The World Spins Madly On

From The Weepies

More about Ryan Woodward here

Careful What You Wish For

h/t Crooks & Liars

Stating The Obvious

Maybe the Dems are finally starting to get it.  Michael Tomasky:

It’s about time the Democrats started saying openly what has been clear for months or even years now—that as long as economic recovery would work to the political benefit of Barack Obama, the Republicans have been, are, and will be in favor of sabotaging the economy. Senators Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin made the point in a press conference in the Capitol Thursday. Noting that his GOP colleagues are coming out against business tax cuts (read that again: Republicans against tax cuts for businesses) that Democrats happen to support, Schumer said, “It almost makes you wonder if they aren't trying to slow down the economic recovery for political gain.”

A politician doing something for political gain is not news.  But looking at what exactly that politician is trying to do, and how he's doing it can be hugely important.

And while I don't think Chucky Schumer has a lot of room to criticize, it'll be interesting to see if playing the Repubs' main game and making them defend their positions (for once) will work to the Dems' favor.

Get Ready Cuz Here It Comes

Are you ready for the next big collapse?  NYT has a ruin-your-whole-day kinda piece today, all about the frenzy over how Natural Gas will save us.

The Late Great US of A

From a story in the LA Times:

The would-be CIA director tells the Senate Intelligence Committee that the U.S. should consider a policy for using special interrogation techniques when information is needed right away to save lives. John McCain, a fellow opponent of recent 'enhanced' methods, agrees.

Quick aside: David Patraeus was nicknamed Peaches in high school - and never mind how I know that.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is what that famous Slippery Slope actually looks like.

First, tho', I think it's important to remember that when these guys talk about this stuff in public, they're not talking about everything they know about it.  There's always something they're not telling us  - either because it really is justifiably secret, or because it would make them look like assholes &/or idiots.  Getting past the obstacle of Information asymmetry is what journalism is supposed to be all about - and what we have to remember about the Press Poodles is that they're show dogs, not workin' dogs.

So, now what're we supposed to get outa this little dog-and-pony show?

Main Point: We're the good guys, so of course, we don't torture people.  But if you fuck with us, we'll rip off your eyelids and make you watch as we feed 'em to the dogs.

Over time, this will evolve.  Before too long, "for the sake of public safety" will be used to justify harsh treatment of anybody in custody; and eventually, detention and harsh treatment will not be limited to "the terrorists".  Remember that it's already been established in the law that the president can point at anybody, and calling that person an enemy combatant, make that person disappear.  Don't even try to suggest that it couldn't or won't happen here because America is exceptional (and therefore superior).  It will happen here because now it can happen here.  We removed all the safeguards that always worked to keep it from happening.

Generally, people don't gravitate to the centers of power because they think it'll be fun to work 18 hours a day for crappy wages "in service to the people".  There are some of those of course, but the ladder climbers are the same people you find in any other line of work.  They're hyper-competitive and coldly ambitious, and they're not there seeking the noble fulfillment of doing well by doing good.  They want the power for its own sake.

Oops

It's an axiom of politics that a gaffe is what they call it when a politician accidentally tells the truth.

Mitch McConnell was trying to talk about why so many senate Repubs are suddenly against military adventures in arab countries.

"The only thing I can tell you at this point is that there are differences. I’m not sure that these kind of differences might not have been there in a more latent form when you had a Republican president. But I do think there is more of a tendency to pull together when the guy in the White House is on your side. So I think some of these views were probably held by some of my members even in the previous administration, but party loyalty tended to mute them. So yeah, I think there are clearly differences and I think a lot of our members, not having a Republican in the White House, feel more free to express their reservations which might have been somewhat muted during the previous administration."

What's right? What's best for US interests? What's really their honest opinion?  None of that matters.  The only thing that matters is the political advantage that can be gained or lost for you own party.

These people have no soul and no honor.

Nostalgia Warp

Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR, and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in TARP money, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?  Yeah.. Me neither.

Yikes

Just in case you were feeling a little too good about things in general, here's something to ponder as you set about choosing between pills, a rope or a gun. Yeeesh

Land Of The Free

The embedding code was disabled on the original - dunno why. Luckily, in this world of blogging and the viral spread of info, we still get to see examples of the growing threat of authoritarian governance.



I made a call to the Rochester (NY) PD, and the lady who answered told me she'd been instructed to read a statement issued by Chief of Police James Sheppard. (585-428-7033) RPD website

Oy

The question is "Should evolution be taught in school?"

If you're scoring at home*:
Yes = 16
No = 2
Yeah But -or- Both = 28
WTF = 5



*50 states plus DC

A Short Response

To my friends of the Libertarian persuasion: yours is the ideology of the five-year-old.  To put it simply: No, you don't get to do whatever you want.  Grow the fuck up a little.

A Bi-Lingual Cat

The Pre-Googlian Era

Today's Big Idea

A stop light with a Status Indicator.

Today's Question

Repubs are fond of saying, "they govern best who govern least".  Then they run an election campaign on the premise that since the Dems haven't solved any of our problems (surely not due to Repub obstruction of course), you should vote for them to run the government because they have better ideas about how the government should go about solving problems.

The Pledge Updated

Under The Sun

Just another day here in the old solar system, until the sun explodes.

Doin' The Math

We keep hearing from certain politicians that Tax Cutting is a magic elixir that always fixes anything that could possibly be wrong with our economy.

Here's a simple little chart that says different, in the words of Michael Linden:

“These numbers do not mean that higher rates necessarily lead to higher growth. But the central tenet of modern conservative economics is that a lower top marginal tax rate will result in more growth, and these numbers do show conclusively that history has not been kind to that theory.”

It's from Think Progress, so of course there's a certain bias towards a more traditionally conservative approach to economic stimulus, but still; how d'ya argue against real numbers?

What Congress Looks Like

This does (and somehow doesn't really) surprise me. From a study published in National Journal.

One other thing that caught my eye was the bit on Lobbying experience.  We've been led to believe that government is chock full of lobbyists, but that's not how it looks.  Maybe we need to look at how many people working for lobbying outfits have experience in Congress(?)

Welcome Back, KO

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