Attention sky watchers

I don't believe I've heard of this one before, but they're promising The Quadrantid meteor shower is likely to produce up to 100 falling stars an hour, between 3 to 5 a.m. this morning. Still feeling kind of crummy but thinking I'll go to bed early and try to wake up to check it out and see if can see it from here. Supposed to be visible all over North America.

Don't give a flying leap

I'm so bored with the GOP clown car. I honestly don't care anymore what happens in Iowa. But just for fun, I'll make an off the wall prediction on the results of the Iowa caucus. Frothy Santorum wins. Willard second with Ron Paul a close third. Perhaps even close enough to tie for second. And Perry will beat Newt. None of which the polling is predicting. So it will be fun if I'm right. Won't care if I'm not.

Addendum: Just after I posted this in the Balloon Juice comments this morning, Nate Silver tweeted that this is one time he would bet against his own model. Which predicts Romney winning. He likes Frothy's odds and something, something about the relation to the in-trade money. So there's that...

Fear and Loathing in 2012

by Capt. Fogg

the sane man disappears and is nowhere when he enters into rivalry with the madman.

-Plato-

At a New Year's Day Yacht Club brunch yesterday, I suggested to a newly thin friend worried about overeating at the bulging buffet, that we declare January 1st as a National Who Gives a Shit day. We need a break from all this fear and loathing and self flagellation.

For my part, I'm chronically worried about things far more dire than gaining a few pounds; things like a Napoleonic Republican in the White House again, the deliberate collapse of the world economy for the benefit of a few oligarchs, plutocrats and other assorted brigands -- and of course the coming Zombie Apocalypse, the Mayan Catastrophe and the end of an error prophesied on all those bumper stickers.

Of course there are many other things to be depressed about and most of them, unlike that Zombie thing, can't readily be dealt with by stockpiling ammunition. But we need a break from all the apocalyptic insanity, the hate commercials all over the TV with Mike Huckabee howling last night about how Romney's health care plan was "stuffed down our throats" ( by a large majority of voters) even though Obama was elected largely on the promise of health care reform. We need a break from having our basic fundamental liberties torn from us by small minded big mouth authoritarian radicals like Vaneta Becker, the Republican State Senator from Indiana who wants to make it illegal to sing our National Anthem "inappropriately," the constitution and all that freedom we're told isn't free, be damned -- at least in Indiana.

Oh say can you see, our boot on your face -- would that be inappropriate? Now which third world countries can we invade to protect her freedom to sanctify the trappings and rituals of Chauvinistic self worship while rebelling against any government power other than the power to crush the people?

No, I'm afraid National Who Gives a Shit Day barely made it past those chocolate truffles I couldn't resist last night and all those Happy New Year wishes have already turned to ashes with my first glimpse of today's news. It's the same old madness we had two days ago, the same inconsistent, persistent, self-negating rhetoric, the same greedy, angry, irrational revenge-seeking of the idiot mob. Who can worry about brain eating zombies or rampaging Jesus with a flame thrower or Kenyan Kommunists stuffing civilization down our throats when that great slithering thing we call the media are stuffing insanity into every orifice; howling like some Lovecraftian horror from every high place, importuning us from every telephone, billboard and car bumper that obedience is freedom and civilization is tyranny - that prosperity comes from doing what always leads to catastrophe.


For those of us not about to die, or at least not to die immediately, it's January 2nd and I give a shit. I'm fed up with being told that rational discord with marauding barbarians will lead to understanding and progress, that authoritarians will become tolerant of freedom if only we show them respect and exercise patient restraint and all the ancient evils mankind has perpetuated and treasured and nurtured will somehow wither away if we're polite and sincere.

If it is true that fighting monsters brings the risk of becoming one, it is also true that not fighting them, being quiet and polite and respectful toward mad moralizers and authoritarians and fear mongers and every snark-snarling witless witling posing as a philosopher carries the bigger risk. It's time to stop pretending we're on some fence between one reasonable place and another. We're not.

Last look back at 2011

Sure, there's no way they could cover everything in that time frame, and think they should have done 111 seconds, but still a good review of 2011 via Anne Laurie



It's pretty funny, but when you consider this is our ruling class, a little depressing. On a happier note, Dan has the best music of 2011. A very eclectic list of lesser known artists. Get there quick. He takes it down after a week.

Don't care anymore

Maybe it's just because I'm still so sick, but I'm burned out on the Iowa caucuses. I mean, does it really matter who wins there? Not feeling it. And while I'm bitching about politics, I'm tired of the endless internet spats on the left. Sick of the perpetual outrage and mean spirited sniping. I'll probably get over it once I feel better, but today:

Auld Lang Syne 2011

It's been a long strange year. Goodbye to all that.



Here's to 2012. Hoping 2012 brings better times for everyone.

Time waits for no one

Well it appears I'll be turning the year feeling miserably ill, so no deep year end thoughts for me. Neither am I likely to make it to midnight since I just broke out the brandy to ease my tortured throat. Which is helping by the way. But I still have lots of saved links, so here's some the best of the year end reviews I've seen.

You can tell a lot about a GOP candidate from where they choose to live. Houses of the Hopefuls.

A rare photo journey inside North Korea.

Loved Stanley Kubrick's photos of New York.

Pete Souza's official White House 2011 gallery.

The Occupy Movement in 50 pictures.

Salon's media hack list of 2011.

An awesome movie mash-up that uses scences from something like 253 movies.

And best of all. The year in Lego.

Happy New Year's Eve. Don't drink and drive.

To the moon Alice...

Been a while since I revisited my Chris Christie conspiracy theory. Don't underestimate him. Even if he just ends up as the VP, he's a dangerous opponent. He's the Ralph Kramden of politics. Here he is stumping for Romney, Jersey style.

“If you don’t do what you’re supposed to do for Mitt Romney on Tuesday,” Christie said, defiant in only a suit jacket against the biting cold and wind-whipped rain, “I will be back, Jersey-style, people. I will be back.”

I understand it was clear he was joking. But joking or not, that bully schtick sells to the swing voters. Suspect there's a lot of Jersey Shore fans in that demo. And he really is Gleasonesque. Hell, he even looks a little like Jackie. That could win over the elderly vote who still remember, and maybe somewhat long for, the days of The Honeymooners.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Taking our country back

If I wasn't so sick that I'm ready to fling myself off this mortal coil rather than live another minute feeling this horrible, I might have written something like this. Well, actually, that's not true. I'll never be one tenth the writer as Charles P. Pierce. But he speaks of the same sort of thoughts that keep me up at night in his year's end reflections. This is just the closer.

It is a dead-level time for us as a people. There are now 146 million Americans who are ranked as "low-income" or "poor." Somebody really should do something about that. How we treat them in our politics is going to be the ultimate test of our moral credibility as a nation. Do we treat this situation as the national disgrace that it is, and commit ourselves as a nation to eliminating it? Or do we turn away from them, blame them for the malaise we feel in our lives, and drink deeply again from the supply-side, trickle-down snake oil? Do we look at the president — a Democratic president — and scream that this is no longer tolerable to us as a people? Or do we nod sagely and deplore the lack of civility and bipartisan cooperation in our government and hope that cooler heads will prevail, that the great national purpose of our age is to deprive ourselves further of what was supposed to be the promise of the country in the vague and futile hope that somehow, somewhere, things will get better down the line?

The moral act is to scream.

If you read nothing else this weekend. Read this in its entirety.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Living large on Wall Street

Nothing the white collar criminal class does here is against the law. It should be but it won't ever change as long as our political elites protect the banksters' perks. Like this cozy little scam:

The stock market’s rebound from the financial crisis three years ago has created a potential windfall for hundreds of executives who were granted unusually large packages of stock options shortly after the market collapsed.

Now, the corporations that gave those generous awards are beginning to benefit, too, in the form of tax savings.

Thanks to a quirk in tax law, companies can claim a tax deduction in future years that is much bigger than the value of the stock options when they were granted to executives. This tax break will deprive the federal government of tens of billions of dollars in revenue over the next decade. And it is one of the many obscure provisions buried in the tax code that together enable most American companies to pay far less than the top corporate tax rate of 35 percent — in some cases, virtually nothing even in very profitable years.

So in other words, when the market crashed, the execs got mega stock options at a low price. Market recovers, they get to buy the revalued stocks at a bargain basement rate and the companies get a huge tax write off for the enhanced compensation. Which robs the national treasury of their tax revenue. Little taxpayers are effectively subsidizing executive payoffs, which are already astronomically high.

Yet the answer our political elites come up with every time to "help" the little guy is to throw more free money into the insatiable maw of the banksters and pay for it by making "sadly necessary" sacrifices in social programs for the poor and middle class. But please don't complain about it. It hurts their feelings.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Cats and Fairies

Denial is no longer possible. I do indeed have a miserable cold in my head. So while I want for my brain to defog, here's a few more links I've been saving.

Love this story. Meet Artful Dodger, a "ginger moggy" who lives in England and has a taste for bus travel.

Sort of related, the 20 most important cats of 2011. A collection of the most viral cats gone cute youtubes.

Giving the the entire animal kingdom its due, Incredible animal photos of 2011.

And not to forget man's best friend. This is old I think, but it still made me smile all over again. All dogs go to heaven.

And oh yeah, the fairies. A Flickr gallery of a really nice Fairytale mural.

Too high a price for dirty oil

I'm late to the game on the Keystone XL pipeline, having only recently caught up on what's going on. Having now studied the details, it's clearly not a project I could support. Yet I see it does have majority support in the polling. I suppose it's because the proponents are inflating the number of jobs the pipeline might create and minimizing the horrific damage a pipeline break could cause. Wondering why anyone believes a 2,000 mile pipeline bisecting the entire U.S., partly routed over a critical watershed and an active seismic fault line is ever a good idea.

I have a longer post at Detroit News on this multi-billion dollar folly but I do want to repost the photo that brings it into focus. I've never seen an extraction site before.

Looks even worse than the deforestation of the Amazon. It's like taking three quarter of million acres of the Shire and turning it into Mordor. Disgraceful. Really hoping the GOPers ransom demand on the authorization forces Obama to cancel the whole damn thing.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Rove predicts through rose colored glasses

People often tell me that Rove is over-rated as a political operative but my philosophy is don't ever take you eyes off a snake, even if it looks like it's sleeping. Granted, Karl's recent tweeting blitz of failed talking points smells of fear and desperation, as do his predictions in this op-ed in WSJ. He does make one valid and honest point though:

Groups like American Crossroads (which I helped found) will narrow the Democratic money advantage.

Otherwise, shorter op-ed: This is my wish list and I'm counting on my high priced, stealth smear ad campaign to make it come true.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Jon Swift: Gone but not forgotten

There have been many times since his sudden death that I wished Al Weisel, a/k/a Jon Swift, was still with us to decipher the conservative narratives with his inimitable brand of gentle satire. In a world where gut-busting snark now rules the internets, I miss Al's subtle and oh so polite evisceration of Wingnuttia; so skillfully rendered that first time readers often thought he was a sovereign citizen of Wingnutistan himself.

But Al under his Swiftian persona was a real liberal and a true friend to the small bloggers of what was then known as Leftopia. His kind encouragement and generous linking policy inspired many B-Z listers to keep posting. Myself included.

Every year at this time he would undertake the Herculean task of publishing a huge "best post of the year list." He invited everyone to contribute. Sure you had to pick your own best post, but he assembled the list, embedded the links and promoted the post, sending much appreciated traffic spikes to those who rarely saw them.

But while Al Weisel is sadly lost to us, a million thanks to Batocchio, the Vagabond Scholar for keeping the spirit of our dear friend alive by continuing the tradition with the Jon Swift Memorial Round-up. I, for reasons too complicated to explain, unfortunately missed the deadline, but there's a wealth of fabulous posts at the link. Some names you'll recognize, and some you probably won't. But read them all. Jon would have wanted it that way.

Via the incomparable Lance Mannion who got inside my head this week. This virtual world, that was once called the blogosphere has changed so much since the days we started this crazy blogging thing. His thoughts on twitter fatigue mirror my own. Everything changes. [graphic credit]

They're all BoBos on this bus

It's Charles P. Pierce's birthday today, which I discovered by chance in a rare perusal of the comments. But that's not why I'm giving him quote of the day. It's because he summed up in one sentence why I stopped reading David Brooks so many years ago:

I think David Brooks belongs in a cage.

I have nothing to add to that, however, our estimable blogging hero has much more to say on the subject of Mr. Brooks "to-the-manor-born sociopathy" along with his usual delicious roasting of Brooks' fellow sociopaths. So, you know what to do

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

GOP applause lines

This isn't the only troublesome talking point audiences cheer as the GOP's Carnival of Clowns tour through Iowa but Rick Perry delivers the funniest applause line of the silly season, so far.

“Every barrel of oil that comes out of those sands in Canada is a barrel of oil that we don’t have to buy from a foreign source,” Mr. Perry said in Clarinda, earning a loud round of enthusiastic applause.

OK, so maybe those furriners up north aren't so threatening because they're mostly white folks and mostly speak English, so it's not really like a foreign country. Not like those evil furriners on the south border who don't even understand our language and refuse to learn to speak Amurkin at all. But it wasn't that long ago this same crowd was all hyped up about the existential threat of the imaginary NAFTA Superhighway which was going to destroy our sovereignty and create a North American government allowing them there Mexicans free passage all over our great land. A grave concern that still hadn't completely died as late as last year.

Back in those days, current Iowa frontrunner, Ron Paul warned Rick Perry was a mastermind of this heinous plot as evidenced by Perry's unrelenting support for the southern end of this behemoth roadway to hell, namely the Trans-Texas Corridor. But now they cheer a transcontinental pipeline that was an integral part of the NAFTA Superhighway blueprint? Gotta love those kooky cons.

But maybe all is forgiven because Perry pledged to ignore Supreme Court decisions that conflict with the social conservative agenda. Just as any God-fearin "strict constitutionalist" would do.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Don't let the door hit you...

Big news of the day, Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Turncoat), has decided to retire and spend more time making money. OK. That's not what he said but I give him a month or less after he leaves office before he takes a K Street address. Willing to wager he already has something lined up. And a SOB to the end, he waited until after the party sank a cool million into protecting his seat. DSCC got snookered.

I'm not shedding any tears over it. Yes, I get the concern about the risk to the Senate majority, but so what? I've long contended electing so-called centrist Dems who vote with Republicans does more harm than good to the Democratic brand. I'm not persuaded it's worth it just because Nelson voted Dem on the big final votes. He also voted with Republicans on crucial early votes, to water down those bills to near worthlessness. He may well still be to the left of the GOP, but only barely. He gave them a lot of "bi-partisan" cover. Might as well just cede the seat to a GOPer. Make the Republicans own their bogus policy prescriptions. [Graphic via expatyourself.com]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

It ain't over til it's over

Lot of people buzzing about this Team Newt Holiday Video. Granted it is weird. But weirdest campaign video ever? Maybe weirdest of the day but in my book, this is still the all time winner:



And speaking of McCain, the twitter machine reminds me:

Nation Hahn: Things can change. RT: @debitking: On this day in 2007, John McCain was still in 4th place in the polls. #campaignfacts

Related thought: Newt moved to the top of the Ohio polls.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Congressional wealth rises as Americans founder

In case anyone was still wondering why our political class can't seem to grasp the debilitating effects of poverty, it's no great mystery. It's wealth disparity, of course. But it is a bit surprising to see how wide the wealth gap between the pols and their constituents has grown.

Between 1984 and 2009, the median net worth of a member of the House more than doubled, according to the analysis of financial disclosures, from $280,000 to $725,000 in inflation-adjusted 2009 dollars, excluding home ­equity.

Over the same period, the wealth of an American family has declined slightly, with the comparable median figure sliding from $20,600 to $20,500, according to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from the University of Michigan.

The comparisons exclude home equity because it is not included in congressional reporting, and 1984 was chosen because it is the earliest year for which consistent wealth statistics are available.

If they did include home equity, no doubt the gap would be much greater. But it's not just the wealth, it's the disparity between the life experience. Few of our current political overlords, who talk about making hard choices on austerity cuts, have faced the real tough choices of the poor. Whether to get their kid a badly needed new pair of shoes, or pay a utility bill. Between heat and a doctor's visit. Between food and medications. Wondering how long they can ignore that odd noise the car is making before the engine breaks down.

This is why I find it so infuriating to hear the privileged class rail about "entitlements" for the poor and near poor. They have no idea how hard it is to live within the uncertainty of poverty. Like everything in life, if you haven't experienced it yourself, you just can't really imagine what it's like. And for those few who may have actually grown up poor, once you leave poverty behind, it's not easy to retain experiential empathy. A fat wad of money in the pocket now has a way of dimming memories of past deprivations. [Photo credit: People wait in line to receive free milk in New York City.]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Undecided in Iowa

Having enjoyed the status of "America’s sober, decisive First Voters" for decades, Iowa Republicans are now riding a rollercoaster of indecision in trying to choose from a dismal slate of GOP 2012 hopefuls. They fall in and out of love with their candidates with the speed of a Kardashian. WaPo interviews a few confused Iowans and concludes they can't decide whether to go for ideological purity or electability. I think it's a little more complicated than that.

For one thing, almost half of them get their information from Fox "News". To the extent that they're internet savvy, they apparently rely on far fringe right wing websites and viral emails to form their opinions. And those Iowans who don't go on-line, are missing being personally wooed by the primary candidates.

As one local Iowa official laments:

"We just haven't had as much face time," Republican chairwoman Trudy Caviness in Wapello County said. "That's why we're so undecided."

Indeed, the GOP hopefuls "have barely visited the state." There's a number of reasons for this that I laid out in a longer post at the Detroit News.

The short version is retail politics have changed. The old maxim about all politics being local isn't true anymore. National campaigns are mostly embracing the 50 state strategy now. They can't tailor their messaging to specific audiences because there's a million "citizen journalists" with cell phones just waiting to create a viral video out of even the smallest discrepancy in their talking points. Big media will give them free exposure for any campaign generated messaging with national appeal. And thanks to Citizen United spending, outside interests can tailor the devious attack ads without candidate accountability, which changed their overall campaign tactics.

I suspect we're witnessing the waning days of Iowa's influence on presidential politics. Personally, I don't see that as necessarily a bad thing. [graphic via]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Christmas Links

Don't feel like blogging politics today so have some Christmas themed links:

Only a really old Jewish guy from New York could find just the right Christmas music. Porky Pig does Blue Christmas and a very nice cover of We Three Kings by an obscure band.

They do Christmas better in Europe. Baby Jesus' Grog House.

On more traditional note, I've yet to actually make one of these, but I do love me some gingerbread houses.

A little late but I also love advent calendars. This one looks like a recycled version of a classic as I recall them. And for a modern twist the Hubble Space telescope calendar.

Indulging my love of the Big Apple. Stars out in NYC and an Empire state of Christmas.

No white Christmas here but if I win the mega-millions, I'd go see these giant snow sculptures in China.

And this one could come in handy for your New Year's parties. Love these black olive penguins.

Merry day my cherished friends and readers. My Christmas wish for you all is that joy fill your heart and peace of mind finds you today and every day thereafter.

Gracious. Almost forgot to include Avedon's annual Christmas post. My favorite. of course, is Christmas greetings from Middle Earth and this treasure trove of Christmas graphics may also amuse the history buffs.

[Big thanks to Hudsonette for many of the photo links.]

Blue Christmas

I've seen many a White Christmas in my life and loved them all, but at this point I would be more than okay with waking up on December 25th and having a blue Christmas like this one.

Throw some Christmas lights on the palm tree and pass the umbrella drinks. Photo credit: National Geographic contest winner, In the Philippines.