I Saw This and Thought of George

I can't wait to hear our own dear George's thoughts on this swank bit of photographic equipment:

Yes, that is a huge-ass lens taped to a cell phone. 

Something tells me it ain't gonna help the picture quality.

Blogs and Books

Writing a book?  Thinking of blogging only to promote said book?  Read this first:

Blogs created to specifically promote books don't seem to get very far. Often times I have seen authors generate a flurry of early posts in the wake of a book release only to abandon the blog relatively quickly. Then they come back a few months later, with a promise to get back to blogging, but this is often more of a last gasp than a true comeback. As Tom aptly points out, while these attempts might not hurt they do not seem to do anything to help a book that is already struggling to find an audience.

And, might I add, it's really annoying for those of us who actually wanted the writer to update the damned blog.

Besides, it's not like there's an instant audience.  If your book's not doing well, your blog won't magically make things better.  The intertoobz are vast, and there are many blogs: you're just another face in the crowd.  Jumping up and down screaming "I published a book!  Buy my book!" won't do jack diddly shit for you.  It takes time and effort to build an audience for your blog, just like it takes time and effort to build an audience for your books.  And your blog, like your book, has to offer a quality product that people want to spend time with if it's going to succeed.

Blogs and books are two different animals.  And they both make outrageous demands on your time.  If you don't have the time or the interest to split your focus, don't split your focus.  You'll end up doing both your books and your blog a disservice if you're not actually interested in being a blogger.  Stick with Facebook instead.

(Of course, Facebook has its own hazards.  Anyone who's gone on to post a simple update and ended up sucked into about 5,000 Facebook games knows what I mean.  Use at your own risk.)

Now, as for using your existing blog for shameless self promotion.... do it.  Let me use Brian Switek, author of the above-linked post, as an example: I learned he was writing his book because of some modest little posts he wrote early on.  He kept us updated on the process as he wrote, edited, found a publisher, wrote and edited some more, and now can triumphantly announce that, should all go well, we're going to have the opportunity to hold his book in our very own hands sometime this fall.  If he'd kept his mouth shut, we wouldn't have anything to look forward to other than his wise and wonderful posts.  And while his posts are wise and wonderful, it's even more wonderful to know that they're not the only written words we're getting from him. 

Note also that Brian hasn't fallen down on his blogging duties.  His posts have continued being wise and wonderful even when he's overwhelmed by work. 

So, upshot: if you're going to blog, do it for more than promotional purposes, and give your readers something of value.  But if you're already blogging, don't be afraid of a little shameless self promotion.

Haiti: Some Essential Reading

What a horrific situation.  Three days after the quake, relief is having a hard time finding its way into the country.  The port's destroyed, the airstrip's overwhelmed, and roads are impassable.  People are dying waiting for medical care, much less rescue.  It's going to get worse before it gets better.  But damn, is it ever good to have an adult in charge of the American response.  Obama's ensured that, even though this is a far more difficult disaster to deal with than Katrina was, not to mention the fact that Haiti's not a U.S. city, our response is comprehensive, appropriate, and swift.  Well, aside from getting George W. "Heckuva Job" Bush on board with the relief efforts, but I understand that's a PR move and Obama's smart enough not to put him in charge of anything important.


The United States Air Force took over air traffic control responsibilities for the airport in Port-au-Prince, restoring some order amidst the chaos.  The airport's handling three times the traffic it's used to, and there are delays, but things are better than they were.  This allows search and rescue teams from various countries to get in and get to work.  Within a few days, the American military should have heavy equipment on the ground, start clearing blocked roads, and make it a lot easier to get aid in to the disaster zone.  And in the short term, we'll be getting ships equipped with helicopters in to ferry supplies and personnel.  Some folks might complain the military hasn't responded quickly enough.  Those folks can go hang - we're talking about a massive rescue effort that has to be coordinated with a government that's in shambles.  I'm surprised the response has been as rapid as it has been.

And no, the military can't just invade a foreign country, not even for humanitarian reasons.  Especially not with our history.  Did you know that Bush the Elder and Bush the Younger both removed Haiti's democratically-elected president in what basically amounted to coups?  And that's not even the half of how the Western world has shit upon these people.  We have a bad history that goes back to the beginning of this country.  So, no, sending in a wave of American troops without coordinating with Haiti's government probably wouldn't be a great idea, no matter how noble the motives. 

Tragedy sometimes brings out the best in people.  Alas, it still doesn't do that for Rush Limbaugh.  Forgive me the temptation to spike his cigar with Superglue.  Meanwhile, Faux News devoted a whole 7 minutes of evening programming to the tragedy.  It appears that interviewing Sarah Palin, trashing Jon Stewart, and plugging Scott Brown for Senate is far more important to them than covering one of the worst earthquake disasters to ever strike this hemisphere.

Our own George takes on "compassion tourism."  Don't even get me started on this.  I'm still seeing red.

But here's something wonderful: folks have donated more than $7 million dollars via text message.  Here's how you can bring it to $10 million:

•  Text the word "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross.
  
• Text the word "YELE" to 501501 to donate $5 to the Yele Haiti foundation.
• Text the word "HAITI" to 20222 to donate $10 to the Clinton Foundation Haiti Relief Fund.
• Text "HAITI" to 25383 to donate $5 to the International Rescue Committee.
• Text "HAITI" to 85944 to donate $10 to the International Medical Corps.

And yes, all of the above are legit.  So you can give safely.  You can also hit up this list here, if you prefer to give through more traditional channels.

One of the most tragic things I read today was what Port-au-Prince resident Bellefleur Jean Heber said: "Haiti is an abandoned country....  People are relying on themselves."

You're not abandoned, Mr. Heber.  Help's coming as fast as it can.  Rescuers from all over the world are  having a hard time getting through, but they're going to be there for you soon.

We won't forget you.

The Best in the World, Eh?

The best in the world at spending far too much and getting far too little, yeah:

It's hard to constantly come up with new ways to say "America spends way, way, way, way, way more than any other country on health care." But we do! Just look at the National Geographic graph above, which puts per-person spending on one side of the chart and average life expectancy on the other. Or consider this: If we spent what Canada spends per person, our deficit problem would go away entirely. And Canada's per-person average is in a country where everybody is fully covered and so has full access to care. America's is in a country with 47 million uninsured, and so many people skimp on needed care. So the comparison is actually unfair to Canada.

David Leonhardt has another way of making the point. We don't have a government-run system. But our system is so expensive that our government's partial role is pricier than the whole of government-run systems.

If we had a functioning, rational government in this country, we'd have elected leaders all huddling over this graph.  They'd see that the "how much we spend" point on the line is ridiculously higher than anybody else's "how much we spend" point.  And for a moment, they might preen with pride, until they traced the downslope, and came to the point that tells us just how much life expectancy we're getting out of that, and realize just how very low it is compared to countries that spend far less.  And then they might notice how blue this graph is.  Well, blue represents countries with universal health care.  Interesting thing is, the vast majority of countries with universal health care spend less and live longer than we do.

At this point, if we had a functioning, rational government in this country, our elected leaders would hustle a bill through the House and Senate that gave us universal health care at a fraction of our current costs.  The President would sign it, and within a few days, perhaps a week, we'd be on our way to sitting with the grown up industrialized nations.

Alas, we haven't got a functioning, rational government.  We have a government that is partially rational and attempting to function, but that has a rather large minority of batshit fucking insane dipshits and a handful of posturing nitwits who are incapable of comprehending simple reality, but damned sure know how to fuck everything up.  Thus, we have ended up with a wretched cripple of a reform bill that is, appallingly, miles better than the current status quo.

I don't know how we can get to a point where batshit fucking insane dipshits are no longer given enough political power to keep things this badly fucked up.  But we have to try.  That graph up above is unacceptable for a nation like America.  It's time more Americans realized that.

Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Linkfest tonight, I'm afraid, my darlings.  Between various computer woes, spending most of the night reading up on Haiti, and various kitchen woes, I'm fast running out of time.

I have only one thing to say to Arizona Rep. John Shadegg: don't let the door hit you in the ass.

A damned good question is asked of wanna-be Senate candidate Harold Ford.  I predict the answer will be politician-speak for "no."

Hypocrisy runs rampant, Club for Growth edition.

In case you were wondering if the GOP's strategy was to be obstinate little naysayers from the very beginning, the answer is yes.

What Sarah Palin and Bart Simpson have in common.

Palin, meanwhile, thinks Faux News is gonna pull some more of that "gotcha" journalism on her, so she studies Teh Google. 

Scott Brown wants everybody to know he does too know what the Tea Party is, and has the transcripts to prove it.  He may think his little playing-dumb tapdance was clever, but he actually sounded smarter when he was being misquoted.

And Michael Steele tries to re-write history. Again.

They'd be funny if they weren't so fucking pathetic....

Thoughts on Haiti

I've got CNN on right now.  The Big Dog's speaking, and it's strangely calming.  I know why: he's got a firm handle on what needs to be done, and he's just calmly ticking off the list: helicopters, medical teams, search and rescue teams, earth-moving equipment.  Then things switch over to Anderson Cooper in Haiti, with people running and screaming in the background, screaming about water - a flood?  Water being handed out?  It gives a sense of the chaos and fear in the darkness there.

After a time, things settle.  People stop running.  

So: calm and chaos.  Desperation and hope.  That's Haiti, right now.

Earlier, I watched a flyover video shot by the Coast Guard.  You'll notice that some areas seem untouched, while others are completely flattened:



I could tell the geology of some of the zones just from the extent of the damage: toward the end of the video, you'll see an area close to the sea where it seems every building is down.  Unconsolidated sediments or earth fill.  Something that turned to jelly when the ground began to shake.

Even in the areas of Port-au-Prince that look okay, a closer examination would show cracks in the buildings, structural damage so extreme that going inside could be a death sentence.  This city wasn't built to withstand earthquakes.  It barely manages to stand on a good day.

We'll never know how many people may have survived if Haiti had the resources to build solid structures.

Here's my impossible dream: stop fighting and start building.  I can't help but think of the resources put into war, and just how much better use those resources could be put to.  Lifting people out of crushing poverty.  Earthquake-proofing buildings in fault zones.  Bracing communities for other natural disasters.  And even after spending so much money on all that, there'd likely still be extra money left for things like curing diseases and developing alternative forms of energy. 

No, I know it'll never happen.  But that doesn't mean we can't work for it.

Haiti

I spent a huge, depressing portion of today reading about the devastation in Haiti.  It's not quite 2004 tsunami-level destruction, but it's close enough.

For the science behind the tragedy, you could head on over to Highly Allochthonous for a discussion of the plate tectonics that will at least help you understand why the earth broke.  The Frontal Cortex cautions us not to let the scale of the disaster overwhelm our empathy.

Speaking of empathy, Digby has a long list of aid agencies that could use some cash.  The Center for International Disaster Information explains why cash donations are more useful than goods like blankets or clothing in a tragedy like this.  Haiti's going to need a huge number of resources, from medical rescue to food to clothing to shelter to funds for rebuilding.  Earthquake destruction of this magnitude is bad enough when it happens to a reasonably wealthy country: one as poor as Haiti, well, they haven't the resouces to handle this alone.  Especially not on top of all the other disasters they've faced just recently. 

Greg Laden has a good list of various resources for those who want to keep up with the news, seek missing relatives, or want further options for assistance.

And, of course, no disaster is complete without the requisite stupidity from shitheels like Rush Limbaugh (who just can't seem to shut up),  rabid right frothers, and assorted others.  To all of them: fuck you, you heartless fucktards.

So forget them.  There'll be time enough to spank them once Haiti's been helped.   There are people who need us now.

Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Note to Cons who were, not long ago, celebrating the fact that Virginia elected a Con as a governor: the Dems have taken over the state senate.  How d'ya like them apples, eh?

This is the best part:

The Dem's principal campaign flyer showed a picture of Sarah Palin with a text bubble that showed her saying, "I can see Russia from my house." The message to district voters underneath read, in all caps, "If you don't vote Jan. 12th, you'll see a Republican-dominated Virginia from yours."

Sounds like that wasn't quite the view they wanted.  Heh.

Speaking of elections, Florida's got an interesting choice in the Senate primary: Charlie Crist, who occasionally shows some sparks of sanity, or Mark Rubio, who is just stark raving mad:

Last night on CNBC, Marco Rubio, a right-wing Republican running for US Senate in Florida, told host Larry Kudlow about his “solutions to the high unemployment” and economic recession. Rubio chafed at responding with any actual ideas, policies, or solutions. In fact, Rubio proposed that if he were elected, he would call for “a two year recess or something” so no laws or reforms could be enacted:

KUDLOW: If you were elected Senator, what would you do about the 10% unemployment rate, which may or may not be 10% if and when you get in? But, what are your general solutions to the high unemployment and worries about the economic recession?

RUBIO: Well the problem is the people in Washington don’t understand what’s causing it. They think that Presidents and Senators are job creators and they’re not. The job creators are people who have access to money, whether it’s their own or borrowed, who use that money to open up a new business or expand an existing one. And they’re not doing that right now because of the tax chaos and all the regulatory chaos and all of this uncertainty created in Washington DC. Perhaps the most stimulative thing they can do right now is take a two year recess or something.

Is this guy really this much of a joke?  "Elect me - I promise not to work for two years!"  This guy's understanding of how government works, much less how it should work, is even less comprehensive than that of a brainless newt.  And this, my darlings, is the beloved candidate of the Teabaggers.

Oy and vey.

Meanwhile, State Senator Scott Brown, who can't quite figure out why he's against the same sort of health care for America that he was happy to vote for in Massachusetts, and who's busy promising a state that adores Ted Kennedy's memory that he'll be sure to shit all over Teddy's legacy if he's elected, wants us all to believe he's been living locked away in a sound-proof box under a rock for the past year:

State Sen. Scott Brown told reporters in Massachusetts today he was "unfamiliar" with the "Tea Party movement," despite earning the endorsement from one of the groups who is raising money for his campaign to win the U.S. Senate seat Tuesday.

Are you fucking kidding me?  You're "unfamiliar" with Teabaggers?  Anyone with even the most casual interest in politics is familiar with fucking Teabaggers!  And Mass is supposed to elect someone this patently stupid (not to mention this horrible at lying) to fill Teddy's shoes?   Really?  I grant you that a few folks in Mass might be that bloody stupid, but this is asking for an abundance of stupidity that I just don't think Mass has.

Oh, and as for Harold Ford trying to snatch Kirsten Gillibrand's Senate seat - fugeddaboutit:

He sat down for an interview with the New York Times yesterday, and his motivations aren't any clearer.

In his first extensive interview since he began weighing a run for United States Senate from New York, Harold E. Ford Jr. distanced himself from his previous opposition to same-sex marriage, his description of himself as "pro-life" and his push to permit local police officers to enforce federal immigration law, and said he would be a fiercer advocate for New York than Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand. [...]

In a clear swipe at Ms. Gillibrand, he said he would not be a lap dog for Democratic leaders in Washington, who have rushed to her defense since Mr. Ford expressed interest in the seat.
"If I am elected senator from New York, Harry Reid will not instruct me how to vote," he said, referring to Mr. Reid's efforts to keep him out of the campaign.

Except, that's clearly the wrong message. When Reid leans on senators, it's practically always to get them to support a progressive bill important to the Democratic Party. Ford, who was a conservative Dem from a conservative state, is basically saying he wants New York Democrats -- generally, a pretty liberal bunch -- to send him to the Senate where he'll be deliberately unreliable when it comes to the party's agenda.

The transcript of Ford's NYT interview is online, and it's a bit of a mess. He tried to take both sides of the abortion issue and the debate over health care reform. Ford is pro-gun, but only sort of, and not really. His big economic idea is a massive corporate tax cut. Seriously.

Ford moved to the Empire State in 2009 and still has a Tennessee driver's license. Asked if he's visited all five boroughs, Ford counted Staten Island because he "landed there in the helicopter."

You've got to be kidding me.

Well, either he's one big joke, or he's just oblivious enough to believe New Yorkers won't spot his lies.  Either way, it's fucking pathetic.

Far too many of our elected officials aren't any better.  I mean, check out the tower of fail that is Rep. Paul Broun:

Last night on the House floor, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) delivered a rambling speech against health care reform.

"It's absolutely critical," Broun said, "that the American people stand up and speak to the leadership and demand something different, and that the American people demand that nothing is passed, particularly on health care."

Broun also made a series of wildly false allegations to argue that, "This is the largest takeover of liberty and freedom this country has ever seen."

BROUN: This health care plan can tell us what kind of car to drive, whether we can own guns or not to protect ourselves in our home, whether we can teach our children the way that we as parents believe our children ought to be taught.  This is the largest takeover of liberty and freedom this country has ever seen. 

How the fuck do these paranoid freaks end up governing the country?  Oh, right.  Because other paranoid freaks elect them, and non-paranoid sensible people are so busy doing non-paranoid sensible things they forget that one of the most sensible things they could ever do is ensure that paranoid, batshit insane freaks don't get fucking elected. 

And here are two items you really mustn't miss: one that will give you a classic *headdesk* moment, and one that will give you a blissfully warm feeling of schadenfreude.

After all that stupidity, I think we need an antidote.  Paging Alan Grayson:

From Rep. Grayson's You Tube page:

Former Republican Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani claimed that no attacks happened on US soil 'except' for 9/11. Rep. Alan Grayson responded by pointing out all of the other exceptions the Republicans would like to exclude from history.

Dave N.: You gotta love Alan Grayson. Republicans' are desperate to make Americans forget what an abject failure conservative governance has been. Grayson is one of the few congresscritters actively fighting back:

Grayson: And I realized that I was witnessing the birth of a new form of political discourse from the right wing in this country: The Exception. The Exceptional Exception -- the exception that proves the rule or disproves the rule, as the case may be.

So in the future I'm expecting that we'll hear from the right wing the claim that no cities drowned under the Bush administration -- except for New Orleans. And that there were no wars that were started by mistake under the Bush administration -- except for the war in Iraq. And that the Bush administration added nothing to the federal debt -- except for a half-trillion dollars, which works out to $15,000 for every man, woman and child in this country. And that they respected all of our constitutional rights as Americans -- except when they didn't.

I think we'll hear Republicans claim that the Bush administration managed the economy quite well -- except when they brought it to the brink of national bankruptcy. In fact, they'll claim that the Bush-Cheney administration was a complete success, except for the fact that it was an abject failure -- an abject failure.

In fact, what we learned in Washington for eight years is that the reason why Republicans hate government so much is because they're so bad at it.

Fuck it.  I'm giving up atheism and starting the Church of Grayson.  Yes, there will be alcohol for the service - gotta have something to toast the man with, don't we?

Failings of Popular Science Programming

Oy.  Stupid weather.  The jet stream's developed a kink - actually, several kinks - which is freezing the balls off of the southeast whilst making Seattle unseasonably warm.  Warm is nice - except it's deceived something into getting enthusiastic, and hence I've been suffering from a prolonged, very annoying asthma attack that I usually only have to deal with in the spring.  I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.  If I take medication so I can breathe, I'm too hyped up to sleep.  If I don't take meds, I can't sleep because I can't breathe comfortably.  It's enough to make me almost long for snow.

Since my sleep-deprived brain isn't cut out for any serious work just now, I've been cleaning the geology programs out of the DVR.  It's almost as annoying as the asthma.  When you watch a lot of these in a row, the silly tendencies to over-dramatize really start to grate.

All programs seem to suffer from the following three failings, no matter what channel they're on:

1.  Everything's presented as a crisis.  If they can't hype up the past crises (ZOMG, teh Permian Extinction!!1!11!), they hype future crises (ZOMG, 250 million years from now WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!11!1!! maybe).  Even minor stuff is overblown - in the program I just watched, the future erosion of the Rockies into nothing more than hills was presented as some terrible possible future tragedy, rather than the inevitable consequence of pedestrian forces of erosion.  Sorry, folks.  All mountains are gonna die.  Well-known geological fact.  Geez.

2.  Everything's a mystery, even stuff that isn't mysterious at all.  "Mysterious" forces cause this, and "mysterious" forces cause that.  If there's no mystery these days, well, they just travel back to the early days in geology when things did seem rather mysterious.  When you're so far gone that you're talking about how "mysterious" it is that a cliff is eroding, you're a little too addicted to mystery, there.

3.  They fuck up perfectly easy stuff that anyone with a high school science education should get right.  Such as, you don't radiocarbon date granite to 25 million years old. 

Why can't we just have reasonably accurate science programming that relies on the innate power and drama of science rather than manufacturing melodrama?  And why can't these shows hire some schmo sort of well-versed in scientific matters from the lay-person's perspective to catch the errors that aren't just glaring, but veritably scowling while slapping baseball bats into their palms?  Shit, folks, you could pay me $20 an episode for those services.  At least you'd never be caught fucking up radiocarbon dating again.

Here endeth the rant.  And for those who are about to ask me why I bother, it's for the visuals and the factoids.  Such as, ammonites the size of truck tires littering the Rocky Mountains.  There's enough worthwhile stuff to be going on with.  And it's just the sort of thing that a poor sleep-deprived brain can wrap itself around.

Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

So, maybe Chris Mooney can tell us how this is all the scientists' fault, eh?

The British Daily Mail ran a report yesterday with the headline, "Could we be in for 30 years of global COOLING?" The piece told readers, "According to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, the warming of the Earth since 1900 is due to natural oceanic cycles, and not man-made greenhouse gases."

It led Fox News to report, "30 Years of Global Cooling Are Coming, Leading Scientist Says."

There are, of course, two small problems. First, the National Snow and Ice Data Center said no such thing. The director of the NSIDC said, "This is completely false. NSIDC has never made such a statement and we were never contacted by anyone from the Daily Mail."

Second, the Fox News report cites the research of IPCC scientist Mojib Latif, one of the world's leading climate modelers. The story completely mischaracterizes his work, and gets the story largely backwards.

Latif told Dr. Joseph Romm:

"I don't know what to do. They just make these things up."

Sure looks like the global warming deniers are taking pages from the creationist playbook, there.  Quote folks out of context, twist interpretations of the science, and when all else fails, just make shit up and attribute it to a legitimate scientist. 

And this doesn't just extend to creationists and climate cretins.  Oh, no.  No, the right wing is having a merry old time making shit up about the man who should be running the TSA right now:

Despite Southers’ impressive resume and qualifications, the right wing is intent on playing politics with his nomination. Conservative bloggers and activists have begun mounting a campaign to smear Southers with fallacious attacks. Some examples below:

Right-Wing Attack: “TSA nominee: Global Warming Deserves Parity With War on Terror.” The conservative blog Hot Air highlights Southers’ comment that terrorism “deserves to perhaps have some parity with global warming.” Blogger Ed Morrisey concludes that Southers’ view is “ludicrous.”

Reality: A Pentagon analysis concluded that the long-term security threat of global warming was greater than terrorism, and many security experts agree. The National Intelligence Council assessed the grave threat global warming poses. It could not only fuel further terrorism, but spur mass migration, refugees, poverty, environmental degradation, and pandemics. The CIA is now dedicating resources to analyzing the security implications of climate change.

Right-Wing Attack: “Obama TSA Nominee Erroll Southers Calls Pro-Life Advocates Terrorists in Video.” LifeNews attacks Southers for saying homegrown terrorist groups — particularly white supremacist groups — are “anti-government, in most cases anti-abortion, they are usually survivalist type in nature, identity oriented.” Gateway Pundit writes, “This kook rattled off every leftwing nut conspiracy in one interview.”

Reality: A Homeland Security report published last August warned right-wing extremists, “specifically the white supremacist and militia movements,” may “include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion.” Subsequently, the report was vindicated by acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists and anti-abortion crusaders.

Right-Wing Attack: “TSA nominee in 2008: Alliances with Israel, France make us subject to terror attack.” The Washington Examiner’s David Freddoso takes issue with Southers’ observation the U.S. alliance with “countries that are seen by groups, by al Qaeda, as infidels” may subject us to greater risk of attack. “So Southers is a hack leftist and a fool,” the conservative blog Powerline writes.

Reality: Consider the words of Osama bin Laden. In 1996, the terrorist leader complained of the “iniquity and injustice imposed on them by the Zionist-Crusaders alliance” and called for raising “the banner of Jihad against the American-Zionist alliance occupying the sanctities of Islam.” In 2008, he reiterated his hateful screed: “We shall continue the fight, Allah willing, against the Israelis and their allies.”

In their desperation to smear Southers, the right is grasping at straws.

Indeed.  It's all they've got to grasp, after all.

Let's just hope these particular zombie lies don't end up enshrined in song:

Well, Sarah Palin's "death panels" may have been named "Lie of the Year," but they live on in Tea Party movement legend.

Ray Stevens -- noted for such novelty songs as "The Streak" and "Ahab the Arab" -- has a music video out that's being hailed as "the Anthem of the Tea Party movement" titled "We the People":

“We the People” is about Obamacare and the health-care reform bills that have passed both houses of Congress.

The lyrics express a comic, but pointed warning to members of Congress: “You vote Obamacare, we’re going to vote you out of there. We the People have awakened to your tricks. You vote to let this pass, you’re going to be out on your (sound of foghorn).”

They also feature a noteworthy lyric:

We've heard from Hannity, Beck and Limbaugh
What you got in mind for Grandma
[Video: Nurse putting chloroformed cloth over elderly woman's face]

Yeah, now that you mention it, we have heard that from those three -- and a number of others. And we also know that IT'S A FREAKING LIE.

And to think I used to like Ray Stevens.  Little hard to respect anyone who falls for something this stupid.  Sigh.

On other two-faced liar fronts, it's confirmed the health care insurance industry has been funding efforts to kill reform.  As if there were any doubt.  Ezra Klein asks a simple question - why fight so hard if it's such a bonanza?  I'd say it's because it's not a total giveaway, and you know that nothing but a total giveaway would do.  Greedy fuckers.

Ezra also points out the hazards of taking hostages.  This is one of the reasons why I've not let my blood pressure get raised by the whole reform kabuki lately.  The process is ugly, particularly when various Conservadems and every single fucking Con is being an obstinate ass, but we'll get there in the end.  There'll be a foundation to build upon.  And for those of you who are screaming mad over the whole process, allow me to remind you that letting Cons get elected won't solve the problem.  Electing better Democrats will.

And, finally, a prime example of just how vapid, shallow, and inane our media has become:

Way back during the presidential transition, then-President-elect Obama held so many press conferences and media availabilities, it seemed reporters were running out of questions.

After the inauguration, President Obama held a series of prime-time press conferences, covering a wide variety of issues. By the summer, the media was largely divided between the journalists who a) complained about the president being "overexposed"; b) complained that the news conferences were dull and unnecessary; a c) complained that the president's Q&A sessions were costing the networks too much money.

So, after a press conference in July, the White House scaled back. Now, the media that complained about too many opportunities to ask Obama questions is complaining about too few opportunities.

*headdesk*

I'm so fed up with this shit.  I wish there was somewhere in the world I could go where the stupid didn't burn quite so hot.

A Funny Thing Happened While I Was Searching Google Images...

Apologies in advance to natives of the Midwest who love the place, but I fucking hate the Midwest.  I may have been born and spent my first years of life in Indiana, but I am by no stretch of the imagination a Midwesterner.  Every time I go back there, I get, and I am not exaggerating, suicidally depressed almost as soon as I step off the plane.  I can only take so many miles of cornfields, deciduous trees, cornfields, hay fields, deciduous trees, and cornfields without a single freaking mountain to break the monotony before I'm begging for a gun.  I spent my formative years with volcanoes practically in my back yard.  I scrambled up pine trees.  The closest thing to a corn field we ever had in the area was that patch we raised in the garden once.  And humidity was something that happened to other people.  So many years in Arizona left it impossible for me to appreciate the Midwest.

(Although I adore Chicago.  Go figure.)

Alas for my sensibilities, worldbuilding had required me to virtually explore the Midwest.  It's a long story, so don't ask.  Suffice it to say that I've spent several hours over a couple of (thankfully not consecutive) nights staring at pictures of grass, leafy trees, and teensy little hills that wouldn't even qualify as a bump in the ground where I come from, but are a major landmark amidst all that flat, bloody boring ground.  And yes, I'm depressed just looking at it.

There are consolations, however.

Unexpected things happen when one searches Google images.  Things like finding Callan Bentley's NOVA Geoblog, which has delicious pictures of geology from all over the world.  I've also found out that Callan's one of us - Pharyngula is mentioned.  Hee.

Via Callan, I discovered the National Park Service's Geologic Resources Inventory Publications.  I know it sounds boring, but hot damn, there's some good shit on that page!

Clicking on another image brought me to the University of Nebraska - Lincoln Landslides page, which has a link to all sorts of great things, including their Geology & Soils site.  Considering I'd settled on northwestern Nebraska as a template for the bit I'm working on, this is like stumbling across a gold mine.  It's got geologic maps.  Mwah.

And a little more research might just soften my opinion of the Midwest.  After all, I'm already looking forward to exploring the roadside geology of Indiana with me mum - now that I know it has some.

So, here we are.  All that glorious science found not because I was searching for it, but looking for images of slightly hilly areas in northwestern Nebraska.  Google - I love you.  However did we survive without the intertoobz?

(Ooo.  Just found the Geotimes archives while searching for stuff on the Kobe earthquake.  The intertoobz are truly a wonderful place.)

Why I Ignore Jane Hamsher These Days

First, there was her little 10-point crusade against health care reform, which was ably debunked here, here, here, here, and probably plenty of places elsewhere that I missed. 

I get rather regular hysteria from her in my inbox, which I've pretty much ignored - there's enough mountains to climb without sweating molehills along the way.  But today, I clicked open yet another urgent call to action entitled HUGE SCANDAL BREWING, and discovered that she's frothing at the mouth over Jonathan Gruber.

Give me a fucking break.

I'm not even going to dignify her bullshit with a link.  I'm sure you can find it plastered all over FDL.  She's screeching about Gruber being "paid $780,000 by the Obama administration."  I used to think Jane was a smart woman, but if she can't tell the difference between a fucking research grant and money paid direct by the White House, she's just as stupid as the Cons I regularly beat on this blog.

Paul Krugman ably disposed of this supposed scandal, and has an additional bit of advice Jane should really take to heart:

What the folks at Firedoglake should ask themselves is this: do you really want to become just like the right-wingers with their endless supply of fake scandals?

There's plenty of real scandal to be going on with, Jane.  Leave the fake scandals to the Cons.  Maybe then, I'll feel inclined to open your emails, and possibly even sign the occasional petition.  It's possible I'll even start visiting FDL again, once some of the sound and fury signifying absolutely fucking nothing has subsided.

The folks at FDL used to do excellent work.  I hope they manage to do it again.  But based on all the manufactured outrage that's spilled from there over the last several months, I'll die of asphyxiation if I hold my breath.

Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

I'm tempted to direct you to Steve Benen's blog and be done with it.  He's always outstanding, but today is a torment - how am I supposed to pick one or two highlights out when I want it all?  It's like shopping for books.

Sigh.

Let's dispense with this headline before we move on to other things:

UNEMPLOYED HALF-TERM GOVERNOR HIRED BY FOX NEWS

That's right.  Faux News has hired a faux politician to spew faux facts.  I hesitate to even put the word "facts" here - we all know that Sarah Palin's familiarity with facts is about as great as my familiarity with peeing standing up.  All I can say is, this gives Faux News about the same credibility as Palin's Facebook page.  This makes it all the harder for them to claim to be a "fair and balanced" news organization.

Ah, well.  It's extra blog fodder, at least, and it's already given Steve this amusing thought: "If you pass by Fox News HQ, you can probably hear Mike Huckabee sobbing just a little, saying, 'Wait, I'm the one who's supposed to use Fox News as a platform to launch a far-right presidential campaign.'"

So that's nice, then.

Right.  With that out of the way, let's talk about how the Cons are helping our enemies:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Jay Bookman noted earlier, "Cheney, Kristol and a lot of top Republicans in Washington are acting as unpaid PR agents for al Qaida, trying to turn even its failures into successes. The attempted bombing of Flight 253 was a terror attack; a terror attack succeeds only if it terrorizes its target audience."

Conservatives would, I suspect, find this deeply offensive. Suggesting that prominent right-wing voices are "acting as unpaid PR agents" for terrorists makes it sound as if conservatives hoping to undermine support for America's leadership are unpatriotic -- or worse.

But that's not the argument. The point isn't to characterize the Cheneys and other GOP attack dogs as terrorist sympathizers, it's to note that, in their zeal to weaken Obama's presidency, they're inadvertently giving U.S. enemies exactly what they're looking for. Fareed Zakaria wrote:

The purpose of terrorism is to provoke an overreaction. Its real aim is not to kill the hundreds of people directly targeted but to sow fear in the rest of the population. Terrorism is an unusual military tactic in that it depends on the response of the onlookers. If we are not terrorized, then the attack didn't work. Alas, this one worked very well.

And it worked in part because prominent conservatives, desperate to make the president look bad, did exactly what al Qaeda hoped for: they characterized the failed terrorist attack as a "success."

Well, isn't that special?  Fortunately, the majority of the American public doesn't seem to be falling prey to the same panic the Cons are suffering, and so all al Qaeda has managed to do is terrify the already terrified.  But still, the Cons need to stop screeching and start thinking for a moment.  Do they really want to hand al Qaeda such a bonza PR victory for sending an idiot with incendiaries in his underwear, leading to a farcial situation in which would-be victims had to put out the dumbshit's crotch?  I mean, really.

Speaking of the Crotchfire Bomber, it seems rumors of his one-way ticket have been greatly exaggerated:

In a remarkable example of how bad information can travel far and wide, dozens of media outlets around the world have said Umar Abdulmutallab was traveling on a one-way ticket to Detroit when he allegedly tried to blow up Flight 253, even though that has never been substantiated and appears to be flat wrong.

Look for Jon Stewart, and absolutely no one else, to issue a correction.



Attention, Oklahoma Dems: it's primary time.  Dan Boren's gotta go:

Blue Dog Democrat Rep. Dan Boren (OK) predicted yesterday that his party will lose seats in this November’s election, and possibly lose control of the House. But Oklahoma’s only Democrat in Congress wasn’t worried about the potential losses, seeing big gains for himself. Democratic setbacks would a “good thing for Oklahoma and for me,” he told the Tulsa World:

“If we have a tight majority one way or another, that puts me in the driver’s seat,” the three-term lawmaker said.

“In the 112th (Congress), I probably will have the most influence I have ever had, no matter who has the majority.”

Proper little Lieberman, innit he?  Alas, he's threatening not to switch parties.  Well, if that's so, let's put him up against a credible Dem challenger so he can do some soul-searching.  Or get voted the fuck out of office, which is certainly my preference.  Alas, I do not live in Oklahoma, so I shall have to rely upon my Oklahoma readers to remove this stain from the halls of Congress.

One can see why he wouldn't switch parties and claim the mantle of Con.  He probably doesn't want to get teabagged:

Recognizing the emerging popularity of the so-called tea parties, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele sought to embrace the fringe movement. “If I wasn’t doing this job, I’d be out there with the tea partiers,” Steele recently told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto. But the tea party movement Steele is encouraging does not appear to be a loyal servant to the GOP. Many of its activists are in fact running for office to take on Republicans.

In December, ThinkProgress reported that ten GOP incumbents were being challenged by tea party activists in Republican primaries. In the interim weeks, many more tea party activists have stepped up to challenge both top Republican recruits and more Republican incumbents, denouncing the hand-picked candidates as too moderate and current lawmakers as divorced from conservative governance:

– Despite his recent conversion to the GOP, Rep. Parker Griffith (R-AL) is facing a serious challenge from tea party activist Les Phillip in the Republican primary. Local conservative radioshow host Dale Jackson said both Michael Steele and the NRCC should be “ashamed” to support Griffith. “He was unacceptable a year ago and he’s acceptable now? A year ago, they were saying this guy was a murderer.”

– Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) has drawn several tea party challengers in his primary election. Jerry Ray Hall – no relation – even submitted his ballot application with the word “Tea” after his middle name.

I don't know about you, but I think I'm going to be watching some Con primaries.  It's not often you get the chance to witness the Keystone Kops version of a political civil war.

And as if that's not enough, there's another civil war brewing (no pun intended):

In the latest sign of rancor in Tea Party circles, a convention billed as an effort to bring together conservative activists from across the country is being attacked by some leading Tea Partiers as inauthentic, too tied to the GOP, and -- at $549 per head -- too expensive for the working Americans the movement aspires to represent.

The National Tea Party Convention, scheduled for early February in Nashville, grabbed headlines after announcing that Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann would appear as speakers, Palin as the keynote. According to a message on the convention's website, the event "is aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement leaders together from around the nation." But organizers are a long way from unifying the notoriously fractious movement.

[snip]

Tea Party Patriots, which helped put together a September rally that drew tens of thousands to Washington, view the confab -- which is being held at Nashville's swank Opryland Gaylord hotel -- as the "usurpation of a grassroots movement," according to Mark Meckler, a leader of the group. "Most people in our movement can't afford anything like that," Meckler told TPMmuckraker, referring to the price tag. "So it's really not aimed at the average grassroots person."

 

Robin Stublen, a Tea Party Patriots volunteer, echoed that view. "This convention is $550 dollars," said Stublen. "How grassroots is that?"

Well, about as grassroots as funneling 3/4 of your donations to the GOP consulting firms who created you, but that's another story.

I get the feeling that this period of American history is going to go down as one of the most farcial.  Ain't it great to be living through such exciting times?

Big Bang Boom

Ethan Siegal at Starts With a Bang has tackled the greatest story ever told.  Hint: it's not in the Bible.  If you want a concise explanation about what happened before the Big Bang, complete with educational pictures, head on over and peruse.

Here's a teaser:

Best Warning Sign Ever

You know, I think I'll go next door and have an Icee instead.

You've got to love that last line.  Instant classic.