Author's posts
Mar 03 2011
DESTROY EVERYTHING: Nihilism on the “Right”
So, like many of you, I’m a politics dork . . . like a really, really big politics dork. I can hear your jaw hitting the keyboard is stricken disbelief.
A whuh?!? Can it possibly be true?
Yes, I hear you asking that, and I can see your drop-jawed, dumbfounded look of woozy shock right through this monitor. Pick your jaw off your keyboard, and brace yourself, because it really is true.
I’m a politics dork, and I’m okay with that.
Anyway, one of the functions of a politics dork is that I moderate an old-fashioned Motet forum or “world wide web chat room” (remember those?) – called the New Cafe Politics Forum. The forum is old and only has around 20 or so participants who “chat” with any regularity, but I still go back to it because it’s one of the few places I get to interact on-line with real, honest-to-God right wing nutjobs. And no one can ban me . . . because I’m the moderator.
At any rate, during a discussion not long ago in our “Is the Reagan Reich on the Verge of Collapse?” thread, we got off-topic, as we often do, and came to a discussion about public education. We were discussing the advisability of private school vouchers paid for by taxpayers . . . an idea so stupid that even the Wrong Wingers in Indiana seem to have understood that it can’t work. But don’t get me started, this diary isn’t about vouchers.
“We know daveinchi,” you’re saying, “so far it doesn’t seem to be about much of anything.”
Follow me over the jump for the meat and/or gluten free quinoa and potatoes of this diary.
Jan 07 2011
Now This is What I’m Talkin About!
Massive solar plant in Mojave Desert the first of its kind on federal land
“Las Vegas-bound travelers nearing the Nevada border rarely take notice of the vast, empty stretch of the Mojave Desert surrounding them. But that may soon change. On Wednesday, ground is to be broken for a massive solar thermal plant spanning about 3,600 acres and involving 346,000 mirrors, each about the size of a billboard.
Not only will the plant be highly visible to travelers on I-15, it also will be closely watched – and probably copied – by solar developers. Many developers are angling to start their solar projects by the end of the year, when a federal program that could cover up to 30% of the construction costs is due to expire.
The nearly $2-billion project is the first of its kind to be built on federal land and also the first to have slogged through myriad environmental, financial and technical issues that future solar projects are likely to face as well.”
Jan 04 2011
Waaaaaoooow: We is left-wing as heeeeeyyyll!!!
Most Americans say tax rich to balance budget: poll
NEW YORK (Reuters via YahooNews) – Most Americans think the United States should raise taxes for the rich to balance the budget, according to a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll released on Monday.
President Barack Obama last month signed into law a two-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for millions of Americans, including the wealthiest, in a compromise with Republicans. . . .”
Well this is kind of a fun headline to read. But again, I find it a bit on the subtle side of things. Perhaps a more eye-catching headline might read:
Poll: Holy Shitballs! Who let all these left wingers in?
or perhaps
Poll: MMMMYeah . . . . about that whole ‘center-right nation’ thing
Jan 01 2011
“The rich are much richer than you and me.”
The rich are much richer than you and me
No shit, really? Thank you CNN! Boy that’s a swell effin headline to read! But I think it’s just a teensy bit too subtle. Why not just run a headline that says:
“God-damn! Y’all Some Broke-ass Motherfu@&ers“-?
Or how about this:
“Your Teacher’s Salary Ain’t Shit“-?
Dec 24 2010
Why Obama Could Never Be An FDR
Although they emerged into the Presidency seventy-six years apart, at first glance, the similarities are there: two cosmopolitan Presidents from large cities coming to power in the midst of widespread economic catastrophe, on the heels of deeply unpopular, corporatist RepubliCon predecessors. Surely President Obama’s tenure will be judged by some of the same historical precedents set up by FDR, right? Both needed to create jobs, move the country out of economic malaise, and rebuild a sense of American unity that had been deeply damaged on the heels of long-term conservative and corporate dominance alluded to in the term “gilded age.”
Oct 22 2009
Secretary of “Education” Arne Duncan: Dumbf***
Duncan to call for change in teachers’ education
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is expected to push for reforms in how teachers are taught when he speaks at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York on Thursday.
According to advanced quotes released by the U.S. Department of Education, he will say that “schools, colleges and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st-century classroom.” He will call for a “revolutionary” change in teacher preparation programs.
Duncan estimates that about 200,000 new teachers will enter U.S. school systems annually.”
Jul 18 2009
Our robots won’t eat corpses.
This is a short one.
EATR CREATORS: OUR ROBOTS WON’T EAT CORPSES
“For those of you who have been asleep since Tuesday, the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot, or EATR, is a steam-powered robot being developed for military purposes. Its claim to fame is that it can “can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically based energy sources). . .
Jul 14 2009
CNN on sex scandals: They all do it.
Political sex scandals a nonpartisan affair
“(CNN) — If there’s one thing Democrats and Republicans have in common, it’s sex scandals.
No matter which party the philanderer belongs to, the public wants all the juicy details, as evidenced most recently by the public’s fascination with South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s Argentine travels.
“That’s just prurience,” said Sally Quinn, a longtime Washington journalist and columnist. She’s married to former Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee. “Sex sells and everybody’s interested in sex, so when there’s a sex scandal, it’s got everything — you’re talking about sex, you’re talking about power, and in a lot of cases, money is involved. You are talking about how the mighty have fallen,” she said.”
Jul 04 2009
Hasta la pasta, Governor Failin’
I’m sure this has been covered here at Docudharma, but this is just my take on it. Warning . . . pointed snark alert.
Jul 02 2009
Oh, this is rich.
BENNETT: SANFORD NEEDS TO STOP ‘EMBARRASSING HIMSELF’
(CNN) – Mark Sanford is “embarrassing himself” and needs to resign as governor of South Carolina, conservative talk radio host and CNN contributor Bill Bennett said Thursday on CNN’s American Morning.
Bennett, the latest high profile conservative to call for Sanford’s ouster, said it’s time for the onetime Republican rising star to ditch politics and focus solely on getting his life back in order.
“I know Mark Sanford. I know him quite well,” Bennett said. “He needs to get his life back in order, his marriage back in order. He is embarrassing himself.””
Sanford needs to “stop embarrassing himself.” Really? Really? Is THAT what he needs to do, Bill Bennett?
Jun 03 2009
RepubliCons Won’t Be Back ELECTORALLY
I certainly agree with the jist of Something The Dog Said’s currently front-paged essay . . . the grand OLD ?Party? is sucking itself into a black hole of self-immolation, at least on the national level. Their base won’t support anyone who has the slightest chance of getting elected outside of the South and/or the Mormon belt out West; and they despise moderates who might ostensibly have a shot at it.
While in certain way, this of course fills me with glee, I think there’s potential downsides that need to be addressed as well.
May 24 2009
Conservatives will lose the Plains next
It’s already happened in the Northeast, and the Pacific Coast. The process is well under way in the Great Lakes region, the mid-Atlantic region, and the Mountain West (excluding the Mormon Belt) . . . yep, except for the South, Americans are turning against conservative values like homophobia, intolerance, and racism in huge numbers, as the overwhelming majorities that Democrats have won in 2006 & 2008, and the overwhelming popularity of President Obama show.
I submit to you that there is area of the US which has only just begun to change though – and that would be the Great Plains states – North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas – as well as Montana, which I’m including in this analysis. It’s already been widely reported here, here and elsewhere that RepubliCon strength is overwhelmingly over-represented in the South – defined as the 11 states of the confederacy plus Oklahoma and Kentucky in the first hyperlink from the National Journal. DailyKos blogger Steve Singiser notes in that second link that:
At the Congressional level, the disparities are, if possible, even more stark. In the United States Senate, Republicans control 19 of the 26 seats in the South. Outside the South, Democrats control 53 seats. The GOP controls just 21 seats outside of the South.
What this means, in a nutshell, is that outside of the South, Democrats come very close to controlling three-quarters of the seats in the United States Senate.
The other major area of RepubliCon strength is the Mormon Belt.