Wednesday Political Sausage

The titles of the articles are all based on the titles of Harry Potter books.

“Obama trade document leaked, revealing new corporate powers and broken campaign promises” – Zach Carter (Huffington Post)

I can already tell you this is going to be a really big issue for the President. Environmental activists; financial reform advocates; labor unions. Three Democratic constituencies that are going to have major problems with this. He needs to reconnect with the middle class, who thus far have been given the shaft.

My general thinking is that if the US Chamber of Commerce and Mitt Romney think it’s a great deal, it should probably be scrapped.

“Ex-aide Ron Barber wins Gabrielle Gifford’s Arizona seat in Congress” – Aaron Blake (Washington Post)

Well, looks like Arizona isn’t beyond saving after all. Someone call off the League of Shadows and find me a Batman.

“Krugman’s 13 Best GOP Zingers” (Politico)

The shrillness is deafening. And hilarious.

“Rick Scott is the excrement of Democracy once again” – Charles P. Pierce (Esquire)

There are two things that bother me about what the GOP is doing in Florida.

The first is, obviously, that Rick Scott and his band of Brooks Brothers Thugs are actively trying to disenfranchise thousands of voters despite any evidence whatsoever of widespread voter fraud, simply because they can, and the only way their guy gets to the White House in November is through Florida.

The second part of it is that it’s tremendously clumsy, and not even a little subtle.

You can make the case that 2000 was the most effective voter suppression campaign in history, in which five Supreme Court Justices overrode basically the entire judiciary and millions of American citizens, and then decided that rather than clean up the giant dog turd they just left on the kitchen floor of the American legal system, they were going to just put a paper towel on it and move on. Between the Buchanan shenanigans, Katherine Harris, etc., they weren’t out and out disenfranchising people; there was some nuance at work that made it appear at least a little legitimate.

2004 had it’s own issues. Not so much disenfranchisement (unless you voted in Ohio, in which case you became a partly owned subsidiary of the Diebold Corporation), but a lot of general ugliness.

2008 took the ugliness and turned it up to 11. But, no disenfranchisement.

And here we are in 2012, in what may be a razor thin election, and Rick Scott is saying “If you’re black or brown or under the age of 50, don’t bother voting.” What’s worse is that GOP front groups are trying to export this poison to other states like Ohio and Pennsylvania that may be key in the upcoming elections.

Here’s the truth about voter fraud: influencing an election larger than dog catcher would require either a tremendous failure in our national record-keeping system that would allow thousands or millions of non-citizens to vote and have those votes be counted, or a small criminal conspiracy of wealthy individuals hellbent on electing their personal pet politicians to political power and doing whatever necessary to make it happen.

Now, based on everything we’ve talked about over the past several months about money and power in the United States, which do you think is more likely, and which party do you think they support?

“A Holder scalp hunt and the questions we do not ask” – Charles P. Pierce (Esquire)

The only contempt Eric Holder should be held to is the kind that results from someone saying “Hey Mr. Attorney General, there’s a Bush II program called Fast And Furious where we let functional automatic weapons cross the US-Mexico border into the hands of narco-terrorists and track them to see where they’re going. What do you think we should do with it?” and Eric Holder, presumably being of sound mind and body and sufficiently moral character, going “The fuck did you just say? Whose dumbass fucking idea was that? No, we should not let automatic weapons cross the border into the hands of narcoterrorists. Jesus Tittyfucking Christ, I’ve heard of some stupid fucking ideas, but that one takes the blue fucking ribbon.”

Of course, all this is just Congressional Republican sturm und drang. Issa’s got nothing, and he knows it.

“DSCC to Dems: Hold your nose and give money to Super PACs” – Evan McMorris-Santoro (TPM)

This is the biggest fear of anyone that believes in a government accountable to the people realized. Both parties completely in hock to a group of millionaires and billionaires, entirely reliant on them to fund an endless campaign with astronomical costs, keeping anyone that isn’t already wealthy out of politics entirely.

This is pretty much the end of democracy, and the beginning of plutocracy.

“Poll: Americans are the ‘clear outliers’ in support for Drone strikes” – David Taintor (TPM)

Of course we are, because we’re the ones flying the damn drones.

Look, we’re in Afghanistan now because we’ve been mucking around in the deserts of the Middle East over oil since the 1970s. However, in all fairness to us, Europe has been doing it a lot longer, albeit for much different reasons.

The sooner we invest in alternative energy sources and reduce our need for foreign oil, the sooner we can leave that godforsaken hellhole of a region to it’s own devices, some of which may be nuclear. Of course, as soon as we leave, someone is going to start screaming for us to come back (the Saudi’s, most likely) and then we’re back in the suck.

“Belief in God plummets among youth (Chart)” – Sahil Kapur (TPM)

If I had to bet on something, I’d bet that the church’s stance on social issues is what’s primarily at fault here. The gay-bashing may play well with the older crowds, but the newcomers are leaving in droves.

Also, the transformation of the Catholic Church from a House of God to an international criminal conspiracy might have something to do with it too.

“Activists target boardrooms in push to limit Citizens United” – Benjy Sarlin (TPM)

Here’s the truth about Citizens United: it’s not the corporations that we have to worry about. They’re risk averse; stances like Target are huge losers for them.

The issue is private individuals with oodles of disposable cash.

“Seven more states may legalize Medical Marijuana in 2012” – Ben Sherman (ThinkProgress via The Inquisitr)

Unlikely, but promising. Personally, I think most of our country’s problems could be solved by hotboxing Congress for a couple hours.

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