Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Make Some Noise
Fairly regularly I see some explicit or implicit criticisms of people like me for freaking out about a particular issue such as Social Security. The basic issue is something like "You said Obama was going to cut Social Security and he didn't!" Well, I never said Obama, or Democrats, were going to cut Social Security, just that they're leaving the possibility on the table. And I think not cutting Social Security is rather important, so when the possibility is raised I'm going to freak out about it. I don't know if this blog or any activism at all is good for anything, but the point of freaking out and making noise about a possible policy option is to send a message that people like me... are going to freak out about such things. Maybe that freaking out serves no purpose, in which case I don't know why people care at all beyond the basic "somebody on the internet is wrong" dynamic, or maybe, just maybe, it manages to play some small role in convincing lawmakers to do their damage elsewhere.
Shut It Moochers
What's true of the Washington Post is true of the Philadelphia Orchestra is true of many institutions I'm aware of. The people in charge suck, and they respond by extracting all the value and screwing the workers.
Fuck War
Indeed.
I'm not sure exactly when I started seeing myself as a pacifist. It's one of those words which to Very Serious People means "you like it when the bully punches you in the face don't you dirty fucking hippie!" But what I've learned over the increasingly many years of my life is that the existence of just about any war in which the US is involved means that the Very Serious People, with all the power they have, fucked up completely. Even if that war is, in some sense, "necessary," it still means that the people who run this place screwed up and at the very least should resign in shame before sending people off to kill and be killed. But they don't. They go on Meet the Press to talk about how awesome they are.
I'm not sure exactly when I started seeing myself as a pacifist. It's one of those words which to Very Serious People means "you like it when the bully punches you in the face don't you dirty fucking hippie!" But what I've learned over the increasingly many years of my life is that the existence of just about any war in which the US is involved means that the Very Serious People, with all the power they have, fucked up completely. Even if that war is, in some sense, "necessary," it still means that the people who run this place screwed up and at the very least should resign in shame before sending people off to kill and be killed. But they don't. They go on Meet the Press to talk about how awesome they are.
The Worst People In The World
Breibart isn't the first conservative to devote himself to the all-important cause of shining the light on the serious problem of racist African-Americans.
The Game
Republicans always offered conservative means to achieve more liberal goals as a way of thwarting any way of achieving those goals. They'd always be enabled by ThirdWayNoLabelsDLCTNR wankers who would praise them as Very Serious Policy Thinkers. So, carbon tax becomes cap and trade, and then cap and trade becomes... just like Hitler!
Cunning Plan
What Boehner wants is for Democrats to own unpopular spending cuts. And with the McCaskills and Conrads of the Senate, he'll likely succeed.
Oops
Naughty naughty.
The husband of Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, former Maine Gov. John McKernan, is the chairman of a large for-profit college company being sued by the Department of Justice for allegedly improperly paying recruiters based on how many students they sign up to enroll.
The lawsuit is gaining attention in Washington as Snowe prepares to run for a fourth-term in the Senate next year.
The Justice Department joined a whistleblower lawsuit, filed by former employees of Education Management Corp., that also includes 11 states and the District of Columbia, though not the state of Maine. The company does not have a location in Maine.
Basically, Abortion Has Been Outlawed in S. Dakota
Kudos to Amanda Marcotte for staying on top of this story.
My question, as always, is how do these people get elected. Over and over again.
My question, as always, is how do these people get elected. Over and over again.
Monday, May 09, 2011
Really Bad Senators
The great thing about Republicans is that they can simultaneously run for and against Medicare, all with the aid of awful Democrats like Claire McCaskill.
....more from MoveOn.org.
A plan to cap U.S. government spending that’s gaining support in the Senate could require deep cuts to Medicare and Medicaid that parallel those proposed in House Republican Paul Ryan’s budget.
The Senate proposal by Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee and Democrat Claire McCaskill of Missouri aims to save $7.6 trillion over 10 years by capping federal spending at 20.6 percent of gross domestic product within a decade, down from 24.3 percent now.
....more from MoveOn.org.
On TeeVee
I'll pose a related question. When will advertisers realize that women watch sports? At least here in the urban hellhole the wimmenfolk seem to quite like that baseball thing, judging by the number of them decked out in team gear watching at the stadium, in bars, etc. The advertising is almost all squarely aimed at your 1982 frat boy archetype, except with a bit more disposable income, plus penis and gout pills.
It's Your Fault, Assholes
As Krugman says, the Very Serious People fucked everything up. I'm sure there will be a BoBo column along shortly that tells us that unless we're nicer to our Galtian Overlords and submit to more beatings, their feefees will be hurt and they'll head to the Gulch.
Please just go already.
Please just go already.
A Little More Super
Currently the Acela does the Philly-NYC run in 1:12. I'm not quite sure I believe the funded improvements (thanks Lex!) will bring that down below an hour, but I suppose it's close enough. Though absent the ARC tunnel (screw you Christie!) or similar, there's still a serious capacity constraint crossing the river into NYC.
...adding that I've only taken the Acela once to NYC. The "normal" service can be as quick as 1:19, but most trains take between 1:25-1:30.
...adding that I've only taken the Acela once to NYC. The "normal" service can be as quick as 1:19, but most trains take between 1:25-1:30.
People Riding Trains
It's true that much of the country doesn't have inter-city rail, and even in places that do have it the frequency and reliability are not exactly awesome, but it isn't true that the NE corridor (much less the mid-Atlantic bit) is the only place with decent service. The wikipedia tells me that 2.6 million people rode on the SLO-San Diego line in 2010.
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