Me: Frank Lynch

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These are my mundane daily ramblings.
For something less spontaneous, I maintain The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page (over 1,800 Johnson quotes).

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She's not a witch. Therefore it's not a witch hunt. She shouldn't be worried: an investigation is not an indictment. And the concept that the Big Forces of Delaware need this to sideline her is hilarious, she having done that herself. The GOP itself rues her candidacy, regretting the fact that Mike Castle isn't the new Senator, and the GOP senate majority didn't happen due to O'Donnel, Angle, and other extremists.

No reason to blame this on Democrats, Ms. O'Donnell. Good luck in your next gig.

Link | | | 8:58 PM | Home
(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)

"Obamacare" too liberal? Nope. Another poll shows that the health care reform bill isn't right, but fewer think it's too liberal than not liberal enough. Meaning trimming it back is unpopular.

But the GOP doesn't get it, as Ezra showed in that link... And if they're used to heeding results that don't include cell-phone users, you can see why they've got a myopic perspective (those polls skew Republican) and the contrary results don't register with them.

But this is a pretty consistent result at this point; McClatchy had similar results a motnh or so ago. Cutting it back is only desied by a minority of Americans.

(Of course, these results are among Americans, not "likely voters." But government is there to serve the people, not "likely voters." Well, supposedly, anyway; it's not clear to me that it even serves the voters.)

Link | | | 9:47 PM | Home
(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)

So the great GOP strategy is to starve the beast at the state level? The pieces on this were months in building. Before the midterms, Chris Hayes was on an Olbermann show which discussed Murdoch giving money to the GOP Governors Association in order to improve Washington. Hayes couldn't make the connection, but at the time I thought the point was to impact redistricting. And maybe it was limited to that thought.

But then a week ago 60 Minutes did this thing on states being in the red, highlighting New Jersey, Illinois, and I forget who else. NJ's governor Christie (R) was on, talking about how he just doesn't have the money. Media Matters remarked about how CBS did its 60 Minutes piece without anyone else expressing an opposing view.

Today Atrios highlighted a NYT story about municipalities wanting to declare bankruptcy.

On MSNBC's Countown with Keith Olbermann, Sam Seder (sub) led off with a story about the GOP House leaders-to-be new finance rules: tax cuts don't need to be paid for, but spending increases do. And this in the midst of states wanting to go bankrupt.

No tangible solutions about how to cut spending still, but boy can they fuel the fires for tax cuts and increase red ink. Screw the people who work government. Screw education (cf Christie). Screw the future. Screw the idea of an informed populace.

UPDATE: I failed to tie the loose trings together on this, and what the relationship might be between Newscorp's donation to the Republican Governors Association and the rule changes of the incoming House of Representatives leadership. With an emphasis on cost cutting, greater burden will be left on the states (much as Reagan tried to do in the 80's with his "federalization" efforts). Sam Seder's segment on Countdown last night focused on greater willingness to allow states to declare bankruptcy. That segment is below.

Link | | | 9:28 PM | Home
(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)

Well, the ragman draws circles up and down the block... Still in Florida; got up at 4:30 AM in case our flight out wasn't cancelled, but it was. Ab spent about three hours on the phone immediately trying to arrange something, anything, but our airline couldn't get us to anywhere on the Northeast Corridor (where we'd hoped we could switch to Amtrak) before Thursday. Amtrak will get us to New York, but not till Wednesday (at $819 for the three of us, and over 24 hours on the rails), another airline will charge us smilarly for a Wednesday night flight. Too far to drive: in 1982 it was 24 hours straight just to get up to DC. So we wouldn't be in NY before Wednesday night.

Wherever you are, if you're snowed in, don't go out unless you need food. Stay safe.

Link | | | 11:00 AM | Home
(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)

Is acceptance of gay marriage "inevitable"? The Veep seems to think so. I'm inclined to agree, but I don't think it's necessarily comin' round the corner, nor do I think it's going to happen any time soon organically. Which means, of course, that there's no reason to be patiently wait. African-Americans were asked to be patient about civil rights -- which meant asking them to accept a wrong.

Samuel Johnson had an interesting point I'd like to introduce for discussion, from Rambler No. 32:

Patience and submission are very carefully to be distinguished from cowardice and indolence. We are not to repine, but we may lawfully struggle; for the calamities of life, like the necessities of nature, are calls to labour and diligence. When we feel any pressure of distress, we are not to conclude that we can only obey the will of Heaven by languishing under it, any more than when we perceive the pain of thirst, we are to imagine that water is prohibited.

Johnson's opposing "patience and submission" against "cowardice and indolence" would make you think, on the face of it, that he saw patience and submission as good, rather than merely preferable. While he did like an ordered society, he wasn't beyond recognizing that injustices merited lawful struggle. And, at a dinner in Oxford, he toasted a future slave uprising.

Johnson or not, I think this is an area where lawful struggle should continue. It wouldn't hurt to accelerate the so-called inevitability.

Link | | | 9:17 PM | Home
(DISCLOSURE: I work for Abt SRBI. My company does polling. My opinions should not be construed as representing those of my employer.)

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