Evening Thread

I Hate The Internet

And the person who inflicted me with the "No Labels" song.

So I will share it with all of you. Just paying hell forward.

The End Of An Era

Final Glenny show about to start. Say goodnight Glenn.

Atrios For Treasury Secretary

I promise to hurt Jamie Dimon's feefees regularly and to not establish a government endorsed predatory lending program.

A special invitation from The Wiggles

The Wiggles are one of Australia’s most beloved entertainment acts, having rewritten the book on children’s entertainment with their unique song and dance routines. And now Sam (Yellow), Murray (Red), Jeff (Purple) and Anthony (Blue) are hitting the road in their big red car to find a fifth Wiggle for a special series of North American shows.

Are you a Mum or a Dad with a mean boogie and a penchant for wearing bright pink? Or an Aunt or Uncle with a quirky twist and an orange turtleneck that has been in the back of the closet for way too long? Then record your own version of iconic Wiggles song “Fruit Salad” for a chance to perform live on stage with The Wiggles in their upcoming North American Tour.



The Fine Print
The competition is open to people over 18; winning entrants will be selected in each city to receive a family pass to attend the concert, and perform live on stage!

Feel like some fruit salad today? Go ahead, show us what you’ve got.

Ernesto Soriano, YouTube Australia, recently watched “Let’s make Australia a reading nation."

Lazy

I have nothing against third parties or third party movements, it's just when someone with Tom Friedman's reach and riches repeatedly calls for one but then does nothing about it, he's just wishing for ponies. We need a third pony! is essentially what he is saying. And, of course, Tom Friedman's third party is basically the Bloomberg-Bayh party, with perhaps a bit more government funding for solar energy, and as such is already the dominant party of the country.

Of Course We Do

The twitter machine tells me that at the Aspen Wanker Festival, Tom Friedman says we need a third party. Presumably one which agrees with Tom Friedman with everything, and of course commands majority support throughout the country.

We have the worst elites ever.

It's Not His Place

It's dumb that Halperin was suspended for saying a naughty word that isn't even that naughty given that many men over the age of 50 or so proudly present it as their first name, but it's worth pointing out that we get some of this "Obama doesn't know how to behave" kind of analysis which is part racial, part because he's a Democrat, and part because he wasn't spawned and hatched from the Potomac riverbed where all good Villagers come from.

Halperin Memories

2006:

Conservatives forever braying about a liberal bias in the press received a big boost last month when Mark Halperin, director of ABC's political unit, took to the airwaves with the reddest of Bush partisans -- talkers Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Hugh Hewitt -- to voice his heated agreement that the mainstream press treats Republicans unfairly.

Confirming their longstanding fears, Halperin insisted that reporters are "overwhelmingly liberal," they "hate the military," are "blind" to their bias, and should use the closing weeks of the campaign season to "prove" their worth to right-wingers. Suddenly, instead of conservatives working the refs -- badgering journalists with complaints of bias in hopes they would get the benefit of the doubt next time there was a close call in the newsroom -- it was one of the refs (Halperin) working the refs.

Our Liberal Media

For various reasons I was reminded of the Imus situation. Let's have a flashback of the Howies Fineman and Kurtz. First Fineman:

Fineman: It's a different time Imus. It's diferent than it was even a few years ago, politically. You know, in the environment politically it's changed. And some of the stuff you used to do you just can't do anymore.

Imus: no you can't

Fineman: You just can't because the times have changed. I mean just looking specifically at the Africa-American situation. I mean, hello, Barack obama has gotten twice the number of contributors of anybody else in the race. I mean, you know, things have changed. Some of the kind of humor you used to do you just can't do anymore. So that's just the way it is.

And Kurtz:

Imus's sexist homophobic, and politically incorrect routines echo what many journalists joke about in private.

Glenn Beck Uses The Daughter Test

And finds that a scary black man is abusing your daughters.

Fucktard

I don't care if Mark Halperin says Richard Cheney's name on the air. In fact, I appreciate a momentary lapse in the faux-civility/morality that is part of the Villager pose. I do care that he's proud of the fact that Matt Drudge rules his world, and that he sucks ass.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

428K new lucky duckies.

So, uh, still bad news. Perhaps we should give it another 6 months...

The Worst People In The World

Are clearly the people who run my local orchestra.

The Philadelphia Orchestra Association accumulated $682,568 in legal fees and other expenses associated with its bankruptcy petition in the first six weeks after the filing, court documents show.

These fees, added to others in the run-up to the Chapter 11 filing, bring the tab to more than $1.6 million.

In its strategic plan, the association estimated that professional costs in the case would total $2.9 million, plus $3 million for settlement with creditors and $2.5 million to allow for a potential decline in ticket sales and donations.

Short

I am still trying to understand why the first words out of the mouths of every Democrat in a public setting are not "I really would like Eric Cantor to explain why he is betting against America."

Pottermania at YouTube: live streams, movies and extras

Update 7/7: To top it all off like a happy hour priced butterbeer, you can rent Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 for 99 cents today and tomorrow only!

We were wondering how we could get you closer to the action of the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 movie premiere. Since becoming a wizard isn’t currently an option, we found one of the next best things.

On July 7, we’ll be live streaming the red carpet event of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 from Trafalgar Square in London, and you’re invited to join. The event will be live on the Harry Potter channel on 7/7 from 8-11am PT (4-7pm GMT), with the entire cast, J.K. Rowling and surprise celebrity appearances. We’ll also be re-broadcasting the event immediately after in case you miss it.

Before the final throwdown between Harry and Voldemort, you can catch up on with our Harry Potter collection of movies, with all seven films and two extended versions available to rent.

If that’s still not enough wizarding for you, YouTube also has unique movie-related content that can’t be found elsewhere, including behind-the-scenes footage, parodies and remixes to accompany all the Harry Potter films. See the creativity the web has to offer with YouTube Movie extras like a hilarious Deathly Hallows trailer parody, a Time Magazine interview with Emma Watson and movie clips.

“This is beyond anything I have imagined.” Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Mildred Padilla, YouTube Movies, recently watched “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”

Late Night Thread

Have fun

Shorter David Wessel

The hippies are like so totally wrong about everything, but here's my plan in the WSJ to implement the hippie agenda.

That's a bit of an unfair characterization, but I wish pundits could just say "here's what should be done" without pretending to float above everyone else who is wrong.

Oy

Let's hope the "leaving Congress soon" rumors are true.

U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler announced Monday he has introduced bipartisan legislation that would fund a program to develop in-vehicle technology to prevent drunk driving.

...

These include sensors on the steering wheel or engine start button that determine a driver's blood alcohol content, or sensors that passively monitor a driver's breath or eye movements.

A vehicle would not start if these sensors indicate the driver's blood alcohol level is above .08, the legal alcohol limit.

Even if we imagine a world where passive technology like this worked perfectly this is just dumb. Drunk driving is bad and people shouldn't do it, but sometimes in life people need to weigh one bad against another. Preventing people from using their vehicles could put people in (different) danger.

Top E3 game trailers based on your votes

This year’s E3 gaming expo produced a fresh crop of new game trailers to pour over, critique and get excited about. For two weeks, you’ve been voting for your favorites on the E3 channel and now the results are in.

The game that you got most excited about? Step forward Saints Row: The Third, whose “power CG” trailer delivered high-impact cinematics and what looks suspiciously like a CG cameo from the ubiquitous Ashton Kutcher. Congratulations to publisher THQ and developer Volition Inc, and check it out here:



Running down the remaining top trailers, we give the nod to:

• Battlefield 3: Operation Metro Multiplayer Gameplay Trailer (E3)
• INVERSION E3 2011 -- Official Trailer
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Reveal Trailer
• Gears of War 3 World Premiere Trailer

You can see all five trailers on the E3 channel until the end of June. For more of what’s hot in gaming, you can see popular videos, gaming channels and more on our gaming browse page, and catch more trailers in our trailers section.

Mark Day, YouTube gaming, recently watched “The Crying PC Gamer.”

Battle For Brooklyn

Since I left off a link to the site yesterday, here it is...

Uh-Oh

Dems have lost the Jewish vote yet again.

Organized

Just adding to the post below, I think what offices really hate are phone calls from The Left which they think have been organized somehow. The problem is...what does it mean to have been organized? If I post about an issue and suggest you call your member is that organization? If AARP runs a teevee ad? If MoveOn emails their list?

Obviously all of these are organized in some sense, but not in quite the same way. More than that, the offices don't ever seem to see angry constituents on the Right as being 'organized,' even when they clearly are.

They Don't Know What They Want

While I lean on the side of taking action, what I've realized in my dealings with Congressional staffers is that members and their offices are all over the place when it comes to getting phone calls. They get very upset when right wingers call and say mean things and it can cause them to buckle under the pressure, because the Limbaugh listeners who call might ever vote for them (hah). They get very upset when left wingers call and pressure them, because left wingers are supposed to be on their side, even if they aren't on their side on a particular issue. When they're getting lots of mean phone calls they appreciate some supportive ones, but if they get too many supportive ones they get annoyed too.

So, overall, I don't really know what the impact is.

Introducing ThePianoGuys, your June On The Rise winner

Congratulations to ThePianoGuys, who received the most votes June’s On The Rise poll and will become the first piano-dealing videographers featured in this program. ThePianoGuys will have their day in the homepage spotlight today, thanks to your support and votes.

ThePianoGuys (aka Paul Anderson, Tel Stewart, and Craig Knudsen) operate a Yamaha piano dealership in St. George, Utah. Over the past decade, they’ve hosted countless musicians at their store and finally decided to combine their two passions—music and filmmaking—showcasing these artists for the world to see. The result: original YouTube hits featuring talented artists such as Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson and Jarrod Radnich.



Here’s a word from Paul Anderson of ThePianoGuys:

We're a just couple of guys with a camera, a computer and some really talented friends. We are passionate about showcasing artists that are not big yet, but we know will be someday, and would love nothing more than to be a part of someone’s "Big Break." It's a joy to bring exciting music to life through video, and we can truly say we love what we do. Thanks to our loyal subscribers we are having the time of our lives and who knows, maybe someday we will be able to do this full-time!

If you’ve enjoyed monthly On The Rise blog series and want to see more rising YouTube partners, check out our On The Rise channel or look for our playlists on the browse page. Keep an eye out for next month’s blog post, as your channel may be the next one On The Rise!

Devon Storbeck, Account Manager, recently watched "To The Summit- by Jon Schmidt ‘Featuring Ray Smith on Tenor Sax.’”

Extra Thread

So as not to have the video in the newest one.

Obama Presser

On soon!

click below to watch

JOIN THE LIVE CHAT

VISIT WHITEHOUSE.GOV

What Voters Want Is Someone Who Likes To Put Up Youtube Videos Of Him Yelling At Them

It's been mildly amusing watching the press fawn over every Republicans with a pulse, touting them all as "possible contenders." I'm waiting for the 50th column from Smerconish in my local fishwrap telling me how Christie is awesome and must run for president NOWNOWNOW (please do! and resign first).


But, you know, people just don't like him.

More than half of New Jersey residents say they wouldn’t back Governor Chris Christie for a second term, disapproving of his choices on a range of policy and personal issues, from killing a commuter tunnel to using a state-police helicopter to attend his son’s baseball game.

It's about now that Very Serious People start pining away for a third party which perfectly represents the only people who matter: themselves.

Politics

I agree with Ezra that creating jobs is more important than appearing to fight for jobs, whatever the hell that last one is, but at some point we're going to have an election campaign. Trying to get through backroom deals which may or may not have much positive effect on the economy won't be enough, either. At some point it's time to explain what you would like to do for the economy, and why the bastards on the other side are against it.

And, no, a plan to provide incentives for a partnership for blahblahblah won't cut it.

So A Year From Now...

Greece has passed their "austerity" bill, which no one actually believes will solve any problems. So a year from now will when Greece is still a mess will everyone who supported it apologize?


hahahahahaha

And We'll All Have Big Deficit Reduction Parties

One infuriating thing about this is the apparent belief by many politicians that voters will reward them for making the economy even worse.

Gear Basics: Choosing and Using Soft Light Modifiers

With the gazillion or so soft light mods out there, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the choices available. And while I have probably shot with more of them that I would care to admit, there are four soft mods that I go back to again and again.

As it happens, these four are reasonably priced, too. (Which may well be what attracted me to them in the first place, of course.)

Keep reading for four good choices for soft light that won't break the bank.Read more »

Overnight

Rock on

Please Administer More Beatings

They're so effective.

More than 10,000 retail jobs face the axe as the British high street faces one of its most painful bouts of contraction since the second world war amid the biggest squeeze on household budgets for decades.

As the government's austerity measures take hold, experts warned that the number of retailers going bust would continue to rise this year with a number of household names facing insolvency.

The confectioner Thorntons emerged as the latest high street casualty when it said on Tuesday it would close up to 180 stores, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk. The flooring chain Carpetright followed suit, saying 50 stores could close as consumers shun purchases amid fuel and food price inflation and rising job insecurity, especially in the public sector.

Big Shitpile

Still shitty.

Investor complaints against Bank of America over mortgages, which have bedeviled the bank since last fall, appear to be close to a resolution as the bank is on the verge of paying $8.5 billion to a group of private investors, according to people familiar with the matter.

No Labels

Also, too, issue loops.

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

The Battle For Brooklyn

I watched a screener a couple weeks back and have been remiss in not recommending it.

...adding that it's the story of a bunch of rich assholes teaming up with politicians to get cheap land through a sweetheart deal with the transit authority and of course through the use of eminent domain in order to build an arena as well as residential/retail complexes. The arena is being built, but not much else is.

Default

Yes Greece should default, or at least tell the rest of Europe the truth, that it's their problem, not Greece's.

Crazy Talk

Banks are skimmers. In ideal world they do a job by having good underwriting standards, and allocating money to worthy borrowers, and in doing so earn the bit they skim. In actual world they take free money from the government and then bring it to the Great Casino.

f the U.S. federal government is going to be in the business of giving certain sectors a subsidy, the perk should go to manufacturing, not the financial sector, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig said Tuesday.

Hoenig said he’s not sure subsidies are needed but if they are going to exist, “I would rather subsidize the manufacturing sector,” he said at a conference in Washington.

The Way We Live

I'm not sure how well this works as a national agenda, but I am generally surprised at how little "making where we live better" plays out even in state and local politics. Sure there are a couple of things - cops/crime and schools - that always get attention, but otherwise it just doesn't seem to be part of the political conversation. It doesn't have to involve big projects, either. Promising to solve the dog poop problem can be enough.

The Important Things

On the Twitter machine Jay Rosen explains why gaffes about historical trivia or johnwayne/johnwaynegacy get more attention than, say, a desire to cut the minimum wage or claims that tax cuts increase revenues:

The sweet spot is a mistake that allows the press to prosecute the error without sounding too political.

The press feels empowered to jump all over these trivial things while not empowered to point out facts when two sides disagree or to explain the horrible consequences of certain policies. Aside from failing to educate the public, this has an additional pernicious effect. It helps to convince the vast majority of people who only kinda sorta pay attention to politics that Maureen Dowd is right, that this trivial bullshit is what really matters in politics.

Inside Game

People on the intertubes can debate whether Obama is incompetent or Obama is getting exactly what he wants while blaming Republicans. I honestly don't much care, because as long as it's entirely an inside game, backroom deals made between millionaire old guys, there really isn't much for the rest of us to do about it.

For all I know the inside game, instead of the bully pulpit, is the best way to get exactly what Obama wants - whatever that is - but it's a crappy way to explain to people why they should vote for you or your party.

Music Tuesday: Mystery bands, Buddy Holly and more

Things have been popping on youtube.com/music over the last week. Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti’s son Seun just released a new album, and in honor of the potent genre his dad created, we put together a playlist of Afrobeat essentials. We also joined the world in celebrating pride week last weekend with a clutch of anthemic songs new and old. And we turned our attention to England, where the Glastonbury music festival raged. We remembered Glastos past and heard from a young band named Viva Brother, who played the festival for the first time and guided us through the experience. Oh yeah, and pop star/actress Selena Gomez debuted her new album (with commentary) on Sunday. On to this week!

Mystery bands
With the release of Shabazz Palaces’s full-length debut Black Up this week (which you can listen to in its entirety here), we found ourselves thinking about disguises, and all the bands over the years who’ve used them. Shabazz Palaces offers an avant-garde take on hip-hop; the group is helmed by Ishmael Butler of Digable Planets, but he hid behind the moniker Palaceer Lazaro for several years and still refuses to name his collaborators. Butler isn’t the first to cloak his musical experiments in a veil of mystery. This week, we present some artists who have used anonymity to fuel their boundary-pushing work, starting with San Francisco provocateurs The Residents and moving through the leftfield R&B of The Weeknd (who seem to be linked with Drake), the pop culture pastiche act Nike7UP, British oddities Hype Williams and more.



Buddy Holly raves on
Buddy Holly forever altered the course of rock’n’roll with his astonishing 25 hit songs—all of which he penned and recorded before he died in a plane crash at the age of 22. Don McLean famously sang that the day the plane crashed was “the day the music died,” and it was hard not to agree with him. But nothing proves Holly’s music lives on like Rave On Buddy Holly, a tribute album that features everybody from CeeLo Green to Patti Smith covering his songs. We check out a few tracks from the album as well as other tributes to the rock’n’roll pioneer.



Breakbot “Fantasy Jacques Renault Remix”
With “Fantasy,” the French producer Breakbot turned out a song that could have come off of Michael Jackson’s “Off The Wall” circa 1979. But really it’s the video that had us at hello: a mash-up of roller-skating videos from the 1970s and ‘80s that practically screams “summer.”



Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “Bon Iver - Bon Iver ALBUM REVIEW.”

Unsuitable

Paratransit costs are going to skyrocket.

The nation’s suburbs are home to a rapidly growing number of older people who are changing the image and priorities of a suburbia formed around the needs of young families with children, an analysis of census data shows.

Although the entire United States is graying, the 2010 Census showed how much faster the suburbs are growing older when compared with the cities. Thanks largely to the baby-boom generation, four in 10 suburban residents are 45 or older, up from 34 percent just a decade ago. Thirty-five percent of city residents are in that age group, an increase from 31 percent in the last census.

Overthrowing the US government...by the US government

I'm about to listen to this Virtually Speaking discussion between Daniel Ellsberg and Glennzilla again. Maybe you'd like to join me.

Signed,
Not Atrios

Good Morning

Our friend, Echidne of the Snakes has written a fairy tale, only she has facts and stuff to prove that it aint no fairy tale at all. Good reading.

She's also having a fund raiser.

Late Night

Was a giant water bug blue crab and hush puppies on the roof night.

Rock on.

Evening Thread

Anti-Stimulus

It's June, 2011. Unemployment is at 9.1%.

Just a reminder.

Early Happy Hour Thread

I got nothin'.

Anything

The sad thing is that even sensible Medicare "cuts," that is ones which hopefully make the program cheaper without making it any worse for beneficiaries, will be attacked by the Republicans, even though they want to destroy Medicare.*


*Glenn Kessler will award me eleventy zillion Pinocchios for saying that.

TED + YouTube: Releasing the power of video to shape ideas, 5 years on

TED has shared a wealth of innovative ideas with you over the years. We wish the TED team the happiest 5th anniversary and look forward to their continued contribution of inspiring content to YouTube and the world. We welcome Emily McManus as a guest to the YouTube blog today to discuss TED’s journey with us so far.

Today TED celebrates five years of spreading ideas online, and YouTube has been a key part of our mission from the start. In fact, TED and YouTube have grown up together as we've spent the past half-decade unlocking the power of video to set free convention-breaking ideas across the globe. On June 27, 2006 TED flipped the switch on a simple web page with six videos. Now five years later, TEDsters all over the world are using video to spread ideas feverishly across the Internet. We're excited to celebrate with the YouTube community a few amazing TEDTalks to mark our anniversary and pay tribute to the fascinating people who have inspired, intrigued and stirred our hearts and minds!

Together we’ve unlocked all kinds of ideas—from silly memes to paradigm shifts in human ingenuity to political change. Harnessing radical openness of the Internet, in fact, has been the topic of other TEDTalks including Clay Shirky, Sal Khan and Peter Gabriel. And we've found some of our most beloved speakers through YouTube—like Johnny Lee, the Wii-mote hacker, whose demo Chris spotted online early in 2008. A plane ticket later, Lee's demo of creating teaching tools with game controllers was on its way to ruling the web. If you haven’t seen it, check out TED's curator Chris Anderson in his own TEDTalk about "How web video powers global innovation." He starts by showing how YouTube-powered video is driving street dance to evolve globally at lightning speed.

With 70 million cumulative views, TEDTalks on YouTube is a killer platform for us, for ideas both big—Sam Richards, and and not-so-big—Terry Moore / How to tie your shoes. We treasure you for your smart insights, active commenting and dedicated subscribership to TED. Fan Ghazzawi9 calls us "weekly dosages of pure enlightenment and inspiration." (Thank you!)

Today's TEDTalk highlights another amazing YouTube power -- sharing ideas in more than one language. Emiliano Salinas' talk, which he delivered in Spanish, is instantly accessible to viewers around the world through YouTube's and TED's subtitle community.



Having reached the 5-year milestone, we look back in awe and look forward with excitement. Thanks, YouTubers, for helping us expand minds, open hearts and inspire others in ways we never expected.

Guest to The Official YouTube Blog Emily McManus, Editor of TED.com, on behalf of the worldwide TED team, recently watched “Google Chrome: It Gets Better."

Afternoon Thread

enjoy.

It Is True That Andrew Breitbart Said It

But the thing he said is not true, though the New York Times doesn't think you should know that.

Recovery Summer II

The president has been traveling around touting a "revitalized" manufacturing economy. It might not be the right time...

Other People Must Suffer

The rich assholes who run the world aren't simply content with hoovering up every penny they can find, they're also obsessed with making sure the rest of us suffer.

It's Easy

Of course your job commuting situation has to allow it, but otherwise living without a car in big chunks of Philadelphia really is no big deal. Key is being relatively close to a decent food market. Joining a carshare system fills in some gaps when you need it to, as does remembering that you can take a hell of a lot of cab rides for what you're saving by not having a car.

Lucy, Football

I give it about 2 days before Republicans start screeching about how Democrats want to cut defense money while our heroes are in harms way, blah blah blah.

I Would Happily Use Them

I really don't understand the aversion to dollar coins. If I ever actually received any in change I would happily use them.

Also She Should Apologize For Attacking His Hands With Her Neck

Team conservative can do no wrong.

That's Our Ticky-Tack

I'm so old I remember when Josh Trevino was leading the charge for Online Civility. Apparently this includes "being cool" with a foreign government shooting Americans.



Via.

We all live in...

...Mouseland!

Signed,
Not Atrios

BC3 Assignment #1: Profile

Welcome to the first assignment of Boot Camp 3. While this is of course a lighting boot camp, the light itself will be secondary to the photos. And the photos will be secondary to the purpose.

The purpose for BC3 will be to force you out into you community in search of well-crafted photos that actually have something to say about your community.Read more »

Late Night Thread

Enjoy

Sunday Evening

Enjoy.

Better cut food stamps.

The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion.

Stop Dancing

I really don't understand these games.


Greece should just say first €X renegotiated will get a 10% haircut, the next €Y renegotiated will get a 25% haricut, the next €Z will get a 50% haircut, and the rest of you are fucked.

Also, Too, Liberals Should Voluntarily Pay More Taxes

I hate when people fail to understand that when collective action is needed, advocating for some sort of collective action doesn't make you a BIG GIANT HYPOCRITE. Al Gore doesn't go around chastising people for their individual choices. Al Gore says we have a big problem which requires collective action.

Sunday Bobbleheads

Face the Nation has Michele Bachmann.

This Week has McConnell and Clyburn.

Meet the Press has President Christie, Jack Reed, and Jim Webb.

Document the atrocities!

Wakey, Wakey

Evening Thread

"The Daughter Test"

If you think it's a reasonable thing then I hope you don't have any daughters.

Your Church Can Do Whatever The Hell It Wants

The thing with this is that from the perspective of the law, it doesn't really matter if we call it "marriage" or "civil union" if they're legally equivalent. The point is, from the perspective of the state, your marriage is that little piece of paper that you sign along with the rights and obligations it confers. When I read people who, from the left, argue that we need to destroy marriage as a concept and replace it with a secular civil union system I scratch my head because it's the same thing with a different name. Alternatively, when I see people on the right freaking out because they think marriage equality will destroy whatever religious concept of marriage they have I also scratch my head. The church bit is an add on which has little or nothing to do with the state bit, and of course isn't necessary.

It shouldn't be too hard to understand that there is, effectively, a secular state aspect to what we call marriage - mostly a property contract - and then there's the part that's between you, your mate, and, if you care, your church/religion and they ultimately don't have all that much to do with each other.

Drudged

I used to pay attention to Drudge all the time, for two reasons. One, leaving aside the politics, he was for a long time a very good news aggregator. I think he (or whoever runs his site) been less good at that for quite some. Two, of course, is that the Villagers claimed Matt Drudge Ruled Their World, and so it was necesssary to see what shit he was slinging to know what they'd be running with a couple of hours later.

I don't think Drudge rules their world anymore. He's lost the pulse of things, and now they pay attention to the twitter machine.

The Domestic F.U.

I try to avoid making predictions, so my basic position was never "the economy will continue to suck," my basic position was that all of the people predicting a rebound were basing that prediction on... well, hope. There just was never anything in the data that should have given anyone any confidence that things were going to be improving enough.

Morning

As I've said before, I get abortion opponents sort of, but the people who devote themselves to fighting gay marriage...get a life, assholes.

Even Worse

Even after Duncan forces you to live in Manhattan and get gay married, his goons will make you take the bus to the reception.

In social networking news, this was bound to happen eventually. As always the comments are the real fun.

Deep Thought

After I force you all to move to Manhattan, you'll be forced to gay marry someone.

And A Win

33-29 for marriage equality in New York Senate.

Friday Night

Rock on.

Weekend's Here

Time for partyin'.

This week's Trends: cones, onions, and hedgehogs

Each weekday, we at YouTube Trends take a look at the most interesting videos and cultural phenomena on YouTube as they develop. We want take a moment to highlight some of what we've come across this week:

• We discovered that it's possible to make something a trend, just by calling it one.
  
  
• We saw frightening footage from tornadoes in Nebraska.
  
  
• We tracked the big, new hit video out of South Korea.
  
  
• We celebrated Sonic the Hedgehog's 20th anniversary.
  
  
• We learned of one man's luggage nightmare.
  
  
• We enjoyed some cool covers.
  
  
• We followed the celebrity-driven campaign to get The Onion a Pulitzer Prize.
  
  
• And Weird Al lived up to his name:

Check back every day for the latest about what's trending on YouTube at: www.YouTube.com/Trends

Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager, recently watched "Hang on Woody!."

Almost Over

The twitter machine tells me that the New York same sex marriage bill will come to a vote in their Senate tonight.

Will Lucy pull the football again?

The Confidence Fairies

I've been trying to wrap my brain around just what the "confidence fairy" stories are. I guess the Republican one is that our Galtian overlords expect there to be massive tax increases in the future, so they've just decided to withhold their productive activity until we can be sure of the end of Kenyan Muslim Socialism.

So let's turn to a more reasonable confidence story. Yes it's probably true that if business owners did see the confidence fairy and believed that a year from now there would be significantly more demand in the economy that this could be self-fulfilling prophecy. That is, by believing that there would be more demand for new homes and locally manufactured tcotchkes, homebuilders would start building and tchotchke manufactures would start making tchotckes in anticipation of future demand. By doing this, construction workers and tchotchke laborers would have more money to purchase homes and tchotchkes and hurray economy saved.

But what the hell does the confidence fairy have to do with the deficit when interest rates are so low? I just can't come up with any semi-plausible stories.

The View From Our Galtian Overlords

Also, too, nobody has jobs or any money.

Elsewhere In The World

SUPERTRAINS.

French engineering giant Alstom has signed a preliminary deal to build a high-speed rail line linking Basra and Baghdad in Iraq.

An Alstom spokesman confirmed to the BBC it had signed a "memorandum of understanding" with Iraqi officials as a first step in the project.

Soak The Rich

Not the worst thing in the world, but I'm really not a fan of deductions and credits that phase out with income. I can see limiting the size of individual deductions, such as capping the amount of home mortgage interest that can be deducted, but not having the deduction itself phase out with income. If you want to soak the rich, up their tax rates.

And, yes, I get that there's no chance Republicans will go along with increasing top tax rates, and a teensy tiny (not really) one they'll go along with phasing out some deductions.

Appetite For Destruction

Our country is only interested in major "humanitarian" efforts, aside from the occasional disaster response, when they involve lots of freedom bombs.

Wanker of the Day

Hillary Clinton.

Wrong

It is negotiating, just good negotiating (and, on the other side, bad negotiating). People and the press should highlight what Republican negotiating is so people can judge, but it's wrong to say it isn't negotiating. "Give me everything I want" is negotiating when it works.

Take The Train

At some point people should just accept the fact that if 60,000 people or so are trying to get to the same place at roughly the same time, and plenty more people are using the highway for other purposes, there is probably going to be some traffic problems.

Good Morning

Gee, what a surprise. Cantor and Kyl have decided not to negotiate further on the budget leaving the Dems very disappointed. I think we've seen this show before.

Late Night

Love how surprised all the Villagers get when the military actually takes orders from the commander-in-chief.

Evening Thread

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy.

Default

Yes Greece should default, or at the very least negotiate as if default is a very real possibility. Let France and Germany bail out their banksters without causing mass suffering in Greece.

Nobody Could Have Predicted

Except all of us.

And while polls say people support tax increases on rich people, and I don't think the TAXTAXTAX boogeyman is as powerful as it used to be, the fact is this debate is going to be presented as "Democrats won't cut a deal because they insist on increasing taxes."

Heckuva job.

I Didn't Notice The Codpiece

Dumb even by their usual dumb standards.

School’s out for summer, but still open on YouTube

Summer is a time for teachers to get some well-deserved R&R, but it’s also an opportunity to develop new methods for the coming school year. One of our YouTube EDU partners, Teaching Channel, shares advice on how teachers can stay busy this summer on YouTube.

June brings dreams of lazy summer days, vacations and the old “no more pencils, no more books.” But with the changes in education today, summer’s less of a languorous break and more of a brief pause from the pressures of teaching. Year round learning, adjustments to new teaching guidelines and the constant race to keep up with requirements often mean that educators are more likely to be looking for professional development than singing “ School’s Out For Summer.”

To support teachers’ professional growth, Teaching Channel captures great teaching on video – sharing knowledge with anyone looking to improve learning for students. On our YouTube channel, you can see everything from using rhythm in teaching reading to explaining the beauty of haikus with fruit. Many of the lessons are aligned with the new Common Core standards being adopted by many states for implementation in the coming school year.



If you have a great idea for a video, know a teacher we should check out or just want to discover some great ideas, subscribe and post feedback in our channel comments. You can also come by and see us at the NEA (June 30-July 1) or AFT (July 13) conferences. Because guess what — we’re too busy to take a summer vacation this year, and school’s always open on YouTube.

Guest to The Official YouTube Blog Candice Meyers, Teaching Channel Head of Product Development, recently watched, “Is 'Teach' a Big Word?”

Bribery

Not actual bribery, but an additional thing that is maddening is that the Obama administration joined up with the bogus anti-earmark agenda. We need more government spending to boost the economy. Every member of Congress should be invited to hand over their wish list for their districts. I'm sure some of the teabaggers would adhere to their fake principles, but enough members would welcome Christmas in June.

Brad Trent for Barron's

Brad Trent shot the mid-year Barron's roundtable issue, this time with a global investing theme. He shot the montage separately, using segmented backgrounds from … Ikea? It gets the full On Assignment treatment, with lighting setups, etc. on his blog.

Classic Brad: he turned in his lighting setup shots to the paper. And they ran them…
__________


See also: Brad Trent's Fake Reality Portraits

-30-

Can't Do Anything About Future Deficits

Yes at some level you can put policies in place which have some inertia, but the big reason to not be worrying about the deficit 5 or 10 years out is that there's almost nothing you can do about the deficit 5 or 10 years out. Future members of Congress will decide that.

Alternatives

I think the basic issue is that transportation systems in the US are too often conceived of as alternative to highways instead of alternatives to cars. They're sold as a means of reducing traffic congestion for commuters instead of another way to get around.

Shouldn't Be Surprising

I'm sure for some people the internet and social media are a substitute for "real world" social life, but I continue to be surprised that people are resistant to the idea that such things can also be complementary.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

429K new lucky duckies.

Not good news.

Morning Thread

"Some Greeks Fear Government Is Selling Nation"

I don't always buy into the disaster capitalism stuff, but, yes, the government is being forced by the banksters and their buddies to sell the nation. Well, no, they aren't actually being forced. In truth they could hold the EU and the banksters hostage, so presumably they're just evil.

Wednesday Night

At least the war is over.

Deep Thought

Over two years ago Time Magazine described Afghanistan as "the longest war."

Deport Jose Antonio Vargas

No I don't want that to happen, but those responsible for carrying out current policies will have to explain what the Jose Antonio Vargas exception is.

Sending People Back To Homes They Never Knew

Since the writer wasn't sent "home" (yet!) that party of the story isn't told. But it's important to note that deporting people who arrived to the US as small children involves sending them to places they have no memory of, where they may not speak the language, where they may have no family or any means of support.

Hopefully Just A Wee Mistake

Was just on google finance.

I Don't Think It's Cowardice

I don't believe the independent Fed is cowardly, I think they have the policy they want.

For The Record

Oy I hate bothering with things like this, but, no, when there were BP ads on this site no one told me that there were any editorial conditions whatsoever..

Jackass

Unsurprisingly, he was quite drunk, though even if he wasn't he was a jackass for speeding.

Many of us engage in various risky activities in which we might harm ourselves, but drunk driving and extreme speeding also are likely to kill other people.

Um, Aren't You Listening To Yourselves?

Fed lowers 2011 growth forecast range from 3.1-3.3 to 2.7-2.9%, and increases unemployment forecast at end of year from 8.4-8.7 to 8.6-8.9%. They also announced that they're done trying to help the economy, so suck on it.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

Please Give Us Even More Republicans To Fawn Over

The coverage of declared candidates, potential candidates, fantasy candidates, people who once thought of being candidates, unpopular governors who like to yell a lot, and basically anyone with an R after their name who... well, anyone with an R after their name has been truly weird.

Just Do Nothing

It's the best thing to do, but Villagers know that rich people need more tax cuts and poor people need more suffering.

Heckuva Job

Perhaps the administration should consider hiring some competent people.

Duh

People got all mad on the twitter machine because Roger Ebert said the Jackass guy was a jackass for driving drunk. And, yes, it's probably not the best thing to say without proof about somebody who just died. I don't if he was legally drunk or not, but the dude had a spectacular crash while driving a Porsche at 2:30 in the morning. He was, obviously, speeding.

People who buy cars like that don't intend to always follow the speed limit. That would defeat the purpose.

Big Shitpile

It isn't about Greece, it's about the Great Casino, and someone should tell Greece that they have the upper hand.

BERLIN (AP) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel is warning that a full-scale restructuring of Greek debt would have "completely uncontrollable"consequences on the financial markets.

Merkel said Wednesday that imposing a so-called haircut on Greek debt - reducing the amount to be repaid - would not only endanger banks and other creditors who hold Greek bonds, but also institutions that sold insurance policies against a default.

Merkel told a parliamentary committee that those credit default swaps have a higher face value than the debt itself.

The people who run the world agree that ordinary people need to suffer so that the banksters don't lose on their bets.

The people who run the world are awful people.

Completely Normal

A lot of people on the twitter machine are calling this a must read and an amazing story and all that. And, yes, I do think people should read it, but I think people are reacting to it in the wrong way. The story is completely common in this country, it is not amazing because it's the experience of some fairly well-known journalism guy. It is the experience of a hell of a lot of people. And, yes, if that story can do anything to push sane legislation on immigration that's wonderful, but it's the story (roughly) of millions of people.

Complete Bullshit

I've been hearing this from various places recently, and it's total bullshit.

Today, the Fed is under intense criticism, which limits its freedom of action. Having not done enough, they're now unable to do more.

The Fed isn't failing to act because they're worried someone might say something mean and hurt their fee fees, they're failing to act because they think they're doing the right thing.

Another Election About Nothing

Going forward, it's hard to see that the presidential election will be about anything at all. Sure the Republicans will make all the right noises (sluts bad, abortion bad, christianity good, muslims bad, global warming fake, tax cuts good, yurp sucks, obamacare evil), but ultimately I think we're going to have a presidential campaign which will have about zero policy content.

If we re-elect Obama he'll...?

They Were All Idiots Or Liars...and Assholes

One day I suppose I'll get over it. Not yet.

Finn O'Hara: Wayne Gretzky's First Skates

Toronto-based photographer Finn O'Hara was assigned to shoot The Great One's first skates for ESPN The Magazine, and his take included this shot on pure white.

O'Hara used light rather than a Photoshop cutout to get the pure white background in-camera. His blog post gives a good look at a textbook blow-away white setup on location for a three-dimensional object.

But O'Hara doesn't go into any how-and-why detail. So let's do that here. Read more »

Sham

One of the hopey-changey elements of the Obama campaign was transparency and an end to Bush budget chicanery. Not so much, in the event.

Republicans say they won’t raise taxes. Democrats are reluctant to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. So discretionary spending — the roughly 35 percent of government that includes other social programs and the military — will have to be a big part of any deal in coming weeks to raise the debt ceiling.

But there is a little problem with discretionary spending.

According to the government’s official forecasts, discretionary spending is already slated to shrink significantly. Military spending will fall by 25 percent, as a share of the economy, over the next decade. Domestic programs will shrink even more, and by 2021 they will account for their smallest share of the economy since the 1950s.

I’m guessing you haven’t heard of these plans, however. That’s probably because plans is a bit of an exaggeration. Assumptions is a better word: per Congress’s orders, the baseline budget numbers unrealistically assume that future discretionary spending will grow only with inflation, rather than with population growth and economic growth, too.

As a result, Vice President Joe Biden, Republican leaders and the other deficit negotiators not only have to cut discretionary spending to make progress. They have to cut it even more than the Congressional Budget Office, the keeper of the official numbers, already assumes that spending will be cut.

Leave aside Democrats "reluctant" to gut the New Deal social insurance programs. Sadly, the Republicans won't let them do anything else.

It will be July soon. There is the Independence Day recess. There is no time to actually implement any changes to spending or tax policy that can come anywhere close to the magnitude of these supposed cuts. We've had one vote--reducing ethanol subsidies--on clearly good public policy that would (trivially) reduce spending. It failed.

I am so old I remember Reagan budgets, always on their way to balance, in the "out years." What we're really seeing, in this "budget deal," is elite Democrats signing on to the Big Lie.

More Thread

Because you never shut up.

Tuesday Evening

enjoy.

Good Thing We've Been So Nice To The Banksters

Because they're such model citizens.

The Los Angeles city attorney's office filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against the world's fourth-largest bank, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and restitution and an injunction forcing it to clean up its foreclosed properties in Los Angeles.

The Frankfurt, Germany-based bank has foreclosed on more than 2,000 homes over the last four years in neighborhoods across the city, according to the suit — many concentrated in the northeast San Fernando Valley, northeast Los Angeles and South Los Angeles.

Los Angeles officials say the bank has been a dreadful landlord and neighbor. Prosecutors say that during a yearlong investigation, they found evidence that Deutsche Bank had illegally evicted some tenants, let others live in squalor and allowed hundreds of unoccupied properties to turn into graffiti-scarred dens for squatters, gang members and other criminals.

(ht reader j)

Hamsterdam

One would hope that a self-proclaimed fan of The Wire would have learned something from it.

Music Tuesday: Other Music, Terra Naomi and Pete Rock

Summer is finally underway in the northern hemisphere, and while new releases may be slowing down, youtube.com/music is getting busy. Neo-soul songstress Jill Scott graced us with a playlist of her inspirations over the weekend, the ever-charming Alicia Keys celebrates the ten-year anniversary of Songs In A Minor with an invitation to the YouTube community and the music world mourned the loss of Clarence Clemons, the gentle giant who played saxophone with Bruce Springsteen for more than thirty years. Meanwhile, everybody from Bon Iver to Pitbull are releasing new albums today. Later this week we’ll feature a contest, another video premiere and some very special coverage from England’s Glastonbury music festival; be sure to check out youtube.com/music over the weekend for updates.

Other Music recommends...music!
When we started inviting independent record stores to curate playlists of their favorite music, we had no idea that so many of you would be watching. More than 500k views later, Amoeba Music’s playlist is still turning people on to good music, so this month we head to the East Coast to see what’s popping at Other Music, the New York record store known as a home to all things indie, experimental and adventurous. They came up with a creative collection of videos which we’re featuring on the homepage today.



Terra Naomi
One of YouTube’s early music stars, Terra Naomi set the template for many who followed. Her song “Say It’s Possible” featured one of the first crowdsourced music videos; five years later, she’s releasing a new album and a new crowdsourced video, which she’s premiering with us today. The video is directed by Alex Albrecht and made in conjunction with iPhone app Hipstamatic and pulls images from over 10,000 entries from around the world. She also shares a playlist of some of her favorite cover songs of all time.



Smif-n-Wessun & Pete Rock premiere the album Monumental
Smif-n-Wessun (later known as Cocoa Brovaz after a legal dispute over their name) helped define hardcore hip-hop lyricism with a string of successful, critically-lauded albums back in the 1990s. Pete Rock has been in the game just as long, an emcee and producer who helped define jazz-hop alongside acts like A Tribe Called Quest. He went on to become one of the Wu-Tang Clan’s go-to producers, crafting tracks for everyone from Raekwon to Ghostface Killah. Monumental proves the duo’s tag-team rap style is still on lock, while Pete Rock’s production never misses the mark — and often recalls his late, great colleague, the venerated J Dilla. Check it out now, one week before release date.



Sarah Bardeen recently watched “Breakbot - ‘Fantasy’ (Jacques Renault remix).”

More Sympathetic

I'm guessing in this context "out-of-character buildings" means too much of a density increase in a lower density area. While I do think a big problem we have in some places, particularly places located near key mass transit stations, is zoning preventing more dense development, and more generally I think people have an irrational fear of the negative consequences of increased density, it's also the case that an urban area with 3 story buildings isn't the same as an urban area with 8 or 12 story buildings. If you start adding the latter you will generally have an increase in traffic and noise. That is, you will change the character of the neighborhood. As I said, I think people tend to be too resistant to density increases, as they can have positive benefits, but that doesn't mean I want a giant building on the corner of my block either.

Nobody Could Have Predicted

Well, I suppose I'm a bit surprised that it happened this fast, and a bit surprised that his people weren't aware of the fact that it was all a grift, but..

ATLANTA — The top fundraisers for Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign have abandoned his struggling bid amid anemic fundraising and heavy spending.
More Nation & World stories »

...

People familiar with Gingrich's campaign spending say his fundraising has been weak since he launched his bid and that he has racked up large travel bills. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk openly about campaign inner workings.

When I launch my presidential bid, I will spend all of my time campaigning for votes in our nation's resort towns.

Choices

If the European Central Bank is worried that some of its banksters might miss a happy hour or two if Greece defaults, they can print up a bunch of free money for their bankster pals and call it a day. Instead they're trying to inflict mass suffering on the people of Greece, with the enthusiastic cooperation of Greek leaders.

Awful people run the world.

Actual Good News

Another smart liberal on the teevee.

So More Free Money For Rich People It Is

That's the plan...for everything.

That may be about to change. Senate sources tell Fortune that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the No. 3 Democrat in the chamber and a one-time opponent of the holiday, is testing his colleagues' interest in marrying the proposal to a new infrastructure program.

The idea is to encourage corporations keeping a collective total of more than $1 trillion parked abroad to bring it home by temporarily lowering the tax rate to about 5% from 35%. The tax receipts from that holiday then would be dedicated to an infrastructure bank that would help fund new building projects.

Yes, an infrastructure bank might be good. What would also be good is if there was a political party that was interested in pointing out that "free money for rich people" was the price for doing anything.

I Do Not Think Major Means What That Headline Writer Thinks It Means

Not so major.

In a speech to be delivered Wednesday, the president is expected to declare that successes in disrupting Al Qaeda's ability to stage attacks against the United States allow him to begin reducing troop levels, said the officials, who cautioned that Obama was still "finalizing" his decision.

In 2009 the president coupled his decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan with a pledge to begin removing some of those forces this summer. U.S. officials and outside experts familiar with recent deliberations said Obama was leaning toward withdrawing all the additional troops by the end of 2012 or early 2013. That would leave close to 70,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Endless Wars

It isn't the most important point, but when in modern warfare a little freedom bombing can cost you $1 billion in a week it's worth asking just which of the war's advocates would spend $1 billion on any other "humanitarian" mission like, say, providing a reliable source of potable water for millions of people.

Election season

Isn't it reassuring to know that of all the things that might disqualify candidates for the presidency from being taken seriously, treason is not one of them.

Signed,
Not Atrios

YouTube Town Hall: members of Congress answer your questions on education, immigration and the economy

Since we launched the YouTube Town Hall, an online platform for members of Congress to debate and discuss the most important issues of the day, representatives and citizens alike have actively used the site. Twenty-five members of Congress submitted videos across the six initial topics, and people watched these videos more than 1.1 million times. You cumulatively submitted more than 115,000 votes, and it was Tom Udall’s video, “Time for Afghanistan Transition”, that ended the month at the top of the YouTube Town Hall Leaderboard. The top five videos included a diverse array of issues from Senators and Representatives on both sides of the aisle:







Today we’re launching round two with new topics. You’ve submitted hundreds of questions and voted thousands of times, and here are the three top questions that Congress is answering:

1. Economy: We are greatly concerned about the current economic climate in the United States. Not only are prices on consumer goods going up, but the value of our currency is falling. How will Congress solve the burdens that weigh so heavily on everyone?
2. Education: Technology is rapidly becoming one of the country's largest industries. How can high schools help prepare their students if they're using outdated computers and equipment?
3. Immigration: There are millions of undocumented individuals living in the United States, many of whom were brought to the US as children. Is enacting the Dream Act a viable way for these individuals to be granted citizenship?

Visit YouTube Town Hall to watch members of Congress debate these new questions. And if you’re interested in posing questions of your own, ask them here!



Will Houghteling, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson: U.S. Economy - By The Numbers.“

Overnight

Been busy.

Okay Then

"We've Done Enough"

- Culture of Truth

The Weather Sucks 3-4 Months Of The Year Almost Everywhere In The US

Discuss.

In A Sane World

Yes we'd be talking about increasing, not lowering, Social Security benefits. And we really really really should at least temporarily lower the full benefit eligibility age to 62 and the partial benefit age down to 60.

Fake Cities

I've never been to the Mall of America, but I've been to similar if smaller things in Southern California and elsewhere. It's true that such projects can have difficulty with land assembly and the financing of infrastructure, but it's also true that they can solve certain coordination problems and internalize some kinds of externalities that "real" cities are unable to. And the "private property" aspect of them means they can do law enforcement (security) in a way that real cities can't actually do (throwing people out if you don't like them, basically).

These aren't my favorite places in the world, but they're fine for what they are. For me the mystery was that (though this has been changing) they have been envisioned without any kind of residential component. Or, more specifically, why not make them a bit more like real cities, with actual nearby residents.