give 'em enough rope

We own UVA

2009-11-28T20:49:00.004-05:00

Hokies win 42-13, with 10 victories in the last 11 games. There is no joy in Hooville.

Creating their own Reality

2009-11-25T09:17:00.000-05:00

Yesterday on Hannity, Dana Perino, former Bush Administration spokesflack, actually said the following:

"We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term".

What the fuck?!? And perhaps even worse was that neither Hannity nor his other guest made any effort to correct the omission of 9/11. Unbelievable.

Breathtakingly stupid or willfully dishonest? We report, you decide.
(hat tip to Media Matters)

That’s a nice metaphor you have there

2009-11-03T15:54:00.001-05:00

Via TPM, I see that the ever-entertaining Rep. Michelle Bachmann has once again said something so awesomely ridiculous that I am dumbstruck by the silly.

Rep. Michele Bachmann took to Fox this morning to promote her tea party rally this week, calling it the "Super Bowl of freedom."

And Michelle Bachmann is the Super Bowl of self-aggrandizing, blowhard half-wits. What’s next, the Stanley Cup of liberty? How about the Masters of democracy? If nothing else, that would make a great band name. But given the demography of your average teabagger, I vote for the Monster Trucker Rally of misplaced paranoia.

The election

2009-11-02T13:24:00.001-05:00

I haven’t written much of anything on the election because frankly the Democrats’ chances are pretty awful. The GOP has the base revved up, framing this race as a chance to take President Obama down a peg. Bob McDonnell has successfully portrayed himself as a moderate pragmatist while being anything but and Creigh Deeds has run about as flat and unimaginative a campaign as one can without actually doing anything to disqualify one’s self. Seriously, Deeds has been about as inspiring as my deck furniture. All those factors have hurt the down ticket races as well. How else can one explain why an absolute nut like Ken Cuccinelli is beating Steve Shannon for Attorney General? So I am fairly confident, depressing as it is, that we are looking at a Republican sweep. That being the case, there’s not much else to say. Though I wish it were otherwise, the good guys are probably going to get smoked tomorrow.

Still a douchebag

2009-10-28T11:10:00.000-04:00

Now that Holy Joe Lieberman has come out in favor of filibustering Harry Reid’s public option bill, can we please kick his ass out of his Homeland Security Committee Chair position? Seriously, fuck this guy. I am so tired of him screwing the caucus over and over again…

Oh please, oh please, oh please!

2009-10-26T14:12:00.001-04:00

Newt Gingrich may run for President in 2012.

I doubt God loves me enough for this to actually happen but a boy can dream…

Krugman is uncharacteristically optimistic today

2009-10-26T12:04:00.002-04:00

Take it away, Doctor.

Still, if the Massachusetts experience is any guide, health care reform will have broad public support once it’s in place and the scare stories are proved false. The new health care system will be criticized; people will demand changes and improvements; but only a small minority will want reform reversed.

This thing is going to work.

Word.

Not dead yet

2009-10-23T14:38:00.001-04:00

It looks like some sort of the once moribund public option is going to make it into the final Senate healthcare bill. This is obviously a Very Good Thing and kudos to Harry Reid for manning up.

File under Clueless, Greedy Asshole

2009-10-22T16:12:00.000-04:00

Via ThinkProgress, I see that T. Boone Pickens is a humonous dick.

T. Boone Pickens told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. energy companies are “entitled” to some of Iraq’s crude because of the large number of American troops that lost their lives fighting in the country and the U.S. taxpayer money spent in Iraq.

[Snip]

“They’re opening them (oil fields) up to other companies all over the world … We’re entitled to it,” Pickens said of Iraq’s oil. “Heck, we even lost 5,000 of our people, 65,000 injured and a trillion, five hundred billion dollars.”

OK, first off, we ostensibly invaded Iraq to free Saddam of his non-existent WMD. Now you and I know that is bullshit. The real reason of course was that Bush had some deep-seated psychological need to topple Saddam. And even with the massive bungling of the war effort, things in Iraq are on an upward trajectory. Now Pickens, greedy prick that he is, wants to turn this messy war for Iraqi liberation into an armed robbery.

Secondly, do you think that Pickens really gives a shit about the soldiers he seems to bemoan here? Fuck no, dude sees dollars signs just out of reach and wants in before all the prime cuts go to people not name T. Boone Pickens. Jesus, what an asshole...

Bottom of the scale

2009-10-14T15:41:00.003-04:00

If the healthcare debate ends up being Obama versus the insurance companies, it is not really all that difficult to see who ends up being cast as the villain. It seems that in most circles, insurance companies are about as popular as venereal disease.

Harvard University pollster Robert Blendon said public opinion remains mixed.

"Most people are afraid these bills are going to raise their costs, so this could raise public anxiety," he said. "At the same time, the health insurance industry is at the bottom of the scale of people's trust."

Like I was saying, if this turns into a PR battle, my money is on the Administration. Nobel Peace prize winners are not big on killing Grandma, no matter what the insurance companies say.

Sometime the beast will turn on its master

2009-10-14T13:04:00.001-04:00

HuffPo has video of Sen. Lindsey Graham(R-SC) opposite a bunch of seriously pissed-off Teabaggers at a town hall meeting. By now, everyone should know that the Tea Partiers, in the aggregate, are unhinged but these assclowns seem to consider Graham’s work with Sen. John Kerry (MA-D) an act of sedition and then proceed to call the guy a traitor for it. I guess in their crazy little heads, being on the right side of sanity is treasonous.

Remember kids, this is the side-effect of listening to Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

We are having an Olympia Snowe Day!

2009-10-13T09:10:00.001-04:00

Kind sad that the only real drama in today’s Finance Committee vote on the Baucus bill is whether a single Republican will get behind it.

The Nobel, the GOP and the big picture

2009-10-09T13:29:00.001-04:00

I must say that I was as shocked as anyone that Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It isn’t for me to second guess the Nobel Committee’s judgment here but my gut tells me that more than anything else, this decision was motivated by a desire to give the Bush Administration and their unilateralist ilk a gigantic middle finger. And judging by the collective wingnut apoplexy in response to the announcement, I think my gut may have a valid point.

Coupled with the joy many conservatives expressed when Chicago’s Olympic bid failed, an effort Obama was heavily invested in, I get the sense that one of the two major parties in this nation has lost its collective mind. I remember not so long ago when opposition to Bush Administration policies was blithely dismissed as Bush-hating drivel of a bunch of seditious liberal cranks. Now, the same crowd cheers when the US gets booted in the first round of Olympic selection because that would somehow translate into a snub of Obama. Bush could play fighter pilot-for-a-day so as to create the perfect “Mission Accomplished” photo-op and the ever so serious conservatives swooned. Obama wins the Nobel Prize and they fall over themselves in an effort to cast the award as trivial. In short, the Republican Party has decided that opposition to Obama is its most important platform plank, even when that goal strays into anti-American territory. Or to put it another way, I am beginning to question just how loyal the Loyal Opposition is and so is the Democrat National Committee. Their response, via HuffPo, is about as terse and confrontational as anything I can recall coming from the DNC:

"The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists -- the Taliban and Hamas this morning -- in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize," wrote DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse. "Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize -- an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride -- unless of course you are the Republican Party. The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It's no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore - it's an embarrassing label to claim."

When Republicans are finding common cause with the Taliban, something has gone seriously, seriously wrong within the GOP. These days, the Party ain’t so Grand.

The death of an old stomping ground

2009-10-08T14:38:00.001-04:00

I am bummed. I just saw that Magnolia’s, one of my favorite bars/steakhouses, has gone under. She will be missed…

And sometime being pro-Halliburton means being pro-rape

2009-10-08T14:13:00.001-04:00

Think Progress has the full story on this and I highly recommend reading it if you can suppress your outrage long enough to get through it all but suffice it to say, 30 GOP Senators think Halliburton is just great while defending the rights of a 22 year old Halliburton employee who was drugged and gang-raped by a bunch of other Halliburton employees, well not so much.

People, those are some truly fucked up priorities.

Getting a vote

2009-10-08T13:42:00.000-04:00

The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a vote on the Baucus healthcare bill for Tuesday. From what I know of the bill, there is not much to love there though it is crucial that this beast get out of committee. It seems that the Senate and White House have finally realized that they will probably get zero GOP votes for any legislation in the Senate and as such, need to get something passed in order to get something into conference with whatever the House produces. My best guess is that the Finance Committee has been working to get something that can pass the full Senate knowing that anything the Senate passes will get radically changed in the conference committee anyway so the actual particulars aren’t really all that relevant.

That said, the real battle will be fought when the progressives and the Blue Dogs attempt to reconcile the two versions. My hope is that Obama and more probably, Rohm Emmanuel, will lay down the law during those negotiations. I know Obama is not really the type to throw elbows; Emmanuel, however, is a different story. When it comes time to twist arms and crack skulls, he is the guy you want but everything hinges on getting a bill out of committee and on the floor.

In case you haven’t heard…

2009-08-28T14:46:00.001-04:00

The new Rancid album, “Let the Dominoes Fall”, is fanatistic; IMHO their best work in 10 years. Seriously, it is “Let’s Go” or “Out Come the Wolves” good, which of course means it is completely awesome. As with their older stuff, this album is a blend of reggae, ska, straight ahead punk and even a dash of old style country (WTF?!?!) on a few tracks. Here they are doing an acoustic version of a new track, “New Orleans”. Enjoy!

Teddy

2009-08-28T12:34:00.001-04:00

Everyone in the world has written a eulogy for the dearly departed Edward Kennedy but I have a special place in my heart for the man. You see, my father was an ardent Reaganite. He believed that Saint Ronny could walk on water. As I was just a kid at the time, I had no real consciousness of politics and powerbrokers and my own liberalism was not yet formed, but I specifically remember a number of occasions where Dad, bourbon in hand and Cronkite or Rather on the TV, was railing against “that damn liberal Kennedy”. So if the man pissed off a rock-ribbed conservative like my father, he must have been doing good work. And though flawed as he was, Kennedy loved his country and made it a better place. One can’t ask much more of a politician than that.

I’ve been busy dammit

2009-08-28T12:14:00.001-04:00

Between the new baby, work, travel, and a bit of burnout, I really haven’t been that motivated to write much lately but I hope that may be changing.

Last call for alcohol, last call for free speech...

2009-07-03T00:58:00.002-04:00

I can even slip in a little Howard Cossell...

More no sleeping

2009-07-03T00:17:00.001-04:00

The Ramones - "Warthog". Dee Dee on lead can be a powerful thing.

I'm not sleeping so why should you

2009-07-02T23:49:00.002-04:00

Down By Law doing "500 Miles" from punkrockacademyfightsong. Um, brilliant.

What Marshall says

2009-07-02T09:53:00.001-04:00

Unless Mark Sanford's wife has a superhuman capacity for forgiveness, it is time for him to buy a one-way ticket to Argentina.

Too many cooks

2009-07-02T09:36:00.000-04:00

Due to its massive budget shortfall, California will begin issuing IOUs in a week. Putting aside the potential awful economic consequences of that decision, it seems pretty obvious to me that the state has, at this point, become almost ungovernable. I know not how to untangle the mess California has created for itself but a good place to start would be to reign in the insane “governance by ballot initiative” system they have.

Don’t get me wrong - your average Californian is no dumber or smarter than your average person. It is just that I don’t want an average person making policy on school funding, water rights issues, or taxation any more than I want my plumber handling my dentistry. These things are complicated. Comprehension of them requires study for which most average people lack either the time, the inclination, or both. We don’t have a research staff to rely on unless you count our kids who know little, our parents who know every damn thing, or that idiot neighbor who insists on mowing his grass at 6:45 am every Saturday. Your average person is no policy wonk. So maybe California needs a bit more “representative” in its representative democracy.

He is good enough, smart enough, and gosh darn it, Minnesotans like him

2009-07-02T08:34:00.000-04:00

Looks like the Franken Show will, at long last, debut in the Senate on Monday. I cannot wait. Hell, I would consider moving to Minnesota just to vote for the guy.

And though is doesn't need mentioning...

2009-06-30T09:34:00.001-04:00

...how bad was that second half against Brazil? I still haven't recovered.

The short answer is often the best

2009-06-30T09:33:00.000-04:00

Paul Krugman has the most concise and dead on response I have ever seen to the laissez-faire dead enders in the healthcare debate. This post ought to be printed on index cards and handed out to every wavering Democrat in the Senate.

Health care is not a bowl of cherries

Or a carton of milk, or a loaf of bread.

Both George Will and Greg Mankiw basically argue that we don’t need a government role because we can trust the market to work — hey, we do it for groceries, right?

Um, economists have known for 45 years — ever since Kenneth Arrow’s seminal paper — that the standard competitive market model just doesn’t work for health care: adverse selection and moral hazard are so central to the enterprise that nobody, nobody expects free-market principles to be enough. To act all wide-eyed and innocent about these problems at this late date is either remarkably ignorant or simply disingenuous.

Word. And that is why he has a Nobel Prize and I am just some jerkoff with a website.

The Sanford affair

2009-06-25T13:56:00.001-04:00

This is the weirdest story I’ve seen in a while. Telling your office that you are hiking the Appalachian Trail but then flying to Argentina for five days to break it off with your mistress? Oy. So much comes to mind like how did he think he, a sitting Governor, was going to get away with a 5 day disappearing act? And who takes five days to break up? That sounds more like one (several?) last roll in the hay rather than a man trying to reconcile with his wife. Finally, is “hiking the Appalachian Trail” the new euphemism for ditching your Argentine concubine? If so, I love it…

They got one right

2009-06-25T13:54:00.002-04:00

The Supremes rule that school officials may not strip search students. I agree.

A stunner

2009-06-24T16:50:00.003-04:00

In absolutely shocking fashion, the US just beat the best team in the world 2-0 and advanced to the Confederation Cup Final versus the winner of Brazil/South Africa. Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey scored for the US but for my money, the man of the match was Keeper Tim Howard. Given the number of terrific saves he made and the extreme pressure Spain exerted on offense, his clean sheet was the real difference. This game is probably the biggest upset in US soccer history and maybe the biggest win for a US team ever. I can’t wait for the Sunday’s Final.

I need a miracle

2009-06-24T12:32:00.002-04:00

The underwhelming US team takes on #1 ranked Spain in 2 hours. While I know it is unrealistic to expect the US to win this game, I feel like this team may have finally found its edge versus Egypt. Optimism aside, I just hope we don't get abused...

New life for the public option?

2009-06-22T09:17:00.001-04:00

Support for a government-sponsored “public” healthcare option is hovering around 70-75% of late. One can’t get three quarters of Americans to agree on what time it is so that level of support for anything is extraordinary. That goes double for anything that has been derided, if inaccurately, as socialized medicine. That stigma has scared many a jello-spined Democrat (Blue Dogs, I am looking at you), who would like nothing more than to compromise on public coverage and take away that GOP talking point.

Given the new polling, that may be changing.

(CBS/AP) Emboldened by polls that show public backing for a government health insurance plan, Democrats are moving to make it a politically defining issue in the debate over the future of medical care.

[Snip]

Most Democrats want the final health care bill to include a government sponsored plan that for the first time would be open to middle-class workers and their families. It would be offered alongside private plans through a new kind of insurance purchasing pool called an exchange. Individuals and small businesses would be able to buy coverage through exchanges, but eventually businesses of any size might be able to join. Proponents say the option of a public plan in the marketplace would put a brake on costs and check the power of insurers. But Republicans, insurers and many business leaders say a government plan could drive private insurance companies out of business.

Nonetheless, two recent news media polls have found public support for a government plan, even if many people are unsure about its implications. The most recent survey, a New York Times-CBS News poll released Sunday, found that 72 percent supported the idea, including half of those who identified themselves as Republicans.

"The polling data backs up our subjective view that to make health care reform work, you need a public option," said Schumer.

I say kudos to those Dems getting on board with the government plan, but the devil is in the details. I am not convinced that they can actually deliver a meaningful public option but at least they seem to be making the right noises about it.

Today's required reading

2009-06-21T08:44:00.003-04:00

Roger Cohen reporting from the streets of Tehran:

There were people of all ages. I saw an old man on crutches, middle-aged office workers and bands of teenagers. Unlike the student revolts of 2003 and 1999, this movement is broad.

“Can’t the United Nations help us?” one woman asked me. I said I doubted that very much. “So,” she said, “we are on our own.”

The world is watching, and technology is connecting, and the West is sending what signals it can, but in the end that is true. Iranians have fought this lonely fight for a long time: to be free, to have a measure of democracy.

Powerful, powerful stuff.

Looks like skull-cracking time in Iran

2009-06-19T14:12:00.000-04:00

Iranian democracy (if one can call it that), is an odd bird indeed. The Guardian Council disqualifies from elections reformist politicians that they deem threatening to the system, thereby insuring a “safe” slate of candidates upon which the people may vote. Despite that amazingly undemocratic practice, the regime has, until now, valued the sanctity of the voting process and held fairly clean elections. If a candidate made it past the Council, there was little or no funny business regarding the vote tally and the will of the people (albeit one narrowed by censorship) was respected. For whatever reason, the regime decided to dispense with that tradition and opened up a Pandora’s Box. Now, with few good options, the question is where do the Ayatollahs go from here?

If they acquiesce to the protestors and allow a revote, they risk devastating the Iranian system’s legitimacy and touching off a second revolution.

If they decide to crack down on the protestors, they risk devastating the Iranian system’s legitimacy and touching off a second revolution.

If they do nothing, they look weak, risk emboldening the opposition, and merely delay the fight or flight decision.

Ayatollah Khamanei appears to have laid down his cards in an oddly disjointed and muddled speech today, declaring that the street protests will no longer be tolerated and ominously warned that opposition leaders will be held accountable if they persist.

It was not clear whether Iran’s government, made up of fractious power centers, was pursuing a calculated strategy or if the moves reflected internal disagreements, or even an uncertainty not apparent in Ayatollah Khamenei’s address.

“Most analysts believe the outreach is just to kill time and extend this while they search for a solution, although there doesn’t seem to be any,” said a political analyst in Tehran, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “This will only be a postponement of the inevitable, which is indeed a brutal crackdown.”

This promises to get ugly as hell.

My tough ass wife and the new kid on the block

2009-06-17T13:08:00.002-04:00

My darling wife gave birth to our second son S. on Sunday morning. It was a profound experience, let me tell you (both Mom and the boy are doing well – thanks for asking). It is hard to articulate just how proud and appreciative I am of her for enduring some truly excrutiating pain during labor and delivery. People, Lo is tougher than shoe leather and she makes some really cool, really pretty babies.

Love you babe – you done good.

Supporting the troops

2009-06-08T09:08:00.003-04:00

Reason #642 why Stephen Colbert is awesome.

The cracker wing

2009-05-29T10:07:00.002-04:00

There is simply no denying that a good portion of the modern Republican Party is comprised of bigots, not necessarily balls to the wall racist Dixiecrats of Jim Crow South, but bigots nonetheless. Former Rep. and GOP Presidential candidate Tom “Build a Wall” Tancredo decided to fly that flag yesterday by accusing SCOTUS nominee Sotomayer of racism and calling La Raza the “Latino KKK without the hoods or nooses” on CNN with anchor Rick Sanchez.

Jeez Tom, project much? And how completely oblivious does one have to be to slag Latinos in front of a guy whose last name is Sanchez? Hats off to the anchor for being professional (if somewhat taken aback) during the exchange…
(Via Atrios)

Now that is a conundrum

2009-05-27T11:59:00.000-04:00

So the California Supreme Court has ruled that the odious Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage is constitutional and yet the 18,000+ gay marriages performed prior to the prop’s passing are legal and valid. That strikes me as odd in that California now has a protected class with rights unattainable for the rest of its gay citizens. How in the world is that an equitable or sustainable situation?

SCOTUS Day

2009-05-26T12:56:00.001-04:00

One of the worst kept secrets in Washington has been Obama’s short list of nominees for the Supreme Court. Speculation on that topic began before Obama was even inaugurated and Sonia Sotomayer’s name has been kicked around for at least that long. Therefore, it should surprise no one that she gets the nod, potentially becoming the first Hispanic and third woman to serve. In other non-surprising developments, the Republicans will attempt to paint her as a crazy liberal activist judge that wants to force pornography and abortions upon your teenagers (or some such other nonsense). Senators McConnell and Cornyn are spoiling for a fight over Sotomayer , if for no other reason than kicking the shit out of a liberal woman is what those assholes consider fun (think of Hillary’s treatment as First Lady). Something tells me that this confirmation hearing is going to put a ding in the GOP’s Hispanic outreach efforts…

Goddam Penguins

2009-05-14T14:08:00.001-04:00

I hate Pittsburgh.

And Maine makes five

2009-05-06T15:37:00.000-04:00

I wonder how many states have to approve gay marriage before the Family Research Council hits Jonestown territory?

She has stupid by the barrelfull

2009-04-29T15:36:00.000-04:00

Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), AKA the dumbest sitting member of Congress, is at it again (from TPM with video goodness!).

On Monday night, our friends at Dump Bachmann reported, Bachmann took to the House floor and paid tribute to the economic policies of Calvin Coolidge and the "Roaring 20s" (the era that ended with a massive monetary contraction and the Great Depression). One particular line really does stand out, though -- saying Franklin Roosevelt turned a recession into a depression through the "Hoot-Smalley" tariffs [Ed. Note – every time I read Smoot-Hawley, I can’t help but think of Ben Stein in Ferris Buehler’s Day Off].

[Snip]

Interestingly, this speech also happened on the same day as when Bachmann connected the 1970s swine flu outbreak to Democrat Jimmy Carter being president, even though it was actually Gerald Ford in office at the time.

I would absolutely consider amending the Constitution to demand that members of Congress must not only wins the most votes in the election to be seated but also pass a basic civics test or at least demonstrate the ability to use an encyclopedia or the Google. What a moron…

Specter flees the crazy tent

2009-04-28T12:54:00.002-04:00

Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter today announced that he is switching parties to run as a Democrat in 2010.

In a statement issued about noon as the Capitol was digesting the stunning turn of events, Mr. Specter said he had concluded that his party had moved too far to the right, a fact demonstrated by the migration of 200,000 Pennsylvania Republicans to the Democratic Party.

“I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans,” Mr. Specter said, acknowledging that his decision was certain to disappoint colleagues and supporters.

Coupled with the emmanent seating of Al Franken, Specter’s defection will give the Democrats a filibuster-proof 60 seat majority. The Obama agenda just got the green light in a very big way.

A side benefit of course is that the GOP, already diminished to an obstructionist rump of conservative nutters, is now an irrelevant annoyance.

As if things were not bad enough...

2009-04-27T14:43:00.002-04:00

This flu outbreak is pretty damn scary.

Hang 'em high

2009-04-24T09:14:00.002-04:00

Paul Krugman:

And there are indeed immense challenges out there: an economic crisis, a health care crisis, an environmental crisis. Isn’t revisiting the abuses of the last eight years, no matter how bad they were, a luxury we can’t afford?

No, it isn’t, because America is more than a collection of policies. We are, or at least we used to be, a nation of moral ideals. In the past, our government has sometimes done an imperfect job of upholding those ideals. But never before have our leaders so utterly betrayed everything our nation stands for. “This government does not torture people,” declared former President Bush, but it did, and all the world knows it.

And the only way we can regain our moral compass, not just for the sake of our position in the world, but for the sake of our own national conscience, is to investigate how that happened, and, if necessary, to prosecute those responsible.

Eugene Robinson:

I don't know what more we'll find out if a blue-ribbon investigative panel of some kind is formed. But what we already know is enough to ensure that sooner or later, the abusive interrogation methods authorized by Bush, Dick Cheney and other officials are going to be measured against the law. Our system, left to its own devices, is not designed to let illegal acts be revealed and then ignored.

From the viewpoint of the Obama administration, the alternatives may be unattractive or even unacceptable. No one wants to see low-ranking CIA interrogators go down for doing what their superiors told them was legal, especially if the superiors are not held to account. But pursuing criminal charges against the highest-ranking officials of the previous administration would be unprecedented, and it is unclear where such a process might lead.

It will be hard to stop this train, though. The rule of law is one of this nation's founding principles. It's not optional. Our laws against torture demand to be obeyed -- and demand to be enforced.

Word.

It all comes back to Iraq

2009-04-22T13:54:00.000-04:00

From McClatchy via Krugman:

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.

Such information would've provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. In fact, no evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and Saddam's regime.

[Snip]

"There were two reasons why these interrogations were so persistent, and why extreme methods were used," the former senior intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.

"The main one is that everyone was worried about some kind of follow-up attack (after 9/11). But for most of 2002 and into 2003, Cheney and Rumsfeld, especially, were also demanding proof of the links between al Qaida and Iraq that (former Iraqi exile leader Ahmed) Chalabi and others had told them were there."

[Snip]

"There was constant pressure on the intelligence agencies and the interrogators to do whatever it took to get that information out of the detainees, especially the few high-value ones we had, and when people kept coming up empty, they were told by Cheney's and Rumsfeld's people to push harder," he continued.

So we used illegal interrogation techinques to justify an illegal war at the behest of the Vice President and the SecDef - awesome. Dick Cheney truly is Voldemort.

Not buying it

2009-04-22T11:02:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I heard Rep. Jane Harmon (D-CA) on NPR trying to defend herself against allegations, stemming from leaked wiretaps, that she was working with Isreali agents in a covered up in exchange for political favors. It was one of the most evasive and disingenuous interviews I have heard in a while.

As for the details of the current story, first reported by CQ and then the New York Times, Harman was decidedly vague. She refused to say if a call took place in which she promised to get espionage-related charges against AIPAC officials dropped in exchange for help in her campaign for the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. And she repeated a call for the Attorney General's office to release the transcript of any phone calls of hers that may have been picked up by the NSA.

"I can't recall with any specificity a conversation I may have had four years ago," she told NPR. "That is why I have asked Attorney General Holder to release any transcripts that he has that involve wiretaps of me."

Later, however, Harman seemed to slip, saying that, "the person I was talking to was an American citizen." Pressed by host Robert Segal how she could know the nationality of the person she was talking to but not remember the conversation itself, the congresswoman replied: "Anyone I would have talked to about the AIPAC prosecution would have been an American citizen."

I may be completely wrong and Harmon may be totally innocent but thusfar I can only conclude that she is full of shit, trying to cover her ass by playing victim and crying foul over a government spying policy that she supported.

A goddamn travesty

2009-04-21T13:42:00.002-04:00

Having never been a 13 year old girl, I cannot speak to this with any personal authority, but being strip searched by school administrators seems to me to be one of those events that could scar a girl for a really long time. I don’t care if the school thought that this girl was a heroin mule, those fuckers should never, ever have the authority to strip search a student. They want metal detectors, fine. The right, with probable cause, to rifle a bag or search a locker, sure. But if school administrators want an invasive search performed on a student, they damn well better have a cop with a court order do it. That this went down the way it did is simply unconscionable.

That is a fine line you are skirting there Rick

2009-04-16T23:11:00.002-04:00

At a Teabag party yesterday, Texas Governor Rick Perry brought up a novel (at least since 1861 anyway) approach to oppose recent efforts by the Obama administration; that Texas may secede from the Union.

Perry repeated his running theme that Texas' economy is in relatively good shape compared with other states and with the "federal budget mess." Many in the crowd held signs deriding President Barack Obama and the $786 billion federal economic stimulus package.

Perry called his supporters patriots. Later, answering news reporters' questions, Perry suggested Texans might at some point get so fed up they would want to secede from the union, though he said he sees no reason why Texas should do that.

"There's a lot of different scenarios," Perry said. "We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot."

Obviously, Rick Perry is one dumb motherfucker. Aside from his inability to use the word “unique” properly, this notion that secession is a sane option is, well, insane. Around these parts, that is called treason. If Bill Clinton can get impeached for a blowjob, then Perry’s statement should be seen as flirting with the hangman’s noose. And yes, he couched his remarks within the time tested hedge of “hey we have no reason to do it, we’ve no plans to do it but you never know”, but if there is no reason to dissolve the Union, then why the hell bring it up? I just wish Molly Ivins was still alive so that she could filet him properly.

Two years

2009-04-16T22:22:00.002-04:00

The AP has a great story on the anniversary at Tech today as well as some pretty compelling photos from events on campus.

These Tea Parties are going to be a ball

2009-04-15T14:18:00.001-04:00

Much ink has been spilled regarding the “grassroots” anti-tax Tea Parties being held today all over this great land of ours. It truly is a people-powered awe-inspiring movement of ordinary citizens combating the tyranny of the Obama Administration. Or not. The brilliant Thomas Frank explains:

Unless it rains today, thousands of average people will stand up across the land, declare their mad-as-hell-ness. Look for folks to holler for lower estate taxes and a replacement for Sarbanes-Oxley. They will put on three-cornered hats, wave "don't tread on me" flags, and imagine that they are channeling the spirit of Tom Paine as they do their part to ease the troubles of the economy's winners.

And Fox News, which plans to cover the tea parties, will no doubt hail this plastic populism as the realest kind of social uprising, a movement that is the rightful expression of this year's discontents.

[Snip]

The conservative movement, too, has long been a master of this maneuver. From the days of Richard Nixon to those of Sarah Palin it has described itself as a rebellion of Middle America against elitist liberals; as a nation of Joe the Plumbers rising against interfering bureaucrats.

It has little patience with traditional populism of the anti-big-business sort. Looking around on the Web site of the D.C. pressure group FreedomWorks, for example, I came across a denunciation of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's "small-minded populism" written in January 2008 by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, now FreedomWorks's chairman. Mr. Huckabee's offense was his claim to favor "Main Street, not Wall Street," thereby implying, Mr. Armey sputtered, "that the interests of the two are not in alignment. . . ."

And when Dick Armey suggests that Wall Street is the one that's really down with the common people, you'd better believe it. The man is plastic populism to his styrene soul. According to his bio, he was the main author of the "Contract With America," and his group, FreedomWorks, is one of the chief promoters of today's tea parties, where a presumably more broad-minded populism will be rolled out, a version in which Wall Street and Main Street are always in alignment, and only Pennsylvania Avenue is capable of being out of step.

This is faux-populist outrage at its very finest and if there is a more cynical and craven operative than the oh so aptly named Dick Armey, I know not whom. John Cole at Balloon Juice has posted David Schuster’s hilarious rant on Armey et al. entitiled “Teabag Mouthpieces” (that was the actual chyron from MSNBC). Too funny.

Been a long time coming

2009-04-14T00:00:00.002-04:00

Senator Al Franken:

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Minnesota court confirmed Monday that Democrat Al Franken won the most votes in his 2008 Senate race against Republican Norm Coleman, who had already announced plans to appeal the decision.

Coleman has 10 days to appeal to the state Supreme Court. Once the petition is filed, it could further delay the seating of Minnesota's second senator for weeks.

After a statewide recount and seven-week trial, Franken stands 312 votes ahead. He gained more votes from the election challenge than Coleman, the candidate who brought the legal action.

The state law under which Coleman sued required three judges to determine who got the most votes and is therefore entitled to an election certificate, which is now on hold pending an appeal.

"The overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates that the November 4, 2008, election was conducted fairly, impartially and accurately," the judges wrote. "There is no evidence of a systematic problem of disenfranchisement in the state's election system, including in its absentee-balloting procedures."

Ten thousand pounds of awesome. Senator Franken - oh hell yes.

This could be worth watching

2009-04-09T11:54:00.000-04:00

From the NYTimes:

A new musical production adapted from “American Idiot,” the best-selling album by the punk band Green Day, is scheduled to make its debut in September at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in California.

Skip to next paragraphBerkeley Rep is to announce Monday that the new work, also titled “American Idiot,” will have its premiere as the first production of the theater’s 2009-10 season, and run from Sept. 4 through Oct. 11.

The musical is a collaboration between Green Day — the Bay Area rock trio consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool — and Michael Mayer, the Tony Award-winning director of “Spring Awakening.”

American Idiot is a really, really good album and while I am not what one would call a fan of musical theatre, I am interested in seeing how they pull this off.

Speaking the truth

2009-04-08T11:14:00.001-04:00

It looks like some people in Washington are ready to face reality when it comes to the banks.

April 8 (Bloomberg) -- A congressional panel overseeing the U.S. financial rescue suggested that getting rid of top executives and liquidating problem banks may be a better way to solve the economic crisis.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, in a report released yesterday, also said the Treasury may be relying on too rosy an economic scenario to guide its $700 billion bailout, and declared that the success of the program after six months is “mixed.” Three of the group’s members disagreed with at least some of the findings.

“All successful efforts to address bank crises have involved the combination of moving aside failed management and getting control of the process of valuing bank balance sheets,” the panel, headed by Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren, said in its report.

I do not understand why Geithner in particular and the Obama Administration in general are so opposed to clearing out the bank executives and temporarily nationalizing the banks. The faster the bank issues are unwound, the better for everyone. Trying to make the process less painful for Wall Street only makes it more painful (and expensive) for you and me.

Kinda scary

2009-04-08T09:29:00.000-04:00

Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls, the newspaper said, citing current and former U.S. national security officials.

The intruders have not sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure but officials said they could try during a crisis or war, the paper said in a report on its website.

Not that we don’t have like a billion other more pressing problems but this is something that needs to be dealt with post-haste.

Awesome

2009-04-07T13:10:00.002-04:00

The Vermont Legislature just overturned the Governor’s veto and legalized gay marriage.

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont on Tuesday became the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature's vote.

The House recorded a dramatic 100-49 vote — the minimum needed — to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto. Its vote followed a much easier override vote in the Senate, which rebuffed the Republican governor with a vote of 23-5.

Suck on that Gov. Douglas.

Happy Birthday Lo

2009-04-06T16:03:00.001-04:00

You are the love of my life, the mother of my child (soon to be children), and my best friend in the world. If anyone deserves a happy birthday, darling it is you.

XOXOXOXOXO – I love you with all my heart.

PS – I hope dinner doesn’t suck.

Whackadoodle

2009-04-06T13:58:00.002-04:00

In the late absense of the awful Ann Coulter, Rep. Michelle Bachmann has none to quietly positioned herself as the GOP’s go to Wingnut Harpy, what with her thinly veiled calls for a revolution to topple the Obama Administration and the like. Via Oliver Willis, I see that she is at it again, this time warning of political re-education camps in reference to Ted Kennedy's volunteer service proposal.

And the real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums.

I swear, you cannot make this stuff up.

Opening Day

2009-04-06T12:10:00.004-04:00

Well today marks the start of another baseball season and my Cubbies are predicted by most everyone to win the NL Central. After last year’s great season and horrible, dreadful, bad, bad, bad performance in the playoffs, my expectations are tempered. The rotation is good, the bullpen is solid, and the addition of Milton Bradley adds a potent bat to a not so great offense. On the other hand, this is Cubs - enough said.

Surprising

2009-04-03T11:52:00.001-04:00

Iowa? Really?

DES MOINES, Iowa - The Iowa Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling Friday finding that the Midwestern state's same-sex marriage ban violates couples' constitutional rights, making Iowa the third U.S. state where gay marriage will be legal.

Obviously I think this is good news but I am a little shocked to find out that Iowa is the new Massachutsetts.

Love this

2009-04-03T09:25:00.002-04:00

From the AP:

Michelle Obama has done what few others have managed — getting Queen Elizabeth II to break protocol.

The first lady arrived Wednesday with President Barack Obama. After separate meetings on the eve of the G-20 summit, the couple attended an evening reception for world leaders hosted by the queen.

Mrs. Obama clearly made an impression with the 82-year-old monarch — so much that the smiling queen strayed from protocol and put her arm around the first lady in a rare public show of affection.

It was the first time Mrs. Obama — who is nearly a foot taller — had met the queen. The first lady also embraced her.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman who asked not to be identified because of palace policy said he could not remember the last time that the queen had displayed such public affection with a first lady or dignitary.

I love the Queen because she seems so utterly unflappable. Seriously, she has been at that job 24-7 for 57 years and is always spot on, like some great veteran actress who not only never misses a cue but always has the line when the less experienced cast members get lost. That Michelle Obama could charm Her Majesty off her game is a testiment to the First Lady’s charisma but I gotta say, I found the Queen’s warmth quite endearing and pretty damn cool.

Even more YouTube fun

2009-04-02T15:54:00.002-04:00

Since I am on a musical nostalgia trip, here is Joe Strummer (my favorite - obvious, no?) and the Mescaleros playing my favorite Clash tune, “White Man in Hammersmith Palais”. As far as songs go, this is damn near perfect.

More YouTube fun

2009-04-02T13:27:00.001-04:00

The Pietasters are not only a really good band but also an amazing show live. Indeed, they make my top ten list of best shows ever. Blacksburg, winter of 1994, in a sweltering subterranian shithole called Pedro’s with the dripping wet crowd packed elbow to elbow, they blew the doors off. It was so hot in fact, that nearly every guy was shirtless and a fair number of the women were sporting bras only and even with that exhausting, oppressive heat, the crowd sang along at the top of our lungs to the very last words of the encore “Drinking and Driving”. I am telling you, that show was fucking bananas from start to finish. Here they are doing another of my faves, “Without You”. Enjoy!

YouTube fun

2009-04-02T10:56:00.002-04:00

The Forgotten Rebels doing Barry Maguire's "Eve of Destruction". A classic cover of a classic tune...

Budget Fail

2009-03-27T14:20:00.000-04:00

After a couple of weeks of bitching about President Obama’s budget without one of their own to offer as an alternative, the House GOP unveiled the Pamphlet to Save Americe at a press conference yesterday. It went over not so well. Jason Linkins has a great piece at HuffPo about this farcical head fake at a budget, what with its utter lack of actual numbers and Underpant Gnome-like sensibility on revenue generation. Suffice it to say, the rollout of this “budget” proves that Minority Leader Boehner is not only a disorganized assclown but a really poor leader as well.

Pledge Week forces me to peek behind the crazy curtain

2009-03-26T15:19:00.003-04:00

So my local NPR affiliate WHRV is having one of their interminable bi-annual fundraising drives (FWIW - Lo and I almost always write a check) and rather than deal with a couple overenthusiastic shills trying to guilt me into a pledge (“If you value Public Radio as a service, then please invest in your Public Radio station you miserly cretin”), I decided to tune into the rage-fuelled batshit insane ramblings of Sean Hannity. To say that Hannity has anger issues is like saying Ted Bundy was a wee bit anti-social and I was ready for the freak show.

Anyway, driving along as he ranted and raved, I can almost see him, red-faced, vein throbbing in forehead, barely able to contain himself as he bombards the mike with spittle and paranoid delusions. It was actually pretty funny except for the fact that this whack job actually has a platform from which to bloviate. And just when I thought I had my fill of wingnut gibberish and would switch back to the calm reason of NPR, Hannity brings on Rep. Michelle “Armed and Dangerous” Bachmann, perhaps the dumbest, most insane and irresponsible member of the august body. Like a car crash you can’t look away from, I had to see where this exchange would go. I was not disappointed.

People, what I heard was mind-bending. When these two nutty supernovas of right-wing ideology started riffing back and forth, it took mere seconds for them to stray into no-bullshit pining for a revolution to overthrow the evil Muslim Communist black guy that has, in but 60 days, run this nation into the ground. It was a tour de force of crackpot, black helicopter and tinfoil hat bullshit, quasi-treasonous bile, and reality-denying “commentary” on the sorry state that Liberals have left our nation. And irony of ironies, whenever anyone disagreed with George Bush, Hannity was one of the dudes shouting “traitor” the loudest.

As the interview wound down and with my cup of crazy overflowing, I was oddly proud of myself for actually sitting through the whole thing. Only when Hannity and Bachmann began calling each other “Great Americans” did I get the urge to vomit and jam an ice pick into my ears. That was my breaking point and I quickly switched back to NPR. I had made through the madness alright, but I was spent and could bear no more. It was clearly time to get back to the relative comfort of being browbeaten for money by too-perky strangers.

UPDATE: TPM has transcribed a few choice moments from the interview. FWIW, it really was as bad as I thought.

The man has some stones

2009-03-26T12:50:00.002-04:00

One of thornier issues in modern politics is prison reform. The nation’s collective freak out over drug usage in the 70’s and 80’s spawned some really stupid and Draconian laws that have placed millions of non-violent drug users in jail, at huge expense and little societal benefit IMHO. Yet reform efforts are often cast by the law and order crowd as soft on crime initiatives meant to coddle criminals. So it takes some nerve to wade into that particular pool and Sen. Webb appears to be jumping in with both feet.

Alarmed by prisons that are clogged with mentally ill people, drug users and other non-violent offenders while well-armed gangs and drug lords often go unpunished, Virginia Sen. Jim Webb will launch a wide-ranging and politically risky campaign today to overhaul the nation's criminal justice system.

[Snip]

After winning his Senate seat by a razor-thin margin in 2006, "he's improved his standing" with Virginia voters, said Mark Rozell, a political scientist at George Mason University. "He's now seen as a strong incumbent."

But Rozell added that "being hard on crime is the politically safe place to be.... There's just not a lot of public sentiment out there to do something about incarceration time.
"Whether he's doing the right thing or not, politically it's risky."

Kudos to the Senator for taking this on. It will not be easy and he had better watch his back.

Making Sense

2009-03-26T12:27:00.000-04:00

From the NYTimes:

The Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, outlined the plan Thursday before the House Financial Services Committee. He said the changes were needed to fix a badly flawed system that was exposed by the current financial crisis. Mr. Geithner, in his opening statement, called for “comprehensive reform. Not modest repairs at the margin, but new rules of the game.”

Included in the plan would be the establishment of one single agency “with responsibility for systemic stability over the major institutions and critical payment and settlement systems and activities.”

To that end, Mr. Geithner said: “Financial products and institutions should be regulated for the economic function they provide and the risks they present, not the legal form they take,” Mr. Geithner said. “We can’t allow institutions to cherry pick among competing regulators, and shift risk to where it faces the lowest standards and constraints.”

Geithner is absolutely right though the devil, as always, is in the details. Hedging aside, at least he is making the right noises. Timmy has dug himself into one helluva hole. Establishing an effective regulatory regime for non-bank financial firms would go a long way towards getting him out of it.

The Joys of Fatherhood – Big Boy Edition

2009-03-26T11:53:00.001-04:00

So it has been a rough ten days or so on the J. front. The boy has been acting up like you would not believe; to the point that I was getting concerned that perhaps I was indeed the Father of a three year old Anti-Christ. Hitting, temper tantrums, talking back, generally being a jerk to his teachers – I think I have aged three years in the past week.

So after a long discussion about what was acceptable behavior for a big boy and the consequences of any further nonsense, we sent J. off to school this week, anxious but hopeful. Monday and Tuesday were largely uneventful, thank god and as such I was thinking that maybe he was getting it and we had passed through an ugly but temporary phase. Hurray for us, hurray for him. And then yesterday, J. was an angel. He received a glowing report from school. He ate his dinner without complaint. He did not throw a fit when it time for bed. He was, in fact, awesome. Indeed, as we were reading him his bedtime stories, I didn’t think I could have been more proud of him. That was until he recited to me nearly verbatim “How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?” IN ITS ENTIRETY.

Now, I have no idea how common it is for three year olds to memorize a forty page book and, really, there is like one line of text per page but that said, I must say I was damn impressed and more than a little shocked. When he was done, he sat there giggling with this goofy grin that totally said “Holy Shit! Look what I can do!” It was just a supercool moment and one that reassured me that, hey, maybe we are getting this parenting thing and that he is growing up to be a smart, well adjusted kid. It is a moment that I will cherish for a long time. So Big Ups J., you did Daddy proud!

Owned

2009-03-25T10:56:00.002-04:00

I didn’t see most of the press conference last night but one bit I did catch was Obama schooling CNN’s Ed Henry.

The CNN White House correspondent, Ed Henry, who asked the question, also suggested that the New York attorney-general, Andrew Cuomo, was doing a better job of dealing with AIG than the White House.

Obama gave a general answer and Henry again asked why he had taken a few days to tell the public. The normally cool and controlled president replied sharply: "It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak."

Good stuff. Here is the video.

New Rules

2009-03-24T14:09:00.001-04:00

When we eventually find our way out of the current financial quagmire, we are going to need new regulations on the amount of leverage a bank can take on, reinstituting some form of Glass-Steigel, etc. But the single most important principle governing these new rules must be that if an institution is too big to fail, then it is too big. No single entity ought to have the power to essentially hold the US economy hostage. Thanks to Phil Gramm and his deregulation crusade in the late 90’s, we now have a financial landscape littered with firms whose only reason for surviving is that they have loaded guns pointed our collective economic head. That must change.

Old wine in a new bottle

2009-03-23T14:12:00.000-04:00

As best as I can tell, the Geithner Plan to save our banking system appears to be the old Paulson Plan to buy mortgage backed securities and a bunch of other crap at inflated prices. The Administration has just repackaged this REALLY BAD IDEA so that instead of buying them directly, we incent the private sector to do so with our money.

The plan relies on private investors to team up with the government to relieve banks of assets tied to loans and mortgage-linked securities of unknown value. There have been virtually no buyers of these assets because of their uncertain risk.

As part of the program, the government plans to offer subsidies, in the form of low-interest loans, to coax private funds to form partnerships with the government to buy troubled assets from banks.

Bad, bad, bad. This amounts to giving the banks a massive subsidy using private equity as the bag man. So much for moral hazard, free markets, etc. And what’s worse, there is no guarantee that the banks will actually start lending again even if we do fork over wads of cash. We have no controlling stake in the banks and as such, little say on how they operate. Finally, if and when this plan craters, there will be little stomach in Congress to give the Administration another bite at this apple. Obama may only get one shot to fix this mess and this plan has FAIL written all over it. But don’t take my word for it; here is Krugman on Geithner’s position:

This is more than disappointing. In fact, it fills me with a sense of despair.

Oh boy - this is going to end poorly.

Krugman on the Obama Economic team

2009-03-20T12:59:00.002-04:00

Ouch.

This administration, elected on the promise of change, has already managed, in an astonishingly short time, to create the impression that it’s owned by the wheeler-dealers.

As the wise man once said, “Sometimes the truth hurts”.

Not going too well

2009-03-20T09:08:00.000-04:00

God Lord has Treasure Secretary Tim Geithner gotten off to a bad start. Maybe it is because he is too close to Wall Street (he was Pres. Of the New York Fed), maybe he is being constrained by the Administration, maybe the taks before him are too overwhelming for a Treasury Department not yet fully staffed, or maybe he just doesn’t know what the hell he is doing. I have no idea but this AIG bonus thing is the latest in a series of missteps. And where are the details of his bank rescue plan? Dude needs to get his shit together and fast.

More AIG nonsense

2009-03-16T14:27:00.001-04:00

If ever there was an argument for abrogating a contract, the bonuses given to the AIG derivatives traders is it. We own that company because those very traders screwed up and nearly brought down the world finance system. That they should be rewarded for such failure is abominable. If nothing else, those assholes should receive a pink slip with their check.

Happy Birthday P.

2009-03-06T13:52:00.002-05:00

My lovely sister P. hit the big Four O today. Hurray P.!

“It's just a disaster for the Republican Party”

2009-02-25T14:10:00.003-05:00

Watching Jindal’s remarks last night, I was shocked just had bad he was on camera. He is supposed to be the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan but oh my God, the Great Communicator he is not. I thought he sucked out loud and my response was fairly typical. Sam Stein has a roundup of reactions from the punditry on HuffPo but my favorite has to be conservative NYTimes columnist David Brooks (Ed. Note – never thought I would write that phrase).

"You know, I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician," said New York Times columnist David Brooks, appearing on PBS, "and I oppose the stimulus because I thought it was poorly drafted. But to come up at this moment in history with a stale "government is the problem," "we can't trust the federal government" -- it's just a disaster for the Republican Party [emphasis mine]. The country is in a panic right now. They may not like the way the Democrats have passed the stimulus bill, but that idea ... that government is going to have no role, the federal government has no role in this ... it's just a form of nihilism. It's just not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is.

Pretty damning criticism coming from the same team and doubly so when viewed in the context that Jindal is billed as a rising star within the GOP. So I am going to ask everyone get in with me on the ground floor of the Palin/Jindal ticket in 2012. How awesome is that? And we can make it happen people. Yes we can!

The Speach

2009-02-24T23:10:00.005-05:00

President Obama killed. While his speach was monstrously ambitious and a bit light on details, it was also visionary, inspiring and enheartening in this gloomy economic climate. In contrast, the GOP response delivered by Bobby Jindal just plain sucked. That guy is Ambian in a suit.

Today’s Required Reading

2009-02-23T12:34:00.000-05:00

Krugman makes a great argument for nationalizing the big insolvent banks like Bank of America and Citibank, pointing out that the FDIC has been taking over smaller troubled banks, per its charter, at a clip of two a week. He then proceeds, quite correctly, to thump the Obama Administration for continuing to offer plans that would put the risk onto taxpayers rather than shareholders but may not actually fix the problem. All good stuff.

Buy up the banks and punish the bankers

2009-02-12T12:58:00.002-05:00

Nicholas Kristof makes a pretty good argument that solving the banking problems in this country will require some form of nationalization (egads, the "N" word!) as well as punitive treatment of the bank execs that got us in this mess. All in all, it is a really good piece on how we might get out of this mess but I just loved this bit:

A more plausible approach might be the one that some White House aides unsuccessfully argued for: tougher curbs on executive compensation. The Obama administration in theory limits certain compensation for top executives in companies receiving taxpayer dollars to $500,000, but the plan has loopholes big enough to drive a Mercedes through.

Yes, troubled banks might lose good people to hedge funds that can pay more because they’re not bound by these curbs. But that upsets me less than the idea of single mothers working multiple jobs so that their tax dollars can underwrite million-dollar bonuses at companies getting taxpayer assistance [Emphasis mine].

Well put sir.

I love this

2009-02-11T13:23:00.001-05:00

Pornstar Stormy Daniels may challenge Senator David Vitter (R-LA) in the GOP primary. Vitter you will remember become something of a national joke when it was revealed that he had a penchant for frequenting New Orleans whorehouses. One prays that if Daniels runs, the issue of family values will be front and center.

From bad to not terrible

2009-02-11T13:12:00.000-05:00

The stimulus bill working its way through Congress is, to be frank, a mess and the blame for that falls largely on President Obama. It is too small (we are attempting to fill a trillion plus dollar hole in the economy with what looks to be something in the neighborhood of $800 billion), it is leans too heavily on not so effective tax cuts and many solid, stimulative provisions were watered down in a failed effort to gain Republican support. All of Obama’s talk of bipartisanship led him to get rolled by the House GOP which voted unanimously against. This was not a good showing for the President or the House Republicans (and is there a bigger asshole in Congress than Minority Leader John Boehner?).

So for all of these problems, it is good to see that at least some of the better ideas for the bill are being included/augmented and the dumber ones excised/diminished. Moving this legislation out of the Awful Piece of Shit category and into the somewhat more pleasing Not Completely Worthless is progress; measured progress, but progress nonetheless.

Al-Qaeda’s Obama problem

2009-01-25T14:58:00.000-05:00

In George Bush, al-Qaeda had a truly useful idiot. Bush is despised in the Muslim world (to say nothing of pretty much everywhere else) and as such gave al-Qaeda a potent recruiting tool and target for propaganda. And really, demonizing a smug half-wit with imperialist designs on the Middle East was easy, both from a strategic view as well as a practical one – big fish, small barrel. Now that President Obama is the face of America, it seems the propagandists in al-Qaeda are having a bit more trouble developing an effective anti-Obama meme.

The torrent of hateful words is part of what terrorism experts now believe is a deliberate, even desperate, propaganda campaign against a president who appears to have gotten under al-Qaeda's skin. The departure of George W. Bush deprived al-Qaeda of a polarizing American leader who reliably drove recruits and donations to the terrorist group.

With Obama, al-Qaeda faces an entirely new challenge, experts say: a U.S. president who campaigned to end the Iraq war and to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and who polls show is well liked throughout the Muslim world.

Whether the pro-Obama sentiment will last remains to be seen. On Friday, the new administration signaled that it intends to continue at least one of Bush's controversial counterterrorism policies: allowing CIA missile strikes on alleged terrorist hideouts in Pakistan's autonomous tribal region.

But for now, the change in Washington appears to have rattled al-Qaeda's leaders, some of whom are scrambling to convince the faithful that Obama and Bush are essentially the same.

"They're highly uncertain about what they're getting in this new adversary," said Paul Pillar, a former CIA counterterrorism official who lectures on national security at Georgetown University. "For al-Qaeda, as a matter of image and tone, George W. Bush had been a near-perfect foil."

Yet another reason to thank God that Bush is gone and Obama has arrived.

Progress

2009-01-23T13:04:00.003-05:00

More of this please...

A wage-discrimination bill that narrowly failed less than a year ago moved closer to becoming law last night, when the Senate passed the legislation and sent it back to the House for final consideration.

The measure, approved 61 to 36, would overturn a Supreme Court decision to make it easier for women to sue employers for pay inequity, regardless of when the discrepancies took place. It may become the first legislation signed by President Obama, who campaigned in favor of it.

Joe is happy

2009-01-20T12:51:00.002-05:00

Watching George W. "Asshat" Bush retreat from the Inaugeration in Marine One now. History will judge him harshly and his Administration will only be missed by comedy writers and wingnuts. Sayonara dickhead.

Happy Obama Day!

2009-01-20T11:34:00.001-05:00

I am watching the live feed of the Mall from CNN and I have never seen so many people in all of my life.

And we are back…

2009-01-19T11:37:00.000-05:00

So I basically had to take a forced hiatus from the blog due to a couple of factors though the largest has been work. They have been killing me. Seriously, I clocked 100 hours this past week, about 80 the week before and so forth. Lo, four months pregnant, has been a peach for putting up with it – God bless her. And J. has been pretty much awesome, though I wish he would nap more and eat some damn vegetables. Anyway, I think the clouds are parting somewhat (Fate – leave me the hell alone) and I should get back into a more regular swing of things just in time for Barack Obama to take office. Oh hell yeah. Tomorrow will be epic.

In that spirit, here is Michael Franti and Spearhead performing “Obama Song”. If this doesn’t put a smile on your face, you are either dead or Republican.

Unmitigated Awesomeness

2009-01-04T14:32:00.001-05:00

Barring some sort Florida 2000 level shenanigans, Al Franken will be the next Senator from Minnesota. That his election will give Falafel Bill O’Reilly six years of agita is just fucking sublime.

Merry Belated Christmas

2008-12-26T11:31:00.002-05:00

Work, travel, and other Christmas-related business has kept me incommunicado for a while but I hope you and yours are having a lovely holiday.

What we have here is a failure to regulate

2008-12-16T12:41:00.002-05:00

Yet another epic failure by the CEO President…

The Securities and Exchange Commission learned about what it describes as one of the largest securities frauds in history when Bernard L. Madoff volunteered his confession, raising questions about the agency's ability to police the financial marketplace.

The SEC had the authority to investigate Madoff's investment business, which managed billions of dollars for wealthy investors and philanthropies. Financial analysts raised concerns about Madoff's practices repeatedly over the past decade, including a 1999 letter to the SEC that accused Madoff of running a Ponzi scheme. But the agency did not conduct even a routine examination of the investment business until last week.

Look, if the SEC is incapable of ferreting out the largest ever case of fraud (by an order of magnitude), then the SEC needs a top to bottom overhaul. Investigation and enforcement of regulations helps insure fairness in the market and investor confidence. That this asshole could lose $50 billion and no one noticed until he confessed is an indictment of both our regulations and those that would enforce them. I know Pres.-elect Obama has a full plate already but let’s hope he appoints someone to chair the SEC that is not a Wall Street sycophant (see Cox, Chris).

Scuttling the ship

2008-12-12T09:31:00.000-05:00

Faced with the prospect of their ship or cargo being captured, sailors and pirates throughout history have at times made the decision to quite literally go down with their ship. Depending on the context, some would call it noble (or insane) but it is, at its core, an act of pure nihilism. Nihilism is not IMHO a philosophy that ought to be well represented in government.

So when the Senate Republican killed the $14 billion auto bailout yesterday, I fear they may have turned their cannons into the proverbial deck of our flagging economy and let fly. Their basic argument seems to be that if you don’t let us destroy the United Auto Workers union with this bill, we will let the Big Three do it in Chapter 11 and we don’t give a fuck about the consequences. It is unbelievably irresponsible and a giant middle finger to people who don’t go to work in a suit, especially after showering Wall Street in cash with almost no strings attached. We are in for nearly $100 billion on AIG alone and we are BUYING that piece of shit. But these assholes can’t get over the ideological hump and fund a pittance of what we blew on the bankers to keep a couple million people and the heart of our manufacturing sector at work in the middle of the worst employment environment in a generation. The last hope appears to be the Administration stepping in with some funding from the money allocated to the financial sector, a move that they have previously discarded.

Dick Cheney is reported to have said that with the failure of the bailout bill, it is “Hebert Hoover” time. The markets open in a few minutes. Let’s see if he is right.

Negligent homicide

2008-12-09T14:03:00.002-05:00

This sound less like “supporting our troops” and more like criminal neglect.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Defense Department knew years before insurgent actions began in Iraq of the threat posed by roadside bombs but failed to take available steps to mitigate the risk to US troops, a Pentagon audit concluded Tuesday.

The US Marine Corps asked the Pentagon's inspector general to perform the audit after coming under fire for setting aside an urgent request from field commanders in 2005 for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) armored vehicles.

"DoD (Department of Defense) was aware of the threat posed by mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in low-intensity conflicts and of the availability of mine-resistant vehicles years before insurgent actions began in Iraq in 2003," the audit found.

"Yet DoD did not develop requirements for, fund, or acquire MRAP-type vehicles for low-intensity conflicts that involved mines and IEDs," a summary of the report said.

"As a result, the department entered into operations in Iraq without having taken available steps to acquire technology to mitigate the known mine and IED risk to soldiers and Marines," it said.

Negligent homicide as defined by the Uniform Code of Military Justice:

(1) Nature of offense. Negligent homicide is any unlawful homicide which is the result of simple negligence. An intent to kill or injure is not required.

(2) Simple negligence. Simple negligence is the absence of due care, that is, an act or omission of a person who is under a duty to use due care which exhibits a lack of that degree of care of the safety of others which a reasonably careful person would have exercised under the same or similar circumstances.

We report, you decide.

Corrupt asshole

2008-12-09T13:13:00.001-05:00

Illinois Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich has been arrested on corruption charges alleging, among other things, that he was conspiring to sell the appointment to Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat.

Federal officers took Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris -- also arrested on corruption charges -- into custody at around 6:30 a.m. (7:30 a.m. ET) without incident, FBI spokesman Ross Rice told CNN.

Each was charged with a count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and a count of solicitation of bribery, authorities said.

The government says the two were "conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits" for the Illinois governor by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a U.S. senator to replace Obama.

The Obama transition team is aware that Blagojevich is in federal custody, but has no comment, according to a senior Democratic source.

The government also accuses Blagojevich and Harris of threatening to withhold state assistance to the Tribune Company -- the company that owns the Chicago Tribune -- in connection with the sale of Wrigley Field baseball stadium. The company also owns the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field.

In exchange for assistance, the governor and his chief of staff wanted the newspaper to fire Chicago Tribune editorial board members who were sharply critical of the governor, the government said.

There ought to be a special place in Hell…

Obvious

2008-12-04T10:31:00.000-05:00

The AP headline on a poll of California gay marriage opponents:

Poll: Calif. gay marriage ban driven by religion

Um, no shit.

Big Trouble for the Big Three

2008-12-03T12:38:00.000-05:00

The automakers' bailout plans shed a lot of light on just how screwed they are.

In blueprints delivered to Congress on Tuesday, GM and Chrysler said they needed an immediate infusion of government cash to last until New Year's, and both said they could drag the entire industry down if they fail. Ford is requesting a $9 billion "standby line of credit" that it says it doesn't expect to use unless one of the other Big Three goes belly up.

But Chrysler said it needed $7 billion by year's end just to keep running. And GM asked for an immediate $4 billion as the first installment of a $12 billion loan, plus a $6 billion line of credit it might need if economic conditions worsen. The two painted the direst portraits to date — including the prospects of shuttered factories and massive job losses — of what could happen if Congress doesn't quickly step in.

It would appear that Ford is the only company not on the brink of collapse.

GYWO

2008-12-01T13:21:00.001-05:00

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

The Big Game

2008-11-29T10:22:00.001-05:00

While Virginia Tech has not had a marvelous season this year (boy is that an understatement), a victory over Virginia today puts us in the ACC championship game. That plus my visceral dislike of all things Cavalier makes this game the biggest of the year. Go Hokies!

Today is going to be a good day

2008-11-26T09:24:00.003-05:00

I knew that today was going to be alright when I saw this headline on HuffPo:

Ann Coulter's Jaw Wired Shut: Report

Cue Nelson Muntz and let me just say that any well of sympathy I might have had for that soulless waif of a harpie evaporated about the same time as her sense of decency and restraint. Have fun with the blender Ann!

Today’s required reading

2008-11-26T09:18:00.001-05:00

Thomas Friedman is fired up today, delivering a very good and very pissed off column on how we got into this financial mess. Here is a hint: no one should ever again refer to the Wall Street titans that created this disaster as “the smartest guys in the room”. Ever. Period.

Save Wall Street, screw Main Street

2008-11-25T14:08:00.001-05:00

Paulson once again helps out his buddies and the bailout follies roll on.