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20 December 2008

Saturday Shuffle

Rolling Thunder - Ride
Walk the Dogs - Royal Fam
Something - The Beatles
I Alone (live) - Live
Napoleon (live) - Ani DiFranco
Never Believe - Ministry
Lovelife - Lush
School - Nirvana
Coin-Operated Boy - The Dresden Dolls
Doctor Rock - Ween

13 December 2008

Saturday Shuffle

Get Low - Lil' Jon and the Eastside Boyz
Message in a Bottle (live) - The Police
No. 13 Baby - The Pixies
And The Dance Goes On - The Mission UK
Venus in Furs - The Velvet Underground
Cowboy - Kid Rock
Into Dust - Mazzy Star
Little Man, What Now? - Morrissey
I Burn For You - The Police
Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel

12 December 2008

Do the right thing

Well, George, here's your chance.
 
While it will not--by the longest of long shots--atone for what your policies have wrought over the last eight years, you now have the opportunity to do whats right for the country and working Americans.  Word is, you and Paulson are thinking about using part of the $700B TARP funds to supply the rescue loan for the Detroit Three.
 
It's time to stop thinking and start doing.
 
After years of trying to convince us that things like pre-emptive war, torture, unlawful surveillance, and indefinite detention without trial are in our best interests, here is a no-brainer.  Jobs and American industry?  No convincing necessary.
 
By way of contrast, your brethren in the Seante have decided that crucifying the UAW is what's in America's best interests.  Now, maybe they were figuring you'll step in and leave them blameless for whatever happens: spending the money or the industry collapsing through their inaction.  Maybe it's a calculated move to give you one, last "white horse" moment with which to shore up your legacy and go out on a high note.
 
I don't care why they did it and frankly, doubt that either was the case.  Breaking the union was the purpose, here, no matter the cost.  The election is over and with it the pandering to blue collar interests.  In their minds, that union membership card trumps the bluest of collars, and puts the worker squarely in the enemy camp.
 
Legacy time, Mr. President. 
 
Years ago, you famously talked about the choice to stand with us or stand against us.
 
What's it going to be?

Russian Roulette usually endangers only one

Leave it to the GOP to manage to draw a bead on everyone else, too:
Cheney: It's 'Herbert Hoover' time
Senate Republicans' dramatic revolt against a White House-backed auto industry rescue plan is fraught with political risk.

While the high-stakes gambit places them squarely within the mainstream of anti-bailout public sentiment, at the same time it exposes the party to potentially devastating criticism that its failure to compromise doomed the Big Three automakers and deepened the economic recession.

...By opposing the automaker bailout, Republicans now find themselves vulnerable to charges that they are insensitive to ailing American auto companies and the millions of workers reliant on the domestic auto industry, a problem compounded by their inability to rally around a clear alternative to the $14 billion package of loans that had been backed by Democrats and the White House.

Administration officials have been warning for weeks that failure to pass the bill could lead to an even deeper recession.

That was the message Vice President Dick Cheney brought to a closed-door Senate GOP lunch Wednesday, reportedly warning that it'll be "Herbert Hoover" time if aid to the industry was rejected, according to a senator familiar with the remarks.
Dick Cheney thinks this stand is out of line.

Think about that.

Dick.

Cheney.

When *that* raging liberal can hear the train coming, you just might want to get off the track.

11 December 2008

Detroit Three rescue plan collapses

This is all manner of not good:
A $14 billion emergency bailout for U.S. automakers collapsed in the Senate Thursday night after the United Auto Workers refused to accede to Republican demands for swift wage cuts.

...The implosion followed an unprecedented marathon set of talks at the Capitol among labor, the auto industry and lawmakers who bargained into the night in efforts to salvage the auto bailout at a time of soaring job losses and widespread economic turmoil.

"In the midst of already deep and troubling economic times, we are about to add to that by walking away," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman who led negotiations on the package.

Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the GOP point man in the talks, said the two sides had been tantalizingly close to a deal, but the UAW's refusal to agree wage concessions by a specific date in 2009 kept them apart.

The autoworkers' contract doesn't expire until 2011.

"We were about three words away from a deal," said Corker. "We solved everything substantively and about three words keep us from reaching a conclusion."
In case you were wondering just how much the Republican party hates unions, I give you Exhibit A. We're going to have an absolute bloodbath on our hands when the markets open, tomorrow.

It's reprehensible that the Senate GOP is so hell-bent on bending the UAW over that they're willing to risk the collapse of the domestic auto industry. For months, all we heard was Joe Sixpack this and Joe Sixpack that. Guess if ol' Joe has a union card in his wallet, he doesn't matter quite so much.

09 December 2008

08 December 2008

Removing the log from our own eye

Good.
Anh 'Joseph' Cao beats Rep. William Jefferson in 2nd Congressional District

Indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson suffered what may be the final blow of his storied political career in the most improbable way Saturday, when an untested Republican opponent took advantage of Louisiana's new federal voting rules -- and an election delay caused by Hurricane Gustav -- to unseat the nine-term Democrat.

With the upset victory, Anh "Joseph" Cao, a eastern New Orleans attorney who fled war-ravaged Saigon as a child, becomes the first Vietnamese-American in Congress. He will represent a district that was specifically drawn to give African-Americans an electoral advantage and one in which two of every three voters are registered Democrats.

...Cao said he began eyeing a run for the 2nd District seat shortly after a Virginia grand jury indicted Jefferson last year on charges of bribery and public corruption following revelations in 2005 that FBI agents found $90,000 in marked bills in his freezer and linked him and several relatives to a wide-ranging bribery scheme.
I guess the feds finding $90K stuck between your Klondike Bars and Tater Tots does present an opponent with a rather ripe opportunity, eh?

Not shedding any tears for Rep. Frigidaire, that's for sure. Dems like that, we don't need. It would've been a thorough embarrassment to see Ted Stevens voted out and Jefferson remain. If ever there was a time to start with a clean slate--well, at least as clean as possible--this is it. Pretty hard to work on an agenda when our reps keep having to answer questions about being able to caucus with Mr. Freeze.

06 December 2008

Saturday Shuffle

Surf Beat - Dick Dale & the Del-Tones
Asian Rut - Morrissey
Wild Thing (live) - Jimi Hendrix
Where Is My Mind? - The Pixies
We Can Work It Out (live) - Tesla
Surf Rider - The Lively Ones
Pride & Joy (live) Stevie Ray Vaughn
Wail - The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
I Woke Up In A Strange Place (live) - Jeff Buckley
Spacegrass (live) - Clutch

Kind of a "live" week, I guess...

05 December 2008

This man wears a robe?

Via Politico:
SCOTUS to debate Obama citizenship?

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide Friday whether to take up a case over president-elect Barack Obama’s citizenship — one of a few around the country seeking to nullify his election, but this one has an interesting lineage. It was referred to the high court by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s only African-American justice.

Maybe Thomas is just returning the favor — putting through a case that questions whether Obama should be president, after Obama said he wouldn't have picked Thomas for the high court.
Awesome addition to this already pathetic "story."

If this explanation bears even a passing resemblance to how this actually materialized--and the fact that Justice Souter already told the plaintiff to hit the bricks adds to the suspicion--then Thomas sounds like he should be sporting a diaper, instead.
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