The Republic of T.

"Dance with the one that brung you." It’s an old saying, and an unwritten rule in politics: stick with the strategy and/or constituency that "brung you" to power, if you want to stay in power. Dance with the one that brung you, or you might not dance at all.

But sometimes "dancing with the one that brung you" to the party can ruin your chances of getting invited back. It’s looking more and more like that’s the case with the GOP and the Tea party, according to a recent CNN poll.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for March 24th through March 29th:

• 99 Weeks of Problems –
• The American right is trapped in a hyperbolic and dysfunctional world –
• GOP ‘welfare reform’ targets strikers and… abortion –
• An Anti-Science Mania Takes Over the GOP –
• What’s at Stake for Women in Wal-Mart v. Dukes –
• Before her Time –
• Bob Herbert: Pouring Money Into Another War, Not Jobs –
• GOP economic plan: Flood the market with more unemployed –
• Op-Ed Columnist: The Austerity Delusion –
• Why America Needs Better History Education –

I admit sometimes I look at the GOP majority in the House and wonder where these people came from. (Their districts, I know.)

Defending the Defense of Marriage Act? Hearings on Muslim Americans? Emergency meetings to defund NPR?

All this while unemployment is at 10.2% (according to Gallup), 14 million Americans are unemployed, there are 8 unemployed workers for every job job opening, unemployment adds 9 million Americans to the uninsured, so many people have been unemployed for so long that we’ve changed how we measure long-term unemployment, 1.4 million have been out of work for 99 weeks or more, and  3.9 million long-term unemployed ran out of unemployment benefits in 2010?

You can see why I began to wonder if these people came from another planet. But their latest move makes it all perfectly clear. They’re straight out of Central Casting, the stereotypical villains division.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for March 20th through March 24th:

• Chris Brown Needs More Therapy and Less F.A.M.E. – COLORLINES –
• The Right to Fuck Up –
• Legacies –
• An un-thinking society –
• On Strike? Republicans Don’t Want Your Family to Eat –
• 8 Unemployed for Every Job Opening: What Are They Supposed to Do Once Their Benefits Run Out? –
• Editorial: Real Family Values –
• America’s Ugly Secret – The Long-Term Unemployed –
• Study: Religion Going Extinct in Most Western Countries — Why Does It Still Dominate Our Politics? –
• 7 Things to Do When Right-Wingers Attack –

A picture is worth a thousand words, the saying goes. Get a bunch of pictures together, and they tell a story.The Huffington Post has posted a slideshow of images depicting the decline of Detroit, Michigan, taken from the book The Ruins of Detroit, by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre.

Steve Cappazola, at the AFL-CIO blog, has the story behind the pictures: the story of what happens when manufacturing disappears.

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In his remarks at the Summit on Jobs & America’s Future, Van Jones summed up the GOP agenda:

"They want to repeal the last century."

As the GOP declares war on regulations that protect workers, the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is an appropriate occasion to ask: What would repealing the last century look like?

It would look something like this trailer for the HBO documentary, Triangle: Remembering the Fire.

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Like I said earlier, the truth about "Tax & Spend Conservatism" is that it isn’t about raising or cutting taxes, but about whose taxes are raised and whose taxes are cut. It’s about, as Robert Borsage put it, who gets hit with the tab for the great recession.

…Wall Street excess and conservative deregulation (by law and lassitude) blew up the economy, causing the Great Recession. The bankers were bailed out. Working families took the hit from the downturn — in lost jobs, lost savings, weakened pensions, declining home values, pay and benefit cuts.

The recession blew a large hole in public finances at every level. Tax revenues plummeted. Expenses — from unemployment insurance to food stamps to public health — rose. Public pension funds suffered investment losses. States and localities face severe deficits with a mandate to balance their budgets. At the federal level, the recession doubted the national debt, and drove deficits up to 10% of GDP (much of this the result of plummeting tax receipts).

Now the question is who pays for the damage?

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I read the news today. Oh boy.

Elizabeth Taylor, the actress who dazzled generations of moviegoers with her stunning beauty and whose name was synonymous with Hollywood glamour, died Wednesday in Los Angeles. She was 79.

The cause was congestive heart failure, her publicist, Sally Morrison, told The Associated Press.

In a world of flickering images, Ms. Taylor was a constant star. First appearing onscreen at age 9, she grew up there, never passing through an awkward age. It was one quick leap from “National Velvet” to “A Place in the Sun” and from there to “Cleopatra” as she was indelibly transformed from a vulnerable child actress into a voluptuous film queen.

In a career of more than 70 years and more than 50 films, she won two Academy Awards as best actress, for her performances as a call girl in “Butterfield 8” (in 1960) and as the acid-tongued Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (in 1966). Mike Nichols, who directed her in “Virginia Woolf,” said he considered her “one of the greatest cinema actresses.”

I’m not sure what I can add to all that has been and will be said. But here goes.

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I don’t remember the last time I was nominated for a blogging award (check the sidebar), or included in a list of "top" bloggers in any category. So I was a bit surprised to learn that this blog has been nominated for Circle of Moms’ Top 25 Daddy Blogs.

We all know about the mommy blogger phenomenon, but what about daddy bloggers? Told from daddy’s perspective, these dads share what it’s like to be awoken by their loud screaming kids at 6am, finding the right barrette for their daughters’ hair and chasing after toddlers in the snow. Help us find the Top 25 Daddy Blogs by April 5, 2011 by voting for your favorite blog. Questions? Contact catherine@circleofmoms.com.

Go check it out!And, if you do, I’d appreciate your vote.

Last week, I wrote of strange fiscal shenanigans in the reddest of the red states; like tax increases in Mississippi and increased government spending in Texas. "So," I asked, "why are Texas and Mississippi having serious budget problems? And why are their governors breaking promises about taxes and spending?" There are two answers to that question; one simple answer, and one that delves deep into the mysteries of tax and spend conservatism.

Taxes, Truth & Consequences

Texas

So, why are Texas and Mississippi having serious budget problems? And why are their governors breaking promises about taxes and spending? Because the prevailing conservative economic policy in those states hasn’t worked.

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“Honey, we’re on page two of the Washington Post.”

That’s what my husband said to me Saturday morning, when he and Dylan returned from their swimming class, as he left on the counter a page that had been ripped from the day’s newspaper, before turning around and taking Dylan outside to play with our neighbor’s two boys.

“Huh,” I said. It took a minute for it to register. Why on earth would we be in the Post? Then I picked up the paper and read the headline: “Slim majority back gay marriage, Post-ABC poll says.”

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As a progressive, sometimes I almost feel that I should say "Thank you" to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Not for what he’s trying to do to Wisconsin, but for energizing the progressive movement, and motivating the Democrat’s base in a way that many of us have been trying to do or waiting for Democrats to do.

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Last night, Parker asked me to show him some videos of what was going on in Japan. We were sitting on the couch, and I had my laptop handy, so I showed him some of the videos and explained to him what was going on in them.

There’s one or two that I made sure not to show him.

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As I wrote earlier, a funny thing happened on the way to budget solvency in some pretty red states: It didn’t work. Budget cuts and austerity have left Texas in the red, and the legislature taking a hammer to the state’s piggy bank, with an eye toward spending some of its "Rainy Day Fund."

Mississippi is in a similar mess, and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is trying to find a way out of it, and toe the line of conservative economic orthodoxy. Too bad Barbour is failing miserably at both

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A funny thing on the way to state budget solvency in Texas and Mississippi, which are among the reddest of the red states. You can’t get much more conservative than Texas’ and Mississippi’s governors, Rick Perry and Haley Barbour. The same goes for their budget solutions, which are firmly based in conservative budget orthodoxy: tax cuts and spending cuts will cure all budget ills.

So, why are Texas and Mississippi having serious budget problems? And why are the state’s governors breaking promises about taxes and spending?

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for March 15th through March 16th:

• Islamophobia Can Create Radicalization –
• Jim Hightower | America’s True Crisis –
• The GOP’s hidden Head Start agenda –
• The disaster we refuse to see coming –
• Deep Globalization, Deep Trouble –
• The GOP’s penny-wise, pound-foolish spending cuts –
• People Power vs. Washington –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for March 14th through March 15th:

• Let’s Share the Sacrifice –
• How much of Japan’s suffering can people comprehend? –
• Conservative zealotry vs. economic reality –
• House Republicans come out swinging on job creation –
• Heading to Siberia –
• Conservative Jihad –
• Dean Baker: The Key to Rebuilding Workers' Power: Unrig the Rules –
• Attack on Middle-Class Jobs, Workers Is Nationwide –
• Pay Teachers More – NYTimes.com –
• Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for March 11th through March 14th:

• A Rand Paul Nightmare –
• Op-Ed Columnist: Another Inside Job –
• Editorial: The Cheaters and Their Banks –
• Sen. Bernie Sanders: Deficit Reduction Requires Shared Sacrifice –
• The High Cost of a Broken Metaphor –
• 100,000 March in Madison –
• Madison Rally Bigger Than Biggest Tea Party Rally –
• The True Power Behind the Wisconsin Protests –
• Why Is the Media Giving Charlie Sheen So Much Attention? | Culture | AlterNet –
• Brow Beat : David Simon, Creator of The Wire, Speaks on Felicia "Snoop" Pearson's Arrest –

If you think conservatism’s war on America’s working- and middle-classes is only happening in Wisconsin and a few other states, you’re wrong. If you think that it’s only a war against public employees, you’re more wrong than you know. Dan Rather recently filed a story about a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart that will go Supreme Court later this month. The court’s ruling could seriously impact American workers and consumers — a decision in Wal-Mart’s favor could strip private-sector workers their last effective tool for seeking justice in the workplace.

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