John McCain on gas prices and the recession: "it's all in your head!"

Hi everybody,

As we all suspected, the lousy economy is all in our heads.

-- and while we wait for those who own our government to correct our psychology, this amusement:





hiho
Mp

McCain raises $62.5 million through public finance loophole

Hi everybody,

More McCain prevarication... um, I mean dancing. From the Jed Report:

McCain raises $62.5 million through public finance loophole: Tue Jul 15, 11:42 PM PDT

Update: After I posted this entry, I found an article by the WSJ's Todd Farnam reporting on the release of these numbers -- good for him, and good for the WSJ.

Here's a story you can say you read first at The Jed Report: according to FEC reports filed on July 15, through June 30, John McCain had raised at $62.5 million in private funds that can be used for his general election campaign -- even though he's already committed to accepting public funding for the general.

Moreover, based on my own analysis, of that $62.5 million, three-quarters -- $46.3 million -- comes from a total of 1,803 wealthy individuals who made five figure contributions averaging $25,664 each.

So not only is John McCain blatantly violating his public financing pledge, but he's doing it in grand style, raising money in increments of up to $70,000 per donor -- more than thirty times the amount a donor can give to Barack Obama's general election campaign."

I'm going to have to start thinking of new ways not to be surprised.

hiho
Mp

Wisconsin Family Council CEO and Ayotollah Julaine Appling now embarrassing Wisconsin on CNN.

Hi everybody,

Some email from FairWisconsin came in today. Here's the text:

On July 9^th, CNN.com aired a story from WKOW about an obscure law facing Wisconsin gay and lesbian couples if they enter into a marriage outside the state that would not be legal in Wisconsin. In the interview, Wisconsin Family Council CEO Julaine Appling said verbatim that “that’s a defrauding of the government” and “someone needs to prosecute them.”

Later, Wisconsin Family Council issued a denial of the comments made by Appling, calling the story “distorted and misleading,” and claiming that what she actually said was that gay couples who get married in California are “taking a risk that some DA somewhere could charge them under this law, unlikely as that may be.” To see the text of the Wisconsin Family Council's denial click here.

Clearly, the only “defrauding” going on is the re-writing of history coming from the Wisconsin Family Council.

See for yourself what Appling actually said: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/07/09/dnt.wi.same.sex.jail.wkow

We need a new acronym for "Hey Wake Up! Crazy Judgmental Self-Righteous Mullahs Are Not Any Better When They Are Americans."

Let's see: HWUCJSRMANABWTAM.

Hmm.

Not great, although it is an anagram for "BUM JAW WANTS CHARM" which tells you a lot about their main problem [there are, admittedly, a few more appropriate, if ruder, possibilities] -- but it's still too complicated to be useful. Too bad.

On the other hand, I'm still trying to work out what's so complicated about keeping government intervention out of religious matters like marriage.

And so it goes.

Mp

Justice Ziegler pays off the WMC for campaign contributions?

Hi everybody,

Back when Annette Ziegler's ethical lapses first hit the mainstream media I drew a comparison to a famous incident (and political lesson) having to do with Julius Caesar's wife, Pompeia.

It's this: it doesn't matter whether she did anything wrong when she's in a position that can never afford to come under suspicion. In her position, even the appearance of evil, is evil.

Having happily accepted wickedly engineered, slop-slinging campaign commercials and funding from the WMC, Justice Ziegler is now in the position of Caesar's wife: she looks like she's in their pocket -- whether she is or not.

The thing about being a judge is that the moment you've compromised yourself, someone will always be there to question your credibility and competence -- regardless of whether you really are credible or competent.

And so, it's come to pass.

Example 1:

State has best high court that money can buy
By JOEL MCNALLY Monday, July 14, 2008

and Example 2:

Ziegler, big lobby think alike

Business group invested heavily in her election to high court

By PATRICK MARLEY and STACY FORSTER
pmarley@journalsentinel.com

Posted: July 14, 2008

Madison - State Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler said Friday that she did not have a conflict of interest in writing a court decision that came down on the side championed by a group that spent more than $2 million to get her elected last year.

Ziegler authored the 4-3 decision that backed the position of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s largest business lobby, which spent more than $2 million to help get Ziegler elected. WMC spent more than Ziegler’s own campaign, but by law the two could not coordinate efforts.

She said she had no reason to step aside in the case.

“I was elected to do a job, and I did my job,” Ziegler said. “I was assigned to write this case, and I wrote it consistent with the majority decision. There were four justices who agreed on the outcome.”

True or not, fair or not, it looks like the job she's done is the job WMC has paid her to do.

Every decision she makes from now on, as I said last year, will invite suspicion.

And so it goes,

Mpeterson

State budget a treadmill for Assembly Republicans

Some recent footage of State Republican leaders working on the budget.




If you keep trying the same thing over and over again, and expect different results each time then... well, then you're a neo-con in the Wisconsin State House.

hiho
Mp



[originally Cats on a Treadmill]

Pastor Hagee's Media Supression Scandal moves along.

And threatens Sen Liebermann.

I noticed that the YouTube link I had up on an earlier post got whacked by YouTube. Turns out there was a reason. Here are a couple of links to stories in the Huffington Post.

Hagee vids removed from YouTube..

Bruce Wilson: Pastor Hagee's Media Supression Scandal Threatens To Splash Embattled Lieberman - Politics on The Huffington Post


Why hasn't anyone else said that American Mullahs aren't any better than Iranian ones?


hiho
Mp

And an amusement: A History of Hooch

Hi everyone,

Something for everyone: A History of Hooch

hiho
Mp

Who needs public intellectuals when we have economic power?

Hi everybody,

Well, maybe not anymore.... Prospect Magazine's international poll of most important public intellectuals had some surprising results this year -- although it is nice to see that Umberto Eco and Noam Chomsky are still in there.

In any case, the most popular public intellectuals on earth are now largely people you've never heard of and write in languages you can't read.

Intellectuals: 'Intellectuals—the results' by | Prospect Magazine July 2008 issue 148

The followup story and analysis appear here.

One of my colleagues has worked out that the United States is currently in the same place, educationally speaking, it was for manufacturing in about 1982 -- top of the world and with no idea what kind of hard rain the next 10 years would bring.

hiho
Mp

Antarctica threatening suicide: Ice shelf 'hanging by thread'

Hi everybody,

Antarctic ice shelf 'hanging by thread': European scientists (AFP) | Yahoo! Green

I was going to make a Happy Feet joke here, but it's only funny if you hate penguins and I hate people who hate penguins.

hiho
Mp

Why you need to go to the West Bend Farmers' Market on Saturdays this summer

Hi everybody,

The sure sign that American conservatism fell off the real world was that it forgot about good food.

Food for Thought

hiho
Mp