Thursday, March 31, 2011

And I've got one showing more than 11,000 Starbucks

Israeli map shows nearly 1,000 Hezbollah sites.

Fair and Balanced

So the Wisconsin GOP wants to see a professor's emails because he wrote a column criticizing them...while demanding a video of a public address by a House Republican from Wisconsin moaning about his six-figure salary be pulled down.

Joe McCarthy would be proud.

Hey, looks like the Vatican has a few of those Indiana Republicans too!

Wow:

The Vatican's chief exorcist claimed last year that the Devil lurked in the Vatican, the very heart of the Catholic Church...

He claimed that the sex abuse scandals which have engulfed the Church in the US, Ireland, Germany and other countries, were proof that the anti-Christ was waging a war against the Holy See.


And then the Vatican's Chief Exorcist retired to his chambers to battle the Devil with one hand.

Please allow Betty Ford a few free shots at this guy

This really is beyond the pale:

Indiana GOP Rep Says Women Will Pretend To Be Raped To Get Free Abortions


Because clearly woman love saying they were raped. No stigma to that one at all.

Call me naive

But sometimes it seems FoxNews isn't honest.

Sincerely,

1996

Time to return the favor

Nobody could have anticipated:

The French government, which has led the international charge against Colonel Qaddafi, has placed mounting pressure on the United States to provide greater assistance to the rebels. The question of how best to support the opposition dominated an international conference about Libya on Tuesday in London.


I agreed with France over staying the fuck out of Iraq in that we should have stayed out of Iraq as well.

But here's a chance to tell the French, this is YOUR baby. You want to replay imperial overlord again, strike up La Marseillaise and have at it.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

They've just given prosecutors a blank check to put innocent people in jail without fear of the consequences

D-I-S-G-U-S-T-I-N-G!!!!

And speaking of the Washington Post



I imagine it is right next to the Washington Post story about diploma mills.

Nino plays his own Rim-Shot


I suppose he'll claim Judicial Immunity:

The accident happened just before 9 a.m. on what was to be a big day for the jurist: The nation’s highest court was hearing arguments in the massive Wal-Mart gender discrimination case. According to U.S. Park Police, Scalia was driving south on the parkway approaching Roosevelt Bridge when he rear-ended a car that had stopped for traffic, triggering a chain reaction.


Well, as Scalia has stated repeatedly and enthusiastically, there is no protection in the Constitution for rear-ending someone. So I say throw the book at the perp.

Way to be on the cutting edge of the Cultural Zeitgeist

Dear Washington Post...if you are a few months behind a dreadful Aston Kutcher movie, you might as well be writing in 1850.



This is what happens when female columnists buy into male writers' fantasy fiction.

To be fair, he is paid less than Peggy Noonan

Me and my poor $174,000 salary, by Republican Representative Sean Duffy.

But they've got a 30 second loop of guys standing around and everything!

Quelle surprise:

The Obama Justice Department did not improperly let politics or the race of the defendants affect the handling of a high-profile civil voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party, a probe by DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) concluded after an extensive investigation.


So, no racial or political bias there. FoxNews' morning, afternoon, and prime time line up, however...

Nice to know this somehow merited "an extensive investigation".

Now, what about Goldman Sachs and the rest of the banksters or GE's tax returns?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Magic 8-Ball speaks




UPDATE:

Special gratuitous bonus edition:










...and I've verified the calibration...damn thing is accurate.

"Democracy" in action

Even Nixon eventually followed a Court Order.

The administration of Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) has begun implementing its controversial new law curtailing public employee unions, following a move on Friday declaring it be in effect, and despite a judge's ruling that enjoined said implementation.

And Clarence Thomas will spend the entirety of the argument...

Quietly saying to himself, "Well, hellooooooo Ladies...." as the Old Spice guy.

When a woman with a master's degree who had worked at Wal-Mart for five years asked her department manager why she was paid less than a 17-year-old boy who had just been hired, she was informed, "You just don't have the right equipment... You aren't male, so you can't expect to be paid the same." Another female employee was informed that a male employee got a bigger raise then she did because he had "a family to support." Another was told that men would always be paid more than women at Wal-Mart because "God made Adam first, so women would always be second to men."

These are galling stories, of course, but were they isolated incidents of individual sexism, or did they represent a pattern of long-standing, systemic behavior across the entire company?

The answer to that question is at the heart of Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the biggest case of the current term of the United States Supreme Court, and which will be argued tomorrow.


Needless to say class-action claims are often necessary to correct corporate practices of discrimination that are wide and sweeping throughout a businesses culture...like this:

Wal-Mart had a far lower percentage of female managers in 2001, when the suit was filed, than their closest competitors had in 1975.


I don't trust Mr. Balls and Strikes or his corporatist court one iota to do either the right...or precedent supported thing. It's all up to you Anthony Kennedy.

Query

Is Ozzy Osborne going to allow the Republicans to use "Crazy Train" as the lead in music for every Republican Debate now through the primaries?

I know I'll be listening to it in my head.

He fits right in

Stop me if you've heard this before (don't actually). Trump:
...he doubts the two 1961 newspaper clippings announcing the birth of Obama, because he's "seen fraud" before...

In fact, he dispenses fraud with hilarious avidity:
Donald Trump made headlines earlier today when he provided what he said was a copy of his birth certificate -- but a quick check reveals it's actually not

It is actually that ceremonial certificate hospitals give out (or used to) for as a memento for you giving them lots of cash.

So, the latest birther (why not join 51% of the GOP base?) does not even know what a birth certificate is. Neither unsurprisingly does the group that accepted it as legit...Newsmax, the right-wing performance artists who drive the birther train.

Just another reason that the guy with the world's most ridiculous comb-over and who lives by the myth he's a self-made man (who just happened to inherit hundreds of millions from daddy) shouldn't push fraud allegations.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Monday, March 28, 2011

My liberal editorial section of the Washington Post

Real Ambassadorial New Jersey

I'd guess this was a teapartier...except the likelihood they'd show up at a soccer game seems rather remote.

So I'll just guess it's a Christie supporter.



Reeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal classy.

Real Patriots

Good thing GE doesn't pay any taxes either!

Despite high unemployment and a largely languishing real estate market, U.S. businesses are more profitable than ever, according to federal figures released on Friday...

Many of the nation's preeminent companies have posted massive increases in profits this year. General Electric posted worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, while profits at JPMorgan Chase were up 47 percent to $4.8 billion.

Corporate profits steadily increased last year as companies continued holding onto record amounts of cash and other liquid assets while cutting costs, laying off workers and wringing more productivity -- defined as the amount of output that comes from an hour of work -- from remaining staff, even as the recession eased.


Let them eat Light Bulbs.

"They're turning into Socialists!"

How dare they! Human beings behaving responsibly and rationally instead of like awesome capitalist robots or FoxNews employees (and Herman Cain would like to say "how inscrutable" at some point):

With hundreds of thousands of people displaced up north from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis, anything with the barest hint of luxury invites condemnation. There were only general calls for conservation, but within days of the March 11 quake, Japanese of all stripes began turning off lights, elevators, heaters and even toilet seat warmers.

But self-restraint goes beyond the need to compensate for shortages of electricity brought on by the closing of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. At a time of collective mourning, jishuku also demands that self-restraint be practiced elsewhere. Candidates in next month’s local elections are hewing to the ethos by literally campaigning quietly for votes, instead of circling neighborhoods in their usual campaign trucks with blaring loudspeakers.


Concern for your fellow citizens; campaigning seriously rather than seriously campaigning, not spending on unneeded extravagant items? It is positively un-American!

Poor Larry Kudlow, the greatest tragedy of all has come to pass.


[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Oh nos!

Three secular universities and one deliberately founded on the principles of secularism by a religious denomination...and also no fucking Duke or other North Carolina school in the Final Four (although Kentucky).

Where's your God now Dick Vitale?!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Move along, nothing to see here

You have to wonder when the bad news starts to slow down:

Radioactivity in contaminated water in one reactor unit at a damaged Japanese nuclear power plant tested 10 million times higher than normal


Update: TEPCO is disputing the number.

And at that time some hominid Republican was

Insisting they keep eating dirt and grubs and that the monolith was just a monolith a work of the sky demon.

Stone instruments of an antiquity ranging between one million and 1.7 million years were discovered in India, which might help to explain the migration of the hominids in south of Asia.

Aw, that's too damn bad

I'm guessing the mistress will also end up being recalled as well:

Efforts to recall Republican State Senator Randy Hopper from Fon du Lac have reached another milestone, as organizers issue a call for volunteers to turn in any remaining petitions to be counted. Organizer Scott Dillman says he's sure they have enough signatures to trigger the recall, but he can't give exact figures yet. He says, processing all the information they've collected so far will take a week.

Like "Perfect Couples" except it never gets cancelled

It is the Sunday Talk Panel of the Apocalypse:

Fox News Sunday: Newt Gingrich. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

Saturday, March 26, 2011

And now...the political blogging nerdgasm we all occasionally need

Thanks to Res for the cake.

Now here's a present for all you nerd/political readers (you might want to "embiggen" it). A very "Time Lordy" explanation of the 18-minute gap I reckon...oh and it has a very nice ironic kicker quote from virtual Tricky Dick:



Sure it looks like the coming Dr. Who will be all about Watergate...but it is really an homage to 'My Dinner with Andre'.

Birthday Greetings to The Proprietor

Apologies, but I had this guy decorate your cake.

A Tale of Two Taxpayers

It's compare and contrast time, Hegemaniacs.

Speaking of "I am the Law"

This summary by Balloon Juice contributor Comrade DougJ is spot on. Regarding some Wisconsin Republicans efforts to get the emails of a U of Wisconsin professor who deigned to criticize Lord Walker in a column.

This all needs to be seen from a broader perspective. It’s similar to what the Virginia Attorney General dd to a climate science professor in Virginia, it’s similar to what James O’Keefe does to NPR and ACORN. If you constantly harass anyone for being openly liberal and constantly reward anyone for being openly conservative (BALANCE!), you create a system of punishments and rewards.

It’s why the “left-leaning” columnists at the Washington Post mostly take conservative positions, it’s why some scientists recommend their own profession be subjected to McCarthy-style hearings, it’s why Joe Klein wears his paranoia about hippies and black panthers so proudly, it’s why newspaper ombudsmen say James O’Keefe should be given a Pulitzer.

People, especially professionally ambitious people, are, for the most part, cowards and careerists. If they know they get slapped down for taking liberal positions and raised up for taking conservative ones, you can guess what they’ll do most of the time


It is why even though Bob Herbert is leaving the NY Times after 20 years, someone like Digby who would be perfect for such a gig will never be considered.

They'll just ask Russ Doubthat for recommendations.

Wisconsin's Republicans have a new catch phrase

It's quite Nixonian...or Dreddian.

Friday, March 25, 2011

But enough about his bank loans and bankruptcy petiitons


Trump:

...he doubts the two 1961 newspaper clippings announcing the birth of Obama, because he's "seen fraud" before...


A guy with the world's most ridiculous combover and who lives by the myth he's a self-made rich man (just happened to inherit hundreds of millions from daddy) shouldn't push fraud allegations.

We found the replacement

Yes, the "brilliant" Governor of Maine has proclaimed the power of "ONE ANGRY LETTER" (or fax...no letter) to remove a mural at the State's Department of Labor which shows pictures of laborers.

Which is understandable because really how offensive.

We've found the proposed replacement though and it is quite tasteful...

Too bad...

Bad night for Dick Vitale as Richard Nixon's alma mater gets trounced.

So Dense Nothing Can Escape


Shouldn't this newly Republican ex-Deputy State Attorney General:

...it was revealed that in February, during the large protests in Wisconsin over Gov. Scott Walker's anti-public employee union bill, [Indianan Carlos Lam] e-mailed Walker's office and recommended that they conduct a "false flag operation" -- to fake an assault or assassination attempt on Walker in order to discredit the unions and protesters.


Be paired with this Republican ex-Assistant State Attorney General:

[Andrew] Shirvell was fired for using state resources for his campaign against University of Michigan student body President Chris Armstrong and for lying to investigators during his disciplinary hearing


So as to be in a show directed by this guy:


James O'Keefe Asks Supporters For $50,000 To Pay Off 'Major Credit Card Debt'


And hosted by this woman?


The Daily Caller, the conservative website run by Tucker Carlson, announced Tuesday that Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is joining the site as a "special correspondent."


Or can the world handle that much concentrated d-baggery, would it collapse into a singularity?

We expect executive producer credit Rupert.

(pic via Ethan Hein at flickr.com)

This cannot be good

I do not think "cracked" is a word you want to ever see in this context:

Japan’s nuclear regulator said one reactor core at the quake-damaged Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant may be cracked and leaking radiation.


Not to be too alarmist, because that never happens on blogs...but I do believe a cracked reactor core could lead to one of the worst-case scenarios.

But one of the disadvantages is that the containment structure is a lightbulb-shaped steel shell that's only about 30 or 40 feet [nine to 12 meters] across—thick steel, but relatively small compared to large, dry containments like TMI [Three Mile Island]. And it doesn't provide as much of an extra layer of defense from reactor accidents as containments like TMI [do]. So there is a great deal of concern that if the core does melt, the containment will not be able to survive. And if the containment doesn't survive, we have a worst-case situation."


And the Japanese nuclear safety agency adds to the concern:

The agency said while the reactor appears to have partially retained its function to contain radiation leaks, there's a strong possibility that some part of the reactor is now damaged and the containment function is weakening.


[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Bury my conscience (and consciousness) at Wounded Knee


John Stossel: Why is there a Bureau of Indian Affairs?" he said. "There is no Bureau of Puerto Rican Affairs or Black Affairs or Irish Affairs. And no group in America has been more helped by the government than the American Indians, because we have the treaties, we stole their land. But 200 years later, no group does worse."

Oh dear

I don't like how this transformation is going...

Please excuse the lack of this morning's blogging

As I have an appointment with the Dentist. Now they are a very very fine dentist, but I'm not presently in pain, yet have to have a crown redone and a new crown put on (getting old sucks). For this three hours of pain I will pay -- even with insurance -- about a grand.

Dentistry, you pay a lot of money to be tortured...and there's never a happy ending. (Safe for Work)

Now excuse me as I delve back into my book of lame jokes that must have come from old routines in the Catskills.

The No Class, Class War

Cut taxes for the Wealthy...and cut meals for those who may mildly challenge them.
...one section buried deep within the bill adds a startling new requirement. The bill, if passed, would actually cut off all food stamp benefits to any family where one adult member is engaging in a strike against an employer.

Shorter Blogger

Go bX-4ep4xw yourself.
Makes it hard to blog.

Why so shocked?

It is nice to see Newt Gingrich called out for violating the commonly-agreed upon rules of acceptable flip-floppery. But really what is the surprise? The guy's life is one unending series of flip flops. From calling out a guy for cheating on his wife while cheating on the wife he cheated on his first wife with; from getting a Speaker to resign for generating perks...only to later resign as Speaker in large part for generating perks for himself. The guy doesn't just write dreadful alternative histories, he lives dreadful alternative histories.

I wonder, he keeps saying how sick America is, while simultaneously proclaiming his flesh is weak against her purple mountains and amber waves of grain*. When is he going to dump her for another country already? (yeah, I recycled that line)

*prose-style lifted from the literary works of Newt Gingrich.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

In a real turn of events

Cocks busted by Assholes in arrest of epic comedic overkill.

Steven Seagal And Racist Arizona Sheriff Bust Alleged Cockfighting Ring With A TankIn a massively weird turn of events, Steven Seagal and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio rolled up on a man suspected of raising chickens for cockfighting. Seagal was in Arizona a couple weeks ago filming an episode of Lawman when Arpaio, who pals around with Neo-Nazis, offered him a ride in his tank...

...[the suspect] was alone (if you don't count his 115 chickens, which were later euthanized) and unarmed

Keep clapping

Dammit, and do it louder (after all it is a low paying job)!

Some economists say jobless claims and other recent data show that employers likely added 200,000 to 300,000 jobs a month this year, rather than the 128,000 average reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The reason for the possible disparity: The government tends to underestimate both job gains in a recovery and job losses in a recession, the economists say. That helps explain why the nation's unemployment rate has fallen more sharply than the modest payroll increases suggest. The jobless rate was 8.9% last month, down from 9.8% in November.

"The data suggest there's been more improvement already in the employment numbers," says Jim O'Sullivan, chief economist of MF Global.


Ah, nothing more grating than a news story that starts out "Some (fill in blank) say..."

So that video in the last post

What does it say about the 1950s that a decade after defeating the Germans in World War Two that the comforting voice Disney relies upon to describe nuclear power and how awesome radiation is...would be German?

Plus there are references to benevolent Arabic figures.

Meanwhile, a decade after 9/11 our Congress holds hearings browbeating Muslims for not being anti-Islamic enough.

There's a fairly logical connection to McCarthyism in both times.

Why, that could never happen here!



We probably would have not made the change in future plants either, it would have costs money better used to lobby for more tax breaks.

Japanese regulators discussed in recent months the use of new cooling technologies at nuclear plants that could have lessened or prevented the disaster that struck this month when a tsunami wiped out the electricity at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power facility.

However, they chose to ignore the vulnerability at existing reactors and instead focused on fixing the issue in future ones, government and corporate documents show. There was no serious discussion of retrofitting older plants with the alternative technology, known as "isolation condensers," government advisers said.


Meanwhile...and logically...Americans are much less supportive of nuclear power than before (plus there is this) -- not that it will matter much to the Villagers, they can always defrost Walt Disney.

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

I understand her beat will consist of

Covering high-tech lynchings and demanding apologies.

Wow

The flight out of major cities has largely ended, if not reversed the last couple decades.

Except for one obvious place apparently...and how:

Detroit's population fell to 713,000 in 2010, its lowest level in a century, according to U.S. Census figures released today.

The loss of 238,270 residents since 2000 is a sobering statistical stamp on a decade's worth of job losses, plant closings and foreclosures in a city that was home to 1.8 million residents in 1950. The numbers follow Census figures released in December that show Michigan was the only state to lose residents since 2000, falling 54,000 to 9,883,640. Michigan is set to lose one of its 15 congressional seats.

Who is It Good For?

So the AT&T/T Mobile deal will result in higher prices for consumers and several thousand lost jobs. So who, you ask, is it good for? Let's hazard a few guesses, shall we?

  1. ibankers: The people who underwrite the deal are always first at the trough.
  2. Lawyers: Armies of 'em mobilize to do a deal like this, and they don't come cheap.
  3. Directors of AT&T and T Mobile: But for a "Ka-CHING!" moment like this, there is simply no sane person who would endure corporate board meetings.
  4. Officers of AT&T and T Mobile: No doubt various and sundry chief [INSERT ROLE HERE] officers at the respective companies have visions of "redundancy" and golden parachutes dancing in their heads.
  5. Lobbyists: Another army to be outfitted and handsomely paid to do the D.C. Shuffle in an effort to achieve regulatory approval after a bit of theatrical handwringing by our esteemed legislators.
But don't ya'll worry your pretty little heads about this. The "free" market is our guiding principle and as long as a bunch of ibankers can get rich all over again, there's always a possibility that one day, you can, too.

Yep, that's about it

America's Concern Troll


What America needs, in all possible ways, is "The Brown Bomber".

It seems like just yesterday

I posted something somewhat positive about the Fukushima nuclear plant that was optimistic...l i t e r a l l y... for the exact amount of time it took me to write it.

Good times:

Radiation 1,600 times higher than normal levels has been detected in an area about 20 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, International Atomic Energy Agency officials said Monday.


via Atrios.

Well this guarantees two things

1. Some FoxNews Press-Prick will issue some ad hominem attack in response.

2. O'Reilly's attack ass, Jesse Watters, will be following Nick Robertson around...as soon as he isn't someplace dangerous.

WOLF BLITZER: I want you to explain what you know about this suggestion Fox news reporting that you, a Reuters crew, some other journalists were effectively used by Qaddafi as a human shield to prevent allied fighter planes from coming in and attacking a certain position. Explain what you know about this.

ROBERTSON: Wolf, this allegation is outrageous and it’s absolutely hypocritical. When you come to somewhere like Libya, you expect lies and deceit from a dictatorship here. You don’t expect it from the other journalists. [...]

They sent a member of their team. He was not editorial. He was nontechnical, not normally a cameraman. [...]

I see [Fox's corespondent] more times at breakfast than out on trips with government officials here. So for them to say and call this — to say they didn’t go and for them to call this and say this was government propaganda to hold us there as human shields when they didn’t even leave the hotel, it’s ridiculous.

Suck it, Car Talk

Remember the priorities* of the American Government are now,

Libyans>Afghans>Iraqis>Americans...but at least > Yemenis & Bahrainians
The first day of Operation Odyssey Dawn had a price tag that was well over $100 million for the U.S. in missiles alone. And the U.S. military, which remains in the lead now in its third day, has pumped millions more into air- and sea-launched strikes targeting air-defense sites and ground-force positions along Libya’s coastline.

*Note, priorities may include killing you.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Monday, March 21, 2011

Super Moon

Well, looks like we survived the Super Moon's plot to shrink the Earth.



But hey, the good news is it looks like the insurance claim on the Parthenon finally came through. Faster than usual.

Oops, have to alter that last formula

It appears someone is on top of the Ziggurat:

Even though the state is supposedly broke, top officials in Gov. Scott Walker's team were able to scrape together enough money to give a state job to the woman identified as Sen. Randy Hopper's girlfriend.

Anything for a political ally.

Valerie Cass, a former Republican legislative staffer, was hired Feb. 7 as a communications specialist with the state Department of Regulation and Licensing. She is being paid $20.35 per hour. The job is considered a temporary post.


So the amended formula is:

Koch Brothers> Randy Hopper> Randy Hopper's Girlfriend> Libyans>Afghans=Iraqis>Americans > Mrs. Randy Hopper ...but at least > Bahrainians


By the way, "Randy Hopper" is the best name for a cheating husband ever.

Remember Americans

We cannot afford to help you and your problems (unless you are really wealthy of course, in which case help yourself). But we can afford to drop a few more billion helping out Libyans.

So the score card is:

Value:

Libyans>Afghans=Iraqis>Americans...but at least > Bahrainians.

A rare bit of good news

It appears (*fingers crossed*) that just as the news from the Fukushima plant reached its nadir with reports of tainted food and water nearly 20 miles from the plant, that the situation may be improving.

Electricity has been restored to three reactors at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant - this should allow the use of on-site water pumps soon...

"There have been some positive developments in the last 24 hours but overall the situation remains very serious," said Graham Andrew, a senior IAEA official.

"We consider that now we have come to a situation where we are very close to getting the situation under control," Deputy Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama said.


And just a few moments ago, came this...



Of course, even with this good news, the situation is not yet over.

*SIGH* or not.

A plant spokesman says workers have been evacuated from Japan’s tsunami-stricken nuclear complex after gray smoke was seen rising from one of its reactors.


[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Sunday, March 20, 2011

No Fun

Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

I do, but I'm so disgusted that I'm incapable of putting together even a semi-intelligent sentence that will accurately express the complete lack of hopey/changey that I'm currently experiencing, so I'm going to recommend a movie instead.

Put The Trotsky in your Netflix queue toute suite! It just cracked me up. Here's the trailer.


Not to be covered at FoxNews

How Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper hacked into the phone conversations of liberal politicians and celebrities they didn't like to sell papers, set their agenda, and force politicians out of office.

A big ruling came down this week that may shake his empire...not that you'll hear about it here.

Needs Dick Cheney's Voice

The REAL REASON Microsoft made the Kinect.



Creepiest hack ever. Now just to have it start issuing threats about you buying an Ipad.

So everyone...

How has the 2011 Cricket World Cup affected you? When the hell does it end...does it literally last all of 2011?



Money's no object

When it comes to theoretically liberating other peoples (often through inadvertently liberating them of their corporeal beings) but when it comes to American government being about helping y'know Americans, we cannot afford to do shit because it is too expensive unless it means tax cuts for rich people.

Awesome.

And Wolcott's right, Odyssey Dawn is a porn name.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Mutants for Radiation

In her latest desperate cry for attention, accelerated reverse Benjamin Button, Ann Coulter, proclaims on noted science expert Bill O'Reilly's show that radiation is good for you, and never bad.

And now she can count on being booked on even more FoxNews' shows.

Of course it makes sense as she is a mutant born without even a vestigial semblance of a conscience.

Republicans

Newt Gingrich always "raises his flag" for the red, white & blue and that's cool...but God and the IRS forbid a woman control her body over that nasty sex.

Dedicated to serious news...

On the front page of the Huffington Post:

PHOTOS: What Zooey Deschanel's Worn Lately

Friday, March 18, 2011

Why not so Serious?

Doesn't the Shrill One know there are greater priorities for the American government than Americans?

It might not be so bad if the jobless could expect to find new employment fairly soon. But unemployment has become a trap, one that’s very difficult to escape. There are almost five times as many unemployed workers as there are job openings; the average unemployed worker has been jobless for 37 weeks, a post-World War II record.

In short, we’re well on the way to creating a permanent underclass of the jobless. Why doesn’t Washington care?


Because we need to slay the beast that is "Car Talk" and get involved in one of those awesome (and totally free apparently) wars!!!

Cue Lee Greenwood or someone else STAT!

Seven goddamned years!

Pretty good considering I (writing for myself) ran out of material in 2007. Thank goodness Res picks up the slack.

Behold the wonders (and yes, I realize that's stretching the definition) of OCD!

The NCAA Basketball Tournament

America's Number One Excuse...



To unleash your inner furry.

(pic via Getty Images)

A Quarter-Century On...

With the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima nuclear reactors remember those who have stayed and tried to contain things. They are almost certainly subtracting years off their lives for the days spent there.

One cannot help but think of the ghost town that is Chernobyl. This is a film made by Russian filmmaker Vladimir Shevchenko in April 1986 as the tragedy occurred.



He died of radiation poisoning soon thereafter, Jonathan Turley has more of his story.

Like many of those in his film. Like many of those at Fukushima.

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

It's March 18th

Or as the members of Black 47 know it, the first day of a long-streak of not having gigs.*








(*I kid, I kid)

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Erin Go Back to Donegal

I'm here to tell you that there is simply no more horrible day to be in New York than Saint Patrick's Day. It is just the pits, with drunk stupid people screaming and vomiting in the streets and on the subway. Next year I am working from home.

On a personal note

Well, not really personal, it is just a TV show, but it happens to be my favorite...it gets poor ratings (well poor if you aren't on NBC), but the right people get it.

So...

POP! POP!


Delighted for another season of 'Community'.

Holy Crap

Apparently the driver lived...I imagine this video is especially informative if you speak Japanese.

Winning

Best friends Obama has...prospective Republican candidates:

...independent voters say they would support Charlie Sheen over Palin for President by a 41/36 margin. Seriously.

And to secure funding he'll be replaced by

Glenn Beck...talk about Woebegon.

Garrison Keillor plans on retiring in 2013. I enjoy this thread at Gawker as all sorts of people are condescending while accusing Keillor of being condescending.

All I can say is with Larry King and Garrison Keillor retiring the nation is losing its older male with bad posture archetypes.

Please have this humorous tv moment altered by America's copyright laws:

Happy Day to Drink to Excess America!!!

You haven't had one of those since, oh gee, mid-February.

It must be tough.

But remember, after this you don't have a reason to get rip roarin' drunk until Memorial Day.

So have at, pretend Irish people.

Well, why not?

Mitch Daniels is ready to roll!


It only follows the logical course of our politics being for sale that we throw off the shackles of hypocrisy and just lay it all out there:

RNC considers selling TV rights of presidential primary debates


Usually this sort of thing is saved for one of the eighty-seven college football bowl games or NASCAR, but who better than the GOP to sell out so openly?

I suggest the Koch Industries Republican Presidential Second Amendment Bowl.

Bonus to the candidate that rips off his or her shirt to reveal they are endorsed by Golden Palace Casino.

(pic from here)

This can't be good

I'm no nuclear engineer...in fact my last only successful engineering project involved IKEA. But even I know this cannot be good:

On Thursday morning, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces started dumping water from a helicopter on reactor No. 3, making several passes. They planned to do the same for No. 4 sometime Thursday.


It does not seem comforting that they are planning to use a method on a nuclear reactor that you would use as a last ditch effort to put out a forest fire. Also, our government seems pretty straight forward...as long as it doesn't involve our government.

"They need to stop pulling out people -- and step up with getting them back in the reactor to cool it. There is a recognition this is a suicide mission," the unnamed U.S. official was quoted by ABC as saying.


The one bit of good news seems to be that authorities are on the verge of running a new power line to the power plant to assist in cooling the exposed fuel rods.

"If the restoration work is completed, we will be able to activate various electric pumps and pour water into reactors and pools for spent nuclear fuel," a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Company, which runs the plant, told the AFP news agency.


So, a power line needs to be run to a power plant (note also the disturbing use of "if"). Right now we'll all take the farce over the alternative.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Let this be a lesson to all of us

There is no such thing as a consequence-free doughnut.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

But What Would His Tab Be Labelled?

Attaturk can answer this question.

Matlock, in perpetuum aevum


Well, hello again.

It turns out I was sent to Hell. Which initially disturbed me as I oppose all extremes [ed. but not obvious jokes].

It sounds bad to some people I suppose, but it turns out Hell is an unending series of Conservative Seminars, or as my newly re-contacted friend Bill Buckley calls them, Symposium.

While it pisses off Mao and Stalin to no end, it turns out I will always be, as in life, a Speaker receiving a healthy fee at such events. It may be called Hell, but this seems to me a pleasant way to spend eternal torment.

The consensus in Hell, by the way, is everyone here, from Satan on down, is concerned about the Federal deficit and favors cuts in entitlements.

Just a few observations about this place. It is good to see Dick Nixon kicking around people that aren't Checkers or Cambodian, let me tell you -- although he and Pol Pot are great partners when we play a few rubbers of bridge. Tojo is a little down in the dumps as he was expecting to welcome more TEPCO executives by now.

From time to time I will be publishing this column in the Purgatory Post & Penny Saver straight from Hell to update you on what people like my old friends Bob Novak and Chuck Heston think.

Oh and....BRAINZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

"I'm stupid and it is all Obama's fault"

That pretty much summarizes Michelle Bachmann's explanation for not knowing one of the few pieces of history the Teabaggers know by heart. In fact, arguably the last piece of history they recall accurately.

Probably from the many interviews of John McCain, who was there, and was the first person to have the moniker, "Minute Man"... though that came before the events at Lexington & Concord...from his first wife.

Some assholes are taking advantage of a tragedy someplace else

To be bigger assholes than ever.

Security forces with tanks have overrun a square in the centre of Bahrain's capital Manama where anti-government protesters have been camped for weeks.

Two people are reported to have died after police fired tear gas at the mainly Shia demonstrators, who have been calling for political reform.

The country's Sunni rulers have declared martial law and called in Saudi troops to help keep order.

At least two people died in clashes on Tuesday and more than 200 were injured.

A senior Bahrain opposition MP, quoted by Reuters, described the crackdown as a "war of annihilation".

"This does not happen even in wars and it is not acceptable," said Abdel Jalil Khalil.

Republican World

Where climate change is fiction but James O'Keefe is truthful.

"Where...all the children are below average"

One might think trying to create jobs or at least pretending to try to create jobs would be the thing the GOP majority would work on ... or they could address concerns about natural disasters.

[Insert Belushi voice (not Jim)]

But nooooooo!

Funny what counts as an "emergency" these days:
House Republicans are holding an emergency meeting of the Rules Committee on Wednesday to take up legislation that would block funding to NPR in the wake of James O'Keefe's hidden camera prank on the news organization.

That will teach Click & Clack and those commies at The Thistle & Shamrock.

Now on to the Senate, to consider John McCain's emergency motion to bring back Amos 'n' Andy.

Priorities people.

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Man, suddenly I've got a hankerin' for some Skittles



The celebration of Holi in India via here.

Fez Tip Watertiger.

He's totally about to dump America

And start dry-humping another country.

I can just see him advising FDR


There's no story in which Mitch McConnell fails to choose the thing that is most inappropriate.

“My thought about it is, we ought not to make American and domestic policy based upon an event that happened in Japan,” Mr. McConnell said.


In addition, I'm trying to figure out whether that phrasing indicates that Mitch McConnell thinks "domestic policy" is un-American?

John Galt would, so I guess the answer is yes.

Iowa -- Behold your future

It's the Handmaid's Tale:

Last month, after an upsetting phone conversation with her estranged husband, Ms. Taylor became light-headed and fell down a flight of stairs in her home. Paramedics rushed to the scene and ultimately declared her healthy. However, since she was pregnant with her third child at the time, Taylor thought it would be best to be seen at the local ER to make sure her fetus was unharmed.

That's when things got really bad and really crazy. Alone, distraught, and frightened, Taylor confided in the nurse treating her that she hadn't always been sure she'd wanted this baby, now that she was single and unemployed. She'd considered both adoption and abortion before ultimately deciding to keep the child. The nurse then summoned a doctor, who questioned her further about her thoughts on ending the pregnancy. Next thing Taylor knew, she was being arrested for attempted feticide. Apparently the nurse and doctor thought that Taylor threw herself down the stairs on purpose.


Um, what?

Behold your Republican...yet somehow still proclaimed Galtian future!

I'm not saying

That Glenn Beck enjoys fisting homeless minors while strung out on crank; I'm not saying he doesn't either.

It would be wrong to speculate, it would be wrong not to.

So the last hope is...

They can save the power plant by hooking it up to another power plant?

Can't help but wonder

The kind of coverage we're getting on NBC and/or MSNBC given that their parent corporation GE makes a shitload on nuclear energy. It isn't exactly like we've gotten quality military coverage from the subsidiary of a major contractor with the DOD.

Also makes you wonder why they seem to have a paucity of experts on, given that the parent corporation is thick with 'em.

Oh, somehow they've had this fucknut on...telling us everything is A-OK, especially your GE stock.

It just gets worse

Just how many "units" are there at this nuclear plant? Everyday seems to bring a new round of fail. Now there's been a fire at the No. 4 reactor. Here's a great conversation thread which includes an expert on such matters (which will obviously be better than CNN's use of a security guy and Bill Nye -- who while he's awesome is NOT truly an expert on the particulars of this matter).

And everyone has been evacuated withing a 20km radius.

The reaction in America, of course, as stated by Atrios yesterday, will likely to be a push to build reactors in everyone's back yard.

Anyone with any concern about this matter, however, remember. First, you are by definition not a "serious person" by being concerned so let our "serious" people figure it out.

We'll call it the David Broder Nuclear Power Policy.

It is pretty clear that Japan has an "ambivalence-hate" relationship with nuclear power

No location has ever had more tragedy built around it, such paranoia -- well earned about it, and yet so much reliance upon it.

This is a great essay on the subject.

No Matter How Bad Things Get

We can still be grateful for one thing, and that's that John McCain is not and never will be president.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Grand Old Pricks

And hypocrites:

Protesters who marched at the home of Wisconsin state senator Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) were met with something of a surprise on Saturday. Mrs. Hopper appeared at the door and informed them that Sen. Hopper was no longer in residence at this address, but now lives in Madison, WI with his 25-year-old mistress.

Nothing quite like

Listening to a report from NBC's Keith Morrison who, in describing the Japanese tsunami, manages to make the Earth sound like a child molester.

Somebody better find out

From Pat Robertson what Japan has done lately to piss God off. I mean they don't recognize gay marriage there so what's the deal?


Hundreds flee in Japan after Shinmoedake volcano begins spewing ash, boulders

Hey, Cheesecake!!!

A list of foods rich in iodine possibly brought to you by the brilliant minds behind "let's put some nuclear reactors right on the seashore of a place famous for its tsunamis". This may create a radioactive cloud that travels over the U.S. thereby requiring heavy doses of it.

* Arame * Cheddar cheese * Cheese cake
* Cod * Condensed milk * Dulse
* Eggs * Fish oils * Fresh fish
* Haddock * Hijike * Iodized salt
* Jaffa cakes * Kelp * Kombu
* Malt bread * Mayonnaise * Naan Bread
* Nori * Sea foods * Sea kelp
* Sea salt * Seaweed * Trifle
* Wakame * Yorkshire pudding

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Japan

Doctors Without Borders does good work.

Other organizations to which you typically direct help? Put links in comments.

Larry Kudlow

Veterinarian:



It is a role that suits him like a couple good lines of blow.

Wait a minute?

Is this a trick question?

It is the Koch Brothers right?

Piñata

Bill Maher beats one with a stick.

Not sure who Dana Loesch is, but she's dumb.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Whoever thought

Building nuclear plants on the sea coast in the area where Japan has had well-known historical Tsunamis (which is really any area on the east coast of Japan) before must be in the Japanese equivalent of the Tea Party.

Too dumb to be called a moron

Who EVER thought Lexington & Concord (of "Shot hear 'round the World" fame) are in New Hampshire?

Only Michelle Bachman
.

Our vowel heavy states other than Hawaii and Ohio

Iowa - Behold our cynicism!

Alaska: There's no right-wing violence!

And New York (not all that vowel-heavy, but what the hell): Carl Kruger is a Democratic state senator from Brooklyn. His vote against gay marriage last year was crucial in stopping the measure in New York. Funny thing: He lives with his gay lover, who's the bagman in their bribery racket.

I have to admit

By this point, if Bush was President, I'd be going fucking nuts.

And I still kind of am, what is happening to Bradley Manning is heinous.

This can't be good

For the nuclear power industry or possibly anyone.


Shortly after the 8.9 magnitude earthquake on Friday that shook Japan and generated tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean, reports emerged of damage at one of Japan’s nuclear power plants. On Saturday, Japanese authorities began evacuating residents nearby the Fukushima nuclear power plant due to the release of radioactive elements into the environment, signs of a possible meltdown at one of the reactors.

As officials worked to repair damage Saturday afternoon, an explosion occurred at the nuclear power plant, damaging one of the buildings.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Attaturk's Law!

Perhaps someone else already coined this, but if not, I'll claim it for my pseudonym.

Looking at the video of Japan and seeing people standing around on bridges and buildings as the tsunami rushes by them I realize this.

The better the warning system of a nation, the more idiots will rush out into danger hoping to capture the event for YouTube or their Facebook accounts.


In the midwest we call this the Tornado Warning Effect.

Relationship Status: Dead...but single.

"He'll have to explain his positions, especially those on top of women who were not his wife"

Brilliant from Colbert:
The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Newt Gingrich Wants to Screw America
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire BlogVideo Archive

This just in

Apparently being an attempted perpetrator of dildo assault (now follow our twitter!) is not enough to disqualify you as a valid source of right-wing news.

Wow

Gigantic earthquake and Tsunami in Japan (and spreading out over the Pacific), video is amazing...and frightening.



A series of aftershocks in Japan...the biggest one 8.9, just had a 6.4 aftershock...a series about that bad. That's nearly as big as the off Thailand in 2004 (a 9.1).

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Ayn Rand was a total rimmer

Just exactly what "toilet freedom" does he want?

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is upset that the federal government has squelched his right to own a super-toilet, leaving him with less freedom than women, who are still allowed to have abortions.

Deep Right Wing Thought

From the intersection of Orwell & Ives:

By Mark Krikorian

Mark: Those Eva Braun pictures reminded me of Qaddafi’s “voluptuous blond,” both of whom lead me to wonder — why can’t dictators find better-looking mistresses? Hitler and Khadafy are (were) absolute rulers over millions of subjects, and these girls are the best they can do? It’s not like either woman was ugly, but with all that money and power, you’d think these goons could find a super-model willing to be their “nurse.”


In my whiniest Seinfeldian:

"What's the deal with these dictators and their not very attractive mistresses?



"Hooray, there's still hope for me and Mitt!!!!"

Coming soon to the Purgatory Post and Penny Saver

Spectral David Broder will provide his analysis of current events...or perhaps just guest star on an AMC Show.

Whites are slated to become a minority by 2050

I predict by 2055, Republicans in Congress will finally begin calling for hearings looking into white extremism and white anti-Americanism.

Leading the call will be Chattahoochee River Palin, daughter of Bristol Palin's child via premarital -- but officially sanctified -- sex with Lynn Swann III during the 2028 Fox News Republican National Convention sponsored by Wasabi & Chive flavored Tostitos.

But what about the menace of angry middle-school teachers aligned with known socialist-terrorist-street organizer, Osama bin Andy Stern?!!

Move along now, nothing to see here:

DNA evidence and purchases of electronic components led investigators to the former Fort Lewis soldier accused of planting a rat poison-laced bomb along the route of Spokane's Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

Kevin William Harpham, who reportedly has links to a neo-Nazi group, was arrested by FBI agents and local law enforcement Wednesday morning at his home near Addy, a community of about 1,400 people roughly 55 miles northwest of Spokane.


Still apparently no reason to think of the right-wing as being suppliers of terrorists.

Now, on to your Peter King jihad against alleged jihadis that surround you in his mind.

Proud moment for me, I have to tell you...



I will not rest until we are twitter-followed by every manufacturer of non-explicit adult sexual appliances!

Just sayin'

Still no release of minutes of Cheney's Energy Task-force meetings.

And for those of you who are fans of blog-minutiae jokes and controversies long-forgotten except when trotted out for ad hominem dismissals (and really, who isn't besides everyone?) as well as being offended (actually, about everyone) ...Ladies and Gentlemen, Joe Lieberman!*


*(yes, its a triple-axle (axis?) of bad taste!)

Frightening Thought

Newt Gingrich is the way he is because the "way" he is causes the pages of his copy of the Constitution's pages to stick together.

If I "Recall" it is time to Party

I guess the most effective parodies are the those that end up being true to life.


[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Shallow Thought

This must be just a little like how Vaughn Meader felt.

He'll be writing bipartisan columns about Beelzebub by Breakfast

RIP Mr. Broder where there will be ever-running marathons of 'Matlock'.

I don't know whether that is heaven or hell to be honest.

Respects to his family, and not to be be too self-centered, but there goes half my act!

That is nine more than here

How much justice can these people a-fjord?*

Police have arrested nine people in London and Iceland on suspicion of fraud in connection with the collapse of Iceland's Kaupthing bank during the global financial crisis in 2008.




*Apologize in advance.

Boys

Updated below.

As a general rule, you want to avoid rape, but you especially want to avoid rape in (a) Texas and/or (b) anywhere in the vicinity of either (i) Sheila Harrison and/or (ii) the author of this New York Times piece, James C. McKinley Jr.. Why? Well, because these people have awfully strange ideas about what really matters when it comes to rape, in this case of an eleven-year-old child:

“It’s just destroyed our community,” said Sheila Harrison, 48, a hospital worker who says she knows several of the defendants. “These boys have to live with this the rest of their lives.”

Ah yes, the "boys". What torment they will suffer! Ms. Harrison sounds as though she'd be right at home in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.

Residents in the neighborhood where the abandoned trailer stands — known as the Quarters — said the victim had been visiting various friends there for months. They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said.

“Where was her mother? What was her mother thinking?” said Ms. Harrison, one of a handful of neighbors who would speak on the record. “How can you have an 11-year-old child missing down in the Quarters?”

Jesus! It's pretty early in the morning to be this disgusted with your fellow man, but there you have it.

Update: Tell the NYT what you think about their victim-blaming story.

Because all of us were demanding it

Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace returns to theaters in 3D February 10, 2012

Wow, how nice, getting to see the world's most racially offensive CGI character in two more dimensions than it is written.

Creepy


This is rather frightening...and I imagine incredibly foul smelling.

REDONDO BEACH, Calif. - Redondo Beach awoke Tuesday to find a carpet of death atop the water. Thousands of silvery sardines floated in the King Harbor marina fin-to-fin. Hundreds of thousands more, perhaps millions, were piled on the coppery bottom, 18 inches deep in some spots.


(pic via Lucy Nicholson, Reuters)

Best Friends

So far the line up to run against Barack Obama is pretty much...

Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney.

The "we're not as bad as the alternative" strategy will work quite well. These folks are inadvertently the best friends the Obama Administration has.

Not very changey though is it?

Hypocrisy doesn't count when applied to non-Christians

What Would Pinochet do?


I have not been under the impression that we've elected Salvador Allende lately, but that doesn't mean many Republicans are giving up on a series of military men on a white horse, or to put it more in modern context the 'military-industrial complex':

Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are teaming up with Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee to write legislation that would take decisions about trying detainees out of the attorney general's hands and hand that power to the secretary of defense.


Ooh, how lovely, and by that I mean, how awesomely anti-American. Maybe eventually we can do this with Union leaders and Democrats too? After all its not like they're important, if they were they'd be on the Sunday chat shows more often...like McCain and Graham.

Remember, its not about unraveling a republic, its just about efficiency (and making accused people stand around naked, or worse), the fact it undermines our traditional notions of justice is just a bonus for them.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

(pic via Xavier Zarra at flickr.com)

Tuesday, March 08, 2011