Tags
Books, debt crisis, Donald Trump, education, GOP, Herman Cain, Humor, Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee, Muslims, Obama, reading, Standard & Poors, teabaggers
Or don’t. As it turns out you really can’t teach a love of reading. It seems something that you either do or don’t. And it has little to do with opportunity either. Over time, the number of “readers” hasn’t changed a great deal. And readers lament the same problem (so much to read, so little time) over the centuries. A great little read over at The Chronicle, called “We can’t teach students to love reading.” Go see where you fall.
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All roads seem to lead to the financial crisis these days. With Standard & Poors lowering the rating of the US, everybody is wondering what ensue.
Whatever you position (and plenty of folks don’t credit S&P with much savvy), their report was pretty clear in laying the blame. Although they spoke about the gridlock in Washington in general, their greatest finger-pointing went to the GOP’s delinquency-prone child–the TeaNutz®. While the National Journal report didn’t explicitly say Republicans, there was little doubt that they felt that the political brinksmanship of holding the country hostage and failure to consider revenue increases as “possible” were largely to blame. This link has a link to the full S&P report as well as some other good links.
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Meanwhile Michele (I make it up as I go along) Bachmann was at it again. She just days ago, was a no vote on the debt ceiling bill. She of course went much further, claiming that the threats of the credit agencies to downgrade the US’s rating were nonsense and of no consequence. Now that that has happened, she spins on the proverbial GOP plug nickel and screams that Obama is responsible, and he must return to Washington “immediately” and address the American people with a plan to pay down our debt by “trillions”, and this too immediately. Oh if wishes could come true, Ms. Idiothead will be the candidate and as Governor Rendell suggested, the “no slaughter” rule would be invoked at the Obama-Bachmann debate ten minutes in.
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Speakin’ of the Palin replacement, there is a great article at the New Yorker Magazine written by Ryan Lizza called Leap of Faith. Lizza traveled with Bachmann for some time as she moved between Iowa and New Hampshire and has done a good job of peeling off the whitewash that masks a lot of uncomfortable truths. Bachmann’s background is just chock full of extremists whom she has embraced and taken as her personal gurus. Her dominionist beliefs cause her to take extremist views on subjects such as gay, abortion, and even slavery. She’s going to have a very difficult time distancing herself from all this now. And it’s full of more of her twisting and contorting facts and outright lying to present herself as something she very much is not. Do read it.
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Drew Weston has written an important opinion piece in the NYTimes. It blasts Obama pretty badly frankly. I tend to feel like a pinball when it comes to the President. I am constantly disappointed and hopeful, careening between those two points. He’s more conservative in reality that I want, and less a master of the message that I expected. Weston points out how he failed miserably in this debt ceiling crisis, and frankly, I can’t disagree. “What Happened to Obama?”
Weston calls it ” his deep-seated aversion to conflict and his profound failure to understand bully dynamics — in which conciliation is always the wrong course of action, because bullies perceive it as weakness and just punch harder the next time. . . .” It’s hard to not agree.
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Don’t forget your late night humor from Political Irony. Always a lovely way to relax and enjoy some political truths tongue-in-cheek. And if you humor runs religious, here’s a mighty cute little story that we found from our new friend, LOLgod.
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When will it get through the American psyche that the debt is only a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself as the ignorant TeaNutz® erroneously believe? Robert Reich once again tries in very plain English to straighten out the issues. Reich always is clear. We are heading toward another recession. Will we act in time? Bets are definitely divided.
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Oh and did ya hear this one? Mikey (I like money more than my country) Huckabee has called for the appointment of Donald Trump as a new Secretary of the Treasury. I guess this should come as no surprise. If you’ve seen Huck’s shameless lying and misleading innuendo commercial about “Obamacare” then you know this dude is simply another huckster ala Newt “how long will you support me” Gingrich. Just another grifter. Huck has pretty much given up any pretense of being a “Christian” leader. Any idea Mikey how many times the Trumpster has declared bankruptcy? . . .I thought not.
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Herman Cain is getting more lessons on how to be a good house Negro. The teaNutz® have made it clear that Cain will be back to being “part of the problem” along with all other darker than lily-white citizens, if he keeps going around apologizing to Muslims for his racist remarks about them. After posting his apology on Facebook, he got some really unfriendly responses from his “peeps”: (H/T to The Grio for the link)
“it’s all or nothing with the muslim religion…no means no…please stand firm Mr Cain please or run on the democrat ticket”
“what in heaven’s name are you doing? Don’t you know you can’t trust ONE WORD that comes from their mouth? they’re lying to get on your good side, Mr. Cain! :/”
So, listen up Mr. Cain. Ain’t it nice being owned, Sir?
Related articles
- U.S. Downgrade Ripples (thedailybeast.com)
Existential Ennui 
It says volumes about our era that dominionists political figures such as Bachmann are in the mainstream, and dominionists events like “The Response” can take place under a standing governor’s auspices. ::sighs::
As for the Chronicle article about reading, I’m not so sure about its conclusion. Some observers speculate that the internet has conditioned many people’s minds to excel at multiple short-term tasks at one time. If attention span can be altered this way, why can’t it be steered toward deep attention as well?
Ahab first let me say that I often try to leave comments on your blog (ie the fine job you did on the Prayer meetin’ with Perry. But for some reason I get in a loop and I can’t get beyond signing in on google. Might you add the Name/URL option for comments? I seem always able to use that one.
Indeed it does say a lot Ahab–these crazy theocrats are trying very hard to soften the edges, but as Lizza makes quite clear, Bachmann’s ties to the extremist policies of these groups is pretty well documented. A pity that she won’t get the nomination since I think she scares people worse than the idiot Palin.
I find that in reading on the Internet, I have trouble reading long articles. I start to skim them. So in that sense I think you are right. I think the author was suggesting that it is simply not teachable to sit down for a few hours to read. You have to have a real connection to do that. But I found it interesting none the less, especially when folks a few hundred years ago were already complaining that there was way more to read than one could actually do. Made me laugh.
Wall Street will have to wait 14 months to find out if the American people (especially registered Republicans) have the average smarts necessary to stop voting for Teabaggers – and that kind of uncertainty could spell serious doldrums for the financial markets.
The Republican mob in Congress has never accepted the legitimacy of the current administration (that election in 2008) or of the Democratic party seat-holders (who represent tons of Americans), or even basic House protocol. This fundamentally un-American attitude has led to all of the obstruction and delay as well as the way-too-early and unprecedented grandstanding for Presidency in a non-election year. And most of it is based very ironically on a phony mandate derived from the loss of GOP control of their own party to the fringe in 2010. Go figure. Or rather, follow the money.
Yes John, I agree. It’s hard to know what the electorate “gets” and more importantly for how long. I suspect most will vote their pocketbooks come the fall of 2012. However they feel about how things re going will dictate what they do. Ironically I can see them voting out Obama and then giving the House back to the Dems while the Senate goes GOP. And that might well signal the same crap we have now. We have a mess on our hands and I don’t expect it to end any time soon.
Sherry – I changed some settings. Try commenting now.
Thanks Ahab, I will!
We live in a sad world where a man like Obama can be viewed negatively because he wasn’t mean enough, because he didn’t respond in a bullying manner. He made the mistake of expecting decent, respectful behavior from the Republicans. He offered them ample opportunity to represent the country’s best interests and they couldn’t – all because they hate this man’s presence in office. John, above is absolutely correct. It’s a Republican mob, with mob behavior at the expense of the poor and middle class. Time will tell. I’m hopeful for a rout in 2012.
Obama definitely believes in the win win scenario in terms of bargaining. That is the proper way but I wonder can it work when you are dealing with plain old thugs? I do hope you are right about the rout come 2012, but I fear people will simply vote based on whether their finances are better or worse. Worse and they will turn him out even when the alternative is no doubt worse. Sigh…
All good stuff. But hey! where’s Sarah been lately?
Da poor gal has been out Palin’d I believe. I bet there is plenty of screaming in her house these days. How to be relevant again!
Bully tactics, I had more than enough of that sick behavior while in Arizona, and now hear and see much of the same rhetoric and action flung at the President as I experienced. It’s horrible. And I don’t think there is any way to work with a group of people who change the “problem” and the tactics whenever one tries to address it/them in a healthy way..it’s like shifting sand. The only way it will end is if a large enough group says. STOP, the election will crucial.
I have been returning to a line of thought I had back in 2008, that Obama caved to ego, and threw his hat into the election ring four to wight year too early. Then I felt that he needed more experience. Now I think the same but add, I think he needed ore time to work on committees and subcommittees and build relationships and a history of relationship, that could now rally behind him because the senate and house members know him. No doubt he has a tough job right now. But he is a disappointment. Still I admire his efforts to be a centrist, trying to build consensus, rather than compromising his integrity by stooping to the same low level of bullying. But also, I do think he needs to take a stronger stand toward the left, as a sign of honoring those who elected him.
Also, the NY Times had an article that took the blame off of the tea-party and placed it smack on the entire GOP, claiming the tea-party members are not a big enough block to put such a stranglehold on Boehner….it was interesting. And scary.
Terri I tend to agree with your thinking about the President. He’s been a disappointment but I admire his desire to meet as adults with a common desire to do the right thing. I think he thought the GOP would be shamed into behaving like adults, but clearly they are not. Bullies and those who refuse to engage in meaningful dialogue but only scream their talking points are impossible to deal with as you point out. I am fearful for the future, somehow this is worse than anything I have seen in my life.