Question

Why is it that the rich snivel so much?

(H/T digby).

They apparently didn't get the "shared sacrifice" memo

Pure greed, pure sniveling greed. It is always the most well-off who are the biggest complainers and whiners. Note that they are *not* at all discussing the "legal, moral and ethical obligation" of the UC system to uphold its promises to workers, students, and faculty - just to the highest-paid:

Three dozen of the University of California's highest-paid executives are threatening to sue unless UC agrees to spend tens of millions of dollars to dramatically increase retirement benefits for employees earning more than $245,000.

...

Their demand comes as UC is trying to eliminate a vast, $21.6 billion unfunded pension obligation by reducing benefits for future employees, raising the retirement age, requiring employees to pay more into UC's pension fund and boosting tuition.

Apparently, these greedy assholes haven't heard that "we" all must "sacrifice" in these new difficult times.

I'm not at all surprised to see that Christopher Edley, dean of Boalt Law School at Berkeley, among the signatories. After his impassioned defense of torture professor John Yoo, taking a baseball bat to ordinary UC students and workers seems about par for the course.

Tiresome

Atrios generally publishes great stuff.

His anti-bicycle stuff, though, is tiresome.

For someone who supposedly cares so much about alternative transport, he spends a lot of time trashing cyclists. Here's an idea: spend a little of that time advocating for bicycle-specific facilities and laws (no, those laws are not made for cyclists).

Here's what continuous anti-bicycle bullshit gets you. So yes, it gets old, and it's also rather stupid.

General Betrayus

Digby puts up an outstanding article on America's own Marcus Aurelius, the warrior-philosopher General Petraeus.

This passage, for me, stood out. This passage, for me, can stand for much of what is wrong with contemporary America:

Oddly, none of Petraeus’ decorations are for actions in combat. He never has seen combat; he never has been under fire.

A person makes it to the top of the military, an organization devoted to fighting, without ever having actually fought. What else can you bring to such a position, then, apart from an outsized ego and an ambition that finds no counterpart in actual talent?

Sniveling little git, part 2

What exactly is the point of this article by sniveling git Ezra Klein? He doesn't "want to play down" how "The Left" feels about Obama's betrayals, nor how Obama feels about "The Left" not being appropriately respectful of whatever it is that he has done. But what does he want to do? Indicate that people are always disappointed in other people?

He cites a journalist's report about the confrontation between Clinton and Greider in the 1990s. But what this account actually shows is that people like it when other people who have power bully and intimidate yet other people who do not have power but try with their limited means to speak up and do something. Greider - a journalist - used his position to attempt to hold Clinton - a sack of shit who somehow made it to the highest office in the world - to account. Clinton, bizarrely, accuses Greider of not trying to "persuade" people.

From this exchange, Klein can only applaud Clinton for not farting in Greider's face. And noting that, gosh darn it, people are disappointed in other people.

It's pure power worship. And I can answer the question I posed earlier about the sniveling little git Ezra Klein: he got his job at the Washington Post, I would say, entirely because he was one of the pro-war "liberal" voices in 2002-03 - and because he is always wrong about everything of import. This is how "liberals" continue to look like fucking gits - because fucking gits will always be the people to represent and speak for them.

New Nixon tapes

I guess these will make him even more of a hero to Republicans:

Richard M. Nixon made disparaging remarks about Jews, blacks, Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans in a series of extended conversations with top aides and his personal secretary, recorded in the Oval Office 16 months before he resigned as president. 

 And this is the creep that so many people from both major political parties feted upon his death.

For whom fights the White House?

Not for thee:

The Democratic Party has become too associated with Wall Street. This is a fact. It is a structural problem. It seems to me that we as progressives need -- this is my personal position -- we need to draw a line and decide that we would be better off with an under-funded, fighting progressive minority party than a party marked by obvious duplicity and constant losses on every policy front as a result of the reversals in our own leadership.

What is at stake in the long run? Two things, mainly, in my view. First, it seems to me that we as progressives need to make an honorable defense of the great legacies of the New Deal and Great Society -- programs and institutions that brought America out of the Great Depression and bought us through the Second World War, brought us to our period of greatest prosperity, and the greatest advances in social justice. Social Security, Medicare, housing finance -- the front-line right now is the foreclosure crisis, the crisis, I should say, of foreclosure fraud -- the progressive tax code, anti-poverty policy, public investment, public safety, and human and civil rights. We are going to lose these battles– get used to it. But we need to make an honorable fight, to state clearly what our principles are and to lay down a record which is trustworthy for the future.

 Take away this quote, if nothing else: "We are going to lose these battles - get used to it". And read the whole thing.

The man-child who was always wrong

Has Ezra Klein ever been right about anything? From what I can see, he has been consistently wrong, and horribly so, on the big issues since the Pandagon days. The invasion of Iraq, health insurance reform, and now the tax deal.

He seems like a sniveling little git. How did he get his plum position at the WaPo again?

Evolution of a slogan

"Yes We Can" evolved into "No We Can't" and now it has apparently become "Shut The Fuck Up":

People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position, and no victories for the American people. And we will be able to feel good about ourselves and sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are and how tough we are.

Now that is some inspired leadership. Probably only on the 5th or 6th dimension of that chessboard.

The rich get richer

So - in the span of about a week, we have seen the Obama administration announce a pay freeze for middle-class federal workers, on the one hand, and fight tooth-and-nail for extension of the Bush tax cuts, on the other.

The deal that "liberals" are supposed to be overjoyed about includes tax increases for families making less than $40,000 per year (and individuals making less than $20,000) and a cap on capital gains and dividend taxes at just 15%. Fifteen fucking percent on money that is made doing no productive labor.

The liberalness of this administration is killing me. Can someone make the tired old speech about how different Dems are from Republicans?

Nigeria indicts Cheney

Nigeria has indicted former VP Dick Cheney for alleged bribery.

Too bad the Obama administration is doing everything in its power to shield these hideous human beings from justice. If they will cover up torture, what chance does mere bribery have of being investigated?

Has Jonah Goldberg called for the assassination of Femi Babafemi yet?

New blog

This is a new blog I am starting to house my rants on social, political, and cultural stuff. I'm starting this new one, "Things Fall Apart", because I no longer have access to my old blogs, which some of you may or may not have seen.

The title of the blog may or may not have anything to do with Chinua Achebe's classic novel of the same name. Probably not.

Enjoy your stay.