2010

Bob Dold’s Gaffe

Michael Kinsley defined a gaffe in politics as being “A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.”

Bob Dold just made a gaffe on Facebook:

 

This is especially interesting since Dold is running as a ‘moderate’ while he keeps getting endorsed by nutters on the right like the Eagle Forum.

 

From a Seals press release a brief summary of Ryan’s plan:

Ryan’s proposal would:

·               Raise taxes on the middle class in order to slash taxes for multi-millionaires

·               Privatize Medicare and Medicaid and gradually eliminate both programs

·               Eliminate Children’s Health Insurance Program and replace it with vouchers that decline in value

·               Privatize Social Security

·               Institutionalize the federal government bailout of private investment account if the stock market crashes

·               Even with all these drastic cuts to essential programs, the plan actually fails to control the debt.

 

Under the Republican budget plan, “about three-quarters of Americans — those with incomes between $20,000 and $200,000 — would face tax increases” according to the fiscally-conservative Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.  CBPP concluded “The Ryan Proposal would abolish Medicare in its current form” and “would cut in half the taxes of the richest 1 percent of Americans.” They also state “as a result of its costly new tax cuts for the wealthy, the Ryan plan would allow the federal debt to continue rising in relation to the size of the economy for at least four decades.”

 

Boehner himself ran away from it because it is toxic to the average voter—and it appears that Dold realized that by telling the truth, he made a big mistake given how quickly it disappeared.

 

UPDATE:  Mixed up Bruce/Bob in the original–haven’t made fun of Bruce in a while.

Kirk and Memory

My first reaction to the Mark Kirk story in today’s Tribune is that most of this is an entirely different story than the military and teaching issues.   Memory is a very unstable human characteristic.  Memories tend to change when accessed and so stories tend to change over time as you recall them and try and fill in the details each time.  So when Mark Kirk says he had a body temperature of 82 degrees, he’s obviously wrong, but probably not lying in the traditional sense of the word.  He is literally misremembering.

From a political point of view this doesn’ t matter much because he’s screwed since the press now believes nothing he says and innocent errors will be turned into tests of character.

And here’s where Kirk gets himself in trouble to the point where I have little sympathy with him even if I think the misremembering isn’t a big deal:

Pressed on the timing of the rescue, Kirk told the Tribune the magazine reporter must have made a mistake. Informed the interview was recorded, Kirk then said he did not watch the sunset but denied embellishing his story.

 

This is just like when he issued a correction for the New York Times, he tries to blame someone else when he could just sit respond with–“oops, I’m human and I screwed up a really old memory and I apologize.  It was a traumatic event for me and I clearly don’t have the best recall of it.”

Stupidest Governor Evah!

The State Police swept his office for bugs the day before Blagojevich’s arrest.  Now, Rob (the brother) says he didn’t order it and was unaware of Rod ordering it, but the State Police don’t randomly sweep the Governor’s Campaign office for bugs without an order.

 

After the news about Wyma came out, Robert testifies, someone on the governor’s team had the Illinois State Police sweep the Friends of Blagojevich office for bugs on Dec. 8, 2008 — but Robert said he wasn’t concerned.

“Having the place swept for wires and bugs didn’t matter to me. We were doing nothing improper,” Robert testifies. “I never directed it. if Rod did, I’m not aware of it.”

Robert testifies that the order came from Chrissy Jacobs, a “politically connected” administrative assistant who was “very concerned about eavesdropping” and “a very excitable personality.”

 

Sure, it was her.  I buy that.  LOL.  But anyway, despite this sweep this genius was talking openly on the phone while plotting multiple extortion schemes.

 

Via Capitol Fax

Paranoid Coke Addict Jerks Media Around

Hysterical from Breitbart:

You tell me as a reporter how CNN put on a person today who purported to be the farmer’s wife? What did you do to find out whether or not that was the actual farmer’s wife? I mean, if you’re going to accuse me of a falsehood, tell me where you’ve confirmed that had this incident happened 24 years ago. […]

You’re going off of her word that the farmer’s wife is the farmer’s wife?

Just from public appearances and utterances, it’s friggen’ clear that Andrew Breitbart needs prescribed medication, a good rehab program, and 12 step program.  Why does the press let him jerk them around?

An Actual Policy Issue

I can’t avoid it since it involves both reducing subsidies on oil and gas subsidies and improving infrastructure…

 

Giannoulias’ National Infrastructure Fund would establish an independent board comprised of urban planners, economists, engineers, geologists and other experts in the field.  This board would prioritize the nation’s large-scale infrastructure needs based on their national and regional economic benefits. The highest ranked project would receive funding through direct federal grants, loan guarantees and private sector matching funds.

To avoid future reckless earmark projects like the “Bridge to Nowhere,” the Fund would essentially strip politics out of the decision-making process.  While Congress would continue to allocate the funds, the selection of projects would be made by the independent board, which would assess each project strictly on its merits, and rank the proposals based on their efficiency and economic benefit.

Giannoulias’ proposal is deficit-neutral and would be funded by cutting the tax breaks for big oil companies, which would make $45 billion available over the next decade. Instead of benefiting a few oil companies that already enjoy billions of dollars in annual profit, this taxpayer money will benefit the entire nation by connecting transit systems, updating the nation’s electric grid, streamlining freight rail lines, and repairing roads and bridges.

 

To give you some sense of the mix on energy subsidies the graphic at this site does a decent job. I would actually look at the graph different than it is broken down looking at Fossil fuels and Corn/Ethanol together as they produce carbon dioxide while the Capture and Sequester and traditional renewables are far better for mitigating climate change.  This eliminates nuclear as a separate issue which I think is a good way of handling it since nuclear is good on climate, but we don’t have a suitable method for waste storage.    The results of the graph though:  $87 billion for carbon dioxide producing energy sources to $14.5 Billion for climate neutral energy sources over 2002 to 2008.  Even if you exclude ethanol you still have $70 billion in subsidies for traditional fossil fuels.  The question being is for what possible reason do we need to subsidize oil and gas production and even with coal why it needs a subsidy if the argument is that it’s cheap is its selling point?

Oil and gas companies are immensely profitable and yet still receive government support while infrastructure in the United States suffers.

 

Seals’ Numbers

From the campaign:

 


DEERFIELD, IL – In another clear show of support from Illinois voters, Democratic Congressional Candidate Dan Seals today announced a consecutive strong fundraising quarter in the race for the open seat in Illinois’ 10th District.

In the second quarter FEC reporting period that closed on June 30, Seals received $556,156 in contributions.  Seals will also report having $792,000 cash-on-hand.

“I’m very appreciative of all the grassroots support we’ve received in this campaign,” said Seals. “Whether I’m talking to people on the phones or at their doorsteps, what we’re hearing loud and clear is that voters want fiscally-responsible, independent leadership from someone who shares their values – and I will be that voice.  In Congress, my first job is to create jobs, and this quarter was another strong push in that direction.”

Nearly 80% of contributions to Seals’ campaign come from individual donors.

Dan Seals is a business consultant and lecturer at Northwestern University.  The Democratic Nominee for Congress in Illinois’ Tenth District, Seals is a former Director at GE Capital and Group Manager at Sprint.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and an MA in International Economics from Johns Hopkins University.  He lives in Wilmette with his wife, Mia, and their three daughters.

Seals has drawn national attention and support in his race to win the seat vacated by Republican Mark Kirk.

 

Decent quarter.  Not blowing the barn doors off, but the burn rate doesn’t look too bad if I’m right and he should be getting some national attention as the race continues.