Harry "Boehner" Potter and the Half-Brained Congress

"If Americans wanted a responsible Congress, ready and willing to act in the nation’s interest, and able to work constructively in response to critical challenges, they made a tragic mistake in November 2010. "


President Obama gets more utter rejection from Republicans - whose number one priority, as they have repeatedly stated, is to get a Republican elected to the presidency in 2012, no matter the cost to the nation. So it was no surprise that Obama's request to address a joint session of Congress on jobs was refused by Republican Speaker John Boehner.

If they can't agree on when to talk and listen, then there is small hope any advances or changes in economic policy will take place. Ever.

The GOP and Rep. Boehner might need to answer the clue phone which has been ringing and ringing for months now - the disapproval rating for Congress stands at between 80 and 84%.

Since the GOP is focusing on their presidential candidate debates next Wednesday, where they'll keep talking about cutting government spending, none of them will speak to the estimated $60 billion in fraud and waste in government contracts for the war and reconstruction efforts cited this week by an investigative committee.

"Overall, the commission said spending on contracts and grants to support U.S. operations is expected to exceed $206 billion by the end of the 2011 budget year. Based on its investigation, the commission said contracting waste in Afghanistan ranged from 10 percent to 20 percent of the $206 billion total. Fraud during the same period ran between 5 percent and 9 percent of the total, the report said. Fraud includes bribery, kickbacks, bid rigging and defective products, according to the commission.

“It is disgusting to think that nearly a third of the billions and billions we spent on contracting was wasted or used for fraud,” McCaskill said.

Instead, we're hearing that funds for job creation, for disaster relief, for the poor, for the sick, for the elderly, for education, for the nation's roads and transportation, just cannot be spared.

Video: Seismic Waves Across U.S. From Virginia Quake

Waves of seismic activity from the Aug. 23rd quake in Virginia swept across the country, as shown in the video below (via)



As the blogger writes:

" ... an enormous number of sensors in the Midwest and Great Plains. These are areas not known for seismic activity, so what are they doing with so many sensors?
They are part of a travelling array (the 'transportable array') of seismometers, part of the Earthscope initative from the National Science Foundation.

The idea is to have a substantial number of seismometers moving stepwise across the US every few years. Then, having a dense array of seismometers, particularly to have them in places that we don't normally, will show us things that we don't normally see. That spectacular wave propagating across the country is one of those things. Get in to the data and you start seeing that the seismic waves didn't travel the same speed in all directions. And that tells us something about what the earth is made of. No idea what is up, but take a look at the Texas-Louisiana area. Early in the propagation of the waves, they follow along with the rest of the US. But later in the animation, that area shows much larger amplitude variations. Why?"

The Streaker and the Raccoon

It is one of those memorable headlines - "Streaker Arrested With Raccoon In Car" - that just begs for more information. Fortunately, WBIR has the skinny. And other than the delightful headline, there was a mug shot of the suspect which was also memorable for the suspect's expression.

Seems 27-year-old Joshua Parker of West Virginia was attending the Bristol NASCAR race and decided, hey, perfect time to go streakin'!!

Once the fellow was nabbed by authorities, they also found his car, his girlfriend and a raccoon in the car with her. WBIR has the full story and also a video. Oh and also some blurred out pics taken by a witness with a cell phone. Nice touch, news crew.

Had the suspect been streaking with the raccoon - well, that's how real legends are made.

Axing the National Weather Service

FOX News and some Republicans want to eliminate the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center, claiming private companies like AccuWeather provide weather information better than the NWS does. But AccuWeather gets their info (for free) from NWS.

Damned Liberal weather!

Called out for Being Really Stupid by Steve Benen at Washington Monthly.

"Hurricane Irene obviously has the attention of millions of Americans, but some are handling the threat better than others. On the right, some of the rhetorical responses haven’t cast conservatives in the best light.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul wants to eliminate FEMA; congressional Republican leaders are reluctant to approve emergency disaster relief; and Fox News is running pieces like these, calling for the elimination of the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service.

As Hurricane Irene bears down on the East Coast, news stations bombard our televisions with constant updates from the National Hurricane Center.

While Americans ought to prepare for the coming storm, federal dollars need not subsidize their preparations. Although it might sound outrageous, the truth is that the National Hurricane Center and its parent agency, the National Weather Service, are relics from America’s past that have actually outlived their usefulness.

The Fox News piece touts private outlets, including AccuWeather, without alerting readers to a key detail: these private outlets rely on information they receive from the National Weather Service. Indeed, the NWS makes this information available to the private sector for free, since the NWS is a public agency and the data it compiles is public information.

Camera Obscura: How Steve Jobs Changed Movies; Tucker and Dale Finally Released

The impact Steve Jobs and Apple have had on technology, communications, business and more takes massive work to catalog. The Moveable Fest offers just 5 ways Jobs changed movies and the industry as a whole:

"The most obvious and most important moment of Jobs’ movie career was purchasing LucasFilm’s computer division, which counted future Pixar prexies John Lasseter and Ed Catmull among its employees, for $10 million initially and continuing to back it out of pocket through the lean decade that followed to the tune of $50 million. As mentioned in Karen Paik’s “To Infinity and Beyond! The History of Pixar Animation Studios,” had the company been sold to Philips Electronics, the Pixar name would’ve been adorning medical equipment or in the service of automotive design if they had gone to GM, as it almost did in late 1985. But Jobs was content to let Lasseter and Catmull pursue their dream of creating a completely computer-animated film and as a result, we not only got Pixar, but countless innovations that would affect productions well beyond the company’s walls."

Also mentioned:

" ... Apple democratized moviemaking for the masses, just one distillation of Jobs’ belief in how if people have the technology, they will be able to do amazing things with it. Certainly, iMovie and its progenitor Final Cut Pro (first developed by Macromedia) weren’t the first video editing software products out there. But alongside the rise of cheaply available digital video cameras, consumers finally had the ability to shape their films with ease using the same software that could be used by professional filmmakers."

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After winning awards and critical praise at Sundance and SXSW, the horror comedy "Tucker and Dale vs Evil" has finally found distribution into theaters and is available On Demand too. I've mentioned the movie a few times before, so here is the new trailer to remind you that this comedy deserves to be seen.



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Stephen King's masterwork, "The Stand" may get the Harry Potter treatment from Warner Brothers. News that Potter director and writer, David Yates and Steve Kloves are reviewing plans to make the huge novel into two or three films has fans talking.

When I Twitter, It's Serious

As I wrote earlier this month, I've taken up The Twitter again, and today I did have much fun with it, but if said fun had any value, I am not sure what it might be.

It started when I saw a mention via The Food Network for readers to send in their titles for a morphed out movie and food mash-up -- the example I first read was "Frying Nemo".

So easy, I thought, firing off my first Tweet with hashtags, even (#foodmovies) - "The Texas Cuisinart Massacre". (Hashtags sounds like a food but apparently is Rather Important When Tweeting.)

Others quickly followed, "Fistful of Fritters", "Lord of the Onion Rings", "Who Fried Roger Rabbit" and I tried like hell to stop.

When The Food Network mentioned their favorites, mine, alas, was not among them. Of their choices, the only one I liked was "I Know What You Cooked Last Summer".

And all day, I kept thinking things like:

"When Harry Ate Sally" (a zombie movie)
"The Long Good Pie"
"A Clockwork Orange Salsa"
"Dude, Where's My Carp?"
"Enter The Dragon Roll"

AT&T Accidentally Tells Truth

The facts of the $39 billion dollar buyout of T-Mobile by AT&T reveal how much AT&T is willing to strangle the truth to get what they want.

An AT&T lawyer accidentally posted a letter which shows AT&T has been lying/lobbying from the get-go:

"Earlier this summer 76 House Democrats were misled by AT&T.

They signed on to a letter circulated by Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) that was so packed with AT&T talking points and spin that it’s worth wondering who really drafted the letter.

In it the 76 Democrats repeated AT&T’s argument that merging with T-Mobile is the only way that it can extend its mobile network to 97 percent of the population. They also signed on to the AT&T notion that this merger will "create thousands of jobs … which will greatly contribute to our continuing economic recovery."

But here’s the rub. Neither of these claims is true.

An AT&T lawyer recently leaked a document that revealed AT&T can accomplish its network buildout for one-tenth the cost of acquiring T-Mobile. And despite AT&T’s insistence that the deal will spur job growth, the merger will cost an estimated 20,000 Americans their jobs.

Being wrong on the facts has never stopped AT&T’s relentless drive to get Washington to bless this disastrous deal. AT&T is hitting other members of Congress with the same misinformation, and the same AT&T lobbyists who misled the “Butterfield 76” are trying to drum up additional support for the merger.

AT&T’s believes that the truth doesn't matter in a Washington where fact checking takes a distant second to check writing."

Given the way the FCC and Congress and the telecommunications industry has been working, this deal will likely get approved and the consequences will be left to someone else (mobile phone users) to handle. Nothing to see here, move along bucko.

R.I.P. Jerry Leiber, An American Songwriter

Songwriter Jerry Leiber passed away Monday and has left an enormous legacy of American music for the world to enjoy. Leiber and writing partner Mike Stoller began working while still teens and soon rocked the world with tunes like "Hound Dog" for Elvis Presley, "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King and that was just their beginning days.

Via their offcial website:

"Leiber and Stoller have been the recipients of countless awards and honors, including inductions into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But the greatest compliment to any songwriter is to have his songs recorded by the best in the business. Artists who have recorded songs by Leiber and Stoller include The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, B.B. King, James Brown, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beach Boys, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Joe Williams, Tom Jones, Count Basie, Edith Piaf, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Luther Vandross, John Lennon, Aretha Franklin, and over a thousand others."

Their catalog of music continues to bring musician to the studio. Director Quentin Tarantino used a hit written for The Drifters. "Down In Mexico" for a scorching scene in his movie "Death Proof", and in "Pulp Fiction", the song "Stuck in the Middle With You" became even more astonishing, a song produced by the songwriters.

The duo made many powerful musical moments - Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is" for one, "Jackson" by Johnny Cash and June Carter for another. Here's just one of their tunes I've always liked. .

Revolution In Libya and Beyond

The Washington Post (and others) today are highlighting this photo above, taken Oct.2010 - noting that African-Arab leaders (front row) like Tunisia's Ben-Ali and Egypt's Mubarak, all smiles with Gaddhafi and embattled Yemen leader Saleh, are smiling no more today.

Building on resident-led revolutions across these nations, rebels in Libya were aided enormously by NATO air strikes (especially in the last few weeks and days), arms supplies and troops on the ground to train and coordinate rebels.

President Obama has been ridiculed for his policies directing military actions in Libya - but the real possibility of transforming Libya into a more democratic nation is on the rise.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich writes of his deep concerns that the U.S. and it's allies in NATO have been making more war at an ever-rising cost too:

"The leading donor nations of NATO – the US, France and Great Britain – have been free to prosecute war under the cloak of this faceless, bureaucratic, alphabet security agency, now multinational war machine, which can violate UN resolutions and kill innocent civilians with impunity. War crimes trials are only for losers. The prospective conquerors, the western powers and their rebel proxies, will then expect to be able to assert control over Libya's vast oil and natural gas reserves."

More battles and many more changes are likely across the region - but the results? Time will tell.

King Abdullah II Plans 'Star Trek' Resort

Not too many kings make guest appearances on science fiction shows. But Jordan's King Abdullah II did, for "Star Trek: Voyager" and now he's investing in a sprawling $1.5 billion Trek-themed resort in Jordan on the banks of the Red Sea.

"At its core, Star Trek is about bringing worlds together and about a profound hope for the future," Liz Kalodner, executive vice president and general manager of CBS Consumer Products, said in a statement. "We are proud to bring such a unique, interactive Star Trek property to this part of the world to be a part of Jordan's future."

Aqaba will soon become a science fiction landmark.

Rally For Humans In Johnson City

I, for one, like humans. Mostly.

A rally pushing a growing grassroots movement to repeal laws which define corporations as "people" heads to Johnson City on Sept. 24th.

More on the movement here.

See previous posts on the issue here.

On Politicians Who Create Economic Turmoil

Tom Humphrey's Sunday column in the KNS on how much Tennessee (and every other state) depends on Federal funding, despite political claims that Federal funding is a critical problem weighing down the local, state and national economies, is a great read. And the article certainly is generating reader reactions that run from A to Z on the role of government, deficits, and debates which are dominant on the political scene.

"About 40 percent of this year's total $30 billion state budget is federal money — and that's down from the last year, when the stimulus money was flowing in. If you count tax dollars only — not $5 billion in license fees, college student tuition and the like that still counts as state money in the overview — the federal total is much closer to half, about $12 billion federal versus the state's $13 billion."

As I've mentioned before, my congressman, Rep. Phil Roe derides President Obama's spending plans while still celebrating them when they arrive.

It's clear the economic debate has multiple layers - what role should government play, what relationships between business and government work and which do not, and as always, how does the public engage with their representatives to establish the type of governance we want.

So much of the debate is stalled totally by politicians like Rep. Roe, who vowed to seek the failure of an Obama presidency at all costs, a vow made with no consideration for the effects it might have. It's a campaign strategy and not an economic policy - and it's deeply destructive.

As Humphrey writes:

"What we have here is a mixed message. Our politicians, particularly the Republicans now running the state show, roundly denounce federal deficit spending while happily handing out federal checks to hometown folks.

As a political service, this practice seems to have pretty high ratings right now. But, it is submitted, the outlook for the longer term is negative."

It is more than a mixed message - it's patently deceptive.

The 2 Trillion Dollar Mistake S&P Ignored

So a U.S. Treasury agent caught a 2 trillion dollar mistake by the S&P as the S&P was set to downgrade the U.S. credit rating. The response from S&P? "Who cares?"

"It was reportedly John Bellows who noticed within minutes that S&P had made a glaring error that placed its calculations about the U.S. deficit off by about $2.1 trillion.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner quickly pushed back at S&P, pointing to the error. The agency acknowledged its mistake, then said it was charging ahead with the ratings change anyway. Later that evening, it officially downgraded American debt."

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"After spotting the error, he took to the Treasury Department blog Saturday to blast S&P’s decision in dry but biting language. “After Treasury pointed out this error—a basic math error of significant consequence—S&P still chose to proceed with their flawed judgment by simply changing their principal rationale for their credit rating decision from an economic one to a political one,” he wrote."

As for Bellows, he is in an "interim" position because that is the way Republicans want to hamstring economic development in the U.S.:

"Republicans in the Senate have pledged to block many of those nominated for government posts by President Obama, including dozens of top economic jobs. For many, the most absurd example is Peter Diamond, who despite holding a Nobel Prize in economics was forced to withdraw his nomination to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors due to Republican holds that prevented his confirmation. But while those fights get sporadic attention, the result is that officials like Bellows take over top jobs on interim bases that end up stretching on for months and months."

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, this report was issued - the deficit is less than predicted already:

"The Treasury Department on Wednesday reported the nation has run a $1.099 trillion budget deficit through July.

The deficit is about $70 billion less than last year's budget deficit at this point in the fiscal year. The reason is higher government revenues, the Treasury statement said.

Total spending has increased this year from $2.921 trillion to $2.992 trillion, but receipts to the government are up from $1.753 trillion to $1.893 trillion."

The fiscal meltdown on the global scale seems to point to a daunting conclusion:

"The only sane conclusion is to open our eyes to the fact that finance capital is now bigger than the state. Sovereigns are limited by territory. Capital is not. Thus it can engage in what is known as regulatory arbitrage, seeking out the markets with the fewest restrictions and playing governments off each other to compete for the most favorable -- defined as the most lax -- regulatory environment, much as sports franchises extort tax breaks from municipalities with threats of moving to another city. That Lending Tree TV ad that's been around for years promises "when banks compete, you win." Well, when governments compete for regulatory permissiveness, you lose. Behold the recent spectacle of the New York Democratic congressional caucus asking federal regulators not to enforce new controls over derivatives, the most speculative, destabilizing and profitable line in the business, because it could hurt Wall Street’s competiveness against foreign banks."

Which reminded me of this exchange from a 1998 episode of "The Simpsons":

"Mr. Burns: Well, if it's a crime to love one's country, then I'm guilty. And if it's a crime to steal a trillion dollars from our government and hand it over to communist Cuba, then I'm guilty of that too. And if it's a crime to bribe a jury, then so help me, I'll soon be guilty of that!
Homer Simpson: God bless America!

The Danger of Cloning Pets

The economy is so bad that Cat cloning is going out of business. Well duh, as the planet has no need for more cats - and hey, I like cats. I've owned many. But a cat was never meant to be a mourner at your funeral (unless, maybe you willed the cat your bajillon dollar fortune, and boy will your relatives just loooove that.)

"After studying this market for more than a decade -- and offering both cat and dog cloning services -- we now believe the market is actually extremely small," he wrote on BioArts' now-defunct website.
And while many of its dog clones turned out normal, researchers could not explain why some were plagued by physical defects."
Let's face it - cloning science, whether for Kitty-cats or dogs or people - is merely a disaster in waiting. Does no one read any science fiction? Clones are just visual copies -- unless you implant them with memories of the one cloned ... and that's where all the stories turn bad.


NOTE: I knew a fellow once who had a bat he kept as a pet, and when the bat Crossed Over to the Other Side, he had is stuffed, wings akimbo, and hung it from the mirror of his car, often tapping it with a finger, waggling his eyebrows at his passengers, and most seductively wagging at any woman (save for a cousin or such) as if to indicate his Inevitable Ascendance to Alpha Male (akin to “I'm gonna be manager of that Tire Store one day!”)

Today My Blog Turns 7

Today marks the end of year 6 for this humble yet lovable blog. On now to year 7.

Thank you.

Want some birthday cake?

Yeah, me too.

Camera Obscura: New Booker T. Jones Album: Russia Attacked By Aliens; Sam Raimi Does Wizard of Oz

Once you allow for Memphis native Booker T. Jones to sit at a Hammond B3 organ, magic happens. After far too long an absence, the funky soul sounds he creates are back on his new solo effort, "The Road From Memphis". Here's a tune based on Lauryn Hill's "Everything is Everything"



Buy the CD for more - including a cut with Booker T. and Lou Reed.

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Attacking aliens somehow target towns like Washington, Tokyo or L.A. But what about Russia? The director of "Wanted", "Nighwatch" and "Daywatch" offers up "The Darkest Hour" to answer that question --



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"Evil Dead" and "Spiderman" director Sam Raimi is hard at work on a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, called "Oz: The Great And Powerful", starring Mila Kunis, James Franco and, of course Bruce Campbell. Few details are available, but some are here.

The Best Thing About Twitter

I have no idea what the best thing about Twitter is, so you will have to tell me as I nervously,. and novicely, dive into the Twitterverse. Or you can follow my folly via Twitter by adding me to your Twitterisms (Twitterifications? Just don't say "Oh, how 'tweet.") - Cup Of Joe Powell.

Do you use Twitter?

Do you hate Twitter?

Does Twitter use you?

Slow Clap For Congress

Sarcasm for Congress hits the Internet with homemade videos at Slow Clap for Congress -- the opening message says it all:

Dear Congress:

For your leadership, your maturity,
and your inspiring ability to perform the basic duties of your job,

We Applaud You

And here's a sample video from the pages and pages of submitted videos which anyone can make and download to the site - maybe you will offer your applause too:

Metropolis II - 1,100 Tiny Cars Cruising the City

1,100 tiny cars roam endlessly over a cityscape in Metropolis II by artist Chris Burden.

"The exhibit, when running, requires two full-time attendants: one standing inside it monitoring flow like a panopticon, and another pacing around the 20-by-30-foot installation watching for traffic snarls. "I've seen spectacular pile-ups involving cars that spill off the road and derail trains," Burden says. "Every hour 100,000 cars circulate through the system, so you're going to get some glitches. It's not digitized."

Police: Sir, Do Not Wear Your Bunny Suit Outside

Police in Idaho Falls report:

"According to a report, officers responded to the 400 block of Third Street after a resident reported that her son had been frightened by Falkingham wearing a black bunny suit and hiding behind a tree and pointing his finger like a gun at him.

The officer also spoke to other neighbors who expressed that they were greatly disturbed by Falkingham and his bunny suit. Neighbors also reported that Falkingham also occasionally wears a tutu with the bunny suit."

Okay then.