mendacious

Extraordinarily mendacious post in the Times today. The head is "The Perils of Pay Less, Get More". David Leonhardt discusses the deficit as if we, the spoiled masses of the US, have ruined the economy over the last twenty years by selfishly clamoring only for more more more for us, and less less less in taxes. It is as if the Clinton budget surplus never existed, and the Dubya deficit did not gut it to slop more riches to the already wealthy.

It's not as if this was a secret. Dubya crowed at the Al Smith Dinner in 2000, "This is an impressive crowd - the haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elites; I call you my base." This was three weeks before the election.

SEC filings show that "Top executives at the beleaguered New York Times Company reaped hefty rewards last year, with Chairman Arthur 'Pinch' Sulzberger more than doubling his total compensation to $6 million.... CEO Janet Robinson got even more, reaping $6.3 million, a 31.9 percent hike."

The financial plight of the Times company would easily be solved if they dropped the pretense and priced to sell to their community - plutocrats. Hey, 'Pinch'! Charge $50 for the daily edition, $500 for Sundays and $10,000 per year for web access. Keep out hoi polloi, drop the display ads for mass dreck like Ralph Lauren* (Hermes and Coach have new stores for men!) and embrace your base.

Why did I have to read about an $8,500 baseball glove in the WSJ? Rupert's going to drink your milkshake.

*Nothing specific against Mr. Lauren's clothing and accessories. They just happened to be in the banner when I clicked over to the Times.

>>> Firedoglake post of the day: Never mind Kucinich, here comes the fascism!

"this pustule in the white house"

Dan Riehl, whose blog I will not link to, refers thusly to President Barack Obama. Well, one man's opinion. He goes on to describe O as "this accidental, affirmative action jerk." And now we know something about the man behind the opinion.

The man behind the opinion believes that if the GOP doesn't stop O and the Dems, "it becomes not just a right, but a responsibility for the American people to take their country back from the political elites that have already bankrupted it."

Mr. Riehl's post was enthusiastically tweeted by Erick Erickson of RedState and linked to by Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit. These two rank #22 and #17 in the DBKP list of 100 most popular conservative websites.* Glenn Beck's site nestles between them. Instapundit and RedState are each more popular than Sean Hannity's, Bill O'Reilly's or Ann Coulter's sites, more often visited than the Heritage Foundation or Cato Institute sites. It was nice of them to send some affirmative action Mr. Riehl's way (not far enough down the rankings for my taste at #53).**

*Based on Alexa traffic rankings - DBKP here.
**I pulled the rankings from DBKP, but learned of Mr. Riehl thru Alex Koppelman at Salon. That article I happily link to.

health

Something's happening today that's supposed to mean something. This health care summit between Obama and the Republicans. I just can't get interested. The only thing that interests me is what's in the bill that will eventually pass - or fail to pass - Congress. And I have no reason to think that this bill will fix anything in any meaningful way.
I believe the only change that will improve access to health care is a public option or the opening up of Medicare. Anything less is just more blah di blah.
This whole process has been so comprehensively disheartening that I have to remind myself that even if the politicos defy their corporate masters and come up with something that will actually make health care affordable and accessible, the anti-choice folks are just salivating to put the kibosh on it.
If whatever wretched compromise that limps to O's desk includes a mandate that will punish people who refuse to give money to the insulting, inhumane, dishonest health insurance industry - people who would rather risk sickness or death than to pay for the privilege of being abused - even people who can't afford to pay for the privilege of being abused - then I think the result will be to set fires on the right and on the left in this country that will be catastrophic if they burn and calamitous if they are extinguished.
My personal inclinations have become apocalyptic. Rayne over at Firedoglake has a good post urging progressives to increase efforts to steer and take over the Democratic Party. I don't think that's possible any more. The government is sick.

added later: What this country needs is a more fearful ruling class.

Stack's tax beef "was legit"

That crazy libertarian communist teabagging anarchist site, Salon, opines "Stack's beef was legit."

more Stack

Glenn Greenwald at Salon also argues that Joseph Andrew Stack can't be slotted into left or right, and that the note/manifesto he left behind is in no way crazy.

Greenwald goes on to make very strongly the point that Stack was a terrorist, in any objective, unpoliticized sense of the word. Government and mainstream media are currently invested in not recognizing Stack's as a terrorist act, because "terrorist acts" can only be performed by a THEM, not an US.

If and when (I suspect it's when) gov and media start using the phrases "American terrorists" or "domestic terrorists," or some euphemism for such, that's the tipping point. That's when the arsenal of unconstitutional, unAmerican, extra-legal acts promoted by Bush/Cheney and excused or embraced by the Obama/Democratic administration will come to bear on the formerly US.

Don't dismiss Stack as insane, either, unless you're willing to posit that if he had survived his attack he would be unprosecuted or found not guilty by reason of insanity.

To see what your fellow citizens are saying about Stack, I recommend avoiding the politically identified websites, right or left, and reading the comments posted at ostensibly neutral sites, like CNN.com or USA Today. Lots of people identifying with Stark or defending the points made in his suicide manifesto.

Joseph Andrew Stack, Not Crazy

I've boiled down the suicide note left online by Joseph Stack, who flew his plane into the IRS building in Austin today. How many of the first six paragraphs seem reasonable? How much of the eighth paragraph forward seems crazy?

1. Why did I do this? 


2. I was brought up to think that the government is on our side.


3. The actions of politicians show that they do not care for the public good.
4. The rich gamble and steal and the government bails them out. Drug and insurance companies prey on vulnerable citizens, but the politicians only serve wealthy corporations. 


5. I’m fed up. Justice? You’ve got to be kidding!
6. The tax system is too complicated for even experts to understand, but if an individual makes a mistake the system is merciless.
7. How did I get here?
8. I tried to be a good citizen. The government didn’t care. I met other honest people who tried to live by the rules and were ripped off by corporations, unions, cheating financiers. A powerful, corrupt religion got preferred treatment.
Finally, after a lot of time and expense, I thought everything was OK, but the government betrayed me. No matter what happened, they were determined to bleed me dry.
I tried even harder. I couldn’t get a break anywhere. It was like the whole world turned against me. I might have made some mistakes, but my family and I suffered while the fat cats thrived. When the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes. Even the president is just a puppet of the powerful.
....[V]iolence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing at, and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.
I have just had enough.

Methodology: The first seven paras correspond to the first seven paras in the suicide note. The long section eight severely abbreviates Stack's grievances with the IRS and streamlines the rest of his general and personal complaints. The italic type is taken straight from the note (with one comma moved for sense).

I don't know if the wiring in his brain was the real villain (altho burning down the house that sheltered his wife and daughter indicates less than perfect equanimity). I don't know how if he was a Teabagger or a Trotskyist.

It doesn't matter.

Any given American plucked off the web or out of a crowd, any crowd, is likely to be in agreement with the assertions in the first seven paras or the sentiments in the eighth. I am. The most common exception would be about the uses of violence... and I think that Stack's conclusion is going to become more common, not less.

More angry people feeling that they have no recourse and nothing left to lose? Joseph Andrew Stack, American.