It Comes Full Circle

Welcome!  It’s Tuesday. The new TV season is here, not that it appears to be a whole lot better than the old TV season. We tend to gravitate toward the crime shows.  I have to tell you, CSI: Miami is absolutely gorgeous to watch in High Def. The colors are incredible, to the point that I find myself losing track of the storyline! Still, nothing impresses me as much as some of the Classic TV from years gone by. Perhaps I was younger, and not as demanding then. Enough frivolity.  Let’s get down to the task at hand.

 And, it appears, we have come full circle in this race to outsource tech jobs to India. Now, if we could just eliminate the middleman, maybe we could pay the people here just a little bit more.

The race to the bottom

It’s no longer cheap enough to outsource tech jobs to India. As the tech industry in India has grown, workers are demanding higher wages. So now, Indian companies are outsourcing FROM India, so they can pay even less. But what’s even more disturbing is that one of those "developing countries" is low-cost areas of the United States: "One of the constants of the global economy has been companies moving their tasks — and jobs — to India. But rising wages and [...]

Tags: Outsourcing Jobs, India

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The Evangelical Vote

It’s crucial. The Republicans have it.  The Democrats want it.

Dems court evangelical voters in earnest

Last November, 70% of white evangelical and born-again Christians voted for Republican candidates nationwide, which is about the same performance as in 2004. DNC Chairman Howard Dean thinks Dems might be able to shave a few points off that number. Richard Land had never met one-on-one with a chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The Tennessee [...]

Tags: Evangelical Vote

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The Terror Threat

It’s always handy.  And the President doesn’t hesitate to use it.  Keith Olbermann doesn’t hesitate to challenge him on it, either.

Countdown: Bush Used Bogus Terror Threat To Scare Votes For FISA Bill

Keith Olbermann has been tracking the Bush Administration’s use of trumped up terror alerts to manipulate the American people for the past two years, but in this latest Nexus of Politics & Terror report on Countdown, it appears the president stooped to a new low by using a bogus terror threat that specifically [...]

Tags: Olbermann, Nexus of Politics & Terror, Countdown

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Political Double-Play

Hmmm. If the Democrats manage to pull this one off, it could be significant. It would actually put a "win" in their column. It’s a column that, until now, has been filled with wishes and promises and not much more.

Good luck, GOP.

The SCHIP game plan: Democrats think they may be on the brink of the political equivalent of a double play. First, they plan to pass the legislation with strong bipartisan support — including a veto-proof margin in the Senate — unifying the party around a significant policy issue. Secondly, Democratic political operatives plan to use Bush’s veto [...]

And a Republican is leading the way!

Grassley: Target Fellow Republicans Over SCHIP Rejection

How bad is the Bush GOP when a senior GOP senator calls out the president for sandbagging the nation’s uninsured children, and then suggests that the Democrats target GOP senators and representatives who side with the president against the SCHIP expansion? That’s exactly what Indiana GOP senator Chuck Grassley is doing, in expressing his displeasure about the White House’s attempt to stop [...]

Tags: SCHIP, Grassley

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Does This Bother You?

Just a little bit, perhaps?  Pretty darn tacky, seems to me.

Giuliani Backer Holds "$9.11 For Rudy" Fundraiser

A spokeswoman for Rudy Giuliani says it is unfortunate that a supporter throwing a party that aims to raise $9.11 per person for the Republican’s presidential campaign is asking for that amount. Abraham Sofaer is having a fundraiser at his Palo Alto, Calif., home on Wednesday, when Giuliani backers across the country are participating in [...]

Tags: $9.11 For Rudy, Giuliana Fundraiser

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Huh?

Say WHAT? I guess we can all go home…

Cool!

Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki says the threat of civil war in Iraq is now over and Iranian interference in the country has "ceased to exist." [...]

Tags: Iraq War, Civil War, Iran

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Keeping Us Confused

That’s the name of the game.  Throw out multiple sets of numbers and we’ll eventually get tired of trying to figure out which ones are accurate. Excuse me, but I think there are a few, fearless, folks out there who are more tenacious than that…

Pentagon and Petraeus’ casualty data ‘differ significantly.’

In a report today on the Pentagon’s methods for determining sectarian killings in Iraq, the Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung writes that “apparent contradictions are relatively easy to find in the flood of bar charts and trend lines the military produces.” For instance, the numbers in the Pentagon’s quarterly Iraq report released last week “differ significantly” [...]

Tags: Casualty Figures, Iraq War, Pentagon, Patraeus

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Smoke Break

Thankfully, I gave up the nasty habit years ago.  Still, I grew up in an era when, it seemed, almost everybody smoked. Heck, I can remember making cigarettes for my dad, using some little gizmo that you inserted an empty cigarette shell into and it would insert a filter and stuff it full of tobacco.   And the commercials were EVERYWHERE!

Four out of five physicians prefer Camels

Here’s something for the nostalgia crowd: a pleasant, bichromatic jaunt through the 1950s, when men were men, Elvis was thin, and doctors made house calls. Also, they smoked cigarettes. Lots of cigarettes. Enough cigarettes to develop a serious brand loyalty [...]

Tags: Cigarettes

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Come On, Now!

Please tell me this doesn’t have a snowball’s chance. 

Lieberman to Senate: Approve War With Iran

Joe Lieberman is at it again, this time with the help of Republican wingnut John Kyl of Arizona. The two of them have introduced the Lieberman-Kyl amendment to a defense bill which would, if passed, state that the Senate supports military action against Iran, and against anyone considered to be one of Iran’s proxies (such as Hezbollah, or the Shi’ite militias in Iraq). Here’s the relevant text of the amendment: 3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities [...]

Yup — Quick. Strong.  Reaction.

Webb: Lieberman And Kyl’s Hawkish Iran Amendment Is ‘Cheney’s Fondest Pipe Dream’

On the Senate floor today, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) made an impassioned appeal to his fellow senators, declaring that the Lieberman-Kyl amendment on Iran should be “withdrawn” because the “proposal is Dick Cheney’s fondest pipe dream.” Webb cautioned that the “cleverly-worded sense of the Congress” could be “interpreted” to “declare war” on Iran. He continued: Those [...]

And that led to this:

Reid: Lieberman-Kyl amendment being revised.

At a press conference this afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that the hawkish amendment on Iran being offered by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is now being revised prior to a Senate vote on the matter: REID: There are efforts being made before we vote on them to modify those [...]

Tags: McCain, Kyl, War With Iran

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We Have A Problem

When the huge oil companies are looking at huge money problems, something is wrong.  Very wrong. And, most likely, isn’t fixable in the short term. Isn’t there usually a bit of a "snowball effect" when things turn sour at this level?  Or, is this going to be limited to BP?

BP’s new chief warns of ‘dreadful’ third quarter

Tony Hayward, BP’s new chief executive, has warned staff that the oil giant’s third-quarter revenue will be "dreadful" and raised the specter of massive layoffs by pledging to simplify the corporate structure, a according to a [...]

Tags: BP Oil, Tony Hayward

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Central High

Much attention around these parts is focused on the 50th anniversary of the Integration of Little Rock’s Central High School. The nine black students are all still alive and here for a string of special events, including a gala last night -

The LR Nine gala

Former President Clinton was in his element tonight at the Little Rock Nine Foundation Gala at the Peabody Hotel, singing every verse of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" along with the Central High Madrigal Singers and concluding the evening with an energetic, emphatic and heartfelt tribute to the Nine. "Look at them," he said of the Nine, seated at the long head table with family and others. "Fifty years later and they are still here with us. We thank God for that." He thanked them for enriching his own life. He then addressed what he called [...]

There is a lot being written and said, nationally, on the subject of race today. Mahablog notes a great New York Times piece and embellishes it with some excellent additional thoughts.

Whose Plantation?

I’m so happy the New York Times got rid of that damnfool subscription firewall. Now I can link directly to Bob Herbert’s excellent column today. “The G.O.P. has spent the last 40 years insulting, disenfranchising and otherwise stomping on the interests of black Americans,” he writes. Last week the Senate Republicans blocked the vote on a [...]

The "Arkansas Times" is blogging about the ongoing ceremonies for the Central High Anniversary.   More here:

Commemoration at Central

The rain held off for 50th celebration today, as a huge crowd turned out to see Bill Clinton, the Little Rock Nine, and others give talks. Deborah Mathis was the emcee. Mark Stodola kicked things off and discussed the difference between desegregation and integration. There’s still room for progress towards integration, he said–a theme that several of the Nine took up in their remarks. It was a strong speech, if not [...]

Tags: Central High Integration, Little Rock 9

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Missing Money

You know, those billions of dollars that can’t be found in Iraq.  It made things a bit messy for Alan Greenspan this morning.

Democracy Now! Naomi Klein asks Alan Greenspan about those missing billions in Iraq

Once again, the best place to go for discussion of current events isn’t the mainstream media.  Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman allows Naomi Klein to ask former Federal Reserve Chairman about his statement that the occupation in Iraq is all about the oil and those missing billions from Iraq [...]

Tags: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein, Alan Greenspan, Missing Money

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Looking Ahead

Down the road – past the 2008 election -

Feel the Love

Bill Sammon talks to a "senior White House official" for his new book, The Evangelical President, and gets an early read on how the GOP plans to react after they lose the 2008 election: "Democrats understand the negative consequences [...]

Tags: 2008 Election, Bill Sammons, The Evangelical President

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That O’Reilly Moment

Seems everybody’s talking today about the latest bout of "stupid" to come out of Bill O’Reilly’s mouth.  It certainly hints at a level of racism, but is it going to turn into an "Imus moment"?  Probably not.  It was more stupid than mean.  Oh, you haven’t heard about it? MediaMatters explores it all…

CLIPS: MSNBC’s Scarborough highlighted O’Reilly’s comments about Sylvia’s in Harlem

On the September 25 edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough, co-anchor Mika Brzezinski, and guest host Willie Geist discussed Fox News host Bill O’Reilly’s recent comment, documented by Media Matters for America, that he, in Scarborough’s words, "couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between a black restaurant and a white restaurant," after a recent trip to Harlem’s famous restaurant Sylvia’s. Scarborough twice played audio clips of O’Reilly’s comments, made on the September 19 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show. Scarborough called the remarks [...]

And, it continues tonight -

O’Reilly Fights Back As CNN Keeps It "Out In The Open"

Tags: O’Reilly, Sharpton, Sylvia’s, Scarborough, Brzezinski

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Back Atcha

Did you run one of those programs to crack into your iPhone to use it somewhere other than with AT&T?  Well, Apple has a little "gotcha" for you.  However, they say they’re not killing your phone on purpose.  It just happens.  Kinda.  Sorta..

Apple: Hacking Into iPhone Will Ruin It

IPhone owners who have unlocked their handsets so they could use carriers other than AT&T Inc. may end up with a phone that doesn’t work after the company’s next software update, Apple Inc. warned Monday. Since the iPhone debuted in June, hackers have [...]

Tags: iPhone, iPhone hack

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It’s Crunch Time

Something has to give.  We can’t continue in this spiral, without plunging into something even more distressing.

Housing Bubble Watch

The housing meltdown continues apace:The supply of unsold U.S. homes ballooned to an 18-year high in August as demand for existing homes fell to a five-year low, according to a report by the National Assn. of Realtors….Also today, [...]

Tags: Housing Bubble, Unsold U.S. Homes

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