Month: November 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Media villagers have made much in recent days of Tea-Publicans indicating a willingness to break their "no new taxes" pledge to the Tax Fairy, Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. Really?

Take a closer look at what these Tea-Publicans are actually saying. They are couching what they say in hypotheticals, and making it contingent upon Democrats agreeing to gut social security and Medicare. They haven't broken ranks at all with this corrupt K Street lobbyist.

I have to agree with Greg Sargent at The Plum Line:

It’s remarkable how many people are getting snookered into thinking there’s anything meaningful about this supposed “break” with Norquist. What matters is what Republicans actually support in the way of tax hikes. And again: Agreeing to more revenues only via closing loopholes is not a major concession. It’s merely agreeing to the Mitt Romney approach. Meanwhile, there are other signs that Republicans are not serious about showing more flexibility.

Posted by Bob Lord

Salon posted a chilling piece today containing interviews of Israeli veterans regarding Gaza. First, the background on the suffocating control Israel exercises there:

Israeli naval blockades stop Gazans from fishing, a main source of food in the Strip. Air blockades prevent freedom of movement. Israel does not allow building materials into the area, forbids exports to the West Bank and Israel, and (other than emergency humanitarian cases) prohibits movement between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It controls the Palestinian economy by periodically withholding import taxes. Its restrictions have impeded the expansion and upgrading of the Strip’s woeful sewage infrastructure, which could render life in Gaza untenable within a decade. The blocking of seawater desalination has turned the water supply into a health hazard. Israel has repeatedly demolished small power plants in Gaza, ensuring that the Strip would have to continue to rely on the Israeli electricity supply. Daily power shortages have been the norm for several years now. Israel’s presence is felt everywhere, militarily and otherwise.

The interviews really should be read in their entirety, but here are some of the passages I found especially chilling:

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

There was a most excellent piece of advice for President Obama on how to negotiate the "fiscal cliff" austerity crisis with Tea-Publicans from a classmate of his at Harvard Law, Marty Latz, in today's Arizona Republic. Here are some tips for Obama on fiscal-cliff negotiations:

Dear Mr. President:

Let me be frank: You are losing leverage each day you negotiate with
the Republicans without publicly reframing the fiscal cliff as a
flexible deadline that can pass without serious ramifications.

If you do this and wait to consummate a deal until 2013, your
leverage will strengthen and you will have a greater ability to
accomplish your goals.

What
should you do? Here are suggestions, from someone who has been studying
and training professionals in negotiation full time for almost 20
years.

Control the negotiation agenda.

It appears you are already losing control over the agenda. How? By
accepting the narrative that the fiscal cliff is a hard deadline that on
Jan. 1 will throw our economy into a tailspin.

As you know, this is not true. The Bush tax cuts will expire and
sequestration will go into effect only starting on Jan. 1. Employers
will not suddenly fire workers if there is no budget deal by then.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

So we are treated today to yet another instalment of Beltway media villager conventional wisdom bemoaning the loss of the mythical moderate — the "moderate" who exists solely by virtue of how the Beltway media villager conventional wisdom chooses to define "moderate." Today's version is by AP (All Propganda) reporter Alan Fram, Fewer moderates in next Congress.

For Democrats, a "moderate" is defined as a pro-Wall Street, anti-tax, fiscally conservative Democrat who regularly votes with Republicans in Congress. In other words, Republican-Lite.

Mr. Fram identifies these Democrats as "moderates": Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Ben Nelson of
Nebraska, Jim Webb of Virginia, and
independent Joe Lieberman. These senators are center-right on fiscal and tax issues, but solid Democrats on social issues.

The modern-day Tea-Publicans are radical extremists. As I have said many times, this is not your father's GOP. The "Party of Lincoln" is a distant fading memory. So how exactly does Beltway media villager conventional wisdom define a "moderate" Republican from among these radical extremists?

Mr. Fram does not say. But Mr. Fram does identify these Republicans as "moderates": Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Richard Lugar of Indiana, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, and Olympia Snowe of Maine.