Month: March 2009

Of Interest6 Comments

Monday Afternoon Reading Rainbow

Doug might finally get his.(Hat tip: joejoejoe) I WANT ONE OF MY VERY OWN. Gimme. (He would fit in my overnight bag and we could travel the world together having wacky adventures!) Vintage clothing porn. I don’t do the ’70s thing myself but Bluebird finds some beautiful things. Somebody introduce David Simon toMarcy Wheeler beforehe shoots off his mouth again about not seeing any bloggers in the courthouses, please? I like the man’s work and don’t want to watch him embarrass himself. (Hat tip:Virgo) A. Continue reading Monday Afternoon Reading Rainbow

Political Crack4 Comments

Poll: Voters Are Not Total Morons

Seriously: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama benefits from a broadly held perception that others bear the bulk of responsibility for state of the U.S. economy, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll published on Tuesday. Asked who was responsible for theeconomic meltdown, 80 percent in the poll blamed banks, financial institutions and corporations. Some 70 percent also blamed consumers for taking on too much debt and the formerBush administration for lax regulation. Only 26 percent said the Obama administration was not doing enough to turn the situation around. Two-thirds of respondents approve of the way Obama is handling … Continue reading Poll: Voters Are Not Total Morons

Stupid Republican Tricks13 Comments

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession With The Freeperati – “poor babies” edition

Good morning everyone – there’s lotsa Freeper insanity waiting for us to test and grade, so let’s get suited up, crack the airlock door, and have at it! First up –Freepers worry about their image – and their asses: Missouri police given chilling instructions (just mentioned by Rush)American Thinker ^| March 18, 2009 | Timothy Birdnow Posted onWednesday, March 18, 2009 11:25:30 AM bySloopJohnB Police in Missouri apparently are being instructed to keep on eye on conservatives. According to this AP article the government of the state of Missouri has issued a report “informing” state police that people with third … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsession With The Freeperati – “poor babies” edition

Immoral Values3 Comments

‘Never A Quiet Force’

Is it me or is there something vaguely and uncomfortably adulatory about headlines like this? Wayne Anthony Ross never a quiet force Especially when they accompany stories about people like this? During a fight several years ago over gay rights, Mendel helped organize Anchorage lawyers in support of an anti- discrimination ordinance. Ross wrote a nasty letter to the Bar Association newsletter, using words like ‘immoral, ‘ ‘perversion’ and ‘degenerates.’ The language went way beyond reasonable disagreement, Mendel and others said. It’s like they’re trying to find a way to say “lunatic bigot” or “one crazy motherfucker” or “says any … Continue reading ‘Never A Quiet Force’

Uncategorized3 Comments

‘Post-Post-Post-Post Ironic Hipsters’

Erm: The other week, I noticed one of them had a bunch of Confederate flags, and a flag of the Obama HOPE image. Which made me laugh, since I doubt there’s much overlap between the audience for Confederate flags and Obama voters. Maybe they’re trying to get into a wider audience. They do have the Confederate flag/pot leaf flags, after all. Then yesterday, I saw one that took it a step farther. A flag, first half Obama, second half Confederate flag. I almost went back and bought one, just for the sheer bizarreness of it. But I didn’t, ’cause I’m … Continue reading ‘Post-Post-Post-Post Ironic Hipsters’

Diary20 Comments

Weekend Question Thread

My head feels like mush. I don’t know what it was about this week; there was a lot of work but not any major crises; nevertheless I arrived at the weekend just feeling like somebody’d run over my brainmeats with a tractor and then sort of haphazardly shoveled them back inside my skull. Somebody called yesterday and asked “How are you?” and I wasn’t trying to be dramatic, the only thing I could come up with was, “I have no idea.” I need … I don’t know, a hot bath, a stiff drink, something. What do you do to recharge … Continue reading Weekend Question Thread

Economy3 Comments

Bottom Line

Link: Whilereporters hooted at thecomically simplistic charts and lack of details in the House Republican leadership’s budget plan, the green eyeshade types at Citizen’s for Tax Justicecrunched the numbers (PDF). They conclude that a quarter of all households, most of them poor, would pay more taxes under the GOP plan, while the richest one percent would pay $100,000 less. But at least it’s not SOCIALISM! A. Continue reading Bottom Line

Uncategorized7 Comments

Criminal(ly) (un)Just(ice)

Richard Pryor once noted that when a black man deals with the criminal justice system and is looking for justice, that’s what he finds: just us.Ryan Moats found that out on Thursday. Moats, a back up running back for the Houston Texans, blew through a red light on the way to Baylor Medical Center. Athletes speeding and disobeying traffic signals is par for the course, but Moats was trying to get his wife to the hospital to say goodbye to her mother, who was dying. Officer Robert Powell followed Moats into the parking lot and detained him on a traffic … Continue reading Criminal(ly) (un)Just(ice)

Diary21 Comments

Etiquette Question for The Internet

Is it no longer a thing that you’re supposed to STFU in the library? I’m asking because it’s been a while since I did a sustained amount of hanging out in my local temple to the written word, and things seem … louder there. By a lot. Is this me telling the kids to get off my lawn in which case I’ll get over it, or has something really changed in which case I’ll just wear some earplugs? A. Continue reading Etiquette Question for The Internet

Uncategorized2 Comments

Quitting Time Booster Shot

Gather round folks, it’s the QTBS, ’80s theme week edition (don’t know how this happened, but I apologize in advance…) – I know it’s not funny, but every time I seethis companyin the news I think of this. It’s the product of too much MTV as a kid in the ‘80s. – Speaking of which, thank God I only listen to shitty ‘80s music. – The people who wrotethis study need to spend a Saturday in Wal-Mart watching parents interact with kids. I think they’d reverse their position really quickly. In the interest of full disclosure, I was a kid … Continue reading Quitting Time Booster Shot

So Called Liberal Media4 Comments

People Still Want News

Natch: The audience for NPR’s daily news programs, including “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” reached a record last year, driven by widespread interest in the presidential election, and the general decline of radio news elsewhere. Washington-based NPR will release new figures to its stations today showing that the cumulative audience for its daily news programs hit 20.9 million a week, a 9 percent increase over the previous year. The weekly audience for all the programming fed by Washington-based NPR — including talk shows and music — also reached a record last year, with 23.6 million people tuning in each … Continue reading People Still Want News

Uncategorized10 Comments

A Note to the ‘Hope He Fails’ Chorus

Bobby Jindal repeated the ‘hope he fails’ mantra earlier this week at a $2500 dollar a plate fundraiser.Fred Thompson awoke from his nap long enough to gum on a cigar and add his own amen. Somewhere, Rush Limbaugh snickered… Meanwhile, across the country, tent cities have sprouted like weeds, the definitive legacy of the last administration, which DID fail–uterly, totally, completely. An administration supported by people like…Jindal…Thompson…andLimbaugh. You’d think the degree of failure might shame these people into a measure of silence (to their credit, Bush himself and Condolleezza Rice have taken that route)…but you’d think wrong. And I guess … Continue reading A Note to the ‘Hope He Fails’ Chorus

Uncategorized4 Comments

Twice!

A survivor of HiroshimaAND Nagasaki: TOKYO — A 93-year-old Japanese man has become the first person certified as a survivor of both U.S. atomic bombings at the end of World War II, officials said Tuesday. Tsutomu Yamaguchi had already been a certifiedhibakusha, or radiation survivor, of the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing in Nagasaki, but has now been confirmed as surviving the attack on Hiroshima three days earlier as well, city officials said. Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug. 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb. He suffered serious burns to his upper … Continue reading Twice!

Economy7 Comments

Retention Guarantees

Everybody’s got a co-worker, right, who does this?Marches in every couple months and demands more money or else he or she will leave? And the question isn’t whether he or she deserves more money, it’s whether blackmail is a long-term negotiating tactic. You can only pull that card so many times. Because honestly, there’s a part of me that gets the bonus argument; Mr. A used to work at a place that gave out bonuses. Nothing close to what’s being talked about with AIG (dude, can you imagine the blog we’d have if it had been? Hot and cold running … Continue reading Retention Guarantees

Uncategorized5 Comments

Why?

Isthis really necessary? CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti – There’s a wonderful view of Camp Lemonier from a lofty watch tower smack in the middle of the base. In one direction, you can see row after row of housing units stretching into the distance. In another, you can see neighboring Djibouti International Airport. The tower is so tall that a keen-eyed spotter can see all the way to the beach that marks the post’s boundary. This tower in the center of Lemonier was once actually near the edge of the camp. Increasing American activity in the Horn of Africa has propelled Lemonier … Continue reading Why?

Stupid Republican Tricks4 Comments

It Wasn’t Just The Jokey Bullshit, Morons

Jesus. Politico, attempting to WIN THE MORNING: Seeking to rebound from his widely-panned rebuttal of Obama’s address to Congress last month, Jindal took repeated aim at the new president. Conservatives have embraced Jindal as a 2012 GOP hopeful, but his stiff delivery in his TV address last month made many wonder whether he’s ready for prime time. It wasn’t just his delivery, you trivial dipshits. It was that he got up and offered the same tired crap we’ve been hearing for 30 years about how the government doesn’t need to pay for anything, we just all need to believe in … Continue reading It Wasn’t Just The Jokey Bullshit, Morons

So Called Liberal Media3 Comments

You Have to Not Suck

In order to make it as a newspaper: At a time when daily newspapers seem to be going away at the rate of one a week and weeklies are madly cutting to stay afloat, The Chronicle, which has revenue of approximately $8.5 million a year, has not laid off anyone, has no plans to do so, and its business is off just 7 percent in the last three years. Part of the reason may have to do with price (free) but there is something else afoot. The Chronicle is knit into civic and cultural life in Austin to a degree … Continue reading You Have to Not Suck

Music

She makes time stand still

Patty Griffin’s birthday was last week and damn it, I forgot to post a video. So I herewith correct that grievous oversight. While I was looking through videos, I stumbled across thisradio interview that Maddow did with her a few years ago. Maddow says,”You get the sense that you’ve read something by the time you are done listening to one of her album” and she’s so right. That “literary quality” is no doubt one of the reasons Griffin got spot #19 inPaste Magazine’s100 Best Living Songwriters. As anyone who’s seen her live will tell you, her musical chops are every … Continue reading She makes time stand still