Last day to vote
Labels: bloggers
Blogging to the highest common denominator
Labels: bloggers
BUREAUCRATISMMany more at the link.
You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away.
AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You decide to have lunch.
A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 2 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.
AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows. You tell them that you have none. Nobody believes you, so they bomb the shit out of you and invade your country. You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of Democracy.
Labels: economy, Just for fun
Labels: Media, politics, Pop Culture, Sarah Palin
"How do you want to be remembered,'' sister Doro asked the president, "and what are you most proud of?Um, to be able to sell his soul, wouldn't he would first have to possess one? But I guess he could legitimately claim to have stayed true to his values. He will leave as he arrived, totally bereft of any empathy for his fellow man or understanding of the human condition. Assuming he doesn't do something that completely ruins us in the next 50 odd days, the truly remarkable aspect of his tenure will be that somehow, we survived it. [h/t independent perspective]
"I would like to be a person remembered as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process. I came to Washington with a set of values, and I'm leaving with the same set of values. And I darn sure wasn't going to sacrifice those values; that I was a president that had to make tough choices and was willing to make them. I surrounded myself with good people. I carefully considered the advice of smart, capable people and made tough decisions.
Labels: Bush
The unidentified worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.The 200 or so crazed shoppers literally took the doors off the building in their rush to get that $600 wide screen TV. The store should be held criminally responsible for the deaths for creating the shopping frenzy and failing to provide proper crowd control. Sending a couple of underpaid, overworked stock clerks to hold back the mob is nothing short of negligent homicide.
Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him. [...]
Jessica Keyes was among the shoppers. She told the Daily News she saw a woman knocked down just a few feet from the dying worker.
"When the paramedics came, she said 'I'm pregnant,'" Keyes said.
Paramedics treated the woman inside the store and then, according to Keys, told the woman:
"There's nothing we can do. The baby is gone."
Labels: consumer protection, Corporatocracy, economy
Labels: Bush Administration, economy
"Understand where the vision for change comes from, first and foremost," he told reporters at his third press conference in as many days. "It comes from me. That's my job, is to provide a vision in terms of where we are going, and to make sure, then, that my team is implementing."I don't know what kind of change it will turn out to be, but for good or ill, it will be something completely different from the last eight years. Obama isn't even really President yet and he's already approached the transistion in unexpected and unprecendented ways. That's something anyway. I for one, am not quite ready to give up the hope that he will be able to bring some kind of positive transformation.
Labels: President Obama
Labels: Terrorism, World politics
Labels: my life
Instead, he’s spending his waning days weakening environmental rules, helping his cronies get jobs in the professional bureacracy, and preparing his pardons. What a stupid, despicable man. History can’t judge him too cruelly.Personally, I'd rather see him judged in a court of law, but I'm not holding my breath for that.
Labels: Bush
Marine Cpl. James Dixon was wounded twice in Iraq -- by a roadside bomb and a land mine. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, a concussion, a dislocated hip and hearing loss. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.This is just wrong in so many ways and it's certainly not an isolated incident. This administration, and its supporters who excuse the conduct, have cheated the veterans at every turn from substandard care to onerous paperwork that makes it nearly impossible for our vets to get the benefits they deserve. So where is the blogburst of outrage from all those who shameslessly continue to support this folly behind the safety of their keyboards?
Army Sgt. Lori Meshell shattered a hip and crushed her back and knees while diving for cover during a mortar attack in Iraq. She has undergone a hip replacement and knee reconstruction and needs at least three more surgeries.
In each case, the Pentagon ruled that their disabilities were not combat-related.
In a little-noticed regulation change in March, the military's definition of combat-related disabilities was narrowed, costing some injured veterans thousands of dollars in lost benefits -- and triggering outrage from veterans' advocacy groups.
Labels: Bush Administration, Bush Crimes, Iraq, military, veterans
Labels: economy, environment, politics
A spokesman for the association declined to comment on the departure. So did Mr. Feehery, who now runs his own lobbying shop. But he said Republican lobbyists would always be in demand because Democrats lack the stomach to push for industry goals that go against their party, like rolling back environmental regulations.Meaning that Democrats have a slight edge when it comes to conscience. They still take the money but at least they hestitate for a moment before selling out the interests of the people on behalf of the Corporatocracy.
“At the end of the day,” Mr. Feehery said, “Democrats don’t like to ask for the order” — the client’s objective.
Labels: Corporatocracy, Democrats, politics, Republicans
Labels: Bush, Bush Administration, economy
Labels: Bush Administration, economy, Republicans
"We're investing in systems and processes, and next year we will have another 1,000 (workers)," Citigroup's country business manager Mark Jones was quoted as saying.And why are they bailing out yet another corporate behemoth that outsources US jobs, yet refusing to rescue the Big 3 in Detroit, who despite their problems actually employ Americans you ask? Bob Reich has the answer.
He added that the new jobs to be created in the Philippines would be for Citigroup's call center and financial reporting operations.
...That's because Wall Street's self-serving view of the unique role of financial institutions is mirrored in the two agencies that run the American economy -- the Treasury and the Fed. Their job, as they see it, is to keep the financial economy "sound," by which they mean keeping Wall Street's own investors and creditors reasonably happy.I want to know why these thieves are going before the Fed for handouts instead of standing in front of a judge waiting for bail to be set.
Because the public doesn't understand the intricacies of finance, it's easily persuaded that this is definition of "soundness" is the same as keeping savings flowing to the banks so that the banks can lend to them to Main Street. That's why the public and its representatives have committed $700 billion of taxpayer money to Wall Street and another $500 to $600 billion of subsidized loans to the Street from the Fed -- bailing out the investors and creditors of every major bank, including , any moment, Citi -- only to discover, at the end of this frantic and unbelievably expensive exercise, that American jobs and communities are more endangered than they were at the start.
Labels: Bush Administration, Corporatocracy, economy
Labels: Election 08, Senate
Labels: Bush
I've been hanging out over at Eschaton for several months now and I have really become a fan of his and of several other bloggers and commenters there and elsewhere throughout the blogosphere. I hesitated to start my own blog (though for some stupid reason I now am trying to start up two ) for the usual reasons: I'm not an HTML whiz. Everybody else is already doing it and I'll look lame coming in late. All the good ideas are taken already. I'll say something stupid and some million+ hit wizard will link to me with "Check out this dork!"And we both worked to find our voice and wondered if anyone cared:
OK, I think I see how Atrios does it, he doesn't try to write a whole days worth of thoughts in a single post. I need to be a bit more compartmentalized here. It sure would be nice if I had readers. Well, someday.And we had similar self-esteem issues:
What's wierd is that it isn't that I don't have anything to say, it's just that I'm so sure everyone else is saying it better than I do and faster and to way more people. Which kind of defeats the whole purpose of a blog actually, it's..ahh no, just let that go.I wish he hadn't died so suddenly, much less so young. I wish we could have had more time to get acquainted and mostly I wish I hadn't taken him for granted, just expecting he would always be there. It's a good reminder to seize the moment and let those you treasure in your life, know it while you can.
240 pencils can be made from an average body of ash - a lifetime supply of pencils for those left behind. Each pencil is foil stamped with the name of the person. Only one pencil can be removed at a time, it is then sharpened back into the box causing the sharpenings to occupy the space of the used pencils. Over time the pencil box fills with sharpenings - a new ash, transforming it into an urn. The window acts as a timeline, showing you the amount of pencils left as time goes by.Comes in a very attractive wooden box. [hat tip]
Labels: Linkfest, viral videos
All this water-market reshaping is occurring in the midst of a global frenzy over privatization of public infrastructure -- considered to be low-risk investments -- such as roads, bridges, tunnels, ports, airports, gas, and water and sewage treatment. Water is one of the critical infrastructures, and Wall Street knows it. For Wall Street and global capital, water is also so much more -- it is the new petroleum of this century, an essential commodity to be invested, owned, controlled, and speculated upon to maximize profit.Not a good sign that the hedge fund types are getting interested in this market. Theoretically we could live without oil, but without water -- well -- we're dead. [via]
Labels: Corporatocracy, economy
Labels: dangerous idiots, Media, Sarah Palin
Labels: Bush Administration, Justice, torture
Labels: Congress, Election 08, voting
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) will become the next chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee after House Democrats voted to replace current Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.).Good for them. The senority system is long overdue to be abolished and Waxman will be lightyears better in pushing for needed policy changes than that dinosaur Dingell. Feels like one small step towards a more responsive Congress to me.
Waxman won 137-122 in the secret ballot vote. [...]
Waxman is considered more liberal on issues like climate change, energy and business regulation, and potentially more aggressive on healthcare. Dingell, the longest-serving House lawmaker, is close to the auto industry and autoworkers.
Labels: Congress, Democrats, energy, health care
He added, "Let me also say a special word to the delegates from around the world who will gather at Poland next month: Your work is vital to the planet. While I won't be president at the time of your meeting, and while the United States has only one president at a time, I've asked members of Congress who are attending the conference as observers to report back to me on what they learn there."He's promising to take the lead and try "to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80% by 2050." For all the disappointments I'm sure will come, it will be refreshing to be governed by an administration where "Clear Skies" isn't just an Orwellian reference to legalized pollution.
In a clear reference to the Bush administration's stance, Obama declared, "Once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations. . . . Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response."
Labels: climate change, environment, President Obama
Labels: Bush, diplomacy, John McCain, viral videos
It is possible, I suppose, that the pundits are right and the public didn't really mean it when it elected a liberal Democrat president and gave Democrats even larger majorities in both houses of Congress. Maybe America really wants the same nice, reassuring, centrist thing as always.The rest of it is just as good, if not better. As the saying goes, read it all while I get over the shock of having the WSJ not only agree with me, but make some of the same talking points.
But it is also possible that, for once, the public weighed the big issues and gave a clear verdict on the great economic questions of the last few decades. It is likely that we really do want universal health care and some measure of wealth-spreading, and even would like to see it become easier to organize a union in the workplace, however misguided such ideas may seem to the nation's institutions of higher carping.
Labels: business, Media, policy, punditry, Workers Rights
Labels: health care, Linkfest, President Obama
He became deputy attorney general in 1997 under Janet Reno and was viewed as a centrist on most law enforcement issues, though he has sharply criticized the secrecy and the expansive views of executive power advanced by the Bush Justice Department.Steve also has a lot of background links supporting that view in his post. Additionally, he piques my interest in the rumors about Peter Orszag as budget director.
Orszag, who will turn 40 on Dec. 16, has been praised by lawmakers from both parties as an objective analyst with deep knowledge of the most pressing fiscal issues of the day, including health care policy, Social Security, pensions, and global climate change. He is the unusual economist who blends an understanding of politics, policy and communications in ways that wrap zesty quotes around complex ideas.Sounds good to me but then again, pretty much anyone sounds great after eight years of incompetent cronies whose job performance was based solely on GOP loyalty.
Labels: Justice, policy, President Obama, spending
Cheney is charged with engaging in an organized criminal activity related to the vice president's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. Cheney is accused of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees because of his link to the prison companies. [...]As my pal GTL notes, this is a prime case to apply RICO, but I wouldn't advise holding your breath waiting for that to happen. It would be nice though, if the matter generated some discussion on the abysmal prison conditions in America. The abuses here under privitization rival Gitmo and Abu Ghraib in the breadth of their horror.
The indictment accuses Gonzales of using his position while in office to stop an investigation in 2006 into abuses at one of the privately run prisons.
Labels: Cheney, Gonzales, police state, rule of law
Labels: Election 08, Senate
Labels: military, neo-conservatives, Pentagon, politics, spending
Labels: McCain, Media, President Obama
Labels: my life, President Obama
Labels: conservatism, Media, neo-conservatives, politics, Wingnuts
Labels: Democrats, Election 08, Lieberman
Labels: Media, Sarah Palin, spin, Wingnuts
Labels: Activism, gay rights, religious right, Wingnuts
Labels: Activism, Democrats, policy, politics, President Obama
As president Mr. Obama plans to continue to use audio as well as video to deliver the weekly messages, according to his aides.He also plans to YouTube "fireside chats" once he takes office. Smart move and the best way to bring his message directly to the people and bypass the smary narratives of the teevee media.
“This is just one of many ways including periodic videos with transition officials about what is happening in a given day, online interviews with experts in particular policy areas that we will use to communicate directly with the American people,” said Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the Obama-Biden transition team.
Labels: internet, President Obama
I feel a little sorry for John. He aimed low and missed.Goddess willing, those doors will be locked tight and the Great Spirit will throw away the key. I'd have to say the one bright spot in my life today was doing a google news check and discovering she was barely being covered, figuratively and literally.
What will ambitious politicos learn from this? That frayed syntax, bungled grammar and run-on sentences that ramble on long after thought has given out completely are a candidate’s valuable traits?
And how much more of all that lies in our future if God points her to those open-a-crack doors she refers to? The ones she resolves to splinter and bulldoze her way through upon glimpsing the opportunities, revealed from on high.
Labels: Media, punditry, Sarah Palin
Labels: Bush, diplomacy, Republicans
Labels: al Qaeda, Bush, Media, President Obama
Labels: bloggers, Iraq, neo-conservatives, punditry, surge
And then I saw Torturing Democracy.Scott notes that the Bush administration has done its best to spike both this documentary and another called Taxi to the Dark Side. It's worth noting that neither will be aired on major broadcast stations until after Bush leaves office since the stations fear White House retribution.
And I’m afraid, now that I have seen what I have seen, that I was wrong about that. It looks to me, based on this documentary, as if in fact we have engaged in behavior and practices at Guantánamo Bay, and in these illegal renditions, that are violations of the international human rights code.
And I believe that Dick Cheney is responsible. I believe that he was the agent of the United States government charged with developing the methodology used at Guantánamo Bay, supervising it for the administration, and indulging in practices which are in fact violations of human rights.
Labels: Bush Administration, Bush Crimes, Cheney, Justice
The GOP governors spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity.Hard to explain the undue attention since one assumes the talking heads can read the polls and see for themselves that nobody outside of the rabid base is anxious to see Palin's star go supernova in 2012. I suppose the coverage still drives the ratings. It's like driving by an accident on the highway. You don't really want to look but you find you just can't help taking a peek at the wreck.
One called it awkward: “I’m sure you could see it on some of our faces.”
Another Republican governor eyeing a presidential run in 2012 told CNN the event was “odd” and “weird,” and said it “unfortunately sent a message that she was the de facto leader of the party."
There has been palpable tension among some GOP governors gathered in Miami that Palin has been sucking up all the media oxygen.
Labels: Republicans, Sarah Palin
Community service is not a dirty word; nor is it an idea to be tossed aside because you don’t like who is delivering the message about it. Encouraging our youth to take part in something selfless is encouraging them to be better human beings. What could be better for this country?It's the final graf in her post, Obama's Call for Community Service Is Not Marxism. The diehards in the comment section are not taking it well.
Labels: President Obama, society, Wingnuts
It is worth remembering that the Democrats who are going to exert dominant political control are the same ones who have provoked so much scorn -- rightfully so -- over the last several years, and particularly since 2006. This is the same Democratic Party leadership which funded the Iraq War without conditions (and voted to authorize it in the first place); massively expanded the President's warrantless eavesdropping powers; immunized lawbreaking telecoms; enacted the Patriot Act and then renewed it with virtually no changes; didn't even bother to mount a filibuster to stop the Military Commissions Act; refrained from pursuing any meaningful investigations of Bush lawbreaking; confirmed every last extremist Bush nominee, from Michael McConnell to Michael Mukasey; acquiesced to even the worst and most lawless Bush policies when they were briefed on them; and on and on and on. None of that has changed. That is still who they are.And they are ones that are still in power for the next two months. I might respectfully suggest we put our energy into pushing back against their next boneheaded bows to imaginary bi-partisanship rather than waste it on projecting into the future. I believe the wingnuts have that ground well covered already.
Labels: bloggers, Democrats, Election 08, Media
"According to a report from financial news agency Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs, for example, has set aside $6.8 billion for bonuses, and Morgan Stanley, $6.4 billion. [...]Meanwhile, unemployment claims reach new highs.
Gandel, who's a Money magazine senior writer and contributor to Time.com says, "Compensation should be down 70 percent but, because all this new money is coming from the government, the firms are now saying they can pay more, and so they're only going to cut bonuses by 40 percent." [...]
Even without bonuses, the mean annual salary for a securities industry employee was just under $400,000, David notes, ten times more than the average U.S. worker."
Labels: economy, Republican corruption