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Aug 26 2010

Matt Bai is a Moron

Matt Bai is a moron who grew up under Ronnie and thought he was a great president simply because he was the only one he’d ever personally experienced and he’s not a very deep thinker.  He’s a preening poppycock of privilege who’s never had to work hard for anything in his life and thinks because he was born on third base he hit a triple.

Among his other idiocies is the opinion it’s ok to default on sovereign debt with the full faith and credit of the United States behind it because it’s owned by the ‘lesser people’.

NYT and Matt Bai Falsely Call Social Security Trust Fund a "Lottery"

By: Scarecrow Thursday August 26, 2010 1:30 am

So ignore Bai’s gratuitous insult that anyone concerned about protecting Social Security is merely worried about an outbreak of bipartisan agreement. Does the New York Times have editors? Surely someone there must know this entire framework is false, misstating how the Trust Fund works and even how bonds and debt are created.

More important, someone at the Times must surely know that a frequent canard of the Republican Party and Social Security opponents is to argue that the Social Security Trust Fund, which has a surplus of $2.5 trillion in US Treasury bonds built up since 1983 by higher payroll taxes paid by future retirees, is just worthless paper. And if it’s worthless paper, future beneficiaries will never be able to rely on the $2.5 trillion they paid into the system to help pay the Social Security benefits to which they’re entitled.

The canard was always designed to convince today’s and tomorrow’s elderly that they cannot rely on the US Government honoring its own Treasury bonds – in effect, arguing the US would be so irresponsible as to engage willy nilly in a sovereign debt default, not to mention breaking a sacred promise to its own people. The goal of the canard is to convince Americans they should not count on Social Security, or government in general, to help in their retirement. Give that money to Wall Street instead.

Social Security is “broke,” they claim; it’s “in crisis,” they continue, and if the Government were forced to pay off those bonds when the system needs to redeem them to pay benefits – just as the government planned – it would create a massive “debt crisis” for the United States. Everything about that story is false and malicious.

The Trust Fund’s bonds are just like other Treasury bonds except they aren’t traded. When the Trust Fund needs to “redeem” a bond to cover ongoing benefit payments, all that happens is that electronic entries reflecting the change appear on the respective governments accounts, and Social Security checks go out, as always, as scheduled. Calling this a “lottery” is stunningly false.

My emphasis.

Well fuck you Matt.  Next time we meet in person I’ll spit in your face like you deserve.

Aug 26 2010

‘Professional’ Liberals

Folks, I’ve never made a dime out of blogging.  Sure I’m scrambling like hell to set up some sources of revenue for this site because I want to create an endowment that will freeze your photons forever, but at $15 bucks a month I can skip the sixpacks (I don’t always drink beer, but when I do…).

You’ll pry my Mets cable package out of my cold, dead hands.

Jerome Armstrong is not like that.  He’s a paid pollitical consultant and expects a check to pay his bills and I don’t begrudge him.  I in fact applaud his bravery despite that to make observations like this-

The promise of a primary for Obama

by Jerome Armstrong, Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 01:48:37 AM EDT

That Obama will give us enduring war in Afghanistan beyond July 2011 seems a given. Will it come on the heels of his buckling to the Republican passage of the permanent Bush Tax cut package for millionaires?

And when I say lose the Party, I mean explicitly that he will face a Democratic primary in 2012, and hopefully, denied the nomination.

Some of you still might see this as far-fetched. But watch and see how losing 50 seats, setting the Democrats back below 200 in the House, has a way of changing the perception.

To which I’ll add just wait until the Catfood Commission reports.

Aug 26 2010

Prime Time

So Fairfield heads home.  There’s more Little League World Series if you want to watch it, I’ll stick with the Mets’ typical implosion.

What I’d like to highlight for your consideration is Turner Classic’s To Have and Have Not.  I think it’s almost as good as Casablanca (best.  movie.  ever.).

Keith and Rachel all night long.

Later-

Dave hosts Christina Applegate, Tom Dreesen, and The Pretty Reckless.  Miss Universe 2010 presents the Top 10.  Jon has Drew Barrymore, Stephen Heidi Cullen.  Alton does Carrots.

Blood of the Father, Heart of Steel, the Venture Brothers Season 4 premier, is a little confusing because it has 2 timelines that go in opposite directions.  Fortunately Adult Swim screwed up the first broadcast and as a make good ran it for the rest of the week so I could figure it out.

You know Steve, you’re not very hard to figure, only at times. Sometimes I know exactly what you’re going to say. Most of the time. The other times… the other times, you’re just a stinker.

Yahoo TV Listings

Aug 26 2010

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 At least 53 dead as car bombs target Iraq police

by Salam Faraj, AFP

1 hr 8 mins ago

BAGHDAD (AFP) – More than a dozen apparently coordinated car bombs targeting Iraqi police and other attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda killed 53 people on Wednesday, just days before the US military ends its combat mission.

The trail of bloodshed started in the capital Baghdad before stretching to the north and south of the country, hitting 10 cities and towns in quick succession in tactics that bore the hallmark of the jihadist network.

Some 250 people were also wounded, security officials said, as a total of 14 car bombs wrought havoc for police and soldiers whose ability to protect the country is under close scrutiny as US forces have drawn down.

Aug 25 2010

Amanda Marcotte on FDL

Punishing Women: A Woman’s Job?

By: RHRealityCheck Tuesday August 24, 2010 7:21 am  

Women are also roped into judging each other’s sexual behavior because we’re led to believe it’s our only realistic source of control.  Being lower status than men, and especially when you’re dependent on a man, means you often have a lot of desire to keep male promiscuity to a minimum, but men are expected not to listen to women or care much what women think about these issues.  Thus, women start putting demands on each other, because we can’t appeal to men.  Which is why you see a culture where the “other woman” is blamed more than the cheating man for infidelity.  Or you see women like Susan Walsh  arguing that other women have a responsibility not to have sex when we want with who we want, because that means that fewer men will have to pony up wedding rings in order to get laid.

Of course, if women don’t have to rely on men for social status and economic survival, then the power balance shifts, and women can start making demands directly of men.  It’s a lot easier, for instance, to demand monogamy directly from your husband if you can leave him without being destitute.  Creating a world where women have equality and men have to share responsibilities for sex and family life is the goal of feminism, and more sexual liberation is the result.  Indeed, I would say that the reason that only half of women polled take should an old-fashioned view on abortion (which is a symbolic stand-in for female immodesty) shows how far we’ve come already.

The numbers of women who feel that their only form of control over their lives is to exert control over other women is declining.  Now that we have ways of attaining economic independence and social status that don’t involve getting and staying married, we have less of a need to create a protectionist racket over female sexuality where women who break the rules are treated like scabs breaking a strike.  Now that we have powers outside of the power to say no to sex and to force other women to say no to sex, there’s simply less need to deprive ourselves or judge others.  And the less that men have complete dominance over our lives, the less reason we have to try like mad to control the one thing we’ve been given to control, which is female sexuality.

Oh, you want my thoughts.  I think women are taught to be subservient to men from birth and that this is wrong penis headed behavior.

Aug 25 2010

Prime Time

Well, you have just as good an idea as I do what yesterday’s rainout did to the Little League World Series schedule.

Were it not for my contractual obligations I’d skip this diary tonight,  Instead I’ll offer a half-hearted and sketchy effort that in no way does justice to my usual stellar performance.

You see my marginal tax rate might rise so I’m going pro-actively Galt.

Later-

Dave hosts Drew Barrymore and Katy Perry.  Jon has Brian Williams (ugh) and Stephen Jeffrey “Let’s Bomb Iraq Iran” Goldberg (double ugh).

Alton does Pad Thai.  The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together Part 2– Brock leaves!  Henchman #24 Dies!  Part 3 of the 3 Part Season 3 Finale.

In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the… Anyone? Anyone?… the Great Depression, passed the… Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered?… raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression.

Today we have a similar debate over this. Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before? The Laffer Curve. Anyone know what this says? It says that at this point on the revenue curve, you will get exactly the same amount of revenue as at this point. This is very controversial. Does anyone know what Vice President Bush called this in 1980? Anyone? Something-d-o-o economics. “Voodoo” economics.

Yahoo TV Listings

Aug 25 2010

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 US existing home sales plunge

by P. Parameswaran, AFP

Tue Aug 24, 12:38 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Existing US home sales plunged a whopping 27.2 percent in July to levels unseen in more than a decade, an industry group said Tuesday, casting further doubt on the viability of the economic recovery.

The White House described as “tough” the latest data tracking the housing sector, which was at the epicenter of the financial crisis, and vowed to do everything possible to keep the recovery on track.

Sales of single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums dropped to a seasonally-adjusted 3.83 million units from a revised 5.26 million units in June, said the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Aug 24 2010

Why Park51 is Important

Folks, it’s all the same bigotry.  The fact of the matter is that it’s the same 20% reliable Republican Teabaggers who are still fighting for Nathan Bedford Forrest’s KKK Nation of White Male Aryan supremacy.

I have all the taints traits that would enable me to walk among them as a Master of the Universe, but I’m a Class Traitor and proud of it.  These bigots need to be beaten back into the dust of the defeat of Appomattox, they obviously didn’t get it the first time because of their boneheaded idiocy.  All people are created equal and your position of privilege as an accident of birth does not confer a special nobility.  That attitude needs to be eradicated.

This is class warfare and were I an investing man I’d go long on Guillotines.

The "mosque" debate is not a "distraction"

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon

Monday, Aug 23, 2010 07:24 ET

This is like a metastasized anti-Semitism.  That’s what we feel right now. It’s not even Islamophobia; it’s beyond Islamophobia. It’s hate of Muslims, and we are deeply concerned.

Can anyone watch the video of that disgusting hate rally and dispute that?  That’s exactly why I’ve found this conflict so significant.  If Park51 ends up moving or if opponents otherwise succeed in defeating it, it will seriously bolster and validate the ugly premises at the heart of this campaign:  that Muslims generally are responsible for 9/11, Terrorism justifies and even compels our restricting the equals rights and access of Americans Muslims, and more broadly, the animosity and suspicions towards Muslims generally are justified, or at least deserving of respect.  As Aziz Poonawalla put it:  “if the project does fail, then I think that the message that will be sent is that bigotry and fear of Muslims is not just permitted, it is effective.”

That’s exactly the message that will be sent, and that’s what makes this conflict so significant.  Obviously, not all opponents of Park51 are as overtly hateful as those in that video — and not all opponents are themselves bigots — but the position they’ve adopted is inherently bigoted, as it seeks to impose guilt and blame on a large demographic group for the aberrational acts of a small number of individual members.   And one thing is certain:  if this campaign succeeds, it will proliferate and the sentiments driving it will become even more potent.  Hatemongers always become emboldened when they triumph.

The animosity and hatred so visible here extends far beyond the location of mosques or even how we treat American Muslims.  So many of our national abuses, crimes and other excesses of the last decade — torture, invasions, bombings, illegal surveillance, assassinations, renditions, disappearances, etc. etc. — are grounded in endless demonization of Muslims.  A citizenry will submit to such policies only if they are vested with sufficient fear of an Enemy.  There are, as always, a wide array of enemies capable of producing substantial fear (the Immigrants, the Gays, and, as that video reveals, the always-reliable racial minorities), but the leading Enemy over the last decade, in American political discourse, has been, and still is, the Muslim.

It’s all the same culture war

by Amanda Marcotte

Friday, August 20, 2010

When they talk about the “liberal elite”, they mean white class traitors who find their tribalism stupid.  Since you can’t tell white people apart just by looking at us, they invest a lot into singling out tribal markers of the liberal elite and shunning them.  Which is why you have some wingnut showing up in my threads about my CSA here and bragging about how he eats McDonald’s all the time.  The point is to make it clear that he would rather have a heart attack than associate with the class and race traitors who have what he considers feminized habits.  But as Rick Perlstein has documented, this anger and hatred is spiked through with jealousy.  Feelings of insecurity just cause more freaking out, which is why you get the “our women are hotter!!!!!” nonsense.  It’s kind of the natural reaction when you’ve cast your enemies as people who lives lives of sensual pleasure and good health, lives that you shun but are hard not to want sometimes for the obvious reasons.  So, defensive childish reactions.*

Aug 24 2010

Prime Time

Welcome to the loser’s bracket.  Win tonight or go home.  ESPN 2.  

We also have Monday Night Throwball, Cardinals @ Titans.  Pfft!  Who cares?

Keith AND Rachel all night long.

Later-

Dave is back with Brian Williams (ugh), Big Boi performs.  Jon has Rod Blagojevich, Stephen Leslie Kean (did I mention that the History Channel is always right?  Especially about Aliens and the Illuminati).

Alton does Yorkshire Pudding.  The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together- Part 1, Part 2 of the 3 part Venture Brothers Season 3 Finale.

Listen, Doc, about the future…

NO! Marty, we’ve already agreed that having information about the future can have disastrous consequences. Even if you’re intentions are good, it can backfire drastically!

…

What about all that talk about screwing up future events? The space-time continuum?

Well, I figured, what the hell.

Aug 24 2010

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 US egg recall above half-a-billion and growing

AFP

Mon Aug 23, 1:57 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A massive recall of eggs possibly tainted with salmonella bacteria is now at more than half-a-billion and could grow, the top US food safety official said Monday.

“It is the largest egg recall that we’ve had in recent history,” Margaret Hamburg, head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), told NBC television.

“We may see some additional recalls over the next couple days, even weeks, as we better understand the network of distribution of these eggs contaminated,” she said.

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