Sunday, November 25, 2012 12:38:49 AM
Two Thoughts on Navigating the "Fiscal Cliff"
By Grover Norquist [like a bug in a jar]
Posted: 11/21/2012 5:46 pm
On January 1, 2013 three things happen:
First, the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts lapse along with a number of temporary tax reductions that have been extended so many times they are collectively known as "the extenders." (Note to self: possible name for female rock band.) This collection of tax hikes total $500 billion in 2013. The $1,000 per child tax credit drops to $500. The Obama Social Security tax holiday ends again. The bottom tax rate jumps from 10 percent to 15 percent and the top personal income tax rate jumps from 35 to 39.6 percent -- plus Obamacare's new 3.8 percent surtax: total for top rate 43.4%. (Do be sure to add 10.3 percent for the state income tax if you live in California, 5.75 percent in Maryland or 8.82 percent in New York.)
And unless changed, the AMT will hit 30 million families, up from 4 million last year. The AMT was originally created as the quintessential "tax on the rich" targeting all of 155 people.
Second, the "sequestration" or automatic spending reductions of about $100 billion a year for ten years. This will save taxpayers $1.2 trillion over the decade and was part of the Budget Control Act (BCA) that Obama and Boehner agreed to in 2011 to "pay for" the debt ceiling increase.
Third, the surtax on income of 2.9 percent rises to 3.8 percent and starting January 1, 2013 it hits capital gains making the total top rate not today's 15 percent, not Bill Clinton's 20 percent, but 23.8 percent. The top rate on dividends increases from today's 15 percent to not just 35 or 39.6 percent, but 43.4 percent total. (And then add state and local income taxes.)
Obama would like to have a "grand bargain" -- as in 1982 or 1990 -- where Republicans were promised they would get three or two dollars of spending reduction for every dollar of tax increase. (The tax hikes were real and permanent and spending was not cut but actually rose from baseline.) Reagan said 1982 was his greatest mistake. His second biggest mistake learned nothing and agreed in 1990 to "two imaginary dollars" of spending cuts for each dollar of tax hike.
How can Americans protect themselves against being TARPed again? This new verb is a favorite of congressmen and senators who feel they were rushed to vote for the Troubled Assets Relief Program the way a sleazy salesman urges you to buy the aluminum siding NOW without bothering your pretty little head with reading the contract.
There are two protections available to the American people:
First, we can and should demand that the negotiations between Congress and the White House on continuing the various "Bush" tax cuts be done in front of C-SPAN cameras. No more secret negotiations. Open covenants, openly arrived at. Every American -- not just PHARMA and the insurance companies -- should be in the room when something as large as Obamacare or today's $500 billion tax hike is under discussion.
Republicans should promise not to be snarky and must resist the temptation to remind Americans that C-SPAN coverage of such talks was one of Obama's key promises in 2008. Oh, well. Better late than never.
C-SPAN cameras will allow Americans to know who is being reasonable and who is not. Who presents real solutions and who repeats talking points. If Republicans demand the negotiations be covered by C-SPAN and Obama refuses -- then we would know, as King Solomon did -- who is acting in good faith and who is not. Perhaps Obama is dealing from the top of the deck and he will demand C-SPAN start-to-finish coverage.
Second, once a "deal" is agreed to, it should be written down in legislative language and put online for every American to read for seven full days: 168 hours. No rushing tired congressmen before cameras to endorse legislation they have not read because it only exists in outline form in someone else's briefcase.
If going into these "fiscal cliff" negotiations every participant knows that both his private and public statements will be heard by all Americans and that the final work product must stand the test of being read by citizens, the chance of another 1982 or 1990 or TARP 2008 will be greatly reduced. Risk can rarely be taken to zero. But the ability of the American people to watch the sausage made and read the contract before signing is a better guardian of our future than the hurried endorsements of the Washington establishment based on private assurances of politicians.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis in original)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/grover-norquist/fiscal-cliff_b_2173978.html [with comments]
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With Stickers, a Petition and Even a Middle Name, Secession Fever Hits Texas
Larry Scott Kilgore announced that he was running for governor in 2014 and would legally change his name to Larry Secede Kilgore, with Secede in capital letters.
LM Otero/Associated Press
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
Published: November 23, 2012
HOUSTON — In the weeks since President Obama’s re-election, Republicans around the country have been wondering how to proceed. Some conservatives in Texas have been asking a far more pointed question: how to secede.
Secession fever has struck parts of Texas, which Mitt Romney won by nearly 1.3 million votes.
Sales of bumper stickers reading “Secede” — one for $2, or three for $5 — have increased at TexasSecede.com [ http://texassecede.com/ ]. In East Texas, a Republican official sent out an e-mail newsletter saying it was time for Texas and Vermont to each “go her own way in peace” and sign a free-trade agreement among the states.
A petition calling for secession that was filed by a Texas man on a White House Web site has received tens of thousands of signatures, and the Obama administration must now issue a response. And Larry Scott Kilgore, a perennial Republican candidate from Arlington, a Dallas suburb, announced that he was running for governor in 2014 and would legally change his name to Larry Secede Kilgore, with Secede in capital letters. As his Web page, secedekilgore.com [ http://secedekilgore.com/ ], puts it: “Secession! All other issues can be dealt with later.”
In Texas, talk of secession in recent years has steadily shifted to the center from the fringe right. It has emerged as an echo of the state Republican leadership’s anti-Washington, pro-Texas-sovereignty mantra on a variety of issues, including health care and environmental regulations. For some Texans, the renewed interest in the subject serves simply as comic relief after a crushing election defeat.
But for other proponents of secession and its sister ideology, Texas nationalism — a focus of the Texas Nationalist Movement and other groups that want the state to become an independent nation, as it was in the 1830s and 1840s — it is a far more serious matter.
The official in East Texas, Peter Morrison, the treasurer of the Hardin County Republican Party, said in a statement that he had received overwhelming support from conservative Texans and overwhelming opposition from liberals outside the state in response to his comments in his newsletter. He said that it may take time for “people to appreciate that the fundamental cultural differences between Texas and other parts of the United States may be best addressed by an amicable divorce, a peaceful separation.”
The online petitions — created on the We the People platform at petitions.whitehouse.gov [ http://petitions.whitehouse.gov/ ] — are required to receive 25,000 signatures in 30 days for the White House to respond. The Texas petition, created Nov. 9 by a man identified as Micah H. of Arlington, had received more than 116,000 signatures by Friday. It asks the Obama administration to “peacefully grant” the withdrawal of Texas, and describes doing so as “practically feasible,” given the state’s large economy.
Residents in other states, including Alabama, Florida, Colorado, Louisiana and Oklahoma, have submitted similar petitions, though none have received as many signatures as the one from Texas.
A White House official said every petition that crossed the signature threshold would be reviewed and would receive a response ["Uhh, no."], though it was unclear precisely when Micah H. would receive his answer.
Gov. Rick Perry, who twice made public remarks in 2009 suggesting that he was sympathetic to the secessionist cause, will not be signing the petition. “Governor Perry believes in the greatness of our union, and nothing should be done to change it,” a spokeswoman, Catherine Frazier, said in a statement. “But he also shares the frustrations many Americans have with our federal government.”
The secession movement in Texas is divergent, with differences in goals and tactics. One group, the Republic of Texas, says that secession is unnecessary because, it claims, Texas is an independent nation that was illegally annexed by the United States in 1845. (The group’s leader and other followers waged a weeklong standoff with the Texas Rangers in 1997 that left one of its members dead.) Mr. Kilgore, the candidate who is changing his middle name, said he had not signed the White House petition because he did not believe that Texans needed to ask Washington for permission to leave.
“Our economy is about 30 percent larger than that of Australia,” said Mr. Kilgore, 48, a telecommunications contractor. “Australia can survive on their own, and I don’t think we’ll have any problem at all surviving on our own in Texas.”
Few of the public calls for secession have addressed the messy details, like what would happen to the state’s many federal courthouses, prisons, military bases and parklands. No one has said what would become of Kevin Patteson, the director of the state’s Office of State-Federal Relations, and no one has asked the Texas residents who received tens of millions of dollars in federal aid after destructive wildfires last year for their thoughts on the subject.
But all the secession talk has intrigued liberals as well. Caleb M. of Austin started his own petition on the White House Web site. He asked the federal government to allow Austin to withdraw from Texas and remain part of the United States, “in the event that Texas is successful in the current bid to secede.” It had more than 8,000 signatures as of Friday.
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/us/politics/with-stickers-a-petition-and-even-a-middle-name-secession-fever-hits-texas.html
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Kendra Baker, Kentucky Teacher, Under Fire For 'Can't Be A Democrat And Go To Heaven' Statement
11/24/2012 2:37 pm EST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/23/kendra-baker-kentucky-tea_n_2179034.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Laurie Humphrey, South Carolina Teacher, Under Fire For 'Road To Hell Is Paved With Democrats' Sign
[ http://www.wltx.com/news/article/207160/2/Teacher-Removed-From-Classroom-Over-Political-Sign ]
10/31/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/laurie-humphrey-south-car_n_2043738.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Scott DesJarlais: I'm Not 'Perfect,' Won't Resign Over Abortion Scandal
11/24/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/23/scott-desjarlais-not-resigning_n_2177607.html [with comments]
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You're Doing It Wrong
There are only two ways of doing things, Right & Wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuMsxVdCMgk
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The Conservative Whiny Diaper Tantrum Continues
By Bob Cesca
November 21,2012
We’ve all known a kid who upon losing a board game would freak out, hurl the game across the room and storm off while shouting something like, “This game sucks anyway!” The modern permutation of this unhinged sour grapes tantrum is to chuck a video game controller at the TV. (I sheepishly raise my hand: guilty as charged on the latter.)
It’s one thing to suffer a momentary lack of self-control after losing a simple game, especially if the game is stupid, stupid, stupid and doesn’t give you a chance to fire before enemies converge on your position seemingly out of nowhere I hate that game! Phew. Sorry. But it’s another thing entirely to engage in this kind of silly, irrational behavior as a business owner, politician or political pundit in reaction to the results of an election. It’s no surprise the Republicans are doing exactly that.
Last week, I wrote about the nonsensical secession movement [ http://thedailybanter.com/?p=38798 ]. But it’s safe to say that it was spearheaded by a marginal, fringe, kneejerk group of mostly throw-back libertarian goofballs. The following examples of apoplexy, however, have come from people who reside squarely in the mainstream of the conservative right.
Let’s begin with fast food executives like Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter who threatened to raise the price of his crappy pizzas [ http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/11/evidence-that-john-schnatter-is-big-whiny-pouty-sore-loser.html ] by 11-cents per pie [ http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/11/papa_john_s_raising_prices_for_obamacare_denny_s_applebee_s_and_the_pizza.html ] while laying off workers as a means to side-stepping the forthcoming Affordable Care Act requirement that businesses with 50 or more employees provide all full time workers with health insurance or else pay a fine of $2,000 per employee. After crunching the numbers, however, Schnatter only needs to raise the price tag of each pizza by around 5-cents [ http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/11/evidence-that-john-schnatter-is-big-whiny-pouty-sore-loser.html ] and use the proceeds to pay for health insurance for all of his full time workers. Done. Unless Papa John’s customers are radical misers, they’ll never notice the almost nonexistent price increase.
Elsewhere, a Denny’s franchise owner in New York threatened to add a five percent surcharge on each bill to pay for his new Obamacare expenses. The backlash was swift. Denny’s sales dropped all across the nation, even though John Metz, the franchise owner, only controlled a few dozen restaurants. So naturally the CEO of Denny’s had to step in and force-feed Metz some much-need Xanax [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/john-metz-dennys-obamacare-surcharge-_n_2146735.html?1353420071 ].
Denny’s chief executive John Miller privately reached out to Metz to express his “disappointment” with the Florida franchisee’s controversial statements about Obamacare, which sparked a wave of backlash for the national restaurant chain over the past few days. Metz released a statement Monday night expressing “regret” over his statements.
“We recognize his right to speak on issues, but registered our disappointment that his comments have been interpreted as the company’s position,” Miller said in an email to The Huffington Post.
So that’s it. Hopefully Miller schooled Metz on the financial benefits of having a healthy workforce: fewer sick days, greater productivity, less turnover and higher-quality workers [ http://guides.wsj.com/small-business/hiring-and-managing-employees/how-to-retain-employees/ ]. In the case of Schnatter, the additional cost of health insurance will only reduce his profit margin by around $5-8 million annually if he doesn’t nothing to offset the cost. And yes — only. Last year, Schnatter’s pizza empire reported a profit of $87 million on gross sales of $1.218 billion, and if the trend holds, his profits for 2012 should be even higher.
Absent legitimate business concerns, what else do we call this behavior other than a tantrum?
Speaking of profits, if the president gets his way and taxes are returned to the Clinton-era levels for incomes above $250,000 for families and $200,000 for individuals, reports are coming in from various small business owners that they inexplicably intend to sabotage their revenue streams [ http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/20/15307014-theyre-called-marginal-tax-rates-for-a-reason ] in order to keep incomes under the $250,000 threshold. For example:
Kristina Collins, a chiropractor in McLean, Va., said she and her husband planned to closely monitor the business income from their joint practice to avoid crossing the income threshold for higher taxes outlined by President Obama on earnings above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.
Ms. Collins said she felt torn by being near the cutoff line and disappointed that federal tax policy was providing a disincentive to keep expanding a business she founded in 1998.
“If we’re really close and it’s near the end-year, maybe we’ll just close down for a while and go on vacation,” she said.
It’s shocking that they’re successful business people, given their total ignorance of how taxes work. At the very least they ought to fire their accountant. But, once again, I don’t think this has anything to do with reality and everything to do with acting out like spoiled, petulant children.
Here’s how the tax code really works. If the Bush tax cuts expire on income higher than $250,000, the slightly higher tax rate will only apply to income over $250,000 — not the entire sum of $250,000. In other words, if the Collins family earns $251,000 next year, they will only pay a higher marginal tax rate on $1,000, not $251,000. And that doesn’t even take into consideration various deductions and tax credits that would cumulatively give the Collins family a lower effective tax rate (the process by which Mitt Romney or Warren Buffet pays a tax rate in the range of 15%).
So these people are deliberately restraining their revenue potential because they’re pissed about the election. In my video game metaphor, this is not unlike bashing yourself in the head with a controller instead of hurling it across the room.
Then there are the red state governors who are refusing to implement the health insurance exchanges [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/no-surrender-the-gops-latest-tactic-to-undermine-obamacare/2012/11/20/7af6a3fe-3339-11e2-92f0-496af208bf23_blog.html ] required in the Affordable Care Act. Rick Perry, Scott Walker, Rick Scott and the other usual suspects have stonewalled the law. Bobby Jindal, who not only blasted his own party for being “stupid” but who also criticized the stimulus while accepting gigantic stimulus checks [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/07/21/51962/jindal-stimulus-check/ ], has also joined the blockade against Obamacare.
These so-called states’ rights Republicans obviously don’t realize that the federal government will simply create an exchange itself for any state that refuses. In other words, here’s a case where the states have total control and these governors have all but relinquished that control to the federal government — literally allowing a government takeover.
I can’t even imagine the tarring and feathering that would’ve taken place if any Democratic politician had refused to implement Medicare Part-D or the USA PATRIOT Act or had refused to allow the deployment of national guard units to Iraq. The outrage would’ve been punitive and nearly universal. I mean, look at what happened to former-Senator Max Cleland (D-GA) in the 2002 midterms when he dared to oppose the Iraq War. Karl Rove and the Republicans accused this triple-amputee Vietnam War veteran of being sympathetic to Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. Saxby Chambliss won the election and has currently joined the witch hunt against U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, even though he and George W. Bush presided over a six year span of time when there were 11 terrorist attacks on various U.S. consulates resulting in dozens of casualties.
And finally, an article about kneejerk, childish reactions to the election wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the latest gibberish from Dean Chambers, the “portly” founder of Unskewed Polls. Immediately after the election, Chambers blamed me [ http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/11/unskewed-dean-chambers-blames-me-for-nate-silver-attack.html ] for his homophobic rant against Nate Silver. Yes, really. He blamed me. You know, because Republicans are all about personal responsibility. Evidently, Chambers objected to an article in which I described him [ http://thedailybanter.com/?p=36900 ] as “portly” in an attempt to visually and professionally contrast him with Silver. Chambers is the “Bizarro Nate Silver,” I wrote. So naturally Chambers lashed out against… Silver. Odd.
But that’s not the worst of it. Chambers launched a new site called “Barack O’Fraudo [ http://www.barackofraudo.com/ ].” I’m not making that up. Barack O’Fraudo. First of all, what’s the deal with the name? Chambers seems to have combined the president’s first name with an Irish version of the word “fraud” and tossed in a random “o” at the end — the president’s actual last name ends with an “a.”
The mission, as I predicted weeks ago [ http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/11/pay-attention-to-the-nerdy-number-wizards.html ], is to unskew the results of the election by smoking out cases of voter fraud orchestrated by Obama campaign. Chambers is back to doing what he does best: drawing wild conclusions from numbers he doesn’t fully understand. He’s pinpointed cases of alleged fraud in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Florida, and has therefore stripped 80 electoral votes away from the president. But, strangely, he doesn’t give those electoral votes to Romney — yet.
Four years ago, when the president won the first time, fringy Republicans merely threatened to “Go Galt [ http://michellemalkin.com/2009/03/04/going-galt-and-the-next-tea-party-wave/ ],” in reference to the John Galt character in Atlas Shrugged who accumulates a group of wealthy disciples to stop contributing to the economy, thus bringing it to its knees. This time around it seems as if this conservative whiny freak-out is a futile extension of that initial effort. It won’t work and, in the final analysis, it will only serve to further embarrass and discredit a conservative movement that’s already in serious trouble. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Copyright © 2011 BanterMediaGroup, L.L.C. (emphasis in original)
http://thedailybanter.com/2012/11/the-conservative-whiny-diaper-tantrum-continues/ [with comments] [also at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/the-conservative-postelec_b_2172276.html (with comments)]
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Schultz to pursue signature verification on absentee ballots
It's among the election reforms he's taking to lawmakers next session.
Nov 23, 2012
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20121123/NEWS09/311230032/1007/ [with comments]
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Iowa GOP Continues Post Election Voter Harassment Efforts
November 21, 2012
http://www.blogforiowa.com/2012/11/21/iowa-gop-continues-post-election-voter-harassment-efforts/ [with comment]
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Time for the right to leave the bubble
November 7, 2012
Rachel Maddow lists the wins and losses from Tuesday's elections and notes that the national results were predicted accurately by fact-based models while denizens of the right-wing media bubble were caught off guard. Maddow asks Republicans to join the fact based community to help workshop real ideas to help make America better.
© 2012 NBCNews.com
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-rachel-maddow-show/49736294 [the above YouTube of the segment at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzcYX93TEYo ]
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Gay Men Will Marry Your Girlfriends
GOD HAD A DIARY? http://bit.ly/Q66kDk [ http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6838655/gods-diary-is-embarrassing ]
We support gay marriage. Here's why you should too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-YCdcnf_P8
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Straight Men Respond to: "Gay Men Will Marry Your Girlfriends"
The guys respond to the threat of gay guys marrying our girlfriends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSX0vGnjkws
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Mad TV - Gay Straight Guys
A clip from Mad TV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulb3tZU8vsk
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The Rise of Men in Suits. Slim Ones.
November 23, 2012
Men are notoriously averse to shopping. Who can blame them, given the gantlet of women’s fragrances, makeup and handbags that confront them at the entrances to many stores and malls?
So why do men appear to be shopping for themselves in record numbers?
Men’s wear sales are surging at double-digit rates. Suits, sports coats and outerwear, nearly all bought by men themselves, are leading the gains, according to Steve Pruitt, founder of the fashion and retail consulting firm Blacks Retail. Blacks projects that men’s suit sales will be up 10 percent this fall and holiday season, and sports jacket sales will be up 11 percent, while women’s ready-to-wear sales remain flat.
“Men are the new women,” Bret Pittman, director of J. Crew’s Ludlow Shop in TriBeCa in Manhattan, told me when I stopped in recently for a tour of the new store, the prototype for a line that will feature men’s suits and tailored clothing.
[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/business/slim-suits-help-lead-gains-in-mens-wear.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/business/slim-suits-help-lead-gains-in-mens-wear.html?pagewanted=all ]
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By Grover Norquist [like a bug in a jar]
Posted: 11/21/2012 5:46 pm
On January 1, 2013 three things happen:
First, the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts lapse along with a number of temporary tax reductions that have been extended so many times they are collectively known as "the extenders." (Note to self: possible name for female rock band.) This collection of tax hikes total $500 billion in 2013. The $1,000 per child tax credit drops to $500. The Obama Social Security tax holiday ends again. The bottom tax rate jumps from 10 percent to 15 percent and the top personal income tax rate jumps from 35 to 39.6 percent -- plus Obamacare's new 3.8 percent surtax: total for top rate 43.4%. (Do be sure to add 10.3 percent for the state income tax if you live in California, 5.75 percent in Maryland or 8.82 percent in New York.)
And unless changed, the AMT will hit 30 million families, up from 4 million last year. The AMT was originally created as the quintessential "tax on the rich" targeting all of 155 people.
Second, the "sequestration" or automatic spending reductions of about $100 billion a year for ten years. This will save taxpayers $1.2 trillion over the decade and was part of the Budget Control Act (BCA) that Obama and Boehner agreed to in 2011 to "pay for" the debt ceiling increase.
Third, the surtax on income of 2.9 percent rises to 3.8 percent and starting January 1, 2013 it hits capital gains making the total top rate not today's 15 percent, not Bill Clinton's 20 percent, but 23.8 percent. The top rate on dividends increases from today's 15 percent to not just 35 or 39.6 percent, but 43.4 percent total. (And then add state and local income taxes.)
Obama would like to have a "grand bargain" -- as in 1982 or 1990 -- where Republicans were promised they would get three or two dollars of spending reduction for every dollar of tax increase. (The tax hikes were real and permanent and spending was not cut but actually rose from baseline.) Reagan said 1982 was his greatest mistake. His second biggest mistake learned nothing and agreed in 1990 to "two imaginary dollars" of spending cuts for each dollar of tax hike.
How can Americans protect themselves against being TARPed again? This new verb is a favorite of congressmen and senators who feel they were rushed to vote for the Troubled Assets Relief Program the way a sleazy salesman urges you to buy the aluminum siding NOW without bothering your pretty little head with reading the contract.
There are two protections available to the American people:
First, we can and should demand that the negotiations between Congress and the White House on continuing the various "Bush" tax cuts be done in front of C-SPAN cameras. No more secret negotiations. Open covenants, openly arrived at. Every American -- not just PHARMA and the insurance companies -- should be in the room when something as large as Obamacare or today's $500 billion tax hike is under discussion.
Republicans should promise not to be snarky and must resist the temptation to remind Americans that C-SPAN coverage of such talks was one of Obama's key promises in 2008. Oh, well. Better late than never.
C-SPAN cameras will allow Americans to know who is being reasonable and who is not. Who presents real solutions and who repeats talking points. If Republicans demand the negotiations be covered by C-SPAN and Obama refuses -- then we would know, as King Solomon did -- who is acting in good faith and who is not. Perhaps Obama is dealing from the top of the deck and he will demand C-SPAN start-to-finish coverage.
Second, once a "deal" is agreed to, it should be written down in legislative language and put online for every American to read for seven full days: 168 hours. No rushing tired congressmen before cameras to endorse legislation they have not read because it only exists in outline form in someone else's briefcase.
If going into these "fiscal cliff" negotiations every participant knows that both his private and public statements will be heard by all Americans and that the final work product must stand the test of being read by citizens, the chance of another 1982 or 1990 or TARP 2008 will be greatly reduced. Risk can rarely be taken to zero. But the ability of the American people to watch the sausage made and read the contract before signing is a better guardian of our future than the hurried endorsements of the Washington establishment based on private assurances of politicians.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis in original)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/grover-norquist/fiscal-cliff_b_2173978.html [with comments]
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With Stickers, a Petition and Even a Middle Name, Secession Fever Hits Texas
Larry Scott Kilgore announced that he was running for governor in 2014 and would legally change his name to Larry Secede Kilgore, with Secede in capital letters.
LM Otero/Associated Press
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
Published: November 23, 2012
HOUSTON — In the weeks since President Obama’s re-election, Republicans around the country have been wondering how to proceed. Some conservatives in Texas have been asking a far more pointed question: how to secede.
Secession fever has struck parts of Texas, which Mitt Romney won by nearly 1.3 million votes.
Sales of bumper stickers reading “Secede” — one for $2, or three for $5 — have increased at TexasSecede.com [ http://texassecede.com/ ]. In East Texas, a Republican official sent out an e-mail newsletter saying it was time for Texas and Vermont to each “go her own way in peace” and sign a free-trade agreement among the states.
A petition calling for secession that was filed by a Texas man on a White House Web site has received tens of thousands of signatures, and the Obama administration must now issue a response. And Larry Scott Kilgore, a perennial Republican candidate from Arlington, a Dallas suburb, announced that he was running for governor in 2014 and would legally change his name to Larry Secede Kilgore, with Secede in capital letters. As his Web page, secedekilgore.com [ http://secedekilgore.com/ ], puts it: “Secession! All other issues can be dealt with later.”
In Texas, talk of secession in recent years has steadily shifted to the center from the fringe right. It has emerged as an echo of the state Republican leadership’s anti-Washington, pro-Texas-sovereignty mantra on a variety of issues, including health care and environmental regulations. For some Texans, the renewed interest in the subject serves simply as comic relief after a crushing election defeat.
But for other proponents of secession and its sister ideology, Texas nationalism — a focus of the Texas Nationalist Movement and other groups that want the state to become an independent nation, as it was in the 1830s and 1840s — it is a far more serious matter.
The official in East Texas, Peter Morrison, the treasurer of the Hardin County Republican Party, said in a statement that he had received overwhelming support from conservative Texans and overwhelming opposition from liberals outside the state in response to his comments in his newsletter. He said that it may take time for “people to appreciate that the fundamental cultural differences between Texas and other parts of the United States may be best addressed by an amicable divorce, a peaceful separation.”
The online petitions — created on the We the People platform at petitions.whitehouse.gov [ http://petitions.whitehouse.gov/ ] — are required to receive 25,000 signatures in 30 days for the White House to respond. The Texas petition, created Nov. 9 by a man identified as Micah H. of Arlington, had received more than 116,000 signatures by Friday. It asks the Obama administration to “peacefully grant” the withdrawal of Texas, and describes doing so as “practically feasible,” given the state’s large economy.
Residents in other states, including Alabama, Florida, Colorado, Louisiana and Oklahoma, have submitted similar petitions, though none have received as many signatures as the one from Texas.
A White House official said every petition that crossed the signature threshold would be reviewed and would receive a response ["Uhh, no."], though it was unclear precisely when Micah H. would receive his answer.
Gov. Rick Perry, who twice made public remarks in 2009 suggesting that he was sympathetic to the secessionist cause, will not be signing the petition. “Governor Perry believes in the greatness of our union, and nothing should be done to change it,” a spokeswoman, Catherine Frazier, said in a statement. “But he also shares the frustrations many Americans have with our federal government.”
The secession movement in Texas is divergent, with differences in goals and tactics. One group, the Republic of Texas, says that secession is unnecessary because, it claims, Texas is an independent nation that was illegally annexed by the United States in 1845. (The group’s leader and other followers waged a weeklong standoff with the Texas Rangers in 1997 that left one of its members dead.) Mr. Kilgore, the candidate who is changing his middle name, said he had not signed the White House petition because he did not believe that Texans needed to ask Washington for permission to leave.
“Our economy is about 30 percent larger than that of Australia,” said Mr. Kilgore, 48, a telecommunications contractor. “Australia can survive on their own, and I don’t think we’ll have any problem at all surviving on our own in Texas.”
Few of the public calls for secession have addressed the messy details, like what would happen to the state’s many federal courthouses, prisons, military bases and parklands. No one has said what would become of Kevin Patteson, the director of the state’s Office of State-Federal Relations, and no one has asked the Texas residents who received tens of millions of dollars in federal aid after destructive wildfires last year for their thoughts on the subject.
But all the secession talk has intrigued liberals as well. Caleb M. of Austin started his own petition on the White House Web site. He asked the federal government to allow Austin to withdraw from Texas and remain part of the United States, “in the event that Texas is successful in the current bid to secede.” It had more than 8,000 signatures as of Friday.
© 2012 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/us/politics/with-stickers-a-petition-and-even-a-middle-name-secession-fever-hits-texas.html
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Kendra Baker, Kentucky Teacher, Under Fire For 'Can't Be A Democrat And Go To Heaven' Statement
11/24/2012 2:37 pm EST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/23/kendra-baker-kentucky-tea_n_2179034.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Laurie Humphrey, South Carolina Teacher, Under Fire For 'Road To Hell Is Paved With Democrats' Sign
[ http://www.wltx.com/news/article/207160/2/Teacher-Removed-From-Classroom-Over-Political-Sign ]
10/31/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/laurie-humphrey-south-car_n_2043738.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Scott DesJarlais: I'm Not 'Perfect,' Won't Resign Over Abortion Scandal
11/24/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/23/scott-desjarlais-not-resigning_n_2177607.html [with comments]
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You're Doing It Wrong
Published on Nov 22, 2012 by failhero1
There are only two ways of doing things, Right & Wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuMsxVdCMgk
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The Conservative Whiny Diaper Tantrum Continues
By Bob Cesca
November 21,2012
We’ve all known a kid who upon losing a board game would freak out, hurl the game across the room and storm off while shouting something like, “This game sucks anyway!” The modern permutation of this unhinged sour grapes tantrum is to chuck a video game controller at the TV. (I sheepishly raise my hand: guilty as charged on the latter.)
It’s one thing to suffer a momentary lack of self-control after losing a simple game, especially if the game is stupid, stupid, stupid and doesn’t give you a chance to fire before enemies converge on your position seemingly out of nowhere I hate that game! Phew. Sorry. But it’s another thing entirely to engage in this kind of silly, irrational behavior as a business owner, politician or political pundit in reaction to the results of an election. It’s no surprise the Republicans are doing exactly that.
Last week, I wrote about the nonsensical secession movement [ http://thedailybanter.com/?p=38798 ]. But it’s safe to say that it was spearheaded by a marginal, fringe, kneejerk group of mostly throw-back libertarian goofballs. The following examples of apoplexy, however, have come from people who reside squarely in the mainstream of the conservative right.
Let’s begin with fast food executives like Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter who threatened to raise the price of his crappy pizzas [ http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/11/evidence-that-john-schnatter-is-big-whiny-pouty-sore-loser.html ] by 11-cents per pie [ http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/11/papa_john_s_raising_prices_for_obamacare_denny_s_applebee_s_and_the_pizza.html ] while laying off workers as a means to side-stepping the forthcoming Affordable Care Act requirement that businesses with 50 or more employees provide all full time workers with health insurance or else pay a fine of $2,000 per employee. After crunching the numbers, however, Schnatter only needs to raise the price tag of each pizza by around 5-cents [ http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/11/evidence-that-john-schnatter-is-big-whiny-pouty-sore-loser.html ] and use the proceeds to pay for health insurance for all of his full time workers. Done. Unless Papa John’s customers are radical misers, they’ll never notice the almost nonexistent price increase.
Elsewhere, a Denny’s franchise owner in New York threatened to add a five percent surcharge on each bill to pay for his new Obamacare expenses. The backlash was swift. Denny’s sales dropped all across the nation, even though John Metz, the franchise owner, only controlled a few dozen restaurants. So naturally the CEO of Denny’s had to step in and force-feed Metz some much-need Xanax [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/john-metz-dennys-obamacare-surcharge-_n_2146735.html?1353420071 ].
Denny’s chief executive John Miller privately reached out to Metz to express his “disappointment” with the Florida franchisee’s controversial statements about Obamacare, which sparked a wave of backlash for the national restaurant chain over the past few days. Metz released a statement Monday night expressing “regret” over his statements.
“We recognize his right to speak on issues, but registered our disappointment that his comments have been interpreted as the company’s position,” Miller said in an email to The Huffington Post.
So that’s it. Hopefully Miller schooled Metz on the financial benefits of having a healthy workforce: fewer sick days, greater productivity, less turnover and higher-quality workers [ http://guides.wsj.com/small-business/hiring-and-managing-employees/how-to-retain-employees/ ]. In the case of Schnatter, the additional cost of health insurance will only reduce his profit margin by around $5-8 million annually if he doesn’t nothing to offset the cost. And yes — only. Last year, Schnatter’s pizza empire reported a profit of $87 million on gross sales of $1.218 billion, and if the trend holds, his profits for 2012 should be even higher.
Absent legitimate business concerns, what else do we call this behavior other than a tantrum?
Speaking of profits, if the president gets his way and taxes are returned to the Clinton-era levels for incomes above $250,000 for families and $200,000 for individuals, reports are coming in from various small business owners that they inexplicably intend to sabotage their revenue streams [ http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/20/15307014-theyre-called-marginal-tax-rates-for-a-reason ] in order to keep incomes under the $250,000 threshold. For example:
Kristina Collins, a chiropractor in McLean, Va., said she and her husband planned to closely monitor the business income from their joint practice to avoid crossing the income threshold for higher taxes outlined by President Obama on earnings above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.
Ms. Collins said she felt torn by being near the cutoff line and disappointed that federal tax policy was providing a disincentive to keep expanding a business she founded in 1998.
“If we’re really close and it’s near the end-year, maybe we’ll just close down for a while and go on vacation,” she said.
It’s shocking that they’re successful business people, given their total ignorance of how taxes work. At the very least they ought to fire their accountant. But, once again, I don’t think this has anything to do with reality and everything to do with acting out like spoiled, petulant children.
Here’s how the tax code really works. If the Bush tax cuts expire on income higher than $250,000, the slightly higher tax rate will only apply to income over $250,000 — not the entire sum of $250,000. In other words, if the Collins family earns $251,000 next year, they will only pay a higher marginal tax rate on $1,000, not $251,000. And that doesn’t even take into consideration various deductions and tax credits that would cumulatively give the Collins family a lower effective tax rate (the process by which Mitt Romney or Warren Buffet pays a tax rate in the range of 15%).
So these people are deliberately restraining their revenue potential because they’re pissed about the election. In my video game metaphor, this is not unlike bashing yourself in the head with a controller instead of hurling it across the room.
Then there are the red state governors who are refusing to implement the health insurance exchanges [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/no-surrender-the-gops-latest-tactic-to-undermine-obamacare/2012/11/20/7af6a3fe-3339-11e2-92f0-496af208bf23_blog.html ] required in the Affordable Care Act. Rick Perry, Scott Walker, Rick Scott and the other usual suspects have stonewalled the law. Bobby Jindal, who not only blasted his own party for being “stupid” but who also criticized the stimulus while accepting gigantic stimulus checks [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/07/21/51962/jindal-stimulus-check/ ], has also joined the blockade against Obamacare.
These so-called states’ rights Republicans obviously don’t realize that the federal government will simply create an exchange itself for any state that refuses. In other words, here’s a case where the states have total control and these governors have all but relinquished that control to the federal government — literally allowing a government takeover.
I can’t even imagine the tarring and feathering that would’ve taken place if any Democratic politician had refused to implement Medicare Part-D or the USA PATRIOT Act or had refused to allow the deployment of national guard units to Iraq. The outrage would’ve been punitive and nearly universal. I mean, look at what happened to former-Senator Max Cleland (D-GA) in the 2002 midterms when he dared to oppose the Iraq War. Karl Rove and the Republicans accused this triple-amputee Vietnam War veteran of being sympathetic to Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. Saxby Chambliss won the election and has currently joined the witch hunt against U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, even though he and George W. Bush presided over a six year span of time when there were 11 terrorist attacks on various U.S. consulates resulting in dozens of casualties.
And finally, an article about kneejerk, childish reactions to the election wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the latest gibberish from Dean Chambers, the “portly” founder of Unskewed Polls. Immediately after the election, Chambers blamed me [ http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/11/unskewed-dean-chambers-blames-me-for-nate-silver-attack.html ] for his homophobic rant against Nate Silver. Yes, really. He blamed me. You know, because Republicans are all about personal responsibility. Evidently, Chambers objected to an article in which I described him [ http://thedailybanter.com/?p=36900 ] as “portly” in an attempt to visually and professionally contrast him with Silver. Chambers is the “Bizarro Nate Silver,” I wrote. So naturally Chambers lashed out against… Silver. Odd.
But that’s not the worst of it. Chambers launched a new site called “Barack O’Fraudo [ http://www.barackofraudo.com/ ].” I’m not making that up. Barack O’Fraudo. First of all, what’s the deal with the name? Chambers seems to have combined the president’s first name with an Irish version of the word “fraud” and tossed in a random “o” at the end — the president’s actual last name ends with an “a.”
The mission, as I predicted weeks ago [ http://bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2012/11/pay-attention-to-the-nerdy-number-wizards.html ], is to unskew the results of the election by smoking out cases of voter fraud orchestrated by Obama campaign. Chambers is back to doing what he does best: drawing wild conclusions from numbers he doesn’t fully understand. He’s pinpointed cases of alleged fraud in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Florida, and has therefore stripped 80 electoral votes away from the president. But, strangely, he doesn’t give those electoral votes to Romney — yet.
Four years ago, when the president won the first time, fringy Republicans merely threatened to “Go Galt [ http://michellemalkin.com/2009/03/04/going-galt-and-the-next-tea-party-wave/ ],” in reference to the John Galt character in Atlas Shrugged who accumulates a group of wealthy disciples to stop contributing to the economy, thus bringing it to its knees. This time around it seems as if this conservative whiny freak-out is a futile extension of that initial effort. It won’t work and, in the final analysis, it will only serve to further embarrass and discredit a conservative movement that’s already in serious trouble. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Copyright © 2011 BanterMediaGroup, L.L.C. (emphasis in original)
http://thedailybanter.com/2012/11/the-conservative-whiny-diaper-tantrum-continues/ [with comments] [also at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/the-conservative-postelec_b_2172276.html (with comments)]
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Schultz to pursue signature verification on absentee ballots
It's among the election reforms he's taking to lawmakers next session.
Nov 23, 2012
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20121123/NEWS09/311230032/1007/ [with comments]
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Iowa GOP Continues Post Election Voter Harassment Efforts
November 21, 2012
http://www.blogforiowa.com/2012/11/21/iowa-gop-continues-post-election-voter-harassment-efforts/ [with comment]
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Time for the right to leave the bubble
The Rachel Maddow Show
November 7, 2012
Rachel Maddow lists the wins and losses from Tuesday's elections and notes that the national results were predicted accurately by fact-based models while denizens of the right-wing media bubble were caught off guard. Maddow asks Republicans to join the fact based community to help workshop real ideas to help make America better.
© 2012 NBCNews.com
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-rachel-maddow-show/49736294 [the above YouTube of the segment at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzcYX93TEYo ]
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Gay Men Will Marry Your Girlfriends
Published on Nov 20, 2012 by collegehumor
GOD HAD A DIARY? http://bit.ly/Q66kDk [ http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6838655/gods-diary-is-embarrassing ]
We support gay marriage. Here's why you should too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-YCdcnf_P8
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Straight Men Respond to: "Gay Men Will Marry Your Girlfriends"
Published on Nov 20, 2012 by Scotch Tape
The guys respond to the threat of gay guys marrying our girlfriends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSX0vGnjkws
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Mad TV - Gay Straight Guys
Uploaded by Anime4Lyfee on Aug 24, 2007
A clip from Mad TV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulb3tZU8vsk
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The Rise of Men in Suits. Slim Ones.
November 23, 2012
Men are notoriously averse to shopping. Who can blame them, given the gantlet of women’s fragrances, makeup and handbags that confront them at the entrances to many stores and malls?
So why do men appear to be shopping for themselves in record numbers?
Men’s wear sales are surging at double-digit rates. Suits, sports coats and outerwear, nearly all bought by men themselves, are leading the gains, according to Steve Pruitt, founder of the fashion and retail consulting firm Blacks Retail. Blacks projects that men’s suit sales will be up 10 percent this fall and holiday season, and sports jacket sales will be up 11 percent, while women’s ready-to-wear sales remain flat.
“Men are the new women,” Bret Pittman, director of J. Crew’s Ludlow Shop in TriBeCa in Manhattan, told me when I stopped in recently for a tour of the new store, the prototype for a line that will feature men’s suits and tailored clothing.
[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/business/slim-suits-help-lead-gains-in-mens-wear.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/business/slim-suits-help-lead-gains-in-mens-wear.html?pagewanted=all ]
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Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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