I just hope the Starcraft II rumors are true. I was worried that all this success with WOW would keep Blizzard from ever making a real game again.
2.
Evilbeard
As much as even the thought of Starcraft 2 has me buzzing, this is Blizzard and even if they really are working on it we wont see the game until 2012 at earliest.
3.
Pb
Nerf makes warlocks now? Or do you mean this crap?
Just listened to Ira Glass on NPR detailing the continuing debasement of our constitution and ideals by the Smirking Chimp. Another day, another dollar spent driving hundreds of innocent men insane at Guantanamo through isolation and torture, holding off the war crimes trials sure to come in the wake of this abomination.
To all you now disallusioned dickheads who voted for Bush in 2004, fuck you.
Have a nice day.
7.
taodon
Nerf Bush, then?
Anyway – interesting that the video doesn’t show you that level 60 mage against the level 7 harpies in Durotar…
Now that I’ve completely laid bare my doctorate in geekology, I’m gonna go log back in.
I just hope the Starcraft II rumors are true. I was worried that all this success with WOW would keep Blizzard from ever making a real game again.
They’re finally putting that together? Is this a completion of the “trilogy”, or is it supposed to go on further?
10.
jenniebee
Seed of Corruption ftOhMyFuckingGod
11.
Zifnab
I just hope the Starcraft II rumors are true. I was worried that all this success with WOW would keep Blizzard from ever making a real game again.
They’ve been working on Starcraft: Ghost for… I don’t know… freak’n forever. It was originally supposed to be a Doom-style shooter that morphed into a “Ghost Recon”-esque sneak-and-snipe.
Just so long as it includes the intensity and thrill of MSG:3’s Crab Battle, I won’t complain. Though, I don’t know if they’ve decided to scrap the shooter genre entirely and go back to RTS.
12.
Walker
They’re finally putting that together? Is this a completion of the “trilogy”, or is it supposed to go on further?
A couple of sites (including Slashdot, so take that for what it is worth) have had Starcraft II rumors in the past week.
13.
The Other Steve
A couple of sites (including Slashdot, so take that for what it is worth) have had Starcraft II rumors in the past week.
Slashdot? Aren’t they the guys who keep posting articles about how the Amiga is going to make a comeback?
14.
The Other Steve
Any new stuff on HookerGate?
The guy from USAID resigned.
Powerline appears to have no comment, other than they want to round up the Democrats on the list.
much of the press still takes it as a given that Iraq has a functioning government that might meet political benchmarks (oil law, de-Baathification reform, etc., etc.) that would facilitate an American withdrawal. In reality, the Maliki “government” can’t meet any benchmarks, even if they were enforced, because that government exists only as a fictional White House talking point. As Gen. Barry McCaffrey said last week, this government doesn’t fully control a single province. Its Parliament, now approaching a scheduled summer recess, has passed no major legislation in months. Iraq’s sole recent democratic achievement is to ban the release of civilian casualty figures, lest they challenge White House happy talk about “progress” in Iraq.
One of several money quotes from Frank Rich in NYT today.
If you don’t do anything else worthwhile this weekend, consider a sub to NYT Times Select and read Rich’s whole column, an expression of grief over the loss of one our last real journalists, David Halberstam. And a blistering takedown of the our flaccid and pathetic press.
The Republicans suffered one unpleasant event in November 2006, and they are headed toward an even nastier one in 2008. The Democrats have opened up a wide advantage in party identification and are crushing the G.O.P. among voters under 30.
Moreover, there has been a clear shift, in poll after poll, away from Republican positions on social issues and on attitudes toward government. Democratic approaches are favored on almost all domestic, tax and fiscal issues, and even on foreign affairs.
The public, in short, wants change.
And yet the Republicans refuse to offer that. On Capitol Hill, there is a strange passivity in Republican ranks.
Something is in the air today. When even the redoubtably thickheaded David Brooks writes something coherent about the sorry state of the GOP, we have to pay attention.
If you needed a reason to do that trial sub to NYT Select, today just might be the day to do it.
Sure, everybody hates and pees on the their sub wall, and should …. it’s a disgrace. But the writers didn’t build the wall, and they are writing important material these days. We live in historic times.
Okay, I am so fucking tired of this shit, these lying assholes in our government, and this worthless assembly of whores called a “press.”
As I speak here in my ThymeZone, Face the Nation is featuring the insane liar Condoleeza Rice talking about that “flawed intelligence” from four and a half years ago.
In one breath, she mentions the abuse of the Oil for Food program, and then the WMD mistake.
Hello? We had footage on CNN before the war started showing Saddam’s truckloads of purloined oil being sold under the radar to Syria and Turkey … cash for his evil coffers. But the point is, we were TRACKING THE OIL while we had completely lost track of the WMDs.
Nobody wants to ask, WHY did we fuck up on the WMDs? It’s not rocket science, people. It’s because we WERENT WATCHING THEM. We watched the oil. That’s why we fucked up, not because of some vague, mysterious “failure” of intelligence. It was an ABUSE OF INTELLIGENCE.
Keep this in mind when you watch the paid liar, Tenet, shed his crocodile tears on 60 Minutes tonight.
Ask yourself two questions: Why did this lying sack of shit sit still for the phony runup to war, and …. why didn’t anyone in the “press” ask these questions when it would have done some good?
19.
Pb
why didn’t anyone in the “press” ask these questions when it would have done some good?
A few did — and if you were an avid reader of page A18, you might have noticed them. Next question: why were (and are) their editors administration shills?
A few did—and if you were an avid reader of page A18, you might have noticed them. Next question: why were (and are) their editors administration shills?
Can’t disagree that “a few did” but not enough, and not enough of the right people, including, as you say, the editors, and a lot of other editors and news directors across the country?
It’s convenient to say, well, 911 paralyzed everything. We were all in shock over 911. I just can’t but that. If you have a real, functioning press, you step up the vigilance and the supervision in time of crisis.
Somehow Americans have trained themselves to do the opposite, to ratchet back the vigilance when there’s trouble. I’ve never had much patience for this.
We are supposed to be the most powerful nation on earth, but we don’t act like it. We act like the most insecure, bellicose nation on earth. When threatened, we put a lid on the things that make us America and start talking as if we should all salute the Commander in Chief and act like North Koreans. I really don’t get this.
21.
Pb
ThymeZone,
Another factor that didn’t help was the one-party government we ended up with, but that’s no excuse, of course. You’re right, we aren’t what we were, serious damage has been done to the American ideal of yore. America has faced this in the past, and succeeded, and I think we will again, but this time it’s taking a bit longer, especially when the press isn’t doing their job. Perhaps (a la Benjamin Franklin Bache and William Duane) not enough of them have been killed or imprisoned yet to start taking things seriously?
22.
Kohoutek
Recently, all across our* portion of the blogsphere, in the comment sections, I keep hearing impeach! Impeach! The call is growing louder, more strident.
I’ve resisted joining in that hue and cry. It’s not that I don’t doubt that these reprehensible miscreants have stepped well past any legal line where that is a necessary remedy. It is that we do not have the ironclad proof that it is going to take for impeachment to work in both chambers. Yet. (Mr. Waxman seems to be headed in the right direction. Now if we can just get Fitz back in the ring… And someone needs to stop that Bloch character before he squats his fat ass all over these crimes in a classic cover-up move.)
Impeachment in the House and a failed conviction in the Senate would be more of a vindication for them than a victory for us. At least it seemed to play out that way last time around to my partisan eyes.
When I read Frank Rich’s column today it gave me more hope that we are one step closer to getting our media re-engaged. Rebalanced. Is this an end? It’s barely a beginning. Rich’s column, while filled with pessimism, meant that there was another voice added to the growing clamor. There is a building swell of this kind of criticism that should eventually push our media back away from this uncritical he said/she said lazy stenographic nonsense that goes for news reporting these days. If you consider that the Right pushed it this far with their constant yammering about “liberal bias” it stands to reason that we can push it back to an honest center. It’s going to be harder. I do believe that there is more top-down corporate control than there may have been in the past. I do think that the top tier “reporters” and pundits have more in common with the powerful, wealthy people that they are supposed to be scrutinizing.
There need to be about 497 more mea culpas and years of proof, in writing, for them to regain the trust and dignity earned by men like David Halberstam.
It’s my hope that we can salvage Ashleigh Banfield from her Siberian-equivalent desolate vacation in Court TV land so she can stand up and give more speeches like the one she gave at KSU that apparently ruined her career.* * (I’m not equating Banfield with Halberstam. She’s just my latest crusade in trying to right wrongs done in the name of fevered patriotism that was, in reality, censorship.) I want to believe that there is an heir(s) to Mr. Halberstam waiting in the wings. Or maybe they’re already here in the form of the McClatchy guys or Charlie Savage. It’s going to take more than just three guys though. Maybe Josh Marshall, Glenn Greenwald, and Bilmon (if we can find that fucker and make him get on the job again) will become the next major voices in journalism or reportage or whatever the next name we assign to the job of calling all liars on their bullshit. All liars.
Thank you Mr. Halberstam, profoundly. Thank you for both your effort and honestly as well as providing as example to how it should be done.
Enough of me. A belated hello to you all.
Kohoutek
* “our” being left. I am new here and have yet to figure out exactly where Balloon Juice fits in. So far it looks to fit into some kind of rational discourse that is more inclined to address an issue than a side, but I could be wrong. Or just hopeful.
Pb, great article. It IS interesting the parallels of then and today. I hope for the same happy ending today.
24.
Punchy
I just hope the Starcraft II rumors are true. I was worried that all this success with WOW would keep Blizzard from ever making a real game again
Translation into English For The Layman–“I never get laid.”
25.
Pb
Kohoutek,
Do you know what impeachment is?
It’s not that I don’t doubt that these reprehensible miscreants have stepped well past any legal line where that is a necessary remedy.
Therefore… impeach.
It is that we do not have the ironclad proof that it is going to take for impeachment to work in both chambers.
That is what impeachment is for in the first place!
Impeachment in the United States is an expressed power of the legislature which allows for formal charges to be brought against a civil officer of government for conduct committed in office. The actual trial on those charges, and subsequent removal of an official on conviction on those charges is separate from the act of impeachment itself: impeachment is analogous to indictment in regular court proceedings, trial by the other house is analogous to the trial before judge and jury in regular courts.
Not impeaching someone because you don’t have proof is like saying–oh well, we think this guy might have committed a crime, and we have evidence, but we can’t indict him because we don’t have proof–you indict first, and then get the proof, and then have a trial, and then convict if warranted. Criminals everywhere would love your ridiculously high standards here–and I’m sure the Bush administration does as well.
26.
srv
Nerf warlocks.
Don’t any of you have jobs? I mean, who has all this time for Warcraft and Balloon-Juice?
27.
Pb
who has all this time for Warcraft and Balloon-Juice?
Too add more to the theory that warlocks are the guys’ and gals’ at Blizzard preferred class, check out the new tier armor and tell me that both warlocks sets don’t look completely badass compared to all other sets?!
It’s like they don’t even care that it is obvious how badly they favor warlocks.
I’m currently on Dalaran but I am considering a switch to a PvP server.
30.
Perry Como
Too add more to the theory that warlocks are the guys’ and gals’ at Blizzard preferred class, check out the new tier armor and tell me that both warlocks sets don’t look completely badass compared to all other sets?!
With tier 6 we get wings!
It’s like they don’t even care that it is obvious how badly they favor warlocks.
Wait until we get green fire o.O
Nerf Locks!
Shut it before I Curse of Tongues you.
31.
Kohoutek
Hi, Pb. Not sure why you are being so caustic. The point that I was trying to make is that an impeachment without a conviction is a net loss, in my opinion. If you disagree, that’s fine. But the vitriol directed at me with my being ridiculous and somehow helpful to the Bush administration doesn’t seem warranted.
I’m not here to argue or flame. I do like rational discussion. Think I might be in the wrong place, Pb? Or just conversing with the wrong person?
32.
Pb
Kohoutek,
Not sure why you are being so caustic.
You must be new here.
The point that I was trying to make is that an impeachment without a conviction is a net loss, in my opinion.
First, why do you think that there wouldn’t be a conviction? Assuming a proper impeachment–and thus a fair airing of all the evidence–how could there not be a conviction? And if there wasn’t, (due to, say, quite a few partisan Republican Senators not doing their sworn duties) what do you think would be the reaction?
the vitriol directed at me with my being ridiculous and somehow helpful to the Bush administration doesn’t seem warranted
From your post, I wasn’t clear that you quite knew what an impeachment was–as you say, it isn’t a conviction, thus, ‘proof’ is not required to bring an impeachment action–not that we don’t have more than enough evidence as it is.
I’m not here to argue or flame. I do like rational discussion.
I don’t think the two are irreconcilable, but we all have our preferences. However, if you brush up on your rationality, then you’re liable to get less flames from me.
Think I might be in the wrong place, Pb?
Sometimes, yes.
Or just conversing with the wrong person?
Ooo, nice one! More ‘rational discussion’?
33.
Kohoutek
Yes, I’m new here. Brand new. That was my first post.
So I’m to take it that you are always caustic and looking to argue? Okay. Like I said, not my thing. Flame wars and sniping holds no attraction to me.
Thanks for the welcome. Please find another target for your aggression.
34.
Pb
Kohoutek,
So I’m to take it that you are always caustic and looking to argue?
Nope.
Okay. Like I said, not my thing. Flame wars and sniping holds no attraction to me.
Then you might want to avoid some of the threads around here–we’ve been known to have some pretty impressive flame wars. Lately, though, it’s been a bit mellower.
Kohoutek, this is a rude and noisey place. But it’s possible to make good points and have some good back and forth despite … or because of …. that fact.
Hang in there, don’t throw in the towel.
36.
srv
Thanks for the welcome. Please find another target for your aggression.
Pb is mean to everyone but Krista and Tim F. (his intellectual superior, or maybe because he’s on his dissertation board). He’s nice to ppGaz whenever it is his turn.
This is a site with lots of academics and academic flops who perceive themselves to be liberal/libertarian. They feed on parody republican trolls and lurkers.
37.
Kohoutek
I will make sure to avoid those. Understand, I don’t mind having something I said challenged. I get into political discussions all the time where there is disagreement. But your original post seemed one big sneer. And it revolved around my understanding of impeachment where I stated very clearly:
“Impeachment in the House and a failed conviction in the Senate…” Doesn’t that imply that I do know the process?
Something in there made you want to climb up my butt. Well, climb on out of there, man. No good will come of that. Unless I offend you there is no reason to address me derisively or critically. If there was some basis for a misunderstanding can’t we talk about it without argument?
Now, if we were to come to logger-heads and the discussion gets heated, that’s okay. I think we can still be civil. But this was me stating something and you going on the attack. Not a huge attack. But one nonetheless.
I’m not the enemy, Pb. At least I don’t think I am. So if you think I am mistaken or don’t understand something, let’s talk. But don’t bark at me. Not unless I deserve it with some outlandish remark. This wasn’t that.
Now, if there’s something that you really want to discuss and can do it politely, bring it on, bitch!
I keed.
BTW: How do you get my comments quoted and boxed like that?
38.
srv
Lately, though, it’s been a bit mellower.
Short for he’s been taking his meds lately.
39.
srv
let’s talk
Maybe Pb has his very own concern troll now.
BTW: How do you get my comments quoted and boxed like that?
Click the >> button above the comments box. It opens a world of possibilities.
40.
Kohoutek
Mr. Zone. I’m cool. It’d take a little more than that to chase me off. Just trying to learn the rules and the tempermants. Having just been turned on to this site last Tuesday I’ve read a bunch of great interactions. Thought I posted something reasonable. Though afterwards I did notice that I didn’t bridge impeachment to the Rich NYT article that well. In my head, it was perfect. Stunning even. Brilliant. Something got lost in the execution.
So it goes. Thanks for the encouragment.
41.
Rome Again
BTW: How do you get my comments quoted and boxed like that?
See the B-Quote box above the edit comment box? Paste and highlight the text you’re quoting and press that button
Hope that helped.
Welcome aboard Kohoutek.
42.
srv
Ugh. I had to go vomit after listening to Tenet on 60 Minutes.
Some men just don’t know when to shut the fuck up a disappear into the ashes of history.
K, basically everybody here thinks he is really cool and has the winning argument, and the smartass level here is based on two years of duking it out with hardcore righties.
Now that they aren’t around much, we get frustrated, and take it out on each other.
Never take, or give, anything personally here. It’s all theater. Performance art. Half of it is spoof.
Yes, that Tenet interview was just shocking. That man is one dangerous, stupid, self serving motherfucker, is he not?
45.
Rome Again
K, basically everybody here thinks he is really cool and has the winning argument, and the smartass level here is based on two years of duking it out with hardcore righties.
That’s not true TZ, I always think YOU have the winning argument. ;)
46.
Kohoutek
Maybe Pb has his very own concern troll now.
Not likely. That would imply both some level of concern and the desire to troll. Boring!
They feed on parody republican trolls and lurkers.
I’m much to red to be a Rebublic and too new to be a lurker.
Thanks for the help with the block quotes. I missed the little arrows sitting up there.
Some men just don’t know when to shut the fuck up a disappear into the ashes of history.
To have lit that fucking match.
RSA, thank you.
47.
Pb
Kohoutek,
Not unless I deserve it with some outlandish remark
I quoted it in the first place–it is a pet peeve of mine, that a lot of people really don’t understand how impeachment works, and thus have really stupid ideas about the whole process. The only point I’m really trying to make here is that during the impeachment process, evidence is gathered to support a conviction. If the evidence is strong enough for the Senate, then they will convict. If it isn’t, then they won’t–it’s as simple as that. Thus, the proof is needed at the end of the process, not at the beginning.
Now, if there’s something that you really want to discuss and can do it politely, bring it on, bitch!
Now you’re getting the hang of things. :)
What I really want to discuss is how did we get into this hole in the first place, and how can we get out? Where did it start, how many years ago, or how many hundreds of years ago? As I mentioned earlier, we’ve been here before–our situation is not new in that respect. But how is it that the truths we once held to be self-evident are now opaque? That people now look upon the Constitution as a grant of rights as opposed to an explicit outline of the limits of power of the government? (or The Bill Of Rights as some sort of advisory guideline, or The Geneva Conventions as ‘quaint’, not law) That war is an industry, an export, and war profiteering a business. And how can we then sit idly by? And yet we do.
48.
Pb
Short for he’s been taking his meds lately.
No, that’s just the beer. Also, it seems that some of our more frequent posters from past threads have been largely absent.
49.
srv
Not likely. That would imply both some level of concern and the desire to troll.
Hmm. Maybe. A concern troll is someone who pretends to be on your side and makes unhelpful suggestions. To wit –
Impeachment in the House and a failed conviction in the Senate would be more of a vindication for them than a victory for us.
Us? Who’s us? and
I’m not the enemy
But thou doth protest loudly, blame Pb for his incivility and then proffer a peace. Landmarks for a concern troll.
Hint: next time, just tell him to f* off.
50.
Punchy
Mr. Zone
Alright, Koho, you’re officially an asshole, since you owe me a new keyboard, or at least directions on how to clean chewed food off my letter keys…
LOL! I just saw an ad on the left side for my new employer. that’s cool. :-)
Hi, Pb. Not sure why you are being so caustic. The point that I was trying to make is that an impeachment without a conviction is a net loss, in my opinion. If you disagree, that’s fine.
Yep, it sure did hurt the Republicans in the 2000 elections.
52.
Rome Again
No, that’s just the beer. Also, it seems that some of our more frequent posters from past threads have been largely absent.
Really? Who?
53.
Rome Again
No, that’s just the beer. Also, it seems that some of our more frequent posters from past threads have been largely absent.
Really? Who? Only “He who shall not be named” comes to mind.
54.
Pb
Really? Who? Only “He who shall not be named” comes to mind.
Go through the list in your head and page through the past threads, and tell me if you see any of them–I saw Paul L. a while back, but that was about it.
At a pre-dinner press conference, NAACP leaders announced they will hold a symbolic funeral to bury the “n” word at the group’s national convention in July in Detroit.
Shame that we aren’t having a dialogue. NPR report on this noted that this was a direct result of the Imus incident, and will be working to bury it in rap/hip-hop.
K, basically everybody here thinks he is really cool and has the winning argument, and the smartass level here is based on two years of duking it out with hardcore righties.
Except the spoofs, who have emerged to replace the righties and pretty much intentionally write arguments so as to lose them.
Paul L. is a spoof, and so is Darrell. Also, Face, Zombie Santa Claus, DougJ (sometimes), me (sometimes), The Easter Bunny, Perry Como (sometimes), etc. etc. You’ll figure it out. Very few real conservatives stick around here for very long. The armchair warriors quickly wither beneath blistering rhetoric from Islamocrat moonbats.
The Disenfranchised Voter Says:
BTW, what server do you all play on?
I’m currently on Dalaran but I am considering a switch to a PvP server.
Dalaran? Cool. I still have a ~42 human mage there (yes, I’m not sure her exact level, it’s been that long since I’ve logged on her), but I moved my two main characters (70 NE druid, 62 dwarf rogue) to Drenden a couple of months ago with my guild, when they opened it up to free moves because Dalaran was too crowded.
This is pretty annoying, actually. Call it WoW being a victim of its own success. I have some friends who play the game, and I’ve met quite a few in person or even in blog comment threads who play, and it would be cool to quest with some of them or even just pst them, but there are so many servers that none of them have been on the same server as me.
58.
les
I’ve noticed a fairly high number of Canadian types around here–alive and undead–or maybe just a couple of prolix types. Anyway, I would like to ask a small favor of such–would you come and take your fucking geese home? Thank you.
Is it possible to have characters on separate realms but all on the same account?
I just figured that all your characters on one account had to be on the same realm, and if you had characters on multiple realms, you had multiple accounts.
Hell, I hope I am wrong, as I would love to have a character on a PvP server and also stay on Dalaran.
I’ve noticed a fairly high number of Canadian types around here—alive and undead—or maybe just a couple of prolix types. Anyway, I would like to ask a small favor of such—would you come and take your fucking geese home? Thank you.
I hope you ain’t talking about me, lady. Those fucking Canucks are the bastards that killed me in the first place. Their asses are getting coaled every Yuletime from now until Doomsday. Fuckers!
Cyrus—
Is it possible to have characters on separate realms but all on the same account?
I just figured that all your characters on one account had to be on the same realm, and if you had characters on multiple realms, you had multiple accounts.
Hell, I hope I am wrong, as I would love to have a character on a PvP server and also stay on Dalaran.
Oh, yeah, you can definitely do that, unless I misunderstand the question. I only have one account — I just have the one login name and password and only pay one monthly fee — but I have characters on three different realms now. Have you ever tried just creating one on another realm? As far as I know, it should work.
A word of advice, though: either get in on the ground floor of a pvp realm soon after it’s created, or find a supportive guild quickly, or get used to getting ganked. A lot. My first horde character was a warlock, and I stopped playing him partly just because of how immensely frustrating STV and Hillsbrad were. (In retrospect, if I had held on just another five levels or so, I would have had death coil. Oh well.) Maybe other people had better experiences, but it seemed pointless to me.
Walker
I just hope the Starcraft II rumors are true. I was worried that all this success with WOW would keep Blizzard from ever making a real game again.
Evilbeard
As much as even the thought of Starcraft 2 has me buzzing, this is Blizzard and even if they really are working on it we wont see the game until 2012 at earliest.
Pb
Nerf makes warlocks now? Or do you mean this crap?
Zifnab
Oh yeah, cause Rogues aren’t just as bad.
Frankblack
Nerf Mages
Richard Bottoms
Just listened to Ira Glass on NPR detailing the continuing debasement of our constitution and ideals by the Smirking Chimp. Another day, another dollar spent driving hundreds of innocent men insane at Guantanamo through isolation and torture, holding off the war crimes trials sure to come in the wake of this abomination.
To all you now disallusioned dickheads who voted for Bush in 2004, fuck you.
Have a nice day.
taodon
Nerf Bush, then?
Anyway – interesting that the video doesn’t show you that level 60 mage against the level 7 harpies in Durotar…
Now that I’ve completely laid bare my doctorate in geekology, I’m gonna go log back in.
Perry Como
My Felpuppy eats mages for breakfast.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
They’re finally putting that together? Is this a completion of the “trilogy”, or is it supposed to go on further?
jenniebee
Seed of Corruption ftOhMyFuckingGod
Zifnab
They’ve been working on Starcraft: Ghost for… I don’t know… freak’n forever. It was originally supposed to be a Doom-style shooter that morphed into a “Ghost Recon”-esque sneak-and-snipe.
Just so long as it includes the intensity and thrill of MSG:3’s Crab Battle, I won’t complain. Though, I don’t know if they’ve decided to scrap the shooter genre entirely and go back to RTS.
Walker
A couple of sites (including Slashdot, so take that for what it is worth) have had Starcraft II rumors in the past week.
The Other Steve
Slashdot? Aren’t they the guys who keep posting articles about how the Amiga is going to make a comeback?
The Other Steve
Any new stuff on HookerGate?
The guy from USAID resigned.
Powerline appears to have no comment, other than they want to round up the Democrats on the list.
ThymeZone
One of several money quotes from Frank Rich in NYT today.
If you don’t do anything else worthwhile this weekend, consider a sub to NYT Times Select and read Rich’s whole column, an expression of grief over the loss of one our last real journalists, David Halberstam. And a blistering takedown of the our flaccid and pathetic press.
Hyperion
here is an article on swiss gun law/attitides about gun ownership. this subject came up recently in VTech discussions. it contains some updated stats about us/europe gun deaths.
ThymeZone
Something is in the air today. When even the redoubtably thickheaded David Brooks writes something coherent about the sorry state of the GOP, we have to pay attention.
If you needed a reason to do that trial sub to NYT Select, today just might be the day to do it.
Sure, everybody hates and pees on the their sub wall, and should …. it’s a disgrace. But the writers didn’t build the wall, and they are writing important material these days. We live in historic times.
ThymeZone
Okay, I am so fucking tired of this shit, these lying assholes in our government, and this worthless assembly of whores called a “press.”
As I speak here in my ThymeZone, Face the Nation is featuring the insane liar Condoleeza Rice talking about that “flawed intelligence” from four and a half years ago.
In one breath, she mentions the abuse of the Oil for Food program, and then the WMD mistake.
Hello? We had footage on CNN before the war started showing Saddam’s truckloads of purloined oil being sold under the radar to Syria and Turkey … cash for his evil coffers. But the point is, we were TRACKING THE OIL while we had completely lost track of the WMDs.
Nobody wants to ask, WHY did we fuck up on the WMDs? It’s not rocket science, people. It’s because we WERENT WATCHING THEM. We watched the oil. That’s why we fucked up, not because of some vague, mysterious “failure” of intelligence. It was an ABUSE OF INTELLIGENCE.
Keep this in mind when you watch the paid liar, Tenet, shed his crocodile tears on 60 Minutes tonight.
Ask yourself two questions: Why did this lying sack of shit sit still for the phony runup to war, and …. why didn’t anyone in the “press” ask these questions when it would have done some good?
Pb
A few did — and if you were an avid reader of page A18, you might have noticed them. Next question: why were (and are) their editors administration shills?
ThymeZone
Can’t disagree that “a few did” but not enough, and not enough of the right people, including, as you say, the editors, and a lot of other editors and news directors across the country?
It’s convenient to say, well, 911 paralyzed everything. We were all in shock over 911. I just can’t but that. If you have a real, functioning press, you step up the vigilance and the supervision in time of crisis.
Somehow Americans have trained themselves to do the opposite, to ratchet back the vigilance when there’s trouble. I’ve never had much patience for this.
We are supposed to be the most powerful nation on earth, but we don’t act like it. We act like the most insecure, bellicose nation on earth. When threatened, we put a lid on the things that make us America and start talking as if we should all salute the Commander in Chief and act like North Koreans. I really don’t get this.
Pb
ThymeZone,
Another factor that didn’t help was the one-party government we ended up with, but that’s no excuse, of course. You’re right, we aren’t what we were, serious damage has been done to the American ideal of yore. America has faced this in the past, and succeeded, and I think we will again, but this time it’s taking a bit longer, especially when the press isn’t doing their job. Perhaps (a la Benjamin Franklin Bache and William Duane) not enough of them have been killed or imprisoned yet to start taking things seriously?
Kohoutek
Recently, all across our* portion of the blogsphere, in the comment sections, I keep hearing impeach! Impeach! The call is growing louder, more strident.
I’ve resisted joining in that hue and cry. It’s not that I don’t doubt that these reprehensible miscreants have stepped well past any legal line where that is a necessary remedy. It is that we do not have the ironclad proof that it is going to take for impeachment to work in both chambers. Yet. (Mr. Waxman seems to be headed in the right direction. Now if we can just get Fitz back in the ring… And someone needs to stop that Bloch character before he squats his fat ass all over these crimes in a classic cover-up move.)
Impeachment in the House and a failed conviction in the Senate would be more of a vindication for them than a victory for us. At least it seemed to play out that way last time around to my partisan eyes.
When I read Frank Rich’s column today it gave me more hope that we are one step closer to getting our media re-engaged. Rebalanced. Is this an end? It’s barely a beginning. Rich’s column, while filled with pessimism, meant that there was another voice added to the growing clamor. There is a building swell of this kind of criticism that should eventually push our media back away from this uncritical he said/she said lazy stenographic nonsense that goes for news reporting these days. If you consider that the Right pushed it this far with their constant yammering about “liberal bias” it stands to reason that we can push it back to an honest center. It’s going to be harder. I do believe that there is more top-down corporate control than there may have been in the past. I do think that the top tier “reporters” and pundits have more in common with the powerful, wealthy people that they are supposed to be scrutinizing.
There need to be about 497 more mea culpas and years of proof, in writing, for them to regain the trust and dignity earned by men like David Halberstam.
It’s my hope that we can salvage Ashleigh Banfield from her Siberian-equivalent desolate vacation in Court TV land so she can stand up and give more speeches like the one she gave at KSU that apparently ruined her career.* * (I’m not equating Banfield with Halberstam. She’s just my latest crusade in trying to right wrongs done in the name of fevered patriotism that was, in reality, censorship.) I want to believe that there is an heir(s) to Mr. Halberstam waiting in the wings. Or maybe they’re already here in the form of the McClatchy guys or Charlie Savage. It’s going to take more than just three guys though. Maybe Josh Marshall, Glenn Greenwald, and Bilmon (if we can find that fucker and make him get on the job again) will become the next major voices in journalism or reportage or whatever the next name we assign to the job of calling all liars on their bullshit. All liars.
Thank you Mr. Halberstam, profoundly. Thank you for both your effort and honestly as well as providing as example to how it should be done.
Enough of me. A belated hello to you all.
Kohoutek
* “our” being left. I am new here and have yet to figure out exactly where Balloon Juice fits in. So far it looks to fit into some kind of rational discourse that is more inclined to address an issue than a side, but I could be wrong. Or just hopeful.
** http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/truths-consequences-by-digby-since.html
Jackie
Pb, great article. It IS interesting the parallels of then and today. I hope for the same happy ending today.
Punchy
Translation into English For The Layman–“I never get laid.”
Pb
Kohoutek,
Do you know what impeachment is?
Therefore… impeach.
That is what impeachment is for in the first place!
Not impeaching someone because you don’t have proof is like saying–oh well, we think this guy might have committed a crime, and we have evidence, but we can’t indict him because we don’t have proof–you indict first, and then get the proof, and then have a trial, and then convict if warranted. Criminals everywhere would love your ridiculously high standards here–and I’m sure the Bush administration does as well.
srv
Don’t any of you have jobs? I mean, who has all this time for Warcraft and Balloon-Juice?
Pb
John Cole doesn’t!
(thanks, I’ll be here all week…)
The Disenfranchised Voter
Too add more to the theory that warlocks are the guys’ and gals’ at Blizzard preferred class, check out the new tier armor and tell me that both warlocks sets don’t look completely badass compared to all other sets?!
It’s like they don’t even care that it is obvious how badly they favor warlocks.
Nerf Locks!
The Disenfranchised Voter
BTW, what server do you all play on?
I’m currently on Dalaran but I am considering a switch to a PvP server.
Perry Como
With tier 6 we get wings!
Wait until we get green fire o.O
Shut it before I Curse of Tongues you.
Kohoutek
Hi, Pb. Not sure why you are being so caustic. The point that I was trying to make is that an impeachment without a conviction is a net loss, in my opinion. If you disagree, that’s fine. But the vitriol directed at me with my being ridiculous and somehow helpful to the Bush administration doesn’t seem warranted.
I’m not here to argue or flame. I do like rational discussion. Think I might be in the wrong place, Pb? Or just conversing with the wrong person?
Pb
Kohoutek,
You must be new here.
First, why do you think that there wouldn’t be a conviction? Assuming a proper impeachment–and thus a fair airing of all the evidence–how could there not be a conviction? And if there wasn’t, (due to, say, quite a few partisan Republican Senators not doing their sworn duties) what do you think would be the reaction?
From your post, I wasn’t clear that you quite knew what an impeachment was–as you say, it isn’t a conviction, thus, ‘proof’ is not required to bring an impeachment action–not that we don’t have more than enough evidence as it is.
I don’t think the two are irreconcilable, but we all have our preferences. However, if you brush up on your rationality, then you’re liable to get less flames from me.
Sometimes, yes.
Ooo, nice one! More ‘rational discussion’?
Kohoutek
Yes, I’m new here. Brand new. That was my first post.
So I’m to take it that you are always caustic and looking to argue? Okay. Like I said, not my thing. Flame wars and sniping holds no attraction to me.
Thanks for the welcome. Please find another target for your aggression.
Pb
Kohoutek,
Nope.
Then you might want to avoid some of the threads around here–we’ve been known to have some pretty impressive flame wars. Lately, though, it’s been a bit mellower.
ThymeZone
Kohoutek, this is a rude and noisey place. But it’s possible to make good points and have some good back and forth despite … or because of …. that fact.
Hang in there, don’t throw in the towel.
srv
Pb is mean to everyone but Krista and Tim F. (his intellectual superior, or maybe because he’s on his dissertation board). He’s nice to ppGaz whenever it is his turn.
This is a site with lots of academics and academic flops who perceive themselves to be liberal/libertarian. They feed on parody republican trolls and lurkers.
Kohoutek
I will make sure to avoid those. Understand, I don’t mind having something I said challenged. I get into political discussions all the time where there is disagreement. But your original post seemed one big sneer. And it revolved around my understanding of impeachment where I stated very clearly:
“Impeachment in the House and a failed conviction in the Senate…” Doesn’t that imply that I do know the process?
Something in there made you want to climb up my butt. Well, climb on out of there, man. No good will come of that. Unless I offend you there is no reason to address me derisively or critically. If there was some basis for a misunderstanding can’t we talk about it without argument?
Now, if we were to come to logger-heads and the discussion gets heated, that’s okay. I think we can still be civil. But this was me stating something and you going on the attack. Not a huge attack. But one nonetheless.
I’m not the enemy, Pb. At least I don’t think I am. So if you think I am mistaken or don’t understand something, let’s talk. But don’t bark at me. Not unless I deserve it with some outlandish remark. This wasn’t that.
Now, if there’s something that you really want to discuss and can do it politely, bring it on, bitch!
I keed.
BTW: How do you get my comments quoted and boxed like that?
srv
Short for he’s been taking his meds lately.
srv
Maybe Pb has his very own concern troll now.
Click the >> button above the comments box. It opens a world of possibilities.
Kohoutek
Mr. Zone. I’m cool. It’d take a little more than that to chase me off. Just trying to learn the rules and the tempermants. Having just been turned on to this site last Tuesday I’ve read a bunch of great interactions. Thought I posted something reasonable. Though afterwards I did notice that I didn’t bridge impeachment to the Rich NYT article that well. In my head, it was perfect. Stunning even. Brilliant. Something got lost in the execution.
So it goes. Thanks for the encouragment.
Rome Again
See the B-Quote box above the edit comment box? Paste and highlight the text you’re quoting and press that button
Hope that helped.
Welcome aboard Kohoutek.
srv
Ugh. I had to go vomit after listening to Tenet on 60 Minutes.
Some men just don’t know when to shut the fuck up a disappear into the ashes of history.
ThymeZone
K, basically everybody here thinks he is really cool and has the winning argument, and the smartass level here is based on two years of duking it out with hardcore righties.
Now that they aren’t around much, we get frustrated, and take it out on each other.
Never take, or give, anything personally here. It’s all theater. Performance art. Half of it is spoof.
I think this is the most fun blog in town.
ThymeZone
Yes, that Tenet interview was just shocking. That man is one dangerous, stupid, self serving motherfucker, is he not?
Rome Again
That’s not true TZ, I always think YOU have the winning argument. ;)
Kohoutek
Not likely. That would imply both some level of concern and the desire to troll. Boring!
I’m much to red to be a Rebublic and too new to be a lurker.
Thanks for the help with the block quotes. I missed the little arrows sitting up there.
To have lit that fucking match.
RSA, thank you.
Pb
Kohoutek,
I quoted it in the first place–it is a pet peeve of mine, that a lot of people really don’t understand how impeachment works, and thus have really stupid ideas about the whole process. The only point I’m really trying to make here is that during the impeachment process, evidence is gathered to support a conviction. If the evidence is strong enough for the Senate, then they will convict. If it isn’t, then they won’t–it’s as simple as that. Thus, the proof is needed at the end of the process, not at the beginning.
Now you’re getting the hang of things. :)
What I really want to discuss is how did we get into this hole in the first place, and how can we get out? Where did it start, how many years ago, or how many hundreds of years ago? As I mentioned earlier, we’ve been here before–our situation is not new in that respect. But how is it that the truths we once held to be self-evident are now opaque? That people now look upon the Constitution as a grant of rights as opposed to an explicit outline of the limits of power of the government? (or The Bill Of Rights as some sort of advisory guideline, or The Geneva Conventions as ‘quaint’, not law) That war is an industry, an export, and war profiteering a business. And how can we then sit idly by? And yet we do.
Pb
No, that’s just the beer. Also, it seems that some of our more frequent posters from past threads have been largely absent.
srv
Hmm. Maybe. A concern troll is someone who pretends to be on your side and makes unhelpful suggestions. To wit –
Us? Who’s us? and
But thou doth protest loudly, blame Pb for his incivility and then proffer a peace. Landmarks for a concern troll.
Hint: next time, just tell him to f* off.
Punchy
Alright, Koho, you’re officially an asshole, since you owe me a new keyboard, or at least directions on how to clean chewed food off my letter keys…
The Other Steve
LOL! I just saw an ad on the left side for my new employer. that’s cool. :-)
Yep, it sure did hurt the Republicans in the 2000 elections.
Rome Again
Really? Who?
Rome Again
Really? Who? Only “He who shall not be named” comes to mind.
Pb
Go through the list in your head and page through the past threads, and tell me if you see any of them–I saw Paul L. a while back, but that was about it.
Decided FenceSitter
More Imus fall out.
Shame that we aren’t having a dialogue. NPR report on this noted that this was a direct result of the Imus incident, and will be working to bury it in rap/hip-hop.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
Except the spoofs, who have emerged to replace the righties and pretty much intentionally write arguments so as to lose them.
Paul L. is a spoof, and so is Darrell. Also, Face, Zombie Santa Claus, DougJ (sometimes), me (sometimes), The Easter Bunny, Perry Como (sometimes), etc. etc. You’ll figure it out. Very few real conservatives stick around here for very long. The armchair warriors quickly wither beneath blistering rhetoric from Islamocrat moonbats.
Welcome, BTW.
Cyrus
Dalaran? Cool. I still have a ~42 human mage there (yes, I’m not sure her exact level, it’s been that long since I’ve logged on her), but I moved my two main characters (70 NE druid, 62 dwarf rogue) to Drenden a couple of months ago with my guild, when they opened it up to free moves because Dalaran was too crowded.
This is pretty annoying, actually. Call it WoW being a victim of its own success. I have some friends who play the game, and I’ve met quite a few in person or even in blog comment threads who play, and it would be cool to quest with some of them or even just pst them, but there are so many servers that none of them have been on the same server as me.
les
I’ve noticed a fairly high number of Canadian types around here–alive and undead–or maybe just a couple of prolix types. Anyway, I would like to ask a small favor of such–would you come and take your fucking geese home? Thank you.
The Disenfranchised Voter
Cyrus–
Is it possible to have characters on separate realms but all on the same account?
I just figured that all your characters on one account had to be on the same realm, and if you had characters on multiple realms, you had multiple accounts.
Hell, I hope I am wrong, as I would love to have a character on a PvP server and also stay on Dalaran.
Zombie Santa Claus
I hope you ain’t talking about me, lady. Those fucking Canucks are the bastards that killed me in the first place. Their asses are getting coaled every Yuletime from now until Doomsday. Fuckers!
Cyrus
Oh, yeah, you can definitely do that, unless I misunderstand the question. I only have one account — I just have the one login name and password and only pay one monthly fee — but I have characters on three different realms now. Have you ever tried just creating one on another realm? As far as I know, it should work.
A word of advice, though: either get in on the ground floor of a pvp realm soon after it’s created, or find a supportive guild quickly, or get used to getting ganked. A lot. My first horde character was a warlock, and I stopped playing him partly just because of how immensely frustrating STV and Hillsbrad were. (In retrospect, if I had held on just another five levels or so, I would have had death coil. Oh well.) Maybe other people had better experiences, but it seemed pointless to me.
The Disenfranchised Voter
You’re right Cyrus. You can be on multiple realms with one account.
We should so get everyone from BJ that plays WoW to create a new character in one of the newer realms and make our own guild!
That would be the shit.