Archive for August, 2009

Today’s song of the day is “Wilco (The Song)” by Wilco. The band formed after Jay Farrar left Uncle Tupelo in the mid-nineties, and they have become legends. They have loads of excellent albums and collaborations, and this song comes from their latest album, Wilco (The Album). It is just an awesome track.

Enjoy Wilco loving you, baby.

Adam Feser

Or if someone reposts it on a blog, you may want to use this, a list of lies, half-truths, and misleading information contained in many e-mails from factcheck.org. The mass e-mails you receive that are obvious garbage are nothing new, and the health care debate has been full of them. The effort to fight the smears even resulted in a smear campaign (remember the enemies list crap?). How bad is it that an attempt to fight outright lies leads to more lies about your attempt to fight lies?

I put a list of problems with the information in the comments earlier, but I thought it warranted a full post.

Enjoy a fantasy football draft.

Adam Feser

RNC head Michael Steele wrote a piece for the Washington Post, and it is just odd. A large part of it is meant to scare seniors about their Medicare coverage. Another part of it is to promise the seniors that he will work to ensure their coverage is not toyed with.

Does this strike anyone else as ridiculous? He’s spreading fear about a government-run program ruining and rationing health care while at the same time promising to keep a single-payer, government-run program strong. He’s singing the praises of a program Republicans have always hated. It’s just silly.

Ed Kilgore also sees a return of the “welfare wedge,” as he calls it. It is a classic argument used by conservatives to try and stop programs. Undeserving, lazy people (welfare queens) straight up steal your hard-earned dollars. In this instance, Steele frames it as undeserving people will steal your health care. (I can’t help but think of people not willing to wait in line, even if it means others go without care. How compassionate we are.)

This is a weak argument, because Medicaid covers many of the classic welfare queens so many conservatives hate. This bill is to help people that are working or were recently working that simply cannot afford care.

At any rate, it’s an interesting article.

Enjoy Inglorious Basterds.

Adam Feser

Today’s song of the day is “Useful Chamber” by Dirty Projectors, a Brooklyn band. The song takes its time getting to where it’s going (they tend to be experimental), but it is worth the journey.

Enjoy the tune.

Adam Feser

Because if they aren’t, the Great Plains could be in trouble. Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas appear as though they will be hit hardest by increasing temperatures. It also appears as though the effect on the east and south portions of South Dakota will also be serious.

This will mean more droughts, making it more difficult for farmers. This could also drive up food prices as production decreases. There is also the possibility that farm technology will develop (as it has been) to make the most of the water that exists, but this can only help so much with prolonged droughts.

Another problem will be with the parts of the Great Plains that irrigate. Nebraska and Kansas are already concerned over the use and depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, and if these predictions are true the struggle will be worse.

I wish I could focus on the climate change nay-sayers, because this makes me nervous. Here is a map of the predictions: climate change map

Enjoy a treat from the Twist Cone before summer ends.

Adam Feser

The guy that brought the assault rifle to the Obama town hall, Chris Broughton, heard an interesting sermon the day before. Though he had already planned the assault rifle thing with that radio guy (because, um, America?), the sermon makes the weapons near President Obama seem more menacing.

The sermon was given by Pastor Steve Anderson, and it wasn’t a very Christian sounding sermon. Anderson didn’t see how he could pray for Obama, he instead said, “Nope. I’m not gonna pray for his good. I’m going to pray that he dies and goes to hell.” Just like Jesus on the cross praying for his executioners, right? And what about loving your enemies? Does this guy even read The Bible?

Almost forgot, he also hopes Obama “melts like a snail.” What that means is beyond me. Apparently snails melt a lot and it is perhaps excruciating, so he wishes it on Obama?

But yeah, I’m sure Jesus would be a huge fan of assault rifles.

Enjoy the irony.

Adam Feser

I have closed the polls and on the right you can see the results.  We will leave those up for a couple of days.  If you have any ideas for the next poll, please let us know

Its under unfortunate circumstances with the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy but the Dems no longer hold the supermajority in the Senate.  Thoughts and prayers to the Kennedy family

Attorney General Eric Holder has decided that there will be an investigation of detainee abuse. This has many Republicans and some Democrats outraged. I am outraged at their outrage.

Why is it wrong to investigate crimes? I just don’t see why people have a problem with this. Innocent people were tortured. People that never received a trial died. But let’s not investigate?

There is some other parts of the above article worth looking at. The first part of the above piece has a lot of the elements of the arguments I have made here in the past. The second part responds to conservatives who claim Thomas Paine would be on their side (he wouldn’t be).

Enjoy the song of the day and comment.

Adam Feser