2011 archive
The Golden Fleecing 0
Excerpt from the transcript:
Exactly. I think in the end, the most crucial decision that Bush made right after 9/11 — and he said it explicitly by the end of September of that year — was we don`t want the American people to sacrifice. You know, maybe longer lines at airport check-in, but that was that. Go to Disney Land, go shopping. And there would be no taxes to pay for what would turn out to be two wars.
I think that injected a cancer into the American political culture just as you were saying. If we don`t pay for wars, why do we have to pay for anything? And I think you see the seeds now of this anti-government movement that`s in some ways paralyzing the country.
See the full contract at C&L.
Stormy Weather (Updated) 0
Mike Gruss, writing in my local rag, points out that the clean-up costs from Irene look to be quite high, despite it’s not having been another Hazel.
He then points out a storm is not an entertainment event and should not be so judged. A nugget:
If it’s on TV, to them, it’s all equal. That’s how Hurricane Irene, despite ruining cherished comic-book collections and newly installed air-conditioning units, became a box-office bust.
Afterthought:
After an informal survey of some of my friends (the persons who showed up an the TWUUG dinner), it appears that the Weather Channel was the primary hyper.
The local media coverage was fairly sane. Some of it was lame, but it wasn’t hysterical.
Addendum, Later that Same Day:
The Feral Genius comments from her post in Connecticut:
(snip)
In conclusion: despite the catastrophe unfolding in Vermont, the millions still without power on the East Coast, the dozens dead and all the other damage caused by Hurricane Irene, I personally suffered none of the ill effects the media warned me about. Thus, this was a minor fizzled-out nothing of a storm, and the warnings about it mere hype and bullshit. ’Cuz it’s all about me. Only me.
Fundamentally Arrogant 0
Charles Madigan muses on punishments from God at the Chicago Trib. In the process, he encapsulates much that is wrong with the religious (sic) right.
A nugget (emphasis added).
Plates shifting, as plates have always been shifting. That’s what earthquakes are all about.
I think it is blasphemous to suggest we can know the mind of God, or even to assume that whatever God is, it is all about us. I am quite certain that God does not punish evil here on Earth because there is so much of it that goes unpunished, so much of it that is rewarded, in fact.
QOTD 0
George Chapman, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
And let a scholar all earth’s volumes carry, he will be but a walking dictionary: a mere articulate clock.
Dustbiters 0
One would expect that, sooner or later, the FDIC would run out of banks to close.
Looks like later.
Surrounded by Enemies 2
Peter Bergman discusses the Republican fascination with enemies on EYKW.
It’s less than 12 minutes. Listen (NSFW).
He’s more optimistic than I.
Chauncey de Vega Interviews “Whiteness” (Updated and Kicked to the Top) 2
The WARN interview. Just go read it.
An Exclusive Interview with “Whiteness,” Senior Adviser to the Tea Party GOP and Governor Rick Perry
Addendum, the Next Day:
Lawyers, Guns, and Money recalls when a court decreed that Finns were white:
(snip)
This is from the 1908 court decision deciding that, in fact, Finns are white.
The excerpt from the 1908 court ruling is silly and sad at the same time.
Via Atrios.
Afterthought:
Over the years, there have been many attempts to prove the existence of “race” with “science.” Every one has been shown to be bunk.
But bigotry sure does.
The Republican War on Science 0
God forbid that schools teach stuff.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
In a follow-up to this:
After supporters of James and Sharon Bullington cried foul, the country’s biggest lender decided today to reimburse the legal fees and waive all late fees connected to its error.
Plus Ca Climate Change 0
Steve Chapman skewers climate change deniers. A nugget:
They used to uphold respect for science. Now they prefer magical thinking.
Republican Match-dot-com 0
Who is the latest heart-throb? Margaret Carlson handicaps the suitors at the Miami Herald. A nugget:
There was that spring fling with Donald Trump, for example. Trump was in first place back in April in a Public Policy Polling survey, clocking in at 26 percent to Romney’s 15 percent, but he was a distant memory by the time Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann burst on the scene. While Sarah Palin played hard to get, Bachmann jumped into the race with both heels. Feisty, pretty, happy to let the United States default on its debt, she climbed from 6 percent to 14 percent in a month. By Aug. 13, the party activists who flock to the Iowa Straw Poll were sufficiently in love to give Bachmann a winning 29 percent of the vote in an eight-candidate field, knocking out Bachmann’s home-state competition, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
It is rather like one of those romance comic books, isn’t it.
There’s always someone new along the Appalachian Trail.
Blaming the Victim 1
McClatchy discusses the apparent trend of blaming unemployed persons for, apparently, laying themselves off.
One manifestation of this is complaining that persons with no income pay no income taxes.
A nugget:
The reality is that the economy isn’t creating jobs fast enough to re-employ the 8 million-plus who lost jobs in the Great Recession of 2007-09.
“People blame the chronically unemployed when, in fact, they’re the victim of a much larger economic calamity that’s beyond their control,” said Harold Pollack, a professor at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration.
QOTD 0
Patricia Neal, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.
Twitches on Twitter 0
Christine O’Donnell proclaims, I am not a twitch.
Time To Declare Victory and Come Home 1
Because “We’re already there” is not a reason to stay.
Because “We never admit a mistake” is not a reason to stay.
Because “It creates jobs for Blackwater Xe and Lockheed-Martin and Dupont” is not a reason to stay.
Because “We are accomplishing nothing and will accomplish nothing” is not a reason to stay.
Because “Mine is bigger than yours” is not a reason to stay.
Because “Youngsters need an opportunity to die for their country” is not a reason to stay.
Name me a reason to stay.
Cantor’s Cant 0
Dick Polman wonders about Eric Cantor’s insistence that disaster aid be offset by budget cuts in other areas.
In particular, why were Republicans so willing to ratify the invasion of Iraq without insisting that the high cost be “offset” by slashing other programs? Cantor never uttered a peep. How come it was OK in 2003 to indulge that neoconservative dream regardless of cost (the Iraq tab approaches $1 trillion), but it’s not OK in 2011 to help Americans recover from a natural disaster regardless of cost?
Gee, I wonder. Perhaps it has something do with who is president today, and who was president in 2003.
The answer is quite simple.
The contemporary Republican Party doesn’t have principles.
It has tactics.
“An Armed Society Is Polite Society” 0
In discussing the arrest in Georgia of a promising NBA star, Leonard Pitts, Jr., gets to the heart and soul of gunnuttery:
At the very least, teach them that a gun is not a penis. It’s a tragedy that Crittenton didn’t know that.