Barack the Bizarre

So, I was only half paying attention to the latest who-dissed-who crap in Washington yesterday, with Obama and Boehner playing dueling playdates again.  The usual "I'm the adult and you're not, so there!" stuff that the people suffering through one of the worst natural disasters in American history couldn't care less about, especially since about a million are still without electricity, internet and cable.

Tropical Storm Irene and mass disaster have been flooded out by "Boehner Stiffs Obama on Joint Session!" on the front pages.  People at the end of their ropes have been replaced by pundits gasping "Is Obama Playing a Game of Rope-a-Dope over Speech?"  and "This Has Never Happened Before in the History of American Political History" hysteria.

So late last night I had just finished writing my "Eric the Dread" post about how Cantor doesn't care about disaster victims, when I decided to check my email one last time before turning in.  There was a message from "Barack" with the title "Frustrated".  Wow, I thought to myself, the president is writing to all the people in the federal disaster zones to offer us a few crumbs of presidential sympathy. But was I ever wrong.  Here is what he (or a campaign flunky) wrote:

Karen --

Today I asked for a joint session of Congress where I will lay out a clear plan to get Americans back to work. Next week, I will deliver the details of the plan and call on lawmakers to pass it.

( I didn't get what I wanted so I am bitching to you. I am also not making you privy to any of my so-called plans. They suck, but my soaring rhetoric can make anything sound good.  You'll just have to wait).

Whether they will do the job they were elected to do is ultimately up to them.

( I am running against the generic Congress, not the Republican Congress, or even against any of the Republican candidates. If you don't get your precious jobs bill, it's all on those Democrats and Republicans -- not me. I am completely ignoring the progressive emergency Jobs Bill introduced by Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Whether I do the job I was elected to do is not ultimately up to me.  It's somebody else's fault. It's my job that is ultimately at stake here).

But both you and I can pressure them to do the right thing. We can send the message that the American people are playing by the rules and meeting their responsibilities -- and it's time for our leaders in Congress to meet theirs.

(Triangulate with the voters against Generic Congress.  Invite them to join my exclusive "Adults Only" VIP Club of Populist Insiders.  Break out in a rendition of Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World.")

And we must hold them accountable if they don't.

(Or else.... what?  Send them to their rooms?)

So I'm asking you to stand with me in calling on Congress to step up and take action on jobs.

No matter how things go in the weeks and months ahead, this will be an important challenge for our organization.

(Put Country before Party, but Organization ("Obama for America") before Country).

It's been a long time since Congress was focused on what the American people need them to be focused on.

I know that you're frustrated by that. I am, too.

(I pretend that my base of purist idealogues is not at all frustrated with Moi.  If they can no longer worship me, I shall play the Pity Card).

That's why I'm putting forward a set of bipartisan proposals to help grow the economy and create jobs -- that means strengthening our small businesses, giving needed breaks to middle-class families, while taking responsible steps to bring down our deficit.

(Even though I just called out Congress for being a bunch of whiney brats, I shall still cling to my bipartishit delusions.  Oh, and growing the economy and creating jobs is code for Trickle Down Reaganomics.  I know, I know, it's been debunked as a theory, but maybe if I keep repeating it over and over and over, I will make it so.  And I simply can't discuss jobs without taking those responsible steps to slash your social safety net.  I need an adult plan that has to be grand to calm down the Markets.  We're in this together, you and I.  The Markets rule all of us, so let's be team players and go along to get along, ok?)

I'm asking lawmakers to look past short-term politics and take action on that plan. But we've got to do this together.

I will deliver this message to Congress next week, but I'm asking you to stand alongside me today: (inserts link simply requesting name and email only).

(A ploy by my campaign to see just how dwindling my base of support really is).

More to come,

Barack

I don't know if Ezra Klein saw a copy of this missive, but he sounded about as disgusted as I've ever heard him this morning:

To paraphrase economist Brad DeLong, last night was one of those nights when you remember that even taking into account the fact that our political system is performing worse than you could possibly imagine, it's performing worse than you can possibly imagine. Washington has made many more consequential missteps than this one. But few of them have been so thoroughly depressing, so insistent on showing us us, with brutal clarity, what the greatest nation in the world has come to.

Read his whole post. I think it's time we all get together and start our own mass triangulation movement.  This is no longer about Republican vs. Democrat.  This is all about Them vs. Us.  You know.... the Class War.

   

 

Eric the Dread

It could always be worse.  Eric Cantor could actually be your congressman. Contrary to urban legend, Cantor does indeed have among his constituents people who can't stand him.  And the feeling is mutual. Just yesterday, he unleashed both public and private security on two separate groups of voters just to avoid having to talk to them.  He didn't even grace them with his famous lip-curling sneer.


Next Time, Take Out Some Earthquake Insurance!


The first episode occurred when a small group of women wearing identical "Can'tOrWon't" tee shirts entered one of his district offices for an appointment. Cantor was a no-show. While they were trying to get him on the office phone, the cops showed up, saying they were responding to a complaint of a disturbance.  The women left and the officers made sure they did. Check out the video. You tell me if this group posed a terrorist threat. Of course, the way they insist on calling him "Can't-or" probably does nothing to endear them to the sensitive Eric.


Later on, when another group of constituents showed up for a private town hall at a Richmond Holiday Inn, Cantor had hired bouncers already on hand for this Tea Party  invitation-only affair to eject the crashers.  Here they are,  demonstrating in the parking lot.  (Think Progress has more. The progressives had actually booked space in the hotel and were later asked to leave by the Holiday Inn. Now there is talk of a national boycott against Holiday Inn.)

Last year, there was the beating of a Democratic constituent by a Cantor thug bearing a striking resemblance to a character from "The Hills Have Eyes."


What a way to end a summer of Cantor love.  His trifecta of heartless rebuffs in the name of some phoney fiscal ideology to victims of a tornado, an earthquake and a tropical storm all in the space of just a few months not only alienated every decent person on the planet, it even made New Jersey Governor Chris Christie mad. One of the nastiest GOP governors who ever lived thinks Cantor is way beyond mean and nasty.  All this, on top of his temper tantrum success at dominating Debt Ceiling Crisis Theater and not holding a single public town hall for his whole August vacation. He brings a whole new meaning to the term "Recess Bully".


Young Gun Eric has been shooting some major blanks.  He appears to be suffering from the hubristic and usually fatal disease of Republican Overreach. Never having won an election with less than 59 percent of the vote, his confidence knows no bounds.  As one blogger put it, Cantor is best understood when you view him as a lobbyist posing as a legislator.  He is all about the money.... for himself and for his oligarchic compatriots and for his fellow reps.  He got where he is today, and his party tolerates his repulsive whining and demands, because he knows how to get money.  Piles and piles and piles of it.
 He was a protege of former House Speaker and convicted felon Tom DeLay, and was one of his most ardent supporters until it no longer served his own interests. He slavishly called DeLay "Boss". And then there was the star-crossed friendship with lobbyist and convicted felon Jack Abramoff, who once named one of his famous deli sandwiches after Eric Cantor.  Eric joked about it at the time, bragging about how he changed it from a tuna stacker to a roast beef on challah because that "exuded Jewish power." Then Abramoff was indicted -- and suddenly Eric denied even knowing anything about the alleged sandwich. (Larry David used the sandwich saga as the basis of an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm", even though, Cantor-style, he has always denied the connection). Just to make sure people believed him, Cantor achingly announced he was giving all his Abramoff cash to charity.


We all complain about the stenographic mainstream media dutifully parroting the wit and wisdom of the nefarious politicians, but Cantor more than has them in the bag.  His state's "paper of record", the Richmond Times-Dispatch, is owned by a media conglomerate directed by Cantor's very own wife Diana, a former Goldman Sachs vice president. Every time the newspaper runs an article (usually favorable) about the congressman, it adds a caveat at the bottom, revealing the relationship and at the same time denying any conflict of interest.  All in the name of being fair and balanced, naturally.


Some of the stories are truly hilarious, and they usually fall into the category of Eric or his staff excusing the latest gaffe, explaining the latest lie, or waxing indignant that someone even dared to call Wonder Boy a hypocrite.  My favorite is when Cantor tried to weasel his way out of explaining how his wife accepted a TARP bailout for a bank she also runs.  Her taking the money was purely accidental and a con game perpetrated on her by the government!  They fooled the poor woman, by golly.  A staffer called it "a freak coincidence" that Mrs. Cantor's bank received a $267 million bailout from legislation her husband helped push through.  She said she had no idea where the money came from, and certainly never lobbied for it.


But once in awhile, there's a slip-up and Diana Cantor's paper prints the truth. Somehow, "Politifact Virginia" managed to hack into the paper's website (or so Eric might have us believe) last October and award him with their top "Pants on Fire" liar rating when he said that "in the past two years the Democrats have spent more money than this country spent in the last 200 years combined." 


 And Politifact was duly aghast, writing: "That's wrong no matter how you slice it! And it's not just wrong -- it's ridiculously wrong. We rate the claim Pants on Fire."


The AP awarded Cantor its "hypocrite of the week" honors when he became majority leader this year and promptly increased spending on his own staff by 16 percent, at the same time he was positioning himself as a deficit hawk.  All told, Cantor has raised staff salaries by a total of 81 percent since he was elected to Congress.


Another memorable headline in Cantor hypocrisy says it all: "Stimulus Dollars Have Not Produced Jobs, Cantor Says, While Hosting a Jobs Fair With Companies That Received $52 Million to Create Jobs." (ThinkProgress).


Feeling depressed, angry, bored by all of this? Take heart.  Out of the miasma of the Virginia swamps arises one E. Wayne Powell, a former military intelligence officer and progressive Democrat who is mounting a serious challenge to our favorite crooked politician.  Nobody has ever seriously challenged Cantor before. The man is entrenched in the corrupt system. But Powell is starting early, has tons of support and is raising money. And he doesn't look like a Spineless Democrat!  He looks like he could easily take on Cantor's hired thugs.  I eagerly anticipate the debates Eric will cancel out of his customary cowardice, and his inevitable McCarthyesque downfall, and a reprieve from more egregious nastiness to come out of one politician in 10 years than in more than 200 years of the entire history of American politics. Let Politifact check that claim out, and I can guarantee they'll award it the golden halo of veracity. 
  

Powell the Powerful: Knuckle Sandwich Maker?


Update 9/1:  There is yet another Democrat vying for Cantor's seat.  His name is David Hunsicker, a combat Air Force veteran who flew missions in Vietnam and a progressive whose first priority is jobs -- and who's also an advocate of Medicare for All.  You can learn more about him here.

Irene Aftermath

The full scope of the disaster in the Northeast is just now becoming clear, with some roads  slowly reopening, electricity and internet  being spottily restored and people venturing out to inspect the damage.  It's a scene of utter destruction. 

But to give you an idea of the spirit that reigns in these parts right along with the devastation, here is a film made by Jo Ostrander, a resident of the little town of Shokan in northern Ulster County, NY.  This whole area is known as "greater Woodstock".  I call it the Dried Lentil Belt.  Much of the region is populated by hippies who never left after that epic weekend in 1969, along with a lot of artists and craftspeople.  One of the towns  pictured in the video is Phoenicia, recently named the "sixth coolest small town in America".   The award winning indie film, "You Can Count on Me" and the cult horror classic "Wendigo" were filmed there.  

This area is not wealthy, not by a long stretch.  Average household income in Phoenicia is about $22,000.  Nearby Margaretville has been figuratively underwater for years, with close to 20 percent of the population living below the poverty level.  Now it's literally underwater.

I can now count among my list of accomplishments the fact that my neighborhood has been named an official federal disaster area by the president.  But of course, the austerian politicians want this flood-ravaged region to tighten its belt and share the sacrifice.  If any federal money is forthcoming for repairs of infrastructure and humanitarian aid, they want us to cut back in other ways.  They also want to raise taxes on the victims of this catastrophe, having just now noticed that nearly half of poor people haven't been earning enough to pay taxes.  So maybe they can wrest a compromise from the White House  trading a few dollars of storm damage relief for a reduction in food stamp benefits or the earned income tax credit.

Maybe they should also reflect on the fact that the dams are bursting, and torrents of polluted water flow downhill to Wall Street.  The drinking water of the oligarchs originates in this disaster zone.

Update: Marie Burns of RealityChex.com is at least temporarily back online from Disaster Zone Central. Glad to hear she is ok.

Floodville, cont.

Posting has been and will be intermittent, due to ongoing power outages and/or loss of the internets. Outages were actually increasing today, since trees continue to fall on power lines. An entire subdivision not far from me was evacuated because a little creek transformed into a raging torrent ruptured a gas pipeline. A cloud of gas is still wafting above the Hudson Valley somewhere.

Anyway, in checking in to the news today after being in an information vacuum for the past 24 hours, I am glad to see The Times is finally noticing that New York extends past the five boroughs and there is a major freaking catastrophe going on.  Many of our towns, including in our neighboring Vermont, are literally cut off. So far, reported deaths have been surprisingly few, given the epic scope of this disaster. But I am afraid many isolated people in isolated areas have been lost or remain stranded without anybody even noticing. Power may not be restored to many until next week.  And the locales affected were already underwater, economically. 

I have to say I am worried about our friend Marie Burns of RealityChex.com -- she was in her cottage in one of the devastated areas upstate and we haven't heard from her. If she could get out, I know she would post in a McDonald's or other WiFi area.  So I have a feeling her road may be blocked. Since vehicles can't get through, volunteers are searching the area on foot. The last I heard from Marie, she was as well-prepared as she could be, stocked up on food, water, etc.

Here are some more photos from the local paper. Why do some parents think it's a cute idea to have their kids pose waist-deep in flood waters? 

P.S.  Having just gotten the internet and electricity back, having endured a horizontal lashing of 10 inches of wind-driven rain, I received an email from my apartment management stating they are going to power wash the outdoor area and to bring in all my loose belongings. I think they must be related to the people who tell their kids to go outside and swim in the fun new water park in the front yard.

Greetings from Floodville

Although New York City escaped with a few puddles lapping around Anderson Cooper's designer galoshes, we haven't been so lucky in points north and west.  I am one of the fortunate third of about 150,000 Ulster County residents who still has electricity, but my town is totally cut off by rock slides and floods.  Several people have had to be rescued from the rising waters, and there have been reports of drivers trapped in cars. In New Paltz, an indefinite ban on all vehicular and pedestrian traffic has been imposed. So while Irene is departing, she is leaving quite a mess behind.  No reports of injuries, but as you can see from this photo album, plenty of damage. (I live on Route 32, which looks like it is collapsing down the road from me!). The people without power look to be without it for days to come, since repair crews can't make it through blocked and washed-out roads. 

All Irene, All the Time

Here in the Eastern U.S., we're hunkering down and battening down the hatches as Hurricane Irene barrels up the coast, pounding 50 million people with rain, lashing us with wind, whipping us with surf. It's not only The Perfect Storm -- it's the Storm of the Century!  All twelve years of it! Trees will snap like matchsticks, roofs will peel away like sardine can lids.

Now that I have the hackneyed hyperbole out of the way, here are my nominations for best and worst hurricane headlines so far:

Best: "To Flee or Not to Flee?"  (New York Daily News)

Worst: "Weak but Strong" (New York Post).

Potential headline in the aftermath: "Obama to New York: Drop Dead! (except FEMA trailers will be set up for Wall Street employees and the National Guard will transport generators to give confidence to the markets and keep those high speed trades humming).

Meanwhile, I am following all the advice.  Flashlights and batteries, check.  Bread, water, peanut butter, premade cold coffee, check.  Fill bathtub with water, check.  They never tell you why you should fill the tub, but I am guessing it's so you can flush the toilet once in awhile after three days without electricity.  I doubt I'll be up for a luxurious soak in stale tepid water, and the thought of sticking a straw in it for a nice satisfying slurp doesn't thrill me.  But we know what Grover Norquist would do: "My goal is to cut government in half in 25 years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

The way some of the usual conservative suspects are talking, though, we won't have to wait 25 years.... not if Irene destroys the elitist "Acela Corridor", as David Brooks calls it.  Ron Paul chose this week to launch into a diatribe against FEMA.  "There's no magic about FEMA," he said. "They're a great contribution to deficit financing, but frankly, they don't have a penny in the bank.  We should be coordinated, but coordinated voluntarily with the states.  A state can decide. We don't need somebody in Washington."

Unbelievably, Paul yearns for the good old days before the Army Corps of Engineers built a seawall in his district (Galveston, Texas) to protect it from hurricanes.  The deadliest storm in American history hit Galveston in 1900, killing a documented 6,000 people (including children in an orphanage), with another 2,000 missing and presumed dead.

And Eric Cantor, whining House majority leader: where do I even start?  Before the earthquake hit his home district this week, it never dawned on me that he even had a district, or constituents. To me, he was just this weasely little operative who one day magically appeared under the Capitol Dome before the TV cameras.  He has always been there and he will never leave.  But no!  He actually visited the disaster scene and talked to people who apparently voted for him.

Unbelievably, he told the victims that federal disaster aid would only be forthcoming if money can be cut from other areas of the budget (probably from WIC or food stamps), because -- again -- it's not the function of Washington to do stuff that actually helps people. And these same people will presumably elect him again... and again... and again.

But I think we can all count on Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine principles to kick into high gear in Irene's aftermath.  Politicians like Cantor will find a way to cash in.  Psychopaths will find a million different ways to turn a profit on the suffering of millions of people.... mainly poor people.  As Barbara Bush Senior did after Hurricane Katrina, millionaires will ostentatiously give to charity, but only if said charity benefits a friend or family member's business.

Sometimes I take a great notion to jump into the bathtub and drown. (Apologies to Huddy Ledbetter, composer of "Goodnight Irene.")   Here is the Willie Nelson version.

Note.... Utility company is telling us to expect power outages to last at least several days, so this will be likely be my last post for awhile.  Have a great weekend, everybody, and stay safe.

A Scandal Within a Scandal

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been unceremoniously kicked off the panel of state AGs negotiating a sweetheart deal with the big bank scammers over the robo-signing foreclosure fraud mess, because he wouldn't go along to get along.  He was being too mean to Wall Street, and throwing a monkey wrench in the works, as New York Fed member Kathryn Wylde so bluntly put it Monday.  He is insisting on treating the bankers as suspected criminals rather than the fine upstanding community parasites they are. (see my previous post).

The man doing the kicking was Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, head of the 50-state panel investigating working with the banks on a simple settlement to make it all go away, quickly. Since the whitewash probe started last year, Miller's campaign war chest has received $261,445 in donations from the financial services industry -- 88 times the total of all contributions he had received in the past decade, according to findings of the National Institute on Money in State Politics.(NIMSP) 

Miller, a Democrat, was in the midst of a tough re-election battle as he took over the investigation -- and the out-of-state money began pouring in.  From the Des Moines Register:

Miller said the (NIMSP) report “is false or misleading from the start to the finish,” noting that almost all of the specific contributors listed in the report are not involved in the foreclosure irregularity issue.
Furthermore the report compares Miller’s campaign finances with other recent elections, including in 2006 when he ran unopposed. The comparison is unfair, he said.
“It’s riddled with misrepresentations and falsehoods,” Miller said. “But the main falsehood is that these people had vested interest in the investigation. None did except for two that give $15,000 and have been longtime friends of mine.”

So  -- only two of his pals compromised the investigation, thus ameliorating the whole conflict-of-interest miasma of corruption, huh?  This admission seemingly takes Miller's involvement well beyond the mere "appearance of impropriety."  The Dubuque Telegraph Herald certainly smelled a rat. From a May 1 editorial: 

Maybe Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller has done nothing wrong in accepting campaign donations from finance, insurance and real estate companies. But the appearance, at face value, of a conflict of interest is so strong, Miller has more explaining to do. Last fall, it was Miller who led the charge against Big Banks' improper foreclosure practices, but lately, he seems much more low-key about the pursuit of lenders who forced families out of their homes. A report published last week by the National Institute on Money in State Politics suggests one reason Miller has eased off the accelerator has to do with a war chest full of big donations.

This begs the question: who investigates a state attorney general, the chief law enforcement officer of the state, for possible corruption?  Eric Holder?  Don't hold your breath: if he's going after anyone, it's Schneiderman.  Besides, Tom Miller and Obama go way back.  He was instrumental in ensuring Barack's victory in the Iowa when he was still a relative unknown, saying in February 2007: "Endorsing a candidate this early is no ordinary occurrence in the Iowa caucuses - but Barack Obama is no ordinary candidate."  (little did we know then just how out of the ordinary).


Iowa AG Tom "Unconflicted" Miller

 Meanwhile, calls for the resignation of Kathryn Wylde for her own brand of conflict of interest have started popping up. There was that one demand from an activist group last March, (previous post), and now macroeconomic analyst Barry Ritholtz of The Big Picture is ramping it up, noting Wylde is supposed to be representing the public  from her seat on the New York Fed.  But, he writes, the fact that Wylde seems to think her job is defending Wall Street over the real victims of the mortgage debacle is not all that surprising and is merely paralleling the pro-bank stance of the Obama Administration:

I do not know if Ms. Wylde understands what her proper role should be, but clearly she is somewhat confused. She appears to be far more interested in representing the banks than the public.
Note that the Federal Reserve (and indirectly, the NY Fed) are conflicted players in this. On the one hand, they are supposed to be bank regulators (a task they have performed poorly). But they are also substantial investors in the banks, and their  regulatory oversight role is obviously conflicted.
There have been all manner of criminal and civil trespasses committed, and we should find out who ordered them, who committed them and why. AG Schneiderman should continue investigating the robo-signing, bring civil and criminal charges where necessary.
Recall that the original problems came about in large part due to Alan Greenspan’s Nonfeasance — the failure to perform his professional obligations of oversight and regulation. That any member of the Federal Reserve or NY Fed wants this closed before any investigation has been undertaken is a scandal of the highest magnitude.
Kathryn S. Wylde, and any other Fed member shirking their duties and committing nonfeasance should step down immediately.

Wylde is a very busy woman, with many fingers on the pulse (or in the pie) of New York. From her bio:

An internationally known expert in housing, economic development and urban policy, Wylde serves on a number of boards and advisory groups, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the New York State Commission to Modernize the Regulation of Financial Services, the Mayor’s Sustainability Advisory Board, NYC Economic Development Corporation, The Legal Aid Society, NYC Leadership Academy, the Research Alliance for NYC Public Schools, the Manhattan Institute, the Biomedical Research Alliance of New York, and the Special Commission on the Future of NYS Courts.

Along with the Iowa attorney general, Wylde just does not see any conflict of interest. As she so blithely put it in an email to the Huffington Post in defending her defense of Wall Street, the banks she does not regulate "leave their institutional identities at the door and work with us on challenges facing the city and state."  (translation: buying off Gov. Andrew Cuomo via her "Committee to Save New York" lobbying cabal, getting him to dump the millionaires' surtax, leading to a budget deficit, leading to the announced layoffs today of over 700 teachers in New York City alone).

Appearance of impropriety or not, these Wall Street hacks and defenders of justice simply don't seem to care what we think.  Let them keep shooting their mouths off.  They're drowning in their own B.S.