Month: February 2009

Stupid Republican Tricks10 Comments

Gregg

In observation and in commentary. Whine, whine, whine: In an interview with The Associated Press, Gregg said, “For 30 years, I’ve been my own person in charge of my own views, and I guess I hadn’t really focused on the job of working for somebody else and carrying their views, and so this is basically where it came out.” Gregg, 61, said he informed theWhite House “fairly early in the week” about his decision. He said he changed his mind after realizing he wasn’t ready to “trim my sails” to be a part of Obama’s team. “I just sensed that … Continue reading Gregg

Uncategorized11 Comments

On the death of a chanteuse

It’s odd thatBlossom Dearie wasn’t a household name. Or, maybe not. Jazz critic Whitney Bailliett famously wrote that Dearie’s voice “would scarcely reach the second storey of a doll’s house.”The voice, which could be as sarcastic as it was whimsical, and the cabaret/jazz hybrid musical style she favored, weren’t to everyone’s liking, I guess. Of course, not everyone likes quiet Sunday mornings with the sun streaming in the windows, or late Saturday nights with just you and your sweetie, stealing a kiss on the subway platform, or an endless champagne brunch in some tucked-away little spot. Those are Blossom Dearie … Continue reading On the death of a chanteuse

Uncategorized3 Comments

Probing the Depths of Wingnuttia

Gavin at Sadly, No!, if you haven’t already read it: What we learn today from the Washington Times is that medical records must not be digitized as the Obama plan proposes, but can only exist in paper form because YOU KNOW WHO LIKED EFFICIENCY HITLER THAT’S WHO. And certainly, such naïve, Godwin-unawareamuse-gueules of instaHitler are in the category of always-funny. I personally like tolaugh at things that are funny, and would imagine thatother people feel the same. But it’s also the case that these tantrums represent something different to the wingnut mind than to the clinically normal one. To the … Continue reading Probing the Depths of Wingnuttia

Geek Cred25 Comments

We Had Dreams and Songs to Sing: Galactica Thread

StarbuckFUCKYEAH

Jacob:

One man’s “there are no good guys” is another man’s “then it follows
that there are no bad guys,” and I try to stay on the right side of
that line, but this deck seems really stacked. It’s all people who
either A) don’t matter or B) are so disgusting they don’t matter, which
means that anybody who throws in alongside them ceases to matter as
well. Which is not how this should go down, because I want to root for
everybody. Or, maybe in this case, for nobody. It’s hard to see where
the insurrectionists are coming from when this is the company they
keep. I guess somebody that’s not me could similarly say that it’s hard
to see where the loyalists are coming from when most of them are Cylons
and all of them are suddenly pro-Cylon, which tracks because the Fleet
is ignorant enough to think that “Cylons” are still the problem. But
I’ve actually been watching the show for four years, and it’s nothing
like that simple. I just wish it wereless simple to come down
on this side, and I’m afraid one Racetrack — whom I’ve always found
boring — and a few worried looks from Felix aren’t going to cut it.
This is a dumb plan, being carried out for dumb reasons, by the dumbest
trash in the Fleet. How is that attractive?

This is the problem, though. You do something assholish, even if you’re a good guy who by and large has a reasonable point, and you end up attracting these assholes because you need them to do stuff for you. You need bodies for your revolution so you take who you can get. And who you can get is usually who’s irrational and pissed off, because you’re in a hurry and they’ll go along with your crazy fast and not ask too many annoying questions, like “now what?” and “should we, like, have a plan before we go all berserker on the place?” It’s not that the revolution is bad because it’s being propagated by sucky people, it’s that the very nature of the revolution ensures a place for these rapists and dickheads because when all you’ve got is 10,000 hammers you need 10,000 nails. Flatheaded, thick ones, easy to bang into place. Thus, every rapist and dumbass on the planet ends up siding with you and if you feel sort of sticky afterward, well, look. You made up the recruiting brochure. This is what you asked for.

In any case, spoilers within.

Continue reading “We Had Dreams and Songs to Sing: Galactica Thread”

Of Interest15 Comments

Good Morning!

Mmmmm…smiley coffee… So what’s on your mind this morning?  Could it be something about theshitty media narratives around the Democratic primary? How about the fact thatboth Democratic candidates beat Sen. McCain in head-to-head polls? Kinda hard to write a negative story about Democrats with that little nugget, so don’t expect to see it brought up much. The insanity that is thepermanent war in Iraq? (Youdo want to read that one.) Maybe it’s that the oil and chemical companieswant you to breathe dirty air. Or maybe it’s something more pleasant, likethe rearrangement of the tree of life. Turns out that comb … Continue reading Good Morning!

Immoral Values17 Comments

Yes, I Am Going To Talk About Octuplet Mom

For just a minute, toagree with Amanda here: There’s no doubt in my mind that the reaction to Suleman is hostile for sexist and possibly racist reasons, because if you do think she’s off her gourd to have so many kids (especially at once), then the proper response is compassion and not anger. But the anger aimed at her is interesting, because the official response right up until she gave birth to 8 babies while unmarried is to treat ridiculous levels with fecundity with open arms, and never, ever to question our culture’s preference for child-bearing over not. I don’t … Continue reading Yes, I Am Going To Talk About Octuplet Mom

Terrorism6 Comments

Impossible

An impossible position? Not really. You just have to do the right thing, the thing you promised to do, the thing you know is the right thing to do, no matter how the wingnuts howl and the Very Serious People lecture and your desire for political expediency nags you. It’s not that impossible. You have to be willing to override every idea of the past eight years, that “what if” is enough to violate someone’s rights, that secrecy is always better than openness, that the benefit of the doubt is always due government in these cases. But it’s not impossible. … Continue reading Impossible

Stupid Republican Tricks8 Comments

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession With The Freeperati – Son Of Birth Certificate Blues

Good morning, everybody!First of all, they’re STILL crawling along on the pledge drive. As they used to wrap these things up in a week or so, this is amazing. Secondly, they’ve recovered enough to start pouncing on minutiae like a crash survivor rejoicing because they found an undamaged candy bar in the glove compartment of a car that has crashed and killed the driver and all the other passengers – AHA! Success!! Assuming that they’re really human, this speaks to the resiliency of the human spirit. Well, let’s get suited up and crack that airlock door, shall we? Everyone stay … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsession With The Freeperati – Son Of Birth Certificate Blues

So Called Liberal Media7 Comments

Marketing and Distro

If nobody knows about your paper, does it matter what’s in it? If everybody knows about your paper but can’t find it without a searchlight and a posse, does it matter what’s in it? Part of my beef with a lot of the newspaper-crisis discussions going on is that they focus on content, which is easy to do since the people who make themselves available for weekend panel discussions and online wankery are, by and large, the writers and talkers who produce said content. Their names and faces are known, they’re local if not national celebrities. And they have absolutely … Continue reading Marketing and Distro

Uncategorized1 Comment

For Those Of You With An Outrage Deficit Today

Allison Hantschel

Check out the mouth-breathing wingnut running against Russ Feingold, via the hardly liberal standard-bearing Milwaukee Journali Sentinel: At the end of the ad, which is airing in La Crosse, Michels says, “Unlike Senator Feingold, I’ll fight for your right to buy safe and affordable prescription drugs from Canada.” Any examination of Feingold’s record compels the conclusion that, contrary to what the ad asserts, he has supported several measures to win this benefit. Advocates for the aged, who have a special interest in acquiring affordable prescription drugs, have attested to Feingold’s efforts on this issue. Last year, for example, Feingold was … Continue reading For Those Of You With An Outrage Deficit Today

Political Crack9 Comments

Preznit Giv Us Turkee

Drawback to being a nonprofessional blogger: Meatspace obligations trumping ability toSuperman that ho Crack Van the presser or the Town Hall. In any case, TiVo’d it, watched it, and am still finding it hard to believe we have a president who can speak in complete sentences. That part of this ain’t getting old anytime soon. Obama appeared to do the job of opening up the can of PWNSAUCE the Republicans richly deserved, he answered each one-sentence halfwit question in 41 parts and iambic pentameter, etc, etc. It was fine. It’s gonna take a while till I stop expecting to be … Continue reading Preznit Giv Us Turkee

Congress12 Comments

What Matters

Charming. Just charming. Nice going, “centrists.”Nice fucking job: $40 billion State Fiscal Stabilization $16 billion School Construction $7.5 billion of State Incentive Grants $5.8 billion Health Prevention Activity $4.5 billion GSA $3.5 billion Higher Ed Construction (Eliminated) $3.5 billion Federal Bldgs Greening $2.25 Neighborhood Stabilization (Eliminate) $2 billion broadband $2 billion HIT Grants $1.25 billion project based rental $1 billion Head Start/Early Start $1.2 billion in Retrofiting Project 8 Housing $1 billion Energy Loan Guarantees Via Kos, that’s what got cut from the stimulus bill. Bipartisanship is the victor! Huzzah, huzzah, we all feel good about ourselves for being friends! … Continue reading What Matters

Political Crack5 Comments

Gloating/Excuses

Go read the Crack Den and thengo read Oliver and then come back. And, look, I’ve been screaming this for years. There’s no real point in arguing with people who aren’t arguing. They’re not coming up with reasons not to vote for Obama. They’re coming up with excuses for why they just don’ wanna, and it’s pointless to get into it. This is like going out and asking Republicans why they’re not Democrats and never will be, and then using their answers to prove the Democrats are DOING IT WRONG by not appealing to these people, instead of just accepting … Continue reading Gloating/Excuses

Congress6 Comments

Oooga Booga ACORN!

All right, I don’t always love Dick Durbin, butthis is a frakkin’ epic smackdown: The amendment, which deservedly failed, would have prohibited ACORN from receiving any funding from the programs paid for by the stimulus bill. It was a zombie lie of the right-wing extremists that ACORN was receiving an earmark in this bill, on top of which, grant and other spending programs funded by the bill are all to be awarded on a competitive basis, anyway. Vitter’s amendment was particularly petty, as Durbin points out, given that ACORN volunteers rehabilitated some 3500 homes in Louisiana in the wake of … Continue reading Oooga Booga ACORN!

Immoral Values20 Comments

Small Town Values

Judging: What is there to do in a small town? The same thing there is in a large city. There are the same books, the same movies, the same sports, and for the most part the same social activities. There’s also ready access to wilderness and outdoor activities that folks from the cities often drive for hours to find. What’s not there in small towns? Well, for the most part there aren’t any night clubs where people are going to be impressed by your ride or your suit, and the local selection of shoes probably doesn’t include anything being worn … Continue reading Small Town Values

Diary6 Comments

Friday Ferretblogging: Stocking Up Edition

One of the funniest things about ferrets is that they’re like mad collectors. They take things, weird, random collections of things, and put them in a hidey-hole (or six) and if you move that stash they will panic, scramble all over re-collecting their preciouses and hiding them exactly where they were before. Puck has an orange ball I don’t even dare touch most days because if he’s not the one in charge of it he actually chitters at me. Riot has a whole pile of things, including tiny stuffed animals and a newspaper he took a liking to: Ferrets. Little … Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging: Stocking Up Edition

Uncategorized4 Comments

Quitting Time Booster Shot

I’ve been watching a little too much TNT lately and I’ve seen about 7,643,325 commercials for the new series “Leverage.” The series looks interesting, but it’s been bugging me that they’ve been advertising it as starring “Academy-award-winner Timothy Hutton.” OK, it’s true that he won an Oscar, but it was for“Ordinary People” in 1981. Isn’t there some sort of statute of limitations on how long you can trade on something like this? I mean you don’t have the folks at “Rescue Me” getting all nuts about “Academy-Award-winnerTatum O’Neal” (1974’s Paper Moon) or “Crank Yankers” promoting its “Academy-Award-winnerEminem“ (2004’s 8-Mile) If … Continue reading Quitting Time Booster Shot

So Called Liberal Media10 Comments

Oh, God, Journalism Just Coded On My Laptop Again

There’s so much wrong with this story I’m resorting to a bleg.Help me out, here: Missing from the nonprofit debate is any mention of why enough paying customers can’t be found to support these news-gathering institutions if they are so vital to our “democratic constitutional system” (Coll) and “our democracy” (Swensen and Schmidt). The implication seems to be that political coverage, foreign dispatches, and investigative work are inherently noncommercial. If that’s the case, has the publication of thousands of foreign, political, and investigative news stories (“quality coverage,” to put it in shorthand) over the decades been an act of philanthropy … Continue reading Oh, God, Journalism Just Coded On My Laptop Again

Hurricane Katrina & Federal Flood11 Comments

The cruelty of the false narrative

Many, including blogging wingnuts, the Bush administration, Haley Barbour, have had their hand in the development of the Katrina narrative of Mississippi is doing great so any failures in recovery in Louisiana must be the fault of that state’s corrupt government and its lazy people and certainly nothing to do with President Bush or the federal government. An example of this narrative would be this from Jonah Pantload’s August 31, 2006 LA Times piece titled:Give Bush a Break… Long before Katrina, New Orleans was a dysfunctional city in a state with famously corrupt and incompetent leadership, many of whose residents … Continue reading The cruelty of the false narrative