Friday Mashup (4/1/11)

You can consider this to be my obligatory April Fools' reference (more here).

(And by the way, “Pastor” Terry Jones is another fool – far worse actually; I didn’t even know that he actually went through with that stunt of burning a copy of the Koran after last year, but it seems that he did last March 20th, and the results are here…violence in any way, shape or form is wrong, but this idiot should have possessed the common sense of a garden slug, which he plainly doesn’t...Think Progress has more here.)

Next, I give you Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former adviser to Gramps McCain, here…

The clearest line of demarcation in the recovery came with the November election. There the grade moved into passing territory as the presence of House conservatives instantly generated a new sense of certainty for small businesses and investors that did not exist when Democrats threatened tax hikes, rammed through Obamacare, forced financial regulations, and drove America’s debt to the brink of a financial crisis. The “certainty bump” brought by a new Congress has moved the growth dial into positive territory.

Ah yes, it’s time for another lecture about “certainty,” or so it would seem. In response, I give you the following (here)…

Fox has dutifully adopted claims by GOP Reps. John Boehner and Kevin McCarthy that failing to immediately vote to extend Bush-era tax cuts injects "uncertainty" into the economy that hinders hiring, a claim which both Boehner and McCarthy made on Fox News Sunday. However, economists agree that tax cuts -- especially those for the wealthiest Americans -- are poor stimulus.

Indeed, Professor Krugman lamented as follows here today (with “certainty” advocates no doubt believing that the “confidence fairy” will stimulate private sector hiring…I wish this were also an April Fools’ joke, though in fact it is when you think about it)…

Did I mention that in Britain, where the government that took power last May bought completely into the doctrine of expansionary austerity, the economy has stalled and business confidence has fallen to a two-year low? And even the government’s new, more pessimistic projections are based on the assumption that highly indebted British households will take on even more debt in the years ahead.

But never mind the lessons of history, or events unfolding across the Atlantic: Republicans are now fully committed to the doctrine that we must destroy employment in order to save it.

And Democrats are offering little pushback. The White House, in particular, has effectively surrendered in the war of ideas; it no longer even tries to make the case against sharp spending cuts in the face of high unemployment.

So that’s the state of policy debate in the world’s greatest nation: one party has embraced 80-year-old economic fallacies, while the other has lost the will to fight. And American families will pay the price.

Sad but true (and by the way, a very interesting take on how "certainty" is another Republican "dog whistle" is noted here).

In a related story, as they say, it seems that Stephen Moore in the Murdoch Street Journal says “We’ve Become A Nation of Takers, Not Makers” here (his complaint, such as it is, is that there are more government workers than private sector workers, or so he tells us – typical for a well-coddled wingnut who doesn’t have to worry about where his next paycheck will come from).

For a little context in the real world, Gallup tells us the following here from about a year ago…

By almost a 2-to-1 margin, federal employees say their employer is hiring rather than firing, giving the federal government a relatively robust +18 Job Creation Index for April. (Federal workers make up about 5% of the sample of workers Gallup interviewed in April.) This contrasts with Index values of -28 among state and -26 among local government workers (about 7% and 5% of Gallup's workforce sample, respectively). The Job Creation Index among private-sector and other non-government workers is +9.

Gallup's Job Creation Index clearly indicates that state and local governments are in the midst of significant downsizing, no doubt reflecting budgetary issues resulting from recessionary pressures on the tax (and other) revenue that funds these governments.

Hiring at the federal level has apparently to date escaped these same fiscal pressures. Indeed, the federal government appears to be significantly outpacing the private sector in terms of the relative number of jobs created.

How long this pattern will continue is difficult to project. The federal budget deficit is likely to become a prominent element of political debate in the months and years ahead, thus opening up the possibility of increased employment pressures at the federal level. At the moment, however, the federal government is one of the brightest spots in the nation's hiring picture.

Moore also extols the virtues of privatizing functions of government, and I realize that it’s possible to achieve cost savings doing so. However, as noted here, it is hardly a panacea (and here is a case history of government privatization gone wrong from none other than Hosni Mubarak Walker himself).

And even though the unemployment rate ticked down a fraction of a point to 8.8 percent, I still checked up on the home page of our Repug U.S. House Rep from PA-08, “Mikey The Beloved” Fitzpatrick to find out the latest developments in Mikey’s ongoing mission to bring JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS to our district.

Well, I have a bit of good news (just a bit); it seems that since Mikey announced his small business roundtable, he’s also toured a glass factory and talked today about “certainty and confidence” in response to today’s employment numbers (what laser-like focus!).

In response, I have only this to ask:

Where are the jobs, congressman?

Continuing, I stumbled across the following yesterday (here – file this under Tom “Space Cadet” Corbett’s notions of what non-governance looks like)…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Approval of enforcement actions and punishments aimed at Marcellus Shale drilling operators must now go through top officials in the Department of Environmental Protection in a change that the agency said Wednesday is aimed at improving its consistency in handling the rapidly growing industry.

A Cabot well is drilled in Susquehanna County in July 2010 as part of the company’s development of the Marcellus Shale. Stung by earlier pollution problems when area water became contaminated, officials say the company is taking a new tack as it taps into natural gas throughout the region.

Acting Secretary Michael Krancer is changing the procedure after receiving complaints that agency staff in different regions of Pennsylvania were carrying out their responsibilities unevenly, a department spokeswoman said.

The new policy covers a variety of enforcement actions that can require a company to pay a fine or correct a problem, spokeswoman Katy Gresh said. In some cases, those matters reach top officials. But the policy also covers notices of violation — which Krancer's predecessor, John Hanger, equated to a traffic ticket making its way up to the chief of police and said it represents an encroachment onto the professional independence of the agency's inspectors.

…

"I can't think of anything more likely to erode public confidence in the inspection process than this," Hanger said. "I urge them to rethink and reconsider."

Hanger said it oversteps the built-in checks and balances that give every company the ability to contest a notice of violation by responding in writing, asking for a meeting with regional staff to discuss it, appealing a decision to the Environmental Hearing Board and even going to court.

If there are complaints about consistency, the best way to handle those complaints is to carry out a management-level review of consistency and then train staff, if necessary, Hanger said.

"The idea that the secretary himself and the deputy secretary would presumably review, literally hundreds if not thousands of (notices of violation) before they were issued, when they were not on the site, they didn't do the inspection, is incredible," Hanger said. "It's a new full-time job for the secretary, is what's going to happen."

But of course this is going to cripple enforcement of drilling violations, John. Remember how Corbett said that he wanted PA to be like Texas when it comes to drilling for natural gas, or something? This is just another step in that horrid process.

One day, clean water in this state will be featured in a public TV show called “Things That Aren’t There Anymore, 2011 Version.” I’m sure samples will be on display in museums for elementary school field trips. It will be such a pleasant memory to think about what we used to drink while we’re being treated for unexplained tumors and all kinds of intestinal disorders that we, for some reason, cannot explain (typical for a political party also guilty of this).

I know Dan Onorato didn’t exactly separate himself from Corbett on this issue the way he should have during the election last year, but I still have to say it anyway: heckuva job, PA voters!

Finally, it seems that it falls upon your humble narrator once more to defend a bachelor of arts degree conferred from a higher educational institution – someone named Ron Meyer at The Daily Tucker tells us the following here…

A liberal arts education is a degree in B.S., and I’m not talking about a Bachelor of Science.

Instead of teaching students how to approach problems from a multidisciplinary perspective, today’s U.S. higher education system is teaching students how to deceive people.

Employers looking to hire hard-working, competent employees may want to think twice about the quality of a liberal arts education. According to a 2010 study from the Association of American College and Universities, employers desire workers with broad educations, but is this really what modern liberal arts programs are supplying?

As someone who is about to graduate from a well-regarded liberal arts school, I can firmly say no.

In response, please allow me to point out the following individuals who have acquired degrees in liberal arts (to combat Meyer’s claim that students are tuning out when it comes to learning about government, or something):

Eric Holder – BA in American History, ’73 (Columbia)

Rahm Emanuel – BA in Liberal Arts, ’81 (Sarah Lawrence)

Hillary Clinton – BA in Political Science, ’69 (Wellesley)

Valerie Jarrett – BA in Psychology, ’78 (Stanford)

…and last but certainly not least…

Barack Obama – BA in Political Science, ’83 (Columbia)

Now I will grant you that it’s probably a good idea to pursue an advanced degree after acquiring a BA to further one’s job prospects, but you could say that about a Bachelor of Science degree as well.

And by the way, is it too much for Meyer to tell us the type of degree he hopes to have conferred upon him upon graduation? If he feels like he’s gaming the system by obtaining a “BS” degree himself, why doesn’t he have the intellectual courage to practice what he preaches, enroll in another curriculum, and graduate with a degree that he thinks is more honorable?

Oh, but that would deprive him of the opportunity to expound on another wingnut talking point..riiiiight.

Thursday Stuff

There are “rallies” (heh – awww, poor teabaggers got a little chilly and decided to take a “mulligan,” I guess)…



…and then there are rallies (from you-know-where…the city named after our fourth president, where they're not scared off by bad weather)…



…and oh yeah, Robert Reich and Ed Schultz remind us that it’s still the economy, stupid (so much common sense here – tragic that it’s in such a pitifully short supply)…



…and here’s a timely meditation amidst the insanity.

Thursday Mashup (3/31/11)

Gee, wingnuts, next time you try to be clever, try to do something original, OK (h/t Daily Kos).

Next, I give you a certain Willard Mitt Romney (here)…

Even 7.5% unemployment means 11.5 million Americans without jobs. The human cost of that dry statistic can be detailed in a canvas of broken hopes and shattered lives. Workers at job fairs today are confronting an employment market in which there are almost five times as many job seekers as there are openings. Anyone who has visited such a fair or gone to a career center has seen the face of despair up close.

President Obama didn't cause the recession, but he made it worse and caused it to last longer.

Well, says you (and as noted here, at least Obama didn’t propose privatizing unemployment benefits).

In addition, I give you further evidence of how those zany teabaggers are morphing more and more into utter dupes of the corpocracy before our very eyes (here)…

…a Tea Party group in the United States, the Institute for Liberty, has vigorously defended the freedom of a giant Indonesian paper company to sell its wares to Americans without paying tariffs. The institute set up Web sites, published reports and organized a petition drive attacking American businesses, unions and environmentalists critical of the company, Asia Pulp and Paper.

Last fall, the institute’s president, Andrew Langer, had himself videotaped on Long Wharf in Boston holding a copy of the Declaration of Independence as he compared Washington’s proposed tariff on paper from Indonesia and China to Britain’s colonial trade policies in 1776.

Tariff-free Asian paper may seem an unlikely cause for a nonprofit Tea Party group. But it is in keeping with a succession of pro-business campaigns — promoting commercial space flight, palm oil imports and genetically modified alfalfa — that have occupied the Institute for Liberty’s recent agenda.

The Tea Party movement is as deeply skeptical of big business as it is of big government. Yet an examination of the Institute for Liberty shows how Washington’s influence industry has adapted itself to the Tea Party era. In a quietly arranged marriage of seemingly disparate interests, the institute and kindred groups are increasingly the bearers of corporate messages wrapped in populist Tea Party themes.

The story also tells us the following…

Mr. Langer can seem disarmingly candid when discussing his work. In a recent interview, he explained how the institute pitched its services to opponents of the Obama health care plan, resulting in a $1 million advertising blitz.

“A donor gave us some money, and we went out on the ground in five states in the space of like six weeks,” he said.

That sounds benign, of course (“gee, we just…you know…we found some money from a donor…yeah, that’s the ticket!...and gosh, we just had to do all we could to oppose ‘Obama-care’ with it…sure we did”). However, the reality is a little closer to this…

The Institute For Liberty (IFL) is a Washington D.C. think tank that opposes health care reform and promotes keeping a free-market approach to maintaining the health care system in the U.S. Its Web site home page bears photos of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and other conservative leaders and says the organization aims to "[ensure] that America's health care system isn't destroyed by those who want to see it taken over by the state." IFL's overall goal is to "be the preeminent organization pushing back against the expansion of the state, putting a stop to policies" that the organizations perceives "will undermine that which has made this nation great." The IFL also opposes "open Internet" rules, describing them as the "left’s latest marketing language" for 'Net Neutrality." [1][2]

The IFL was identified (as a) backer of The 912 Project 912dc.org March on Washington (Silver Sponsor),[1] and Tea Party Express[2] bus tour.

So basically, the IFL is another one of those right-wing “octopus” outfits with its tentacles wrapped around a variety of conservative causes, if you will (in addition to Indonesian paper and trying to repeal health care reform), aside from just pimping the teabaggers.

And if these people were actually honest, they would identify themselves as sponsors on some of those signs about our supposed Kenyan Marxist pre-zee-dint redistributing our wealth to AFSCME, the NEA, and Planned Parenthood, all at the behest of George Soros.

If they were honest.

Further, it looks like that former “Democrat” Andy Warren is going to run for the Repug nomination for Bucks County Commissioner, as noted here (with perennial “independent” candidate Jay Russell actually shedding his past pretense of independence and seeking the Repug nomination also).

For our side, Diane Marseglia is seeking another term along with newcomer Det Ansinn, as noted here.

Finally, I give you Repug U.S. House Rep Phil Gingrey of Georgia, who told us the following here…

What if we lived in a country where private employees were forced to unionize, even if most hadn’t agreed to? Spoiler alert: We do — thanks to the recent decision of an unelected three-person panel.

This new reality came about in 2010, when a voting rule enacted through the Railway Labor Act was stripped away by the National Mediation Board (NMB). This resulted in the potential for groups of railroad and airline workers to be unionized without the majority of them being in favor of it. Now, only a majority of those who choose to vote, as opposed to a majority of the total, are needed to unionize.

When Gingrey says “a majority of the total,” he means the total of unionized employees who are eligible to vote, but do not. And according to the wingnut worldview, someone choosing not to vote would then be “forced” into joining a union, when in reality, if that person chooses not to vote and is forced to live with the consequences…well democracy is messy sometimes, you know (as we found out last November).

In other words (explaining the wrong here that the National Mediation Board corrected, IMHO)…

Nowhere in American democracy, other than during a union election in the airline and railroad industry, does an eligible voter wishing to sit out an election have his or her silence tabulated as a no vote.

Yep, I think that says it (and this tells us about another incorrect "diagnosis" from Dr. Phil).

Wednesday Stuff

Yes, we know what happened 30 years ago (the clip was filmed five years ago), and I think it’s worth remembering that, as a result (eventually under Democratic President Bill Clinton), the Brady Bill was signed into law.

Any chance of either this or this getting passed and signed into law as a result of the Tucson carnage last January? None whatsoever, which is the reason why I once wrote this post…



…and it’s actually scary to yours truly that these words once uttered by Spencer Tracy are more timely every day, IMHO, based on this…



…and speaking of movie stars, RIP Farley Granger…



…and what the heck, I’ll put this up as long as he’s mentioned in this song.

Tuesday Stuff

Heckuva job, Hosni Mubarak Walker (to help keep the ad on the air, click here)…



…and Jon Stewart has more on Walker and his pals here (and by the way, Rick Snyder, I used to have a Gateway PC, and it utterly sucked)…

The Daily Show - Gov Hurts
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

…and hey, corporate media, pay a little more attention to these folks and not so much to the racist-sign-carrying-and-funny-hat-wearing crowd, OK (I can try anyway – sigh)…



…and I know the “crescent city” has clawed its way back, to its credit, but I wonder how much still needs to be done?

Tuesday Mashup (3/29/11) (updates)

I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with Kevin Ferris of The Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday, but I suppose I’d better get him out of the way (here, from Sunday)

…"(The $61 billion in spending cuts proposed by the House GOP) are the first actual cuts in memory. Even Ronald Reagan was only able to slow the growth of welfare-state spending.”

First, this tells us what we would be looking at in the tragic event that those $61 billion in cuts were signed into law (which isn’t going to happen anyway). Second, it’s funny to me that Ferris’s “memory” stretches back to The Sainted Ronnie R, but apparently not back to Bill Clinton, the last president to balance a budget, as noted here.

So, Ferris’s column only appears about twice a month anymore, or so it seems. And even with a workload as light as that, he still can’t even find the time to use that Google thingie to make sure he knows what he’s talking about.

Next, that sleazy weasel (and House Majority Leader) Eric Cantor tells us here (of course) that the Dems would be to blame for the government shutdown that looks more and more likely (the logical consequence of Kevin Ferris’s previous cheerleading).

I think it’s particularly hard to make that case given the right-wing bloviation as noted here.

Update 3/30/11: I don't call Cantor a sleazy weasel for nothing, people (here - and as always, thanks to those mind-numbingly stupid life forms in Virginia who keep sending him back to Congress every two years).

Update 4/5/11: Oh yeah, a government shutdown would be the Dems' fault - sure (and nice costume - um, yeah...more here also).

In addition, “The Donald,” in a typically craven attempt to suck up to the Repug “base,” has recently gone all “birther” concerning our closet Kenyan Marxist pre-zee-dint.

Well, as noted here, those who live by the bogus birth certificate right-wing talking point…

Further, Marc Thiessen is in full-on umbrage mode over President Obama’s speech on Libya, as noted here…

No serious person is arguing that we should “repeat in Libya” what we did in Iraq. No serious person is arguing that we should send hundreds of thousands of ground troops to march on Tripoli and topple Moammar Gaddafi they way we marched on Baghdad and toppled Saddam Hussein.

Actually, I think Thiessen is correct, but not in the way he realizes (as noted here – actually, I wouldn’t consider Austin Bay to be a “serious person” either…and as you can see here, Thiessen is merely regurgitating right-wing propaganda anyway).

Continuing…

The Libyan rebels were well on their way to marching on Tripoli, until Obama’s dithering at the United Nations gave Gaddafi time to drive them back to the gates of Benghazi.

Uh, no – as noted here…

As Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces closed in on the rebel capital of Benghazi, Thursday, the Obama Administration not only came around to the idea of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya, but sought -- and won -- U.N. Security Council authorization for ground attacks on regime forces threatening to storm the rebel "capital" of Benghazi. Western and at least two Arab air forces (believed to be Qatar and UAE) stood ready to launch attacks "within hours" of the vote, according to the Guardian quoting Western officials, in order to stop a regime advance on Benghazi.

All of this is particularly stunning hypocrisy even from an ideologue as jaded as Thiessen, who signed a letter here along with his PNAC pals demanding “immediate” action on Libya.

Continuing with his WaPo screed…

(Obama) might also have mentioned the other mission that we have handed over to NATO — the mission in Afghanistan. Feel like responsibility for the war in Afghanistan has been handed over to our European allies? If so, you’ll love the transfer of responsibility for the war in Libya.

Funny, but Thiessen told us the following about NATO here (when Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History occupied An Oval Office)…

“And (Dubya) transformed NATO from a defensive alliance into an expeditionary alliance that is now leading the fight in Afghanistan.”

Sooo, when it comes to Afghanistan, NATO is good, but when it comes to Libya, it stinks?

Well, as noted here, this is typical for Thiessen – I guess he’s actually right on Opposite Day, or something.

Finally, with the devastation that has occurred in Japan due to the earthquake/tsunami and the ongoing threat posed by the reactor, I should note that I’ve seen a few posts where the authors are concerned about what kind of nuclear dangers we could face in the event of a similar natural disaster in this country.

I think it’s wise to keep that in mind. My concern, though, is over what would happen to the natural gas extraction biz as opposed to the generation of nuclear power.

This tells us that Luzerne County, PA has an emergency response plan, which is good, and Sullivan County in New York state has a hazardous mitigation plan which, as of March a year ago, didn’t contain any provisions for what to do in the event of an emergency while drilling for natural gas, as noted here (actually, what I found here was pretty typical for our country as a whole, which was that plans for natural gas drilling were kept from the public, a fact that became obvious after a pipeline explosion in San Bruno, CA). Also, this tells us more about the threat from “fracking” here in our beloved commonwealth.

I do actually have something positive to say about this, and that is to note that the EPA’s site has a good bit of information on hydraulic fracturing here (though, sadly, a nation-wide mitigation plan in the event of a catastrophe appears to be nowhere in sight).

Monday Mashup (3/28/11)

Time to journey “down the rabbit hole” again; Lurita Doan tells us the following here from clownhall.com…

In February, Obama presented his 2012 budget to congress and stated that reducing the deficit was his priority. Clearly, Obama didn't remember that in February 2009, he said the same thing--just before signing the Recovery Act which ballooned the federal budget by almost a trillion dollars. Even now, Obama seems unable to understand that his failed, $787 Billion dollar stimulus has loaded the nation with a mind-bogglingly huge burden of additional debt. Instead, each time the Market dips or Americans protest the staggering $1,400,000,000,000.00 of national public debt, Obama promises a new kind of stimulus.

I’ll admit that there’s a lot of old ground here in what Doan is saying (and all of it previously debunked), but I believe the following needs to be repeated in response (here)…

According to a recent CNN/Time magazine poll the economy and jobs are by far the number one priority of Americans. In the poll 63% of Americans called the economy "extremely important" with another 32% calling it "very important." Second was unemployment, which 54% called "extremely important" and 34% "very important." The "federal budget deficit" actually came in fourth in the poll behind the economy, unemployment, and health care. Another poll from Gallup ranked unemployment as the number one issue for Americans with the budget deficit coming in fifth.

The only people who care about the deficit are the teabaggers and the DC political-media-industrial complex as a whole. Everyone in the real world cares about JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS!!!!! And as long as I’m talking about Doan, I guess she’ll never face the proverbial music for this.

Update 3/29/11: More on the "do as I say, not as I do" Repugs here, particularly on jobs...

Next, Fix Noise tells us here that “Obama's decision to enter Libya in hopes of preventing a slaughter at the hands of Muammar al-Qaddafi could, despite its best intentions, accelerate a public-opinion shift in some quarters of the world away from the U.S. president.” That’s interesting, considering the following from here by Joe Klein…

Just had dinner with a young Palestinian activist who told me that his friends were feeling more positive toward the US than they had in years because of the military action in Libya. "It's on Al-Jazeera all the time," he said, "Libyans dancing in the streets and saying, 'Merci Obama, Merci Sarkozy.' Everyone was furious after you vetoed the UN resolution on the Israeli settlements--but this has made people forget all about that...And the Gulf States hate Gaddafi so much, I'm sure they'll pay for all your military expenses."

I’m just glad the “young Palestinian” didn’t say that it would be paid for in oil revenues; then, we’d know that something was up for sure.

Next, someone named Wayne Allyn Root whines as follows (here)…

No wonder (small businesses) create 70% or more of America’s new jobs. Small business owners are a far more powerful economic force than Exxon, Microsoft, GE, or WalMart.

Putting aside the fact that what constitutes a “small business” in this country is often nothing but a perversion of the tax code (here), the following should be noted here from Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution…

…a study…conducted for the SBA found that “most, if not all, of the growth in employment comes from the 300,000 high-impact firms in the economy over any four-year period. Depending on the time period studied, this is about evenly split between firms with fewer than 500 employees (the SBA definition of small business) and firms with more than 500 employees. Therefore, it would appear that both small and large firms contribute about equally to employment growth.”(http://bit.ly/8ZaK8L)

Continuing with Root…

Worse is the provision (in the health care law) mandating (businesses) report annually to the IRS every vendor from whom we purchase more than $600 of goods and services during the year.

As noted here, the House voted to repeal that requirement concerning the 1099 reporting (have to update your wingnut talking points, Root). Once more with Root (concerning “accredited Investors” in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law)…

Last year, Democratic Senator Chris Dodd tried to pass a financial reform bill that included a provision increasing the amount of money one would have to earn to be considered an “accredited investor.” That would reduce the angel investor pool by an estimated 70% and require most private businesses to get permission from the SEC to raise money. Do you know what an SEC lawyer costs? Raising capital for a start-up would suddenly cost an extra $250,000 in legal fees…and take months, or years…

Gosh, what thorough sourcing from Root here – not! And as noted here by Matt Bartus, a lawyer representing technology firms seeking financing and contemplating public offerings, “it’s hard to know currently what impact (the accredited investor rule change) will have in practice.” This is all perfectly in character (or lack thereof) for a guy (Root) who once said that the 2010 midterms might save Obama because he can’t be his usual “socialist self” here (looks like Root is as successful at punditry as he is at sports wagering, which apparently was his former occupation).

Finally, I give you the following from the WaPo here by someone named Eva Moskowitz...

That class size should be small is revered like an article of faith in this country. Its adherents include parents, education groups, politicians and, of course, the unions whose ranks it swells. In many states it is even required by law, which has lead to millions of dollars in fines against schools in Florida and a lawsuit against New York City by its teachers union. Yet small class size is neither a guarantor nor a prerequisite of educational excellence. The worst public elementary school in Manhattan, 16 percent of whose students read at grade level, has an average class size of 21; PS 130, one of the city’s best, has an average class size of 30. Small class size is one factor in academic success. The question, then, is whether the educational benefits of class-size reduction justify the costs.

In response, I give you the following (here)…

Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez, who has done some seriously good work in the past, this week took his pistol-like investigative skills to the skull of charter school operator and eternal politician Eva Moskowitz — first in a story on the erosion of parent voices in the city schools, and then in a story on Moskowitz’s salary. Gonzalez challenges the salary, which he reports as $371,000 last year (Moskowitz says the real figure is $250,000 plus a $60,000 bonus), suggesting that she should give some of her pay back to her charter schools. This is hardly the first criticism that’s been thrown at Moskowitz, who previously served as the chair of the City Council’s education committee and ran for borough president of Manhattan, losing to Scott Stringer after the teachers union campaigned against her. As Gonzalez reports, her critics include “educators, parents, the teachers’ union and Harlem political leaders.”

And as noted here (telling us the results of an NEA study)…

The effect of smaller classes on student achievement extends far beyond the early grades. Follow-up studies of STAR students through grade 7 show higher achievement levels in reading, language, math, science, and social studies. Additionally, students in smaller classes showed more positive behaviors towards engagement and learning than did the students in larger classes.

I am definitely not an educator or an expert in that field, so I do not have an expert point of view on this. An explanation that makes send to me about this, though, is that, while there are a number of variables involved in student performance, it would make sense that a class size of 20 or so students is more conducive to learning than a class size of 30 or more. And when it comes to education, who would know better than an educator (or a former one, in this case), who communicated as follows to me on this…

As far as I can tell, Eva Moskowitz is a proponent of the "business model" school with her as a $300,000-a-year CEO. I smell a rat. Plus, her schools have very young kids who still may have respect for adults. She should try teaching 27-30 high school kids in a small room, complete with behavior problems and drugs.

Makes sense to me.

More Saturday Stuff

There are other reasons why Judge David Prosser is dirty (including this), but I don't know how there could be a worse one than this (this subject hits close to home for the Philadelphia archdiocese also, unfortunately)...



...and definitely changing the mood here, I should let you know that, in addition to the recent 80th birthday of Shatner, his main partner from the original series (not "dammit Jim" DeForest Kelley, who is no longer with us) hits that same number today, so let's wish him a good one also (always remember to "Spock it and lock it," people).

Saturday Stuff

RIP Gerry Ferraro - she went kind of "full mooner" at the end when trying to support Hillary Clinton's run for the Dem presidential nomination in '08, but I think she'll always deserve credit for this at least (the '84 vice-presidential debate with Poppy Bush)...



...and the next time you hear anybody make jokes about Canada, just remember that at least that country has enough common sense to know how ruinous tax cuts really are, unlike us apparently - some fun, eh?...



...also, I didn't have this ready quite soon enough for the earlier post, but V.D. Hanson tells us here that passing cap-and-trade legislation would have led to a "depression" because of loss of jobs...meanwhile, in the real world, factcheck.org tells us here that, at worst, there would be a slight loss of employment with jobs in traditional energy development lost, and at least partly offset, by developing alternative technologies...just add this to the ever-growing list of things Hanson knows absolutely nothing about as noted here - third bullet.

And as a reminder, this clip tells us what's at stake (preaching to the choir, I'm sure, but it needs to be said again)...



Update 3/27/11: Kudos to Austrailian PM Julia Gillard for this, by the way.

...and we haven't had any Indie fun for a little while, so here goes.

Saturday Mashup (3/26/11)

The New York Times published a great story yesterday telling us that General Electric — the world’s largest company — made $14.2 billion in profits ($5.1 billion in America) and managed to not pay a dime in federal taxes. In fact, the company actually received “a tax benefit of $3.2 billion,” as Think Progress tells us here.

My little tribute to GE from about five years ago (yikes!) is here (and as you can tell from this, other multinationals operating in this country have managed to “skate” on the tax issue as well).

Also, I bring you the latest from the Repugs on the non-jobs front (here, with a “solution” in search of a problem)…

RALEIGH, N.C. – Empowered by last year's elections, Republican leaders in about half the states are pushing to require voters to show photo ID at the polls despite little evidence of fraud and already-substantial punishments for those who vote illegally.

Democrats claim the moves will disenfranchise poor and minority voters — many of whom traditionally vote for their candidates. The measures will also increase spending and oversight in some states even as Republicans are focused on cutting budgets and decreasing regulations.

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, a Republican, said he believes his state's proposed photo ID law will increase citizen confidence in the process and combat fraud that could be going undetected.

"I can't figure out who it would disenfranchise," Hargett said. "The only people I can think it disenfranchises is those people who might be voting illegally."

Spoken like a Republican – meanwhile, as noted here…

There truly is no difference between Poll Tests, Poll Taxes and the hysteria being whipped up by the GOP about ‘ Voter Fraud’. Under the guise of ‘Voter Fraud’, the GOP is doing their best to create all these laws that will limit the Democratic Party’s voting base. This is a deliberate and concerted effort. They don’t care about ‘Voter Fraud’, because, for all their yelping about ‘Voter Fraud’, look at the DOJ Statistics. During the Bush years, they couldn’t pull together enough of the so-called ‘ Voter Fraud’ cases to fill a schoolbus.

But, DELIBERATELY went about IGNORING the ACTUAL voter suppression of minorities and young people through voter caging and other GOP schemes- the repeated challenges and attempts to gut the Voting Rights Act.

And lest anyone think our beloved commonwealth is immune, this post from The Pennsylvania Progressive tell us that Repug State House Rep Daryl Metcalfe is trying to push through a similar vote of his own, even though, as the post tells us, Metcalfe’s “expert” from The Heritage Foundation (of course) couldn’t cite any actual instances of voter fraud.

And speaking of voter suppression, I’m sure our Bucks County Board of Elections and District Attorney David Heckler will be getting to the bottom of the Ciervo/Fitzpatrick letter from last November’s election any day now…any day now…

Next, here is last week’s Area Votes in Congress writeup from The Philadelphia Inquirer…

House

Stopgap 2011 budget. Voting 271-158, the House passed a stopgap fiscal 2011 budget (HJ Res 48) to keep the government fully in operation between March 18 and April 8 while cutting spending by $6.1 billion over that period. The bill would cut $3.5 billion from 25 individual programs and rescind $2.6 billion in congressional earmarks abandoned by their sponsors. This is the sixth temporary budget Congress has passed for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), John Carney (D., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Michael Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Pat Meehan (R., Pa.), Jon Runyan (R., N.J.), and Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.).

Voting no: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

I can appreciate the fact that Andrews’ vote was a principled objection. As for the other two, I don’t think they know what the word “principle” means.

Social Security, Medicare. Voting 190-239, the House defeated a Democratic motion to ensure that no funds in HJ Res 48 (above) could be used to cut Social Security or Medicare benefits, privatize Social Security, or switch Medicare to a voucher plan.

A yes vote backed the motion.

Voting yes: Andrews, Brady, Carney, Fattah, Holden, and Schwartz.

Voting no: Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Meehan, Pitts, Runyan, and Smith.

This was a really good idea, so of course the Repugs just had to defeat it.

Foreclosed, abandoned homes. Voting 242-182, the House passed a Republican bill (HR 861) to repeal the three-year-old Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The program provides cities and nonprofits with funds for buying, repairing, and selling foreclosed, abandoned homes in order to keep neighborhoods intact. While government auditors have found waste in the program, its defenders say it should be improved, not ended. About $6 billion of the program's $7 billion budget has been allocated. The bill awaits Senate action.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, Holden, LoBiondo, Meehan, Pitts, Runyan, and Smith.

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Carney, and Fattah.

Not voting: Schwartz.

As is so often the case with legislation affecting the lives of everyday people, this was commented on as follows by Dennis Kucinich (here)…

“You know, Mr. Speaker and to my friends on both sides of the aisle, we could very easily come up with money to save this program if we just put a windfall profits tax on the oil companies. I am here today to point out the critical importance the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and to urge my fellow members to vote against canceling it.

“Over the past decade, the people of Ohio and my district in particular have weathered a terrible perfect storm of foreclosures, devastating entire communities. While some neighborhoods in my district have been hollowed out by the effects of this storm, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds have made neighborhoods and communities safer.

“Those communities faced the constant risk of crime and of vandals taking advantage of empty structures, and Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds have been used to demolish hundreds of abandoned homes in those neighborhoods. They have helped protect existing home values and prevented neighborhoods from falling apart.

“But the NSP program has not just financed the demolition of abandoned structures. In Cuyahoga County alone, this program funded the creation of 237 units of affordable rental housing and 25 single-family home renovations and neighborhood greenspace improvements.

“It has also been used to leverage non-federal money to fund the innovative Land Bank—a public entity which buys vacant and abandoned land and puts ownership of that land back in the hands of the public so that it can be used again, often in conjunction with private development, to renew and revitalize communities.

So of course, a program that no doubt has done so much good when you amplify the results across the country had to be killed in the name of fiscal prudence (the sort of thing Professor Krugman railed against yesterday here).

Afghanistan withdrawal. Voting 93-321, the House defeated a measure (H Con Res 28) to bring U.S. troops home from Afghanistan by Dec. 31 under the 1973 War Powers Act. That law requires presidents to end combat operations after 90 days unless Congress authorizes the deployment. Opponents of withdrawal argue that the action is legal under the "use of force" resolution enacted Sept. 18, 2001. The previous House attempt to end U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan occurred in March 2010 and failed on a vote of 65-356.

A yes vote backed the resolution.

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Carney, Dent, Fattah, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, Holden, LoBiondo, Meehan, Pitts, Runyan, Schwartz, and Smith.

National Public Radio. The House voted, 228-192, to permanently end federal funding of NPR, formerly known as National Public Radio. The bill (HR 1076) bars direct taxpayer funding of NPR while prohibiting its 400 member stations from using federal funds to buy programming from or pay dues to NPR. Republicans said the bill would save $64 million annually at present funding levels.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Meehan, Pitts, Runyan, and Smith.

Voting no: Andrews, Brady, Carney, Fattah, Holden, and Schwartz.

As I’ve said, as horrible and wrong-headed a vote as this is, part of me really wants to see public radio take a hit over this. That way, voters who in their pig-headed ignorance actually returned these clowns to power last year will always remember that it’s their fault when they try to tune in to “From The Top” or “Jazz At Lincoln Center” and find out that those programs are gone for good.

Senate

Temporary 2011 budget. Voting 87-13, the Senate joined the House (above) in approving a stopgap budget that will expire April 8. This is the sixth temporary spending bill passed by Congress since fiscal 2011 began Oct. 1.

A yes vote was to send the bill (HJ Res 48) to the White House.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Chris Coons (D., Del.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), and Pat Toomey (R., Pa.).

Small-business contracts. The Senate voted, 84-12, to begin debate on a bill (S 493) extending two programs under which certain federal agencies set aside a portion of their research, development and technology contracts for small businesses. The bill extends the Small Business Innovation and Research Program and Small Business Technology Transfer Program at a cost of $150 million over five years in discretionary spending. Under the former, at least 2.5 percent of contracts must go to small businesses. Under the latter, the set-aside is 0.3 percent. The bill would gradually raise those shares over several years.

A yes vote was to advance the bill.

Voting yes: Carper, Casey, Coons, Lautenberg, and Menendez.

Voting no: Toomey.

Another sterling non-job creation vote from “No Corporate Tax” Pat…

This week, Congress was in recess (poor babies, so tuckered out from their exhausting workload, I know). In the following week, the House will take up a repeal of a program that uses federal subsidies to ease terms of at-risk mortgages, and the Senate will resume work on a bill awarding federal contracts to spur small-business innovation.

Finally, I was intrigued by this item from Right Wing Watch, in which some huckster named David Barton helped kick off something called “Rediscover God in America,” a forum for Repug presidential wannabes (not surprisingly, Barton seems to be gravitating towards Mike Huckabee as the Repug presidential nominee…oh please, let it be so – Wayne DuMond will become a bigger household name than Bill Ayres, and the former actually killed somebody).

And in his You Tube spiel, Barton tells us, among other things, that the Bible tells us that Jesus opposed the capital gains tax (citing Luke 19:13-26 as “proof”), as well as a progressive income tax (Leviticus from the Old Testament 27:32, Numbers 18, 28, 29…real thorough sourcing there…and Deuteronomy 14:22).

Barton also tells us the Bible supposedly had something to say about the estate tax, citing Proverbs 13:22, 1 Chronicles 28:8, and Ezekiel 46:18.

Well, just for the heck of it, I checked the estate tax references, and this is what I found – Proverbs is up first…

See here, 1. How a good man's estate lasts: He leaves an inheritance to his children's children. It is part of his praise that he is thoughtful for posterity, that he does not lay all out upon himself, but is in care to do well for those that come after him, not by withholding more than is meet, but by a prudent and decent frugality.

This tells us that, because he had the good fortune to die in a year with no estate tax, the heirs of former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner will end up paying zilch – and tell me how Steinbrenner exemplified “a prudent and decent frugality,” by the way.

Next up is 1 Chronicles…

And the children of Israel carried captive of their brethren two hundred thousand women, sons and daughters,.... Which was a very large and unusual number to be carried captive; but having made such a slaughter of the men, and the rest being intimidated thereby, it was the more easily done:

Soo…the rich are supposed to capture entire families into slavery? Gosh, I hope nobody tells Leonard Weaver of the Philadelphia Eagles (OK, this is snark, I’ll admit – the guy apologized here, so let’s give him a break, OK?).

And lastly, I give you Ezekiel 46:18…

Moreover the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance by oppression, to thrust them out of their possession,.... Christ, the Prince, will never do this; he will never take any part of his people's inheritance from them, or thrust them out of the possession of any benefit or blessing of grace; they have chosen that good part which shall never be taken from them, Luke 10:42, this is said, not as a direction to the prince, as a law enjoined him, or a caution to him against oppression; but as expressing his clemency, grace, and goodness to his subjects, and their safety and security under him:

I’ll tell you what – I’ll go better than a prince on this one: I’ll give you a King here (heh).

Yep, that would be Repug House wingnut Steve King of Iowa, who said that people would die thinking about the estate tax if Congress doesn’t act (thought, logically, if people were so afraid of the estate tax, wouldn’t they try to spite it by staying alive, as Keith Olbermann once pointed out?)

So basically, according to Barton, the Bible says the estate tax is bad because it requires a prudent and decent frugality while capturing two hundred thousand women while expressing clemency, grace and goodness. Everybody got that?

And people actually wonder why I don’t take the wingnuts seriously.

Thursday Stuff

Silly Ed Schultz - the notion of "Man Tan" Boehner having integrity? It is to laugh.

Since Ed didn't ask it, I will...hey Orange Man and Mikey The Beloved - WHERE ARE THE JOBS??!!

I hope everyone who voted to return these clowns to power last November is still proud of what they've done...



...and I just thought this was kind of a peppy little tune for all the youngsters out there.

Thursday Mashup (3/24/11)

It would be sooo easy to say yes, wouldn’t it (they asked the question, not me).

Also, I give you the following from The Hill (here)…

House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (Texas) on Wednesday said the growing federal debt is the "red menace" of the 21st century, warning that it is posing both economic and security risks to the United States.

"In the 20th century, the red menace was communism," Hensarling said in Texas, according to a report in the Jacksonville Daily Progress. "The red menace for the 21st century is our public debt."

Maybe to him, but somehow I don’t believe this is going to inspire a whole wave of science fiction films similar to the Cold War-era fare of the 1950s and 1960s (“The Public Debt From Another World,” or “The Trade Imbalance From 20,000 Fathoms,” or “Abbott and Costello Try To Reconcile The Cash Difference Between Government Receipts And Spending”).

Nope, none of them work for me either.

This is par for the proverbial course, though, from a guy who blamed the Dems for the ruinous Dubya deficits here but gave his fellow Repugs credit for the Clinton surplus here (which factcheck.org called “a Texas-sized whopper” here).

No, I don’t encourage public debt either. But seeing as how our august captains of industry continue to sit on their financial largesse while so many of our fellow countrymen endure crisis after crisis from unemployment, somebody has to spend the money to keep this country afloat (in other words, what Atrios sez here).

Next, I give you the recent ravings of the utter, unmitigated embarrassment that is Former Laura Bush Employee Andrew Malcolm (here)…

With the Japan earthquake and the devastating tsunami and the radiation leaks going global and the United Nations suggesting interested members start a war in Libya and American troops in two other conflicts and the immense federal government now budgeting in 21-day chunks with a colossal deficit and President Obama with his family offering toasts all over South America urging Brazil to drill offshore while stifling domestic production back home and rising bilateral congressional unhappiness with Obama's commencing military action on Libya whatever that goal is, some Americans appear confused and anxious.

I really have neither the time nor the desire to try and unwind all of Malcolm’s sheer idiocy here (there’s a difference between principled disagreement and Malcolm’s particularly demented brand of propaganda), but let’s take a look at the bit about “stifling domestic (oil) production,” shall we?

As noted here (in a claim called “mostly true” by factcheck.org)…

In his press conference on March 11, 2011, President Barack Obama talked up U.S. oil production against a backdrop of rising prices at the pump.

"We need to continue to boost domestic production of oil and gas," he said. "Last year, American oil production reached its highest level since 2003. Let me repeat that. Our oil production reached its highest level in seven years. Oil production from federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico reached an all-time high. For the first time in more than a decade, imports accounted for less than half of what we consumed. So any notion that my administration has shut down oil production might make for a good political sound bite, but it doesn’t match up with reality."

Of course, when it comes to Obama (as noted here) and Democrats generally, Malcolm has only a passing familiarity with reality anyway.

Also (continuing with the Bush sycophant), it looks like another wingnut talking point against Obama has emerged, as noted here…

The Democratic administration of Barack Obama, who denounced his predecessor, George W. Bush, as the most secretive in history, is now denying more Freedom of Information Act requests than the Republican did.

In response, I give you the following from Media Matters…

Malcolm (originally) linked to the Fox News version of that AP article. Had he read this one, he might have been able to give readers a more accurate report.

First of all, according to the AP, there have not been 466,872 denials. There have been 466, 872 citations of FOIA exemptions -- a significant difference because, as AP notes, "Agencies often cite more than one exemption when withholding part or all of the material sought in an open-records request."

Now, notice that "part or all of" bit. Contrary to Malcolm's implication, there have not been 466,872 blanket rejections of FOIA requests. Nor have there been 466,872 citations of FOIA exemptions for the purpose of rejecting an entire FOIA request. There have been 466,872 citations of exemptions for the purposes of denying part or all of a request. Indeed, there has been a decrease in the number of FOIA requests denied in their entirety.

Media Matters goes on to tell us that about 20,000 requests were denied last year, as opposed to about 21,000 the year before. I will grant you that those are not great numbers, but at least those didn’t emerge from the “rabbit hole” of Malcolm’s alleged thought processes.

Further, Charles Krauthammer whines as follows (here)…

Well, I can understand the administration saying because of the situation in Benghazi they had to rush and they couldn’t get congressional approval. But what’s not explicable is why the president hasn’t addressed the nation.

When in 1998 there was the attack on our embassies in [Kenya] and Tanzania and there was a single act of retaliation by the United States — not a military operation anywhere near the size and scope of what’s happening now — the president of the United States, [Bill] Clinton, went on television and explained what he was doing.

And so far, this president, who doesn’t like to use the word “war.” He won’t use the [term] “war on terror.” He doesn’t want to talk about the war in Afghanistan…

As noted here in a speech about that very topic from December 2009, President Obama mentioned the word “war” no less than 16 times.

At least Krauthammer managed to opine on something allegedly concerning Obama about which he would be a subject matter expert, as noted here (arrogance, I mean).

Finally, it looks like The Daily Tucker has caught Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid attacking the Kochs, even though it turns out that the DSCC accepted $30,000 from Koch Industries last year, as noted here (actually, the brothers-in-evil Charles and David gave $120 K or thereabouts to Democrats generally).

Which might be shocking if it weren’t for the fact that they also gave $618 K to Republicans over the same period, according to Open Secrets.

See what happens when Tucker gets too clumsy with his crayons?

More Wednesday Stuff

To commemorate the one-year anniversary of the signing of health care reform under President Obama, I thought it would be a good idea to watch this Special Comment from Keith Olbermann once more from about August of '09, chiefly about the battle for the public option (giving us an idea once more of what an almighty struggle it was to achieve what we have thus far, with that struggle continuing as noted here; I believe this aired soon before Ted Kennedy's death - more commentary on Republican politicians was edited out, but I'm not sure why)...



...and here's a song for the occasion.

Wednesday Stuff

(Posting will still be off and on for a bit, by the way.)

OK, let me restate that I currently support our involvement in Libya because what I read is that we will be involved for "a matter of days, not weeks" according to the White House (and any comparison to Iraq is, I think, utterly ridiculous - we were asked to help along with France and the U.K., and we're not going to deploy troops). If any of this changes, though, you can be sure that I will object (and I respect those who currently have principled objections of their own).

According to this New York Times story, though, it seems that our "friends" the Chinese are concerned because the attack on Libya could bring on a "humanitarian disaster."

So the Chinese suddenly care about human rights? What's next, Mikey The Beloved defending health care reform?

Take a look at this clip from about the time of the Beijing Olympics three years ago, where ITN correspondent John Ray gets a first-hand look at China's supposed commitment to human rights on behalf of those protesting the freedom of Tibet (sorry for the lousy video quality). And rest assured that I could show you a lot worse, such as that country's treatment of their child Olympic athletes (that very phrase to me indicates that something is wrong) and those tortured in the name of "Falun Gong" (clips of which would absolutely turn your stomach)...



...and picking my favorite movie moment from Elizabeth Taylor? Well, this, from "A Place In The Sun" with Montgomery Clift may be it...you could also pick a scene from "Giant," "Butterfield 8," even "Cleopatra" (it wasn't her fault the film was too damn long), "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," and many others (for all the fighting between her and Burton, including their tiff that comprises just about all of "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?," there is still that breakthrough moment of tenderness at the end...she also very nearly saved the terminally creepy "Reflections In A Golden Eye" with Brando, but not quite).

Also, let's not forget that, when everybody was too busy Hating Teh Gay to realize that golden boy Rock Hudson had some "big disease with a little name," Liz and a handful of people stood by him, even when everybody gasped at the pictures of Hudson just before he died (and as wonderful as this clip is, it led up to the murder of Shelly Winters' character after all - RIP).

More Tuesday Stuff

All over the country, it's true, as Rachel says...it's not about the budget (and between 200 and 800-something million, Gov. "Space Cadet" Corbett? Wow, that's some "sound fiscal management," all right...maybe in Bizarro-land)...



...and here's a melodic and contemplative tune to help us wind down at the end of the day.

Tuesday Stuff

Nic Robertson is my new hero for this, reminding us once more how ridiculous it is to take Fix Noise seriously…



…and by the way, Captain Kirk is 80! Happy Birthday!

Tuesday Mashup (3/22/11)

(Lots of catching up to do, so I’d better get started…)

First of all, memo to The Donald – some things are better kept to oneself.

Next, Mikey the Beloved held a town hall meeting last night, as the Courier Times tells us here…

You are spending way too much and voting the wrong way," said Christine Urbanski of Buckingham.

She was particularly irked with $105 billion that's budgeted to move Democratic health reform plans forward as part of a continuing resolution House Republicans passed last week to fund government operations through April 8.

"I voted in January to repeal Obamacare, to repeal the (Affordable Care) Act," Fitzpatrick said. "I voted in February to defund the act. + Your frustration is my frustration."

"You're a liar," Urbanski interrupted, telling him to shut down the government if he has to.

Far be it for me to actually defend Saint Mikey, but he’s right; he did cast such a thoroughly wrongheaded vote (this Urbanski person needs to make sure she knows what the hell she’s talking about before she opens her mouth next time...and the stupidity of "shutting down" our government is something that has been posted about many times before by myself and others).

Continuing…

Fitzpatrick had his supporters. Military veterans praised him, one saying "he's the only reason we have a veterans cemetery in Bucks County."

That’s a particularly outrageous lie; as noted here (first bullet), the deal for the veterans cemetery was wrapped up about three years ago while Patrick Murphy was still our rep (of course, how con-vee-nient for the link to the Courier Times story stating that to be expired…and of course, it was too much trouble I guess for Mikey’s stenographer Gary Weckselblatt to find out who the veteran was who said that).

Also, Mikey the Beloved defended his vote to defund Planned Parenthood, claiming the group “made $85 million in profits” as if that’s supposed to be a crime.

All I will say in defense of Planned Parenthood – yet again – is that, as noted here "for the three million patients (the group’s) doctors and nurses saw (in 2008-2009, the most recent data available), (Planned Parenthood) provided contraception (36 percent of…total services), testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (31 percent), cancer screening and prevention (17 percent), and abortion services (three percent)."

But Mikey and his pals voted to defund the group anyway, even though abortion services constituted three percent of Planned Parenthood’s activity over that period.

I’m sure your daughters Katie, Maggie and Molly will thank you, Congressman.

Further, Emily Bazelon wrote the following in a New York Times profile of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Sunday (here)…

When Alito testified during his 2006 confirmation hearings, he talked about the influence his Italian-immigrant roots have on his judging. In immigration cases, Alito said, “I do say to myself, ‘You know, this could be your grandfather, this could be your grandmother.’ ” He continued: “When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account.”

By focusing on Albert Snyder and Frank Ricci, Alito does a service by making us confront the human costs that liberals often turn from.

(Note: Albert Snyder is the father of the soldier killed in Iraq – our sympathies – whose funeral was to be protested by those life forms at the Westboro Baptist Church…the “God Hates Fags And Loves Dead Soldiers” bunch. As the story tells us, Alito was the only Supreme Court justice to rule in favor of Snyder in his suit against the “church”…as repellent as the Westboro Baptist Church is, what they are practicing is free speech, however despicable it is, and it should be protected as such.)

Also, Bazelon’s piece is otherwise good except for the cowardly phrase that I highlighted about liberals supposedly not confronting human costs of appellants before the Supreme Court, or something – I’m sure that would have been news to Thurgood Marshall and Harry Blackmun, among others.

What I want to focus on, though, is the case of Frank Ricci, who was a right-wing “cause célèbre” a couple of years ago for testifying against the Supreme Court nomination of Judge (and eventual Justice) Sonia Sotomayor – Dahlia Lithwick told us here of Ricci’s repeated lawsuits throughout his employment history, asking us, finally…

Is America's conservative movement really ready for an anti-affirmative action hero who has repeatedly relied on the government to intervene on his behalf to win him—and help him keep—a government job?

Yes, I understand that “personal sacrifice” means a great deal to Alito, unless it is a sacrifice to which he cannot relate – something like the sacrifice depicted here of a Pennsylvania couple and their daughter based on a certain 1998 incident, I would imagine.

In addition, we have the following that recently appeared in the New York Times (pertaining to the right-wing assault on the health care law – the latest talking point is that the granting of waivers means that the bill was flawed; please)…

“A lot of Americans just don’t know about some of the benefits,” said Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, who helped write the law as chairman of the Finance Committee.

Well then, I would say that it’s incumbent upon you, Senator, to get out and explain the benefits a little better, thus defending the law, wouldn’t you say (to be fait, Baucus does some of that here).

This is a bit of a tough call, but I’m a little tired of Baucus’s public hand-wringing on this subject, particularly when you consider the fact that, as noted here, he once proposed a Medicare buy-in at 55 as well as a – gasp! – public option as part of health care reform. And though we did end up with something approximating universal coverage which we’ve never had before in this country (which is a good thing because people won’t lose coverage for pre-existing conditions and it will reduce the deficit over time…assuming the Repugs don’t find a way to defund it or the Supreme Court of Hangin’ Judge JR doesn’t rule it to be unconstitutional), I just would like to see some more forceful and messaging-targeted support of the bill from Baucus and the Senate Dems. Is that really too much to ask?

Finally, this column in the New York Times business section on Sunday tells us the following…

The Beatles were stymied. During a 1968 recording session, they couldn’t find a suitable introduction to “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” a song written by Paul McCartney. John Lennon didn’t much like the song, and, after several hours, he stormed out of the studio. When he returned, he strode to the piano and banged out several chords, then added petulantly, “Here’s your intro!”

“All eyes shifted to Paul, expecting rejection, perhaps an outburst,” according to a new book, “Come Together: The Business Wisdom of The Beatles.” (Turner Publishing, $24.95). Instead, McCartney defused the tension with this: “That’s quite good, actually.” Lennon’s chords, pounded out in a fit of pique, make up the song’s now-famous opening.

“The underlying disagreement about whether the song had merit in the broader scheme of things did not disappear,” the book concludes, “but resolving the conflict informed the work and made it stronger, rather than destroying it.”

That takeaway — that disagreement can lead to synthesis — is just one of 100 lessons that the book teases out of the history of the Fab Four.

I think it’s a bit of a stretch to look to The Beatles as a model for how to run a business, but I guess it’s an interesting premise if nothing else.

The story also tells us the following…

“There were some very visible failures, particularly in the late ’60s, centered around the Apple group of companies,” he says, referring to the various enterprises the Beatles started at the time to enter the film, record and retail businesses. “For a lot of people that became the whole story as far as the Beatles and business are concerned.

Yes, Apple definitely had issues, but I think the following should be noted from the book “John Lennon: The Life,” by Philip Norman (here)…

Although Apple’s original raison d’être had been to lose money, and though it certainly attracted spongers, con artists, and hangers-on like wasps around a honey pot, it was very far from being (in George’s phrase) “a haven for drop-outs.” Its failure in the retail field and undiscriminating largesse were more than balanced by the instant spectacular success of its record label. Aside from the Beatles’ own automatically chart-topping output, Mary Hopkin’s single, “Those Were The Days,” had been an international hit. The roster of talent being built by Ron Kass and Peter Asher promised solid growth across the musical board, from the illustrious Modern Jazz Quartet to the American singer-songwriter James Taylor.

Also (from Norman’s book, a story of a business practice of sorts involving the Beatles that really shouldn’t be imitated by anyone – naughty word alert)…

The managerial duel between John Eastman (who supported McCartney) and Allen Klein (who supported Lennon and the other Beatles) at this point (1969) was still far from resolved, but once again Klein took the initiative, putting forward a strategy for Apple to snatch Northern Songs (Lennon and McCartney’s publishing company) from Lew Grade’s open jaws. At present, John and Paul each owned 15 percent of the company, and another token 1.6 percent was held jointly by George and Ringo. Klein’s plan was to offer $2 million for the 20 percent that would secure them a hair’s breadth majority stake. The money was to come from a firm of merchant bankers on collateral including John’s entire holding in Northern, 650,000 shares. While these arrangements were going forward, it emerged that, on Eastman’s advice, Paul had quietly increased his own holding to 750,000 shares, which would form no part of the collateral. John was vociferously upset by what he saw as Paul’s underhanded behavior and selfishness.

By mid-May, it seemed as if they were going to win. Apple had found enough allies to secure that vital extra 20 percent, most crucially a City consortium that currently held 14 percent. A delicate deal was in place, stipulating among other things that Klein would have no part in the new Northern’s management structure and that John and Paul would extend their creative involvement beyond the present expiration date of 1973. Then, at a crucial meeting with the consortium’s representatives, John lost his temper and announced h was “sick of being fucked around by men in suits, sitting on their fat arses in the City.” The offended suits instantly switched allegiance to ATV, Lew Grade gained control of Northern Songs, and Lennon-McCartney’s catalog became a pass-the parcel prize that would be handed down the decades, increasing stupendously in value each time it was unwrapped.

So I guess the moral is this: don’t say I Forgot To Remember To Forget to the Taxman, or else you’ll be Crying Waiting Hoping In Spite Of All The Danger Like Dreamers Do for Money (That’s What I Want).

And who knows, maybe you’ll say one day, Baby, You’re A Rich Man (and if all else fails and you can’t get the dough any other way, just remember that Happiness Is A Warm Gun…just kidding).

Monday Stuff

The blogging gods have not been smiling on yours truly lately - I'll try again tomorrow.

In the meantime, check this out from Lee Camp - Nail. Hammer. Head...



...and RT knocked 'em dead again tonight at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ...this is from "1,000 Years of Popular Music," and this is the only way you'll find a Britney Spears tune at this blog - no, he didn't do this tonight, but lots of other good stuff as well.

Sunday Stuff

Read this, then watch the clip below and keep telling yourself that it is only satire (from back in the era of Dippity-Do and go-go boots)...



...and I think this is a timely little number (from the SRV tribute concert).