Via: Think Progress & Markos’ tweet.

GOP has railroaded tons of legislation through using this same procedure. Read this fact check from Media Matters.

Choice bit:

As if to underscore just how deep and awful the hypocrisy is The American Enterprise Institute’s own Norman J. Ormstein is referenced also:

I can’t recall a level of feigned indignation nearly as great as what we are seeing now from congressional Republicans and their acolytes at the Wall Street Journal, and on blogs, talk radio, and cable news. It reached a ridiculous level of misinformation and disinformation over the use of reconciliation, and now threatens to top that level over the projected use of a self-executing rule by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In the last Congress that Republicans controlled, from 2005 to 2006, Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier used the self-executing rule more than 35 times, and was no stranger to the concept of “deem and pass.” That strategy, then decried by the House Democrats who are now using it, and now being called unconstitutional by WSJ editorialists, was defended by House Republicans in court (and upheld) [italics added—Ed.]. Dreier used it for a $40 billion deficit reduction package so that his fellow GOPers could avoid an embarrassing vote on immigration. I don’t like self-executing rules by either party-I prefer the “regular order”-so I am not going to say this is a great idea by the Democrats. But even so-is there no shame anymore? [American Enterprise Institute, 3/16/10]

Conservatives in 2010: the sorest losers in the history of losers. o

© 2010 Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No republishing without permision. This post was originally written by Jon Armstrong for blurbomat.com.
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Posted in: GOP hypocrisy, GOP lies, healthcare, politics, u.s. healthcare

Had a blast! o

© 2010 Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No republishing without permision. This post was originally written by Jon Armstrong for blurbomat.com.
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Posted in: iphone, photos, slideshow, travel

In Los Angeles there is a great photo every 3 feet. o

© 2010 Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No republishing without permision. This post was originally written by Jon Armstrong for blurbomat.com.
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o

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This song is a straight up Merkley joint. He brought this in fully written and the rest of us just added a few touches here and there. Merkley bought a sampler and began to bring in songs he did fully composed. I think I added a some of the keyboard sounds on this one (clavinet, whoosy synth) but Merkely brought it in with some of them. Plus, the sax solo is a ripping good one.

I believe we recorded this at the less expensive studio where we did our first tape and if that’s so, I’m surprised at how big this sounds given the 16 track limitation. I’m a little disappointed at where the keyboards live in the mix, but no amount of tweakage during my remaster sessions could rescue them. At the beginning, you can hear a click, but it’s the air moving out of the trombone and into the mic. We didn’t discover this until it was too late. It’s not too bad in the middle of the track, but it’s there during the fade in.

Mixing this kind of super heavy guitar-laden song is an enormous challenge, especially given the wall of guitars in the breaks. Super loud and super hard to remaster objectively. This track was a direct result of listening to too much Fishbone. It’s a good track, just a departure from the brand of ska we had been up to.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Direct download:
Swim Herschel Swim – burn swim burn – Scourge – Remastered, MP3, 320kbps, 11.3MB

o

© 2010 Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No republishing without permision. This post was originally written by Jon Armstrong for blurbomat.com.
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Posted in: Burn Swim Burn, BYU, college, music, provo, Remaster, scourge, ska, skeletons in daddy's closet, swim herschel swim

HI!

Remember last spring and summer when I started sharing and remastering tracks from Swim Herschel Swim? And then we had our second baby? And then we launched a new section of dooce.com? And then Heather got signed by HGTV? We’re back!

This song is one I take a modicum of pride in writing. I wrote all the music for this one and of all the songs we did, this embodies what I heard in my head when I met with Rich and Rod to discuss linking up as a ska outfit. I had composed this on my Ensoniq EPS (old school 16-bit sampler with an eight instrument limit) and when the band showed interest, I felt like I could die. Once the horns kicked in during the first rehearsal of this song I did actually die for about 2 minutes.

We recorded this one during one of our all nighters and I fought very very very hard to make sure this wasn’t too fast. I won, but not after making several control room guests uncomfortable. I think this was the one where outside observers felt that Pat and I should get a room. I absolutely love this horn line and playing it faster would ruin the vibe.

For this session, our tenor sax guy, Andy, doubled up on Baritone sax and we enlisted a trumpet sideman as well. I think we had six or seven horn tracks by the end. Sloppy and beautiful. I also got to play the massive grand piano in the studio. We tracked this mostly live in a few takes; only vocals, horns and the shout chorus were overdubbed. The bass is a real stand up double bass that Kent smuggled out of BYU late and returned super early so no one would notice its absence. It was tricky as shit to record, if I recall and we struggled to get a good tone on tape. Once we started rehearsing this, Rod thought it would be great if we added some Cab Calloway shout to the chorus. While we are screamingly white in how we sound, I think it adds a nice touch.

Lyrically, Rod wrote the words after we played a show for the Anti-Defamation League (if I recall correctly) and some dipshit skinheads showed up outside and beat up our biggest supporter, the legendary Ska Bob after Bob defended a person of color in the parking lot of the show. Douchebag racists.

This remaster should feature much punchier horns and capture the live quality of the session:

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Direct download:
Swim Herschel Swim – burn swim burn – Bob – Remastered, MP3, 320kbps, 10.8MB

Enjoy. o

© 2010 Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No republishing without permision. This post was originally written by Jon Armstrong for blurbomat.com.
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Posted in: Bob, Burn Swim Burn, BYU, music, provo, ska, skeletons in daddy's closet, swim herschel swim, when they beat up bob

ksl.com – BREAKING NEWS: Hazmat called to IRS facility in Farr West

And of course, the comments are pure gold. If ignorance and extremism can be considered gold.

THIS IS THE REASON I WRITE ABOUT CONSERVATIVES SO MUCH. The invective from the conservative punditry, including Glenn Beck, is dangerous. o

© 2010 Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No republishing without permision. This post was originally written by Jon Armstrong for blurbomat.com.
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Posted in: chaos, crazy, news, utah

This is typical Republican theater; argue that they’re the party of fiscal responsibility while at the same time acting entirely opposite. Under the last president, with Republicans in the majority, they cut taxes and didn’t fund two wars. The irresponsibility of their actions have gone ignored by most in the media, including the supposedly “liberal” outlets.

Republicans are behaving reprehensibly, because they have become accustomed to claiming a moral high ground. In the case of healthcare reform, Republicans are 100 years behind the times, backing policy from their last popular dead president, who espoused that the government was the problem. The same president expanded government, changed the tax code and ran up the deficit, leaving a Democrat to fix it. That’s the narrative that Republicans are in deep denial over. No amount of Fox/Beck/Hannity/Limbaugh/O’Reilly is going to change the fact that Republicans are not facing the music. 2010 will not be 1994, if the Dems nut it up and pass healthcare reform legislation. The irony is that passing the evil Democratic legislation in front of Congress, which contains Republican ideas (before they flip flopped on those ideas; another in a long list of deep hypocrisies plaguing supposed fiscally responsible conservatives).

That aside, if the GOP continues its strategy of obstructionism, there is a human cost, one that will only ensure future GOP losses at the polls if nothing is done to fix the broken U.S. healthcare system:

The Cost of Doing Nothing on Health Care

Nearly every mainstream analysis calls for medical costs to continue to climb over the next decade, outpacing the growth in the overall economy and certainly increasing faster than the average paycheck. Those higher costs will translate into higher premiums, which will mean fewer individuals and businesses will be able to afford insurance coverage. More of everyone’s dollar will go to health care, and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid will struggle to find the money to operate.

Personal sidenote: I’ve never seen a bigger bunch of low class sore loser pussies than the GOP this cycle. At least in ‘94, Newt Gingrich pretended to be an intellectual leader. There is no such thing now. The Tea Party is not even close to having the momentum that Newt had in ‘94.

p.s. Dems, time to unify and pass it. o

© 2010 Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No republishing without permision. This post was originally written by Jon Armstrong for blurbomat.com.
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Posted in: healthcare, politics, u.s. healthcare

I’m very curious about the crumpled pack of Newports and the rubber glove. o

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Posted in: 2009, 5D, New Orleans, orange, street, travel, winter

The Price of Politics:

CBS News story here.

One thing Powell did not mention is that under Obama, we’ve captured far more Taliban than we did when Bush was in the White House.

I have to ask, why run for office, even as a minority party member of Congress, if you aren’t going to govern? o

© 2010 Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No republishing without permision. This post was originally written by Jon Armstrong for blurbomat.com.
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Posted in: politics, video