Sketchbook Saturday
This cartoon is from 1986 and originally appeared in the Skidmore News. I’ve got some other stuff posted at my blog, but I’ve gotta go get busy drawing for In Search Of Utopia, which should be rising from ashes hopefully next week.
John Kerry meets Mike
By Zencomix
A Flaw In Logic
El Presidente had himself a little press conference last night. Now I didn’t get to watch, but for a very brief critique of it, check out fellow UPC member PSOTD for his rundown. I’m currently in the middle of reading a transcript, and I came across this little gem:
Which is very very true. When anything costs more to make, it costs more to buy. But the implied other side of the coin is an absolute falsehood. The tricky part here is that the President doesn’t actually come out and say it. The implied part of the quote that is missing is this:
“When crude oil goes down, the price of gasoline goes down.”
It’s implied, but never said. Never misunderstimate this man. This here really does point to the simple political awareness that GeeDub possesses. By saying what he did, and leaving out the quote above, the effect is enormous. In the minds of the laymen, they hear, “when crude oil goes up, the price of gasoline goes up,” and they quickly think there after “so when crude oil goes down, the price of gasoline goes down.” That’s what they think, a political benefit that Bush gets without having to actually lie in order to say it.
Because the truth of the matter is that while gas will go up when crude oil goes up, there is absolutely no guarantee that gas will drop when crude does.
Take CD’s for instance. Remember when they came out? (If you don’t, I don’t want to talk to you as I’m too young to be feeling old.) As tapes back then cost about eight bucks, the newly introduced CD’s topped out at about fourteen to fifteen.
But, the industry promised us, that was supposed to change. CD’s would eventually be cheaper than cassettes because they would be cheaper to manufacture, cheaper to store, blah blah blah. And people bought it. It made sense. Cassettes required intricate plastic molding and the production of the magnetic ribbons. CD’s were, well, compact discs. No moving parts.
Yet, as the years went by, a very curious thing happened. CD’s slowly went UP in price. What happened to cheaper production? Lower prices? I’m no economic expert, but my guess is a simple word. PROFIT.
Another way to look at this is an analogy that I can’t remember where in the hell I picked it up from, but it’s pretty damn interesting. If you throw a frog in a pot of boiling water, the frog will jump out. If you take a frog and put it in a pot of room temperature water, and slowly bring it to a boil, chances are, the frog will stay in the pot.
Which pretty accurately discribes the way consumers behave. When gas prices jump twenty cents or so, there is typically a large outcry, but this doesn’t represent the steady increase of gas prices which over the course of twenty or so years jumped from around a dollar or less a gallon to nearly two and a half dollars a gallon.
Going back to the dropping price of crude oil. The fact is that by the time oil production increases and oil prices theoretically drop, there are two frogs that we have to think about. One frog, the consumer, has to some extent gotten used to paying a higher price for gas. The other frog, the oil companies that distribute to gas stations, has gotten used to charging higher prices. Further, that second frog sees a potential for bigger profits.
In either case, what one could expect to see is a drop big enough in gas prices to quell the bulk of public dissatisfaction, but still keeping the prices high enough to keep a bigger profit than before. Or in other words, don’t be fooled by the flawed logic that just because there is more oil, it’ll be any cheaper. All that cash we pay out of a necessity based on supply and demand, we will similarly pay based on need and profit.
M
Technical Difficulties
The last post, Back To Ethics, was about twice as long as what was actually posted. Last few days blogger has been kicking my ass. First by not seeming to post the article at all, and this morning when I get into the office, it would seem that when it finally did publish the stupid thing, it snipped about half of it off. The IMPORTANT half.
Depending on my schedule for the rest of the day, I’ll either rewrite the severed part of the article, or I’ll just give up.
Regardless, expect something new later today, and sorry for the mix up.
M
UPDATE: Okay, I filled out that last post, so it should make a little more sense. If it feels kinda empty, or off, just imagine that the original writing that didn’t get eaten by blogger was much better.
Back To Ethics
House Majority Leader Tom Delay is most likely clenching up right now in anticipation of a likely investigation regarding possibly illegitimate travel expense funding. The House yesterday finally reversed House Ethics Rules that resulted in the Democratic Party locking down the Ethics Committee. Since Speaker of the House pushed the rule changes earlier in the year, Democrats have essentially shut the committee down, refusing to even meet, and therefore virtually halting the Ethics processes.
The old rules are back, and the gloves are off.
But now is time for a little commentary. I hate activism.
Okay, not all activism. As a liberal whose most vested interest is civil rights, I have to admit that activism played an important role in both attaining for women the right to vote, and for being a significant motivator behind the civil rights movement of the sixties.
But that was a different breed of activism. That was an activism of intelligence. Dr. King and like minded organizations such as Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (or SNCC, pronounced “Snick”) practiced civil disobedience. Activists were trained on how to go limp when being dragged away, and how to take a beating while incurring the least possible amount of damage.
Compare that to today’s species of activism. PETA has taken to handing out “Bucket’s o’ Blood” to children who eat at KFC. Eric Rudolph has confessed to bombing abortion clinics in a severe and deadly pro-life movement.
The significant difference is not the extremity of the ideologies. That part is largely subjective. I’m sure at some point in time, and in many regions in this country, equal rights for black people must have seemed just as extreme as Pro-Lifer’s or PETA’s stances today. With retrospect its hard to see it, but putting yourself in the mind frame of those of that time, it’s more than just a possibility.
The difference is the nature. In the civil disobedience movements, those acts that mustered large amounts of press also garnered public sympathy. They were victims. When people turned on their televisions to see local authorities beating up on black men and women that committed no greater offence than trying to order a meal or ride a bus, they were horrified. These brave people were the victims.
When you read a story on the news about an abortion clinic bomber, or Green Peace throwing buckets of red paint on a nuclear submarine, you don’t think victim, you think assailant.
So what does this have to do with Tom Delay, House Ethics, or the current state of affairs in congress? It’s all about the image. Despite the fact that the Republicans control both branches of congress as well as the Oval Office they have time and time again displayed themselves as victims. Victims to the viciously partisan Democrats. Victims to the culture killing liberals. Victims to Gays, Atheists, Activist Judges, you name it.
Yeah, America may not be too happy right now with the Republican led congress right now (approval ratings aren’t even at the 40% mark in many polls). Sure, Americans 2 to 1 don’t approve of the Republican bid to nuke the judicial filibuster. True, the Schiavo thing was one huge pile of political cow shit and the Repubs stepped right into it.
But there is lots of time between now and ballot box day in 2006, and as the rhetoric heats up, watch as the Republicans yet again nail themselves to a cross. But the thing is, VICTIMS don’t change the rules to suit their needs, BULLIES do.
When the Republicans change House rules to allow Tom Delay to retain his leadership position despite being indicted of a felony, they may accuse the Democrats of persecution when they reverse it, but it’s the Republicans that are the bullies.
When the Republicans change the rules to allow for their preferred version of “activist judges”, they may tell you that Democrats are playing partisan politics, and refusing to listen to the American people’s mandate, but really, the Republicans are just bullies.
When the Republicans change the house rules to allow either side of the aisle to prevent anyone from getting investigated, the Democrats might be portrayed as trying to execute Republican congressmen while protecting their own, but in all reality Republicans are simply bullies.
Just think about that, in the last year the Republicans have changed two major rules regarding the way congress works, and they are on the eve of attempting to change another. Is that how a VICTIM works? Or the way a BULLY works? The Republicans need to get away from this hybrid bully/martyrdom, and they need to get back to ethics.
M
In Search Of Utopia
David over at In Search of Utopia is having some hosting problems, so the site is down for the day, but expected back tomorrow.
Slick Willie Frist
By Zencomix
Homos Keep "Coming and Coming"
So here’s the situation. In Goose’s absence, I’m trying to put up a post a day. You know me, I like to throw in some news, some humor, and we’re good. But considering that I’m still at work, and I have class tonight, I’m not sure that I’ll be able to provide you folks with the deeply intuitive and relevent stuff that I’m so well known for.
The question is, what do you do when you got a headline staring down at you, and you’re without the resources and capabilities to deliver? Simple. You rip off a colleague.
The colleague in question is Shamanic, a fellow UPC member, and writer over at Simianbrain.
Sha has dug up from yet another party this letter from a local politician here in Virginia seeking reelection over in Sterling. I have no idea where Sterling is, but the letter is simply a laugh riot. Seems the good Eugene Delgaudio is worried about “Radical Homosexuals” “coming and coming” and “getting bigger.”
Give it a read and I’ll see if I can’t get something more worth your while later today or tomorrow
M
Zencomix Nomination for U.N. Ambassador…
….or a spot on the Federal Court.
Zencomix
Politics in Music
This week from the UPC, we are all asked the question:
What overtly political music inspires you?
Which is a toughy because music and politics tends to mix a lot. Sometimes it’s great and important (come on, who didn’t love We Are The World?) and sometimes it ends up being catastrophic (Brittney Spears providing political commentary? Even if it was just on MTV give me a break).
When you talk politics and music, probably the first band that comes to mind is Rage Against the Machine. Today they are over and the musicians now provide the musical score for Chris Cornell’s chick rock crooning in Audioslave. The lead singer of Rage? Who knows where the hell he went?
All the same, I think it’d be interesting to see what kind of music they would put out in today’s world of political turmoil.
Which also brings to mind Tupac. Casual listeners may not know that before Tupac hit fame with the whole Gangsta Rap image, he was very much a political rapper. Even still, one could detect that political awareness throughout most of his CD’s. Songs like his cautionary tale Brenda about a twelve year old girl having a baby.
And of course just as Green Day are polishing their first Grammy, you have to now take them into consideration. The fact that their latest album, American Idiot was significantly more political than anything they’ve done before probably played a role in them picking up the award. Hell, the title track alone is a pretty pointed jab at the current state of affairs in relation to the media and the political party in power.
Going back in time, who could forget, “WAR! unh, What is it good for?” And then you got the sixties where just about every song was either about politics or drugs.
Music typically takes on the devil’s advocate position when it comes to politics. If music is the soundtrack of our lives, then it would only seem to fit that artists would seek to match our own criticisms about the political world we live in. But that’s not always the case.
To be sure, and I really hate this, but I still get all weepy when someone sneaks up on me with a stirring play through of “Proud To Be An American”. As I am typing this right now, I’m getting that damn song stuck in my head from sheer memory alone.
But I can’t attribute to any one group or song the most politically inspiring title. It’s all relative. What stirs me is finding that right musical and lyrical statement at the right time. It’s listening to Jadakiss’ Why and hearing:
“Why did Bush knock down them towers?”
or
“Why they let the terminator win the election, Come on, pay attention”
Sometimes it’s heavy like that, and sometimes it’s the playful little jabs like Ludacris tossed towards Bill O’Reilly:
“Respected highly/Hi Mr. O’Reilly, hope all is well/kiss the plantiff and the wifey”
So now I redirect the question to you folks. What music gets your political goat?”
M
Convention Hotel Risk Transferred To Taxpayers
In my previous articles, I outlined how a proposed hotel and convention center for downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania has changed from an ambitious public/private partnership into an extravagance funded completely by taxpayers. Both the local School Board and the County Commissioners have started questioning the proposed financing package. As a result, the mayor of Lancaster City, Charlie Smithgall (R), prompted by State Senator Gib Armstrong (R) and State Representative Mike Sturla (D), pushed a package of ordinances through Lancaster City Council on 12 April 2005 that will allow the Lancaster City Redevelopment Authority to purchase the proposed hotel site from the Penn Square Partners. The intention is that this will remove the former Watt and Shand department store property from the tax rolls, and supposedly make the proposed convention center hotel eligible for “Act 23″ grants from the State of Pennsylvania.
This package of ordinances commits the City of Lancaster to “incur debt in connection with the Project” “not to exceed Twelve Million Dollars” “together with interest” “not to exceed twenty-five (25) years” (Administration Bill 6-2005). Interestingly, Administration Bill 6 also states “This city specifies that the estimated useful life of the facilities to be acquired and/or constructed as part of the Project is at least 30 years” as well as “All other ordinances or parts of ordinances which are inconsistent herewith shall be and the same expressly are repealed.” Administration Bill 12 commits the City of Lancaster to “lease rental debt” “not to exceed Twenty-four million dollars” “together with the interest payable” “over a term not to exceed twenty-five (25) years”. It further states “this City shall guaranty, unconditionally” “full and prompt payment of Debt Service”. It also notes that possibility “that occurs because the Authority must apply amounts to the payment of real estate taxes on the property subject to the Lease.” Furthermore, “this City shall and does pledge, irrevocably, its full faith, credit, and taxing power” to pay these debts, plus interest.
However, the costs to the taxpayers of Lancaster City could far exceed the numbers quoted in these ordinances. The Lancaster County commissioners commissioned the law firm of Kegel Kelin Almy & Grimm LLP to perform a legal analysis of the “Taxability of Marriot Hotel” (click here to read the entire report). This report references a number of legal precedents to predict the hotel property CANNOT be exempt from real estate taxes, which could cost Lancaster City taxpayers up to an additional $17.7 million, or even more if property taxes rise more than predicted, or if the completed hotel property is appraised for more than $28.3 million (this for a building that will cost an estimated $60 million to build!). This means that the taxpayers of the City of Lancaster could be responsible for more than $53.7 million plus interest, all for the benefit of Penn Square Partners.
I cannot conceive of a term to adequately describe the way the taxpayers of Lancaster City are being taken advantage of. All of this to build a “privately-owned” hotel?
You can read this entire series of articles, plus more related news and comments, at: www.lookingatlancaster.com.
Bill Frist and The Nuclear Option
by Zencomix
Sandy Beaches
Hey folks, just a quick note to say that I am off for two weeks of sun and surf with friends and family. When we return my good friend Toby will have signed away his freedom for a handsome dowry and Vicky, Gabby and I will be much, much less white. In my absence I leave you in the most competent hands of Mr. M, Zencomix, and any of our other contributors who decide to chime in.
Peduto Gets Some Press
This is my first opportunity to participate in Pittsburgh politics and I have to say I am extremely surprised at the difficulty this city is having focusing in on the mayoral candidate that has the best vision for it’s future. In my opinion this town is suffering from a serious bout of the used-to-bees. It used to be so good, back in the day, blah, blah, blah. It is as if people are afraid of facing up to the reality that the population is aging, business is moving away and with that goes the youth that are this city’s future. People are so ready to throw their backing behind whatever candidate the Democratic party endorses I am afraid that in the process they will miss their best opportunity for change.
With that feeling as a backdrop I found this rather long piece on Pittsburgh Mayoral candidate Bill Peduto. I have mixed feelings about the article as the author did a little too good a job of repeating the negative talking points bandied about by Peduto’s opponents but, with that said, if you take the time to read the entire piece you will likely get a picture of Bill Peduto that is fairly accurate; an embattled progressive mayoral candidate fighting to be taken seriously by a Pittsburgh Democratic Party establishment looking for excuses not to do so. The high point of the article came in the following quote;
In introducing the candidate, Mark DePasquale, himself the son of a former City Council member, Eugene DePasquale, praises Peduto’s work with community groups in combatting a neighborhood drug problem.“Bill Peduto is one of the finest human beings and the most caring public servants I have ever met in my life,” DePasquale said.
Exporting Common Sense
While Dubya is out exporting democracy to Afghanistan maybe he ought to try exporting a little common sense as well.
Despite health dangers, first cousins still marry
But not long after their son’s first birthday, Ahmad and Mazari Ayubi noticed that little Masi’s head was starting to wobble. By the time he was 2, the boy was paralyzed and mentally retarded, and Mazari began to suspect what the doctors would later confirm:“It’s because [Ahmad] and I are related that this happened,” she said sadly, cradling the youngest of three more children born with the same disorder. “Perhaps it is better for cousins not to marry.”
I don’t mean to be insensitive to the plight of this poor couple but come on.
I Did this when I was about 11 years old….post…
I Did this when I was about 11 years old….posted here in honor of The Smirking Chimp
By Zencomix
Sketchbook Saturday: Senator Rick Santorum
By Zencomix