Brand Spankin' New

I just stumbled on what was supposed to be my very first post (it was stuck in Drafts Limbo).


09-09-09

My name's Mike, and I'll be your blogger for your trip thru this part of the web.

I've been meaning to start a blog for a while now, but like most things for me, I think about it a lot and fantasize about it a lot and then nothing happens - and then at some point down the road, I'd think, "Gee, if I'd actually done what I thought about doing, I'd have quite a bit done by now." I hope this is how it is with lots of people so I won't feel too ridiculous when I go back and read all this junk later on.

My only tho't right now was to get it started - but also I needed to have some space on the web to put stuff so I could be less of a pain in the butt to everybody on FaceBook.

I'll try to get back soon and post something that makes some kind of sense about what I hope to make this thing into.

Security Theater

This week's episode: "The Portland Bomber"

From OregonLive.com:

The FBI thwarted an attempted terrorist bombing in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square before the city's annual tree-lighting Friday night, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Oregon. 

A Corvallis man, thinking he was going to ignite a bomb, drove a van to the corner of the square at Southwest Yamhill Street and Sixth Avenue and attempted to detonate it. 

However, the supposed explosive was a dummy that FBI operatives supplied to him, according to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaintsigned Friday night by U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta.

The FBI got a tip from the accused bomber's parents.  They set up a sting, telling the kid to buy all the materials, mail everything to them, and they'd build the thing for him.

Here's the take over at The Agonist.

Keep an eye on this one.

I'll Be Your Man

From The Black Keys. Basic, 3-guy blues.

Waiting On The World To Change

Boomers have a lot of criticism for the passive stance of "the younger generation"; wondering when they'll step up and at least try to make the changes they seem to be calling for.

The Return To Serfdom

I've been worried for a while that we're heading back to the 18th century, when everything was owned by an aristocracy, and there was practically no such thing as a middle class.

Turns out we're probably a lot farther down that road than I thought.

Here's an excerpt from Matt Taibbi's Griftopia:

Here's yet another diabolic cycle for ordinary Americans, engineered by the grifter class. A Pennsylvanian like Robert Lukens sees his business decline thanks to soaring oil prices that have been jacked up by a handful of banks that paid off a few politicians to hand them the right to manipulate the market. Lukens has no say in this; he pays what he has to pay. Some of that money of his goes into the pockets of the banks that disenfranchise him politically, and the rest of it goes increasingly into the pockets of Middle Eastern oil companies. And since he's making less money now, Lukens is paying less in taxes to the state of Pennsylvania, leaving the state in a budget shortfall. Next thing you know, Governor Ed Rendell is traveling to the Middle East, trying to sell the Pennsylvania Turnpike to the same oil states who've been pocketing Bob Lukens's gas dollars. It's an almost frictionless machine for stripping wealth out of the heart of the country, one that perfectly encapsulates where we are as a nation.

We are so fucked.

Security Theater

Here's the solution to the security hassle at airports.

We just need a booth that you can step into that will not x-ray you, but will apply a new kind of energy emission that does two things: 1) it detects the tiniest amounts of residue from explosives, and 2) detonates any explosive material you have on your person at the time.

This is a win-win, and there'd be none of this crap about racial profiling; plus it eliminates the need for long expensive legal proceedings.  Justice would be quick and sure.

Just imagine - you're in line waiting for the scan; you hear the muffled sound of an explosion, followed by two messages on the PA system.
"Wet clean up on concourse B"
-and-
"Attention standby passengers:  We now have a seat available on flight 63 to Boston..."

(hat tip to Doug Z)

The Bug Man Finally Gets It

Tom Delay was convicted on a few counts of money laundering the other day, and faces up to 99 years in prison.  This is a good thing even if you think you have some room to argue that he's being prosecuted for political reasons.

A couple of things here:  First, we have to make a stand.  We have to figure out something we can do to lessen the corrosive effects of such a huge flow of money thru the system of electoral politics.

But the main thing is that we must constantly and repeatedly re-establish the rule of law.  Delay has asserted on more than one occasion that "I am the law / I am the government".  We hear this kind of crap from politicians with alarming regularity.  NIxon said, " when the president does it, that means it's not illegal".  And recently, Junior Bush said something very similar while talking about approving torture.  Some of these people actually believe their positions of power and privilege give them special status; that they can use the law as a weapon against their opponents and that they can bend the law to suit their needs.

And the bonus point: Delay has plenty of allies and plenty of ways to collect lots of money to continue his defense through the justice system.  He could stay out of jail for a good long time.  I wonder how many of his "conservative" buddies will criticize him for availing himself of these options while they continue to carp about death row inmates filing their "endless appeals".

The Long Hard Slog

So there's a little encouraging news out of Washington - the fact that Mike Pence (R-IN)  actually says the Bush tax cuts didn't work as advertised.  I suspect this means he's angling a little for the independent vote and to stake out a moderate position within the party as he runs for president in 2012, but because he's daring to go against the GOP's currently radical  dogma, he'll probably get scorched by Dumb Fux News and Rodeo Clown Radio.  And I will continue the search for intelligent life in politics.

Here's a long look at what Pence is trying to talk about via Crooks and Liars.

In a rare moment of candor last week, the third-ranking Republican in the House admitted the failure of the Bush tax cuts. "You know, I think it's fair to say, if the current tax rates were enough to create jobs and generate economic growth we'd have a growing economy," Mike Pence acknowledged, adding, "It's not working now." Given that the Bush years produced the worst economic growth in the past 50 years, Pence is sadly correct. But sadder still is the dismal performance of the Bush economy across almost every indicator that counts. From moribund job creation and sinking household incomes to skyrocketing deficits and record income inequality, Republican economic stewardship over the past decade has been a disaster.

Here, then, are the 10 Epic Failures of the Bush Tax Cuts:

1-Dismal Economic Growth

2-A Decade of Budget Deficits

3-Red Ink as Far as the Eye Can See

4-Disastrous Job Creation

5-Declining Incomes

6-Increasing Poverty

7-A Massive Windfall for the Wealthy

8-Record Income Inequality

9-A Sagging Stock Market

10-Jeopardizing Future Economic Growth

The Punk Patriot

The guy needs a little polish on his presentation, but I can go along with most of what he has to say - even the bit about putting some sensible limits on what companies should be paying their executive committees.

I hate the idea of capping anybody's earnings, and I'm absolutely opposed to allowing government to set hard and fast limits, but I think we all know it's totally irresponsible for a board of directors to allow a CEO to suck the lifeblood out of a company, killing tens of thousands of jobs, wrecking entire communities, and then taking obscene levels of compensation before bailing out of the company as it crashes and burns. So I think it's worth looking at the idea of indexing executive pay to the baseline earnings of the people at the bottom of the corporate ladder; you know - those slobs on the factory floor who don't do anything but make the fucking place work.

Dumb Fux News

For a long time (and for a big bunch of people) it was kinda hip and fashionable to be in line with "conservatism" and to go along with pretty much whatever they heard on Dumb Fux News and Rodeo Clown Radio.  Maybe that really is changing now.  And maybe that's what has the political establishment so freaked out.

From last night's The Simpsons episode (except for the open it's not very good, but you can watch it at Hulu.com):