Palm Sunday includes comedy and gambling

over in Louisiana.


Light posting ahead but back with some Funnies tomorrow.

The New Yankee Stadium

I never made it to the old one, finally rationalizing -- with the assist from Derek Jeter -- that the ghosts only had to relocate about a hundred yards.

And sure enough, what ghost wouldn't want to.


My friend Lyn the Mets fan wants to get up to Citi Field sometime this year, so in the interest of fairness and balance here's some computerized renderings of the Amazin's new playpen, including a video of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda.

Update: More from tonight's opening festivities:

Eager New York fans turned out Friday to watch the Yankees and Mets test their plush and pricey new ballparks in exhibition games, a double debut in a city that hasn’t had a new Major League Baseball stadium in 45 years.

The faithful were awed. Given what these places cost, maybe they ought to be.

“When I pass, I want my ashes to be buried here. That’s how beautiful it is,” John Zozzaro of Glen Cove said as he admired $800 million Citi Field in Queens, where fans lavished praise on everything from the brilliant green of the outfield to the cup holders in front of the seats.

Across town, Frank Sinatra songs played as fans took in the new Yankee Stadium, bedecked with old Yankees memorabilia and pictures of team titans such as Babe Ruth. At $1.5 billion, it is the costliest baseball stadium ever built.

“It looks great. I think the word is ‘majestic.’ It’s awesome,” said 39-year-old Mike Generose. He and his wife, Lori, 24, had driven to the game from their home in Allentown, Pa.

Labor gets a TV show

Radio progressive talker Ed Schultz was given the 5 p.m. Central time slot by MSNBC yesterday.

Talking with Keith Olbermann last night on Countdown, Schultz said the show's focus would be on working people, the middle class, and labor unions. From an interview with AFSCME two years ago:

"This has been the most anti-labor administration in the history of the country. They want cheap labor: that's the conservatives' mission. They don't think the middle class — and unions — are important. I'm a staunch supporter of unions. If we're going to save the middle class, we've got to strengthen unions. They stand for quality of life, quality of wages, quality and fairness of benefits. All of those things are being attacked by the neo-cons. The only thing that's going to be able to push back at Corporate America is unions."

And in a recent audition on the network he will be working full-time for starting next week, Schultz gives the Democratic leadership in Congress some advice about the Employee Free Choice Act:



Conservatism's successful marketing of organized labor as demonic -- going all the way back to when former union boss Reagan disbanded the air traffic controllers -- has proceeded apace for nearly thirty years, dove-tailing nicely with declines in union membership, wages, benefits, and the erosion of the middle class in general. Even poor working stiffs bought into the 'one day you will be management, too!' BS notion that kept themselves oppressed by corporations all of this time.

Read any comment board where unions are mentioned and see for yourself.

Schultz's conversations about the benefits of organized labor is a welcome breath of fresh air in the soon-to-be post-corporate-controlled environment.

Colbert destroys Glenn Beck

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The 10/31 Project
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

"We weren't told how to behave that day after 9/11, we just knew," Beck says to describe the project. "It was right, it was the opposite of what we feel today. Are you ready to be the person you were that day after 9/11, on 9/12?"

"Ready!" Colbert shouted, decked out in a gas mask, holding a gun, and wearing adult diapers.

Next up for profound ridicule: the Tea Baggers gatherings on April 14.

Fascism and socialism have conservatives confused

This has been covered previously, but since it is the Republican brain we're dealing with here, more explanation is required. They still won't understand it, but you will.

Some very abridged recent history is in order. The 20th century saw the rise of two significant offshoots of totalitarianism: communism and fascism. Communism represented the far left and fascism, the far right. The American left and right can sometimes resemble, faintly, the excesses of 20th century totalitarians, but neither willingly choose to be associated with them. Now it's a shame that Adolph Hitler's party was named the National Socialist German Workers' Party because this terribly confuses American conservatives. They see the words 'socialist' and 'worker's party' and they think that the Nazis were some kind of party of the proletariat.

In fact they were anything but:

The Nazi Party presented its program in the 25-point National Socialist Program in 1920. Among the key elements of Nazism were anti-parliamentarism, Pan-Germanism, racism, collectivism, eugenics, anti-semitism, anti-communism, totalitarianism and opposition to economic liberalism and political liberalism.

That's not to say that the Nazis didn't engage in populist demagoguery. They equated finance capitalism with a Jewish conspiracy to screw regular working folks. They proposed nationalizing all corporations.

The onset of the Great Depression, which preceded the coming to power of Hitler and the Nazis, greatly discredited capitalism in the eyes of the world. The Nazis were not capitalists, but (at least on economic policy) tried to establish a middle ground between capitalism and Soviet communism. So if you are a late 20th century-educated American right-wing laissez-faire capitalist, much of the rhetoric and many of the actions of the Nazis are going to appear in retrospect to be left-wing in nature. But the economic policies of the Nazis, of course, are not what earned them eternal condemnation. Take a look at the following terms -- from the first excerpted link above -- and tell me if they better describe America's right-wing or left-wing.

--Anti-parliamentarism (anti-Congress)
-- Pan-Americanism
-- Racism
-- Anti-semitism
-- Anti-communism
-- Opposition to economic liberalism
-- Opposition to political liberalism

On those last two, 'liberalism' doesn't mean left-wing per se but more like principles of free markets, private property, and human and political rights.

The modern-day American right supports economic liberalism but they're pretty weak on political liberalism. There's a reason, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Planned Parenthood, ACORN, etc. are considered enemies by the Republican Party.

In any case, nationalizing the auto industry is something Nazis might do. But you know what else they might do?

1. Demonize ethnic and religious minorities like Hispanics and Muslims.
2. Discriminate against homosexuals.
3. Exalt female fertility and discourage female employment in the work force.
4. Characterize the homeland as the rightful property of ethnically pure (white) citizens.
5. Promote a nationalistic and imperialistic foreign policy.
6. Call all of their opponents 'communists' or 'fifth-column communist sympathizers'.
7. Suppress the black vote.
8. Call President Obama a 'magic negro'.
9. Support torture and do warrantless surveillance on political enemies and reporters.
10. Exalt an idealized past when the 'United States was the greatest country on Earth'.

I could go on, but you get the picture.

Shorter version -- when Obama fires the CEO of General Motors, that's more socialism than it is fascism. Try to keep this straight, Sparkle: Bush is the fascist. Right down to his multi-hectare hideaway in Paraguay.

Obama fires GM's Wagoner

On the heels of the news yesterday that the White House is requiring the CEO of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, to step down as part of any restructuring needing federal funds, there's this news this morning:

The White House says neither GM nor Chrysler submitted acceptable plans to receive more bailout money, setting the stage for a crisis in Detroit and putting in motion what could be the final two months of two American auto giants.

US President Barack Obama and his top advisers have determined that neither company is viable and that taxpayers will not spend untold billions more to keep the pair of automakers open forever.

In a last-ditch effort, the administration gave each company a brief deadline to try one last time to convince Washington it is worth saving, said senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to more bluntly discuss the decision.

Obama was set to make the announcement on Monday in the White House's foyer.

This bothers me, but not in some kind of conservative capitalist let-the-market-work kind of way. Bailing out AIG and the Citi and B of A while they pay everybody bonuses is "OK", but bailing out companies that manufacture a product isn't?

The auto manufacturers and their suppliers employ millions of Americans in living-wage jobs with good benefits. The afore-mentioned money managers employ millions of Americans with about 90% of those jobs being low-wage clerks and customer service personnel, and 10% white-collar executives who expect executive compensation tied to performance no matter how badly they perform.

One of these things is just not like the other.

On the other hand, if Obama fires a couple of bank presidents in April, I might feel a little better about it.

Update (4/5): Heh.

The government may require new faces in executive suites at banks requiring “exceptional assistance” in the future, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Sunday.

Critics of the Obama administration’s move last weekend to force out the chairman of General Motors Corp., Rick Wagoner, as a condition for possible additional federal loans say that strong government intervention contrasts with measures placed on the financial industry in return for billions in infusions.

Geithner denied there was a double standard and put banks on notice that they may need to change leadership teams in exchange for accepting more money in the future.

The Weekly Final Four Wrangle

North Carolina, UConn, Villanova and Michigan State -- with the home court advantage -- will play next weekend for college basketball's national championship. Major league baseball's teams break spring training in Florida and Arizona as they prepare to open the season. And there's still lots of large, fresh crawfish to be eaten.

Spring is a beautiful thing (besides the flowers and the green leaves everywhere). Here's your round-up from the Texas Progressive Alliance's member blogs from the past week.

Phillip Martin of Burnt Orange Report is feeling proud to have a Democrat in the Oval Office in his post, President Barack Obama: How He Won & Early Successes.

McBlogger's Harry Balczak has some great news about a new movie coming out.

Off the Kuff examines the economic claims made by the gambling industry, and also prints a response from the racetracks.

BossKitty at TruthHugger recognizes the pattern of disaster cycles; why is everyone surprised when their world is turned upside down? America must pull its pants up and be ready for the unexpected, because it should be expected ... So Many Red Rivers - What Have We Learned. Speaking about learning, What Else Can We Cut Besides Cost ...

The GOP declares doomsday if Obama's budget is enacted. Let's hope they don't pre-emptively invade the White House to try to stop it, as if a Democratic federal budget were equivalent to Saddam's WMD. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs reminds us that the Republicans tend to hyperventilate when they exaggerate.

Neil at Texas Liberal writes about Houston City Council candidate Noel Freeman and is hopeful that Mr. Freeman will address some questions about how the Democratic Party regards some of its most loyal voters.

At Texas Kaos, Libby Shaw keeps an eye on the best government that political contributions can buy -- TRCC edition, in Fat Cat The Business Owner Sticks It to Joe the Consumer.

nytexan at BlueBloggin is not surprised by the GOP's latest stunt; The Party of NO: GOP Budget Has No Numbers And No Plan. The GOP leadership offered “The Republican Road To Recovery,” a 19-page joke which took them 27 days to write. It actually sounds like a book title for Alcoholics Anonymous. The best part of the GOP budget is there are “no” numbers in it. Page numbers don’t count.

Justin at AAA-Fund Blog urges readers to call state representative Angie Chen Button to condemn state representative Leo Berman's Leo Berman.

The Texas Cloverleaf explains why it is going into hibernation.

Also on Burnt Orange Report, Todd Hill had an interview with Tom Schieffer, potential Democratic candidate for governor, about his vision for Texas, his friendship with George W. Bush, and why he thinks he can win in the general election.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on President Obama’s first budget - a primer.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is glad that the cowboy Bush administration is no longer in charge of diplomacy.

Bills to abolish Bob Perry's Builder Commssion will be heard on Tuesday, March 31 in a Business and Industry Subcommittee meeting of the Texas Legislature at 10:00 a.m., according to John Coby at Bay Area Houston.

Health insurers blacklist millions with common ailments

Trying to buy health insurance on your own and have gallstones? You'll automatically be denied coverage. Rheumatoid arthritis? Automatic denial. Severe acne? Probably denied. Do you take metformin, a popular drug for diabetes? Denied. Use the anti-clotting drug Plavix or Seroquel, prescribed for anti-psychotic or sleep problems? Forget about it.

What's more, you can discover that if you lie to an insurer about your medical history and drug use, you will be rejected because data-mining companies sell information to insurers about your health, including detailed usage of prescription drugs.

These issues are moving to the forefront as the Obama administration and Congress gear up for discussions about how to reform the healthcare system so that Americans won't be rejected for insurance.

More.

Sunday Funnies (Beware Bad Dogma edition)

When banks rob people

This time the banks are zeroing in on Geithner's cash giveaway bonanza, the "Public Private Investment Partnership" (PPIP). As expected, Bank of America and Citigroup have angled their way to the front of the herd, thrusting their snouts into the public trough and extracting whatever morsels they can find amid a din of gurgling and sucking sounds. Here's the story from the New York Post:

"As Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner orchestrated a plan to help the nation's largest banks purge themselves of toxic mortgage assets, Citigroup and Bank of America have been aggressively scooping up those same securities in the secondary market, sources told The Post...

But the banks' purchase of so-called AAA-rated mortgage-backed securities, including some that use alt-A and option ARM as collateral, is raising eyebrows among even the most seasoned traders. Alt-A and option ARM loans have widely been seen as the next mortgage type to see increases in defaults.

One Wall Street trader told The Post that what's been most puzzling about the purchases is how aggressive both banks have been in their buying, sometimes paying higher prices than competing bidders are willing to pay.

Recently, securities rated AAA have changed hands for roughly 30 cents on the dollar, and most of the buyers have been hedge funds acting opportunistically on a bet that prices will rise over time. However, sources said Citi and BofA have trumped those bids."("Double Dippers; Citi and B of A buy laundered loans at lower rates", Mark DeCambre, New York Post)

Thus begins the next taxpayer-subsidized feeding frenzy, featuring all the usual suspects. The race is on to vacuum up as much toxic mortgage paper as possible so it can be dumped on Uncle Sam at a hefty profit. These are the same miscreants the Obama administration is so dead-set on rescuing. Better to let them sink from their own bad bets.

More here.

Harris County's plan for voter registration

I like the sound of this, so let's keep an eye out for how effectively it is implemented:

County Tax Assessor-Collector Leo Vasquez has put together a coalition of private organizations and large employers to make sure that residents who move within or to the county get an on-the-spot chance to fill out fresh voter registration applications.

Moving into an apartment or buying a dwelling involves signing lots of papers. Now the Houston Apartment Association and the Texas Land Title Association will make sure the papers include voter registration forms, Vasquez said Wednesday.

Continental Airlines and the Houston Independent School District are the first employers to join the coalition by ensuring that registration forms go to workers who update their personnel records with new addresses.

“Let’s hit people when they are trying to make one of those moves,” said Vasquez, who was appointed in December to succeed fellow Republican Paul Bettencourt, who resigned from his elected post.

Some poor word choices there, Leo, but the effort seems to be well-directed:

Vasquez said he created the voter registration coalition without regard to such controversies. He also said he does not plan to play a partisan role.

Registered voters who move without updating their registrations can, in most cases, vote on Election Day at the polling place for the precinct where they formerly lived. With the rise of early voting participation, where voters live within the county matters less because they can vote at any early voting station.

Having to return to an old neighborhood to vote sometimes discourages voters from casting ballots, Vasquez pointed out, so updated registrations make participation easier.

Vasquez also hopes the program will make the volume of voter registrations more consistent through the year. Typically, address changes and other registrations peak a few weeks before each election. These spikes lead to last-minute errors by those who fill out the cards and a processing backlog at the voter registrars’ office, according to Vasquez.

Fair enough. Let's see how it goes.

John Hope Franklin 1915 - 2009

As an author, his book ''From Slavery to Freedom'' was a landmark integration of black history into American history that remains relevant more than 60 years after being published. As a scholar, his research helped Thurgood Marshall and his team at the NAACP win Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that barred the doctrine of ''separate but equal'' in the nation's public schools.

''It was evident how much the lawyers appreciated what the historians could offer,'' Franklin later wrote. ''For me, and I suspect the same was true for the others, it was exhilarating.''

Franklin himself broke numerous color barriers. He was the first black department chair at a predominantly white institution, Brooklyn College; the first black professor to hold an endowed chair at Duke; and the first black president of the American Historical Association.

He often regarded his country like an exasperated relative, frustrated by racism's stubborn power, yet refusing to give up. ''I want to be out there on the firing line, helping, directing or doing something to try to make this a better world, a better place to live,'' Franklin told The Associated Press in 2005.

In November, after Barack Obama broke the ultimate racial barrier in American politics, Franklin called his ascension to the White House ''one of the most historic moments, if not the most historic moment, in the history of this country.''

''Because of the life John Hope Franklin lived, the public service he rendered, and the scholarship that was the mark of his distinguished career, we all have a richer understanding of who we are as Americans and our journey as a people,'' Obama said in a statement. ''Dr. Franklin will be deeply missed, but his legacy is one that will surely endure.''