Wen Calls Again for Political Reform

Third time in the last few months, this time during an interview with CNN:

In a rare interview, aired on CNN on Sunday, Mr Wen said: "I believe I and all the Chinese people have such conviction that China will make continuous progress and the people's wishes and need for democracy and freedom are irresistible. I hope you will be able to gradually see the continuous progress of China."

Premier Wen also said he has faced “resistance” from sections of the Chinese leadership in taking forward political reforms in China, for the first time indicating that there was a split between leaders of the Communist Party over the sensitive question.

He said freedom of speech was “indispensable” for any country, and warned the next generation of leadership, which takes over from him and President Hu Jintao in 2012, that those who went against “the will of the people” would “fail.”

The Tyranny of High Speed Rail

We really are dealing with biggest douche bags in the history of the universe: (via john cole)

In his State of the Union address this year, the president called for buildinghigh-speed rail, and backed up his words with $8 billion in stimulus money, distributed to various states, for rail projects.

But Republican candidates for governor in some of the states that won the biggest stimulus rail awards are reaching for the emergency brake.

In Wisconsin, which got more than $810 million in federal stimulus money to build a train line between Milwaukee and Madison, Scott Walker, the Milwaukee County executive and Republican candidate for governor, has made his opposition to the project central to his campaign.

Mr. Walker, who worries that the state could be required to spend $7 million to $10 million a year to operate the trains once the line is built, started a Web site, NoTrain.com, and has run a television advertisement in which he calls the rail project a boondoggle. “I’m Scott Walker,” he says in the advertisement, “and if I’m elected as your next governor, we’ll stop this train.”

You could say that worrying about paying the maintenance costs of an economy expanding high speed train line that HE'S GETTING FOR FREE is the dumbest part, but it's not even that's the real reason. Since "notrain.com" is nothing but donate button and a place where you can "Say no to Obama" by giving them your email address, I'm guessing this is just another way to convince the idiots in your base that you too can stand up to Obama's Gay Train Marxism by giving Republicans more money.

Of all the stupid shit you see, I honestly never thought I'd see people campaigning against high speed rail... but here we are.

Train of Thought Lounge: Kanye West

This performance on SNL... Jesus

Epic Starcraft II Replays

Chances are, if you're reading this, you at least know what Starcraft is. In fact, chances are you've wasted hundreds of thousands of hours playing this king of games, and know the precise difference in dps between sieged and unsieged siege tanks. But just in case you aren't in on the awesomeness:

•Starcraft supports thousands of professional players worldwide. And yes, by professional players I mean people who get paid (often handsomely) to do nothing but be among the best in the world at a computer game. How do they get paid? This is an aerial photo of a tournament, presumably in South Korea where the game is all but a national sport:



•Remember that snipe about something being as boring as watching someone else play a video game? That's really not true about Starcraft. Spectators exist because the game is fast-paced, impeccably balanced, and a blank canvas for creative strategic thinking. Tradition aside, Starcraft matches are generally way more fun to watch than, for example, baseball games.

•How fast is fast paced? Top players – particularly in Korea, where high apm is socially prized – frequently top 300 actions per minute within the game. That's five actions a second. Can you even click your mouse five times in a second? I didn't think so.

•I should note that Starcraft came out in 1998, and was still being played by hundreds of thousands of people when its sequel came out this year. This sequel, Starcraft II, took twelve years to release – and you will never, ever hear anyone complain about the fact that it really isn't all that different from the original.

So enough synopsis. Here are some super-epic pro or semipro replays, commentated by my two favorite professional Starcraft commentators. Yep, there are professional Starcraft commentators.

1. Here is possibly my favorite replay to date, basically the definition of a knock-down, drag-out fight between Zerg and Terran (two of the three races you can play – the third being Protoss). Both players hammer each other as hard as they can all game, with lots of back-and-forth control of the map and hard counters to advanced, powerful units.







2. Here's a quick Protoss vs. Zerg game that showcases a whole series of brilliant wall-off moves by the Protoss player.



3. And here's a recent free-for-all (where more than two players duke it out with no set alliances) played by members of Team Liquid, a pro Starcraft team.








For more from Husky and HD, check out their website (Starcraft Arena) or subscribe to their YouTube channels.

They Don't Like Taxing The Rich In Kentucky

The plan was to endorse Jack Conway as the next Train Action candidate. Maybe not:

No matter who Kentuckians elect to the Senate this fall, they're going to get an advocate for extending all the Bush tax cuts -- and not just those for the middle class. In their first (and likely only) nationally-televised debate of the race, Republican nominee Rand Paul and Democratic nominee Jack Conway disagreed on just about everything -- except for extending billions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans at a time when government is struggling to shrink the deficit.

"I think that raising taxes -- we shouldn't be doing it in a time of recession," Conway said. "Listen, in 2002, when I was running for the United States Congress, I was for the Bush tax cuts then. I was one of the few Democrats that was for them and I think now we just ought to extend them."

Ugh.

So fucking stupid.

A Roadmap Towards Hiding Your Actual Plan

Shorter Paul Ryan: "Don't tell them what we're actually going to do!" (ThinkProgress via Digby)

When Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) released his radical Roadmap for America’s Future — which he claims will balance the budget via privatizing Social Security and Medicare — Republican leadership quickly ran away from it, emphasizing that it was Ryan’s personal plan and not the official GOP platform. Now, it seems, Ryan doesn’t want anyone else scrutinizing his plan at all.
During an appearance at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Ryan criticized Democrats for “the political weaponization” of Social Security, and asked candidates on the campaign trail to please stop attacking Republican plans to gut entitlements. Politico reported:

“We’ve got to get through this political moment. The political weaponization of entitlement reform is very unfortunate. It’s hurting our chances of actually getting bipartisan agreement in the near future. It’s unfortunate but we’ve got to get out there.” Though he called for candidates to stop talking about entitlement reform on the campaign trail, Ryan also cast his Roadmap in a soft light to deflect criticism that it will hurt seniors. He reminded the audience that his plan doesn’t affect those over 55.

Of course, Ryan’s plan would radically alter Social Security, to the detriment of the program, which is something that needs to be talked about. Remember, under the Roadmap, Social Security would be privatized through the creation of personal investment accounts and benefits for future retirees would be cut, all without setting the program on a path for solvency:

The Ryan plan proposes large cuts in Social Security benefits — roughly 16 percent for the average new retiree in 2050 and 28 percent in 2080 from price indexing alone — and initially diverts most of these savings to help fund private accounts rather than to restore Social Security solvency. Because the plan would divert large sums from Social Security to private accounts, it would leave the program facing insolvency in about 30 years, just as under current law. The plan would avoid insolvency by transferring $1.2 trillion from the rest of the budget to Social Security between 2037 and 2056.

Ryan’s Roadmap would also end Medicare as we know it, creating a voucher that won’t keep up with the cost of health care.

Never Been To Dallas

So, so true. (via Sports Bog)