Harper and Ravenstahl

I have been wanting to say something about the resignation of Nate Harper since it happened. It should be significant for the Mayoral primary coming up, except that Bill Peduto and Michael Lamb are simply going to cancel each other out, and Ravenstahl will win re-election.

But here's the thing about Nate Harper. I wondered back in 2007 whether Nate Harper was somehow the administration's apologist if not fall guy (http://cognitivedissonancepittsburgh.blogspot.com/2007/10/boy-who-would-be-mayor.html). One thing significant to me about the story about Ravenstahl's guard detail making up to a hundred grand was Nate Harper's comment (made presumably with a straight face) that the Mayor works from six in the morning to after 1 or 2 am the next morning. A) that statement was made while the Mayor was still married and B) it made me wonder what the Mayor had on Harper that Harper would stick his neck out for the Mayor like that. I guess maybe now we know.

Kelly back to defense

This is a comment I made on the PG website about today's Jack Kelly column Obama is weak on defense.

So this is a column about the opposition to Chuck Hagel for Secretary of State, but it starts and is shot through with complaints about Benghazi. If the President had come forward and stated that there was a CIA facility at Benghazi, and that the CIA had successfully resisted efforts to reinforce and otherwise protect Ambassador Chris Stevens, Jack Kelly would complain that Obama is hampering US intelligence. Instead Obama (and also Susan Rice) repeated the information the CIA had told them after the Benghazi attack. Conservatives say Ms Rice should have researched that information herself before going on the Sunday talk shows the weekend after the Benghazi attack, and gathered her own information. How would she do this; the people she would talk to were the ones telling her the video caused the attack.

Jack Kelly's criticism of Chuck Hagel is first that he was a Sargent, not experienced at running a giant bureaucracy, which means he is not qualified to run the Pentagon. Of course Kelly frequently complains that Democrats are too enamored of bureaucracies and what we need is someone who will cut through the doubletalk and get to the truth (see Kelly on Ben Carson). Yet Chuck Hagel is not a Democrat (despite what the ideological purists want to say) and did co-found and run the Vanguard cellular company, as well as serving as President and CEO of the USO.

Jack Kelly finishes by saying that foreign policy disaster is almost upon us. But then conservatives (including Jack Kelly) have been predicting hyperinflation since Obama took office, even some saying it is already happening (look at the price of gas!), yet is has not now nor is likely anytime soon to happen. Makes you wonder about the foreign policy thing.

Kelly plays the race card.

This is a copy of a comment I made on the the PG on Jack Kelly's column today "President Benjamin Carson?".

I have no doubt that Dr Carson is a talented doctor, although I wonder if or perhaps just when he decides to defer to the bible rather than science in a diagnosis or treatment recommendation.

Which is by way of pointing out the glaring hypocrisy in Dr Carson 's quote about how doctors have "learned how to make decisions based on facts, empirical data, rather than on ideology" should be involved in politics and then suggesting we should base tax policy on religion.

Carson's assault on political correctness that shines a light on what is clearly becoming a glaring double standard in America. Conservatives on these comment threads jump all over any innocent person who expresses a concern about "assault weapons", any one who expresses a concern about "income equality", even anyone who points out that Wall Street was the cause of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Republicans/conservatives/the Tea Party now want to silence discussion about certain issues, actually condemning saying certain words. Liberals have ALWAYS questioned and essentially condemned the idea of politically correct speech, but now Republicans march in lock step and say that there can be NO discussion about certain issues, to the point of not speaking certain words.

This is the rational, empirically-based approach that Jack Kelly advocates. Of course.

And by the way, where are conservatives complaining about Jack Kelly playing the race card? Or are all of you that intellectually dishonest (as a libertarian recently accused me of on a PG comment thread)?

Jack Kelly - waterboarding is not torture, but everything Obama does is wrong

This is once again a copy of something I posted to the PG as a comment on today's Jack Kelly column.

This is an interesting Jack Kelly column. He walks a twisty but interesting path. Water boarding isn't torture, but Obama is trampling the constitution. That Kelly supports his contention about waterboarding not being tortu by saying that journalists volunteered to have it done, and that it is effective because of a scene in a movie is absolutely repugnant. I would invite Kelly to either allow himself to be water boarded every day for the next ten years or admit that he has no idea if it is torture.

As far as drones go, Kelly is very late to the party. I took major grief on these comment threads when I repeatedly referenced over a couple of years Glenn Greenwald 's several columns on the use of drones. Go google "Glenn Greenwald Salon" (Greenwald is now writing for the Guardian). Yes, liberals have ignored the issue for some years, but so have conservatives. Greenwald has been almost alone (in the wilderness?), but there he was, and Jack Kelly has ignored his existence for years.

George Bush ignored the briefing that gave him the information that would have prevented all of this. Since 2001, the Republicans have set up all the problems we face now. Bush failed to capture or kill bin Laden in December 2001 and for seven years after, invaded the totally, totally, totally unrelated country Iraq based on lies, opened the Guantanamo detention facility, approved the at the very least morally ambiguous technique of waterboarding. And yet Republicans turn around and blame Democrats for any thing that the American people find questionable. Together with their incredible fiscal irresponsibility (which again they blame on the Democrats even when they were in control of Congress and the Presidency), Republicans have essentially by themselves caused the major problems of the last decade. When will they take responsibility for what they have done?

Kelly on debt

This is a copy of a comment I made on the PG website on today's Jack Kelly Column "Dance of the debt ceiling: Going through it wouldn't be as bad as people think"

If Jack Kelly had been remotely fair in this column, then I would be more prepared to accept some of his conclusions. It is a matter of record that George W Bush publicly stated that the (Clinton) was the government keeping the public's money. He explicitly and on purpose unbalanced the budget. He cut revenues by cutting taxes, he allowed Congress to spend like drunken sailors, he ignored the coming financial crisis. And yet Jack Kelly wants to label Obama a hypocrite for speaking out against Bush's spending.

Of course some on this thread will say that I am a hypocrite for defending Obama. Yet Obama's deficit was caused by dropping tax revenues (caused by the financial crisis and the contraction of the economy), automatic stabilizers like unemployment compensation, Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps for those of you who don't follow politics) and of course continuing to fight (when he cam into office) two wars started by George W Bush but kept off the books to make his administration look better. The stimulus saved or created up to three million jobs according to the CBO, so it was clearly a good investment. And otherwise conservatives can tell us which unemployed people should become homeless and starve.

Right now borrowing costs are still effectively negative, but Jack Kelly wants to cut programs that help the poor and cut taxes for the rich. Just like every other Republican/conservative/Tea Party type.

Jon Stewart Versus Paul Krugman

So Jon Stewart and Paul Krugman have been having a halfhearted battle of words with each other. It started when last Thursday evening Stewart made some fun of the idea of minting a trillion dollar coin and depositing it in the Treasury, an idea that Krugman had somewhat promoted recently. Now, Stewart said this sounded like a silly idea all on its own, and also a silly way to pay down the national debt. In that context, Stewart mocked the amount, why not make it a 20 trillion dollar (our current debt being 16 trillion)or some other utterly absurd amount.

Let me say right here that in the absence of any other information, the coin does sound pretty damn stupid or silly.

But anyone who reads Paul Krugman knows the trillion dollar coin is not about paying down the debt per se, it was intended to be an option should the House of Representatives refuse to raise the debt ceiling (again) without the President agreeing to eliminate Social Security, Medicare or both plus Big Bird.

OK, even in that context the trillion dollar coin is still pretty silly, but at least we can see at as a sign of how bad things are getting in Congress, that a President might have to do something like that.

Now, I have to admit the CNN piece the Daily Show first aired to describe the coin mentioned paying on the debt, but Stewart's researchers should have gone out and actually read a Krugman column or blog post, or any of the other economists or columnists talking about this. Not doing so, or doing so and then allowing Stewart's comedian writers or Stewart himself to get the issue wrong seemed at least lazy.

Which is what Krugman said on Saturday in a blog post, and again on ABC News (This Week with whats his name?). Krugman stated that he thinks the Daily Show tries for "knowing jokes", intelligent humor, but their take on the coin was just dumb. That the Daily Show was damaging it's "brand".

Stewart countered on Monday with a series of (in my opinion) weak statements - he thinks the Daily Show's brand is dumb (yeah, sometimes), Stewart admitted there are other points of view but implied he didn't have time for them, and then stood by his characterization of the trillion dollar coin as a dumb (expletive) idea.

Again, yeah, the coin is dumb but Stewart totally ignored the context in which the coin was proposed ... again.

Now, if the Daily Show were some program on Fox News, or CNN, MSNBC or even the late, apparently unlamented Current TV, then we might well shrug. But the Daily Show is two things that separate it from those other shows. First, it is fairly smart. Daily Show viewers are among the best informed people compared to other channels and media outlets. Which I believe Stewart himself has mentioned on occasion (while being modest about in an insincere way).

And second, the Daily Show regularly goes after news programs on other channels, particularly on Fox News. Being the show that knowingly mocks other news shows places a burden on the Daily Show to get its own coverage right. If you want to skewer Bill O'Reilly for some piece of hypocrisy, there is no hiding behind a "We're just a dumb comedy show" when you are caught peddling your own misinformation.

Instead of, on Monday, a) claiming stupidity, b) making a vague statement about other points of view and then c) repeating that you think the coin is stupid, Stewart should have said a) we learned/knew the coin was intended to be a means of temporarily raising the debt ceiling by executive order, b) we did not describe the context that was forcing people to resort to outlandish ideas like a trillion dollar coin, namely, the Republican intransigence over the debt ceiling, and the devastating consequences if the Republican controlled House refused to raise it. And that point Stewart would then be entitled to a c) the coin is still a pretty stupid idea anyway.

We would have all laughed but also breathed a sigh of relief that Jon Stewart was not, in fact, turning into Steve Doocy (ow do you even spell that name?).

Stewart did say he is a fan of Paul Krugman, which is nice, although clearly Stewart is not a regular reader of Krugman. The Daily Show should have Krugman on soon as a guest, although it occurs to me that there are also any number of skit things Krugman could do.

Kelly on confirmation

This is a (cleaned up) copy of a comment I made on the Post-Gazette's pages. It is on today's Jack Kelly column "Obama's insecurity team - His national security nominees are weak as he seeks to cut defense spending"

Apparently Jack Kelly's standard for being qualified to be on the national security team is simple - did you support George W Bush's policies? Bob Gates did, while secretary of defense for Dubya, for example, but Hagel did not while in the Senate; hence Gates qualified, Hagel not.

And apparently our enemies and allies, knowing the records of Obama's nominees, will see us as a great power in decline.

Honestly, how does it work that with one breath Republicans/conservatives/Tea Party types can call for massive cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, federal housing assistance and unemployment because our national debt is our greatest security threat, then with the next breath call for reduced taxes on the rich (although calling for an increase in taxes on the bottom 47%, the poor, to force them to have "skin in the game") to stimulate the economy and then with a third breath complain that defense is being cut to the bone? No one sees any contradiction in the cumulative effect of these three policy philosophies?

I guess no "true believer" would

Kelly on Keynes specifically ....

This is a copy of a comment I made on the PG opinion pages. Today's Jack Kelly column is "John Maynard Keynes, the conservative (The economist was right about much, but his prescriptions have been misapplied)"

Well, there is a fair bit here that I would agree with. One thing I will say off the bat is that I would/am extremely reluctant to put words in Keynes mouth, but I do tend to go by what those who study Keynes say. Also, by now anyone paying attention knows how conservatives hate Paul Krugman, who Kelly (almost) subtly ridicules here.

The funny thing is that I swear when Kelly writes that Keynes said "The market system is "the best safeguard of the variety of life," preserving "the most secure and successful choices of former generations," " that Krugman has quoted (or at least paraphrased) Keynesian on exactly the same subject, to the same effect. Kelly writes that economists feel Keynes repudiated classical economic theory and that is true in the sense of changing policy prescriptions in economic downturns. But Keynes was neither Marx nor Lenin, and, as I understand it, Keynes firmly believed the basic economic tenet that the market is the most efficient method of allocating scarce resources, all things being equal. Now things are frequently not equal, so to speak, but then that is the entire study of economics.

Kelly also gives us this paragraph "The great flaw in Keynes' thinking was his assumption government could act wisely and impartially to stimulate the economy. Spending is popular, tax increases unpopular, in good times as well as bad. So politicians run deficits year after year. Debt mounts. Inflation eats away the savings and investments of the industrious and prudent." Well, there are several things wrong with this. If Keynes says that deficit spending is good only when you are in a economic downturn, but should be avoided when the economy is growing, then why blame Keynes for the deficits of Ronald Reagan and George W Bush? And by the way, why isn't Jack Kelly praising Barack Obama for running a deficit during the current deficit (which started on George W Bush's watch)?

But I have read on these comment threads time and time again liberals saying that balancing the budget and even running surpluses is a fine idea when the economy is growing. And liberals have referenced Bill Clinton as an example of a Democrat who not only said he supported government surpluses, but did his part to actually achieve them.

(A brief aside, something I did not put on the PG - one might ask about the cost of government programs to aid the poor and provide assistance. Strikes me they can be put into two groups, those like education and public transportation that are really sort of investments, and those like health care and food assistance that are humanitarian. Neither group is really that big an item compared to the big three of defense, Social Security and Medicare, and can likely be funded out of general revenue. And since Medicare and Social Security have their own dedicated taxes, they should be discussed separately as well. In any event, I believe spending that is an investment should be the last item cut. But efficiency standards should always be applied.)

I am not nearly as familiar with the theories of Hayek, but to the extent they involve going on the gold standard, I can not possibly agree. But to the extent they involve promoting market like efficiency in government, I believe Keynes, Krugman, certainly myself and apparently Kelly could all find ourselves in agreement. And to the extent that makes Keynes a friend to conservatives, I can believe and agree with that. But Republicans/conservatives/Tea Party types refuse to believe that liberals believe in economic efficiency as much if not more than conservatives (and this comment thread is likely to fill up with personal attacks and lies).