Know-Nothingism

Paul Krugman in the NYT:

Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid. Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives.

What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”

I don't care much for what the GOP says or does; my issue is with people who fall for their nonsense instead of analyzing it for themselves. That's what gave us 8 years of Shrub and all the attending crap. And that lack of honest, critical thought is why we're fucked in this country.

Dropping the Ball Elevated to an Art Form

It's not that the Democrats can't sell the message, it's that they seem not to know how to do it. Drew Westen, in the Huffington Post, nails it:

The economy is tanking, and McCain's chief economic adviser, Phil Gramm, made one of the most disastrous gaffes a high-ranking campaign official could have made when a nation is facing bank closings, record foreclosures, skyrocketing prices, spiraling unemployment, and an angry electorate: belittling the public for their distress and telling them to stop whining. It would have fit right into a story about a presidential candidate who has as many homes as most people have fingers, and whose first response to the mortgage crisis was to blame the lack of "personal responsibility" of young families buying their first one. It would have fit right into a story of a presidential candidate whose wife complained that the only way to get around Arizona is on a personal jet.

But the Obama campaign chose not to tell that story--or any of its supporting details. When Obama was standing on a world stage last week illustrating for anyone to see precisely what he would do for American respect again around the world--in a world where respect translates into help fighting the terrorists without borders who constitute the greatest threat to our national security--where were his surrogates reminding voters that McCain's whining about Obama's popularity was nothing but sour grapes, and preventing the media from turning Obama's extraordinary success into an example of empty "celebrity" and "arrogance"? (Last I looked, television news producers didn't take their own high ratings as signs of arrogance when they make a strong showing.) And when they finally put a surrogate on television this weekend--John Kerry to face off against Joe Lieberman doing his best Zell Miller impersonation--why did they pick a surrogate associated in every American's mind with the one thing you wouldn't want associated with a candidate who'd had a rough week: losing?

Ugh! This is pissing me off. Somebody call James Carville, with the quickness!!!

"It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant"

No, sir. They take pride in thinking everyone else is. That's why you need to pounce. Hard. (Sorry, I know I'm a broken record over here. But this is a start...)

Flip-Flopping Away

“Obama said a couple of days ago says we all should inflate our tires. I don’t disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it,” McCain said.

Aren't these the same motherfuckers that gleefully mocked the Illinois senator's recommendation and sent out tire gauges as a gag? Now, McCain agrees with Obama? Aaaaaarrrgh!

Know Your Enemy

Rage Against the Machine will play Minneapolis' Target Center on Sept. 3rd to coincide with the Republican National Convention there. I smell a beatdown...

Fox News IS NOT in the GOP's Pocket (um, wait...)

Last week, president George W. Bush, former president George H. W. Bush (aka Bush 41, Poppy), and former Florida governor Jeb Bush called in to Rush Limbaugh’s radio show to congratulate him on 20 years of broadcasting. Not knowing he was on the air, GHWB asked Rush if he ever gets to “see our man [Roger] Ailes”. You know, the president of the Fox Nuisance Channel and former political consultant to Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Rudy Giuliani, and of course, and GHWB. Not that anyone is surprised, but as soon as Poppy figured out he was on the air, he backtracked unconvincingly and passed the phone to Jeb (and probably went on to chastise W for unwittingly setting him up).

Here’s the audio and transcript.

Hullabaloo had this to say:

“I will never get over the fact that this raging, racist, sexist, hypocritical, asshole is considered so mainstream that he is even broadcast to the troops overseas and hosts the Bush family, but the congress of the United State voted to condemn MoveOn for taking out an ad in the NY Times. It still makes me mad. And you've got to love Poppy referring to Fox News president Roger Ailes as 'our man.' Out of the mouths of codgers.”

Open Letter to Barack Obama

"Since your historic victory in the primary, there have been troubling signs that you are moving away from the core commitments shared by many who have supported your campaign, toward a more cautious and centrist stance--including, most notably, your vote for the FISA legislation granting telecom companies immunity from prosecution for illegal wiretapping, which angered and dismayed so many of your supporters.

We recognize that compromise is necessary in any democracy. We understand that the pressures brought to bear on those seeking the highest office are intense. But retreating from the stands that have been the signature of your campaign will weaken the movement whose vigorous backing you need in order to win and then deliver the change you have promised."

According to The Nation, "over 15,000 have signed" this missive to the senator from Illinois. Read the complete leter here.

What Does a Recession Look Like?

from Crooks and Liars:

Ann Taylor closing 117 stores nationwide.
Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines closing 150 stores nationwide
Talbots will close all 78 of its kids and men’s stores plus another 22 underperforming stores.
Gap Inc. closing 85 stores
Foot Locker to close 140 stores
Wickes Furniture is going out of business and closing all of its stores. The 37-year-old retailer that targets middle-income customers, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.
Levitz - the furniture retailer, announced it was going out of business and closing all 76 of its stores in December. The retailer dates back to 1910.
Home Depot closing 15 stores amid a slumping US economy and housing market. The move will affect 1,300 employees. It is the first time the world’s largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store.
Movie Gallery – video rental company plans to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores in addition to the 520 locations the video rental chain closed last fall as part of bankruptcy.
* Sprint Nextel - 125 retail locations to close with 4,000 employees following 5,000 layoffs last year.
Wilsons the Leather Experts – closing 158 stores
Bombay Company to close all 384 U.S.-based Bombay Company stores.
KB Toys closing 356 stores around the United States as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.
CompUSA (CLOSED).

Far from being an economist over here, but what does the above look like to you?

* (Don't have any detailed info 'bout this one in particular, but it's a rather surprising to me: a close relative owns a telecommunications store which was of one several businesses that stayed afloat--and even prospered--here in NYC when the economy slowed down after Sept. 11th, 2001.)

Polls: Obama, McCain Tied

I’ve been harping on and on—mainly here and here—about the need for the Obama campaign to step up, ditch the supposed high road and attack McCain forcefully. Well, guess what? Not only is the McCain camp gone negative in overdrive with lame TV ads, filled with flat-out lies, unsubstantiated “facts”, race baiting and misinformation, but for the first time, the candidates are now tied in the polls. Yes, they are. You would think that Mr. 100 Years in Iraq-S&L scandal participant-loyal Bushie-flip-flopping, Grandpa Simpson, hypocrite would be at least 15-20 points behind Obama. But, no. They’re, in fact, tied. (Oh, by the way, keep this little tidbit in mind: tomorrow is the 4th anniversary of the beginning of John Kerry’s “swift boating”.)

Man, I’ve been saying that they were close in the polls because of the folks who could never bring themselves to vote for a black man, no matter how closely identified with the failed policies of the corrupt and inept Bush administration McCain happened to be. But now, part of me suspects this all might mean that there is a large contingent of people that actually think George Bush has put this country on the right path and want McCain to follow the “Bush doctrine”. Either that or this is just the usual instance of the Democrats not being able to get sell their goods, despite having the better product. (Don't discount people being uninformed at best; idiots at worst.)

There’s no guarantee that a sharp and direct attack against McCain will yield the desired dividends in November. But if the Obama camp does not drop this silly pretense of staying above the fray, he will lose for sure. That, is pretty much certain.

Cartoon of the Day

The War on Terror: Only Republicans Need Apply

from Kevin Drum's blog Political Animal, in The Washington Monthly:

Monica Goodling has long since admitted that she used political considerations to hire career lawyers in the Justice Department, and a couple of months ago the Inspector General compiled statistical evidence showing that this was pretty clearly Bush administration policy. So in a way, today's followup report is anticlimactic: it tells us that the Bush DOJ, as we've known for quite a while, was basically run by a bunch of low-rent Boss Tweeds.

Still, anticlimactic or not, its dry recitation of the facts surrounding "Candidate #1" (the first of eight political hit jobs engineered by Goodling) is pretty startling:

He was an experienced terrorism prosecutor and had successfully prosecuted a high-profile terrorism case for which he received the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service....Battle stated that Voris told him that the candidate was head and shoulders above the other candidates who had applied for the counterterrorism detail.

Sounds like a great guy. But there was a problem:

The candidate's wife was a prominent local Democrat elected official and vice-chairman of a local Democratic Party. She also ran several Democratic congressional campaigns....Battle, Kelly, and EOUSA Deputy Director Nowacki all told us that Goodling refused to allow the candidate to be detailed to EOUSA solely on the basis of his wife's political party affiliation.

....Because EOUSA had been unable to fill the counterterrorism detail after Goodling vetoed this candidate, a current EOUSA detailee was asked to assume EOUSA's counterterrorism portfolio....He had no counterterrorism experience and had less than the minimum of 5 years of federal criminal prosecution experience required by the EOUSA job announcement. Battle, Nowacki, Kelly, and Voris all said they thought that he was not qualified for the position, since he had no counterterrorism experience. The replacement candidate was a registered Republican who Goodling had interviewed and approved before he was selected for his EOUSA detail.

Your Bush administration at work: When it's politically convenient, the war on terror is vitally important. When it's not, it's not.

[Thanks to Unconquerable Gladness for the heads up. -KJ ]