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: 2 0 54 4452

Articles from The Liberal Doomsayer

Tuesday Videos 2008-01-29 22:42:00 The Vines ("Get Free"; what a bunch of zany, kooky kids)......Happy belated birthday to novelty song guy Ray Stevens, who got all preachy at times also, which was fine by me; it was the '60s, after all ("Mr. Businessman," recorded 40 years ago - the video is a bit repetitive, I know; I take it YouTuber TommyToma1 doesn't like "The Donald")......another happy belated birthday, this one to Ben Harper ("Excuse Me Mister"; yep, I believe the pictures say it all)......and a final, happy belated birthday to keyboardist Danny Federici of The "E" Street Band (here's "Kitty's Back," with solos by Federici and Roy Bittan, among others, on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" from a couple of years ago; I hope he's doing OK). ...

And Somewhere, Elaine Chao Smiles 2008-01-29 17:00:00 Every time I think our corpocracy and our wonderful global economy can’t possibly concoct something more outrageous than their latest travesty (and by now, I should know not to think that anyway), along comes a news story such as this one about Gordon Brown, the prime minister of Great Britain, advocating a “skills initiative” that would allow employers such as McDonald’s to give their employees “takeaway diplomas and ‘McDegrees’.”"I think that is the important thing, companies prepared to train people up which they weren’t doing before, in the way that we want them to do, in a far greater number, so that people have the qualifications for the future.”Officials say that McDonald's, which has more than 1,000 outlets across Britain, is to pilot a basic shift manager course, which will train staff in areas like marketing, human resources and customer service skills. The company has run its 'Hamburger University' in Chicago, which turns out more than 5,000 graduates ...

Another Reason To Read Philly.com 2008-01-29 12:29:00 I guess there’s no World news to read about today, since this is the message I received when I clicked on the Inquirer link from philly.com.But of course, as we know, the REAL problem is that I incorrectly stated here that the readership decline at that site reflects a decline in the number of site visitors, not an actual decrease in the time each visitor spends at the site (I implied as much anyway - corrected by Dick Polman, that genius of the world who called John Edwards a “headless chicken” and then said “forgive my inelegant rural metaphor” afterwards…screw you; also, never forget that, as Polman went out of his way to tell me, there are other ways to access his blog besides philly.com).I just thought some people out there might want to be aware of this.Update: OK, it's almost 3PM EST, and to be fair, I should note that I haven't been able to replicate this issue that I noted in the screen shot above, so they may have fixed this.However, just to let you know, Barbar ...

Note To Dubya On The '08 SOTU: STFU 2008-01-29 11:29:00 Actually, I really should thank George W. Milhous Bush because, for almost each year of this abomination of a presidency at this time, he provides all kinds of blogging material for your humble narrator and various other like-minded miscreants who do this for a profit motive or out of masochistic impulses (I of course am in the latter category).And last night was no exception of course; I’m linking here to the text of the speech from the White House web site because that way you can note each time Our Dear Leader received applause from those in attendance (of course, there’s no way you can quantify who it was who applauded, how strenuously or for how long, or whether or not at times it was just from Deadeye Dick, Dubya's family and select other suckups, but such is life). And this includes his snarky BS about how the IRS “accepts both checks and money orders,” forever harping about tax cuts (ha ha, laugh it up, funny boy – your approval ratings will remain in the toilet unti ...

Tuesday Videos 2008-01-28 22:30:00 The Foxboro Hot Tubs ("Mother Mary"; OK, so I think Green Day wrote the song and they're performing it in the video, but it's a different tune and not in synch - ??? - so confused, but it still rocks)......and Warren Zevon would have been 61 last Thursday ("Lawyers, Guns And Money" recorded at the BBC in 1994, and I believe this is the only rock song I ever listened to with my dad - make of that what you will). ...

Tuesday Stuff 2008-01-28 22:13:00 I received a request from Walt Sherman to help publicize his cause, for all of you Philly folk, so here it is (only too glad to help)......and Jackie and Dunlop give us their opinion of Barack Obama; a little tongue-in-cheek here, including stuff on the Clintons, but I wish "The Big Dog" would back off a bit. ...

YEEEAAAARRRGGHH!!! 2008-01-28 17:43:00 The latest from Dr. Dean's brother and DFA...We just had a huge victory. Grassroots action forced the Senate to stop telecom immunity from passing.Earlier today, DFA members made over 1,000 calls an hour to our Senators. And they heard our voices loud and clear.Tonight I'll be watching President Bush give his final State of the Union. As usual, he will be fear-mongering and pushing his radical agenda on the American people.Thanks to your work today, we flipped the vote and forced Senate Democrats to have a backbone.JimThis isn't over by a long shot, but it's nice to be on the winning end, particularly for this.Nice work, boys and girls (and how sad is Mary Landrieu anyway for this?).I'll get back to regular posting as soon as I can (a somewhat dated backlog is building up).Update 1/29/08: Markos has been a real lunkhead lately, but he's spot-on with this observation. ...

Where The Rubber Meets The Road (01/28/08) 2008-01-28 13:08:00 As reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer on January 20th, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes for that prior week.(Also, posting is going to be messed up for the foreseeable future.)HouseDefense budget. Members approved, 369-46, a $649 billion defense budget for fiscal 2008. The bill replaces a version vetoed by President Bush over language subjecting today's Iraqi government to lawsuits based on acts by Saddam Hussein.A yes vote was to send HR 4986 to the Senate.Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.) Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), Jim Saxton (R., N.J.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), Joe Sestak (D., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).Voting no: Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.).Because President George W. Milhous Bush refused to sign this original bill las ...

Sunday Political Stuff 2008-01-27 22:42:00 To me, Laurie Dyer of North Carolina embodies what all of us should be as citizens of this country; please watch and listen to her below......and here's some "spot on" commentary on "Real Time" from a couple of days ago with ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz, Herbie Hancock and (especially) Richard Belzer (sorry the audio isn't so good). ...

The Inky Shocks Again 2008-01-27 09:59:00 But in a good way this time - kudos to them, actually (here)...Judiciary Committee should move to impeach Bush and CheneyElizabeth Holtzmanserved in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 to 1981Since mid-December, members of the House Judiciary Committee Robert Wexler (D., Fla.), Luis Gutierrez (D., Ill.) and Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.) have called for hearings on the impeachment of Vice President Cheney.This should not be surprising, given the strength of the case for impeachment. What's surprising is that it took so long for members of this committee, normally tasked with holding impeachment proceedings, to call for them.They face huge political resistance on Capitol Hill. But they aren't alone. Other Democratic members are joining them. Former senator and Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern recently published an op-ed demanding impeachment proceedings for both Bush and Cheney. Bruce Fein, a Republican who served in the Reagan Justice Department, and many other const ...

I Used To Respect Jack Cafferty 2008-01-26 20:10:00 Sneaking this in after I said I'd be down, I know...I just have a minute to two to note that, if someone offered to pay me to concoct drivel like this, I'd tell them to keep their money and let me do what I do here instead.(And yes, I know this has been another day of bad news for the Edwards campaign, and concerning a crucial state, but it seems that our dear corporate media cousins want him out of the picture so badly that they're willing to come up with this scenario with Gore to try and hasten his departure.)And given this new idiocy about the possibility of "Al Gore uniting the Democrats," I can hardly wait for someone to suggest that Newt Gingrich enter and unite the Republicans. However, I won't hold my breath waiting for anyone to say that. ...

Site Note 2008-01-25 06:27:00 Just to let you know, I'm going to be shutting things down for a few days for a number of reasons. I hope to be back up and running again early next week. Take care. ...

Thursday Political Stuff 2008-01-24 21:18:00 Probably not much posting tomorrow, by the way...Darcy Burner has a message for all of the Democratic cowards in the Senate who refused to fight the warrantless wiretapping bill (here...aside from the reference to Abu G., it pretty much reflects the pitiable status quo)......and oh yeah, this is about the war (great stuff, particularly in light of the post about Rummy today). ...

Playing The Game At Our Expense 2008-01-24 17:20:00 I can think of all kinds of reasons why a Democratic voter would favor Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama for the party presidential nomination or vice versa (though the right thing to do is to support John Edwards instead), but this is definitely not a reason to support Obama over Clinton as far as I’m concerned (as noted here)…"No one motivates the Republicans in Missouri like Hillary Clinton."So we’re supposed to let people who probably wouldn’t give a Dem the time of day anyway decide how the party should vote? Would they ever do the same for us? Do I even have to ask?And that assumes that, somehow, those same Repugs would be less "motivated" if Obama or Edwards were the nominee - please...And by the way, “thanks” for being a tower of Jell-o on the matter of immunity to the telcos, Sen. McCaskill (here, and kudos to Bob Casey for doing the right thing). ...

An Ill Wind Of Change 2008-01-24 16:53:00 The Minerals Management Service released its 3,000 page draft Environmental Impact Statement last week claiming that “the wind farm off Cape Cod (MA) would have little lasting impact on wildlife, navigation, and tourism.”This is the same Minerals Management service under Dick Cheney acolyte Randall Luhti that opened up nearly 30 million acres of Alaskan waters to oil and gas leasing in the heart of polar bear country (as noted here).To say I’m skeptical of the MMS findings is putting it mildly (and by the way, somehow I don’t think the matter of the wind farms possibly obstructing the view of Ted Kennedy from his Hyannis compound is the biggest issue on the table; Boston Globe reporter Beth Dailey mentioned that here).Lots of important information telling us what we can do, in particular area residents, can be found here.And I’m sorry, Jim Gordon of Cape Wind, but I guess opposing this doesn’t make me a “rational observer” to your way of thinking, but I can live with th ...