Indefinite Detention? But I Have Soccer Practice at 4: U.S. Politics 2012

max gets points for reasonably engaging with commenters

Cornel West to TNC re Obama and the killings:

"You have Martin Luther King's statue in your office, but you are sending these unmanned drones out, and bombs are dropping on innocent people. That's not a small thing. That's not a small thing. We know from historic examples that if you engage in a certain kind of foreign policy it eats at your soul on the domestic front."

I kind of hate Cornel West but he is OTM kinda good to see someone from the lefty black community going after O on this

hey some of max's readers think the GWOT is still going on; set em straight, Shakey!

I don't do comments

Rehashing the recent past

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_06/the_choice_questionable_someth037704.php

link to tnr article with claim that the current jobs mess is at least partially Obama’s responsibility because he decided against prioritizing more and bigger stimulus when such a bill still had a chance to make it to his desk

However some commenters say the weak Dem Congress even then might not have gone for a bigger stimulus

Rehashing the very recent past, right before the election:

Of course, It's incredibly important that Barrett defeat Scott Walker in Wisconsin, and the DNC's decision-making in refusing to help is baffling. I'm sure the President and his team feel that throwing their weight into this arena only to lose would be seen as a rejection of the President himself. This is typical shortsightedness: Republicans will spin it as a defeat for Obama whether the DNC is involved or not, even as Republicans across the country rub their hands in glee at the prospect of ending collective bargaining rights across the country.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/demographic-tidbits-from-wisconsin-by.html

the DNC has handled the Walker recount with its usual mix of cowardice and anxiety. As usual the GOP understands what a victory represents.

The First Bomber (another funeral attack this weekend) has quite an array of righty shits approving of his tactics:

http://www.salon.com/2012/06/04/obama_again_bombs_mourners/singleton/

oh you sillies, New Dems don't like labor unions any more than Republicans. at best, they tolerate them b/c they get out the vote (just like the non-Teabag GOP tolerates but doesn't really like the Jesus Freaks).

http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/06/04/a-bipartisan-solution-to-endorse-breaking-up-the-big-banks/

A Weekly Standard columnist routinely criticized by the left, now advocates (for his own reasons) breaking up big banks.

This will never happen.

Bravo to Paul Krugman, who often flails on American TV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r-AKruzmkk&feature=youtu.be

I'm just seeing a big white space. Is it his HardTalk appearance?

He was excellent on This Week yesterday.

I just looked at my mail-in ballot for the first time, and I'm like, "Wtf is Roseanne Barr doing on here."

xpost i'm also just seeing a white space.

am guessing its video of klugman being badass on the BBC's newsnight in the UK? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqDnnzY_tU8

"This is not a household, this is an economy" is a great line. "Your spending is my income, my spending is your income."

Brits in this clip take dangerous rhetorical tack with Krugman. "Don't you think ..." "You must agree that ..."

"No," says Krugman.

Harry Truman and the do-nothing Congress may be the stuff of legend, but guess what? That probably had little to do with Truman's victory. Truman won because the economy was on a tear for the entire year before the 1948 election: Nominal GDP skyrocketed (chart below) and real GDP was growing at a pretty healthy clip too. Economically speaking, it was a terrific peacetime performance.

Obama doesn't have this. He's got about 3% nominal growth and 2% real growth. There might be justice in blaming this on Republicans, but probably not electoral victory.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/06/myth-harry-truman-and-do-nothing-congress

Sometimes justice is enough

Tim, the restrictions of the Sunday talk show format – you cannot get too "partisan" lest you offend one of the seven conservatives who always outnumber the moderate who's supposed to be the "liberal" – often make Krugman look wan.

The governor has laid out very detailed plans. People can go to mittromney.com and learn about them for themselves. But I think what we really have here...

(CROSSTALK)

KRUGMAN: ... ...I know from detailed plans and there is nothing there. There is not...

Nice, he was able to get past Stephanapoulis and George Will and cut to the point

I agree, Alfred. He was stellar on Sunday, though. Every comment right on point.

—stats about today's election to decide the future of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker:

70 percent: How much more expensive the governor's recall election is than the state's second-most expensive race (the 2010 gubernatorial campaign)

$30.5 million: Amount raised by Walker to fight off the recall effort

$3.9 million: Amount raised by his challenger, Tom Barrett, the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/06/wisconsin-walker-recall-money-stats

Thanks for nothing DNC

can't risk another 4 years of nothing for something.

at least they sent Bill Clinton, friend of sterling vulture capitalists, last week.

http://www.people-press.org/2012/06/04/partisan-polarization-surges-in-bush-obama-years/

http://www.people-press.org/2012/06/04/partisan-polarization-surges-in-bush-obama-years/01_pp_12-05-25_values_slideshow/

pew survey day!!!

republicans in a very 19th century mood

The polling finds little support for the broad notion of American “declinism.” As has been the case in previous political values surveys, a large majority agrees that “as Americans we can always find a way to solve our problems and get what we want.” The public’s confidence in the nation has not been dulled, even as Americans have become more skeptical about prospects for economic growth.

Yay! U-S-A!!!U-S-A!!!

Plus we can get some great Friedman and David Brooks pieces out of this polling.

Rick Perlstein in Wisconsin. Note his argument with a poster.

omg at that Quad Printing thing

Andrew Sullivan discovers the obvious: Republicans are big fat liars.

Stop comparing BO to LBJ, Kevin Drum says.

So can we stop hearing about how much more Obama could have gotten done if only he'd been more willing to really use the power of the presidency, like LBJ did? There's no more than the tiniest grain of truth to it. Washington DC is a far different place today than it was in 1964, and Obama has to deal with his Washington, not LBJ's.

At least a few of us have made this same point--and that getting difficult legislation through in the shadow of an assassination is, as a practical matter, easier.

Washington DC is a far different place today than it was in 1964

Obama's part of Washington DC yo.

I don't think he says otherwise: "Obama has to deal with his Washington, not LBJ's" (emphasis mine).

if Dem voters really wanted LBJ-Redux in 2008, they would've or should've voted for either Hillary or Biden in the primaries. the kind of political hard-ball that was LBJ's forte has never been in Obama's repertoire.

i mean -- i get pissed about Obama's fecklessness as much as anyone else here. but it was readily apparent from the get-go that Obama just wasn't an LBJ-type and fussing about it now is pointless. so i guess i do agree w/ Kevin Drum and Clemenza on this point.

Yep.

Speaking of fussing: Walker wins handily in Wisconsin.

that sucks ;_;

thanks DNC ... you can go back to glad-handing hedge-funders with piece of mind now.

ugh fuc

Bill Clinton was gladhanding hedge-funders last night, I'm sure he slept great.

i dunno -- obviously the dnc/bo didn't help, but shit was more or less brought to the front in wisconsin and this is what wisconsin chose

it is disheartening on a bunch of levels

there seemed to be a lot of confusion about when the voting was happening and where...that's what my friend in Wisconsin was saying anyway.

guess 30.5 v 3.9 million will do the trick.

So if Obama was like LBJ, then that would mean the White album would be coming out pretty soon. I like.

Pretty inevitable that Walker would win, no? There was an anti-Walker movement way before there was an anti-Walker candidate, and by the time they drummed someone up a) Walker had raised a ton of money and b) polls were pretty consistent that it was close at best. The downside of this is that his win will seem as validation. The upside is that perhaps more Dems will ultimately win spots in the legislature. Not that that matters in the near future.

What's sad is that the effects of the stuff Walker did and will do won't be really seen for a few years, and by then, it will be too late. But then, that's the way these cycles run, no?

oh I don't know: in Florida we're already seeing the effects of ramming changes in take-home pay without union approval.

i'm pretty sure that there's a certain overweight governor in Trenton who's also licking his lips in anticipation of all the union busting he's gonna unleash on us Garden Staters now that his buddy Scott Walker can claim that he has a "mandate" from "the people." not that Fat Governor needs an excuse to be a boor, but it's another club for him to use.

I would be all "lol Minnesota > Wisconsin" but I'm still miffed about that Vikings stadium deal.

There was an anti-Walker movement way before there was an anti-Walker candidate

Also, iirc, the anti-Walker candidate had no intention of reinstating collective bargaining.

Walker should be Mitt's running mate to really troll America