NASCAR: When Stupidity is Your Defense

One Lee Owens makes a point worth considering about why some idiotic NASCAR fans booed Michelle Obama and Jill Biden during a veterans-related appearance at the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway: "It is not racial," Owens explains. "Michelle Obama is scorned by Nascar fans because her husband is a job-killer socialist."

Now, the question here isn't whether or not NASCAR fans are racist. Rather, it is whether NASCAR fans are idiots.

And as it seems hard to reconcile the idea of Obama as a socialist in any context remotely connected to fact, Ms. Owens, the trodabumsoutgrl, seems to be asserting that yes, NASCAR fans are idiots.

Terms of Payment

Who: David Horsey
What: "Separating the truly scary from the bogus frights", SeattlePI.com
When: October 27, 2011

The last time America picked a president without resorting to a campaign filled with false accusations and trumped up crises was probably in 1796 when an unopposed George Washington won a second term.

By 1800, the compulsion to do battle over bogus issues had kicked in and, since then, many a campaign has been built on manufactured fear. Campaign 2012 is no different.

Watching the Republicans' serial presidential debates, one would think the most fearsome problems confronting Americans are high taxes that are killing economic activity, onerous regulations that keep businessmen from creating jobs, illegal immigration, gay marriage and a president who is too weak to confront Islamic terrorists and dictators.

Well, if you say something often enough and loud enough, people may begin to think it's important, but, outside the realm of boilerplate conservative applause lines, there are far more worrisome threats facing the country.

Halloween is a year-roud enterprise for some. While many criticize the American political circus for its histrionics, and plenty will attempt to sound sage while pointing out that it happens on both sides of the aisle, there is a fundamental process at work that often goes unnoticed for its subtlety.

And it is true that subtlety in politics can be counted as anything short of a twenty-five mile crack in the ice shelf. One sometimes wonders at the psychological processes governing voter perceptions, and whether the phrase cognitive dissonance has not actually been beaten to death in recent years.

Robert Reich states the obvious

Who: Robert Reich
What: "Why This is Exactly the Time to Rebuild America's Infrastructure"
When: September 26, 2011

In fact, it's cheaper than ever for the United States to borrow. That's because global investors desperately want the safety of dollars. Almost everywhere else on the globe is riskier. Europe is in a debt crisis, many developing nations are gripped by fears the contagion will spread to them, Japan remains in critical condition, China's growth is slowing.

Put this together with two other facts:

Unemployment in America remains sky-high. 14 million Americans are out of work and 25 million are looking for full-time jobs.

The nation's infrastructure is crumbling. Our roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, subways, gas pipelines, ports, airports, and school buildings are desperately in need of repair. Deferred maintenance is taking a huge toll.

Now connect the dots. Anyone with half a brain will see this is the ideal time to borrow money from the rest of the world to put Americans to work rebuilding the nation's infrastructure.

Problem is, too many in Washington have less than half a brain.

Remember this in the days to come. Or, to put it simply, anyone want to lay odds that between beltway media and the usual punditry suspects, Reich is an outlier?

Fine 'Tooning: Republicans and Jobs

This week's 'toon comes from Jim Morin, of the Miami Herald:

Republicans and Jobs

Who: Arin Karimian
What: "Employment during the economic recovery", Economic Policy Institute
When: July 6, 2011

The next time you hear a Republican complaining about jobs, asking the president where are the jobs, prattling on about the "job creators", or accusing the Obama administration of destroying jobs—essentially, whatever—remember this:

Or, as Steve Benen explained this week:

Layoffs at the state and local level were mitigated in 2009 by the Recovery Act, which saved thousands of jobs that would have otherwise been eliminated. Those funds have since been exhausted, and the public sector is back to making severe layoffs.

This is what David Leonhardt recently described as "an unforced economic error" — with all of the problems we can't control, this is one problem we know exactly how to prevent. We just choose not to, thanks to the Republicans' ideology.

Indeed, it's important to remember that these job losses are, in the eyes of Republicans, a positive development. Under the GOP economic model, the public sector is supposed to lose jobs, and as part of the party's austerity agenda, this is a problem that must get worse on purpose.

Earlier this year, for example, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was asked about his spending-cut plans and the fact that the cuts would force thousands of public-sector workers from their jobs. "So be it," the Republican said.

In other words, deliberately making unemployment worse wasn't seen as a problem. This is a feature of the GOP model, not a bug

The conventional wisdom is obvious: If the jobs outlook is poor on Election Day, Obama is in for a difficult run.

But the corollary, that the Republicans thus have an interest in keeping unemployment high seems somewhat severe, does it not, in the context of accusation?

But what is it that we see? Policies Republicans are fighting for that have the effect of hurting the employment outlook.

It's okay to tell yourself this is not really happening, but keep it in mind the next time you hear a Republican say anything about jobs.