The Republic of T.

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for October 28th through October 30th:

• How Economic Inequality Harms Societies –
• Jonathan Weiler: The Republican War on Reality –
• 'Tax The Poor' Becomes Conservative Rallying Cry –
• Wall Street Protesters Hit the Bull’s-Eye –
• Republican Leaders Spin Funding Tall Tales –
• When did justice become a dirty word? –
• 5 Places Where the Rich Got Richer — Mostly on the Government’s Dime –
• Op-Ed Columnist: The Path Not Taken –
• Inequality Denialism –
• Cenk Uygur: Why Republican Voters Can't Make Up Their Mind –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for October 27th through October 28th:

• Speaking up for That ‘1 Percent’ –
• Fighting greedy bankers, an American tradition –
• The study that shows why Occupy Wall Street struck a nerve –
• Sabotaging The Economy –
• Occupy Wall Street: Not Here To Destroy Capitalism, But To Remind Us Who Saved It –
• Jim Wallis: It's Finally Over — and It Was Wrong –
• Which Side Are You On? –
• WATCH: Jon Stewart: 'What The F*ck Happened In Oakland?' –
• Op-Ed Columnist: Crony Capitalism Comes Home –
• A Better Analogy –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for October 24th through October 27th:

• What Americans Make –
• New Inequality Data Likely to Boost “Occupy” Movement –
• Thirty Years of Unleashed Greed and the Beginnings of Class Warfare –
• Bob Cesca: Occupy Wall Street Isn't Anti-Corporation, It's Anti-Corporate Crime –
• It’s Time for Debt Forgiveness, American-Style –
• Occupy College –
• The GOP’s Outsider Within –
• Herman Cain Is Even Crazier Than You Thought –
• Old White Dude Nursing Faux Grievances –
• Who Is Demonizing the Rich? –

I’ve decided I’m not going to write anything today. That isn’t to say that I’m not going to post today. I’m posting this now, aren’t I. If I find something someone else has written that I can blockquote and wrap a few paragraphs of my own around, then I’ll post it. If I can think of one idea someone else hasn’t already covered, then I may post about it.

But I’m not going to write anything today. I’m coming to the conclusion that being a writer and a blogger are two different things. I want to be a writer, but the reality is that I’m a blogger. Most of the time blogging is the wrong medium for what I really want to do.

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It was noteworthy when Peggy Noonan — Our Lady of the Dolphins — stepped into the role of the GOP’s voice of reason, following the rise of Sarah Palin as its vice presidential nominee in 2008. It was a real eyebrow-raiser when David Brooks took on the task of talking sense to Republicans during the debt deal debacle, before returning to his “sinners in the hands of an angry market” theme.

This summer, in the middle of the debt ceiling debate, I tried to sum up the significance of those two moments.

You can take your pick for the moment the GOP noticably went off the rails. I have two favorites: when it fell to Peggy Noonan to be the Republicans’ voice of reason following Sarah Palin’s VP nomination, and when David Brooks warned the GOP that it “may no longer be a normal party”. Together, they’re the political equivalent of Courtney Love showing up at your intervention and Charlie Sheen offering you a ride to rehab. But this Republican party isn’t likely to heed such sane voices as Noonan and Brooks, and would just as soon throw them overboard.

At the time, I thought it couldn’t get much worse. But now, it’s fallen to Pat Robertson — yes that Pat Robertson — serve as the GOP’s latest voice of reason.

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Per my previous post, here are some of my favorite “Occupy Wall Street” cartoons.

This is why I hate using third party sites to post media like video playlists and slideshows on my blog. They disappear, and sometimes take the content with them. Case in point: two sites I’ve used to post image slideshows here.

One, Imageloop, has morphed into ima.gy, exclusively mobile platform for sharing photos via iPhone and iPod Touch. Good for them. Bad for the content I’d posted there. (Which I can’t seem to access anymore.)

The other, Slide, is shutting down in March 2012. So, I’ve either gotta move it or lose it, content-wise. But really, why bother? It’s just as likely that I’m going to move it to another platform that will vanish as well.

That’s why I lean towards using plugins, frankly.

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for October 22nd through October 24th:

• Frank Rich: Prepare For Class War –
• Why the GOP Demonizes 'Illegals' –
• Can an Action Star Be Gay? –
• Occupy Wall Street is not difficult to understand –
• An ignominious field –
• The GOP Jobs Quandary –
• It’s All Connected, Man –
• Tomgram: Barbara Ehrenreich, Homeless in America –
• Only ‘Success’ in Iraq is that US Troops are Leaving –
• About That Iraq Withdrawal –

The “Tea Party To Businesses: ‘Stop Hiring!’” story has really taken off. Even Stephen Colbert has covered it.

I didn’t get to be on “The Colbert Show” myself, but I was on “The David Pakman Show” this afternoon to talk about the tea party’s “Stop hiring!” message. Watch the video below.

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I’m a longtime fan of NPR. I’ve even written them a check or two, during pledge drive seasons. However, after NPR’s craven instigation the firing of a producer over her support for Occupy DC, I’m starting to rethink that support. Maybe more liberals should do the same.

Freelance broadcaster Lisa Simeone was fired from public radio program Soundprint yesterday after NPR took issue with her role as a spokesperson for the Occupy DC protests, despite the fact that she is not officially employed by the organization.

Simeone’s conflict with NPR was first reported by Roll Call and eventually ended up on Fox News before she was officially fired, evoking another infamous NPR termination. “The whole thing, right down to the firing-by-phone-after-pickup-from-Fox, has echoes of the Juan Williams debacle,” wrote Politico’s Keach Hagey, “and is likely to worsen public radio’s political woes, even if Simeone was not

Soundprint isn’t actually produced by NPR and airs on affiliate WAMU in Washington, D.C., but WAMU news director Jim Asendio said that the station shares NPR’s code of ethics, which states that “NPR journalists may not engage in public relations work, paid or unpaid,” excepting “certain volunteer nonprofit, nonpartisan activities, such as participating in the work of a church, synagogue, or other institution of worship, or a charitable organization.”

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Telling people to "Get a job!" on one hand, while telling businesses to "Stop creating jobs!" on the other, and then blaming the unemployed for their jobless state sounds more than a little contradictory. If an individual person managed all three, practically in the same breath, you'd think they'd lost their minds.

The contradiction, and utter absence of logic, is painfully obvious. It just doesn't makes sense. No same person would carry on this way. Only a crazy person would behave like this. But what about a political party?

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“Get a job!” It’s the right-wing’s favorite retort to protesters on the left. It goes back at least as far as the 1960′s and 1970′s, and implies that only “dirty hippies” who are too lazy to work — and would rather mooch off the government and be subsidized people in the so-called “53 percent” — have time to protest. Only irresponsible people waste their time protesting while everyone else is working.

So, it’s no surprise that conservatives have dragged “Get a job” out of mothballs, and used it as a response to the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. That’s a problem. The demographics on Occupy Wall Street are in, and it looks like right wingers may have to eat those words — and wash them down with a nice, big cup of tea.

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Just when I think conservatives can surprise me any more, they surprise me with another jaw-dropper. And, no, I’m not talking about the recent Republican debate — though they’ve yielded some real stunners, both from the candidates and the studio audience.

I’m talking the latest attempt by conservatives to (further) sabotage the economy and smother any hope of recovery. And there have been a more than few. But this latest one takes the cake.

The tea party has a message for American businesses: “Stop hiring!”

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I’m filing this one under “Things I’d Do If I Won The Lottery.” It’s a long list. The only problem with it is that I never play the lottery, because “buying lottery tickets is an irrational act — the odds are hugely stacked against us.” So, I’ve never won the lottery, because I’ve never bought a ticket.

But if I were a progressive-with-loads-of-cash, I’d buy network of radio stations. If you are a progressive-with-loads-of-cash (or know someone who is), there’s a great opportunity to invest in another shot at resurrecting progressive radio.

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He will not be the GOP nominee, but Herman Cain is on a roll. In Cain, the GOP appears to have finally found it's "Great Black-or-Brown Hope." Bobby Jindal looked like a promising candidate for a hot minute or two, before his abysmal State of the Union response. Then came Michael Steele, whose tenure as chair of the GOP was such a spectacular disaster that reasonable people wondered if he was really a Democratic double agent intent on sabotaging Republican party beyond repair. There have been others, of course. (Paul Rubio comes to mind.) But no dark star has shone as brightly in the GOP firmament as Herman Cain.

There are several reasons for Cain's rise — not least among them the sad state of GOP presidential field for 2012. But I'll focus on just two: (1) Herman Cain understands how white conservatives think, and (2) knows just what they want to hear from someone like him.

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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 September 28th through October 13th:

• Editorial: No Jobs Bill, and No Ideas –
• Why Liberals Should Welcome Occupy Wall Street –
• The All-American Occupation: A Century of Our Streets Vs. Wall Street –
• Tomgram: Steve Fraser, The Street of Torments –
• Can Tax Cuts Pay for Themselves? –
• The 99 Percent Rise Up –
• The Middle Road to Nowhere –
• Bad News For The Tea Party –

Typical, isn’t it? The guy who spearheaded the fight to legalize guns in bars — at least in Tennessee — has been arrested for driving under the influence. That makes two things in his car that were loaded, because he was also packing heat.

A Tennessee lawmaker who was the lead sponsor of a law allowing permit holders to bring guns into bars has been arrested on DUI charges and possession of a gun while under the influence, The Tennessean reports.

Rep. Curry Todd, a Republican state representative from Collierville, was stopped by police in Nashville on Tuesday, failed a roadside sobriety test and refused to take a breathalyzer, according to court documents.

The newspaper says a loaded Smith & Wesson 38 Special was found in a holster stuffed between the driver’s seat and the center console.

“The subject was obviously very impaired and not in any condition to be carrying a loaded handgun,’ ‘the arresting officer says in his report.

Rep. Curry couldn’t be reached for comment, by the way. I just bet he couldn’t.

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It was inevitable, I suppose, that the success of Occupy Wall Street and “We Are the 99 Percent” would spawn reactions and imitators on the right. But the newly launched “We Are the 53 Percent” is a miracle of the kind of contradiction and contortionism that has become typical of conservatism’s attempts at a relevant response to the economic crisis, in that it not only contradicts its own points, but goes a long way towards proving the point of the movements it tries to critique or ridicule.

The best response we on the left can offer is: “Welcome to the 99 percent, 53 percenters.” (And, to borrow a quote from “Blue Collar” comedian Bill Engvall, “Here’s your sign.”)

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This week, my eight-year-old son asked me a couple of questions about the war in Afghanistan. They were simple questions. Yet, both times I struggled to answer.

The first question came out of the blue. “Dad,” he asked me, “Why did we go to war in Afghanistan?”

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It’s been a while since empathy — the uniquely human capacity to recognize and share the feelings experienced by others, that science even suggests is hardwired in us — when President Obama included it in the qualities he sought in a Supreme Court appointee, and conservatives from Glenn Beck to Sen. Jim Sessions. So I was surprised to see columnist David Brooks turn the spotlight on empathy again.

However, when I put it in the context of popular and growing movements like Occupy Wall Street and We are the 99 Percent, and even the movements in Wisconsin and Ohio, I was not surprised to see Brooks holding forth on the shortcomings of empathy. The success of these progressive movements constitute a powerful challenge to conservatives. (more…)