Department of Analytical Tools

After reading the entries by metamars, Jeff Roby, and others calling for a "Dump Obama" movement, and after reading the questions put to me in those threads, I decided to analyze what these guys are trying to do and come up with some advice for how to grow a "Dump Obama" crowd into a cohesive, well-organized, nationwide movement. Read below the fold...

Avedon got me thinking and commenting on something that's been in the back of my head for a while now, so I thought I'd turn it into a post. Put on your thinking caps, Corrente. This is the hardest problem we face.

We need a leader. Several of them, in fact. How do we get that? Grow them? Make them? However you want to phrase it, the need right now isn't "how do we fix these problems?" but instead is "who will be the face of the reforms we already know must happen, and who will inspire people to take us down that road?" Read below the fold...

Despite being a blogger who blogs about politics, I actually know more about Sumerian grammar than I do about American political history, and I readily admit that. So this comment by reader Joe really intrigued me:

By the way, I think the filibuster issue is one of Corrente's major blind spots. I don't think the degree to which filibuster abuse has completely altered our system of governance can be overemphasized.

Read below the fold...

The overall jobs picture for September 2010 painted by the BLS numbers is of an economy dead in the water with some further deterioration around the edges. As I often point out, the BLS report is based on two surveys, household (employees) and establishment (employers). The first measures people, the second, positions. The numbers are scaled up from these surveys and passed through models (which have not been working that well for the type of recession we are in) to give seasonally adjusted figures. It is these which are usually cited both in the reports and in the news. These are estimates and undergo revisions in the following two months and again at the end of the year. Read below the fold...

Monday is National Coming Out Day. Joe has a terrific thread in which he asks his readers to share their own stories about when they did:

Who was the very first person you came out to? How'd they handle the news? What about your parents? And since they say coming out is a never-ending process, who was the most recent person you came out to?

Read below the fold...

The AP recently released poll results on how people feel about the health care reform bill. Commenting on it, Kevin Drum says:

Atrios links to a Dave Dayen post that links to a report that says, "A new AP poll finds that Americans who think the law should have done more outnumber those who think the government should stay out of health care by 2-to-1." And the poll does say that. However, it doesn't say what "done more" means, and the actual numbers suggest that a more liberal law wouldn't have been any more popular than what we got. Here are the basic results from the AP poll: 30% favor the healthcare reform law, 40% oppose, and 30% aren't sure. Then they asked the 70% who were opposers and not surers a second question:

Read below the fold...

This annoyed the crap out of me. Have at it, Corrente.It's been making the rounds on the blogs and is the very embodiment of the 'fear strategy' that Dems are using to convince people to vote for them. What pisses me off most about it is the "you'll get what you deserve" part at the end. Fuck you, Dem strategist who came up with that. No, you will get what you deserve, when this is all over. I won't forget this threat. Read below the fold...

Y'all know I don't watch TV, but tell me what you think is going on here:

The cable news ratings for the third quarter of 2010 were released today, and Fox News is showing signs of decline as their viewership has decreased by 21%, and their top shows all posted double digit losses, while MSNBC’s shows grew and the network attracted more younger viewers.

Read below the fold...

Sreeram Chaulia, associate professor of world politics at the OP Jindal Global University in Sonipat, India., has written a very interesting review of an intriguing new book by senior peace activist and political scientist from Syracuse University, Horace Campbell, Barack Obama and Twenty-First Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA. According to Chaulia, the theme of Campbell's new book is that the election of Barack Obama is the first manifestation of an incipient "revolutionary moment" in America, which has not yet reached its "climactic stage" Read below the fold...

Trying to understand why Penelope Fitzgerald sent the heroine of The Bookshop away in defeat with a copy of Ruskin's Unto This Last, I took a look at the on-line version of this 1862 text. Ah, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Except for the florid language, all this still applies! Read below the fold...

Last week, Yves Smith put up a blog post asking "Why is there no political outlet for anger on the left these days?" The purpose of my post will be to explain why an actual outlet for anger on the left is something that could only have been developed in the last decade. Then, I will sketch out how we can utilize our understanding of this to effectively communicate with people about MMT. Read below the fold...

Bernie Sanders appeared on Dylan Ratigan's show yesterday talking about Elizabeth Warren's appointment. Towards the end of his interview, he said a few words about his opposition to extending the Bush Tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. His proposal was to end the tax breaks the high income people, take the $700 Billion freed up, spend $350 Billion on sorely needed infrastructure projects, creating millions of jobs over a 10 year period and taking the other $350 million in savings and applying it to deficit reduction. Read below the fold...

When will people understand, it's war. On us. On you. On your family. Because of what you are.

The next time you think, "CD is too strident and angry in her atheism and/or rhetoric against homophobia. She should be more patient and forgiving," think of this post.

Wars are not always fought on battlefields with guns and bombs, but people still die in them. Read below the fold...

So Lambert put up an old Newberry post recently and the comments deserve further discussion. Given that it's a popular topic in the blogosphere right now, let me oversimplify the matter:

How can we make the overclass/creative class/political leadership/policy makers truly understand the plight of the people who make/do/are the things that are affected by the policy the overclass shapes? Tony Wikrent's comment included this quote from an author he respects: Read below the fold...

This is the blog that says Fuck! proudly, so this shouldn't shock anyone too much. I recently came across a nifty little comment/riddle and I thought I'd share it.

So let's say your standing in a pool, neck-deep in vomit. There's a person standing above you on the pool side, with a big hunk of dogshit that they are about to throw at your face. Do you duck, and immerse yourself totally in vomit? Or do you stand firm, and get a face full of shit?

Applying this to voting in the fall, the vomit = GOP and shit = Dems. Read below the fold...