Categorical Aperitif

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// posted by nash @ 9:57 PM 0 comments

This has been a crappy Memorial Day for reasons both geopolitical and personal. If you're in the mood for something besides the canned, predigested patriotism that generally marks the day in the media, listen.

Democracy Now! was off today, but Amy & Co. should be all over the latest Gaza atrocity tomorrow. Some DN! each day keeps hasbara away.

// posted by nash @ 9:54 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 8:43 PM 0 comments

Hilarious list.

// posted by nash @ 8:41 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 1:59 PM 2 comments

I've been catching up with the Krugmeister and have thoroughly enjoyed a series of posts where he attacks the conventional wisdom (dare we call it "economic correctness"?) that the US was some kind of economic basket case until Saint Reagan shredded that awful New Deal and its beastly regulations and let the light of liberty bloom and saved us from the bear that sh*ts in the woods or whatever. "Did the Postwar System Fail?" Hell, no:

Funny, isn’t it? The Ford-Carter years look no worse—in fact, somewhat better—than the Bush years, especially if you look from business cycle peak to business cycle peak. And that was in the face of two very severe oil shocks. So a question for all the people who say that the economic troubles under Jimmy Carter discredited postwar economic policies: why don’t the troubles under Bush similarly discredit post-Reagan policies? Funny how that works.

Here’s what I think: inflation did have to be brought down—and Paul Volcker, not Reagan, did what was necessary. But the rest—slashing taxes on the rich, breaking the unions, letting inflation erode the minimum wage—wasn’t necessary at all. We could have gone on with a more progressive tax system, a stronger labor movement, and so on.

In the modern vision, the old US economy is seen as an absurd, unworkable thing. Where were the incentives to grow super-rich? How did you manage with all those well-paid, organized workers? But I’m old enough to remember that system, and it was no more unworkable than what we have now. Radical change happened because a powerful political movement wanted it, not out of economic necessity.

// posted by nash @ 1:37 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 7:09 PM 1 comments

As told to Guernica Magazine:

Guernica: How is history going to judge the people you call the disinformers—people like James Inhofe, Michael Crichton, and George W. Bush?

Joseph Romm: Very harshly. They will be seen in the category of Neville Chamberlain or people who were shills for the tobacco industry. And future generations won’t understand it. They won’t understand how people could be actively shouting “No fire!” in a burning theater and attacking the credibility of the fire department.

// posted by nash @ 7:05 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

We have a flock of wild parrots in the neighborhood. They seem to have a special fondness for sunflower seeds.

We've seen as many as ten at one time. I only hope they can avoid the neighborhood hawks—they probably stand out like sore thumbs to raptors used to bland, featureless mourning doves and whatnot. Spicy tropical delights!

// posted by nash @ 8:11 PM 4 comments

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// posted by nash @ 7:47 PM 1 comments

Check out this wild slide show featuring an intrepid dog (apparently named Kanellos, or "Cinnamon") that seems to show up in the front lines at every protest in Greece. It's quite amazing; not even tear gas seems to faze him. I swear, it's almost enough to make you believe in reincarnation—like he's got the soul of Mother Jones or Joe Hill. Or the Greek equivalent thereof.

// posted by nash @ 7:44 PM 2 comments

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// posted by nash @ 8:43 AM 1 comments

I'm not a Kossack, but occasionally somebody (h/t digby) will point to something at The Great Orange Satan that I'm really glad I didn't miss. This crash course in oil-spill booming by the magnificently profane "Fishgrease" is both hilarious and maddening all at once.

"Booming is for pussies." Mayhap we've found an epitaph for the Gulf of Mexico's tombstone.

// posted by nash @ 8:40 AM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 7:44 PM 1 comments

Very interesting excerpt from Alexander Zaitchick on the Mormon roots of Glenn Beck's strategic crying jags, etc.

It is hard to imagine a religion better suited to Beck’s emotional neediness, unrivaled egomania, and hack entertainment chops than the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Mormonism has not only made an art of fake crying, it has institutionalized Beck’s favorite mode of speech, the sentimental monologue. It also encourages a certainty of spirit based on self-revelation that lies outside argument, fact, or logic. What Beck does on radio and television is an amped-up version of the testimony ritual: he fervently talks about what he believes—knows—is happening, describes the dark secrets he has uncovered, conveys the transcendent importance of these discoveries, and frames it all in a Manichean narrative straight out of the Book of Mormon—America as a battlefield on which God-fearing defenders of liberty face off against evil big-government conspirators.

The way Beck has built his movement and his audience is a microcosm of the method by which the Mormon Church grew into a worldwide religion. Like an earnest young missionary spreading the good word through emotional speeches to confused Latin American villagers, Beck has brought his gut self-revelations to the angry, not-so educated audiences of Fox News and AM talk-radio, employing emotional intensity overflowing into tears to conquer doubts of his sincerity and prove his access to powerful truths. By asking his viewers to “join him”—in the 9.12 Project, as a “constitutional watchdog,” for his 100-year plan—or to “follow him” (as he says at the beginning of each Fox broadcast), he is offering viewers a chance to share in his revelation.

Bear testimony; recruit. Bear testimony; recruit.

// posted by nash @ 7:42 PM 1 comments

It's being a rough weekend, so forgive me for stealing one from my friend jules.

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// posted by nash @ 6:26 PM 1 comments

Word:

The folks who believe in libertarianism are like the folks who believe in Bigfoot. They can point to respected academics who share their delusion. They never let reality get in the way of a good story. And ultimately, libertarianism, like Bigfoot, is nothing other than a white guy cavorting around in a cheap gorilla suit, an obvious fake.

// posted by nash @ 6:18 PM 1 comments

Let's close out the week with a non-Flickr photo taken by my sister—a cool macro shot that gives me an excuse to use a joke I've been saving up for a while.

Alternate caption: "Ant motorboats Kate Moss; film at eleven."

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// posted by nash @ 3:00 PM 1 comments

Not that it'll do any good, but those inclined to give the FCC their two cents re. stopping the gargantuan Comcast-NBC merger can do so here.

// posted by nash @ 2:20 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 7:15 PM 0 comments

As the weeks stretch on and the befoulment of the Gulf of Mexico continues to worsen, please keep Rand Paul out front and center dismissing greed-driven disasters as "accidents" that just "happen" and complaining that criticism of BP is "un-American." This will do wonders for the reputations of both right-wing libertarianism and Randian egoism.

Thank you.

// posted by nash @ 7:13 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 7:40 PM 3 comments

People, people, people: much though I admire the puns, I must point out that the kitschy mail receptacle in #7846 is not a walrus; it's a manatee. Manatee mailboxes are not, thankfully, as common as they might be around these parts, but one does find them here and there. Viz.:

Just be thankful I can't find my pictures of the one where the manatee is making a maniacally happy face that seems to follow you as you drive by and then haunts your dreams. When Nietzsche warned about staring into the abyss, he might have had that one in mind. Brrrr.

// posted by nash @ 7:36 PM 1 comments

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// posted by nash @ 7:10 PM 1 comments

Dr. Jeff Masters: Oil enters the Loop Current and is headed to the Florida Keys

And once it befouls the beautiful and delicate Keys, it can start its journey up the Gulf Stream. Thanks, BP/Transocean/Hallibuttheads/etc.

// posted by nash @ 9:01 AM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 8:45 AM 0 comments

Poor Dean Baker is probably going to be found one day wandering in the streets mumbling "it's the housing bubble, the housing bubble, the housing bubble" to uncomprehending passersby, but until he finally succumbs to the insanity induced by dealing with today's media/politico/corporate elites, we can all appreciate the eloquence with which he scourges them for, e.g., blaming deficits on "we, the people":

Was it we the people who were too dumb to see an $8 trillion housing bubble and recognize that its collapse would wreck the economy? No, that was the job of the great Maestro Alan Greenspan and his sidekick Ben Bernanke, the brilliant scholar of the Great Depression. It was also the job of all the economists who do research and opine to the public on the macroeconomy. Virtually all of these highly educated highly intelligent economists either did not see the bubble or insisted it was not worth their time.

Our deficit today is due to the collapse of this bubble. There is no dispute about this. If there had been no bubble and the economy was still chugging along with 4.5 percent unemployment, the budget would either be balanced or close enough that no serious person would be expressing alarm (check out the pre-crisis CBO projections).

Is our huge deficit a problem today? Not if you think people should have jobs. Private sector demand has plunged because of the collapse of the bubble. If the public sector does not fill the demand gap with deficit spending, then we have less demand and fewer jobs. That’s worth saying a few hundred thousand times since the deficit hawks have filled the airwaves and cyberspace with so much nonsense.

The deficit hawks tell us we can’t fix our health care system. What they actually mean is that they don’t want to confront the powerful interest groups that cause the United States to pay two or three times as much per person – with no obvious benefit – as people in other wealthy countries. It is easy to devise mechanisms that will get our costs more in line with other countries (e.g. this or this).

Because such measures threaten the incomes of powerful interest groups the politicians won’t push them. And, because they have not been endorsed by enough elite economists (you know, the folks that couldn’t [sic] $8 trillion housing bubble) elite journalists will not talk about them either. Instead, they will blame ordinary workers for thinking that they should be able to get a decent retirement and have the same sort of health care coverage as people in every other wealthy country.

// posted by nash @ 8:32 AM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 7:23 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 6:57 PM 2 comments

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// posted by nash @ 2:39 PM 0 comments

From Sam Smith:

The blame for our economy being placed on illegals is grossly misleading. Here's a test I proposed some time back:

1. Has a Mexican ever fired or laid you off?

2. Was the plant you worked for until it was sent overseas been bought by Mexicans or is it still owned by the same people you used to work for?

3. Has a Mexican ever cut your pension or health benefits? Outsourced your job to India?

4. Was Enron run by Mexicans?

5. How much of the corruption in Washington has been instigated by the Mexicans?

6. Did the Mexicans make us invade Iraq?

// posted by nash @ 2:27 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 8:46 AM 0 comments

So a Republican judicial strategist is caught on tape (h/t Media Matters) telling his advisees to oppose any Obama Supreme Court nominee no matter how moderate, to drag out the nomination process as long as possible, to knowingly mischaracterize the nominee, etc.

Bipartisanship!

// posted by nash @ 8:43 AM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 7:23 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 6:00 AM 2 comments

By the guy who also drew the distinctively stretchy opening titles for the film?

Cool.

(h/t Greg Mitchell over in his new digs at The Nation)

// posted by nash @ 4:32 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 4:00 PM 0 comments

Yeah, they passed us by. Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam recalls his first journalism (sort of) job as a fact-checker for the not-long-for-this-world Newsweek:

We would publish whole stories that were lies—Francois Mitterrand’s plan to destroy the French economy was a recurring theme—but at least the names were spelled correctly. Two T’s, two R’s. I will never forget.

// posted by nash @ 3:57 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 2:53 PM 1 comments

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// posted by nash @ 4:45 PM 0 comments

I managed to catch up a bit with The Daily Show this weekend and was particularly impressed by what these people can do with a slateful of current events.

// posted by nash @ 4:41 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 5:33 PM 1 comments

That alternate universe ain't big enough for all the people smitten over the years by Teresa Ferguson's voice.

Yeah. You former or current Austinites know what I'm talkin' about.

// posted by nash @ 5:28 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 6:17 PM 0 comments

Eric Alterman takes a great swipe at Time's embarrassing "100 Most Influential People in the World" list—and several entries in particular.

Ted Nugent on Sarah Palin? Really?

// posted by nash @ 6:14 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 3:30 PM 0 comments

Greg Palast on BP, past and present.

Stephen Kinzer on BP even further past (as in, when it was Anglo-Iranian Petroleum).

// posted by nash @ 3:27 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 3:49 PM 0 comments

Jamison Foser finds that the ostensible professionals editing and writing for the ostensibly professional Mediaite.com cant rite to gud.

// posted by nash @ 3:45 PM 0 comments

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// posted by nash @ 6:00 AM 1 comments

NOLA.com has quite a good page on the Deepwater Horizon spill. But God, it's depressing. Sea turtles and jellyfish already showing up dead—though maybe not from the spill, yet at least. You're ahead of the curve, jules.

// posted by nash @ 3:23 PM 2 comments

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// posted by nash @ 3:15 PM 0 comments

Steven Hill on the road America could have taken, but didn't. Or hasn't. Yet.

More like France, less like Paraguay, please.

// posted by nash @ 3:13 PM 0 comments

Crappy weekend. Bleh.

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// posted by nash @ 8:26 PM 3 comments

Still feeling under the weather—and busy as heck to boot. Bleh.

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// posted by nash @ 8:45 AM 1 comments