Some guy writes in the NY Times with the title “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich“:

People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.

What does this commie hippie know about job creation? He’s just some liberal activ…oh, wait, this is Warren Buffett talking.

I would leave rates for 99.7 percent of taxpayers unchanged and continue the current 2-percentage-point reduction in the employee contribution to the payroll tax. This cut helps the poor and the middle class, who need every break they can get.

But for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate.

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

Minority Leader John Boehner says that the Dems in Washington are “snuffing out the America that I grew up in.”

Over at Daily Kos, brooklynbadboy responds:

I don’t know the America John Boehner grew up in.

I don’t know what it’s like for a high school graduate to be able to get a union job at a factory and earn enough money to support a wife and kids. I don’t know what it’s like to be born at a hospital and have my parents rejoice at my birth rather than cower in fear of the bill. I don’t know what it’s like to have food, clothing and housing expenses constitute reasonable percentage of household income.

…I don’t know what it’s like to go to a bank and be offered one type of 30-year fixed rate mortgage. I don’t know what it’s like not to have to worry about bank fees that cost more than small household appliances. Usury laws. Boy, those must have been nice! There were all those heavy regulations on banks that were in place since the 1930′s. John Boehner didn’t have to worry about financial crashes during his first 37 years of life because there weren’t any. Since deregulation began in 1982, I’ve had three.

I don’t know what it’s like to live under a government that looked out for ordinary people. Never have. I don’t know what it’s like to have a government that did great things like build national highway systems or explore the heavens. Or alleviate poverty in city centers and far-away mountains. I don’t know what it’s like to never have to worry about the national debt. That’s because in John Boehner’s America rich people paid taxes.

Read on.

I know I link to him a lot, but dear friends, after watching this clip I can say without reservation that Jon Stewart is the greatest satirist of our era. With this must-see segment, Jon Stewart kicks Glenn Beck’s chair out from under him. Watching this is time well spent.

(The first clip was a cold open on last night’s show. The second clip came right after the opening credits.)

Jonathan Alter writes in this week’s Newsweek:

The only real question is if Democrats are in the mood to slit their own throats. The bill is complex, but the politics are simple: if health care doesn’t pass this spring, Obama’s domestic presidency is finished. The Democratic Party will be, to borrow a phrase from Nixon, a “helpless, pitiful giant.” By contrast, if the bill gets signed, Republicans are setting themselves up for a “repeal the bill” campaign that will likely backfire in November’s midterm elections. That’s eight months away, but if the bill passes I’d bet on the GOP winning only a few new seats.

This is Politics 101, a class that many Democrats apparently flunked. The House Democrats who voted for the bill at the end of 2009 have no choice but to vote for it again if they have any clue as to what’s in their political self-interest; the he-was-for-it-before-he-was-against-it ads write themselves. And the more conservative Blue Dog Democrats who voted against it need to understand that no matter how toxic health care is in their districts right now, things will be a lot worse if they have to run under the banner of a failed president. Voters won’t reward them for being fake Republicans—they’ll vote for the real ones instead.

…Ironically, this is not as hard a vote for Democrats as it looks. Sen. John Cornyn, the Texan who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, says the midterms should be a “referendum” on repealing the health-care bill (if the bill fails, the Republicans will run against it anyway). Because the insurance-industry reforms kick in immediately, this means Republicans would be running against protections that even those queasy about health-care reform are not going to want stripped away. Whose side will candidates want to be on? The insurers—or average people happy that they have the security of not worrying about their health if they lose their job? Even the lame message mavens of the Democratic Party can handle that one. Can’t they?

A popular meme (and talking point) on the right is that “America is a center-right nation”. The right loves to repeat this because it undercuts any Democratic plan as out-of-touch with what “America wants”. Even after America elected a Democratic President and filled both houses of Congress with Democratic majorities.

A few articles worth reading about our supposed “center-right” affiliation:

First, a Pew Research poll finds that younger Americans identify as Democrats instead of Republicans 41 to 22. The group with the highest Republican self-identification, the seniors, was still Democrat 38 to 31. And the young crew say that part of what defines their generation is ”liberalism/tolerance”.

Second, this post from Michael Lind on Salon, arguing that the right, out of power, has built a counterculture instead of an opposition:

Political factions that are out of power have a choice. They can form a counter-establishment or a counterculture. A counter-establishment (a term that Sidney Blumenthal used to describe the neoconservatives in the 1970s) seeks to return to power by reassuring voters that it is sober and responsible. A counter-establishment publishes policy papers and holds conferences and its members endure their exile in think tanks and universities.

In contrast, a counterculture refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of the rules of the game that it has lost. Instead of moving toward the center, the counterculture heads for the fringes. Like a cult, it creates its own parallel reality, seceding from a corrupt and wicked society into morally and politically pure enclaves…

Just as the New Left claimed that the New Deal era wasn’t really liberal, so the countercultural right claims that the Republican Party from Nixon to George W. Bush wasn’t really conservative…

A few decades ago it was the countercultural left that opposed science, technology and markets… Nowadays anti-science, anti-technology Luddites are more likely to be found on the right, among opponents of stem-cell research and evolutionary biology…

Paul Weyrich, the president of the Free Congress Foundation, [said], “The radicals of the 1960s had three slogans: turn on, tune in, drop out. I suggest that we adopt a modified version.”

Finally, there’s this summary of polls from FiveThirtyEight showing a breakdown by various issues, and analyzing whose position the majority of Americans take: Obama’s or the GOP’s. Surprise: most of the time, it’s Obama’s:

Of these 25 issues, Obama’s position appears to be on the right side of public opinion on 14… It would appear to be on the wrong side of public opinion on five issues: the GM/Chrysler bailout, Guantanamo Bay, health care, the extension of the TARP program, and terrorist trials. On the other six issues, the polling is probably too ambiguous to render a clear verdict.

Republicans, on the other hand, have been overwhelmingly opposed to almost all of these measures with the exception of Ben Bernanke and Afghanistan troops, both of which poll ambiguously, and the credit card bill, which polled well.

I saw this (NSFW) a few weeks back, and decided it was a little too ribald and inflammatory for Bray New World.

Joe’s actions over the last four weeks have changed my mind. Let slip the dogs of snark.

In this week’s issue of Newsweek, columnist Jacob Weisberg pulls no punches in his article “The O’Garbage Factor”. The article’s subtitle, in fact, is “Fox News isn’t just bad. It’s un-American.”

What’s most distinctive about the American press is not its freedom but its century-old tradition of independence—that it serves the public interest rather than those of parties, persuasions, or pressure groups. Media independence is a 20th-century innovation that has never fully taken root in many other countries that do have a free press. The Australian-British-continental model of politicized media that Murdoch has applied at Fox is un-American, so much so that he has little choice but go on denying what he’s doing as he does it. For Murdoch, Ailes, and company, “fair and balanced” is a necessary lie. To admit that their coverage is slanted by design would violate the American understanding of the media’s role in democracy and our idea of what constitutes fair play. But it’s a demonstrable deceit that no longer deserves equal time.

He ends with a call to action:

By appearing on Fox, reporters validate its propaganda values and help to undermine the role of legitimate news organizations. Respectable journalists—I’m talking to you, Mara Liasson—should stop appearing on its programs. A boycott would make Ailes too happy, so let’s try just ignoring Fox, shall we? And no, I don’t want to come on The O’Reilly Factor to discuss it.

Jon Armstrong, of blurbomat.com, writes this editorial on “Why I Write So Much Against Fringe Conservatives”:

So here we are. Glenn Beck and the others talking about feeling like we did that day after 9/11, by inspiring divisiveness, cynicism and fucking with the very notion of what words mean. Obama is the scary “racist” “fascist” “socialist” “communist” that is going to kill grandma. Yet one of Glenn Beck’s heroes was found, by Mormons of all people, to be propagating thought that closely resembles the philosophical underpinnings of Nazism.

It’s time to call it. Smart people need to stand up and call this bullshit what it is: toxic waste hurled out across the public airwaves as pseudo-intellect and deep care for this great country. It’s dangerous. And it’s time to drop it.

The President himself opines in the New York Times:

Our nation is now engaged in a great debate about the future of health care in America. And over the past few weeks, much of the media attention has been focused on the loudest voices. What we haven’t heard are the voices of the millions upon millions of Americans who quietly struggle every day with a system that often works better for the health-insurance companies than it does for them.

Roger Ebert writes:

Bill O’Reilly has been brought low by the same process that afflicted Jerry Springer. Once respected journalists, they sold their souls for higher ratings, and follow their siren song. Springer is honest about it: “I’m going to Hell for what I do, and I know it,” he’s likes to say. O’Reilly insists he is dealing only with the truth. When his guests disagree with him, he shouts at them, calls them liars, talks over them, and behaves like a schoolyard bully.

I am not interested in discussing O’Reilly’s politics here. That would open a hornet’s nest. I am more concerned about the danger he and others like him represent to a civil and peaceful society. He sets a harmful example of acceptable public behavior. He has been an influence on the most worrying trend in the field of news: The polarization of opinion, the elevation of emotional temperature, the predictability of two of the leading cable news channels. A majority of cable news viewers now get their news slanted one way or the other by angry men.

Dick Cheney continues to undermine the morale of this great nation with his attacks on the administration:

“If I don’t speak out, then where do we find ourselves? … Then the critics have free run, and there isn’t anybody there on the other side to tell the truth,” Cheney said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday…

The former vice president has has repeatedly criticized Obama’s decision to release four memos from the Bush presidency that discuss tactics such as waterboarding.

Why shouldn’t you speak out, Dick? Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the eight Bush years, it’s that we are at war and that criticizing the President during wartime gives comfort to our enemies. Do you want the terrorists to win, Dick? Do you want them to be comforted during this war on terror? No? Then please enjoy this nice piping hot cup of STFU that you spent eight years warming up all nice and toasty.

We here at Bray New World look forward to your continued, patriotic silence until the war ends. You know, when there is no more terror.

Dear George Will,

For some reason, I read your insufferable biweekly column in Newsweek, which is either about how campaign-finance reform is against the First Amendment, or how baseball is emblematic of our national character, or both.

For some reason, I have also just read your latest screed against America’s most pressing current issue: adults wearing denim.

Denim. Complaining about how kids are wearing jeans instead of suit pants is like complaining about the Beatles and their mop-top haircuts and their senseless rock-and-roll music.

You’ve demonstrated just how in touch you are with this classic quote:

For men, sartorial good taste can be reduced to one rule: If Fred Astaire would not have worn it, don’t wear it. For women, substitute Grace Kelly.

Good taste can also be defined as taking social cues from someone who’s been alive since 1987.

Apparently your problem with denim is that it is associated with youth, and it’s therefore inappropriate for grown-ups to wear it. You compare the wearing of jeans to the watching of animated entertainment, even though animation nowadays is aimed at all age groups. Granted, I wouldn’t expect you to know this, since animation in the Astaire/Kelly era was either Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny, and not groundbreaking, Oscar-winning film. Similarly, you criticize anyone over 18 who plays video games, an entertainment industry that’s also reached complexity and maturity. I suppose we could instead sit out on our front porches in our seersucker suits and listen to the Brooklyn Dodgers on the AM radio instead, but nowadays, we grownups are able to enjoy video games — ones that have us socializing and interacting with one another, instead of passively sitting in a chair, listening to a narrator describe a slow-paced sports game.

In short, please enjoy a nice, piping-hot cup of STFU.

Sincerely,
Jeff

The star-studded cast sings:

Dear Republicans,

This week, Karl Rove has an editorial in Newsweek titled “A Way Out of the Wilderness” in which he proposes a plan for leading the GOP back to victory.

I know! No, really! Karl Rove! The incompetent guide who spent eight years leading you off into the wilderness, all the while asserting that he knew exactly what he was doing, now wants you to believe he knows the way back home. That’s like taking navigation lessons from the captain of the Exxon Valdez.

Given my political leanings, I know you’ll find my advice suspect, but let me offer you some advice of my own. While you’re in the middle of figuring out what kind of party you should be now (be that “The Fiscally-Responsible, Small-Government, Pro-Business Party”, or the “Theoconservative Mudslinging Party of the South and Plains States”), here’s what you should do with Karl Rove: well, okay, what you should do is put him in an orange jumpsuit and then put him behind bars where he belongs, but barring that, you should put him back under a rock, leave him there, and ignore any more of his “wisdom”.

In his Newsweek column criticizing Sarah Palin for her religious zealotry, Sam Harris also defends that favorite GOP whipping boy, “elites”:

Ask yourself: how has “elitism” become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn’t seem too intelligent or well educated.

Maureen Dowd got him to do it:

Now that he’s finally fired up on the soup-line economy, Barack Obama knows he can’t fade out again. He was eager to talk privately to a Democratic ex-president who could offer more fatherly wisdom — not to mention a surreptitious smoke — and less fraternal rivalry. I called the “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin (yes, truly) to get a read-out of the meeting.

OBAMA You’re saying race doesn’t have anything to do with it?

BARTLET I wouldn’t go that far. Brains made me look arrogant but they make you look uppity. Plus, if you had a black daughter —

OBAMA I have two.

BARTLET — who was 17 and pregnant and unmarried and the father was a teenager hoping to launch a rap career with “Thug Life” inked across his chest, you’d come in fifth behind Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and a ficus.

OBAMA You’re not cheering me up.

BARTLET Is that what you came here for?

OBAMA No, but it wouldn’t kill you.

Turnout for the primaries is much lower than the general election, so each vote carries a lot more weight. That makes it all the more important to Get Out And Vote.

I’d like to first talk about the primaries for the areas I know best, the 31st and 34th Middlesex:

31st — Rotondi ran for this seat as a Republican eight years ago; he only became a Democrat four years back. By contrast, look at Jason Lewis‘ endorsements and his platform.

Rotondi has sent me a few mailings, but Lewis has done a heck of a lot of door-to-door, which I respect a lot more. Jason Lewis already has my financial support and he’s absolutely getting my electoral support as well.

34th — Incumbent Carl Sciortino isn’t on the ballot due to some sort of filing situation I don’t fully understand. His opponent, Trane, seems like a decent enough candidate, but Sciortino has solid credentials as a liberal and a progressive. I’d write in for Sciortino.

State Senate for both regions is Pat Jehlen, who’s unopposed. Pat Jehlen is five feet, four inches* of pure awesome and you should absolutely vote for her.

For US Congress, Ed Markey is also unopposed, but the guy’s been such a warrior on climate change that you’d be a fool not to return him to Capitol Hill even if he had an opponent.

For US Senate, all I know about John Kerry’s opponent is that Somerville’s crusty, right-wing local rag endorsed him. Really, even if that was all you knew about the race, it’d be enough to vote for John Kerry. I don’t need to give you John Kerry’s credentials here; you already know he’s a force for good.

* I have no idea what Pat Jehlen’s actual height is.

Tim Wise writes:

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

Read on.

Liberals have been so cowed by the pummeling they’ve taken from the right that they’ve tried to shed their own identity, calling themselves everything but liberal and hoping to pass conservative muster by presenting themselves as hyper-religious and lifelong lovers of rifles, handguns, whatever…

Why liberals don’t stand up to this garbage, I don’t know. Without the extraordinary contribution of liberals — from the mightiest presidents to the most unheralded protesters and organizers — the United States would be a much, much worse place than it is today.

Read on at the NY Times.

(thanks to Jim for the link.)

You have got to be kidding me.

The maker of touch-screen voting machines used in half of Ohio’s counties has admitted that its own programming error is to blame for votes being dropped in some counties.

The problem can’t be fixed before the Nov. 4 election, so Premier Election Solutions and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner are issuing guidelines to counties for how to avoid the problem.

“We will continue to monitor the situation and provide boards of elections with the instruction and support they need to ensure an orderly and efficient election and an accurate count of Ohioans’ votes,” Brunner said in a memo released today.

Premier, formerly Diebold Election Systems, initially speculated that the problem was a conflict between its system and anti-virus software.

But in a letter Tuesday to Brunner, Premier President David Byrd admitted that further testing showed a source-code error that can cause votes not to be recorded when memory cards are uploaded to computer servers under certain circumstances.

Well, luckily Ohio’s not some battleground state that’s just as likely to go for one candidate as the other, so some dropped votes won’t matte—OH NO WAIT I MEANT THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF THAT.