New Chair of Congressional Adultery Caucus

Disgraced Former Governor Mark Sanford, noted Republican adulterer, has defeated comedian Steven Colbert’s sister and is the new Representative of South Carolina’s First Congressional District. He held that office once before, then became the Palmetto State’s governor and secretly ran off to Argentina with his mistress, telling aides he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Sounds like a good candidate for the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Romney Remaindered

CPAC is under way, the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual carnival of costume-wearing Tea Party loons, gun-waving paranoids, anarchists libertarians, and bombastic demagogues conservative intellectuals. Last year, when Willard Mitt Romney was running for president, he told CPAC that he was “severely conservative.” This year CPAC is telling Mr. Romney that he’s a severe loser. He will be delivering his first public speech since the election, but CPAC scheduled him at a marginal Friday session. Even Sarah Palin and Donald Trump are getting better slots.

But which is more irrelevant, Mitt Romney or CPAC?

Whose Sequester Is It, Anyway?

It must be tough for Speaker of the House John Boehner (R, OH-8) to blame the Sequestration meat ax on President Obama when he voted for it. Moreover, the stupid budget deal is the unruly pet idea of that great GOP intellectual Paul Ryan (R, WI-1), Chairman of the House Budget Committee and failed Republican Vice Presidential candidate:

Italy: Send in the Clowns

In the midst of an economic and social crisis that could ruin their country and all of Europe, Italians voted for professional comedian Beppe Grillo and aged laughing stock Silvio Berlusconi.

Good Politics, Bad Art?

“The political causes that Ai embraces are noble. This cannot be said often enough. But when he takes his place inside the Hirshhorn Museum, with its Matisses and Brancusis and Mondrians, I cannot help but feel that he poses a threat to the artistic universe he dreams of inhabiting. This is not a question of left versus right, or of communist versus capitalist, or of political art versus art for art’s sake. It is a question of what an artist is actually doing when he makes a work of art.”

“Ai may be a hero when it comes to speaking out for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake, but when he talks about his art he is jeeringly manipulative. It is hard to have patience for an artist who justifies his work with references to Mickey Mouse.”

– ”Ai Weiwei: Wonderful dissident, terrible artist,” Jed Perl, The New Republic

“Today we need all the great art and all the political agitation we can get. But it may be too much to expect that both will emanate with any frequency from the same person.”

– ”The Message Over the Medium,”  Roberta Smith, New York Times

Related:

“Ai Weiwei: According to What? October 7, 2012 to February 24, 2013,” Hirshhorn Museum

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Congress Doesn’t Need Those Paychecks

With great fanfare, the do-nothing Congress passed the ”No Budget, No Pay” bill, threatening to withhold congressmen’s paychecks if they don’t pass a budget. But Congress can’t really mess with its own pay. So what happens if a budget doesn’t pass? Paychecks get deposited in an escrow account and members of Congress get paid in full, all at once at the end of the current term.

“But a more significant problem is that most legislators probably couldn’t care less if their pay was withheld indefinitely. As of 2011, the average estimated wealth of members of Congress was $6.5 million in the House and $13.9 million in the Senate. And unlike many of their constituents, they haven’t exactly been struggling through lean times recently. While average American households saw their median net worth drop 39 percent from 2007 to 2010, lawmakers’ rose 5 percent during the same period.”

– ”No Pay, No Problem: Why Congress Doesn’t Need Our Money,” Tim Price, Next New Deal

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The NRA Explains It All To You

In memory of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shootings, many Americans observed a moment of silence this morning at 9:30 AM. At 11:00 AM there was talk; the National Rifle Association tried to deflect blame for the massacre from the military-style weapon and high-capacity magazines that enabled it, claiming that violent video games have somehow caused this catastrophe and the mass shootings that occur every two weeks somewhere in the USA. According to NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre:

“And here’s another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal: There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.

Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here’s one: it’s called Kindergarten Killers. It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?”

Adam Smith Endorses Obama Tax Plan

“It is not unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”

– Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776

Related:

“Let the Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy Expire Already,” Senator Bernie Sanders, Truthdig

“How to raise taxes on the rich,” Jeanne Sahadi, CNN Money

“Tax hike for wealthy won’t kill growth, CBO says,” Reuters via NBC News

“The Great Capitalist Heist: How Paris Hilton’s Dogs Ended Up Better Off Than You,” Gerald Friedman, Naked Capitalism [caution: numbers n' stuff]

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And Now a Word From Karl Rove

Karl Rove, formerly Bush’s Brain, spent the last four years milking billionaires to fund huge PACs to defeat the Democratic president and congressional candidates. He spent the  last year spending all that loot. Post-election return on investment for his American Crossroads Super-PAC? 1.29%. No wonder he can’t handle the truth.

He also can’t handle the paperwork. His Crossroads GPS organization never filed as a charitable organization in its home state of Virginia, as required by law. Crossroads GPS raised and spent tens of millions of dollars. Fee to register with Virginia’s Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs: $325.

“Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS Never Filed Legally Required Registration,” Josh Israel, Think Progress

Election Predictions

Every four years, media celebrities participate in America’s World Cup of punditry by predicting the winner of the U.S. presidential election. So how did they do?