iPhone photo: Phil Compton
3.05.2011
Duck! Book!
Book Review - Moby-Duck - By Donovan Hohn - NYTimes.com
“Hast seen the white whale?” a Melville-loving officer aboard a research vessel asks Donovan Hohn, in his dazzling “Moby-Duck,” whenever they pass in the ship’s corridor.
“Hast seen the yellow duck?” Hohn cheerfully responds.
This just spoils all the fun
Public sector workers are employed by the government, but they are private citizens. Once a private citizen earns a dollar from the sweat of his or her brow, it no longer belongs to his or her employer. In the case of public workers, it is no longer a “taxpayer dollar”; it is a dollar held privately by an American citizen. Public sector unions are financed through the dues paid by these private citizens, who elected to be part of a union – not a single taxpayer dollar is involved, and no worker is forced to join a union against his or her wishes. No worker in the United States is required to give one red cent to support a political cause he or she doesn't agree with.
What? No party?
February’s Jobs Report - NYTimes.com
Over all, the job market did not get any worse in February, and by some measures, showed signs of new life. It would be wrong, however, to regard the latest data with anything other than extreme caution.
3.04.2011
U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
FoxNews.com - Jobless Rate Dips to 8.9 Percent, Lowest in Nearly Two Years
The unemployment rate fell to 8.9 percent in February, hitting the lowest point in nearly two years...
Of course once we get all those freeloading teachers and snowplow drivers laid off we can get the number back up again.
On Fox, it's the Battle of Wisconsin now
And casualties are mounting. No kidding. Mounting:
Casualties Mount in the Battle of Wisconsin - FoxNews.com
The layoff notices for more than 1,000 state workers are ready. The state Senate has declared the fugitive Democratic members in contempt and subject to arrest. A judge has allowed police to clear union activists from the capitol after a 15-day occupation of the statehouse.
All that grass (no, the other kind)
Looking for Lawns : Feature Articles
“Even conservatively,” Milesi says, “I estimate there are three times more acres of lawns in the U.S. than irrigated corn.” This means lawns—including residential and commercial lawns, golf courses, etc—could be considered the single largest irrigated crop in America in terms of surface area, covering about 128,000 square kilometers in all.
3.03.2011
And you thought the thing about wearing cheese on their heads was funny
Wisconsin anti-prank calling bill has ‘nothing’ to do with The Buffalo Beast | The Raw Story
A bill in the Wisconsin legislature that would impose penalties for making prank phone calls actually has nothing to do with a recent prank call that duped Governor Scott Walker into chatting candidly with a journalist pretending to be billionaire tea party financier David Koch.
Or, that's what they're saying anyway....
The proposed law would mandate fines from $1,000-$10,000 for anyone who falsifies caller ID data, gives a fake number or otherwise deceives the call's recipients in order to defraud, cause harm or wrongfully obtain information....
And...wait...here's the punchline...
Government regulators and police, however, would be exempt from these restrictions.
And this comes as some kind of surprise?
The Hollow Cry of ‘Broke’ - NYTimes.com
The federal deficit is too large for comfort, and most states are struggling to balance their books. Some of that is because of excessive spending, and much is because the recession has driven down tax revenues. But a substantial part was caused by deliberate decisions by state and federal lawmakers to drain government of resources by handing out huge tax cuts, mostly to the rich. As governments begin to stagger from the self-induced hemorrhaging, Republican politicians like Mr. Boehner and Mr. Walker cry poverty and use it as an excuse to break unions and kill programs they never liked in flush years.
It's all about the money, always
Secret fund backs Emanuel's agenda - chicagotribune.com
A secretly funded political group aligned with Rahm Emanuel has donated more than $445,000 to aldermanic candidates to help the mayor-elect in a high-stakes battle over control of City Hall....
Emanuel, sensitive to any suggestion he is a power broker like outgoing Mayor Richard Daley, gains potential council allies. The donors keep their anonymity, thanks to controversial quirks in fundraising laws. And aldermen get the help they seek without appearing beholden to anyone.
3.02.2011
Those Canadians are so quaint, huh?
Suburban Guerrilla » Blog Archive » What a relief
Canadian regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada’s right-wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.
Really? I Canada right now they're not allowed to lie on the news? That's un-American!
3.01.2011
Scott Walker: Darling
Judge orders Wisconsin Capitol open to public - chicagotribune.com
Later today, Gov. Scott Walker -- quickly becoming a darling of Republicans across the country for his plan to take away most collective bargaining rights from public workers...
Dude, I knew those R's are not very choosey but really, this is bad.
My memory is failing me, alas
Top 10 ways to spend a Goldman Sachs bonus - CSMonitor.com
Besides chest-thumping fourth-quarter earnings, Goldman Sachs also announced its bonus pool on Thursday. At $16.2 billion, the total is 20 percent lower than the firm's 2007 level but still amounts to an average of just under $500,000 per employee.
That—the quote from the CSMonitor above—was published on January 21 this year, just a little more than a month before David Brooks' column in the NYTimes yesterday in which, with regard to the current deficit–cutting craze:
The sacrifice should be spread widely and fairly.
So there's my problem. I don't remember David Brooks saying anything at all about spreading that Goldman Sachs wealth fairly, unfairly, or any which way at all. But surely he must have, don't you think? A fair guy like David Brooks?
Because what you don't know won't hurt you, right?
Kansas rep, a friend of industry, axes product-safety database | Scholars and Rogues
A neophyte freshman representative from Kansas who slipped into Congress on the strength of hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations from heavyweight industries does not want you and me to see a product-safety database compiled by a federal consumer agency.
2.28.2011
Health care: Fun while it lasted
Obama Backs Easing Health Law Rules for States - NYTimes.com
In remarks to the National Governors Association, Mr. Obama said he backed legislation that would enable states to request federal permission to withdraw from the law’s mandates in 2014 rather than in 2017 as long as they could prove that they could find other ways to cover as many people as the original law would and at the same cost. The earlier date is when many of the act’s central provisions take effect, including requirements that most individuals obtain health insurance and that employers of a certain size offer coverage to workers or pay a penalty.
Ice on the wire
OK, wires. Every wire. Everywhere. Possibly forever. Possibly this winter will never end. It quit snowing for today—that's something, I guess—and it's raining instead. Ice is everywhere. I'm staying right here as long as the Spam holds out.
Never saw a war they didn't like
McCain and Lieberman Urge Greater US Involvement in Libya | Video Cafe
CNN's Candy Crowley spoke to Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman about the situation in Libya and whether the United States should get more involved in supporting the uprising there. Of course they think we should be imposing a no-fly zone and providing arms to the protesters so they can defend themselves.
What we really need is a nutjob news channel. You know, NNN. And we could put all the nutjobs on that channel and then just turn it off. Just say no, if you happen to be an R. Of course if we did that we wouldn't need too many other channels. Maybe one or two. One for movies and one for March Madness, which is coming soon.
What, you were thinking...?
UNDERNEWS: Newly created jobs don't pay well
AFL-CIO - More than a million private-sector jobs were added to the U.S. economy during the past 12 months, but they were mainly middle and lower-wage jobs, a new report from the National Employment Law Project finds.
2.27.2011
So now it is officially a bad winter
Never mind we've had about 70 inches of snow so far this winter (but tomorrow it's going to rain), this winter was officially declared bad this morning when it turned out we have now used up two snow shovels so far this year. Used friggin' up. As in shoveled so much the shovels themselves just gave up and quit. We started the winter with three shovels and bought a fourth just recently but only two still work, the other two are sad, pathetic, broken things. And we are by no means finished with winter - we often have snow in March and, since I've lived here, have had big snow storms in April and even May. Not to mention the sleet, the ice, and the mud.
If you want to know why the American Revolution started in New England, it's because we can get really, really cranky here in the winter time.
A brat is not a brat
WI: Foremost Authority on Brats, Cheese Curds and Kochs - First Draft
Bratwurst is what we're talking about.
The sky is falling - again - teacher say's
Everywhere, Bad Grammar - NYTimes.com
...and I’m not optimistic for the future.
This, apparently, is how Wisconsin Republicans think democracy should work
The scene last night, as the Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly suddenly, and without warning --- quite literally in the middle of the night --- announced and took a vote on Gov. Scott Walker's union-busting "Budget Repair Bill," followed by chants of "Shame! Shame! Shame!" from Democrats inside the chamber after it passed was remarkable.
On shutting down the federal government: 1995 v. 2011
Why Wouldn’t the Tea Party Shut It Down? - NYTimes.com
Last time around, America was more or less humming along with an unemployment rate of 5.6 percent. This time we are still digging out of the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression, with an unemployment rate of 9 percent and oil prices on the rise. To even toy with shutting down the government in this uncertain climate is to risk destabilizing the nascent recovery, with those in need of the government safety net (including 43 million Americans on food stamps) doing most of the suffering.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)