Teletracer

“I spent five days crying in Argentina!”

2009-06-24T22:43:00.000-07:00

And so another right-wing warrior, swimming in the detrius of Reaganism, having railed and thundered faithfully for the One True Way is brought down by what we all agree is, if not often the “One” or “True,” certainly the Way. The usual suspects will circle the wagons, doing their demeaning best to spin away while the Governor recites his “I apologize to my family...” minstrel show. Do any of Sanford's staff possess a conscience?

I for one am glad and laughing. This continuing Domino-like collapse of the “family values” crowd should have happened a long time ago, and if this accelerates the implosion, good on it. Personally, I'm sick and tired of living in a country where, depending on which Fourth of July show you're at, people can blather on about “the free and the brave” when their own government even now freely discriminates against its own citizens.

Of course, I'm absolutely sure Sanford will be given the option to resign, rather than be impeached. Though he certainly is guilty of excessive dereliction of duty -- leaving his hurricane-prone state for six days unannounced during hurricane season -- the ability of the GOP to simply “erase” certain events cannot be understated.

Finally, A President

2009-02-25T19:06:00.000-08:00

Now that was a speech. If pundits are calling it his “unofficial” State of the Union Address, I’ll be front and center for the real one.

It still feels a bit strange and exhilarating that we now live in a world where the President of the United States can speak clearly, forcefully and eloquently on any number of topics and also walk and chew gum at the same time. Like many of us who were unwillingly dragged across the harsh terrain of Bush’s rough, disgusting “presidency,” I’d forgotten what actual talent, competence and vision sounded like.

In Which I Give You CNN’s House Idiot, John King:

2008-11-05T18:38:00.000-08:00

Campbell Brown: For those people who have been worried about the possibility of one party controlling Congress and the White House, the last president to do that, of course, was....?

John King: Ah, that was Bill Clinton, and...

Brown: Jimmy Carter! Jimmy Carter had... Bill Clinton had Democrats in the House and in the Senate?

King: Very briefly.

Brown: Very briefly. [Crinkles her nose] Didn't go so well.

King: No it didn't.

As Atrios notes, where in the hell did these people spend the last eight years?

McCain's supporters

2008-11-04T20:26:00.000-08:00

It's a point to listen to them as McCain at least accepted his defeat with some decency, that they were booing and acting like jerks. It's a good thing he didn't have Palin speak, because she probably would have encouraged them, not only pounding the final nail in McCain's political coffin of shame, but encouraging them and their more unhinged elements to commit acts that the rest of the nation would consider unconscionable.

OH MY FUCKING GOD HE DID IT!!!!!!

2008-11-04T20:18:00.000-08:00

I'm literally speechless, and in tears of happiness, that the Reagan Revolution is over, that the last eight years of Shrub and his grotesquely incompetent, morally repugnant administration are over, and that this man will now be our new, democratically and honestly elected President. We've seen history tonight, and I'm humbled to have been here to see it, and honored to have voted for Senator Obama. It's a bit like the moon landing, watching the election of the first black President of the United States of America. Such a great and necessary thing for the country and the world, as America has finally joined the 21st century. Yes, we did.

Photo courtesy The Huffington Post.

The Unhappiest Anniversary

2008-08-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

Shrub ignores news of impending attack

Seven years ago today, on August 6, 2001, this exchange occured:

The book's opening anecdote tells of an unnamed CIA briefer who flew to Bush's Texas ranch during the scary summer of 2001, amid a flurry of reports of a pending al-Qaeda attack, to call the president's attention personally to the now-famous Aug. 6, 2001, memo titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US." Bush reportedly heard the briefer out and replied: "All right. You've covered your ass, now."

Seven years later, Osama Bin Laden is still alive, al-Qaeda is stronger than ever, and 2,974 American civilians, 4,000 (and counting) American troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead. Two countries lie in ruins; Iraq physically and the U.S. financially. And these people have dragged us down to the point that actual discussions have been had as to what constitutes torture.

And do keep in mind that the so-called “adults” were “back in charge” (see photo above of Harriet Miers and Shrub at his “ranch” in Crawford) on the day—this day—seven years ago, when they got full warning of and still had a chance to avert this avalanche of depravity. Instead Shrub stayed on vacation.

h/t Digby

Countdown

2008-07-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

Rachel trumps Keith

The producers of MSNBC’s Countdown need to give the show to Rachel Maddow. She’s been filling in for Keith lately, and I think she’s a better host. I like Keith Olbermann well enough, but if he keeps Countdown, MSNBC ought to at least give Rachel her own show. Schedule it right after Countdown and put Dan Abrams' ridiculous show on at 11, when most people are online or asleep.

UPDATE: Someone comes to their senses and Rachel gets her own show!

The Academy Awards

2008-02-26T19:30:00.000-08:00

Hollywood shows some taste

Like others who’ve grown tired with the overwrought nonsense of the whole thing, I TiVo’d the show and made it through in about an hour and twenty minutes, liberally using the fast-forward button. They all went pretty much as I thought, though I’ve got to give a big shout-out to my faves the Coen brothers. Also Javier Bardem and the lovely Marion Cotillard, two individuals for whom the word sexy is too small a complement. Their speeches were heartfelt, deeply human and lifted the whole evening up several notches. Same with the adorable couple from Once, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Special props to John Stewart (or whatever producer) for calling Ms. Irglova back out onto the stage and letting her have her moment (the gruesomely tacky Bill Conti and the orchestra he was “conducting” cruelly cut her off before she’d had a chance to say anything when the couple originally accepted their awards.) A nice moment of true class from a show not known for it in recent years.

Otherwise, Tilda Swinton gave a hilarious ribbing to Gorgeous George; Julie Christie looked smashing, befitting the cinematic royalty she is; and Ellen Page and Saoirse Ronan are born stars. Laura Linney (and, for that matter, Julianne Moore) should have at least two Oscars (each), and Daniel Day-Lewis’ fearless genius was in good company with Viggo Mortensen.

And, of course, then there’s the sublime force of nature that is Cate Blanchett, for whom I’d pay SuperBowl-ticket-level money to see merely sitting on a blank stage on a Saturday afternoon reading out loud various entries in the phone book.

Photo courtesy www.oscar.com

Some Perspective on St. McCain

2008-02-11T21:26:00.000-08:00

His candidacy as a “maverick” is a Potemkin charade

Those who know me personally, or have met me online, know I have absolutely no use for John McCain, whether he runs as a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent, a Green; whatever. He could run as a Communist for all I care. And to be clear: I’m not, nor would I, disparage the fact that he was a genuine P.O.W. who suffered horribly in another useless war for no purpose. Ten or twenty years from now the nation is going to see large numbers of men and women running for office with a background very similar to his.

Why I find him so repulsive is all this nonsense about him being a “maverick.” The press (who unsurprisingly can’t get their minds around the fact that this is real life and not an endless replay of “Top Gun”) has gone overboard with this ridiculous, Potemkin storyline, and McCain’s eager adoption of it as truth puts him—as hardcore and stalwart a GOP loyalist as they come—into parody territory.

But beyond that comes the heart of the issue: his constant playing in every campaign he’s run of the “torture” card for cheap votes. A bizarre reflection of Guiliani’s endlessly and tastelessly trying to leverage the events of 9/11 in which he played only a peripheral part, both men have managed to crudely degrade wide-scale tragedy and intense personal agony into simply another tacky campaign slogan; undiluted bullshit repeated endlessly for no other reason than to stroke each man’s ludicrously outsized ego in the hope that enough gullible voters would buy into it and shovel them just over the edge into office.

Take a glimpse of the photo at right for all the proof needed about how much of a “maverick” McCain supposedly is. It’s all a media creation, just like the cypher he’s disgracefully hugging (even after this same man and his nasty political hit team were responsible in 2000 for destroying McCain’s candidacy and slandering his wife and adopted daughter). What kind of “maverick Marine” would dare put up with that? And what type of “maverick” would embrace the individual responsible for signing off on that ugly Rove-led Swift Boating except one who could easily sweep his own principles—and family—under the proverbial carpet in service of his own desire for the ultimate trophy, the ultimate medal?

John McCain has arrived at what most would call the “sunset” of his life; most men would accept that with some dignity and repose and not turn themselves into a caricature. But McCain is unable to stop; he’ll keep talking up his grim experiences under torture on the campaign trail while turning his head away as he votes to keep soldiers in Iraq for “a hundred years.” The requisite platitudes will be mouthed opposing the administration’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” but he’ll vote like he’s told on the Senate floor.

There are a good amount of people in the country who will vote for him because he’s not only the (likely) Republican nominee, but because he’s a former P.O.W. But that card has already been played out; he has no business ascending to the nation’s highest office, considering the amount of destruction wrought over the past eight years by his party and his apparent willingness to continue policies that have long since proven to be abject failures. It is time for John McCain to quit the charade he’s continued—in the dark, long after the music has stopped and the parade has ended—and exit the stage along with whatever “beliefs” he happens to hold at the moment. A weary nation would be grateful.

Agitprop has more thoughts, worth reading.

The G.O.P. Closet Just Keeps... Um... Bulging!

2008-02-11T19:45:00.000-08:00

At CPAC, life is undoubtedly better “under” a conservative...

DownWithTyranny braves a look at this year’s rotten CPAC convention (and yes, Ann Coulter apparently found a way to sneak in, though accounts are unclear as to whether, with John Edwards [thanks to the media freezing him out] having dropped out of the race, she was so keen on throwing the word “faggot” around) and finds a poster there so sublime it makes parody of these hardcore (ehem) rightwing men, at least, beyond impossible.*

Go see. And be sure to follow the links about McHenry.

*Yes, I’m sure there were probably a few far-rightwing women there; but, let’s face it: this “conference” is essentially a place for a lot of pasty, insecure white guys with relationship, money and identity issues to grouse and piss and moan about how they need to “fight back.” This, despite how every big G.O.P. speaker there has–in some way or another–been the primary architects of the downfall of these guys’ “world” precisely because of their own predictable myopia in the voting booth.

h/t: Digby

It’s About %$*@# Time

2008-02-11T18:17:00.001-08:00

Website tracks antics of excitable talker.

In light of his most recent—though neverending—buffoonish antics, Media Matters has taken it upon itself to launch a valuable new service, “Matthews Monitor,” an information and action center dedicated to putting a spotlight on the sexist, unhinged, hollering pundit, and holding him (and his employer MSNBC) to account. There are a quite a few prominent bloggers and viewers (both female and male) who have had enough of his bullshit, particularly his vendetta against Hillary Clinton. This foolishness has been going on against her since ’92, but Matthews has taken it to a whole new level of low; he’s simply incapable of covering this Presidential campaign objectively and ought to be fired for on-air behavior and comments that have gone beyond mere commentary and “analysis” into outright character assassination.

Atrios Speak, You Listen

2008-02-11T18:09:00.000-08:00

Exactly:

“The story of this decade is the complete and utter failure by elites in government and media to do their jobs properly. What’s so depressing about all of this is that there has been little accountability anywhere (see Kristol, Bill, New York Times for example) for the catastrophe they unleashed on the people of Iraq. For a group of people enamored with their own self-importance, they seem to have little concern for the consequences of what they do.”

2008-01-24T16:37:00.000-08:00

Heath Ledger (1979-2008): R.I.P.

The always fantastic Kim Morgan over at Sunset Gun eloquently says everything that needs to be said.

Update: As usual, it didn’t take long for Fox News’ resident shitbag John Gibson to use Mr. Ledger’s tragic death as an excuse for some typically disgusting and callous comments, playing a funeral march and calling Ledger a “weirdo.” Keith Olbermann promptly labeled the repellent Gibson a “Worst Person in the World” and Joe Scarborough and others condemned Gibson’s comments as “sick” and “grossly inappropriate.”
I couldn’t agree more.

(Image courtesy Focus Features)

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T19:54:00.000-07:00

My favorite holiday, bar none!

Here’s one of the great street parties I once attended and here is more on it; la, la, la. While there exist real, fucked-up freaks everywhere, and truly disturbing people always about, at least for one night we can appear to be crazier than them.

(And no, I won’t tell you who I went as this year.)

Light some candles... arrange some pumpkins, and pray and hold faith for the redemption of the monster our country has become.

Just Because

2007-10-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

A cat after my own heart. Have a drink on me!

Photo courtesy icanhascheezburger

“Mammon Over God”

2007-10-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

To nation’s relief, Religious Right racketeers lose influence

And so it has come to pass, finally. The fall of the right wing’s great Hypocritical Hate Machine, and at the hands of Rudy! himself, no less.

Backing a loser, they know, would even further diminish their waning Washington status in a post-Rove, post-Bush G.O.P. The more they shed their illusion of power, the more they imperil their ability to rake in big bucks from their apocalyptic direct-mail campaigns. They must choose mammon over God if they are to maintain the many values rackets that make up their various business empires.

Frank Rich has the details.

Quiz Time

2007-10-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

What breed of liberal are you?

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what’s known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-based thought reign supreme.

Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com

h/t: Tristero

Beware of The Blob

2007-10-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

Mass of toxic sludge a perfect metaphor

A friend who shares the same politics and I were talking the other day about what image, what photograph, could best sum up the current administration when the sad, inevitable day arrives that either of us are forced to explain to some inquiring kid about what the hell happened to America in the last eight years. It wasn’t that the photo had to be specifically related to something the adminstration had done, per se, or been directly involved with (though its penchant for extreme secrecy and malice precludes ever ruling that possibility out), but a single image that conveyed all that needed to be said about this presidency. There was this, or perhaps this. My friend thought this would be as good a candidate as any.

And then, lo and behold, the always great Mark Morford appeared and tipped the country off about this. A 1,500 mile-wide, rank, shapeless mass of putrid junk—a floating landfill—far out in the Pacific Ocean; an amorphous blob composed mainly of the plastic ephemera we throw away that traveled from land to sea to end up as this giant clump of toxic nastiness so foul, so unnatural, that Mother Nature herself had to banish it out into the farthest reaches of the open ocean.

It was then we both decided that this thing, this revolting ugly mass, was the perfect metaphor for the Cheney administration and all the misery it had caused. Some things are just too much for a single photo.

What in the hell Is Wrong With These People?

2007-10-18T19:15:00.001-07:00

Rightwing bloggers go off the rails

Update: Tom Tomorrow, as always, nails it.

So, let’s see; it’s now acceptable among the eye-bulging, froth-spewing Right to attack a seriously injured twelve-year-old boy and his little sister if their parents have the effrontery to make use of a government program designed explicitly to help people precisely in their situation.

I could link to various blogs, Michelle Malkin’s first among them, to make a point, but neither she nor any of them deserve the traffic. They’ve been given, via the intertubes, enough rope to hang themselves and I’m certainly not going to contribute to exposing anyone to their brand of hateful, toxic waste. There was a time (I came of age in the ’80’s) when people like Malkin and her mouthbreathing followers were called the “fringe”; respectable newspapers and magazines saw their letters as the ravings that they were and tossed them where they belonged: in the trash can beside the desk, and that was that.

Now, however, everyone has the power of the press online (provided anyone reads what you have to say). This is a good thing, considering the authoritarian direction our government has been sliding into in recent years, but as human nature dictates, there’s always a nasty underside. Hence Malkin and Townhall’s attempts (no links provided as I’m not going to give them credence) to demonize this little boy in order to keep their own bizarre version of “reality” true. Everything is falling apart around them and the desperation is setting in.

I’ve often said online and in conversation: these are hideous people, worthy of nothing but contempt.

The always terrific Eric Boehlert has the defining word on the subject.

Congratulations

2007-10-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

America’s real President wins Nobel Peace Prize.

You didn’t honestly think, though, that the press would be mature and gracious about this, did you?

Photo: AP/Wilfredo Lee. Courtesy Salon.

All Blogs Need More Eurovision

2007-10-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

Push The Button!
(In the midst of the grinding hell of the Bush “presidency”, can we not find time to laugh?)

h/t: the good and wise Atrios.

Doing Their Part

2007-09-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

Mitt’s brave sons stare fear in the eye, grit their teeth and storm the beaches for America:

“A Bad, Naughtyboy”

2007-08-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

It’s only the gays who do that, right?

(Updated.)

Sigh. For Christ’s sake.

Is it too much to ask the heartland people of America to understand that a political candidate who makes the loudest noises about “family values” and rails against “sin” and whatever other nonsense they (or their speechwriters) can dig up almost always has a dirty little secret?

What really ticks me off is that there are hundreds of thousands of perfectly well-adjusted gay men and women in this country who not only have the courage to live out of the closet, but also don’t troll for jollies in a filthy public restroom—–in a major airport, no less––while having gone on record denouncing a former, democratically elected President for consentual sexual hijinks.

Larry Craig, like Mark Foley before him, is both a pig and a true deviant; an ugly label his party so often relishes painting all gay people with simply to pick up a few extra votes from the perpetually grousing Limbaugh contingent.

What is it with these deeply self-loathing, closeted Republicans? This phenomenon is nothing new, obviously, but I’m going to repeat what’s been said many times before: if you hate who you are that much, get some therapy and quit fucking things up for the rest of us who are proudly gay, happy and normal, capeesh?

Update: Andrew Sullivan offers some rather good thoughts on this whole episode.

“Political Serial Killer”

2007-08-13T18:18:00.000-07:00

Turd Blossom heads out to pasture; Cheney’s influence now total.

There’s been quite a bit written already on this topic; suffice to say I’ve got nothing to add (the mere thought of Rove makes my blood pressure spike to unhealthy levels) that the always excellent Sidney Blumenthal hasn’t said about this rotten specimen of humanity already. Of course, keeping in character, Shrub will doubtlessly pardon him and he’ll either go on to a lucrative career on Fox News or collect millions in speaking fees on the wingnut welfare circuit.

Shuffling

2007-08-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

A tasteless administration once again exploits the dead.

Few American columnists are as good at distilling the essence of this administration’s tawdry, P.R.-above-all schtick as The New York Times’ Frank Rich.

The Unbearable “Issues” of Chris Matthews

2007-08-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

Chris Matthews should be fired.

Digby rightly excoriates the excitable, unhinged TV talker, who really has become little more than an embarrassment for MSNBC. With the exception of the excellent Keith Olbermann, that’s really saying something for that network. In a reality-based world, Matthews would have been tossed out of the studio years ago for on-air antics that ranged from the merely puerile to the downright disturbing. As many have pointed out, this isn’t a normal hetero or homosexual thing; I don’t think actual sexual desire figures into it at all. This is something deeper, and much weirder. Sara Robinson of Orcinus has a very good take on the right-wing cult of “masculinity” and the need of people like Matthews for a big ol’ GOP “Daddy” figure to take care of them.

Back Again

2007-08-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

“It’s been a long time, been a long time...”

Well, posting has been nonexistant for a long while now for a number of factors but primarily being busy at work with lots of big projects — all done on the computer — which has left me in the quandry that, short of answering any pressing personal emails, when I get home in the evening the very last thing I want to do is sit right back down at another computer, no matter what I have to say. (And posting from work is impossible). However, things have eased up a little bit so I'm going to attempt to update a little more often.

“The Art Teacher’s Office”

2007-03-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

I don’t agree with Andrew Sullivan on a lot of things, but this is, as he says, a minor [Simpsons] classic. Hilarious (especially if, like me, you were an art student*).

*Of course, my home office/studio doesn’t ever smell like that. Nope. Never.

Knockout

2007-03-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

The New York Times winds it up and lets Gonzo have it, right between the eyes.

It’s about time someone in the corporate media said what’s needed saying for a long time now.

We’re As Mad As Hell...

2007-03-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

...and we’re not going to take this anymore!

Convenient

2007-03-15T16:24:00.000-07:00

Well, well... this appeared just in the nick of time, didn’t it?

Let’s recap the past three weeks: soldiers sent off to fight in a pointless “war” are found to be recovering from their wounds in appalling, Dickensian surroundings at Walter Reed; a company with political ties to the Bush family was found to be installing defective pumps on the levees in New Orleans; “Scooter” Libby becomes the first publicly acknowledged felon in an administration full of them; and Bush crime family/mob lawyer Alberto “Abu” Gonzales is about to have his ass hauled before the Senate Judiciary Committee and be forced to testify (under oath, again) about the latest bit of skullduggery to ooze up from the White House swamp. Then, smack in the middle of all this, the King Terrorist Of The World (Osama who?), whom we’ve had in custody for years, suddenly “confesses” to everything short of the fall of Rome and the Great Potato Famine. Funny how years of ongoing torture has a habit of making a person admit to, well... just about anything!

Could this administration get any more cynical? I’m sure the knuckle-dragging 30 percent or so True Believers will buy into this predictable bullshit, egged on by reliable gargoyles like Hannity, Limbaugh and Coulter, but the rest of the country sees it for exactly what it is: another smokescreen tossed out to deflect attention from the White House’s current and richly deserved mountain of political problems.

I think what’s most revealing about all this is the administration’s bald-faced, utter contempt for the American people in thinking anyone (outside of their “base”) would buy this, given their deplorable record of mendacity for the past six years.

(On top of all that I am getting very, very sick and goddamned tired of them hauling out the dried, blood-encrusted mummy of 9/11 every time they find themselves in yet another ethics-challenged situation and need a quick distraction. It’s long surpassed being tasteless and, given this adminstration’s track record, a kick in the teeth to the families of the victims.)

Accounting

2007-02-03T01:00:00.000-08:00

In an earlier post, I made a slight reference to the obscene profits our vice “president” is quietly pocketing—what earlier Congresses have quaintly referred to as “war profiteering”—without elaborating further on this ugly topic. To wit:

Before the Iraq War began, Halliburton was 19th on the U.S. Army’s list of top contractors and zoomed to number 1 in 2003. In 2003, Halliburton made $4.2 billion from the U.S. government. Cheney stated he had “severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest.”

In 2005, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) said Cheney’s stock options [were] worth $241,498 the year before and were valued at more than $8 million in 2005—an increase of 3,281%. Cheney receives a deferred salary from the company—$205,298 in 2001; $162,392 in 2002; $178,437 in 2003; and $194,852 in 2004.

More here.

Perspective

2007-02-02T21:59:00.000-08:00

Via His Rudeness, Molly said it best:

Ivins never became the regular TV pundit that so many other alleged columnists became. Perhaps it was because of moments like this, being interviewed about the brewing Clinton “scandal” on some Fox “news” program in March 1998:

“If we had devoted this much time and this much space in the newspapers to the single most important problem in American politics today, which is the money that finances campaigns and the way the people that get elected respond to that money, we would have solved the problem by now. We would have the people of this country so outraged, they would be demanding campaign finance reform. What are we doing? We’re talking about the president’s dick. It’s ridiculous.”

His full tribute to the great Molly is here.

And he’s right.

h/t to Atrios.

Standing Up

2007-02-02T20:44:00.000-08:00

It goes without saying that the Pentagon, the White House, the military, blah, blah, blah, never figure into their bullshit “scenarios” actual people; you know, the living, breathing kind, who might be affected and perhaps have their lives ripped apart and destroyed by “engagements.” And it’s certainly a given that Shrub doesn’t, lest it disturb his sleep on those comfy pillows he’s so fond of.

But there are actual people suffering, greatly, under the massive wreckage this administration has cursed upon the world, even more than those who are lucky enough to be featured in the press; namely gay and lesbian Iraqis whose lives have been irrevocably destroyed by this immoral invasion into their country that most people in this nation could seem to care less about. Being gay under Saddam was bad, but life currently for gay men and women in Iraq is a death sentence, thanks to the neoconservatives, Cheney and his puppet, Shrub.

Go here to find out more, and find links about how you can help Iraq’s GLBT community.

“...a spineless little fuckhead who should be torn apart by hyenas.”

2007-02-01T20:31:00.000-08:00

Quoth Matt Taibbi on the waste of DNA known as Michael Savage specifically, and more generally on the rest of the right-wing TV and hate-radio slime such as Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, etc. who gleefully spread all manner of falsehoods, garbage and outright lies about anyone they disagree with (case in point: the recent, thoroughly debunked - by actual reporters, no less - “story” concerning Barack Obama’s supposed “radical Islamic” education) in the national media with seeming impunity. These people are largely to blame for the reason political discourse in this country continues to wallow in the sewer. Matt’s idea is correct: Sue these scum for libel.

Farewell, Molly

2007-02-01T20:23:00.000-08:00

The world seemed a little emptier today with the death of Molly Ivins, one hell of a woman and someone who I truly would have given anything to have had a few beers with. John Nichols remembers.

As Atrios said, “she made the world a better place while she was here.”

Fox and “bipartisanship”

2007-01-09T17:14:00.000-08:00

Late on this, but in case you missed it; the gargoyles over at Fox wasted no time shoveling the muck. “Good god, that awful liberal Nancy Pelosi is gonna give us all the gay!!”

(And for the record, I couldn’t be happier to have lived to have seen the first female Speaker of the House in the history of our government.)

h/t to digby.

Back To The Grind

2007-01-09T17:03:00.000-08:00

Never let it be said I’m not lazy over the holidays... (and for a while thereafter). However, be that as it may, let’s credit Apple (who else?) with inspiring my first burst of uncontrollable techno-lust for the new year. At least now I won't have to worry about what I'm going to buy myself next Christmas.

“A Success That Hasn’t Occurred Yet”

2006-12-30T21:11:00.000-08:00

It has been a common fact for years now that One Hundred Percent of the blather spoken so earnestly by current White House bobbleheads on cable “news” shows is absolute bullshit. However, this whopper—if we had a functioning media—should have stopped the presses. Try to believe you live in a country in which a White House spokesflack could spout this ducksplatter on national television and get away with it, unchallenged. White House honker Frances Fragos Townsend chats with CNN’s White House correspondent Ed Henry:

HENRY: You know, going back to September 2001, the president said, dead or alive, we’re going to get [Bin Laden]. Still don’t have him. I know you are saying there’s successes on the war on terror, and there have been. That’s a failure.

TOWNSEND: Well, I’m not sure -- it’s a success that hasn’t occurred yet. I don’t know that I view that as a failure.

(emphasis mine)

Hands down, that is the dumbest, most ridiculous statement I’ve ever heard, and considering some of wingnut sludge tossed at the wall this year, that’s really saying something.

Let’s not even get into what the Cheney Administration considers a “failure.” More U.S. soldiers are now dead than all of the people killed on 9/11. Not to mention the thousands with missing limbs, eyes, brains... and to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians killed in this immoral, illegal “war.”

Glenn and Jane expound further.

h/t TPM

2006: Is It Over Yet?

2006-12-28T16:55:00.000-08:00

Since we’re in end-of-the-year wrap-up mode, and since every publication under the sun seems to be overflowing with year-end “best of,” “hottest trends,” etc. lists, let’s saunter on over into the gutter for a moment and take a salacious look back at the past year’s most grimace-inducing, indigestion-causing and downright embarrassing (as in: “damn I’m embarrassed to be a part of the human race at this moment”) events and trends that the past year has thrust upon us. Mel. Paris. Rosie. Screech. And more of...ehem, Britney than any of us ever wanted to see.

Click here, if you dare.

And, as a bonus, for those of you out there—you know who you are—who love a good catfight, here’s a roundup of some of the year’s best!

Return of the King

2006-12-27T21:05:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder why that vast, and I do mean vast, sad pile of often-promised, endlessly delayed and usually never delivered software, game ideas and profoundly useless metal things with too many buttons—all usually promised to improve our lives or, at the very least, the entertainment value of such—didn’t occasion its own award show to celebrate the worst of the worst?

Wonder no more. Wired offers up its Vaporware ’06 Awards.

The Dank Horror

2006-12-27T18:10:00.000-08:00

Quoth Wolcott, on one of the worst of the warbloggers:
Finally, Charles Johnson has taken a long, hard look into a glass darkly and registered the dank horror of his site's maggot-ridden soul.
Fear not; go read.

“Three...Two...One... You’re On The Air!”

2006-12-27T16:55:00.000-08:00

Well, it figures I’d start this thing the day former President Gerald Ford finally dropped dead. If we can’t forgive him for pardoning Nixon, we can at least give him props for inspiring one of the funniest headlines in history. With his passing, we can officially say that moderate Republicanism died with him. Of course, please don’t anyone be shocked if we’re not treated to an absolutely insufferable, week-long hagiography a la St. Ronald. It’s not that Ford wasn’t a decent enough fellow, who ably steered the nation along without making waves. It’s just that he wasn’t a big enough war criminal, delusional maniac or simply enough of an outright bastard to make good coverage. Considering the incalculable damage the current GOP “leadership” has wrought on the country over just the past six years alone, I’d give anything to have Jerry running again on the GOP side in ’08, and I'm a liberal Democrat. He may not have had any answers, but at least he wouldn’t go actively to the mat to make things worse, and the resulting pablum of the presidential “race” would at least give the nation a chance to breathe, rub its eyes, come to its senses, and try to begin cleaning up the mess the fanatical extremists currently in power have made.

Of course, mentioning Ford’s death without mentioning another recent one would truly be criminal: James Brown, the Godfather of Soul. What else can possibly be said about this man that his spectacular music doesn’t already say for him? For all you young ’un’s who’ve never experienced him, get your asses over to iTunes and start downloading, pronto.

As for me, I’m electrolite, host of this particular just-barely-functional-at-this-point little bit of the Internet, and the main (though not the only) writer that will be appearing here. Expect the site to undergo visual changes fairly soon, and I’ll have the “About Me” section updated eventually. Probably quicker than that, but you know how it is.

Update: Walter Shapiro has a good piece in Salon on Ford. The title says it all.