April, 2009 archive
Twits on Twitter: The Twitter Revolution 0
Well, maybe not so much. On the Media reports:
Follow the link to read the transcript or listen here:
Off to Drink Liberally 0
Cheers.
Tead Off 0
An hordette in search of an enemy. Terry Mancour sips tea parties in the Guardian:
These accusations were designed to incite strong feelings, even hatred, among the conservative base. Open calls for secession in Texas and repeated calls for “revolution” (even though we just had a well-attended, well-executed election cycle) from policies that hadn’t even had time to take effect yet across the board were noteworthy. Plenty of teabaggers were proudly discussing their second amendment-protected personal armories and their willingness to use them, should real revolution come. Against whom, they couldn’t really say.
And there’s that black guy in the White House, and that’s just so foreign to their sensibilities that it all has to be a plot, a conspiracy, a secret plan by unseen forces working through “that negro” (one actually said that to me) to enslave the good hard-working American white folk and take away their freedoms to go to church and own guns and get married and not pay taxes – despite any real evidence to back that claim up. Indeed, some cite the very lack of evidence as proof of the conspiracy.
But after you scrape away the billionaires who founded and funded this “grassroots effort”, subtract the large number of liberal observers and amused media people, take away the faked-his-birth-certificate conspiracy crowd, remove the whacky costume-clad exhibitionists and the right-to-life-and-ammunition culture warriors, and I think you’ll find that most of the teabaggers were just pissed-off, middle-class white people who got screwed in the economic downturn and are looking for someone to be angry at.
Walter Brasch has more commentary at ASZ:
The idea of a Tea Party was probably that of CNBC commentator Rick Santelli, who ranted against any government assistance for persons who lost their homes through foreclosure. Pushing the tea bagging of America were Fox mouths Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, and dozens of other conservative talking mouths who are among the top 5 percent, and whose seven-figure incomes would be reduced under the Obama plan to restore fiscal sanity to America.
Well, I guess it’s true. Americans really are revolting.
When Zombie Banks Walked the Earth 0
Dean Baker in The Guardian:
The elite economists tell us that even if this idea might offend our sensibilities, it is the only way to get the economy going again. This is where a little basic economics would be useful again.
(snip)
In other words, the arithmetic shows that a bank fix, while desirable, cannot possibly be sufficient to offset the collapse of the housing bubble. If our priority is to save the bankers from suffering the consequences of their own mistakes, then it makes sense to throw all our money at them. But if the point is to fix the economy, then we have to look elsewhere.
Those of us who know economics recognise this fact. Those who insist on the bank-fix route should be asked one simple question: “When did you stop being wrong about the economy?”
Home from Fantasy Land 2
Of course, facts never stopped a Republican before. Dick Polman analyzes Rick Perry’s secessionist fantasies.
From the decision in Texas v. White: “When, therefore, Texas became one of the United States, she entered into an indissoluble relation. All the obligations of perpetual union, and all the guaranties of republican government in the Union, attached at once to the State. The act which consummated her admission into the Union was something more than a compact; it was the incorporation of a new member into the political body. And it was final. The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States.”
The current Texas governor, we can assume, isn’t really as dense about Texas history as he appears. This was all just a calculated bid to gin up the GOP extremists (for political reasons that I will mention shortly). His calculation is actually easy to spot. Because while Perry purports to be outraged by big government in Washington – last week he called it “oppressive” and condemned its “interference with the affairs of our state” – in reality he is in constant pursuit of big government’s bucks. And whenever he brings that “oppressive” money home to Texas, he brags about it.
The Entitlement Society, Reprise 0
The Philadelphia Shrinquirer on rising credit card fees:
In other words, the credit card companies say that they are entitled to the money because, well, they are entitled to the money.
The Entitlement Society 0
They weren’t there. They had nothing to do with it. They didn’t see anything.
And they think the world owes them their houses in the Hamptons, just because, well, because.
It you really really like self-pity pr0n, follow the link and read the whole thing.
Via the Democratic Daily.
Stray Thought 0
You can’t control the deal.
You can only play the cards.
Must Be That Pesky UAW Again 0
Toyota’s domestic output would fall to about 2.8 million units, marking a decline of more than 30% from the company’s peak production in fiscal 2007, the report said.
What’s that you say?
There’s no UAW in Japan. Or at Toyota?
But the Republicans tell us it’s all the UAW’s fault. What’s with that?
Goodman and Krupa 0
This, by the way, is my ringtone of choice, except for three special persons who get their own ringtones. (They are not all special for the same reasons.)
Blue Genes 0
A potential new field for all those unemployed lawyers and soon-to-graduate law students and science students out there. From Scientific Blogging:
Does it sound like I just took a break from reality? Maybe…but in today’s world anything may be possible. A recent case in New York State may have set the stage for me to actually proceed with my lawsuit.
They Have It sdrawkcaB 0
Newt Gingrich claims that the Obama administration is “secular and nonreligious.”
The last time I looked, this was not a theocracy, despite the wingnuts’ attempts to turn it into one.
Jack Cluth gets it frontwards (Aside: It somehow seems fitting that I stumbled over this while sitting in my church’s office doing treasurer stuff):
(snip)
Too bad that the Religious Right is less concerned with hypocritical Right-wingers willing to milk Christianity to every ounce of advantage they can gain than with the “evils” of a Democrat occupying the White House.
Stop using the God of Love to foster the politics of hate.
Drinking Liberally 2
Tuesday, Triumph Brewing Company, Chestnut within sight of Penn’s Landing if it weren’t for the Chinese Wall of I-95, 6 p.
Good food, good talk, good company.
Hold a stool for me. If the creeks don’t rise, I’ll be there.
