Obama Fatugue? - Hillary Warned Us

Remember Hillary Clinton's "3 a.m. phone call" political ad back in the 2008 primary run up that questioned whether or not Barack Obama was up to the task of the presidency? I do and, given the disaster that Obama has proven to be in the White House, I'm moving towards believing that Hillary's ads were more correct than many wanted to believe at the time - and that we should have listened to them. And I'm not the only one. Others are also hoping for a 2012 primary challenge against Obama and see Hillary as the one to be that challenger. A piece in The Daily Beast looks at this trend. Here are some highlights:

At a New York political event last week, Republican and Democratic office-holders were all bemoaning President Obama’s handling of the debt-ceiling crisis when someone said, “Hillary would have been a better president.” “Every single person nodded, including the Republicans,” reported one observer.

At a luncheon in the members’ dining room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday, a 64-year-old African-American from the Bronx was complaining about Obama’s ineffectiveness in dealing with the implacable hostility of congressional Republicans when an 80-year-old lawyer chimed in about the president’s unwillingness to stand up to his opponents. “I want to see blood on the floor,” she said grimly. A 61-year-old white woman at the table nodded. “He never understood about the ‘vast right-wing conspiracy,’” she said. Looking as if she were about to cry, an 83-year-old Obama supporter shook her head. “I’m so disappointed in him,” she said. “It’s true: Hillary is tougher.”

During the last few days, the whispers have swelled to an angry chorus of frustration about Obama’s perceived weaknesses. Many Democrats are furious and heartbroken at how ineffectual he seemed in dealing with Republican opponents over the debt ceiling, and liberals are particularly incensed by what they see as his capitulation to conservatives on fundamental liberal principles.

In Connecticut, a businessman who raised money for Obama in 2008 said, “I’m beyond disgusted.” In New Jersey, a teacher reported that even her friends in the Obama administration are grievously disillusioned with his lack of leadership—and many have begun to whisper about a Democratic challenge for the 2012 presidential nomination. “I think people are furtively hoping that Hillary runs,” she said.

Among many of the 18 million Americans who supported Hillary Clinton in 2008, the reaction is simple and bitter: “We told you so.”

“Remember that 3 a.m. phone call? Remember the warning about the rose-colored petals falling from the sky? Remember about learning on the job? Sure you do. Doesn’t a part of you, deep down, realize she was right?” wrote Dickinson, a political-science professor at Middlebury College. “If I heard it once this last week, I heard it a thousand times: You were duped by Obama’s rhetoric—the whole ‘hopey-changey’ thing. And you wanted to be part of history, too—to help break down the ultimate racial barrier. That’s OK. We were all young once. But now it’s time to elect someone who can play hardball, who understands how to be ruthless, who will be a real ... uh ... tough negotiator in office.

Such polls notwithstanding, insiders insist that Clinton will not challenge her president for the 2012 nomination, and many pundits dismiss the idea as political suicide. “A challenge from Clinton would be a complete disaster, both for her and for the Democrats,” wrote Jon Bernstein on the Plain Blog political site.

However unlikely a Democratic challenger might seem at present, Obama would be foolish not to heed the deep dissatisfaction represented by such speculation, which is now spreading like an ominous brush fire. Given the abundance of devastating economic news lately, he would also do well to remember the Clintons’ rallying cry from the 1992 election.

Unaccustomed Spotlight on Virginia Beach Following SEAL Team Deaths

The entire Hampton Roads area is deeply tied to the U.S. military given that Norfolk is the Home of the Atlantic Fleet, Virginia Beach is the home of Oceana Naval Air Station, the Navy’s Little Creek amphibious base, and Fort Story and Camp Pendleton. On the Peninsula we have Langley Air Force base and Ft. Eustis. When the tragedy of military deaths hits, it’s not unusual to either know one of the victims or someone who know one of the victims. The recent SEAL team deaths in Afghanistan are a case in point, with the majority of the dead hailing from Virginia Beach. As the Washington Post notes, typically mourning is low key and dignified. Yet, in a rare display of public mourning, the local surf community had a “paddle out” to honor one of the fallen (the photo is from the Virginian Pilot):

On Tuesday night, a rare public memorial took place when surfers formed a ritual circle in the sea for Kraig Vickers, one of the fallen SEALs who was a Hawaii native and loved to surf. But organizers of the paddle-out off Little Island Fishing Pier in Sandbridge also asked that there be no interviews, the Virginian-Pilot reported. Another public tribute occurred hours after the helicopter crash with a moment of silence during a Norfolk Tides minor league baseball game.

At the Vickerses’ home in a quiet suburban development, the family declined a request for an interview. Neighbors tried to comprehend the loss of a man who left behind his pregnant wife Nani and their three children.

I’m no supporter of the ongoing fool’s errand in Afghanistan. However, my heart does go out to the families of those lost – needlessly lost – because of the stupidity and dishonesty of the military leadership and our spineless commander-in-chief in the White House.

The "Marcia" Bachmann Cure for Homosexuality

Joe Jervis at Joe.My.God had this cartoon which was just way too funny to pass up. Joe calls Marcus "Macia" Bachmann "Ladybird" just to add to the fun. In all seriousness, the "cure" depicted in the cartoon makes as much sense (maybe even more since the view would be truly frightening!) than the bogus "pray away the gay" batshitery marketed by Bachmann at his "Christian counseling" clinics. The "ex-gay" myth is bullshit and quacks like Bachmann and the folks at Exodus International deserve whatever ridicule and humiliation that comes their way. P.S. Some of the comments on Joe's post are hysterically funny.

Wednesday Male Beauty

Chilean President Introduces Civil Union Bill

As many parts of the USA continue to slide into backwardness and place allegiance to religious extremism ahead of modernity and progress (yes, Virginia one such area), the countries in South America continue to demonstrate that they understand the meaning of religious freedom and equality under the civil laws for all citizens than does the USA which increasingly is a false beacon of the values it claims to uphold but in reality mocks. Now Chile is moving towards civil unions and most surprisingly, the bill in question was introduced by the nation's conservative president, Sebastian Pinera (pictured at left). AFP and Google News have details. Here are highlights:

Chile's conservative president proposed legislation Tuesday to recognize gay civil unions, granting them some of the same rights as married couples in the ultra-Catholic country.

"All forms of marriage deserve respect, dignity and the support of the state," said President Sebastian Pinera, who signed the proposal and sent it to Congress.

"This puts opposite-sex and same-sex couples on the same footing, because in both cases it is possible to develop love, affection and respect."

Pinera, who brought conservatives to power after 20 years of center-left rule in the country, grated on his own election campaign when he announced his intention to legalize civil unions for gay couples. He said two million people in Chile live together without marrying.

It will be a notable turn in Chile, where 80 percent of the country is Catholic and the government did not recognize divorce until 2004.

States With Gay Marriage Have Lowest Divorce Rates

Self-enriching cow Maggie Gallagher and the wide-assed bigots like Archbishop Dolan in New York in Catholic Church bishoprics around the country whine incessantly about "protecting" marriage from the threat of same sex marriage. Yet a new report shows that divorce is the least prevalent in states where gay marriage is legal and the highest - yes, you guessed it - in the Bible belt and ultra conservative states. It's one more example of the deliberate lies and untruths put out by the anti-gay folks whose real agenda is to punish LGBT citizens for not conforming to Christianist religious beliefs. They can whine and blather all they want, but it comes down to seeking to force others to live by the beliefs of the Christofascists. Here are highlights from Edge of the Net:

One would think that the liberal Northeastern states, which include five of the six where marriage equality is legal (including, that is, the federal District of Columbia), would have the highest rate of divorce because they are perceived as more freewheeling. In addition, the main argument against gay marriage has been that it undermines the state of marriage. So it would follow that, in states that have embraced gay marriages, heterosexual marriages are in a perilous state of collapse. Except that the opposite appears to be true.

At first glance, it looks counterintuitive -- at least, if you pay attention to the rhetoric of religious conservatives, who frown on divorce because they believe heterosexuals shouldn’t engage in premarital sex and once married, should remain so for the rest of their lives.

Here’s the really surprising part: It’s the Bible belt, the swathe of religious ultra-conservatives that swings from West Virginia down through Dixie that has by far the highest proportion of divorce rates among the general population.

Massachusetts, the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, for years has had the lowest number of divorces in the nation. In 2009, there were only 1.8 divorces per 1,000 population. Marriages also are legal in Washington, D.C., which closely trails Massachusetts with 2.1 divorces per 1,000 residents.

New York, the largest and most recent state to legalize marriage equality, has a divorce rate of 2.5 per 1,000. That ties the rate in Iowa, the sole non-Northeastern state to allow same-sex marriages. The other states with marriage equality also all have low divorce rates compared to the national median: Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont.

The same things that produce higher acceptance of diversity are the things that tend to lower divorce rates," she explained. "This is one of the ironies. People who are higher educated and who have experience outside marriage because they have delayed getting married and have a higher degree of economic security and sophistication tend to be more acceptable of same-sex marriage and have lower divorce rates."

College graduates, of whom there are many more in the low-divorce states, have higher incomes, which tend to make marriages last. "Those in the South have much lower income and education levels," Coontz reported.

That's right. The very ignorance and close mindedness preached by the Catholic bishops, the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and other anti-gay denominations is what really helps to increase divorce rates. Not Adam and Steven being civilly married and being treated as a lawful couple. So the next time you hear Maggie Gallagher pontificating, know that she's lying. Worse yet, I suspect she knows that she is she loves enriching herself more than telling the truth.

Wisconsin Democrats Fail to Retake State Senate

In what will likely serve to energize the nastiest elements of the GOP, unofficial results indicate that Wisconsin Democrats failed to take back control of the Wisconsin Senate from Republicans. Two things are striking: (1) the amount of out of state money that was pumped into Wisconsin by the far right and (2) the willingness of individuals in these largely rural districts to vote against the long term interests of their communities out of short term greed to pay lower taxes. The bill will ultimately come due in the form of reduced public services and in some case largely gutted school budgets. Time and time again senior citizens in particular are unwilling to invest in the younger generations. Yet they wonder why America is failing behind other nations in terms of educational outcomes. The Washington Post looks at the recall election outcomes in Wisconsin:

Democrats fell one seat short of a chance at taking back the Wisconsin state senate Tuesday, a result that will disappoint organized labor nationally. According to the Associated Press, State Sens. Dan Kapanke and Randy Hopper were recalled, while Sens. Robert Cowles, Alberta Darling, Sheila Harsdorf and Luther Olsen held onto their seats.

Democrats have questioned the results given that Waukesha County was one of the last to finish reporting. In April’s Supreme Court election — also seen as a referendum on collective bargaining — challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg appeared to have beaten Judge David Prosser, before thousands of lost ballots were found in Waukesha.

In a statement, Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate accused Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus of “once again tampering with the results of a consequential election” and said that a “dark cloud hangs over these important results.” State party spokesman Graeme Zielinski added, “We believe there’s dirty tricks afoot.” The party’s legal team is investigating. If these results stand, its an undeniable defeat for labor and for progressive activists.

Outside groups on both sides poured more than $25 million into this fight, in addition to the more than $5 million raised by the candidates themselves. According to the non-partisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign’s Mike McCabe, Republicans had a slight edge in the money race, but it was “remarkably close.” Unions were the main source of funds for Democrats; limited-government groups such as the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity invested heavily on the GOP side.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

Rafael Nadal - Gorgeous!

Why the Financial Markets Are Melting

After my divorce, I was wiped out financially and had little reason to follow the stack market gyrations (chart above is from the New York Times). Now, with my parents gone and a modest inheritance, I find myself worrying that the herd earned results of my parents labors will be wiped out by the irresponsible behavior of Congress, the White House and Wall Street. The Daily Beast has an article that looks at possible reasons and part of the problem is the lack of structural controls that will act as circuit breakers if you will to control and moderate panics. The supposed reforms of the last go round of supposed regulatory revitalization has in reality done little. As a result, program trading and people acting like lemmings continue to drive the markets towards instability. Here are some highlights:

No one can say precisely when or why this will end. Its triggers we know: a flawed debt deal in the United States, renewed sclerosis in the European Union about peripheral debt issues in Greece and Italy, a downgrade by Standard & Poor’s of U.S. sovereign debt (oh, the irony of S&P downgrading debt leading to a precipitous decline in the S&P index), and then a wave of global selling. No market has been immune; not one.

Since global markets bottomed in March 2009, there has been an uneasy calm, the capitalistic version of the “Phony War” period between the fall of Poland to Germany in September 1939 and the fall of France in May 1940. None of the reforms passed in the wake of the financial crisis create any breakers against synchronous global financial panic. Yes, there is less leverage and more capital in financial institutions, which is a vital difference between now and then and augurs against a repeat of what happened two years ago, but there are no circuit breakers that prevent the rolling flash-crash of the past week.

These moments create ripples of fear that build like tsunami waves until they crash with destructive force against the shoals of investor confidence, institutional balance sheets, and collective investing psyche. And more than ever, they race around the world unimpeded by national boundaries and uncontainable by central banks.

[A]t times, I also watched in fascination as stock after stock sold off without any consideration of the intrinsic strength of the underlying businesses, even discounting for a possible global recession. Even though such a recession seems highly unlikely, stocks sold off well beyond whatever consequences such a global contraction might have.

If we are October 1987, it’s time to buy; if it is December 2008, watch out. We will only know the answer to this in retrospect, but this feels more like a crash than a new trend, and like any flash fire, these burn quickly, intensely, and then they stop. You don’t want to be in these markets when this is happening, but you also don’t want to be out of these markets when they reverse.

Sign the Petition and Make Congress Call Out False Anti-Gay Testimony

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

I for one am beyond over watching Congress hold hearings on LGBT related issues only to see the talking heads of registered hate groups providing utterly fraudulent testimony based solely on extreme religious beliefs and/or discredited junk science - all typically without challenges or any serious questioning. Examples include anti - DADT doyenne Elaine Donnelly, self-enriching political whore Maggie Gallagher, self-loathing closet cases like Robert Knight and many others. Now, Change.org has started a petition to demand that Congress stop providing a platform to anti- LGBT bigots, liars and religious extremists. If you're willing to sign the petition - I've already signed it - do so by going here. As my blogger compatriot Alvin McEwen states:

In June of this year during a Congressional hearing on the Defense of Marriage Act, Sen. Al Franken exposed Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery's attempt to inaccurately cite a study to defame same-sex households.

Earlier this year during another Congressional hearing on DOMA, National Organization for Marriage’s Maggie Gallagher committed the same distortion – i.e. inaccurately citing a study to defame same-sex households.

The Family Research Council was declared as an official anti-gay hate group last year by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its tendency to spread propaganda about the gay community such as gays molest children at a high level and same-sex households harm children.

However, the head of the Family Research Council - Tony Perkins - is frequently called as a Congressional witness on many occasions from discussing issues of gay equality to the selection of Supreme Court judges.

This false testimony needs to be stopped. Please consider signing the petition.