The Republican Debt

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Rachel Maddow has a nice chart up at her blog showing that two-thirds of the debt we now face was generated during Republican administrations.

Remember: Right-wing policies put us deeper in debt. Tell the Tea Party crowd.

-Chris

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Metaphor For GOP Thinking

Andrew Sullivan posted this on The Daily Dish the other day.

From Sullivan and Wikipedia:

An ant mill is a phenomenon where a group of army ants separated from the main foraging party lose the pheromone track and begin to follow one another, forming a continuously rotating circle. The ants will eventually die of exhaustion. This has been reproduced in laboratories and the behaviour has also been produced in ant colony simulations.^[1] This phenomenon is a side effect of the self-organizing structure of ant colonies. Each ant follows the ant in front of it, and this will work until something goes wrong and an ant mill forms.^[2] An ant mill was first described by William Beebe who observed a mill 1,200 feet (365 m) in circumference. It took each ant 2.5 hours to make one revolution.^[3] Similar phenomena have been noted in processionary caterpillars and fish.^[4]

Sullivan remarks that this is a great metaphor for the long-term effects of “epistemic closure”.

The term, appropriated from philosophy, means (in terms of the political blogosphere) the tendency for conservative media to become untethered from reality — accepting no new ideas or entertaining or discussing in any meaningful way ideas which they disagree with.

Sounds about right.

-Chris

Neat Science

Image by Julien Harneis via Flickr

This is one of those nifty things that I feel the need to share. I’m a nerd.

Industrial designers have created a new, lifesaving product that is extremely useful.

It’s called a “Life Sack” and here’s what it is:

<blockquote>…an ingenious water purification device that does double duty as a container for shipping grains and other food staples. Once the food has been received, the sack can be used as a solar water purification kit.</blockquote>

It’s pretty cool, and can be put on like a backpack.

-Chris
Read more: Life Sack Solves Drinking Water Issues for the Third World | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World

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O’Donnell’s Record

For those of you who are trying to find out what Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell stands for, Think Progress has “The Old Adventures of New Christine” up their site.

For those holding her up as a role model for feminist Republicans, consider her own words:

O’Donnell believes the proper role of a woman is to ’submit’ to her husband. ”This is not about merely a Baptist doctrine. This is a biblical doctrine. And the passage from the Bible the Baptist article is taken from talks about a submissive family. And yet, what the media seems to be reacting to is the word “submit” in the wives. But yet, even in, Mary, your introduction, you ignored or you left out where it says they graciously submit to a servant leader. And that is God’s design for the family. It is not about dominating and it is not about being a slave to your husband.” [CNN, 6/11/98]

and:

O’Donnell warned that allowing women to attend military academies ‘cripples the readiness of our defense.’ “By integrating women into particularly military institutes, it cripples the readiness of our defense,” O’Donnell has said. She also argued that West Point “has had to lower their standards … in order for men and women to compete” [Politico, 9/16/10]

There’s a growing trend in GOP politics to put forward empty-headed female candidates who are attractive and can parrot talking points to receptive audiences.

Some on the right are starting to realize there is a downside to winning this way.

Bill Kristol, who’s cheerleading for Caribou Sarah helped bring her to national prominence, doesn’t seem to get it. On the CNN website, there is a report, that he said the following:

“I know Sarah Palin. I respect Sarah Palin. And with all due respect- Christine O’Donnell is no Sarah Palin.”

Uh. Yes she is. She’s almost exactly like Sarah Palin.

Update: Combing the archives for her record is going to be necessary because O’Donnell is refusing to speak to the press — even her boosters at Fox:

-Chris

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The Wealthy Cry

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Yesterday’s Paul Krugman piece in the New York Times references an amazing article that was published in New York Magazine last year.
“The Wail of the 1%” details the beginning of the prolonged tantrum being thrown by the parasites on Wall Street over having part of their bonuses taken away. This, in light of the taxpayers bailing them out to the tune of billions of dollars. 

These are not people who are about to be homeless, or facing medical bills they cannot pay. They do, however, possess a hubristic sense of entitlement — and are ready to go to war for their “principles.” 

A typical expression of outrage from the Wall Street set? 

“No offense to Middle America, but if someone went to Columbia or Wharton, [even if] their company is a fumbling, mismanaged bank, why should they all of a sudden be paid the same as the guy down the block who delivers restaurant supplies for Sysco out of a huge, shiny truck?” e-mails an irate Citigroup executive to a colleague. 

The condescension toward working Americans is choice. Read the article. It’s incredible. 

They felt picked on and embarrassed at the looks they got when wearing their expensive suits in public. 

They were outraged and betrayed that the former Wall Street executives in Obama Administration didn’t go to bat for them.

Boo-fricken-hoo. 

Another passage that illustrates the mindset: 

The argument that Obama has in fact done a great deal to help Wall Street—to the tune of trillions of dollars—doesn’t have much truck with these critics. “If you really take a look at what Obama is promising, it’s frightening,” says Nicholas Cacciola, a 44-year-old executive at a financial-services firm. “He’s punishing you for doing better. He doesn’t want to have any wealth creation—it’s wealth distribution. Why are you being punished for making a lot of money?” As a Republican corporate lawyer puts it: “It’s the politics of envy, and that’s very dangerous.” 

Great argument. Wealth creation. So, if you follow that logic, since these giants of moving paper around in shadowy markets made inordinate amounts of cash, we should all be doing great, right? After giving the bankers billions of taxpayer dollars, the level of gratitude is amazing.
Now, Krugman writes, this chutzpah has spread outside of Wall Street: 

For one thing, craziness has gone mainstream. It’s one thing when a billionaire rants at a dinner event. It’s another when Forbes magazine runs a cover story alleging that the president of the United States is deliberately trying to bring America down as part of his Kenyan, “anticolonialist” agenda, that “the U.S. is being ruled according to the dreams of a Luo tribesman of the 1950s.” When it comes to defending the interests of the rich, it seems, the normal rules of civilized (and rational) discourse no longer apply.
At the same time, self-pity among the privileged has become acceptable, even fashionable. 

The popular sentiment is that “it’s my money, and I have the right to keep it”. Oh, and they deny they are rich, despite annual salaries of $400,000 to $500,000.
There’s no sense that taxes are the price to pay for all the infrastructure and stability that allows them to ply their trade.
So, when you hear their fevered complaints of class warfare, remember that they are on the ones bringing it. To keep things in perspective, ponder this: The whiners are winning. 

Update: Robert Reich has a post from yesterday about framing this debate: “The Defining Issue: Who Should Get the Tax Cut – The Rich or Everyone Else?”

It’s a winning issue for Democrats, and it makes good economic sense:

The rich spend a far smaller portion of their money than anyone else because, hey, they’re rich. That means continuing the Bush tax cut for them wouldn’t stimulate much demand or create many jobs.

The rest is well worth reading.

-Chris 

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