Cogitamus

"We are your neighbors, friends, and relatives"*

 
*first words on the TSA website

I just got back from a business trip requiring me to fly through BWI (Baltimore-Washington International). BWI was one of the first airports in the country to implement the TSA strip-search scanners, but it's the most convenient airport for me. Besides, as the TSA itself tells us in several different places on its website, "advanced imaging technology screening is optional to all passengers."

Many of us on this blog have already discussed the bullshit-o-rama that is airport security, especially the pointless and invasive strip-search scanners. Costing taxpayers billions of dollars, they are the biggest boondoggle to come down the pike in a long time. Like so many of the other procedures we go through at airport checkpoints, they don't make us any safer, they just provide a showy bit of theater in which we all play our parts: we pretend we're actually doing something to protect ourselves from The Terrorists. Because The Terrorists are always On The Verge of Getting Us.

So of course I was prepared to step into my starring role along with everyone else, except that I knew I was going to decline the strip-search scanner.

Tuesday Trivia

- Our friend big bad wolf pointed out this article in the New York Times to me about his alma mater, Brockton High School in Massachusetts, and some significant academic improvement that has been made there.  Brockton, where bbw grew up, is a decaying industrial town just south of Boston, most famous for having produced champion boxers Rocky Marciano and Marvin Hagler.  It has one of the largest high schools on the East Coast, with over 4,100 students.  (I believe when I was in high school that enrollment might have exceeded 5,000.)   I was gratified to see that the principal of the school felt no need to get rid of its union or union contract:

Teachers unions have resisted turnaround efforts at many schools. But at Brockton, the union never became a serious adversary, in part because most committee members were unionized teachers, and the committee scrupulously honored the union contract. 

[Incidentally, the principal also managed to fire a teacher who would not get on board with her changes -- after a due process hearing.  Amazing.  Why didn't anyone else think of that?]

- I laughed to see that a survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life showed that atheists demonstrated the highest level of religious knowledge among Americans.  I disagree a bit with Jamelle's theory of why this is so -- he views it as the outcome of an embattled minority trying to understand the dominant culture.  I would suggest that, at least among atheists, that the knowledge stems from two distinct strands -- 1) a lot of atheists are people who once had religious impulses; and 2) a lot of atheists really enjoy being able to jam the Bible down the throats of religious fundamentalists.  (I resemble both categories here.)  Amusingly enough, when I picked up my son tonight he asked me if I could suggest a Bible story for use in his western religion class.  I went with 1 Samuel 15, the story of Saul being condemned by God for being insufficiently ruthless in carrying out genocide on the Amalekites:  

Samuel also said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.

Saul fell short by not killing the king of the Amalekites and sparing some of the animals.  Thank God Judaism and Christianity are religions of peace.

- I enjoyed this interview linked to by Sully with brilliant and curmudgeonly French writer Michel Houellebecq.  He is indeed quite the provocateur.

- I find the notion of large tub of goo Rush Limbaugh holding himself up as an exemplar of masculinity to be comic in the extreme.    What an utter fucking pig.          

Monday Open Thread

 

"Common Disaster" - Cowboy Junkies

Sorry for the sparse posting, but the obligations continue to run thick. 

On Saturday I had the opportunity for the first time since it was completed to walk most of the areas that were transformed by the "Big Dig" project, which did a host of things to transform the heart of Boston's transportation grid, the most important being the demolition of the elevated highway known as the "central artery," which cut through the middle of the city.  Whatever the projects cost overruns and flaws, the end results are most impressive, bringing together once disparate parts of the city into a walkable, inviting, aesthetically pleasing whole.  The combination of that, and the fact that we were able to travel solely on foot or by public transportation -- using commuter rail, subway, and trolley -- made for a very pleasant and low stress day.  

It also meant I got to devote time to reading Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom" rather than get irritated by the driving habits of my fellow Massholes.   I am going to post something about the book once I finish -- I've been a bit amazed at the attacks that have been aimed at it recently, primarily, but not exclusively, from the right.  These criticisms strike me, at least at this point in my reading, as unjust and indicative of mindsets that don't really understand what it is that literature and art are all about.

Alright, time to bill again I'm afraid. 

Please share your thoughts of the moment.      

Make Them Pay Their Taxes

This morning was the third annual "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," sponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund, a collection of right-wing lawyers.  True to the spirit and practice of American conservatism, they have linked the preservation of churches' tax-exempt status with the First Amendment rights of the pastors who preach within them.

"For governor, I'm going to encourage people to vote for Bill Haslam," said David Shelley, pastor of Smith Springs Baptist Church here, one of seven Tennessee religious leaders who plan to take part in the pulpit protest. He also will throw his support behind a Republican statehouse candidate and urge his congregation to skip the spot on the ballot where a Democratic state senator is running unopposed. 

"My support for these candidates has nothing to do with their party or their skin color or any other nonbiblically related issue," he said.

Shelley knows he runs the risk of provoking the Internal Revenue Service into revoking his 60-member church's tax-exempt status. In fact, he's hoping the IRS will try. But this is the second year he's baited the IRS from the pulpit, and still the agency has not risen to the bait.

"We're not trying to get politics in the pulpit. We're trying to get (government) out of the pulpit," said Erik Stanley, spokesman for the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based nonprofit that maintains linking a church's nonprofit status to its nonpartisanship is an unconstitutional restriction on the free speech of the clergy.

"This is about a pastor's right of free speech," Stanley said.

There is simply no reaching these people.  To a one, they have decided that the First Amendment guarantees not only the right for them to speak their minds, but also their right to profit, to privileges granted from the government, to complete immunity from the consequences of their words.

One would think that a group of lawyers would be able to understand that there is nothing in the Constitution that bestows tax-exempt status on churches.  Therefore, the granting or revocation of that status cannot be an infringement upon anyone's freedom of speech. 

Unfortunately, the IRS is reluctant to follow its own rules with these churches - which is the point of the exercise.  These pastors wish to show that the IRS, when it comes to churches, is a paper tiger, unwilling to enforce its regulations.  They're hoping to bring about a situation in which churches and their representatives are able to campaign whenever, wherever and however they want.  They want to be able to use the authority of their robes/suits/pulpits to tell the people in their congregations that God Himself requires them to support Republicans. 

If they had any integrity, they would see the very easy way out of this problem.  Endorse candidates and initiatives whenever they want, but then be ready to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.

For that matter, tax-exempt status should only be granted to an organization if it can demonstrate a tangible benefit to the community it purports to serve.  Merely providing a place for the self-righteous to stew in their own toxic beliefs is hardly a benefit to anyone.

Friday Open Thread

I'm about to play one of my favorite games called "Where's he? I don't know."

The mountain elk on the rez are bugling and starting their rumbles. The flintlocks are primed and zeroed in.

I don't try to justify my hunting habits anymore. Say what you will, I really don't care. I will say this though. Using a flintlock rifle with open sights there is a lot more hunting on a trip like this and not all that much shooting. When we return a lot of meat and the hide is given away to friends and elders of the nation. Here's an interesting nature factoid for you: An elk is born with exactly enough brains to perfectly tan its hide.

The hunt is a pretty rugged thing too, I'm getting old for it. There's a long ride over steep country to get where we make our base camp and begin the hard hiking and hunting. My son has turned himself into a skilled woodsman and guide. He's the main reason I keep doing this. My biggest joy will come from watching my boy being so very good at something he deeply loves. That will make my daddy heart soar high and happy.

Well, that and elk shanks osso bucco....

(the Elvis Costello song is dedicated to Harry Reid and the spineless goddamned bluedogs in Congress, they couldn't muster the sand to even make a sham fight)

Thursday Evening Open Thread

 

"Champaign Illinois" - The Old 97's

Back from a quick round trip to Roanoke, VA today -- left the homestead in darkness at 5:30 AM, so a bit the worse for wear.  But I heard this little ditty along the way, which brightened up the trip.  It's front man Rhett Miller's update on Dylan's "Desolation Row."  Indeed, as Miller explains in this anecdote, Dylan is credited as co-author of the song.

So I've been totally out of touch all day and just now read of the decision of the Dems not to take a vote on taxes.  I think it's a tactical mistake, but what the hell else is new. 

I've got a 6:15 AM flight to Boston tomorrow to take the kid up to look at colleges (and no, Harvard ain't on the list -- not by a long shot.) 

What's on the collective cogblog mind?   

 

Feminism's collateral benefit

 

I made a comment on Jezebel/Gawker the other day that got a kind of touchy reception, and I was a little surprised. Saying "feminism is for women" doesn't mean that all feminists must be women - it's just that feminism exists to benefit women. Cool? If some collateral benefit comes to men, that''s fantastic, and not entirely unintentional. Feminism has obviated a lot of the restrictions of patriarchy, and patriarchs are stuck in the past, and seem to expect a revolution to be handled for them.

 

This came up in response to the crop of media discussing the ascendency of women in the professional world, and all the subsequent whining about the way that models of masculinity haven't prepared men to deal with a world where women matter. Well, duh. Fix your masculinity then. Feminists have made some inroads on this work, but it's really not up to women to change men.

Anyway, that's all I was trying to get at. I was a little blunt in my original comment, but it seems to have gotten across to people who weren't busy protecting their male feminist bona fides. (You know, by threatening to stop defending me from the mean old patriarchy. Some allies.)

 

Peculiar Outrage from Andrew Sullivan

So the Republican members of the Senate unanimously filibuster the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and Andrew Sullivan responds by absolutely ripping Preisdent Obama and the Democrats:

[T]his president, whose betrayal of and contempt for his gay supporters is now beyond dispute. If I had wanted an administration reeking of fear and cowardice, I would have backed Clinton in the primaries.

Now one can take issue with the tactical timetable that the Administration has used in pursuing this matter -- but the bottom line is the President and the Democratic leadership took repeal to the floor of the Senate and they could not get the support of a single member of the Republican caucus to allow an up or down vote on the bill -- not Olympia Snowe, not Susan Collins, not Richard Lugar, not Lindsey Graham, not John McCain, not lame-ducks like George Voinovich or Robert Bennett  -- not a single one of the so-called moderates or grown-ups or reasonable people who are allegedly present on the other side. 

And Sullivan -- who long made common cause with these people -- can spare no end of scorn for the President.  Strange indeed. 

Update:  Seriously, Sullivan is embarrassing himself.   He's ready to cast a vote for Sharron Angle to be the next senator from the great State of Arizona rather than Harry Reid -- Sully's mistake -- because Reid supposedly hurt the chance for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal by allowing amendments for the Dream Act and to permit abortions at military facilities.  Yes, Angle is nuts he concedes, but better that than be politically calculating.  In other words, and as is so often the case with Sullivan, his rights (or rights he deems significant) are entitled to pride of place over those of undocumented immigrants who are serving this country or women soldiers who need a constitutionally protected medical procedure.  Tories never have been too good with the whole solidarity thing. 

Further Update: I am embarrassed to say I didn't see Jamelle's post making much the same point several hours before me. (In my defense, I am also trying to work.)  Jamelle and I had drinks recently -- well I should say I had drinks, he had a drink -- so moderate for one so young.  Anyway, he's a very smart guy -- and he seems a lot older and wiser than Sullivan in this case.      

Workability of Progressive Consumption Taxes (Nevermind on the put-up-or-shut-up)

(Title changed to reflect that I was an idiot,and was seeing it all wrong.  Original post left intact because I don't like it when other people just erase the things they'd said that they wish they hadn't, leaving comments and responses hanging in midair.)

OK, Matt: you've been beating the drum for a progressive consumption tax for awhile.  And for just as long, I've been asking: how the fuck would this actually work in practice?  You've basically pointed to Robert Frank, who explains how things would work when tax time rolls around the following April:

Families would report their incomes and their annual savings to the IRS, just as many now do with 401(k) and other similar retirement savings accounts. Their taxable consumption would then be calculated as income minus savings minus a large standard deduction–say, $30,000 for a family of four. For example, a family that earned $50,000 and saved $5,000 during a given tax year would have taxable consumption of $50,000–$5,000–$30,000, or $15,000 total.

And then that total could be taxed according to a progressive tax rate schedule, just as income is now.

The problem, as I'm really bored with having to point out over and over again in comments at Matt's place, is that we don't know how it would work as one made purchases during the year. 

When I fill out my 1040 on my 2010 income in early 2011, I should only have to pay (or be refunded) a fairly small sum, since my employer knows how much I earn, and each paycheck is a pretty good indication of how much should be withheld to make things work out fairly close to even over the course of the year.

But how can one apply that to a consumption tax?   Unlike with paychecks, few individual purchases give any clue as to what bracket the consumer would likely be in.  As I said in comments at Matt's here:

We don’t know how it would work IN REAL TIME, as consumers made purchases and were presumably taxed for them on the spot. How would it ensure that consumers weren’t taxed on an ongoing basis in a manner that resulted in their either owing a huge tax when they filled out their return the following April, or in a manner that, while ensuring a mammoth refund the following April, deprived them of desperately-needed income as the year went along?

Until Yglesias (or Frank, or whoever) can explain how a consumption tax would be structured to avoid this immense practical pitfall, it has to be regarded as unworkable in practice.

So, Matt, there you go: either explain how this part works, or STFU about the damn consumption tax already. 

Jubilee

Via Balloon Juice, I saw this quote:

Charles Munger, the billionaire vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., defended the U.S. financial-company rescues of 2008 and told students that people in economic distress should “suck it in and cope.”

“You should thank God” for bank bailouts, Munger said in a discussion at the University of Michigan on Sept. 14, according to a video posted on the Internet. “Now, if you talk about bailouts for everybody else, there comes a place where if you just start bailing out all the individuals instead of telling them to adapt, the culture dies.”

Bank rescues allowed the U.S. to avoid what could have been an “awful” downturn and will help the country as it deals with the housing slump, Munger, 86, said. He used the example of post-World War I Germany to explain how the bailouts under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama were “absolutely required to save your civilization.”

John Cole goes on to suggest that the fact this guy is still alive is compelling proof that there is no God.  I would say that it's proof, instead, that neither John nor I are God.  But there is a godly, as it were, response to this man's attitude. 

Yes, Jesus really did grab a whip, run through the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and kick some banker ass.  Matthew is the source of the 'den of thieves' comment, but in John, Jesus is upset because they turned the temple into a place of business.  At no point does the Bible mention that anyone was being cheated; somehow, though, the idea that the bankers and businessmen were corrupt has long been the central point of sermons on this part of the Bible.

But that's not all.

GOP: If You Chose Your Parents Unwisely, You Must Pay the Price

From the WaPo:

Opponents [which include practically every Republican in Congress] consider the Dream Act a form of amnesty and have accused Reid and other Democrats of using it to appeal to Hispanic voters, an important constituency, as the midterm elections approach.

It's 'a form of amnesty' to kids who made the mistake of choosing the wrong parents.  It's very important, in the GOP mindset, to punish kids who fail that test.

Specifically, these are kids who were born in another country, but who were brought here by their parents when they were young.  Many of them have little if any memory of their 'native' countries, due to the age at which their parents brought them here, and even those who were old enough to remember often don't have any 'home' to return to if deported as illegals.

But they chose to be born to parents who brought them to this country when they were young, and must suffer for it.  So saith the GOP.

(The Dream Act would open the door to citizenship for undocumented immigrants younger than 36 who arrived in the United States as children, have lived here for five years or more, and are contributing to the country by attending college or serving in the military.)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

 

"Out of the Blue" - Julian Casablancas

Somewhere along the way, my hopefulness turned to sadness
Somewhere along the way , my sadness turned to bitterness
Somewhere along the way, my bitterness turned to anger
Somewhere along the way, my anger turned to vengeance

I heard this first thing this morning and it seemed to fit my mood perfectly.  Especially after hearing a story on npr about redistricting and how the 2010 elections should set up the Republicans perfectly for this all important exercise. 

I took a cursory glance at the brief filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by the pro Prop 8 side, which basically argues that tradition and procreation form the rational basis to uphold discrimination against gays in marriage.  I am not persuaded.  One commenter at TPM who appears to know his stuff also points out that the Ninth Circuit specifically asked the Appellants to address the issue of standing under the Supreme Court decision in Arizonans for Official English -- and basically the pro-Prop 8 lawyers blow off the case, deeming the difficult aspects of that decision for them as non-binding dicta by the Court.  This could prove to be a highly problematic tactic I suspect.

I am of the view that the Ninth Circuit may well uphold the lower court by relying on the standing issue, which will almost certainly trigger an appeal to the Supreme Court, one which would give the Court the opportunity to avoid a decision on the merits by means of this procedural argument.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

What's on your collective minds?   

 

 

Love Me Some Driftglass

Go read this post by driftglass.

Better than Esther?

Vanity Fair writer Michael Gross is staying on the Palin beat, having recently published a rather chilling e-mail, sent shortly before the 2008 election, to then-VP candidate Palin by a man named Lou Engle.  Gross writes:

The e-mail was written by Lou Engle, a right-wing pastor and political activist who founded a movement known as the Call, which has coordinated widespread prayer and fasting to protest health-care reform and same-sex marriage. Of the latter, he has said, “What happened to California will release a spirit that is more demonic than Islam, a spirit of lawlessness and anarchy. And a sexual insanity will be unleashed into the Earth.” Engle’s e-mail was sent to Palin as a last-minute exhortation just before she took the stage for her vice-presidential debate against Joseph Biden on October 2, 2008. It is an extraordinary document, referring to legalized abortions as a “holocaust,” and casting Engle in the role of Mordecai to Palin’s Esther.

The e-mail itself is at the VF link, as is a painting, Esther at Her Toilet (ca. 1684), by the Dutch painter Aert de Gelder.  I thought it could use a little updating, so I sent it to the brilliant Blue Gal for treatment, and she happily obliged:

Stand!

Tomorrow the measure to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will reach the Senate. It's time. It. Is. Time. Now.

VoteVets has a page up that allows you to plug in your ZipCode and get the phone numbers for your Senators. Call them. Call them now and tell them that it. Is. Time.

The Failure of Michelle Rhee

Michelle Rhee, the DC Chancellor of Schools (for at least the time being) is the poster child of school reform -- and as such she has been the beneficiary of enormous amounts of favorable publicity, from a laudatory cover story in Time Magazine (complete with her holding a broom) to endless plaudits from the Washington Post editorial board, to what appears to be a starring role in the new education documentary "Waiting for Superman."  (I have yet to see Waiting for Superman, although I am anxious to do so -- it is by Davis Guggenheim, the director of an Inconvenient Truth, and thus a credentialed liberal -- apparently it is going to be yet another vehicle to promote the bashing of teachers' unions -- certainly that's how right-wingers see it.) Rhee was given carte blanche by Mayor Adrian Fenty to shake up DC's dysfunctional public school system, a charge she undertook with zealous certainty.

Rhee, in the wake of Fenty's recent defeat, took the occasion of the "Superman" opening in DC to decry the choice of the electorate and to imply essentially that those who voted for Fenty's opponent, DC City Council Chairman Vincent Gray, did not care about the District's school children.    She described the vote as "devastating" to the children of the city.  Eugene Robinson did a nice job of taking down Rhee for the incredible arrogance of these remarks and for her lack of grace following the election.  

This is illustrative of why Rhee will soon be departing DC and why so many people have a hard time embracing her despite what I think is a quite sincere desire to improve the District's schools.  She is wedded to a Manichean world view in which she is "for the kids" and everyone else is standing in her way.  She is too impatient to try and build support from the ground up or to get opponents or skeptics to buy into her ideas.  And, ultimately, she had little concern or feel for the politics of the District and what they reflect in terms of the City's difficult history.

This article by the Post's excellent education reporter, Bill Turque -- yes, the Post does have some excellent reporters still -- Fred Hiatt hasn't ruined the entire enterprise yet -- gives a pretty good sense of why it is that Rhee is unlikely to remain in a Gray Administration and why the future mayor may not hold her in the same esteem as so many union-hating editorialists do.  First, Rhee seemed to have no sense that in the District's Black community there is a great deal of sensitivity in being dictated to by those who think they know better.  Until the late 1970s the City was ruled a combination of congressional committees, often in the hands of blatant racists, and by non-elected, presidentially-appointed commissioners who showed little regard for those they ruled.  Much of the time, they oversaw a legally segregated city. 

Naturally, when a list of numerous schools being closed in the District by Rhee appeared in the Washington Post before it was shared with the City Council, Gray took umbrage:

Frankly, we live in a city that has been oppressed.  In this city, more than any other, how you do something is a major factor. It is a city that has been dictated to. People are very sensitive to being left out.

Rhee had no time for such niceties.  Indeed, she seemed to bristle at the idea of any oversight by the City Council:

[City Council hearings have] "this crazy dynamic where every agency head is kowtowing. They sit there and get beat down. I'm not going to sit on public TV and take a beating I don't deserve. I don't take that crap."

At one point the City Council cut $9 million from the budget for summer school programs.  Rhee unilaterally reinstated the money, laying off an additional 266 teachers to come up with the funds, all without Council knowledge or approval.  Gray's response to Rhee in a public hearing was pungent:

We learn today that in your infinite wisdom, you in your unlimited authority, have simply decided you're not going to implement what the council said.  You're going to do something else. That is unbelievably cavalier, Chancellor Rhee.

I think this summation from Turque is worth quoting at length, because it explains, in the end, why Rhee won't keep her job and why she has worn out her welcome with so many people who possibly could have been allies:

The layoffs were bad enough, but Gray expressed particular concern about Rhee's apparent disregard for the protocols, procedures and personal collaborations that Gray considered essential to smooth functioning within his political world. In this case, the process dictated that Rhee made sure that the council wasn't blindsided by the news.

But Rhee displayed little interest in either process or political niceties as she rushed to implement an ambitious agenda. She told Gray that she wasn't trying to embarrass the council, that she just wanted to protect the interests of children.

People like to be consulted, politicians don't like to be blindsided or embarrassed, and nobody likes to be told that they don't care about the interests of children.  These are pretty simple truths that our guru of education reform could never quite grasp.  Perhaps it is Michelle Rhee who needs a bit more of schooling.

Idle Thought for a Monday Morning

I'm sure everyone's seen all the stories about Dem Congresscritters who don't want Obama to come campaign with them, and how some of them are all but running against him.

But they can't wait for Bill Clinton to campaign with them, if he can fit them into his busy schedule.

I'm old enough to remember when Congresscritters in those same parts of the country ran away from Clinton the way they're running away from Obama now.  They did this pretty much the whole time he was President.  He was considered toxic by Dems in, I'd bet my bottom dollar, many of the same districts that can't wait for him to campaign with them now.

I'm sure they'll want Obama to campaign for them - in 2024.

 

Open thread.

Another Song for Christine O'Donnell

According to geneology research done by the notorious police disrespector Henry Gates, part of Michelle Obama's history includes the famous Marie Laveau. The reputation of Marie Laveau is what you get when you don't dabble in witchcraft. The reputation of Barack Obama is what you get when you don't dabble in politics. Quit dabbling Christine, you are way out of your league.

And, since one good Dr. John always deserves another...

Orangy Skies in the WaPo Universe

Seriously, they've become as disconnected from reality as the nuttiest of the Tea Party candidates.

Their lead editorial this morning says Obama "thumbs his nose at the Senate" by appointing Elizabeth Warren in the manner he did, and that "Mr. Obama would have been better off picking a more confirmable candidate" because apparently in their universe, his more 'confirmable' candidates have been sailing right through Congress with no more than the usual hassles.

Meanwhile, in the universe that the rest of us live in, Obama appointments that draw only a few 'no' votes in the Senate when they finally get a vote, hence must be regarded as eminently confirmable, have had their appointments held up for months (and well over a year in some cases) by holds and the prospect of filibusters.

In addition, they gripe that the nature of the Warren appointment "might have been in keeping with the letter of the laws, but not with their spirit."  I guess that in their reality, the GOP's practice of filibustering literally everything the Dems put forward, which after all is what necessitated Obama's "end run" around the Senate confirmation process, is in keeping with the spirit of the Senate rules allowing filibusters, so it doesn't merit similar criticism.

Finally, they try to make Warren out to be some sort of radical, referring to "Warren's zealous campaign against what she called the "tricks and traps" of the banking industry."  "What she called"??  How dare she suggest that the banksters might try to make a buck by misleading consumers!  Let's not deal straight up with whether her characterization is true or not, let's just call it 'zealous' and use the "what she called" phrase to suggest that reasonable people would disagree with her. 

They note that this sort of thing "has made her a hero to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party" but that "[l]ike many such activists, however, Ms. Warren can be simplistic and hyperbolic."  But other than the aforementioned use of the "tricks and traps" phrase, they can't be bothered to give any evidence of this.

This is a smear job, pure and simple.  And they've got nothing to back up their characterization, so they invent their own reality out of thin air.  There really isn't anything, anymore, that distinguishes the WaPo from the wingnuts.

Remember JImi

The real deal, truly original. When Jimi picked up a Stratocaster every other guitar player in the world looked at their instruments and said "Shit, it's all different now..."

It never takes much listening to know that it's Jimi. He took music places it had never been before, and only rarely since.

Song for Christine O'Donnell and Saturday Night Open Thread

 

"It's Witchcraft" - Frank Sinatra

Jesus, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.  But frighteningly enough, we are at the point where this kind of borderline personality can be a major party's nominee for the U.S. Senate -- and in the process defeat a guy who had won on a statewide level on a dozen occasions.  Unbelievable.

In the midst of heavy duty family obligations, but wanted to say a quick hello to one and all.

Let us know what you're thinking.

Key Lime Pie (my version, not the classic)

There's nothing like a little Emmylou to put a smile on my face and a whistle in my step. This song is Emmylou's Mama's favorites, and one of mine too. That's the amazing Sam Bush on mandolin, it's hard to get better than Sam.

Generally when people talk about Key Lime Pie they are talking about the gloopy concoction of lime juice, gelatin, and sweetened condensed milk beloved of artery clogged inbred Southerners. I refuse to deal with that. They're sticky, oversweet crap. Hang with me here through this process and you will be able to make a Key Lime Pie that will send their heads to swimming.

How about Humans with Functioning Mice Brains? - Open Thread

 

"Pale Blue Eyes" - REM

(They really sound like a band from Georgia in this version, with a discernible country twang.  I had kind of forgotten what Stipe with hair looked like.) 

All kinds of miscellaneous crap kicking around in my head.  Alas, work calls with looming deadlines.  

One of the enjoyable things about the Christine O'Donnell nomination is observing the manner in which the collective right wing lizard brain must, in the end, support the ultra-conservative candidate regardless (or "irregardless as they might say) of the madness of the candidate.  Karl Rove has, shockingly, had to have this lesson impressed upon him -- he naively thought that his credentials as "Bush's brain" somehow exempted him from the need for total obeisance to the borg.  How naive of him.  So the fact that O'Donnell was ranting about the creation of mice with fully functioning human brains a few short years ago will in no way deter the GOP from rallying around her. 

I really loved this piece by Lisa in Baltimore Style Magazine about the hard hit town of Braddock, Pennsylvania and a recent campaign by Levi's exploiting the town's image for an advertising campaign.  Levi's, like Wal-mart, is one of these iconic American brands that basically produces nothing in America anymore.  Except attitude I guess.  Anyway, it's well worth a read.  I do love the town's mayor, the 6'8", 325 lb., tattooed and shaven-headed John Fetterman, who was featured in an article in the New York Times not long ago.  Sadly, I suspect that even someone as talented and committed as Fetterman can't save this town.       

Thoughts in the ER

    "I wouldn't necessarily call him septic . . . "

My favorite line of the week*, overheard as two doctors walked by as I sat in the ER at Georgetown with the young master, who has managed to break both of his pinkies this week playing soccer -- in separate incidents.  How the hell do you break two fingers in two consecutive games in a sport where you can't use your hands?  With both of them splinted and taped to his adjoining fingers, he looks like someone who didn't pay the first installment on a loan from the mob.  (*Honorable mention goes to the doctor walking by carrying the book Emergency Medicine Secrets - I don't know why, but this seemed vaguely disconcerting.)

I'm living the middle aged dream right now.  Monday it was shuttling my mother-in-law (who is a sweetheart by the way)  to different doctors and then today it was the kid.  In between I went to one meeting yesterday which involved 240 miles of driving, a forty minute traffic jam due to a truly nasty truck crash on I-95 (in which someone broke more than his pinkies), and then several hours devoted to discussing pension benefit cuts, followed by a conference call this morning with another client to cut more pension benefits, and then this afternoon, before rushing off to the ER, a brief interlude in the office to a write a notice to union members of yet another client explaining -- yes, you guessed it -- more upcoming cuts in pension benefits. 

Basically my clients are all suffering the results of the stock market debacle of the Bush years -- when the S&P 500 "returned" -27% -- the only cumulatively negative eight year period since 1929-36.  The ill effects of the collapse of the markets has now been compounded by the cratering of the construction market.  These pension plans are funded by a combination of employer contributions -- keyed to hours worked -- and investment income.  Needless to say, hours in some groups have declined close to 50% over recent norms.       

Defined benefit pension plans -- that is traditional pension plans that pay a fixed monthly benefit for your life and the life of your spouse -- are funded based on actuarial calculations that, in construction at least, assume that investments over time will return 7 to 7.5% per year.  For my entire career from 1985 to 1999, this was not a problem.  Cumulative returns for most plans far exceeded this mark, resulting in pension improvements.  Now, most of these plans are in a fight for survival -- a fair number may well not make it, and many which do will do so on the basis of vastly inferior benefits than they once had, including in many instances huge cuts to early retirement benefits. 

And yet the people who have these plans are still in most instances lucky.  Compared to their brethren who just have 401(k) plans, these workers can at least reasonably assume their level of income as retirees.  A huge chunk of workers with only 401(k) plans will simply never really be able to retire, as their accumulated savings will not provide any kind of decent income.  There is, I am afraid, an enormous crisis brewing in terms of the cohort of workers my age lacking the ability to retire.  Those who thought the inflated values of their homes would get them through have had that rug pulled out from under them as well.  In this environment, we should be talking about enhancing Social Security not cutting it or privatizing it.  Otherwise we are going to be looking at an ancient workforce and a labor market in which the aspirations of younger workers are increasingly stifled, a result that is good for no one.     

I am going to try to come back to this issue a number of times going forward.  It strikes me as one of the great festering social problems that is being totally ignored in our insane and insipid political discourse. 

Little By Little, They're Removing The Mask

Carl Paladino is the epitome of conservative family values.

After criticizing NY Governor David Paterson's extramarital affair, it came out that Paladino had also had an extramarital affair, even having a child with his mistress.

Carl Paladino is the epitome of conservative family values.

He is a serial email forwarder.  Of course, that's not exactly rare, but what sets Paladino apart from the more mundane ranks of forwarders is the subject matter.

Nude women.

Hardcore porn.

References to blacks as "niggers."

References to blacks as monkeys.

Tired old jokes about blonde women being stupid.

Rambling, incoherent defenses of himself as a non-racist in spite of the many, publicly-documented instances of him spewing forth viciously racist garbage - examples he brings up as part of his defense.  Paladino is one of those bigots who is so far gone that when called out on his racism, he merely repeats what got him in trouble in the first place, thinking that the truth of his words is self-evident.  To wit:

I publicly stated that our school superintendent was selected because he was black.  It was a fact and it was wrong for black leaders to put a weak totally disfunctional [sic] person. . .

You see, Carl Paladino is the epitome of conservative family values.

Then, of course, there is the email he sent on that contains a photo of a woman having sex with a horse.

Why has Carl Paladino sent racist and pornographic emails to dozens of people?  Why does he constantly spout off racist garbage?

It's because Carl Paladino is the epitome of conservative family values.

So why did Paladino crush Rick Lazio in yesterday's GOP primary for the New York Governor's race?

The answer should be obvious: Carl Paladino is the epitome of conservative family values.