Wishing You A ...

News You Can Lose

This rather good news appeared today in the print version of the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle:

The U.S. economy grew even faster in the third quarter than initially thought, posting the strongest six months of growth in more than a decade and pulling further ahead of other big economies of the world. 

The gross domestic product, the country’s total output of goods and services, expanded at a healthy 3.9 percent annual rate in the July-September period, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. That’s a notable jump from its first estimate of 3.5 percent. The revision was propelled higher by more robust consumer and business spending. 

Together with a 4.6 percent surge in the spring, the country has recorded its biggest back-to-back quarterly performance since 2003.  (our emphasis)

Unfortunately, this was not featured on page 1 -- that space was reserved for Ferguson unrest (understandably), health care in ... wait for it...  Mosul, Iraq,  another in a series of fluffers on potential Republican presidential candidates (seriously, Carly Fiorina?!?), and a warm 'n' fuzzy Thanksgiving feature.

No, the information about the strong economic growth was on page... 12... on the bottom half of the page... in a digest... under "Also In Business."  Well played, "liberal media," well played.

Villains Aren't Always Republicans

Frequent blind squirrel Dana Milbank has a look at someone who truly rates as a villain in the Darren Wilson/ Michael Brown shooting non-indictment:  St. Louis County District Attorney Bob McCulloch, a man who clearly has no business being in the business he's in:

As has been repeated often in recent weeks, a grand jury will indict a proverbial ham sandwich if a prosecutor asks it to. Alternatively, McCulloch could have brought charges through a judicial hearing; he chose not to do that, either. 

Asked Monday night whether he had any regrets about the way he handled the case, McCulloch replied, “No, not at all.” This shouldn’t be a surprise, given McCulloch’s history. That his father, a police officer, was killed by a black suspect doesn’t by itself disqualify him, but his record should have: not a single prosecution of a shooting by police in his 23 years on the job. Four times he presented evidence to a grand jury in such a case and didn’t get an indictment; now he can add a fifth.

It's appalling and rather sickening to note that McCulloch has run for office as a Democrat.  Another small-bore villain would be the shit-mountain conservaDem Governor of Missouri Jay "I'm The Schnook, Not The Crook" Nixon, who declined early on to name a Special Prosecutor to take the case out of the corrupted hands of McCulloch.  If these are what pass as Democrats in Missouri, we're afraid to look in that compost heap for what constitutes a Republican. Shame on them and shame on the rotten system they inhabit.

Media Myths That Just Won't Die - The Tea Party Isn't The Republican Party Edition

Charles P. Pierce picks apart yet another piece in Politic-ho embedding the myth that the tea party and Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ White Man Party are distinct entities, then he moves to the general observation which we heartily, though sadly, endorse:

The persistence of this myth among our elite political press owes its salience to the reluctance of the elite political press to admit that one of our two political parties has gone insane, that the prion disease it acquired when it first ate the monkeybrains 30 years ago finally has eaten away the party's higher functions. It also owes its salience to the reluctance of the elite political press to admit that there is a deep and abiding affection among a huge portion of the American people to vote for the crazy and against its own interests, that the political Id is still the best campaign manager you can find, and that, out in the states, the legislatures are designing a system that will make that situation permanent. It is very hard to admit all this. It shakes the comfort zone. It makes condescending bedtime stories about the greatness of the system and the wisdom of the people sound childish and silly. After a while, it becomes harder and harder to admit that the horse race you so love to cover is fixed from the starter's bell.

One of the biggest political story of the past 25 years, if not the biggest, has been the extreme radicalization of the Republican Party.  It's a story the mainstream political press has declined to identify, much less cover and analyze.  So instead you get the both- sides- do- it,  look- the- other- way, "they're being more reasonable now" styles of reportage, because they don't want to get caught having an opinion that might offend the crackpot caucus out there.

BONUS:  Maybe "journalists" should take Jorge Ramos' advice.

Mid-Week End of the Earth Song

Lord Huron is an indie folk band based in Los Angeles.  Their 2012 song "End of the Earth" is ethereal and lovely.  Enjoy your Wednesday.

Picture of the Week

Holiday decorations hang over a street in Ferguson, MO last night, before the announcement that police officer Darren Wilson would not face charges over the shooting death of Michael Brown last August.

The grand jury indicated that they could not find probable cause to indict Wilson on a range of charges from first degree murder to involuntary manslaughter, second degree.  It was a curiously drawn out announcement, which had the effect of causing tensions to build over the weekend and into Monday night, which then erupted in violence and arson.  What was more curious is that the biracial jury didn't think firing 12 shots at or into Brown constituted "reckless" action resulting in death, the basic criteria for involuntary manslaughter at a minimum.

The anger and disappointment of the residents at the grand jury's decision was widespread, prompting demonstrations across the country.  Police departments nationwide will be under intense scrutiny for their actions, and under pressure to better engage the community they police and to equip police with body cameras.

(photo:  Reuters)

President Obama's Executive Action On Immigration: Si, Se Puede!

So, is President Obama's executive action on immigration being supported by Latinos?  Puede decir el 90 por ciento?

(click to enlarge)

(Latino Decisions National Poll, Nov. 20-22))

Said Latino Decisions co-founder Matt Barreto, “This is the most unified we have seen Latino public opinion on any issue.”  The poll also found a strong majority wants the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ White Man Party to stop trying to block the President's initiative.  Or, as the President says, "Pass a bill!"

Morning Read - Power Struggle

If you read this post,  Charles Blow's observation won't come as a surprise:

Don’t let yourself get lost in the weeds. Don’t allow yourself to believe that opposition to President Obama’s executive actions on immigration is only about that issue, the president’s tactics, or his lack of obsequiousness to his detractors. 

This hostility and animosity toward this president is, in fact, larger than this president. This is about systems of power and the power of symbols. Particularly, it is about preserving traditional power and destroying emerging symbols that threaten that power. This president is simply the embodiment of the threat, as far as his detractors are concerned, whether they are willing or able to articulate it as such.  [snip]

Make no mistake: This debate is not just about this president, this executive order or immigration. This is about the fear that makes the face flush when people stare into a future in which traditional power — their power — is eroded, and about their desperate, by-any-means determination to deny that future. 

This applies not only to the extremist Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ White Man Party, but to their enablers in corporate media =cough= once great Washington Post =cough=.   That's why we continue to say to President Obama and Democrats:  ignore the frightened, vicious chatter and do the right thing.  They're going to hate you and fight you whatever you do anyway.

The Amnesty President

Whenever Republicans yell (falsely) about President Obama's immigration reform measures being equivalent to "amnesty," every network and cable source should run this clip of Rethug icon St. Ronnie of Hollywood expounding on "amnesty" in 1984.  But the Rethugs won't stop yelling, and the networks won't cross them by exposing their hypocrisy.

Sunday Funnies, Immigration Edition

(click to enlarge)

The corporate tail that wags the Rethuglican dog (e.g., the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, etc.) wants some reform, albeit in order to keep cheap labor available.  The Rethuglican id, however, fears immigrants and the inevitable demographic consequences to their social order (see posting below).  Above all, they are, again, on the wrong side of history.

(cartoon: Signe Wilkinson, via Gocomics.com)

Saturday Read - Today's Confederate Party

Doug Muder at The Weekly Sift has an interesting article that draws the connection between the un-reconstructed Confederates of the 19th Century and today's tea bagger Republican Party (h/t Nancy LeTourneau at Washington Monthly). Great read. Here's a small sample:

... [T]he enduring Confederate influence on American politics goes far beyond a few rhetorical tropes. The essence of the Confederate worldview is that the democratic process cannot legitimately change the established social order, and so all forms of legal and illegal resistance are justified when it tries. 

That worldview is alive and well. During last fall’s government shutdown and threatened debt-ceiling crisis, historian Garry Wills wrote about our present-day Tea Partiers: “The presiding spirit of this neo-secessionism is a resistance to majority rule.” 

The Confederate sees a divinely ordained way things are supposed to be, and defends it at all costs. No process, no matter how orderly or democratic, can justify fundamental change. 

When in the majority, Confederates protect the established order through democracy. If they are not in the majority, but have power, they protect it through the authority of law. If the law is against them, but they have social standing, they create shams of law, which are kept in place through the power of social disapproval. If disapproval is not enough, they keep the wrong people from claiming their legal rights by the threat of ostracism and economic retribution. If that is not intimidating enough, there are physical threats, then beatings and fires, and, if that fails, murder.

This is the same dangerous slice of the American demographic that existed before, during and after the Civil War.  They call themselves constitutionalists, conservatives, tea partiers, Republicans.  But what they really are, based on their worldview DNA, is  Confederates.  Violent, traitorous, nullifying, un-democratic, un-American Confederates.

Benghazi: Yes, It Was All A Fake Scandal

After all the hysteria, tinfoil hat conspiracy theories, faux outrage, and vicious Obama/ Clinton/ Rice bashing, there's this (via the AP):

A two-year investigation by the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee has found that the CIA and the military acted properly in responding to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and asserted no wrongdoing by Obama administration appointees. 

Debunking a series of persistent allegations hinting at dark conspiracies, the investigation of the politically charged incident determined that there was no intelligence failure, no delay in sending a CIA rescue team, no missed opportunity for a military rescue, and no evidence the CIA was covertly shipping arms from Libya to Syria.

That's no, no, no, and no.  And your "mainstream media" that was all over Benghazi!!! when the right-wingers were flogging it will report this...how? Have you seen anything beyond maybe a passing reference to this in the media?  =crickets=

Will Benghazi!!! recede as an issue going forward?  Anyone who believes it will is not familiar with the crackpot right and their anger-generators, Fox "News," hate radio and basement bloggers.  It will continue to be a dead horse these lunatics will beat on as long as there's a Clinton or an Obama in office or running for one.

BONUS:  Here's Martin Longman's (a.k.a., the Booman) take on the media's culpability and need for redemption. Also, Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog is equally skeptical of Republicans letting this go.

BONUS II: As any normally functioning human would have guessed,  Fox "News" gives the report 30 seconds, and not 30 accurate seconds, either.

BONUS III:  Republican Sen. Lindsey "My Stars and Garters" Graham (R-SeCessionland), pictured in the gif above, keeps whacking away.

BONUS IV:  Nope, they're not giving up -  Weeper of the House John "Mr. Tangerine Man" Boehner (R-Eunuch) is still on a mission.

Quote Of The Week

My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too. And whether our forebears were strangers who crossed the Atlantic, or the Pacific, or the Rio Grande, we are here only because this country welcomed them in, and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, or what our last names are, or how we worship. What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal -– that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will. -- President Obama last night in his address to the nation on actions he's taking to reform the immigration system.  If you didn't see the address, here's the link to the White House transcript.

Weekend Hammer and Bell Song

Last night, President Obama used his executive hammer to ring the bell of freedom for millions of people in this country, giving them freedom from fear of deportation and broken families.  We're in a new era of struggle for civil rights in this country - from immigration reform, to equal pay for equal work, voting rights, to marriage equality - but we progressives believe that the arc of history truly does bend toward justice.

Let's remember this anthem of an earlier civil rights era, with the ringing voice of Mary Travers, as we continue the struggle against those who would deny people their rights because of their own petty and vindictive smallness.

Obama Acts On Immigration Reforms

Addressing the nation last night, President Obama outlined steps he is taking to improve the immigration system, including:

1. protection of parents of naturalized children who have been here for over 5 years;

2. allowing more children of undocumented parents to be shielded from deportation;

3. the overhaul of rules governing "highly skilled workers and entrepreneurs" to allow them to extend their stay; and

4. enhanced border security and prioritization for deporting criminals.

The move affects nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants.  Obama made it clear that he was acting after being rebuffed by the Rethuglican-controlled, teabagger dominated House of Representatives, who have refused to vote on a bipartisan Senate bill that passed easily last year with 68 votes.  The President placed the ball in the new Rethuglican Congress' court, challenging them to pass comprehensive immigration reform, which they see as opening the door to new Hispanic (i.e. Democratic) voters.

BONUS:  Mock Paper Scissors has a preview -- in misspelled signs -- of the wingnut reaction.

(photo: Reuters/Jim Bourg)