A Rotten Apple Tale Of A Trade Swindle

As mad as I get at Ross Douthat, John Harwood, David Brooks et al from time to time, I don’t know any other paper except the New York Times that is capable of the type of reporting on display here, from yesterday (the topic is the gradual extinction of the manufacturing sector of this country, concerning both blue and white-collar jobs…well, the Inky is capable of something like this with Barlett and Steele, but their work hardly appears anymore, though I do link to it later here)…

When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley’s top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president.

But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?

Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.

Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.

Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said, according to another dinner guest.

I would ask that all of those people out there deifying Jobs and who were ready to risk injury to themselves upon the news of his death pay particular attention to that remark.

Also…

In 2007, a little over a month before the iPhone was scheduled to appear in stores, Mr. Jobs beckoned a handful of lieutenants into an office. For weeks, he had been carrying a prototype of the device in his pocket.

Mr. Jobs angrily held up his iPhone, angling it so everyone could see the dozens of tiny scratches marring its plastic screen, according to someone who attended the meeting. He then pulled his keys from his jeans.

People will carry this phone in their pocket, he said. People also carry their keys in their pocket. “I won’t sell a product that gets scratched,” he said tensely. The only solution was using unscratchable glass instead. “I want a glass screen, and I want it perfect in six weeks.”

After one executive left that meeting, he booked a flight to Shenzhen, China. If Mr. Jobs wanted perfect, there was nowhere else to go.

And why is that, exactly? Well…

…a bid for the work arrived from a Chinese factory.

When an Apple team visited, the Chinese plant’s owners were already constructing a new wing. “This is in case you give us the contract,” the manager said, according to a former Apple executive. The Chinese government had agreed to underwrite costs for numerous industries, and those subsidies had trickled down to the glass-cutting factory. It had a warehouse filled with glass samples available to Apple, free of charge. The owners made engineers available at almost no cost. They had built on-site dormitories so employees would be available 24 hours a day.

The Chinese plant got the job.

But wait, there’s more…

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

The last thing in the world I intend to do here is extol the supposed virtues of a country that houses its workers in dormitories (mentioned in the article), making them work in excess of 12 hours a day six days a week (also mentioned) and makes them sign agreements not to kill themselves when the workload gets too unmanageable (not mentioned in the Times story) and puts up nets around the outside of the dormitories to catch them if they try to kill themselves by jumping out a window (also not mentioned there, but here).

Also, it should be pointed out (and I don’t want to shock anybody) that, apparently, in China they don’t have these stupid arguments all over the place about what is the role of state government versus the federal government, the requisite conservative versus liberal hissy fit, etc. , so much so that nothing gets done anymore (at least here). Someone in authority pretty much tells a worker “do this for almost nothing or I’ll shoot you” and it gets done (again, not something I admire).

Still, you want to find out what Apple executives really think of the U.S. workforce?

Apple executives believe there simply aren’t enough American workers with the skills the company needs or factories with sufficient speed and flexibility. Other companies that work with Apple, like Corning, also say they must go abroad.

…

“We shouldn’t be criticized for using Chinese workers,” a current Apple executive said. “The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need.”

Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if these nameless Apple executives actually had the guts to go “on the record” with these observations?

And speaking of the “pay no price, bear no burden” bunch, how exactly have they fared? I think you know the answer…

As Apple’s overseas operations and sales have expanded, its top employees have thrived. Last fiscal year, Apple’s revenue topped $108 billion, a sum larger than the combined state budgets of Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Since 2005, when the company’s stock split, share prices have risen from about $45 to more than $427.

Some of that wealth has gone to shareholders. Apple is among the most widely held stocks, and the rising share price has benefited millions of individual investors, 401(k)’s and pension plans. The bounty has also enriched Apple workers. Last fiscal year, in addition to their salaries, Apple’s employees and directors received stock worth $2 billion and exercised or vested stock and options worth an added $1.4 billion.

The biggest rewards, however, have often gone to Apple’s top employees. (Timothy D.) Cook, Apple’s chief, last year received stock grants — which vest over a 10-year period — that, at today’s share price, would be worth $427 million, and his salary was raised to $1.4 million. In 2010, Mr. Cook’s compensation package was valued at $59 million, according to Apple’s security filings.

But of course Cook and his pals don't think US unemployment is their problem. That makes Cook another economic sociopath as far as I’m concerned – continuing…

A person close to Apple argued that the compensation received by Apple’s employees was fair, in part because the company had brought so much value to the nation and world. As the company has grown, it has expanded its domestic work force, including manufacturing jobs. Last year, Apple’s American work force grew by 8,000 people.

So did Apple have any thoughts on how to generate more U.S. jobs?

…the executives had suggested that the government should reform visa programs to help companies hire foreign engineers. Some had urged the president to give companies a “tax holiday” so they could bring back overseas profits which, they argued, would be used to create work. Mr. Jobs even suggested it might be possible, someday, to locate some of Apple’s skilled manufacturing in the United States if the government helped train more American engineers.

Another “tax holiday” and more H1B visas - more non-answers…

So it appears that anyone with at least half a brain in this country knows that we need an emphasis on education at all levels to try and close this gap and create more jobs. And this comes at a time when at least one of the leading presidential contenders offered by one of our major political parties in this country want to abolish the Department of Education (here).

But not to worry; the story tells us at the end that Steve Jobs got his unscratchable glass surface for his phones that he could show off at the California dinner party with President Obama (in front of executives whose combined worth was $69 billion, the story notes).

The Times story fails to note, however, whether or not these corporate vampires could see their own reflections.

Sunday Stuff

Yep, looks like the Repugs are trying to bring the so-called “right to work” (as in, “right” to get utterly fleeced) to Hoosier-land, run by former Bushie Mitch Daniels (here)…



…and oh, to be such a put-upon rock star, fending off roadies while walking around with your shirt off and being fawned over by the media – nice tune anyway.

Saturday Stuff

So South Carolina, a state that insists on electing Republican politicians who give them absolutely nothing (except maybe the back of the hand - more on that here) voted for Baby Newton Leroy (the "Not Romney" of the moment, apparently) decisively in their presidential primary. They must be so proud.

And while I’m hardly a fan of Dr. Paul, I have to admit that this is a first-class evisceration…



…and former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich tells us once more why the catastrophic Citizens United ruling from The High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR (handed down two years ago today) matters here…



…and witness the jackbooted thugs carrying out the bidding of the corpocracy, doing what they do best, and that is to try and utterly erase free speech for all but the "one percent" (here and here)…



…and in addition to Etta James, Johnny Otis passed recently also (and he kept good company, as you can see).

Friday Stuff

God, what a corporatist stooge, even for a Republican…



…“Worst Persons” (Kentucky Guv Steve Beshear gives Dems a bad name by submitting a budget with six figures worth of cuts primarily to education, but $43 million for a Bible-themed amusement park is apparently sacred, pun intended; Baby Newton Leroy – having himself an absolutely banner 24-hour news cycle, it should be noted – gets the runner-up for criticizing Obama for shutting down a portion of Mouse-Land in Florida, which has been done before by…oh, let’s just say THREE OF OUR FIVE MOST RECENT REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS; but Dr. Keith Ablow gets the top nod for some truly hilarious commentary on Gingrich’s…well, let’s just call it his alleged “charisma”…”hey, Sri Lanka, slide that pretty little booty o’ yours on over to the U.S., why dontcha”)…



...and sticking with K.O. (and in a lot more serious of a vein), tomorrow marks the second anniversary of the utterly scandalous Citizens United ruling authored by the truly wretched High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR; here is Keith’s Special Comment from two years ago on the subject, filled with all of the urgency that this subject deserves…



…and RIP Etta James (I went back and forth between this and “At Last” – I would have been covered either way).

Mikey's "TRAIN In Vain" And Other Follies, Part 2

(Part One including the setup is here.)

Continuing with our PA-08 U.S. House Rep’s supposed legislative “achievements”…

Encouraging Entrepreneurship and Growth

HR 1070 – Small Company Capital Formation Act of 2011
HR 1965 – Community Bank Resource Improvement Act
HR 2930 – Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act

HR 1070 lets companies sell $50 million in securities in a public offering without having to register with the SEC, exempting “a certain class of securities.” HR 1965 increases the number of shareholders permitted to invest in a community bank before it must register with the SEC. Also, HR 2930 is intended to increase “access to capital” presumably for the purposes of job creation.

I’ll be honest – I checked these out and I can’t find anything wrong, though I am suspicious of course. The intention of all of these bills (apparently) is to speed up the process by which capital is acquired for startups and to encourage “crowd funding” as opposed to “angel investing,” getting around the SEC’s reporting requirements. I have a feeling that this is a recipe for trouble, but again, I don’t know enough to stand in the way on this (more on crowd funding is here).

Another piece of legislation Mikey touts is as follows…

HR 2940 – Access to Capital for Job Creators Act

This was sponsored by supposed GOP “young gun” Kevin McCarthy of California, again, intended to hasten access to capital on behalf of those “job creators” the GOP claims to love. However, I think the following should be noted about this from here…

Vote 4: Executive compensation: The House has rejected an amendment sponsored by Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., to the Access to Capital for Job Creators Act (H.R. 2940). The amendment would have required businesses soliciting capital from private, non-accredited investors to disclose their bonus compensation structures and any golden parachute severance packages for company officials. Miller said the requirement would protect investors from unwittingly having their investments increase executive compensation. An opponent, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said "the SEC has no authority to regulate the compensation of executives at private companies," and the requirement "would fail anyone's cost benefit analysis" of its economic impact. The vote, on Nov. 3, was 190 yeas to 234 nays.

Oh, I get it now – all of these bills are intended to allow executives at these startups that supposedly now will flourish to claim any degree of compensation that they want outside of any reporting requirements that may exist as stipulated in existing or future legislation. Clever.

Well, we’ll see about this, won’t we?

Continuing…

Controlling Government Spending and Deficit Reduction

Supported a House of Representatives ban on all earmarks, which had come to signify the permissive spending culture in Washington.

Yeah, Mikey and his pals like to ride the little earmark “hobby horse” in the name of supposed fiscal austerity, but as noted here, earmarks really aren’t all that big of a deal when it comes to federal spending. And as noted here, the teabagger caucus took in $1 bil in earmarks in 2010.

(By the way, in the matter of earmarks, even though this involves the Senate and not the House, I think it should be noted from here that the Senate Repugs blocked the 2010 Omnibus Spending Bill because it contained nearly $2 billion in earmarks that the Senate Repugs asked for themselves – too funny.)

H Res 22 – Voted to cut House budget by 5% (and Mikey voted for a 11% cut on top of that; that's a total of 16 percent for those of us playing along at home)

However, in the matter of supposed fiscal austerity, this tells us that the House Speaker scored a hefty raise in his expense account, and I can recall not a word of protest from Mikey The Beloved.

H Res 38 – Roll back current gov’t spending to 2008 or before

That sounds nice too, until you realize that it would give unprecedented authority to “flim-flam man” Paul Ryan (noted here in the second bullet).

HR 2 – To reduce new spending by $2.6 trillion over 10 years

As noted here, though, government spending has helped create jobs, not hinder job growth (of course, this is coming from the political party that continues to sit on President Obama’s jobs bill, so this doesn’t surprise me at all).

HR 1 – Continuing Appropriations Act for 2011, which eliminated $100 billion in federal spending for the remainder of FY 2011

It should be noted from here that that includes underfunding operation of the IRS, among other agencies of government (more here – another attempt to remove those supposedly pesky, “job-killing” regulations that would let the GOP’s “small business” constituency get away with more and more nonsense).

H. Con Res 34 – would reduce federal spending by $5.8 trillion in 10 years

As noted here…

H.Con.Res. 34 is yet another example of GOP magical thinking — cut federal government spending and the debts and deficits will go away! We also know that cutting government spending on education and infrastructure programs makes jobs go away too.

Uh, yep. And finally (for now)…

HR 2560 – Cut, “Crap” and Balance Act

(Mikey’s mailer, by the way, incorrectly notes the bill number as 2562, for what it’s worth).

As noted here…

The federal budget could very well be reduced to defense spending, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and national debt interest and absolutely (nothing) else - assuming that revenues actually reached 18% (and that's happened under two of President Bush's, and none of President Obama's budgets – note: the cuts would be enacted if revenues reached the 18% limit). If not, then even more cuts would be necessary. Based on FY 2010 revenue - and remember it would take a 2/3 vote to increase revenue under these Amendments - the budget would be operating closer to 14% of GDP, meaning that the budget would have faced a cut of about $1.5 trillion, or a 42% budget cut across every single program, including Medicare and Social Security.

Also, cutting $1 trillion yearly from the federal budget would have a devastating impact on the economy, which would likely reduce the GDP, both lowering the funding cap and reducing tax revenues, forcing further cuts, lowering the GDP further. Such an amendment could trigger a downward spiral that would almost certainly result in the gutting of most of the nation's entitlement programs.

This amendment would also largely trigger elections moot, and that's something that all but the hardest core Republicans should be opposed to, regardless of whether one agrees with current Democratic policies or not.

This amendment would enshrine in the Constitution right wing conservative economic doctrine, ensuring that conservatives could implement their agenda of cutting the budget and cutting taxes by a mere majority vote, but would require moderates and liberals to meet a virtually unattainable goal of 2/3 vote in both Houses to implement any of their policy goals, or to even undo anything Republicans might have done when they were in power. It would effectively ensure that Republicans control government, even if they lose elections. Only an overwhelming election of Democrats, ensuring a 2/3 majority in both Houses could undo this arrangement.

Fitzpatrick also voted in favor of and cosponsored a bill to send a Balanced Budget Amendment to the states (H.J. Res 2), something else that will pass state legislatures when pigs fly.

In response, click here to support Kathy Boockvar (with some news about Kathy’s candidacy here).

Oh, and by the way, Courier Times, we always knew you were Mikey’s PR service (this appeared online yesterday). Do you now have to accept advertising on his behalf paid for by taxpayer funds too?

Update 1/27/12: And here is more on Cut, "Crap" And Balance.

Thursday Mashup (1/19/12)

You could cut the stoo-pid with a knife in this editorial in the Bucks County Courier Times today. But before I comment on that, I have to provide some background.

As this Philadelphia Inquirer article tells us, Pennsbury (Bucks County) High School student Ashley Zauflik suffered a devastating injury when she was run over by a bus in 2007, requiring the amputation of her left leg below the knee (the bus driver was found to be negligent). A jury awarded her $14 million last December; she deserves all of that and more.

Here’s the problem, though; a 1978 state law caps the amount that governments, including school districts, can pay out – the liability limit is $500,000.

Now, back to the Courier Times editorial...

That’s not right and everybody knows it, including state Reps. John Galloway, D-140, and Steve Santarsiero, D-31, whose legislative districts include the Pennsbury School District. Together, the pair want to replace the law with what they’re calling Ashley’s Law. It’s not exactly clear what the new law would mandate; they’re still doing the research. But the goal is clear.

“We want to determine whether the current cap is antiquated and whether insurance that is affordable to school districts and municipalities could allow innocent victims with catastrophic injuries, like Ashley, to recover without significantly burdening taxpayers,” Santarsiero said of the pending legislation.

To that end, the lawmakers have asked the Pennsbury School Board to support their effort and not hide behind the state law they believe should be reformed. Said Galloway, “Pennsbury should ... call for the insurance company to do the right thing.”

So far, board members are unwilling to do that, saying instead that the matter is out of their hands.

Well people, seriously now, what else did you expect with Simple Simon Campbell and his minions now in charge?

Oh, and speak of the devil…

School board member (Campbell) also speaks his mind and has a suggestion for the “two fearless johnny-come-lately crusaders”…

Take a slow boat back to the UK, if they’ll have you, you maniac – continuing…

…Encourage the outsourcing of busing as a way for school districts to “offload liability risk.”

Campbell makes a good point. The district would not be in the position it is in and neither would Ashley if a private company, which would not be protected by a liability cap, were running the bus service. But just looking into the issue has raised a ruckus in Pennsbury — such is the power of unions.

Oh sure, Bucks County Courier Times Op-Ed board; just kick the Pennsbury school bus drivers to the curb, if you will, and replace them with “scabs.” Why, it’s not as if we’re entrusting them with anything that’s actually important – only the safety of our kids!

And as far as whether or not privatizing bus service actually saves money, read this post, particularly the first bullet, to see that it has everything to do with bleeding taxpayers in Pennsbury dry and trying to break another public employee union, a stated goal of a gambler like futures trader Campbell (and nothing to do with helping Ashley Zauflik either, unfortunately).

Next, it looks like Baby Newton Leroy had a hissy fit here over the following from the 1,252,324th Republican candidates’ debate…

Hours before the debate, ABC News and The Washington Post released interviews with Marianne Gingrich in which she alleged Gingrich asked for an "open marriage" before their divorce.

Marianne Gingrich told The Washington Post that a day after he husband told her about his affair with Callista Bisek in May 1999, the former House speaker delivered a speech titled "The Demise of American Culture" to a group of Republican women in Pennsylvania.

"How could he ask me for a divorce on Monday and within 48 hours give a speech on family values and talk about how people treat people?" Marianne Gingrich said in her interview with the Post.

Gingrich said the story was false.

Yeah, well, he would wouldn’t he (here is more fun with Baby Newton Leroy).

Also, I don’t think there’s been a lot of attention paid to the fact that conservative casino mogul (and former “Freedom’s Watch” sugar daddy) Sheldon Adelson has been bankrolling Gingrich’s anti-Romney movie; here is more on that, and here is a prior post on Adelson.

Seems like every time the Repug candidates emerge from the GOP “clown car” for these spectacles, they’re one short. Wonder if it will be only three next time, with Gingrich the odd man out?

Finally, I give you true hilarity here (on Obama and his supposedly “job-killing” decision on the Keystone XL pipeline)…

…today is the day that Obama increased the amount of energy we need to import from places like the Middle East and Venezuela; today is the day that he crushed hundreds of thousands of US jobs. He did it because he can't be bothered to do ANYTHING, except campaign.

Today is the day he morphed from President Do-Nothing to President Hypocrite.

He did it by killing the XL Keystone pipeline which would bring a million barrels per day of North American oil to US refineries, create at a minimum 200,000 jobs and open up the US heartland for domestic development of oil- and the millions in jobs and domestic GDP it would create.

I think the video from here puts that “200,000” claim in its place.



It would actually be funny if it weren’t so utterly pathetic.

Thursday Stuff

Here’s news about what we can do to protest that godawful Citizens United ruling on Saturday, the two-year anniversary of the atrocity from the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR…



…and Rachel Maddow tells us just how far out of any semblance of “the mainstream” the Repugs are on the latest attempt at “personhood” legislation…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

…also, K.O. talks to Dem Senator Ron Wyden about the PIPA and SOPA fight; Wyden was “out there” a bit on the Paul Ryan/Medicare scam recently, but he’s usually spot-on concerning the issues that matter, and he is again here – and man, has my opinion of Chris Dodd fallen off the proverbial cliff; can’t believe he’s the same guy who once duked it out with Bill Orally in defense of Daily Kos – try collaborating with Reddit, Wikipedia, Google etc. on anti-piracy legislation instead of trying to cram this garbage down our metaphysical throats…



…and speaking of technology, I thought this was a good tune for the occasion.

Tuesday Stuff

“Worst Persons” (this idiot in the Kansas state house named Mike O’Neal wishes for a Biblical curse on President Obama – love to see the Secret Service test out new methods of interrogation on this clown; Willard Mitt Romney takes second place for not answering a question from Clayton Holton, an 80-pound man suffering from a form of muscular dystrophy, about whether or not he would personally arrest someone for using medical marijuana, and also blowing off Holton in the process…what’s that expression, “plus ca change”?; but Greyhound Bus Lines driver Donald Ainsworth takes the top “prize” for harassing “Occupy” bus riders during a stop in (of course) Texas en route to an “Occupy” event in DC (it’s 2012, asshat, not 1912, not that your conduct would be permissible in that year either)…



…and speaking of birthdays (were we?), this little number goes out to this guy (sorry, no video).

Monday Stuff

Hat tip to Atrios here (“School House Rock” was fun, but somehow I don’t think they covered this; a diversion from the 4,286th Republican debate tonight)...


Conspiracy Theory Rock by fruittreeofwisdom

...and with sleet in the forecast in these parts, I hear “The Sound of Winter” rapping, rapping at my chamber door, as it were.

Legacy Of A Dream, 2012

President Obama issued a proclamation here in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and this post from 2006 concerning Dr. King is every bit as timely now as it was then.

Also, here is an excerpt from a speech given by Dr. King at the Barratt School in Philadelphia in 1967.

Saturday Stuff

Awww, looks like “God’s quarterback” got his lunch handed to him by Brady and the Pats…



…and yep, looks like Willard Mitt and his pals are trying to “hate away teh gay,” if you will, big time (here)…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

…and I wonder if Tom “Space Cadet” Corbett would consider doing his job for free (here)? And, after watching this, I’m somehow supposed to be sympathetic to schemes involving vouchers...



…and I guess this is as good an excuse as any to take a trip back to the ‘80s.

Friday Stuff

Point, meet counterpoint (from wingnuttia-land)…



…and somehow I have a feeling that, if Rod Serling were still alive, he would approve of this message (here, and in a related story as they say, this piece in the Times today made me want to puke)…



…and Rachel Maddow and Dave Weigel tell us here that it’s déjà vu all over again for the Repugs (and actually, her analogy between 2008 and this year holds up better when you realize that Former Senator Man-On-Dog quite probably won the Iowa caucus, as Weigel mentions - truly scary)…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

…and on this day in 1968, Johnny Cash performed live at Folsom Prison – nice bit of a remix.

Friday Mashup (1/13/12)

This post at The Daily Tucker tells us the following…

The rise of Ron Paul in the Republican primary season has raised questions about what Americans expect from the executive office. The accepted interpretation of presidential powers and executive effectiveness centers on the “use” of the office. “Active” executives, such as Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, are usually considered “great,” while those who did “little” in office round out the list. For example, a 2010 Siena Research Institute survey included both Roosevelts and Lincoln in the top five while Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman were in the top ten. The bottom dwellers included Andrew Johnson, John Tyler, James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce. Grover Cleveland and Martin Van Buren were also in the bottom half.

Author Brion McClanahan, author of The Founding Fathers Guide To The Constitution (yep, that wingnut alarm in the back of my head just went off) then uses this as an excuse to defend former Presidents John Tyler, Grover Cleveland, Martin Van Buren, James Monroe, and (perhaps most egregiously) James Buchanan (presumably for low taxes, low tariffs, and lower spending than other chief executives – McClanahan does defend his selections of course, as he should).

When considering John Tyler, our 10th president, I think we should also look at the following (from here)…

He sided with the Confederate government, and won election to the Confederate House of Representatives shortly before his death (and Texas was annexed under his administration - maybe better left with Mexico? :-).

And what of Grover Cleveland? Well, from here…

He vetoed hundreds of private pension bills for American Civil War veterans, believing that if their pensions requests had already been rejected by the Pensions Bureau, Congress should not attempt to override that decision. When Congress, pressured by the Grand Army of the Republic, passed a bill granting pensions for disabilities not caused by military service, Cleveland also vetoed that.

Oh, and there was that fathering-a-child-out-of-wedlock business, but that happened before he was elected to the White House (God knows what Fix Noise and their pals would do with that now, though).

I think we should also consider the following about Martin Van Buren (who came after Andrew Jackson)…

He oversaw the "Trail of Tears", which involved the expulsion of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole from Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina to the Oklahoma territory. To help secure Florida, Van Buren also pursued the Second Seminole War, which had begun while Jackson was in office. The war, which would prove the costliest of the Indian Wars, was highly unpopular in the free states, where it was seen as an attempt to expand slave territory. Fighting was not resolved until 1842, after Van Buren had left office.

The one selection where I don’t have much of a bone to pick, as it were, with McClanahan concerns James Monroe. However, the following should be noted from here…

As Secretary of State, Monroe dismissed Mordecai Manuel Noah from his post as consul to Tunis in 1815, for the apparent reason that he was Jewish. Noah protested and gained letters from Adams, Jefferson, and Madison supporting church-state separation and tolerance for Jews.

He also brought slaves with him to the White House, but that apparently was a common practice back then (repugnant still, though, I realize).

Monroe also said the following (to his credit)…

"It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin."

And finally, this brings us to James Buchanan, the only president who came from our beloved commonwealth. As noted here…

Knowing that secessionist fervor was strongest in South Carolina, Buchanan made a quiet pact with South Carolina's legislators that he would not reinforce the Charleston garrison in exchange for no interference from the state.[53] However, Buchanan did not inform the Charleston commander, Major Robert Anderson, of the agreement, and on December 26 Anderson violated it by moving his command to Fort Sumter. Southerners responded with a demand that Buchanan remove Anderson, while northerners demanded support for the commander. On December 31, in an apparent panic and without consulting Anderson, Buchanan ordered reinforcements.

I think that Buchanan’s predecessor Franklin Pierce had at least as much to do with the runup to the Civil War as Buchanan did, though, truth be told, you could argue that no one could have prevented it (kind of the way that Calvin Coolidge was at least as much at fault for the Depression as Herbert Hoover because of his inaction…I realize, though, that all of this is conjecture in the end).

This probably would be a more appropriate topic for President’s Day next month, but I guess now is as good a time as any to comment on this subject too.

Next, I couldn’t help but come across this item from The Hill, in which Repug U.S. House Rep John Fleming of Louisiana criticizes Number 44 as follows…

With his new defense strategy President Obama has charted another step on his road map for American decline. His inconsistent, lead-from-behind mentality has diminished our standing in the world. As our exit from Iraq last month demonstrated, the commander in chief is more concerned with political appearances than with well-thought-out strategy.

The men and women of the United States military do an extraordinary job of executing their orders. They have been stretched throughout the past decade, but their service has paved the way for freedom in Iraq, while keeping terrorists from using their familiar haunts in Afghanistan to plan and carry out attacks on innocent Americans.

Hmmm, John Fleming, John Fleming – why does that name sound familiar?

Oh yeah, it’s because he’s one of these supposedly oppressed millionaires in the House whose $6.3 million swag is apparently only worth $400 grand, and he was all “woe is me” about it here (cry me a river, dirtbag).

Oh, and by the way, as noted here, the exit of our troops from Iraq had nothing to do with President Obama. It was negotiated in the Status of Forces Agreement under Dubya (and before you start blaming Obama for not enough troops in Afghanistan, take a look at this to see how President Hopey Changey has sent more of our people over to The Land Where Empires Go To Die after years of us shortchanging the war effort under Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History).

Finally, I thought the Bucks County Courier Times was occasionally lucid in this editorial this morning over the fact that Patrick Murphy, former U.S. House congressional rep and current candidate for the Dem nomination in the PA Attorney General’s race, did not take the PA state bar exam…

Criticizing Murphy for opting out of the only bar exam that tests students’ knowledge of Pennsylvania law, a spokesman for (Philadelphia prosecutor Dan McCaffery, another candidate) asserted, “Not taking the Pennsylvania bar exam automatically disqualifies (Murphy) for attorney general. It’s a fatal flaw.”

Maybe it will be for voters; we’ll see. But we don’t think it should be.

We further think the spokesman’s comments are a cheap shot because requirements for the job of attorney general do not include trial experience. In fact, the only professional qualification that the Pennsylvania Constitution mandates for attorney general is to be a member of the state bar.

Uh, yep – and as noted here…

Murphy's also taken some hits recently because he never sat for the Pennsylvania bar exam, but rather became licensed to practice in the state through a very common process known as "reciprocity," which involves passing another state's exam and then gaining sufficient legal experience. Speaking as a lawyer, this kind of criticism is manifestly stupid—if Pennsylvania thought it necessary for all lawyers practicing there to take the PA bar, they'd make that a requirement. But they don't, and it's not. That said, things play differently on the campaign trail than they do at bar committee meetings, and McCaffery has been making a big deal of this story.

To help out Patrick Murphy, click here (and as mentioned in the Daily Kos post, good luck to Dem Kathy Boockvar, who has lined up to challenge Mikey the Beloved for Murphy’s old seat…click here to help).

Mikey's "TRAIN In Vain" And Other Follies, Part 1

A correspondence from our PA-08 U.S. House rep recently arrived at Le Manse Doomsy, which is Mikey The Beloved’s “2011 Year-End Review and Issues Update.” In this post, I will list the legislation Fitzpatrick supported, along with what I consider to be appropriate responses (the legislation is divided by headings, one of which appears below; I will not be able to cover the entire correspondence today, but I’m sure it will end up providing future posting material also).

Empowering Small Business Owners

HR 2401 – TRAIN Act

As noted here…

The health standards that the TRAIN Act will prevent are long overdue and would save tens of thousands of lives every year once they are implemented (including the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and Mercury and Air Toxics standards). Blocking these standards for just one additional year would result in:

• up to 25,300 lives lost;
• more than 11,000 heart attacks;
• more than 120,000 asthma attacks;
• over 12,200 more hospital and emergency room visits; and
• many hundreds of thousands more days of missed work or school.

And the bill’s lengthier minimum periods of delay (15 & 19 months) would result in up to 33,450 premature deaths. The real toll likely will be much higher since the legislation allows indefinite delays in these vital public health safeguards.

Continuing with Mikey (what a great start)…

HR 3094 – Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act

As noted here…

The House this evening passed (235-188) legislation (H.R. 3094) that gives employers new tools to combat and delay elections by workers who try to form unions. Dubbed the Election Prevention Act by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the bill is the congressional Republican effort to block some modest rule changes proposed earlier this year by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to reduce unnecessary litigation and modernize the way union elections are conducted.

…

While they have refused to pass jobs legislation this year, congressional Republicans have made nearly 50 separate assaults on the NLRB since January by proposing bills to gut the agency’s oversight and funding, holding hearings and issuing subpoenas, according to American Rights at Work (ARAW).

Your House Repugs on the job, ladies and gentlemen.

Continuing with Mikey again…

HR 527 – Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act

As Michigan Dem congressman John Conyers noted here…

Rounding out the trio of public safety killing legislation is H.R. 527, the “Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2011.” Under current law, rulemaking agencies must make an analysis for every new rule that would have significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities, such as small businesses. Among other things, this bill repeals the authority of an agency to waive or delay this analysis in response to an emergency that makes compliance or timely compliance impracticable.

So if there is an epidemic of E. coli or listeria infection caused by some item in our nation’s food distribution network, or if there is an imminent environmental disaster that could be addressed systemically through regulation, this bill says “Don’t worry. Don’t rush.”

My conservative colleagues argue that this legislation is necessary because too much regulation is responsible for our nation’s current economic difficulties. They must be suffering from some collective form of amnesia. It was not too much regulation of Wall Street that led to the near collapse of the worldwide marketplace. It was not too much regulation that caused the BP oil spill. And, it was not too much regulation that allowed mortgage brokers, servicers, bankers and others to engage in predatory lending and falsify foreclosure documents in court proceedings.

Continuing with Mikey…

HR 10 – REINS Act and HR 3010 – Regulatory Accountability Act (I combined them)

As noted here about REINS…

The first of these is the childishly-named "Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act"(H.R. 10). Currently, Congress passes a regulatory law and it is up to the agencies within the Executive branch to write the regulations based on that direction from the Legislative branch. If Congress doesn't like how it is done, there are expedited ways for them to halt the new or changed regulations.

Under the REINS Act, this all changes. Now, any new regulation that is deemed to be a "major regulation" (having an impact of $100,000,000 or more) must be APPROVED by both the House and the Senate. Not only that, it must happen within 70 days of being submitted to Congress.

Think about that for a minute. When was the last thing Congress did anything in 70 days?

The impact of this is dramatic. The current way regulations are written attempts to insulate the regulatory process from the political winds that buffet our country. It's not a complete insulation, of course, but it's an important separation. If this law passes, a small handful of legislators with a political axe to grind can bring the process to a near standstill, all but guaranteeing the 70 day window will close and no action is taken on the new regulation. When that happens, the regulation is scrapped.

If this becomes law, it also would allow a current Congress to thwart the actions of a previous Congress without ever having to repeal any legislation, a subjugation of our democratic process.

And as noted about the RAA from the same Daily Kos post…

The Regulatory Accountability Act (S. 1606/H.R. 3010) will grind to a halt the rulemaking process at the core of implementing the nation’s public health, workplace safety, and environmental standards. This bill will not improve the federal regulatory process; it will cripple it. Rules that somehow make it through the RAA's process would tilt against the public interest and in favor of powerful special interests.

The RAA would cover every rule and guidance – big and small – proposed by any executive regulatory agency and any independent regulatory agency. It seeks to fundamentally rewrite and expand the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), a 65-year-old statute that can be considered as a kind of Constitution for administrative agencies and the regulatory process. There are now more than 110 separate procedural requirements in the rulemaking process; the RAA would add more than 60 new procedural and analytical requirements. For the country's most important rules, the RAA would add no fewer than 21 to 39 months to the rulemaking process.

And as noted from here…

The REINS Act is built on the faulty premise that the regulatory state is out of control. It’s easy to mock government rules, of which there are many, if you focus only on their costs and ignore their benefits. But, in reality, every major federal rule is already subject to extensive cost-benefit analysis by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and, under President Obama and President Bush, OMB has consistently concluded that the benefits of federal regulations far outweigh the costs. Last year, it concluded that the annual cost of major rules issued between FY 1999 and 2009 was $43 to $55 billion, while the annual societal benefits of those same regulations ranged from $128 billion to $616 billion—an excellent return on investment by any standard.

And lastly (for now)…

HR 910 – Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011

As noted here…

The bill prohibits the Environmental Protection Agency from protecting the environment. And other than the title, the word "tax" does not appear at all in the bill. This legislative lunacy has inspired a couple of obviously frustrated Democratic congressmen to offer amendments that seek to improve at least the official title of the bill.

Jared Polis of Colorado submitted an amendment to change the title to "The Dirty Air Act of 2011." Gerry Connolly of Virginia was somewhat more industrious. He submitted eight amendments including "The Koch Brothers Appreciation Act," "The Protecting Americans from Polar Bears Act," and "The Head in the Sand Act."

Some people may think that these sorts of pranks mock the serious responsibilities of the institution. But the truth is that these amendments are no more ridiculous than the title as written in the bill's original language. And nothing is more ridiculous the actual intent of the bill. This is a great way to illustrate that it's the GOP who are a joke.

Including Mikey the Beloved of course; I’ll plan to return to Mikey’s “year in review” later.

Thursday Stuff

Well golly gee, it looks like that little puke Jimmy O’Keefe may have added a felony to his rap sheet (here, with a reminder below of one of his most notorious escapades; also, more here)…



…and here’s a little number to help make our days more tolerable.

Wednesday Stuff

Listening to Baby Newton Leroy and “Goodhair” Perry trying to claim the moral high ground here is hilarious, though they definitely have a point about the presumptive Repug presidential nominee…



…and here’s something you’re not hearing much of, though you should, as Cenk Uygur tells us (more here)…



…and as Think Progress tells us here, today marks ten years since the first “terrists” were detained at Guantanamo, which makes me recall this clip from November 2008 (just after the election – more good “Young Turks” stuff)…



…and with that in mind, I bring you this – if the DFHs have a “national anthem,” it’s probably this song or that tune by Country Joe and the Fish at Woodstock (two notes first: 1) Though I definitely have disagreements with Obama from time to time, it should be noted that, while he’s shown in this clip, he did try to close GITMO, and 2) It might be worthwhile to read the story of John Kay, lead singer of Steppenwolf, and his harrowing escape from then-East Germany when he was young – songs like this arise from a true sense of idealism about this country, which I think is commendable).

And by the way, under the heading of “Crime and Punishment,” I have a great big “WTF?” reaction over this.

Tuesday Stuff

I’m sure the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Bucks County Courier Times wrestle with this question every day, since it hits so close to home for their core demographic – heh…


How Will The End Of Print Journalism Affect Old Loons Who Hoard Newspapers?

…and from the Department of Double Standards, I give you this (oh, and by the way, I hate to shock anyone out there, but Mitt Romney won New Hampshire – yawn)…



…and speaking of Willard Mitt and his pals, I thought this was a bit of fun…



…and let’s hope we’re not all singing this tune after this November (speaking of New Hampshire).

Tuesday Mashup (1/10/12)

This Daily Tucker post tells us the following…

The Department of Justice’s inspector general has refused to investigate Attorney General Eric Holder’s response to public safety threats stemming from the ongoing “Occupy” movement nationwide, especially in New York City and Washington, D.C.

The nonprofit investigative firm Cause of Action asked DOJ Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar to look into Holder’s response to concerns about the potential for violence in connection with Occupy protests.

About the group Cause of Action, here is a link to their web site. If you have better luck finding out who is behind this organization than I did, please let me know (ahhh, I can smell the Astroturf!).

Also, this link from the Daily Tucker “story” provides a video showing what is supposed to be an attack by “Occupy” protestors on “elderly women” outside of a Washington, D.C. fundraiser. Well, I watched the six-minute-or-so video (heavily edited as most clips from conservative sites are), and while it is possible that two women who weren’t particularly elderly were roughed up a bit in a scuffle between “Occupy” protestors and the D.C. police (you see the after effects more than the actual supposed misconduct, which again is typical), you also see a tall man in his 50s or 60s (I would guess) trying to manhandle two shorter (and younger) “Occupy” protestors, and you also see a confrontation resulting from this.

If the Department of Justice and the Inspector General aren’t going to investigate the car attack on the three “Occupy” protestors, then it would be utterly farcical to investigate any alleged “attacks” against those attending the Koch Brothers soiree in our nation’s capital.

Next, BoBo asks “Where are the liberals?” here. And if you guessed that this line is another excuse for a column full of straw man arguments against all Republican opposition, then you win a complimentary “Obama/Hillary 2012” bumper sticker courtesy of Bill Keller (here).

Actually, I think there are more than a few liberals here, BoBo (and here is more food for thought on that subject…by the way, I always thought that a liberal was someone seeking a benefit from the government and a progressive was someone who sought change through governmental legislation; if that's not totally correct, I'm open to discussion on that).

Finally, this tells us the following…

Tony Blankley, who frustrated and entertained reporters as press secretary to Newt Gingrich during his rise to power in the House, then joined the press corps himself as a columnist and editorial page editor for the Washington Times, died Saturday in Washington. He was 63.

Before I say another word, I wish to extend my condolences to Blankley’s family and friends. I think that 63 is too young of an age for someone to cash in, as it were.

However, that being said, I think the following should be noted about Blankley…

Here, he once called Valerie Plame “a CIA operations officer with relatively minor responsibilities” (last bullet).

Really?

Here, he said that Bill Clinton vetoed welfare reform twice (wrong, and this is particularly funny since, as was already pointed out, Blankley was Baby Newton Leroy’s press secretary at the time, so he should have known better).

Here…well, you can read a whole bunch of Blankley BS, so take your pick.

Again, it is sad for Blankley’s cohorts that he has passed, and I acknowledge that. What is sadder still is that his legacy, such as it is, is service for such an utterly dishonorable cause.

Monday Stuff

I was trying to find a way to respond to the latest pain narrative from Fluffyhead here (h/t Atrios), and I think this clip sums up my feelings pretty well; this features Sam Seder in Wisconsin last March or April in response to the antics from Hosni Mubarak Walker.

(Oh, and here is another item to raise the blood pressure, I know, from last month - missed it while I was in "Do-Gooders and Dregs" mode)...



…and by the way, happy belated 65th birthday to David Bowie, featuring a song that mentions the place where David Gregory surely lives.

"Orwell That Ends Well"

From Bill Maher’s great new book (a Christmas present from Mrs. Doomsy – this is dated March 16, 2007)…

New Rule: Liberals must stop saying President Bush hasn’t asked Americans to sacrifice for the war on terror. On the contrary, he’s asked us to sacrifice something enormous: our civil rights. When I heard George Bush was reading my Emails, I probably had the same reaction you did: “George Bush can read?” Yes, he can, and this administration has read your phone records, credit-card statements, mail, Internet logs – I can’t tell if they’re fighting a war on terror or producing the next season of Cheaters. I mail myself a copy of the Constitution every morning on the hope they’ll open it and see what it says.

So when it comes to sacrifice, don’t kid yourself; you have given up a lot. You’ve given up faith in your government’s honesty, the goodwill of people overseas, and six-tenths of the Bill of Rights. Here’s what you’ve sacrificed: search and seizure, warrants, self-incrimination, trial by jury, cruel and unusual punishment; here’s what you have left: handguns, religion, and they can’t make you quarter a British soldier. If Prince Harry invades the Inland Empire, he has to bring a tent.

In previous wars, Americans on the home front made a very different kind of sacrifice. During World War II, we endured rationing, paid higher taxes, bought war bonds. In the interest of national unity, people even pretended Bob Hope was funny. Women donated their silk undergarments so they could be sewn into parachutes – can you imagine nowadays a Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan going without underwear? OK, bad example.

George Bush has never been too bright about furreners, but he does know Americans. He asked this generation to sacrifice the things he knew we wouldn’t miss: our privacy and our morality. He let us keep the money. But he made a cynical bet that we wouldn’t much care if we became a “big brother” country that has now tortured a lot of random people. And yet no one asks the tough questions like “Is torture necessary?””Who will watch the watchers?” and “When does Jack Bauer go to the bathroom? It’s been five years – is he wearing one of those astronaut diapers?”

After 9/11, President Bush told us Osama bin Laden could run, but he couldn’t hide. But then he ran, and hid, so Bush went to Plan B: pissing on the Constitution.

Conservatives always say the great thing Reagan did was make us feel good about America again. Do you feel good about America now? I’ll give you my answer, and to get it out of me, you don’t even have to hold my head under water or have a snarling guard dog rip my nuts off. No, I don’t feel very good about that. They say that evil happens when good men do nothing. And the Democrats prove it also happens when mediocre people do nothing.

The new season begins this Friday.

Update 1/9/12: And here is something else to keep in mind about Former Commander Codpiece (which isn't surprising in the least).

Saturday Stuff

It truly is the civil rights struggle for our times (more here – oh, and I believe the Repug presidential wannabes are having their 1,254th debate tonight; yawn)…



…and speaking of the presumptive nominee Willard Mitt, Lawrence O’Donnell has a particularly good “Rewrite” here…



…”Worst Persons” from last night (Billo and Laura Ingraham – the former with at least half a load on, apparently – are railing against our Kenyan Muslim socialist pre-zee-dint because he’s going to lavish money for abortions, supposedly, which of course is completely illegal and something Obama has no intention of doing, but as we know, silly things like facts have never gotten in the way of Fix Noise before; Repug House Rep. Allen West is the runner up for apparently taking issue with Senate Republicans, which I agree with, actually; but the new president of Penn State, Rodney Erickson, takes the top “honor” for thinking that “taking control of the narrative” was the most important consideration about the Jerry Sandusky scandal – almost too disgusting for words)…



…and today was the annual “prog rock” show on public radio station WXPN in these parts, but I didn’t hear this tune (with a little Prokofiev thrown in, I believe), so here it is (sorry, no video).

Friday Stuff

The U.S. House Repugs have obviously learned not a thing from the Mikey Fitzpatrick/Steny Hoyer debacle a few weeks ago (here)…



…and once again, when it’s time to take a hard look at the news events affecting our lives (harking back a bit to the item above), that means it’s time for Jon Stewart (here, including more of the video below)…



...and maybe Hulu's videos will cooperate, and maybe they won't - sigh...

…and in case anyone out there is still nostalgic for 2011 somehow (count me out), Mark Fiore is happy to oblige here…



...and I've been trying to get around to this video for a few days - better late than never.

Thursday Mashup (1/5/12)

This story in today’s Bucks County Courier Times tells us the following…

As a real estate developer, Robert Loughery focused on transforming vacant properties from blighted to bustling.

On Wednesday, he pledged to try something quite similar with all of Bucks County.

The 41-year-old founder of the Keystone Development Group was named chairman of the Bucks County commissioners after a unanimous vote from its three-member board.

I mean, it might as well have been unanimous, since Dem Commissioner Diane Marseglia would have been outvoted anyway. And of course I didn’t expect Loughery and Charley (“I Have A Semi-Open Mind”) Martin to name Diane chairman anyway; as much as I would have liked to have seen that, it would have gone against the wishes of the voters after all.

But what really gets me about this story is this…

Charley Martin was named vice chairman of the commissioners Wednesday over objections from minority board member Diane Marseglia.

The lone Democrat on the board, Marseglia had nominated herself to be vice chairman. She called on Loughery and Martin to support her in the spirit of nonpartisanship.

Marseglia’s predecessor as minority commissioner, Sandra Miller, was never named chairwoman or vice chairwoman during several terms of office as county commissioner.

“But things are supposed to be different now,” said Marseglia.

Typically petty and stupid from Loughery and Martin (take a bow once more, all you Dems and independent voters who thought it was too much trouble to vote for Det Ansinn last November).

Update 1/6/12: Gee, it must be worse than I thought for Mikey The Beloved's press service to actually take notice (here).

Next, I give you Cal Thomas, who is a busy wingnut these days; here, he’s blaming President Obama for ending Dubya’s NASA Constellation program, which would include a return trip to the moon presumably to launch further space exploration.

As noted here, though, Obama canceled those plans in February 2010, which would have cost taxpayers $100 billion by 2020. Instead, he called for spending $6 billion over five years to focus on research and commercial development of rockets, robotics and other space-related technology.

On top of that, NASA (in the form of the so-called Augustine Commission) said it would require $50 billion more than that hundred billion over 10 years just to get to where we had planned to go under Constellation.

I think the excerpt from the Forbes article linked to here sums it up pretty well…

It comes down to money.

NASA is sacrificing the shuttles, according to the program manager, so it can get out of low-Earth orbit and get to points beyond. The first stop under Obama's plan is an asteroid by 2025; next comes Mars in the mid-2030s.

Private companies have been tapped to take over cargo hauls and astronaut rides to the space station, which is expected to carry on for at least another decade. The first commercial supply run is expected late this year, with Space Exploration Technologies Corp. launching its own rocket and spacecraft from Cape Canaveral.

Nary a day goes by without yours truly hearing about the supposed evils of “big gumint.” Well then, let our glorious private sector do a little better job of stepping up when it comes to space exploration instead.

Continuing, J.D. Mullane is lamenting here the fact that an ad campaign is apparently necessary to remind parents to make sure their kids practice good dietary habits. Which, to me, is another example of Mullane trying to have it both ways.

You see, as noted here…

…the Affordable Care Act provides $25 million in funding for the Childhood Obesity Demonstration Project, which was established through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) legislation signed by President Obama. The Secretary of Health and Human Services will award grants to develop a comprehensive and systematic model for reducing childhood obesity.

And as noted in this post from 2009, who was one of this area’s biggest whiners and complainers about “ObamaCare”?

You see, in J.D.’s imaginary, ‘50s-black-and-white-TV version of this country, people always do the right thing (or else Joe McCarthy will get you), liberals are beaten into submission, and everyone is following the career of that handsome, well-spoken actor from California and his commercials for General Electric. You know, that Ronald Reagan fellow.

And as J.D. reminded us here, everyone is well dressed at all times when speaking to politicians…uh huh.

Finally, I give you some true hilarity from Jack Kelly here, claiming that Obama is laying the groundwork for defeat in Afghanistan, more or less, using Yusuf al-Qaradawi of the Muslim Brotherhood for (supposedly) trying to broker peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan…

In 2003, he issued a fatwa calling for the killing of U.S. troops in Iraq. When the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca opposed the killing of civilians, Mr. al-Qaradawi criticized him. Yet the Obama administration considers Mr. al-Qaradawi to be a “moderate.”

I’m not going to go back and research every possible inflammatory piece of rhetoric al-Qaradawi might have actually said. What I will point out, though, is that, as noted here, al-Qaradawi also denounced the World Trade Center attacks, and he also supported the U.S. military in 2001 with a fatwa here.

Am I going to argue that al-Qaradawi isn’t a “bad apple” from time to time? No (and if he does anything worse than spout bilious rhetoric from time to time, please let me know, OK?). All I’m saying is that we’re foolish to apply some kind of a litmus test to every individual we may hope to use for our benefit without looking at it from some sort of a cost/benefit perspective, that’s all (after all, Dubya and his pals did that for Quaddafi, didn’t they? And I’m not aware of any complaints from Kelly about that...and as noted here, Kelly is a serial misinformer on other topics also).

Of course, it’s ridiculous to assume that Kelly knows anything about war and that area of the world anyway based on this.

Wednesday Stuff

So it looks like we won’t have Moon Unit Bachmann to kick around any more, at least not as a presidential candidate (here…oh, and by the way, as I watched K.O. talk with Matt Taibbi, I just kept thinking “can we finally put to rest the notion that the Teahadists can be ‘king makers’ – or 'queen makers,' I guess – when it comes to anything?”).

The only thing I'll say in fairness to Bachmann was that her campaign was severely hampered by the entrance of "Goodhair" Perry into the fray, since that basically split the "duuuhhh" faction of the GOP, which is probably bigger than anyone wants to admit...



…and while I know this song deals with a different context than a political campaign, I still thought of it anyway on this occasion.

Wednesday Mashup (1/4/12)

(A bit overdue I know, but posting is going to be highly sporadic for a little while…)

As I point out periodically, part of what I do here is to read the Bucks County Courier Times for posting material so others don’t have to subject themselves to that publication, and the paper rarely disappoints (good for me, but bad for the purpose of informed discourse overall).

And today, Cal Thomas whines that “a weak mind dumbs-down our politics,” from here.

Actually, based on what happened in Iowa yesterday, I agree with that for a change (shocking, I know).

Not to be outdone, though, someone named Ben Shapiro claimed earlier in the Courier Times (from here, a few days ago) that “the liberal effete class… believe that all robbery is a noble redistributionist impulse…”

Funny, but didn’t a certain OxyContin addict once say that “a conservative is a liberal who got mugged”? Well then, if that’s so, why would that person turn from a liberal to a conservative if Shapiro was right?

Shapiro also opined as follows…

Let them shut down the government, other than essential services. Good riddance. Let them warn of dire economic consequences if they're unable to send billion-dollar checks to abortion clinics. Somehow, we'll deal with it.

No word on what those “essential services” are, by the way. More importantly, though, this tells us that federal law already prohibits funding of abortions, due to that amendment named after a deceased Republican House member who was also a serial philanderer.

Oh, and what could be a rather interesting example of projection on Shapiro’s part, I give you this.

Next, I give you the following from last weekend in an otherwise highly sensible column from Frank Bruni of the New York Times about Iowa (here)…

In its least hypocritical moments, the Republican Party has provided an important counterbalance to a Democratic tropism toward paternalism and bloat.

I don’t know what the hell Bruni is talking about here, but if he’s referring to Democrats versus Republicans on the budget, then I think the following should be noted from here.

Which political party was in charge of Congress when the decision was made to put two wars, the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit and George W. Bush’s stinking tax cuts “on the card”? Not the Dems (talk about "bloat").

Oh, and Bruni also suggests that Michael Medved is one of the “more pragmatic conservatives” basically because Medved opposes Ron Paul, which I will admit is a point in Medved’s favor.

However, I think the words “Michael Medved” and “pragmatism” really are unrelated based on this.

Finally, I give you the latest from The Daily Tucker (here)…

When Americans flock to the polls in 13 months, we will not simply decide which direction our country should take over the next four years. Rather, we will decide whether or not our fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms will survive over the next several decades.

Currently, the Second Amendment clings to a 5-4 pro-freedom majority on the Supreme Court. Just one vote is all that stands between the America our Founding Fathers established and a radically different America that Barack Obama and his supporters envision.

Yep, it’s time for more “Oooga Booga” scare BS from the NRA about how that dern Kenyan Muslim Socialist pre-zee-dint is supposedly going to steal everyone’s guns.

There are a few different directions I can go with this, but let me just begin by pointing out what we learn from here; it turns out that Margaret Anderson, a Mount Rainier part ranger, was recently killed in a shooting during a traffic stop in the park on New Year’s Day (our sympathies to her family and friends).

And by the way, who was it who signed legislation last May permitting licensed gun owners to bring firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges as long as state law allows it? President Hopey Changey, that’s who (here).

You want to know what’s really going on here in this Daily Caller screed by the NRA’s Chris Cox? Basically, this is a fundraising appeal, and as noted here, the NRA has raised a ton of dough playing this trick in order to try and defeat President Obama (not illegal I know, and I wouldn’t care if it weren’t for the fact that people’s lives are at stake).

In a few days (January 8th to be exact), we’re going to mark the one-year anniversary of the Tucson, AZ massacre last year in which Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was very nearly killed, and 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green and Federal Judge John Roll, among others, actually were murdered, to say nothing of those besides Congresswoman Giffords who were injured.

And what did we do in response (after the funerals and commemorations)? Absolutely nothing.

No, the federal assault weapons ban wasn’t reinstituted. No, this eminently intelligent proposal by Repug U.S. House Rep Peter King wasn’t passed and signed into law either (I agree with King on practically nothing, but he was right here).

However, the one thing too many of us can agree on is that the biggest threat to our safety supposedly comes from our 44th president instead.

And the title of this post is more apropos than ever.

Monday Stuff

Gee, ya’ think that maybe – just maybe – Mr. and Mrs. America are getting just a wee bit tired of being lied to (here)?...



…and with that, I find myself harking back to this melodic tune from Frank Zappa (in honor of Ailes and company).

Sunday Stuff

Yeah, I would say so too (and again, he's the only one in that entire gaggle of idiots who matters)...



...and yes, I know it's naughty of me to put up a video like this with a bad word in the lyrics and title, but I kind of like the beat, so I'll give it a 7 (and speaking of "Rate a Record" and "American Bandstand," for the love of God, Dick Clark, please retire - you've had a great run, but it's time to step off the stage).