July, 2014 archive
Sugar Babies 0
In Florida, Daniel Ruth offers a new domino theory, a honeyed tail of sweetening the pols pot.
Tampa Bay Times reporters Michael Van Sickler and Craig Pittman reported Sunday that for years some of our august public servants took time out from crusading for responsible government to sneak away to Texas for swanky hunting vacations at the King Ranch with expenses paid by U.S. Sugar.
The Unraveling of the Regency, What’s My Line Dept. 0
Vivian Paige, preeminent local politics blogger and columnist for my local rag, asks, “Will the real Regent please stand up?”
Either McDonnell didn’t take his own advice, or the defense is just an effort to win an acquittal. In either case, the Bob McDonnell of 1989 wouldn’t recognize the Bob McDonnell of 2014.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite in the halls of commerce.
Jaudon then slapped the employee across the face.
The employee grabbed Jaudon and threw her to the ground.
Once separated, Jaudon threatened to kill the employee and admitted that she had a gun.
She then went outside, got a gun out of her vehicle and waved it around, threatening to kill the employee once again.
Via Southern Beale.
No Reason Needed 0
Obama Derangement Syndrome starts to boil over.
Jim Wright has a brilliant post about the wingnuts’ Obama Derangement Syndrome at Stonekettle Kitchen. A snippet (emphasis in the original):
And yet – and yet – far from an America destroyed, our nation has steadily improved day by day, month after month, year after year during the entirety of Obama’s Administration. We are better off here in the United States than we have ever been and better off than nearly anywhere else on the planet.
In much of the rest of the world the problems are starvation, hunger, malnutrition, pervasive poverty, epidemic disease, war, rape, terror, slavery, horrifying oppression, homelessness, murder, genocide, natural and manmade disasters in endless succession.
But here in the United States, we are so well off that our worst problem at present, the “crisis” that presently dominates our headlines, is that millions of the less fortunate desperately want to become Americans.
Think about that for a second, won’t you?
Read the rest. He doesn’t write often, but he writes brilliantly.
“Disruptors”–Just Another Word for Scofflaws 0
My local rag has an excellent editorial on Uber and Lyft. A nugget (emphasis added):
And that’s the kind of red tape Uber and Lyft have fought all over America. Both because it threatens a business model that depends on the low overhead made possible by ignoring state regulations and because the ideology of the new economy demands it.
Beyond the Palin 0
Funny or Die lauds the features of the new “Sarah Palin Channel.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Looking up a bit. (The most surprising part of this is in bold.)
The four-week average of jobless claims, considered a less volatile measure than the weekly figure, dropped to 297,250, the lowest since April 2006, from 300,750 the prior week. Claims in the period ended July 26 climbed to 302,000, in line with the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg, from a revised 279,000 the prior week that was the lowest since 2000.
Facebook Frolics, Conservapedia Dept. 0
Facebook apparently is too liberal, so some wingnuts are starting their own site, where they can wallow unmolested in hate.
The Rude One’s comments on this are a delight.
Via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Profit Motive 0
We need single-payer (emphasis added–read the rest).
And although access to health insurance can help stave off medical debt, it doesn’t solve the problem. About 10 million insured Americans have medical bills they are unable to pay. The Harvard researchers found that three-quarters of the medical debtors they studied had health insurance.
As long as the primary goal of health insurance is paying country-club fees for health insurance CEOs, we are screwed.
Thom Cracks the Code 0
From the website:
Thom Hartmann shares from his book, “Cracking the Code”, the differences between how Liberals and Conservatives view the world.
“Map My Teabag” 2
TPM has an interactive map where you can find out just how popular teabaggery is in your county.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness must be inculcated from a young age.
QOTD 0
Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington:
Be discreet in all things, and so render it unnecessary to be mysterious about any.
The Unraveling of the Regency 0
The Regent went on trial today, and the trail opened with a bombshell.
Here’s a snippet from a long report in my local rag:
Attorney Bill Burck said Maureen McDonnell was unhappy and lonely as a governor’s wife. By the time Williams came onto the scene, the former first couple were “barely on speaking terms,” but were “putting on a brave face” for the public.
Burck said Williams used Maureen McDonnell to get to her husband, lavishing her with the “attention and time” she was not getting from “the other man in her life.”
Family Values. It’s a Republican thing.
Video ia C&L, which has more.
