Marty Beckerman explains his trek to, and then back from the dark side - which sounds a little like my own actually.
Just as morphing into an extremist took a couple years, un-becoming an extremist happened over time. One by one I saw the flaws in conservative orthodoxy: attempting to fight terrorism with torture, which only aided our enemies' propaganda efforts and thus created more terrorists; seeking to liberalize the Muslim world while curtailing rights for gay people at home; criticizing public schools for lackluster results and therefore cutting funds further; disdaining the weak while never analyzing why they are weak; always seeing the effect but never the cause, which on a mass scale perpetuates the effect.
Here it is.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Wall Street Leeches
From The Agonist
There are dozens and dozens of companies like Dollar General that were taken private by leveraged buy-out firms during the market frenzy that peaked in 2007. They were all bought with little cash and enormous amounts of debts, and they are sitting like time bombs on the balance sheets of the leveraged buy-out firms that misjudged the market. As the months go by and the buy-out firms watch their fees from their investors get eaten up by high interest costs, they are getting more and more desperate to dump these companies back on to the public markets and naïve individual investors.
There are dozens and dozens of companies like Dollar General that were taken private by leveraged buy-out firms during the market frenzy that peaked in 2007. They were all bought with little cash and enormous amounts of debts, and they are sitting like time bombs on the balance sheets of the leveraged buy-out firms that misjudged the market. As the months go by and the buy-out firms watch their fees from their investors get eaten up by high interest costs, they are getting more and more desperate to dump these companies back on to the public markets and naïve individual investors.
Oops
The Republican National Committee’s health insurance plan covers elective abortion – a procedure the party’s own platform calls “a fundamental assault on innocent human life.”
Federal Election Commission Records show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna. Two sales agents for the company said that the RNC’s policy covers elective abortion.
But they're gonna fix it - now that it's been found out and brought to light. Mike Steele is all over it and has told the bennies admin to drop coverage for abortion services. Read all about it.
Federal Election Commission Records show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna. Two sales agents for the company said that the RNC’s policy covers elective abortion.
But they're gonna fix it - now that it's been found out and brought to light. Mike Steele is all over it and has told the bennies admin to drop coverage for abortion services. Read all about it.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Gotcha - Followup
From Media Matters, Hannity issued an "apology" for airing some bogus video - which is just the most recent in a long line of such things:
A more complete listing of examples.
A more complete listing of examples.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Gotcha
The brilliance of Jon Stewart is indispensable.
I couldn't get the embed language to copy correctly, so just follow this link.
I couldn't get the embed language to copy correctly, so just follow this link.
Cluster Fox
What's the message between the lines here? Why would Roger & Rupert single out this one small piece of BS for challenge?
The Costs Of War
Looking at War strictly as a business proposition is a little dicey because it reduces the thing to simplistic dimensions; but trying to look at War always and only as a totality, it gets way too complex and convoluted in a big hurry. You have to break it done into bite-sized chunks. So here's a slice fer ya. BTW: these numbers don't include things like Cost Of Opportunity, Cost Of Capital, Depreciation, etc.
These items are all relative to what we could provide for people here in Albemarle County if we had spent our share of the money on something other than wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:
-- 41,496 Homes with Renewable Electricity per Year
-- 732 Elementary School Teachers per Year
-- 14,077 People with Health Care per Year
-- 1,042 Scholarships for University Students per Year
So let's see - with a population of about 116,000, we could have provided a nice green energy source for PRACTICALLY EVERY FUCKING BUILDING IN THE WHOLE FUCKING COUNTY.
Sorry. Kinda lost it there for a minute. I'd just really like to start doing some smart things with our money for a change.
Try it for yourself.
These items are all relative to what we could provide for people here in Albemarle County if we had spent our share of the money on something other than wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:
-- 41,496 Homes with Renewable Electricity per Year
-- 732 Elementary School Teachers per Year
-- 14,077 People with Health Care per Year
-- 1,042 Scholarships for University Students per Year
So let's see - with a population of about 116,000, we could have provided a nice green energy source for PRACTICALLY EVERY FUCKING BUILDING IN THE WHOLE FUCKING COUNTY.
Sorry. Kinda lost it there for a minute. I'd just really like to start doing some smart things with our money for a change.
Try it for yourself.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Worth Remembering
...though (probably) soon to be forgotten. I can easily see Mr Cao being challenged in a primary early next year. But for now, he's a hero; a guy who votes for something he thinks will HELP THE PEOPLE in his district, in spite of what his party wants. Nice knowin' ya, Mr Cao.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
The Budget
For the self-described Deficit Hawks / Budget Nannies / Fiscal Conservatives, here's your chart:
It's hard to see clearly, but here's how it breaks down for the Top Seven:
1) Social Security
2) Medicare
3) Medicaid & SCHIP
4) Unemployment/Welfare & other mandated spending
5) Interest on National Debt
6) Defense Dept
7) Global War On Terror (does NOT include Iraq and Afghanistan)
These 7 items add up to 83.6% of the total budget.
So when you say you wanna cut federal spending, tell me where. And be specific. "Waste Fraud and Abuse" is not a qualifier unless you can point to real examples.
It's hard to see clearly, but here's how it breaks down for the Top Seven:
1) Social Security
2) Medicare
3) Medicaid & SCHIP
4) Unemployment/Welfare & other mandated spending
5) Interest on National Debt
6) Defense Dept
7) Global War On Terror (does NOT include Iraq and Afghanistan)
These 7 items add up to 83.6% of the total budget.
So when you say you wanna cut federal spending, tell me where. And be specific. "Waste Fraud and Abuse" is not a qualifier unless you can point to real examples.
How It Works
Everybody's favorite Congress managed to get Unemployment Bennies extended after only an extra month of doing whatever it is they do to make us think they aren't just jackin' each other off.
From John Cole at Balloon Juice:
You see- you aren’t allowed to just pass a bill extending unemployment benefits at the cost of $2.4 billion dollars, because that would be socialism. It takes another $21.6 billion to grease the palms of the people who own the “moderates” and the “fiscal conservatives,” and once you get the cost up to $24 billion, you have achieved “capitalism.”
From John Cole at Balloon Juice:
You see- you aren’t allowed to just pass a bill extending unemployment benefits at the cost of $2.4 billion dollars, because that would be socialism. It takes another $21.6 billion to grease the palms of the people who own the “moderates” and the “fiscal conservatives,” and once you get the cost up to $24 billion, you have achieved “capitalism.”
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Off-Year Elections
Looking at the election results from Tuesday, lots of people keep asking "what does it mean?"
Here's what it means: Republicans won a couple, Democrats won a couple, and you too can be Mayor of New York City for the low low price of just $100 Million.
People wanted change so they voted for Obama last year. Guess what - they still want change so they're voting against incumbency. But guess what else - sometimes change is a scary thing when you're in the middle of it, so there's a tendency to revert to the old familiar ways of doing things.
Having sobered up a little after the Bush Blowout, some of us are beginning to remember that actually you can't get something for nothing. If you want good schools and roads and safe food and secure borders and professional cops and clean water and healthcare and and and - then you have to figure out how to pay for it all. If you don't want to pay for anything, then you don't get anything. It's not a difficult concept, so it might just turn out that you have to spend some of your hard-earned money on something other than the shit you think you need in order to compensate for your latest feelings of inadequacy (courtesy of your favorite Giant Advertising Company).
It's been a nice party, but now it's time to clean up, and pay up.
Here's what it means: Republicans won a couple, Democrats won a couple, and you too can be Mayor of New York City for the low low price of just $100 Million.
People wanted change so they voted for Obama last year. Guess what - they still want change so they're voting against incumbency. But guess what else - sometimes change is a scary thing when you're in the middle of it, so there's a tendency to revert to the old familiar ways of doing things.
Having sobered up a little after the Bush Blowout, some of us are beginning to remember that actually you can't get something for nothing. If you want good schools and roads and safe food and secure borders and professional cops and clean water and healthcare and and and - then you have to figure out how to pay for it all. If you don't want to pay for anything, then you don't get anything. It's not a difficult concept, so it might just turn out that you have to spend some of your hard-earned money on something other than the shit you think you need in order to compensate for your latest feelings of inadequacy (courtesy of your favorite Giant Advertising Company).
It's been a nice party, but now it's time to clean up, and pay up.
Monday, November 02, 2009
War Dead
Another month goes by and we're still spending lives and big piles of money in places where nobody wants us to be, for reasons nobody believes in.
US Dead in Iraq = 4355
US Dead in Afghanistan = 909
Dollars spent for 2 wars since 2001: $928,000,000,000.00 (increases by approx $318 Million per day)
US Dead in Iraq = 4355
US Dead in Afghanistan = 909
Dollars spent for 2 wars since 2001: $928,000,000,000.00 (increases by approx $318 Million per day)
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Carbon
Proposals for Cap & Trade to reduce Carbon Emmissions get a lot of ink; and of course, they attract a lot of crap from "both sides" - tho' I can't quite firgure out what there is to be choosing sides about. Traditionally, the thing is set up as Jobs vs Scenery - which is stupid. Even if it's possible to separate the Economy from the Environment, it's really not a good idea to try. The whole thing just doesn't work as a zero-sum game. We have to have both in balance. So we need to stop pretending we're smart enough to beat the system.
Cap and trade on SO2 emmissions here from EDF.
The projected cost of cap and trade on CO2 emmissions here from Stanford Univ.
Cap and trade on SO2 emmissions here from EDF.
The projected cost of cap and trade on CO2 emmissions here from Stanford Univ.
When The Wall Came Down
WaPo ran a cool little recap today in the Outlook Section.
"But the real story of the wall coming down is a lot less tidy than it may appear in the rear-view mirror. The "decision" to open the border was not a conscious choice at all. Instead of a reassuring victory for the forces of freedom, it was a chaotic and potentially violent mess. One of the most momentous events of the past century was, in fact, an accident, a semicomical and bureaucratic mistake that owes as much to the Western media as to the tides of history."
Always good to take another look at memorable events.
"But the real story of the wall coming down is a lot less tidy than it may appear in the rear-view mirror. The "decision" to open the border was not a conscious choice at all. Instead of a reassuring victory for the forces of freedom, it was a chaotic and potentially violent mess. One of the most momentous events of the past century was, in fact, an accident, a semicomical and bureaucratic mistake that owes as much to the Western media as to the tides of history."
Always good to take another look at memorable events.
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