Now that I've got your attention, those are really big around here. This weekend is the annual Concours d'Elegance and Woody Week for them. Sometimes I think rich people don't have enough to do...
Click here to view the list, complete with photos...
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Why is it ...
The only politician who's in touch with reality on the health care issue is Howard Dean? I realize he's a doctor but it's hard to believe the others are so in the tank. Money talks, I guess:
You know, come to think of it, one of the dumbest moves the Dems ever made was booting him from the DNC chair.
WASHINGTON - Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean says there can be no meaningful health care overhaul in America without a public option for individuals not now covered.
Dean, a medical doctor and former chairman of the Democratic Party, said in a nationally broadcast interview that the strong Republican opposition to the plan that President Barack Obama is pushing doesn't surprise him. Dean said, "We've had a government system for 50 years. The Republicans didn't like it then. It's called Medicare."
He also said in an interview on NBC's "Today" show that he can't imagine any health care overhaul without a government-funded option, asking "why would you put a trillion dollars into something that hasn't worked." [my ems]
...
You know, come to think of it, one of the dumbest moves the Dems ever made was booting him from the DNC chair.
Link thanks to Nunya.
Night Rider's Lament
Nanci Griffith does this song better than about anybody! With yodelling! This has only been up at YouTube a coupla days. I've waited sooooo long...
This goes out to everybody that followed their heart in their choice of career and did what they wanted to do instead of doing something sane and making a lot of money like their parents told them to.
To get the full effect, go outside at about two in the morning on the night of a full moon and sit astride your porch railing. If you live above the second floor, be careful.
This goes out to everybody that followed their heart in their choice of career and did what they wanted to do instead of doing something sane and making a lot of money like their parents told them to.
To get the full effect, go outside at about two in the morning on the night of a full moon and sit astride your porch railing. If you live above the second floor, be careful.
Nanci Griffith ~ Night Rider's Lament
Thanks to kennethrm.
Saturday Techno-Classical Music Blogging ... (Part 2)
Okay, so I'm on a thing today:
Bond - Pachelbel's Canon in 'D'
Why “playing it safe” is killing American newspapers
Irony is not dead. It just smells like it. An excerpt from a piece by Froomkin:
I guess we've seen where 'journalistic values' and not being a neocon got him!
If we were to start an online newspaper from scratch today, we’d recognize that toneless, small-bore news stories are not the way to build a large audience — not even with “interactive” bells and whistles cobbled on top. One option might be to imitate cable TV, and engage in a furious volume of he-said/she-said reporting, voyeurism, contrarianism, gossip, triviality and gotcha journalism. But that would come at the cost of our souls. The right way to reinvent ourselves online would be to do precisely what journalists were put on this green earth to do: Seek the truth, hold the powerful accountable, expose the B.S., explain how things really work, introduce people to each other, and tell compelling stories. And we should do all those things passionately and courageously — not hiding who we are, but rather engaging in a very public expression of our journalistic values.
I guess we've seen where 'journalistic values' and not being a neocon got him!
Saturday Techno-Classical Music Blogging ...
I enjoy the fact today's artists are working with the old masters' scores and arranging them for instruments never conceived in the classical era. As regulars here know, I'm a big fan of Bond for that reason. Vanessa Mae is also good. Give it a listen.
Vanessa Mae - Vivaldi Techno Remix
I know ...
I've been really cynical about health care reform but there is a bright spot. The stubborn old Liberals in the House have had it with the spineless fools in the Senate:
Heh ... Charlie's a tough Korean War vet from Harlem who knows how to fight. This should be fun if he gets pissed enough to put a boot in Harry Reid's ass.
The Democratic Party showed on Friday what it's capable of when led by the majority of its members rather than its conservative wing. In stark contrast to Senate Democrats, who spent the week backpedaling on reform, unified House Democrats unveiled a draft health care overhaul bill jointly endorsed by three powerful committee chairmen.
...
Where the Senate Finance Committee's outline of a bill didn't include a public health insurance option for people to buy into, the House version includes a robust public plan that would operate nationally and compete with private insurers on a level playing field to keep them honest.
...
While the Senate has cowered from the debate over a public option in the face of Republican and conservative Democratic opposition, [Rep. Charles] Rangel said he relishes the battle.
"I'm anxious to take on those people who oppose a public option," he said. He'll have public opinion on his side. A recent poll showed 3 out of 4 people want a public plan as part of health care reform. "We've got the momentum." [my em]
...
Heh ... Charlie's a tough Korean War vet from Harlem who knows how to fight. This should be fun if he gets pissed enough to put a boot in Harry Reid's ass.
Link thanks to Joe.
Friday, June 19, 2009
PSA/Quote of the Day
Maru:
That would be the now Froomkin-less Washington Post.
... Oh, and I will no longer be linking to the new moonie times ...
That would be the now Froomkin-less Washington Post.
Win-win ...
And not for us. Scarecrow via Digby:
Bend over, here it comes again.
...
1. The insurance companies get the federal government to mandate that everyone must purchase insurance. (Insurance companies 1, consumers 0)
2. There are only private insurance plans available. (Private Insurers 2, consumers 0)
3. The federal government gets states who feel like it to create an exchange to help consumers shop for -- and insurance companies sell -- their private insurance. (Private insurers 3, consumers 0) [And insurance companies get an extra point in states that don't like federal intrusion]
4. The federal government then subsidizes consumers to help them pay the full premiums charged by the private insurance plans. Insurers win! 4-0!
...
Bend over, here it comes again.
Fuckups From Beyond The Grave
Think Progress. Links at site and video if you must.
Epic fail F in History, Johnny boy. Goddam, I'm glad that senile old bastard didn't get elected president. Moosebreath'd had him committed by now and we'd really be in the shit.
In actual fact, Reagan really did know how to deal with Iran. He and his CIA connection G.H.W. Bush were the ones who got Iran to NOT release the hostages so he could be elected president.
McLame shouldn't feel too bad. Everybody gets it wrong when they invoke that particular Evil Spirit. Al Jazeera credited California's fiscal trouble to Reagan, which is probably true, being governor in 1978, which he wasn't, and the legislative supermajority coming in with Prop 13, which it didn't, having predated the Prop by 45 years.
Yeesh. You can't get much more wrong than that. Go get 'em, Badtux. I already did a little.
This goes out to McLame and allwrong Jazeera as a proposed new theme song:
Caught Up In Nostalgic Reagan Hysteria, ‘Student Of History’ McCain Credits Him For 1968 Prague Spring
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been having a tough time with the current situation in Iran. He has been criticizing President Obama’s “hands off” approach and encouraging him to get more involved (despite expert opinion that says otherwise). But former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger — a McCain supporter whom McCain recently called “the smartest man in the world” — said this week that he thinks Obama “has handled this well.”
Last night on Fox News, McCain and Sean Hannity joined in with the right wing’s Reagan-era hysteria, with Hannity arguing that Obama should offer “some moral support the way that Ronald Reagan offered moral support” to anti-communists. But in this instance, McCain got carried away, crediting Reagan for something that happened well before he became president:
McCAIN: You and I are both students of history and we’ve seen this movie before. When Ronald Reagan stood up for the workers in Gdansk in Poland, when he stood up for the people of Czechoslovakia, in Prague Spring, and America did. And some good Democrats did, too.
Perhaps McCain needs a new history lesson. The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia when Communist Party leader Alexander Dubcek allowed greater speech and assembly freedoms when he came to power… in January 1968. Ronald Reagan had just completed his first year as California’s governor at that time. Soviet and other Warsaw Pact troops invaded eight months later to end the reform movement.
Epic fail F in History, Johnny boy. Goddam, I'm glad that senile old bastard didn't get elected president. Moosebreath'd had him committed by now and we'd really be in the shit.
In actual fact, Reagan really did know how to deal with Iran. He and his CIA connection G.H.W. Bush were the ones who got Iran to NOT release the hostages so he could be elected president.
McLame shouldn't feel too bad. Everybody gets it wrong when they invoke that particular Evil Spirit. Al Jazeera credited California's fiscal trouble to Reagan, which is probably true, being governor in 1978, which he wasn't, and the legislative supermajority coming in with Prop 13, which it didn't, having predated the Prop by 45 years.
The crisis didn't start with Schwarenegger; nor did it start with the grand fraud perpetrated by Enron. It began when Ronald Reagan was governor in 1978 and pushed through Proposition 13 -- a major tax reduction that also instituted the requirement of a 2/3 majority
Yeesh. You can't get much more wrong than that. Go get 'em, Badtux. I already did a little.
This goes out to McLame and allwrong Jazeera as a proposed new theme song:
Alison Krauss ~ Ghost In This House
Thanks to LuckystarCountry.
Liquid Alert!
Rove: I’m Horrified That A News Network Would Be A ‘Cooperating Partner’ Of The White House
Hey, you with the wet-'n-dry vacuum and the roll of paper towels - shoulda read the headline first. Heh.
Hey, you with the wet-'n-dry vacuum and the roll of paper towels - shoulda read the headline first. Heh.
Froomkin’s Sins of the Village
I like the idea of calling D.C. "The Village", particularly after seeing the M. Night Shyamalan pretty dumb movie of the same name. There's a whole world outside that fence you're not allowed to get close to! Heh.
Emptywheel on Froomkin getting canned from WaPo:
Read Greenwald. He hits many nails on the head.
You can get fired from anywhere for putting principle over anything the boss wants you to do. It's better to get fired than quit over it because you can get unemployment. Trust me.
I'm not worried that we'll lose Froomkin's voice. He'll be back somewhere soon. It's WaPo's mistake and WaPo's loss.
Emptywheel on Froomkin getting canned from WaPo:
Aside from Froomkin's sheer productivity (particularly as compared to his colleague, Dana Milbank, who complains about writing 3-4 750 word columns a week), these posts reveal certain things. On some issues--torture and wiretapping--Froomkin is increasingly critical, particularly as to Obama's "schizophrenia" regarding "transparency." On financial, health care, and foreign policy issues, Dan has been balanced--critical at times, but definitely appreciative of the complexity of Obama's task and his successes there. And of course, he's still beating up Bush and Cheney.
And that, apparently, is enough to get you fired from the Village rag.
To my mind, Glenn Greenwald has the best take on this so far.
All of this underscores a critical and oft-overlooked point: what one finds virtually nowhere in the establishment press are those who criticize Obama not in order to advance their tawdry right-wing agenda but because the principles that led them to criticize Bush compel similar criticism of Obama.
Sure, Froomkin's critical. He's critical in serious ways--perhaps more serious than his criticisms of Bush. But they are--as Glenn said--principled.
Is that what gets you fired in the Village these days? Adhering to principle over party?
Read Greenwald. He hits many nails on the head.
You can get fired from anywhere for putting principle over anything the boss wants you to do. It's better to get fired than quit over it because you can get unemployment. Trust me.
I'm not worried that we'll lose Froomkin's voice. He'll be back somewhere soon. It's WaPo's mistake and WaPo's loss.
Judge rejects argument Cheney needs to be shielded from Daily Show
Raw Story
Well, good for the judge. Other than that, it's un-fucking-believable that DOJ would use that as an argument.
That said, The Dick is probably in more danger from late-night comedians than he is from DOJ, dammit.
Tired of waving the national security flag, Obama administration lawyers are apparently trying another tactic to get the courts to back Bush administration arguments which never worked to prevent the release of critical documents. Forget Qaeda or North Korea, late night hosts who tell jokes are why the government should retain its secrets.
“A federal judge yesterday sharply questioned an assertion by the Obama administration that former Vice President Richard B. Cheney’s statements to a special prosecutor about the Valerie Plame case must be kept secret, partly so they do not become fodder for Cheney’s political enemies or late-night commentary on The Daily Show,” R. Jeffrey Smith reports for The Washington Post.
The AP reports, “Justice Department lawyers told the judge that future presidents and vice presidents may not cooperate with criminal investigations if they know what they say could become available to their political opponents and late-night comics who would ridicule them.”
Politico’s Josh Gerstein adds, “Sullivan didn’t decide immediately whether the summary and notes of the Cheney interview should be made public, but the judge said Bradbury’s declaration was inadequate to justify withholding the records. He ordered the Justice Department to supplement its filings by July 1 and to produce the documents for him to examine in private.”
Well, good for the judge. Other than that, it's un-fucking-believable that DOJ would use that as an argument.
That said, The Dick is probably in more danger from late-night comedians than he is from DOJ, dammit.
We know now, with certainty ...
That Bob Dole is senile and Tom Daschle is an idiot:
Why is it the Dems always name spineless patsies to lead the party in the Senate?
...
Acknowledging that there is little chance for bipartisanship in the House, Dole urged Senate Republicans to give up any thought of filibustering the health bill. "We need a group of Republicans who will give an early demonstration that bipartisanship is possible," he said.
Daschle, in turn, said he thinks the Democrats should not attempt to ram a health bill through the Senate by using the budget reconciliation device to pass it with 51 votes, rather than the 60 votes most legislation requires.
...
Why is it the Dems always name spineless patsies to lead the party in the Senate?
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thursday Afternoon Smartass Music Blogging
The smartass is me, not these gals. They're pretty good. This goes out to all y'all that have had yer hearts broken lately by people in high places. Like the White House. Yes, you may call me names.
Gray Sky Girls ~ Sea Of Heartbreak
Thanks to BlueGrassRootsTV.
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