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Wingnuts need not apply, but all are welcome to watch this video.    

And God said... No More Global Warming!

This is just fantastic.



Sorry for the layoff.   Work got in the way of bloggery fun times.

A Mountain of Dumb, ctd.

 Wow.  Somehow she managed to raise (lower?) the bar with this one: 

"Gulf disaster needs divine intervention as man's efforts have been futile. Gulf lawmakers designate today Day of Prayer for solution/miracle" 
~Sarah Palin via Twitter

I get high with a little help...

I'd like to welcome a new voice to the Scared Center family, Eric Giordano.   Eric brings a centrist perspective, Poli-Sci edumacation and a desire to rant to the table which really means someone who knows what they're talking about will be helping me out in this space.  Eric shares in my loathing of the Tea Party movement and also thinks Sarah Palin is the anti-christ.  In other words he's awesome.

The good thing about this is it will free me up to write more about my two favorite things:  boobs and golf.   It's a Win/Win when you think about it.

(note: Eric is not the hot Asian in the picture above, which is a god damned shame.  That's Jarah Mariano.   Jarah probably thinks Drill Baby Drill has little to do with oil prospecting which is totally fine in most circumstances, just not on this blog)

US Open Final Thoughts

After the insanity that was Moving Day at the US Open on Pebble Beach, Sunday's cool-down should have come as no surprise.  There was no way anyone was going to match the dual-66 magic that Tiger and Johnson posted Saturday, especially on a US Open Final Round setup.

So the winning number?  Even Par.  Not -3, not -6.  E.  Just the way the USGA drew it up.  Graeme McDowell's victory required an "unflappable" final round score of 3-over 74.   So if you wanted to see low scores and eagles abound - or a  replay of Tiger's unreal second on 18 - you came to the wrong place.   Pebble was playing lightning fast and hammering away at mistakes.  It's casualties were three of the biggest names in the sport, Tiger, Phil and Ernie, and the bomber who had a seemingly commanding three-shot lead in the final group.

The Notables:

Gotta Give Biden Props for This

Fool me eight times?!

Jon Stewart tears up the last eight administrations' empty promises to get the US off of oil dependence.   Call me a pinko if you will but this guy is pretty much the only one talking politics in the media with the slightest shred of integrity.    There, I said it. 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
An Energy-Independent Future
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

US Open Day 1

Golf's Second Major Championship is the only thing that can dull the pain of the Celtics horrible loss last night.  The Masters and US Open are by far my favorite tournaments and the obsession is practically unhealthy.  Nothing quite compares to the drama those two tournaments consistently give us and yesterday's opening round was no exception.   Let's breakdown some highlights and lowlights.

Another Moronic Phil Shot - Mickelson was trapped behind the two cyprus trees on the 18th fairway and instead of taking his medicine and laying up - which every other player on tour would have done - he tried to hit a retarded draw around the trees and over the water.  Didn't work out.   No shit it didn't work out!   People ask me all the time why I don't like Loveable Loser Phil.   This shot was exhibit A.

De Jonge What?  Micheel Who? - Two of the three 18 hole leaders are relatively unknown, which is unfortunate for poor Sean Micheel who only won the '03 PGA Championship "It's amazing how quickly people forget you." he said after the round.

Hoffman's 18 -  This was just heart-breaking.   After the amateur's second shot was slightly boxed out by the cyprus trees on 18, he tried to bend a low cut only to clip a branch and have it ricochet into the ocean.  Two-in-Three-out.   He yanked his fourth left and into the water again.   Four-in-Five-out.  Six into the right greenside bunker.  Seven stayed in.   Eight popped out to 10 feet and he saved himself a dreaded ten by nailing the putt.   Poor guy was even par on the tee box and dropped 70 spots on the leaderboard by the time he tossed his ball into the Pacific. 

Moore's 17 - This was just baffling.   First he pulls out a fairway metal on the 208 yard par 3 - way too much club - and pushed it right....  all the way over the 18th tee box.   From here he got some miraculous relief from the tee box sign, popped his come backer into the left greenside bunker and somehow got up and down for one of the wackiest bogey's you'll ever see on tour. 

Paul Casey's Grindin' - This guy kicks ass.  Not because he's a big name, because he's not.   Not because he makes it rain with wins on tour; he doesn't.   No, I like him because Yoda the Golf Instructor used Casey's swing  for my comparison video (compare these mirror-image swings after the jump!)   Casey was strong early with birdies on 3 and 5 but then started struggling to hit greens.  But boy did he make up for it with the flat stick.   He finished the round with 24 putts on the late-day poana greens to put him in a tie for the lead with what's-their-names. 

Stay tuned for Round 2 action!

Phew! Stimulus Saves A World At Play

Okay look, if you rake in $1.3B in annual revenue, you don't need another $54M from the taxpayers, mmmkay?

The Mohegan tribe, which owns the Mohegan Suncasino in Uncasville, Conn., has been awarded a $54 million loan from federal stimulus funds.

The tribe runs the sprawling Mohegan Sun casino, halfway between New York City and Boston, which earned more than $1.3 billion in gross revenues in 2009. Each tribe member receives a cut of the profits, a number a tribal official said was "less than $30,000" per capita per year. The stimulus money is a loan from a U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development program that is meant to help communities of less than 20,000 people that have been "unable to obtain other credit at reasonable rates and terms and are unable to finance the proposed project from their own resources."

Not that I really expect any less from Leiberman and Dodd, but... cmon guys!  At a time when every excessive dollar spent by the government is heavily scrutinized, they should know better than to pull this kind of crap.

HCR Savings begin seeping into public consciousness

Yglesias passes on a great tidbit:

Everyone knows that health care costs are a major component of the federal budget, but they also have important implications for state budgets, so Mainers will likely be interested to learn that the Affordable Care Act signed into law earlier this year will save their state money.
Mal Leary of the Bangor Daily News explains:

A state analysis of the impact of the new federal health reform law indicates it will cost Maine in the near term, but will save the state tens of millions of dollars a year after it is fully implemented in 2014.

This is the type of news that is sure to bubble up over the next 6, 12, 24 months that spells complete doom for all the HCR naysayers and Palin '12 grand-standers. 

Sully on the Tea Party

In a fantastic two part post, Sully reiterates his confusion with the Tea Party ideology, or lack thereof.   Specifically his confusion with the movement's curious anti-government veil covering what amounts to a pro-government face. 

The Bush-Cheney presidency was, in some respects, the perfect pseudo-conservative administration. They waged war based on loathing of the experts (damned knowledgeable elites!); they slashed taxes and boosted spending for their constituencies, while pretending to be fiscally responsible; they tore up the most ancient taboos - against torture - with a bravado that will one day seem obscene; and they left the country in far worse shape than they found it.

Throughout all this, the Tea Partiers supported them. So how do they manage the cognitive dissonance that two failed wars, a financial collapse and a debt crisis have brought? How do they deal with the fact that their beloved president was manifestly the most incompetent and disastrous in modern times? They blame it on the next guy.

Yes, they are doing all they can to avoid facing the fact that they did all of this ... to themselves. And sometimes, the truly, deeply humiliated can only carry on through blind rage.

Fatty Labs Body-Boarding on Snow

Oh how I love Labs and their quirky made-up little games.

Watch the vid, bitches

Porn, Sword, Stun Gun, Cliff Fall? Check!

If there's a better lead paragraph from a news story, I've yet to read it. 

A porn actor, who was accused of killing a coworker with a sword, died after falling off a cliff in California on Saturday when police used a stun gun to subdue him.

A Mountain of Dumb

Really, is there any other way to describe this fucking bimbo?

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is using the Gulf Coast oil spill to promote the issue of drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife National Refuge – the 20-million protected acres where untapped oil and gas reserves have long served as a lightning rod of controversy.

"Extreme Greenies: see now why we push 'drill,baby,drill' of known reserves & promising finds in safe onshore places like ANWR? Now do you get it?" the former Republican vice presidential nominee wrote Tuesday evening on her Twitter account.

Chait on Gerson's EC

Good stuff.   Chait busts up two vacuum-chamber rattles about Health Care Reform.

First, that Obama and the left hid the cost of HCR in the "doc fix"

This isn't part of the "overall cost of the entitlement." It's part of the cost of running Medicare. The cost exists irrespective of the Affordable Care Act. The paper savings from lower physician reimbursements were not used to cover insurance subsidies in the bill. If health care reform had died, Congress would still be passing a doc fix. Gerson's charge is utterly, unambiguously false.

Then that HCR is an entitlement for the un-needy

Focus on Gerson's claim that the Affordable Care Act benefits citizens who are not "vulnerable." By what possible standard is this true? The primary beneficiaries are people who can't afford to buy health insurance! They're vulnerable to getting sick and suffering terrible pain, bankruptcy, or even death either because they or a family member has a preexisting condition, or because their employer doesn't offer health insurance and they're priced out of the dysfunctional individual market. That's not "vulnerable"?

Gaza Flotilla

My first reaction to the IDF attack on the Palestinian aide vessel was annoyance mixed with utter despair and concern.  Just another insult on the way to the inevitable breakout of WWIII that Israel seems to welcome.  As I've been perusing left and right blogosphere though I'm left more confused than anything.    I think Chait breaks it down the best (after ample prodding by Sullivan, of course.

First, is the underlying blockade of Gaza humanely constructed? No it is not:

Israel prevents Gazans from importing, among other things, cilantro, sage, jam, chocolate, French fries, dried fruit, fabrics, notebooks, empty flowerpots and toys, none of which are particularly useful in building Kassam rockets. It’s why Israel bans virtually all exports from Gaza, a policy that has helped to destroy the Strip’s agriculture, contributed to the closing of some 95 percent of its factories, and left more 80 percent of its population dependent on food aid. It’s why Gaza’s fishermen are not allowed to travel more than three miles from the coast, which dramatically reduces their catch. And it’s why Israel prevents Gazan students from studying in the West Bank, a policy recently denounced by 10 winners of the prestigious Israel Prize. There’s a name for all this: collective punishment.

Second, given that the blockade was in place, was Israel militarily justified in responding as it did? Yes, it was:

We have no sympathy for the motives of the participants in the flotilla -- a motley collection that included European sympathizers with the Palestinian cause, Israeli Arab leaders and Turkish Islamic activists. Israel says that some of the organizers have ties to Hamas and al-Qaeda. What's plain is that the group's nominal purpose, delivering "humanitarian" supplies to Gaza, was secondary to the aim of provoking a confrontation. The flotilla turned down an Israeli offer to unload the six boats and deliver the goods to Gaza by truck; it ignored repeated warnings that it would not be allowed to reach Gaza. Its spokesmen said they would insist on "breaking Israel's siege," as one of them put it.

Third, given that Israel had a right to stop the ship and reply to the lethal force used against its soldiers, was it wise to respond as it did? No, it was not:

Better information was needed. The commandos didn't know they were going to face an angry mob armed with knives and bats. Different equipment was needed: The raiders apparently didn't have enough nonlethal weapons on hand. A more creative approach was needed: Maybe a way to stop the ship without having to board it. But these are all just technical details of an operation gone sour.

This level-headed perspective is why I like reading Chait.  The Blockade is inhumane; the Israeli's had a right to deter the ship from breaking the blockade; the Israeli's used excessive force.   In the end it seems the Flotilla's main goal of bringing political attention to the Gaza blockade was wildly successful in that it put Israel's inhumane blockade in the forefront of world news.  The whole ordeal also gave us a glimpse into the future of Western border security, should the right ever get their wish to turn the US into a isolated giant.    Excessive force?   Sure!  As long as we protect our borders!!

But I digress.  Where I'm most disappointed in all this is Obama's response, which to me was like the equivalent of a soccer mom threatening to pull the minivan over.  Now now kids, mommy's trying to concentrate here. When nine civilians are murdered on an aide vessel by your supposed ally, you should come right out and denounce the damn action.  Plain and simple. Stop being a pussy about it and put your foot down, Mr. President.

Time to take charge, B, ctd.

The Deepwater Rig disaster gets the Big Picture treatment.   Crazy stuff.  

 
I enjoyed this comment, too. 

It is easy to cast blame for this horrible disaster - it's BP's fault, it's George Bush's fault, it's the fault of corporate greed, whatever. But you know who's really at fault here? Look in the mirror, sunshine. At the end of the day, each one of us has to accept some level of blame by continuing to fuel the market for oil.

Do you drive a car? Then you're partly to blame. Do you have any plastic products in your home whatsoever? Then you are as guilty as anyone.

We all drive cars or take public transit (which runs on oil). We all buy stuff made out of plastic. We all wear synthetic clothes and shoes, we all go to Wal-Mart for deals on cheap crap that came here from Bangkok on a ship that burns oil. We wash our hair with shampoo that comes in a plastic bottle (made from oil) and put on deodorant (which comes in a plastic container) each and every day. Heck, I'm typing this rant on a plastic keyboard that was made from oil, and you're probably reading it on a plastic computer with an LCD screen. They're made with oil too. That makes every single one of us - you too - collectively responsible for those birds and turtles and dragonflies dying.

Stop casting blame and start looking at how we're all screwing up the world we live in. Until we are willing to change the way we live, we will only keep doing this again and again. I'm not saying we all go back to wearing loin cloths and hunt our own food, but reduce our demand for oil by reducing, reusing and recycling.

Three Blind Mice

Three-parts gubernatorial candidate; one-part people's vote on the Massachusetts Sales Tax Rollback.   Apparently, that's the recipe for a bun cake of retarded political douchebaggery, according to this article from Boston.com.   This story (curiously?) came and went with little fanfare or discussion in this little blue state, considering the November mid-term races are heating up.

How is it that all three candidates have absolutely zero response for the prospect of a $2.4B revenue gap?  Maybe list out some sensible budget cuts?   Instead they simply bang away on the scare-tactic of "limiting local aid" which has been a proven winner to sway the pussified liberals here in the past. 

[T]he major candidates for governor, all of whom say they oppose the initiative to reduce the sales tax rate from 6.25 to 3 percent, a move that would cost the state up to $2.4 billion in annual revenue beginning Jan. 1.

What if voters approve it anyway? Well, the candidates say they'll cross that bridge when they come to it.

"If that's the decision they make, we're all going to have to deal with it in state government one way or another," said Republican candidate Charles Baker, who supports rolling the rate back to 5 percent. "Of course everything would be on the table."

Baker's lack of a plan is shared by independent candidate Tim Cahill and incumbent Democrat Deval Patrick.

Cahill, who also supports rolling the sales tax back to 5 percent, said he will "enforce the will of the voters and will wait to see what they decide," but hasn't outlined what he would cut to make up for the sudden loss of revenue.

Patrick, who supports returning the sales tax rate to 5 percent after the state fully recovers from the recession, also has yet to detail how he would cope with the cut but warned through his campaign that a cut to 3 percent "would have a devastating impact on the essential services that everyone in the Commonwealth relies upon."

This should be eye-opening to any voters who believe the ridiculous notion that either party is serious about fiscal sanity.  They both want to spend.  One is no better than the other.   Time for residents in this state to wake up and choose someone who will lay it on the line and start talking about cuts. 

Time to take charge, B

Check out this great editorial from Boston.com, urging President Obama  to take the reigns on the Deepwater oil spill disaster.  

Money Quote:

It’s appalling that the federal government, under any administration, would allow drilling deep underwater without making adequate preparations for a massive oil leak. But that’s what happened. After the oil spill, Obama announced a moratorium on permits for drilling new wells and said that he is stopping the type of waivers that BP was able to obtain. But, as The New York Times has reported, at least seven new permits for various type of drilling and five environmental waivers have been granted since then. That is an insult to those harmed by the disaster unfolding on the Gulf Coast.

It's certainly turning into his giant debacle, with every passing BP failing attempt to plug the leak.   I'm glad he called out BP to pay for it all, but at some point he needs to grab every top mind in oceanography, physics, engineering etc to come up with solutions.   Pointing fingers just isn't enough. 

The Trouble with Taxes and Cuts

Bartlett and Bainbridge go at it over the federal defict and how it will inevitably impact defense spending or lead to a tax hike of some sort.   I think both make excellent points to one another, from two similar but different ideological positions .   Here are the two key points.

Bartlett:

Republicans primarily concerned about national security ought to be in the forefront of efforts to raise revenues to reduce deficits, free up domestic saving for domestic investment, and reduce the importation of foreign saving and the trade deficit. But so far they are not. They remain loyal to the Republican obsession with tax cuts and a refusal to raise taxes in any way for any reason. However, I think my national security-minded friends are soon going to discover that massive defense budget cuts will necessarily be a big part of the price that will be paid for not raising revenues.

Bainbridge:

Given a choice between spending $100 billion on defense [or] shoring up public sector union pension funds, what does Bartlett think his Democratic buddies would do? Given a choice between spending $100 billion on the troops and $100 billion on an unnecessary war of choice, what does Bartlett think the neoconservatives would do?

It's sort of like the old joke about an economist stranded on a desert island, whose punch line "assume a can opener." Bartlett's critique of his old friends would have a lot more traction if he could explain why we should assume a sudden outbreak of good government.

Until I see proof the beast has reformed, I say starve the [expletive deleted].

Can't realy argue with Bainbridge there.  New boss, same as old boss.   Personally I prefer any heavy spending be done domestically and not on American Imperialism ventures.  That aside, something needs to be done about the deficit.   Bainbridge does well to wrap up after a short back-and-forth with Bartlett and gets more to the heart of the matter:

To be clear, however, my point is not that deficit reduction and other sensible budgetary policies can be achieved only through cutting spending. (Just as Bartlett presumably thinks we need spending cuts as well as tax increases.)

On a bipartisan basis, our rulers have spent us into a position in which taxes probably will have to go up at least for a while. But agreeing to tax increases ought to be done only in return for a package of fundamental reforms. We need entitlement reforms (including raising the retirement age), budgetary reforms (bans on ear marks, a line item veto, and a balanced budget amendment), political reforms (real restrictions on gerrymandering), and the like. Letting the powers that be have higher taxes without those other reforms will not solve the problem. All it does is make for a bigger candy store to which we've given the keys to the children.

Put simply, absent real reforms, I don't want anybody in Washington or Sacramento getting their grubby hands on any more of my money because I don't trust them to spend it wisely. My guess is that a lot of Bartlett's new friends on the left, for example, would be quite content to raise taxes and massively cut defense. So the either/or he presents strikes me as a false choice.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid we probably need to wait until things get bad enough that politicians on all sides will be forced to agree to fundamental reforms to avoid going the way of Greece.