Groundhog Day finds David Duke frothing again:
I am glad these traitorous leaders of the Republican Party appointed this Black racist, affirmative action advocate to the head of the Republican party because this will lead to a huge revolt among the Republican base. As a former Republican official, I can tell you that millions of rank-and-file Republicans are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore! We will either take the Republican Party back over the next four years or we will say, “To Hell With the Republican Party!” And we will take 90 percent of Republicans with us into a New Party that will take its current place!
I want to thank Jack&JillPolitics for supplying that quote so I don’t have to link Duke’s site.
As NYT calls the whole Tom Daschle-and-his-taxes thing “a peek into Washington,” WaPo says Daschle’s Senate ties account for the yawns there, with “little need for much of a fight” to get his nomination passed. Steve Benen offers the example of Bob Dole’s comment: “The one thing I feel certain about is Senator Daschle’s honesty and integrity…. I read the record about the tax issues raised, and while mistakes were made they were innocent ones which have been corrected primarily by Senator Daschle himself.” Whatever. It still creeps me out — even more so now that I’ve watched Glenn Greenwald take as his text Matt Taibbi’s maxim “In Washington there are whores and there are whores, and then there is Tom Daschle” and run with it.
Running myself just now (to the store), I heard NYT’s David Leonhardt interviewed on NPR about his long Sunday article The Big Fix, which I’ll now read. It begins:
I. WHITHER GROWTH?
The economy will recover. It won’t recover anytime soon. It is likely to get significantly worse over the course of 2009, no matter what President Obama and Congress do. And resolving the financial crisis will require both aggressiveness and creativity. In fact, the main lesson from other crises of the past century is that governments tend to err on the side of too much caution — of taking the punch bowl away before the party has truly started up again. “The mistake the United States made during the Depression and the Japanese made during the ’90s was too much start-stop in their policies,” said Timothy Geithner, Obama’s choice for Treasury secretary, when I went to visit him in his transition office a few weeks ago. Japan announced stimulus measures even as it was cutting other government spending. Franklin Roosevelt flirted with fiscal discipline midway through the New Deal, and the country slipped back into decline.
Geithner arguably made a similar miscalculation himself last year as a top Federal Reserve official who was part of a team that allowed Lehman Brothers to fail. But he insisted that the Obama administration had learned history’s lesson. “We’re just not going to make that mistake,” Geithner said. “We’re not going to do that. We’ll keep at it until it’s done, whatever it takes.” …
Meanwhile, some Republicans continue to say stupid things like Jim DeMint’s “[It's] a spending plan. It’s not a stimulus plan” (what else is “stimulus” but “spending,” Senator?), while some Democrats say smart things like Barney Frank’s “I never saw a tax cut fix a bridge. I never saw a tax cut give us more public transportation. The fact is, we need a mix.” (UPDATE: Here’s a clip of the Barney and Jim Show.)
I’m very relieved that Rodney still has power to send us this video (of a monkey in India defending its temple) — because what happened to Kentucky is also happening to Britain (though Blighty’s version is heavy snow rather than ice).
A death toll of “only” 191 civilians, soldiers, and police in January means Iraq just had its most peaceful month since the U.S. invasion six years ago. The turnout to vote this weekend seems to have run around 51% — lower than expected, except in Sunni areas such as Ninevah province, where it probably reached at least 60% (compared with 14% four years ago), the BBC reports.
I may be sort of quiet today, the fifteenth anniversary of my mom’s death. My mind will mostly be on her . . . and the many things I’m glad she didn’t live to see.
UPDATE: The Cincinnati police have released the video of Coach Andy Kennedy’s arrest, here, embedded in a TV report:
NMC’s take on it:
1) Kennedy is evermore on the losing end of the home court advantage on that story.
2) I didn’t realize that Kennedy had been ejected from the bar by cops before getting in the cab. Is that right? (The reporter just says it).
3) Kennedy is being very measured and careful in what he says on the tape, trying to defuse the situation, although the reasons he was giving weren’t really helping. Does cop training involve telling them to always be assholish when making arrests? Armstrong (the information director) on the other hand was, uh, not exercising the best judgment to talk to guys with tasers, guns, and handcuffs that way, and was basically inviting that arrest for disorderly conduct.
Best I can tell, “assholish” is, universally, arresting officers’ default mode.
Lets see a tax cut only helps those that are making too much money and all they have to worry about is taxes. If my freaking party would get its head out of its asses and actually get out and talk to voters they would quickly see that even the professional upper middle class is scared shitless and doesnt give a flying F*** about tax cuts right now. Adamnently opposed to taxes increases yes, but going to vote for you gain if you get them a 350 tax cut or break on capital gains, for get it baby. They are not going to hvae any capitla gains this year or next. And although many have been slow to figure this out over the years but if you federal taxes go down 500 but your property taxes go up 700 and if you live within 100 miles on the coast like 75% of the country your insurance bill goes up 1500 you lost money unless you made more income. Now this year when you income is down too, ouch.
You dont have to be number one in your MBA class, to figure up that as fixed expenses go up and income goes down you have less spenable or disposable income, and hence you spend less and comsumer expectations go dowm and then GNP then unemplyment goes up we have a very bad long recession, if we are lucky.
The stimulus plan is crap, but you have to do something to raise consumer expecations to try to get consumer spending going again. People have to have hope it is getting better. So when idiots say that the new deal didnt stop the depression it was WW2 they are may be techically correct but it did stablize and then raise CE or CC as it gave people hope again, which keep everthing for complete collapse, so it played a big part even if it was not real effective.
The GOP better wake up soon or its nightmare will be a lot longer than this recession. I am hearing rumblings from the Professionals, and they aint happy right now as they dont have 20 million in the Caymens like the Wall Street crowd that wrecked the economy.
Mourn your mother often and well, Lotus. I do the same for mine. It helps me to recall what the tennis sensation, Arthur Ashe, wrote in his memoir, Days of Grace, for his daughter, Camera, to read after his death (I think it’s what any good parent would want to say from the other side): “I would like nothing more than to be with you always. Do not feel sorry for me when I am gone. When we were together I loved you deeply and you gave me so much happiness I can never repay you. Wherever I am when you feel sick at heart and weary of life, or when you stumble and fall and don’t know if you can get up, think of me. I will be watching and smiling and cheering you on.”
Well lemme ask this about taxes: why not eliminate the corporate income tax? That should eliminate the need for corporate tax accounts and tax lawyers, which has to be a lotta overhead that could be saved. Corporate products—whatever they may be—would be cheaper to produce, hence cheaper in the marketplace, which would be an economic stimulus. Corporate profits pass through to shareholders as dividends and are taxed as personal income—so it’s not like profits are untaxed.
I’ve never seen the efficacy of taxing corporations—tax costs are just added to the sales price of the corporations’ products.
And while I’m at it, lemme add that I’ve never seen the efficacy (or anything else) of Groundhog Day. There’s stupid—and there’s incredibly stupid, like Michael Phelps. Groundhog Day appears to be incredibly stupid AND a useless interruption of a groundhog’s privacy rights.
Someone yell at you today Ben???
Go look at a cake wreck or something. Like the Darth Vader celebration of birth. http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
NL
Add The Steelers won!
Also, re Ben @ 3, I should think you have a similar situation regarding corporation tax “planning” as we do here:
“According to the National Audit Office, in 2006 more than 60% of Britain’s 700 biggest companies paid less than £10m corporation tax, and 30% paid nothing…….Top accountancy firms are charging £500,000 a time to invent tax-avoidance schemes.”
From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/02/tax-gap-avoidance
3dS @ 2, that’s lovely — thank you so much.
Dr X has issued an invitation to our legal-theory mavens, having to do with LAT’s report on federal prosecutors’ pursuit of Cardinal Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles, in the local abusive-priests scandal:
To which Dr X adds:
Anyone?
Ben @ 3-Amen! Our corporate tax policies are oppressive and stifle businesses. What a choice: fly bare without corporate structure protection for your assets/liabilities or submit to death by taxation.
OWIL @ 7: Somebody died from taxes? News to me.
Here — if you’ve got the right software installed, which I don’t — is said to be raw video of Andy Kennedy’s arrest, released by the Cincinnati cops.
Here, the AP story with some quotes from the exchange, in which Kennedy begs the cop not to arrest him. Cop: “You think we’ve never arrested somebody that’s made national media? … We deal with the Bengals all the time.”
Here’s the YouTube.
Every time someone complains about corporations paying taxes, it makes me twitch. Do you know why they pay taxes? Because they’re legally a person. Do you know why they came about? Because real, live persons wanted the chance to make money without the risk of losing everything they had. So they created a new person, who could become bankrupt with the real, live person owners losing only whatever money they invested. I’m all for abolishing corporations, then the real, live people could put their faces out there and take their chances like every other single business-owner or partner. Let’s put a human face on Exxon, I say! Then we’d have no corporate accountants, tax attorneys or anything. Am I right?
Well, looky here: 55% of GOPers want their party to be “like Sarah Palin.”
What this means for them is rather delightful to contemplate, but what it means for the level of political discourse in this country is bloody awful.
Well, I watched the Cincinnati tv station coverage through, and have a couple of thoughts:
1) Kennedy is evermore on the losing end of the home court advantage on that story.
2) I didn’t realize that Kennedy had been ejected from the bar by cops before getting in the cab. Is that right? (The reporter just says it).
3) Kennedy is being very measured and careful in what he says on the tape, trying to defuse the situation, although the reasons he was giving weren’t really helping. Does cop training involve telling them to always be assholish when making arrests? Armstrong (the information director) on the other hand was, uh, not exercising the best judgment to talk to guys with tasers, guns, and handcuffs that way, and was basically inviting that arrest for disorderly conduct.
NMC 13 … your no. 3: talking “that way” to the cops is not, imo, disorderly conduct — although, most cops would threaten to take you to jail for doing so and if you say “well take me to jail” then most probably would do so.
your no. 2: on the tape, one cop says something about another “thing” that happened in the bar and that ak was asked to leave by the cop. bar manager or owner denied kennedy was kicked out or asked to leave by the bar.
I don’t know, Gearheart – when the cops have got you like that, any cussin’ or cuttin’ up rough is liable to get you slapped with disorderly conduct. I’m surprised the cops let the information director go on as long as they did, with him cussin’ the cab driver and all.
Me, I’m still processing that Rasmussen poll at 12. Dang. I looked it up, and Wikipedia puts the GOP’s membership at “55 million registered voters as of 2004, encompassing roughly one-third of the electorate.[1]” (emphasis mine).
Just based on what I’ve heard from y’all foloers this year, I can’t believe the 2009 membership is anywhere near 33% of the electorate. But even if it is, my calculator says .55 of 33% is 18%. So if the Palin/Limbaugh direction is where the Republican Party heads next, it’ll end up waaaay far out in the tall weeds — and stay there. I’m telling ya, I think my guess that something else has to replace it soon is looking likelier.
According to David Duke (see post), lotus, you’re right when you say “something else has to replace it soon…” You think Palin will join him?????
Dunno, sailor, but they could be the parents of the American National Socialists’ Party. What we call “GOPers” now might turn into the “New Whigs” er sumpin.
Some robbers knocked over a store in Tupelo three months back, and it has the cops nervous, says the DJ. See, it was an army-surplus store, and the robbers’ shopping list included “military manuals about how to be a sniper, how to build improvised explosive devices, booby traps and other munition devices. A manual on guerilla [sic] warfare along with stun guns, pepper spray, gas masks, knives and ghillie suits … outfits that blend in with the elements, making the person wearing it hard to detect.”
I wonder why this story appears now.
Here’s an awfully interesting Nate Silver post on the NH situation if Obama does name Judd Greeg to Commerce: For Democrats, Best Choice May be a Republican.
i tend to agree dragonman, although i don’t know how much fussin is enough for a conviction for disorderly conduct. i’ll probably be put in my place for saying this, but seems to me people have some freedom to fuss … maybe a 1st amendment right?
The cop language and behavior is not out of line in the video. People that argue with cops on the side of the road never win. They usually have to make an arrest and have no say in it.
My take: AK didn’t hit the guy but did insult him somehow and the allegation of assault is the payback.
In-terrrrestink: The judge in Lehman Bros.’ bankruptcy is said to be known for his patience. HOWEVER, Saturday he got arrested for striking his wife (sending her to the hospital).
Freedom-to-fuss has its limits.
The real reason that we can’t have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this. You cannot post “Thou Shall Not Steal”, “Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery”, and “Thou Shall Not Lie” in a building full of lawyers, judges, and politicians… It creates a hostile work environment.
No offense to Lotus and NMC meant here. (smile)
Maybe the judge’s patience applies only to wealthy white men such as Lehman and Madoff types.
BoynamedSioux @22: While the white-hatted officer’s language and behavior were not technically out of line, he sure was overly aggressive right out of the box, especially with his Taser threat, “One move and you’re lit.” Maybe it was Kennedy’s size that caused the officer to take such an aggressive stance.
But you’re right – arguing with a tough cop like that in a tough town like Cincinnati – that ain’t gonna get you anywhere, except to jail a whole lot faster.
Oh man, even I’ll have to fire up the teevy for this!
Barney Frank is one sharp knife. They better get their stories straight.
Has anyone seen the “David Duke Pecans” shack in Tupelo. Probably worth a picture.
Yep see Mr Dukes’ all the time, Altho I do not usually go that way. If popular demand calls for it I ll get a 21 Mpixel photo, edit it desaturate it and divide by square root two to post here.
Pretty crummy shack if I do say so myself.
Is this the same David Duke?? Google suggests not.
NL
add edited for vulgarity
After Sec. Geithner’s Tax delinquencies (or for the more sensitive souls, kerfuffle) I heard many ask just how much would he have had to uhmm…, err…forget (yeah, that’s the ticket) in order to DQ himself from Senate confirmation. It seems that HHQ Sec. appointee Tom Daschle has raised the ante ($128,000 plus intrest and counting). Are they truely going to argue that the health care system in such dire straits that we have to confirm this erstwhile wheat farmer, insurance/pharma lobbiest (err, consultant), telcom investment guru (Uhh, lucky guy) and democrat mover/shaker/playmaker (Uhmm, connected former Senate Majority Leader) to save us no matter what his past transgressions?
And you forgot to mention that Tom and Bob are joined at the hip at the K Street lobbying house (err I mean Law Firm) of Alston & Byrd. The funny thing is it (the statement) couldn’t have even been written by Bob Dole because it wasn’t in the third person.