November, 2008 archive
Beyond the Palin 0
From the Anchorage Daily News:
Chambliss was a congressman during the 9-11 attacks. Congressional Quarterly’s “Politics in America 2006” noted that Congressman Chambliss “quipped that one route to security would be for local sheriffs to ‘arrest every Muslim that comes across the state line.’”
So there you have the fine American that Palin is trying to re-elect to the U.S. Senate.
Gov. Palin’s eldest joined the Army and has been deployed to Iraq. As a justifiably proud military mom, she might ask herself why she is using her conservative star power to support such a reprehensible Republican chicken hawk.
The answer is, natch, Republicans don’t care about truth.
Or justice.
Or the American Way.
They care just about Republicanism.
Drinking Liberally 0
Tuesday, Triumph Brewing Company, 117 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p.
Doesn’t seem like I will make it. Lousy cold. So go hoist one for me.
It’s Always the Way 0
Management sucks, the working stiff gets, well, you get the drift.
Walter Brasch lays it out at ASZ.
Drive Bye-Bye 0
I’ve often driven past this place, but it’s too far away for me to have ever seen a movie there. Frankly, it didn’t look like much:
First Amendment 0
Down the hall, second door on the right. What he said.
Aside: Back when I grew up Southern Baptist, Baptists believed in separation of church and state. Why they have chosen to become establishmentarians is beyond me.
No religion ever won a convert by ramming the damned religion down other persons’ throats. It may have won compliance, but not converts.
Jesus.
From the Quotemaster 0
Winston Churchill:
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
Sound like anyone on AM radio?
Breaking: Republican Party Solves Illegal Immigration Problem 0
By screwing up the economy so much that illegals are going home on their own.
No Accident (Updated) 0
Kos, on Republicans’ expressing desires to emulate the Democratic machine:
Remember, a party predicated on the notion that government sucks and can’t do anything right can’t possibly run an administration that doesn’t suck and can do anything right. Competent conservative governance would instantly invalidate conservatism’s core tenets. That’s why Bush named horse lawyers to FEMA, and why fourth-tier law school grads have infested every corner of the Justice Department. George W. Bush wasn’t an anomaly, he delivered the most effectively conservative administration in history.
(snip)
So now the Patrick Ruffinis on the Right argue that they need their own machine to replace their powerful existing one, as if shiny new websites will suddenly fix what ails them. In reality, their problem is that their ideology has failed. Conservatism has failed, in a very public way, and people now recoil from its siren song. That’s not a marketing problem. It’s as if people suddenly realized that what they were drinking wasn’t Coke, but New Coke. And hundreds of millions of dollars wasn’t going to fix that problem.
A note from the reality-based world: Democrats are not docile enough to have a machine, at least not on a national level. What Democrats had this year was a decision to be on the right, which means the left, side of history this time around and a candidate who is a good, decent, honorable person.
And the capable assistance of the Republican Party, which, once it gained power, showed us what Republicanism (as opposed to principled conservatism) is really all about.
ASZ has more.
Addendum, Later that Same Day (If I Ever Planned This Wouldn’t Happen):
Delaware Liberal has more, here and here.
From the Quotemaster 0
For years, I’ve subscribed to Van’s Quotes of the Day.
Today’s mailing included this gem from C. S. Lewis:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its
victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live
under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.
The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity
may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for
our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with
the approval of their consciences.
Sound like any political parties persons you know?
Fair use: I emailed Van about posting his quotes a long time ago. The gist of his response was, “The quotes are public domain, and please mention my mailing list.” Follow the link to join his list.
Two Hours on a Ladder 2
And, just like always, it’s not the prettiest tree on the block.
But it’s the tallest.
Roll of Honor 0
Transcript here.
Aside: In the Bushie world, “family values” refers to sex. They have nothing to with honesty, honoring the public trust, fiduciary duty, or any of that other boring old stuff that involves other people’s money. Or other people’s lives. It’s just other people’s not having anything other than hetero sex within marriage–except for Republican Congresspersons, appointed officials, lobbyists, heads of mega-churches, and people like that there–that must be worried about.
Nope, if it’s not about sex, it not about family.
Or values.
Via Raw Story.
Black Friday (Updated) (Updated Again) 1
The consumer culture claims two lives:
“They’re savages,” said shopper Kimberly Cribbs, 27. “It’s sad. It’s terrible.”
Via Atrios.
Addendum, the Next Day:
Meg Kane in the Guardian:
Addendum-dee-dum-dum:
kpshea on Kos:
Let the Circle Be Unbroken 0
What Glomarization said.
