In the United States religion exercises but little influence upon the laws and upon the details of public opinion, but it directs the manners of the community, and by regulating domestic life it regulates the State.(p. 335)
Religion in America takes no direct part in the government of society, but it must nevertheless be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of free institutions. (p. 336)
In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country. ... As a member of the Roman Catholic Church I was more particularly brought into contact with several of its priests, with whom I became intimately acquainted. To each of these men I expressed my astonishment and I explained my doubts; I found that they differed upon matters of detail alone; and that they mainly attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country to the separation of Church and State. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America I did not meet with a single individual, of the clergy or of the laity, who was not of the same opinion upon this point. (pp. 339-40)
It must never be forgotten that religion gave birth to Anglo-American society. In the United States religion is therefore commingled with all the habits of the nation and all the feelings of patriotism; whence it derives a peculiar force. To this powerful reason another of no less intensity may be added: in American religion has, as it were, laid down its own limits. Religious institutions have remained wholly distinct from political institutions, so that former laws have been easily changed whilst former belief has remained unshaken.(p. 491)
Saturday, October 22, 2011
TOCQUEVILLE ON RELIGION & POLITICS
Fundies and their defenders sometimes cite passages from Tocqueville's Democracy in America to support their reactionary political positions. Although Tocqueville is not a consistent thinker, it seems clear from passages like these that he did not think politics and religion should be mixed:
GOOD FOR RON PAUL AND PAUL MULSHINE
The normally monolithic conservative movement has been showing structural fissures over the last 6 months and that's good for America. Paul Mulshine asked Ron Paul about the major radio gasbags and I loved the answer:
Q: Do you think radio talk show people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin fear that you’re making them obsolete because your views reveal them as the statists they are?UPDATE: Ron Paul went on Hannity's radio show a couple of days later and The Baby Jesus asked him about the statement above. According this story in The Hill (NOT the headline), Paul pretty much stood by his remark.
A: I think that if I gain influence it’s an embarrassment to them because they’re not really limited-government people yet they make their livelihood fooling the people into thinking they’re the real leaders of limited government. And when you look at it we find out that they haven’t been. Look at Bush’s eight years. The budget exploded.
DO THE OCCUPY TUCSON TICKETS VIOLATE THE STATE CONSTITUTION?
WHAT WILL MARK "FOAMER" LEVIN SAY?
Christine "I am not a witch" O'Donnell was one of Levin's favorite candidates and now she has come in favor of Mitt Romney, the candidate that Levin most hates (next to Ron Paul).
Friday, October 21, 2011
STUFF YOU WON'T HEAR FROM FATS, SEAN OR FOAMER
First, actual capitalist organizations are worried about global warming:
Here's a graph of the BEST re-analysis and the previous work:
Companies call for tougher climate actionSecond, a physicist who was skeptical of global warming looked over the data and analyses and found that there is indeed man-made global warming:
By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News
Leaders of nearly 200 major companies around the world have called for tougher action on climate change.The 2C Challenge, co-ordinated by the Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group, says that climate change puts society's future prosperity at risk.
A skeptical physicist ends up confirming climate data
Posted by Brad Plumer at 04:18 PM ET, 10/20/2011
Washington Post
Back in 2010, Richard Muller, a Berkeley physicist and self-proclaimed climate skeptic, decided to launch the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project to review the temperature data that underpinned global-warming claims. Remember, this was not long after the Climategate affair had erupted, at a time when skeptics were griping that climatologists had based their claims on faulty temperature data.
So what are the end results? Muller’s team appears to have confirmed the basic tenets of climate science. Back in March, Muller told the House Science and Technology Committee that, contrary to what he expected, the existing temperature data was “excellent.” He went on: “We see a global warming trend that is very similar to that previously reported by the other groups.” And, today, the BEST team has released a flurry of new papers that confirm that the planet is getting hotter. As the team’s two-page summary flatly concludes, “Global warming is real.”Here’s a chart comparing their findings with existing data:
Here's a graph of the BEST re-analysis and the previous work:
STILL AFRAID OF "DIRTY HIPPIES"
Rep. Eric Cantor, House Majority Leader, cancelled a speech on income inequality at UPenn because some OWS people would be in the audience.
RED STATES LEAD IN POVERTY RATES
As usual, Mississippi ranks 1st on the list but the entire South is poor. So much for "right to work" laws.
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST
Herman Cain, the Bagger Flavor-of-the-Month, has pretty much cut off one major component of his base, the Fundies, by sounding like a true libertarian about abortion. He's also renamed his super-genius tax plan "9-0-9" but that means his campaign staff needs to dial 9-1-1.
ADULTERERS ARE OKAY AT FAUX NEWS
Except if you are a Democrat. FAUX had no problem with serial adulterer Newt Gingrich so it's not surprising that it just hired another conservative adulterer, Mark Sanford.
THIS SHOULD LEAD TO SOME "CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING"
The fact that the MOTU have shelled out close to $1 BIllion in fines and penalties to the SEC for mortgage securities fraud should dampen the Big Conservative Lie that the CRA, Fannie and Freddie were responsible for the Big Shitpile.
Big banks paying major bucks to settle fraud charges — so where does the money go?
By Zachary Roth | The Lookout – 5 hrs ago
YAHOO NEWS
Major Wall Street banks are handing over some hefty sums to settle charges that they misled investors about those exotic mortgage deals that helped nearly topple the financial system.
Citi is the latest to pay up. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday that the mega-bank will part with $285 million to settle allegations that it fleeced investors by selling them on a complex mortgage product it was secretly betting against. (In an email uncovered by investigators, one Citi trader described the investment as "dogsh!t.")
Citi isn't alone. In July 2010, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $550 million to settle SEC accusations that it pulled similar shenanigans with a structured financial product. J.P. Morgan Chase, whose CEO, Jamie Dimon, has complained long and hard about regulatory costs in June, paid $153.6 million, to settle similar SEC charges. In all, the SEC says it has recovered more than $1 billion (pdf) from financial companies over misconduct that occurred in the period leading up to or during the 2008 crisis.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL LAW SUIT AGAINST THE MOTU
These cases haven't been getting enough attention in the press.
Citigroup to pay $285 million to settle fraud case
By Jonathan Stempel and Aruna Viswanatha
Wed Oct 19, 2011 5:36pm EDT
(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc will pay $285 million to settle charges that it defrauded investors who bought toxic housing-related debt that the bank bet would fail, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday.
The SEC said the bank's Citigroup Global Markets unit misled investors about a $1 billion collateralized debt obligation by failing to reveal it had "significant influence" over the selection of $500 million of underlying assets, and that it took a short position against those assets.
It said one experienced CDO trader called the portfolio "possibly the best short EVER!" while an experienced collateral manager said "the portfolio is horrible."
OWS IS STILL POPULAR
No matter what Fats or FAUX News claims, most Americans are against the MOTU...
Occupy D.C.? Most Back Protests, Surtax
By Matthew Cooper
Updated: October 19, 2011 | 12:40 p.m.
October 18, 2011 | 9:35 p.m.
NATIONAL JOURNAL
A new survey shows that Americans overwhelmingly support the self-styled Occupy Wall Street protests that not only have disrupted life in Lower Manhattan but also in Washington and cities and towns across the U.S. and in other nations. Some 59 percent of adults either completely agree or mostly agree with the protesters, while 31 percent mostly disagree or completely disagree; 10 percent of those surveyed didn’t know or refused to answer.
Those surveyed were asked about a possible 5 percent surtax on those earning more than $1 million annually. .. Still, a whopping 68 percent of adults support the Democratic surtax to pay for the cost of their jobs plan. Only 27 percent opposed the tax, while 5 percent didn’t know.
The United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll is conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, which surveyed 1,007 adults by landline and cell phone on Oct. 13-16. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
THIS SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN KINDERGARTEN
(h/t Atrios)
I've noted before that the NY branch of the Federal Reserve is chock-full of MOTU. Now, over 4 years later, the GAO makes the same "discovery." From Sen. Bernie Sanders web site:
I've noted before that the NY branch of the Federal Reserve is chock-full of MOTU. Now, over 4 years later, the GAO makes the same "discovery." From Sen. Bernie Sanders web site:
The full report is here and this is from the recommendations:GAO Finds Serious Conflicts at the FedOctober 19, 2011
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - A new audit of the Federal Reserve released today detailed widespread conflicts of interest involving directors of its regional banks.
"The most powerful entity in the United States is riddled with conflicts of interest," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said after reviewing the Government Accountability Office report. The study required by a Sanders Amendment to last year's Wall Street reform law examined Fed practices never before subjected to such independent, expert scrutiny.
The GAO detailed instance after instance of top executives of corporations and financial institutions using their influence as Federal Reserve directors to financially benefit their firms, and, in at least one instance, themselves. "Clearly it is unacceptable for so few people to wield so much unchecked power," Sanders said. "Not only do they run the banks, they run the institutions that regulate the banks."
To help enhance economic and demographic diversity and broaden perspectives among Reserve Bank directors who are elected to represent the public, encourage all Reserve Banks to consider ways to broaden their pools of potential candidates for directors, such as including officers who are below the senior executive level at their organizations.We need more moves like this one.
IT'S HARD TO POST THIS BUT...
Sean Hannity had a point: It was preposterous for Pres. Obama to make this statement:
I guarantee it's going to be a close election because the economy is not where it wants to be and even though I believe all the choices we've made have been the right ones, we're still going through difficult circumstances.
A FADED STAR
Michele "The Eyes" Bachmann is now only good as the butt of jokes. According to some listeners, she said "henious" when she meant to say (I think) "heinous." For geography geeks, she implied that Libya was not in Africa:
BACHMANN: Defense spending is on the table, but again, Anderson, now with the president, he put us in Libya. He is now putting us in Africa. We already were stretched too thin, and he put our Special Operations Forces in Africa.The Eyes also brought up an idea that was absurd when some clown at the NRO first brought it up back in 2008 and has not improved with time. From the final section of the debate:
Being reimbursed by nations that we have liberated is another. We should look to Iraq and Libya to reimburse us for part of what we have done to liberate these nations.
IS MARK LEVIN GOING TO HAVE A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN?
His extreme version of conservatism isn't doing very well in the GOP debates and I seriously think he may have a breakdown. Today, in addition to his usual Chris Christie bashing, he even attacked Rep. Eric Cantor for merely using the phrase "99%" because he thinks that concedes some narrative ground to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
WHAT WAS APPLEBAUM'S POINT?
(h/t Atrios)
In a WaPo op-ed, Anne Applebaum makes a point that John Gray has been making for at least a decade: " globalization has clearly begun to undermine the legitimacy of Western democracies." But she then lapses into a fatal contradiction by claiming that nation-states are our only option:
In a WaPo op-ed, Anne Applebaum makes a point that John Gray has been making for at least a decade: " globalization has clearly begun to undermine the legitimacy of Western democracies." But she then lapses into a fatal contradiction by claiming that nation-states are our only option:
Well, they already have a process: It’s called the British political system. And if they don’t figure out how to use it, they’ll simply weaken it further.
YOU WON'T HEAR THIS FROM SEAN HANNITY, FATS LIMBAUGH
or any other radio gasbag because it rebuts two major lies they tell about Pres. Obama: (1) he's soft on immigrants; (2) the news media supports him.
ICE deports record number of immigrants in year
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ - AP Hispanic Affairs Writer | AP – 6 hrs ago
MIAMI (AP) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton said Tuesday his agency deported nearly 400,000 individuals during the fiscal year that ended in September, the largest number of removals in the agency's history.
Pew: Media not in love with Obama
By KEACH HAGEY | 10/17/11 12:03 AM EDT
POLITICO
...a study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that, in the past five months, the reverse has actually been true: Obama has received the most unremittingly negative press of any of the presidential candidates by a wide margin, with negative assessments outweighing positive ones by four to one.
I HATE FUCKERS LIKE THIS GUY
BREAKING: Doug Schoen Grossly Misrepresents His Own Poll Results To Smear Occupy Wall Street
By Judd Legum on Oct 18, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Think Progress
He [Schoen] writes that a “large majority” are bound together by support for a “radical redistribution of wealth.” But when he asked the protesters what they’d like the Occupy Wall Street movement to achieve, just 4 percent said “radical redistribution of wealth,” which tied for last on the list of answers given.
Similarly, while Schoen writes that a “large majority” express “opposition to free-market capitalism,” when asked what frustrates them most about the U.S. political process, only 3 percent named “our democratic/capitalist system.”
Monday, October 17, 2011
HOW MANY CRASH & BURNS?
How many GOP candidates can crash & burn (Bachmann, Perry and soon Cain) before the entire GOP collapses?
MARK "FOAMER" LEVIN IS ECONOMICALLY ILLITERATE
He just falsely claimed that buying stock (not an IPO) in a company gives the company financial help. He also claimed that "money is always working" but fails to note that it doesn't have to do that work in America. This last point was made in rebuttal to Rep. Eric Cantor who said this on Fox News Sunday:
"We know in this country right now that there is a complaint about folks at the top end of the income scales, that they make too much and too many don't make enough," Cantor said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, toning down his earlier criticism of the Occupy Wall Street protests.
"We need to encourage folks at the top of the income scale to actually put their money their work to create more jobs so we can see a closing of the gap," he added.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH?
(h/t Political Correction)
An aide to Rep. Eric Cantor came out with a pretty astounding line...
An aide to Rep. Eric Cantor came out with a pretty astounding line...
Eric Cantor to address the rich-poor gap in speech at University of Pennsylvania
By JAKE SHERMAN | 10/17/11 2:58 PM EDT
POLITICO
The Virginia congressman, the most recent and prominent Republican whipping boy for Democrats, is heading to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania to talk about income disparity and how Republicans believe the government could help fix it, an aide said. The speech will zero in on how Washington could help a “a single working mom…a small business owner…and how we make sure the people at the top stay there,” the aide said.
FAUX BUSINESS NETWORK IS STILL...
a FAIL. Despite millions being poured into it, it's not much more than an afterthought compared to CNBC:
According to ratings agency Nielsen, which only began measuring the network's daily audience in March, Fox Business averages 76,000 viewers from 6:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during the week. From 4:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., its audience grows to 85,000 before falling back to 56,000 during the prime-time hours of 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
By comparison, CNBC averages 263,000 viewers from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and 206,000 viewers in prime-time during the week.
CHARLIE IS BEHIND THE CURVE
Fox Business Network senior correspondent Charles Gasparino is upset with the OWS crowd because they are from the Devil:
"Zuccotti Park as New York’s Marxist epicenter.” ... It’s not just protest Wall Sreet. It’s protest Wall Street and it’s an embrace of communism and there is no doubt about it.”The OWS folks have some pretty good company, including Nouriel Roubini and George Magnus, a senior economic advisor at UBS.
HERMAN CAIN IS THE TALK RADIO CANDIDATE
He certainly has the ignorance that they admire and promote so much. Not only does he know little about foreign policy, his economic policies are based on typical talk radio magical thinking:
Cain also has the Fundie belief that blastocysts have souls but he seems to allow an exception if the mother's life is in danger.
Finally, just like Mark Levin and Michael Savage, Cain believes liberals are out to destroy America.
“You and others are making assumptions about what wealthy Americans would do with their money and you’re making assumptions about the middle class and the poor. You can’t predict the behavior.”If you can't predict the behavior, then you can't make economic plans.
Cain also has the Fundie belief that blastocysts have souls but he seems to allow an exception if the mother's life is in danger.
Finally, just like Mark Levin and Michael Savage, Cain believes liberals are out to destroy America.
OCCUPY TUCSON NEWS
The police have been handing out citations and that is really annoying because of the fines associated with them.
'Occupy Tucson' protesters keep up vigilThe movement's Facebook page has this:
Carmen Duarte Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star |
Posted: Monday, October 17, 2011 12:00 am
About 200 people participated in the Occupy Tucson rally at Armory Park on Sunday, and about 70 peacefully marched through downtown streets.
This is after 53 demonstrators were arrested over the weekend - with additional arrests expected late Sunday of those who remained after the park's closure at 10:30 p.m.
HUGE EGO HEWITT HAS ANOTHER FAIL
I just caught part of a re-broadcast of Hugh Hewitt's show and he claimed that Herman Cain wouldn't get any support from the big money conservatives like the Koch brothers. I found this AP article as soon as I went to Yahoo News:
Long ties to Koch brothers key to Cain's campaign
By RYAN J. FOLEY - Associated Press | AP – 8 hrs ago
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — ... Cain's economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity.
Cain's campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending. Cain credits a businessman who served on an AFP advisory board with helping devise his "9-9-9" plan to rewrite the nation's tax code. And his years of speaking at AFP events have given the businessman and radio host a network of loyal grassroots fans.
Through his AFP work he met Mark Block, a longtime Wisconsin Republican operative hired to lead that state's AFP chapter in 2005 as he rebounded from an earlier campaign scandal that derailed his career. ... Block is now Cain's campaign manager.
AFP spokesman Levi Russell said Cain has spoken at dozens of AFP rallies and events over the years to support a number of the group's activities.
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