Last Call

This week's "Obama is DOOOOOOOOOOMED" article comes from CNN, where commentator Brad Chase accuses the President of ignoring the youth vote...and in turn, America's twenty-somethings will completely abandon the Democrats and stay home in 2012 unless the President tackles the student debt crisis.

The sobering reality:  just 55.3 percent of Americans between 16 and 29 have jobs.  And earlier this year, Americans’ student loan debt surpassed credit card debt for the first time ever.

Rather than develop a lasting initiative to help young unemployed Americans, the President launched “Greater Together” – a campaign tool that offers community forums rather than jobs.  Rather than provide a bailout to those crushed by the burden of educational loans, his student debt relief program was pathetic – only reducing interest rates by a measly 0.5 percent.

No wonder less than half of Americans 18-29 approve of Obama.

In other words, candidates in both parties are so busy buying off the Boomers that the broke-ass Millenials simply fail to count.  Chase goes on to say that student debt relief would go a long way in getting voters under 30 back into the big blue tent, along with jobs jobs jobs.

But here's the thing: the Democrats did just that with student loan relief bills in the House and Senate...which are still sitting in committee and have no chance of passage because Republicans immediately vowed to block the legislation in the Senate and have no intention of bringing the bill out of committee in the House.  And the Republicans happily killed the American Jobs Act.

And for this, Millenials should stay home and not vote, nor should they care about what happens because Washington's just going to screw them over anyway, right?

Let me ask you a question.  How does the youth vote staying home get more and better Democrats in Congress?  Answer:  it doesn't.  And the last time the Republicans had control of Congress and the White House?  They passed a law specifically designed to screw over Millenials on student debt, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, which classified student loans specifically as debt that cannot be forgiven by bankruptcy and made it harder to declare bankruptcy anyway.

That's what Republicans did for the Millenials.

Now tell me again why attacking President Obama and staying home on Election Day is such a smart idea as far as getting this law fixed, guys.  I'm all ears.

The Reason Behind Mitt's Latest Dodge

Mitt Romney's run into more than a bit of trouble this week trying to dodge the issue of releasing his tax return, something pretty much every presidential hopeful has done during campaign season since Nixon.  He's even gotten his son Matt in on trying to change the subject to...you guessed it...President Obama's "real" birth certificate.

Josh Marshall makes a pretty damned good educated guess as to why Mittens is jumping through any hoop he can find in order to prevent any squinting at his tax numbers:  It's because Romney would prove the Buffett Rule.

This is Romney’s problem. While we don’t know the specifics of Romney’s tax returns, we know enough about his finances and sources of incomes to know that he is the poster-boy for the Buffett Rule. As Romney likes to say, he’s unemployed. He doesn’t draw a salary. But he seems to still be making big big money off capital gains which are currently taxed at a very low rate. He doesn’t seem to have drawn a salary at any time recently. So he likely pays no payroll taxes. And that’s before you get into legal but aggressive tax-sheltering. It seems virtually impossible that Mitt Romney doesn’t pay the sort of effective tax rate that would make people’s eyes pop when compared to middle income and even relatively wealthy (by normal standards) people who pay considerably higher rates.

That might cause a little problem in any election year. But issues of income inequality and particularly tax policy are right at the top of the political agenda in 2012. And that dictates keeping those tax returns under wraps as long as possible. 

And Mitt's big issue, the plaid shirts, the hokey family stuff, the "unemployed" jibes at campaign stops, all are focused on selling him as an ordinary guy.  His tax return would all but annihilate that illusion, and it would be in a way that Romney couldn't equivocate about:  numbers don't lie (or at least, they sure had better not lie on a tax return for a presidential candidate.)

If America figures out that Mitt paid less of an effective tax rate than Americans who really are middle-class, salt of the earth types, then he's done.  Millionaire Mitt would get squashed in the realm of Occupy Wall Street, Inequalistan and Republicans fighting to empty the pockets of working Americans.  He knows it would be the final flip that he couldn't flop on, and he'd be on the record.

If Mitt was smart, this would have been the perfect Friday to dump this news on, just before a holiday weekend and the Village bound and determined to declare Mitt the winner no matter what happens in Iowa on Tuesday.  As it is, the longer he draws it out, the worse it's going to be when he finally has to do it.

Fire Walker Chronicles, Part 7

Looks like not only will Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker get his day in court to argue that the state's recall process is unconstitutional, but that Democrats will be locked out of the case, unable to present arguments to defend the recall.

A judge in Wisconsin has ruled that Democratic recall organizers cannot challenge a lawsuit brought by the state GOP against election officials — a suit that claims Gov. Scott Walker’s constitutional rights are being violated by the state’s petition review process.

This means that barring a hypothetical appeal, any continuing litigation in this matter will be conducted exclusively between the state GOP and the election board’s attorney, without the Dems themselves being able to participate and present legal arguments.

“I was a little surprised,” said Jeremy Levinson, the attorney for the recall committee, in an interview with TPM. “It’s the first time I can recall — let me rephrase — it’s the first time I’m aware of a recall-related lawsuit where only the official who is being targeted for recall gets to be a party, and the folks who are working to recall that official are shut out of the process.”

It does seem rather pointedly ridiculous that Walker's argument is that the burden of challenging recall signatures is "unconstitutional" abridgement of his rights, but being able to challenge that very argument in court is apparently completely unnecessary, and that the rights of the people of Wisconsin to exercise their free speech in a state-mandated recall process doesn't actually matter so much compared to being Governor.

No wonder that the GOP filed the lawsuit in their home turf of Waukesha County to get a friendly judge, in this case a former GOP State Senator.  The case will proceed forward next week with that same judge hearing Walker's arguments and the motion to dismiss the case on January 5th.  Meanwhile Walker and his allies are pushing to win the battle of public opinion, having already spent over a million bucks in ads fighting the recall petition in just the last six weeks.

We'll see how that goes.

Breaking Celebrity Gossip: Russell Brand Files For Divorce

Russell Brand is filing for divorce from Katy Perry, TMZ just broke the story.

I'm a Katy Perry fan because I admire her honest and down to earth approach to her lifestyle.  I think she has a long career ahead of her once she breaks free of Teenage Dream and all that comes with it.  Brand... well, he has no talent.  He plays the same schmuck over and over which makes me think he isn't acting at all, and to blindisde your spouse with a divorce announcement through TMZ is just plain chicken.  As of right now, that seems to be the story.

Maybe old Russ will have a new reason to show his skanky smirk in photos.  He was clearly the non-talent of the marriage and I hope Katy leaves him broke and depressed.  Hey, there's always Arthur: On The Rocks to look forward to, right?

Best And Worst Video of 2011

My favorite is short, sweet and hilarious.




... and now we have the worst.

In "Republican Wisdom" this old lady shows us exactly why we must never vote for the GOP.  It's a bit dated, the Herman Cain reference is hilarious.

Legalizing Marijuana: You're Doing It Right (Finally)

According to the Huffington Post, Colorado has become the third state to ask the DEA to reschedule marijuana as a Schedule II drug.  This means it could be prescribed, but would be controlled by the same methods used to regulate morphine and other powerful painkillers.

Regardless of what one might think about recreational marijuana use, the reality is it has some medical applications.  I have known two men from two completely different backgrounds benefit from marijuana during their final weeks battling cancer.  It helped them eat, it raised their spirits a little, and there was no harm done to them whatsoever.  Marijuana does have medical benefits, and a little work could make it to patients could enjoy the benefits without the risk of smoking it.  Right now it is classified as Schedule I, which means it has no medical use, no positive effects.  That is incorrect.

Sixteen states have legalized marijuana and are fighting the sudden decision to enforce laws that have been on the books and ignored.  Rhode Island and Washington have started calling for reclassification.  It would make sense to hear it out and get a new understanding.  In a perfect world, both sides would speak truthfully and let the DEA come to a logical and scientific ruling.  In reality there will be a mess, and any decisions will be appealed and stalled while the losing side refuses to acknowledge their loss.  Giving the dying any relief at all is good enough for me, but any attempt to rob us of the chance to openly debate and explore is unfair and unethical.

Was it right for the states to operate in opposition of federal law?  No.  Calling for an evaluation based on new evidence is fair and ethically sound.  They deserve our support.

Rick Rolling The Country

Rick Santorum has a frothily exciting plan to solve poverty:  get hitched and graduate, poor people!

“Do you know if you do two things in your life — if you do two things in your life, you’re guaranteed never to be in poverty in this country? What two things, that if you do, will guarantee that you will not be in poverty in America?” he asked the crowd.

“Number one, graduate from high school. Number two, get married. Before you have children,” he said. “If you do those two things, you will be successful economically. What does that mean to a society if everybody did that? What that would mean is that poverty would be no more. If you want to have a strong economy, there are two basic things we can do.”

I'm sure that's news to the millions of married working poor in this 2004 study and these latest figures showing that some 8-10% of married couples with kids are in fact below the poverty line.

Sure, you're more likely to be in poverty in a one-income family headed by a single mother.  But the notion that a high-school diploma and marriage prevents poverty completely as Santorum claims is pretty ludicrous.  The real issue with poverty is jobs and education, and Republicans are pretty keen on cutting the social net in order to "force" people to take jobs, like cutting medicine will force people to stop being sick.

And yes, there are people with advanced degrees on food stamps. It happens.  How does Santorum explain that away?  Also, he's completely against same-sex marriage, which would increase the number of married couples in the country.

He's Rick rolling voters.

Mutual Admiration Society

Once again, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton top Gallup's most admired list in 2011.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama continue to be named by Americans as the Most Admired Woman and Most Admired Man living today in any part of the world. Clinton has been the Most Admired Woman each of the last 10 years, and Obama has been the Most Admired Man four years in a row. Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, and Condoleezza Rice round out the top five Most Admired women, while the top five Most Admired men also include George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Billy Graham, and Warren Buffett.

President Obama wins by a pretty big margin there, as does Hillary Clinton. And it's really saying something that Mitt Romney is nowhere near that list, while Newt, The Donald, Moose Lady and the Bachmanniac are.  I'm betting if you take a look back at this list the year before each Presidential election, you'd find some pretty embarrassing people on that list.

It also has to really piss off the wingers that this is year number 20 Hillary Clinton is on the list, now officially passing Nancy Reagan's 19 times in the top 10.  The Reverend Billy Graham has been on this list a staggering 55 times now...but has never finished first.

Number 11 this year for the men?  Tim Tebow.  Mitt is 13 behind The Dalai Lama.  McCain, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson, John Kerry, and Chinese Premier Liu Xiaobo all down the list too.

For the ladies, Angelina Joile is 11, followed by Princess Kate.  Gabby Giffords is 15, and Nancy Pelosi edges out Nancy Reagan at 21 and 22, respectively.  Somehow, J-Lo is 17, but I blame that damn Fiat commercial.

Oh, and this is the first year Michelle Obama has edged out Sarah Palin since the two of them appeared on the list in 2008.  Palin was in the double digits the last three years.  Oops.

StupidiNews!

• North Korea has put the kibosh on thawing relations with the South in the new regime of Kim Jong-un, saying the world should "not expect any change" from Pyongyang.
• Congress has quietly released some $40 million of the $200 million in aid money for the Palestinians frozen in protest due to their failed bid for UN statehood.
• The latest 2012 hiring forecast shows US businesses plan to add jobs, but are unsure as to how many.
• Recently released documents from the UK show that PM Margaret Thatcher strongly considered pulling out of Northern Ireland 30 years ago over international condemnation from hunger strikes.
• More small and medium-sized businesses are turning to tablets in 2012, and the majority are looking to purchase the iPad.

Last Call

Meet the new employee/boss relationship involving Keith Olbermann, same as the old employee/boss relationship involving Keith Olbermann.

Keith Olbermann, who came to Current TV this year to remake the channel and compete against his old home, MSNBC, is sitting out the biggest political nights of the season.

Despite being the biggest star on the fledging channel, Mr. Olbermann is not scheduled to anchor Current’s coverage of the Iowa caucus or the New Hampshire primary in January. Instead, Current’s other prime time anchors, Cenk Uygur and Jennifer Granholm, will be joined by the channel’s chairman, the former vice president Al Gore, according to the channel’s TV schedule.

Mr. Olbermann also was noticeably absent from two special reports that Current produced after Republican debates in mid-December. Those, too, were anchored by Mr. Uygur.

These absences suggest that there may be new tension between Mr. Olbermann and the managers at Current, who are trying to create a progressive-oriented cable news channel. 

I don't get Current TV on my cable provider...and I'm not too particularly broken up over it either.  But if Cenk is Al Gore's new golden boy, I can't wait for the fireworks to begin...especially when Cenk's extracurricular activities at HuffPo involves telling people not to vote for President Obama on Tuesday in Iowa in order to "teach him a lesson".

I follow politics for a living; I'm not unaware of how hideous the Republican choices are. But that doesn't mean that we should pretend that President Obama has been brilliant because we're scared of the big, bad Republicans. That would be fundamentally dishonest.

And to be honest, I'm really disappointed that he does not have a primary opponent. This country is dying for someone who is going to take on the establishment. Who is that going to be on our side -- Barack Obama? On that, I know whether to laugh or cry. Every time I think about the idea that President Obama might be against the establishment, I laugh and laugh and laugh. There is never been a guy who was this enamored with the establishment. If he had wrestling nickname it would be The Establishment.

Hey Current?  Your new host is openly advocating weakening the President, ostensibly because walking out on "establishment" Dems and handing the House to the Tea Party in 2010 worked out so very well for progressive legislation in 2011.  It'll be good for Cenk's ratings so he can continue to rail at the horrible Dems while the GOP wrecks the country, or so he thinks.

Then again, HuffPo has no problem espousing the greatness of Ron Paul and saying Dems need to insist on dumping Biden for Hillary as soon as possible, so nobody should be surprised at Cenk's antics.  Works for HuffPo, doesn't it?

Perhaps Olbermann has noticed the ratings swirling down the drain. Things are certainly...interesting over there.   On the other hand, maybe there's a reason why people are dumping Current with analysis like this:

The agenda of the president sucks and is deeply Republican.

Boy, that sure makes me want to switch over from "fake progressive" MSNBC and watch "true progressive" Current, huh.

All For States' Rights Until He Gets States Wrong

Rick Perry is all for states' rights and taking power away from the "unelected" evil federal courts...unless he needs them to smack around a state who doesn't recognize his awesome hair.

"Because of the overly burdensome and unconstitutional requirements" of the state's election law, they argue, he was "unable to obtain a sufficient number of signatures from qualified voters to qualify for the Republican Party presidential primary ballot in Virginia. If either the state-residency requirement for petition circulators or the threshold amount of signators is constitutionally unenforceable, plaintiff should be certified for the March 6, 2012 Republican Party primary ballot."

The state requires that those who circulate petitions must be either registered to vote in the state or qualified to do so. Such a rule, however, prevents candidates from using out-of-state volunteers to gather signatures. And Perry points out it prevents even presidential candidates themselves from gathering signatures on their own petitions, unless they happen to be from Virginia.

Please note the massive hypocrisy of the man who calls Social Security an unconstitutional "Ponzi scheme" and says as President he would eliminate hundreds of thousands of government jobs in order to give states the power to "do what they should" and that he would ignore Supreme Court rulings he disagreed with now needs the federal courts to immediately be "activist judges" and step in to put him on the Virginia ballot because he refused to follow their primary rules.

On second thought, I don't see Perry making it much past March anyhow.

Brought To You By The Letters "F" And "U", Once Again

Mitt Romney enters the inevitable self-parody phase as he seeks to "fix" public broadcasting.

Explaining his plan to slash the federal budget by billions in order to reduce the deficit, Romney targeted a (minuscule) part of the federal budget Republicans have wanted to do away with for years: taxpayer subsidies for children’s programming on PBS.

“I like PBS,” Romney told a town hall in Clinton, Iowa Wednesday. “We subsidize PBS. Look, I’m going to stop that. I’m going to say PBS is going to have to have advertisements.”

So it's actually a good plan, force PBS to take ad money, then FOX and the Tea Party boycotts and destroys any company that actually does it.  Repeat until PBS goes under, claim victory.  Problem is, plenty of companies already underwrite a number of PBS shows quietly.  It won't be quietly much longer, I suspect.

Republicans do so very much loathe an educated populace.  But remember, Mitt Romney's a moderate, not one of those crazy Tea Party Republicans or anything.  Keep telling yourself that.  Also, there's no difference between Romney and President Obama.  None at all, so your vote is meaningless.  Apathy will solve America's problems, right?

Not Punishment Enough

Here is an update and a quick recap regarding the "Chair Lady."  It's one of the worst stories I heard from the whole year, it still haunts me.

Independence, MO — Prosecutors filed charges Wednesday in the death of an elderly Independence woman found in squalid and filthy conditions whose primary caretaker was her son.

James E. Owens, 52, faces a charge of first-degree involuntary manslaughter. His mother, Carol F. Brown, 74, died Nov. 1 after emergency crews removed her from her home five days earlier on Oct. 27.

Court records describe conditions so deplorable that the home had to be condemned. First responders had to don breathing masks due to the overwhelming stench of human waste. They called Brown a “living corpse.”

Owens told police he had not fed his mother in four days, when he gave her soup. He also told police that he believed his mother had suffered a stroke days earlier but had not contacted medical personnel because Brown did not like doctors or hospitals.

When paramedics arrived, Brown had not moved from a chair in the living room in four days. She had been sitting in a vinyl recliner for so long that her legs had become fused to the footrest. Medical staff found an open, maggot-infested wound on her ankle.

I say again: there is a special place in hell waiting for this man.  There is no way you can make his actions noble or caring.  At best he's a danger to people for gross inability to make judgments about right and wrong.  At worst he's a pitiful man who let his mother rot alive and cashed her checks.  I hope to post about this one more time, when he's sentenced to decades of hard time.

Two Sides Of The Same Stupidity

ROSWELL, Ga. -- A Roswell man is accusing police of keeping his cancer-stricken wife from medical care by pulling him over on their way to the hospital.

Johnny White told 11Alive's Blayne Alexander his wife complained of chest pains Tuesday afternoon, so he rushed to make the 10-minute drive from their home to North Fulton Hospital. White was driving through a school zone on Hembree Road when he says a Roswell Police Officer pulled him over.

"He didn't care about whether my wife was gonna expire there or whether she was having a heart attack," White said. "He didn't care about that."

Roswell Police Lt. James McGee said White was clocked at 44mph in a 25mph school zone. The stop occurred between 2:30 and 3:00pm.

We have a lot going on here.  First, you have a medical emergency ten minutes from a hospital.  Then you have a cop who doesn't know how to properly call a bluff.

Stupidity #1: You call an ambulance.  You do not put innocent people at risk because it gives you warm fuzzies to be in control.   You do not speed through a school zone at Prime Going Home Time.  If White had been determined to drive his wife, he could have avoided the school zone.  Let's make no mistake however, letting professionals drive while tending to his wife was the right answer.

Stupidity #2: As for the cop, he should have acted in the interest of the sick woman because he cannot prove or disprove the statement.  He must therefore err to the safe side.  He could have been faster on that instead of trying to demand proof of an appointment.  As it happened they were telling the truth about her condition and every second counted.  He didn't act inappropriately, but he could have been faster and better about it.

The Best Of 2011: The Jon Swift Roundup

Over at Vagabond Scholar, Battochio continues his tradition of honoring blogging legend Jon Swift with the best posts of 2011 from smaller blogs, as chosen by the bloggers themselves.  Do check out some of the better pieces there from friends of mine, Tbogg, Kay, Tom Levenson, Sarah Proud And Tall, Blue Gal, and bjkeefe.

I was asked to contribute again this year, but, well, I'm shy.  If there's one piece I could have decided on for Bats, it would have been this one.