Studio 360 - Nikola Tesla

My wife's co-worker introduced me to the Studio 360 NPR series and last week's show was a rebroadcast of the January 25th production of invention, centering on Nikola Tesla. He also recommended the Mike Daisey show I was raving about a couple of weeks ago.

Here is Daisey on Studio 360 with three short monologues regarding Tesla from his one-man shows. Enjoy.

Tesla vs. Edison



Tesla and Twain



The Death Ray




You can listen to the whole one hour Studio 360 broadcast here.

Meet The Press - Barack Obama Interview, Dec. 7, 2008

Douchebag of the Day: Greg Pollowitz

National Review's Greg Pollowitz has written a quick little item titled "While The Big Three Go Bankrupt..." with nothing other than three quoted paragraphs from an MSNBC article regarding Barack Obama's planned vacation for the holidays. He then adds his one line of commentary:

Let's see what the MSM's reaction is to the Obama vacation, but I bet it's slightly different than coverage of President Bush from 2005 and Katrina.

How many times are we going to go over this in the remaining six weeks before Inauguration Day? Considering that Barack Obama is the President-elect and is George W. Bush is still actually President, I think the MSM's "reaction" is going to be completely different in comparison to a sitting president who was clearing brush at his photo-op ranch while a U.S. city drowned. He then went ahead and had another photo-op with a certain Senator from Arizona before deciding to return to Washington.

The idea that Pollowitz would gripe about the media's treatment of Obama regarding vacation time is laughable at best and very sad at worst. Right now, the wingnuts are looking for anything to disparage the man for not doing something about our current economic crisis before taking office while the sitting Republican president actually had a complete day this week with nothing scheduled on his calendar. Nothing.

I will make a little wager with you, Mr. Pollowitz. I will bet you that from the time Obama actually takes office, he will spend less vacation time in his eight years (yes, I know I said eight years) than Bush took in his first two years.

National Review's Greg Pollowitz - Douchebag of the Day.

(H/T Bob Cesca)

Adding - As a New Year's resolution, I think I'll make "Douchebag of the Week" a recurring post.

T Minus 44 Days

"Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk to families who die."

- Washington, DC, December 7, 2006

Must Reads

William Ayers: The Real Bill Ayers

The Rude Pundit: Al Franken's Requiem for Florida 2000

Bob Cesca: No Attacks Since When?

Ben Cohen: 10 Republicans Who Should Go Away; 10 Democrats Who Should Go Away

Obama's Weekly Address - Dec. 6, 2008

Burger Whatnow?

I just tried walking into a local Burger King about an hour ago to grab a quick bite and the sign on the cash register read, "Sorry. We are out of BURGERS!!!" Out. Of. Burgers.

You can't claim to be the Burger King, if you don't have any burgers. THE BURGER KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE BURGER KING!

... Or maybe Queen Wendy.

Michael, Plaxico and OJ

OJ Simpson just got sentenced to 15 years after being found guilty on 12 counts including armed robbery and kidnapping. And my one question is, what the fuck are these millionaires thinking?

Remember when OJ was everyone's hero? The Juice! He was on television, in the movies and all those Hertz commercials. He was on top of the world until he became a pariah when he allegedly killed his estranged wife Nicole Brown a decade and a half ago. I say allegedly because he was amazingly acquitted. But come on... we all know he did it.

And you'd think that the lessons learned from OJ would strike fear into the hearts of today's NFL players. But, no. You have dimwits like Michael Vick running a dog fighting ring on property he owns now serving time and out of football. And that doesn't stop NY Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress from carrying a handgun into a New York City nightclub and accidentally shooting himself in the leg. Are you fucking kidding me?

Less than a year ago, this guy was a Superbowl Championship hero, signed a $35 million contract extension and due to his actions, pissed it all away in a matter of months. And to top things off, he wasn't scheduled to play in Sunday's game anyway because he is nursing a hamstring injury. So what the fuck are you doing in a nightclub on Friday night? Shouldn't you be resting and rehabilitating your injury in order to play and support your team as soon as possible? You know, show a little loyalty to those rich, old guys that pay you millions to play a fucking game? And that's completely disregarding the gun issue!

Even if you do decide to be a complete idiot and go to the nightclub, are you really stupid enough to carry a gun (which is illegal in New York City and carries a mandatory 3 year sentence)? And then, even if you are off your fucking rocker and actually do carry a gun, maybe you should wear a decent pair of pants and not the sweatpants you wore causing the gun to fall through your belt line and go off in you pant leg, you fucking dipshit!

Now the Giants are done with his mook. He's been suspended and will most likely serve deserved jail time. I don't understand these fucking guys who think they can do anything they want because of their perceived status in society. Dude, you play a fucking game for a living. You can fall of the face of the earth tomorrow and no one would care. What makes you so special?

And this is just scratching the surface - what about Ray Lewis or Pacman Jones or half of the Cincinnati Bengals? The NFL should seriously consider a "one and done" no tolerance policy. If you get in legal trouble and it is substantiated and you're found guilty, you're done. I wonder how much of a deterrent that would be?

T Minus 46 Days

"I think it's important to bring somebody from outside the system, the judicial system, somebody that hasn't been on the bench and, therefore, there's not a lot of opinions for people to look at."

- Discussing his nomination of Harriet Miers, Washington, DC, 2005

Music Break! Jamie Cullum

All At Sea

The Bush Legacy Project

For an administration so adept at the Reverse Midas Touch, where everything they touch turns to shit, the one thing I give the Bushites credit for is their ability to spin. They are Rembrandts in the art of Flim-Flam. They were able to, for eight long years, fool enough of the people enough of the time to remain in power just long enough to fill their coffers and almost destroy the country in the process. And the P.T. Barnum of the political three-ring circus that is the White House? Karl Rove.

Ron Suskind, 2004: In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

We all now know that "the senior adviser" in Suskind's piece was Karl Rove. And Rove was right. Study we did. While everyone was flipping out over the latest Bush Administration outrage, the Bushites were creating another and another. And another. Until this endless avalanche of bullshit was so overwhelming, the focus of the "judicious students of history" Rove was talking about splintered apart. There was no consolidated front. There was no one particular story that would stick.

Hurricane Katrina was really the first time they took a big hit, but how many people still talk about Bush and Cheney testifying together, not transcripted and not under oath during the 9/11 Commission investigations? How many of us are still thinking about Alberto Gonzales and the mockery he made of the Justice Department? And when one jamoke resigns, another is ready to take his place and condone torture while avoiding answering what torture is. Who talks about the devastation that still haunts New Orleans over three years later? Or even the slow recovery efforts of Hurricane Gustav's wake just a couple of months ago?

We all know the long, long list that George W. Bush leaves as his legacy: 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, The Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act, illegal wiretapping, cherrypicking intelligence reports, the Iraq War, rendition, torture, waterboarding, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, economic meltdown, record foreclosure rates, and on and on. That's just scratching the surface. Amazing isn't it?

And here we sit, eight years after the first national Bush atrocity that no one could have anticipated would become the norm from the crooks residing in the White House. Yet we are now hearing that Karl "Bush's Brain" Rove, former Bush communications director Karen Hughes and other senior Bush advisers are brainstorming ways to salvage Bush's legacy. A Bush legacy project. And they're meeting in the White House with current officials. They're doing it on our dime! How does one wrap their mind around the dilemma of attempting to create a positive spin on Bush's "legacy"? And since when is a president's legacy part of a White House agenda? Legacies are made, not manufactured.

This think tank's plan is to rewrite history. Already we're seeing Bush's farewell tour, kicked off with a Charles Gibson/ABC interview in which the Chimp in Chief tries to pass the buck in a sad, Bart Simpson-like "it was like that when I got here" attempt.

GIBSON: Do you feel in any way responsible for what's happening?

BUSH: You know, I'm the President during this period of time, but I think when the history of this period is written, people will realize a lot of the decisions that were made on Wall Street took place over a decade or so, before I arrived in President, during I arrived in President.

"... before I arrived in President, during I arrived in President." What the fuck?! How does one turn that into anything positive? And isn't it ironic that Karl Rove, the man who only a short time ago was plotting a permanent Republican majority (possibly the last Republican majority for at least a generation), the man Bush nicknamed "Turdblossom," now has the dubious task of polishing a turd?

leg⋅a⋅cy  [leg-uh-see]noun, plural -cies.

1. Law. a gift of property, esp. personal property, as money, by will; a bequest.
2. anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor: the legacy of ancient Rome.
3. an applicant to or student at a school that was attended by his or her parent.
4. Obsolete. the office, function, or commission of a legate.

Hmmm.... Oh, here's one!

leg⋅a⋅cy - A gift of property by will, esp. of money or personal property; a bequest. Also Fig.; as, a legacy of dishonor or disease.

That last line nails it. Bush will be remembered for his indifference; for his lack of curiosity; for his ineptness; for his butchering of the English language; for his disregard of that "goddamned piece of paper," the United States Constitution; for his preference to be at his photo-op Crawford, Texas ranch; for the hubris of his crony appointments.

But most of all, the George W. Bush legacy will be one of dishonor to the office of the Presidency. His legacy is one of a parasitic disease that sucked our treasury dry, bled us of our moral standing in the world and crippled the last remaining superpower (if such a thing still existed). And no amount of revisionist history will scrub The Shrub's "legacy" clean.

T Minus 47 Days

"Some reports are issued and just gather dust. And truth of the matter is, a lot of reports in Washington are never read by anybody. To show you how important this one is, I read it, and our guest read it."

- Washington DC, December 2006

Is there any wonder why this administration and this president have failed so miserably when you read a quote like that?

Prop 8 - The Musical

For some strange reason, I'm having trouble embedding this hysterical FunnyOrDie.com video with a star-studded cast performing in Prop 8 - The Musical. So click on down there and watch. Enjoy.

Awww... Fox News Snub Streak Is Over

President-elect Barack Obama finally called on Fox News White House correspondent Wendell Goler during his press conference to announce Bill Richardson as the new Secretary of Commerce. Fox News had been shut out for five previous conferences as Obama rolled out his economic and national security teams, so you would think Goler would have a big question to ask.

He asked Obama if he was worried about Hank Paulson spending all the bailout money before he got to the White House. And to new Commerce Secretary Richardson? "What happened to the beard?"

I shit you not. He waited through six press conferences to ask about the New Mexico governor's beard. Awesome news group they have over there at Fox. Look at the chryon: ALERT! Fox News gets to ask a question! Our pants are now wet.

Check Your Credit Report

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During I Arrived As President

I couldn't bear the thought of sitting through another Charles Gibson interview with a Republican shit for brains sitting with his deer in the headlights wife nodding her head in agreement like a couple of old farmer folk chewin' on a piece of straw and staring out at the ranch from their front porch, so I missed the very exciting Bush "I didn't do it - it was like that when I got here" interview.

I did however catch Keith Olbermann and the lowlights.





"The Wall Street decision making was done before I got there. Blame Daddy and Bubba."

"The intelligence was bad on WMD, not my fault. So what if we chose to cherrypick only what fit into our agenda."

I can't wait until I never have to listen to this nimrod again. Just hearing his voice makes me dumber. I start running into walls and tripping over the dog. Suddenly, I become entranced with shiny things and tend to play Ball in a Cup for hours. Please President Bush, stop hurting my brain.

RECESSION

So after a year of mortgage meltdowns, burning banks, unravelling unemployment and economic exigency, we are now officially considered in a recession. And we've been in one for the past year. No shit, Sherlock.

The NBER — a private, nonprofit research organization — said its group of academic economists who determine business cycles met and decided that the U.S. recession began last December.
By one benchmark, a recession occurs whenever the gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, declines for two consecutive quarters. The GDP turned negative in the July-September quarter of this year, and many economists believe it is falling in the current quarter at an even sharper rate.
But the NBER's dating committee uses broader and more precise measures, including employment data. In a news release, the group said its cycle dating committee held a telephone conference call on Friday and made the determination on when the recession began.

Now I'm not a financial guru, I don't have a Ph.D. in Economics from some fancy school, I don't even budget very well, but even I could figure out what was going on over the last year or so. I watched as my 401K was flipping out every time we had a 300 point gain or drop in the stock market. Hell, that's considered normal now. It wasn't like that 10 years ago was it? And yet the "experts" working in and for the White House didn't want to cause a panic and use the 'R' word.

• “We don’t believe we’re going to have a recession though.” [Vice President Dick Cheney, 1/30/08]

• “I think the experts will tell you we’re not in a recession.” [President Bush, 2/10/08]

• “The answer is, I don’t think we are in a recession right now.” [Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Edward Lazear, 2/11/08]

• "First of all, we're not in a recession." [President Bush, 4/22/08]

• “The data are pretty clear that we are not in a recession.” [Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Edward Lazear, 5/7/08]

• “I don’t think we are” in a recession. [Director of the National Economic Council Keith Hennesy, 6/3/08]

• “I think we have avoided a recession.” [White House Budget Director Jim Nussle, 7/31/08]

• “I don’t think anybody could tell you right now if we’re in a recession or not” [Dana Perino, 10/7/08]

I mean, shit, if I knew what was going on, and I knew that the White House was bullshitting us the whole time, (because really, when was the last time something truthful came out of the Bush Administration, if ever?) then what happened? How did we get into this situation?

Oh, yeah. Deregulation of the markets. Thanks, Bushies. To me, it's common sense that people in power will get away with as much as they can. I don't know if greed is in our human nature - it takes a special person to hold to his/her morals and regulate themselves (simple examples are spending an extra hour at the casino slot machine, cheating on your diet, or skipping an occasional class in college). But when you are part of a conglomerate there will always be the one rotten apple (or more) that will infect the rest of the barrel. That is why true self regulation does not work in the free market.

Look at that list of quotes above denying a recession. You expect it from Bush, Cheney and Perino. And maybe even the White House Budget Director because we've seen that no one inside the walls of the Bush gang is immune to corruption and deception. But Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Edward Lazear? Director of the National Economic Council Keith Hennesy? Shouldn't these be non-partisan positions?

I have tried this before, but have been unsuccessful. Now I want you to try to think of one positive accomplishment executed by the Bush Administration. Really think about it... I can't think of one thing in the last eight years, ONE THING, that this administration has touched that has gotten better or has benefited anyone other than the cronies they work for. It's the Reverse Midas Effect - everything they touch turns to shit.

(H/T Bob Cesca for the quotes)

T Minus 49 Days

"I think we are welcomed. But it was not a peaceful welcome."

-NBC Nightly News, December 2005

Team Of Egos

I've heard this phrase used multiple times over the course of the day when wondering about the upcoming Obama Administration. "How will this team of rivals/team of egos work with each other? " Someone actually said, "We're going to be looking at Senator Clinton's body language very closely." Whaaaa?!

For fuck's sake, we're going to be listening to the theories and estimations about team Obama from the very serious news media for the next 50 days! Help me, Jebus!

Scarborough Disciple Chuck Todd

After President-Elect Obama announced his National Security team this morning, Chuck Todd congratulated Andrea Mitchell for getting a Secretary of State "that would make news daily." He's obviously been taking his News Hackery 101 class from the Dean of the News Hackery Department, Joe Scarborough.


ADDING... More hackery.

David Shuster: Jim, during the campaign, Gates was publicly vocal in criticizing Obama's call for getting combat troops out of Iraq in 16 months. What did we learn to day about how those tensions will play out in the weeks and months to come?

Jim Miklaszewski: Well quite frankly David, I don't think there are any tensions. When Secretary Gates took over here at the Pentagon, two of his major objectives were to, one, start drawing down the number of American forces in Iraq and he has begun that with the commanders on the ground and also to bring down the level of violence, and to hand over a viable Iraq to the incoming administration in January.

And even Obama himself was careful to point out that he wasn't talking about the withdrawal of ALL the troops in 16 months... I don't think there's much difference between Obama and Gates on that... or on Guantanamo.... [Obama] said, "I want to close the damn thing."

Obama's Weekly Address - Nov. 29, 2008

I should have posted this yesterday (even though it was released on Thursday for Thanksgiving).

T Minus 51 Days

"As far as the legal hassling and wrangling and posturing in Florida, I would suggest you talk to our team in Florida led by Jim Baker."

- Crawford, Texas, November 30, 2000

Must Reads

Joe Conason: Obama's Shrewd Choices

Robert Pear, NY Times: Bush Aides Rush to Enact a Safety Rule Obama Opposes

Ceci Connelly, Washington Post: US Health Care -'Not Getting What We Pay For'

LA Times Accuses Obama of "Small Donor Myth"

Andrew Malcolm of the LA Times thinks he's caught Obama in a red handed lie. I think it's an inane false argument.

Everybody knows how President-elect Barack Obama's amazing campaign money machine was dominated by several million regular folks sending in hard-earned amounts under $200, a real sign of his broadbased grassroots support.

Except, it turns out, that's not really true.

In fact, Obama's base of small donors was almost exactly the same percent as George W. Bush's in 2004 -- Obama had 26% and the great Republican Satan 25%. Obviously, this is unacceptable to current popular thinking.

The study Malcolm is referring to counts any donation under $200 as a "small donation." And of course, as per federal law you are not allowed to contribute more than $4,600 to any campaign ($2,300 each for the primary and the general elections). They are looking at total donations and not individual donations. Now I consider myself a small donor, there is no doubt about that. I did not and probably won't ever max out at $4,600. Hell, I didn't even break $500 let alone the $1,000 that would have me considered a "large" donor, but I did break the $200 mark which puts me in a second category which Malcolm doesn't characterize in his post.

Now I don't know about you, but I think the whole point of "small" donations and the organization it took the Obama campaign to fine tune the donation process was the fact that small donors can be repeat contributors over the course of the campaign without causing too much of a burden for those who chose to donate again. I was a five time donor but I most likely would have given less if required to make a one-time large payment. It was a slow bleed instead of a major bloodletting, if you will. And that was fine with me - I was in a position to do so.

But in his article, Malcolm (who I am assuming is a Republican judging solely on his sarcastic characterization of Bush as the "great Republican Satan") is mixing percentages and actual donations. That's because the study does the same:

"Obama received about 80% more money from large donors (cumulative contributions of at least $1,000) than from small donors. "

Well... yeah. Fewer large donors are going to generate more money than a larger number of small donors. So now I'm going to play semantics with their numbers and actually come out with a more truthful result.

If you take what the Obama campaign said was the average donation from a small donor (some estimates were anywhere from $92 to $103 off the top of my head) and what the study in question claims the low end of the large donor category is ($1,000) then it's a ratio of about 10 to 1 to equate the monies. Of course large donors will account for more money. But how about the donors stuck in the middle like me who donated anywhere between $200 and $999? They accounted for 27% of donors according to the study.

So 53% of all Obama donors gave $999 or less and 47% gave $1,000 or more. Compare that with McCain's numbers: under $1,000 - 41%, $1,000 or more - 59%. And now let's look at the individual contributions:
Obama: Under $1,000 - 67%. Over $1,000 - 33%
McCain: Under $1,000 - 47%. Over $1,000 - 53%

You can play with these numbers all day, but the fact remains that overall, small donations whether one time or multiple accounted for more of Obama's total campaign finances than did the large donation no matter how studies or conservatives at the LA Times try to skew the numbers in order to cast doubt on the President-elect.

And the Obama campaign agrees:

The Obama team rejects the fundamental hypothesis of the study. If you were a donor who saved up to donate $20 to the campaign every couple months over the course of two years, an aide says, and all of those contributions eventually added up to more than $200, that doesn't mean you’re not a small dollar donor.

It's time that people like Andrew Malcolm and Jake Tapper join in the discourse on how to reverse the craptacular performance of the Bush administration and stop trying to lick the wounds of a huge Republican loss with semantic numbers games. Get used to the phrase "President Obama." He won. Get over it and move on.

'Tis The Season

When are 5am "door buster" sales going to be outlawed? Doesn't this seem to happen every year? The crowd at the Valley Stream, Long Island WalMart literally ripped the doors off the hinges to get in and shop on the morning after Thanksgiving. The store owners should be held responsible for negligent homicide.

There are a couple of easy ways to fix this.

1 - Beef up security.

2 - People were lining up at 9pm the night before. It's easy to hand out wristbands with numbers on them and then shoppers can go home for the evening. Your wristband determines what time you can return and enter the store in an orderly fashion to shop. Is that so hard?

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope you all enjoy the day. I am catching a 6am flight to Cincinnati to visit the in-laws for the day and coming back Friday evening, so posting may be light... unless something pisses me off.

Happy Turkey Day... except for the turkeys, of course.

T Minus 56 Days

"I believe that, as quickly as possible, young cows ought to be allowed to go across out border. [...] There's a bureaucracy involved and I readily concede we've got one. I don't know if you've got bureaucracy here in Canada or not, but we've got one in America, and there are a series of rules that have to be met in order for us to be able to allow the trafficking of cows back and forth."

- Discussing the Mad Cow Disease scare - Ottawa, Canada, November 2004

Happy 2nd Anniversary...

...to me! I just realized that two years ago today, I started Broadway Carl's Blog-O-Mania™ with my first post after watching Richard Dreyfuss discuss civics on Real Time With Bill Maher. Little did I know that two years later I'd still be posting away (1,395 including this one).

I'll never forget that civics lesson. And although there have been times I've felt "blogger burnout," and thought that maybe I need to stop, I know I'll continue to post, hopefully with the help of friends soon, but I won't let this blog die before its time.

Stop Digging, FCC

The first rule when you're in a hole is to stop digging.

The FCC and it's Chair, Kevin Martin are going to the Supreme Court in an attempt to reverse the 3rd Circuit Court's decision that they "acted arbitrarily and capriciously" in fining CBS $550,000 when Janet Jackson bared her boobie during Super Bowl XXXVIII.

That was almost five fucking years ago! Give it up, FCC.

Now Will She Shut Up?

Looks like crack ho Ann Coulter got beat up by her pimp.

If the New York Post's Page Six report is true, Coulter broke her jaw and her mouth is wired shut:
WE HEAR...THAT although we didn't think it would be possible to silence Ann Coulter, the leggy reactionary broke her jaw and the mouth that roared has been wired shut...

Do you think she'll finally shut the fuck up now? Yeah... me neither.

(H/T HuffPo)

Bush Hate

Is it wrong that I hate George Bush so much, that even in the case of him speaking live right now to welcome home troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan, I can't take it and change the channel?

Even now, he's on in the other room and I can hear that the "evildoers" rhetoric and the "war on terrorism" bullshit sounds like he pulled an old speech out of the archives from 2004! And we all know it's a cheap ass photo op, but the bullshit continues.

Fuck you, George. Oh, and guess what? The correlation remains that when he speaks, the stock market goes down. He's the Schleprock of Wall Street.

Mike Daisey

I am fortunate enough to have a lovely and caring wife who, when hearing from a colleague at work rave about a show he caught at Joe's Pub at the Public Theatre a couple of weeks ago, thought it would be my cup of tea and bought tickets.

We had a nice dinner, a good bottle of wine and watched Mike Daisey perform his one man show, If You See Something, Say Something.

From his website:

In this groundbreaking monologue, Mike Daisey tackles a story at the heart of our world today: the surprising, secret history of the Department of Homeland Security. This is woven together with the untold story of the father of the neutron bomb—called “the perfect capitalist weapon” for the way it kills civilians while leaving cities and industries intact—and a pilgrimage to the Trinity blast site, where atomic fire rewrote history a half a century ago and ushered in an age of American supremacy. Combining damning fact and searing personal history, Daisey takes us on a journey through the dark heart of America, in search of answers for what it means to be secure, and the price we are willing to pay for it.

It was an amazing performance. Daisey is a master storyteller and kept us riveted for a hour and fifty minutes without an intermission. Just Daisey at a desk, interweaving the story of his trip to Los Alamos, the site of the Trinity blast, and the inventor of the neutron bomb Sam Cohen and his friend turned adversary Herman Khan.

Daisey is playing at Joe's Pub through November 30th, and if you get the chance, you shouldn't miss it.

You can also read his blog here.

(Correction: a previous incarnation of this post said the show was an hour and ten minutes long. It was actually a little short of two hours - so make sure you pee before the show begins.)

Obamanomics

The Obama Economic Team

Tim Geithner - Secretary of the Treasury
Larry Summers - Director of the National Economic Council
Christine Romer - Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors
Melody Barnes- Director of the Domestic Policy Council

Now, just remember that the Bush Administration is still in power until January 20th - plenty of time to fuck things up even further than they already have. Don't fall for today's new talking point that Obama is now running things. We can only have one president at a time, and I wouldn't put it past Bush to further tie the hands of the incoming administration.

(H/T Crooks and Liars)

On Glenn Greenwald's Post of 11/23

On his Salon blog today, Greenwald wrote about the disappointment progressives are feeling with the Obama appointments so far. Give it a looksee.

For the most part, I agree with Greenwald. Obama never presented himself as a Progressive, and according to Greenwald, although Markos Moulitsas suggested that "progressives refrain from endorsing or supporting any of the Democratic candidates unless they work for that support, make promises and concessions important to the progressive agenda," progressives ignored that advice and just assumed that Obama was on our side because he is the antithesis of the Bush Administration.

But here's the thing. If you wanted a true progressive candidate, Dennis Kucinich was your man. Am I wrong on this? But Kucinich couldn't raise two nickels to rub together. I am on the Kuchinich list and he had a fundraising plan. To raise $50 million, he sent out a campaign message asking one million people to donate $50. I thought this was a great plan. Surely, there are many more than a million progressives in the country - $50 million should be easy. I sent him $50.00... and then never heard a word about it. There was no fundraising thermostat, no talk about it during his few appearances with the mainstream media. Nothing. Kucinich never got the support of the progressives, at least not monetarily.

So the liberals and progressives who thought that in Barack Obama they were going to get a popular Dennis Kucinich, they were just fooling themselves. Not to say that Obama doesn't have any liberal tendencies. And this is where I disagree with Glenn.

"...Barack Obama is a centrist, establishment politician. That is what he has been since he's been in the Senate, and more importantly, it's what he made clear -- both explicitly and through his actions -- that he intended to be as President."

While it may be true that Obama didn't let the "left" dictate his moves as McCain let the religious conservative wing call all the shots (as qualified by his decision making processes), I don't believe that Obama is a centrist. He may lean towards the center, but I truly believe it's from the left side. And I completely disagree with David Sirota's following statement:

"...we live in a culture that now organizes around celebrity - and Obama knew it, and knew that lots of left organizations aren't really ideological - they are, if anything, organized around the Democratic Party and Bush hatred. So he basically figured out that if he could become a celebrity - and a Democratic Bush-hating one - he could swallow up a huge part of the 'progressive infrastructure' and organize it around him..."

To come to the conclusion that Obama's campaign strategy was to be the celebrity candidate and dismiss basically every speech he gave, every policy plan he articulated, is so cynical that it's too much for me to accept. Is Sirota saying that McCain's "celebrity" ads were more grounded in truth than previously thought? I find that ridiculous.

There will always be someone who is disappointed in decisions that the future administration will make, but when has any administration ever been able to please everyone? And you'd think after reading the blogs these past three weeks since the election and listening to the pundits, that it's all over for Obama even before he takes office.

Now maybe I'm being naive, and Greenwald and Sirota are far more intelligent than I'll ever be, but as I was saying to a friend of mine during one of our many glass half full/half empty debates, it's going to take a long time to reverse the destruction left in the wake of Hurricane W. And for the pendulum to swing back to the left, it's going to have to travel through the center. Once the moderates see that leaning to the left may actually work, they may be more inclined in that direction as well. It's the boiling frog theory. If we slowly move back to the left with a ride through the center along the way, a lot more may be accomplished. But if we try an Evel Knievel rocket launch toward the left, we might just fall into Snake River Canyon.

Music Break! Harry Belafonte

My wife was just dancing with the dog and singing this song. It came out of nowhere - but it's a feel good song, so here it is.

Jump In The Line

T Minus 59 Days

"The legislature's job is to write law. It's the executive branch's job to interpret law."

- Austin, TX, November 22, 2000

Must Reads

CNN.com: Congressman to camp out in Capitol

Candace Gingrich: A Letter to My Brother Newt Gingrich

Michael Isikoff: Obama Considers Commission On Bush Admin Torture

Gail Collins: Time For Him To Go

Obama's Weekly Address - Nov. 22, 2008

Music Break! Tower of Power

What Is Hip?

Palin's Post Pardon Preposterousness

The Governor of Alaska pardoned a Thanksgiving turkey at a Wasilla turkey farm yesterday. She decided to conducted a post pardon interview just outside the farm. The thing is, she was standing in front of a slaughtering trough. It would be bad enough if she hadn't known about it, but when the cameraman asked if she was okay with the background, she reportedly replied, "No worries."

I've watched this video three times now and still haven't heard a word Sarah Palin said during the interview because 1- I originally thought it was gobbling turkeys and 2-because of what's going on in the background. (Warning: graphic images)



Follow along starting at the 1:55 mark:

"Oh! Well this was, this was neat. I was happy to get to be be invited to participate in this and, uh, you know it it- for one, you need a little bit of levity in this job, especially with so much that has gone on the last couple of months that has been so, uh, political obviously that it's nice to get out and, and do something to promote a local business and to, uh, just participate in something that isn't so, uh, heavy handed politics that, uh, invites criticism. Certainly we'll probably invite criticism for even doing this too, but at least this was fun."

Don't know how much fun it was for the turkeys.

Mukasey Collapses...

...in the middle of a speech.

Huffington Post: Mukasey's was noticeably shaking during his speech before he collapsed shortly before 10:20 p.m. EST. His security detail called 911. Mukasey was on the stage for 10 minutes being attended to by his FBI detail before medics arrived, according to a Justice Department official who was there. Mukasey was still breathing at the time, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to the media.

An FBI official said Mukasey got stuck on a word during his speech to the conservative legal group, repeated it several times and then "went down hard."

I hope he's okay and I don't mean to be flippant here, but I wonder if the word was "waterboarding"?


UPDATE (11am):

TPM: A spokeswoman says that Attorney General Michael Mukasey is doing better and that he apparently fainted during a speech, with no signs of a stroke or heart problem.

Maybe he was just drunk?

Too Much Hillary

It's been a week since it was leaked that the Obama transition team was looking at Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State. It's been the Hillary and Bill Show ever since. Bill will drag her down. Doe she want the job? Maybe she wants to be the next "Ted Kennedy" of the Senate. Hillary is torn on making a decision. Bill will do whatever it takes in the vetting process for Hillary. Blah, blah, fucking blah!

Proof positive that at least for the media, Hillary Clinton serves as more of a distraction than anything else. MSNBC even took Tucker Carlson out of mothballs to weigh in on the issue just now. Tucker Carlson! Didn't he have his show cancelled for a reason? If I didn't care what Carlson had to say when he had an hour each weekday, why would I care what he has to say now? But that's the thing. EVERYONE on the MSNBC payroll has beaten this whole Clinton/Sectretary if State thing to the point that they have to bring in Tucker Carlson to add his two cents. That's the equivalent of jumping the shark.

There is no news until Clinton makes a decision. Move on.

Waxman Unseats Dingell - UPDATED

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has beaten Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) for the Chairmanship of the House's Energy and Commerce Committee by a vote of 137-122. This is big.

Dingell was always a thorn in the side of Democrats when it came to Detroit and tougher CAFE standards. He is about three months away from being the longest serving House member in the history of Congress. Looks like there was some bitter infighting with this committee, with Dingell seeking a final two years as Chairman and Waxman refusing to wait another term to take over the seat.

"Our nation faces many challenges, including the climate crisis, and Congressman Waxman understands that we can't delay in taking on these issues," said Karen Wayland, legislative director of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

She also paid tribute to the outgoing Mr. Dingell, saying the group recognized his contribution on toxics, endangered species and other environmental issues.

UPDATE (11/21/08 1:05am):

Jane Hamsher: This is a huge defeat for the Blue Dogs, who have become the primary recipients of the massive corporate donations which used to flow to the Republicans. They were were hoping to use Dingell as a roadblock to keep any meaningful change from happening with regard to issues under the Committee's jurisdiction -- telecommunications and health care, energy and environmental protection, interstate commerce and consumer protection.

Though she never took a public position, nobody has any doubts that Nancy Pelosi orchestrated this.

This week the Senate voted to remain an exclusive club of self-protection and entitlement by letting the corrupt Bush enabler Joe Lieberman keep his gavel, but the House voted for progress.

Anyone who thinks that other members of the House aren't soiling themselves over this huge blow to the traditional system of seniority and entitlement hasn't been paying attention.

Clive Barnes Dies At 81

The only reason to read The New York Post is now gone.

Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg News: Clive Barnes, the avuncular and quotable critic who covered New York's theater and dance scene for more than 40 years, died early this morning in Manhattan at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He was 81 and recently had been diagnosed with liver cancer.

His death was confirmed by the New York Post, where Barnes had served as chief drama and dance critic since 1977.

Time To Shop At Lowe's

Home Depot Founder Bernie Marcus:

"If a retailer has not gotten involved with this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to Norm Coleman and these other guys," Mr. Marcus said, apparently referring to Republican senators facing tough re-election fights, then those retailers "should be shot; should be thrown out of their goddamn jobs."

I will now make a 64 mile round trip drive to the Lowe's in Farmingdale, Long Island for my building supplies and tools rather than shop at the Home Depot that is walking distance from my house. Thanks, Bernie Marcus.

T Minus 62 Days

"We thought we were protected forever from trade policy or terrorist attacks because oceans protected us."

- Santiago, Chile, November 20, 2004 at the APEC Summit

It's A Good Day To Be A Democrat

Everyone is freaking out. Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State? Joe Lieberman's not gone after what he did? What the fuck?! Change, my ass! I didn't sign up for this shit... Or did I?

Just stop and think about it for a minute.

Barack Obama ran on a message of change. A message of hope. But how can we hope to change if we don't rise above the partisan bickering and political infighting that has ravaged our democratic process for so long? Am I expecting Obama to select John McCain for a cabinet position? No. But I wouldn't be surprised if he did.

For once we chose a politician who is already making good on the promises he made while on the campaign trail, but we've been so used to disingenuousness and disappointment, we don't know how to react. We don't know what to make of this person who does what he said he would do.

Lee Stranahan:

...I don't like Joe Lieberman. I was disgusted by Hillary's campaign. And I couldn't be happier with Obama's decisions.

You see, I took all that talk about new politics seriously. In speech after speech, Obama said we had to move past "the smallness of our politics" and he didn't single out the Republicans. He didn't say the smallness of their politics. The smallness has been in both parties and it's turned our political system into a decades long episode of Crossfire where angry and self-righteous adherents shout at each other across an infinite abyss because they are both totally convinced of the righteousness of their own positions.

With these early pre-Presidential decisions, Obama is showing confidence in the idea that he ran on; that America was ready for not just new policies but for a whole new approach to governing. It's the biggest possible change I can imagine.

It's not just good politics. It isn't some clever move. It's what those better angels Obama kept mentioning look like. No wonder it's confusing to so many people of all ideological stripes.

Bob Cesca:

Seriously, now, it's probably not a good idea to totally lose our shpadoinkle every time an Obama announcement rubs us the wrong way -- at this point, there's no need to turn everything into some kind of spasmodic "he's betraying us!" red alert. Disagreements with the administration are bound to happen, but it's also important to keep an eye on the larger narrative thread. Where's he going with this? What's the strategy? Meanwhile, I can think of a long, long list of Republican crazy to prosecute, too.

So in a word: chill.

Jamison Foser:

...we're likely in for yet another round of media snark about the supposed conflict between campaigning on "change" and then hiring Clinton alums.

This is absurd.

...[T]he suggestion that hiring Clinton administration alums is inconsistent with "change" is dependent upon the belief that the Clinton and Bush administrations were identical. Nonsense.

...If the media chatterers want to claim that Obama isn't making good on his promise of "change," they're going to have to do better than simply pointing to the hiring of Clinton administration alumni.

And on that last point, where do you suppose Obama would pick his cabinet from? Preferably whoever he chose would need the requisite experience for the job they would be asked to do, and when was the last successful Democratic administration again? Oh, yeah, the Clinton Administration. Not to say that he's solely going to pick from old Clintonites. You don't see James Carville and George Stephanopolous running around with the Obama entourage, do you?

Think of it this way: Obama asks Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State and the "more of the same" crowd goes ballistic. These same people are saying that Bill Richardson should've been asked. Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Bill Richardson work for the Clinton Administration? Is that "more of the same"? Don't fall for the media dictating the narrative, what is change and what is more of the same. The media is looking for ratings and what better way than to create controversy?

A very intelligent friend of mine and I were having a debate on Obama and the choices he's made so far, between the FISA compromise vote, some of his possible staff choices, etcetera, but on this particular day he was angry about the extensive application form that you'd have to fill out in order to be considered for an interview for a place on the Obama staff. After a spirited talk, he said, "I guess I've been against something for so long, I'm having a hard time and forgotten what it's like to be for something."

And that's it in a nutshell - there will be disappointments along the way as Barack Obama plays more towards the center than we'd like if his administration is to get anything done. If being an extremist worked, we'd be talking about President-elect Dennis Kucinich (don't get me wrong - I love you, Dennis). But Bob Cesca is right. We need to take a step back, take a deep breath and chill for a bit. Let's try and reserve our judgment at least until the man is in office for a little while.

Adding - and by the way, another reason to be a happy Democrat today? Mark Begich has beaten Ted Stevens in Alaska. Go directly to jail, Ted. Do NOT pass Go. Do not collect $200.

Another Piece Of The Puzzle

NBC News confirms that Eric Holder has been offered and accepted the job of Attorney General for the Obama Administration.

There was speculation that the Obama transition team ran it by the Hill first in order to receive assurances that this confirmation would go through smoothly. Erc Holder was acting AG during the Clinton Administration after Janet Reno stepped down when he signed off on the Presidential pardon of Marc Rich.

Lieberman Retains His Position - UPDATED

I am not the least bit surprised.

The secret-ballot vote was 42-13.
Lieberman is losing his chairmanship on an environmental subcommittee.

A slap on the wrist. He'll be gone in 2012 anyway - they don't like him too much in Connecticut anymore. We'll see what transpires before then.


UPDATE (4:20pm): I'm torn on this one. Those of you who have read my previous posts probably already know that.

No one wanted to see Lieberman's balls cut off more than I did. Hell, if they'd asked I would've sharpened my knife and gone down to DC to do it myself - and paid for my own airline ticket for the pleasure. But we have to look at a few things:

1 - Obama's perceived power would have been undercut tremendously if the Senate had gone against his wishes even before he gets into office. Remember that Obama was the first one to say he hoped Lieberman would remain in the caucus.

2 - Lieberman is on thin ice and according to Evan Bayh, he can be removed from his Committee chairs at any time. So one wrong move, and they gut him like a gefilta fish.

3 - Lieberman is a man without a state. He'll be gone in 2012 if not before due to defection or some other such shit. He betrayed his constituents and they're not going to want him back. In the meantime, the Democrats have four years to prop up and back someone to run against Holy Joe in 2012.

Lieberman's job approval was down to 36 percent. With numbers like that, Lieberman only has one choice for the next four years. He has to move to the left, and he has to do it fast. Given his vulnerability with the Connecticut voters, it wouldn't surprise me if Joe Lieberman turns out to be among the strongest allies Barack Obama has in the U.S. Senate.

I think he'll die a slow, painful, insignificant death in the Senate soon enough (metaphorically speaking of course, for those reading this post from the NSA - Hi guys!).

Is Lieberman In Or Out?

Today is the day that the Senate votes by secret ballot to determine the fate of Holy Joe Lieberman and his Democratic Committtee Chairmanships.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT): "Every senator will have to vote the way he or she believes they should. I am one who does not feel that somebody should be rewarded with a major chairmanship after doing what he did. I never ask people, well you must vote for this person or that person. Everybody has to make up their mind. But I felt that some of his attacks that he was involved in against Senator Obama -- whom I did support... I was one of the very first in the Congress to support him -- I thought they went way beyond the pale. I thought they were not fair, I thought that they were not legitimate. I thought that they perpetuated some of these horrible myths that were being run about Senator Obama. I would feel that had I done something similar that I would not be chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee in the next Congress."

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND): "As a chairman of one of our significant committees in the Senate, not just going off and supporting a presidential candidate of the other side but also criticizing the candidate on our side, and also involving himself in a couple of senate races on the other side. The question is, is that acceptable? The answer is no."

Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ): "He was on the wrong side of the rope line. It is a decision that is hard to comprehend."

Howard Fineman: "Interestingly, people like Dick Durbin who is the first Democrat in the Senate -- the first Senator, and from Illinois, to support Barack Obama -- is really loaded for bear about Lieberman, he wants to kick Lieberman off that Chairmanship. Chuck Schumer, the head of the Campaign Committee likewise."

It's time to put up or shut up. I've been disappointed so often by the Democratic Party's bluster but lack of action that I'm really not expecting anything different this time. The 60 vote filibuster proof majority is a red herring - Lieberman has shown his colors and I tend to believe that he will lean toward the right side of the issues, and by "right" I don't mean "correct." He'll keep his chairmanships and continue to piss off the Democrats in the Senate and everyone else that wanted him gone.

But I do hope Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) is right: "...if he does retain his chairmanship, we still exert oversight over him and control over him. He doesn't have the ability to just do whatever he wants. The caucus still has the right to remove him from that position at any time if he starts going off on some kind of tangent.
So I simply think it maximizes the chances of getting progressive policies a better outcome if we have a Joe Lieberman, who is a little reticent, who apologizes for the things that he said that were way over the line, and instead is trying to do the right thing, instead of an embittered Joe Lieberman or a Republican replacement who will not be with us any of the time.
...You've got to remember, we have the right to change chairmen at any time during the session, and you know, we would expect him to conduct himself in that capacity, as someone who was supportive of the administration..."

Perhaps for fear of actually losing his position in the caucus, Lieberman will play nice, in which case keeping him on with the threat of throwing him to the curb if he gets out of line may work in the Democrats' favor. What's that saying? Keep your friends close and your meshugenahs closer.

David Frum Quits National Review

Ooooh, he's scared.

... David Frum, a prominent conservative writer who enmeshed himself in a minor dustup during the campaign by turning negative on Governor Palin, is leaving [the National Review]. In an interview, he said he planned to leave the magazine, where he writes a popular blog, to strike out on his own on the Web. ...

"I am really and truly frightened by the collapse of support for the Republican Party by the young and the educated," he said.

Maybe the very reason for the collapse in support is because of the education of the young. I, other other hand, am frightened of the prospects of a David Frum website.

(H/T HuffPo)

Huffington Guest Hosting On Maddow

It looks like Rachel Maddow might be taking a well deserved day off or two. Arianna Huffington is going to be guest hosting The Rachel Maddow Show tonight on MSNBC at 9pm EST. Boy, if the right wing nutballs were calling MSNBC lefty-liberal-pinko before, I wonder what they're going to say about Huffington as a guest host?

T Minus 64 Days

"This thaw -- took a while to thaw, it's going to take a while to unthaw."

- On liquidity in the markets, Alexandria, La., Oct. 20, 2008

Happy Holidays Indeed

Looking for that eye catching Christmas decoration to put on your front lawn that will be the envy of the entire neighborhood? Then look no further than this wonderful treat from American Family Association.

Let Your "Light" Shine For Christ This Christmas Season!

Looking for an effective way to express your Christian faith this Christmas season to honor our Lord Jesus? Now you can.... with the "Original Christmas Cross" yard decoration.

...Decorate this holiday season with the Original Christmas Cross to remind your friends, family, neighbors, and all who drive by your home, office, or church of the real meaning of Christmas.

Because nothing says "Peace on Earth, good will towards men" like having a five and a half foot burning cross in front of your house.

(H/T Bob Cesca)