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.

Quote This: Will Durst on the Debt Ceiling Resolution

Who: Will Durst
What: "The Great Concessionaire", Cagle Post
When: August 5, 2011

The Tea Baggers won, confusing both Democrats and Republicans by refusing to act like politicians, eschewing all the usual motivations such as their own self-interest or party affinity or even the general welfare of the country. You can't negotiate with cement. Giving proof to the old adage: "Never get in a fight with an ugly person, they got nothing to lose."

Brevik? Hitler? Geller? Can anyone tell them apart? (Oh, right. Hitler was occasionally coherent.)

Who: Charles Johnson
What: "Perfect Timing: Pamela Geller's New WND Book Echoes Oslo Terrorist's Book", Little Green Footballs
When: August 2, 2011

In the wake of each new isolated incident, the American right wing continues its desperate scramble for cover. After years of telling us how movies and television and books and music can transform normal people into complete psychopaths, American conservatives now want to convince us that there is no possible way the incendiary rhetoric of the right wing could possibly ever contribute in any way whatsoever to a political atrocity.

And then they all take a breath, and the right wing opens its mouth again. Charles Johnson checks in from the Little Green Football front:

With impeccable timing, today Pamela Geller is hyping the release of her new book, published by the far right’s craziest pseudo-news and Birther site, World Net Daily: Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance ....

.... It's impossible to miss the similarity to another book: the manifesto of Oslo mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, with the same themes, the same over-the-top paranoia, the same mindless hatred, bigotry, and conspiracy theorizing.

In the synopsis at Amazon, if you substituted "Anders Breivik" for "Pamela Geller," and "Norway" for "America," it would describe Breivik’s book exactly.

It is worth noting that Norwegian right-wing mass murderer Anders Brevik cited Geller twelve times in his manifesto.

And Geller, for her part, allegedly posted on her blog in 2007 an email from Brevik himself. She denies it, and has also apparently scrubbed the original post of violent rhetoric ("We are stockpiling and caching weapons, ammunition and equipment. This is going to happen fast.") Still, though, her update is incredible insofar as it attacks Muslims and leftist shills for connecting her to Brevik, despite the fact that the very same addendum expressing sympathy with the shooter as her motivation for reposting the note: "After the monstrous massacre in Norway on July 22,2011, I re-ran this post as evidence of the deteriorating conditions in Norway. Clearly it had been decaying for sometime ...."

In defense of Geller specifically, and the right wing in general, one might plausibly argue that there is no way they can be so stupid. And on its face, that point seems to carry weight. But this is also the same right that thinks music can turn children into mass murderers. How can they possibly argue with a straight face that violent rhetoric normalized in the political culture has absolutely no effect on the mentally ill?

The point there, of course, being that they should either ditch the influence argument entirely, or admit their contribution to the state of things.

In the case of Geller's latest book, which Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic compares to Nazi anti-Semitism, perhaps the question of Geller's credibility in anything depends on whether we look at her actions in the context of a string of isolated incidents, or a sum effect of interrelated processes.

Hardly Unexpected: Accusations of Right Wing Voter Suppression Attempts

Who: Paige Lavender
What: "Americans For Prosperity Accused Of Voter Suppression In Wisconsin Recall Elections", The Huffington Post
When: August 3, 2011

Right. Like nobody saw this coming.

Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group backed by billionaires Charles and David Koch, has been accused of attempting to suppress Democratic voter turnout in the Wisconsin Senate recall elections.

Patch.com reported that Charles Shultz, a Democrat who lives in the 10th Senate District, received an absentee ballot application form last week from AFP that contained incorrect information on it. The form instructed him to mail it back to the wrong location by Aug. 11 -- two days after the recall election in his district between Sen. Sheila Harsdorf (R) and Shelly Moore (D) is set to take place, on Aug. 9.

Politico obtained a copy of the AFP mailer, which was also distributed to voters in the 2nd District.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party filed a formal complaint Tuesday with the state's Government Accountability Board over the issue, accusing AFP of "falsely representing the time frame" for the upcoming August 9 recall election. Shultz filed his own complaint with the GAB on Saturday.

No, seriously. Is there anything about this that is surprising?

Tipples and Tw@ts

Who: Mark Steel
What: "Alcohol can be a problem, as can doctors", The Independent
When: August 3, 2011

A front-line report from inside the "nanny state":

But the campaign against drunkenness doesn't seem to have learned from the "Just say no" anti-drugs campaign, which connects with hardly anyone as it insists drugs lead rapidly to disaster and aren't fun. But if they weren't fun there'd be no need to tell people not to take them, just as there's no need to tell people "Just say no" to sticking your bare arse into a nest of wasps because no one does it anyway because it's not fun.

Always remember: The "nanny state" needs people who need a nanny state. Without the need, the abstraction disappears. Kind of like God, that way.