Political Rants

Short takes, redux.

I’m going to take a few brief swats at some knotty issues that won’t yield much to such brief consideration, but nevertheless …. here goes.

Norway rampage. It’s hard to comment on last week’s massacre in Norway except to say that this was a nauseating crime by an evident Nazi-like lunatic with delusions of racist glory. Lock him up, folks.

Phony debt crisis. Here we are, caught between a Republican caucus dominated by fanatical newbies who know nothing about actually legislating and a Democratic leadership so willing to give away the store that the other side should freaking love them. I just want to mention again – it’s been said plenty of times, but it bears repeating – that raising the debt ceiling is a measure that would accommodate spending decisions already agreed to by Congress and the President – I repeat, it does not entail new spending. So we’ve reached a pass where budget items need to (a) win approval from both houses of Congress and be signed into law, (b) run the same gauntlet a second time in the form of appropriations bills, and (c) get past the blackmail play around raising the debt ceiling to cover funds already duly appropriated. This is why the G.O.P. wants to make the debt ceiling extension a two-step process – so that down the line, they can shake us down for more concessions. This is bogus as hell and should be denounced as such, every minute of every day.

Libya disaster. There is substantial evidence that our “humanitarian” intervention in Libya is costing a significant number of civilian lives in and around Tripoli. It is also obvious, at this point, that the opposition does not have sufficient strength, popular support, or weaponry to prevail, just as it is obvious that we really, really, really want them to prevail. So what exactly are we looking to accomplish in Libya, after all? “Days, not weeks”? Really, Barry? That Rumfeldian pronouncement has crumbled before our very eyes. This was a fool’s errand – one the French took the lead on, but which we were a bit too willing to sign onto. And now we have yet another war that won’t go away.

On leaving Iraq. As I write these words, our government is working hard on convincing Premier Al-Maliki to allow us to leave a residual force in Iraq. This is a ludicrous idea. Our prolonged presence (i.e. troops on the ground beyond the date agreed to by the Bush administration) will fuel the very forces of unrest we complain about in Iraq – the same forces Saddam Hussein complained about, not coincidentally. (Like him, we are obsessed with the suppression of dissent there.) I strongly advise the Obama administration to get out before the lid blows off of the place, as Seymour Hersh has predicted will happen sometime next year. (Best not discount his predictions too much.)

That’s all I’ve got. See you on the other side of Debt-a-geddon.

luv u,

jp

Usual Rubbish

Heave ho.

Hey. Did any of you guys nail a proclamation to the door? Lincoln, is this your dagger? Anyone good with a quill pen (other than Lincoln)? Hmmmm…. could be legitimate.

Okay, there’s this parchment scroll tacked to our door with a dime-store knife. And it’s got some rubbish scribbled across it about how we need to vacate the premises of our adopted home, the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill, by the end of July… “or else”. No signature. But a very distinctive style of penmanship, I must say. South paw. (You can tell by the smudging of the India ink. ) Can just barely read the thing, frankly. (Or even dishonestly.) Clearest thing is the illustration of a shaking fist – kind of threatening.

I handed this to anti-Lincoln, since he tends to understand this kind of thing (ultimatums, mad grudges, and what-not). He read it upside down, looked at the back of the paper, then rolled it into a tube and tried to make trumpet sounds with it. I should know better, I admit. Though we could use a horn section. (Two Lincolns, two proclamations rolled up like a trombone – that could sound! That’s now, brother, that’s real now!) You know, I’m tired of being the adult in the room. I want to be like Marvin (my personal robot assistant) and just sit in a corner with a plastic cup of pudding watching cartoons all day. It’s raining, besides, so riding the swings is out of the question.

All right, I know. This is kind of serious. Though we’ve been evicted before. The Town Board hates us, and the mayor has it in for us for some reason. Maybe it’s because Mitch Macaphee crashed his birthday party last year. Or maybe it was the yards of that novelty $100 bill toilet paper we sent them along with our payment in lieu of taxes bill. (That was on anti-Lincoln’s advice. So much for legal counsel. I’m going to have to ask for my $100 back.)

Okay, well… I guess we’ll have to take some time out of our tireless preparations for Big Green’s [INSERT NAME HERE] Interstellar Tour 2011 and ask anti-Lincoln to look this document over a bit more closely. With his eyes, this time.

Political Rants

Lemmington D.C.

My dad never said it to me, but growing up I heard it said by adults to impressionable young people many times. The conversation would go something like, “But, dad… all my friends are going. Why can’t I?” And dad (or whoever) would say, “Well, if they all jumped off a cliff, would you do that, too?” It’s such a staple of parentage as to be cliche, but I’m not certain the G.O.P. class of 2010 was ever confronted with that type of challenge when they were in short pants. (Perhaps they are still in short pants – I’ve only ever seen most of them from the waist up.)

There’s nothing particularly unique about this attitude. It is, however, being applied in a very, very destructive way right about now. I will be charitable and suggest that perhaps many of these freshman House members (and some of their more senior colleagues) simply do not understand the gravity of the situation. Having said that, I’m going to do what people who say “having said that” inevitably do and say the complete opposite. I think it’s very possible that they know their failure to raise the debt ceiling is going to result in disaster, and that they hope that will gain them political points and cost the president more than a few. The Norquist-endorsed promise never to contemplate higher taxes under any circumstances is a very attractive position for conservatives and watery republicans like Boehner. It’s very, very shiny. Also, the consequences of breaking that promise are painful for them to contemplate. So …. over the cliff we go!

I’ve gotten agitated about this impasse over the last couple of weeks, as some of you readers know, and last night I took it upon myself to write my representative, Richard Hanna (R-NY) and ask him to be the adult in the room, show some leadership, and get his caucus to stop using the debt ceiling as a cheap bargaining chip. It was a respectful, serious letter – very unlike me. This is the response, in essence:

I voted no on H.R. 1954 which would implement the President’s request to increase the debt limit by $2.4 trillion. The bill did not include any spending cuts or budgetary reforms. I do not support raising the debt limit without any spending cuts or budgetary reforms. I do, however, understand that raising the debt limit will eventually be necessary and I hope that when the time comes it is accompanied by reforms that put our nation on a path to long-term fiscal responsibility. This will ensure that the dollar remains the world’s reserve currency and that the United States maintains a solid credit rating, boosting our fragile economic recovery and job creation.

Okay, so he’s another lemming, basically. He supported the efforts of his caucus to politicize the debt ceiling vote, and though he admits that raising it “will eventually be necessary,” he hopes it will be accompanied by “spending cuts or budgetary reforms”. He then expresses the hope that the austerity measures he advocates will bring about the credit security that his conference’s game of chicken – which he apparently supports – is threatening to blow to smithereens.

This isn’t the first time otherwise sensible legislators have followed wingnuts off a cliff. But it just may prove to be among the most disastrous.

luv u,

jp

Weird ass music since 1986