Doppler radar systems are working overtime today, painting green and orange over a region where weather radar technology is seldom necessary.

Television news teams descended on Los Angeles street corners Monday morning to dramatize the beginnings of another winter rainfall while highlighting the dangers of falling water.

“It’s just ridiculous,” motorist Tammy Guise said. “The radar system was showing a clear picture yesterday. Now look at this, I have water all over my windshield!”

Some neighborhoods woke up to wet pavement, causing many to consider the long term implications of a December rainfall.

“I know that rain is good for nature and stuff, but I just bought these boots and I ain’t trying to ruin them,” said Long Beach native Beavs McDouglas.

Some Southland residents have expressed concern over our dependence on weather radar systems to give us an accurate picture.

“Honestly, I don’t know how to make sense of these colors,” ABC 7 Doppler Radar said. “I’m just happy to be on TV.”

The fiscal clown show continues. A few days after Congress and the White House agreed to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending, Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the United States of America’s credit rating from AAA to AA+.

S&P, which covered itself in a substance other than glory during the mortgage crisis, may have a poor record and strange methodology when it comes to sovereign ratings. France, which has a far higher debt per capita ratio than the U.S., still enjoys a AAA rating. And a downgrade, alone, doesn’t mean U.S. interest rates will spike — on Monday or at any time in the future. Japan’s credit rating was downgraded several years ago, when the interest rates its government paid on bonds was already extremely low, and they’ve generally trended lower in the years since.

Market conditions, the trajectory of economic growth and relative value can play as big — if not a bigger — of a role in determining interest rates than a rating.

But that doesn’t mean we should ignore S&P’s Friday evening shot across the bow. In downgrading the U.S.’s credit rating, S&P points out what has long been obvious: Washington’s inability to come to an agreement on how to close the large fiscal gaps that have emerged since the recession began is troubling. Recent events have sapped the agency’s confidence that the government can and will do what is necessary to align revenues with spending commitments. And it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that America’s credit rating was intentionally sabotaged by Congressional Republicans.

It has long been obvious to all observers — to economists, to politicians, to anti-deficit groups, to the ratings agencies — that closing fiscal gaps will require tax increases, or the closure of big tax loopholes, or significant tax reform that will raise significantly larger sums of tax revenue than the system does now. Today, taxes as a percentage of GDP are at historic lows. Marginal rates on income and investments are at historic lows. Corporate tax receipts as a percentage of GDP are at historic lows. Perhaps taxes don’t need to rise this year or next, but they do need to go up in the future.

Otherwise, the math of deficit reduction simply doesn’t work. And that’s how the deficit reduction deals signed off on by Republican presidents like Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush came about.

Yet the action in Washington in the past year has all gone in the opposite direction. President Obama deserves some of the blame. Several months ago, he struck a deal with Congress to make the fiscal situation worse — extending the Bush tax cuts for two more years and enacting a temporary cut in the payroll tax.

But Congressional Republicans deserve much more of the blame. For this calamity was entirely man-made — even intentional. The contemporary Republican Party is fixated on taxes. It possesses an iron-clad belief that the existing tax rates should never go up, that loopholes shouldn’t be closed unless they’re offset by other tax reductions, that the fact that hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than school teachers makes complete sense, that a reversion to the tax rates of the prosperous 1990’s or 1980’s would be unacceptable.

In the past two years, this attitude has combined with a general hostility to playing ball with Democrats on large legislative issues, a near-blanket refusal to conduct business with President Obama, and, since the arrival of the raucous Tea Party freshman, a cavalier attitude toward the nation’s obligations. It was common to hear duly elected legislators argue that it wouldn’t be a big deal if the government were to pierce the debt ceiling and default on its debts.

This downgrade is the logical outcome, to a degree, of the long-running “Deal or No Deal” dynamic in Washington. For much of the last two years, President Obama and various fiscal reform groups have urged a grand bipartisan deal that would make a dent in the short- and long-term deficits. Every group — from the bipartisan Bowles-Simpson Commission on down — argued that a large package of spending cuts and tax increases or reforms would be the way to go. Polls showed that American voters generally endorsed a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. And plenty of neutral observers thought that the approach of the debt ceiling expiration would help forge a grand bargain.

Many observers (including this one) argued that such efforts were doomed to failure. For President Obama, all the incentives weighed toward making a big deal, even one that would upset his base. It would show an ability to work on a bipartisan basis and make concrete progress and take the issue off the table for 2012. But for Republicans, all the incentives weighed against a big deal. By definition, anything that is acceptable to President Obama and Democrats is unacceptable to today’s Congressional Republicans. It almost doesn’t matter what the substance is. Why would they sign off on any measure that would include revenue increases that the president wanted? Congressional Republicans don’t believe in higher revenues as a matter of ideology, as a matter of economics or, most importantly, as a matter of political tactics. Top Congressional Republicans have expressed a desire to deny victories to the president.

And so, in a completely predictable pattern, every time the discussions got around to revenue increases, Republicans pulled back. House Speaker John Boehner was willing to entertain the possibility of several hundred billion dollars of increased revenues, until he realized he couldn’t sell it to his own caucus. The anti-tax radicalism of the Congressional GOP took revenues off the table and made a large deal impossible. The result was a lengthy manufactured crisis and a small deal that relied solely on spending cuts, and even that was opposed by a big chunk of the House GOP caucus.

Judging by S&P’s release, this needless brinksmanship and effort to take the debt ceiling hostage seriously influenced the agency’s thinking. It didn’t like the theatrics, and it didn’t like the outcome. While the deal took default off the table, the agreement “falls short of the amount that we believe is necessary to stabilize the general government debt burden by the middle of the decade.” In other words, S&P downgraded in the U.S. in large measure because the recent debt deal didn’t do enough to stabilize finances.

The irony, of course, is that the very attribute that pushed S&P to downgrade — the inability of the U.S. political system to agree on large topics — may help improve the fiscal situation. At the end of 2012, the Bush tax cuts are slated to expire. If the two parties fail to agree on some very controversial issues in the midst of an election year, taxes will rise across the board, on income and on investments, producing trillions of dollars in revenues over the coming decade.

Dear {VALUE=FIRSTNAME} {VALUE=LASTNAME}, 

I wanted to take a moment to personally express my {VALUE=ADJECTIVE} thanks for signing up for Colbert Super PAC. With your help, we’ll make sure that America steers a course into a more American future. 

A lot of people have been asking me why I started Colbert Super PAC. A lot of those people are lawyers. I’ll tell you what I tell them: “I’m doing this for my country. And if you’re going to bill me for the full hour, you may as well make yourself useful and stuff some envelopes.” 

A few months ago I looked up and saw our country at a crossroads. Down one road lay moral and financial ruin. Down another road lay the fulfillment of the American dream. Down a third lay Cincinnati. There was another one, but I think it was some sort of service road, it had a big locked gate on it. The point is: We must steer America down the right road (the second one). 

Of course, I cannot do this alone. Actually, I probably could, but it would seem a little flashy. By signing up at Colbert Super PAC, you’ve shown you have just what it takes to make a difference – an email address and a willingness to receive lots of spam. 

In the coming months Colbert Super PAC will shape the political debate by forcing candidates to focus on issues that matter to you – probably by attaching those issues to something shiny and dangling near the candidates’ face. We’ll produce and air ads in support of key players in important races, whether they want us to or not. And we’ll do all this while enjoying the tax-free status afforded to us by the federal government. 

So, once again, {VALUE=FIRSTNAME} I want to thank you for joining Colbert Super PAC. Together, we will speak with one voice – mine. Together, we will stands against those who wish to unite us. Together, we will rent a private jet to take me to rallies, where together we will cheer me on. 

Together, we’ll Be Making A Better Tomorrow – Tomorrow. 

Sincerely Yours, 

Stephen Colbert
SuperFounder, Americans For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow 

Sarah Palin’s political action committee (SarahPAC) released what Gawker called “an unusually well produced home video” of last week’s highly-publicized “One Nation” tour.

The video highlights the tour in Washington D.C., New York, Boston and other historical spots in fake America while outlining the purpose of the tour. 

“Not surprising, some members of the media missed a lot of this due to their relentless and futile search for scuttlebutt,” Palin said in a post accompanying the video. “So, we assembled this video to capture the amazing Americana spirit of the places and people we visited. I invite you to enjoy this recap of last week’s east coast bus tour.”

No one can refudiate the success the tour was in increasing Palin’s exposure in key battleground motorcycle rallies and establishing herself as the messenger of American founding principles.

“We need to go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant — they’re quite clear — that we would create law based on the God of the bible and the Ten Commandments.”

If promoting American exceptionalism and restoring what’s right about America is the game, then victory will be Palin learning something about American history.

politigirl:

“The Look”

(via abcworldnews)

Anthony Viewpoint, a prominent male underwear model, faces criticism after a controversial twitter post exposed his hidden passion for politics. Viewpoint has admitted to wrongdoing, stating his mistake was entering “@” before his tweet instead of simply turning his tweet into activism.

Subju-gate, as it has been labeled, is seen to have far-reaching implications for Viewpoint’s modeling career. Many in the industry are asking him to step down claiming his legitimacy as a model is called into question.

“I’m deeply regretting what I have done and I’m not resigning,” Viewpoint, who had been seen as a rising star among underwear models, told a news conference while wiping away tears as he apologized for his actions and for lying in a cover-up.

“Once I realized I had posted it to Twitter, I panicked. I took it down and said that I had been hacked. I then continued to stick to that story, which was a hugely regrettable mistake,” he said. “The tweet was my opinion, and I sent it.”

Some that had contact with Viewpoint are coming forward, claiming he’s had opinions for years. He’s expressed them at runway shows, at on-location shoots and at house parties but told them he was committed to keeping these positions out of the public eye for fear they would compromise his modeling career.

Viewpoint closed his news conference saying his tweet was a “frivolous thing that shouldn’t interfere with my passion for fashion and desire for skimpy attire.”