Friday, May 15, 2009

Friday Catblogging With Photoshop
From 2Millionth Web Log


Tigger and cousin at the Audubon Zoo.
If Blackwater Xe Wants a "Dirigible Themed Branding Campaign"...
From 2Millionth Web Log


I'd like to offer my own suggestion.
Richard Bruce de Torquemada
From 2Millionth Web Log


As I've noted before, false confessions were a feature, not a bug, when it came to "Dick's Way."
Compare and Contrast...

The wonders of the free market...
From 2Millionth Web Log


Mention to Anita Ruíz the name of the giant oil company Chevron, and she trembles with rage. At her wooden hut here in the Amazon forest, where oil-project flares illuminate the night sky, she points to a portrait of her youngest son, who died seven years ago of leukemia at age 16.

"We believe the American oilmen created the pollution that killed my son," said Ms. Ruíz, 58, who lives in a clearing where Texaco, the American oil company that Chevron acquired in 2001, once poured oil waste into pits used decades ago for drilling wells...

Chevron has fought back with trade lawyers and lobbyists, using highly paid talent like the former United States trade representative Mickey Kantor, and the former Clinton White House chief of staff Mack McLarty to push the Obama administration to strip Ecuador of trade preferences, on the grounds that it broke its agreement to absolve the oil company of liability.


versus evil, godless euroweenie socialism
From 2Millionth Web Log


When capitalism seemed on the verge of collapse last fall, Kristin Halvorsen, Norway’s Socialist finance minister and a longtime free market skeptic, did more than crow.

As investors the world over sold in a panic, she bucked the tide, authorizing Norway’s $300 billion sovereign wealth fund to ramp up its stock buying program by $60 billion -- or about 23 percent of Norway's economic output.

"The timing was not that bad," Ms. Halvorsen said, smiling with satisfaction over the broad worldwide market rally that began in early March...

The global financial crisis has brought low the economies of just about every country on earth. But not Norway.

With a quirky contrariness as deeply etched in the national character as the fjords carved into its rugged landscape, Norway has thrived by going its own way. When others splurged, it saved. When others sought to limit the role of government, Norway strengthened its cradle-to-grave welfare state.

And in the midst of the worst global downturn since the Depression, Norway's economy grew last year by just under 3 percent. The government enjoys a budget surplus of 11 percent and its ledger is entirely free of debt.


Norway's wealth is in no small part due to oil exports.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Hurry! Senator Lieberman Needs a Fainting Couch!
From 2Millionth Web Log


Nothing quite like a manufactured case of the vapors.
An Analogy re: The Ticking Time Bomb Scenario

OK, suppose Dick Cheney is dating a supermodel...does he risk a Viagra prescription despite his known health issues, which, in combination with Viagra, could cause a "serious decrease in blood pressure, leading to fainting, stroke, or heart attack."

Of course, the question is absurd on its face, even IF one can argue that it's not unheard of for an older man to date a younger woman. Doesn't matter. Dick Cheney won't be dating a supermodel. End of story.

And ticking time bomb scenarios exist only in the ghoulishly masturbatory fantasies of wingnut dementia.
From 2Millionth Web Log
Thinking Strategically
From 2Millionth Web Log


Al Giordano makes some important point re: Obama's decision to not release the torture photos, the short version being that it really IS bigger than the immediate issue.

And I can't disagree with him. Sure, it's not exactly the height of transparency, and the expressed reason is unlikely to be the real reason for the decision...personally, I don't need to see any more pictures of ugliness to feel deeply ashamed at actions taken in the government's--and therefore my--name, although there's also a part of me that thinks there will be an 'out of sight, out of mind' element that argues in favor of the photos' release.

Well, Giordano thinks eventually they'll be leaked or released at some point anyway.

But he's correct in noting that the issue is much, much bigger...and instead of trying to summarize any further, I strongly recommend the entire post.

Oh, and again, sorry for the late start. Will see if I can catch up...
Busy Morning

Just catching up. Will have something a little later.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Shorter Lindsay Graham
From 2Millionth Web Log


Yeah, there are a few people I'd like to go all medieval on...
Coincidence? Or 'Secure, Undisclosed Location?'
From 2Millionth Web Log


Rotten office fridge cleanup sends seven to hospital.

Dick Cheney: Why So Chatty All of a Sudden?
Demonstrating Their Level of Maturity
From 2Millionth Web Log


I guess they'll vote on the resolution at some point between snack time and nap time. Those voting in the affirmitive will get an extra box of juice or something.
On Republican "Morality"
From 2Millionth Web Log


I think these two posts by Hullabaloo and Matt Taibbi pretty much cover it.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

A Zombie I Can Believe In...and Hope For
From 2Millionth Web Log


Scientists at the University of Texas are experimenting with a form of natural fire ant control:

It sounds like something out of science fiction: zombie fire ants. But it's all too real.

Fire ants wander aimlessly away from the mound.

Eventually their heads fall off, and they die.

The strange part is that researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M's AgriLife Extension Service say making "zombies" out of fire ants is a good thing.

"It's a tool -- they're not going to completely wipe out the fire ant, but it's a way to control their population," said Scott Ludwig , an integrated pest management specialist with the AgriLife Extension Service in Overton , in East Texas .

The tool is the tiny phorid fly, native to a region of South America where the fire ants in Texas originated. Researchers have learned that there are as many as 23 phorid species along with pathogens that attack fire ants to keep their population and movements under control.


On the grand scale of things, fire ants rank somewhere near Dick Cheney and Karl Rove.
Goatboy
From 2Millionth Web Log


O'Reilly and friend. Amazing what Bill reveals about himself when he muses out loud.
Freedom of the Press...to Waterboard
From 2Millionth Web Log


So, John 'Torquemada' Yoo begins a new career.
Banana Republicans
From 2Millionth Web Log


It speaks volumes when some of the wingnut crowd, in all seriousness, thinks a GREAT idea would be Cheney-Rummy in 2012 or Cheney-Limbaugh. Nothing like finishing the transformation of the United States to an economic AND military equivalent of 1970s-1980s Argentina...on steroids.

And what's really scary is that these people are driving cars, and probably own guns.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Sort of Like a Clownshow Version of Goodfellas
From 2Millionth Web Log


Michael Goldfarb says he'd like totally whack his former colleague...if, you know, he was a connected guy in Jersey or something.
Meanwhile, in the Hellhole that is 'European Socialism'
From 2Millionth Web Log


The NY Times on a planned community in Germany where cars are parked in communal lots on the periphery:

Life in a car-reduced place like Vauban has it own unusual gestalt in the country that is home to Mercedes-Benz and the autobahn. It is long and relatively narrow, so that the tram into Freiburg is an easy walk from every home. Stores, restaurants, banks and schools are more interspersed among homes than they are in a typical suburb. Most residents, like Ms. Walter, have carts they haul behind bicycles for shopping trips or children’s play dates...

Original buildings have long since been torn town, and the stylish row houses that replaced them are set amid lush yards but are shaped somewhat like barracks -- buildings of four or five stories designed to reduce heat loss and maximize energy efficiency. They are trimmed with exotic woods and have elaborate balconies, lush gardens and metal sculptures, as befits a contemporary high-end suburb.


The horror.

On the other hand...
From 2Millionth Web Log

"Hey Bubba, lets drive over to the Circle K for a microwave burrito and a Big Gulp."
Mr. Pitiful
From 2Millionth Web Log


Wingnuttia rushes to Rush's defense.

UPDATE: And this is the absolute right way to respond. Limbaugh's an asshole...and a whiny, thin-skinned one at that.
"I'll Take Limbaugh and Waterboarding for $100, Alex"
From 2Millionth Web Log


If you're wondering why the Republican Party is about as popular as venereal disease, look no further than Dick Cheney and Pete Sessions.