Holy crap, what I game! I was planning to go the Kills show tonight, but triple-OT wound up making that infeasible.
This has been an incredible series.
Yglesias
Politics
Conservative talker suspended after blaming swine flu on the ‘millions of leeches’ from Mexico.
Conservative talker Jay Severin was suspended indefinitely today by Boston’s WTKK-FM after using the current swine flu outbreak to attack Mexicans and immigrants. On his radio show, Severin blamed the swine flu on what he called “some of the world’s lowest of primitives in poor Mexico”:
So now in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico — women with mustaches and VD — now we have swine flu. … We should be if anything surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types considering the number of cimminalieans already here. [...]
[W]hen scoop up some of the world’s lowest of primitives in poor Mexico and drop it down in the middle of the United States. Poor, without skills, without language, not share our culture, not share our hygiene. … It’s millions of leeches from a primitive country. … Now they are exporting a rather more active form of disease which is the swine flu.
Listen to a compilation of his remarks:
Despite his comments, Severin’s agent believes that Severin “will be back on the air doing great radio soon.”
Politics
Jindal spares money for New Orleans Saints while slashing health care and education funding.
Recently, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) released his budget for next year, calling for cuts in higher education and health care for the uninsured and disabled in order to plug a $1.3 billion shortfall in revenue. Already, hospitals are laying off workers. Yet Jindal is managing to spare some funds for his favorite football team:
The Jindal administration wants to use $85 million of a state surplus as well as pay up to $6 million a year to keep the Saints football team in Louisiana, lawmakers said Wednesday. The deal, described by legislators briefed on the offer, would require the state to pay far less than the $23.5 million the team is receiving in annual cash inducements. … Several lawmakers were critical of the proposal, which coincides with a budget crunch threatening health care and higher education with substantial reduction.
Jindal claims that the team generates millions in revenue every year, but he has pledged to preserve budget-busting tax cuts for upper-income individuals and businesses. State Rep. Karen St. German asked, “Again, behind closed doors, we’re supplementing a multimillionaire. When do we stop the madness and worry about education and health care?”
Yglesias
Marriage Equality Opinion Feedback Loop
Thinking about the seemingly rapid advances the once-toxic cause of marriage equality is making in public opinion polls illustrates, I think, the fact that not only do politicians take cues from public opinion, but the public takes cues from politicians.
In this particular case, it’s been clear for a few years now that the trend in public opinion was ineradicably moving in the direction of equality. That’s encouraged a lot of the more far-sighted political elites to start moving in a more gay-friendly position. You see this especially among conservatives where for the past few years supporting civil unions or full marriage equality has been the method of choice for demonstrating reasonableness. And I think that elites shifting to more gay-friendly positions has a substantial impact on the large number of Americans who I think are basically fair-minded but who, being of a certain age, just found the idea of same-sex marriage initially too shocking to contemplate.
Meanwhile, as more and more jurisdictions have permitted marriage or civil unions, the sky keeps not falling. And all that only further accelerates the trend.
Politics
Secession-ready Texas has received most federal disaster assistance of any state.
Just weeks after declaring that Texas might secede from the union because “the federal government has become oppressive,” Gov. Rick Perry (R) today asked for more federal aid when he “issued a disaster declaration” because of the swine flu. Mother Jones’ Jonathan Stein found that, since the beginning of FEMA’s record-keeping, Texas has actually received more federal assistance from FEMA than any other state:
A FEMA spokesman told Stein “that a major disaster declaration is issued when a governor ‘determines the state’s resources are overrun.’” FEMA reimburses at least 75 percent of the state’s recovery costs; currently, the federal govenrment is covering 100 percent of Texas’ Hurricane Ike recovery effort.
Politics
Fleischer: ‘I’ll be proud to testify if I get a subpoena.’
Today during a panel discussion for the IFC Media Project, former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer argued forcefully against launching an in-depth investigation of the Bush administration’s torture program. However, he said that if it does happen, he’s ready for them to bring it on:
He argued that neither Congress nor anyone else is up to the task, and that any investigation would “lead to acrimony and blame-gaming” and “devolve into the worst type of partisanship.” While noting that “no one likes to get a subpoena,” Fleischer said, “I’ll be proud to testify if I get a subpoena. I’m proud of what we did to protect this country.” Those wanting to see Fleischer—or at least some of his former colleagues—on the witness stand include his fellow panelists Noonan, who called for a 9/11 Commission-style investigation, and Tina Brown, who quoted Senator Patrick Leahy’s contention that “before you can turn a page, you want to read it.” When moderator (and Media Project host) Gideon Yago brought up the idea of a special prosecutor, Fleischer sternly pointed out that “that assumes a crime has been committed.”
Today, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) also demanded an investigation into Bush’s torture program. “To continue to ignore the mounting evidence of clear wrongdoing is a national humiliation,” writes Byrd.
Update
Watch the video here.
Americans support greenhouse gas regulation even if it could “substantially” raise energy prices
A bunch of polls have come out that find the public supports strong climate action in spite of aggressive and widespread Republican fear-mongering about energy prices.
For instance, the new Washington Post/ABC poll of 1,072 Americans (here) found:
While majorities across the board support government regulation of greenhouse gases, it peaks among liberals (88%) and under 30s (80%), vs. 61% of conservatives and 64% of seniors. Support also ranges from 85% of Democrats, 65% “strongly,” to 64% of Republicans, 39% strongly. Concern about its cost is broader, and stronger, among those who’d presumably be hit hardest — lower-income adults.
Well, lower-income adults would be hardest hit if we didn’t give them a tax cut equal to their higher energy costs, as Obama plans (see “EPA Analysis: “Returning the revenues in [a lump-sum rebate] could make the median household, and those living at lower ends of the income distribution, better off than they would be without the program.” And indeed consumers can end up further ahead by taking advantage of Federal, state, and utility programs to lower their energy bills with energy-saving strategies that the media hardly ever discusses or polls on.
Our side has been weaker and less consistent on messaging, which makes these poll results even more remarkable. The public seems to have absorbed the Republican arguments and not been persuaded. If you read the details of the poll, you’ll see that immediately after the regulation question, people were asked the cost question — “How concerned are you that federal regulation of greenhouse gases could substantially raise the price of things you have to pay” (with 77% saying they are concerned).
Americans appear to fully understand the worst-case consequences of what they are supporting. Imagine how the polling will ultimately turn out when President Obama and his team actually launches an all out messaging blitz on energy and climate action, with a tax cut for the poor and middle class, with aggressive strategies to lower their energy bills and create green clean energy jobs, and with a clear message of the cost to Americans of inaction.
A new NBC/WSJ poll of 1,005 Americans (here) asked the question more directly, and also found the public supports strong action in spite of the cost:
Byron Dorgan Tells His Flood-Ravaged State That A Repowered America Is ‘Not Going To Happen’
Even though his state is still rebuilding from unprecedented floods, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) is committed to coal and wary of fighting climate change. Dorgan told the North Dakota Senate that he was concerned that the market created by capping global warming pollution could be open to manipulation:
I’m not very interested with having a bunch of folks with a bunch of money get their mitts on trading credits, and have our future and our destiny tied to their interests. I feel very strongly there’s something going on with our climate. We need to be attentive to it, we need to deal with it, but as we do, we have to be smart.
It’s legitimate to have a concern about the regulatory structure of a carbon market, about one-tenth the size of the fossil-fuel commodity markets, and Sen. Dorgan has the expertise to design the legislation. But he seems to be letting a policy detail obscure the real issue — that global warming pollution is completely unregulated, allowing corporate polluters to make astronomical profits while destroying the atmosphere.
This carbon loophole has allowed pollution giants like Exxon Mobil, Koch Industries, Peabody Coal, and Massey Energy to ravage the planet, sicken our children, and rake in obscene profits for decades. Now, as North Dakota reels from its third extreme flood in as many years, scientists are warning that the climate crisis is outstripping their projections.
Yet Dorgan seems to be confusing political “reality” with actual reality, when he summarily dismissed Vice President Al Gore’s “Repower America” call that “the nation should rely solely on renewable fuels by 2020″:
Not going to happen. Not even close. We need to continue to use our most abundant resource, but to be able to do that, we have to be able to unlock the technology … to decarbonize coal, and we’re going to do that.
Again, Dorgan is missing the forest for the trees. Dorgan is strikingly pessimistic that America can free itself of fossil fuel dependence, even though the sun, wind, and human ingenuity are much more “abundant” resources than coal. Yet he willing to guarantee the success of experimental carbon capture and sequestration technology for coal-fired power plants Of course, a $300 million loan to a North Dakota coal plant for CCS development may help it along. If Dorgan truly wants CCS to happen, he should recognize that the most important thing the government can do is to create a market for clean energy by passing strong cap-and-trade legislation as soon as possible. Unfortunately, his voting record reveals he puts GOP filibusters of clean energy legislation above the security and health of the United States.
Politics
Rep. Broun Baselessly Speculates That The Child Who Died From Swine Flu In The U.S. Was An ‘Illegal Alien’
Yesterday, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) was on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal and talked about the outbreak of the H1N1 virus. When discussing the first death in the United States from the disease, Broun used the tragedy to rail against “illegal aliens”:
Q: What do you think happens next here? Or should happen?
BROUN: Of course, it’s sad to see a 23-month-old child die from this disease. We don’t have any specifics. I tried to find out this morning specifics about this child that has died — whether it was someone who is from Mexico, possibly an illegal alien who has been brought into this country.
One big problem we have in this country is an open border. The border is like a sieve, and so these illegal aliens are coming across, and I think a lot of the health care facilities throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California are going to be overwhelmed by cases coming out of Mexico — Mexican citizens — putting a further strain on those facilities. So, I don’t know if this child was a Mexican, or if it was an American child — what the situation is — but it was sad that this child died.
Watch it:
In fact, the child was a Mexican citizen whose family was visiting relatives in the United States. “The family had traveled to South Texas. The child became ill and they transported the child to Houston for medical care,” said a Houston health department official. This case had absolutely nothing to do with undocumented immigration. Most of the U.S. cases are arising in people who legally traveled to Mexico for various reasons.
Media Matters and CAP’s Eric Alterman have also documented right-wing media figures blaming Mexican immigrants for the spread of the virus. On April 24, hate radio host Michael Savage said, “Illegal aliens are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico,” and on April 27, Neal Boortz asked, “[W]hat better way to sneak a virus into this country than give it to Mexicans?”
Transcript: Read more
Yglesias
Swedish Finance Minister Slams Geithner Plan
Via Noam Scheiber, Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg doesn’t think much of the Geithner plan for the banking sector:
While the U.S. has funneled tens of billions of dollars to embattled banks such as Citigroup, Sweden temporarily took over two banks late last year and then sold them back to private investors at a roughly 50% profit three months later, says Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg.
U.S. officials should confront the financial industry’s political power and seize temporary ownership of troubled banks, Borg says. Otherwise, error-prone bankers will be bailed out at taxpayer expense.
“We can’t let them get away with the fact that they’ve been reckless,” Borg told a group of economists while attending the recent International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings here.
This isn’t a painless or cost-free solution, but it still looks to me to be the right one. I’ve come to appreciate over the past several months that there are legitimate issues of complexity, logistics, and legal authority that separate our situation from Sweden’s. But it seems to me that these are issues the administration should be working on, not just issues the administration should be raising as reasons not to act.
It’s worth noting that Borg is not one of those Swedish socialists you’ve heard about. He’s the finance minister in a center-right government and he’s been spearheading their charge for tax cuts and rollbacks in the welfare state. “This is not about the market economy,” he says. “We don’t believe in the state running the banking sector.” It’s just that he recognizes that there is no real “market” solution to a banking crisis, there are just different forms of government intervention available.
