Best song of 2012: "Savage With Barometer" by North Atlantic Oscillation

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Tomorrow I'm going to put up a post on my favorite music of 2012.

First, though, I want to post the video of one of my favorite songs of 2012, the amazing "Savage With Barometer" by the Scottish band North Atlantic Oscillation (lyrics here).

It's from NAO's outstanding second album, Fog Electric -- released by Kscope, which dedicates itself to "post progressive sounds."

I'll have more to say about NAO tomorrow. In the meantime... enjoy!

(By the way, other candidates for my favorite song of 2012 include "Hero" and "The Stairs" by Family of the Year, "All the Wars" by The Pineapple Thief, "Bow Your Head" by Anna Ternheim, "Phoenix" by Antje Duvekot, and "Try" by P!nk.)

The right to Dweezil your kid

By Frank Moraes 

The Associated Press is reporting with some relish that Iceland limits the names that people can have. If you have a baby, you are limited to 1,712 boy names and 1,853 girl names. So if you want to name your baby son "Snorri," you can just forget it! Actually, I'm kidding: "Snorri" is on the list. The article claims, "In a country comfortable with a firm state role, most people don't question the Personal Names Register." I see this as a little bit snarky. 

This is very American. In America, we are all free to name our children whatever we want! Yes, that's good government policy: let the proles have some meaningless right; it will distract them from all the important rights they don't have. In America, you can name your child anything but you can't marry whoever you want. In Iceland, it is the opposite. Who is more free? 

I am reminded of Anatole France who said, "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich and the poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." The Associated Press might put it differently: "The law, in its majestic equality, allows the cold, poor, and sick to name their children anything they want!" 

Just count your blessings that you don't live in a fascist country like Iceland. Long live Dweezil!

(Cross-posted by Frankly Curious.)

It's the jobs, stupid

By Frank Moraes 

In December, the economy added 155,000 new jobs. As usual, the private sector job growth was better (168,000), but we lost government jobs (13,000). These are not great numbers. The government really ought to do something about this. And contrary to what many people believe, there is much that the government could do. Unfortunately, the Republicans are in favor of policies that make both the economy weaker and the budget deficit worse. The Democrats have some decent ideas. President Obama's American Jobs Act would help quite a lot. But it is only a start.

I don't think that people understand just how big a problem we face. The problem is largely due to the media. While the base unemployment rate was as high as 10%, all we heard about was the budget -- as though that was the most important thing in the world. If it hadn't been for the police abusing Occupy Wall Street protesters, we'd never have talked about jobs. And now, it seems we are back to fretting over the budget again.

So how big is the unemployment problem?

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Django Unchained continues Hollywood's sad, shameful legacy of dealing with slavery era

By Marc McDonald

The critical adulation that greets every new movie by Quentin Tarantino is a sad commentary on our culture. Tarantino is an overrated hack who does nothing more than rip off ideas from vastly superior directors from Europe and Asia. He then waters down these ideas and re-works them into movies that are infinitely inferior to the originals. 

Tarantino is hailed as a "daring" and "radical" filmmaker, when in fact his slick, commercial movies are about as daring and radical as a cup of Starbucks coffee. 

Django Unchained, the latest Tarantino film, is receiving universally rave reviews, as well as big box office numbers. It has also drawn controversy (which no doubt has boosted the film's box office -- as controversy always helps shift product). 

I haven't seen Django Unchained and I have no intention of doing so. So why do I already detest this movie and urge my fellow progressives to boycott the film? 

It's because I believe that the American film industry really has no business making mere "entertainment" movies about the slavery era. 

Hell, America has never even honestly confronted this horrific chapter in our history. In fact, we are still in many ways a racist society. (The incredibly vicious right-wing attacks on President Obama over the past few years merely confirm how racist a nation America is to this day). We can try to pretend we've moved beyond racism as a nation -- but we're really just fooling ourselves.

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A.M. Headlines

(Philadelphia Inquirer): "Jobs report says growth was slow, stable"

(AP): "Obama urges action on debt ceiling"

(The Hill): "Boehner absolves GOP defectors, seeks to reassert his command"

(Los Angeles Times): "Obama likely to nominate Chuck Hagel for defense secretary"

(Politico): "Christie 'straight talk' starts to grate on GOP right"

(New York Times): "Scare amplifies fears that Clinton's work has taken heavy toll"

We are not alone

By Mustang Bobby 

Via TPM:

The Milky Way contains at least 100 billion planets, or enough to have one for each of its stars, and many of them are likely to be capable of supporting conditions favorable to life, according to a new estimate from scientists at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California (Caltech).

That specific figure of 100 billion planets has been suggested by earlier, separate studies, but the new analysis corroborates the earlier numbers and may even add to them, as it was conducted on a single star system — Kepler 32 — which contains five planets and is located some 1,000 light years away from Earth in between the patch of sky found between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra, where NASA's planet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope is pointed.

I just hope none of them are watching us. How embarrassing.

Debt ceiling "negotiations"

By Frank Moraes 

Greg Sargent at The Plum Line reports this morning that media are already covering the upcoming raise in the Debt Ceiling in Republican terms: "Media Shouldn't Get Rolled by GOP Debt Ceiling Spin." He refers to Politico reporting on Mitch McConnell's new demands, "Democrats now have the opportunity -- and the responsibility -- to join Republicans in a serious effort to reduce Washington's out-of-control spending." Two quick things to notice here. First: there is no "out of control spending"; this is the same old conservative canard that is illustrated by my second point. It is the Democrats' responsibility because... Republicans don't know what to cut; they just know the government is too damned big!

Sargent argues that we shouldn't see the raising the debt ceiling as a negotiation. This is because a negotiation involves two or more parties deciding what they will give for what they will get in return. The common media framing for the debt ceiling is that the Democrats will give spending cuts for the Republicans raising the debt ceiling. But the Republicans already want to and will eventually raise the debt ceiling. Both Boehner and McConnell have admitted that not doing so would be terrible for America. So this is not a negotiation, unless you use the Obama definition where you give up something you want in return for the other side taking something they want.

Read more »

Campaign debts and the new Congress

By Richard K. Barry

USA Today is reporting that an unusually high number of House freshman will likely be spending more time raising money and less time on the nation's business than their constituents might like:

More than 40% of the 82 incoming House freshmen had more debt than leftover cash in the bank, a USA TODAY analysis of final election reports shows. For more than two dozen of them, the unpaid bills topped $100,000 each. Seven of the 12 new senators showed debts on their Dec. 6 reports to the Federal Election Commission.

Not surprisingly, the new members have been bombarding supporters for campaign money and staging special fundraising events even before being sworn in.  

It's hardly worth saying that money is at the center of politics in America, but it's good that we remind ourselves how much time members of the House have to spend raising money given that they are up for reelection every two years. And, to say the other obvious thing, how beholden they are to those with deep pockets who can help ease their fundraising anxieties. 

Boehner's mature negotiating

By Frank Moraes

(Ed. note: For more on Boehner's latest move, see Jon Chait, who notes that the deal that was reached didn't come from the Obama-Boehner negotiations but was only achieved when the White House went around the House and dealt first with the Senate. So Republicans in the House are dealing with the fact that a deal was reached after they pulled out of negotiations by saying they won't do any more negotiating with the president? Yes, they're insane. -- MJWS) 

The Hill reported a couple of day ago that Boehner is angry at that weasel President Obama. The article says that Boehner "spent weeks shuttling between the Capitol and the White House for meetings with the president in hope of striking a grand bargain on the deficit." Horrors! He must be exhausted! All that shuttling... The solution: all negotiations will be held at a Starbucks equidistant from the White House and the Capitol.

I'm just kidding! Boehner isn't being that reasonable. Instead, he is all butt-hurt that the president was mean to him. Boehner claims, "Those efforts [for a Grand Bargain] ended in failure, leaving Boehner feeling burned by Obama and, at times, isolated within his conference." The solution: Boehner's taking his toys and going home.

Now I'm not kidding! Boehner is not going to negotiate with the president anymore. He's just going to pass his bills in the house and hope to put pressure on the Senate. Or something. The Hill says that this is going to be hard for Boehner because he is a weak speaker. Also: blah, blah, blah.

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Obama first since 1956 to win 51% twice

By Richard K. Barry

It's good to win and it's even better to win convincingly. As Bloomberg reported yesterday:

Eight weeks after the Nov. 6 presidential election, a revised vote count in New York shows that Barack Obama is the first president in more than five decades to win at least 51 percent of the vote twice.

State election officials submitted a final tally Dec. 31 that added about 400,000 votes, most of them from provisional ballots in the Democratic-stronghold of New York City that were counted late in part because of complications caused by superstorm Sandy.

And to put that in historical perspective:

Obama is the first president to achieve that level of support in two elections since Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 and the first Democrat to do so since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944.

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Good riddance to the 112th Congress

By Michael J.W. Stickings

As Think Progress notes, "it will go down as one of the least productive and most partisan legislative classes in all of American history."

And that's saying something.

Now, not to excuse the many spineless Democrats on Capitol Hill, but obviously it's the Republicans who are the problem.

They're the disloyal opposition -- a party of right-wing extremism, uncompromising absolutism, crushing obstructionism, shameless opportunism, bigoted theocratism, and blatant anti-Americanism (for all their claims of patriotism, they always put party/ideology before country, as in their opposition to economic stimulus and raising the debt ceiling, for example).

The 112th was indeed very bad. Just don't expect the 113th to be much better. Remember, the GOP still controls the House, and the crazies are still very much in control.

A.M. Headlines

(New York Times): "Day of records and firsts as 113th Congress opens"

(AP): "Congress to vote on Superstorm Sandy flood aid"

(Politico): "GOP scrambles to fix its primary problem"

(Reuters): "Geithner's planned departure leaves Obama in tough spot"

(GoLocal Worcester): "Common Wealth: Who's hot and who's not in Mass. politics"

The new Congress

By Mustang Bobby

Today is the constitutionally mandated day that the new Congress is sworn in, and it's about damn time, too. The 112th sucked; they were the least productive since the 1940s, and they went out with a couple of howlers, like refusing to vote on disaster relief for Sandy and failure to pass the Violence Against Women Act.

For pure entertainment value, the rants by Republicans Chris Christie and Peter King were fun to watch, and I'm sure that there are some Democrats who are happy to have them sound like Democrats, except for the fact that both men are pretty much jerks and in spite of their trashing of their own party, they're still jerks.

But if you're holding out some kind of hope that this new Congress will be any better than the last one, then you might as well be out in the back yard looking for unicorns, because if anything, this gang will be just as dickish as the last. And that's the optimistic forecast. They will still have to deal with the debt ceiling, spending cuts, and the hundreds of other things that come along, and with about 50 to 75 of the membership still hardcore Tea Partiers who will shriek from the rafters about everything from repealing Obamacare to vaginal probes all in the name of the sacred job creators, John Boehner will find yet another excuse to start drinking at noon.

The only hope for any progress is that the GOP will continue to self-destruct and continue to marginalize themselves into oblivion. 

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

P.M. Headlines

(New York Times): "Boehner retains Speaker's post, but dissidents nip at his heels"

(Washington Post): "The 113th Congress is the most diverse in history"

(Washington Post): "Hillary Clinton to return to work next week"

(New York Daily News): "Treasury Secretary Geithner to leave at the end of month: report"

(New York Times): "Signing defense bill, Obama disputes its limits on detainees"

Final Note: Patti Page, singer of "Tennessee Waltz," dead at 85

By Richard K. Barry

Here's a part of Rolling Stone magazine's mention of her passing:

Born Clara Ann Fowler, Page was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s and had 19 gold and 14 platinum singles. Page landed on the charts 111 times, and her blend of genres made her a traditional-pop icon. She scored her first million-selling track in 1950 with "With My Eyes Wide Open, I'm Dreaming," and sang hits like "(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window" and "Old Cape Cod." Her signature track, "Tennessee Waltz," later became an official state song of Tennessee, and her popularity led to her own TV shows on CBS, NBC and ABC in the Fifties and film roles in the Sixties

They also note that before her death it was announced she is to be one of this year's recipients of the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Awards at this year's Grammy ceremony.

 I don't know if my mother remembers, but when I was a little kid, she used to go around the house singing Page's "How Much is that Doggie in the Window." My favourite, and my wife's favourite, is Page's signature "Tennessee Waltz."

There's all kinds of music out there, and people were selling a lot of records long before most of us were born.

 This clip is very sweet.

 

(Cross-posted at Hogtown Hipster.)

America's broken healthcare system calculator

By Frank Moraes

In the past, I've written about little economic tools that the Wonk Blog people put up. They are fun and even enlightening. But they aren't that great. For example, the Fiscal Cliff Calculator only allowed you to try discrete binary budget items: you repeal the defense sequester or you don't. Of course, it is hard to create a web application that has too many options. This isn't a question of computing power; it is a question of usability.

David Rosnick of the Center for Economic and Policy Research has created a great tool. It has many advantages over the usual Wonk Blogofferings. Foremost is the fact that it deals with something I care about a lot: the effect of healthcare costs on the US budget. But also: it shows how the budget would be affected directly (by changing revenues and expenditures) and by comparison with other countries' healthcare expenditures.

It is a source of great frustration to me that the vast majority of the policy world is so focused on our supposed budget problems. To me, this is very simple: if we fix our over-priced healthcare system, we have no budget problem. And if we don't fix our over-priced healthcare system, we will have much bigger problems to worry about than our federal budget.


Read more »

Gov. Christie: Still making friends in the GOP

By Richard K. Barry

Gov. Chris Christie called it "disgusting" yesterday that the House adjourned without voting on a $60 billion relief package for victims of Sandy. As ABC News reported:

My bestest buddy in the
whole world

Christie, who is considered a possible Republican presidential candidate four years from now, said there was "only one group to blame, the Republican Party and Speaker Boehner."

There Christie goes again, making friends in the GOP. Of course, he was hardly alone as a slew of New York and New Jersey Republicans jumped in to blast members of their own party for their inaction. Christie called it "selfishness and duplicity" and drew attention to "the callous indifference to the people of our state."

Following Christie's press conference in which he spoke so lovingly of his political kin, representatives from New York and New Jersey announced that Speaker Boehner promised a vote on the package on Jan. 15.

Maybe Christie still considers himself a viable presidential nominee for 2016, but he certainly doesn't seem to care much about making friends in the GOP. Or perhaps he realizes that winning reelection in NJ is critical to seeking higher office, though it is unlikely he'd lose to anybody - even Bruce Springsteen. Or maybe he knows he'd never win the GOP presidential nomination so he might as well go all in in Jersey. 

Or maybe it's all just politics and nobody will care. 

Hillary Clinton recovering

By Mustang Bobby

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is still in a New York hospital being treated for a blood clot in her head after suffering a concussion in December.

It did not result in a stroke, or neurological damage,” Dr. Lisa Bardack of Mt. Kisco Medical Group in New York and Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi of George Washington University said in a joint statement released Monday. 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to make a full recovery after spending a fourth day in a New York City hospital for a blood clot in her head that developed following a fall and concussion she suffered last month. NBC’s Anne Thompson reports. 

To help dissolve this clot, her medical team began treating the secretary with blood thinners. She will be released once the medication dose has been established.

This is a standard and safe therapy for such a blood clot, according to a review published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2005. Dr. Jan Stam of the University of Amsterdam said the clots are rare – affecting 3 to 4 people out of a million every year. Some doctors fear that blood thinners for a clot near the brain could be dangerous, but it’s the best way to dissolve the clot. “More than 80 percent of all patients now have a good neurologic outcome,” Stam wrote.

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A sensible reform to Social Security

By Carl

In the wake of the fiscal bump in the road, much was left undone in fixing the economy while paying down some of the outstanding debt.

A lot of trial balloons are being floated, and I want to focus on one for now: Social Security. First, let's review the whole program. Social Security is a life insurance policy -- I'l l get back to that-- the government purchases for you with your money. 

While this is referred to as a "payroll tax," it is more useful to think of it as a deposit into a long-term savings account. Monkeying with the withholdings may have immediate consequences as a stimulus (similarly, raising the rates can help quell inflationary spikes) but in the long run, what you put in, plus the minimal amount of interest the government can earn on it by law, is what you should get back.

How you receive this amount is determined by actuarial tables -- like an insurance policy's -- based on life-expectancy calculations that even I have a hard time wrapping my mind around. Of course, none of this accounts for exogenous factors like, say, a change in your life expectancy.

Read more »

A.M. Headlines

(AP): "Congress ushering in new members, with old divide"

(New York Times): "Clinton out of hospital after treatment for clot"

(Politico): "Obama's debt problem"

(The Hill): "Boehner, Pelosi facing defections as House votes for Speaker"

(Los Angeles Times): "New rule makes residency easier for immigrants with US kin"

P.M. Headlines

(Los Angeles Times): "Enraged Chris Christie blasts Boehner, House GOP over Sandy aid"

(MSNBC): "Where's the apology? Silence on the right on Hillary's illness"

(NBC News): "In emails to supporters, White House highlights fiscal cliff deal"

(MSNBC): "House GOP blocks Violence Against Women Act"

(Xinhua): "Violence intensifies in Syria, UN says 60,000 killed in prolonged conflict"

The U.S. does not have a spending problem

By Michael J.W. Stickings 

Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) tweeted at 5:02 PM on Wed, Jan 02, 2013: 

At 15.7%, revenue as a percentage of GDP is at or near the lowest level in 60 years. #budget #fiscalcliff 

Which is to say, the way to solve the budget/debt problem is with higher tax rates on those who can afford it (with a threshold well below 400K), along with sensible, progressive tax reform.

It is not by cutting spending, which only hurts those who need help the most -- whether it's discretionary or entitlement spending.

Unless we're talking about the bloated military, which could certainly afford a cut or two.

This is all so obvious.

If only the Democrats weren't so fucking spineless and the Republicans weren't so fucking insane -- and President Obama weren't so desperate to make deals with domestic terrorists.

Prelude to a catastrophe

By Frank Moraes

(Ed. note: This post was written before the House vote last night. But the deal is still the deal, and it's not great. -- MJWS)

For the record, the Senate Fiscal Cliff deal is worse than indicated the day before yesterday. It doesn't raise capital gains tax rates as high as thought: only up to 20% and only on incomes above $450,000. It does not tax dividends as regular income. The estate tax was not raised as high as it should have been, thanks largely to fucktard Democrats. The sequester will only be delayed for two months; what's the point? Doctors get more money, but the payroll tax holiday is ended. As I wrote yesterday morning, this is very bad. And we get a 9-month farm bill. Nine months?!

It isn't horrible. But again: this is all we get when the Democrats hold all the cards. Just wait for a month or two when the Republicans hold all the cards. What are they going to demand? Burnt human sacrifice? Paul Krugman points out the real demon in this deal:

So why the bad taste in progressives' mouths? It has less to do with where Obama ended up than with how he got there. He kept drawing lines in the sand, then erasing them and retreating to a new position. And his evident desire to have a deal before hitting the essentially innocuous fiscal cliff bodes very badly for the confrontation looming in a few weeks over the debt ceiling.

He goes on to say that if Obama does a good job managing the debt ceiling fight, then this deal will look pretty good in retrospect. But really: how likely is that?

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Just a bump in the road

By Carl

So we barely teetered on the brink of the fiscal "cliff".

Technically, we went over it, but as with all things Washington, we never really went over it until we hit bottom which we were not in danger of doing for at least a few weeks, if not a few months.

I sort of figured it would end up this way: rather than vote to raise taxes on the wealthy, the Republicans took a cheat. They allowed taxes to go up on all of us, then turned right around and voted to lower taxes on the middle class and those making up to $400K a year.

This means they can keep blowing Grover Norquist AND "save our economy," because in two years, what yahoo in Alabama is going to remember that taxes actually went up?

Is it perfect? No. Everyone will find some fault with it. I'm not convinced it's even the best deal we could squeeze out of the Republican caucus, but I'm not running the negotiations, Joe Biden is. The real battle is when the newly-delayed sequestration bill is taken up, sometime before March. Those automatic cuts will be painful but less so than the posturing that will happen between now and then.

Read more »

A.M. Headlines

(New York Times): "Fiscal deal's passage ends standoff"

(Politico): "The fiscal deal that almost wasn't"

(NBC News): "Fiscal cliff compromise leaves few satisfied"

(AP): Storm impedes salvage of grounded drilling ship"

(ABC News): "Stanford holds off Wisconsin 20-14 in Rose Bowl"

House follows Senate and passes fiscal cliff deal

By Michael J.W. Stickings

It wasn't clear when a vote was coming, but it came tonight:

The House gave final approval Tuesday night to a bill to rescind tax increases for the vast majority of Americans, but only after a day of closed-door debate among Republicans, who were forced to allow a vote on a compromise many in their party disdained.

The final tally, 257 to 167, included most of the chamber's Democrats and fewer than half of the Republican majority. 

It looked for a time as if there could be enough Republican opposition to block the deal, but in the end Boehner had enough votes:

Early in the evening, Republicans held a second caucus meeting. This time, take-out Chinese food replaced sandwiches, and resignation subbed for defiance.

Several Republicans said afterward they feared that, if the bill failed and taxes went up, their party would take the blame.

"You do have to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em," Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), an ally of Speaker John A. Boehner, said as he emerged from the meeting. "We've been beaten [in] this fight."

Well, they folded, sort of, but whether they were beaten is debatable.

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The Reaction's Word of the Year: Douchebag

By Michael J.W. Stickings

GIF, short for "graphic interchange format," is the pick of the Oxford American Dictionary, which obviously went for somewhat after-the-fact novelty. Merriam-Webster, going with political relevance, selected capitalism and socialism (even though the whole "socialism" attack is a fabrication of the right). Collins Dictionary, sticking to "the top news stories and trends of the year," picked words on a month-by-month basis, words like "fiscal cliff," which of course isn't one word but two, and Eurogeddon, which is sort of fake. The Oxford English Dictionary looked back at 2012 neologisms to see which ones might stick, new words like "omnishambles" and "flexitarian" (which isn't new; I've been using it to describe my food choices for years). The American Dialect Society will be selecting its pick later this week, and possibilities include "Frankenstorm." There's just no end to the WOTY fun.

At this political blog of ours, though, it would appear that one word emerged this year as our winner, and it's one that played a big role in our election coverage. No, not "hope" or "change." Those are so 2008, and, besides, with President Obama unchallenged in the primaries and running pretty much as a known commodity in the general election, this was a year dominated by the Republicans, specifically, once the detritus was cast aside (Bachmann, Cain, Santorum, Trump, Gingrich, etc.), by Willard Mitt Romney.

And back in January, on the 19th, long before he had the nomination sown up, and with still so much drama to come, we set the tone for the year to come:

-- "Privileged rich douchebag: The Mitt Romney narrative for 2012." 

Yes, douchebag. It was our definition of Romney and it's now our Word of the Year for 2012.

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Senate passes bad "fiscal cliff" deal. So is it time to give up on President Obama?

By Michael J.W. Stickings

To begin, let me put it this way: There are good things and bad things about the fiscal cliff deal the Senate passed today, including:

The good: Tax rates for the wealthy go back to Clinton-era levels; federal unemployment insurance is extended for another year; and certain tax breaks for low-income Americans are extended for five years. (And, as Krugman notes: "no giveaway on Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. Basically, no spending cuts at all." That's huge.)

The bad: The threshold for the new/old tax rates is set at $450,000 for families and $400,000 for individuals, much higher than the $250,000 threshold Obama and the Democrats had initially sought; nothing is done about the debt ceiling, and so the Republicans can continue to use it to hold the political process and the economy hostage; the threshold for the 40 percent estate tax is set at the same level as that for income tax, which is very high, and it's also tied to inflation, which Republicans wanted, and sequestration is put off for just two months, meaning we'll be back in this whole fiscal mess sooner rather than later.

It seems like a bad deal to me, one that requires Obama and the Democrats to give up way too much to the Republicans just to get something, anything done. And it seems like they're willing to give it up without much of a fight.

Read more »

A.M. Headlines

(Reuters):  Revelers gather in NY's frigid Times Square on New Year's Eve"

(CBS News): "Fiscal cliff deal heads to House after Senate vote"

(Washington Post): "Obama, Senate Republicans reach agreement on 'fiscal cliff'"

(New York Times): "Senate passes legislation to allow taxes on affluent to rise"

(Reuters): "Maryland ushers in New Year with its first gay marriages"

(CBS News): "Hillary Clinton expected to make 'full recovery'"

Happy New Year from The Reaction

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I can't speak for everyone here, but I must say I don't much care for New Year's. It's probably my least favorite "holiday" of the year (with Valentine's Day being my least favorite faux "holiday"). But, well, a day off's a day off, and it's been a pleasant holiday season so far, so who am I to complain?

Besides, tonight we followed tradition by bringing some good Indian food and then watching movies: first the always-amusing Despicable Me (for, like, the 1,453rd time) with the kids, then the incredible Rashomon (the Criterion Blu-ray version, of course). And then flipping through some truly awful TV, Canadian and American alike, before finally landing on CNN (Anderson Cooper, looking helpless, and the astoundingly unfunny Kathy Griffin?) for the usual anticlimax. And now I'm watching the rather underrated Ghostbusters II -- because, why not, and it's the best thing on.

All this after seeing The Hobbit in IMAX 3D this afternoon. I wasn't exactly looking forward to it -- though I did like the LOTR trilogy quite a bit -- but... wow. Awesome, awesome movie. (Though the highlight of that experience was the incredible extended preview for Star Trek: Into Darkness, which plays more like a short film than a trailer -- possibly the best movie preview I've ever seen.)

Anyway, we'll be back with the political blogging soon. Thanks to Richard for holding down the fort during my break the past several days.

(Hey, did you know America went over the fiscal cliff? No? Seems like nothing happened? Uh, yeah, that's because there's no fucking fiscal cliff. It's just an invention of the media, the fiscal scolds, and various Republicans who are trying to scare the country shitless so as to score some political points. So, yeah, whatever. A deal will get done, likely very soon, and it'll be a deal done mostly on President Obama's terms (because he has the leverage now that the Bush tax cuts have expired), which, while hardly perfect, will be way better than a deal done on strictly Republican terms.)

In the meantime, I may not much care for New Year's, but I do love this...

Happy New Year, everyone. Make it a happy and safe one, and best wishes for 2013.

Push that envelope right out of the box

And think outside the bucket.

By Capt. Fogg

I would never have heard of Lake Superior State University were it not for their annual list of objectionably worn out words or cliché tropes that need to die -- right now. I have to admit that their track record of publishing this somewhat facetious list has impactified their reputation in an awesome  way, enough so that I go looking for it every year.

Of course, my lifelong effort to avoid pop culture makes some of these things new to me although they may be sufficiently old to you and malodorous enough to the list makers at LSSU to warrant the Big Ban. I do agree with most of their choices of course. Guru for instance has not only gone  gangrenous and flyblown and worse, it's also a bit insulting to actual gurus, but YOLO, you only live once, was a total surprise to me, and hearing it once was more than enough. YODO, to you dude -- You Only Die Once -- and if I had my way it would be slow and painful.

Trending was a bit of a surprise until I read that it's being used in a novel way by journalists: those irrepressible word creators -- used not in the sense that a trend line in a graph of literacy rates, for example, is trending downward, (and I think it is) but in the odd sense that something trending is being more frequently noticed and talked about by those same journo-babblers. Becoming trendy, as it were.

Trend that one right into the trash, please. The same dank dumpster that efforting as a pretentious journo-twit replacement for "trying" was tossed into a few years back. Yes, I agree with the UP gurus (damn) that bucket list should kick its own bucket and those Randites using job creators to describe wealthy people should be stuffed into that bucket before kicking it under the bus. I also agree that it's time to push fiscal cliff over the fecal cliff (along with the hack it rode in on), but, all in all, the annual list includes only 12 entries and is really meant to amuse. 

There's a slightly serious side to this, but mostly we're trying to have fun with it,

said university PR director Tom Pink, but I'm a bit more serious than that. I mean I'd like to carry a cricket bat with IMPACT written on it so as to create a serious impact with people who can't get through 12 words without uttering some maggoty metaphorical use of that word. No, I don't want to  kick ass  because that's another item on my own personal enemies list. It's a long list too, including anything one is likely to say in a Starbucks to persuade them to condescend to charge you eight bucks for a cup of coffee. 

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A.M. Headlines

(New York Times): "Day of seesaw talks produces no accord on fiscal cliff"

(Businessweek): "On the fiscal cliff, Republicans are blowing a great deal"

(USA Today): "Poll: Obama, Clinton still USA's most admired"

(Washington Post): "Hillary Clinton hospitalized with blood clot"

(USA Today): "9 killed in tour bus crash along Oregon highway"

Final Note: Fontella Bass, singer of "Rescue Me," dies at 72

By Richard K. Barry
Ms. Fontella died in December 26, 2012 in St. Louis of complications from a recent heart attack.

About the 1965 song "Rescue Me," the New York Times writes this:

A major crossover hit, the song reached No. 4 on Billboard’s pop chart and has remained a staple on oldies radio, movie soundtracks and television commercials; Aretha Franklin sang a version of it for a Pizza Hut ad in the early ’90s (as “Deliver Me”).

As they add, Fontella Bass's "Rescue Me" was an "indelible example of the decade's finest pop and soul."

Yes it was, and the horn section in this clip is pretty cool too, not to mention the dance steps of all involved. It is so hard to get rhythm and horn players to dance these days.


(Cross-posted at Hogtown Hipster.)

P.M. Headlines

(New York Times): "GOP yields on fiscal points, clearing way for more talks"

(Politico): "No cliff deal as final hour approaches"

(Fox News): "Obama makes passing gun control measures a priority in 2013"

(Washington Post): "Worst year in Washington: The tea party"

(Seattle Post Intelligencer): "5 killed in Oregon bus crash on I-84"

Great GOP Moments: Craig T. Nelson sums up today's Republican mindset in one sentence

By Marc McDonald


A few years ago, actor Craig T. Nelson was being interviewed by creepy GOP nutcase Glenn Beck and made a comment that was widely ridiculed (see video above).

"I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anyone help me out? No," Nelson said.

Nelson was praising the virtues of America's "capitalistic" society. Many commentators pointed out the contradiction of Nelson's praise of a dog-eat-dog capitalist system and his admission of collecting welfare while bizarrely claiming that nobody had ever helped him out.

What many of these commentators missed though was that there really wasn't any contradiction in Nelson's comments -- at least in the minds of today's Republicans.

I've talked to many Republicans over the years. The vast majority of them claim to be hard-core capitalists, who support a vicious dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-fittest, Ayn Rand/wet dream-type society. In a nutshell, they all are strongly in favor of shutting down all government programs with the exception of the Pentagon.

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Wonky Awards disappoint

By Frank Moraes

Wonk Blog presented their second annual Wonky Awards on Friday. I like the idea of it. I appreciate policy wonks a great deal. And I heartily agree with many of the awards. But others? In particular, the top two awards are ridiculous.

First let's look at some of the well picked awards. They named The Tax Policy Center "Think Tank of the Year." The TPC does a lot of good work, but they were particularly important this year because they showed that Romney's tax plan was bunk. There were just not enough loopholes in the tax code to pay for his $5 trillion tax cut and extra $2 trillion military spending.

Wonk Blog also named It's Even Worse Than It Looks as "Book of the Year." This is welcome because—What a surprise!—the book has received very little attention because it doesn't pretend that the problems in Washington are equally the fault of the Democrats and Republicans. Wonk Blog also gives some much needed attention to software patents, even though the entire intellectual property system is broken.

Read more »

A.M. Headlines

(Los Angeles Times): "Obama blames GOP for 'fiscal cliff' brinksmanship"

(Associated Press): "Fiscal cliff deal would pale against expectations"

(NBC News): "Immigration and gun violence top president's post-fiscal cliff agenda"

(New York Times): "Biden is back for a 2nd run at gun limits"

(Reuters): "EPA faces legal battles, might take easy confirmation road"