rofl

If there's anything that captures the.....the....ahem ...DEPTH of the intellectual foundation of the Republican party.....THIS has to be it.....Republican Presidential hopeful Fred Thompson and "Larry the Cable Guy"....two bastions of intellectual power....

Thanks to our buddy, Attaturk for this....and the appropriate caption:

giterdumb!

A dreaded Xpost

Hi everybody....

As those of you who know my activities locally are aware...it's been BUSY! for a week or two...but at least or efforts didn't go up in smoke...pun intended....

Next week will be worse because I will be in Madison on Monday and then in Milwaukee for (practically) the rest of the week....I'll be at a convention hobnobing with my fellow wizards and warlocks....and...and....lets just leave it there.

Here's the dreaded Xpost:

http://mwprogressive.blogspot.com/

WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT

Military parlance, of course and to make it more obvious (and bring it squarely into the world of Left Blogsylvania), try this:

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

It comes from this article in Mother Jones Magazine by Ted Genoways....here's a snippet that causes you to ponder: "Do I laugh or cry?"

At least Chayes can claim to have been misled; no such justification can be offered in defense of Fox News, according to a stunning new book, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (forthcoming from University of Chicago Press in November), by Iraq war photographer and reporter Ashley Gilbertson. Gilbertson describes how he and another reporter were nearly blown to pieces by an errant Air Force bomb in northern Iraq in the late days of the American invasion. They finally withdrew from the front because, as Gilbertson himself concedes, "The risk was too high, the payoff too low." And yet when he returned to his hotel in Erbil, he switched on the television and found Fox's correspondent "crouching in front of sandbags, wearing a flak jacket and a helmet. He was supposedly on the front lines, reporting via a scratchy video phone. He had to whisper, he said." But as Gilbertson studied the screen, he could discern, over the correspondent's shoulder and above the sandbags, the "distinctive architecture of our hotel." Fox's man in the field was reporting live from a foxhole he had built in his hotel room. The outraged Gilbertson dialed the correspondent's in-house phone and then hung up, allowing just enough time to send a single ring over the airwaves

We don't demand nearly enough from our "journalists", do we?

Click the linky-thing and read the whole article.

Best Democrats I ever met...

I couldn't be at the meeting last night because of other commitments.

Generally, that's no big deal but last night it was.

It was because I missed a tribute paid by the local party to two of the best Democrats I've ever met...

Norm and Loretta Tritz

Norm and Loretta were responsible for getting me active in the local party organization and I will be forever grateful to them for making sure that I got involved.

The truly special thing about Norm and Loretta is how QUIET they are. They do tons of actual work for the party and for local candidates but they are never in the limelight themselves. They're never "out front" but always in the background doing whatever organizing needs to be done.

Do you think that the Democratic Party Float just magically appears? Do you think the organization of the booth for the State Fair just happens automatically? Where do you think the tickets come from?

That's all because of Norm and Loretta and most of us don't even see them (well, we DO see Norm pulling the float behind his truck) most of the time.

I'm so happy the party decided to recognize these two outstanding Democrats last night...I understand that there was a plaque...there were flowers...and a personally autographed book by Dave Obey.....I have personal knowledge that Norm and Loretta have been big boosters of our favorite Congresscritter for many, many years. Among those saying Thanks to Norm and Loretta were Assemblyman Marlin Schneider, Senator Julie Lassa, Chairman Dave Willie and the whole party.....

Loretta....Norm...I'm so sorry I couldn't be there last night to say THANK YOU! along with everybody else....but please know that it is my distinct pleasure to know you and count you among my most admired friends.

Love.

Ed

...about cooperating with Republicans....

it's not smart....

it's not even politically expedient...

it's dumb...

here's what Scarecrow at firedoglake has to say about yesterday' MoveOn vote in the Senate:

The 22 Democrats who betrayed their party and its supporters by voting to condemn MoveOn probably thought voting for a Republican stunt would shield them from further Republican smears. For the umpteenth time, they were wrong.

Their delusions were shattered again when President Bush used his bullying pulpit to smear the entire “Democrat” party, claiming most of them are “more afraid of irritating a left-wing group like Moveon.org . . . than they are of irritating the United States military.”

and....

Had enough, Senators? You were set up, again. As Jane keeps explaining, never support Republican talking points or attacks on Democratic allies. Never. And just in case you’ve forgotten what’s important here, I left a few reminders.

I keep telling our local officials that compromising with the Republicans on their issues is, just exactly as Newt Gingrich called it, DATE RAPE!

Supercapitalism

Here's a subject that almost got me "flunked out" and kicked out of my Sophomore Year Macro Economics class....primarily because I said the same things that Robert Reich is now saying.

There's a great synopsis of his new book, Supercapitalism, over at KOS this morning and I think it's a book I'm going to get...here are some snippets and some commentary will follow afterwards.

In Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life, Robert Reich agrees that global capitalism had made goods both cheaper and more plentiful. However, the price tag at the store doesn't represent the full price we pay for this consumer bounty. In creating not just a market, but an international culture, driven almost entirely by price, we've sacrificed much of our ability to control the actions of corporations or even the quality of our own lives.

snip

In the end what Reich has to say is that both left and right are wrong in their view of capitalism. Corporations are not people. They're not moral or immoral. They just are. And if that sounds too corporate friendly, Reich makes a terrific case for why corporations should not be given the political clout and legal protections of human citizens. In his view, a corporation should have both the responsibilities and rights of a table lamp.
The right is at least as wrong in viewing the market as some kind of self-correcting "natural" system that always tends to produce an overall benefit. There's no evidence of this now, or ever. In fact, history shows that the market needs constant adjustment and correction -- often involving huge amounts of government support that the "free market" advocates are quick to forget when the numbers are going up.

It's that area I highlighted in red that almost got me kicked out of class by the very, very, very conservative Econ Professor. Arguing that there is no such thing as a "free market" or that there are no "natural market forces at work" is quite likely to enrage any self-respecting conservative businessman and subsequently get you labeled as a "communist" (because in the mind of a conservative, there are ONLY capitalists and communists, so if you aren't one then you are by elimination, obviously the other)but it has been a long-held belief of mine which I have never had the time or (quite honestly ) the motivation to research at the depth that Reich does here...or for that matter...the depth that any serious economist would do......The argument I made then is similar to what Reich is saying now, in that I posited that problem with capitalism as we were then (and even moreso now) were practicing it, was that it required continued growth of markets and profits which were not, in my opinion, infinite. They were and are quite finite...we cannot exploit cheap labor forever because it will eventually reach the proverbial "race to the bottom". We were then, and are now, expecting to make more profits with less cost over and over again...or, put another way, we are expecting to manufacutre more and more for less and less until, ultimately, we expect to build EVERYTHING FOR NOTHING.

That's the fools dream of Supercapitalism. And that is the disaster waiting to happen.

I've admired Reich since the late 1980's because he has taken a "view from 30,000 feet" (as the new pseudo-MBAs like to say) of the American economy and how our culture is shaping that economy.

Even if you don't like studying economics....and let's face it, who does....you'll still like Reich's work. It's unlike most essays on economics in that it's....READABLE.

Any heavy thinkers out there?

I need some help discussing this issue.....

read it over here and give me some ideas hey?