Happy New Year: Of Cliffs and Kardashians

Is this the only blog to feature pictures of John Boehner and
Kim Kardashian in the same post?
Probably not, but it might get me more hits.

 
We are now officially falling off the fiscal cliff, but Orange Man John Boehner can stop the fall. The Senate passed a compromise bill late last night (sometime after Kathy Griffin pretended to give Anderson Cooper oral on CNN), now it's in the House and Boehner is desperately attempting to wrangle enough non-Tea Party votes to get it to pass. After the Plan B debacle, his skin tone will change from orange to green if he can't cut the mustard.

As far as the bill goes, I am not one of these purist Democrats who demand the $250K threshold on higher taxes. The new bill goes higher ($400K for individuals and $450K for couples) and I can live with that. You have to give the Republicans something, that's called negotiating, as we learned in the current Lincoln movie, there are all kinds of tricky deals that go on behind the scenes. If you don't horse trade, nothing gets done. You have your principles and idealism in tact, but no legislation gets passed. That's what these Tea Party true believers haven't learned. What will probably happen is the Tea Baggers will vote no and have protection from primary challenges and Boehner will allow the more moderate members of his party to vote yes. Pelosi, who has better control of her people than Boehner, will let one or two extreme liberals to vote no because they're unhappy with the $450K threshold, but the Dems will go for it. Now the real fight over spending cuts is kicked down the road to March.

The really big New Year's news is that skank Kim Kardashian is preggers with Kayne West's baby. Is she the one who married the basketball player for like ten minutes after their multi-million dollar wedding? How long have they been dating? How long do you think they'll stay married after E! gives the Kardashian family another couple of million dollars to cover the nuptials? Ah, the sanctity of heterosexual unions.

The 47 Percent Solution

"Start rearranging the deck chairs, damnit!:

Republican rats are deserting the sinking ship called the Romney campaign or as Peggy Noonan labeled it, the Rolling Calamity. Following the infamous "47 percent" tape, the premature press release on the Libyan tragedy, and now the call for limited political contributions made by teachers (see cause they're not people like corporations are), Mittens couldn't get elected dog catcher in a one-dog town. Well, that's an exaggeration. But what is happening is a cold, calculated move on the part of Republicans to blame the individual candidate for their failure to retake the White House. They're ignoring the possibility that it's the current sharp right turn the brand has taken that is turning independent voters off.

When the Tea Party surged to power in 2010, the GOP thought "Hey this is the way to go. This is what the people want." So states with Republican legislatures overreached on abortion, gay, and immigration stuff. Forced ultrasounds, personhood amendments, slashing voting rights and cutting public assistance were the order of the day. What they forgot is Ronald Reagan and the two Bushes were at least somewhat moderate, talked a good game of inclusiveness, and downplayed the social issues.If you go too far to the right, you lose the middle which is what is happening right now.

Up until the time of the tape being released by Mother Jones, the middle was still unsure about Mittens. They were actually listening to his argument, "I'm not Barack Obama, I got people jobs at Staples, that's all you need to know. Don't worry about these pesky social issues." It didn't bother them too much that he was stiff and about as sincere as a bad community theater actor. (Those blank eyes, that phony used-car salesman smile.) But then the video showed us the real Mittens. In the tape he sounds like he really believes what he's saying. Listen to the way he says "entitlement" with dripping, intense contempt.

Of course the most damning sentence was the one about the 47 percent who don't pay federal income taxes and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on part of it. When he said  "I can't worry about those people," he could have meant "I can't worry about getting those people to vote for me." But then when he said "I can't get them to take responsibility for their lives," he was very clearly making a value judgment on almost half of the population. That's what killed him and probably cost him the election. And he has not expressed regret or explained what he meant in an adequate fashion.

In his hastily called late night press conference, you could see the rubber mask back in place and his only explanation was that his statements were "inelegant." He never said "Of course I don't think every single one of those people--retirees, military people, working class people--are moochers. That was a misstatement." In the days since, he's tried to gloss over it by saying he's for the 100 percent, but that 47 number will haunt him.

To be fair, Obama did have his "guns and religion" moment in a similar, unguarded setting in 2008. But Obama went on to say in spite of these people's clinging to their fears, you have to reach out to them. After insulting the 47 percenters and lumping them all together, Mittens was prepared to write off half the country. Given his record and statements, you know that is how he would govern.

Not everyone is a business owner or an entrepreneur and people who work at unskilled jobs and have no ambition to become millionaires deserve a president who will treat them with the same importance as they would the Koch Brothers and that Las Vegas casino owner who went over to Mitt when Newt lost.

Republicans Gathering Strength for 2012

Obama is in real trouble. I have serious doubts he'll be able to get re-elected. The voters in the middle who have no political convictions and don't pay attention to politics are seeing him as a weakling who kowtows to the right and isn't getting the economy moving or creating jobs. They don't care that the Republicans only want to make the rich richer.

Right now Rick Perry, the Neanderthal governor of Texas--who doesn't even acknowledge the existence of Neanderthals because he doesn't believe in evolution--is looking attractive to the middle. "Oh, we like him," they say when they are looking away from American Idol or NASCAR, "He'll get us a job at Walmart or the 7-11. I don't like what he says about Social Security, but at least he doesn't back down or change his stand on things like that flip-flopper Romney or that wishy-washy Obama. I want a strong president who will keep me in line." Never mind that if Perry gets elected, everyone will be forced to buy a handgun, no one will ever be able to get a legal abortion, gays will be locked up, and Social Security and Medicare will disappear. These are only slight exaggerations.

Here's an interesting revelation that came out of that Tea Party debate. When Michelle Bachman suggested the only reason Perry made an executive order that all schoolgirls get a vaccination to prevent cervical cancer it was because the pharmaceutical company Merck had given him a contribution. He replied that he raised several million dollars and Merck had only given him $5,000 and he was insulted by her idea that he could be bought for such a piddling amount. It's very telling that he said he insulted not because of the suggestion that he could be bribed, but over the size of the bribe. The implication being he can be bought, but for a helluva lot more than 5K. It's been revealed Merck actually contributed $30,000 and also gave to the Republican Governors Association of which Perry is in charge.

Sidenote on Bachmann: Instead of shutting up when she had a good point, the Wicked Witch of Minnesota shot herself in the foot by making wild and unfounded claims that the vaccine was dangerous. In subsequent interviews, she repeated an anecdotal story about a grieving mother whose daughter had contracted mental retardation because of the shot. The medical community says there is no evidence of such a side effect. This shows Bachmann will make any irresponsible statement to advance her bid for power.

Another horrible incident during these Republican debates was the "death" scream moment when Tea Party enthuisasts supported leaving uninsured Americans to die rather than have the government pay for their treatment. Moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Ron Paul about a hypothetical case of a healthy young man with a good job who decided not to have any insurance because he just doesn't want to pay the a few hundred dollars a month in premiums. Blitzer asked what if this guy goes into a coma, should he just be left to die? People in the audience cried "YEAH!" Paul did not actually say he should perish, but that the church and charities should deal with such cases as happened when he was practising medicine. What fantasty world does this Ron Paul live in? Does he think every community is like "It's a Wonderful Life" where the town rallies round poor Jimmy Stewart when he's down on his luck? Paul Krugman rightly said in his NY Times column (too lazy to put in the link, look it up yourself) that such cases of being uninsured through stupidity or fecklessness are not really relevant. Far more common are instances where people can't afford insurance though they have jobs (like the low-paying ones Rick Perry is so proud of in Texas) or were turned down for a pre-existing condition (which supposedly will be illegal thanks to the hated Obamacare). If that were the question, those Tea Partiers still would have cried "YEAH!" to letting the uninsured drop dead on the streets.

Krugman points out this chilling lack of compassion shows there is no basic agreement between left and right that government should provide minimal support of those who are experiencing bad luck or trouble. If you lose your job, if you can't afford insurance, if you're not a go-getter, tough shit according to the new Right. Forget welfare, no more unemployment, social security, medicare, or anything for you.

Here's what I think is going to happen. Perry will continue to surge and he might take a few primaries, but he will sputter out and look like an extremist and therefore unable to win in the general election. He could beat Obama, but it's not a sure thing. I think cooler heads will prevail and Romney will be seen as reasonable and attractive to independents. Hey, they'll say, he's not some evangelical who doesn't believe in science. He'll create jobs cause he's been in business. Never mind that Massachusetts was near the bottom in job growth when he was governor. Forget that when he took over a company, they fired everyone. Romney will get the nomination and it will be close, the odds are he will beat Obama. Then we'll have this blow-dried, phony, plastic, CEO president. I can't really blame those middle-people who are leaning towards the right. They don't see Obama as standing up and fighting hard enough and they are right.