Obama’s see-no-evil supporters

Posted on January 1, 2012 by oddmanout215

Happy New Year, Glenn Greenwald. Thank you for firing back at “progressives” who rightly attack Ron Paul for some of his views but ignore the fact that Paul, not Barack Obama, “advocates policy views on issues that liberals and progressives have long flamboyantly claimed are both compelling and crucial.”

One of Greenwald’s points is that progressives who vote for Obama should at least admit their complicity in Obama’s betrayal of these crucial views, which wouldn’t even be addressed if Paul wasn’t a candidate:

…There are very few political priorities, if there are any, more imperative than having an actual debate on issues of America’s imperialism; the suffocating secrecy of its government; the destruction of civil liberties which uniquely targets Muslims, including American Muslims; the corrupt role of the Fed; corporate control of government institutions by the nation’s oligarchs; its destructive blind support for Israel, and its failed and sadistic Drug War. More than anything, it’s crucial that choice be given to the electorate by subverting the two parties’ full-scale embrace of these hideous programs…

Read the whole article. Greenwald isn’t saying vote for Paul. (Neither am I.) He’s expressing his well-reasoned disgust with Dems in denial about the fact that their party has largely disowned the principles that made it distinguishable from the GOP. Isn’t it high time the rest of us expressed our disgust by exploring alternatives to the dead-end two-party system?

Footnote: On Saturday Obama signed the NDAA, allowing for indefinite detention of people who are deemed enemies of the state. True to form, he all but apologized for signing the bill into law, but he signed it. Ron Paul opposed the NDAA.

Posted in Congress, Great Recession, mainstream media, Obama, Politics, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

‘The Apartment’

Posted on December 31, 2011 by oddmanout215

The best-ever New Year’s Eve movie is a dark comedy, but director/writer Billy Wilder knew exactly when to lighten it up, even during the attempted-suicide scene.

Jack Lemmon plays a bachelor with a dismal office job who curries the favor of his bosses by lending his apartment to them so they can be entertained by their girlfriends there. One of the girlfriends is Shirley MacClaine, who flips out when Fred MacMurray, the company’s big chief, tells her he has no intention of ditching his wife to be with her full-time.

Wilder made The Apartment, which you can watch on YouTube, a year or so after another of his classics, Some Like It Hot. I’d argue that his best movie ever is Ace In the Hole, definitely not a comedy.

Posted in arts, movies | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

‘Matchbox’

Posted on December 31, 2011 by oddmanout215

Yeah I’m sitting here wondering,
would a matchbox hold my clothes…

I hope I didn’t insult the memory of the late Carl Perkins by using lyrics from “Matchbox” in connection with the Republican dogs, big and small, mentioned in my previous post. Here’s the classic song, recorded in 1957, on the same day Perkins made impromptu recordings with other Sun Records greats — Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Perkins, probably the best of the rockabilly songwriters, also wrote and recorded the big hit “Don’t Step On My Blue Suede Shoes,” allegedly after witnessing a man in a barroom cuss his girlfriend for scuffing up his blue suede shoes while they danced. Elvis’s recording of the song, also a hit, is better known but not better than Perkins’ version. The Beatles recorded Perkins’ “Honey Don’t” and “Glad All Over.”

The Wikipedia entry about Perkins is full of good info. His autobiography Go Cat, Go and much of his music can be purchased online, including Original Sun Greatest Hits.

Footnote: Check out Greil Marcus’s insightful book Mystery Train for a transcript of the guilt-ridden Lewis arguing with Sun Records chief Sam Phillips about the devil’s influence on rock & roll — or something like that. This was when Lewis almost refused to record “Great Balls of Fire.”

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

They’ll kill your vote if you let them

Posted on December 31, 2011 by oddmanout215

Let me be your little dog ’til your big dog come
— Carl Perkins, “Matchbox”

It’s worth noting as we head into 2012 that many of us aren’t going to change a damn thing about ourselves, resolutions or no. Most elected Democrats will continue to waffle and back-pedal, consulting the Weather Station every hour to find out which way the wind blows. Republicans will fight like dogs to kill what’s left of our rights, including our right to vote.

One of the GOP’s little dogs recently suffered a setback in his campaign to transform Maine into a feudal state:

Last month, Maine voters delivered a major rebuke to Gov. Paul LePage (R) and the Republican-held legislature when they approved a referendum restoring election day voting registration rights in the state. Earlier this year, state legislators passed a bill repealing the state’s 38 year-old law allowing citizens to register at the polls on election day.

As usual in these scenarios, the big dogs stayed far in the background, spending large sums in a futile effort to make sure the dirty work of LePage and the legislators wouldn’t be undone:

…Recognizing the referendum’s importance, voting rights opponents poured money into the campaign to repeal election day registration. In fact, just two days after the state’s campaign finance reporting deadline, a secret conservative donor funneled $250,000 into the race, allowing the No On 1 campaign to make significant TV ad buys in an inexpensive media market.

Per state law, however, the identity of donors must be revealed within 45 days after the election. In fact, the entire $250,000 worth of late money came from a single source: the American Justice Partnership.

The AJP is a conservative legal organization based not in Maine, but in Michigan… Though the AJP doesn’t disclose where its funding comes from, the Bangor Daily News notes that it has partnered with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the past, a group that has been instrumental in the proliferation of voter ID laws across the country.

The AJP’s secret $250,000 contribution ultimately accounted for over 78 percent of all the money raised by the No On 1 campaign. In other words, over three-quarters of the funding for opponents of election day registration in Maine came from Michigan…

The big dogs fund efforts by the little dogs — LePage, Snyder in Michigan, Corbett in PA, Kasich is Ohio, Cristie in NJ, on and on — to undermine the power and resources of those who believe in government by the people rather than the plutocrats. Count on them to spend a fortune in 2012, as sneakily as possible, especially on that well-groomed poodle named Mitt.

Posted in campaign finance reform, Congress, liar, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Did Obama not get it?

Posted on December 30, 2011 by oddmanout215

Why wasn’t job creation the president’s No. 1 priority when he took office? Why didn’t he make a serious, steady effort to get the real economy back on track? Did he really think the bailed-out banks — the banks that caused the crash — would lend the sort of money needed for massive re-employment projects?

You may have noticed that the same renowned economists are still urging the common-sense remedies that were ignored by Obama when he had the clout to implement real change. Here’s Joseph Stiglitz, in the recent Vanity Fair:

… What we need to do… is embark on a massive investment program-as we did, virtually by accident, 80 years ago-that will increase our productivity for years to come, and will also increase employment now. This public investment, and the resultant restoration in G.D.P., increases the returns to private investment. Public investments could be directed at improving the quality of life and real productivity-unlike the private-sector investments in financial innovations, which turned out to be more akin to financial weapons of mass destruction.

Can we actually bring ourselves to do this, in the absence of mobilization for global war? Maybe not. The good news (in a sense) is that the United States has under-invested in infrastructure, technology, and education for decades, so the return on additional investment is high, while the cost of capital is at an unprecedented low. If we borrow today to finance high-return investments, our debt-to-G.D.P. ratio-the usual measure of debt sustainability-will be markedly improved. If we simultaneously increased taxes-for instance, on the top 1 percent of all households, measured by income-our debt sustainability would be improved even more…

And here’s Paul Krugman today, reminding us of what he wrote three years ago:

… In Washington, in particular, the failure of the Obama stimulus package to produce an employment boom is generally seen as having proved that government spending can’t create jobs. But those of us who did the math realized, right from the beginning, that the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (more than a third of which, by the way, took the relatively ineffective form of tax cuts) was much too small given the depth of the slump. And we also predicted the resulting political backlash…

Why didn’t Obama — and Congressional Democrats — realize there would be a backlash in the midterm elections if they failed to take a strong, determined stand against Republicans who, from the beginning, were dead-set on hurting recovery efforts? Why did Obama shun the Congressional Dems who urged him early on to change Washington’s cozy relationship with the so-called financial industry? (See Ron Suskind’s Confidence Men, Chapter 10.)

Yes, I know, dumb questions. Obama and the horrible Republicans who have a shot at the presidency, and most of the people in Congress, are products of a corrupt system that won’t change until laws are passed that prohibit the flow of big money to candidates who automatically become the property of the people who provided the money.

Posted in campaign finance reform, Congress, economic collapse, finance reform bill, Goldman Sachs, Great Recession, mid-term elections, Obama, Politics, The New Depression, unemployment, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

New reason to ‘unlike’ Facebook

Posted on December 29, 2011 by oddmanout215

Any corporation running a venue that prompts you to “like” something is looking to violate your privacy, probably in order to make money but possibly for more sinister reasons. Only the truly naive will be shocked by Facebook’s latest transgression:

Facebook users could become unwitting corporate ambassadors under plans by the company to allow the site’s main news feed to carry sponsorship messages carrying their mugshots.

Beginning in the New Year, so-called ‘sponsored stories’ appear in the main news feed that Facebook users’ friends see. At present, if you click to ‘like’ a product, it does not always appear in the main feed. The new update will show friends your profile picture and the product you have ‘endorsed’ in much larger form in the main news feed – a move that the site admits is designed to bring in advertising revenue.

Facebook say the scheme is a vital revenue booster, which will help it claw back some of the $1 billion a year it spends on developing the site. The site claims that because the stories are labelled ‘Sponsored’, they will be less intrusive.

If a user decides to ‘like’ a product, the endorsement will also remain on their new, open ‘timeline’ profile, enabling companies to pay Facebook to feature their adverts more visibly.

But the announcement will infuriate users who feel that the social network is taking too much ownership over its 800 million members’ personal information.

Facebook users in the U.S. have now launched a legal action against the company to contest the commercial use of the ‘Like’ button.

Footnote: I “like” the phrase “claw back some of the $1 billion a year it spends on developing the site.” Poor Facebook! Poor little Zuckerberg!

Posted in mainstream media, Politics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Japan’s job-killing robots

Posted on December 29, 2011 by oddmanout215

You thought Godzilla was scary? Wait until Nextage emerges fully grown from Japan:

Japanese firm Kawada Industries is on the leading edge of a growing industry that threatens to become a major disruptive force in the coming years: automated labor.

At a recent robot expo, Kawada showed off Nextage, a human-shaped robotic laborer the company says is intended to “work alongside” people. In actuality, the robot could end up replacing people whose job it is to carry out menial tasks on assembly lines. And at just 1,500 watts of power consumption while it is working — less than some hair dryers — the device or one like it could one day become a compelling alternative to sweat shop labor.

That much seems to be true for Chinese electronics manufacturer Foxconn, notorious for paying workers a pittance and demanding long hours. The company said earlier this year that it would build a robot manufacturing facility, and that it hoped to replace most of its workforce with automation in the next three years.

Posted in unemployment, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Politicians and celebrity suckers

Posted on December 28, 2011 by oddmanout215

Matt Damon would have preferred 'a one-term president with some balls'

Daniel Craig, star of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, recently sounded off about politicians, especially the ones who pretend to be hip and progressive in order to win the favor of liberal-minded celebrities:

“Tony Blair started it much more than anybody’s ever done. ‘Go and have tea at 10 Downing Street,'” he said of the former British Prime Minister. “It becomes ‘Mephisto,'” Craig continued, alluding to the famous book about an actor who ingratiates himself to Nazis in hope of winning a prized part.

“You immediately are aligning yourself with a political party. Politicians are shitheads,” Craig asserted. “That’s how they become politicians, even the good ones. We’re actors, we’re artists, we’re very nice to each other. They’ll turn around and stab you in the fucking back.”

Craig’s remarks were from a story picked up by Huffington Post. Something similar to his assessment of Blair — referred to by non-fans as “Bush’s poodle” because of Blair’s unwavering support of Bush’s disastrous war in Iraq — was voiced years ago by Noel Gallagher, the former guitarist and songwriter for Oasis:

“The fact that [Blair had] been in a band, owned an electric guitar and has probably had a spliff was Prime Minister really meant something, after years of John Major and Margaret Thatcher. He just might be one of us,” [Gallagher] told one interviewer (via the Daily Mail). “In hindsight, it turned out he was just a politician like all the rest. I was brought up as a Labour voter and it was euphoric when they got into power. I didn’t realize it wasn’t New Labour at all – it was the Tories dressed in red.”

The Tories dressed in red. I wonder if there’s a catchy phrase that’s been used by some American activist star to describe the Democratic Party since the reality of Obama’s broken promises sank in. I’m thinking of all the celebrities — U2, Denzel Washington, Sheryl Crow, Beyonce, on and on — who performed or gave speeches at a pre-inaugural concert for Obama, in 2009.

I wonder how many of these stars, if asked, would echo Matt Damon’s recent remarks:

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, ‘Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician,'” Damon tells [Elle] magazine. “You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.”

Posted in arts, economic collapse, Great Recession, liar, mainstream media, movies, Obama, Politics, pop music, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

‘Balanced’ reporting? That’ll be the day

Posted on December 27, 2011 by oddmanout215

Mitt Romney recently told Time magazine that “25 million people are out of work because of Barack Obama. And so I’ll compare my experience in the private sector where, net-net, we created over 100,000 jobs.”

Both statements are flat-out lies, but Time won’t tell you that, nor will any other corporate media outlet, as Paul Krugman pointed out in his op-ed last Friday:

Over all, Mr. Obama’s positions on economic policy resemble those that moderate Republicans used to espouse. Yet Mr. Romney portrays the president as the second coming of Fidel Castro and seems confident that he will pay no price for making stuff up.

Welcome to post-truth politics…

But won’t there be some blowback? Won’t Mr. Romney pay a price for running a campaign based entirely on falsehoods? He obviously thinks not, and I’m afraid he may be right.

Oh, Mr. Romney will probably be called on some falsehoods. But, if past experience is any guide, most of the news media will feel as though their reporting must be “balanced,” which means that every time they point out that a Republican lied they have to match it with a comparable accusation against a Democrat — even if what the Democrat said was actually true or, at worst, a minor misstatement.

Obama is far from an FDR — don’t get me started — but the main reason 25 million or so people are out of work is because the economy imploded during the Bush administration, and because Republicans in Congress are doing everything they can to block passage of jobs programs because the 2012 elections are close.

Romney is lying about Obama not creating any jobs, just as he lies about Obama cutting the defense budget.

I mention these facts not because they’re news, but rather because I continue to find it odd that Krugman, alone among mainstream columnists, has repeatedly argued that the notion of balanced reporting — also called “unbiased” or “objective” reporting — is total bunk, a fabrication of the corporate machine that dictates what Americans are supposed to believe.

Krugman uses facts to skewer the myth of balanced reporting every chance he gets, but do you think NYT‘s reporters and editors — or Time, or Politico, and so on — will ever come up with a story headlined “Romney campaign based on falsehoods”? That’ll be the day.

Clarification: This is not to say the NYT decision makers support Romney. The point is that the mainstream media adhere to a narrow set of rules that is, to some extent, supportive of all candidates who embrace the status quo.

Posted in Congress, economic collapse, Great Recession, liar, mainstream media, Mitt Romney, Obama, Politics, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

‘Australia’ (Happy Boxing Day)

Posted on December 26, 2011 by oddmanout215

We’ll surf like they do in the USA
We’ll fly down to Sydney for a holiday
On sunny Christmas Day…

I’m standing in line yesterday at a drugstore, one of those chain stores that turn wall-to-wall red a month before Christmas. Big red bows, rolls of red wrapping paper, rows of red greeting cards, employees in red aprons.

What is it about red? It’s overwhelming, like Christmas. You can’t fight it, especially when it glares at you while bad music is assaulting your ears — Chicago singing Tell me you will stay/Make me smile, with a horn section that sounds like a high school band.

The man directly in front of me in line — he’s thirty-ish, short but stocky, looks like a brawler, maybe a druggie — is asking customers if there’s a trading-card store nearby, he’s carrying some collectible baseball cards he needs to sell.

He reaches into a paper bag and pulls out rookie cards of Mike Schmidt, Derek Jeter and other stars, and shows them to everyone in sight. “Those should be worth something,” I say to him, not at all sure they’re worth anything. The cards are laminated but they look a bit beat up. Someone tells the man about a card store in South Philly but reminds him this is Christmas Day.

When it’s the man’s turn at the checkout counter, he pulls two rolls of Kodak film from his coat pocket and asks the cashier for a refund. She says no way, the film obviously is very old and the stickers on the film boxes indicate they were bought at some other store.

The man leaves the store with his cards and his film, and I wonder where he’ll go, he’s probably flat broke. Some of the other people in line look like they aren’t in such good shape, either.

In other eras there were dream destinations for young people with no money or job prospects. Where do they go now for job opportunities? California? Florida? Hoho.

I think of the old Kinks song in which the desperately poor in post-WWII Britain dream of emigrating to Australia.

In FDR’s time, young or middle-aged Americans who were hard-up could join the Work Projects Administration. In the Bush-Obama era, they can join the ranks of the permanently unemployed.

Posted in arts, economic collapse, Great Recession, humor, Obama, Philadelphia, Politics, pop music, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment