The Liberal Doomsayer My blog deals primarily with national politics in the U.S. as well as, on occasion, local politics in Pennsylvania. From time to time, I may have something to say about sports and entertainment as well. I try to interpret information that shapes the news and provide context to current events. I am definitely left of center politically, but as far as I'm concerned, neither major party is perfect. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 61 0 60 4272

Articles from The Liberal Doomsayer

Not A Brando In The Bunch 2007-12-05 16:28:00 This New York Times story from Monday tells us about the latest individuals honored by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last Sunday at our nation’s capital, and this Washington Post article more of less “dishes” on the gossipy tidbits for consumption by our entertainment media about the party that followed.The five individuals honored by the Kennedy Center this year were pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher, singer Diana Ross, musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, actor/author/comedian Steve Martin (I guess that’s close enough) and filmmaker Martin Scorsese. The ceremony was recorded as usual and will be broadcast on CBS on December 26th.Congratulations are due to all of these people for this recognition, representing a lifetime’s achievement in the artistic enterprise in which they’ve excelled. And under normal circumstances, I would just leave it at that and not say another word.But these are hardly “normal circumstances” in this country. And when ...

"Top-Step Shill" Still A "Pill" 2007-12-05 16:18:00 So it looks like star pitcher Curt Schilling of the Boston Red Sox is going to campaign for Senator Honor And Virtue when the latter campaigns in Manchester, New Hampshire huh?I’m tempted to wax sarcastic about this, but I think I’ll pass because the comments to this post do it pretty thoroughly (only found one in support of Schilling, who, by the way, I would no longer consider to be the “ace” of the Red Sox pitching staff, but “Dice-K” instead (update: Josh Beckett probably owns that mantle now, upon further consideration), and Jon Lester won the Series-clinching game anyway).God, I’m so glad Schilling decided not to sign with the Phillies for next year (and please run against John Kerry for the Senate, Curt; it will be fun to watch you get hammered, with no bloody sock to add to your “legend” this time – though Schilling supports Dubya’s Not-So-Excellent Adventure in Iraq, do you even have to ask whether or not he served, as Will Bunch - again - notes here?). ...

Bushco "Birds And Bees" BS 2007-12-05 15:52:00 Here’s a bit of a history lesson…The sexual revolution that began in the 1960s has left two major problems in its wake. The first is the historic increase in non-marital births that have contributed so heavily to the Nation’s domestic problems including poverty, violence, and intergenerational welfare dependency. The second is the explosion of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) that now pose a growing hazard to the Nation’s public health.To address these problems, the goal of Federal policy should be to emphasize abstinence as the only certain way to avoid both unintended pregnancies and STDs.I didn’t say it was fact, I just said it was a history lesson – in wingnuttia, I mean.However, this story tells us the following (from the reality-based community)…In a troubling reversal, the nation's teen birth rate rose for the first time in 15 years, surprising government health officials who had no immediate explanation.…U.S. health officials said it was possibly a one-year ...

About That Broken Clock... 2007-12-05 15:02:00 Will Bunch via Atrios tells us today that Little Tommy Friedman of the New York Times “knocked one out of the park” this morning with this column about the supposed dialogue within Iran about the United States at this moment (titled, “Today Is The Day That The Broken Clock Is Right”).I beg to differ, particularly here…...We have to note that obtaining open-source intelligence in America has become more difficult, because traditional news shows have become more comedic and more comedic news shows more authoritative.How right you are, Tommy. Why, it seems like just the other day when I witnessed your famous “hold your nose and vote for Gore or Kerry for President” act that the Democrats supposedly went through during the 2000 and 2004 elections (captured by the fine folk at Media Matters here), though I never saw a photo of a voter actually doing so. However, I can tell you from my own experience that I have assumed this position when reading many of your columns.And regard ...

Sanity, For Now 2007-12-05 11:20:00 I’ve been trying to digest everything involved with the latest National Intelligence Estimate stating that Iran is not the nuclear threat it was purported to be by our ruling cabal (here), with President George W. Milhous Bush threatening of World War III with that country only last month (here).To me, this whole matter absolutely screams for an investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, currently chaired by Dem Jay Rockefeller. However, based on this exchange (in which Rockefeller pled to reporter Charles Davis that, regarding intelligence, “I only get, and my committee only gets, what they want to give me,” with that being an apparently good enough standard for the committee chairman), I’m not holding out much confidence that Congress will be able to get to the bottom of the Bushco propaganda (I mean, we all know Cheney is ultimately behind this, but proving it is another matter).And by the way, regarding Rockefeller’s predecessor in that job from the 109 ...

Edwards On Health Care, Again 2007-12-05 10:10:00 I wanted to take a minute and note this post by Paul Krugman from his blog for a couple of reasons. The first is because it’s refreshing (and a bit shocking, actually) to watch him call out fellow Times writer Kit Seelye on her reporting of the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama health insurance proposals (with Krugman highlighting the absolutely absurd claim by Seelye that the AEI is somehow “nonpartisan”).The second is because the Seelye article quotes an adviser to the Obama campaign who states that Clinton has not come up with a means of penalizing those eligible for coverage who do not enroll.Actually, Krugman himself noted that John Edwards had come up with an idea on that here……John Edwards has just called Mr. Obama's bluff, by proposing that individuals be required to show proof of insurance when filing income taxes or receiving health care. If they don't have insurance, they won't be penalized - they'll be automatically enrolled in an insurance plan.That's actuall ... Health

Tuesday Videos 2007-12-04 22:37:00 Bush (the band, that is - "Everything Zen")......Happy Birthday to Chris Hillman of The Byrds ("Eight Miles High" - ends just a bit early, but close enough)......Frank Zappa died on this day in 1993 ("Cosmik Debris," live)......and I neglected to extend Happy 80th Birthday wishes yesterday to Andy Williams ("The Way You Look Tonight," from 1966). ...

Iran Out Of Anything To Say 2007-12-04 20:26:00 Haven't had the time to say anything about Iran and the latest NIE which tells us that they aren't a nuke threat after all, but it looks like our corporate media cousins still aren't giving up here (snark - lots of bad words, but I thought it was still funny)......and just as a reminder (besides this great post by Greg Mitchell of E&P - h/t Atrios...some of the comparisons to Iraq are a bit dated at this point, but if nothing else, it shows up Faux News as spectacularly wrong once again).Oh, and by the way (regarding this story), let Israel try fighting its own damn war with Iran without our help, OK? ...

Time To Do A Good Deed 2007-12-04 11:56:00 (And the title of this post is aimed at Jeff Jubelirer of the Cradle of Liberty Council of Philadelphia, Delaware and Montgomery County).The Philadelphia Inquirer tells us here today that Philadelphia City Solicitor Romulo L. Diaz Jr. has contacted the local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America and told the group to either renounce its policy of banning gays from the organization in order for it to remain in its headquarters near Logan Square (Jubelirer is the spokesperson for the local Boy Scouts chapter) or pay up more for its rent.As the story tells us…Diaz has said that if the scouts did not respond by his Dec. 3 deadline - by either relenting on the policy or paying a $200,000-a-year "fair-market rent" - he would actively begin looking for a new tenant for the 79-year-old building at 22d and Winter Streets near Logan Square.The Cradle of Liberty Council built the Beaux Arts structure in 1928 on Fairmount Park land that the city agreed to lease to it in perpetuity for a dollar a ...

Monday Videos 2007-12-03 23:46:00 Carbon/Silicon ("The News")......and to mark the 30th anniversary yesterday of the acquittal of the South African police charged with his murder, (legitimizing state-sponsored terrorism as far as many were concerned, including yours truly) here's "Biko" by Peter Gabriel from one of the Amnesty International Concerts in 1988 (I can't tell you what that last shot is about either). ...

Kos and BNF Video Monday 2007-12-03 22:38:00 Because presenting Christopher Shays of Connecticut as the spineless, whining Lieberman wannabe that he is brings a smile to yours truly (h/t Daily Kos)......and K.O. nails Falafel Boy again (put this one in the vault - another h/t Daily Kos)....and let's "Meet The Foxers" (h/t Brave New Films)......and getting serious, here's the ad that Fox refused to air (Surprised, huh? Not - also from Brave New Films). ...

Another Monday Mashup 2007-12-03 17:38:00 (Posting is iffy for tomorrow, by the way.)Just a few items thrown together…For everyone following the WGA strike (and I’m not one of those people, though I may come across a story about it), this item appeared in the New York Times on Friday, telling us that…A federal appeals court yesterday threw out a hard-fought agreement between publishers and freelance writers to pay the writers for electronic reproduction of their work.In a 2-to-1 decision, an appellate panel ruled that the courts had no jurisdiction over the copyright dispute and that a lower court erred in accepting the writers’ lawsuit and approving the settlement.It sounds like the legal rationale here from Judge Chester J. Straub (such as it was) was that the writers weren’t allowed to claim damages because they had not registered their work with the U.S. Copyright Office, though in dissent, Judge John Walker said that the non-registration was “a malleable procedural rule” only.I think we can pretty much bank ...

Michael Moore, Meet Luis Mandoki 2007-12-03 16:38:00 As we know, Bushco is crowing over the electoral defeat of Hugo Chavez yesterday in Venezuela (as Atrios noted, funny how a “dictator” seems so willing to comply with the wishes of the electorate).In the unlikely chance that any Republican happens to be reading this, I’ll tell you what; I won’t say that the only issue that mattered in John Howard’s defeat in Australia was the Iraq war (because it wasn’t) if YOU don’t say that the razor-thin loss of Chavez in Venezuela is an endorsement of Bushco (because it isn’t). Deal?That being said, though, I just want to note this New York Times article from yesterday that tells of the release of the film, “Fraud, Mexico 2006” by filmmaker Luis Mandoki, which portrays last year’s Mexican election which was even closer than Venezuela’s yesterday. In it, conservative Felipe Calderón edged left-winger Andrés Manuel López Obrador (pictured) by 243,000 votes out of 41 million cast.The Times article tells how López Obrador di ...

Sub-Prime Time 2007-12-03 13:44:00 I happened to watch some of the testimony of Paul Gallagher and Richard Freeman of the Executive Intelligence Review over the weekend when they appeared before a PA State House subcommittee chaired by outgoing Rep. Dave Steil. They spoke on the subprime loan crisis, and the numbers they communicated were pretty ugly (I’m trying to obtain a transcript, and if I do, I’ll share more information.I know this has been covered by Atrios and Paul Krugman, among others, but I'll try to add more details here.Now before I say too much more, I should point out that Gallagher and Freeman are associated with Lyndon LaRouche, and the Homeowners and Bank Protection Act that Gallagher and Freeman publicized was announced by LaRouche last August. And like many of you, I’m conditioned to avoid anything from a man who once claimed that Queen Elizabeth II of England ran an international drug cartel. But Gallagher and Freeman spoke with authority and conviction, and there are some good ideas in the A ...

Re-Legitimizing A Fraud 2007-12-03 10:36:00 I don’t know about you, but at this point, I’ve just about had it up to my eyes with James Carville.Yes, I know, in another time, he ran a winning campaign for Bill Clinton in legendary fashion. That’s pretty much been immortalized at this point.But this tells us that he will be (probably “has been” by now) one of the guests on the Don Imus radio show, which returns today with (thankfully) a much smaller profile.I don’t really care what John McCain does (I mean, is he pretty much anything besides a foil for Ron Paul at this point?), but for Carville, this is in keeping with his “both sides of the fence” strategy of trying to replace Howard Dean as head of the Democratic National Committee with Tennessee Senate candidate Harold Ford here (Ford eventually became head of the Democratic Losers Leadership Council), as well as Carville’s recent appearance on CNN as a debate analyst without the disclaimer that he was working for Hillary Clinton (who, by the way, at least has ...