2007 archive
Late to the Party 1
But I can’t resist. It must have been some to that sublimal projection stuff:
Wide stance? Check.
In Minneapolis? Check.
Prison stripe-wearing? Check.
Starry eyed? Check.
As for the elephant humping the “2008”…
Are they going for a “Still screwing the country in 2008” theme, or is it a reference to hypocritical adulterers like David Vitter and just about the entire Republican presidential field?
Cooking Up Trouble 1
From El Reg:
The three hour lockdown in Soho saw a Hazardous Area Response Team Unit and firefighters wearing breathing apparatus engaging in a 24 style hunt for the source of a cloud of acrid smoke, The Times reports.
However, instead of trapping a bunch of wild-eyed ne’er-do-wells who hate us because we’re free, cops instead surrounded a huge cooking pot primed with 9lbs of smouldering dried chillies at the Thai Cottage Restaurant.
Sounds like my kind of place. Pass the habaneros.
SCHIP 0
I’ve stayed away from this issue because it makes my brain hurt, but, fortunately for me, Jon Swift has cut to the crux of the matter:
Support the Troops, Bushie Style 0
I’m not going to try to summarize.
Just go read it.
And think, think seriously, about why some folks, like the Mark Krikorian quoted in the post, are so full of hate.
They’re Doing It Again 0
Attacking the messenger. It’s sure sign that truth is not on their side. Dan Froomkin analyzes the evasions:
All Perino would say was that President Bush is seeking a diplomatic solution — precisely what the White House claimed as it set the Iraq war in motion in late 2002 and early 2003.
Hersh, who has a history of well-sourced, groundbreaking reporting (he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1970 for his uncovering of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam), writes that Bush is seriously considering limited strikes against Iran, ostensibly in defense of American troops in Iraq. The real attraction of such an approach, Hersh writes, is that Bush and Cheney believe it could be readily sold to the American people.
Plans for broad bombing targeting Iran’s suspected nuclear facilities are being replaced with plans for a more limited attack, Hersh writes, after Bush and his aides “concluded that their campaign to convince the American public that Iran poses an imminent nuclear threat has failed (unlike a similar campaign before the Iraq war), and that as a result there is not enough popular support for a major bombing campaign.”
Criswell predicts that, when all is said and done, Hersh will have another Pulitzer and the rest of us will have another war.
Brendan Makes a Phone Call 1
Of course, Joe Biden, who actually is a fairly decent–and extremely smart–guy, has this problem of engaging his mouth before putting his brain in gear, leading to some of the memorable gaffes in modern American politics.
Hoof-in-mouth disease apparently extends to his staff, also.
Complicated by an inability to diagram a simple sentence.
“Put Down That Joni’s Butterfly and Slowly Step Back with Your Hands Where I Can See Them” 6
Phillybits has a screed on this decision by the Supreme Court declining to hear a case about the prohibition on selling sex toys in Alabama.
(It is, of course, a stupid, silly law, but, if the Alabama government does not want Alabamians to have more than the Reverend(struck per Opie) Dobson-decreed amount of fun while creating more Alabamians, I guess, judging by this ruling, that is their right.)
Back when I worked in Philadelphia, I used to enjoy visiting the Pleasure Chest on Rittenhouse Square (I don’t think it is there anymore–their website mentions boutiques only in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago).
It was particularly fun to visit in December, when persons (most usually of the female persuasion) were coming in on their lunch hours to buy gag gifts. As they walked in the store, it was apparent that they had never seen any place like it before.
Their expressions were precious.
Then, as the shock and surprise wore off, they would get really, really, really interested in the merchandise . . . .
Oh, and Joni’s Butterfly? Here (Warning–Adult Content).
Drumbeats (Updated and Kicked to the Top) 1
They want more war. Seymour Hirsch:
The President’s position, and its corollary—that, if many of America’s problems in Iraq are the responsibility of Tehran, then the solution to them is to confront the Iranians—have taken firm hold in the Administration. This summer, the White House, pushed by the office of Vice-President Dick Cheney, requested that the Joint Chiefs of Staff redraw long-standing plans for a possible attack on Iran, according to former officials and government consultants. The focus of the plans had been a broad bombing attack, with targets including Iran’s known and suspected nuclear facilities and other military and infrastructure sites. Now the emphasis is on “surgical†strikes on Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities in Tehran and elsewhere, which, the Administration claims, have been the source of attacks on Americans in Iraq. What had been presented primarily as a counter-proliferation mission has been reconceived as counterterrorism.
We are led by warmongers.
God help us all.
Via Dan Froomkin.
Addendum, 10/2/2007:
Hear Mr. Hersh interviewed on today’s Fresh Air. From the website:
Hersh exposed the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and covers the administration closely. He’s a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and the recipient of five George Polk Awards, two National Magazine Awards and a dozen other prizes. His most recent book, Chain of Command, is a detailed analysis of events at Abu Ghraib.
No Leg To Stand On 4
Oh, my.
Maiden police said the man opened up the smoker and saw what he thought was a piece of driftwood wrapped in paper. When he unwrapped it, he found a human leg, cut off 2 to 3 inches above the knee.
The smoker had been sold at an auction of items left behind at a storage facility, so investigators contacted the mother and son who had rented the space where the smoker was found.
The mother, Peg Steele, explained her son had his leg amputated after a plane crash and kept the leg following the surgery “for religious reasons†she doesn’t know much about.
I’m no lawyer (that’s how I can dare to make posts about morality), but it sounds to me as if he bought the leg fair and square.
Now he does have a leg to stand on.
But I think I’ll be making my own barbecue for a while.
Wanna Dog? 5
Free to a good home. Will deliver (Linda says she doesn’t care if we have to go to Colorado–Karen?).
The Gutter Guys were here today.
They installed nice, new gutters.
They also left the gate open.
Two of the three dogs escaped. The third one is too much of a diva to move fast enough to escape, though she seemed vaguely irritated that she was left alone.
A good Samaritan called from about a mile way. The sons of bitches (and they are sons of bitches, what with being dogs and all) were gallivanting down Governor Printz Boulevard (50 mph speed limit, 60 mph traffic).
Three heart attacks later, my girlfriend coralled them.
Tomorrow, I shall call up the Gutter Guys.
I think I shall suggest to them, that, in penance, they should TAKE THE DAMNED DOGS.
Drinking Liberally 0
Tomorrow, Tangier Restaurant (great fish and chips!), 18th and Lombard, Philly, 6 p. m. till whenever.
I might even make it this time. At least I don’t have to go to the cooling tower place.
Swampwater 0
Waist deep in the Big Muddy . . .
Among the most serious charges against the prominent security firm is that Blackwater contractors sought to cover up a June 2005 shooting of an Iraqi man and the company paid, with State Department approval, the families of others inadvertently killed by its guards.
Blackwater has had to fire dozens of guards over the past three years for problems ranging from misuse of weapons, alcohol and drug violations, inappropriate conduct and violent behavior, says the 15-page report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Just after the report was released, The Associated Press learned the Federal Bureau of Investigation is sending a team to Iraq to investigate an incident that has angered the Iraqi government.
The founders learned that the Hessians could not be trusted. Neither can modern mercenaries.
. . . and the big fool says, “Push on.”
No New Vistas 2
Vista flops:
Mike Nash, Microsoft corporate vice president, Windows product management, put a brave face on the decision, claiming that, “While we’ve been pleased with the positive response we’ve seen and heard from customers using Windows Vista, there are some customers who need a little more time to make the switch to Windows Vista.â€
Or put another way, punters are doing anything they can to avoid having to install and run Vista on their machines.
Sub-Prime 0
Robert Reich on bailouts. Read the whole thing. It’s worth three minutes of your time:
The real moral hazard in this saga started when Fed Chair Ben Bernanke cut the Fed’s discount rate (charged on direct federal loans to banks) and announced that the Fed would take whatever action was needed to “promote the orderly financing of markets.” Translated, this means that lenders, credit-rating agencies, financial intermediaries, and hedge funds will be bailed out, one way or another, because they’re simply too big to fail. Note that behind every one of these institutions lie thousands of well-paid executives who would have lost big if the Fed didn’t come to their rescue. Even though they had more information and experience at risk-taking than the suckers who borrowed their money, and even though executives at the top of these instutions typically earn more in a day than the borrowers do in a year, moral hazard somehow doesn’t apply to them.
Four Bathrooms 0
For three summers while I was in college, I worked for the local health department, performing clerical duties and pulling a mobile clinic from place to place–four different locations every week.
The health department had four bathrooms in the waiting area: two labelled “Men” and two labelled “Women,” two in the front of the room and two in the back.
Klutz that I am, it took me a while to realize that, only a few years before, one was labelled, “White Men,” one was labelled “Colored Men,” and–oh, well, you get the picture (yeah, there were two unlabelled water fountains, also).
Dick Polman’s blog post brought those memories back to me.
Who Do You Favor? 2
USA Today claims to be able to help you choose. (Don’t forget to weight the issues after finishing the quiz).