No respect for Dick Cheney

Bear with me friends and readers. I'm so tired I could sleep for about 36 hours straight. But one more afternoon of tying up loose ends and I'll be able to just collapse here for a couple of days and regroup. What passes for normal posting should resume soon. On my way out right now but this was the most amusing item I saw this morning that blessedly had nothing to do with Tiger Woods' penis. It is about a dick though, as in Cheney. Much as I hate polls, this is funny.

Just 1 percent pick George W. Bush as the best reflection of the party’s principles, and only a single person in the poll cites former vice president Richard B. Cheney. About seven in 10 say Bush bears at least “some” of the blame for the party’s problems.

Granted it was a small sample, but still that puts Cheney at almost a negative number. Yet he appears regularly on our teevees as if he mattered at all to anyone except some idiot who started a draft Cheney for 2012 site. Hell, they should go all the way and draft Dick and Liz. Another historic election meme for our horserace crazy media - first father-daughter ticket. That would be infotaining.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Mission Unaccomplished

Haven't worked up the courage to look at the news. Judging from my social media, it's all about the WH gatecrashers, Tiger Woods and Sarah Palin. Don't want to read that stuff, much less talk about it. So far, the only real news I've seen is about this new Senate report on Afghanistan. Infuriating and depressing.

"Removing the al-Qaeda leader from the battlefield eight years ago would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat," the report says. "But the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide. The failure to finish the job represents a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism."

Hundreds of thousands of people died because of these idiots and all the media wants to talk about is celebrity sex and grifters. No wonder this country is such a mess.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Move accomplished

Locked the door on the old place for the last time yesterday afternoon. Left it about 100x better than I found it. Thinking I should get a bonus with my security deposit for cleaning it up. Should be unpacking and settling in here but I'm seriously thinking of spending the day in my pjs and just crashing out. Anyway, while I decide if I really want to read the news, here's something pleasant for a Sunday morning. A tour of the planets using NASA photos and a Beethoven soundtrack.



Via Greg Mitchell.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Oh Canada!

Jeez, what happened to Canada. I remember when they were the sane ones. Lately it seems they adopted Bush era policies. I mean, this border incident is disturbing:

U.S. journalist Amy Goodman said she was stopped at a Canadian border crossing south of Vancouver on Wednesday and questioned for 90 minutes by authorities concerned she was coming to Canada to speak against the Olympics.

Goodman says Canadian Border Services Agency officials ultimately allowed her to enter Canada but returned her passport with a document demanding she leave the country within 48 hours. [...]

Goodman said her car was searched and the officials demanded to look at her notes and her computer.

If they keep this up, nobody is going want to seek sanctuary anymore. Of course, maybe that's the idea. Perhaps they got tired of all the Americans fleeing the insanity here.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Urban Hellhole

I'm safely moved into the new urban hellhole. Only took the guys an hour total to move all the furniture. And we have internet access. Didn't have to do a thing but hook up the computer again. Very happy. Like where my desk is. All kinds of interesting things going on outside my window. Now I have to run around and get the rest of the utilites switched over and stuff like that. I'll be back later.

So far, very happy.


[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Christmas Cactus

Never know when it's going to bloom. Some years it blooms twice.


Here's hoping I managed to move it without knocking all the flowers off.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm busy for most of the day but just want to tell you that I'm thankful for every one of you dear readers who have stuck with me all these years. Love you all dearly.



Atrios honors a long standing Thanksgiving internet tradition.

Steve Audio has a fabulous thankful list.

And the full WKRP turkey episode is on Hulu.

I'm also told that if you have cable teevee, TCM is running a full day marathon of Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies. Enjoy the festivities the best you can.

Indulging My Obsession

I know I probably post too many of these but this is my favorite so far. I mean, how cool is the framing on this one? Empire State Building from inside the New York Public Library.



Taken by LawVolDP, a new tweep on my follow list now.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Moving Right Along

I'm down to the wire on the moving thing and it's unclear whether my internet connection will be interrupted during the transfer, so posting is likely to be light for a few days. So let me leave a few links I've been collecting that are still worth reading.

Today's media fail courtesy of CNN. You've heard the RNC's media consultant quit suddenly and it seems regular CNN contributor Alex Castellanos will be taking over the slot. CNN doesn't see any reason that this should preclude him from continuing to be an on-air political analyst. Bad enough he's already a shill for corporate interests, but apparently CNN sees no conflict as long as the RNC doesn't pay him in cash. This is why I didn't bother to get my cable turned on here.

McJoan at the GOS had a great post on the Senate health care reform bill vote. Read it, but the shorter is: Call the Conservadems bluff. Let's see if they're really willing to vote against a decent reform bill.

Speaking of reform, the DNC has a great fact check list, 39 Liars. Archive this one for future reference. And a good interactive map from HHS Sebelius on what health insurance reform will do in your state.

The White House site has a new blogger. New media guru Dan Pfeiffer looks like he's going to be a natural for this gig.

Support for pot legalization grows. Via one of my favorite tweeps, Andrew.

And for fun, I don't know what this tilt shift thing is all about, but they used it in this ad and it's pretty cool.

Guess my invite to this party got lost in the mail, but it looks like they were having fun at the Motown reunion.

And this house on the right is truly the best Christmas lights display ever.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

End Fox Noise

I've been neglecting my blogroll lately but thanks to Avedon, I didn't miss Ruth's excellent piece on how to end Fox Noise's infiltration into our public spaces. She's got some great advice on how to avoid being assaulted by their spew when you're traveling.

I'd note that Kevin is way ahead on this mission. He's on the road a lot and he won't spend money anywhere that has Fox running on a teevee in the place. More importantly, he tells the proprietor before he walks out that this is why he won't patronize their premises. It's the little things like this that add up. Thanks to both of them for showing us the way.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Fox News Amuses

News about Fox is amusing this week. Via Adam Howard, after being caught too many times, Fox News Threatens Pink Slips For On-Screen Errors. I take that to mean they had better get a little more subtle with those "inadvertent" mistakes.

But I guess whoever put together this segment didn't get the memo. I'm legendary for my lack of arithmetic skills, but even I could see the Fuzzy Math in this pie chart. Too funny.

And Goddess forgive me for taking delight in his misfortunes, but yet another sponsor drops out from the Beck hatefest which brings the grand total of lost advertisers to 89. Latest to pull their ads is Nestle. I'm assuming that was a high priced account. How much longer will Murdoch continue to subsidize his insane rodeo clown?

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Hatetriotic Americans

I was just remembering how we all laughed and pointed at Glenn Beck when he started his hatefest on the premise that "they surround us." Suddenly I feel more surrounded. Sure they're still a minority but they're so relentless. Today's display of hate is this video of a town hall meeting. The knuckledraggers mock the grandparents of a dead grandchild and his mother and worse:

Catherina Wojtowicz, of Chicago's Mount Greenwood community, an organizer for a Tea Party splinter group, Chicago Tea Party Patriots, falsely claimed that the Houghs fabricated their story. In an e-mail, she called them operatives of President Barack Obama who "go from event to event and (cry) the same story."

The mother died of sepsis related to the pregnancy of the deceased child. She had no health insurance. If she could have afforded better pre-natal care, they both probably would be alive. I feel certain these same people are vehemently against abortion. I'd bet a lot of them self-identify as Christians.

I can't find the words to express my disgust.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Grand Orwellian Party Purity

Chalk up another brilliant plan to expand the GOP's tent. A new purity test is being floated at the RNC. No money for any candidates who disagree with more than three prongs of this resolution. Here's the first three:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

You'll notice they're cleaving to the grand Orwellian tradition of double speak. Opposition is Support. Corporate welfare is the common good. Stupid resolutions is smart thinking. I sometimes get the feeling they don't really want to win yet, because they know they effed up the works so thoroughly, they have to wait another election cycle or two to let the Democrats repair the damage first.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

How Crazy People Get Elected

It's because these people get to vote. If an informed electorate is essential to a healthy democracy, we're so screwed.



Trying to find a term for this demographic. Thinking "slogan voters?" [Via TRex]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Worth Breaking My Embargo For

As you know I've declared this an (almost) Palin-free zone, but Jay Rosen got me with this intro: "This is the only piece I've read on Palin recently that even comes close to explaining the damn thing." And I have to agree, Matt Taibbi is dead on in his assessment of Palinmania. Hard to pick the excerpts:

Sarah Palin is the Empress-Queen of the screaming-for-screaming’s sake generation. The people who dismiss her book Going Rogue as the petty, vindictive meanderings of a preening paranoiac with the IQ of a celery stalk completely miss the book’s significance, because in some ways it’s really a revolutionary and innovative piece of literature.

Palin — and there’s just no way to deny this — is a supremely gifted politician. She has staked out, as her own personal political turf, the entire landscape of incoherent white American resentment. In this area she leaves even Rush Limbaugh in the dust. [...]

Palin’s extraordinary ability to inspire major national controversies around these injustices done to her immediate person is going to guarantee her some kind of major role in American politics for the next dozen years. In this regard she is going to have a willing ally in her supposed keen enemy, the mainstream media, which likewise loves nothing more than a political narrative that has nothing to do with politics. ...

Seriously worth a read in full and I don't make that recommendation lightly. Matt will make you laugh and make you think about things in a way you hadn't before with this piece.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

The Sins of the Fathers

This is a subject I tend to avoid because it's so volatile, but Jeff Jacoby's op-ed on the children of illegal immigrants is worth passing on at the risk of being swarmed by anti-immigrant trolls. The last graph is quote of the day:

Of course illegal immigration is a problem. But it can only be solved by overhauling our dysfunctional immigration laws, not by demonizing or scapegoating illegal immigrants. Those immigrants didn’t come here in order to be lawbreakers; they broke a law in order to come here. That’s a distinction with a crucial difference - one that sensible and principled conservatives should be able to understand.

A distinction too few make. Conservatives seem to forget that unless you're a Native American, we're all descended from immigrants and most illegal immigrants are otherwise honest and hardworking people.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Rabbis protest Joe Lieberman

I almost missed this story. The symbolism of seeing Rabbis protest in this candlelight vigil seems pretty significant to me.

STAMFORD -- Quietly holding candles, hundreds of clergymen, congregants and reform advocates lined the sidewalks outside Independent U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman's Stamford home Sunday night in a show of support for universal health care.

"When we heard not only would he vote against it, but he'd use his power, his position as a swing vote ... to block it from coming to a vote, we had to send a message so he knows people who vote overwhelmingly favor the public option," said Rabbi Stephen Fuchs, of Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford.

The crowd was estimated at 475 which strikes me as a meaningful turnout as well. I sincerely hope that the corporate sellouts in the Senate are going to get their comeuppance at the polls next year. If this level of populist momentum holds, thinking that wish may well come true.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

A good review for the Senate Health Reform Bill

Honestly, I don't have a clue whether the reform proposals are going to work. The whole devil in the details kicks up my anxiety level when I try to make sense of it, so I tend to trust to the experts who make a living analyzing these things. Ronald Brownstein finds one that gives the Senate version a glowing review. It's the must read of the day. Good overview of what it will do, that doesn't fall into horserace reporting. The opener alone is encouraging.

When I reached Jonathan Gruber on Thursday, he was working his way, page by laborious page, through the mammoth health care bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had unveiled just a few hours earlier. Gruber is a leading health economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is consulted by politicians in both parties. He was one of almost two dozen top economists who sent President Obama a letter earlier this month insisting that reform won't succeed unless it "bends the curve" in the long-term growth of health care costs. And, on that front, Gruber likes what he sees in the Reid proposal. Actually he likes it a lot.

"I'm sort of a known skeptic on this stuff," Gruber told me. "My summary is it's really hard to figure out how to bend the cost curve, but I can't think of a thing to try that they didn't try. They really make the best effort anyone has ever made. Everything is in here....I can't think of anything I'd do that they are not doing in the bill. You couldn't have done better than they are doing."

Seriously, read the whole thing. I felt better about it, after I did.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Testing....

I'm told my Facebook link didn't work. I modified the link so maybe now it goes to a page where people can friend me if they want to, but I can't test it myself. Can some passerby try it out and let me know in comments please?

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Media Fail to Grasp Meaning of Asia Trip

James Fallows is disgusted by the media narrative that followed President Obama home from his Asian tour. Should be read in full, but this one vignette from new US Ambassador to China, former GOP governor Jon Huntsman, tells the story of the media's failure to grasp the facts on the ground.

"The trip was the top news story in China, drawing strong interest from the mainland public who, surveys suggest, are largely positive in their view of the American president.

"However, much of the US media coverage was strongly negative, accusing Obama of failing to gain concessions on key issues such as Iran's nuclear programme and climate change, as well as being weak on human rights."

"I attended all those meetings that President Obama had with Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao," Huntsman said, referring to the Chinese president and premier. "I've got to say some of the reporting I saw afterward was off the mark. I saw sweeping comments about things that apparently weren't talked about, when they were discussed in great detail in the meetings," he said.

And they wonder why the media is dying. As Fallows goes on to point out:

We're all familiar with one "crisis of the press," the business collapse. This is a different kind of crisis, though it makes the business crisis worse: the distortion of reality by compressing every complex issue into the narrative of the DC-based "horse race."

And to add a bit more context to just how disengaged from reality the media was there, here's what the White House press corps was really doing.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

A billboard in Missouri

These people are over the top, batshit crazy. Think Progress finds this billboard in Missouri that is being promoted on a local country GOP Committee website.


Not clear who paid for it, but it clearly has a GOP stamp of approval. Think about that for a second. A major political party is supporting a call to war against the government. Pure insanity.

Trying to imagine what would have happened if something similar was erected during the Bush regime and blodly touted by the Democratic party.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Tea Party - The Movie

Ha! I really thought this had to be a spoof, but I'm hearing it's a for real, made for web broadcast documentary. If it's as funny as this trailer, it's going to be a big hit.



[via Wonkette]


[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Unbalanced Fare

I burned out yesterday. Had to deal with the moving thing and frankly, I just couldn't face the news. Wasn't much anyway in the tradmed, unless you want to talk about Palin. Which I'm going to do again today oddly, since Rump Roast found some interesting feedback from her fans.

It appears her book tour is leaving some of them disenchanted with their Yukon Princess. Apparently despite having waiting for most of the day in lines, and most of that time in the freezing cold and rain, some 400 of the 1000 lucky wristband holders didn't get their books signed. Ms. Mooselina skulked off to her bus at the stroke of 9:00 with a royal wave and had her minions dispense pre-printed signature plates for their books instead. Some unhappy campers to say the least. Click over to see the vid and the comments.

Meanwhile, Fox admits another *inadvertent* mistake in airing old campaign footage and pretending it was film of the crowds who showed up to buy her book.

Media Matters collects a list of Fox's year of apologies, and it's a good one, but hardly seems comprehensive to me. I know they've made more *mistakes* than that, but I guess these are just the ones they've owned up to.

Of course, Fox was forced to apologize. You won't see any mea culpas coming from Wingnuttia's greatest fabulist, Gateway Pundit, who lied in his lede by misquoting President Obama. None of his deluded fans caught the discrepancy anyway, despite the fact the video and the transcript were available on the post. So eager are they to believe the worst, and validate their hate, mere facts don't matter. I know. Not exactly news, but still never fails to astound me.

The President was talking about his Asian tour in the quote in question. Not that you saw much coverage of that. The journos on Twitter were mostly talking about themselves but thanks to Mark Knoller for passing on the link to White House photographer Pete Souza's blog where he has posts, video and photographs of the tour.

Completely unrelated to politics, my friends Rich and Flo scored a cover story in the local alt-newspaper. They're the ones with the toilet paper museum, but that's not the only thing that's cool about them. I believe they were the first, or at least one of the first musicians to sell their albums strictly through the internet. And they collect lots of other fun stuff too. It's a nice write-up.

And I haven't had time to look at this, but I want to archive the link so I can. Thanks to HBK for flagging Fine Vintage: Sexiest Men (Not Necessarily) Alive. Apparently, you can add your own choices. I assume this was done in response to whichever magazine declared Johnny Depp to be sexiest man of the year. I think he's pretty sexy I guess, but I would have chosen Mark Knoller of course.

Late addition: One more photo link from John. This is a nice one. He just figured out some fancy trick with his camera. New Yorker Hotel with Chrysler Building in the background. I love New York.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Yes, I'm obsessed...

...with the Empire State Building. I remember the first time I went to the top, it was still the tallest building in the world. Boy did I think that was cool. It's one of the few tourist sites that I've revisited regularly in NYC. One of the others being the Staten Island Ferry. That's the best, cheapest, touristy thing you can do in NY. Anyway, I expect some of you are bored with my links to photos of ESB, but this one is so especially cool, that I'm posting it as photo so you can't avoid it.


Love the way the fog wrapped around it. Definitely click to enlarge to get the full effect. Thanks to my new NYC friend John who as it turns out, also dreams of the day when people bust out in song on the sidewalks, just like an old Fred Astaire musical.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

1000 False Words

Archiving this in case it comes up in the comments at DetNews. Factcheck.org debunks the latest viral email circulating "a photograph purporting to show President Obama at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day, listening to the national anthem without his hand over his heart." You'll no doubt be shocked to learn the photo was taken on Memorial Day and the reason Obama was just standing there was because at that moment they were playing "Hail to the Chief."

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Down on C Street

Didn't get around to this earlier. One small bright spot in a lot of dismal news. The IRS cracked down on the C St. House. They determined that it wasn't really a church since they're renting rooms to philandering GOPers at below market rates and revoked 65% of their tax-exempt status.

Not sure why they still let them keep the 35% for a few prayer meetings but then again, I recall quite a few people using the Universal Life Church, of which I'm an ordained minister by the way, as a tax dodge to write off their wine purchases back in the day, so I guess I'm willing to let that slide. Good to see the IRS going after some big hitters for a change in any event.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

I Love This Man

In case you were wondering why I have a pretend crush on Mark Knoller, besides his adorable, geeky fixation with historical White House stats, it's for tweets like this:

"Bite Me Award" of the day to the Fox News promo dept trumpeting its Obama interview: "only we ask the tough questions." Puh-leese.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Goldman's Latest Joke

You've got to be effing kidding me. Goldman Sachs is so sorry it made a mess of the economy and to prove how truly contrite they are, will show such largess as this:

A little more than a week after Goldman’s chairman and chief executive drew fire for saying the Wall Street giant was “doing God’s work,” the bank said Tuesday that it would spend $500 million — or about 3 percent of the $16.7 billion it has so far set aside to pay its employees this year — to help thousands of small businesses recover from the recession.

Do they honestly think that a paltry $500 million is going to make it all better and the "little people" or as they no doubt privately refer to us, "the easy marks" won't be mad at them anymore? Either they're really stupid, or they think we are.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Blaming John McCain

Sully posts on something I was thinking last night as well. While I'm continuing my embargo on reading about Sarah Palin, I do of course read the headlines and I see the McCain camp denying the allegations she makes in her book about the campaign. I tend to believe them. She started her stint in the national spotlight with lies and hatemongering and stuck to that deceitful script for the duration. The truth and facts don't serve her purposes.

The point Sully makes is that John McCain is responsible for this, or more accurately it's his irresponsible choice that unleashed this horror on us and no one holds him accountable for it. Thinking back, it was clear to me within 8 hours of googling that Sarah's ladder to success was built of the bloody bodies of the allies she backstabbed for her personal gain. Hard to believe McCain and his team could have been so incompetent as to miss such obvious clues. So why does the media still treat McCain, or anyone involved in that epic show of impossibly bad judgement, as credible commentators -- about anything?

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Time to Move

Posting has been light because I'm moving again. Hope this time I'll be able to settle down. This old place was nice in a lot of ways, but it's just not right. It's too damp and too cold and too far from downtown. My new digs are practically in the heart of what passes for an urban hellhole in this little city. I'm hating the moving part, but looking forward to living there. My plan when I got here was to find a place downtown and this is the closest I've come to approximating my old digs in lovely downtown Northampton since I've moved south.

About to take another load over to the new place so just a couple of links to amuse you. Slim pickings out there if you want to avoid Palin, but I'm happy to see Karen Tumulty's "Make Em Filibuster" campaign seems to be gaining some steam.

And this photo gallery of odd vacations spots is quite stunning. I want to go to the glass beach for sure and most of the other places look tempting to me as well.

And if babies make you happy, this is the spot to follow the progress of my favorite preemie. They're holding a fundraiser today. They're going to donate a dollar for every click on the blog. They may have upped the ante to leaving a comment too, so do let them know how much you enjoy little Sam.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Palin Madness

I'm disgusted with the amount of media attention Palin is getting this week and frankly I don't think that all the snarking from the left is really helping marginalize her. It's just more ink about her, her, her. At this point, the only ones fooled are her fans and the snark just solidifies their loyalty. If anything, I see it as increasing her support, just because the wingers love to piss us liberals off.

At this point, I'm basically refusing to read anything with her name in it, but I do occassionally get tricked by a shortened link and this piece by Joan Walsh makes a good point. Palin isn't that worrisome but the anger of the working poor that she is tapping into is dangerous to ignore. Read the whole thing, but the closer sums up the problem well.

So while I'm not worried about President Palin, I remain worried about President Obama. I'm particularly concerned that his increasingly triangulating, anti-deficit administration will do the wrong thing, morally and politically, and move to the right, without understanding that some right-wing rage could be rechanneled by acknowledging its roots: That the economic system seems rigged for the have-a-lots v. the have-a-littles, and despite their promises, the Democrats haven't done enough to change that. Palin can't change any of that, but Obama can. There's still time for him to do so, but the clock is ticking.

Walsh links to a couple of others making the same point, that being, it is dangerous to discount this public mood. I've been predicting since 04 that the year of the anti-incumbent is nigh. I think in 2010, I'm finally going to be right. I don't think there's enough Tea Party people to elect Palin president, but there's enough to elect some nutcases to office. They'll vote them in to piss us off, no matter how suicidal it is.

On a different note, since I'm breaking my Palin embargo, this twitpix is worth passing on. I'm told it was taken in front of her favorite consignment store. Says it all.


[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

A few brave conservatives

Reading through the uproar over the decision to try some of the Gitmo detainees in the US, it's clear that most conservatives are either pants-wetting cowards who are trembling in fear of the idea of a handful of OMG terrorists setting foot on US soil, or are afraid that the Bush administration's illegal conduct will be exposed during the course of the proceedings. Likely it's both. So I was surprised to see Grover Norquist, David Keene, and Bob Barr come out in favor of the trials.

We, the undersigned, urge Congress and the President to support a policy for detention, treatment and trial of suspected terrorists that is consistent with U.S. treaty obligations and constitutional principles. As it moves to close Guantanamo and develop policies for handling terrorism suspects going forward, the government should rely upon our established, traditional system of justice. We are confident that the government can preserve national security without resorting to sweeping and radical departures from an American constitutional tradition that has served us effectively for over two centuries.

I admit the cynic in me wonders what their angle is in releasing this statement, but I'm willing to take it at face value. So little sanity comes from that side of the fence. Maybe some of it will rub off on the terminally disengaged from reality hordes. [via]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Meteors Tonight!

Attention skywatchers. Leonid meteor shower is tonight through Thursday night. I'm told the best viewing will be between 1 am and dawn Tuesday. That would be after midnight tonight. [graphic via]

Our Corporatocracy

Remind me again why we bother to have elections? Might as well just drop the pretense and let the corporations move their offices onto Captiol Hill.

In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies. [...]

Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points — 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for lobbyists.

Yet the single payer advocates don't even to get to speak at hearings. They get arrested for showing up. It's like I've been saying for years. It's not the system of government that's broken. It's that we have the wrong people running it.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Sunny Saturday Snippets

Went over and picked up the keys to the new place this afternoon. It looked better than I remembered it. And bigger. Usually it's the opposite. Looking forward to living there. Meanwhile, it's just too lovely an afternoon to spend in front of the computer so just a few links to entertain those who are stuck indoors with bad weather. I'll be back later I think.

New proof that Bush administration lied about the response to 9/11. Willing to bet this won't become a media obsession. They're too busy following around Palin on the world's lamest book tour.

The first of the retrospects that I've seen. Newsweek does the decade in seven minutes. Most of it is pretty depressing. Glad that one is almost over.

This is the best response I've seen so far to the bed-wetters who are freaking out that we're going to try some of the Gitmo prisoners in US courts.

I love the intro John Dickerson gave this link: The stoned guy at NASA who said " bet we'll find something on the moon if blow up stuff," is getting his sweet high-five.

I've never seen The Highlander, so this Colbert clip didn't make much sense to me, but maybe you'll find it as entertaining as my tweeps did.

And it's been at least two days since I posted a ESB pix. Loved the angle on this one, even though the Christmas tree made me cringe. Gah. Remember when they had the decency to wait until after Thanksgiving to put up the Christmas stuff. Those were good times.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Big Business Rebuffs GOP

Sure the megacorps are the GOPers BFF when they're pushing tax breaks and blocking regulation of their industry but the Business Roundtable's loyalty only goes as far as their wallets.

GOP aides say the party’s relationship with the business association has deteriorated in recent weeks as the Roundtable continues to work with Democrats in the White House and on the Hill to advance healthcare reform.

GOP lawmakers have become increasingly critical of the Roundtable for failing to take more of an active role in standing up to Obama on healthcare reform. But several said they were disappointed and perplexed by the business group’s latest action: the release of a report that gives Obama valuable rhetorical ammunition against Republicans.

Well there's a reason for that. "We estimate that if enacted properly, the right legislative reforms could potentially reduce that trend line by more than $3,000 per employee, to $25,435," the report stated. Of course, much as I love seeing the GOP slapped down on their obstructionism, I admit I'm a bit leery of the BRT's sudden support. Experience tells us that what's good for Big Business is rarely good for the working class. Hoping that's not true this time.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Fox Running Scared

Ha! I guess Fox is sick of being caught in doctoring their videos. They're trying to shut down the opposition.

But today, it appears that Fox News determined it was time to close this one-stop Liberal blog fodder shop: They sent more than 150 DMCA takedown notices to YouTube regarding Fox News clips on the News1News channel, said the channel's proprietor, John. (John, a doctor living in Washington, DC, didn't want his last name used.) This put the channel well over YouTube's controversial "three-strike" copyright violation limit. News1News was shut down, and John was inundated with emails from caffeine-addled bloggers asking, frantically, "what happened!?"

So now there are a bunch of blog posts on the internets that feature black screen YouTubes saying the content has been removed. But the effort is likely to be futile. Apparently John already launched an alternate channel and there are other GOP friendly channels still in operation that host the vids. Besides, everybody knows the snarkers of the intertoobz will not allow themselves to be silenced. They'll find a workaround. They always do. [via Progressive Pam]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Palin Family Freak Show

Atrios is right of course about the ongoing Palinpalooza. "The point is the whole thing's a freak show, and that's much more important than any of the "facts" of the freak show, none of which matter at all, true or not..." As he points out, since when did the media continue to relentlessly, (and breathlessly) follow every move of a total political loser? And frankly, the blogs aren't much better as they report on the freak show too, which contributes to the media interest.

Me, although I admit I occassionally succumb to the gossip, I don't read 90% of it. And I wonder if I'm the only person in America who doesn't care if Levi Johnston waggles his wang in Playgirl this month. I'm certainly not going to look at it. Frankly, I find the kid a little creepy and the idea of seeing him nude nauseates me a little.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Getting A Burr Out of the Saddle

My computer did one of those automatic update things while I doing the dishes last night and I lost a whole day's worth of links because I neglected to save the file. I thought autosave would have spared a few, but not many made it. I may be able to resurrect some of them but in the interim, this is interesting. My good for nothing Senator Burr is ripe for a challenge. It will be a little harder in an off year without the Obama groundswell that helped us get rid of Dole, but depending on how the economy swings, we could conceivably get rid of this dinosaur too.

In any event, first thing on my list when I move is to change my voter reg to this town and figure out how I'm going to help do that, even if it means joining the local caucus where they start their meetings with a prayer.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Chance Encounter with the President

Mark Knoller passes along this link to an engaging NY Daily News story about a chance encounter between President Obama and an off-the-clock reporter who was in Arlington Cemetery yesterday, visiting the grave of a friend.

I'm sure the cynics will assume this was just another Obama photo-op. If they'd been standing in my boots looking him in the eye, they would have surely choked on their bile.

His presence in Section 60 convinced me that he now carries the heavy burden of command.

Really worth reading in full. It's not long, and I found it moving. Not to mention, it validates my thoughts from yesterday that right or wrong, Obama is clearly weighing the human costs of his decision on Afghanistan.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Lou Dobbs Leaves CNN

In a surprise announcement on tonight's program, Lou Dobbs 'quit' CNN, effective immediately. It's not absolutely clear he was fired. But it is odd CNN suddenly released him from a contract that wasn't suppposed to end until 2011 so he could "pursue his advocacy journalism" at will. And I get a fired-guy vibe from the video of his farewell address despite the veiled hints towards a possible political candidacy.

I admit when the news first broke on Twitter a couple of hours ago, I was delighted. It's not that I'm celebrating Dobbs misfortune. I don't wish ill on others, not even on people who perpetrate evil. But I do rejoice that hatemongering to the extreme that Dobbs took it, is apparently losing steam as a business model. Gives me greater hope for a restoration of civil society.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

A Speech for the Ages

I've only read the transcript, but everyone is raving about President Obama's speech at Ft. Hood yesterday. The speech is moving on paper, but I'll watch the video tonight because reading the tweets alone from people who were watching live brought me to tears.

Meanwhile, Obama honored the dead and the living military servicepeople again today for Veteran's Day. He gave another good speech, but what got the buzz was his unprecedented stroll among the gravestones at Arlington Cemetery. He and Michelle stopped and spoke with the families there. Video at the link.

We complain a lot about his foreign policy decisions and I will never be happy about escalating our military involvement anywhere, but all that aside, I don't really see how anyone can accuse our president of a lack of empathy. Whether I agree with him or not, it's clear he takes the responsibility for those decisions seriously and the human cost weighs on him heavily.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

The War to End All Wars

I admit as lifelong pacifist and a long time anti-war blogger, I have a little trouble "celebrating" Veterans Day. Especially in the US, we seem to focus more on the killing instead of on peace. Most countries in contrast celebrate the moment as Armistice Day, when hostilities ended in the war that was supposed to end all wars. As Matt Yglesias notes today, in these contentious times it's other countries that seem to better recognize "What was needed from the political leadership of the time was a way to avoid the war, not a way to win it."

Our present day leaders don't seem to get that at all and Americans don't have the same emotional investment in today's conflicts. I think that's because "war" today isn't so clearly defined, the media coverage is santized and no one sees a moment when we can say this war is over. Steve Hynd posts on this theme today too and finds a quote from Kurt Vonnegut that captures the public mood of those times that are missing today.

When I was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. [...]

It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one and another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

Sadly, it seems the lesson has been forever lost and only the dead truly rest in peace.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Happy Veterans Day

Thanks to all our veterans and current serving military for all you do and have done for our country.



America salutes you on this day and every day. Veterans eat for free at Applebees today and also free meals for veterans at Golden Corral on Mon 11-16-09 from 5:00-9:00pm.

Adding: Videos of dogs and kids greeting returning soldiers. Have your Kleenex handy.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Everybody's talking at me...

Suffering through a little burnout this week. Too much to do and the news feels stupider than usual but here's a few items worth notice.

As you know, I've been developing an odd sort of twitter relationship with Jake Tapper. It's not like we're close or anything, but over the weeks I've warmed up to him as a person. He's not some great courageous hero who bucks the conventional wisdom or stands up to the corporation that controls his job, but I've come to believe he genuinely cares about being fair and getting the facts right and often does. In any event, he just got an exclusive interview with President Obama and I thought he did a good job. I liked his presentation. He didn't come across as a smug and entitled media star and the questions were fair enough. Decide for yourself if I'm just succumbing to his accessibility. Transcript is here or you can see the full video here.

Not sure how long this contest is running, but if it's still on, please vote up #2 which was submitted by my friend Dirk. Note that you have to click the icon that's right next to the title and not under the post.

Long time readers will remember how pissed off I was about the Kelo emminent domain case where the SCOTUS allowed the city to take a bunch of poor people's houses to make way for private development. Well, that turned out well. The houses are gone, but the land was never developed and now Pfizer is taking their whole operation out of the town. Meanwhile, the former neighborhood where Suzette Kelo made her home, is a wasteland of fields of weeds. Way to do urban development idiot powers that be of New London, Conn.

Moving on to more pleasant distractions. Erin tells me, "I am completely addicted to this site. It's got some very cool photos, but not all of them are safe for work.

Liked this pix in Greg Mitchell's ongoing Pix of the Day. No long hair hippies may apply.

And my new tweep John de Guzman continues to delight with his visual love for the big city. Fred F. French building, a relatively unknown NYC gem.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

These people are insane

I'm sure you'll be shocked to learn this was a production of professional hatemonger Fred Phelps.

This just in from David Shuster's twitter feed:

Shocked by tea party like protest outside the Obama girls' school this morning. A dozen activists with homophobic/anti-Obama signs and etc.

Was driving by on Wisconsin Avenue and couldn't understand why traffic was so backed up... until I saw the scene. The right has no shame.

Hopefully, some of the more rational conservatives/Republicans will condemn this stuff today. It was beyond the pale.

More likely that Limbaugh and Beck and the rest of the wingnut cretins will be celebrating these neanderthal's abuse of the First Amendment. And you just know that the idiot protesters likely were howling about the "liberal media attacks" on the Palin kids in the past. Disgusting.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Sunday Slacker

It much too beautiful to sit in front of the computer getting grumpy about politics. I'm going out for a walk. But if your weather isn't as nice, here's some Sunday reading until I get back.

Frank Rich on wingnuts and banksters.

NYT breaks down yesterday's vote.

Kos lists the biggest traitors.

And if you read nothing else, read Cliff Schecter on why we need to get rid of the Blue Dogs.

This is not the usual CW of the left. Dan Froomkin with the secret to getting the progresssive agenda we really want enacted.

Very cool architecture. Building With Whole Trees.

Best shot yet. Sunset glimmering off Chrysler Bldg.

And quote of the day to GOP hero Joseph Cao, "I have always said that I would put aside partisan wrangling to do the business of the people."

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

House Health Care Reform Bill Passes

Having mixed emotions. I thought I would be more elated when it happened but the passage of the Stupak anti-choice amendment sucked a lot of the joy out of the victory. Final vote was 220 - 215 with 39 Democrats defecting to the GOP side. Depressing and annoying. Some of those have primary written all over them.

Oddly what made me the happiest was the GOP defection to the yes side. Republican Joseph Cao voted in favor and it was truly a brave vote. The hatred for the man is already pouring from the conservanets. Even now, I'm certain they are furiously googling for some kind of dirt to hurt him politically. And then there's the neanderthals who are flooding his comment section with threats and ethnic slurs.

But still, though the fight is still far from over, what a victory. The House actually passed a reform bill with a public option. Whether it's worth the paper it's written on remains to be seen, but politically, it was a hell of an acheivement. So there's that.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Stupid Bart Stupak amendment - Updated

The line between Church and State gets ever fainter. It appears the Dems will cave to the fundie crowd and have agreed to have an up or down vote on Stupak's anti-choice amendment. The upshot being, virtually no insurer, public or private will be allowed to pay for perfectly legal abortions.

However, you feel about the existence of abortion, the fact remains it's a legitimate medical procedure. And it astounds me that the same people who want to force women to have babies they might not be able to afford, simply in order to satisfy their personal religious beliefs, also rail about "welfare babies" and don't want to spend a cent on public health care to keep them healthy after they're born. Idiots and hypocrites. Makes me want to break crockery in frustration.

Update: Good explanation of the amendment here.

Update two: There's now a petition you can sign to express your outrage and pledge to support a pro-choice primary challenger.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Kos hits Tancredo where it hurts

The Great Orange Satan himself, Markos confronts Tancredo in a MSNBC segment. Much hilarity ensues. Tancredo clearly sees he is so losing the argument and walks off the set on the pretense that he was offended by Markos' "cheap shot." Kos is going to get all the glory on this one, and he did great, but frankly, I thought David Schuster did the better job of nailing creepy Tancredo's absurd posturing. His closing line was a killer.



And thus is TV history made. The Youtube is slightly abbreviated. You can see the uncut segment here.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Friday Light Bytes

Wondering what the planetary alignments are these days with all the craziness out there. I expect you've already heard about the shooting spree in Orlando today. Not even going to write about that one except to note how curiously incurious the media and the other usual suspects are about this shooter's religion. But on to some fun links.

Haven't watched this yet but everyone is buzzing about Jon Stewarts takedown of Glenn Beck. I'm told it's the best eight minutes you can spend on anything today. [via][Update: Just watched it. Brilliant, especially if you're familiar with Beck's style. Highly recommend]

Sadly, I haven't seen much coverage of the White House Tribal Nations Conference which was held yesterday by Obama to "make good on his pledge to hear the concerns of native Americans. 564 tribes took part." It got overshadowed by the Ft. Hood mess, but you can get some details from Mark Knoller's twitter feed.

On a related note, Adam Howard flags this bit of good news. We're number one! Brand USA is on the comeback.

Don't think I posted this yet. I loved picture number six in this gallery from Tuesday's elections.

And moving on to non-political. Loved this story. When I see a metal detector I think about old guys in the parks and on the beach, looking for loose change but this man in Scotland was rather young and man did he hit it big. He found a million dollar stash of ancient jewelery on his first day out. Gorgeous gold necklaces.

My new tweep John de Guzman is still posting Chrysler building photos for me. This one from Grand Central,Chrysler and the moon is really nice and also loved this closeup. Someday, somehow, I'm going to look out those windows from the inside.

And maybe you're already chilling at home, so here's a local Noho band I don't think I've ever posted a vid for. One of my longtime favs, Lonesome Bros. Thanks to Whiskey Ina.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

The GOPers Mad Tea Party

I don't want to give too much more space to the idiotic GOP Mad Tea Party, but it's worth archiving if only because it wasn't an astroturf event, despite the Freedom Works speaker, but rather a GOP sponsored mob. Any fine line that may have once separated the party leaders from their crazy base has now been erased. The GOP powerbrokers are perfectly comfortable with disgusting posters and other random symbols of pure hatred that inspire these sadly misinformed citizens.



[via TPM] They also have Slideshow: Scenes from the Capitol Hill Tea Party Protest.

Meanwhile, as all these GOPers were out there firing up their mob with incendiary rhetoric, they were skipping out on voting on various national security issues. If it wasn't so pathetic, I might be laughing.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Tragedy compounded by anti-Islam zealots

I did a long form post at DetNews about the Ft. Hood shootings and I'm not inclined to elaborate on those thoughts at the moment. Besides, there's plenty of people talking about it already. All I have to add here is this was a tragedy and I hope it's not exacerbated by another huge wave of anti-Muslim fervor. Which is probably a false hope if you look at the Memeorandum link at the top.

There's no shortage of people who want to use this to justify their Islamohatred and will ignore that the resident Gen. Cone said there was no evidence supporting theories of terrorism at this point.

I think Adam Serwer already wrote the definitive post on this in any event. He's right that inflamed anti-Islam rhetoric serves no one but the jihadists who are after all, a very small community among the larger Muslim population. One can only hope that most Americans will remember that.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

About that GOP health care plan

So much crazy going out in the world today but in the interest of waiting for the news to age enough to be accurate, this was my LOL of the day.

In response to the RNC's twelve hour online town hall to "explain the democratic health care bill," DNC Press Secretary Hari Sevugan issued the following statement:

"We're planning a twelve second town hall to explain every last detail of the GOP health care plan."

Meanwhile, it appears at least ten tea party protesters were arrested at Nancy Pelosi's office. Some for refusing to leave it and some outside who were throwing shredded copies of the health care bill around.

I'm also told that eight single payer protesters were arrested at Joe Lieberman's office this morning for refusing to leave. The difference of course is that the single payer protesters weren't vandalizing anything and they were there to agitate for something. The tea partiers were simply there to be against something and to make some noise.

Also a couple of more protest signs from the tea pot rally. This Holocaust imagery was notable. And Three Wise Men? Think that sums up the intellectual maturity of the tea tantrum crowd.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

The Pied Viper - Updated 4X

Apparently there is simply no end zone for the crazy that is Michelle Bachmann. In less than an hour, she is going to address a rally of tea party shoutragers on the Capitol steps and then lead the mob into the halls of Congress to confront their targeted victims Congressmen. In a conference call with the tea party protesters last night, she told the masses the mission is to "kill the bill" and she expects if they succeed it will remain dead for at least ten years.

Thousands have pledged to show up and Greg Sargent reports he estimates about 1000 are already milling around waiting for the riot to begin. One suspects they may well get a good turnout since, once again, Fox has been actively promoting the protest. Word has it that the Pied Viper will be leading her troops into battle herself.

As they say, story developing... Will update as it unfolds. [hat tip to Lizz Winstead for Bachmann's new internet nym]

Update 12:45pm: Crowd now estimated at about 3000-3500. Signs are said to be fairly mild in comparison to other protests. Bachmann slated to speak at 1:00. Hearing Fox is there to provide TV coverage.

Update 1:38pm: CSPAN airing it live. Looks like about a dozen or so GOP Reps speaking. One of them is my own odious Virginia Foxx.

Update 2:40pm: Speeches are over. Unsourced tweet- park police said more people show up for the annual ice cream social. But still sounds like a bit of mob scene. Reports of long lines trying to get into building. Blocking traffic and some shouting "Kill the Bill." Adding, now hearing reports of arrests. TPM updating at the above link, so I'll end here and wait for the recaps later.

One last addition. No post is complete without the obligatory picture of a protest sign. Kind of says it all about this event.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Picture of the Day

I find pictures of Obama interacting with kids so endearing. It's really interesting how the tiny tots always look so thoroughly engaged.


[White House photo via Mark Knoller]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Normal life in Iraq

This is really astounding. It's hard to imagine what it must be like to become accustomed to this level of violence.

Some four hundred to five hundred people are killed per month. Compared to other countries, this is extremely high, but here, that's quite good. There is a feeling things are almost normal. Bombs are going off all the time, but we could call it a "banalization" of violence: people sitting in one room no longer pay attention to the bomb going off next door, so to speak.

Behold the legacy of George Bush and his neocons. [via Matt]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Stop Arpaio in the name of the law

No one could have predicted that America's worst Sheriff, Joe Arpaio would use his power to intimidate his adversaries. Well, actually anyone could have predicted this knuckle dragging cretin would do that. The real question is how has he gotten away with it for so long?

Small glimmer of hope that he'll be brought to justice. Word has it that both the DOJ and the FBI have him under investigation. As you know, I'm not a person who generally endorses incarceration, but this horrible excuse for a human being is one that I would love to see spend the rest of his sorry life in the same jail where the rest of victims reside.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Immodestly pointing out...

Ha! Everything I predicted about the release of the White House visitor list, came true.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Obligatory post-election post

I did my long form posts at the DetNews here and here, so I'll just give you the shorter version. Don't see much national implication in the governor's races. Deeds was a sucky Blue Dog style candidate from the get-go and based on anecdotal evidence from NJ friends, Corzine wasn't all that loved by anyone. Plus he had that troublesome connection to Goldman Sachs.

As for the Congressional races, as Steve Benen points out, the Democrats are five for five in the last special Congressional elections. And in the California election, which was basically ignored by the media, the winner came out strongly for health care reform. The big lesson for the Dems is "centrism" and bullshit triangulation isn't going to work anymore. If they want to tap into the energy of the Obama voters, they need to deliver on the mandate for progressive policies that we handed them in Nov 08.

They said they needed a majority to get anything done. We gave it to them. If they think they can now get away with bullshit excuses about some mythical desire for bipartisanship as a cover for legislating in favor of their corporate benefactors, they should think again. If they won't fulfill their promises, we'll find some better Democrats who will and we can afford to take some losses on principle now.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Losing is Winning

This is sort of insider humor. You probably have to follow Blogtopian spats to appreciate how funny it is, but it made me LOL hard, so QotD to TBogg on RedState Erick's declaration of victory over the thumping their candidate took in NY23.

Also. Erick’s victory post may become the most ridiculed post ever. This is good news for Dan Riehl.

For more delicious snark on this, see Whiskey Fire.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Spinning the numbers

Not much in the way of news today because of the elections. Mostly speculation about the outcomes and "what it all means" for the future of the parties. But there are few short items of interest.

I recently discovered my aeronautical hero, Richard Branson is on twitter. He posts this item today. "Calling all entrepreneurs - we need your video pitches for new PitchTV show." PitchTV is a closed broadcast that will be played on Branson's airliners. I checked out the first clips and the competition isn't that stiff. If you have a good idea that needs funding, it couldn't hurt to enter.

A new study by Pew Charitable Trusts Global Warming Campaign shows 77 percent of respondents favored taking concrete action on climate change, with 18 percent opposed, and 5 percent undecided. Most interesting quote:

For Republicans, part of resistance to climate-change legislation is the desire “not be seen as the deciding vote to help a major Obama initiative,” McInturff said. “I think that is the political dynamic.”

It appears the House GOP really does have an alternate health care reform plan of sorts. Most notable is what the plan doesn't do.

And another quotable post from Ezra on the rhetorical power in the time frame that gets chosen for a given policy.

The stimulus, for instance, was explained as a two-year cost, so it was $800 billion, rather than $400 billion a year. Health-care reform is being sold as a 10-year cost, so it's $900 billion, rather than $90 billion a year. The defense appropriation is explained in terms of single-year cost, so it's $680 billion, as opposed to the $10 trillion or so that it would cost if you took into account expected growth.

That can't be repeated enough when conservatives harp on the deficit. It's being driven by "defense spending" not by social programs. And Ezra tells us that $680 billion doesn't even include the cost of the occupations.

[graphic]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

My Congressperson is crazy

Quote of the Day from my new Congresslizard, Virginia Foxx, taking about the health care reform bill.

I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country.

Gah. Personally I fear her more than any terrorist. I had no idea she was my Rep in Congress when I moved here. On the bright side, I can't think of a better motivation to get involved in the local Democratic party here and work like hell to defeat her in the next election. Good to have a purpose in life.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Full moon rising

You know I've been knocked out by ESB Lights and I know I've posted way too many links, but this shot is the best ever -- at least so far. Click the pix to enlarge in order to get the full impact.


Taken by Tespis who says this is the view from his window. Want to be his roommate. And since I'm on photos, this one is rather stunning as well. Nature's gates of hell. I'd be thinking Rapture if that was the view from my window.

Why US health care costs so much

Ezra sits down with Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson, who hands him a pack of charts that tell the story.

The packet's 36 pages are mostly graphs showing the average prices paid in different countries for different procedures, diagnostics and drugs. There is a thudding consistency to the pages: a series of crude bars, with the block representing the prices paid by American health-insurance plans looming over the others like a New York skyscraper that got lost in downtown Des Moines. [...]

There is a simple explanation for why American health care costs so much more than health care in any other country: because we pay so much more for each unit of care. As Halvorson explained, and academics and consultancies have repeatedly confirmed, if you leave everything else the same -- the volume of procedures, the days we spend in the hospital, the number of surgeries we need -- but plug in the prices Canadians pay, our health-care spending falls by about 50 percent.

The graphs are rather stunning. Of course, they don't explain exactly why there should be such a huge discrepancy, although Ezra notes that in other countries the government regulates the allowable rates. So the obvious conclusion is our private insurers here are willing to bleed Americans to the max to maintain profit levels for both themselves and the providers.

Hard to see how the difference is justified but on the other hand, I fear any cuts will fall on the backs of the doctors rather than their corporate managers and facilities. Knowing several doctors intimately, the one thing I can say, is they deserve the money they make. It's got to be the most stressful occupation in the world. It's not easy to have a job where every decision literally is life or death. And you have to live with the fact that sometimes, people die.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Monday morning mash up

Clearing out some new and some older saved links. This just in from Karen Tumulty. "Washington Times is now blasting conservative fundraising emails with a "BREAKING" subject line. Time to unsubscribe. "BREAKING" should be reserved for news." Amen to that.

Media Matters passes on this great reference website, exposing clean energy foes.

This was somewhat cheery. Gardens growing in Iraq.

This was somewhat icky. New "viral" media campaign. Company attaches tiny banner ads to house flies and lets them loose at some trade show. Video. [via Jules Siegel]

This is somewhat weird. Chrysler is going to offer live TV in its vehicles. Trying to figure out their target demo for this. People who are planning to live in their cars?

Speaking of cars, crazy conservative candidate in NY23 Doug Hoffman's bumper sticker.

Former DetNews co-blogger John Needham, gave up politics and started a new crowd-sourced recipe blog: Twitter Friends Recipes. Off to a yummy start.

I loved the White House garden this year. Michelle Obama harvested the last of it this week and according to our chief statistician of the White House press corps, Mark Knoller they got 963 pounds of produce from the garden. Some very impressive yams in this harvest. You can see a photo here.

And haven't checked in with Whiskey Ina in a while. She has a slew of great photos. Just keep scrolling.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Goodbye to media diversity

I have a bad feeling about this. Media is over-consolidated already and now Comcast is close to owning NBC Universal.

General Electric and the cable giant Comcast have moved closer to a deal giving control of NBC Universal to Comcast, and a formal announcement could be made sometime next week, people briefed on the talks said Sunday.

After a series of meetings last week, the two companies reached a tentative agreement on Friday over the main points of a deal, these people said. Comcast would own about 51 percent of NBC Universal, contributing several billions of dollars in cash and its own stable of cable networks to the new venture.

G.E., which currently owns 80 percent of the entertainment company, would retain the other 49 percent and would contribute about $12 billion in debt to the new entity, though it is expected eventually to sell its ownership interest over several years.

A cable company also owning the product they deliver doesn't strike me as good way to get diversity in entertainment, much less unbiased news programming. If they also suceed in killing net neutrality, we're so screwed.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Picture Perfect

Time change is killing me so I'm late with this, but I loved this photo of the White House Halloween. Perfect costuming. FLOTUS was dressed up just enough and POTUS wisely chose to go as himself.


More photos here.

And this video is pretty incredible. A bat was flying around inside the court and delaying the game. One of the players got tired of waiting, knocked it out of the air and apparently killed it with his bare hand. On Halloween! Spooky.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Goldman Sachs cashes in on bailout

This excellent McClatchy investigative report will raise the old blood pressure. Goldman Sachs is going to cash in big time thanks to the bailout. Read the whole thing, after you take your BP meds, but here's the punch line to this really bad joke on the taxpayer.

With the help of more than $23 billion in direct and indirect federal aid, Goldman appears to have emerged intact from the economic implosion, limiting its subprime losses to $1.5 billion. By repaying $10 billion in direct federal bailout money — a 23 percent taxpayer return that exceeded federal officials' demand — the firm has escaped tough federal limits on 2009 bonuses to executives of firms that received bailout money.

Goldman announced record earnings in July, and the firm is on course to surpass $50 billion in revenue in 2009 and to pay its employees more than $20 billion in year-end bonuses.

The details on how they gamed the system, most probably illegally, roils the mind. Even more infuriating, they will most likely get away with it because of the corporation's long time use of the revolving door inside the Beltway. Not to mention their ex-execs are currently in charge of the recovery efforts.

How much more will they get away with before we break out the torches and pitchforks? Seems to me, neither Wall Street or the Obama administration are going to get the message until they start seeing them.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

A purge surge in upstate NY

Frank Rich looks at NY23 and sees the funeral barge steaming into town for the GOP. He makes a good point on how bogus Hoffman's creds really are.

Last week it turned out that Hoffman’s prime attribute to the radical right — as a take-no-prisoners fiscal conservative — was bogus. In fact he’s on the finance committee of a hospital that happily helped itself to a $479,000 federal earmark. Then again, without the federal government largess that the tea party crowd so deplores, New York’s 23rd would be a Siberia of joblessness. The biggest local employer is the pork-dependent military base, Fort Drum.

That, of course, is the underlying irony of the tea party movement. Its biggest boosters are the same people who benefit the most from the government's largess, although they can't seem to see it because they don't get a check in the mail addressed to them personally. If they succeed, they screw themselves. Which is fine with me. Why should we do the work if they're willing to self-destruct? Rich outlines the problem for the GOP leadership.

The right’s embrace of Hoffman is a double-barreled suicide for the G.O.P. On Saturday, the battered Scozzafava suspended her campaign, further scrambling the race. It’s still conceivable that the Democratic candidate could capture a seat the Republicans should own. But it’s even better for Democrats if Hoffman wins. Punch-drunk with this triumph, the right will redouble its support of primary challengers to 2010 G.O.P. candidates they regard as impure. That’s bad news for even a Republican as conservative as Kay Bailey Hutchison, whose primary opponent in the Texas governor’s race, the incumbent Rick Perry, floated the possibility of secession at a teabagger rally in April and hastily endorsed Hoffman on Thursday.

Though they would never admit it, I suspect the DNC is secretly rooting for Hoffman. Their official statement feels a bit like subtle encouragement to the purgers to me.

What this says — emphatically — is that the true leaders of the Republican Party like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Tim Pawlenty have said to all moderates and independents — when it comes to being part of our party you need not apply. The only acceptable Republicans these days are those who subscribe to division, obstruction and a rigid far right wing ideology.

Meanwhile, the GOP leadership is trying to put on a brave face about it and stands ready to welcome Hoffman into the fold. As if they have a choice. For myself, I admit I hope he wins. The outcome won't change the dynamic of the Congress, but it would energize the Palin-Beck faction into even more extreme demands for ideological purity. Let the purge surge is my motto. By 2012 they will have shrunk their tent until it's small enough to drown in the proverbial bathtub.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]