Real Men Don't Cry or eat Quiche

All the tears in the world are not going to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Bush Sr. may have been talking about Jebbie, but make no mistake, he was weeping about Dubya. In his father's own words the measure of a man is in how he handles both victory and defeat. He handled a false "victory" by saying,

I've earned capital in this election -- and I'm going to spend it..."

He handled defeat by cheating, by stacking the deck, by stealing not just one but two elections by any and all means necessary.

Cry me a river, grampa, you should've drowned him when you had the chance.

Birth Control is Yummy

V-Day 2008

I got nothing. Go read Kos. They have the goods.

We Live in F*****land*

When Limbaugh says something horrifying, it really isn't all that surprising. Limbaugh left the world of civil discourse so long ago there's no point calling him a fucker yet again.

So why is this latest fucker moment worth noting?

Because of all the other fuckers it brings out of the woodwork.

This "attack the suffering" mentality has been one of the most extraordinary things to emerge on the right over the last few years. On the one hand it's sort of part of the outrage that blames the poor for poverty, promiscuity for rape, etc. But I think that part of the post 9/11 whackoness also is this sense where the idea of somone else suffering more than you is simply unacceptable and rather than acknowledge that all suffering is not equal, you attack the sufferer.

There is a certain truth to all being fair game once it enters the political arena. But there is distinct difference between having an issue with Michael J. Fox politicizine his disease and calling him out for "faking." And more power to him for being political, especially now. The stakes are higher for him, as the are for the Iraq vets, and the 9/11 widows.





*Quote taken from roomie Spence.

Cheney Admits to Having NO BRAIN

Not that we had any doubt, but admitting that you have a problem is the first step toward recovery. Get well, Dick.

The Audacity of Obama

Well, the inevitable save-the-date announcement of Barack Obama's true intentions has arrived. Yup. It's all about him. No matter that the invasion of Iraq is getting bleaker by the hour; we could be at the brink of a nuclear war; and Bush appears to be preparing to flee to South America when the shit hits the fan--the conversation must be brought back to the importance of what the country can do for Barack Obama. I mean, wouldn't someone who really served his constituents and country be calling for investigations into the corruption that has brought our democracy to its knees?

He sure has come a long way from young Barry Obama, who tried hard to fit in, rejecting his Kenyan heritage until he saw how useful it could be for him. It's interesting to me that in the only real political campaign he's run, he had his head handed to him by voters on the southside of Chicago who overwhelming re-elected Bobby Rush to Congress. And I have more than a few questions about how he treated his mentor, Alice Palmer, as he ran her over to get her seat in the state senate.

But now, his face and name are everywhere. He's out selling his books and himself. But the conversation shouldn't be about Obama, it should be about this nation and what needs to be done to coexist peacefully in this world and how to enrich the lives of all our citizens.

Just Because

Sigh, I still miss this segment. Comic gold.

Ann Richards, 1933-2006

From the NYT:

Former Gov. Ann Richards, the witty and flamboyant Democrat who went from homemaker to national political celebrity, died Wednesday night after a battle with cancer, a family spokeswoman said. She was 73.

Ann Richards, the former governor of Texas, in 2004.
She died at home surrounded by her family, the spokeswoman said. Richards was found to have esophageal cancer in March and underwent chemotherapy treatments.

My earliest memory of Ann Richards was of her infamous speech at the 1988 Democratic Convention. There are people who will no doubt eulogize her more thoroughly and elegantly than I can. But Ann represented a seldom seen aspect of Texas politics, namely the scrappy, populist, take-no-shit Democrats that make the Bush clan look like the limp hypocrites that they are.

Garrison Keillor's Apology to Republicans

A friend emailed this to me and I thought it was hilarious:

Having been called names, one looks back at one's own angry outbursts over the years, and I recall having at various times referred to Republicans as:

hairy-backed swamp developers,
fundamentalist bullies,
freelance racists,
hobby cops,
sweatshop tycoons,
line jumpers,
marsupial moms,
aluminum-siding salesmen,
misanthropic frat boys,
ninja ditto heads,
shrieking midgets,
tax cheats,
cheese merchants,
cat stranglers,
pill pushers,
nihilists in golf pants,
backed-up Baptists,
the grand pooh-bahs of Percodan,
mouth breathers,
testosterone junkies
and brown shirts in pinstripes

I look at those words now, and 'cat stranglers' seems excessive to me. The number of cat stranglers in the ranks of the Republican Party is surely low, and that reference was hurtful to Republicans and to cat owners. I feel sheepish about it.

My personal favorite? Backed-up Baptists, although Constipated Christians is more inclusive.

Bullshit Detectors at Alert Level RED

ABC looked back at the events of September 11, 2001, and yelled, "GET ME REWRITE!" And the new villain is...(drum roll)...Bill Clinton. These guys have no imagination.

Steve has a a good idea.

Bush, the Absurd

The Professor and I were discussing the recent White House claim that Bush has read 60 books so far this year, including an 800-pager, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

random thoughts:

Ok...8 months divided by 60 books = a feat conceivable for anyone but Bush.

If you calculate his 2hour+ workouts each day, his inability to stay up past 9pm, and the "presidenting" he's supposed to be doing between the workouts and the sleeping... I mean, he'd have to be reading close to 3 hours a day, and, quite frankly, I don't think he's capable.

When it comes to the things that separate us from the apes, he's demonstrated he's got the attention span of a kumquat.

More on New Orleans

Adolph Reed in The Progressive on New Orleans.

With each passing day, a crucially significant political distinction in New Orleans gets clearer and clearer: Property owners are able to assert their interests in the polity, while non-owners are nearly as invisible in civic life now as in the early eighteenth century.

Among other things, the travesty in New Orleans reminds us that capitalism enshrines the prerogatives of property owners—and the bigger the holdings, the more substantial the voice.

This underscores why a simplistically racial interpretation of the injustices perpetrated in New Orleans is inadequate, even when those injustices cluster heavily along racial lines. Substantial numbers of blacks as well as whites are in a position to benefit materially from this regime; blacks as well as whites support the de facto creation of a property owners’ republic. It is possible simultaneously to include black people as stakeholders in the equation for rebuilding the city and to exclude poor people. This is the truth beneath the 200 sociologists’ assurance that their proposal for dispersing the poor would not “depopulate the city of its historically black communities.” But this is a sleight of hand that seeks to sanitize class cleansing with a patter of racial respect.

NOLA, still here, inspite of it all

I've read, here and there, different accounts of what happened a year ago, and what's happened since. But Kate is back, with the beautiful writing that gets past the debris to what was New Orleans.

random thoughts:

Why did CNN send their African correspondent to cover Katrina? A wierd echo of Bush when he said, “I know the people of this part of the world are suffering…”

I wonder, also, why so much reaction to the displaced New Orleanians is resentful and even hostile...you'd think that when Hurricane Katrina uncovered a group of American citizens who have been living below what most would consider "the poverty line"--going without even basic housing and healthcare for generations--you'd think that the reaction would be more charitable for longer than a year. The logic of this reaction escapes me.

Anyway...here's to New Orleans...

The Poopyhead Rationale

Lieberman:"I'm running as an independent because the winner was mean!"

The senator said last night he was staying in the race because Mr. Lamont had run a primary campaign of “insults” and “partisan polarizing” that relentlessly blamed Mr. Lieberman for President Bush’s wartime policies, which the senator has supported and defended but also criticized at various points.

Hey hey hey, Goodbye

Well it wasn't a blood bath, but Lieberman's gotta be hurting right about now. I doubt he'll truly understand why he lost this race. He'll blame the blogs, the "virulently anti-semitic far left," anything but his own tone-deafness. I hope that his lack of basic courage prevents him from seriously going for an independent run, but one cannot underestimate his narcissism.

Meanwhile, hurray for Lamont. Onwards to November.

It's Ned Day

Watchin' the polls from the city that employs 99.9% of CT.

Teach Your Children Well

Kids do the darndest things.

Friday Malamute Blogging

"What me spoiled?"

Kodi rarely has to be coaxed to eat in this fashion. He typically employs purely for the sake of attention. As a puppy he was at one point in danger of eating himself to death. A miscommunication on the part of his owners resulted in a week of overfeeding, during which time he became distinctly pearshaped and earned the nickname "Poop Machine." He also effectively wiped out the household supply of plastic bags. It took a while to clue in to this because he ate like he was starving to death. These days he's mellowed out some having been turned on to the wonderful world of people food. Avocado is a particular favorite.

Timebomb Atop the Volcano

Warm fuzzy thoughts heading into the weekend.

Sending a bunch of white supremacists off to Iraq might not be such a good idea.


A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.

Joe Biden's Dubya Moment

Memo to Joe Biden: The Simpsons is not an accurate reflection of reality (link via Atrios).