July Wedding Of The Decade

Those Racist Republicans

I don't think anything is proven in the Gates arrest case but, yeah, the cop probably overreacted and, yeah, Gates probably got mouthy.
But ya know, there's always this to keep in mind. Obama's election is the big chance for it all to come seeping out of the woodwork where us p.c. types had managed to keep it.

Now, Tea Party activists trafficking in racist imagery are pretty much dog bites man. But McKalip isn't just some random winger. He's a Florida neurosurgeon, who serves as a member of the American Medical Association's House of Delegates...

...

Asked about the email in a brief phone interview with TPMmuckraker, McKalip said he believes that by depicting the president as an African witch doctor, the "artist" who created the image "was expressing concerns that the health-care proposals [made by President Obama] would make the quality of medical care worse in our country." McKalip said he didn't know who created it.

But pressed on what was funny about an image that plays on racist stereotypes about Africans, McKalip declined to say, instead offering to talk about why he opposes Obama's health-care proposals.

"I have a busy day," he said eventually, before ending the call.

Yoga For Drunks

Just for fun.
Should late-stage alcoholism be the object of humor and scorn? Since Noah's time, at least.

Erm, About That Savings Increase

From a pretty good article in Bloomberg:

Consumers’ debt pullback is only now getting under way, said Simon Johnson, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and former chief economist at the Washington-based IMF.
The rise in savings so far is largely a product of mortgages being extinguished by home foreclosures, government tax cuts and transfer payments under the stimulus package, he said.
“As there’s an adjustment to higher savings, then there is a potential paradox of thrift,” Johnson said, referring to economist John Maynard Keynes’s theory that increased saving is good for individuals but bad for society as a whole because it reduces demand.
“To some extent, the government can offset that” with fiscal stimulus, he said. “At some point you have to worry about the budget deficit.”

So, if you're losing your house, you're in the "saving" money column. Good to know.

Quote O' Teh Day

"You know what it reminds me of? Oh yeah, a waste of time."

David Letterman about Twitter. With Kevin Spacey, mmmm.

 

Armor, Meet Chink

TPM is pursuing a story that Olympia Snowe may be supporting the public option in health care legislation.
She's on Baucus's Finance Committee. Bipartisan, you're still breathing. And not quite so blue.

Headline O' Teh Day

US Bombs 300 Tons of Poppy Seeds

I like this part of the steno story best:
Tony Wayne, with the U.S. State Department, said the strikes on poppy seeds, that can be used to make opium and heroin, is part of a strategy shift for the military to stop the Taliban and other insurgents from profiting from drugs. 


Obviously, whoever wrote that  doesn't really get the opium production process, but
anyway, maybe it's working, maybe not. I don't know.
Maybe somebody does.

Obstruct, Obstruct, Obstruct

health care plan, RNC chair Michael Steele tells his party.
Then, there's this:

He told an audience in a recent speech that his family went without health insurance for three years.
“Don’t break anything, because Daddy can’t afford to fix it,” he recalled telling his sons then.

I like the idea of oppo research being used against the R's, leaked to friendly journalists. Or maybe Sargent just did real journalism. After all, he used to be at TPM.

Quote O' Teh Day

 "Sometimes, you just gotta say, 'OK, I still have nine live, two-headed animals' and move on.''

Coney Island animal freak show operator on hearing he lost the bid to buy a five-legged puppy.

Drudge always finds these things and they're usually gruesome. But Lilly's future looks bright. In the news business, we call this a "bright."

Go Sign the Public Option Petition, Please

Chuck Shumer (he lets me call him "C"), wrote today to ask me to urge my friends and relatives to sign the petition and he claims it's giving them leverage in the Senate. I figure cannot hurt to mention this again.
Don't mention it, thank you.

Health Care, Obama's Finger On The Trigger: Kapow!

Reconciliation.
It's been floating out there, it's just that the Administration has held it back until now.

Moreover, for the first time in recent memory, Obama floated the possibility that if it appears that health care reform lacks the 60 votes needed for passage, he might be open to reconciliation, which would allow for an up-or-down vote on budgetary and tax aspects of the bill.

So Easy, Even My Blgging Dog Can Do It

Add your name to the list of people asking for an overturning of the ban on permanent resident status for HIV positive immigrants.
This is from Sullivan's blog, and he's got a dog in the fight. He could get sent back to England, and separated from his American husband.
But he's on vacation, someone else posted it.

Because I Can

Breakfast, Thursday. Retired? Yes.

Mmmm, corn on the cob


Dogblogging



Dogs love trucks


As usual, click to enlarge.

Free Trade: Obsolete Concept?

Take a look at what Taplin's saying for us laypeople — complete with scary chart even I can understand — and give it some thought. Me, I've got bills to pay and hours to go before I sleep. I figure he's on to something, although not by any means alone.

A tariff on imported goods that are not manufactured under certain environmental and labor standards would level the playing field to revive our hollowed out manufacturing sector. Just like the dogma of “efficient markets” has proved to be fallacious in the last 16 months, we must realize that the religion of “free trade” is a trap. America can either sell itself off to our creditors around the world or figure out how to incentivise our manufacturers to relocate their factories in this country to put the 30 million underemployed back to work.

Another Stimulus?

Lotsa talk, no action yet. I personally think a "decent" win on the health care bill will give the administration enough political capital to go ahead with something like another stimulus, although some of what they do may be under the radar.
What does that mean? Different language, different bills, all adding up to a new stimulus.
In the meantime, Krugman concedes there's such a thing as politics, although he doesn't go so far as to say it trumps economics.
But it does.

Charming, Just Charming

Remember Randall Terry? Yeah, I know, who would want to?
Nice poster on Sotomayor. I suppose compared to the pictures of bloody fetuses his supporters display on public right-of-ways, it's really kinda cute.

Pay Attention, This Is The Week

Unless it drags on, of course, which could happen. This is big, really big legislation, as big as Social Security, Medicare and Civil Rights, which the Republicans also opposed unsuccessfully.
Obama is firing up his advocacy of a universal health care bill, the R's and Blue Dogs are hoping to sink it and everything is at stake only two weeks before the scheduled August 7 recess, even the recess itself.
In case you're wondering about the public option, TPM has a headline quoting Obama saying he won't sign a bill without it.
Max Baucus, we're looking at you. And, of course, the House Energy and Commerce committee, the last of the three House committees that must sign off on their version of the bill and loaded with recalcitrant Blue Dogs. Did I tell you Obama's got ads running against all the Blue Dogs in their home states, soliciting public feedback on their positions?
Did I tell you the AMA endorsed the public option last week?