Revealed: YouTube Is The Antichrist

Krugman Reveals Alcoholism

From his blog:

Bill O’Reilly explaining that of course America has lower life expectancy than Canada — we have 10 times as many people, so we have 10 times as many deaths.
I need a drink.

Eating In Port Townsend, WA

Sweet Laurette's by day, Brassica by night presided over by this guy.

Health Care Bill Today

Waxman apparently got the Progressive Caucus back on board in the House.
All that remains is the wondrous Max Baucus and his buddies Chuck Grassley and some guy named Enzi.
I say, give Maria a call about this. Sept. 15? Way too slow, Max.
"Hello, Sen. Cantwell's office? Please tell my senator to tell her committee chairman to let the Republicans drown in their own spitup. Thank you."
Reconciliation? Wasn't that a Lennon tune? No, Revolution. Right.

UPDATE: Wonk alert

Quote O' Teh Week

I am proud to say I know this judge (Anna Laurie), and I approve this message.

“I’m a Superior Court judge and this is not a court of forgiveness,” Laurie said when she handed down the sentence.

The Navy master chief got the max for child rape. 

Forget the New York Times

What are the blogs talking about?
Dr. Who's new costume? Huh? They have blogs over there?
And book burning in Wisconsin? Of course, where else?
Well, maybe Iowa.

From The Kabuki Theater: Act VII

If you think you understand what's going on with the health care bill, you're a better man than I am...wait for it...Gunga Din!
You have to read all the comments, though.
Well, skim 'em anyway.

But You Knew This, Right?

Several financial giants that received federal bailout money in the last year paid out bonuses to employees in 2008 that greatly exceeded the amount of profit generated by the banks, according to a study on executive compensation released by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Thursday.

Despite claims by bank executives that bonuses are tied to the company's performance, the report states that "there is no clear rhyme or reason to how the banks compensate or reward their employees."

Cuomo's investigation "suggests a disconnect between compensation and bank performance that resulted in a 'heads I win, tails you lose' bonus system."

According to the report:

• Goldman Sachs, which earned $2.3 billion last year and received $10 billion in TARP funding, paid out $4.8 billion in bonuses in 2008 - more than double their net income.

• Morgan Stanley, which earned $1.7 billion last year and received $10 billion in bailout funds, handed out $4.475 billion in bonuses, nearly three times their net income.

• JPMorgan Chase, which earned $5.6 billion in 2008 and received $25 billion from the government, paid out $8.69 billion in bonus money.

I didn't actually think even they had the guts to be so blatant. Where's my mortgage mod, big guy?

Comment O' Teh Day

From a TPM reader on The Beer Summit:

"The big surprise: Vice President Joe Biden was at the table with the men." (Direct quote from press pool report.)

Normally he has to sit at the card table in the living room.

How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down On The Farm

after they've seen Twitter?
Quote O' Teh Day (although, to be fair, I haven't looked at Michelle Malkin on the Today Show yet).

“If there is electricity in every village, then people will watch TV till late at night and then fall asleep. They won’t get a chance to produce children,” [Ghulam Nabi Azad] said. “When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies.” He added: “Don’t think that I am saying this in a lighter vein. I am serious. TV will have a great impact. It’s a great medium to tackle the problem . . . 80 per cent of population growth can be reduced through TV.”

From — who else? — Andrew Sullivan's blog today.

Eewww! Those Contrarienne Bruises

might be susceptible to a little organic treatment like this:

If you have access to a holistic medicine supply store or in some communities a very well stocked oriental store you can apply a live leech. It will remove the surface blood in a bruise in a few seconds. The leech's saliva also acts as a mild pain killer so you will not feel the leech's bite. This is only recommended if you can be sure that the leech is farm raised and free of disease. Apply rubbing alcohol or petroleum jelly to remove the leach.

If not, here are some other home remedies.

Ashley, Ashley, She's Our God!

God resigns. Any resemblance to other recent resignation speeches purely coincidental.

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.