The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Immigrant Bashing AZ GOP Leader's Son Re-Arrested on Felony Count

    Republican Russell Pearce, Arizona Senate President, author of Arizona Law 1070 on 'enforcing the law' on immigrants, has a little problem with his own son breaking the law. The guy who thinks he has the solution to illegal immigration, can't keep his criminal son out of trouble.  Well, what else does one expect from Republicans but hypocrisy? They are ready to run your life and they have all the ideas on how to 'fix' the country, but they can't competently run their family.

    Oh, Lord . Time for another boring lecture

    ... on the social security trust fund.

    What it isn't: a lot of cash.

    What it is: two columns of numbers.

    Rev. Lynn: Separation of Church and State or Discrimination?

    The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Citizens United for Separation of Church and State, has an article up up at HuffPo expressing concern over First Amendment brutalization. The source of his ire? Well, the NPS recently announced the 2010 recipients in the "Save America's Treasures" grant program. And with it, Christianity is cemented as national religion. Apparently.

    Structural Unemployment

    ain't happening. 

    Brad DeLong, boringly providing facts to the masses (i.e. people like me) provides Paul Krugman providing a couple of paragraphs (go ahead, you can read them) that demonstrate we aren't suffering from structural unemployment which has to be tolerated until every first grader has learned Chinese. Or something.

    We're just suffering from ............ unemployment. 

    Watt Childress's picture

    Do it in the name of love

    “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”                   -- Mother Teresa

    Dudes are notoriously lame when it comes to Valentine’s Day. Over the years, my actions and inactions have placed me among the ranks of Troglodites who ignore or defame the meaning of this celebration.

    coatesd's picture

    Obama and Housing – Is Anybody Home?

               You may not know it, if you watch only Washington Beltway politics, but we are currently in the midst of a housing crisis of monumental proportions. It is a housing crisis initially caused by the inadequate regulation of private sector mortgage lending when George W. Bush was president. It is a housing crisis which was subsequently transformed and compounded by the large scale involuntary unemployment which the 2008 financial crisis and resulting recession left in its wake. It is a crisis which the Obama Administration inherited, and which has deepened on its watch.

    acanuck's picture

    Squaring the circle: Tahrir as metaphor for Egypt

    As soldiers and civilians cart away the metal barricades and debris, Tahrir Square has begun to return to normal. But what's normal has forever changed. For Egyptians, Tahrir finally does mean Liberation.

    Like many things in that country, Tahrir Square hasn't always been what it purports to be.
    At its core, it isn't even a square; it's a circle. An enormous traffic circle -- what the Brits call a roundabout.

    Decader's picture

    Sound Out to the Mideast: EU or Bust

    From the growing Muslim revolution, how or whether Muslim nations integrate with the European Union may be key. The EU absorbed the post-Wall '89-ers, and they can somehow do it again. It's tempting to think a Muslim satellite of the EU would work but no one wants to be on the 2nd team (take Turkey as an example). And for all the EU's hesitancy about the Muslim world, it's time for the EU to step up - as it did when it fast-tracked East Europe. 

    Barth's picture

    Governing

    Aren't you just a little bit jealous? Revolution is sweeping the middle east as those whose interests take a back seat to the oligarchs who have longed ruled the country got fed up. They collected together and forced change.

    FurudeRikaChama's picture

    The Humanity in Star Trek

    One of the best shows of all time is undoubtedly Star Trek. I've been kind enough to offer a few links that represent Roddenberry's love of humankind above all else.

    In this episode, Data is led back to his homeland and his evil side, Lore is revealed as well.

    CVille Dem's picture

    My New Picture

    As someone who could win prizes for the worst pictures in the world, I want to share this one, fairly decent one of me.  

    Oh, and on a more important front, BRAVO EGYPT!!!!  It has been 25 years since I was in Cairo, and I have many miles under my belt, but Egypt was one of the most interesting places I have ever been - in every way.  

     

    Barth's picture

    Not About Egypt

    not literally, anyhow, but, of course, it is:




    cmaukonen's picture

    Democracy ain't pretty.

    I came upon this article on the AlJazerra English site. A letter to the Tunisians and Egyptians from

    Richard Day's picture

    TORTURED LOGIC

    Unthinkable

     

    I recently watched one of those movies that went straight to disc as they say. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unthinkable

    Only this straight-to- DVD flick featured real stars including Samuel L. Jackson and Carrie-Ann Moss.

    acanuck's picture

    DENIAL IS JUST A REGIME IN EGYPT

    Today's pair of speeches by Mubarak and Suleiman have left me speechless.

    Ditto for President Obama. After optimistically predicting this afternoon the world was about to watch history unfold, he avoided appearing on camera to eat his words. But the White House's written statement conveyed a clear sense of disappointment, if not betrayal.

    HB Gary Federal, Anonymous and Wikileaks.

    A conflict between everyone's favorite hacktivists and an obscure security research company has just gotten interesting. HB Gary Federal is a cyber-security company run by Aaron Barr who has been researching individuals he believes are associated with Anonymous. Specifically he has been trying to link the handles of IRC participants to real people. When he decided to publicize his findings in the Financial Times last Saturday, it touched off a very interesting series of events which are still unfolding.

    acanuck's picture

    Spinning the revolution

    Sometimes, seemingly inconsequential things make me really, really angry. And by inconsequential things, I mean articles that appear in the Washington Post. Like this one:

    Free, fair elections still distant prospect for Egypt

    By Craig Whitlock and Mary Beth Sheridan
    Washington Post Staff Writers
    Tuesday, February 8, 2011; 9:21 PM

    Michael Maiello's picture

    Pigs At The Trough

    Leave it to my old friend Charlie Gasparino to just blithely toss out offensive descriptions of public sector workers in America.  Here, in an otherwise sane commentary about the political uses and abuses of investment analyst Meredith Whitney, he refers to public sector employees as "living off the public trough."

    Richard Day's picture

    THE GNASHING OF TEETH

    File:Illu01 head neck.jpg

     

    …and there shall be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

    Money isn't everything.. Until the bank fails.

    Cmaukonen today
    Those that are struggling to make it are not going to listen to some ones ideas if these ideas come from people who ................................... pull in 6 figure salaries and justify to the nines their right to do so

    And rightly so

    I'd be hypocritical if I did not comment that most of those I know earning a 6 figure salaries are justified to claim it's justified..

    cmaukonen's picture

    Communication is the problem to the answer

    I was discussing in chat the other night with a friend about congress and the Wall Street and how we could get real financial reform, among other things. One of the problems that I see with our current political mess is that the people on the left have a major communication problem.

    Barth's picture

    Presidents

    We watch with rapt attention as a "President" never elected in a remotely legitimate way see his "regime" crumble before the primogeniture he thought to be his due could be put in place. The Glenn Becks of the world notwithstanding, this is a purely middle eastern event, well described during the week by the remarkable journalists working under the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

    ARE BERNANKE'S PIPES LEAKING?

    Several days ago I received a bad report on the cottages I built last summer on country property.  Seems that not enough care was taken to insulate the pipes from the deep freeze that has engulfed the Great Plains. The pipes froze and burst. Now as the frozen pipes thaw out water is leaking everywhere and is not reaching, for example, the commodes--which is probably a good thing because the commodes are cracked.

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