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Marshall Crenshaw - Someday Someway

2012-05-26T06:34:00.002-04:00

On Friday I dropped off Sushi at the vet hospital for radioiodine treatment to hopefully cure his hyperthyroidism problem. The poor little guy has lost weight and has not been well. We tried the pills which helped initially and then that stopped. His treatment was yesterday but now he has to be confined for two weeks at the hospital due to the radioactivity. (In the US, I read that the visit...

Downton Abbey spoof, Episode 1

2012-05-25T22:40:00.000-04:00

Everyone's raving about the Jimmy Fallon spoof of the TV show Downton Abbey. I didn't find it funny at all, but here's a link if you're a Downton or Fallon fan. Now, a spoof I did find funny (with a number of great actors) is this one below, from the BBC.

Trump again says Obama born in Kenya, Romney refuses to repudiate, will appear with Trump

2012-05-25T20:45:00.001-04:00

Not very Christian of you, Mitt.

Why both parties are wrong about expats

2012-05-25T19:05:00.000-04:00

As an actual expat, I continue to be impressed with the amount of diversion and distortion from both Democrats and Republicans when it comes to the "scandal" of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. As I mentioned before, I agree with Senators Schumer and Casey that Saverin should show more appreciation for the country that helped enable him to make his millions or billions. It's lame for him to...

Paul Krugman confirms the Cory Booker "friend of Wall Street" framing

2012-05-25T17:10:00.001-04:00

A Cory Booker follow-on. We wrote earlier ("Cory Booker wants back on the bus") that the Booker dust-up had many layers. (Click to get the gist; among other errors, he defended Bain Capital in a surrogate-appearance on Meet The Press and got a few people mad at him; one of them, his boss, Mr. Obama.) Our take was that this isn't just a "surrogate goes rogue" story, but a "why did Booker defend...

More newspapers moving away from dead-tree editions

2012-05-25T15:30:00.000-04:00

While I'm sure that's nice and eco-friendly, it also means they're losing a ton of ad revenue. Most publications get most of their ad monies from their print editions, not the online editions. I admit to having a nostalgia for the print paper, though I haven't read a print paper on a regular basis in years, but I do worry about the sustainability of the American media. We need them. A...

Video: One seriously lazy polar bear

2012-05-25T13:55:00.001-04:00

AP: Romney still fibbing about the "cost" of federal regulations

2012-05-25T12:31:00.000-04:00

Romney is counting on American voters to be too uneducated, or lazy, to know that he's lying. And judging by recent history - Americans' "opposition" to health care reform, but support for most of its provisions, comes to mind - Romney's is a winning strategy. AP: Romney's vow to repeal "job-killing regulations" that are costing the economy billions of dollars may not be as easy as he makes...

So cataract surgery in one eye cost $14,000

2012-05-25T10:55:00.001-04:00

Wow. I had to call the hospital to confirm the charge was for real. Mom said it had to be a mistake. I called the hospital. It's not a mistake. $13,185.00 alone just for the "hospital" charge for my non-eventful, routine cataract surgery in one eye. I didn't even get a multifocal lens. Add in the other charges, and the total comes to around $14,000.00....

Nancy Pelosi pre-emptively caves on Bush–Obama tax cuts

2012-05-25T09:15:00.000-04:00

Nancy Pelosi is making quite a name for herself. Unfortunately, the name is "ex-progressive" and "former San Francisco–liberal." The bottom line up top, then the details. We know that Pelosi wants her gavel back. We know that Obama wants his Grand Bargain; he's been saying so since 2006. This has all the earmarks of a trade. If so, the Pelosi–Obama bargain goes like this — "I get my...

Romney to woo black voters simply to convince white women that he likes blacks

2012-05-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

Wow, that's terribly cold and calculating. And it's consistent with what a Republican friend told me years ago. I remember being worried about former RNC chair Ken Mehlman's outreach to blacks, a good eight years ago. And a Republican friend corrected me, telling me not to worry about black voters defecting - the Republicans didn't want or expect their votes. What they were actually doing...

Muslim Brotherhood claim lead in Egyptian elections

2012-05-25T06:30:00.001-04:00

Although they weren't leading the protests that pushed out the last corrupt government, they've been around for a long time and have a solid ground game. Mubarak's government gave its best effort to shut down the Muslim Brotherhood but it was a losing battle for Mubarak. Whoever wins in Egypt is likely to be less friendly with the US though the last regime was less friendly with the population...

Spanish banks likely to need another cash injection

2012-05-25T00:15:00.000-04:00

The banks in Spain should consider themselves lucky if their losses are "only" 260 billion euros. It's hard not to walk down a street without seeing empty houses and condo buildings and the longer that stays on the market, the longer it will take to clear out. It's not a problem that can be solved in a few years. Even a decade is probably too fast to sell off the excess. The question now is...

Police arrest hundreds during student protests in Quebec

2012-05-24T22:25:00.001-04:00

The real crime here is that protests are no longer allowed. People take to the street when their voices are no longer heard so to shut down protests because the message is not appreciated. The local government has taken unprecedented and extreme actions that are counter to what anyone should expect from a Western democracy. In the case of Quebec, the most conservative government in decades...

Video: Tightrope #FAIL

2012-05-24T20:59:00.001-04:00

Elizabeth Warren now even with Scott Brown

2012-05-24T19:30:00.000-04:00

If there is one candidate that a progressive should want to win, it's Elizabeth Warren. She may not have received enough support from Obama when she was in Washington but now that she's running for the Senate seat in Massachusetts, we can all pitch in to help. The country needs a lot more Elizabeth Warren's in Washington. Elizabeth Warren, emerging from what many consider the roughest patch...

Austerity-hampered UK economy shrunk more than estimated

2012-05-24T18:01:00.000-04:00

It can't be stressed enough that the Republican plans for austerity in the US would destroy an already weak recovery. The Democrats really need to push back with modern examples of how bad austerity is hurting the tanking economies in Europe, especially the UK. Stimulus spending can't go on forever, but not spending will have damaging consequences. Bloomberg: The U.K. economy shrank more...

GOP Rep. compares Obama contraceptive rule to socialism and communism

2012-05-24T16:34:00.000-04:00

While the radio show he said it on compared the new rule to Nazism. Just ignore the fact that communism and Nazism were deadly enemies, because that's a bit over these guys' heads. Oh, and he's a Republican and from North Carolina. In case there were any doubt. The congressman's solution is to pass a law letting churches endorse political candidates, using their tax-free status to...

Top 10 Happiest Countries list announced

2012-05-24T15:00:00.007-04:00

I mean sure, if you like employment, health care, education and life satisfaction may be relevant. Otherwise, ignore. Happiest countries include: 1. Denmark 2. Norway 3. Netherlands 4. Switzerland 5. Austria All Europe.

A look behind the Matrix at the Facebook IPO "deal"

2012-05-24T13:35:00.001-04:00

A Facebook quick hits — another look behind the Matrix, this time at the Facebook IPO lawsuit (do click) and what it says about the "markets." Matt Taibbi sums things perfectly in this Taibblog post (my emphasis and paragraph tweakage): All of these stories suggest that Wall Street is increasingly turning into a giant favor-and-front-running factory, where the big banks and broker-dealers...

American Airlines bounced flyer over pro-choice t-shirt

2012-05-24T12:08:00.000-04:00

Besides being just another lousy airline, American Airlines is now the thought police and the decider of right and wrong. The wording on the t-shirt may be offensive to some, but that's the point. It's hardly as offensive as the background to the problem (or charging $25 for checked luggage). It's disturbing to read that American Airlines made a passenger miss a flight because the airlines...

Fox won't let lesbian host O'Reilly because she's gay

2012-05-24T10:42:00.002-04:00

And this was unexpected?

How the Blue Dog–DCCC axis really operates

2012-05-24T09:15:00.000-04:00

I've been writing about the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) for a while, wondering if their intentions aren't less progressive than they would have us believe (latest here). There's no better person to explain what the DCCC is — who they are and how they're wired — than Howie Klein of the excellent DownWithTyranny. He's just written an "all you need to know" piece on...

Pakistanis convict doctor, who helped hunt for bin Laden, of treason

2012-05-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

Wash Post: A Pakistani court imposed a 33-year sentence Wednesday on a doctor who assisted the CIA in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, prompting dismay among U.S. officials and warnings that the punishment will exacerbate strained relations and could lead to cuts in aid. Shakil Afridi, 48, a government surgeon in the semiautonomous Khyber Agency along the border with Afghanistan, was convicted...

Amnesty: UN Security Council "increasingly unfit for purpose"

2012-05-24T06:17:00.001-04:00

While the alternative (nothing) is worse, Amnesty International is not wrong either with their criticism. Leadership has been bad for years and the UN Security Council is almost irrelevant in times of crisis. It would require a unique event to get them to all agree on anything. Failure to seriously address Syria is only one example though the link provides quite a few others including gay...