Author: swanksalot

Always good to have a second user look at things

Running on plenty

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“Harps & Angels” (Randy Newman)

The new Randy Newman album, Harps and Angels, is growing on me the more I listen to it. I was unfamiliar with his prior work, with the exception of the over-played classic, I Love LA, but I’m increasingly intrigued by his non-film work.

In an apathetic age, only Neil Young among his original peers still consistently sounds any musical alarm against injustice and corruption. Browne agrees with Gore Vidal’s assessment that America’s largest political party is the “nonvoting party”, so such opinionated motivation is nothing short of admirable. Don’t ask me, ask Randy Newman. On the ever-laconic Newman’s new album, Harps and Angels, a song called A Piece of the Pie mischievously measures America’s collective languid self-interest against the undimmed commitment of one man. “The rich are getting richer, I should know,” he writes. “While we’re going up, you’re going down, and no one gives a shit but Jackson Browne.”

So, is Browne the last protest singer? “He didn’t really say that,” he says of Newman’s portrayal. “What he said was even funnier, that no one else gives a shit. Not true, of course, but very funny. My friend Don Henley referred to [the actor] Ed Asner, who’s active for social change, and Henley called it the Dreaded Asner Syndome. I guess I’ve contracted it, and am proud to be afflicted. I don’t think there’s any choice but to throw in with those people who are doing what they can to make the world inhabitable and beautiful. I’m a card-carrying member of hedonists for peace. I just don’t think peace and prosperity should only be for the wealthy.”

[From Jackson Browne: Running on plenty – Times Online ]

I actually was unfamiliar with Jackson Browne’s music up until about two months ago, but his first albums are excellent, and I’m slowly working through his back catalog.

We had mentioned John McCain’s keen urge to steal from artists without compensating them previously, but here’s Jackson Browne’s direct response to the situation:

This is more than benign idealism, as John McCain recently discovered. Browne is suing the Republican campaign, seeking damages of $75,000, for using his 1977 song Running on Empty in an “attack” ad against Barack Obama, in the apparent belief that a lifelong liberal would either not mind or not notice. “They broke two very clear laws,” he says calmly. “That they can’t use your song without your permission, and that they can’t imply you endorse a candidate if you don’t. Either they don’t know the law or they think they’re above it. Either way, it speaks volumes about the style of governance.” Browne has given $2,300 in support of Obama’s presidential campaign, according to public record.

“McCain’s campaign [managers] are trying to say he knew nothing about the ad,” Browne adds. “Do we believe that? It may be that it plays well to his constituency to steal my song, unapologetically take whatever you feel like using, and work out the details later. I’m sure I’ll prevail, because the laws are clear-cut, but I think the Republicans have a culture of impunity.”

Now three weeks off his 60th birthday, a bearded Browne may be looking just a little older at last. As in a similarly long dialogue at the time of his 2002 album, The Naked Ride Home, however, he is likeably low-key. “The inspiration’s not a problem,” he says. “I’m not less inspired, I’m less free to shut myself away long enough to finish a song. I’m also not in a hurry. That’s the odd thing that’s happened, that there’s less and less time left, and I’m less in a hurry. Maybe I’ll get desperate towards the end. You want the things you sing about to be about life and other people’s lives, and if I shut myself away and tried to ramp up the output, it might limit the interest I take in things that are pretty universal.”


“Time the Conqueror” (Jackson Browne)

EPA hates Americans

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The Bush cronies in the EPA want to kill and maim American citizens, presumedly to bring on The Rapture. Their latest scheme to damage public health: ignore perchlorate in the nation’s drinking water because cleaning it up would cost the Pentagon too much money. The Pentagon has much more important tasks to accomplish with its trillion dollar budget: like killing people in other countries.

The Environmental Protection Agency has decided there’s no need to rid drinking water of a toxic rocket fuel ingredient that has fouled public water supplies around the country.
EPA reached the conclusion in a draft regulatory document not yet made public…

The ingredient, perchlorate, has been found in at least 395 sites in 35 states at levels high enough to interfere with thyroid function and pose developmental health risks, particularly for babies and fetuses, according to some scientists.

The EPA document says that mandating a clean-up level for perchlorate would not result in a “meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public-water systems.”

[From EPA won’t limit rocket fuel in U.S. drinking water – USATODAY.com]

I like to eat paste

The EPA chooses to ignore common sense, and the criticism of non-Bushies like Barbara Boxer:

“This is a widespread contamination problem, and to see the Bush EPA just walk away is shocking,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate’s environment committee.

Lenny Siegel, director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight in Mountain View, Calif., added: “This is an unconscionable decision not based upon science or law but on concern that a more stringent standard could cost the government significantly.”

The Defense Department used perchlorate for decades in testing missiles and rockets, and most perchlorate contamination is the result of defense and aerospace activities, congressional investigators said last year.

The Pentagon could face liability if EPA set a national drinking water standard that forced water agencies around the country to undertake costly clean-up efforts. Defense officials have spent years questioning EPA’s conclusions about the risks posed by perchlorate.

Bookmarks for September 21st through September 23rd

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A few interesting links for September 21st through September 23rd:

  • New poll: Zero percent of Americans think national economy is improving. – Pretty rare to see a poll with zero percent agreeing with some statement. In fact, I can never remember seeing one before. And yet, the zero percent are the ones pushing for the Bush Paulson bailout
  • WIRED NEXTFEST – "WIRED NextFest is the premier showcase of the global innovations transforming our world. Now in its fifth year, WIRED's gallery of the future includes unique and bold exhibits of sustainable design, next generation healthcare, interactive art and games, humanoid robotics and more."

Good Cash for Trash

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Paul Krugman is concerned about the outrageous new Bush proposal to give unprecedented power to the Treasury Department without even a twinge of oversight. The entire article is well worth a read, but here’s a sample:

Some skeptics are calling Henry Paulson’s $700 billion rescue plan for the U.S. financial system “cash for trash.” Others are calling the proposed legislation the Authorization for Use of Financial Force, after the Authorization for Use of Military Force, the infamous bill that gave the Bush administration the green light to invade Iraq.

…

So let’s try to think this through for ourselves. I have a four-step view of the financial crisis:

1. The bursting of the housing bubble has led to a surge in defaults and foreclosures, which in turn has led to a plunge in the prices of mortgage-backed securities — assets whose value ultimately comes from mortgage payments.

2. These financial losses have left many financial institutions with too little capital — too few assets compared with their debt. This problem is especially severe because everyone took on so much debt during the bubble years.

3. Because financial institutions have too little capital relative to their debt, they haven’t been able or willing to provide the credit the economy needs.

4. Financial institutions have been trying to pay down their debt by selling assets, including those mortgage-backed securities, but this drives asset prices down and makes their financial position even worse. This vicious circle is what some call the “paradox of deleveraging.”

[From Paul Krugman – Cash for Trash – Op-Ed – NYTimes.com]

Paulson wants to focus on Step 4 (theoretically breaking the cycle of de-leveraging), but Krugman notes this will subsidize a massive windfall for financial corporations, their executives, and their remaining shareholders – all at taxpayer expense.

Krugman instead suggests intervention at Step 2: investing capital into the financial sector, but getting something in return – ownership. Ownership means if and when the financial corporations get back into profitability, the taxpayer will receive some return on investment, not just the executives who ran the financial sector into the ditch in the first place.

Loneliness is an ATM

Krugman concludes:

But Mr. Paulson insists that he wants a “clean” plan. “Clean,” in this context, means a taxpayer-financed bailout with no strings attached — no quid pro quo on the part of those being bailed out. Why is that a good thing? Add to this the fact that Mr. Paulson is also demanding dictatorial authority, plus immunity from review “by any court of law or any administrative agency,” and this adds up to an unacceptable proposal.

I’m aware that Congress is under enormous pressure to agree to the Paulson plan in the next few days, with at most a few modifications that make it slightly less bad. Basically, after having spent a year and a half telling everyone that things were under control, the Bush administration says that the sky is falling, and that to save the world we have to do exactly what it says now now now.

Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million

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Since McCain is complaining about this article, I had to seek it out to see if I missed anything. Not really, just more of McSame.

Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.

A 2004 photograph from a report by the Homeownership Alliance, an advocacy group for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, shows John McCain with Ken Guenther, a former chairman of the group, left, and David Lereah of the National Association of Realtors.

Mr. McCain, the Republican candidate for president, has recently begun campaigning as a critic of the two companies and the lobbying army that helped them evade greater regulation as they began buying riskier mortgages with implicit federal backing.

[From Loan Titans Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million – NYTimes.com]

McSame often lies about lobbyists and their connection to his campaign. Nothing new here.

MoDo channels Jed Bartlet

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“The West Wing – The Complete First Four Seasons (4-Pack)” (Jason Ensler)

Maureen Dowd channels Aaron Sorkin (the producer who created the fictional President, Jed Bartlet for the television show, The West Wing) to give Obama this bit of advice:

GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

[From Maureen Dowd – Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet – Op-Ed – NYTimes.com]

Not bad advice actually for a change.

AeroPress Looks Cool

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“AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker” (Aerobie)

Forget the bitter, acidic coffee you’re used to drinking from a standard coffee press The AeroPress from Aerobie takes only 30 seconds, but makes the smoothest, best-tasting coffee that coffeereviewcom, Sunset Magazine, Vogue Magazine, Cooks Junction, and you, have ever tasted Features: Total immersion of the grounds in the water results in rapid yet robust extraction of flavor Total immersion permits extraction at a moderate temperature, resulting in a smoother brew Air pressure shortens filtering time to 20 seconds This avoids the bitterness of long processes such as drip brewing Laboratory pH testing measured Aeropress brew’s acid as less than one fifth that of regular drip brew Microfilter prevents the gritty texture of French-press methods Makes 1 to 4 cups (1 or 2 mugs) of coffee or espresso

This actually looks like a pretty cool coffee maker. For $25, worth a try.

From their website:

The AEROPRESS™ is an entirely new way to make coffee.


• Water and grounds are mixed together for ten seconds.

• Then gentle air pressure pushes the mix through a micro-filter in 20 seconds.

• The total brewing time of only 30 seconds results in exceptionally smooth flavor.

• Tasters ranging from professional cuppers and author Kenneth Davids, to coffee aficionados all praise the smooth, rich flavor.

Bookmarks for September 21st

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Some additional reading September 21st from 16:35 to 17:25:

  • The Field: Al Giordano Reports the US Presidential Elections – Ron Fournier of the AP is probably going to lose his job, deservedly, for being a partisan hack.
    "In a subsequent post we will document exactly how Ron Fournier has violated the AP Managing Editors Association's Statement of Ethical Principles ("ethics code"), and abused his post to inflame racial tensions in the United States based on knowing falsehoods.
    We will also provide clear talking points for email, telephone and person-to-person contact with the 15 new governing board members, and twelve veteran board members leftover from the last three years, whom are ultimately responsible for Fournier's work."
  • Chicago a birding hotspot :: Prairie State Outdoors – "Chicago has the Magnificent Mile of Michigan Avenue shopping. It has some of the world’s most notable architecture. Then there’s the Art Institute of Chicago, the Adler Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium — all good reasons to visit the lakefront.

    That’s why it seems so unfair that Chicago also boasts some of the state’s best bird watching."

  • Minimalist Workouts Get You In Shape Without the Gym Membership [Exercise] – My cousin Leo's workout, based on my grandfather's jungle-brush clearing workout, featured in LifeHacker

Bookmarks for September 20th through September 21st

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A few interesting links for September 20th through September 21st:

  • merry go round – Socialism for the Financial sector, no mattter where or why…
    "Well, we didn't actually bail out the Mexican currency. The Fed paid investors back who lost their shirts on foolish speculations. Why? Because of socialism for the rich. And that was on Clinton's watch–and at the same time that Clinton and Gingrich were screaming at welfare moms to go back to work or else."
  • ● Remembering David Foster Wallace – I had read all of his Harper's articles, but never any novels or other writing, that I'm aware of at least. So have some reading for myself this fall…

Bookmarks for September 19th

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Some additional reading September 19th from 10:52 to 16:26:

  • Daily Kos: Bloggers nail McCain on Spain- Round-up – Hey a little blog triumphalism never hurts.
    "Time to give yourselves a round of applause. Kudos to everyone here, and across the blogosphere who forced the TM to cover a story that only 48 hours ago was being completely ignored here in the States. The power of a massive effort, starting at TPM, spilling over to here at Dkos, onto Digg, then to HuffPo and other left blogs put the TM on notice.

    The first crack was TIME magazine, but it was soon to become a flood, and the McCain campaign, reeling under its inability to staunch their economic platform bleeding was forced to do "damage control" which created even more damage."

  • Economy proves costly for McCain's poll lead – Americas, World – The Independent – Sort of a bogus premise for an article, and any article that leads with the citing of daily poll numbers is already suspect – daily polls are too volatile to be useful for anything other than a talking point.

    But I liked this:
    "The McCain camp's attempt to distance itself from the economic legacy of President George Bush, a fellow Republican, is having limited effect so far. The latest polls reveal that despite his efforts, voters believe he is far less likely to make changes than his adversary. The Arizona senator is still seen as a "typical Republican" who would entrench current unpopular policies, rather than get the country back on track."