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Notwithstanding Pat "fuck political spin, I care about results" Buchanan, I personally think that the "Rush Limbaugh as head of le GOP" frame is brilliant work by the White House - you?

Sen. McCaskill Rips Hypocrisy on Earmarks

This is a poorly edited (albeit an 'official') clip, but:
1) Claire McCaskill is an under-celebrated Senate badass who needs to up her OG profile; and,
2) She exemplifies the new, '2009' tone of les Dems, which as far as I can tell may actually include "trick plays" like calling the Republicans liars and thieves.

Where I'm at these days

Zombie islamofascist unionists!

While I have my (strong) disagreements with how SEIU runs its organization, I give full props to their media operation, which is top notch, and they've been producing some great pieces about the Employee Free Choice Act, like this one:

"With malice for being a sty:" Listening to Spiderland Horn

Clinton Pessimistic on Iran Outreach - washingtonpost.com
I was once a young man with squarely chopped locks. I was once an older man who sung about myself as a younger man. What's your bleeping provenance?

New spin on vinyl: Bundled MP3s - Mar. 2, 2009
Sometimes I think that the combination of bundled mp3s and the new Administration is enough to make 2009 one promising sunovabitch. Sometimes I stay out late and slippy-dip with the lads in the lanes.

Firedoglake » Things Rahm Left Out Of His Love Note To Himself
The Limits of a "3 Minute Rahm" in Obama's Kitchen Cabinet - The Washington Note
Are you an activist or an operator? Have you ever heard of the Tuxedo Killer, who would periodically require his victims to say "I love you" if they were to be afforded a merciful evisceration?

Very Few Small Business Owners Would Face Tax Increases Under President's Budget
I should start a distro operation that specializes in 7"s from 1990-1998, if only to honor this here lax tax.

NPA, "Let's Do It, like the Workers of Guadeloupe and Martinique!"
Once I heard a Castro-ite (?!?) from Dominica and an evangelical/black nationalist/Trot trade unionist from Guadeloupe debate whether I was an angel or just a "young man." This was next door to a barbed wire-d Club Med.
‘Socialism!’ Boo, Hiss, Repeat - NYTimes.com
Socialism is the new socialism, kids. Take the good with the bad: an exotic political desire called 'socialism' lives on, even in mainstream US newspapers. But it does so in the shape of an unconvincing, Hollywood movie shark.

Rahm Emanuel Discusses Rush Limbaugh on Face the Nation

Rahm.
Say what you will about Rahm's sketchy congressional NAFTA-ish-ness and his relatives' completely distasteful comments about Israel/Palestine: Rahm is a DYNAMITE OPERATOR when it comes to the (not necessarily ideological) arena of framing/discourse/spin.

Crap/Not Crap: BHO's "All-at-Once" Strategy

[See the "poll" on the "right," alright?]

This (admittedly rightward-ho!-ish) explanation of the all-at-once strategy is from the Note's Rick Klein:

This week an ambitious President Obama continues his move from what he must do (the economy, Iraq) to what he wants to do (healthcare, energy policy) and what he’s judging that he must do again, and again (AIG is the latest back at the federal till).

Using that sky-high popularity for what it’s worth (and then some), Obama is pressing ahead in a brash style, telling his opponents he’s ready for battle, calling them on hypocritical statements as quickly as they’re doing the same to him, and choosing more fronts, not fewer.

This is what he was elected to do -- though not necessarily all at once.

Now, piece by piece, Obama is taking ownership of problems he inherited -- not just from his immediate predecessor, but from decades of calcified politics that couldn’t deliver breakthroughs on the biggest issues of the era.

The pile-it-on strategy (just last week, remember, he said he was ending the war, fixing the financial meltdown, and curing cancer) signals an early evolution for a president who’s struggled with his own definitions of bipartisanship and effective governance.

More than ever, he looks like a president who will succeed spectacularly or fail miserably.

How much is too much?

I suppose yr answer to this question hinges, maybe, on whether or not you think the "all-at-once" srtgy. really is BHO's strtgy. I think it is, and I think it's "not crap," but you tell me...

I do not claim to know what the next six months of legislative combat have in store for us, but I think this tack is the White House's best bet for beating down the politically insane but tactically effective lockstep marching of the Congressional Rs.

Racist of the Day

Mayor Dean Grose was forced to apologize after it was reported he sent an e-mail out to colleagues and business people--including a black woman who serves on a committee with the mayor--that depicts the White House lawn planted with watermelons.

Grose claims he was "unaware of the stereotype that black people like watermelon," and didn't mean to "offend" African Americans.

TGIF

Other people's lives

I like it when people tell me that losing their wallet and having to replace their i.d. and credit cards is the "biggest ordeal I've dealt with in my life." It confirms my faith in cosmic balance.

Also, I was walking home the other day and there was a young woman walking behind me talking on the phone with a friend. I deduced that they were talking about what the friend might give up for Lent. The woman walking behind me suggested a couple of things and then she said "Oh! I know, you could give up pickles," slight pause, then "Well, it's supposed to be hard."

No, I Will Not Perish (yet) Horn

Ben Smith's Blog: Anuzis joins campaign against EFCA - POLITICO.com
SEIU head fights to merge labor unions - Ben Smith - Politico.com

Indeed, the anti-EFCA campaign is turning into something close to a full employment project for Republicans in exile. They were also giving away a Wii at CPAC yesterday.

Punditry: re the labor movement paints us as intrinsically tied to the electoral/legislative process and thus "special interest"-y...Maybe that's appropriate? We should ask Dave "I was born a Democrat and I'll die a Democrat" 3544 about this some time.

Slowcore Week: Slint and Codeine - a shared musical language? / In Depth // Drowned In Sound Pukekos: Codeine

Okay, in its matter-of-fact way, this is some of the best writing about Slint that I've read. Indeed, some of the speculation about possible Slint influences even kinda makes sense: Ubu, late Birthday Party, King Crimson, s/t-era Sabbath. Read this, even if you don't know who Slint are, because you need to know who Slint are. (Also, of course, Codeine are the original, glacial rock formation. But we've spoken of Codeine before, much more than Slint, who made what is probably, if I'm honest, my favorite record of all time with Spiderland. Check out the complete Codeine 7" discography on the Pukekos link above, btw.)

Economist's View: The Employee Free Choice Act
Bloggers and Unions Join Forces to Push Democrats - NYTimes.com

Anyway, back to Big Labor. 'Seems we've even got our own squadron of Post-Keynesians, these days, telling people, shucks, maybe doing something to stimulate growth in real wages'd be interesting, and maybe it'd be even more stimulative than, say, lowering interest rates and/or maintaining a strong dollar policy? I wonder to what extent the MoveOn, kos-ish "progressive" crowd can be said to be on board with the Economic Policy Institure, CEPR milieu? Or are they more of a Center for American Progress Crowd? Do they have their own research institutes? Increasingly, I dwell upon the in-politics of those privileged wonks who're allowed to "shape" policy "debates."

Michael D. Yates, "Michael Steele Is a Nitwit and Wolf Blitzer Is a Jackass"
Ben Smith's Blog: Coming back to Romney - POLITICO.com

And then there's the old Republican Party and the old conservative movement. Notice that I don't put "movement" in scare quotes: their thing is as real as any cargo cult or drum circle, to me. Conservatism is a social fact.

Letter from Washington: The Gatekeeper: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
Twitter / clairecmc

As I mentioned before, I do love my glimpses into the inner workings of staff meetings, staffers and staffers' bosses. "The Gatekeeper" is a long, fascinating portrait of Rahm, probably my most guiltiest pleasure of a good time in recent days. Claire McCaskill is easily one of our coolest senators and also one of our least snobbish.

Open Left:: Nate Silver to Progressives: STFU and Defer to the Serious Experts and Czars
Digby populism tango

What does it say about me, that I cannot quite bring myself to "care" about rival tendencies and rival formations within the Netroots? I dunno.
But I do know this: remember our legendary (and worth-revisiting) "let's eliminate these adjectives" thread from the Prisonship? I have a less elitist, more parochial, but nonetheless similar directive in mind for mainstream political discourse: nobody should be allowed to use the term 'populism' until having read Ernesto Laclau's On Populist Reason. Surely I have no authority, and only a scoffing, sardonic-at-best relationship with the kinda at-large political philosophy that informs whatever kinda dumbed-down 'realist' orthodoxy permeates pundits' collective consciousness. But in my ideal world, let's say, 'populism''d have a stable referent. And activists, at least, could drag it out of the gutter of commentator-speak and the graveyard of flippant, loose snob-lips.

Stephen Malkmus | Pitchfork

Do you know what? Malkmus never seemed that likable to me in interviews, until now! Dig his really interesting, sober appraisals of what was going on during the short life of "indie rock" (1989-1994).

Language and Obama’s Budget - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

Who else has budget mania? Don't stop until you get enough.

The GOP comeback starts here

Holy fucking crap. If I told you that the Republican chair of the House Policy Committee was writing really, really bad "literature" critique on a right-wing website would you believe me?

I kid you not.

He writes to tell us that Gran Torino is a conservative movie and Clint Eastwood's character is a true conservative. This assertion has been disputed elsewhere and I am not sure Representative McCotter is writing in some sort of response or not. You'd think, but then the only way he can come up with that Eastwood is a true conservative is that he brings order out of chaos in his neighborhood just like Reagan did with the nation (don't ask me). And he hates his "Yuppie" kids. This is, apparently, all it takes to be a conservative, because McCotter rejects the character's racism, acknowledges he probably votes Dem, and is a unionist.

Before you read what follows, remind yourself that this guy is a leader of the Republican party. Read it and smile:

Like Walt Kowalski’s kids who would blithely stow their “old man” in a human warehouse, most American’s believe they are “post-Detroit.”

They are wrong, because right now no one is post-disorder. If the rest of the nation facilitates the decimation of Detroit through malign neglect, deeper social, economic and political chaos will accelerate and spread from the Motor City to the rest of America. The “limo libs,” the globalist Gucci “conservatives,” and all arm chair ideologues will pale before the deluge and drown in their streams of intellectual adolescence. [!] All the while as the waters rise, an anxious citizenry will call out for intelligent, mature leaders - flesh and blood, heart and soul Gran Torino Conservatives - devoted to creatively achieving constructive change amidst Globalization’s chaos

Until these Gran Torino conservatives arrive to restore order, justice and freedom to our American home, “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”

How are you an asshole? Let me count the ways

1. You seem to enjoy making your kids cry
2. Not only do you seem to enjoy making them cry, you enjoy filming them and then displaying them on the internet to score points
3. Not only do you make your kids cry to score points on the internet, you're lying to them in order to make them cry
4. Of the $800 billion to which you refer - the stimulus package - roughly $400 billion of that comes in the form of tax cuts. A quick search of your videos shows me you did not try to make them cry the last time someone proposed tax cuts. What changed?
5. You also didn't try to get them to cry over the roughly $1 trillion of their money squandered over the last 6 years killing brown people in the Middle East
6. You probably will also try to make them cry about the health care reform which will pay for the therapy they'll need in about twenty years

Fuck Ted Kulongoski

The time has come to damn Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski. He is an enemy of labor.

When we public employees first elected him, we were rewarded with a two-year wage freeze. Oregon had a budget crisis and Ted needed to show Bill and Sally middle class that he would stand up to those big bad labor public employee unions. And for the mot part we took it. Like idiots, we surrendered our hard-won collective bargaining rights because one prick in Salem issued a non-binding Executive order.

Here we are six years later and Oregon faces a budget crisis (surprise!) and short dick over here decides that we must all sacrifice in the interests of saving the state economy. He, personally, is going to take a five percent pay cut. He's going to sacrifice $4680 of his $93,600 salary. Ah, that's might generous of him. Of course, he's 69 years old, has worked as an attorney and politician most his life, one assumes he has at least one house paid for, and has no kids in school. How the hell is this man going to get by on just $88,920 this year?

Unfortunately, Ted's noble sacrifice is not going to be enough to save the state this year. Nope, that can only be done is you and me take a 5% pay cut in the form of unpaid furlough days. Twenty-six of them over the next two years. Apparently, Ted thinks it is the least we can do. I know, I know, I am a greedy asshole who doesn't want to do his share. Unfortunately, my creditors are greedy assholes as well and they'd like me to continue paying off my car (only 12 payments to go! And then I have no warranty!) The bank likes it when I make my house payment regular like. I have no kids in school, but I got vet bills out the ass. Sorry, boys, Ted thinks we need to sacrifice so once a month, so we'll eat air on those days; even those with claws, must take a pause.

Of course, I also have a rotten tree in my front yard that needs to be taken down. That only costs $1000 or so, which I will either come up with or my insurance company can pay for it. I'm sure Ted is faced with these same thoughts every day. I am sure that he is forced to make financial decisions where he actually hopes a tree comes crashing through is roof because his deductible is lower than the cost of prevention. Wait, of course he doesn't. He's fucking Governor and he can shove is $4680 sacrifice. He wants to sacrifice, why doesn't he try living on the average wage of a public employee in this state.

And while I am here, might I say "screw you" to the fine folks at SEIU who opened negotiations this year with an offer to take eight furlough days and a zero percent COLA increase. What it got them was a counter that asked for twenty-six furlough days, a zero percent COLA and zero percent step increases for the next two years. When is labor going to realize that it is our job to ask for what the workers need, and management's job to offer to figure out what they can afford and give as little of it as possible. When we go into negotiations worried about management's budget, we're doing their job for them. No one cuts you any slack for this, it only shows you're weak and they go for the twenty-six day kill. Oh, I know it fits right in with the standard union victimology stance, the bully boss, the downtrodden worker schtick, but for fuck sake it's not getting us anywhere. How about we point out that the states economy will recover when people on the streets have some green to spend and the way to make that happen is to not cut the wages of 23,000 workers in this state.

But in the end, let's remember who is driving this. Oregon Governor, Democrat, and Enemy of Labor, Ted Kulongoski.

Tucker Carlson to Cato - BOOM!

Hot on the heels of that hot Nat Hentoff signing, it'd seem the Cato Institute is looking to supplement their "jazzbo libertarian" quotient by dipping into the "aggrieved libertarian with deadhead leanings" pool.

Trots for Sanford?

(h/t: le Ben Smith)

Wait, a Republican governor is refusing stimulus for his state, likening said stimulus to Weimar/Stalin, and stirring up a stim-based bash with Dem. Whip James Clyburn?

What could this possibly portend, a 'Trots for Sanford' faction? Or maybe something a little more 2012-ish?

Dear (very specific) Marxist Academic

I'm not writing this because I disagree with the worldview which informs how you see our current situation and what led to it. I'm cut from the same coarse fiber, and yes, I too see systemic and structural failures wherever I look. That's not the issue.

I'm writing because you are an unmitigated, diseased, treacherous, flamingly poor excuse for an asshole. Calling you a straight-up asshole would actually be paying you a compliment, as assholes do serve a vital purpose. You, on the other hand, are a boil to be lanced.

I see you writing that you opposed the recently passed economic stimulus package, not because it didn't go far enough in providing the help that is so desperately needed, but because it delays the revolution you so desperately desire, possibly because you maintain the childish fantasy that then the masses will recognize your genius and rally around like some latter-day Che.

They won't.

Fuck you.

Fuck you for sitting around and taking a paycheck and an education paid for by the taxpayers you'd see fucked over to exacerbate the "crisis" which you seem to think portends your glorious revolution.

Fuck you for looking down your nose and saying "fuck you" to the people who produce the surplus which allows you to pretend you have all the answers, if only the people would listen.

But most importantly, fuck you for sitting around and doing nothing. Fuck you for not organizing. Fuck you for alienating all your students with your holier than thou bullshit attitude. Fuck you for thinking that your paper about how fucked up shit is is actually a solution. Fuck you for pretending to care about the people for whom you profess to speak, but really, inside you're a hollow, misanthropic piece of shit who'd rather say "I told you so" than do the hard work, make the hard choices, and experience the hard landings from failure that are actually necessary to make this world a better place.

Fuck. You.

Absolutely Essential Viewing

A highlight of 2009: CNBC's Rick Santelli on the floor of the NYSE, confusing himself and his trader colleagues with "regular folks."

Robert Gibbs' recent reference to the Santelli blast's also a hoot:

Gibbs gleefully went after Drudge's favorite CNBC reporter at today's briefing, casting his position as the view that "the adage that if it was...good for a derivatives trader it was good for main street."

Paul McCartney - Monkberry Moon Delight

Wondering where my head is? Right here. Where's yrs? 'TBSOWFMU has turned me on again. I need a copy of RAM asap.

Obama meets with who????

so I read that the Obama's had a sit down with progressives, and asked them to help support "big progressive" ideas, and I liked the first part.....

“The gist was, `We’re gonna need people out there telling the story of the stimulus and telling the story about how much we need big health care reform and clean energy and green jobs,’” the attendee says.

but then I spit coffee all over my computer at this:

Among those on the guest list: Labor leaders Jimmy Hoffa, Gerry McEntee and Andy Stern; MoveOn’s Eli Pariser; Sierra Club’s Carl Pope; Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richardson; and Joe Solomonese of the Human Rights Campaign.

Maybe Eli and Joe could be characterized as progressive, but Carl, Jimmy, and Andy???

on the question of what is a freakin progressive, I recommend this piece by nate silver @ 538...he discusses two distinct strains in progressive thought, what he calls rational and radical progressives:

...Rational progressivism tends to be trusting, within reason, of status quo political and economic institutions -- generally including the institution of capitalism. It tends to trust these institutions because it believes they are a manifestation of progress made by previous generations. However, unlike conservatism, it also sees these institutions as continuing works in progress...
Radical progressivism is more clearly distinguishable from "conventional" liberalism and would generally be associated with the "far left" -- although on a handful of issues such as free trade, it may find common cause with the "radical" right. Radical progressivism embraces the tradition of populism and frequently adopts a discourse of the virtuous commoner organizing against the corrupt elite. It is much more willing to make normative claims than rational progressivism, and tends to view conservatism as immoral and contemporary American liberalism as amoral (at best). Its project is not reform but transformation.Rational progressives sometimes regard radical progressives as impractical, self-righteous, shrill, demagogic, naïve and/or anti-intellectual. Radical progressives, in turn, regard rational progressives as impure, corrupt (or corruptible), selfish, complacent, elitist, and too quick to compromise.

I don't suppose there were too many "radical progressives" invited....