Phyllis Hyman - It Don't Mean A Thing

With tap dancers Gregg Burge and Hinton Battle.

Little Eva - The Locomotion

For some reason this is truncated, but it's still the best version I could find on YouTube in terms of actually seeing the performer, which is something I place a high value on.

Theda Skocpol on Republican Obstructionism in Congress

Some good stuff from Talking Points Memo.

Democrats, led by the White House, are not handling this strategy well at all. Trying to pretend this is a reasonable argument about the deficit, or that it is about "compassion" for the unemployed, is nuts. Republicans may or may not care about unemployed people, most of whom will not vote for them anyway, but Republican leaders know what they are doing strategically: slow-walking economic growth until they get back into office.

Stating the Obvious about Reaganomics

I've been waiting for this for a long time. H/t DarkSyde at DailyKos.

They're Pissed Off

This article by a philosophy professor may be the best thing I've read about the Tea Party. Also the bleakest.

Social Security Broke: That's Bullshit

H/t Atrios.

Arnim & Hamilton - Pepperman

An artifact from the late sixties or early seventies. On International Artists records, best known for the 13th Floor Elevators.

David Bowie - Suffragette City - Dunstable June 21, 1972

Beatles Cartoon - I'm Only Sleeping

From the animated series that was shown on Saturday mornings. They really were everywhere at the time.

Krugman on the Latest Fiscal Insanity

I thought that the people in charge would have more sense by now. I guess Krugman did too.

So America has a long-run budget problem. Dealing with this problem will require, first and foremost, a real effort to bring health costs under control — without that, nothing will work. It will also require finding additional revenues and/or spending cuts. As an economic matter, this shouldn’t be hard — in particular, a modest value-added tax, say at a 5 percent rate, would go a long way toward closing the gap, while leaving overall U.S. taxes among the lowest in the advanced world.

But if we need to raise taxes and cut spending eventually, shouldn’t we start now? No, we shouldn’t.

Right now, we have a severely depressed economy — and that depressed economy is inflicting long-run damage. Every year that goes by with extremely high unemployment increases the chance that many of the long-term unemployed will never come back to the work force, and become a permanent underclass. Every year that there are five times as many people seeking work as there are job openings means that hundreds of thousands of Americans graduating from school are denied the chance to get started on their working lives. And with each passing month we drift closer to a Japanese-style deflationary trap.

Frank Rich on Obama, BP, and Tea Partiers

The title of this post is only a slight variation on another recent post here. Which tells you something kind of sad about how things are going in the world. In any event, Frank Rich as usual has something to say which seems pretty obvious when you think about it but which no one else is quite saying.

While the greatest environmental disaster in our history is a trying juncture for Obama, it also provides him with a nearly unparalleled opening to make his and government’s case. The spill’s sole positive benefit has been to unambiguously expose the hard right, for all its populist pandering to the Tea Partiers, as a stalking horse for its most rapacious corporate patrons. If this president can speak lucidly of race to America, he can certainly explain how the antigovernment crusaders are often the paid toadies of bad actors like BP. Such big corporations are only too glad to replace big government with governance of their own, by their own, and for their own profit — while the "small people" are left to eat cake at their tea parties.

Hot Smoke and Sasafrass - Bubble Puppy (1968)

Krugman on Austerity, Germany's and Ours

Dr K is in Teuton territory, listening to the deficit hawks.

What’s the economic logic behind the [German] government’s moves? The answer, as far as I can tell, is that there isn’t any. Press German officials to explain why they need to impose austerity on a depressed economy, and you get rationales that don’t add up. Point this out, and they come up with different rationales, which also don’t add up. Arguing with German deficit hawks feels more than a bit like arguing with U.S. Iraq hawks back in 2002: They know what they want to do, and every time you refute one argument, they just come up with another.

The Brothers Four - Greenfields

Songwriter Terry Gilkyson was born on this day in 1916. Here the Brothers Four perform his "Greenfields" -- the haunting quality of the song manages to survive the rather hokey presentation, complete with dancers.

Greenwald on Journalists, Again

For some reason I haven't linked to Greenwald in a while. That's not good, because he, well, is. Here he in his usual clear-eyed manner explains why our journalistic-industrial complex thinks that it is unbiased and fair. I think his key point may be expressed as: they're not being dishonest, they're just a little dim.

Bud Powell - Cherokee

One of the gods of jazz piano, with Ray Brown and Max Roach. Recorded in 1949.

nada revises and extends the remarks

Nothing today, sorry.

Look Around You Module 2: Water

A complete farrago of misinformation? Or British humor? You decide.

Okay, it's British humor.

Frank Zappa Mothers LetsMakeTheWaterTurnBlack Outtake 1967

The Box Tops - Neon Rainbow

Had Alex Chilton on my mind.

Robert Johnson - Four Until Late

Laurindo Almeida - Orfeu Negro

One of the prominent figures in Brazilian music in the middle of the last century, who in order to make a decent living also made a bunch of schlocky recordings in the US. Here he sticks fairly close to his roots.

Springsteen, Costello, Little Steven, Grohl & Clash

The Harmonicats - Theme from "Exodus"

Dare to be different.

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Frank Rich on Obama, BP, and Corporate Regulation

Mr Rich speaks sense, as he has been known to do.


BP’s recklessness is just the latest variation on a story we know by heart. The company’s heedless disregard of risk and lack of safeguards at Deepwater Horizon are all too reminiscent of the failures at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and A.I.G., where the richly rewarded top executives often didn’t even understand the toxic financial products that would pollute and nearly topple the nation’s economy. BP’s reliance on bought-off politicians and lax, industry-captured regulators at the M.M.S. mirrors Wall Street’s cozy relationship with its indulgent overseers at the S.E.C., Federal Reserve and New York Fed — not to mention Massey Energy’s dependence on somnolent supervision from the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Cilla Black - Step Inside Love (1968)

Enough.

"A bird is mired in oil on the beach at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast on Thursday, June 3, 2010."
Photo by Associated Press.

Don Santiago Jimenez - El Primer Beso

A founding father of conjunto, and literal father of Flaco and Santiago Jr.

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iPad magic sub:E

I've said it before, I'll say it again: the smartest stuff on YouTube is homemade. H/t HuffingtonPost.

Magic Sam - All Your Love and Sam's Boogie

Also includes some interview material with German subtitles, so I'm guessing this is from a European tour.

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