Archive for March 3, 2010
Ronald Reagan and a Little Girl Directing Traffic at JFK
We heard audio today — everywhere – of a little girl “directing” traffic at JFK airport in New York.
Consider this tweet from mattemmer:
More on how Ronnie Reagan destroyed working Americans here, from our hero, Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger.
Obama: Pass the Damn Bill
MSNBC is reporting tonight that President Obama will hit the road next week in another, another, another, another attempt to sell his health care plan to the nation.
Obama. Stay home. Pass the damn bill. “The nation” will like it once it takes effect.
Government Admits it Lies About U.S. Poverty Level
Another moment (or ten or twenty) of outrage overload: Government Admits Poverty Statistics Designed to Keep Official Poverty Low.
There are times when “being informed” is almost physically painful.
Capt. Sully Retired Today — What You Won’t Hear on the “News”
Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger — the man who landed the U.S. Airways plane in the Hudson River in New York City last year – retired today and it’s big news — a “feel good story” — in the corporate media.
But what Sully testified to before congress last year isn’t included because it had to do with the plight of us working folk and the corporate media would rather we not think (or know) about things like this:
Sullenberger, a 58-year-old who joined a US Airways predecessor in 1980, told the House aviation subcommittee that his pay has been cut 40 percent in recent years and his pension has been terminated and replaced with a promise “worth pennies on the dollar” from the federally created Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
The reduced compensation has placed “pilots and their families in an untenable financial situation,” Sullenberger said. “I do not know a single professional airline pilot who wants his or her children to follow in their footsteps.”
Out of respect for Sully, let’s not forget.
Bystanders Encourage San Francisco Man to Jump to His Death
A man jumped to his death in San Francisco yesterday. Before he did, many in the crowd egged him on.
Read the Twitter play-by-play and read reactions here, as in this one:
The fact that I saw people in the crowd laughing less than 10 seconds after the man’s death may be more disturbing than actually watching him die. May he rest in peace.
Can you imagine? Are we becoming a nation of barbarians? What’s next? Watching gladiators and lions tear each other apart while we munch on hot dogs and popcorn?
Why Did Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) Decide Not to Run Again?
There are allegations out there (which Republicans are l.o.v.i.n.g.) that Eric Massa (D-NY) won’t seek re-election because he allegedly (allegedly people — as in innocent until proven guilty) sexually harassed a male staffer. But then there’s this, from CQ Politics:
Freshman Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) is expected to announce on a 3:30 p.m. conference call that he will not run for a second term in November.
A source who has spoken to Massa said he is leaving because of a reoccurrence of cancer.
So which came first, the chicken or the egg? It seems to me that Massa decided to make this announcement because of a recurrence of cancer, but that Republicans are turning it into something else. After all, we wouldn’t want one single American to feel sympathy for a DemocRAT, would we?
Republicans Know Their Base is Dumb
From Politico:
The Republican National Committee plans to raise money this election cycle through an aggressive campaign capitalizing on “fear” of President Barack Obama and a promise to “save the country from trending toward socialism.”
In neat PowerPoint pages, it lifts the curtain on the often-cynical terms of political marketing, displaying an air of disdain for the party’s donors that is usually confined to the barroom conversations of political operatives.
The presentation explains the Republican fundraising in simple terms.
“What can you sell when you do not have the White House, the House, or the Senate…?” it asks.
The answer: “Save the country from trending toward Socialism!”
[...]
The small donors who are the targets of direct marketing are described under the heading “Visceral Giving.” Their motivations are listed as “fear;” “Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration;” and “Reactionary.”
Major donors, by contrast, are treated in a column headed “Calculated Giving.”
Their motivations include: “Peer to Peer Pressure”; “access”; and “Ego-Driven.”
If the RNC’s base was well-informed, they couldn’t get away with this crap. But they aren’t, so the can. (The same holds true for Fox “News” by the way.)
Michele Bachmann (R-MN) Pimps the Tea Partiers
You will recall that last year Michele Bachmann (R-MN), pandering to Tea Partiers, made a big to-do about the evils of the census and the horrible things the government intended to do with the information it collected. Simultaneously she urged people not to fill out census forms or to give information to census workers who may come to their home. But she suddenly shut up when someone pointed out that the number of seats in the House of Representatives is allocated state by state depending on population, which is determined by the census.
Fast forward to today. Bachmann to Vote for Resolution Promoting the Census.
The lesson here is to know what you’re talking about before you open your mouth — something in short supply amongst a whole lotta people around here.
Let Me Count the Ways I Can Charge You For Something
Have you heard? Continental Airlines is set to begin charging customers extra if they want a seat with more legroom. “A spokeswoman said extra room on a Houston-New York flight might cost $59.”
Don’t get me started.
Break Time — The Titanic v. Lusitania: Who Survived and Why?
Here’s a fascinating article from the Smithsonian magazine comparing the sinking of the Titanic and the Lusitania and explaining who survived and why:
The passengers of the Lusitania had less than 20 minutes before their ship sank, and in such a life-and-death situation, social scientists say, “self-interested reactions predominate.” It didn’t matter what the captain ordered. The ship was going down and people reacted selfishly, and in such a situation, it would be expected that people in their prime (16 to 35) would be the most likely to win a seat on a lifeboat. In addition, because there were difficulties in launching those boats, people in that age group would have had an additional advantage because they were more likely to have had the strength and agility to stay on board a rocking boat or to climb back in after falling into the water.
The Titanic, though, sank slowly enough for social norms to hold sway. The passengers generally held to the rule of “women and children first” even though they could have easily overpowered the crew. And first- and second-class passengers may have benefited from the extra time in which they may have had earlier or better information from the crew or had other advantages.
Hilarious New York Times’ Flub
Per Howard Kurtz. Look at the caption under the photo. (I know it’s hard to read but I can’t make it any bigger. It says, “Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.” Here’s a larger version.)
Oops!
Anti-Incumbent Fever? Tea Party Landslide? Think Again
The talking heads keep telling us that (1) every incumbent in Washington had better watch their back, and (2) the Tea Party movement is going to bring big change in November.
Bearing that in mind, I found this revealing article about the primary in Texas yesterday, particularly this about the incumbents there:
Yet the same anti-Washington sentiment that fueled Perry’s success failed to surge down the ballot as every House incumbent on the ballot won re-nomination without even the bother of a runoff.
Even as Perry successfully tapped into the raw anger toward Washington, other Tea Party-inspired candidates found little success.
Debra Medina, the third GOP gubernatorial contender and the most authentic outsider in the contest, garnered only about 19 percent of the vote.
Further down the ballot, the results were even more telling.
No incumbent GOP House member in the Texas delegation caught a scare, much less lost, against a grassroots conservative challenger.
While 86-year-old Rep. Ralph Hall had the closest contest, he still bested his nearest challenger, a self-proclaimed “Tea Party Republican,” by a two-to-one margin.
So while the media is beating the drums for a big fight high ratings, what they’re saying isn’t necessarily playing out in real life.
Dick Cheney’s Endorsement Didn’t Help Kay Bailey Hutchinson
Looks like the people of Texas weren’t all that impressed with Dick Cheney’s endorsement of Kay Bailey Hutchinson. She lost the gubernatorial primary yesterday to Rick -Succession- Perry.
What? People aren’t listening to Dick anymore?
