Friday Afternoon Music Club

A visit to a friend's bike shop yesterday brings this song to mind. And Pole Position, the old-school arcade game in the video, is fun too.

Reach out

Have you contacted the White House and told the president not to cave on healthcare reform today?

The argument against universal healthcare

summed up nicely.

H/t Susie, from whom I totally stole this.

Douchebag of the Week

Pro-hunger candidate Cynthia Davis, right.
It's only Monday, but we have our "winner." Missouri State Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-19th District. Here's the esteemed legislator pontificating on a food program that provided more than 3.7 million meals to hungry people in her state:

Anyone under 18 can be eligible? Can’t they get a job during the summer by the time they are 16? Hunger can be a positive motivator. What is wrong with the idea of getting a job so you can get better meals? Tip: If you work for McDonald’s, they will feed you for free during your break.

I guess McDonald's is the modern-day equivalent of cake, with the added provision that, in order to get the cake, the hungry peasants must work in a bakery.

Happy Fathers' Day

Dad, and fathers everywhere. And happy birthday to my uncle.

RIP

Philly sportscaster Gary Papa, 54. Papa was very likable on the air, and when my father met him at a Phillies game, we saw that was no put-on.

Friday Afternoon Music Club

For everyone experiencing the wet weather in the Northeast, the Beatles.

Scalpers

In Congress, selling Sox-Nationals tickets at a hefty markup. Oh yeah, the tickets come with the access that lobbyists crave.

When the Boston Red Sox come to Washington next week for a three-game interleague series, they’ll bring one of baseball’s best records and an impassioned Northeastern fan base. They’ll also bring in a major league cash haul for members of Congress.

More than a dozen lawmakers — including seven from Massachusetts and its neighboring states (aka Red Sox Nation) — have scheduled fundraisers at Nationals Park when the Sox come to town to play the cellar-dwelling Washington Nationals.

For between $1,500 and $5,000, lobbyists and political action committee managers can take in a game and a beer with a powerful lawmaker who controls the fate of legislation they’re paid to sway.

Donors who give $5,000 to Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) get two tickets to the game, plus the chance to watch batting practice from the exclusive President’s Club seating area beforehand, according to his invitation. Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) says donors will enjoy a pregame “dinner reception at the President’s Club, then enjoy the game in the best seats in the house — behind home plate!”

Langevin — a big Sox fan, according to his spokeswoman, Joy Fox — quickly sold out 50 tickets for between $1,500 and $2,500 a pop. Not a bad markup, when you consider the face value was $200 each.

Seriously, why don't you whores just put on some fishnets and stroll the streets and get it over with?

Friday Afternoon Music Club

Lenny Kravitz and Slash.

Unemployment

This is what passes for good news these days: "Only" 345,000 jobs lost in May. Things are still getting worse, just not as quickly as before.

The United States economy lost 345,000 jobs in May, the government reported on Friday, a sharp slowing in the pace of job losses that fueled hopes that the economy was on its way toward a recovery.

The recession continued to take a toll as the unemployment rate climbed to 9.4 percent, its highest point in a quarter-century. Economists said the job losses were likely to pile up through the rest of the year as the country’s labor market bottomed out. But they saw the latest figures as solid evidence the job market was no longer in a free fall.

[...] The economy lost an average of more than 700,000 jobs per month during the first three months of the year as shocks from the credit crisis surged through the broader economy. But the pace of job losses eased to a revised 504,000 in April, a welcome sign that the decline in the job market would not continue forever.

Well, of course job losses weren't going to continue forever. That would mean that, eventually, nobody would have a job. But maybe this leveling off means that employers are approaching the point where they can no longer afford to cut jobs without negatively affecting their operations.