We're Number - What?

hat tip = Addicting Info

(And here's why Maureen Dowd's panties eyes get moist when she waxes romantic about what she wishes Obama would do for her):


BTW - Aaron Sorkin ain't the only dude been sayin' it:

Why Benghazi?

Because it's about attacking the opponent's strength(s).  It's classic Turd Blossom. Obama and Hillary and "the Dems" have gained an awful lot of ground on Foreign Policy.  And of course the Repubs won't admit it to the rubes (the rubes can't even admit it to themselves), but after Jr Bush, how could anybody not look good on Foreign Policy?  The Continentals were so relieved we elected a guy with a living thinking brain they creamed their jeans and gave him the Peace Prize before he'd actually done anything - they were just desperately hoping the Cheney/Bush nightmare was finally ending.  So the perception for the rubes is that the whole world is ass-over-apricots-in-love with Barack and Hillary, and so of course we'll need to pull them down a peg or two; and it doesn't matter that they look all shiny and clean - we'll just make something up.

It worked on The Big Dog back in the 90s.  It worked on Kerry in 2004 and they believe completely there's no reason it can't work on Hillary now.



If you wanna make your argument stick, you lead with your strength.  Because there's a brain thing that happens in humans - I've forgotten what's it's called, but it has something to do with our ability to Generalize - and it says that if I can knock down your first point in the debate, then I can knock down all the rest of your points without even knowing what they are - my brain is just wired to make that assumption.

So you attack the opponent's strength; if you can make even the tiniest dent, you can move the opinion needle back in your guy's direction; and in a political climate where the two sides are so closely divided, that tiny movement can make a big difference.

Teaching

Next time you feel the need to dump on the schools because the teachers are nuthin' but a buncha lazy stupid entitlement-sucking bureaucrats who get a free pass at taxpayer expense, I'd like you to stop for just a brief moment - and then go fuck yourself with a pinecone.

(hat tip = my darling daughter and her 10th grade Psych teacher, Mr Ramey)

Last Night On Bill Maher

Sometimes the best comedy isn't very funny.

Contextualizing Cleveland

The Professional Left podcast adds some good perspective:

(the link should open in a new tab - they start talking about it at around the 15:30 mark)

The Professional Left Podcast

Here's the tune driftglass mentions:

This street holds its secrets like a cobra holds its kill

This street minds its business like a jailer minds his jail

That house there is haunted, that door's a portal to hell

This street holds its secrets very well

That man wears his skin like a dancer wears her veils

That man stalks his victims like a cancer stalks a cell

That man's soul has left him, his heart's as deadly as a rusty nail

That man sheds his skin like a veil

Lord, you play a hard game, you know we follow every rule

Then you take the one thing we thought we'd never lose

All I ask is if she's with you please keep her warm and safe

And if it's in your power please purge the memory of this place

This life holds its secrets like a sea shell holds the sea

Soft and distant calling like a fading memory

This life has its victories but its defeats tear so viciously

This life holds its secrets like the sea

Jay Smooth Gets It

On the one hand, there's something I think is pretty important about the Charles Ramsey part of this story because it makes us challenge our own bias and see "the black dude" as a real person; and for some at least, we can generalize that perception, and remind ourselves that people are just people.

But then this:

And this:



And suddenly, lots and lots of us have the permission we need to return to a more comfortable mindset, and we're right back to: "Well, I never said there aren't any good black people...all I'm sayin' is they (insert stereotype here)".

Enter Jay Smooth to help nail it down for me, but in an even larger context.

We need to resist "this mad dash to make a meme-ified clown out of anyone who fits into the Wacky Black Guy box, or the Charmingly Uneducated Hick box..."

Eva Cassidy

Recorded at Blues Alley in Georgetown.  This was January '96, and she died a little over 10 months later.  Cancer is such a fucking thief.

Fugelsang

On the death of Irony:

The Cicadas Are Coming

I don't remember '96 being that bad.  Noisy as fuck, but not the kind of Swarm-aggedon everybody seems to be expecting this time around.



Of course, the All-American-Anything-Fer-A-Buck spirit is alive and well:



Seriously - I really don't care what you say - I ain't eatin' no bugs.  Not on purpose.

Where Do They Get This Shit?

Sometimes, coming up with political humor seems just plain stupid easy.  You just wait for certain politicians to do something and there ya go.

And sometimes, when you wonder where politicians get some of their really really dumbass ideas, you just hafta look at what the jokesters were up to a few years before.

Today's Pix

I Dance, Therefor I Am

...not bored on this fucking treadmill.

The Benghazi Stoopid - oops corrected

A Bit Of Encouragement

Tesla reports a profit for Q1 2013:

Despite a bit of bad press for its Model S and a less-than-ideal close to the 2012 financial year, things have been looking up for Tesla. Sales are on an upward climb, company CEO Elon Musk has sworn to deliver more superchargers, better service for customers and continues to tout his EV's high resale value. After promising in Q4 of 2012 that Tesla would turn a profit the next quarter, the EV manufacturer has done so -- generating $15 million in net income and $562 million in revenue in Q1 2013.

And following that "bit of bad press"?  Well...this, via Reuters:

Consumer Reports magazine awarded a near-perfect score to Tesla Motors Co's (TSLA.O) Model S, citing the electric car's power, "pinpoint" handling and quiet, well-crafted interior.

The score of 99 out of 100 puts the Model S far ahead of other electric and gas-powered rivals, including the Porsche Panamera sports car and the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid.

"Slipping behind the wheel of the Tesla Model S is like crossing into a promising zero-emissions future," the highly influential magazine said in its review on Thursday. "It's what Marty McFly might have brought back in place of his DeLorean in 'Back to the Future'."

We endure the daily barrage from Negativistas who get paid pretty well to propagandize us into thinking we can't possibly do anything to make anything better for ourselves or each other, and so we just hafta sit quietly and take whatever shit they feel like feeding us today and tomorrow and for as long as we refuse to see through the smoke and the dust they're forever blowing in our faces.

No more - not today anyway.  And today's enough for now.

Maybe this Tesla bunch is just as full of shit as the rest of 'em, but maybe it's really just a matter of reaching a little farther and taking one more step and going a little longer.  I dunno - but here's hoping.

Kind Of A Good Thing

The Federal Deficit is coming down in an OK way.

I dunno if that's Damning By Faint Praise or Praising By Faint Damnation.  Feel free to flip a coin on that one, or just blow it all off and walk away.

Not all that long ago, Repubs were wailing about Trillion-Dollar Deficits and how horrible everything was about to get, etc.  New CBO numbers are out now, and the deficit continues to shrink.

From CBO's website:

The federal government ran a budget deficit of $489 billion in the first seven months of fiscal year 2013 (that is, from October 2012 through April 2013), according to CBO’s estimates. That amount is $231 billion less than the shortfall recorded during the same period last year, primarily because revenue collections have been much greater than they were at this point in 2012. In contrast, federal spending so far this year has been slightly lower than what it was last year at this time.

The deficit still annualizes to around $600-800 Billion for the year, but down is down, and that's mostly good.  I say 'mostly' because The KrugMan reminds us that while the Revenue Side is looking better, we still have a problem with the Spending Side because we're actually not spending near enough - which of course, is exactly the opposite of what the Repubs want us to believe.

We're still stuck in this weird Deleveraging Loop - demand is low because people aren't making/borrowing the money they need to buy a lot of stuff, which means the producers aren't making a lot of stuff; which means they don't need to hire a lot of workers; which means people have less to spend on stuff etc.  And as Governments at state & local levels are hemmed in by Balanced Budget requirements (mostly driven by 'conservative' politicians) and in some cases burdened by enormous debt thanks to the sucker loans they got sold during the Bubble, they're cutting spending, which further reduces demand - and on and on and on it goes.

And so anyway, since the Repubs aren't giving up on the whole Austerity thing any time soon, and since Regular People continue trying to dump debt and nobody's really borrowing much at all, we're nowhere near outa the woods yet.

One interesting by-the-by: Simpson-Bowles warned us that we'd be in a full-blown fiscal crisis within two years if we didn't immediately adopt their plan, and - uhm, that was like 26 months ago.  OK OK; we're not exactly livin' the high life, but c'mon.

That damned Kenyan Commie Usurper keeps gettin' shit to work just to make us Repubs look bad - and you know that's all it is.  If he wasn't such a vile back-stabbin' socialist phony, this whole joint'd be in the shitter just like we said it would.  Fuckin' Obama.