Tuesday Link Dump

• Audit finds widespread accounting problems at nonprofit linked to Jefferson Parish councilman
  
  Dambala suggests that Lee, a close ally of Congressman-elect Cedric Richmond, was planning to go to Washington with him.



• Pat attends and takes detailed notes on James Carville's Bipartisan Policy Center's post-election conference at Tulane.
  
  When I saw this event announced, I'll admit I was less than enthusiastic about being invited to listen to Carville-Matlin along with the likes of Tony Blankley, Paul Begala and "some of America's top political journalists and and analysts" (no relation to the "world's most visionary intellects" but I can see how one might make that mistake) fart out of their mouths about "bipartisanship" all day long. Neither the twittering from attendees nor Pat's note taking has done much to change my mind. If I have to sit within earshot of a plutocratic tool like Dan Glickman lamenting the lack of "civic literacy" among the rabble, or a repulsive toad like Dan Bartlett complaining that Rahm fucking Emmanuel's problem is that he is too liberal, then they damn sure better let me bring my durian catapult in with me. Otherwise I'll wait for the DVD to come out so I can give my cat a new scratching toy for Christmas.
  
  Nevertheless, it is worth noting what these gasbags are blowing at us since it will doubtlessly crystallize into the next broken rhetoric trap impeding progress until the whole thing starts over again with the next election cycle. Please take the time to look at Pat's write-up. As with everything he presents, it is patiently and thoughtfully written. I have a few bones to pick with it but I'm saving those for a much longer post about the re-emergence of the do-nothing mushy pseudo-left which we're going to watch get bulldozed by the incoming Republican congress these next few years.
  
  One observation Pat calls special attention to is the puzzling "deference to the Tea Party" exhibited by the assembled mainstream pundits. Here, Pat describes the Tea Party pretty well.

  I wish we had an actual movement in this nation expressing libertarian, foundational views of this republic; I’ve long held that I may not agree with Ron Paul or Paul Ryan on the issues, but they are legitimately held positions that represent a legitimate understanding of history and economics, and represent a competing vision for this country’s future. I think there are some individuals who consider themselves “Tea Partiers” who believe that they are doing something similar.
  
  The Tea Party I have seen is not that, however. In their own words, it has morphed into a Christianist, xenophobic and intolerant movement that supports high spending, government violation of civil liberties, religious oppression, endless war (Iran is next!), subsidization of the uberwealthy and unilateral foreign policy. Once they have enunciated those positions, they turn around and posses the historical amnesia to dismiss hard-fought American social advancements, and ascribe tyrant status to President Obama and Democratic members of Congress for “controlling every aspect of our lives” in ways that the government has done for decades, if not centuries. These aren’t new arguments, by the way.

  No they aren't new arguments. And more importantly, the "Tea Party" isn't a new "party" or movement or anything new at all really. It is, as Pat also points out, merely the latest marketing strategy for the same right wing agenda that has dominated our politics for most of my increasingly long lifetime. It's a marketing strategy aimed at misdirecting legitimate working class discontent so that it ultimately furthers the plutocratic interests. I know. You're bored with hearing that. I am too. But as long as we've got one party willing to lie and pander to an increasingly impoverished population while the other sneers and condescends at it, this is what we're stuck with; a bi-partisan, cynical hostility of the ruling classes toward the rest of us.
  
  Unsurprisingly, Clancy DuBos attended the same conference where his big takeaway was, "Most important of all, Independents believe both parties should move more to the center." But both parties are already at "the center." They aren't exactly the same party but they do both agree to serve slightly varied schisms of the money power at the expense of the rest of us. As long as mainstream punditry misrepresents the less meaningful distinctions between the parties as "uncivil partisanship" this will remain the case.
  



• Along those same lines regarding tea party phoniness and civil discourse see this Drake Toulouse post.

  On the Sunday morning talk shows, Rand Paul, Kentucky’s newest senator criticized Barack Obama for being too harsh with British Petroleum. “I didn’t think the president or his people should say something like putting the boot heel on the throat of a business. I didn’t like that,” Paul said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation. His main point of contention appears to be that Obama set the wrong tone, engaged in creating an atmosphere that is unfriendly to business.
  
  Ya, I get it, boot heels and throats are a rather unfriendly way of speaking to an oil company, however considering that this oil spill occurred almost seven months ago, and yet no charges have been brought against anyone, I would say that BP, Halliburton and Transocean, yet again, are getting off light for, yet another, accident.

  But at least we'll have a more civil tone, which is the important thing.
  



• The Lens reminds us that this is "Transit Week"

  Our transit advocacy organization, Transport for NOLA, is promoting New Orleans’ first Transit Week, starting today. Try taking transit to work or recreation at least once during this week. Visit our website at www.transportfornola.org/transitweek for schedules, maps, and information on how to take transit. Let us know how it went and how it can be better.




• Arianna Huffington steals rather than creates something. And this is somehow news.



• Hornets lose. Now Monty Williams doesn't have to worry about deciding between resting his starters and preserving a perfect season anymore.



• Sarah Palin is un-refudiated by OED as her coinage is named the word of the year.



• And on that note, To Moscow, You Betcha! runs for two showings tomorrow night (7PM and 9PM) at John Paul's (940 Elysian Fields) and again on Sunday night at 7PM. Good times.