Sydney NYE fireworks 2008

Happy New Year!Thanks to Speedy, I scored a plum spot right beneath the Harbour Bridge at the VIP viewing area, Dawes Point. And if there's one thing that Sydney does best, it's putting on the most spectacular skyshow against the most beautiful harbour in the world (and who's biased, hey?).The themed party was Tropic Oasis, hence the blue flashing leis. A stage and dancefloor played host to

Sabbagh Patissery, Greenacre

So I don't have 20/20 vision, but I'm sure I can spot a patisserie sign faster than most people.Despite rolling out the door of Lebanese restaurant Al Aseel, our bellies distended with falafel, lamb skewers and garlic yoghurt chicken, we found renewed energy (and appetite!) by the time we had stepped into the sweet syrupy surrounds of Sabbagh Patisserie (spelt with an inexplicable 'y' on the

Let's just call them "The Confederate Party" from now on, shall we?

I never would have dreamed that the Republican Party would ever embrace its own racism this openly. Not even Lee Atwater, the architect of the Willie Horton ads who played blues guitar with B.B. King at George W.H. Bush's inaugural ball, would have advocated this:

It's now becoming clear that there is a good-sized contingent of Republicans who are openly defending Chip Saltsman, the former Tennessee GOP chairman and candidate for RNC chair who sent out a CD to committee members that includes a parody song called "Barack The Magic Negro."

• Mike Huckabee, for whom Saltsman served as campaign manager, has chimed in to defend Saltsman against the charge of racism, while at the same time acknowledging that "Chip should have been more careful" in picking the CD. "It shouldn't be the main factor in the RNC race," Huckabee wrote on his blog.

• Another person defending Saltsman has been Mark Ellis, the GOP state chairman in Maine -- not the sort of place you would automatically expect someone to stick up for this: "When I found out what this was about I had to ask, 'Boy, what's the big deal here?' because there wasn't any."

• "I don't think he intended it as any kind of racial slur. I think he intended it as a humor gift," said Oklahoma committeewoman Carolyn McClarty. "I think it was innocently done by Chip."

"A humor gift." Can you believe it? Next thing they're going to say that because Richard Pryor used the word "n----r", it means that a bunch of Southern White Men who believe in flying the Confederate flag can do it too.

I say let them stop even this amount of nicety and say what they really think of the President-elect. Because after a fall campaign in which "terrorist" and "terrorist sympathizer" and "exotic" and "that one" were all used as euphemisms for "n----r", why are they even trying to be genteel anymore? Let 'em put on their fucking hoods and burn crosses and be done with it already. It's not as if they're fooling us as to what they really are.

Come back, Zbiggy, all is forgiven

Can we please have more of this on Morning Schmoe (™ DCap)?

Zbiggy to Schmoe: "Zbig to Joe: "You have a such stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on it's almost embarrassing to listen to you."

And this differs from Schmoe's average day.....how?

Lemon shortbread and ginger shortbread

In addition to little cellophane bags of iced gingerbread men, I also made up little packages of shortbread. These were made using a piping bag - the somewhat stiff dough means it's much easier to pipe small amounts of dough at a time. I made two batches - one with lemon, the other with crystallised ginger, but you could substitute with vanilla essence if you prefer them plain.Shortbread

Didn't we learn anything from the Administration's lies about air quality at the WTC site after the 9/11 attacks?

I wonder if anyone in Tennessee actually believed this:

Officials at the Tennessee Valley Authority have said preliminary tests suggest there is no danger to millions of people who get their drinking water from the 652-mile Tennessee River.

According to TVA, there is no threat to the environment from Monday's breach at the coal-fired Kingston plant along the Emory River, which joins the Clinch River and flows into the main Tennessee River.

That was last Friday. By last night it was a different story:

Some water samples near a massive spill of coal ash in eastern Tennessee are showing high levels of arsenic, and state and federal officials on Monday cautioned residents who use private wells or springs to stop drinking the water.

Samples taken near the spill slightly exceed drinking water standards for toxic substances, and arsenic in one sample was higher than the maximum level allowed for drinking water, according to a news release from the Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the power plant where the spill occurred, the Environmental Protection Agency and other officials.

TVA spokesman Jim Allen said there are four private drinking water wells in the area affected by the spill and the agency should have tests from them this week.

"I think they were beyond the actual slide point of the material," EPA spokeswoman Laura Niles said of the wells. "There shouldn't be direct impact, but that's why they are sampling."

Arsenic occurs naturally in the environment, but elevated levels can cause ailments ranging from nausea to partial paralysis, and long-term exposure has been linked to several types of cancer, according to the EPA.

TVA's environmental executive Anda Ray said the arsenic levels were high because of the type of measurement that the EPA used, which included soil mixed in with water.

"Those samples were not dissolved arsenic," Ray said. "The dissolved arsenic, which is what you look at for drinking water samples, are undetectable in all the cases. The elevated arsenic that the EPA is referring to is the data that we collected when it was stirred up. It is routinely filtered out through all water treatment plants."

Authorities have said the municipal water supply is safe to drink.

The warning came a week after a retention pond burst at the Kingston Steam Plant, spreading more than a billion gallons of fly ash mixed with water over roughly 300 acres of Roane County and into a river. The deluge destroyed three homes and damaged 42 parcels of land, but there were no serious injuries.

However, environmental concerns could grow when the sludge containing the fly ash, a fine powdery material, dries out. The federal Environmental Protection agency and the TVA have begun air monitoring and on Monday advised people to avoid activities that could stir up dust, such as children or pets playing outside.

The dust can contain metals, including arsenic, that irritate the skin and can aggravate pre-existing condition such as asthma, Niles said.

But it's perfectly safe, right? Just the way the air around Ground Zero was safe and now we have a rash of cases of people who worked and live in that area with serious respiratory problems.

It's amazing that this story hasn't gotten more press than it has. I realize that the latest Israel/Palestinian fracas takes up a fair amount of ink, as does the continuing media case of Blagomania. But with this coal ash spill being at least as big an environmental catastrophe as the Exxon Valdez spill, you'd think it would get more press.

This is what the EPA is still telling people is safe for them to have in their drinking water and their backyards:

In a single year, a coal-fired electric plant deposited more than 2.2 million pounds of toxic materials in a holding pond that failed last week, flooding 300 acres in East Tennessee, according to a 2007 inventory filed with the Environmental Protection Agency.

The inventory, disclosed by the Tennessee Valley Authority on Monday at the request of The New York Times, showed that in just one year, the plant’s byproducts included 45,000 pounds of arsenic, 49,000 pounds of lead, 1.4 million pounds of barium, 91,000 pounds of chromium and 140,000 pounds of manganese. Those metals can cause cancer, liver damage and neurological complications, among other health problems.

And the holding pond, at the Kingston Fossil Plant, a T.V.A. plant 40 miles west of Knoxville, contained many decades’ worth of these deposits.

Amy Gahran wrote last week on the media's near-blackout of the story, noting in particular how CNN has cut its entire science, environment, and technology news team. I guess the increase in religion-themed programming we've seen on CNN in recent years is a sign of that network's enthusiastic embrace of the new Middle Ages towards which we're headed. Or perhaps it's simply a question of not wanting to acknowledge that not even Barack Obama can change the fact that there is no such thing as clean coal.

Perhaps this is why they deliberately wrecked the economy

It is actually kind of brilliant, in a nefarious sort of way. This way the breakdown of society can happen on Obama's watch and the Bush Junta's hands get to stay clean:

A U.S. Army War College report warns an economic crisis in the United States could lead to massive civil unrest and the need to call on the military to restore order.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Nathan Freir wrote the report "Known Unknowns: Unconventional Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development," which the Army think tank in Carlisle, Pa., recently released.

"Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities ... to defend basic domestic order and human security," the report said, in case of "unforeseen economic collapse," "pervasive public health emergencies," and "catastrophic natural and human disasters," among other possible crises.

The report also suggests the new (Barack Obama) administration could face a "strategic shock" within the first eight months in office.

Fort Bliss spokeswoman Jean Offutt said the Army post is not involved in any recent talks about a potential military response to civil unrest.

[snip]

arlier this year, Pentagon officials said as many as 20,000 soldiers under the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) will be trained within the next three years to work with civilian law enforcement in homeland security.

Joint Task Force-North, a joint command at Biggs Army Airfield, which conducts surveillance and intelligence along the border, comes under NORTHCOM. No one was available at JTF-North to comment on the Army War College's report. NORTHCOM was created after the 9-11 attacks to coordinate homeland security efforts.

So watch for the black helicopter/militia crowd to get back in action. After all, it seems to be that for these folks, mass wiretapping of Americans, scooping up all their electronic correspondence, and training the military to patrol the streets here at home is all perfectly OK to this bunch -- as long as the president is Republican.

Hey, Grandma!

They must have read my blog this morning:

Palin's daughter Bristol gave birth to the healthy 7-pound, 4-ounce baby in Palmer, the magazine reports on its Web site.

The full name: Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston.

Tripp? TRIPP?????

Someone's been watching too many episodes of Dirty Sexy Money:

Christmas feasting (and the mother of all dinner parties)

And how was your Christmas?For me, it involved two days of relentless (and totally selfless) gluttony. Two dinners were consumed on Christmas Eve, because I had to. First a casual affair at Mum's--leg ham, salads and roll-your-ownVietnamese goi cuon summer rolls.At 10.30pm, I'm at cucina Veruca for a feast of glazed leg ham (ooh yum, that ginger marmalade glaze works a treat!), bo tai chanh raw

On real people who play characters with their names

Last night I was listening to an interview with Rob Corddry on "The Sound of Young America" on NPR, in which he spoke of the strangeness of the experience of playing a character that has your name. This was not the only time last night we referred to this phenomenon. In the 60 Minutes retrospective on the Obama campaign, Michelle Obama alluded to there being two people -- Barack Obama, the person she knew, and "Barack Obama" -- the phenomenon. Just as there was "Rob Corddry" the Judd Apatow-style resident asshole on The Daily Show, and then there's the smart, thoughtful guy who appeared in the interview.

Perhaps the most obvious example of a person playing a character that bears his name is Stephen Colbert. If you ever want to feel cognitive dissonance in action, imagine that you are a devout Catholic in the Montclair, NJ area and Stephen Colbert is your kids' Sunday School teacher -- which is in fact what he is on Sundays, when he is not "Stephen Colbert."

So what are these alter-egos that bear the names of real people? Is this a way for people to play roles the can't play in real life? Is it a manifestation of the id for which these people get paid handsomely? Is it just that these people have been fortunate enough to be able to present a public face that is the person they would really like to be, but aren't? And how do you get a gig like that?

But if the real point is to "punish" the evil unchaste temptresses with pregnancy, it's working like a charm

I'm sure Bristol Palin could have told them that abstinence pledges don't work (and hey, where IS the blessed event anyway? Wasn't Baby Johnston supposed to have made an appearance around the 19th of December?):

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.

The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a "virginity pledge," but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.

"Taking a pledge doesn't seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior," said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. "But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking."

This should surprise no one. Abstinence pledges do nothing but perpetuate the "swept away" doctrine of pseudo-acceptable female sexuality -- that if you're prepared to have sex responsibly, you're a slut, but it's "forgivable" if you were simply "swept away" by the moment.

If conservatives want to cut pork programs that don't work, they might start with the $176 bmillion blown on this ridiculous program.

UPDATED to correct the price tag. Still, why spend $176 million for a program that doesn't work?

Just kicking an idea out there...

Mr. Brilliant and I were talking over the weekend about the $700 billion bank bailout, and how every day it looks more and more like this "bank rescue plan" to "save the economy and loosen the credit markets" was "Iran has WMD all over again" -- a lie told by the Bush Administration to get what it wants, in this case boatloads of Federal taxpayer cash stuffed into the pockets of "the haves and the have mores." And if that sounds a bit too Zagat Guide for you, I'll dispense with the quotation marks now.

But the fact remains that $350,000,000,000 unaccountable dollars later, credit markets are as tight as ever, 2.5 million mortgages remain in trouble, we've just finished the worst retail holiday season in a quarter century, and nothing seems to be working.

So Mr. Brilliant opined the following: Why are we bailing out banks and other financial institutions that are little more than brick and mortar Bernie Madoffs? If the problem originates with housing, why not address it with housing? Assuming that fairness seems to be off the table, and that people who either have paid off their mortgages or didn't buy more house than they could afford or didn't pull equity out of their houses for luxury kitchens and Cadillac Escalades and vacations in St. Barths are going to be screwed anyway, why not at least use that money to bail out mortgagees -- consumers -- instead of banks? Restructure every single troubled mortgage in the country to a level that the homeowner can pay for, and have the loans insured by the Federal government. If that means lowering principal, then lower the principal balance to current market value. If that means no-cost refinancing to a fixed rate that means the same payment as the homeowner is currently making on the subprime, or Alt-A, or interest-only, or adjustable rate mortgage, then so be it. If in fact mortgages are the problem, then why not address it at the mortgage level?

Helping dig homeowners, even those whose eyes were bigger than their wallets, out of their own mistakes may be a tough pill for those of us weren't irresponsible to swallow. But while I might find it hard to sympathize with someone for whom a "POS Cape" wasn't good enough but had to have a McMansion with a private bathroom for each bedroom, a home theatre, and a Subzero range, I have more for people who simply wanted what most Americans want -- to have a place to call their own.

When we bought our house, I wanted a house the way most women want babies. We had a great rental deal with our small 1-bedroom apartment. Our landlord was great, he hadn't raised our rent in eight years, and while the apartment was small, everything worked. But our landlord was ill and failing rapidly, we knew we wouldn't get a deal like that again, and we had two cats and at the age of 41, I felt I shouldn't have to go begging "Please Mr. Landlord, I'll be reeeeaaaallll good and take care of it. Can I PLEEEEZZZZZ keep my kitties?" -- like a four-year-old begging his parents for a kitten. So I understand house hunger. Yes, when it turned out that we couldn't afford what we wanted, we waited a year. But there's a difference between having to wait a year and being completely unable to ever pull together $60,000 cash at once. We put down less than 10%, paid the private mortgage insurance, and two years later were able to drop it because of price appreciation. That's what ought to be happening in a normal market.

Bailing out the banks is just changing numbers on a balance sheet. Bank losses are still losses, they just no longer appear on the balance sheet. Perhaps someone with a background in economics can explain if this won't work (maybe that Big Blue Guy can put his expertise to work), but it seems to me that if we have to spend this money, digging individuals out of even their own mistakes seems a far more effective way of doing it.

On December 15, Joshua Holland at Alternet described what the banks are actually doing with the bailout money:

So far, much of Washington’s ad hoc, ham-fisted response to the economic crisis has been based on the dictum that the financial institutions must be prevented from taking their losses.

That should come as no surprise. Big finance’s lobbyists have been all over the "bailout" (it should be bailouts, plural) from the very start, Wall Street pumped piles of cash into the elections — AIG, recipient of tens of billions in taxpayer largesse, ponied up $750,000 for both the Democratic and Republican conventions — and the whole thing’s been designed by "free-market" ideologues who came to Washington directly from Wall Street.

But the hard reality is that the institutions that created this mess have to take their losses — no doubt huge losses in many cases — if we're to have any chance of avoiding a deep recession that drags on for years.

Some will be wiped out in the process, but propping up firms that have massive -- and not entirely known -- quantities of so-called toxic securities on their books only delays the inevitable day of reckoning.

The rot has spread far beyond real estate, but that offers a nice concrete example of the danger of keeping Big Finance from taking its lumps. So far, their lobbyists have fought off attempts to force them to renegotiate mortgages, especially plans that call for writing down the value of the loans to reflect the post-bubble market. This is understandable. But the reality is that there are a lot of homes "under water" — that is, worth less than the value of their mortgages — and a lot of mortgages with "teaser rates" are about to adjust upward. Foreclosures only drive down the value of the whole market further -- who wants to pay today's fair value when two other houses on the same street are headed toward foreclosure and might be had for a song in a few months?

The justification for creating the big bailout honeypot for Wall Street was that banks are hoarding money, causing a "credit crunch" that's killing the whole economy. But that’s only true to a point; while financial institutions are holding cash, including, reportedly, those billions they gouged from the taxpayers, they appear to be doing so to protect their balance sheets, and in some cases, to fund mergers. The bigger problem -- one the bailout is hardly touching -- is that trillions in home equity and retirement accounts have vanished, and there aren’t a lot of people — or firms — looking to borrow money to buy stuff or expand right now.

And today he states quite baldly that the "credit crunch" requiring huge quantities of cash shoveled into the pockets of bank executives may very well be just more self-serving Bush fiefdom horsepuckey:

That the American people don't have the appetite to go deeper into debt than they already are in order to make new purchases is hard to dispute. In November, consumer prices across the board fell at a record rate for the second month in a row. And even with mortgage rates plummeting, so many homeowners are "underwater" -- owing more on their homes than they're worth -- that they're unable to refinance because the equity isn't there. Paul Schuster, a vice president at Marketplace Home Mortgage, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press, "What I'm really concerned about is the job picture ... If (people) don't feel good about their jobs, rates aren't going to matter."

The National Federal of Independent Business' November survey of small-business owners found no evidence of a credit crunch to date, concluding that if "credit is going untapped, it's largely because company operators are not choosing to pursue the credit. It's not that companies can't get the extra money, it's that they don't want or need it because of the broader slowdown in economic activity."

The credit crunch narrative -- and the justification for creating Paulson's $700 billion TARP honeypot -- is built on three related assertions: 1) banks, fearing that they'll be unable to meet their own financial obligations, aren't lending money to one another; 2) they're also not lending to the public at large -- neither to firms nor individuals; and 3) businesses are further unable to raise money through ordinary channels because investors aren't eager to buy up corporate debt, including commercial paper issued by companies with decent balance sheets.

[snip]

Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minnesota's research department -- V.V. Chari and Patrick Kehoe of the University of Minnesota, and Northwestern University's Lawrence Christiano -- crunched the Fed's numbers in an examination of these bits of conventional wisdom (PDF), and concluded that all three claims are myths.

The researchers found that "interbank lending is healthy" and "bank credit has not declined during the financial crisis"; that they've seen "no evidence that the financial crisis has affected lending to non-financial businesses" and that "while commercial paper issued by financial institutions has declined, commercial paper issued by non-financial institutions is essentially unchanged during the financial crisis." The researchers called on lawmakers to "articulate the precise nature of the market failure they see, [and] to present hard evidence that differentiates their view of the data from other views."

That finding was backed up by a study issued by Celent Financial Services, a consulting firm, again using the Treasury Department's own data. According to a story on the report by Reuters, Celent's researchers concluded that the "data actually suggest world credit markets are functioning remarkably well." Rather than a widespread banking problem, Celent found that the rot was limited to "a few big, vocal banks and industries such as car manufacturing, which would be in difficulty anyway."

So...if the reality we're facing is that this huge expenditure of taxpayer money is inevitable anyway, wouldn't it make more sense to spend it doing something that might actually help the people that Washington is SUPPOSED to serve?

Because with Driftglass on the case, I can take a day off

Driftglass pens a letter to Bob Herbert. Just go read.

Funny how the Christofascist Zombie Brigade has no problem with this

Now let me see if I have this right: We're not supposed to fund family planning programs overseas, but it's perfectly OK to spend our tax dollars on boner drugs for Afghan males:

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

"Take one of these. You'll love it," the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.

The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes -- followed by a request for more pills.

For U.S. intelligence officials, this is how some crucial battles in Afghanistan are fought and won. While the CIA has a long history of buying information with cash, the growing Taliban insurgency has prompted the use of novel incentives and creative bargaining to gain support in some of the country's roughest neighborhoods, according to officials directly involved in such operations.

In their efforts to win over notoriously fickle warlords and chieftains, the officials say, the agency's operatives have used a variety of personal services. These include pocketknives and tools, medicine or surgeries for ailing family members, toys and school equipment, tooth extractions, travel visas, and, occasionally, pharmaceutical enhancements for aging patriarchs with slumping libidos, the officials said.

"Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people -- whether it's building a school or handing out Viagra," said one longtime agency operative and veteran of several Afghanistan tours. Like other field officers interviewed for this article, he spoke on the condition of anonymity when describing tactics and operations that are largely classified.

Only Republicans could come up with this one.

The Wit and Wisdom of the Go-To Guy for Economic Insights

You know who I'm talking about:

Pretty bad, it seems, and there will probably be many bankruptcies in January leading to further problems for commercial real estate, and on and on.

Wow! I feel so much smarter and more informed now, don't you?

Saturday Music Blogging

It's the cat's meow and the bees knees! Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, Clarinet Marmalade, December 13, 2008:

Gotta love the little flapper-wannabe moppet in the green jumper and black leggings in this one:

You're going out there a kid, but coming back a star!

From the accompanying notes:

The REAL dancers -- in three-piece suit, two-tone shoes, and a charming cloche hat -- are Heidi Rosenau and Joe McGlynn. Blessing on their fleet selves! And that's Sol Yaged, now 86, who just can't keep from joining in, Swing Era style, from the sidelines!

For more hot jazz from Vince and the boys, all you sheiks and shebas should tune into A Prairie Home Companion on you local NPR member station. If your local station doesn't carry the show, don't cast a kitten -- go here at 6 PM Eastern Time for a link to the netcast.

The Bush family will not go away quietly

I've been saying since 1988 that the Bush family regards this entire country as a private fiefdom that's theirs to plunder as they wish for their family and friends. We've seen over the last eight years that it isn't just the country they see as their fiefdom, it's the entire world. Did anyone really think they would go away quietly? Greedy people don't take kindly to having land they think is theirs taken away from them, certainly not by black people they no doubt think ought to be their domestic servants.

And so they, with the help of the Greed Wing of the Republican Party, which has been seeking a candidate to represent their interests in 2012 to go up against the Christofascist Zombie Brigade's Chosen One, Sarah Palin, are already positioning the Bush Family Restoration to the Throne of the United States:

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — the son of one president and the brother of another — has been working the phones since Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) announced earlier this month that he won’t seek reelection in 2010. Sources say Bush hasn’t made up his mind about running for Martinez’ seat, but that he’s getting green lights from would-be contributors and blessings from Republican Party leaders.

Strategists and political observers take it as a sign that Bush will run.

"Everything indicates that he's in," said David Johnson, a Republican strategist and the CEO of Strategic Vision. "You're not making calls and laying the ground work for fundraising unless you're clearing the field for your candidacy."

Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida and an expert on Florida politics, said Bush's phone calls around the state are "a good sign" that he could be jumping in the race, something that she says is "music to the ears of Florida Republicans."

"Nothing could have come at a better time," MacManus said. "Republicans here in Florida were so down after the election. The mere mention of Jeb's potential Senate run has put Republicans in a much more festive holiday mood."

If you think this is just about Jeb Bush wanting to be a Senator, then you don't know the Bush family very well.

You Damn Kids Get Off Their Lawn!!!

In which He Who Must Not Be Named uses Ezra Klein as a human shield to once again pontificate from Mount Olympus on what we rabble should be doing.

Are you as sick of A-List bloggers telling us why we suck as I am?

I'm actually quite fortunate. I currently have a full-time job working with great people on interesting projects, and I get paid well. My only hope is that I can stay there indefinitely. The drive is not fun, but that's really a minor concern. I can't sit and monitor what's going on in the world and then write intelligently about some topic in which I specialize, because in the mornings when I write, I'm racing the clock from 5 AM to 6:30, at which point it's time to feed the cats and get ready to go to work.

But while it's lovely to think about what it would be like to blog full-time, I don't think I'd enjoy everything that the full-time bloggers have to deal with -- things like having to buy individual health policies, accepting every ad that comes along even if it's for something you hate, and of course having to beg your readers for donations.

It's not that I object to bloggers trying to get paid for their work. Digby does a quiet and tasteful harangue once a year, and the Group News Bloggers are trying to get help for one of their own who's in danger of becoming yet another casualty of the Age of Bush. John Aravosis wants to give his bloggers end-of-year bonuses. I have no problem with any of this. After all, you subscribe to magazines, why not throw a tip at the people you read every day? What I do object to is when A-list bloggers, some of whom (and I won't Mention Names) write four sentences on a prolific day, and then tell those of us who at least try to long-form blog when we can, what we're doing wrong. And I object to people like Arianna Huffington, with money and connections up the wazoo, who hire dozens of IT people and their friends to create gobs of content and then go on The Daily Show to tell the rest of us how to blog after we've been at it longer than they have.

I congratulate and admire people like Josh Marshall and Ezra Klein and Kevin Drum and some other people who have managed, whether through being early adopters or having a particular expertise, for being able to turn blogging into a career or a business. But with the exception of Ezra, now an associate editor at The American Prospect, who touches on the notion of specialization, most of these people don't feel the need to lecture the thousands of us, some of whom are represented on the blogroll (and over to whom I hope you'll consider clicking every now and then), on the One True Way of Blogging. It's also ironic that He Who Must Not Be Named's first post after telling us:

The easiest way to drum up an audience is to find a some topic, issue, or unfolding event, and make it your own. Your blog doesn't have to just be that, but it has to be the go-to place for that, and then you can fill it up with crappy music videos or whatever else makes you happy.

...is titled "Late night" and consists of one word: "Enjoy."

So in what respect, Charlie, is Big Blue Smurf the go-to place for anything, Charlie? And who the hell is he to be telling the rest of us how to be "successful"?

This blog IS successful. Our readers are almost always people I'd want to know in real life. I've posted almost every day for four-and-a-half years, even when I don't feel like it, and even when there seems to be little to say. And some of it is even good. Some of it is even writing in which I can take pride. For me, THAT'S what a successful blog is -- something that people want to read. Traffic is great, but until and unless someone is willing to pay me to blog, I'm just fine with working a paid job and doing this on the side. And if this means I'm not a "serious" blogger, well, so be it.

And this holiday season, if you have some free time, please click around the blogroll. Leave comments. Let these good people know you're reading. And if you're inclined to throw money at your favorite bloggers, you might consider throwing them at people like Digby and the Group Newsbloggers, or anyone on the blogroll who has a donation button, or at any blogger you like who may be struggling to make ends meet and who doesn't think that putting up one-sentence posts entitles you to tell other people how to blog.

And mark your calendars: February 3 is Blogroll Amnesty Day. And we're gonna party like it's Inauguration Day.

Since when do machetunim of Vice-Presidential candidates get Secret Service protection??

Why was Sherry Johnston, Sarah Palin's supposed future mother-in-law, under Secret Service protection during the election campaign?

The mother of Bristol Palin's boyfriend sent text messages discussing drug transactions less than a month after the young woman's mother, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate, according to court documents filed this week.

[snip]

Authorities say the case against Sherry Johnston began in the second week of September, when drug investigators intercepted a package containing 179 OxyContin pills. That led to the arrest of the suspects, who agreed to be informants.

According to the affidavit, Johnston sent a text message to one informant Oct. 1, writing: "Hey, my phones are tapped and reporters and god knows who else is always following me and the family so no privacy. I will let u no when I can go for cof."

The trooper's affidavit indicates that Sarah Palin's candidacy factored into the investigation, with state officials delaying execution of a search warrant until this month, when Johnston was "no longer under the protection or surveillance of the Secret Service."

It is not normal procedure for people beyond a candidate's immediate family to receive Secret Service protection. Here's who the Secret Service is authorized to protect:

* The president, the vice president, (or other individuals next in order of succession to the Office of the President), the president-elect and vice president-elect
* The immediate families of the above individuals
* Former presidents and their spouses for their lifetimes, except when the spouse remarries. In 1997, Congressional legislation became effective limiting Secret Service protection to former presidents for a period of not more than 10 years from the date the former president leaves office
* Children of former presidents until age 16
* Visiting heads of foreign states or governments and their spouses traveling with them, other distinguished foreign visitors to the United States, and official representatives of the United States performing special missions abroad
* Major presidential and vice presidential candidates, and their spouses within 120 days of a general presidential election
* Other individuals as designated per Executive Order of the President
* National Special Security Events, when designated as such by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security

It says nothing there about "the mother of your daughter's boyfriend." So why was Sherry Johnson under the protection and/or surveillance of the Secret Service? Did George W. Bush authorize her to receive this protection? And why would this unusual Secret Service protection prevent issuing of a warrant if the Alaska state troopers had reason to believe a crime was being committed?

Sorry to get all He Who Shall Not Be Named on you, but...

...it had to be done.

The contest for Wanker of the Year is a slam dunk: Dennis Prager.

It's not even original. George Gilder was saying shit like this 20 years ago.

(h/t: Jesse Taylor, whom Prager would probably regard as a wuss because he doesn't think rape is his due.

They report, you decide

Eartha Kitt, 1927-2008

I don't remember Eartha Kitt before she became a parody of herself, but this must have been quite something in 1962:

But just try to get an abortion or other family planning services at one

This fellatory puff piece in the New York Times lauding how George W. Bush "Has Built Foundation for Improved Health Care" (as the browser bar in the online edition crows) doesn't mention once how, as federally-funded clinics, these places may refuse to perform or refer for pregnancy termination or refuse to prescribe or refer contraception if the "consciences" of their employees so dictate.

Although the number of uninsured and the cost of coverage have ballooned under his watch, President Bush leaves office with a health care legacy in bricks and mortar: he has doubled federal financing for community health centers, enabling the creation or expansion of 1,297 clinics in medically underserved areas.

For those in poor urban neighborhoods and isolated rural areas, including Indian reservations, the clinics are often the only dependable providers of basic services like prenatal care, childhood immunizations, asthma treatments, cancer screenings and tests for sexually transmitted diseases.

No mention of family planning services. Prenatal care, yes. But if you do not feel you can afford children, you are out of luck, especially now that Christofascist Zombie Brigade members who work in these clinics get to decide based on their religious beliefs (regardless of YOURS, of course) what care you get. Of course this is not mentioned in this article, now that the Grey Lady has decided it feels badly about how hard it's been on poor Georgie (like mindlessly reprinting Judith Miller's shameless shilling for the Administration on the Iraq War while virtually ignoring the Administration's lying once until the lies became too big to ignore) and is clearly jumping on board the Bush Legacy Project. Perhaps like the rest of the media, they've decided to help topple Barack Obama with innuendo about Rod Blagojevic, and getting ready for to help elect President Jeb Bush in 2012. After all, what's another few years of paralyzed government with two wars and a recession that are the REAL Bush legacy when there's [nonexistent] scandal to be pursued when the President is a Democrat in the name of putting yet someone else in this godawful family in the White House?

Christmas, 1914-5

Every Christmas, ever since the invasion of Iraq, I remind myself of the moving and legendary Christmas truce between British and German forces that took place in 1914. Actually, contrary to most any other historical event, rather than being exaggerated, the truce, singular, is actually downplayed and scaled down. The cease-fire between opposing sides on Christmas Eve 1914 was more widespread and longer-lasting, even spawning at least two sequels in the two succeeding years.

The First World War was one of the most barbaric ever, the century's first global clash of nations using mechanized tools of war. Unlike previous wars, dogfights between pilots in airplanes were common and the strange spectacle of diesel-powered tanks dipping and rumbling across the cratered terrain of European battlefields had easily led people to believe that war between humans had crossed that threshhold into the inhuman.

Which is why the story of the Christmas truce between enemies during this same war is all the more remarkable. It's a still-heartening reminder that, while the technology of war had evolved, the human heart had remained constant and good will toward one's fellow man had yet to become a quaint notion.

When German soldiers were observed decorating their foxholes and barricades and overheard singing Christmas carols, the British soldiers across No Man's Land had responded in kind. Soon, soldiers approached eachother, their hands up, without permission from their officers and a truce was declared. Presents such as jam, cigars, cigarettes and so forth were exchanged. Equipment was also exchanged between sides so living conditions could be improved. The dead left out in No Man's Land were buried and mourned by both sides.

Then someone proposed playing a game of soccer. Actually, several soccer games broke out. The high command of both sides were outraged this was going on but were powerless to stop it since many of their lower field officers had happily joined in the abrupt festivities.

Similar stories began emerging that this had happened among French and Belgian forces. Perhaps photographs of loved ones were traded during the truce and whatever little communication there was between French, Belgian, English and German troops spoke of simple, common pleasures. As with the current Pope Benedict today, the last, Benedict XV, had earlier that year called for an end to the bloodshed.

Contrary to popular belief, these truces lasted longer than Christmas. According to several accounts by those who were there, the truce actually lasted for the better part of a week and wouldn't resume until fresh troops would relieve the ones who'd lain down their arms.

It was a very necessary reminder to these men that whatever advances had been made in war technology, the mustard gases and ugly machines that had taken over the landscape, humans were still humans the world over and fellow Christians could still find some common ground and celebrate a common holiday, putting a world war and the unimaginable human devastation on a back burner.

It is impossible to imagine anything like that happening these days, partly because we are fighting a nebulous enemy that wears no uniforms, carries no identification cards or dog tags nor even shares our religion or celebrates our holidays.

But the differences in religion don't fully explain the new breed of barbarity we're seeing in the world today. War has gotten more impersonal than ever with longer-range weapons, faster and harder tanks and laser-guided smart bombs yet when it gets down to it, it can still get quite personal and ugly.

Maybe, as Albert Einstein said, the fourth world war will be fought with rocks and Mankind will once again be able to see the whites of eachother's eyes as they try to kill and maim eachother again. And perhaps that proximity in the absence of sophisticated war technology will better remind these future enemies that Christmas and Easter afford irresistible opportunities for them to recognize and celebrate eachothers' similarties instead of hating them for their differences.

The truces of 1914-5 were held in defiance of generals and politicians who had seen no place for the Christmas spirit in the alien desolation of the battlefields. This defiance in defense of what is fundamentally and universally human is something we're seeing all too infrequently these days and may never see again.

And all of them will be played by Kate Winslet in the movie

Found this extremely cool video over at Group News Blog:

Or, if you like this concept, and you think the movie has already been made, here are the stars:

Or, if you prefer Teh Guys:

The morph into James Cagney is pretty creepy.

So what do the Brilliants do for Christmas?

Well, first we try to find something to watch on TV that isn't nauseating while we have coffee. Then I make a few feeble attempts at blogging, a few more at cleaning, then a few more at still trying to decide whether to go with Garmin or Tomtom for our GPS-to-Be (I'm leaning towards the Garmin Nuvi 265T, because most of what I want it for is traffic reports and how to detour around jackknifed tractor-trailers on Route 46). Then in the early afternoon it looked something like this:

...only in a nicer place, and the duck looked more like this.

Then we came home and I initiated Mr. Brilliant into the wonderful world of Scrabble. I haven't played since college, but despite a valiant effort by Mr. B, the teachings I gained in childhood, in which I probably played against my father 1,476 times and only won once, served me in good stead. At 83, he still does the New York Times crossword puzzle every Sunday. In ink. Completely finished. Before noon. Every single damn week.

Because tinfoil is almost like tinsel

And a shiny hat looks so festive on Christmas.

Larisa Alexandrovna updates what we know about the plane crash "accident" in which Republican operative Mike Connell died. Connell, who was Karl Rove's IT guru and at the center of the curious case of Ohio vote counts being shut down in 2004, gave a deposition on November 3 as a key witness in the King-Lincoln v. Blackwell lawsuit regarding fraud in the 2004 Presidential Election in Ohio. She finds it just a wee bit curious that:

Connell knew the Bush family very well. He knew members of Congress very well. He has been a staple of the GOP IT scene for ages. He even worked on the McCain camp. So what is wrong with this sorry lot of people, that not a single one of them issued a public condolence to this man? Not even the head of the RNC for crying out loud. Connell has worked with the RNC for years. He has worked with the Chamber of Commerce for years. He was friends with and knew very important people. He dies a few days before Christmas, leaving 4 kids and a widow behind and NOT ONE person could find the time to issue a public condolences to his family?

The President has time to pardon turkeys and pardon criminals, but not to issue even a single sentence of condolence to a man he has known for years? Rove? Where is he at? John McCain? Anyone? I don't understand how no one thought to issue a statement of support for the family, especially since a father of four won't be there for Christmas?

Cliff Baxter, the Enron executive who "committed suicide" in January 2002 was also a major player in the Republican party and was tight with Bush friend "Kenny Boy" Lay. The Bushistas and the GOP had no statement to make about that one either.

At last....a Christmas special for cynics

Marc Maron's Christmas in LA:

Is it over yet?

My one concession to Christmas

And only because her voice makes the heart sing....Darlene Love's annual appearance on David Letterman:

Ah, yer all a buncha pagans...

I've long found it fascinating how a celebration of someone born in the warm, dry Middle East became so associated with cold and winter. They didn't have spruce or pine trees in the Holy Land, nor did they have mistletoe. The Three Wise Men weren't an old fat guy with white hair and a beard dressed in a red suit bringing toys to children. And no one brought a turkey so that Mary wouldn't have to try to cook in a place filled with flammable materials. As someone once asked me, "How did Christmas become German?"

It's sort of like trying to determine what the relationship is between the resurrection and fluffy bunnies and eggs. And why "Easter" sounds so much like "estrogen".

The answer, of course, is that just as Oasis ripped off the Beatles, so did the early Christians rip off the pagans. Add to that some good old fashioned commerce, and you have the Christmas celebration that people like Bill O'Reilly regard as being somehow mandated by God himself.

The Independent (UK) has the straight poop on the trappings of Christmas:

Why is Christmas Day on 25 December?

The Bible offers no date for the birth of Jesus, which probably was not in the year 1AD, but a few years earlier, and may or may not have been in December. The celebration of the birth of Christ on 25 December dates back to the fifth century, when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The date was chosen to coincide with the winter solstice and the Roman festivals associated with the shortest day of the year, which falls between 22 December and 25 December. This was seen as the day when the Romans celebrated Dies Natalis Solis Invicti – "the birthday of the unconquered sun". It was also Jupiter's birthday and, further back, the birthday of his Greek equivalent, Zeus. In Eastern Europe, the various Orthodox churches – the Russian, Greek, Armenian, Serbian et al, follow the old Gregorian calendar, and in which Christmas Day is 7 January There is no Santa Claus in the Gospels.

Where did he come from?

Nearly 1,700 years ago there was a bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor, who was imprisoned under the last pagan Roman Emperor, Diocletian, but reinstated under Constantine. A cult grew up around him in Greece and spread outwards, and he became the patron saint of children, among others. An old legend about him is that there was a poor man who could not afford dowries for his three daughters, until bags of gold were tossed through an open window by St Nicholas, landing in the stockings drying in front of the fire. In Holland and Germany, there was a custom that St Nicholas was the secret bringer of presents for children on 6 December, his feast day.

When did he start sliding down chimneys?

After the American revolution, New Yorkers tried to rediscover their Dutch roots, and revived the feast of St Nicholas, and his legend. The writer Washington Irving took the mickey out of this revived cult in a satire published in 1809, called Knickerbocker's History of New York. In it, St Nicholas appears as a fat, jolly figure, dressed in fur, with a clay pipe and beard, who slides down chimneys.

There's more here. Of course if your name is "Bill O'Reilly", you might want to pass it by. After all, why would you read something that deprives you of a weapon?

And for those of you not inclined to snark today, you may want to revisit my post from Christmas Eve last year, when for one brief shining moment, I was able to give my cynicism a rest.

Joyous Yule, everyone.

If you order now, your favorite Republican male can have it before New Year's

The 2009 Sarah Palin calendar.

Gotta love the handjob she's giving that gun on the cover. There's the Republican mindset in a nutshell.

And it's about damn time, too

I simply don't understand the kind of vitriol that's being directed at auto workers in the UAW, simply because they've been able to earn a living wage. It's astounding to me that hardly a peep was uttered when AIG spent a chunk of it's bailout money on a fancy resort junket for its executives, or when financial company execs walked away with tens of millions of dollars in golden parachutes, but let auto workers try to hang onto their pay and health insurance and pensions, and everyone screams bloody murder. It's sort of like the outrage directed at teachers. Instead of demanding that ALL workers get the kind of benefits that used to be standard as part of the employer/worker compact, too many Americans subscribe to the "misery loves company" doctrine, demanding that their fellow workers join them in the race to the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.

It's not the fault of the workers that Detroit continued to crank out gas-guzzling SUVs, marketing them as a kind of hybrid of macho terrorist-thwart and child protectant against rampaging tree-huggers driving Corollas. And it's not the fault of the workers that Detroit once again, having learned nothing from the oil crunch of the 1970s, found itself caught with its gas-guzzling pants down when gas rose to $4/gallon last summer, unable and unwilling to retool for the future.

But as someone who now drives to work on New Jersey highways, and has noticed since the storms of last weekend that NOT ONE FUCKING SUV DRIVER IN THE STATE has made even the slightest effort to clear the snow off the roof of his/her behemoth, thereby putting everyone who drives behind them at risk from the massive flying shards of ice that fly off their vehicle roofs at 70 miles per hour, I say about the end of the line for SUVs in Ohio and Wisconsin "Good riddance." Not to the workers, but to the vehicles which their management made them continue to crank out long after the market for them collapsed.

It's appalling that these people have been thrown out of work right before Christmas. It's appalling that once again, they are the casualties of short-sighted management that refused to look beyond trying to get through the next quarter. It's appalling that Rick Wagoner still has a job while the people who just did what they were told have no idea where they go from here. It's appalling that the government is giving Rick Wagoner another few billion dollars to squander in his collusion with the oil companies to perpetuate the internal combustion engine, instead of helping those who are going to be displaced by the inevitable collapse of the Big Three to prepare for other kinds of work so that they are not simply just tossed on the scrap heap of history while Rick Wagoner leaves with a taxpayer-paid golden parachute.

I want these workers helped to prepare for new jobs. But as for the vehicles they were building, well, I'm not shedding any tears. The roads here in New Jersey will be safer without them.

Christmas gingerbread

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.My kitchen certainly smelled a lot like Christmas this past week, with batches of gingerbread and shortbread filling the air with the gorgeous smell of ginger, golden syrup, lemon and butter.A newly acquired icing kit finally got a workout on my gingerbread shapes, made using my usual tried-and-trusted gingerbread recipe. I think my royal icing was

More stuffing of cash into the pockets of banks by the Bush Administration

There used to be a game show called "Supermarket Sweep", in which contestants had a certain amount of time to stuff as many groceries as possible into a shopping cart and whoever had the most value in their cart at the end was the winner. The Bush Administration reminds me right now of the hosts of that game show, with the banks and the financial industry being the people tearing around with shopping carts -- all trying to stuff as much as possible of the United States Treasury into their pockets before getting outta Dodge:

The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.

But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.

The sweeping change to two decades of tax policy escaped the notice of lawmakers for several days, as they remained consumed with the controversial bailout bill. When they found out, some legislators were furious. Some congressional staff members have privately concluded that the notice was illegal. But they have worried that saying so publicly could unravel several recent bank mergers made possible by the change and send the economy into an even deeper tailspin.

[snip]

The change to Section 382 of the tax code -- a provision that limited a kind of tax shelter arising in corporate mergers -- came after a two-decade effort by conservative economists and Republican administration officials to eliminate or overhaul the law, which is so little-known that even influential tax experts sometimes draw a blank at its mention. Until the financial meltdown, its opponents thought it would be nearly impossible to revamp the section because this would look like a corporate giveaway, according to lobbyists.

Andrew C. DeSouza, a Treasury spokesman, said the administration had the legal authority to issue the notice as part of its power to interpret the tax code and provide legal guidance to companies. He described the Sept. 30 notice, which allows some banks to keep more money by lowering their taxes, as a way to help financial institutions during a time of economic crisis. "This is part of our overall effort to provide relief," he said.

The Treasury itself did not estimate how much the tax change would cost, DeSouza said.

[snip]

Section 382 of the tax code was created by Congress in 1986 to end what it considered an abuse of the tax system: companies sheltering their profits from taxation by acquiring shell companies whose only real value was the losses on their books. The firms would then use the acquired company's losses to offset their gains and avoid paying taxes.

Lawmakers decried the tax shelters as a scam and created a formula to strictly limit the use of those purchased losses for tax purposes.

But from the beginning, some conservative economists and Republican administration officials criticized the new law as unwieldy and unnecessary meddling by the government in the business world.

[snip]

The opposition to Section 382 is part of a broader ideological battle over how the tax code deals with a company's losses. Some conservative economists argue that not only should a firm be able to use losses to offset gains, but that in a year when a company only loses money, it should be entitled to a cash refund from the government.

Remember the outrage over the notion that people whose incomes are so low that after exemptions and the standard deduction, they don't pay income tax, receiving a stimulus check? Where is the similar outrage over the idea that when a company suffers losses, whether due to business conditions or simple mismanagement, that the government should refund their taxes?

Once again we are seeing what I've called the "tipping point of evil" being played out by the Bush Administration on its way out the door; the rule that if an administration is heinous enough to reach that tipping point, the public will be simply beyond outrage and will have little stomach for accountability. Remember, however, after we are ALL scrambling for the scraps tossed us by those who caused this mess, just who it was that brought us there. And remind your conservative friends, too. Because I suspect they will be thinking Sarah Palin is the answer to all their problems.

Dear Barack Obama and Harry Reid,

This is what happens when you try to "reach out" to the other side, and when you think you can "change the way politics is done in this country" and "change the tone" and be "inclusive" of the Republicans:

In a bid to beef up House Republicans' ability to scrutinize an Obama administration, incoming House Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is moving to increase the GOP side of the panel's oversight power.

A day after he was formally selected as ranking member last week, Issa ousted 14 of 39 Republican committee staffers, including many senior aides. Outgoing staffers said they were told the panel's minority will shift its focus away from legislation toward oversight of federal agencies.

By bringing in aides with investigative backgrounds, committee Republicans believe they can increase their capacity to conduct independent investigations, despite lacking the majority's subpoena power.
"The role of the Republican committee is going to change," Issa spokesman Frederick Hill said. He declined to discuss details, but said Republicans want to be ready to probe executive branch waste, fraud and abuse on their own if bipartisan cooperation fails. Hill said positions are still in flux, though Larry Brady, previously a senior policy adviser on the panel, will become minority staff director.

Mr. President-Elect, they are going to spend the next four years trying to trump up charges against you the same way they did to Bill Clinton. They are going to use investigations to try to cut you off at the knees just the way they did Bill Clinton. And their lackeys in the media are going to gleefully go along, because they now realize they weren't tough enough on George W. Bush. And after they destroy you and get Jeb Bush or Sarah Palin into the White House in 2012, they know you won't do the same, and the media will soul-search and say they were perhaps too hard on Obama and the new Republican should get a free pass. These are the people you embrace when you do things like have Rick Warren give the invocation of your inaugural. It just makes you look like Charlie Brown dealing with Lucy and the football.

And Sen. Reid, you ought to know these people by now. You ought to know that folding like a cheap car is not the way to get anything accomplished. Republicans are wild beasts, and when they smell blood or weakness, they pounce on it.

The answer to all this is very simple: FIGHT BACK.

So why don't you both actually do it?

So much for the promise of 401(k)s replacing pensions due to the magic of the company match

What they didn't tell you was that the company can decide to rescind the match at any time:

Companies eager to conserve cash are trimming their contributions to their workers’ 401(k) retirement plans, putting a new strain on America’s tattered safety net at the very moment when many workers are watching their accounts plummet along with the stock market.

[snip]

For workers, the loss of a matching contribution heightens the pain of a retirement account balance shriveling away because of the plunging stocks markets.

“We are taking a beating,” said another FedEx mechanic, Rafael Garcia. “In a year, I lost $60,000 of my 401(k). You can’t make that up.”

To many retirement policy specialists, the lost contributions are one more sign of America’s failure as a society to face up to the graying of the population and the profound economic forces it will unleash.

Traditional pensions are disappearing, and Washington has yet to ensure that Social Security will remain solvent as baby boomers retire and more workers are needed to support each retiree.

The company cutbacks may mean that some employees put less money into their retirement accounts. Even if they do not, the cuts, while temporary, will have a permanent effect by costing many workers years of future compounding on the missed contributions. No one knows how long credit will remain scarce for companies, or whether companies will start making their matching contributions again when credit loosens and business improves.

“We have had a 30-year experiment with requiring workers to be more responsible for saving and investing for their retirement,” said Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor of economics at the New School. “It has been a grand experiment, and it has failed.”

In the typical 401(k) plan, the employer’s matching contribution is more than just money for retirement. It also motivates employees to set aside more of their own money for old age. The more that workers save in a 401(k) plan, generally, the more “free money” they can get from their employers under the matching provisions.

Retirement policy specialists said they did not expect employees to react immediately to the loss of this incentive by stopping their own contributions. Study after study has shown that employees procrastinate when it comes to retirement-plan chores, and in this case the inertia may work, unwittingly, in their favor.

Americans, however, are facing extreme household financial pressure. President-elect Obama has said that he would support allowing withdrawals from retirement plans without penalties, which would provide short-term relief but would further undercut American’s long-term savings.

Benefits specialists said that if matching contributions continued to dwindle, fewer newly hired workers could be expected to join 401(k) plans. And employees might eventually slow or stop their contributions if the recession drags on and their own cash runs short.

“The problem is, we are heading into this serious recession, and we don’t know how long it will go on for,” said Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. “The bottom line is, people will have less money in their 401(k) plans, not just because the financial crisis has decimated their assets, but also because they will not have the employer match for some time.”

The employer match was always the carrot that went with the stick of having money taken out of your paycheck that you in theory never see until retirement. The match on X percent was designed to encourage you to put away that X percent or more. Without that match, a 401(k) is just another investment account on which you pay fees; another way to get you to put your money with the very people who ran their companies into the ground and then asked for a bailout from the government. For those of us lucky enough to have had a good employer match during this downturn, it's cushioned us against some of the blows from declining financial markets. My account with my previous employer has only lost about 6% since its peak, partially due to the employer contribution until I was laid off in August, and partially because its fixed income component was unusually high at 4.5% and I moved a bunch of money into that component when I left. By comparison, the IRA in which I consolidated a bunch of other bits of employer money ten years ago has lost 40% of its value.

The 401(k) has now proven to be a giant bait-and-switch, which makes me wonder if this was in fact the plan all along -- use the company match as a reason to eliminate defined benefit pensions and then yank the match. But of course, executive pay goes on unabated. Here are some compensation packages for the companies mentioned in the above-quoted article:

• Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President and CEO of FedEx, 2008 compensation: 10,940,253. But you should cry for him anyway, because that's $7 million down from 2007. I wonder what he's going to have to cut back on? His private plane? His country club membership?


• Motorola's co-chief executives, Greg Brown and Sanjay Jha have agreed to a 25% cut in base salary for next year. Sounds good, right? Except that if you look at Brown's 2007compensation, which is all I could find, base salary represented only 12% of his compensation. So a 25% cut in base salary is essentially lunch money for this guy.


• Eastman Kodak CEO Antonio Perez raked in a cool $11.7 million in 2007 -- a 50% raise over 2006.
  
• The now-infamous Rick Wagoner, who gets to keep his job running General Motors into the ground, took a much-lauded 33% cut in base pay in 2005, which was then raised back to its 2005 level in March of this year; this after a 64% increase in overall compensation in 2007 due to option grants. I guess this was a reward for GM showing a net loss of almost $39 billion.

It's clear that companies are making a big show of salary caps and base pay cuts for top executives, but you have to dig down if you want to see just how little difference this makes to their overall compensation, while they're cutting the company match to employees who are trying to save for the years after said executives kick them out of the workplace.

I'm very well aware that this is a time of belt-tightening and that everyone is going to have to bite the bullet. And I think most of us are willing to take our share of the hit, especially if it means keeping our jobs. I was willing to take a 30% cut in order to stay in my last job, had it been an option. And to the extent that companies are finding ways to handle cost cuts without cutting headcount, they should be applauded for not dumping yet more people onto the unemployment rolls. But there's an element of good faith that has to be at work here. I'm fortunate in that my employer is at least so far finding ways to reduce costs by cutting unnecessary expenses, without affecting what it sees as its compact with employees. It is not an American-owned company, which may make the difference. But when we see small companies spreading the pain around while large corporations like GM, Motorola, and Eastman Kodak make token gestures on executive base pay while taking advantage of this recession to terminate 401(k) company match programs, the push is still on to create a new plutocracy, with the everyone else scrambling for scraps.

Silent about this but outraged about auto workers?

I really don't know what's wrong with Americans. We've stood by and watched for thirty years as Republicans took money out of our pockets to give to the wealthiest and either said nothing or called right-wing talk shows to agree that "rich people create jobs" and therefore they deserve more tax cuts while poor children eat government surplus cheese. This peculiar notion of economic justice came to a head this year as we watched the Bush Administration allocate $700 billion of our money to bail out the banking and financial industries and didn't utter a peep, but screamed bloody murder at the thought that automobile workers might be able to keep their jobs.

I don't know what's wrong with us. I just wonder if there will be any outrage over the bank bailout now that we know this:

Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals.

The rewards came even at banks where poor results last year foretold the economic crisis that sent them to Washington for a government rescue. Some trimmed their executive compensation due to lagging bank performance, but still forked over multimillion-dollar executive pay packages.

Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found.

The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines.

Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services committee and a long-standing critic of executive largesse, said the bonuses tallied by the AP review amount to a bribe "to get them to do the jobs for which they are well-paid in the first place.

"Most of us sign on to do jobs and we do them best we can," said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat. "We're told that some of the most highly-paid people in executive positions are different. They need extra money to be motivated!"

The AP compiled total compensation based on annual reports that the banks file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 116 banks have so far received $188 billion in taxpayer help.

Among the findings:

The average paid to each of the banks' top executives was $2.6 million in salary, bonuses and benefits.

Lloyd Blankfein, president and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs, took home nearly $54 million in compensation last year. The company's top five executives received a total of $242 million.

This year, Goldman will forgo cash and stock bonuses for its seven top-paid executives. They will work for their base salaries of $600,000, the company said. Facing increasing concern by its own shareholders on executive payments, the company described its pay plan last spring as essential to retain and motivate executives "whose efforts and judgments are vital to our continued success, by setting their compensation at appropriate and competitive levels." Goldman spokesman Ed Canaday declined to comment beyond that written report.

The New York-based company on Dec. 16 reported its first quarterly loss since it went public in 1999. It received $10 billion in taxpayer money on Oct. 28.

Even where banks cut back on pay, some executives were left with seven- or eight-figure compensation that most people can only dream about. Richard D. Fairbank, the chairman of Capital One Financial Corp., took a $1 million hit in compensation after his company had a disappointing year, but still got $17 million in stock options. The McLean, Virginia-based company received $3.56 billion in bailout money on Nov. 14.

John A. Thain, chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch, topped all corporate bank bosses with $83 million in earnings last year. Thain, a former chief operating officer for Goldman Sachs, took the reins of the company in December 2007, avoiding the blame for a year in which Merrill lost $7.8 billion. Since he began work late in the year, he earned $57,692 in salary, a $15 million signing bonus and an additional $68 million in stock options.

Like Goldman, Merrill got $10 billion from taxpayers on Oct. 28.

It just doesn't make sense.

If I can't be a house cat in my next life, I want to be Howie Klein

...who is even as we speak in Mali, having attended both a concert by and recording session with Basskeou Kouyate, whom he calls "The Jimi Hendrix of the ngoni"

Al Aseel, Greenacre

So I've always had a soft spot for Lebanese food. I think it's the simplicity of the cuisine: charcoal meats, zingy salads and downy soft quarters of fluffy Lebanese bread. Perhaps the deep-fried falafel balls (mmm... deep-fried) also have something to do with it. And I love the creamy decadence of toum, the dip with a fiery garlic punch.We head to Al Aseel in Greenacre to see if its reputation

Video Game for Political Junkies

Sock and Awe.

(h/t)

Put on your tinfoil bonnet with the blue ribbons on it...

...and make what you will of this:

The Akron Beacon Journal is reporting that the private plane of the GOP's highly-placed "IT guru" Mike Connell's went down in Lake Township, Ohio on Friday evening. Connell was killed in the crash and is reported to have been the only person on board. There are no reports of anyone on the ground being hurt, though his plane crashed in a residential neighborhood.

Connell is a familiar name to readers of The BRAD BLOG as a key witness in the King-Lincoln v. Blackwell lawsuit regarding fraud in the 2004 Presidential Election in Ohio. That recently revived, long-standing lawsuit led to Connell's recent deposition on November 3, 2008, the day before this year's general election. According to plaintiff's lead attorney Cliff Arnebeck in July, a tipster had warned that Connell had been threatened by Karl Rove, as The BRAD BLOG reported at the time, in an attempt to intimidate him into "taking the fall" for Ohio election fraud not long after a motion was filed to lift the stay in that case.

Connell had been memorably described as a "high IQ Forrest Gump", by the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the Ohio fraud case, for his apparent penchant at the scene of "every single crime" from Florida 2000 to Ohio 2004 to the network firewall on a number of key Congressional committees to the case of the missing White House emails. (Video and text transcript of the interview with the attorneys here.)

In late September, the federal judge in the Ohio case agreed to lift the stay, and in late October he compelled Connell to give a deposition to plaintiff attorneys on the Monday before the Tuesday general election.

Connell had been served with a subpoena to appear in the federal courtroom in Ohio at the same College Park, MD airport where his single engine plane reportedly took off from last night, on his final solo flight...

Oh, and it gets even better, as Larisa Alexandrovna notes. And this article from right after Election Day has some interesting stuff about Karl Rove changing his tune about the still-unresolved Minnesota Senate election after Connell's deposition.

The Saturday Puppeh

Because man cannot live by PuppyCam alone:

(h/t: TRex)

Sorry, President-Elect Obama, you blew it big time with this one

I know how I'd feel if David Duke were invited to speak at Barack Obama's inauguration. I know how I'd feel if Hal Turner were invited to speak. I'd wonder why someone who was an avowed racist and anti-Semite were given the honor of speaking at such a historic event, and I'd wonder if it were a way of saying "I'm president now and there's not a damn thing you can do about this and I don't give a shit what you think."

Symbols matter. Symbols send a message. Whether you intend them to or not, they matter. And the symbolism of having Rick Warren do the invocation at Barack Obama's inaugural is a slap in the face to the entire GLBT community that supported his election.

We are now in the middle of the annual conservative hysteria over the nonexistent "War on Christmas." Christianity is still the majority religion in this country. There is no persecution of Christians and there is no infringement on the right of Christians to practice their religion, except to the extent that some of us do not want to be proseletyzed and we don't want their attempts at conversion. Other than the right to exercise the part of their faith that calls for conversion of the heathen, by force if necessary, and making it an official religious tradition in this country, Christians can do pretty much whatever they want.

Conservative Christians have elevated feeling persecuted to an art form in this country. Their leaders rake in the cash and build megachurches and become TV stars and write bestsellers. But they are the ones who are besieged. When was the last time a Christian in this country was beaten to a pulp and tied to a fence to die in this country just because he was Christian? When was the last time someone told a Christian that his very being was an affront to all that is decent and holy? When was the last time that a Christian wasn't allowed to marry whom s/he chooses?

I am all for conservative Christians to be able to practice their faith in their homes and in their churches. But the history of conservative Christianity and its refusal to just let others alone outweighs any kind of "outreach" that we may want to do to find common ground.

I'm sure that someone at Camp Obama thought that Rick Warren would be a swell choice to show that Barack Obama is going to be the "President for all Americans." I guess they forgot about the segment of the population that Rick Warren equates with pedophiles and polygamists and those who practice bestiality. Or perhaps they thought "Fuck 'em....where are they going to go, anyway? The Republicans?"

During the primaries, I chose to support another candidate over Barack Obama for just this reason -- because I was concerned about Obama's tendency to be overly conciliatory to the other side of the aisle, often to the extent of capitulating completely in the name of "bipartisanship." We've seen quite enough of this from the Democrats, especially since 2006. When it became clear that Obama would be the nominee, he said all the right things. But at the first moment at which a new president makes a statement, the Obama team has chosen to present as its public spiritual face a face that represents bigotry and fear and loathing. Hate with a smile is still hate.

You don't want same-sex marriage? Don't marry someone of the same sex. I'm sick of hearing the arguments in favor of defining marriage as being between one man and one woman, particularly since those arguments often come from people who have been divorced multiple times and will fuck anything that moves. I'm sick of the arguments about procreation. Mr. Brilliant and I got married knowing full well that we would do whatever we had to in order to NOT have children. I'm sick of hearing about 5000 years of tradition. In those 5000 years, women were often treated as chattel and as property, and were unable to escape an abusive situation for much of that time. In those 5000 years women were pimped out to wealthy men by their fathers for their own aggrandizement. The history of heterosexual marriage is hardly one to hold up as some kind of paragon of purity.

I understand why the consultants at Camp Obama felt that this would be a way of reaching out to those who didn't vote for their guy -- a brief moment in time to say "We hear you" before working to enact policies that they might otherwise oppose. There's only one problem. It won't work. And what I don't understand is how you get from reaching out to a hatemonger like Rick Warren, who thinks gays are like child molesters and people like me are holding an express bus ticket to hell and that women cease to be human once they become vessels for embryos, constitutes "inclusiveness." I don't understand why "inclusiveness" means you get to throw one group who has actually supported you under the bus, embracing those who want to exclude that group from one of the fundamental institutions of American life, in the name of "changing the discourse."

Here's what Camp Obama doesn't understand: You cannot reach out to these people. You cannot do business with these people. The primary characteristic of one-true-wayism is that it's their way or the highway, or more accurately, their way or hellfire eternal. The people who believe that Jews and secular liberals and gays are conducting an armed war on their right to put cheap plastic inflatable nativity scenes on their lawns are not going to embrace Barack Hussein Obama just because he lets one of their own speak for a moment at his inauguration. I don't remember where I read it, but I read a blog comment last night in which the commenter said his grandmother told him, "When the mouth and the feet are both moving, watch the feet."

It does not exactly give one hope for the rest of the dance when the guy who brought the GLBT community to the dance dumps them the minute he walks in the door in favor of the smiling shiksa who's always spurned him. Because right now the feet are there on the dance floor, doing the electric slide with Rick Warren.

Employees at Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and VWplants in the south should watch their own backs

I'm sure it's tempting for workers in the auto plants in the South who are getting paid at close to UAW levels to feel smug at the plight of their brethren in the rust belt. I wonder if they realize that the reason they get paid as well as they do, instead of the auto plants in which they work being the equivalent of American sweatshops, is because of UAW compensation levels. And I wonder if they realize how they are next in the crosshairs in the race to the bottom being conducted in the executive suites:

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger realized that the existence of the union was under attack, which is why he refused to give in to the Senate Republicans' demands that the UAW make further concessions. I say "further" because the union has already conceded a lot. Its 2007 contract introduced a two-tier contract to pay new hires $15 an hour (instead of $28) with no defined pension plan and dramatic cuts to their health insurance. In addition, the UAW agreed that healthcare benefits for existing retirees would be transferred from the auto companies to an independent trust. With the transferring of the healthcare costs, the labor cost gap between the Big Three and the foreign transplants will be almost eliminated by the end of the current contracts.

These concessions go some distance toward leveling the playing field (retiree costs are still a factor for the Big Three). But what the foreign car companies want is to level -- which is to say, wipe out -- the union. They currently discourage their workforce from organizing by paying wages comparable to the Big Three's UAW contracts. In fact, Toyota's per-hour wages are actually above UAW wages.

However, an internal Toyota report, leaked to the Detroit Free Press last year, reveals that the company wants to slash $300 million out of its rising labor costs by 2011. The report indicated that Toyota no longer wants to "tie [itself] so closely to the U.S. auto industry." Instead, the company intends to benchmark the prevailing manufacturing wage in the state in which a plant is located. The Free Press reported that in Kentucky, where the company is headquartered, this wage is $12.64 an hour, according to federal labor statistics, less than half Toyota's $30-an-hour wage.

If the companies, with the support of their senators, can wipe out or greatly weaken the UAW, they will be free to implement their plan.