Ice Station Tango

Begun, The 2010 Election Has

2010-07-17T12:17:00.003-05:00

The president used his weekly Youtube speech to lay out the battle lines for the 2010 election.

Here are some of the highlights:

Too often, the Republican leadership in the United States Senate chooses to filibuster our recovery and obstruct our progress. And that has very real consequences.

[...]

Think about what these stalling tactics mean for the millions of Americans who've lost their jobs since the recession began. Over the past several weeks, more than two million of them have seen their unemployment insurance expire.

[...]

So after years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit, including a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, they've finally decided to make their stand on the backs of the unemployed. They've got no problem spending money on tax breaks for folks at the top who don't need them and didn't even ask for them; but they object to helping folks laid off in this recession who really do need help.

BP Oil Gusher Finally Capped

2010-07-15T15:20:00.005-05:00

Word on the street is that the oil spill has finally been capped. While that doesn't change the fact that this is still a complete disaster, it's quite a relief to know that the eruption is over, at least for now.

Meanwhile, Anderson Cooper reported last night on the blackout the media is facing in spill zones. This is Bush Administration-style bullshit that the White House has to remedy directly.

Frustrated Ratigan Boots Stonewalling Congressman

2010-07-15T13:30:00.005-05:00

This clip is the epitome of what's wrong with cable news. While I agree with Dylan Ratigan, his righteous anger at a Republican member of Congress does nothing for the vast majority of people who don't understand the issues. It sounds just like Fox News does most of the time. I can't help but think that Ratigan would have been far more effective if he would not have been emoting like Mel Gibson the entire time. Kicking a stonewalling, talking points-spewing mouthpiece for corporate crooks off the show is a brilliant idea. But do it calmly and deliberately and it would mean so much more.

UPDATE: You know what? I take it back. Go ahead, Dylan, yell your head off, buddy. These guys are graverobbers.

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Sudanese President Charged with Genocide

2010-07-12T11:45:00.003-05:00

Today, for the first time in history, the International Criminal Court issued charges of genocide. The charges, three counts of genocide, were levied against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir after years of mayhem and mass slaughter in the country's Darfur region left approximately 300,000 people dead and another 2.7 million displaced.

How the court's authority will be enforced remains to be seen. In 2009, Al-Bashir was charged with a slate of seven war crimes for atrocities in Darfur, and all that's happened to him was re-elected to a new five-year term. He does not accept the court's authority and has no plans to turn himself in.

The blog Afrospear looks at a list of "stinking dictators the world over".

The Obama Administration You Do Not See on TV

2010-07-08T14:55:00.008-05:00

The President spoke today at a company in Kansas City called Smith Electric Vehicles. It's small, innovative companies like this that the administration has been consistently supporting that is keeping the economy from totally collapsing. People may have a hard time seeing this through the media distortion, but what Obama is talking about in this clip is his quite legacy. If congress changes hands or if he is not re-elected, this long-term foundation for a real recovery is going to go to waste.

On a completely different note: YouTube users who do not allow their videos to be embedded really grind my gears.

UPDATE: Here's more on the White House's innovation initiative. Why they aren't saturating the media with this kind of thing I have no idea.

Economic Downturn, A Marxist Perspective

2010-07-05T13:25:00.000-05:00

Sociologist David Harvey recently explained the current economic meltdown from a Marxist perspective at London's Royal Society for the Arts (h/t Cory Doctorow). This clip includes animation from Cognitive Media.

Meet the Utilities Nazi

2010-07-02T13:33:00.003-05:00

When Arizona passed their "papers" law, I guess I thought of that as the end point of the crazy.

Not even close.

At least, if Republican Barry Wong has his way. Wong is running for a spot on the Arizona Corporation Commission, which is an elected body that decides public utility issues. He wants to force utilities to verify their customers' citizenship status and, if you don't have your papers--no cable or electricity for you!

I Knew It! Also, Siegelman Appeal Gets New Life

2010-06-29T13:30:00.005-05:00

The Government Accountability Office has found seven instances of improper burrowing by the Bush Administration! Finally, we nailed those assholes. I knew they were burrowing all along!

Okay, I have no idea what burrowing is, but I'll take it. At this point, I'm going to find out what this whole burrowing thing is all about, but clearly, whatever it is, I'm sure no one is the least bit worried about going to jail.

TPM's Justin Elliott describes the practice thus:

...political appointees shifting to career civil servant positions in a given agency...

So the administration expires after eight years, but the ideology lives on through the actions of the burrowers. Guess where the majority of this took place. C'mon, guess.

Yeah, it's the former home of Monica Goodling, the Justice Department. I'm sure there's no connection.

Speaking of the Bush Justice Dept., Don Siegelman will get another shot at his appeal thanks to the Supreme Court's ruling in the case of U.S. vs. Skilling. This is good news for the former Alabama governor who's conviction stank badly, but it's still not over.

You Knew it was Bad, But This Guy Documented the Experience

2010-06-28T20:36:00.001-05:00

CBSNews.com's Shira Lazar talks to Josh Fox, the director of the devastating documentary Gasland that is currently running on HBO.

Book Review--David Derrico's The Twiller

2010-06-28T19:15:00.001-05:00

I'm proud to recommend my friend David Derrico's new novel, The Twiller. My Amazon review for the book is here. I love this book and have very high hopes that it will do well. If you would rather hear a review from someone who is not good friends with the author, check out I Love My Kindle blogger bufocalvin's extensive review.

Ron Blackwell Knows an Asshole When He Sees One

2010-06-26T13:02:00.004-05:00

AFL-CIO economist Ron Blackwell went on Fox News to be completely rolled by Cavuto, only, Blackwell didn't get the memo. When Cavuto asks him if he got his degree at a bakery, Blackwell gets back to the basics and reminds Cavuts that he is indeed an asshole.

Tucker Gets a Bit Mopey

2010-06-24T02:52:00.005-05:00

Tucker went on Washinton Journal, because there simply must not have been anyone else awake, and he let us know that he thinks that things are more off-track than at any time in his "conscious lifetime".

Hold on a second while I cash in on this set up in all caps just for the hell of it

--THAT'S NOT A VERY LARGE SAMPLE SIZE!

POW!

So, what should we do? Tucker, who is bummed out in this clip, says we're gonna have to cut into social security and medicare.

Cenk Uygur, replies.

Stewart is Ideal Obama Antagonist

2010-06-23T15:50:00.003-05:00

Matt Zoller Seitz piece on Jon Stewart's recent run of what Seitz calls "Obama Bashing" is a skewed characterization of a really exciting phenomenon. If Jon Stewart's sustained criticism of the White House (far from "bashing", a lazy term which is really out of place here) manages to become the focal point of our national discourse, rather than, say, Fox News or Rush Limbaugh vs. the White House, than we may have a shot at something resembling a national comeback. Or, at least readily available, coherent political analysis. The White House wants Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin to be their foils, because they are easily beaten. Stewart's criticism is much more realistic, and actually might serve as a means of focusing the White House, once the shelf life of Stewart's ideas clear the administrative lag time.

Drug Test Congress First

2010-06-22T11:35:00.004-05:00

Orrin Hatch wants to drug test the unemployed. To his credit he would not object to drug testing Congress. If this bullshit goes through, we have got to hold him to that at least, then watch as the dominoes fall. I have no doubt that at least as much of Congress that found their way to the DC Madam have found their way to the Beltway Connection.

Here's Marc Maron on the concept of drug testing in general:

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Old Blackwater, Keeps on Rollin'

2010-06-21T13:20:00.004-05:00

Somehow, the company formerly known as Blackwater, your favorite merciless post-apocalyptic corporate army employed by the Bush administration, have emerged from their makeover with a new brand name, Xe, and a new contract from the Obama administration. The State Department awarded the contract, which calls for "Xe" to protect diplomats in Iraq. So, they will have the guns again. But, will they still have their signature icy disregard for human life?

We'll just have to hope for the best.

Also, massacre? I don't have got no idea what you're talking about.

UPDATE: WaPo's Jeff Stein has a source that claims the new version of Blackwater has changed and can be trusted. The company is still at least nominally run by Erik Prince, which I would figure would be a deal breaker, but here we are. These guys better not fuck up.

Biden Giulianifies Barton

2010-06-18T20:53:00.004-05:00

The vice president dismantles Congressman Joe Barton for his Harry Whittington-esque apology to BP. Shades of this 2007 thrashing Biden gave a certain alleged national security expert.

I Can't Believe it Myself

2010-06-17T18:01:00.003-05:00

A few days ago, the president managed to get BP to set aside $20 billion for victims of the oil spill. This is something our media is not equipped to properly contextualize. It's the fact that this is completely outside the power of the Presidency that makes it such an amazing accomplishment. Guys like Joe Barton call it a shakedown. I orignally thought of it as more of a Jedi mind trick, but TPM reader DB described it best as an act of leadership.

He wrote:

It reminds me a little of something that happened during the Hurrican Rita evacuation. It was going to slowly and endangering the evacuees. Houston Mayor Bill White got on the phone to the Texas Department of Highways. He said, "make all the lanes of I.H. 45 one way north for the first hundred miles from the coast--the southbound traffic can find another route." He had no power to order that. But the officials just complied. He acted like a man in charge.

Unless the fund is handled poorly, and it looks like the administration has farmed this out to a competent, experienced individual, this has to go down as one of the great presidential accomplishments of this relatively major presidential accomplishment-free century.

Lightning Round--This Brings All New Meaning to the Term Lightning Round Edition

2010-06-15T13:10:00.007-05:00

Rising Hegemon: Big Butter Jesus is toast. The $250,000 yellow statue of Jesus at this riverfront church in Ohio burned to the ground after being struck by lightning. Attaturk handles the irony overdose far better than I could. BBJ and I go way back, to this post. Keep your eyes peeled, people of Ohio, He may yet rise again.

Ragebot!: Kvatch has sent Ragebot! to the dead blog office. Farewell, Ragebot! Hopefully Kvatch returns with a brand new invention sooner than later.

A Tiny Revolution: The Supreme Court rejected the a case brought on behalf of Canadian extraordinary rendition survivor Maher Arar by the Center for Constitutional Rights against the U.S. officials that sent him to Syria to be tortured. Now it's time to do something about it.

Low Budget FM: Co-host Mike Cioffi is a creative, talented guy. He's also working on a project that may change the face of American culture inexorably.

Professor Richard D. Wolf: A New School economist offers a crash course in Marxism in four roughly two-hour lectures. His website offers up plenty of other resources as well.

Go Alvin Greene!

2010-06-15T11:35:00.005-05:00

As Jon Stewart points out in this clip, any Democrat nominated for Senate in South Carolina is going down anyway, so this isn't exactly the crime of the century. What it is, is a huge embarrassment for the Democratic Party, who should have been all over this. There is no excuse for nominating this complete jackass.

Having said all that, it is imperative that we elect this jackass to the Senate because he's way better for America than Jim DeMint.

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Congressman Snaps after Bush League Psyche-Out

2010-06-14T17:23:00.007-05:00

I think you may have seen Congressman Etherigde snap by now, but if not, here's that:

Sad day for DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse who had to addressed the video in statement form.

Motives matter, and I think you can see who was behind this. This was a Republican party tracking operation. If it wasn't a party tracker or intern, why is the face blurred and why is the source hidden? You know if it had been a right wing blog, they'd identify themselves and they'd be booking this person on TV all day. Republicans know if they admit their involvement in this game of gotcha it will undermine their credibility. One minute this guy is interviewing a member of Congress on camera and the next a video is released with his face blurred out? If that doesn't tell you this is a Republican Party hatchet job nothing will.

I don't care if it was Karl Rove's grandmamma stalking this dude, that reaction is completely unacceptable. You can't horsecollar a guy in the NFL, you sure can't do it on the street. Rep. Etheridge should probably resign, but if he decides to let the voters fire him instead, then I say this--he's not worse than David Vitter and that guy never resigned.

UPDATE: TPM points out that the people behind the video have a pretty clear record of selective editing. That had not occurred to me, dude.

The Other Barbara Bush Shows Up on TV

2010-06-13T23:55:00.003-05:00

Chris Wallace put together this short feature on one half of the Bush twins.

Two things I really liked in that. One, she doesn't plan to run for office. Two, she said she was glad that health care reform passed.

As long as part one holds true, then we're all good.

Before There Was a Massive Oil Volcano in the Middle of the Ocean...

2010-06-12T17:42:00.003-05:00

...there was an editorial published June 19, 2008, by the Telegraph's Alex Singleton titled, "George Bush is right on offshore drilling."

Let's see how he did.

There are indeed legitimate environmental concerns about drilling, but there are also economic concerns about high energy prices and the reliance on oil imported from temperamental sources. Harnessing US oil resources, just as Britain has harnessed North Sea oil, is increasingly necessary.

Technological progress will eventually break the link between energy use and carbon emissions, but it is impractical in the near future to rely purely on renewable sources. Wind energy, for example, can be an important part of a country’s energy mix, but it is on its own unable to guarantee a consistent supply of power.

It's not the vitriolic Glen Beck-style comical slapstick of the right that we've come to expect. But there's nothing reasonable about it. Not now and not then. This idea that we should keep chasing oil deeper and deeper into the sea, knowing full well the potential for damage to environment, while we wait for technology to solve the problem for us is like a fat person waiting around for pills that give you better abs than Jesus. It'll be a long wait while things keep getting worse.

Did Colin Powell Prevent Cold War with China?

2010-06-11T12:05:00.006-05:00

According to his former aide, he most certainly did.

The entire four part interview is here.

Colbert Demands Obama Release His Rap Records

2010-06-09T12:34:00.002-05:00

Where were you in the summer of '93, President Obama?

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Was Bill Clinton Once a Lesbian Orgy Magnet?

2010-06-08T10:25:00.004-05:00

Okay, Bubba, it's time to come clean. Did you, or, did you not use your handsome face to attract beautiful and charming young women to parties, where they would then be persuaded to partake in lesbian orgies? You must respond to this poorly sourced, decades old accusation, leveled at you by a notorious drunk who is selling this story as part of his new book.

We will impeach you again, even if it means reversing the 23rd amendment and re-electing you in 2012 to do it.

Also, don't skimp on the details about those parties.

Only a Million, Elton?

2010-06-07T11:19:00.003-05:00

Elton John's current tour is quite ambitious. In the coming weeks he will play in Bulgaria for the first time in his storied career. A couple of weeks ago he played a show in Morocco despite the protests of Islamic fundamentalists.

How to follow up on that? Take a check for a million dollars to play Rush Limbaugh's 4th wedding, of course.

Next up, Jabba's Palace for the Hutt's kid's Bar Mitzvah.

So Many Assholes On TV

2010-06-04T20:33:00.000-05:00

Are there really so many jobs in TV that this guy makes the cut?

By the way, Erin Burnett's analysis is right. Galarraga's rare grace will be rewarded for generations. He and the umpire have endeared themselves to me and many other sports fans that have become increasingly alienated from sports by the cheaters, criminals and assholes that dominate the landscape. Armando Galarraga's unique place in the lore of the game is assured now because he got monumentally screwed and he was able to joke about it and forgive the person that did him wrong.

Nothing to See Here

2010-06-04T15:54:00.006-05:00

Alaska Rep. Don Young actually said that the spill isn't an environmental disaster.

Bush Admits Waterboarding

2010-06-03T21:08:00.003-05:00

And still, no one cares. Bush could waterboard KSM right now on TV and no one would care. It's a damn shame because it changes who we are as a people. You either torture or you don't. It takes more than an election to change that. Admitting it may be worse than doing it. That's George W. Bush for you. If it can be made worse, he will find a way to make it worse.

John Oliver Bids Farewell to Senators Craig, Bayh

2010-06-03T15:03:00.004-05:00

Vintage Oliver.

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As great as Oliver is on the Daily Show, I dare say he is as good or better on the weekly podcast he does with Andy Zaltsman for the TimesOnline called The Bugle.

Michael Savage Weighs in On Israeli Flotilla Raid

2010-06-03T14:29:00.004-05:00

Cenk Uygur playes the choice audio on The Young Turks. Spoiler alert: It was Bill Ayers.

Cenk also makes this very important point, "They didn't kill 9 people with paintball guns."

Stop Talking Immediately

2010-06-02T13:05:00.005-05:00

I'm sure the CEO of BP, Mr. Tony Hayward, never thought that he would hold ultimate responsibility over a company that would cause something as horrific as the Gulf Oil Spill. I'm sure that it seems intuitive for this guy to engage such a monumental fuck up with copious amounts of PR tactics in hopes that he can mitigate a disaster that he can not stop. Apparently that's not all he can't stop. He's having a real problem stopping the nonsense spilling from his mouth.

His instincts actually led him to say this (h/t Sam Seder):

There's no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back.

If this is his idea of a helpful statement, then someone on this man's payroll should be responsible for convincing him to never speak to a reporter again for the rest of his life.

Mr. Hayward, this is not about YOU! Get your life back? Are you serious?

You know who also wants their lives back? The people who live off of the fishing and tourism industries, which are going to be damaged irreparably for a generation or more. What's the worst case scenario for Mr. Hayward? Barring the minuscule chance that he may have broken the law--the law that thirty years of deregulation has sanded down to nothing--he's walking away from this job a rich man with only his conscience to contend with.

UPDATE: Going against the advice I so generously provided for him, Tony Hayward has apologized for saying, "I want my life back."

Here's his new statement:

I made a hurtful and thoughtless comment on Sunday when I said that "I wanted my life back." When I read that recently, I was appalled. I apologize, especially to the families of the 11 men who lost their lives in this tragic accident. Those words don't represent how I feel about this tragedy, and certainly don't represent the hearts of the people of BP -- many of whom live and work in the Gulf -- who are doing everything they can to make things right. My first priority is doing all we can to restore the lives of the people of the Gulf region and their families -- to restore their lives, not mine.

It took reading his own words to make him realize what he said was appalling. This guy doesn't comprehend what's coming out of his mouth until he reads it in print. He needs to have a transcription of his words provided to him in real time so he can sign off on his own statements.

For Justice, We Must Go to Bob Graham

2010-06-02T11:29:00.005-05:00

With oil looming near the state's shores, President Obama has appointed former Governor and Senator Bob Graham to co-chair a commission to investigate the Gulf oil spill. This is a great move. Graham served the state brilliantly during his long career in public service. He will not be a party to a whitewash, especially now that he's retired. Just look at the way he's waving this piece of incriminating evidence around like he's so ready to incriminate bad people with it.

Speaking of incriminating bad people, elsewhere in the state, Former Florida GOP chair Jim Greer has been charged with six felony counts--a little fraud, a little theft, and little bit of money laundering. That's gotta sting.

Sad Day for Aquaman

2010-05-31T23:12:00.005-05:00

Most recently via Oliver Willis.

BP Treats President, American People, Like Chumps

2010-05-29T21:45:00.006-05:00

Not that I would expect anything less, but the company that is in the process of spilling fucktons of oil into our sea and onto our beaches just bussed in hundreds of "temp workers" in an apparent ploy to make the president, who visited the Gulf Coast today, think that BP has a larger workforce that it actually does.

I'm beginning to wonder how long before BP's contempt for American citizens and our president pushes this into the realm of an international incident. Special relationship, my ass. This company has shit on us at every turn and the British government needs to step in and make sure these people start acting correctly.

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal Advances

2010-05-28T20:22:00.004-05:00

The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell appears close at hand.

Still, John McCain will not pass up an opportunity to further debase himself. Meanwhile, Charlie Crist, now an independent, is free to vote his conscience, or pander to the center-left, depending on how you interpret his recent, though very welcome, flip on the issue.

Skippy had the same thought I did--"So now if we ask, ya gotta tell."

Here's Some Poopy

2010-05-28T14:24:00.002-05:00

I will eat the monitors in the control center if any of the nonsense floated in this puff piece comes to pass.

Dylan Ratigan Leads the TYT Army Into Battle

2010-05-28T14:20:00.002-05:00

Polished media pro goes indie for fun and no profit, eh? Why this is happening, I have no idea, but I smell sitcom.

Similarities Between 1979 Ixtoc I Oil Spill and Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Abound

2010-05-27T11:38:00.006-05:00

Rachel Maddow looks back at the Ixtoc I oil spill, the largest accidental oil spill in history.

Incidentally, the worst oil spill ever was Saddam Hussein's post Gulf War hissy fit that dumped around 11 million barrels into the Persian Gulf.

Lightning Round--Sam Seder Calls Bullshit, Atheist Anger, Smackdown in Connecticut, Teen Wolves, More...

2010-05-25T12:56:00.004-05:00

Sam Seder: Sam's back with a new series of video clips wherein he tackles media bullshit. Here's the debut, We're not Greece.

TPM: The Connecticut Senate race is down to a triple-threat match... actually, it's more like a number-one contenders match between two Republicans--former WWE CEO Linda McMahon and former Congressman Rob Simmons. The winner will throw down with Richard Blumenthal for the seat being vacated by Chris Dodd.

Godless Girl: Earlier this month GG wrote a post about how to get past atheist anger.

Walking the Room: Two of America's more authentic comedians, Dave Anthony and Greg Behrendt, have launched a new podcast. Podcasting is a war of attrition where good and decent shows seem to die off every week or so while nonsense rides a wave of unprecedented popularity, so good luck guys, I'll be listening.

Film Drunk: FD's Vince Mancini presents the greatest lede of all time.

KENS5--San Antonio: Teen wolves. Seriously.

I Hate the Government So Much I Want to be Senator

2010-05-20T11:53:00.004-05:00

When Ronald Reagan reduced the role of the federal government to a campaign trail punchline, he could not have framed a libertarian take over of the Republican party any better.

Thirty years later, the Republican Party has nominated a libertarian ideologue named Rand Paul for Senate. In this clip, Paul goes on the Rachel Maddow Show and Rachel gives us a crystal clear look at how this whole libertarian business works. Paul takes a very moral position on racism. Unfortunately, his own morality is irrelevant because libertarianism operates on naked principle, which is this: anything goes in private places. Oh, by the way, as a libertarian he also believes there shouldn't be any public places. So, laws like the Civil Rights Act moot.

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Nailed It!

2010-05-19T11:20:00.005-05:00

So, it turns out I was right when I predicted early yesterday that Arlen Specter was toast. Not the most amazing act of prognostication you're likely to see, since the race was essentially a toss up.

Even though a late Sestak surge made it an 8-point win, from a strategic standpoint, Specter was probably right to try to win the Democratic nomination. The Republican electorate has become too intractable for someone playing at being moderate to prevail against Pat Toomey, a darling of conservative fund raising dynamos the Club for Growth.

A Charlie Crist/Joe Lieberman-style independent run wouldn't have worked as well in Pennsylvania, where Sestak was a much stronger candidate than Kendrick Meek appears to be in Florida or Alan Schlesinger was in Connecticut. Trying to thread the needle between Sestak and Toomey would have probably left Specter in third place.

Who's Alan Schlesinger you ask? Exactly.

Specter is gone and if Sestak can replace him, then great. The Senate gets a major upgrade. If, however, Toomey wins I'm pretty sure he'll make us miss unctuous ancient Arlen quicker than you can smoke up your supply of Dutch cleanser.

Prediction--Macho Arlen is Going Down

2010-05-18T14:11:00.002-05:00

Not going to miss Arlen one bit. Good luck Rep. Sestak. Full rundown on other internet sites as news breaks.

By the way something, the line about smoking Old Dutch Cleanser--recycled! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to clean the old Dutch oven.

Just Wait

2010-05-16T01:29:00.004-05:00

On the long road to her success or failure in the 2012 Republican primary, Sarah Palin is going to be on the TV, the radio, the computer, your phone, your fax machine, even your pop-up toaster. She's only getting started. She's dropping ridiculous claims daily, recently asserting that the president has a secret agenda to ban guns. What!? Before the president knows who will be his 2012 general election opponent, Sarah Palin is going to be a constant, relentless presence in our lives.

And that, my friends, is a presence that will give many of us focus and clarity.

The many divisions that have deepened on the left over the last few months will largely be forgotten. Still, there is much unrest within the left. I'm a pragmatist. I like Democratic presidents to be very careful. I think that the president is being more cautious than even I recommend, so I am not surprised that a growing number of progressives are pissed. I agree with many of their criticisms. I also empathize with these progressives. I understand that it's deeply frustrating when the candidate you supported still won't allow you and your fellow Americans to get the social justice we deserve.

I give Obama a pass on a lot of this stuff because he won. He stopped John McCain from being president right now. Stopping disastrous presidents is often the best thing any president ever does. Jimmy Carter's biggest failure? Losing. Losing to Ronald Reagan. 12 years in the wilderness ensued.

None of the top candidates for the Republican nomination even rises to the caliber of John McCain. Barring a shocking shift in our political culture, the next Republican presidential candidate is going to be another Bush administration waiting to happen. No progressive is going to sit out that fight. We have short memories too on the left, but not that short.

BP CEO's Powerful Spin Propels Entire Spill Out of Gulf, Into Low Earth Orbit

2010-05-14T11:16:00.007-05:00

The people at BP are desperately trying everything they can think of to stop the Gulf Oil Spill. They dropped a dome on it. Then a "top hat"... is that right? They sent a robot. Next up I believe are sharks with freakin' lasers.

Now, they've resorted to the last refuge of the rich and powerful when they're totally fucked--sheer, unmitigated spin. BP CEO Tony Hayward actually said this:

We will fix it. I guarantee it. The only question is we do not know when. The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.

Masterful. He leads with, "We will fix it." Very forceful and confident. He doubles down by guaranteeing it. Then he slips in some fine print, "The only question is we do not know when." So, He vows to fix it. Guarantees he'll fix it. Then he slides in the fact that it may take quite some time. Like, when the last of the oil gushes out of the pipe, maybe?

So far, this is very pedestrian PR work. But then, sensing he has his audience off balance, Heyward unleashes a gem that will go into the Spin Hall of Fame on the first ballot when it's eligible in five years. "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean," Hayward said, "The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume."

See, guys, it's just a little bit of oil in the great blue-brown sea. It's like peeing in an Olympic sized swimming pool. Nothing to worry about. Why are you guys so mad?

In my mind's eye I can see it: somewhere, Karl Rove slowly tips his hat in appreciation of a supremely skilled peer.

Jon Stewart Decodes Media's Bush/Obama Equivalency Fetish

2010-05-12T17:10:00.007-05:00

Watch as the master skillfully dissects the super-annoying voodoo calculus flim-flam run by conservative think tanks and talk show hosts, that is then fed through the media echo chamber that equates anything Obama does or doesn't do to some supposedly equivalent Bush administration failure that these same people have spent years defending and mitigating.

Oh thank you, Jon Stewart! Thank you and your magical media-trotting editing machine for collating the evidence of this hackery.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

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Political Humor

Tea Party

Lightning Round--The Tea Party Deck, Battlefield Executions, Wally Hickel, Marc Maron Interview, More...

2010-05-12T12:13:00.007-05:00

Mediaite: Our old pal Tommy Christopher has a post up about how The Shenandoah Valley Tea Party Patriots (yep, there's a The Shenandoah Valley Tea Party Patriots) are selling decks of cards similar to the ones issued to soldiers during the early days of the Iraq occupation. Those cards featured Saddam Hussein and other members of the Baath Party. "The Tea Party deck," Tommy writes, "features members of the US Congress whom they identify as part of the 'progressive cancer,' along with some creepy marching orders."

Michael Moore: Speaking at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva last month, Seymour Hersh reported that battlefield executions are taking place in Afghanistan.

Greg Palast: Ever heard of Wally Hickel? They should write a movie about this ambitious individual, who recently died at the age of 90. He served as Alaska's governor twice and got into all kinds of zany nonsense. According to Palast he engineered Sarah Palin's run for governor and even once had designs on creating an Arctic Empire that would have included "Siberia, Alaska, sub-polar Scandinavia and northern Japan, tied together by a rail tunnel under the Bering Sea".

Suite 101: Christine E. Taylor interviewed comedian Marc Maron about his critically acclaimed podcast WTF, which has included great interviews recently with Robin Williams and director David Wain formerly of The State.

Oliver Willis: The Clintons are still paying off their campaign debt to Mark Penn.

Writers on the Inside

2010-05-12T10:08:00.001-05:00

In this edition (MP3) of C-SPAN's After Words, Piper Kerman, an upper-middle class Smith College alum who went to prison for a year over a decade after being involved in drug trafficking, spoke to author Ted Conover about her time in prison and her recent book about the experience, Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison.

Conover is an ideal match as interviewer because he too spent a year in the prison system as a writer who goes undercover as a CO at New York's Sing Sing prison, resulting in Conover's 2000 classic Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing.

Planet Earth, That's a Wrap, We've Been Humanity, Thanks and Good Night!

2010-05-11T11:29:00.004-05:00

According to a new study coming straight out of Australia--the Earth has about a fifty-fifty shot of being too hot for humans by 2300. That's not that far off, station nation. The good news is Antarctic, Lunar and Martian property values will rise considerably. The other good news is we'll all be dead by then anyway, which is a really big part of the problem.

Okay, Start Ruing

2010-05-10T15:02:00.004-05:00

If conservatives weren't ruing the day that Michael Steele became RNC chair there will very likely be plenty of opportunities ahead. Not only is he a giant bad press magnet in his own right, it appears that potentially serious shenanigans, the kind that gets prosecutors and grand jurors involved, may have been taking place at the RNC on his watch.

Frankly, I don't get why this is such a big deal. I know I report my jewelry store and/or fly fishing purchases as meals all the time. WTF am I talking about? You gotta read the story, buddy.

Obama Nominates Kagan

2010-05-10T12:57:00.003-05:00

This is who I thought he would pick the first time out, so it's not a huge surprise. So far, everything I've seen suggests that this is a fine selection. Three out of nine justices being women is a nice start.

Here's the press conference announcing the pick:

By the way, if, for some reason, you happen to have an abundance of faith in humanity today, then I suggest you take a few seconds and read the comments for this clip on YouTube. It'll snap you right out of that dream world.

She's More Than Likable Enough

2010-05-09T18:34:00.003-05:00

I'm watching tonight's 60 Minutes profile of Secretary of State Clinton. I was amazed to hear that her approval rating is at 77 percent. That's basically everyone except for the tea party. It helps when Amy Poehler gets off your ass.

Here's a clip:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Prosecution of President Obama Off to Bad Start

2010-05-07T12:57:00.008-05:00

Rachel Maddow covers the sad, yet hilarious, also terrifying tale of birtherism gone wrong. As if it could ever go right. TPM has the story as well.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This is not the only potential trial the president faces. Pastor Manning has a stark vision of how exactly the trial of President Obama will go down. It may, in fact, not be legally binding. I'm not clear on the specifics.

By the way, citizen's arrest is pretty risky business, people. If you have to come up with some kind of convoluted plan to address all the injustice in the world that hinges on a citizen's arrest, whether you're stalking Karl Rove with fuzzy pink handcuffs or the Grand Jury foreman who ignores your crazy pleas to indict the president, you're probably the one who's going to go down.

Traveling while Hispanic

2010-05-06T20:33:00.006-05:00

If you are Hispanic, or any other ethnicity of a darker-skinned variety, and plan on driving through or visiting Arizona, go to GringoMask.com.

They provide a free service to help you blend into the population. Use the free download to enable yourself to pass. Simply download, print, then cut out a face-sized mask. If pulled over by the police, simply attach and you'll not be detained or questioned.

Lightning Round--Ambrose a Fraud?, Nuke the Spill?, I Pity the Fool, NWA Movie, Taiwanese Politics, More...

2010-05-05T17:13:00.008-05:00

The Wall Street Journal: Google is jumping into the E-book market. As per my request, independent author David Derrico kindly left his take on this development in comments.

The L Magazine: They're making an NWA movie. Kinda like Boyz N the Hood with rappers.

Daylife: A riot broke out in the Taiwanese parliament over whether or not to allow mainland Chinese students into Taiwanese universities. Check out how they cut off debate over there. For more in depth and balanced coverage of Taiwan, check out RealTaiwan.Com which is well run by a good friend of mine.

Overthinking It: Overthinker Lee delves the limits of space and time to produce a thorough examination of practice of fool pitying.

Raw Story: Earlier this week the Russians made a suggestion for how we could successfully cap the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico--Nuke the shit out of it.

ABCNews.Com: Did historian Stephen Ambrose make up many of his interviews with President Eisenhower?

George Will, Defender of Birds Everywhere

2010-05-04T15:13:00.002-05:00

George Will actually makes the argument that offshore wind farms will kill more birds than the Gulf Oil Spill (h/t Monkey Muck). You know, even if that is true, fuck him for reducing the energy debate to birdstrike.

By the way something, George Will might be interested in the fact that in the wake of Sulley's heroic ditch in the Hudson, airports have developed technology to avert birdstrike and that technology seems like it would be adaptable to wind farms.

Speaking of birdstrike, here's Eddie Izzard's classic 1996 bit on the subject:

Take Our Former President, Please

2010-05-04T14:51:00.000-05:00

McClatchy writer Steven Thomma takes his turn on the historical revisionism merry-go-round, asserting that maybe, just maybe, George W. Bush didn't suck.

These arguments, going back to 2005, when it became clear that the occupation of Iraq couldn't be ended without an horrific civil war and oh, by the way, no WMD here, all hinge on the notion that if Iraq stabilizes, then it was a great move by Bush lying to the American people so he could send a crushing unilateral illegal invasion force to occupy a sovereign country. Though Iraq has stabilized by comparison, I would caution anyone against thinking we are anywhere near writing the history of the aftermath of American occupation, I especially warn against writing it before our forces have fully withdrawn.

Thomma also tries to mitigate Bush's spending spree by pointing out the size of Obama's first two budgets as if the economic collapse of 2008 never happened. How many times do people who know what the fuck they are talking about have to explain that during a crash, government spending is the only way to slow the free fall? If anything, the spending the current president is compelled to do should be on the tab of the former president.

If anything, Bush looks even worse in retrospect, because, as many of us have long expected, his policies will continue to plague this country for decades.

No White House, Daily Show Comedy Cabal

2010-05-04T12:48:00.007-05:00

President Obama did have help writing his comedy routine for the White House Correspondents' Dinner, but not from the writing staff of The Daily Show. Obama got his assist from one particular Daily Show scribe, Kevin Bleyer, who was not acting on behalf of the show.

Frankly, if Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and the ghost of Bill Hicks wrote the routine with the president over beers at the White House bowling alley it wouldn't have mattered, even a little, because stand up comedy is often collaborative. Furthermore, while Obama exceeded expectations with his set, it wasn't Bring the Pain or Bill Cosby Himself or anything. The combination of Leno's suction and the president's competence has the media convinced he's the second coming of George Carlin.

The event itself is an abomination to journalism and it puts the president in the position of having to joke about serious, life and death matters. I know a lot of people who didn't think the president should be making jokes of any kind about predator drones. And besides, after Colbert's set in 2006 they should have just ended the whole thing.

Of course, there will be plenty of assholes using this against the president and The Daily Show because many of those people have proven they will say or do anything to criticize Obama, or anyone else they think is liberal. I still hear things about his teleprompter.

Brownie's Got a Slick Conspiracy Theory

2010-05-03T23:16:00.001-05:00

Get a load of Brownie:

William the Oily

2010-05-02T14:39:00.005-05:00

Dubbed "William the Bloody" for his zealous support for George W. Bush's wars, the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol took his tone deafness to a new level by calling for expanded drilling closer to shore and in ANWR.

Kristol also recently used some oily math to predict that the Arizona "papers" law would only violate civil rights 5, 8, or 13 times. No word on whether or not Karl Rove validates these new maths.

President Obama at Michigan Commencement and the White House Correspondents' Dinner

2010-05-02T01:34:00.004-05:00

Busy day today for the president. This morning he gave the commencement address at the University of Michigan.

And tonight he did some stand up at #nerdprom. The routine was very funny. The president cooled whatever heat may have been emanating from his stand-up act by striking a somber and resolute tone at the end, especially in regard to the oil spill.

Line of the night goes to the president: "All of our jokes tonight are brought to you by our friends at Goldman Sachs — they make money whether you laugh or not."

Ho, ho, ho.

The Size of Spain?

2010-05-01T18:18:00.003-05:00

The Gulf of Mexico, for those of you who stopped paying attention to everything, is flooded with oil now, a "churning slick of dense, rust-colored oil the size of Puerto Rico" according to the AP. That size is expected to grow, as no one knows for sure the magnitude of the disaster.

For those of you that have the Mayan side in the 2012 Armageddon betting pool, you can pair that Puerto Rico-sized oil slick with a Spain-sized plague of locusts in Australia. How bad is it down under? Those crazy buggers have started putting the bugs on their pizza.

Also, lest we forget, the Icelandic Volcano is still erupting.

Lojack for Illegals?

2010-04-30T17:49:00.003-05:00

Cenk Uygur breaks down the insane concept put forward by Pat Bertroche, an Iowa Republican who is running for the House of Representatives, of microchipping illegal immigrants. You know, like dogs.

One thing Cenk left out of his criticism of this, because the sheer stupidity and inhumanity of the idea speaks for itself, is that the Pat Bertroche's idea quite simply will not work.

"We don't retire at 50 with a pension"

2010-04-30T17:18:00.004-05:00

A truly repugnant email from an anonymous, and clearly bitter, Wall Street warrior has been picked up by the blogs. If this really is the mentality taking hold on Wall Street then the president and his administration is doing a better job than I ever dreamed.

This is my favorite part:

Go ahead and continue to take us down, but you're only going to hurt yourselves. What's going to happen when we can't find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We're going to take yours. We get up at 5am & work till 10pm or later. We're used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We don't take an hour or more for a lunch break. We don't demand a union. We don't retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we'll eat that.

See here, the joke's on you creepy Wall Street bulk email guy--what's left on my plate is tasty-looking shrimp loaded to the gills with Texas tea. Just wring it out over your engine block and enjoy.

By the way something, we don't retire at any age with a pension. You Reaganites saw to that. So, if you think the middle class is a rose garden, you're in for a big surprise, douche.

West Wing Rewind--CJ Cregg Meets the Cartographers for Social Equality

2010-04-29T13:54:00.002-05:00

What if the map of the Earth you have inside your head is laughably wrong?

Charlie Crist Goes Rogue

2010-04-28T15:03:00.004-05:00

Fresh off his crowd pleasing veto earlier this month of a Republican bill that would have tied teachers' pay to the performance of their students on standardized tests, Florida Governor Charlie Crist will likely announce tomorrow that he will run as an independent for the US Senate, bypassing a primary contest with Republican opponent Marco Rubio, who has a huge lead over Crist in primary polls and the backing of the same sorts of ultra-conservative big money organizations, such as the Club for Growth, that drove Arlen Specter to switch to the Democratic Party.

Rubio still leads in three-way polling, but Crist isn't far behind and he hasn't really started wooing moderates the way he will now that he's going to commit to this course of action. Anything that makes it harder for Rubio to win works for me. I would obviously prefer to see inevitable Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek's numbers will improve and he'll win the seat, but if, by election day, the polls make it clear that it's a two-man race between Crist and Rubio, then I'll do what I have to do--vote big orange, then take a shower.

Did Germany Try to Kill George and Laura Bush?

2010-04-28T13:28:00.005-05:00

Dubya isn't the only one coming out with a book this year, his wife Laura's book is coming out next month. According to the AP, some of the choice material regards Mrs. Bush's fairly wild assertion that she, president Dumbshit, and several staffers MAY have been poisoned. This possible poisoning may or may not have taken place during a G8 summit in Germany. Instead of, you know, dying, the first couple and their staff fell ill. After a Secret Service investigation, doctors said they all had a virus.

Let's see, instead of attributing this illness to the fact that people often get sick, she implies that Germany poisoned them. Did Angela Merkel herself drop what she hoped would be a deadly dose into their vegetable soup? Was it only their hyper-immune American physiology that allowed them to survive this assassination attempt?

The AP quotes Mrs. Bush as saying, "We never learned if any other delegations became ill, or if ours, mysteriously, was the only one." This may be the most disturbing part of this whole thing. So, you're telling me that there was enough suspicion that the Germans or some rogue non-state actor (like a chef with a deep distaste for Cowboy diplomacy) poisoned the president of the United States, his employees and his wife, that there was a Secret Service investigation, but no one got the Director of National Security on the line to find out if the intelligence community could possibly find out if any other world leader--real high profile people--were getting cold sweats or hacking up mung? We don't know at a moment's notice if Pooty Poot is running a fever? I somehow find that disappointing, given what we spend on intel.

Mrs. Bush also criticized Democrats for calling her husband "an incompetent leader" and a "loser" says that such insults were "uncalled for." Well, maybe I'm being too technical over here, but I would submit to the former First Lady that those insults were very loudly called for. People all over the blogosphere and the biosphere were calling for those kinds of insults. Maybe calling him a "loser" wasn't the most appropriate insult, seeing as how he did "win" two elections. But "incompetent leader" is not even an insult. It's an apt description that the Texas board of Education will surely strain itself to rid from future history text books.

Bill Frist Digs the Healthcare Reform

2010-04-28T12:05:00.001-05:00

Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a medical doctor, is all about the health care bill (h/t Wonk Room). So much so that he's going around talking about how proud he is of this administration. What is with these people? When Frist, who seriously has issues, was Leader, he was one of the least liked politicians in the country while ranking very high on the list of corrupt politicians. He always toed the party line. So what's with the sudden Barack-love? What's the angle here?

A commenter at The Wonk Room follows the money, and quickly unearths several reasons that Dr. Frist is so excited:

Dr. Frist will cash in for the fourth time on HCA’s going public. Private equity underwriter (PEU) KKR plans an HCA IPO in the near future.

As for increased costs KKR’s buyout of HCA and Triad’s sellout to CHS added over $2 billion in interest expense. White House Health Czar Nancy Ann DeParle made over $1 million from Triad’s sale.

What happened as PPACA neared the finish line? PEU’s signed deals to buy out major safety net providers in Massachusetts and Michigan. Three years under Mass health reform couldn’t save Caritas Christie from hell hound Cerberus Capital.

Dr. Frist’s son works for The Carlyle Group. An Axelrod also worked for Carlyle but disappeared after their downsizing.

Dirty Tom Daschle, also a PEU, has his hands all over PPACA. Of course Dr. Frist likes it. It sets up the For-Profiteers.

I'm not real sure what all that means, but it sounds pretty plausible to me.

Remember, if it weren't for severe debacle build up, he would have been one of the front runners for the Republican nomination in 2008. Debacle after debacle--like this one:

Feelings Are Going to be Hurt By This

2010-04-27T10:14:00.003-05:00

Letterman does seem fairly eager to jump back on Jay Leno here, but why not? Any response Jay Leno gives is going suck because it's going to be given by Jay Leno.

Now, just install that ejector seat for Mr. Phil and we're set.

So It's Come to This

2010-04-26T14:29:00.005-05:00

I am watching a debate unfold on Facebook right now between a friend and one of her friends that started off about the new Arizona law requiring police to stop illegal looking people. It has now degenerated into a ridiculous, reductive proclamation about who stole who's land from the Mexican-American War back to the original passage of the arctic land-bridge.

Dave Anthony at Stop All Monsters posted this image:

Here's Rachel Maddow with more:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

We Have Nothing to Fear But Aliens

2010-04-25T18:24:00.004-05:00

The smartest person ever says that if we cross paths with aliens, they'll probably be total assholes that will slaughter all resistance en route to draining our resources.

I thought that trying to find a job was a problem, now I got the Borg bearing down on me. Thanks Hawking. Thanks a lot!

More Importantly, How Much Does it Cost?

2010-04-25T17:15:00.003-05:00

CNN's Barbara Starr reports on a secret military vehicle, the X-37B, that some believe is designed to take out enemy satellites.

Whatever the intended uses of the X-37B, the secrecy surrounding the project is fueling waves of speculation and mounting distrust. Some suspect that the project amounts to nothing more than a means of handing over billions of taxpayer dollar to the private sector with little in return.

Go Fuck Yourself--A Blog Post in Three Acts

2010-04-23T13:11:00.006-05:00

Act One

INT. TV STUDIO--NIGHT

Act one opens on our main character, Daily Show host JON STEWART, who has taken the phrase "Go Fuck Yourself" to new levels of greatness.

After blasting Bernie Goldberg (off) with it earlier this week, Stewart busted out The Go Fuck Yourself Choir and went to work on the extremists who have been threatening Matt and Trey from South Park for not doing anything like showing a depiction of Muhammad on TV, which they already did many years ago.

Act Two

INT. RADIO STATION--DAY

Enter the former Vice president of the United States--a thick slab of sith man/machine named RICHARD CHENEY, eyes sweeping side to side, on the make.

Who's that he's talking to? My god, it can't be, but it is... former SNL mainstay DENNIS MILLER, who is in the latter stages of his own second act--reinvented as a right wing radio host. Miller emits a few phony YUCKS to ingratiate himself to the dark lord.

They do an interview as the song "Cheney's Got a Gun" by Bob Rivers fades.

MILLER: (referring to the time in 2004 when Dick Cheney told Senator Leahy "go fuck yourself" on the floor of the Senate) On the list of things I should thank you for--almost kicking Patrick Leahy's ass.

Cheney fake LAUGHS with Miller a bit.

Cheney: You’d be surprised how many people liked that. That’s sort of the best thing I ever did.

Cheney laughs like the Penguin from the 60's Batman TV show as we

DISSOLVE TO:

Act Three

EXT. ICE STATION TANGO--DAY

A few penguins mill around the entrance to the heavily fortified ice station LAUGHING like Dick Cheney, former VP of the United States.

IN THE ICE STATION--DAY

THE STATION AGENT works feverishly at his blogging station in the IST Control Center.

STATION AGENT: Computer, pull up the greatest video in the history of the internet!

COMPUTER: Working... Onscreen.

THE END

Can I Get a Ruling From the GOP, Please

2010-04-22T16:01:00.004-05:00

No less than two Republicans, one a state representative and one a candidate for Senate, have suggested that the way to go on heath care reform is to barter for it.

I know how strong the temptation is for a liberal blogger such as myself to take that fact and imply that this foolishness is a part of the Republican Party's agenda. I know their economic ideas have taken a pounding in the wake of the slow death of the middle class, but I am quite certain that they do understand the advantages of a cash system, seeing as how they have benefited so greatly from that system.

So, can we please hear a loud chorus of Republicans denouncing this idiocy so we can move forward with this whole monetary thing we've got going? That would be great.

Darkhorse Surges in British Campaign

2010-04-21T15:57:00.003-05:00

Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, now leads in a three way race for Prime Minister. Andrew Sullivan has more. Howard Dean offers his advice to Clegg. Yearrrgh!

Krugman Talks Reform With Maddow

2010-04-21T15:31:00.002-05:00

Nobel Prize winning economist, Paul Krugman, talked with Rachel Maddow about the state of financial reform.

Weak Sauce, Bill O

2010-04-21T12:24:00.005-05:00

My good friend (and the hardest working author in all of digital publishing), David Derrico, sent me this comical clip of Bill O'Reilly making a complete ass of himself by claiming no one on Fox News said you would go to jail if you violated the health care mandate. Roll it!

Bill's an old guy who made his bones when you could lie about anything you wanted to and no one could really call you on it because there was no internet, but Bill O has to know better than this by now. We're pretty deep into the internet era here.

Medium-Sized Brother--Cupons, Laptops Used for Surveillance

2010-04-19T21:33:00.009-05:00

As a former cashier, I just can't use coupons. Even after all these years as a non-cashier, coupons retain their association with customers that would hand me a stack of poorly clipped newspapers right in the middle of a rush. So, I hadn't given much thought to the concept of internet coupons until Senior IST Researcher Russ Weiss at our Midwestern office sent me this article from StlToday:

A new breed of coupon, printed from the Internet or sent to mobile phones, is packed with information about the customer who uses it. While the coupons look standard, their bar codes can be loaded with a startling amount of data, including identification about the customer, Internet address, Facebook page information and even the search terms the customer used to find the coupon in the first place.

And all that information follows that customer into the mall. For example, if a man walks into a Filene’s Basement to buy a suit for his wedding and shows a coupon he retrieved online, the company’s marketing agency can figure out whether he used the search terms “Hugo Boss suit” or “discount wedding clothes” to research his purchase (just don’t tell his fiancee).

(more)

After the Bush years, we should be conditioned to know that if someone can somehow violate your privacy in exchange for money or power, they will. So, while these creepy coupons are way out of line, they don't surprise me.

What would have surprised me if I were still capable of being surprised was that a Philadelphia school district issued laptops to high school students, then used the webcams in the laptops to take pictures of the students. The computers took 56,000 webcam photographs and screen shots. The lawyer representing the school district concedes that students were likely photographed in their homes. The district claimed it activated the tracking software to find 80 missing laptops over the last two years. The only problem with that story is that the student who filed suit was photographed 400 times during a 15-day period, some times when he was only "half-dressed." Oh, and he never reported his laptop lost or stolen.

Meanwhile, Jim--whom they are watching--at Irregular Times explains why intel experts that predict terror attacks on "the homeland" will happen in testimony to Congress result in the further erosion of privacy and civil rights.

Comcast Someone, Kelsey Grammer to Catapult RightNetwork

2010-04-18T16:28:00.007-05:00

UPDATE: Thanks to Simon at Bloggasm for emailing to tell me that Comcast's VP of Corporate Communications has a post up on the company's blog that calls reports that Comcast is "an investor in, or partner of the Right Network" inaccurate.

Gigantic cable company Comcast and washed up actor Kelsey Grammer are among the backers for the next wave in propaganda, the RightNetwork, a new network (basic cable channel) that purports to focus on entertainment with "Pro-America, Pro-Business, Pro-Military sensibilities." This is all code for teabaggery 24/7. This is a bad sign for people who are suspicious of Comcast's purchase of NBC and for people hoping for a Cheers reunion they could feel good about. Why is it that when right wingers start up TV channels they go for the throat and when left wingers start TV channels we get whatever Current TV is.

By the way something, the downtrodden teabaggers make more money than the rest of us. Gots better educations too.

Lightning Round--Bumper Sticker Madness, Resistance MP3, Two Beckys?, More...

2010-04-17T22:12:00.007-05:00

The Unbearable Banishment: Check out the whacked messaging on this smooth ride.

Resistance MP3: If you want to hear the voice of the left, not the moderates the American media calls the far left, but the actual left, check out this web site's massive lecture archive.

MyDD: With Haley Barbour in the race, and he's feeling it, the field for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination goes from absurd to sublime.

Nightbird's Fountain: Yep, Rush linked the Icelandic volcano eruption to health care reform.

The Guardian UK: Why we should fear volcanoes, just not this one, which is small potatoes compared to other eruptions in the last couple of centuries. In fact, an 1783 Icelandic volcano was a factor in the French Revolution.

Huffington Post: It's frustrating that every day I see at least three completely insignificant, front page stories taking up precious space on one of the most influential sites on the web. But every now and then, one of those stupid stories manages to entertain me, and I feel cheap and dirty. The story in question is the one called, "The 13 Most Ridiculous Sitcom Mysteries Of All Time." The one that caught my eye was titled, "Roseanne, The Two Beckys." Now, like any kid who grew up in that decade, I knew that there were two Beckys, but what I did not know, because by the time the show made it to a 9th season I actually had a life, the show brought back the original Becky and they sent the replacement Becky packing. There was also a period of time when the writers kept both Beckys around just to fuck with the audience. I find this fascinating. Thank you Huffington Post.

Can You Ruin Something That's Already Terrible?

2010-04-17T12:46:00.005-05:00

There's a story hitting the wires today that pits two things I deeply distrust against one another--futures markets vs. the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Anyone paying attention to gas prices that go up as demand drops knows the fucked up nature of oil futures. I despise the MPAA because they constantly make horrible decisions.

In a move that brings a bad idea to a completely dysfunctional industry, a government panel has legalized futures trading on motion pictures. For their part, the MPAA and the Hollywood studios want that decision overturned. The ability to short sell anything seems like a bad idea, but a bubble in the film industry likely wouldn't be big enough to bring down the economy the way housing, oil and tech bubbles have. But... a film industry bubble could be big enough to bring down the film industry, which could be nice. There's no guarantee what manner of film industry would rise from the ashes, but seriously, could it be worse than what we have now?

I've also read people expressing the concern that movie producers might try to intentionally make a crap movie loaded with expensive star power and special effects, then purposely tank the movie Producers-style with a shit director, bad script, flawed casting and poor marketing. Of course, Hollywood has been doing all that across the board since the 80s and have descended to all new lows in this century. So I say, go ahead, producers, do your worst--you may just forge a new line of classic films on accident that have the lovely side-effect of ruining you financially.

Most likely, however, this decision will not stand. Senator Blanche Lincoln, who knows her political situation is precarious, has been born again hard when it comes to financial reform. She has a bill in the works that would ban movie futures as part of a broader derivatives bill she is writing. Nice to see Lincoln finally on the right side of an issue. Even if it keeps Hollywood alive and sucking.

Crist Vetoes So-Called Merit Pay Bill Passed by Florida Republicans

2010-04-15T13:45:00.006-05:00

Charlie Crist vetoed a rotten piece of legislation that would tie teachers' pay to student test scores.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a controversial, first-in-the-nation merit pay-plan today that tied teacher pay to student test scores, in a dramatic conclusion to an issue that drew howls of protest from educators and parents across the state.

Crist called the merit-pay bill "significantly flawed" and criticized how it was "sped through" the Legislature with little time for input from educators. He said it had many provisions that worried him, just as they had upset teachers, parents and school administrators.

"We must start over," Crist said.

"I veto SB6 because this bill is contrary to my firmly held principle to act in the best interests in the people of Florida," said the governor, speaking to a packed room of reporters.

Crist said he understood why teachers were upset because they could have lost their jobs based on criteria the bill did not spell out or for factors, such as a student's home life, that were beyond their control. He said the bill had "deeply and negatively impacted the morale" of educators across the state.

Educating a child, as Hillary Clinton once pointed out, takes more than teachers. This is a big victory for teachers who have enough problems without having their pay contingent on the percentage of the job that rests with the parents.

Popular opposition swept through the state since the Republicans in the state legislature passed the partisan bill. The president of the Palm Beach County teachers union, Robert Dow, grudgingly praised Crist for listening to the people and vetoing the bill. Dow, who could benefit from hiring a good writer, said, "The governor is known for being a good looking man, but he hasn't looked this good in a long time. I'm not surprised. The opposition to this bill was so overwhelming."

At any rate, it's nice to see the teachers kicked the Republicans' ass all over the state after this craven bill--the next step on Jeb Bush's plan to destroy public education in Florida--passed. More on Jeb Bush's plans for Florida here.

Inside the Fox News Imagination

2010-04-15T12:21:00.003-05:00

Jon Stewart takes apart Fox News for attributing a ridiculous motive for the desing of the recent Nuclear Summitt logo. Rather than coming up with some wild, suggestive conspiracy theory linking the President to Muslims by saying all those words together a bunch of times, someone on the Daily Show staff called the White House and asked them where the design came from. I'm sure you'll be shocked and/or horrified by the real answer. It was an homage to the Bohr model of the atom. Of course, that's not going to get anyone worked up into a pro-insurance company secessionist frenzy now will it?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

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Tough Times

2010-04-13T21:22:00.004-05:00

These are hard times for Exxon. Their earnings are at their lowest point in 7 years. You want to know how bad it's gotten for Exxon? Well, in 2008, their CEO Rex Tillerson made $23.9 million in total compensation. Last year, however, he only made $21.7 million.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Comes Dangerously Close to Breaking Omerta

2010-04-13T17:46:00.000-05:00

I guess going ahead and saying Bush was a moron is reserved for Putin at a time of his choosing.

Time for an Ambush, Ice Station Style

2010-04-13T10:40:00.006-05:00

Bill O'Reilly sent one of his goons to ambush former VP Al Gore, who was on his way to lunch and unwilling to play ball.

Even though this blog has only existed for four years, I've been trying to get Bill O'Reilly to come on this blog for eleven years. Since he won't do it, I had to go out and get this picture of him:

I will now launch a fierce round of questioning at the picture.

Mr. O'Reilly, Jay Allbritton, Ice Station Tango, are you embarrassed that you bother people who have more important shit to do than talk to your lackies?

Mr. O'Reilly, Mr. O'Reilly, does your temper problem stem from the fact that you just care too damn much?

Mr. O'Reilly, Mr. O'Reilly, while I have you here, could you do it live for us, just once? You know, to play us out? Mr. O'Reilly? Mr. O'Reilly?

Lightning Round--Clear Channel, Troll Reviews, Democracy in the UK, Conan to TBS, Five Dollar Friday, More

2010-04-12T12:21:00.004-05:00

NY Post: The nation's largest radio station owner and the harbinger of the beast, Clear Channel, continues to face financial oblivion.

The Bugle Podcast: In the latest episode, John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman get excited by the upcoming general election in the UK. Meanwhile, over at Popnography, they have a clip of the man who would be the next PM of the UK, David Cameron, has to tap out after receiving difficult questions about gay issues in a magazine interview.

David Derrico: Independent author David Derrico looks into the addled minds of the hostile troll book reviewers that walk and mutter to themselves amongst us.

TV by the Numbers: Conan is going to be on TBS in the fall. That's fairly surprising, but I don't think that the TV station he's on matters as much as what he winds up doing with his web presence. The true genius of this move is that no one will expect him to compete with Letterman or Leno, but if he does win on TBS, he looks like the biggest genius ever. Meanwhile, Conan's little buddy, Andy Richter visited Jesse Thorn for another adventurous episode of The Sound of Young America.

A Tiny Revolution: Five Dollar Friday is a brilliant idea. The time has come.

In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade?

2010-04-11T20:14:00.005-05:00

On this weekend's episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, guest Chris Rock compared President Obama to boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard. The comparison was based on the premise that that no matter how bad either of them are being beaten up in a fight--political or boxing--their confidence never waivers and they always manage to win. Rock impersonates a badly beat up Leonard who tells his corner he will win despite the fact that his eye is hanging out and his jaw is in the third row.

The Sarah Palin Network

2010-04-11T12:56:00.002-05:00

Tina Fey was back on SNL last night giving Sarah Palin ideas.

Spaceballs: The Blog Post

2010-04-10T13:57:00.002-05:00

Hope you're all having a nice Saturday, in lieu of staring down the apocalypse, here's a clip from Spaceballs.

So What's the Democratic Equivalent to This, CNN?

2010-04-09T20:33:00.004-05:00

I look forward to watching our friends at the equivalency-between-the-parties-network, or CNN as everyone else calls it, try to say that the RNC's misuse of their donor's cash happens over the DNC too. What's the lesbian bondage bash equivalent? Not that I have the slightest problem with lesbian bondage stuff but I don't think it reflects what Republican donors expect their money to be spent on.

But wait, there's more. I like the way that St. Pete Times political editor Adam C. Smith crafts the lead of his piece about a finance director for Republican state House campaigns and the $1.3 million AmEx bill that was amassed on a card after it was given to her (ht @UtahSavage):

She was a 25-year-old junior staffer when the Florida Republican Party gave her an American Express card.

That's almost the same exact beginning as Journey's "Don't Stop Believing". What could possibly go wrong?

Over the next 2½ years, nearly $1.3 million in charges wound up on Melanie Phister's AmEx — $40,000 at a London hotel, and nearly $20,000 in plane tickets for indicted former House Speaker Ray Sansom, his wife and kids, for starters. Statements show thousands spent on jewelry, sporting goods and in one case $15,000 for what's listed as a month-long stay at a posh Miami Beach hotel, but which the party says was a forfeited deposit.

The credit card records, obtained by the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald, offer the latest behind-the-scenes look at extravagant and free-wheeling spending by the party touting fiscal restraint. Not only did certain elite legislative leaders have their own party credit cards to spend donors' money with little oversight, but Phister's records show these leaders also liberally used an underling's card — without her knowledge, she says.

She says she didn't know. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the case. In an e-mail, Phister claims that "over that period of time, there were multiple instances when the card was used to make purchases that I had no knowledge of, and I did not regularly review the monthly credit card statements which I understand were sent directly to the Party's accounting office."

So which is worse for the RNC? Do they lack the institutional control to know when over a million dollars is being misused? Or, did the plan to misuse the money originate at a higher level? In either case, this is a really meaty story that only an institution as hopeless as the American media could possibly ignore.

"I Don't Want to Get Sucked Into Facebook..."

2010-04-09T14:27:00.000-05:00

This week's Facebook-themed South Park was legend...

Yoohoo, down here! ...dary!

We're not just doing this for money. We're doing it for a shit load of money!

2010-04-08T13:47:00.005-05:00

A recent Forbes profile of Glenn Beck reveals that Beck is not in the politics business, rather, he's in the entertainment business. His business, called, Mercury Radio Arts, made $32 million between April 2009 and March 2010.

Forbes breaks it down:

$13 million a year from books and magazines
$10 million from radio
$4 million from digital (a newsletter, GlennBeck.com and merchandise)
$3 million from speaking engagements and events
$2 million from his Fox News gig

If you have some crowded theaters you would like to pay Mr. Beck to yell "Fire!" in, he could maybe blow a fart as he does it, so he could classify that under entertainment, and that would push his earnings even higher, so send him an email if you want in on that.

Coburn's Comments Draw Predictable Response from Olbermann

2010-04-07T19:30:00.002-05:00

Rupert Murdoch's face will always incite a visceral reaction deep inside my liberal innards. We have a history, Rupe and I. Oh, I don't know him personally, but his little media experiment has consistently spewed misleading propaganda to the detriment of American culture and the prosperity of the American middle class. He's out there blowing his crap again talking about how bias everyone else is.

This we all know. It sunk in long ago. I railed against this three-card monty act writ large for years. How Keith Olbermann thinks his nightly exposes on Fox and their malevolent talk radio progeny qualifies as news has become a sad side effect of the Fox phenomenon--even brilliant talents willing and able to tell the truth who have been given a huge platform have been sucked down into the mud with their preoccupation with the lying competition.

So, when something kind of interesting happens that might be read a crack in the shell of this bestial media syndrome, Republican Senator Tom Coburn's calm assertions to a room full of supporters that Nancy Pelosi is nice and not to believe everything you hear on Fox, there's Keith, with his shit-eating grin and tragically unfunny shtick, seemingly determined to do everything he can to suck the poignancy out of this potentially watershed moment.

Hey, Keith, how about this, do food fight politics for half the show and then use the other half of the show to raise the dialogue just a smidge? The time you have to tell important stories is invaluable. Yet, all you seem to do, with some remarkable exceptions, is continue to tell one story over and over.

Save Michael Steele

2010-04-07T14:27:00.006-05:00

In the aftermath of... well, everything he's said and done since becoming RNC Chair, Michel Steele is facing a great deal of opposition from inside and outside of his party. Any Democrats that are actively trying to oust Steele--stop! Rising Hegemon commenter jimmiraybob wrote, "[H]ow do we save Michael Steele? He may be in real trouble this time. I would regret his loss to the Democrat cause."

This isn't just about Steele's many public humiliations. This is also about the fact that he is shitty at his job. Last month the Democratic Party, believed by many to be on the verge of being swept out of their massive Congressional majorities, out raised the GOP by more than $2 million.

We have to save this guy.

Luckily, word about the circus Steele's running over there hasn't fully penetrated, so, maybe there's hope.

Jorge Rodriguez, Young Turks Make Frontier Fifty

2010-04-07T13:17:00.007-05:00

Congrats to SoFloRadio talk host Jorge Rodriguez (archives here) for making Talker's Magazine's Frontier Fifty list of internet webcasters (not podcasters, mind you). Rodriguez is a stalwart of Miami radio. He filled in for radio legend Neil Rogers for over a decade while Rogers took copious, well-earned vacation time. Since Rogers went off the air last year, Rodriguez brought a team of radio survivors, including the incomparable Joe Castello (archives here), to the internet with the foundation of SoFloRadio.com. Two other SoFloRadio talents, Sir Darryl and Radio Dan, also made the list. Castello, running just about the best show anywhere, was, sadly, overlooked.

Also on the list were longtime IST favorites The Young Turks and former South Florida and Air America radio host Nicole Sandler, who is by far the best fill in host for Randy Rhodes since Sam Seder and Marc Maron used to do that kind of thing.

Darkhorse?

2010-04-06T14:57:00.005-05:00

C-SPAN asked the critically acclaimed Republican governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, who has a great DJ name, if he would run for president in 2012.

Here's his artful response:

...which I interpret to mean, "2012? I'll be there, man!"

I know next to nothing about Daniels, which, in my opinion makes him the frontrunner among Republicans in 2012.

If that doesn't work out, I hear there's an opening over at The Coast, 97.3 FM where it's 79 degrees along the coast... here's "Do That To Me One More Time" by Captain & Tennille...

Now Watch This Backhand

2010-04-05T22:10:00.002-05:00

By writing a fairly cogent analysis of why CNN blows, one that I would deem worthy of a competent undergraduate, I declare Ross Douthat the smartest conservative pundit in the land.

John McCain Lives in a Flash Sideways

2010-04-05T15:34:00.004-05:00

David Waldman blogging on D-to-the-Kos asks, "What's the point of anything, anymore?" That is a really great question. Weldman asks it in response to John McCain telling Newsweek's David Margolick, "I never considered myself a maverick."

What the fuck is this T-shirt based on?

Didn't we all live through this? Why did I write this post? And this post?

Shister--Shuster In Shitter at CNN

2010-04-05T10:19:00.004-05:00

Apparently, when you work for one cable network and you do a pilot for another network, there's a high likelihood that an executive from the network you work for is going to take a giant shit on you. That is exactly what TVNewser's Gail Shister is reporting happened to MSNBC's David Shuster after Shuster pimped himself out to CNN. He filmed a pilot for the false equivalency network and now, according to Shister, Shuster may be forced off the air until his contract is up in December. No word on whether his mechanical jaw can withstand that much inactivity.

Despite trying to be Keith Olbermann, Jr., Shuster's bland, lifeless style seems to fit in better with the other corpses at CNN, as long as he can manage to keep from disparaging Chelsea Clinton, bad move dude, he should be back on the air in no time to deliver a very small ratings number to an ultimately dissatisfied network executive.

By the way something, if you're thinking the only reason I wrote this post was so I could write "Shister" and "Shuster" all over the place, you're absolutely right.