Daily411

Obama and the Tax Code

2012-01-26T07:40:00.004-05:00

MANIFESTO

While I've always thought of myself as being the last to know about virtually anything, I suppose I can give myself more credit when it comes to some issues. One of these is the plutocrats' attack on the middle class.

It was clear to me when Gorgeous George and his cronies passed the hideous tax law of 2002 that the deck had been stacked against those making less than $250,000 per year. The last ten years have done virtually nothing to assuage that situation. Indeed, the situation got appreciably worse in 2008 when the only entities that politicians seemed to care about were the too-big-to-fail multi-billion dollar banks. The debt-ridden (and suddenly jobless) hoi polloi could go apparently go hang.

Now, finally, Barack Obama (with much help from Warren Buffett—perhaps the only wealthy American left with a conscience) has discovered that US tax rates might be a tad unfair. Still, I have to wonder: Did this realization come about because the president now has a multi-millionaire political opponent who paid less than 15% of his income in taxes for the past few years?

Call me cynical, but I wish Mr. Change-We-Can-Believe-In had been a little more energetic in his pursuit of tax code change prior to an election year where he's feeling heat from an opponent who's been able to take legal advantage of the system.

The Soul of America

2012-01-02T10:01:00.004-05:00

Talking Points Memo points out this morning that Mitt Romney's

rhetoric casts [the 2012 presidential election] with Obama as nothing less than an existential struggle for America’s future.

Well, of course it does.

Didn't BO win the 2008 election in exactly the same way? By promising via "change we could believe in" to eradicate the excesses of the Bush years? This "change" was to include, among other things, ending the use of torture, ending spying on Americans, and ending two senseless wars. We all know how empty those promises turned out to be.

So Romney can talk about American entitlement programs all he wants. While it's obviously a smoke screen for Iowa Republicans' racism, his call for radical change is hardly unprecedented.

Newt and the Christians

2011-12-06T12:03:00.003-05:00

MANIFESTO

Quick: Who won the 2008 Republican Iowa caucuses? If you didn't guess Mike Huckabee, you'd be wrong.

And why, pray tell, did Huckabee prevail? It had everything to do with Christianity:

The Republican contest was essentially about one thing: religion. Evangelical Christians accounted for a remarkable six in 10 GOP caucus-goers, and they favored Huckabee, a Baptist minister, over Mitt Romney, who's Mormon, by a broad 46-19 percent.

Fast forward to 2012 where we find that

Newt Gingrich has stepped into the breach and now stands alone as the most popular GOP presidential candidate in The Des Moines Register’s new Iowa Poll.

So if we can assume—and there's no reason not to—that 60% of Iowa Republican voters are evangelical, it should be remarkable that the former Speaker of the House is so popular there.

This is a man who, after all, has been married three times and has had untold extramarital affairs. It should stand to reason that the nominally pious should derogate such behavior.

But the truth of the matter is that the evangelicals don't care about matters like these. In Gingrich they see a candidate who rails against "those people" who need food stamps to survive.

Like the Tea Partiers, evangelicals continue to demonstrate that they are simply a bunch of greedy and racist homophobes who care only about their own precious souls and couldn't care less about Jesus's teachings regarding the poor and oppressed.

Theirs is a selfishly vile way to go through life, but one can certainly see why the perfidious Gingrich would be so appealing to them.

Semantics

2011-11-27T12:25:00.000-05:00

MANIFESTO

To the WCBS reporter who said this morning "The holiday shopping season got off with a bang this weekend": You might want to reconsider your word choice.

The Komisarjevsky Trial, cont'd.

2011-11-16T09:33:00.002-05:00

Yesterday's testimony centered on Komisarjevsky's strict religious upbringing, and it ain't pretty: Foster parents praying over the poor bastard because they thought he was possessed. The state should be ashamed of itself in allowing moronic holy rollers to damage already damaged kids.

I certainly think Komisarjevsky should be executed, but with an abusive foster brother and crazed foster parents, the poor sucker didn't have a chance.

The Real Problem With CL&P

2011-10-31T18:06:00.004-04:00

MANIFESTO

It stands to reason that if a private corporation is charged with providing what should be a public service, services will perforce suffer. And so it is with CL&P (and its owner, Northeast Utilities).

I've probably been as big an apologist for CL&P as anyone. I just didn't see how the company could have been any more efficient in its response to Hurricane Irene two months ago. And, indeed, I have CL&P to thank that I'm one of a minority of its customers with power on this Halloween night.

However, when people smarter than I note that CL&P is grievously understaffed and so simply cannot react to any extraordinary circumstances, I have to wonder about how the state of Connecticut (and the rest of the country) has allowed a setup like this to occur.

It goes without saying that any public company's first obligation is to its shareholders. As a result, it must make as much profit as it can, and if this means retaining a skeleton staff, so be it.

For the second time in two months, the Constitution State is seeing how that capitalist notion can play out.

A Tale of Two Restaurants

2011-10-21T08:48:00.005-04:00

FOOD FIGHT

I see there's a new enterprise in my old stamping grounds, as Jon

Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, opened the doors to what he hopes might be the first of several Soul Kitchens [in Red Bank, NJ].

The idea is this: There are no prices on the menu, which features such items as Garden State Gumbo, with chicken, pork sausage and Jersey fresh kale and a BBQ grilled salmon filet with soul seasonings, sweet potato mash and sautéed greens. Diners who are able to pay should leave more than the suggested minimum donation; Diners who can't afford to pay can volunteer to work at the Soul Kitchen to cover their meals. The restaurant will be open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and for Sunday brunch.

I certainly wish the erstwhile Mr. Bongiovi all the best in this benevolent project. Unfortunately, however, it certainly looks like eateries like The Soul Kitchen will become more and more necessary as

Friendly’s, the fast-casual dining chain that was home to so many post-little league sundaes and clamorous birthday parties, is filing for bankruptcy.

But Josh Ozersky of Time avers that Friendly's situation is hardly unique:

Every day seems to reveal another national chain, which had weathered everything from the OPEC boycott to the Bush recession, to be on the brink of extinction. Fuddruckers, Sbarro and the owner of the biggest Mexican restaurant chains in the U.S. (El Torito, Chevys Fresh Mex and Acapulco Mexican Restaurant) just declared bankruptcy as well, joining the ranks of Bennigan’s (2008), Don Pablo’s (2007), and Black Angus Steakhouse (twice, in 2004 and 2009). The incredible shrinking Tony Roma’s is down to just 45 units, and the Ground Round to 25, which I think officially qualifies it as an endangered species. There are only 141 Big Boys. Big Boys! Almost everywhere you look in chain restaurant land, the news is grim. Even the once omnipotent Olive Garden is struggling ...

[And] the reason the chains are shrinking is that they were the great commissary of the American middle class, and the middle class is itself a besieged and crippled entity. There are more proximate causes: high food prices, for example. But in the natural order of things, the chains would just respond by raising prices or shrinking portions. They can’t really do the latter because big portions are to chain restaurants what drunken co-eds are to the nation’s pay-per-view industry. The economy is hurting generally, that’s true. But the QSR sector, as it’s called by the industry (quick service restaurants, or fast food to you) is doing great. And the reason it’s doing great is because families that were eating fajita quesadilla platters for dinner are now eating less expensive fare like Hardee’s Thickburgers instead.

Needless to say, the US probably had too many of these casual refectories for a while, but it's still sad to see so many of them go belly up—especially in the case of Friendly's, which managed to weather the Great Depression in its 76-year history.

But all this is just symptomatic of a society that has become so diverse that the only restaurant choices are becoming The Four Seasons or McDonald's.

Baseball's Latest Drug Problems

2011-10-19T08:42:00.003-04:00

SPORTING GOODS

This business about the Sox imbibing is getting curiouser and curiouser.

The Red Sox emphatically disputed a television report that some of their starting pitchers drank beer in the dugout during games this season.

The staunch denial included statements from pitchers Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and John Lackey, as well as club president/CEO Larry Lucchino and former manager Terry Francona.

It came a day after Lester was candid in admitting that reports were true of Sox starters drinking beer in the clubhouse during games they weren't pitching in.

In a statement released Tuesday, Jon Lester, John Lackey and Josh Beckett denied reports they drank beer in the dugout.

"The accusation that we were drinking in the dugout during games is completely false," Lester said on Tuesday night. "Anonymous sources are continuing to provide exaggerated and, in this case, inaccurate information to the media."

The report of pitchers drinking beer out of cups in the dugout came from WHDH-TV (Channel 7) in Boston early Tuesday evening. The station cited two team employees as sources.

As a recovering serious imbiber, I can say that this really doesn't look good. And Jon Lester's admitted culpability is especially bothersome. It's not as if he's been a paragon of health.

Meanwhile, to demonstrate that they really have their heads where the sun doesn't shine, four sanctimonious US Democratic Senators (one of whom is from Connecticut and sadly isn't named Lieberman) are

trying to save the children by urging Major League Baseball to ban chewing tobacco during baseball games. From the AP:

“When players use smokeless tobacco, they endanger not only their own health, but also the health of millions of children who follow their example,” the senators wrote to union head Michael Weiner. The letter was signed by Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, and fellow Democrats Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Senate Health Committee Chairman Tom Harkin of Iowa.

The senators noted that millions of people will tune in to watch the World Series, including children.

Maybe someone should point out that baseball games start late enough on school nights that kids rarely see much spitting. Also, baseball’s ratings are so awful that there are statistically only about two or three dozen impressionable children watching at any given time.

With an absolutely unwatchable St. Louis-Texas Series about to begin, I couldn't have said it better myself.

Cheating

2011-10-04T08:00:00.003-04:00

MANIFESTO

Two incidents of cheating on standardized tests have been in the news recently, one in Connecticut:

A reading teacher accused of helping mastermind massive cheating on the 2011 Connecticut Mastery Test at Waterbury's Hopeville Elementary School submitted retirement papers Friday.

Of course, the principal is up to her eyebrows in this also; we'll see how long she lasts.

The truth of the matter is that when (especially urban) schools are held to impossible standards, things like this are bound to occur. Sometimes the workaround works, and sometimes it doesn't.

And in a demonstration of life imitating art (cf. "Suits"),

Samuel Eshaghoff, a 19-year-old sophomore at Emory University, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly accepting money to take the SAT for six Long Island high school students. Testing officials said it was an isolated event, but school officials and prosecutors disagree, and a continuing investigation is focusing on other schools and students.

Local Long Island officials have begun discussing ways to combat future violations of the system, including a requirement that all students sit for the exam at their own school, where impersonation would be a near impossibility.

I'm always amused by inanity like this.

Local officials and school administrators alike have agreed that the standardized testing system is flawed, and that students, pressured by extreme competition in college admissions, are increasingly tempted to cheat,

but that's not going to stop them from imposing Draconian standards to ensure that the real Joe Smith takes the SAT.

The days of the implanted computer chip aren't far away.

Elegy for a season

2011-09-29T07:53:00.004-04:00

SPORTING GOODS

While I'm probably not in the slough of despond that some people are, there's no question that the Sox' September might have been the worst late-season swoon in MLB history.

Ultimately, it was the injuries that did in the Sox: When they had to make a journeyman scofflaw like Eric Bedard (who never once went beyond the sixth inning in any of his starts) their 4-5 starter, they were pretty much toast. That they hung on as long as they did was a testament to the great start they had and the true potential of the healthy team.

I assume in the next few days, we'll start to hear about the 2012 Sox. I'd think that a few of the names we've become familiar with in the last four seasons won't be with the team: Papelbon, Matsuzaka, and Just Dreadful Drew I would think won't be around next season along with the Morales and Atchisons of MLB.

In a perverse sort of way, this kind of makes up for 2004—when the Sox had no business winning the AL pennant. This year, they probably should've won, but the baseball gods just weren't kind to them.

Quote of the Day

2011-09-11T12:39:00.003-04:00

MANIFESTO

"But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country,
right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile."
— Patrick O'Brian

Santorum and American Education's "New Values"

2011-06-22T08:12:00.004-04:00

MANIFESTO

I continue to be struck by presidential candidate Rick Santorum's assertion that the shortcomings of US students in history is the result of

a conscious effort on the part of the left who has a huge influence on our curriculum, to desensitize America to what American values are so they are more pliable to the new values that they would like to impose on America.

It's not even worth referring to the ridiculous textbook standards that are now in place nationwide. Santorum's argument lacks substance and demonstrates a lack of the very standards he bemoans.

My real question is this: What "new values" is Santorum referring to? He doesn't say, and so the statement is ridiculous on its face. Whatever they are, the left "would like to impose [them] on America." The statement has all the echoes of a McCarthy-like attack on some unnamed menace.

Fortunately, this moron doesn't have a chance of winning the nomination, but we'll still have to listen to his shibboleths until he goes back under his rock.

When is a war not a war?

2011-06-17T07:24:00.008-04:00

MANIFESTO

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig,
and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

— George Orwell, Animal Farm

The semantic gamesmanship the Obamans are displaying these days is both fascinating and horrifying. The War Powers Act's ninety day limit vis-à-vis Libya ends in a few days, but the White House is adamant that

President Obama ha[s] the authority to continue the military campaign without Congressional approval because American involvement [falls] short of full-blown hostilities.

No matter what their intentions are, the Republicans are absolutely correct in this episode, asserting that "the creative arguments made by the White House raise a number of questions that must be further explored."

Legal aide to BO, Harold Koh, who certainly should know better, gives a justification for this non-action that's as half fast as anything the Bushies ever propounded:

"We are not saying the War Powers Resolution is unconstitutional or should be scrapped or that we can refuse to consult Congress. We are saying the limited nature of this particular mission is not the kind of 'hostilities' envisioned by the War Powers Resolution."

So how's that "change" thing going, Barry?

Big East All Americans (men's basketball edition)

2011-04-11T12:46:00.004-04:00

SPORTING GOODS

DarLucky has ascertained

the all-time all americans for the real Big East schools (excluding Providence and Seton hall ... lists headlined by Marvin Barnes/Eric Murdock and Terry Dehere are not quite as impressive).

if the rules were put together a team using their in-college skills, I think I'd go with G'town first and it's real close between Cuse and UConn, then a gap to the rest led by the Johnnies. #s in parentheses are what team AP all american they were voted...multiple #s means multiple years (good lord Ewing!). Related: I think I read that Scottie Reynolds is the only first team all american to never play in the NBA. I'm too lazy to look up if that's true.

UConn
Kemba Walker (1)
Hasheem Thabeet (2)
Rudy Gay (2)
Emeka Okafor (1)
Richard Hamilton (1/2)
Ray Allen (1/3)
Donyell Marshall (1)

Syracuse
Wesley Johnson (1)
Hakim Warrick (1/3)
Carmelo Anthony (2)
John Wallace (2)
Lawrence Moten (3)
Billy Owens (1)
Derrick Coleman (1)
Sherman Douglas (1/3)
Pearl Washington (3/3)
Rudy Hackett (2)
Dennis Duvall (3)
Dave Bing (1)

Georgetown
Roy Hibbert (2)
Jeff Green (3)
Allen Iverson (1)
Alonzo Mourning (1/2/3)
Dikembe Mutumbo (3)
Charles Smith (2)…the guard not the big guy
Reggie Williams (1)
Patrick Ewing (1/1/1)
Sleepy Floyd (1/2)

Pittsburgh
DeJuan Blair (1)
Sam Young (3)
Aaron Gray (3)
Brandin Knight (3)
Jerome Lane (2/3)
Billy Knight (2)
Don Hennon (2)

Villanova
Scottie Reynolds (1)
Randy Foye (1)
Allan Ray (3)
Michael Bradley (2)
Kerry Kittles (1/2)
John Pinone (3)
Howard Porter (3/3)
Larry Hennesy (3)

St John’s
Ron Artest (3)
Malik Sealy (3)
Mark Jackson (2)
Walter Berry (1)
Chris Mullin (1/2)
Reggie Carter (2)
Billy Schaeffer (3)
Sonny Dove (3)
Tony Jackson (1/2)

Not quite adieu

2011-03-30T08:09:00.001-04:00

MANIFESTO

While I'm not necessarily ready to turn out the lights a la Sparky, I'm finding the 140-character protocol of Twitter is pretty much allowing me to say what I want to. I'm "situate" if anyone wants to follow me.

In case you missed it the first time

2011-03-21T17:20:00.003-04:00

MANIFESTO

From POTUS's letter to Congress, explaining his rationale for the Libya attacks:

Left unaddressed, the growing instability in Libya could ignite wider instability in the Middle East, with dangerous consequences to the national security interests of the United States.

In other words, BO has rationalized the Libya attacks with the domino effect.

I'm so glad that this is happening: It allows the younger readers of this blog to experience the ridiculous arguments that were articulated during the Vietnam era. Then, it was something like if the Commies take Vietnam, then they'll take Laos, then Burma, and soon they'll be marching right down Main Street USA.

In this case, it's a little different, because the rationale has everything to do with oil. Nevertheless, the thinking goes that if Libya falls, then Syria might, then Yemen, then Saudi Arabia, and then where would the US get its oil?

It's the inanity of 1968 all over again.

Happy Birthday

2011-03-21T07:44:00.002-04:00

BIRTHDAY GREETINGS

Many happy returns to DarLucky! Jesus was a known enemy of the state by the time he was 33; I assume that DarLucky is keeping the faith.

That Radical

2011-03-18T09:35:00.002-04:00

SABOTAGE

Paul Krugman explains how to get around the Times' new firewall.

Out on a limb

2011-03-18T07:34:00.002-04:00

SPORTING GOODS

Item:

University of Connecticut head women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma has been selected as a finalist for the 2011 Naismith College Coach of the Year ...

Joining Auriemma as finalists are Baylor's Kim Mulkey, Tennessee's Pat Summitt and Stanford's Tara VanDerveer. Each of the four finalists led their team to a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship.

Wow. The coaches of the four NCAA top seeds. What a courageous stance the Atlanta Tipoff Club has taken!

A policy maker he's not

2011-03-15T16:58:00.001-04:00

MANIFESTO

As has long been known,

[T]he difference in the percentages of low-income students and their more affluent peers who achieve proficiency [in The Constitution State] has been stuck at around 20 percent despite years of reforms. Although Connecticut is typically praised for its schools, disparities in the performance of students from different socioeconomic backgrounds—which are often referred to as the "achievement gap"—reveal that, in truth, the state has significant inequities in its educational system.

In fact, Connecticut has the nation's largest achievement gap when it's measured by students' socioeconomic status.

Nevertheless, the state's senior senator thinks he knows how to fix all this:

Sen. Joseph Lieberman is drafting a school reform bill that would tie a portion of federal education dollars to a requirement that states implement robust teacher evaluations, with student test scores being a major factor in rating teacher performance.

Of course this makes no sense at all. It'd penalize de facto those teachers who either by choice or happenstance ended up in New Haven or Bridgeport or Hartford schools. In most instances they're working they're tails off just trying to help get kids to a proficient level. That wouldn't be good enough for the Yale-educated know-it-all.

I'd hoped that after Holy Joe announced his retirement, he'd kind of take it easy and put the brakes (to use his phrase) on some of his crackpot ideas. I obviously should have known better.

Krugman's sense of humor

2011-03-15T10:20:00.000-04:00

MANIFESTO

This is actually pretty funny.

And may I say it's about time?

2011-03-14T18:35:00.005-04:00

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

Darlene Love has finally been elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The former Darlene Wright had the best voice in the Spector stable in the early and mid-1960s. She seems to have been the only one of the Philles singers who didn't kowtow to the mad genius. She still sings perhaps the best rock Christmas song ever made, Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), on Letterman every year and proved a year and half ago, somewhere north or south of the age of 70, that she could still rock with the best of them.

Meet the new boss

2011-03-13T13:14:00.002-04:00

MANIFESTO

Remember the bad old days when fealty was more important than policy? It cost a number of honest generals and federal prosecutors their jobs, and we were all very glad when we thought we'd seen the last of this kind of half fast activity.

Welcome to the Obama State Department.

The current situation

2011-03-13T12:07:00.002-04:00

MANIFESTO

According to Jason Linkins:

[T]here was this terrible economic collapse in America a few years ago and ever since then, the important campaign to get Americans to stop blaming the perpetrators of said collapse and the ensuing widespread economic devastation, and in turn start blaming one another, to the material benefit of those who wrecked the economy in the first place, continues to take important steps ...

Yeah. That sounds like pretty much it in a nutshell.

Quote of the Day

2011-03-13T08:34:00.005-04:00

SPORTING GOODS

"I was tired. I was gassed."

— Big East Tournament MVP Kemba Walker on UConn's
incredible five-day run to the championship

And so the UConn men tie Georgetown for the most Big East championships at seven. It's been an amazing week and one that will surely go into the annals of all-time great performances by a UConn men's team.

The Courant is positing that the Huskies might have secured a two or three seed in the NCAA tournament with the championship. I suspect that may be true, but I also suspect the Huskies might have left more than they might have wanted on the MSG floor since Tuesday.

Just when you thought it was over

2011-03-10T07:09:00.005-05:00

MANIFESTO

For months last year, the burg of East Hampton, CT was essentially paralyzed by the town manager's summary firing of its police chief and the repercussions thereof. Throughout the sordid episode, Police Chief Matthew A. Reimondo was depicted as a lily white victim of then Town Manager Jeffery O'Keefe's cruelty.

Now, it seems that that depiction may not have been entirely accurate.

The [East Hampton] police chief has been reprimanded after acknowledging he sent two racially offensive e-mails last year from his town computer.

Acting Town Manager Robert G. Drewry told the Town Council Tuesday he has dealt with what he calls "a personnel issue" involving Chief Matthew A. Reimondo.

You know, when you help to tear a town inside out, making hundreds come to your defense, you might want to demonstrate that those hundreds had something worthy to fight for. I'm just sayin'.

Senator Sanctimony's insights

2011-03-08T09:06:00.006-05:00

MANIFESTO

Fresh from a fact-finding trip to the Middle East, Holy Joe finds exactly what he was looking for.

Lieberman said America needs to step in and help the Libyan opposition ... The U.S. providing anti-aircraft, for example, might be in our country’s best interest, said Lieberman.

“Whatever it is, we’ve got to help and we gotta help in our interest because [get this] if Gaddafi survives, it’s going to be a message to dictators all around the world and places like Tehran [emphasis added] about how they can stay in power when the majority of their people want change,” said Lieberman.

... Lieberman says releasing oil from the U.S. strategic reserve [to reduce rising gasoline prices] is not appropriate since it’s fear driving the prices, not a shortage of supply.

Apparently, in the Senator's benighted view, fear can be discounted when it come to gas prices, but one can't be too careful regarding Libya and Iran.

January 2013 can't come soon enough.

Pandering in Iowa

2011-03-08T07:09:00.003-05:00

MANIFESTO

And so, in the metropolis of Waukee, Iowa,

at the Faith & Freedom Coalition's presidential forum on Monday night ... which drew about 2,000 mostly elderly voters ... the first semi-official Republican cattle call of the 2012 election cycle [took place].

And what a night it was. Sixty per cent of the crowd was what one might call "evangelicals," and were they ever ready to listen to the exhortations of such ethical paragons as Newt Gingrich and Buddy Roemer, who "between them ... have four divorces."

From a national politics standpoint, the tone of the event felt a bit off, for reasons that Rep. Steve King inadvertently illuminated. In his introductory remarks, the conservative culture warrior declared, "If we get the culture right, the economy will be right eventually." There may be people who actually believe that. But most of them were attending this event.

Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

Quote of the Day

2011-03-07T20:40:00.004-05:00

MANIFESTO

I’d say we spend too much time debating political events and the choices leaders make and not enough time debating the structure of political institutions and the impersonal economic and systemic forces that drive the choices leaders make.
— Ezra Klein
Indeed. Too many pundits—and bloggers, including yours truly, no doubt—concern themselves too much with the symptoms of the problem when, in fact, they should be considering the disease itself: the fact that the way American political institutions currently work simply isn't conducive to the political and cultural health of the nation.

I don't expect this situation to change in my lifetime, but, then again, how many Egyptians thought they'd die with Mubarak still in power?

Barry, we hardly knew ye

2011-03-07T18:42:00.004-05:00

MANIFESTO

I'm as mystified as anyone, I suppose, but, for the life of me, I can't understand what's going on in the head of XLIV.

Any conservative who doesn't like him must surely feel that antipathy only because he's black.

Wow

2011-03-07T11:24:00.004-05:00

MANIFESTO

in the continuing saga of the haves and the have nots, Dartmouth College announced over the weekend that

The Board of Trustees approved a 5.9 percent increase in tuition, room, board and fees for the 2011-2012 academic year ... With the increase, tuition, room, board and fees will total $55,365.

... The College will likely experience a $3 million increase in financial aid expenditures in the 2011-2012 academic year totaling a projected $80 million, up from this year's $77 million, according to the press release.

The college will obviously need to increase its financial aid.

I'm just blown away by this. The $55,365 obviously doesn't include football tickets, the occasional pizza, and the occasional Diet Pepsi. I know how students can come up with the money, but the whole thing sure looks like another method of eviscerating the middle class.

At the risk of sounding like an old fart, I have to point out that my entire college career cost less than half than one year the College on the Hill now costs.

Kemba Walker

2011-03-05T13:59:00.006-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

I don't know how I missed this, but UConn's Kemba Walker will graduate this summer. He's still got a year of eligibility left, but may not return. Even though St. Jim says of his All Big East guard,

"Everybody is telling me that [it's important] to find quickness at the guard. There aren't too many quicker than him. … The NBA is looking for a competitive, quick point guard who can defend, run, lead the fastbreak. He's all those things. And he's automatically an addition to your team just because he loves the game,"

I just wonder how many NBA teams might be interested in a six foot guard who's a better shooter than point. I still think he's got a few things to prove in college—like leading a team to a better than 4-6 record in its last ten games—but I can't entirely disagree with Calhoun when he says "right now he sees no reason for Walker to return."

This Wholesome World

2011-03-04T08:20:00.006-05:00

MANIFESTO

Having been with teenagers for more than 7000 days of my life, this story couldn't help but interest me:

Fewer teens and young adults are having sex, a government survey shows, and theories abound for why they're doing it less ...

Comprehensive sex education — which includes abstinence but also teaches contraception and safer sex skills — didn't go away during the Bush years, said Elizabeth Schroeder, executive director of Answer, a national sex education organization at Rutgers University.

"We have been redoubling efforts and it has made an impact on these statistics," Schroeder said.

It's an interesting—though not entirely convincing—post hoc ergo propter hoc argument.

I thought that "data over the years on vaginal intercourse among never-married adolescents shows a steady decline since 1988" might provide a caveat, but

the study, ... based on interviews of about 5,300 young people, ages 15 to 24 ... shows the proportion in that age group who said they'd never had oral, vaginal or anal sex rose in the past decade from 22 percent to about 28 percent.

It sounds like when young people say they "never had sex with that (wo)man," it might actually be the truth.

When worlds collide

2011-03-04T07:54:00.002-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

Fred Wilpon's association with dirtbag Bernie Madoff continues to plague him.

The Mets will travel more miles by bus this spring than any other team in baseball, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of each team's schedule. Based on estimated driving distances between ballparks, including split-squad games, the Mets will log roughly 2,752 miles as they schlep around the Sunshine State.

While the situation is caused by a number of factors, the billion dollars the Wilpons may be liable for must play into this cost-cutting measure.

Next Saturday marks the two-year anniversary of Madoff's confession in a Manhattan courtroom to creating a Ponzi scheme. We now know how Mets' players and coaches will be commemorating it.

Trying to have it both ways

2011-03-03T10:12:00.004-05:00

MANIFESTO

How Ohio and Brigham Young University are similar: One won't let its public workers strike for better working conditions but also severely limits the collective bargaining that might obviate those strikes; the other demands that its students work long into the night while making coffee, which might aid in staying awake during those arduous nocturnal sessions, illegal.

Both stances, to me, are absurd.

Now it gets ugly

2011-03-03T07:55:00.003-05:00

MANIFESTO

With

the Ohio State Senate [passing] SB 5, aimed at limiting unionized state employees' ability to collectively bargain or go on strike,

the time is surely coming when public employees will be forced into acts of civil disobedience the likes of which the US hasn't seen since the 1960s.

It's not as if the idiotic politicians don't have a road map.

The bill now moves to the state House, which like the Senate, is under Republican control.

Gov. John Kasich (R) has endorsed the measure and is expected to sign it when it reaches his desk.

Adding insult to injury

2011-03-03T07:13:00.004-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

Not only did the Huskies get crushed, but

The University of Connecticut lost $1,663,560 in its Bowl Championship Series game loss to Oklahoma on Jan.1, according to Mike Enright, associate athletic director for communications. The Huskies, like other Division I-A schools, had to file a report to the NCAA by March 1. The document shows that UConn was required to purchase $3,349,835 worth of tickets but realized only $676,248 from ticket sales. So the school was out $2,673,587 on ticket sales alone.

I said months ago that I hoped the Huskies would go to Miami for its BCS game. It doesn't surprise me a whit that UConn "sold [only] 4,600 tickets, including 2,771 to the general public and the rest for the university's obligations."

Miami in January would obviously have been a much better venue for any of a number of reasons.

Suze Rotolo

2011-03-02T09:46:00.003-05:00

EULOGY

A very nice tribute to one of the icons of the 1960s can be found here.

Having played the album in question at least hundreds of times, I looked at her face quite often in those days.

Requiescat in pace.

Workers of the world, unite

2011-03-02T08:23:00.000-05:00

MANIFESTO

With support for labor unions rising, it's interesting to see that the NFL Players' Union has also been thrust into the issue and is facing some of the same problems as other less celebrated folks.

The N.F.L. players union won a significant legal battle Tuesday. In a reversal of a prior ruling, a federal judge in Minneapolis said that the N.F.L. violated an agreement with the players when it negotiated its latest TV contracts. The judge said the league settled for less money in exchange for the continued flow of cash in the event of a work stoppage. The N.F.L. had a duty to maximize revenue for the players, the judge said.

I realize I'm comparing apples and oranges here, primarily because I'm comparing contracts worth millions to contracts worth a tenth of that, but—who knows?—maybe sports fans will realize the corrupt and mendacious ways of the owners and side with labor for a change.

Certainly, the tide seems to be turning in Wisconsin.

The Internet and the pursuit of democracy

2011-03-01T08:54:00.009-05:00

MANIFESTO

All government, of course, is against liberty.
— H.L. Mencken
If, in fact, the US really sanctions the phenomenon of "a global phase of extreme turbulence in which the bottom-up forces of a networked world battled the top-down hierarchies of centralized power," then the notion of limiting Net neutrality is counterproductive.

If Boehner and his cronies are serious about allowing only the free speech they think is appropriate, then more Libyas and Egypts seem unlikely.

It's the same old same old: Our revolution was ok, but for other countries, the idea isn't so appealing.

Feeling the pain

2011-03-01T08:24:00.006-05:00

MANIFESTO

Tom Tomorrow pretty much encapsulates how a lot of people are feeling these days:

In other words, when you've given billions of dollars to nefarious banks, brokerages, and other financial institutions, it's obvious that the real miscreants in the country's financial woes are public employees.

Needless to say, those public employees aren't taking this lying down.

The Real End of an Era

2011-02-28T09:55:00.003-05:00

MANIFESTO

Last living US WWI vet dies in West Virginia at age 110.

Both of my grandfathers served in The War to End All Wars—one in France—so I'm finding this story somewhat interesting this morning.

Requiescat in pace.

On Wisconsin

2011-02-27T21:13:00.000-05:00

MANIFESTO

Needless to say, I'm loving what's going on in Madison. The latest is that Wisconsin

Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs has announced that those protesters still in the building will be able to stay the night.

What's most encouraging is that

Tubbs also commended the behavior and cooperation of protesters, saying that there had been no arrests made today. At the last time he checked, on Friday, Tubbs said there had only been about a dozen minor arrests in total over the past two weeks.

Thus, the police can't say that they were provoked by any foolish inducement.

I'm sure that a lot has changed in the last forty plus years in how law enforcement officials react to an occupation like this, and that's a good thing. And even though both protesters and law enforcement personnel may have changed their ways, I still can't help but feel a certain nostalgia in all of this.

The Two Americas

2011-02-26T11:33:00.002-05:00

MANIFESTO

As much of a bastard as John Edwards turned out to be, at least he got one thing right.

“Today ... there are two Americas, not one: One America that does the work, another America that reaps the reward. One America that pays the taxes, another America that gets the tax breaks. One America that will do anything to leave its children a better life, another America that never has to do a thing because its children are already set for life. One America -- middle-class America - whose needs Washington has long forgotten, another America - narrow-interest America - whose every wish is Washington's command. One America that is struggling to get by, another America that can buy anything it wants, even a Congress and a President.”

And now we see this phenomenon continuing as

Earlier this week, Gallup released a poll showing that six in ten Americans said they oppose plans to roll back collective bargaining rights for public unions in their own states. As Greg Sargent noted today, only one income bracket within that poll -- those making more than $90,000 per year -- favors that idea.

In fact, the more money people make, the more likely they are to support eliminating collective bargaining, according to the poll.

At least there's been a reaction to this disparity, and I'm pleased that the middle class has finally woken up to realize how it's being screwed. God knows it slept through the first eight years of the century while the foundation was being laid for the anti-labor, anti-middle class sentiment we're currently seeing from elected leaders.

"Shame. Shame. Shame."

2011-02-25T09:06:00.002-05:00

MANIFESTO

Democracy in America: It has come to this.

Out of the frying pan

2011-02-24T12:09:00.003-05:00

MANIFESTO

Let's just say I'm glad I'm not an Indiana Republican and had to make this hideous senatorial choice.

Mourdock appears to want to be all things to all people, as he

is clear on one thing: he is not running as a tea party candidate. While he welcomes the support of tea party groups and says he expects them to coalesce around his campaign, he recognizes the limitations of being defined as a tea party candidate.

At the same time, it's impossible to root for Richard Lugar in this since he'll be eighty freakin' years old by the time the 2012 election occurs. Even Republicans in Indiana must be able to see when nominal public service becomes self-indulgence.

Same old same old

2011-02-24T08:44:00.009-05:00

MANIFESTO

Not surprisingly, the idiotic policies of Wisconsin's governor have led to similar reactions in other states—including Connecticut. Fortunately, the Constitution's State's new governor isn't trying to destroy public education—and with it the middle class—as is his Badger State counterpart.

In the midst of this teacher bashing another education story has come to light: Hartford's search for a new Superintendent of Schools, which has turned into the type of inane episode that the Insurance City is so well known for. Everybody looks bad in this, from the Board itself to the mayor. It just goes to show that Hartford will always be a second class city as long as it has such moronic leaders.

This is hilarious

2011-02-23T12:15:00.005-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

Oh, those crazy Spaniards.

Apple, cont'd.

2011-02-23T08:21:00.004-05:00

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

I've spoken before about the astonishing turnaround Apple has had in the past few years, and the fact that rumors abound whenever it's about to release something new just shows how dominant it's become in the tech market.

And many happy returns to Steve Jobs as he turns 56 tomorrow.

The other shoe falls

2011-02-22T16:58:00.004-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

I really hate to be a denizen in the state where this occurred, but

The NCAA committee on infractions has finally levied its sanctions against UConn, the most serious of which is a temporary separation of coach and program.

Jim Calhoun will be suspended for the first three Big East games of the 2011-12 season after the NCAA found him guilty of failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance and failing to monitor the program in areas of phone calls, text messages and inducements provided by a booster ...

UConn had already admitted that the basketball staff made impermissible phone calls to recruits and improperly distributed game tickets to high school and AAU coaches. UConn also agreed with the NCAA allegation that the university failed to monitor benefits and assistance provided by an agent to a basketball recruit.

But in separate responses, Calhoun and the university said there is no evidence to support the claim that Calhoun failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance.

The NCAA disagrees, stating, "Based on the scope and nature of the violations, the committee found the head coach failed to promote an atmosphere for compliance and failed to monitor the program regarding phone calls, text messages and inducements provided by the booster."

I think the punishment probably fits the crime, but I'm still struck by how St. Jim tried so hard to demonstrate his integrity when not a lot was apparent in this episode.

Blood in the streets?

2011-02-21T13:11:00.006-05:00

MANIFESTO

I've been out of the loop for a week, but the Wisconsin situation could be the seminal event in the ultimate unraveling of the American middle class.

The plutocrats have had no problem in giving billions of dollars to undeserving fellow plutocrats, but when it comes to providing some protection in retaining a living wage for the middle class, the Tea Partiers and their ilk will have none of it.

I've sung the refrain of blood in the streets before, but this time it sure does look like the barricades have been manned in Madison.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Today's Question (and answer)

2011-02-20T21:23:00.000-05:00

ESOTERICA

Can one get through a metal detector at St. Lucia's Hewanorra International Airport with a Swiss Army knife in his pocket?

Yes.

(It's good to be back in the good old US of A.)

Pretzels

2011-02-12T12:02:00.004-05:00

FOOD FIGHT

As one who's eaten at least a million pretzels in his life, I take a certain interest in "one of Slashfood's biggest taste tests to date."

Alas, I'm pretty disappointed with the results: Four of the twelve winners are Bachman products—a line I've stopped buying. The judges put a couple Utz products in the lower half of the list, and they're certainly deserving.

I'm surprised nothing from Herr's made the list. Moreover, it doesn't surprise me at all that Frito-Lay's hideous Rold Gold line is nowhere to be found in the list. Given its products' pervasiveness, its competitors would be in trouble if the Dallas company had any idea what a pretzel was supposed to taste like.

Smoke and mirrors

2011-02-11T09:21:00.002-05:00

MANIFESTO

For all the talk about deficit reduction and whatever other nonsense the Washingtonians are spewing these days, the fact remains that

[b]oth the White House and Republicans are only tackling domestic nondefense discretionary spending—a mere 10 percent of the federal budget.

"That is the ultimate irony here and the biggest frustration for any of us who watch the budget very closely," [blogger Stan] Collender says. "The truth is, though, that they're talking about cutting a very, very small part from a very small part of the budget.

"Until people start talking about Social Security, Medicare, agricultural price supports and revenues, this deficit's going to be high for a while."

While Collender includes revenue (i.e., higher taxes) in his list, he's still only partly right as he fails to include defense in the catalogue.

The Iraq and Afghanistan "wars" have cost the US $6 trillion thus far. (And the latter incursion suffers from a hideous strategy to boot!) If legislators were really interested in reducing costs and didn't have a hidden agenda in all of this, they might be able to see where cuts should and could easily be made.

Unfortunately, very few such legislators are around these days.

Pat Egan

2011-02-10T10:57:00.004-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

I saw this kid score 43 in the old Charter Oak Basketball Conference one night last decade, but it was always clear that his athletic future was in baseball.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that

Egan relies heavily on a low-90s sinker. He induces a ton of ground balls, pounds the strike zone, and ... also has a slider and a changeup.

Good luck to him. I'll be watching.

Quote of the Day

2011-02-10T09:06:00.002-05:00

MANIFESTO

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.

— Dr. Johnson as quoted by James Boswell

I can't help thinking of this as I note that BO

will propose cutting $2.5 billion from a program that provides heating assistance to poor people in his fiscal 2012 budget, a source familiar with the budget process said on Wednesday.

In the midst of this incredibly cold and snowy winter, this is already becoming a public relations nightmare.

This is astonishing

2011-02-09T14:43:00.005-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

Edsall deserves to leave if he's going to keep this guy from this high school on the bench.

h/t Chill.

Academically Adrift?

2011-02-09T07:22:00.003-05:00

MANIFESTO

I heard this story on the way in today, and while it doesn't necessarily surprise me, it's still pretty sad.

Richard Arum, a co-author of [Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses] and a professor of sociology at New York University, tells Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep that the fact that more than a third of students showed no improvement in critical thinking skills after four years at a university was cause for concern ...

At every university, however, there are students who defy the trend of a decline in hours spent studying — and who do improve their writing and thinking skills. The study found this to occur more frequently at more selective colleges and universities, where students learn slightly more and have slightly higher academic standards.

I suppose the latter phenomenon will probably occur at places like Johns Hopkins and Dartmouth, but when I'm watching a basketball game and look at students from places like Mississippi State, I can't help but think that they're wasting their time and their parents' money.

A wanted man

2011-02-08T11:40:00.003-05:00

MANIFESTO

Item:

A planned trip by [former president George W.] Bush to speak at the Switzerland-based United Israel Appeal later this week has been canceled after several human rights groups called for Swiss authorities to arrest Bush and investigate him for authorizing torture. Bush has traveled widely since leaving office, but not to Europe, where there is a strong tradition of international prosecutions.

The Swiss group and Bush's spokesman claim that it was threats of protest, not of legal action, that prompted the cancellation.

Golly. First it was goodbye to politcs, and now it's goodbye to Europe. Perhaps he can clear some more brush to take up his time.

The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001

2011-02-08T10:49:00.007-05:00

MANIFESTO

An extension for this horrible piece of legislation will come up for a vote any day now, and while

some rank-and-file Republicans are signaling they will resist efforts later this year to make the law permanent,

it's pretty clear that the hideously misnamed law will continue intact for another few months at least.

John Chait explains the Tea Party's enabling role in all this.

UPDATE — At least some people seem to be paying attention, although my own representative missed the boat.

This really bums me out

2011-02-07T21:08:00.002-05:00

MANIFESTO

My sister, who's in health care, apprised me of this over the weekend, and by God, it's unfortunately true:

Narcissistic personality disorder, characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance and the need for constant attention, has been eliminated from the upcoming manual of mental disorders ...

I've known too many people—most of them in educational administration—who suffered from some type of psychological abnormality, and NPD seemed to fit them to a tee.

I don't know how I'll be able to describe such awful behaviors when I no longer have the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to back me up.

Erica Hill

2011-02-07T15:17:00.000-05:00

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

I assume everyone who follows this blog knows that Erica Hill is a former student of mine, and the fact "that she was cheeky and seemed to have a sense of humor” can no doubt be attributed to the experiences she had in her ninth grade English class.

I'm just sayin'.

Getting what they paid for

2011-02-07T08:58:00.004-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

In its apparently never-ending attempt to make its premier event as meretricious as possible, the National Football League secured one Christina Aguilera to sing the nation's anthem at yesterday's Super Bowl®.

The results were about as one would expect.

Cripes. Give me the freakin' microphone: I'll take care of the duty, and it won't take me three minutes to do it, either.

Quote of the Day

2011-02-04T08:48:00.003-05:00

MANIFESTO

Just as you cannot be sorta pregnant, you cannot kinda support democracy, and only
when it does what you want. That's not "supporting democracy"; that's imperialism.

— David Sirota on the US's response to the doings in Egypt

Once again, there's an undercurrent of American exceptionalism in all of this. I.e., revolution was fine for the US, but God forbid other nations try it.

"Nullification"

2011-02-03T13:39:00.003-05:00

MANIFESTO

Steve Benen gets bent out of shape on the resurrection of this antebellum concept, but I don't see a lot of difference between nitwits in Idaho and Arizona "nullifying federal measures [they don't] like" and the moronic "signing statements" of Gorgeous George's administration.

Quote of the Day

2011-02-02T12:45:00.014-05:00

MANIFESTO

"What's been happening, first in Lebanon and then in Tunisia and now in Egypt and who
knows further afield, suggests that new forces have been unleashed and
we have no idea where they might lead [emphasis added] and what
new dynamics they might create."

— veteran Middle East correspondent Thanassis Cambanis on future possibilities

It certainly seems possible that we ain't seen nothing yet, but we can take solace that BO is right on top of things.

Glenn Greenwald

2011-02-02T11:13:00.001-05:00

MANIFESTO

Best wishes for a speedy recovery to one of the great harpooners on the Web.

Tipping their hands

2011-02-01T17:54:00.002-05:00

MANIFESTO

I've been amused a couple times today by people actually coming out and saying what's on their minds. First, it was a simpleton over at CNBC admitting that the US must support dictators to keep cheap oil flowing, and then it was Republicans owning up to their strategy of starving the beast of Obamacare.

It must be the snow.

We're better off than Egypt—right?

2011-01-31T10:31:00.007-05:00

MANIFESTO

R.J. Eskow explores the question.

You know, when one considers that Egypt has had

a government run by and for the rich and powerful; leaders who lecture others about "sacrifice" and deficits while cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy; a system so corrupt that rich executives can break the law without fear of being punished; increasing poverty and hardship even as the stock market rises; and now, a nation caught between a broken political system and a populist movement that could be hijacked by religious extremists at any moment,

the question assumes a certain topicality.

It's no wonder that Washington types are falling all over themselves trying to figure out whether to back those who are promoting democracy or the plutocrats who've been running the country for decades.

Why I fear for the Republic, cont'd.

2011-01-29T08:53:00.006-05:00

MANIFESTO

Just a few things to irritate me even more than the leaky roof does.

The revolution has not been in technology. The revolution has been that the immorally rich have finally rebelled against the very possibility of democracy and equality and are making sure to nail down any hole in their walls against the rabble, eliminate any possibility of clever "little people" being able to better themselves with hard work or clever ideas. It has become increasingly difficult for any small business to emerge or survive, for poor kids to work their way up to a decent living. And it's not an accident.

A government's policies determine who lives and who dies, who earns and who starves. Government makes the money and decides where to spend it. It can give to rich people and buy nothing in return, or it can give it to the rest of us and give us roads and jobs and a stable base of government-employed public servants whose steady income results in steady spending in the real economy and thus creates the private sector jobs. A government can set policies that protect its workers, or one that forces them to compete with the worst, most corrupt slave economies.

And

[W]e have spent the past thirty years doing everything we could to transfer the wealth of the nation into the bank accounts of the affluent, to send them victorious, happy and glorious, long to reign over us.

Oh, we’ve cut their taxes, gladly transferring much of the cost of keeping their holdings safe onto our own shoulders. We’ve furnished them with special megaphones so that their voices might be heard over the hubbub of the crowd. We have conferred upon them separate and better schools, their very own transportation system, and a full complement of private security guards. We’ve built an entire culture of courtiers and sycophants to make their every waking hour an otherworldly delight.

We let them build a system of bonuses and “executive compensation” on the theory that it would be good for everyone if the people on top got to take home much, much more. And when it turned out that the theory was wrong—that in the most famous cases the rich chased bonuses not to the shareholders’ benefit but at their expense—why, we promptly bailed them out. We allowed them to step up to the Fed’s discount window and fill their pockets, we generously transferred their dumb investments to our balance sheet, and we sent them off with little more than a request that they please not do it again.

BO implied in 2008 that this situation was going to "change," but when he asks the plutocratic Jeff Immelt to head his Economic Advisory Panel, it's pretty clear what we'll be ending up with.

Or, to put it another, much more famous, way: "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

For the film buffs

2011-01-29T08:24:00.001-05:00

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

All-time greatest Oscar heists according to Salon.

A Christian jihad

2011-01-27T08:29:00.002-05:00

MANIFESTO

It goes without saying that this kind of nonsense drives me crazy:

The National Women’s Law Center has just issued a report quoting doctors at Catholic-affiliated hospitals as saying that sometimes they are forced by church doctrine to provide substandard care to women with miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies in ways that can leave the women infertile or even endanger their lives.

The article is a maddening read, but, as usual, the comments are greatly entertaining (and even somewhat encouraging).

Re the SOTU

2011-01-26T11:10:00.002-05:00

MANIFESTO

What Krugman said.

My attention was devoted to other, more important, things in the Capitol last night.

UPDATE — I suppose I should give some reference to someone who thought "it was a good night for President Obama."

The money talks

2011-01-25T11:09:00.006-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

We obviously haven't seen the last of the Edsall repercussions:

A major donor to the University of Connecticut football program is demanding the return of $3 million in donations and the removal of his name from a campus building over disagreements with the athletic director.

... Robert Burton, chief executive of Greenwich-based Burton Capital Management LLC, outlined his demands in a letter this month to UConn Athletic Director Jeff Hathaway.In the letter, Burton expressed his displeasure over Hathaway's management style and complained about not being consulted during the search for a new football coach.

Now, this is obviously a story without a hero: Hathaway is an obvious buffoon and Burton is an oh-too-typical billionaire bully, but, at the very least, this is going to raise questions about UConn's already teetering football program.

I'm sure that Jeff Jacobs and his cretinous ilk will circle the wagons and denigrate Burton ad nauseam, but the fact remains that Pasqualoni's signing was half-fast and that Hathaway hardly seemed to know what was going on much of the time once Edsall resigned.

It just goes to show that UConn's football program should continue to struggle with no end in sight until the team's current coach and the school's current AD are gone.

Meanwhile, the SCOTUS Sphinx has taken care of his money problems—he didn't understand the directions, says the erstwhile Anita Hill abuser—but Common Cause isn't buying it.

"Justice Thomas sits on the highest court of the land, is called upon daily to understand and interpret the most complicated legal issues of our day and makes decisions that affect millions," said Common Cause President Bob Edgar. "It is hard to see how he could have misunderstood the simple directions of a federal disclosure form. We find his excuse is implausible."

I've gotta give the SS a pass on this one: I have no trouble believing that he couldn't understand the directions on the form involved.

UPDATE — As expected, Jeff Jacobs displays his bias.

Blah blah blah

2011-01-24T10:34:00.003-05:00

MANIFESTO

BO's blather tomorrow night will apparently center on the economy and competitiveness—whatever the hell that means.

But Ben Smith points out that these are issues the Republicans have already taken the lead on.

It warms my heart "that the [recent] election and the tax vote sent a positive signal to businesses" that they could start hiring again. Thank God for the Grand Old Party!

Art 101

2011-01-23T19:14:00.002-05:00

CRAPOLA

OK. This is pretty much the screwiest thing I ever seen.

(h/t Bill Maher)

Friday night news

2011-01-23T17:27:00.005-05:00

MANIFESTO

I can ascribe my ignorance about this item to the fact that it was released at 9:30 PM Friday night, or I can just chalk it up to my own lack of attention. Let's put it this way: It certainly wasn't a topic of conversation on any of this morning's gabfests.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed over the course of at least five years to report his wife's income from a conservative think-tank on his financial disclosures, according to the watchdog group Common Cause.

Between 2003 and 2007, Virginia Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, was paid $686,589 by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, according to a Common Cause review of IRS records. Thomas failed to note the income in his financial disclosure forms for those years, choosing instead to check a box titled "none" where "spousal non-investment income" would normally be disclosed.

Well, well, well. One of the stupidest SCOTUS justices ever is a crook to boot. Couple this with the fair Ginni's number one "This Year in Crazy" phone call to Anita Hill a few months ago, and you have the potential for one spouse to be behind bars and the other to spend some time in a rubber room.

Oh, that this comes to pass.

Why I miss Bob Reich in an administration

2011-01-23T07:59:00.003-05:00

MANIFESTO

The former Secretary of Labor and Rhodes Scholar suggests what BO should say Tuesday night anent the economy, concluding with

Most important, he should make it clear these measures would be good for everyone. Rich Americans would do better with a smaller share of a rapidly growing economy than with a large share of one stuck in a deep hole.

Indeed.

Chris Murphy

2011-01-21T12:48:00.005-05:00

MANIFESTO

While I'd probably rather pull out my fingernails than think about the 2012 election, I can't help but be impressed by Rep. Chris Murphy's opening salvo regarding his run for Holy Joe's Senate seat. Viz.,

"What I've heard is that people feel that the Senate simply doesn't work anymore — it's become an unjustifiable barrier to positive change, and Connecticut needs a fresh, progressive voice there that will push for both policy and institutional reform."

While I don't think he can effect "institutional reform"—believing as I do that the patient is much too sick for any kind of cure—I still like the fact that he's pitching himself as a "progressive voice." While the days of liberals identifying themselves as such is long gone, it's nice to see someone having no qualms about calling himself a "progressive."

Who knows? The Democratic race for the seat may evolve into a "Who's more liberal?" contest, and wouldn't that be extraordinary?

Senator Sanctimony is officially out, cont'd.

2011-01-20T17:10:00.004-05:00

MANIFESTO

But not soon enough, sweetheart.

If we thought he was reprehensible before yesterday, apparently we hadn't seen anything yet. Now that he doesn't have the prospect of an election hanging over him, Holy Joe can really go off the rails.

(h/t DarLucky)

UPDATE — And here's some more on Senator Sanctimony's no-brainer of a decision. (As is often the case, the comments are the best part.)

The good news

2011-01-20T07:29:00.002-05:00

MANIFESTO

Item:

In 2009, urban commuters lost five fewer hours in congestion than they did in 2006. Clogged roads last year caused the average urban commuter nationally to lose 34 hours, costing the driver $808, the report said.

"There might be a temptation to say we solved the problem, that congestion has gone away," [Texas Transportation Institute research engineer Tim] Lomax said. "As soon as the economy starts growing, cities will have a difficult time adding transportation services to keep up with the economy."

And therein lies the bad news.

What to do? What to do? Golly, it's not as if the nation's infrastructure is in the crapper, and millions of people are looking for work.

What to do? What to do?

"Here we go again."

2011-01-19T13:23:00.001-05:00

MANIFESTO

I can't say I'm particularly happy about this.

Senator Sanctimony is officially out

2011-01-19T12:59:00.005-05:00

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Here's his announcement. Everyone and his brother in the Constitution State is wondering who will replace Holy Joe in 2012, but I'd just as soon let the dust settle before we all get too excited.

Likewise, Atrios sees this event as a "victory." I'm afraid the state's senior senator's record over the last 22 years hasn't left me feeling any too triumphant.

The rise of "anti-Christianism"

2011-01-19T10:47:00.003-05:00

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For a variety of reasons, various wingnuts have perceived and decried a rising tide of anti-Christian sentiment recently. Viz.,

American Christians seem to think that the slings and arrows of outrageous secular fortunes are being directed towards them - as opposed to Muslims who, according to the Christian right, get all the breaks. (Obviously, these Christians aren't paying attention during the routine Fox Muslim bashing segments). Despite the reality that American Christianity is not under siege, the world of "Fox & Friends" is a world of aggrieved Christians and "Fox & Friends" knows how to get them to whine even louder. Any complaint, real or imagined, is perceived as part of a conspiracy against Christians - or as Steve Doocy expressed it "anti-Christian sentiment that might be prevalent." The conspiracy against Christians is, according to good Christian Gretchen Carlson, happening in Europe and could happen here! Oh, nooo. This morning, she reported that a European Union school calendar omitted Christian holidays but kept Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu holidays in. The European Union says it was it was a mistake which will be corrected but Gretch called bullshit on them. The shoulders of those on "Fox & Friends" must be getting a little stooped from carrying that old, rugged cross!

Juxtapose that sentiment with new Alabama Governor Robert Bentley's contention that non-Christians aren't his brethren, and one's head start to spin.

This is all such nonsense and ever so tiring. Christian, Jew, Muslim, Rastafarian, Pastafarian, ad nauseam: They've all got their own agendas centered around their egocentric notion that they know all the answers and others must see the wisdom of their ways. Such monomania has been directly responsible for most of the species' catastrophes and the deaths of millions of believers and non-believers throughout history.

"We are all Apple stockholders now."

2011-01-19T09:56:00.004-05:00

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Back in the 1980s and into the '90s, we stalwart few hung onto our Macs, feeling that they were superior to the bloated Wintel machines of our colleagues. It seemed an empty exercise as in, for example, 1992 only one in eight of all personal computers sold were Macs.

Now, of course, times have changed, and with the introduction of the iPhone, the iPod, the iPad, and everything else except the iRack, Apple has put intself in a position where it has become the Goliath to Microsoft's David. For example,

Apple alone accounts for more than a fifth of the widely followed Nasdaq 100 Index. Anyone investing in that index—such as through the widely-held PowerShares QQQ Trust—may think they are spreading their money broadly across all of America's top technology stocks. But, in truth, you are investing more of your money in Apple than you are in Qualcomm, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon.com and Cisco Systems—put together.

Thus, it's been a very interesting ride for Apple. And given its astonishing sales numbers released yesterday and the concern about Steve Jobs' health, it's obviously got a way to go.

And so it begins

2011-01-18T12:10:00.005-05:00

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Having a rough 2010 apparently isn't stopping the state's former Secretary of the State from running in 2012.

Nearly two years before the election, former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz plans to announce today her candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat-turned-independent Joe Lieberman.

Needless to say, I'll support any Democrat trying to get rid of the hideous Senator Sanctimony, but I can't say I'm especially enamored with Bysiewicz given all the petulant mewling she evinced last spring.

UPDATE — And the other shoe falls.

Quote of the Day

2011-01-17T08:31:00.008-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

“Everyone has a bad day now and again. We just didn’t expect it to be like this.”

— Chris Covill of Coventry, R.I. on yesterday's Pats' loss

For the second time in four years I'm mystified as to how a team can look like world beaters for a season (or, at least, for much of it) and then play like chumps at crunch time.

In my crestfallen state, I'll obviously have to adopt my Red Sox frame of mind—expecting little, but being happy when they do well—when it comes to the Patriots.

(And pitchers and catchers can report to their respective spring training camps exactly one month from today.)

UPDATE — NESN blogs what I've had on my mind for the last twenty hours.

With feet to spare

2011-01-15T11:30:00.006-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

This is hilarious:

Though he did not mention Jets coach Rex Ryan specifically, [Patriots wideout Wes Welker] managed to slip 11 references to feet or toes into his weekly meeting with reporters on Thursday, leading many to speculate that Welker was taking subtle jabs at the team's coach.

The coolest thing about this is that at no time did Welker give the game away; there weren't any sly looks or insinuating winks.

Well done, Mr Welker. You're as subtle with your verbal jabs as you are getting open on the gridiron.

Jesse Singal has more, but, at the risk of appearing disingenuous, it can be argued that no trash talk occurred at all. Certainly, Welker didn't do anything but use a number of turns of phrase that are pretty common. To accuse Welker of "stooping to a Ryan-esque level of trash talk, albeit in a far subtler, more clever way" seems a bit hyperbolic.

And, apparently, all of this excitement is leading somewhere.

Reagan and Alzheimer's

2011-01-15T07:39:00.005-05:00

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I think it's pretty much acknowledged by most Americans that our fortieth president suffered from Alzheimer's disease while he was in office—not that many would actually admit to that belief. His utter cluelessness during the Iran-Contra Affair and his incredibly inept performances at press conferences and presidential debates certainly gave me no doubt that the wires weren't always connected. Fortunately or unfortunately, the Alzheimer's diagnosis wasn't widely known in those days, and so whisperings of "senility" and like diagnoses were made.

Now, it turns out that Reagan almost certainly suffered from the syndrome.

[I]n 1989, doctors operating on Reagan expressed their belief he was suffering from the degenerative disease.

Ron Reagan writes that in July 1989, his father was thrown off a horse while visiting friends in Mexico. He received medical attention at a hospital in San Diego. When surgeons opened the president’s skull to relieve pressure they "detected what they took to be probable signs of Alzheimer’s disease." But no formal diagnosis was given.

By the time of that '89 accident, Reagan had been out of office for six months. But if his brain was showing evidence of the disease then, it seems logical that the disease actually would have started years earlier, back when he was in the White House.

I suppose it's too late to say "I told you so," but this is more grist for us who never thought much of the ketchup-is-a-vegetable chief executive.

And yet, the poor demented man is still looked upon as a paragon by too many 21st century politicians.

UPDATE — Steve Benen has more.

Quote of the Day

2011-01-14T09:33:00.005-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

"And UConn will become a I-AA program again within five years."

—WFAN's Craig Carton on UConn's decision to hire Paul Pasqualoni as its football coach

That pretty much encapsulates my feelings on this incredibly parochial and small time choice.

Quote of the Day

2011-01-12T12:37:00.002-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

From Shalise Manza Young in the Boston Globe:

Is this a bad time to bring up the fact that Cromartie has fathered nine children by eight different women and that the Jets had to front him $500,000 in salary this year so he could pay back child support?

Sunday can't come soon enough.

Phrase of the day

2011-01-12T11:20:00.007-05:00

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"Blood libel."

TPM, Steve Benen, and mistermix expound upon it.

(In meteorological news, it looks like our little thoroughfare has gotten more than 20" of snow so far. A positive effect: The local feathered fauna deify me more than ever.)

Quote of the Day

2011-01-11T14:10:00.006-05:00

SPORTING GOODS

"I might have a little quickness on him, he’s probably got a little strength and power on me. But I don’t think either one of us is making any blocks. At least, you won’t see me doing that. That’s probably a good thing for our team."

— Patriots' coach Bill Belichick on the bloviating Rex Ryan

Memo to Ryan: Shut up, you cretin!!!

Arizona thoughts

2011-01-11T08:54:00.006-05:00

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The Giffords situation has allowed Glenn Beck to increase his hysteria and attest that "an attempt on [Sarah Palin] could bring the republic down." His attitude is beneath contempt.

While all this tripe is going on, the cowardly conservatives see the murderous episode as one more example of terrorism and another chance to decrease civil liberties.

Finally, it's been left to Tucson's sheriff to call it as he sees it: that the Limbaughs and the Becks of the world are at least partly responsible for provoking these nutjobs into acts of violence.

UPDATE — Andrew Sullivan elucidates.

Waiting for 2012

2011-01-06T13:29:00.003-05:00

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Now that the Republicans have taken control of the House, it may not be too early to think about what the next election holds in store for us.

While it's interesting to note that Senator Sanctimony is essentially dead meat—with "an approval rating of 33 and a disapproval of 54 (a 21-point spread)"—it's discomfiting to think that "Republicans ... at least right now, [are] in a strong position to retake the Senate in two years."

Of course, the latter projection includes Holy Joe, who hasn't been a Democrat since 2006.

It seems to me that either the Crotchkicker or Rob Simmons will run for the Senate for the Republicans in 22 months. Needless to say, these are pretty slim pickings. Fortunately, the Dems seem to have more serious candidates in the mix.

Quote of the day

2011-01-06T11:00:00.005-05:00

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From Atrios:"Fiscally responsible" is code for cutting taxes on rich people and gutting
Social Security. Those are their goals, and that's always been the case.

Yesterday's signs of the Apocalypse

2011-01-06T08:55:00.003-05:00

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John Boehner becomes Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Adam Sandler is America's favorite comedic star.

We're doomed.

Randy Edsall, cont'd.

2011-01-05T12:37:00.001-05:00

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I knew Edsall made his decision too quickly.

Sarah and the e-mails

2011-01-05T07:18:00.003-05:00

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David Corn, who's been assiduous in his three-year quest for former Governor Go-go's e-mails while she was in office, reports this morning that Alaska

state Attorney General David Sullivan demanded that the governor's office submit a work plan that would state when the request [for the e-mails] would be finished, and now there's a target date: May 31, 2011.

Save the date. This could be interesting reading.

The latest poll

2011-01-05T07:12:00.000-05:00

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Chris Christie?