Don't Want To Be An American Idiot

My friend Mark Kleiman is a smart guy and a fantastic blogger. His take on the SOTU speech is so good that I've included this whole post:

Sometimes your opponents can see what you’re doing more clearly than your friends can. Some progressives were put off by the rather Reaganesque rhetoric of the State of the Union address, but Mark Thiessen of AEI recognized it for what it was: an attempt to harness “American exceptionalism” to pull the plough of activist government. When Wes Clark tried the same thing either Andy Sabl or I called it “the liberalism of national greatness.” I thought it was a winner then, and I think it’s a winner now.

And – contrary to the more conventional Reaganite rhetoric – Obama’s message is fully consistent with one strand of the Founding. One of the striking features of The Audacity of Hope was Obama’s identification with the thought of Hamilton, carried into the second generation as Henry Clay’s American Plan. From the Louisian Purchase, the Erie Canal, and the transcontinental railroad to land-grant colleges, homesteading, rural electrification, the GI Bill, interstate highways, and the Internet, the Federal government has again and again been the agent of crucial economic innovation. The Springfield Armory was turning out mass-produced rifles when Henry Ford was still in diapers.

Of course the feds have also sponsored boondoggles from manned spaceflight and coal gasification to the Bureau of Reclamation, the Army Corps of Engineers, and corn ethanol. If you take risks, you sometimes fail, and if you make stupid decisions under political pressure you’re that much more likely to fail. But the notion that the gummint ought to keep its nose out of the economy – or, for that matter, that a monopoly granted by a patent is somehow not a governmental intervention in the market – accords with neither logic nor history.

Indeed. Thiessen is usually awful, as are most at the American Enterprise Institute, and tries to spin his conclusion in a predictable right-wing manner. But Kleiman gets it exactly right, IMHO.

You Had The World At Your Fingertips, No One Can Make It Better Than You

Hey kids, get off my lawn! You too, you sanctimonious bastards who thought you were teaching Dems a lesson by not voting. Have you seen what you've done? Do you really think putting Rethuglicans in charge will help DADT, DOMA, climate change, single payer, SS, MediCare ... etc, etc, etc.

But why not, you know? After all, what have Obama & DemCo done for you lately, I mean aside from these 244 things.

The main failure for most folks was the dismal record of jobs creation, but did you know we went from LOSING jobs under Bush to (finally) gaining jobs under Obama?


Rome wasn't rebuilt in a day 2 years, but it sure as hell can be destroyed in a day 2 years.

Tell It Like It Is

President Obama talks the talk:

Remarks of President Barack Obama As Prepared for Delivery
Weekly Address January 16, 2010

Over the past two years, more than seven million Americans have lost their jobs. Countless businesses have been forced to shut their doors. Few families have escaped the pain of this terrible recession. Rarely does a day go by that I do not hear from folks who are hurting. That is why we have pushed so hard to rebuild this economy.

But even as we work tirelessly to dig our way out of this hole, it is important that we address what led us into such a deep mess in the first place. Much of the turmoil of this recession was caused by the irresponsibility of banks and financial institutions on Wall Street. These financial firms took huge, reckless risks in pursuit of short-term profits and soaring bonuses. They gambled with borrowed money, without enough oversight or regard for the consequences. And when they lost, they lost big. Little more than a year ago, many of the largest and oldest financial firms in the world teetered on the brink of collapse, overwhelmed by the consequences of their irresponsible decisions. This financial crisis nearly pulled the entire economy into a second Great Depression.

As a result, the American people – struggling in their own right – were placed in a deeply unfair and unsatisfying position. Even though these financial firms were largely facing a crisis of their own creation, their failure could have led to an even greater calamity for the country. That is why the previous administration started a program – the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP – to provide these financial institutions with funds to survive the turmoil they helped unleash. It was a distasteful but necessary thing to do.

Many originally feared that most of the $700 billion in TARP money would be lost. But when my administration came into office, we put in place rigorous rules for accountability and transparency, which cut the cost of the bailout dramatically. We have now recovered most of the money we provided to the banks. That’s good news, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s not good enough. We want the taxpayers’ money back, and we’re going to collect every dime.

That is why, this week, I proposed a new fee on major financial firms to compensate the American people for the extraordinary assistance they provided to the financial industry. And the fee would be in place until the American taxpayer is made whole. Only the largest financial firms with more than $50 billion in assets will be affected, not community banks. And the bigger the firm – and the more debt it holds – the larger the fee. Because we are not only going to recover our money and help close our deficits; we are going to attack some of the banking practices that led to the crisis.

That’s important. The fact is, financial firms play an essential role in our economy. They provide capital and credit to families purchasing homes, students attending college, businesses looking to start up or expand. This is critical to our recovery. That is why our goal with this fee – and with the common-sense financial reforms we seek – is not to punish the financial industry. Our goal is to prevent the abuse and excess that nearly led to its collapse. Our goal is to promote fair dealings while punishing those who game the system; to encourage sustained growth while discouraging the speculative bubbles that inevitably burst. Ultimately, that is in the shared interest of the financial industry and the American people.

Of course, I would like the banks to embrace this sense of mutual responsibility. So far, though, they have ferociously fought financial reform. The industry has even joined forces with the opposition party to launch a massive lobbying campaign against common-sense rules to protect consumers and prevent another crisis.

Now, like clockwork, the banks and politicians who curry their favor are already trying to stop this fee from going into effect. The very same firms reaping billions of dollars in profits, and reportedly handing out more money in bonuses and compensation than ever before in history, are now pleading poverty. It’s a sight to see.

Those who oppose this fee say the banks can’t afford to pay back the American people without passing on the costs to their shareholders and customers. But that’s hard to believe when there are reports that Wall Street is going to hand out more money in bonuses and compensation just this year than the cost of this fee over the next ten years. If the big financial firms can afford massive bonuses, they can afford to pay back the American people.

Those who oppose this fee have also had the audacity to suggest that it is somehow unfair. That because these firms have already returned what they borrowed directly, their obligation is fulfilled. But this willfully ignores the fact that the entire industry benefited not only from the bailout, but from the assistance extended to AIG and homeowners, and from the many unprecedented emergency actions taken by the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and others to prevent a financial collapse. And it ignores a far greater unfairness: sticking the American taxpayer with the bill.

That is unacceptable to me, and to the American people. We’re not going to let Wall Street take the money and run. We’re going to pass this fee into law. And I’m going to continue to work with Congress on common-sense financial reforms to protect people and the economy from the kind of costly and painful crisis we’ve just been through. Because after a very tough two years, after a crisis that has caused so much havoc, if there is one lesson that we can learn, it’s this: we cannot return to business as usual.

Thank you very much.

Now will he walk the walk?

Please give it up for Aaron Neville, Gregg Allman & And Bonnie Raitt as they Tell It Like It Is




Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

My Friends Know What's In Store

Perhaps you've seen the distraction, (ooh look, something shiny!), between Faux News & the White House. What has been lost in the 'analysis' from all the MMM (Millionaire Multi-Media) is the same thing these stenographers always manage to avoid: are the Admin's accusations true?

Is Faux News an arm of the republican party? Are their news division and opinion division intertwined?

Yes.

They've been attacking President Obama since he started running. "Terrorist fist jab" came directly from their newsroom. The chairman of Faux News, Roger Ailes worked for the Nixon, Reagan and Bush I campaigns. No need to work 'for' Bush II, Ailes ran the news division.

And while rethiglicans are screaming about 'unprecedented attacks on the media!', MediaMatters have lined up a slew of precedent.

(Quick aside: Something that especially offended me was the NYT's headline Behind the War Between White House and Fox You'd think by now they'd know the difference between statements and people dying in a WAR!)

IRT the 'liberal media', the WaPo and the NYT are both on record as saying they need to cover wrongwing news more (see above link.) Politco founders are on record saying "Drudge rules our world." CNN host Lou Dobbs pushed the birther conspiracy, and the bete noir of conservatives, MSNBC, has 3 straight hours of a rightwing ex-congressman Joe Scarborough spewing in the morning. (BTW Joe, what did happen to that dead intern on your desk?)

One would think that after all the MMM did to push the Bush WH's completely erroneous message on the need for an Iraq War on the American public, and all they did to promote the Clinton WH 'scandals' we could drop the 'liberal media' canard.

The 'he said/she said' skool of reporting only works if you don't have evidence. I think if you investigate abuse and only one person has scars and bruises you can find the truth. But you have to be willing to look. Maybe, just maybe, reporters do tend to be Democrats, but their editors aren't, their owners aren't and the board of directors of the corporations aren't.

But none of them are proven to be such blatant, top down, regurgitating republican talking points of the republican party as Fox News.

Time for some clean up in Ailes 1:




Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

School's out for summer

Back in the '70s when California was thinking about passing a motorcycle helmet law, bikers complained in Libertarian terms:

Gummint make me do it-bad!

It spoils my freedoms.

I don't need no stinking helmet.

Ever the helpful liberal, I had a modest proposal:

Fine, you don't want to wear a helmet? Then if you go down and bust a dent in your head so big I can see your feet through it (h/t Pam), then you will get NO taxpayer-funded medical care. No paramedics will lift a finger, no ER doc will order an MRI. Zip. Nada.

You will bleed out and die. You will lay in the road, possibly even begging to have your life saved. But it ain't gonna happen. Because you took yourself out of the risk pool by not following innocuous and helpful rules.

While that may seem harsh to those who find me a gentle fellow, I don't think it is at all. If proud Libertarians want their personal liberty that bad, they should have it, with all the attendant consequences.

Same fight happened with proposed seatbelt laws. My proposal: don't wear a seatbelt, don't receive triage. Same deal.

But now we have a new breed of phony rebels, those who are outraged that the black President Hussein Obama X will speak to kids at schools, because he may try to convince gullible child-types to eat their Wheaties or something:

Sailor linked to some of the crazy in his fine post below, so no need to copy his work. But here's my proposal to the conservatarians who are in such a snit because the President wants to talk to kids:

You don't want to have your kids listen to the President of the United States? Because WTF is wrong with you, are you stupid, or just dumb?

Then fine, take your kids out of school and have a patriotic day with them, since watching the black President talk to the people isn't patriotic. Take your guns & kids and go to a waterpark and ride the Slide into Socialism.

Splash in the Pool of Populism, play in the Communist Cove. It's all OK. but when you get back, there'll be some changes.

Remember No Child Left Behind? Well, your child has been left behind. Because if your school district isn't good enough for you, then you're not good enough for it.

All federal funding for your district has been rescinded, the dough has been pulled, the $$ is gone. And you should be happy, because you never really liked the Department of Education, with its fancy Secretary of Education (who isn't even a woman most of the time like a proper secretary).

Nope, you hater of all things socialized like roads, police, firefighters, military, Medicare. You want to grow a pair and act all adult?

OK, go!

Somehow, I think the point might be lost on them, however. Logic requires thought. I mean, you know what I'm saying . . .

Every Breath You Take

ABC News in flap over health care special

ABC News has drawn fire for an upcoming special on President Barack Obama's health care plan after rejecting a Republican request for airtime.
[...]
During the special, the president will discuss his health care plan and answer questions from a cross-section of Americans. [ED: the participants & questions are picked by ABC, not the WH] But the event will not include an official Republican Party response, prompting the Republican National Committee to complain to the network.

"I find it outrageous that ABC would prohibit our party's opposing thoughts and ideas from this national debate, which affects millions of ABC viewers," wrote RNC chief of staff Ken McKay in a letter posted on Drudge Report. "I am concerned this event will become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat agenda. If that is the case, this primetime infomercial should be paid for out of the DNC coffers. President Obama does not hold a monopoly on health care reform ideas or on free airtime."

Well, in the 1st place, Obama speaks for America, not the democrats and not the DNC. 2nd, not even all democrats are on board, kinda shoots down that whole democratic agenda thing. 3rd, the RNC is a political arm of republican politicians and doesn't even represent the 21% of voters who self-identify as republicans. 4th, to repeat, Americans who will be affected, unlike politicians who already get public health care, get to ask the questions.

Gosh, with their faux outrage, it's almost like they are calling for the Fairness Doctrine to be reinstated.

The real joke is "I find it outrageous that ABC would prohibit our party's opposing thoughts and ideas from this national debate"

Republicans Unveil Health Plan but Are Thin on Details

House Republicans presented a four-page outline of their health care reform plan Wednesday but said they didn’t know yet how much it would cost, how they would pay for it and how many of the nearly 50 million Americans without insurance would be covered by it.

Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who heads a GOP health task force, said that when the details are drafted in the coming weeks, they would present a plan that “costs far less than the Democrats’ [plan] and provides better results for the American people.”

But Republicans who stayed at the press conference to answer questions — the leaders made statements but didn’t stay — could not answer whether their plan would include a tax increase to pay for such costly items as refundable tax credits for low- and middle-income workers to help pay for insurance.

Other reforms proposed by the GOP were largely minor tweaks to a system that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said is already the “best health care system in the world.”

“We want to work within the existing market structure,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Of course Boner (R-Boneless) says he has the “best health care system in the world.”, he has the best taxpayer funded health care in the world!

Now let's look at "the existing market structure" of health care:

Health insurers refuse to limit rescission of coverage

Executives of three of the nation's largest health insurers told federal lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders, despite withering criticism from Republican and Democratic members of Congress who decried the practice as unfair and abusive.

The hearing on the controversial action known as rescission, which has left thousands of Americans burdened with costly medical bills despite paying insurance premiums, began a day after President Obama outlined his proposals for revamping the nation's healthcare system.

Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Do nine men interpret? Nine men, I nod.

Obama Picks Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court

Great news! She's qualified and she brings a new voice that reflects America to the Court.

Now countdown to repulicant hysteria. 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
Media Matters has the quotes and the video:

In 2005, many Republican Senators went so far as to claim the filibuster of judicial nominees was unconstitutional. Now four years later, with President Obama's first Supreme Court appointment looming, will they remain consistent in their position or commit one of the most blatant acts of hypocrisy in the 220-year history of the United States Senate?

Simple answers to simple questions.

Of course they will.

BTW, there's a term for people who lack empathy, they're called psychopaths.

Should judges use their empathy, (assuming they have it), when deciding cases?

Of course. Not to ignore the law but to apply the law as "Justice tempered with mercy."

INAL, but I think 'intent' is one of the code words they use for such rulings. If the intent of a person flooded out for days with no rescue in sight, (e.g NOLA/Katrina), was to feed their family by breaking into an abandoned store one would hope that the JustUs system would have some empathy. If the said person's intent was to break into a bank for money, the empathy is still there, but probably not in the defendant's favor.

The law should not be black and white because people aren't and the real world isn't. And this is recognized in our adversarial system.

Jury/judge decide not just guilt but what measure of guilt. The prosecution generally levy the most charges possible and paint the defendant in the worst light. The defense generally try to show mitigation of the offenses, and occasionally actual innocence. That includes death row.

Obviously empathy occurs in the real world of American JustUs, because rich old white men judges go easier on rich old white men, out of empathy. (e.g. Enron execs, Maddow & Co., while white collar crimes ruin more lives than the mugger down the street. Yet who gets max time in prison and who gets a slap on the wrist in Club Fed?)

Judge Sotomayor was originally appointed by George Bush I.

The system sucks but I don't know a better one. It sure as heck won't be the end of the world if the US's first Hispanic member of the Supreme Court is also a woman and gets 1 out of nine votes, and an opinion to help decide law in the final chance we have in the JustUs system.

Hey, as the repulicants said:All of the president's nominees-both now and in the future-deserve a fair up or down vote



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

As sounding brass

The other night our president gave a speech and then answered questions from the press. (there goes the whole 'Obama needs a teleprompter so his puppet masters can control him' meme.)

And what does the '4th estate' complain about? Not his policies, not his answers to their questions, they complain he didn't call on their MSM buddies. Jeebus, how shallow can these 'reporters' be?

A small sample of the outrage they exuded:

Obama skips major papers: No NYT, WaPo, WSJ, USA Today

During President Obama's second East Room news conference, he took questions from 13 reporters over about an hour -- that's the same as during his first presser on Feb. 9.

But in quite a departure from the first presser -- and White House protocol -- Obama skipped over the nation's top newspapers. Indeed, there were no questions from the NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal or USA Today. That might not sit well with the already insecure newspaper industry.

Nobody gives a f*%k about your insecurities. We're dying over here!

[...]in his second prime-time news conference from the White House, it was Barack Obama the lecturer, a familiar character from early in the campaign. Placid and unsmiling, he was the professor in chief, offering familiar arguments in long paragraphs — often introduced with the phrase, “as I said before” — sounding like the teacher speaking in the stillness of a classroom where students are restlessly waiting for the ring of the bell.

Ohh, was the poor repoter bored because he couldn't understand the complexities of Obama's answers, after having them repeated? Or was his wittle feewings hurt?

President Obama's dull delivery during press conference fails to inspire

[...]
But many probably wished "American Idol" hadn't been bumped from the lineup to make room for the President.

Ahh yes, the 'many probably' dodge because you don't have any facts. FYI, American Idol wasn't 'bumped', it was delayed.

Obama seems less at ease

[...]
He passed over reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, opting instead to call on correspondents from Univision, Ebony magazine and Stars and Stripes.

And one final parting shot:

The President took a total of 13 questions, none of which were from a mainstream newspaper. After tapping the AP, then the networks, then the cablers, Obama turned his attention to more niche publications such as Stars & Stripes and Univision, arguably because he rightly guessed their questions would skew with topics he wanted to talk about i.e. the military and Mexico border issues.

The speech and press conference focused almost entirely on the economy! What the hell was this moron watching? I'm so glad you asked. He was probably with Eric Cantor watching the Britney Spears concert.

Hey fellas? Get over yourselves. It's not about you. We all heard what he said. And we don't need your spin or your ignorant badgering. We don't need no stinking badgers!

And to the moron who thinks he only called on 'niche' reporters?
That's not true. He called on the AP, NBC, ABC, CBS, Univision, Stars and Stripes, CNN, Ebony & AFP. Shoot, he even called on Faux News and the Washington Times! There was only so much time and he answered original questions and followups at length.

BTW, the military, Blacks and Latinos are not a niche in this country, they are Americans who have just as much right as you to ask questions of our president as the MSM does.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

One Thing Leads To Another

The media posits, supposedly reflecting the peoples' view republican & MSM concern trolls' view that President Obama is spread too thin, has bit off more than he can chew, can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

After 8 years of a president that couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time, couldn't speak english with or without a telepromter, I welcome a president who can multitask.

And who can figure out that the financial meltdown, oil dependence, health care and education are all interrelated.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome President Obama:

"I know that there are some on Wall Street and in Washington who've said that we should only focus on the banking crisis and one problem at a time. Well, we're spending a lot of time focusing on this banking crisis, and we will continue to do so because until we get liquidity flowing again, we will not fully recover. But the American people don't have the luxury of just focusing on Wall Street. They don't have the luxury of choosing to pay either their mortgage or their medical bills. They don't get to pick between paying for their kids' college tuition and saving enough money for retirement. They have to do all these things. They have to confront all these problems. And as a consequence, so do we."
[...]
Now, there are those who say the plans in this budget are too ambitious to enact; to say that -- they say that in the face of challenges that we face, we should be trying to do less, than more. What I say is that the challenges we face are too large to ignore. The cost of our health care is too high to ignore. The dependence on oil is too dangerous to ignore. Our education deficit is growing too wide to ignore. To kick these problems down the road for another four years or another eight years would be to continue the same irresponsibility that led us to this point. That's not why I ran for this office. I didn't come here to pass on our problems to the next President or the next generation -- I came here to solve them.

Can anyone argue the points President Obama made?

The US pays more for health care than any country in the world, yet we are 37th in the world for actual health care.

But what about the children!?

29th on Infant Mortality

The infant mortality rate in this country declined sharply in the 20th century but then plateaued from 2000 to 2005.
[...]
In 1960, the United States ranked 12th lowest in the world in infant mortality. By 2004, the last year for which comparative data are available, it had dropped to 29th, tied with Poland and Slovakia.

Gee, I wonder what happened between 2000 and 2005!?

And that's just how health care is tied into our economic troubles. Don't get me started on energy dependence. And education? Well there might be a post soon on that!



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Cause I'm a loser and sooner or later, You know I'll be dead

How about a nice big case of STFU John!?

McCain says Obama needs to work on bipartisanship

Senator John McCain said on Friday that President Barack Obama should include Republicans in his plans sooner if he really wants their support after the bitter debate over the $787 billion economic stimulus bill.

McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential election to Obama, and other Republicans complained they had been left out of negotiations on the legislation by Democrats who hold majorities in both houses of Congress.
[...]
The Arizona senator said many other issues coming up will require a bipartisan effort that he said has been lacking so far from Obama and the Democrats.

"I hope they've learned a lesson," he said. "I hope that they will reverse course, and sit down, negotiate from the beginning, so you're in on the takeoff, so you can be in on the landing."
[...]
"The message of the election was, sit down and work together."

Gosh John, what more do you want? rethugs got their tax cuts, got family planning axed, got their amendments in and were courted & consulted by the WH.

Oh, and the last quote from you? Nope the message from the election was YOU LOST. Big time! And all you and your cohorts have done since then is try to make sure the country fails so you can say 'I told you so.' Your tin god Rush Oxycontin has stated as much. Your policies failed, deregulation failed, tax cuts failed. You failed.

So Senator McLame, STFU.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

These Happy Days are yours and mine, Happy Days

(Bill Haley-Rock Around The Clock)

Sitting down to negotiate with Republicans would be like eating at that nice young Dahmer fellow's restaurant: You're going to be served something extremely icky, and you'll likely be stabbed on your way out the door.

Do not want.

Many on the are wigging out because Obama has made overtures to Republicans. And typically, right-wingers like John Boner (R-Wiener) reject said overtures:

Republicans plan to test President Barack Obama’s commitment to bipartisanship as his $825 billion stimulus package heads to the floor of the House of Representatives this week, with the House Republican leader saying Sunday morning that many in his party will vote no unless there are significant changes to the plan.

“Right now, given the concerns that we have over the size of this package and all of the spending in this package, we don’t think it’s going to work,” the House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And so if it’s the plan that I see today, put me down in the no column.”

While the plan can potentially pass the Democratic-dominated House without Republican support, it will continue to face opposition when it comes before the Senate, said Senator John McCain of Arizona, speaking on “Fox News Sunday.” At least two Republicans will need to approve the bill for a filibuster-proof majority vote of 60.

Senator McCain, who lost the presidential election to Mr. Obama in November, said that he planned to vote no unless the bill were changed.

“We need to make tax cuts permanent, and we need to make a commitment that there’ll be no new taxes,” Mr. McCain said. “We need to cut payroll taxes. We need to cut business taxes.”

Tax cuts they demand are a joke, relevant only to wealthy donors, and not helpful to the economy at all. And yet they demand, stamping their tiny feet in anger.

Here are the operative words in that piece:

• Minority Leader
• lost the presidential election to Mr. Obama

Mr. Boner, Mr. McCain: You both lost. Epic Lose. J-McC: Remember when Tiny Tim married Miss Vicky on the Tonight Show? That's you. As a cultural and political icon, you sing in a quavery high voice, and you hooked up with a conniving woman who ditched you later.

And J-Bo? Remember Anson Williams? That's you, the third-rate actor who stuck with "Happy Days" long after Richie Cunningham left and Fonzie Jumped The Shark. What shows have you been on lately?

Seriously, Obama would really like to lead some Republicans to enlightenment, and bi-partisanship. I hope it works. But if it doesn't, he's clearly ready to label any who stick with their ideological idiocy as obstructionists.

You will be assimilated, resistance is futile. As Pres. Barack H. Obama said, "I won". Happy Days.

At Last

I was going to write about how I feel about the changing of the guard, but Chicago Fan at the Slog summed it right up:

For me, the main thing about the Obama presidency is that it re-sets my default mood. Since Bush v. Gore and the judicial coup d'etat of 2000, my default political mood has been pissed off. Occasionally things would make me more pissed off or less pissed off, and once in a blue moon I'd be happy, but pissed off was the baseline from which everything started. And that was before 9/11 and Iraq.

Now, with a President who can speak in complete sentences, who believes in the rule of law, who believes in hiring people for their competence and ability rather than their personal loyalty and religion—my default political mood is happy. Things will piss me off about Obama, I'm sure, and some things will elate me: but the baseline is changed from pissed off to happy, and that's a huge shift.

And you usually hear about the first 100 days of a new presidency, how's this for the first 100 hours!

Last-Minute Bush Regulations Are on Hold Pending Study
*******************
Obama Reverses Bush Abortion-Funds Policy
*******************
Obama order gives 1-year deadline for shutdown of Guantánamo prison
*******************
Obama gives new life to the FOIA
*******************
Obama Meets With Officials on Iraq, Signaling His Commitment to Ending War
*******************
Speaking to his senior staff, Obama said, "However long we are keepers of the public trust, we should never forget that we are here as public servants, and public service is a privilege. It's not about advantaging yourself. It's not about advancing your friends or your corporate clients. It's not about advancing an ideological agenda or the special interests of any organization. Public service is, simply and absolutely, about advancing the interests of Americans."
*******************
Scientists Welcome Obama’s Words

And last but not least I want my co-bloggers to know how much I appreciate their patience while I've been going thru some heartaches, headaches, toothaches, computer aches and just general mid-winter aches. My colleagues in blogging, just like my colleagues at work, make me humble when I realize how lucky I am to be included in their company.

But this time's our time, Right On, We'll let it shine

(Van Halen-It's About Time)

Good news for lovers of Democracy and haterz of facism, from Law.com:

President Barack Obama's request to suspend all war crimes trials at Guantanamo was promptly accepted by military judges Wednesday in what may be the beginning of the end for the Bush administration's system of trying alleged terrorists.

The judges agreed to the 120-day halt the cases of five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks and a Canadian accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan. Similar orders are expected in other pending cases before the Guantanamo military commission.

The five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks had said they wanted to plead guilty to charges that carry the potential death sentences they say could make them martyrs. The alleged ringleader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, told the court he opposes the delay.

"We should continue so we don't go backward, we go forward," Mohammed said.

Earlier, another judge agreed to a suspension in the case of Canadian Omar Khadr.

The prosecution submitted the motions to suspend the proceedings just hours after Obama's inauguration at the direction of the president and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Excellent.

i can see clearly now the rain has gone

This is the day, your life will surely change

I hope that, once and for all, the long, awful experiment with Conservatism is over:

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

In-freakin'-deed.

President Obama's speech was more partisan that I had dared hope for, more specific that I expected. In many ways it was a polite but firm rebuke of the man he replaces, a man who, as he slinks off into the political wilderness, still is deluded into thinking he did anything good.

Other high points for me:

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In other words, an end to petty political infighting, and a call to actually do some work, both by professional politicians, pundits, and people in general. If you don't help fix stuff, you're in the way and obstructionist; it will be your fault. So Sen. Cornyn, stop your stupid hold on the Clinton-Sec. State vote.

. . . Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.

The era of Wall St. driving the bus for their own benefit is over. And Bill Gates, your taxes are likely going to go up a little bit.

. . . As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.

Torture as a defense tool or strategy is over. Do not want.

. . . We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet.

Out of Iraq, hopefully out of Afghanistan. Work against real nuclear challenges like Russia, not ginned up ones like Iran. And confront an inconvenient truth.

Much more in the speech rang true to me, and I really hope he pulls it off. Sure to be challenged by Republicans who hopefully will fail.

Here's the video of the title song: This is The Day-The The:



Check out their amazing, politically aware website: http://www.thethe.com/

I roamed and I rambled and I followed my footsteps

(This Land is Your Land, featuring Pete Seeger & Bruce Springsteen)

For those who didn't recognize the elderly banjo-playing gentleman next to Springsteen today at the pre-inauguration celebration on the Mall in D.C. (see above video), that was a national treasure named Pete Seeger:

Peter "Pete" Seeger (born May 3, 1919) is an American folk singer, political activist, and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly's "Goodnight, Irene" that topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950.^[1] As a result of an anti-communist blacklist, his career as a mainstream performer was seriously curtailed. In the 1960s, he re-emerged on the public scene as a pioneer of protest music in support of international disarmament and civil rights and, more recently, as a tireless activist for environmental causes.

As a song writer, he is best known as the author or co-author of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" (composed with Lee Hays of The Weavers), and "Turn, Turn, Turn!", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and are still sung throughout the world. "Flowers" was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (1962), Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in English, German and French (1962), and Johnny Rivers (1965). "If I Had a Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary (1962) and Trini Lopez (1963), while The Byrds popularized "Turn, Turn, Turn!" in the mid-1960s, as did Judy Collins in 1964. Seeger was one of the folksingers most responsible for popularizing the spiritual "We Shall Overcome" (also recorded by Joan Baez and many other singer-activists) that became the acknowledged anthem of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement, soon after folk singer and activist Guy Carawan introduced it at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960.

Dude is 89 years old! There is hardly a better symbol of overcoming the rampant fear and impending hysteria that accompanied The Cold War and McCarthyism than Pete. It's thus a fitting symbol that he was invited to sing one of the most misunderstood songs in American music, "This Land is Your Land":

"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 on an existing melody, in response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on the radio, he wrote a response originally called "God Blessed America for Me".^[1] Guthrie varied the lyrics over time, sometimes including more overtly political verses than appear in recordings or publications.

Guthrie lifted the melody of "This Land Is Your Land" essentially note-for-note from "When the World's on Fire", a Baptist hymn recorded by country legends the Carter Family ten years earlier. However, one source claims that a Carter Family original, "Little Darlin' Pal of Mine," was the source of the melody for "This Land."^[2] He wrote the song in 1940 and recorded it in 1944. The song was not published until 1951, when it was included in a mimeographed booklet of ten songs with typed lyrics and hand drawings. The booklet was sold for twenty-five cents, and copyrighted in 1945.

The first known professionally printed publication was in 1956 by Ludlow Music (now a unit of The Richmond Organization), which administered the publishing rights to Guthrie's tune. Ludlow later issued versions with piano and guitar accompaniments.

In 2002, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry [1].

I haven't checked any wingnut web sites, but I'm sure some of the more excitable ones are irate about Pete's singing the often overlooked verse of this rabble-rousing, communist-sympathetic, anti-free market song. I'm told simply hearing these lyrics sung will make decent women abort their babies, tough men turn soft, and hippie pinko teachers yearn for universal health care:

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;

Sign was painted, it said private property;

But on the back side it didn't say nothing;

That side was made for you and me.

Sick, disgusting, likely code for a signal from the Kremlin to overthrow the government.

Oh, and Bono said something hopeful about Palestinians. Shocking.

Here's Woody singing TLIYL, without the radical verse:


(h/t to A Large Dog)

I will follow

There's been some bitching in the progressive bloggersphere that the new Obama administration hasn't been picking real progressives for senior positions. Emanuel, Clinton, etc., represent, to some, not "Change" but business as usual. At least they have 'D' after their names.

But I'm not too worried. I think 2nd & 3rd tier positions, where most of the policies will actually be written, are often more important than the figureheads. We'll see.

But I'm encouraged today by this from Pres.-elect Obama, in his Saturday address:

"I have already directed my economic team to come up with an Economic
Recovery Plan that will mean 2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011
– a plan big enough to meet the challenges we face that I intend to
sign soon after taking office. We'll be working out the details in
the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to
jumpstart job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong
and growing economy. We'll put people back to work rebuilding our
crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our
children, and building wind farms and solar panels; fuel-efficient
cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our
dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the
years ahead. "

Sounds pretty damn progressive to me.

And nothin left was all she left to me

(Janis Joplin 1st take: Me & Bobby McGee)

Racism's just another word for nothin' left to lose. That is, if you're stupid enough to believe that because someone different from you is successful, it's because they're different from you:

• If I'm a fuck-up,
• and he's successful and black,
• then I'm a fuck-up because I'm not black.

Well, it's in full bloom this fall, after the Obama election victory.

First, from the LATimes:

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.

. . . —Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.

—Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.

—A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'

—In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."

Emotions are often raw after a hard-fought political campaign, but now those on the losing side have an easy target for their anger.

"The principle is very simple," said BJ Gallagher, a sociologist and co-author of the diversity book "A Peacock in the Land of Penguins." ''If I can't hurt the person I'm angry at, then I'll vent my anger on a substitute, i.e., someone of the same race."

"We saw the same thing happen after the 9-11 attacks, as a wave of anti-Muslim violence swept the country. We saw it happen after the Rodney King verdict, when Los Angeles blacks erupted in rage at the injustice perpetrated by 'the white man.'"

"It's as stupid and ineffectual as kicking your dog when you've had a bad day at the office," Gallagher said. "But it happens a lot."

Indeed. And it's happening in Orange County, CA, where the local newspaper, the OCRegister, notes this with absolutely no irony:

Upshaw, 47, is a wiry black man who wears a silver cross on a chain around his neck. He's an elevator mechanic by trade, but he's been out of work and living on disability for about seven years. He says he was hit by an errant shotgun blast during a drive-by shooting in Chicago that broke his hip and left shell fragments in his skull.

He moved to Fullerton a few years ago, because the vicious Chicago winters made his bad hip ache. He lives now in a cramped studio not far from the train tracks.

He was walking to get some Bugler cigarettes Tuesday evening when the two men stopped him on Commonwealth Avenue, not far from Brookhurst Road. One was short and bald, wearing a white T-shirt and plaid shorts. The other was taller, skinnier, dressed in black and wearing a black hat.

This is Upshaw's account of what happened next. And it starts with four words: Give me some money.

Upshaw told the two men he barely had enough to buy his cigarettes. They demanded his watch and a silvery ring that his estranged wife had given him. He shoved his hands into his pockets.

“I don't like (racial epithet), anyway,” Upshaw remembers the short man saying and the taller man repeating. “(Expletive) Obama…and (expletive) (racial epithet).”

. . . Upshaw flagged down police, who caught Mancillas and Carbajal nearby. While he was being arrested, Carbajal told officers he was a gang member and liked to kill police officers, prosecutors said.

Swell. Stupid, racist, and stupid! More from the LATimes piece:

The day after the vote hailed as a sign of a nation changed, black high school student Barbara Tyler of Marietta, Ga., said she heard hateful Obama comments from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about Obama's victory.

Tyler spoke at a press conference by the Georgia chapter of the NAACP calling for a town hall meeting to address complaints from across the state about hostility and resentment. Another student, from a Covington middle school, said he was suspended for wearing an Obama shirt to school Nov. 5 after the principal told students not to wear political paraphernalia.

The student's mother, Eshe Riviears, said the principal told her: "Whether you like it or not, we're in the South, and there are a lot of people who are not happy with this decision."

You mean the decision by the majority of the electorate to vote for Barack Obama 52-46%? You mean the decision by voters in Indiana, Ohio, and North Carolina?

See, the thing is, the majority of Americans are not happy with the way the South has voted for a long time, and those Americans made it clear this year.

Buh Bye, South. Watch your political relevance trickle away like water from Bull Connor's fire-hoses, down the drains into the sewers.

Bastards.

This wheel's on fire, Rolling down the road

This makes me so damned happy:

http://obamanewsmosaic.com Barack Obama in a collage of over 600 headlines from around the world on November 5th, 2008 after wining the US presidential election.

This makes me so damned sad:

SYLMAR (CBS) ― A fast-moving brush fire has burned at least three homes and is threatening dozens of others in Sylmar, near the intersection of the 210 and 118 Freeways. About 500 firefighters are battling the blaze and more are on the way.

That's about 5 miles east, 2 miles north of Casa Audio.

Map:


View Larger Map

Update 11:00 AM Sat:

The fire passed about 2 miles north of us, and is heading west/slightly south. Everything is a big mess. What a horrible time for the folks who lost homes. We're still feeling pretty lucky.

About to address a huge crowd

Obama deals first with one of his future voter's problems.

Backstage at the rally, Obama tries to calm a young supporter whose brother had taken his pretzel goldfish.

I'm beginning to like this man....

crossposted at Rants from the Rookery