FAREWELL MICHAEL BRECKER

From Wikipedia:

Most of Brecker's early work is marked by an approach informed as much by rock guitar as by R&B saxophone. After Dreams, he worked with Horace Silver and then Billy Cobham before once again teaming up with his Brother Randy to form the Brecker Brothers Band, which played fusion that was equal parts bar band, Monk, and Sly Stone. The band followed the trail blazed by Miles Davis's 1970s bands and Weather Report, but with more attention to structured arrangements, a heavier backbeat, and a stronger rock influence. The band stayed together from 1975–1982 with consistent success and musicality.

At the same time, Brecker put his stamp on numerous pop and rock recordings as a soloist. His more notable collaborations include those with James Taylor, Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Donald Fagen and Joni Mitchell. During the early 80s he was also a member of NBC’s Saturday Night Live band. Brecker can be seen in the background sporting shades during Eddie Murphy’s James Brown parody, Get In The Hot Tub. He also played sax briefly on Frank Zappa's live album Zappa in New York.

After a stint co-leading the all-star group Steps Ahead with Mike Mainieri, Brecker finally recorded a solo album in 1987.

Click here for more.

Brecker died of leukemia, way too young, on the 13th. As with James Brown, I haven't really been much of a Michael Brecker fan over the years in terms of buying lots of albums, but I'd be deaf not to recognize his brilliance. Indeed, I was listening to him by way of Steely Dan, Zappa, Joni Mitchell, and Donald Fagen well before I knew who he was. I even saw his brother, also very talented, play once in New York as part of the Mingus Big Band. But it was his work with Steps Ahead that really blew me away. My older brother gave me one of their albums, Magnetic, for Christmas when I was a senior in high school back in 1985. Brecker's take on Duke Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood," with the sax part played on an Electronic Wind Instrument, blew me away, sort of reinventing classy romance and sexuality for the eighties. Brecker's solo on the song "Trains," however, still strikes me as one of the most moving in all of jazz: he overdubbed himself, so it's essentially two solos playing at the same time, and the effect is a marvelous and overwhelming wall of sax power.

He was truly one of the greats, and should be spoken about when one discusses Coltrane and Parker. If he had played in an earlier era, you'd probably have already heard of him.

Here is a video clip of a live performance of "In a Sentimental Mood."

Here is a video clip of a live performance of "Trains." The solo isn't as good as the record, but it's still worth checking out.

Farewell Michael Brecker.



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FUCK DA EAGLES

This really cracked me up. From the Hartford Courant columnist Dennis Horgan's blog, courtesy of Crooks and Liars:

Especially considering the dust their "news" channel kicked up during the Janet Jackson affair, and that this was no "live television oopsie daisy" -- it was tape playback of crowd reaction...

Click here for more text, pics, and video.

During the Saints game on Saturday, there was a quick moment when I blinked, squinted, and then rubbed my eyes: the screen flashed on a young bleach blond babe wearing a cropped black tee shirt that said in gold letters, "FUCK DA EAGLES." I was like, did I just see what I thought I saw? Only during a telephone conversation later with someone who had also watched the game did I manage to confirm the live broadcast obscenity. And, now, thanks to our good friend the internet, I'm able to show you exactly what I saw:



I just love the technology of our era!

Anyway, I personally loved this. I mean, sure, it reeks of Howard Stern style faux rebellion and all, but this was authentic and real--the girl appears to have no idea that she made national television; I'm sure she found out later. I especially love this right now because of how the FCC has tightened up on indecency since the bogus outcry over Janet Jackson's nipple at the Superbowl a few years back. Backing down isn't the thing to do now. TV should go balls-to-the-walls in defiance. But was this really defiance? Horgan seems to think so, but at the time it looked to me like the director, who had final say over putting the shot on air, was just wanting to get a babe onscreen and didn't really read what her shirt said. That is, I think it was a screw up, and a pretty major one at that. But, hey, I'll take my rebellion where I can get it.

Hee hee. Fox is going to be in trouble.

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FORTY YEARS AGO MLK KNEW
WHY WE MAKE WAR TODAY

From American Rhetoric, an excerpt from Martin Luther King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech:

This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Cambodia and why American napalm and Green Beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru.

And

We must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

And

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

Click here for the rest--you can listen to streaming audio of the speech there, too.

Some things will never change. It is obvious today, just as it was to Dr. King in 1967, that the United States wage war for business and nothing else. All the fancy rhetoric that taps deeply into American values, greatly twisting them, about "freedom" and "democracy" is just a bunch of bullshit cover. We send our troops overseas in order to make the world safe for corporations to do business abroad.

Despite all those platitudes about freedom, the greatest American moral value is wealth, which drives everything. King was keenly aware that ending American racism, the crusade for which he is most well known, was inextricably tied to ending American materialism. US state sponsored violence and oppression both here and elsewhere is always about keeping a preferred order of power, but what that order of power most wants is to make money, to do business in as reckless a way as possible, on the cheap: anything threatening that order is necessarily a threat to doing business and maximizing profit, and vice versa. Consequently, ending materialism also means ending war. Which also allows for the ending of racism, which has always been driven by economic concerns.

It's all part of the same phenomenon. King knew well that the worst social ills of our era are different manifestations of the same problem, greed.

Think about that this Martin Luther King day.



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FROM THE REAL ART SPORTS DESK
WHO DAT? N.O. SAINTS GO MARCHING IN
TO THE NFC TITLE GAME FOR FIRST TIME

From the AP via ESPN:

Deuce McAllister and rookie sensation Reggie Bush gave this battered city a reason to throw itself a party, carrying the New Orleans Saints where they've never been before -- one game from the Super Bowl.

To constant chants of "DEUCE!" or "REG-GIE! REG-GIE!" the Saints used an assortment of spectacular plays to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 27-24.

And

It was the veteran McAllister with his two touchdowns and team playoff mark of 143 yards rushing, and the rookie Bush with his collection of magnificent moves, that made the difference in the raucous Superdome.

"It's my first opportunity to be in the playoffs, I didn't want to be one and out," McAllister said. "I didn't want to say, 'If I had done this or prepared differently, we would have been successful.'

"It's just the determination of this team and this city -- to give them everything we have."

Click here for the rest.

The article notes how the victory celebration after the game included live jazz, which was played in the traditional New Orleans style, I'm sure. Of course, jazz is entirely appropriate for the Saints because New Orleans is the birthplace of the musical form, my favorite, as Real Art readers know. But it is also appropriate because the Saints are headed to Chicago to play the Bears: starting in the 1920s, after the forced closing of the city's red light district known as Storyville, which necessarily included a collapse of the job market for jazz players, many musicians hopped on river boats and headed up the Mississippi looking for work, which took them first to Kansas City, and then to Chicago, where Big Easy style jazz quickly dominated the city, and, from there, the entire nation.

That the Saints are playing against Chicago, in Chicago, is a very good omen indeed.

Beyond that, everybody here in Baton Rouge seems really excited. I hear from friends in New Orleans that the Crescent City is really, really excited. And this state fucking deserves it. Not only have the Saints been more disappointing over the years than my hometown's former team, the Oilers (yes, yes, and now the Texans too), but Louisiana is still recovering from the twin battering rams known as Katrina and Rita. We need some good shit here; that's for sure. This win fits the bill quite nicely.

On a more personal note, because as far as football strategy goes my preference is the old-school smashmouth "three yards and a cloud of dust" approach, I'm extraordinarily happy to see the Saints having so much success running the ball. Man, Bush is great and all, but McAllister really reminds me of Earl Campbell, the great former Oiler and one-time Saint. Did you see the Deuce moving all those dogpiles downfield with him? That's football!

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House GOP Shows Its Fractiousness In the Minority

From the Washington Post courtesy of AlterNet:

House Republican leaders, who confidently predicted they would drive a wedge through the new Democratic majority, have found their own party splintering, with Republican lawmakers siding with Democrats in droves on the House's opening legislative blitz.

Freed from the pressures of being the majority and from the heavy hand of former leaders including retired representative Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), many back-bench Republicans are showing themselves to be more moderate than their conservative leadership and increasingly mindful of shifting voter sentiment. The closest vote last week -- Friday's push to require the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare -- pulled 24 Republicans. The Democrats' homeland security bill attracted 68 Republicans, the minimum wage increase 82.

Click here for more.

As amusing as these GOP turncoats are, this report leads me to a couple of decidedly dark conclusions.

First, if these moderate Republicans now feel free to vote as they feel they should, it strongly suggests that what liberals have been saying for years is true: the country is simply not as conservative as Republican leaders and the mainstream media have insisted repeatedly. That's a good thing, but if that's the case, it seems pretty clear that it's fairly easy to create the perception that the nation tilts in a given political direction, which, for all practical purposes, is almost as beneficial to such illusion-makers as if it were actually true--I think it's a no-brainer that such a perception pushes politicians and corporate news organizations to behave as though the myth were reality, which only aids the people pushing the myth.

Second, what the fuck kind of people blow with the political winds? That is, it is frightening indeed that politicians, outside of hard nosed political compromise, without which no legislation would ever be passed, would ever vote for something in which they don't believe. Democrats are exactly the same as Republicans in this respect: they're far more into being reelected than into principle. In other words, I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of the political class is unprincipled.

But I guess we already knew that.

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THE JACKSONS' "ENJOY YOURSELF"

From Wikipedia:

"Enjoy Yourself" was a hit recording for The Jacksons when it was released in 1976.

It was the first non-Motown single for the group since they departed from the label earlier that year. The song, a joyful production by legendary Philadelphia producers Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff, it was the former Motown group's first venture into Philly soul.

With the musical accompaniment by MFSB, lead singer Michael Jackson, now 18, gives the song a joyful jolt, especially during the breakdown when he yells "You can do it! You can do it! You can do it!"

Click here for more. (It's a pretty brief entry, but there are the usual billion always interesting Wikipedia hyperlinks to check out)

So, for some reason, I've been hearing this song quite a bit over the last couple of years. I mean, I don't listen to commercial radio at all these days, except for the always wacky Coast to Coast show, so it's not like some Clear Channel oldies programmer has decided this is what the masses need to hear. Generally, I've been listening to streaming non-commercial stuff over the internet, but those are usually programmed locally. I have no idea why this has been revived by DJs but it's definitely to my benefit. It's an incredible tune, and I remember it from when it was first released when I was eight. It's also pretty nice to flash back to an era when Michael wasn't so disturbingly weird.

Of course, I've dug up a live Youtube performance of the song for you, from the Jacksons' short lived variety show in 1977. Their performance is as good as the song. It's easy to forget what incredible showmen the Jacksons were back in the day--their dance moves are simple, but incredibly effective, and the vocal work is as tight as anything I've ever heard.

That's why you should go check it out right now.

I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself.



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Some SMU faculty members don't want Bush library

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Negotiations to build George W. Bush's presidential library at Southern Methodist University have divided the campus, pitting the administration and some alumni against liberal-leaning faculty members who say the project would be an embarrassment to the school.

Some professors have complained that the combined library, museum and think tank would celebrate a presidency that unnecessarily took the country into a war.

The fear is that the library "will continue to espouse the philosophy and practice of the Bush administration, which has seriously divided our nation and has brought the ire of other countries," said William McElvaney, a retired professor at SMU's theology school and co-author a November opinion piece in the campus newspaper titled The George W. Bush Library: Asset or Albatross?

Click here for the rest.

As amusing as this controversy is, it fully illustrates one of the things about liberals that really bugs me. That is, they're letting their political passion get in the way of their thinking. Whatever one thinks about Bush, and Real Art readers fully know that I think he's the Devil, his Presidential library will be an invaluable academic resource. Sure, the place is probably going to try to deify our wanker-in-chief, and the think tank is most likely going to be another right-wing blowjob factory, just like every other conservative think tank. But so what? Like the Vietnam era over which President Johnson presided, these are fascinating times; the LBJ library in Austin, also protested, as the article observes, when it opened in 1971, has been over the years a treasure trove of research material for constructing a real understanding of exactly how things went so badly back in the 60s. The Bush library will surely do the same thing for us in the long run. And, bloody hell, placing a conservative think tank so close to true academia strikes me as having great potential for side-splitting hysterics and hilarity--the reason conservatives have resorted to think tanks over the years is because their views don't hold up too well when subjected to bona fide intellectual criticism, which is also why there aren't too many conservative university professors. One hopes that these liberal SMU profs would avail themselves of this priceless opportunity to take down such light-weight conservative "intellectuals" in their midst, if only for amusing sport, if not out of a sense of academic duty.

In the end, a Presidential library is simply a library, and it's damned foolish to allow political anger to get in the way of knowledge and inquiry. Goddamned lefties need to shut their fucking mouths and get back to work.

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FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

Phil



Sammy



Paz



Frankie



Be sure to check out Modulator's Friday Ark for more cat blogging!

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Dallas-based pizza chain under fire for taking pesos

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

A pizza chain has been hit with death threats and hate mail after offering to accept Mexican pesos, becoming another flashpoint in the nation's debate over immigrants.

"This is the United States of America, not the United States of Mexico," one e-mail read. "Quit catering to the damn illegal Mexicans," demanded another.

Dallas-based Pizza Patron said it was not trying to inject itself into a larger political debate about illegal immigration when it posted signs this week saying "Aceptamos pesos" — or "We accept pesos" — at its 59 stores across Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California.

Pizza Patron spokesman Andy Gamm said the company was just trying to sell more pizza to its customers, 60 percent of whom are Hispanic.

Click here for the rest.

Oh, for crying out loud! People are just fucking nuts on this illegal immigrant shit. Look, this company can do this. There are no laws against it, and in no way can this be construed as any kind of threat to the United States or the American way of life, whatever that is. Christ, I'm getting really sick of these xenophobic morons pulling out of their asses lunatic rules for how people are supposed to be American: there is no one way to be an American! If there is any one culturally unifying tenet in this country, it is the melding of the various cultures that have found outposts here--generally, these racist xenophobes push some kind of Anglo heritage as being the only acceptable form of cultural expression, but, obviously, such a stance is blatantly unAmerican, if such a thing even really exists.

And now, I'm hungry for some Mexican pizza! It's funny: only the US could give birth to such culturally hybridized food. Fucking racist assholes.

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THE STAR TREK CALENDAR PICTURE OF THE MONTH IS...



Kirk!

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US CASUALTIES TO SKYROCKET

From Reuters:

Bush Iraq plan has many risks, no guarantees

Advocates of the boost pin much of their hopes on the fact that U.S. forces will now hold areas of Baghdad once they have been cleared of insurgents and militia fighters. This, they say, will be a significant change.

"The proof of the pudding is in the holding," said Tom Donnelly, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, who favors an increase in U.S. forces.

Previous operations failed because U.S. and Iraqi forces did not have enough troops to hold areas after clearing them of enemy fighters, U.S. officials have said.

Donnelly said he expected the U.S. casualty rate to rise at least initially after the new strategy is adopted but it could decline after a month to six weeks if operations succeeded.

Click here for more.

I heard a little bit more about this on Nightline a little while ago. The plan for holding these Baghdad neighborhoods involves creating "mini-camps," outside of the so-called Green Zone, which essentially amount to police sub-stations. That is, Bush's marvelous plan for taking out the insurgents in Iraq's capitol city permanently is to paint big huge targets on the chests of our soldiers and marines. They're going to be sitting ducks out there, completely at the mercy of guerilla fighters who blend into the local population, and can strike brutally without warning.

This is fucking stupid and Bush is a heinous asshole. Get ready for lots of flag draped coffins.

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FOX NEWS: TED KENNEDY A "HOSTILE ENEMY"

From Crooks and Liars:

Seguing to Kennedy's speech to the National Press Club, Carlson said, "You talk about the hostile enemy, obviously being Iraq, but hostile enemies right here on the home front. Yesterday Senator Ted Kennedy, proposing that any kind of a troop surge should mean that there should be congressional approval of that…."Bartlett responded that the administration considered Kennedy a long-time critic of the war, but not a hostile enemy.

Click here for video, and for a link to a longer article.

I don't often post on Fox News blather these days because there's just so damned much of it. I mean, obviously, Fox News isn't really a news network in any way that a reasonable person would understand; it's quite clearly a right-wing propaganda organ, and one could, and many have, devoted entire blogs to debunking their bullshit. Of course, every now and then, Fox goes waaay over the top, by even their low standards. This is one of those times: Kennedy, whether you like him and his politics or not, is a sitting US Senator, with a very long and distinguished record. Calling him a "hostile enemy" is so obviously wrong that I imagine he could sue for libel and win if he wanted to. How on earth could anybody buy that "fair and balanced" line these days is beyond me.

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Carter, Clinton back moderate Baptists

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

With the help of former President Carter, Baptists who have distanced themselves from the conservative Southern Baptist Convention announced plans Tuesday for a major meeting that aims to improve the Baptist image and broaden its agenda.

Carter, who left the Southern Baptists in 2000 after the denomination came under conservative control, and former President Bill Clinton, also a Baptist, joined leaders of about 40 Baptist groups in making the announcement at The Carter Center.

"Our goal is to have a major demonstration of harmony and a common commitment to personifying and to accomplish the goals that Jesus Christ expressed," Carter said.

And

The announcement Tuesday is the latest chapter in fierce Baptist battles over how to interpret Scripture. Starting in 1979, Southern Baptists who believe the Bible is without error took leadership of the convention, which now claims 16.4 million members. The denomination became a leading voice opposing gay marriage and abortion, and took stands on many other public policy issues.

Click here for more.

You know, one thing that hardcore atheists don't seem to understand about religion is that it's not simply about theology or belief in a supreme being: religion is also about culture and identity. That's probably one of the bigger reasons why I'm so interested in the Southern Baptists after all these years as a non-Christian. I've rejected their theology, but in many ways I still like them as people. I mean, on the whole, they're good folk; if it weren't for their leadership being so heavily infiltrated by conservative literalist weirdos, they really wouldn't be so bad. To this day, on an individual level, I continue to get along with Southern Baptists exceedingly well, which makes sense, because they're who I come from. Their culture is still a big part of who I am. That's why I strongly endorse Carter and Clinton's Baptist reform movement. Anything to save all these good people from the right-wing psychos that control them.

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FROM THE REAL ART SPORTS DESK
A FEW NOTES ON THE END OF
THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Florida's No. 1 in a landslide, with no lobbying necessary

The Gators finished atop The Associated Press Top 25 after upsetting Ohio State 41-14 in the BCS national championship game Monday night, a matchup Florida lobbied hard for late in the regular season when it looked as if the Gators would be left out.

The Buckeyes had been No. 1 since August and were looking to become the third team to hold the top spot in the media poll from preseason through the bowls. Florida State was the first in 1999 and Southern California did it in 2004.

Instead, Ohio State finished No. 2. LSU, Southern California and Boise State rounded out the top five.

And

The SEC champion Gators were joined in the Top 25 by five other league rivals, and no other conference finished with more in the top 25.

Oklahoma, which lost a 43-42 overtime classic to Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, finished 11th. No. 12 Rutgers was followed by Texas, California, Arkansas and BYU.

Click here for the rest.

*First off, congrats to Florida. After what struck me at the time as an unconvincing win over LSU, a loss to Auburn, and some close calls over the course of the season, I didn't really think they had it in them. But, boy howdy, they sure did. I mean, by some standards it was a pretty boring championship game--the Gators came out with both jaws chomping and never let off the pressure, a total rout of Ohio State. But then, watching the mighty Buckeyes taken down like so much WAC trash had the allure of a dramatic car crash; I just couldn't look away. I was actually greatly entertained.

*My current school, LSU, ended up in the number three slot, which is cool, but my personal take is that Ohio State lost so badly that the Tigers ought to be ranked number two. There's probably a reason I don't get a vote on all this.

*The SEC got six teams to finish in the top 25? Holy shit! This really is the toughest conference in the country. The Big 12 really needs to get its shit together, and speaking of the Big 12, it's nice to see that Texas ended up with an okay season-end rating, especially after their back to back losses to K-State and Texas A&M to round out the season. But did Oklahoma really have to be ranked higher? I mean, the Longhorns did beat them, after all.

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MY FAVORITE ANIMATED SHORT: BEGONE DULL CARE

I saw this years ago in a film theory course I took at Texas. It immediately blew me away. Of course, I'm a sucker for a cool jazz soundtrack, but the images are thoroughly in the modern art style I love so much, which makes sense because it was made in 1949, and the animation technique is like nothing I've ever seen, before or since: the animator, Norman McLaren, literally painted on blank film stock, and scratched lines into the film's emulsion, which created, when projected, an utterly unique look. But enough of my yammering. Go check it out right now--it's pretty short, so it won't take away much of your valuable day; actually, I think the video cuts out a bit early, but it's still well worth viewing.

Click here for Begone Dull Care.

But you'd better hurry. I was going to run this last fall when I first found it on Youtube, but within a week or so of my discovery, it had been pulled for violating the "Youtube user agreement." Apparently, somebody doesn't like to take "no" for an answer, so it's back up, but who knows for how long?


A screen capture from Norman McLaren's Begone Dull Care

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NEW PAUL KRUGMAN

Ever since the New York Times started putting Paul Krugman essays behind a pay-per-view firewall, it's been extraordinarly difficult to post his work for my bloggy response. There was one site for a while there that was just reposting them in their entirety, and I was able to carry on with my always fun Krugman blogging, but they got caught, and were issued a cease-and-desist order. Finally, I've found somebody else who seems to be doing almost the same thing, with, maybe, only a couple of deletions to make it all intellectual-property safe.

Anyway, without any further ado, from the New York Times via Economist's View, the latest Paul Krugman essay:

Quagmire of the Vanities

The only real question about the planned “surge” in Iraq — which is better described as a Vietnam-style escalation — is whether its proponents are cynical or delusional.

Senator Joseph Biden ... thinks they’re cynical. He recently told The Washington Post that administration officials are simply running out the clock, so that the next president will be “the guy landing helicopters inside the Green Zone, taking people off the roof.”

Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Memorial Prize ... for his research on irrationality in decision-making, thinks they’re delusional. Mr. Kahneman and Jonathan Renshon recently argued in Foreign Policy magazine that the administration’s unwillingness to face reality in Iraq reflects a basic human aversion to cutting one’s losses — the same instinct that makes gamblers stay at the table, hoping to break even.

And

Mr. Bush is expected to announce his plan for escalation in the next few days. According to the BBC, the theme of his speech will be “sacrifice.” But sacrifice for what? Not for the national interest, which would be best served by withdrawing before the strain of the war breaks our ground forces. No, Iraq has become a quagmire of the vanities — a place where America is spending blood and treasure to protect the egos of men who won’t admit that they were wrong.

Click here for the rest.

You know, at this point I think it's safe to say that pretty much nobody really knows why we're still in Iraq. I mean, okay, the point of view that says we can't leave the Iraqis high and dry isn't unreasonable, but I don't think anybody has any idea of how the US military is going to make things better--at best, we're only keeping things from getting worse, and they're pretty bad as it is; at worst, our presence, and our support for the corrupt and sectarian Iraqi puppet government, is actually throwing gasoline on the fire. But as far as what's in the minds of Bush and Cheney, your guess is as good as mine. Is it politics? Does Rove still think there's mileage in the "war president" schtick? Is it, like Krugman asserts, simply ego? That they just can't imagine that they're wrong?

Personally, I still like the "control the spigot" theory that the invasion was a way of transmuting our vast military power into global economic leverage by taking control of the oil markets before our own financial strength gives out. The five massive, expensive, and permanent bases we're currently constructing in Iraq strongly suggest that may be the case, that we're there for the long haul whether we like it or not. On the other hand, the ongoing carnage over there, the absolute chaos in which Iraq is mired, suggests that Bush and Cheney have no idea what they're doing.

We probably won't really know what's going on for at least a decade after Bush is out of office, and maybe not until after he's dead.

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SO, WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH THAT HOUSING BUBBLE?

From ZNet, economist Mark Weisbrot on the ramifications of the recently burst housing bubble:

Economy Looks Bad for 2007

The timing of any downturn is not easy to predict. But a recession is likely, because of the enormity of the housing bubble and the impact of its collapse. Recall that our last recession (in 2001) was caused by the bursting of a stock market bubble of about $7 trillion. The housing bubble is comparable in size (about $5 trillion at peak) and the bubble wealth is much more widely distributed: most Americans still have most of their assets in housing and little or nothing in stocks.

As this housing wealth disappears, people cut spending. We have already seen an enormous drop in the amount that people borrow on their homes, from $600 billion last year to about $350 billion for 2006. It was this borrowing, enabled by soaring house prices that allowed people to borrow more against the value of their homes, that fuelled the U.S. economic recovery since 2001.

Housing construction and sales are also a big sector of the economy, currently about 6 percent of GDP. If that falls 30-40 percent, as it has in previous downturns, that's a drop of about 2 percent of GDP.

The recession caused by the stock market bubble bursting, which lasted only from March to November of 2001, would have been a lot worse if not for the enormous demand created by the housing bubble. So what will rescue the U.S. economy from the collapse of the housing bubble?

Click here for more.

The article talks about much more than the housing sector and its influence over the overall US economy, and it really adds to this sneaking suspicion I've had for the last few years that our economy is increasingly looking like a big huge pyramid scheme. Now I couldn't hang long in any real argument about this, but it just strikes me, what with outsourcing virtually all of our manufacturing overseas, our federal budget deficit being financed by foreign banks, the rapidly shrinking value of the dollar relative to other currencies, our negative savings rate, our outrageously high federal debt, not to mention our outrageously high consumer debt, mostly driven by credit cards, and a whole host of other problems, that the people who control big money in this country are just shifting it all around hoping to score big without actually creating anything of value. And like all pyramid schemes, it seems that the liklihood is high that the whole shebang is going to come crashing in on itself sooner or later. I mean, I know that there are lots of serious economic arguments for each of these areas I've mentioned as to why things aren't so bad.

But it sure does sound like we're pushing our luck, hardcore, in pretty much every aspect of the economy. Surely, there's some sort of danger, if only for that.

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NOW, CAN CONGRESS REALLY DO NOTHING ABOUT IRAQ?

From the Huffington Post courtesy of AlterNet Democratic Senator and new chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee Joe Biden on why he thinks Congressional control over military budgets doesn't amount to much:

"You can't go in like a Tinkertoy and play around and say you can't spend the money on this piece and this piece," Mr. Biden said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press." "He'll be able to keep the troops there forever, constitutionally, if he wants to."

Click here for more, including a link to the Washington Post, from which the quote comes.

As big of a dick as Biden is, he's got a point: the White House has already shown repeatedly that it is completely willing to do whatever it wants in spite of Congressional oversight, although I don't know if that's what Biden meant when he said "constitutionally." At any rate, If money is pulled from the Iraq war budget, the Oval Office will simply drain it from some other budget, whether it's legal or not to do so. However, I can personally think of one Constitutional option for getting Bush out of Iraq if Congress is willing to do it. Impeach 'em, Bush and Cheney both. At this point, there are mountains of evidence for numerous high crimes performed by the executive branch, and they're losing their supporters, and by that I mean bigtime, wealthy, powerful establishment supporters, hand over fist. It's not a "slam dunk," I know, but, if successful, it'll get us out of this damned war, if anything.

Are the Democrats really serious about ending the occupation? I guess we'll see.

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House vote gives more scrutiny to pet projects

From the New York Times via the Houston Chronicle:

The House voted Friday to pull the shadowy tradition of congressional earmarking into the daylight, requiring lawmakers to attach their names to the pet items they slip into spending or tax bills and certify that they have no financial interest in the provisions.

More than any of several ethics rules adopted by the House this week, the earmark measure could prevent the kind of corruption that led to several big scandals in recent years, including former Rep. Randall Cunningham's sale of earmarks to government contractors for cash, gifts and campaign contributions.

The cost of congressional earmarks has tripled in the last 12 years, to more than $64 billion annually. Some lawmakers treated their share of that money as personal accounts to dole out to constituents or, in many cases, campaign contributors.

And

"I'm pleased that Democrat leaders agree with Republicans that earmark reform is a critical issue," said Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader.

Click here for more.

Hmm. If Republicans think this is "a critical issue," then why did this kind of spending triple over the twelve years they ran Congress? Just something to think about.

Anyway, whether it's called "earmarking" or the more old-school "pork barrel spending," it's straight out of the corrupt former Louisiana governor Huey Long's political play book: spend taxpayer money so lavishly on your own constituentcy that reelection is assured. And it's bullshit. Not only does it give an unfair advantage to incumbents, not only does it amount to a somewhat sophisticated form of vote-buying, or more simply bribery, but it is also a tremendous waste of tax dollars, which is why it's so damned funny that the practice got so wild under the supposedly money-smart GOP. At any rate, despite the fact that the practice will probably continue in some other form, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Now, what I want to know is how long the Dems will be able to resist keeping their hands out of the cookie jar. I give 'em two years, tops.

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CASE STUDIES IN DEREGULATION INSANITY

From CounterPunch:

Ignoring statistics that said a high percentage of truck accidents were caused by tired truck drivers, the department acted on an industry study that said only 2% of accidents were the fault of tired truck drivers and more than 80% the fault of passenger car drivers. Among other things, the new regulations increased the maximum driving hours from 60 to 77 over 7 consecutive days and from 70 to 88 over 8 consecutive days while increasing the time off required to 10 hours from 8. This was the first increase in the number of hours drivers were permitted to work in 60 years. Regulators declined to require new drivers to undergo additional training as had been suggested by safety groups.

The administration says the new regulations have saved money for businesses and consumers making it cheaper for goods to be moved across country. Safety is also improved they explain. By lengthening the number of hours experienced drivers are permitted to work even though tired, fewer new and inexperienced drivers are needed.

Click here for more.

Of course, some federal business regulations really are absurd, overly counterproductive, and don't even really accomplish what they're designed to do. The free market fundamentalists would have us believe that all regulations are like this. Obviously, this is not the case--in its relentless quest to achieve ever higher profits business would steamroll playgrounds full of five-year-olds if it could get away with it; often, it does get away with it, metaphorically at least, like in third world corporate sweatshops. Given the great power of greed, society must necessarily establish rules for how business is done, or things could easily get out of hand. Actually, the regulatory environment has become so lax under twelve years of Republican rule that things are out of hand. Nonetheless, the free market fundamentalists continue to push and push, backed by billions in corporate cash.

Now, like I said, such a discussion as this can get sticky, if only because, sometimes, these people have a point. That's why it's extremely important to insist that their arguments in favor of a given area of deregulation be spelled out in excruciating detail. "Good for business" just isn't enough. They must explain exactly how it's good for business, and why that's better than the health, safety, and financial welfare of American citizens. Often, I think, that's all it takes to have their rhetoric exposed for the bullshit it is. I mean, just take a look at the deregulation "argument" in the second paragraph above. That's pretty weak, if you ask me.

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