Today's Message

Your daily words of wisdom:

Karma’s A Bitch

Watch Southern Beale play the world’s tiniest violin for this right-wing broadcasting outfit which has fallen on hard times:

Sinclair Broadcast Group faces possible bankruptcy

The broadcaster, which is controlled by David Smith and his family and operates 58 television stations, says that if it cannot restructure its heavy debt load, it will have to file for Chapter 11.

By Joe Flint
July 15, 2009

Another big broadcaster may be on the verge of bankruptcy.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which is controlled by David Smith and his family and operates 58 television stations, said that if it couldn't restructure its heavy debt load, it would have to file for bankruptcy protection.

The Baltimore-based company, which has about $1.3 billion of debt, is trying to negotiate terms on notes of $500 million that are coming due in the next 18 months.

Oh, poor Sinclair Broadcasting, the lying sacks of far-right shit who literally Swift Boated John Kerry two weeks before the 2004 presidential election, and tried to smear Barack Obama before the 2008 election. The same broadcast group which loved the troops so much, they were happy to cheer on the Iraq War, but wouldn’t allow its stations to air a “Nightline” episode honoring our fallen soldiers.

The same right-wing broadcast group that pushed Armstrong Williams’ pro-Bush propaganda on its stations (and viewers).

The same broadcasting group run by family-values guy David Smith, the same David Smith busted in a prostitution sting in 1996.

Awww. Karma’s a bitch, guys.

I’m sure there are plenty of good people who work for this piece of shit company. But I’m only human. And really, when your job requires you to flush your integrity down the toilet like this:

"You weren't reporting news," says the producer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "You were reporting a political agenda that came down to you from the top of the food chain."

then it’s hard for me to muster a lot of sympathy. You're just asking for the karmic boot to kick you in the ass.

Does this make me a bad person?

Probably.

C’est la guerre.

I know that schadenfreude is not becoming on a blogger. But this one hits home. Back in 2004 I joined a small group of activists who protested in front of Nashville’s Sinclair offices during the “Stolen Honor” affair. I waved a sign and chanted against a media conglomerate using its power to spread lies and swing a presidential election. Well, Sinclair got their second term of Bush, and the resulting economic meltdown. And so no, I don’t feel sorry for David Smith and his family and their dwindling fortune.

Good luck restructuring your debt, Mr. Smith. And next time, don't spend all your money on hookers and wingnut political propaganda.

Don't Look Back

Light blogging over the next few days as I take care of some stuff. I took this picture last year in Stockholm. It always amused me:

What A Difference A Few Months Makes

Sarah Palin was for cap and trade before she was against it. The money quote is at 5:07:

Overturning Tables

Yet another right-wing fundiegelical snake-oil salesman attempts the inevitable post-scandal “comeback”:

“This is not going to be your daddy’s Christian Coalition,” Reed said in an interview to describe his new venture, the Faith and Freedom Coalition. “It has to be younger, hipper, less strident, more inclusive and it has to harness the 21st century that will enable us to win in the future.”

Here’s a question: why are these right-wing conservative Christian groups always “coalitions”? Who are they coalescing with?

I visited the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s website and here’s what a found: a picture of a happy white family and this message:

We are advocating time-honored values, protecting the dignity of life and marriage, reducing taxes, and insuring [sic] fiscal responsibility in Washington.

Oh. So in other words, the same old shit, complete with grammatical error. So much for that “less strident” and “more inclusive” stuff.

There’s no coalition here, just a scandal plagued homophobe peddling the same crap we’ve already decided we don’t want. Hey Ralph, I’ve got a steaming cup of STFU and it’s got your name on it.

Here’s Reed again:

“You have to reinvent it,” Reed said. “It’s the political analog to the iPod and the iPhone. It would be cool. It would be transformative. It would transform our politics and bring younger people to our ranks. All of those are critical imperatives.”

You know you’re doing this religion thing wrong when:

• “faith” means you have to be a member of one particular political party;
• “faith” has anything to do with consumerism;
• you need your “faith” to be “cool.”.

If you’re describing your movement as “the new iPod” then you’re not talking about faith, but a product. And that’s just wrong.

Faith is not a product. It is not a political party. And it is not a trend that is “cool” or “uncool,” “in” or “out.”

Ralph Reed is a first-class huckster and charlatan. Anyone who gives him a dime has been duped.

Guns In Bathrooms Are A Bad Idea, Too

Yet another idea why guns in restaurants are a bad idea. Sooner or later, nature calls:

TAMPA, Fla. -- Authorities said a bullet from a gun that was accidentally dropped injured a Tampa woman sitting in a bathroom stall. Police said the bullet hit 53-year-old Janifer Bliss in the lower left leg. She was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

Bliss was sitting on the toilet in a hotel bathroom when a woman in the next stall accidentally let her handgun slip out of her waist holster. The weapon discharged when it hit the ground.

Police said the gun belonged to a 56-year-old woman who has a concealed weapons permit.

The case has been referred to the State Attorney's Office to determine if any charges will be filed.

Gosh, I thought CCW permit holders were always so responsible with their firearms. Guess not.

Zelda The Wonder Dog!

She walks! She runs! She plays! Two weeks after surgery!

Feel Good Friday, Solar Power Edition

Guess whose solar panels got commissioned today?

Pfooey To Pfrance

Every time the subject of nuclear energy comes up, someone has to mention France.

France, if you listen to the hoopla, is a kind of holy grail of nuclear energy, a country that has “figured it all out” and does everything right where nuclear power is concerned. And no wonder: France sells electricity all around Europe, so of course they have marketed their energy as clean, green and cheap.

Except, it’s not. And they haven’t. First we have this December 2008 report, commissioned by the Green Party for the EU, which raised several issues, including some cooked books by the French government and contamination from the uranium processing plant at La Hague.

But if you don’t want to believe the Greens, please believe the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Last June they looked at the French nuclear hype and determined it was a lot of hot air:

In 2007, nuclear energy provided 78 percent of France's electricity, which corresponded to 39 percent of its commercial primary energy but only 18 percent of its final energy. Primary energy is the energy contained in the fuel when it enters the system, while final energy is what is left over for the consumer after processing, transformation, and distribution. In the case of large nuclear or coal-fired power plants, only about one-quarter of the primary energy reaches the consumer's home, office, or factory. In France, more than 70 percent of final energy is provided by oil, gas, and coal, of which one-half is oil alone, just as in many other countries. This year, the country will face an all-time record energy bill of more than $80 billion.

So much for the energy independence myth, as well as the climate change myth. France depends on foreign energy sources just like the rest of us.

Furthermore, France closed its last uranium mine in 2001. With 100% of its uranium imported, “energy independence” isn't just far fetched, it's flat-out wrong.

The mythic “low cost” of French nuclear production is also debunked:

For decades, the civilian program has profited from direct and indirect subsidies, in particular through cross-financing with the nuclear weapons program. Current estimates don't appropriately take into account eventual decommissioning and waste-management costs, which remain a concern and quite uncertain. (In addition to post-fission waste, 46 years of uranium mining has left 50 million tons of waste for eventual cleanup and remediation, the cost of which is unknown.) Official final disposal cost estimates for long-lived high- and intermediate-level fission wastes vary between $21 billion and $90 billion.

Heh. Just like here.

And then we have the fancy footwork, the hype and hoopla of the French nuclear miracle, which appears to be smoke and mirrors:

Last year, France exported 83 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and imported 27.5 billion kilowatt hours--obviously, a large net export. But the ambassador neglects to mention that France cheaply exports base-load power and imports expensive, essentially fossil fuel-based, peak-load power to use in its citizens' wasteful winter heating systems. Net power imports from Germany, which is phasing out nuclear power, averaged about 8 billion kilowatt hours over the last few years, and the emissions linked to these imports are attributed to the exporting country, not France. But the radioactive waste stemming from its exported nuclear-generated power--equivalent to the output of a dozen reactors--remains in the country.

France’s new nuclear projects are behind schedule and overbudget: for example, the Olkiluoto 3 in Finland, built by France’s Areva, is three years behind schedule and $2.4 billion over budget. That’s billion, with a B, folks.

On July 4, while Americans were grilling hot dogs and trying to figure out Sarah Palin’s latest meltdown, the Kruemmel nuclear reactor in Germany unexpectedly shut down for the second time in a week. It had just been fired up in June, after being shut down for two years after a fire. Swedish utility Vattenfal, which operates the plant, says it is is losing about $750,000 a day from the shutdown.

This isn’t cheap energy, folks. It's not independence, either. As for "clean," well, consider that leaks and other incidents happen with regularity. You don't hear about them because they aren't all of Chernobyl-level scope. But they happen and they pollute water and air and soil and cause problems.

And speaking of Chernobyl, today's irony award goes to Irish firm Greenfield, which is using the poisoned Chernobyl land to make biofuels.

Anyway, I have an idea why some folks want a resurgence in nuclear power. It’s highly centralized, and allows corporate or nationalized government interests to retain control.

The idea of something decentralized, like people putting solar panels on their roof or windmills in their backyard, threatens the centralized status quo. If people produced their own energy, maybe there wouldn't be support for resource wars like Iraq.

I dunno, but I don't see how nuclear power is any better than coal power. It's got all of the same problems and a few others too.

Today In Hate

Actually, it was yesterday, at Steve McNair's memorial. Two people with four signs each. I'd say the Phelps clan is spread a little thin these days:



I've said before, I don't understand why some enterprising journalist hasn't figured out whose bankrolling these assclowns, who seem to do nothing except travel the world looking for attention. I suspect the money trail will lead in some very surprising and interesting directions.

Anyone interested?