Saturday, December 20, 2008

It just isn't true...


...that Bush and his administration can't work with Muslims...you just need the right issue...say executing queers. Today the always self-righteous US of A stands alone among Western nations in refusing to sign a declaration presented Thursday at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. Thus Dubya gets to stand arm and arm with such models of democracy and human rights as his buddy Ahmadinejad in Iran, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Bangladesh, UAE, Yemen and of course the Saudis who all proudly offer the death penalty to adults for their consensual sexual activity.

The photo above shows the 2005 execution of 2 Iranian yout
hs "convicted" of homosexuality.

Of course in the proud tradition of American legal reasoning, US opposition was carefully constructed in terms of "federal and states rights" issues rather than, god-forbid, opposition to homosexuality itself. The text of the declaration is available here. "66 of the United Nations' 192 member countries signed the declaration, including every member of the European Union and every major Western nation except the United States...." American Exceptionalism still lives....

Friday, December 12, 2008

Rescuing masculinity with a coyote carcass



I thought these kinds of pics were only available by flipping to the back pages of a 1924 Nebraska Game and Parks magazine or rifling through grandpa's old desk drawers, pics from a time when people with overflowing stringers and hides could reassure themselves with the seemingly infinte resources of the West and the comforting sermons of preachers reminding them of their God-given right to subdue and have dominion over "every living thing that moveth upon the earth..."

Fortunately we can still find a few of of these rifle-toting relics today, as we learn from the Scottsbluff Star-Herald's "Sports" page recently. Pictured are part of the "winning team" who "bagged 13 coyotes" over the day and a half event. We aren't told how many coyotes total were killed by the 18 teams competing. "Ties were broken by the total weight of the team's coyotes." To jazz things up a bit, prizes were given for the "smallest coyote" and the "mangiest coyote." I wonder if we ran a "mangiest human" contest now and then what the results would be...

Shame on Cabela's for being associated with this crude throwback event. Even ethical hunters should be shocked at this kind of display (although bloody and often ineffective predator control has been a staple of the taxpayer-funded Welfare West for some time) (see similar overview here; for a contrary view go here).

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Tradition

The Fox Files: Evil Unions




Recently I've developed the self-masochistic habit of tuning my Sirius towards the right-end of the political dial...most notably "Sirius Patriot" and "Fox." Accordingly, I'll be sharing selected gems of conservative thinking from time to time here on the blog, along with possible responses.

The auto bailout is of course of topic of much conservative discussion. Most con talk show hosts and callers are against it. Almost all heap the most blame upon the unions, and those "untrained welders making $70/hour," etc. "What on earth are we getting for that $70/hour!!!" they bray.

Well of course welders aren't "untrained." More importantly, we seldom hear about those folks at the other end of the salary spectrum. Let's do a little math on GM CEO Rick Wagoner--the lowest-paid of the Big 3 I believe--who last received a base pay of 1.6 million and total compensation of 14.4 million. Divide that by, say, 2500 hours of work (50/hours week x 50 weeks, which may be overly generous), and that's $5760/hour (82 times the "welder rate"). For Ford CEO Alan Mulally's 21.7 total compensation, that's $8680/hour (124 times the "welder rate").

And despite these princely sums, these CEO geniuses still haven't managed to do one simple thing: help create a car that makes it into the top 10 of resale value lists. There are certainly abuses with a union system that could use some fixing, but share that blame equally. Or maybe more accurately, share it 82 times over...

Airport to Nowhere



Ya'll can't throw a cowchip very far around these parts without hitting someone ready with a lecture about how "government is the problem" or that our tax dollars "shouldn't be going to all those congressional projects" or that government should just "get out of the way" and let the Rugged Individualist handle things like they used to in the "government-less" good 'ol West (except for the parts about the federally-funded transcontintental railroad, the federal army, the federal land surveys, the federal land-giveaway programs, the federal water/irrigation projects, the federal road and highway projects, etc.)

Where are all those cowboy libertarians when it comes to airport or Heartland Express funding? A recent Scottsbluff Star-Herald story explained that officials with Western Nebraska Regional Airport "might have to be inventive this year in order to meet the required 10,000 boardings needed to receive $1 million in federal assistance."

You know, whenever I hear the word "inventive" outside the context of people who actually invent things, I translate that into one of following: phony, dishonest, fake, false, bogus, spurious or sham. I think about the "accounting" at Enron or Bush's pre-9/11 intelligence or the flimsiest of lousy legal arguments attempting to help the losing client.

I think phony works just fine here. The "possiblities" listed to meet the 10,000 boardings requirement include a phony flight from Scottsbluff to Alliance, Nebraska, a distance of about 70 miles (55-minute driving time). This is only slightly less phony than a previous "solution," a flight (if memory serves) between Scottsbluff and Torrington, WY, a distance of only 32 miles (25-30 minutes driving time). Maybe we could start some shuttles between Scottsbluff and Gering or Mitchell or Morrill?

If you don't like the 10,000 number, change the law. But presumably someone thinks that number means something in terms of actual free market viability of airline service worthy of Joe the Plumber's taxpayer support. According to the free market religion so frequently praised by the anti-government acolytes--typically in response to suggestions that the government help people unlikely to be using the Airport (e.g. debate over public housing)--if you can't make it in the all-important crucible of the free market, then Adam Smith's invisible hand smacks your sorry ass into the dustbin of history. Henry Ford felt no sympathy for the buggy-whip maker..

Clearly this airport isn't meeting this test. If the test is unfair, legally change it. But please don't come up with phony and sham ways to "meet" the test. And if you do, please don't go around lecturing people or other congressional districts about the free market, minimal government, congressional "pork" etc.

Monday, December 8, 2008

An interrogator speaks


This recent editorial in the Washington Post has been making a splash. Among other things, the author (self-described as having "led an interrogations team assigned to a Special Operations task force in Iraq in 2006") argues, among other things, that the number of US military personnel likely killed as a consequence of US torture policy is at least as great as those killed on 9/11. So if US torture is being defended as a way to "save American lives," he insists, that calculus must not be including US military personnel. A good read, and great ammunition for those debates where pro-torturists try to frame the debate in a way that puts everyone in the military in the position of supporting the policy...

Friday, December 5, 2008

Paper or plastic? Recycling and grocery bags


I have wondered for some time whether there was a real difference between "paper or plastic" in terms of environmental impact. Well I finally dug around for answer. And yes I know the best answer is "neither" since reusable bags are a far better alternative than using new ones of either type. But if for some reason you don't have reusables available, plastic (at least the ones that are labeled #2 HDPE recyclable) are the far better choice compared to paper, as explained here. Although this source begins by stating that it is basically a draw between the two, if you read on you see that plastic beats paper in every category but rate of recycling, which in my view doesn't directly impact the environmental impact.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Monday, November 24, 2008

The future of reading


This New Yorker piece by Caleb Crain looks at the past, present and future of reading, including some interesting observations of the effect of reading upon cognitive development, thinking patterns, etc. Although it wanders around a bit, it is well worth reading.

Buried amidst the other facts and figures of this piece is a reference to the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy. Among other things, this study concluded that only 13% of American adults studied were "proficient" at reading prose, which included being able to perform the following "sample tasks"

-comparing viewpoints in two editorials
-interpreting a table about blood pressure, age, and physical activity
-computing and comparing the cost per ounce of food items

(see actual study here).

So let's get down to brass tacks. We're not talking about complex linear equations or distilling Dante or speaking six languages. We're talking about being able to read two editorials and compare/contrast the viewpoints presented. And apparently only a little better than one in ten Americans can do this. One in ten.

This explains a bit doesn't it? We gnash our teeth when we elect dolts, wingnuts and imbeciles, when we reject fact-based claims of reality in favor of fantastic superstitions, etc. etc. But if it's true that only in 1 in 10 of can compared two editorials, what on earth can we expect? After learning this I half expect to see Beavis and Butthead elected as governors in the near future...

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Dopes for Palin

Wow...this has to be one of the most awful political ads I've seen in some time. Get a load of the dopes they tracked down to "thank" Palin for her "articulate advocacy" during the campaign (including what appears to be a Mississippi sharecropper). Thank YOU Sarah Palin!

Friday, November 21, 2008

I.O.U.S.A.: the staggering US debt

This is quite the shocking film about the US economy and the exploding US national debt, what Reuters characterized as "[t]o the U.S. economy what 'An Inconvenient Truth' was to the environment.'"

One thing it does so well is to use animated graphs and charts to illustrate the numbers when we start talking about billions and trillions of dollars. It also places these figures within an historical context (current indebtedness compared to during the Civil War, New Deal, etc.).

Below is the condensed 30-minute version; the full-length film is currently showing in theaters nationwide and is available via Netflix, etc.

"This is neat"...

Indeed...This is rich on so many levels. I think PF has finally found something Palin truly excels in....presiding over a turkey farm. Note her incisive description of what she is accomplishing in Alaska state government...

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

We are the asteroid


A sobering discussion of how human-induced global warming could trigger a non-linear cascade of environmental catastrophe similar to an earlier major extinction.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Cavett on Palin


Why not take a few more shots at this Alaskan fish in a barrel:
It’s admittedly a rare gift to produce a paragraph in which whole clumps of words could be removed without noticeably affecting the sense, if any.
Read and enjoy :)

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Exulting in complexity...


...a victory for ideas indeed (Nicholas Kristof NYT opinion piece)...

Friday, November 7, 2008

Homer tries to vote for Obama

For you Simpsons fans out there...too funny...

Undecideds and the young


PF is seldom a fan of National Review's Jonah Goldberg, but he makes some good points in this recent editorial in which he rightly skewers the "virtual deification of 'undecided' voters"...

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Election thoughts...


And now for the 7 people who read this blog, PF’s random takes on Election 2008… ;)


Obama’s election is indeed historic and caught PF with a few tears in his eyes last night during Obama’s stirring speech in Grant Park. As recently as a year ago PF would be in debates about the lack of minority “progress” in this country, asking as a rhetorical question whether anyone could seriously imagine a black man as president of the United States (few could). That can no longer be part of PF’s argumentative stockpile, and that is a wonderful thing. Last night I felt about as good as I have about this country in a long, long time. Not just because of what this election represents, but thoughts of being able to open a new chapter in American relations with other nations who have waited…and waited…for us to move beyond the arrogant, ignorant and incurious Bush. I believe that better days are indeed ahead.


That said, as PF’s champagne hangover fades into the caffeinated morning, it is all too easy to forget that in a number of ways, this victory is perhaps not all that it seems. First, how good can we really feel about simply electing a nonwhite male in 2008? Is that really some kind of earth-shattering American progressivism we should be trumpeting? If so, what does that say about us and our expectations in 2008?


Second, while the effect (Obama’s election) is clearly historic, the cause is likely something far less monumental. Bush (and by extension the GOP) have put this country in an economic, military and psychological morass this country hasn’t seen since the Great Depression. History tells us (as logic and common sense would predict) that the incumbent party pays a high price for such incompetency, and McPalin represents the incumbent. PF finds it staggering and shocking that McPalin was still able convince 46% of Americans—more than 55 million of them—that they were the better choice in light of the GOP’s gross incompetence and arrogance these last 8 years.


As I’ve suggested many times before, just imagine this election if the political parties were reversed. That is, a Democrat presiding over the incompetent mess of Bush & Co. Can we even imagine an election anywhere near that close? If not, what explains the difference? The double-standard? The closest we can come in recent memory is the 1980 election, where the incumbent Carter was thrashed by Reagan. The hostage crisis at that time doesn’t have a clear parallel this year, but the economic situation this year is far, far worse. So the incompetent Dem faces an “outsider” Republican. The result? 489 electoral vote landslide (50.7% of popular vote) for Reagan carrying 44 states, compared to only 49 electoral votes (41% of popular) and only 6 states + DC for Carter. The GOP gained 12 seats from the Democrats to control the Senate for the 1st time since 1958. In the House, the GOP gained 35 seats from the Democrats, although not enough to gain a majority.


Compared to this 1980 woodshed job, Obama’s 2008 victory appears far less compelling. When the electoral dust settles, Obama comes up with 364 electoral votes (52% of popular vote) carrying 28 states and DC, compared to 174 electoral votes (46% of popular vote) and 22 states for McCain. As for the Senate, it appears Obama’s coattails give the Democrats a gain of only 3 Senate seats for a total of 56—creating the need to peel away 4 Republicans to be filibuster-proof. The House remains unsettled as of today, but Obama could match Reagan’s 35-seat gain.


Comparing the 1980 and 2008 results, it’s hard to read the Obama victory as any watershed shift in political values to the left. That McPalin did as well as they did is still a shocker considering the present state of the US. What that will translate into as far as an “Obama mandate” has yet to be seen, but progressives shouldn’t be uncorking too many bottles just yet…


Some other random election thoughts:


· Shut up GOP with all of your talk about the “need for bipartisanship.” Go crawl into your holes for awhile, fire up your laptops and recall what Bush—the self-proclaimed “uniter”—did during his 8 years at the helm. Obama will likely do much better. Not because the GOP’s divisive behavior (particularly during this election) deserves it, but because Obama is a decent and fair enough man to move beyond an “eye for an eye.” But don’t you dare go around talking about how you deserve it (this means you Adrian Smith).


· The distortions of the Electoral College continue. A 10% difference in popular vote translates into a Reagan “landslide” of 489-44 electoral votes in 1980, and this year a mere 6% popular vote difference gives Obama a “tide” of 364 to 174 electoral votes. Nebraska Governor Heineman calls Nebraska’s electoral vote-splitting system “unfair.” What’s unfair is an Electoral College system under which states like Nebraska, Wyoming and Alaska—states always whining about “rugged individualism” and the unfairness of affirmative action where someone gets an “unearned and unfair advantage”—end up getting far more political clout than their smaller populations deserve. Let’s do the math. Wyoming’s population divided by its 3 electoral votes yields a figure of 174,276 Wyoming residents per electoral vote. The same calculation gives Nebraska 354,914 residents per electoral vote. California’s population divided by its 55 electoral votes, however, gives a figure of 664,604 Californians per elector. The upshot: Torrington and Cheyenne voters are worth 3.8 times more than voters in Sacramento and Los Angeles. Scottsbluff and Gering voters are worth 1.87 times more than those California voters. By what perverted understanding of fairness and equality can you justify a system where you are worth 2, 3 or 4 times more than other Americans? How is this not the ultimate form of “elitism” and favoritism from the same people who are always decrying the same in favor of the “average person”???? We shrink back with embarrassment at the infamous 3/5 compromise, but under that arrangement the racist southern states got a far worse deal than under the modern electoral college!


· So the next time someone from a smaller state starts defending the electoral college, ask them to explain why they feel they are worth more than 2, 3 or 4 times someone in other states. Ask them why this isn’t the ultimate form of “voter welfare” or “electoral affirmative action.” If anything you’ll likely get a response about what the Framers intended, etc. Well, a couple of things can be said. First, the current electoral college system isn’t the same one as the Framers envisioned or enacted, so it isn’t at all clear that they would love the current version. Second, the Framers were fundamentally experimenters, crafting a new system of government based on the unique times in which they found themselves. The times today are fundamentally different than those of the late 1700s, and it isn’t at all clear that the Framers would change the electoral system to reflect those changed realities. Third, the Framers believed in a number of things that we no longer do, including slavery, voting rights, the income tax, direct election of senators, presidential term limits, presidential succession and voting age. The Electoral College should join them. Had the Framers believed that the constitutional structure was inviolable, they would not have set up the amendment process they did. The Electoral College should be judged purely on its merits in 2008 America, not being ruled by the “dead hand of the past.” The argument of “balancing the power of small and large states” is simply code for justifying a system in which some Americans and their votes are made to be worth 2, 3 or 4 times that of other Americans. That fundamental unfairness is understandable and tolerable when it comes to Congress, where the point is electing people who represent people from specific places and represent those interests at the national level. But the president does not share this location-representational role. S/he represents all of the people equally, and there is no reason that his/her election process shouldn’t reflect this fundamental reality.


· Oh the joy of watching Brit Hume’s face last night as if his neighbor’s Hummer had just run over his new puppy. And Tucker Carlson nearly wet himself this morning trying to keep quiet during the orgy of Obama-loving comments on the morning show.


· Shame on the nearly 2 out of 3 Nebraskans supporting the affirmative action ban. I’m no fan of using anything but a meritocracy to determine admissions, jobs, etc. But whites found absolutely no problem enjoying their own affirmative action/quota system for the last several hundred years when people of color and women were routinely excluded from all levels of society, exclusion that continues to cast a lengthy shadow over the mythical “equality of opportunity” today. Affirmative action is the necessary short-term evil to banish that shadow into the history books, and it’s a shame more Nebraska’s can’t or won’t recognize that. PS … PF looks forward to a similar ban the next election barring the influence of “legacy” (rich old parents and grandparents) on admissions, jobs, etc.—the only kind of affirmative action white people really like. “Legacy” is the anti-merit system where screwoffs like Bush and McCain “fail upwards” into fancy private schools and cushy jobs despite their below-average performance and general incompetence.


· John McCain’s concession speech was thoughtful and gracious and appeared genuine. The booing of some in the crowd only reminded us of some of the mindless dipshits amongst his supporters…a stark contrast to the silence of 100,000+ when Obama acknowledged his opponents.


· RIP Sarah Palin. If I never have to see that odd countenance of smugness and intellectual vacancy again I will be a very happy man.


· Isn’t a relief to know that the head of the ballgame now in the good old USA is sometime who actually excelled in intellectual pursuits? Who values ideas? Who appears to be intellectually curious?


· And how about the refreshing change of not having to follow the press corps out to some phony “ranch” to watch some phony modern-day “rancher” out there “clearin’ some brush…”! J


· Or how about looking forward to a few years of hearing NUCLEAR pronounced correctly!


· A sad day for my GLBT friends and everyone in America who cares about equality, as we saw bigots in CA, FL and AZ push through “marriage amendments” to deny people basic civil rights. What an irony on the day when we elect a non-white to office. That said, the fact that such measures are even on the ballot is something that few of us would have even imagined 10 years ago. The movement towards GLBT equality is headed in the right direction, and these shameful amendments will only slow that inevitable tide. I hope all you supporters of these propositions feel proud of what you’ve done; you’ll be making excuses for your votes 20 years from now when these measures go down in the history books right next to the Jim Crow laws.

FREE AT LAST!!!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

VOTE

Abolish the Electoral College


'A good day today to reflect on why the electoral college should be replaced by direct election of the president. This is one of the better essays I've come across laying out the best arguments against this anachronism.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Racists for Obama


What the #*(&$@#?. Check out this interesting story on a real anti-Bradley effect. Racism is "flexible" apparently (or like many of our opinons, irrational and often inconsistent)...

Friedman on the Bush legacy


I think Tom Friedman has nailed it again. While Bush will certainly be noted for cowboy/testosterone-based understanding of executive power and foreign policy, it may well be his mortgaging the future that casts the longest shadow. As Friedman writes:
We are all going to have to pay, because this meltdown comes in the context of what has been “perhaps the greatest wealth transfer since the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917,” says Michael Mandelbaum, author of “Democracy’s Good Name.” “It is not a wealth transfer from rich to poor that the Bush administration will be remembered for. It is a wealth transfer from the future to the present.”

Never has one generation spent so much of its children’s wealth in such a short period of time with so little to show for it as in the Bush years. Under George W. Bush, America has foisted onto future generations a huge financial burden to finance our current tax cuts, wars and now bailouts. Just paying off those debts will require significant sacrifices. But when you add the destruction of wealth that has taken place in the last two months in the markets, and the need for more bailouts, you understand why this is not going to be a painless recovery.

Krugman on post-election GOP


Paul Krugman offers his take on the trajectory of the GOP following its likely thrashing tomorrow, arguing that "the G.O.P.’s long transformation into the party of the unreasonable right, a haven for racists and reactionaries, seems likely to accelerate as a result of the impending defeat."

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Heineman: Dumber Than Palin?


PF had no idea Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman was being advised by Dullard Diva Sarah Palin, but it sure seems that way based on some of his recent comments concerning Nebraska's electoral college system. Nebraska and Maine are the only two states to have rejected a winner-take-all system of allocating their electoral votes in favor of a system partially allocating them based on congressional district. Republican Heineman opined that Nebraska was "disadvantaging itself" and that the electoral system was "designed to protect small states and we should be winner-take-all like 48 other states...." Heineman went on to offer this "football game" analogy: "You don't get a point for winning every quarter," Heineman said. "It's the final score that counts."

WTF??? That sounds like a Bush or Palinism that is supposed to reveal some kind of Joe the Plumberish folksy wisdom, but in fact makes no sense at all. I think Heineman was daydreaming of poodle skirts at the drive-in during his logic class at Andrews Hall on this one...

Of course you don't get a point for winning every quarter, but the points you do win don't get erased at the end of the game either. And of course more importantly, we're not talking about simply a contest to determine the superiority two teams where the sole and final object is winning for present praises, but rather a process to elect a leader who has significant future responsibilities to govern a complex society, including a constitutional obligation to represent all of the people.

What (Republican) Heineman is of course concerned about is not that Nebraska is being disadvantaged, but rather that his Republican Party (potentially) is by a system that allows those Nebraskans who don't robotically vote anyone with a (R) behind his/her name into office, but want another alternative now and then, rather than a system that distorts results by giving 100% of the power to whoever gets 51% and ignores everyone else.

Heineman is of course silent on how Nebraska's system "disadvantages" small states, except for the possible reason that the current electoral college most certainly gives unfair greater advantage to smaller states in general. Just like small-staters ride the backs of larger urban states in generally getting far more back in federal dollars than they put in with their federal taxes, small states get far more representation (and therefore political clout) than their meager populations would ordinarily get (or ordinarily deserve if we truly believe that each person's opinion is no more valuable than anyone else's). Ironically, it's the same folks who are always whining about powerful "elitists" elsewhere who continue to bray for the continuation of a system that unfairly gives them far more federal dollars and political clout than their numbers justify and that fairness dictates.

Whatever truth there may be to the pro-electoral college argument that the Framers wanted to protect the interests of smaller states, that truth is more that outweighed by the reality of elections in which the person who gets the most votes somehow doesn't get the office. That result mocks the most basic ideas of equality and democracy, which the last time I checked are supposed to be the foundations of America. There's a reason that the US is the only current example of an indirectly elected executive, and I'm not particularly excited to learn that the short list of other countries with electoral colleges for parts of their government include Burundi, Estonia, India, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Pakistan and Nepal (and the Senate of France you freedom-fry lovers!)

The reality is despite arguments about intentions of the Framers, the Framers were practical men with an experimental attitude about government. The reality of modern presidential electioneering is pretty simple: candidates go places where they see a potential advantage in terms of gaining additional votes. Not existing reliable votes, but potential new votes. Nebraska with a winner-take-all system will be ignored by both campaigns like Ugly Betty at the school dance. It is only Nebraska's unique split-system that created an electoral vote "in play" such that Obama (and eventually Palin, which may be an argument against splitting electors) even imagined visiting the Cornhusker state. The current electoral college system doesn't preserve small state power any more than any other system unless the small state is a swing state.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Taibbi on Palin


PF's fav gutter-brawler Matt Taibbi nails it again, this time not just that Palin is dumber than an Alaskan snowball, but what her "candidacy" if you can it that says about America. The zinger:
In that moment, the rank cynicism of the whole sorry deal was laid bare. Here's the thing about Americans. You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and Bangalore.

And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket. And if she's a good enough likeness of a loudmouthed middle-American archetype, as Sarah Palin is, John Q. Public will drop his giant-size bag of Doritos in gratitude, wipe the Sizzlin' Picante dust from his lips and rush to the booth to vote for her. Not because it makes sense, or because it has a chance of improving his life or anyone else's, but simply because it appeals to the low-humming narcissism that substitutes for his personality, because the image on TV reminds him of the mean, brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning.

Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. But more than that, she is a horrifying symbol of how little we ask for in return for the total surrender of our political power.

Not only is Sarah Palin a fraud, she's the tawdriest, most half-assed fraud imaginable, 20 floors below the lowest common denominator, a character too dumb even for daytime TV -and this country is going to eat her up, cheering her every step of the way. All because most Americans no longer have the energy to do anything but lie back and allow ourselves to be jacked off by the calculating thieves who run this grasping consumer paradise we call a nation.

Ouch. Time for a drink.

Redistribution of wealth: Nebraska style




McPalin have jumped all over Obama lately as a "redistributor of wealth" and how his nefarious schemes will lead to the next USSR here in Amerika. But of course the hypocrisy of this line of argument stinks more than a field-dressed Alaskan moose. Palin's Alaska is #3 in states getting wealth redistributed back to them: $1.84 back for every $1 paid in taxes to be exact (see also here). So apparently Alaska is America's most socialist state ('guess that makes since they are so close to Russia with Putin rearing his head, etc.)

But I digress. We need not head to the Klondike for a heaping bowl of hypocrisy. Little Crawford, Nebraska (population 1107) just received a "big dose of federal dollars to help educate students in remote areas of Nebraska." $217,000 to be exact. There to present a ceremonial check was Nebraska's own Adrian Smith, never one to miss an opportunity to lecture the people on the GOP virtues of small government, why government shouldn't be interfering with the economy, etc. Unless, apparently, the redistribution of wealth tends to redistribute a little pork back into one of the troughs within his district. Nebraska, by the way, ranks #25 in taxes paid/benefits received ($1.10 benefits received for each $1 paid). In fact check out the ranking of states and see how many GOP-friendly red states are ones that receive more federal $$$ than they pay in taxes. Maybe they call them "red states" because they are red in the face with shame and embarassment at lecturing others about wealth distribution while pocketing most of that redistributed wealth themselves... ?

The voter fraud fraud



Another expose by AJ (actual journalist) Greg Palast proving yet again that the GOP is light years ahead of the Dems when it comes to the hardball tactics of winning elections. In a nutshell: the whole ACORN business is largely if not entirely a fabrication intended to keep the attention of the Sheople and the McMedia while the GOP feverlishly works to purge voter rolls and suppress votes. A sample:

Certainly ACORN collected some bad signatures. But despite McCain's claims, now morphed into media theology, none of ACORN's actions will have any impact on any election. ACORN hired 13,000 canvassers to register new voters. A small number of these workers defrauded ACORN by handing in phony registration forms using names they had invented (e.g. Mickey Mouse), or copied from phone books. In one case ACORN canvassers used cigarettes to bribe a homeless man, now a Fox News regular, to register 17 times. None of these activities constituted voter fraud. It is no crime to register 17 times; only the final registration counts. His multiple registrations would not allow the tobacco lover to vote 17 times. Nor is there any evidence the phone book registrants will cast multiple ballots. ...

ACORN took pains to screen its registrations and cull out those it considered dubious. However, federal laws make it a felony for voter registration groups like ACORN to discard registrations even when it believes them fraudulent. So ACORN flagged the forms it considered doubtful and handed them in to the registry. Ironically, it was those flagged forms -- the fruits of ACORN's diligence -- that have been flogged by Republicans as their best evidence of widespread election fraud.

The piece ends with some advice on how to make sure your vote is counted, including a 1-800 number for legal assistance. Well worth reading, and more proof that an AJ like Palast is worth 100 talking hairdos on CNN, Fox, etc. pretending to be journalists...

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

NO on Cali's Prop 8


For better or for worse (most times better), Cali is the tail that wags the rest of the US dog, from environmental standards to progressive social legislation. CA became a lightning-rod for bigots following its support of same-sex marriage rights. Now the bigots are seeking to amend CA's constitution to eliminate same-sex marriage rights. The implications extend far beyond CA, which is why the bigots are receiving national and international financial support. Particular shame to the Mormons, who are responsible for 40-70% of the financial backing of the measure. You would think that a group with a history of repression and discrimination like LDS would have a bit more empathy, but victims of past injustice seem to have a tendency to dish it out as good as they got when they get the reins of power. Make a contribution if you can, and get the word out to help defeat the bigots.

Don't let up

Obama-supportive ad...amateurish but fun :)

Monday, October 27, 2008

Hot, Flat and Crowded




Wow...this is about the most interesting 25 minutes I've heard in some time. Scientific American interviews Pulitzer-winner Tom Friedman who touches on the main ideas of his new book Hot, Flat and Crowded, in which he argues that a perfect storm of human overpopulation, human-induced global warming and a rising global consumer class has created the need for FAST action by the US to lead the world in creating non-carbon based energy sources. 'Nothing particularly revolutionary in this, but Friedman has a knack for explaining the complex in compelling, common-sense language. PF sure hopes Obama has this guy on the short list for some kind of cabinet post...good stuff!

McNews

It's the competence stupid




A thoughtful and common-sense
analysis from former Reagan-era policymaker Ken Adelman on why he's backing Obama and not McCain. The crux:

Granted, McCain's views are closer to mine than Obama's. But I've learned over this Bush era to value competence along with ideology. Otherwise, our ideology gets discredited, as it has so disastrously over the past eight years.

McCain's temperament -- leading him to bizarre behavior during the week the economic crisis broke -- and his judgment -- leading him to Wasilla -- depressed me into thinking that "our guy" would be a(nother) lousy conservative president. Been there, done that.

(emphasis added). Exactly. 'Not sure why more conservatives can't bring themselves to recognize the obviousness of this idea.


Friday, October 24, 2008

Thursday, October 23, 2008

"Real" America




'Nice thoughts on this crass GOP recent talking point from LA Times columnist Rosa Brooks.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Palin's bad hair day


Check out this enjoyable video collection of Palin's previous hairdo's. PF likes the early 80s look with the t-shirt "broke but not flat-busted..." You betcha! ;)

The financial collapse explained


This article by Josh Holland does as good a job as I've seen explaining the main causes of our economic meltdown, in a nutshell the greed of the investment banks and their practice of "leveraging," a scheme largely unregulated by a Congress duped by anti-regulatory ideology and investment bank lobbying.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Nebraska's hayseed bandwagon


'Don't know about you, but PF is sure relieved to know that public servants like Dave Heineman and Jon Bruning have all of their day work so well in hand that they can find the spare time to monitor the speaking engagements of UNL and offer their sage advice on the matter. I don't much care for Bill Ayers' political views or certainly his violent past, but I thought part of the "freedom" of Toby Keith videos and red-state USA means the freedom to speak and hear people with differing views. And of course Ayers wasn't invited to talk politics, but rather education.

Here's the list of shame of Nebraska's free speech cowards who hopped on the anti-Ayers bandwagon:

Heineman (nice robotic plug for working in Nebraska government during the Huskers game though Dave)
Bruning (isn't there some spicy Hannah Montana website you could be lurking at?)
Ben Nelson (tool; Nebraska's own Joe Lieberman with a bad hairpiece)
Regent Chuck Hassebrook
UNL Pres JB Milliken (shame on you JB; you're ordinarily more sensible than this)
Adrian Smith (I'm sure he'll be in this fray shortly after he's finished with his daily Palin fantasy)

Props, however, to Harvey Perlman who stood for principle and freedom amidst this conservative clown chorus.

I do however agree with Heineman that UNL's "security cancellation" sounds fishy. Another cowardly move....if you're going to cancel, at least have the guts to come out and say why, rather than hide behind a likely phony "no comment" security pretext.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Election fraud: October (November?) surprise?


I was uneasy about this election fraud angle already before coming across this post by Greg Palast (a journalist actually practicing investigative journalism) talking about voter-purging in nearby Colorado. Similar stories have broke about pivotal Ohio (although a Supreme Court ruling today certainly appears to help matters). Faux News has been hammering the ACORN/voter fraud angle incessantly for days now. Is this the last-ditch GOP/McPalin strategy...blow up the voter fraud issue to a. discredit upcoming (likely Democractic-friendly) election results; b. scare off potential voters (most likely Democratic) and/or quietly pursue the issue behind the scenes yanking voters off the rolls while the McMedia and Sheople trade talking points over Ayers and Joe the Plumber?

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Internet vigilantes going too far?


Check out the ethical dilemma presented in this episode of one of my favorite podcasts (This American Life) (the story entitled "hanging in Chad"), which involves the effort of a couple of self-appointed American Internet "vigilantes" who go after people trying to run e-mail/internet scams. The story begins innocently and humorously enough, but as the story unfolds, real questions arise as to the ethics of the actions involved.



Tuesday, October 14, 2008

"Evangelical Dominatrix...."



In case you missed it, check out Simpsons writer Dana Gould as he skewers Palin on Bill Maher's recent show (go to 9:00 if you're impatient or can't stand listening to Wall St Journal knucklehead Stephen Moore).

Assassination-in-training



Welcome to a sumptuous buffet of "love thy neighbor" Americans respectfully articulating their policy disagreements with Obama...

Friday, October 10, 2008

McCain: a "mean little f*cker"

That was the verdict of one of McCain's ($40,000 private) high school chums, as related in the Rolling Stone expose on McCain below. 'Seems like things haven't changed that much, as this video highlights. As much as I might otherwise kinda relish the idea of a US president flying into a rage at the craps table, I think I'll take a pass on that kind of temperment when we're talking nuke launch codes...