Author's posts

Jan 11 2010

I’m not a Reporter, I’m a Critic.

And as I’ve mentioned lazy journalism is a key part of it, though no element of our Arrogant Elite Versailles Villager Incestuous Idiot Wannabe Aristocrat Asshat Ruling Class is immune.

Yesterday jeffroby talked about a General Strike.  My more modest proposal is a simple Serf Strike.  Is it that hard to avert your eyeballs from these assholes?  Everybody has one, what makes their’s special or important?

"Political reporting" means "royal court gossip"

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

Monday, Jan 11, 2010 06:12 EST

This is the most revealing aspect of this episode.  The National Enquirer, Matt Drudge and Politico aren’t aberrational extremes in our press corps.  As Halperin and Harris correctly noted in calling Washington journalism “The Freak Show,” they are at its epicenter, leading the way.  The reason there is such a complete merger of interest among low-life tabloids, Matt Drudge, reality shows and the Washington political press corps is precisely because they are indeed indistinguishable — merged.  Even for people who thought that John Edwards’ sexual activities were relevant when he was running for President or vying for a high administration position, at this point he is a completely destroyed, discredited non-entity with no political future, and mucking around in the life of him and his wife is pure sleazy voyeurism.  Subjecting the Edwards to this sort of vicious, judgmental scrutiny is a cost-free activity, which is why so many are so eager to engage in it.

The real value of a book like this lies in the opportunity it presents for Washington’s elite class to distract themselves and everyone else from the oozing corruption, destruction, decaying and pillaging going on — that these same Washington denizens have long enabled.  With some important exceptions, that is the primary purpose of establishment journalism generally.  Even better, the book lets our media and political elite — and then the public generally — feel good about themselves by morally condemning the trashy exploits of Rielle Hunter and the egoistic hypocrisies of the irrelevant John and Elizabeth Edwards.  As The Nation’s Chris Hayes so perfectly put it:  “Just when you think the news cycle can’t get any stupider, Mark Halperin publishes a book.”  All imperial courts — especially collapsing ones — love to occupy themselves with insular, snotty trivialities.  As this book and the excitement it has produced demonstrates, providing that distraction is exactly what our press corps most loves to do and what it does best.  The media sleazebags who turned Bill Clinton’s penile spots, cigars and semen stains into headline news for two straight years haven’t gone anywhere; they’re actually stronger and more dominant than ever.

Hullabaloo and digby (what she said) have also noticed an uptick in Beltway Buttkissing Narcissism this weekend-

  • Divas

    by digby, Saturday, January 09, 2010

And about Pete Peterson, Billionaire deficit hawk who wants to cut his taxes by gutting your Social Security and his Company Town Rag Sellout Enablers.

Jan 11 2010

Monday Meta Madness

So during the holidays Richard Gilmore (my dad) asked me about our business model.

Well frankly, my personal business model is that buhdy provides me this wonderful free playground to romp around in and I leave all the hard decisions up to him.

But as I explained to dad we do have at least a theoretical business model that is based partly on donations and partly on advertising revenue.

The yearly nut is around $360 to keep the doors open.  We mostly solicit donations to do that because it’s far more reliable than ad revenue though it can leave you beholden to your donors.

Still, it’s not the most expensive publication model and we owe a lot to pacified that it’s as good and cheap as it is.

And we do sell ads, though not as many as I would expect and I’ll tell you why below the fold.

Jan 10 2010

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 CIA director defends agency against criticism

AFP

Sun Jan 10, 1:33 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – CIA Director Leon Panetta, in an article published Sunday, revealed that a Jordanian doctor who killed seven agency operatives was about to be searched before he blew himself up at a US military base in Afghanistan.

“This was not a question of trusting a potential intelligence asset, even one who had provided information that we could verify independently. It is never that simple, and no one ignored the hazards,” Panetta wrote in The Washington Post.

“The individual was about to be searched by our security officers — a distance away from other intelligence personnel — when he set off his explosives.”

Jan 09 2010

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Portugal MPs approve gay marriage

by Anne Le Coz, AFP

Fri Jan 8, 3:21 pm ET

LISBON (AFP) – Portugal’s parliament Friday approved plans to legalise gay marriage, less than three decades after revoking the country’s ban on homosexuality, but rejected proposals to allow same sex couples to adopt.

The bill passed with limited public controversy in what has traditionally been one of Europe’s most socially conservative countries.

After less than three hours’ debate, Friday’s parliamentary vote went mainly along party lines, with the left-wing majority backing the measure proposed by Prime Minister Jose Socrates and the right-wing opposition voting against.

Jan 09 2010

Appeal to authority

So yesterday I wrote what I still consider to be an entirely uncontroversial post unless you happen to be a graduate of a particular college that I pointed out as being third rate and mediocre.

I’ll say at the start what I’m sincerely disappointed in is that nobody remarked on my clever turn of phrase substituting “credible course” for “credible source”, but as with most of my jokes the important part is that they amuse me.

But some also missed my more populist point which I’ll repeat because of new news.

The new news is this-

Jonathan Gruber, professor at MIT, far from being an independent expert on Health Insurance economics, is simply a well paid shill for Rahm Emanuel and the Obama Administration.

For those not so proud of their ignorance that they refuse to click links see-

This is exactly the same behavior we saw from the Bush Administration with Armstrong Williams and Military "Experts".

Late Night: Color Me Gruber

By: Gregg Levine Friday January 8, 2010 8:02 pm

Remember, back in November, when everyone inside the Beltway was all a-twitter (in both senses of the phrase) about how Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, was making practically every White House staffer read an Atlantic article by Ron Brownstein? That piece, touting what FDL’s own Jon Walker called “free market economagic,” relied heavily on the work of Jonathan Gruber-then billed as “a leading health economist at MIT,” now well-understood to be a super-remunerated contractor in the employ of several parts of the Obama Administration.

…

It’s hinky on its face, for sure, but what really gets me is the broad similarities this has to the way the Bush Administration worked the press during the last decade. Cheney would authorize a leak about a possible terror plot, a link to an alleged state-sponsor of terrorism, the use for some assortment of aluminum tubes, or the provenance of some copper casings, and then you would see these items reported in all the right, respectable places. Then, Dick Cheney, or Condi Rice, or any of host of other Bush White House proxies would go on the Sunday shows and warn us that the threats had to be real-after all, it was right there in the New York Times and/or Washington Post.

Judy Miller anyone?  Bueller?

Hopey changiness.

Now I’ll not call MIT third rate but I will repeat this point-

“Most professors I’ve met are self centered ignorant assholes even about their own subject and unworthy of accreditation by any measure.”

And my populist message is this-

People lie all the time.  Even “Experts”.  Why are you fucking falling for the fallacy of appeal to authority?

Time to wake up and smell the glove.

Jan 08 2010

Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 US sheds 85,000 jobs, highlighting sluggish recovery

by Rob Lever, AFP

1 hr 33 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US economy lost 85,000 jobs in December while the unemployment rate held at 10.0 percent, the government said Friday in a report highlighting a slow and painful recovery from recession.

The Labor Department report on nonfarm payrolls was a disappointment to those hoping for job growth, which is critical to economic recovery.

The figure was far worse than the consensus expectation for no change in overall employment levels, and came amid a wide array of predictions ranging from steep losses to modest gains.

Yup.  Green Shoots.

Geithner and Summers must go.

And Geithner should be prosecuted as the THIEF he is.

Jan 08 2010

Not all that likely to pass

We can only hope because the way the Obama team has booted Insurance Company Bailouts Insurance Executive Welfare deserves defeat.

John Amato has been no radical.

Additional recent news from more disreputable sources (because I never deal in anything except the most scurrilous lies)-

The Difference Between Being Unable To Keep A Promise And Being A Liar

By: Jon Walker Thursday January 7, 2010 10:45 am

It really should not come as news to anyone who has followed the health care debate closely, but President Barack Obama now officially fighting for the inclusion of the excise tax on employer-provided health care benefits in the final bill. Obama expressly campaigned against taxing health care benefits, and even mocked the idea of taxing only "Cadillac plans" on the campaign trail. Clearly, his promise to not tax health care benefits was just a very big lie that he told the American people.

And, you know, anyone who claims they care about Democratic electoral prospects (more and better Democrats) is lying too.

New Arkansas Poll Results Beg Question: Why Did Senate Democrats Make Blanche Lincoln And Ben Nelson Walk The Plank On Health Care?

By: Jon Walker Thursday January 7, 2010 9:12 am

The policy arguments aside, I have a tough time understanding politically why the Democrats did not use reconciliation to pass a big bill labeled “health care reform” (with many of the smaller dropped pieces bundled into a small “insurance regulatory reform” bill, or slipped piece-by-piece into big defense, ag, or appropriations bills). By September, it became very clear that the fight had become very partisan, that the bill labeled “health care reform” would not be overwhelmingly popular, and that there would be no real Republican cover for conservative Democrats in the Senate. The vote for health care has become politically toxic for conservative Democratic senators from conservative states like Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln.

Hey, quit your blubberin’.  When I get through with this baby you won’t even recognize it.

Is The Health Care Bill Falling Apart?

By: David Dayen Thursday January 7, 2010 12:29 pm

Ultimately, the bill may not run aground because of financing, or abortion, or the employer mandate, or the public option, or any one thing. But with a combination of these problems, the Rubik’s Cube just might not be able to be put together. It’s interesting that so many people just assume a bill will pass at this stage. There are too many variables in play to assume that right now, based on what I’m seeing.

Jan 08 2010

New Coke

Source: NBC weighing Leno return to late-night

By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer

1 min ago

LOS ANGELES – Jay Leno might get another another chance to reign as late-night king at NBC.

The network, contemplating disppointing ratings for Leno’s new prime-time show, is weighing a plan to return him to the 11:35 p.m. EST slot he held for 17 years as “Tonight Show” host, a person familiar with the discussions said on condition of anonymity over a lack of authority to address the issue publicly.

“The Jay Leno Show,” a nightly 10 p.m. talk and comedy program that debuted last fall, has drawn lackluster ratings and complaints from NBC affiliate stations that the show has provided a weaker lead-in for local late newscasts than past NBC series.

Television Executives are stupider than you.

Jan 08 2010

Undeserved Reputations

In the general category of shopping for sources I offer this quote from McClatchy–

“The fact that we’re seeing Democrats bailing, in an election year, suggests maybe it’s a tide that’s turning,” said Gary Rose , a professor of politics at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. “People are starting to feel promises were not fulfilled. Expectations were high, but what have we really seen?”

Now I happen to know Sacred Heart, and it’s not Harvard or even Fairfield.  In fact it isn’t even in Fairfield, it’s in Bridgeport despite their 90210 address shopping aspirations.

It’s a dinky little Division II school that until recently didn’t have a dormitory and was entirely commuter with a smaller student body than my High School and a considerably less stringent program of study.  One step up from Housatonic Community College (who? you?).  

Even today it’s not as big as Bridgeport University and the only improvement is it’s owned by the Catholic Church rather than Moonies.

Not everyone is the expert they appear in print, some have much more modest resumes.

Jan 08 2010

Life is cheap. If you’re brown.

Blackwater settles civil lawsuits over Iraq deaths

By MIKE BAKER, Associated Press Writer

Thu Jan 7, 4:34 pm ET

RALEIGH, N.C. – The security firm formerly known as Blackwater has reached a settlement in a series of federal lawsuits in which dozens of Iraqis accused the company of cultivating a reckless culture that allowed innocent civilians to be killed.

It was a princely settlement- $30,000 for each person wounded and $100,000 for people who were murdered.

Not all the plaintiffs appeared happy with the decision. Sami Hawas Hamoud Abu al-Iz also was wounded during the 2007 Nisoor Square incident along with his son. His mother was killed. He said the agreement came after the plaintiffs were told by their lawyers that there was a risk that they might not receive anything.

…

The lawsuits sought compensation for deaths and injuries. Unlike federal probes that have specifically targeted company contractors for their actions, the civil lawsuits accused the Moyock, N.C.-based company – and founder Erik Prince – of producing a climate in which it was acceptable for innocent Iraqis to die.

“Mr. Prince personally directed and permitted a heavily-armed private army … to roam the streets of Baghdad killing innocent civilians,” one of the lawsuits said.

But you know you can’t let pesky things like that affect the bottom line.  This is a free market economy, not socialism.

“This enables Xe’s new management to move the company forward free of the costs and distraction of ongoing litigation, and provides some compensation to Iraqi families,” the company said.

They hate us for our freedoms you know, like the freedom to fire Hellfire missiles from drones at anything that moves, just like wolves from a helicopter.

Faithless Heathens: Scriptural Economics of Judaism, Christianity and Islam–

Two of the dead, Jeremy Wise, 35, a former member of the Navy Seals from Virginia Beach, Va., and Dane Clark Paresi, 46, of Dupont, Wash., were security officers for Xe Services, the firm formerly known as Blackwater.

As long as it’s brown and furrin’.

Because we’re not cowards!

The problem is that these mooslim rag heads don’t value life like us bible believin’ ‘muricans.

Jan 07 2010

Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 In blow to Obama, top Senate ally announces retirement

by Olivier Knox, AFP

Wed Jan 6, 4:16 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama’s Democratic allies were off to a rocky election-year start Wednesday, with high-profile retirements endangering their fragile Senate majority — and his agenda.

Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, chairman of the powerful Senate Banking Committee, announced he would not seek re-election in November, depriving Obama of a steadfast, powerful ally and 35-year veteran of Washington.

“This is my moment to step aside,” Dodd told reporters outside his Connecticut home, acknowledging a series of troubles had left him in “the toughest political shape of my career.”

Yawn.  So two days ago.  But it is my home state so I hope you’ll indulge me.

And if not, fuck you anyway.

Jan 07 2010

dday, digby, and jane

dday:

There’s a lot of talk from defenders of the President about how every campaign breaks a promise or two when they get in office, and nobody voted for Barack Obama because he was going to televise health care negotiations on C-SPAN. But if there’s anything Obama ran as, it was as a reformer. He ran explicitly to “change the game” and not “play it better.” Yet everything in this health care deal represents a playing of the game better than past efforts, basically by buying off stakeholders and creating compromises favorable to their bottom lines. Every single thing.

If you want to understand why progressives who have been following the ins and outs of this debate are depressed about the health care bill and about the Obama Presidency in general, watch that ad again. That was the campaign. “I may not know enough about the ways of Washington, but I know that the ways of Washington must change.” He sold himself as an open government, reform-oriented candidate untainted by lobbyist money or influence. He continues to sell himself that way, actually. And the disconnect, as many have called it, is simply staggering.

Here’s what Digby had to say:

Aside from the policy implications, which we already had to swallow, the political problem the Democrats have bought for themselves with this are huge. It would be different if Obama hadn’t explicitly run on a clean government platform and if the Republicans weren’t blatantly hypocritical opportunists. But he did and they are and this is powerful mojo that plays into the hands of the tea partiers and Republicans.

I can’t get over the administration’s sheer political malpractice in handling this populist mood in the country. I don’t know if they all convinced themselves that they were political magicians and therefore the rules don’t apply to them or what, but Democrats should have known that after having turned the phrase “culture of corruption” into their mantra, they would be particularly vulnerable to appearances of impropriety (not to mention actual impropriety.) Bad, bad move.

Jane:

(E)very single member of the pro-choice caucus in the House, in addition to all of those who signed Diana DeGette’s letter pledging they would never do so, are all planning to line up behind Rosa DeLauro and say “no big” about sending women’s reproductive rights into the shitter so Joe Lieberman can pass Obama’s Aetna/PhRMA bailout. Because lord knows, those Blue Dogs are gonna need to be able to make the argument to their constituents in Republican-leaning districts that they got something out of this.

LGTB and abortion rights are two of the biggest cash cows of the Democratic Party, and social issues in general tend to attract a bunch of cheap hustlers who are totally willing to demagogue highly emotional issues for fun and profit on both sides of the aisle. Abortion rights are well on their way to becoming the new “hand gun control,” because it should be apparent from all those applauding this health care bill as “progressive” or “something to build on” that nobody is giving choice a second thought any more.

I don’t think Ellen Malcolm is one of those people. Despite mistakes Emily’s List has made in the past, I think she truly was committed to abortion rights. It’s sad to see her walking away from the rubble before the Democratic Party presses the detonator, but totally understandable.

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