Send in the Clowns

The only question really is which is the bigger buffoon...

Class is in Session

Megan McArdle at The Atlantic takes Kevin Drum to school.

I always get a kick out of that. I don't know what it is about Kevin. Whether at Cal Pundit, Washington Monthly or now at Mother Jones I've just seen him write too many head-scratchers to take him overly serious.

Maybe it's just me.

Senility Setting In?

You couldn't make this up. The Senator that just switched parties to avoid likely getting rolled in the primary next year is challenging the bona fides of his primary opponent. Really.

From CNN:


On Thursday, Specter's campaign sought to bring into question Sestak's roots to the Democratic Party. Specter's campaign sent out a list of Sestak's voting history in Delaware County, which the senator's campaign said showed that Sestak registered as an Independent in 1971, didn't vote in any primary elections from 1971-2005 and that he officially registered as a Democrat in February of 2006. Sestak was elected as a Democrat to the House in 2006.

"Congressman Sestak is a flagrant hypocrite in challenging my being a real Democrat when he did not register as a Democrat until 2006 just in time to run for Congress," Specter said in the statement. "His lame excuse for avoiding party affiliation, because he was in the service, is undercut by his documented disinterest in the political process."

A Pale Imitation

And far more disingenuous:

So the Obama administration is all for due process, as long as it produces the correct result. Obama already has said that Guantanamo detainees who cannot be successfully tried by military commissions or civilian courts can still be imprisoned indefinitely if they are considered too dangerous to release. Now Johnson is saying that even those who are prosecuted can be kept imprisoned regardless of the verdict. The only point of prosecuting them, it seems, is to create an impression of due process while continuing the Bush detention policies that Obama condemned during the campaign.

The Bush Administration was at least principled about their stand on these issues, like the actual policies or not. His successor continues to talk out of both sides of his mouth, in effect simultaneously condemning the very actions he autohorizes.

Does this leave as bad a taste in supporters mouths as it does in mine? Hopefully, people are noticing the disconnect between Presidential rhetoric and action.

Bush is a piker

It almost makes me long for the days of the "Bush cabal" screeds. The current administration makes Bush look like a piker:

Billions of dollars in federal aid delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year’s presidential election. . . . Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, a USA TODAY analysis of government disclosure and accounting records shows.

(H/T Instapundit)

Re: What California government workers think of you taxpayers

Very I-LouMinatti-ing post that highlights some very contemptuous commentary from some fine California bureaucrats.

If true, these people need to keep something in mind. Those of us in California smart enough to understand what's been going on for the last 10 years have had enough. Should the fools who've simultaneously run the state into the ground and padded the nest of state employees continue down this road folks are going to start showing up in Sacramento with torches and pitchforks.

And it's they that will have the large targets on their back.

As most things go...

People always find ways to ruin a good thing:

A group representing artists and record labels reached a royalty-fee agreement with music Web sites, ending a two-year battle and removing a cloud from over online radio.

"It's a substantial reduction in per-song streaming fees," says Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora Inc., an online music service that will stream about one billion hours of music this year. The royalties question threatened Pandora's viability and hung over all aspects of the business, he said, making it hard to negotiate with potential partners. Now, "we're out from under that," he said.

But as a result of the new royalty rates, Pandora plans to start charging its heaviest users a fee. Those listeners on the free version of Pandora who tune in for more than 40 hours a month will have to pay 99 cents to keep listening for the rest of the month.

To be clear, I'm not one of those who insists that all the best things in life should be free; it's only right that artists are compensated for the use of their work. Yes, Pandora owes royalties.

And it's not the .99 cents...who can't afford a dollar-a-month for anything? But why should the end-user pay?

It's called advertising (something they're already doing btw). By one estimate Pandora has 30 million registered users. Surely it's possible to create an advertising rate-structure that generates enough revenue to meet expenses and turn a profit beginning next year as they are currently targeting.

LOL of the Day

Why Al Franken will make a good Senator...

I'm sorry, that's a 'superlative' Senator. He for sure will be a Senator...

Suck-watch '09 (Day 7)

A lot can change in a week. As of Friday, Jimmy Rollins was in a career-worst 2-for-31 slump. Thats severe suckage.

Since then he's 8-for-15 and including Thursday night's contest, 10-for-19. And he's raised his average from .205 to .224 So is it the water?

Meanwhile, teammate Ryan Howard seems to have caught whatever it is Rollins has finally shaken off. Since the 1st of July Howard is hitting a paltry .150 (3-for-20 through last night) with no HR, with perhaps the worst of it coming in last night's shellacking of the Reds.

The Reds were giving away RBIs all night long. How much do you have to suck to go 1-4 on a night your team scores 22 runs?

Suck-watch '09 (Day 6)

Timing is everything. And mine, as per usual is off. Way off.

A half-season of suckage prompted the first post in this series aimed primarily at Phillies SS Jimmy Rollins. Since that day Rollins is 7-15 including yesterday's HR and 5 RBI in a series sweep of the Mets.

What to say, other than the obvious; timing is everything. And mine, as per usual is off. Way off.

Meanwhile, the other target of that first post continues along his merry way, getting hung out to dry again yesterday. Lee is now 4-8 and has lost 4 straight starts.

If it moves...

...tax it.

Perhaps the greatest Reaganism ever. But did you ever think you'd live to see what amounted to a tax on rain?

Is Late really better than Never?

Everyone's a genius in hindsight.

Suck-watch '09 (Day 3)

A Rollins sighting in Atlanta last night: The only promising signs for the Phillies were another strong start for J.A. Happ(notes), who gave up two runs in seven innings, and two hits by Jimmy Rollins(notes), who ended his career-worst 0-for-28 drought.

2-for-31. Progress!!

Meanwhile, teammate and formerly one of the best set-up men in Baseball, Ryan Madson seems to have picked up here in early July where he left off in June: Suckage. This from Yahoo Sports summarizes it pretty well:

Ryan Madson was 2-1 with four saves, one blown save, 13 holds, a 1.95 ERA and had allowed only 33 base runners (24 hits, nine walks) in 32 1/3 innings through June 16. Since then, and including the three runs he allowed in Thursday night's 5-2 loss to the Braves at Turner Field, the Phillies' setup man is 0-3 with no saves, three blown saves, one hold, a 10.80 ERA and 19 base runners (12 hits, seven walks) in 6 2/3 innings. On Thursday night, Madson entered a 2-2 game and allowed Brian McCann's leadoff single, Matt Diaz's RBI double and Garret Anderson's two-run homer into the Braves' bullpen in right field.

I was never fully sold that the Phils were in fact the best team in Baseball last year. They got hot and blew through the playoffs but they've seriously come back to Earth this season. Good thing 4 of them are sucking up my Fantasy squad.

That wasn't supposed to happen

Unemployment jumped again in yesterday's report. Them's the brown dots. What the Obama Administration promised--both pro and con--for the Stimulus plan are those two lovely curves below that steep line you see if we connect all those dots. You remember...unemployment topping out at 8.5% vs. 9%.

Well, we're at 9.5% and far more likely to blow through 10%--a number not seen since 1982--than not. What do folks have to say about it?

Well, this is pretty self-explanatory: Be sure to thank the President and Congress. This week, with news of some 467,000 jobs lost in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the U.S. has now lost about two million jobs since the economic stimulus package passed. Even more notable is that the average workweek has been slashed to 33 hours - the lowest number on record. When the President signed his $787 billion stimulus package into law, he confidently asserted that unemployment would not exceed eight percent. If Congress hadn’t passed it, he warned, it would rise to nine percent by 2010. Well, unemployment reached 9.5 percent last month, meaning, by the President’s own logic, that his stimulus package has failed.

And Jennifer Rubin pulls no punches: We are recovering. But unemployment is getting worse. And the stimulus is definitely working. Got it? It sounds like they haven’t a clue what to do and don’t want to admit they have been concocting a disaster. And we shouldn't pick on Gibbs. The president and the rest of the administration are no better:...


And what of John Q. Public? Well, how 'bout this: A Rasmussen video report notes that 42% now give the President good or excellent marks for handling the economy . That’s his lowest rating to date...


I expect that, and the approval ratings that go with it, will fall even further when we break 10%, assuming we do (and I feel pretty confident that's much more likely than not). At the risk of sounding like one who is just having fun switching roles from Bush Apologist to Obama critic, I must refute such an allegation, should it come.


The hallmark of President Bush's critics over his 8 years in office, by far, was anger, mixed in with a little irrational hatred of a man 99.9% of them never met much less truly know. The final ingredient in this vile concoction was the fundamental lack of respect for all who disagreed with them about the President and his policies.


President Obama is my president; while I did not vote for him, I will support him when I think he's right, I will be critical when I think he's wrong and I will always show him the respect he deserves. I am not angry with the President over Guantanamo Bay, Iraq or the economy. I think his decisions have been incorrect, but I am not angry.


To the contrary...on the economy I'm actually laughing. I knew his proposal couldn't and wouldn't do what he was promising. I'm sad to see that we're forced now to wait out more difficulty than we otherwise would as a result of his policies. But that is where we're at.


What I patiently wait for is the Administration and it's supporters to finally acknowledge that they own what is now happening in the country. George W. Bush is no longer President; the Democrats who have controlled Congress for 3 years have made every effort at ensuring his policies are no longer in place.


To the Administration and it's supporters, man up! Own your failures. It'll make it far easier to own your successes down the line.