Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Suicide car bomber kills 19 in northwest Pakistan

by Lehaz Ali, AFP

8 mins ago

Monday Business Edition

I seem to be writing a lot about Economics these days.  Starting with The Big Fail (last week’s Monday Business Edition) there are 7 diaries-

• It’s only a Nobel Prize…
• “It’s not that I’m an uncaring person”
• enthusiasm updated
• Pyramid Scheme
• Great Austerian Success Stories!
• Do you validate?

What are my qualifications to do this?  Absolutely none.  I’m a critic, not a reporter Jim; except that as a History major I was required to take Economics 101 (where I got a gentleman’s B).  You might say I’m Neo-classically trained because along with millions of others my principal text was Economics by Paul Samuelson.

But I don’t often rest my hat on my own analysis, I prefer to cite others who have not ‘spent decades unlearning‘ the foundational principles of their “Science” (dismal though it is) in favor of Snake Headed Oil Salesmen hissing from the serpents in the garden (that’s another Stargate joke).

The Real Lesson of Labor Day

By Robert Reich

Friday, September 3, 2010

Welcome to the worst Labor Day in the memory of most Americans. Organized labor is down to about 7 percent of the private work force. Members of non-organized labor – most of the rest of us – are unemployed, underemployed or underwater. The Labor Department reported on Friday that just 67,000 new private-sector jobs were created in August, which, when added to the loss of public-sector (mostly temporary Census worker jobs) resulted in a net loss of over 50,000 jobs for the month. But at least 125,000 net new jobs are needed to keep up with the growth of the potential work force.

…

(T)he real problem has to do with the structure of the economy, not the business cycle. No booster rocket can work unless consumers are able, at some point, to keep the economy moving on their own. But consumers no longer have the purchasing power to buy the goods and services they produce as workers; for some time now, their means haven’t kept up with what the growing economy could and should have been able to provide them.

…

(The) Great Depression and its aftermath demonstrate that there is only one way back to full recovery: through more widely shared prosperity. In the 1930s, the American economy was completely restructured. New Deal measures – Social Security, a 40-hour work week with time-and-a-half overtime, unemployment insurance, the right to form unions and bargain collectively, the minimum wage – leveled the playing field.

In the decades after World War II, legislation like the G.I. Bill, a vast expansion of public higher education and civil rights and voting rights laws further reduced economic inequality. Much of this was paid for with a 70 percent to 90 percent marginal income tax on the highest incomes. And as America’s middle class shared more of the economy’s gains, it was able to buy more of the goods and services the economy could provide. The result: rapid growth and more jobs.

1938 in 2010

By PAUL KRUGMAN, The New York Times

Published: September 5, 2010

The economic moral is clear: when the economy is deeply depressed, the usual rules don’t apply. Austerity is self-defeating: when everyone tries to pay down debt at the same time, the result is depression and deflation, and debt problems grow even worse. And conversely, it is possible – indeed, necessary – for the nation as a whole to spend its way out of debt: a temporary surge of deficit spending, on a sufficient scale, can cure problems brought on by past excesses.

But the story of 1938 also shows how hard it is to apply these insights. Even under F.D.R., there was never the political will to do what was needed to end the Great Depression; its eventual resolution came essentially by accident.

I had hoped that we would do better this time. But it turns out that politicians and economists alike have spent decades unlearning the lessons of the 1930s, and are determined to repeat all the old mistakes. And it’s slightly sickening to realize that the big winners in the midterm elections are likely to be the very people who first got us into this mess, then did everything in their power to block action to get us out.

If you still have the stomach for it I’ll also cite this analysis on Open Left brought to my attention by Jay Ackroyd on Eschaton–

When we say “the Dems hate the Left” or they’re beating up on “dirty fucking hippies”, what we’re REALLY saying is that, for the Third-Wayers, neoliberalism vs. social democracy is actually the whole ballgame.  The last vestiges of American social democracy - the New Deal and all its accoutrements - must be wiped out, at all costs.

They haven’t been able to say so – because they need the votes of the “little people”.  But there’s almost no play left in that gambit.  With each [dispiriting] election betrayal (Clinton and NAFTA, Obama and Health Care, Obama and Social Security) the Democratic brand gets weaker and weaker.

We on the Left, the “netroots”, etc., need to understand the centrality of this point more than we do.  The coming fight over Social Security is not one issue among many, it’s the defining issue of this period.  Third Way politics is dependent on the bubble economy.  This has failed.  We can’t go back there.  We have to make this known.

As Jay says- “Eventually you have to consider the possibility they are getting the policies they want to get.”

Sing it loud.  And if that doesn’t get you a little verklempt, look for the Union Label below the fold.

Holiday weekend Sunday.  Some stuff, but not a lot to pick and choose from.  You might be interested in this though, Turner Classic is running a marathon of The March of Time newsreels.

• ABC Family– The Sound of Music (I barfed the first time I saw this, but I was sick on Saltwater Taffy)
• Comedy– More Futurama new season marathon
• Disney– What?  You havent seen Camp Rock 2 yet?
• ESPN– Turn Left Sprint Cup: Emory Healthcare 500
• Food– The Great Food Truck Race (Final 4), Iron Chef America (both premiers)
• FX– Alvin and the Chipmunks x 2 (but why?  Worst film of 2007)
• History– Swamp People marathon (including premier)
• SciFi– The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (I don’t think this was as horrible as some others do)
• Spike– Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars (Lucas can fuck himself for rewriting history.  Han shot first.)
• TBS– My Big Fat Greek Wedding x 2
• TNT– Leverage (last week’s and Season Finale)
• Toon– New Delocated and Childrens Hospital
• Travel– Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations marathon
• VH1– New Ochocinco!

Later-

• AMC– Mad Men and Rubicon
• CNBC– How to Beat the High Cost of Living (Really fun, you should check it out)
• Comedy– More Futurama
• SciFi– The Prestige
• USA– Hairspray (sorry, the sucky 2007 version not John Waters’ 1988 original with Devine)
• Vs.– More Turn Left, Whelen Southern Modified Tour: Caraway
• Turner Classic– The Pagan (shhhh)

Pinstripes & Poltergeists.  When I mentioned this on Friday I didn’t realize it was the last episode so far.  The rest of Season 4 starts on the 12th, so if you want to catch up you might want to watch.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Focus of Gulf oil disaster shifts to finding the culprit

AFP

21 mins ago

259 Stories served.  37 per day.

This is actually the hardest diary to execute, and yet perhaps the most valuable because it lets you track story trends over time.  It should be a Sunday morning feature.

• Sunday 8/29
• Monday 8/30
• Tuesday 8/31
• Wednesday 9/1
• Thursday 9/2
• Friday 9/3
• Saturday 9/4

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Police on alert as Pakistan suicide attack victims buried

by Maaz Khan, AFP

2 hrs 58 mins ago

It’s always nice to be validated, especially by an Author I respect as much as Glenn Greenwald–

(P)erhaps the most significant result of Simpson’s candor is that Obama loyalists and Beltway media voices are now forced to publicly defend Social Security cuts, because Simpson’s comments have prematurely dragged out into the open what has been an open secret in Washington but was supposed to be a secret plot for everyone else until the election was over.  The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait recently decreed, in response to the Simpson controversy, that “liberals should be open to Social Security cuts as part of a balanced package of deficit reduction.”  And in The Washington Post today, both the Editorial Page and Dana Milbank  defend Simpson and call for cuts in Social Security (Milbank even defends cuts in aid to wounded veterans).  That Social Security must be cut is not only a bipartisan consensus among the GOP and “centrist” Democratic wing, but at least as much, among the Beltway media establishment.

But it’s not just good policy, it’s also good politics.  You see, unlike the Obamabots and Institutional Democrats, I actually care about electoral victory–

I certainly have not seen eye-to-eye with Bob Shrum on political strategies over the years.  So when we’re both beating the same drum with the same urgency at the same time, it’s somewhat unusual.

But we both agree that President Obama and the Catfood Commission threaten the electoral chances of every Democrat running for office this November.

Shrum has a piece in The Week in which he echoes Ed Kilgore and others Democratic strategists in pointing out that the Democrats don’t have an issue to run on this November.  Like them, he says that saving Social Security could be the issue that saves their seats as well.

But Shrum is willing to utter the uncomfortable truth that Kilgore ignores:  it is deeply, deeply cynical and unconvincing for the Democrats to be out there castigating the GOP for wanting to do the very thing that the White House is privately telling journalists they themselves plan to do by way of the Catfood Commission after the election.

They are just sycophantic liars.

Well, it’s a holiday weekend again and unless you’re as busy as you should be with friends and family you need me now more than ever.  It’s a public service.

Not enough College Throwball?  LSU @ North Carolina.

• Spike– Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith
• Animal– Pit Boss marathon
• AMC– Maverick (Jodie Foster and James Garner)
• Comedy– New Season Futurama marathon (Hmm, something worth watching, maybe things are not as bad as I thought)
• ESPN– More Throwball, Oregon State @ TCU
• E!– Jerry Maguire (Renee Zellweger, Cuba Gooding Jr.)
• ABC Family– The Parent Trap (Lindsay Lohan, hah!), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder version)
• Food– Chopped marathon
• FX– The Simpsons Movie (Doh!)
• History– Doom and gloom, First Apocalypse and Next Nostradamus.
• Lifetime– Never Been Kissed
• SciFi– Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ (some people like it, I don’t understand why)
• TBS– Titanic (again, a strong candidate for most over rated film ever)
• Turner Classic– Cougar night, The Graduate, A Cold Wind in August (Condemned by the Legion of Decency)
• Toon– Garfield: The Movie (I don’t even like Garfield: The Comic Strip)
• Travel– Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern marathon
• USA– Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde 2
• Disney– Camp Rock 2 ([did I not say ] they would repeat it all weekend?)
• Bravo– House marathon
• Vs.– Indy Kentucky 300 (American open wheel racing, such as it is)

Later-

• Spike– No Country for Old Men
• AMC– Inside Man (a Spike Lee joint)
• ABC Family– Can’t Buy Me Love
• SciFi– Stephen King’s ‘Desperation’
• TBS– Two Weeks Notice
• Turner Classic– Summer of ’42 (did I mention Cougar night?)
• USA– Blonde (again)

Boondocks goes daily next week, you owe yourself.  Tonight’s episodes are Home Alone and The Red Ball.  Early InuYasha (in every sense) means Adult Swim is going for the late night pervert crowd rather than your early morning perverts.  GitS SAC Missing Hearts and Chat! Chat! Chat! are episodes 7 and 8.

It’s like I was playing some kind of game, but the rules don’t make any sense to me. They’re being made up by all the wrong people. I mean no one makes them up. They seem to make themselves up.

Zap2it TV Listings,  Yahoo TV Listings

Well, Yahoo TV Listings is apparently working again, but I’m sticking with Zap2it until I’m sure.

It turns out that it’s good news that only the one Keith and Rachel will distract your attention tonight because unless you’re all into the Jonas Brothers Camp Rock 2 World Premier (which you’ll see in endless repeats this weekend) there’s not a lot of stellar choices.

At least MSNBC seems to be steering clear of Arpaio now that he’s being sued by the Feds for not turning over documents.

• AMC– McLintock! (Marion)
• Bravo– The 40-Year-Old Virgin x 2
• Discovery– Man, Woman, Wild (last week’s and new), Beyond Survival With Les Stroud (premier)
• ESPN– Arizona @ Toledo Throwball
• Food– Chopped Champions (this week’s)
• FX– The Bourne Identity
• Oxygen– A Cinderella Story x 2
• SciFi– Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers (have I mentioned I don’t like Stephen King much?)
• Style– Cocktail
• TBS– Titanic (never seen it and don’t intend to)
• TLC– Say Yes to the Dress marathon
• TNT– Saving Private Ryan
• USA– White Collar marathon

Later-

• AMC– The Cowboys (more Marion)
• FX– Rescue Me (Season Finale repeat), Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle
• SciFi– Haven marathon
• TNT– The Outlaw Josey Wales

Dave is in repeats.  No Alton at all.  At least we have Pinstripes & Poltergeists (new Venture Brothers start on the 12th).

To me the standout is Josey Wales, one of Clint Eastwood’s best.  I’ll finish with some quotes-

There’s another old saying, Senator: Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining.

We thought about it for a long time, “Endeavor to persevere.” And when we had thought about it long enough, we declared war on the Union.

It’s sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues. There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see, and so there is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of Ten Bears carries the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life… or death.