Crooks and Liars |
- 'I Haven't Had a Gaffe,' Bachmann Insists
- Mike's Blog Round Up
- Open Thread: #Occupy Wall Street Verizon Building 'Bat Signal' Projections
- C&L's Late Night Music Club With Cherub
- Conservativism Blew Up The Economy
- #OccupyCal Protesters Circumvent Order Not to Post Tents
- Crazy Things Conservatives Say
- Why Didn't Newt Register As A Lobbyist? His Work 'Benefits The Country At Large'
- One-Woman Recall Effort In Wisconsin Takes Off
- Police Mercenaries: Privatizing Liberty
| 'I Haven't Had a Gaffe,' Bachmann Insists Posted: 19 Nov 2011 07:30 AM PST  Click here to view this media Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says she would be the best person to face President Barack Obama in the general election because she hasn't had a single gaffe. "[A]s people are looking at the candidate that is the most conservative and the most consistent candidate, I've been that candidate," the Minnesota Republican told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren Thursday. "I haven't had a gaffe or something that I've done that has caused me to fall in the polls. People see in me someone who's genuinely a social conservative, a fiscal conservative, a national security conservative and a tea partier. I'm the whole package. And when it comes to the best Republican who take on Barack Obama and not have any clunker in my record to be able to take him on, it's me." "Well, you've had a few -- you've had a few little gaffes, maybe not recently," Susteren noted. "Well, I got Elvis Presley's birthday wrong, but I don't think that's a disqualifying factor for being president of the United States," Bachmann replied. As Talking Points Memo notes, Bachmann's list of gaffes is gaffes and misstatements is extensive. The candidate has confused actor John Wayne with serial killer John Wayne Gacy; suggested that Hezbollah was creating missile sites in Cuba; said there was a "very real concern" that vaccines cause mental retardation; insisted that waterboarding was justified like nuking Japan; said she would end "Great Society" programs to make the U.S. more like China; accused GOP candidates of being "frugal socialists;" predicted that deceased Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi "may be" still in power if she were president; asserted that the best way to end teen bullying would be to abolish the Dept. of Education; refused to say fellow candidate Mitt Romney was a Christian; proposed eliminating all taxes; told a man with "no teeth" to rely on charity; advised that hurricanes were God's warning about government spending; mistakenly claimed the Battle of Lexington and Concord was fought in New Hampshire instead of Massachusetts; asserted that the founding fathers "worked tirelessly" to end slavery; and told a Christian radio host that Americans fear "the rise of the Soviet Union." And those are just a sampling of the things she has said during the past year. Prior to that, Bachmann has warned about government re-education camps; said that President Franklin D. Roosevelt caused a recession with the Hoot-Smalley Act; compared her supporters to the "charge of the Light Brigade" -- which actually sustained major losses and eventual defeat in the Crimean War -- insisted that President George Bush only added $400 billion to the national debt, explained that 100 percent of the U.S. economy was private before Obama took office; and called for an investigation into "anti-American" members of Congress. But perhaps the candidate doesn't feel that any of those were gaffes.
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| Posted: 19 Nov 2011 05:00 AM PST A duck wearing a scarf told Michele Bachmann that ignorance is strength. Do not dispute her! Right Wing Watch: Mitt Romney will be missing tomorrow's debate. You know, because of that Mormon thing. Take My Country Back: There have been other times the U.S. has taken an iron hand to protesters. Learn about the Bonus Army and how Gen. Douglas MacArthur was sent in to break up a protest of American veterans. The Brad Blog: A young protester gets pepper-sprayed in the face in Portland. Police state? Try Fully Weaponized Military State. Finally, it's Joe Biden's birthday tomorrow. Wish him a happy birthday. He'd wish you one if you were Vice-President. Round-up by William K. Wolfrum; send tips to mbru [at] crooksandliars [dot] com.
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| Open Thread: #Occupy Wall Street Verizon Building 'Bat Signal' Projections Posted: 18 Nov 2011 08:30 PM PST Here's a video of a beautiful sequence of light projections that appeared on the side of the Verizon building - "Bat signal style" - while tens of thousands of Occupy Wall Street participants marched across the Brooklyn Bridge tonight. It's the latest thing, called "laser gaffiti," it was quite breathtaking and you really must see the whole thing. Still images at Grave Wisdom. Open thread below...
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| C&L's Late Night Music Club With Cherub Posted: 18 Nov 2011 08:00 PM PST Title: Love You Right Artist: Cherub Hooray for the weekend. Get your party on with this super catchy tune from Nashville's Cherub. What songs get you in the party mood?
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| Conservativism Blew Up The Economy Posted: 18 Nov 2011 07:00 PM PST So what do you do when financial analysts are warning that housing prices are headed for a "triple dip", the second largest Swiss Bank (Credit Suisse) announces it's piling 1,500 additional job cuts - many from the US - on top of its previously announced 2,000 (after a 12 per cent increase in profits this past quarter) and the federal government just sued one of the nation's largest privately held mortgage brokers (Allied Home Mortgage) for a decade of "fraudulent lending practices that forced thousands of Americans to lose their homes." Seriously, could the economic Big Brains who think it's a good idea to take money out of people's pockets via spending cuts, while rejecting increased spending on our nation's crashing infrastructure, try punching "Japan" and "lost decade" into the Google machine? Or perhaps just admit their relationship to understood economics is like Kim Kardashian's marriage - shallow, somewhat entertaining, but ultimately embarrassing. These right-wing members of Congress and inhabitants of the "pro-market," think-tank-welfare world, with their flip reaction the ongoing economic crisis, have begun to remind me of an exchange between John Travolta (trying to steal and sell nuclear weapons) and Christian Slater (trying to stop him) in the movie Broken Arrow. Slater's character says to Travolta's: "You're out of your mind," to which Travolta replies - while wearing a spooky Herman Cain-esque, I-just-gave-a-massage-to-my-secretary smile - "Yeah, ain't it cool." Apparently, the only stimulant conservatives favour is whatever Rick Perry was mainlining during his speech in New Hampshire the other night. Infrastructure work creates jobs What's so maddening, however, is that the answer is quite clear to sane people and non-shills-long-term infrastructure projects that, in the near term, provide jobs, and further out will provide ... jobs. And increased productivity. Ever hear of those train things or the internet? Yeah, well, people are more productive when they're faster and stuff. Part of what's so frustrating is that not only was President Obama's stimulus bill too small by half, which top economists predicted before it passed (but yay, Susan Collins liked it!). But the administration didn't even defend it, which took something the Congressional Budget Office says saved up to 3.6 million jobs - and allowed it to be demonized by politically expedient grifters playing games. These very same economists who were right about the stimulus are now clamouring for more infrastructure spending. Paul Krugman, who has been banging this drum for a while, pointed out in a recent piece how the very same crowd that flips out over any government spending on, for lack of a better phrase, people who can't afford his and hers dancing water fountains from Neiman Marcus as a stocking-stuffer, continually push for spending for defence contractors without a worry in the world about the budget. Why? Because these hypocritical dunderheads say "such cuts would destroy jobs." So obviously the deficit hysteria is simply that, a pretend crisis to hide an ideology gunning for its greatest achievement to be reintroducing the elderly to the joys of the appetising and eminently satisfying Purina dinner. In addition to economists, some in the business world who care about being good citizens and wellbeing beyond their four walls, understand the importance of infrastructure spending for our economy and people. Stan Litow, the head of IBM's corporate citizen program, with whom I work on some of these projects, answered a question I asked him concerning the role of government in infrastructure development and improvements by affirming that "states and the US government can be major players". Last week Litow and IBM launched their second Smarter Cities Challenge, inviting urban centers across the globe to apply for a grant, technological assistance and consulting services to complete a variety of projects that improve cities while creating jobs. In the past, this has included creating a smart grid in Boulder, Colorado, and improving transportation planning and delivery of services in Austin, Texas. If only the federal government would build upon efforts such as these, to fix our decaying streets while creating jobs for the so-desperately unemployed who inhabit them. Recently, a study was released [PDF] by the Organization for Co-operation and Economic Development (OECD), and, as with so many measures of our country's health, the conservative vice-grip on our culture has taken us straight into the toilet in our rankings on social justice. At 27th, the US is far behind countries such as Hungary (17th) and Poland (20th), and quickly approaching Mexico (30th). Which perhaps is the conservative plan - to make the US so uninhabitable that nobody wants to immigrate here anymore - legally or illegally. Charles Blow of the Times summed up the study perfectly, as "America's Exploding Pipe Dream." If only our infrastructure were instead a pipe bomb, as Krugman pointed out, we'd rush to fund it without end. Follow Cliff on Twitter @cliffschecter This piece was first published at Al Jazeera English
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| #OccupyCal Protesters Circumvent Order Not to Post Tents Posted: 18 Nov 2011 06:00 PM PST [Photo via Flickr] This is one of my favorite pictures from the Occupy events on Thursday. Occupy Cal protesters managed to circumvent an order prohibiting them from posting tents...by floating them above Sproul Hall. At the very least it's a thumbs up, and kudos for creativity!
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| Crazy Things Conservatives Say Posted: 18 Nov 2011 05:00 PM PST Today's daily dose of wingnuttery was so rich I hardly know where to begin, so I'll just dive in. We begin with Pat Robertson, who is very, very worried about President Obama's visit to Indonesia. Via Right Wing Watch:
Yes, of course. The President is going back to the country where he spent a few childhood years. Funny how Robertson never thinks about whether those childhood years were as great as he thinks they were, because you know, every 9-year old looks back with fondness on local children pelting him with rocks for being a black guy, after all. Pat Robertson, king of the smarmy insinuation, pandering to the Christian loyalists waiting to lap it all up. Then we have Rick Perry sounding the dog whistle for the faithful with this, via TalkingPointsMemo:
Why that dirty, lowdown, food-stamp sucking President! Rick Perry's going to set the record straight about him, because you know, those poor folks just don't ever work for anything. They just wait for the government to hand it to them, right? Finally, we have Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood editor-in-chief, John Nolte spewing a series of tweets hoping for violence against OWS protesters. Via LGF:
All part of the desensitization, reprogramming process, folks. Keep repeating the same lies until they're fact. Make ordinary people who disagree with you into dirty hippie demons who threaten your very existence. Turn everything up a few notches, suggest that the poor are as dirty and scummy as those hippies, and hey, pretty soon people end up with that impression even if they don't truly believe it.
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| Why Didn't Newt Register As A Lobbyist? His Work 'Benefits The Country At Large' Posted: 18 Nov 2011 04:00 PM PST I once worked for an online strategy firm, and I know we had to register as a lobbyist - because I had to follow up on the paperwork. The idea that Newt Gingrich was collecting so much money for "advising" organizations, and still claiming he wasn't speaking to legislators is absurd. Think Progress' Lee Fang has the particulars:
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| One-Woman Recall Effort In Wisconsin Takes Off Posted: 18 Nov 2011 03:00 PM PST Wisconsin progressives are undeterred in their efforts to recall the conservative state Senators who ramrodded through the union-busting bill even as Democrats stayed out of the state. The Senator most instrumental in carrying out ALEC wishes was Scott Fitzgerald, Senate Majority Leader and chief Walker enforcer.
Via Dane101.com:
Lori Compas lives in Scott Fitzgerald's highly conservative district and is fed up with him. Undeterred by the heavy lift it will take to secure enough recall signatures for the ballot, she went ahead and filed recall paperwork last week to begin the process.
Sometimes all it takes is one person stepping up and deciding something needs to be done to start the ball rolling.
Yes, as it turns out, people don't like being lied to, misled, and strong-armed into something they don't agree with. Imagine that. Compas has set up a website and welcomes all donations and efforts to get the necessary signatures. She isn't being supported by the Democratic party at this time, so it's truly a one-woman grassroots effort. Compas isn't the only one pursuing recall efforts. Democrats in Wisconsin have filed the paperwork to recall Governor Scott Walker and Senators Pam Galloway, Terry Moulton and Van Wanggaard. Wisconsin's message is clear: Subvert democracy to serve corporate masters at your own peril.
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| Police Mercenaries: Privatizing Liberty Posted: 18 Nov 2011 02:00 PM PST As Mayor Bloomberg's forces swooped down on Occupy Wall Street, news reports described the "hundreds of police and private security guards" who had re-taken Zuccotti Park. Those private guards were used against public citizens who had been exercising their civil liberties in a public area. That's not just wrong. It's unAmerican. This incident holds an important lesson for anyone who loves our freedoms: When something public is made private, our liberties are privatized too. And privatized liberty isn't liberty at all. Privatizing Liberty Zuccotti Park. New Yorkers knew it as Liberty Plaza Park for nearly half a century. Like other sites in New York, the plaza was created through an agreement between the city and a private company, United States Steel, that wanted to erect a building that exceeded the city's height limits. So the city made them a deal: You can take up more than your share of the public skyline, but in return you have to give the city some open space at ground level. This wasn't a gift. It was a fair exchange between two parties, a private corporation and the people of New York. The people gave up a chunk of their skyline and the owner agreed to provide an open - and, by agreement, fully public - space in return. New York City makes these deals fairly often. The plazas created by these agreements are called "privately owned public spaces," or "POPS," and the city has lots of them. The Mayor may want to read that phrase again: It doesn't say "privately owned private spaces." Both the owner and the city are obligated to keep them for public use, in the public sphere, with all the laws and freedoms that apply to public space. The park's current owner, Brookfield Properties, rebuilt the park with private donations after it was damaged in the 9/11 attacks. With Mayor Bloomberg's permission, they also overstepped tradition and the bounds of propriety by renaming the park - not for the thousands of innocent people who died that day, but for their own chairman. The symbolism is perfect:They replaced a treasured word for freedom with the name of a rich guy who'd done nothing to create the park. With the Mayor's blessing, they literally privatized the word "liberty." Like I said, perfect. Tragic, but perfect. Private Dicks Brookfield overstepped its bounds when its CEO sent the mayor a letter saying that the Occupation "violates the law, violates the rules of the Park, deprives the community of its rights of quiet enjoyment to the Park, and creates health and public safety issues." Those aren't decisions a private company, even an owner, should make about a public space. They are judgments an elected official makes on behalf of a free citizenry. This week Bloomberg and Brookfield have used the park's semi-private status as an excuse to invade a public space with a private security force. Whoever these guys were - besides rude and uncivil - they served as a kind of Blackwater militia, but targeting New Yorkers instead of Iraqis. (At least Brookfield says it fired the guard who called a citizen a "faggot.") When it comes to privatization, it seems the Mayor has boundary issues. He has repeatedly used the park's private ownership status to claim, that the public has fewer rights there than it does in other public spaces. That's false. But then, that's the problem with "public/private partnerships." The "public" partner always gets rolled the public one. But then, that's how these people are. Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile. The lesson of Zuccotti Park is: Never give them an inch. Thin Blue Line, Thick Green Wallets News reports made noted the presence of two different groups, New York City police officers and private security guards, but in some ways that's become a distinction without a difference. The NYPD is frequently rented by the same Wall Street banks that broke the law, crashed the economy and got away with it. As Pam Martens reported in Counterpunch, Rudy Giuliani created an operation called the "Paid Detail" unit that turns New York's Finest into a "rent-a-cop" service for anyone with the money to pay for it. And who has more money in New York than the banks? As Martens reports, companies like Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, and the New York Stock Exchange have rented the Thin Blue Line with the cash from their Thick Green Wallets. Even after the Stock Exchange was found to have illegally taken over public streets and walkways and "created a public nuisance," nobody was fined or arrested. But then, it must be hard for a cop to arrest anybody that he sometimes has to address as "boss." Maybe that's one of the reasons why a retired Philadelphia police officer, Capt. Ray Lewis, was willing to be handcuffed and arrested by fellow officers during the protest. Capt. Lewis called their rationale for arresting him a 'farce' and promised to return. (photo by permission of the photographer, Lauren Thorpe) New York isn't the only city that rents out its police force. But the financial capital of the nation bears moral and civic responsibilities that Mayors Guiliani and Bloomberg have disrespected and violated. The photograph of Capt. Lewis is like an image of law enforcement's honor, handcuffed by the mercenary instincts of Gracie Mansion's two most recent occupants. Checkbook Democracy But then, why would Michael Bloomberg be expected to understand that privatization is undemocratic? He "privatized" the electoral process, one of our most sacred democratic institutions, by buying himself the mayoralty. And he spent unprecedented levels of campaign cash from his personal billions to do it. Then, when he didn't like the term limits that the people of New York had decreed for their mayor - well, he "privatized" that too. But this isn't really about Michael Bloomberg. Despite his reputation for healthy self-regard, even the billionaire mayor is only a symptom of a much larger problem. Rich people have been buying elections for so long that it's become the newest form of self-indulgence, conveying even more status than a Citation jet or a private island. Public office is the newest must-have item for the excessively vain and excessive well-to-do, a kind of vanity press for the self-published authors of their own meritless political careers. Bloomberg is merely the today's most conspicuous, extravagant, and fiscally irresponsible member of an increasingly ordinary club. You don't have to be a billionaire to run for office these days, of course. But if you're not you'll spend most of your time begging them for money. No wonder the 1% call all the shots in government. They own it. I've always thought it would be a good idea if elected officials wore the insignia of the corporations that sponsor them, the way race car drivers do. Sold American Republicans want to privatize Social Security and Medicare. The Bush and Obama Administrations have privatized law enforcement on Wall Street by asking banks to police themselves. And during the devastating San Diego fires, residents learned that AIG had created a private fire department that saved the homes of its clients while other nearby houses burned. Privatized police. Privatized fire departments. Privatized prisons. Privatized armies of Halliburton and Blackwater soldiers. When for-profit companies perform government functions, they'll do it in a way that makes them money. That's not hard to understand, but our "leaders" keep doing it anyway. Why? Because they've privatized their consciences, too.
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