I GUESS MARX WAS CORRECT ABOUT RELIGION

He famously wrote that religion is "the opium of the people" and in 1834 a Massachusetts state court judge  in one of Abner Kneeland's blasphemy trials seemed to express a similar thought:

SOURCE: "The Blasphemy of Abner Kneeland" by Henry Steele Commager, New England Quarterly, Mar., 1935, vol. 8, no. 1, p. 29-41

THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE BANKSTERS

I was listening to the BBC's World Service a day or so ago and one of the guests specialized in the sociology of finance, a part of sociology I never heard of before. A little googling led me to the Sociology Dept. at the University of Edinburgh which has a section devoted to this topic. There are a number of papers and op-eds about the financial sociology of the Great Recession which look pretty interesting.

MORE LIKE THIS

At moment, Newt is leading Bachmann in Iowa by 19 points, 25 to 6, so I'm not sure why he told the truth about her:

During a brief exchange with reporters, Gingrich was asked about Bachmann's claim that Gingrich's position on illegal immigration amounts to amnesty. Bachmann criticized Gingrich's statement that he would allow illegal immigrants who have been in the United States for 25 years to remain in the country.

What about Bachmann's criticism? "Some people are just factually challenged," Gingrich responded. "It's unfortunate. When I was a teacher I occasionally had a student who couldn't figure out where things were or what things were or what the right date was. When that happens, you feel sorry that they are so factually challenged."

Newt's absurd claims about the food stamp program make his shot at The Eyes ironic.

THANX SEAN!

All normal people knew this but it's great that The Baby Jesus admitted it. (h/t Ellen at News Hounds)

Transcript from LexisNexis¹:

PERINO: Well, that's why I sit back and I look at all of them, and I have a report in a fair and balanced way.

HANNITY: You are not fair and balanced, you are conservative.

PERINO: Well, no, you can be conservative and fair and balanced.

HANNITY: I'm not fair and balance.

¹Fox News Network
November 29, 2011 Tuesday
SHOW: FOX HANNITY 9:13 PM EST
Analysis With Dana Perino, Stuart Varney
BYLINE: Sean Hannity
GUESTS: Dana Perino, Stuart Varney
SECTION: NEWS; International
LENGTH: 1481 words

LED BULBS CAN MAKE ECONOMIC SENSE

(h/t Barry Ritholtz)

When you take into consideration all the factors, LEDs are a smart purchase for companies:

The Math Changes on Bulbs
Modern LEDs, While Expensive, Save Companies on Labor
By KATE LINEBAUGH
NOVEMBER 30, 2011
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Bulbs built around light-emitting diodes—semiconductors that produce bright light when zapped with electricity—last 10 times longer than conventional bulbs, meaning fewer ladders blocking frozen-food aisles or unsightly scaffolds towering in hotel lobbies as workers change blown-out bulbs. With energy savings not yet enough in some cases to cover the higher cost of the new bulbs, it's lower maintenance costs that are getting sales across the finish line.

Here's the accompanying graphic:

THE BAGGERS "WON'T SETTLE" FOR A NORMAL PERSON

I've been listening to and reading about the Gong Show and aside from a few articles about how the Fundies are opposed to Romney because he's a Mormon, I haven't come across anything that points to the deepest issue facing the GOP: the Baggers will only vote for an axtremist. Michele Bachmann has grasped that and that's why she's been pounding on "don't settle" for any non-extermist since late September to today.

She's doing this despite the fact that the Baggers are even unpopular in districts that voted in a Bagger:

Pew: Tea Party seriously not liked, even in Tea Party run congressional districts
By John Aravosis (DC) on 11/30/2011 08:00:00 AM

IT'S NOT ABOUT HELPING "JOB CREATORS"

The GOP simply wants to protect the top 1% and above. From POLITICO:

The Senate shot down dueling proposals on Thursday on extending the current payroll tax cut – ensuring that the critical year-end issue will be punted into next week.

With a 51-49 vote, the Senate failed to get the 60 votes needed to move forward on the payroll tax cut favored by Democrats – legislation that never had a chance because of the GOP’s opposition to the millionaires’ surtax put in place to pay for the tax cut.

The payroll tax cut will HELP small businesses hire people. From Media Matters:

The bill's payroll tax cut would not only boost workers' paychecks by hundreds of dollars or more in 2012 but also cut the taxes of every small business. Employers would receive a tax holiday on fully half of their 2012 Social Security taxes on the first $5 million in payroll. If employers create jobs, they would pay no Social Security taxes on the first $50 million in increased taxable payroll.

WHAT WAR WHORE INGRAHAM DIDN'T TELL HER LISTENERS

She touted Leon Cooperman's whine about Pres. Obama published by the NY Post but never mentioned that Cooperman's economic policy recommendations are decidedly non-conservative:

This economic checklist included--to his credit--an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, free college education for all returning soldiers, a large WPA-styled infrastructure jobs initiative, a 10 percent tax surcharge on all incomes over $500,000 and a 5% VAT tax on everyone.

THIS IS VERY ENCOURAGING

As I listen to Mark "Foamer" Levin rant about liberals, I am reminded that he and the people who believe him are still a minority in America.  My evidence for that assertion is from Frank Luntz, the wizard GOP pollster and word meister, who's found that Occupy Wall Street has caught on with Americans:

How Republicans are being taught to talk about Occupy Wall Street
By Chris Moody | The Ticket
YAHOO NEWS

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Republican Governors Association met this week in Florida to give GOP state executives a chance to rejuvenate, strategize and team-build. But during a plenary session on Wednesday, one question kept coming up: How can Republicans do a better job of talking about Occupy Wall Street?

"I'm so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I'm frightened to death," said Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist and one of the nation's foremost experts on crafting the perfect political message. "They're having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism."

I think this is the most remarkable point Luntz made:
Yahoo News sat in on the session, and counted 10 do's and don'ts from Luntz covering how Republicans should fight back by changing the way they discuss the movement.

1. Don't say 'capitalism.'

"I'm trying to get that word removed and we're replacing it with either 'economic freedom' or 'free market,' " Luntz said. "The public . . . still prefers capitalism to socialism, but they think capitalism is immoral. And if we're seen as defenders of quote, Wall Street, end quote, we've got a problem."

Other liberals (also here) have picked up on this and I wonder if the radio gasbags will respond tomorrow.

THURSDAY GONG SHOW REPORT

- Mittens even whines about Bret Baier, a FAUX News host.
- The Eyes, Newt and Man-On-Dog all fail to field a full slate in NH.
- The Eyes and Man-On-Dog want Intelligent Design taught in schools.

CONS STILL HUNGUP OVER GUNS

One of the local wingnut radio stations has been running an ad for a local gun nut store that refers to the "news" about more 2nd Amendment restrictions coming in the future and I guess that's targeted to the FAUX News rubes who are in the audience because there isn't anything coming, at least not from Congress.  But that won't stop the gun worshippers from promoting gun ownership for violent purposes.

(1) Fox News Suggests Second Amendment Remedies Be Used Against OWS
December 1, 2011
By Rmuse
On Tuesday’s edition of Fox News’ The Five, one of the members of the panel suggested the occupiers should beware of gun-slinging Americans who oppose the Occupy movement. ... One of the panel members, Greg Gutfeld, was commenting on how awesome it is that Americans have a love-affair with guns and how he likes that it “scares the hell out of visiting Europeans who already think we’re crazy people and they think my god, we’re never invading this country.” He continued that, “plus, it’s a reminder to all you Occupy Wall Streeters that if there is a revolution, the other side is better armed.”

(2) Cyber Monday Special: Buy Guns Before Obama Enslaves And Kills You

November 28, 2011 5:55 pm ET by Matt Gertz

Apparently there are those who find National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre's exhortation that there is a "massive Obama conspiracy" in which President Obama is planning to follow up his re-election by somehow eliminating the Second Amendment just a touch too subtle.

In an ad emailed out to the list of WorldNetDaily this afternoon, the good people at USAAmmo explain that President Obama is "secretly conspiring to strip American Citizens of the right to bear arms"

(3) National Review's Kevin Williamson: If Current Economic Policies Continue, "You're Going To Want To Have A Very Good Gun"
December 01, 2011 4:09 pm ET

From the November 30 edition of Fox Business' Follow the Money with Eric Bolling:

DER SPIEGEL ON THE GONG SHOW

(h/t The Dish)

Scott Horton translated this demolition of the Republican presidential candidates:

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Republican Party. Or rather: to the distorted world of its presidential campaign.
...and nothing is ever too unfathomable for them… These eight presidential wannabes are happy enough not only to demolish their own reputations but also that of their party, the once worthy party of Abraham Lincoln. They are also ruining the reputation of the United States.

They lie, deceive, scuffle and speak every manner of idiocy. And they expose a political, economic, geographic and historical ignorance compared to which George W. Bush sounds like a scholar.

Platitudes in lieu of programs: in serious times that demand the smartest, these clowns offer blather that is an insult to the intelligence of all Americans.

UPDATE: Der Spiegel now has an English version.

WHAT A BAGGER GASBAG THINKS

In his newsletter, Glenda Beck slammed Gingrich and Romney (no link because I don't want to give his site any hits):

BTW, Glenda thinks Bachmann and Santorum are the REAL conservative candidates.

HERMAN CAIN IS ALMOST CORRECT

From Raw Story:

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain complained Wednesday that idiots are destroying the country.

“Here’s what I need you to do,” Cain told a crowd of supporters in Dayton, Ohio. “Stay informed, know the facts because stupid people are ruining America.”

As soon as I read that, I thought of my favorite fat gasbag, Rush Limbaugh, who made this astounding claim today:

Freedom of Information Act request produced some information, it was on the Fox Business Channel last night between seven and eight o'clock, one of the Fox networks. Seven-point-two trillion has been spent and lent by the Federal Reserve to bail out banks all over the world since 2008. Seven-point-two trillion United States dollars printed by the Federal Reserve to bail out banks around the world since 2008.
...
So, Snerdley, it's not $600 billion yesterday. It's $7.2 trillion since 2008 that the Fed -- nobody has any money. Where do you think this money is going? It's going to people who do not and have not worked.

Now, you know Fats isn't attacking the banksters here, so we can only conclude that his delusions are getting worse.

Newt Gingrich also let a little unvarnished truth slip out (h/t Raw Story):

“What you said is information that’s new to me, I don’t know enough about it to give you a direct answer,” Gingrich told the audience member. “I’m certainly sympathetic to what you just said. But one of the real changes that comes when you start running for President – as opposed to being an analyst on Fox – is I have to actually know what I’m talking about.”

LIKE I SAID,

all the conservative GOP candidates suck and the radio gasbags know it!  As a result, at least two of them have renewed their efforts to demonize liberals.  Today, Fats Limbaugh claimed that liberals hate America and last night, Mark "Foamer" Levin claimed that liberals were a "5th Column" in America.

BASICALLY, THEY ALL SUCK...

The entire GOP Gong Show, with the exception of Huntsman, sucks and even die-hard conservatives have indirectly admitted it by attacking so many of them.  Newt the Wanderer is the current "champ" and according to The Daily Caller, sheeple leaders Ann Coulter, Mark Levin, George Will and Mark Steyn have already pounced on him.

RICK PERRY IS A "STATIST"

This is not a position a true Bagger politician would take:

Gov. Perry Announces Creation of Applied Cancer Science Institute at MD Anderson Center
9:08 am CST - November 29, 2011
TEXAS INSIDER

In 2007, the governor led an initiative to help make Texas the home for the next wave of treatments combating cancer, which resulted in the creation of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). Voters approved bonds to fund the institute for more than 10 years, enabling the state to finance research grant awards and attract top researchers.

Texas is also working to attract world-class researchers through the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF), created at Gov. Perry’s request. To date, the state has invested nearly $178 million in grant-matching and research superiority funds to Texas universities, which has helped attract some of the top researchers in their respective fields.

THE RADIO CHICKEN LITTLES

For years, radio gasbags like Hannity and Mark Levin have told their listeners that the upcoming election will occur during an absolutely crucial times.  Depending only slightly on the scare of the moment, they say we Americans face an existential crisis in which Western Civilization, etcetera is at stake. 

How long can people trust these clowns?

OBAMA GIVING UP ON THE RUBES (?)

That was my first take on this column in the NY Times by Thomas Edsell, "The Future of the Obama Coalition". Edsell put it this way: "the party will explicitly abandon the white working class...whites without college degrees are effectively replaced by well-educated socially liberal whites in alliance with the growing ranks of less affluent minority voters, especially Hispanics." This has gotten some attention from Fats Limbaugh and other wingnuts and they are trying to make it seem that Pres. Obama has found a new way to destroy America.

In fact, the underlying work the column was based on merely admits the obvious: The Dems have lost the rubes since the GOP implemented the Southern Startegy in the 1960s and there's no point putting a lot of effort into winning over some Baggers.

I BLAME MIKE HUCKABEE

I can't find the citation, but I recall Newt Gingrich stating that Huckabee introduced him to the Fundie talk circuit and that seems to have paid off because the Fundies are no longer allergic to this dishonest creep:

Evangelicals Flocking Toward Newt Gingrich
Nov 28, 2011 12:00 AM EST
NEWSWEEK

Yet on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, when most of the GOP candidates gathered in the First Federated Church in Des Moines for a FAMiLY Leader forum, the consensus was that Gingrich came out on top. Partly that’s because he’s been preparing his theocentric message for a while, particularly since converting to Catholicism, Callista’s religion, in 2009, which he has said strengthened his appreciation for the role of faith in public life. In recent years, his writing and speaking have become increasingly religious and even apocalyptic, limning a great world-historical show-down between the forces of Christian civilization and those of what he calls "secular-socialism," which weakens society, allowing for the spread of radical Islam.

WE NEED MORE JUDGES LIKE THIS ONE

The MOTU have gotten away with robbery under law for decades in part because of the spinelessness of the SEC and other regulatory agencies. Until now...

Judge blocks Citigroup-SEC settlement
By Grant McCool and Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK | Mon Nov 28, 2011 5:58pm EST

(Reuters) - A federal judge angrily threw out Citigroup Inc's proposed $285 million settlement over the sale of toxic mortgage debt, excoriating the top U.S. market regulator over how it reaches corporate fraud settlements.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said that in agreeing to the settlement, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission appeared uninterested in actually learning what Citigroup did wrong. He also said the regulator erred by asking him to ignore the interests of the public.

"An application of judicial power that does not rest on facts is worse than mindless, it is inherently dangerous," Rakoff wrote in an opinion dated Monday.

"In any case like this that touches on the transparency of financial markets whose gyrations have so depressed our economy and debilitated our lives, there is an overriding public interest in knowing the truth," he added.

Rakoff called the settlement "neither reasonable, nor fair, nor adequate, nor in the public interest," and said it was hard to tell whether by settling the SEC was getting more than "a quick headline." He set a trial date of July 16, 2012.

The judges objection to weasel words - "the firm neither admits nor denies wrongdoing" - may lead to profound changers for how the banksters operate:

Citi Ruling Could Chill SEC, Street Legal Pacts
By JEAN EAGLESHAM And CHAD BRAY
NOVEMBER 28, 2011, 8:06 P.M. ET
WALL STREET JOURNAL

But the focus of his concern was the boilerplate language used in settlements by the SEC for nearly 40 years. This standard formula, in which the firm neither admits nor denies wrongdoing, was "hallowed by history, but not by reason," the judge said.

He said the public had a clear interest in knowing the truth of what happened, while the court could only decide whether a settlement was fair on the basis of admitted facts, which aren't present in pacts where there is no admission of wrongdoing.

This is what scares the MOTU:

Behind Rakoff’s Rejection of Citigroup Settlement
By PETER J. HENNING
November 28, 2011, 5:14 pm
NY Times

The crucial question is whether Judge Rakoff’s decision could lead to an end to the S.E.C.’s policy of settling its cases without any admission of liability by the defendant. Although Judge Rakoff is only one federal district judge, his approach may be influential with other judges who do not wish to be seen as mere “rubber stamps” for the S.E.C.

The rationale for the settlement policy is rooted in a doctrine called “collateral estoppel,” by which a party can use the outcome in one case against the losing side in a second proceeding. For example, if the S.E.C. were to win a judgment against Citigroup, establishing that it defrauded the purchasers of the securities, then these purchasers could rely on that decision to prove their own individual fraud claims against the bank. Citigroup would be “estopped” from denying that its actions violated the law because that issue was already proved in the S.E.C.’s case.

The S.E.C. policy regarding settlements allows the agency to announce a victory, while the defendant does not acknowledge a defeat, so the settlement cannot be used against it by private plaintiffs.

MOTU ARE A MORAL HAZARD

You may recall that in 2008, the Bear Stearns CEO said that his company was OK but 4 days later it went belly up. Well, other CEOs are just as dishonest (h/t Digby)

Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks Undisclosed $13B
By Bob Ivry, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz - Nov 27, 2011 5:01 PM MT
Bloomberg Markets Magazine

Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy.

On Nov. 26, 2008, then-Bank of America (BAC) Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis wrote to shareholders that he headed “one of the strongest and most stable major banks in the world.” He didn’t say that his Charlotte, North Carolina-based firm owed the central bank $86 billion that day.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon told shareholders in a March 26, 2010, letter that his bank used the Fed’s Term Auction Facility “at the request of the Federal Reserve to help motivate others to use the system.” He didn’t say that the New York-based bank’s total TAF borrowings were almost twice its cash holdings or that its peak borrowing of $48 billion on Feb. 26, 2009, came more than a year after the program’s creation.

NARY A PEEP

It's sad that there wasn't a general outrage at the fact that neo-con warmongers were allowed to ask questions at the last Gong Show debate.  As far as I can tell, only Joe Conason and Chris Hayes were the only nationally known liberals to point out what an outrage this was.

WHAT THE SCIENTISTS THINK ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING

(h/t Doug O'Harra at Alaska Dispatch)

Peter T . Doran and Maggie Kendall Zimmerman in January 2009 published in EOS the results of their online poll of scientists about their beliefs on climate change. This was question 2:

2. Do you think human activity is a significant
contributing factor in changing
mean global temperatures?

These are the results:

I WANTED TO KNOW ANYWAY...

Checking wingnut claims is always a good idea, even if it's from an area one knows something about.  In this case, I do know something about typography but I didn't know when kerning began.  Tonight, a birther called in to Billy Cunningham's Sunday Show and claimed that because kerning did not exist in 1961,  Pres. Obama's full birth certificate is a fake.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, kerning has been around since the late 17th Century:

kerning, n.²

The operation of making kerns on type; the making of kerned letters. Also attrib. as   kerning-knife n.,  kerning-stick n. tools used in kerning letters.

1683    J. Moxon Mech. Exercises II. 177   This Kerning-stick is somewhat more than an Handful long‥. He also provides a Kerning-Knife.

1788    Chambers's Cycl. (new ed.) at Foundery,   These‥are scraped on the broad-sides with a knife or file.‥ This operation is called kerning.

1824    J. Johnson Typographia II. 22   The kerning of letters, it must be owned, may serve many good purposes.

TOO MANY STUPIDS ALL OVER THE WORLD

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Muslim medical students boycotting lectures on evolution... because it ‘clashes with the Koran’  —  Muslim students, including trainee doctors on one of Britain's leading medical courses, are walking out of lectures on evolution claiming it conflicts with creationist ideas established in the Koran.

The conservative bloggers haven't yet come to grips with the fact that our fundamentalist Christians "Fundies" are just as bad.

UPDATE: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also needs a nap or something.  The senator's real name is JON Tester: