I’d like to make a quick comment on NPR’s coverage of the AZ shooting, and specifically today’s segment on On The Media about the validity of questioning angry political rhetoric.

I’ll have to say, first, that the coverage has been irresponsible at best. Don’t get me wrong. I listen to NPR continuously, and until recently have considered its work some of the best. The coverage of the oil spill was top-notch!

The problem with the recent coverage of the AZ shooting, besides letting off unconfirmed information, was how your people were so blatantly on the “Liberal” side of the Conservative political rhetoric blame-wave. Compare this coverage to the Fort Hill shooting coverage. You guys were first-class on that one: slow to blame and later thorough and even.

I finally had to write today after listening to On The Media. The premise was sound: It’s valid to question angry rhetoric after a violent incident even if there is no evidence linking that event to the rhetoric. But – again – the whole focus was on Conservative media personalities. This leaves me with the conclusion that NPR isn’t concerned about the rhetoric going in the other direction. I seem to remember some fairly serious vitriol against Bush. And Sarah Palin – regardless of the crazy things she says – I think the vitriol against her, before she had a chance to say anything, was unprecedented.

So, in summary, I can’t defend you guys anymore. In the past I’ve argued that you weren’t Liberal, or that if you were you weren’t bias. Elitist? Sure, but not bias. I can’t honestly say that anymore. Not after this, and not after that crazy lady fired Juan Williams. I mean, seriously, Juan was great!

I’m afraid you guys just got put in the same drawer as MSNBC… Just kidding. But seriously, it’s out, you’re a Liberal organization.

Here’s why…

Death panels again… FOX, why?

That guy was filling in for Hannity, who is often as brazen as this guy was. But that wasn’t the point. The point was that FOX had that crazy Death Panels lady on there again even after she was humiliated in the last round.

Hannity’s job is to represent the hard Conservative side of things, and have fun doing it. Having a Nut Rocket on his show representing his side doesn’t help with that. I don’t know who the other lady was, the one defending the clause, but she didn’t do a very good job. She spent more time acting exasperated than she did calling the crazy out.

Like I always say: “Don’t argue with a crazy person. It validates their crazy.” It’s like arguing with a 9-11 Truther. You can’t.

They bring up the melting point of steel.

You tell them it’s irrelevant because steel has only to get slightly warm to lose half its strength.

They call you a sheep for believing everything your government tells you.

You stammer momentarily, trying to understand what they mean, trying to remember the last time your government told you anything.

They assume your pause and surprised look means they made a valid point.

It starts back a few days ago when Bill O’Reilly was on The View, a show where women talk inanely about issues. [no, I'm not saying every woman in the world is on this show] The group was thoughtfully discussing why Obama is having so much trouble with the American people.

O’Reilly was making the point that there exists between Obama and the average Americal a huge proverbial chasm separating how they see the world. His example of this disconnect was the mosque controversy in NY. Obama approached the issue as though it were one of freedom of religion – while 70% of Americans see plainly that building a mosque so close to the 9-11 sight is inappropriate because [and here it comes] Muslims killed us on 9-11. This statement caused Whoopy Goldberg and Joy Behar to walk off the set (then walk right back on).

I’ve said before I don’t have a problem with “The Ground Zero Mosque”. And personally, I don’t like how Bill described his idea. I don’t think it actually offended any Muslims, but saying that sort of thing gives bitchy Liberals more little sticks to swing and unfairly further the crazy-O’Reilly-narrative with their Teabagger generalizing double-standard. He could have used better words, and the words he used distracted all the stupid people – the ones who need to listen – from the very true point he was making.

The fact is: Muslims did kill us on 9-11. There was a network of guys who pulled off an attack on our country and killed over 3000 people, and those killers did this based on ideas and motivations found in their sect of Islam. Also, one of the biggest threats to peace in the world right now is radical Islam. People know this. This is what people think. Bill said it too simply. He assumes American’s have good sense and don’t need crayons. He’s right. What other society would have had zero backlash against Muslims after 9-11?

The average American starkly sees why constructing a Mosque so close to the site of mass-murder by Muslims is offensive. These Americans aren’t interested in limiting the freedom of anyone’s religion, or keeping Liberal support for a political agenda. They just see this as common sense, best to avoid, find another spot, respect the victims’ suffering. The President has a different way of looking at the issue – apparently. That’s the point Bill was making before he stepped in it.

So since then Bill has been hashing over this whole big to-do, complaining about political correctness running a muck, how it’s wearing on the American people’s constitution for politeness. He is right. It is difficult to have this much needed conversation because everyone is expected to pretend that they don’t have any less-than-enlightened inclinations about Muslims – it’s just those other guys we have to reeducate.

So a couple days ago Bill is having a Factor debate, which includes a contributor representing either side. Juan Williams is representing the that-was-a-stupid-thing-to-say-Bill side, and someone else was representing the Muslim-problem side. Besides working as a contributor on Fox News, Juan did the same thing for NPR, until 36 hours after this debate. Here it is:http://video.foxnews.com/#/v/4381309/factor-debate-over-danger-from-muslim-world/?playlist_id=86923

Now, Juan is a really likable guy. He’s friendly and honest. He’s one of those guys who you can never count on which side of the issue he’ll fall – but you can count on whatever he says, it will be sincere and thought provoking. He’s not toeing anyone’s line, in other words, and makes great points and always adds to the conversation. He’s my favorite kind of contributor. He makes me think and question my ideas.

Right off Juan concedes that Bill is right about one thing: Political correctness is run-a-muck. He also added that this is a bad thing because an over-adherence to political correctness makes needed conversation impossible because it forces people to ignore reality. He then went on to describe an example of the problem, that he himself feels uneasy when he sees people dressed in Muslim garb boarding his plane. He wasn’t advocating such feelings, he was making a factual statement, highlighting a problem he himself is part of, and went on to argue against Bill’s use of words, because they could further this problem.

So 36 hours later, after receiving pressure from CAIR (a Muslim civil rights group), NPR abruptly cans Juan over the phone, an employee of 10 years. The fool president of NPR, Vivian Schiller, claimed the reason for the firing was that Juan, as an NPR contributor/corespondent, isn’t supposed express opinion.

And this is where the fun begins. I swear, it’s like NPR forgot my birthday, just remembered, and felt guilty and got me something REALLY good.

1. Juan wasn’t expressing opinion. He was stating a fact, a helpful fact in countering Bill’s MuslimsKilledUs argument, and a necessary fact in the Muslim-American discussion.

2. There are numerous other correspondents and contributors for NPR on record making all kinds of offensive opinions at all kinds of venues. None have been fired.

3. Juan was holding up the pro-Muslim side of the Factor debate. So it’s obvious that those ninnies on NPR and the jerks at CAIR ignored the context of the statement, or didn’t even bother to read the whole transcript, and imprudently fired a very respected journalist in order to further petty political ends. They’ve been looking for a reason to cut this Fox guy out. Juan Williams, a black man on FOX, a FOX/NPR contributor, harms the Faux News narrative they try to spin.

Vivian Schiller then goes on TV and says that Juan’s opinions should be shared with his psychiatrist and publicist, not as an NPR contributor. Juan was also the ONLY black person on NPR – lol.

Now EVERYONE is pissed – across the spectrum. ALL the ladies on the View think NPR made a mistake, those morning idiots on MSNBC say NPR should hire him back, Bob Beckel [liberal political annalist] is forgoing his yearly donation to NPR in honor of Juan Williams, and the Fox people are PISSED their buddy Juan got screwed and are having a hard time keeping it professional [I love Megan Kelly]. The only non-anti-NPR report I read was a Times piece trying to present the controversy as a FOX-opinion-journalism vs NPR-fact-journalism debate… please… The Times and I stand in line together for food stamps…

Now it’s apparent that NPR REALLY stepped in the warm sticky shit. People are advertising their funding sources. A movement has started efforts to remove NPR’s Federal funding. It’s fund raising week – lol. And this whole thing has proven that NPR is a Liberal organization and has totally undermined their credibility.

Now I understand many don’t feel NPR is unfairly Liberal. That was my sentiment as well. I was kidding myself of course, just like you, but I can’t stay convinced any longer, not with this idiot Schiller at the helm, not with George Soros giving them 1.8 million dollars, not with this blatant double-standard, not with this obviously politically motivated knee-jerk vilification of a good man. And seriously – this was just a plain stupid move. It’s blown any credibility I personally had in the organization’s editorial choices – the opposite of the stated intention.

There’s more to come I’m sure. Schiller is going to get canned I bet. She may have ruined NPR. They might have to stoop to capitalism, or worse yet, STOP PLAYING PRAIRIE FUCKING HOME FUCKING COMPANION, or tone down their minimum three shows a day focus on something about homosexuals.

Happy Birthday to me.
NPR’s up a tree.
ACORN their funding dear congress.
He he he he he he.        

British Petroleum’s busted well in the Gulf of Mexico is still leaking. “Top-Kill” didn’t work (thankfully). Originally what happened was, for whatever reason, the drilling platform exploded, dropping the mile long pipe into a messy pile down below. On top of the well, right near the floor of the ocean, was a device specifically designed for this occurrence. It was supposed to clamp down on the pipe and cut it or otherwise crush it shut. It was triggered but it didn’t crush the pipe shut.

PB’s next idea was to post-hast manufacture a big steel box to lure down onto the wreckage, with the idea that the leaking oil would be captured inside, allowing it to be leisurely pumped to surface ships. However, loads of natural gas is also spewing out of the well, which crystallized everywhere and clogged things up.

The next idea was Top Kill which involved forcing mud into the well through special ports in the shutoff device. But the pressure was too great and people started to get worried about corking such a high pressure well. If you plug this hole it might come out somewhere else, or a lot of places. It could have compromised the well and caused a serious gusher. That idea almost seems stupid now…

Today they managed to cut off the messy pipe for their next idea, which is to seat a larger diameter fitting around the well and draw the oil up to surface ships. This would hopefully last as long as it will take to get a relief well drilled, as early as August, which will – hopefully – draw the unreasonably high pressure out of this ill fated shale.

Before discussing this any further, I need to get three things out of the way first.

1. All of you engineers, scientists, and otherwise expert non-oil-worker idea-men (hence forth referred to as stupid people) – STOP CALLING RADIO STATIONS AND POSTING ONLINE ALL YOUR INGENIOUS IDEAS! This is one area where open-source community solutions are useless and irritating.

Seriously. The crap being proposed either includes impossible to manufacture equipment (ok, maybe possible with a few years of lead time), a gross misunderstanding of the magnitudes involved, or, even in the most rational cases, miss one or more of the big harry primary or secondary problems/consequences. Problems like temperature, pressure, secondary reactions, distance, currents, and so on. And reactions like brittle steel, expanding water-ice, leaks, and God knows what else.

It’s like that old riddle about how to get a fox, duck, and bag of corn across a lake in a small row boat. You can’t leave the fox with the duck, he’ll eat it, likewise the duck with the grain, and there’s only room for one thing in the boat.

2. All you idiot Conservatives who give the rest of us a bad name, when Obama does finally take over this disaster and take control of the US subsidiary of BP, don’t cry Socialism.

3. All you idiot Liberals who have been worrying your yourselves about those cries of socialism, and you idiot Liberals who like to pretend you’re smart by trying to dress up Conservative views to look contradictory – they want small small government until something happens then all of a sudden they want big government action – shut the hell up and think things through for 15 seconds.

No one with a brain is calling it socialism for the Fed to take over a multi billion dollar company that has caused amulti billion dollar disaster any more than they’ll call it socialism for the fire department to take over a burning building in an attempt to save the whole damn neighborhood.

And this – this – is the type of thing Conservatives like to keep government reserved for. Disasters are similar to war in that way. Do you call Conservatives big-government-lovers when they call for a big strong military? No, of course not. You call them baby-killers, war-mongers, and racists.

Conservatives think government should only do the things only government can do or can certainly do MUCH better. This is one of those things. Running health insurance isn’t. Running banks and factories ISN’T. Telling us what to eat, where to live, and how to invest ISN’T. As a matter of fact, this whole disaster more than likely would have been prevented if currently existing regulation had been properly implemented. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t because that whole bureaucracy, like all bureaucracies, is inefficient. They’re never capable of the lofty challenges we assume they can are.

Ok, with that out of the way let’s talk political strategy. Everyone is worried/hopping that this is Obama’s “Katrina”. And, of course, it is. Presidents get blamed for the problems fair or not. So, in this case, is it fair?

I’ll tell you one thing that is fair. Obama took every cheap shot he could at Bush over Katrina. It’s fun seeing someone get his Karmactic retribution in the current life. Hey Barack, how do you like whinny Liberals now that YOU’R in charge???

Bush didn’t realize how bad New Orleans was right away. When he did, it didn’t matter right away because the disaster area was under state domain, and once the Fed did get involved FEAMA was useless and the only guys doing their job was the military – and even with their incredible efforts they couldn’t – like – rain down bottles of water, tepees, and lunchables anyway.

Likewise, Obama couldn’t have imagined this clusterfuck. He laid low at first, as he usually does, pondering the best symbolic presentation of himself and positive angle for his agenda. And, he had just uncharacteristically supported off-shore oil drilling in an attempt to win Republican support for Cap n’ Trade. So I bet he was hoping BP would do a quick fix before people started asking what he was doing about what and when and who and how much and why, why not and where.

Since then Obama’s strategy has changed direction multiple times, sometimes oddly. Holder is preparing a criminal case. First BP was bad – then they were good, then bad again. But in Obama’s press conference he did make two things clear.

1. He was with the crisis from day one: On day one he had a meeting and the cost guard was in the Gulf. Of course, he has a meeting every day about everything in the news. And the cost guard – they were in the Gulf on day -1.

2. He has been doing everything possible to fix the problem: Of course this is crap. He and BP have been incrementally increasing their response this whole time as the scale of the problem has become more and more apparent.

Currently Obama is on the attack. In his last speech he was giving guff to everyone on the list and sighting the crisis as a reason to pass Cap n’ Trade. That’s probably the best strategy for him now. It’s so hard to say though. In the game of democracy, the arbitrary flow of public opinion shifts with the oil plum. Think how hard Obama would be hammering Bush if Bush were in Obama’s place doing the exact same things – minus the poetic speeches of course.

Seriously though, I’ve got the feeling this is one of those things that changes society. You never see those coming. They start small and seep into life.

Here are the three best live feeds of the oil leak. They’re rather interesting to watch – soothing yet terrifying. 47 days, 50 million gallons.

PB’s own feed

Oil Spill
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is probably going to do some serious and horrible damage to one of the most productive estuaries on the planet, the place that feeds the US 2/3 of its seafood, and provides a living to millions of people. This spill is truly horrible, leaking 5000+ barrels per day, an example of poor Failure Mode and Error Analysis. A collar on the head of the well was supposed to close on the pipe if the oil flowed over a certain rate, crushing the pipe close. But there was other equipment inside the pipe, so it didn’t close all the way. Since then BP has been struggling to find solutions.

So now what? Political grandstanding anyone? Time to score some political points? What did the Obama administration do when they heard of the leak? Well, nothing of substance. Obama had just finished promoting offshore drilling or they would have immediately drilled the drill-baby-drill agenda. And in this case, such offshore disasters are in the Federal reaction domain – unlike the hurricane Katrina disaster which was in the State’s reaction domain.

The Obama talking point this past week was, “from day one,” but that’s BS. Obama’s brigade was focused on other things and figured it was a small leak soon to be capped, something that would blow over, something to ignore while the Obama-oil wake settled down. The head of the EPA went to the Grand Canyon three days after the leak began. When the Obama administration realized the spill was huge and making it to shore, they suddenly sent a helicopter to rush the EPA head southeast. That’s not “day one.”

So now people see a massive oil slick on TV and the country is suddenly against offshore oil.

What did Sarah Palin have to say in this sudden anti-offshore-oil storm? Well she stuck to her gun, she still openly supports expanding US oil production and that includes off shore. What would you call that? Stupid? Stubborn? Idealistic?

Call it what you want. But the fact is: She’s right. Stopping US offshore oil will increase oil spills just like Cap and Trade will increase carbon release. For every barrel the US stops pumping another barrel or more is pumped in South America or overseas, where regulations are MUCH lower. Hell, many non-US oil rigs just plain leak. They have spills all the time too, but when there’s no spill they just sit there and leak. They destroy the ecosystems they’re in just by being there spill or no spill.

I’d like to know exactly what went wrong to cause this leaking, but it looks like Obama’s people are going to drag BP into a “let’s get’m” hearing like they did Goldman Sacks, so BP will probably stay buttoned up.

Oh yeah, Janet Napolitano didn’t know the military has oil spill equipment.

Time Square Bomber
Another failed attack? NO… We don’t hear about the failed attacks until months later. Like the ones we stopped when Bush was in charge, sending people to Gitmo and listening in on our phone conversations. Oh wait, Obama is doing that now too!

The goal of a terror attack is to effect policy – this one has. The terrorists’ method for effecting change is terror – this one terrorized. This was a successful attack with a botched detonation, just like the Burnt Balls Bomber (aka Underwear Bomber).

At least the reaction to this one was mildly saner than with Burnt Balls. They actually questioned this guy for a little while after catching him before Marandizing, as if perhaps he might possibly not be a lone fool. These goofballs though… We’re going to be lucky to get through this administration without another deadly attack similar to or worse than Fort Hood.

This pansy attitude I think has given our enemy new found confidence that they can attack without repercussions. The Obama charm apparently didn’t sweeten up Jonny-Jihad.

Greece
So Greece has gone bankrupt and needs a bailout. It had way too much spending that was reliant on high boom-time tax revenue. So, like California, when things get a little rough, the generous government pay, entitlements, and fat bureaucracies begin to starve. Now Europe has to bail them out.

So what’s happening over there? Are the Greeks breathing a sigh of relief that the Euro was set up so that no one could get out, so no one would willingly leave, effectively compelling other Euro standard countries to bail them out? No. They are rioting because they don’t want spending cut. I hope this isn’t the future for the US.

Oh yeah, they killed three people by throwing Molotov Cocktails in a bank. Mommy Government…

New Arizona Immigration Enforcement Law
People are still protesting it – using TOTALLY uninformed arguments. Seriously people, the law doesn’t legalize racial profiling. It doesn’t really do anything but sort of help AZ police check citizenship status. It’s already a Federal law that non-citizens carry ID inside the US. No one is checking anyone’s ‘papers’. If you sincerely appose this law you basically are in support of illegal immigration, which I think is the case with most of the opposition.

Obama’s Predator Drone Joke
Yeah, another Obama joke fell flat and offended some whiny little wimps. Who’s been coaching him on humor? Biden?
*sigh* He just needs to stop… You’re not funny Mr. President. It’s not your style. When you try it’s awkward and seems contrived. Take some advice: People think this blog is funny. I don’t try to make it funny. I just try to honestly communicate my ideas, usually while watching TV. I’m just weird and the way I think throughout the day is somewhat humorous, especially when I get frustrated.

I usually have to keep a bag of salt handy when I watch Hannity. But this segment was good. He had Oliver North on and they were discussing what a former ‘associate’ of Bin Laden said recently about Al Qaeda’s assumptions about American reaction to the attacks they were planning for 9-11.

According to the associate they figured it would be a Clinton response but, “maybe 200 cruise missiles.” And apparently they were shocked as shit when Bush appeared in their back yard and started blasting them out of their caves. lol

Scott Brown elected Massachusetts State Senator

Do you think a woman who had posed nude could ever achieve national political office?

Disaster in Haiti

The only hope long term for Haiti is a deadly disease that only affects jerks. That’s the only hope for a lot of developing nations criminally ruled by jerks. The CIA got close with AIDS, but they didn’t realize back then that butt-sex and being a jerk were not mutually inclusive. Ah well, dreams for the next conservative administration.

‘We are the world’ Haiti relief recording session begins

These people need to be stopped. Send your money to Red Cross.

State of the Union address

I don’t know why people take Obama’s speeches to seriously. I mean, they were never meant to be taken literally. His message is one of hope and change. We can all learn valuable lessons from his speeches but – lol – you can’t apply those ideas directly to policy – that was never the intended purpose of his message.

Toyota Recall

Yeah! Another fat-cat scapegoat! Yeah, let’s get’m! Whoohoo!

Obama getting tough on China for trade agreement infractions

I’m getting tough on my credit cards too. I’m taking a different approach though. I’m paying off the debt – or at least trying.

Underpants bomber now talking, encouraged by parents

Wow Obama administration! Way to go getting the kid to ignore his lawyer’s advice. If only all terrorists had responsible parents. And thanks for telling us about it too. Now all of America knows how great of a job you’re doing protecting us. Hey, so have you gone ahead and put Al Qaeda on the list to receive your FUCKING news letter yet?

Sarah Palin to receive $100k speaking fee for Tea Party Convention

Only a Liberal would find this controversial. She’s a Conservative from Alaska. What do you think she’s going to do with the cash? Buy something with it? You give those people a rifle and a pair of boots – a few years later they’ve got a city with a shipping port. Watch, she’ll invest in some unknown little jackass somewhere and turn another baby-blue state red. Astroturf my ass… U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A

Healthcare reform bill stalled

Ok guys, I get it. You got caught up in all the inaugural excitement. We elected Obama assuming “change” meant a thoughtful approach, but you thought we gave you a mandate to turn the country on its keel. So you went after you’re dreams: single payer, sky-rocketing business costs, and reduced carbon output. I can’t blame anyone for going after their dreams. And hey, at least you go that juicy stimulus!

But those darn Democrats, they got in your way. Single payer was compromised into single payer under a different name – then into a public option. Then even that was compromised – first into some fancy long winded name coined by Pelosi that essentially meant public option, and finally, a year later, into nothing more than a list new regulations – more similar to the Republican alternative to Hillary Care than the brilliant progressive stride we were all assuming would slide through. (Eh, regardless of the naïve math and unfunded state Medicaid mandates) And to add insult to injury, you have to buy some of those Dem votes too.

And darn-it – you could have passed it. Hell, you could have passed a bill covering sea lions FFS. I know you’d like to blame the Republicans, but shit man – you knew you had all the power and that’s how you wrote the bill. No Republican could have voted for that thing any more than you guys could all climb on board with invading Iraq! Or – wait. You got tricked on that one – hu? Well, you know what I mean. You can’t blame the dog you’re walking when you walk into a pole – even if he was enthusiastic about it.

So the question is: What now. Indeed, this bill is shot to shit. Stack that monstrosity on the back of the toilet in the staff bathroom. But what now? Should you pole-vault over the wall with Pelosi? Should you try to come to some reasonable consensus with a few reasonable Republicans? Should you keep this unorganized circus with your ring leader off in his own ring singing his poems?

I’m not sure what you should do. I’d like to see some actual reform though.

Congress to cut funding for KSM trial in NY

Every time anyone asks Obama or anyone in his admin a question about trying KSM in civilian court, they duck the question and assure us he’ll be convicted and executed. So if this is just going to be a $1 billion show trial – why not just “have the trial” (wink-wink)? You know – take a few days off, “have the trial,” print up some transcripts and stuff, execute the bastard, and use the $1 billion on some new Predator drones or something.

Don’t ask don’t tell – once again up for debate

What part of “don’t ask don’t tell” is so hard to understand?

This leaked out like three days ago. Obama said he would can whoever let it slip – if he finds out who it was. They really need to clamp down at the Whitehouse – seriously. First they say the President can take forever deciding what to do because it will take forever to get troops mobilized – but then once the President decides to send troops he also, supposedly, wants them there fast. They say there won’t be a time table in the speech, then they say there will… Obama needs to sit everyone down and tell them to stop speaking for him – or at least stop releasing his decisions while they’re in beta.

It’s a relief Obama is sending troops. It’s not the 40k, but he intends to sweet talk Europe into sending the other 10k. I hope this means he’s staying with a strategy for victory – however he defines it. I just hope they nail down a clear strategy and get it moving before spring. The Taliban have had the initiative for some time now while we’ve been dilly-dallying. And every day we spend without following a strategy with clear goals extends the time we’ll eventually be there by a week.

I’m going to listen to the address this evening. It better have some substance damn-it. I just don’t have the constitution to listen to more poetry about how everything will be rainbows and lollypops – ambiguously achieved. Politically this announcement will be interesting – assuming the report is correct. 40k troops is going to wrinkle and pucker-up Obama’s base. Code pink is already starting wars.

Kevin –

Indeed. Assuming Obama does discus dates – which I would not be surprised by in the least – that alone could totally destroy a well thought out and clear strategy.