You’ll believe what they tell you to believe

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Interesting bit over at Washington Monthly about recent dramatic shifts in Republican positions — and how they likely came about:

A few years ago, Republican voters, by and large, believed what the mainstream believed when it came to climate science. Then their party, its candidates, and its media outlets told these voters to stop believing the facts — and rank-and-file Republicans did as they were told. In effect, partisans on the right outsourced their evaluation of evidence to their party, and Republicans decided climate science is no longer worthy of support.

This happens more than it should. If I had to guess, if you asked regular ol’ Republican voters several years ago whether the United States should engage in torture, they probably would have said no. But then their party told them to change their mind, and they did. If you asked these GOP voters whether a health care mandate, in line with Republican proposals, was a reasonable policy, they probably would have said yes. But then their party told them to change their mind, and they did.

“Artfully Concealed Objects”

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TSA weasel John Pistole notes that the new pornoscanners are supposed to turn up artfully concealed objects not previously discovered, and which the TSA’s own testing showed were easy to get on planes. I assume he means things like small knives or razorblades too small to trigger the metal detector.

Here’s the thing: I’m sure hundreds or thousands of such objects, if not more, make it onto planes every day. And I’m equally sure it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference to my safety. It’s impossible to hijack an airliner today. That game is over for the bad guys. The 9/11 trick didn’t even work all day on 9/11, and now it’s completely impossible — you can’t get to the cockpit. And the TSA, bless their empty little heads, hasn’t even managed to stop the attempts at airborne violence that have been attempted since then — it was passengers who caught Richard Reid, lest you forget. And the London plot that gave us the bullshit baggie rule was broken up by law enforcement, and probably wouldn’t have worked anyway.

But the TSA has been busily confiscating scissors and screwdrivers and razorblades and pocketknives for 9 years, and they’ve mistaken that for their mission. NONE of the objects they’ve taken were part of terrorist plots. You can’t hijack a plane with a Leatherman, and the TSA knows this; the confiscation is just a giant con on the American people. Taking away pocketknives is busywork. It makes us LESS safe, because it obligates resources that could be better spent elsewhere.

And now they’re going to do MORE of it, with their bullshit scanners pushed on them by lobbyists and completely unlikely to enhance our safety. And they’ll keep doing this until we the people — for whom every bellycrawling TSA jackass works — insist, loudly and repeatedly, that they stop. Write your congresspeople. Yell at your airlines. Opt out of this pornoscanners, and be unpleasant when they touch your junk.

Dept. of DAY-um

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My Sprint Overdrive is doing very, very well today; it wasn’t too many years ago that home connectivity of 4Mbit down/1 up was considered speedy, and plenty of people never bother buying anything faster even today.

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While we’re at it…

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Here’s something else made of bullshit fail:

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This is the price matrix for a book I’d like to read. Note that the paperback is listed.

Problem number one is that it won’t actually be released until April, so fuck you very much, Amazon, for that bait and switch.

Problem number two is that the Kindle price is higher than the paperback price, but delivers drastically less value on a number of fronts:

First, you don’t really own it — Amazon can decide one day to simply delete it from your Kindle on a whim. There’s no way to back up your purchases separate from Amazon; the whole thing is a giant exercise in “Trust me!” that successful digital music plans have never replied upon.

Second, a digital book (while cute and trendy) still lacks some key factors. You can’t read it during take-off or landing on a plane, for example. You can’t read it in the bath unless you feel like endangering your $100+ Kindle. Taking it to the beach is a bit of a bad idea, too.

Third, a digital book has no residual value. You can’t sell it to Half Price, you can’t pass it on to your pal at work, etc. It’s locked to you, and that means you get less value for your money.

This is not to say that Kindle books, or e-books in general, don’t have their place. They do. But publishers need to realize that consumers are not stupid (at least not all of them), and price them accordingly. Their business model isn’t my problem; with the current crop of DRM-locked e-books, I can’t see paying more than 50% of the cost of a physical book for any e-book.

And yes, this means that when the paperback shows up, it depresses the value of the electronic version. A $9 e-book sold in concert with an $18 hardback makes sense, but the introduction of a $10 paperback of the same book changes the math. A $9 e-book “lease” is a lot less compelling if I can actually own the thing for $10.

Things That Need To Stop

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Differing release schedules for books in the UK vs. the US. It’s completely ridiculous, and makes us want to figure out how to pirate a BOOK.

A well-reviewed SF novel I’d like to read is not currently slated for US publication until May, at which point it’ll be $24 plus shipping from Amazon in hard-to-tote-around hardback.

Instead, I just ordered the paperback from Amazon’s UK store for just under $20 (and about half that is shipping), and will have it in a week or so.

I might’ve used the Kindle option, and read it on my phone, except Amazon won’t sell me the Kindle edition because I live in the US, and that’s where the bullshit alarm goes off. Seriously, publishers, get your shit together and stop doing things like this just because you can. Silly availability decisions drive people to find ways to get your content without paying you at all. Don’t be that guy.

I love this: Pilots’ Org Opting Out of Nudie Scans

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The Allied Pilots Association is advising its members to refuse the x-ray scanner on the grounds that they get too much radiation already.

The great backscatter boondoggle is costing half a billion dollars, will slow air travel even more, and will do virtually nothing to catch anything that’s actually dangerous. We have no one’s word but the manufacturer’s — and the TSA’s — that these things are actually safe, and we’re just supposed to trust the TSA that their employees aren’t saving the images for their own amusement.

No thanks, jackasses. I’ll skip it.

LOL Dallas.

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Jones has fired Wade Phillips after yesterday’s delightful Cowboys collapse (this week, it was Green Bay’s turn to whip the gimp).

It’s of course his prerogative, but note the stat box in the linked story. Phillips leaves with a cumulative record of 34-22, or about .607. That’s stronger than any coach since Barry Switzer (’94-’97, .625 record), and matches St Landry’s career numbers. Sure, a 1-7 start and a five-game slide is bad news, but — and I can’t believe I’m defending the Cowboys here — they were losing close games until Romo got hurt; it’s only after then that we see margins bigger than a TD.

Of course, with 38-year-old Kitna in as the de facto first string, it’s gone to hell. And it’s not hard to see why — they didn’t give him any playing time at all in 2009, and he apparently didn’t take a snap this year until Romo went down. That’s called putting all your eggs in one basket, and while it’s still Phillips’ fault, it’s also epidemic. How often does Peyton’s backup see playing time? Or Eli’s? Or Favre’s?

So, sure, my hatred for the Cowboys loves this move. They’ll bag an unspeakably shitty season, stay out of the playoffs again, and do it while burning a metric ton of money. Without Romo and with a temp for a skipper, there’s no way they’ll bag more than 2 or 3 wins before Christmas. (Their next 8 include the Giants (6-2), New Orleans (6-3), Indy (5-3), and Philly (5-3) twice, with only Arizona (3-5), Detroit (2-6) and the Redskins (4-4) tossed in to even it out.)

But me loving it doesn’t make it smart.

Maddow on the Right Wing Lie Machine

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Herein Rachel Maddow explains how we got to a place where lies and rumors are treated as fact in the self-confirming world of the well-funded right-wing media.

It’s not just the fringe accepting bullshit like “Muslims are exempt from Obamacare” or “Obama is smuggling muslims into the country” or “the Presidential trip to Asia costs $200 million a day.” Actual elected officials are encouraging and spreading these things that are easily disprovable, and that they know to be incorrect, because it’s politically useful. Facts have no place on the right.

So much to love here

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The Onion completely nails the Cowboys’ collapse:

IRVING, TX — As the Dallas Cowboys struggle with a 1-6 season, sports fans nationwide have been saddened by the bad fortune that has befallen the franchise long revered as one of the NFL’s crown jewels, and known throughout the football world as America’s Team.

Actually, the U.S. populace immediately confirmed, the Cowboys’ pathetic collapse has brought with it nothing but pure joy and happiness.

“It’s really been tough to watch, especially for a team that had so much potential heading into the season,” Appleton, WI shopkeeper and longtime Packers fan Erik Hoyer said. “Ha! I was almost able to say that with a straight face. Honestly, this Cowboys team has made watching football more fun than it’s been in years. They can’t run the ball, they can’t defend anything, and they’re imploding so bad that their owner doesn’t even know how many games they’ve played.”

“I can’t think of a better team for this to happen to,” he added. “I literally can’t stop smiling.”

Go read the whole thing. It’s delicious.

The GOP: Made of Lies.

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The right wing is freaking out over the idea that Obama is spending $200 million a day on a trip to India and Asia. By the way, the war in Afghanistan? That costs about $190 million a day.

The problem? It’s a complete lie, yet another example of the right wing echo chamber. They don’t care about truth.

Fortunately, at least some members of the media are paying attention, and breaking it down. The White House won’t (and shouldn’t) disclose actual costs and security measures on the trips, but Anderson Cooper pulled up figures for Clinton’s trip to Africa several years ago. Adjusted for inflation, that longer trip to more countries (6 countries in 11 days vs. Obama’s 4 in 9) cost the taxpayers some $5.2 million a day.

But the damage is largely done, just as it has been done countless times before. Some right-winger fabricates some piece of bullshit — say, death panels, or go back further to the Swift Boat horseshit in 2004 — and gets it into the media conversation from pundits and hacks like Limbaugh and Savage and Beck, and then gets quoted by party hacks like Michelle Bachmann, and a good chunk of our halfwit nation buys it and never hears the truth.

That’s how the GOP plays. They do it over and over; they do it far too often to claim innocence here. They are the party of open mendacity. This is what it means to be Republican in 2010.

Life in Space

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Check it out:

Unsurprisingly, falling asleep can take some getting used to. Just as you are nodding off, you can feel as though you’ve fallen off a 10-storey building. People who look half asleep will suddenly throw their heads back with a start and fling out their arms. It gets easier with time. One Russian crew member is renowned for doing without a sleeping bag and falling asleep wherever he ends the day. Anyone still awake after bedtime would see his snoozing form drift by, slowly bouncing off the walls, his course set by the air currents that gently pushed and pulled him.

TSA: Now even MORE obnoxious

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Because people are justifiably uncomfortable with the “naked scan” aspects of the new backscatter x-ray machines in airports, and because more than a few have wondered at the health implications of these things, there’s a growing backlash. People are insisting on a manual patdown instead of the x-ray, as is their right.

Well, the jerkoffs at TSA have decided to make the patdowns more intrusive, and the clear implication is that they want them to be more uncomfortable, more degrading, and more humiliating so that you’ll be a good little drone and take your x-ray dose like they want you to.

Fuck. That.

Here’s a counterplan: Let’s all refuse the scans. Sure, it’s annoying to have some halfwit pawing your junk, but we’re not the ones who’ll spend 8 hours a day doing the junk-pawing.

So let’s try to put an end to security theatre. Let’s take back our rights, along with our dignity. Let’s remember what Ben Franklin taught us, that those who sacrifice liberty for security (or worse, the illusion of security) deserve neither. Let’s find our balls, and then make them touch ‘em.

Word.

Not that any of the Tea Partiers know this, mind you.

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Over at Kos: Four questions for Republicans, and four answers for undecided voters (click through for en-linkened sources):

Questions:

  1. What was the average monthly private sector job growth in 2008, the final year of the Bush presidency, and what has it been so far in 2010?

  2. What was the Federal deficit for the last fiscal year of the Bush presidency, and what was it for the first full fiscal year of the Obama presidency?

  3. What was the stock market at on the last day of the Bush presidency? What is it at today?

  4. Which party’s candidate for speaker will campaign this weekend with a Nazi reenactor who dressed up in a SS uniform?

Answers:

  1. In 2008, we lost an average of 317,250 private sector jobs per month. In 2010, we have gained an average of 95,888 private sector jobs per month. (Source) That’s a difference of nearly five million jobs between Bush’s last year in office and President Obama’s second year.

  2. In FY2009, which began on September 1, 2008 and represents the Bush Administration’s final budget, the budget deficit was $1.416 trillion. In FY2010, the first budget of the Obama Administration, the budget deficit was $1.291 trillion, a decline of $125 billion. (Source) Yes, that means President Obama has cut the deficit — there’s a long way to go, but we’re in better shape now than we were under Bush and the GOP.

  3. On Bush’s final day in office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 closed at 7,949, 1,440, and 805, respectively. Today, as of 10:15AM Pacific, they are at 11,108, 2,512, and 1,183. That means since President Obama took office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 have increased 40%, 74%, and 47%, respectively.

  4. The Republican Party, whose candidate for speaker, John Boehner, will campaign with Nazi re-enactor Rich Iott this weekend. If you need an explanation why this is offensive, you are a lost cause.

Oh, and odds are, you got a tax cut under Obama, too. But never mind that.

There’s so much suck here I can hardly stand it

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Balko has more; it’s yet another tale of goofball prosecutorial tomfoolery and law-enforcement vendettas against pain management people.

In this particular case, a Bush-appointed US Attorney is actively persecuting a third party for questioning her prosecution of a pain specialist.

Yeah, you read that right. She’s brought charges against someone for criticizing her, and has further managed to get the court to rule the whole thing is too sensitive to be public. How chilling is that?

The whole imbroglio started under Bush, but — as I noted when he was making those power grabs — the Executive branch almost never lets go of power, so the abuse has continued under Obama’s watch.

The case is now in front of SCOTUS. Balko quotes Jacob Sullum:

This level of secrecy, which the Associated Press says “has alarmed First Amendment supporters” who see it as “highly unusual” and “patently wrong,” is clearly not justified by the need to protect the confidentiality of grand jury proceedings. The 10th Circuit decided to seal even the Reason/I.J. amicus brief, which is based entirely on publicly available information. More generally, the gist of the case could have been discussed without revealing grand jury material, as Reynolds’ Supreme Court petition shows. Although the court-ordered redactions make the 10th Circuit’s reasoning as described in the petition hard to follow at times, the details generally can be filled in with information that has been reported in the press (which shows how silly the pretense of secrecy is). Furthermore, one of the main justifications for grand jury secrecy — that it protects innocent people who are investigated but never charged — does not apply in a case like this, where the target of the investigation wants more openness and it’s the government that is trying to hide information. As Corn-Revere argues, such secrecy turns the intended role of the grand jury on its head, making it an instrument of oppression instead of a bulwark against it…

I’d like to show you the Reason/I.J. brief defending Reynolds’ First Amendment rights, but I’m not allowed to!

Henceforth, she will be known as Officer Badass

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Off-duty cop Feris Jones was getting her hair in Brooklyn done on Saturday when a thief became very unlucky:

The gunman ordered the four people there […] to place their belongings in a black bag, the police said. He then ordered them into a bathroom in the back while he searched the shop for more worth stealing.

In the bathroom, Mr. Browne said, Officer Jones pulled out her revolver. She whispered to the other three women to lie down and gave the proprietor her cellphone and told her to call 911. Then she stepped out of the bathroom, identified herself as a police officer and ordered the robber to drop his gun, the police said. He refused and opened fire from about 12 feet away, Mr. Browne said, shooting four times in quick succession.

One bullet whizzed past Officer Jones’s head. She fired back, emptying her five-shot revolver. One shot knocked the gun from the man’s two-handed grip, piercing his right middle finger and grazing his left hand, according to the police. Another shot hit the lock on the front door, jamming it. The gunman tried to flee, Mr. Browne said, but could not get the door open. Finally, he grabbed his gun, kicked out a lower panel on the door and crawled out. Officer Jones followed him out the door to see which way he was running.

Winston Cox, 19, was eventually apprehended in a Brooklyn motel after police tracked him via his blood trail to his mother’s home.

The story does not say, but I really hope Officer Jones blew the smoke from her barrel as Cox ran away.