Surprisingly lost in the debate is any discussion of ‘why’ the California legislators are contemplating a tax that would most likely get thrown out in Federal court (per a decision in 1967 ruling that a catalog retailer needs a local presence in order to be subject to local sales tax) – Prop 13!  A state like Oregon doesn’t need a sales tax to pay for their services as local assessors aren’t hamstrung by ludicrous legislation effectively ‘fixing’ the value of a property to the time of original purchase.

Of course an Oregonian e-retailer gets the 8.5% ‘edge’ over a California retailer provided our tax rate stays so ridiculously high.  But toss out the crazy cap on property value assessment and Blam!, California could easily make up it’s budget shortfall, reduce the sales tax rate and still have money to spare.

Rather than discuss the elephant in the room, the California Left and Right shift into preposterous positions (fighting establish Federal Law or turning our freeways into private toll roads) in a self-parodying attempt to address our state’s chronic budget woes.

As I mentioned before, California politics represents a microcosm of our woes at the Federal level, as now evidenced in the absurd showdown over the debt ceiling.  In that discussion, the Left argues that huge deficits are a good thing during an economic downturn, and that the Feds need to make up in spending what the consumers are not.  The Right, who didn’t care about deficit spending when they controlled Congress, trots out the same old trickle-down prescription of keeping taxes low on the wealthy, increasing fee-bases services for the middle class and cutting or eliminating social programs for the old, the poor and the disabled.

Seriously, there are plenty of things that could be cut out of the Federal Budget, like cutting hundreds of billions of dollars out of the Defense for unneeded programs, winding out of Shrubya’s legacy wars.  And on the other side, why not have a conversation about eliminating the NEA?  Trimming back the Department of Education?  Folding the ATF into the FBI (and similarly reducing redundancies)?  Encouragingly, there was some talk, albeit muted, of eliminating loopholes in the tax code, but not-surprisingly that seems to have gotten dropped from the Boehner/Obama capitulation.  And never discussed were some basic measures such as getting private interests to pay commercial rates for use of Federal land (ranching, mineral extraction, etc).

The underlying issue, though, is that addressing the deficit isn’t sufficient.  All our Free Trade deals have proven extremely successful at outsourcing manufacturing and even back-office work to Asia, in a perverse vindication of ‘trickle-down’ economics, as rich corporations ‘trickle-out’ of the country.  If the trickle-out continues, and the tax base continues to shrink, how can the Fed possibly spend its way out of our economic malaise?

Bottom line is that we are in absurdistan precisely because the Congressionals can’t/won’t go against their corporate campaign funders, either in the form of eliminating some tax loophole, collecting ‘fair use’ royalties on Federal land, eliminating a defense program that benefits a local defense contractor, or getting corporations to pay taxes on their overseas payroll or unrepatriated profits.  The Dems and the Repugs put on a little show but go back to business as usual – with the other 99% of us continuing to fall behind the other 1%.

Leading Democrats, though, don’t seem to want any part of that.  From TPMDC yesterday:

Democrats in Washington couldn’t have made it clearer that they want Weiner gone fast. Within minutes of his nationally televised confession on Monday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called for an ethics investigation and was seconded immediately by DCCC chair Steve Israel (D-NY).…  On the Senate side, Harry Reid more or less told Weiner to drop dead, acidly saying his advice to the lawmaker would be to “Call somebody else.” On the other side of the ledger, virtually no Democratic officials have moved to defend him.

Today, Pelosi upped the ante by specifically calling for Weiner’s resignation.

To some extent, the reactions by Reid and Pelosi are simply the institutional Democrats’ instinctive timidity at work — if they’d been alive during the American Revolution, they’d have responded to Benjamin Franklin’s famous declaration of “We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately” by thinking, “Well, as long as we get them to hang someone else first, maybe we’ll get through this okay.”

As the New York Times notes, this knee-jerk reflex to surrender is amplified by Weiner’s longstanding endorsement of the opposite approach to politics:

The scandal swirling around [Weiner] has revealed a truth about his personality and his place in the Capitol: He does not care much about those he serves with, and they do not care too much about him.

In a body full of ambitious and egotistical people, Mr. Weiner, 46, stands out for his brash and sometimes even impulsive style. His aggressiveness has served him well, as he has emerged as one of the most visible politicians in New York City and one of his party’s most camera-ready combatants. Liberal cable television seems to love his style, as do many of his constituents.

This contrast, in turn, is why many progressives are trying to build counter-pressure for Weiner to stay in office:

While most of cable news has focused on Weiner death watch, MSNBC host Cenk Uygur has devoted his time to defending Weiner….

Democrats turning on Weiner is “part and parcel of the correct impression that the Democratic party is weak and the Republican party is strong,” Uygur said.

If you can forgive me a brief flight of fancy, I’d suggest to Reid and Pelosi that there’s a way for them to play both sides of this controversy successfully.  I’ve argued for years that Democrats have suffered from a poor division of labor — they don’t have designated bomb-throwers/”bad cops” to say rude (but true) things in the media, so that more moderate folks can play “good cop” and make the same points while seeming more agreeable.

If Weiner rejects the pressure to resign, Reid and Pelosi can justifiably turn to the world and say, “We tried, but we can’t force him to do what we want.” And from that moment, Weiner is a free man — free to speak impolite truths in whatever attention-getting manner and forum he chooses, enabling his less brave colleagues to accept media invitations to tut-tut his uncouth tone and choice of words… and then gently add, “But he does have a point about…”

Ahh, but who am I kidding?  The Democratic leadership is as incapable of this sort of clever kabuki as they are of standing up publicly for progressive principles.

(Updated and slightly revised from a post at Firedoglake.)

We’ve only got Soros (where is my monthly check btw, George?).  They’ve got the Koch Brothers, Satan’s little helper Rupert Murdoch, and another 184 billionaire-donors.  Not to mention all those corporations…

Has Mr. King taken over the Pombo mantle of Congressional venality?  How does an evil dumbfuck like that get elected anyway – they can’t be that stupid in Iowa, can they?

For the short term, I think Pelosi should strip Mr. King of his congressional staffers and aides, since he his needs can all be satisfied by K Street.

*Update 2/26/10* Please show your appreciation for Mr. King by donating to one of his two Democratic challengers in the Iowa 5th District, Matthew Campbell or Mike Denklau.  I prefer Mike, but I think Matt might have the edge in $ and seems more Iowan.  They said we couldn’t unseat Pombo here in CA, but McNearney is in Congress and Pombo is off shagging sheep, so it can be done!

*Update 2 2/26/10* Seems to be the day for asshole Republican Congressmen. Trent Franks believes African Americans were better off as slaves then they are today – some tortured argument involving abortion.  Let’s fund whomever runs against him!

And this is just a Canadian!!!

Tip of the ‘Nose to Recruiter Buddy!

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.

Venal senators from the Midwest just don’t get it – they insist on porking out the current energy bill with subsidies for corn farmers, diverting food from the plates of the world poor into the gas tanks of the rich’s SUVs.

$70 billion       Repeal Corporate Farm WelfareFarm Security Act of 2001
$ 9.1 billion      Eliminate ineffective missile defense system

I’ll add more stuff later. Feel free to suggest your favorite pork for the block.