CEO Pay

Oh, for Pete's sake...

And the right whines every time you want to raise the minimum wage by a nickel...

THEY'RE NOT FOR YOU, SHEEPLE!!!

Tom Tomorrow

This is friggin' hilarious...

911? I'd like to report an emergency...

... my Wendy's Biggie Fries are cold.

Well, not quite, but pretty darn close. The best part about it is that she kicked and scratched the cops that took her in... for 86 years old and less than 100lbs, I'd say she must be in pretty good shape (physically, anyway)

Bobo's World

Is this what the religious right really wants? (Need I really ask?)

Never underestimate the depth of the stupidity of the populace

Kevin seems to have done so here:

All I can say is: Read the whole article until you get to that line. You'll read all about Kay Cody and her brothers and their kids. You'll read about the instability in their lives. You'll learn what the stock market did to Kay's 401(k). You'll learn about how envious they are of their father and his guaranteed pension and generous Social Security check. And then, after reading all that, you're suddenly jerked out of your chair and told that Kay Cody thinks private accounts are a great idea anyway. It's mind boggling.

Yes, it is mind-boggling to a sane and even moderately intelligent person. Unfortunately, this country has a general population with a median intelligence nothing even resembling moderately intelligent. Not only is that going to screw this country from a political standpoint, but it is going to allow India and China to kick our ass into full-blown French-style wistful remembrance of the ol' empire days (but that's a rant for a different post...)

Moving the goalposts

Speaking of Atrios, he makes a really good observation here...

Arnie the Whore

Remember how he was going to clean up Sacto? No so much...

(Via Atrios)

Memorial Day

Go see DailyKos for some Memorial Day info...

Also Doonesbury...

More NC crap... cross brunings

Three crosses were burned in Durham last night... it is just beyond me that there are people out there who possess feelings against a fellow human being that would prompt them to such displays of hate.

NC Pastor: Flush the Koran

Why are all the religious nuts acting up in North Carolina and not other parts of the South?

Nano-crapper

This is pretty cool... a throne with a nanoparticle coating that makes it much more resistant to bacterial and "particle" attachment due to a smother, more coherent surface.

However, perhaps the most interesting part of the article was on the luxury toilets in Japan:

Over time, the Japanese toilet manufacturers put a lot of emphasis on luxury and hygiene. First came the heated toilet seats. Trust me, if you've never warmed your buns on a toasty toilet seat first thing on a chilly morning, you don't know what you're missing. Pure bliss. Almost enough to make you want to skip the snooze button and get up.

Next came the Japanese bidet toilet seats. Toto, the world's largest single-brand toilet manufacturer, describes its high tech Washlet as "The bathroom accessory that turns your bathroom into an oasis of serenity and comfort." Think automated car wash for your bottom. Using heated water sprays, these things are programmed to clean (and massage) you from front to rear. Some bidet seats have water temperature and pressure adjustments, a wireless remote control, built-in hot air dryer, and even an automatic air purifier. Moreover, fully integrated versions can be built into toilets like Toto's ultra high-end Neorest with seats that automatically open and close on approach or exit, a catalytic air deodorizer, cyclone flush system and auto-sensing light flush
mode.

What is up with the Japanese and ass?!? They are having all sorts of problems with camera phones because people are taking "upskirts" and toilet photos of woman on the sly, Japanese schoolgirls make bank selling their used underwear to guys on their way home from school, and now this...

Lightsaber Duel

I thought we had the monopoly on white-trash retards, but apparently the Brits have a few...

(Props to GH for the link)

Industry as an engine for change

Friedman puts forth a relatively good effort today (although the basic idea is ripping off a Tierney column from a week ago...Update: check that, it was Matt Miller):

Is there any company in America that should be more involved in lobbying for some form of national health coverage than General Motors, which is being strangled by its health care costs? Is there any group of companies that should have been picketing the White House more than our high-tech firms, after the Bush team cut the National Science Foundation budget by $100 million in 2005 and in 2006 has proposed shrinking the Department of Energy science programs and basic and applied research in the Department of Defense - key sources of innovation?

Is there any constituency that should be clamoring for a sane energy policy more than U.S. industry? Is there any group that should be mobilizing voters to lobby Congress to pass the Caribbean Free Trade Agreement and complete the Doha round more than U.S. multinationals? Should anyone be more concerned about the fiscally reckless deficits we are leaving our children than Wall Street?

Yet, with a few admirable exceptions, American business has not gotten out front on these issues. In part, this is because boardrooms tend to be culturally Republican - both uncomfortable and a little afraid to challenge this administration. In part, this is because of the post-Enron keep-your-head-down effect. And in part, this is because in today's flatter world, many key U.S. companies now make most of their profits abroad and can increasingly recruit the best talent in the world today without ever hiring another American.

Those are some strong paragraphs (plug for his book notwithstanding). In particular, I feel strongly that the educational deficit he mentions is key and has gotten a lot less attention than that of the budget deficit or cute white girls who have been abducted. The jobs and skills we have taken for granted are rapidly becoming endangered, yet the administration has absolutely no strategy with which to deal this concept. Education in this country is woefully unfunded from an administrative level and woefully underprioritized from a societal level.

Unfortunately, the mindset of our society on this issue is key, because, as Friedman points out in that last sentence, industry doesn't care: they will just go hire an Indian engineer or whatnot. As long as they get the skills they require, they don't really care about nationality. As such, the people of this country will have to take the lead role on this.

Our current role in the world and the lifestyles to which we have become accustomed will not last with this kind of foundation. It seems so patently obvious to me, and for the life of me I can't understand why the people of this country don't demand more from their representatives on this issue... too busy with the judicial nominations I guess.

Politics and NPR

As you probably have heard, the right is trying to crack-down on the reality-based NPR. The NY Times ran an article on this, but this paragraph caught my eye:

Participants in that meeting said there was a brief discussion by board members in which one of them, Gay Hart Gaines, talked about the need to change programming in light of a conversation she had had with a taxi driver about his listening habits. Ms. Gaines, a Republican fund-raiser and the head of the political action committee of Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, did not return a call to her office seeking comment.

What? Is she related to Thomas Friedman or something? I wonder if any changes will be labeled the "Ahmad Akbar NPR Realignment Act"

The morning after...

After a night to sleep on it, I still hate it... still, it is good to know that this rankles Mullah Dobson and deals a serious blow to Frist:

The majority leader, who is considering running for president in 2008, had been under intense pressure not to compromise from conservative groups, some of whom immediately blasted the agreement.

"This Senate agreement represents a complete bailout and betrayal by a cabal of Republicans and a great victory for united Democrats," said James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, the Christian evangelical group.

Frist, however was forced to accept the deal after seven Republicans embraced the compromise and thus denied him the necessary 50 votes he would have needed to change the Senate rules to end judicial filibusters. Republicans now hold 55 seats.

But really, this thing is such a sham... the real fight is for the next SC nominees, and this deal will crumble at the first hint of a filibuster. They know it too:

The senators involved in the talks acknowledged that the agreement would require a great deal of trust since it did not define what constituted the extraordinary circumstances that would permit a filibuster against future judges.

"It is subjective," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who was involved in the negotiations.

TPM concurs:

It's hard for me to see how this deal survives the sort of appointee President Bush seems all but certain to appoint to the Supreme Court.

Yeah... what he said.

You know, with this deal coming on such an important issue where the Dems were clearly in the right and the polls were clearly in their favor, I think I finally understand why some people vote for the Green Party and other fringe liberal groups. Not that I would myself (since we don't have a viable three-party system, any vote not for the Dems is for the Republicans) but I think I now understand their disatifaction with the Democrats' inability to sack-up in fights against the right regardless of whether they are in the majority or minority.

Sigh...

Pure, complete, utter Bullshit

That's my first blush anyways... I just don't understand it: the poll numbers were behind us on this, we were in the right for a variety of historical and pragmatic reasons, we finally found our collective nutsack on this and social security, and then we lay down for a compromise that lets the three most noxious nominees through?!?

WTF?!? Might as well have played out the string... I really think the people who have flipped on 'em. Instead, we let the crybabies have their lollypop.

This is similar to one of Bush's first tax cuts... everyone thought he was going for about $600 billion but then he came out for an obscene $1.3 trillion. The Dems drew a line in the sand: $1.1 trillion, and not a cent more!

Ass clowns... maybe my mind will change once I read more on it, but right now I am absolutely DHP.

Update: Get this crap...

Reid said the agreement sent President Bush, Vice President Cheney and what he called the "radical arm of the Republican base" the "undeniable" message that "abuse of power will not be tolerated."

Yeah, you sure showed them... if I am the Republicans, I am laughing hystarically at the outcome. The only one who isn't laughing is Frist, who was given an unequivocal all-nominees-or-no-presidency-for-you order from Dobson, et. al.

I will bet you that when Renquist kicks the bucket, they will offer up someone awful and will pull the same shit at the first hint of a filibuster (regardless of the actual text of the deal). AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

Books I have not read...

Ok, I will play along with the latest book meme... like Kevin said, this is almost too easy as there are several "biggies" I have never read:

1) Crime and Punishment: This is one of The Wife's favorite books, and I realize it has the label of "classic," but I really couldn't get past the first couple hundred pages... hey jerk-off! I realize you are depressed and all, but please get off the couch and advance the plot a little! Aaargh!

2) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: I know, it's an absolute crime. Most people have read this in middle school or something, but my school district absolutely stunk and Huck Finn wasn't on the book shelf at home.

3) Dune: I loved the original movie, as well as the SciFi Channel's remakes. It's a geek classic, and I even own the next five or six books. Inexplicable.

4) The Jungle: I include this for two reasons... first, mudraking is like ambrosia to liberals. Second, the book isn't that long, and I am embaressed that I was unable to stay focused when I made an attempt at it a couple years ago.

5) The Carolina Way: Nor have I read A Coach's Life... any proper Tar Heel should have these Dean Smith books on their shelves at home.

Embryo Adoptions

WTF?!?

Hey assholes, how about a grant program for the kids who are, you know, ex utero? This whole thing reminds me of a joke I heard about the Catholic Church (but it is unfortunately too correct and can be applied broadly to the religious right): We'll fight for you tooth and nail until you are born... after that, you are on your own!

(In the joke on Catholics, the ending was "after that, you are fair game!")

Bobo's World

I am stealing a popular Atrios post title for this...

Friday Pet Blogging

Hugs and Ella are chillin' on the couch, only you can tell that Hugs is a little tense. The look in his eye says "I know you are back there, woman... no funny stuff."

Privatization Puppeteers

This is awesome... from the Progess Report:

BUT I CAN SEE HIS LIPS MOVING!: Derrick Max is the executive director of two supposedly independent, nonpartisan groups: the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security and the Coalition for the Modernization and Protection of America's Social Security, founded by the Business Roundtable. As the head of organizations advocating for a Social Security overhaul, Max was invited to testify at a hearing before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. But when the panel received his e-mailed testimony, it became quite apparent that the White House had already had its hands all over the document. Max had forgot to turn off the "track changes" feature in his word-processing program and the testimony "included editing comments made by an associate commissioner of Social Security [currently] on loan to the White House." There has now been a call for an investigation into whether this "ventriloquist" act "violated statues requiring the Social Security Administration to be 'nonpolitical and nonpartisan.'" Max's defense? "The real scandal here is that after 15 years of using Microsoft Word, I don't know how to turn off 'track changes,'" he said.

That's almost as bad as the Army screwing up their redaction of pdf documents...

Mr. Stalin? The Religious Right on line two...

Max Blumenthal of The Nation writes about the "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith" conference... it ain't pretty:

At a banquet the previous evening, the Constitution Party's 2004 presidential candidate, Michael Peroutka, called the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube "an act of terror in broad daylight aided and abetted by the police under the authority of the governor." Red-faced and sweating profusely, Peroutka added, "This was the very definition of state-sponsored terror." Edwin Vieira, a lawyer and author of How to Dethrone the Imperial Judiciary, went even further, suggesting during a panel discussion that Joseph Stalin offered the best method for reining in the Supreme Court. "He had a slogan," Vieira said, "and it worked very well for him whenever he ran into difficulty: 'No man, no problem.'"

The complete Stalin quote is, "Death solves all problems: no man, no problem."

Nice, decent, Christian folk...

Fat Fantasy

Ah... a little bit of balance for all the John Tierney's and David Brooks' of the food world. Not enough, mind you, but some is better than none.

Smug commentators went wild attacking "the food police," while the food and beverage front group Center for Consumer Freedom practically gloated itself to death with an obese $600,000 newspaper advertising blitz declaring "Americans have been force-fed a steady diet of obesity myths."

Fumento hits several of the other studies that have been done that have disparate results, and then homes in on some items that I have been shouting about:

There are also many disturbing considerations that Flegal's team didn't look at. One is that so many in the overweight and obese population are children and adolescents. How can we know the long-term effects of type 2 diabetes or permanently enlarged hearts when they afflict butterball 10-year-olds?

Nor did Flegal's group consider non-fatal illness or health-care costs. But the Rand Corporation found a direct connection between obesity and disability, and a just-released study shows that a mere 27.5 BMI (the middle of Flegal's "healthiest" category) can triple the need for knee surgery. Is that 1,800-calorie Ultimate Colossal Burger from Ruby Tuesday really worth titanium joints?

Further, expenditures for medical conditions caused by being overweight or obese accounted "for 9.1 percent of total annual U.S. medical expenditures in 1998 and may be as high as $78.5 billion ($92.6 billion in 2002 dollars)," according to the journal Health Affairs. It noted, "Medicare and Medicaid finance approximately half of these costs."

Strange how something that's good for you can be so costly. But believe what you will as the Grim Reaper bears down on you while you try desperately to waddle away.

Nice ending.

The Anti-Tax Jihad

Colorado provides a glimpse of Grover Norquist's ideal world (here and here) even though both Heritage and Brookings (!) maintain that's not the solution.

Can someone pay a price for any of this? Please? Anyone?

Check out what Rick Santorum said today...

"It doesn't take a medical degree to know that drinking poop is bad for us"

From the Progress Report (and not from the Onion):

YOUR ICED TEA SHOULD'T BE THAT BROWN: "It doesn't take a medical degree to know that drinking poop is bad for us," writes Jeffrey Griffiths, a member of the EPA's National Drinking Water Advisory Council, in the Boston Globe. That hasn't stopped the Bush administration from proposing a new policy that "would allow sewage treatment plants to discharge inadequately treated human waste into lakes, rivers, streams, and coastal waters," which ends up in our tap water. Sure, pathogens from human waste can harm people in even small doses – particularly children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems. But the administration thinks that by weakening sewage restrictions, it can save a few bucks and "further defer or avoid maintenance, or improvements, to their sewer and rainfall collection systems." There's no way we're drinking to that.

Brooks throws a curveball

This isn't too bad...

I don't really take well to his equalization of the left and right's response largely because the left isn't trying to verify the Koran episode per se, but rather to point out that this doesn't mean it didn't happen and that the violence was probably due to other circumstances.

However, I agree with his overall tone of "Everybody STFU and return to work!"

I am cool with that... can we please discuss the Downing Street Memo now? Or how about the state of the uninsured? The economy? Anyone?

More news on Abstinance Education

Hmmm... the kids must not be praying hard enough or something...

More local news... UNC Tuition

Local newspapers have been all a-flutter regarding a new provision slipped inside the Senate Budget for 05-06 that would allow NC State and UNC control over its own tuition outside the control of the Board of Governors.

Several editorials (here, here, here, here, here, here) have been written condemning this idea, and if this had come up a couple years ago, I would probably be right there with them. However, I have started to change my tune somewhat regarding tuition at UNC. In general, I am a firm believer in keeping tuition low... not only is education the major factor that drives our economy, but North Carolina is in particular need due to the fact that is hemorrhaging jobs from the tobacco and textiles industries. As such, increasing the overall level of education of the population in the state is crucial to transforming the state's economy.

However, the state would be lost without the leadership of its two research institutions. This is particularly true regarding the crown jewel of UNC, which is consistantly ranked in the top5 of all public universities in the nation. Unfortunately, it takes a large investment to maintain such an impressive institution, and the legislature has been displayed abject unwillingness to pony up the requisite cash to keep this insitution as one of the top universities in the nation. Cut after cut after cut have been handed down year after year, and it is really starting to squeeze. UNC is losing top faculty like DHP's Wife loses her glasses (bygones), and that is going to have all sorts of downstream effects: reduced grant income, reduced educational quality, reduced ability to attract top undergraduates and graduate/professional students, etc.

UNC has to take care of itself, and if the legislature isn't going to do it, then I can't fault them from trying to give themselves a little more leeway on tuition. Look at UVA: they are essentially trying to become a pseudo-private university because they are sick of the instability of funding from the legislature.

Yes, I am worried that it will be abused (for grad/prof students in particular, who are far different than UG's but the Trustees rarely consider the differences), and while I am concerned about access to UNC by the less fortunate Carolinians, our in-state tuition is ridiculously low and we have excellent programs to help aid low-income students (like the Carolina Covenant). So IMO, I think the papers need to lay off, and perhaps devote a few scathing columns to the legislature which refuses to raise taxes in order to appropriately fund this great institution.

I don't like any of this, but I can't really blame UNC at all...

P.S.: One of the big reasons the editorals are all against this is in order to maintain the integrity of the UNC System. Perhaps there are some historical issues I am missing here, but this doesn't strike me as a big deal. The smaller schools apparently ride the coattails of UNC and NC State, but IMO the drag they cause outweighs the clout they would lose. California has two systems which are separated to a fair degree by quality and cost... not everyplace is going to be like UNC, nor should they be, so why not separate them some based on need?

Some local news...

Looks like Dean Roper is getting off to a good start on priority #1: Eliminate UNC Hospitals' red ink

UNC Hospital's are also trying to extend discounts to the uninsured, which is good news (in general, anyway... any attempt to address the problem at this point at this level is stop-gap at best. More on this in a later post)

When Worlds Collide...

Max is right... this is pretty awesome. If you have ever seen Blair debate with members of Parliament, you will not only have a newfound respect for the guy and his ability to take and dish out all sorts of heat, but you will also snicker at the very hint of the thought of what might happen if Dear Leader had to do the same. There would be bloody carnage that would put pirahnas to shame.

Why TPM is the best blog out there

Mainly it is due to posts like this.

As an issue progresses in the public discussion, Josh Marshall gives a lot of insight into the various twists and turns, and often reports on a lot of new developments as well. However, when we get towards the climax point, he often delivers posts such as the one linked to above... it is succinct, clear, and rock-solid. It synthesizes all components of the story that have been brought to light into one hearty and nutritional post to sate your political cravings.

And that is why he is The Man.

P.S.: Of course, there are a lot of other folks who are doing work that is nothing to sniff at... see this new bit from Media Matters

Frist Fumbles

Straight from the horse's mouth...

It is really too bad that this question had to come from Schumer and didn't come from reporters covering this story... and there is a lot more here on filibusters that are falsehoods but are being taken as conventional wisdom due to the lack of, you know, real journalism.

Newsweek

I don't want to comment too much more on the whole Quran thing, mainly because it is being said repeatedly at so many other blogs, but I did want to point a couple things out:

1) Isikoff is owned by the right, so it is funny to see the right contort themselves to attack "Newsweek" rather than "Isikoff" unlike the way they attacked Dan Rather...

2) There are obvious ironies here when it comes to the administration's harping... this is the best (and funniest) post on that topic that I have seen...

Kudzu might actually be good for something...

This is pretty cool... and Lord knows it is rather plentiful around here.

I like Ike!

Sirota, via Kos, provides us with a great quote on social security:

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54

Of course, Ike's level of Republican politics is about what the mainstream Dems are at today (some a little more left, others like the DLC a bit more to the right), but the Republicans today would never disavow such a figure so it is on to Operation Plug Your Ears and Yell NAW-NAW-NEE-NAW-NAW

In case you didn't see it...

...this made the rounds during the last week. I put it on the back-burner for the time being since I was on vacation, but read it just now.

In short, Dr. David Hager, a religious zealot who was appointed by the Bush Administration to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration, is accused by his wife of being a serial marriage rapist and sodomite, going so far as to push himself on her when she was taking drugs for narcolepsy and to pay her with shopping money for certain services. Oh, and he cheated on her too.

A must read, if only for the tawdriness of it all...

Holy Crap!

I have been going through some old Progress Reports of late, and noticed this from May 6th:

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, ABOVE THE LAW: Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff is on the brink of becoming the most powerful man in the country. This new bill gives him the authority to bypass Congress and the courts to waive any law – federal, state or local – that he wants while he's building a fence along U.S. borders. And there's no recourse; the legislation "shields the waiver decisions from court scrutiny" and also "strips courts of any power to order remedies for anyone harmed by the consequences of such decisions." This means child labor laws, civil rights laws and minimum wage requirements are all at risk. (For example, Chertoff could "give no-bid contracts for border construction to private companies and then shield those
contractors from all employment discrimination and workplace safety laws.") It also exempts the DHS from all environmental laws, putting thousands of acres of national parks, forests and wildlife refuges at risk of serious damage.

WTF?!?

They don't give this item much more attention, probably because it is unlikely to pass muster in the Senate even if the House is retarded enough to do it, but why is this kind of crap not front page everywhere? Seems vaguely important to me...

Denied Communion

The legacy of East Waynesville Baptist carries on...

Those same folks should try variations on the theme to see how far the priest is willing to go... support for those who have AIDS? Support for those women who have been raped and got an abortion?

Nude Flight Attendants

United Attendants Pose for Risque Calendar

Sounds hot, doesn't it?

The five women, ranging in age from 55 to 64...

Oooo... not so much... unless they happen to be Annette Benning look-a-likes, I don't want to be a party to that... and if they are, I would still be conflicted.

Truth in the Quran Report

Newsweek seems to have shat the bed with their Quran story, but worse than that is guys like Rummy gee-whizzing us about facts:

'People have said, 'My goodness, why does it take so long for someone to come back with and have the actual facts?' ' Rumsfeld said. 'Well, it takes a long time to be truthful, to be responsible.'

The man knows of which he speaks... we are still waiting for this administration to be truthful and responsible.

Anyway, it is just sucks that all this happened... not only because it helped spark the riots (although that is not likely the full story) but because the right wing is going to flog this to death just like the CBS Texas Air National Guard story, regardless of the idea that Newsweek is not really a traditional right wing pinata and is pretty damned balanced (although some of the irresponsible things they decided to publish during the Lewinsky Affair still blow my mind)

Update: More from Kevin Drum and TPM...

Firefox

FYI, I am currently working through the transition to using Mozilla's Firefox. I was previously using Maxthon, which is a Mozilla-like tabbed browser that sits on Internet Explorer, but despite possessing several features that I enjoyed, it was just too damn unstable. Hopefully Firefox will be better, but I am already having to search for several extensions that Maxthon included in the core download (like Maxthons highly necessary alt-z function for re-opening closed tabs)

If you don't know what I am talking about with any of this, then you need to dump Internet Explorer and give Maxthon and/or Firefox a try... extension customization and tabbed browsing is like TiVo and broadband internet: once you try it, you will never use anything else.

Brown Recluse Bite

Damn... that's nasty

I particularly like the gauze wick...

"This war came to us, not the other way around"

Up yours, Condi...

Supersize that coffin...

Well, at least our national obesity problem is helping some people...

(Thanks Sis...)

Donor Sleepovers

IOKIYAR

Your problem is W's solution

TPM notes how similar the current state of things with Social Security is to W's proposed "solution."

Damn Skippy

Kristof:

It's entirely possible to honor Christian conservatives for their first-rate humanitarian work treating the sick in Africa or fighting sex trafficking in Asia, and still do battle with them over issues like gay rights.

Liberals can and should confront Bible-thumping preachers on their own terms, for the scriptural emphasis on justice and compassion gives the left plenty of ammunition. After all, the Bible depicts Jesus as healing lepers, not slashing Medicaid.

I wholeheartedly agree... although conservatives try to protect "their turf" when someone (Hillary Clinton is a favorite target) talks about faith, liberals really need to be more open about their personal religious principles. This need not be a race to the right with gay-bashing and all that, nor do they need to make declarative statements excluding other religions or blurring church and state, but rather they should use their faith to show that liberal beliefs are Christian beliefs. Jesus was one hell of a liberal guy... there really is no way conservatives can get around that except by selectively quoting Old Testement (most of which was rendered invalid by Jesus's teachings anyway)

Just How Gay Is the Right?

Go read Rich...

Pastor force to resign

Here... (Via Pandagon)

UAL Pension Update

DHP’s Pops just gave ol’ DHP his take on the courts’ action regarding United’s pension liabilities… it ain’t pretty.

Essentially the story goes like this:

The employees have pensions that are divvied up by their respective unions, i.e. pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, etc. The total liability that United had to these pension funds was $10 billion. The courts determined that United could shed its total liability in effort to try to get out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the PBGC is picking up $6.6 billion of said liability.

That, on its face, is pretty craptastic… how United gets out of its entire unfunded pension liability is beyond me. But for the retired pilots, like DHP’s Pops, it is far worse. This is in part due to the fact that the $10 billion liability isn’t spread out evenly among the pensions of the various different unions. As it turns out, the mechanics’ and flight attendants’ pensions are under-funded to a greater extent than the pilot’s union. In fact, actuarial findings that the retired pilots came up with showed that the existing pilots’ pension was sufficient to cover the retired pilots at their current rates (active pilots are being switched over to a different retirement system regardless of the outcome of the existing pension system).

So, one might think that the government would discard the unfunded portions of the pilots’ pension since they can do ok on their own with their current funds, and take on a portion of the liability of the other unions’ pensions on a similar case-by-case basis.

One might think.

Unfortunately, one would be totally wrong. Instead, the government wanted to take all the unions on regardless of how the retired pilots might be sitting. When the federal insurance does that, they not only assume a portion of the liability, they also take all the existing assets! This means that the retired pilots, who were just fine on their own, got 100% of their pension guarantee taken away and replaced with the federal limit under the federal insurance program, which is about $50k per year. This represents an entirely unnecessary cut of the retired pilots’ pension by about a third. The mechanics and flight attendants unions, who aren’t ok on their own because their pensions aren’t as robustly funded, appear to make out ok under this deal… the federal pension limit of $50k is a lot closer to their normal pension than it is for the pilots, so effective the government is robbing Peter (the pilots) to pay Paul (the mechanics and flight attendants). This wasn’t an accident; the government approached the courts specifically requesting to take on the pilots’ pension in addition to the others.

Furthermore, the retired pilots never got a say in any of this… the pilots’ union wouldn’t represent them, and the court would not allow the retired pilots’ representatives standing in the proceeding. Thus, the retired pilots never had any sort of representation… in light of that, it isn’t too hard to see how the retired pilots got absolutely screwed.

I know nothing about corporate law, but it seems to me that would form some sort of basis for an appeal or a lawsuit by the retired pilots. I should also make the caveat that this is based on my conversations with my father and a few general new reports on this topic; thus, I certainly recognize that I am not a definitive source of information and most likely don’t have the entire picture. However, in light of cases such as this (which is the largest pension default in history) and Enron, I am just aghast at the lack of oversight and lax rules on pension funding, and similarly bewildered that there are folks out there shilling for individuals to take on even more risk via privatization of social security.

More on this as I wade through material...

P.S.: And today is DHP's Pops B-Day... some present, eh?

Gack... even more...

I stumbled onto this site, and it seriously took me a long time to figure out that it was real and not some absurdist parody... I won't say too much here (you can go take a look if you have the stomach), but the site contains such nuggets as posts like this ("Say…what kind of name is Schoenfeld, anyway?") and refering to the National Review as the "National ReJew"

Man, I hate people...

Update: More here...

Truth is, most of them wouldn't be up in the morning. By the time the revelers rose, after noon, Straub, 21, who is not only a loyal fraternity member but also a leader in the Greek InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, had already gone to church and come back. As some of his frat brothers nursed hangovers and others cleaned up from the night before, Straub pondered his situation. He walks a fine line of faith at Indiana, which is currently ranked by the Princeton Review as America's No. 15 party school (and No. 5 in the category "lots of beer"). The challenge, Straub says, is "How can I serve God and love the guys here?"

Let's leave aside the idea that it shouldn't be difficult for a Christian to love folks (and in this world, beer-drinking frat boys are among the least difficult to love) and instead ask this question: Don't you think that's where you might have the most impact?!?

This really gets me... at UNC there is a small Christian frat which wants to be university recognized (i.e. able to access university resources and apply for university funds) but doesn't want to adhere to the university's non-discrimination policy because they want to exclude homosexuals. But if they think it is a sin, then shouldn't they want to reach out to those people who are interested in being involved? You know... Jesus walking among sinners... Christian ideals and all that.

Retarded Religious Right-Wingers of the Week

An HPV vaccine is in the works which would dramatically reduce cervical cancer, but the religious right is apparently against it:

"Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a licence to engage in premarital sex," Maher claims

How brilliant is that? Abstinance education doesn't work, and might actually make matters worse because they tend to engage in riskier behaviors like anal sex, and yet they want to pile on and shun a possible cancer prevention agent in the name of their ridiculous jihad. They will not settle for anything less... see here

On to the next thing... Have you ever heard of the Dominionists? These guys are bat-shit crazy:

"Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost," Kennedy says. "As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors -- in short, over every aspect and institution of human society."
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He takes particular aim at the threat posed by John Lennon, denouncing "Imagine" as a "secular anthem" that envisions a future of "clone plantations, child sacrifice, legalized polygamy and hard-core porn."
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Cass also presents another small-town activist, Kevin McCoy, with a Salt and Light Award for leading a successful campaign to shut down an anti-bullying program in West Virginia schools. McCoy, a soft-spoken, prematurely gray postal worker, fought to end the program because it taught tolerance for gay people -- and thus, in his view, constituted a "thinly disguised effort to promote the homosexual agenda." "What America needs," Cass tells the faithful, "is more Kevin McCoys."
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Sears argues that the constitutional guarantee against state-sponsored religion is actually designed to "shield" the church from federal interference -- allowing Christians to take their rightful place at the head of the government.
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The most vivid proof of the Christianizing of Capitol Hill comes at the final session of Reclaiming America. Rep. Walter Jones, a lanky congressman from North Carolina, gives a fire-and-brimstone speech that would have gotten him laughed out of Washington thirty years ago. In today's climate, however, he's got a chance of passing his pet project, the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act, which would permit ministers to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, effectively converting their tax-exempt churches into Republican campaign headquarters.

Hmmm... looks like Walter's folks have jumped the gun a little. Yeah, I know I have posted on that already, but it is so retarded it makes it into this post.

While we are on that topic, John also points out that a Catholic Bishop in Toledo is against a measure that would extend the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse... why? Well, we gotta protect all those buggerin' priests, now don't we? Yipee! More reasons to never be a Catholic!

Finally, what would all this be without good ol' Pat Robertson?

Federal judges are a more serious threat to America than Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorists, the Rev. Pat Robertson claimed yesterday.

"Over 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings," Robertson said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

Wait a second! I actually agree with that last statement! Only I guess Pat isn't referring to my idea of what that loosely-termed "consensus" is...

I can't leave you like that, can I? Ok... here is a bit of good news to help.

War: Not really big news...

Go read Sirota...

The perverse thing about all this is that such an admission should shouted in all the media, but since they are of the same mind set no word will get out (except through blogs... yah for us)

Damn Skippy

Here... this is particularly pertinent to yours truly since DHP's Pops is a UAL retiree...

The economy is perking up...

...but not for everyone.

Hired Guns

You know, from a media point of view, if the government wants to hire journalists to write favorable articles, that's fine... the journalists can whore themselves if they want (they already do to a large extend anyways). My only beef is that the top of the page of any such article should read "PAID ADVERTISEMENT" and simply call it what it is.

However, that doesn't absolve the government side of this issue in that this smacks of using tax dollars for political purposes... I can see "educating the public" on current programs, but not about items that are still in the legislature.

Did Kevin say what I think he said?

Was this double entrendre by Kevin Drum intentional? Regardless, that's pretty funny...

Sudan

I have been trolling through the new and eclectic Huffington Post, and noticed this post by Joe Scarborough which I sorta agree with:

Fast forward eight years and you find that little has changed.

President Bush has called the crisis in Sudan genocide, but he has done little to stop it.

The United Nations has muttered about how the Sudan situation is unfortunate, but once again Kofi Annan has refused to do anything that will end the suffering on his home continent.

The European Union claims to be interested but too many member states have economic interests in the country.

So nothing gets done.

Meanwhile, children are slaughtered, young girls are raped, and entire communities are wiped out in minutes.

While the world does nothing.

How pathetic.

Joe unfortunately uses the post to attack the UN, the EU, and Clinton overmuch (and misses all members of the media not named Nicholas Kristof), but at least he has the decency to mention Dear Leader. But he doesn't really miss the mark by too much... the greatest travesty of the Clinton Administration BY FAR was his inaction during the Rwanda Genocide... nothing else comes close. It is a huge blight on his presidency, and to even use so banal a term is embaressing.

Sudan is Dubya's Rwanda, but unlike Rwanda, we are seeing the magnitude of it in real-time, and are fresh from the mistakes of Rwanda... in other words, we should really know better. The EU isn't willing to help out militarily (regardless of whether or not is would be difficult for them to do so as Kevin Drum discusses), so big shame on them. UN simply isn't cut out for that sort of mission; they support relief operations and perform a sort of mop-up duty. However, Annan hasn't been a leading voice on this issue by a long shot.

But regardless of the UN and EU as other entities, it is still the role of the US to be a leader, and just like with Clinton and Rwanda, nothing will get done without our leadership in this area. "Leadership" doesn't mean Iraq-style my-way-or-the-highway diplomacy, but this is a case where W's "moral clarity" beacon, defective as it is, should be going off like prom dress.

It all starts with us... Bush should be comfortable with that since it is a Christian catchphrase and all...

Nice lines...

A few catchy phrases I have read today... from Mahablog:

As we all know, the purpose of right-wing think tanks is to think up excuses for pernicious rightie policies. And the purpose of rightie columnists is to tell the faithful what they want to hear. Essentially, the think tanks mix the Kool-Aid, the columnists fill the cups, and the rightie bloggers line up to drink.

Jonathan Simon via Robert Koehler:

When the autopsy of our democracy is performed, it is my belief that media silence will be given as the primary cause of death.

Opinions You Should Have (parody):

Biologist Bryan Phelps, a colleague of Nybol's, surprised reporters when he said that was not sure that evolution should be taught in Kansas schools. "While there is abundant evidence of evolution almost everywhere in the world," he said, "there isn't much in Kansas."

Some random guy writing into Altercation on what liberals stand for:

Poverty is poor soil for liberty

Amanda at Pandagon on Brent Bozell's retard thoughts:

It's true--the world hates us because of "Desperate Housewives". The episode that really smarts is the one where Gabrielle and Bree join forces to deceive the public about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to lead us into a sham of a war.

(Actually, that entire post has a bunch of funny lines... go read)

From Jesse at Pandagon on coverage devoted to white women and girls:

All you really need to know is that if your daughter gets kidnapped and her name is Lakeisha, tell CNN her name is Emily.

Friggin' awesome...

Dems vs. Republicans with the economy

This post (and the follow-up) by Kevin Drum are excellent... I also urge you to read the linked Kinsley editorial. As Kevin said, we have seen this before... however, read it again: it is great ammo to use on your Republican neighbors.

MCI Supports Child Pornography...okay?

Whoa...things are getting out of hand in the Religious Far Right.

A Christian phone company tells its potential customers that MCI, AT&T, and Verizon are all hated by God. If you have a minute, listen to the audio MP3s of the phone calls. It's hilarious.

Dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

This warms the cockles of my heart... no, really!

Bush and Clinton, in part because they have worked so closely on fund-raising efforts, have forged a close friendship in recent months, prompting some humor from former first lady Barbara Bush when she introduced the former presidents.

"It's my great honor to introduce America's favorite new couple," she said. "Everyone is talking about the 'odd couple,' George and Bill — or, as I now call him, Son."

Aside from the obvious (i.e. that Bill probably vomitted in his mouth when Barbara called him "Son"), I think this is great... left and right getting together to truly help out the less fortunate.

It really shows how bad things have gotten that I look fondly upon the distant memories of 41's presidency... he was a robust internationalist who did what he needed to do in Kuwait with a host of supporting nations, and even raised taxes (*gasp*) when it became apparent that, what-do-ya-know, the government needs some funds in order to function! Other than his own theocratic bent and his lack of ability as a steward for the economy, he wasn't too horrible (Editor: What about his Iran-Contra pardons and leaving the Kurds high and dry? DHP: Shut-up! I am trying to be nice here!)

Anyway, it gives me just a smidge of hope... which I am sure will be ruthlessly crushed by the end of the week. But a smidge of hope nonetheless...

The Poor Man makes a funny...

Via Atrios, the Poor Man comments on attempts to cure wingnuttia:

This reminds me of a story. The year is 2003, and our chain of Poor Man “E-Z Gay-Away” homosexuality reversal clinics have just gone belly-up. The problem, financially, was the 100% money-back guarantee, which ate up some - well, OK, all - of our gross income, and the reason for this low - OK, zero - cure rate was bad staffing and a sagging economy and SEC over-reach and not our business model at all which was brilliant. We then decided to switch our approach a bit, and offer instead a guaranteed cure for wingnuttery. Our cure rate was unchanged. Again, there were many reasons for this: media bias, the sun was in our eyes, traffic jam on I-35, etc. But we did learn one valuable lesson from these debacles learning experiences: whatever the exact reasons, and regardless of how nice we are and how many ponies we offer, we could no more turn wingnuts into rational creatures than we could turn gay people straight. We have learned from these mistakes opportunities, and are now seeking investors for our nationwide brand of Fresh-Squeezed Stone Juice. Get in on the ground floor.

Hilarious.

More white children on the news...

Yeah, it is awful and all that, but is this really national news? When are they going to cover little children of other ethnicities with equal fervor?

The only thing I will give them is that they are not as angelic-looking as Elizabeth Smart...

Update: Apparently some other people are having issues with the same...

"Christ is not speaking to the press at this time"

This is brilliant if only for the final line of the piece...

Blogging to resume soon...

Posts have been light (ok, non-existant) over the past couple of days since I have been at the beach with The Wife and The In-Laws in celebration of the former's graduation from law school this coming weekend... internet access has been sketchy, but I will try to squeeze off a few posts here and there.

Speaking of sketchy internet access, it is simply absurd that the US has not completely turned over to broadband... all hotels and vacation destinations should have it. In fact, the question of "Do they have access or not?" should apply to wireless only... a hardline connect should be assumed.

Aggrevating Religious Notes of the Day

ABC breaks its own "long-standing policy" in accepting an ad from Mullah Dobson's Focus on the Family after denying one from the United Church of Christ.

Judge says it is OK for a County Board of Supervisors to limit invocations to only those of Judeo-Christian origin.

More "Intelligent Design" crap in Kansas

And last, but most certainly not least, East Waynesville Baptist Church has just kicked out all its Democratic members. (Yeah, that's in North Carolina... I am oh so proud)

Atrios would like to see the Justice Department revoke their tax-exempt status, and I am all down with that... George Carlin has a great line in one of his routines about churches in this country: Tax 'em. If they want a seat at the table, then make 'em pay the fuckin' admission price.

The video of the news segment is here

Do you feel a draft in here?

Army misses April recruiting goal by 42 percent

The best line out of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 was at the end:

They offer to give up their lives so we can be free and all they ask in return is that we not send them in harm's way unless it's necessary. Will they ever trust us again?

We are seeing the effects of that broken trust... and methinks this is just the start...

Friedman turning over a new leaf?

Here.

Not being an educator, I can't give any such advice.

WTF? That has never stopped him on anything before... what did he eat this morning?

I just interviewed Craig Barrett, the chief executive of Intel, which has invested millions of dollars in trying to improve the way science is taught in U.S. schools. (The Wall Street Journal noted yesterday that China is graduating four times the number of engineers as the U.S.; Japan, with less than half our population, graduates double the number.)

In today's flat world, Mr. Barrett said, Intel can be a totally successful company without ever hiring another American. That is not its desire or intention, he said, but the fact is that it can now hire the best brain talent "wherever it resides."

If you look at where Intel is making its new engineering investments today, he said, it is in China, India, Russia, Poland and, to a lesser extent, Malaysia and Israel. While cutting-edge talent is still being grown in America, he added, it's not enough for Intel's needs, and not enough is being done in U.S. public schools - not just to leave no child behind, but to make sure that the best students and teachers are nurtured and rewarded. Look at the attention Congress has focused on steroids in Major League Baseball, Mr. Barrett mused. And then look at the attention it has focused on science education in minor-league American schools.

That's the real news out there, folks. And it's not funny.

Tommy scores twice in one column!

Kevin Drum thinks Friedman's new book is torture, but the whole flat-earth globalization thing aside, there is certainly a huge problem with education in this country. Friedman mentions a Times article on 4 different students and their big university experiences, and therein (and elsewhere) experts have lamented the educational system in this country and how our means of learning need to change.

OK, sure... I guess. But more important than that IMO is the need to change the culture of education in this country. Smart kids have always been bullied and beat-up, marginalized as uncool nerds, etc. It all sounds very 50's-ish, but I think it is actually getting worse, particularly because we have people at the top who decry intellectualism and label folks with actual contextual knowledge and credentials as snobby elites. It is simply beyond me how people out there absolutely resent academics, and that filters through to our kids.

A second item... going back to the idea that our educational system needs to be changed, I think something that is overlooked is the goal of our system and not necessarily the mechanics thereof. It seems to me that the overall goal of public education in this country is basic proficiency... proficiency testing in NCLB is a good example of that line of thought. Would I like everyone to have a basic level of proficiency? Sure... but it ain't going to happen, and by focusing on so low a bar I think we are missing out.

By teaching to the average, our top third or so are not be adequately prepared. Some of these kids will be able to overcome it (like I did, but that's a post for another time) but others will be complacent or unwilling to go through the pain later when they need to catch up (this is where English and Psyche majors come from).

I once dated a very intelligent girl who grew up in Belarussia, and I was intrigued by some particular aspects of the Soviet education system, the biggest being their target: they sought to continually push the upper ranks of their children. The best were put through accelerated paces commesurate with their intellectual abilities, and the others were left behind to operate at their own pace. Furthermore, in this dynamic it was way uncool to be dumb (that culture bit I mentioned earlier)... I don't know if this dynamic was the chicken or the egg, but it sure seemed to work well for those upper level students: my girlfriend came to the US as a High School sophomore and slept to an A in upper level calculus at a good school in California (even though she really didn't know English) and got A's in college calculus classes during her junior and senior years.

The big downside was that the bottom half or third really got no attention whatsoever, and I don't believe we should have a system that separates out the chafe and then discards it. Rather, I think we should be focused on doing some separating in order to ensure that the growth of the smart kids isn't getting retarded by the slower kids or those who just don't care. We do this in so many other areas of our society, why not education? I understand that people will be worried about the stresses young kids will have in order to get to that next level, but if we don't apply a little positive pressure now, they are going to have a hell of a lot more stress trying to find a job with their degree in Rhetoric and Communication.

The mention of that major brings me to one more thing I would love to see: university limitations on the number of certain majors. Do we need English majors? Sure. Do we need a mess of them? No way. Get rid of the glut by capping the number of majors in areas. Life and Physcial Sciences will be the order of the day, with secondary focus in areas like Public Policy, Economics, and Business. I will admit that takes away from your freedom to determine your own path in life, etc., but tough toodles.

Will we ever see any of this? I doubt it... it would need a lot more tax money and there are too many parents out there who get enraged when not everyone in the class gets a sticker no matter how well they did on the spelling test. Well, I think we need a bit more capitalism and Darwinism in the classroom, or else our position in the world isn't going to hold.

ENOUGH WITH THE RUNAWAY BRIDE!!!

That is all.

Straw Man

I don't really know why I waste my time on David Brooks...

I like to think about this episode when I hear militant secularists argue that faith should be kept out of politics. Like Martin Luther King Jr. a century later, Lincoln seemed to understand that epochal decisions are rarely made in a secular frame of mind. When great leaders make daring leaps, they often feel themselves surrendering to Divine Providence, and their strength flows from their faith that they are acting in accordance with transcendent moral truth.

No, no, and no... we folk who get more than a little ticked off when government and churches get really cozy aren't against people (politicians or otherwise) leaning on their faith for guidance and/or strength while in office. My faith certainly drives my personal moral and political principles... but people like Bush have stopped using that as a personal guide and inner strength and started to foist it on everyone else and giving preference to particular religions.

Two hoops down...

The Wife is taking her final law school exam ever as I type this, while I just successfully proposed my dissertation this morning... yah for us!

BTW Heidi, you owe me a bottle of Bombay Sapphire...

Shorter Tierney

The Bushes aren't religious fanatics because Laura once told a dick joke.

(Also note the dissonance of his column with the previous post)

Update: Check out Digby...

Laura Bush: Stomping on manliness

This is awesome... I hope this gets all sorts of press play in order to show the nation what sort of raving lunatics the far right wing holds dear...

(Props to Heidi for the link)

Update: Even better... apparently all sorts of news organizations got duped by the TVC

But they have no problems redacting their intelligence...

Everyone and their brother is linking to this, but that isn't going to stop me... check it out.