On Being Liberal, Even in Oklahoma

I've had an e-mail newsletter exchange with the editor of a local small-town (just over the river in Oklahoma) shopper newspaper (circ 3,400). I wanted to respond to some statements he made about how he wanted to provide balanced, factual articles for his readers. I knew he was a liberal before I was finished with the first paragraph, but he is so typical of the liberal (he prefers progressive) mind-set that I wanted to share some of his ideas.

To this gentleman, bias means a right-wing slant, and he invited fact-based commentary, which didn't mean conservatives, but he back-tracked on that a bit.

I prefer to be thought of as a Progressive. I am just a pundit with a long and varied life of studies and interesting experiences. I research, paraphrase and quote from a variety of valid sources. Yes, it is my intention to persuade people to my views. I believe well-meaning people who label themselves Right Wing Conservative have been misled into supporting disastrous governmental policy that has negatively impacted the world. As I have stated in each issue… I welcome opposing points of view. You are welcome to express your views in The Texoman.

I asked him what he used for sources for his opinions.

I do read Harper’s, The Washington Spectator, The Hightower Lowdown, Mother Jones, The Nation and an assortment of online publications and research sites. Except for The Herald Democrat, KTEN and KXII, I do not read any other right wing publications. Most of what I do hear from the Right comes from the likes of Limbaugh, Gingrich, Perry, Hall, Colter, Paul and of course, Steve Taylor. And I only need listen to the conservatives in Washington to conclude, ‘we ain’t in Kansas anymore Dorothy.’ I feel wisdom, understanding and direction are as important as allegedly unbiased journalism.

On taxes, he's typically liberal: The wealthy don't pay their fair share, taxes redistributed downward will create jobs and stimulate the workplace, etc...and he's very anti-corporate. Those evil corporations, you know.

He's still convinced, like most liberals, that FDR had it right, and to this day he doesn't even realize what caused our current recession:

FDR enacted regulations on the financial markets and taxes on the rich that while thought by some to weaken the economy were necessary to redistribute revenue downward and rebuild a financial system founded on the broader base of the majority. Regulations and much of 1930’s taxation if left in place by subsequent administrations would have prevented our current economic problems. The gutting of the Glass Steagall financial regulations act by the Reagan administration and Phil Graham and tax cuts by anyone seeking re-election and needing big money laid the ground work for our current recession.

I asked him to view the video at http://www.bornagainamerican.org, but alas, no luck here either:

My warm fuzzy proud to be an American feelings died in Viet Nam along with several of my childhood friends and the senseless murder of countless men, women and children I could not help and all the wealthy American industrial corporate executives I did.

But this guy, at least, welcomes opposing opinions (unlike so much of his liberal friends).

It has never been my intention to make The Texoman the exclusive property of the Left. I encourage everyone of every persuasion to address the issues of the day here. You don’t even have to be polite, well-read or logical. You only need to write.

I do not put his comments here to mock him, or make fun of his ideas. The purpose here is to point out how different our ideas are. To him, and his liberal friends, everything is logical, factual, and the only way to make things better.

It seems we both want things to be better. We just disagree on how to get there.

He's Not Joe the Plumber

I'm actually talking about Joe Conason, a writer for the New York Observer. A recent editorial he wrote can be used as a case-study of how liberals view history. I'll point out some of his more obvious mis-statements, but I don't have the time or room here for a line-by-line blow, so don't accuse me of cherry-picking.

The only sentence in his piece that is factually true is the first one:

As Barack Obama's economic advisers confront choices that vary from bad to worse in their mission to revive the financial sector and the broader economy, it is worth remembering that those choices were in essence inherited by the president, who is still new to his office.

Choices that vary from bad to worse. Well, there are better choices, such as tax reform, fiscal constraint, a balanced budget, just not what Obama is actually doing. But he did inherit this mess, so these two statements are mostly true.

Next,

Listening to his critics, especially on the right, it would be easy to believe that the president is personally responsible for ballooning deficits, gigantic bailouts, ridiculous bonuses, nationalized institutions and careening markets.

But the president (along with Congress) is responsible for ballooning deficits, gigantic bailouts (even though started by Bush, but continued by this president), ridiculous bonuses (signed into law by Obama), nationalized institutions (taking over AIG; Geithner's expanded power request), and careening markets.

And of course,

Ever since Election Day 2008, the usual suspects have been hard at work, deflecting responsibility from the Bush administration (and the Republicans in Congress) for the catastrophic effects of conservative policy enacted during the past eight years.

But if you actually paid any attention, you'd know this is not really true. Of course, many Republicans are to blame as well, but it is the Democrats who are mostly responsible for this mess, starting with the Community Investment Act during Jimmy Carter's years, then strengthened during Bill Clinton's reign, with the continued pressure applied to financial institutions to lend, lend, lend...and when the Bush adminstration saw problems six years ago, they were blocked by the Democrats (Franks and Dodd) of any regulatory overall.

He goes on about how it's all a con game, how Republicans never get blamed for anything, how it's always Democrats who get blamed for economic woes, and on and on. Since when have Republicans never been blamed for everything. What world does Joe live in.

But here's one of my favorites, used by anyone on the left:

According to conservative theory, the mere announcement of massive tax cuts for the rich by a Republican president ought to have stimulated euphoria in the markets and rapid growth.

Tax cuts for the rich is not part of conservative theory. Obviously Mr. Conason has not bothered to study conservative theory. This is part of the kool-aid crowd's attempt to advance class warfare, so we know where he gets this theory. Yes, the last two tax cuts did cut taxes for the rich -- they cut taxes for everyone. I got one. I'm sure he got one.

Actual studies have shown that rebates and government spending are not stimulatory. But long-term tax relief for everyone -- including small business (which make around $250,000, or part of the "rich") are the real engines of growth, because growth is then put in the hands of people who create growth. Governments never create growth. This is a fact, based on economic history.

But I guess, for Mr. Conason, facts are truely an inconvenience.

Ignoring the Constitution: Our Congress

People are still arguing over the "facts" of who got us into this mess. Most of the blame, at least by the left, has fallen on .... drum roll, please ... you got it: Bush.

But the facts, for those of you who are interested, paint a different picture, one based in reality. David Young, a Constitutional scholar, on his blog On Second Opinion, could not have summarized it better:

The current economic situation is largely the result of two separate problems. The first is government policy that has forced lending institutions to loan money for homes to those who cannot actually repay the loans. Due to the government's policy requiring unsound loans for housing, many people have purchased homes much more expensive than they would otherwise have bought. Others have purchased more than a home, they have engaged in extensive speculation in the housing market, buying up houses, especially in a few parts of the country, to make extensive profits.

The second problem involves some of the largest financial institutions that have engaged in what amounts to gambling or blatant speculation through the medium of credit default swaps, betting on the likelihood of various large
businesses failing. Because of the failure of Freddie and Fanny due to unsound loans caused by equally unsound public policy, the failure of various major financial institutions has become likely, and as a result of a possible string of failures, literally trillions of dollars may be owed to those speculating in credit default swaps.

The insanity of the whole affair is that the people who caused this -- both government and private -- are the ones who are attempting to fix the problem. Does this make sense to you?

Young writes: "Apparently it is simply the result of politicians ignoring the power actually given them in the U.S. Constitution and doing whatever they please whenever they want."

Victor Davis Hanson is also worth reading on these -- indeed, most -- issues. (In fact, if you're not a regular reader of his columns and books, you should become one now.)

We had a 9/11 Commission; we formed the Baker-Hamilton Commission on Iraq (never mind the utility of the conclusions). So let us try a bipartisan investigatory commission on the autumn financial meltdown. Thus far the mainstream media narrative is a reductive “Bush did it.” But let us examine past bundling of subprime mortgages, and derivatives, and who introduced more regulation of banks, who opposed it; who tried to restrain Freddie and Fannie, who fought that tooth and nail, what the SEC did and did not do — and why. Let us collate all the campaign contributions from the failed banks, Madoff, the entire open sewer of politics and high finance, and then let those of the commission, both Democrat and Republican, issue a white paper on when, why, and how it all went down.

In the meantime, let's just keep doing the same thing, and hope for different results.

This are truly insane times.

Reality: Reserved for Democrats

To so-called liberals, the only reality is what they tell you it is. As Katha Pollit wrote a few months ago (emphasis mine):

Only Democrats, it seems, reward their most loyal supporters -- feminists, gays, liberals, opponents of the war, members of the reality-based community -- by elbowing them aside to embrace their opponents instead.

While the article this appeared in was complaining of Obama's choice of Rick Warren for the inaugural invocation, what is interesting to me is the phrase: members of the reality-based community.

What the fuck does that mean?

I guess that means if I'm not a Democrat, my reality isn't real. Something I made up.

I'm sorry. I'm so tired of "liberal," "progressive," crap like this. I'm tired of being called all sorts of things because I believe in liberty, individual freedom and responsibility, instead of the fucking government getting in all my business, which means elitist (she teaches at Princeton, which she points out is an elite institution) folks like Katha, who are so special that they know best, want to control what I say, what I read and what I believe in. From before birth to after death. This is not liberal or progressive in any sense of the word, so don't you believe this claptrap shit at all, or else you'll be living soon in a nation modelled after Cuba or East Germany.

These are the same people who are so stupid that Geithner's plan for the banks is to do that same thing done in the United Kingdom, which failed. Or Japan tried for 10 years, and failed. Or the New Deal, which extended the depression (and actually created a second repression within the depression in 1937). So why will it work now? And we have a stupid, ignorant, tax-evader for our secretary of treasury, an Obama goonsquad character.

So Katha, this is a warning to you and your friends. Today, I'm not going to treat anyone who wants to destroy my country with any kind of tolerance or kindness. I can give as good as I have gotten.

The gloves are off.

Do You Regret Your Vote Yet, Part 2?

Headlines from this morning:

Obama Apologizes to Special Olympics for Bowling Joke
President Obama called the chairman of the Special Olympics, Tim Shriver, to say he was sorry for an offhand remark on the "The Tonight Show."

Sen. Dodd's Political Future Cloudy After AIG Bonus Controversy
As head of the banking panel, Sen. Christopher Dodd has become a convenient target for voter anger over the economic crisis.

U.S. Budget Deficit Forecast to Hit $1.8 Trillion This Year
The Congressional Budget Office says the deficit under President Obama's policies would never go below 4 percent of the size of the economy, figures that economists agree are unsustainable.

Iranian Leaders Ignore Obama's Outstretched Hand
Iran's supreme leader snubs President Obama in response to a warm video issued by the White House seeking a "new beginning" with Iran.

$1 trillion deficits seen for next 10 years
President Barack Obama's budget would generate deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year over the next decade, according to the latest congressional estimates, significantly worse than predicted by the White House just last month.

13 Firms Receiving Federal Bailout Funds Owe $220M in Back Taxes
The House Ways and Means subcommittee on oversight discovered the delinquent taxes in a review of tax records from 23 of the firms.

House Kills Effort to Investigate Lobbyist-Lawmaker Ties
The proposal would have forced the House Ethics Committee to launch a probe into ties between the source and timing of campaign contributions by lobbyists and subsequent legislator requests for special projects or earmarks.

Did Tim Geithner lie about knowing of AIG bonuses?
Treasury Secretary may have known a lot more than he admits about the huge and controversial bonuses paid out by insurance giant AIG to its employees. The New York Times reports that Geithner admitted knowing about bonuses at AIG two weeks ago after claiming this week he only learned about them later.

Big labor ignores a basic freedom of Democracy
...union bosses, egged on by Democrats from Capitol Hill to the White House, display world-class hypocrisy, violate international labor standards, and contradict their own sales pitch as they desperately promote "card-check" legislation to drive secret ballots from union-authorization elections.

Headlines from just this morning, March 20, 2009, the first day of spring. I haven't been collecting them. This is after a little more than 2 years of a Democrat majority in the White House, and some 60 days of the Obmana administration.

Could it get any worse? Seems more like a long winter ahead of us.

What's Next?

And you think liberalism means more freedom?

The Obama administration is taking steps quietly to shut down the program that qualifies commercial airline pilots to carry firearms in jetliner cockpits in order to ward off another 9/11-type attack.

The administration recently diverted $2 million from a program to train and certify pilots to carry firearms safely while on duty. Instead, it is using the money to hire additional field inspectors to help discipline pilots who step out of line, according to a report in Tuesday’s Washington Times.

A Times editorial condemned the Obama administration's action, calling it "completely unnecessary harassment of the pilots."

Since Obama took office, the approval process for certifying pilots to carry firearms has ground to a halt, the newspaper reports. Pilots are afraid to speak out about the behind-the-scenes maneuverings, for fear of retaliation, according to the newspaper. No cases have been reported in which pilots have brandished a weapon inappropriately or otherwise abused their eligibility to carry firearms.

About 12,000 pilots have been authorized to carry handguns while flying aircraft as part of the Federal Flight Deck Officers Program. Congress authorized the program in a 310-to-113 vote following the 9/11 attacks to help prevent terrorists from turning jetliners into flying bombs that could be used to attack key sites like the White House, the Pentagon, or Capitol Hill.