I had a dream in the middle of the night. I was suggesting to Mer that she needed an audit report that would display in columns rec #, name, previous data, new data, and who made the change. I think I saw the report. I don’t know if it was for Probate Court or Abogada Press or something else. We were in my office. I crossed the room for some reason and returned. In the NW corner of the room, milk crates were stacked. At the top, was a plant. Water started dripping, as if the plant had been over-watered. Suddenly, more water gushed from the ceiling itself. As we started to panic, water poured down like rain from the entire ceiling – a downpour indoors. (My observer-self wondered if recent construction nearby had damaged the roof, although there hasn’t been any recent construction nearby.) We ran to the hallway and I said, “Call Joe and Sally.” (My observer-self thought it was unfair to bring the 80-year-old neighbors into the mess.) There was a phone hanging on the wall in the hallway, where there is none in reality. I woke up, marveling at the vividness of the report, the rain, and the phantom phone.
Raygun Was No Tea Bagger (but bad enough)
Former GOP Sen. Bob Bennett (UT), who lost his seat to a far-right primary challenger after holding it for over a decade, slammed the tea party in an interview with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren Friday. Saying the tea party movement “cost the Republicans control of the Senate,” Bennett warned Republicans to “be careful” about kowtowing to the narrow demands of the hard right when nominating a presidential candidate. Bennett went on to note that the GOP has shifted far to the right from previous Republican presidential candidates like Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
“Ronald Reagan would probably not recognize the description of Ronald Regan that is coming out of a lot of the tea party blogs. … [H]e said something that would be absolutely anathema to many of the tea party people when he said it’s better to get 80 percent of what you want than zero. And Reagan would compromise, Reagan would make deals.”
Indeed, as ThinkProgress has noted, the image of Reagan that many conservatives hold dear bears little resemblance to the actual man, who did many things these self-professed Reaganites would not like. Reagan raised taxes, increased government spending, and ballooned the size of government. And Reagan was a staunch defender of unions.
Lieber Gott! Die Tina Fey ruft mich an!
OK, Tina Fey did not literally call me and I don’t recall whether the Germans are anything but literal with the verb anrufen. Nevertheless, Tina Fey spoke to me last week through 30Rock.
1) Like Jack Donaghy, I was going to be a marine biologist. That may be the only thing Donaghy and I have in common. (No, wait, he speaks German, too. Well-played.)
2) Liz Lemon, like Tina Fey, is smart enough to have placed out of first year German. Tina Fey and I studied German at UVa, albeit years apart. The German word for albeit is obwohl. I don’t normally take personally Tina Fey’s frequent use of German in 30 Rock. («Ich denke, daß sie die schönste Sprache in der Welt ist.» Ja, das stimmt!) However, with the first year reference plus the other items…
3) This shirt made me gasp! Why would a character appear in a scene with a 47 on her shirt? Note the IMDB clip is 1 minute 47 seconds long – no lie. As far as I know, Tina Fey is not in that cult of screenwriters (such as J.J. Abrams) who refer to 47 as a sly inside joke to other cultists. (On the radio this morning there was a discussion of economic indicators based on a survey of 47 economists. Now that’s real stuff.)
Believing celebrities or gods are speaking directly to you is a sign of madness, except when you are face-to-face with them. However, this is no goofy Da Vinci code or The Secret. Still, Tina, if you’re really reaching out to me, use the phrase “that’s crazy” in an upcoming script. bis später. Dein, Mark
“The universe, in other words, is really into overkill, and this makes it very hard to figure out exactly why something happens.” — The Word Detective
Thanks, Tom Udall
Democracy for New Mexico: Sen. Tom Udall Calls for Thorough Review of Patriot Act, Wants Our Input
Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) voted no on the initial enactment of the Patriot Act, as well as the extensions of various provisions that have been passed since the Act’s inception almost 10 years ago, including the latest one. Now Sen. Udall is calling for a thorough review of the law before anything more is done to extend any part of the post-9/11 legislation.
Democracy for New Mexico: Sen. Tom Udall Calls for Thorough Review of Patriot Act, Wants Our Input
Ronnie Raygun, Unionist
Yet conservatives may be shocked to learn that their idol Reagan was once a union boss himself. Reagan was the only president in American history to have belonged to a union, the AFL-CIO affiliated Screen Actors Guild. And he even served six terms as president of the organized labor group. Additionally, Reagan was a staunch advocate for the collective bargaining rights of one of the world’s most famous and most influential trade unions, Poland’s Solidarity movement.
Shock Doctrine, U.S.A. – NYTimes.com
From Chile in the 1970s onward, she suggested, right-wing ideologues have exploited crises to push through an agenda that has nothing to do with resolving those crises, and everything to do with imposing their vision of a harsher, more unequal, less democratic society.
Which brings us to Wisconsin 2011, where the shock doctrine is on full display.
Corporate Tax Dodgers
“I have one dollar in my wallet. That’s more than the combined income tax liability of GE, ExxonMobil, Citibank, and the Bank of America. That means somebody is gaming the system.” — Carl Gibson, the founder of US Uncut, which is organizing some of today’s UK-inspired massive demonstrations against tax dodgers
Indeed, as politicians are asking ordinary Americans to sacrifice their education, their health, their labor rights, and their wellbeing to tackle budget deficits, some of the world’s richest multinational corporations are getting away with shirking their responsibility and paying nothing. ThinkProgress has assembled a short but far from comprehensive list of these tax dodgers — corporations which have rigged the tax system to their advantage so they can reap huge profits and avoid paying taxes: [follow the link]
Mad yet? Ignore the Radical Wrong’s eternal whine about class warfare. The Rich can buy all the defense they need.