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: 35 0 59 4457

Articles from The Liberal Doomsayer

Keep Digging, Jay 2007-11-10 10:16:00 Brian Scheid of the Bucks County Courier Times provides a bit of analysis today concerning the election last Tuesday in which Jim Cawley was returned to office as a Bucks County Commissioner along with his partner Charley ("I Have A Semi-Open Mind") Martin over Steve Santarsiero (and kudos to Scheid for leading off his column with a reference to "The Simpsons" by the way).I think it's pretty safe to say that the degree to which we were snookered here is beginning to sink in, by the way, based on this...While it would be impossible to determine if Bucks residents who voted for Russell would have voted for a Democrat instead if Russell weren't on the ballot, John Cordisco, chairman of the Bucks County Democratic Committee, said it “clearly impacted us.”Cordisco said votes for Russell, a Northampton wholesale gardener who campaigned on a motorcycle with a bare-bones budget, might have been “anti-incumbent” votes that might otherwise have gone toward the Democratic candidates, wh ...

Maybe Not Naked, But Now Really Dead 2007-11-10 09:36:00 R.I.P. Norman Mailer, 1923-2007 ...

Friday Videos 2007-11-09 23:07:00 Happy belated birthday to Porl Thompson of The Cure ("From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea" recorded in Miami; quality isn't as good as I'd like, but it was the best combination of song and video for this particular tune that I could get)......Happy belated birthday to Bryan Adams ("Heaven," with not a lot going on for an '80s song, which makes it pretty normal actually - no women's legs with stockings that look like piano keys, rain-soaked streets with neon lights populated with Eurotrash, and nobody's morphing into mythical animals either; Adams always was pretty peppy and upbeat when he would appear on "Letterman," which seemed like every other week during the period when this song came out, and I don't know if the girl is Rosanna Arquette or not)......Happy Birthday coming up on Sunday to Chris Dreja of The Yardbirds (a nice little fan video by YouTuber John Galt of "For Your Love")......and to switch things up a bit, here's a homemade video from YouTuber SCNRRR for Linkin Pa ...

Thanking LBJ For The CPB 2007-11-09 17:07:00 Wednesday November 7th marked the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Public Broadcasting Act by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, which created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and I wanted to note that briefly here.This Washington Post column tells us about how the happily-now-departed 109th Congress tried to end funding for the CPB within two years in 2005 and the resistance it met when trying to do so, and this site from Media Matters for America provides some nested links to more instances of conservative misinformation regarding the CPB’s Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR).President Johnson provided a vital tool to ensure the free flow of information that we need to think and act responsibly, and to show our gratitude, we must protect it always from Kenneth Tomlinson and any other self-styled potentate who would destroy it. ...

Toy Threats Ig(Nord) By Dubya's CPSC 2007-11-09 16:06:00 I’ve been meaning to get to this topic all week, and that would pertain to this editorial in last Sunday’s New York Times (echoed in the Courier Times this morning) which rightly chastised Nancy Nord, the acting head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission.In typical Bushco fashion, this is why…(Nord)…joined industry lobbyists in opposing a Senate bill intended to strengthen her enfeebled agency. That was followed by the revelation that Ms. Nord and her predecessor took free trips from the toy industry.…Ms. Nord, who is supposed to be the consumers’ advocate, has more often echoed the views of manufacturers’ lobbyists. She has argued that voluntary compliance by business is the only way to promote safety when an agency as small as hers is charged with overseeing more than 15,000 products. She is right that self-policing by industry is crucial, but her agency lacks adequate resources: it has just one full-time toy tester. Remarkably, she has been resisting calls for it ...

Where The Rubber Meets The Road (11/09/07) 2007-11-09 14:43:00 As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week.HouseJobs lost to trade: In a 264-157 vote, the House sent the Senate a bill expanding Trade Adjustment Assistance and extending the program to include workers in service industries and some government employees. Established in 1962, TAA provides cash assistance, job training, education, and continued health insurance to persons who lose their jobs as a result of global trade. The bill would renew the program for five years at a projected cost of $8.6 billion.A yes vote was to pass the bill (HR 3920).Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.) Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), H. James Saxton (R., N.J.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), Joe Sestak (D., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).Votin ...

So What's It Gonna Be, Mikey? 2007-11-09 12:58:00 This story from today’s Bucks County Courier Times tells us that our former U.S. House 8th PA district congress- man Mike Fitzpatrick helped the Boy Scouts launch their 20th annual “Scouting For Food” drive yesterday, which is commendable all around.The story also tells us that the breakfast was held to honor food drive chairman and returning Bucks County Commissioner Jim Cawley (no word on whether any other nominees were in the running or if the award was garnered by votes provided in part by Jay Russell).And “the man of the hour” offered these inspirational words also…“When you think about it, there is no greater need of a human being than to eat,” Cawley said during remarks at the breakfast.How very true, and I was pondering that same thought myself when I was voting for Steve Santarsiero, Diane Marseglia and other Dem candidates (and selecting yes in response to the Open Space question) on Tuesday and pressing the touch screen buttons that appeared to malfunction at ...

BoBo, Reagan And Race (updates...) 2007-11-09 11:51:00 I know I covered some of this yesterday already in the Giuliani/Robertson post and I apologize for the repetition, but David Brooks of the New York Times decided to craft more propaganda today that requires a response.Brooks is arguing here that The Sainted Ronnie R has been painted unfairly by we godless liberal blogger types as someone who just apparently happened to kick start his 1980 campaign for president in Philadelphia, Mississippi (where three civil rights workers were murdered) as if by accident; Brooks argues, in fact, that Reagan really went there to speak at the Neshoba County Fair……Mississippi was a state that Republican strategists hoped to pick up. They’d recently done well in the upper South, but they still lagged in the Deep South, where racial tensions had been strongest. Jimmy Carter had carried Mississippi in 1976 by 14,000 votes.Funny how Brooks fails to mention here that Carter ran against incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford from Michigan, as well as ...

Take The Hint, Ralph 2007-11-09 10:57:00 The Philadelphia Inquirer reports today that Ralph Nader, in a further effort to avoid paying an $81,000 judgment for court costs as a result of a successful challenge to his 2004 nominating petitions to get onto the presidential ballot in Pennsylvania, is crying about the fact that the law firm that filed the challenge should have revealed its ties to three Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices who ruled against him.The Inquirer story tells us that, while Nader’s case was pending, the Reed Smith law firm (which represented the party challenging Nader) also represented Chief Justice Ralph J. Cappy (one of the three judges hearing Nader’s case) in a complaint that was dismissed.As the story also tells us…Nader further contended that the law firm also should have disclosed it had contributed $5,000 to the 2005 retention campaign of then-Justice Sandra Schultz Newman, and that Justice Ronald Castille had once worked for the firm and had an "open-ended offer of employment" there."Reed ...

Thursday Videos 2007-11-08 22:35:00 Nada Surf ("Always Love"; easier said than done, but they're right)......and Happy Birthday to Roy Wood, a founding member of the Electric Light Orchestra ("10538 Overture," with Jeff Lynne on lead vocals of course - this is loud). ...

Zeroing In On "Deadeye Dick" 2007-11-08 22:04:00 Meteor Blades at The Daily Kos tells us here that Dem U.S. House Rep and Judiciary Committee member Robert Wexler is trying to move forward with impeachment hearings for Dick Cheney. The linked post contains phone numbers and other contact information for committee members.(I have other issues with Dennis Kucinich, but I give him credit for keeping up the fight on this.)And as if we need any more reason than that to contact the committee, I would ask that you watch this video.Click here for more information. ...

“Banking” On More Misery 2007-11-08 17:30:00 This story (borrowed from the New York Times last Sunday), noted that U.S. sanctions against Iran have forced the World Bank “to suspend payments for earthquake relief, sanitation and other projects there in response to new American sanctions on leading Iranian banks, World Bank officials say.”I’ve never seen any evidence that sanctions ever accomplish their intended purpose, which is to punish a regime or individual acting against our interests, and I don’t mean here to initiate a debate on how wrong headed those interests often are.And besides, the story notes the following…The (U.N.) Security Council has adopted two resolutions, one last year and another this year, calling on a freeze of assets in Iran deemed to be linked to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The aim of the resolutions is to get Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, which Western experts say are part of a secret program to make a nuclear bomb.Only one Iranian bank, Bank Sepah, has bee ...

Exhibit A For "More And Better Democrats" 2007-11-08 15:06:00 So Sarko flies over to D.C. from France and wows everyone with a speech according to this New York Times story, full of wonderful words and images that represent absolutely nothing that will address any of the urgent issues facing our countries and the rest of the world.And as you might imagine, Republicans were positively orgiastic in their praise (and I could point out that, in terms of actual substance, I don’t see a heck of a lot separating Sarko from that stiff Jacques Chirac, but then again, there I go being a filthy, unkempt liberal blogger again).(Also, I could go off over Dubya’s utterly delusional claim that Iraq is “a struggling democracy” and having no issue at all with Sarko going to Syria to talk peace while our own politicians who do so are demonized from here into next week, but I’ll save that for perhaps another day.)And what does “the opposition party” to the Repugs have to say, in the person of U.S. House Rep Tom Lantos? Well, concerning the speech… ...

CNN Forgot The Other “R” 2007-11-08 13:44:00 I didn’t say much on the preposterous fraud of Pat Robertson’s endorsement of Rudy Giuliani for the Repug presidential nomination yesterday, but only noted that Mike Huckabee voiced his indignation over the snub (which quite likely means the end of his marginal candidacy).However, in this Paul Krugman blog post, Tom Edsall tells us how Rudy! is modifying his campaign somewhat to pander to Robertson’s crowd even more slavishly than before (and this excerpt tells us how “America’s Mayor” had the “cred” on this issue that right-winger racists are looking for… Giuliani’s eight years as New York’s chief executive exemplified a Northern adaptation of the GOP’s politically successful “Southern strategy” - the strategy playing on white resistance to and resentment of federal legislation passed in the 1960s mandating desegregation - resistance that produced a realignment in the South and fractured the Democratic loyalties of white working class voters in the urban No ...

Today’s Inky Post-Election Screwup 2007-11-08 10:29:00 Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Thomas Fitzgerald tells us the following today concerning the Bucks County Commissioners elections between returned incumbents Jim Cawley and Charley (“I Have A Semi-Open Mind”) Martin and Dem challengers Steve Santarsiero and new commissioner Diane Marseglia (oh, sorry…forgot to mention Repug decoy candidate Jay Russell)…Toward the end of the race, the Democrats came out against a $140 million proposal for a new courthouse as too expensive, though they had been in favor of it.And of course, based on the way that’s written, Fitzgerald’s piece can then easily transition to a strategically placed quote from Repug spokesman Mike Walsh alleging an imaginary “trust issue” here.Well, that’s an interesting bit of fiction, isn’t it? Now, for the reality.In this column by Intelligencer reporter Jenna Portnoy, about the non-issue YouTube video alleging that Steve and Diane would be beholden to to the supposedly dreaded unions and their project l ...