Author Archives: xstryker

About xstryker

X Stryker is also the proprietor of the currently-dormant poll analysis blog Election Inspection.

GOP Stimulus Myths Exposed

Media Matters: It does a body good.

$220,000 per job? Try $70,000.

$30 million for the salt marsh harvest mouse? Not in the bill.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that full cost will reach $3.2 trillion by 2019? No, their estimate was $787,242,000.

$2/$4 billion for ACORN? Nope. $2 billion for ACORN-elligible community block grants? ACORN itself has stated that they are inelligible for the money and will not seek it.

The stimulus package allows the federal government to interfere with doctors’ treatment decisions? No such authority granted.

Frisbee golf course? The bill specifically prohibits using the funds for such a thing.

The package denies renovation money for schools that allow religious groups to meet on campus? False – it just says the money can’t be used to build a chapel or divinity department.

It’s spending, not stimulus? Not only false, but semantically a contradiction.

Tax cuts would be a more efficient way to spend the money? Completely false. Every single kind of government spending increase in the bill generates more GDP per dollar spent than any kind of tax cut. Check out the chart:
tax cuts are inefficient
Now I see why Obama said the average tax cut yields $0.75 per dollar while spending yields $1.50 per dollar.

Undocumented immigrants without Social Security numbers would be eligible for the “Making Work Pay” tax credit? They are specifically prohibited.

Fiscal stimulus failed during Japan’s “lost decade”? It was working fine until Japan decided to reduce its deficit too soon.

Live Music at Noon – Rachel Schain

Come have brunch today at the Bellefonte Cafe in Wilmington, where you will be treated to the music of my lovely wife, Rachel Schain. She will be playing from noon until 3 (with breaks, of course). There will be good food, comfortable, casual atmosphere, and friendly people.

Here’s Rachel singing “The Fade to Black”, which is a cover of a Secret Dakota Ring song. Andy Ross of Secret Dakota Ring told Rachel, “You sing that better than I do!” and linked to it from his own site.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTnNAk8m2AU[/youtube]

The Bellefonte Cafe is at 804 Brandywine Blvd.

Updated: Castle Under Siege: Radio Ads Are Here

AFSCME and Americans United for Change are going to run running radio ads telling Mike Castle he’s got a “second chance” to do the right thing and support President Obama’s economic stimulus package when the compromise plan comes up for a vote.

Check out the script:

Radio Script (60 Sec)
“Second Chance”
Haven’t you ever wished you had a second chance to do the right thing? Well this week, Congressman/woman [Full Name]______________ has a second chance to get it right when it comes to our economic crisis.
The first time around, Congressman/woman ___________ voted against President Obama’s jobs plan. But every day since 20,000 Americans have lost their jobs.
If you ask me that’s plenty of reason for Congressman/woman ______ to change his/her mind when the plan comes back to the House for a final vote.
And most people agree. In a recent gallup poll – 80 percent of Americans said it is important to pass a plan like President Obama’s – a plan to save or create nearly 4 million jobs. Groups from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to organized labor are supporting the Obama jobs plan.
Call Congressman(woman) _______, at ————-tell him/her we can’t let partisan wrangling stand in the way of creating the jobs we desperately need.
Tell ____________ to vote yes on the Obama plan.
Paid for by AFSCME and Americans United for Change.

The ad will be is running against 17 House Republicans, 3 Senate Republicans, and one House Democrat (Blue Dog Jim Cooper of Tennessee). Included on the list is Rep. Jim Gerlach, who’s just over the PA border from us, as well as Rep. Charlie Dent from Allentown, PA and Rep. Todd Platts from York, PA. Another interesting target is House Minority Whip Eric Canton of Virginia.

But more to the point – an ad targeting Mike Castle! Huzzah! Now, which of the following two events is more likely:

  1. Mike “Jellospine” Castle immediately announces support for the compromise package – before a single ad hits the airwaves.
  2. Tom Carper muscles his way in and no ads ever end up being run against Castle.

UPDATE: Jason says the ads are already running on WDEL, and the wingnuts are flipping out.

DCCC Thinks Sensenbrenner Is More Vulnerable Than Castle

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is running ads against 28 House Republicans, attacking them for voting against Obama’s economic rescue plan.

“These are serious times, hard working families are worried about keeping their jobs, health care and homes – they want action, not House Republicans cheering about doing nothing,” said Brian Wolff, Executive Director of the DCCC. “Republicans’ champagne wishes and caviar dreams simply don’t connect with middle class families struggling to make ends meet and furious that their tax dollars are going to bail out banks, build schools in Iraq, or send American jobs overseas. The Putting Families First campaign is only the first step, we will continue to go district by district to hold Republicans who continue to vote in lockstep with party leaders and against the folks in their districts accountable.”

Check out the list of targeted Republicans below, which includes some surprising choices AND ONE VERY OBVIOUS OMISSION:

Continue reading →

UPDATED: The New Face of the GOP

He won.

By my count, former Maryland Lt. Governor Steele needs five more votes, and Michigan GOP chair Saul Anuzis (considered to be a moderate) just dropped out, with 20 votes on the last ballot. Anuzis didn’t endorse, but I’m willing to bet Steele will pick up at least 5 votes out of Anuzis’ 20.

Another one for the history books.

AOL News Hates Atheists

From that oh-so-illustrious news source, AOL News, comes an article about how “some” African-American Christians are upset at Obama’s inaugural speech reaching out to “non-believers” as well as Hindus, Muslims, etc:

By mentioning, for the first time in an inaugural address, the 16.1 percent of Americans who check “no”’ when asked about religion, Obama turned it into the most controversial line in his speech — praised by The New York Times editorial board and cited by some Christians as evidence that he is a heretic, and in his well-spoken way, a serious threat.
With that one line, the president “seems to be trying to redefine American culture, which is distinctively Christian,” said’ Bishop E.W. Jackson of the Exodus Faith Ministries in Chesapeake, Va. “The overwhelming majority of Americans identify as Christians, and what disturbs me is that he seems to be trying to redefine who we are.’”

News flash! “Some” African-American Christians can be just as religiously intolerant as “some” white Christians! AOL News has just discovered not all black people think and act alike! Shocking!

Now keep in mind that there are more atheists in America than there ever were AOL subscribers. This is classic Fox News-style journalism: Find someone who’s saying what you want people to hear, and “report” that they said it. It’s a win-win situation for the conservative media – they manage to attack atheists (and Hindus and Muslims) while making black people look like bigots. Never mind the fact that these criticisms are coming from a small minority of the African-American Christian community, or that AOL’s poll attached to the article shows that 74% of its increasingly conservative readers have no problem with Obama’s inclusion in the speech. They need a controversy, and if none exists, they’ll make one. This is exactly the same plan as when the networks spotlighted the several dozen people referring to themselves as “PUMAs” during the Democratic Convention.

Say the right words, and you magically become the most important constituency in the country. Notice that the media completely ignores the existence of bloggers until a few prominent ones criticize something Obama does or says – like when Clinton was picked for Secretary of State. Then, suddenly, the media starts printing stories about how bloggers are angry, and quoting Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers as if they represented all of us. You watch how many columns these journalists print warning Obama that “post-partisanship” means that he needs to distance himself from the blogosphere. They want a fight – that’s what sells the news.

Anyway, back to the subject.

Jackson said he and others have no problem acknowledging that “this country is one in which everybody has the freedom to think what they want.’” Yet Obama crossed the line, in his view, in suggesting that all faiths (and none) were different roads to the same destination: “He made similar remarks in the campaign, and said, ‘We are no longer a Christian nation, if we ever were. We are a Jewish, Hindu and non-believing nation.'”
Not so, Jackson says: “Obviously, Jewish heritage is very much a part of Christianity; the Jewish Bible is part of our Bible. But Hindu, Muslim, and nonbelievers? I don’t think so. We are not a Muslim nation or a nonbelieving nation.”’

If you’re not going to include Hindus, Muslims, and atheists in your definition of America, Bishop Jackson, you can leave my people out of it, too. We know what the end result of religious xenophobia always is, century after century.

NY Senate: Blue Dog Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand to replace Clinton

So says local WB news affiliate WPIX-11.

PIX11 News has learned Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand is the choice of Governor David Paterson to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton.  Two Congressional sources tell PIX News that the Governor will make his announcement in Albany at noon tomorrow.  He has invited members of the state’s Democratic Congressional delegation to join him.

Ugh, what a disaster. Rep. Gillibrand (D, NY-20) is pretty much the most conservative Democrat in the state’s delegation (with the possible exception of the newly-elected Mike McMahon in NY-13, Staten Island). Here’s what the Village Voice has to say about the matter:

Gillibrand has described her own voting record as “one of the most conservative in the state.” She opposes any path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, supports renewing the Bush tax cuts for individuals earning up to $1 million annually, and voted for the Bush-backed FISA bill that permits wiretapping of international calls. She was one of four Democratic freshmen in the country, and the only Democrat in the New York delegation, to vote for the Bush administration’s bill to extend funding for the Iraq war shortly after she entered congress in 2007.

Yeccch. She also voted against the bailout bill, which is not a very smart move in a state that’s home to Wall Street. Say what you will about the bailout, but that is going to cost her dearly on Long Island (where the two most populous “swing” counties in the state are).

I hope Gov. Paterson chooses Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14) instead, a much more progressive candidate who is far more in line with Secretary Clinton’s values.

Update: The other progressive Carolyn M. in the state delegation, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, already pre-emptively threatened a primary challenge in 2010. That is what things are like in a state not burdened by The Delaware Way.

Federal Court Strikes Down Illinois School Prayer “Moment of Silence” Law

Another blow to the school prayer crowd was delivered in federal court yesterday, as the Illinois Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act was ruled unconstitutional by U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman.

The “teacher is required to instruct her pupils, especially in the lower grades, about prayer and its meaning as well as the limitations on their ‘reflection,'” Gettleman ruled.

“The plain language of the statute, therefore, suggests and intent to force the introduction of the concept of prayer into the schools,” he said.

The words “Student Prayer” are right in the title of the act, so I’d wager it’s pretty obvious what the act was intended to do: encourage students to pray. Telling children when they should pray is just as bad as telling them who they should pray to. Would you want children to be instructed to face Mecca when they pray, or reflect silently? This law would have schools not only tell children when they should pray, but also at what volume. I don’t understand how any religious person could accept the idea of secular teachers (who could be evangelicals, Mormons, Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Wiccans, atheists, etc) telling their children when and how to pray.

And before you start talking about the Religious Right, know that this legislation is the brainchild of a Chicago Democrat.

State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-Chicago, the chief sponsor of the legislation, said she hoped Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan would appeal.

“I strongly feel and I still believe that children should have a moment of silence at the beginning of the school day,” she said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C., where she celebrated the inauguration of President Obama.

Students need books, computers, art, music, qualified teachers, extracurricular activities, safety, and parent involvement in their education. A moment of silence is vastly less important, and if parents feel their children it, they can do it before they leave for school. Muslims pray 5 times a day; the first is at sunrise (before students get to school in warmer months) and the second is after noon. So I can imagine having an extra prayer slot prescribed for them by the state might feel pretty uncomfortable.

There is nothing stopping students from praying in school; you should see some of them on a test-taking day. Let’s face it – this isn’t about religious parents wanting their children to be able to pray, this is about religious people wanting all (or most) students to pray and become more religious.

And if my future children ever find themselves at a public school in which they are instructed to “pray or remain silent”, I will encourage them to sing their prayers out loud, in Hebrew, until the teacher throws them out of the room.

I Hate Fox (and I’m Boycotting Wolverine)

Fox is on track to delay the release of Watchmen.

An attorney for 20th Century Fox said the studio will continue to seek an order delaying the release of “Watchmen.”

U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess last week agreed with Fox that Warner Bros. had infringed its copyright by developing and shooting the superhero flick, scheduled for release March 6.

Feess said Monday that he plans to hold a trial Jan. 20 to decide remaining issues.

Fox claimed it never fully relinquished story rights from its deal made in the late 1980s, and sued Warner Bros. in February. Warner Bros. contended that Fox isn’t entitled to distribution.

Warner Bros.’ attorney said Monday he didn’t know if an appeal was coming, but thinks a trial is necessary and a settlement unlikely.

In case it wasn’t obvious, 20th Century Fox is a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, just like Fox News. If you’re not familiar with Watchmen, it is the most important graphic novel ever written – and anyone who says otherwise is wrong. Not even Bill Kristol wrong, I mean like “tenth dentist” wrong. The release of Watchmen – set for 3/6/09 – is effectively the biggest comic book movie event since the release of Superman in 1978, and the early reviews are very, very strong.

So trust me when I say that Fox is giving the geek fanbase the biggest slap in the face since Joel Schumacher put nipples on the Batsuit. So fuck Fox – I’m boycotting all Fox films, including Wolverine. You think you can pull that kind of shit and still get me to come out and see your third rate X-Men spinoff? Not happening. These are the assholes who killed Firefly and released all those shitty Star Wars prequels. They are dead to me. I am an angry, angry geek.