The Drunken Senators

Herman Cain, Herman Cain, Herman Cain. He’s topping the poles! He’s taking the nation by storm! He’s also, if you watched Meet the Press last Sunday, an unelectable idiot well-versed in screaming “9-9-9!”

He’s finally admitted that his plan would raise tax rates on the poorest sectors of the economy (here’s a National Review critique: http://goo.gl/R0OLi), he has no idea how to get this plan passed anyway, and his foreign policy knowledge is virtually nil. Not to mention that when he talks he comes off sounding like a blundering moron. Forgive me if I can’t picture this man as the leader of the free world.

But! At least he’s stealing fire from Romney. Watch that dude, he’s dangerous.

Love,

- The Drunken Liberal

A bit of Biden propaganda here published in the New York Times: http://goo.gl/TpTz1 saying that China’s rise isn’t necessarily the end of the world for the United States. Which is a great little PR piece, but with US economics in shambles and with China’s death grip on our fragile debt, it appears to be nothing more than a propaganda piece, sadly. But thanks anyway, Joe.

Love,

- The Drunken Liberal

There was a VERY SCARY article in the NY Times here: http://goo.gl/75iQ1 that essentially seemed to claim that Obama wasn’t on as good of a footing as I have thought for a long time. Politically frail, they suggested, because of this: http://goo.gl/506HM in the Economist, the job report showing zero job creation in August.

Of course, 2012 is a long time away, but whoah… The good thing is that Republican infighting may hurt the candidates more than bring them publicity. But, damn you, job report!

Love,

- The Drunken Liberal

Oh, no you ditn’t! Just diss Ben Bernanke, that is. Yeah, professional idiot Rick Perry and professional madwoman Michele Bachmann are bringing the heat onto our chairman of the Federal Reserve. As I’ve said many times, I know nothing about economics, but according to this article here: http://goo.gl/01LX9 Perry and Bachmann know even less. Check it out. You rock, Benny!

Love,

- The Drunken Liberal

I know nothing about economics. But these two know their shit. Here’s the latest Economist debate, over whether or not the US should institute a new fiscal stimulus: http://goo.gl/eA0Jp weird and wild stuff.

As I have mentioned, I really accept that I don’t know enough to comment, but one phrase did strike me as particularly powerful, in reference to Japan:

“When the Japanese government lost its patience and switched to fiscal consolidation in 1997 while its private sector was still deleveraging, the economy entered a horrendous double dip. GDP contracted for five quarters and the banking system went down with it. As a result, the deficit, instead of contracting, increased by a whopping 68%. It took Japan ten years to recover from this policy mistake. If the American government stays the course on fiscal consolidation while the private sector is still deleveraging, the probability of repeating Japan’s mistake of 1997 is high.” - Richard Koo, Honorary Professor of Legitness

I’ll be doing some fairly frantic reading to find out more about this crash in Japan. But in the meantime,

Love,

- The Drunken Liberal

Hello, this is the Economist’s Lexington, just wanted to drop a quick note to talk about how much we should pay attention to the fact that Obama is absolutely freaking pwning with the Libya thing right now. Here: http://goo.gl/5SWxa and here: http://goo.gl/vrAdW is a link to the Economist article on what’s going on in Libya, just in case you haven’t been keeping up.

Yes indeed, Lexington, I have to agree. Obama’s handling of the Libya crisis had that magic touch. Although, according to this New York Times article: http://goo.gl/1AmSw we may be celebrating a bit too soon, if Qaddafi’s supposedly imprisoned son is telling reporters (without a hint of restraint) “aha, now we’ve got you!”

Love,

- The Drunken Liberal

The New York Times Caucus Blog has the delicious scoop here: http://goo.gl/pNp8y about presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman stepping up his game and coming down hard on Bachmann and Perry, calling them unrealistic and “unelectable.”

Whoah. Shit just got real. Although, if I have to be honest, even though I hate his smile, Jon Huntsman is in a leading category along with Romney in terms of people I could possibly see in office should Obama die in an earth-shaking tragedy.

Of GOP candidates, I’m saying, Huntsman is at least semi-moderate, intelligent enough to know how to properly run his government, and his experience as ambassador to China puts him at the forefront as far as experience is concerned.

But, uh, a conservative mormon in power doesn’t fall well with me, I’m sorry. Let’s just hope Obama is eating some serious wheaties.

Love,

- The Drunken Liberal

Excellent article in USA Today’s Oval blog here: http://goo.gl/Fg1Zn talking about Obama’s shift in immigration policy. Apparently, he’s going to start giving deportation preference to criminals and start loosening restrictions of people like students, etc.

Not to label myself as one of the hispanics in the article, but yes, Obama’s policy has been FAR too strict. Finally we’re getting something sensible - a solution to a real problem. ObamaWin.

Love,

- The Drunken LIberal

When London starts a wave of uncontrollable riots, you know the world has gone completely insane at last.

Naturally, I’m not going to sit here and project the end of the world, but you can get the full story from the New York Times here: http://goo.gl/mTTKu and a brilliant analysis by the Economist’s Blighty here: http://goo.gl/PbgzW - and yeah.

Violence directed against the Metropolitan Police is one thing (the incident started with a police killing of a citizen) but directionless violence to this degree is indicative of political problems. I’m willing to attribute these problems to a collapsing welfare state in Britain and the millions of problems arising from that which would take books to describe.

With the recent S&P credit rating downgrade in the United States, can we reasonably expect to see such repercussions here in the United States? Is this not an indication that we need our leaders to stop quabbling and get back to the table without political posturing?

The London situation is dire and those an Atlantic Ocean away need to take real notice or, I’m sorry to be alarmist - we could be next.

Love,

- The Drunken Liberal