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. |
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Articles from The Liberal Doomsayer |
It's Called Telling A Story, David
2007-10-24 12:30:00
(Posting looks like a big question mark for today, by the way – lots of other stuff going on at the moment..)I honestly was willing to let sleeping dogs lie over this, as they say, but David Chase, creator of “The Sopranos,” just ticked me off big time (not a thing to do with politics here, but I have to vent).This is what Chase said here…Breaking his silence months after the HBO mob drama ended its run, he is offering a belated explanation for that blackout at the restaurant (i.e., the screen went dark at the very end of the last episode with no further explanation). He strongly suggests that, no, Tony Soprano didn't get whacked moments later as he munched onion rings with his family at Holsten's. And mostly Chase wonders why so many viewers got so worked up over the series' non-finish."There WAS a war going on that week, and attempted terror attacks in London," says Chase. "But these people were talking about onion rings."…Chase says the New Jersey mob boss "had been peo ...
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Tuesday Videos
2007-10-23 22:13:00
Coheed and Cambria ("The Running Free"; such a cheerful, uplifting song - possibly the first time I've ever seen an alternative rocker singing (?) under water)......Happy Birthday to jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves ("How High The Moon"; wonderful in "Good Night, And Good Luck" if you've never seen her - the musicians are Billy Childs on piano, Chris Severin on bass and Billy Kilson on drums )......Happy Birthday to Weird Al Yankovic ("Eat It," the closest you'll ever get to a Michael Jackson video here, by the way)......and to commemorate the 76th birthday of Repug Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning (wow, can they pick 'em down here between 'ol Jimbo and Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, or what?), here's "Crazy," by Gnarls Barkley :-). ...
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A "Mickey Mouse" Cover Up?
2007-10-23 14:38:00
The following news item pretty much came and went in the business section of today’s New York Times…ABC News said yesterday that it had ended an investigation into a consultant whom it fired for falsifying his résumé and concluded that the reporting he had contributed to the network was sound.In response to the incident, ABC will make changes to its system of hiring consultants, reviewing claims of prior employment and academic credentials more thoroughly, David L. Westin, the president of ABC News, wrote in a memorandum yesterday. Also, the network’s news practices unit will be involved in all hiring decisions and reporting situations involving consultants, he wrote.One would wonder why this unit was not involved in such decisions in the first place.The Times story deals with Alexis Debat, a terrorism analyst who had been on the payroll of ABC as a consultant since 2001, according to the Times.Call me just another filthy, unkempt liberal blogger, but I think this sort of blank ...
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Faux News Gives Us The Business
2007-10-23 12:31:00
So how exactly is the Faux Business Channel holding up after a little more than one week on the air?Well, here is how New York Times business writer Joe Nocera summed it up in this column from last Saturday (I hope to be out of catch-up mode soon)…It was Thursday around 4:30, and I couldn’t take it anymore.All week long, I’d been sporadically watching Rupert Murdoch’s new Fox Business Network, which made its debut on Monday. I was trying to figure out what, exactly, it was trying to do — and who its audience was supposed to be. It wasn’t an easy task.One minute Fox was doing a segment that included a $1 million diamond; the next it was giving tips on how to avoid foreclosure. It would home in on the stock market and then report on the death of a teenager in Virginia from a staph infection, reports that included several truly silly efforts to frame the tragedy as a business story. On Tuesday afternoon, while CNBC was dissecting Intel’s earnings, Fox was running its “Happ ...
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Driving The Debate On Illegals
2007-10-23 11:14:00
I’ve tried to stay out of the fray regarding the plan of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants in New York state. I even passed on a chance to say something the end of last month when Rudy! jumped into the fray and criticized Spitzer’s plan, even though the “mayor of 9/11” supported Proposition 187 in California in 1994 which approved benefits to illegals (here).And I’d like to call your attention to this paragraph in the Times story from September 29th…“The reality is there is so much traffic in false documents that creates part of this problem,” (Giuliani) said. “It is the reason I am so much in favor of a tamper-proof ID card for people who come in from foreign countries and want to work here.”Well, guess what, Rudy? Richard Clarke, the former chief counterterrorism adviser to the State Department under President Clinton, is in favor of ID cards also. He also agrees with Gov. Spitzer and not with you; as noted here…The U ...
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Monday Videos
2007-10-22 22:48:00
Velvet Revolver ("The Last Fight" - quality is a bit rough)......Happy Birthday to Leslie West of Mountain (kind of a goofed-up version of their Top 40 hit "Mississippi Queen" from 1970; no clue as to the guy doing the promo at the end)......Happy Birthday also to Shelby Lynne ("Wall In Your Heart"; skirting dangerously close to country on this one, and I usually detest vids with the artist performing and move clips mixed in, but I have to admit that I like this song)......and finally, Lou Reed tells us that "There Is No Time" (how right he is, though the "Pelosi for President '07" bumper sticker is laughable at this moment). ...
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The "Hotline" To Legislative Hell
2007-10-22 17:42:00
I came across a story in Parade magazine about a practice called “hotlining,” which to me sounds like some kind of a buddy-buddy arrangement between Sens. Harry Reid and Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao (why Reid would consent to a sham of an arrangement like this is something I cannot fathom; it is as mystifying as his behavior towards Chris Dodd).This link provides more information, notably the following (according to Repug Jeff Sessions of Alabama)…"In each Senate office there are three telephones with hotline buttons on them. Most evenings, sometimes after business hours, these phones begin to ring. The calls are from the Republican and the Democratic leaders to each of their Members, asking consent to pass this or that bill--not consider the bill or have debate on the bill but to pass it. Those calls will normally give a deadline. If the staff do(es) not call back in 30 minutes, the bill passes. Boom. It can be 500 pages. In many offices, when staffers do not know anything about the bil ...
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Monday Bucks County Dem Roundup
2007-10-22 16:18:00
The following also appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times on Saturday (in addition to John Wible’s great letter – this was a “Thumbs Up”)……to Lower Makefield Supervisor Steve Santarsiero for pushing for a township law that would open up access to township documents.Santarsiero, Democratic candidate for county commissioner, recently outlined his “Open And Fair Government Ordinance,” which would require residents to be able to review any record (except for specified exemptions) within 24 hours of requesting it and for the township to provide a copy of some documents related to litigation and personnel records within five days.The ordinance also requires township employees to resign before running for public office, prohibits any township employee from participating in political activities and bars political literature from being displayed or distributed in township offices.Some residents say the ordinance isn’t necessary because the township already has a very open ...
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Dick Still Wants To Lick Iran
2007-10-22 15:22:00
I guess I should take a minute to note the recent appearance once more of Mr. “Fourth Branch” himself, “Deadeye Dick” Cheney, even though I really don’t want to.So he gave another speech in front of a gaggle of conservative idiots. So he’s threatening war with Iran for the umpteenth time.So he’s letting the entire world know yet again that he’s a reactionary old fool because his words have proven to be nothing but lying propaganda.Well, just for the record, I’d like to present this Think Progress link which explains how an air strike against Iran would actually accelerate their nuclear development, as well as generating sympathy from nations which (I would guess) are just about fed up with us anyway.And not to be outdone, President Stupid Head asked for $42 billion more for war today (I guess he thinks we’ve forgotten about the SCHIP fiasco by now and it’s safe for him to say this; just keep it up, Dubya, and watch your party go down in flames even more next year) ...
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"Humanizing" The Inhuman
2007-10-22 11:43:00
This letter appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times on Saturday (some "catch-up" stuff to do for your humble narrator)…Conservative columnist Suzanne Fields attacked Hillary Clinton’s “cackle” in her Oct. 8 column. She also attacked the aspect of humor in our politicians, mentioning Bill Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Gerald Ford and President George W. Bush.Fields wrote, “Because most of us demand a sense of humor to humanize presidents, unfunny things can pass for humor in Washington. That’s why presidents (with good script writers) go out of their way to laugh at themselves once or twice. George W. Bush entertained one press dinner a few years ago with a slide of himself looking under the furniture in the Oval Office, saying: ‘Those weapons of mass destruction have to be here somewhere’.”I would pose a question to Fields: If she asked the loved ones of the American troops who died or were maimed for life in Iraq because of the nonexistent weapons of mass ...
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More Like This Anyway
2007-10-21 22:22:00
This is how Dem Rep. Pete Stark of California earned the wrath of Nancy The Nag and Sellout Steny a day or so ago.I knew impeachment was off the table, but I didn't know righteous anger and showing a spine while standing up to Repug intimidation was also.I guess Steny and Nancy had no trouble giving up their lunch money to the school bullies when they were little kids many years ago. ...
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More Proof That David Broder Is An Idiot
2007-10-21 09:36:00
In today's WaPo, the "Dean of Beltway Journalism" offers us this...For most of the American public, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt is best defined by his role defending President Bush's controversial veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.Leavitt, along with the president, has argued that the bipartisan bill is too ambitious and too expensive, encroaching on the private insurance market. For his pains, he has been characterized as an ogre, standing in the way of better treatment for millions of youngsters in cash-strapped families.That is not the man I got to know and admire in his years as governor of Utah and a leader in the National Governors Association. And it is not the man I heard address a conference of health-care insurers and providers here last week.Part of the reason why Leavitt has been characterized as an ogre on kids' health is because he is an ogre on kids' health - as noted here (Question #10 - from his days as Utah governor, wh ...
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Friday Videos
2007-10-19 22:59:00
The Foo Fighters ("Long Road To Ruin" - another neat fan video)......I missed the birthday of Lindsay Buckingham last week ("Trouble," from those "too cool for school" '80s; gosh, hope they didn't spend too much on this one with its original choreography - yawn)......Dizzy Gillespie would have been 90 on Sunday ("Ooh Shooby Dooby" from the sadly short-lived jazz show hosted by David Sanborn, sometime around 1988)......Happy Birthday to Russ Giguere of The Association ("Everything That Touches You" from what looks like "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," featuring Austin Powers on lead vocals and possibly the worst lip-synching of all time - yeeaah bay-bee! And after all, it was the '60s)......Happy Birthday also to Karl Wallinger of World Party ("Ship Of Fools")......and to commemorate the placement of the 1969 Woodstock concert at the top of the list of the "885 Greatest Music Moments" according to radio station WXPN in these parts (noted in this earlier post), here's Santana per ...
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