Worst Jobs Reports. Ever

Worst Jobs report. Ever. Worst President. Ever

We need to get serious. You know the 533,000 jobs lost in November will be revised higher, they always are.

Bureau of Labor Statistics'commission Keith Hall presented his report to the Joint Economic Committee this morning, and said that it was “one of the worst jobs reports” in the agency’s 124-year history

HALL: If I were to characterize this jobs report I would say it’s very dismal jobs report. There’s very little in this report that’s positive. This is maybe one of the worst jobs reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics has ever produced.

CUMMINGS: Ever?

HALL: Yes.

CUMMINGS: And how long has the Bureau been around?

HALL: 124 years.

CUMMINGS: 124 years. And so that means we’re sliding down the slippery slope fast.

Republicans will shamelessly use this indictment of their 8 years of horrible Bush policy to say they should make the tax cuts for the rich permanent.



Source: ThinkProgress

Coldplay Sued For Plagiarism

Bono can sue Chris Martin for ripping off his mannerisms, but guitar noodler Joe Satriani beat them to the punch.

Rock guitarist Joe Satriani has sued British band Coldplay, accusing the Grammy-nominated stars of plagiarizing one of his songs.

Satriani's copyright infringement suit, filed on Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, claims the Coldplay song "Viva La Vida" incorporates "substantial original portions" of his 2004 instrumental "If I Could Fly."

The 52-year-old guitar virtuoso is seeking a jury trial, damages and "any and all profits" attributable to the alleged copyright infringement.

Now watch R Kelly sue Satrinai for ripping off his version of "I Believe I Can Fly"

You can listen to the two tracks for yourself:



Source: HuffPo

UPDATE: Coldplay responds:

“With the greatest possible respect to Joe Satriani, we have now unfortunately found it necessary to respond publicly to his allegations,” read the statement. “If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him. Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write the song ‘Viva La Vida.’ We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavours.”

O.J. Simpson Gets 15 Years

Orenthal James, pass the jelly.

LAS VEGAS -- O.J. Simpson was sentenced Friday to a total of 15 years in prison for the gunpoint robbery and kidnapping of two sports memorabilia dealers.

“I didn’t want to hurt anybody. I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong.”

Simpson, 61, will not be eligible for parole for nine years.

Source: ESPN

Automakers Killed Electric Car Years Ago: Why?

Now would be a great time for Congress to ask GM why they killed the very popular, perfectly good EV1 electric car in 1999.

Trailer for 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?



Beyond conspiracy theories, fact.

Still Questioning Palin's Pregnancy

Andrew Sullivan's obsession is now yours. He wants to know, is Trig really Sarah's son? The picture was taken on March 26, 2008, three weeks before she gave birth to Trig, a full-term, 6 pound baby.

Possible camel toe, but no baby bump.



"Please make me look like an idiot for asking these questions," he writes.

But despite a private meeting with the McCain campaign and interviews with eight of the leading obstetricians in the country, he still wonders whether "we have witnessed one of the biggest frauds in American political history and the biggest failures among the American media in a very, very long time."

Source: Andrew Sullivan

Fastest Transition in Modern History

Not everyone is losing a job.

President-elect Obama "is moving more quickly to fill his administration's top ranks than any newly elected president in modern times," the New York Times reports.

"He has named virtually the entire top echelon of his White House staff and nearly half of his cabinet. Just a month after his election, Mr. Obama has announced his selections for 13 of the 24 most important positions in a new administration."

"By comparison, Bill Clinton had filled only one of those jobs by this point in his transition, and Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan only two. Even the elder George Bush, who had the advantage of succeeding a fellow Republican, had picked just eight a month after his election. George W. Bush, stalled by the Florida recount, had named a chief of staff at this point in 2000 but was waiting to find out if he would even become president."

Source: Political Wire

Over Paid On The Way Up, Blameless On The Way Down

Matthew Yglesias asked the question of the financial markets: If It’s Not Your Fault, Then How Come You’re So Rich?

The market economists, the conservatives, the Milton Friedmans, all the people that stressed the advantages of the marketplace and the disadvantages of government intervention and regulation. They were all wrong.

The market does not regulate. It's a myth. It eats itself alive. It tears itself apart.

Quoting Ross Douthat from The Atlantic:

"Henry Blodget makes a related argument in the just-out December issue of our magazine [The Atlantic], arguing that “the interaction of human psychology with a market economy practically ensures that [bubbles] will form,” and that the mass pursuit of rational self-interest is the only real culprit for our present woes.

In one sense, I agree with these arguments, and indeed I’ve made similarly-themed arguments myself. But it’s also worth noting that saying “we’re all to blame” for what’s happened doesn’t exclude the possibility that some people, and some kinds of people, are more to blame than others - because some people have greater responsibilities than others, and all mistakes are not created equal."

The "nobody knew" defense is completely made up. Never accepting blame for how mortage deriviatives were exploited, nor explaining how the house of cards collapsed, is in the self interest of all those involved. It's just beyond most people's understanding of economics, so ignorance is bliss and a lot better than jail time.

Yglesias takes his shot:

"Ross goes in one direction with this, but I’d like to go in another. It seems to me that we should largely concede that, yes, the failures here have to do with systems and human psychology and the nature of the world rather than the flaws of any particular individual. Replace Richard Fuld and Robert Rubin with two other people, and much the same stuff would have happened. But rather than militating in the direction of letting the financial executives off the hook and saying “massive harm, no foul” it seems to me that taking this lesson to heart should push us in the other direction. After all, the underlying premise of our finance-led rush to hyper-inequality has been that the rich are very very very very different from you and me and that it’s so excruciatingly important that we maintain adequate incentives for them to ply their trade that we should ignore the immense damage rising inequality does to middle class well-being.

Once we realize that that’s not the case, that there’s no “magic” at work in the financial field and people are just mucking around I think that has quite radical implications. If nothing the CEOs and top fund managers are doing makes them worthy of taking the blame when the crash hits, then they also don’t deserve nearly the share of the credit — and money — that they got while things were going up."

Over paid on the way up, under punished bordering on blameless on the way down. Using other people's money, leveraging it 30 times, assessing absolutely no credible risk, then blowing it all is something anyone could do, no need for Harvard MBAs. Just pay me the $20 million bonus and I'll destroy your company. Heck, I'll do it $10 million.

Not to say black is white, or up is down, but the capitalism we have in America a farce, it is a unicorn. And right now it has it's horn someplace unpleasant.

Source: Matthew Yglesias

Venice Under Water: 2nd Day

At least we're not literally under water.

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Strong southern winds pushed the Adriatic Sea into Venice again Tuesday, submerging parts of the lagoon city a day after an unusually high tide caused the worst flooding in 20 years.

"We've been flooded [pun intended?] with calls from people who want to cancel their reservation because they think Venice is under water," said Giuseppe Mazzarella, a receptionist at the Hotel Monaco & Grand Canal. "We reassured them that it's all over ... and even if it happens again, it's quite fun for tourists."

Sounds like this guy could be an Alsakan Governor.

Source: AP

The Bush Legacy Project

Bush is trying to lighten the negativity, rewrite history, in all the exit interviews he and Karl Rove are putting together in The Bush Legacy Project.

This is the true Bush legacy:

The Labor Department reported this morning that 533,000 jobs were lost last month, and unemployment surged to 6.7%. The job losses are much higher than the 300,000 losses that analysts predicted. This is the 11th straight month of job losses and the largest monthly decline since 1974. Nearly 2 million jobs have been lost this year.

The numbers for October and September have been revised downwards, as well. For October the revision is substantial, 80,000 more jobs lost, and for September 199,000 more jobs lost. Over the last three months, over 1,270,000 jobs have been lost.

Ever notice Bush gets Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao to cook the jobs numbers, these things are always revised upwards afterwards.

Jon Favreau: Obama's 27 Year-Old Speechwriter

Barack Obama's 27 year-old speech writer Jon Favreau. Not the guy from Swingers.

I'm sure he'll be making the news now.

Esquire ran an article on him:

He is too busy to read much. "I'm embarrassed to say that since college" -- Favreau graduated from Holy Cross in 2003 -- "I've been so busy speechwriting for Kerry and then Barack that I haven't been reading all the good literary stuff I used to read back in the day." As for speechcraft, while he says the speeches of Bobby Kennedy are his favorites, he also says Peggy Noonan is his all-time favorite speechwriter.

What he learned from Michael Gerson, who was President Bush's main speechwriter for five years:

"But it must be noted here that with that speech [to the joint session of Congress after the September 11 attacks] the discord between speech and speaker has never been more pronounced, for we have come to know that Gerson's boss never fully grasped the power of words. With an exalting script, Gerson could make George W. Bush sound like Winston Churchill for an hour. But it is Jon Favreau's task and his gift that he is able to make his boss -- a fellow who has been known to write a sentence or two on his own -- sound like Barack Obama."

Surprising to have such a young person writing speeches. Yes we can.

Source: Esquire

Louisiana Dethrones Mississippi As Unhealthiest State

Bobby Jindal, what are you going to do?

Your state is last. I realize you have Katrina to take care of, but last is last. Going to be interesting what the future of the Republican party can do.

Source: HuffPo

The Big 3: Just Buy Them

The Big 3 auto makers are looking for $34 Billion in emergency aid.

Market capitalization
GM = $2.4 Billion
Ford = $6.64 Billion
Daimler = $28.69 Billion

They could just buy them for that money.

Excluding Daimler's Mercedes Benz, the American-based brands would be cheaper.

How To Create a Grassroots Movement Using Social-Networking Sites

Source: Howcast

Clean Coal Is Hot Air

From their site:

In reality, there is no such thing as clean coal. Join Reality. We're going to challenge the clean coal myth and make sure misleading articles, false statements and other hype don't go unanswered.



http://www.ThisIsReality.org

Universal Health-Care Serving As A Fiscal Stimulus

MIT economist Jonathan Gruber wrote a op-ed for the NYT arguing that health care reform would actually be a great way to stimulate the economy.

"Given the present need to address the economic crisis, many people say the government cannot afford a big investment in health care, that these plans are going nowhere fast. But this represents a false choice, because health care reform is good for our economy."

When people have health insurance, Gruber says, two things tend to happen. The first is that they purchase medical goods and services. The second is that they spend more money on other things, since they no longer have to put aside money to pay for medical emergencies. (Gruber's own research has shown this.) Either way, the money is going right back into the economy and promoting growth.

Jonathan Cohn at The New Republic agrees with Gruber noting:

"Here's one, slightly oversimplified way to think of it: Health care reform would help the economy in the short term--by increasing spending on medical care. It would also help the economy in the long term--by reducing spending on medical care. Pretty neat, huh?"

Very neat. Universal health-care serving as a fiscal stimulus is where it's at.

UPDATE: Via Ezra Klein:

In 2006, adjusted for purchasing power, the United Kingdom spent $2,760 per person on health care. America spent $6,714. It's a difference of almost $4,000 per person, spread across the population. That's $4,000 that can go into wages, or schools, or defense, or luxury, or mortgage-backed securities.

Source: The New Republic

Netflix For Macs

Knew this was coming, email arrived today:

Good news Mac users! Now you can watch movies (some new releases) & TV episodes (including current season) instantly on your Mac. Watch as much as you want, as often as you want.

Republican Hangs Up On Obama, Twice

Not sure of this person's age, but the paranoia of being a Republican must be rough. Always thinking someone is out to get you.

On Wednesday, the Republican congresswoman, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), got a call from President-elect Barack Obama, didn't believe it was him, and hung up on him. Twice.

According to Ros-Lehtinen's flack Alex Cruz, the congresswoman received the call on her cell phone from a Chicago-based number and an aide informed her that Obama wanted to speak to her. When Obama introduced himself, Ros-Lehtinen cut him off and said, "I'm sorry but I think this is a joke from one of the South Florida radio stations known for these pranks." Then she hung up.

Moments later, Obama tried again, this time through his soon-to-be chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

"Ileana, I cannot believe you hung up on the President-Elect," Emanuel said. And then -- yes, you know what's coming -- she hung up on Emanuel saying she "didn't believe the call was legitimate."

It is Florida, after all.

Late yesterday, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen issued a statement on the amusing incident, touting Obama's graciousness. She spelled the president-elect's name wrong, and then also misspelled Rahm Emanuel's name, twice.

Not like his name has been in the news the last 2 years straight.

Source: Washington Monthly

Bank Coupons: Is It Worth The Toaster?

If the "smart guys" can run a bank into the ground, I sure can.

Olbermann: "Matthew Alexander" On Interrogation

Keith Olbermann talks to author and US Military interrogator "Matthew Alexander" about which interrogation techniques work and why we should not be torturing prisoners.

From the horse's mouth: torture does not work.

Hardball: Michelle Bernard and Joan Walsh

Superb segment discussing Bush's exit interview on Charlie Gibson. Turns to Jeb Bush's Senate run? Joan Walsh slams him for his twists and turns on the WMD's in Iraq.

If Bush is sorry for the bad intel that caused him to go to war, why did no one lose their job for giving 100% wrong information? In fact, most got medals. Shows he is insincere and never really cared about if it was wrong.

Paul Krugman On Hardball

Economics lesson from Nobel winner Paul Krugman. Stimulus must be big. Real big.

Vatican OK With Criminalizing Gays

Read this and ponder the 2 questions at the bottom.

VATICAN CITY, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Gay rights groups and newspaper editorials on Tuesday condemned the Vatican for its decision to oppose a proposed U.N. resolution calling on governments worldwide to de-criminalise homosexuality.

The row erupted after the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations told a French Catholic news agency the Holy See would oppose the resolution, which France is due to propose later this month on behalf of the 27-member European Union.

Archbishop Celestino Migliore said the Vatican opposed the resolution because it would "add new categories of those protected from discrimination" and could lead to reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage.

"If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations," Migliore said. "For example, states which do not recognise same-sex unions as 'matrimony' will be pilloried and made an object of pressure," Migliore said.

A strongly worded editorial in Italy's mainstream La Stampa newspaper said the Vatican's reasoning was "grotesque".

Pointing out that homosexuality was still punishable by death in some Islamic countries, the editorial said what the Vatican really feared was a "chain reaction in favour of legally recognised homosexual unions in countries, like Italy, where there is currently no legislation".

So if you're not against it, you must be for it.

1. Rather than protect those homosexuals who are actively being murdered by law, rather than ask to de-criminalize homosexuality worldwide, the Vatican chooses to protect what might happen, then to stop what is actually happening. Why would they care about marriage when the root of the resolution is to end murder?

So Nations that kill gays, according to the Vatican's view, are OK. Jesus would give his thumbs up. Son of God is cool with it. The infallible Pope can't be wrong on this one.

2. What does the US Catholic Church, with its 40% gay clergy, have to say about this?

Source: Reuters Africa

Charlie Gibson Interviews President George Bush Pt 2

What are Bush's principles that were not compromised?

And he kept us safe, the mute witness Laura chimes in. Really? Sept 11, the only foreign terrorist attack on US soil happened on your watch. What has kept us safe is the Nation's response to your lack of taking the initial threat seriously. People doing their jobs at every level is what keeps us safe. Not one person clearing brush on his ranch in TX.



You can see Part One here.

Prop 8 The Musical

Starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more...

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Source: Funny Or Die

RIP Odetta

Miriam Makeba died a few days ago, she was the voice of South Africa through "the struggle", although she was force to live in exile for years.

Now we have the passing of Odetta, the voice of the Civil Rights Movement. She was 77.

With her booming, classically trained voice and spare guitar, Odetta gave life to the songs by workingmen and slaves, farmers and miners, housewives and washerwomen, blacks and whites.

When she sang at the March on Washington in August 1963, “Odetta’s great, full-throated voice carried almost to Capitol Hill,” The New York Times wrote.

She was an inspiration to everyone from Rosa Parks to Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

It makes me wonder who will be the voice of a movement to describe our current times? Who in 30 years will be the celebrated voice of the "little man" during these hard times. Maybe it's because no one writes the songs, but I think it's because it's hard to get the songs promoted and marketed in this society. From sterilized images of war scrubbed free of coffins and death, to overly medicating the youth and coddling-as-control parenting, to just plain market forces like radio consolidation and record labels' outdated business models, three cords and the truth is getting harder to get out to the masses.

Gone are the days of excess in the music industry, maybe they will get back to their roots where money was not everything. Go back even further, no one talks about how many units Beethoven shifted.

Sadly, she was hoping to sing at Obama's inauguration.

A classic vintage clip with Tennessee Ernie Ford where she sang "What A Friend We Have in Jesus"

The Markets Have Motion Sickness

via Matthew Yglesias:

Here’s a look at some different time periods and the total number of days the S&P 500 has moved up or down more than 5% during the trading day:

* 1950-2000: 27 days
* 2000-2006: 7 days
* Jan. 1-Sept. 30, 2008: 20 days
* Since Oct. 1, 2008: 22 days

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone even seriously attempt to explain why this would happen. Stock market crashes are, obviously, not unprecedented. But never before have they entailed this kind of wild, up-and-down day-to-day swinging. What’s different now?

Basically, you have the internet and the majority of people investing money in the stock market don’t know what they’re doing, viewing equity investment as something like near-term gambling. Plus ample amounts of fear and greed.

What are things worth? The one thing I know is that no one knows.

Except: “Not only have individual financial institutions become less vulnerable to shocks from underlying risk factors, but also the financial system as a whole has become more resilient.” – Alan Greenspan 2004

Source: TIME

An Obama Press Confrence vs A Bush Press Conference

Fox asks first press question, Obama cracks funny joke. Answers tough question. The world continues. [The Bush version would be: Fox asks lay-up question, Bush makes a fool of himself that we find funny in a moronic way, answers question in circular "they have sovereignty because they are sovereign" style, world collapses.]



Fox’s Wendell Goler began by thanking Obama for calling on him, and then proceeded to ask about the TARP funds and Bill Richardson’s now-removed beard. Obama began by offering a light-hearted take on Richardson’s beard:

"I’m going to answer this question about the beard. I think it was a mistake for him to get rid of it. I thought that whole western, rugged look was really working for him. … We’re deeply disappointed with the loss of the beard".

This marks more press conferences by Obama in 30 days than Bush held in the last year. It's how the government should be run.

Source: ThinkProgress

Define "Winning"

Bill Kristol claimed last night in a debate "we've won the war in Iraq".

Past tense. Interesting.

Andrew Sullivan:

"Of all the idiotic things that Bill Kristol has said, this has to be one of the dumbest. We currently have around 150,000 troops occupying Iraq. By coopting the Sunni tribes, engaging in serious counter-insurgency, dividing Baghdad into walled sectarian enclaves, and exploiting exhaustion, we are no longer hosting a murderous civil war. But we have not left; there is no stable state to fill the security vacuum that will be created by our departure, and violence remains a daily occurrence."

The Wonk Room's Matt Duss notes,

"I suppose if one redefines 'won' as 'completely failed to produce any of the positive effects I previously insisted would be forthcoming, but avoided the very worst imaginable outcome,' then Kristol's is a plausible statement. Here in the world of words with agreed-upon meanings, however, there is simply no defensible calculus by which the Iraq war can be judged to have been a success for U.S. foreign policy."

My Editorial: Putting The "Con" In Conservative

Conservatives and Republicans love to say they are fiscally responsible. At the same time they have a President like Bush, who they have never complained about, who has spent more, borrowed more and has Nationalized more than any President ever. He cut taxes for the first time during a war[s], and that war subsequently wasted billions of dollars, destabilized the oil market and shot gas prices to record levels. Pretty much the exact opposite of the definition of fiscally responsible.

How do you act fiscally responsible? How do you pay for all this mess? You eliminate the costly wars. You collect taxes to pay for you spend, even if it means letting tax cuts for the rich expire. You stimulate the markets with infrastructure projects. You change your perception around the world in hopes of increasing exports. You bring all sides to the table to figure out the big problems. You act fiscally and you act responsibly. You do what Obama is trying to do.

But ask any conservative [and I have plenty in my own family] if they are happy with true fiscal responsibility, especially if they are a Bushie, and they will fire back with a doom and gloom talking point: Obama is going to take money from everyone and force them to pay for health care forcing mass lay-offs. They have seen the future, apparently, assumed the worst, and have predicted all the changes to tax codes and universal health care will destroy them.

Not that the last 8 years have destroyed the economy, financial markets, job growth and retirement funds. They don't see those facts, those are hard to assess blame to. Not that the credit markets have been wiped out and borrowing will be near impossible or lay-offs might be based on the economy shrinking and consumer confidence nose-diving. Nothing that can be attributed to the "spend and borrow, deregulation, free markets run the world" conservative mindset that Bush exploited. Nope, that's just life to them. Capitalism.

To them, it's the the answer, it's the solution, it's the hard work of running the system the right way that will destroy everything. Up until now things were great. And what adds to my fury is the childlike fairy tale revisionism they have, the simple "Bush was a good man, just trying to do a good job". Add any semblance of fact and their wishful thinking is destroyed.

It's remarkable how conservatives get to have it both ways. They get to trumpet how mindlessly they forgot their values and let a financial hell storm evolve under a clueless President like Bush, them complain about how someone is going to solve it, using the values they espouse, like Obama. They have Bush socialize Wall St and bail-out every big Industry that cries for money then call Obama a Marxist for trying to pay for everything.

It couldn't be any more backwards. Act fiscally responsible and the Republicans show their true colors, that they were never for responsibility when it came to running government, it was all a con.

UK ID Cards Not So Voluntary

The UK is upping the ante in the ID reality game, a massive bureaucratic waste of time favored by conservatives:

When the Government introduced its ID card legislation several years ago, it made one thing clear. Even though it would be obligatory to register on the ID database when obtaining a new passport, it would not be compulsory to carry a card.

This has led some people to assume that the scheme is voluntary. It is not, except insofar as someone whose passport has expired is happy never to travel abroad again. But ministers recognised that the scope for ID ‘matrydom’ was high if people were forced to carry an ID card.

The last identity system was abolished in 1952 following a celebrated case prompted by the refusal of a man called Clarence Willcock to produce his card when required to by a police officer. Mr Willcock reasoned that as the war that necessitated their introduction was over, he had no need to carry ID with him. The Government wanted to avoid creating an army of Clarence Willcocks so deliberately did not make it a legal requirement to carry ID.

Now it turns out that they are planning to sneak in just such a power presumably hoping that no-one noticed. But the eagle-eyed lawyers at Liberty spotted that clauses in the draft Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Bill – confirmed as part of the Government’s programme for this session of parliament in the Queen’s Speech - give state officials the power to make anyone who has ever entered the country, at any time, prove who they are.

This would effectively cover any British citizen who has ever left the UK, even for a holiday, because they will have "entered" the UK on their return. It will mean that for the first time in more than half a century that the police will be able to demand your papers.

But the whole scheme falls flat from an immigration point of view unless everyone has one, is made to carry it, and is legally obliged to present it to the police when asked! How else do you tell illegal immigrants from British citizens?

“Hello Sir, could I see your ID Card”
“I don’t need one, I’m British”
“Hmm, you look a bit foreign to me. You’re nicked!”
“Why?”
“For not showing me your ID…”

Source: Telegraph UK

Retired Generals: End Bush's Torture Policies, Close Gitmo

Via ThinkProgress:

Addressing speculation that he “is unlikely to radically overhaul controversial Bush administration intelligence policies,” President-elect Barack Obama pledged last month to end torture as part of “an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world.” Today, a dozen retired generals and admirals will meet with Obama’s transition team “to plead for a clean, unequivocal break with the Bush administration’s interrogation, detention and rendition policies.” The officers also want Guantanamo Bay closed, an effort that would force Obama “to decide what to do with inmates who can’t be tried for war crimes yet are deemed too dangerous to be released.

"Gradualism won't do. It's time for an abrupt change," said Vice Adm. Lee Gunn, a former Navy inspector general. "That abrupt change will send a signal to the world that America is back."”

Read that out loud. Obama will have to end torture. Restore America's image.

All those "we do not torture" statements the Bush Administration made were false. And they knowingly lied. Crimes were committed. This is not a "blame the intel" argument, or blame it on something Clinton did 10 years ago. When asked, they lied.

Also, a reader points out, the last line: “inmates who can’t be tried for war crimes yet are deemed too dangerous to be released.”

The above summation is a typical example of the mindlessness so entrenched in our media. War crimes are formal charges brought and determined by public courts of Law and in accordance with internationally recognized procedures and rights, such as habeas corpus, disclosure and so on.

Gitmo and its military tribunals were and still are utterly illegal under US and International law.

The logic behind this is all Cheney and Bush. One guy who wants all the power, and the other too dumb to question anything.

Source: WaPo

Jim Cramer: Hire Me As SEC Chairman

Mad Money host Jim Cramer makes his case for SEC Chairman on air to Obama.



Sorry for the ALL CAPS, part of the transcript:

I'M A LAWYER BY TRAINING -- I SOUND LIKE AN AD RIGHT -- A STOCK JOCK, A FORMER HEDGE FUND MANAGER, A GUY WHO KNOWS THE TRICKS AND HAS SEEN OTHERS DO THEM. ALTHOUGH TO BE VERY CLEAR, I NEVER DID ANYTHING ILLEGAL OR EVEN CLOSE TO UNETHICAL, BECAUSE IN THE END, I AM A GOODY TWO SHOES AND I ACTUALLY HAVE A NEW PAIR OF GOOODY TWO SHOES.

Entire transcript at the link.

Source: HuffPo

Charlie Gibson Interviews President George Bush Pt 1

First of many exit interviews. No shame.

Good Looking People On TV, Or Lack There Of

My Mom always complains [maybe take notice would be a nicer term] about how men on TV, like TV anchors or hosts, can be old and tired looking, yet women have to be young and pretty. Andrea Mitchell anyone?

So the naming of David Gregory and his half monkey face and straw wig to host Meet The Press only validates my mom's gripe.

On the subject, Tina Brown had a good article on The Daily Beast and suggested Rachel Maddow.

"NBC seems to be paralyzed by the sense that whomever they chose has to be another Russert. Not so. Russert defined an era, but that era is over. It’s as if in the months since he died the hands of the clock have spun with accelerated speed, leaving us all with a desire for reinvention.

Or how about… a woman? Since NBC has not heeded my last suggestion to appoint either the unsung cable Rottweiler Greta Van Susteren or a reinvented, post-Palin Katie Couric, I say give Meet the Press to Rachel Maddow. She’s smart. She’s quick. She’s witty. She does her homework. And she listens to what the person she’s talking to is saying. She doesn't just go to the next question on her list."

Source: The Daily Beast

Jimmy Kimmel Test Obama Jokes' Limit

h/t to Oliver Willis

Jimmy Kimmel takes it to the barber shop to ask what is and what is not the limit for Obama jokes.

"what if I were to say his policies have a very large penis"

Juan Cole On Mumbai Attacks

Policy realism.

Juan Cole, insightful Middle East professor and my latest friend on myspace, writes on who was behind the Mumbai terrorist attacks:

"When the Soviets withdrew in 1988-1989 from Afghanistan and the Mujahideen took over, the Pakistani military lost control of its northern neighbor. It therefore funded and promoted the Taliban (expatriate Afghan young men who had been through Deobandi seminaries in northern Pakistan) from 1994, enabling them to take over Afghanistan. The Taliban ran terrorist training camps, at which the Sipah-e Sahaba and the Lashkar-e Tayiba trained for missions in Kashmir.

....The cell that hit Mumbai was probably a rogue splinter group. They completely disregarded the old Lashkar-e Tayiba concentration on hitting only Indian troops in Kashmir, targeting civilians instead. It is very unlikely that anyone in the Pakistani military put them up specifically to this Mumbai operation. This attack was much more likely to be blowback, when a covert operation produces unexpected consequences or agents that were previously reliable go rogue.

....If the Pakistani government does not give up this covert terrorist campaign in Kashmir and does not stop coddling the radical vigilantes who go off to fight there, South Asian terrorism will grow as a problem and very possibly provoke the world's first nuclear war (possible death toll: 20 million)."

I think some Hiroshima and Nagasaki residents may differ on that last point.

It's time we had an adult discussion about Kashmir, drugs and terror. The old Russia/Afghan/Reagan and Bush/Musharraf/Blind Funding models are over.

Obama and HR Clinton have inherited a Pakistan that needs to redefine itself within its borders, as well as, in the region.

I can't believe all this over Kashmir? No oil. Just Hindus vs Muslims. Ah! religion.

The entire story and background hereSource: Juan Cole

Presidential Press Conferences Need Better Questions

Now that the press seems to think they have balls and can ask "tough" questions of the President, yes I mean Obama and not Bush, they have to learn the difference between tough and good questions. For example, Time's Joe Klein:

What's the point of raising the nasty things Obama and Clinton said about each other during the primaries? Did the reporter expect Obama to say, "Well, I still believe her resume is overblown, that's why I appointed her...oh, and by the way, she still thinks it's dumb to talk to the Iranians without preconditions."

These boring Tim Russert style "gotcha soundbytes" are tired.

We now have a President who is educated, intelligent and can sidestep those lame questions. The press for a long time were lazy because expectations of Bush were so low: why ask thorough questions because you might make his head explode. It's tough work being Preznit, afterall.

The MSM has to get with the program, catch up to the high standard Barack has set. I heard TPM just hired a Washington reporter. Maybe the reader-supported blog-crew can do better.

Source: Kevin Drum

Bush's Torture Policies

Jack Balkin and Eric Posner, both prominent University lawyers, discuss Bush's use of torture on bloggingheads.tv. Posner tries to defend what Bush and Cheney did, or more to the point what their lawyers said they could do, Balkin tears it apart [much like Bush shredded the Constitution].



Complete interview here: Source: bloggingheads

Obamacons Need More To Get Over Bush Failures

Consultant and notorious Political Hitman Roger Stone was quoted a few weeks back for regretting his role in helping elect Bush in the 2000 presidential recount in Florida. He wants to set the record . I'm sure he speaks for a lot of conservatives.

"Let's get a couple of things straight. I renounced Bushism not Republicanism or Conservatism. Between the Bush Administration's spending, their right wing social agenda, and their assault on civil liberties, this Administration cannot be considered Conservative in the classical sense. True Conservatives support fiscal conservatism on spending as well as low taxes, don't want Big Brother Government listening to our phone calls and don't want the government making decisions in our private lives. Bushism and Conservatism should not be confused."

It's a stage of denial I hope he can get all the Bush holdovers to come to grips with. It's a long road to recovery for most 2000-2008 conservatives. Bush was not a kinda sorta failure. He was a complete failure.

Stone goes on more at his blob: http://www.stonezone.com/index.php

Original story here: Source: The Daily Beast

Bush’s Backward Sprint To The Finish

Add another notch in Bush's belt for screwing people over:

Yesterday, President Bush issued an executive order “that denies collective bargaining rights to about 8,600 federal employees who work in law enforcement, intelligence and other agencies responsible for national security.”

Seems Bush wants to cement his "Worst President Ever" title with all these last-minute regulations, orders, and proposed rule changes.

You can see the running list here: Source: Bush’s Backward Sprint To The Finish

MSNBC Is The New Fox

A fawning station recast:

Chris Matthews is Bill O'Reilly: "freakishly oversized, ruddy-faced Irish multi-millionaire still clinging to his blue collar roots — and it helps if he's quick to anger"

Keith Olbermann is Sean Hannity: "partisan ideologue who fears for the world if it's in any way touched by the hands of his political enemies"

John Stewart commenting on the new Fox promo montage:

"Stay with Fox News: we will protect you from raging fire, Iranian nut jobs, angry gay lovers, and the Jew whispering to the black man."

More at the link below.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

MSNBC Replaces Fox News

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Source: HuffPo

Michael Phelps: Butter Face vs 8 Gold Medals

Today's Daily Distraction:

Olympian Michael Phelps new girlfriend, Caroline Pal. She's a Las Vegas cocktail waitress. Took her home for Thanksgiving. Really?

Bad back tatt and fake boobs. So classy.



Source: Mollygood

Bush On The Record, Was Warned [Again]

Like 9/11 and Katrina, Bush had the facts, he just choose to ignore them over ideology.

Today, the Associated Press offered more evidence of Bush’s failure, reporting that his administration “ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown,” and “backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed.”

This was 2005!

In 2005, banking regulators proposed a series of regulations that “reads like a list of what-ifs“:

- Regulators told bankers exotic mortgages were often inappropriate for buyers with bad credit.

- Banks would have been required to increase efforts to verify that buyers actually had jobs and could afford houses.

- Regulators proposed a cap on risky mortgages so a string of defaults wouldn’t be crippling.

- Banks that bundled and sold mortgages were told to be sure investors knew exactly what they were buying.

- Regulators urged banks to help buyers make responsible decisions and clearly advise them that interest rates might skyrocket and huge payments might be due sooner than expected.

Thanks to Bush's indifference, incompetence, or perhaps malice, millions of people will wind up losing their jobs and suffering dire consequences.

Source: The Wonk Room

The Bush Faux Mea Culpa

From the Bush interview today:

"I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess."

Different that Hussein really did build weapons? Different that al Qaeda was really in Iraq? Why would he wish that? I think he means he wished he listened to what was really happening.

The fact is that the US intelligence community was telling Bush and Cheney that:

* it was more likely than not that Iraq had no usable weapons of mass destruction;

* that Iraq likely lacked the ability to create them;

* that Iraq lacked the means to deliver any such weapons against US targets;

* that Iraq had no operational links to Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups of global reach capable of attacking the US with such weapons;

* and that Iraq was unlikely to attack the US in any case since it stood to gain nothing from doing so.

And of course by the time of the 2003 invasion, the UN weapons inspectors like Hans Blix had pretty much confirmed that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction or the means to make them, which is of course why Bush pushed to invade before the inspectors could conclude their work.

Meanwhile Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell and other principals of the Bush administration were busily and loudly telling deliberate, elaborate, repeated, sickening lies to the American people, the US Congress, the United Nations Security Council and the entire world about what they knew at the time to be nonexistent "Iraqi WMD" and nonexistent "links between Saddam and Al Qaeda", with Cheney proclaiming that Iraq had "reconstituted nuclear weapons" and Rice warning about "mushroom clouds".

But Bush is not a total idiot. He's more dangerous than that. Dumb enough to be led by others whose intentions are not pure, but smart enough to know how to really sell the shinola he's been told to sell.

Worst. President. Ever.

Source: Washington Monthly Comments

Knock-Out Breasts, For Real

Women's breasts are pretty powerful, I didn't realize they were this strong.

Uganda's police warned male bar-goers to keep their noses clean after a probe found a gang of robbers had been using women with chloroform smeared on their chests to knock their victims unconscious.

"You find the person stripped totally naked and everything is taken from him," he said. "And the victim doesn't remember anything. He just remembers being in the act of romancing."

Classic. Insert Spitzer joke here.

Source: Yahoo UK

UK Gives Credit Card Co's 2 Weeks To Cut Rates

The UK has the right approach. Big Business and Banks do not always win like in America. As all this cheap money is being poured into the US economy and banks are being propped up on taxpayer money, why would rates be allowed to go up?

Credit card giants have been given two weeks to agree to stop charging exorbitant rates to borrowers or risk losing their operating licences.

Ministers said they were giving Britain's major lenders one last chance to prove they were not profiteering from the downturn. The ultimatum was delivered at a four-hour Whitehall summit called after The Independent disclosed some credit card and store card providers had raised interest rates – in some cases to 30 per cent – even though the cost of borrowing had fallen.

The credit card companies agreed last night to give borrowers who run into trouble paying their bills a "breathing space" of up to two months before they face action. They also pledged to draw up a clear "statement of principles" over their rates by 9 December. It will commit them to give clear information to borrowers, not alter rates constantly and charge "proportionate" levels of interest.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, and Gareth Thomas, the Consumer Affairs minister, told leaders of the industry that they were alarmed by lenders increasing their rates overnight without justification.

Does Paulson have the balls to do this here? Would Bush ever suggest such a plan? You know the answers.

Source: The Independent

Mumbai Attacks: Piecing Together the Story

There's a lot more to the Mumbai attacks than CNN and the New York Times have been reporting. Here's an alternative guide to the story.

ExiledOnline reported:

"That's why this talk about whether security at the hotels was adequate is ridiculous. Hotel security is aimed at stopping sneak attacks, bomb-planters. To stop the sort of heavily-armed suicide squads that hit these hotels, you'd need a full platoon of infantry. So what you see here is something economists would understand as well or better than traditional military analysts. I hate to sound cold-blooded, putting it this way, but what happened is that Pakistan's islamists had a surplus of raw labor, and thought of a way to get it to a place where it maximized its global value in terms of pure blood and destruction."

The comments are just as good:

The whole US (and British?) hierarchy: Political, official, diplomatic, "intelligence" (!), never mind military, operates from a lowbrow, parochial, bigoted and above all IGNORANT starting point in any dealings with people who are different.

When your religion tells you that you already KNOW that "these people" are sinners, - never mind when it tells you that "armageddon" is desirable (!) - any hope of a rational approach is but a faint one.

Source: AlterNet

Recession Started In December 2007

Conservatives will somehow blame this on Obama, or even better, Bill Clinton.

The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research said it made the determination during a conference call on Friday.

The US economy has been in recession since December 2007, a panel of economists charged with the official designation of business cycles said Monday. The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research said it made the determination during a conference call on Friday.

Although a recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of declining activity, the panel has its own criteria for determining a downturn. “A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in production, employment, real income and other indicators,” the panel said. “A recession begins when the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends when the economy reaches its trough. Between trough and peak, the economy is in an expansion.” The committee said it “identified December 2007 as the peak month, after determining that the subsequent decline in economic activity was large enough to qualify as a recession.”

According to government data, the US economy contracted at a 0.2 percent pace in the fourth quarter of 2007 but grew 0.8 percent in the first quarter and 2.8 percent in the second quarter of 2008. It then contracted 0.5 percent in the third quarter, based on a provisional estimate.

The NBER is a nonprofit organization of economists from research firms, universities and other organizations.

Source: Yahoo

California Priest Claims Voting For Obama Is A Mortal Sin

In "Holier Than Thou, Except We Rape Kids" news:

A Roman Catholic priest has told parishioners they should confess if they voted for Barack Obama because the president-elect supports abortion.

The Rev. Joseph Illo says his parishioners at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto shouldn't risk losing their "state of grace" by receiving communion sacrilegiously. He delivered the message in a Nov. 21 letter and during mass.

In an interview this week with the Modesto Bee, Illo says he sent the letter because Catholic teaching requires that people go to confession when they commit a mortal sin.

Not a venial sin, but a mortal sin? And choice is not abortion. It's a person's right to privacy that covers 1000s of situations, not just abortion.

How about you stick to your job of hoodwinking the faithful and leave politics out of your sermons.

Source: SF Chronicle

Gift Idea For The Pro-Torture Fan

How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq

A book by an interrogator who rejected torture in favor of "showing cultural understanding and using good old-fashioned brainpower to tease out information," and managed to bag the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in the process.

Apparently, some members of the military command are not only unconvinced by the arguments against torture; they don't even want the public to hear them.

Alexander, a pseudonymous air force officer, was trained in the post-Abu Ghraib interrogation techniques that replace "fear and control" with "respect, rapport, hope, cunning and deception." I guess will be waiting a long time for the Lynndie England book to come out.

This is more about this interrogator in the Washington Post here.

Source: Amazon.com

War Crimes: Let's Start That Conversation

Andrew Sullivan piece from over the weekend in a UK paper. When will the War Crimes question cross the pond?

"The evidence we now have, undisputed evidence, proves already that war crimes were indeed committed – by the president and vice-president on down. I mean: why else Guantanamo Bay and secret black sites if the president believed he was obeying domestic American law?

There is, in the end, a simple and sobering truth: these people have to be brought to justice if the rule of law is to survive in America. In his constitutional soul, Obama knows this."

Seems Andrew is dreaming of the chance to prosecute these villains, and why not. I hope these charges dog Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld to their dying days.

Source: The Sunday Times

50 Days Until Obama Inauguration

That's it, just a friendly reminder.

Bush: "I Was Unprepared For War"

So this begs the question, what were you prepared for?

Bush's interview highlights his complete lack awareness and overuse of the phrase "in other words":

“I think I was unprepared for war,” Bush told ABC News’ Charlie Gibson in an interview airing today on “World News.” “In other words, I didn’t campaign and say, ‘Please vote for me, I’ll be able to handle an attack,’” he said. “In other words, I didn’t anticipate war. Presidents — one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen.”

Yeah, the unexpected is a modern phenomena.

Inarticulate, as usual. No remorse. No candid statements. No apologies. Conservative icon.

This is Bush's attempt at re-writing his history, make himself out to be a good guy who has a few unlucky breaks. Well, too bad. History will be most brutal toward W.

Even when Bush was told by advisers that an attack was imminent, he did not prepare for the probables. And then once an attack happened, who could forget his catatonic state while reading "My Pet Goat" to little kids.



Let’s see if I can run this down:
He wasn’t prepared for college (Yale or Harvard)
He wasn’t prepared for the Texas Air National Guard
He wasn’t prepared to run Arbusto Energy
He wasn’t prepared to run the Texas Rangers
He wasn’t prepared to be Governor of Texas
He wasn’t prepared to be the War Presnit
He wasn’t prepared for the chewing and swallowing of a pretzel

Source: ABC News

Video: Wal-Mart Stampede Victim's Senseless Death

The AP interviews the family of Jdimytai Damour, the 34-year-old Wal-Mart employee who died in a stampede of customers Nov. 28. He was stepped on 100s of times. WTF?

"[people] act like animals just to save $5"

Get the CCTV and convict. Would love to cross reference those guilty with what they bought.

Weis Era Should End At Notre Dame

In sports we expect so much more production and results than in politics. "What have you done for me lately?" in the mantra. We expect coaches to explain every decision they make, defend every mistake that transpired, all the while giving praise to those who deserve it, even the other team. I expect, and get delivered, so much more by Yankee's manager Joe Girardi that I do by George Bush. Easily.

But when a coach no longer has his control or a record to fall back on, it's time to part ways. With the expectations so massive in high profile sports, you only have a few bad weeks or games before they want to run you out of town.

So that brings us to Charlie Weis at Notre Dame, my team. First ND coach to ever to lose 15 games over 2 seasons. ESPN makes the case to let him go. I concur.

"There can be no other justification for keeping him. Not now, as his winning percentage dips to sub-Ty Willingham levels and his offense sinks to new lows.

It's very simple. If Willingham had to go after three seasons, Weis has to go with a worse record after four. Or the explanation for keeping him had better be brilliant."

There is no explanation for keeping the underachieving Weis aside from money. That is an economic decision the University has to make. Does all the lost revenue in crappy Weis teams year after year outweigh just buying out his $20 million contract?

Source: ESPN

Generals Promoting War Inc.

via The Washington Monthly:

Today, NYT write David Barstow has yet another blockbuster, directing his focus to one of the more prominent retired generals: Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired four-star Army general, military analyst for NBC News, and highly-paid consultant to defense contractors. [NBC owned by General electric, owner of massive government military contracts]

It's really worth reading the whole piece, but firedoglake.com's Spencer Ackerman's take was spot-on.

If this mammoth New York Times piece is wrong, Barry McCaffrey really ought to sue, because if it isn't, he has no reputation for integrity left. [...]



[T]he scope of McCaffrey's hustle is really breathtaking. Barstow demonstrates that many, if not most, of the pronouncements he made on TV about the wars benefited one or another defense contractor who employed him. That's the way the scheme worked: Company hires retired general to use his connections to its benefit. Retired general accepts special grants of access from the office of the secretary of defense that benefit both his TV career and his consulting career. Retired general proclaims on TV things that benefit both the secretary and the company -- or, when circumstances necessitate, the company at the expense of the secretary. TV viewer, looking for informed analysis of confusing wars, is unaware of any of this. Welcome to the new military-media-industrial complex.

It's that bad. As Barstow explained, "On NBC and in other public forums, General McCaffrey has consistently advocated wartime policies and spending priorities that are in line with his corporate interests. But those interests are not described to NBC's viewers. He is held out as a dispassionate expert, not someone who helps companies win contracts related to the wars he discusses on television."

When retired Generals come on as consultants they should be forced to talk like info-mercial celeb, and decibally-challenged, Billy Mays hawking some citrus cleaner. Make the selling that much more obvious.

Source: Steve Benen

X-mas Cards For Bloggers

More here: Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Acorn Mystery: No Nuts

I will have to check this out in NYC. Seems there is a mysterious lack of acorns, not ACORN, but the thing that falls from oak trees.

The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn't find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. Then he went out to look for himself. He came up with nothing. Nothing crunched underfoot. Nothing hit him on the head.

Then calls started coming in about crazy squirrels. Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road. And a lot more calls about squirrel roadkill.

But Simmons really got spooked when he was teaching a class on identifying oak and hickory trees late last month. For 2 1/2 miles, Simmons and other naturalists hiked through Northern Virginia oak and hickory forests. They sifted through leaves on the ground, dug in the dirt and peered into the tree canopies. Nothing.

"I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe," he said. "But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It's a zero year. There's zero production. I've never seen anything like this before."

I did notice the pumpkin dental demolition a few times across the city. Will have to look out for my furry friends.

Source: WaPo

10 Republicans Who Should Go Away

They have compiled a lost of "10 Republicans Who Should Go Away". I'm sure the list could have gone on much longer. Not to nitpick, but I'd also add: Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Pat Robertson, Michael Steele, Mike Huckabee, Chuck Norris, Ben Stein and Curt Shilling.

Source: The Daily Banter

Here's a challenge for you, find 10 republicans that SHOULDN'T go away.