Heineman: Dumber Than Palin?

PF had no idea Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman was being advised by Dullard Diva Sarah Palin, but it sure seems that way based on some of his recent comments concerning Nebraska's electoral college system. Nebraska and Maine are the only two states to have rejected a winner-take-all system of allocating their electoral votes in favor of a system partially allocating them based on congressional district. Republican Heineman opined that Nebraska was "disadvantaging itself" and that the electoral system was "designed to protect small states and we should be winner-take-all like 48 other states...." Heineman went on to offer this "football game" analogy: "You don't get a point for winning every quarter," Heineman said. "It's the final score that counts."

WTF??? That sounds like a Bush or Palinism that is supposed to reveal some kind of Joe the Plumberish folksy wisdom, but in fact makes no sense at all. I think Heineman was daydreaming of poodle skirts at the drive-in during his logic class at Andrews Hall on this one...

Of course you don't get a point for winning every quarter, but the points you do win don't get erased at the end of the game either. And of course more importantly, we're not talking about simply a contest to determine the superiority two teams where the sole and final object is winning for present praises, but rather a process to elect a leader who has significant future responsibilities to govern a complex society, including a constitutional obligation to represent all of the people.

What (Republican) Heineman is of course concerned about is not that Nebraska is being disadvantaged, but rather that his Republican Party (potentially) is by a system that allows those Nebraskans who don't robotically vote anyone with a (R) behind his/her name into office, but want another alternative now and then, rather than a system that distorts results by giving 100% of the power to whoever gets 51% and ignores everyone else.

Heineman is of course silent on how Nebraska's system "disadvantages" small states, except for the possible reason that the current electoral college most certainly gives unfair greater advantage to smaller states in general. Just like small-staters ride the backs of larger urban states in generally getting far more back in federal dollars than they put in with their federal taxes, small states get far more representation (and therefore political clout) than their meager populations would ordinarily get (or ordinarily deserve if we truly believe that each person's opinion is no more valuable than anyone else's). Ironically, it's the same folks who are always whining about powerful "elitists" elsewhere who continue to bray for the continuation of a system that unfairly gives them far more federal dollars and political clout than their numbers justify and that fairness dictates.

Whatever truth there may be to the pro-electoral college argument that the Framers wanted to protect the interests of smaller states, that truth is more that outweighed by the reality of elections in which the person who gets the most votes somehow doesn't get the office. That result mocks the most basic ideas of equality and democracy, which the last time I checked are supposed to be the foundations of America. There's a reason that the US is the only current example of an indirectly elected executive, and I'm not particularly excited to learn that the short list of other countries with electoral colleges for parts of their government include Burundi, Estonia, India, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Pakistan and Nepal (and the Senate of France you freedom-fry lovers!)

The reality is despite arguments about intentions of the Framers, the Framers were practical men with an experimental attitude about government. The reality of modern presidential electioneering is pretty simple: candidates go places where they see a potential advantage in terms of gaining additional votes. Not existing reliable votes, but potential new votes. Nebraska with a winner-take-all system will be ignored by both campaigns like Ugly Betty at the school dance. It is only Nebraska's unique split-system that created an electoral vote "in play" such that Obama (and eventually Palin, which may be an argument against splitting electors) even imagined visiting the Cornhusker state. The current electoral college system doesn't preserve small state power any more than any other system unless the small state is a swing state.

Taibbi on Palin

PF's fav gutter-brawler Matt Taibbi nails it again, this time not just that Palin is dumber than an Alaskan snowball, but what her "candidacy" if you can it that says about America. The zinger:

In that moment, the rank cynicism of the whole sorry deal was laid bare. Here's the thing about Americans. You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and Bangalore.

And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket. And if she's a good enough likeness of a loudmouthed middle-American archetype, as Sarah Palin is, John Q. Public will drop his giant-size bag of Doritos in gratitude, wipe the Sizzlin' Picante dust from his lips and rush to the booth to vote for her. Not because it makes sense, or because it has a chance of improving his life or anyone else's, but simply because it appeals to the low-humming narcissism that substitutes for his personality, because the image on TV reminds him of the mean, brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning.

Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power.

Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she's the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV -and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.

Ouch. Time for a drink.

Redistribution of wealth: Nebraska style

McPalin have jumped all over Obama lately as a "redistributor of wealth" and how his nefarious schemes will lead to the next USSR here in Amerika. But of course the hypocrisy of this line of argument stinks more than a field-dressed Alaskan moose. Palin's Alaska is #3 in states getting wealth redistributed back to them: $1.84 back for every $1 paid in taxes to be exact (see also here). So apparently Alaska is America's most socialist state ('guess that makes since they are so close to Russia with Putin rearing his head, etc.)

But I digress. We need not head to the Klondike for a heaping bowl of hypocrisy. Little Crawford, Nebraska (population 1107) just received a "big dose of federal dollars to help educate students in remote areas of Nebraska." $217,000 to be exact. There to present a ceremonial check was Nebraska's own Adrian Smith, never one to miss an opportunity to lecture the people on the GOP virtues of small government, why government shouldn't be interfering with the economy, etc. Unless, apparently, the redistribution of wealth tends to redistribute a little pork back into one of the troughs within his district. Nebraska, by the way, ranks #25 in taxes paid/benefits received ($1.10 benefits received for each $1 paid). In fact check out the ranking of states and see how many GOP-friendly red states are ones that receive more federal $$$ than they pay in taxes. Maybe they call them "red states" because they are red in the face with shame and embarassment at lecturing others about wealth distribution while pocketing most of that redistributed wealth themselves... ?

The voter fraud fraud

Another expose by AJ (actual journalist) Greg Palast proving yet again that the GOP is light years ahead of the Dems when it comes to the hardball tactics of winning elections. In a nutshell: the whole ACORN business is largely if not entirely a fabrication intended to keep the attention of the Sheople and the McMedia while the GOP feverlishly works to purge voter rolls and suppress votes. A sample:

Certainly ACORN collected some bad signatures. But despite McCain's claims, now morphed into media theology, none of ACORN's actions will have any impact on any election. ACORN hired 13,000 canvassers to register new voters. A small number of these workers defrauded ACORN by handing in phony registration forms using names they had invented (e.g. Mickey Mouse), or copied from phone books. In one case ACORN canvassers used cigarettes to bribe a homeless man, now a Fox News regular, to register 17 times. None of these activities constituted voter fraud. It is no crime to register 17 times; only the final registration counts. His multiple registrations would not allow the tobacco lover to vote 17 times. Nor is there any evidence the phone book registrants will cast multiple ballots. ...

ACORN took pains to screen its registrations and cull out those it considered dubious. However, federal laws make it a felony for voter registration groups like ACORN to discard registrations even when it believes them fraudulent. So ACORN flagged the forms it considered doubtful and handed them in to the registry. Ironically, it was those flagged forms -- the fruits of ACORN's diligence -- that have been flogged by Republicans as their best evidence of widespread election fraud.

The piece ends with some advice on how to make sure your vote is counted, including a 1-800 number for legal assistance. Well worth reading, and more proof that an AJ like Palast is worth 100 talking hairdos on CNN, Fox, etc. pretending to be journalists...

NO on Cali's Prop 8

For better or for worse (most times better), Cali is the tail that wags the rest of the US dog, from environmental standards to progressive social legislation. CA became a lightning-rod for bigots following its support of same-sex marriage rights. Now the bigots are seeking to amend CA's constitution to eliminate same-sex marriage rights. The implications extend far beyond CA, which is why the bigots are receiving national and international financial support. Particular shame to the Mormons, who are responsible for 40-70% of the financial backing of the measure. You would think that a group with a history of repression and discrimination like LDS would have a bit more empathy, but victims of past injustice seem to have a tendency to dish it out as good as they got when they get the reins of power. Make a contribution if you can, and get the word out to help defeat the bigots.

Don't let up

Obama-supportive ad...amateurish but fun :)

Hot, Flat and Crowded

Wow...this is about the most interesting 25 minutes I've heard in some time. Scientific American interviews Pulitzer-winner Tom Friedman who touches on the main ideas of his new book Hot, Flat and Crowded, in which he argues that a perfect storm of human overpopulation, human-induced global warming and a rising global consumer class has created the need for FAST action by the US to lead the world in creating non-carbon based energy sources. 'Nothing particularly revolutionary in this, but Friedman has a knack for explaining the complex in compelling, common-sense language. PF sure hopes Obama has this guy on the short list for some kind of cabinet post...good stuff!

McNews