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?

You Know Things Are Bad When...

Trump Drops Price On NY Penthouse By $20 Mil

Watch Closely

Wait for it...mmmm, pizza.

Mean, Just Mean

and about as professionally produced as my former rag.
Stolen from TC. Who knows, maybe you can sponsor him.

Friviality Friday: Bo Baseball Card

On Torture Investigations

Glenn Greenwald has been the Lone Ranger on this and Chuck Todd, formerly the numbers guru at ABC during the primaries and the election and now its chief White House correspondent, has been, well, shall we say cool to the idea.
Today, they debated it for about 30 minutes. I haven't listened yet, but of course the netroots are saying Greenwald creamed Todd.

Nasty, Sick, Funny

No old ladies, young runners or arrogant execs were injured in the making of these "ads."

When Is Life Like The Movies?

Think Day of the Condor. Think the Bourne Ultimatum. Think Wag the Dog.
Think Cheney's bouncing dick at the very thought of CIA assassination squads.

what was it about the program that was so shocking that Dick Cheney reportedly ordered it kept secret from Congress, Panetta quashed it as soon as he heard about it, and Congressional Democrats risked being painted as soft on terror by shrieking about being kept in the dark?

Some pundits are saying there's nothing there, but "some pundits" have said things like that before.

Conspiracy theory much? Nah, not me. Them. Just read the comments.
Wild, man.

Gail Collins (As In Thank God For) Translates Soto Hearings

Tidbit:


SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Judge, before I read a string of anonymous comments about your temperament problem, I’d like to make you repeat that wise Latina remark again just for the heck of it.


JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: Thank you, Senator, for the opportunity to revisit that matter. I appreciate that the man who once said he’d drown himself if North Carolina went for Obama has a special contribution to make when it comes to the importance of thinking before you speak.

More.

Health Care Bill: It's Gonna Happen

no less a Troglodyte than Pete Hoekstra of my home state of Michigan pulled the curtain back a little.
(Kabuki, remember?)
No prognostication on the public option, although his remarks regarding "government-run" health care suggest that, in the end, we'll win. We'll all win. We win. We're winners. Do I repeat myself?

Another Reason To Love The Internet

T Bone Burnett is hanging out at Jon Taplin's post on Michael Jackson, where the days-long discussion has evolved into a dissection of the music business then and now and copyright law.
I mean, T Bone is having ordinary conversations with people like me.
Well, not just like me. I don't know anything about the topics. So it's like Margaret Atwood or somebody talking to me as a person, not as a reader.
Just cool, that's all.

Mcjoan Rules, Blogs Rule!

Warning: A little inside baseball here.

All this handwringing about newspapers going down the toilet and "real" journalism disappearing amid a cacophony of unreliable voices from 30-somethings in front of keyboards in Mom's basement, the blogger stereotype that mainstream reporters on the defensive often call up, although rarely so directly, before dismissing them.
Well, Talking Points Memo and others pretty much put the lie to all that, but still reporters and editors out there are reluctant to admit they pay attention to anything other than Matt Drudge, a non-blogging, right-leaning aggregator whose one claim to fame was breaking the Lewinsky story. "Drudge rules our world," Mr. Smirky Mark Halperin once intoned while political news director at ABC-TV (he's now at Time and I never hear about him anymore).
But things are changing, maybe not so slowly.
Today, Huffington Post, a left-leaning aggregator as well as story originator with real reporters and editors and everything, has a story up crediting Mcjoan at Daily Kos with breaking the news that 50 — count them, 50 — progressive members of the House have privately pledged to refuse to support any health care bill that does not include a satisfactory public option.
This is it, folks. This is the big Magilla that everyone with an activist bent was working their butts off to get accomplished, calling and calling and calling them, pressuring everyone.
Oh, those 50, it's called the "whip list."
But my point is not that the grassroots effort worked, which is super.
My point is that a middle-aged female blogger who definitely does not live in Mom's basement (she's from the Pacific Northwest and worth subscribing to, as she often covers close-to-home issues) broke a news story worth having. Not Politico, not the NYT, Wapo or the WSJ. Mcjoan at Daily Kos. Hosannah!
The ramifications are profound.
And I shall be redeemed. Any day now, Lord, any da-a-a-y now.

From Huffpo:

Progressive Democrats are taking a hard stand on health care reform, with a majority committing to oppose any health care reform package that doesn't include a robust public option. On Wednesday, they got an inadvertent assist by an anonymous leak of their "whip list."

A whip list, which is generally tightly guarded, is used by congressional leaders to keep track of the private pledges made by members before a vote. The list is kept private to encourage frank answers from members so that leadership can gather accurate intelligence.

UDATE: Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake, which is leading the bloggo whip list effort claims the list was leaked to Mcjoan to relieve the progressives from the pressure. If so, great. Leaks are what the news business is all about if you're serious. Does that mean Mcjoan got played? No, only that she's apparently highly thought of by whoever leaked.

Headline O' Teh Day

As Obama Steps Up Health Reform Pitch, GOP Deploys Colorful Chart

Heh.

Bwhahahahaha
From TPM.

UPDATE: Apparently there is a chart war.
Bwahahahahahahahahaha. Choke.

Something To Think About

especially if you think you might live long enough to see an outcome.
I plan on it but you never know, could get hit by a bus or something.

...U.S. income inequality is a demonstration that many – probably most – Americans don’t have the capabilities required to maintain anything like their current standard of living in competition with a global labor force. Does Will think this is accurate, and if so, is it a problem?

10 Books You Don't Need To Read

He They won me over by letting me off the hook on 100 Years of Solitude, then insulted me with including The Corrections. I loved The Corrections. I recommended it to friends. Anyway (is the new whatever.)
Wasn't it Franzen who rediscovered Paula West? Or was it that other guy who writes novels? Anyway.

I forgive him, though, because he's really entertaining:

Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac were the first true nerds who, during a brief window of time, became truly cool. Ginsberg was a physical and intellectual nerd, and Kerouac was an emotional nerd — combined, their forces created a hole in the identity universe into which the distinction between nerd and cool person was exploded into dark matter. In midcentury, all who fell into this roiling cosmic trap became permanently scrambled, identitywise. This galactic disturbance allowed neoliberalism to firmly take hold, such that now the only relevant distinctions between people are levels of disposable income and whether they wear Bluetooth earpieces.

CORRECTION: Authors of the list won me over, authors, writing style varies, still good.

If Michelle Malkin

is so rich, how come she's not smart?

This widely circulated alleged image of Malkin is also widely reported as having been Photoshopped. We like it anyway.

For Mardie, With Love (Me Some Twitter)

from Mediaite:

but millennials generally don’t like Twitter. Its fastest growing demographic (and on FB too!) is older women.

Quote O' Teh Day

One of Krugman's commenters says this is why the American body politic is not too enthusiastic about another round of stimulus, no matter how badly it's needed:

An article about Goldman in a recent issue of Rolling Stone, by Matt Taibbi, characterized Goldman as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.””

I have deliberately not read the Taibbi article although it comes highly recommended. I have blood pressure to worry about. So, no linkie. Just Google if you must.

Those Daring Young Women In Their Flying Machines

WASP pilot Bernice Falk Haydu pulls back the chair of President Barack Obama after signing S.614, a bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots, in the Oval Office Wednesday, July 1, 2009. At far left is WASP pilot Elaine Danforth Harmon, and at right is Lorraine H. Rodgers. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) is at right in green. Current US Air Force pilots are in the background. Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) was established during World War II, and from 1942 to 1943, more than a thousand women joined, flying sixty million miles of non-combat military missions. Of the women who received their wings as Women Airforce Service Pilots, approximately 300 are living today. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Commenter at the White House Flickr site adds:

av84fn says:

The WASP have had veteran's status since 1977. In 1977, the WASP took their case to receive status as official World War II veterans to Congress. They faced strong opposition from many veteran groups. No group of wartime civilians had ever been granted veteran status in America, and many felt it "demeaned" the service of those who had actively served in WWII, although the WASP training and service is almost indistinguishable from the men, except for service overseas. The first WASP veterans bill had been defeated in the House late in 1976. In 1977 Senator Barry Goldwater introduced a bill "..deeming such service to have been active duty in the Armed Forces of the United States for purposes of laws administered by the Veterans Administration." Among other supporters were Congresswoman Lindy Boggs, mother of TV's Cokie Roberts, Asst. Sec'y of the AF Antonia Chayes, and Bruce Arnold, son of Gen. Hap Arnold. Rep. Margaret Heckler helped the new WASP bill to be the only piece of legislation in history to be co-sponsored by every woman member of Congress. During Senate hearings on that bill, the strong opposition by veterans groups became clear. After 10 months of emotional debate, the Senate bill passed on Nov 4, 1977. But there was no joyous Oval Office ceremony for the WASP that year. Days later, and with no fanfare, President Carter signed the bill giving veterans status for the Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII. Yesterday, the WASP finally got their signing ceremony and overdue recognition. The book "Those Wonderful Women in Their Flying Machines" by Sally Keil, will tell you the rest of the story.

Help Fight the Insurance Lobby

Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake blog is leading a grassroots effort to get progressives inside the rooms where the House health care bill will begin markups on Thursday.
Usually, the rooms are filled with lobbyists who pay homeless people to wait in line to get in, but Hamsher's leadership is planning otherwise.
You can help here. Yeah, they need money. May I remind you the industry is spending $1.4 million a day?

Sarah Palin, Energy Expert

You all saw this coming, right?
No, I didn't.

From Devilstower at Dkos:

John McCain introduced her as "one of America's greatest energy experts,"  CNBC's Maria Bartiromo said "I think the biggest value she brings to the ticket is her expertise in energy," and Haley Barbour called her a "bonafide energy expert." Palin's petro-knowledge has become a given on the right.

What's the source of this deep knowledge? It doesn't come from Palin's multi-school odyssey from which she eventually earned a BS in communications. It doesn't come from her experience rattling off scores as a sportscaster. It doesn't come from overseeing ice rink construction in Wasilla. Nope, her energy expertise comes from being appointed to an oil and gas commission, a job she quit after less than a year.

Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Chairwoman Sarah Palin said Friday she is resigning amid frustration that she is being forced to keep silent about ethics allegations against Republican Party of Alaska chairman Randy Ruedrich. ... Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski appointed both Ruedrich and Palin to the state commission last spring.

That's it. That's freakin' it. 

The Washington Post Editorial Page

is ruled by Fred Hiatt who, apparently, believes the far right wing rules the country despite the last two elections in 08 and 06.
Consequently, he vehemently defends George Will's consciously inaccurate assertions about climate change. And today, he published Sarah Palin's take on the energy bill, which she supposedly quit her job to  help oppose. It all makes sense now, doesn't it.
Anyway, Conor Clarke, one of Andrew Sullivan's fill-ins this week, is incensed. And quotes a clever writer, which is why I pass it along. Sarah, of course, can barely speak in sentences — no one said they had to be complete sentences — so it's anybody's guess which lobbyist wrote it.

Just one more point about Sarah Palin's op-ed in this morning's Washington Post: Derek Thompson and others have pointed out to me that the piece does not contain the words pollution, emissions, carbon, or global warming. As Derek says, this is a bit like an op-ed on health care that doesn't contain the words spending, costs, coverage, or medicine, or a high-school paper on Catcher in the Rye that doesn't contain the words, um, Catcher in the Rye.
I find this absence sickening. Deciding how to deal with climate change is an uncertain and complicated process. It requires weighing costs in the present against benefits a hundred years in the future. It requires weighing costs in the U.S. against benefits in places like India and Bangladesh. It requires weighing concrete GDP against the moral emphemera of the world's floral and animal diversity. And it requires sacrificing today to ward off uncertain and unquantifiable future risks. This tremendous empirical uncertainty demands reflection and humility.
And then you have Sarah Palin show up, blathering about how we're "destroying America's economy" while we're "literally" sitting on mountains of oil and drill baby drill and blah blah blah. Sickening.

Dear Attorney General Holder

At the urging of MoveOn, I just sent this. Please do likewise.
Email askDOJ@usdoj.gov

Then report your email here.

Dear Attorney General Holder,

I urge you to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate evidence and allegations of torture policies during the Bush administration, follow the leads as far as they go no matter how high — including members of Congress — and hold those responsible accountable under the laws and treaties of the United States.
We cannot continue with success this “experiment” in democracy if we are willing to overlook, cover up or explain away the most basic of human rights in a civilized society.
I realize that going forward in pursuit of justice in these matters could very well become a career breaker for you. If so, please stand strong for what is right in keeping with previous examples of such heroism in our country dating back to before its founding.
I appreciate all you do and look forward to seeing the Department of Justice returned to its rightful place as one of our most cherished and respected institutions. Without it, we are lost.
Thank you.

Yours truly,

Name
Address
Phone number

Angel In A White Coat

Dr. Regina Benjamin will be the new Surgeon General. Let's see the R's try to sabotage that.

Women=Profit$

Wapo:

Gender stereotypes aren't politically correct, but the research broadly finds that testosterone can make men more prone to competition and risk-taking. Women, on the other hand, seem to be wired for collaboration, caution and long-term results.

Commenters seem to think it's all reverse sexism. Me, I'd check out the original material before jumping to conclusions, but hey, I'm just a blogger. 

Meth In Iowa

and other meanderings by Jon Taplin.
My fave:

As was recently pointed out in the New York Review of Books, the Walton family, of Wal-Mart fame, is wealthier than the bottom third of the US population put together – about 100m people.

I Got Nothin'

But I did go to the Port Townsend Farmers Market. For the album, click here.

Nevada!

Jim Gibbons is the philandering governor in the midst of a scandalous divorce and "the other senator" is John Ensign, who screws his best friend's wife and runs to The Family, a shadowy Christianist organization with strong ties in D.C.,  for help.
But have yet to read a word about Ensign's daddy, who payed off the other family with $96,000. Except one TPM commenter says he's the real senator and everyone in Nevada knows it. He
's also a casino multimillionaire. I watched Casino this week. Hmm.
Apparently Michael S. Ensign is CEO of Madaley, which owns a lot of casinos and resorts and casino/resorts. He adopted John after marrying John's mother, whose birth name is Italian.
I suppose the media have stayed away from Daddy with no real reason to bring him into it.
Still. Oh, Ensign is a veterinarian. Surely there's something in that?

Scandal, Scandal and ???

Famous Quitters We Have Known Dept.
Of 1,200 governors since 1900, only Jim McGreevey, Eliot Spitzer and Sarah Palin have "just up and quit" before the end of their first terms.
Thanks to a reader of Alaska's very own endearing Mudflats for poring over all those old dead white guys.

Princess Sparkle Pony

La Bella Figura

Is it just me, or does Italy make better looking female politicians? One of them is a former topless top model, the far right, I think.
Okay, there's Granholm.
And — choke, struggle, gasp — Palin.
But c'mon, Albright, Napolitano, et al. Too many nitrites maybe.

Warning: You Have Been Poisoned

I read this a few days ago, but it sunk in the second time around.

Nitrites and nitrates belong to a class of chemical compounds that have been found to be harmful to humans and animals. More than 90 percent of these compounds that have been tested have been determined to be carcinogenic in various organs. They are found in many food products, including fried bacon, cured meats and cheese products as well as beer and water. Exposure also occurs through manufacturing and processing of rubber and latex products, as well as fertilizers, pesticides and cosmetics.

Nitrosamines are formed by a chemical reaction between nitrites or other proteins. Sodium nitrite is deliberately added to meat and fish to prevent toxin production; it is also used to preserve, color and flavor meats. Ground beef, cured meats and bacon in particular contain abundant amounts of amines due to their high protein content. Because of the significant levels of added nitrates and nitrites, nitrosamines are nearly always detectable in these foods. Nitrosamines are also easily generated under strong acid conditions, such as in the stomach, or at high temperatures associated with frying or flame broiling. Reducing sodium nitrite content reduces nitrosamine formation in foods.

Nitrosamines basically become highly reactive at the cellular level, which then alters gene expression and causes DNA damage. The researchers note that the role of nitrosamines has been well-studied, and their role as a carcinogen has been fully documented. The investigators propose that the cellular alterations that occur as a result of nitrosamine exposure are fundamentally similar to those that occur with aging, as well as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

...De la Monte states, "If this hypothesis is correct, potential solutions include eliminating the use of nitrites and nitrates in food processing, preservation and agriculture; taking steps to prevent the formation of nitrosamines and employing safe and effective measures to detoxify food and water before human consumption." 

Nev. Sen. John Ensign Is A Woman...And Pregnant!

Well, must be, because his good buddy Sen. Tom Coburn (RI — Republican Idiot — OK) said he can't talk about whether he advised the philandering Ensign to pay off the husband of the woman he had an affair with. He can't talk about it because he was speaking to Ensign as his physician. Coburn is an
OB/Gyn.
Also, as a church deacon. Church of Christ Without Christ, no doubt. Thank you, Carson McCullers.
Thank you, TPM, for this very good day. You are my higher power.

UPDATE: The payoff was $96,000, not the millions reportedly advocated by Coburn. Seems Ensign's parents — parents! — wrote some checks to individual family members, including the mistress's husband and children. God, does this stink or what? It's more than embarrassing. It's more than sleaze. It's downright...wait for it...Palinesque. Yeah, that's it.

I Loved Time Magazine, I Really Did

I mean I started reading my parents' copy when I was 9 years old and I learned about the world. I didn't just read the entertainment stuff, I read about Africa and Washington, D.C., and book reviews.
But I let the newly resubscribed thing lapse after Richard Stengel and Jay Carney blew off the Attorney General scandal, never really eating their words when the whole thing got shoved down their throats by that Cheetos-eating, basement dwelling Josh Marshall and the crew at TPM.
Then what do they do? They go and hire Mr. Smirky, perhaps the biggest shill pundit in the business. Of course, it's a small business. And he has a small penis. There, I said it Mark Halperin, small penis. I have X-ray vision.

Now, this love poem from a parallel universe to Sarah Palin.
Wait, I get it, Time Magazine has a death wish.
Quick, call Crisis Line. No, wait. Let it go.

Turursts Attack Mt. Rushmore

My Favorite San Diego County Sheriff's Deputies

 It was really hard to choose among the many shots on Sheriff William Gore's departmental helicopter porn, glorifying the noble adventures of the same folks who helped out a couple weeks ago at a Democratic fundraiser of middle-aged terrorists, where one non-helicopter deputy wrestled the 65-year-old hostess to the floor.
Josh Marshall and the crew at TPM have been all over it for the entertainment value alone.
Anyway, here are my favorite San Diego County Sheriff's helicopter photos. Marshall calls it helicopter porn. I call it true patriots doing their job.

Click to enlarge ass.

 

Click to enlarge weapons. Click twice to enlarge cod piece. 

What? What!? The Jets Aren't Coming?

Patrick Sullivan caught this one today. I am reminded of the ongoing battle by a few hardy souls to pressure the Air Force about its Christianist enthusiasms and their illegal, oppressive nature.

"And I think that we are wondering, when we look at President Obama: Is there a culture of hostility toward expressions of faith in the public square -- particularly Christian? Let's put this in context. Several months ago, the president spoke at Georgetown University; when he spoke there, he covered a cross, and he covered a sacred symbol for the name of Jesus. He did not celebrate the National Day of Prayer at the White House, had no events at the White House, and yet just a couple of weeks ago we had a major reception to celebrate Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in June," - Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, on the Pentagon's decision to forgo an annual flyover of Air Force jets at the "God and Country Family Festival" in Nampa, Idaho.

Health Care Reform: The Prostate Cancer Test

Mr. Leonhardt at the NYT has this pitch perfect.

But if the treatments have roughly similar benefits, they have very different prices. Watchful waiting costs just a few thousand dollars, in follow-up doctor visits and tests. Surgery to remove the prostate gland costs about $23,000. A targeted form of radiation, known as I.M.R.T., runs $50,000. Proton radiation therapy often exceeds $100,000.
And in our current fee-for-service medical system — in which doctors and hospitals are paid for how much care they provide, rather than how well they care for their patients — you can probably guess which treatments are becoming more popular: the ones that cost a lot of money.

What's Really Important

PEW reports:

Jackson has dominated the headlines since his death on June 25. Registering at 17% of the newshole, the singer’s saga was the No. 1 story last week. And it has largely been a television story, accounting for 30% of the airtime studied on network news and 28% on cable news last week. In the network news universe, the morning shows devoted 56% of their airtime to Jackson, compared with 20% in the evening.

This Is Who They Are

The base likes Sarah no matter what.
I met one a couple weeks ago (we don't tend to run in the same circles). She was a tiny, pretty little woman from Kentucky, about my age. Husband a retired drug and alcohol counselor who believes the Mexicans are getting all their guns from China and all that stuff about border arms sellers is a bunch of hooey.
She had a sweet voice and a sweet face, but underneath the tragic story of a person whose mother "left" the children's career Army dad when the 5 of them were still quite young, and left them behind as well.
Dad had at least two children by other women in foreign countries.
Sarah's family values no doubt are quite appealing. I dunno. I feel bad for her. She seemed quite sad. But sweet.

 Republicans by 71%-27% say they'd be likely to vote for her if she ran for president in 2012, while independents by 51%-44% would not.

Mexican Drug War

Not one of my usual topics, but I had a dog in this fight once and still an interest in the developments. Exceptional writing, too.

When he stops at the port of entry at Antelope Wells in the bootheel of New Mexico, US customs ask, as they always do, what he is bringing from Mexico.
He says, "We bring fear."

What I Want To Believe

Harry Reid just told Max Baucus to get with the program. The same day the 60th Democratic senator was sworn in.
So when I say Kabuki, this is what I mean, from a couple of TPM insiders who don't just jump all over the latest news story like it's the next worst thing:

Bipartisanship--defined. The press is focusing on the votes in Congress to determine bipartisanship rather than the elctorate. The Congressional Republicans have been so isolated that they answer only to a small proportion of the total electorate --about 18%--who control the Republican primaries in most states and districts.
Obama is focusing on are the Republican-leaning voters who do not self-identify as Republicans to strangers on the telephone (in polls) but have definite tendencies to vote Republican as well as true independents. What he, and the Democratic Senate leadership, have been doing is reaching out to the Republican officeholders knowing that they probably will spurn their advances. The real conversation is with the Republican leaners and independents in the electorate, and there are clear signs, I beleive, that that conversation has succeeded. Obama does not have to get the Congressional Republican votes (so long as he gets his bills enacted) to be perceived as bipartisan by the electorate--he just has to been seen as trying in a good faith effort and coming part way. The refrain of "party of no" is taking hold among the elctorate I identified above who are deciding increasingly that it is the Republicans who are at fault and not being bipartisan--a perception which, for once, comports with reality.
Obama has, thus far, manuevered the Republicans into an increasingly isolated position among the electorate and you would be surprised how many in the Republican Congressional leadership have not figured it out. A couple of momths ago I predicted to severl friends that next year the Democrats would NET four seats in the Senate and 10-12 in the House. I am increasingly confident of that prediction.

Obama, Reid and Pelosi between them have total responsibility to keep the government functioning in spite of the asinine and unified obstructionist actions and language of the Republicans as dominated by the talk show hosts. Obama has done a masterful job of playing the Republicans so that the only positions they could take to oppose him have been more self-destructive than effectively obstructionist on the large issues.
Between Pelosi and Reid, Pelosi has the easier job because of no filibuster. Not easy, but much easier than Reid's job. She still has to mollify the Blue Dogs who are almost as skittish as the Republicans because they fear the next primary. So Pelosi has compromised with both the Republicans and the Blue Dogs to a greater extent than any of us like at all.
Reid with only 59 Democrats until today as well as the filibuster which the Republicans are only mildly hesitant to use was in much worse situation than Pelosi. I'd bet he has been counting votes very closely and keeping the conservative Democratic Senators mollified.
But two things have just changed. Al Franken was sworn in today and the big initiative - health care - is in the balance. This is once in a lifetime, not just in a political career. I'm more and more convinced that the three top Democrats - Obama, Reid and Pelosi, have been gearing everything to powering the health care bill into enactment this year. That's the reason for the refusal to accept delays, and I think they have allowed some things to be enacted that they hate (I know I do) so as to not waste Presidential power on secondary issues. But now we are in the main bout. If I am right, then the gloves are going to come off.
We'll get only hints of the machinations because they aren't even inside the beltway. They are inside the Senate and House. and the Press mostly hasn't a clue, and the ones who have read Richard E. Neustadt's book "Presidential Power" will find that it runs counter to the permitted media narrative. But some reporter with inside connections on the Hill and the smarts to apply Neaustadt's teachings has one Hell of a great book to write, much like Sorenson's "Making of the President."
Anyway, that's what I think has been happening since Obama as inaugurated. This month is the climax of the story.

Erm, Rahm, STFU!

From (gag) Politico:

A day after his chief of staff suggested the White House could live with a public option-free health care reform bill, President ...
Reduce... Obama released a statement (from Russia!) reaffirming his support for a government-run health care plan:

First Biden (twice), now Rahm. Doesn't Obama have enough to do without continually correcting his message-free minions?

So, Die Already. Politically Speaking, That Is

Catching up with Sara:

Sarah Palin says she's not a quitter, she's a fighter, but adds that, politically speaking, "if I die, I die. So be it."

I like this part the best:

Speaking in fishing waders from the town of Dillingham, Palin said her administration has been paralyzed by fending off frivolous lawsuits.

Alaska's own Mudflats observes:

It’s like pulling out of your driveway and continuing to hit the same mailbox over, and over, and over.  Most people either move the mailbox, or learn to pay attention.  Not our Sarah.

McNamara Stories You Won't Hear Elsewhere

I'd never heard this before. 

When McNamara published his first book — filled with those distortions of history — Halberstam, at his own expense, set out on a journey following McNamara on his book tour around America as a one-man truth squad.
McNamara abandoned the tour.

...
The most bizarre incident involving McNamara occurred when he was president of the World Bank and, off on his summer holiday, he caught the Martha's Vineyard ferry. It was a night crossing in bad weather. McNamara was in the salon, drink in hand, schmoozing with fellow passengers. On the deck outside a vineyard local, a hippie artist, glanced through the window and did a double-take. The artist was outraged to see McNamara, whom he viewed as a war criminal, so enjoying himself.
He immediately opened the door and told McNamara there was a radiophone call for him on the bridge. McNamara set down his drink and stepped outside. The artist immediately grabbed him, wrestled him to the railing and pushed him over the side. McNamara managed to get his fingers through the holes in the metal plate that ran from the top of the railing to the scuppers.
McNamara was screaming bloody murder; the artist was prying his fingers loose one at a time. Someone heard the racket and raced out and pulled the artist off.

From Joe Galloway, McClatchy.
Guess he has good reason to hate McNamara.

During the Vietnam War, Galloway served three tours in Vietnam for UPI, beginning in early 1965. Decorated for rescuing wounded American soldiers under heavy enemy fire during the battle at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley, he was the only civilian awarded the Bronze Star by the United States Army during that war.

Health Care Public Option: Betrayed, Sold Out, F****d???

Or is it Kabuki?

Mr. Emanuel said one of several ways to meet President Barack Obama's goals is a mechanism under which a public plan is introduced only if the marketplace fails to provide sufficient competition on its own. He noted that congressional Republicans crafted a similar trigger mechanism when they created a prescription-drug benefit for Medicare in 2003. In that case, private competition has been judged sufficient and the public option has never gone into effect.

Work Weekends? Oh, Noes!!

From Greg Sargent:

“Reid is determined for there to be a health care bill in July, even if

Is Nothing Sacred?

Nope. Not now.
Jackie and RFK.

Call Maria

About the public option and use this as your guide.
They're back in session and they need to hear from us.
Please CALL Senator Maria Cantwell at 202-224-3441

And fo r something really fun, sign up and call voters in the states where the worst of the worst senators are. I did this during the primary and it was fun. Course, it's your dime, but I've got a phone card and it
s really cheap.


 

Sarah Palin

"The woman is inarticulate, undereducated..."
"She just begs for adjectives like flaky and whacky..."
"This is a woman who has used her good looks and her gender to really get ahead in the political world...and really has no credentials for any job..."
Liz Trotta on Fox. Don't know who she is but she speaks for me. MoDo got some licks in, but Gail was frist!
Meow meow or just plain no clothes emperor?
You decide.

First Sarah, Now McNamara. Who's Next in the Game of Threes

Fog of War was really hard to watch. And really worth watching. I may rent it again.

After leaving the Pentagon on the verge of a nervous breakdown, McNamara became president of the World Bank and devoted evangelical energies to the belief that improving life in rural communities in developing countries was a more promising path to peace than the buildup of arms and armies.

Cuz It's My Blog

Saturday, Port Townsend

 

It's a Siat, didja seeit? Spanish Fiat, Craig's List. 

Why Palin Quit

Because it was about to be revealed that she is the biological mother of Blanket, Michael Jackson's youngest son.

Other amusing, informed and purely speculative discussion here.

Fire It Up!

Torture: Greenwald Clarifies, About 100 Died

I've seen the number many times, but never the link to a source.

Gail Collins On Sarah Palin

Pretty quick work. Thanks, Gail.

Perhaps there is some new and interesting scandal that Palin has yet to let us in on. (If so, I hope it involves a soul mate.)

'A criminal indictment is pending authorization'

Like Iran, totally completely unconfirmed at this point, but still, Josh Marshall kind of thought there was something else there.

Why Wittgenstein?

Andrew – we're on a first name basis now — throws in some quote in the German for July 4 and I gotta, ya know I gotta, go read about him.
My favorite so far:

He felt that giving money to the poor could only corrupt them further, whereas the rich would not be harmed by it.

I haven't found the Andrew quote, but this one seems to fit me today:

"Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in the way in which our visual field has no limits." — Wittgenstein, Tractatus, 6.431^[51]

The Runner Stumbles: Sarah Palin Resigns

So a guy walks into a bar and...we interrupt this program to bring you this breaking news.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has resigned effective the end of this month. She blames the national media.

Course, they never did get a picture of her actually running — not that I doubt her athleticism or anything, I mean, doubt Sarah? — but some joker of a reporter actually tracked down a whole lot of embarrassing crap and put it all in one place a few days ago.
Gotta figure it made a difference.

Josh Marshall's take:

this clearly happened so quickly that Palin hasn't even had a chance to come up with a coherent cover story for her resignation. Some context is probably helpful here, however. Remember that based on the public record, Palin is a wildly unethical public official, guilty at a minimum of numerous instances of abusing her authority as governor. And a lot of very damaging information has come out about her in the last few days -- though mainly embarrassing information about her character rather than new evidence of bad acts. I would not be surprised if this latest round of revelations shook something else loose that we haven't heard about yet.

Oh, and the world needs more Down syndrome babies, not fewer. Oh, and the troops, the troops, the troops.

Oh, point guard, point guard, point guard. Gen. MacAruthur, too. Nice. I am willing to bet that Sarah Palin didn't know who Douglas MacArthur was until she got schooled for the McCain campaign.


Somethin' stinky there. Oh, yeah.

H1N1:Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

On Wednesday, emergency rooms that normally receive 200 patients had to attend to 1,000, and in Buenos Aires Province the minister of health, Claudio Zin, said about 40 percent of health care workers were not showing up, either because they were ill or were concerned about catching the virus. The province had called up retired doctors and medical students to help out.

They decided not to postpone elections, but no doubt Argentina was caught flat-footed. Anyways, this could be us (U.S.) come fall.

Public Option Switcheroo

The woman who, to everyone's relief, sidelined Liddy Dole, turned out to be a problem on health care. Or at least that's what progressives were saying up until yesterday.

One of the Democratic senators who was on the fence when it came to backing a public option for health insurance coverage is coming out in support of the measure.
On Thursday, Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) offered her support for the health care overhaul proposal put forth by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, of which she is a member. In the process, she issued a statement that removed any doubt about where she stands on a publicly run insurance option.

You Don't Want To Know This Either

Taplin's commenters just keep giving and giving. I should go to bed. Early day.

We are, in short, ‘governed’ by a not-quite-open kleptocracy in collusion with a political class striving to make itself permanent. Though particular members have divergent concerns, they’re all distinguished by one characteristic – unrelenting self interest and a systematic disregard for the common good. Short of outright treason, this is a terrible trajectory for private and public leaders alike.

Bernie Madoff: Oh, Yeah, That

 God, I love the internet.

Well, as far as I can gather, the total amount invested was closer to $13.5bn. $65bn was the total of what people thought their accounts were worth.
It seems that Jeffry Picower, one of Madoff’s big clients, and initially listed as one of his “victims”, actually withdrew $5.1bn more than he invested – netting him far more than Madoff himself.
Good article here:
http://www.propublica.org/feature/madoff-client-jeffry-picower-netted-5-billion
Of course, the trustees in the Madoff case are going after him. Two more like him, and now you know where the money went.

Quote O' Teh Day

here's a great book out called Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart. Did you see that? That book says the statute of limitations has expired on all childhood traumas. Get your stuff together and get on with your life, man. Stop whinin' about what's wrong, because everybody's had a rough time, in one way or another.

Quincy Jones

Michael Jackson Redux: What Does It All Mean?

Taplin takes the easy way out, throws up his hands about the end of journalism as we know it, and goes for a walk.
His commenters? Not so much.

I have Google maps on my iPhone. It shows me realtime traffic data on any freeway I choose. I don’t even have to ask. It’s just there. Always.
So why on Earth would I ever tune into KCBS with ‘traffic every 15 minutes’, sandwiched in between commercials for dish soap and muffler repair?
That point and more is made here, in an excellent piece on the future of scientific publication by Michael Nielsen. What’s remarkable about his analysis is how well it applies to a broad range of enterprises dominated by pre-internet organizations that were build around tightly controlled flows of information.
Their inability to adapt is not due to stupidity, or arrogance, or greed, or malice. It’s because they were optimized for a world that’s vanishing rapidly, and that the amount of pain they’d have to suffer in order to transform themselves is more than enough to kill them outright. Consequently, decisive advantage falls to those with the greatest of all assets – a blank slate.
The bottom like is that whatever you think of the MSM is going to matter very little in the coming years, because they are already toast. The culture, the people, the organizations, everything. It’s going to be gone in very short order.
And my suspicion is that the people who can do the best job visualizing data, and providing humans with dynamic maps (especially of abstract things like economic variations and fluctuations in levels of political influence) will become the new news.
I suspect that a lot of the MSM’s fascination with the MJ story isn’t just a function of the hive-mind. It’s also the realization that his heyday and theirs were very closely aligned, and that they both owed the power enjoyed at their respective peaks to the same underlying conditions.
It’s like a last hurrah. In the same way they won’t get another star this big, they probably won’t ever get a chance to publish an obit like this one either.
Moving on.

That Was Quick

AMA Reverse Its Opposition To Public Option In Health Plan

(CNN) — The new president of the American Medical Association, which represents the interests of the nation’s doctors, said Wednesday the group is open to a government-funded health insurance option for people without coverage.

Dr. J. James Rohack told CNN that the AMA supports an “American model” that includes both “a private system and a public system, working together.”

In May, the AMA told a Senate committee it did not support a government-sponsored public health insurance option.

Kabuki, I tells ya all the time.

Newspapers

From a base line of 43,000 newsroom employees in 1978, the numbers steadily rose to a high of 56,900 in 1990 and hovered at about 55,000 until 2008 when they dropped to 52,600. The 2009 census results of 46,700 newsroom hands indicates a genuine decline, but the loss of newspaper jobs has had more to do with the shrinking of most daily newsrooms than the closure of newspapers.

Of course you could argue that it should have grown in proportion to population, but that kind of ignores the realities of competition from other media and advertising vehicles, doesn't it?

But, sigh, as usual, Jack Shafer at Slate promises more than he delivers on the state of jouralism today. Oh, well.

Franken Gets Seated, So What?

Erm, about those 60 votes, that filibuster-free majority:

[Franken] will not make for a particularly crisp #60. Though no one wants to say it, it is not clear that Sen. Ted Kennedy will ever vote again in the Senate, given his medical condition. Massachusetts lawmakers are already quietly jockeying for his seat. A replacement senator in Massachusetts needs to be chosen by the electorate (the governor has no role), which could mean weeks, even months, for primary and general election campaigns to be conducted. Meanwhile, after a month in the hospital, Sen. Robert Byrd was released today to continue his recovery at home, but the 91-year-old remains in delicate health.

Headline O' Teh Day

CBS News Blows The Doors Off Of This Sex Stuff We Keep Hearing About
as Jason Linkins blows the doors off media idiocy

And Now...TaDa! Dog Flu!

From NYT

While fears of a flu pandemic among humans have shifted from the lethal H5N1 avian flu to the relatively mild H1N1 swine flu, the H3N8 canine flu has been a quiet undercurrent in the United States, rarely discussed except among veterinarians and dog owners in the few areas where it has struck hard: Florida, New York City’s northern suburbs, Philadelphia and Denver.

Breast Cancer

Have a friend recovering from a partial mastectomy and one of our cohorts has invoked the aid of the appropriate goddess, the Great Mammogramma.
Just a smile for you.

Teddy's Health Care Plan

The rest of it, that it.
His HELP committee, which we don't hear much about because of Baucus and Cantwell, et al, will release it this week.

Okay, Maria

Where is it?

Okay, I checked the wire at 6 p.m. and still no Maria.
But the P-I posted this about an hour later:

Cantwell Favors "public option" on health care

With local liberals making rumbles, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said Tuesday that a "public option" should be part of a package to reform the nation's health care system, but was vague about what form it should take.

Cantwell, who sits on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, said that Congress needs to develop a new system of health delivery to replace a status quo that "rewards inefficiency" and "rewards volume" in the form of unnecessary tests.

Cantwell and Gov. Chris Gregoire were headliners at a forum sponsored by the University of Washington Medical School.

The forum took place on a day of events underscoring the urgency of reform, the political pressure on lawmakers, and the political calculations of getting reform through the U.S. Senate.

Victims of state budget cuts, several centers providing nursing, health and rehabilitative care to senior citizens and the disabled closed their doors in Seattle and several other cities.

Seattle-area Democratic organizations, longtime champions of a Canadian-style single payer government health plan, convened in Renton to plot ways to put pressure on Cantwell.

But she's still flirting with that co-op idea.

Coming Today

The long-delayed CIA inspector general's report. Oh, goody. Last time I read one of these things, I was obsessed for months.

Blogger is being weird. This was supposed to post at 6 a.m. Wednesday. Okay, coming tomorrow.

Yikes!

Take a few hours off to actually do something and Al Franken becomes a senator and Mark Sanford confesses to multiple women.

Sanford said Chapur is his soul mate but he's trying to fall back in love with his wife.

And she said, fuck you you fucking fuck.

Think I'll go clean the refrigerator. Maybe Imadinnerjacket will concede.

Because They're Desperate?

And more than a few Dems right along with them. The sands they are a shifting, baby.

What does it say about the nature of modern American politics that a public official who often seems proud of what she does not know is not only accepted but applauded? What does her prominence say about the importance of having (or lacking) a record of achievement in public life? Why did so many skilled veterans of the Republican Party—long regarded as the more adroit team in presidential politics—keep loyally working for her election even after they privately realized she was casual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency? Perhaps most painful, how could John McCain, one of the cagiest survivors in contemporary politics—with a fine appreciation of life’s injustices and absurdities, a love for the sweep of history, and an overdeveloped sense of his own integrity and honor—ever have picked a person whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job all but disqualified him for his?

...Palin is unlike any other national figure in modern American life—neither Anna Nicole Smith nor Margaret Chase Smith but a phenomenon all her own. The clouds of tabloid conflict and controversy that swirl around her and her extended clan—the surprise pregnancies, the two-bit blood feuds, the tawdry in-laws and common-law kin caught selling drugs or poaching game—give her family a singular status in the rogues’ gallery of political relatives. By comparison, Billy Carter, Donald Nixon, and Roger Clinton seem like avatars of circumspection. Palin’s life has sometimes played out like an unholy amalgam of Desperate Housewives and Northern Exposure.

Japanese Iris Summer 2009

In the water garden.

The Dangerous Public Option of Cheaper Health Care

People Whose Heads You'd Pay to See Explode Dept.
Olympia Snowe , Lobby Whore - ME.

What's New?

PEW tells me every week, and last week was one of the newsiest I can remember since maybe the election, and that was just one item. What else happened that week? Haven't a memory of anything else.
Anyway, your media at work forthwith:

PEJ NEWS COVERAGE INDEX
In Just Two Days, Jackson’s Passing Nearly Passes Iran in the News of the Week

With unrest in Iran and a new political scandal, the media had its pick of stories to report on the week of June 22-28. But by week’s end, the death of Michael Jackson quickly dominated the media agenda, according to a report by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Early last week, ongoing attention to protests over the Iranian election continued to dominate the news narrative, and by week’s end Iran filled 19% of the newshole, making it still the No. 1 topic of the week. But much of that came early. Indeed, in the first two days of the week, nearly a third of all coverage (31%) was devoted to events in the country. But as the protest movement moved underground, and the story became harder to cover, coverage subsided. By Wednesday attention shifted to the third biggest story of the week—the controversy around South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who admitted to an extra-marital affair after having gone missing for several days (11%).

But it was the late Thursday afternoon reports that Michael Jackson had died that captured the essence of the media narrative last week. The passing of the “King of Pop” was the No. 2 story last week, accounting for 18% of the newshole. From the time of the announcement of his death through the end of day Friday, more than 28 hours (60% of news coverage studied) was dedicated to Jackson’s passing. Cable news led the coverage, devoting 93% of airtime to the icon on Thursday and Friday. The story captured 55% of online coverage and 37% of front-page newspaper coverage. All other stories vied for attention amidst the biggest celebrity story in a decade.

These findings are part of PEJ’s running content analysis of media coverage, called the News Coverage Index, which studies 55 outlets from five media sectors.

Other findings include:
Michael Jackson generated the most headlines last week, appearing as lead newsmaker in 15% of stories. Following Jackson was President Obama (11%); Mark Sanford (8%); Farah Fawcett (1%); Neda Agha-Soltan (1%) and Ed McMahon (1%).
Jackson as lead newsmaker the week of June 22-28 marks only the second time this year that someone other than Obama generated the most headlines in a single week. Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor was the only other person to do so.
Other big stories last week included health care reform, largely centered on Congress negotiating Obama’s plan (7%); the ongoing economic crisis, especially troubled banks and effects on state governments (7%) and the tragic red line metro crash in Washington D.C. (5%). The deaths of Farah Fawcett (1%) and Ed McMahon (1%) rounded out the list of top stories last week.
Click here  for a direct link to a PDF of the report.  The study is for immediate release at our website, www.journalism.org .

Tom Rosenstiel
Director
Project for Excellence in Journalism
The Pew Research Center
202.419.365
 

I Just Love These

Santa?

Shorty And Spencer

Maria Cantwell Tomorrow

will be issuing a statement about her position on the public option, and will clarify her support of the concept, although there is as yet no formal bill she can support.
The statement will also be about her work on five other pieces of the health care bill that she's been working on as her chores for Sen. Max Baucus', (Prick-Mont.) Finance Committee.
You heard it here first.
I never believed it was about the money with Maria. She doesn't get all that much from the industry anyway, and has used her personal — earned, I might add — wealth to fund her campaigns.
What I think is that she's more cautious than necessary, learning to play by the old-boy rules in order to attain some clout over the long term, and when the time came, would have voted right. But now's the time to be speaking up, loudly, so her constituents can hear her. Apparently, that message has found its way to D.C., and I am grateful. Let this be a lesson to Maria and her advisors. Stay in touch out here. We're pissed as hell and not going to take it anymore.
BTW, I called the White House today as well.
Long (maybe 15 min.) wait. First thing I asked was how come no 800 number. Staffer said then I'd never get through.
Cited the Talking Points memo health care article and the underlying report in my support for the public option.
Then I sent my Cantwell letter to the Seattle Times.
That was all before lunchtime. Fun day.
FYI.

UPDATE: I will be reading for you, of course. But TPM, which is doubling its staff, has promised to be on top of health care to the glorious and/or bitter end.

Of course, the Senate is where the major legislative showdown will likely occur. So in some forthcoming posts, we'll be taking a close look at just which senators have taken money from insurers who control major percentages of the state-wide market -- and where those senators stand on the public option. Stay tuned...

UDATE II: Huffpo will go all out, too.

Contrarienne's Head

just exploded. This is better than the naked former mayor in the state park any day. San Diego County! Go, guys!

Now this is a truly bizarre story, about a Democratic Congressional candidate's fundraising event being raided by a whole squad from the San Diego Sheriff's Department -- including pepper-spray and a helicopter!

And TPM hasn't even made its new hires yet. Go, TPM. Go Big Daddy!

Maria Cantwell, Maria Cantwell, Maria Cantwell

MY LETTER TO THE EDITORS
Get off the fence, Maria Cantwell.
Your constitutents are fed up with this will-I-or-won't -I support the public option — no triggers, no compromises, no watering down — in health care.
I read this morning an excellent analysis of the monopoly power most insurers have in the health care marketplace in the United States and it's more than just disgusting, it's inexcusable that a progressive senator from a progressive state can't make up her mind.
This monopoly industry is crying about the loss of competition and it's just deja vu all over again. They've got a stranglehold in most of the smaller rural states and they're pouring millions a day into Congressional lobbying to hold their position.
Nowadays folks like their facts straight (you do, don't you?) so I'm not going to bore you with unverifiable details. Don't take my word on anything. How about the AMA for a source, the ones who just had to backtrack on their opposition to the public option as their officers checked to see if they still held their board positions with Blue Cross Blue Shield or whatever.
Free market, my sweet patootie.
Call her, 1-888-648-7328.
Call the White House, too. 1-202-456-1111. You will have to hold.

P.S. You can free FAX and email here.
Cantwell.
White House
Reps in other states

Health Care: They Want It All, Baby. All.

 Tell Maria Cantwell to get off the goddam fence, godammit!


TPM is doing yeoman work on health care and their success — doubling the staff this week — gives me hope for journalism in this age of ... omg, what age is it now? Must take a walk. Soon.

$15 For Persiankiwi

Avaaz, Moveon.org's online activism arm is raising money to help Iranians keep on keeping on with the tweeting, etc.

Folks, when was the last time anybody asked you to go fight in Spain against the fascists? This is so easy it's ridiculous.

Will they win? They live to fight another day. That's what revolution is.

(N.B. Persiankiwi was the very prolific blogger that no one had heard from in a few days. Still no definitive word.)

Is This About North Korea?

I mean, don't we have Trident submarines for this sort of thing? I see the big black death ships in Hood Canal all the time.
I like that the wire story gives no context whatsoever, so why is there even a story about this. How many readers would even care given there's no explanation for the story as news at all. I think this is about North Korea, yeah. That's what your morning newspaper is for, to send subtle messages to North Korea. Like spitting in the wind. There are white guys with fruit salad on their shoulders who sit around dreaming up this stuff and then go to the Officer's Club for a drink with lunch.

UPDATED Forgot link.

Headline (not) O' Teh Day: 'Political Damage Minimum'

Oh, Yeah, That Dept.
That white firefighter case has been decided by the Supremes, who narrowly (surprise! All together now, Anthony Kennedy, Anthony Kennedy, let's hear it for Anthony Kennedy!) decided to reverse Sotomayor's three-judge panel. Or was it the whole nine? Whatever.

Quick read from CBS News' legal affairs guru Andrew Cohen: "Could have been a lot worse for Sotomayor, whose candidacy for Court finds solace from four dissenting Justices. Political damage minimum."

Why do I even read this stuff?
Oh, for you, contrariennes, for you. Smooch.

YAAWWWNNN

Look, C-SPAN is a friend of mind and you, sirs, are no C-SPAN. But if you really want to sit through 16 minutes of Krugman v. somebody named John Taylor debate Obama v. con econ solutions, have at it. Okay, I admit it, I am listening as I write. Oh, health care now. Yada yada yada.
Embed not working. Sorry.
http://www.cnn.com/video/

Guffaw O' Teh Day

The Republican Party may be suicidal but this is just plain old ordinary crazy.

Governor Haley Barbour said on Sunday that he could not "just say flatly no" about a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. But he stressed that both he and his wife would be greatly "surprised" if he ultimately chose to throw his hat in the ring.

I mean look at that face, doesn't it just have slobbering corruption plastered all over it?
The guy on the right, I mean.
The guy on the left, just slobbering.

 

Please God, let there be a big fight and they compromise and settle on the Mississippi governor/lobbyist.