The face of compromise as reflected in The Slatest

(Francis Bean Cobain)

Despite my moderate bent, sometimes it's not a pretty sight.

(D.C. Metro, Thanksgiving weekend)

Senate Begins Debate on Tax Cut Bill
But while the Senate looks set to pass the $858 billion package, House Democrats have protested with a raucous "Just Say No" rally.
Read original story in The Wall Street Journal | Friday, Dec. 10, 2010

DADT Repeal Dies In Senate
Harry Reid needed 60 votes to cut off debate on the defense authorization bill and get to an actual vote. He got 57.
Read original story in Talking Points Memo Talking Points Memo | Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010

Obama Administration Retreats on Pollution Rules
The EPA has decided to hold off new regulations on toxic industrial emissions fearing such environmental protections may cost jobs.
Read original story in The New York Times | Friday, Dec. 10, 2010

Senate Republicans Kill Benefits for 9/11 Rescue Workers
A fully paid-for piece of legislation providing health care coverage to 9/11 workers sickened by exposure to toxic fumes--sounds like a bipartisan fantasy, right? Wrong.
Read original story in The Washington Monthly | Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010

Senate Tables DREAM Act
The student immigration measure made it through the House on Wednesday but was tabled in the Senate Thursday because Harry Reid doesn't have enough votes to stop a Republican filibuster.
Read original story in The Hill | Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010

Obama's Tax Deal Infuriates Big Donors
Major donors are expressing "extreme disappointment" and considering withholding their donations in the 2012 election season.
Read original story in The Los Angeles Times | Friday, Dec. 10, 2010

"Nobel Peace Prize President Obama Calls For More War"

- OfficialWire headline. This guy's kind of a nut, but he's got some stuff dead on.

A paraphrase of a quote:

History may not repeat itself, but it does seem to rhyme.
-The New Yorker

The original:

It is not worthwhile to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man's character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible.
- Mark Twain in Eruption

(Yeah, okay, it's not the right Pope; sue me.)

It was on [November 30] in 1095 that Pope Urban II, while on a speaking tour in France, called for the first Crusade to recapture Jerusalem from the Turks. There was no imminent threat. Muslims had occupied Jerusalem for hundreds of years. But Urban II had noticed that Europe was becoming an increasingly violent place, with low-level knights killing each other over their land rights, and he thought that he could bring peace to the Christian world by directing all that violence against an outside enemy. So he made up stories of how Turks in Jerusalem were torturing and killing Christians, and anyone who was willing to join the fight against them would go to heaven.


About 100,000 men from France, Germany, and Italy answered the call, formed into several large groups, and marched across Asia Minor to the Middle East. Nearly half of them died from exhaustion and sickness before they ever reached their destination. They began sacking cities along the way, and they fought among each other for the spoils of each battle. When they reached the trading city of Antioch, they killed almost everyone, including the Christians who lived there. By the time they got to Jerusalem, it had recently fallen into the hands of Egyptians, who were friendly with the Vatican. But the crusaders attacked anyway, killing every Muslim they could find. The Jews in the city gathered in the temple, and the crusaders set it on fire. Pope Urban II died two weeks later, never hearing the news.

-The Writer's Almanac

Aww, that's too bad (or: One step foward, two... um, I forgot what I was saying because I'm really high right now.)

After the buzz wore off from the Obama administration's decision for the Justice Department to back up off a state for gettin' down, those damn Yankees go and thwart the will of the people. Or at least of pot smokers.

I've recently started getting these updates to keep up with all the different fronts of the War on the War on Drugs, or at least the war on pot, from theses guys at the Marijuana Policy Project. Now that things are truly, seemingly, in the hands of states, let's hope for a wave of different types of legalization/decriminalization to sweep the land. Okay, maybe not sweeping, that seems like a lot of work; maybe just, like, by osmosis...

Marijuana Policy Project Alert:

...New Hampshire legislature came just shy of voting to override Gov. John Lynch (D)'s veto of the state's proposed medical marijuana law. Two-thirds of the votes were needed. Although we cleared the House with 67.6% of the vote (240-115), it lost in the Senate, 14-10.

The bill had passed the legislature in June, by 232-108 in the House and 14-10 in the Senate. But on July 10, Gov. Lynch vetoed the bill, after refusing to meet with 15 patients and after failing to give input to the legislative conference committee, which amended the bill to address each of the eight concerns he had voiced in April.

...To override the veto and pass the bill into law, we needed supportive votes from two-thirds of voting members of the House and 16 votes in the Senate.

But the bill faced strong opposition from the state's attorney general and chiefs of police.

...71% of New Hampshire voters support allowing seriously and terminally ill patients to use and grow medical marijuana for personal use if their doctors recommend it, according to a 2008 Mason-Dixon poll.

The above is an infographic depicting the percentage breakdown of all crimes in the U.S. for last year. Any guess what's the #1 single most-arrestable offense? Gettin' mean with a little weed (or other drugs).

It seems the attorney general and the chief's of police wouldn't have much to do anymore if their were no drug users (mostly pot smokers) or sellers (who would vanish upon changing the laws) to bust. Do you know what it's like in winter up there? No, me neither, but for some reason The Shining comes to mind.

Though, if pot was legal, they could all just sit around and get stoned. Then, maybe there'd be less hunting accidents. Because there'd probably be a lot less hunting. And less drinking and fighting and car accidents and road rage and child abuse and spousal abuse and bullying and reduce a whole lot of the other crimes on the graphic--wait, why is pot smoking still illegal, still considered a bad thing?

Once was douche, but now he's found.

At least he knows how to give props when deserved.

The administration's recovery efforts [for hurricane Katrina] have drawn praise from Republicans, too, including Gov. Bobby Jindal. Jindal has credited Obama's team with bringing a more practical and flexible approach to the process. "There's a sense of momentum and a desire to get things done," he said in August.

So, it looks like he decided to play nice and except some help from the federal government, after all. I gave Bobby a hard time back when he gave us all a laugh at a dorky looking Indian-dude with a Louisiana accent and cheesy smile (see below) trying to out-pimp Obama, after the president's speech. Well, Bobby, I know how to give props too. Enjoy it, though, I doubt there'll be much more.

The Odds on Obama (or: Things that creep me out)

Weren't very good, but then again he was as safe a bet as Bill Clinton. Regardless, both were better off than MJ or W, as well they should have been--if only because Obama would be hard-pressed to fuck up as royally as George Jr. But, that's also why it was a stupid move (in the words of some diplo-type "Absolutely stupid"--thanks M.) to give Barack the award: he hasn't really done anything yet, and the few things he has done aren't worth the approbation. And, perhaps not as importantly but more annoyingly, this is just the kind of thing the Right will use to support their horror that the world is sucking at the teat of Obama-nation.


Still, what's most disturbing about the whole affair is this creepy graphic The Economist used in their reaction piece about the award.


Heard George Packer (of The New Yorker) on the radio say Obama should not accept it (didn't know it was an option), that they should put it on hold, so to speak, until he has accomplished something. I completely agree.



Otherwise, I've mostly been creeped-out by science. Like the oncoming war of man versus machine ala Terminator. There's the singularity that Ray Kurzweil talks about, explained on this podcast from Future Tense, a weekly science/tech show. Basically, the rate of technological advance will increase so much that soon we'll be able to live indefinitely, if only virtually. But first computers are just going to get smarter than we are, hence the possible catastrophe. According to The Economist, it will be here soon.

"How soon before evolvable machines become cleverer than people? Little over a decade is the current consensus. One such machine has already been awarded a patent for something it quietly invented on its own."

Crap.



Alongside the computers outsmarting us, not only will medical technology increase, but we'll be incorporating computers into our biology, like some of us already (or soon will) have. Though for now technology only tacks on a few years, eventually it will allow us to live a really, really long time. Ready for that?

"'Very long lives are not the distant privilege of remote future generations -- very long lives are the probable destiny of most people alive now in developed countries,' Kaare Christensen of the Danish Aging Research Center wrote on Friday in a study in the Lancet medical journal.

Many governments in developed nations are already making moves toward raising the typical age of retirement to try to cope with aging populations."

What? As soon as people start living a little longer they talk about making us work more? Screw you Reuters.



"The researchers said this was an important strategy, and added that if part-time work was considered for more of the workforce, that could have yet more benefits.

"If people in their 60s and early 70s worked much more than they do nowadays, then most people could work fewer hours per week.... Preliminary evidence suggests that shortened working weeks over extended working lives might further contribute to increases in life expectancy and health."

Oh, okay, I like the sound of that. But still:

"'People younger than 85 years are living longer and, on the whole, are able to manage their daily activities for longer.'

But for people older than 85, the situation is less clear, the researchers said. Data are sparse, and there is widespread concern that exceptional longevity -- with ever larger numbers living to 100 and more -- could be grim for the people themselves and the societies they live in."

Crap.

"Keep in mind: I'm rich, I already have health insurance, and I don't care about other people."

Ah, Stephen Colbert. God bless his honesty. Check out his interview about health care reform. On the same episode watch the interview with Corey Booker, who is one of the stars of a Bravo documentary, Brick City, about Newark, the city of which he is the mayor. While you're at Colbert Nation, hear the new Flaming Lips album streaming live, and see them perform. After that, watch the interview with Wayne Coyne, the singer, in which Colbert accuses him of trying to "expand his mind" through the band's music. How dare they.


"Cut the president some slack," requests Obama. And though I completely agree about Kanye West--I hope he gets crabs--it's never a good sign when someone refers to themselves in the third person... this bloggist would never do that.

I was more afraid he was going to start swatting heads, "c'mon guys..." remember the last pest he dealt with in an interview.

A week late, but who's counting?

July 4th 2009. Louis Armstrong on the radio. It’s his birthday too.

Reading The Great Gatsby, again. Jonathan Franzen on NPR says he revisits the book every year or two. I’ve always leaned toward This Side of Paradise, though Gatsby is possibly, as the people on the radio had been proposing, the American Novel. More true lately, with the rise and fall of big things. The stock market, gangsters, bond-traders, “self-made” people, indulgence, arrogance, and tragedy shared, or not.

A good story tendrilled to today, Gatsby props up American myths to stand or fall against the winds of human frailty and liability. The land of opportunity; to do what? Somewhere to re-invent yourself, start over. That’s kind of what Agniezska, my friend, recently-citizened, whose validity I gladly vouched for to the proper authorities, said. Besides the, perhaps, more common conflation of “opportunity” and money-making, she says, to leave all you’ve known and what’s been expected of you can too be a compelling a reason to come to America.

I’ve decided to stay put today. I’m staying on the block. Not as much action as I would expect, but it’s still early. 1:52 pm.

A Louis classic is playing, a slower romantic one. He’s singing something about giving him your lips. “A Kiss to Build a Dream On,” that’s the Armstrong title.

On the corner of Gates and Marcy, the next cross street up from here at Monroe, stands the Louis Armstrong Public Houses. I wonder if anyone over there is listening to this sweet, indulgent daylong-plus retrospective of the erstwhile jazzman. It’s one of the least attractive, though they’re still common, places I’ve seen in Bed-Stuy; at least that’s within spitting distance of my place and sometimes crossed in normal route.

Firecrackers and some small fireworks have been going off for days. Today there are more, gladly. Just a bit rebellion, and not just for the metaphor of artillery, fireworks that fit well with the underlying ethos of the day: don’t tell us what to do. A silly law easily broken, a way to, more than just let off work-a-day-steam by indulging in ritual, convenient and relatively safe. We need this. For America, born of rebellious teenage-logic—like, the battle of attrition—law breaking for the sake of it, anti-authoritarianism just because, is part of its creation myth.

Triangulated by a milk-mouthed jazz radio voice, car stereos throbbing whoomps, and the tinny jangle of tiny speakers in windows turned street-ward, I woke up from a nap. Then a new theme is introduced: the ice cream man’s Scottish-jig-something-or-other-ditty playing on and on, and forever; just beneath, an aftertaste of subtle but substantial lawnmower-roar of the truck’s refrigeration.

Black Power-fists exchanged for Barack Obama portraiture on t-shirts, the now iconic image made by a white man of a man half-white. Beneath the shirt still angry, but anger more stilled, more patient and, perhaps, more optimistic; perhaps there’s more reason to be.

Fountains of silver and orange fill front steps of brownstones, whistle-crack. Night has come. Whistle-boom. The sun has gone. Whistle-crackle-fizzle. Darkness only broken up occasionally by—crash, like metal doors thrown off rooftops onto sidewalks below.

Thunder? Or the low rumble of far dark sky disturbed. Pop, pop: go the smaller firecrackers kids get to set off.

Momentary anarchy. Insurgent ritual. Rebellion distilled.


Yes, that's an Hassidic cop.

Stupid, stupid conservatives.

I was raised on the supposed stupidity of liberals and the glory of the conservative movement, born in the 70’s and a child of the 80’s. But as I age so does the conviction that, although there might have been some truth to that reality (while Clinton didn’t help, the sex-capades-impeachment was a early warning signal of the neo-con-absurdity to come), it certainly isn’t the case anymore. In fairness to conservatives whom I respect (family members included), this is mostly in regards to the rise and proliferation of the conservative media.

Cases in point:

Fox front man Bill O'Reilly was beside himself over the handshake, indignantly claiming that former President Richard Nixon never met with Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Perhaps O'Reilly would benefit from a refresher in Political History 101, because it's a well-established fact that Nixon met with Mao in 1972, a point Keith Olbermann drove home in naming O'Reilly "Worst Person" on Thursday for his historically challenged comment.

Conservative leader and radio host Rush Limbaugh asserted, "If you look at what we are calling torture, you have to laugh," said that "if somebody can be water-tortured six times a day, then it isn't torture," and claimed that "appeasers" have "water[ed] down" definition of torture like "NOW gang" did with definition of domestic violence.

County Fair, the official Media Matters blog, last week called out the conservative Washington Times for its bizarre, fact-free editorial that claimed President Obama's job approval ratings were "in the basement" and that he was historically unpopular. True Alice-in-Wonderland stuff since recent polling data suggest the exact opposite about the president's popularity. Well, it took a whole week, but the Times finally walked back that nonsense retracting the entire editorial noting, "We hereby retract our April 28 editorial 'Barack's in the basement' because we misapplied several polling comparisons of various presidents after their first 100 days in office." That's being generous when you consider the entire piece was completely made up.

[W]hen Gov. John Baldacci (D) signed a marriage equality law, Maine became the fifth state to allow legal same-sex marriage. On the Christian Broadcasting Network today, Pat Robertson responded by claiming that the “ultimate conclusion” of legalizing same-sex marriage would be the legalization of polygamy, bestiality, child molestation and pedophilia. “You mark my words, this is just the beginning in a long downward slide in relation to all the things that we consider to be abhorrent,” said Robertson.

Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Rush Limbaugh Show guest host Mark Steyn criticized the president as an elitist because he ordered a burger with "spicy mustard" or "Dijon mustard." Hannity claimed that Obama ordered a "fancy burger" with a "very special condiment," while Steyn asserted Obama is trying "to enlighten us" through his order. Ingraham asked of Obama: "What kind of man orders a cheeseburger without ketchup but Dijon mustard? ... The guy orders a cheeseburger without ketchup? What is that?" In their discussions of Obama's burger order, Hannity, Ingraham, and Steyn all referenced a Grey Poupon commercial featuring actors portraying wealthy British men expressing desire for the mustard.

David Feherty, in an essay for a Dallas magazine wrote, "From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this, though: despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death."

As Olbermann has explained, the point would not be to watch Hannity suffer. Rather, it would be to prove to him — and perhaps his viewers — that waterboarding is in fact “cruel, inhuman” torture — that it is what an adviser on terrorism to the departments of Homeland Security, Special Operations, and Intelligence called “slow-motion suffocation.”

Indeed, the 2005 torture memo written by Steven Bradbury required the CIA to have a tracheotomy kit on hand to revive a detainee who had effectively drowned:

[A] detainee could suffer spasms of the larynx that would prevent him from breathing even when the application of water is stopped and the detainee is returned to an upright position. In the event of such spasms, a qualified physician would immediately intervene to address the problem, and, if necessary, the intervening physician would perform a tracheotomy. …we are informed that the necessary emergency medical equipment is always present - although not visible to the detainee — during any application of the waterboard.

A footnote to the memo warns, “for reasons of physical fatigue or psychological resignation, the subject may simply give up, allowing excessive filling of the airways,” and “aggressive medical intervention” may be required to restore breathing. And yet Hannity continues to insist, “It’s not drowning.”

Indeed, the fact that conservatives and the Task Force in particular feel the need to lie about the history and traditions surrounding the NDP [National Day of Prayer—ew!] suggests that they are less concerned with promoting prayer in America than they are with taking every possible opportunity to “slam Obama” for political gain.

I wish it were true that Obama was in some way—any way—anti-religious, but unfortunately that’s just not the case. In fact, as I suggested about Bobby Jindal’s necessary conversion to an Anglo-religion, so too did Obama need the sanctification and protection of J.C. to win the White House. Half black? Sure. Absentee father? Well, OK. Muslim absentee father? Ummm… Community organizer. What’s that? But (god forbid) had Obama ever waiver in his devotion to some imaginary Father and his ghost-Son—not to be confused with “Ghost-Dad,” the ridiculously horrible Bill Cosby movie—he could have forgotten about the presidency.

Why? Because the equally ridiculously horrible reality in this country, indeed most the world, is that, even as religion slowly ebbs from humanity and even the transgendered get civil rights, atheism remains a pox in our houses.

An epilogue for the down-twodden

From flavorpill.com Chi-town.

Everyone's a-Twitter these days — particularly politicians. President Obama's Twitter updates have been sporadic since the campaign ended, but John McCain reliably sends out curmudgeonly examples of "pork-barrel" spending. Claire McCaskill tweets her votes, as well as March Madness play-by-plays, and the Prime Minister of Britain even tweets from Downing Street. In Chicago, from 1st Ward Alderman Manny Flores to Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, local pols are slowly boarding the Twitterwagon. (Petition here for Senators Durbin and Burris to get with the program.) But I'm unconvinced that Twittering Congressmen really increase transparency and accountability for their constituents. So far, I think the most useful Chi-town government Twitter feed isn't from a news outlet or an elected official at all: it's that of sandwich-and-potato-pancake heaven Manny's Deli, the preferred cafeteria of local political figures, firefighters, and the fuzz. The folks at Manny's are tweeting their specials — for the kind of pork (and beef) spending the carnivores among us can actually support.

- Audrey Mast, Managing Editor

Let it die, man, let it die.

Wow

What great questions the President has been asked tonight:

Why didn't you come out sooner (a whopping couple of days) with your anger at AIG? I like to think about something before I talk about it.

The Homeless? The way the system's set up there's always been homeless. That's what fixing the economy can change. It's not acceptable in this country.

Has the last 64 days been color blind?

Stem cell ethics questions? (Predictably, Fox News) The science leads us.

More from the "bogus 'war on the wealthy' storyline."

Excuse the excessive borrowing, but this budget is too important... If you care about reality and stuff. Again, from Media Matters:

The media's tax fraud

by Jamison Foser

Last week, President Obama unveiled a budget outline that extends the Bush tax cuts for all but the top two percent of taxpayers and makes permanent a tax credit of up to $800 for low- and middle-income workers that was included in the recent stimulus package, among other tax cuts.

On the other hand, individual taxpayers with taxable income above $200,000 ($250,000 for families) per year would pay more in taxes under Obama's plan, under which the tax rates paid on income in the top brackets would revert to their levels under President Clinton in the 1990s -- from 33 and 35 percent to 36 and 39.6 percent. Slate.com's Daniel Gross estimates that for someone with $350,000 in income, this will amount to about $1,500 a year in increased taxes...

If the expiration, on schedule, of tax cuts that were always scheduled to expire is described as a policy of raising taxes, that makes a mockery of the entire tax policy debate of the past decade. It rigs tax debates in favor of Republicans, who find it easier to argue for tax cuts for the wealthy if they can argue that the cuts won't cost very much -- by making them "temporary" -- but who then get to argue that the scheduled expiration that they included in order to make the cuts look affordable would constitute a tax increase. The GOP gets to have it both ways, describing tax cuts as temporary when it helps them, and pretending they were intended to be permanent when it helps them. It's no great surprise Republicans want to have it both ways -- but that doesn't mean the media should go along.

The actual change the Obama proposal makes to the Bush tax rates is making permanent the cuts for those who make less than $200,000. The proposal doesn't actually increase income tax rates for anyone compared to current law, and it reduces them for the vast majority of taxpayers. Yet the "increase" -- mandated by a law signed by President Bush, and scheduled to occur for nearly a decade -- has gotten all the attention, while the cuts have largely escaped notice from the major media...

You have to wonder how media stars like Blitzer and Gibson have lost touch with their viewers so badly that they think $200,000 incomes are typical.

Charlie Gibson reportedly makes $8 million a year and is paid less than his counterparts at CBS and NBC.

Might that have something to do with his lack of perspective? How could it not?

How could it not, indeed.

"Peggy, that boy ain't right." -Hank Hill, from King of the Hill

Figuring out how best to assess--alright, brutalize--the boy-wonder from down under, Bobby Jindal, I found my self simply shaking my head in bewilderment; much like the fictional cartoon character quoted above talking about his son Bobby (seen above).

As for Jindal, the odd mix of brown face and good 'ol boy voice, smothered in the down home temperament of George W., made for the uneasy digestion of my dinner, to say the least.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, Jindal admits to changing his name--no surprise there--to Bobby because of another, albeit corporal, character from the TV show, The Brady Bunch. Any wonder whether or not Jindal would have been voted in sans Bobby? Me thinks not.

(Hm, makes you wonder if Barack should have changed his name? What would it have been? Tommy Obama? Kinda rolls of the tongue, no?)

Admittedly, I feel like I missed the boat on this guy--sorry folks. I had just recently decided how much I hate this guy--one of two new-brown-hopes for the Republican Party--when he goes and self-destructs before I had a clean shot at him. I mean, jeez, what's the point now? It's not as fun to kick a person when they're down. Well, not as fun. So, lets, shall we?

If you've watched any news in the last week, you'd be aware of the slow-speaking, seemingly, perpetually sweaty-palmed, pre-adolescent voiced governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. Much like his fellow douche-bag from the north, who came from relative anonymity to "revitalize" the GOP in the presidential election, his bark turned out to be equally as flaccid as his bite. And like Sarah Palin before him, it didn't take long for the loud, proud swaggering of this good 'ol fashioned American to fizzle into the same old individualist, government-hating conservatism.

And though the guy seems like he might be a few IQ points higher than his female comrade (and Bush Jr. as well), he still speaks out of the same half-smirk, and with the same condescending, pedantic-while-still-trying-to-be-friends tone, rife with snarky jingoism, of his predecessor. Like: I don't really blame for listening to some guy named Hussein and wanting to believe him because you're sooo stupid; but now I'm going to tell you why he's full of shit and why I'm right.

It's to be expected that some Republican would have to rebut anything and everything that the President (that's still so cool to write) said, even if the suggestion was that the sky is blue and the grass is green. "The man must be color blind!" no doubt would be barked from the ill-fitted suit of some politico. And, indeed, that's just what happened.

Only, what usually comes next, didn't. Instead of the partisan seesaw of point/counterpoint about who was more effective or "won" spilling over into the media and blog-world, what's surprising is the evisceration, by even Fox News and the like, of his response to Obama's speech to Congress last week. He's been getting it at both ends, so to speak.

Of course, from a feckless media, focused on the drama of the political tennis match rather than content of these types of things, coverage was utterly devoid of any political analysis of Obama's speech or Jindal's rebuttal, other than the latter's image creation ala Regan-retread.

And here I was thinking there'd be no one to kick around for awhile.

But thankfully the GOP is always quick to proffer up some born-again, intelligent design-believing, anti-abortion/pro-death penalty (every life is sacred, huh?) moralist that appeals, more and more exclusively, to older white people of non-urban areas.

A slogan during an election run for Jindal was "Bubbas for Bobby." This ain't your (my) Jewish bubba, either. There's a 60 Minutes interview with Jindal and his wife in which they said they consider themselves non-Indian and tried to downplay their ethnicity. As well, he converted to Christianity from his family's Hindu background. (Wonder if the Bubbas would've accepted Jindal if his conversion was from Islam, which also is heavily represented in his parent's native India.)

But what my real ire is reserved for: the governor of Louisiana saying that a) the lesson from Katrina is that big government sucks (I can't even deal with how fucked this is in this post) and b) although he is philosophically opposed to President Obama's Stimulus plan (including the tax increase of less than 5% for only 5% of the country; really only done effectively by the expiring Bush II's tax cuts, bringing the rich back to Regan-era levels), he plans on taking almost all the money allotted to his state--all except additional unemployment benefits.

For the many thousands of newly out of work people, at no fault of their own, in his state, Jindal is unwilling to help them in this supposed economic crisis because that violates his other ideological relic from Economics 101. (Dick.) Namely, that unemployment benefits decrease the incentive to find new work, or so the theory goes. You know, much like the proverbial, Pavlovian dog. Only I don't feel that we're dogs. What we have to come to realize is that this is exactly what the neo-liberal economist thinks of human decision making.

It's as if Jindal, and others (but I'll get to them another time), went to the first class or read the first few chapters of a freshman Econ class, and then stopped (indeed, there's no lacking of these scratch-the-surface intellectuals on the left too; like only reading Marx's The Communist Manifesto and not Capital).

I have a decent perspective on this as I am currently taking a freshman Econ class, but, I've already gotten farther than that. And, although I can prove to you with graphs and curves and calculus (oh my!) why, in the perfect world of the free-market economy, the minimum-wage is actually bad for workers--that doesn't make it so in our not-so-perfect world.

Of course, to hear Jindal speak, it sounds as if he's hardly taking anything from the stimulus bill, you know, because it's sooo bad for the country. But the fact is, it will be more like + 97% what's offered to the state. Hypocritical dick.

I like numbers; what do you like?

1.75 trillion - budget deficit, 1/2 of which will be reduced over the next 4 years.

0 - how many subsidies farmers making over 1/2 million will receive. (Yay!)

5 vs 95 - (annual income of less-than vs. more-than $250,000) percentages of the Obama-designated class divide.

2011 - year tax increases (or, really, just rescinded tax breaks from Bush 2 that will help rich people pay their share--see 4.6 below) take effect on the above %5.

4.6 - the percentage of the increase. Seriously? Everybody (of the 5%; i.e., individuals making 200,000 and household making more than $250,000 a year) needs to stop being such dicks. C'mon, really? That's $9,200 more a year for a single person making over 2 hundred thousand. Really, you're going to bitch about that when we're supposed to be concerned our whole society might be falling a part? Get a grip.

For someone making $1 million, 4 times the lowest in the percentile, that's $46,ooo--enough for an education at a decent school and good health insurance. Oh please, Mr. Millionaire, send a poor kid to college; especially if you don't have your own. Won't that make you feel good?

Well, honestly, I don't really care if it does, but you owe us, man. Since the time of Regan, you've had tax cuts and loopholes and tort reform and a sharp decline in crime (and yet somehow, an ever growing prison population--hm, failed War on Drugs, anyone?) and high-end condos and Trader Joe's in cool neighborhoods (see decline in crime) and cocaine and the BlackBerry, nay iPhone.

x>0 - pictures taken of returning war dead.

2 new members (possibly) of Congress = DC + Utah

100 - the % of existing-home sales in CA increased in the past year. That's kind of good news, right?

I'm proud of my country.

According to Brian Lehrer, on WNYC, President Obama's address/news conference the other night was viewed by more people than "American Idol"--if that's not Change We Can Believe In, I don't know what is. Way to go America.

The Winter of Our Difficult Year (or: All Ginned' Up.)

Indeed. He totally ignored Ellen. Ellen! That lady's skin is literally falling of her bones. She was all like, bitch, you didn't even answer my question! Barack was all like, I don't hear you, and called on another reporter.

Obama was kinda pissy, but so have I, too. These Milton Friedman idolaters just don't get it. "The party is now over," Obama chastised grimly. "Doing nothing is not an option." The president spoke of "ideological baggage," still around after 8 years (more like 28 by my count) of "failed" policies. Obama made it clear he wasn't going to Stepin Fetchit for politics and Washington-cultura as usual.

In this way, Obama is a radical. Screw (hey, he said he "screwed up" the other day) seniority. The old boys club is closed. The yacht club clique is over. What, you're still here? You lost. "That's what the election was about." A referendum: out with the old and in with the new. Change. You're the reason we're in such a predicament! he complains, begging sympathy.

For that I do. But then, I don't like it when he points out, dramatically, that he "inherited" a "doubling of the deficit." Yeah, we know dude, no ones blaming you. Chill. Which he usually is, except tonight, he was fierce--kind of "on fire," so to speak.

Speaking of the regularly "cool" Obama, there's a really good SNL skit (yeah, Hulu) playing on how mellow, chill his demeanor is. Very jazz. Not jazz-hands jazz. Like Blue Note-jazz.

And so, round one to Obama.

I just spit all over my screen

Because of this video. Holy crap. Off to grab a towel and wipe my MacBook down. Enjoy, and say thanks to FREEwilliamsburg.

Born to Hulu

FYI, folks, in case you didn't know: today is a new era. An historical landmark, a new beginning, a breathe of fresh air has swept through the land--and it smells good. I'm talking about the change that has finally come, before our very eyes, and the hope engendered by the progress made on a journey started long ago. Of course, I'm talking about, none other than the freedom to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart without cable hookup, online, for nothing, and with even less commercials than there are normally. And who is to thank for this day to rejoice? No, not President of the United States, one Barack Hussein Obama (although something this good must have had him involved somehow), but something called Hulu. What does it mean? Who the hell cares. Now, you can watch the best fake news around. Yep, The Colbert Report, too. Happy day, oh happy day!

BTW: The first black president was inaugurated yesterday to much fanfare. That's right, a black guy is now the Man. These are indeed confusing times we live in. I heard Public Enemy's "Fight The Power" has become Rush Limbaugh's new theme song. I can die happy now.

What's the hub-bub, bub?

So now that Obama-rama is almost upon us, one of the first questions to be answered, raised by one of the first issues we've been promised will dealt with by the New-Man, the closing of Guantanamo prison: what is to be done with all those meanies?

Well, brought onto American soil would raise the messy issues of habeas corpus and other Latin legalese. Eh. That seems like a lot of trouble. Especially, as is often the case, there's no smoking guns for the good folks at CSI: Miami to get evidence from. Hell, there's not even any rape-kits. Remember, this isn't Abu-Grahb and we're not talking about prosecuting American soldiers--hey, watch it, buddy.

Of course, we could try returning them to their countries of origin, or even where they were captured, mostly in Afghanistan and Iraq. Why not? Undesirables have been routinely shipped off to these types of countries (you know: lots of sand, oil, and Muslims) for years. And they--the new jailers--don't even have to worry about ball-torture retribution from the public, as balls are fair game! Then again, if we're to believe these guys are such bad-asses, why would they want them? And, better still, why do we want to give them up?

I've got the answer: the sea. Either a decommissioned, or unused, aircraft-carrier should do the trick, right? Not our land, not theirs. Even better, for the prisoners and guards anyway, how about an ocean-liner? You know, a cruise ship! Nothing fancy, of course. But I'm sure there's plenty sitting in dry-dock these days, the way the vacation industry has been giving it away lately. Christ, even my parents are going on a cruise in a couple of weeks--so it can't cost more than an Econo-lodge per-night. I'd spring for that. Plus, how angry a terrorist can you be if you're being tooled around the Gulf of Mexico, drinking pina coladas? Virgin pina coladas, of course. Very virgin, most likely.

End times

By far the best, most concise and still technical enough way to follow the end of the world (economy) as we know it. Still, for some reason, this isn't a depressing thought. Am I being naive? Uninformed. Trust me, my optimism is not only steeped in Obama-rama. What then? I'll let you know when I figure it out. Till then, it's a damn good show. Talk about reality-TV.

From Oprah's "Big Give" to that show where millionaires go undercover to find deserving people to give a wad of cash to, TV entertainment has moved from greed and humiliation based shows to philanthropy. Not such a bad thing, eh?

All of this is part of a trend I've been seeing and talking about with others lately. A move towards humility and gravitas, sobriety and maybe even solemnity. Unquestionably there's a pragmatism, at least economically, but it's more than that. There's a blurb in The New Yorker recently about how businesses are using less flashy, more restrained and simply designed bags or packaging for their stores and products. Perhaps not so much in other parts of the country, but here in NYC, where we travel to and fro together, there's beginning to be a noticeable absence of haggard (or just gag inducing) women (or, see below, their boyfriends) using their well-worn Victoria's Secret bags for every-day portage, with all the damaging mental images they bring. Thank you, economic downturn, thank you.

That bitch is crazy! #62

Iran’s parliament sacked the interior minister, Ali Kordan, an ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for falsely claiming to have an honorary degree from Oxford University. --The Economist

"How much of a fraud is Bozell? In 1998, Bozell claimed the media weren't paying enough attention to Monica Lewinsky -- at a time when there were 500 news reports a day on the topic. Now he's alternately claiming Obama is a "socialist" and a "Reaganite." And in his column last week, he complained that a recent Project for Excellence in Journalism study overstated the extent of negative coverage of Obama by including "talk-radio hosts from Rush Limbaugh to Randi Rhodes" who are supposed to "express an opinion." But that complaint is completely false. The study in question specifically excluded talk radio. It's right there in the study's methodology: "Talk radio stories, which are part of PEJ's regular NCI, were not included in this campaign study of tone." If Brent Bozell tells you the sun is shining, you better grab an umbrella." --Media Matters for America