Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Books are my comfort food!

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Cole is on a roll !

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

No Justins, No Peace

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

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

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

Fight them, without becoming them!

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

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

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Archives for April 2008

Through the Looking Glass

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This gem from Talk Left is a perfect example of the kind of crazy that seems to be whipped up by the Clinton campaign. Apparently, Jeralynn has run the numbers, and if you include Florida and Michigan’s numbers into the popular vote tally (and remember, Obama was not on the ballot in Michigan), throw out the states in which there were caucuses, and do a couple of other things that Jeralynn does that she has detailed in her “methodology,” then you can state, with a perfectly straight face, that Clinton and Obama are tied in the popular vote.

In other news, if we had found WMD in Iraq, the whole thing might have been worth it! If we had only gone into Iraq with more troops and a coherent strategy and a plan to rebuild, things might be a success today! If the last eight years had not been a total disaster, Bush would have been the best President ever! If only I had tried harder as a kid, I might have made it into the NFL!

Also, if my Aunt had balls, she would be my uncle.

I can’t be the only person to recognize this odd and troubling detachment from reality that seems to be gripping both the Clinton campaign and her supporters, and it is truly bizarre. Meanwhile, the rascals at Rasmussen seem to want to play along:

If the Democrats were to allot their current state delegate totals in a winner-take-all format, Clinton would actually have a significant delegate advantage. Despite having won only 14 recognized contests to Obama’s 30, Clinton would currently have a 120 (1738 to 1618) total delegate lead and a remarkable 167 (1427 to 1260) pledged delegate lead. These numbers give Texas’ “prima-caucus” delegates to Clinton and do not include Florida, Michigan or the 693 total delegates and 566 pledged delegates still to be won in the next few months.

This, of course, assumes two things. First, that the system is completely overhauled and turned into the winner-take all system. Second, it assumes that with a different system, the Obama campaign would have done nothing differently. Since neither is the case, this is a great talking point for the Clinton camp to use on the addle-minded, but it won’t persuade anyone who can tie their shoes. The rules were clear when the campaign began, and you don’t choose your nominee by asking “What if” at the end of the race.

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Timing, Two-Timing, And Truthiness

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The Clinton campaign probably thought they were being clever with the Friday afternoon document dump of Hillary’s IRS returns, but all they have done is give the media a taste and 48 hours to sift through them. Expect this story to still be active and raging on Monday. Not to mention, this juxtaposition of stories at the NY Times is exceptionally unfortunate:

Those are the kind of side by side comparisons that simply can not help Hillary with the blue-collar vote she so desperately needs. Did no one check the web to see whether today was really the day they wanted to release the returns? At any rate, while the clinton campaign seems to suffer from chronic bad timing, at least portions of the campaign have no problem two-timing the Senator from New York:

Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton’s top political strategist, apologized yesterday for meeting with Colombian officials to advocate for a trade agreement that Clinton opposes.

“The meeting was an error in judgment that will not be repeated, and I am sorry for it,” Penn said in a statement released by the campaign. “The senator’s well-known opposition to this trade deal is clear and was not discussed.”

Penn met with Colombia’s ambassador as recently as Monday to discuss how to get a bilateral free-trade agreement passed between the South American nation and the United States. Campaign officials said the meeting was done as part of Penn’s separate job as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller, an international communications and lobbying firm.

The incompetence of it all is staggering, as if they had a checklist for pissing off blue collar voters. The fact that Penn is still with the campaign is simply inexplicable, as Marc Armbinder notes:

One of the toughest tasks for a political journalist these days is to try and find someone in Clinton world who is willing to defend Mr. Penn or his sense of political optics.

Incidentally, Penn has said that he has time for only two clients: Clinton and Microsoft. Now, perhaps, he has three.

Obama aides had nothing to say. (Indeed — can you blame them for wanting to allow this story to unfurl without any help?)

Meanwhile, as if all of this was not enough, Clinton’s credibility problem is going to re-emerge next week as a full-time story with this example of truthiness:

Over the last five weeks, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has featured in her campaign stump speeches the story of a health care horror: an uninsured pregnant woman who lost her baby and died herself after being denied care by an Ohio hospital because she could not come up with a $100 fee.

The woman, Trina Bachtel, did die last August, two weeks after her baby boy was stillborn at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. But hospital administrators said Friday that Ms. Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured.

“We implore the Clinton campaign to immediately desist from repeating this story,” said Rick Castrop, chief executive officer of the O’Bleness Health System.

Linda M. Weiss, a spokeswoman for the not-for-profit hospital, said the Clinton campaign had never contacted the hospital to check the accuracy of the story, which Mrs. Clinton had first heard from a Meigs County, Ohio, sheriff’s deputy in late February.

A Clinton spokesman, Mo Elleithee, said candidates would frequently retell stories relayed to them, vetting them when possible. “In this case, we did try but were not able to fully vet it,” Mr. Elleithee said. “If the hospital claims it did not happen that way, we respect that.”

It seems like calling the hospital would have been an easy first step, and in fact, let’s compare and contrast. When your average right-wing blogger wants to prove or disprove something, generally the first thing they do is CONTACT the people in the middle of the situation. Think about that. Either the Clinton campaign didn’t care if the story was true or not, and just wanted to keep telling it, or they are less equipped to get at the truth than your average citizen journalist.

What this all boils down to is a question of competence. It has become increasingly clear that despite their claims about passing the CinC threshold and despite their claims of superior judement, the Clinton crew cares little about actually getting things right. Loyalty, however, is a cherished value. Competence, not so much.

Where have I seen that poisonous combination over the past eight years? Does the country need four more years of rule from an arrogant and incompetent administration that places a priority on loyalty and secrecy?

I think not.

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Friday Beer Blogging: Sam Adams Irish Red

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Samuel Adams Irish RedI have a friend who thinks Mich Ultra is an exceptional beer. I nearly get sick from even thinking about drinking it. So you can imagine how I took his recommendation to try Sam Adams Irish Red. I didn’t even know they MADE an Irish Red, so I decided to give it a try. My friend thinks it was his recommendation, so he’s proud of himself!! Beer Advocate gives it a B+. I’m giving it an A. Totally in agreement with the commenter:

Poured this beer into a beerclean glass and marveled at the appearance. Great translucent amber red with copious head and brussels lacing.

The aroma is one of maltiness. Toasty maults of toffee and caramel are the strongest. A tinge of hops hit late.

The same toffee and sweet caramel malts come through moderately in the taste. The mouthfeel is only a surprisingly moderate to thin. The beer does not have strong flavors but is quite flavorful, smooth and creamy.

I can honestly say that, other than Rickards Red (a Canadian brew that inexplicably gets a C+ from Beer Advocate) I haven’t tasted a better Irish Red. I drink it out of a flute glass, which enhances the flavor, in my opinion. I have a set of Samuel Adams glasses, but they’re more for marketing than anything else.

A very nice flavor. Wet the glass before pouring though to release the bubbles and the flavor. In fact, do that with any beer you drink. I’m certainly no beer expert, but I know this does enhance the flavor.

Note: If you want your beer to taste better, invest in some quality glasses. Most of you probably know this, but when good beers are brewed, chances are, the brewmaster will also develop a glass to go with it (that’s my experience with Belgian Ales, anyway.) They’re usually around $2.99 apiece at your better beer retailers. I have 16 beer glasses, all different, and all geared toward different styles of beer. But if you don’t have the budget to buy ’em, you can’t go wrong by using a champagne flute. Those suckers can almost make Budweiser palatable!

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SATSQ

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Steve Benen asks, “What do you think would happen if a Democrat had said this“:

We spent the night in the Green Zone, in the poolhouse of one of Saddam’s palaces. A little weird, I got to be honest with you. But I felt safe. And so in the morning, I got up early — not that I make this a great habit — but I went to the gym because I just couldn’t sleep and everything else. Well, sure enough, the guard wouldn’t let me in. Said I didn’t have the correct credentials.

“It’s 5:00 in the morning. I haven’t had sleep. I was not very happy with this two-bit security guard.

Do you even need to ask? Really?

If McHenry was a Democrat there would be a full on red alert action report sent across the WingNetTM. Kerning charts would be pulled out for referencing. Cheeto’s and Mountain Dew stock would triple. McHenry’s countertops would be inspected, and the Confederate Yankee would spend a week linking all the times McHenry had been in the same state as Barack Obama, showing decisively that Obama hates the troops (Jake Tapper would note that he thought this was the case, because he has a really keen sense for traitors- ask anyone in his family). We would learn that someone in McHenry’s family tree did something vaguely subversive in the 1960’s (maybe smoked a joint while listening to Jimi Hendrix’s version of the Star Spangled Banner, rather than standing erect and proudly displaying a lapel pin).

The Instapundit would kick his passive/aggressive BS into overdrive, linking every rambling yahoo on the intertrons who wants to proudly display their patriotism (500 different links to poorly written proclamations without the benefit of a shift key that “OUR TROOPS AIN’T JUST SECURITY GUARDS THEY ARE THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTESTEST). Red State would send out a fundraising letter for another 25k for website development to combat evil leftist smears against our troops. Mickey Kaus would stop sodomizing fellating goats long enough to pen a column about his outrage, and since he is a Democrat himself (wink, wink), this would give the outrage enough respectability that the odious fool Howie Kurtz would write six columns about it, describing the outrage, pushing it until there would be wall to wall coverage on the cable networks and Wolf Blitzer finally asks the poll question:

“Why do Democrats hate our troops and why do they hate the country, and how can they expect to win the Presidency with that attitude? ”

That is what would fucking happen.

*** Update ***

Apparently something similar already did happen, but with a reporter instead of a Democrat (same thing to a wingnut). My prediction of what would happen is alarmingly accurate.

*** Update #2 ***

Tom Maguire asks:

My question – what in the telling of this story (other than their own partisan desire, of course) makes them think the guard in question is either American or a soldier?

I am doubtful that we are talking about a full security checkpoint at the limits of the Green Zone, although even there it is possible to encounter foreign troops, Iraqi security, and (IIRC) private contractors. But if the encounter occurred inside the Green Zone, as is likely, why couldn’t the “two bit security guard” simply be an Iraqi rent-a-cop or private doorman?

Nothing, and I actually thought about that myself when I watched the video. And here is where it gets really, really depressing. Even if the “two bit security guard” turns out to be an actual “two bit security guard,” if a Democrat uttered it, the outcome would be the same. The right-wing outrage machine would keep on a’churning, and instead of asking why Democrats hate the troops they would ask why Democrats hate Americans over there protecting us. And, regardless, it would enter into the mythology that it was a soldier anyway, and for the next 30 years that Democrat would have people accusing him of hating the troops. That what was so particularly evil about Jonah Goldberg’s bs Liberal Fascism. Everyone with a brain knows it is utter nonsense. Everyone, that is, but the target audience- the brain-dead frat boy morons and Corner readers who will repeat it for the next 30 years.

*** Update #3 ***

Our buddies (I kid) at Protein Wisdom (You got to admit they have a crack staff over there. I mean, it couldn’t be easy finding someone more long-winded than Jeff, but they did with Karl) have the following to add:

The Leftosphere, at post-time, has not updated their posts to reflect Amanda’s apparent error. ThinkProgress should have particular fun explaining themselves, given that they recently passed along a bogus claim that Iraqi doctors in al-Anbar province are warning of a new disease they are calling “Blackwater Fever” named after the controversial security firm. However, John Cole deserves special mention for admitting he considered that the story maight not involve a US soldier from the outset, only to argue that he really does not care, because — if the roles were reversed — the ”right-wing outrage machine” would just perpetuate the Big Lie anyway. Them are some fine standards he’s got.

Heya Karl. Here is Ed at Hot Air:

Does this really make it any better? After all, the contractors risk their lives as well, albeit for better compensation. One of my good friends worked in Iraq as a contractor, and I can assure McHenry that Mike the SEAL is no two-bit security guard. He’s a highly trained professional who does vital work whether as a SEAL or as a contractor.

Ding Think Progress for the inaccuracy, but McHenry isn’t off the hook.

Quit worrying about my standards, Karl, because I am right about how you all would react. Besides, don’t you all have ex-girlfriends to publicly trash (we know- it is tough love).

*** Update #4 ***

Karl, continuing to suffer from bunched up Superman underwear:

Wrong. Cole’s side of the story is that he watched the video, noticed it did not really specify a soldier, but decided to go with it anyway because the “right wing outrage machine” wouuld do the same if the shoe was on the other foot. But as you and I agree, people on the Right criticized McHenry for his comments (though it now turns out some selective editing was involved). So Cole propagated the bogus story based on a bogus perception of his opponents. I don’t know whether that qualifies him as Father of Lies, but it does make him doubly dishonest in this instance.

Umm, I didn’t propagate a bogus story, I simply gave a response to the Carpetbagger about what would have happened in Karl’s little circle-jerk of friends had McHenry been a Democrat. That it already happened to a McClatchy reporter, precisely as I suggested it would, is just doubly funny.

Does Karl really doubt this? Does anyone? Really? Seriously?

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My New Personal Hero

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Jeffrey Moran, Ad Executive at Absolut.

Apparently the 27% crowd, in the midst of everything going on in the world, has taken the time to focus on a real outrage- this Absolut ad:

Apparently unaware that corporations compete in a global market and sometimes engage in niche advertising, occasionally placing different ads in different countries, our frothing lunatics are in high dudgeon over this grave insult to white America. Sometimes, the treachery is so bad that these evil America hating corporations even use foreign languages in their commercials and in their advertising!

This, of course, means that Queen Outrage herself has kicked into high gear, with numerous posts on the matter, inevitably leading to the type of citizen activism that is much approved among this crowd- harassing people who have jobs. Michelle, champion of the halfwit, reports excitedly:

You know what has been heartening the past two days as reaction to the Absolut Reconquista ad continues to pour in? The fact that so many of you still take our sovereignty seriously and are willing to give voice to your concerns without apologizing for it.

Because we all know that nothing protects our national sovereignty like manufactured outrage over a Vodka ad. At any rate, whipped into a lather, the drooling brigade of Malkinites picked up their crayons and fired off a number of missives to the Absolut ad executive, who promptly told them to go fuck themselves.

Seriously:

Your message

To: Moran, Jeffrey
Cc:
Subject: Offensive ad
Sent: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 15:18:30 -0400

was deleted without being read on Thu, 3 Apr 2008 16:28:51 -0400

Jeffrey Moran, hero for a day.

*** Update ***

Confused about all this reconquista stuff? Ask a Mexican:

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