Me: Frank Lynch. These are my daily rants, mostly political. For something less spontaneous, I maintain The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page (over 1,800 Johnson quotes), perhaps your best online resource for insight into his thinking.
DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. We do polling, public policy research, surveys, etc. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.
Current standings for our weekly Set competition (2012):
0 JL
3 Leslie
1 Me
0 weeks called.
Leslie won Week 4. JL won 2011.
Bio: Born 1957, raised in Florida, moved to New York area in 1982; now live in Brooklyn. Married, with one daughter. I work in marketing research for Abt SRBI. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.
I just finished reading MLK's "Why We Can't Wait," and while it focuses on the civil rights struggles of 1963, a lot of it is applicable to today if you think broadly. One point he made was that the civil rights movement should not be discounted because its leaders disagree with each other. "Unity has never been defined as uniformity," he wrote, and then went on to discuss how Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton et al overcame their differences in throwing off England and establishing the United States. I do think the Republicans are going to coalesce around Romney; the protect-the-SCOTUS argument will work better than anything else. I just don't know if it's going to generate sufficient turn-out to help the down-ticket candidates. (As I've said before.)
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(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Is Warren Buffet's secretary the point?
You probably know the basics already: Warren Buffet wrote a column long ago where he pointed out that it was wrong that his secretary paid a higher tax rate than he does. And you know that Obama invited her to be his guest at the State of the Union address, to Limbaugh's disgust.
You may be less aware that the RW has been very interested in picking apart the concept that she pays a higher rate than Buffet, probably as a diversionary tactic to the simple concept that Warren Buffet's rate is too low. The chief way they've been doing this has been to pick on a figure reported by ABC, probably erroneous, that her tax rate is 35.8%. In order to slay the idea, the RW has worked to position Buffet's secretary as some rich person making more than $200,000 per annum, and thus not deserving pity. (Others point out a simpler explanation, that Buffet's comparison included payroll taxes.)
But let's take a moment for a collective "whatever." Let's say his secretary does not pay a 35.8% tax rate. Let's say it might only be 28%. Feel better, RW? Because Buffet's tax rate is still too low. That's the point; we do not have a progressive tax rate in this country, and the conservatives are so intent on defending the rich that they are willing to do everything they can to distract from the fact that our tax rates are far less progressive than they would have us believe.
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(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Lots of reasons to love NJ Governor Chris Christie.
This whole thing with him punting on gay marriage ("let the people decide, not the leaders!") seems just a bit too much like Pontius Pilate for my tastes. And then, for him to have said that civil rights was always driven by the people, and not the legislatures? Is he kidding?
But I like this. Let the gays feel like they have to live in New York in order to receive social justice. It's kind of like when the majors opened themselves up to African Americans. Give me your tired, your poor: New York will thrive, and New Jersey will languish. Perhaps not at such extremes, but New York will have the edge again. And maybe then the Giants and Jets will come back.
(And of course, in addition to my selfishness, it's just plain wrong for Christie to not get on this train. Gay marriage is right.)
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(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Who will guard the guards?
If not the actual guards, how about the disgraced Politifact? At least this time they caved when their error was highlighted.
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| 8:22 PM
(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)
Archibald MacDonald of Keppoch.
Because I cannae serve ye haggis.
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| 7:24 PM
(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Look no further than Bush for "The Food Stamp President."
Gingrich and the yapping RW'ers seem to be tying their hopes for a one-term Obama on pinning the economy on Obama. But their problem is that poll after poll has shown that more Americans blame Bush for the economy than blame Obama.
Solution? Repeat, repeat, repeat. Offer no concrete arguments. And by all means, do not cite Krugman, who quite reasonably says the problem is that the stimulus wasn't big enough. I would pay five hundred dollars in a blink to see Gingrich or Romney blame Obama for pursuing a too small stimulus. Not because I like to spend money, but that would make a very cool and very gory movie, with all the heads exploding.
Inheriting the economy that he did, those who call Obama the food stamp president are basically saying that the poor should starve thanks to Bush's economy. Oh, and how they'd love to compare Obama to Marie Antoinette in that situation. Obama-villes and all that, tent cities. That's what American politics need more of, the poor as pawns. Too many in the GOP think of the poor as mere pawns. Let's not perpetuate that.
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| 8:54 PM
(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)
Monday, January 23, 2012
Mitt Romney MUST release his Netflix ordering history. Right now.
Because we just don't know what it might show. Not saying we can point to anything we might find. But we'd just like to see:
"Let's see what they show; let’s see who his clients were," Mr. Romney said, pointing specifically to work Mr. Gingrich did on behalf of health care companies. "That could represent not just evidence of lobbying, but potentially wrongful activity of some kind."
Mr. Romney did not elaborate about what illegal activity he suspected. And a spokesman for Mr. Romney declined to say whether Mr. Romney had specific knowledge about "wrongdoing" by Mr. Gingrich.
"We won't know until they release records," said Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser for the campaign. "We'll find out once he releases those documents. I don't think we’ll know until he comes clean."
So you see the routine: it was learned from the Birthers who kept upping the ante on Obama, and last we heard hit the change into the dominant key with Trump saying he needed to see Obama's school transcripts. What will we learn from Romney's yearbooks, I ask? The investigation has to go on!
How desparate is Romney getting? Well, if the smear tactics are an indicator, plenty. Today in Florida (a state with a high foreclosure rate), Romney positioned Gingrich's work for Freddie and Fannie as directly profiting from the foreclosure crisis.
How desparate is Romney getting? Well, if the accelerating pace of flip-flops is an indicator, plenty. Tonight on PoliticsNation with Rev. Al Sharpton (video not up yet), Sharpton contrasted Romney's statement just last October that the mortgage crisis had to run its course in order for the economy improve (e.g., let the foreclosures happen without any intervention), but today in Tampa he heard homeowners' plights and seemed to be arguing for loan restructuring). This was not a flip flop on a position going back to his governorship; this was about three months ago.
For true fine parallelism rhetoric I should have a third, but don't. It's just a sad field of Republicans that are running for President. And while Obama isn't going to cruise to victory in 2012 and will still need to work, I think it makes him a weaker President because he doesn't need to get really steely and heighten the Democrat agenda. I think a lot of down-ticket races are going to get hurt on both sides: neither party is going to get all its die-hards out. And since Senators bubble up from the House, and House Reps bubble up from mayors, and city council, and alder this or that... It just doesn't look like either party is going to be developing its future leaders come November.
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| 8:18 PM
(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)
Saturday, January 21, 2012
All I want for my birthday is a nominee like Newt.
Coupled with his idea that any law which is OK with two of the three branches of government can't be overturned by the SCOTUS, and we have a source for some of that new, radical thinking!
That part in the oath about "upholding the Constitution" will be interesting, won't it?
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10:57 AM
(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)
Not one of Michael Kinsley's better days.
Sticking to old, disproven notions. Getting called out by Kevin Drum. Accusing Paul Krugman of having no trigger for deficit concern, then stating when Krugman says he would be concerned about deficits. More... He was better back on "Crossfire."
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10:04 AM
(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)
