Motley Moose – Archive

I am currently about 1,600 miles  into my move from Raleigh, North Carolina to Scotts Valley, California.  Around me is a big yellow Penske rental truck with some portion of my Worldly Belongings inside and our little blue Honda on a trailer behind.  As I have gone through each state I. Have posted iPhone pics to Facebook of some of the landmarks along the way (or, at night, the dark places where you would see landmarks if it were not so dark).

With North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas behind me and 1,200 miles of New Mexico, Arizona and California ahead of me I am reminded once again:

What a big – beautiful – country this is.

[UPDATE] Wish I had found out sooner how to post a FaceBook album, but better late than never I suppose.

With myself and my family in Washington the President knew it was safe to leave the capital in our hands and run off to Afghanistan.  Roxanne has thoughts on how to structure financial reform that you will be learning about shortly.

In the meantime, the media’s handling of data and how they turn it into “information” is much on the mind these days.  Saying that it is hard to justify much of the sausage-making that the commercial media engages in is stretching the effort at civility.

Perhaps – at least for the low-bar purposes of an Open Thread – it is worth making clear the difference between data and information, and what burden this places on those who choose a role in the media spotlight.

Consider this an Open Thread.

FOX News spent all of Saturday covering the rally in Searchlight Nevada, hometown of Harry Reid.  The event was a Tea Party rally, a movement created out of whole cloth by FOX.  The keynote at the rally was FOX employee Sarah Palin, who railed against the coverage of the recent spilling-over of violence that she and other FOX employees have instigated against Democratic Party politicians, staffers and supporters.  

In this clip from FOX News Channel today we see FOX Employee Palin telling the FOX-created movement’s followers that what America wants is “Fair and Balanced” news (FOX Broadcasting’s official tagline), which the entirely FOX-viewing crowd cheered at so that their friends watching FOX back at home could see them cheering the FOX employee on stage.

This is making me dizzy.

President Obama made 15 “recess appointments” today, breaking a logjam of appointments that has been part of the Republican Party’s “Just Say No” policy of governance.  These 15 appointments have been – on average – held up for 214 days each by GOP lawmakers.

Seven of the roles these individuals are filling are in key economic areas – something that the GOP has reasonably assumed could be left waiting, since it has had no real importance to the country over the past year.  Two of the roles filled today are in the Department of Homeland Security, something else the GOP has determined to be of little to no importance to the United States.

In another indication of the growing chasms among the US political Right Pat Buchanan publishes two articles on Human Events that are either supportive of the actions of President Obama, unsupportive of the actions of the Republican leadership, or both.

Lest we forget, everything else aside, the man recognizes inevitability when he sees it.

President Obama announced today that the US and Russia have reached agreement on reducing the world’s two largest nuclear arms stockpiles.  This extends the START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) which had expired in December of 2009 and provides an on-going framework for the two countries to manage their arsenals.  The treaty will be signed April 8 in Prague.

The President will be consulting senators from both parties on the START treaty, we’ll see if John McCain can bring himself to side with the US on this even if he has to agree with his President at the same time.

NY Congressman Anthony Weiner announced moments ago that a package containing white powder and a threatening letter was received today at his Queens, NY office.  

We have all been watching the cork leave the shaken bottle of political madness over the past few months and particularly the last few days.  We can only hope that all of this finds a way to defuse through less dramatic means than it did fifteen years ago.

[UPDATE 2] From WKRN.com:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A Nashville man says he and his 10-year-old daughter were victims of road rage Thursday afternoon, all because of a political bumper sticker on his car.

Mark Duren told News 2 the incident happened around 4:30p.m., while he was driving on Blair Boulevard, not far from Belmont University.

He said Harry Weisiger gave him the bird and rammed into his vehicle, after noticing an Obama-Biden sticker on his car bumper.

Duren had just picked up his 10-year-old daughter from school and had her in the car with him.

“He pointed at the back of my car,” Duren said, “the bumper, flipped me off, one finger salute.”

But it didn’t end there.

Duren told News 2 that Weisiger honked his horn at him for awhile, as Duren stopped at a stop sign.

Once he started driving again, down Blair Boulevard, towards his home, he said, “I looked in the rear view mirror again, and this same SUV was speeding, flying up behind me, bumped me.”

Duren said he applied his brake and the SUV smashed into the back of his car.

He then put his car in park to take care of the accident, but Weisiger started pushing the car using his SUV.

Duren said, “He pushed my car up towards the sidewalk, almost onto the sidewalk.”

Police say Harry Weisiger is charged with felony reckless endangerment in the incident.

Tonight, the President and the Congress will pass comprehensive health care reform.  There are absolutely no voices left to refute this fact.

At this moment – 9:39 pm ET – on FOX News Hannity is spending time to forecast the defeat of certain Democratic Congressfolks in November: a Far Right concession speech if ever there was one.  On MSNBC Ed Schultz is saying that Barack Obama may just be a genius: a stronger nod from the Far Left than is usually found from that source.  CNN is running its viewers through the benefits of the now-finished reform bill as they will – not “may” – unfold over coming years.

Consider this a Victory Celebration Open Thread

America.  I have to tell you.  Your worst fears have been realized.  

It’s true.  All of it.

Every radical statement made about you is true.  You are so much – so much! – worse than you believe.  Your Progressivism is the little tickle that you think is a cold – but it’s lung cancer.  Your Conservatism is the little itch that you think might be poison oak – but it’s flesh-eating bacteria.  Nothing is what you think it is, and everything is as bad as possible.

Jon Stewart, at the feet of The Master, explains.

Consider this a terrifyingly true Open Thread.