Monday Musings: November 8, 2010

Wow! We watched ‘AstroTurf Wars’ last night. I’d ordered the DVD from their website and it was far more than I thought it would be - climate change, healthcare reform, tea parties, guerilla social media, and the influence of billionaires on our cherished electoral process.

After this horrendous mid-term election cycle and the barrage of AstroTurf/Front Group money that flooded into Nevada on the back of TeaNut Senator wannabe, Sharron Angle, this documentary was a perfect ‘after action review’ on just how insidious this stuff is. We really do need to put a stop to it. Now. Or we will lose our democracy.

That’s not an exaggeration. So, please watch it. On the low price end, it’s only gonna cost you $1.99 to watch it online - if that’s still available. Is it, Taki? If you can’t afford the DVD, then ask me. If I’m flush, I’ll call it an early holiday gift.

It’s that important.

Yesterday, I knew that I needed to get some exercise - and I needed a few items from the grocery store. So I walked the two miles from house to store, armed with warm clothing and gloves, and a messenger bag. I can carry only about half as much as I can with my bike panniers … in the rain …and wind. I can tell you that it’s a darn good workout. The legs and butt were getting a bit fatigued, carrying about 10 pounds of groceries. You also get a different view of the world on foot, plus you’re much less inclined to ‘impulse’ buy. I took time out enroute to stop and talk to the little goats on Foothill Road.

Oh, and I spotted a Mountain Jay. Whoa! Beautiful. I’ve been having a hoot, as usual, with my backyard birdfeeders and the camera.

Is this what your Monday stacked up to be like? Hectic and crowded?

Or was it calm and serene?

Anybody out there know which sub-family of leafhopper this is? This fella was out in the backyard too, just going about his business. Didn’t the macro lens do a great job?

Who else around here has AT&T Uverse and is pissed off besides me? I don’t watch much tee-vee - I’m blogging instead. But when I do watch, I want to watch what I thought I bought in the package: FoodTV, Cooking and HGTV. But noooooo. Evidently, Uverse is now in a pissing contest over the price of the shows with the supplier, Scripps, and therefore no shows. Blank. So many channels and so very little to watch.  I’ve made about three calls to AT&T, to no avail.

 

 But on the good side of the cable battles, MSNBC put Keith Olberman back on the air. He was suspended after the mothership found out he’d donated - against stated network policy - to three Democrats. He’d sent them about $2,400 each - which was a paltry sum when compared to the millions MSNBC, NBC and GE executives had funneled into their own efforts to screw the best efforts of the American voters.

Don’t you wish Olbermann would tell Phil Griffin of MSNBC to stick it, and then move to NPR/PBS?

How cool would that be?

Here’s another thing about tee-vee. The current second place team on the CBS show The Amazing Race includes one of my neighbors. Yup, right up the street. I don’t know her, they bought the house a couple years ago from some friends and we’ve never really met them. Her name is Claire Champlin. I haven’t seen matching Porsche’s being delivered, or a moving van at the door, so maybe she didn’t win. I haven’t been watching ‘The Amazing Race’ this season- although I was a big-time early fan of the show. In recent iterations, however, it’s seemed to get snarkier, bitey and ‘pretty’. More like the show I don’t like - ‘Survivor’. I probably will tune in to see what happens in this case.

Finally, on my way out of tee-vee land, we watched Mitch McConnell - is he actually alive? He tends to have that Orrin Hatch wax look these days. - on the Sunday ‘Face the Nation’ with Bob Schieffer. If you’re still not sure what to expect from the GOP, then watch this. It’s all you’ll need to know.

It’s going to be more not answering the questions. These people have taken lame talking points that have zero basis in factual reality to a new level. McConnell operates on a now familiar - Sharron Angle and TeaNut - strategy wherein you just keep ignoring the questions and nuances in favor of saying the same false stuff over and over and over again. This is called the “Say it enough times and that will make it true” strategy. The GOP is the party of ‘No’ and master of well-trod formal and informal logical fallacies.

“Raise taxes on small businesses”? Still hanging in there with that old chestnut, too. Gotta love the good lies, right?

Here are some actual ‘facts’:

Only about 6 percent of American tax filers actually have some part of their income from actually owning a small business. That means at least half your income is from that small business. Furthermore, most of these are in excess of $250,000 in AGI (adjusted gross income). Feeling really sorry for them yet?

If you really want to get down and dirty on this ‘small business’ tax thingee then go to the Tax Policy Center and take a look for yourself, and quit just accepting that the GOP Zombies tell you.

It’s very, very difficult to determine from the tax code and filings just who and how many filers are actually small business owners. Just getting a few hundred dollars from public speaking engagements or consulting do not a small business owner make. I know. I’ve been there. And, money drawn from a trust fund can apparently show up in such filings.

Small businesses generally are regarded as companies that have fewer than 500 employees, but there’s no widely accepted data that define America’s small businesses, said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and The Brookings Institution, two center-left Washington research centers.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/09/10/100404/if-taxes-on-rich-go-up-would-small.html#ixzz14kACmdCb

So, the next time you hear the GOP use that ‘small business’ chestnut to hang their objections to ending the UNFUNDED Bush Tax Cuts, know that you are being bullshitted. And, if unfunded giveaways are such anathema to the GOP, why didn’t they get into an uproar over this in the first place? Hmmmm.

Finally, I happened across an interesting article about the distribution of healthy eating habits across the country - the percentage of adults who eat at least two servings of fruits and veg daily. I was pretty astounded by what I saw.

Click on the map to go to a more in depth look at the crazy distributions, but as you can see, some of the very most compliant folk are up there in New England. Really. Vermont and Maine! What’s that about? To balance all that healthiness, are Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina. Less than ten percent eat anywhere near the recommended number of daily servings to stay healthy. Hmmmm, down there in the Bible thumping belt, amongs the GOP true believers. You have to start thinking about some interesting cause and effect possibilities here.

There, it’s done. Another Monday Musings for your edification and entertainment. Aren’t you glad you waited?

Have a dandy week ahead.

-maven