Monday, March 31, 2008
skippy's monday nite music club
one of the great things about youtube is finding crap you'd never see otherwise...
james "the king" brown - elvis presley sings nirvana 'come as you are'
james "the king" brown is not the godfather of rock n roll, but rather a postman from belfast, ireland, who sounds exactly like elvis.
but, as evidenced by this interesting video, he's not a campy lounge act. rather he actually attempts to reach the tone and depth of the original elvis' voice, playing it all straight, not for giggles.
yes, if you close your eyes, it actually sounds like elvis presley singing nirvana. and we like to think that, if elvis and kurt had both stayed around, they would have shared a few drinks and pills sometime.
james "the king" brown - elvis presley sings nirvana 'come as you are'
james "the king" brown is not the godfather of rock n roll, but rather a postman from belfast, ireland, who sounds exactly like elvis.
but, as evidenced by this interesting video, he's not a campy lounge act. rather he actually attempts to reach the tone and depth of the original elvis' voice, playing it all straight, not for giggles.
yes, if you close your eyes, it actually sounds like elvis presley singing nirvana. and we like to think that, if elvis and kurt had both stayed around, they would have shared a few drinks and pills sometime.
Labels: skippy's music club
internet activism
pubs ban u.k. treasury chief. tax increase brought matters to a head and has beer drinkers hopping mad.
put your money where your mouth is
we have a suggestion to supporters of both candidates in the dem race:
instead of sniping at each other here in blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase; instead of writing snarky posts about the candidate you don't like; instead of starting or perpetuating flame wars on blogs that are firmly pro-one-or-the-other candidate...
why not donate some money to the one you support?
give some money...any amount will help.
actions speak louder than words.
and we know both campaigns would appreciate any donations you have to give.
so, really, bloggers...put up or shut up.
donate to sen. clinton
donate to sen. obama
instead of sniping at each other here in blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase; instead of writing snarky posts about the candidate you don't like; instead of starting or perpetuating flame wars on blogs that are firmly pro-one-or-the-other candidate...
why not donate some money to the one you support?
give some money...any amount will help.
actions speak louder than words.
and we know both campaigns would appreciate any donations you have to give.
so, really, bloggers...put up or shut up.
donate to sen. clinton
donate to sen. obama
Labels: clinton, hillary, obama, prez campaign
from the 'we have no words' dept.
leave it to the hardly-ever-right wing to pinpoint the important issue of the day.
Labels: blogtopia, sexscapades
deep in the (insert organ of your choice) of texas
michael j.w. stickings of the reaction wonders why it's illegal to possess sex toys in texas, but a strip club which employs underage strippers faces no legal ramifications whatsoever.
first, some old-ish news: texas's law (check out this youtube vid) against the sale or "promotion" of sex toys was ruled unconstitutional in february, but in march the state attorney general greg abbott (whose views do not necessarily reflect those of the texas population) has requested that the circuit court of appeals to rehear the case:
well, as long as the under-age strippers didn't possess any sex toys, we guess there'd be no problem...under texas law it is illegal to sell, advertise, give or lend obscene devices, defined as a device used primarily for sexual stimulation. anyone in possession of six or more sexual devices is considered to be promoting them. (via austin american-statesman).
…but jump to the last few days: a dallas strip club was found to have a 12-year old (yes, that's not a typo) stripping there. she was a runaway, and likely had been sexually abuse, and was aided by a female club employee and an adult man. in january, the same club was found to have a 17 year-old stripping. but its license is not being revoked:the 23-page city ordinance does allow revocation of a club's license if, for example, the club knowingly allows prostitution, the sale or use of drugs at the club, or if there are two convictions for sex-related crimes at the club within a 12-month period.
i know i don't have to connect the dots for you. selling sex toys that have greatly aided individual's pleasure, especially for women (40% of women say they use vibrators), was illegal up until recently, and is under review, but a club that is irresponsible enough to have allowed two underage girls to perform for male sexual pleasure and profit cannot have its license revoked. (and this is to say nothing about the kind of culture that produces 12-year olds as desirable sex objects and encourages their desire to be a sex object.)Labels: feminism, right hypocrisy, sexscapades
can we bill
scooter and darth cheney?
the cia leak probe cost $2.58 million, the government accountability
office disclosed monday, wrapping up an investigation that ensnared vice
president dick cheney's chief of staff for perjury, obstruction and lying to the
fbi. - ap/yahoo
he calls a spade a...whoops...
via talking points memo, here's lou dobbs whining about how racially sensitive america is, where he almost calls condaleeza rice a "cotton-picking" something...
he catches himself in time, but it's a great example of the pot calling the kettle...uh...we mean, it's funny.
he catches himself in time, but it's a great example of the pot calling the kettle...uh...we mean, it's funny.
Labels: multi-millionaire media, racism, right hypocrisy
the other black person in bush administration resigns
hud secretary alphonso jackson resigned today. wallstjou:
addendum: nicole belle at c&l tells us jackson is under criminal investigation:
the exact reasons for mr. jackson's decision couldn't be learned. earlier this month, two democratic senators, patty murray of washington and christopher dodd of connecticut, sent a letter to president bush urging him to request mr. jackson's resignation, arguing that accusations of wrongdoing had made him ineffective…
mr. jackson, a former top housing official in texas, washington, d.c., and missouri, has consistently denied any improper behavior while leading hud. still, his poor relationship with democrats has hurt the white house's efforts to broker deals in response to the housing crisis. for example, democrats have criticized the way he handled public housing after hurricane katrina, an issue that has dogged him ever since.
lou dobbs was quoted as saying "it's too bad that jackson made that cotton-pick...that decision."mr. jackson, a former top housing official in texas, washington, d.c., and missouri, has consistently denied any improper behavior while leading hud. still, his poor relationship with democrats has hurt the white house's efforts to broker deals in response to the housing crisis. for example, democrats have criticized the way he handled public housing after hurricane katrina, an issue that has dogged him ever since.
addendum: nicole belle at c&l tells us jackson is under criminal investigation:
that list of disgraced ex-bush administration officials keeps getting longer and longer and longer…
housing and urban development secretary alphonso jackson announced monday he was resigning after seven years on the job.
jackson, 62, is under criminal investigation and has been fending off allegations of cronyism and favoritism involving hud contractors for the past two years.
he also was under intense pressure from democrats to resign.
the fbi has been examining the ties between jackson and a friend who was paid $392,000 by jackson’s department as a construction manager in new orleans after hurricane katrina. jackson said he needs time to attend to personal and family matters.
Labels: aWol, housing bubble
Sunday, March 30, 2008
skippy's sunday nite music club
red hot chili peppers - love roller coaster
the peppers take on the ohio players' bit hit, quite nicely, too, we may add.
plus, beavis & butthead! you can't beat that!
Labels: skippy's music club
got ballots?
seems to be a problem this election year....
it's a simple question with no simple answer: why do polling places across america keep running out of ballots when it's no secret that this contentious primary season keeps breaking voter turnout records?hawai'i certainly had a problem.
for one, even the best-made plans have gone awry; officials in state after state have ordered more ballots, only to see turnouts exceed their most ambitious estimates. - ap/yahoo news
hawaii's democratic caucus attracted record numbers of voters this evening, with overwhelmed sites running out of ballots and registration forms.the large turnout swamped precinct volunteers throuought the islands. even the caucus site at kapaa neighborhood center on kauai saw close to 1,000 voters, eager to vote for hawaii-born sen. barack obama or sen. hillary rodham clinton.
by comparison, about 4,000 voters cast a ballot in the 2004 caucus for the entire state. - star bulletin
Labels: election, election integrity, hawaii
political shenanigans
can be "bery, bery" good for bakery sales.
the milford bakery that riffed on a fruitless search for jimmy hoffa is now tackling the text message scandal involving detroit mayor kwame kilpatrick and christine beatty, his former chief of staff.cookies shaped like cell phones and decorated with text messages saying "busted" and "i'm sorry" went on sale for $1.75 thursday at the milford baking co., said owner laura hedwig.
"we wanted to have some fun with it," she said.
...in milford, hedwig sold thousands of cupcakes with green hands poking out of chocolate frosting in 2006 when the fbi was searching for hoffa's remains on a horse farm in the community. - freepress
Labels: food, politicians, sexscapades
what's a penny worth?
a little bit of dignity for those who labor in the fields picking tomatoes for burger king, mickey d's and other fast food chains....
please add your name to the petition to stop the servitude.nearly a year ago, burger king’s top competitor, mcdonald’s, signed a groundbreaking agreement to pay a penny more per pound to workers harvesting tomatoes, which means the workers get 72 cents to 77 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, up from 40 cents to 45 cents.
but burger king, the world’s second-largest hamburger chain, has rejected working with the ciw to improve farm workers’ wages and conditions. - aflcio and indybay
all right, hillary supporters, let's see you caption this one...
a funny thing happened on the way to obscurity (part seven of ten)...
politically, i would describe myself as a liberal sporting two different stripe patterns, one progressive, the other libertarian. this arrangement isn't exactly comfortable. anyone who's been reading skippy's blog over at least the last three years has witnessed me go totally off my nut on at least a couple dozen occasions. but it appears to be stable, in spite of its appearances. the progressive in me enjoyed howard zinn's "a people's history of the united states"; the libertarian in me enjoyed ayn rand's "atlas shrugged." and the liberal in me knows i don't have to accept the entirety of either, or else reject them out of hand -- not all of zinn's real-life subjects were praiseworthy, nor were all of rand's objectivist ideas sound. i've had to figure out for myself which parts work and which don't, and that hasn't been easy.
that, however, is what makes it all worthwhile. it's much like putting a big jigsaw puzzle together. for the longest time, you seem to be getting nowhere. but if you work at it long enough, the pieces begin seeming to put themselves in their proper places.
and then there's what i do for a living: running a printing press. in this capacity, i would call myself an arch-conservative. taking chances is the closest thing to anathema to me when i'm on the clock -- i go with what i know for a fact works. ostensibly, i run the press, but in fact, the press runs me -- i have a years-long reputation at the print shop for running sound quality work, and i have been told by my bosses, repeatedly, to just keep doing whatever it is i've been doing, and that is what i intend to keep doing. this doesn't completely stop me from taking chances. i've worked twelve-hour nights beginning at 6:30 pm for years. for the longest time, i had no supervisor. not surprising -- you have to be a lunatic to want to work those hours. (see: jim yeager.) so i ended up making bunches of management-level calls over the years. but i only did so when, being an arch-conservative press operator, i believed i had no choice. and most of the time, i made the right call.
again, the whole process was like piecing together a big jigsaw puzzle. the trick was to figure out what worked and what didn't, and this took years. it wasn't until 2007 that i started taking real chances with my print work based on what i'd already learned -- i had to build up a body of printing knowledge first, a process which takes years all by itself. but i couldn't have done it if i hadn't started with an arch-conservative mentality toward running a press. it wasn't easy. but it worked.
finally, there's life. this puzzle i've yet to complete. i'm not even sure either of the two approaches i know work -- the liberal blogger tack or the arch-conservative printer formula -- apply here. but a funny thing happened on the way to obscurity: i noticed that there were more potential solutions than actual problems.
why i didn't notice this long before, i have no idea. maybe it's because i'm a lunatic. but at least i noticed it...
that, however, is what makes it all worthwhile. it's much like putting a big jigsaw puzzle together. for the longest time, you seem to be getting nowhere. but if you work at it long enough, the pieces begin seeming to put themselves in their proper places.
and then there's what i do for a living: running a printing press. in this capacity, i would call myself an arch-conservative. taking chances is the closest thing to anathema to me when i'm on the clock -- i go with what i know for a fact works. ostensibly, i run the press, but in fact, the press runs me -- i have a years-long reputation at the print shop for running sound quality work, and i have been told by my bosses, repeatedly, to just keep doing whatever it is i've been doing, and that is what i intend to keep doing. this doesn't completely stop me from taking chances. i've worked twelve-hour nights beginning at 6:30 pm for years. for the longest time, i had no supervisor. not surprising -- you have to be a lunatic to want to work those hours. (see: jim yeager.) so i ended up making bunches of management-level calls over the years. but i only did so when, being an arch-conservative press operator, i believed i had no choice. and most of the time, i made the right call.
again, the whole process was like piecing together a big jigsaw puzzle. the trick was to figure out what worked and what didn't, and this took years. it wasn't until 2007 that i started taking real chances with my print work based on what i'd already learned -- i had to build up a body of printing knowledge first, a process which takes years all by itself. but i couldn't have done it if i hadn't started with an arch-conservative mentality toward running a press. it wasn't easy. but it worked.
finally, there's life. this puzzle i've yet to complete. i'm not even sure either of the two approaches i know work -- the liberal blogger tack or the arch-conservative printer formula -- apply here. but a funny thing happened on the way to obscurity: i noticed that there were more potential solutions than actual problems.
why i didn't notice this long before, i have no idea. maybe it's because i'm a lunatic. but at least i noticed it...
Labels: it is what it is, life, random thoughts
Saturday, March 29, 2008
skippy's saturday nite music club
first the freeway blogger....
now comes word of guerilla gardeners.
Labels: protest, san francisco
wal-qaeda
the wal-mart critic won a court case against the big evil giant dime store.
a federal judge in atlanta sided tuesday with a conyers man whose satirical web site likens wal-mart to the holocaust.but, unfortunately, wal-qaeda won a court case against one of it's former employees....a former employee who is brain damaged, living in a care facility unable to maneuver without a wheelchair, who's husband had to divorce her so that she would be eligible for financial assistance from medicaid, who's son was killed in iraq....
..the 50-year-old computer store owner from conyers, ga., said wal-mart is "taking over the world." he set up the walocaust web site, and later a wal-qaeda web site, to make his point. on the site, smith said: "when I came up with the word (walocaust), i was thinking of all of the destruction that has been taking place in the world in the last few years. massive layoffs, jobs and investment capital going over seas, record bankruptcies, lost pensions, millions of uninsured, and wars. behind most of this destruction lurk giant corporations - wgcl atlanta
...eight years ago, shank was stocking shelves for the retail giant and signed up for wal-mart's health and benefits plan.two years after the accident, shank and her husband, jim, were awarded about $1 million in a lawsuit against the trucking company involved in the crash. after legal fees were paid, $417,000 was placed in a trust to pay for debbie shank's long-term care.
wal-mart had paid out about $470,000 for shank's medical expenses and later sued for the same amount.
... in 2007, the retail giant reported net sales in the third quarter of $90 billion.
...jim shank, 54, is recovering from prostate cancer, works two jobs and struggles to pay the bills. he's afraid he won't be able to send their youngest son to college and pay for his and debbie's care.
"who needs the money more? a disabled lady in a wheelchair with no future, whatsoever, or does wal-mart need $90 billion, plus $200,000?" he asked. - cnn international
the ceo of wal-qaeda, mr. h. lee scott is paid millions upon millions of dollars. perhaps he can explain why the company can afford to pay him a total compensation of $10.46 million and the company take in billions of dollars in profit, yet take all the money a former employee had in the world and leave her and her family nothing.
"i am happy to report that wal-mart stores incorporated had another record quarter and fiscal year. let me begin with our record sales. total net sales for fiscal year 2008 reached $375 billion dollars an 8.6 percent increase for our company. we added approximately $30 billion dollars in sales which is more than many retailers generate over the course of an entire year."..."said another way, $30 billion dollars would be the equivalent of a fortune 75 business. for the 4th quarter we topped a hundred billion dollars in sales. the first time in history that a global retailer has reached this milestone in sales in a single quarter." - ceo h. lee scott. - pridedepot.com
"the real key is taking care of customers," says scott.
well, mr. scott. perhaps you can see to it these customers are taken care of. that would be key.
(my future husband keith o has named wal-qaeda the worst peeps in the world, too....)
Labels: debbie shank, lawsuits, wal-mart
plus a year's supply of turtle wax, and a home version of our game!
joe gandelman of the moderate voice reports that some democrats want hillary clinton as gov. of new york, as a "consolation prize":
newsweek’s jonathan alter reports that some democrats seek to dangle the new york state governorship in front of senator hillary clinton as a consolation prize in the hopes that she won’t battle front-runner barack obama all the way to the convention:
joe eschews musing on the value of the idea itself, in favor of wondering whose big idea it was:some democrats terrified that their bloody primary campaign will doom them in november are floating a consolation prize for hillary clinton: governor of new york.
the travails of new york gov. david paterson have opened up a new potential career path for clinton, according to well-informed democratic party insiders who refused to allow their names to be used when discussing contingencies. they want her to consider the option if she concludes after the april 22 pennsylvania primary that she cannot overtake barack obama for the party’s presidential nomination. hillary clinton, while fully committed to continuing her presidential campaign, was said to be open to discussing the idea, while bill clinton rejected it out of hand.
with former new york mayor rudy giuliani now reported by the new york post to be weighing a race for governor, voters could see a clinton-giuliani matchup after all.
it would be the match-up many expected (a) when clinton ran for senator (squelched by giuliani’s health problems) and (b) when giuliani ran for president (the conventional wisdom — for a while — was that it would be clinton versus giuliani in the general election).the travails of new york gov. david paterson have opened up a new potential career path for clinton, according to well-informed democratic party insiders who refused to allow their names to be used when discussing contingencies. they want her to consider the option if she concludes after the april 22 pennsylvania primary that she cannot overtake barack obama for the party’s presidential nomination. hillary clinton, while fully committed to continuing her presidential campaign, was said to be open to discussing the idea, while bill clinton rejected it out of hand.
with former new york mayor rudy giuliani now reported by the new york post to be weighing a race for governor, voters could see a clinton-giuliani matchup after all.
the key to this story is: who sourced it? did it come from someone sympathetic to the clinton campaign or a clinton associate? or did it come from someone close to the obama campaign, or democrats who never really liked clinton and want her out now asap both due the political train-wreck-in-denver scenario that seems closer every day and the fact that they never really supported her anyway?
it’s not a small question. because if the story is based on sources that didn’t like clinton, then it should also be seen as part and parcel of the ongoing attempt to have her quit the race early. for the early part of the campaign the motif was clinton’s “inevitability.” in this phase, in many quarters, it’s obama’s “inevitability.”
apart from that, this is a fascinating report since it again underscores the fears among many democrats that while clinton and obama are battering each other john mccain has a big head start in unifying his party, doing image-enhancing photo-ops, campaigning for the general election, working to raise funds for his party, and blasting the democratic party and obama and clinton.
we think that this story, along w/the idea that somehow al gore would go to the convention and emerge as the nominee, is simply a result of the "fog of war" of the campaign...a lot of "who shot john" (as judge judy would say) that is full of sound and fury and signifying...nothing (as someone other than judge judy once said).it’s not a small question. because if the story is based on sources that didn’t like clinton, then it should also be seen as part and parcel of the ongoing attempt to have her quit the race early. for the early part of the campaign the motif was clinton’s “inevitability.” in this phase, in many quarters, it’s obama’s “inevitability.”
apart from that, this is a fascinating report since it again underscores the fears among many democrats that while clinton and obama are battering each other john mccain has a big head start in unifying his party, doing image-enhancing photo-ops, campaigning for the general election, working to raise funds for his party, and blasting the democratic party and obama and clinton.
Labels: clinton, democrats, hillary, obama, prez campaign
boom...boom...
out go the lights.
on saturday, march 29, 2008, earth hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. on this day, cities around the world, including copenhagen, chicago, melbourne, dubai, and tel aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.
given our company's commitment to environmental awareness and energy efficiency, we strongly support the earth hour campaign, and have darkened our homepage today to help spread awareness of what we hope will be a highly successful global event. - google and mashable
earth hour. 8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
the green daily has some ideas on what you can do to celebrate...
- hold a candlelight al gore impression contest. award a paper-mache nobel prize to the winner.
- roam the neighbourhood pretending to be a zombie.
- go eco-looting.
- get drunk alone in the dark, like every saturday.
- congratulate yourself on your dogged perseverance for going an hour without playing wii.
- take the kids trick or treating. tt's worth a shot.
- trip over the cat. curse.
- huddle in the basement with a shotgun and a case of canned ravioli and pretend it's the apocalypse.
- worry that the aliens won't be able to find your house in the dark.
Labels: earth, earth hour, environment, google
Friday, March 28, 2008
skippy's friday nite music club
rafael kubelik conducting the czech philharmonic orchestra - vltava (die moldau) by smetana
part one
part two
vltava, or the moldau (the german name, as its more popularly known), is one of six pieces in the symphonic poem ma vlast (my country) by bedrich smetana. the whole piece is a tone poem, describing with music the countryside of what used to be known as bohemia, now in the czech republic.
this movement paints the picture of the vltava river, starting out as trickles from mountain springs (the opening flutes), driving down thru the farmlands and forests, past the rapids and thru prague (as the music swells) and ending in a wide rolling crescendo, at the elbe river. more than any other music piece, save perhaps the blue danube, this music evokes the rhythm and pace of a river at all of its stages.
it is truly a maginificent work, and here it is interpreted the area's own countrymen, the czech philharmonic orchestra, led by rafael kubelik, who himself was born in bohemia. this youtube, recorded in 1990, shows kubelik conducting at the prague spring festival in 1990, a festival he himself founded in 1946 before czechoslovakia fell to the communist regime.
this also represents one of his last performances, as the great maestro died in 1996.
Labels: skippy's music club
anagram cracker
the flying rodent over at between the hammer and the anvil discovers that certain fanboy geeks think some song titles on paul mccartney's newest album spell out his marital troubles.
Labels: music, pop culture
msnbcrooks&liars
john amato, our good blog buddy from crooks&liars, appeared on msnbc today, trying to get the media to listen about how mclame gets a free pass from the press.
the media didnt' listen.
the media didnt' listen.
Labels: blogtopia, mccain, multi-millionaire media
the man with the plan
lambert at corrente challenges us all to challenge our candidates:
via digby, here’s the responsible plan for iraq. it’s one answer to what to we do about iraq? i just went and signed...
downloading the full plan [pdf], i saw these three points, which neither dem candidate is pushing:
so, let’s do a little test marketing. here’s a challenge:
downloading the full plan [pdf], i saw these three points, which neither dem candidate is pushing:
in addition to the goals we have laid out to accomplish, there is a set of things that are explicitly not our desired ends.
no use of iraq as a military leverage point for the u.s. in the middle east.
iraq study group recommendation 22: the president should state that the united states does not seek permanent military bases in iraq. if the iraqi government were to request a temporary base or bases, then the u.s. government could consider that request as it would in the case of any other government.
no u.s. domination over iraqi oil.
iraq study group recommendation 23: the president should restate that the united states does not seek to control iraq’s oil.
no protection of profits for war profiteers.
contractors who have abused u.s. taxpayers and iraqi citizens by failing to deliver on their contractual obligations, by delivering substandard goods or services, or by working counter to the interests of the u.s. and the iraqis should be held to account. at a minimum, profits made by such contractors at the expense of the u.s. taxpayer and the iraqi people should be refunded.
the plan also has points for reversing media consolidation and restoring constitutional government, which is red meat for bloggers like me.no use of iraq as a military leverage point for the u.s. in the middle east.
iraq study group recommendation 22: the president should state that the united states does not seek permanent military bases in iraq. if the iraqi government were to request a temporary base or bases, then the u.s. government could consider that request as it would in the case of any other government.
no u.s. domination over iraqi oil.
iraq study group recommendation 23: the president should restate that the united states does not seek to control iraq’s oil.
no protection of profits for war profiteers.
contractors who have abused u.s. taxpayers and iraqi citizens by failing to deliver on their contractual obligations, by delivering substandard goods or services, or by working counter to the interests of the u.s. and the iraqis should be held to account. at a minimum, profits made by such contractors at the expense of the u.s. taxpayer and the iraqi people should be refunded.
so, let’s do a little test marketing. here’s a challenge:
to our new obama, er, supporters:
are you man, or woman, enough to join me in signing on to the responsible plan, pressuring your candidate to sign, and posting here that you did?
to our hillary, er, supporters:
same question.
people? let’s try to get either or both dem candidates to sign on to the responsible plan. that’s something we can all do right now.are you man, or woman, enough to join me in signing on to the responsible plan, pressuring your candidate to sign, and posting here that you did?
to our hillary, er, supporters:
same question.
Labels: action alert, clinton, hillary, iraq war, obama, prez campaign
kangaroo blogging friday
democratic presidential race version
Thursday, March 27, 2008
skippy's thursday nite music club
we're sorry we didn't do this one last sunday for easter*...
carl anderson - superstar
carl anderson as judas sings to ted neely as jesus from the film jesus christ superstar.
[*ed. note: the grumpy forester correctly points out this moment from the film would work more appropriately for good friday. we stand corrected]
carl anderson - superstar
carl anderson as judas sings to ted neely as jesus from the film jesus christ superstar.
[*ed. note: the grumpy forester correctly points out this moment from the film would work more appropriately for good friday. we stand corrected]
Labels: skippy's music club
yeah...feeling so much safer...
now...
usda might limit meat recall information. under pressure from the food industry, the agriculture department is considering a proposal not to identify retailers where tainted meat went for sale except in cases of serious health risk. - ap (and altoona mirror.)
Labels: food safety, usda
recession right around the corner
and some folks think americans want to pay $18 - $35 for a freakin' movie ticket.
a recession may be looming, but a group of investors thinks americans are ready to pony up $35 for a movie ticket.they should change the name to village idiots roadshow.
village roadshow ltd., act iii, lambert entertainment and the retirement systems of alabama pension fund have partnered to bring the luxury cinema circuit village roadshow gold class cinemas to the u.s.- variety
the question of the day....
who really does own your news?
here in santa barbara, we have an ongoing feud with the woman who purchased our local pulizer winning newspaper, the news-press.
now, there's a movie out that is a must see, not only for santa barbarians, but anyone who is interested in what happens when the news no longer serves the community it is supposed to.
http://www.citizenmccaw.com/
here in santa barbara, we have an ongoing feud with the woman who purchased our local pulizer winning newspaper, the news-press.
now, there's a movie out that is a must see, not only for santa barbarians, but anyone who is interested in what happens when the news no longer serves the community it is supposed to.
http://www.citizenmccaw.com/
obama girl, interrupted
videos by the cyber-world famous obama girl may not be helping her candidate as much as she thought. chitrib's political blog the swamp:
hcd research inc., which employs its mediacurves technology to focus-group media content, found that many of the 440 participants in its survey conducted via internet were left feeling less warm about the senator because of the young model, her message, or both.
what's more, when they asked the participants to pick a word that described their emotional response to the new video, many chose "irritated" and "embarrassed" to characterize their reactions…
this is from the hcd press release:
here's the offending video...personally, 87% of us here at skippy international felt "tumescence."what's more, when they asked the participants to pick a word that described their emotional response to the new video, many chose "irritated" and "embarrassed" to characterize their reactions…
this is from the hcd press release:
among the study findings:
among political parties, the emotions most felt by democrats while watching the video were “irritated” (51%), followed by “embarrassed” (41%), compared to republicans, who reported “irritated” (52%) and “skeptical” (35%) as the emotions most felt, and independents who reported “irritated” (42%) and “embarrassed” (36%) as the emotions most felt.
a majority of all respondents (71%) reported that if they saw the video online, they would not forward it to family or friends.
Labels: internets, obama, prez campaign
oh what a beautiful mourning
mad about john 'maverick' mccain
stamp this one tragic
moue magazine reports that 1 out 10 ohioans is on food stamps. even worse, the food banks are running short of supplies:
i mentioned food stamps in a post yesterday and today the columbus dispatch reports that approximately 1 in 10 residents of ohio are enrolled in the assistance program, a record high for the state.
1.1 million residents are currently on food stamps, double the number of participants in 2001. unemployment (the jobless rate is up from 4.4 % in 2001 to 5.3%), the low pay of available jobs and the rising costs of food and gasoline are contributing factors. it is estimated that another 500,000 residents are eligible but not currently enrolled in the program...
that is $100 per person per month, not per household, but that still is not nearly enough money to feed a family on. food banks and soup kitchens are having trouble keeping up with the demand for their services.
1.1 million residents are currently on food stamps, double the number of participants in 2001. unemployment (the jobless rate is up from 4.4 % in 2001 to 5.3%), the low pay of available jobs and the rising costs of food and gasoline are contributing factors. it is estimated that another 500,000 residents are eligible but not currently enrolled in the program...
that is $100 per person per month, not per household, but that still is not nearly enough money to feed a family on. food banks and soup kitchens are having trouble keeping up with the demand for their services.
in central ohio, demand at the mid-ohio food bank in january was up 14 percent over the same period a year ago, with 120,000 requests for food.
the increased demand coupled with rising food costs and fewer donations have forced the food bank to reduce the five-day supply of food it had been giving out to a three-day supply.
“milk is up 25 percent,” said mid-ohio president matt habash. “applesauce, a big staple at food banks, has gone from $9 to $15 a case.”
the increased demand coupled with rising food costs and fewer donations have forced the food bank to reduce the five-day supply of food it had been giving out to a three-day supply.
“milk is up 25 percent,” said mid-ohio president matt habash. “applesauce, a big staple at food banks, has gone from $9 to $15 a case.”
Labels: economy, food stamps
on a surge safair with me
blue girl, red state, sends us this helps us raw story update on the surge.
a spokesman for the baghdad security plan, tahsin al-sheikhly, was kidnapped from his baghdad home by armed men on thursday, security officials told afp.
an interior ministry official told the associated press that three of spokesman's bodyguards were killed. the official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.
the officials said sheikhly, a sunni who often appeared with u.s. military and embassy officials at news conferences to tout the successes of the crackdown that began in baghdad and surrounding areas more than a year ago, was abducted from his home in baghdad's al-amin neighbourhood at around 2:30 pm (1130 gmt).
the surge is working!
an interior ministry official told the associated press that three of spokesman's bodyguards were killed. the official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.
the officials said sheikhly, a sunni who often appeared with u.s. military and embassy officials at news conferences to tout the successes of the crackdown that began in baghdad and surrounding areas more than a year ago, was abducted from his home in baghdad's al-amin neighbourhood at around 2:30 pm (1130 gmt).
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
skippy's wednesday nite music club
fdl on cnn asap
attention, angry whites...
when black africans cross the atlantic, take white americans from their homes, pack them like sardines in the lower decks of their ships, and haul them back to africa for a lifetime of slavery...
when black americans form lynch mobs, kick in the doors to the homes of white people, drag them to the nearest tree, and string them up out of race hatred...
when groups of black cops break down the doors of white people's homes and beat them within inches of their lives out of unmitigated swinishness...
when the citizens of all-black towns start putting up signs reading "whitey, don't let the sun set on your lily ass in this town"...
when the white population of american prisons exceeds that of the general population and the bulk of violent acts against white prisoners are committed by black officers...
and when, after all this comes to pass, the word "peckerwood" finally has the same bloody, violent, and ugly history behind it as the word "nigger" has for black people...
then i'll listen to what you angry white folks have to say about racism. but until then...
just shut up.
when black americans form lynch mobs, kick in the doors to the homes of white people, drag them to the nearest tree, and string them up out of race hatred...
when groups of black cops break down the doors of white people's homes and beat them within inches of their lives out of unmitigated swinishness...
when the citizens of all-black towns start putting up signs reading "whitey, don't let the sun set on your lily ass in this town"...
when the white population of american prisons exceeds that of the general population and the bulk of violent acts against white prisoners are committed by black officers...
and when, after all this comes to pass, the word "peckerwood" finally has the same bloody, violent, and ugly history behind it as the word "nigger" has for black people...
then i'll listen to what you angry white folks have to say about racism. but until then...
just shut up.
Labels: america, racism, random thoughts
photoshop phun
for free.
the maker of the popular photo-editing software photoshop on thursday (ah...tomorrow....) launched a basic version available for free online.photoshop express.
photoshop express will be completely web-based so consumers can use it with any type of computer, operating system and browser. and, once they register, users can get to their accounts from different computers.- ap/yahoo
Labels: internets, technology
maybe not the happiest place on earth
in the malls or on wall street.....
the children's place retail stores inc. said late wednesday that the company's subsidiary that operates the disney store chain has filed for bankruptcy protection as part of its previously announced plan to exit the disney store business and focus on its core brand.
...the disney stores recorded an operating loss of $92.1 million for the three months that ended feb. 2 and $107.3 million for the fiscal year - ap/yahoo
Labels: disney, economy, wall street
from the department of "up is down"
agence france presse tells us that the pentagon insists the increase in violence in iraq is proof that the surge is working:
the pentagon on wednesday said an eruption of violence in southern iraq, where us-backed government forces were battling shiite militias, was a "by-product of the success of the surge."
pentagon press secretary geoff morrell said it showed that the iraqi government and security forces were now confident enough to take the initiative against shiite extremists in the southern port of basra…
at least 20 people were reported to have been killed in two days of fighting in basra and another 20 in clashes in the sadr city district of baghdad, a bastion of shiite militias that follow radical cleric moqtada al-sadr.
the violence raised fears that a unilateral ceasefire called by sadr last year, which us military officials have credited with helping to bring down last year's high levels of violence in iraq, was coming apart…
"this has just begun this week," he said. "but i think at this early stage, it looks as though it is a by-product of the success of the surge," referring to the sharp hike in us troops in iraq from earlier last year to quell violence.
he said it was a success "in the sense that the iraqi government has grown and increased in capability to the point where they now feel confident going after shia extremists in a part of the country that they had not exerted great influence over."
at this rate, once we've won, everyone in iraq will be dead!
pentagon press secretary geoff morrell said it showed that the iraqi government and security forces were now confident enough to take the initiative against shiite extremists in the southern port of basra…
at least 20 people were reported to have been killed in two days of fighting in basra and another 20 in clashes in the sadr city district of baghdad, a bastion of shiite militias that follow radical cleric moqtada al-sadr.
the violence raised fears that a unilateral ceasefire called by sadr last year, which us military officials have credited with helping to bring down last year's high levels of violence in iraq, was coming apart…
"this has just begun this week," he said. "but i think at this early stage, it looks as though it is a by-product of the success of the surge," referring to the sharp hike in us troops in iraq from earlier last year to quell violence.
he said it was a success "in the sense that the iraqi government has grown and increased in capability to the point where they now feel confident going after shia extremists in a part of the country that they had not exerted great influence over."
we'd like to see david tennant in the last temptation
via one good move, it's the dr. who fan who found god!
addendum - strictly for fangeeks (all others please ignore): here's the trailer for the new series beginning in april in britain, w/donna noble, martha jones & rose tyler, plus capt. jack harkness, as well as a few old friends, a few old enemies, and a few old doctors:
addendum - strictly for fangeeks (all others please ignore): here's the trailer for the new series beginning in april in britain, w/donna noble, martha jones & rose tyler, plus capt. jack harkness, as well as a few old friends, a few old enemies, and a few old doctors:
Labels: religion, television
happy birthday
to half of the funniest comedy team since laurel and hardy:
bob and ray - the stoa
last saturday was bob elliot's 85th bday.
bob and ray - the stoa
last saturday was bob elliot's 85th bday.
Labels: birthday, entertainment
news from the cookie
cookie jill sends us a couple of environmental stories:
latimes: eastwood's termination: 'somebody got a bee under their bonnet'
the actor says he was surprised at his removal from the state parks board in the wake of his opposition to a toll road. but he says he holds no hard feelings toward schwarzenegger.
scientific american: china's three gorges dam: an environmental catastrophe?
even the chinese government suspects the massive dam may cause significant environmental damage
latimes: eastwood's termination: 'somebody got a bee under their bonnet'
the actor says he was surprised at his removal from the state parks board in the wake of his opposition to a toll road. but he says he holds no hard feelings toward schwarzenegger.
scientific american: china's three gorges dam: an environmental catastrophe?
even the chinese government suspects the massive dam may cause significant environmental damage
Labels: california, china, environment, governator
love and death
our buddy melina of ripcoco went to see a taping of a show by freedom first which deals w/the separation of church and state.
last night, after miles of dc monuments, i found myself in a small television studio at atlantic video on massachusetts avenue nw, invited to view the taping of a show/event that reaches to the very heart of what’s wrong in this country. presented by first freedom first, an organization dedicated to the separation of church and state, this pre-taped event will be simulcast tonight at theaters across america. log on here to find one near you and pick up some free tickets.
the show is hosted by actor peter coyote, along with welton gaddy, air america radio host and president of the interfaith alliance, and barry lynn, executive director of americans united. their combined specialties run the gamut from theology to law, spirituality to broadcasting, and back again. the event presents facts, fallacies, and heart crushing stories that exemplify the huge amount of work that this country will have to do in the wake of eight years of fundamentalist rule. featured guests are comedian and aar host, marc maron, musical group the bacon brothers, actors dan luria, wendie mallick, and catherine dent, one man show, roy zimmerman, singer/songwriter catie curtis, and living legend, dear to my own heart, jack klugman.
more here.the show is hosted by actor peter coyote, along with welton gaddy, air america radio host and president of the interfaith alliance, and barry lynn, executive director of americans united. their combined specialties run the gamut from theology to law, spirituality to broadcasting, and back again. the event presents facts, fallacies, and heart crushing stories that exemplify the huge amount of work that this country will have to do in the wake of eight years of fundamentalist rule. featured guests are comedian and aar host, marc maron, musical group the bacon brothers, actors dan luria, wendie mallick, and catherine dent, one man show, roy zimmerman, singer/songwriter catie curtis, and living legend, dear to my own heart, jack klugman.
Labels: religion
mccain's f.e.c.-al matter
jane hamsher of fdl has filed a formal complaint w/the f.e.c. against john mclame, because he used the promise of getting federally funded campaign funds as collateral for a loan, after which he opted out of the program, which, in the opinion of several, is the same as using the money and then deciding not to abide by the rules in place for the use of the money.
if you'd like to join in, please sign the complaint letter here.
addendum: steveaudio was on the phone w/jane as she went to file; his account of it is here.
yesterday, on behalf of a large number of progressive bloggers and activists, jane went to the fec and filed an official complaint against john mccain's alleged campaign finance violations. we've been asking a lot of questions about this, and the answers have been less than forthcoming. so, instead of just sitting here and stewing about yet another gop ethical problem, we decided to put our action where our concerns were.
as you'll see from the video, jane handed over the official complaint to the fec yesterday to get the process going:
here's the video in question:as you'll see from the video, jane handed over the official complaint to the fec yesterday to get the process going:
“john mccain is a campaign finance criminal who is flouting the very regulations he championed,” jane hamsher commented while delivering the complaint. “he believes the law is for someone else, not him. it's the height of hypocrisy.”
if you'd like to join in, please sign the complaint letter here.
addendum: steveaudio was on the phone w/jane as she went to file; his account of it is here.
and what about jared?
in response to a piece about a school in minneapolis refusing to let vets for freedom present a program featuring veterans from the afghan and iraqi wars, the blog blackfive has declared that the left has no heroes:
apparently the left doesn't have any heroes, they believe that anyone in or out of uniform who is not protesting or telling tales of atrocities reminiscent of jenjis khan, is simply a tool of the vast right-wing conspiracy. in the la la land inhabited by the liberals in minneapolis the voices of our heroes cannot be heard unless countered by the progressive voices of the anti-war crowd, and even then they are not suitable for high school children. i mean god forbid they gain a positive view of our military or hear that brave deeds have been done in support of bush's illegal war.
of course, blackfive has it entirely wrong. the left has plenty of heroes. to wit:che guevara. the left loves nothing more than communistic rebels who dedicated themselves to the overthrowing of capitalism. and boy, brutality in the service of taking away individual freedoms gets us hot.
josef stalin. talk about brutality! wow, nobody can compare to our main man, stalin. purges, troikas, five year plans, not to mention hatchets to the heads of former allies, now that's something we lefties can really look up to.
margaret sanger. remember, you can't spell "get an abortions" without s-a-n-g-e-r (altho the tenses don't really work, but cut us some slack here, she's our hero). and it's not just the slaughter of innocent pre-born lives that make us sing a song of sanger, but her insistence on overall eugenics as well. kill kill kill, especially white babies, that's our motto!
adolf hitler. well, of course, liberals are inherently fascists, as everybody knows, so who's bigger than our best bud adolf? and since it's obviously a small step from posting "no smoking" signs in public buildings to genocide by gas chambers, we lefties always raise a furor over der fuhrer!
yasser arafat. and speaking of rank anti-sematism, nobody can hold a camel to our man yasser. since the mission statement of the left is the destruction of the state of israel (and, by extenstion, the prevention of the return of the savior jesus christ), our go-to guy is the man who lead the palestinians to glorious suicidal devestation. yasser? yes, sir!
believe us, blackfive, if the school program had been, say, alexander cockburn, or anybody from the daily worker, we would have insisted the show go on! so please, don't say we don't have any heroes! we love our heroes! especially if they like to take away our freedoms!Labels: propaganda, snark, supporting our troops
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
skippy's tuesday nite music club
public image ltd. - this is not a love song
as neil young once said, the king is dead but not forgotten, this is the story of johnny rotten
aka john lyndon, who, with ex-clash guitarist keith levene and jah wobble (john wardle), formed this "anti-punk" group in the late 70's, after his stint w/the sex pistols. tho the band stopped performing in '92, lyndon considers them to be "on hiatus" rather than broken apart.
Labels: skippy's music club
petit....four!!!!!!!!
oh, dear. chef paul prudhomme could have been felled by a stray bullet while setting up his legendary cajun fixings at a golf course.
celebrated chef paul prudhomme was setting up his cooking tent on the practice range at the on tuesday morning when he felt a sting in his right arm, just above his elbow.
prudhomme shook his shirt sleeve and a .22 caliber bullet fell to the ground, a spokesman for the jefferson parish sheriff's office said.
....witnesses said the bullet cut prudhomme's skin on his arm and put a hole in his white chef's coat. but prudhomme continued cooking until he left the course about 3:30 p.m.- ap/yahoo news
Labels: guns, new orleans
omg! an l.a. media outlet is covering something
other than booboo spears squeeking her way through a minor gig on the t.v.!
knx radio covers los angeles water crisis
the future looks dry and expensive. knx 1070’s michael linder has three investigative reports on la’s worsening water crisis. - aquafornia
Labels: los angeles, radio, water
say hello
to fabulously jinxed.
Labels: say hello
"did i say bullets? i meant, little girls"
joe gandelman of the moderate voice examines clinton's "misspoke":
he also provides us w/this cbs news report which definitely contradicts what sen. clinton said:
this fiasco, along w/other recent missteps, does not bode well for the clinton campaign.
as sharyl attkisson says on the video, "memories should always match the videotape."
senator hillary clinton’s admission that she “misspoke” — a political word usage sort of like “pre-owned cars” instead of “used cars” — in the dramatic anecdote she told of having to run to avoid sniper fire in bosnia undermines a campaign theme and now plops her in the middle of that dangerous credibility danger zone where reporters and editors will now carefully check her every assertion.
she can expect editors to look at every nook and cranny of the clintons’ tax returns and research future statements of experience on specific issues or dramatic anecdotes. and she can probably expect the footage of contradictions to surface in a campaign ad by democratic presidential nomination front runner barack obama because the bosnia revision puts the underlying issue on the table.
the clinton campaign had argued that the press needed to vet obama more thoroughly, but this incident likely means clinton will come under closer media scrutiny: if the press sees smoke and fire, it sniffs to see if it can detect more smoke and find another fire.
joe goes on to provide both multi-millionaire media and blog reactions to this latest gaffe.she can expect editors to look at every nook and cranny of the clintons’ tax returns and research future statements of experience on specific issues or dramatic anecdotes. and she can probably expect the footage of contradictions to surface in a campaign ad by democratic presidential nomination front runner barack obama because the bosnia revision puts the underlying issue on the table.
the clinton campaign had argued that the press needed to vet obama more thoroughly, but this incident likely means clinton will come under closer media scrutiny: if the press sees smoke and fire, it sniffs to see if it can detect more smoke and find another fire.
he also provides us w/this cbs news report which definitely contradicts what sen. clinton said:
this fiasco, along w/other recent missteps, does not bode well for the clinton campaign.
as sharyl attkisson says on the video, "memories should always match the videotape."
Labels: clinton, hillary, multi-millionaire media, prez campaign, war
apocalypse whoops
pale rider at blue girl, red state, tells us just how incompetent the top brass at the pentagon are:
i guess you just need to expect incompetence from these people...
probably no one.msnbc breaking news
washington - the pentagon said on tuesday that it mistakenly shipped non-nuclear ballistic missile components to taiwan from a u.s. air force base in wyoming.
it said the items have been returned to the united states.
at a news conference, air force secretary michael wynne said that the misshipped items were four nose cone assemblies for ballistic missiles. he also said it was sent instead of helicopter batteries that had been ordered by taiwan, he said.
wynne said the matter is under investigation.
ryan henry, the no. 2 policy official in the office of defense secretary robert gates, said president bush was notified of the mistake and the actions to recover the items. henry called the mistake "disconcerting" and intolerable.
so, now the question is this: given that the air force has now shipped nuclear weapons across the country without properly accounting for them, and given this latest slip-up, who's being fired?washington - the pentagon said on tuesday that it mistakenly shipped non-nuclear ballistic missile components to taiwan from a u.s. air force base in wyoming.
it said the items have been returned to the united states.
at a news conference, air force secretary michael wynne said that the misshipped items were four nose cone assemblies for ballistic missiles. he also said it was sent instead of helicopter batteries that had been ordered by taiwan, he said.
wynne said the matter is under investigation.
ryan henry, the no. 2 policy official in the office of defense secretary robert gates, said president bush was notified of the mistake and the actions to recover the items. henry called the mistake "disconcerting" and intolerable.
Labels: military, nuclear weapons, pentagon
Monday, March 24, 2008
skippy's monday nite music club
how do you handle a problem like obama
distributorcap ny brings us the latest broadway hit: condita!
Labels: snark
free tibet!
free speech.
...meanwhile in the chinese capital, an activist who wrote an open letter urging "human rights, not the olympics" was sentenced to the maximum five years in prison on a charge of subverting the power of the state.why do national symbols get better treatment than human beings?
...fhree frenchmen from the paris-based group reporters without borders were detained by greek authorities and charged with the misdemeanor count of offending national symbols, according to the ap- wapo
say hello
to chenzen's chamber.
Labels: say hello
got leftover peeps?
cakespy has some ideas on how to utilize those extra pastel colored sugary easter mainstays....including peep s'mores.
Labels: food, funny stuff
forget the "escort"
if the public could only get away from the "ho" in the thong images, and realize that the real reason eliot was taken down was that he pointed his finger at king george and spoke the truth. king george and his minions were complicit in the mortgage meltdown and eliot even penned an op-ed.
....predatory lending was widely understood to present a looming national crisis.
...not only did the bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.let me explain: the administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the office of the comptroller of the currency (occ). the occ has been in existence since the civil war. its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. for 140 years, the occ examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function. but a few years ago, for the first time in its history, the occ was used as a tool against consumers.
in 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the occ invoked a clause from the 1863 national bank act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. the occ also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. the federal government's actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules.
but the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did not deter, or even slow, the bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. in fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the occ filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation. - wapo
this administration doesn't seem to like facts that dispute their lies.
since the democrats are so spineless and, quite frankly, stupid in getting caught with their pants down, can the american public bring civil charges against members of this administration for their flagrant disregard of laws and our constitution, or as awol put it...that "piece of paper?"
Labels: mortgages, sexscapades, true crime
whatever the market will bear stearns
the dow jones industrials continued their climb today, on reports of bear stearns stock price increase, due to the fact that jp morgan's offer to buy the broke brokerage house went from $2 to $10 a share. but business week wonders if that's good for taxpayers:
the renegotiated deal is bound to cause complaints that the nation's central bank has been sucked into supporting a partial bailout.
jpmorgan raised its all-stock bid to win the support of bear shareholders who were threatening to vote no and kill the deal. the new deal does have one feature that slightly betters the terms for the fed. jpmorgan is now agreeing to absorb the first $1 billion in losses if the collateral posted by bear for a loan turns out to be worth less than bear claims. the fed is on the hook for the remaining $29 billion, instead of the entire $30 billion as originally planned.
to be sure, the chance that the fed will actually lose money on the loan is fairly small because the bear assets were priced conservatively and are likely to recover in value eventually once the housing crisis is past. the fed can hold them for 10 years, or even longer if it chooses, waiting for them to regain value.
cbs marketwatch is even less forgiving:jpmorgan raised its all-stock bid to win the support of bear shareholders who were threatening to vote no and kill the deal. the new deal does have one feature that slightly betters the terms for the fed. jpmorgan is now agreeing to absorb the first $1 billion in losses if the collateral posted by bear for a loan turns out to be worth less than bear claims. the fed is on the hook for the remaining $29 billion, instead of the entire $30 billion as originally planned.
to be sure, the chance that the fed will actually lose money on the loan is fairly small because the bear assets were priced conservatively and are likely to recover in value eventually once the housing crisis is past. the fed can hold them for 10 years, or even longer if it chooses, waiting for them to regain value.
for many analysts, the fundamentals of the transaction remain unchanged: gains on wall street are privatized while losses are socialized.
while j.p. morgan's agreement to cover the first $1 billion in losses is "a good first step ... the question is whether j.p. morgan is paying $10 a share for bear stearns or $10 per share in order to get the benefit of a $30 billion guarantee from the fed," asked dean baker, co-director of the center for economic policy research
"in other words, would j.p. morgan be willing to make the deal without the guarantee?" he asked…
but baker said regardless of the ultimate outcome, taxpayers should not have "to write a blank check." taxpayers should receive something in return for their funds, perhaps a limit on compensation for top executives of j.p. morgan, he suggested.
while j.p. morgan's agreement to cover the first $1 billion in losses is "a good first step ... the question is whether j.p. morgan is paying $10 a share for bear stearns or $10 per share in order to get the benefit of a $30 billion guarantee from the fed," asked dean baker, co-director of the center for economic policy research
"in other words, would j.p. morgan be willing to make the deal without the guarantee?" he asked…
but baker said regardless of the ultimate outcome, taxpayers should not have "to write a blank check." taxpayers should receive something in return for their funds, perhaps a limit on compensation for top executives of j.p. morgan, he suggested.
Labels: economy
it's ok to slap a woman around if it's for a christian purpose
via vanessa in feministing, this is just disgusting:
no joke.
while the steelers are getting quite the rep for violence against women as of late, the team managers have turned a blind eye to a player slapping his girlfriend because what he was trying to do "was really well worth it."
while cedrick wilson was released from the team for punching his ex-girlfriend on wednesday night, james harrison was decidedly okie dokie to stay after assaulting his girlfriend earlier this month.
hallelujah!while the steelers are getting quite the rep for violence against women as of late, the team managers have turned a blind eye to a player slapping his girlfriend because what he was trying to do "was really well worth it."
while cedrick wilson was released from the team for punching his ex-girlfriend on wednesday night, james harrison was decidedly okie dokie to stay after assaulting his girlfriend earlier this month.
on march 8, harrison was charged with assaulting his girlfriend, beth tibbot, in her ohio township home. according to a police affadavit, harrison broke down a door, broke tibbot's cell phone in half as she attempted to call 911, then slapped her face with an open hand, knocking off her glasses. he was charged with simple assault and criminal mischief and faces an april 3 preliminary hearing before a magistrate in bellevue.
when the team was questioned as to why one player is being released while the harrison isn't, they replied that violence against women should basically be condoned on a case-by-case basis:in harrison's case, rooney [team chairperson] said the player was trying to take his son to be baptized.
"what jimmy harrison was doing and how the incident occurred, what he was trying to do was really well worth it," rooney said of harrison's initial intent with his son. "he was doing something that was good, wanted to take his son to get baptized where he lived and things like that. she said she didn't want to do it."(emphasis mine)
"what jimmy harrison was doing and how the incident occurred, what he was trying to do was really well worth it," rooney said of harrison's initial intent with his son. "he was doing something that was good, wanted to take his son to get baptized where he lived and things like that. she said she didn't want to do it."(emphasis mine)
Labels: feminism, religion, sports, violence, womens issues
notes from the underground
joan brunwasser writes about her recent experience at the take back america conference over at oped news:
at the very least, the take back america (tba) conference was an effective antidote to winter, the remnants of the flu, customary cynicism and a desperate desire to burrow into my flannel-sheeted haven and wait until the coast is clear. mothers of a certain age will understand me perfectly when i say that i had finally hit that invisible wall which stands between that maddeningly endless lists of things to do and the last straw. wham! “i’ve had it!” my body declared, and responded by shutting down for a bit, thus allowing me to take a much needed time out. some days later, i emerged like a mole, blinking against the sudden light, winded but ready to jump back into the fray.
last week, more than fifteen hundred progressives descended on the nation’s capital for tba’s sixth annual get-together, my third. no longer a newbie, i navigated the route from lodgings to hotel with ease and was no longer paralyzed by rooms full of hundreds of unfamiliar faces. nevertheless, there was a distinct sense of disappearing down a rabbit hole, a day at a time. sessions started early and ended late, sunlight was a rare commodity, and the winding corridors and numerous stairways appearing at random further contributed to the image.
this year’s conference differed from the other two that i attended in that the emphasis was not on the candidates. a year ago, there was a full field and each and every one of them spoke before us. it was an efficient way to compare and contrast their style and content. this time, the sessions zeroed in on our goals for the near future and were characterized by a notable degree of passion and energy.
joan goes into detail about the economic presentations by dean baker and jared bernstein, as well as forums for other progressive issues.last week, more than fifteen hundred progressives descended on the nation’s capital for tba’s sixth annual get-together, my third. no longer a newbie, i navigated the route from lodgings to hotel with ease and was no longer paralyzed by rooms full of hundreds of unfamiliar faces. nevertheless, there was a distinct sense of disappearing down a rabbit hole, a day at a time. sessions started early and ended late, sunlight was a rare commodity, and the winding corridors and numerous stairways appearing at random further contributed to the image.
this year’s conference differed from the other two that i attended in that the emphasis was not on the candidates. a year ago, there was a full field and each and every one of them spoke before us. it was an efficient way to compare and contrast their style and content. this time, the sessions zeroed in on our goals for the near future and were characterized by a notable degree of passion and energy.
Labels: economy, progressives
crumbs
cookie jill, our expert in all things bakable, sends us this asspress piece about the bread riots in egypt:
clashes have been breaking out among egyptians waiting in long lines for subsidized bread and the president has ordered the army to start baking more to contain a political crisis.
the turmoil in the world's most populous arab country, a top u.s. ally, is a stark sign of how rising world food prices are roiling poorer countries.
government bakeries sell subsidized versions of the flat, round bread that is a staple of people's diets. acute shortages of subsidized bread, which is sold at less than one u.s. cent a loaf, have caused hours-long lines and violence at some sites in poor neighborhoods in recent weeks.
at least seven people have died, according to police. two were stabbed in fights between customers in line, and the rest died of exhaustion or other medical problems aggravated by waiting in the spring heat…
"our life has become so miserable," said one worker, saber ahmed, who spends up to four hours daily in bread lines to get 20 pieces of bread for colleagues at the cafe where he works. the 17-year-old, wearing a ragged t-shirt as he stood in a long line, said he and co-workers can't afford unsubsidized bread, "or any food to eat with it."
the turmoil in the world's most populous arab country, a top u.s. ally, is a stark sign of how rising world food prices are roiling poorer countries.
government bakeries sell subsidized versions of the flat, round bread that is a staple of people's diets. acute shortages of subsidized bread, which is sold at less than one u.s. cent a loaf, have caused hours-long lines and violence at some sites in poor neighborhoods in recent weeks.
at least seven people have died, according to police. two were stabbed in fights between customers in line, and the rest died of exhaustion or other medical problems aggravated by waiting in the spring heat…
"our life has become so miserable," said one worker, saber ahmed, who spends up to four hours daily in bread lines to get 20 pieces of bread for colleagues at the cafe where he works. the 17-year-old, wearing a ragged t-shirt as he stood in a long line, said he and co-workers can't afford unsubsidized bread, "or any food to eat with it."
Labels: food supply, middle east, violence
mad about the presidential election
mad kane, that is!
Labels: mad kane, prez campaign
from the emails we never finished reading dept...
we swear we just got this email:
[ed. note: maybe they meant "bull kristyl."]
dear kristyl bulluck,
you were recently appointed as a biographical candidate to represent your industry in the who's who among executives and professionals, and for inclusion into the upcoming 2008-2009 "honors edition" of the registry.
we are pleased to inform you that on march 21st, your candidacy was approved. your confirmation for inclusion will be effective within five business days, pending our receipt of the enclosed application.
we are so proud, it almost makes us wish we were named "kristyl bulluck."you were recently appointed as a biographical candidate to represent your industry in the who's who among executives and professionals, and for inclusion into the upcoming 2008-2009 "honors edition" of the registry.
we are pleased to inform you that on march 21st, your candidacy was approved. your confirmation for inclusion will be effective within five business days, pending our receipt of the enclosed application.
[ed. note: maybe they meant "bull kristyl."]
Labels: internets, snark, technology
let's go out to the lobby
the newshoggers examines mccain's hypocrisy w/the lobbyists:
mccain says he wants lobbyists out of politics while employing a whole bunch of them in key campaign positions. whodathunkit?
republican presidential candidate john mccain has condemned the influence of "special interest lobbyists," yet dozens of lobbyists have political and financial ties to his presidential campaign — particularly from telecommunications companies, an industry he helps oversee in the senate.
of the 66 current or former lobbyists working for the arizona senator or raising money for his presidential campaign, 23 have lobbied for telecommunications companies in the past decade, senate lobbying disclosures show.
mccain has netted about $765,000 in political donations from those telecom lobbyists, their spouses, colleagues at their firms and their telecom clients during the past decade, a usa today analysis of campaign-finance records shows.
of the 66 current or former lobbyists working for the arizona senator or raising money for his presidential campaign, 23 have lobbied for telecommunications companies in the past decade, senate lobbying disclosures show.
mccain has netted about $765,000 in political donations from those telecom lobbyists, their spouses, colleagues at their firms and their telecom clients during the past decade, a usa today analysis of campaign-finance records shows.
Labels: lobbyists, mccain, prez campaign, right hypocrisy
a funny thing happened on the way to obscurity (part six of ten)...
in this series, i've remarked that i could have written more letters to political offices and newspapers, made more phone calls, volunteered my services to one campaign or another, and so on. i could have done much more than i did. but most of the people i know don't do any of these things. at all. the main reason is clear enough: they don't feel like they have a voice in the system. well, unless you're a lobbyist, or a corporate donor with deep pockets, or a consultant who likes his bread buttered on both sides*, it does seem like you're voiceless.
in fact, this democracy of ours often looks like it's modeled after a business, a place where the marching orders flow in one direction -- down. sure, there's a suggestion box provided for your convenience, but who's falling for this ruse? if you really want to give the workers a genuine say in the direction the company they work for is headed (and this is a subject i don't hear very much about in this election season), there's only one proven way to do it.
unionize.
yeah, i know, good luck with that. the business sector definitely won't go for it -- not after the union-busting orgy they had during the reagan years. neither barack obama nor hillary clinton seem too keen on the notion, either. but sadly, neither do the regular american joes and janes. having worked for three union shops in my life, i think i can see why.
all three shops had the same pay system in place, and i grew to despise it. (that this all occurred during my conservative years didn't help the matter any.) whatever your job description was, you started out making x an hour. after six months at that job, your pay went up to y. after twelve months, it went up to z, and so on every six months. this was a bad system for at least two reasons: 1) it encouraged slackers to slack off as much as possible without getting canned, and 2) it engendered a lot of resentment among those who did their jobs well. i strongly believe that a key part of the reason the business sector got away with killing off much of the union movement is because unions, at least as i knew them, were designed to fail.
but that labor climate was still superior to the one we have now. if unions ever have a second coming in this country (and they just might -- people who feel they have no voice have an uncanny way of finding one when they get fed up enough), i would recommend that all union reps negotiate for a wage system that combined cost-of-living increases, merit pay, and bonuses rather than just flat rates across the board. simply put, some people do their jobs better than others, so they ought to receive more money for their superior efforts. and if the lesser workers don't like it, let them learn to do their jobs better, and they'll get more money, too. everyone wins as far as i can see.
and who knows? if union workers start seeing their efforts rewarded, maybe they'll be more inclined to take part in the political aspects that help make the company run. and from there? maybe they'll get this idea in their heads that this same thing can work with their government, too.
the powers that be won't like it one bit. but if those bozos actually knew what they were doing, i wouldn't be writing posts like this one, would i?
* * *
*: the sailor asked a really good question (in the comments to one of skippy's posts):
{*whistles loudly*}
in fact, this democracy of ours often looks like it's modeled after a business, a place where the marching orders flow in one direction -- down. sure, there's a suggestion box provided for your convenience, but who's falling for this ruse? if you really want to give the workers a genuine say in the direction the company they work for is headed (and this is a subject i don't hear very much about in this election season), there's only one proven way to do it.
unionize.
yeah, i know, good luck with that. the business sector definitely won't go for it -- not after the union-busting orgy they had during the reagan years. neither barack obama nor hillary clinton seem too keen on the notion, either. but sadly, neither do the regular american joes and janes. having worked for three union shops in my life, i think i can see why.
all three shops had the same pay system in place, and i grew to despise it. (that this all occurred during my conservative years didn't help the matter any.) whatever your job description was, you started out making x an hour. after six months at that job, your pay went up to y. after twelve months, it went up to z, and so on every six months. this was a bad system for at least two reasons: 1) it encouraged slackers to slack off as much as possible without getting canned, and 2) it engendered a lot of resentment among those who did their jobs well. i strongly believe that a key part of the reason the business sector got away with killing off much of the union movement is because unions, at least as i knew them, were designed to fail.
but that labor climate was still superior to the one we have now. if unions ever have a second coming in this country (and they just might -- people who feel they have no voice have an uncanny way of finding one when they get fed up enough), i would recommend that all union reps negotiate for a wage system that combined cost-of-living increases, merit pay, and bonuses rather than just flat rates across the board. simply put, some people do their jobs better than others, so they ought to receive more money for their superior efforts. and if the lesser workers don't like it, let them learn to do their jobs better, and they'll get more money, too. everyone wins as far as i can see.
and who knows? if union workers start seeing their efforts rewarded, maybe they'll be more inclined to take part in the political aspects that help make the company run. and from there? maybe they'll get this idea in their heads that this same thing can work with their government, too.
the powers that be won't like it one bit. but if those bozos actually knew what they were doing, i wouldn't be writing posts like this one, would i?
*: the sailor asked a really good question (in the comments to one of skippy's posts):
...why does [mark] penn's company work for hillary and mccain?
{*whistles loudly*}
Labels: america, labor, random thoughts, union
Sunday, March 23, 2008
skippy's sunday nite music club
everyone knows dick dale, the beach boys, the ventures, jan & dean. but for real surf music, who remembers...
the astronauts - firewater
the astronauts - firewater
Labels: skippy's music club
surgin' past 4000
4 more u.s. soldiers were killed in iraq today, bringing the total number of us military deaths to the sad milestone of 4000. washpost:
a roadside bomb killed four u.s. soldiers in southern baghdad on sunday, the military said, bringing the number of u.s. military deaths to 4,000 since the invasion of iraq in 2003.
the statement on monday said one u.s. soldier was wounded in the attack on the patrol.
what impact the grim milestone will have on a war-weary american public and the u.s. presidential campaign will be hard to assess in the short term, but war critics are likely to seize on it to bolster their case for u.s. troops to withdraw.
add this to the over 50 iraqi civilians killed yesterday, including the 13 killed in the green zone after a shelling attack today, and the idea of "the surge is working" seems a little w/o bite.the statement on monday said one u.s. soldier was wounded in the attack on the patrol.
what impact the grim milestone will have on a war-weary american public and the u.s. presidential campaign will be hard to assess in the short term, but war critics are likely to seize on it to bolster their case for u.s. troops to withdraw.
Labels: iraq war, supporting our troops, violence
happy easter
ooops...we bad
we don't want no mo' joe.
...meanwhile, the junior connecticut senator is not only backing the republican nominee for the presidency, sen. john mccain of arizona, but appears to be making a contest of trying to get into every photo and tv news video with him. perhaps sen. lieberman is taking delight in needling the chairman of the democratic party, howard dean, his 2004 opponent for the presidency, whose leadership he once dismissed as a “ticket to nowhere.”
rather than building the bridges the day expected when it endorsed sen. lieberman, he appears busy burning bridges with the party of which he is allegedly still a member.
Labels: lieberman
write a risque memoir....
get detained then denied entry into the u.s.
Labels: big brother, homeland security
environmental stories sunday
on this religious holiday, perhaps we should ask wwjd regarding environmental issues and dealing with fellow human beings....
how kennecott concealed warnings of a possible disaster from the people of magna. in 1988, the company found out its billion-ton tailings pond would breach in a strong quake, burying nearby homes in a deluge of mud. instead of warning people, the copper giant decided secrecy was the best policy. salt lake tribune
residents said they were kept in dark even as kennecott quietly bought up homes. while kennecott officials insist the risk is minuscule, internal company correspondence reveals that it knowingly left a subdivision of more than 200 homes in peril. salt lake tribune
plan to cut toxic reports blasted. democratic lawmakers are questioning a bush administration plan to eliminate requirements for farms to disclose air pollution from animal waste. detroit news
dirty old mines. thousands of mining claims, prospects, abandoned mine sites and metal deposits dot southeast alaska. often little is known about how much contamination is leaching into soil or water. juneau empire
what's in your water? it's widely recommended that we drink at least eight to 12 cups of water daily to remain healthy and hydrated. but, to most of us, it was disconcerting to hear that traces of 56 pharmaceuticals -- including drugs for sexual health, asthma, epilepsy, mental illnesses and heart problems -- were found in metro detroit's water supply following an associated press investigation earlier this month. detroit news
melting glaciers will trigger food shortages. the irrigation water vital for the grain crops that feed china and india is at risk of drying up, as global warming melts the glaciers that feed asia's biggest rivers. new scientist
salmon numbers fall, but possible explanations grow. a chronicle story in 2006 warned of a deteriorating marine food chain off the california coast that has since led to the collapse of salmon stocks. san francisco chronicle
california desert omitted from conservation bill. a six-million-acre "glitch". that's what us senator diane feinstein called a huge swathe of california desert left out of a major us conservation bill. new scientist
how kennecott concealed warnings of a possible disaster from the people of magna. in 1988, the company found out its billion-ton tailings pond would breach in a strong quake, burying nearby homes in a deluge of mud. instead of warning people, the copper giant decided secrecy was the best policy. salt lake tribune
residents said they were kept in dark even as kennecott quietly bought up homes. while kennecott officials insist the risk is minuscule, internal company correspondence reveals that it knowingly left a subdivision of more than 200 homes in peril. salt lake tribune
plan to cut toxic reports blasted. democratic lawmakers are questioning a bush administration plan to eliminate requirements for farms to disclose air pollution from animal waste. detroit news
dirty old mines. thousands of mining claims, prospects, abandoned mine sites and metal deposits dot southeast alaska. often little is known about how much contamination is leaching into soil or water. juneau empire
what's in your water? it's widely recommended that we drink at least eight to 12 cups of water daily to remain healthy and hydrated. but, to most of us, it was disconcerting to hear that traces of 56 pharmaceuticals -- including drugs for sexual health, asthma, epilepsy, mental illnesses and heart problems -- were found in metro detroit's water supply following an associated press investigation earlier this month. detroit news
melting glaciers will trigger food shortages. the irrigation water vital for the grain crops that feed china and india is at risk of drying up, as global warming melts the glaciers that feed asia's biggest rivers. new scientist
salmon numbers fall, but possible explanations grow. a chronicle story in 2006 warned of a deteriorating marine food chain off the california coast that has since led to the collapse of salmon stocks. san francisco chronicle
california desert omitted from conservation bill. a six-million-acre "glitch". that's what us senator diane feinstein called a huge swathe of california desert left out of a major us conservation bill. new scientist
Labels: climate change, environment, food supply, water
cc drudge, taylor marsh, huffpo, josh marshall; bcc rove, stone, penn; cya atwater
mark kleiman wonders what he missed:
but to mark's question: yes, you did miss the memo, mark. the left side of blogtopia (and yes, we coined that phrase) did agree a few months ago to abandon principled debate in favor of duplicitiousness, invective and logical fallacies in lieu of actual points and structured argument.
we're sorry, we didn't keep the memo, so we can't really tell you exactly when this was decided, but we're pretty sure it was sometime early in the primary season.
that's when lefty's decided it was not only all right to utulize the same unprincipled screaming tactics to pollute public discourse as the righties, but it was also quite acceptable to use them against fellow progressives.
we can't say for sure whether it was the obamabots or the hillarybots that fired the first shot, and we certainly don't care. but both sides have been terribly remiss in gracious behavior, let alone adult and productive debate.
therefore we are not at all suprised that one of the leading writers of left blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase, would use the same sort of tactics, this one being "guilt by association;" (see: wright, jerimiah) on the right side of blogtopia (y!wctp!).
we're sorry you didn't get the memo, mark; but feel free now to no longer be constrained by the actual need to be fair, transparent, logical and calm in your writing. in fact, apparently the crazier you can sound, the better (see: kos, daily).
we would link to various examples of this bad behavior, but the sad truth is, it's being performed by writers we heretofor had considered to be good friends of ours. and the other sad truth is, one doesn't have to click very many links to find examples of such; it has permeated all of blogtopia, and yes, we coined that phrase.
addendum: let us be clear, since apparently all these various posts are eliciting emotions high enough to cloud everyone's judgement.
yes, the post at instapunk was incredibly racist. but it was written by someone different than whom instapundit linked to.
i am simply agreeing w/mark, in that it's not particularly fair to hold reynolds responsible for a post he didn't link to, and thereby endorse.
sure, the right is full of racism. but greenwald could have easily written a post about the racism of the right, and and racism of that writer at instapunk, without bringing reynolds into the mix. but that wouldn't have gotten as big a response, and that duplicitous sort of writing is what we are objecting to.
if we can't, as mark implies, remain above the same sort of debating tricks that we deplore when the right uses them, are we any better than they?
... let me, just this once, defend glenn reynolds…
but when reynolds sends an item link to a posting of the easter poem "dulce lignem dulce clavo" by instapunk contributor "chain gang," i don't see where glenn greenwald is justified in tying reynolds to the racist rant posted on the same site by a different contributor, "old punk."
glenn reynolds sometimes says, and links to, silly and offensive stuff (for example this swipe at oprah, which greenwald points to in an update) and i haven't been backward in criticizing him. but he didn't endorse "old punk's" diatribe, even by implication, and i thought our side tried to be above guilt-by-association. has that changed?
somehow i keep missing these crucial memos.
full disclosure: without actually reading instapundit's post, we took greenwald at his word, or at least his intent, and wrote a post condemning prof. reynolds' supposed example of racism. upon reading mark's detailed explanation of the different posts by different people on the same blog in question, and then actually reading (there's an idea!) what instapundit wrote, we deleted our inaccurate post. our apologies to anyone who may have read it.but when reynolds sends an item link to a posting of the easter poem "dulce lignem dulce clavo" by instapunk contributor "chain gang," i don't see where glenn greenwald is justified in tying reynolds to the racist rant posted on the same site by a different contributor, "old punk."
glenn reynolds sometimes says, and links to, silly and offensive stuff (for example this swipe at oprah, which greenwald points to in an update) and i haven't been backward in criticizing him. but he didn't endorse "old punk's" diatribe, even by implication, and i thought our side tried to be above guilt-by-association. has that changed?
somehow i keep missing these crucial memos.
but to mark's question: yes, you did miss the memo, mark. the left side of blogtopia (and yes, we coined that phrase) did agree a few months ago to abandon principled debate in favor of duplicitiousness, invective and logical fallacies in lieu of actual points and structured argument.
we're sorry, we didn't keep the memo, so we can't really tell you exactly when this was decided, but we're pretty sure it was sometime early in the primary season.
that's when lefty's decided it was not only all right to utulize the same unprincipled screaming tactics to pollute public discourse as the righties, but it was also quite acceptable to use them against fellow progressives.
we can't say for sure whether it was the obamabots or the hillarybots that fired the first shot, and we certainly don't care. but both sides have been terribly remiss in gracious behavior, let alone adult and productive debate.
therefore we are not at all suprised that one of the leading writers of left blogtopia and yes, we coined that phrase, would use the same sort of tactics, this one being "guilt by association;" (see: wright, jerimiah) on the right side of blogtopia (y!wctp!).
we're sorry you didn't get the memo, mark; but feel free now to no longer be constrained by the actual need to be fair, transparent, logical and calm in your writing. in fact, apparently the crazier you can sound, the better (see: kos, daily).
we would link to various examples of this bad behavior, but the sad truth is, it's being performed by writers we heretofor had considered to be good friends of ours. and the other sad truth is, one doesn't have to click very many links to find examples of such; it has permeated all of blogtopia, and yes, we coined that phrase.
addendum: let us be clear, since apparently all these various posts are eliciting emotions high enough to cloud everyone's judgement.
yes, the post at instapunk was incredibly racist. but it was written by someone different than whom instapundit linked to.
i am simply agreeing w/mark, in that it's not particularly fair to hold reynolds responsible for a post he didn't link to, and thereby endorse.
sure, the right is full of racism. but greenwald could have easily written a post about the racism of the right, and and racism of that writer at instapunk, without bringing reynolds into the mix. but that wouldn't have gotten as big a response, and that duplicitous sort of writing is what we are objecting to.
if we can't, as mark implies, remain above the same sort of debating tricks that we deplore when the right uses them, are we any better than they?
Labels: blogtopia
get a rise out of it
Saturday, March 22, 2008
skippy's saturday nite music club
one for the books
sure, the big wall street financial houses are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, but the important thing is that borders books is out of dough. nashville biz journal:
borders group inc. may put itself up for sale after running short on cash.
the michigan-based bookstore chain, which has two stores in nashville, has hired jpmorgan securities and merrill lynch & co. to assist in exploring its strategic alternatives.
borders (nyse:bgp) says it is borrowing $42.5 million from its largest shareholder, pershing square capital management. under the agreement, the hedge fund has made an offer to purchase certain portions of borders' international businesses.
barnes & noble may be among the big buyers of the beleaguered bookseller.the michigan-based bookstore chain, which has two stores in nashville, has hired jpmorgan securities and merrill lynch & co. to assist in exploring its strategic alternatives.
borders (nyse:bgp) says it is borrowing $42.5 million from its largest shareholder, pershing square capital management. under the agreement, the hedge fund has made an offer to purchase certain portions of borders' international businesses.
Labels: books, capitalism, economy
lol roo
Labels: snark
where has all the money gone, long time passing?
hubris sonic at the group news blog tells us that hillary is broke:
she has $3 million in the bank, he has $30 million. they have blown through a lot of money. guess where most of it went?
consultants
honestly, these 2 candidates have little separating them, he has health care plans, she has health care plans. they both are fine. howard dean likes to say if you want to elect a candidate who matches your own beliefs, run for office. look there are plenty of things about barack obama that i do not like, but i will keep them to myself until we kick john mccain's ass. as far as hillary, it's not her i don't like. it's that campaign. it's those consultants, the whole lot of them.
that is why we have to beat that campaign. it's not about clinton or obama. we have to whip these worthless "media consultants." they are the ones who book the candidates on russert, and matthews and keep them relevant. they are the ones that keep the sunday bobblehead circuit running. they give money for advertising, instead of organizing a precinct. tell candidates to run to the right. tell them to seek the endorsement of some crazy bastard like hagee…they won in 2004, they beat dean bad, but in the end they lost, like they always do. kerry lost, and in that we got rid of shrum his media consultant campaign manager. we have to beat this campaign because we have to beat these people, mark penn and all the rest of them. it's the first step in taking this fight to the media. if we get rid of the media enablers, we can start to focus on the media.
of course she is out of money. penn was getting millions a month. millions. now we know why she went "grassroots" in pennsylvania, and why obama went on the air with an ad first. she can't afford to do more. like i said, i don't dislike her, but she sat at this table. she hired these people to represent her. lobbyists and media consultants. dean threw all of these people out of the dnc. we need to do the same.
hubris manages to put his finger on what we feel about the clinton campaign, too. as we have said elsewhere, we honestly believe she would make a (marginally) better president than obama. but as hubris points out, her consultants have been bleeding her dry, and by extension, the democratic party as well. and we believe the consultants are responsible for clinton's terrible mis-steps in the early part of this primary season.consultants
honestly, these 2 candidates have little separating them, he has health care plans, she has health care plans. they both are fine. howard dean likes to say if you want to elect a candidate who matches your own beliefs, run for office. look there are plenty of things about barack obama that i do not like, but i will keep them to myself until we kick john mccain's ass. as far as hillary, it's not her i don't like. it's that campaign. it's those consultants, the whole lot of them.
that is why we have to beat that campaign. it's not about clinton or obama. we have to whip these worthless "media consultants." they are the ones who book the candidates on russert, and matthews and keep them relevant. they are the ones that keep the sunday bobblehead circuit running. they give money for advertising, instead of organizing a precinct. tell candidates to run to the right. tell them to seek the endorsement of some crazy bastard like hagee…they won in 2004, they beat dean bad, but in the end they lost, like they always do. kerry lost, and in that we got rid of shrum his media consultant campaign manager. we have to beat this campaign because we have to beat these people, mark penn and all the rest of them. it's the first step in taking this fight to the media. if we get rid of the media enablers, we can start to focus on the media.
of course she is out of money. penn was getting millions a month. millions. now we know why she went "grassroots" in pennsylvania, and why obama went on the air with an ad first. she can't afford to do more. like i said, i don't dislike her, but she sat at this table. she hired these people to represent her. lobbyists and media consultants. dean threw all of these people out of the dnc. we need to do the same.
Labels: clinton, hillary, prez campaign
passport to sneakiness
jill at brilliant at breakfast investigates the sub-contractor whose employees were breaching the passport files of the presidential candidates.
Labels: prez campaign, scandals
well, he's kind of lucky he wasn't in line to see "texas chainsaw massacre"
in a fit of irony that the other side probably won't see, our blog buddy pz meyers was expelled from the line to see "expelled." the pioneer press:
addendum: physioprof provides a fine list of links of other blogs describing pz's expulsion.
double addendum: drs. dawkins and meyers discuss their nite at the movies here:
it's almost too perfect: p.z. myers tried to see the movie, "expelled," at the mall of america thursday.
but he was expelled.
"expelled," subtitled "no intelligence allowed," is the controversial film that argues schools should be teaching creationism as an alternative to evolution. myers, an associate professor of biology at the university of minnesota-morris — and, more to the point, a prominent atheist — was interviewed for "expelled" last april, although he says he was told the film was an evenhanded look at the intersection of science and religion and was to be called "crossroads."
myers was in the twin cities this week for the american atheists conference 2008 in minneapolis and, coincidentally, he learned there was to be a free screening of "expelled" at the mall of america thursday night. so he registered to attend with his wife, mary, along with what myers called "a whole parade of atheists," including internationally famous science writer, richard dawkins, whose books include "the god delusion."
they all got in, but myers did not.
pz tells us that richard dawkins got in, and the pioneer press gives us dr. dawkins' critique:but he was expelled.
"expelled," subtitled "no intelligence allowed," is the controversial film that argues schools should be teaching creationism as an alternative to evolution. myers, an associate professor of biology at the university of minnesota-morris — and, more to the point, a prominent atheist — was interviewed for "expelled" last april, although he says he was told the film was an evenhanded look at the intersection of science and religion and was to be called "crossroads."
myers was in the twin cities this week for the american atheists conference 2008 in minneapolis and, coincidentally, he learned there was to be a free screening of "expelled" at the mall of america thursday night. so he registered to attend with his wife, mary, along with what myers called "a whole parade of atheists," including internationally famous science writer, richard dawkins, whose books include "the god delusion."
they all got in, but myers did not.
"what surprised me is it is a really lousy film, even if you happen to agree with it," said dawkins, who took advantage of a question-and-answer session after the screening to ask why myers wasn't allowed in. "p.z. is in the film extensively. if anyone had a right to see the film, it was him. the incompetence, on a public relations level, is beyond belief."
tip o' the kangaroo tail to gavin m for the one word link.addendum: physioprof provides a fine list of links of other blogs describing pz's expulsion.
double addendum: drs. dawkins and meyers discuss their nite at the movies here:
Labels: evolution, movies, right hypocrisy, science
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