Unlikely Words » Politics

Obama appoints head of CFPB, Wonkette is not impressed

aaron cohen — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:44:50 +0000

This is scathing and worth a read.

The shrinking middle class needs to be convinced that there’s a point to all of this — other than banal hassles and meaningless toil and a death prolonged by for-profit hospitals, insurers and the medical/pharmaceutical industry — and Obama’s recess appointment today is intended to show these depressed, overworked people that he cares about their Sisyphean plight.

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NPR cements liberal bias by asking GOP to back up claims

aaron cohen — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:38:59 +0000

Republicans in the Senate are refusing to extend a payroll tax holiday that would be paid for with a small surcharge on incomes over $1 million. Their excuse is that it will hurt job creators. NPR asked to speak to some of these job creators who would stop hiring if their marginal income tax rate was raised.

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Barney Frank’s insults

aaron cohen — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:10:52 +0000

Here's a list of Barney’s best insults. The list should probably be 10 times as long.

“You’re stupid.”

—to Margarey Egan of the Boston Herald, on some hundred occasions.

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Cash Rules Everything Around Mitt

aaron cohen — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:22:43 +0000

The Boston Globe posted this picture of Mitt Romney so I made this macro, and few others. I don't think this picture is going to bother anyone inclined to vote for him anyway, but I think everyone else is going to make fun of it.

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New Jersey gave production tax credit to Jersey Shore

aaron cohen — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:26:24 +0000

The state of New Jersey gave the producers of Jersey Shore a production tax credit of $420K. Understandably, several lawmakers are are upset about it. In NJ's defense, the credit was for the first season. That said, where else would it have been filmed?

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MC Hammer and gangster politics

aaron cohen — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:43:42 +0000

Saw this analogy about John Huntsman and the Republican presidential primary field.

Huntsman is like a rapper who isn’t gangsta, doesn’t want to be gangsta, and knows that some of the people making their name on gangsta don’t want you to know that they have problems with “authenticity.” The problem is, Huntsman is like M.C. Hammer—a family-friendly rapper with mass-market dance moves and baggy pants—and he’s certain that, sooner or later, people are going to get tired of all the songs about gangbanging, and what they’ll want instead is … him and his G-rated rhymes and his dance moves and clown pants. Because that was popular before gangsta.

Political calculations aside, the problem with the analogy is that MC Hammer did try to go gangster when he moved to Deathrow Records, dropped "MC" from his name, and released The Funky Headhunter. Young MC went gangster, too, Tone Loc was never G rated, would Kid N' Play work in the analogy?

via Balloon Juice.

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Martin Lomasney’s first rule of politics

aaron cohen — Wed, 18 May 2011 15:32:26 +0000

"Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink."

Via Poynter

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Oh.

aaron cohen — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 23:01:04 +0000

You'll see articles talking saying "Pentagon to cut spending by $78 billion", but what they really mean is spending on defense will grow less $78 billion less over the next 5 years. So not really any cuts.

In response to questions, he emphasized that the $78 billion reduction over the next five years actually represents a "decline in the rate of growth," since the Pentagon budget will grow "in absolute dollars" every year. "The focus here is on a reduction in the rate of growth as opposed to absolute cuts," he said.

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The case for a constitutional monarchy

aaron cohen — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 23:04:46 +0000

Matthew Yglesias argues that the coming royal wedding in England is a good example of the need of the benefit of a constitutional monarchy. Basically, all of the identity politics and the 'would you drink a beer with that guy' personality tests get transferred to the royal family, and the politicians can go about the business of running the country.

We follow the royal family with fascination, they participate in weird ceremonies, they have dignity, they symbolize the nation, we all talk about them respectfully, etc. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister gets to be just another politician.

We need a king.

Thanks, Matt!

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This governance thing is easy

aaron cohen — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:02:26 +0000

I don't think anyone really gives a shit about the deficit, what people care about is whether they have a job. In any case, check out the NY Times Budget Puzzle. It was easy to solve the deficit and create a surplus by raising taxes and reducing spending. PS 30 year budget projections are a joke and a waste of time.

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We vote for too many people

aaron cohen — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:21:50 +0000

Matt Yglesias on how voting for judges makes our criminal justice system all messed up. Then there's this where Londoners vote for 5 people, New Yorkers vote for 15 people, PLUS judges.

A resident of London votes for a borough councillor, a member of the London Assembly, a mayor of the city, a member of parliament, and a member of the European parliament. A resident of New York City votes for a city council member, a mayor, a public advocate, a city comptroller, a district attorney, a state assembly member, a state senator, a governor, a lieutenant governor, a state comptroller, a state attorney general, a member of the US house, two US Senators, and the President. Then on top of all that he votes for judges!

Via Matt.

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Good Example of Spite

aaron cohen — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:18:40 +0000

Via a reader email to Talking Points Memo: Regardless of which side of the political fence you're on, you have to admire this type of personal animosity:

My next-door neighbor is a life-long Democrat who has spent the last 20 years as a registered Republican. He switched his registration just so he could vote against Arlen in the GOP primaries. When Arlen switched to the Democrats, so did my neighbor. I have disliked many a politician but have never been tempted to switch parties to get another opportunity to vote against him an extra time.

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Bad Paintings of Barack Obama Version 2

aaron cohen — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:10:31 +0000

These paintings by Dan Lacey, The Painter Of Pancakes, must report to badpaintingsofbarackobama.com immediately. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Via Kerry

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Snowman Says, “Bring Back Arrested Development”

aaron cohen — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:41:28 +0000

At a recent Snowman protest, one protester carried a familiar sign. President Obama, this is a movement you need to pay attention to.

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16 Step Program

aaron cohen — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:07:57 +0000

Slacktivist has 16 steps Glenn Beck should take to stop being so angry.

8. Notice that the amount of your pay withheld to pay for your health insurance is a lot more than it was last year.
I won't ask you to dig up old paychecks from 2008 and 2007, but this has been going on for a long time. Every year, the amount of your paycheck withheld to pay for your health insurance goes up. A lot.

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Get Some Balls

aaron cohen — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:15:12 +0000

It's come to this.

Via Andrew Sullivan

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Cities That Voted for Scott Brown Like Paul Blart

aaron cohen — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:07:00 +0000

Tom Flanagan nailed it with this update on Twitter. The cities that voted for Scott Brown correlate to the Netflix zipcodes that rented Paul Blart Mall Cop. What does this say to you? If the internet says it, it must be true.

Voters

Movies

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Michele Bachmann and the Census

aaron cohen — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:23:57 +0000

If you remember this summer, one of the crazies leading the charge against this year's Census was Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. However, in the last couple months she's taken a backseat in the anti-Census after realizing that Minnesota is one of the states at risk of losing a seat in Congress after population shifts are calculated. And which Minnesota seat would be cut? Apparently, Bachmann's:

The really fun fact, as I've learned from Minnesota experts, is that Bachmann's district would likely be the first to go if the state lost a seat. The other seats are all fairly regular-shaped, logical districts built around identifiable regions of the state (Minneapolis, St. Paul, the Iron Range, and so on). Bachmann's district is made of what's left over after such a process, twisting and turning from a small strip of the Wisconsin border and curving deep into the middle of the state. As such, the obvious course of action if the state loses a seat is to split her district up among its neighbors.

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Ur Doing it Wrong!

aaron cohen — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:00:30 +0000

For some reason, Washington is afraid to push reform onto Wall St. It doesn't make any sense, and now probably won't happen. Incidentally, Wall St has determined they have more to gain propping up Republicans than they do donating to Democrats, who, you know, are actually nominally in charge. At least until 2010.

The big guns on Wall Street increased their political donations last month after increasing their lobbying muscle. Morgan Stanley's Political Action Committee donated $110,000 in September, for example, of which Democrats got $43,000.

It's going to be so awesome when this happens again and it's worse!

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Two Links from Two Weeks Ago

aaron cohen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:54:08 +0000

Two links from two weeks ago that you may or may not have seen, but I had saved to share and not gotten around to it yet.

The Yes Men sent out a hoax press release from the US Chamber of Commerce saying they had changed their position on climate change. Obviously the media was interested in this so the Yes Men rented a room at the DC Press Club and gave a fake press conference. Then it gets really awesome when a representative of the Chamber shows up and shuts down the presser. And now, they're getting sued for it

Via TPM.

If you saw the profits made by the big banks last quarter and wondered how they were doing it, Philip Greenspun has an answer:

Because of the Collapse of 2008 financial reforms, the big investment banks are able to borrow money from the U.S. government at 0 percent interest. Then they can turn around and buy short-term bonds that pay 2 or 3 percent annual interest. Now they’re making 2 percent on whatever they borrowed. They can use leverage to increase this number, by pledging some of the bonds that they’ve already bought as collateral on additional bonds.

It's all so awesome, isn't it?

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