<$BlogRSDUrl$>

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

A Better Way To Fight Bankruptcy? 
From the invaluable Cursor, we see this article in the LA Times:
"When you have seen a system that has gone from a few hundred thousand cases to 1.5 million last year — most of that increase during the fat years of the Clinton administration — you must conclude something is not right," said Edith H. Jones, a federal appellate court judge in Houston who served on a blue-ribbon panel to review bankruptcy law in the 1990s and is widely believed to be seen as on President Bush's short list for a position on the Supreme Court.


So, the bankruptcy problem is Clinton's fault... The possible future Supreme Court Justice makes it sound like there were more bankruptcies under Clinton than under Bush. Sadly, No! The lowest bankruptcy year under Bush is higher than the highest one under Clinton.

The Not So Honorable possible Supreme Court Justice doesn't take into account the distribution of the "fat" and who has to file bankruptcy. Interestingly enough, the only years bankruptcy applications have gone down in the cited chart are the two years after the minimum wage was raised.

The data suggests that if Congress really wants to fight bankruptcy then they should raise the minimum wage.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Cue Up Rimshot 
What did George W. Bush's grandfather call Hitler?

A bad investment.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Check! 
Left I On The News notes that Bobby Fischer called Bush a war criminal. A sentiment that I agree with. I also decided to republish the comments I made there.

Fischer got in trouble for violating sanctions to attend a chess match in Yugoslavia in 1992.

Cheney's company got billions for violating sanction against Iraq, Iran, Libya, etc. Cheney's part of the take is in the millions.

Guess which one is wanted on criminal charges?

Friday, March 25, 2005

Negroponte - Up To Old Tricks? 
Rigorous Intuition has some interesting tidbts he gleaned from Democracy Now! and other places. Sgrena was shot from behind. Not by inexperienced troops but by Negroponte's special security detail. On a secured road reserved for high ranking diploamts. The US won't let Italians examine the car.

Nothing to see here folks. Move along...

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

R.O.U.S. Found 
Okay, not a rodent but a hog of unusual size. It wasn't a fire swamp either.

Monday, March 21, 2005

Robert Parry on Information Warfare 
Parry writes:
While Democrats may argue over whether U.S. troops should stay in Iraq or come home now, there should be little dispute that the American people are owed the truth about the history of U.S. relations with both Iraq and Iran.
Bush and his minions "stay on message" and pay for government propaganda. Democrats need to be less fearful of being painted as anti-business or soft on terror and take a stand. Many Democrats, I am looking at you Biden and Lieberman, don't comprehend that if they will stand for anything they will end up standing for nothing.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Illegal Invasion - Day 730 
On a day that most newspapers covered the second anniversary of Bush's unpopular invasion and protests against his war crimes what did the Carlyle Group's newspaper have on its front page? A woman who is still in a coma after 15 years.

DeLay and Frist Violate The Constitution 
This law aimed at Mr. Schiavo appears to be a bill of attainder.

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Diseased Beef and Rice 
Rice is trying to get Japan to buy untested beef. The Japanese wish to have every cow tested for BSE. Is there something the FDA isn't telling us? Why does Bush refuse to a let a company test every cow so they can resume profitable exports to Japan?

NeedleNose Describes The Anvil 
Democrats should not throw the Republicans a lifeline now that Miserable Failure has a tight grip on the third rail. Swopa proposes:
-- (1) The official counterproposal should be not to raise taxes, but to cancel the proposed extension of the 2001 tax cuts (an issue that has already divided Republicans in Congress). At every opportunity, Democrats should portray these as new tax cuts, pushing Dubya's language about the urgency of fixing Social Security back in his face and insisting that we can't worsen this crisis by cutting taxes again.

-- (2) When the Bushites complain that these aren't really new tax cuts, but the same ones from four years ago, feed them Dubya's words from 2001 about how the cuts wouldn't endanger the budget surplus or Social Security. Now that we know those promises have been broken, we can't allow ourselves make the problem worse by passing new tax cuts to replace the expiring ones.

The added advantages of step 1 is because the Republicans are divided the Democrats have a chance of finally winning one in Congress. The Tom DeLay Republicans like Reichert will go on record with a very unpopular stance.

Friday, March 18, 2005

Will Rumsfeld Be Next? 
Frans van Anraat, 62, is charged with supplying thousands of tons of agents for poison gas that Saddam's military used in the 1980-1988 war against Iran and against its own Kurdish civilians, including an attack on the town of Halabja in 1988.

Cheerleaders - Work of the Devil? 
Legislation filed by Rep. Al Edwards would put an end to "sexually suggestive" performances at athletic events and other extracurricular competitions. Who will they get to judge if a performance is sexually suggestive? Colin Powell, Jr.?

Rep. Edwards, what if getting down on your knees to pray is considered sexually suggestive? What about all those football players slapping each other on the butt? Isn't that sexually suggestive? Bending over for a huddle. Bending over for a snap of the football. The quarterback unloading the football. The cheerleaders doing splits. Pom-poms. All could be construed as sexually suggestive (depending on the maturity and hormone level of the viewer.)

When cheerleading is outlawed only outlaws will cheerlead.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

On Days Like This I Wish There Was A Hell 
I know where polluting executives and drug company executives who destroyed my son's life with mercury would end up.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

The King Of Zembla Has A Point 
He thinks checkpoints are misnamed.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Hack Hack Hack 
Alan Greenspan cements his place in history as a Republican hack. Forget, for a moment, that he raises interest rates during a Democrat's re-election and lowers them or holds them steady during a Republican one. He cemented his place as a Republican hack by stating The Carlyle Group Rag reports:
Mr. Greenspan acknowledged that he had wanted to reduce the budget surplus, but said he also proposed "trigger" mechanisms for Congress to re-evaluate the tax cuts if the budget forecasts proved wrong.
In 2002 and 2003 those estimates proved wrong and yet Greenspan went to bat for the fiscally irresponsible Republicans and the scandal plagued Bush administration.

Monday, March 14, 2005

Bringing Home The Bacon 
Our Northwet Congress Critters are crowing about the $6 billion in transportation funding. Whoo hoo way to go guys - bring 2% of transportation bill to 2 states that represent 3% of the population. I believe Reichert thinks DeLay likes him. When these guys go out for a night of poker with $100 and come back with $60 do they brag about it?

Sunday, March 13, 2005

NY Times - RIP 
They get their own Googlebomb. Carlyle Group Flunkie.

<a href="http://www.nytco.com/company-directors-wekennard.html">Carlyle Group Flunkie</a>.
and
Carlyle Group Rag
<a href="http://nytimes.com/">Carlyle Group Rag</a>

That Explains A Lot! 
Have you ever wondered why the New York Times seems to be in the pocket of Bushco? Singularity notices that the Carlyle Group is on their board of directors.

Saturday, March 12, 2005

He Forgot the Free Speech Zone! 
All-American patriot Mike Bailey is thrown out for speaking the truth during a Bush stage managed two minute hate.

Friday, March 11, 2005

Those Over-Achieving Troops 
Rigorous Intuition points out that John "Death Squad" Negroponte's security detail were those responsible for shooting the Italian journalist. They had set up a "temporary checkpoint." Why am I sure the "full and fair investigation" will find nothing unusual about that?

At Least Bush Is Good At Something 
Professor calculates the odds of fair and free elections in Ohio and Florida and Pennsylvania in 2004 as an extremely long shot. 1 in 662,000. Bush is two for two at stealing elections although in fainess to the Miserable Failure I guess it would be more accurate to say he he is good at having elections stolen for him and handed to him.

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! 
American politician who admired Hitler and Nixon gets failing grade for racial issues in his first year in public office.

Thursday, March 10, 2005

New Twist In the MF Googlebomb 
Bush's bio now appears as only a link? Sinister or glitch? Search Engine Watch thinks it's a glitch.

Republicans Deem Reichert "At Risk" 
Tom DeLay offers lots of money to Reichert to insure re-election. I don't know about you but I want my US Representative to be representing Washingtonians - not some corrupt power monger from Texas.

What's Up With That? 
According to the Seattle Times:
Bush's first legislative victory of his second term ... Among Washington state's delegation, Democrats Brian Baird, Rick Larsen and Adam Smith joined two Republicans in voting for the measure.
Republicans have control; they don't need Democrats turning tricks for them for free.

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Today's Magic Word for Keeping Your Press Pass 
"Bush Vindicated."

Everybody stayed on message as all claimed Bush wasn't taking credit as he appeared at a photo op designed to give him credit.

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Ummm - Bush Forgot About Poland! 
U.S. rejects charge from wounded Italian journalist and is able to hold a straight face while promising a "full investigation." The full investigation can apparently consider everything except what the victim think happened...

Sent Email To My Senators 
Please vote against the changes to Bankruptcy. If the Republicans can't make it easier for working families to stay out of bankruptcy by raising the minimum wage then they shouldn't make it easier for credit card companies to destroy those families.

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Perhaps Eason Jordan Was Right After All 
They can't find the Italian journalist's car that they shot to smithereens. Of course, we are supposed to believe it was an "accident."

Kurt Nimmo doesn't believe it was the insurgents who kidnapped Sgrena.

By the way, is CNN going to hire Eason Jordan back?

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Greenspan Supports Consumption Tax 
Old Republican hack Greenspan has already bought everything he needs- the tax won't hurt him. Younger people who are in the prime of their shopping years won't be so happy. Rich people can shop abroad and have it shipped minus VAT.

How much of an idiot Republican hack and old tool fool is Greenspan? He shills that this regressive tax on working families and reducing their purchasing power by 15% will stimulate growth.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

There Are Two Ways To Break A System 
Atrios posts about the FEC attempting to regulate free speech on the Internet.

The argument of course is what is the value of a link. I think the Busheviks are focusing on the wrong thing.

Value or cost? The government is incompetent to put a value of a link from Atrios, Little Green Snotballs etc. It is not the government's job to set market prices. The value can't be computed because no formula can be devised that will withstand a court challenge. The cost, however, can be computed. It costs Atrios 0 dollars and 0 cents to post the link and the recommendation.

There are two ways to break a system. One is to break all of its rules. The other is to follow all of its rules. The easiest way to kill this is for all blogs to send in the paperwork to the FEC stating they paid 0 dollars and 0 cents to link to this site or that site.

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

From The Do As I Say Department 
Bush demands that Syria removes its troops from Lebanon. Nothing like leading by example, Georgie. It gets funnier. Bush believes that the presence of a foreign military is an impediment to free elections in Iraq Lebanon.

New Corollary to Schrodinger's Cat 
Is the cat alive or dead has been was seen as too wishy-washy for our Republican overlords. The new corollary is to be called Bush's Frog. If the frog is alive then Bush will blow it to smithereens. The only paradox though is it will be called the Healthy Frog act or some such drivel.

(Apparently Dr. Frist did like the diabolical death part for the cat in Shrodinger's paradox.)

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com