Gingerale! Great idea!

I’m pretty sure I’ll have this flu in 3-5 days. We always catch what the other has. Maybe I’ll freeze some of the soup.

Hi folks!

Well Mrs. Spocko has the flu. I made her chicken noodle soup from scratch like a good husband. She said, “It smelled good at first, but the thought of chicken fat is making me nauseous.” So I put it in the fridge so I could scrape the fat off. She still couldn’t handle food, so I suggested Triskets. She said, “No. Too sharp.” She had a piece of bread instead. She’s acky and has a cough. She has been very stressed lately and I know how your immune system breaks down when you are under a lot of stress. I used to get ill after every major product launch. I would hold it off until the event was over an then relax, boom sick. I used to work like a manic to get ready for a one week vacation. Then I would be sick the first three days.
We American’s are so fucked up when it comes to work.

One of the reason that our listservs aren’t as effective has to do with leverage.

What happens to people who defy Grover Norquest’s tax pledge? Actual money for the legislators dry up. Funding is tied to support. So much so that the right is more beholden to the Norquest tax pledge than to the Constitution.

The way that money is so important in campaigns means that it has a greater impact than voters during much of the year. The GOP can use money threats, we can use voting threats, but it isn’t as effective in the short term.

My brother is a lawyer. He writes essay in the local paper like, “Why gay marriage can never work.” (while going through his divorce!

My brother got divorced which kind of shocked us, but since none of us really talked to him much (because he’s a Right Wing bully) we didn’t know.

He got all the kind of hits that you would want a right wing bully to get. Did it make him humbler and less of a bully? Yes, but the funny thing is that i think that she was a bigger right winger than him when they married. He used to be a democrat but started making lots of money and the next you you know he is spouting RW talking points.

Yeah. But he took up with her best friend. Yipes! I’ve learned never to judge anyone’s marriage or divorce decisions.

Just like right wingers judge others harshly on their employment status until they are laid off, I don’t want to judge others on their marital status. I’m so damn lucking to have Mrs. Spocko in my life. Smart, funny, creative, pretty and easy to hang with.

7.95 cents Plus Shipping! I paid almost 10 dollars!

Here is the product.

I found out today a couple I’ve known for almost 30 years are getting divorced. :-(

It makes me so sad. I don’t know the whole story, don’t know if I want to know. We see them about once a year so I can’t suddenly call him or her, but I don’t want to ignore the situation. Thanksgiving will be different if they don’t come.

So, things I learned to day.
I bought something from Taiwan it came in a cool envelop that said,

Do Not Pressure!
Fragile

It was a tiny lens that I can use on the back of my iPod for scanning things better (since the iPod touch has a fixed lens. It makes the scans better.
So I’m trying to attach it and I scratch the lens! It’s very soft plastic lens that scratched easily. I’m kind of bummed.

hi folks.

Oh I knew people didn’t know Pete Peterson, but it was interesting that they knew George Soros the right wing boogie man who funds everything (It’s just laughable how little money Soros has spent vs. the Koch’s or Schaifes.)

My point was that if you have enough money and you focus it on the Washington media they WILL cover you. If you always have and ‘expert’ available (with their own TV studio!) ready to talk the media will go to you.

Eric how many PR people are pitching you to appear on all the shows where Pete Peterson’s “experts” are on?

I’m a big reader of Krugman, Atrios and Digby and I’ve know for years that the media are constantly getting it wrong because there are lots of people actively pushing bad information.

I often look at “Who pays these anti-social security” people? Who is paying the “pro-social security people? Which group is applying more resources to the issue?” And then I ask, what will it take to disrupt the money flow? What will it take to disrupt the reputation of the “expert?”

Unfortunately there are only a few people who think like I do. I’m always trying to actively fight the right wing media and “experts” from the right wing belief tanks.

As I traveled cross country to Omaha last year I asked people what they were most concerned about. The number one thing was jobs. I asked them if they were concerned about the deficit (something that was all over the news this time last year.) They said no. I asked them have you ever heard of Pete Peterson? Nope.

“Would you be surprised to know that Pete Peterson has committed one billion dollars to make sure you hear about the deficit instead of jobs?”

Only one person (an owner of several Popeye’s chicken franchisee) had heard of a billionaire getting involved in our political discussions he had heard of George Soros. He also thought that there were probably and “opposite group” spending money to talk about jobs. Like the unions.

I asked, so, you really think that the Unions have that same power anymore or do you think that all the unemployed people are going to get together and hire lobbyists to push for jobs and twist arms in congress by offering money or withholding money?

He started getting irritated (clearly I was a hippie who knows too much) and stopped talking to me. His co-partner seemed to accept what I was saying, but we switched to talking about how safe he felt his chickens were (I told him about my research in to chicken tainted with melamine that was sold through one of the top suppliers.

I don’t but that’s the kind of work the belief tanks do. Most people don’t know that the Heritage Foundation has 15 PR people dedicated to getting their “experts” on the TV and Radio and place op/ed.

The fake survey is always a good way to push and idea. In the consumer product world my favorite is ‘dark chocolate’ has properties that might stop cancer. Ever wonder who put that out? The makers of Dove dark chocolate.
Ever wonder how big the sample size was and what was the population tested?
Totally about deciding what results you want first and then going back and designing the test and survey to get what you want.

those who “know” that SS is a Ponzi scheme doomed to bankruptcy in a few years

.

The Right wing media and the slew of right wing belief tanks drive these myths and there is not a counter balance and when there is, they just ignore them and go back to saying the same thing. There are no sanctions, only rewards, for lying about Social Security.

I just listened to Jon Stossel speaking at the Commonwealth Club in SF.
He repeated these exact words. He actively spread this, and there is no one to refute him. The format wasn’t set up to have a anti-Stossel there to say, “Jon, that is a total falsehood. Here is why. Get him to agree that it is not a ponzi scheme. Then say, ‘Now Jon, I’m going to be following your comments from here on out. What should I do to ensure that you stop making this false Ponzi scheme comment again? What sort of person moral responsibility will you take instead of repeating a falsehood?”