Bachmann fun

Whatever you do, don't let those undead countries bite you!

Son of S&P

S&P reactions include a very good Nate Silver piece, taking them to task for generally being very bad at what they do.

Turns out they made a $2 trillion error, which they admitted but brushed aside as unimportant.

My own belief is that this is a bit of a makeup call, after really blowing things on housing and derivative ratings.

[BTW, any winger looking for "blame" for the Great Recession need look no farther than the ratings agencies for the biggest culprits. Their fake, optimistic ratings made risky financials look quite rosy, staving off a free market correction which would have been far less painful if done earlier.]

The mind of the tea party

Tea Party head: We should be spending more on military because it stimulates the economy.

When memes get mixed up by the short-sighted, comedy results.

Fighting over balls

Illinois family's feud over dad's baseball collection.

Wake me when silly season is over.

New Republican meme: White House is "hiding data" which proves the stimulus didn't work.

If at first the facts don't fit the meme, put out a new one accusing the other side of hiding ones that help your point. Or something like that.

Making a difference, one kid at a time

A case for locally grown and purchased food. By an 11-year old.

Glenn Beck's History Timeline

Classic.

The "tell"

Jon Kyl (among other Republicans) now against a payroll tax holiday.

The stated reason: "It won't do much."

The "tell" as it were, regarding the GOP plans to keep the economy spluttering for political reasons is that they are now against straightforward tax cuts it they can help Obama. In other words, if a tax cut has the possible benefit of actually working to improve the economy, they are not for it because Obama might get credit.

New York State -- the next in line?

New York State might be on the cusp of allowing same-sex marriages.

Apparently the tact of preserving (and even expanding) religious freedoms in the bill is helping to move it along.

The big tell

The GOP declines to take up the President's offer to try another stimulus plan made up entirely of tax cuts.

As noted elsewhere, this is "the big tell." Clearly the GOP plan is to try to keep the economy sputtering until after the election.

The Boston Diocese: Where some are welcome!

Boston parish cancels Mass planned for Gay Pride Week, with the theme "All Are Welcome."

This went from a poorly worded flyer announcement to looking like the Boston Dioceses does not, in fact, believe that all are welcome.

When it doubt, go with Christ. It is far better to do the right thing and look foolish than to pull back in the hopes the embarrassment will pass.

TGIF

Just called my cell phone number from my office phone to help me find the cell. Got a message: "The person you are calling is not reachable."

Like a movie IRL

Spectacular photos from Chilean volcano eruption

On Rick Santorum (formerly R, PA/VA)

Greg Sargent makes some solid points about Rick Santorum's bizarre candidacy.

Money quote: It’s not that Santorum thinks that Republican primary voters really want to get rid of Social Security; it’s that he believes what they want is a candidate willing to be as radical as they think of themselves as being.

Partly this is the primary season, where candidates run hard to the right (or left, for the Dems) and some candidates go off into the ditch. But one of the reasons why Obama looks like a fairly solid re-election candidate is that none of the Republican candidates seem the least bit interested in staying on the road at all.

Full disclosure: For Santorum's last election I was a contributor to a group blog Dumpsantorum.com (which, like many sites, has gone down the rabbit hole). But having an opinion that Santorum is a wacko far Right politico who wraps himself in his religion only when it matches his political agenda is hardly one that I'm alone with, and looks like it will be shared by many more people until he drops out of the race.

Personal propaganda

Besides having a cool name (or, 2/3 or a cool name), this piece is interesting how it takes a propaganda shot and makes it a little personal. And not just because it was the author's family in the shot.

So maybe the propagandists were right all along.

Laffer Curve Madness

In the current debate over tax policy (which should be more about tax loopholes and avoidance than tax rates, but there you go), sometimes, zombie-like, certain economic philosophies continue to be bandied about as though they haven't been thoroughly debunked.

Greg Mankiw takes another dagger at Laffer in the course of a good debate about economics and policy presentation, from 2007.

Some hard truths about taxes

Bruce Bartlett continues to show that "pragmatic conservative" isn't an oxymoron for everyone.

GOP Race 2012

Herman Cain, lecturing people to read the Constitution, quotes from the Declaration of Independence by mistake.

This guy is going to be a lot of fun until he flames out. Every race needs an Alan Keyes--looks like Cain is stepping up to be the latest.

Great letter by Ronald Reagan

No kidding. In support of libraries.

Really, dude?

Meanwhile on Mars, Michigan legislator of a certain party introduces a bill requiring foster children to purchase their clothes second hand.

No word on whether they get additional punishment for asking for more porridge.

NASA's Earth Day photos

Amazing.

Smart like a fox...

Justin Bieber refuses to be used!

Or something.

A Randian time

Andrew Sullivan dismisses Rand, and his readers pile on. Good stuff.

I know the feeling...

Woman goes crazy at Gauguin exhibit--"This is evil!" and starts pounding on painting.

Just skip it. No one will notice.

BP ignores Deepwater Horizon spill in its "Sustainability Report," citing the lack of an exact spill amount

Drug court

"tough love" or "FU, Druggie!"?

Geraldine Ferraro 1935-2011

Story, and statement from the family

A trailblazer. I shook her hand once at the Ditmars N train station where she was stumping for the Congressional candidate. Don't remember the candidate's name, but I was pleased to say hello to Ferraro.

Guns and more guns. Or, bringing a tank to a cockfight.

Sheriff Arpaio in the news again. Who brings a tank to a cockfight? Sheriff Joe, that's who.

This isn't an immigration problem of his--more of a "might is right" problem. Also, a demonstration that conservatives, at one time, had it right to be skeptical of giving too much unchecked power into law enforcement. By pouring (literally) billions of borrowed tax dollars into tanks and other military grade weapons for local and county police departments, we set up a system where the way they fight crime becomes self-fulfilling.

And it is a habit that is hard to break.

What passes for news on the Right

John Stossel, wondering why there is a BIA: "no group in America has been more helped by the government than the American Indians"

"What's in Spock's scanner?"

They could have gone a lot of ways with that question, but this is a good one.

Are you subject to the scrutiny of conspiracy theorist, with their malleable rules of evidence?

Generate your own "Kenyan" birth certificate!

Charlie Sheen quotes as New Yorker cartoons

You know you want them.

On Libya, Obama, and timing.

A great letter to Andrew Sullivan about the ODS sufferers Kirstol and Wiseltier, on Libya.

Last paragraph of that letter is spot on:

In retrospect, the Obama/Clinton game is mature, carefully thought through and focused on the long-term consequences of the use of power. The Wieseltier/Kristol game is ill-considered, emotional and places a thoroughly unwarranted emphasis on the deployment of US military power without appreciating the negatives that go with such moves. Put otherwise, the Obama Team has learned some lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan, and Wieseltier/Kristol are prepared to commit the same mistakes, all over again.

Humanity is saved!

Rush Holt (D-NJ) beats Watson.

NZ earthquake

Some amazing photos from New Zealand, where a large earthquake struck, essentially, downtown Christchurch in the middle of the workday.

This might get overlooked with all the serial protesting in the Middle East and the standoffs in Wisconsin, but your prayers would be appreciated, I think.

Gaza and Israeli policy

More wikileaks information about Israel's policy toward Gaza.

Despite acknowledging that Hamas was actively working to maintain the ceasefire (and that none of the rocket launches were from Hamas), Israel decided to take them out anyway.

Nice. I think they call this "bargaining in bad faith."

Trick shooter of the day.

Football throws? You betcha.

Fun with word swapping

While [Indonesia/America] has more [Muslims/Christians] than any other country, the [Southeast Asian/North American] nation of [240/308] million has long been seen as moderate and largely secular. A small but vocal—and sometimes violent—minority has at times sought to impose its will, serving as a sort of moral police for the country.

original article

Queen for a day.

The Leona Helmsley-like former ambassador to Luxembourg.

I like how the staff got so fed up, some volunteered to transfer to embassies in war zones.

Amish bootleggers

A story of milk, the FDA, and hipsters (that last one is mere projection on my part)...

A ost-DADT military?

What social conservatives fear: A military respectful of a gay marriage.

Ketterson sent a copy of the marriage license. That changed everything.

“I was respected,” he said. “From that moment on, I was next of kin. They were amazing.”

A little fast, guys...

GOP already claiming credit for forthcoming economic recovery.

The cost of DADT

In financial terms: About $200 million over 5 years.

So lemme get this right: The GOP was elected to reduce the deficit and cut spending. Among their first acts is to take steps to ensure DADT remains military policy, and to vote to repeal a health care plan which cuts federal spending.

Riiiiight.

Nutters...

Wingnuts confuse closed captions with audience instructions.

If they can't find Obama criticism to use, they'll make some up.

What Its About

Even for a blog like mine, which will be discovered, after my death, with great surprise by people, Michael Chabon's signoff at TNC's guest blogger strikes me as being pitch perfect.

Maybe blogger helps Chabon's writing, too....

Canoing through McDonalds

Flooding in Brisbane, Australia makes it happen. Take a look.

Is it the South? Or the Tea Party? Or both?

Tennessee Tea Party curricula demands: No teaching about minorities which gets in the way of our deifying the Founding Fathers.

Haiti

Haiti in pictures: One year later.

payin the bills...

How to make $10 million, 50 Cent at a time.

Oops. Right wing backpeddle edition.

Stopping violence. By any means necessary.

HT: The Daily What.

In response to the horrible attacks on Christians in Egypt...

In Egypt, calls by Muslims to act as human shields in Christian services.

Any chance the Christianists in the United States would likewise shield their Muslim brothers from attacks? I thought not.

Funny how often Muslims act more Christ-like than US conservative "Christians."

Dems in the US Senate start the process to change filibuster rules

Udall begins the process of changing the rules today.

Three important elements:

-an end to secret "holds"
-a filibuster can only occur after debate begins (in other words, a filibuster cannot be used to prevent debate from beginning)
-the party holding the filibuster needs to actually hold the floor to do so.

Simple but important steps, IMO.

New GOP House: First order of business is to suspend their own budget rule

New GOP House decides to suspend its own spending rules to try to overturn health care.

This is the point at which their talking points clash. Will they work on cutting the deficit? Or will they work on overturning the health care law? they can't have both.

This was a favorite trick of the GOP during the Bush Administration. They put large parts of the "War on Terror" off-budget in order to message the numbers of the federal budget.

Cantor, as usual, looks pretty stupid trying to explain this all away.

The Joy of Stats

Few things on the internet are worth an hour of time at a sitting. This one is. An engaging discussion of the role of statistics.

Yes, sounds exciting! Er, no. But I dare you to give it 5 minutes and then not start putting off whatever you were planning on doing the other 55.