– Larry David thanks Congress for the tax cuts.
– Tyler Cowen discusses income inequality.
– Senator Al Franken discusses why net neutrality matters. So does Steve Wozniak.
– Ballard resident Tom Nissley is kicking ass on Jeopardy.
– Here’s the video of the shooting of John T. Williams. After watching that, I have trouble seeing how that could’ve been a justified use of force.
Freaky teaparty leader believes the Methodist church should be abolished. He also believes that only property owners should be allowed to vote.
http://www.nashvillescene.com/.....ist-church
Get yer hate on, dude!
NY times link is behind a paywall.
Geez, the little baby Jesus was an illegal immigrant. The pharaoh should have sent his ass back where it came from. Fair is fair. No Dream Act for little baby Jesus.
The second comment to the article linked to in @1 points out that George W. Bush is a Methodist.
If the FCC decision on “net neutrality” seems a little surreal, keep in mind that none of the Commissioners has a technical background.
Opponants of net neutrality had a former FCC commissioner, presumably one during the Bush administration, appearing on all the radio shows arguing that net neutrality rules were unnecessary because “there hasn’t yet been any proven instance of harm”.
The goal of those opposed to net neutrality is to keep rules off the books long enough for them to sell off access to the highest bidders. Then when the FCC tries to regulate it, they will kick and scream, arguing that their conduct should be “grandfathered in” because their actions were legal at the time.
FCC Adopts Net Neutrality Rules
The Federal Communications Commission, by a vote of 3-2, today approved regulations to enforce net neutrality by requiring ISPs “to treat web traffic equally and not slow or block websites.
The 3 Democrats on the commission voted yes, while the 2 Republicans voted against net neutrality.
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2.....for-obama/
The Woz, 2012! He could hardly do worse than the chuckle-heads we’ve got in there now.
Re: shooting of John T. Williams. There is no way ever that it can be truthfully stated that it was a justifiable shooting. It’s clear that Birk’s life was never in danger. Not for one of the 7 seconds it took from the time he got out of his car, saw Williams walking and then shot him dead.
Amazing what Seattle Police do!
Wasn’t there a triple stabbing at Pike Place Market about 2 weeks after this shooting of the dude walking down the streets of Seattle with a knife?
Maybe we need more knife control laws?
SENATOR Al Franken … man, that has a nice ring to it!! Eat shit, wingnuts.
@11 Interesting that you should mention that. The city of Seattle has an ordinance regulating possession of knives, but can’t regulate guns because of state preemption. Consequently, it’s illegal to pack a knife in Seattle, but legal to pack a gun. You know what they say, never bring a knife to a gunfight! In Seattle, you can get arrested for doing that.
e 12: And he has 125 Peabody awards for his radio broadcasting stint!
‘Peas and carrots Peas and carrots.’ The Peanut Gallery
“George W. Bush is a Methodist.”
Actually “was” is probably more accurate. His D.C. Methodist Pastor dared to criticize His Iraq Nam war and Little bush never went back. He supposedly attended private services at Crawford but I doubt it.
St. Laura bush did sell a lot of pot at Southern Methodist and I imagine that it was only used for sacramental purposes.
@13,
Too bad for Seattle: never bring a knife to a gun fight.
More guns = less crime.
Per the ever excellent Digby, from a climate change perspective, we’re fucked.
And, of course, our incoming Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Environment and Economy, Rep. Shimkus (R-Batshit), has this to say:
Anti-Israel Bus Ads Debut In Seattle
“If you live in Seattle, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be coming soon to a commuter bus near you. A group called the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign has paid King County … to rent ad space on the sides of … city buses. The ad shows a Palestinian family standing next to a demolished house in Gaza, with the words ‘Israeli war crimes: Your tax dollars at work.’ It also lists a website that encourages supporters to write to Congress and ask lawmakers to revoke U.S. military aid to Israel. …
“[County] councilman Peter von Reichbauer wrote to the county executive earlier this week, calling the upcoming ads inappropriate …. ‘I ask the question why a public transportation system would advertise polarizing political statements,’ von Reichbauer wrote …. ‘I believe very strongly that dangerous language can create dangerous environments in a society.'”
http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12.....onal-stir/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Uh, wait a minute, Peter. Israel is the largest single recipient of U.S. military and foreign aid. It’s an aggressive country that not only occupies but builds intrusive settlements in Palestinian territory, and uses its military power to kill thousands of Palestinians. And you think ads complaining about using our tax dollars to support this is “dangerous” speech?
Polarizing, yes. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is perhaps the world’s most polarizing issue. But regardless of whose side you take on this issue, ads asking people to complain to Congress about U.S. tax-supported aid to Israel isn’t “dangerous” speech, it’s political speech. And in this country, political speech is free speech.
Personally, I think the Israelis and Palestinians deserve each other. There are no innocent parties in that conflict. I say, a pox on both their houses. I think we should help Israel, but should make fair treatment of the Palestinian people a condition of that help. And I don’t believe for one second that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians has been fair. A fair settlement of the conflict would give Palestinians their own land, an opportunity to make a decent living, and would give Israeli settlers on Palestinian lands a choice between leaving or becoming Palestinian citizens subject to Palestinian government and laws. The Palestinians would also get a fair share of the region’s scarce water resources and open access to Gaza’s ports for commercal purposes. And Israeli military forces would stay the hell out of Palestinian territory for good. The Palestinians, for their part, would stop lobbing rockets into Israel and attacking Israelis — for good. They would recognize Israel as a state and let Israel exist in peace. If they don’t, if they continue waging war against Israel and Israelis, they can’t expect a damn thing from Israel except war.
Von Reichbauer is an ass for taking Israel’s sie in this conflict. The position of the U.S. government and public officials in our country should be to try and facilitate a reasonable solution to the conflict — to play the mediator role that has been staked out by a succession of U.S. presidents and administrations. It’s not appropriate for a public official at any level to endorse either the Israeli or Palestinian side of this conflict. Our position, collectively as a people expressed through the voices of our elected representatives, should be that these conflict must be ended and the parties to the conflict are responsible for ending it. The last thing I want to see is a King County Councilman using his little pulpit to be an advocate for either side.
@18
Thank you, Roger.
I think you are absolutely right.
I do think, however, that the perspective of the Palestinians is woefully unreported in our media, and that understanding the savage and brutal effect of the recent Gaza War (or Israeli free-fire zone exercise) on regular Palestinian civilians is important for people here – and, as you say, pressure the Administration and Congress to stop the free-flow of weapons and military support for a regime that would behave thusly.
re 16: More guns = less crime.
Prove it. Wouldn’t it depend upon who has the guns?
@16 “More guns = less crime.”
This is bullshit. The U.S., which has mass gun ownership rivaling that of Afghanistan and the Sudan, has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world. Countries like Canada, Britain, and Scandinavia that strictly regulate gun ownership have crime rates far lower than ours, and gun crimes are almost non-existent in those countries.
Excellent short diary on Kos about the conservative “thinking”.
Few snippets:
and
Polemical, yes, but accurate and a striking reflection of the menagerie of local trolls we have right here.
@21
Exactly. There’s absolutely no correlation between gun ownership and crime in a society.
@23
Um, I think that Roger was saying that there is a correlation – a positive one – between guns and crime, as opposed to the negative correlation asserted by PI @16.
Opinion Research Corporation for CNN. 12/17-19. 1,000 American adults. MoE 3%.
As you may know, over the past few weeks Congress has been meeting in what is sometimes referred to as a “lame duck” session to consider issues including tax cuts, unemployment benefits, government spending, gays in the military, and nuclear arms. Please tell me whether you approve or disapprove of the way each of the following have handled those issues under consideration during this session: (RANDOM ORDER)
Barack Obama: 56% approve, 41% disapprove
The Republicans in Congress: 42% approve, 53% disapprove
The Democrats in Congress: 44% approve, 52% disapprove
Roger Rabbit @ 18
Politically, no.
Israel’s peace movement was squelched by the War Party. Without the Serbian nationalist style antagonism (post Yugoslavia), the various peoples would get along just fine.
When the elephants fight, the grass suffers.
Bill Clinton’s strategy for obtaining peace is the only workable option. Clinton’s plan was to sit on all the belligerents and be their Very Bestest Friend. Then one of two things happen. The trogs (e.g. Arafat) die off. Or the trogs figure out that making peace is the only way to get Clinton to go be someone else’s Very Bestest Friend.
Al Gore would have continued Clinton’s plan. If the Supremes hadn’t interfered (or Gore had better lawyers), we’d have peace (detente) between Israel and Palestinians. Gore certainly wouldn’t have allowed the bullshit provocations that Bush did, leading to the current state of constant warfare.
Okay. Time to think about something else. Revisiting this shit just pisses me off.
scientist @ 24
Moore’s Bowling for Columbine makes a very interesting argument. He compared USA to Canada. Roughly the same gun ownership, per capita. But Canada has much less gun related crime. His thesis is that the media USA feeds the fear and militarization of our society.
I don’t care either way about gun ownership, so have no opinion.
On the depravity of the USA media, I completely agree with Moore.
The corporatists happily sink money into media to better spread their hate and ideology. To keep the populace agitated and confused. To better steal our treasure and blood.
Anyone railing against “the mainstream media” is missing the point. It’s corporate media, bought and paid for.
Politicos have always published their own pamphlets as a way to spread their ideology.
Our society had a brief period of “objective journalism” that our generation(s) mistakenly thought was the norm. Not so.
The historical norm is yellow journalism and propaganda.
@24
No, I think he was just disproving the assertion in #16 by showing that the opposite can be true. I don’t think he was saying that the opposite is always true.
@27
Anyone railing against “the mainstream media” is missing the point. It’s corporate media, bought and paid for.
Exactly. This may be the single most important thing that Americans really need to understand if we’re going to begin fixing what’s wrong with this country.