A pittance, nothing really, small potatoes, chicken feed, a mere bagatelle.

President Barack Obama's budget will lead to deficits averaging nearly $1 trillion over the next decade, the CBO estimated Friday...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:02 AM | Comments (747)
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He's somebody we can negotiate with, because he's reasonable.

Ahmadinejad described the destruction of the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001 as a "complicated intelligence scenario and act," IRNA reported.

He added: "The September 11 incident was a big fabrication as a pretext for the campaign against terrorism and a prelude for staging an invasion against Afghanistan." He did not elaborate.

Oh, were you finished? Well allow me to retort.

In a few months our national elections are going to get your attention. I expect you'll still mouth off. But it won't feel as good as it does today.

Say "what" one more time. I dare you.

May I have some of your tasty beverage, to wash this "all the cover they need" down with?

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:03 AM | Comments (177)
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Hey all it's Friday at last. Oh and did I mention that this week was National Procrastination Week? Well I meant to so better late than never.

Are Your Ears Still Young?

Test Your Hearing With the Teenager Audio Test
Most humans are born with the ability to hear frequencies from about 20 Hz (low) up to 20 KHz (high) but that range shrinks as they get older. By the time they're 25 many people can't hear any frequencies above 15khz and the highest audible frequency continues to decline as they get older. Most of this is due to aging although prolonged exposure to loud noise will certainly reduce your hearing range too. For some reason men's hearing range tends to shrink faster than that of women. And supposedly audiologists can tell if someone is a veteran (and sometimes their specialties) by the very specific notches in their hearing range.

Well recently teenagers have taken advantage of this by using 18khz ringtones on their cellphones so that their teachers can't hear their phones ringing in class. And if their teachers are much past college, they probably can't. Of course this works both ways - stores have recently begun installing devices like the mosquito which emit a loud tone at around 17khz to discourage teenagers from hanging around in the parking lot.

So now you can take the Teenager Audio Test here and see how good your ears still are. If you want to find out what your upper range is you can test your hearing at different frequencies here. And you can download a wav file here that has a sliding tone from 22khz down to 12khz with a voice over announcing the frequency. more...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:07 PM | Comments (810)
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Hey, Gabe did Battlestar: Galactica threads.

So... good episode.

(Sorry for the spoiler -- I did not take into account some hadn't seen it yet.)

Posted by: Ace at 04:49 PM | Comments (123)
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That's right; your eyes do not deceive you.

You just saw them put on a positive spin on a persistent, soulcrushing, lifestealing 9.7% unemployment rate. (16.8% real unemployment rate, and climbing.)

Oh, and AP's now tracing the Pentagon shootings right back to the office of Senator Jim DeMint.

Thanks to Slu and Gabe.

Posted by: Ace at 04:24 PM | Comments (112)
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A poll of sorts -- where people voice their opinion with real money. This is a decline the Democrats need to hide. more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 04:07 PM | Comments (53)
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James Taranto looks at Krugman's Thursday column in the NY Times attacking Republican Senator John Kyl. Krugman was not impressed with Kyl's argument that extending unemployment benefits created an incentive that could actually increase unemployment.

Krugman scoffs: "To me, that's a bizarre point of view—but then, I don't live in Mr. Kyl's universe."

What does textbook economics have to say about this question? Here is a passage from a textbook called "Macroeconomics":

Public policy designed to help workers who lose their jobs can lead to structural unemployment as an unintended side effect. . . . In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker's incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of "Eurosclerosis," the persistent high unemployment that affects a number of European countries.

So it turns out that what Krugman calls Sen. Kyl's "bizarre point of view" is, in fact, textbook economics. The authors of that textbook are Paul Krugman and Robin Wells. Miss Wells is also known as Mrs. Paul Krugman.

I was out with a liberal friend one night when I saw a flyer promoting a local appearance by Krugman. My friend said she was a big fan and expressed disappointment when she realized the appearance was the night before. I explained that I too was disappointed because I would have loved to have gone and heckled the guy.

Apparently once upon a time, Krugman was actually a rather good economist. It seems at some point he decided he'd rather have the fame and fortune that goes with toeing the liberal line in a Times column. Life is about choices.

Posted by: DrewM at 03:05 PM | Comments (104)
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A few weeks back, a fairly extraordinary column issued from Washington Post twit Dana Milbank claiming that Obama was an airy-fairy buffoon and it was only the sharp and realistic Rahm Emmanuel keeping the administration afloat.

Extraordinary, because this obviously came from Rahm or his friends, and Chiefs of Staff usually fall on their swords for their presidents. They don't force their presidents down on their own swords.

Similar stories also made it into the straight-news part of the Post, too:

And on Tuesday, The Post led the paper with a purported news story by Jason Horowitz saying that a president with Obama’s “detached, professorial manner” needed “a political enforcer” like Emanuel to have a chance of succeeding, “because he [Emanuel] possessed a unique understanding of the legislative mind.” Unfortunately, the story said, “influential Democrats are — in unusually frank terms — blaming Obama and his closest campaign aides for not listening to Emanuel.”

This all sounds like a preemptive strike on Obama from the Emmanuel camp. Even if it's not meant to be that, how can Obama keep the guy on when he or his friends are planting stories that he's a "98-pound-weakling"?

I don't really care who Obama's Chief of Staff is. Obama will be awful either way. But it's lovely to see such Democrats in Disarray stories.

Posted by: Ace at 02:10 PM | Comments (174)
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Lesse here.

1) 9/11 Truther
2) Doper
3) Registered Democrat

That certainly sounds like a right wing extremist to me.

John Patrick Bedell, whom authorities identified as the gunman in the Pentagon shooting on Thursday, appears to have been a right-wing extremist with virulent antigovernment feelings...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 01:19 PM | Comments (128)
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I guess based on all his recent success in moving major, controversial bills through Congress he feels ready to take this on.

You may be surprised but Lindsey Graham is involved in the effort.

A Senior Administration Official tells Fox that President Obama will meet with Senators Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham on Monday as part of a "process to explore bipartisan ideas" on comprehensive immigration reform so the president "can get a sense" of the possibilities of moving legislation this year.

Considering that immigration isn't exactly a front burner issue for most people, this is clearly an effort to get the Democratic base, especially Hispanic voters, energized. After a year of issues that unite Republicans and divide Democrats (Cap and Trade, Health Care, Afghanistan, etc.), the White House must desperately want to put something on the table that divides Republicans for a change. Yes, there are some members of the Democratic coalition that oppose immigration reform, though labor has come along recently, but it's still a more divisive issue for Republicans and conservatives.

Obama's been promising or, depending on your outlook, threatening, this since taking office. I think he's bluffing but he's going to try and get some mileage out of it in the process. I'm not sure if that's covered by 'Hope' or 'Change' but there you have it.

Posted by: DrewM at 01:18 PM | Comments (65)
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