Elkhart is a silly place, Ezra Klein almost hits the mark, Rage Against Paul Ryan, the dog-whistles are air-raid sirens now, Obama offers a tax truce, Paul Ryan did not request federal subsidies for those companies, unseriousness abounds, and more generational warfare.
Welcome to the Daily Sausage.
First up, Charles P. Pierce discusses the relatively offensive billboard that’s gone up in Elkhart, Indiana thanks to a local Tea Party group, indirectly comparing Barack Obama to Osama Bin Laden.
To this I reply: Let us not go to Elkart. It is a silly place.
Ezra Klein gets really close to a bullseye in his discussion of how President Obama elevated Paul Ryan from obscure Congressman to defacto GOP mascot. He goes off the rails, though, when he says that a different candidate like Pawlenty might have made Mitt Romney more moderate. Charles P. Pierce has some analysis.
Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello penned a scathing op-ed in Rolling Stone, blasting Paul Ryan as “the embodiment of the Machine our music Rages Against”. What is it with GOP figures liking musicians like Rage Against The Machine and Bruce Springsteen and having NO idea what those songs are actually about? They really oughta stick to Lee Greenwood.
MSNBC’s Toure caused a bit of controversy when he noted that the Romney campaign was engaged in the process of “ni–erization”, portraying the President as ” the scary black man who we’ve been trained to fear.”
Well, I’m glad someone finally noticed. The racist dog whistles are racist air raid sirens now. The only way you’re not hearing them is if you’re deaf or sticking your fingers in your ears going “LA LA LA LA LA LA CAN’T HEAR YOU”.
I’ll be honest: I’m more afraid of angry white men than I am angry black men, because angry white men will probably get away with it.
President Obama offered Romney a truce on tax returns: five years, and we won’t discuss not releasing the other five for the rest of the campaign. He said nothing about discussing what’s in those tax returns, however.
Paul Ryan is now pulling a Slick Willy, claiming that he didn’t mean to request stimulus funds for Wisconsin businesses after voting against the program. Everyone, repeat after me: Paul Ryan did not request stimulus funds for those companies.
ThinkProgress’ Alyssa Rosenberg has a great article on the fundamental unseriousness of cutting arts funding.
Here’s the truth about cutting funding for programs in the federal budget: unless you’re taking on the three-headed beast that is Social Security, Medicare, and Defense, crowing about “funding cuts” is fundamentally unserious, regardless of party affiliation.
Here’s the problem: the second you suggest cutting Social Security, Medicare, or Defense, you’re grabbing onto the third rail of American politics, and the voters will zap you but good for it. We ask our politicians to get serious about balancing the budget, but the three areas that MUST be cut to do so are completely off limits.
Finally, the GOP’s War On Everything continues, adding Generational War to the Class War, Drug War, Terror War, Race War, and all the other Wars we’re now involved in. If you were ever wondering why we can’t seem to win a war anymore, it’s because we’re involved in like eight of them, and only six of them are metaphysical.
My new roommate is relatively libertarian. We have some interesting conversations, especially about politics. We’re talking about Social Security and Medicare and he says to me “Why should I bust my hump and pay taxes on social programs that will be bankrupt and probably non-existent by the time I’m able to use them?”. That’s a perfectly valid concern. Social Security, Medicare, etc. are based on everyone paying their taxes into the system to pay for the benefits of current retirees. But, as the number of retirees outstrips the number of tax payers, the system becomes insolvent. The only way to fix the problem is to raise taxes. The problem with raising taxes is that all The Olds collecting Social Security and Medicare have smashed my generation’s collective kneecaps thanks to fifty years of running the country into the ground. They need us to run, but we can’t even walk, and they fight us tooth and nail every time we try to buy some crutches with something like investments in green jobs or stimulus. It’s a self-defeating cycle. We can’t generate the tax revenue to provide the benefits promised to our elders because our elders refuse to pay slightly more in taxes so that we can get a leg up in our careers.
