Bobby Fischer has died.
Archives for 2008
Captain Judgment Strikes Again
At this point it’s safe to say that Rudy Giuliani’s campaign won’t be sunk by any one scandal. There are just too many. His personal circle is comically bent – there’s a pedophile priest, a terrorist shiekh, a couple of cocaine traffickers, money launderers and Bernie Kerik. It’s like a post-millennial Legion of Doom. He rejected advice against putting his emergency coordination center in the most targeted site in New York, apparently to use it as a crash pad for illicit affairs that he was billing to the city. There’s the small matter of gear failures that killed firefighters on 9/11. He can’t open his mouth without lying.
With catastrophe, death, sex and corruption under Giuliani’s belt, today’s news almost seems like a yawner.
On the presidential campaign trail, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani often promotes the installation of electronic monitoring devices at the border to stem illegal immigration, without mentioning that until a few months ago, he was partner in a company trying to market such technology.
An optimist Republican thinks that Rudy! best represents the party in ’08. A pessimist Republican fears that might be true.
***Update***
Almost forgot Poland Grodd.
Then we could talk about Giuliani’s foreign policy team. Or, Chalabi-style, we could send a twice indicted two-bit exile con artist to swindle their money. The site could use some new servers.
Ch-ch-ch-changes
Sent in via email:
***Update***
For the sake of attribution, the clip was put together by an Aussie law student named Hugh Atkin, who has had some good press for political parody in his own hemisphere. Atkin’s YouTube ouvre is here; the vid that made the papers is here.
Little known fact – if association with our site flushes Hugh’s reputation, it won’t necessarily circle the drain counterclockwise. I know you were wondering.
Thursday Night Open Thread
You know what to do.
Great Moments in Race Relations
A Greeley businessman apologized Wednesday after a joke about Illinois Sen. Barack Obama fell flat during the National Western Stock Show’s annual Citizen of the West banquet.
William R. Farr was pretending to read telegrams congratulating this year’s award recipient, University of Colorado President Hank Brown, when he pulled out a piece of paper and said, “I have a telegram from the White House.”
Then he added, “They’re going to have to change the name of that building if Obama’s elected.”
Witnesses said they could hear people gasp in the ballroom of the Adam’s Mark Hotel.
“I gasped,” said Gov. Bill Ritter, who was sitting at the table with Farr.
I know it seems unfair, but you are allowed to make that joke when you look like this:
However, if you look like this, you just can’t get away with it:
William and Sharon Farr
As a side note, I would have paid to be in the audience for this to see the mortified reactions of people.
Fun With Numbers
I was commenting on another thread, and I took the time to research how bad the Republican Party’s record on electing African Americans really was. It’s far worse than I thought. In the last 110 years (in other words Post Reconstruction), there have been 4 elected black Republicans in Congress (5 if you count the non voting member of the US Virgin Islands). There are now 93 African American Republicans elected to office at all levels of government, from School Board Vice President to Mayor or State Senator. On the plus side, that’s up from 57 (I think) last time I checked. On the other hand, there are still so few African Americans representing the GOP’s elected preference that Red State would be able to treat every one of them to a steak dinner with their own bottle of Caymus (a restaurant will charge 2-3 times that by the way) for the amount of money they are asking.
Brought To You By The Department of Redundancy Department
Interesting article in the BBC about the subprime mess that is worth reading, but one phrase in particular stood out in the piece:
Some, such as Ron Todd, who lives in a suburb just south of the city, are in danger of losing their home after being made redundant by Northwest Airlines, a big local employer.
Is being made redundant a new euphemism, like being “downsized,” or is this just a British thing that I never picked up on?
Brought To You By The Department of Redundancy DepartmentPost + Comments (54)