Needlenose

David Dayen at Firedoglake wrote this morning about how Sen. Richard Shelby’s attempt to block 70 Obama administration nominees over a couple of earmarks “does amount to what you would call a ‘teachable moment’ about the dysfunctional Senate.”

In his initial reaction overnight, Josh Marshall went a bit further, noting that Shelby’s hostage-taking attempt showed “gallons more audacity than Obama ever could have hoped for”:

… I wonder if this story might not end up amounting to much more than the sum of its parts because it brings together three or four of the issues roiling American politics today in a bundle of smack-you-in-the-face arrogance that’s too much to ignore.

For Republicans and the Tea Party set you’ve got pork-barrel spending and earmarks… for Democrats, there’s the outrage at archaic Senate obstructionism.

Perhaps more important, it crystallizes the essential pettiness and hubris of the Republican in such a vivid way that even Democrats should be able to sell the image of GOP selfishness to a generally inattentive public.

It’s happened before, back in 1995 when Newt Gingrich led the newly Republican-controlled Congress in forcing a shutdown of the federal government, trying to force President Clinton to capitulate on budget issues.  Thanks to an inopportune remark by Gingrich about a personal snub he had received from Clinton, the White House successfully embarrassed the GOP into ending the standoff.

That Shelby would try such a stunt barely a couple of weeks after the Republicans snagged their coveted 41st Senate seat shows that his party hasn’t outgrown Gingrich’s penchant for overreach.   But, as D-Day also wrote today, President Obama and the Democratic leadership can’t let themselves be even less willing to stand up for their own interests than the famed triangulator, Clinton.

Perhaps Obama should make a high-profile visit to various GOP senators’ home states, asking locals if they’re as fond of Shelby’s earmarks as Massachusetts voters were of Ben Nelson’s “Cornhusker kickback.”  Or maybe there’s a better attention-getting maneuver.

But hell, they need to do something.  Don’t let this teachable moment pass.

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)

I was naturally suspicious a few years back when Rupert Murdoch decided to build a McMansion in Beijing, but now I’m certain there is something evil afoot there – the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman just used the term ‘fair and balanced’ in a discussion regarding the U.S.’s concerns that China is deliberately undervaluing the yuan in order to maintain the flow of under priced goods to the U.S.  It’s pretty clear from the context that he means it exactly in the ‘Fox’ sense – whatever we want or believe is “fair and balanced, so screw you!”

My previous post about alternative energy technology being manufactured in China attracted a fair bit of discussion.  Beyond the snark, the U.S. does indeed have legitimate concerns about how China conducts its business.

The yuan needs to float freely against the dollar and the euro – like a real currency.  Right now they have a built in mechanism to ‘not be undersold’ by U.S. goods.

Why is the U.N. still giving them development aid?  If they can afford to loan us trillions of dollars, then can afford to lift themselves out of poverty.

We need to enforce environmental concerns with excise taxes.  Chinese pollution doesn’t just stay in China – their crap comes wafting in the air and affects everyone.  They don’t want to commit to emissions caps?  Well estimate their emissions, put a price on them, and attach the price to their cheap goods.  They won’t come to the table unless we force them to come to the table.

I could go on in the same vein about labor concerns, sustainable sourcing of resources, etc.  Right now China is acting like the ‘bad boy’ of the planet, and will continue to do so if there are no consequences.

Who woulda guessed that a party of ‘haters’ can’t get along with each other?  We really should help these knuckleheads out with putting a real party with candidates together.  Remember how Ross Perot and his Independent Party’s 5% helped push Bush Sr. into the abyss (and how they dissolved into a puddle shortly after)?

Seriously, I think we progressives should flood this ‘movement’ as faux reactionaries and push hard to create an extremist platform with wingnut candidates.  At this point that is the only thing which can save the Democratic Party’s ass in the upcoming Congressional elections.

We may have invented the solar cell, but China has taken the lead in manufacturing solar panels – and wind turbines as well, to add a little salt into the wound.

President Obama, in his State of the Union speech last week, sounded an alarm that the United States was falling behind other countries, especially China, on energy. “I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders — and I know you don’t either,” he told Congress.

That’s just rhetoric, Mr. President, Congress wants whatever their corporate masters tell them to want.  And in spite of what Justice Alito  may have been muttering during your speech, that’s regardless of where those corporate masters may live.  Multinationals just follow the money.

I’m not supporting James O’Keefe’s take-down of ACORN, but I thought it was a brilliant and funny bit of political theater.  As we all know, his latest ‘caper,’ to tap or otherwise mess with Senator Mary Landrieu’s phones, fizzled out as suspicious staffers called in the fuzz, turning wanna-be political thespians into political miscreants.

So how did Jimmy go from genius to doofus in a single step?  First off, hubris, common plight of the young and brash fresh off a recent victory.  I guess Jimmy figured he was so gifted he need give nary a thought for the gross difference in scale between pranking an overworked ACORN staffer and the staff of a U.S. Senator.

Secondly, the first prank worked well because it was funny, regardless of your political stripe – and that was especially great because as we all know, reactionaries are so rarely funny!

Maybe Jimmy had something funny planned, but by not leveling with us and telling us what he was really up to, we can only assume it was a ho-hum act of wrong-wing political thuggery.   Ergo – doofus.

Happy to see this reactionary terrorist convicted of murder, but unclear why he doesn’t get the death penalty – they still have that in Kansas, don’t they?  I’m normally opposed, but my litmus test is – would I volunteer to execute?  Hand me the syringe!

(Images via Witty Comics.)

In or around San Francisco on 1/28 at 4:30P with nothing better to do?  Why not go give a neighborly hello to God’s Own Wingnuts, the folks from the Westboro Baptist Church during their inexplicable protest of Twitter, at the Twitter HQ 795 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA.  They actually have an action-packed schedule, so if you can’t make 4:30, check the link and catch them at one of their other odd protests.  And if you do go, find some creative way to express your support…I’m thinking smelly liquids that don’t wash out of clothes.

Tip ‘o the ‘Nose to Training Buddy

The Bush-appointed SCOTUS majority hastens the end of representative democracy with their catastrophic ruling eliminating Corporate campaign donation limits.  Well we had a good 200-odd year run, give or take a few misAdministrations.

A Repug Senator wins in Massachusetts?  Seriously?  Shows you how fucked up the Dem leadership really is.  The idiots dicked around so long with trying to appease the Repugs, the Repugs in drag ‘Blue Dogs’ and the lobbyists and now they’ve screwed the pooch.  Barney Frank pretty much said ‘back to the drawing board on health care.’  This is fucked up.  Forget Lincoln, Kennedy, Clinton…Obama is Jimmy Carter.