The Republicans can continue to grandstand over abortion, or they could confirm Kathleen Sebelius on the off chance that having a Secretary of Health and Human Services could prove handy during a swine flu outbreak.
We all know Republicans will put party before country, but will they put party before the health of Americans? Well, of course they would. A new study proves our entire restaurant industry is based on addicting consumers to sugar and grease and this has been done with the consent and encouragement of government even as average Americans have blimped out to extraordinary proportions.
We could have a vote as early as tomorrow on Sebelius and a timely response to swine flu, or it could wait until Al Franken takes his rightful seat in the Senate…whichever takes longer.
Anyone want to start a pool on how long it takes before Rush is prating on about how big gub’mint wants to take away your fast food? Or how many Americans will die from swine flu before Sebelius is confirmed?
=—±≠=___
Faye Fiore and Mark Z. Barabak on Obama’s first 100 days. and the WaPost uncharitably remembers Bill Clinton’s first 100.
E.J. Dionne has a few words on the matter that are worth repeating.
He loves to engage conservatives, yet few of them have chosen to engage him. He is seen as too moderate by parts of the left, but the right thinks he has a radical, statist agenda.
Wall Street’s critics believe Obama’s approach to rescuing the financial system amounts to coddling the bankers and financial scammers who got us into this mess. But many on the Street say Obama doesn’t understand them and fear he is a secret populist who would displace finance as the dominant force in the U.S. economy.
On torture, Obama sought a middle ground: He ended the practice, disclosed what happened and proposed that we move on. Yet the right opposed disclosure, parts of the left wanted more accountability and their fight brought forth all of the bitterness Obama wants to put behind us.
The man does more than defy labels. He hates them. At a briefing for columnists last week to influence the coming 100-day assessments, a senior Obama adviser, struggling to offer a philosophical definition of the 44th president, finally settled on calling him “a devout non-ideologue.”
But the mysteries and paradoxes of these 100 days cannot be unraveled without an understanding that the president is more than a “whatever works” guy. Obama would not inspire such loyalty if his supporters did not see (correctly) that he has an agenda to move the country to a very different place. He would not inspire such resistance if his opponents did not sense exactly the same thing.
Ignore the right. They have no coherent blocking strategy because they still don’t understand why they lost the last election. Like Middle Eastern suicide bombers they obstruct but cannot successfully oppose.
=—±≠=___
Historians will no doubt write at length about how the bankers made Obama bitchslap them back into the 1950s. Here’s Paul Krugman on why that will be necessary.
On July 15, 2007, The New York Times published an article with the headline “The Richest of the Rich, Proud of a New Gilded Age.” The most prominently featured of the “new titans” was Sanford Weill, the former chairman of Citigroup, who insisted that he and his peers in the financial sector had earned their immense wealth through their contributions to society.
Soon after that article was printed, the financial edifice Mr. Weill took credit for helping to build collapsed, inflicting immense collateral damage in the process. Even if we manage to avoid a repeat of the Great Depression, the world economy will take years to recover from this crisis.
All of which explains why we should be disturbed by an article in Sunday’s Times reporting that pay at investment banks, after dipping last year, is soaring again — right back up to 2007 levels.
Why is this disturbing? Let me count the ways.
First, there’s no longer any reason to believe that the wizards of Wall Street actually contribute anything positive to society, let alone enough to justify those humongous paychecks.
Remember that the gilded Wall Street of 2007 was a fairly new phenomenon. From the 1930s until around 1980 banking was a staid, rather boring business that paid no better, on average, than other industries, yet kept the economy’s wheels turning.
So why did some bankers suddenly begin making vast fortunes? It was, we were told, a reward for their creativity — for financial innovation. At this point, however, it’s hard to think of any major recent financial innovations that actually aided society, as opposed to being new, improved ways to blow bubbles, evade regulations and implement de facto Ponzi schemes.
We’re broken at the top and bottom of the financial ladder. Our economic leaders are vanity-driven greedheads, and our talk radio hoi polloi is comprised of idiot enablers who see some magical bright line connecting the trailer parks and Wall Street.
We are seeing in real time a vivid reminder of why revolutions usually end with bodies hanging from lampposts. Some people refuse to accept that they’ve lost, and never really get it until there’s a rope around their neck.
Here’s hoping this year’s bonuses are the biggest ever.
Otoh, Nouriel Roubini thinks we’ve dodged a bullet and gives O full credit.
=—±≠=___
The Times says atheism is on the upswing . . . even in South Carolina.
Not on the upswing so much as not being forced to stay in the closet anymore, imho. Who’s left to come out? Gays, lesbians, transsexuals, bisexuals,undocumented workers, agnostics, atheists — who’s left? Even the African American gay community is starting to stand up, even at the cost of taking a beating.
None of this is being done violently. Change is coming peacefully, despite bitter ender rallies here and there. The change resistant have huffed and puffed and have gassed themselves out.
Martin Luther King Jr. has finally won, and the Second Amendment had nothing to do with it.
=—±≠=___
Michael Gerson reverses his brain polarity with the aid of a frayed power cord and a few boilermakers and decides that the DOJ torture memos make torture more understandable!
Kind of like to know all is to forgive all, except this is about knowing only a small part of a much larger, less forgivable thing. The memos were dated dude, and theirs is a CYA chronology. No smoking yellowcake, just festering greed, hatred and greed: all the ingredients needed to whip up a batch of American oilmen. Add some wingnut frosting and serve at room temperature with a side of guns and a pitcher of manifest destiny.
It’s never wrong when we do it, and by we I don’t mean us.
=—±≠=___
99 days and the [insert expletive of your choice here] ain’t done yet.
