 

           The Voice In The Wilderness on August 24, 2012 at 6:23 pm

           Probably intellectually crippled by Faux News.

         • 

           Errol on August 25, 2012 at 3:17 am

           no, this species usually a paid employee of Koch bros. maybe trolling here is entry level, because I can’t imagine who doesn’t know Nate Silver. OTOH today our troll has a new name, so maybe that one got fired

         • 

           on August 25, 2012 at 9:18 pm

           I know Nate Silver…he’s the Prog equivalent of Sean Trende with Weekly Standard…knows his stuff , but still views the world through Prog-colored lenses…

           The only reason my user name has changed is because the host of this blog seemingly keeps prohibiting me from posting comments…

         • 

           hz on August 25, 2012 at 2:11 am

           New troll = same as the old troll.  

         • 

           on August 25, 2012 at 2:57 am

           And what is your definition of “Troll”?

           Someone that disagrees with you, thus challenging your closed worldview?

         • 

           hz on August 26, 2012 at 12:23 am

           Nope.  I’ve got no problem with opposing viewpoints, and in fact I’m all for good-faith discussions and open dialogue.  But you have a habit of poking your face into threads here and sneering at everyone, and then you run around crying foul when you get a less than warm response.  Try being respectful to people here other than Booman, and maybe the tone of the conversation will shift to something more of your liking.

           Shouting “fuck you” into a crowded room, as you did with your little hissy fit over horsey dancing, guarantees a certain amount of blowback.  Don’t act all surprised if you’re not popular here; you’ve worked very diligently to make it so.

3. 

   panhuwu on August 23, 2012 at 6:59 pm

   Also how you think the voter suppression laws will affect the elections. You still seem pretty confident.

4. 

   Phil Perspective on August 23, 2012 at 7:07 pm

   Why is the Inky on a pro-Voter ID binge lately?  They even printed an op-ed by Hans von Spakovsky

5. 

   ishmael on August 23, 2012 at 8:24 pm

   Do people broadly know that the Democratic Party created the two most popular government programs we have? I would like to see ads that state that and and make it clear that Republicans have wanted to kill both from the start. At some point people lost track of those facts and the Democrats seem to have let it happen.

   The Obama WH proposing to make significant cuts in exchange for basically nothing hasn’t helped.

6. 

   TarheelDem on August 23, 2012 at 8:27 pm

   From the mailbox today, courtesy of:
   60 Plus Association
   515 King Street, Suite 315
   Alexandria, VA 22314
   http://www.60plus.org

   Panel 1: Doctor in scrubs and cap – “How Will America Pay For President Obama’s Health Care Law?”

   Panel 2: (on opening) Background of $100 bills – “Higher Taxes. Lost Jobs. Medicare Cuts.”

   Panel 3: (fully open full-length poster size) Worried senior couple looking at a form, background is headline clipping like “mes”, “onomic Turbulen”, “Deficits”, “Earnings”, “Jo….uts”, “Th” and right of couple “NOTICE” (in red ink), “PAST DUE” (in black ink)

   Text of poster:
   America cannot afford the path we’re on.
   Millions of Americans are out of work.  Families are struggling. Health care costs are skyrocketing.  Homeowners are facing foreclosure. Businesses are shutting down.

   President Obama says everything is “fine”, but the reality is that we are facing hard times. And his health care law is NOT the answer.

   Simulated form:
   left top of form
   “United States Federal Government
   Washington, D.C.”

   and on right top of form
   “Explanation of Beefits in President Obama’s
   Health Care Law
   Effective March 23, 2010″

   big red letters (centered) “Fact”
   HIGHER TAXES – CNBC: “Obamacare’s Taxes Bad for Economic Growth” (6/28/12)
   Wall Street Journal: “the largest tax increase in history on the middle class” (6/28/12)

   LOST JOBS – 74% of surveyed small businesses: “health care law makes it harder…to hire more employees.” (1/18/12)
   (Source: U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Community Quarterly Survey)

   MEDICARE CUTS – Congressional Budget Office: Affordable Care Act includes over $700 Billion cuts in Medicare (7/24/12)
   ABC News: “The Affordable Care Act, the health care overhaul pushed by Obama, cuts $700 billion in Medicare spending through curtailed payments to medical providers.” (8/12/12)

   Footing:
   President Obama’s health care law spends too much, taxes too much, and lowers the quality of our care too much.  We need to repeal the President’s disappointing law and make health care more affordable and patient-centered.

   Americans deserve quality health care reform.

   CALL PRESIDENT OBAMA TODAY AT (202) 456-1414.
   TELL HIM WE CAN’T AFFORD HIS HEALTH CARE LAW.

   Address Panel (center back) on right: Senior couple, lady pulling on her hair like pulling hair out “Call President Obama today at (202) 456-1414.  Tell him we can’t afford his health care law.”

   On left over black background: Logo for the Weekly Standard dated July 27, 2012
   Text under masthead: “Congressional Budget Office:
   “Obamacare to Cost $1.930 Trillion,
   Leave 30 Million Uninsured”

   Text in red:
   “Can We Afford the Path We’re On?”
   ___________

   This is where some of that anonymous money is going.

   A Google shows that the address goes to lobbyist James L. Martin, president of National Defense Council.  It is a 501(c)(3) corporation, with this listing of staff.

   Executive Director
   STEPHEN B. KAPLITT

   Honorary Chairman
   Hon. DAN L. BURTON, M.C.

   Senior Military Advisor
   ADMIRAL C.A. MARK HILL USN (Ret.)

   Military Advisors
   COLONEL WILLIAM R. COUSINS, USA (Ret.)
   LT. COL. RICHARD R. NEVITTE, JR., USAFR (Ret.)
   CMDR. ROBERT W. SELLE, USNR (Ret.)

   Senatorial Advisors
   US SENATOR ORRIN HATCH
   US SENATOR TRENT LOTT

   Congressional Advisors
   US Representative WALLY HERGER
   US Representative DUNCAN HUNTER
   US Representative RON PACKARD

   Former Congressional Advisors
   Speaker of the House NEWT GINGRICH
   US Representative CHRISTOPHER COX
   US Representative PHILIP M. CRANE
   US Representative WILLIAM E. DANNEMEYER
   US Representative MANUEL LUJAN, JR.
   US Representative MEL HANCOCK
   US Representative CARLOS J. MOORHEAD
   US SENATOR DON NICKLES
   US Representative BARBARA F. VUCANOVICH

   The 60 Plus Association also has an Arlington address with the American Civil Rights Union.  Here are the folks there:

   Leadership and Staff
   Susan A. Carleson, Chairman, CEO and Treasurer
   Susan Carleson photo

   Susan A. Carleson, ACRU Chairman/CEO, began her career in public policy in 1981 as an advisor on health care financing policy during the Reagan transition and then as a senior advisor to the Greenspan Commission on Social Security Reform. She joined the staff of the House Republican Conference in 1982 and later served as Legislative Director for Jack Kemp. During the 2nd Reagan term, she was a Special Assistant to the Deputy Undersecretary of Education and Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for Justice Programs. From 2002 until 2006, she served as Special Assistant to the Deputy Commissioner for Policy at the Social Security Administration.

   Following the passing of her husband Robert B. Carleson in 2006, she assumed the leadership and day-to-day management of the ACRU.
   John K. Mashburn, Executive Vice President
   John Mashburn photo

   Mr. Mashburn spent 25 years on and off Capitol Hill as general counsel, policy director, legislative director and of counsel. He has worked for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, Senate Republican Conference Secretary Paul Coverdell, House Majority Whip Tom Delay, Sens. John Ashcroft and Jesse Helms and most recently worked for Sen. Judd Gregg while Gregg chaired the HELP and Budget Committees and the Homeland Security and Commerce, State, Justice Appropriations Subcommittees.

   Mr. Mashburn is an expert on the Senate Rules and has worked on a wide variety of issues in Congress including the annual budget and appropriations bills as well as judiciary, transportation, finance, health, agriculture, telecommunications, housing, labor, education and social issues including the Anti-Drug Abuse and Fair Housing Acts of 1988, passage and repeal of the Catastrophic Health Care Act, the ISTEA Transportation Act of 1991, Clinton Health Care Reform, Goals 2000 Education bill, the 1995 Rescissions Act, the Term Limits Constitutional Amendment, The Balanced Budget Act of 1998, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the 9/11 Use of Force Resolution, the Homeland Security Act, and the Patriot Act.
   Edwin Meese III, Director
   Edwin Meese photo

   Edwin Meese III served as the seventy-fifth Attorney General of the United States from February 1985 to August 1988. Before serving as Attorney General, he was counselor to President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1985. In this capacity he functioned as the president’s chief policy adviser and had management responsibility for the administration of the cabinet, policy development, and planning and evaluation. During the time he held both these positions, Meese was a member of the president’s cabinet and the National Security Council.

   Mr. Meese served as Governor Reagan’s executive assistant and chief of staff in California from 1969-1974 and as legal affairs secretary from 1967-1968. Before joining Governor Reagan’s staff in 1967, he served as deputy district attorney of Alameda County California.

   Mr. Meese is a distinguished fellow and holder of the Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation; a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University; a member of the Board of Regents of the National College of District Attorney; and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute of United States Studies, University of London. He has authored many scholarly books on American government, most recently The Heritage Guide to the Constitution.

   He earned his B.A. from Yale University and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
   Morton C. Blackwell, Director
   Morton C. Blackwell photo

   Morton C. Blackwell, Director, founded the Leadership Institute, a nonpartisan educational foundation, in 1979. After decades of work in politics, Blackwell served as special assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1984. Blackwell is one of the nation’s most influential conservative figures, and through his Leadership Institute training programs he has helped to prepare thousands of politicians, journalists, and activists.
   David A. Leedom, Director
   David Leedom photo

   David A. Leedom, Director, was trained as an engineer at the University of California. He has been a government employee, small-business owner, and large-business vice president, and he currently works in consulting and project management. He has a background of working with the military and is active in community and military affairs. He has worked for many conservative causes and has supported the American Civil Rights Union since its founding.
   Wendy Borcherdt LeRoy, Director
   Wendy Borcherdt LeRoy photo

   Wendy Borcherdt LeRoy, Director, is a former special assistant to the President for Public Policy and associate director of Presidential Personnel in the White House under President Reagan. She also served as acting Deputy Under-Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration. Mrs. LeRoy is on the board of overseers, trustee emeritus, at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and she serves on the executive committee of the Parents Television Council. In addition, she is a board member and executive committee member of the Trinity School for Ministry in Pittsburgh and a board member at the School for Public Policy at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Mrs. LeRoy holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Stanford University.
   Peter J. Ferrara, Legal Director, General Counsel
   Peter Ferrara photo

   Peter Ferrara is ACRU General Counsel. He graduated Harvard College, Magna Cum Laude, 1976 and Harvard Law School, Cum Laude, in 1979. He is a member of the District of Columbia and U.S. Supreme Court Bars. He has served as a Senior Staff Member in the White House Office of Policy Development 1981-1983 and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. from 1991-1993. He has authored several books and publications dealing with economics and the law.
   Robert H. Knight, Senior Fellow
   Robert Knight photo

   Robert H. Knight, Senior Fellow and Policy Expert, has been a journalist for 15 years, including 7 as editor/writer at Los Angeles Times. He holds a B.S. in Political Science from American University, 1973 and a M.A., Political Science; 1975 American University, and a Media Fellowship, 1989-1990 Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has also held senior positions with the Heritage Foundation, Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, Media Research Center, and Coral Ridge Ministries. He has authored three books and hundreds of reports, papers and articles.
   Hon. Richard Bender Abell, Secretary
   Richard Abell photo

   Richard Bender Abell, Secretary, has just retired from the federal judiciary after 34 years of public service. He has been a conservative youth activist, a Peace Corps Volunteer, and a decorated veteran retired for wounds received in combat in Viet Nam. He served as a presidential appointee in the Reagan Administration. He resides in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife of 42 years.

   Cut to the chase.  It’s Ed Meese and Newt Gingrich.

   • 

     joe from Lowell on August 23, 2012 at 8:43 pm

     Christopher effing Cox.  Sonuvabitch.

     Christopher Cox was the Commissioner of the Security and Exchange Commission for two years before the mortgage meltdown.  He is, quite possibly, the biggest failure in the history of American public service.

     That man should be pelted with rotten vegetables when he walks down the street, not living comfortably on the wingnut welfare circuit.

7. 

   lamh31 on August 23, 2012 at 8:54 pm

   This is why the Obama camp goes around the village and the MSM.  Local reporters are actually looking to ya know actually report news that their viewers want to know from a candidate.  The village on the other hand are just stenographers for the GOP (I’m looking at you Dick Halperin & Howard Fineman!)
   Romney Campaign Forbids Local Reporter From Asking About Akin, Abortion

   Boyd told TPM that the Romney campaign offered her station an interview with Romney, one of several local news hits in swing states that Romney conducted via satellite Thursday. A campaign staffer whose name she didn’t divulge told her what questions she wasn’t allowed to ask.

   “They said, you know, `the only stipulation is we don’t want you talking about the Akin issue,'” Boyd recalled. She also said the Romney staffer told her the campaign didn’t want questions for Romney about `the whole abortion controversy.'”

   Boyd said she resisted.

   “I said to them, `Look everybody’s talking about this. It’s going to seem awkward if I don’t ask about it,'” she said. “And they said, `Well he’s said all he’s going to say about it. He doesn’t have anything more to say, you won’t be getting any new information so we don’t want to talk about that.'”

   “It was pretty clear: `Here’s our one stipulation,'” she recalled.

   Boyd ultimately agreed to the stipulation because she said there were other issues important to her viewers she wanted to ask Romney about. She said that making Team Romney’s reticience about Akin questions public was as good as getting an answer about  

8. 

   lamh31 on August 23, 2012 at 8:57 pm

   wouldn’t it be interesting if Huckabee had Akin as his plus one for the Repub Convention??

9. 

   Bazooka Joe on August 23, 2012 at 9:11 pm

   You should read TNC’s new Atlantic article.

   http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/09/fear-of-a-black-president/309064/

   …It’s pretty great. That’s all I’ll say.

10. 

    The Voice In The Wilderness on August 23, 2012 at 9:13 pm

    http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/08/no-bankers-in-jail/#more-83023

11. 

    JimF on August 23, 2012 at 9:40 pm

    Neat political site from a group of students at UC Berkley.
    https:/www.politify.com

    Neat political app from http://www.politifact.com
    http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/aug/22/our-free-new-app-settle-it-politifact-ar
    gument