2012 archive
A Scandal from the Snuggery? 0
Chauncey Devega has an unexpected take on the Petraeus-Broadwell-Allen-Kelley brouhaha.
I haven’t figured out how far up his cheek he had his tongue when he wrote it, but it’s far more plausible than the Republicans’ lame attempts to gin up a link to Libya.
Giving Schools the Business 0
One of the recurring strategies in the campaign to sell out off public resources is to argue that the target of the day “should be run like a business.”
This tactic is especially popular when the target is not like a business in any way and often serves as a cover for reducing the pay and benefits of the (usually relatively low-paid) persons employed in that endeavor, while increasing the pay of executives and consultants feeding at trough while the endeavor is made more “business-like.”*
Thomas Zachek skewers this strategy as it is applied to schools. A nugget:
What private-sector job does teaching really correspond to? Teachers don’t do what doctors or lawyers do. Or salesmen, middle managers or roofers. Trying to educate a room full of children or teens just is not like other pursuits. (Sometimes I think a teacher’s job is most like a cross between a standup comic and a lion tamer.)
Name me five occupations in the business world that expect the level of education and preparation we expect from teachers, with similar workloads and responsibilities, for similar pay. Heck, name one.
Read the rest.
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*Overpaid CEOs and consultants at the trough are often the most “business-like” attributes of the products of the “run like a business” crew.
IOKIYAR 0
Watch Soledad O’Brien reduce hack Republican Congressman to incoherent doubletalk over Republican attempts to gin up a scandal over Susan Rice and Benghazi:
He’s a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Same like Michelle Bachman.
Via ABL.
Mommy and Poppy 0
She got her baby back five days later the “county realized its mistake.”
I used to have family in Lawrence County. The hospital’s actions do not surprise me at all.
It’s one of those places that puts the “be” in “nighted.”
The “Secesh” 2
Tony Norman tries to figure out the Neo-Confederates:
Americans love guns and religion, but we’re complete agnostics when it comes to history.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the second year of the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in our history, but that doesn’t mean secession should ever be off the table as far as a minority of bitter voters are concerned.
Without any sense of irony that comes with even a cursory reading of history, hundreds of thousands of Americans recently flooded the Obama White House with “We, the People” petitions requesting permission for their states to “amicably secede” from the Union.
“A Kingdom of Love and Light . . .” 0
Love thy neighbor.
Shana Cihak says her 17-year-old son, Lennon, was not allowed to participate in the religious rite of passage at Assumption Church in Barnesville last month after posting a Facebook picture of himself holding a political sign that he changed to oppose the constitutional amendment. The proposed measure to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota was defeated Nov. 6.
Life in the Benghazi Bubble 0
Rachel Maddow explores John McCain’s and Republicans’ efforts to gin up a scandal over Benghazi:
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Via Raw Story.
A Friedman Unit’s Worth of Word Salad 0
Matt Taibbi invites his readers to rewrite a Thomas Friedman column in one paragraph.
The results are–well, just see for yourselves.
Dustbiters 0
Georgia builds its lead as the nexus of nixed banks.
has left town.
Afterthought:
With a solid name like “Hometown Community Bank,” what could possibly have gone wrong?
After all, isn’t “branding” all that matters?
Off the Halftracks 4
Daniel Ruth on the Generals–he doesn’t say anything new, but it’s a fun read.
Long after the cameras are folded up in front of the Declasse Doyenne’s underwater mansion on Bayshore Boulevard, we are still left to wonder just how did David Petraeus and John Allen find themselves transformed in the time it takes to unsnap a bra or hit the send button from bold, visionary military figures to General Halftrack chasing Miss Buxley around?
Then there’s this:
Fowl Water 0
This ain’t chicken feed. Just started out that way:
The lead lawyer for the Waterkeeper Alliance told Judge William M. Nickerson that water samples taken on and around Alan and Kristin Hudson’s 293-acre farm near Berlin offer “very compelling” evidence that waste from their two chicken houses was getting into nearby ditches, which ultimately drain to the Chesapeake Bay. Levels of disease-causing bacteria and other pollutants were “off the chart,” said Jane F. Barrett, director of the University of Maryland environmental law clinic, which is representing the environmental group.
Defense lawyers claim that it’s all conjecture, there’s no proof, no one saw anything, yadda-yadda-yadda you know the drill.
A question for you: Ever driven by a chicken factory farm on a hot summer day?
The Pros at the Con 0
Thom puts the “fiscal cliff” into perspective: Yet another Republican con.
Just watch it.
(I tried to embed it, but it kept reverting to the “whole show.”)
Facebook Frolics, Obama Derangement Syndrone Dept. 0
Investigators arrived at Christopher Castillo’s Melbourne home last Thursday to question him about a November 1 Facebook post in which he wrote, “That’s the last straw, if he gets re-elected I’m going to hunt him down and kill him watch the life disappear from his eyes.”
The post has been taken down. After he repeated threats in an “interview” with the Secret Service, the poster has been taken into custody.
Breaking News: Republican Party Decides To Wear Its Sheet in Public 2
Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.
Flamerific 1
This restaurant review, linked from Balloon Juice, is equal to the best usenet flames I have ever seen.
I tip my hat.
Numbers Speak for Themselves Only If Listened to 0
PoliticalProf argues that focusing on a demographic explanation for the Republican Party’s losses in the recent election misses the point, unless the reason for the demographic disparity is taken into account. A nugget.
What this argument misses, of course, is the answer to the question, “why”? Why have so many different groups of people abandoned a party that, twice in the last 40 years, set all time records for electoral college margins of victory.
(snip)
The plain answer is: the leaders of the Republican Party have squandered the party’s advantages by appealing to the worst, basest instincts of a small segment of the electorate . . . .
Dustbiters 0
Georgia adds to its excellent record of blanking banks. Bank no more on:
Afterthought:
Really, how could a bank with the homey name like “Hometown Community Bank” be less than rock-solid. After all, isn’t “branding” all that matters these days?
The Voter Fraud Fraud, the Numbers Speak for Themselves Dept. 0
Update: Link fixed.
Facing South rounds up some stats about the Republican Party’s efforts to gut out the vote. Here’s a few:
- According to an election night survey conducted for the AFL-CIO, percentage of Romney supporters who had to wait 30 minutes or more to vote: 9
- Percentage of Obama voters who had to wait that long: 16
- Percentage of white voters who had to wait 30 minutes or more to vote: 9
- Percentage of African Americans: 22
- Percentage of Hispanics: 24
Follow the link to hear more numbers speak for themselves.