Thursday, February 16, 2012

Funny Article on Fighting Unemployment

       Love this campaign poster and the article that goes with it.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Cool game allows you to try and balance budget

      At the Committee for a responsible Federal Budget the have put together this cool game that lets you make the same type of general decisions that the President has to make on the Federal Budget and see if you can do any better. ( I did OK but not quite as well as the President) with their goal as your target and The Presidents as an alternative goal. A fun little exercise for all of us who think balancing the Federal Budget should be easy and forget in the rhetoric how much we now depend on our government to do. For a political junkie like me pretty cool way to spend 15 minutes.

Brian

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Climate Change: Now Biggest Threat

     According to Elliott Negin Climate Change is the biggest threat to our economy and American way of life. I don't know that I am convinced but the real problem is that he is at Huffpost and not some paper like the Wall Street Journal so he is reaching the wrong audience. Very few deniers at Huffpost and most of them are the message board attack dogs. The real problem is there is no political dialog anymore on this subject. Threat and denial is now the conversation here in America.

 Brian

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Missing Half the Solution

      I was reading Charles Murphy's The Great American Divide and I was struck by how he doesn't believe that those in the lower classes can do anything about the problem. Seems to me he is as guilty of being elitist as those he says caused the problems. Maybe he assumes that only upper middle class and rich people read the Wall Street Journal, but it seems to me that part of the problem is that this divide is caused by a lack of communication between the sides and if you propose a solution that only takes in one side then it can't be properly executed as you only are mobilizing one side. Without cooperation nothing but anger can happen. Just my take on things but at least he admits there is a problem.

Brian

Monday, January 23, 2012

Weekend Leftovers

       Didn't post but I did read a few things this weekend. These are the highlights and lowlights.
     Bernie Sanders on the Corporate Takeover of America
     Chris Lehman on the State of Books in America, not lamenting the disappearance of bookstores but the sad state of modern fiction.
     Another article on the forgotten candidate Buddy Roemer
     I have yet to see an unbiased article on the Texas Redistricting plan, this article masquerades as one
     A Huntsman staffer on how they got beat by Romney
     I think he did this one just to scare all the white people who insist they are not prejudiced: Why We Need a Malcolm X Day.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Stat Geek Politics

     I am a born stat geek. I was the kid when told to go out and play would write baseball standings in the dirt for an hour before going off to find a game somewhere. We now have a new version of stat geeks taking over the political columns and I personally love reading them. My two favorites are Nate Silver and Sean Trende. One leans Democrat the other Republican. Both tend to let the stats talk more than their heart. This gives you a better feel for what is really happening than the obvious party hacks that so often fill commentary sites. Today is a good example of both what they right and how even numbers can change quickly this year. Nate on Romney's Prevent Defense and Sean on Rick Perry's Ill-fated Campaign. Both are a different way to look at politics but very compelling.

Brian

Thursday, January 19, 2012

SOPA Round 2

      Three more articles on SOPA and PIPA that I found later in the day as RCP finally caught up with the rest of the web. The print media never did and only Countdown with Keith Olbermann did in the visual media. The rest assume we are all to distracted by the other things we do on the web to notice. So for a real breakdown of what these bills are SOPA vs.  PIPA: Anti-Piracy bills, uproar explained is the best breakdown on what the bills do that I have seen. ZDNet with a list of who went black, and Brad Feldman with both an informed and heartfelt take on why he opposes these bills. I once asked a cop if I was in California or Russia and found out that they aren't a lot different, with the passage of these bills the question of whether we are in The United States or China will become a moot point.


Brian

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

SOPA Blackouts and Lost Freedoms

      The need for Blackouts to protest SOPA is a sad day for anyone who spends more than an hour a day on the internet. For more on SOPA protest see these articles - SOPA Blackout Seeks to Stop Internet Censorship Bill, The Truth About SOPA, Why We Go Black. My friends a Brutish & Short also went black in protest and I just want to take time to say that SOPA is just a logical extension of the rights we have been stripped of since 9/11. To get a better idea of those missing rights see 10 Reasons The U.S. is No Longer the Land of the Free, but suffice it so say that if the government wants to silence you they now have the power to do so in no uncertain terms. Your freedom is dependent upon you staying under the radar. As I like to say, Welcome to the Police State.

Brian

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Yesterday's Leftovers

     More bashing of the Republicans for not having quality candidates.
     Middle Class is Moving Forward, not Backward is proof that if you cherry pick your numbers you can prove anything you want.
     My man Nate Silver on the perils of not researching you pollsters.
     And finally Jerry Holbert with the belly laugh of the day.
     

   

Monday, January 16, 2012

Yesterday's Leftovers

      Kind of a mixed bag yesteday.
     More piling on Romney from the Right and the Left, and then there is this question Isn't a Bainful Turnaround What America Needs? Which was so earnest that I am not sure it isn't satire.
     Nice look at new Egyptian politics from Thomas Friedman,
     New angle at the same old soapbox for Mr. Reich

Read Away

Brian

This is So True it is Too Funny

      I started with an open mouth gape but soon realized this was political satire and just hilarious.

Brian

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Sunday Funnies Editorial Style

     More traditional comics today
    

Yesterday's Leftovers

     But Hoover wasn't bitter about losing to Roosevelt.
     Sophistry at it's best just in time for MLK's brithday, too bad no one they are pretending to convince would read this magazine.
     Our daily piling on of Romney, once again from the oh so confused right.

 Overall a yucky day in the opinion pages.
     Finally a reminder, never buy a car the original release year.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Yesterday's Leftovers

     Krugman explains that governments are not corporations. I still say his blog is better.
     Now even the Lifestyle guys are piling on Mitt Romney.
     Miracle of miracle Krauthammer with an article worth reading on Ron Paul's Achievement.
     Another article on GOP Racism.
     Nice rebuttal article on how democratic the nomination process really is.

     Joni Mitchell gets the final word today.

Brian

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Honorable Mention

    Why Bain attacks will stick to Romney is a good article and Creative Destruction is a long version of one of these attacks.
     Nice look at Obama's new military policy.
     Huffington joining the disconnect whine. She does it better than most.
     Good article on class mobility in the U.S.
     Paul Rieckhoff tell why the troops aren't props

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Honorable Mention

      Articles from yesterday wroth mentioning. Exposing the GOP's perfidy is Race and the GOP. Bloomberg with a little wall street history in How Wall Street Turned a Crisis into a Cartel. Finally Dylan Ratigan with a nice rant against money in politics. so it's top ten list, still read like a rant.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Editorial Cartoon Monday

More Proof We Live in a Police State

      First we have Torturing Tourists With Food Products which sound a lot more innocent than it is, as it is about a man being tortured with pepper spray.
     Then we have the final story of Ava who was put down with little reason because the Sheriff didn't like her.

Rough Country,

Brian

Friday, January 6, 2012

Romney and the New Whatshisname

      The Wall Street Journal thinks they are both stupid,  The Times Paul Krugman has the push back on Romney, and we go in state to get the real info on Rick Santorum from Will Bunch. All in all a pretty yucky day in the punditsphere

Political Burnout

      You ever have the feeling that people just aren't really thinking about politics at all? I do and apparently so do the guys over at Brutish & Short. I actually do a version where I punch up all these articles into my browser, read them and think I didn't learn a damn new thing. Good to know I am not alone.

Brian

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Quit Commuting

      The title of the article is Your Car Commute Helps Cause Tornadoes. This is  a quick little article that gives you a good reason to start working from home or buy a motorcycle for the summer. If you want to find out why climate change is bad try this article in the Guardian.

Brian

Four From Iowa

     Four different articles about Iowa with three different conclusions. Huh? Weirdly enough the best look I saw was from Huffington Post blogger Ari Melber who like all these articles tried to big picture it but had some distance. Jay Cost had the usual charts and cool facts and is always worth reading. Dana Milbank didn't admit to there being a winner at all and could have used some of Jay's cool charts. Finally the Washington Examiner felt Obama was the winner. Still confused, me too. Next week New Hampshire without Bachmann and maybe minus Perry.


Brian

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Yesterday's Leftovers

     Paul Krugman explains debt but those in denial will still not understand.
     This is a news story but State Targeting Employers Who Don't Play by the Rules
makes it seem that California is trying to help the good guys against the cheats, which is a good idea for the State.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Yesterday's Leftovers

      Still up on my browser and worth reading, or worth denigrating.
     Mark Steyn is still worried about the deficit, but my questions are two: How does firing government workers (deficit cuts = government jobs lost) help the economy, and with interest rates for fed borrowing at essentially zero why are we worried about borrowing anyway, isn't it basically free money.
     Cool little article on the political and military implications of Antarctica
     More proof would be nice but Democrats and the Senate  is probably right about the likely result.
     Finally Dave Barry and his review of 2011 is very funny.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

The Prognosticators Strike

      Americans are all about making predictions and I am a sucker for it also. So I found Karl Rove's predictions and a pretty cool rebuttal to his predictions.
      I personally think they are both a little wrong and will make a small prediction of my own with two qualifiers. If unemployment goes down in the last three months before the November election and is below 8.0%, Obama will win re-election with the house ending up very closely contested and the Republican majority being reduced to less than 5. The Senate will go Republican but only by one or two. Yes Obama will have some coattails but not enough to push Democrats over the top.

Brian