Most Americans Don’t Blame Obama for Economy

Most Americans Don’t Blame Obama for Economy, Poll Finds – washingtonpost.com:

“The number of Americans who believe that the nation is headed in the right direction has roughly tripled since Barack Obama’s election, and the public overwhelmingly blames the excesses of the financial industry, rather than the new president, for turmoil in the economy, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.”

Poll Results

(Via The Washington Post.)

It looks like the public is still in a realistic mood. Still, Obama’s plan needs to start having some effects soon or the public will turn on him.

Doe or Die

An Ultimatum for Carmakers From Obama – NYTimes.com:

“‘And so today, I am announcing that my administration will offer G.M. and Chrysler a limited period of time to work with creditors, unions and other stakeholders to fundamentally restructure in a way that would justify an investment of additional tax dollars; a period during which they must produce plans that would give the American people confidence in their long-term prospects for success,’ Mr. Obama said.”

(Via NY Times.)

If only private shareholders, particularly institutions, would be so activist, we wouldn’t be in a far better position.

Why Michael Steele Must Stay

Why Michael Steele Must Stay:

“So Michael Steele becomes the saving grace for the mainstream moderates and libertarians in the party (like me) and for those conservatives who ‘get it.’ GOP insiders like to say that Michael Steele works well for Republicans because he is a fresh conservative GOP face who ‘happens to be black.’ They have it wrong. The GOP needs Michael Steele because he is black and because he understands that he must speak for more than 30 percent of the party’s political base.
For the record, there are pro-choice Republicans.  There are Republicans who support gay marriage. There are Republicans like me who support affirmative action policies.  We are in the minority in the GOP, for sure, but if the party is going to survive and eventually thrive, it needs a leadership that acknowledges us. Republicans need Michael Steele. And, protests or not, they know it.”

(Via The Root.)

I’ve long thought that libertarianism is the path of success for the GOP. I’m just not sure the Christian Right will let that happen. They are just not into freedom they don’t define.

That’s Why They are Called Unidentified

The UFO Phenomenon — Seeing Is Believing – ABC News:

“But as one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists says in the program, ‘You simply cannot dismiss the possibility that some of these UFO sightings are actually sightings from some object created by … a civilization perhaps millions of years ahead of us in technology.'”

(Via ABC News.)

Saw this on NatGeo instead of the original airing, but I’m convinced UFO’s are real. (What they actually are is another matter) I’m not convinced all sightings are of UFO’s, but there are simply too many eyewitness accounts where the seer, conscious of public ridicule, is hesitant to go all X-Files but claim emphatically that they were not witness to weather balloons, swamp gas, stars on horizon, blimps, flares, helicopters, etc. These are pilots, police officers, and of course the general public. What was a clincher for me is when a police officer responding to a call he asks is a jokes sees the same object the caller claims he’s seeing. Skeptics are not given to hysteria or conspiracy.

Going Cheney on Moats

Dallas police chief apologizes for conduct of officer who drew gun on NFL player outside hospital |
News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News
| Latest News:

“Kunkle said Officer Robert Powell had been placed on paid administrative leave in connection with the incident last week, in which he stopped a family rushing to visit a dying mother, keeping them for 13 minutes to write a traffic ticket. The woman died before two of the family members were able to see her.”

(Via Dallas News.)

Wow. I guess thugs don’t make good police officers either.

Thugs aren’t Revolutionaries

On the other hand… – Ta-Nehisi Coates:

“Beyond that, my Pops published a book a few years back looking at the legacy of the Black Panther Party. He was really proud, given that he’d been a Panther. Though largely sympathetic, and maybe slightly nostalgic, the book is not a piece of hagiography. In one of the more trenchant essays, the author points out the folly of equating thugs with revolutionaries, of essentially criminalizing the vanguard.”

(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)

This is what you get when you do.

Why Black Folk Mistrust the Justice System

Conservatives For Criminal Justice Reform – Ta-Nehisi Coates:

“I’m less certain that the ‘tough on crime’ approach has been ‘largely vindicated’ by events–mostly because I think a large part of the events include the moral costs, and the real costs to communities where alarming numbers of men are under the watch of the state. One should consider the numbers here–blacks make up a third of all drug arrests, and black men are 12 times as likely to be imprisoned on a drug conviction. Four in Five of these arrests were for possession, not sale. Perhaps this is because the drug epidemic has run rampant through black communities, but probably not. The difference in illicit drug usage is slight (9.5 percent of blacks have used illicit substances, 8.2% of whites).  Those are the sort of numbers that feed an intense distrust of the justice system in many black communities. I think Ross (though I can’t be sure) sees the ends justifying the means. But the means are disproportionately born by people who live far away from those ‘Nixon to China’ conservatives.”

(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)

Which is why many of us merely call it The System. I hope our white brothers and sisters see this too and understand our burden. I hope that once the economic crisis dies down, this will happen sooner rather than later. We can all start to move forward on how drugs is killing us, esp. black people, on all sides.

Something Called Government Duty

TPMMuckraker | Talking Points Memo | Jindal’s Mockery Of Volcano Monitoring Money Only Looking Dumber After Redoubt Blows:

“At the risk of stating the obvious, using advanced technology to predict when a volcano might erupt, at the most basic level, allows local officials to, um, save people’s lives by evacuating them. It’s hard to think of a better use of government money.
Why is Jindal’s line looking even worse now? Because, as you’ve likely heard, Alaska’s Mount Redoubt, 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, erupted last night. And a USGS geologist confirmed to TPMmuckraker that a portion of the stimulus spending for volcano monitoring that Jindal lampooned has been slated to go to USGS monitoring Redoubt.”

(Via Talking Points Memo.)

This from a man who speaks of the government role in properly handling natural disasters. It looks like the GOP is stuck on stupid, to coin a phrase. First Palin. Now Jindal. When will the GOP this figure out?
UPDATE: I realize there is a double irony here that this eruption occurred in Alaska, Palin’s state. I wonder if she rejected the volcano monitoring money too.

Why it’s Hard to Respect the GOP These Days

After Voting No, Republicans Tout Funds – WSJ.com:

“WASHINGTON — Republicans railed against the Democrats’ massive economic-stimulus and spending bills as fiscally irresponsible, but some GOP lawmakers are taking credit for projects in their own districts funded by the measures.
‘Washington needs to stop spending money that it doesn’t have,’ Michigan Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra said in attacking the $410 billion omnibus-spending bill, which funds the government through September. But once it passed, he touted its benefits for his district, which stretches along Lake Michigan.
…
In an interview, Mr. Diaz-Balart said, ‘The omnibus was too much money, too much spending, too much borrowing, too much debt, and no accountability. Now, I have stuff in that bill, but I still voted against it. But what I have in there, I am very proud of.[emphasis mine]’
Rep. Howard Coble (R., N.C.) issued a news release on March 11 boasting that ‘six Coble earmarks’ were in the omnibus bill, including $855,000 to extend an airport runway.”

(Via The Wall Street Journal.)

If this story doesn’t belong in the dictionary under “hypocrite” for oh so many reasons, I don’t know what does. Wow.

Team Comparison

Why Do Black Immigrants Do Better Than Native Blacks? – Ta-Nehisi Coates:

“This argument pops up from time to time, but it’s been coming up a lot lately. It always seemed to me that the question answers itself–an immigrant is someone who’s specifically come to this country to capitalize and exploit opportunity. Comparing any immigrant group to virtually any native-born group is like comparing the most ambitious members of one team with the entirety of another team. “

(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)

Great piece on this trope of an argument.