January 2010 archive

MSNBC’s Ed Schultz talking at the AM950 Blue State Bash on Saturday night to a crowd of progressive talk radio fans in Minnesota lets go with both barrels at Robert Gibbs, at Barack Obama, at the “people who have infiltrated the Democratic progressive movement“, and at the whole delusional idea of bipartisanship.

“I told him he was full of sh*t is what I told him,” Schultz said. “And then he gave me the Dick Cheney f-bomb the same way Senator Leahy got it on the Senate floor. I told Robert Gibbs, I said, ‘I’m sorry you’re swearing at me, but I’m just trying to help you out.”

“I’m telling you, you’re losing your base,” he continued. “Do you understand that you’re losing your base? And that the American people don’t want public option, the American people want single-payer!?’“

Watch this…

Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence

Note that the statement is abbreviated for the title. The full statement is, a common carrier like a train, bus, or plane that running a profit based on passenger revenue while paying its full operating and capital cost is charging too much for its tickets.

The radical abbreviation of the title is in part because of the radical abbreviation of the lie that is commonly used as a frame. The lie is that a common carrier like a train, bus or plane that is paying for its full operating and capital costs out of passenger revenue ought to run a profit, commonly expressed as a charge of, “SERVICE_XYZ is losing money, it needs to be reformed!“, which assumes that Service_XYZ is supposed to be making a profit.

And, of course, in the sense described above, if its a common carrier transport service, of course it shouldn’t be making a profit. And further, if under the above conditions, if its making a profit, you’re doing it wrong. In the sense given above, PROFIT=FAIL.

Before we start I’d like to make a meta statement-

DocuDharma is the home of guilt free Lefty sports blogging.

I intend to cover Puppy Bowl VI and Curling and Speed Skating and The America’s Cup.

So, let’s talk about Brett Favre, Super Quarterback-

15 Years with the Green Bay Packers, my second choice team after the Giants because I’m only half troll and my Viking forebearer was actually one of the original investors in what is the only publicly owned team in the NFL.

Add that to his miserable year at the helm of the Jets which while not my favorite is at least local to Stars Hollow (as are the Patsies) and you may sense my sense of betrayal and resentment that he is now playing for our hated rivals, the Vikings of Minnesota however much I may admire that at 120 years he is the oldest man in the NFL.

The Saints are good for once after years and years (and years) of futility and I have one word for you-

Katrina.

So now you know how every right thinking fan should root and if you don’t…

Well, you’re still welcome below.

University of Newcastle economist Bill Mitchell (“Professor of Economics” in a University system where Professor means something far more than just “university teacher”) addresses the disconnect between Ben Bernanke’s economic universe and the real world in The Great Moderation myth. This is one of his (typically) long blog posts with the (normal) very high signal to noise ratio combined with (typical) substantial amount of detailed economic discussion which may be off-putting to those with poor tolerance for economic discussion.

However, in his post, he has two diagrams which perfectly capture an important element of the disconnect between Bernanke’s world and the real world.

So, two diagrams and a handful of paragraphs on why Bernie Sanders is quite right: we need somebody different from Bernanke as Fed Chairman.

source of image is the linked to piece by Bernie Sanders in the Guardian’s Comment is Free

So the storyline goes something like this-

Colts == Peyton Manning, Super Quarterback.

For the last 2 weeks of the season, after they clinched the playoffs, the Colts put their scrubs on the field including the game on the 27th that they lost to the Jets 29 – 15.

In addition they totally dicked over Baltimore in their move to Indianapolis.

Now as satisfying as it would be to see them punished for their arrogance, I’ll take the time to remind you the Jets are one of the most conservative donating teams in the NFL (though the league as a whole is only slightly less conservative than NASCAR) so it’s basically a pick ’em on who to hate more.

It doesn’t matter anyway since they’re both playing for second because both the Vikings and the Saints can beat either of them.

Starting Now on CBS.

Update:

Umm…

You’ll have to wait on that Weekend News Digest for sure.