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Category: Elections 2010

Unblogged Bits (Mon. 18-Oct-10 1130)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Here’s your first look at the SHIELD Helicarrier from the Avengers – Woot!
  2. Things I Don’t Have to Think About Today: John Scalzi
  3. Krugman Rebuts Right-Wing Charge of ‘Surge’ in Government Spending – “The thing about Krugman is that he’s really wedded to the idea that presenting concrete facts will change the discussion. He doesn’t understand that the right wing will simply create new ‘facts’ to justify their accusations”
  4. When did the V.A. become such a far-right target? – “Limbaugh and Buck think they’d be better off being privatized, but that’s largely because they’re popping off on a subject they don’t understand.” And because there are monied interests that would love to have VA funding going to their for-profit institutions.
  5. Angle plays Nevadans for fools – I vote with the second choice. Let’s see if they prove her right.
  6. Fed Says They’ll Go After Marijuana Users Even If California Legalizes It – Yes, they will oppose it because … it’s wrong? It’s dangerous? It’s a threat to the nation? No, because it will “greatly complicate federal drug enforcement efforts to the detriment of our citizens.” The War on Drugs remains largely interested in simply continuing the War on Drugs.
  7. Carly Fiorina Refuses To Say How She’ll Pay For Tax Cuts – But it will still win her votes.
  8. Lindsey Graham: Obama Doing A “Takeover Of Most Of Society”: Alan
  9. Twitter Mood Predicts The Stock Market – The problem with the “problems” noted is that the stock market is not a solely (or even primarily) rational beast, no matter how it’s painted by financial types. It’s greatly dependent upon mood, as informing the professional judgment of investors great and small. Discovering that Twitter as a means of surveying mood in general would be generally predictive (barring large, explicit, sudden events) would not at all be surprising.
  10. Setting the table – This is a discussion Margie and I get into on occasion.
  11. Opera calls for browser extension standard | Deep Tech – CNET News – Of course, creating a standard for extensions would obsolete extensions that weren’t part of that standard, and would make less popular browsers more popular. Both of which help Opera. Which isn’t to say it isn’t a good idea for other reasons, or that Opera isn’t a good browser, but it’s hardly just technological altruism driving Opera’s suggestion.
  12. Curious Creative kitchen gadgets – 32 Pics – Some of these are not new. A couple of them are brilliant. Most look just goofy. And we own one of them.
  13. Nice Economy You’ve Got There . . . – “But this is the basic position of every big corporate interest: if you don’t let us do what we want to do, the economy will suffer.”
  14. Now you can buy copies of successful college applications – On the one hand, people cribbing applications they way they buy online school papers is pretty sad. On the other hand, the guy selling them has a point — what are the colleges actually looking for here. You can find places giving (sometimes for a fee) advice on applications; is that substantively different if an applicant uses these examples in that same way?

My personal political conspiracy theory of the day

Michael SteeleMichael Steele is a buffoon.  He throws off periodic gaffes of a volume to make even Joe Biden blush.  He’s had repeated scandals in the Republican National Commitee.  And, not surprising, donations to the RNC have been way off this cycle, compared to donations to other conservative groups.

Yet every time he stops to insert is foot in his broadly grinning mouth, any speculation that “this may be the one that has the party leadership asking him to step down” turn to ashes, and he skips along to the next publicity screw-up.

Now, were I a conspiracy-minded Lefty, I’d speculate …

… well, that this was all a big plot.  I.e.,

  1. Steele says something asinine, makes some cretinous tactical error, or lets something else embarrassing to the GOP happen on his watch.
  2. Donation flows away from the RNC and over to other, more shadowy conservative groups, run by those not in charge of the GOP.
  3. Those groups give money to the Republican candidates of their choices. (Repeat back to 1 several times.)
  4. Those Republicans win Primaries, knocking longer term GOP candidates, including a number of moderates, out of the running.
  5. GOP wins big in November, solidifying candidates beholden to the corporate/political interests that funded their way in, but not to the RNC.
  6. RNC is reduced to irrelevancy or, more likely …
  7. … RNC leadership then changes to get rid of Steele and put in the folks who have been running things outside of the RNC limelight, aided by all those candidates they just brought to power.

A lovely silent coup within the Republican party, with the benefit that (a) they’ve been able to make lots of donations that, unlike the RNC’s donations, aren’t as closely tracked, (b) they’ve gotten their own candidates into place, (c) they can repeat this indefinitely if they want to hold off on #7, or if they discover that the varied interests on the Right are able to function better together with a scapegoat at the RNC rather than having to decide with of them are in actual power in the GOP.

One minor question would be whether Steele is in on it or not.

Now, that’s if I were conspiracy-minded.  I tend to think most conspiracy theories depend too much on too many people coordinating together in utmost secrecy, and this might be one of them.

On the other hand, it does seem to fit reality, and explains why Steele is still running the RNC …

Colorado Ballot Propositions 2010: The Other Six

I covered 3 of the 9 propositions (the “Ugly Three“) earlier this week. Here’s what else is hitting the ballots, and what I think (for what it’s worth):

Amendment P: Regulation of Games of Chance: This moves control of bingo and raffles and the like from the Dept. of State to the Dept. of Revenue (which regulates casinos and runs the state lottery).  While nobody’s claiming that State has done a bad job, this just seems like the efficient thing to do, and both departments support it.  YES.

Amendment Q: Temporary Location of the State Seat of Government:  Sets up a process for the state seat of government to be temporarily moved in case of a disaster.  The state constitution declares that Denver is the seat of government, and this can only be changed by an amendment in a general election. This amendment sets up a legal process to be able to move the seat in case of an emergency.  Sounds like good Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity planning to me. YES.

Amendment R: Exempt Possessory Interests in Real Property: If an individual or business uses government-owned land or equipment for private purposes (e.g., ranches leasing government land for cattle, skiing and river rafting companies, vendor contracts in national parks), then even though the property is exempt from property taxation, the use of the property creates a “possessory interest” that is taxable.  This amendment would eliminate these taxes if the possessory interest is less than $6K (indexed to inflation).  This would exempt most cattle grazing leases, and would reduce property tax income to the state by $160K next year (which exceeds the administrative costs of dealing with small leases). This strikes me as a covert tax cut for one group of folks, which doesn’t strike me as fair.  NO.

Amendment 62: Application of the Term Person: Whoo-boy.  Besides the Ugly Three, this is the one getting all the national press. It basically identifies a “person” (which class gets all the various rights of the state constitution) as existing from “the beginning of biological development,” vs. the previous common law interpretation of birth being the trigger.  It’s very clearly an anti-abortion measure, and carries with it all sorts of probable Unintended Consequences (Are women now legally liable to criminal charges if they don’t treat their pregnancy and personal symbiotic health with their fetus the same way the treat a baby? Would a legitimate medical decision made by a pregnant woman and her doctor to save her life that endangers or kills a fetus, even to save the life of the mother, be considered illegal as if we were talking about her toddler?).  This sort of measure has been soundly defeated by the Colorado citizenry before, and I hope it will be again. NO.

Amendment  63: Health Care Choice: Oooh, the dreaded Obamacare is gonna get us!  That’s the driver for this silliness, which adds “health care choice” as a constitutional right, prohibits the state from forcing (or enforcing from others) any mandate for health insurance, and forbids the state prohibiting direct payments for health care services.  The first clause is simple posturing (unless it means that people have a constitutional right to choose what health care they receive, regardless of cost, which I’m pretty sure is not the intent), the second is a feeble attempt to prohibit federally mandated coverage by 2014, and the third addresses a problem that doesn’t exist and isn’t included in any health care reform. NO.

Proposition 102: Criteria for Release to Pretrial Services Programs:  The pretrial services programs in Colorado provides recommendations to courts about whether an accused should be released on bail (and if it should be a secured bond — no money down, just liability — or a secured bond).  The programs can also provide monitoring of the accused while out on bail (interviews, drug treatment, drug testing).  This proposition would require a secured bond (coming up with the full bail amount, or paying a bail bondsman a fee) except for a first offense and nonviolent misdemeanor. The proponents make the general claim that violent sex offenders should have to pay for bail (assuming they’re eligible in the first place), and that’s fine, but they don’t make the case that there’s a big problem with that right now.  Instead, this proposition would end up hurting poor defendents most (either requiring an expensive secured bond to get out or sitting in jail until trial), and cost the taxpayers for the ones who can’t afford it (estimated $2.8M/year for local jails).  Show me it’s needed and how we can afford it, and it’s a new ballgame, otherwise, NO.

We also have a local measure, Issue 3A, which increases the property taxes for the Littleton Public School District, totaling $12M.  Given the drastic belt-tightening the district has already gone through, and that my daughter attends (and will be attending) LPS for some years to come, I have no hesitation in voting YES.

Colorado Ballot Propositions 2010: “The Ugly Three”

The State of Colorado has nine ballot measures this coming election. I’m going to discuss them all, but I want to start with the “Ugly Three” (as their opponents have dubbed them).

It’s not surprising to find regular efforts to hold the line, or even cut back on government spending.  But any of the trio in mind here would be crippling; taken altogether, I’d seriously consider moving. Really. And I really don’t want to move, but that would be better than waiting for Mad Max to show up …

I was going to write (in fact had, half-written) a detailed analysis, but, really, it’s unnecessary. These are just bad proposals, taken singly or altogether.

Amendment 60: Property Taxes

Goal: Cut property taxes to the bone and basically eliminate them as a source for state revenue.

This proposal cuts in half the property tax burden that goes to schools, effectively shifting the cost over to the state’s general fund. Which, of course, doesn’t have the $1.6B necessary to take up the shortfall.

Colorado has had, since 1992, a TABOR (Taxpayer Bill of Rights) that seriously restricts how fast property taxes can rise and requires any windfall (if revenue rises faster than a base formula) to be refunded.  Many local entities have gotten explicit voter approval to keep those excess amounts for a variety of approved purposes.  This amendment undoes those previous votes, and forces any future “de-TABORing” to have a  strict expiration date.

It also reduces private property taxes by making publicly-owned facilities (universities, airports, golf courses) pay property taxes and reducing the local tax burden. Of course, those costs will be passed on to users/consumers of those facilities (there goes tuition again, not to mention air fares), or they will have to seriously curtain their services and scope.

Do I want lower property taxes?  Sure, in the abstract.  Do I think that my property taxes are being wasted on wild parties and chrome-plated lunch dispensers and silly boondoggles?  Not that I’ve seen.

Amendment 61: Limits on State and Local Government Borrowing

Goal: Prevent state and local governments from funding large projects or day-to-day operations through borrowing, short- or long-term.

This amendment prevents the state from doing any borrowing whatsoever.  Want to build or expand a state highway?  Sorry, Charlie — find someone who’s willing to build it privately as a toll road.  Unemployment is up and the state unemployment fund has to borrow from the feds to assist out of work people?  No can do, sweetheart.  Building a prison, a wastewater plant, a building at a state college? You need to somehow (with TABOR give-back limits) save up the money and pay out of pocket.

Smaller governmental entities can borrow, but only through bonds (no short-term borrowing to level cash flow; no lease to own), limited to 10 year terms (how would you like to pay your mortgage on that basis?), and only with voter approval. Local entities (cities, counties, school / transit / fire / water / sewage districts) can only borrow up to 10% of assessed real property values.

Is governmental borrowing something that can be mismanaged, saddling future generations with debt?  Certainly.  Is the answer to simply eliminate nearly all borrowing?  Um, no.

Proposition 101: Income, Vehicle, Telecommunication Taxes and Fees

Goal: Gut state revenues other than property taxes.

This proposition reduces state income tax by a quarter, eliminates all telecommunication taxes and fees except for 911 (which is capped), and reduces auto registration taxes and fees to 1911 levels.

The ostensible goal is to force “state and local governments to eliminate unnecessary spending.”  This assumes, of course, that at least a quarter of the state’s general fund is “unnecessary spending.”  And that there’s another $1.3B in “unnecessary spending,” currently paid for by vehicle taxes and fees, that can be just done away with (like, say road and bridge construction and maintenance), and another $350M that’s brought in on telecommunication taxes and fees.

Put it all together and it spells …

The writers of the “Blue Book” — the legislative analysis of ballot measures — took the unprecedented step of not just charting out what each of these would do on its own, but what they would do in concert. This led to a huge furor from … well, the joint group pushing all three proposals.  Um, duh.

In short, these three proposals, put together …

  1. Drastically cut property taxes.
  2. Drastically cut income taxes and other state fees.
  3. Drastically restrict governmental borrowing.

And then people will wonder why we have 45-kid classrooms, highway bridges falling apart, fire trucks that take an hour to arrive, judges setting criminals free because of prison overcrowding, and highways filled to capacity, plus airlines deserting DIA because of landing fees (further boosting air fares), public college enrollment plummeting because of rising tuition, and, ultimately, nobody wanting to open a business in Colorado, let alone move here.

These three propositions — “the Ugly Three” — are basically out to dismantle the state and local government, for some short-term profit (and, presumably, some long-term ideological goal).  While I’m sure that everyone will enjoy the immediate pleasure  of somewhat lower property and  income taxes and cheap vehicle registration, what it will do to the societal services we call come to expect as citizens of a state that isn’t, say, Mississippi, will be very, very ugly.  And a lot of it will be damage in lost jobs and crumbling infrastructure that can’t simply be returned to “normal” by regretfully turning back on the money tap.

Coloradans, please vote NO on 60, 61, and 101.

Breaking the Last Tyrannical Bonds of America’s Hopeful Tyranny … or something like that

I’m not sure if these guys win the award for Worst Graphic Design, Worse Font Selection (Too Many Fonts Division), Most Apocalyptic Music Ripping Off Carl Orff, Oddest Conflation of Evil Historic Leaders (Mao! LBJ! Both Roosevelts! Saddam! Carter!), Silliest Unawareness of Which Administration Passed Which Economic Stimulus and Bail-Out Packages, Most Annoying Accusation of Upcoming Government Takeover (Since Bill Clinton, Who Everyone Likes Now), or Least Optimized Use of Flash (you have to actually click through to their site to see it, which will give you a chance to also consider Poorest Emulation of Thomas Jefferson’s Writing as a subcategory).  But I’m sure they’re going to win something.

Just hope it’s not the election.

Unblogged Bits (Fri. 8-Oct-10 1731)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Oliver Willis: Beck blames his medical problems on “drinking that poison” of progressives he’s been studying – Behold the Lamb of Glenn, Who Taketh Away the Spiritual-Poison of the World …
  2. WV GOP Congressional Candidate Appeals To Anti-Arab Sentiment – Spooky Music! And … ARABS! Eek!
  3. WV GOP Congressional Candidate Appeals To Anti-Arab Sentiment – Spooky Music! And … ARABS! Eek!
  4. Picture Books Languish as Parents Push ‘Big-Kid Books’ – NYTimes.com – While I’m sure there’s an element of academic paranoia on the part of parents (ignoring the difference between reading a “chapter book” to a kid and buying one for them to read), I’d say that at least as large a factor is that picture books are freaking expensive, almost prohibitively so.
  5. Open Left:: Leading GOP Radio Host Pushes Terrorist Attack on Any Islamic Center Built In Lower Manhattan – Well, that’s certainly … disgusting.
  6. Inside The Soviet’s Secret Failed Moon Program – Wow. Very cool.
  7. Gropec*** Lane – “Warning: This post contains repeated uses of words that many people will find offensive.” Though it’s interesting from the perspective of how acceptable language changes over time.
  8. BlogPost – Sharron Angle, David Vitter’s illegal aliens not quite illegal, photographer says – But don’t let reality (or, for that matter, copyright) get in the way of some really obnoxious advertising, right?
  9. Harry Reid’s Republican support – That is fairly remarkable.
  10. How The Controversial Foreclosure Bill Made It Through Congress With No Public Debate: Arthur Delaney
  11. Terry J. Allen: In Vermont, Shades of McCarthy – Johnny Islin had a conveniently bogus list, too.
  12. They Hate Us For Our Freedom? : Dispatches from the Culture Wars – “I know that many Americans believe in ‘American exceptionalism’ but we are not granted exceptions from the most basic laws of behavior, and one of those iron laws is that when you oppress a people and commit massive violence against them, you radicalize them. And this counts for both sides. Just look at how much more radicalized we are in response to 9/11 than we were before, how we reacted with such a massive and violent retaliation — even against a country that had nothing to do with that event. But we somehow cannot bring ourselves to acknowledge that the same thing is true of other people.”
  13. LOL: Star Wars Jedi Bath Robe – Tempting … except there would be dire mocking from house guests.
  14. Just How Stupid Is Fox News? The Jet Pack Edition : Mike the Mad Biologist – Next up on Fox & Friends: Bat Boy is really a SECRET MUSLIM! They report, we deride!
  15. Recipes from Valabar’s in Colorado – De notes the recipes from our Big Fancy Dragaeran Dinner the other weekend. It was great food, and good company. Even the trout (not something I’d normally leap at) was fabulous. Thanks, De!

Who’s voting?

Who’s voting? They’re voting.

Actually, I only suspect they’re voting. But I have no desire for their opinions to count, and not mine, at the ballot box.

I’ll be voting.

I’m voting Republican because …

It’s so much clearer now!

(via DOF)

Christine O’Donnell: Liar or Dolt, You Decide

Not that Christine O’Donnell needs any more publicity, or that there is any value in actually trying to dissect and discredit the things that spew from her mouth, but …

Well, I just can’t help my self. Scryyde, the Muse of Rantful Blogging, is poking me with her pitchfork again.

In a statement released today wherein Ms. O’Donnell (Republican/TP Senate Candidate in Delaware) attempted to deflect from her myriad misrepresentations of educational background, she (or her flack) said:

Perhaps a more important educational issue for Americans is the government takeover of the student loan industry, passed as part of the Obamacare law. This ill-conceived, unconstitutional government monopoly has thrown into jeopardy thousands of jobs in the private student loan industry…

I have to give Ms. O’Donnell credit: it’s difficult to conceive of a pair of sentences that would be so jam-packed with misrepresentations and/or stunning ignorance.  Let me count the ways:

  1. The government did not “takeover” the student loan industry.  The student loans in question are federally funded student loans.  They belong to the government already.
  2. Any financial institution who wants to offer privately funded loans from their own coffers can do so.
  3. Yes, the provisions we’re talking about (below) were slipped into the Affordable Care Act. I dislike those sorts of legislative maneuvers on principle, but your particular calling out of this as “part of the Obamacare law” does a masterful, if obnoxious, job of associating the recent student loan reform with health care reform — two completely different things.  (Of course, I think the ACA is a fine thing, subject to critique only for not going far enough. I just find the demonization of it by the GOP, and student loan reform by association, really annoying.)
  4. “Ill-conceived” is a great null-meaning phrase.
  5. If it’s “unconstitutional” than I would certainly expect the highly profitable student loan industry to raise holy hell in court.  That they haven’t shows me that they don’t see it as something that even the corporate-friendly Supreme Court would back.
  6. It’s only a “governmental monopoly” insofar as we are talking about government-funded student loans.  The reform legislation didn’t do anything regarding privately-funded student loans.
  7. So the legislation said, “Rather than paying banks and other financial institutions a bunch of money to manage these governmentally-funded loans, let’s administer them ourselves and save a bunch of money.” You’d think that saving a bunch of government money would actually have budget-conscious conservatives applauding in the aisles.  Alas, because it’s jeopardizing (taxpayer-funded) profit for financial institutions, conservatives are appalled.
  8. So, yes, “thousands of jobs in the private [taxpayer-funded] student loan industry” are in jeopardy, because the government is no longer paying private business to administer the disbursement of these loans.  The GOP seems constantly appalled at private individuals “sucking from the government teat” to make ends meet; that businesses are not able to seems to throw them into a frenzy of accusations and condemnation.  Ms. O’Donnell would seem perfectly willing to let unemployment insurance for “thousands” lapse; that she’ criticizing this legislation for jeopardizing “thousands” of jobs and healthy profit margins for private loan companies seems … less than admirable.
  9. Unless she believes that the point of the government/taxpayer-funded student loan effort is actually to generate profit for private business (much of which is, coincidentally, incorporated in Delaware), as opposed to, oh, funding education for students.

The utter inanity of Ms. O’Donnell’s statement leads me to believe that she is either a blithering idiot or a  politically-driven liar.

Neither, I hope, will be seen as qualification for the Senate by the voters of Delaware.

(I don’t mind ideological differences.  I do mind people asserting things that aren’t true, either out of ignorance or greed.)

Unblogged Bits (Tue. 21-Sep-10 1731)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. “The Money’s Flowing,” But From Where? – But that’s not really money! That’s (corporate) FREE SPEECH! Right?
  2. Voter Suppression Plan Uncovered in Wisconsin – “Trying to win an election by getting fewer people to vote is a desperate move, and far from the spirit of democracy.” Which is why the GOP and the Right keep doing it.
  3. A Reasoned Debate on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: Miranda
  4. In defense of extraneous amendments – The GOP hypocritically criticizing a procedural move they’ve used eleventy-dozen times themselves? Inconceivable!
  5. Matt Kane: When American Exceptionalism Should Be Absolute: Matt Kane
  6. Dr. Susan Corso: Millions Pouring Into Campaigns — Who Does This Benefit?: Dr. Susan Corso
  7. Thundarr the Barbarian: 4-DVD Release of ‘The Complete Series’ Available Next Week…But Online Only – Ookla! Ariel! RIIIIIIDE!
  8. A Challenge To Republicans: Here’s What Reducing The Deficit Through Large Spending Cuts Looks Like – Option 4 for the (GOP) win!
  9. Being Gay in the Military is a “Private Hell” Under DADT – Sorry, folks – tales of personal sadness and love must always be trumped by the Ick Factor in some people’s minds.
  10. With Just 40 Votes, Republicans Block Debate Over Defense Authorization Bill – So the GOP is willing to block the defense authorization bill in the Senate for the first time since 1952, all out of base’s fear of Teh Gayz and the “moderate”s’ outrage at procedure. Nice.
  11. On the Other Hand: Sometimes (Parental) Silence is Golden – I heartily approve, especially if the cowbells are kept home, too.
  12. Joe. My. God.: CALIFORNIA: Beer Sellers Oppose Marijuana Legalization Bill – “Unless the beer distributors in California have suddenly developed a philosophical opposition to the use of intoxicating substances, the motivation behind this contribution is clear.”
  13. New Google transparency tool shows gov requests, blocked traffic – Well done, Google.
  14. Twitter To Serve Targeted Promoted Tweets Based On Who You Follow – I’m willing to put up with some ads (servers don’t pay for themselves, after all) so long as (a) they are clearly ads, (b) their noise doesn’t obstruct the signal.

Unblogged Bits (Thu. 2-Sep-10 2331)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Wonder of Wonders – Star-Spangled Panties: The Startlingly Bold New Direction Eras of Wonder Woman! – For all that Superman and Batman get occasional reboots, Wonder Woman seems to suffer far worse.
  2. Top Five Characters From the 1993 Marvel Annuals – Man, there were a LOT of ugly costumes in 1993. All of which seem to suffer from wanting to out-Image Image. Yuck.
  3. Chrome reaches second birthday, version 6 goes stable – I’ve been playing (again) with Chrome as my primary browser at home the past few weeks. Better and more stable performance than Firefox, but poorer tab handling and a more limited plugin ecosystem. Still pondering.
  4. Not ready for primetime – Wow. And this is the chief executive of the state? (Notably, Brewer was required, by law, to participate in a single debate. I suspect she will duck any others.)
  5. Brewer’s painfully long pauses – There’s having a brain fart, and then there’s … well, this ought to give Arizonan voters “pause.”
  6. Rick Joyner Very Concerned that Obama Might Be a Treasonous Muslim – He’s a Muslim! Maybe! Except he acts like a Christian! Unless he’s lying! No, he’s definitely a Muslim! Probably! Except God told me he’s searching for Jesus! But until then he’s clearly a Muslim! Maybe! But if so, that would be really bad! (Jeez, do these folks ever listen to themselves and the crazytalk they engage in?)
  7. Gingrich Wants Ground Zero Declared a National Battlefiled Memorial to Stop Park 51 – What makes Gingrich think that declaring Ground Zero a “National Battlefield” would affect the Park51 debate? Even if that magically made it possible to rule one way or the other about any new construction in the zone (yeah, that’s not a new bureaucratic nightmare for the entire WTC neighborhood), discriminating against the center would STILL fail any 1st Amendment test. And would it mean that the various strip clubs and OTB parlors in the area would somehow magically vanish, too?
  8. Risk of marijuana’s ‘gateway effect’ overblown, new research shows – There’s a shocker.
  9. Could We Still Put a Man on the Moon? : Mike the Mad Biologist – It’s not clear we could, for a variety of reasons. Certainly not without spending a lot of money — an amount that will continue to grow the more we shut down and mothball and discard and abandon what little space program we still have. “Maybe instead of worrying about Musselmen taking over the country and other ersatz notions of honor, the Tea Buggerers could worry about losing technological know-how. But that would cost money. Which is totally Hitler.”
  10. Leaked German Military Report on Peak Oil [Casaubon’s Book] – Unfortunately, too many people are interested in short-term convenience and comfort, and short-term profit, to proactively change the huge role that petroleum plays in our economy.
  11. Robin D. Laws – Protecting Your Hero – That’s a very interesting distinction (iconic vs. dramatic heroes), both literary and from a gaming perspective. And there are times when I’ve enjoyed both, but as Doyce notes, having conflicting expectations between Player and GM as to what a particular game is going to be like is a great recipe for frustration, at the very least.
  12. Kablam! – Ooooh … explodey …
  13. Sentences to ponder – Yes and no. There can be big difference between various individual candidates within parties, esp. in executive, vs. legislative races. Even there, are Dennis Kucinich and Ben Nelson really indistinguishable? On the other hand, people tend to vote on party lines (at least by default), and personalized differences can serve to swing folks one way or another (or to donate more or less to the cause).
  14. ‘I Had A Dream’ : Picture Stephen Colbert, Speaking To The Nation At ‘Restoring Truthiness’ Rally – I would seriously consider going …
  15. 60% Of Apps In Android Market Are Free (Vs. 30% Or Less In Other App Stores) – Some interesting stats. Having free apps isn’t the highest priority with a phone (and some free apps are pretty crappy, of course), but it’s still kind of nice to see.

Unblogged Bits (Wed. 4-Aug-10 1401)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Tough folks to please – “I feel ridiculous defending Graham from other Republicans, but the larger significance of this is important: the GOP base wants to create an environment in which Republican lawmakers should be afraid to even TALK to Democrats.”
  2. Fischer Calls for Blacklisting Any Company That Works On Ground Zero Mosque – And they’ll know we are Christians by our love …
  3. Right Reacts Preemptively to Expected Prop 8 Loss – I had no idea that there was a “core civil right to vote for marriage.” Just goes to show, I guess.
  4. Cox Becomes Third Health Care Plaintiff To Lose Gubernatorial Bid: Scott Keyes
  5. Think Progress » After being called out for adding a white nationalist tweet to his favorites, Beck deletes his entire list. – It’s certainly possible to inadvertently flag something as a Favorite in Twitter. But if that happened, you’d expect just the one item to be deleted and an “oops” Tweet to go up.
  6. Apple Launches Cloud Music Service in Uncharacteristic Fashion – Interesting. I suspect the labels will have a point here, but the idea of hosting my own music store on the cloud rather than on a single (well-backed-up) hard drive at my home is … attractive.
  7. Ted Haggard “over-repented” quote taking on a life of its own – Denver News – The Latest Word – The difference between Haggard vs. Woods and Vick — their transgressions / failings had nothing to do with their standing in their chosen profession.
  8. Tom the Dancing Bug: The Republican plan to commemorate Ground Zero – “Who better to decide how to memorialize the 9/11 attack on a multicukltural eastern city than white, western right-wingers?”
  9. Bad Drug Test = Thousands of Wrongful Convictions : Dispatches from the Culture Wars – So not only do we have a War on Marijuana of dubious value to begin with, but we’re taking lots of money-saving shortcuts that GUARANTEE that lots of folks are being sent to jail without verifiable evidence. That’s just peachy.
  10. Bike agenda spins cities toward U.N. control, Maes warns – The Denver Post – Wow. Lunatic Fringe ‘R’ Us! I mean, really … the only objection raised here is that it’s a suggestion made by a group within (GASP!) the UN. Which obviously means it’s part of a world-wide socialist anti-American cabal out to pollute our precious bodily fluids! Yeesh.
  11. New Start: the worst GOP obstruction yet | Michael Tomasky – “A semi-serious legislator, the kind trying to do the job he’s paid by taxpayers to do, would get in there and negotiate and get more money for upkeep or Star Wars or whatever, bearing in mind that US-Russia relations on a matter as grave as this should not be held hostage to electoral politics. Believe it or not, that’s how things actually used to work in this country. Not any more. And one party is far, far more to blame than the other. Disgraceful.”
  12. Lines on Plagiarism Blur for Students in the Digital Age – NYTimes.com – I tend to agree that it’s not so much a philosophical shift as that it’s just plain easier to to these days, and writing (or rewriting / synthesizing) is hard work. Which, of course, is kind of the point.
  13. Why would Steele want face time with foreign diplomats? – Honestly, I think it’s highly inappropriate for a national party head to meet with foreign diplomats. That would be true for any party.
  14. “Freedom:” The Right of Religious Fundamentalists to Discriminate Against Everyone Else | RHRealityCheck.org – “People are allowed to believe whatever bigoted things they want about their fellow human beings. What they aren’t allowed to do is act in bigoted ways contrary to their profession and expect to keep their jobs, a much different thing.” Someone whose conscience does not allow them to serve all members of the public equally should find another line of work, not demand that society allow them to discriminate against their clientele.
  15. 9 Minutes of Hot Catan-on-Microsoft Surface Action – Wow. That’s so cool. I can’t imagine actually buying this just to play Catan … but … still … so cool …
  16. GenCon Agenda – DORK TOWER, Wednesday, August 4, 2010

I really just do not understand

I keep trying to put my head around the crowing and cheering from the Religious Right over the GOP block of the DISCLOSE Act. The proposed law had nothing to do with religion or morality or culture war issues or anything of the sort.Why, then, are they (a) so thrilled by its obstruction, and (b) painting it as a victory for Free Speech?

The answer, of course, is that it helps the Republican Party.  And that, evidently, is enough to make the Religious Right very happy.

To wit: Christian Coalition wins First Amendment victory in Senate | Christian Coalition of America

Yesterday afternoon, an interesting victory was won by the Republican Party in the United States Senate.

It’s interesting that you call it “interesting.”

All of the Republicans stuck together  —  including the 3 left-wing to moderate New England Republicans  —  providing a victory for the GOP and First Amendment rights victory for all Americans.

At least all Americans who are corporations.  Are there other Americans who were helpeed by this?  Do tell!

Christian Coalition of America (CCA) has been working for weeks trying to defeat this disaster of a bill, which actually passed the United States House of Representatives.

Oh my God! It actually passed the United States House of Representatives! Get the children inside, Mildred!

By a margin of one vote in the Senate yesterday, the onerous legislation called the “Disclose Act” introduced by the Democrats to help their union boss cronies and to censor the free speech rights of their opponents, was defeated.

Wow, the Crazy Factor per Sentence just pegged  out.

  1. The bill was not defeated per se.  It actually garnered a vote of 57 to 41 to be brought to the floor for debate in the Senate.  Under the current Cloud-Cuckoo World of that august body, that meant that it was successfully blocked.
  2. It’s the DISCLOSE Act (Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections).
  3. The bill provided no special benefit to unions?  Its provisions included unions as well as corporations.
  4. The bill did not censor free speech.  Corporations (which, under the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, were magically granted the right of free speech) could say and do whatever they wanted in support of (or opposition to) a candidate.  They simply had to do so publicly, not by back-door contributions in the middle of the night.

But I guess that, when you’re the Christian Coalition, you get to lie about thing with the assurance that Jesus will forgive you.

The major immediate problem was, the Supreme Court would not have been able to strike down this clearly unconstitutional bill in time for the November elections during which the Democrats hoped to hold down the great losses they will now undoubtedly suffer. Most analysts believe the House of Representatives will revert back to the Republicans after 4 disastrous years of Democrat control under San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

Actually, most analysts believe no such thing.  It’s within the realm of possibility, but it is not considered the most probable result.

(We’ll leave aside the rather untoward political partisan chortling over this by the CCA, not to mention their obligatory reference to Pelosi as being from San Francisco … and you know what that means …)

The Christian Coalition has been targetting the New England Republican Senators for weeks and was very pleased to see all of them join all of the other Senate Republicans in voting no on this abominable bill.

Abominable? Really?

The Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell from Kentucky called the Democrats’ “Disclose Act” a “transparent effort to rig the fall election for Democrats.”  And he added that “Unions are the ultimate victors under this bill.”

And that’s because …?  I mean, nice analysis and context, simply quoting a sound bite from the Senate Minority Leader.

The Democrats came up with this latest scheme to stifle debate in America after the United States Supreme Court  —  in a landmark ruling in January  —  declared that corporations and labor unions can use money from their general budgets to fund television advertisements calling for the election or defeat of candidates for Congress and for the White House.

See? Citizens United benefited unions, too.  So how was the DISCLOSE Act to their benefit?

Today’s “The Wall Street Journal” reported that before January’s Supreme Court decision, these organizations had to fund political advertisements by collecting smaller donations from individuals.

Egads! You mean, they had to rely on individual citizens to contribute to a cause!  How tyrannical and socialistic and Muslim of the Obama-Pelosi Cabal!

After Barack Obama audaciously and intentionally misinterpreted the Supreme Court ruling in this year’s State of the Union speech, Congress schemed to come up with a bill to help its radical union boss friends at the expense of groups and businesses which help Republicans and others who believe in the free enterprise system.

Intentional! Misleading! Scheme! Radical! Union Bosses!

And, yes, so it’s clearly “Republicans, Republicans, rah rah rah!” Which is remarkably pragmatic, if not terribly spiritual, of the Christian Coalition.

The Democrats in their “Disclose Act” had all sorts of onerous reporting requirements for those groups they consider their enemies, which would have effectively shut down criticism of Democrats and their left-wing agenda.

Yes! I mean, corporations (all corporations, and interest groups, including unions) would have to actually let people know that they were “criticizing Democrats and their left-wing agend.”  They couldn’t just funnel money to astroturf organizations.  How terribly, horribly, awfully, abominably onerous!

If this would “shut down” that criticism, it would only be because there would be voter and consumer backlash against such donations if they were made public.  Which sounds like a way to let the people decide, don’t you think?

I mean, think of it, CCA — wouldn’t you like to know that Company X or Union Y or Interest Group Z is supporting some candidate who favors all sorts of Twisted and Evil Things like, say, gay rights?  Or know that a candidate is getting money directly from some company known for supporting such thigns?  Wouldn’t you want your members to know about that?  Sorry, without the DISCLOSE Act, all that Godless Evil Shenanigans will take place under the radar.

But it helps the Republicans, so who cares?

“The Wall Street Journal” article reported that Senator Jon Kyl, Republican from Arizona said yesterday regarding the Democrats’ “Disclose Act” legislation:  …

Because if a Republican Senator says it in the WSJ, you can take it to the bank!  Or know that the bank has taken it to him (preferably in small, unmarked bills).

… “It is obviously written to disadvantage Republicans and favor Democrats.”  For example, the article reports that “One of the more controversial provisions of the bill would require independent political entities to disclose the names of the donors to their political advertisements.  Opponents said that could discourage corporations from donating to organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce, that run political ads.”

Why would that discourage those companies, unless they thought the Chamber was running ads that might be embarrassing or might cause consumers to consider who they are doing business with?

The American people are sick and tired of the radical policies coming out of this Democrat-controlled 111th Congress and are getting ready to throw out many of these bums, to use the vernacular.

Your vernacular is down on the street, fo-shizzle!

The party of Jefferson and Jackson will rue the day they decided to follow the extreme left-wing policies coming out of the White House.

Well, and there’s a convincing argument!

Render Unto CaesarSo … seriously … where’s the beef here?  The article seems to boil down to, “Making big corporations reveal that they are contributing to a candidate’s campaign might be embarrassing, for the corporations and candidates alike, so, since we think that might hurt the Republicans more, and since the Republicans are our BFFs, we will wrap ourselves up in the flag and render unto Caesar in the hope that Caesar will render back to us when they come into power again.”

Just what Christ would argue, I’ll betcha!

Unblogged Bits (Sat. 8-May-10 1400)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. High School Students Vote On Saying a Graduation Prayer; Judge Says No – Would it be “okay” if the student body voted on whether to segregate classes by race, or religion? No? Well, not much different here. Majority rule doesn’t trump minority rights — that’s what the First Amendment (and, fundamentally, the Constitution) is all about.
  2. The Son Needed Blood, So What Did the Father Do? – I’m trying to think of an exception to the rule that “A religion that requires a child die rather than violate some element of dogma is not a religion I care to follow,” but I can’t think of one.
  3. The Station That Censors Muhammad May Give Jesus His Own Show – I think there’s a lot of room for a very funny story about a modern-day “Christ in the City.” I suspect this won’t be it, but I’ll add to the predictions given here that there will, in fact, be some violent threats by anonymous (and humor-dead) Christians about the show, along the lines of, “If it worked for radical Islamicists …”
  4. Titanic 2 Is Coming Soon | /Film – OMG — it’s like those cheap knock-off cartoons of Disney flicks that you can find at the grocery store. (Or, alternately, the pr0n adaptations of prominent movie titles.) The list of previous releases by the studio is, itself, a hoot. (Note to SyFy — you really need to get these guys on your payroll, if you don’t already.)
  5. Iron Man 2 Review: Downey and Rockwell Power Through a Tangled Tale – This lines up with several reviews I’ve heard to date — weaker story than the first ep, but enough fun to carry through regardless. Whew. Still on my List of Things to See.
  6. DVR Didn’t Kill The Commercial Star, Says Duke U. – I think the points given are fair enough — though since we got the “skip 30 seconds” button programmed on the remote, that does reduce some of the commercial bits. At most, though, it makes the first and last commercial slots in a break the most valuable, as they are the most likely to be viewed (which, I think, has always been true).
  7. Radio Shack answering machine messages – WFMU’s Beware of the Blog – These are pretty darned awesome. It occurs to me, as more folks go to hosted voice-mail and as answering machines have become cliche, that there’s very little ingenuity among answering machine messages any more. When’s the last time you got one that made you chuckle (and, as a subset of that, wasn’t annoying long)?
  8. 7 things people get wrong about the Internet and TV – OMG … the TV industry might be actually smarter than we thought …
  9. Yet another Facebook privacy risk: emails Facebook sends leak user IP address – This one’s a case of bad design, not intentional aggregating of data to be used commercially.
  10. FCC gives Hollywood control over your home theater – There are some protections here, but it is largely a victory for Big Media over consumers (especially early adoptors).
  11. GOP Denies That Attack Ad On Ohio Lt. Gov. Implies He’s Masturbating. You Decide – Crikey — that’s a new low. (The video and more on the story are available thru the Mediaite link in the post.)
  12. Microsoft shows off new tech: real-time translation and social networking ‘Spindex’ – Interesting — but I’m pretty sure that second-to-last folks I want organizing/aggregating my social networking is Microsoft.
  13. I Think We’re LOST – I am SO glad I never got into this show …
  14. 5 Cheap Magic Tricks Behind Every Psychic | Cracked.com – Patrick Jane would be proud (and also point out that having a good grounding in confidence tricks and “hedge psychology” would also be highly valuable).

Unblogged Bits (Tue. 4-May-10 1400)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Maybe Aang Was the Second-to-Last Airbender – Holy … wow. I don’t know whether to be appalled, or ecstatic. A lot depends on who the underlying creative team is.
  2. Rest in Peas: The Unrecognized Death of Speech Recognition: Miss Cellania
  3. Conservatives Want To Deny U.S. Citizen Faisal Shahzad Miranda Rights, Ensuring He Won’t Be Convicted – Oh, Good Lord — I actually agree with something Glenn Beck had to say? Yeesh.
  4. LU Cancels Classes for Lynchburg City Council Election – Have to wonder what the Right would say if it were, say, a union calling a work stoppage to bus everyone to the local polls.
  5. Quote of the Day – I realize the “law & order” types have never been fond of the Miranda ruling (rubber hoses and the third degree, anyone?), but the current harping that nobody accused of terror — or at least nobody “foreign” (even if a US citizen) — should be Mirandized because it’s more important to just beat the truth out of ’em and then shove ’em before a firing squad, rather than shilly-shally about with “rights” and “trials” seems particularly despicable (and, may I say, anti-American).
  6. DORK TOWER, Monday, May 3, 2010 – Oh, Lord — how this describes so many games I have been in. (It’s not necessarily a bad thing, unless you’re looking to actually get gaming done ….)
  7. AFA’s Fischer: Any Muslim Unwilling to Renounce Islam Ought to be Denied Entry to the US – I think a look at crime statistics in the US, as well as a review of Western history, will indicate that Christians are guilty of most murders. I think we should force all Christians to renounce their religion or face deportation. (Just kidding, of course, but, yeesh.)
  8. The United and Continental Airline Mashup – What I note most about the (ugly) logo change is that it finally drops any of the “United [States]” red-white-and-blue imagery. Which may well make sense from a global standpoint, but is still sort of sad. As well as (as noted) ugly.
  9. Captcha Advertising – I’m appalled, but I have to applaud the guy who came up with the concept.
  10. Cuccinelli ditches censored lapel pins, blames the media for making them a ‘distraction.’: Amanda Terkel
  11. SBOE dare not say his name: “Obama” – Yeesh.
  12. Right on cue, McCain starts complaining – So is McCain’s standard now that folks who are likely to face capital crimes should not be Mirandized until they’ve been compelled to state everything they know. Is he actually listening to his own words? Jeez — what lessons did he really learn from the North Vietnamese?
  13. The GOP’s emergency-room argument lives – Money graf: “Sue Lowden’s campaign and its Republican brethren oppose health care reform, but they’ve endorsed the most inefficient system of socialized medicine ever devised.”
  14. Report: FBI Opens Criminal Probe Of Massey Energy | TPMMuckraker – Good. Nice to see some investigation into (if not, yet, accountability for) this sort of tragedy.
  15. Wash. Nuns Investigated By Vatican – Investigated for sexual abuse? Nah. Investigated for “feminism and activism.” Glad the Vatican has its priorities straight.
  16. US citizen from Pakistan nabbed on Dubai-bound plane in Times Square case, to appear in court – chicagotribune.com – Okay, now we’re in a relatively informed place to start talking about this case (on the presumption that the Feds have the right guy).
  17. The American Family’s Financial Turmoil | – Scary Infographic. And, yes, I’m doing better than “average,” but it worries me a lot, as a society and an economy, that this is what the “average” is.
  18. Is Walt Disney World feeling nervous about the arrival of Harry Potter? – I agree. While it may impact some folks going exclusively to WDW, if it draws additional visitors to Orlando it’s likely to add some attendees to WDW, too.
  19. AT&T asks government to create national censorwall and system for disconnecting accused infringers – Oh, that pesky “civil trial” stuff — I mean, if we can bypass it for terrorists, why not bypass it for important stuff, like people who download a song they don’t actually own?

Unblogged Bits for Fri, 2 Apr 2010, 8:00PM

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. 5 Ways The Google Book Settlement Will Change The Future of Reading [Publishing]: Annalee Newitz
  2. Preacher Compares Attacks on Pope to Anti – Semitism – NYTimes.com – The more the Vatican criticizes the attacks being made — painting itself as victim instead of the children who were abused — the more credibility and sympathy it loses. And, on another note, hiding behind what your aide did on your behalf is hardly a substantive defense. “The buck stops here,” as Truman put it.
  3. Michele Bachmann: Nancy Pelosi Tried To Incite Something By The Way She Crossed The Street – “And if she’d been raped it would have been her fault, too.”
  4. KFC’s Bacon Sandwich On Fried Chicken “Bread” Starts Killing People Nationwide April 12 – The O.R. one is the same calories and fat as a Big Mac (but twice the sodium). Maybe too much of a good thing.
  5. Star Trek Re-Watch: “What Men Dare Do” – One of the lengthiest and most nicely done April Fool bits I saw all day: part of Tor’s ST:TOS retrospective, in this case a fake TOS episode review. Brilliant.
  6. Obama admin: time to make radio pay for its music – I would rather eat broken glass than fill the coffers of the RIAA … unless, of course, if it were at the expense of ClearChannel. Hrm. While this will likely hurt small broadcast stations (and public radio) more than Big Broadcasting, it’s also clearly a case where something needs to be done to rationalize both the domestic and international markets.
  7. Wes Anderson Is the Hipstery Lord of the Rings – Amazing what a different sound track and some clever cuts will do to a trailer. Amusing.
  8. Topless Robot – The 8 Most Common Ways D&D Characters Die – That’s pretty much the gamut all right.
  9. Improved comment collapsing for Google Buzz posts – Nice. I’m still not settled in my use of Buzz, as it falls sort of between GReader and Twitter without really replacing either. But for what I do use it for, this will be helpful.
  10. Pineberry to Make Debut in U.K. Stores – Hmmmm … need to keep my eyes open for these here in the States. Though I’m generally not a big fan of fresh fruit.
  11. RNC’s Filings Reveal Creative Definitions Of ‘Office Supplies’ – Okay, okay, it’s probably (maybe) just expenses entered under the wrong account code (as someone who both does expense reports and tries to reconcile departmental expenses vs. budgets, I’ve seen this happen a zillion times). That said, it’s still damned funny.
  12. Palin’s 20 House Dem Targets Use Her As A Fundraising Ploy – I suspect her involvement will get more traction from Democrats than Republicans.
  13. Indiana Threatened By Giant Poop Bubbles, For Realsies
  14. Northeast Hit With Devastating Floods, As Federal Flood Insurance Expires Due To GOP Obstruction – Well played, GOP! Let’s all remember this next fall!
  15. Erickson: I’ll ‘pull out my wife’s shotgun’ if someone comes to my door for the American Community Survey. – To summarize: “I’m not advocating killing census workers. I’m advocating threatening to kill them with a shotgun if they come onto my property.” That’s a remarkably nuanced approach for a Erickson.
  16. Scott Roeder gets Hard 50 in murder of abortion provider George Tiller | Featured Story | Wichita Eagle
  17. Can Animals Be Gay? – NYTimes.com – An interesting (and long) article on same-sex mating and social behavior in a remarkably lengthy list of species. That complicates the “‘Tain’t Natural!” argument (though it can still be noted that it’s less usual than male-female activity), but, then, that’s never been the point, to me, of why we should (or shouldn’t) accept homosexual behavior in humans, which boils down to, “Why the heck shouldn’t we? Where’s the harm?” (Note: “I think it’s icky” is not an actual harm.)

Unblogged Bits for Fri, 5 Mar 2010, 7:00PM

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. They still don’t know what Medicare is – Still more “keep the government’s hands off of Medicare!” silliness.
  2. McCain slips a little further from seriousness: Steve Benen
  3. Matthew Yglesias » Pentagon Shooting – A fine (and backhandedly positive) comment about how the nation doesn’t freak out when it’s a non-Muslim killer going on the rampage. “Wild overreactions and wholesale reconfigurations of the constitution, of US foreign policy, or of daily life are considered off the table by definition. And rightly so!” If only we were so relatively rational about the other cases.
  4. Sony wants to patent ‘feature erosion’ in game demos, illustrates the idea vividly – It seems to me that, rather than feeling an urge to pony up and buy the game, instead it would leave me feeling more and more frustrated against it, making me less likely to buy.
  5. What Would You Do For $5? – That’s actually really clever. I’ll be curious to see how it does.
  6. What Ten C-17 Cargo Planes the Military Doesn’t Want Would Buy Us : Mike the Mad Biologist – But … but … the JOBS …! Against terrorists! And … and … ACORN!
  7. ‘Lone wolf’ anti-government extremist opens fire at the Pentagon. But let’s not call it terrorism.: David Neiwert
  8. IHOP ad from 1969 will melt your brain – I’m sure some ad exec sold this to IHOP with the pitch, “In the future, ALL commercials will look like this!”
  9. What’s the Harm? Answer: Pentagon Gunman was a 9/11 Truther – The truth will prevail — but it won’t necessarily prevail without blood, toil, tears and sweat. Not everyone who believes something screwy is going to go homicidal — but certainly the sort of folks we see go on these homicidal rampages (organized or not) believe something screwy.
  10. The full-scale collapse: From Murrow to Blitzer – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com – So I guess one has to ask — “Does Wolf Blitzer still beat his wife? Let’s examine both sides of that allegation …”
  11. This Is What Happens When The Religious Right Takes Over Your State – Nice. “Not only are we not going to ensure we don’t discriminate against them, we’re going to make sure that nobody else protects them from discrimination, either.” Time to break out the “Virginia is for Haters” bumper stickers again, sadly.
  12. AFA’s Bryan Fischer Explains That’s He’s The Reasonable One: Kyle
  13. Boulder Catholic school denies preschooler with lesbian parents – The Denver Post – Because, you know, Jesus had the Apostles do background checks on all those children he suffered to come unto Him, right? Nice job, SHJ — what could have been a teachable moment … has become a teachable moment, only with a pretty obnoxious lesson.
  14. 6 Historic Acts of Revenge That Put ‘Kill Bill’ to Shame | Cracked.com – Boy, haven’t you ever just wanted to be able to do so something like these folks did?
  15. Tourist slammed over breaking into protected Maori site – The only positive thing I can say about this story of asshattery is thank God it wasn’t an American (this time).
  16. Pam’s House Blend:: Delusional Collusion – Roy Ashburn’s closet was protected by newspapers, local gays – I concur with George — people’s private lives are their private lives — but when they make a point of hypocritically delving into the private lives of others to condemn them for what they do themselves … they are fair game.
  17. Arizonans flush with anger over loss of rest stops – The Denver Post – Hey, Arizona voters — just remember that next time some pol tells you that “government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.”
  18. Wisconsin bike Trek sues Marin wine Trek – And, for a brief moment, sanity prevails …
  19. Late Night Music Club – Happy Birthday Antonio Vivaldi – Happy Birthday, Antonio – a man for Four Seasons …
  20. Greg Lewis: Luntz inadvertently shows why Fox News prefers to call reconciliation the “nuclear option” – Words mean things. And notice which side usually seems to be the one to use violent, aggressive, “nuclear” words in politics.

Unblogged Bits for Sun, 28 Feb 2010, 7:00PM

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Knopf Editor Makes Great Case for Editors in Poorly Written Post About Needing Editors [Fuckups] – Editor, edit thyself.
  2. A matter of life and death – Money graf: “But for some, we’re literally talking about a life-or-death situation. For adult Americans under the age of 65 — those, in other words, who can’t qualify for our wildly popular socialized-medicine program — 68 people die every day due to lack of coverage. By the end of the decade, it will be 84 Americans per day.” It is unconscionable that this can be allowed to continue if it is within our power to stop it. And, no, it has nothing to do with tort reform or letting insurance companies compete across state lines.
  3. Dropping like flies – Money grafs: “Indeed, just two weeks ago, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Democratic retirements are a sign that Dems are ‘running for the hills because they sold out their constituents and don’t want to face them at the ballot box.’ With GOP retirements outnumbering Dems’ — by a margin that’s growing — are we to also assume that Republicans don’t want to face voters at the ballot box?”
  4. A Nuclear Plant With Small Leaks Puts Less Radioactive Material Into the Human Environment Than Drilling for Natural Gas: noreply@blogger.com (Rod Adams)
  5. 6 Jaw-dropping realistic images done with a pencil – Wow.
  6. 2012 Brings Wrath Of Church On Studio [2012 Vs Jesus] – How can you sue for something like this, a danged landmark that overlooks the city? Did they have to ask permission of the owners of all the other landmarks destroyed in the flick? Silliness …
  7. Max Headroom Finally Coming To DVD! [Max Headroom] – Woot!
  8. The GOP’s silence on reform – Money graf: “The train is leaving the station. If 217 House Dems and 51 Senate Dems are on board, the nation will finally have the health care reform we’ve been waiting for since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. If not, reform will die, the crisis will worsen, and Democrats will have committed electoral suicide on a grand scale.”
  9. Despite Running A Health Industry ‘Trade Association,’ Gingrich Says He Will Not Register As A Lobbyist – Ah, Newt … doing well by doing “good.”
  10. Right Wingers Mock Louise Slaughter at the Health Care Summit: Heather
  11. Ayn Rand, Hugely Popular Author and Inspiration to Right-Wing Leaders, Was a Big Admirer of Serial Killer | | AlterNet – Yikes. And, yes, given some of the rhetoric from the Right, this is perfectly believable.

Unblogged Bits for Saturday, 30 January 2010

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

Targetting Harry Reid

Evidently, the Right is gunning for the Democratic Senate Majority Leader. A conservative organization is set to launch an all-out effort aimed at beating Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in…

Evidently, the Right is gunning for the Democratic Senate Majority Leader.

A conservative organization is set to launch an all-out effort aimed at beating Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2010.

The American Future Fund Political Action is planning a two-year long offensive against the Democratic leader, who is already a top target of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The organization, stocked with former Mitt Romney presidential campaign operatives, is set to launch its effort this week with a Web -centered fund-raising drive.

 

Of course, they’re having a few problems finding someone who can credibly run against him.

Even as Republicans talk up their effort to knock off no viable Republican candidates have stepped forward to run. Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki had announced his interest in a bid, but last fall he came under indictment for his management of a student loan program. Former Rep. Jon Porter, a moderate Republican from suburban Las Vegas, has also been mentioned as a potential candidate, but he lost his congressional seat in the November election.

 

To be sure, I really dislike Reid, too (though I suspect for very different reasons). Maybe if the Dems started gunning for him, I might be willing to toss a few dollars their way …