President Obama's favorability rating has reached a three-year high in the wake of his election victory.

Ahh, but this was a Gallup poll, so add three points to Obama and the Democrats score and subtract three from Romney and the Republican's score.

You know what would make me optimistic? Obama sht-canning Geithner.

(Have doubts? Read "Confidence Men")

Hostess will close its doors after 83 years, but Twinkies will live on.

"Bained" again. Company has $1B in debt, obviously all incurred by those terrible horrible union workers holding a gun to management's head and forcing them to do it, and now they won't let the wonderful superb fantastic management team from the two hedge funds and the private equity fund, who all have such experience in these matters, take care of "making things right".

These pinstriped scum need to be frog-marched into the street and left twisting slowly in the wind as they dangle from lamp posts.

see this article from last July:

Hostess is Bankrupt. Again.

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/07/26/hostess-twinkies-bankrupt/

O'Reilly would know, now wouldn't he...

After all the talk of cronyism by the GOP, to have them make an exception for their favorite veep-never-to-be is exactly the level of hypocrisy we've come to expect from them.

Just a little end-of-week recognition of Ms. Maddow and her excellent work. I see this quote repeated often, which I believe we heard the night after the election. Rachel, your work is outstanding, and your show is enlightening and entertaining. Congratulations to you and your team!

“Ohio really did go to President Obama and he really did win.
And he really was born in Hawaii and he really is the legitimate president of the United States, again.
And the bureau of labor statistics did not make up a fake unemployment rate last month.
And the congressional research service really can find no evidence that cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy.
And Nate Silver was not making up fake projections to make conservatives feel bad. He was doing math.
And climate change is real
And rape really does cause pregnancy sometimes.
And evolution is real.
And the Benghazi was an attack on us, not a scandal by us.
And nobody is taking away people’s guns.
And taxes have not gone up and the deficit is dropping, actually.
And Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction.
And FEMA is not building concentration camps
And moderate reforms of the regulations of the insurance industry and financial services industry are not the same thing as communism.”

It's a harvest moon and the grim reaper has plowed downtown with an extra high tide.

How high is the water papa? Nine inches higher than @ sixty years ago on the East coast but have no fear global warming is here. Soon I may end up with waterfront property(the river is two blocks down and if it were not for all the marsh between us and it I probably could fish from the porch already.)

From Think Progress:

Today, Hostess Brands inc. — the company famed for its sickly sweet desert snacks like Twinkies and Sno Balls — announced they’d be shuttering after more than eighty years of production.

But while headlines have been quick to blame unions for the downfall of the company there’s actually more to the story: While the company was filing for bankruptcy, for the second time, earlier this year, it actually tripled its CEO’s pay, and increased other executives’ compensation by as much as 80 percent.

At the time, creditors warned that the decision signaled an attempt to “sidestep” bankruptcy rules, potentially as a means for trying to keep the executive at a failing company. The Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers International Union pointed this out in their written reaction to the news that the business is closing:

BCTGM members are well aware that as the company was preparing to file for bankruptcy earlier this year, the then CEO of Hostess was awarded a 300 percent raise (from approximately $750,000 to $2,550,000) and at least nine other top executives of the company received massive pay raises. One such executive received a pay increase from $500,000 to $900,000 and another received one taking his salary from $375,000 to $656,256.

Certainly, the company agreed to an out-sized pension debt, but the decision to pay executives more while scorning employee contracts during a bankruptcy reflects a lack of good managerial judgement.

It also follows a trend of rising CEO pay in times of economic difficulty. At the manufacturing company Caterpillar, for example, they froze workers’ pay while boosting their CEO’s pay to $17 million. And at Citigroup, CEO Vikram Pandit received $6.7 million for crashing his company, walking off with $260 million after the business lost 88 percent of its value.

Regarding Nancy Pelosi's (gender female, age 72) reponse to Luke Russet asking if she should step aside for the younger generation, I think she has a point about that being an offensive question. Unless, of course, Luke Russet asks the same question of Harry Reid (gender male, age 72), Steny Hoyer (gender male, age 73), or Mitch McConnell (gender male, age 70). You see the pattern here.

I love how people are swooning over Chris Christie's integrity. Christie, who campaigned for, voted for, and gave the keynote address for Romney, and who must have known all along what an elitist jerk Romney is, is suddenly Mister Upright for kicking Romney to the curb now that the election is over.

Just saw a coffee ad that says--"America runs on Duncan" Gosh I thought I was the only one that got the runs from too much coffee.

(please don't ban me for bad humor)

I wonder how long it will take folks to realize the right has it "bass ackwards" about the "makers" and "takers". Makers make things, takers reap the profits (and have been doing so now exorbitantly for the last 32 years).

Reince Priebus likely to be RNC chair again, despite all the losing

Obvious anagram Reinhold Reince Preibus (= Horrible Insincere Dupe) will be around to whine at us for at least another couple of years.

Despite his party's losses under his leadership, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus has decided to stick around for a second two-year term. In a message to the RNC's 168 state chairs and committee members, Priebus made a show of force—"I am humbled by the over 130 RNC Members who I have talked to who have pledged their support and public endorsement for me"—and implicitly pointed a finger at Michael Steele:

"The RNC was over $22 million in debt with almost no cash on hand; much of our donor base lost confidence and stopped contributing to the RNC," he wrote.

So, let's see if I have this straight. President Obama assumes office in the midst of one of the biggest economic catastrophes in our Nation's (indeed, the world's) history, along with two unfunded ongoing wars, etc., all courtesy of his predecessor, and he's inappropriate if he "blames Bush" for anything.

The Horrible Insincere Dupe, on the other hand, assumes the Chairmanship of a party with a $22 million debt but a plethora of fantastically wealthy donors, fresh off an impressive set of victories in the previous election cycle, and when his efforts tank, the first thing he does is point his finger at the black guy that preceded him? Got it, good to know.

"What was the mess I left behind?" Steele said Monday in response to a question from The Daily Caller during a conference call organized by his firm. "Winning."

The trouble with ignorance is that it picks up confidence as it goes along.
- Arnold H. Glasow

;-)

Fun new animation from Mark Fiore:

Cliff Diving

You see, citizens, the cliff would dramatically cut the deficit, but it would do so by cutting Pentagon spending--

Which through the mysteries of Newly Frugalness, is huge government spending that is amazingly not socialistic!

...

The Fiscal Cliff also threatens to blow up the Bush tax cuts and devious Spendocrats want taxes for the rich to return to what they were during the dark days of Clinton, back when the economy was, was, well . . . never mind.

Cuts through most all of the bull-pucky about the fiscal "cliff" in an entertaining 1 minute 51 seconds!

The trouble with ignorance is that it picks up confidence as it goes along.
- Arnold H. Glasow

;-)

Term limits are supposed to force Paul Ryan from his House Budget Committee chairmanship

Boner/Ryan - "Hey! They're our rules, we'll break 'em if we wanna!" I guess it makes a certain kind of "sense":

As the last fragments of the Romney/Ryan campaign flutter to the ground, one last confirmation: Paul Ryan is above your petty party rules, and when Paul Ryan is involved with something, the math is whatever Paul Ryan wants it to be.

The trouble with ignorance is that it picks up confidence as it goes along.
- Arnold H. Glasow

;-)

Once more unto the Mitt, it's amazing to see how Romney views the whole universe in terms of money. Someone should really try to get him talking about his cosmology one of these days, if he ever does interviews again. That might yield something astonishing.

It's not just Republicans and FOX News that keep misleading the public about Benghazi, Susan Rice and most everything else for that matter, it’s major mainstream news organizations like CNN carrying their message through the faux prism of CNN's self-declared independence. If you go on to CNN.com right now their top headline falsely gives you the impression that the intelligence community led by Gen. Petraeus knew all along that Al Qaeda was responsible for the Benghazi attack. Any casual reader of this article will come away with the idea that there is still confusion around whether or not Susan Rice and the administration gave misleading statements. This article is the perfect example of what's wrong with a media that won't allow all of the facts and the facts alone choose sides, because they think above this, it's their responsibility not to choose sides.

It's the perfect example because it still holds a lot of the facts relevant to the issue, but the way it presents them distorts the total picture painted by all of the facts. It's artfully done by overly emphasizing Republican points that have fewer facts to back them up and under emphasizing the actual facts that clearly demonstrate Susan Rice and the administration were not misleading the public. This is only one example of many, where far too many in mainstream media very carefully delivers the information so no matter how much the facts back up one side, they equalize both sides. This way they can declare we gave all the facts, while at the same time ensuring the large thrust of their audience that are casual information seekers are left with a pitch perfect false equivalency that keeps everything in a constant stalemate. I am sick to death of this and for the sake of journalism and our country actually solving problems, this has to change.

The first sentence of the story is a nod to the Republican’s baseless semantic argument of the difference between saying terror and terrorism, “…Petraeus testified…that the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, was an act of terrorism committed by Al Qaeda linked militants. “ Continuing on with the Republican fantasy the ENTIRE first half of the article is dedicated to Republican Peter King's distorted and disproven perspective that the White House manipulated the intelligence information to eliminate the terrorist element. “King said the account Petraeus gave to representatives differ from the description the Obama administration gave in the days after the event.” He goes on to insinuate once again that the Obama administration misled the American public into believing it was a spontaneous protest when all along it was Al Qaeda terrorists.

In the middle of this MASSIVE section of propaganda from one biased Republican, CNN throws in a single sentence stating, “Several other lawmakers chalked it up to intelligence that was evolving and coming from numerous sources.” After getting through half of the article they give a small section to Democrat Dutch Ruppersberger clarifying the confusion resulted from, “…two threads of violence: one caused by the protest, which was chaotic, and a second that was orchestrated by terrorists, which was highly coordinated.” Although, this is immediately followed up and discredited by a paragraph delineating Gen. Petraeus, “…has said there was a stream of intelligence from multiple sources…that indicated Ansar al Sharia was behind the attack…”

They sneak in one single sentence stating that, “…20 intelligence reports indicated that anger about the film may be to blame…” But in order to maintain false equivalency the very next paragraph emphasizes that the CIA eventually disapproved these reports.

Part 2 (CONT.)

Only at the VERY end do they get to Amb. Susan Rice, by first repeating the senseless argument about her spontaneous comments. Of course they follow this up with the unclassified talking points she was given that exactly state this spontaneous aspect. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is given a couple of sentences, declaring her vigorous defense for Amb. Rice. But once again no matter where the facts go CNN has to try and create a false equivalency by giving the last word to Republican Saxby Chambliss stating, “…the concern is not whether the talking points were correct, but that Rice didn't go far enough.” To achieve that totally distorted image of balance or empty equivalence, they have to give the final argument to another Republican continuing to carry out this baseless smear campaign despite the overwhelming evidence Susan Rice acted entirely appropriately.

If you're dizzy from this back-and-forth so are the vast majority of casual information seekers, and this is exactly what CNN and many others are striving for. This is just one example and I'm sorry to get so detailed, but I'm so sick of this constant back-and-forth that creates a false stalemate or worse in this case, giving credit to the discredited by artfully manipulating the totality of the facts. Mainstream media’s disgraceful coverage of this election filled with lies, makes it abundantly clear they need the same wake-up call that Republicans do.

Retired US Navy Chief Warrant Officer Jim Wright has posted another classic entry at his terrific blog Stonekettle Station (linguistically speaking, definitely not "PC", but nothing grown adults shouldn't be able to handle with pleasure).

From the entry "Lost Horizons":

When you base your strategy on what you want the intelligence to be instead of what it actually is, you end up with a flawed strategy. Always.

And then you lose.

That’s how the universe works.

Gravity will kill you, whether you believe in it or not because the universe just doesn’t care what you believe.

If Romney’s advisers didn’t believe the polls, then they should have hired a non-partisan outside agency to validate the data one way or the other. And if the results showed that they were behind, instead of denying it they should have adjusted their ground game accordingly.

Instead, Romney had people blow smoke up his ass until his colon resembled beef jerky.

As always, Wright's writing is a fun and illuminating experience. Do yourselves a favor: click through and enjoy.

The trouble with ignorance is that it picks up confidence as it goes along.
- Arnold H. Glasow

;-)

Latest development in mortgage securities fraud: Wall Street bankers settle with S.E.C investigation by paying a fine and signing a consent degree where they admit to doing nothing wrong and promise never to do it again . . . and again . . . and again . . . http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/business/jpmorgan-and-credit-suisse-to-pay-417-million-in-mortgage-settlement.html?ref=business

In memory of our departing Twinkies - let's all rent Die Hard again and replay the Twinkies ingredient scene.

I think that a more pertinent question is: Why didn't the administration convene it's top interagency counterterrorism resource, the Counterterrorism Security Group (CSG), at the first indication that an attack was underway? The CSG was put into place specifically for this type of situation.

Another pertinent question: In light of previous attacks on the consulate in addition to repeated requests for increased security, why was the consulate left so under protected? They might as well have had a bullseye on the front door. The Red Cross and UK had pulled out because of the security risk.

TCinLA: Nice work on the research about Hostess....honestly. The fact of the matter, though, is that another 18,500 people are about to hit the unemployment line around Hostess' locations around the United States. I really do wonder if the lineworkers at Hostess' factories are likely to find an equal, or better, gig in the next 24 months. It is quite possible that they will regret not accepting an 8% pay cut, because a 100% pay cut is much worse, especially if one has a family to feed. I am always shocked that steelworkers, textile workers....now bakery workers....don't recognize that their manual labor is being automated...even as the new machinery is installed next to them on the line....and prefer to stay blinded, without renewing themselves and their skill set with further education. The layoffs cannot be a surprise.

Did Arizona finish counting its votes YET?

http://ldolphin.org/kingdom/ch9.html

There are at least two reasons why we expect the Temple to be built again:

Because of Israel's Desires

Jewish law requires the Temple be rebuilt where it once was. One third of the Torah's 613 commandments involve rituals that require the Temple be rebuilt.

Because of Bible Prophecy

The Man of Sin will desecrate the Temple at mid-point of The Tribulation. This subject is explored more fully in the section about The Mark of The Beast.

By the way, thanks Bill for the admission of guilt---And Bill O'Reilly told viewers this week, with a completely straight face, "There are entire media operations that exist solely to promote ideology -- obviously a bad situation that is getting worse."

Though you will never see how RIGHT you are.