Hey Newt!

Thanks for the advice, but I don't need you to tell me to take a bath. I can see to my personal hygiene without your help.

As for getting a job, yes, I very much need and want a job. Too bad your friends on Wall Street and the GOP ravaged the economy back in 2008 and cost the country more than 8 million jobs, including mine, and have obstructed every proposal to create jobs that has been put forth since then.

I know you understand this, but of course you are one of those who are profiting from this sorry state of affairs. So you will go on helping to perpetuate the myth that if we just let you and your buddies in the one percent grab more and more, that it will eventually trickle down to the rest of us. Sure, we've been waiting for years for this to happen, like dogs cowering under your banquet table waiting for you to throw us a few scraps to fight over.

Yet, when we finally get tired of waiting and cowering, and take to the streets to let you know, because it's the only means we have to be heard, you just sneer at us and tell us to "get a job" and "take a bath."

This is the response from the man who considers himself the scholar of the conservative movement? This is the level of compassion and understanding from the man who aspires to be the leader of the most powerful nation on earth?

Mr. Gingrich, you have absolutely no clue about the lives of ordinary people in the United States. You have no business lecturing anybody about morality. And you have a lot of nerve deriding the cares and concerns of the people who are suffering because of the greed, selfishness and lack of ethics of you and your cronies.

Mr. Gingrich, I hope you are enjoying your last moment in the spotlight. Rest assured, before you know it, this campaign will be over and you will be no more than a sad footnote in the history books. Here's a little reminder of your "glory days" to comfort you:

"Get a job! Take a bath!"

Rick Perry Wants To Widen the Income Gap

Rick Perry's proposed flat tax plan would, not surprisingly, provide large tax breaks for those in the highest income brackets. This is clear in an analysis provided by the New York Times Economix Blog. Here is the chart summarizing the effects on taxes paid by different income groups:

The last column on the right is the taxes paid or refund under the current system. The next column to the left is for Perry's 20 percent flat tax plan. The blue shaded figures are the most advantageous plan for each income group. For every household type, the highest income group fares best with the Perry plan.

What is most disturbing is Perry's answer when asked about the increase in income inequality that his tax plan would create: "I don't care about that." In other words, he isn't even going to go through the motions of pretending to care about poor and working-class families.

Surreal Herman Cain Ad Creeps Me Out

This is one of the weirdest and creepiest political advertisements I've ever seen. The narrator, Cain's chief of staff Mark Block, gives his spiel for Cain... and then takes a drag on a cigarette(?!) He also looks sort of like he's lurking furtively in a corner behind some building, like maybe he's stalking someone. I don't know who came up with this, but I don't see how it's supposed to help Herman Cain's campaign. Of course, I guess this is no nuttier than that 9-9-9 tax plan.

Mitt Romney is a Hypocrite

Back in 2003, Governor Mitt Romney fought to impose pollution controls on a Massachusetts coal-fired plant that was threatening the health of the surrounding population, even if it meant that the plant would close and jobs would be lost. Here is what the "radical environmentalist" Romney said at the time:

I will not create jobs or hold jobs that kill people. And that plant kills people and PG&E has been given a notice to have it cleaned up by 2004 and they have thumbed their nose at the people of Massachusetts and Salem Harbor by not cleaning it up on time. So we’re saying, clean it up on time, do the job in the community, invest in cleaning technology.

Got that? "I will not create jobs or hold jobs that kill people."

This sounds a little different from the Mitt Romney who has eagerly joined in the Republican frenzy to handcuff or even kill the EPA and weaken the environmental regulations that prevent the pollution of our air and water, pretending that such deregulation will result in jobs creation.

As Paul Krugman has pointed out, deregulation will not help with our jobs crisis. It will only make us "poorer and sicker."

Great Gift For Your Birther Friends!

From the Barack Obama 2012 campaign website:

The Made In the USA Mug!

And you can also have the Vice President keep your drinks cold for you:

Herman Cain is a Jerk

Herman Cain on the Occupy Wall Street movement:

I don't have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration. Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself! It is not someone’s fault if they succeeded.

Mr. Cain, maybe in the future if you "don't have facts" to back up what you're saying, you should just keep your mouth shut. On second thought, keep talking. The more you say, the less credible you are, the less chance that you will ever be elected president.

Barack Obama's Human Rights Campaign Dinner Speech

There have been many instances since his election in which I have been disappointed in Barack Obama. This is not one of them:

We don't believe in the kind of smallness that says it's okay for a stage full of political leaders -- one of whom could end up being the president of the United States -- being silent when an American soldier is booed. We don't believe in that. We don't believe in standing silent when that happens. We don't believe in them being silent since. You want to be commander in chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it's not politically convenient. We don't believe in a small America. We believe in a big America -- a tolerant America, a just America, an equal America -- that values the service of every patriot.

This is the Barack Obama who I supported wholeheartedly back in 2008, and who I wish we could see more of in 2011 and beyond.

Chris Christie is NOT "Too Fat" to be President

There are plenty of reasons that I do not want NJ Governor Chris Christie to be elected president. Most of them have to do with the fact that he is yet another right-wing Republican. However, his weight is not among those reasons.

Amazingly, this has become an issue recently, as Governor Christie has been under recent pressure to reconsider his well-publicized decision not to run for president. For example, this recent article by Michael Kinsley declares in no uncertain terms that Christie "can not be president: He is just too fat." Mr. Kinsley, like many others who share his view, see Governor Christie's weight as a moral issue. They contend that if a person can not control his or her eating sufficiently to maintain a "normal" body weight, that this calls into question their self-control and thus their trustworthiness in public office.

There is no question that obesity is a serious and growing public health problem in the United States and other industrialized countries. As a person who has personally experienced with weight issues all of his life, I can say that there are many reasons for this problem. The factors involved in obesity can include family history, education and upbringing, pervasive advertising of unhealthy foods, lifestyle, poverty, and medical issues. It is seldom if ever simply a matter of "will power" or "self-control," as many people assume. For every person who successfully and permanently loses a significant amount of weight, there are many more who struggle unsuccessfully to do so.

The overweight are one of the last remaining socially "acceptable" targets of prejudice in America. This prejudice goes well past jokes and hurtful comments in the schoolyard, extending even to overt acts of discrimination.

There are many reasons to oppose Chris Christie if he should decide to jump into the presidential race. So please, don't judge him for something as superficial as his size.

Issues on which I agree with Rick Perry

Believe it or not, after watching the two recent GOP debates, there are a couple of places where I agree with Perry. I find the possibility that he might be elected president horrific, of course, but I find myself on his side in two areas in which the other Republican candidates have attacked him.

The first is on the issue of giving in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants who are pursuing their educations at Texas colleges and universities. This issue has also been controversial in North Carolina. Many of the immigrants who are in the United States illegally are among the hardest working people among us, doing some of the most backbreaking and unpleasant work for little pay and usually no benefits. What many on the right seem not to comprehend is that if we summarily eject those immigrants from the country, as most of them advocate, the effect on the US economy would be devastating, particularly in areas such as farming and food production. Undocumented immigrants are here, they will continue to be here, they are productive and contributing members of our society, they pay taxes (no matter what the right wants us to believe), and if they and their children want to improve their lives, get an education, and contribute to society at a higher level, then I believe that this should be encouraged, not prohibited.

The second issue is that of the vaccinations for the HPV virus for which Rick Perry issued an executive order in Texas. The order called for girls at the age of twelve to be vaccinated unless their parents opted out of the program. Other candidates have criticized Perry for this order, especially Michele Bachmann, who accused Perry of forcing the vaccinations on "innocent little girls" against their and their parents' wishes as a favor to the pharmaceutical company, Merck, that marketed the vaccine. This program is controversial among Republicans because the HPV virus is usually transmitted through sexual activity. The virus is a leading cause of cervical cancer, one of the most deadly forms of cancer since it is often undetected in its early stages.

While Bachmann and other conservatives see Perry's executive order as an invasion of parental rights, they should consider the catastrophic effects of cervical cancer that these girls could face later in their lives. Since the vaccination is no more invasive or risky than the other vaccines that are routinely given to almost all children, it should not be any more controversial than those other vaccinations.

As I have made clear, I am thoroughly and utterly opposed to Rick Perry's candidacy. It is almost painful for me to support his positions on anything. However, given the attention that has been focused on these two issues, I felt that I wanted to throw in my two cents on them.

Rick Perry and the Death Penalty

I'm not sure what bothered me more in the GOP debate last night: the creepy round of applause that followed Brian Williams' mention of the 234 executions that Rick Perry has overseen during his terms as Governor of Texas; or Perry's answer to the question regarding whether he ever struggles with the decision to execute a human being.

“I’ve never struggled with that at all. The state of Texas has a very thoughtful, a very clear process in place,” was Perry's response. I find this an utterly disturbing statement from a man who is in a position to determine the life or death of so many people. And if he realizes his ambition to become President of the United States, this is likely the same attitude with which he would approach the decision of whether or not to use American military force.

Decisiveness and self-confidence are certainly qualities that we want to see in our political leaders. However, these qualities have to be balanced with a measure of introspection, thoughtfulness, and reflection. Based on his performance last night's debate, it seems that Perry lacks these tempering qualities. That can be a very dangerous shortcoming in a president.

Be careful about making rash statements about things that you assume could never really happen, because they can

I can still remember when I was a child, sometime in the 1970s, my mother, a lifelong liberal and sometime socialist, saying with confidence that if Ronald Reagan was ever elected president, we would move out of the country.

He was, of course, and we didn't. The point is not that she was not prepared to back up her words, but that at the time that she spoke them, the election of Reagan, a former actor and right-wing extremist, seemed, to her at least, to be at most a remote possibility.

It is unsettling to say the least that in retrospect, and compared to the current gang of Republican presidential hopefuls, Reagan seems almost a benign centrist. The spectacle of Democrats invoking President Reagan earlier this summer during the debt ceiling debate shows just how much more extreme the GOP "mainstream" has become.

So it's even more unsettling that after months of apparent apathy, the Republican masses, those who will be voting next year in the primaries, are now growing comfortable with, and even enthusiastic about, their slate of candidates. This contrasts with the latest opinion poll results for President Obama, in which his ratings are at an all-time low, with even his leadership ratings, formerly a strong area for the President, dropping below fifty percent.

These numbers can and will change over time, of course, and a lot can happen in the next year running up to the election. But in my opinion, the left wing of the Democratic Party should at least seriously think about the possibility of fielding a challenger to Barack Obama in the primaries. Obama has failed to adequately set himself apart from the Republicans in Congress, compromising and capitulating at almost every step. It is not surprising that his leadership numbers have dropped. If he emerges from next year's primary season appearing crippled, and the Republicans have nominated a strong candidate, such as extremest right-winger Rick Perry... the Democrats are going to wish that they had considered a candidate who could establish an equally strong, forceful contrast.

The Latest From the Republican Competition To Determine Who Is the Least Informed

It's really getting scary when Mitt Romney is going out of his way to disavow his past, relatively moderate, statements on the need to address global warming, and convince voters that he is just as backwards and ignorant about global climate change as Rick Perry. Romney is, after all, the guy who not so long ago was being cast as the more sensible alternative to the pack of extremists that makes up most of the Republican field.

Among Romney's recent statements: "What I'm not willing to do is spend trillions of dollars on something I don't know the answer to." I can understand Mitt's reluctance to risk having any of his tax money spent to deal with such a mysterious issue, given the painful extended period of unemployment that he's going through. But if he is really struggling with doubts about the reality of climate change, maybe he should consult with some of the 97 to 98 percent of climate scientists who confirm that anthropogenic climate change is, in fact a reality.

Rick Perry Has a Substantial Lead in Republican Primary Polls

What I find most scary about these poll results, and what the NY Times analysis does not go into, is that Rick Perry is a highly skilled campaigner. Even though so many of his statements sound justifiably absurd to those of us on the left (that is, the correct) side of the spectrum, Perry is an expert at pulling the exact strings of his constituency that need to be pulled to ensure his success. There is a reason that this guy, who was a D student in college, who thinks that creationism is taught alongside evolution in his state's public schools against the ruling of the US Supreme Court, who believes global warming is a hoax perpetrated by climate scientists and that prayer is an instrument of public policy, has been elected governor of one of the largest states in the US three times, and in his entire political career has never lost an election.

In spite his seeming penchant for idiotic gaffes and errors, Perry is no idiot. The political left and center will take him lightly at our own risk.

Just because you are a Republican doesn't necessarily mean you are an unprincipled idiot

Some time back I noted CNN columnist David Frum's commentary on the debt "crisis" as evidence that there are some decent folks in the Republican party.

Now Republican presidential candidate and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman shows some real courage, setting himself apart from his colleagues with this tweet from yesterday:

To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.

No, Mr. Huntsman, you are not crazy. Misguided on most issues, maybe, but at least you call it as you see it. And you have a sense of humor too, judging from this follow-up tweet:

I wonder if a tweet where I admit how much I like Captain Beefheart will make the followers skyrocket even more!

Rick Perry, Man of Science

More on Governor Perry's anti-science biases, this time denying the overwhelming evidence of human-created global climate change, from the Texas Tribune.

Quote from Rick Perry: "I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects."

I have never understood the insistence of climate change deniers that scientists are manipulating data and falsifying evidence in favor of global warming for some sort of unspecified personal financial gain. It is clear that those who have the most to gain are the corporations that are the source of global warming pollutants, and their stockholders, whose interests lie in maintaining the status quo.

The existence of Rick Perry alone is enough evidence to discredit the theory of "Intelligent Design"

Rick Perry calls evolution a "theory that's out there." He also apparently is not aware of the 1987 Supreme Court ruling that prohibits teaching of creationism in public schools, even in Texas.

For the record, evolution is a fact. It is supported by over 200 years of careful observation of the geological and biological evidence, by thousands of scientists. The word "theory" does not belong in front of the word evolution.  We don't speak of the "theory" that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun, or the "theory" that matter is made up of atoms, or the "theory" that the heart pumps blood through the circulatory system. Evolution is as well established a fact as all of these other "theories."

Rick Perry is the Scariest Person in America, Part 2

Threatening violence against Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Of course, Perry is the same guy who was threatening to have Texas secede not too long ago.

And as Paul Krugman points out, um, wasn't Bernanke a Bush appointee?

Rick Perry Is the Scariest Person in America

Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy for president today.

This recent article from the Texas Tribune describes the circle of radical ultra-fundamentalist Christians who are among Perry's closest supporters and advisers. This group calls itself the New Apostolic Reformation, and they make many of the more familiar far-right Christian fundamentalist groups look almost moderate. They have openly stated their goal to infiltrate government and other social institutions, so that they can impose their radical agenda on the United States. Members believe that they are prophets who have a direct line to God, and have identified Rick Perry as God's choice for the next POTUS.

Having read this article, the prospect of a Rick Perry presidency should be terrifying to anyone who is not a radical conservative Christian, anyone who is Muslim, gay or lesbian, atheist or agnostic, who believes in cultural, intellectual or artistic freedom, who believes that the Bible, as narrowly interpreted by the New Apostolic Reformation, is not the ultimate inerrant rule book for how a country should be run. If you think I'm exaggerating, consider that one of the prominent founding members of this movement, Lou Engle, actually went to Uganda recently to assist those in the government of that country trying to pass a law that would impose the death penalty for homosexuality.

Even many established fundamentalist churches in the US have distanced themselves from this group. The Assemblies of God, a large Pentecostal church, said that the New Apostolic Reformation's creed is a “'deviant teaching' that could rapidly 'become dictatorial, presumptuous, and carnal.'”


I only hope that the larger media sources will pick up on this story. Rick Perry seems committed to working with this extremist group. He is a skilled, intelligent politician who has occupied the highest office in one of the biggest states in the country for more than a decade. It would be a terrible mistake for the left not to take his candidacy for president seriously.

No, Mr. Romney, corporations are not people!

In fact, this is the main reason that corporations exist, so that individuals do not have to bear the full risk and expense of a business or public enterprise. In modern America, corporations have vast numbers of people who work for the corporation, and vast amounts of wealth from profits that the majority of those workers will never share in. If you honestly think that corporations are people, this fantasy may be the result of the fact that you are one of those few elites who actually control and benefit from that wealth. This just shows how out of touch you are with real life.