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Thursday, March 31, 2011
Stop That Noise!
Question of the Day
With the start of the baseball season...
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Who's your favorite sports team?Take a wild guess. Oh, and no, it doesn't have to be a major league team. Feel free to promote your local t-ball team.
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Please Stop Helping Them
Joe Klein, one of the Very Serious People in the Village, is bemoaning the current crop of GOP candidates.
At this stage of the race, it's natural to get the clowns out on stage for the opening production number -- even Shakespeare's tragedies have comic relief -- but it also behooves the press to examine these candidates and make it clear who they are, what they stand for, and point out that they are way the hell out there. I've always thought that part of being an objective reporter doesn't mean that you put your judgment into a blind trust and merely write down and report what they say without examining them. That's what press secretaries are for.
By the way, promoting Jeb Bush and Mitch Daniels as the sober counterpoints to the list of GOP candidates tells you just how far they've wandered into the Land of Make-Believe.
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This is my 10th presidential campaign, Lord help me. I have never before seen such a bunch of vile, desperate-to-please, shameless, embarrassing losers coagulated under a single party's banner. They are the most compelling argument I've seen against American exceptionalism. Even Tim Pawlenty, a decent governor, can't let a day go by without some bilious nonsense escaping his lizard brain. And, as Greg Sargent makes clear, Mitt Romney has wandered a long way from courage. There are those who say, cynically, if this is the dim-witted freak show the Republicans want to present in 2012, so be it. I disagree. One of them could get elected. You never know. Mick Huckabee, the front-runner if you can believe it, might have to negotiate a trade agreement, or a defense treaty, with the Indonesian President some day. Newt might have to discuss very delicate matters of national security with the President of Pakistan. And so I plead, as an unflinching American patriot--please Mitch Daniels, please Jeb Bush, please run. I may not agree with you on most things, but I respect you. And you seem to respect yourselves enough not to behave like public clowns.That's all well and good; the candidates -- or at least the ones who are acting like they're planning to explore whether they should decide to run -- do resemble, as another blogger noted, Mos Eisley space station: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious." But, to echo Steve M, what are the people like Mr. Klein doing to stop them?
At this stage of the race, it's natural to get the clowns out on stage for the opening production number -- even Shakespeare's tragedies have comic relief -- but it also behooves the press to examine these candidates and make it clear who they are, what they stand for, and point out that they are way the hell out there. I've always thought that part of being an objective reporter doesn't mean that you put your judgment into a blind trust and merely write down and report what they say without examining them. That's what press secretaries are for.
By the way, promoting Jeb Bush and Mitch Daniels as the sober counterpoints to the list of GOP candidates tells you just how far they've wandered into the Land of Make-Believe.
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Faking It
The latest assault on women comes from Indiana where the state legislature is debating a very restrictive bill on abortion.
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Introduced by state Rep. Eric Turner (R), HB 1210 would make most abortions illegal after 20 weeks. Current law restricts abortions after the fetus is viable, generally around 24 weeks.It's ironic; the anti-choice people treat the women who are subjected to their laws as cavalierly as they claim those women treat the babies they're carrying.
In an attempt to soften the blow this bill would land on Hoosier women, state Rep. Gail Riecken (D) introduced an amendment to exempt “women who became pregnant due to rape or incest, or women for whom pregnancy threatens their life or could cause serious and irreversible physical harm” from being forced to carry to term. Fearing this bill would “push women to the back alleys” for illegal abortions, Riecken pleaded with lawmakers to allow women to make the choice in these cases.
Turner then stepped to the podium and insisted that Riecken’s amendment would create a “giant loophole” for women. That loophole? Women “could simply say they’ve been raped”.
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Poor Guy
Sean Duffy, a Republican freshman Congressman from Wisconsin, was caught on tape complaining about how tough life is living on $174,000 -- plus fringe benefits.
The video of Mr. Duffy's woes made it onto the Internet and the Polk County (Wisconsin) Republican website. Not surprisingly, drew a little criticism to the point that Republicans in Wisconsin demanded that the video be taken down so as to not embarrass them any further. It worked for a while, but TPM was able to obtain it and re-post it here.
But here's the thing; not only does Mr. Duffy not get it that it's ludicrous to complain about not making ends meet on a Congressional salary when people in your district are getting by on a hell of a lot less, he's supporting cutting salaries of other public employees when he himself is one. Shared sacrifice my ass.
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I can guarantee you, or most of you, I guarantee that I have more debt than all of you. With 6 kids, I still pay off my student loans. I still pay my mortgage. I drive a used minivan. If you think I'm living high on the hog, I've got one paycheck. So I struggle to meet my bills right now. Would it be easier for me if I get more paychecks? Maybe, but at this point I'm not living high on the hog.My heart bleeds. (Six kids? Wow; you'd think by now he'd figured out what causes that.) According to Digby, "the median household income in his district was $50,520 in 2008. This guy makes more money than 95% of Americans." To top it off, he went on to say how he supports Gov. Scott Walker's plan to cut salaries and benefits for public employees. Really.
The video of Mr. Duffy's woes made it onto the Internet and the Polk County (Wisconsin) Republican website. Not surprisingly, drew a little criticism to the point that Republicans in Wisconsin demanded that the video be taken down so as to not embarrass them any further. It worked for a while, but TPM was able to obtain it and re-post it here.
But here's the thing; not only does Mr. Duffy not get it that it's ludicrous to complain about not making ends meet on a Congressional salary when people in your district are getting by on a hell of a lot less, he's supporting cutting salaries of other public employees when he himself is one. Shared sacrifice my ass.
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Opening Day
I am not a baseball nerd. I can't quote statistics or even rattle off starting line-ups. I didn't play Little League or on my high school team. But there is something about this game that draws me to enjoy it more than any other sport. Maybe it's the fact that it isn't all motion like basketball or crash and bang like football. Or maybe it's just memories of years listening to games on the radio while I painted a house or drove long distances while Ernie Harwell, the late great play-by-play man for the Tigers called the game from his perch in Tiger Stadium or on the road. Whatever it is, I love listening to it and I love the fact that it is a sport that requires more than just muscle and speed.
And before I get into the whole Field of Dreams and baseball-as-metaphor shtick, I just think that it takes me to summer, even if it is the last day of March and it's going to be cloudy and 45 for the opening pitch at Yankee Stadium. Some seasons start early and last longer.
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Short Takes
Libya: The C.I.A. has had agents in country meeting with rebels.
Meanwhile, the Libyan foreign minister showed up in London after quitting his job.
In Syria, the president blames all his troubles on a "conspiracy."
Budget negotiations are "inching" forward in the House.
President Obama wants to cut our oil imports by a third.
Ohio passes anti-union legislation.
Google and Microsoft are mixing it up over antitrust allegations.
Things are getting back to normal at MIA.
India beat Pakistan in the cricket World Cup semi-finals.
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Meanwhile, the Libyan foreign minister showed up in London after quitting his job.
In Syria, the president blames all his troubles on a "conspiracy."
Budget negotiations are "inching" forward in the House.
President Obama wants to cut our oil imports by a third.
Ohio passes anti-union legislation.
Google and Microsoft are mixing it up over antitrust allegations.
Things are getting back to normal at MIA.
India beat Pakistan in the cricket World Cup semi-finals.
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Wednesday, March 30, 2011
A Little Night Music
Target is using a remix of this Shirley Temple song from Captain January for a commercial. I thought you might like to see the real thing.
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Question of the Day
When you care enough...
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Are you a Hallmark card giver, have you gone electronic, or forget it?Not to put the knock on Hallmark -- they're big sponsors of the Inge Festival and I have good friends who work there -- but nowadays I make my own, thanks to Microsoft Publisher, or I do it on-line.
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Rooting For A Shutdown
As I noted yesterday, the prospects for a government shut-down on April 8 are looking more and more likely. And Howard Dean (remember him?) is hoping that it happens.
DougJ at Balloon Juice nails it.
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"If I was head of DNC, I would be quietly rooting for it," Dean told an audience hosted by National Journal in Washington this morning. "I know who's going to get blamed - we've been down this road before."It looks as if the Democrats are beginning to frame it that way. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) let it slip (accidentally or otherwise) that the plan is to paint everything the Republicans propose as "extreme" and let the consequences of the shut-down fall into their lap.
Dean was recalling the 1994 government shutdown engineered by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich that was politically disastrous for Republicans and boosted President Clinton's re-election prospects.
DougJ at Balloon Juice nails it.
Let’s be clear, in layman’s terms, Republicans are getting ready to shut down the government. I don’t want to hear any of you saying “the government may be shut down” or “there may be a government shut down”. Democrats have met Republicans halfway on the budget. If Republicans don’t take the deal, the Republicans will have shut down the government.I'm saving my The West Wing clips for when it actually happens.
Make no mistake.
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Here Comes The Judge
CBS is reporting that Roy Moore, the Alabama Supreme Court justice who lost his job over the Ten Commandments, is exploring a run for the presidency.
Well, we've already got Bachmann, Palin, Cain, Gingrich, Huckabee and Trump, but there's always room in the clown car for one Moore.
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The aide, Zachery Michael, said Moore's platform will be focused on repealing the health care overhaul law, replacing the progressive income tax with a flat tax and bringing "commonsense solutions" on immigration and border control.It's ironic that the more extreme the candidate, the more they like to talk about "commonsense" solutions... like massive deportations of brown people or taking over a woman's body by the state the minute she gets pregnant.
Michael said Moore is entering the fray because "we're just seeing the same type of politicians run for president." He said Moore is someone "who can connect with over 300 million Americans across the country, which is something we've been lacking with today's leaders across society."
Michael said Moore should not be thought of simply as a culture warrior, arguing that he has been a strong advocate for limited government.
"He not only stood up for his faith, he stood up against the tyranny of government," he said.
Well, we've already got Bachmann, Palin, Cain, Gingrich, Huckabee and Trump, but there's always room in the clown car for one Moore.
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How Many Times Do You Have To Tell Them?
A judge in Wisconsin has blocked the new law that limits collective bargaining rights for public employees. If that sounds like you've heard it before, you have. It's the second time that the judge has issued an injunction. The state went ahead and put it into effect anyway, and it's not over yet.
Damned activist judges. Who do they think they are?
HT to TPM.
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"Further implementation of the act is enjoined," said Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi.The judge is also threatening sanctions and further legal action against the state for defying the order.
She noted her original restraining order issued earlier this month was clear in saying that the state should not proceed with implementing the law. The Walker administration did so after the bill was published Friday by a state agency not included in Sumi's earlier temporary restraining order.
"Apparently that language was either misunderstood or ignored, but what I said was the further implementation of Act 10 was enjoined. That is what I now want to make crystal clear," she said.
But minutes later, outside the court room, Assistant Attorney General Steven Means said the legislation "absolutely" is still in effect.
Damned activist judges. Who do they think they are?
HT to TPM.
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Class Action
The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in the largest class-action lawsuit so far.
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Supreme Court justices questioned the underpinnings of a massive class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart on Tuesday and whether female employees could show that a common, discriminatory policy governed the company’s pay and promotion decisions.Just a hunch, but given the Court's make-up and the majority's love for business, I'm predicting a 5-4 ruling in favor of Wal-Mart and a set-back for class action lawsuits in general.
Even justices who seemed sympathetic to letting the largest gender discrimination lawsuit in history proceed to trial had questions about how it might go forward.
Lawyers for women suing the nation’s largest retailer built their case on affidavits from more than 100 workers and a statistical model showing that, while women make up 80 percent of the company’s hourly workers, they account for only 30 percent of its managers. They allege pay discrepancies, unequal promotion policies and a male-dominated management.
But some justices said they had trouble understanding how, in the plaintiffs’ view, Wal-Mart carried out its policy of discrimination.
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Buyer's Remorse in Florida
Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) is about as popular with the voters as a wet dog at a wedding.
As Steve Benen notes, this is part of a trend for a lot of new GOP governors; Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania are all showing polls that rate their new teabagger governors in the the low 30's and going for their opponents.
It's a little late, folks, to realize that now, and by the time it comes to rectify it, who knows how much damage will have been done.
HT to The Reid Report.
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You could say Rick Scott's honeymoon is over ... but that would suggest he had one in the first place. A December PPP poll shortly before Scott took office found that only 33% of Florida voters had a favorable opinion of their new Governor to 43% who viewed him negatively. After a few months in office those numbers have only gotten worse -- Scott's approval rating is just 32% while 55% of voters in the state are unhappy with his work so far.According to the poll, if Florida voters had it to do over again, they'd go for Democrat Alex Sink by a 19-point margin.
As Steve Benen notes, this is part of a trend for a lot of new GOP governors; Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania are all showing polls that rate their new teabagger governors in the the low 30's and going for their opponents.
It's a little late, folks, to realize that now, and by the time it comes to rectify it, who knows how much damage will have been done.
HT to The Reid Report.
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Short Takes
To arm or not to arm the Libyan rebels?
Syria's cabinet has resigned.
It's worse than they've been telling us at the Japanese nuclear plant.
The bill to remove collective bargaining rights from public employees advances in Ohio.
House GOP leaders are trying to come up with some kind of budget deal with the Democrats.
Housing prices fell in January, signaling a weak spot in the recovery.
Embattled Broward County Schools superintendent Jim Notter announced he's resigning in June.
R.I.P. Farley Granger, 85, actor and screen idol, and former member of Circle Rep.
Spring training: The Tigers lost to the Yankees. With that, spring training is over. Opening Day is Thursday as the Tigers go to Yankee Stadium.
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Syria's cabinet has resigned.
It's worse than they've been telling us at the Japanese nuclear plant.
The bill to remove collective bargaining rights from public employees advances in Ohio.
House GOP leaders are trying to come up with some kind of budget deal with the Democrats.
Housing prices fell in January, signaling a weak spot in the recovery.
Embattled Broward County Schools superintendent Jim Notter announced he's resigning in June.
R.I.P. Farley Granger, 85, actor and screen idol, and former member of Circle Rep.
Spring training: The Tigers lost to the Yankees. With that, spring training is over. Opening Day is Thursday as the Tigers go to Yankee Stadium.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Question of the Day
Typing with your thumbs?
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Do you text?No, I don't. My cell phone is five years old and under my current plan and budget, I can't afford it. I know; I'm way behind the times, but until Verizon comes up with a plan that doesn't charge for it and doesn't increase my monthly bill, you're going to have to talk to me on the phone or write me an e-mail.
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Heading For a Shutdown
Ezra Klein is not optimistic about the negotiations -- if that's what you would call them -- between the Democrats and the Republicans on keeping the government going beyond April 8.
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...Democrats, as you might imagine, aren’t interested in sticking to the menu House Republicans drew up for them. Can you imagine Chuck Schumer saying, “I’ll take the education cuts, with a side of defunding Planned Parenthood”? Democrats, rather, have begun looking for savings outside the non-defense domestic discretionary budget. And they’ve found some, But Republicans aren’t happy about it.What I find puzzling is that the Democrats ever thought they were dealing with people that actually wanted to negotiate with them. Where the hell did they get that idea?
[...]
Funny. I thought this debate had always been about the deficit, or at least cutting spending. Guess not. Rather, the Republican position appears to be: “How do we preserve current tax rates and most current spending while getting Democrats to accept deep cuts to the small fraction of the budget called non-defense discretionary spending?” It's a weird position, but it looks to be what we’re dealing with.
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Read All About It
After much fanfare and fumbling, the New York Times instituted a "digital subscription" service, which basically limits on-line readers to the amount of free stuff they can get from the paper. (Not to worry here; I have a subscription to the Sunday paper.) The Onion summed it up nicely:
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In a move that media executives, economic forecasters, and business analysts alike are calling "extremely bold," NYTimes.com put into place a groundbreaking new business model today in which the news website will charge people money to consume the goods and services it provides.Brilliant.
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Fun With Robotz
Paul Krugman noted a strange alliance between celebrity and the stock market last week.
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From the FT: stock in Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet’s company, jumps every time Anne Hathaway, the actress, gets a lot of media play.So, for all of you out there lucky enough to be able to afford a share of Berkshire Hathaway, this one's for you.
Why? The claim is that it’s the fault of robotrading algorithms, which now account for most of the market, and which sometimes rely among other things on trends in news coverage.
That’s the kind of dumb mistake human traders wouldn’t make. Unfortunately, they’d make other kinds of dumb mistakes.
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Making His Case
Listening to President Obama's speech last night, he was very forceful in telling the world what we weren't going to do in Libya. There will be no overthrow of Col. Qaddafi by force on our part, nor will there be U.S. forces on the ground there. Instead, he made it about humanitarian goals and America's role in protecting lives.
I came away a bit more mollified that we weren't really going to full-tilt war there, but also remembering that we've heard that before from presidents sending in American military forces in some way or another for nearly 100 years. What starts out as a humanitarian effort doesn't always end that way. That's not to dismiss the idea of doing it for the most lofty of goals -- to prevent a massacre -- but once you start, it's not easy to stop.
History also shapes the politics. I have no doubt that President Obama was mindful of Rwanda and Somalia and our lack of response there twenty years ago and the accusation that it was more in our national interest to save the people in Kosovo than it was to prevent genocide in Africa. And the president seemed to go out of his way to kill the right-wing meme that he doesn't believe in American exceptionalism; that we have a duty to prove to the world that we are the moral leaders and we're the ones who have the right and the obligation to stop aggression. He didn't exactly say "America! Fuck Yeah!" but it was awfully close.
The president has been criticized for not consulting Congress before committing our air forces to the allies, even though he stated that he had consulted with the leadership. Given the current state of dysfunction on Capitol Hill, it's not surprising that he didn't wait for a full-blown resolution from the House. Knowing them as they are now, the only way they would have given him any kind of blessing would be if they had repealed healthcare in the same measure.
So, did the president make his case? If he was trying to make it clear that our role is purely humanitarian and that we are there to prevent more bloodshed and make life untenable for Col. Qaddafi, he certainly hit those points. But no matter how lofty the goal, situations like this have a funny way of making up their own mind as to what the final results will be.
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To brush aside America's responsibility as a leader and -- more profoundly -- our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are. Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And as President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.He also made it very clear that Libya was a crucial spot in the world and that our intervention there was different than places such as Bahrain, Yemen, or Syria, pointing out that Qaddafi is much more aggressive against the rebels in his country than the other leaders are in theirs.
I came away a bit more mollified that we weren't really going to full-tilt war there, but also remembering that we've heard that before from presidents sending in American military forces in some way or another for nearly 100 years. What starts out as a humanitarian effort doesn't always end that way. That's not to dismiss the idea of doing it for the most lofty of goals -- to prevent a massacre -- but once you start, it's not easy to stop.
History also shapes the politics. I have no doubt that President Obama was mindful of Rwanda and Somalia and our lack of response there twenty years ago and the accusation that it was more in our national interest to save the people in Kosovo than it was to prevent genocide in Africa. And the president seemed to go out of his way to kill the right-wing meme that he doesn't believe in American exceptionalism; that we have a duty to prove to the world that we are the moral leaders and we're the ones who have the right and the obligation to stop aggression. He didn't exactly say "America! Fuck Yeah!" but it was awfully close.
The president has been criticized for not consulting Congress before committing our air forces to the allies, even though he stated that he had consulted with the leadership. Given the current state of dysfunction on Capitol Hill, it's not surprising that he didn't wait for a full-blown resolution from the House. Knowing them as they are now, the only way they would have given him any kind of blessing would be if they had repealed healthcare in the same measure.
So, did the president make his case? If he was trying to make it clear that our role is purely humanitarian and that we are there to prevent more bloodshed and make life untenable for Col. Qaddafi, he certainly hit those points. But no matter how lofty the goal, situations like this have a funny way of making up their own mind as to what the final results will be.
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Short Takes
President Obama said our role in Libya is limited and humanitarian.
Meanwhile, rebels in Libya halt their advance.
Plutonium has been found in the soil outside the Japanese nuclear plant.
Michigan cuts jobless benefits by six weeks.
Democrats from the Indiana state house end their hold-out and return to work.
Grade inflation? Michelle Rhee's results in Washington, D.C. schools may not have been as good as we thought.
Flight delays and cancellations continue at MIA.
Florida considers decriminalizing sexting.
Spring training: The Tigers lost to the Orioles.
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Meanwhile, rebels in Libya halt their advance.
Plutonium has been found in the soil outside the Japanese nuclear plant.
Michigan cuts jobless benefits by six weeks.
Democrats from the Indiana state house end their hold-out and return to work.
Grade inflation? Michelle Rhee's results in Washington, D.C. schools may not have been as good as we thought.
Flight delays and cancellations continue at MIA.
Florida considers decriminalizing sexting.
Spring training: The Tigers lost to the Orioles.
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Monday, March 28, 2011
There's One Born Every Minute - Continued
The latest buzz in the right-wing nutsery is that they finally caught William Ayers admitting that he was the author of Barack Obama's Dreams of My Father, which has been one of their many talking points since the book came out. Here's the transcript:
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Bill Ayers: One more, one more (question)And the guardians of democracy actually fell for it.
Question: Thank you sir, thank you, thank you. Time magazine columnist Joe Klein wrote that President Obama's book, "Dreams from My Father," quote: "may be the best written memoir ever produced by an American politician."
Ayers: I agree with that.
Question: What is your opinion of Barack Obama's style as a writer and uh ...
Ayers: I think the book is very good, the second book ("The Audacity of Hope") is more of a political hack book, but uh, the first book is quite good.
Question: Also, you just mentioned the Pentagon and Tomahawk ...
Ayers: Did you know that I wrote it, incidentally?
Question: What's that?
Ayers: I wrote that book.
Several audience members: Yeah, we know that.
Question: You wrote that?
Ayers: Yeah, yeah. And if you help me prove it, I'll split the royalties with you. Thank you very much.
Laughter and Applause
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Question of the Day
With spring break still going on for some...
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Have you ever been on a cruise?No. I know a lot of people who have and they love them, but it's not my idea of a vacation. I'm a solitary do-nothing-at-all kind of vacationer. They're also not cheap.
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Religious Test
Think Progress noted over the weekend that Herman Cain, the pizza entrepreneur who's running for the GOP nomination, said he would not appoint a Muslim to his cabinet or a federal judgeship.
I love irony.
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There is this creeping attempt, there is this attempt to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government. It does not belong in our government. This is what happened in Europe. And little by little, to try and be politically correct, they made this little change, they made this little change. And now they've got a social problem that they don't know what to do with hardly.Yes, I know that Mr. Cain has no chance whatsoever of getting to be the Republican nominee in 2012, but as Steve Benen noted, he's not the only GOP candidate with this point of view.
In the fall of 2007, Romney said he would not consider Muslim Americans for his cabinet. Indeed, he said this more than once, in front of plenty of witnesses.Aside from the little detail that it's unconstitutional to apply a religious test to someone for public office, Mr. Romney has himself faced questions from people in his own party about his Mormon faith, and there is a strong base of Republican voters who would no sooner vote for a Mormon than they would for a Muslim.
I love irony.
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Cage Match: Good War/Stupid War
Juan Cole of Informed Consent has an open letter to liberals as to why Libya in 2011 is not like Iraq in 2003 in any way. He concludes:
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I would like to urge the Left to learn to chew gum and walk at the same time. It is possible to reason our way through, on a case-by-case basis, to an ethical progressive position that supports the ordinary folk in their travails in places like Libya. If we just don’t care if the people of Benghazi are subjected to murder and repression on a vast scale, we aren’t people of the Left. We should avoid making ‘foreign intervention’ an absolute taboo the way the Right makes abortion an absolute taboo if doing so makes us heartless (inflexible a priori positions often lead to heartlessness).BooMan responds that Mr. Cole's portrait of a lot of liberals is off the mark.
I'd be the first to admit that there are some dumb people on the left who take some really awful positions on certain issues, but most people that I know who oppose this intervention oppose it because it's stupid. Obama promised us no stupid wars, and then he gave us one.
But, you know, that's bygones. I thought it wasn't in our national interests; the president disagrees. So, now I say that we need to go get Gaddafi and not waste time trying to placate an alliance of self-doubters. Do not try to topple him using a rag-tag group of bored teenagers. We don't need to turn Libya into Somalia in order to save it.
And if anyone wants us to do regime change in some other country, my response is most likely going to be the same. It's not our job or our responsibility. If someone else wants to do it, I don't necessarily object and might even be willing to play a part. But we must stop looking to America to be the cop on the beat. John Boehner says we're broke and that we need to take away granny's pension. The Myanmar freedom fighters can call me when granny's got her money back.
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Still Waiting
Ross Douthat says that President Obama won't call the Libyan situation a "war" and then asks him four important questions: what are our objectives, who are the rebels we're helping, who gets it next, and why is Libya so important anyway?
Those are all valid questions, but I might not feel like Mr. Douthat and the rest of the conservative surrender monkeys weren't being such concern trolls if they had had the temerity to ask the same questions about Iraq to President Bush and demanded the answers so impatiently.
Cartoon by Rob Rogers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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Those are all valid questions, but I might not feel like Mr. Douthat and the rest of the conservative surrender monkeys weren't being such concern trolls if they had had the temerity to ask the same questions about Iraq to President Bush and demanded the answers so impatiently.
Cartoon by Rob Rogers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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Short Takes
Libyan rebels are on the march toward a Qaddafi stronghold.
Gates and Clinton on Libya: "Days, not weeks"? Not so much.
Syria tries to calm their own political crisis.
Seawater radiation may be spreading in northern Japan.
A truck bomb killed 20 people in Afghanistan.
Flight delays and cancellations continue at Miami International after last week's fuel depot fire.
Facebook might "like" former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
Theatre review: Daniel Radcliffe gets a mixed notice in the revival of "How to Succeed at Business..."
Spring training: The Tigers beat the Astros
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Gates and Clinton on Libya: "Days, not weeks"? Not so much.
Syria tries to calm their own political crisis.
Seawater radiation may be spreading in northern Japan.
A truck bomb killed 20 people in Afghanistan.
Flight delays and cancellations continue at Miami International after last week's fuel depot fire.
Facebook might "like" former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
Theatre review: Daniel Radcliffe gets a mixed notice in the revival of "How to Succeed at Business..."
Spring training: The Tigers beat the Astros
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Sunday, March 27, 2011
A Little Night Music
If you lived near Detroit in the 1970's like I did and watched TV -- like I did -- then this commercial will bring back a lot of memories.
Trivia: the man in the striped coat leading the song is Harold Peary who made his name in radio and TV. The commercial utilized the Boblo boat that was used to ferry passengers to Boblo Island Amusement Park in the Detroit River.
HT to Rick at SFDB for reminding me of old commercials that bring back memories.
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Trivia: the man in the striped coat leading the song is Harold Peary who made his name in radio and TV. The commercial utilized the Boblo boat that was used to ferry passengers to Boblo Island Amusement Park in the Detroit River.
HT to Rick at SFDB for reminding me of old commercials that bring back memories.
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Quote of the Day
Newt Gingrich to Chris Wallace on why he's not a hypocrite for impeaching Bill Clinton for lying about an affair while he, Mr. Gingrich, was having an affair and how screwing around on his wife made him the ideal person to impeach the president:
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WALLACE: I’ll ask you man-to-man. did you think to yourself I’m living in a really glass house? Maybe I shouldn’t be throwing stones?I'd call Mr. Gingrich a douchebag, but that would be an insult to all the other hygiene products in the world.
GINGRICH: No. I thought to myself if I cannot do what I have to do as a public leader, I would have resigned.
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Sunday Reading
Rick Scott's Medicaid Overhaul -- Suzy Khimm of Mother Jones reports that Florida's governor is pushing a privatization plan that could be a major boon for health care companies. Like his.
Religious Test -- Leonard Pitts, Jr. tests your knowledge of scriptural quotes.
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More below the fold.Republican governor Rick Scott's push to privatize Medicaid in Florida is highly controversial—not least because the health care business Scott handed over to his wife when he took office could reap a major profit if the legislation becomes law.
Scott and Florida Republicans are currently trying to enact a sweeping Medicaid reform bill that would give HMOs and other private health care companies unprecedented control over the government health care program for the poor. Among the companies that stand to benefit from the bill is Solantic, a chain of urgent-care clinics aimed at providing emergency services to walk-in customers. The Florida governor founded Solantic in 2001, only a few years after he resigned as the CEO of hospital giant Columbia/HCA amid a massive Medicare fraud scandal. In January, he transferred his $62 million stake in Solantic to his wife, Ann Scott, a homemaker involved in various charitable organizations.
Florida Democrats and independent legal experts say this handover hardly absolves Scott of a major conflict of interest. As part of a federally approved pilot program that began in 2005, certain Medicaid patients in Florida were allowed to start using their Medicaid dollars at private clinics like Solantic. The Medicaid bill that Scott is now pushing would expand the pilot privatization program to the entire state of Florida, offering Solantic a huge new business opportunity.
"This is a conflict of interest that raises a serious ethical issue," says Marc Rodwin, a medical ethics professor at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. "The public should be thinking and worrying about this."
With Scott's blessing, the Florida statehouse is currently hammering out the final details of the Medicaid bill, with a vote expected in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, Scott has moved forward on another front that could also bring new business to Solantic. On Tuesday, he signed an executive order requiring random drug testing of many state employees and applicants for state jobs. He's also urged state legislators to pass a similar bill that would require drug testing of poor Floridians applying for welfare.
Among the services that Solantic offers: drug testing.
Religious Test -- Leonard Pitts, Jr. tests your knowledge of scriptural quotes.
OK, put your books away. We’re having a pop quiz.Con or Not? Spring Hill, Tennessee, is waiting to see if Festival Tennessee is the real deal or an elaborate con.
Below are four quotes. Each is from one of two sources: the Bible or the Koran, although, just to make things interesting, there’s also a chance all four are from one book. Two were edited for length and one of those was also edited to remove a religion-specific reference. Your job: identify the holy book of origin. Ready? Go:
1) “. . . Wherever you encounter [non-believers], kill them, seize them, besiege them, wait for them at every lookout post . . .”
2) “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”
3) “If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’ . . . do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death.”
4) “Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.”
All right, pens down. How did you do?
If you identified the first quote as being from the Koran (9:5) and the other three as originating in the Bible (Matthew 10:34, Deuteronomy 13:6-9, Numbers 31:17-18), I congratulate you on that degree in theology. If I have guessed correctly, most people will not have found it easy to place the quotes in their proper books. If I have guessed correctly, most people will have found a certain thematic similarity in them.
Yes, there is a point here: I wish people would stop cherry-picking warlike quotes from the Koran to “prove” the evil of Islam. You see this stuff all over the web. Just a few days ago, some anonymous person, angry with me for defending “Fascist/Nazi Islam” the writer says is trying to kill us all, sent me an e-mail quoting Koranic exhortations to violence to prove that Islam is a “religion of hate and murder.”
As rhetorical devices go, it is a cheap parlor trick, a con job to fool the foolish and gull the gullible and for anyone who has spent quality time with the Bible, its shortcomings should be obvious.
If not, see the pop quiz again. The Koran is hardly unique in its admonitions to take up the sword.
It is not my intention here to parse any of those troubling quotes. Let us leave it to religious scholars to contextualize them, to explain how they square with the contention that Islam and Christianity are religions of peace. For our purposes, it is sufficient to note that, while both Christian and Muslim scholars will offer that context and explanation, only Christians can be assured of being taken at their word when they do.
Christians get the benefit of the doubt. Muslims get Glenn Beck asking a Muslim Congressman to “prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.”
Because Christianity is regarded as a known — and a norm. Muslims, meantime, have been drafted since Sept. 11, 2001, to fulfill the nation’s obsessive, historic, paranoiac and ongoing need to rally against an enemy within. We lost the Commies, but along came the Islamo-fascists. The names change. The endless capacity for irrational panic remains the same.
As in people who send out e-mails insisting upon the rightness of holding over a billion people — that bears repeating: over a billion people — responsible for the actions of, what . . .? A few hundred? A few thousand?
Some of us use lies, exaggerations and rhetorical gobbledygook to instill in the rest of us that irrational panic they breathe like air. Yes, it is only sensible to fear the threat we face from terrorism. But panicked, irrational people are capable of anything.
Might be wise if we chose to fear that, too.
Earlier this month, at a news conference in a field on the east side of the city, a man named Dennis W. Peterson announced that he was bringing a theme park to the Tennessee countryside.Doonesbury -- Facebook updates.
The park, he said, would be called Festival Tennessee, and it would cost around $750 million. On these bucolic 1,500 acres, there would be two resort hotels with 4,000 rooms apiece. There would be 80 restaurants and clubs, as well as one of the largest water parks in the United States. And a stadium. And, with any luck, an NBA franchise. And a television production studio. Also, a charter school.
Mr. Peterson estimated that Festival Tennessee would create 15,000 jobs, maybe even 20,000. And, he said, it would be open in less than two years.
People had a few questions: Who was this man? What was his background? Where was he getting the money for all this? What happened to his front teeth? (They were recently lost, he explained to reporters, to a crispy chicken wing at Hooters.)
Michael Dinwiddie, the mayor of Spring Hill, was one of the only people to know about the project, having quietly worked on it with Mr. Peterson for two months. It thrilled him. For a small city like Spring Hill, 45 minutes from Nashville, it was the magic kingdom of economic development.
In surrounding Maury County, the unemployment rate is around 14 percent, a result of the recession and a 2009 decision by General Motors to stop producing Saturns at the plant here.
Spring Hill itself was not as dependent on the plant. A quiet farming town only a few decades ago, it has become a bedroom community for people who work in Nashville and its suburbs.
But this could turn Spring Hill into a destination. “This project will also generate tens of millions of dollars in sales tax and property tax revenues,” Mr. Dinwiddie said at the news conference.
Still, there was something curious about the whole thing. For one, no one had contacted state authorities about the plans.
Local reporters and bloggers uncovered more oddities, starting with Mr. Peterson’s company, the Big International Group of Entertainment. The company, it was discovered, had its license revoked last year by the State of Nevada. The company’s president, Roger Kidneigh, who did not return messages seeking comment, had declared personal bankruptcy, claiming assets of less than $200,000.
Reached by phone, the woman listed as the company’s treasurer said she had never actually worked for Big International Group and did not want her name associated with it.
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Short Takes
Higher radiation levels have been found at the nuclear plant in Japan.
Air strikes are helping the rebels make major advances in Libya.
The Taliban have claimed to have kidnapped 50 people in Afghanistan.
An avalanche in Switzerland left four people dead and one missing.
Former President Jimmy Carter is traveling to Cuba to meet with the Jewish community there. There are hints his visit might be connected with the case of Alan Gross, a U.S. contractor recently convicted of spying.
R.I.P. Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket.
Spring training: The Tigers beat the Phillies.
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Air strikes are helping the rebels make major advances in Libya.
The Taliban have claimed to have kidnapped 50 people in Afghanistan.
An avalanche in Switzerland left four people dead and one missing.
Former President Jimmy Carter is traveling to Cuba to meet with the Jewish community there. There are hints his visit might be connected with the case of Alan Gross, a U.S. contractor recently convicted of spying.
R.I.P. Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket.
Spring training: The Tigers beat the Phillies.
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Saturday, March 26, 2011
Jon Stewart Goes After Psycho Stepdad Governors
Speaking of government by decree, the state of Wisconsin has put the anti-union law into effect despite a court order to stop it.
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Losing Our Way
Bob Herbert, the incisive and often brilliant, angry, and funny op-ed columnist for the New York Times, is leaving his post after nearly eighteen years. He does not go quietly.
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So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.He never minces words, either, and I hope that in his next venture, he keeps it up. Best wishes, Mr. Herbert.
Welcome to America in the second decade of the 21st century. An army of long-term unemployed workers is spread across the land, the human fallout from the Great Recession and long years of misguided economic policies. Optimism is in short supply. The few jobs now being created too often pay a pittance, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a middle-class standard of living.
Arthur Miller, echoing the poet Archibald MacLeish, liked to say that the essence of America was its promises. That was a long time ago. Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic decline. Young people today are staring at a future in which they will be less well off than their elders, a reversal of fortune that should send a shudder through everyone.
The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.
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Short Takes
Libyan rebels claim they've retaken a key city.
Dozens are feared dead after anti-government demonstrations in Syria.
Radioactivity is very high in the seawater near the nuclear plant in Japan.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government was voted out by Parliament; elections are slated for May.
Here we go again; budget negotiations are leading up to another threat of a shutdown.
Florida employment figures improved in February.
A distemper outbreak has closed a Miami animal shelter.
Spring training: The Tigers lost to the Braves.
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Dozens are feared dead after anti-government demonstrations in Syria.
Radioactivity is very high in the seawater near the nuclear plant in Japan.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government was voted out by Parliament; elections are slated for May.
Here we go again; budget negotiations are leading up to another threat of a shutdown.
Florida employment figures improved in February.
A distemper outbreak has closed a Miami animal shelter.
Spring training: The Tigers lost to the Braves.
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Friday, March 25, 2011
Question of the Day
I've asked this before, but...
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What one teacher will you always feel "changed your life"?There were several, but the one who stands out will always be Jenny Barthold; Jenny Hankins when I had her in high school. She encouraged my love of theatre and writing, and had it not been for her, I would have missed out on a lot, including getting to know and love the works of Lanford Wilson (see below.) And I can't forget the Old Professor, who told me I was a better writer than actor. He's probably right.
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Lanford Wilson -- 1937-2011
The first play of his that I read was Fifth of July. I was in grad school at the University of Colorado in 1983 and had not yet decided what I would write my thesis on. I was kicking around some ideas about the realistic theatre movement and not really excited about it. Then one day I happened to pick up a copy of the play that was lying on one of my office-mates' desk. I sat down and read the entire play in one sitting, completely absorbed in the world he had created of the Talley family -- Ken, the gay Vietnam vet who had lost both legs in the war; and his lover Jed; June, Ken's sister and her daughter Shirley; Aunt Sally, who carried around the ashes of her beloved husband Matt in a candy box, and all of them in this rambling old farmhouse in rural Missouri. The voices were so real I could hear them, and when I saw the play filmed with love by his longtime collaborator and director Marshall W. Mason, I knew I had found not just a kindred spirit as a writer, but someone who knew the same people I did and felt as deeply about them.
I immediately sought out as many of his plays as I could find; Talley's Folly, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play that tells of the romance between Matt and Sally in 1944; The Hot L Baltimore, an ensemble play about a run-down hotel and the characters who inhabit the lobby; Balm in Gilead; Serenading Louie; The Gingham Dog; The Rimers of Eldritch; The Mound Builders; Lemon Sky; Angels Fall; early one-acts from his days and nights at the Caffe Cino, scene studies and exercises for the Circle Repertory Company that he founded with Marshall W. Mason, Tanya Berezin, and Rob Thirkield in 1969. They ranged from wildly funny to scary dark and everything in between, all with his distinctive lyrical touch of wit, charm, and acidic bite when necessary. I never read a play of his that didn't instill a sense of wonder and enjoyment, even when he wrote characters that made me cringe. His world is not populated with grand heroes or dastardly villains; they're ordinary people learning to cope, love, care, and in many respects they are outsiders who know all too well that the world is not giving them some great reward. His plays deal with the dramas and traumas of life, but not on a grand scale; loss and sorrow as well as joy and love are expressed with a touch or a word, not with long heartfelt speeches, and that makes them all that much more powerful.
I knew almost immediately that I had found what I was looking for, and when I proposed to my doctoral committee a study of the collaboration of Lanford Wilson and Marshall W. Mason at the Circle Rep, it was accepted. I also knew I had to get in touch with him, so I wrote to his agent, Bridget Aschenberg, requesting to meet him and interview him. Ms. Aschenberg, who had a reputation for being terse, wrote back and said she would consider it but not to get my hopes up. I was disappointed, but then my adviser suggested that I simply go around the agent and contact Mr. Wilson directly through the theatre. I did, and within a week I had a hand-written response expressing delight that someone wanted to write about him and told me to let him know when I would be in New York and we could meet. In March 1985 I took the plunge and went to New York to begin my research and interview both Mr. Wilson and Mr. Mason. I remember distinctly walking up the flight of stairs to the offices of the Circle Rep, located in a slightly run-down Art Deco style building in Greenwich Village that also housed the rehearsal space. My appointment with Mr. Wilson was on the book, but -- oh no -- he was stuck out at his house on Long Island, laid up with sciatica. Sag Harbor was hours away and I was on a shoe-string budget. But then the phone rang. It was him. He apologized profusely for missing our appointment, and he said, "Please call me Lance; why don't we just chat for a while?" So we did, and we found out that we had a lot of things in common. We must have talked for an hour, and I stopped taking notes after the first five minutes because it was like talking to a friend.
Later that day I went to a local pub with Marshall W. Mason, who graciously answered all my questions into my little mini-recorder, and then invited me to watch a play reading of a new work the next afternoon. I got to watch him work as a director and learned more in one afternoon than all of the classes I'd taken on directing in my college career. I also took notes because back in Boulder I was in the middle of directing a production of Fifth of July. The notes were the first thing I unpacked when I got home.
Later that summer I drove all the way across country -- making a stop in Stratford, Ontario -- to see a performance of the final play in the Talley series, Talley & Son in Saratoga Springs, New York. It was the third of three and rounded out my studies of the Wilson/Mason collaboration. After the performance I sat up until two a.m. with them talking about their work, listening to their stories, meeting their company (including Helen Stenborg), and knowing that my doctoral thesis had now become a labor of love.
In 2001, with much prodding from me and several other fans of his work, the William Inge Theatre Festival honored Lanford Wilson with their Distinguished Achievement in American Theatre award. In one respect, Lance didn't want the award; he told me that he had a lot more to do and it was too early to be recognized for his work. Marshall Mason once said, "Lanford still hasn't written a play as good as [A] Streetcar [Named Desire]. He may not. Whatever. He will have written plays that no one else could have written... He'll find his own niche in history. We'll see."
"Matt didn’t believe in death and I don’t either.... There’s no such thing. It goes on and then it stops. You can’t worry about the stopping, you have to worry about the going on." – Sally Talley, Fifth of July.Photo by Maxine Hicks.
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Bachmann Hinting at Running
CNN is reporting that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is forming an exploratory committee to see if she should run for president in 2012. That means she's going to do it; it's just a matter of when.
And you thought vaudeville was out of style. To quote Mel Brooks, "Sondheim! Send in the clowns!"
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And you thought vaudeville was out of style. To quote Mel Brooks, "Sondheim! Send in the clowns!"
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Friday Blogaround
First full week of spring, end of spring break, and Libya. Wow.
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A Blog Around The Clock links to a post about stealth percussionists in the animal kingdom.Opening Day is coming....
archy is raising Arizona. (PS: Happy blogiversary, archy.)
Bark Bark Woof Woof marks the first anniversary of the healthcare law.
Dohiyi Mir: if only it was a question of science.
Echidne Of The Snakes: she made him do it.
Florida Progressive Coalition Blog: Gov. Scott on Facebook.
The Invisible Library: haunted by the future.
Left Is Right: Humanitarians of the year.
Pen-Elayne on the Web notes William Shatner's 80th birthday.
Rook's Rant on the start of the "intervention" in Libya.
rubber hose and the Arab timeline.
Scrutiny Hooligans: how high are taxes?
Stupid Enough Unexplanation: bestest nation evah.
The Yellow Something Something on South Dakota and coercion.
WTF Is It Now?? -- hey it's spring.
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Short Takes
NATO takes over the no-fly zone in Libya.
Thousands of people protested against the government in Syria.
The president of Yemen may be on the verge of resigning.
The government of Portugal is on the verge of collapsing over a budget crisis.
Japanese officials say the core might have been breached at one of the reactors.
The census shows we're becoming a multiracial country.
Jobless numbers keep edging down.
Spring training: The Tigers lost to the Nationals.
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Thousands of people protested against the government in Syria.
The president of Yemen may be on the verge of resigning.
The government of Portugal is on the verge of collapsing over a budget crisis.
Japanese officials say the core might have been breached at one of the reactors.
The census shows we're becoming a multiracial country.
Jobless numbers keep edging down.
Spring training: The Tigers lost to the Nationals.
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Thursday, March 24, 2011
Question of the Day
Suggested by Athena:
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What was your favorite Elizabeth Taylor movie?It would probably be Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It's a full-tilt chew-the-scenery exercise, but I think she took a hell of a risk to play the part. It was not exactly Life With Father, and it was better than the sanitized Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
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Inartful
The new governor of Maine, Paul LePage (R-Teaparty), has ordered the removal of some bothersome artwork.
Mr. Ashcroft did it because he's a prude. Mr. LePage is removing the murals about laborers because he's an anti-union corporatist hack (and a boor to boot). History has demonstrated time and again that people who are intimidated by art and try to control it should not be trusted with any form of political power.
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Gov. Paul LePage has ordered the removal of a 36-foot mural depicting Maine's labor history from the lobby of the Department of Labor.This reminds me of former Attorney General John Ashcroft's move back in 2002 to cover the statutes in the Great Hall of the Justice Department because they showed the bare breasts on the Spirit of Justice.
Worker advocates described the move as a "mean-spirited" provocation amid the administration's high-tension standoff with unions.
Acting labor chief Laura Boyett emailed staff Tuesday about the mural's pending removal, as well as another administration directive to rename several department conference rooms that carry the names of pro-labor icons such as Cesar Chavez.
Mr. Ashcroft did it because he's a prude. Mr. LePage is removing the murals about laborers because he's an anti-union corporatist hack (and a boor to boot). History has demonstrated time and again that people who are intimidated by art and try to control it should not be trusted with any form of political power.
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Nobody Knows The Trouble He Sees
Apparently House Speaker John Boehner has trouble figuring some things out about our mission in Libya.
People may not agree with the action, but if they do, they should state their opposition clearly as well, not hide behind some crock about not getting it. All that does is make them look unintelligent.
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House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner wrote to President Barack Obama on Wednesday to say he is "troubled" that U.S. military resources were committed to Libya without clearly defining the mission there.As JM Ashby writes, the mission was defined several times by the president, the U.N. resolution, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In the letter, a copy of which was released to the media by Boehner's aides, the Republican speaker asked Obama, a Democrat, to provide a clear assessment of the mission in Libya to both "the American people and Congress."
Boehner said that the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing military intervention in Libya "does not substitute for a U.S. political and military strategy."
People may not agree with the action, but if they do, they should state their opposition clearly as well, not hide behind some crock about not getting it. All that does is make them look unintelligent.
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Happy Anniversary, ACA
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Health Care Act, known to the middle-school clique on Fox and Capitol Hill as "Obamacare (neener-neener)." They celebrated by lying their asses off about about it. Steve Benen sums it up:
What's going to be fun is watching the Republicans continue to lie about the healthcare law while at the same time trying to run Mitt Romney, the man who set up the model for the ACA in Massachusetts, as their candidate for president in 2012. We should set up a bingo card for the different ways they try to explain how the law he promoted and signed into law is nothing at all like what was signed into law by President Obama. They will take the fine art of bullshit to heights we've only dreamed of.
PS: Sen. Ron Johnson, newly-elected Republican from Wisconsin, had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal tearing down the healthcare bill. Aaron Carroll of The Incidental Economist takes him apart.
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Perhaps the most exasperating aspect of health care debate was the incessant lying. An aggressive rhetoric fight over ideological goals makes sense, and plenty of overheated predictions are to be expected, but claims made by opponents of reform turned out to be so soul-crushingly false, it was genuinely depressing.And with all their fabrications, obfuscations, and falsehoods, they have yet to offer anything other than "repeal." For a while they were doing the "repeal and replace" bit until they realized that they hadn't come up with anything to replace it with. That's because they don't want to replace it; they want to go back to the old way of having our healthcare system in the hands of corporations and run it as a for-profit enterprise. After all, it worked for Rick Scott, and look where that got him.
At one point, during the House debate, Ruth Marcus marveled at the "appalling amount of misinformation being peddled" by Republicans. "I don't mean the usual hyperbole.... I mean the flood of sheer factual misstatements," she said at the time. "You have to wonder: Are the Republican arguments against the bill so weak that they have to resort to these misrepresentations and distortions?"
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A year later, Republicans are still trying to kill the policy -- and they're still lying. We're not talking about exaggerations; we're talking about demonstrable errors of fact.
What's going to be fun is watching the Republicans continue to lie about the healthcare law while at the same time trying to run Mitt Romney, the man who set up the model for the ACA in Massachusetts, as their candidate for president in 2012. We should set up a bingo card for the different ways they try to explain how the law he promoted and signed into law is nothing at all like what was signed into law by President Obama. They will take the fine art of bullshit to heights we've only dreamed of.
PS: Sen. Ron Johnson, newly-elected Republican from Wisconsin, had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal tearing down the healthcare bill. Aaron Carroll of The Incidental Economist takes him apart.
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Make Up Your Mind, Newt
Newt Gingrich was for the intervention in Libya before he was against it.
What it basically comes down to is that if President Obama is for something, he's against it, and if President Obama is against it, he's for it. He could have saved himself a lot of trouble if he had just come out with that.
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Earlier this month, former Speaker of the House and current presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich was hammering President Obama for not intervening in Libya.Mr. Gingrich has now gone to Facebook -- where else -- to explain his flip-flop, but his post is so convoluted that it makes no sense in practical terms. Or standard English, for that matter. (As one commenter noted, Mr. Gingrich has had as many positions on Libya as he's had marriages.)
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Now that Obama has initiated a no-fly zone over Libya, Gingrich has completely reversed his position with no apparent explanation. He told Politico over the weekend — less than 24 hours after Obama took action — that “it is impossible to make sense of the standard for intervention in Libya except opportunism and news media publicity.”
What it basically comes down to is that if President Obama is for something, he's against it, and if President Obama is against it, he's for it. He could have saved himself a lot of trouble if he had just come out with that.
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Short Takes
The "enforcement" in Libya won't be over tomorrow. Or the next day.
A bomb exploded at a bus stop in Jerusalem, killing one person and injuring several dozen.
Bottled water is very popular in Tokyo these days.
Same-sex marriage is still on hold in California while the appeal of the overturn of Prop 8 is underway.
Scary landing: Two planes at Washington Reagan landed while the traffic controller was asleep.
Gov. Scott wants to "study" whether public money should be spent on hospitals or given to private health care providers. Given his history, the answer is obvious.
Still not dead, Fidel Castro apologizes for not being clear that he's no longer in charge of Cuba.
A big fire burned through the night at the fuel farm at Miami International Airport.
R.I.P. Helen Stenborg, character actor in many films and plays and member of the Circle Repertory Theatre acting company.
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A bomb exploded at a bus stop in Jerusalem, killing one person and injuring several dozen.
Bottled water is very popular in Tokyo these days.
Same-sex marriage is still on hold in California while the appeal of the overturn of Prop 8 is underway.
Scary landing: Two planes at Washington Reagan landed while the traffic controller was asleep.
Gov. Scott wants to "study" whether public money should be spent on hospitals or given to private health care providers. Given his history, the answer is obvious.
Still not dead, Fidel Castro apologizes for not being clear that he's no longer in charge of Cuba.
A big fire burned through the night at the fuel farm at Miami International Airport.
R.I.P. Helen Stenborg, character actor in many films and plays and member of the Circle Repertory Theatre acting company.
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Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Question of the Day
Obvious follow-up to yesterday's QOTD (and probably a repeat from a long time ago):
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What's your favorite board game?As noted yesterday, it's Scrabble for me, but a close second is Monopoly, even though I don't have the financial chops like some people I know. A long time ago some friends and I played a marathon game that went almost twelve hours. I didn't win, but I didn't lose, either.
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Made For Each Other
Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, already has a reputation as an outspoken right-winger in her own right (as well as harking back to Martha Mitchell with oddly-placed phone calls). Now she's going to be a contributor to Tucker Carlson's publication The Daily Caller.
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As The Daily Caller's special correspondent, Thomas will interview key political and community leaders -- from high-profile politicians to grassroots activists -- with a focus on listening to those outside the Beltway.They go together like salt and peter.
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Huckabee: Bring Back DADT
Once-and-future presidential candidate Mike Huckabee wants to bring back Don't Ask Don't Tell.
Just because Mr. Huckabee doesn't like the results of the survey doesn't mean that the survey is wrong; he is.
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“I would — because that’s really what the military wants,” says Huckabee. “There’s been some talk that the military is fine with having same-sex orientation people. But if you really surveyed the combat troops, that is not at all the case.”I don't have first-hand experience with the military, but it's my understanding that it is not run on a democratic basis. Soldiers are issued orders, they follow them, and that's it. By the way, the Pentagon did do a survey on DADT just to mollify the politicians and found that the majority of them have no problem serving with openly gay or lesbian soldiers.
According to Huckabee, currently a political analyst for Fox News, politicians should back out of the picture. “…I don’t think that these are decisions that politicians should make. These are decisions that soldiers should make,” he says emphatically. “And when the soldiers in the foxholes make the decisions, they choose something different — and we should listen to them.”
Just because Mr. Huckabee doesn't like the results of the survey doesn't mean that the survey is wrong; he is.
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Warning Shot on Education Cuts
A judge's ruling on spending in education in New Jersey may have ripple effects in other states.
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Judge Peter Doyne, who was appointed as special master in the long-running Abbott vs. Burke school funding case, today issued an opinion that also found the reductions “fell more heavily upon our high risk districts and the children educated within those districts.”This should be a warning to the folks in Tallahassee: cutting spending on education can be costly.
“Despite spending levels that meet or exceed virtually every state in the country, and that saw a significant increase in spending levels from 2000 to 2008, our ‘at risk’ children are now moving further from proficiency,” he said.
“The difficulty in addressing New Jersey’s fiscal crisis and its constitutionally mandated obligation to educate our children requires an exquisite balance not easily attained,” Doyne wrote. “Something need be done to equitably address these competing imperatives. That answer, though, is beyond the purview of this report. For the limited question posed to the Master, it is clear the State has failed to carry its burden.“
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Survival of the Twittest
Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) held his first town hall meeting via Facebook.
Footnote: Apparently the governor prefers snail-mail, which makes you wonder why he has an e-mail address.
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The governor was bombarded with questions on his Facebook page and soon found when he began responding, it wasn't easy to find the answers. The people he responded to would get notified on their pages, but with hundreds of questions streaming in, others trying to follow along would have to scroll through in a not-so-easy search.Does he really think that he would be able to get substantial questions and answers in 140 characters? Or is that just an indication of his depth of knowledge and ability? LOL.
In a quick attempt to fix the problem, questions were cut and pasted into his personal update box. He'd then fill in an answer, leaving a little less space than he should have and making the process more cumbersome. He switched back and forth between two laptops as a staffer teed up questions on one while he answered on another to make it more efficient.
Scott held a Twitter town hall in January that went much smoother.
"Twitter was way easier to respond," he said. "We got way more answers when we did the Twitter one."
Footnote: Apparently the governor prefers snail-mail, which makes you wonder why he has an e-mail address.
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Short Takes
Libya: more air strikes hit Tripoli.
A U.S. jet fighter crashed in Libya due to mechanical failure. The pilots are okay.
Japan: There might be radiation in tap water in Tokyo.
South Dakota has enacted a very strict abortion law.
Florida is looking at a slew of laws that would restrict a woman's right to reproductive choice.
According to the Census, Detroit has lost 25% of its population.
Spring training: The Tigers lost to the Mets.
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A U.S. jet fighter crashed in Libya due to mechanical failure. The pilots are okay.
Japan: There might be radiation in tap water in Tokyo.
South Dakota has enacted a very strict abortion law.
Florida is looking at a slew of laws that would restrict a woman's right to reproductive choice.
According to the Census, Detroit has lost 25% of its population.
Spring training: The Tigers lost to the Mets.
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Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Question of the Day
Gamesmanship....
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Chess or checkers?Neither. I'm lousy at both. But if we're talking Scrabble...
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Original Owners
Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce, the man who gave his state the "papers, please" immigration bill, is teaching his fellow citizens that they are not citizens of the United States; they are citizens of Arizona first, and the federal government has no power to dictate to the states on matters of such things as immigration.
Apparently Mr. Pearce missed that day in high school civics when they covered the Constitution and the part where it states that it is the supreme law of the land. And as BooMan points out, if Mr. Pearce wishes to go back to the "original intent" of the Constitution, history might provide him with an interesting lesson.
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Apparently Mr. Pearce missed that day in high school civics when they covered the Constitution and the part where it states that it is the supreme law of the land. And as BooMan points out, if Mr. Pearce wishes to go back to the "original intent" of the Constitution, history might provide him with an interesting lesson.
Arizona became a state on February 14, 1912, just two years before Franz Ferdinand's assassination sparked the First World War. It shouldn't need to be said, but before Arizona was a state it wasn't a state. The territory that became Arizona was pried away from Mexico and formally annexed in pieces between 1848 and 1853. When the Founding Fathers were hashing out the original compromises that went into drafting the U.S. Constitution, Arizona belonged to Spain.These are the people who are cutting funding for public education. And why not? It obviously never did them any good.
[...]
If you want to appeal to "original intent," you really ought to ask the King of Spain. Spain still has a king; he's still alive; and, presumably, he can offer his opinion on how the monarchy intended to deal with the U.S. citizenship of its subjects at the time the Constitution was being debated and ratified. After all, I could just as easily argue that the citizens of Pennsylvania never had any intention of allowing Spain's subjects to vote in our federal elections, and that, therefore, we do not have to recognize Arizona's Electoral Votes.
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Picture of the Day
What if they threw a tea party and nobody came?
A tea party convention in Tampa last weekend drew 300 people. Including the band.
Photo by Saint Petersblog.
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A tea party convention in Tampa last weekend drew 300 people. Including the band.
Photo by Saint Petersblog.
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The Cowboy Way
Regardless of my feelings on whether or not we should be engaging in hostilities in Libya, it is wryly amusing to watch the Very Serious Conservatives (as opposed to the Batshit Crazy ones) parse the hell out of President Obama's tactics. Yesterday, Ross Douthat tried to make the case that building a coalition of like-minded allies before going into war is a terrible idea:
Now David Brooks wants to chime in on the same subject.
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Because liberal wars depend on constant consensus-building within the (so-called) international community, they tend to be fought by committee, at a glacial pace, and with a caution that shades into tactical incompetence....What Mr. Douthat prefers is the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld approach is to go in guns blazing, not this pussy-footing like Mr. Obama is doing.
Now David Brooks wants to chime in on the same subject.
Yet today, as an impeccably crafted multilateral force intervenes in Libya, certain old feelings are coming back to the surface. These feelings have been buried since the 1990s, when multilateral efforts failed in Kosovo, Rwanda and Iraq. They concern the structural weaknesses that bedevil multilateral efforts. They remind us that unilateralism may be no walk in the park, but multilateralism has its own characteristic problems, which are showing up already in Libya.In other words, it's much more fun being a unilateralist; then you get to land on aircraft carriers and stuff a sock in your pants. Yip-ya, bitchez.
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Exploring Pawlenty
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty posted on Facebook that he's formed an exploratory committee to see about running for the GOP nomination in 2012.
In other Facebook news, a friend of mine has some adorable puppies up for adoption.
I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Mr. Pawlenty, who can't even muster support from voters in his own state, will be the first candidate to drop out. Steve Benen, on the other hand, thinks that in spite the fact that "Pawlenty has a very thin record for a two-term governor; he isn't well liked in his own state; he was a moderate who's now dressing up in right-wing clothing; he has no meaningful areas of expertise in any subject; and he's even begun pretending to have a Southern accent as part of a bizarre effort to appear folksy," he has a chance to win the nomination because the rest of the field -- consisting now of Newt Gingrich and pizza executive Herman Cain -- will be that much worse.
Well, when you set the standards that high, I concede that Steve might have a point. But I think if he is the nominee, he'll make Fred Thompson look like a rock star.
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In other Facebook news, a friend of mine has some adorable puppies up for adoption.
I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Mr. Pawlenty, who can't even muster support from voters in his own state, will be the first candidate to drop out. Steve Benen, on the other hand, thinks that in spite the fact that "Pawlenty has a very thin record for a two-term governor; he isn't well liked in his own state; he was a moderate who's now dressing up in right-wing clothing; he has no meaningful areas of expertise in any subject; and he's even begun pretending to have a Southern accent as part of a bizarre effort to appear folksy," he has a chance to win the nomination because the rest of the field -- consisting now of Newt Gingrich and pizza executive Herman Cain -- will be that much worse.
Well, when you set the standards that high, I concede that Steve might have a point. But I think if he is the nominee, he'll make Fred Thompson look like a rock star.
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Gay Rights Are Human Rights
Nice to see this happening.
It's only a matter of time.
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The Obama administration will introduce its first statement calling for the United Nations' top human rights body to combat discrimination against gays and lesbians around the world, completing a U.S. reversal from years of ambiguity on the subject during the presidency of George W. Bush.This goes along with recent news that a majority of Americans -- by a slim margin -- now support the idea of marriage equality and that the issue may even be a plus for Democrats in the political arena, turning anti-gay stands by GOP candidates into a liability.
The U.S. declaration will be made Tuesday at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council and has the support of more than 80 countries. Although it is not in the form of a binding resolution, the American push for U.N. action has helped win over a handful of new countries to the cause. A resolution could be brought to a vote later this year.
The issue of gay rights has polarized nations at the U.N. for years. And despite growing acceptance for homosexuality in Western nations and parts of Latin America, lawyers say there is still a gap in human rights treaties for the protection of gays against discrimination and mistreatment.
"We are very concerned that individuals continue to be killed, arrested and harassed around the world because of their sexual orientation or gender identity," said Suzanne Nossel, deputy assistant secretary of state for international organizations. "This statement sends a strong message from across the globe that such abuses should not be tolerated."
It's only a matter of time.
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Short Takes
U.S.-led forces say they are near their goal in Libya.
There is no quick fix for the nuclear plant in Japan.
An Afghan security contractor has been accused of killing Americans.
Jared Loughner, accused in the Tucson shooting, is ordered to be examined by psychologists.
The Libyan government freed four journalists from the New York Times that they had held captive for six days.
President Obama is in Chile.
Spring training: The Tigers beat the Astros.
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There is no quick fix for the nuclear plant in Japan.
An Afghan security contractor has been accused of killing Americans.
Jared Loughner, accused in the Tucson shooting, is ordered to be examined by psychologists.
The Libyan government freed four journalists from the New York Times that they had held captive for six days.
President Obama is in Chile.
Spring training: The Tigers beat the Astros.
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Monday, March 21, 2011
Question of the Day
Another one from my brother, the traveler: Good to the last...
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Do you drink coffee? How?Usually with my mouth... [Rimshot] I like it strong (current favorite, Folger's Black Silk), but I add a dash of milk out of habit from when I did that to cool it off. (Yes, Rook, I know; what's the point?) I sometimes take it black, but I never add sugar; blech.
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Idiots Abroad
Steve Benen notes that there used to be the polite practice that when "prominent Americans travel to foreign soil, they should show restraint about criticizing America's elected leaders. This standard about 'politics stopping at the water's edge' was especially pronounced during the Bush/Cheney era -- it was considered outrageous if someone undermined confidence in the administration while abroad."
This was noted when Al Gore ventured to Saudi Arabia in 2006 and criticized the Bush administration's policies towards the Middle East and the right-wing press did everything but call the former vice president a traitor.
So of course that would never happen when the shoe is on the other foot, would it?
As long as we're on the subject of dimwits on TV, there was criticism from the middle-school clique at Fox about President Obama going to South America to "party" in Rio while Japan melts down and we're shooting missiles at Libya.
While the Republicans may think that South America is where you go to hike the Appalachian Trail with your mistress, it is actually a very important place with a lot of people and a lot of countries that could be important to the United States. For some reason the right wingers seem to have this vision of a place that is either all Carmen Miranda or Evita, but while the rest of the world was in economic free-fall, the countries of Latin America did comparatively well and could be the backbone of a strong recovery in the West. If you live in Miami, you know that already.
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This was noted when Al Gore ventured to Saudi Arabia in 2006 and criticized the Bush administration's policies towards the Middle East and the right-wing press did everything but call the former vice president a traitor.
So of course that would never happen when the shoe is on the other foot, would it?
Moments after saying she wouldn't criticize Barack Obama abroad, Sarah Palin in India on Saturday said that if she were president there would have been "less dithering, more decisiveness" on Libya.But then, that assumes that the former half-term governor of Alaska turned TV reality star and Facebook denizen is a "prominent American." By that definition, so is Snooki.
Pressed in a much tougher question-and-answer session than Palin has recently allowed herself to be subjected to during appearances in the U.S, the former Alaska governor told conference attendees at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi that Obama had not shown enough conviction in executing a strategy in Libya.
As long as we're on the subject of dimwits on TV, there was criticism from the middle-school clique at Fox about President Obama going to South America to "party" in Rio while Japan melts down and we're shooting missiles at Libya.
While the Republicans may think that South America is where you go to hike the Appalachian Trail with your mistress, it is actually a very important place with a lot of people and a lot of countries that could be important to the United States. For some reason the right wingers seem to have this vision of a place that is either all Carmen Miranda or Evita, but while the rest of the world was in economic free-fall, the countries of Latin America did comparatively well and could be the backbone of a strong recovery in the West. If you live in Miami, you know that already.
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