Rumble Seat Ramble

2011-12-18T14:17:00.001-05:00

Members of Congress should be compelled to wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers, so we could identify their corporate sponsors. --Anon

2011-12-12T22:46:00.001-05:00

“A government afraid of its citizens is a Democracy. Citizens afraid of government is tyranny!”
― Thomas Jefferson[1]

2011-12-01T22:06:00.003-05:00

Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation

January 17, 1961

Good evening, my fellow Americans: First, I should like to express my gratitude to the radio and television networks for the opportunity they have given me over the years to bring reports and messages to our nation. My special thanks go to them for the opportunity of addressing you this evening.

Three days from now, after a half century of service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.

This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.

Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.

Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on questions of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the nation.

My own relations with Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and finally to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years.

In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the nation well rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the nation should go forward. So my official relationship with Congress ends in a feeling on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together.

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

Throughout America's adventure in free government, such basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among peoples and among nations.

To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people.

Any failure traceable to arrogance or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us a grievous hurt, both at home and abroad.

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle – with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in the newer elements of our defenses; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research – these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in light of a broader consideration; the need to maintain balance in and among national programs – balance between the private and the public economy, balance between the cost and hoped for advantages – balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between the actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their Government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well in the face of threat and stress.

But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise.

Of these, I mention two only.

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system – ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war – as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years – I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.

Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.

So – in this my last good night to you as your President – I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find some things worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.

You and I – my fellow citizens – need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nations' great goals.

To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America's prayerful and continuing aspiration:

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.

Now, on Friday noon, I am to become a private citizen. I am proud to do so. I look forward to it.

Thank you, and good night.

2011-11-20T12:12:00.002-05:00

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - John F. Kennedy [here]

2011-11-20T04:10:00.002-05:00

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." --First Amendment.

2011-11-18T01:30:00.002-05:00

Who needs Federal Regulation?

"Nearly 1,300 premature deaths could be prevented annually in the Pittsburgh area with stronger federal pollution controls on soot, according to a report to be released today by a team of health and environmental groups." --PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW Here.

2011-10-23T21:47:00.002-04:00

Paul Krugman on writing:

My bible in all this is George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language. I recommend, in particular, reading his translation of good English, from the King James Bible, into bad modern English. The original:

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

The translation:

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

2011-10-20T23:02:00.002-04:00

Cap-and-trade may be dead at the national level, but it is alive and well in California, the worlds eighth largest economy.[1]

2011-10-06T15:44:00.001-04:00

Steve Jobs:

"About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

"I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

"This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

[here]

2011-10-04T22:21:00.002-04:00

"Income inequality in the U.S. is higher than at any other time since the Great Depression, and the U.S. is currently more unequal than countries like the Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, and Pakistan.... according to a new Finance & Development study, income inequality also “kills economic growth.” [1]

2011-10-03T19:05:00.004-04:00

A lengthy expose of Koch Industries by Bloomberg is found here. Read it and weep. And learn why capitalism needs a fully functioning democracy.

2011-10-02T23:05:00.001-04:00

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own—nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory—and hire someone to protect against this—because of the work the rest of us did.”

“Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea—God bless! Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay it forward for the next kid who comes along.” --Elizabeth Warren[1]

2011-09-22T07:11:00.002-04:00

Ever wonder if you're hearing the truth from politicians and other well known people? Here's a good source for truth-seeking.

2011-09-17T00:23:00.001-04:00

A lost decade?

[here]

2011-09-17T00:08:00.001-04:00

California unemployment is now 12.1%. [1]

2011-09-14T23:37:00.000-04:00

Private contractors cost more than federal workers in 33 of 35 cases, study finds. here

2011-09-14T23:27:00.002-04:00

"Earnings of the typical man who works full-time year round fell, and are lower—adjusted for inflation—than in 1978. Earnings for women, meanwhile, are a relative bright spot: Median incomes have been rising in recent years and rose again last year, though women still make 77 cents for every dollar earned by comparably employed men." --WSJ here.

2011-09-13T22:09:00.001-04:00

"...the U.S. Census Bureau said the poverty rate rose for a third consecutive year to hit 15.1 percent in 2010. The number in poverty was the largest since the government first began publishing estimates in 1959." --Reuters

2011-09-10T21:11:00.002-04:00

Since 9/11, in America:

Deaths by Muslim terrorists - 33
Murders -150,000 [1]

2011-09-07T22:32:00.003-04:00

As the pursuit of truth becomes increasingly difficult, reliance on reputable sources becomes increasingly necessary. But which sources?

One source I find useful is Politifact. Some background information from Wikipedia is here. If you use a newsreader such as Google Reader, you may want to include the contributions from Politifact. Their daily offering is relatively small.

2011-09-03T00:20:00.001-04:00

Last Quarter, Corporate After Tax Profits Were Highest Since 1947. [here]

2011-09-01T13:00:00.001-04:00

"The ratio of corporate profits to wages is now higher than at any time since just before the Great Depression." --Robert Reich verified here.

2011-08-31T16:02:00.002-04:00

Babies in the United States have a higher risk of dying during their first month of life than do babies born in 40 other countries..[here] and [here]

2011-08-08T20:29:00.001-04:00

"I don’t know what the government is coming to. Instead of protecting businessmen, it pokes its nose into business! Why, they’re even talking now about having *bank* examiners. As if we bankers don’t know how to run our own banks! Why, at home I have a letter from a popinjay official saying they were going to inspect my books.
"I have a slogan that should be blazoned on every newspaper in this country: America for the Americans! The government must not interfere with business! Reduce taxes! Our national debt is something shocking. Over one billion dollars a year! What this country needs is a businessman for president!" from Stagecoach (1939, dir. John Ford)

2011-07-26T21:34:00.000-04:00

Reagan raised debt ceiling 18 times; George W. Bush seven times.[1]

2011-07-24T20:04:00.002-04:00

"To balance our budget in 1933 or 1934 or 1935 would have been a crime against the American people. To do so we should either have had to make a capital levy that would have been confiscatory, or we should have had to set our face against human suffering with callous indifference. When Americans suffered, we refused to pass by on the other side. Humanity came first.

"No one lightly lays a burden on the income of a Nation. But this vicious tightening circle of our declining national income simply had to be broken. The bankers and the industrialists of the Nation cried aloud that private business was powerless to break it. They turned, as they had a right to turn, to the Government. We accepted the final responsibility of Government, after all else had failed, to spend money when no one else had money left to spend.

"I adopted, therefore, the other alternative. I cast aside a do nothing or a wait-and-see policy."--FDR[1]

2011-05-25T19:03:00.004-04:00

TARP Scorecard: $710 billion allocated, $410 billion actually invested, $260 billion repaid (with interest), $150 billion outstanding. [Time]

2011-05-25T18:36:00.001-04:00

The Ryan budget plan failed by a vote of 40 in favor and 57 opposed. Senate Republicans voting "NO":

Scott Brown
Susan Collins
Lisa Murkowski
Rand Paul
Olympia Snowe

2011-05-25T18:15:00.002-04:00

"Three years ago, the U.S. made less than 1 percent of advanced batteries in the world...Investments in battery research through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will help build 30 new U.S. battery manufacturing plants, aiding energy security as well as job creation." [1]

2011-05-25T13:52:00.004-04:00

Paul Ryan's plan for Medicare will reduce the cost Medicare to the federal government by transferring those costs to Seniors. The total cost will go up to Seniors far more than the savings to the government. By transferring responsibility to Seniors, who have far less bargaining power than the federal government, costs will further increase, says Peter Orszag. By 2030, health spending on the typical beneficiary would be more than 40 percent higher under the Ryan plan than under existing Medicare, according to a CBO report. Read it here, and weep.

2011-04-23T18:25:00.001-04:00

"Too much capitalism does not mean too many capitalists, but too few capitalists." --G.K. Chesterton defining distributism.

2011-04-23T18:14:00.001-04:00

“The excessive hoarding of riches by some denies them to the majority, and thus the very wealth that is accumulated generates poverty.”--Pope John Paul II

2011-04-23T03:54:00.002-04:00

"On the eve of the November midterm elections, Koch Industries sent an urgent letter to most of its 50,000 employees advising them on whom to vote for and warning them about the dire consequences to their families, their jobs and their country should they choose to vote otherwise." --from The Nation, more here.

Does your job depend on how your CEO wants you to vote?

2011-04-23T01:03:00.003-04:00

"Why do we have a debt limit in the first place? We appropriate funds, we have tax law, anyone reasonably adept at arithmetic can calculate what the debt change is going to be. The Congress and the president have signed legislation predetermining what that number is. Why we need suspenders and belts is something I’ve never understood." -Alan Greenspan here.

Further history here.

2011-04-06T01:51:00.005-04:00

Using Michigan's Freedom of Information Act the Republican leaning Mackinac Center For Public Policy seeks emails from university faculty who may have mentioned "Scott Walker"; "Wisconsin"; "Madison" and [Rachel] "Maddow". [1]

The witch hunting age of Joe McCarthy seems to have returned.

2011-04-02T02:28:00.003-04:00

The federal government on Friday released proposed rules requiring chain restaurants and other businesses that serve food to post calorie counts on menus and menu boards. But after objections from theater chains, the rules give a pass to those box-office snacks — even though a large popcorn and soda can contain as many calories as a typical person needs in a day. --NYT (here)

2011-04-01T01:40:00.001-04:00

“The spill commission’s report said that the problems within the oil industry that led to the BP spill were systemic, and not unique to this disaster,” said Rep. Edward Markey (D) of Massachusetts. “Now we know there could also be systemic design issues with blowout preventers that could cause them to be ineffective, even when deployed as intended. We need a full review of every single blowout preventer used in United States waters, and revisit the designs of these supposed machines of last resort.” (here)

2011-03-31T21:27:00.001-04:00

Years ago I remember a lot of moderate liberals talking about how the Bush era radicalized them. For me, it was the economic collapse of 2008 that did it. The financial industry almost literally came within a hair's breadth of destroying the world, but even so it took only a few short months for them to close ranks with Republicans and the rich to prevent anything serious being done to rein them in. Profits are back up, new regulations are barely more than window dressing, nothing was done to help underwater homeowners, bonuses are as obscene as ever, unemployment remains sky high, and the public has somehow been convinced that this was all their own fault — or perhaps the fault of big government, or big deficits, or something. But the finance industry has escaped almost entirely unscathed. It's mind boggling. If this doesn't change your view of who really runs the world, I don't know what would. --Kevin Drum here.

2011-03-30T00:26:00.001-04:00

Comcast last year was named Worst Company in America in a Consumerist poll. This year, it asks its own staff to vote in order to prevent it from happening again. CNET here.

2011-03-25T18:07:00.001-04:00

California unemployment fell from 12.4 to 12.2 percent in February. LAT

2011-03-21T23:36:00.000-04:00

What do all Scandinavians, Belgians and the Dutch have that 52 million Americans don't? Health care

2011-03-21T23:08:00.003-04:00

[From AJE 3/22/2011]

12:49am Fox News reports that Gaddafi's regime has used journalists as human shields. The US broadcaster said an attack on Gaddafi's compound on Sunday had to be curtailed because of journalists nearby.

2:33am CNN correspondent Nic Robertson dismisses a report by Fox News that journalists in Libya were used by Gaddafi's forces as human shields. He says the allegation is "outrageous and it's absolutely hypocritical".

"When you come to somewhere like Libya, you expect lies and deceit from the dictatorship here. You don't expect it from the other journalists."

2011-03-19T02:43:00.001-04:00

Executives in the corner office now make 62 times more than the average worker, and that's just in bonuses alone. [Time, here.]

2011-03-17T19:30:00.001-04:00

In February, the Koch Industries political action committee spent money on: Sen. Scott Brown ($2500), Sen. Jim DeMint ($5000), Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) ($5000), Rep. Steve Roskam (R-IL) ($2500), and Sen. Mitch McConnell ($2500), and the campaigns of Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) ($5000), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) ($3000), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) ($2500), Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) ($2500), Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) ($2500), Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR) ($2000), Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) ($2000), Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) ($1000), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) ($1000), Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) ($1000), and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) ($1500).[1]

2011-03-15T01:26:00.001-04:00

“Nearly 3 in 10 adults living in Texas (27.8%) do not have health insurance, making it the state with the highest uninsured rate in the country in 2010,” reports Gallup. Meanwhile, Massachusetts “continues to have the lowest percentage of uninsured residents, at 4.7%.” --Ezra Klein, here.

2011-03-15T01:17:00.004-04:00

No good deed shall go unpunished department. State Department spokesperson PJ Crowley told the truth. It cost him his job.

Whatever Bradley Manning's crime, torture is still intolerable. It's still about who we are.

2011-02-15T20:56:00.000-05:00

In the poll, 51% of all likely Republican primary voters erroneously believed that President Obama was born outside of the U.S.

"Erroneously believe"? Baloney. Ignoring the reality of Obama's certificate of live birth is nothing more than a way to pretend they're not racists, which simply makes them look stupid and racist.

--Barbra Morrill for Daily KOS

2011-02-12T02:25:00.002-05:00

Paul Krugman: "...44 percent of Social Security recipients, and 40 percent of Medicare recipients, believe that they don’t benefit from any government social program." (here)

2011-01-16T22:18:00.004-05:00

[From Paul Krugman, here]

January 13, 2011, 3:35 pm

Two Speeches and an Editorial

President Obama, yesterday:

Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together.

President Obama, May 1, 2009:

I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people’s hopes and struggles as an essential ingredient for arriving as just decisions and outcomes.

National Review, May 4, 2009:

Empathy is simply a codeword for an inclination toward liberal activism.

2010-12-05T22:47:00.001-05:00

In a free society, we are supposed to know the truth. In a society where truth becomes treason, we are in big trouble. --Ron Paul

More here.

2010-12-05T22:43:00.001-05:00

Atlantic Monthly - By David Samuels - Dec. 03 (Opinion) - [The] fact that so many prominent old school journalists are attacking him with such unbridled force is a symptom of the failure of traditional reporting methods to penetrate a culture of official secrecy that has grown by leaps and bounds since 9/11, and threatens the functioning of a free press as a cornerstone of democracy.

Full article here.

2010-12-05T22:27:00.003-05:00

WikiLeaks
If your local DNS is not helping, try these:
http://213.251.145.96/
http://www.wikileaks.nl/

If you're tech savy, edit your router DNS1 and DNS2 to
208.67.222.222
208.67.222.220
Complements of http://www.opendns.com/

2010-07-11T17:59:00.001-04:00

Reported bank failures this year - 90. (And it's only half over.) So, do you still want less government?

2010-07-11T13:17:00.002-04:00

A lengthy and detailed article on the real lack of "support for our troops" especially during the last administration can be found here.

2010-07-04T22:36:00.001-04:00

A coalition of the heartless, the clueless and the confused is blocking extended unemployment benefits. --Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman is much too generous. --Mojo

2010-03-27T00:19:00.001-04:00

California's unemployment rate in February held steady at 12.5% for a second straight month...[1]

2010-03-16T00:42:00.003-04:00

24% of all Californians under age 65 lack any medical insurance. [LAT here] No problem, eh?

2010-03-12T03:17:00.002-05:00

Rush supports socialized medicine:

Rush Limbaugh said he'd go to Costa Rica for medical treatment if the healthcare reform touted by President Barack Obama is passed. If that happens, he'll join legions of American medical tourists who travel to this bastion of socialized medicine every year.--CSM

(snicker)

2010-03-06T02:22:00.002-05:00

Global warming: Here are a couple of lists - Organizations that believe in it and organizations that don't. Read 'em and think.

2010-02-15T13:40:00.001-05:00

Federal Government spending - Where the money goes. See this.

2010-02-09T12:54:00.002-05:00

Are Republicans or Democrats more often on the wrong side of public opinion? Here's a short summary.

2010-02-02T14:35:00.003-05:00

From the Daily KOS:

Headlines You Won’t Read Anytime Soon

Senator Orly Taitz sworn in
Pro-choice ad given green light to air during Super Bowl
Rush Limbaugh issues apology
James O'Keefe wins Pulitzer
Democrats call Republicans' bluff on filibuster threat
ABC News CEO discusses politics on Fox News Sunday
Senator Evan Bayh takes far-right bloggers to task
Conan O'Brien applies for food stamps
Tea Party protestors proof spelling before hoisting signs
Comedies dominate Oscar nominations
Insurers voluntarily eliminate pre-existing condition restrictions
U.S. Chamber of Commerce declares bankruptcy
V.P. Biden shoots lawyer in face while hunting quail
Majority of GBCW diarists don’t return to Daily Kos
Unemployment too low, economists warn
Canada goes berserk!

2010-02-02T14:20:00.003-05:00

Fact free politics is alive and well.

A new poll of self-identified Republicans released Tuesday shows a large slice of the GOP believes President Barack Obama is a “socialist” who was not born in this country, should be impeached, wants the terrorists to win and only won the 2008 election because ACORN “stole” it for him.

Read more here.

2010-01-31T12:36:00.002-05:00

Ignorance is, well, ignorance. From 538:

We've repeatedly highlighted Kaiser's health care polling, which revealed that only about half of the public knows about many of the key provisions that are in the Democrats' bill, such as coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. Meanwhile, a Pew poll this week found that only 26 percent of Americans know that it takes 60 votes to overcome a Senate filibuster -- and only 32 percent know that Senate GOPers voted unanimously against the Democrats' health care plan. And a Rasmussen poll of likely voters found that only 21 percent of them believe that the Democrats have cut taxes for "95% of working families", a fact which is probably true.[1]

Of course everybody votes, whether they have the facts or not.

2010-01-30T09:22:00.003-05:00

President Obama credited his policies with the economic growth rate of 5.7 percent in the last quarter.[1] Looks like the President is cherry picking the data. Economists generally regard most of that number as an anomaly (a bubble).

Update: Then again, maybe not. Here's an in depth look at the data.

2010-01-15T00:59:00.002-05:00

Between $10 million and $20 million, came from Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans, UnitedHealth Group and Wellpoint to defeat health care reform. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent approximately $70 million to $100 million.[1]

2010-01-07T03:38:00.001-05:00

A note on happiness - in Costa Rica.

2010-01-05T00:30:00.001-05:00

Health care: Bang for the buck. Check this.

2009-12-27T21:25:00.000-05:00

Everyone is for scientific research, when the answers don’t threaten livelihoods. When they do, it requires a special kind of intellectual integrity to accept those answers. That integrity is a scarce commodity among humans. — Carlo Graziani

2009-12-27T21:10:00.001-05:00

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" --Upton Sinclair

2009-12-27T20:36:00.005-05:00

If you take a commercial aircraft flight, what is the chance of a terrorist attack? Nate Silver offers the answer, by the numbers. Read it. Now go fret about something more important, like getting struck by lightening.

2009-12-26T18:34:00.001-05:00

Health care reform: the Senate bill, by the numbers: here.

2009-12-22T14:19:00.001-05:00

'...the pain caucus hates, just hates, the idea that social justice and responsible policy can ever go hand in hand.' --Paul Krugman[1]

2009-12-22T13:45:00.003-05:00

Who is winning the health care debate, the American people or the insurance companies? On the day it became clear that the Senate bill would pass, insurance company stocks rose 4.5%, while the broader market rose 1%. --here

2009-12-15T10:16:00.003-05:00

The paradox of toil. In a liquidity trap, some tax cuts have the perverse effect of reducing productivity. Explanation here. In 1948, Samuelson said so, see here.

2009-12-08T13:29:00.003-05:00

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." --Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Which brings me to Rupert Murdoch's Fox News. Jed Lewison at Daily Kos reports.

Poor Fox, always having those problems with on-screen graphics. Today's "Fair & Balanced" snafu: During President Obama's speech on jobs, he said that at least $200 billion had been saved from the TARP program, savings that he plans to use to help fund his new job creation initiatives. A few minutes later, Fox took that $200 billion figure and lopped off the zeros, reporting it as a $2 billion savings in their on-screen graphic, understating the President's comments by $198 billion.

Here's another "Fair & Balanced" slip by Fox in which they claim 120% of the public is skeptical of global warming science. Now that's the definition of an unscientific poll...

A couple of points: There seems to be a long standing pattern of factual errors which support their opinion. Retraction or correction doesn't seem to be a part of the process.

2009-12-07T09:19:00.002-05:00

Twenty-five percent of the people who oppose health care reform oppose it from the left. That is they think it does not go far enough.[1]

2009-12-06T14:17:00.002-05:00

More than 50 papers worldwide will run the same front-page leader article calling for action at the climate summit in Copenhagen.[1] The full text is here.

2009-12-04T23:10:00.004-05:00

Your privacy has a price, but someone else gets the money. How much do Cox Communications, Comcast, Yahoo and Verizon charge to violate your privacy? In response to an FOIA request Cox Communications and Comcast 'fessed up. Yahoo and Verizon objected. You can bet it is a lot more than you pay for the service. Details from Wired, here. Update: Much more here.

2009-12-04T20:19:00.001-05:00

Health insurance giant Aetna is planning to force up to 650,000 clients to drop their coverage next year as it seeks to raise additional revenue to meet profit expectations.[1] Wanna talk about a public option?

2009-12-04T20:13:00.001-05:00

"[T]he average private sector job growth under four-year Democratic administrations is 11.7%. Under Republican administrations, it's 5.4%."--here.

2009-12-04T13:36:00.002-05:00

[Elitists unite! (From the Daily Kos here.]

Barring a scientific breakthrough, we can’t merge Obama’s analysis with George Bush’s passion. But we should still be glad that he is governing the way he is. I loved covering the Obama campaign. But amid problems like Afghanistan and health care, it simply wouldn’t do to give gauzy speeches about the meaning of the word hope. It is in Obama’s nature to lead a government by symposium. Embrace the complexity. Learn to live with the dispassion.

I hate agreeing with [David] Brooks, but there it is.

2009-12-04T13:26:00.003-05:00

Unemployment. We talk about the number, but rarely the definition(s). Here is a primer. Note especially U3 and U6. Note the ILO definition. Some current values here.

2009-12-03T12:21:00.002-05:00

Al-Qaida kills eight times more Muslims than non-Muslims. (Here)

2009-11-29T12:29:00.002-05:00

Are the scorekeepers at MSNBC having an effect? Several sources report that Fox News management is now seeking to correct the culture that tolerates inaccurate reporting, saying, "It is more important to get it right, than it is to get it on [the air]."

Probably not going to affect the slant.

2009-11-29T11:19:00.002-05:00

45,000 Americans die prematurely each year as a consequence of not having insurance.[1], [2]

2009-11-26T13:18:00.003-05:00

You can fool all of the people some of the time... More evidence that the invasion of Iraq was not about WMD, but regime change. (here)

2009-11-25T14:54:00.003-05:00

Politicians have long operated on the assumption that anything said more than 6 months ago is long forgotten by the voters. Perhaps still true for some, but in the 21st century the technologically competent (and there are many) don't need long memories, just nimble fingers. Yesterday's politicians may be in trouble.

A good example is John McCain's complaint about the vicious attacks on Sarah Palin. Nimble fingers at the Daily Kos turned up this attack by McCain himself.

2009-11-25T11:06:00.001-05:00

The Washington Post has become a local paper.[1]

2009-11-25T10:16:00.002-05:00

Based on the latest Fed estimate for unemployment, Paul Krugman infers that the liquidity trap will still be with us thru 2012.

2009-11-24T22:59:00.001-05:00

Around the world. Tax revenue as a portion of GDP. Here.

2009-11-24T13:21:00.001-05:00

Is the weak dollar a serious concern for the US? See this from Paul Krugman.

2009-11-22T21:56:00.002-05:00

Here's another bit of evidence that allowing the national debt exceed 100% of GDP will not destroy a country.

2009-11-20T23:11:00.001-05:00

The California jobless rate climbs to 12.5% [LAT]

2009-11-16T19:04:00.002-05:00

Krugman extensions proposed to Godwin's Law. (Reductio ad Hitlerum) 'Bout time.

2009-11-15T15:23:00.002-05:00

"Sarah from Alaska", the reviews are pouring in even before the official release. It's beyond the Palin.

2009-11-14T08:35:00.002-05:00

On the deficit. "I’d be a little more forgiving of the nonsense if all the people screaming about the deficit were sincere. And some are. But many, if not most, are perfectly happy to incur huge unfunded liabilities for the wars they want to fight, and/or to eliminate inheritance taxes for the heirs of multimillionaires. It’s only deficits incurred to help working Americans that get them all moralistic." --Paul Krugman[1] For those with short memories, we ran a surplus in the last years of the Clinton administration. Were the deficit screamers supportive? Not on your life.

2009-11-12T07:40:00.004-05:00

Veterans Day 2009: MSNBC reports that 2200 veterans die every year for lack of health insurance.[1] More than 100,000 veterans will be homeless this year. That's 25% of the homeless population in America.

2009-11-12T07:17:00.001-05:00

“ In this new version of the bible, Jesus asks the lepers what health care plan they're on before he cures them.” --Anonymous

2009-11-12T07:09:00.003-05:00

Paul Krugman reports that dividend inclusive returns under 4 Presidents for the S&P 500 were

Reagan: 10.08%
Bush I: 10.16%
Clinton: 14.35%
Bush II: minus 5.81%