Cutting food aid to poor kids

Posted on April 25, 2012 by oddmanout215

It’s not just bleeding-heart liberal rhetoric. Republican politicians really are mutating backwards — devolving — into enthusiasts for social Darwinist notions that were popular in the Gilded Age. From ThinkProgress, another nauseating example of how low these mutants will stoop to please their corporate masters:

On April 18 the House Agriculture Committee passed a bill cutting over $33 billion from SNAP over the next decade. About one-third of these cuts ($11.5 billion) comes from putting restrictions on “categorical eligibility,” a provision that enables states to better coordinate between programs and improves access to assistance for low-income families.

By restricting this provision, the bill would kick an average of 1.8 million low-income people a year off of food aid and end automatic enrollment in free school meals for 280,000 children in struggling families.

The Republican budget sells this bill as an effort to “reduce lower‐priority spending” to avert military cuts that will otherwise take place in January 2013 due to the debt deal agreed to last summer. But when it comes to reducing the deficit, it’s clear the House would rather ask low-income kids and families struggling against hunger to foot the bill than asking multimillion-dollar estates to pay their fair share.

Case in point: As part of the 2010 tax-cut compromise, House Republicans insisted on including a tax cut on multimillion dollar estates, adding an estimated $11.5 billion to the deficit this year alone. That’s the same amount they’re now claiming is necessary to cut from low-income families through these restrictions.

Posted in Congress, food, mainstream media, taxes | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Android, psycho CEO, or just a liar?

Posted on April 24, 2012 by oddmanout215

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

From Dr. Kevin Barrett, in Veterans Today:

Is [Mitt] Romney a plastic shell, operated in real time by a gray alien equivalent of Karl Rove? Possibly. But it seems far more likely that he is, like [Ted] Bundy, an inhuman human: one of the 2% of males who are clinical psychopaths.

Interesting. On the one hand, it’s tempting to conclude Mittens is an android, capable of only the crudest simulations of spontaneity and empathy. If you prick him, will he not bleed some sort of industrial coolant?

On the other, he might simply be one of those people who “present themselves as glibly unbothered by the chaos around them, unconcerned about those who have lost their jobs, savings and investments, and as lacking any regrets about what they have done.”

The latter quote is from Prof. Clive R. Boddy, who argues in a piece published in the Journal of Business Ethics that “corporate psychopaths” in executive positions played a large role in creating the global financial crisis that began in 2008.

Robert Parry’s argument, that Mittens is a “professional liar,” seems to owe something to the corporate psycho theory advanced by Boddy and more than a few other academics. Parry writes:

In Romney’s previous career – as a corporate raider – lying may have been a part of the job, in lulling a company’s long-time owners into complacency or convincing some well-meaning investors that massive layoffs won’t be necessary. Then, wham-o, the company founders are out, their loyal workforce is on the street, and the company can be “reorganized” for a big profit.

Arguably, Romney learned his skill as a liar from those days at Bain Capital – and he has put it to good use as a politician, taking opposite sides of issue after issue, from abortion rights to global warming to government mandates that citizens buy health insurance to whether stay-at-home mothers “work” or not…

I don’t know, Bob. Did Romney learn to lie at Bain or merely cultivate his innate talent there? And I’m not ready to rule out the sci-fi scenario, either. Mittens seems in many ways a throwback to the Gilded Age — like someone who has mutated in reverse, into the sort of primitive political animal I discussed in a previous post. But there’s something special about him that makes me wonder what, if anything, goes on in his subconscious mind, and whether he assumes Americans have become so robotic they’re ready to be snookered by a guy who makes Richard Nixon seem like a mensch.

As Philip K. Dick wrote, do androids dream of electric sheep?

Posted in liar, Mitt Romney, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

New York Times discovers ALEC

Posted on April 23, 2012 by oddmanout215

At last a response to questions my friend Sergie and I puzzled over in my March 27 post: Why doesn’t the New York Times write an investigative piece about that extremely effective stealth lobbying group called the American Legislative Exchange Council? Why didn’t it write this piece years ago?

I’ll bet you’ve already heard of ALEC, unless you only read newspapers. The furtive, pro-corporate, tax-exempt group not only spends taxpayer money to persuade state legislators to pass right-wing bills — it often writes “model bills” used by legislators all over the country. Which isn’t surprising once you know ALEC’s members include not only corporations but also almost 2,000 state legislators. Almost all of the legislators are Republicans.

The horse is out of the barn and halfway across the valley, but better late than never for the story to be in a “newspaper of record.” And who cares that the Sunday NYT piece relied heavily on materials obtained by the watchdog group Common Cause, which is hoping to have ALEC busted for not meeting the criteria for tax-exempt status?

But I kid you, NYT. You did manage to dig up, or at least choose to use, some good anecdotal material that helps illustrate how thoroughly sleazy ALEC is. I liked this:

Last December, ALEC adopted model legislation, based on a Texas law, addressing the public disclosure of chemicals in drilling fluids used to extract natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The ALEC legislation, which has since provided the basis for similar bills submitted in five states, has been promoted as a victory for consumers’ right to know about potential drinking water contaminants.

A close reading of the bill, however, reveals loopholes that would allow energy companies to withhold the names of certain fluid contents, for reasons including that they have been deemed trade secrets. Most telling, perhaps, the bill was sponsored within ALEC by ExxonMobil, one of the largest practitioners of fracking — something not explained when ALEC lawmakers introduced their bills back home.

Footnote: Wouldn’t it be nice if President Obama could take the high ground and politely denounce ALEC for working to destroy the democratic process by putting crooked politicians in bed with corporate skunks? But he can’t do that because he too is in bed with skunks, especially those of the Wall Street variety.

Posted in mainstream media, New York Times, Obama | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Mutants stall Gulf clean-up funding

Posted on April 22, 2012 by oddmanout215

Anyone want to sample the mutant shrimp? I didn’t think so.

Chris Bowers of Daily Koz recently sent out an e-mail petition telling House Speaker John Boehner “to pass legislation mandating that fines paid by BP go toward the clean up and restoration of the Gulf Coast.” The petition includes a picture of a mutant shrimp, to remind Boehner that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which began two years ago this week, is still causing major harm.

This is how far to the right the GOP has mutated: Boehner and the other Republicans who control the House are insisting on amendments to a transportation bill whose passage is tied to the passage of the Gulf clean-up bill, called the Restore Act. They’re delaying a vote on the act in an attempt to force approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline and block effective regulations for disposal of toxic coal ash. And who cares about the condition of the Gulf and the millions of people affected by it?

I hope you all got the Daily Koz petition and signed it. Go here for more information on how to spread the word about stopping the mutants.

Posted in Congress, environmentalism, food | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Remind me again

Posted on April 21, 2012 by oddmanout215

You got my attention
Go ahead, speak
What was it you wanted
When you were kissin’ my cheek?

The lyrics are from “What Was It You Wanted,” on Oh Mercy! (1989), produced by Daniel Lanoir, who arguably helped pull Bob Dylan out of a long artistic slump. In his Chronicles, Volume One, Dylan wrote of his difficulties and pleasant surprises in making the album, and praised Lanoir for the distinctively spooky sound of the song:

…It starts mixed and cooked in a pot like a gumbo, right from the downbeat, dreamy and ambiguous. We had to keep the song level and right-side up. Danny’s sonic atmosphere makes it sound like it’s coming out of some mysterious sonic land…

The song reminds me of the time I was in upstate New York, paddling a canoe on one of the Finger Lakes and thinking about the Indians who did this centuries ago. But more than anything the song evokes a mysterious psychic landscape. You never really know why people do what they do, no matter how close you think you are to them.

Posted in arts, pop music, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Levon Helm dead at 71

Posted on April 19, 2012 by oddmanout215

Levon Helm, second from left, in the cover photo for the Band’s second album.

From the L.A. Times’ music blog:

Levon Helm, the widely respected and influential singer and drummer with the Band, whose Arkansas drawl colored the group’s signature hits, including “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” died Thursday in New York of throat cancer.

The writer added that “Helm and the Band largely created the template for a genre now labeled “Americana music” for its blend of rock, country, folk, blues and gospel strains.”

An accurate summary of the Band’s musical influences, but I was puzzled by the reference to “Americana music” as a genre. Levon Helm grew up in Turkey Scratch, AR, and was able to experience first-hand not only roots music but an entire culture that’s almost totally alien to 21st century America. The same goes for Bob Dylan, growing up in Hibbing, MN, who wrote “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” which Helm sang — with all the irony and soul the song demands — on the Band’s Cahoots album.

Americana is not a genre, even if the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame says it is.

The Band was the Band. Their music influenced a lot of musicians, but it didn’t create a template for anything. There’s no template or formula for the magic that happens when a group creates a sound that’s unique and timeless. And there’s no replacing the people who created the sound. Let’s just be thankful for the recordings.

Posted in arts, pop music, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

‘Dark matter’ concept darker than ever

Posted on April 19, 2012 by oddmanout215

“The stars are matter. We’re matter. But it doesn’t matter.” — Captain Beefheart

For years laymen have felt puzzled by “dark matter,” an unscientific term scientists use to describe the invisible substance that supposedly accounts for 83 percent of the matter in the universe. So it was less than comforting to read yesterday that scientists were and still are as puzzled as the rest of us.

According to widely accepted theories, the neighborhood around the sun should be filled with dark matter, with billions of these particles rushing through us every second. However, the most accurate study yet of motions of stars in the Milky Way now has found no evidence for dark matter in a large volume around the sun…

“Our results contradict the currently accepted models — the mystery of dark matter has just become even more mysterious,” said study lead author Christian Moni Bidin, an astronomer at the University of Concepción in Chile…

“Despite the new results, the Milky Way certainly rotates much faster than the visible matter alone can account for, so if dark matter is not present where we expected it, a new solution for the missing mass problem must be found,” Moni Bidin said.

Yes indeedy. So where does that leave us?

“Strictly speaking, the results do not say that dark matter does not exist — they only say it is not here,” Moni Bidin told SPACE.com. “We have not proven that dark matter does not exist, and even if we do, at this point we cannot explain many other phenomena that today are explained only by dark matter.”

I’m beginning to see the light. Pass me that bong, Professor.

Posted in astronomy, humor | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Yes Men’s fake BofA site is back

Posted on April 18, 2012 by oddmanout215

An ad for the Yes Men's 2009 movie. Now they're trying to fix Bank of America.

As the movie trailer put it, “Sometimes it takes a lie to expose the truth.”

The Raw Story reported earlier today that “Google blacklisted on Wednesday a website made to look like an outreach campaign by Bank of America, in what turned out to be an activist’s effort to get people talking about how the nation’s largest bank should operate.”

However, after the Raw Story piece appeared, Google took the website off its blacklist.

The website was the work of the Yes Men, activist satirists who create fake websites and news releases that lampoon the cozy relationship between corporate giants and prominent politicians.

From the “personal letter” by CEO Brian Moynihan, on the fake BofA site:

The institutions you rescued in 2008 have continued much as they always were, engaging in the same practices that brought our economy so close to collapse. To make sure that this time around, things turn out differently, we at Bank of America are launching a forum in which you, the American taxpayer, can prepare for the time that you own us. By sharing ideas, and reading and rating the ideas of others, you can begin charting a course for this Bank—your course.

And when the day comes that you, the American taxpayer, own this Bank, you will be ready to make it a Bank for America—one that brings benefits not to the privileged only, but to all of our customers, and to all of our stakeholders too.

Three cheers for the Yes Men who, unlike employees of the mainstream media, have the freedom to say what ought to be said.

Posted in economic collapse, humor, mainstream media | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Killer drones are people, too

Posted on April 17, 2012 by oddmanout215

Wow, this is way cooler than Wargaming.net!

Q. What’s the difference between a terrorist who bombs civilian centers and a military pilot who does the same thing?
A. Usually, it’s only a matter of altitude, although the terrorist is likely to be hunted down and the pilot to be deemed a hero, at least in his home country.

Most people don’t want to acknowledge this reality, especially in America, where warfare has reached a new level of remoteness with the introduction of unmanned “killer drones” operated from a great distance. This can be a formidably efficient way to kill people. And yet, when you think about it, the pilot, “flying” the drone from the ground via computer, bears more resemblance to some wanker playing a video game than to an actual killer. But he’s still a killer, isn’t he?

From Rolling Stone:

[Sixteen-year-old Pakistani] Tariq [Aziz] had been killed in a drone strike while he was on his way to pick up his aunt. It appears that he wasn’t the intended target of the strike: Those who met Tariq suspect he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, especially since his 12-year-old cousin was also killed in the blast.

The Obama administration has no comment on the killing of Tariq Aziz, even though his death raises the most significant question of all. Drones offer the government an advanced and precise technology in its War on Terror – yet many of those killed by drones don’t appear to be terrorists at all. In fact, according to a detailed study of drone victims compiled by the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, at least 174 of those executed by drones were under the age of 18 – in other words, children. Estimates by human rights groups that include adults who were likely civilians put the toll of innocent victims at more than 800. U.S. officials hotly dismiss such figures – “bullshit,” one senior administration official told me…

For Nasser al-Awlaki, who lost his teenage grandson to a predator drone, such denials are almost as shocking as the administration’s deliberate decision to wage a remote-control war that would inevitably result in the deaths of innocent civilians. “I could not believe America could do this – especially President Obama, who I liked very much,” he says. “When he was elected, I thought he would solve all the problems of the world.”

A lot of well-meaning people in America liked Obama, too, and probably thought he couldn’t possibly condone civilian-killing drones (planes and pilots.) But that was a long time ago.

Posted in terrorism | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The dog days of spring

Posted on April 16, 2012 by oddmanout215

It feels almost like August in April, and so what if glaciers are melting and the sea level rising and scientists predicting vast coastal areas will be underwater within a century? Jon’s Water Ice, which is usually shuttered until after Memorial Day, was doing great business today. I like the novelty.

I’m joking. I don’t even like August weather in August, not in Philadelphia, which is why I’ll be spending the summer in New Zealand, where the bees buzz in cool breezes that blow up from the South Pole with icebergs the size of Rhode Island.

Joking again. I’ll be stuck in Philly, most likely, trying to pay the bills and find an agent for my novel, and writing new short stories, for which I expect a boatload of posthumous praise. Unlike Dorothy Parker, I won’t have Pascal Covici breathing down my neck, but I’ll proceed as if, unless some unknown relative dies and leaves me enough money to make the big move. I so terribly incompetant [sic].

And I’ll try to soldier on with my blog, so as not to disappoint my legion of readers. Anger is a great distraction, and for me there’s nothing more anger-inducing than writing about the rich and powerful crooks who have driven the final nail into the coffin of American democracy. As Atrios wrote today, we’ve lived through a decade in which:

… this country stopped even bothering to pretend to live up to many of its supposed ideals. We go to war and kill lots of people for no good reason, elites have eliminated any accountability for themselves for criminal wrongdoing, we’ve tortured and assassinated people, and the response to massive economic suffering and related criminal fraud has been to give lots of free money to the people who caused it all.

See you at the water ice shop.

Posted in climate change, economic collapse, fiction, history, Iraq war | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments