More Saturday Stuff

Silly Rachel – doesn’t she know that Willard Mitt and Rudy 9iu11ani only care about firefighters for photo ops? Why, they’re part of that dastardly government workforce that the Repugs hate (here)…

 

…and if there was a theme song for austerity, I wonder if this would be it?

 

Saturday Stuff

I meant to put this up on “May Day,” but I was a little late – sorry (here, and I meant to include this related item also…by the way, the last minute-and-half of what Daron Acemoglu said, I thought, was particularly noteworthy about what the “Occupy” movement should do)…

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…and by the way, happy Cinco de Mayo.

Thursday Stuff

The saga of the banksters creeps along, as noted by Lee Camp (here – bad word alert…slipping on that I know)…

…and happy 93^rd birthday to this guy, speaking, and playing, with the eternal “man in black.”

Wednesday Stuff

So the governor of our beloved commonwealth, Tom “Space Cadet” Corbett, thinks that forced ultrasounds are “the way to go,” huh? Way beyond pathetic (here)...

...and for no particular reason, I give you the following whompin’ little number (sorry, no video).

Tuesday Stuff

I posted over here concerning Willard Mitt Romney, and this tells us the following about the all-but-named Repug nominee…

…and I haven’t heard much about Robin Gibb lately – hope he’s doing as well as can be expected.

Sunday Stuff

Steve Jobs, visionary American genius of technology (here)…

In one of his last public appearances before his death, Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, addressed Cupertino’s City Council last June, seeking approval to build a new headquarters. 

Most of the Council was effusive in its praise of the proposal. But one councilwoman, Kris Wang, had questions. 

How will residents benefit? she asked. Perhaps Apple could provide free wireless Internet to Cupertino, she suggested, something Google had done in neighboring Mountain View. 

“See, I’m a simpleton; I’ve always had this view that we pay taxes, and the city should do those things,” Mr. Jobs replied, according to a video of the meeting. “That’s why we pay taxes. Now, if we can get out of paying taxes, I’ll be glad to put up Wi-Fi.” 

He suggested that, if the City Council were unhappy, perhaps Apple could move. The company is Cupertino’s largest taxpayer, with more than $8 million in property taxes assessed by local officials last year. 

Ms. Wang dropped her suggestion.

And I give you still more…

Still, some, including De Anza College’s president, (Brian) Murphy, say the philanthropy and job creation do not offset Apple’s and other companies’ decisions to circumvent taxes. Within 20 minutes of the financially ailing school are the global headquarters of Google, Facebook, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco. 

“When it comes time for all these companies — Google and Apple and Facebook and the rest — to pay their fair share, there’s a knee-jerk resistance,” Mr. Murphy said. “They’re philosophically antitax, and it’s decimating the state.”

“But I’m not complaining,” he added. “We can’t afford to upset these guys. We need every dollar we can get.”

God Bless America, land of corporate extortion (and as a musical response, this never seems to get old – which is a bit sad, actually).

P.S. - For what it's worth, I don't like this layout either - I told you the "new and improved" Blogger stinks.

More Saturday Stuff

Remember the saga of John Edwards and the $400 haircut? Well, it turns out that Edwards is a piker compared to Scott Brown; as noted here, the latter up $1401 in charges last year to make sure he stays “well coiffed.”

Wonder when somebody is going to make a video like this about “Wall Street Scott” (to say nothing of a column heaped with ridicule by Kathleen Parker – what exactly was that Pulitzer for again?)…

…and yes, I have to admit this at last (sniff), so I might as well have fun with it.

Update 4/29/12: And by the way, happy belated 90th birthday to Jack Klugman.

Saturday Stuff

Memo to our idiot politicians in Washington: Stop trying to come up with schemes to “regulate the Internet.” Every time you try, you screw up even worse, largely because you insist on freezing out the content creators and people who would otherwise innovate on it, creating new industries and – dare I point this out? – J-O-B-S (and I don’t mean that Apple dead guy - more here...and here is more on the clown behind CISPA)...

...and with this in mind, here is a Saturday morning cartoon.

Update: Oops, forgot about these two; first, it's time for "The Game of Pro-Life"...

The Game of Pro-Life - watch more funny videos      

…and I forgot to add this “New Rules” segment from last night, including the audio that sounds like it’s trapped in a can (glad you’re spared the ugly spectacle of Andrew Ross Sorkin’s apologia for the one percent that he inflicted on the show minutes before this segment, though Paul Begala did a good job of pushing back...and don't get me started on the Charles Murray segment earlier).

Friday Stuff

Here’s a question – is one of our presidential candidates learnin’?...

…and if you liked “governance” under Number 43, it looks like Romney is getting ready to bring us, on foreign policy anyway (probably domestic policy too), “Bushco – The Sequel”…

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…and with that in mind, here is Part 2 of “Willard Mitt Romney vs. Reality”…

…meanwhile here is what actual leadership looks like (by the way, I definitely think Number 42 overdid it in his support for Kathleen Kane over Patrick Murphy recently, but again, that’s politics – it would have been safer for Murphy to support Hillary Clinton four years ago, but he made the right decision and ended up paying for it not once but twice, really)…

…and here’s more on the “war on women” (figurative war I’ll admit, but the Obama/Romney numbers don’t lie…there’s an issue for real there – more BS, I see, among the usual gaggle of right-wing idiots)…

…and I’ve only got a couple of days left to put up this video, so here goes.

Wednesday Stuff

I also posted here (yes, as a follow up to last night, I’m trying to resuscitate the old WP site).

Want to know why Not Your Father’s Republican Party is going to be nothing but a bunch of angry white fogies primarily from the South one day? I give you this (naaah, the Repugs aren’t waging a war on women – just keep trying to convince yourselves, people)…

...and I guess I just mixed this group up with Fine Young Cannibals because of the lead vocalist, but I’m glad I got that straightened out.

Tuesday Stuff

OK, two things: 1) I officially no longer care about the PA Attorney General’s race, since the voters of our beloved commonwealth continue to reward mediocrity every chance they can get in all manner of elective office, and 2) I don’t know how many other people besides me are aware of this, but Blogger recently completed an “upgrade,” and it is a total disaster. I’m seriously considering resurrecting the Wordpress site and bailing on Blogger once and for all, for anyone who cares to know that.

Now, this tells us about Obama reaching out to college-age voters; Charles M. Blow of the New York Times recently had an interesting column about that...and lest anyone think Willard Mitt and the GOP actually care about younger voters, please keep the following clip in mind (featuring a rare moment of fortitude by Fluffyhead in response to more garbage from Moon Unit Bachmann)...

...and I hope readers of this site don’t find themselves asking this musical question.

Monday Stuff

Don’t forget, tomorrow is primary election day in PA, and the guy in this clip needs our vote…



…and here’s a reminder about the cretins who want to hold sway over all…

 

…and given this item, I thought it would be a good idea to replay this campaign ad from 2000 that was unbelievably prescient about Dubya – you really want to see “The Ownership Society on Steroids” under Willard Mitt after November, people?...

 

Update 4/25/12: Uh, yep.

…all of which put me in the mind to hear this tune again…



 ...and for more related "food for thought," press the button.
Global Economy Blues

Sunday Stuff

Happy 75th birthday to Jack Nicholson – I could be here all night sorting through clips to put up here, from “Chinatown,” “Five Easy Pieces,” “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Batman” even, and many other films, but this will do (from “A Few Good Men,” of course)...



...and here’s a tune to listen to between the raindrops.

 

More Saturday Stuff

Kudos to Martin Bashir for this (the typical right-wing character assassination in response, mainly to Bashir’s body of work in general, is here...and here is another “insert foot in mouth and turn” moment on the economy from Willard Mitt)...

...and Happy Earth Day, everybody (more here).

Saturday Stuff

Like The Eternal George Carlin said, they’re after our Social Security, as noted here, as well as our Medicare (and if you don’t know who “they” are, then you haven’t been paying attention)..
.


...and I don’t know about you, but I’m in the mood for kind of an Indie-retro tune, so this should do the trick.

Thursday Stuff

You are scum for this, Mikey the Beloved. Absolutely unmitigated, unrepentant scum (though the crowd behavior is about what you would expect from his lizard-brained, nematode followers). And I can’t wait to see the verbal gymnastics employed by the Bucks County Courier Times in Mikey’s defense to attack those who point that out.

Want to do something about it? Click here (maybe it will begin to tilt some of the fundraising numbers a bit in Kathy Boockvar’s direction; let’s hope so anyway)…



…and RIP Levon Helm, performing here a little while back with a few friends.

Thursday Mashup (4/19/12)

(Once more, don’t count on these posts on a regular basis anymore…about once in a while is the best I can do, unfortunately).

From the “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose” category, I give you the following from Fix Noise here (with “Bush’s Brain” propagandizing about our chief executive and the veep)…

Mr. Biden offered other wild assertions that didn’t even get a mild pushback on Sunday morning. For example, Mr. Biden said Mitt Romney wanted to “let Detroit go bankrupt,” apparently referring to General Motors and Chrysler and not the city. But GM and Chrysler did go bankrupt: their bankruptcies were decided by the president -- not by a court -- and rather than going forward with an infusion of private capital, the two businesses received $85 billion from the taxpayers, with at least $24 billion of that unlikely to ever be returned.

How is that a “wild assertion” from Willard Mitt Romney given this (though, in true weaselly form, Rove doesn’t say that Biden was lying, because he wasn’t).

And in the matter of taxpayer money that supposedly will never be repaid, I give you this…

Earlier today, General Motors announced that the company paid $4.7 billion to the U.S. government and $1.1 billion to the Canadian government, fulfilling its obligation agreed to when it received its initial bailout funds. In total, GM received $52 billion from the U.S. government, but only $6.7 billion of this amount was considered a loan. The company already paid back $2 billion, so this $4.7 billion is the last payment.

This doesn’t mean that “Government Motors” is no more. Despite the payback, the government still owns a controlling portion of the restructured GM. The United States will eventually relinquish its ownership, but this will take some time. Even when the new GM completes its initial public offering, the U.S. government will still be an owner for some time.

Also, when it comes to presidents and automaker bailouts, I give you this (and in the matter of the auto industry in this country, this asks a great question).

Oh, and here’s another goody from the former Bushco political maven…

The vice president also plunged into health care, asserting, “there’s millions of people out there” already benefiting from provisions in the new law. But far fewer people with preexisting conditions have signed up than anticipated (just 49,000), a much-ballyhooed subsidy for small businesses has gone virtually unused, and thousands of companies have been forced to seek waivers to keep millions of workers covered by existing policies.

Gee, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear Karl had been reading the Bucks County Courier Times, since they did a more thorough job of trashing the Affordable Care Act than anyone else I’d seen when it was recently argued before the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR (with nary a favorable point of view like this one in sight).

And as far as Rove’s “thousands” claim is concerned…well, try about 1,200, as Media Matters notes here (with a common-sense explanation also...more ACA myths and facts are here).

Rove also tells us the following...

The vice president went similarly overboard in suggesting America is drilling more wells, pumping more oil, and importing less oil because of this Administration’s policies. This is really happening in spite of Mr. Obama, not because of him.

WAAAHHHHH!!!!!!

Of course, maybe Rove is trying to deflect attention away from this (hat tip to The Political Junkie)…

After declining to levels not seen since the 1940s, U.S. crude production began rising again in 2009. Drilling rigs have rushed into the nation's oil fields, suggesting a surge in domestic crude is on the horizon.

The number of rigs in U.S. oil fields has more than quad¬rupled in the past three years to 1,272, according to the Baker Hughes rig count. Including those in natural gas fields, the United States now has more rigs at work than the entire rest of the world.

"It's staggering," said Marshall Adkins, who directs energy research for the financial services firm Raymond James. "If we continue growing anywhere near that pace and keep squeezing demand out of the system, that puts you in a world where we are not importing oil in 10 years."

Gee, wonder why that didn’t happen in oh, say, 2005, 2006, 0r 2007…you know, when Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History was taking up space in An Oval Office (with Rove by his side)?

Basically, you’d be better off watching cartoons as opposed to reading or watching anything from Fix Noise, as noted here, though, when you get right down to it, it’s pretty hard to tell the difference (and I don't expect that this question will ever be answered).

And get a load of the latest from Moon Unit Bachmann here on the issue of trying to crack down on oil speculators…

"This is just about waving a tar baby in the air and saying that something else is a problem," Bachmann said in an interview Wednesday with The Shark Tank, a conservative news organization that covers Florida politics. "I have never seen a more irresponsible president who is infantile in the way that he continually blames everyone else for his failure to first diagnose the problem and second to address the problem. It's always everyone else's fault."

…

"It's anybody but Obama for Obama. And that's why we have to call him out," she said. "The president is a complete and utter fraud and a hypocrite on this issue, with all due respect."

“Waving a tar baby” – waay too damn funny (though definitely an inappropriate comment, I hasten to add)…

In response, as noted here, the CEO of ExxonMobil admitted that oil should be about $60-$70 a barrel, even though it’s really at about $100 at the moment, allowing for at least some price impact from oil speculation.

And an actual, honest-to-goodness oil trader tells us the following here…

The oil game is overrun with IB desks, hedge funders, long/short punters, algos, HFT's and private trade houses like Vitol, Trafigura and Glencore. And yes, Virginia -- fraud can happen: We've forgotten too quickly about such stellar examples as Enron and Amaranth.

These are not the guys that anyone should look to protect. They absolutely jack up the prices of oil that you and I are forced to pay at the pumps. But they are the beneficiaries of the continued defense of the broken oil markets as they are today. We haven't made much progress.

So, it looks like, once more, the Repug U.S. House Rep from Minnesota and one-time presidential candidate is showing to the whole world that she has the mendacity of a lizard, the self-reflection of the most oblivious narcissist imaginable and the cognitive capacity of a flea.

With all due respect.

Finally, a certain V.D. Hanson ramps up the right-wing noise machine against Obama some more here…

The president also unwisely attacked the Supreme Court as it deliberated the constitutionality of Obamacare. He needlessly referred to the justices as “unelected,” and wrongly claimed that they had little precedent to overturn laws that dealt with commerce. The gaffe about the Court and its history was doubly embarrassing because Obama has often reminded the public that he used to teach constitutional law.

Gosh, isn’t that a funny one from “The Pericles of Petticoat Junction”? Hanson has a problem with Obama’s reference to Supreme Court justices as “unelected,” but he has no problem apparently with Obama’s predecessor saying basically the same thing over and over again, as noted here...and for good measure, I give you this.

There’s other typically ripe stuff here from Hanson, but I’ll leave that for now because life is short and I’ve about spent my BS tolerance for one day.

And by the way, did you know Obama (and, by extension, Chicago Bears head football coach Lovie Smith) were recently accused by Hanson of “retrograde tribalism” (here) according to Hanson? Interesting racist code language, I must say.

Truly, words fail.

Wednesday Stuff

Yes, I know it’s ridiculous to keep harping on the idiocy of Fix Noise, since all they’ll do is recycle pretty much the same crap all over again for the next news cycle, but even though I feel like I’m tilting at about 20 windmills as it were, I also feel like I have to keep trying to speak truth to stupid...

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...and even though he hung on waaay too long, give Dick Clark credit for popularizing pop music on “American Bandstand,” which once originated out of the studios of 46th and Market Streets in Philadelphia.

Tuesday Stuff

(To answer a question from elsewhere – why yes, it did.)

Oh, and in the matter of the PA Democratic Primary for Attorney General…why of course Philadelphia Engulf And Devour Mega-Money Corporate Media endorsed Kathleen Kane over Patrick Murphy. Gee, I wonder if it’s because they’re looking for a sacrificial lamb against the Repug nominee in the general election. Ya’ think?

OK, I'll grant Kane her prosecutorial experience in this state, but as far as I'm concerned, you need a whole lot more than just that going for you, and based on this, I have grave doubts.

And let's face it - the only reason Clinton supported her is because Murphy supported Obama in '08 and Kane supported Hillary...not a crime I realize, but let's just be honest about this, OK?

And with that in mind, I have some questions for Ms. Kane:

- What exactly would she do if one of these godawful fracking operations blew up somewhere, trashed the environment even more and hopelessly fouled all the groundwater? Would she go after the parties involved and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law?

- What exactly is your position on "right to work" legislation, considering that your husband runs an anti-union trucking company? Would you prosecute in the event of unfair anti-union activity?

- Would you oppose Corbett's "fetal ultrasound" bill as strenuously as Patrick has (as noted in the clip below...and yes, I looked on her site, but couldn't find any responses)?

While we ponder her answers (assuming they ever arrive), please click here…



…and speaking of Tom “Space Cadet” Corbett’s atrocity…



…and here’s more fun with another Romney playmate (looks like Mr. “Cat Scratch Fever” is going to get a visit from the Secret Service, the ones not involved in the scandal anyway – what a maroon…and by the way, either option works for me, scumbag)…



…and I know I seem to be getting a bunch of tunes without videos anymore, but they’re just too damn good to ignore.

Monday Stuff

I thought subliminal advertising had gone the way of the Corvair and Brylcreem, but then again, the Repugs are the truly “mad men” (well, mainly that gender, but not totally)...



...and for everyone filing by today, I hope you get a refund (we did).