Can-O-Whoopass

The White House is apparently tired of the Ryan Plan and is not taking the Serious Centrist bait.  At all.  WH spokeman Jay Carney on Wednesday:

Among the many serious problems with the Ryan budget, Republican budget proposal, is its dramatic cuts in some of the absolutely essential programs that we need to sustain and the investments that we need to make to secure America's economic future.  Education, Pell grants is one; investments in clean energy is another.

I mean, again, it is -- you have to be aggressively and deliberately ignorant of the world economy not to know and understand that clean energy technologies are going to play a huge role in the 21st century.  You have to have severely diminished capacity to understand what drives economic growth in industrialized countries in this century if you do not understand that education is the key that unlocks the door to prosperity.  The budget proposed by Chairman Ryan and supported overwhelmingly already by Republicans suggests that those problems exist in the minds of the supporters of that plan.

Yeah.  You can take your Ryan Plan, and you can suck it.  This is the proper response to a budget that is a work of Randian fantasy fan fiction and should be dismissed out of hand as a cruel joke perpetrated on the American public.

Glad to see the White House make a smoking crater of this.  More, please.

Well Now, That's Just Spiffy Part 2

Finnish mobile phone developer Nokia has filed for a patent on a magnetic, vibrating tattoo or badge that alerts users when their phones are ringing.

According to the official patent filing, the apparatus would be able to detect a magnetic field and transfer a "perceivable stimulus" to users. The device could notify people about an incoming call, text or dead battery.

That's just cool, and a small step away from one that you plant behind your ear that is sensitive enough to play and capture your voice.

And another reason for a tattoo. Win-win-win.

Well Now, That's Just Spiffy

Imagine a military surveillance robot that looks and moves like a jellyfish and can ply the seas indefinitely by powering itself with ocean water.

A team of researchers at Virginia Tech, the University of Texas, and several other schools are working to develop just such a device.

In a paper published yesterday in the journal Smart Materials and Structures, team members outlined their recent progress on the "Robojelly" project, which is being funded by the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research.

Made of a combination of silicone and various high-tech materials, the Robojelly uses oxygen and hydrogen gases in seawater to trigger a chemical reaction that causes its artificial muscles to contract. The muscular motion copies that of the moon jellyfish, which allows water into its "bell" and then closes the bell to push the water out and create a jet that moves the creature along.

I wonder why they went straight to military surveillance. I suppose it would work in a limited capacity, but my thoughts were it could help us map the ocean, scout for wrecks and history, gather tiny samples, perhaps. Unlock some of the mysteries that cover two-thirds of our planet.

But yeah, I guess there are military applications as well. It's just depressing that it is the first place they went.

Governor Etch-A-Sketch Gets Scorched

As JM Ashby notes over at Bob Cesca's place, Slick Rick has wasted zero time going after Mitt Romney's latest gaffe and he's swinging hard.

As ThinkProgress first noted this morning, Mitt Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said Romney can “restart” in the general election, should he win the GOP nomination — “almost like an Etch A Sketch.” Challenger Rick Santorum, who has sought to portray Romney as inconsistent, pounced on the statement. His campaign sent an email to reporters, calling the comments “shocking” and saying it shows Romney “will change positions.” Later, Santorum himself took up the attack, telling a crowd in Louisiana that the comment shows Romney will “say what he needs to say to win the election that is before him, and if he has to say something different, because it’s a different election and a different group of voters, he’s willing to say that too.”

And this is Romney's braintrust basically admitting that anything Mitt Romney says before he's nominated is null and void.  You don't get more cynical and jaded than that, and Santorum knows it.

Of course Mitt Romney will "change positions" after the nomination.  If he doesn't, he'll lose by even more than Santorum would as the nominee.  There's a word when you change positions and then completely deny the fact that you changed positions:  Lie.

Rachel Maddow rips into Mittens over everything Etch-A-Sketch and calls him out on those lies.



And yes, she outright calls Mitt Romney a liar.  Point blank.  Several, several times.  Because Mitt Romney is a liar who lies.  Constantly.

In the general election, he figures you're too stupid to recall he's a liar, or that the Village will give him "President Obama is just as bad!" cover.  He's counting on both.  Maddow here at least calls him on the act.  More of this, please.

William The Bloody Has A Sad

Bill Kristol is feeling blue about the red states' chances of taking over in 2012.

Watching Mitt Romney's victory speech in Illinois didn't reassure me about his chances against President Obama. (Watch it yourself to see if I'm being unfair.) Romney's remarks consisted basically of the claim that the business of America is business, that he's a businessman who understands business, and that we need "economic freedom" not for the sake of freedom but to allow business to fuel the economy. It's true that Romney will have plenty of time to improve for the general election, if, as seems likely (but still not inevitable!), he wins the nomination. But if he sticks with this core message, we'd better hope Republicans and independents are really determined to get rid of Barack Obama. 

Republicans are, frankly.  Beat Obama is all that matters to them.  But actual swing voters and independents?  They're siding with the President in increasing numbers.

Imagine that.  Bill Kristol being wrong about something.

StupidiNews!

• Rebel soldiers in the African nation of Mali say they have taken control of the government there in response to President Amadou Toumani Toure's failure to put down insurgents in the country's north.
• The Dallas Federal Reserve bank reports that just five banks combined now hold a total of more than half of all banking industry assets.
• McClatchy News CEO Gary Pruitt is leaving the company to take the top job at the Associated Press.
• British Exchequer George Osborne's new UK budget slashes the top tax rate at the same time as budget officials plan on going after pensions.
• File website The Pirate Bay plans to use linked Raspberry Pi mini-computers to create aerial server drones to make it harder for law enforcement to shut down services.

Last Call

Musician Michael Blake turned the digits of pi into musical notes and went viral with it.  Problem is that fellow musician Lars Erickson did that a few years back.  Erickson sued Blake when he found out, claiming his music was copyrighted.  When Pi Day goes horribly, horribly wrong...

Erickson had alleged that Blake's pi song "sounded substantially similar," and therefore infringes the copyrighted melody that Erickson registered in 1992. He told CNN last year that "nobody can copyright pi," but that he "copyrighted the melody of pi to protect my work, just like anybody would copyright their work."

Judge Michael H. Simon, of the U.S. District Court, District of Oregon, agreed with the plaintiff on that point: "Pi is a non-copyrightable fact," he wrote. Still, he continued, "the transcription of pi to music is a non-copyrightable idea. The resulting pattern of notes is an expression that merges with the non-copyrightable idea of putting pi to music: assigning digits to musical notes and playing those notes in the sequence of pi is an idea that can only be expressed."

That doesn't mean Erickson's copyright is invalid, "only that Mr. Erickson may not use his copyright to stop others from employing this particular pattern of musical notes," Simon continued.

Erickson said in an e-mail to CNN on Tuesday that he would simply urge people to watch his video and Blake's video and draw their own conclusions.

"I wrote "Pi Symphony" 20 years ago, I am thrilled to have presented it first," Erickson said. "It was my gift to the world, no strings attached. Life goes on."

You be the judge of that.



Erickson's Pi Symphony...



Blake's Sound of Pi.

Rock on.

The Position On The Condition Your Condition Is In

Have a pre-existing condition?  Have health insurance now thanks to PPACA?  Better hope the GOP doesn't win in November and repeal the law or that SCOTUS doesn't scuttle the individual mandate, because the second that happens, you will be screwed for good:

Health-insurance officials say that if the mandate is repealed, “their first priority would be persuading members of Congress to repeal two of the law’s major insurance changes: a requirement to cover everyone regardless of his or her medical history, and limits on how much insurers can vary premiums based on age.” Their next step would be to “set rewards for people who purchase insurance voluntarily and sanction those who don’t.”

Other possible alternatives to the individual mandate that insurers are weighing:

- Penalize those who enroll outside of short annual windows; deny treatment for specific conditions, especially right after a policy is purchased

- Reward certain insurance buyers, such as offering much lower premiums for younger and healthier people

- Expand employers’ role in automatically enrolling employees for health insurance

- Urge credit-rating firms to use health-insurance status as a factor in determining individuals’ ratings

So yes, if the mandate is repealed and the HCR law changed or repealed, the insurance lobby is primed and ready to strike back and punish the American people.  Free market and all means they get to put on price on your health, you know.

The Road To Peak Wingnut

Meet the leading GOP candidate for Bob Casey's Senate seat in Pennsylvania, Sam Rohrer. He has some very insteresting views on federal highways, bridges, roads and other infrastructure:  it's unconstitutional and he's running for Senate on making it so.

ROHRER: Over time, over the last many generations, the federal government — seeking to grow, as most governments tend to grow — have become increasingly involved in activities that have been reserved to the states, being involved in such things as education, or health care, or for that matter even highways and roads. A great many things the federal government has increasingly passed laws, appropriated tax dollars which are yours and mind, and attempted to force the states to implement laws for which then the federal government essentially has control, so today we spend billions of dollars in this commonwealth in education and welfare that are put upon us, effectively, by the federal government. The states being enticed by the monies.

Sammy also would like to let you know that the Tenth Amendment already says he can do that, and if elected, these are the things he'll work to get rid of.



Yes, we've finally reached the point where Congressional Republicans are honestly running on the Ron Paul plan to get rid of as much federal government as possible and let the states compete for resources by seeing who can drive away the most looters and moochers.

Damn Mayans.

280 Seconds Of Pure Awesome

On his last day of work, a park worker soaked up some lion cub love. It just gets cuter and sweeter as it goes on. So if your workday has been rotten or you just need to smile, this one's for you.

About A Dog Named Lucky

Starving and out of his mind, Lucky was saved from a closet in an abandoned house in New Orleans.  Rescuers were about to shoot him because he was too wild to bring in, and that was the next most humane choice.

The man who went out of his way to save Lucky thought about him often after they were separated.  Who knows what Lucky had endured, but he would only let his rescuer come near him.  After a couple of small miracles, they were reunited when Lucky was brought back to a shelter.

Today, Lucky is approximately 7-8 years old and shares our house with four other rescued dogs and my unbelievable wife, Amanda, who is – naturally – a dog trainer. My cats have passed away but Lucky did fine with them. He loves his housemates but, not unexpectedly, he has his problems. He is fiercely protective of our home and doesn’t do well with people or dogs he doesn’t know extremely well. That isn’t going to change, so we manage his behavior when people are over by putting him in my office with some toys and a frozen peanut butter kong. He thinks he’s died and gone to heaven.

And here is a shot of Lucky now. Excuse me, there's something in my eye. I'll blame allergies.

Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight

As Cincy muddles through day two of record heat for mid-March, wolrd climate scientists are adding more pieces of the puzzle to the world's climate change conundrum.  The latest data confirms that 2010, not 1998, was the warmest year on record when taking Arctic readings into account.

Researchers have updated HadCRUT - one of the main global temperate records, which dates back to 1850.

One of the main changes is the inclusion of more data from the Arctic region, which has experienced one of the greatest levels of warming.

The amendments do not change the long-term trend, but the data now lists 2010, rather than 1998, as the warmest year on record.

The update is reported in the published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

HadCRUT is compiled by the UK Met Office's Hadley Centre and the Climatic Research Unit (Cru) at the University of East Anglia, and is one of three global records used extensively by climatologists.

The other two are produced by US-based researchers at Nasa and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).

And yes, the first attack on this is AHA EAST ANGLIA! CLIMATEGATE! YOU HAVE NO CREDIBILITY except for the numerous times that nonsense has been debunked.  Things are getting far worse out there.  Far more extreme weather events have been piling up in the US in the last several years, costing billions in damage and hundreds of lives.  It's only going to get more extreme.

The Big GOP Primary Thread: Da Bearz And Da Bull

Mittens has claimed Illinois.  The crowd went "meh."

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney scored a decisive win in Tuesday night's Illinois Republican presidential primary, CNN projects, running ahead of his top remaining rival by a double-digit margin.

"We thank the people of Illinois for this extraordinary victory," Romney told supporters in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg. "Elections are about choices. Today, hundreds of thousands of people in Illinois joined millions of people in this country in this cause."

Mittens ended up with less than 50% of the vote, which is not what Mitt wanted to see in a "two-person race" between Romney and Not Romney.  Not Romney still won Illinois.  The Santorum folks at this point are running to get enough delegates to keep Mitt from hitting 1,144 and forcing...something.  An actual brokered convention, I guess.  Somehow, I think the pressure on Gingrich, Santorum, and Paul are going to be very, very strong now.  The GOP leadership wants this over with.  They want to start running against President Obama.

The much larger problem is that this is still a contested primary, and the turnout was pathetic. In 2008 900k votes were cast on a Super Tuesday showdown that all but sealed John McCain as the nominee .  The battle was over by Valentine's Day.  This year, the turnout was closer to 700k and Illinois was more important than ever. 

GOP's in trouble.  Bad trouble.  Nobody to blame but themselves.

StupidiNews!

• French police in Toulouse have surrounded a self-styled "Al Qaeda miliant" who has gone on a shooting rampage, killing seven.
• Researchers have confirmed a skull found in 2007 in the UK belongs to a previously unknown species of crocodile from the Jurassic period.
• A magnitude 7.9 quake shook Mexico City and surrounding towns yesterday afternoon but no fatalities were reported by officials.
• Volkswagen expects big things from the company's newly redesigned iconic Beetle, seeking to double US sales by 2018.
• One advantage to global climate change: melting sea ice has now made it possible to lay data cable across the arctic to connect Japan and Europe.

Last Call

There's very little room for misinterpretation of Jon Chait's latest NY Mag piece, if you go by the title:

How Obama Tried to Sell Out Liberalism in 2011

So, yeah.  For those of you keeping all hands and arms inside the boat on this, the short version is Chait completely buys this weekend's Kaplan Special on the President being at total fault in the debt ceiling debate last year for not rejecting the GOP out of hand and just using his Green Lantern ring to create a deal and tell the GOP take it or else.  When it became clear the GOP wouldn't accept any deal short of 100% of what they wanted, it was the height of liberal idiocy to continue down the path of good faith.  This constitutes, let's see here, that "Obama’s disastrous weakness in the summer of 2011 went further toward undermining liberalism than anybody previously knew".

Chait argues that President Obama wanting a deal -- any deal, mind you -- led him to treat the GOP as good faith partners when they were clearly not.  Republicans, he goes on to say, were going to screw POTUS and the country no matter what Obama did.  This is where Chait's argument turns into purist whining:  There was nothing President Obama could have done that would have changed the outcome of the GOP screwing us over (indeed, the GOP is now signaling that it will simply ignore the debt deal), and at the same time he didn't do enough to change the outcome.  It's just meaningless stupidity, brought about by the "liberal" Washington Post unloading this hit piece on the President, and Chait absolutely takes the bait, re-fighting the same arguments we had in 2010 and 2011 about "but if Obama had done THIS and LISTENED TO HOW SMART I AM..." five minutes after saying there was nothing he could have done.

There's nothing productive about this civil war re-enactment other than Chait scratching his own "Tell Obama what to do" itch that so many of our professional pundit class seem to suffer from.  But generating that itch was the entire point of the Kaplan piece.  Chait performed admirably, attacking the President from the left.  After all, attacks from the right aren't working too well, since the wingers keep putting most of their ammo into their own feet.  Whenever the left is winning, we have to be demoralized into our own worst enemies, and we're damn good at it.

It keeps pissing me off that we're really going to go through the same self-flagellation over this when we should be concentrating on taking back the House, keeping the Senate, and not losing the White House to any of the GOP dipsticks.  Instead, we're just going to bash ourselves in the gonads until the GOP crawls across the finish line.  Awesome.  Thanks, Jon.