Friday, December 30, 2011

Overating Conservatives Logic

     Nice article from Brutish & Short An Argument for Renewable Energy that Even Conservatives Can Bet Behind but he is working from the belief that today's conservatives use logic for anything. He is sorely overrating them.

Yesterday's Leftovers

      The only thing I can think of when I see one of these the debt is going to kill us articles is where are the jobs, jobs first then debt
       Reich is usually OK although often repetitive but My Political Prediction for 2012 is just stupid.

Brian

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Why George Will is Still Readable.

     Just when I thing Mr. Will has sold out and gone over to the dark side he comes out with a well written and thoughtful article. The 9th Circuits Proper Call on Bone Marrow Donations is one of those articles that makes him worth peeking at regularly.

Brian

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Two for the Bad Column

    David Brooks is still an idiot as Midlife Crisis Economy  adds to his awful legacy of articles this year. Maybe he will turn a new leaf next year.
     Job Creation Is Price of New Health Care  Law  is just proof that if the majority of your employees are part time employees than your company is in for a rude awakening when the new health care law takes effect. Companies with mostly full time employees or who already provide health care to their employees will save money. Maybe you need to change your policies. Think.

Brian

Politicians Profiting in this Economy

      The actual article title is Economic Downturn Took a Detour at Capitol Hill but my title is more honest. They continue to profit as we continue to loose. Need to find a way to get the money out of politics.

Brian

Monday, December 26, 2011

Multiple Looks at the Presidential Race

     From looking at the opinion pages this morning apparently what you do after Christmas on a Presidential election year is either rally the troops or over analyze it.
     Looks from the left come from EJ Dionne and Albert R Hunt.
     Looks from the right come from The Weekly Standard and The Washington Times. This tells you something about both sides as Democrats seem to believe in the power of the individual voice and Republicans seem to believe in the collective voice.
     Meanwhile over analysis come from Erin McPike on the situation in Ohio.

Brian

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Hanukkah Some Miracle

     David Frum with good article on the origins of Hanukkah and how it is similar to today's situation for Israel.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Monday, December 19, 2011

Yesterday's Leftovers

     Now for the pro SOPA view Will the SOPA Bill Kill the Internet proves that some people will bend over backwards to present the other point of view.
     Republicans Block Recess Appointments means that necessary government jobs will remain undone.

Brian

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Yesterday's Leftovers

     A Christmas poem from 2009 on health care bill

Also Jay Cost  is back and making sense as he tries to make sure Republican enthusiasm stays whipped up.

Brian

SOPA Hearings Bad News for Internet Users

        The best look at the SOPA hearings so far comes from humorist Alexandra Petri in her The Nightmarish SOPA Hearings as she describes all the horrors of letting old men who rarely use let alone have any idea how it works legislate for an industry they don't really understand. Also chipping in with a good look at SOPA is SOPA Hearing Cast Debate as Old Media Against New Media which gets most of the facts you need to know to you in a business like way. Also provides a link to one of the best songs ever



All in all it is a scary idea that the old men in our congress are being convinced that something needs to be done about this when the First Amendment is more than enough to cover this area.

Brian

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Yesterday's Leftovers

     Nice article from Gary Hart on setting up for a successful primary run. Is it still relevant? Time will tell.

     Walter Shapiro looks at Brokered Conventions, Last Minute Combacks, and Other Crazy Ways the GOP Could end up With a Nominee, what he doesn't tell us is how this will affect the presidential election itself which is actually bonus points for him.

Brian

Friday, December 16, 2011

Friday's Best Comics

Yesterday's Leftovers

     Just the facts in this article looking at the new spending bill The House just passed.

     The "proof" when Obama Says "Republican Economic Policy Just Doesn't Work is all put together rather neatly in some nice convincing charts and graphs.

     Robert Reich makes the President an offer

Thursday, December 15, 2011

The Malfunction Minuet

       I like The Malfunction Minuet not as much for the story which is typical of this Senate but for some the references like this one to Point Counterpoint (also known as Jane you ignorant slut) which accurately depicts what has been happening for the last three years in the Senate.


     Chesty is so embarrassed he just can't look.

Yesterday's Leftovers

      A partisan piece that hits a few good points Why Conservatives Can't Fix Poverty was worth reading.

     Another example of how the pencil pushers just can't help themselves The Insidious Fine Print in the Spending Bill shows how the game hasn't changed despite the new blood from 2010.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Climate Change Exponent

      Not as much an ugly opinion as an ugly truth, Shock as Retreat of Arctic Sea Ice Releases Deadly Greenhouse Gas. Methane is what is being released and it works as a multiplier when it comes to increasing the temperature. So things could go bad a lot quicker than people think. Oops.


Brian

Today's Best Cartoon

      Plus Chesty's opinion of congress

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Editorial Cartoon Monday

Yesterday's Leftovers

     Liked There is Only one Issue in America for it's insight and that he admits how addicting following this stuff can be.

     Not Really sure I liked What is Crony Capitalism Anyway? as he never really finished answering his question. Still worth reading.


     Liked Obama's New Focus on Democracy, Human Rights not for the partisan stance, but a couple of cool quotes. First from Hilary Clinton's speech "It is a violation of human rights when people are beaten or killed because of their sexual orientation, or because they do not conform to cultural norms about how men and women should look or behave. It is a violation of human rights when governments declare it illegal to be gay, or allow those who harm gay people to go unpunished." Second from Obama himself "Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22 out of 30 top al-Qaeda leaders who've been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement." Good stuff

     Finally Will Congress Ban Corruption is a great idea that will probably go nowhere at the moment.

Brian

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Sunday Funnies Editorial Style

Climate Change on Back Burner

      I actually saw tow articles today on climate change. Neither worth a damn, but one thing they did get right is national media has been ignoring the talks in Durbin this week. the question posed " Is Global Warming Slowing?" the short answer is no, and that means you don't really need to read the rest as it says nothing new. Ignoring Global Warming is the title of the second article and what it really misses is that only in California of the 50 states is global warming thought of at all.

Brian

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Saturday's Best Comics

Two For the Good Column

      Gail Collins is back on the good list, The Ghost of Boyfriends Past is a look at the once slowdown now a stoppage of Senate approval of Presidential appointies.
     Sean Trende with another good article, Unsustainable Debt, Unsustainable Gridlock has a lot of good research. although I don't agree with the conclusion.

Brian

Reality and Re-election Sharpen Obama's Zig Zags

      Just a partisan excuse piece, Reality and Re-election Sharpen Obama's Zigzags tries to explain why the President seems so uneven at times with his policy making.



Brian

Friday, December 9, 2011

Friday's Best Comic

All Bad Friday

     All I have to report today is bad stuff. Krugman at his laziest, a pure political hit piece on Romney. Kinsley at Bloomberg who can't decide if he is allowed to say what is really on his mind so bashes Obama Kansas speech instead. The Wall Street Journal back to it's usual self with a hit piece of Gingrich as the establishment has decided that Romney is the only acceptable candidate. Blech.

Brian

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Workers Need More Income and More Power

    A good, concise look at wage differential, Workers Need More Income and More Power makes a number of good points. What I am wondering. is how this got snuck into the online version of the Wall Street Journal.

President's Speech

    The President's Speech itself was excellent and inspiring as we have come to expect from this President. The commentary about it was pretty much somewhere between partisan hamfisted praise ( EJ Dionne's Obama's New Square Deal) , moderate whining ( President Obama's Roosevelt Speech ) and conservative insistence that he still only wants to make the government bigger and more intrusive ( Obama's Rx: Bad News for Middle Class ). this cartoon was better commentary than anything else.

No Sign of Intelligent Life

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Three for the Good Column on Healthcare

     The LA Times had two good opinions on healthcare today, first on effect already in action with Obamacare to the Rescue and second with The conservatives case for Heathcare Reform's Individual Mandate which looks at both sides of the conservative argument.
    Finally Joe Nocero dchimes in with Dr. Berwicks Pink Slip which looks at the changes Dr. Berwick started at Medicare and why he is no longer there.

Brian

Monday, December 5, 2011

Pain In the Public Sector

     Pain in the Public Sector is a good look at why so many public sector jobs are disappearing

Brian

Two for the Bad Column

     Wall Street Plays Occupy White house is just another one of those everybody is bad so we are all screwed articles that is big on facts and what is wrong but offers zero solutions.
     Meanwhile Paul Krugman had a lazy day so he just piled on in Send in the Clueless picking on the already handicapped.

Brian

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Great Quote from a conservative

     Benjamin Disraeli was a member of the British Conservative party his entire career in politics although this quote from an opponent shows that he was not a stick in the mud type " As a result of these social reforms the Liberal-Labour MP Alexander Macdonald told his constituents in 1879, "  As a result of these social reforms the Liberal-Labour MP Alexander Macdonald told his constituents in 1879, As a result of these social reforms the Liberal-Labour MP Alexander Macdonald told his constituents in 1879, "The Conservative party have done more for the working classes in five years than the Liberals have in fifty." Some of the social acts passed included including the Artisan's and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875, the Public Health Act 1875, the Sale of Food and Drugs Act (1875), and the Education Act (1876). His government also introduced a new Factory Act meant to protect workers, the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875 to allow peaceful picketing, and the Employers and Workmen Act (1875) to enable workers to sue employers in the civil courts if they broke legal contracts. Hell of a conservative, he felt strongly about levelling the playing field.

Brian

Sunday Funnies Editorial Style

Saturday, December 3, 2011

GOP's War on Labor Unions

     The real title should be The GOP's War on Labor Unions continues as this has been an on going battle since the 70's. What happened was Reagan convinced the Party of Lincoln to abandon the principles of Lincoln and instead embrace the land owners. Once the land owners were back in charge they got together with the factory owners and decided they didn't need no stinking laws saying they had to be fair and convinced the under educated that if the land owners and factory owners got richer it would trickle down to the masses. They then set the rules up so that it would be better to keep the money instead of trickling it down. Trickle down only works when capital gains taxes are high so that it is cheaper to reinvest than to keep the money. Oops they forgot to tell us about that. That is how we got here in a nutshell.

Brian

Friday, December 2, 2011

Friday's Best Comic

From the Punditry

     Had to share this article Michele Bachman Gets Things Straight on Gay Marriage as it left me in stitches.

Brian

Three for the Bad Column

    Some really horrid opinions out there today masquerading as good sense. The most egregious one is David Brooks The Spirit of Enterprise where Mr. insist that we are not willing to work hard anymore, and that laziness is the cause of the problems in Europe.
   
      Also horrible is par for the course of the Wall Street Journal and Harry Reid's Job Surcharge is just more of the same as they play partisan politics to the hilt in the obvious hit job.

      Finally yesterday's winner of stupidest article from the guys at Brutish & Short is Back Off, Angry Commenter's as why are you complaining about someone showing up to read your article?

Brian

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Is the Fed Pursuing Our Interest or the Banks Interest?

    Is the Fed Pursuing Our Interest or the Banks Interest? is such a good title that I had hopes that someone on the right actually understood what was going on. No such luck, a more wrong headed body of proof would be hard to come by. Hope dashed again.

Brian

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

International Day is a bad day

    Both of these opinions should have been good but the writers got a little lazy. Eugene Robinson admits he just got there but in A China That Needs Cheers Not Jeers he  notes that this is not your fathers communism. More detail would have made this a good article. Thomas Friedman on the other hand has been lazy for years now and Israel and the Arab Awakening is just more of it.

Brian

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The Economics of Abbott and Costello

   This was way too cool not to share The Economics of Abbott and Costello will leave you both laughing and thinking.

Brian

Only Good Stuff Today

I deleted anything that left me in a bad mood so only the good stuff today.

Two articles on the first amendment under attack,  The Freedom to Tweet not Applicable in Thailand or in Kansas from our hi tech friends at Infoworld. From the ultra liberal The Nation Silent Majority: California's War on it's Students lamenting the ability of students to protest.

     Two articles on continuing the payroll tax holiday, Robert Reich Restore the Basic Bargain, and Michael Tomasky's  GOP is Set to Self Destruct Over Payroll Tax. Both a bit partisan but have lots of good points.
   
     Finally a guy a usually can't even get through Thomas Sowell Lesson's of History a nice look at the Idiocy of the centrist and their rewriting of history.

Brian

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Sunday Funnies Editorial Style

First Amendment Hijacked by Moneyed Interest

       This is the types of signs that have been removed from public discourse with the removal of the occupy protesters around the country. In First Amendment Hijacked by Moneyed Interest Reich looks at the speech part of the problem but it also indicates that out police work for those same moneyed interest.  He could have and probably should have said more on this subject as police intimidation can leave people home instead of on the streets protesting where they need to be.

Brian

What is Constitutional Conservitism

     Despite not really defining it's title, What is Constitutional Conservatism is a good look at differences in the two faces of modern liberalism.

Brian

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Font of Ideas

     Nice dream solution to some of the main OWS complaints at Brutish & Short on how to fight corruption.

Brian

Friday, November 25, 2011

Two for the Bad Column

     Superfluous words and few facts are the real problem in The Age of the Superfluous Worker although there are definitely too many people needing jobs.

     She needs a little time out of her ivory tower in Pepper Spraying Taxpayers so she could actually write something worth reading.

Brian

Three for the Good Column

     Great interview of the polling guru of the Iowa Caucuses for us polling junkies.

     I hate to agree with Reason.com at anytime but The Simpletons is dead on in their evaluation of the do something punditry.

     Not much meat but a good quick look at Gingrich's Brave Words on Immigration on his position which is pretty wonky.

Brian

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Two For the Good Column and a Link to A List

      Being European educated Arianna actually knows how to construct an argument as demonstrated in Pepper-Spraying Occupy: An Assault on Our Democracy
     In the Land of the Salamanders the Newt is King is Nate Silver at his best figuring out why the polls say what they do.

     Finally this link to the Arrested Reporters and What They Do listing everyone press member arrested in an Occupy raid.


Brian

Monday, November 21, 2011

Two For the Good Column

    As a stat geek I always like analysis like Democrats Have an Uphill climb to Retake House and Sean Trende is right up with Nate Silver in giving good stats for upcoming races. Also find a nice long article on JFK and the similarities between his and Obama's  presidencies.

Brian

Three for the Bad Column

      Another Monday, and once again the oped sphere is full of hot air. Squabble or Govern? is more claptrap about the super committee and their lack of a deal. The Hillary Moment is even stupider stuff from who else? The Wall Street Journal and their inept opinion department.  The New Age of Plenty is more proof the guys at the Financial Times don't now how to add.

Brian

Even Farther Behind on the News Cycle

    I'm Way Behind on the News Cycle the author  puts up a couple of pretty cool videos from UC Davis. I had already seen the second one, but seeing them together is much more effective. If he is behind, what am I?  Here is a nice analysis of the incident.

Brian

Friday, November 18, 2011

The Wall Street Disconnect

     I kind of feel like saying who didn't know this, but The Wall Street Disconnect saves itself by linking us to the wonk article A "Great Haircut" to Kickstart Growth with a good look at what is needed and why it is not getting done.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Dangerous Bill Would Threaten Legitimate Websites

    I am sitting here in debate at whether this is bad, ugly or just both. Dangerous Bill Would Threaten Legitimate Websites is the title and it really does seem from the article that it would be unneeded and unnecessary legislation. (The current congress doesn't really pass anything but the way these things work by time it got somewhere there would be another do anything congress in). Worse it could pass the house now and the senate after 2012 after that body went Republican. More research needed of course but this would be a very bad bill as described.

Brian

Are We Reaching " Limits to Growth"

    Are We Reaching " Limits to Growth" is more of a scientific paper than an opinion piece so be sure that the radical right would attack it if they new about it. What it does is say that even without climate change things are going to get bad because we don't have enough stuff to support everyone who wants to live like us. Oops, sorry what we are doing is unsustainable so everyone is going to suffer. The only question is when and is the financial disaster actually the precursor that announces we have reached that point. The author is an actuary, who is someone who crunches numbers to let the insurance companies know how much to charge for what they are selling and still make a profit.

Brian

Why Doing Nothing Yields 7.1 Trillion in Deficit Cuts

    Also known as How We Can Succeed Through Supercommittee's Failure is a two piece article where the proof for a is in b (Why Doing Nothing Yields 7.1 Trillion in Cuts ). since this is an EJ makes sense month take advantage and read something from him.

Brian

GOP's Loose Lips Sink Covert Options

    GOP's Loose Lips Sink Covert Options is on of those Duh! articles that doesn't say much but probably is a necessary evil as some people may not have noticed how last decade the GOP frontrunner's foreign policy positions are. If you are  the unaware please read.

Brian

Where Occupy Wall Street Must Go From Here

     I knew badness was happening from the title. How pompous is Where Occupy Wall Street Must Go From Here? Like if they don't do what he says they are Idiots or incompetents. For all that this isn't nearly as bad as it should be, some good facts and ideas in the article. Just don't tell me what I have to do.

Brian

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Funnies For Occupy








Charles Pierce is all heated up over Occupy Wall Street Eviction

       Found this piece from Charles Pierce at a cool blog called Brutish & Short and I would like to welcome him to the realization that we really do live in a police state. He hemmed and hawed about it, I won't


Brian

Welcome to the Police State

     Saw a conclusion in the Washington Post editorial on the clearing of Zuchcotti Park which stated " This morning’s action may not be what a police state looks like, but it’s certainly how one begins." and I was thinking I've known we live in a police state ever since I asked a cop whether I was in California or Russia and ended spending two nights in jail and paying a lawyer 500.00 dollars to get my sentence reduced to 6 months summary probation. My lawyer said I got off easy. After all, it is a benevolent police state. All the same, when the powers that be get annoyed enough the lash will come out. The free media may complain, but with politicians being owned by the corporations and the Patriot Act still in force, there is no doubt that anytime they want to put protesters in jail, they can. It seems to me that Wall Street just got tired of the people picking on them and decided to show them what type of state we really live in. Welcome to the realization. This is a police state, just well hidden.

Brian

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Climate Change: There is No Plan B

     Talk about an alarmist with an agenda. Climate Change: There is No Plan B is a move straight to plan C: giving up. The part that is alarming is how American views on this subject are so far removed from other countries. If you read the comments, you will see how different our responses are to what was written. Scary.

Brian

The Wonk Who Slays Washington

     A number of articles on the 60 minutes segment on crony capitalism. The Wonk Who Slays Washington which first appeared in Newsweek was the most even handed of the bunch.

Brian

Chelsea Clinton Newsperson?

 Never has a news hiring prompted so much bitchiness. In Chelsea Clintons Hiring at NBC News Prompts Skeptical Reactions From News Media  we see just how petty a newsperson who has been played can be. Almost every article on this subject had some cattiness to it. Wow!

Brian