Today In Good Government

Here's a picture of a meeting of a Joint Committee to talk about Long Term Unemployment in a struggling US economy (a grand total of 4 members managed to show up):

And here's a picture of the seating section reserved for all the fucks these dipwads give about anybody who happens not to be in a position to make large campaign contributions - like maybe, I dunno, somebody who doesn't have a fucking job:

The Krugman Speaks

Copied the whole thing from Paul Krugman's blog:

April 24, 2013, 8:03 pm 47 Comments

Evidence and Economic Policy

Henry Blodget says that the economic debate is over; the austerians have lost and whatshisname has won. And it’s definitely true that in sheer intellectual terms, this is looking like an epic rout. The main economic studies that supposedly justified the austerian position have imploded; inflation has stayed low; the bond vigilantes have failed to make an appearance; the actual economic effects of austerity have tracked almost exactly what Keynesians predicted.

But will any of this make a difference? The story of the past three years, after all, is not that Alesina and Ardagna used a bad measure of fiscal policy, or that Reinhart and Rogoff mishandled their data. It is that important people’s will to believe trumped the already ample evidence that austerity would be a terrible mistake; A-A and R-R were just riders on the wave.

The cynic in me therefore says that after a brief period of regrouping, the VSPs will be right back at it — they’ll find new studies to put on pedestals, new economists to tell them what they want to hear, and those who got it right will continue to be considered unsound and unserious.

But maybe I’m wrong; maybe truth will prevail. Here’s hoping.

Dead Americans

Between 2000 and 2010:

via: bls/gunpolicy.org

Who Had A Bad Day?

One of the big-time Coin-Operated Politicians says bye-bye.

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The Center is the name we give to the place where power resides.

John Fugelsang

Fugelsang recaps the gun nuts' filibuster win:



Some great points.

Takin' 'Em Down

Jon Stewart at his best:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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I Got Yer Reform Right Here

A great little reminder regarding "Gubmint should be run more like a business":  For every spectacularly successful company like Google, there are thousands of equally spectacular failures - Value America, eToys.com, and on and on and on.  Thousands.  Is that really the model we want schools (eg) to follow?

(via Democratic Underground)

Somebody new to me - using the name jacobbacharach:

The cheating scandals prove that education reform is a wholly fraudulent endeavor. It isn’t the equivalent of a doping scandal in sports; it’s the equivalent of Enron, Madoff, the financial crisis. You think testing has something to do with compensation, hiring, and firing? It doesn’t. Testing is the accounting of the reform movement, and the executives are cooking the books. They’re manipulating the statements so it looks like the venture is turning a profit. Well, actually, it’s got negative cash flow. The gains are phantoms. The enterprise is insolvent. Even by its own standards, reform fails.

The central proposition of so-called education reform is that it endeavors to make schooling more entrepreneurial. Now this is bogus on its face. The most salient fact about entrepreneurialism is that most ventures fail. Is that the proper model for the delivery of a universal service? Consider the question irrespective of your thoughts about the larger questions surrounding the provision of universal education. Ostensible reformers say they want to mimic the dynamism and innovation of the private sector. The first question is: to what end, exactly? The second is: do you know how dynamism and innovation work?

"High-Stakes Testing" is just another good example of an entrepreneurial idea that sounds pretty good, but then fails miserably when we try to shoe-horn certain enterprises into it.

Today's Toons

 (hat tip = Democratic Underground)

Let The System Work

When we follow the plan (as directed in that silly old thing called The US Constitution), it seems like we always end up better off for the effort.

Sometimes, it doesn't feel quite right - we don't always get the exact results we're hoping for - but on average, the system works for us when we let it work.

So, when the news came out that about half of the local Justice System was convened in Jahar Tsarnaev's hospital room yesterday, and they read out the charges against him; and they informed him of his rights; and they made sure he understood them; and that he was properly "lawyered up" - I just felt better.  There was something kinda normal about it, and I'm exceedingly relieved that John (Get-Off-My-Lawn) McCain and Lindsey (Huckleberry Closetcase) Graham didn't get their wish about turning him into a super villain straight out of the comic books.

This guy is nothing special.  We should be looking at how his brother got riled up and a little crazy; and how Jahar got caught up in it, but that's a different thing altogether.  What we don't do - what we must never allow - is for anybody to make him out to be anything more than the punk-ass little shit he chose to be.

Today's Homework

Finally.  I've been chasing this one for a long time.

This is the old PBS series that got me going and thinking in a dozen different ways.

The production values are kinda old and a little overdramatic at times, but this really is the real deal.  Stay with it for at least a few episodes.  It's worth it to learn something about how we got here and what we need to be thinking about if we wanna get where we oughta be going.

Connections with James Burke, Episode 1