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You had to know this was coming. Read the rest of this post...

Night Music Open Thread

In the year after its publish date of 1926, several artists recorded the song Are You Lonesome Tonight. One duo was its composer Lou Handman and his sister Edith, another was the Colonial Club Orchestra with vocals by Vaughn De Leath, the "Original Radio Girl." Al Jolson released it in 1950. Most of us recognize the Elvis hit from 50 years ago (the B side of his 45 was I Gotta Know).

Here now is a tender and soulful version by Nora Jones.

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With Murdoch's help, Palin can 'dance to the top of the Republican ticket'

Frank Rich has a well thought-out column about Sarah Palin's chances in 2012. His conclusion: Yes she can.

Palin is on the top of her worlds — both the Republican Party and the media universe. “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” set a ratings record for a premiere on TLC, attracting nearly five million viewers — twice the audience of last month’s season finale of the blue-state cable favorite, “Mad Men.” The next night Palin and her husband Todd were enshrined as proud parents in touchy-feely interviews on “Dancing With the Stars,” the network sensation (21 million viewers) where their daughter Bristol has miraculously escaped elimination all season despite being neither a star nor a dancer. This week Sarah Palin will most likely vanquish George W. Bush and Keith Richards on the best-seller list with her new book.

If logic applied to Palin’s career trajectory, this month might have been judged dreadful for her. In an otherwise great year for Republicans she endorsed a “Star Wars” bar gaggle of anomalous and wacky losers[.] ... But logic doesn’t apply to Palin. What might bring down other politicians only seems to make her stronger: the malapropisms and gaffes, the cut-and-run half-term governorship, family scandals, shameless lying and rapacious self-merchandising. In an angry time when America’s experts and elites all seem to have failed, her amateurism and liabilities are badges of honor.

Rich concludes that if Michael Bloomberg decides to send money down the drain in a Billionaire's Run for the White House, "all bets on Obama are off." A good column for your reading consideration.

But it's the Rupert Murdoch aspect of the column that interests me. Palin is, to be sure, a creature of her own nature and these odd times. But she's also a Murdoch creature, owned as all modern Republican candidates are, and paid through Fox News pass-through jobs and candidate-publicizing PR disguised as info-tain.

So what's Murdoch's goal? As Paul Krugman noted earlier (my emphasis throughout):

Perhaps the most important thing to realize is that when billionaires put their might behind “grass roots” right-wing action, it’s not just about ideology: it’s also about business. What the Koch brothers have bought with their huge political outlays is, above all, freedom to pollute. What Mr. Murdoch is acquiring with his expanded political role is the kind of influence that lets his media empire make its own rules.

Which leads us back to Rupert Murdoch's business model. As I already said (with help from Andrew Cockburn):

We think of him as a propagandist, but he's so much more. And he's not primarily a propagandist; he's a media monopolist whose market product is propaganda. Here's his business model — he semi-monopolizes media in whatever country he gets into, and then sells propaganda services to government officials and hopefuls in exchange for increased monopoly control after they get elected.

With that in mind, here's Frank Rich again:

Palin not only has TLC in her camp but, better still, Murdoch. Other potential 2012 candidates are also on the Fox News payroll, but Palin is the only one, as Alessandra Stanley wrote in The Times, whose every appearance is “announced with the kind of advance teasing and clip montages that talk shows use to introduce major movie stars.” Pity poor Mike Huckabee, relegated to a graveyard time slot, with the ratings to match.

The Fox spotlight is only part of Murdoch’s largess. As her publisher, he will foot the bill for the coming “book tour” whose itinerary disproportionately dotes on the primary states of Iowa and South Carolina. The editorial page of Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is also on board, recently praising Palin for her transparently ghost-written critique of the Federal Reserve’s use of quantitative easing.

This leads to an interesting set of conclusions.

Palin's goal: To put herself in her rightful place, as one "destined for greatness." That would be wearing the crown of American empire. (Yes, she really did name herself, along with Reagan, Presley, Thatcher and Shaq, as "destined for greatness.") Expect her to run; she's already lined up her publicist.

Murdoch's goal: Imagine the financial and media-monopolistic goodies he would scoop up if his world-wide machine provided successful propaganda services to someone of Palin's ambition and self-confusion. She would be ever so grateful.

If Wasila comes to Washington, the whole world comes to Rupert Murdoch's door. Expect him to open it, with terms in his hand.

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Obama acknowledges air traveler frustration with TSA

He always has his finger on the pulse of the nation as he shrugs his shoulders and tells us there's nothing else that could be done. There's the fighting spirit and creativity that Americans like so much.

"I understand people’s frustrations, and what I’ve said to the TSA is that you have to constantly refine and measure whether what we’re doing is the only way to assure the American people’s safety. And you also have to think through are there other ways of doing it that are less intrusive," Obama said.

"But at this point, TSA in consultation with counterterrorism experts have indicated to me that the procedures that they have been putting in place are the only ones right now that they consider to be effective against the kind of threat that we saw in the Christmas Day bombing."

Obama acknowledged that as president he does not have to go through pat-downs and other normal security procedures at airports, since he flies on Air Force One.

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It would help if TSA's "fact vs myth" didn't include a myth of its own

From TSA's blog (it's not entirely clear to me why the TSA has a "blog," but whatever):

Myth: Pat downs for certain individuals are limited to the head and neck.

Fact: No one is exempt. Everyone is subject to the same screening. TSA is sensitive to religious and cultural needs, but everyone must be screened effectively. Administrator Pistole echoed those sentiments on MSNBC’s Hardball recently.

Well that's utterly and completely untrue.  And even more untrue. Read the rest of this post...

Report: Feds closing in on major insider trading scandal

My hopes were initially quite high until they compared the news to the "big" insider scandal at Galleon Group. You know, the "big" scandal that involved around $30 million - yes, million - in insider trading. Not to dismiss a $30 million case, but that always struck me as an attack on a non-white executive (Raj Rajaratnam is from Sri Lanka) who was outside of the traditional old-boy Wall Street network. In light of the trillions that the old-boy network wasted during the crisis, call me crazy, but I'd much rather see someone get off the ass and chase the trillions than this, if they're going to choose. How is it possible that the Feds have done so little with that crisis? This "big" story better truly be big.

U.S. officials are preparing insider trading charges against a host of financial players, including investment bankers and hedge fund managers, The Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The charges could surpass any previous investigations on Wall Street, and examine whether certain players garnered tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits, the newspaper said in its Saturday edition.

The investigations could expose "a culture of pervasive insider trading in U.S. financial markets", especially in ways private information is transmitted to traders through connected insiders, the newspaper said, citing federal authorities.

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Teabaggers and and other Republicans now claiming Thanksgiving is a lesson in socialism

You know who else used to rewrite history to their own political advantage?  The Soviets.  These guys are amazing.  And of course, as always, the historians say they're completely wrong. And it's not just the Teabaggers, it's Dick Armey, their patron, and Rush Limbaugh. It's modern conservatism that passing this lie.  From the NYT:

In the Tea Party view of the holiday, the first settlers were actually early socialists. They realized the error of their collectivist ways and embraced capitalism, producing a bumper year, upon which they decided that it was only right to celebrate the glory of the free market and private property.

Historians quibble with this interpretation.

Bradford did get rid of the common course — but it was in 1623, after the first Thanksgiving, and not because the system wasn’t working. The Pilgrims just didn’t like it. In the accounts of colonists, Mr. Pickering said, “there was griping and groaning.”

“Bachelors didn’t want to feed the wives of married men, and women don’t want to do the laundry of the bachelors,” he said.

The real reason agriculture became more profitable over the years, Mr. Pickering said, is that the Pilgrims were getting better at farming crops like corn that had been unknown to them in England.

As for Jamestown, there was famine. But historians dispute the characterization of the colony as a collectivist society. “To call it socialism is wildly inaccurate,” said Karen Ordahl Kupperman, a historian at New York University and the author of “The Jamestown Project.” “It was a contracted company, and everybody worked for the company. I mean, is Halliburton a socialist scheme?”

They're not just idiots. These people are dangerous. Read the rest of this post...

TSA removes shirt of young boy during 'pat down'

You will notice the TSA wearing the blue shirts (the current uniform) so this is recent enough. If the purpose of this "enhanced pat down" is to make people feel safer during their travels, maybe stripping down a young boy in front of others is not going to help. Read the rest of this post...

TSA leaves cancer survivor covered in urine

And this episode made us safer, how? But the goal is more about making passengers subservient to accept any treatment, results be damned.

A retired special education teacher on his way to a wedding in Orlando, Fla., said he was left humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down by TSA officers recently at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

“I was absolutely humiliated, I couldn’t even speak,” said Thomas D. “Tom” Sawyer, 61, of Lansing, Mich.

Sawyer is a bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag, which collects his urine from a stoma, or opening in his stomach. “I have to wear special clothes and in order to mount the bag I have to seal a wafer to my stomach and then attach the bag. If the seal is broken, urine can leak all over my body and clothes.”

On Nov. 7, Sawyer said he went through the security scanner at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. “Evidently the scanner picked up on my urostomy bag, because I was chosen for a pat-down procedure.”

"One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants."

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Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Expect the talk shows to focus on the upcoming vote on the START Treaty. The GOPers are playing politics with our national security -- again. The Republicans thinking their screwing with Obama, but they're actually playing games with our safety. So, we'll see the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mullen, on NBC and CNN. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will carry the message on the other networks: CBS, ABC and FOX.

Mullen should get DADT questions, too. Time is running out to fulfill the President's promise to end that policy this year.

There are a couple of other pols on the shows today: Dem. Congressman Steny Hoyer, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Texas Governor Rick Perry.

But, CNN is going to about the TSA's airport scanner scandal with the head of TSA, John Pistole. (I just wish Chris could throw some questions at him. That would be good.)

Here's the full lineup. Read the rest of this post...

Amy Winehouse, accoustic

After a brief showing of the sun yesterday, it's back to the usual rain, gray skies and humidity. Only twelve months months of this. My 70 year old cycling partner (who looks like he's a few decades younger, thanks to 120 miles per week) decided that I hadn't been on the road enough during my US travels so he led us out of Paris, through Suresnes (where I discovered an American military cemetery), past the chateau in Versailles, St Cyr (where the old military academy used to be based) and then to Plaisir. What's amazing around Paris is that you suddenly hit colza fields and open spaces just outside of town. One minute you're riding through city or 'burbs and then there are farms and country roads. After burning off quite a few calories I finished the day with a Moroccan couscous that was more food than anyone could possibly eat. Read the rest of this post...

Pope says condoms OK for male prostitutes

Did the Pope also run on a campaign about "change?" Oh how radical and progressive. In another two hundred years the Catholic church may even come around to condoning condoms for other reasons. Of course by that time, they will probably will not have been used for a hundred years either.

Pope Benedict XVI says in a new book that the use of condoms can be justified in some cases, such as for male prostitutes seeking to prevent the spread of HIV.

The pontiff made the comments in a book-length interview with a German journalist, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times.

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Senate Democrat threatens to shut down internet copyright bill

Excellent! A Democrat that fights! This is most definitely what we need to see more of from Democrats. It's hard to stomach watching the constant cowering from Democrats on so many issues, but this is certainly encouraging.

Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said late Thursday that he would seek to block the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, or COICA, from passing through the full Senate, unless the legislation is changed. Earlier Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 19-0 to approve the bill and send it to the full Senate.

Wyden called the bill the "wrong medicine" for dealing with online copyright infringement. The bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice to seek expedited court orders requiring U.S. domain-name registrars to shut down domestic websites suspected of hosting infringing materials. The bill would also allow the DOJ, through court orders, to order U.S. ISPs to redirect customer traffic away from infringing foreign websites.

"Deploying this statute to combat online copyright infringement seems almost like using a bunker-busting cluster bomb, when what you need is a precision-guided missile," Wyden said during a hearing on digital trade issues. "If you don't think this thing through carefully, the collateral damage would be American innovation, American jobs, and a secure Internet."

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