The Hollywood Liberal

Brownback Apologizes To Teen Tweeter
Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) to get up in arms over a teenager’s disparaging tweet….

Glenn Beck’s Network Attempts Conservative Daily Show Knock-Off
Glenn Beck, comedy entrepreneur, is trying to tap into the market for a “nonpartisan” alternative to The Daily Show with a fake news show on his GBTV network, called The B.S. of A..

Broderick “10-4” Crawford on the OWS Movement

Quote of the Day
“What the hell are we paying you for?”

– New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), quoted by Politico, calling President Obama “a bystander in the Oval Office” for not getting involved in supercommittee debt talks.

The Politics of Economics
Bill Keller: “There really is a textbook way to fix our current mess. Short-term stimulus works to help an economy recover from a recession. Some kinds of stimulus pay off more quickly than others. Once the economic heart is pumping again, we need to get our deficits under control… So what’s the problem? Why is our system so fundamentally stuck? Partly it’s a colossal, bipartisan lack of the political courage required to tell people what they sort of know but don’t want to hear… But also, I’ve come to think something is rotten in the state of economics. The dismal science, as Thomas Carlyle called it, has been ravaged by the same virus that has corrupted the rest of our national discourse.”

“Economists don’t live in caves, so there is no reason they should be immune to the centrifugal politics of this noisy world. Thus serious scholars are tempted to sign onto ideas that stretch their own credulity, and lesser economists are thrust forward for their moment of fame as witnesses on behalf of dubious claims. Economists cluster in ideological think tanks that promote political conformity rather than intellectual rigor. Politicians, with no generally accepted consensus to challenge them, can get away with plucking data out of context to bolster assertions that are based more on faith than on reality.”

Around the World, Medical Workers Join Protests on the Side of the 99%
Movements are discovering the connection between health and activism through medical workers joining the front lines to deploy their skills and their conviction.

Meet 5 Big Lenders Profiting From the $1 Trillion Student Debt Bubble (Hint: You Know Some of Them Already)
As the student movement grows and rallies around the country, we look at the lenders raking in cash off the backs of the U.S.’s students.

‘We the People’ versus ‘We the Corporation’: Sentiment Builds for Banning Corporate Personhood, But Tough Road Ahead.
How far should a constitutional amendment go to roll back corporate rights? And is it possible?

Teen Girl Defiant Against GOP Governor Brownback: Here Are 5 More Stories of Badass Kids Standing Up to Right-Wingers
A high school girl insults Governor Brownback and stands up to those who would punish her. Here are other examples of America’s youngest citizens speaking truth to power.

Mitt’s Mythical Math on Health Care and Defense
All right — I wasn’t going to blog on the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving until someone tweeted me Igor Volsky’s great piece at Think Progress eviscerating Mitt Romney’s assertion that he would save money by cancelling the Obama health plan…

Republican Foreign Policy Debate, Ugh
If nothing else, devoting an entire GOP campaign forum to national security and foreign policy — the CBS News / National Journal organizers called it the “Commander in Chief Debate” — helps accentuate the preparation and seriousness the candidates have…

College Students Across Florida Rally Against Gov. Rick Scott?s ?Relentless Attack On Higher Education?
Throughout this week, Florida college students will hold rallies to protest Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) hostility to higher education and proposed tuition hikes: Across the state this week students at seven college campuses will gather to protest what they call a “relentless attack on higher education” by Gov. Rick Scott. Scott has been a vocal […]

Throughout this week, Florida college students will hold rallies to protest Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) hostility to higher education and proposed tuition hikes:

Across the state this week students at seven college campuses will gather to protest what they call a “relentless attack on higher education” by Gov. Rick Scott.

Scott has been a vocal skeptic of the liberal arts emphasis of traditional higher ed. […] Last month he sent out a lengthy probe out to leaders of all 11 public universities, seemingly asking them to justify themselves by providing information about their costs, programs and graduates’ chosen fields and salaries.

According to the protesters’ press release, “Along with the Florida Legislature, Gov Scott has taken aim at students through countless bills. The tuition of all state universities is poised to rise 15 percent each year for up to a decade.” They also note that the state’s academic scholarship, Bright Futures, is covering less each year, and the program could lose funding all together. Additionally, “this attack on public education comes within the context of an economic downturn affecting hard working middle class Floridian families.”

Florida’s public university system has already seen a 24 percent drop in state funding over the last four years. Yet Scott wants to make more deep cuts to Florida’s public school liberal arts programs, needlessly politicizing academic disciplines and devaluing the skills of millions.

Scott caused an uproar last month when he said the state didn’t need any more anthropology majors, arguing that liberal arts fields should receive less state funding because, he claimed, they don’t help “create jobs” or spur the economy. (Ironically, Scott paid $18,000 a year for his own daughter to major in anthropology in college.)

In March, Scott faced protests from students, teachers, and parents after he unveiled a state budget proposal that slashed $3.3 billion from all levels of schools statewide, which many said would wipe out music, art, and language programs. Education was the main target of Scott’s $5 billion in proposed spending cuts — part of his plan to gut and voucherize public education. Public school officials said his 10 percent cut to education would reduce spending by $703 for each student, cut the average teacher’s salary by $2,335, and result in thousands of teacher layoffs.

On The Road Again
I’m running up north today and tomorrow to speak at my alma mater and to hit up the British in India exhibit at the Yale Center for British Art. Posting will continue at the usual rate, but if I’m a tad pokey answering email, that’s why, and my apologies.

I’m running up north today and tomorrow to speak at my alma mater and to hit up the British in India exhibit at the Yale Center for British Art. Posting will continue at the usual rate, but if I’m a tad pokey answering email, that’s why, and my apologies.

Obama ordering agencies to keep better digital records

President Obama has ordered federal agencies to make wider use of digital-based record-keeping systems in what his aides promise will be the most significant change to government archiving since Harry S. Truman’s presidency.

The White House on Monday gave agency bosses four months to draft plans to improve how they archive government records, with specific government-wide instructions to follow soon after. The goal is to make federal record-keeping cheaper, faster and easier to access for Americans eager to explore government data, deliberations and decisions.

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Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts won’t seek reelection

Love him or hate him — and there are few who fall anywhere in between — Rep. Barney Frank has spent the past three decades crafting one of Congress’s most pugnacious political personalities, which he has deployed frequently as a weapon in the ideological wars of the age.

On the left, the Massachusetts Democrat has been a hero for his effort to rein in the nation’s largest banks and for his role in promoting gay rights, having been the most prominent openly gay member of Congress. On the right, Frank became a stand-in, alongside Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the late senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), for attack lines designed to gin up conservative activists.

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Lawmaker challenges TSA on claims of ethnic profiling

At the Hono­lulu airport, federal officers who allegedly profiled Mexicans are known as “Mexicutioners.” At Newark Liberty International Airport, the profiling officers are called “Mexican hunters.”

In both cases, according to local media reports, co-workers gave the nicknames to colleagues who targeted passengers as an easy way for Transportation Security Administration employees to drive up their productivity numbers.

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Corzine: The Face of Wall Street Arrogance
John Carney, New York Post
Jon Corzine’s unbelievably swift fall is a classic story of Wall Street arrogance.Just a few months ago, the Obama administration was considering Corzine as a possible successor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Investors in the bonds of his firm, MF Global, demanded the right to an extra percentage point of interest if he left as its CEO and chairman.

Is ‘Spreading the Wealth’ Now a Political Winner?
John Harwood, NYT
Fighting from behind in the final days of the 2008 presidential election, Senator John McCain found a weapon in an unscripted encounter between his opponent, Senator Barack Obama, and a voter."When you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody," Mr. Obama told Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber. Mr. McCain seized on the remark as evidence of Mr. Obama's adherence to "socialism."

2012 = 1968?
John Heilemann, New York Magazine
The post-Zuccotti era of Occupy Wall Street began for Max Berger just after 1 a.m. on November 15, when he learned via text message that a forcible eviction of the park was close at hand. At 26, Berger is a redheaded Reed College alum and professional activist; his employers have included the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Van Jones’s outfit, Rebuild the Dream. By hard-core standards, he had come late to the OWS action, not visiting the park until a week after the protest got going on September 17. But Berger found himself sucked in and became one of its central players….

Did NLRB Break Federal Law on Boeing Suit?
Conn Carroll, DC Examiner
What if there were emails showing Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor coordinating with Attorney General Eric Holder and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on how the Obama administration should fight judicial challenges to Obamacare?At a bare minimum, Justice Sotomayor would have to recuse herself from the case, she might be impeached, and Holder would face serious ethics questions as well. But such emails do not exist … concerning Obamacare. When it comes to the National Labor Relations Board suit against Boeing, that is a different story.

Should the Fed Save Europe?
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Telegraph
The Euribor/OIS spread or`fear gauge’ is flashing red warning signals. Dollar funding costs in Europe have spiked to Lehman-crisis levels, leaving lenders struggling frantically to cover their $2 trillion (£1.3 trillion) funding gap.America’s money markets are no longer willing to lend to over-leveraged Euroland banks, or only on drastically short maturities below seven days. Exposure to French banks has been slashed by 69pc since May.