Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

So cool that a Black prosecutor nailed his ass.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Not all heroes wear capes.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Republicans in disarray!

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

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Archives for 2005

Freedom is on the, umm, March

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I am too tired to even try to put a positive spin on this:

Large demonstrations broke out across the country Friday to denounce parliamentary elections that protesters say were rigged in favor of the main religious Shiite coalition. Also, the U.S. military said two soldiers were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Friday.

No other details were released. At least 2,163 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Meanwhile, two Arab satellite television channels said that a Sudanese diplomat and five of his countrymen had been kidnapped in Iraq, and a Sudan Foreign Ministry spokesman appealed for their release.

*Sigh*

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Friday Beer Blogging – What I Did On My Napa Vacation

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Today we raise a plastic stadium cup to the best cheap beer, or the cheapest good beer that I’ve ever seen – lager and porter made by Yuengling Brewing Company, which advertises itself as the oldest brewery in the US. If you’re a fan of historical brewing and you live in America, you can’t visit a tastier patch of living history without taking a long swim.

Some of you might complain that nobody who makes a ‘light’ beer deserves the extra three or four bucks that a lucrative Balloon Juice spot will scare up. Piffle. If it’s good enough to go in my fridge without embarrassment, and their lager and porter most definitely are, then it’s good enough to blog about. I haven’t tried their ale yet because I’ve only seen it in variety packs and I will draw the line at buying a variety case that includes light beer (at least they didn’t spell it ‘lite.’ ech.), but you can read what serious beer drinkers think of Yuengling’s products here. I’ve seen much more expensive beers get a much cooler reception.

***

Today’s non-beer alternative answers the question, where the heck was Tim F. for two weeks? The answer is that aside from the conference and drunken bouts of Battlefield Vietnam, Tim drove up to Napa with a friend from Sweden (FFS) and some new guy whom I’d never met (SNG). While the new guy meant that we couldn’t take FFS’s MR2 Spyder, making Tim somewhat grumpy, SNG turned out to practically have a PhD in Napaology. That last bit turned out to be crucial when circumstances left us with only an afternoon to work with, I knew next to nothing about CA wine and FFS thought that we should start with Mondavi.

Let’s get out of the way that I arrived bearing warnings about the California fruit bomb, a style whose exuberant fruit overwhelms what little tannins and acidity your average Napa red might have and gives the bottle a shelf life only slightly longer than a Beaujolais Nouveau. That proved fairly accurate for some wines that we tried, and at least a little accurate for most, with some spectacular exceptions. One winery that I’ll allow to go nameless decided for some ungodly reason to uncork a 1991 Cab for tasting. I had nightmares for a week.

Whites were overall passable, but not what I’d describe as subtle. Maybe someone can explain to me why they grow Sauvignon Blanc and Voignier rather than grapes that actually benefit from a sweet strength like Riesling and Gewurtz. I even passed on a late harvest bottle for what might be the first time ever because I thought the Sauvignon Blanc was already a bit on the sweet side, although it’s fairly well-regarded by reviewers.

However, everywhere we went had at least one standout wine that made it well worth the trip. Our first stop, Turnbull Wine Cellars, netted a Cabernet that I’d describe as rich and intense, with enough tannins to keep for a few years at least. Turnbull also hosts the world’s largest collection of art photography; take a minute to look around the tasting room and you’ll spot originals by Kertesz, Ansel Adams, Dianne Arbus, Man Ray and Paul Strand, among many others. A must-visit for photography buffs.

St. Supery posed the classic dilemma – what I loved I couldn’t afford, and what I could afford I didn’t love.

Their Dollarhide Ranch limited-edition Cab (2001) stands as one of the great reds that I have ever tried. Complex and deep, and keep it for as long as you damn well please. It’ll remain a pleasant memory until some generous benefactor decides that a front-page shout-out at Balloon Juice is worth $70 a bottle.

Rutherford Hill showed why it is that people grow the Merlot grape in the first place, and why hard-to-reach cellars with spectacular architecture can predispose people to like your stuff. Wine Enthusiast practically wrote their review of their 2001 Reserve in tongues (94). More impressive (thanks to SNG for pointing it out), their plain-jane Merlot is almost as good, and affordable enough for me to carry home a bottle, plus a surprisingly-subtle-for-California Petit Verdot.

Rutherford Hill
It’s ok to drink Merlot. Seriously.

Freemark Abbey decided to hold a Christmas party rather than let us in, which SNG declared was a major loss on our part. Franciscan Winery offered some quality but not (in my opinion) memorable bottles; I carried home a 2003 Cab which I liked a bit better, surprisingly, than their custom-blended prestige label.

On the return we picked up a bottle of 2003 Merlot by Shafer Vineyards, which SNG insisted that I’d be absolutely crazy to miss. Will report back in a year or two whether he was right.

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The Holiday for the Rest of Us

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Partially inspired by this, and wholly inspired by Seinfeld, it is time for the First Annual Airing of Grievances at Balloon Juice:


(Thanks to whoever made this screen capture originally)

The Airing of Grievances is the traditional time of the year when families gather together and tell one another how they have disappointed them in the past year. Thus begins my disappointments:

1.) The Republican Party– I will never forgive the shameless display during the Schiavo affair, elevating a personal family tragedy into a cruel farce loosely reported to be concern for the ‘culture of life.’ Hands down the most disappointing thing that happened this year, and the event that finally made me see the current GOP for what they are- shrill opportunists who think divisiveness, intrusion into personal matters, and cheap demagoguery are core leadership principles. And I don’t want to get started on the spending.

2.) The Torture Advocates– For taking every opportunity to paint those opposed to state sanctioned torture as little more than terrorist coddlers or people whose position is not one of principle but one of moral preening. You know who you are. You can go to hell.

3.) The House Republican Leadership– The House GOP started the year in a blatant attempt to loosen ethics standards to save their embattled leader, and ended the year with the reputation of the GOP in tatters, as much of the leadership is embroiled in the Abramoff mess, DeLay is under indictment, and “Duke” Cunningham is a felon. Well done.

4.) The Bush Administration– For failing to articulate any coherent policy, and in the rare cases they do embrace a coherent policy, having it be the wrong one. Add to that the Libby/Rove/Plame mess, and the idea that governance comes on the cheap (just get people fighting enough and no one will know what we are really up to), and you can see why I am disappointed.

5.) The Democrats– A full accounting of the gross incompetence of this party would require more bandwidth than I am willing to purchase, but what can be said about a bunch of partisan nitwits so inept that the GOP self-destructs in front of them, and all they can do is triumph the loony views of Cindy Sheehan and advocate for immediate withdrawal from Iraq?

6.) The MSM– Utterly incapable of covering any story with any depth, meaning or insight, the MSM spent the entire year pumping stupid stories like Natalie Holloway and the run-away bride, and continued to portray all political stories in the framework of a horse race. A policy, in the eyes of the MSM, is not wrong because it is wrong or destructive or stupid, but wrong because of the polling data and the possible electoral impact. Add to it their willingness to treat every issue ‘fairly,’ providing both sides of the story as if they were both legitimate (think the ridiculous ID debate- there are not two legitimate sides), and their total inability to get basic facts right (think of the Katrina coverage, of which basically everything that was reported is now turning out to be wrong), and the MSM has once again been a major disappointment.

7.) The blogosphere– For, in many cases, turning out to be little more than the grassroots arm of the DNC and RNC spin machines, and in some cases turning out to be paid shills for the major parties.

8.) Hollywood– For another craptacular year, with Serenity and Cinderella Man as rare exceptions. And for failing to restart Firefly as a show. (*** Update *** I forgot Baman Begins, which was also excellent.)

9.) The Steelers– For failing to draft or sign a legitimate pass rusher, and for thinking we could replenish the deep threat of P. Burress witha couple of receivers under 6’0″ (Wilson and Moragn, who are good receivers, but not what we need).

10.) The Pirates– For not having the decency to just let Jack Wilson and Jason Bay go, so I can really get on with my life and stop watching them.

11.) My friends and family– For, despite all the evidence, continuing to be supportive and decent to me. Really, I am not worth it.

12.) My cat, Tunch– For waking me at all hours, shredding the couch, vomiting on papers I am trying to grade, and running from me every time I try to get a second of attention on my terms.

13.) Earth– Enough already with the tsunamis, the hurricanes, the earthquakes, and the disaster du jour.

14.) HBO– For making the best programming out there (The Wire, Entourage, Rome, The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm), and having the seasons run for only 12-14 episodes and taking two years in between seasons

I am sure I will have more as the day goes on, but this is a rough list. Add yours in the comments (to include a trackback so I can add yours, should you put it up).

Happy Festivus!

Others airing their grievances:

DC’s Toad Time:

The Daily Oklahoman newspaper, for refusing to accept NO for an answer. I had a paperman show up on my porch on Halloween night trying to get money from me for a subscription I cancelled three months earlier. They call my home phone constantly, sometimes via telemarketers in New Jersey. Enough already.

Running Scared:

The Democrats. Finding myself in opposition to the party in power, I was forced to root, in many cases, for the opposition party. What a disappointment you turned out to be. You constantly fracture into single issue, internecine warfare tribes, slitting your own throats when so many opportunities presented themselves. And by the way… while he had a lot of great, revolutionary ideas, Howard Dean is a loon and he’s only making you look bad. I can only imagine (and weep for) what the party might look like if you’d made John Edwards the head of your party.

In Search of Utopia calls out his wife and his co-bloggers (ed.- DELICIOUS!):

9. My wife, for abandoning me at Christmas time, to spend time with her mother on our farm, and for putting about as much effort into choosing my Christmas gift, as she does determining how much sugar to put in her coffee.

10. My guest bloggers, who all volunteered to guest blog, and when I needed them the most, went MIA.

The World According to Pooh:

Sony and the RIAA. Putting the (my) “comp”(uter) in your incompetence. Whatever happened to ‘you break it, you buy it?’ And the RIAA, thanks for running creativity in main-stream music into the ground. I might just start having to listen to techno, just to hear some variety. Thanks for Ashleeeeeeeeeigh Simpson too.

SineQuaNon’s list is too extensive to choose just one.

Our favorite libertarian, Radley Balko, joins in with three specific grievances.

Matt McInosh is mad at all of us. Really:

The public at large: I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s for your own good: this is your fault. In any market, the preferences of the consumer are the primary driver of everything else. I believe this holds true in democratic politics as well — flaws in the system are a large part of it, but at the end of the day we have bad policy because voters don’t want good policy. Frankly most of you wouldn’t know good policy if it bit you in the ass, but then nobody should resonably expect you to.

I agree. We are a sorry lot of, this public of ours.

More as they become available.

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This Year’s Real Loser

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Yesterday, I was somewhere running errands, and I picked up an old copy of newsweek- the one with the “Bushwahacked” cover. I was flipping through, and I saw a striking picture of Bill frist in an elevator, with a bunch of aides surrounding him, the light seeming to frame him in a messianic sort ofway. it was a striking picture, and I thought to myself that if anyone’s career aspirations had gone down the tube this year, it was Frist. Funny this Bloomberg piece would show up today:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist last week rejected anything less than a full renewal of the Bush administration’s anti-terror legislation. He said he had “made it very clear” he wouldn’t accept a temporary extension of the USA Patriot Act, as Democrats were demanding.

Six days later, after threatening to allow the law to lapse, Frist accepted a short extension of the law. The Republican leader was forced to swallow that reversal because eight members of his own party had joined with Democrats to support an extension.

The Dec. 21 defeat capped a year of setbacks for Frist, whose leadership has been weakened by a series of missteps, divisions within his own Senate Republican caucus and a probe of his stock trades by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Most Capitol Hill observers now regard Frist as “the weakest majority leader in perhaps 50 years,” said Charles Cook, editor of the Washington-based Cook Political Report.

How much of this owes itself to events beyond Frist’s control, to the Democrats finally serving up some mild form of opposition, or other factors, I do not know. I do think, however, that years down the road, political scientists will trace one of the main causes of Frist’s weakness to his willingness to serve the White House blindly.

Tim’s previous take here.

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Snoopgate – More Linky Love For Glenn Greenwald

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Because he’s a lawyer and we’re not.

The DOJ issued an explanatory memo last night (PDF). Glenn says their legal ground is highly specious. Then the WaPo prints an Op-Ed by Tom Daschle basically explaining that the fundamental basis on which the DOJ memo claims Bush’s power implicitly rests, a particular reading of the post-9/11 Authorization of the Use of Military Force, was explicitly rejected by congress in negotiations with the White House. Oh well.

Apparently the Pentagon has its finger in the illegal-surveillance pot as well. But don’t worry, if you’ve always been 100% patriotic (that is, supportive of this particular administration) then you’re probably not in their database. Unless you know somebody who is, in which case you should take more care with whom you associate.

When you consider that the Supreme Court will almost certainly hear one or more cases stemming from snoopgate, in a time frame in which Samuel Alito will likely preside if a filibuster isn’t mounted, the candidate’s opinions regarding the government’s right to wiretap citizens seems almost ridiculously relevant. The NYT suggests that if he plays a tiebreaking role, it’ll be on the wrong side.

Another day of Joementum.

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Nip/Tuck

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So I am watching season #2 of Nip/Tuck (a show which has turned into yet another guilty pleasure), and yes, the entire show is over the top, and yes, Kimber may be the hottest blonde in television history (and I mean ever), and yes, I know it is just a cheesy drama, but one thing keeps going through my head during season #2-

What in the hell gives Sean the right to be such an unmitigated jerk to Julia, whose one sin was to love him for 20 years? And how do you just stop have feelings for someone and turn into a sadistic bastard?

Seriously- maybe I am just new to the whole soap opera genre (and that is what this show is- don’t fool yourself), but this aspect of the show makes it seem extra absurd.

BTW- Nip/Tuck= Best. Music. EVER. The theme song is hideous, but the music they use throughout the show is outstanding.

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