May, 2009 archive
Flair and Bolloxed 0
Stephen Colbert on John “Permanent Organ Damage” Yoo in the Philadelphia Shrinquirer:
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
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Doesn’t Meet Code 0
What happens when you use non-union electricians:
Of course KBR “denies culpability.” You wouldn’t expect them to say, “Oh, yeah, we knowingly hired bozos and cut corners,” now, would you?
Uncheneyed Melody 0
Andrew Sullivan on the pornographers of torture. Follow the link and read the whole thing:
Greater Wingnuttery XXII 0
An update on the crazy from James Wolcott.
Another One Bites the Dust 0
BankUnited, FSB, Coral Gables, Florida, is no more.
Huffington Post says it’s the biggest failure since IndyMac.
Afterthought:
It’s Thursday. They usually wait until Friday for these announcements, so they have the weekend to take care of the details. This one may have been really messed up.
According to the press release, rather than being given over to another bank, as is the usual practice (it says something that one can write “the usual practice” about a bank failure and have it seem natural, but that’s Republican Economic Theory for you), it’s been reborn under a new, but similar, name. This is truly screwy.
A Parliament of Pantywaists 0
Afraid of a few men in orange.
Cenk Uygur sums it up so I don’t have to.
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| Guantanamo Baywatch – The Final Season | ||||
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Oxymorons 0
The Booman defines the term.
Why the Founders Believed in a Republic 0
To prevent things like California’s self-induced spiral towards self-destruction.
Lies, Damned Lies, and the CIA 0
Would the CIA make stuff up?
Yes-indeedy-do.
(Via BartBlog.)
This whole Pelosi thing is so much wingnut spook smoke-screen.
Look! A spectral being looms on the horizon!
Glossary 0
rickrocket looks at the new Webster’s Republican Dictionary of political usage.
A sample. Follow the link for more:
- If you increase the budget in defense spending (and you are a Democrat), you are gutting the military budget.
- Also, if you receive a tax cut (from a Democratic administration), you are paying more taxes and should protest.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 to 631,000 in the week ended May 16, from a revised 643,000 the prior week that was higher than initially estimated, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The total number of people collecting benefits rose to 6.66 million, a record reading for a 16th straight week, and a sign companies are still not hiring.
Notice how the revised figures are usually higher than the initial estimates?
Proctoscopic 0
Are Republicans really that stupid, or do they just think we are that stupid. Senator Imhoff, R-Landrush, extoling the virtues of indefinite captivity:
A Pome, not by Henry Gibson:
Ode To Tropical Breeze Colonoscopies
By Madeleine Begun KaneI’m moving to Gitmo real soon
Cuz I’m told inmate health care’s a boon.
Colonoscopies free
After fifty-five. Whee!
So please lock me up, Sen. Buffoon!
Follow the link for more Mad Kane.
Afterthought:
All joking aside, the good Senator’s remark betrays a casual cruelty that is actually rather appalling.
Welchade 0
Jack Welch quoted in Bloomberg on the Chrysler thingee:
(He goes on to complain about Federal deficits. Funny. Don’t recall–maybe it’s just my faulty memory–his complaining about Federal deficits to fight made-up wars and build concentration camps.)
Not that I like the Chrysler thingee much myself, but I am damned glad I’m not the one to have to figure out what to do about Detroit’s dinosaur carcasses.
Anyhoo, in Welch’s world, the prospect of being out of work and out of money and having to live on the streets is unimaginable.
So why should he care about the workers, who spent years building the cars that management wanted them to build, only to face destitution through the incompetence of management?
Having to downgrade from a Rolls to a Bentley is a far more frightening thing.
In his world.
Put the hedge fundies first. After all, they have country club fees to pay.
I Missed This 0
Mainly because after a while I just can’t deal with the inanity any more and have to turn on a Law and Order rerun or something.
Susie caught it.
Nice catch.
PATH-ology 0
At Scientific Blogging, Dr. Randy Borum of the Univ. of South Florida considers a typology of extremism. The whole thing is worth a read:
- Polarized: The essence of which is an us vs them mindset, or what some would regard as in-group – out-group conflict.
- Absolutist: The beliefs are regarded as truth in the absolute sense, sometimes supported by sacred authority. This squelches questioning, critical thinking, and dissent. It also adds moral authority to framing us vs. them as a competition between good and bad (or evil).
- Threat-Oriented: External threat causes in-groups to cohere. Good leaders know this intuitively, if not from reading social psychological research. They persistently remind adherents that the “us” is at risk from the “them.” Because the “us” is seen as being good or right in the absolute sense, this works not only to promote internal cohesion but external opposition.
- Hateful: Hate energizes violent action. It allows principled opposition to impel direct action. It also facilitates various mechanisms of moral disengagement – such as dehumanization – which erode the social and psychological barriers to engaging in violence that one believes is “justified” (an important point, since many more people endorse the justification for extremist violence than actually commit such acts).
Looks at lot like a formula for success as a wingnut talk radio host, does it not?
I Have Visited National Parks 0
Includinding Yellowstone National Park. And Zion. And Bryce Canyon. And Grand Canyon. And Kolob Canyon. And Shenandoah. And several others.
There is no freaking reason on or off Earth that anyone needs to pack heat to visit a National Park.
Unless I guess the gun is his Viagra.
I visited the parks. Brendan made the phone call.
Simple Answers 0
The Pilot doesn’t understand, but it’s actually pretty obvious.
Down the road a piece:
It’s understandable that McDonnell wants to change the subject. He should have foreseen the inevitable backlash when he supported Republican lawmakers’ rejection of $125 million in federal stimulus funds. The money would have paid for unemployment assistance at a time when 300,000 Virginians are out of work.
What’s harder to understand is why McDonnell keeps insisting the issue is somehow connected to the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as card check, a bill before Congress that would make it easier for unions to organize workplaces.
Neither proposal makes the rich richer or the poor poorer.
It’s a Republican thing.
Flu by Night 0
It appears that thinking the whole swine H1N1 flu thing is over may be a mistake:
While the public may be over the initial scare from Mexico last month, it is the longer-term scenario – a version of 1918 would be the most extreme – that keeps pandemic experts up at night. A seeming resurgence of swine flu in New York over the last several days and its continuing spread worldwide haven’t helped.
“This one may or may not come back in September or October. It may or may not come back in December. It may or may not come back at all,” said Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan and author of When Germs Travel: Six Major Epidemics That Have Invaded America and the Fears They Have Unleashed.
