Bits and Pieces for the Week of January 31 - February 6

How to Fall 35,000 Feet—And Survive (Mike)

Iran finds a very expensive way to solve the country's animal overpopulation (Mike)

I've tried many internet radio sites. I find RadioTuna to be one of the easiest and fastest to use. (Mike)

A master of the art of parking in tight spaces. (Mike)

For those conservatives who think different, "Obama Largely Inherited Today’s Huge Deficits". (7 of 6)

With a sampling error of only +/- 2%, here is a new poll assessing how Republicans stand on today's social issues. Hint: it's worse than you can imagine. (Mike)

"President Obama will be doing another televised question-and-answer session tomorrow morning -- this one with the Senate Democratic Caucus." Will any Progressive Senators be asking him tough questions? (7 of 6)

Hell freezes over!! Sarah Palin and I agree on something, she wants Obama to fire Rahm Emanuel. I think it's needed for Rahm's right-center domestic policies... she feels it should be for, "...remarks he allegedly made about the intellectually disabled." Damn it Sarah, Rahm wasn't talking about you or your son... he was talking about us Liberals! (7 of 6)

If large real estate firms walk away from responsibilities and debt why shouldn't the small borrower? "Arizona law professor Brent White says the only thing standing between many
'underwater' homeowners and a better financial future is a misguided sense that walking away from a loan commitment is morally wrong." (7 of 6)

My previous posts about the iPad tablet gave both the pros and cons of the first model. Tablets in general, however, will quickly become a new part of most of our lives, iPad or not:

Why You'll Use a Tablet. Yes YOU! By Mike Elgan February 3, 2010 I know, I know. You've checked out the Apple iPad, and you're not impressed. You think it's a limited, pointless, overpriced unpocketable iPod for gullible trend whores drunk on Cupertino Kool-Aid. You despise its closed, proprietary platform, lack of built-in keyboard, missing camera, unremovable battery, no Flash support and monthly fee for AT&T 3G access. Besides, the sudden tablet craze is just an overhyped fad, right? It's easy to predict that tablets will be huge sellers. After all, even skeptics can believe that other people will get caught up in a marketing-driven trend. But I'm going to make an even bolder prediction. I'm going to predict that you, personally, will be using a tablet within 18 months. That's bold because if you're reading this Web site, you're probably far more technical and sophisticated than the average user. And you're probably a professional evaluator of computer equipment. Chances are, you're skeptical about hyped new fads, and have far better memory about the Next Big Things that never happened. But I think that if you're anti-tablet now, you'll change your tune once you see what's really on offer. Here are my 10 reasons why I believe that you'll be using a tablet within 18 months: 1. Tablets will become hobbyist dream gadgets. Love to tinker? Tablets will be ideal for that. The home automation crowd will go nuts with these things. And the tablet craze will be accompanied by powerful, simplified development tools. People will build tablet cradles into their car dashboards, and will use tablets for GPS map display, audio control, engine diagnostics and more. Tablets will serve as robot controllers, model airplane controllers and will function as the brains and interface for homemade smart appliances and devices. Why wouldn't you want to build your own Microsoft Surface-like smart coffee table? 2. They will be optimized for specific tasks. If you do those tasks, you'll want the optimized tablet. For example, aviation companies will use the new touch tablets for their "electronic flight bag" devices, because they can hold all the documentation, charts, tools and so on that pilots need, both private and professional. Education? Forget about it. Touch tablets are tailor made for K-12, as well as university education. Tablets with cameras will be useful as magnifiers, security-cam, nanny-cam and crib-cam monitors. Solutions providers will take the open systems and build proprietary, optimized applications that take advantage of the touch interfaces. 3. You will be compelled by apps we can't now predict. When personal computers first arrived, nobody thought we'd use them to do social networking. When graphical user interfaces first took over, few predicted we'd use them heavily for surfing a very graphical Web (since the Web didn't even exist then). When cell phones started becoming popular, we never imagined people would use them for capturing data with applications like Evernote. The same thing will happen with tablets. Nobody knows what the "killer apps" will be. It's very likely that something will be invented, designed or developed that will thrill you, and make you change your mind. 4. Tablets will have uses that don't involve replacing something you're already doing. Tablets are viewed now as hobbled netbooks or giant cell phones. In fact, they'll be used for totally unpredictable purposes that currently nobody now does with computers. For example, imagine if a tablet computer could function as a remote control. And image it had "presets" on it for, say, 12 of your favorite channels. Now imagine that instead of buttons with numbers on them, 12 "buttons" show live video of what was currently playing on each of those channels. 5. Tablets will be open. Touch tablets will come out optimized for operating systems ranging from closed (iPhone OS) to open (Linux) and everything in between. There will be a gazillion Android tablets. We'll see Windows and Windows Mobile tablets, and more. Take your pick. 6. Your company may buy one for you. While you're busy not buying a tablet for your home, your company will become increasingly likely to purchase them for your use at work. I believe companies like HP, IBM and others, as well as VARs, will add Linux- and Windows-based touch tablets to their lineups of IT equipment, and as part of larger solutions packages. They reason is... 7. Tablets will become ideal for IT pros. Data center staff use clipboards and documentation. Help desk staff need remote desktop capability and remote access to network tools. IT executives attend meeting after meeting. Everybody uses laptops. Tablets will do all this in a single package. Management tools will be optimized for touch user interfaces. And anyone who wants to use a physical keyboard and/or a mouse will be able to do so with the tablets. If you work anywhere in IT, you will be surrounded by tablet users. 8. Tablets will be better netbooks than netbooks. Tablets will soon be able to do 90% of what netbooks can do, but netbooks will be able to do only 50% of what tablets can do. I'm making these numbers up, but my point is that for most users, tablets will be able to replace netbooks, but netbooks won't be able to replace tablets. A universe of special purpose tablet apps will be created, while very few netbook-specific apps have been or will ever be built. A rational buying decision means that if you have to pick between buying a tablet or buying a netbook, you'll buy the tablet. 9. Tablets will get huge. Ten inches today, 13, 15, 21, 27 and more inches tomorrow. They'll be HD TVs you can bring anywhere. You'll use them for board games, arcade games, first-person shooter games. 10. Tablets will be cheap! It's a foregone conclusion that the tablets of tomorrow will be cheaper than the netbooks of today. It's the Law! (Moore's Law, to be specific.) You'd have to be pretty aggressively anti-tablet to not pay $200 for a gadget that will do so much. Skepticism is great. You have good reasons for dissing the Apple iPad. But the future is unpredictable, and the touch tablet concept is going to prove absolutely compelling. That's why I believe you'll be using one within 18 months. Who knows? Maybe you'll even use an iPad.

This is VERY disturbing news. I'm heavily invested in Google products (several email accounts, Googlegroups, several other Google services...). I don't want the eavesdropping-happy NSA anywhere near my Google stuff. Beginning of article:

Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks By Ellen Nakashima Thursday, February 4, 2010; A01 The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity. Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack. Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users' searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data. The partnership strikes at the core of one of the most sensitive issues for the government and private industry in the evolving world of cybersecurity: how to balance privacy and national security interests. On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair called the Google attacks, which the company acknowledged in January, a "wake-up call." Cyberspace cannot be protected, he said, without a "collaborative effort that incorporates both the U.S. private sector and our international partners." But achieving collaboration is not easy, in part because private companies do not trust the government to keep their secrets and in part because of concerns that collaboration can lead to continuous government monitoring of private communications. Privacy advocates, concerned about a repeat of the NSA's warrantless interception of Americans' phone calls and e-mails after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, say information-sharing must be limited and closely overseen. "The critical question is: At what level will the American public be comfortable with Google sharing information with NSA?" said Ellen McCarthy, president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an organization of current and former intelligence and national security officials that seeks ways to foster greater sharing of information between government and industry....

iPad: The Good

10 reasons Apple's iPad will be a hit with business users Author: Erik Eckel Apple’s new products generate ardent, obsessive, and fanatical coverage. Everyone from technology nerds to mass news media organizations trip over themselves attempting to be first introducing the world to Apple’s next big thing. Repeatedly revolutionizing the way people use computers (the Macintosh), listen to music (the iPod), and talk to one another (the iPhone) will do that (as well as generate $15.6B in quarterly revenue and $3.3B in net quarterly profit), which explains why the iPad debuted to such impressive fanfare last week. For all the things the iPad is (a perfect netbook, an outstanding eBook reader, a portable email device, etc.), there are a few features I’d have liked to see the iPad include. Imagine how the device would change the way we work if it included cellular telephone capability (you could talk using a Bluetooth headset), fancy keys you could feel (instead, the keyboard simply appears onscreen) and plentiful storage space (initial models will top out at 64GB). Regardless, the iPad will prove plenty popular with on-the-go business users. Here are the top 10 reasons why. 1: Email The iPad’s included Mail application makes it easy to join mobile users to Microsoft Exchange-powered email networks. Exchange provides the foundation for most small business email networks, so integration will prove almost automatic. Non-Exchange users will find Mail compatible with most every other commonly used email platform, as well. 2: Internet Base models include integrated 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless networking. Optional models include integrated 3G cellular data networking compatible with UMTS, HSDPA, GSM, and EDGE networks. As a result, business users will be able to access cloud-based applications, email, VPNs, and other systems and data most wherever they go. Sales personnel, field engineers, consultants, contractors, health care providers, students, instructors, and numerous other users will find the integrated network capacity compelling. As applications, platforms, information, and data increasingly move to the cloud (a trend that fueled netbook popularity), the iPad becomes that much more capable as a business device. 3: Ease of use The reason Apple’s won such converts — and numerous industrial design awards — is that its engineers study the way things can work, not the way they work now. As a result, the Mac, iPod, and iPhone have changed the way people perform important or common tasks. The iPad’s patented Multi-Touch display permits precise and accurate gesture input. Spreading pinched fingers explodes a folder. Flicking a finger turns pages with the same speed the finger is moved. Tapping zooms in on an object. Everything is intuitive, making device interaction easy to learn. And at just a half-inch thick and a pound-and-a-half in weight, the iPad is among the thinnest and lightest of any netbook and certainly any laptop ever made. Add in the fact that the device can go 10 hours between recharging, and you have a user-friendly tablet computer. 4: Integrated keyboard Imagine ripping the lid off a 9.7-inch wide netbook, installing the functionality of an iPhone on steroids, and then eliminating the clumsy mechanical typewriter-like keys in favor of a display-superimposed keyboard. That’s an iPad. Mobile users need not pack an additional external keyboard whenever heading to the airport, coffee shop, nearby cubicle, or other location to review email, documents, the Internet, and or other information. The iPad’s touch-screen display enables typing on a keyboard exponentially larger than that found on cell phones and sized closer to full-size laptops. For users insisting on a full-size keyboard, Apple’s included integrated Bluetooth, so external keyboards can be connected sans wires. 5: Applications, applications, applications The true value of any computing platform is largely dependent upon the number of third-party applications written for it. Programs written for the iPhone will run on the iPad, and upon the release of the iPad SDK, iPad-specific applications will absolutely flood the market. If the iPhone is any barometer, just keeping track of available tools, utilities, and programs will prove mind-boggling. Already some 140,000 applications have been produced for the iPhone and downloaded some three billion times. Expect the same fervent energy to surround the creation and consumption of iPad applications. 6: iWork Apple’s popular iWork suite will work well with the iPad. The tool set — which includes Keynote for generating presentations, Pages for creating documents, and Numbers for building spreadsheets — will be available to iPad users. The cost? Just $10 per application. The suite’s iPad compatibility ensures that business users have access to powerful applications necessary for functioning within today’s demanding office environments. iWork on the iPad will also provide a bridge for working with Microsoft Office users, as iWork enables opening, editing, and saving files using popular Office file formats. 7: iBooks Amazon’s Kindle reignited hope among publishers that eBook adoption would finally take off. In fact, the Kindle sold so well, Barnes & Noble introduced its own competitor, the Nook, in December 2009. iPad sales will crush both the Kindle and Nook, combined. Hands down. That’s because, in addition to numerous applications, full Internet capability, email, and numerous other features, the iPad includes Apple’s iBooks app. Business users frequently travel, and the ability to tote numerous books without the weight will prove another popular feature. Think of the iPad as a full-color Kindle (that’s easy to read in low light), only with the addition of full netbook computer functionality. 8: Calendaring Apple engineers have tweaked the Calendar included with the iPad. Much like the iPhone’s Calendar, the tablet PC can display events listed by day, week, and month. On the iPad, multiple calendars can be viewed simultaneously, thereby enabling juggling multiple schedules so common among office workers today. With the benefit of integrated wireless Internet (and optional cellular broadband data networking), consistent connectivity to an Exchange server means users can keep schedules synchronized without requiring third-party sync tools or other clunky measures. 9: Contacts Few things are more important to sales personnel, field teams, and professional services staff than their address books. The iPad’s Contacts app provides a simple but powerful method of managing contacts and contact lists. With integrated data networking, synchronization becomes a breeze. Even better, when seeking a client or customer’s location, a quick tap of the street address opens Maps automatically. As realtors, traveling sales staff, and other mobile professionals can attest, these little time-saving tweaks are what helped fuel millions of iPhone sales. 10: The price A good netbook is five hundred bucks. Apple’s iPad starts at just $499. With the right mix of applications, storage capacity, and network technology corresponding to each user’s specific needs, many business professionals will find a well-equipped iPad capable of replacing a much more expensive laptop in the field. For once, whether it’s Apple’s recognition that it’s debuting the iPad toward the tail of the Great Recession or a concession to detractors incessantly complaining about the high cost of Apple hardware (overlooking the more beneficial long-term total cost of ownership), Apple has priced a new device similarly to Windows-based counterparts.

iPad: The Bad

10 reasons why I'll be passing on the iPad By Debra Littlejohn Shinder, MVP On January 27, Apple held a much-hyped and long-anticipated "event" in San Francisco, where Steve Jobs unveiled the company's new tablet device, named (perhaps, in the wake of all the jokes it inspired, to its regret) the iPad. I was looking forward to finding out exactly what the specs on this were going to be. I've been trying to find a really good tablet PC for years, since way back when Microsoft introduced Windows XP Tablet Edition. I love the concept, but none of the devices that have hit the market since then has quite gotten it right -- at least for me. Would Apple be the one to finally do it? Given my experiences with the Mac in the past, I wasn't overly optimistic, but I was willing to give it a chance. Now, after all the speculation and rumors, its tablet is out in the open for everyone to see. And no, I won't be lining up outside the Apple Store to buy one. Like so many of Apple's products, it's pretty, but that's just not enough. This device may fit your needs completely, but here are the top 10 reasons that it falls short for me. There's no physical keyboard There are two basic tablet form factors. The first is the "convertible," which includes a keyboard and a swiveling screen that allows you to use it like a regular laptop or lay the screen down on top of the keyboard and use it flat. The second is the "slate," which is a flat screen with no physical keyboard. We all knew the Apple device would fall into the latter category. Up until the unveiling ceremony, the rumor mill was calling it the iSlate. Thus the lack of a physical keyboard doesn't come as a surprise, but it is a strike against it in my book. Some are saying the virtual keyboard is very good, but I've tried touch typing on them before and it's just not the same. If I want a compact touch screen device I can use to watch videos, surf the Web, read my email, etc., I can do all of that with my smart phone. If I need to do more than that, it's probably going to involve touch typing. And for that, I can use my laptop or netbook. If I want to watch a movie or TV program on a screen that's larger than my phone's, I can do that on the laptop, too. Why would I need to buy and carry a third device? This one size doesn't fit all If the tablet is going to fit into some gap between the phone and the netbook, the size should be somewhere in between, too. The iPad's screen is about 10 inches, the same as most netbooks. It won't fit into your pocket. It's thin and light, but so are many of the netbooks on the market now. For example, the Sony VAIO X series laptop/netbooks are the same half-inch thick and virtually the same weight (1.5 lbs. vs. 1.6 lbs.). And we're also starting to see netbooks in the convertible tablet form factor, which is really exciting. It runs a phone OS I would have been more tempted by the iPad if it ran OS X instead of the iPhone operating system. A phone OS is much more limited in what it can do, and the iPad suffers from the same limitation as the iPhone when it comes to applications: Yes, there are lots of them, but you can get them only from one source, Apple's App Store. Can you imagine the outcry if Microsoft said you could buy Windows programs only from them? One of the biggest limitations of the iPhone OS is that you can't multi-task. Like it or not, we live in a multi-tasking world today. People may be satisfied with running just one app at a time on their phones -- after all, the screen isn't big enough to see multiple windows -- but with a device that's four times as big and costs quite a bit more, we expect to get a real computer. And real computers multi-task. There's not enough storage The iPad will come with 16, 32, or 64 GB of storage. From my experiences with the early netbooks, I learned that 16 or 32 GB of storage isn't enough for me. Granted, my needs may be greater than that of the average user. But by the time I install all the programs I want to use and put my music, photos, and a few videos on there, what once upon a time seemed like a lot of space really isn't. The 64 GB model might be just barely enough, but the price is high -- much higher than a netbook with four times the storage. There's No HDMI output or camera Today, computing is all about multimedia -- both consuming it and creating it. You can watch HD movies on the iPad (although it doesn't have the 16:9 standard aspect ratio), but you can't output them to your HDTV because there's no HDMI connector. And you won't be making movies or taking pictures with your iPad, either. One handy use for a device of this size and form factor would be video conferencing… except Apple forgot to include a camera and microphone. Most new laptops and netbooks have a built-in Web cam. Even the iPhone has a camera, albeit not a particularly good one. You could just buy a Web cam and connect it… but what do you connect it to? That brings us to the next problem. There are no USB ports Even those $299 netbooks have USB ports for expandability. Not only could it be used for a flash drive, to ameliorate the storage problem; it could also be used to plug in a standard USB keyboard when you need to touch type. But Apple chose not to build any USB ports into the device. I understand that you will be able to add USB support by buying a special dongle that connects to a dock. That's all well and good, but it means that you have to spend more money for something every netbook already comes with. And even worse, you'll have to carry these extras around with you if you want that functionality when you're on the go -- which sort of negates the whole idea of "thin and light and compact." There's no flash memory slot The saving grace for my first netbook was that I could add storage with a flash memory card. The iPad, unfortunately, doesn't have a built-in flash memory card slot. Again, Apple is going the dongle route. More to carry around, and more to spend money on. By the time you buy everything you need to get it closer to the functional equivalent of a netbook, you may end up spending a bundle. And that brings us to the next point. The price is not right Those who love the iPad are seemingly in awe of its "aggressive pricing." And for those used to paying Apple's prices, I guess it does seem like a bargain. But for those who come from a PC world, not so much. I think there is a market for a low-cost touch screen tablet device that serves as an ebook reader, Web browser, and mail client, and on which you can view photos and videos. The iPad is priced several hundred dollars too high for that market. Lots of people would pay $299 for something like that. But the iPad pricing starts at $499 for the 16 GB model with no 3G connectivity. From there, it goes up to $829 if you want 64 GB of storage and 3G. For that much money, you can buy a powerful compact laptop that runs a full-fledged operating system and multi-tasks and that has USB and SD and Ethernet connectors, 4 GB of RAM, and 250 GB of storage. The iPad is being touted as a better ebook reader, but it costs twice as much as the Kindle and other ebook readers. It's locked in Apple loves to lock you in, and it hasn't broken precedent here. You have to buy your apps from the App Store, you have to buy its dongles to use standard accessories like SD cards and USB devices, and you can't even remove and replace the battery yourself. The 10-hour battery life is impressive (although some netbooks offer comparable times), but if you were flying to Australia and wanted to bring along an extra battery for the extra-long flight, forget about it. On the software side, you can't run Skype to make phone calls with it, either. We wouldn't want to cut into the iPhone market, after all. Nor can you download Flash to install on the browser, which means you won't be watching those YouTube videos. It's all about the network One reason I was actually thinking that Apple's tablet might be a possibility for me was the rumor going around, pre-release, that it was going to work on the Verizon network. You could almost hear the silent groans when it was announced that the 3G versions of the device will use AT&T's network. I know dozens of people who love the iPhone but won't buy one because they don't want to deal with AT&T. The company has already had network congestion problems that it blames on the popularity of the iPhone. Now it plans to add iPads to the mix? And you'll have to pay another $30/month for unlimited data for your iPad (or $20 for 250MB), on top of what you're already paying for your cell phone. Or do they expect people to give up their phone data plans and just use the iPad for data? I don't see all those iPhone users doing that. This thing is looking more expensive by the minute. Of course, if you buy the lower priced versions of the iPad, you won't have to worry about 3G anyway, since they don't come with that capability. Here's wishing you good luck on finding those wi-fi hot spots.

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The Last Chance

Recently, after President Obama's State Of The Union speech, I wanted to have a different dialogue with my conservative family over politics. Take Obama's advice, stop the same old arguments and vitriol. Unfortunately, the results were not surprising. I'll keep it short. It went something like this... Obama didn't inherit any problems from bu$h, and he should have solved the economic crisis facing the U.S. by now. The bu$h "Tax Cuts" for plutocrats have helped the American worker. "The Housing Bubble" was created by Democrats because they wanted everyone to own a home, regardless of the deceptive lending practices. True documented facts aren't history... unless it's the new fake facts, which make it solid conservative history. Why should they pay for the "Health Care Reform", when they have insurance. The old standards still hold true, "Greed is Good" and "Gay Rights" equals tolerance for pedophiles. Abolishing the Fairness Doctrine did not open the door for Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Nullifying the Glass-Steagall Act was good "Free Market" Capitalism. The recent Supreme Court decision favoring corporate contributions still leaves individuals on equal footing. There was no long term conservative agenda or right wing conspiracy stemming from The Powell Memo, (yet, refused to read it). Don't call conservatives racists if they oppose Obama's policies, especially those conservatives who do not confront and protest the creation, spreading and/or laughing at Obama jokes; but it was fine to call Progressives and Liberals traitors when they opposed the Iraq war Americans were lied into by the bu$h administration. And the funniest line of all, conservatives don't watch FOX NEWS. I honestly tried to start the conversation in a positive manner. I mentioned that we must have some common ground and proceed from there, I even complimented them by saying, "At least conservatives have stuck to a long term agenda for what they think is right for the country." After family values and honesty, we started to move in different directions and the discussion started to fade fast. I gave in on "National Security", but mentioned we spend too much money on it. I agreed on "self-sufficiency" after everyone from all social classes has equal opportunity. One major sticking point on "freedom from too much government", came when I said, "Then you must let the individual decide what is right for themselves, such as a Woman's right to choose." The conversation quickly moved to "Right to Life", and I mentioned it's fine for conservatives to want the baby to be born but don't support government programs for the child when he's growing up. I couldn't get any of them to concede on gun restrictions for inner cities. Since the conversation got tied up with Corporate America's rights, we didn't even get to the environment and climate change. I will say it started genteel enough, but after awhile it was back to the same old caustic arguments. I now know it is useless to talk to these automatons, even if they are family. They are the most shallow, thick, misinformed, obtuse group of riffraff I have ever known. This was the last chance. I will stop wasting energy and effort reaching out for a middle ground... their thought process is closed off for new ideas, deeply entrenched and rooted in ignorance. I'm proud that I gave an effort but learned Progressives must outlast and persevere. Progressives cannot ever trust conservatives, they are like "The Terminator", and will not ever stop! I know the truth is on our side. Sorry President Obama, nothing has changed the conservative mindset.

cross posted at Low and Left Part Deux

Grasping the size of the universe

Shopping for a Hybrid car? Be sure to first check out the Hybrid Scorecard.

Terrific 99-cent sale of WinPatrol Plus - Friday, January 29 only. Regular price is $30. If you've used the free version then you know what a great deal this is on this high-quality computer security software.

Wow. For once the hype really does match the product.

Friday Fun: LIFE WITH A CAT

Life with a cat - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Here's Obama's speech from last night, courtesy The Bobblespeak Translations, in a language that all Americans can understand:

State of the Union Address President Barack Obama January 27, 2010 ****************** Madam Speaker… I give you… the POTUS!!! [ yay ] Obama walks in, wearing a Nobel prize and carrying an iPad Pelosi: and heeeeeere’s Baraaaaaaaaaack! Obama: thank you very much Greetings, Madam Speaker, Joe, Senators, House members, all congresspersons - you goddamm worthless motherfuckers! All right anyone who is not a useless piece of shit can stay - everyone else leave the room [ Biden stands up ] Joe you can stay too [ Biden sits down ] [ everyone else gets up to leave ] All right all right you useless shitheads sit your asses back down [ everyone sits down ] And let me give a shout-out to our esteemed Supreme Court justices! Oh did I say esteemed - I meant to say soulless hypocritical corporate whores [ Scalia and Alito stand up, wave to Congress ] Hey Jersey Shore - sit the fuck down yes that's right I'm wearing my motherfucking Nobel prize - check it out assholes! [ waves Nobel prize ] yeah I'm done with teleprompters - I'm all about my iPad now dudes! Obama: Bull Run, Bloody Sunday, the Depression, Pearl Harbor, the day they canceled Star Trek - America has been tested many times before Now you all know I inherited 2 wars and a motherfucking Depression So of course we bailed out the people who created the problem Inexplicably, things are now even suckier than they were before! I’ve have traveled across this nation and read your letters and holy fuck is this country in some deep shit Most moving are the letters written in crayon - so I would like ask Michele Bachmann to please stop Obama: Americans are tired of pettiness Joe Wilson: No! Obama: Sit the fuck down you ignorant cracker Obama: Americans really want one thing - to avoid sliding into poverty and having to move into a black neighborhood But the White House is a black neighborhood now fuckers so that’s why I have never been more hopeful for America! [ yay ] Obama: Now let’s talk about the motherfucking bailout! I hated it - but goddammit let’s not forget Stupid created a crisis I had to deal with and we’ve gotten most of the money back! [ yay! ] Obama: so I propose a fee on the banks - they can fucking afford it, those slimy motherfuckers!!!! [ yaaaaay ] We cut taxes for 8 million people - do you hear me fucking teabaggers!?!?!? We didn’t raise income taxes on anyone... not anybody - can you grasp that you fucking lunatics??? [ yaaay ] And we saved 2 million jobs thanks to my stimulus bill - that’s right shitkickers!!! And so you can see I have single-handedly turned this economy around!! However because I heard there may still be a few unemployed people out there, and with the whole Scott Brown fiasco, I am calling for a brand new jobs bill [ woo-hoo ] Banks on Wall Street are now lending again, but mostly to other criminals - so I propose taking this 30 billion I found in the White House couches and give to tiny little community banks like the Building & Loan [ yaaaay ] You get a tax cut! You get a tax cut! Everybody gets a tax cut!!! [ yaaaay ] And we should have better trains than those damm Japanese! [ muted clapping ] and fewer tax breaks - but still some - for businesses located in the Cayman fucking islands!!! [ yaaaay ] So send me a jobs bill or I will come back here and crack some skulls!! Having said that - we need rules to prevent another lost decade which is why I am proposing a Constitutional Amendment saying no member of the Bush family can ever be President again!!! [ yaaaaay!!] Now the GOP says we have to wait to fix the economy but that would put us behind India and I am not going to stand here and listen to them bad-mouth the United States of Fucking America!!! [ yaaaay ] Which is why we need to skull-fuck the banks that caused the goddamm problem!!! Now I will wave my finger and look tough - do I look tough - no seriously do I?? We need to solve our energy problem which means building new nuclear power plants, drilling offshore, clean coal, biofuels, and harnessing the power of Brett Favre!! [ yaaay!!!] Now I know there are really stupid fuckers who don’t believe in global warming and to them I say grow a goddamm fucking brain and pull your heads out of your asses!!! We need to export more products which is why I have hired a Chinese company to tell me how we can make shit people want!! [ yaaay ] Also we need to expand our empire and seek new markets, in Asia, Africa, and the Spice federation on Tatooine!! [ yaay ] The best anti-poverty program around is to be born into a rich connected family and rig the system in your favor!! But since that is not realistic for people outside this room, I also propose better community colleges! [ yay ] and $10,000 in college grants and no more student debt after 20 years!! students: oh woo oh and we still need health insurance reform [ yaaaaaaaay ] I did not choose to take on health care reform to get a legislative victory or to be more popular.... OBVIOUSLY! Ha anyway let me describe my plan in a simple 7 paragraph - oh hi there’s my pretty wife [ yayayay] where was I - oh right the CBO says my bill would reduce the deficit by 2 trillion dollars!! GOP: deficits don’t matter Obama: so I completely fucked up underestimating how selfish most Americans are - my bad, America! But I will not walk away from insuranceless Americans and neither should you So please Republicans take a breath and vote for my plan Or just send me your plan and I will sign that instead So Congress just pass something so we can all move on all righty [ yay ] Now let me explain something to the extremely dense out there Clinton gave Bush a FUCKING SURPLUS and I inherited a FUCKING DEFICIT I wonder if Fox news will report on that??? Oh did I mention I am trying to prevent a motherfucking DEPRESSION??? So tonight, as usual, Democrats will have to be the grown-ups and freeze spending long enough to get voted out of office, where Republicans will blow the budget all over again!!! [ YAAAAY!!!] So I will freeze spending except for Defense, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security education and farming - that only leaves $20 billion spent on turning John Boehner orange all winter! [ yay ] Since you fuckers can’t even create a commission I will do it by executive order - yo Judd Gregg!! [ yaaaay ] Now Paul Krugman is probably freaking out - but this freeze won’t start until next year when the recession is over [ boooo ] hey zip it morons Now we could of course just cut taxes and borrow the money and party all the time - but every time Republicans do that it wrecks the economy! So let’s try some common sense fuckers!! Yeah a novel concept motherfuckers!! The rumors are true, America - Washington doesn’t work - it’s bought and paid for by corporations - yeah I’m looking you - you fucking Supreme Court whores!!! I’m not naïve - I’m know you are all untrustworthy snakes - that’s the very essence of our democracy But Jesus Fucking Christ on a cracker you can’t fillibuster every fucking procedure in fucking government!!! I mean criminy people are showing up to my town meetings with fucking guns - so chill the fuck out Republicans And Democrats - stop being such fucking pussies for god’s sake!! And Republicans - if it really takes 60 votes to get anything done well then guess what - then you are responsible for not getting anything done!! And while I am on the subject - GOP just shut the fuck up about national security and if you want a reminder go look at the hole in ground you created in New York City!!! Yeah I’m killing people all over the world - don’t fuck with me people! I am ending the Iraq war cause I am fucking sick of it Now let’s really support our troops and not just say we do! And just like Superman I am going to rid the world of all motherfucking nuclear weapons!!! Watch out Iran - Barack Hussein Fucking Obama is coming for you!!! We’re giving out food, curing disease, and helping Haiti! America is about all people being equal so sometime in 2010 I will work with Congress on repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell!!! [ yaaay ] Americans are hopeful, they have just lost faith in government, religion, business, schools, the media… oh wait they AREN’T FUCKING HOPEFUL AT ALL!!! Now I know people aren’t all into Hope and Change anymore but I never claimed to be your Magic Negro so I come here tonight to tell you this -- grow the fuck up America!!! Sure I fucked up this year - but I am not alone - many, many, many, Americans are also totally fucking up and are also in complete denial about it!! So my fellow Americans I don’t quit - I may get fired but I won’t quit!! Goodnight fuckers!!!

Howard Zinn - historian extraordinaire - may he rest in peace.

consortiumnews.com US Democracy's End of the Road By Robert Parry January 23, 2010 This past week had the feel of “game, set, match,” the end to a long string of miscalculations by the American Left and a crowning victory for the cynical American Right – a triple whammy of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to unleash corporate campaign spending, Air America’s dissolution, and the Massachusetts Senate election. Especially after the Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations to spend whatever they want to punish some politicans and reward others, it is hard to see a road back for American democracy. The United States is now at the very dark terminus of a four-decades-long journey, one in which – at nearly each fateful juncture – the Right made the smart maneuver and the Left mostly hurt itself, most notably by allowing its divisive squabbles over purity vs. pragmatism to destroy the best opportunities for progress. In retrospect, one can see key turning points as far back as 1968, the year when the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy swallowed the optimism of a generation and divided the Democratic Party to such a degree that many progressives sat out the election, even though it meant that Richard Nixon would win and continue the war for four more years. Only much later did evidence emerge revealing that Republican operatives had secretly sabotaged President Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam peace talks, a move that prevented a Democratic reconciliation and enabled Nixon to narrowly snake away with the White House. Though Johnson and his top advisers were aware of Nixon’s treachery in real time, they stayed silent for “the good of the country,” a decision that they may have viewed as noble and pragmatic but one which nonetheless had devastating future consequences. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “The Significance of Nixon’s Treason.”] So, by 1968, a troubling pattern was already taking shape. Many Democratic progressives refused to be practical regardless of what was at stake, and Democratic politicians shied away from tough showdowns with the Republicans and even joined in concealing evidence of their wrongdoing. In 1972, emboldened by his still-secret success four years earlier, Nixon sought to ensure his reelection with another round of skullduggery – spying on the Democrats and seeking to manipulate their nomination process – but his luck finally ran out when a team of his burglars was caught inside the Democrats’ Watergate headquarters. Despite Nixon’s best efforts – aided and abetted by "pragmatic" Democratic National Chairman Robert Strauss who tried to help shut down the Watergate investigation – the criminal proceedings exposed Nixon’s dirty operation, forcing his resignation in 1974 and leading to Democrat Jimmy Carter's election in 1976. [For more on the Watergate intrigue, see Robert Parry’s Secrecy & Privilege.] From Nixon’s debacle, the Republicans learned important lessons, including their need to build a media infrastructure of their own to protect future Republican presidents from “another Watergate.” Nixon’s former Treasury Secretary Bill Simon took the lead in pulling together wealthy conservatives to invest in right-wing media and think tanks. [For details, see Lost History.] The Left extracted an opposite lesson from Watergate. Feeling a false confidence that the mainstream news media would continue performing a watchdog role, progressives mostly dismantled what had been a thriving “underground” media of newspapers, magazines and radio stations, which had grown up amid the youthful opposition to the Vietnam War. [For details, see Consortiumnews.com’s “The Left’s Media Miscalculation.”] The Right’s Surge By the late 1970s, other parts of today’s political dynamic were falling into place. The Right and the Republicans played hardball, while the Left and the Democrats remained deeply divided between purists and pragmatists -- and were unwilling to confront GOP bullies. In Election 1980, these political characteristics asserted themselves again. President Carter’s center-left Democratic policies offended farther-left Democrats, many of whom either sat out the November election or voted for independent candidate John Anderson. Meanwhile, the Republicans played their usual aggressive game, this time over Carter’s Iranian hostage crisis. Ronald Reagan’s men went behind Carter’s back to contact Iranian officials much as Nixon’s team had gone behind Johnson’s back to sabotage the Vietnam peace talks in 1968. Indeed, some key figures, like Henry Kissinger, showed up in both operations. (Similarly, too, even when evidence of Reagan’s treachery emerged years later, senior Democrats chose to conceal the evidence, just as Johnson and his advisers had done in 1968. [See Secrecy & Privilege for details.]) With Reagan’s victory in 1980, the emerging American political dynamics hardened. The Right kept pouring billions of dollars into a media infrastructure, which also included well-funded attack groups to go after mainstream journalists who wouldn’t toe Reagan’s propaganda line. And, Reagan added a touch of “populism” to the Right’s messaging with his “government is the problem” mantra. This anti-government “populism” would remain central to the Right’s fortunes over the ensuing three decades, as wealthy corporations and rich individuals quietly funded groups that would rally average Americans against “big government,” a strategy that helped corporations maximize profits and consolidate their control of U.S. society. Corporate titans understood that an energized and democratized federal government was the only meaningful force that could limit their power. So, they did what they could to hamstring and hobble the government, often under the false flag of "populism." In the 1980s, the American Left followed a different path, ignoring the importance of having a media infrastructure that could get out its message, instead favoring vague concepts like “organizing” and “going back to the roots.” The Left embraced the bumper-sticker slogan, “think globally, act locally,” and abandoned the front lines of Washington's information wars. What money the Left did spend on national politics was devoted heavily to “campaign finance reform,” pushing for laws and regulations that supposedly would limit special-interest donations given to political parties and candidates. While well intentioned, the logical flaw of this approach was that it limited what could be spent by politicians on campaigns but ignored the Right’s unrestricted – and unmatched – investment in media. In other words, while both Republican and Democratic candidates faced limits on what they could raise for their campaigns, the Right’s rapidly expanding right-wing media pounded liberal politicians 24/7/365 and, indeed, demonized liberalism itself. The Left largely ignored this imbalance. Subject to these endless assaults, many Democratic politicians trimmed their sails and tacked toward the perceived safety of more conservative-sounding positions. But that only infuriated the Democratic purists more. They called on politicians to sail directly into the gathering storm. The Tempest In the 1980s, I found myself in the middle of this tempest since it also roared through mainstream journalism. On the Associated Press Special Assignment Team, I focused on Reagan’s bloody policies in Central America, leading me to discoveries about the secret activities of White House aide Oliver North and ultimately what became known as the Iran-Contra scandal. Despite some success in exposing those secrets – and getting a new job at Newsweek after the scandal erupted in late 1986 – I learned painfully that the Right had made extraordinary progress in setting parameters for what mainstream journalists could report on, without risking their careers. My efforts to explore the dark corners of the Iran-Contra affair, including cocaine trafficking by Reagan’s Nicaraguan Contra rebels and the origins of Reagan’s secret dealing with Iran, met with anger from Republicans and resistance from my Newsweek editors who had cozy relations with Henry Kissinger and other influential Republicans. Those battles led me to leave Newsweek in 1990. Afterwards, I began contacting wealthy progressives with warnings about the dangerous changes occurring in Washington’s news media. But I often felt like Cassandra, foretelling disasters that no one wanted to recognize and confront. Then, in 1992-93, a Democratic-led House investigation of Reagan’s 1980 contacts with Iran unearthed strong evidence of Republican criminality. But just like in 1968, senior Democrats – in this case led by Rep. Lee Hamilton – chose to look the other way. The Democrats even hid evidence, again presumably for “the good of the country." My discovery of some of those documents in late 1994 and early 1995 – and my inability to interest several “liberal” news outlets in the story – led to the creation of the Consortiumnews.com Web site as a means of getting such suppressed history to the American people. But my appeals to wealthy liberals and progressives for support continued to fall on deaf ears. They didn’t see much value in backing independent media outlets like ours. As for the ever-expanding right-wing media, which by the mid-1990s had spread from magazines, books and newspapers to talk radio, cable TV and the Internet, some progressives would just say, “turn it off.” But millions of Americans clearly were listening, watching -- and adopting right-wing views. The Gore Debacle At the end the 1990s, the Left’s purist vs. pragmatist split resurfaced again. Many on the Left were furious with President Bill Clinton over his timidly liberal or pro-business policies that he had promoted in the face of the Right’s ferocious efforts to humiliate and impeach him. To his surprise, Clinton also had found the mainstream press nearly as hostile to him as the right-wing news media was. During Campaign 2000, that animus shifted to Al Gore, as the New York Times and Washington Post misrepresented Gore’s words and intentions almost as enthusiastically as did the Right’s New York Post and Washington Times. The news media’s “war on Gore” peddled apocryphal tales, like Gore’s supposed claim that he “invented the Internet," and made Gore out to be a delusional braggart. [See Neck Deep.] At the time, some leading progressives told me they were determined to “teach the Democrats a lesson” by supporting Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, who claimed to detect “not a dime’s worth of difference” between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush. The Nader backers brushed aside concerns about the kinds of Supreme Court justices that Bush might select as well as my warnings that Bush – though selling himself as a “compassionate conservative” – would restore neoconservatives to power over U.S. foreign policy. Having dealt with the neocons during the Reagan-era bloodbaths in Central America, I was keenly aware of their skill at manipulating information. But Nader backers assured me that Bush would surround himself with “realists” from his father's presidency, not Reagan-era neocons. The Naderites’ ultimate dream was for Nader and the Greens to cross the five percent voting threshold, thus qualifying them for federal election funds, while still hoping that Gore would slip past Bush. On Election Day, when I was standing in line to vote in Arlington, Virginia, two young Nader supporters were discussing exactly this scenario when a disgusted middle-aged woman turned on them and seethed, “You better hope Gore wins.” It was the old division between the purists and the pragmatists. As it turned out, Nader fell short of the five percent threshold, but his vote total in the key state of Florida did leave that tally in a virtual dead heat between Bush and Gore. We now know that if all legally cast votes in Florida had been counted, Gore would have won narrowly – as he also did in the national popular vote – but Bush clung to a 537-vote lead in the official Florida tally overseen by Gov. Jeb Bush’s allies, including Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Turning Point At that historic turning point, the Republicans benefited from having a powerful media apparatus which quickly defined the recount battle as Gore’s trying to “invent votes.” Meanwhile, the mainstream news media continued tilting toward Bush under the notion that his ascension to the White House would “put the adults back in charge” after eight turbulent years of Clinton. On the Left, there was almost no media to fight back against Bush's brazen tactics and no timely protests to match what the Right was able to generate overnight through its national media. I also continued to encounter disinterest among some on the Left who still insisted that it really didn’t matter whether Gore or Bush became President. Amid this climate of an active Right and a disengaged Left, it became a relatively easy call for five Republican partisans on the U.S. Supreme Court to twist some legalistic arguments into an excuse to hand the White House to George W. Bush. [For details, see Neck Deep.] Not only did the Supreme Court reverse the electoral judgment of the American people regarding who should be President, but the five Republicans guaranteed that any Court vacancies would be filled by a Republican President, not a Democrat. After Bush prevailed, Nader and his followers refused to accept any blame for the outcome, claiming instead that it was Gore’s fault for not winning his home state of Tennessee, or having a lousy recount strategy, or any number of other excuses. It had become a trademark of the Left’s purists to almost never take responsibility for anything, but rather to assume the role of critic. They would typically find fault with whatever compromise the pragmatists judged necessary while pretending that the American people were ready to rally to the banner of radical change if only the Democrats would blow the bugle. The reality was that many middle- and working-class Americans were now identifying with the Right’s anti-government “populism” -- as promoted by the pervasive right-wing media -- not with the Left’s unheard explanations for why government intervention was needed to address social ills. George W. Bush’s presidency also didn’t turn out the way that some Naderites had predicted. Bush shoved aside his father’s old foreign policy advisers and restored neocons, like Elliott Abrams and Paul Wolfowitz, to key jobs in the national security bureaucracy. Despite his tainted election victory, Bush also veered the United States sharply to the Right, slashing taxes mostly for the rich, further reducing government regulations of industries, running up the national debt, and – after the 9/11 attacks – adopting the neocons’ theories of preemptive war, particularly targeting Iraq for regime change. The Left Stirs In 2003, as the death toll mounted from the invasion of Iraq, I began to hear echoes among a few progressives of my longstanding recommendations about the need to build media that could counter the lies and distortions that were emanating daily from the powerful right-wing news media. Those discussions on the Left eventually gave rise to Air America, a 24-hour radio talk show network. But it barely got liftoff in 2004 because of a shortage of funding and constant wrangling among its cash-strapped management. Still, for all its problems, Air America gave voice to many Americans who had felt adrift in a hostile sea of U.S. media, where right-wingers demonized liberals as traitors and where mainstream news personalities kept their careers flowing in a profitable direction by not offending Bush loyalists. But Air America couldn’t afford the basics of advertising that are a must in the radio business. You didn’t see the faces of hosts Al Franken and Rachel Maddow plastered on the sides of buses or inside subway cars; Air America didn’t even put out regular press releases. It was the same ol’ problem, underfunded media. Yet, instead of investing more money in building Air America and other media outlets, the Left focused instead on government regulation as the answer to the media problem. A common refrain was to restore the Fairness Doctrine in radio, as if the Republicans would allow that -- and even if they did -- as if some bureaucrats appointed by President Bush would demand “balance” from Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Despite opportunities presented by developments such as the Internet and digital cable, media remained near the bottom of the Left’s priorities. Extreme religious groups did more to get their message out than did progressives, although they amounted to one-third or so of the American public. The Naderite view from 2000 – that it didn’t matter whether Gore or Bush was President – also came back to haunt the American Left when Bush named two right-wingers, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, to fill vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court. Though Roberts replaced fellow right-winger, the late William Rehnquist, Alito's appointment threatened to tilt the court further rightward because he took the seat of the somewhat more moderate Sandra Day O’Connor, who retired. In early 2006, Alito's nomination faced strong Democratic opposition in the Senate, where there were 42 votes lined up against his nomination, enough to sustain a filibuster that could have stopped him. However, a group of “centrist” or pragmatic Democrats came up with a “bipartisan” solution that cleared the way for Alito’s confirmation. To sidestep a Republican threat to eliminate filibusters, the so-called "nuclear option," these Democrats joined Republicans to vote cloture against liberal Democrats who were fighting Alito. Some of those pro-cloture Democrats then voted against Alito’s confirmation, which nevertheless prevailed on a 58-42 vote. This sellout infuriated the Democratic “base,” which warned of future dangers from putting another radical right-winger on the U.S. Supreme Court. This Past Week Over the past year – and especially this past week – the various tendencies of the American Right and the American Left have converged like the final scene of a dreadful Broadway musical as all the characters crowd onstage. In its first year in office, the Obama administration has often shown some of the worst characteristics of the pragmatic Democrats, making endless compromises and shying away from tough confrontations, hoping against hope that the phantom of bipartisanship will materialize. The purist Left, too, has continued with its own sense of unreality as it demands that politicians walk the plank on behalf of progressive government policies despite a lack of public support and in the face of vicious attacks from the right-wing media. The Right has again demonstrated its ability to whip up rank-and-file Americans to take positions against their own interests. The Tea Partiers, whose organizations sometimes get behind-the-scenes funding from corporate interests, rail against Big Government, apparently not realizing that their “populist” positions are serving the interests of corporate power. The Republicans also have shown no shame in deploying the filibuster relentlessly, even though they threatened to eliminate it when some Democrats tried to use it. Republicans see no risk in obstructionism, knowing that their flanks are covered by the right-wing news media. These troubling threads of U.S. political life knotted themselves together this past week. It appears that some progressive purists sat out the Massachusetts Senate race in order to “send a message” to President Obama and the pragmatists, according to some e-mails I’ve received and some media reports. Meanwhile, the Right and its media operatives whipped-up a “populist” fury that lifted right-wing Republican Scott Brown into the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, giving the GOP the 41 votes it needs to sustain its filibuster strategy. Not surprisingly, many congressional Democrats took the message from the Massachusetts election not as some on the Left had hoped -- as a call to arms to fight for more liberal solutions -- but rather as a threat to their political survival and thus another reason to crawl toward the “center.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid interpretted Brown's victory as the voters telling Congress to work together. But the Republicans have made clear that they have no intention of making any meaningful compromises with the Democrats. Why should they? After all, the Republicans and their right-wing allies have shown that a mix of congressional obstruction and media propaganda will likely assure them a major victory in November’s elections. The Right's confidence got another major boost on Jan. 21 when five Republican justices – including the two appointed by Bush – wiped out years of the Left’s investment in campaign-finance reform. The five justices – Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy, Roberts and Alito – seized an opening presented by a relatively minor case of a documentary trashing Hillary Clinton and issued a sweeping ruling that will permit corporations and other special interests to spend unlimited funds to influence the outcome of elections. Floodgates Open Combined with the Right’s massive investment in media, the Court’s decision means a flood of right-wing corporate money inundating the electoral system, intimidating political enemies and rewarding political friends. Ironically, Ralph Nader, whose candidacy helped make the Roberts and Alito appointments possible, stepped forward to denounce the ruling, saying it “shreds the fabric of our already weakened democracy by allowing corporations to more completely dominate our corrupted electoral process.” Nader’s solution was to propose a constitutional amendment that would “prevent corporate campaign contributions from commercializing our elections and drowning out the civic and political voices and values of citizens and voters.” However, Nader presented no practical way for such a constitutional amendment to be enacted. Another irony of the expanding power of corporate money is that it will surely be disguised in “populist” garments meant to deceive simpleminded Americans who will think they are joining a movement to free the Republic from the threat of Big Government, when they will actually be handing the Republic over to corporate titans, including some fronting for foreign money. And to top off this past week, Air America – after many stop-and-go moments – finally came crashing to earth, declaring bankruptcy and closing up shop. Its demise was interpreted by some liberal pundits as a sign that progressives shouldn’t bother to invest in talk radio because progressives supposedly are too nuanced in their viewpoints, while talk radio is all about simplistic bombast. But the real reason for Air America’s failure may be simply that its managers and hosts were always flying by the seats of their pants. The low-budget operation was held together by glue and Scotch tape, as wealthy progressives never committed the kind of resources that were needed. Now, the main source of left-of-center opinion is from MSNBC’s evening lineup of Ed Schultz, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. But that’s a fragile reed for progressives to put much weight on. It’s not like what the Right has with its own deeply committed outlets, such as Fox News and hard-right radio hosts. MSNBC, which is owned by General Electric but may soon be taken over by Comcast, experimented with the three liberal hosts only after all other alternatives failed. For a while during the Bush administration, MSNBC tried to out-fox Fox with even more flag-waving jingoism but found that right-wing viewers were loyal to the network that had served them so well. MSNBC also is not simply a liberal bastion. It offers Republican hosts, like former Congressman Joe Scarborough, and its sister network CNBC is filled with pro-Reagan free-marketeers, like Larry Kudlow and Rick Sentelli. So, it’s hard to look at the political landscape of this past year – and especially this past week – and see any route left toward a saner America where a democracy based on a well-informed electorate can expect to flourish. President Obama may begin striking a more populist tone, but it may be too little, too late. Even if he's sincere, he's sure to be bombarded with corporate-funded 30-second ads mocking him and his policies. If there is any hope for finding some long road back, it may have to begin with the American Left taking a serious look at itself and discovering ways to finally blend principle with practicality.

BITS

The tragic consequences of today's SCOTUS ruling.

iPhone application saves life of person trapped in Haiti earthquake rubble for 65 hours.

Best headline of the day: Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate

Jerry Brown is Governor of California again!

Why you shouldn't buy a house in California in 2010 (unless you're swimming in cash)

Illinois on the verge of bankruptcy.

Very interesting (and scary!) weather forcast for today and Thursday for So. Cal.:

THE HUGE PARENT 507DM GULF OF ALASKA UPPER LOW WILL CONTINUE TO SPIN AND THE SECOND IMPULSE OF THIS WED/THU STORM WILL APPROACH THE AREA THURSDAY MORNING. THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING LOOKING STORMS OF THE LAST 20 YEARS. AT 700 AM A TRIPLE SURFACE LOW STRUCTURE WSW OF POINT CONCEPTION APPROACHES THE AREA AND THEN CONSOLIDATES INTO A DOUBLE LOW STRUCTURE AND SWEEPS OVER THE AREA. AT THIS TIME THE MDLS ARE SHOWING AN EXTRAORDINARILY VIGOROUS WEATHER SITUATION OVER THE ENTIRE AREA LATE IN THE MORNING AND EARLY IN THE AFTERNOON AS MAXIMUM CYCLONIC JET DYNAMICS INTERACT WITH A POWERFUL SURFACE FRONT. AT THIS TIME THERE WILL BE STRONG THUNDERSTORMS...HEAVY RAIN...POWERFUL WIND GUSTS...AND MOUNTAIN SNOW DOWN TO 5000 FEET. AS THE THE SURFACE LOW CONSOLIDATES AND DEEPENS IT WILL SLOW EVERYTHING DOWN AND THE STORMY WEATHER WILL CONTINUE FOR A LONGER PERIOD THAN IT HAS FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS. AGAIN MAX RAINFALL RATES OF 1.5 INCHES PER HOUR AND RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 1-2 INCHES OF RAIN WITH THE MTNS SEEING 2-4 LOCALLY 5 INCHES THROUGH THIS EVENING ARE LIKELY WITH THIS SECOND IMPULSE AND IF THE WRF FORECAST IS CORRECT BOTH THESE VALUES WILL HAVE TO BE RAISED UPWARDS.

Weather like this happens about once every ten years here in L.A.

A little history lesson about the federal deficit, by David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Barack Obama:

"....The day the Bush administration took over from President Bill Clinton in 2001, America enjoyed a $236 billion budget surplus -- with a projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion. When the Bush administration left office, it handed President Obama a $1.3 trillion deficit -- and projected shortfalls of $8 trillion for the next decade. During eight years in office, the Bush administration passed two major tax cuts skewed to the wealthiest Americans, enacted a costly Medicare prescription-drug benefit and waged two wars, without paying for any of it. "To put the breathtaking scope of this irresponsibility in perspective, the Bush administration's swing from surpluses to deficits added more debt in its eight years than all the previous administrations in the history of our republic combined. And its spending spree is the unwelcome gift that keeps on giving: Going forward, these unpaid-for policies will continue to add trillions to our deficit. "This fiscal irresponsibility -- and a laissez-faire attitude toward the excesses of the financial industry -- helped create the conditions for the deepest economic catastrophe since the Great Depression. Economists across the political spectrum agreed that to deal with this crisis and avoid a second Great Depression, the government had to make significant investments to keep our economy going and shore up our financial system. "That is why President Obama and Congress crafted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Despite Rove's assertion, it is widely accepted that the difficult but necessary steps Obama took have helped save our economy from an even deeper disaster. And while Rove conveniently ignores that it was President Bush -- not Obama -- who signed into law the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program bailout for banks, the Obama administration's rigorous stewardship added transparency and accountability that have cut the expected cost of that program by two-thirds. "At the same time, we also recognize that we need to address the long legacy of overspending in Washington. That is why, shortly after taking office, Obama instructed his agency heads to go through the budget page by page, line by line, to eliminate what we don't need to help pay for what we do. "As a start, the president proposed billions of dollars in cuts, and he'll continue to fight for them and others in the upcoming budget. An analysis by the Washington Times concluded that in this first year, Obama had been more successful in getting his proposed cuts through Congress than his predecessor was in any of his eight years in office. "And even as Obama has pursued landmark health insurance reforms that will hold the insurance industry accountable and expand coverage to working Americans, he has insisted from the beginning that any reform legislation must not add to the federal deficit and must help reduce it over time. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the legislation making its way through Congress upholds this principle. As the president has said, the federal budget is like an ocean liner, not a motor boat, and it will take time to redirect its course. But the course correction that was so badly needed after the previous administration has begun in earnest....."

BITS

Still not a duct tape believer? Check this out.

Food for thought by Meteor Blades:

"...The government's economic stimulus had its greatest impact on growth in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2009 and, without additional spending, that impact will continue to fade. Under such circumstances, the probability of an oxymoronic "jobless recovery" is reinforced. And the term "double-dip recession" is being heard more frequently again. Not exactly good news with at least 26 million Americans out of work or working part time because there aren't enough full-time positions. But we keep being told that the pot of jobs is just over the horizon at the end of the happy-talk rainbow. "Meanwhile, as more and more people spend down their savings, exhaust their unemployment benefits (if they were lucky enough to have them in the first place) and lose their houses to foreclosure, the underlying structural problems of the economy, including a still vastly under-regulated banking industry, myopic trade policy and anti-progressive tax policy, seem destined to remain in place, ensuring that the next crisis will be even worse and may begin before the current one is over."

Wow, the level of apparent intellect is lower than a third-grader's.

BITS

Many homeowners can no longer afford their mortgage payments. That's status quo for any recession. What's new this time are those millions of homeowners who stop making affordable payments. Is this justified just because banks are screwing us over? You tell me....

Two ways to open a corked wine bottle without a corkscrew: method 1, method 2

Friday humor: kid stuck behind couch

This under-$100 gadget gives you the equivalent of a cell phone tower in your home.

Earth to be wiped out by nearby supernova! But don't panic quite yet.

Oh my.... States and local governments may face a $2 Trillion public pension deficit. From this to the federal deficit, the rising un- and underemployment levels and the ongoing residential and commercial real estate crashes, saying that this nation is in dire straits is becoming the understatement of the century.

KD Lang has pretty much the most gut-wrenchingly beautiful singing voice I've ever heard. You can listen to a sampling of her work here. Enjoy!

When I replace my Blackberry phone this year, I'm going to take a very close look at the Nexus One, Google's first offering.

Slideshow of the world's newest tallest building in Dubai.

Shopping for a home in Los Angeles County? Beware of the Shadow Inventory.