They weren’t really fans of making music videos, so they always made sure to put in as little effort as possible. They are, however, the inspiration for nearly every band that followed them.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2dBsBW9yjY[/youtube]
are you looking for the mother lode? huh? no.
no, my child, this is not my desire.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQqTQMYl3wU[/youtube]
Heard it on an episode of The Office, and my wife immediately purchased it on iTunes. Money well spent, because I’d forgotten about it until this past weekend when I found it on her phone.
Old School.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5PNYNQqnvk[/youtube]
Yeah, it’s a meme. Google “shoop da whoop”.
Original photo credit: Washington Post
From Newark, New Jersey mayor Cory Booker’s Twitter feed:
@kamori07 Again, sorry bout the wait. Its a busy night in the city – I wish u & your family the best & I hope u still get the laundry done
Stay there I am coming now myself. RT @kamori07 lets talk police response! I’m on NYE Ave and Hobson in an accident STILL waiting 4 police.
Now that’s one heck of a good mayor.
Mother Jones tells why Senator Dodd’s retirement and likely replacement by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is awesome news for progressives:
Back in 2000, David Plotz wrote a great piece for Slate about Blumenthal, who was about to enter his second decade as Connecticut’s attorney general:
Blumenthal was supposed to be “the Jewish Kennedy.” Now the 54-year-old finds himself in the autumn of his career fighting for Joe Lieberman’s sloppy seconds. Blumenthal is blessed with every political virtue except recklessness and luck. His résumé makes Gore’s look like a high-school dropout’s….
What Lieberman had begun [as Connecticut attorney general before him], Blumenthal perfected. He turned consumer advocacy into high art and helped lead the nationwide trend of AG activism. According to Yale legal scholar Akhil Reed Amar, Reagan-era deregulation and congressional gridlock left a power vacuum, especially in antitrust law and consumer protection. AGs, always trolling for power and press, rushed to fill it. Blumenthal proved a master. Ambitious, independent, and fiercely committed to progressive activism, he was creative in finding causes related (however tenuously) to the well-being of Connecticut. He joined the anti-tobacco posse early then led the AGs as they piled on the Justice Department’s Microsoft suit. Blumenthal spearheaded the national campaign against deceptive sweepstakes mailings and has taken a prominent role in negotiating with gun manufacturers.
In 2007, Mother Jones’ own Stephanie Mencimer wrote about Blumenthal’s No. 1 foes: big business lobbies like the US Chamber of Commerce and the Competitive Enterprise Institute:
[T]he Competitive Enterprise Institute issued a “study” on the nation’s “Top Ten Worst State Attorneys General.” CEI has been heavily funded by tobacco, auto, and utility companies and has been active in fighting off attempts to mitigate global warming. Public enemy No. 1 for CEI is Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal.
In all this is a clue to Blumenthal’s popularity. He’s visible—he’s always in the news, taking on “bad guys” and suing corporate villains. And he has a job in which it’s really easy to be on the side of “the people.”
I grew up in Connecticut. When people had a problem with a company, they seemed just as likely to go straight to the AG’s office as they were to call the Better Business Bureau or their state representative. And when you complain to the AG’s office about a problem and they end up doing something about it, you remember it. Blumenthal has two decades worth of individuals who his office helped, and two decades worth of suing companies like Countrywide that were the focus of populist rage. Those companies hate him for it, of course, but ordinary people tend to like him—a lot.
More and better Democrats – emphasis on “better”.
Here are the stories you probably aren’t seeing on TV tonight.
5 Ethiopian assassination plotters sentenced to death, 33 get life sentences
UN Panel says Guinean junta leader should be tried for crimes against humanity
Mortar attack on MPs in Somalia
Feature: Eritreans fleeing into Sudan
You know the situation is pretty bad when Sudan looks good. Aside from the usual poverty, Eritrea is one of the most repressive states in the world where free speech is concerned. From Eritrea’s BBCProfile:
Eritrea is the only African country to have no privately-owned news media. In 2005 the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) described it as one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists.
Another press watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, notes that there is “no freedom of expression”.
The government closed the private press in 2001 for “endangering national security” and arrested many journalists after several publications printed the dissenting views of some National Assembly members.
Isaias Afewerki was elected president of independent Eritrea by the national assembly in 1993. He had been the de facto leader before independence.
Eritrean president
Isaias Afewerki: President since 1993Presidential elections, planned for 1997, never materialised. Eritrea is a one-party state, with the ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice the only party allowed to operate.
In case you missed it on 12/23: Eritrea hit with UN sanctions for aiding Somali islamist insurgents
Since my post on the subject last November, I have seen a grand total of two posts on the subject from neocons. American Spectator noted the mass defection of Eritrea’s soccer team very briefly and with a sense of detached amusement. Ryan Mauro briefly noted the UN sanctions and suggested Eritrea be added to the State Department’s “State Sponsors of Terror” list, which I agree with.
Thailand deporting Hmong refugees back to Laos
And what awaits them there? BBC:
More than 1,500 have already been forced back over the border. Their fate is still uncertain, as the Lao government refuses to allow international agencies to monitor the returnees.
According to Amnesty International, 20 women and girls sent back to Laos in December 2005 were detained for 18 months, and some were tortured.
Other returnees have vanished.
Laos is a communist one-party state, and the Hmong were recruited by the CIA during the Cold War to fight against the communists. But Laos is a friendly trading partner of the US, so neocons avoid the subject entirely. However, Senator Pat Leahy and Amnesty International took notice:
“It is important to note that U.S. Senators, Russ Feingold ( D-WI ), Patrick Leahy ( D-VT ), Richard Lugar ( R-IN ), Barbara Boxer ( D-CA ), Al Franken ( D-MN ) , Amy Klobuchar ( D-MN ), Mark Begich ( D-AK ), Lisa Murkowski ( R-AK ) and Sheldon Whitehouse ( D-RI ) sent the letter to Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on December 17, 2009, and released it on December 23, 2009, in Washington, D.C. following reports of more Thai soldiers and a large troop convoy of over 50 army trucks and buses being deployed at the main Hmong refugee camp at Ban Huay Nam Khao to force over 4,000 political refugees back to Laos over the Christmas and New Year holiday season,” Smith concluded.
It’s a shame that only two Republican senators signed on to this.
Uzbekistan holding parliamentary elections open only to pro-government parties to create illusion of democracy – Uzbeks not fooled
Airlines seeking antitrust immunity to collude on US-Tokyo flights
I’m heading out now, but there’s plenty more going on in the world. Feel free to share your international stories.
Mike Castle, circa 2004:
I supported the Medicare Prescription Drug bill because it was a historic opportunity, since the inception of the program in 1965, to add a pharmaceutical discount benefit to the program. While I realize the law is not perfect, it is certainly a step in the right direction, as the costs of prescription drug continuing to rise at alarming rates. This law is quite generous to low income beneficiaries and beneficiaries who have catastrophic prescription costs.
Mike Castle, circa 2009:
I voted no on HR 3200 because the first order of health care reform must be to lower costs for everyone– the cost of treatment, the cost of insurance and the cost of subsidies from the federal government. We shouldn’t seek to add new financial commitments to federal and state coffers without first determining which parts of the current system are working, and then making the tough choices to reform the parts that are not working. The sustainability of Medicare and Medicaid, two major government run health programs, are in jeopardy because their growth rate automatically increases based on population and inflation. This rate of increase over the past several decades has been so accelerated that their very existence is threatened if we continue do nothing.
Shorter Mike Castle: I voted against the deficit-neutral Democratic Health Care Plan because the Republican Medicare Plan that I supported was bankrupting the federal government.
Mike Castle voted for every deficit-busting scheme cooked up by the Bush Administration, including all the Bush Tax Cuts (a giveaway to billionaires that did virtually nothing to create jobs) and all the Bush Iraq War Requests (giving endless billions to contractors openly engaged in defrauding the Pentagon and placing our troops at risk). Then he suddenly remembers the deficit when Democrats try to pass bills creating jobs and expanding affordable health care. You can count on Castle to hedge his bets by complaining, but when you count the votes, Mike Castle will do whatever the GOP tells him to.
I’m not going to throw the word “best” around – when Rolling Stone declares that Radiohead’s electrosomnolent “Kid A” to be the best album of the decade, it’s time to retire the idea of telling people your favorite things are objectively better than things that you don’t like. The point of this list is that my taste is a bit different than most, and so many people haven’t heard many of these songs, and I’d like to share them with you. I’m also throwing out all the enumeration – that’s just made up nonsense to quantify subjective feelings that change frequently.
Infinity – by Merrick (2001)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR6ysmGa1ps[/youtube]
“We are all like astronauts, discovering infinity / Take my empty body and discover me, infinity”
Ears Ring – by Rainer Maria (2003)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkUfcrDeETY[/youtube]
“Strange how the ears ring / After a night of wrongdoing”
You! Me! Dancing! – by Los Campesinos! (2007)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj6SO_yKMe8[/youtube]
“And it’s sad that you think that we’re all just scenesters / And even if we were, it’s not the scene you’re thinking of”
Saline the Salt Lake Queen – by Rasputina (2004)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbRusHpUviM[/youtube]
“Oh Saline / Only seventeen / Swollen up with pride”
Apocalypse Please – by Muse (2004)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P3RZdMe75c[/youtube]
“Declare this an emergency / Come on and spread a sense of urgency”
Date With the Night- by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2003)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT1dlU2_Ub0[/youtube]
“Both thighs squeeze tight / CHOKE CHOKE CHOKE CHOKE CHOKE CHOKE CHOKE CHOKE…”
Bury The Tooth Of The Hydra And A Skeleton Army Will Arise – by Schoolyard Heroes
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwO0DIrckFw[/youtube]
“These underhanded gestures I make / Do they help you sleep at night?”
Words – Kate Miller-Heidke (2007)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVxWtzYxIbw[/youtube]
“Do you think my personality is written in stone? / Are you positively certain that you know what you’ve been shown”
Gardenia – Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks (2008)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-64FTeOZvk[/youtube]
“So you got some curb appeal / But can you cook a 3 course meal / Or are you just a present waiting to be opened up and parceled out again”
Extraordinary Machine – Fiona Apple (2005)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MicrInh1_E[/youtube]
“Be kind to me, or treat me mean / I’ll make the most of it, I’m an extraordinary machine”
I Should’ve Known Better – by Nickel Creek (2002)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCQxD4zBICg[/youtube]
“Your love meant trouble from the day we met / You won every hand, I lost every bet”
I’m Impressed – by They Might Be Giants (2001)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CccPPDe2JU[/youtube]
“I admit, I’m impressed / When the tornado from the West crushes buildings, I’m impressed”
Grounds for Divorce – by Elbow (2008)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdmwHljfN4Q[/youtube]
“Mondays is for drinking to the seldom seen kid / I’ve been working on a cocktail called Grounds for Divorce”
Apparently, NPR’s Garrison Keillor is on Bill O’Reilly’s side regarding the War On Christmas. OK, weird, but that’s not the part that bothers me. Check out this little excerpt from his screed in Wednesday’s Baltimore Sun, whereupon he’s quite angry about a somewhat secularized version of “Silent Night” sung at a Unitarian church in Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Unitarians listen to the Inner Voice and so they have no creed that they all stand up and recite in unison, and that’s their perfect right, but it is wrong, wrong, wrong to rewrite “Silent Night.” If you don’t believe Jesus was God, OK, go write your own damn “Silent Night” and leave ours alone. This is spiritual piracy and cultural elitism, and we Christians have stood for it long enough. And all those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys that trash up the malls every year, Rudolph and the chestnuts and the rest of that dreck. Did one of our guys write “Grab your loafers, come along if you wanna, and we’ll blow that shofar for Rosh Hashanah”? No, we didn’t.
OK, two things:
So, seriously, Prairie Home Companion? Not going to be listening any more.
Anyone who thinks Mike Castle would be some kind of moderate thorn in the side of the conservative GOP Senate minority leadership is fooling themselves.
Among those senators who reported giving to Castle in October were Thad Cochran (Miss.), whose Senate Victory Fund PAC gave $10,000; Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), whose OrrinPAC donated $5,000; Pat Roberts (Kan.), whose Preserving America’s Traditions PAC gave $5,000; and Mike Johanns (Neb.), whose Prairieland PAC donated $2,000.
Link: CQ
Cochran is what passes for a “moderate” in Mississippi, which means just like Castle, he voted with Bush almost all of the time except on Stem Cells. Cochran and Roberts are two of only nine Senators to vote against prohibiting torture at Guantanamo. Roberts spent his time as Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman busily covering up the Bush Administration’s malfeasance. Orrin hatch recently declared “holy war” over health card reform, but joins Castle and Cochran in the Stem Cell Club (health research is fine as long as no one can afford to benefit from it). Johanns, the newcomer of the group, wrote the unconstitutional Bill of Attainder against ACORN, but voted against the Franken amendment that would withhold funding from defense contractors who try to prevent sexually assaulted employees from going to court (In the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, KBR locked her in a shipping container without food or water).
Just as banking and health insurer money bought Castle’s votes on bankruptcy and health care, so too will these Senators buy Castle votes on civil liberties and the reactionary social agenda (now you know why Castle voted for the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, AKA denying coverage for emergency contraception).
Hah, just kidding. Neocons don’t even know where Eritrea is.
Afewerki announced in May 2008 that elections would be postponed for “three or four decades” or longer because they “polarize society.” All forms of media are controlled by the government. At least 10 local journalists remain in prison since their arrests in 2001.
(Link: Parade)
Remember, the Neocon playbook says that dictators are only bad if they rule nations that have resources we want and aren’t providing them to us. Sure, they know Robert Mugabe is a bad guy, but Zimbabwe is strategically uninteresting to them. Not like Cuba – they can win votes for singling out Cuba.
No honest person could say that Raul Castro is worse than Robert Mugabe, or Omar Al-Bashir, or Than Shwe, not if they did a moment’s worth of research. And the idea that Cuba poses any kind of strategic threat to the United States is ludicrous.
Even more flagrant is the demonization of Honduras’s Manuel Zelaya. He had the temerity to hold a non-binding public poll – called by some a referendum – as to whether the constitution should be amended to remove presidential term limits. Somehow, this legitimizes the military coup (which has implemented strict press restrictions that did not exist under Zelaya) in the minds of Neocons (and non-libertarian GOP nationalists in general). Why? Because he’s an ally of Castro and Chavez, and a populist (leftist). Now find me a single quote from any neocon about Choummaly Sayasone, president of communist Laos, a single-party state. Go on. Find me one, single, solitary quote about Sayasone, and how his communist regime in Laos must be toppled. Remember, Nixon bombed the living crap out of Laos because they were communist and adjacent to Vietnam. Now that Laos and Vietnam are friendly trading partners, the idea of democracy in Laos, that we equipped thousands of Laotians to fight and die for, is no longer worth thinking about.
Any honest assessment of Neocon priorities reveals the following:
1. US Corporations must be allowed to acquire any valuable natural resources any nation might have.
2. Any world leader who criticizes US foreign policy must be deposed.
That’s it. Threat assessment is not a factor – otherwise they would be considering the danger posed by Pervez Musharraf’s nukes. Same goes for “democracy” and “freedom” – you don’t see them rail against Swaziland’s King Mswati III, Africa’s only absolute monarch (with 13 wives last time I counted).
Neoconservatism is about two things – money and pride. But that’s pretty much all conservative politics in a nutshell.
Here is the amendment Mike Castle added to the GOP “Die Quickly” Health Insurance Bill.
‘‘In applying subparagraph (B), a group health plan
(or a health insurance issuer with respect to health
insurance coverage) may vary premiums and cost
sharing by up to 50 percent of the value of the benefits under the plan (or coverage) based on participation (or lack of participation) in a standards-based
wellness program.’’.
(2) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made
by paragraph (1) shall apply to plan years beginning
more than 1 year after the date of the enactment of
this Act.
So Mike Castle’s contribution to the bill is to allow your health insurance company to raise your premiums 50% because you didn’t adhere to their strict-as-hell wellness program (which probably requires you to report to them your diet and exercise habits).
I’m serious, that’s Mike Castle’s plan – letting your insurance company raise your rates for not exercising enough. The goal is to generate profits for the health insurance monopolies that contribute huge sums of money to his campaign (an industry generating record profits at the expense of bankrupting consumers). This isn’t your typical “weak-tea” Castle spinelessness, this is the real Mike Castle finally showing it’s evil, crooked face and telling you to “bend over” in the name of profit.
The next time you hear someone suggest they might vote for Castle, or that he’s some kind of “moderate”, remind them that Castle wanted to raise our health insurance premiums 50%.
What a sick fucking crook.