Jun 26th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Endgame
Missed an office Waxman-Markey pizza party today:
— How Mitt Romney is like Michael Olowokandi.
— Krugman’s right that we need more audacious health reform but it seems to me the villains are in the Senate, not the White House.
— Gotta think before you tweet.
— Reading Transformers 2 against the grain.
— The U.K.’s celebrity tax exiles.
— Victor Davis Hanson observes that it’s cold sometimes so global warming must be a myth.
— DCCC launches some tasteless attacks.
Song of the day: “Y Control” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
42 Responses to “Endgame”
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June 26th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Great song. Especially for VDH.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Man, I’m glad we no longer have to put up with that awful 70 degrees with occasional showers weather. That was just horrible.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Villains in the Senate not White House
The White House is brokering health care reform. Valerie Jarrett said as much this morning on CNBC. Nancy-Ann DeParle has been working the stakeholders. It helps that she knows the for-profit side inside and out, as a recent private equity underwriter (PEU).
The same kinds of firms have Max Baucus, Kent Conrad and Evan Bayh in their pocket. Rahm used to work for one.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Romney is like the “Robot Pimp” in The Paper Chase.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
24Ahead
Hides under his bed.
Hates everthing Mexican–
will never have sex again.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
1. Which of these versions of the same SOTDs is better?
youtube.com/watch?v=BJCTrolF3CY
youtube.com/watch?v=KlZxbTVfrMM
youtube.com/watch?v=TNDO6dYxkmk
youtube.com/watch?v=DsNTJe5jGqE
(For some reason I always associate them with heavy use of heavy drugs, S*t*n|sm, and Howard Dean, but they definitely were good.)
2. A few days ago, MattY promoted a CAP publication containing a lie concerning 10 million people. Just as he did last July, the author refuses to respond to my questions about his lie.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
P.S. I’ve got a corrections thread in case anyone spots anything false or misleading at my site. I’ve had it up there a month – linked from every page – and I haven’t received any correction requests. MattY’s cowardly anonymous commenters are welcome to check their Neuticles and then try to engage me in debate.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Check out VDH’s sports column where he makes the argument that Peyton Manning threw an interception on November 30th and therefore sucks at being a quarterback.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Wow. Hansen actually wrote:
I just spent a few days in the Sierra in May during freezing cold temperatures and snow; a week ago it was quite cool and raining in New York; each time I have passed through Phoenix this spring it seemed unseasonably cool; and just gave a talk on the Russian River and about froze. Meanwhile the grapes look about ten days behind due to unseasonably cool temperatures. Any empiricist would be worried, as Newsweek once was, about global cooling.
Anecdote vs. data fail!
June 26th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
re: the fired DOES guy… Marion Barry can’t talk shit about anyone, ever.
June 26th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
When VDH says that “Any empiricist would be worried, as Newsweek once was, about global cooling.” he sounds like he is affirming his own belief in empiricism. What we have here is a self proclaimed empiricist that has no use for empirical data. There has to be a technical term for this…
June 26th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
@H-Bob: Good reference!
June 26th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Man, I’m glad we no longer have to put up with that awful 70 degrees with occasional showers weather. That was just horrible.
I’m pretty sure the weather was more along the lines of “65 degrees and raining most of the time.” It was nice not to have to put on the air conditioner, but that’s about all it had going for it.
June 26th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Blaming failure on a few pipsqueaks in the Senate when a President with a 65% approval rating can’t push through a proposal that over 70% of Americans favor is a new low.
BHO’s just not the man for the job.
June 26th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
“It was nice not to have to put on the air conditioner, but that’s about all it had going for it.”
Speak for yourself. Here in Colorado, it was nice to have a lot of rain. I haven’t turned on the sprinklers yet, and my lawn is green instead of being a fire hazard. Or more accurately, my weeds are green. But I decided that the weeds are better adapted to the climate than grass is, so I’ll let them win. But the rain has been great, I’m all for it. We just had a great quickie storm. Lot’s of wind and rain, and now it’s back to the blaring sunshine.
June 26th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
P.S. I’ve got a corrections thread in case anyone spots anything false or misleading at my site.
How would we make such a determination if we never visit?
June 26th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Waxman-Markey passes, 219-212
June 26th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
“Waxman-Markey passes, 219-212″
That forebodes death in the Senate. The Senate requires a 60% supermajority for any and all legislation now. So this legislation is dead unless it becomes a massive socialistic subsidy to drill offshore. I’m sure you’re happy, Al. Socialism is fine as long as it benefits oil companies.
June 26th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Will you please stop begging for attention, Wacko?
It’s embarrassing.
June 26th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
“Missed an office Waxman-Markey pizza party today”
It was initially going to be two meat-lover’s jumbos, but they had to settle for a cheese Personal Pan. Still better than nothing, of course.
June 26th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
On the DCCC ads….eh. The point is well taken, but those GOP motherfuckers played the “you don’t support the troops card” at every last fucking opportunity. It’s hard to feel sorry for them. At all.
That being said, of course the GOP congressmen support the troops and are within their rights to vote against the bill. So maybe we can get some kind of bi-partisan truce agreeing not to use attacks like this? I could go for this if I were confident it would not amount to a unilateral Democrat concession.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
One of the comments to the NR Romney article said:
“Swap the two parties’ nomination processes, and we’d have had a Romney-Clinton election in 2008, and in that race I think Romney could have won.”
Looking at it from last summer, maybe. Looking at it from a post-Lehman perspective, Romney would have been meat.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Really, I’ve got couple of VDHs books on the shelf and he isn’t nearly as stupid and mean when he’s writing about history. He even uses, you know, evidence and logic and stuff.
Movement conservatism is a brain poison. Or possibly a alien parasite.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Re: The Hanson article
Did Obama really say there were 10k deaths from the tornado?
Re: Twitter
I really don’t understand why people do it unless they’re trying to sell something.
Re: Republicans
Romney is mentioned a lot, but I never hear about Huckabee. I think he did about just as well in the primary.
Re: Song of the Day
For bluegrass fans, here’s a good alternative song of the day.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
That forebodes death in the Senate.
We’ll see. One thing that makes this tricky to analyze is that this is the sort of bill where it makes sense for Pelosi to whip up just enough votes to pass, letting the Democrats for whom the political risks are greatest vote against it. So you can’t really just project the final percentages in the House over to the Senate (which will undoubtedly be voting on a somewhat different bill anyway).
June 26th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
“For bluegrass fans, here’s a good alternative song of the day.”
Wish I could hear it, but my soundcard is blown. That’s okay. I’ll just hear live Bluegrass instead. Like all music, it’s better live. Sadly, the Bluegrass jams in my basement are no longer happening. Now, I have to leave my house for live Bluegrass. But it’s good to meet new people. And with Bluegrass, it’s good people. As Willie said, the strangers you meet are only friends you haven’t met yet.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Waxman-Markey passed! Woo-hoo! Whatever happens in the Senate, this is good news. The struggle over the climate is not going to be a one-year process, and there are multiple domestic and foreign actors to deal with, so we need to get used to celebrating small, partial, and procedural victories. That’s just the kind of victory we’re going to get.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
fostert, I agree there’s nothing like live bluegrass music with a stand-up bass. When you have sound, check out Chatham County Line sometime… a great young band from NC that plays around a single mic.
Have a great weekend.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
By the way, the good news is that the stimulus is increasing personal disposable income:
Personal Income and Outlays Boosted by Stimulus
The bad news is that a lot of that extra disposable income is going into savings and not consumption. Unfortunately, that was predictable, even necessary, in light of the poor state of household balance sheets going into this process. However, that outcome so far does support a relatively slow recovery scenario. It also supports the view that direct government spending is going to end up the most effective form of stimulus.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Mrs. John Conyers plead guilty to accepting a bribe from Carlyle Group affiliate, Synagro Technologies:
http://peureport.blogspot.com/2009/06/carlyle-group-affiliate-bribed-rep-john.html
June 27th, 2009 at 12:03 am
#43 of 40 in 1989: yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
June 27th, 2009 at 12:53 am
Re: The Hanson article
Did Obama really say there were 10k deaths from the tornado?
Of course not. That’s just some of that petty word-twisting conservative pundits do constantly these days.
Aside from the fact that Obama is both intelligent and well-read, he is an Illinois politician, and he knows about tornadoes like a Louisiana pol knows hurricanes. The worst tornado disaster in American history, the tri-state, killed about 600 people in southern Illinois in 1925, wiping out several small mining towns. The mines were fine and the miners were down in them on the afternoon shift, but they came up from the mines to find the tornado had destroyed their homes and with them many of their wives and children.
June 27th, 2009 at 1:07 am
Just about every single Democratic president since FDR has tried to push through universal healthcare. Do you think FDR was a wimp? Do you think that LBJ – the “Master of the Senate” and former majority leader – didn’t push it through had nothing to do with the peculiarities of how the average voter and entrenched interests approach healthcare differently?
June 27th, 2009 at 3:37 am
“a great young band from NC that plays around a single mic.”
Sounds like they come into Asheville from Boone. I rode into Asheville looking for a one night stay. Three days later, I’m wondering when I might leave. Great town.
June 27th, 2009 at 3:59 am
And if you pull into Nazareth and are lookin’ for a place to lay your head, “No” is what should expect to hear. And it don’t matter if you’re lookin’ for some fancy ass Martin guitar, ’cause we don’t like yer hippie ass anyway. Nazareth is a more sophisticated town than it was back then, but they still like their speedway and are pretty redneck, and still have Martin guitars. East Coast Redneck NASCAR Suburban Hillbilly.
June 27th, 2009 at 6:36 am
Does Romney have a job? When was the last time that lazy ass had to work for a living. So many of our tough talkin’ Republican brothers eschew having to work. It seems they prefer life on the dole.
Newt wanders the earth like Kwai Chang Caine with a less interesting philosophy. Bush and Cheney are making big money, but apparently working for it is not part of the equation. A bloc of madmen is rising like a pheonix from their own self made ashes: Republicans without portfolio.
At least our guys, when they are out of power, do something. Both Clinton and Gore manage their own organizations. They try to do some good. I think each in their own way are out to save the planet, which is stupid and pointless, but at least they are punching a clock.
June 27th, 2009 at 7:24 am
“are out to save the planet, which is stupid and pointless,”
Pointless is quite accurate for the planet. It will do fine once it get’s rid of it’s human infestation. But we as humans should consider another concept. How about saving humans? Turns out, what we are talking about is saving humans. But we should frame it that way. The planet can easily survive a 200 degree temperature rise. It won’t melt. But can we survive that? No. We aren’t saving the planet, we are only saving ourselves. Are we going to do it? Probably not. But who cares? It’s not like we’ll be here a hundred years from now. Now if you have children, maybe you’d care. I’m willing to help your children, but you have to pull some of the weight. If you’re not willing to do it, than hey, it’s your children, not mine. I have nothing to lose, do you?
June 27th, 2009 at 7:39 am
Let’s put this more bluntly: Tell your child that she will face flooding, starvation, and horrible refugee camps. And she will face it because you didn’t want to pay a little more on your electric bill. I’m sure she’ll understand. Death versus an extra twenty bucks a month? Surely everyone would choose death. Right? That’s the choice you make for your daughter. Choose wisely. As for me, it doesn’t matter, I’ll go along with your choice and pay for it. I don’t care at all. If I don’t pay for it, all the better, because it’s your daughter, not mine. But sorry about her, I still did what I could.
June 27th, 2009 at 8:17 am
And yes, that is over the top. But really, ask yourself what kind of world you want to leave to your children. If it’s this world, okay. If it’s a world worse than this, why would you want to do that? I really don’t understand why people would want their children to have a worse world. I just don’t get it. But I have no children. Maybe if I did have them, I’d want to make their lives miserable. I can’t imagine that, but I guess it’s possible. But let’s just assume that people actually want to help their children. Why would they want to change the climate? It just doesn’t seem reasonable. Yet most parents do want to change the climate. And if their kids get screwed, so what? They need a new BMW.
June 27th, 2009 at 11:59 am
If you can find a reason to stay in Asheville more than an afternoon, I guess you like overpriced yuppie cafes, bad (and overpriced) artsy-craftsy stuff, and bad (but free!) sidewalk hippie guitar playing a lot more than I do.
On the plus side, you can get from downtown there to hiking the Appalachian Trail in under an hour!
June 28th, 2009 at 1:05 am
At least one major reason Romney can’t “put it together” is because of his religious faith. Being a Mormon national politician is tricky enough, but its impossible if you’re also a Republican (which most Mormons are ironically), but you have a major portion of the Republican party who believes Mormons are going to hell. Romney lost the Republican nomination almost primarily because of his faith.
June 28th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Romney is also a transparent panderer and serial flip-flopper, which combined with his being a Mormon is why way too many Christian Right and nativist Republicans don’t trust him enough to vote to nominate him. And although I think the anti-Mormon prejudice is silly, I can’t blame them for the other part: if for some reason he actually became President, Romney would sell them out in a heartbeat to secure his reelection, and he would likely have ample opportunity.