As the opposition coalesces around Mohamed ElBaradei, the White House is trying to figure out if he is someone with whom the United States can deal.
Monday, January 31, 2011
And If He Isn't?
Nytimes.com front page teaser to this article:
I'll Play One On This Blog
Obviously deep weeds constitutional lawyering is not my thing, but my common sense, as opposed to understanding and having deep knowledge of precedent, view is that the nonseverability issue isn't actually crazy.
The Rural Counties Are Sucking Us Dry
As a good liberal I certainly don't mind if some of my tax dollars are siphoned off to pay for things in other places, and contrary to the way things are often portrayed, there is a lot of rural poverty that I am happy to redistribute a bit of wealth to. But there's certainly nothing wrong with highlighting this fact (actually have no idea what the fact would be in my state), nor is there anything wrong with questioning whether the degree of regional redistribution is appropriate or communicating just why things are the way they are. More than that it is commonly believed - erroneously at least in some places - that it's those in the Big City who are taking all the state money.
Silly Digby, We're All About Increasing Patchouli Rations
I'd say the only non-jobs/economy issue that The Professional Left was focused on before the election was DADT. Most of us have been begging them to do something.
Bye Bye HCR
Federal judge strikes down whole law, sez mandate is unconstitutional and cannot be severed from rest of law.
Maybe we'll return to my crazy idea to pay for it out of taxes.
Maybe we'll return to my crazy idea to pay for it out of taxes.
Crazy People With Cars Who Will Probably Kill People
Jeebus.
One thing which always flabbergasts me is the degree to which people think their mad driving skills make it unpossible for them to get into an accident.
One thing which always flabbergasts me is the degree to which people think their mad driving skills make it unpossible for them to get into an accident.
If Only They'd Listened To Me
Yes I've been pushing bankruptcy mortgage "cramdown" for years. Yes it would've, to a great degree, provided a fair and efficient way for dealing with this foreclosure mess. The administration claimed to support it but didn't put any muscle behind it. But, you know, fixing the economy is hard work. Especially if you don't go for the obvious solutions.
Complements
Back in the dark ages when I was in grad school, right about the time of the dawning of the Glorious And Bountiful Age Of The Internets, there was a lot of talk about how all this new technology would allow for long distance interaction. With plunging long distance call prices (they actually used to cost real money!), and the rise of email and the potential for videoconferencing, none of us would ever have to interact in person again. This would mean that we would all telecommute, the cities would depopulate, business air travel would become practically nonexistent, etc. Obviously things didn't quite work out that way. Someone (Ed Glaeser maybe?) wrote a basic paper pointing out if face-to-face and distance interactions are complements, rather than substitutes, then your conclusions flip, and that all the technology simply reinforces the benefits of personal interactions, whether in consumption or production.
I still don't think we're close to knowing how all of this technology is going to impact things. I know when I overhear the kids talk today they sound a bit like they're coming from another world, and not simply because I'm too old to know who this Bieber dude is.
I still don't think we're close to knowing how all of this technology is going to impact things. I know when I overhear the kids talk today they sound a bit like they're coming from another world, and not simply because I'm too old to know who this Bieber dude is.
Heckuva Job
Just because I'm petty and George Bush was very proud of the increase the home ownership rate under his presidency, latest census figures out today have the home ownership rate at 66.5%. It peaked at 69.2% in 2004, falling to 67.5% as Bush was about to leave office.
66.5% brings us back to 1998 levels. While this is a bad thing to some extent due to the fact that it's in part a symptom of other bad things, there really isn't any reason that everyone should feel inclined to own a home.
...CR has more.
66.5% brings us back to 1998 levels. While this is a bad thing to some extent due to the fact that it's in part a symptom of other bad things, there really isn't any reason that everyone should feel inclined to own a home.
...CR has more.
You Mean They're Mooslims Too?
As Roy says, it's all Demcracy, Whiskey, Sexy! until it occurs to some of them that the likely successors are also araby muslimy types. Which is, you know, why I was a bit skeptical of all that democracy promotion talk.
Not Like Other Places
The view from DC is a bit different.
The rebound has given a lift to the local economy and begun to ease the pressure on many struggling homeowners, who became more vulnerable to foreclosure when the equity in their property evaporated.
Single-family home prices have soared 27 percent in the District and 26 percent in the Virginia suburbs from the low point, according to a Washington Post analysis of sales records. In the Maryland suburbs, where housing prices fell later and not nearly as far, the rebound has been more modest, 3 percent since their bottom early last year.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Actual liberals
Chicago Dyke and I are doing Virtually Speaking Sundays at 5:00 PM Pacific/8:00 PM EST tonight.
Signed,
Not Atrios
Signed,
Not Atrios
Geography
It's real, though it's from several months ago. I think this picture of supposedly scary Iranians doing scary things on the nonexistent border with Israel tops it however.
Everything Good That Happens In The Middle East Region Is Because George Bush Caused Hundreds Of Thousands Of Iraqis To Die
That's what I'm learning today.
Sunday Bobbleheads
Meet the Press has Clinton, McConnell, Tim Kaine, and a former ambassador to Israel.
This Week has Clinton, Brzezinski, and the Egyptian ambassador to the US.
Face the Nation has Clinton and Bill Daley.
Document the atrocities!
This Week has Clinton, Brzezinski, and the Egyptian ambassador to the US.
Face the Nation has Clinton and Bill Daley.
Document the atrocities!
Morning Thread
by Molly Ivors
Egypt Shuts Down Al Jazeera Cairo bureau.
UPDATE: If you don't have it, here's the live stream in English.
Egypt Shuts Down Al Jazeera Cairo bureau.
Wow."The information minister [Anas al-Fikki] ordered ... suspension of operations of Al Jazeera, cancelling of its licences and withdrawing accreditation to all its staff as of today," a statement on the official Mena news agency said on Sunday.
In a statement, Al Jazeera said it strongly denounces and condemns the closure of its bureau in Cairo by the Egyptian government. The network received notification from the Egyptian authorities on Sunday morning.
"Al Jazeera has received widespread global acclaim for their coverage on the ground across the length and breadth of Egypt," the statement said.
An Al Jazeera spokesman said that the company would continue its strong coverage regardless.
UPDATE: If you don't have it, here's the live stream in English.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Clearly
The best next step is a 150,000 person US occupation of Egypt so we can write their constitution, figure out who their interim leader should be, and then spend 10 years training security forces.
Also mercenaries. Lots and lots of mercenaries.
Also mercenaries. Lots and lots of mercenaries.
The Real Reasons
I've been informed that the real reason for the protest in Egypt is widespread anger at high deficits and a too generous retirement program.
What Washington Wants
I also find this stuff* dreary because it's clear that the Very Serious People in Washington want obedient client states in the Middle East. But Very Serious People also have a Very Deep Commitment to Democracy and Human Rights, because that's what we're all about you know, so depending on the person they're either a) completely full of shit or b) get all Tom Friedmanesque about lecturing the "Arab Street" about making "right choices" or some such crap. Great White Father demands his subjects do his bidding and thank him for the opportunity.
*By this stuff I mean the discourse surrounding events like these, not necessarily the events themselves.
*By this stuff I mean the discourse surrounding events like these, not necessarily the events themselves.
Someone Forgot To Pick A Twitter Avatar Color
I think the internet is great, include all the social media, but I get a bit fed up with the ultra-serious tweeting and retweeting the revolution stuff which happens when Big Events are going on.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Friday Night
I imagine the CIA and State have a good dictator/bad dictator list lying around somewhere.
Since We Rule The World
I get depressed by the fact that whenever there is a major event somewhere in the world few people can manage to go past the question of, "What should we (the US) do?" I know that things are a bit more complicated, and our being involved in everything already complicates them further, but the answer, mostly, is "nothing."
The Economy Still Sucks
At least older urban hellholes have some amount of services to help deal the poor and homeless, but newer growth areas don't.
I think we missed our Sputnik moment.
Much of the money for such schemes comes from different local, state and federal government agencies. But all are tightening the purse strings. The county’s revenues have fallen with property values, so it is cutting back. The state, meanwhile, has cut its grants to Mr Martin’s outfit by 80% over the past four years. Many of the federal grants come courtesy of the stimulus bill of 2009, and so are quickly drying up. When the federal money runs out, says Carolyn Mason, a county commissioner, “that’s pretty much the end of the road”.
Moreover, cities like Sarasota are unsympathetic places for those down on their luck. One of the reasons they grew so fast in the boom years were their low taxes, leaving little money for social programmes. Homelessness is often seen as a threat to migration and tourism. Sarasota city council made several attempts to outlaw sleeping rough, finally finding a formula that passed muster with the courts in 2005. That year it was named the meanest city in America by the National Coalition for the Homeless. All the other cities in the top ten were also in the sunbelt.
I think we missed our Sputnik moment.
Rape Fans
Obviously attempting legally redefine rape in this fashion is horrendous, but more generally I've always found the "rape or incest" exception to be moral gibberish. It's moral gibberish which might have some practical value for victims, of course, but gibberish nonetheless.
Number 9
I get a wee bit uncomfortable at the way people enthusiastically cheer on revolutionary movements in other countries they don't know much about. I'm not defending bad governments, just objecting to the notion that revolution=democracy. It's never clear what will emerge on the other side.
Morning Thread
Rick Santorum is running for president.
I wonder how he's been making a living since losing the election.
I wonder how he's been making a living since losing the election.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Looking at 2012
Just saw on Rachel Maddow that Rudy Giuliani is telling people he is considering running for President. Of the United States. As a Republican. ("Looking at 2012."). After a day of scraping, digging and shoveling snow, I would like to thank American's Mayor® for a much needed laugh.
Update: Michael Steele just said he would love to seen an Obama - Newt debate. Stop, you're killing me!
Update: Michael Steele just said he would love to seen an Obama - Newt debate. Stop, you're killing me!
Driving In The Urban Hellhole
Obviously deaths per miles driven isn't the only thing that matters, but it is useful bit of information to highlight the somewhat amusing fact that non-urban dwellers are often completely petrified about driving into the city. Some of this is probably completely rational, as the highways into the city and their offramps are a bit scary (older urban highways often weren't designed awesomely), but once you get used to it actually driving around the city isn't especially hard. I used to be scared of urban driving, too, and now I'm more scared of driving on highways and the burbs. Except in Rome. Damn scooters.
Something To Look Forward To Over The Next Several Months
Dozens of press conferences by Republicans no one has ever heard of announcing that they are not running for president.
We Were Winning The Revolution Until The Hippies And Negroes Screwed It Up
DougJ "Son Of DougJ" DougJson writes:
Having not lived through the 60s this is something I only sort of understand, but there is a segment of white male "liberal" technocrats of a certain age who thought they were remaking the country into a "liberal" utopia, which may or may not have included women, and all was going swimmingly until dirty hippies and black radicals screwed the whole thing up. That maybe white male liberal technocratic quiet Americans probably fucked the whole thing up by embarking on our grand Vietnam adventure, or that there are any parallels to today, never occurs to them.
Also, angry bloggers.
I realize times have changed, that national media is more diffuse, that nothing as cinematic as the Patty Hearst kidnapping has taken place yet. But it’s still amazing that so many journalists (Joe Klein, for example) is looking for black panthers under his bed, while cheerfully shrugging off today’s political violence as isolated incidents.
Having not lived through the 60s this is something I only sort of understand, but there is a segment of white male "liberal" technocrats of a certain age who thought they were remaking the country into a "liberal" utopia, which may or may not have included women, and all was going swimmingly until dirty hippies and black radicals screwed the whole thing up. That maybe white male liberal technocratic quiet Americans probably fucked the whole thing up by embarking on our grand Vietnam adventure, or that there are any parallels to today, never occurs to them.
Also, angry bloggers.
Can't Win Don't Try
It could be that the political geniuses in the White House know exactly what they're doing, pre-compromising and failing to illustrate a strong alternative vision of what they do want, though the results of the last election suggest otherwise.
Obviously if the economy turns around they'll be more right. I'm just not very confident that a turnaround is inevitable.
Obviously if the economy turns around they'll be more right. I'm just not very confident that a turnaround is inevitable.
Stay Home
I know I speak from place of privilege on this matter given that I work from home and have no children to ferry around, but hearing tales like this can I suggest that when massive snowfall is forecast to hit before rush hour more people consider staying home or finding alternative means of transportation? Yes I know lots of people have little choice and I'm also directing this at employers who can provide people with that choice, but really people should just learn that "driving automobile" and "fairly large snowstorm" just don't combine very well. Sometimes you just have to surrender.
You Can't Make This Stuff Up
In the comments to this post I learn that Rich Lowry wrote a work of fiction. In this opus, the protagonist is named Peter Johnson.
Peter. Johnson.
If I wrote a book in which there was some fictional conservative writing a novel with a protagonist named "Peter Johnson" I'm pretty sure the editor would make me change it.
Peter. Johnson.
If I wrote a book in which there was some fictional conservative writing a novel with a protagonist named "Peter Johnson" I'm pretty sure the editor would make me change it.
Bike Fight!
I guess my basic take is that, yes, much as I think jaywalking across an empty street can be perfectly fine at times, that there are certain activities cyclists can harmlessly engage in which aren't perfectly legal. The problem is that any deviation from the laws are unexpected and it seems many cyclists have an exaggerated expectation about what kind of awareness pedestrians and drivers should have of them even when they are engaging in nonstandard behavior. And "I don't have to stop because I can see that no cars are coming" should be accompanied by "I need to stop because there are pedestrians in the intersection." I shouldn't have to dodge cyclists when I'm crossing with a light, and frequently I do. Your vehicles can hurt, too.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
454K new lucky duckies. That is not good, and no I don't believe it has anything to do with snow as claimed.
Keller
Bill Keller, in what seems to be a promotional piece in this week's NYT Magazine for a forthcoming ebook describes how the journalistic mettle of the Gray Lady has made real journalism out of the material provided by Icky Assange.
He is very insistent, by the way, that when someone like Assange gets material from a leaker, he doesn't become a journalist. He somehow also becomes a "source." Or at least, is "treated" as a source. More than a few people have noted that WikiLeaks seems to be more like Woodward than Deep Throat. Deep Throat in this case, of course, is alleged to be the jailed and uncharged Bradley Manning.
Last I looked, Scooter Libby was still walking around, free.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
HULK SMASH
No knowledge of this other than what I've just read, though I admit it's pretty funny.
TALLAHASSEE — Hoping to fend off a rash of overdoses in Florida during the upcoming spring break, Attorney General Pam Bondi has outlawed a synthetic drug cocktail masquerading as "bath salts" that has apparently give users super-human strength and has similar effects to LSD, heroin and cocaine.
69 Is Old
I do not understand why people with cushy jobs as senators fail to realize that. I will give Lindsey credit for one thing, however, he at least acknowledges - unlike many - that the retirement age is already scheduled to increase to 67.
Your Modern Republican Party
I'm so old I can remember when "building federal highways" wasn't a particularly controversial idea, for better or for worse.
Hopefully True
CBO:
It's maddening that I see this as optimistic. 9.2% unemployment at the end of 2011 means that we will have had 32 straight months of >9% unemployment.
Maybe there's a sputnik moment here somewhere.
As the recovery continues, the economy will add roughly 2.5 million jobs per year over the 2011–2016 period, CBO estimates. However, even with significant increases in the number of jobs, a substantial reduction in the unemployment rate will take some time. CBO projects that the unemployment rate will gradually fall in the near term, to 9.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, 8.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, and 7.4 percent at the end of 2013. Only by 2016, in CBO's forecast, does it reach 5.3 percent, close to the agency's estimate of the natural rate of unemployment (the rate of unemployment arising from all sources except fluctuations in aggregate demand, which CBO now estimates to be 5.2 percent).
It's maddening that I see this as optimistic. 9.2% unemployment at the end of 2011 means that we will have had 32 straight months of >9% unemployment.
Maybe there's a sputnik moment here somewhere.
Really?
I'm one who thinks earmarks are fine, though we can argue about process and transparency, but does anyone really believe Obama will veto any bill with earmarks in it?
Strange Obsession
The obsession with getting readers to pay for news products is just bizarre. Newspapers were always advertising supported businesses for the most part. I get that if that model falls apart, companies are going to hunt for new revenue streams, but charging people seems to be the least likely successful route.
And the much overhyped but potential modest value of the iPad for news services is that it has the potential for delivering superior advertising to eyeballs than the web does generally.
And the much overhyped but potential modest value of the iPad for news services is that it has the potential for delivering superior advertising to eyeballs than the web does generally.
So, Uh, What's Next?
I have a hard time caring about the politics-as-theater aspect of politics anymore, so I'm not too interested in SOTU-type events (though I did watch). I get that the president doesn't control Congress, but the speech was lacking in "here's what we should do" specifics. Is that good, bad? Well, depends on what the point of the speech is, and I'm probably not its target audience.
Dealing With The Real Problems
So glad.
In New York, a bill is pending in the legislature’s transportation committee that would ban the use of mobile phones, iPods or other electronic devices while crossing streets — runners and other exercisers included. Legislation pending in Oregon would restrict bicyclists from using mobile phones and music players, and a Virginia bill would keep such riders from using a “hand-held communication device.”
In California, State Senator Joe Simitian, who led a successful fight to ban motorists from sending text messages and using hand-held phones, has reintroduced a bill that failed last year to fine bicyclists $20 for similar multitasking.
Morning Thread
by Molly Ivors
Ah, Kentucky! First you give us Rand Paul, and then you indulge your fetish for that great American tradition: treating poverty itself as a prima facie evidence of criminality.
Thanks!
Ah, Kentucky! First you give us Rand Paul, and then you indulge your fetish for that great American tradition: treating poverty itself as a prima facie evidence of criminality.
Thanks!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
#SOTU Winner!
Rep Raul Broun (R-GA) wins the Twitter!
Mr. President, you don't believe in the Constitution. You believe in socialism.MORE. George Romero wishes he could have produced footage half as creepy as that Michelle Bachmann trainwreck...
No, Pete Peterson, You Cannot Demand An Embargo Without A Bag Of Cash Attached
Just because he's an evil asshole, not because you care what he has to say.
***EMBARGOED UNTIL 9:00 PM***
January 25, 2011
STATEMENT BY PETER G. PETERSON, CHAIRMAN OF THE PETER G. PETERSON FOUNDATION, ON PRESIDENT OBAMA’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
“In his speech this evening, President Obama rightly addressed the need to achieve economic stability and promote growth. While it is certainly important for the President to focus on economic recovery and job creation in the short term, reducing our projected federal debt is essential to the nation’s economic health and prosperity in the long term.
“A spending freeze is a step in the right direction, but it is only one element of the long-term fiscal plan we need.
“As we work to strengthen our economy today, we cannot afford to turn our backs on the future. We must couple current efforts to stimulate the economy with a long-term plan that reduces the ballooning interest costs which buy us nothing and crowd out deeply needed investments. We cannot become more of an investment economy if we don’t have future resources to invest.
“A variety of organizations, including the President’s Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, are coming forward with pragmatic solutions to our long-term fiscal challenges. The magnitude of the problem is so great that spending cuts or revenue increases alone will not be enough. This year, the President and Congress must work together to agree upon a comprehensive, bipartisan plan to be implemented when the economy recovers, in order put our nation on a sustainable long-term path to recovery, competitiveness and prosperity.”
If Elected He Will
Obviously the only reason the Chicago mayoral race is getting any attention at all is because national political reporters know one of the candidates. None of them know what kind of mayoring Rahm will do, and none of them seem to be interested either.
Sack of Shit
I think big shitpile was a bit prescient.
Former Bear Stearns mortgage executives who now run mortgage divisions of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Ally Financial have been accused of cheating and defrauding investors through the mortgage securities they created and sold while at Bear. According to e-mails and internal audits, JPMorgan had known about this fraud since the spring of 2008, but hid it from the public eye through legal maneuvering. Last week a lawsuit filed in 2008 by mortgage insurer Ambac Assurance Corp against Bear Stearns and JPMorgan was unsealed. The lawsuit's supporting e-mails, going back as far as 2005, highlight Bear traders telling their superiors they were selling investors like Ambac a "sack of shit."
...
The traders were essentially double-dipping -- getting paid twice on the deal. How was this possible? Once the security was sold, they didn't have a legal claim to get cash back from the bad loans -- that claim belonged to bond investors -- but they did so anyway and kept the money. Thus, Bear was cheating the investors they promised to have sold a safe product out of their cash. According to former Bear Stearns and EMC traders and analysts who spoke with The Atlantic, Nierenberg and Verschleiser were the decision-makers for the double dipping scheme, and thus, are named as individual defendants in the suit.
Simple Answers To Simple Questions
Steve asks:
No.
This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.
I'm really not sure what to make of this. In fact, I'm a little surprised CNN would agree to this, just as a matter of fairness -- viewers will hear one speech from a Democrat, followed by a speech by a far-right Republican, and then followed by another speech by a far-right Republican? If a liberal Dem announced this morning that he/she is delivering some remarks reflecting on the SOTU tonight, would that also be aired on CNN's national airwaves in its entirety?
No.
This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.
Austerity
It was never a good idea for the UK, and even less of one now that their GDP is falling.
But I imagine the powers that be will continue to try to destroy the place. It's fashionable.
But I imagine the powers that be will continue to try to destroy the place. It's fashionable.
Old Media
It is not really something new that television programs with low ratings have a disproportionate influence on public discourse. James Fallows wrote about that years ago in Breaking the News. The Sunday morning shows, with minuscule viewership and defense contractor sponsors have long set the weekly news agenda. Now, of course, cable shows like Countdown, O'Reilly, and the Daily Show have an influence way beyond their audience numbers.
However, the (growing!) cheap ubiquity of tools for making and broadcasting video may change things faster than we expect.
Oh, and Wikileaks.
Respect Internet Traditions!
BJKeefe gets the credit for the only thing about Red State Dot Com you will ever need to know, namely this graphic:
Brendan will let you steal it, but credit where due as well!
Brendan will let you steal it, but credit where due as well!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Taking Up Space
Years ago I was at a talk where someone pointed out that the entire downtown area of Providence, RI, where I lived at the time, could easily fit within the footprint of the parking lot of suburban malls. I don't want to push environmental arguments for urbanism too far, but I do remember when cities were seen as "not green" because they were urban hellhole concrete jungles lacking trees and grass. I'm glad that in recent years there's been an increased recognition that whatever one personally thinks of cities (live where you want!), from an environmental perspective they're probably an improvement. People gotta live somewhere, but they don't necessarily have to take up that much space.
The Silliest Season
It won't be too long before political news is entirely dominated by Republican primary talk. I figure hours of teevee time daily will be given over to random people who claim to represent the "Tea Party" or other nonsense.
I can't even remember the 1996 primary. Didn't everybody just agree it was BobDole's turn?
I can't even remember the 1996 primary. Didn't everybody just agree it was BobDole's turn?
So Maybe They Could Come Close To Doing The Right Thing?
I'm sure Republican infrastructure ideas don't, for the most part, include my beloved SUPERTRAINS, but even this car hater recognizes that there are a few bridges out there that could use a few bucks for repair. If Republicans can actually recognize that maybe they can not be destructive assholes on just that one issue?
Nah...
Nah...
Rahm
No knowledge of specific details of law or court reasoning for throwing him off the ballot in Chicago, but I do think residency requirements of that type are bad law.
Breathe Easy For Another Week
It does distress me that I spent my days worrying about whether a Dem president and a Dem controlled Senate are going to gut Social Security, but it looks like we can stop worrying for another couple of weeks.
I just wish Democrats would understand that there's no grand bargain to be had between people who want to preserve the program and people who want to destroy it. The latter will keep coming after it forever.
I just wish Democrats would understand that there's no grand bargain to be had between people who want to preserve the program and people who want to destroy it. The latter will keep coming after it forever.
Abortion
While some obviously do care a lot, I've decided that most wingnuts really don't actually care about the abortion issue much either way but know that it really pisses off liberals.
If There's A Will
This terrorism in Moscow is horrible and a reminder that if people are willing to get caught/killed/die in the course of blowing up lots of people they are going to do it. Absent identifiable organizations dedicated to terrorism in our country, I'd guess the amount of law enforcement resources that can be usefully applied to stopping such events is pretty close to zero. I remember during the exciting post-9/11 days we'd regularly hear new warnings about possible targets. Shopping malls! And, well, duh, any places were crowds accumulate are possible targets and there isn't much we can do about it.
I was in SoCal post 9-11 and for some reason the powers that be were greatly concerned about car bombs at the airport. Car bombs. At the airport. Why? I have no idea. What makes airports special are...airplanes. Otherwise they might as well be a big shopping mall. Nor did I have any idea why the solution - only cabs and buses were allowed at the airport terminals, no private vehicles - would solve this (hint: not hard to obtain a cab). Anyway, I'm meandering a bit here, just making the point that if people want to blow stuff up they're going to and there isn't much we can do about it.
I was in SoCal post 9-11 and for some reason the powers that be were greatly concerned about car bombs at the airport. Car bombs. At the airport. Why? I have no idea. What makes airports special are...airplanes. Otherwise they might as well be a big shopping mall. Nor did I have any idea why the solution - only cabs and buses were allowed at the airport terminals, no private vehicles - would solve this (hint: not hard to obtain a cab). Anyway, I'm meandering a bit here, just making the point that if people want to blow stuff up they're going to and there isn't much we can do about it.
New York Times Anthropologists
I do always love it when the New York Times travels and marvels at the surprisingly civilized customs of the local natives.
Pro tip: Philly's best eating bets are its BYOBs, the one good consequence of our absurd liquor laws.
Pro tip: Philly's best eating bets are its BYOBs, the one good consequence of our absurd liquor laws.
The Worst People In The World
I certainly don't like calls for violence or the actual violence it can inspire, but what I hate most are armchair revolutionaries.
Military Jargon
Jargon exists in every field, and in every field is a way of excluding outsiders and privileging insiders, but even in addition to acronyms I've found that military types add in an additional layer along the lines of "how dare you disrespect all of the people who have died for your country by not knowing 100% of our obscure terminology."
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Blogger Life
This isn't actually about any specific issue at the moment, but one ongoing thing is that often people perceive my failure to comment on issue X as some sort of...well, I don't know, as meaningful in some way. Sometimes I just don't really have anything to say.
More Thread
The results of [insert local sporting event here] has great implications for [insert relevant political party here].
Believed Or Hoped?
But, yes, Obama was the anti-war candidate (to the extent that any of the main players were, of course), and we know America hates dirty hippies and loves endless war. Scoop Jackson!!!! The Joe Liebermans of the world probably did believe he was doomed.
Gambling Our Way To Prosperity
Very unsurprised that casino revenues are way under projections.
The casino "trolley" - meaning the casino sponsored free shuttle - has been routed deeper into residential neighborhoods as the dreamed of convention center crowds haven't been showing up. Of course putting the damn thing closer to quality mass transit* would have made too much sense.
*It's actually relatively close to a subway stop, but the walk from the stop to the casino isn't appealing (under major highway overpass, across high traffic boulevard.)
The casino "trolley" - meaning the casino sponsored free shuttle - has been routed deeper into residential neighborhoods as the dreamed of convention center crowds haven't been showing up. Of course putting the damn thing closer to quality mass transit* would have made too much sense.
*It's actually relatively close to a subway stop, but the walk from the stop to the casino isn't appealing (under major highway overpass, across high traffic boulevard.)
Sunday Bobbleheads
Face the Nation has President McCain and Chuck Schumer.
Meet the Press has Cantor and Clyburn.
This Week has Conrad, Saint Lieberman, Hutchison, and 3 Republican House members.
For those keeping score, D 3, R 6, CfL 1.
Document the atrocities!
Meet the Press has Cantor and Clyburn.
This Week has Conrad, Saint Lieberman, Hutchison, and 3 Republican House members.
For those keeping score, D 3, R 6, CfL 1.
Document the atrocities!
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Europe Not Sucking
When I was in Yurp in the late 90s, the locals had a kind of "maybe America is actually aweseome and we're doing it wrong" attitude. But that was then, and this is now.
And Brussels was the first place I lived where home broadband was an option, so they caught up pretty quickly on the internet front too.
And Brussels was the first place I lived where home broadband was an option, so they caught up pretty quickly on the internet front too.
Fee Fees
We've gone from saying small government is good to saying that unless top CEOS are sufficiently worshiped by the masses they rule over then the economy will tank.
I do not believe there is an economic model which actually suggests this.
I do not believe there is an economic model which actually suggests this.
Back To The Future
Wonder how long it'll be before the "no liberals allowed on the teevee" rule is back in effect.
Maybe Lanny Davis could get a show.
Maybe Lanny Davis could get a show.
Morning Thread
by Molly Ivors
There was a time when Keith Olbermann was the only person who drew attention to the deep, deep veins of damage in our public life.
The first time he came to my attention was in 2004, when he focused like a laser on the electoral irregularities rife in Ohio, both on Countdown and his old blog Bloggermann, with a simple, straightforward shrug: "I'm a sports guy. I look at the numbers." (I may have that quote wrong, but it was similar to that.)
As he developed a clearer voice in his broadcasts, including the often hotly-awaited Special Comments, I didn't always agree with him, but he always seemed to speak from a principled position. He is a good American, and we need him.
He will be missed.
There was a time when Keith Olbermann was the only person who drew attention to the deep, deep veins of damage in our public life.
The first time he came to my attention was in 2004, when he focused like a laser on the electoral irregularities rife in Ohio, both on Countdown and his old blog Bloggermann, with a simple, straightforward shrug: "I'm a sports guy. I look at the numbers." (I may have that quote wrong, but it was similar to that.)
As he developed a clearer voice in his broadcasts, including the often hotly-awaited Special Comments, I didn't always agree with him, but he always seemed to speak from a principled position. He is a good American, and we need him.
He will be missed.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Send Me Stuff Or Bags Of Cash
I joke about this regularly on the twitter machine, but one curse of the blogger is the immense amount of PR emails you get. I accept that it just comes with the territory, but I actually wish PR people would be... well, better at it. I don't actually need bags of cash, but if they sent me, say, screeners of movies and TV shows instead of links to their exciting websites and TRAILERS I might actually watch them and talk about them. I don't do it as much as I should, but I actually believe in using my mighty microphone to share good stuff, even good stuff produced by giant megarich corporations. I'd share the good stuff if they sent me the right good stuff.
Or bags of cash.
Or bags of cash.
Joe
As we prepare to (eventually) say goodbye to Joe Lieberman, I suppose this passage from Philip Roth's The Human Stain is as good of a sendoff as any.
The summer that Coleman took me into his confidence about Faunia Farley and their secret was the summer, fittingly enough, that Bill Clinton's secret emerged in every last mortifying detail—every last lifelike detail, the livingness, like the mortification, exuded by the pungency of the specific data. We hadn't had a season like it since somebody stumbled upon the new Miss America nude in an old issue of Penthouse, pictures of her elegantly posed on her knees and on her back that forced the shamed young woman to relinquish her crown and go on to become a huge pop star. Ninety-eight in New England was a summer of exquisite warmth and sunshine, in baseball a summer of mythical battle between a home-run god who was white and a home-run god who was brown, and in America the summer of an enormous piety binge, a purity binge, when terrorism—which had replaced communism as the prevailing threat to the country's security—was succeeded by cocksucking, and a virile, youthful middle-aged president and a brash, smitten twenty-one-year-old employee carrying on in the Oval Office like two teenage kids in a parking lot revived America's oldest communal passion, historically perhaps its most treacherous and subversive pleasure: the ecstasy of sanctimony. In the Congress, in the press, and on the networks, the righteous grandstanding creeps, crazy to blame, deplore, and punish, were everywhere out moralizing to beat the band: all of them in a calculated frenzy with what Hawthorne (who, in the 1860s, lived not many miles from my door) identified in the incipient country of long ago as "the persecuting spirit"; all of them eager to enact the astringent rituals of purification that would excise the erection from the executive branch, thereby making things cozy and safe enough for Senator Lieberman's ten-year-old daughter to watch TV with her embarrassed daddy again. No, if you haven't lived through 1998, you don't know what sanctimony is. The syndicated conservative newspaper columnist William F. Buckley wrote, "When Abelard did it, it was possible to prevent its happening again," insinuating that the president's malfeasance—what Buckley elsewhere called Clinton's "incontinent carnality"—might best be remedied with nothing so bloodless as impeachment but, rather, by the twelfth-century punishment meted out to Canon Abelard by the knife-wielding associates of Abelard's ecclesiastical colleague, Canon Fulbert, for Abelard's secret seduction of and marriage to Fulbert's niece, the virgin Heloise. Unlike Khomeini's fatwa condemning to death Salman Rushdie, Buckley's wistful longing for the corrective retribution of castration carried with it no financial incentive for any prospective perpetrator. It was prompted by a spirit no less exacting than the ayatollah's, however, and in behalf of no less exalted ideals.
It was the summer in America when the nausea returned, when the joking didn't stop, when the speculation and the theorizing and the hyperbole didn't stop, when the moral obligation to explain to one's children about adult life was abrogated in favor of maintaining in them every illusion about adult life, when the smallness of people was simply crushing, when some kind of demon had been unleashed in the nation and, on both sides, people wondered "Why are we so crazy?" when men and women alike, upon awakening in the morning, discovered that during the night, in a state of sleep that transported them beyond envy or loathing, they had dreamed of the brazenness of Bill Clinton. I myself dreamed of a mammoth banner, draped dadaistically like a Christo wrapping from one end of the White House to the other and bearing the legend A HUMAN BEING LIVES HERE. It was the summer when—for the billionth time—the jumble, the mayhem, the mess proved itself more subtle than this one's ideology and that one's morality. It was the summer when a president's penis was on everyone's mind, and life, in all its shameless impurity, once again confounded America.
SUPERBUS
There has been an absolute explosion in inter-city bus service from and to my urban hellhole. I'd add "convenience and transparency of internet booking" to the list of reasons why.
Things Change
So I was recently in LA for a little bit, and it has certainly changed since the last time I spent much time there. Basically, it seems to have filled in a bit and there was actual foot traffic in places like downtown LA even on weekends. It's still a place where the car is king, of course, with much of it, though theoretically walkable, really built at a scale which isn't really pedestrian friendly. Still it is dense enough - and as I said seemed to have filled in a bit since last I was there - that one can get around to some degree without one. Rode their local SUPERTRAINS from the airport to downtown and they were pretty full on a Sunday.
Pennies
As I said before, actual proposed budget cuts, as opposed to "let's just wish the budget was smaller," will mostly be about pissing off liberals.
$18.9 Million In Irvine
Such a thing would only be desirable if you entertain. A lot. Do people who buy them really entertain that much?
Heroism
Read enough conservative blogs over the years, and you get that most of them have a pretty intense hero fantasy. They get off on war porn, fantasies mostly involving other peoples' heroism as most of the 101st keyboard commandos have never had any intention of enlisting. But many of them are gun nuts, and like all gun nuts I've ever known (I don't mean all people who own guns, or hunt, or whatever, I mean gun nuts), they have a hero fantasy which involves them killing an assailant with their gun.
So this kind of heroism probably doesn't really resonate.
So this kind of heroism probably doesn't really resonate.
What's Good For GE Is Good for America
And if we just babble cliche modern capitalism talk the jobs pony will finally come.
Democracy
In one of the webcast things I do, Marcy Wheeler said that one of the things that is evident in the WikiLeaks cables is the degree to which democratic processes are held in contempt by the people in what Assange calls the invisible government. We're seeing this now as we wait, breath bated, to see whether the State of the Union will include an incredibly unpopular call to cut Social Security--with no policy discussion about the merits of doing so taking place in the public sphere.
Likewise, there are gun regulations that have extremely broad support, but are very difficult, for some reason, to implement.
They Get Death Threats
Glenn Beck targets Frances Fox Piven. (Who is...? Why, she is someone Glenn Beck targets.)
At what point will Fox, and CNN before them, be compelled to concede that it might have been a mistake to make this nut a star?
Beginning in September of 2010, Glenn Beck started branding Piven, a distinguished professor of Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, as an “enemy of the Constitution.” Piven, well known for advocating for the organizational rights of the poor and encouraging voter registration, has since received threatening phone calls and letters, and has become the subject of many death threats left open to the public on Glenn Beck’s website, The Blaze"...Should Professor Priven be worried? Yes. She should.
The Center for Constitutional rights details a backlash through some of the many violent quotes on Beck’s website. Examples include, “Maybe they should burst through the front door of this arrogant elitist and slit the hateful cow’s throat,” “We should blow up Piven’s office and home,” and “I am all for violence and change Frances: Where do your loved ones live?”
Read the rest."You need to go back to June --- June of this year, 2010," said would-be mass murderer Byron Williams, referring to Glenn Beck in a jailhouse interview. Williams had been stopped by police in a San Francisco shoot out on his way to assassinate members of the ACLU and the progressive Tides Foundation in July of 2010. "Look at all his programs from June, and you'll see he's been breaking open some of the most hideous corruption," Williams, who viewed Beck as a "schoolteacher on TV", later said.
In case you are wondering about Beck's comments in the video above, thinking it must be out of context or something, it's not.
At what point will Fox, and CNN before them, be compelled to concede that it might have been a mistake to make this nut a star?
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Things I Believed
I certainly didn't believe in #s 1, 3, or 5, though I probably thought them to be more true than I do now. I didn't believe 2 completely, but close enough. I did believe in 4. Oh well.
Can't Run From Your Signature Policy
Whatever its merits or lack of, it was truly bizarre watching Democrats run and hide from their signature policy because, well, there wasn't actually any way to run from it. Either stand up for it or don't pass it in the first place. Glad they've finally come around.
Real Amurrikah
Despite months of media fluffing of Tea Partiers and decades of demonizing anything that sounds remotely like socialism... Socialism wins!
Lady Boobs
One things I've come to realize is that there are a lot of people (men, mostly, of course) who don't realize that there is no way for women with larger breasts to dress "modestly," if you define "modestly" as dressing in such a way that the world is unaware of your breasts.
Twin Turbos
The WaPo newsroom is apparently filled with more hideous people than even I could imagine.
Blogging Like It's 2002
This story of mass mob arrests inspires me to do some Sopranos blogging. I've been slowly working my way through the series over the past couple of years, which I'd never seen before, and am nearing the end. I have no clue of the deal of realism of its portrayal of mob life, but one thing which has consistently struck me about the portrayal is how even the relatively senior people in the organization don't actually seem to make very much money. Seems to be a relatively high stress 'job' for so little compensation.
No Urgency
While I'm generally on board with Summers bashing, I'm not sure I quite agree with Felix that the Baker NYT piece makes him THE bad guy. I'd say, if anything, it makes Obama the bad guy, and not simply in the kossacks just work for the Czar sense. I think "they" believed in December of 2009 through the Summer of 2010 that they'd fixed it. And "they" includes the guy in charge.
Being Bold
One way to be bold on the economy would be to fix the damn foreclosure crisis. They had a $50 billion slush fund to spend on it, and they didn't bother.
It isn't some tremendous mystery why the economy didn't turn around, and the administration didn't use the tools they had at their disposal which didn't require President Snowe's approval.
It isn't some tremendous mystery why the economy didn't turn around, and the administration didn't use the tools they had at their disposal which didn't require President Snowe's approval.
Picking Winners
In the wake of the news that Evergreen Solar is shutting down its US manufacturing I've seen a lot of trite and lazy commentary about US manufacturing and "picking winners." Some conservative critics see an opportunity to bash, well, stuff liberals support, but I think they're mostly* misguided on a number of levels.
I deleted a longish and rambling draft of this post, so I'll just point out that the greater degree of financial support (not even counting the managed float of the RMB) is more important by a factor of 2-4 in the lower cost of Chinese PV modules, rather than labor costs or environmental regs, so it isn't inevitable that US manufacturing can't compete. First Solar is proving that pretty well, and the Chinese firm Suntech is opening US manufacturing now. If 10% of the annual cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were pumped into solar to reduce the capex of domestic producers, we'd be making the least expensive, most efficient modules in the world in short order.
Anyway, for the sake of brevity here, I'll just say that I'll be happy to explain the fate of Evergreen for the price of a beer sometime. Suffice it to say, String ribbon wafers were an important and potentially disruptive technological advance, but both outside forces and apparently fundamental limitations of the process have hindered the technology, and the company. I should add that I do not work for Evergreen or any PV module manufacturer.
*There are obviously important debates over various aspects of the issue about which reasonable people can disagree, but Michele Malkin and her cohorts are not reasonable people.
I deleted a longish and rambling draft of this post, so I'll just point out that the greater degree of financial support (not even counting the managed float of the RMB) is more important by a factor of 2-4 in the lower cost of Chinese PV modules, rather than labor costs or environmental regs, so it isn't inevitable that US manufacturing can't compete. First Solar is proving that pretty well, and the Chinese firm Suntech is opening US manufacturing now. If 10% of the annual cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were pumped into solar to reduce the capex of domestic producers, we'd be making the least expensive, most efficient modules in the world in short order.
Anyway, for the sake of brevity here, I'll just say that I'll be happy to explain the fate of Evergreen for the price of a beer sometime. Suffice it to say, String ribbon wafers were an important and potentially disruptive technological advance, but both outside forces and apparently fundamental limitations of the process have hindered the technology, and the company. I should add that I do not work for Evergreen or any PV module manufacturer.
*There are obviously important debates over various aspects of the issue about which reasonable people can disagree, but Michele Malkin and her cohorts are not reasonable people.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
I Tried To Warn Them
But no one listens to me.
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's apparent willingness to consider cuts in Social Security benefits may be winning him points with Washington elites, but it's killing him with voters, who see the program as inviolate and may start to wonder what the Democratic Party stands for, if not for Social Security.
That's the conclusion of three top progressive pollsters who spoke to reporters Wednesday at a briefing sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute, the Century Foundation and Demos.
"For the public, cutting benefits is the problem, not the solution," said Guy Molyneux, a partner at Hart.
We Know What To Do
The maddening thing is it isn't a mystery what we can do to boost aggregate demand. We know! There's a reason we call him Helicopter Ben. I actually really don't know what statutory authority the Fed has to rain money on people, but it could always get it from Congress.
Instead we'll do a bunch of bank shot stuff which isn't very likely to work well or fast.
Instead we'll do a bunch of bank shot stuff which isn't very likely to work well or fast.
Tribalism
Whatever is actually in that book, or whatever its adherents believe is in that book, it's still the case that a piece of religion in this country for a lot of people is a basic kind of ethnic tribalism. Most people aren't genuinely very religious and most of those who profess to be don't have any kind of sophisticated understanding of what their religion is supposed to be. They do know what team they play for, and that's important.
Tea Party Socialists
Years ago I was going on Sam Seder's show right after Lawrence O'Donnell, and he made some comment to the effect that politically Americans basically want someone with the politics of Christine Todd Whitman. While I think this was basically a typical example of the pundit's fallacy - politically, at that time anyway, that's what O'Donnell wanted! - there was a bit of unsaid truth to it, which is that Americans want big government but don't want to pay for it, which is what Whitman did by essentially robbing the state pension funds.
Depressing
I guess we know most of this: the stimulus was too small, it should have been bigger, the administration never made the case for a second stimulus, they thought the economy was turning around, and then... nothing.
...adding that I think I'll understand the world a bit better if I start interpreting phrases like "strong personality" to mean "emotional maturity of a 4-year-old."
...adding that I think I'll understand the world a bit better if I start interpreting phrases like "strong personality" to mean "emotional maturity of a 4-year-old."
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
The Day The Music Died
Various outlets reporting that Holy Joe will not run for re-election. I think there's a reasonable chance this is a fakeout, but if it's true...it took awhile, but we were finally victorious.
Reinventing Government
When he was Veep Al Gore basically headed up the same kind of thing, but managed to do so without making it sound like some sort of gift to Big Biz but instead as simply common sense pragmatic liberalism.
Who's Missing?
Democracy Corps email on their new poll:
sadly, "Washington conventional wisdom" appears to include the administration. Prove me wrong!
The voters have a clear and dramatic message for the new Republicans in the Congress and the President on the eve of his State of the Union Address: focus on jobs and the economy and show how America is going to be economically successful again. This is not a nuanced poll. If Democrats did not get the message in 2010, voters are ready to send a message again, according to the first Democracy Corps–Campaign for America’s Future survey of 2011.
The media pundits and Washington conventional wisdom say deficit reduction and cutting government spending are the top priorities for the nation; yet, the Republican Congress has prioritized health care repeal and Social Security cuts (which are on the table for the first time.) They could not have it more wrong. It is jobs, stupid.
sadly, "Washington conventional wisdom" appears to include the administration. Prove me wrong!
Unpossible In The Urban Hellhole
Just adding a few things to this post based on discussion in comments:
*My point is not "everyone should want to live in cities!" just that while I get that raising children in an urban hellhole offers some different challenges, I don't get the idea that it's universally "more difficult."
*Urban hellhole living doesn't necessarily mean downtown skyscrapers, or being carless, or more generally lacking anything resembling suburban amenities. Supermarket and Target with large parking lot are near to me. Also, too, Walmart and Ikea.
*Yes schools are an issue that can trump everything else. I get that.
*My point is not "everyone should want to live in cities!" just that while I get that raising children in an urban hellhole offers some different challenges, I don't get the idea that it's universally "more difficult."
*Urban hellhole living doesn't necessarily mean downtown skyscrapers, or being carless, or more generally lacking anything resembling suburban amenities. Supermarket and Target with large parking lot are near to me. Also, too, Walmart and Ikea.
*Yes schools are an issue that can trump everything else. I get that.
That's So 2008
I appreciate Merkley's proposal, except for the dumb first time home buyer tax credit (I assume there to try to get buy in from others), but sadly I think our national politicians have mostly moved on from that whole foreclosure crisis. What was once an urgent problem is, despite the fact that it is ongoing with no signs of letting up, simply the new normal.
Urban Hellholes For All
I've read a lot of interesting discussion of this article about the kids today wanting to live in cities. I don't have any opinion about whether this is a real trend, but I did find two basic threads of the discussion to be interesting. One was that "of course young people want to live in cities." Well, when I was coming of age and making such choices, most cities really were urban hellholes, with very high crime rates, and the ones that weren't were sinking under the weight of the recession and its aftermath. Don't think my peer group at the time was necessarily representative of the population as a whole, but "moving to the city" actually wasn't what people wanted. Getting married fairly young and buying a house in the burbs was.
The other thread is the "people want to live in cities until they have kids then it's too hard." I get that quality of local schools is a genuine issue, but otherwise I'm rather confused by the "can't raise 2 kids without a minivan in the suburbs" attitude I see from lots of people. People can and do raise kids in the city and manage just fine. Really not sure what the difficulties are.
The other thread is the "people want to live in cities until they have kids then it's too hard." I get that quality of local schools is a genuine issue, but otherwise I'm rather confused by the "can't raise 2 kids without a minivan in the suburbs" attitude I see from lots of people. People can and do raise kids in the city and manage just fine. Really not sure what the difficulties are.
OH
At my recent undisclosed location, I overheard a delightful conversation. It started out, "Katrina happened...and everybody got rich," and went downhill from there.
Your Toilets Are Hooked Up To The Collective
Wouldn't be surprised if we just decided to end all public services.
Economy All Better Now
Hopefully I'm just a pessimist and the economy really is about to turn around, but I think even if that's the case the optimists are grossly underestimating the impact of the foreclosure crisis and Great Recession on people longer term.
They really are out of touch.
They really are out of touch.
Hopefully They Got Him
We have had a wee serial killer problem in the urban hellhole. Suspect has now been arrested based on DNA evidence, though suspect doesn't look very much like widely circulated sketch.
Can't Control Future Congresses
I really don't know why left-leaning technocrats don't understand this point.
Also, too, jobs.
Also, too, jobs.
Depressing
By accounts Christina Romer is one of the better members of Tribe Econ, but the idea that it's good politics to talk about the deficit in the State of the Union is insane, and the idea that it will be good for policy to have the political dialogue focused on the deficit, as opposed to, you know, JOBS, is even more insane.
We are doomed.
We are doomed.
Urban Hellhole Blogging
Contra Beck, I regularly leave my house after 6 pm and do so without any fear or concern whatsoever.
Meanwhile
What a lovely little war.
BAGHDAD — In the worst terrorist attack in Iraq in months, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a gathering of police recruits on Tuesday, killing 60 people and wounding about 150, police officials said.
The attack in Tikrit, a city north of Baghdad that's best known as Saddam Hussein's hometown, was the latest to target Iraqi security forces, which have made considerable progress in fighting al Qaida-linked militants but continue to suffer sporadic violence.
The Recent History Of Everything
Krugman talks about the dollar, but his basic point is true about lots of things. The more paranoid corners of the financial chatter world have lately been freaking out about fluctuations in various exchange and interest rates, as well as commodity prices, which are well within recent "normal" ranges.
Thread
I haven't listened to this yet because I was asleep at the time, but: Eric Boehlert and Nicole Sandler on Virtually Speaking Susie with Susie Madrak.
Signed,
Not Atrios
Signed,
Not Atrios
Monday, January 17, 2011
The Greatest Comment Evah
From one of the freepi:
In this society, being car-less is a significant empediment being a full citizen. Such situations make you dependent on the collective, and to the schedules of mass transit. Car-less is no way for an american to live.
Transit
It is one of those issues urban hellhole dwellers care about and political leadership is usually absent, though I'm not sure why.
LEAVE RICH CRIMINALS ALOOOOONE
I'm sure the Very Serious People response to anti-rich people leaks to wikileaks will be the same as their response to leaks embarrassing powerful people in governments. It's just wrong to hold powerful people accountable for anything.
Look forward people!
Look forward people!
A Day Of Service
One of my idiosyncratic pet peeves is that every other holiday we have - including Memorial Day! - is understood as a good reason to eat, drink, and be merry, while MLK Day is supposed to be More Than That.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
City Victim, Country Victim
There was some discussion earlier about urban/rural guns/murders, so I went poking around. I don't think anything definitive emerges from these pretty pictures, which I made at nationalatlas.gov, but have fun gazing at them. This is "percent of population affected by murders" in 2007 by county, with darker colors meaning more murders. Gray means no data. Murders doesn't equal gun murders, of course, though I'd guess they're pretty correlated.
Dumb Ideas
If I were your benevolent dictator, I would, in fact, take all of your guns away, but I am not and given the reality of our Supreme Court's view of the constitution and politics generally, there really is no chance of any actual effective gun control legislation being passed. And finding ways to exclude people from gun ownership in rather arbitrary ways really isn't going to achieve any useful result.
Victory
One for the good guys.
I shouldn't be surprised by much of anything these days, but the extent of the "well the borrowers owe somebody so it doesn't really matter who kicks them out of their house" reasoning really has shocked me. Once you open the door to fraud, even fraud by people who notionally do actually have a legal right but are too cheap and lazy to be bothered to prove it, you completely destroy any confidence in our property title system. I'm certainly open to arguments that our current system is clunky and inefficient and should be improved upon, but that doesn't mean the banskters can just go ahead and do it outside the law.
I shouldn't be surprised by much of anything these days, but the extent of the "well the borrowers owe somebody so it doesn't really matter who kicks them out of their house" reasoning really has shocked me. Once you open the door to fraud, even fraud by people who notionally do actually have a legal right but are too cheap and lazy to be bothered to prove it, you completely destroy any confidence in our property title system. I'm certainly open to arguments that our current system is clunky and inefficient and should be improved upon, but that doesn't mean the banskters can just go ahead and do it outside the law.
While We're On Good Ideas That Very Serious People Hate
Yes lowering the Social Security full benefit eligibility age is a perfectly awesome idea, so of course the Post hates it.
Most of us aren't David Broder, with lifetime full employment guaranteed no matter how badly we do our jobs.
Most of us aren't David Broder, with lifetime full employment guaranteed no matter how badly we do our jobs.
Public Banking Option
Yes there should be one though probably the best we could hope for is a "if you want to make money providing the financial services to run our food stamp debit cards then you must offer accounts on these terms." Not holding my breath for that one, but "paying someone lots of money to do what the government could do more cheaply" seems to be the only acceptable way to do anything decent these days.
Sunday Bobbleheads
Face the Nation has Gillibrand, Wasserman Schultz, Jeff Flake, Ed Rendell, and Rudy 911.
Meet the Press has Gillibrand, Schumer, Coburn, and Sharpton.
This Week has a "town hall."
Document the atrocities!
Meet the Press has Gillibrand, Schumer, Coburn, and Sharpton.
This Week has a "town hall."
Document the atrocities!
Wakey, Wakey
If able, please do make a contribution to Diane. She's been doing yeoman's work at Cab Drollery for years now and rarely holds a fundraiser.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Cuba Travel
Can't speak to precise details, but from what I understand this basically returns the travel restrictions to what they were before the Bush administration.
Travel All Done
Thanks to all who chipped in while I was on the road. Normal sucky blogging to resume.
Kill For Peace
In the final year of his life, King became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, Johnson told a packed auditorium. However, he added, today’s wars are not out of line with the iconic Nobel Peace Prize winner’s teachings.
“I believe that if Dr. King were alive today, he would recognize that we live in a complicated world, and that our nation's military should not and cannot lay down its arms and leave the American people vulnerable to terrorist attack,” he said. (Link)
The distortion beyond all recognition of what it means to be Left, at the hands of the Obama Administration, continues.
“I believe that if Dr. King were alive today, he would recognize that we live in a complicated world, and that our nation's military should not and cannot lay down its arms and leave the American people vulnerable to terrorist attack,” he said. (Link)
The distortion beyond all recognition of what it means to be Left, at the hands of the Obama Administration, continues.
Morning Post
by Molly Ivors
I only hope I'm half as cool as this when I get to be 60.
Oh, who am I kidding? I've never been this cool.
I only hope I'm half as cool as this when I get to be 60.
Oh, who am I kidding? I've never been this cool.
RNC PR BS
I am tickled by the observation, from esteemed Atriot Jeffraham Prestonian in the comments earlier, that removing the vowels from Reince Priebus leaves the utterly appropriate acronym "RNC PR BS."
Heh indeedy.
[Updated to add] Aaaaaannnd I fail. "RNC PR BS" originated with twitterer Sharoney apparently. I plead exhaustion and extreme twitter ignorance. To be clear, Jeffraham never claimed to have originated it, he was passing it along and it was just the first time I saw it. Apologies all around.
Heh indeedy.
[Updated to add] Aaaaaannnd I fail. "RNC PR BS" originated with twitterer Sharoney apparently. I plead exhaustion and extreme twitter ignorance. To be clear, Jeffraham never claimed to have originated it, he was passing it along and it was just the first time I saw it. Apologies all around.
Death Threats
I have not paid any attention to this generally but this jumped out at me.
Anything's possible - the best way to troll your own blog is to criticize parenting - but I do wish when people claim they have received death threats that journalists would ask for a) evidence, or at least b) details, and of course the follow up c) did you call law enforcement?
Once upon of time I received lots of nasty email, though not so much anymore. But I don't think I ever received anything resembling an actual death threat, because most people aren't that stupid. A death threat is something that gets you a nice visit from the FBI, at the very least. Sure I got a lot of "I hope you die" kind of things, but "hope you die," while a bit menacing perhaps, isn't close to being a death threat.
So often I read tales of people who step into the public sphere in a big way, lots of people are nasty to them, and suddenly they've "received death threats." I'm sure it happens, I just wish people who make such claims would be pressed a bit harder on the details.
In the week since The Wall Street Journal published an excerpt of the new book by Amy Chua, a Yale law professor, under the headline “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” Ms. Chua has received death threats, she says, and “hundreds, hundreds” of e-mails. The excerpt generated more than 5,000 comments on the newspaper’s Web site, and countless blog entries referring in shorthand to “that Tiger Mother.” Some argued that the parents of all those Asians among Harvard’s chosen few must be doing something right; many called Ms. Chua a “monster” or “nuts” — and a very savvy provocateur.
Anything's possible - the best way to troll your own blog is to criticize parenting - but I do wish when people claim they have received death threats that journalists would ask for a) evidence, or at least b) details, and of course the follow up c) did you call law enforcement?
Once upon of time I received lots of nasty email, though not so much anymore. But I don't think I ever received anything resembling an actual death threat, because most people aren't that stupid. A death threat is something that gets you a nice visit from the FBI, at the very least. Sure I got a lot of "I hope you die" kind of things, but "hope you die," while a bit menacing perhaps, isn't close to being a death threat.
So often I read tales of people who step into the public sphere in a big way, lots of people are nasty to them, and suddenly they've "received death threats." I'm sure it happens, I just wish people who make such claims would be pressed a bit harder on the details.
Friday, January 14, 2011
I Wonder As I Wander
If the Republican Party is such a honking big political juggernaut, how come the contenders for RNC Chair are all complete non-entities? What's a Reince Priebus?
Think Of The Poor
Ease off on the regulations or the poor will suffer! His concern is touching.
Federal limits on debit card processing fees will force banks to charge customers more for services, making accounts too expensive for as many as 5 percent of customers, JPMorgan Chase's chief executive Jamie Dimon said Friday.
Because They Control Everything, duh.
Creepy faux philo-semitism and anti-semitism tend to go hand in hand.
But liberals hate Jews and love Hitler. Especially Jewish liberals.
But liberals hate Jews and love Hitler. Especially Jewish liberals.
California Dreaming
Drastic cuts to the budget are the final nail in the coffin of free-then-cheap-thennotsocheap promise of higher education for all who make the effort.
Incentives Are All Screwed Up
As I keep saying, once it became in the financial interest of servicers to foreclose as fast as people on as many people, we were in deep trouble. And now it's in their financial interest to kick people out of their homes and then just abandon the properties.
Heckuva system. Maybe somebody should do something other than give banksters free money.
Heckuva system. Maybe somebody should do something other than give banksters free money.
Rivendell Sanctuary
Sounds to me like a place to send your home schooler who didn't learn anything while being home schooled. Maybe after two years at Rivendell they'll be capable of entering a community college.
Rotwang Exposed!
In response to the feverish speculation as to my identity, I will provide ten facts about myself, most of them true.
1. I have been blogging since 1970.
2. I have a Ph.D. from a reputable university.
3. I have had shotguns pointed at my face by police.
4. My previous girlfriend is 24 years younger than me. She has a Ph.D. Her legs are the 8th wonder of the world.
5. I have spent a week in a county pen.
6. I have published three books and a whole bunch of other shit.
7. My bunny’s name is Romeo.
8. I am an anarchist and a conventional liberal on alternate days of the week.
9. I am a dirty fucking hippie, but don’t try punching me. It won’t end well for you.
10. If your grandmother was at Woodstock, we might be related.
1. I have been blogging since 1970.
2. I have a Ph.D. from a reputable university.
3. I have had shotguns pointed at my face by police.
4. My previous girlfriend is 24 years younger than me. She has a Ph.D. Her legs are the 8th wonder of the world.
5. I have spent a week in a county pen.
6. I have published three books and a whole bunch of other shit.
7. My bunny’s name is Romeo.
8. I am an anarchist and a conventional liberal on alternate days of the week.
9. I am a dirty fucking hippie, but don’t try punching me. It won’t end well for you.
10. If your grandmother was at Woodstock, we might be related.
Your Daley Boehner
So the Republicans are getting back to work with a bill with the title "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." Could you imbeciles please grow up? No? OK.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
News in Astrology
The universe has changed. There's a new sign, in between Scorpio and Sagittarius, covering November 29 to December 17. It's called Ophiuchus, which is a constellation named for the image of a man wrestling a snake. Famous Internet personalities born under this sign include Glenn Reynolds, Jonah Goldberg, and Andrew Breitbart.
Confidence
Yes it's true that in economics there can be self-fulfilling prophecies, but this obsession by elites with mass psychology instead of economic reality is depressing. So, yes, if you could trick every business into thinking that in a year's time they would have twice the demand for their product as they do now that prophecy might actually, to some degree, come true, but that isn't actually going to happen.
Of Course There Is
I imagine we're in about inning 5 of the foreclosure crisis, with high chance of extra innings.
Guns Are Fun, Continued
Here's another nitwit who thinks that if more people are packin' pistols, there will fewer crimes of violence with guns. I hope everyone has heard that the one fellow at the Tucson event who did have a gun, aside from the perp, almost shot the wrong guy.
I understand people have firearms fantasies. I have personally dreamed of rescuing Paz de la Huerta from KKK-Nazi-biker-Al Queda kidnappers.
Threadzilla
This is just to tide you over until I think of something.
I wouldn't wish this job on anyone.
I wouldn't wish this job on anyone.
Late Lunch
Mongolian dim sum, spicy won ton, cucumber in chili & garlic sauce. Chili oil by the way confers great sexual powers.
All Part Of A Normal Day
And, yes, CNN and most media outlets tolerate tirades against anybody not "Judeo-Christian" which mostly means self-described Christians.
Bankster Love
Conservatarian groups at least occasionally have to show some fealty to ideology or principles, while groups like Third Way have none and can pursue evil without any barriers. All they have to do is slap the word "moderate" on it. No labels!
Wet Blanket
“I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness ...” I don't. Go ahead and sue me. The President's speech was intermittently inspiring. But he said this in the state of Arizona, where as we speak they deny organ transplants to people who subsequently die.
Is that incivil?
Credit Where It Is Due
Blogging to you live from NTB. So the nameless assholes at Moody's and S&P say Teh Debt is too damn high. These are the same dipwads who took the banksters money and told everyone that Big Shitpile was a bed of daiseys. Why would anybody listen to them? (More here from Deano.)
Your Daley Boehner
The tan man declined to accompany the president to the memorial service, instead attending a cocktail party fund-raiser for the RNC.
I don't have a joke. I just think this is pathetic.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Judging From The Twitter Machine
Their souls are as black and rotten as they were when Paul Wellstone died.
And The Sun Rises In The Morning
Not near a TV, but I'm sure the important issue to talk about tomorrow will be the inappropriate behavior of people grieving for their dead loved ones.
Because that's how our discourse works.
...and 5 seconds later David Corn on the twitter:
Because that's how our discourse works.
...and 5 seconds later David Corn on the twitter:
Is a meme developing: there shouldn't be applause at this service? Let's have a national debate over that.
Health Advisory
Reading this blog may induce unwelcome side effects, including dry mouth, uncontrolled blinking, rashes, itching, nausea, and cramps. Readers who experience chest pains, rapid heartbeat, or diarrhea, should head to the nearest emergency room. Readers who experience an erection lasting four hours or more, head to the nearest Ruby Tuesdays.
Welfare As We Know It
Chief JP Morgan bankster warns cities will go bankrupt. "Because after all, they don't have access to all the free money in the world from the Feds, like we do."
On the bright side, city bankruptcies resulting in the shrinkage of police forces will stimulate the firearms industry.
On the bright side, city bankruptcies resulting in the shrinkage of police forces will stimulate the firearms industry.
And A Very Deep Faith In Jesus
Harold Meyerson:
Last April, Erick Erickson, the managing editor of the right-wing RedState blog and a CNN commentator, was questioning the legality of the Census Bureau's American Community Survey on a radio show. "We have become, or are becoming, enslaved by the government. . . . I dare 'em to try to come to throw me in jail. I dare 'em to. [I'll] pull out my wife's shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door."
Not Just Scalia
No one else will notice in the media, of course, despite the fact that once upon a time "citing foreign legal opinion" was akin to treason.
More generally I've noticed conservatives increasingly citing "what other countries do" as a reason to do them. The most recent was the end birthright citizenship asshole who thinks we should take our cues from all of the countries that don't have birthright citizenship.
More generally I've noticed conservatives increasingly citing "what other countries do" as a reason to do them. The most recent was the end birthright citizenship asshole who thinks we should take our cues from all of the countries that don't have birthright citizenship.
Land Use
Don't know anything about it, but I do know that this land is your land, and this land is my land.
Wingnut Stupidity
I have much less interest in pointing and laughing at wingnut stupidity than I used to. And pointing and laughing is usually all it's about, as there is rarely much to actually engage. Now we've moved on to the predictable "IT'S THE LIBERALZ WHO HATES THE J000Z SO NEENER NEENER" round. Hopefully Erick Erickson can call Jesus and get a ruling on this, so we can all move on to talking about how it's really liberals who hate black people. And on and on.
Our Dumb Discourse
Can't even muster up any outrage. I'll just point out that most professional right wingers are just really bad people.
What we believe
Jay Ackroyd got turned on by Fishgrease's micro-broadcasting project, which led to him deciding to get a bunch of the Virtually Speaking crowd to make little statements of what we believe as liberals, which he and Stuart Zechman introduced on BTR on a VS Saturday episode (that you can stream at the link, or grab the podcast).
It occurred to me that we should all try to write such things crystallizing our beliefs as liberals, post them as articles or as videos, maybe send them to newspapers as letters of comment, maybe even print them up and pass them around to friends, family, co-workers, whoever.
Because the gods know we sure can't expect any description of liberalism that isn't based on right-wing memes of "big government" or "tax and spend" to be disseminated by anyone but us.
Signed,
Not Atrios
It occurred to me that we should all try to write such things crystallizing our beliefs as liberals, post them as articles or as videos, maybe send them to newspapers as letters of comment, maybe even print them up and pass them around to friends, family, co-workers, whoever.
Because the gods know we sure can't expect any description of liberalism that isn't based on right-wing memes of "big government" or "tax and spend" to be disseminated by anyone but us.
Signed,
Not Atrios
That Hatey, Killey, Targetey, Reloadey Thing
Here is some background on the blood libel, because criticism of Sarah Palin's gun-fetish political babble is so much like the 2,000 year oppression of the Jews. (Latter book is one of the best, as it happens by a Catholic priest.) And because the real victims in all this are Palin and the hemorrhoid with eyeballs.
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