Thursday Stuff

So it looks like Health Shuler will now try to be mediocre in another occupation (here) – I love the way he said here after the 2010 debacle, basically, that Nancy Pelosi should step down as House minority leader, but then say that he’s “not here to cast stones”; what a weasel…



…and speaking of job changes, I’ve been putting this off for a little while, but I really can’t do that anymore.

Basically, this blog is going to go on a hiatus of sorts in about a week or so, sometime around the 13th or 14th I think. Is this the end? Maybe. I’ll have more to say about this later, but basically, I’ve obtained another professional opportunity that is going to demand a lot more of my time, to the point where I’ll have to step back from this a bit and see where I am. I’ll just briefly point out that I’ve put some career stuff on the “back burner” a bit to keep this going since I started doing this (about 5902 on the Blogger posts to go with 739 posts at the Wordpress site), but I can no longer do that. Again, I’ll have more to say later.

But for now, I give you the advice in the title of this song (sorry, no video).

Wednesday Stuff

Oh, and by the way, to do something about the atrocity discussed below by David Shuster and Lizz Winstead, click here (the person Winstead is discussing is Karen Handel, hired as a vice president for the Susan G. Komen foundation last year who won the Palin endorsement – more here)…



Update 2/2/12: More here and here...

Update 2/3/12: Great news here!

…and gee, if we’re “termites,” then does that make you clowns “dung beetles”? Fair is fair (here)…



…and how dare that silly Josh Fox go and exercise his first amendment rights, along with ABC, as noted here…



…and RIP Don Cornelius – what a shame that he appears to have come to a troubled end…



…bringing the mood up-tempo a bit once more I guess, happy 70th birthday to Terry Jones (not that Koran-burning idiot)…



…and happy 30th anniversary to David Letterman; my favorite era of the show was the period highlighted in the clip below.

Tuesday Stuff

Looks like Willard Mitt conquered the Land of Duh tonight, where they vote for Allen West, Daniel Webster (over Alan Grayson), Cliff Stearns (one of the fools responsible for this nonsense) and Lex Luthor Scott, which makes me recall the following recent “New Rule” from Bill Maher…



Update 2/3/12: Oh, and when it comes to Florida and stupid politicians, I forgot about this rocket scientist.

…and gosh darn it, I’m just a great big silly head for forgetting PA’s former senator from Northern Virginia, so please allow me to try and make amends here; I hope his daughter is doing better, but where is Smerky’s column calling for Little Ricky to drop out using the same rationale the intrepid Inky columnist once used arguing for John Edwards to give up because Elizabeth was sick…



…and for those who argue that I have a cartoonish point of view, I submit the following :-)…



…and on this day in 1967, while taking a break from the filming of the Strawberry Fields Forever promotional video at Knole Park, Sevenoaks, Kent, John Lennon buys an 1843 poster from an antiques shop in Surrey which will provide him with many of the lyrics for "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite."

And by the way, this Wikipedia article tells us the following about how the tune was recorded, including the following…

The Beatles first used samples of other music on "Yellow Submarine", the samples being added on 1 June 1966. The brass band solo was constructed from a Sousa march by George Martin and Geoff Emerick, the original solo was in the same key and was transferred to tape, cut into small segments and re-arranged to form a brief solo which was added to the song.[35]

A similar technique was used for "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" on 20 February 1967. To try to create the atmosphere of a circus, Martin first proposed the use of a calliope (a steam-driven organ). Such was the power of the Beatles within EMI that phone calls were made to see if a calliope could be hired and brought into the studio. However, only automatic calliopes, controlled by punched cards, were available, so other techniques had to be used. Martin came up with taking taped samples from several steam organ pieces, cutting them into short lengths, "throwing them in the air" and splicing them together. It took two trials; in the first attempt, the pieces coincidentally came back in more or less original order.

If you ever get a chance to watch “The Compleat Beatles” (and yes, I know it has been out for awhile now), Martin describes this process pretty well, for what it’s worth.

Tuesday Mashup (1/31/12)

It’s been a little while since I checked in with the Fix Noise BS factory (with an assist from the equally wretched “Daily Tucker”), but based on this, it’s still “same old, same old”…

Concerned that too many “deniers” are in the meteorology business, global warming activists this month launched a campaign to recruit local weathermen to hop aboard the alarmism bandwagon and expose those who are not fully convinced that the world is facing man-made doom.

The Forecast the Facts campaign — led by 350.org, the League of Conservation Voters and the Citizen Engagement Lab — is pushing for more of a focus on global warming in weather forecasts, and is highlighting the many meteorologists who do not share their beliefs.

If that were actually true, then how do they bother to explain the following (from here)…

The smear allegation is disturbing and important to dispense with first. Presumably (Jason Samenow of the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang, echoing a similar charge) is referring to the fact that we have included quotations from climate change-denying meteorologists on our site. As yet, not one of those quoted has suggested that we have misrepresented their views. Indeed, many of these TV meteorologists are openly proud to be considered deniers. They say so on air, online, in emails to us, and in their affiliation with prominent denial sites like Icecap. Compiling a careful count of weather reporters who reject the scientific consensus on climate change hardly qualifies as a smear campaign. In fact, there are many weather reporters we have researched that we believe fall in the denial camp, but we have not quoted on our site because we do not have sufficient evidence.

There’s a lot more information about the “Forecast the Facts” campaign from the Think Progress post; it definitely makes for interesting reading.

Next, I give you more corporate media hand-wringing here on the issue of so-called “Right to Work” legislation…

The battle over the right-to-work issue may be reaching a conclusion in Indiana as the state prepares to adopt its law, but the argument over exactly what the measure means for a state's economy is likely to rage on, unresolved, as it has for 70 years.

Since the 1940s, 22 states have passed laws barring unions from collecting mandatory fees from workers for labor representation. Supporters, mostly Republicans, insist the measure helps create a pro-business climate that attracts employers and increases jobs. Opponents say the law only leads to lower wages and poorer quality jobs.

The evidence on the issue is abundant, but also conflicting and murky. The clearest conclusion, according to many experts, is that the economies of states respond to a mix of factors, ranging from the swings in the national economy to demographic trends, and that isolating the impact of right-to-work is nearly impossible.

Oh, please – in response, I give you the following from here (centered on Indiana, where former Bushie and current Repug governor Mitch Daniels is the last to try and foist the “right to work” scam)…

Not only have ‘right-to-work’ laws been found to reduce wages while not stimulating job growth in states that adopt them, this week’s Economic Snapshot shows Right-to-Work (RTW) is associated with a significant reduction in private-sector pension coverage. Private pension coverage in Indiana is currently greater than in 21 of 22 RTW states but will likely decrease if the state legislature passes the RTW law.

And on this issue, I give you the following from the National Football League Players Association (this issue affects them because the upcoming Super Bowl is going to be played in Indianapolis)…

“Right-to-work” is a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights. It’s not about jobs or rights, and it’s the wrong priority for Indiana.

The facts are clear—according to a January 2012 Economic Policy Institute briefing report (“Working Hard to Make Indiana Look Bad”), “right-to-work” will lower wages for a worker in Indiana by $1,500 a year because it weakens the ability of working families to work together, and it will make it less likely that working people will get health care and pensions.

So-called “right-to-work” bills divide working families at a time when communities need to stand united. We need unity—not division. We urge legislators in Indiana to oppose “right-to-work” efforts, and focus instead on job creation.

And of course, the usual suspects have been propagandizing about “right to work” in the typical manner, as noted here.

Continuing, I give you a rather interesting bit of editorializing from The Old Gray Lady here, concerning Governor Lex Luthor Scott of Florida…

Looking for more savings, Mr. Scott pushed to privatize prisons andMedicaid and to institute drug testing for people seeking public assistance. At the same time, he provoked the ire of environmentalists by reducing financing for the state’s water management districts, directly affecting the environmentally fragile Everglades. Many of the most contentious measures, including drug testing and prison privatization, have landed the state in court.

But the governor had a few failures, too.

Umm…so, “land(ing) the state in court” over drug testing and prison privatization qualifies as “success”?

Also…

Still, Mr. Scott possesses an unshakeable belief in the free market. It is what defines him. At a lunch on Thursday about economic development, he expressed disbelief over the attacks (all-but-named Repug presidential nominee Willard Mitt) Romney has faced for being a successful private equity manager with Bain Capital.

“We shouldn’t be allowing candidates to attack people in business,” he said. “We should be saying, ‘Gosh, that’s us.’ ”

Gee, I wonder if Scott is worried that, if our august corporate media and we humble, filthy, unkempt blogger types each give Romney’s Bain antics the scrutiny they deserve, then maybe, just maybe, more attention will be paid to Scott’s tenure at Columbia/HCA, the company that “perpetrated the greatest Medicare fraud in U.S. history” according to this (as well as the fact that Scott has now transferred his interest in Solantic, a health care company he co-founded that sells cheap prescription drugs…to his wife)?

Gosh!

Finally, I give you another journey through the looking glass courtesy of Investor’s Business Daily, carping over their claim that there’s a $1.2 trillion “gap” in “Obama’s recovery” because “Real GDP climbed a less-than-expected 2.8% in final quarter of 2011” (here).

In response, I think the following should be noted from here (with a scolding for Number 44 to boot)…

Current-dollar GDP was revised down for all 3 years: $77.6 billion, or 0.5 percent, for 2008; $180.0 billion, or 1.3 percent, for 2009; and $133.9 billion, or 0.9 percent, for 2010. The percent change from the preceding year was revised down from an increase of 2.2 percent to an increase of 1.9 percent for 2008; was revised down from a decrease of 1.7 percent to a decrease of 2.5 percent for 2009; and was revised up from an increase of 3.8 percent to an increase of 4.2 percent for 2010. Current-dollar gross national product (GNP) (GDP plus net receipts of income from the rest of the world) was revised down for all 3 years: $82.9 billion, or 0.6 percent, for 2008; $174.1 billion, or 1.2 percent, for 2009; and $132.8 billion, or 0.9 percent, for 2010… Current-dollar GDP was also revised down for all 4 years from 2004-2007: $14.5 billion for 2004, $15.4 billion for 2005, $21.7 billion for 2006, and $33.1 billion for 2007.

So basically, “current dollar GDP” has been getting “written down” by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis for some time, even predating Obama back to the ruinous reign of Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History.

And I think this pretty much tells us why (and how sad is it that a publication in China has such a firm grasp of our predicament, while our supposed genius policy makers continue to caterwaul about “austerity,” insuring nothing but slower growth and/or economic contraction?).

Oh, but look – Romney is outpolling Gingrich in Florida, and the latter just made another speech calling that “Kenyan Muslim Socialist” the “food stamp” president while invoking Saul Alinsky once more.

…

(Sssh, don’t wake the American sheeple – will the last one to leave please turn out the lights?)

Monday Stuff

RIP Dick Tufeld, the voice behind an iconic boomer TV catchphrase for one of the most awful shoes that has ever aired (based on an idea stolen from Gene Roddenberry, by the way – it turned into that whole Kirk, Spock, Bones, U.S.S. Enterprise thing later for Desilu Studios instead)…



…and here is another episode of “Debunktion Junction” (Florida, as usual, does something dumb politically and ends up paying a price, Willard Mitt Romney of 2012 needs to reacquaint himself with the Willard Mitt Romney of 2005, and a South Dakota Indian tribe quite rightly sues for early voting)…

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

…and kudos to St. Louis for their parade honoring our Iraq war vets (and Paul Rieckhoff poses a GREAT question to Mayors Menino and Bloomberg)…

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

…and happy 70th birthday to Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane/Starship/Whatever (sorry, no video).

Sunday Stuff

So RNC head pimp Reince Priebus alleges that President Obama is not unlike the Italian cruise ship captain who ran his ship aground and is, at this moment, “suspected of multiple counts of manslaughter,” as Think Progress tells us here.

…

I know the Repugs will go ever lower accusing Obama of anything they think they can get away with; given that, though, I thought it was a good idea to remind us of a president who did, in fact, get people killed for his own personal motives…



…though Priebus is merely reading from the same delusional script that his ideological fellow travelers are reading from, as Bill Maher notes here (and by the way, the Maher eye-roll towards that moron Dana Rohrabacher was for this...also, "f"-bomb alert here).



Update: God, that doddering old fossil Bob Schieffer is such a corporate media clown (and good call by karoli at C&L to invoke Capt. Sullenberger instead here).