The Deficit Is Shrinking

You read that headline right. And the source of this surprising reality? Drudge Peach Pundit Morning Reads.

If you click through and read the article, you'll see the CBO projects the 2012 deficit at $1.08 trillion. Originally the estimate had it dropping below the tantalizing trillion mark, but later revisions nudged it slightly back over that psychological marker.

Can that be right? Can the deficit actually be dropping despite the best efforts of our free wheelin' Socialist-In Chief?

Yes. And it has for some time.

Here's the deficits since 2009 (and remember 2009 was actually mostly President Bush since the fiscal year ran through Oct 1st):

2009: $1.41 trillion
2010: $1.23 trillion
2011: $1.29 trillion
2012: $1.10 trillion

Source: http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/federal_deficit_chart.html

And that chart at the top? That's the rate of increase in Federal spending. That nose dive at the end is not an illusion.

Just a few things to roll around your head in case you have the misfortune of your radio landing on the WSB MEDIA CONVEYOR BELT OF DOOM with some snake oil salesman screaming "HE'S GOING TO SPEND US INTO OBLIVION!"

Reality bites.

Quote Of The Day

From an Andrew Sullivan reader:

I spent Thanksgiving with my family of formerly-sensible moderates and conservatives. Every one of them has morphed into a Gingrich fan....The only thing they're interested in is the visceral joy of watching someone destroy and humiliate "that damned Obama." They're convinced that Gingrich is just the guy to administer the rough justice they crave, and whether he's electable or would even be good for the country simply doesn't enter into their thinking.

I could tell a very similar story in the context of "that damned Obama". And I agree with the reader that anyone who thinks Gingrich doesn't stand a chance in nabbing the nomination is fooling themselves. The desire to "teach Obama a lesson" is very real and many are under the delusion that Professor Gingrich can administer the beat down.

Quote Of The Day

Political scientist Jonathan Bernstein rips into Drew Westen for accusing Obama of not being more FDR-like.

You know what can FDR kicked down the road for political reasons, to be dealt with after an election? A little something called WORLD WAR II.

Read the whole delicious teardown.

Why You Shouldn't Listen To Libertarians

Libertarians are consistent in one aspect- they always think everyone else is wrong.

Many are currently crowing about how President Obama "answered" Reagan's question of "are you better off now than you were four years ago".

Of course that's not really what he said and he has carefully explained in interviews how things were much worse than anticipated. Matters not one speck to libertarians who use such oracular texts as pamphlets "proving" that FDR extended the Great Depression to reach conclusions on Obama's policies before he ever put his hand on the Bible.

Not because they overestimated the economic problems they country was facing, but because it was based on the false premise that government can create jobs by spending money we don’t have.

The only difference in the libertarian's view that Obama made things worse and the Republican's caterwaul that all he does is blame Bush is semantics.

The problem is they both ignore the fact that Obama is right.

See that chart up there? That's the revised statistics of the depth of the contraction during the Great Recession. It was a full percentage point worse than originally estimated. That means the economy lost $100 billion more than originally thought.

But what if the Libertarians are right? What if Obama is a misguided incompetent? Then we should look at alternatives right?

How about Romney? Nope. They hate him because of Massachusetts healthcare.

Surely Perry. Nope. One word - Gardisil.

Well how about tea party darling, Herman Cain? Oh, you didn't know he supported TARP?

So what will Libertarians do when election time rolls around? They'll vote for Gary Johnson who stands not a hoot's hell chance in winning. Then, what will they do in the general? They'll either stay home or vote for the candidate they select at the colorful hootenanny they call a convention.

And in January 2012 if, with their assistance at picking every scab the Republicans open on Obama, we elect a full bore lunatic, they will wipe their hands and say their conscience is clean because they didn't vote for either one.

Which is why until the day dawns where they give a whit about reality, we shouldn't give a whit about what libertarians think.

My Morning Kyle

It has been a while since I've picked on the AJC's (usually) reasonable conservative voice, but some things cannot pass.

It is not much of a leap from the rhetoric of our president to the violence and looting that has beset Great Britain.

No, Kyle. Connecting a President, in a time of severe financial crisis where we may ask our grandparents to continue working until they are 70, asking the wealthiest in this country to return to the tax rate they "suffered" under for the entire decade of the 90s to people literally burning their cities to the ground is a huge leap.

Hyperbole is an effective tool in the hands of the political provocateur, but there is a difference between stretching a rhetorical point and living in another universe while proclaiming your feet are firmly planted on planet Earth.

We need more reality in our conversations. Kyle, you ain't helping.

One Night In Pakistan

We've dealt with the abstract far too much lately. The New Yorker's Nicholas Schmidle's riveting account of the events of the night we eliminated Bin Laden should snap us back to reality:

During the next four minutes, the interior of the Black Hawks rustled alive with the metallic cough of rounds being chambered. Mark, a master chief petty officer and the ranking noncommissioned officer on the operation, crouched on one knee beside the open door of the lead helicopter. He and the eleven other SEALs on “helo one,” who were wearing gloves and had on night-vision goggles, were preparing to fast-rope into bin Laden’s yard. They waited for the crew chief to give the signal to throw the rope. But, as the pilot passed over the compound, pulled into a high hover, and began lowering the aircraft, he felt the Black Hawk getting away from him. He sensed that they were going to crash.

Find half hour to quietly read the entire piece.

The Profoundly Unserioius

The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives uses a talk radio program to vet his plan to save us from financial ruin.

The acolytes continue to spin the tale that even if the debt ceiling is not raised, we will have plenty of money to keep the "important" things solvent.

Now, today, the usual suspects are cackling all over twitter about Apple having more cash on hand than the entity that represents all 300 million of us.

Up to this point, the lunacy that infects the GOP has been inside baseball or the navel gazing of the teevee hairdos. Now, it is starting to affect the entire economy - from the cats om the "Street" to the payroll of soldiers in the field to the young couple considering buying a new house.

And the Republican intelligentsia is laughing all the way.

Outside the deafening echoes of the re-affirming radio, television, social media chambers, regular folks are starting to notice.

Quote Of The Day

From Megan McArdle, who recently spoke to some finance people about why the stock market was not reacting badly to the news out of Washington:

No, they're relatively calm because they simply cannot bring themselves to believe that we're not, in the end, going to raise the ceiling.  It's too outlandish that we would, through the collective action of our congressmen, suddenly and for no apparent reason shoot ourselves in the head.

 The Dow is currently down for the fourth straight day but still relatively modest in its downturn. Right now it's the annoying cat scratching your leg to wake you up. Next Tuesday, it could a tiger eating us all alive.

Chart Of The Day

Some will dismiss it because of the source (Center for American Progress), but I believe it's difficult to argue with the numbers.

The President is now to the right of Bowles-Simpson.

We are on the brink of fiscal disaster, but it is the President who is creating job stifling "uncertainty" and it is the President who is engaging in "class warfare".

But most importantly, it is all his fault because he steadfastly refuses to put anything on paper.

The Best Of The Drifts - Family And Race

Originally published March 19, 2008

The In Between

We finally reached a truce.

Following myriad pleas, cajoles and threats, my family finally agreed to not use certain epithets in my presence. After long arguments and subtle persuasions, both sides realized the gulf of understanding was too deep to bridge and instead chose that very southern solution - polite silence.

My mother would occasionally slip and seeing me nearby would apologize. It was one of those stomach flipping moments where all realized the child now led the way and the parent would forever follow.

My brothers and sisters continued to follow the truce until our mother left us. With her passing, we were placed in the position of the top rung of the family. Families, like the packs of predators which are their heritage, require leaders and perhaps it was that struggle for supremacy which led my siblings back to the hidden truth - they desired to again casually use certain words in my presence.

At first there were gentle corrections then as things turned ugly not-so gentle accusations. Soon, as four people splintered, sides were taken and I was inexorably pulled towards the brother who was most like myself - except he was 13 years older, a product of the turbulent sixties with its bussing and violence and although no one would ever say it was dominant in his life, bigoted.

He used certain explosive words as thoughtlessly as a man might use the word Coca-cola to describe what he was drinking. He flatly stated if his daughters brought home a black man, he would remove them from his life. When told that Barack Obama may win the Presidency, he rolled his eyes and muttered, "what is the world coming to?"

The polite silence was irrevocably shattered when one of my nieces finally crossed that ultimate line of race. For the dating habits of a 19-year old girl, I was sent flying on a 400 mile trip to attempt to heal a broken family.

After many tears, the family did not heal completely but remained together. They reached their own uneasy truce. The father would not interfere but the daughter would not "put it in his face". My brother frankly told me that he knew we were different and there were things I took as the way of the world which he could never accept.

We as a society have moved so far in this particular struggle but it is close by where we struggle so hard. I could no more remove my brother from my life than I could cut off my right hand because it offends. But events of this week have shown that we must all work harder. We must be willing to tell those we hold most dear, "brother, I love you but when I'm around there are things you can't do".

And change will come. Perhaps all the ones we love will not change but with each passing of that love change will be inevitable.

Many months after the "boyfriend incident" as my brother sat rolling his eyes at the possibility of a black man being President, my niece standing just behind her father sotto voce told me, "I think he'll be a good President".

A Tale Of Two Tax Cuts

First up - Rep. Tom Graves and Sen. Chip Rogers propose a good ol' fashioned "conservative" approach to creating jobs.

$2,400 Tax Credit for the Hiring of the Most Difficult to Employ: Any Georgia company which hires a person who is difficult to employ and is currently receiving unemployment benefits...A Triggered 50 Percent Reduction of the Capital Gains Tax for all Georgia Taxpayers.

What a wonderful free market approach to the economy!

Next up - a portion of President Obama's State Of The Union.

I am also proposing a new small business tax credit – one that will go to over one million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages. While we’re at it, let’s also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment; and provide a tax incentive for all businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment

According to Georgia's own Erick Erickson, the speech was an "assault on the free market system".

Yet, I'm sure we'll continue to see plenty of a very earnest Erick spewing his tripe on the 'liberal' media.

Winging On Kyle

More evidence of the "Party of No"

"...the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, working with the Secretary of the Treasury and other agency heads, to evaluate practices of contracting officers and debarring officials in response to contractors’ certifications of serious tax delinquencies and to provide me, within 90 days, recommendations on process improvements to ensure these contractors are not awarded new contracts, including a plan to make contractor certifications available in a Government-wide database, as is already being done with other information on contractors"

The problem is that the Cabinet members got the benefit of the doubt (well, these four did — Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer weren’t so lucky; two out of six ain’t bad?) whereas ordinary citizens and companies don’t always benefit from such IRS understanding.

President Obama institutes a policy of more accountability from the people who spend our tax dollars and the response from the conservative voice of the Atlanta Journal Constitution is it is an illegitimate action!

Do we need more evidence that the only stance of the core of the Republican Party is "HELL NO"?

My Morning Wooten

Math is fun.

The post-partisan president has the country divided 50-50. No end in sight. Gotta tell you. I’m coming to hate politics as exemplified by the deal with U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) to exempt that state forever from the higher taxes imposed by the new health care legislation now being hashed out in Congress. The Georgia Department of Community Health estimates that Georgians would be forced to pay up to $200 million in higher taxes for an expanded Medicaid program starting in 2013 and increasing to $500 million per year over the following six years. We pay for Georgia, plus Nebraska. That’s bound to be unconstitutional.

In 2004, Mississippians received $1.82 in federal funds for every $1.00 they paid in federal income tax. Californians received $0.78 in federal funds for every $1.00 they paid in federal income tax.

Why do righteous Mississippians continue to live off the tax dollars of pagan Californians?

Why do dishonest columnists continue to peddle the myth that Barack Obama invented "vote buying"?

Source: http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22685.html

It's Different

Bill Waller, described by the proprietors of SWGAPolitics as the resident neo-con, although given his stances and reading list, paleo-con may be more apt, at least calls the recent effigy of President Obama found in Plains,Ga insenstive, but then goes on to spin a wild hypothetical of a Obama supporter planting the heinous item in order to "silence the good and decent people that have also exercised their political free speech rights with signs and tea bags". It really is all Obama's fault.

Fellow SWGAPolitics writer Tom follows with the usual whine about any criticism of Obama being labelled racism, then follows with a rather incomplete history lesson.

I guess it never dawned on you, with your Phd. in history, that effigies are an age old tool of political criticism. They were hung for many American Presidents. Not just the black ones. No, they were hung and often burned for all kinds of reasons. So why is it now that it’s suddenly racist?

Oh, I don't know Tom. Maybe because suddenly we have a black President? It's this little thing called context. Tom points out one side of history - true, effigies have always been political tools of the small minded - but conveniently ignores the other half - that this particular effigy was of a black man in an area of the country with a history of hanging black men for no better reason than looking at a person the wrong way.

Finally, the cherry is placed on the "just doesn't get it" sundae by the Americus Times-Recorder who proposes it may have been done by foreigners.

Is it to much to expect people of intelligence to understand why the image of hanging the first black President showing up in a small southern time might have a message that reaches deeper than the surface? We can work on them actually acknowledging it later.

The Strangest Day Ever?

12-1-09. Next time you think things can't get any weirder, remember that date.

Atlanta elected a new mayor and it wasn't even close to the top story. Not even locally. Why?

Republicans scurried behind close doors to determine the fate of politically wounded leader Glenn Richardson. Two news outlets reported his resignation was imminent. In typical Richardson manner, his people immediately fired back with a "nu uh". Yet, still this morning Republican insiders are saying it's going to happen. (And I ain't even going to get into that "other shoe about to drop" Erick mentioned)

President Obama gave a speech about sending more troops to Afghanistan which resulted in Democrats whining about a "war President" (when this is exactly what Obama told them over a year ago he would do) and Republicans plumbed new depths of cognitive dissonance by calling it isolationism. And you thought the partisanship in the Atlanta Mayor's race was screwy.

Speaking of affairs, the most famous man in the world has been caught not only in one affair, but now two (maybe three, maybe infinity) and even better than Richardson's ex, this one has tape! If you haven't heard the voice mail, let's just say it is devestating.

Oh.

And Atlanta elected a mayor. Maybe. Maybe not.

It's like the entire world took a big huff of glue yesterday.

My Morning Wooten

We're going to have some fun today. The plate is full.

No, it’s true that President Obama is not “ignoring calls for tort reform and changes in medical malpractice laws.” Trial lawyers are a key constituency of the Democratic Party, which largely explains why party leaders have chosen to ignore this potential cost savings.

Free market conservatives are for the free market except when they're not. Free market conservatives are against regulation except when they're not. Bottom line is tort reform is regulation. Free market pretenders are a key constituency of right wing pundits, which largely explains why Jim has chosen to ignore this cognitive dissonance

Anybody seen ACORN? The organization may be off to Afghanistan, where the main headline reports “Karzai’s vote lead clouded.” A smaller headline explains: “Fraud suspected in more than a quarter of all Afghan votes.”

ACORN has never been convicted of voter fraud. The accusations were limited to voter registration fraud. There used to be a time when facts mattered - even in an opinion column. It would seem like a good issue for the Public Editor, but why bother. And just to prove my point...

This is a group that helped elect Barack Obama, is widely accused of voter-registration fraud, and would have grown richer and more powerful off public money in this administration. It would have had a prominent role in the 2010 census before exposes caused the feds to sever the relationship.

There it is. At least he got it right this time. Here is how myths are made - take a grain of truth, cover it with manure then claim it was a boulder all along.

Maybe it’s just for a single day, but rejoice that the Standard Language of the South is back! This was the ajc.com headline over a story about an advocacy group’s push to impose a tax of one-cent per ounce on what the wire service reporter referred to as “sodas and other sweetened beverages”: “Group pushes tax on soft drinks.” Yes!

Copy Editor Jim returns. I bet I know one group who is happy he no longers roams the newsroom.

In Houston County, the District Attorney is filing charges against parents from other counties who enroll their children in Houston schools. Don’t put me on this jury. The money should follow the child and parents should be able to enroll their children in schools near where they work, near a caregiver or near any other more convenient place.

A supposed "law and order" conservative argues for jury nullification. This is "common sense conservatism".

You’re old Atlanta if you remember when the city’s mayoral race was the talk of metro Atlanta and even of Georgia. Now Dunwoody’s suburban neighbor prepares to pick a successor to Mayor Shirley Franklin and the candidates are almost as anonymous as those who vie to run the cities on the perimeter.

Jim lives somewhere in middle Georgia now, right? Apparently the AJC's decision to cut back on delivery to certain areas has unintended consequences. Their poor former Associate Editor doesn't realize the Mayor's race has been this town's top political story for the past two weeks.

The Joe Wilson flap, taken nuclear by former President Jimmy Carter and others on the left, is a reminder that liberals really do believe that they and their policy positions are morally superior. By demonizing opponents as racists, they claim quite sanctimoniously that those who oppose them have no legitimate basis for their arguments...The race card is the liberals’ Saturday night special – a cheap weapon to pop off into a crowd they don’t like.

And we end with this. I would like to explain how words are being twisted. I would like to explain how the statements of the few are being twisted to cast shadow on the many. I'd like to go on a long rant about the Republican's perfecting the process of myth-making.

But I can't.

Because last night I was told that my previous statement - "I know the Republican party isn't racist" - doesn't make any sense.

So, on this one, Jim may be more right that I care to admit.

Selah.

The Buzzman Calls Me Out

Peach Pundit's Buzz Brockway called me out. Let the second round of the spin war begin.

I've been trying to put my finger on something for a while now. My gut has been telling me there is something different about what is happening with Obama and what happened with George Bush in his later years.

Then I read this yesterday and the mist began to clear.

"The heaviest hitters in the Republican party, and in the conservative media have loudly and proudly called for Obama's failure. Liberals who even softly criticized Bush were roundly shamed and called terrorist-loving-America-haters"

The entire piece is a little heavy handed but it is worth the read.

But why is it different? Is it because we are led by a black man? I am willing to admit I am not sure. Certainly not as sure as President Carter (although his statement is being conflated to ridiculous levels). And certainly not so sure that I would make asinine statements as my own Congressman has (also note who in the Atlanta press called him on it). But what I am sure of is there is a wave of irrationality. As to how large that wave is, I do not think we know.

And here is where I think I finally start putting my finger on the issue.

Even though we don't know how pervasive the irrational fear is, leaders (and there is little denying some of the people I am about to name have been embraced as leaders) on the right have trumpeted it as a "movement" and "patriotic" and as "mainstream". We've reached the existential moment where fear of the unknown or ignorance of the known is not only seen as rational political thought but a reason to proudly thump one's chest and declare patriotism.

The difference is even though the left has loons (if you want to know what I think about these people ask me some time about "cause junkies"), they don't usually prop them up as the "mainstream" as much of the right does with Malkin, Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin. There are certainly exceptions, such as Dreher's spot on description of what Limbaugh is doing as "wicked", and they should be celebrated. There should be more.

The difference is here in Georgia the main Democratic blog, Blog For Democracy, certainly has its share of nutty commenters but they don't promote them to front page posting priviledges. Peach Pundit, the main Republican blog, on the other hand, promotes a person whose sole purpose in life appears to be calling any black Georgia politician who dares open their mouth a "race pimp".

I know the Republican party is not racist. I also know that those whining now that just because they disagree they are being called racist are disingenous. I also know that we are seeing things in the early days of the first black President that I'm not sure we've ever seen before. But, I'll save race for another time. Despite the desire of people to boil it down to a placard argument, it is complex and deserves unwavering attention. Also, I'm still not sure I've put my finger on it.

What I have put my finger on is the belief that although there are some Democrats speaking stupidly, there are far fewer Republicans speaking reasonably. Both should do better.

The Sound of Moderates Fleeing

Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice says,

The reaction to Obama on the part of some of his partisan foes is now making Bush derangement syndrome look like a hot and heavy Dawson’s Creek romance

Our own Erick "The Witches Hammer" Erickson calls Joe Wilson, he who screamed "you lie" during the President's speech, a great American hero.

As I told someone recently, even if I agree with you on an ideological point, it's hard being on your side when you act like an utter jackass.

Flat Out Stupid

The President's going to talk to some school kids today.

Some people think he's going to use his magic mind powers to turn them into socialist drones who will eat their parents. A woman in Tampa this past week said she didn't want her precious to hear Obama because he would know what they did in the privacy of their home. My first thought is what they did is probably manufacture meth and probably someone should check it out.

We (the royal we - feeling a little pretentiated today) are going to do something which would normally make our teeth chatter like a WWI era biplane machine gun - quote Thomas Friedman.

"What we need is people to stand up and say it's flat out stupid. That's is flat out stupid."

Can't wait to see what the red-baiters, scaremongers and paranoid freaks gin up next.

Not Quite

Erick's latest headline:

In Which Griftdrift and I Agree

Well. Not quite.

But before we get into that, note the classic campaign spin - we've been at odds lately but look! I've found something we agree on so we're really not that far apart! Then the fait accompli - shut off comments so your drafted ally can't disagree. It is classic political disinformation perfected by the Rovian "win at all cost" drones over the last 10 years.

The fact is Erick and I have agreed on nothing since the election. From his attempt to bring the witches hammer to Georgia to his rumor mongering about Florida Governor Charlie Crist to his vile slander against a sitting Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Erick has crossed the dividing line on my political map from the territory of grudging respect to the land of egomanical weasels who will say anything for more fame and money. It's not hard to guess who else inhabits this land.

But back to the birthers.

Where I agree with Erick is the entire episode is ridiculous, but it is important to note the parts that he carefully, in full blown weaselness, leaves out.

Never does Erick say people like Josep Farah and Orly Taitz are ridiculous. Never does Erick say that statements such as G. Gordon Liddy's that President Obama is an "illegal alien" are ridiculous. Even as these so-called birthers become squirrelier than an oak tree full of acorns, Erick Erickson does not call these people out as the loons they absolutely are.

Erick Erickson will only go as far as describing the situation as "ridiculous" and a "waste of time". In other words, it doesn't further the agenda or have a chance at success, therefore it must be put aside. It is a subtlety which would make Bill Clinton blush.

One day, Erick and I may agree again - probably on some local issue where the brain of the man temporarily ousts the limbic silliness of the weasel - but for now, the best we can do is "not quite".

Video found on Left On Lanier