What, me worry?

Polls confirm the obvious: Conservatives don't actually care about the debt. Nor do they care about the deficit.

They want their money, and they want it all.

Damn the consequences, and all the gnashing of teeth and hand-wringing about "the world we're leaving for our children and grandchildren" is smoke and mirrors while they pick your pocket.

Ohhh - scary food police are trying to starve us!

Glenn Beck thinks the FDA is out to starve America!

I am amazed, and stunned, and as usual Jon Stewart helps me make sense of it all.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Food, the Bad and the Ugly
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor The Daily Show on Facebook

Nigeria Charges Dick Cheney in 419 scam!

Okay, not really. Instead they are charging him with an All-American crime, bribery.

Might I suggest some reading material for Mr. Cheney to while away his time behind bars, should his heart condition not exclude him from jail time?

Yet the rich get richer

"I mean, if we can't win that argument we might as well just fold up," he said. "These people are saying we are going to insist on tax cuts for the richest people in the country and we don't care if they are paid for, and we don't think it is a problem if it contributes to the deficit, but we are not going to vote to extend unemployment benefits to working people if they aren't paid for because they contribute to the deficit. I mean, what is wrong with that? How can it be more clear?" -- outgoing Ohio governor Ted Strickland

This interview with soon-to-be-former Ohio governor Ted Strickland is refreshingly honest, in a way that, unfortunately, is only displayed by Democrats exiting office, not those currently in office. Compromise isn't a one way street, and when the person you are attempting to compromise with is someone whose only goal is your political downfall I'd say it's a dead end street.

Or a back alley.

When up to 3.6 million Americans are gainfully employed due to legislation your opponent wanted to fail miserably because misery and controversy sell ads, and continues today to laugh about children losing health care coverage - when this is what passes for leadership from the right side of the aisle - the Left can't win that argument?

The Left, or at least the portion of the Left represented by the Democratic Party in Congress and the White House, passed major health care legislation that shaves over a trillion dollars off the deficit while covering 95% of all Americans, prevented another Great Depression and enacted legislation to reform Wall Street to help prevent a recurrence of the collapse that got us into the mess in the first place.

 Lets not even get in to the resurgent GM and the subsequent successful IPO.

All of that, a partial listing at best of recent accomplishments that directly benefit a vast majority of Americans, and the populist party is the Republican Party? The Party that insists on ending unemployment benefits for millions of Americans at Christmas? The Party that insists on a massive tax cut for the richest people in the land damn the consequences?

I wish Billy Mays was still with us. I bet he could sell the message for the Democrats.

My Favorite Singer/Songwriter Sharon Van Etten

Has a tiny desk concert up at NPR. Enjoy.

But because it is right . . .

Today Ted Sorenson died at age 82. He was best known as an advisor to President John F. Kennedy, and the speech writer who composed Kennedy's 1961 Inaugural Address.
Much of the language employed reflects the times, smack dab in the middle of the Cold War, but it also reflects a basic civility and respect for humanity that is easy to forget, and hard to practice. Thanks to Messrs. Stewart and Colbert for reminding us to practice basic civility, and thanks to Mr. Sorenson posthumously for his wonderful words so many years ago.

Now the trumpet summons us again -- not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled we are -- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation,"² a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

Carlos and the Fam at the Christening

Carlos and the Fam at the Christening
Originally uploaded by djkntz

This day seems like it was yesterday. Carlos stopped by on the Mille for Evie's Baptism, I think he kinda freaked out the Monsignor when he arrived in leather jacket and helmet.
Today she started her first day at St. Martin of Tours school, the same church on the corner where she was baptized.
I have a little less hair and a couple more pounds, truth be told, but man do I feel older than I should.

Erik Buell Racing to release 1190RS street bike

It's been nearly a year since the fine folks at Harley-Davidson abruptly closed the doors on Buell Motorcycles, leaving nearly 200 people jobless in a tight economy, and stranding thousands of current Buell owners, myself included, with White Elephant motorcycles.

This is a video posted by Erik Buell the day of the announcement"



He looks like a beaten man, one whose lifelong dream to produce a great American Superbike, a bike he was on the cusp of producing, had ended.

That moment quickly passed, and Erik left HD, founding Erik Buell Racing to provide support for existing racers of Buell motorcycles, and campaign the already homologated 1125RR in American Superbike with a shoestring budget and a relatively unknown privateer named Geoff May, ostensibly pursuing what HD head Keith Wandell derisively referred to as "Erik's racing hobby".
If HD thought Erik Buell would go gently into retirement, they greatly underestimated him. Here's an interview with Geoff May, AMA Superbike rider for the Erik Buell Racing team discussing the current season, and more importantly next season, when the 1190 race bike, based on the 1190RS street bike, debuts. Yep - street bike. Less than a year after HD shut down his company, Erik Buell is announcing production of a street-legal motorcycle.




 No word on pricing or number of units planned, but if I were a betting man I'd predict the first number is steep due to economies of scale, and the second one minuscule, just enough to satisfy homologation requirements for AMA Superbike.
But I would also bet on this being just a baby step, walk before you run interlude between the HD owned Buell Motorcycles and the next generation of full production street bikes from Erik Buell. I don't know who is on board, although rumors swirl about BRP getting involved. I don't possess any insider knowledge, I just have a gut feeling that a guy who once died and came back after a crash isn't going to let a poor decision by HD stop him from pursuing his dream.

Bloomberg Launches Another Impassioned Defense Of Cordoba House

Thank you, Mayor Bloomberg for pointing out the obvious. We, as Americans, must lead by example, and not let fear interfere with freedom.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

New album from The National

I'm late to the party, but forgive me if I've been busy.  New album out by The National, and I caught the first single on WKDU tonight, Bloodbuzz Ohio.  Fantastic.  Stop what you're doing, watch this video, then go order the album.  Get it on vinyl.  Seriously.  Vinyl.