Good morning BT!

•Even the GOP base doesn’t like the GOP.

worse then that, the bulk of the democratic party is not going to vote, can’t find the link right now but we are not going to have a majority after the next cycle

not that we used it anyway so no big deal

Pastor Huckabee taking responsibility: On Sunday, Huckabee issued this statement on his Web site: “Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington state.”

and 50% of the country follow these guys.

I haven’t seen the transcript and I am not sure I would blame him for anything untill we see it and find out why he gave clemency

you know, some people really do deserve it and if we demonize those that don’t work out without knowing if clemency was warranted then we arent’t doing ourselves or the justice system any favors at all

Paul Krugman says:

The long-term unemployed can lose their skills, and even when the economy recovers they tend to have difficulty finding a job, because they’re regarded as poor risks by potential employers.

Got that. A worker is laid off because of the failure of the economy, but he/she is considered personally responsible for his/her being laid off and consequently are regarded as poor risks by potential employers. A random event becomes a source of job discrimination, which makes a perfectly good worker more unemployable than in a previous job.

Want to talk about waste. There it is.

Amy Goodman’s relating her experience being detained by Canadian border guards.

Next door to Krugman’s column, Ross Douthat makes a good point as well:

The silver lining for liberals, though, is that this rightward turn hasn’t touched younger voters yet. With 18- to 29-year-olds, Democratic identification remains high, and Obama’s approval ratings are still up over 60 percent.

This suggests that a Depression-style realignment, in which today’s youthful “Obama Democrats” are still voting for hope and change (and grumbling about George W. Bush) in 2050 and beyond, remains within the Democratic Party’s grasp.

But even the young will need to see results eventually. And the more that Democrats flail in the present, the more likely it becomes that the Great Recession will be remembered as the time when liberalism let the future slip away.

Huckabee was correct to follow the recommendation of his parole board. That’s the way system is supposed to work.

It is wrong to use this tragedy for political advantage.

Rs started it. What did they expect?

Palast is up on democracynow, about WTO.

Mornin’, BT, pups

That should be interesting. I’ll have to catch it at lunch.

Had a great birthday. Spent most of it here. Very enjoyable, to say the least.

Topped the day off with an email from my half brother, who I hadn’t been in contact with since our dad’s funeral in Jan 80. His wife found me on FB. This should be interesting. Apparently works for Lee County south of me and says his emails are read by the FBI and many were published by the local paper. Have to check Google to see what that’s all about. Sent him a short email this morning that should wake up the boys at FBI. *g* Life doesn’t always have to be dull.

Ol’ Huck may not be very popular with the wingnuts this morning.

It is wrong to use this tragedy for political advantage

If it had been a democrat that commuted the sentence it would be all that was discussed. See Willie Horton. Is there a point at which you fight fire with fire. The rethugs can and will submit bills calling for end of life consultations with doctors then disavow them as death panels. The hypocracy of the rethugs needs to be demonstrated at every opportunity.

Palast does it again. Got a copy of a doc supported by U.S. & E.U. to open 3d world economies to financial derivatives.

Good Morning perris,
You’re being a fair-like today. You must have had a pleasant holiday. And, I thank you for your comment. Too much cliff jumping is not good for any of us.

Palast is a jewel. Glad to see he’s back to muckracking.

SD, Welcome. I had been wondering about you. Cat = the topic. Angela has had some GI trouble, so we are trying some different diet. We’ll have to see.

Happy Birthday again…good story about 1/2 brother. Good for you.

My Greggy? You wouldn’t have a link to that handy, would you?

And he’s fun to boot.

democracynow.org

Thanks.

Palast segment is over. They replay, starting a little after 9aET, and it’s up for your viewing pleasure a little after 10aET.

Guess I missed him. I’ll check out his site. Or call him.

Great. Thanks. You are aware of his education in economics, right?

Caturday’s still up. Go over there at some point and tell me what’s goin’ on. I’ll catch it at lunch or later.

He always was a trouble maker. If I had a nickel for every time I heard Mr. Palast to the principal’s office, I’d be a little richer.

No.

Chicago. He studied with….um, brain fart here. Who’s that big name?

Heh. Certainly didn’t leave an imprint. Or perhaps it did, in the opposite direction.

Brother is Public Works Operations Director for Lee County. It appears there were some shenanigans going on at a higher level and FBI ended up with over 10,000 emails from a number of people. His were nothing but work related. One dude got caught forwarding pictures of topless women from his work machine. The horror! FBI are bozos.

Cool beans. Met him on his last book tour. Interesting fella.

Love his hats.

Right. But, he told Greg if he wanted to be taken seriously, to take off the hippie clothes and put on a suit. After that, GP went to NY and other parts East to lead civil groups against utility companies. Did that for the Indians in Alaska after the Valdez mess. Couldn’t get anyone to cover the story. I had seen him right after that and suggested he write about it himself. The rest is history, as they say.

I think Krugman’s assumption is that there will EVENTUALLY be hiring by existing corporate entities. Today is the highest level of employment that the “Fortune 1000″ will ever achieve; tomorrow it will be less, and so on, and so on…Big business will never employ as many people as it once did — the market demands labor substitution and low-=cost offshoring at all costs.
As ugly as the reality is, we live in a free agent nation. The fact that even the best economic minds like Krugman don’t ground their work in this means that the policy recommendations coming from the “jobs summit” will be peeing ion the ocean — they will try to find ways to get big businesses to hire people when the businesses have every inventive to perpetually reduce their workforce, no matter the long-term consequences (because there is no world for them beyong the next quarter anyway.)

Fraudman?

We were HS sweethearts. I made all the posters when he ran for student body president. Taught me all I know about being a dissident.

Si.

What a grim swim this morning!

The program is an hour long. Starts with headlines, then 3 segments, roughly 20- minutes each. I think the Palast segment started around minute 25.

Do you have his first one? Best Democracy Money Can Buy? I think I have a couple of signed copies around here somewhere. FB me your address, and I’ll send you a late bday present.

Have some of Palast’s lit but can’t remember his take on Obama before election.

Yeah, me too. Fedoras are still cool far as I’m concerned. I wore a Stetson Standard for a while. Indiana Jones hat based on it.

You can check the archives on his website. I know he’s written about him since the election.

Dubai World meltdown a doozy. But first MSM must go orgasmic over Tiger Woods story. Atrios is right…it’s gonna be penis week.

New post up top…

I have Armed Madhouse. Also got it signed by Rob Lorei of WMNF, who’s mentioned towards the end of the book. Greg’s been on his show a number of times and Rob’s a good friend of mine. He laughed like crazy when I asked him to sign it at the station one day.

Thankee kindly..

I’m listed in the acknowledgments in the first one. Deb St. John. I guess that’s my 15 minutes, huh?

Is that crazy or what?

Dragon: I found a hard back of Democracy, but it’s not signed. Truly, fb me your address.

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

icasualties is down.

US MBS 2009: 41,292

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

Thanks. On it.

Oh great. I just love that USA Today article. Sounds like those in favor of cutting taxes, gutting education and railing against undocumented workers are getting their ultimate wish…US citizens now competing for day labor jobs. Get ‘em back down on the plantation where they belong, eh?

A friend of mine who runs local newspapers says the Spanish language papers in agricultural areas of CA have gone belly up because so many places are now deserted of immigrant farmworkers.

Thanks for the post BT. Hope you and all the swimmers also had a nice holiday weekend.

Krugman is spot on about a jobs program. We either face building a huge safety net with little end benefit or goal, or we put people back to work rebuilding the infrastructure, upping our efforts for green technology and sustainable living. Lots of gifted craftspersons as well as scientists and engineers have lost jobs. We will experience some major brain drain if we do not do something quick. I once linked to testimony given by a head social worker from the largest social service office in the county during the 1930′s. It was her report which forced the making of jobs programs. The downward spiral in ones life after a job loss costs the individual and the country more than creating a job to put one to work. I’ll try to relocate the link.

Wow, that’s a shocker. Since we don’t make anything anymore farmwork’s about all that’s left.

Plantation economy again. Great. Back to the future.