LET'S WAIT FOR THE VOTE

Currently, AZ has 8 representatives in the House and 4 of them are Republican: Paul Gosar, Matt Salmon, David Schweikert and Trent Franks. What are the chances that even 2 of them will support a path to citizenship?

Survey: Most support path to citizenship for migrants
By Dan Nowicki The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Mar 22, 2013 11:16 PM

A new poll indicates that 63 percent of U.S. adults — and 64 percent of adult Arizona residents — believe that undocumented immigrants should be allowed to become U.S. citizens providing they meet “certain requirements.”

The margin of error for the Arizona subsample of 98 interviews is plus or minus 11.3 percentage points.

THE NEXT OUTRAGE

Today I heard a This American LIfe program devoted to the American disability system and I first thought that this is just grist for the wingnut mill about the evils of the welfare state.  I have no doubt that some people are abusing the system but I think that those with no other alternative will get lumped in with them, like this guy:

But after I got interested in disability, I followed up with some of the guys to see what happened to them after the mill closed. One of them, Scott Birdsall, went to lots of meetings where he learned about retraining programs and educational opportunities. At one meeting, he says, a staff member pulled him aside.

"Scotty, I'm gonna be honest with you," the guy told him. "There's nobody gonna hire you … We're just hiding you guys." The staff member's advice to Scott was blunt: "Just suck all the benefits you can out of the system until everything is gone, and then you're on your own."
He had a heart attack after the mill closed and figured, "Since I've had a bypass, maybe I can get on disability, and then I won't have worry to about this stuff anymore." It worked; Scott is now on disability.

Scott's dad had a heart attack and went back to work in the mill. If there'd been a mill for Scott to go back to work in, he says, he'd have done that too. But there wasn't a mill, so he went on disability.

I wrote earlier that so far the wingnuts like Fats Limbaugh, Mark Levin and Billy Cunningham have overplayed their hand because the rate of increase on the rolls has been steady since 1990 while the population most likely to be affected with disabilities has increased dramatically.

The program provided this graph which is nearly identical to one I provided earlier.

UPDATE: Media Matters also thought this program was a little off.

THATCHER, von MISES & HAYEK

As I noted below, von Mises & Hayek were committed to a strictly individualist view of large human groups (e.g., societies) and I recalled that former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher seemed to share their methodological commitment because she said "and who is society? There is no such thing!"

ANOTHER STUPID GOVERNMENT TRICK

The U.S. Dept. of Education included a quote from Mao on its website for children:

Nation Magazine writer Lee Fang called attention to the National Center for Education Statistics' Kids' Zone Homepage, which listed a quote from Mao under its "Quote of the Day" feature. "Our attitude towards ourselves should be 'to be satiable in learning' and towards others 'to be tireless in teaching,'" the page read.

BEST QUESTION OF THE YEAR NOMINEE

(h/t Susan Madrak)

THIS MAKES A LOT OF SENSE

Instead of trying to prevent big banks from indulging in reckless speculation, it's much better to break them up. This whole article is worth reading.

Masked by Gibberish, the Risks Run Amok
By FLOYD NORRIS
Published: March 21, 2013
NY Times

I called Anat Admati, a Stanford professor and co-author of an insightful new book, “The Bankers’ New Clothes,” which advocates forcing banks to be far better capitalized than they are now, with less debt and more equity, as they were before deposit insurance was created. I asked what she thought of the Senate report. “We discover these risks when it is too late,” she said. “Next time it could be $10 billion.”

Back in 2008, when the financial system was starting to teeter, regulators assured us the banks were well capitalized. They were wrong then, and this report does not reassure us that the regulators have a much better handle on the situation now.

“My first stress test,” Ms. Admati told me, “is the test of prosecution.” She noted a recent comment by Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general, that some banks were so large that he feared it would “have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy,” if criminal charges were filed against the bank.

“If the economy cannot stand them being prosecuted,” she said, “they fail the stress test.”

THIS IS WHY 25 SHOULD BE THE MINIMUM AGE

I think no one under 25 should be permitted to own a gun for obvious reasons and the Steubenville rape case reminds me that our brains aren't neurologically mature until 25 or so

MORE EVIDENCE OF DECLINE FOR LIMBAUGH

He's now pushing ads for Mahindra Tractors, not exactly a big name in the tractor world.  This reminds of conservative college magazines that used to run ads for heavy equipment because no one else wanted to buy ads for extremist BS.

CONSERVATIVES ARE PRETTY MUCH USELESS

Despite having the Duelfer Report available on the CIA's site, David Frum STILL gets the facts about Iraq's WMD wrong.

A pinhead at the Competitive Enterprise Institute wants us all to forget about LTCM, the Dot Com Bubble, Enron, Worldcom, fraudulent mortgage-backed securities, and LIBOR manipulation so we can create new memes in culture that tell us how great the Free Market Fairy is and always will be.

Fats Limbaugh is incapable of deconstructing even a pop song.

Michele Bachmann told us another fact from her alternative Earth.

UPDATE:  Some out of state pundit was on Emil Franzi's agit-prop radio show a few weeks ago and claimed that Reason cannot be explained by materialism,  as if Turing Machines could not Reason.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT SEN. FEINSTEIN WAS THINKING

Her insistence on banning assault weapons didn't have a chance and may have diminished the chances of getting any reform.  The very best I can say for her efforts is that it may have raised awareness of the gun problem.

ANOTHER CASE OF CONSERVATIVE COWARDICE

Michele "The Eyes" Bachmann is asked about her claim that Pres. Obama is enjoying a lavish lifestyle and decides the best response to run away.  The WaPO gave Bachmann another "4 Pinocchio" award for these remarks,  which areSean Hannity has been promoting for several years.

CHARLIE COOK IS A PRETTY GOOD POLITICAL ANALYST BUT...

he just can't resist the Villager meme that "both sides do it":

Driving over to the Gaylord’s National Harbor Hotel and Convention Center to meet with a campaign manager Saturday afternoon, I passed a group on a street corner advocating the impeachment of President Obama. It was a useful reminder of just how far out the extremes—on the right in the GOP and on the left in the Democratic Party—really are.

THIS IS WORSE

Media Matters caught Fats Limbaugh making another outrageous comment but I think this sequence is both worse and more revealing:

RUSH: I guarantee you, I mean, your granddaughter just doesn't think it's fair that people who love each other and want to get married are not allowed to in this country. That's not what freedom means to them. That's not what tolerance means.

CALLER: Right. And she has used the word "fairness."

RUSH: Exactly. It's all about fairness. She doesn't have the same framework of understanding that you do. I don't know how early in your life you thought the way you do now, but this is one of these trendy, cyclical things here that is being pushed unbeknownst to your granddaughter by a very activist, liberal leadership.

Yeah, fairness is just a trend. BTW, I think the female caller was around 70, so this is another sign that Limbaugh's audience is literally dying out.

THE DECLINE OF GASBAG RADIO

The latest Arbitron PPMs are out and the conservative trash talkers aren't doing very well in the top markets.

In NY (1), WABC carries Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin and Savage but only has a 2.9% share.

In LA (2) KFI has a 4.6% share but only has Limbaugh.  KABC has Hannity & Levin but a dismal 0.8% share.

In Chicago (3), WGN has a 4.9% share but has no major conservative gasbag. WLS has Limbaugh, Hannity & Levin and a 2.9% share.

In San Francisco (4), KSFO has Huckabee, Hannity, Levin & Savage but only a measly 1.8% share.

In Dallas-Ft. Worth (5), WBAP has Limbaugh, Hannity & Levin and a respectable 3.9% share.

In Houston-Glaveston (6), KTRH has Limbaugh, Hannity & Levin and a decent 3.2% share.

In Philadelphia (7), WWIQ has Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin & Savage but only a 2.5% share.

In Atlanta (8), WSB has Cain, Limbaugh & Hannity and a very good 6.9% share.

ANOTHER CONSERVATIVE GRIFTER

Van Erden of Grove City College plans to offer an online conservative college as an alternative to the "horrible" liberal bias of real colleges.  Others have tried variations of this scam, including Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt and Glenn Beck.  They are all FAILs.

THIS COULD TURN OUT TO BE GREAT NEWS

I would love to see Goldman Sachs held accountable for selling bogus securities and now that may happen.

Supreme Court won't hear Goldman class action appeal
Reuters – 16 mins ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc suffered a defeat on Monday as the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a decision forcing it to defend against a class action lawsuit claiming it misled investors about the risks associated with mortgage securities.

Without comment, the court refused to consider Goldman's appeal of a September 2012 decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.

Goldman and its rivals have faced thousands of lawsuits by investors seeking to recoup losses on mortgage securities, a leading cause of the 2007 and 2008 credit and financial crises.

The bank has said that letting the 2nd Circuit decision stand could cost Wall Street tens of billions of dollars.

I CAN'T FIGURE OUT THEIR ANGLE...

Boehner and Ryan both stated that the deficit isn't such a huge problem after all but that claim contradicts their statements over the last 6 months or so.

UPDATE: Ok, now I understand:

Poll warns Republicans of focus on deficit
By ALEXANDER BURNS | 3/17/13 5:02 PM EDT
POLITICO

An outside group aligned with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has commissioned a report that warns conservatives against adopting an all-spending cuts, all-the-time message, and suggests that leaders on the right put a heavier emphasis on less abstract issues such as education and gas prices.

The poll, commissioned by the nonprofit YG Network and obtained by POLITICO, shows that even Americans concerned about deficits and debt are far more concerned with their own personal economic well-being.

The YG Network polling, conducted by the GOP firm McLaughlin & Associates, found that 38 percent of Americans name the “economy and jobs” as the issue of greatest importance to them. Twenty percent named “deficit and debt” as their top concern, and 16 percent pointed to health care.

“It is important to note that ‘economy and jobs’ is almost twice that of ‘deficit and debt,’” pollster John McLaughlin notes in the report.

DISAPPOINTING

By now, I would expect at least 75% of Americans would believe the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not worth it.

A Decade on, Most are Critical of the U.S.-Led War in Iraq
By Gary Langer | ABC OTUS News – 2 hrs 46 mins ago
As such, 58 percent in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, say that considering its costs vs. its benefits the war in Iraq was not worth fighting; 56 percent say the same about the war in Afghanistan.