WWJD?

What Would Jesus Do? According to Mike Huckabee, Republican politician and religious huckster, Jesus might very well support dictatorship:

"[T]he events of the past few days in Egypt have created a very tenuous situation, not just for Egypt, not just for the Middle East, but for the entire world, and the destabilization of that nation has the potential of cascading across the globe." [emphasis mine]

Can't have unruly people "destabilizing" their country in an effort to get rid of a dictator! Even worse, those irresponsible bastards might very well cause other countries, around the globe, to become "destabilized" and run out tyrants.

Without any irony, he went on to explain that "The essence of freedom, the very heart of it, is self-determination and self-direction." Uh, hey, Mikey - ever hear of a little thing called "principle"? Jesus might like that.

Freedom of speech

This is an interesting view of what "freedom of speech" entails - one, I believe, that is shared by many these days:

Free speech, not free from consequences speech.  (And remember, it’s only government suppression of speech that is illegal.)

 Right - so, by this definition, there has never been a lack of "free speech" anywhere in the world. Not even Stalin's Soviet Union could prevent people from physically saying "bad" things... even if there were some definite "consequences" for this speech.

Support of democracy

Comical:

7.30pm GMT: Time magazine talks to "a minister in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," and reports that Israel appears to be backing the Mubarak regime:

With a deep investment in the status quo, Israel is watching what a senior official calls "an earthquake in the Middle East" with growing concern. The official says the Jewish state has faith in the security apparatus of its most formidable Arab neighbor, Egypt, to suppress the street demonstrations that threaten the dictatorial rule of President Hosni Mubarak. The harder question is what comes next.

But this was the most eye-catching quote from the unidentified minister:

"I'm not sure the time is right for the Arab region to go through the democratic process."

Combine this with the so-called "Palestine papers", and what kind of picture do you get?

A good question

What if the Tuscon shooter had been Muslim?

That'll show 'em

Maine has apparently thrown its hat into the competition for Which State Can Elect the Most Ridiculous Official?, a contest that had until now been led by Minnesota with its reelection of Crazy Michele Bachmann. The statement by their entry is not so much crazy as just fucking stupid:

Maine's governor is telling critics to "kiss my butt" over his decision not to attend the state NAACP's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations this weekend.

...

The NAACP's state director said the group felt it was being neglected by the new governor, a Republican elected in November with tea party support.
When asked by a reporter Friday to respond, LePage said: "Tell them to kiss my butt."

Yep - nothing like being disrespectful to a rights organization on the matter of commemorating a historical figure to burnish your leadership credentials!

Heavy-duty crazy

There is some heavy-duty crazy going on these days, if you haven't noticed.

A fanatic right-wing commentator at CNN - yes, CNN - tells us, in the wake of the shooting of Rep. Giffords, to remember to maintain a "saving faith in Jesus Christ". The guy may have a problem with his filthy mouth and thoughts of cartoonish violence against people he disagrees with - but remember, he has a "saving faith" in Jesus, so that makes it okay.

It's not crazy that crazy people with uncontrollable tempers and nothing to offer the public discourse except stupid religious homilies exist. What is crazy is that major social institutions protect them and offer them an open platform to reach out to other crazies, as well as people who are leaning crazy but just need that little extra push to fall over the edge.

Then there's this: important right-wing people are accusing the Conservative Political Action Conference of having been infiltrated by both radical homosexuals and the Muslim Brotherhood, in an assault apparently led by Grover Norquist. It sounds so over the top that it could be a comical parody of conservative paranoia and ignorance, were conservatives not so likely to take this stuff seriously.

Yes, there really are "death panels"

And Republicans sit at the head of them.

(H/T)

In defense of prosecutorial malfeasance

Kevin Drum - apparently separated at birth from his sniveling git twin Ezra Klein - wonders in this article how the Supreme Court can simply choose not to consider clear exculpatory evidence that has been withheld by evil, unscrupulous prosecutors.

It's a good question. Or, it would be, had it not been asked by someone who began their article like this:

Generally speaking, prosecutors are protected from lawsuits even if they break the rules. And generally speaking, this is probably a good thing. The level of prosecutorial abuse that judges routinely tolerate is outrageous, but still, a wave of lawsuits against prosecutors from everyone ever jailed wrongly probably isn't something we need.

Right: so you question the culture of courts siding with blatant malfeasance - and then you proceed to explicitly support such malfeasance by arguing that the single way malefactors might be held accountable (i.e., lawsuits) is not "something we need"?

Kevin: can I get a little of the shit you're smoking, please?

(H/T)

Things left unsaid

The Wall Street Journal trots out hack Michael Barone to argue the merits of Texas and something he calls the "Texas model". According to Barone, all of America's problems can be summed up in two words: taxes and unions. Texas, not being burdened by either of these, is what the rest of America should look like:

Back in the 1930-70 period, liberal political scientists hoped and expected that America would become less like Texas and more like New York, with bigger government, higher taxes and more unions. In one important respect—the abolition of legally enforced racial segregation—that has happened. But otherwise Americans have been voting with their feet for the Texas model, with its low tax rates, light regulation and openness to new businesses and enterprises.

It is somewhat odd - or it would be if right-wingers were not congenital liars - that Texas' wee budget problem goes unmentioned by Barone:

The Texas budget is expected to run a $27 billion two-year budget shortfall according to just-released state estimates.

That's worse than the $25 billion that Paul Krugman cited last week when he gleefully noted that a GOP bastion was facing deficit problems.

(Conservative pundit Kevin Williamson responded by saying that "insiders" were estimating a mere $11-$15 billion shortfall. Obviously those insiders were optimistic.)

Yep - add in batshit-insane politicians to this financial mess that is a direct result of batshit-insane fiscal policies, and Texas indeed offers some kind of model to the rest of the US!

Time for a conspiracy theory

A former aide to former President George W. Bush has died.

Has anyone suggested that Bush has him killed - similar to how the Clintons had Vince Foster whacked?

Question

Why is it that the rich snivel so much?

(H/T digby).

They apparently didn't get the "shared sacrifice" memo

Pure greed, pure sniveling greed. It is always the most well-off who are the biggest complainers and whiners. Note that they are *not* at all discussing the "legal, moral and ethical obligation" of the UC system to uphold its promises to workers, students, and faculty - just to the highest-paid:

Three dozen of the University of California's highest-paid executives are threatening to sue unless UC agrees to spend tens of millions of dollars to dramatically increase retirement benefits for employees earning more than $245,000.

...

Their demand comes as UC is trying to eliminate a vast, $21.6 billion unfunded pension obligation by reducing benefits for future employees, raising the retirement age, requiring employees to pay more into UC's pension fund and boosting tuition.

Apparently, these greedy assholes haven't heard that "we" all must "sacrifice" in these new difficult times.

I'm not at all surprised to see that Christopher Edley, dean of Boalt Law School at Berkeley, among the signatories. After his impassioned defense of torture professor John Yoo, taking a baseball bat to ordinary UC students and workers seems about par for the course.

Tiresome

Atrios generally publishes great stuff.

His anti-bicycle stuff, though, is tiresome.

For someone who supposedly cares so much about alternative transport, he spends a lot of time trashing cyclists. Here's an idea: spend a little of that time advocating for bicycle-specific facilities and laws (no, those laws are not made for cyclists).

Here's what continuous anti-bicycle bullshit gets you. So yes, it gets old, and it's also rather stupid.

General Betrayus

Digby puts up an outstanding article on America's own Marcus Aurelius, the warrior-philosopher General Petraeus.

This passage, for me, stood out. This passage, for me, can stand for much of what is wrong with contemporary America:

Oddly, none of Petraeus’ decorations are for actions in combat. He never has seen combat; he never has been under fire.

A person makes it to the top of the military, an organization devoted to fighting, without ever having actually fought. What else can you bring to such a position, then, apart from an outsized ego and an ambition that finds no counterpart in actual talent?

Sniveling little git, part 2

What exactly is the point of this article by sniveling git Ezra Klein? He doesn't "want to play down" how "The Left" feels about Obama's betrayals, nor how Obama feels about "The Left" not being appropriately respectful of whatever it is that he has done. But what does he want to do? Indicate that people are always disappointed in other people?

He cites a journalist's report about the confrontation between Clinton and Greider in the 1990s. But what this account actually shows is that people like it when other people who have power bully and intimidate yet other people who do not have power but try with their limited means to speak up and do something. Greider - a journalist - used his position to attempt to hold Clinton - a sack of shit who somehow made it to the highest office in the world - to account. Clinton, bizarrely, accuses Greider of not trying to "persuade" people.

From this exchange, Klein can only applaud Clinton for not farting in Greider's face. And noting that, gosh darn it, people are disappointed in other people.

It's pure power worship. And I can answer the question I posed earlier about the sniveling little git Ezra Klein: he got his job at the Washington Post, I would say, entirely because he was one of the pro-war "liberal" voices in 2002-03 - and because he is always wrong about everything of import. This is how "liberals" continue to look like fucking gits - because fucking gits will always be the people to represent and speak for them.

New Nixon tapes

I guess these will make him even more of a hero to Republicans:

Richard M. Nixon made disparaging remarks about Jews, blacks, Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans in a series of extended conversations with top aides and his personal secretary, recorded in the Oval Office 16 months before he resigned as president. 

 And this is the creep that so many people from both major political parties feted upon his death.

For whom fights the White House?

Not for thee:

The Democratic Party has become too associated with Wall Street. This is a fact. It is a structural problem. It seems to me that we as progressives need -- this is my personal position -- we need to draw a line and decide that we would be better off with an under-funded, fighting progressive minority party than a party marked by obvious duplicity and constant losses on every policy front as a result of the reversals in our own leadership.

What is at stake in the long run? Two things, mainly, in my view. First, it seems to me that we as progressives need to make an honorable defense of the great legacies of the New Deal and Great Society -- programs and institutions that brought America out of the Great Depression and bought us through the Second World War, brought us to our period of greatest prosperity, and the greatest advances in social justice. Social Security, Medicare, housing finance -- the front-line right now is the foreclosure crisis, the crisis, I should say, of foreclosure fraud -- the progressive tax code, anti-poverty policy, public investment, public safety, and human and civil rights. We are going to lose these battles– get used to it. But we need to make an honorable fight, to state clearly what our principles are and to lay down a record which is trustworthy for the future.

 Take away this quote, if nothing else: "We are going to lose these battles - get used to it". And read the whole thing.

The man-child who was always wrong

Has Ezra Klein ever been right about anything? From what I can see, he has been consistently wrong, and horribly so, on the big issues since the Pandagon days. The invasion of Iraq, health insurance reform, and now the tax deal.

He seems like a sniveling little git. How did he get his plum position at the WaPo again?

Evolution of a slogan

"Yes We Can" evolved into "No We Can't" and now it has apparently become "Shut The Fuck Up":

People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position, and no victories for the American people. And we will be able to feel good about ourselves and sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are and how tough we are.

Now that is some inspired leadership. Probably only on the 5th or 6th dimension of that chessboard.

The rich get richer

So - in the span of about a week, we have seen the Obama administration announce a pay freeze for middle-class federal workers, on the one hand, and fight tooth-and-nail for extension of the Bush tax cuts, on the other.

The deal that "liberals" are supposed to be overjoyed about includes tax increases for families making less than $40,000 per year (and individuals making less than $20,000) and a cap on capital gains and dividend taxes at just 15%. Fifteen fucking percent on money that is made doing no productive labor.

The liberalness of this administration is killing me. Can someone make the tired old speech about how different Dems are from Republicans?