The ‘O’ In Obama

Two articles on the designer, Sol Sender, the man behind the iconic Obama "O" logo. Simple sells. It was a perfect compliment to Shepard Fairey’s posters.



Source: NYT

Source: Philly News

Catholic Church Forgives The Beatles

And it only took them 42 years:

The Roman Catholic Church has forgiven the Beatles more than 40 years after John Lennon claimed the band were “more popular than Jesus”.

“After so many years it sounds merely like the boasting of an English working-class lad struggling to cope with unexpected success,” an editorial in today’s (November 22nd) edition of the Vatican’s official newspaper said.

L'Osservatore Romano, regarded as the Pope’s mouthpiece, praised the Beatles, saying the Liverpool band had provided the world with some of the “best pages in modern pop music”.

Some quotes that got Lennon in trouble:

"It will vanish and shrink. We're more popular than Jesus now - I don't know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity”

And:

“Jesus was alright, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

Source: Gigwise

World's Largest Record Collection

World's Largest Record Collection

Paul Mawhinney was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Over the years he has amassed what has become the world's largest record collection. Due to health issues and a struggling record industry Paul is being forced to sell his collection.

This is the story of a man and his records. I hope you enjoy it.


The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

45th Anniversary Of Kennedy Assassination

November 22, 1963. Dallas TX. 45th Anniversary Of Kennedy Assassination

Obama's Weekly YouTube Address

Sucks we have to wait until January 20.

Bush Administration Leaves "Burrowed" Legacy

Obama has a tough job cleaning up after a devastating 8-year Bush Administration. But it seems it might be even harder due to "burrowing" of Bush flunkies within high level government jobs, even as his term is ending.

"The Bush administration will leave us with another legacy: unqualified Republican ideologues receiving appointments in various institutions, including scientific organizations, as their ship of state sinks. The rats are scuttling overboard, and are being rewarded with captaincies on any available vessel."

An example would be:

The president of the nation's largest general science organization yesterday sharply criticized recent cases of Bush administration political appointees gaining permanent federal jobs with responsibility for making or administering scientific policies, saying the result would be "to leave wreckage behind."

"It's ludicrous to have people who do not have a scientific background, who are not trained and skilled in the ways of science, make decisions that involve resources, that involve facilities in the scientific infrastructure," said James McCarthy, a Harvard University oceanographer who is president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "You'd just like to think people have more respect for the institution of government than to leave wreckage behind with these appointments."

This is Bush. Let's be real. He must have hated science when he was in grade school and wants the world to pay for his inconvenient low intellect.

Source: Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly

Ten Questions That Must Be Asked of Obama Before He's Sworn In

via 23/6:

Ten Questions That Must Be Asked of Obama Before He's Sworn In.

1. Mr. Obama, if the biggest terrorist attack ever on American soil were to take place while you're president, would you:
A) Finish the children's book you're currently reading.
B) Do something.

2. Mr. Obama, if a major American city were to go under water, would you:
A) Fly over the city and wave to the drowning people below.
B) Do something.

Read on: Ten Questions That Must Be Asked of Obama Before He's Sworn In - 236.com

O'Reilly: Internet Has Liberal Bias. Do Cell Phones, Too?

For conservatives and alarmists like O'Reilly, apparently truth = liberal, so anything that strides to promote truth or facts must be liberal. Newspapers, TV news networks, NPR, even the internet.

The internet has a liberal bias? How idiotic is that? Not particular websites, but the entire internet. That's like saying cell phones are liberal.

More to the point, the control O'Reilly is in fear of, the Pelosi and Fairness Doctrine warnings he whimpers on about, should be seen in light of Bush deregulating the FCC under Michael Powell, son of Colin. That change to the FCC allowed massive consolidation and led corporations like Clear Channel [based in Houston, TX and massive contributors to the GOP] to own 1000s of radio and TV stations, even in the same markets.

The control of the media O'Reilly shrills on about has already happened under Bush. Open your eyes, jackass.

Obama Announces Econ Team: Dow Jumps

Barack Obama announces this afternoon that he'll unveil his Economic Team for Monday including Timothy Geithner at Treasury Secretary.

World responds.



Is Bush President anymore?

Track Somali Pirates In Real Time

Track Somali pirates in real time. The map is littered with clickable pointers that provide continual updates on recent high-seas hijackings.



Source: International Chamber of Commerce

Quote of the Day: Ashley Dupre

On being Spitzer's lady friend:

"If it wasn't me, it would have been someone else," she said. "I was doing my job. I don't feel that I brought him down."

She actually got him up quite a few times.

The Bad News And The Badder News

Stock market have you freaked out? Spread that feeling. Panic about the credit markets instead. Interest rate on 3-month Treasuries at 0.02%; interest rate on high-yield (junk) bonds over 20%.

This is an economic emergency.

The money may not be moving, but after reading all this data your bowels certainly will be.

Source: Bloomberg

What's Your Definition Of Victory?

Dana Perino says that the real meaning of the U.S-Iraq security agreement is "that the conditions are such now that we are able to celebrate the victory that we’ve had so far."

Um, English should be your first language as White House Press Secretary. I guess Palin has some residual effects.

So this is victory? The US has created a new Islamic state closely aligned with Iran and its patrons China and Russia.

Ilan Goldenberg isn't buying it either:"

It's an interesting definition of "victory." I guess you can define victory as more than 4,000 American fatalities, more than 30,000 wounded, probably hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths, millions of Iraqis displaced, $1-$3 trillion in costs to the U.S. economy, an empowered Iran, an un-addressed threat in Afghanistan, and massive damage to America's image around the world. All for a war that did not actually achieve its original objectives - eliminate a WMD threat that wasn't there, eliminate a terrorism threat that wasn't there, and spread democracy throughout the Middle East. I guess we can define "victory" that way. Probably wouldn't be my definition though."

Reminds me of the "consequences of catastrophic success" Bush quote.

Source: Democracy Arsenal

Paul Krugman: The Lame-Duck Economy

Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize winning economist at the New York Times, keeping it real on how screwed we are thanks to having too much Bush, then not be able to get rid of Bush fast enough:

"There is, however, another and more disturbing parallel between 2008 and 1932 — namely, the emergence of a power vacuum at the height of the crisis. The interregnum of 1932-1933, the long stretch between the election and the actual transfer of power, was disastrous for the U.S. economy, at least in part because the outgoing administration had no credibility, the incoming administration had no authority and the ideological chasm between the two sides was too great to allow concerted action. And the same thing is happening now....

How much can go wrong in the two months before Mr. Obama takes the oath of office? The answer, unfortunately, is: a lot. Consider how much darker the economic picture has grown since the failure of Lehman Brothers, which took place just over two months ago. And the pace of deterioration seems to be accelerating.

Most obviously, we’re in the midst of the worst stock market crash since the Great Depression: the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has now fallen more than 50 percent from its peak. Other indicators are arguably even more disturbing: unemployment claims are surging, manufacturing production is plunging, interest rates on corporate bonds — which reflect investor fears of default — are soaring, which will almost surely lead to a sharp fall in business spending. The prospects for the economy look much grimmer now than they did as little as a week or two ago."

The Bush Legacy, it’s scary to think how much more can go wrong before Inauguration Day.

Source: NYT

Michael Jackson Becomes A Muslim, Changes To Mikaeel

So will he be getting 72 male virgins or female virgins in the afterlife?

"Beleaguered pop star Michael Jackson has converted to Islam and changed his name to Mikaeel, it has been claimed today.

The 50-year-old singer, who has previously been photographed wearing a traditional Arab women's veil, reportedly became a Muslim in a ceremony at a friend's house in Los Angeles.

The singer, who was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, is said to have sat on the floor and worn a small hat while an imam officiated at the home of Steve Porcaro, who composed music on his Thriller album."

Source: Daily Mail

Buffett Losing His Touch?

Don't feel bad, the richest guy in the US lost big time over the past few months:

Looking for a bargain? How about $74,100 for a share of Berkshire Hathaway? That’s the cheapest stock in Warren Buffett’s company has cost since 2003, down 51 percent since an all-time high of $151,650 in December.

Put me down for .01% of one share.

Source: Reuters

Did Talk Radio Kill Conservatism?

Nate Silver has written a great article on how talk radio killed conservatism.

Starting from his Tuesday interview with John Ziegler, a documentary filmmaker and former radio talk show host who built the website HowObamaGotElected.com, Silver's simple questions over polling used in his dicumentary caused problems. [In brief, a Zogby poll Ziegler used extrapolated how voters came to back Obama based on slender evidence –interviews with just 10 Obama voters.] Ziegler had a meltdown during interview.

"John Ziegler is a shining example of such a conservative. During my interview with him, Ziegler made absolutely no effort to persuade me about the veracity of any of his viewpoints. He simply asserted them -- and then became frustrated, paranoid, or vulgar when I rebutted them."

Noting that Ziegler got his start in radio, Silver noted the origins of talking without being held accountable:

"Moreover, almost uniquely to radio, most of the audience is not even paying attention to you, because most people listen to radio when they're in the process of doing something else."

And if you're going to ramble on the airwaves you need to keep your audience fired up. And how do you do this? Silver notes that it's about stimulation, rather than persuading someone with debate or facts:

"The McCain campaign was all about stimulation. The Britney Spears ads weren't persuasive, but they sure were stimulating! "Drill, baby, drill" wasn't persuasive, but it sure was stimulating! Sarah Palin wasn't persuasive, but she sure was stimulating!"

And who is better at stimulating than Fox?

"FOX News is unusual television, really, in that almost all the stimulation is verbal, and almost all of it occurs at the same staccato pacing as radio. You could take tonight's broadcast of Hannity & Colmes or the Factor and put it directly on radio and you'd lose almost nothing (not coincidentally, Hannity and O'Reilly also have highly-rated radio programs). That wouldn't really work for Countdown, which has higher production values, and where the pacing is more irregular. It certainly wouldn't work for the Situation Room -- or moving in a different direction, the Daily Show."

The Republican echo chamber is unique and powerful. Talking points are repeated with loyalty. The problem is America has moved forward:

"The failures of the Bush administration have woken the country up; conservatives now need to find a way to communicate with people who are actually paying attention."

One of my favorite bloggers, Oliver Willis, writes about his experience with conservatives and their "perception of reality":

"I experienced this myself in conversation with one of my regular conservative readers who argued with me that Barack Obama running ads attacking Sarah Palin over abortion was a sign of weakness… for Obama. The problem is that the Democratic position on abortion - access with restrictions - is far closer to the mainstream of American thought than Sarah Palin’s - the outright banning of abortion. But if you watched Fox News and listened to talk radio you would think just the opposite.

I also noticed it on con blogs and Free Republic when the polls all indicated that Sen. Obama was headed for a significant victory over McCain. It wasn’t that the campaign was being run poorly or that Obama was doing well. Nope, the polls showing Obama in the lead were clearly a sinister plot by the liberal mainstream media to convince the American people to vote for Obama (or, because the pollsters were in blue states their results couldn’t possibly be accurate). That’s crazy talk, and yet it was a mainstream point of view for the right - reinforced by their media. It’s a lot like people in a cult who simply can’t step out of their cult-world and review things objectively."

If this were any other topic, let's say sports, and you were as wrong as the Conservatives have been with reflecting the thoughts and attitudes of America, you would have been fired years ago.

Source: fivethirtyeight.com

Obama Cell Phone Records Hacked By Verizon Employees

The Telcoms blow, now we know why they need retro-active immunity - they're crooks.

CNN is reporting that Obama was notified yesterday that Verizon employees breached Obama's cell phone records for personal gain - be it for fun, to sell them, or to give them to the Republicans. No one is safe, and Congress isn't doing a damn thing about it. Zero

So. How's that FISA vote working out, Mr. President-Elect?

Source: AmericaBlog

Seven Years For Nothing

Glenn Greenwald at Salon reports on five Gitmo detainees being released:

"The five men ordered released today have been imprisoned in a cage by the Bush administration for 7 straight years without being charged with any crimes and without there being any credible evidence that they did anything wrong. If the members of Congress who voted for the Military Commissions Act had their way, or if the four Supreme Court Justice in the Boumediene minority had theirs, the Bush administration would nonetheless have been empowered to keep them encaged indefinitely, for the rest of their lives if desired, without ever having to charge them with any crime or allow them to step foot into a courtroom to petition for habeas corpus.

Simply juxtapose that finding with the fact that these men have been imprisoned for seven straight years with no meaningful due process, and one can vividly see the grotesque injustices we have wrought with Guantanamo and our denial of basic due process to detainees. That is a stain -- one of many -- that will never be fully expunged."

Well done George Bush.

Source: Salon

AG Michael Mukasey Collapses While Giving Speech

Mukasey was giving a speech at the Federalist Society Lawyers Convention Annual Dinner defending torture techniques. 'Nuf said.

"An FBI official said Mukasey got stuck on a word during his speech to the conservative legal group, repeated it several times and then "went down hard."

I hope he's well, but he is old. Maybe new blood is needed to do these tough jobs.

UPDATE: Slightly disturbing video of the fall.



Source: HuffPo

East And West

Never the twain shall meet.



Source: StrangeMaps

Dow Testing Lows

"Trickle down" is supposed to describe the long held Republican fable about wealth, not the Dow Jones under the George "I Have A MBA" Bush Administration. The S&P 500 closed at an 11-1/2 year low.

Bush Requested Severed Heads

Add this to the list of dick things "wannabe bully" Bush has said or done that we'll find out about after he's out of office. The guy thinks he's an emperor, but he's just playing dress up. Bush asked CIA for severed heads on dry ice for his mantle. That will show the world we're sensible!

Don't Believe The Hype

The Only Moose That Matters

The Yankees' Mike Mussina, a 270 game winner, five-time All-Star and seven-time American League Gold Glove Award winner, announced his retirement today. Respect.



Source: Yankees.com

Perez Hilton Boycotts Sundance Due To Prop 8

Perez Hilton boycotts Sundance due to Prop 8 and brings some heat and attention to the Morons Mormons.

"You will support the Mormons if you go. You WILL support the taking away of equal rights for gays!"

That's pretty big news in that his site gets a massive amount of traffic and his demo is young people who are forming lifelong views on issues like equality and civil rights.

Source: AmericaBlog

Michael Moore On Auto Bailout

The US car industry bailout and Michigan native Michael Moore on Larry King, pretty good clip. Moore has been on GM's case for years, dating back to Roger & Me. But as a child in an auto-worker family, he sees what is at stake, too.

Napolitano For DHS

Two-term Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) has been chosen to serve as secretary of the vast and troubled Department of Homeland Security for President-elect Obama. Most people seem pleased with the nomination. Not knowing much about her, I feel she is my kind of person after watching this video from the Obama campaign. Ridge? Chertoff? The orange High Alerts? FEMA? Heckuva job, Brownie? I'll take Janet any day.

China Now Has Most US IOUs

A godless, Communist country that has long financed our lifestyle that has destroyed capitalism in now now the biggest holder of American IOUs.

China in September became the largest foreign holder of US treasuries ahead of Japan, the US Treasury Department reported in figures released Tuesday.

China held 585 billion dollars worth of treasuries, while Japan held 573.2 billion dollars, according to Treasury figures.

The United States, with the world's largest economy, has long relied on foreign purchases of government-issued bonds to finance its huge debt.

The third largest foreign holder is Britain, with 338.4 billion dollars.

Conservative's "spend and borrow" is catching up with us and putting China in a "do whatever we want" position when it comes to policies. Dump our currency? Invade Taiwan? Thanks Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43.

Source: RawStory

Job Market Goes From Blowing To Sucking To Sh*tting Itself

There better be some good music coming out of these tough times:

"New claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to a 16-year high, the Labor Department said Thursday, providing more evidence of a rapidly weakening job market expected to get even worse next year.

The government said new applications for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 542,000 from a downwardly revised figure of 515,000 in the previous week. That's much higher than Wall Street economists' expectations of 505,000, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

That is also the highest level of claims since July 1992, the department said, when the U.S. economy was coming out of a recession.

The four-week average of claims, which smooths out fluctuations, was even worse: it rose to 506,500, the highest in more than 25 years.

In addition, the number of people continuing to claim unemployment insurance rose sharply for the third straight week to more than 4 million, the highest since December 1982, when the economy was in a painful recession."

Update: The White House said Bush would sign an extension of unemployment benefits, reversing its previous opposition and "fuck 'em" attitude.

Source: Yahoo

Rebranding America Abroad

This was so evident during the election. As a brand, Obama was far superior to McCain. He raised money, he used technology and the internet better, he drew massive crowds, and was the reason behind so much new voter volunteerism and registration.

And as the world goes through a recession, who better to have out there selling America abroad. Our goods, our services. Remember the crowds Obama drew in Germany and how well received his victory was around the world?

The re-branding will tackle big issues like the invasion of Iraq and alleged torture and abuse of prisoners, the perception of hypocrisy, unilateralism, lack of contact with Americans and the perceived war on Islam.

America's image has declined in nearly every region of the world in recent years, but Obama's victory "enables the United States to start again with a clean slate," according to John Quelch, the senior associate dean at Harvard Business School.

"Americans can actually go to dinner parties and cocktail receptions around the world today and not have to apologize for the United States the way they have had to do the last several years," he said. "The election has made life a little bit easier for Americans living and traveling abroad to hold their head up high again."

Skeptics try to downplay this angle, but they have probably never left the US themselves to gain this perspective. We need the world to consume our goods and Obama is the ultimate spokesman for the US.

Source: CNN

Bush's Unitary Executive Legacy

I keep seeing these articles on Bush making last minute changes to rules that may be hard for the next President to change. Ranging from relaxing pollution control standards for power plants or allowing loaded weapons into national parks, the Bush Administration is scrambling to approve or change as many federal rules as it can before it hands off power to President-elect Barack Obama.

But, alas, the Bush legacy, or Cheney legacy really, that of Unitary Executive Theory, where the President has powers over the other two branches of Government, will now be on the side of Obama. Not exactly what Rove had in mind, huh?

John Podesta, a leading member of the transition team, has said Obama will use his “executive authority without waiting for congressional action” to reverse many of Bush’s policies.

It's what Presidents do. Bush did it to Clinton, and now Obama will do it to Bush. We'll see how bad the conservatives complain about it.

Source: Politico

Pirates? In 2008

The $30 million these Somali pirates have stolen is chump change compared to our Wall St pirates. After reading this article, I wonder how long before hawala hits America.

"The businessmen backing the pirates arrange for the complex multibank transfer of ransom funds, disbursing the money through dozens of institutions around the globe within hours. They take a hefty cut before sending the pirates’ share through hawala, an underground cash-based Islamic banking system that leaves behind no written or electronic records that investigators can follow."

Western intelligence has been tracking the flow of ransom money and the trail leads to Dubai.

Source: Daily Beast

Bush Snubbed At G-20: "See Ya, Wouldn't Want To Be Ya"

CNN's Rick Sanchez on Bush going LFB [looking for buddies], "it seems almost sad". Umm, the guy earned every bit of the disdain shown to him.

Welcome To Oklahoma, Please Reset Your Watches to 1955

Robin Myers, a minister in OKC, may be the most hated guy in OK after this, but it needs to be said:

"The world wept for joy; Oklahoma spat defiantly. The glory train of history pulled out of the station; Oklahoma waved goodbye and said “good riddance.” Dr. King’s dream came true; Oklahoma slumbered on, curled up on the hearth of racism and addicted to the mind-numbing power of the word “conservative.”

Whatever the rest of the country is up to, it must be wrong. If the American voter wants to send five new Democratic senators and 19 representatives to Washington, Oklahomans will respond by not electing a single Democrat running in a statewide election. If Obama wants to redraw the electoral map, turning red states blue, we will hunker down and become the reddest of all red states — the only state in which not a single county went for Obama.

The candidate that Gen. Colin Powell called “transformational” did not transform the Sooners — he made us even more recalcitrant. The opportunity to break down old walls instead of propping them up again passed us by. The chance to prove that race has nothing to do with it passed us by. The chance to support the next generation of young people, born again to a passion for politics, passed us by.

While almost everyone in the world celebrated this stunning about-face in the image of our tarnished nation, the majority of Okies proved once again that nothing has to make sense to make us proud, and God must find something endearing about ignorance....

Standing in line to vote, I met an elderly black woman who had her eyes on the prize. She said, “Rosa Parks sat down so that Martin Luther King Jr. could walk. Martin walked so that Obama could run. Obama ran so that our children could fly.”

Meanwhile, back at the red-dirt ranch, Oklahoma fell flat on its face. We are on the wrong side of history again, and we’re damn proud of it."

Source: Oklahoma Gazzette

Boehner Loses Everything Except Job

He must know where the bodies are buried.

Rep. John Boehner of Ohio has kept his post as the House Republican leader even after his caucus lost several seats in the Nov. 4 election.

You oversee a historic election defeat, your party loses many seats in the House and Senate. Your home State goes from Red to Blue. Nice job, John. Failing upwards feels good.

al-Qaeda Refuses To Stay Classy

Joe Klein at Time shows how the al-Zawahiri letter calling Obama a "house slave" is one of the first real indications we have the PR upper hand in the new international state of affairs.

"The terrorists are now exposed as racists, on top of everything else. We have many miles to go in Afghanistan and the northern and western precincts of Pakistan, and more blood to shed--and innumerable ways to screw up, since no one has ever gotten Afghanistan right--but the wind seems to have shifted slightly and is now at our back."

He also cites Richard Clarke:

"Obama's election has taken the wind out of al Qaeda's sails in much of the Islamic world because it demonstrates America's renewed commitment to multiculturalism, human rights, and international law. It also proves to many that democracy can work and overcome ethnic, sectarian, or racial barriers.

"Obama's commitment to withdraw from Iraq also takes away an al Qaeda propaganda tenet: that the U.S. seeks to occupy oil rich Arab lands. His commitment to defeat al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan also challenges their plans. Most of all, by returning to American values the world admires, Obama sets al Qaeda back enormously in the battle of ideas, the ideological struggle which determines whether al Qaeda will continue to have significant support in the Islamic world."

Obama is not just another American President as his weak and defensive message implies, Barack owns Al-Zawahiri and he knows it. Bush the Boogey Man is gone. The al-Qaeda propaganda machine losts it's recruiting poster child. As Borat would say, "Good for me, bad for you!"

Source: Swampland

O'Reilly Uses Holiday Amid War On Christmas

Comedian and ecumenical scholar Bill O'Reilly's War On Christmas is really working. Just check out his own website.

Fake news initiating fake wars fighting fake issues.

When The Right Is Wrong

With Bill Kristol's NYT's contract up, let's review his predictions on election day.

WALLACE: Bill? Your surprise for Election Night.

KRISTOL: Ted Stevens, the 40-year incumbent in Alaska, recently convicted of seven counts of something-or-other, hangs on in Alaska. The voters of Alaska are loyal to their man. They don’t believe some D.C. grand jury. (Laughter.) Stevens hangs on, which helps Republicans keep the Democratic margin in the Senate reasonable.

And of course, since John McCain is going to take that narrow path to the presidency, let me add, he’ll be there to stop that Democratic Congress with overwhelming majorities from doing all the damage –

The leading Conservative pundits get paid to play make believe on Fox News, what a scam. And the Fox viewers just lap it up, no biases for them to complain about.

Facebook Status As News Source

I joke that with today's social networking sites and nosediving interpersonal communication skills, relationships end when someone "unfriends" you. I conversely bring you this:

Kelly Osbourne’s engagement to fiancée Luke Worrall has been revealed via the social networking site Facebook.

Changing his status to "engaged to Kelly Osbourne” on his personal page, Worrall confirmed the longtime rumors about the couple’s plan to wed.

Source: Gigwise

"It's More Of A Shelbyville Idea..."

Enter Lyle Landly from The Simpson's episode on the Springfield Monorail. Bullet train you've been rendered obsolete. They're building a two-line, 24 mile subway system in Baghdad.



I'm hoping for the best, it's not like mass-transit is a target for extremists to bomb. But seriously, this is a) a sign that things really are turning around; b) the biggest corruption scam in even Iraq's history; or c) insane.

Source: Transport Politic

Air Barack

For me, there's something very comforting in seeing your [future] President shoot hoops.

Deflation: Aren't Decreasing Prices Good For Me?

via Kevin Drum:

DEFLATION....Economists have been warning about the possibility of deflation for the past several months, and it looks like we might finally be getting it:

The Consumer Price Index, a key measure of how much Americans spend on groceries, clothing, entertainment and other goods and services, fell by 1 percent in October....Energy prices led the decline, falling 8.6 percent in October as the price of gasoline continued its steady slide from highs of more than $4 a gallon.

....In Wednesday’s report, even excluding volatile food and energy prices, prices dropped 0.1 percent in October. It was the first such decline in more than two decades and raises the specter of deflation as the economy contracts and demand for goods and services across the board plunges.

“This month it’s more than slowing, it’s outright contraction,” [James] O’Sullivan said. “And yes, if you extrapolate that, it’s deflation.”

It's only 0.1% and it's only for one month — so far. But that's the biggest drop since 1982, and the drop in the primary CPI number is the biggest since 1947, yet another indication that our current recession is on track to be the worst we've suffered since World War II. More stimulus, please.

Considering this drop in CPI was during a major leveling off of gas prices, as oil now hovers around $60/barrel, we may see these lower prices increase demand. If you still have a job, that is.

Source: Kevin Drum

Daschle Accepts Job As HHS Secretary

Roll Call reports that Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) “has been offered the job of Health and Human Services secretary by President-elect Barack Obama and has accepted the job.” Daschle is also set to take on the position of “health care czar” in the Obama White House. CNN’s Ed Henry is also reporting he negotiated the “health care czar” position in order to be “the point person on all White House health-related issues.”

I'm not sure who ever has this role in the Bush Administration, but I'm sure glad it's not some religious fanatic who had to pass the strict Right Wing agenda test.

Source: ThinkProgress

al-Qaida Borrows From Palin Crowd

The Palin crowds are at it again, yelling racial slurs at Obama. No wait, this guy is #2 in al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahri. Getting harder to tell the difference.

In al-Qaida's first response to Obama's victory, al-Zawahri also called the president-elect, along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, "house negroes."

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house negroes."

It's always the old guy chiming in, trying to keep his out-of-touch base fired up through hate. I'm looking at you John McCain. And just like Grandpa McSame's pathetic wedge messages failed, so will this.

Source: HuffPo

Ted Stevens Loses Senate Race

Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out:

"It’s a terrible birthday present for Ted Stevens: The Senate’s longest-serving Republican has lost his bid for a seventh term. Stevens, who turns 85 today, went down to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by a 3,724-vote margin, with nearly 90,000 absentee and early ballots counted two weeks after Election Day. Begich is the first Democrat in Alaska’s congressional delegation in nearly 30 years, and his win gives Democrats 58 Senate seats."

Ever since Alsaka started bribing giving out oil equity checks to their residents, the Republicans had a strangle hold on the quasi-socialist state. Let's face it, a felon like Stevens had a chance at winning this race.

This really sends a message to the collapsing GOP.

Source: Politico

Black20.com Investigates Hipsters

Viral video site Black20 has a news segment on hipsters. As a New Yorker[Manhattan] I have my own opinion. I love the static default shot in the player of this tool claiming he's not a hipster. So stale.

Iraqi Interpreters Get Raw Deal

Would love to hear this explanation:

"the U.S. military has banned Iraqi interpreters from wearing face masks. “We are a professional Army and professional units don’t conceal their identity by wearing masks,” Lieutenant Colonel Steve Stover, a military spokesman, wrote in an e-mail to the Post, whose account continued: “He expressed appreciation for the service and sacrifice of the interpreters but said those dissatisfied with the new policy ‘can seek alternative employment.’” LTC Stover was pleased to report that the contractor that hires interpreters is having no trouble meeting its quota.

I’m sorry, LTC Stover, but this is stupidity and callousness posing as rectitude. For years, Iraqis working with American units were allowed to hide their faces so that they could keep their heads on their necks. The new order has already led to firings and a significant number of resignations, as well as desperate measures—one interpreter smearing his face with mascara, another hoping that a new beard will keep his identity secret. This is the kind of order that headquarters dreams up and combat troops detest.

Iraqis are not in the chain of command of our military. They risk their lives to help and are pretty much told to drop dead.

Source: The New Yorker

How Are Mobile Homes Catching Fire?

So all these mobile homes in California are catching fire due to the wild fires. Doesn't a mobile home have wheels? Ummm, drive away? You're the one kind of house that has that option!

I know it's more complex than that, but George Carlin would have make a skit about it.

Obama Taps Eric Holder For Attorney General

Another piece of history:

"President-elect Obama has decided to tap Eric Holder as his attorney general, putting the veteran Washington lawyer in place to become the first African-American to head the Justice Department, according to two legal sources close to the presidential transition," Newsweek's Michael Isikoff reports.



Credentials: Former judge, D.C. Superior Court; former deputy attorney general in the Justice Department; former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

What he offers: Holder has extensive experience in the criminal justice system and with civil court disputes. He staunchly backed community policing programs to reduce violent crime and raised morale within the Justice Department during his tenure. Holder served as a co-chairman of the Obama presidential campaign.

Vetting: Holder took flak in 2001 for failing to object to a last-minute pardon request for fugitive Marc Rich, whose ex-wife is a prolific Democratic Party donor, when others in the Clinton administration pushed through the petition during its last hours in office.

Source: HuffPo

The “Bitch” and the “Ditz”

We will never confuse Hillary for Sarah.

"In the grand Passion play that was this election, both Clinton and Palin came to represent—and, at times, reinforce—two of the most pernicious stereotypes that are applied to women: the bitch and the ditz."

Interesting article on how these two extremes reinforced the two most sexist stereotypes in the "year of the woman".

Where does Michele Obama fit in?



Source: NY Mag

Kristol End Days

So Weekly Standard founder and conservative chipmunk-faced pundit Bill Kristol was brought on the New York Times op-ed board for one-year to balance things out in this election year. Seems the mental lightweight has been called out by George Packer:

"The real grounds for firing Kristol are that he didn’t take his column seriously. In his year on the Op-Ed page, not one memorable sentence, not one provocative thought, not one valuable piece of information appeared under his name. The prose was so limp (“Who, inquiring minds want to know, is going to spare us a first Obama term?”) that you had the sense Kristol wrote his column during the commercial breaks of his gig on Fox News Sunday and gave it about the same amount of thought.

In one sense, this mental shallowness and literary poverty come as a surprise from the son of Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb, the student of Harvey C. Mansfield, the devotee of Leo Strauss, and the colleague of Robert Kagan, David Brooks, et al. Kristol was never an intellectual—he’s always been a Republican strategist with various public platforms, including government office—but under his editorship the Weekly Standard managed to be lively and interesting on a regular basis. By his own account, Kristol is the sort of person who browses through a used bookstore at the Milwaukee airport while waiting for a plane and picks up an old edition of Orwell’s essays."

The Conservative movement is in need of some real ideas, not just actors. Liberals need a quality debate partner, it's no fun beating up on the little guy. Maybe it's time the NYT manned up and found someone worthy.

"The degeneration of the conservative movement from William F. Buckley and Milton Friedman to Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin is a subject that will require more than one book (Mark Lilla got a start in this fine Wall Street Journal column). Kristol’s performance on the Op-Ed page during the most interesting election in a generation is a historical symptom, not merely a personal failure. He wrote badly because his world view had become problematic at best, untenable at worst, and he had spent too many years turning out Party propaganda to summon the intellectual resources that a difficult situation required. Now the Times owes it to its readers to find someone better."

Source: New Yorker

Quote of the Day: Joe Lieberman

"Some of the things people have said I said of Senator Obama are simply not true." - Joe the Weasel Lieberman

Obama's Staff Has Familiar Look. Here's Why

The base is wondering, Kevin Drum calms them down:

"Just a quick comment on a common meme: Why is Barack Obama surrounding himself with so many Clinton retreads? That's not change we can believe in!

Sure, sure, but look: anybody who's been active in liberal governance for more than eight years is likely to be a Clintonite. It was the only game in town during the 90s. And anybody who's been active less than eight years probably doesn't have the experience to get a top level position. So there's really no way around this. There are some fresh faces around for Obama to tap, but for the most part, when you're staffing highly visible and responsible positions, you want someone who has at least some experience to fall back on. And since Bill Clinton is the only Democrat to hold the presidency in the past 28 years, that means someone who served in the Clinton administration."

Obama has always been criticized for his actions that ultimately look genius in the end. Asking Hillary? Letting Lieberman off the hook? I'm sure it's all in his plan.

Source: Kevin Drum

Bush Chipping Away At Civil Rights, Again

I expect a lot of these last minute changes by Bush chipping away at our Civil Rights in the name of religion:

"A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job discrimination laws.

The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their “religious beliefs or moral convictions.”

It would also prevent hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices and drugstores from requiring employees with religious or moral objections to “assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity” financed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

But three officials from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, including its legal counsel, whom President Bush appointed, said the proposal would overturn 40 years of civil rights law prohibiting job discrimination based on religion."

Lawyers point out "the rule was unnecessary for the protection of employees and potentially confusing to employers".

And what would be an example of something Bush objects to?

"As an example of the policies to which they object, Bush administration officials cited a Connecticut law that generally requires hospitals to provide rape victims with timely access to and information about emergency contraception."

Conservatives who want to deprive a rape victim to these options are evil. Classic lack of empathy towards the less fortunate. Right to privacy? They want religion to be the State.

Source: NYT

Liberals Are Cool Launches Mobile Website

LiberalsAreCool goes mobile. You can read this blog on your cell or blackberry at http://liberalsarecool.wirenode.mobi

"Terrorist Fist Jab" Fox Newswoman Let Go

Another conservative mouthpiece bites the dust:

"E.D.Hill gained notoriety several months ago when she referred to the "pound," "fist bump," or whatever you want to call the handshake that Barack Obama exchanged with his wife Michelle as a "terrorist fist jab."

After 10 years Fox News will not be renewing her contract. Single tear.



Source: HuffPo

The Smiths Johnny Marr On Innovation Coming From The Outside

As I work in music, I post from time to time about musicians I like.

This is a great article by Johnny Marr of The Smiths fame. It's about creativity coming from the outside by independent thinks and doers.

"But the British music industry has never, ever created anything, ever, in its history. It has never innovated anything. It's done plenty of good things – it's brought plenty of great innovators to light and helped to make great records and events – but nothing of any value was ever created inside the British or American music business. It always came from the outside, from outsiders created in the real world."

Johnny is a very passionate guy and I can draw a parallel from his views:

"One of the things I've learnt as I've got older, about movements and working with other people, is that in pop culture particularly, but in any of the arts, it's almost more important to define yourself by what you're against than by what you're for."

Stick by your guns, surround yourself with quality people with good taste. He even uses "maverick" when describing who really brings on changes and make things magical. Great advice these days.

Source: Irish Independent

How Right Wing Radio Works

Interesting article on how hate radio works titled, "Former News Radio Staffer Spills the Beans on How Shock Jocks Inspire Hatred and Anger".

"To succeed, a talk show host must perpetuate the notion that his or her listeners are victims, and the host is the vehicle by which they can become empowered. The host frames virtually every issue in us-versus-them terms. There has to be a bad guy against whom the host will emphatically defend those loyal listeners".

Summarising:

"But the key reason talk radio succeeds is because its hosts can exploit the fears and perceived victimization of a large swath of conservative-leaning listeners. And they feel victimized because many liberals and moderates have ignored or trivialized their concerns and have stereotyped these Americans as uncaring curmudgeons."

His experience was with Charlie Sykes and Jeff Wagner but you can see how all of Right Wing radio works.

Source: AlterNet

SEC Charges Mark Cuban With Insider Trading

I hear syrup and jelly hides the taste.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Dallas Mavericks owner and internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban with insider trading.



Source: WIRED

Rapturist Sees Anti-Christ In Lotto Numbers

Todd Strandberg, editor and founder of RaptureReady.com, and his Jesus Freak Rapture friends are convinced Obama is the anti-Christ. What is some of their empirical evidence for this biblical prophecy?

"One of the winning lottery numbers in the president-elect's home state was 666— which, as everyone knows, is the sign of the Beast (also known as the Antichrist)"

Hard to argue with that reasoned, sensible logic.

Too bad 58008 didn't come out because it spells BOOBS upside down. SHELLOIL anyone?

Source: Newsweek

This Is What A Terrorist Looks Like

With all the out-of-touch and racial stereotypes of terrorists as Middle Eastern or cab drivers or guys with turbans, turns out Spain's top militant Basque separatist group, Eta, was headed up by an "Achey Breaky" NASCAR-mullet looking guy.

Either that or he plays professional soccer or tennis.

But fo'real, Eta's suspected military chief, Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina was just captured.



Source: BBC News

An Obama Impression I Can Believe In

Obama prepares for his debate with Grandpa. The Straight Talk is the short bus. Not enough experience, ask his wife.



Source: Andrew Sullivan

Obama's Mother-In-Law's Codename

The Secret Service revealed code names for the future First Family a while back. Barack Obama received his — “Renegade” — more than 18 months ago. Michelle Obama got hers — “Renaissance” — in January after her staff requested a Secret Service detail. Their daughters, Malia — “Radiance” — and Sasha — “Rosebud” — have also had theirs for some time.

A just released codename has been reported for that of Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, who will be moving in with the family in Washington. She will be called - "Cockblocker".

JOKE: As the saying goes, behind every successful man is a surprised mother-in-law.

Phil Gramm: Subprime Architect

Where did Subprime Mortgages come from? Shredded oversight? Creation of Derivatives that had no regulation? Eliminating Depression-era barriers that restricted the rise and reach of financial conglomerates?

Read this article on the architect Phil Gramm, retired Republican, in the NYT yesterday.

“To me, Phil Gramm is the single most important reason for the current financial crisis.” - Michael D. Donovan, a former S.E.C. lawyer.

Conservatives can say what they will about free markets The reason we have regulations is because capitalism remains, basically, theft.

A quick synopsis via a commenter:
"The Fed wanted to create a smokescreen to fool working-class Americans into thinking they didn't need wealth, decent jobs, income.

Americans were losing wealth via Globalization, GDP was redefined to mean anything made anywhere so "Supply Side" could sweep "Free Market" failures under the rug. Meanwhile, Americans were desperate to keep their houses while losing their incomes so they made a deal with the Devil and let the bankers rope them into predatory loans, passing the bad loans onto their fellow bankers - "Hot Potato" until the Piper came around.

Now, Americans are realizing they really don't have wealth in the world of "Trickle Down" economics, they're losing everything and find that their children are covering the bankers for any loss they might have incurred.

Great system, Capitalism."

Source: NYT

Conservatives: Irrelevant By Choice, Not Mistake

A spokesmen for the Republicans, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), who is expected to join the House Republican Leadership as Minority Whip, finally realizes how out of touch his party is. And it only took 2 historically horrible election cycles to figure it out:

“Where we have really fallen down is, we have lacked the ability to be relevant to people’s lives. Let’s set aside the last eight years, and our falling down in living up to expectations of what we said we were going to do,” Mr. Cantor told The Washington Times in his district office outside of Richmond. “It’s the relevancy question.” […]

“It’s the roads, it’s going to the gas station, that’s still there when the price will bump back up. It’s education, it’s health care. These are the issues, frankly, that we have not been on offense with,” he said.

It's not quite the mistake Cantor makes it out to be, it was deliberate the way Conservatives ignored these issues.

Source: Think Progress

Mormon Church Gets It Backwards

Via Kevin Drum at Mother Jones:

QUOTE OF THE DAY....From the Mormon church, reacting to protests against their campaign to pass Proposition 8 in California:

"People of faith have been intimidated for simply exercising their democratic rights. These are not actions that are worthy of the democratic ideals of our nation. The end of a free and fair election should not be the beginning of a hostile response in America."

I'm afraid the church elders have it exactly backward here. Churches have every right to involve themselves in political issues, but if they do then they're going to be treated as political actors. Protests, boycotts, op-eds, blog posts, and marches are exactly the democratic ideals of our nation, and being on the receiving end of them is what happens to anyone who enters the political fray. It's a little late to pretend you didn't know this.

That's why we separate Church and State but I think the bible covers this, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Source: Kevin Drum

Where Have You Been Eliot Spitzer?

Disgraced hooker-user Eliot Spitzer chimes in on the Wall St mess he helped clean up in this weekend's Washington Post:

"First, we must confront head-on the pervasive misunderstanding of what constitutes a "free market." For long stretches of the past 30 years, too many Americans fell prey to the ideology that a free market requires nearly complete deregulation of banks and other financial institutions and a government with a hands-off approach to enforcement. "We can regulate ourselves," the mantra went.

Those of us who raised red flags about this were scoffed at for failing to understand or even believe in "the market." During my tenure as New York state attorney general, my colleagues and I sought to require investment banking analysts to provide their clients with unbiased recommendations, devoid of undisclosed and structural conflicts. But powerful voices with heavily vested interests accused us of meddling in the market.

When my office, along with the Department of Justice, warned that some of American International Group's reinsurance transactions were little more than efforts to create the false impression of extra capital on the company's balance sheet, we were jeered at for attacking one of the nation's great insurance companies, which surely knew how to balance risk and reward.

And when the attorneys general of all 50 states sought to investigate subprime lending, believing that some lending practices might be toxic, we were blocked by a coalition of the major banks and the Bush administration, which invoked a rarely used statute to preempt the states' ability to probe. The administration claimed that it had the situation under control and that our inquiry was unnecessary."

The piece concluded,

"Although mistakes I made in my private life now prevent me from participating in these issues as I have in the past, I very much hope and expect that President Obama and his new administration will have the strength and wisdom to do again what FDR did."

Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly makes a case for politicians and the known quantity that is adultery:

"Reading this, I couldn't help but wonder if Spitzer's personal mistakes really should prevent him from participating in these issues as he has in the past.

Yes, he hired a call girl, but so did Sen. David Vitter (La.), and he's still a sitting Republican senator in good standing, who apparently plans to seek re-election. Yes, he committed adultery, but so did Newt Gingrich (thinking about running for president), Rudy Giuliani (thinking about running for governor), and John McCain (the most recent Republican presidential nominee).

Do we have to exclude Spitzer from addressing the issues on which he has considerable expertise? Issues that have nothing to do with an unrelated sex scandal?"

For me, Politicians fall into two categories on adultery: not "do they or don't they", but, "with girls or with boys".

And it's plain to see that Democrats condemn it publicly and Republicans piously deny it even exists.

Source: Steve Benen

California Fires

Not that this isn't sad [double negative], but doesn't this happen every year?

New Orleans was shit on because they "built a city below sea level". Well these people built houses where houses burnt down 2 years ago. What's the difference? Ummm, white, or maybe more to the point, non-poor people, live in these houses.

The South's Lost Influence

Reminiscent of that "Fuck The South" diatribe email that came out after the 2004 election loss.

"THE SOUTH....For many years, the Democratic Party controlled the agenda of American politics and Southerners controlled much of the Democratic Party. So the South had enormous political influence.

Later, most Southerners switched to the Republican Party, but by then it was Republicans who controlled the agenda of American politics. So the South still had enormous political influence.

As of January 20th, however, the Democratic Party will control the American political agenda once again. But Southerners are still Republicans, which means that their political influence will be nearly nonexistent.

In other words, for the first time since Reconstruction, the South will be almost completely shut out of national power. There are still a few liberal Southerners who belong to the Democratic Party, of course, but the reactionary, traditionalist South is, for the time being, nearly powerless. They will not control anything, their caucus is a discredited rump, and their influence will be negligible. There is no reason to fear them or to care what they think. Their power to filibuster, itself guttering and only barely alive following the 2008 election, will be all they have left.

This is the first time this will be true in well over a century. So say it again: The South will have essentially no influence over the course of American politics for the next eight years. We live in momentous times."

The South, where Deliverance is a love story.

Source: Kevin Drum

Obama: Regaining Our Stature

Our future President sets a course to correct what the infant George W used as policy, in addition to, going after the guy who started all this. So simple yet beyond what most conservatives can comprehend.

First on torture and Guantanamo:

OBAMA: "Yes. I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture, and I’m going to make sure that we don’t torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world."

Secondly on OBL:

OBAMA:“capturing or killing Osama bin Laden is a critical aspect of his national security strategy of stamping out al Qaeda. He is not just a symbol, he is also the operational leader of an organization that is planning attacks against U.S. targets.”

Neocons didn't have the intelligence or morality to do the right thing. They choose the easy road and covered their tracks with zero oversight and fear. The US swallowed that BS for 8 years, now it's a new day and a new America.

Doing the right thing is easy when everyone is looking, it's doing the right thing when it's below the radar and there's no obvious reward that we all aspire to.

Source: ThinkProgress