Saturday, April 29, 2006

I wanna be a headline-writer.

Forget about paperback writer, a headline writer's the heavy-hitting dude. I mean, check out Reuters: "GDP Growth Strongest in 2 1/2 Years." Wowzer-dowzer!

Then scroll down the article to the meat of the matter. Not the funny math that makes up the GDP, but the math that matters: Wages. Here's what you'll find:

"PAY RISES LAG
Separately, the Labor Department said employment costs measuring what employers pay in wages and benefits rose at the slowest pace in seven years during the first quarter, which should temper concerns about potential wage-induced inflation."

So--the rich get richer and the poor stay poor. The Republican paradigm.

A related subject, somewhat related

One thing I enjoy: Anticipating outcomes. Like my Hillary Watch, to see with what ugliness she navigates between being a pro-war whore and, come 2006, an "I-told-you-so" peacenik. It's gonna be fun to watch.
Another, unrelated, development, but also fun to watch. What is the LPGA--the Ladies Professional Golf Association, for you incogniti--gonna do about the emerging dominance of their tour by "Orientals"? For example, as of today, the end of the next-to-last round of a large tournament in Florida, televised by a major network, the surnames of the three leaders, who're far ahead of the field, are Kim, Miyazato and Kim. Not a gringa in the bunch.

It's because they're good golfers, but land-o-goshen, they're awful TV draws, many barely able to speak English, with on-screen personalities of shy, sweet ladies, entirely unquotable. And--to repeat--not gringas.

Call me racist, but you watch, and giggle with me, as the LPGA finds a way to prevent this from becoming a regular occurence without, of course, admitting that what they want is more ladies with Western Hemisphere surnames on the leaderboard.

A bit of history

Print this out, press it into your scrapbook to give to your grandchildren so you can tell them that we knew, we really knew, what was happening to us.

Silver foot

Recall the remark by the woman governor of Texas, Anne Richards, commenting on Bush's father at the Democratic convention: "Poor George, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth"? Well, so was his son.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Oh, Please, please

Don't let this be b.s.

Diner

I just watched it on Turner Classic Movies. What a great flick. Fine soundtrack (I knew the words to most of the songs!), and a list of male actors that reads like a Who's Who in film and TV acting, plus Ellen Barkin. And it ends on a happy note, the wedding of the girl who passes the sports quiz to the Paul Reiser character. Great movie.

A Place in the Sun

It's on Turner Classic Movies tomorrow (Sunday) evening, with a repeat later in the week. Clift/Taylor, love and loss. Don't miss it. Along with the Brando/Malden classic, One-Eyed Jacks, it's a favorite of mine.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Breaking News!

FEMA recommends abolishing the Bush administration.

Can you imagine

what Sean Hannity or Michael Savage or Rush Limbaugh would be saying if Iraqi troops killed four American soldiers "by mistake"? (Scroll down to Samarra entry.)

No wonder Rove is sweating bullets

This be the judge what sits on the Scooter Libby case.

Gasoline prices

All these proposals ($100 rebates, oil drilling in Alaska, investigation of "price gouging")--so silly. Imagine the effect on oil prices if Bush (he wouldn't do it, of course, but imagine) announces that he wants to enter into bilateral talks with Iran about their nuclear program; announces a firm date for withdrawal from Iraq; announces that he will personally intervene in the pricing of oil at all levels--production cartels, refining cartels, distribution cartels; and that he's announcing huge tax benefits for alternative fuel. Could it happen? Not for the next three years, not while Bush is president. And by the time there's another president, it may be too late.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Monday, April 24, 2006

Maliki unmasked and unleashed

The new PM of Iraq, according to this analysis, is as bad as it gets. His appointment by our lackeys in Iraq was at our instance--Condi's and Bush's. Is this another--the final--egregious error they make in Iraq? How many more lives will it cost us--and the Iraqis?

Hooray for us

California Assemblyman Paul Koretz of Los Angeles has introduced a resolution calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Here's a site that announces it, and if you scroll down sets out of series of supporting actions you can take.

Enjoy.

Bush's belief that God supports his foreign policy

Caught on tape. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Earth Day propaganda

This Raw Story article--make sure to click through to read the "Earth Day" site to which Raw Story refers--pulls no punches. Our tax dollars are being used by the House Republican majority to attack environmentalists in the guise of supporting Earth Day. I mean, it's so baldly transparent that you think--as did the Germans in 1934--they can't get away with this. But they keeping doing such things, and they keep getting away with it.

"Still free"

That's the sign a tagger spray-painted on Air Force One. Check out the video here.

The guy's got way more guts than I.