Daily Archives: June 6, 2012

Why “Vice President Scott Walker?” Isn’t it obvious? Look, I won’t put money on it, but then being a relativist I’ve never been a betting man. But if I were Romney I’d take advantage of Walker’s win, or “win” depending upon Wisconsin voting machines. Note: if I were to fix an election I certainly wouldn’t make any win overwhelming. No, what I’d do in a case like Wisconsin, especially in a recall election where the previous loser is challenging the winner, is make sure the winner gets just enough to make sure it’s not suspicious, and the “winner” could claim his wicked ways have been approved by Wiscosin-ians. And that’s exactly what happened here. So let’s just say either it’s yet another example of a conspiracy of coincidences that seem to only favor Republicans, or, once again, “the fix” was “in.” Now, what to feed the Teabag rabble who love anything anyone left of them hates?

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Sandra Steingraber via the Huffington Post Oxymorons in the gas patch. O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!… cold fire, sick health! – William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet On May 2, an alliance of citizen groups from around the nation issued a call to action against unsafe gas and oil drilling and announced a national rally to take place on the West Lawn of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on July 28. Called “Stop the Frack Attack,” this national day of action promises to “bring thousands to the nation’s capitol to demand greater government responsibility and corporate accountability for harm that existing oil and gas development causes.” Their press release includes statements from members of affected communities that decry the ongoing devastation that fracking creates, denounce the recklessness of the fossil fuel industry, speak to the need for more government oversight, and call for a clean energy future. Notably, the words ban, moratorium, prohibit, or any other synonym for cease and desist, appear nowhere in the announcement–except for that single verb in the banner, “Stop the Frack Attack.” Which does not seem to be quite the same as saying stop fracking. The question is, are they, in fact, the same?

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Written by Paul Krugman for The NYT What should be done about the economy? Republicans claim to have the answer: slash spending and cut taxes. What they hope voters won’t notice is that that’s precisely the policy we’ve been following the past couple of years. Never mind the Democrat in the White House; for all practical purposes, this is already the economic policy of Republican dreams. So the Republican electoral strategy is, in effect, a gigantic con game: it depends on convincing voters that the bad economy is the result of big-spending policies that President Obama hasn’t followed (in large part because the G.O.P. wouldn’t let him), and that our woes can be cured by pursuing more of the same policies that have already failed.

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