Saturday "What I Found on You Tube" Post
"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered..."
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Friday, December 07, 2007
Mitt: "It's so Hard to Find Good, Legal Help These Days"
Mitt's peeved that--gasp--as a leader in "the party of 'personal responsibility,' " he's, you know, expected to show...a little personal responsibility:
Republican Mitt Romney denies any responsibility for hiring illegal immigrants as workers at his home, insisting it was the fault of contractors and calling for tighter federal guidelines to verify the status of workers.
Asked by a reporter Friday if he shouldn't go the "extra mile" because of his business background and his strong advocacy of clamping down on illegal immigration in his presidential bid, the former Massachusetts governor shot back: "And what's the extra mile? So for instance, if I go to a restaurant, do I make sure all the waiters there are all legal?"
A Mitt administration would no doubt create a Department of Check the Status of Mitt's yard guys (with the Federal Check Mitt's Busboys, Dishwashers and Waiters Agency contained within).
Mitt's peeved that--gasp--as a leader in "the party of 'personal responsibility,' " he's, you know, expected to show...a little personal responsibility:
Republican Mitt Romney denies any responsibility for hiring illegal immigrants as workers at his home, insisting it was the fault of contractors and calling for tighter federal guidelines to verify the status of workers.
Asked by a reporter Friday if he shouldn't go the "extra mile" because of his business background and his strong advocacy of clamping down on illegal immigration in his presidential bid, the former Massachusetts governor shot back: "And what's the extra mile? So for instance, if I go to a restaurant, do I make sure all the waiters there are all legal?"
A Mitt administration would no doubt create a Department of Check the Status of Mitt's yard guys (with the Federal Check Mitt's Busboys, Dishwashers and Waiters Agency contained within).
Ho-Hum
Following up on Mitch's "they-were-asking-for-it" attitude, I decided to stop by IC Casualties--sure enough, wingnuttia's ceaseless bleating about "victory" are belied by grim reminders of those who won't be joining in the 'celebration', not that your 'nuts will offer much by way of acknowledgement.
Oh, and some Iraqis died, too. But if the basement brigadiers don't give a rat's ass about OUR soldiers, I guess they're not going to be all that sympathetic towards the wogs...
Following up on Mitch's "they-were-asking-for-it" attitude, I decided to stop by IC Casualties--sure enough, wingnuttia's ceaseless bleating about "victory" are belied by grim reminders of those who won't be joining in the 'celebration', not that your 'nuts will offer much by way of acknowledgement.
Oh, and some Iraqis died, too. But if the basement brigadiers don't give a rat's ass about OUR soldiers, I guess they're not going to be all that sympathetic towards the wogs...
What Mitch Means
"Oh sure, it's a shame and all, but deep down?...they were asking for it." [yawn]
"Hey, is there a ballgame on or something?"
In other words, disposable soldiers...
"Oh sure, it's a shame and all, but deep down?...they were asking for it." [yawn]
"Hey, is there a ballgame on or something?"
In other words, disposable soldiers...
Eat the Document
Don't be too surprised to hear some version of the expression "destroyed the evidence" QUITE A LOT over the remaining days of the Shrub administration. No doubt wingnuttia will instantly brand such actions as completely appropriate for Team Bush (but, given their lizard brains and ultra-short attention spans, they'd shriek like howler monkeys if a Democratic politician did so much as shred a personal credit card receipt). I mean, c'mon: they made a mockery of electronic document preservation. Why would we expect them to take record keeping/rules of evidence any more seriously?
Though I admit part of me would experience a bit of the old schadenfreude to see Karl Rove surrounded by a mountain of paper and a stick of oleo. "You're the one who created them, Rove...so YOU eat them, ya bastard!"
Don't be too surprised to hear some version of the expression "destroyed the evidence" QUITE A LOT over the remaining days of the Shrub administration. No doubt wingnuttia will instantly brand such actions as completely appropriate for Team Bush (but, given their lizard brains and ultra-short attention spans, they'd shriek like howler monkeys if a Democratic politician did so much as shred a personal credit card receipt). I mean, c'mon: they made a mockery of electronic document preservation. Why would we expect them to take record keeping/rules of evidence any more seriously?
Though I admit part of me would experience a bit of the old schadenfreude to see Karl Rove surrounded by a mountain of paper and a stick of oleo. "You're the one who created them, Rove...so YOU eat them, ya bastard!"
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Damned Secularists...
Hey Christmas Nazis, looking for something to hate after this season's Storm Trooping for Jesus is over? I mean, think about it--it's French, with a definite classical, pagan influence/inspiration, and you can even vent some anti-secular anti-semitism: The New Colossus was not only written by a Jewish woman, but there's not a mention of the deity whatsoever.
March on, dudes.
Update: Oh, and I almost forgot: it's also a symbol that's soft on immigration.
(and while technically the poem obliquely refers to Helios, it's not as if you'll find any churches devoted to the cult around these parts)
Hey Christmas Nazis, looking for something to hate after this season's Storm Trooping for Jesus is over? I mean, think about it--it's French, with a definite classical, pagan influence/inspiration, and you can even vent some anti-secular anti-semitism: The New Colossus was not only written by a Jewish woman, but there's not a mention of the deity whatsoever.
March on, dudes.
Update: Oh, and I almost forgot: it's also a symbol that's soft on immigration.
(and while technically the poem obliquely refers to Helios, it's not as if you'll find any churches devoted to the cult around these parts)
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Dick In a Box On the Rock
This is your Vice President on drugs:
Today in a new interview with Politico, Vice President Cheney said that he is "confident" Iraq will eventually be in a "good" enough place that the administration will be able to look back and say, "That was the right decision. It was a sound decision going into Iraq." When will that time be? According to Cheney, Jan. 2009...
Cheney then began babbling incoherently while insisting that Secret Service agents shuttle him to a flea-bag motel in Anacostia...
This is your Vice President on drugs:
Today in a new interview with Politico, Vice President Cheney said that he is "confident" Iraq will eventually be in a "good" enough place that the administration will be able to look back and say, "That was the right decision. It was a sound decision going into Iraq." When will that time be? According to Cheney, Jan. 2009...
Cheney then began babbling incoherently while insisting that Secret Service agents shuttle him to a flea-bag motel in Anacostia...
Good Morning. This is Your Wake-Up Bomb
Interesting how Pravda-Upon-Hudson waits until the fourth paragraph to add this little aside:
It was not clear if the bombings were timed to Mr. Gates’s visit, since there have been several hundred suicide bombings in Afghanistan over the last two years.
You'd think that "several hundred" might be considered, oh, I don't know, "newsworthy." But, then again, I'm no Joe Klein or David Broder...
Interesting how Pravda-Upon-Hudson waits until the fourth paragraph to add this little aside:
It was not clear if the bombings were timed to Mr. Gates’s visit, since there have been several hundred suicide bombings in Afghanistan over the last two years.
You'd think that "several hundred" might be considered, oh, I don't know, "newsworthy." But, then again, I'm no Joe Klein or David Broder...
From the Department of the Glaringly Obvious
...in other news, the sun rose in the east...
To be fair, I suppose it's a good thing to prove the hypothesis, or make the predictions official, but this hardly comes as "news" to anyone with even modest upper-brain capacity and function:
The first study to rigorously assess the mental health fallout from Hurricane Katrina has confirmed what many researchers and Gulf Coast residents predicted: that mood problems after the storm occurred about as often as in any natural disaster ever studied, and that the delayed government response almost certainly made the problem worse...
Post-traumatic stress symptoms -- which include flashbacks, nightmares, a hair-trigger temper -- were by far the most common type of mental problem and were often associated with incidents that happened in the storm’s wake, like property losses, robberies and assaults.
Ya think?
Again, though, I'd like to compare the Team Bush response to Katrina, Rita, and the federal flood--a stunning ho-hum indifference when adult responsibility was DEMANDED--to their churlish, childish refusal to abandon their aggression/war fantasies against Iran DESPITE their proven incompetence against MUCH weaker Iraq AND the proven facts indicating the lack of an Iranian threat.
As the saying goes, future generations will be astounded by our ignorance...
...in other news, the sun rose in the east...
To be fair, I suppose it's a good thing to prove the hypothesis, or make the predictions official, but this hardly comes as "news" to anyone with even modest upper-brain capacity and function:
The first study to rigorously assess the mental health fallout from Hurricane Katrina has confirmed what many researchers and Gulf Coast residents predicted: that mood problems after the storm occurred about as often as in any natural disaster ever studied, and that the delayed government response almost certainly made the problem worse...
Post-traumatic stress symptoms -- which include flashbacks, nightmares, a hair-trigger temper -- were by far the most common type of mental problem and were often associated with incidents that happened in the storm’s wake, like property losses, robberies and assaults.
Ya think?
Again, though, I'd like to compare the Team Bush response to Katrina, Rita, and the federal flood--a stunning ho-hum indifference when adult responsibility was DEMANDED--to their churlish, childish refusal to abandon their aggression/war fantasies against Iran DESPITE their proven incompetence against MUCH weaker Iraq AND the proven facts indicating the lack of an Iranian threat.
As the saying goes, future generations will be astounded by our ignorance...
Take it to the Banksy
Wingnut Santa deals with the naughty children.
Santa's Ghetto, featuring pseudononymous artist Banksy and others, is in Bethlehem, Occupied West Bank this year (no pun intended).
The home page is here; those who don't appreciate a gratingly cheerful and upbeat instrumental version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer can click here for "gallery" images, amd a further explanation can be found here.
Ah, the spirit of the holidays!
Wingnut Santa deals with the naughty children.
Santa's Ghetto, featuring pseudononymous artist Banksy and others, is in Bethlehem, Occupied West Bank this year (no pun intended).
The home page is here; those who don't appreciate a gratingly cheerful and upbeat instrumental version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer can click here for "gallery" images, amd a further explanation can be found here.
Ah, the spirit of the holidays!
American Borat
Seriously, the guy's just an embarrassment, plain and simple. We've got yet another instance of the facts being about as far removed from Shrubworld as planet Earth is from the Andromeda galaxy, so his response is...to ignore the facts and play-act what he apparently thinks is the tough-guy cowboy but what the reality based community recognizes is the hopelessly stupid boor. Geez...
I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see Shrub holding a bag of shit--literally--at some point in the not too distant future. Look ma, I did a sissy! And David Broder will nod with approval, the Chorus of Flying Wingnut Monkeys will insist that the Codpiece is still relevant...and the rest of the world will simply hope that he just...goes...away without utterly ruining anything else...
Seriously, the guy's just an embarrassment, plain and simple. We've got yet another instance of the facts being about as far removed from Shrubworld as planet Earth is from the Andromeda galaxy, so his response is...to ignore the facts and play-act what he apparently thinks is the tough-guy cowboy but what the reality based community recognizes is the hopelessly stupid boor. Geez...
I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see Shrub holding a bag of shit--literally--at some point in the not too distant future. Look ma, I did a sissy! And David Broder will nod with approval, the Chorus of Flying Wingnut Monkeys will insist that the Codpiece is still relevant...and the rest of the world will simply hope that he just...goes...away without utterly ruining anything else...
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
What About It?
You know, sometimes the proper response IS "Well, Fuck 'em if they can't take it:"
Controversy has erupted from the sleepy third-floor hallway galleries at the New York Public Library, where a modest exhibition of contemporary prints called "Multiple Interpretations" is on view.
The work that has prompted protests from some library patrons, attracted coverage by The Daily News, Fox News and USA Today and has stirred the blogosphere is called "Line Up," a series of politically inflammatory prints by the team of Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese. Each black-and-white digital print is a mug shot-style diptych in which a member of the Bush administration appears in profile and face forward, holding a police identification sign and the date on which he or she made a statement of questionable veracity relating to Iraq.
Don't like it? Well, too goddamned bad. Harldly an eyelash was batted for all the years that the likes of Rush Lamebone, Michaels Weiner and Reagan, etc., etc., ad nauseum accused anyone not preaching the vilest "Christian" sadism of being the traitorous spawn of Satan. But now everyone else must show deference when it's neo-con panties in a knot.
As a French friend of mine once said (in the midst of picking up the English language at an astonishingly fast pace), "it is, how you say, shit of bull?" [sfx: Gallic accent].
No, 9/11 didn't "change everything," and it's NOT "just politics" when you literally trash the rule of law, so don't go acting like you deserve equal time or any other such nonsense. Besides, Lamebone et al have been carrying your water all these years anyway.
Hell, if it'd been me, I would've taken the much-missed Billmon's approach and put 'em in the dock at Nuremberg.
You know, sometimes the proper response IS "Well, Fuck 'em if they can't take it:"
Controversy has erupted from the sleepy third-floor hallway galleries at the New York Public Library, where a modest exhibition of contemporary prints called "Multiple Interpretations" is on view.
The work that has prompted protests from some library patrons, attracted coverage by The Daily News, Fox News and USA Today and has stirred the blogosphere is called "Line Up," a series of politically inflammatory prints by the team of Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese. Each black-and-white digital print is a mug shot-style diptych in which a member of the Bush administration appears in profile and face forward, holding a police identification sign and the date on which he or she made a statement of questionable veracity relating to Iraq.
Don't like it? Well, too goddamned bad. Harldly an eyelash was batted for all the years that the likes of Rush Lamebone, Michaels Weiner and Reagan, etc., etc., ad nauseum accused anyone not preaching the vilest "Christian" sadism of being the traitorous spawn of Satan. But now everyone else must show deference when it's neo-con panties in a knot.
As a French friend of mine once said (in the midst of picking up the English language at an astonishingly fast pace), "it is, how you say, shit of bull?" [sfx: Gallic accent].
No, 9/11 didn't "change everything," and it's NOT "just politics" when you literally trash the rule of law, so don't go acting like you deserve equal time or any other such nonsense. Besides, Lamebone et al have been carrying your water all these years anyway.
Hell, if it'd been me, I would've taken the much-missed Billmon's approach and put 'em in the dock at Nuremberg.
Busy Morning...
Sorry for the slow start today, but it's a little busy workwise. Anyway, I see that Shrub stammered his way through another presser...personally, I prefer The Rude Pundit's take.
At this point, though, you've really gotta wonder why they'd even go through the motions, although maybe there are still some folks modestly impressed by an organ grinder's monkey that can talk...sort of.
Sorry for the slow start today, but it's a little busy workwise. Anyway, I see that Shrub stammered his way through another presser...personally, I prefer The Rude Pundit's take.
At this point, though, you've really gotta wonder why they'd even go through the motions, although maybe there are still some folks modestly impressed by an organ grinder's monkey that can talk...sort of.
Monday, December 03, 2007
"Willard, You're No Jack Kennedy Either"
I never did care much for Lloyd Bentsen, but let's just say he once reduced Dan Quayle down to quantum levels.
I never did care much for Lloyd Bentsen, but let's just say he once reduced Dan Quayle down to quantum levels.
Some Crises are More Equal Than Others, I Guess
While there appears to be at least some skepticism regarding how effective efforts to mitigate the fallout from the mortgage crisis will be, I find it nonetheless instructive: when the particular ox being gored happens, via the miracle of collatoralized mortgage obligations, to be owned by large institutional investors, well, government will at the VERY least step to the plate with something...and will probably step back up with even more if the initial efforts flag.
But when it's a mere homeowner--or renter--caught in the vise, Team Bush can't slam on the brakes fast enough--or worse.
In fact, for some, the only REAL assistance has been coming from...Brad Pitt, from whom Team Bush could learn a lot.
While there appears to be at least some skepticism regarding how effective efforts to mitigate the fallout from the mortgage crisis will be, I find it nonetheless instructive: when the particular ox being gored happens, via the miracle of collatoralized mortgage obligations, to be owned by large institutional investors, well, government will at the VERY least step to the plate with something...and will probably step back up with even more if the initial efforts flag.
But when it's a mere homeowner--or renter--caught in the vise, Team Bush can't slam on the brakes fast enough--or worse.
In fact, for some, the only REAL assistance has been coming from...Brad Pitt, from whom Team Bush could learn a lot.
The Ascent of Satan
Ouch--via Cursor, a report that indicates greater majorities of Americans believe in literal heaven, hell, and/or Satan than believe in evolution.
I dunno--maybe those who reject basic principles of evolution will do us a favor and reject modern medicine, thereby reducing the costs for the rest of us...
Ouch--via Cursor, a report that indicates greater majorities of Americans believe in literal heaven, hell, and/or Satan than believe in evolution.
I dunno--maybe those who reject basic principles of evolution will do us a favor and reject modern medicine, thereby reducing the costs for the rest of us...
"Are There No Poorhouses?"
Um, actually, no, there aren't:
More than two years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is suffering from an acute shortage of housing that has nearly doubled the cost of rental units in the city, threatening the recovery of the region and the well-being of many residents who decided to return against the odds. Before the storm, more than half of the city’s population rented housing. Yet official attention to help revive the shattered rental home and apartment market has been scant.
In some core middle and lower-income areas, blighted dwellings stretch for blocks on end, and the city has been slow to come up with ideas for what to do with those that have been abandoned. Last week, the city housing authority approved the demolition of 4,000 public housing units at five projects damaged by the storm. In their place, the authority plans to build mixed-income projects, large parts of which will not be affordable to previous residents.
On my first visit to Willie Mae's Scotch House (yeah, I know, I'm just a tourist) I was startled to find out that the waitress lived in...Baton Rouge. She commuted the 60-70 miles or so. Ouch.
And FEMA, of course, is responding to the housing crisis by...making plans to close down the trailer parks that might be as depressing as all hell but are pretty much the ONLY option for some low-income residents. Now THAT'S "compassionate conservativism." And I guess we can forget about any sort of initiative to rescind the idiotic restrictions disallowing "permanent" solutions like Katrina Cottages...because only Terry Schiavo deserves extraordinary measures.
I mean, it's not like New Orleans is a major port of entry, or that the Gulf Coast is a region of vital strategic and economic concern...oh, wait...
Um, actually, no, there aren't:
More than two years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is suffering from an acute shortage of housing that has nearly doubled the cost of rental units in the city, threatening the recovery of the region and the well-being of many residents who decided to return against the odds. Before the storm, more than half of the city’s population rented housing. Yet official attention to help revive the shattered rental home and apartment market has been scant.
In some core middle and lower-income areas, blighted dwellings stretch for blocks on end, and the city has been slow to come up with ideas for what to do with those that have been abandoned. Last week, the city housing authority approved the demolition of 4,000 public housing units at five projects damaged by the storm. In their place, the authority plans to build mixed-income projects, large parts of which will not be affordable to previous residents.
On my first visit to Willie Mae's Scotch House (yeah, I know, I'm just a tourist) I was startled to find out that the waitress lived in...Baton Rouge. She commuted the 60-70 miles or so. Ouch.
And FEMA, of course, is responding to the housing crisis by...making plans to close down the trailer parks that might be as depressing as all hell but are pretty much the ONLY option for some low-income residents. Now THAT'S "compassionate conservativism." And I guess we can forget about any sort of initiative to rescind the idiotic restrictions disallowing "permanent" solutions like Katrina Cottages...because only Terry Schiavo deserves extraordinary measures.
I mean, it's not like New Orleans is a major port of entry, or that the Gulf Coast is a region of vital strategic and economic concern...oh, wait...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)