Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
This post is in: Domestic Politics
Looks like Hillary was snooped, too:
While the chattering classes all look for nefarious reasons for these invasions, I will simply restate what I said last night- the real scandal is that our government has this much information stored about us. And yes, I am aware that private corporations have much the same information, and no, I am not happy about that, either.
*** Update ***
According to the talking heads on my television, McCain was snooped, too.
by Tim F| 39 Comments
This post is in: Media, Republican Stupidity
Nobody who pays the faintest attention thinks that Shiite Iran has or wants anything to do with the Sunni radicals in al Qaeda. For one thing bin Laden’s Iraq branch spends more energy slaughtering Shiites than it does attacking us. Sounds like a great program for Shiite Ayatollah Khamenei to promote, doesn’t it? Yeesh. Thinking that the two have some mutually supportive relationship is like proving your baseball knowledge by arguing that the Dolphins should start David Beckham. It makes a person hard to take seriously.
John McCain says crap like this every day. Joe Lieberman corrects him (twice) and McCain keeps saying it anyway. By any reasonable measure McCain’s crayon-book understanding of the mideast ought to be his candidacy’s most prominent weakness, a shameful sore point that he avoids talking about at all costs; his Chalabi if you will. Yet through some weird oversight that hasn’t happened.
Maybe the media has leaned to expect the GOP to field drooling morons. In fairness it has become about as unusual as spring robin poop on curb-parked cars. Nonetheless one can only look at a case like this, when young men doddering old cranks are being failed by a system that refuses to hold them accountable, and shake one’s head at the soft bigotry of low expectations.
This post is in: Election 2008, Politics
Billy Richardson is set to endorse Obama in Oregon today. This is sure to help with the all important Hispanic vote in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Oregon. No doubt his endorsement will also ring in many Philadelphian’s ears a month from now when they vote (and as soon as most of them figure out who the hell Bill Richardson is and why they should care who the governor of New Mexico thinks they should vote for).
Snark aside, I do think this is a sign of what Barack’s efforts this week are achieving. A major target of his speeches (especially the penultimate More Perfect Union) were the undecided superdelegates, since his popular delegate lead is nearly insurmountable. They are beginning to trust him on defense — specifically his own defense.
by John Cole| 10 Comments
This post is in: Sports
A solid first round victory for the Eers, 75-65.
Duke on Saturday.
BTW- I have not written about them much this year, because I just do not find the playstyle as compelling as I did Beilein’s teams.
by Tim F| 23 Comments
This post is in: General Stupidity
Randall “Duke” Cunningham was a war hero Navy fighter pilot. Barring any other qualification (like, say, being right about Iraq or the ability to tell Shia from Sunni) that makes him a foreign policy genius and a perfect candidate for president.
by John Cole| 98 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Previous Site Maintenance
Apparently someone snooped into Obama’s passport file, and the State Dept. never informed Obama. The discussion has taken up the entire hour of Countdown. We will see what comes of it, but I suspect no one will hone in on the real scandal- that our government has something other than simply where we have been recorded in our secret passport files. Why the hell there are notes and the like in there is beyond me and kind of creepy.
Consider this an open thread.
*** Update ***
Here is the CNN story:
On three occasions since January, Sen. Barack Obama’s passport file was looked at by three different contract workers, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
The contractors accessed information in the file in an unauthorized way, he said.
Two contractors were fired and one was disciplined by the contractor’s company, McCormack said.
He said the contractors are not linked.
Next few days will be interesting.
This post is in: Open Threads
Use this time to discuss the best meal you’ve ever had. No election talk, please.
Livingston is a town of around 5,000 people in East Texas. It’s about an hour north of Houston. There is a tiny restaurant, off the farm road that bisects the state highway that serves ribs, brisket, fried catfish — basically your quintessential Texas cuisine. Florida’s Kitchen uses recipes that were created by the wife of a colored farm worker in the segregated south — she cooked for her husband and his crew when they returned home. Eventually, she began selling meals out of the family’s shack. The family still runs the place, and smokes its meat in 14 foot long smokers that are grounded within a few feet of the door. It’s an eye-watering, but savory preview of the meal within.
It’s been expanded a few times, but is still far too small to handle huge rushes. I’ve been on a Sunday morning and waited hours to be seated — it was worth it, by the way. Part of this is simply the place’s capabilities. It’s basically a three room house converted into a restaurant. I think a large part of it is the small town mindset. People just move slower and take their time doing things. Drivers go 15 under the speed limit. Fast food takes 20 minutes in a drive thru. You learn to accept it.
I first ate at Florida’s when I was around 12 years old. I’ve eaten at Florida’s dozens of times. My father owned a lakehouse in Onalaska, TX (pop 700) that he purchased in the early 1990’s. He was forced to sell it after Enron when his retirement fund was cleaved approximately in half. I have driven more than 2 hours out of my way to eat there since then. The food has never disappointed, and it is the perfect introduction to small town Texas on Sundays. If any Texan here is driving from Houston up 59, take the time to stop by. It’s only about 5 minutes off the highway. It is a little under an hour from I-45 if you’re going from Houston to Dallas, and the drive there along with the food make the detour well worth it in either case.