January, 2009 archive
Beyond the Palin 2
Praised with faint damns: she’s no Margaret Thatcher (not that being one is any kind of accomplishment). Michael Stickings in the Guardian:
Palin, for her part, spent a few years meandering around post-secondary institutions in Hawaii, Idaho and Alaska before settling in as a local sportscaster, cozying up to the extremist Alaskan Independence party and entering local politics, first in Wasilla and then squeaking past the corrupt leadership of the state Republican party in Juneau, where she was discovered by Kristol et al, anointed by James Dobson and the Christian right and dumped onto the national ticket to arouse the lethargic, anti-McCain base.
Thatcher was not sublime, despite the best efforts of the right-wing publicity machine to portray her as a British Reagan (also not sublime–Will Bunch q. v.), but Palin is, indeed, ridicuous.
Pay close attention. Watch as she fades away . . . .
Never Too Old 0
AARP USA:
“Here he’s 50 years old, getting his AARP card, and here he’s being redeployed with all these 18-year-olds,” said Paul’s wife, Linda Bandel.
“I can understand, say, ‘Here, we have this assignment for you stateside. Go do your training,'” said Paul Bandel. “But, ‘Hey, here’s a gun, go back to the desert.'”
If I were slogging through the desert with a full pack when I was 18, I sure wouldn’t have wanted to depend on the 50-year-old me trying to keep up.
But YMMV.
All together now, sing the Bushie theme song.
Via Raw Story.
Where Did the TARP Money Go . . . 0
. . . other than to bonuses down the tubes?
Bill Shein reviews talking points for banks designed to address that question. A sample:
BAD: “Our massive bonuses from the last few years — based on illusory, phony profits from fictional mortgage-backed securities — are ours to keep. Isn’t that awesome? Don’t you wish you worked for a huge bank and not the Associated Press? Send me your résumé and I’ll see what I can do.”
Hampered at Hampton 0
Even if I did not already dislike Hampton Inns, the violence their recent commercial does to the Beatles’ “A Little Help from My Friends” would be enough to keep me from ever staying at one again.
“Not a True Conservative” My Anatomy 0
As I have pointed out before, when conservative policies fail, conservatives blame everything except, well, their policies. From Paul Krugman:
If the Bush administration became a byword for policy bungles, for government by the unqualified, well, it was just following the advice of leading conservative think tanks: after the 2000 election the Heritage Foundation specifically urged the new team to “make appointments based on loyalty first and expertise second.”
Contempt for expertise, in turn, rested on contempt for government in general. “Government is not the solution to our problem,” declared Ronald Reagan. “Government is the problem.” So why worry about governing well?
There’s more at the link.
Conservatism is a failed and bankrupt ideology deserving the dustbin of history.
No doubt its adherents will continue to attempt to torment us with it.
Truth is their weakness, self-delusion is their strength.
Addendum:
Not directly related, but what Digby said.
Put Up Your Dukes 0
Josh Marshall announces the winners of this year’s Golden Dukies (the video is worth watching to see the acceptance speech right there at the very end):
Read the judges’ comments here.
Year in Review 0
Uncle Jay reviews the news of 2008:
H/T Nancy for the link.
“Back from the Shadows Again” 0
(With apologies to the Firesign Theatre.)
I have returned from my Secure Undisclosed Destination. Shortly after I got there, the local intranet crashed, so I was unable to irritate persons in public.
But I’m back.