Compare/Contrast

$60 billion to extend wars that will seemingly never end and don't seem to provide any benefit to the United States? Come right in Mr. War Spending, sit down, the supermodels will be in momentarily for the orgy.

The U.S. Senate approved a $60 billion war-funding measure as the conflict in Afghanistan has surpassed the Iraq war in annual cost and number of troops.

Senators voted 67-28 for the bill, which goes to the House for consideration next month. The Senate rejected a proposal to require President Barack Obama to submit a non-binding report outlining when he plans to end U.S. involvement in the almost nine-year-old Afghan conflict.

$24 billion for unemployed workers and state aid? Go fuck yourself, peasants. Go dig ditches or die in an abandoned train yard or whatever it is you people do.

anxiety over out-of-control budget deficits led House leaders to drop tens of billions of dollars in spending from a separate catchall bill anchored by an extension of jobless benefits.

Confronted with a rebellion by Democratic Blue Dog moderates, House leaders planned to dump overboard $24 billion in aid to states and allow generous health insurance subsidies for laid-off workers to expire. The changes were an effort to round up votes to extend unemployment benefits and renew more than 50 popular tax breaks that expired last year.

God love the Blue Dog Democrats and their concern over deficits. That is to say their concern over deficits when it looks like that money is going to be spent on actual people who actually need it. When it's billions of dollars being spent of wars or boondoggle defense systems with no plans to pay for them, then the Blue Dogs are totally cool with deficit spending. They just will not suffer an American being extended an unemployment benefit in the worst job market in decades.

Nice to know where our priorities are.

There's an app for that

Via the Atlantic's James Fallows comes this new app for Google Maps by Paul Rademacher which allows you get a sense for the size of the Gulf oil spill. You know, in case "the entire Gulf of Mexico" doesn't quite let you understand the scale of the devastation.

Perhaps if it were compared to the size of San Francisco...


Or the DC/Baltimore metro area...

And the spill is growing larger by the hour. So... yeah. At least it isn't happening on land though. That would be worse... marginally worse.

Suddenly I'm fond of the teabaggers

You know, for all their crazy backwoods behavior, low rent racism, misspelled signs, complete fundamental misunderstanding of the issues they claimed to care about, the complete co-opting by corporations and the mainstream GOP, and their tragic misappropriation of Colonial and revolutionary trappings, the teabaggers responded to the financial crisis in a rational way.

OK, they didn't. In comparison to Greece they responded to the crisis in a relatively normal way.

Three people were killed in an apparent firebomb attack on a bank in central Athens Wednesday as a massive protest against recent Greek austerity measures turned violent and angry youths rampaged through the city center torching several businesses, smashing shop windows and overturning garbage bins.
...
The violence Wednesday came as tens of thousands of protesters gathered to demonstrate against the government's recently announced austerity measures in one of the largest protests in recent years, and coincide with a nationwide general strike that has paralyzed the country.

The strike is seen as a key test of the government's ability to shepherd through tough austerity measures in exchange for an €110 billion ($143 billion) bailout loan from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

Greece is on the precipice of complete financial collapse as a result of the crisis, had to be bailed out by the IMF, conspired with Goldman-Sachs to mask the extent of the problem, and the government took the rather drastic measure of cutting wages for public workers, putting a three-year freeze on pensions, and increasing taxes on fuel, alcohol, and tobacco in order to deal with the IMF loan that might just end up making things worse for Greece in the end.

Kind of makes things like a black President and Congressional Democrats engaging in their Constitutionally mandated duty to pass legislation, seem like kind of a ridiculous thing to get worked up about, doesn't it? On the other hand, the President is really, really black.

So congrats, Tea Party movement. When compared to a country facing much worse financial problems and protesters dealing with it in much more violent ways, you come out smelling like roses. Thanks for only advocating for the burning, shooting, and killing of things you don't like, not actually doing it.

Compare/Contrast

The 2010 World Expo in Shanghai is upon us. Since the last time we covered it, construction has been completed on the various country pavilions in preparation for the May 1st opening.

The theme of the event is "Better City, Better Life" and I assume the pavilions are supposed to represent better ways in which humanity can build and live. What the buildings really mean is what buildings at the World Expo always mean: giant fuck yous to other countries by means of architectural and design splendor. Grandiose signs of architectural hubris? Shouldn't America place pretty well in this contest? You'd think so, but, the results are a quite disappointing.

This is the UK's Seed Cathedral by Thomas Heatherwick, which encases a quarter of the world's seeded species from the Millennium Seed Bank inside a transparent acrylic filament.


The South Korean pavilion is based around the themes of convergence, symbol, and space as the building comes together to form letters of the Korean alphabet with a relief of letters and colored panels designed by Korean artist Ik-Joong Kang.


The Japanese Pavilion is nicknamed the Purple Silkworm Island and is meant to showcase themes of connection and incorporate an efficient use of natural resources.


The American Pavilion.... is the shed out back where they store all the cleaning equipment, sawdust for covering up tourist vomit, and spare hot dog carts.


For shame, America. If we can't tell the world to fuck off, architectural style, during an international event celebrating interconnectedness and unity, when can we? May I suggest for the next Expo we just build a large version of this:


Everyone loves The Simpsons and it embodies the whimsical menace I think we want to project. The building could also shoot fireworks and surface to Muslim missiles if the situation calls for it. Call me, we'll talk building and design.

Picture of the day

Barry plunges the United States into some Hitlerfied Muslim socialist black nationalist health care nightmare... with extra socialist sauce.



The GOP holds the Saddest Press Conference Ever to protest elected representatives voting on legislation they support and passing it by majority rule in a manner befitting the legal framework of our branches of government and Constitution. You know, Armageddon.

Compare/Contrast

Via Matthew Yglesias comes these first two little nuggets.

The founding principles of the Conservative Party of Canada, who just so happen to rule America's Hat:

A belief that all Canadians should have reasonable access to quality health care regardless of their ability to pay;

The policy agenda of the the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, who is soon going to rule in Brittania:

Over three years ago David Cameron spelled out his priorities in three letters – NHS. Since then, we have consistently fought to protect the values the NHS stands for and have campaigned to defend the NHS from Labour’s cuts and reorganisations.

As the party of the NHS, we will never change the idea at the heart of our NHS – that healthcare in this country is free at the point of use and available to everyone based on need, not ability to pay.

And from the Republican Party's House Minority John Boehner comes the GOP's governing principles:

With the stroke of a pen, President Obama has signed away another share of Americans' freedom. We will take it back.

The US got hosed when God was doling out conservatives to all the countries.

Compare/Contrast

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on health care:

As I said to some friends yesterday in the press, we will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people for their own personal health and economic security and for the important role that it will play in reducing the deficit.

Various and sundry Senate assholes on health care:

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said health care reform “is on life support, unfortunately,” and the president should have been more specific with how Democrats should move forward.
...
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said it was “a real possibility that health care is at a stalemate and you can’t solve it this year.”
...
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on health care reform, Democrats are “thinking about it and how to move on it.”

But, he added, jobs are the current high priority and that is what we are going to work on for now.

Anyone still confident that health care is going to be acted on anytime soon? They've got to pretend they're doing something on jobs now.

Compare/contrast

National Security Adviser General James Jones, on General McChrystal's plan to add 40,000+ troops in Afghanistan

"Generals always ask for more troops. Take it from me," Jones told SPIEGEL in an interview. ..."You can keep on putting troops in, and you could have 200,000 troops there and Afghanistan will swallow them up as it has done in the past."

Obama's Afghan Plan: About 40K More Troops

The president still has more meetings scheduled on Afghanistan, but informed sources tell CBS News he intends to give Gen. Stanley McChrystal most, if not all, the additional troops he is asking for.

McChrystal wanted 40,000 and the president has tentatively decided to send four combat brigades plus thousands more support troops. A senior officer says "that's close to what [McChrystal] asked for." All the president's military advisers have recommended sending more troops.

Whew, that was a close one. For a second there I was worried we weren't going to escalate the war, or if we were, we weren't going to escalate it to the satisfaction of our generals. Dodged that bullet. We did, not the troops. Ironically they'll have to be dodging bullets now. Now the Obama Administration says that the CBS report is false because no final final decisions have been made, but does anyone think there's a chance this isn't happening? I thought so. I guess the real victory is that he didn't put in 200,000 troops to get swallowed up in there. Jones must have been preparing us for a worst case scenario.

For comparisons sake, this increase of 40,000 combat soldiers (plus the requisite addition in tens of thousands of support forces) will cost somewhere in the range of $80 billion extra a year for Afghanistan. Doesn't that make you feel great? $80 billion a year is cheap when you want to use it to extend and escalate a war. But when you want to use that money to get people cheaper health care and do so in a way that decreases the deficit, then that same $80 billion a year is an onerous deficit burden on America that our children (someone think of the children) will have to pay off. I'm no budgetary expert, but I think it has something to do with a part in the preamble of the Constitution that says "War money don't count as real money." Who are we to argue with the founding fathers?

Gitmo: Compare/Contrast

UK government suppressed evidence on Binyam Mohamed torture because MI6 helped his interrogators

Mr Mohamed, 30, an Ethiopian, was granted refugee status in Britain in 1994. He was picked up in Pakistan in 2002 on suspicion of involvement in terrorism, rendered to Morocco and Afghanistan, tortured and then sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2004. All terror charges against him were dropped last year.
...
The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mr Mohamed's genitals were sliced with a scalpel and other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, "is very far down the list of things they did," the official said.
...
He expects Mr Mohamed, who is currently on hunger strike, finally to be sent home from Guantanamo this week.

Right-Wing Senators Praised ‘Humane’ Conditions At Gitmo During 50-Detainee ‘Mass Hunger Strike’

Several other of Inhofe’s colleagues have been singing Gitmo’s praises. House Minority John Boehner (R-OH) remarked last month, “I don’t know that there’s a terrorist treated better anywhere in the world than what has happened at Guantanamo.” “Well, I agree that its gotten an image. I don’t know that that’s all completely deserved,” Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) told MSNBC on Jan 22.

But according to a Guantanamo military lawyer, detainees are still being “beaten” and are living in horrific conditions. The Guardian reports today that Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley is demanding the release of her client, who is “dying” because of his treatment.
...
Sens. David Vitter (R-LA), Richard Burr (R-NC), and Pat Roberts (R-KS) were also on Inhofe’s delegation, but none are speaking about these disturbing conditions. In fact, Burr blogged that the conditions are “well thought out and in keeping with our Nation’s highest ideals.” Burr also had this puzzling assessment:

If anyone receives mistreatment at Guantanamo, it is the guard force. They must endure frequent verbal and physical attacks from detainees while maintaining the highest standard of care for those same individuals.

This is the kind of stuff you'll need to remember when the President and the Justice Department decide that the people who tortured and ordered torture shouldn't be prosecuted because of some nebulous reason and Congress decides to go along.

Compare/Contrast

NATION'S ENGINEERS: WE NEED A
$2.2 TRILLION STIMULUS

America's roads, public transit and aviation have gotten worse in the past four years. Water and sewage systems are dreadful. The basic physical backbone of American society is barely above failing, a report by top engineers says.

It'll cost $2.2 trillion to fix America's ailing infrastructure, according to highlights of a report being released early, just as the House of Representatives readies its first vote on President Barack Obama's call for a massive economic stimulus spending package.
...
"Do you realize we're driving on a lot of roads that were built during the Eisenhower Administration," Herrmann said.

House GOP: Stimulus Plan Has Too Much Spending

President Barack Obama's expansive and expensive plan to jump-start the economy is all but certain to clear its first hurdle when the Democratic-controlled House votes on a $825 billion version that melds new spending and tax cuts. Republican support, however, is in doubt when voting takes place Wednesday.
...
House Minority Leader John Boehner wouldn't say Wednesday morning how he thought the vote would turn out. He did emphasize anew that GOP members are worried about billions in domestic spending that "has nothing to do with creating jobs or preserving jobs."

Let's see, our infrastructure is falling apart due to decades of inaction. We are in a major recession. The chief way every responsible economist says to help get our economy out of it, make up the GDP shortfalls, and boot employment is by massive government spending, preferably on infrastructure, preferably to the tune of $1 trillion or more. Our elected betters decide they don't need to listen to no stinking book learned types and craft a plan that's less than that, load it up with many ineffective tax cuts, still noting that it could do a lot of good (but not enough). The GOP looks at this 'not good enough' bill and says "Whoa, too much spending on infrastructure, too much spending in general. Can't we load this up with more tax cuts?"

In case you were wondering: We are never going to get out of the recession, the government will never pass a competent stimulus bill. Bonus points though for Johnny Boehner for his innate ability to look at an issue and loudly proclaim through his words "I have no idea what's going on, I don't even understand the basic fundamentals of what we are talking about and voting on." John, massive public investments in infrastructure, public transit, dams, sewage, etc.. has created jobs every time it's been tried and will always create jobs. In fact the amount of jobs it creates and GDP it makes up is directly proportional to how much is spent. This guy sez so. Pay attention in Econ 101.

Compare/Contrast

President Bush Pardons Iowa Turkey Today

Obama names Volcker to head new economic advisers

One fucks around with turkeys, the other creates an Economic Recovery Advisory Board and staffs it with the best and brightest non-turkey or bird related humans. Furthermore, that turkey Bush pardoned was indicted for war crimes, racketeering, killing three bald eagles, and for bribing public officials.

Which one is the President now? If it isn't Obama can we make it the pardoned turkey?

Obama and McCain today: Compare/Contrast

or

Obama just gave his big Berlin speech, text and video here. What did McCain do? He went to a German restaurant in German Village, Columbus, Ohio. He shoveled down Sauerkraut-Bratwurst Balls at Hans Gruber's Kraut Shack and Sausage Haus. Afterward staffers were seen exiting the restaurant and crawling off into a ditch to die of embarrassment, shaming all who knew them.

On Saturday when Obama is meeting with UK PM Gordon Brown, McCain plans to get kicked in the goolies during a soccer riot and eat spotted dick.

Obama promises that when he returns, he'll start acting like there's another guy in the race.

I smell another campaign shakeup coming John.