Gas, Liquor, and Ammo

Geithner as Spock?

This is an economic post, so I wanted to make you laugh first, 'cause it's bleak. And after talking with a bunch of analysts, whom I trust implicitly to give me info to base my own families future hopes on, I gotta be honest . . .

I got pink-slipped last Thursday. Out on my ass in the worst economy in 25 years. In an industry that is on life-support. More in a minute . . .

First, I believe that life is about keeping our promises, and I made promises to my family . . . that my wife and I would retire with dignity. A promise to help my kids with their undergrad. Wedding for my daughter? Gratis. All of this was based upon the fact that for the last 80 years or so, the markets went generally up. The most plain vanilla mutual fund, left alone, grew around 11% for the last 25 years before fees. Bond funds around 6%. Market timers generally made 3%.

Until last year.

All correlations that I can get technical research on have been reset to zero. I have been reading until late just about every night. This is a meltdown where we have to find a new way, 'cause we are in a dark alley. You know this already . . .

As a good little capitalist-American, I bought the "social security won't be there" argument, that business needs some oversight, but that smart people start companies that make it, and investment banks propel the economy forward through smart loans as a result of serious due diligence, and not a handshake.

I also had faith that regulators in the financial world were not as revolving door as I thought. I was wrong.

I was wrong about so much . . . why shouldn't hedge funds be allowed to make $$ on the way down as well as up through short sells? Why shouldn't seeking alpha (or greater than average returns) be the holy grail?

Hedge funds manipulated market research, brokerage firms became the largest oil companies in the world through futures, banks made up highly complex fiction, and rating agencies who get paid by said banks put an "Aaa" stamp of approval on that fiction. All lies.

Back to my prospects. . .

I am luckier than others, because the family is healthy, and I have a few months salary in a money market. Three months, by our budget. Many, many, many, many others are dealing with choosing between meds and food. Or a house and food. I can use my industry knowledge to buy temporary high deductible health insurance rather than rip-off COBRA, and that will help some.

But here is the thing . . . I was kicking ass for for my company. Me and one other guy represented 50% of all departmental sales out of 10 people. I added $1.6 MM in yearly recurring revenues to the firms bottom line in a failing economy. Budgets have to be cut in bad times, Prodigal Son, C U.

Being a great performing, loyal, w2 employee does not mean anything anymore other than you are one day away from being shit-canned. These at-will work laws, union suppression, the total belief in unfettered free markets that police themselves. . . brother and sisters, there has to be another way.

I have one, and will post it later . . . but now, please excuse me. I am going to go wrestle around with the kids, kiss them, and get them ready for bed.

One last thought . . . in the end, a house is a house, car is just a car, but is a promise made to our kids for a better life than their folks, and then broken when they are too young to understand just one of life's hard lessons?

-Prodigal Son

Off the Deep End

Right Wing Radio hosts have been allowed to mouth off the most extremist views imaginable over the past thirty some odd years. Their work has created a group of people riddled with views so moronic and far fetched that even their own party is embarrased to put them on the news. In her documentary Right America: Feeling Wronged Alexandra Pelosi shows one Republican after another spouting lies about Obama...

Things like
Obama is a Socialist
Obama is a Muslim
Obama is the AntiChrist
Obama will take away your guns
Obama will abort babies right and left
and the biggest lie of all
All media is a left wing lie and everyone on the left is brainwashed by it. This despite Fox News and the literal domination of radio by Right Wing nutjobs like Rush Limbaugh.
These people, I believe, have come to make up the majority of all Republicans and that is horrifying. We have a nation filled with people who believe lies.

Current Events!

Maybe you or someone you know is a current-event-interested, young, democratic, student, citizen, liberal? If so, please behold and/or forward, a schedule:

Panhandle Young Democrats (PYDs) Chartering Meeting Feb 22, 2009
Day: Sun
Date: Feb 22
Time: 7pm to 9pm
Location: Cadillac Joe's
Address: 4111 Wolflin Avenue, Amarillo, TX
Contact: Brandon Dix, amarilloyoungdemocrats@gmail.com
Meeting and celebration to charter with the Texas Young Democrats, and to ratify our club constitution and by-laws. Food, drink and fun! Come be a Charter member!


Potter-Randall Democratic Club (PRDC) Monthly Meeting Feb 23, 2009
Day: Mon
Date: Feb 23
Time: 6:45pm
Location: Amarillo United Citizen Forum’s Black Historical Cultural Center
Address: 901 N Hayden, Amarillo, TX
Contact: Gentry Powell, Jr, 381-2012, pres@amarilloareademocrats.org
Prenis Williams speaks on “Black History Journeys Then and Now”. Refreshments and fellowship!


West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) Democrats Club Meeting Feb 25, 2009
Day: Wed
Date: Feb 25
Time: noon-12:45pm
Location: Jack B Kelley (JBK) Student Center, Room 13
Address/Map Hyper-link: WTAMU Campus, see building 2, Canyon, TX
Contact: Wes Condray, wcondray@wtamu.edu; Donna Raef, draef1@buffs.wtamu.edu; or Lisa Caid, lcaid@wtamu.edu
Free pizza! Membership is open to all WTAMU students, faculty, staff and alumni. Membership drive is now underway!


Amarillo United Citizens Forum (AUCF) Banquet Feb 28, 2009
Day: Sat
Date: Feb 28
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Black Historical Cultural Center
Address: 901 N. Hayden, Amarillo, TX
Cost: $15 per person, or table of eight for $12.50 per person (J Stein and B Dix have reserved tables)
Contact: AUCF; Jerry Stein, 351-2744, cletus@arn.net; Brandon Dix, amarilloyoungdemocrats@gmail.com
Volunteers wanted (contact B Dix) to help cook for and support the AUCF Banquet!


Liberals Welcome the Texas Observer “Opening the Eyes of Texas Since 1954” to the Conservative Texas Panhandle Feb 28, 2009
Day: Sat
Date: Feb 28
Time: 6:30-9:30pm
Location: Amarillo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Building
Address: 4901 Cornell (Across from Bonham Jr High), Amarillo, TX
Contact: 359-4473; or 626-2452
Call for story suggestions about the Texas Panhandle: can be investigative, ironic or humorous. Submit on letter-sized paper with suggested title, 2 - 3 sentences about the story and your contact information!
Find out what is really going on in the Lege, meet Editor Bob Moser and Publisher Carlton Carl, plus tamales, beer, wine, music and SPEECHES!

globe-news headlie of the day

"Okla. Senate defeats alternatives to evolution"

So, um, they now have to evolve, even in Oklahoma?

spacedark

"Thinking Republican" Has Become An Oxymoron

I have written before about how regrettable it is that we have such a divided politics in this country. It would be nice if we could have discussions about which of several reasonable ideas is most likely to produce a desired outcome. This would make our politics more worthy of a civilized nation, and more likely to result in some generally positive course of action, even if at the same time our political structure became rather less clear cut.

For better or worse, we do not have that luxury. The national Republican Party is dominated by people whose election depends upon building and maintaining convenient fictions for the consumption of voters who do not recognize the fictional nature of their preferences. Until these fictions can be completely blown up, and those who hold them relegated to the fringes of politics, we have no choice but to make common cause with everyone who will fight them. The Democratic Party, while certainly not perfect, is at least dominated by those with a willingness to be guided by fact and reason. That is why our politics remain very polarized, and explains the outcome of a new evaluation of members of Congress, based upon their voting patterns. In it, those Democrats rated least progressive outdistance the most progressive Republicans by considerable margins. While such analyses are necessarily imperfect, because they involve someone's estimation of the meaning and weight to give to individual votes that are, at least superficially, much more complicated, they do provide some insight. Specifically, as I have suggested previously, our objective must be not to quarrel too much among ourselves until we have induced a major change in the construction of the Republican Party. Until that party either disappears as a major force or restructures itself as a party willing to succumb to evidence and reasoning, they will be an unacceptable alternative that cannot be given any breathing room. In other words, if there is an opportunity to replace a generally less progressive Democrat with a more progressive one, then fine. But when the choice is between a Ben Nelson or a Mary Landrieu and a generic Republican, we are indeed well served to support the Democrat whole-heartedly.

President Obama's Weekly Address - 2/21/09

epilogue

First came word of renewed activity in the case of the Tylenol killer. Now, we hear that an arrest may be impending in the Candra Levy case. Locally, we've even seen sudden resolutions of cold cases.

What is this all about? Trying to tie up all the loose ends before the end of our civilization?

spacedark

problem: the horse has already left the barn solution: stuff the barn with public money

............................Piles of unread newspapers. (Michigan Daily)

I have way mixed feelings about this (also here). Both articles are a bit vague on where the endowment ($5 billion for the New York Times alone) would come from, but, in the current economy, it's hard to imagine it coming from anywhere but the federal government. On the one hand, call me Grover (Norquist, not the muppet), but my knee jerks against the idea of the U.S. government having a state-owned media, its own personal Pravda.¹ On the other hand, the news media hasn't really been independent anyway since the newspapers and the television stations all became subsidiaries of the corporate megaliths. On the third hand, I'm dubious whether the newspapers are worth saving. For example, Kamiya makes a big deal about field reporting-- but field reporting has been dying since the eighties. The world is already the "less known place" he fears. On the fourth hand, the partially publicly-funded media that already exist-- PBS and NPR-- do actually do a better job of reporting (with fewer resources) than the mainstream media. On the fifth hand, I barely read newsprint anymore. I read even the Amarillo Indy online (though I do pick up a couple of copies at Market Street, figuring that will somehow help George with his advertisers. I promptly drop them in the recycling bins.) On the sixth hand, I...uh...do the crosswords. When I'm really bored.

spacedark

¹Yes, I wrote that. This isn't the fake Spacedark. Here, maybe this comment will help: didn't we bitch about excessive government control of Fox News throughout the Bush years?

Snoop Dawg Steele n da G 2da O 2da P

Uh I'm not sure what to say about this but ... lol.

What exactly is an "urban-suburban hip-hop setting" anyway?

"The system failed."

"And why is that?", the Globe-Republican asks. Could it have anything to do with the laissez-faire policies espoused by your paper throughout the Bush years? The same hands-off attitude that allowed our financial system to go rocketing out of control? Let the markets decide? Well, the markets decided. Whether it's peanuts or credit default swaps the market decided it's best to look the other way, ultimately putting us all at risk.

Fresh From The Crime Lab

The PTS forensic lab, from an undisclosed, secure location, releases the following evidence in support of the Karl Rove-Heinrich Himmler association previously revealed by Lequino. It had previously been thought that Rove more resembled Nazi master propagandist Freidrich Goebbels, but the following DNA fingerprint evidence firmly establishes that Rove is none other than Himmler, or his more evil twin. Starting on the left, lane 1 is Rove, followed by lane 2, Goebbels; lane 3, Joseph Stalin; lane 4, Pol Pot; lane 5, Himmler; lane 6 Dick Cheney.

Food for thought, indeed.

Family matters

Karl Rove is hoping we'll buy into his notion that the economic stimulus is just the Democrats taking a page from the Republican handbook of trickle down economics. Touche Karl, you've really put a poinard in our ass with your commentary. Ouch babe!

Of course in usual Republican style you argue for more corporate handouts and less in the way of health care and education. Wait that kinda sounds like... let's see more money for corporations... uh money to the wealthy... you mean you're arguing that we need to give money to the rich to trickle down to the poor but that giving money to the poor to educate them is actually trickle down economics... I ... uh... did I misunderstand you? Ah well no matter.

For you see (CQTH (chuckles quietly to himself) )I'm afraid (for your sake) that the scientists here at PTS have got you this time.

FOR YOU SEE!!!!

New DNA evidence uncovered in the Panhandle Truth Squad science lab located at Polk and Burr, proves (at least as far as I'm concerned) that Rove is a more well fed but just as shifty clone of famous Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler. Ha ha charade you are!!!

Hey, You Repub Idiots . . .

Remember when Darth Cheney said, "Reagan proved deficits don't matter."

Was he a lying sack then, or are you Rethugs lying sacks now?

Oh, and Jim DeMint (R, Confederacy), when you out and out LIE about the stimulus, you do not have a pot to piss in.

Just sayin . . .

-Prodigal Son

Couldn't have said it better myself

Begala points out that S. Carolina already gets more back from federal spending than it pays in taxes. So I say let's let Governor Sanford's state off the hook completely. They don't have to pay any federal taxes but don't get any federal money either. Nothing...not from the stimulus package and not from current programs. We'll save a lot of cash.

There you go Sanford...happy now?

You might also notice that Begala rightly points out that Sanford made no new suggestions on how to solve the crisis, just the same old Republican stuff that got us where we are today. I'll go ahead and paste in Sanford's solutions (from Begala's article) for the crisis...see if they don't look familiar.

"... cutting the payroll tax, opening foreign markets through an expansion of our trade agreements, and reducing our corporate tax, which is among the highest worldwide."

It's the same, pump up supply side, economic policy that has put us in a situation where we're swimming in supply and no one can buy anything. I'm not an economist but come on, you can't keep building supply when there is no demand.

Republican solutions according to Sanford

Cutting payroll tax -- Why so these guys can make more product and remodel their offices?

Open Foreign markets -- I'd say they're pretty well open now...especially where our manufacturing jobs are concerned.

Expand Trade Agreements -- Do you think we can build cheaper products than countries where they have slave labor...duh I don't think so.

Reduce Corporate Tax -- See "cutting Payroll Tax" except add golden parachutes.

It's the highest in the world -- Yeah but we also have the highest salaries in the world, by far -- think other things factor into our corporate tax rate? -- think corporate tax lawyers haven't got about a million other loopholes they can jump through to avoid paying taxes-- Haven't seen the statistics showing the number of corporations that pay nothing in taxes? -- think it might just be another way for greedy business jerks to rip taxpayers off?

Amarillo United Citizens Forum

It's coming up real quick.......

The Amarillo United Citizens Forum banquet is set for Saturday, February 28,
2009 at 6:30 PM at the Black Historical Cultural Center, 901 N. Hayden. The
price is $15.00 per person but if we get a table of eight, the price is
$12.50 per person.

As Democrats, let's at least get one table. Jerry Stein is in charge of
making up the table(or tables). Please let him know by Monday, February 16,
2009. Jerry's number is 351-2744 or E-Mail Address is cletus@arn.net.

Sylvia Perkins
HQ Executive Cmt. Chair

President Obama's Weekly Address - 2/14/09

Thank God for those reminders for fiscal responsibility

Republican Mark Sanford reminds us all that we shouldn't mortgage the futures of our children. Guess he and his fellow Republicans didn't think about that when they set record deficits every year of Bush's two terms.

nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky

We hear that David H. Henry, Dave-the-wingnut, occasional Ghostly Voice^TM of the Amarillo Globe-Republican, will no longer be cutting-and-pasting text from the Limbaugh Letter to the Opinion Page. Apparently, he's been transferred back to the Sports Desk. (Rest easy, though, Globe-Republican fans. Jon Mark Beilue, at this writing, is still on the Old-Men-Drinking-Coffee beat.)

We know. The Ghostly Voice^TM was supposed to be the "hysterical historical voice" of the Globe-Republican and not Dave Henry's personal opinions gleaned from an overdose of Fox News and cheap vodka from a plastic bottle, but if you believe that you probably also believe that the Canadian "River" is actually a body of water and not just a ditch running through the northern Panhandle. So, we have to ask, whither the Ghostly Voice^TM? Will the mythical spectral journo be able to maintain the façade of party-line wingnuttery without Mr. Henry's distinctive perspective? What, in the bigger picture, will happen to Globe-Republican conservatism in the Post-Partisan Era of Obama? (What will happen to PTS? the CTs will ask. But we'll take care of ourselves, thank you very much.) Virgil's long gone. Without Dave, the Globe-Republican Opinion page is reduced to John Kanelis' nanny-stateism, which– to be perfectly honest– annoys conservatives just as much as it does us. I know. I've talked to them. They– shudder– blame Kanelips on us.

I guess there's always Sagan. (Is there?) If you know what he believes, you should send him an email and let him know.

Are you there, our Once and Future Sportswriter? Dave? Listen to us: we're being honest. We'll miss you, man. And we're glad– genuinely glad– that the reprehensible neocon policies that have cost so many their jobs – policies, honesty compels us to add, that you mouthed– have not cost you yours. At least not completely. At least not yet.

We honestly hope you can hold on at the paper¹, in some capacity. We don't want anyone causing you any grief, any hurt, or any pain.

Well, besides us, I mean.

spacedark

¹ Though to refer to it as a "paper" seems a bit quaint, dunnit?

President Obama's Weekly Address - 2/7/09

Flies In The Stall

I have recently been reading The Tipping Point, by journalist Malcolm Gladwell. The basic premise is that large social changes can be catalyzed by seemingly small efforts, if done in the right way. While, as an academic exercise, the book reeks of typically sloppy journalistic style, it nevertheless hits on a vitally important, if not new idea. Anthropologist Margaret Mead is credited with the quotation, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." So, the idea has a long history. Still, the collection of examples that Gladwell puts together, many of which are not intuitive, is quite instructive.

It turns out that while we humans often act irrationally, our group behavior can still be predicted if we understand what motivates most of us. A lot of the time, we are not considering the logical or long-term consequences of our actions, but are merely responding to the cues in our environment and applying our preferences to them. A great summary of that is work described by two economists, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, regarding the principle of "nudging", how to induce people to act in our own best interest or in society's best interest by providing us with small cues that respond to our irrational impulses. A particularly intriguing, if silly, example, is provided in Thaler's work on male urination behavior. Seems that if images of flies are placed in urinal bowls, we "aim" at them, and the result is less stray urine to clean up.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Sunstein is President Obama's choice to lead the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, where he might become "nudger in chief." Expect these principles to also be applied to Obama's legislative priorities.

_

Hey, KKK members recruiting in Pampa . . .

President Obama has some words for you, too.

spacedark

The Carrion Picker complains

Corporate crow Carly Fiorini calls out to her fellow bone pickers to tell us all that she has the right to earn as much in a day as the average guy earns in a year.

Thanks Reagan for starting us down this "free market is God Almighty" path thirty years ago. We almost had the swamp drained but you refilled it and now we're so overstocked with greedy gators like Fiorini we'll need more than a few shotguns to take care of the problem.

Bravo Obama, your plan to limit corporate pay in exchange for my tax dollars will go some distance in quelling some of the behavior of these corporate lizards. Fiorini and other corporate crocs have fattened themselves on the plate laid before them by their Republican slaves for so long they don't even realize their day is coming.

My only regret is that the plan could not be comprehensive. We need to put a gigantic pump squarly in the middle of the reptilian brained, greed addled, culture that is our investment/ banking/ lending/ insurance/ medical/ weapons foundering, overdriven cesspool of a swamp. We need to drain that muggy mosquito ridden lowland and like ranchers slaughtering disease ridden cattle in a pit systematically destroy every Fioriniesque Gila Monster crawling around in the muddy remains.

Where's my rifle goddammit!!!

Send in the Clowns

Speaking truth to power in Amarillo tends to fall on deaf ears.

Fact: Amarillo’s leadership at the Chamber of Commerce, the Amarillo Economic Development Corp. and City Hall are in denial about the amount of poverty in Amarillo, how good the business climate is and how strong the economy is.

The credibility of those in leadership goes to the heart of “Amarillo: The State of the Economy” presentation that Mayor Debra McCartt substituted for a State of the City address. McCartt chose Gary Molberg, president of the Chamber, and Richard “Buzz” David, AEDC chief executive, two of the biggest business boosters, to conspire with her to spin how good the economy is in Amarillo. That presentation on KACV-TV Tuesday evening bears repeated watching and viewers should do so with an extremely critical eye.

First, no panelist spoke the “unvarnished truth” as they promised. Few of their responses were direct answers to the questions from moderator Ellen Robertson Green, who made clear that the show was McCartt’s and that the two cheerleaders were the mayor’s choice. McCartt could have shown more respect for the truth had she invited someone paid to be objective, like an economist or business professor. Instead, she revealed more about herself than she realized. She gave the public a choice between the “unvarnished truth” and a verbal dance and the public got the soft shoe.

Other “leaders” are part of the spin. Marc Gilmour, general manager of KVII-Channel 7, recently ran promotions about our “strong local economy” just days after laying off staff. In an e-mail to Green, Gilmour argued the layoffs were the result of weakness elsewhere in Barrington Broadcasting Co. But, it still doesn’t change the fact that the layoffs occurred in Amarillo and Barrington and KVII are contributing to economic difficulties in this city rather than helping by telling the truth. And they have, last we looked, a news department.

Molberg and David each provided flawed information. Molberg claimed that he thinks a lot about the small business community in Amarillo. But, talk to several of the small businesspeople in town and they will tell you that the Chamber is not responsive to them. It is run by representatives of the large businesses and small businesses receive short shrift.

And David characterized the data on subsidized or free school lunches, a reflection of poverty in the community, as “typical” of the United States and Texas. However, according to the Texas Education Agency, AISD’s students are more beset by poverty than elsewhere. The state average for subsidized or free lunches in schools is 55 percent of students, while the percentage in AISD is 62 percent.

Amarillo deserves honesty from its leadership and it is well past time we get it.

How Obama Gets His Groove back

The media have bought into the Rethug line on the stimulus bill, The rethugs are extracting favors like Senate picks when they should be groveling for forgiveness for the past 8 years.

The perception is Obama is faltering. The Rethugs, villagers, and establishment Washington want to "Take Him Down a Peg."

Well, he is the President, and here's how he can win, and get this stimulus bill wrapped and shut the critics up.

I respectfully suggest that the President co-op 5 minutes at the beginning of the evening news. Tonight. Every channel, even cable.

Just take 5 minutes, and use a power point to show us how the bill will help. Say directly who is holding up the train (republican bastards) and a specific example of how this is hurting America. That they are hurting your family to make a political point.

At the end, ask for our help and flash the switchboard number to congress. Tell us to call in the morning at 9 AM and ask our congress critter/senator to put America first and support the stim bill now!

We need an FDR moment here. Simple. Direct. Bypasses the Broder/Scarborough/Will/Dowd/ crowd.

BTW, when I have called the white house switchboard (202-456-1414) to suggest this, I have asked to be connected to:

Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel

Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina

Deputy Chief of Staff Mona Sutphen

Senior Adviser David Axelrod

Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett

Senior Adviser Pete Rouse

I was always put moved to general comments. Can anyone pass this message on from a regular guy?

-Prodigal Son

rumor has it...

I'm publishing this because we're a blog with no standards of verification. And we've heard it from multiple sources.

Word around town is that the Globe-News will stop publishing a print edition this fall and go online only.

If this is true, the Independent will be excited because they'll be the only general-interest newsprint in town.

We'll be excited because the Globe-News will have no more credibility than the Panhandle Truth Squad. But we'll miss the crossword puzzles.

Again, this may be just a rumor, one the Globe-News should nip in the bud if untrue. But with the bankruptcy and the cutting back to two sections...

spacedark

Good...

Tom Daschle Withdraws Nomination For HHS Secretary

What's To Be Done?

I've followed the development of the +$800 billion stimulus bill and its debate in the House and now the Senate. It doesn't take long to fall behind in understanding this complex legislation, to become frustrated at it all. Some of it will do what is intended - generate activity in the economy; and some of it probably won't. I sense though, that it will fall far short of what we need.

So, what needs to be done?

There are at least three interrelated challenges we face.

First, we must arrest the increase of greenhouse gases and stabilize carbon dioxide at less than 350 ppm (we're currently at 385 ppm and increasing almost 2 ppm/year). If we achieved that, global warming would probably be held to less than 3.6 deg F, which would avert the most catastrophic effects of planetary warming. If we don't, humans are in for a scale of change that our current 'civilization' hasn't ever faced. I'm talking major hard times for us and the ecosystems we depend on.

Second, we must eliminate our dependence on imported oil. The major mission of our global military imperium is to protect and ensure a reliable supply of oil. It's why we maintain hundreds of military installations around the world projecting American power, why we invaded Iraq, why we coddle Arab dictators and kings, why our balance of trade is so out of whack. It's an addiction that could hit us cold turkey when we slide down the backside of the peak oil curve not long from now.

Third, we must create new jobs - jobs that afford a decent living wage, jobs that will stay in America - dignified, productive, socially valuable jobs that contribute to making this a better place.

The key to these three challenges is that we must transition, as quickly as possible, to a non-fossil fuel based energy economy. It took a World War to pull us out of the Great Depression. And it will take a similar, probably even greater, effort to transform our economy and society and get us out of the descending, steadily warming handbasket we find ourselves in now.

Instead of bombers and battleships, we build wind generators and solar collectors and smart grids. Instead of tanks and jeeps, we build light rail and electric cars. Instead of victory gardens, we embrace community supported agriculture and become localvores. Instead of a military draft, we employ an army of experts to retrofit our buildings to be energy efficient. Instead of debt to China, we sell Renew Bonds to invest in our transformation here at home.

If we can do these, we could build a low carbon, sustainable, renewable energy economy that reduces global warming and its negative impacts, that eliminates our dependency on foreign energy sources and the need to protect them, and that creates new jobs for a sustainable economy that plugs the leaks that drain our wealth.

Nothing less is going to save us from a world of hurt.

The change I believe in would have President Obama call on the American people to rise to meet these challenges. We don't need a new New Deal that tinkers around the edges, but a Great Transformation that will create an economy and society that will give us a fighting chance to pass on a better world. That's the speech I want to hear, the direction I want to pull in, and the hope and change I want President Obama to articulate and lead us toward.

What do you think? Will we hear that speech?

President Obama's Weekly Address - 1/31/09

Waaayyy off topic

Hey, it's cool to branch out. My firms national conference might go to Vegas next year, economy allowing, and I always wanted to go to Star Trek the Experience in Vegas, have a drink at Quark's bar. Nope . . . it's closed! Kaaaahhhhnnn !

Prob was better than this oldie SNL skit might imply, LOL




It would have been cool, but maybe robot chicken was right . . .



The ride part looked fun . . .



It lasted 11 years, back then there was 2 series on TV, First Contact was a hit. Know what is amazing? That all of the videos on youtube exist. Historians will have more than they know what to do with 200 years from now. Imagine if we could have seen George Washingtons first steps? Heard his voice?

That's Trekkie not Trekker you motherless son of a Targ! Qua Plah!

-Prodigal Son

Globe-News' owner hires bankruptcy experts

Morris Communications turns to the big guns for help with its money troubles By Greg Rohloff The Amarillo Independent Financially troubled Morris Communications, owner of the Amarillo Globe-News, announced on Monday that it had hired financial adviser Lazard Freres & Co. and Chicago law firm Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg to help it sort out its financial mess.

Morris Communications is hardly alone in the corporate newspaper world with declining revenues and debts it may not be able to pay.

Rooting for the Cards

Superbowl is coming, and that means eating brisket, enchiladas, fresh guac, cheese quesadillas for the kids, and good bourbon at casa Prodigal Son.

I am cheering for the cardinals because of their quarterback, former grocery store stocker and old man at 37 KURT WARNER: More from Snopes

His special needs adopted son Zachary gave Kurt a home made card in 2000 after the rams won the NFC. It said, "You are as a good a dad as you are a quarterback."

Zach, I hear ya . . .

Oh, and this is a blog for liberals, so how did Brenda, former marine, mom, and pregnant with one child and raising a special needs kid, put herself through nursing school? Food stamps and student loans. Suck it righties.

And . . . GO CARDS!

-Prodigal Son

PRDC

You are cordially invited to attend

The Potter-Randall Democrats Meeting

Monday, January 26, 2009

6:45 PM Refreshments and Fellowship

Amarillo Public Library

Southwest Branch

6801 SW 45th

Program: David Rausch, Prof. Political Science

West Texas A&M University

"Review of Election Day Surveys"

Club Dues for 2009 are due

Big Bad John

Texas Senator John "The Waterboy" Cornyn has signaled that he will do virtually anything to protect the backside of his patrons, the Bushes. Rather than admit that elections have consequences, and that he has no real reason to oppose the nomination of Atty. General nominee Eric Holder, Cornyn instead is leading the charge to place a "hold" on this nomination which is critical to the incoming administration in numerous ways. Unless his little fishing expedition turns up something unexpected, he can only succeed in delaying the nomination for about a week. Still, he is playing the "tough guy" and pretending to be greatly concerned that the justice department will now treat waterboarding as torture, and that Holder states that "no one is above the law." Cornyn wants us to believe that his concern is for "intelligence professionals" who could be legally liable. In fact, of course, if those professionals were ordered to do what they did by a presidential directive, it is not the CIA guys who would be at most risk. That is transparently the real reason behind Cornyn's gambit. It really makes you wonder what, exactly, Cornyn had to do to get his job.

RecantAmarillo's Map o' Sins

RecantAmarillo's Map o' Sins has been updated! Keep reporting your friends and neighbors who are sinful sinners! If you've made a suggestion below that has not yet been added, we'll probably get to it just as soon as we regain sobriety.

spacedark

Two Pins For The Price Of One

You can get two TalibanAmarillo pins for the price of one tonight.

After the Avenue 10 theater (red pin - "gay theater") was shut down under suspicious circumstances, the Amarillo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (green pin, "idol worship") offered use of their church so that Avenue 10 could continue staging Bent.

Bent is a Pulitzer-prize winning play by Martin Sherman about the persecution of gay men in Nazi Germany. The original West End production starred Ian McKellen (Gandalf for you Hobbitses). The Broadway production starred Richard Gere.

Amarillo's production of Bent is directed by Jessica Burton and stars Tommy Toliver as Max, Ronnie Nanos as Horst and Bobby Hallmark as Rudy.

The show will sell out, so be sure to make reservations. Call 444-2637.

Bent
tonight, Jan. 23, Saturday, Jan. 24 and Fri. Jan 30
Amarillo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
4901 Cornell
8 pm curtain time


New description for AUUF's pin:

Note:

They also host on thier campus a gay theater

that premots homosexuality in our youth through

theatrical influences. The group calls themselfs

Avenue10.

Do you have a pin yet?

crawford, ranch, circa 2013

(partial draft of a future wikipedia entry) This "ranch" was used as a propaganda device by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It was permanently abandoned in January, 2009. Recent debate had centered on how to construct a long-lasting structure around the ranch to warn off future generations, similar to those built around nuclear waste dumps.

And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Hope,
spacedark

The End Of An Error

This isn't really about Dubya. It really hasn't been for a long time now.

Yes, it was too bad that the whole country had to suffer for eight long years. Yes, it's too bad that some still don't understand that the planet cannot afford to be run by a self-important imbecile. And, yes, it will be important for those who ran the ship of state aground be held to account.

But this is not that time quite yet.

It is time for a sober look forward to the new opportunities that await following the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States. That is not to say that there are not significant challenges. Oh, boy, are there. The incoming administration is well aware of them, but in case you've forgotten, we are engaged in two wars, at least one of which was entered upon on demonstrably false pretenses. We have a massive economic crisis at a time when the government is already bleeding red ink to the tune of trillions of formerly valuable dollars. We are running low on fossil fuels, which is none too soon since they are largely responsible for a looming climate catastrophe if we don't act quickly and boldly. We have turned the world's oldest democracy into a worldwide laughing stock for arrogantly abandoning our precious principles because 19 Islamic morons managed to fly a couple of planes into downtown Manhattan. We have turned our schools into corporate profit centers that cherry pick the best students and then claim "progress." Oh, and then there's the run-of-the-mill messes like health insurance, Palestine, ozone depletion and gang warfare.

So, what "opportunities" am I talking about? Well, curiously, the very bad situation we find ourselves in is a form of opportunity. It means that President Obama will have a great deal of running room to "try things" and figure out what works. Obama's greatest asset is his charm, which he will use to generate the support he needs for implementing some strong medicine. His first moves will be designed to demonstrate that the new sherriff in town is truly a "uniter, not a divider." He can quickly reverse the culture in the administration, restoring respect for rule of law and the value of science. His shrewd praise for his recent political opponents is not designed to embrace their ideology, but to defang them. He will borrow a few ideas, and keep a few of the best people, and that will make it tough on them to stab him in the back. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the package of economic investments that was announced last week is just the first of several big changes that will pass Congress. He'll need to demonstrate that unifying talk and bold decisions are not incompatible. He'll need public buy-in for the concept of national dialogue that leads to important decisions. It's sort of the cyberage version of a constitutional convention.

The key will be getting that kind of conversation going, because, as I said at the top, it's not about Dubya. It's about having the public engaged in a politics that is about rational, need-based problem-solving. Once that's in place, there will no longer be room for a national political party that cynically preys upon fear and replaces problem-solving with comfortable ideology. Yes, that's a truly ambitious agenda, but it's the real agenda here. We are after nothing less than the remaking of our political system into one whose primary question isn't "what do we believe", but rather, "how do we solve our problems?"

_

New Troll Warning

It looks like Mr. Troll doesn't like to be called out as I did in my column. Here is the first of two e-mails he sent me at the Indy:

Since you like publishing half truths and emails. I published yours and some half truths about you on a few choice sites. I will make sure you and your paper will never be trusted.

The second e-mail said this: Private boards that are watched like a hawk. All 3 very small due to that. Again half truths and lies. I will make sure people around here cannot trust you.

One place for trolls to wreak their havoc is on the posting boards like AmarilloTalk or Wolfman's Hideaway or on blogs like Panhandle Truth Squad.

I thought a heads up would be appropriate. This kind of trolling is getting out of hand. It shows a dark side to the Internet.

Frankly, I don’t care if he tries to attack me or the Indy. His credibility will never be as good as mine because people know who I am. Hiding behind a screen name is cowardice.

Amarillo's Inaugural Ball

Trolls

My column in this week's Indy discussed the problem of trolling.

I outlined some of the background and then pointed out that someone was posting to the AGN Web site under a false name — pretending to be the head of RepentAmarillo, David H. Grisham.

I explain in the column that someone e-mailed me at the Indy and admitted it. Funny, too, that it was "normrock2112@yahoo.com," who didn’t answer my e-mail when I wrote him asking him to unmask himself.

The last time I wrote about the Internet and local boards and blogs, I got kicked off another board. I doubt that will happen here.

I’d like to thank Spacedark for helping me with the column, by pointing me to the New York Times Magazine story on trolling and for the moral support.

sinners in the hands of an angry blogger

The first draft of Panhandle Truth Squad's RecantAmarillo Map o' Sins is now live. This is our attempt to help repentamarillo.com identify the 67,000 sinners in Amarillo who are traveling on that proverbial I-40 to Hell. This is a work-in-progress, and you, too, can help! Let us know where the sinners are in Amarillo, and we'll add them to the map.

spacedark

Christian Taliban

‘Christian’ Taliban targets Amarillo

The Amarillo Independent’s management and staff have historically taken a live-and let- live approach to people’s religious beliefs. But a group in Amarillo has reared its head, and an ugly head it is.

RepentAmarillo, a group that on New Year’s Eve stood outside an alleged swingers club and claimed it was “witnessing” not “protesting,” can only be described as a true example of “Christian” Taliban. They refer to themselves as the Marines of spiritual warfare.

So far, the “witnessing” in front of the swingers club hasn’t resulted in much mayhem.

But a look at RepentAmarillo’s Web site (www.repentamarillo. com) is chilling for its aggression, for what it deems worthy of its attention and for its range of targets that include mainstream Christian churches and organizations in this city that do great good.

Their mission is to target Earth Day events as Earth worship or breast cancer events like Race for the Cure “to illuminate the link between abortion and breast cancer.” Organizations targeted as sites for “occult witchcraft” include the Masonic Lodge and Khiva Shrine. They condemn Wildcat Bluff, First Church of Christ Scientist and Metropolitan Community Church as places of idol worship. And they call Polk Street United Methodist and St. Andrew’s Episcopal churches “compromised” because these mainline Christian places of worship are “gay friendly.” All these are plotted on an interactive Google map.

If all this makes this bunch sound so much like Ayatollah Khomeini with a slightly different rhetoric, you’re right.

Amarillo prides itself on its friendliness and tolerance and being a great place for business.

But if sophisticated businesspeople get wind of this group’s insanity, economic growth will stall and we will be perceived as being in the Middle Ages.

That’s where RepentAmarillo belongs.

There's Hope!

I keep hearing over and over that we should be looking forward to the Obama administration and the 111th Congress and not be concerned by looking backward at the last eight years. I can't help but think if no-one is taken to task for the disaster created by the Bush years we're doomed to keep repeating it at some point in the future. Eschaton had a link to Glenn Greenwald in Salon that has got to be heartening news to us worriers. Greenwald introduces us to the new appointment to the Office of Legal Counsel, Dawn Johnsen who sounds exactly like the person we need in the office. Take a look. Click here. Hopefully Obama is thinking about "looking back."

How to be the Majority Party: Part 5623

Good GAWD, this morning;

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yielded to Republican threats and agreed on Monday not to immediately seat fellow Democrat Al Franken, whose razor-close victory in Minnesota faces legal challenges."

Anytime the phrase, "yielded to Republican threats" is mentioned in the lazy press concerning our supposed leadership, I yell out F@#*! Scares the cats on the couch in my office, though.

Are we the majority party now, or what?! And seriously . . . can someone give me an example of when Democrats were nice to Rethugs, and they responded back with kindness . . . anyone? anyone?

-Prodigal Son

Just Laugh

Sometimes ya gotta chuckle, so here ya go;

Proposition 8, THE MUSICAL! Starring Jack Black as Jesus.



-Prodigal Son

Take That! Slack Jaw, Hippy, New York Liberal, ACLU-lovin', Pinko Professors!

building a bridge to the 19th century, Texas to pass 2 new laws sponsored by and written by the NRA. h/t to rackjite.com

"The first new law allows Texans to carry what weaponry they wish in the open; hips, belts, across their backs or waving madly above their heads. After all, open or concealed, what's the difference?

The second law - to go with that first one - follows the NRA logic that if everyone on campus had a gun, then the Virginia Tech massacre would not have happened. So law two is that anyone 21 or older can carry concealed or unconcealed weapons where they please on all Texas University campuses. Touchy feelie college presidents or liberal deans have nothing to say about it anymore. It's our right."

-Prodigal Son

ding dong the 'dick is dead

Change comes to Texas: Craddick is gone.

spacedark

State of Neglect

The Dallas Morning News today launched an investigative series about how the Republican web of intrigue has gutted the public safety net for the most weak and vulnerable in Texas. The importance of this series in our civic life can not be over-emphasized. Please take the time to read it.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spe/2009/state_of_neglect/

morning news: what's with the shoes?

Bush attempts to travel incognito through Miami (looking for more retirement property?) But someone found out he was there as his motorcade drove down the Palmetto Expressway.

At least that's my theory.

spacedark

What? Smoking bans save lives, too?

Here's another thing that John Kanelis is certainly not going to like.

He has hung his much-discussed fanatical support of red-light cameras on the fact that the cameras "save lives."

At the same time, he has railed against smoking bans. "Let the free market decide," he has said, doing his best Grover Norquist. "[Businesses] don't need City Hall breathing down their necks."

Now, comes the obvious punch line. Multiple studies have shown that heart attack hospitalizations drop sharply after a smoking ban is enacted.

So, uh, John?

Should we enact a smoking ban to save lives, or should we let the free market decide about the red-light cameras?

spacedark

Quantum of Intelligence

In this second adventure into why stupid people believe stupid things it seems fitting to return to the Filbert Islands, land of the fantastical fatu-liva bird and its fabulous square eggs, and refer to the discoverer of the islands, the leader of the Kawa Expedition, Captain Walter E. Traprock himself. In his interview with the New York Times published on August 21, 1921 he described some of his previous travels and published works, including “Around Russia on Roller Skates”, and some of his Filbert Island discoveries, including, of course, the “unforgettable” cry of the fatu-liva bird as it lays its square eggs. That he was a fictional character and the interview an obvious send-up was apparently lost on most.

We should therefore keep Captain Traprock (think about it) and his “experiences” in mind as we examine a letter to the Amarillo Globe-News. As will become clear, the Kawa Expedition seems most suited to this investigation, particularly in view of what has become known, in the Captain’s own inimitable style, as Traprock’s Conundrum: when is a thing, though it be called a thing, not a thing?

First, a preamble. At the risk of rattling the inhabitants of the Amarillo Globe-News chat cage and drawing even more trolls to this tranquil idyll of Panhandle Truth Squad (blogspot.com), this writer will make some observations on a letter that appeared last Friday and the responses to it by said chat cage inhabitants. That said, who are we kidding? Confined to their pitifully circumscribed little world they’re certain to have never heard of Panhandle Truth Squad, and judging by how intellectually feeble many of them are they would have to be led by their snotty little noses just to get here. Not that that is being suggested. Far be it from this author to have innocent little conservative baby seals led from their snug little cage over to Panhandle Truth Squad where, snapping their sharp little teeth and yelping their nasty little words against us affable liberals, they’d be clubbed without mercy by yours truly. No.

Now to the letter in question, it was from a Mr. Billy Glenn of Lubbock (Lubbock apparently having no newspapers of its own), who fretted that America is now like Germany’s Weimar Republic, crushed by debt and “excessive government spending,” rampant inflation and government bail outs and stimulus money. Despite the partly faux parallels he asks “Do we have to repeat history?” implying there is a Hitler in our future.

The chat cage denizens are able enough to pick up on the clue. Barack Obama is the fascist who will repeat history. So according to arch-conservatives Obama, besides being a communist, is also a Nazi. Then things get bizarre.

According to Right-Wing-Nut #1 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, no friend of conservatives, is Obama’s hero and a fascist worse than Mussolini. Yet according to Right-Wing-Nut #2, who thinks liberals misuse the word, “the term fits no American president especially George W. Bush who has been accused of being fascist for the past 8 years.” Since #1 and #2 do not believe they are contradicting each other either FDR was not an American president or Right-Wing-Nut #1 is a liberal. The latter is highly unlikely.

Further, Right-Wing-Nut #2 observes “the truth to [sic] the matter is that fascism is the domain of the left.” That will be news to political historians, who wouldn’t classify Hitler and Mussolini as “left wing fascist dictators.” As additional evidence that Right-Wing-Nut #2 is muddling the political spectrum he adds totalitarian communists to his list, including Lenin, Stalin, and Mao, which are legitimately on the left – but not fascist.

Right-Wing-Nut #2 then issues a challenge: find a right-wing fascist. He doesn’t think it will be easy. This is the danger of a little knowledge reducing complexity to the overly simplified and thinking you know everything. Answer (without resorting to Hitler or Mussolini): Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Now things get even more bizarre.

Right-Wing-Nut #3 believes FDR began our decline into socialism and that we are “sinking even lower into National Socialism,” that is Nazism. He gives a brief synopsis of the origin and ideology of Nazism which, ironically, is flatly contrary to current reality:

“It rejected liberalism, democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, stressing instead the subordination of the individual to the state and the necessity of strict obedience to leaders. It emphasized the inequality of individuals . . . and the right of the strong to rule the weak.”

Remember, this is an accusation being made against liberals, that liberals are currently rejecting liberalism, democracy, the rule of law, etc. With all due respect, which is very little now, if Right-Wing-Nut #3 was referring to the Bush regime he’d be on to something, but that would contradict himself and Right-Wing-Nut #2’s belief that Bush does not deserve to be called a fascist (not killing anyone for throwing shoes is offered as proof, but those in rendition and denied trial have yet to respond). And we already know Right-Wing-Nut #2 has contradicted Right-Wing-Nut #1 (or vice versa, it’s hard to keep the nit-wits straight sometimes). And these are the huckleberries that claim liberals make “themselves look like idiots by incorrectly throwing around the term fascist”? Idiots indeed.

All this prattling is, of course, not an attempt to define fascism as they make out but to make it imprecise enough to smear liberals in general and Obama in particular, with no connection to any real evidence to support such accusations. Not only do we not have fake square eggs, we don’t even have the photograph, yet these loonies are going to believe a thing must be a thing because they call it a thing. Stupid fascists.

One Red Light Camera Study Flawed

Here are the opening paragraphs from a Houston Chronicle story.

Was red-light camera study flawed?

One expert cites lack of control group; city plans for more research

By BRADLEY OLSON
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

Dec. 31, 2008, 11:27PM

The results of a red-light camera study released this week by the city have puzzled the researchers who conducted it and others around the country.

At a ratio of 10 to 1, study after study on the effect of red-light cameras from Oxnard, Calif., to Philadelphia, Pa., (and all the way to the United Kingdom, where they have been used for years) have found that they drastically reduce crashes.

But according to the Houston study, the red-light program here had no clear impact. Accidents remained relatively flat at the lanes of intersections where cameras were installed and increased by three times in some cases in approaching lanes without cameras.

Why such different results?

Researchers say there are numerous possibilities, all of which need further analysis. The studies may have been conducted differently, or the cameras may have set up differently. Houston driving trends may differ compared to other cities, or the cameras may be less effective in urban areas.

One specialist from a renowned traffic research organization who reviewed the study for the Houston Chronicle said the methodology was "flawed" and has serious "limitations."

The main problem is a statistical one, said Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The institute has conducted several studies that were published in peer-reviewed journals on traffic research.