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.

Because Their Blacks ... er ... um ... Right

Who: Karl Frisch
What: "Less Vetting Than the Average Godfather's Pizza Delivery Boy", The Cagle Post
When: November 3, 2011

Democratic strategist Karl Frisch sort of states the obvious, and it's hard to know where to start. Of course, the obvious ought to be pretty much ... well ... blatantly obvious to begin with. So let's go with this:

... [Y]es, I realize conservatives assume facts have an intrinsic liberal bias just like the media, science, weather, letters, numbers, and shapes.

At 11:20am on Monday morning, Cain told Fox News, "If the restaurant did a settlement, I wasn't even aware of it." That is essentially the same thing he told the National Press Club not two hours later when he said, "I am unaware of any settlement. I hope it wasn't for much, because I didn't do anything" indicating that he not only had no knowledge of any agreements but that he also had no knowledge of the amount of any agreements if they actually existed.

By 6pm that evening, Cain's story was beginning to change. This time he told PBS, "I was aware that an agreement was reached."

Before calling it a night, Cain appeared on Fox News again at 10pm to completely contradict himself saying, "We ended up settling for what would have been a termination settlement, quite frankly … Maybe three months' salary or something like that."

In less than twelve hours, Cain went from being clueless about the whole affair — pardon the pun — to knowing quite a bit more than he'd let on about.

Don't for a second assume that Cain and his team first heard about these accusations when they read them in Politico — they had been contacted several times over the course of nearly two weeks in advance of the publication of the story by reporters requesting comment in writing and in person.

Since the story broke, a third woman has come forward, telling the Associated Press that she had received "a private invitation to [Cain's] corporate apartment" and that the future presidential candidate had made "sexually suggestive remarks or gestures" towards her.

Few people know exactly what happened between Cain and his female employees and only one person has been free to discuss the story openly: Herman Cain.

Since Cain has proven himself unreliable, perhaps the National Restaurant Association should free these women from their confidentiality agreements so they can tell their side of the story.

Then, and only then, can this blame game end.

Life and Art, or, Something About Truth and Fiction

Who: Gail Collins
What: "Day of the Armadillo", The New York Times
When: November 2, 2011

First, the obvious: Regardless of whether or not one likes Gail Collins—and she seems likable, to judge by a scant few television appearances I've witnessed—it is very easy to make fun of her.

Second, though—

Also in the frozen armadillo category: Anything about Herman Cain. Does he want to feed illegal immigrants to alligators or electrocute them? Did he sexually harass women when he was chief of the National Restaurant Association? Did he ever notice that being chief of the National Restaurant Association was just a highfalutin way of saying "lobbyist?"

The one thing we've learned for sure is that Herman Cain's staff has no idea what Herman Cain has been up to. Really, by now they're probably so numb, you could come up to them and say: "Is it true your candidate was once a pirate?" and they'd just promise to look into it.

—that is perhaps the strangest pile of sentences you're going to read this week.

The article also contains the sentence, "Brian Tillerson, a manager at the Taco Bell/KFC restaurant, told The San Antonio Express-News that the man was angry the Beefy Crunch Burrito had gone from 99 cents to $1.49 each."

And there is any number of points one might try to make from there.

A Stimulating Question

Who: Ted Kaufman
What: "Government Stimulus is the Way Forward", Cagle Post
When: October 31, 2011

Most of the media coverage has been about the stalemate between the 236 of the 242 Republican members of the House of Representatives who have taken an oath to never, under any circumstances, raise taxes and Democratic members who refuse to negotiate on entitlement spending until new revenue is part of the solution.

The even bigger, more fundamental argument between the two sides, however, is whether or not the government has any role at all in moving the country out of the recession.

One side says the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009—the stimulus bill—was a complete failure.

Yet, as I have pointed out in previous columns, in the quarter the ARRA passed, the Dow Jones average started to climb and has never looked back. The precipitous decline in jobs—a loss of over 700,000 a month when the bill was passed—was turned around. Although the numbers have never been high enough, we have seen positive job growth. GDP, which was falling, also moved into positive ground.

The truth is that the ARRA helped, but the economy is still in trouble because we were in even worse shape back in early 2009 than we thought at the time. The size of the stimulus—the largest that could pass Congress—was simply not ambitious enough.

My question for those who believe otherwise is this: If there is no government action, why will the economy recover? Because of the private sector?

Ted Kaufman is a former aide to Sen. Joe Biden, and was appointed to complete the term when the senator accepted the opportunity to run as vice president. He also served as the second chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel—succeeding Elizabeth Warren—assembled under the Bush-era Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, more widely known as TARP.

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?