Christ ...

Don't these people ever stop?

When Fox News producers aren't coming up with simple-minded metaphors to "debunk" the scientific consensus on climate change, they're apparently turning their outrage machine onto a children's show for refusing to be "fair and balanced" like them.

In a bizarre string of on-air attacks, Fox News hosts seem to be feigning outrage over the Nickelodeon show "Spongebob Squarepants" for a segment about global warming. Hosts have in recent days been claiming the cartoon was shown to students by the U.S. Department of Education, even though it wasn't, accusing its creators of trying to push a liberal political "agenda" on the nation's children.

...

Really? Really? Do these Fox people even qualify as adults anymore?

Great thanks to the folks at TGUAR for the link.

I've had this question ...

For a long time. I ask my European friends and family members and all I get is the blank look, mouth agape. One little question:

"Why did you create the EU to begin with?"

I mean, it sounds like a good idea, a common currency, open borders, and one big trading bloc as opposed to 20 - 30 little ones. On paper, it looks great but everybody I talk to now thinks it's a bad idea.

They all bitch about the open borders. All saying that the people from the poorer countries of the EU come to ____________* and take ______________** jobs and use up resources and the social safety net meant for ____________** people.

They all bitch about the economy. My _______________** friends say that ____________* is far more productive than the ____________*** and the ____________** economies are always being looked to for money to keep ___________**** afloat.

They all bitch about "multicultualism". We are losing our _____________** identity because all these people from ________________**** are coming here, not speaking the language, changing our way of life, and looking for a handout. Either that or the ___________*** come to ______________* and steal everything they can't get for nothing from Brussels/Strasbourg.

They also have no use for the central government in Brussels/Strasbourg. I hear Brussels/Strasbourg thinks they can make the rules and decisions for _____________ * when they have no idea of how they hurt business in ____________* in order to help ___________****.

I ask this question again in light of Dr. Krugman's post yesterday:

...

The US 10-year bond rate is now down to 2.5%. So much for those bond vigilantes. What this rate is saying is that markets are pricing in terrible economic performance, quite possibly a double dip. And it also says that Washington’s deficit obsession has been utterly, totally wrong-headed.

Meanwhile, Italy’s spread against German bonds is soaring even further. What are markets pricing in here? Default as a real possibility; maybe even euro breakup. The latter certainly sounds a lot more plausible now than it did a few months ago. [my em]

...

So if, as it seems, a number of countries are going to abandon the Euro and move back to their old currency so they can manipulate themselves out of debt, what was the point in the first place? Didn't anyone take the differences between cultures into consideration before they all jumped on the bandwagon?

I never put much faith in the longevity of the European Union, though I thought I wouldn't see the end of it in my lifetime. Yes, they looked West after World War 2 and saw a pretty good system. What they didn't get is that the people who founded the United States were basically all in the same boat. They were mostly disaffected Englishmen wanting to break the hold of King George on the colonies. It never seemed to me you could do the same with diverse cultures (with ingrained biases), all millennia old. Maybe, in a century or two, we might be enlightened enough to move to worldwide governance, but old habits die hard. The EU might live on in some form or another, but if the economy keeps tanking, it's gonna be every man for himself over there sooner rather than later.

*Insert: Germany, France, England, Holland
**Insert: German, French, English, Dutch
***Insert: Spanish, Italians, Greeks, Polish
****Insert: Spain, Italy, Greece, Poland

Score two ...

For Secaucus Fats. He allowed the use of medical mary jane and now he's sticking up for Muslims. He's still an asshole, but he ain't a racist asshole. He ain't never gonna be President either.

Good advice ...

From our pal Montag:

...

And today is only Thursday. If you know anybody who works in the financial district, tell them to watch out for falling brokers.

Blanketass Noir

I'd never heard of the 50-year-old movie "The Exiles" (wiki) until I watched it on TV the other night, IFC or TCM, can't remember which. Dark and worth seeing. Also a damn good look at a pre-high-rise L.A. that I remember well that is long gone. Angels Flight, the 3rd St. tunnel, and City Hall as the tallest building.

Thanks to milefilms.

The Rise of 'Isolated Incidents' of Right-Wing Violence

Crooks and Liars

This mash-up is about right-wing violence and media figures who enable it. Set to a remix of three different versions of "The Outsider" by A Perfect Circle, this project has been greatly aided by David Neiwert's spectacular blogging on the subject here. I also used several clips downloaded from this site, so it was literally impossible to make this without everyone here. Thanks to all ofhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif my fellow C & L'ers, and I hope they enjoy Maynard Keenan's singing as much as I do.

Related:

“Violence in the streets, aimed at the wealthy. That’s what I worry about.”

Don't worry about us, pal. Worry about the right-wing nutters you love so much for sticking up for you.

Mark Fiore - Bipartisansh#*!

Starring "Little Fixer" and please pardon me for that visual. Heh.

Mark Fiore - Bipartisansh#*!

This one - no, that one - no, the other one...

Interesting tidbit from an article in the LATimes:

Conservatives love to use liberals as the boogeyman of big government, but the liberal vote has always been a dicey matter. According to most polls, about 20% of voters is a liberal, substantially less than the about 40% who identify themselves as conservative. Thus the battle for independents often determines elections, especially national ones.

Liberals are also notoriously diverse in ideology and are often seen as ineffective in governing — even by friends and allies. As H.L. Mencken noted last century: “The Liberals have many tails, and chase them all.”

We is outnumbered and running in circles accomplishing very little. No wonder we is losing. This may be beginning to change in some states but I'm not holding my breath waiting for it. Blue is not my best color.

So ...

It's our fault?

***

Gotta head up to the shop this morning to service my car. Christ, working on cars twice in one week. I'll probably end up doing a couple vehicle inspections for Harry too, just to keep my hand in and so New York State doesn't think I fell off the map and try to jerk my inspector's license. Back this afternoon.

I don't know about you ...

But I ain't putting anything that came from Rick Santorum near my lips. Tengrain:

Wanna spread a little Santorum on your toast? - That frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter Rick Santorum has promised to bribe Iowans by giving them jars of preserves. "We are bringing [40 jars of Santorum jam] to the Straw Poll and we are going to give everybody a sample," threatened Frothy. So who will win the Golden Ticket as it were and take home Baby Gabriel?

Um, no ...

GOP Bullies

Thanks to YubaNet.

Dude, ya gotta get pissed off and start hitting 'em. You're already getting beat up, might as well not be a sissy too.

Headline of the Day

Biden Compares Tea Party to Terrorists; Al-Qaeda Demands Apology

"Both al-Qaeda and the Tea Party tried to destroy the U.S. economy," Mr. Biden elaborated. "But in fairness to al-Qaeda, the Tea Party came a lot closer."

California leads the way out of darkness - again

I don't get to brag about my lifelong state very much any more. I've watched it get suckier and suckier over my lifetime to the point where sometimes all I get to extol happily about is the scenery and wish we could move the Grand Canyon here to get it away from the assholes and make California perfect once and for all. It would fit in the Central Valley and we can still get our apricots and asparagus from Mexico and our cotton from Egypt. I will jump on any small thing that makes us look good like a duck on a junebug.

LATimes

New voting districts give the GOP that boxed-in feeling

GOP complaints about redistricting bias are to be expected — but in fact, the increase in new Democratic-leaning districts reflects the drop in Republican voters in California.

The Citizens Redistricting Commission has drawn its lines, and the latest redistricting, like all redistrictings, has lessons to teach us about California.

First Lesson (for Republicans): It's not the districts, it's you.

More ironic still, the Citizens Commission initiative was put on the ballot and funded largely by Republicans. The California Republican Assembly supported the initiative. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's PAC was its No. 1 funder, and Meg Whitman chipped in $200,000. Its most prominent opponents were then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Barbara Boxer and the California Democratic Party.

Heh. Even my senior-division masturbatory fantasies can't be right all the time. It's OK, girls, I still think about you...

The Republicans' problem in California isn't the districts. It's that their message and candidates appeal to fewer and fewer Californians (my em).

Second Lesson: Coastal California lost some districts to inland California, but that won't make the state more conservative, as some pundits had predicted, because inland California is becoming steadily more Latino. Among the newly created districts where no congressional incumbent lives are two Inland Empire seats — one in the Riverside area, the other in Ontario-Fontana — that are clearly Democratic in orientation and Latino in population.

And folks wonder why I love Meskins...

Third Lesson: There will actually be some — not many — districts that either party could win. Not many, because Californians tend to cluster themselves by ideology, leaving few parts of the state in which equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans abide side by side. In the newly created districts that could go either way, turnout will be key.

In the high-turnout election of 2008, for instance, Barack Obama carried the precincts in a newly created Ventura County congressional district by a hefty 16% margin. In the low-turnout election of 2010, Republican Meg Whitman beat Jerry Brown in those precincts by a slim 1%. Whatever Democrat ends up running for that seat must hope that disenchantment with Obama won't bring turnout down to midterm-election levels.

MY lesson to all: if disenchanted Dems had sucked it up and turned out for the 2010 midterm election, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. NEVER miss an election. Never.

Indeed, while California Republicans appear almost certain to lose seats in Congress and the Legislature next year, they may prevail in some of the new swing districts if many of the Obama surge voters of 2008 — disproportionately young and minority — respond to the dysfunctional economy by staying home. California looks to be no country for Republicans, but the recession may help them win a close one here and there.

If people can remember where the recession came from, the goddam Repugs oughta lose 'em all.

Much more in the article.

The only problem with California leading the way, from lakes pipes to politics, is that we're usually about ten years ahead of the rest of the country. At my age, that's a lot.

A "Dear Barack" Letter

Dear Barack,

We've had some good times over the last few years. Hell, 2008 was one of the most hopeful times in my life. Remember all those rallies and adoring crowds? God, it was wild. I didn't think I could keep up with you; you were so intense, so passionate. But once we started living together, things changed.
...

If you care to know why, let me explain. You started to take me for granted. Almost immediately your eye started to wander. When we'd go out, I'd always think, "I'll be he's looking over there at that table to the right." You told me not to worry about it. You said that I was still your heart and soul.

I got into this relationship without any illusions about who you were. I never listened when others told me that you were perfect. I never listened when some told me you weren't worth my time. I got together with you because I believed in us. You and me. Somewhere along the way, you stopped caring. Somewhere along the line, you started believing in others more than you believed in me.

I loved you as a smart, principled man. I worked at this relationship. Even when we fought, I still sought out the good in you. Now, finally, after watching you have affair after affair, saying each time that it was just a one-time thing, I have to allow myself to feel bitter and angry and more than a little foolish. And I have to do that by myself.

So this is a separation, and I'm sure you'll be dating again quickly. But I need a break. I need to remember why I loved you. I need to miss you. I need to see if I miss you. Sure, sure, you'll say, I'm being a drama queen, that nothing has changed, that I don't live in the real world, that everything you've done has been for me, that I just don't understand what it's like to live with the pressure that you have. No, but I have to live with the results of what you do. And after you're done, in 2013 or 2017, you'll still be a rich moderate conservative and I'll still be a middle-class liberal trying his best to clean up all the messes.

I'm gonna pack up my stuff and head out now. I wish you well, truly, for everyone's sake. But I think if there's anything you can take away from this, it's simple:

It's not me. It's you.

Sincerely,
The Rude Pundit

Don't worry, Barry, you've still got me. I'm old and slow to change and stubborn and sometimes not too smart and right now I'm so disappointed with you that I could just shit, but I still love you. I still have the hopelessness of faith in you and where else am I gonna go anyway? I'll keep hoping and waiting for you to come around and in the meantime you can sleep in the doghouse.

Love,
Gordon

How about ...

Since we're "broke", these weasels in Congress take a couple less vacations?

Quote of the Day

TomB in response to a Barbara Boxer email:

...

Maybe Democrats are just genetically incapable of getting in someone's face when their face needs to be gotten into... or maybe they simply serve the same special interests in the same way the Republicans do... but in any event don't EVER let the Tea Party pee on my leg and then YOU send me an email trying to convince me it was just a warm rain again.

The "duh" factor ...

Long suspected, now verified. Like the song says, "the South's gonna do it again". What the lyric doesn't relate is the other truism, "if I had to do it all over again, I'd do it all over you":

The Tea Party movement takes its name from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when American patriots dumped British tea into Boston Harbor to protest British imperial power. But while New England was the center of resistance to the British empire, there are few New Englanders to be found in today's Tea Party movement. It should be called the Fort Sumter movement, after the Southern attack on the federal garrison in Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12-13, 1861, that began the Civil War. Today's Tea Party movement is merely the latest of a series of attacks on American democracy by the white Southern minority, which for more than two centuries has not hesitated to paralyze, sabotage or, in the case of the Civil War, destroy American democracy in order to get their way.

...

Great thanks to Blue Texan for the link.

So I ask ...

Why couldn't Barry handle it like Bill Clinton did?

... Still, even though Clinton enjoyed political and economic advantages that Obama does not, his no-compromises strategy had some clear advantages. Unlike Obama, he refused to let the threat of default set the national agenda. Because he would not enter into negotiations over the debt ceiling, the issue barely roused the public consciousness ... [em in orig]

Because Obama thought he was smarter than he really is. Just because he went to Harvard don't make him a genius. After all, the Chimp went to Yale.

Of course, the main difference is, Obama wanted the showdown to rationalize his much-desired Grand Bargain on Social Security and Medicare! ...

Note for the future, Mr. Obama: You can't bargain with terrorists. They are willing to die where you're not.

Update:

And the great D-cap (I been waiting for this) echoes my sentiment:

... Rule 2 of negotiation - (as told by Golda Meir) - do not negotiate with terrorists. When you see the other side is a bunch of ignorant sociopaths bent on burning the village to save the village - do NOT be afraid to threaten. The 14th amendment should have been Obama's Entebbe.

Instead this capitulation will be his Munich.

...

Instead of ...

Demonizing people who can't speak English, why not teach them? And you wonder why I love New York:

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Sometime during the wash cycle, as this load is drying and he is almost done sorting, there's a change going on here, subtle but significant.

Part classroom, part laundry, in the back corner of magic touch, is where you'll find the newly created "Inwood Laundromat Language Institute".

Hector Canonge came up with the idea after seeing people in his community, of which many are new Spanish speaking immigrants, struggle with even basic things.

...

God bless this man.

Just a thought ...

After the better part of a 6-pack so take it for what it's worth. What do you think the result would be if all the progressives/liberals who are as pissed off as I am about this debt ceiling debacle wrote in "Bernie Sanders" on next year's presidential ballot?