Voucher programs and charter schools once again do worse for the same sets of students than plain old public schools. When will rightwingers show they care by defunding programs that consistently fail our kids?
Ha ha, I made a funny.
Archives for 2008
Is This Really All They Have
Clinton’s new ad is a joke:
Shouldn’t someone have told her that the “ominous serious voice” is more convincing if you don’t hire the voice actor who has done the trailers for every Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell movie?
Make Her Go Away
I can not take eight years of this:
The Texas Democratic Party warned Thursday that election night caucuses scheduled for Tuesday could be delayed or disrupted after aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton threatened to sue over the party’s complicated delegate selection process.
In a letter sent out late Thursday to both the Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns, Texas Democratic Party lawyer Chad Dunn warned a lawsuit could ruin the Democrats’ effort to re-energize voters just as they are turning out in record numbers.
Spokesmen for both campaigns said there were no plans to sue ahead of the March 4 election.
“It has been brought to my attention that one or both of your campaigns may already be planning or intending to pursue litigation against the Texas Democratic Party,” Dunn wrote in the letter, obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Such action could prove to be a tragedy for a reinvigorated Democratic process.”
Democratic sources said both campaigns have made it clear that they might consider legal options over the complicated delegate selection process, which includes both a popular vote and evening caucuses. But the sources made it clear that the Clinton campaign in particular had warned of an impending lawsuit.
“Both campaigns have made it clear that they would go there if they had to, but I think the imminent threat is coming from one campaign,” said one top Democratic official, referring to the Clinton campaign. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
Another Democratic official who was privy to the discussions confirmed Clinton representatives made veiled threats in a telephone call this week.
“Officials from Sen. Clinton’s campaign at several times throughout the call raised the specter of ‘challenging the process,’ ” the official said.
Queue the Hillbots to tell me this is just an anonymous smear against Hillary. The rest of us recognize this for what it is- an increasingly desparate Clinton campaign resorting to what they really understand- strong-arming people to get their way.
Paging Nelson Muntz
In retrospect it amazes me just how improbable the modern Republican coalition really was. Cooked up in the mix of interest groups who voted Republican from Reagan through Bush 2 are business cons who absolutely depend on illegal immigration and nativists who will never rest until they end it, you have fiercely anti-Catholic evangelicals and Catholic partisans. Some credit goes to the guy convinced imperialist big-government Trotskyite communists-turned-neoconservatives, Libertarians, panty-sniffing sex crusaders and William F. Buckley to pull the same lever for any meaningful period of time. The job called for some brilliant, evil sick fucks; too bad the GOP ran out of the brilliant kind.
For anyone who thinks that John McCain will bring back the old mojo, I suggest you start drinking now.
Things That Should Be More Common
As expected Scott Horton took a much closer look at the details behind the suspicious Alabama blackout of a 60 Minutes broadcast on the Don Siegelman prosecution. Unexpectedly, Horton disproved his hypothesis.
The key figure in the Oak Hill group is Robert M. Bass. His campaign donation profile shows that he has supported both Democrats and Republicans, but that his donations to Democrats far exceed those to Republicans. The complete five-year search can be examined here. Note specifically that he has never supported George W. Bush–either in his races for governor of Texas or president. Sid, Edward and Lee Bass, who have been heavy Bush supporters, do not appear to have any interest in Oak Hill Capital Partners. Consequently, the supposition that the blackout at WHNT was politically driven censorship on the part of the ultimate owners has no merit.
You don’t see that very often.
Open Thread
So it looks like the entire election is going to be a competition between the candidates to see who can denounce people the hardest and the fastest.
*** Update ***
Tagged
Quick, look around and grab the closest book to where you’re sitting. No scooting over to that unopened copy of Whitehead’s Function of Reason, cheater, just grab what’s nearby. Willing to say what it is?
Tom Levenson just tagged me with the “123” meme so it looks like I have no choice. My mission, should I choose to accept it:
* look up page 123 in the nearest book
* look for the fifth sentence
* then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123.
Tom appears to have put off answering until he could get closer to his copy of On The Origin of Species. Hmm. We’ll have to run that past the rules committee.
As for me, I’m still sitting right where I was when Tom tagged me at 3:00, so let’s see…uh oh. Right next to my MacBook is Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, fourth edition in paperback. What do you think is the likelihood that I will find three consecutive rules that I respect all the way through an average day of blogging? Me think odds not good. Lucky for me my copy ends at page 105.
Next closest is Les Âmes Grises by Philippe Claudel. I hope you speak French.
En définitive, Matziev, même si je l’ai connu quand il a tourné ordure, valait bien mieux que lui. Au moins, une fois dans sa vie, il n’a pas fait honte a sa qualité d’homme. Qui peut en dire autant?
For those who don’t speak romance languages like you should, I took advantage of AltaVista’s free online tool to translate the passage from French to German to English. Enjoy.
Finally, Matziev, even if I knew it, if it turned waste, were worth very better than it. At least once in its life RK it dishonor quality has its man quality. Who can say of it just as much?
Postmodern!
As for who to tag next, it’s a tough call; bloggers as a whole tend to be literate people with interesting perspectives. For various reasons I pick Fester, PZ Meyers and Jim Henley.
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