2014 archive
“We Reached Peak Magnetic Yellow Ribbon Time in 2003” 0
The Veterans Administration has been broken for a long, long time, even as Republican wars created more and more veterans needing care. Rachel Maddow explains:
Wars and Mongers of War 0
In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dan Simpson counsels against heeding the war fever currently being spread by Republicans. A nugget:
The first of these is a deep-rooted sense of our own best interests. Most Americans understand fairly well that we don’t want our sons and daughters in miserable places such as Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine standing at risk to their lives between people who want to fight over something that has nothing to do with us.
The second is that we as Americans have a very short attention span. Notice, for example, that Syria, an intense passion not long ago, is now sloping off into channel-changing obscurity.
(snip)
The third grace that may save us from self-destruction through meddling in other people’s affairs is a decent sense of what is really important to us.
Do please read the rest.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Back above 300k.
(snip)
The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, fell to 322,500 last week from 323,500.
Total Beneficiaries(snip)
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits dropped by 13,000 to 2.65 million in the week ended May 10.
Bloomberg’s headline was Jobless Claims in U.S. Increased More Than Forecast. Given the track record of their forecasters, that their forecasters got it wrong is hardly headline news.
Wall Street’s fascination with “forecasters” is a blight and a plague. If a company makes a profit, but it’s not as great as “forecasters” forecast, the stock tanks. If that same company makes a loss, but the loss is less than the forecasters forecast, the stock soars. This shows, more than anything else, that “high finance” is mostly three card monte in three-piece suits.
In what other area outside of “reality” television is the work of what are essentially mediums minus turbans taken so seriously?
Primary Screams 0
Reg Henry, registered Republican, is fed up with primary elections in Pennsyltucky.
A nugget:
Guess what? You are right. But you can rest easy, because in this primary Republican voters in my area had almost nothing to vote for: a governor opposed by a write-in candidate, some unopposed lawmakers, some committee people. To someone like me who thinks of voting as an act of civic communion, it was like going to the altar and finding that they had run out of bread.
I don’t agree with him–primaries are better than conventions, as the Virgina Republican Party learned to its sorrow, but he has a larger point–too often, because of gerrymandering and voter apathy, primaries don’t matter.
Here in Virginia, we have elections every year. Statewide offices come up for election in off-years (it’s nothing more than an attempt to reduce turnout in off-year elections, but it’s unlikely to change). Nevertheless, it’s easy to find Virginia voters who aren’t aware that elections are taking place in odd-numbered years, even though it’s hard to see how they could be so far inside their personal bubbles as to miss them.
Voting is not a right. It’s duty.
If you do not vote, and vote every time you can, you deserve what you get.
Unfortunately, you take me right along with you, and I should not have to pay the price for your dereliction.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Balloon Juice has more news of the ammosexuals.
You do realize, of course, that these people are nuts.
Drinking Liberally Virginia Beach Tomorrow 0
Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us and talk about anything in a relaxed atmosphere.
When: Thursday, May 22nd, 6 p.
Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)
More here.
Google’s Goggles 0
Der Spiegel takes a look at the recent EU Court’s decision requiring search engines to remove links in certain circumstances so as to preserve the “right to be forgotten.” I commend it to your attention.
A nugget:
I Know You Are, But What Am I? 0
From the people who gave you the NSA.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, you can’t make this stuff up. The chutzpah staggers one.
Remember, when you point your finger, all four other fingers point back at you.
Our “intelligence community” is an oxymoron (emphasis on “moron”).
Republicans Are Creepy (Updated) 0
All they can think about is sex (and war).
Addendum, the Next Day:
Speaking of war . . . .
These folks are deeply, deeply warped.
No Trial Separation . . . 0
. . . for the Regent and Milady. They are stuck with each other.
Bob and Maureen McDonnell will have their day in court, together, even if they would rather not.
U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer in three orders Tuesday denied motions by both defendants to dismiss many of the charges they face, to separate their trials, or give them access to communication records between prosecutors and the grand jury.
Afterthought:
A rule of thumb, though not an ironclad one: the weaker attorneys’ cases, the more pretrial motions they file. It’s the W. C. Fields theory of jurisprudence.
Cantor’s Cant, Recant Dept. 0
Eric Cantor has fewer convictions than Hamilton Burger.
Facebook Frolics 2
Ari Kohen thinks he is on the wrong end of the algorithm (which is in no way related to that other Al, Gore). He reports that Facebook has informed him that, if he greases the right palms, this can be remedied.
His fallacy is this: if someone is truly interested in what you have to say on the Zuckerborg (or anywhere else, for that matter), they will seek you out, not wait for you to appear, though I really can’t argue with what he says next . . .