Friday, April 29, 2011
OVER AND OUT?
Words.
"...Look, I’m not surprised that the first black president faces unprecedented scrutiny about his origins, and I hope Obama’s not surprised, either. This sort of thing comes with being a historic “first,” and there’s no way around it. To those deniers who can’t come to terms with the fact of the Obama presidency, I have nothing to offer but this: Yes, he’s smarter, richer, luckier and better looking than you, and he’s your president. Yours, mine and ours. And he’s black. Get over it.
But race alone couldn’t have generated the whole birther phenomenon. Also required was an increasing tendency for facts to be treated as personal accoutrements, as easily adopted or discarded as the newest-model smartphone.
If a fact is inconvenient, just ignore it. Put it aside. Surely there’s someone out there who’s selling a counterfeit version that might be more to your liking.
The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s adage that “everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts” seems so last century. I’m not talking about competing worldviews, I’m talking about a lack of agreement on what is provably, objectively true and what is not. Political polarization is old hat. Empirical polarization — a rejection of this nation’s founding Enlightenment principles — is something new..."
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
A Moment of Clarity.
"Now, normally I would not comment on something like this, because obviously there’s a lot of stuff swirling in the press on at any given day and I've got other things to do. But two weeks ago, when the Republican House had put forward a budget that will have huge consequences potentially to the country, and when I gave a speech about my budget and how I felt that we needed to invest in education and infrastructure and making sure that we had a strong safety net for our seniors even as we were closing the deficit, during that entire week the dominant news story wasn’t about these huge, monumental choices that we’re going to have to make as a nation. It was about my birth certificate. And that was true on most of the news outlets that were represented here." -PRESIDENT Barack Obama
X Games.
"Republicans have a problem. Their base is killing them.
...Which is to say that the loopy, enraged divorce from reality of the Tea Potniks has infected the entire party.
...The joke, however, may be on Rove and those reality-based Republicans trying to figure out a way to defeat Obama in the next election. If Rove really wanted to stop Trump and the birthers in their tracks, he should have looked Fox News viewers straight in the camera’s eye and told them to change the channel.
...If the espousal of birtherism truly becomes a necessity for winning the Republican presidential nomination, the right’s war on empiricism will have served not merely to build and mobilize a base, but also to isolate that base from the majority of Americans who still inhabit, at least most of the time, a reality-based universe..."
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
"LET'S WORK!"
A Moment of Clarity.
"WHERE THE JOBS AT?"
Words.
"...Listening to the debate in Washington, you’d think the nation was absorbed by the compelling saga of deficit reduction. You’d get the impression that in households across America, parents put their children to bed and then stay up half the night sifting through piles of think-tank reports on the kitchen table, trying to calculate whether there will be enough in the Social Security trust fund to pay benefits beyond 2037.
And you’d be wrong. Those parents are looking at a pile of bills on the kitchen table, trying to decide which ones have to be paid now and which can slide. The question isn’t how to manage health care or retirement costs two decades from now. It’s how the family can make it to the end of the month.
President Obama gives signs of beginning to perceive this disconnect. His Republican opponents, not so much.
...The wise men and women of Washington complain that the American people are sending a contradictory message — that, essentially, they’re acting like spoiled brats who want luxuries they can’t afford. But I think the people are speaking quite clearly and sensibly, and I think politicians had better start listening..."
THE WASHINGTON POST: The word most politicians ignore: Jobs
Words.
"...Listening to the debate in Washington, you’d think the nation was absorbed by the compelling saga of deficit reduction. You’d get the impression that in households across America, parents put their children to bed and then stay up half the night sifting through piles of think-tank reports on the kitchen table, trying to calculate whether there will be enough in the Social Security trust fund to pay benefits beyond 2037.
And you’d be wrong. Those parents are looking at a pile of bills on the kitchen table, trying to decide which ones have to be paid now and which can slide. The question isn’t how to manage health care or retirement costs two decades from now. It’s how the family can make it to the end of the month.
President Obama gives signs of beginning to perceive this disconnect. His Republican opponents, not so much.
...The wise men and women of Washington complain that the American people are sending a contradictory message — that, essentially, they’re acting like spoiled brats who want luxuries they can’t afford. But I think the people are speaking quite clearly and sensibly, and I think politicians had better start listening..."
Monday, April 25, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
"IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!"
("And I feel fine.")
WORDS. For Your Consideration...
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
TELEVISION TELEVISION!
Another morning. Another workout. Another viewing of a music video from an act getting its feet wet/trying to grab our attention/stand out in the crowd. Worthy of a repeat listen? Press play and find out...
New flava in MY ear!
David Dallas.
Big Time.
New flava in MY ear!
David Dallas.
Big Time.
Monday, April 18, 2011
"My Chain Heavy."
"The American ruling class is failing us — and itself.
...An enlightened ruling class understands that it can get richer and its riches will be more secure if prosperity is broadly shared, if government is investing in productive projects that lift the whole society and if social mobility allows some circulation of the elites. A ruling class closed to new talent doesn’t remain a ruling class for long.
But a funny thing happened to the American ruling class: It stopped being concerned with the health of society as a whole and became almost entirely obsessed with money.
...If the ruling class were as worried about the deficit as it claims to be, it would accept that the wealthiest people in society have a duty to pony up more for the very government whose police power and military protect them, their property and their wealth..."
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Money Talks.
An ongoing discussion.
Words. For Your Consideration...
"We will not be able to control our budget deficits without raising taxes. That simple reality has brought us to a moment of truth in American politics. President Obama’s speech Wednesday lived up to that moment, and now Democrats and Republicans in Congress must take a similar stand.
...Taxes reveal who we are as a people and what we value. Polls consistently show that majorities of Americans are willing to pay taxes and even have them increased when the revenues are devoted to their priorities, such as education, health care and deficit reduction.
...It makes sense to seize today’s bipartisan support for cutting tax exemptions as a way to increase revenue. I also believe that we must eliminate Bush’s tax cuts for the rich. Where is the decency in cutting taxes for those making tens of millions while middle America struggles? This is a fight over fairness that Americans can understand..."
THE WASHINGTON POST: As in 1984, we need the courage to raise taxes
Words. For Your Consideration...
"We will not be able to control our budget deficits without raising taxes. That simple reality has brought us to a moment of truth in American politics. President Obama’s speech Wednesday lived up to that moment, and now Democrats and Republicans in Congress must take a similar stand.
...Taxes reveal who we are as a people and what we value. Polls consistently show that majorities of Americans are willing to pay taxes and even have them increased when the revenues are devoted to their priorities, such as education, health care and deficit reduction.
...It makes sense to seize today’s bipartisan support for cutting tax exemptions as a way to increase revenue. I also believe that we must eliminate Bush’s tax cuts for the rich. Where is the decency in cutting taxes for those making tens of millions while middle America struggles? This is a fight over fairness that Americans can understand..."
Friday, April 15, 2011
CHURCH.
A Moment of Clarity.
Words.
"It was refreshing to hear all those unambiguous declarations from President Obama on Wednesday. “I will not” let Medicare become a voucher program or deprive families with disabled children of needed benefits. “We will” reform government health-care programs without disavowing the social compact. “I refuse” to sign another renewal of the Bush tax cuts for millionaires. Republicans “want to give people like me a $200,000 tax cut that’s paid for by asking 33 seniors each to pay $6,000 more in health costs. . . . And it’s not going to happen as long as I’m president.”
Okay, there weren’t any lines with the simple heat of “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” or the terse power of “Make my day.” But Obama’s budget manifesto represented a significant warming of his usually cool rhetoric. He said he wanted to find common ground but instead devoted much of the speech to drawing lines in the sand.
And thank goodness. If ever there were a time when lines desperately needed to be drawn, it’s now..."
THE WASHINGTON POST: The selfish budget? Or the selfless one?
Words.
"It was refreshing to hear all those unambiguous declarations from President Obama on Wednesday. “I will not” let Medicare become a voucher program or deprive families with disabled children of needed benefits. “We will” reform government health-care programs without disavowing the social compact. “I refuse” to sign another renewal of the Bush tax cuts for millionaires. Republicans “want to give people like me a $200,000 tax cut that’s paid for by asking 33 seniors each to pay $6,000 more in health costs. . . . And it’s not going to happen as long as I’m president.”
Okay, there weren’t any lines with the simple heat of “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” or the terse power of “Make my day.” But Obama’s budget manifesto represented a significant warming of his usually cool rhetoric. He said he wanted to find common ground but instead devoted much of the speech to drawing lines in the sand.
And thank goodness. If ever there were a time when lines desperately needed to be drawn, it’s now..."
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Money Talks.
An Ongoing Discussion/Moment of Clarity.
THE WASHINGTON POST: It’s the economic debate, not the U.S., that’s bankrupt
Monday, April 11, 2011
Hungry Like the Wolf.
A Moment of Clarity.
Words.
"...In no serious country do threats to shut down the government become a routine way of doing business. Yet in our repertoire of dysfunction, we are on the verge of adding shutdown abuse to abuse of the filibuster in the Senate.
...In those Tea Party shouts of “Shut it down,” the “it” drips with contempt. We cheer when drug dens or terrorist havens are shut down. There should be no glee over shutting down our government. Threatening the functioning of the public sphere is not an acceptable tactic in a democracy.
For Obama, it is not good enough to cast himself as the school principal scolding competing congressional gangs. He needs the courage to defend the government he leads. He needs to declare that he will no longer bargain with those who use threats to shut down the government or force it to default on its debt as tools of intimidation. We’re all a bit weary of Obama telling everyone to be grown-ups, but this would be the grown-up thing to do."
THE WASHINGTON POST: The high cost of hating government
Words.
"...In no serious country do threats to shut down the government become a routine way of doing business. Yet in our repertoire of dysfunction, we are on the verge of adding shutdown abuse to abuse of the filibuster in the Senate.
...In those Tea Party shouts of “Shut it down,” the “it” drips with contempt. We cheer when drug dens or terrorist havens are shut down. There should be no glee over shutting down our government. Threatening the functioning of the public sphere is not an acceptable tactic in a democracy.
For Obama, it is not good enough to cast himself as the school principal scolding competing congressional gangs. He needs the courage to defend the government he leads. He needs to declare that he will no longer bargain with those who use threats to shut down the government or force it to default on its debt as tools of intimidation. We’re all a bit weary of Obama telling everyone to be grown-ups, but this would be the grown-up thing to do."
Friday, April 08, 2011
A Moment of Clarity.
Words.
"If the federal government shuts down at midnight on Friday — which seems likely unless negotiations take a sudden turn toward rationality — it will not be because of disagreements over spending. It will be because Republicans are refusing to budge on these ideological demands:
• No federal financing for Planned Parenthood because it performs abortions...
• No local financing for abortion services in the District of Columbia.
• No foreign aid to countries that might use the money for abortion or family planning. And no aid to the United Nations Population Fund, which supports family-planning services.
• No regulation of greenhouse gases by the Environmental Protection Agency.
• No funds for health care reform or the new consumer protection bureau established in the wake of the financial collapse.
Abortion. Environmental protection. Health care. Nothing to do with jobs or the economy; instead, all the hoary greatest hits of the Republican Party, only this time it has the power to wreak national havoc: furloughing 800,000 federal workers, suspending paychecks for soldiers and punishing millions of Americans who will have to wait for tax refunds, Social Security applications, small-business loans, and even most city services in Washington. The damage to a brittle economy will be substantial.
...There are a few hours left to stop this dangerous game, and for the Republicans to start doing their job, which, if they’ve forgotten, is to serve the American people."
MIXTAPE FRIDAYS!
HAM, EGGS, BACON & CHEESE!
A Playlist.
1/Bamboo Banga/M.I.A.
2/New Beat/Toro y Moi
3/Oh My Love/Chris Brown
4/Somebody To Love Remix/Justin Bieber & Usher
5/45:33(Part Two)/LCD Soundsystem
6/Trip to Your Heart/Britney Spears
7/Fashion Beats/The Black Eyed Peas
8/Some Children/Holy Ghost! featuring Michael McDonald
9/Take Me Over/Cut Copy
10/My House/Hercules & Love Affair
11/Still Sound/Toro y Moi
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
A Moment of Clarity.
Words. For Your Consideration...
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