Wednesday November 18th 2009

Hour One: "Too big to block...Comcast-NBC merger?" Thom and Dan Gainor of the Business and Media Institute mix it up www.businessandmedia.org
Hour Two: While the American economy goes to hell in a hand-basket - is Goldman Sachs handing out shiny dimes?
Hour Three: Rev. Rusty Lee Thomas on the Christian bootcamp "Spiritual Warfare for Homeschooled Teenagers? ....Got Patriarchi?
Comments
s.b. "credit card interest rates have been jacked up to 31%"
Mike's Gifts to the Nation
My husband, Mike, has a full-time job and also has been an artist (printmaker) almost full time for many years now. His work has been selected to be in galleries and in travelling shows throughout the country. (Needless to say, though, these are not the best times for an artist.) Over the 8 years of the Bush failure, his principle subject was politics mixed with satire.
Currently, The Nation magazine is featuring an auction with donations going to support its publication and programs. Mike donated several pieces. Here's the link if anyone is curious about his work. It's biting, and worth a look:
http://www.cmarket.com/auction/item/Browse.action?auctionId=87756952&sea...
I am assuming that a “ghost” written book is one where an either lazy or untalented “author” without much useful to say puts together a jumble of thoughts and ideas for someone who is a competent writer to sort through and attempt to put into a coherent format. It is useful to keep this in mind when regarding Sarah Palin’s new book, written by a ghost writer. The book, apparently, is of little of interest other than to observe Palin engaging in a whine and attack fest, which according to her targets is based on fabrication or fictions of her imagination. Other than expressing rather broad policy ideas she borrowed from someone else, she offers nothing that suggests she has thought much about the problems the country faces, or what to do about them.
It is also interesting to note that she criticized the McCain campaign for being “PC” for not pursuing the Rev. Wright issue, or allowing her to make her racial “point”—although it should be pointed out that the “mainstream” media did the job in nauseating fashion for them. Yet Palin had no problem (as she did with Oprah Winfrey) to make herself, and Hillary Clinton, as “victims” of “sexism” during the campaign, based on anecdotal evidence. The cover of Newsweek magazine, featuring Palin in a jogging outfit, was apparently meant to bring focus on Palin’s lack of substance. But as might be expected, Palin hypocritically gave the “PC” response that this was an engagement in “sexism.” The cover photo originally appeared in Runners World this past summer; it was not “doctored” by Newsweek. If she now considers it “demeaning,” I wonder what she thinks of that wild-eyed, wild-haired Charles Manson look-alike on that cover of Vogue magazine.
In regard to Obama’s visit to China, it seems to have accomplish little concrete for American interests—not surprising considering China’s increasingly bullying posturing. A story in a local paper the other day made the point that the fortunate few American exporters to China are being “schooled” by Chinese “big shots” on the “top quality” demanded by Chinese consumers. Such demands seem odd, considering the lack of quality—not to mention safety—of many products produced by China, most notably toys, baby formulas and pet food. Yet despite the fact that U.S. exports to China are half of either that to Canada or Mexico (the U.S.’ two biggest export markets, sorry to say to the anti-NAFTA people), American producers are jumping through flaming hoops to outdo each other in groveling to Chinese buyers.
Obama may have been facing another obstacle beyond arrogance in dealing with the Chinese—racism. Chinese attitudes towards dark-skinned people (also true of the Japanese) can be said to be either patronizing (when condemning alleged U.S.’ human rights failures) or defined by the kind of base stereotypes and prejudices that most white Americans would cringe from enunciating in public. Many Chinese seem uncomprehending that the U.S. elected as president someone who is not white; the fact that Obama is “half-white” seems to be the most logical “explanation” for this strange phenomenon.
Thom, yesterday you referred to the cowards wing of the Republican party. I suggest we start calling them the Chicken Wing.
Bill J,
Brilliant!
@ Mark - re: "The cover of Newsweek magazine, featuring Palin in a jogging outfit, was apparently meant to bring focus on Palin’s lack of substance."
I disagree, Mark - that photo showed about all the substance the lady has to offer this nation - i. e., even you can't deny that she DOES have GREAT legs! ;)
Why is it that we as a society believe it when the upper classes tell us that they are morally superior? We don't need government involvement in the market place because the market is owned by the upper classes. We need government involvement concerning the police and the military because the lower classes are morally inferior.
If not for the AT&T divestiture, would we have cell phones, the internet, and other services on the scale that we do today?
Before, you were required to lease you phones from the RBOC, and for data communications, you typically used acoustic couplers because you weren't allowed to connect anybody else's equipment to Bell's phone lines, and you would have been lucky to have a 300 baud connection speed.
And if it weren't for the ability for other carriers to compete, how motivated would AT&T/Bell been to provide cellular service at a rate that was affordable to the typical subscriber?
And in response to the caller's claim, if I remember right, to get competition, carriers were required to sell services to resellers at a 20% discount off of their tariffed rates after divestiture. So the argument about the costs for the lines would not be a big concern.
Re: David Barton
Mark,
Your "medical indemnity insurance" post yesterday is such a clear description of what is being done in one form or another to the majority of citizens in this country.
My husband and I now pay as much in health insurance premiums as we do in mortgage payments. This won't continue indefinitely because, as you say, "ends" are barely met now. (We just received notice that, like everyone else's, our premiums are going up. Mind you, MY insurance is through the state of Minnesota due to a cancer pre-existing condition. This program was SUPPOSED to help make insurance affordable. Ha!)
Our credit card balances have been jacked up to 31% (like so many of us), just BECAUSE. (We made payments on time and had been good customers for many years.)
We have a house but we can't sell it in this nonexistent market.
What is the end? Will we ALL be sleeping under railroad bridges before this nightmare is over?
Meanwhile, the MN legislature is suing Gov. Pawlenty over cuts he made (constitutionally-disputed "unallotments" he single-handedly enacted) to try to restore some sanity to the needs of the weakest in our state:
"House revives budget fight with Pawlenty"
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/70206257.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy...
If Pawlenty's deliberate pain and, in some cases, death that he has forced on us isn't "evil", I don't know what IS!