Sometimes, when you aren’t paying attention, you can reach for your dog whistle and accidentally grab your bullhorn. I just hate it when that happens.
In all seriousness, I really, honestly hope that was a typo and supposed to be “pomp.”
*** Update ***
Behave yourselves in the comments. Yes, there is all sorts of clever wordplay you can engage in, but then you just sink to their level.
And why the hell do you all make me keep restating this?
smiley
Nope. She meant pimp. Like the title.
Mazacote Yorquest
We’re the juggernaut, bitch.
Capelza Gradenko
Michelle is just gelus!
And a mean little twat….did I mean to say twit?
TheFountainHead
That c**t possibly be what she meant to say.
Porco Rosso
I looked around youtube yesterday but couldn’t find the shots of Bush (would he have had his Presidential seal cowboy boots on?) and Ricky Martin dancing back in 2001.
Now that was some pompin’
harlana pepper
Mmm, nope. Considering her flock, I have no doubts about that. The "oh so hilarious" pimp analogies have been all over the place down here.
sgwhiteinfla
I am really, honestly hoping that was snark. If not, you haven’t been paying attention.
Laura W
@Porco Rosso: Did you see the slide show on HuffPo?
Mazacote Yorquest
I find her insinuations quite distasteful, and far from unintentional.
Zifnab
Sometimes you just want to play in the mud.
Can we just start calling her Michelle Malkintent?
Krista
Oh John. Poor, sweet John. You DO realize who you’re talking about, right? This is a woman with less grace and class than a $2 streetwalker in a meth rage.
Balconesfault
Huh … what a shock. The media bloviation about the cost of Obama’s inaugural costs are largely smoke and mirrors from the same guys who did their best to excuse or ignore all the excesses of the Bush years.
Quaker in a Basement
John, your capacity for charity is impressive.
GSD
Ah the bitter enders. Raging about BDS while they have been running every freakish rumor about Obama up the flagpole for 2 years running now.
What a pathetic and desperate pack of asswipes.
They are now the laughing stocks and they know it. The best thing is to laugh loudly and in their face.
Over and over again. Whenever they run this bullshit out in public they should be loudly and roundly mocked.
Over and over.
Enjoy festivities, remember some of that confetti is wingnut brains exploding.
-GSD
Krista
Because we have only slightly more class than Michelle does. The only saving grace is that unlike her, we’re not bat-shit insane.
harlana pepper
Oh, and here, the right-wing is claiming Obama’s inauguration expense eclipses Bush’s by about $120,000. However, they’re leaving off the cost of security for Bush’s bash but adding it onto the Obama inaugural price tag. If security costs were taken off the figure they are spewing, the cost would be around the same as Bush’s.
Brick Oven Bill
One of my biggest pet peeves is people who mock Creationists, and then argue that evolution magically stopped 30,000 years ago.
I know, or at least hope, that Obama is much smarter than some of those lily-white co-workers I have encountered through the years. This is highly likely because of Obama’s high level of political achievement, and the nature of normal distributions, and the circles in which I have traveled.
Michelle is over the line. The office needs to be respected. But she does have a point about the spending, which is triple what Bush was criticized for. He really would have won me over if the inauguration was done quietly, at no public expense. That would have been one for the history books.
Incertus
@Krista: And because, at heart, we’re all twelve and can’t help ourselves. We’re smart twelve year olds, but we still love fart jokes.
R-Jud
Speaking of typos, "I hate it when then happens", too, John.
@Incertus: Benjamin Franklin loved fart jokes, too. This is what I tell people whenever they get annoyed with mine.
sgwhiteinfla
Results for the word "pimp" when you put it in the search engine for
the self hating clap trap’sMalkin’s own websitehttp://michellemalkin.com/?s=pimp
Porco Rosso
@Laura W:
Yep.
Hmmm.
I wonder if they could have the "Dance with Ricky Martin’s Hologram" experience at the G.W. Bush Presidential libary.
AkaDad
It’s outrageous to hear someone call Michelle Obama the First Ho. You can’t do that while we’re fighting a war on terror!
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
Well done, sir…. well done. That’s a keeper.
Balconesfault
@Brick Oven Bill:
bzzt – see what you get for not reading alternative media, and instead just relying on the "liberal mainstream media" for your facts?
Sure. What we REALLY needed was no security, and a terrorist attack on Washington right after Obama was sworn in, so wingnuts could spend the next 4 years talking about how Obama failed to protect America.
Captain Goto
BOB, as usual, is about 30 million years behind on his propaganda. See, Cf., Balconesfault at #12.
If he wasn’t a vapid spewer of lie-ridden talking points, he would know this. But this is, of course, probably too much to expect…
Keith
I was shocked to find out today that Malkin actually supports the use of "entertainment camps" in wartime.
R-Jud
@Porco Rosso:
A "Find the WMD!" scavenger hunt.
Tony J
"Comment 17, I’d like you to meet Comment 16. Comment 16, could you repeat what you just said, please? Comment 17 has been listening to the MSM so his cognitive-tinnitus is playing up something woeful."
AkaDad
I don’t appreciate you speaking for me.
Beej
@Brick Oven Bill: May I suggest that you read the comment just before yours?
Conservatively Liberal
Fix’t.
Michelle Malkinoma is an ugly, small person with a big mouth and no brain to back it up. Once an ugly cheerleader, always an ugly cheerleader.
John PM
O/T slightly, but still related to the Inauguration: I am now firmly with Andrew Sullivan on the anti-Bono bandwagon after U2’s "performance" the the inauguration event yesterday. My wife and I were mocking him incessantly during his two songs. I think he kept forgetting the words to "In the Name of Love." What a pretentious f-ck. After he made the comment about freedom being a Palestinian dream, I though Obama was going to have the Secrete Service take Bono out.
P.S. – Back on topic – Malkin meant to say pimp, because she has no class or redeaming social skills.
Chuck
Why can’t republicans stop crying and whining? Aren’t they supposed to be the tough guys?
John Cole
You win.
gypsy howell
O/T, but what’s the over-under on the Bush pardons tomorrow morning?
On the one hand, I can see Bush issuing the biggest pre-emptive blanket pardon in the history of presidential pardons. Everyone ever associated with him gets off scot-free. The mass pardon would include him pardoning himself. ("He can’t do that!" America will screech. "Screw you America, watch this signature. " Bush will reply. )
But then on the other hand, I could also see, in the ultimate dickish move to his friends, not pardoning anyone but himself. "Ha! Suck on it, c*cksuckers!"
Leeds man
@Brick Oven Bill:
One of my biggest pet peeves is people who mock Creationists, and then argue that evolution magically stopped 30,000 years ago.
One of your biggest pet peeves is a group of non-existent people? You poor fellow.
Leeds man
Brick Oven Bill, one of your biggest pet peeves is a non-existent group of people? You poor fellow.
Rosali
Ricky Martin became very critical of Bush and of the war and he wrote a song that references that inauguration photo with Bush. When he sang that line in concerts, he would give Bush the finger and the crowds would cheer.
Balconesfault
@gypsy howell: On the one hand, I can see Bush issuing the biggest pre-emptive blanket pardon in the history of presidential pardons.
harlana pepper
Again, regarding the cost of the inauguaration, read Eric Boehlert.
demimondian
@Krista: Beat me to it.
C’mon, John, you know, intellectually, that we on the left are no better than the cretins on the right; we just have a different set of shibboleths. Take that fact, and think about its conclusions — I’m not a whit more moral than Michelle Malkin, and if I pretend to be, then I’m a liar. I mean, seriously — Meteor Blades versus Michelle Malkin…tough call.
blogenfreude
Malkin is a sociopath. Really. You could look it up.
Crusty Dem
Nope, just throwing some
red meathorse bits at thepaste-eatersumm, paste-eaters .Xenos
Where are the damn pardons, anyway? Doesn’t someone have to type them up and serve them on the pardonees to make them effective? By now the staff have mostly cleared out their desks and gone home.
Or does Bush think that he retains the right to pardon people after he leaves office? That would be less kooky than some of the other legal claims coming out of this administration.
We don’t even have rumors on Drudge at this point — WTF?
anonevent
demimondian, Does it make us more or less moral since we actually know that we’re no better than those on the right?
Balconesfault
Now there’s an interesting question.
If I recall from the earlier Bush pardon kerfuffle, the pardon can be rescinded until it has been accepted.
How fast could Obama rescind some pardons that get announced at the 11th hour and not processed in time?
John PM
@gypsy howell: #35
@Xenos: #44
I have thought about the pardons for a while now, and have come to the conclusions that the pardons will be marked classified under the State Secrets Privilege. If prosecutions look likely, the various members of the Bush Administration will file a motion with the appropriate court/tribunal and seek to have the pardons reviewed in camera because the pardons contain sensitive information regarding the participants roles in the War on Terror, etc. There is nothing in the president’s power to pardon that says that a request for a pardon, or a pardon itself, needs to be made public. I think such an approach would be in keeping with Bush’s style of "governing" for the last eight years.
BC
Brick Oven Bob – I know this will come as a big shock to you, and I hope you can take it – but Obama doesn’t give a shit about what you think about the Inauguration. Nor does anybody in the Democratic party, any of the X Million of people who voted for Obama, anybody on this thread – get the picture? No one values your esteem, your good will, your being "won over." In fact, I for one hope that Obama NEVER, EVER in the next 4 years does anything you can approve of.
Rosali
Bush can pardon them but the criminals could still be subject to prosecutions for war crimes or violations of the Geneva conventions in international courts if they travelled abroad.
Comrade Darkness
She shoulda said "pimp and circumcision". If you’re not going to make any sense, you might as well retain meter AND alliteration.
Mazacote Yorquest
Which would @BC: @BC:
In other words, BC hopes that Obama does the worst possible thing in every situation.
Thus do the bat-shit right wingers become Leninists.
Zifnab
Bush rode into office promising to cut government waste, roll back pork barrel spending, and return us to the limited government envisioned by the strict-Constructionist founding fathers.
He then proceeded to sign off on every boondoggle corrupt mess Congress could dream up while pissing away hundreds of billions in the Middle East on mismanaged and largely useless foreign wars.
Obama rode into the economic and political landfill Bush left in his wake and announced a plan to increase government spending to revitalize the economy.
So, to recap, Bush entered office promising to decrease government spending from Clinton Era levels and increased spending several times over. Obama entered office promising to increase government spending from Bush Era levels and so far he hasn’t spent a day in office, so its hard to tell if he’s lying (but from the bills headed to the White House, probably not).
The differences between the America of Obama in ’09 and Bush in ’01are vast. The political climate has come a full 180 degrees. But the base fact is that Bush is still a lying sack of shit and Obama hasn’t been shown either way. Conservatives abandoned Bush BECAUSE he was a lying sack of shit. Not because he ran up the budget. If he’d been honest with his budgetary intent, I question whether they would have voted for him to begin with.
Yeah, really. Now that he’s been elected, why can’t he just sit down, shut the fuck up, and fix everything? Who the hell does he think he is, anyway? The fucking President? Fuck that guy.
demimondian
@anonevent: That’s a really good question. I’d lean towards "less moral", but I’m open to being convinced otherwise.
Brick Oven Bill
I have been duly criticized for quoting a figure that Obama’s inauguration is three times as expensive as Bush’s was. This is legitimate criticism. I have since read Malkin’s charge and Digby’s defense, and come to the conclusion that I do not know how much Bush’s inauguration cost, but I think I know how much Obama is spending, which seems to be $160 million.
This is why I said that if he cancelled the whole damn thing and was sworn in quietly, perhaps in a televised ceremony from the Oval Office with his family, that cost maybe five hundred bucks, he would have won me over.
Deborah
Or does Bush think that he retains the right to pardon people after he leaves office? That would be less kooky than some of the other legal claims coming out of this administration.
This would be truly awesome.
Yet I could see him not pardoning anyone not in jail on the theory that history would show they were in the right.
Nina Totenberg had an excellent analysis of Dick Cheney’s role in the administration last week. I’m sure Dick gets the need to pardon everyone in sight, but will W, confident in his rightness, listen to Dick?
The secret pardons is an interesting hypothesis to screw things up for years to come. Appropriate. Anyone with appropriate legal background hanging in the thread? I’d think secret pardons would have been used in a thriller if that was an option.
maya
Why is Malkin so upset about an Obama presidency? Does she not see the golden opportunities ahead which only she can realize with her unique and capable talents: Trailing and trashing Sacha and Malia?
Maybe the Secret Service hump has her temporarily Stymied.
demimondian
@Brick Oven Bill: In other words, you didn’t go read the Media Matters site you were pointed to. Ignorance is strength, eh, Eric?
Chuck
Does BOB even read this site? I’m pretty sure he’s just a troll regurgitating talking points who comes back only to check the flame level.
plus C
I might be missing something, but is there any precedent for preemptive pardons that suggests Bush could actually do it, or is this just more bluffing like with his trail of signing statements?
Brick Oven Bill
I note that I had previously speculated that Hillary was behind the scale of the inauguration, when presented with the assertion that Barack and Michelle had ‘toned it down’. This speculation is making more and more sense to me.
Washington DC is a very mean place. Money does not care. Interest is still being compounded on this national holiday.
demimondian
@Brick Oven Bill: No, the right wing noise machine is behind the scale of the inauguration. And you’re doing your usual pimping of This Week’s Lie.
Go away, Nazi-Boy.
jenniebee
@Brick Oven Bill: You wouldn’t mind Obama being president, as long as people didn’t make such a big deal out of it and shove it in your face this way?
Balconesfault
Given that 2/3 of the cost of the inaugural seems related to security, I can already hear the attacks from the right wing.
"Obama signalled to the terrorists that America is a diminished nation, willing to abandon traditions that once signalled our greatness, instead hiding behind a desk in the Oval Office from the scary world outside."
We’ve already had a string of right wing "damned if you do, damned if you don’t" traps laid by the right in the last couple months (my favorite was trying to bait Obama into responding to the Gaza crisis as if he were already POTUS). Unfortunately for the right, Obama’s far far smarter than any Republican who has been elected Prez in the last 100 years, and doesn’t have the ego of Clinton.
MikeJ
plus C, Cap Weinberger was pardoned before he went to trial, but he had been indicted.
And duh, I can’t believe I forgot Nixon. Never tried or indicted.
harlana pepper
Uh-gain:
"For instance, here’s The Washington Post from January 20, 2005, addressing the Bush bash:
The $40 million does not include the cost of a web of security, including everything from 7,000 troops to volunteer police officers from far away, to some of the most sophisticated detection and protection equipment.
For decades, that represented the norm in terms of calculating inauguration costs: Federal dollars spent on security were not part of the commonly referred-to cost. (The cost of Obama’s inauguration, minus the security costs? Approximately $45 million.)"
Lee from NC
@plus C:
Do you mean, can he pardon people who have not even been charged with a crime? The answer is yes. There’s a really famous example with Ford/Nixon.
Zifnab
@Brick Oven Bill:
Or, you know, you could rate him on his social programs, his economic policy, his foreign and diplomatic efforts, and his ability to respond to the conflicting needs and desires of the American people.
But, you know, judging a man on how much money he spends on his inauguration is just as good. I mean, when I voted for Obama for President, I really only did it because John McCain had seven houses. Everything else struck me as kinda trivial.
slag
Because we’re desperate for attention, and acting out is how we get it. For example: Michelle Malkin is unAmerican for not supporting the President.
@demimondian: Morality is inversely related to self-awareness? Awesome…uh I mean…Disturbing!
Rosali
I was listening to a fascinating interview by Terry Gross (Fresh Air) last week. She was talking to Philippe Sands, author of the book "Torture Team" and a professor of law at University College London, where he directs the Centre for International Courts and Tribunals.
He put forth a compelling argument that Bush pardons could actually be more dangerous for Cheney, Yoo, Addington, Rumsfeld, et al.
In a nutshell, he said that all countries (the US included) that signed the Geneva Conventions have an obligation to investigate and prosecute violations. If Bush pardons the team, he signals to the international community that the U.S. will not investigate and prosecute and the other countries now have increased pressure/incentive to do their own investigations. It may be in Bush’s interest to let the US do some kind of Truth and Reconciliation thing that the other countries could point to to try to get out of the burden of prosecuting high US government officials.
TheFountainHead
Tunch’s health?
demimondian
@slag: Morality is lessened by self-aware misbehavior. If I *know* I have a certain flaw, and indulge it anyway, that’s a more immoral act that indulging the flaw unreasoningly.
(In fact, the formal is a mortal sin, the latter, not. But that would bring in Incertus, which is always a bad idea.)
Lee from NC
Also too, this inauguration thingamabob is not some giant Obama dinner party. This is a celebration of the Greatest Nation on Earth © peaceably turning over power. I would think that even conservatives wouldn’t begrudge spending a few paltry million on that. Especially not after lining their pockets for years with tax cuts for the wealthy, blah blah blah.
John S.
No, you were criticized for quoting a figure that isn’t based on reality and when offered evidence to that effect gleefully ignore it and continue to beat a horse that only isn’t dead by virtue of the fact that it never existed to begin with.
slag
@demimondian: Nonetheless, the conclusion remains: One way to increase the morality quotient is to decrease the intelligence quotient.
MikeJ
Obama had the train ride in, the concert yesterday, a jillion people wandering around on the mall right now and 2million plus expected tomorrow.
In spite of all of this, his inauguration is costing the same as Bush’s. Why couldn’t the republicans get more bang for their buck? Did they hire Haliburton to do their inauguration?
demimondian
@slag: Nope — one way to reduce immorality is to increase stupidity. Morality requires acting well, even against the temptation to do otherwise.
sparky
a. MM is the knuckledragger’s Coulter.
b. the point about pardons and war crimes is well taken. if Bush pardons everyone, then i would expect someone in the EU to indict Addington. i think he’s the most likely sacrificial err thug.
Scott H
Not even remotely possible.
shortstop
Wouldn’t Team Bush just process (deliver) them before announcing them? They’re really good at learning from their mistakes, after all.
Terri
Shorter BOB: If he would just quietly take his seat at the back of the bus….
Ella in NM
@Brick Oven Bill:
The problem with your thinking is that the events surrounding this inauguration are more than just about aggrandizing Obama, as you seem to infer. We are celebrating what this election means, on so many obvious levels, to us as a nation.
It’s one big party for US. Lighten up, sourpuss.
slag
@demimondian: Too. Many. Double. Negatives.
Whatevs. If we control for Behavior, treat Intelligence as the independent variable, and treat Morality as the dependent variable, then I’m still right. And really, that’s all that matters to me.
BTW This post was kinda tongue-in-cheek.
TenguPhule
Let me guess, BOB expected McCain would have been sworn in on a golfcart in one of his homes?
TenguPhule
Except BOB, they only exist in your head as straw.
We see evolution in action every day.
See Cold, Common.
demimondian
@slag: Nope — in a modal logic, the middle is not excluded. You’re assuming that (moral == !(immoral)), which is not true.
Xenos
Ding, Ding! Here we go. The two murderous border guards just got commuted.
Après ça, le Déluge!
sus
Hey John,
I stayed up and watched the Lincoln Memorial concert last night. It’s online. Seems you can now view it anytime… and, unlike when it was broadcast, you can use the fast-forward button should you wish to.
So… if you missed it, you can see it here. (took a minute to load for me.)
http://www.hbo.com/weareone/webcast/index.html
For your readers who were most interested in seeing Pete Seeger, he closed the concert. Obama’s speech, then Seeger, et. al.
Enjoy.
kay
Oh, screw these people. Really.
140 years black people have been waiting for this, Democrats have been waiting 8, and the sanctimonious prigs on the Right have to whine throughout the whole thing.
Bush spent 115 million on security for his 2004 Inauguration ceremony.
You know what? There’s something important about a US President carrying on despite a possible threat. This idea that Obama’s supposed to hunker down and hide to save on security costs is ridiculous.
4 years ago conservatives would have said suggesting the President alter plans due to a possible threat was "giving in to terrorists". All of a sudden they’re cost-conscious on security.
KDP
@72, @73
Good points. Personally, I donated towards defraying the cost of the inauguration and appreciate that the PIC has made public the names of all donors who gave > $200.
http://www.pic2009.org/donors
Given all that the public for whom this event is held are getting for the money spent, I think it’s a bargain.
If physical attendees at the inauguration itself is 2m people, then the cost per attendee at $150m is $75. At 3m, the cost goes down to $50. The greater the number of people who attend, the lower the cost per head.
In comparison, Bush’s 2005 inauguration which cost about the same works out to $500/head for the 300k attendees.
Considering dollar amount spent versus value provided to all attendees for dollars spent and this inauguration is a much better deal for the taxpayers. This inauguration is deliberately planned to be accessible to as many people as are willing to stand in a huge crowd in bitter cold so that they can feel that they are participating in the peaceable exchange of power.
and….
why does a small brown person feel that it is right and appropriate to inveigh against other small brown people?
Never mind, I realize there is no rational answer to that last.
Tomorrow, Bush is gone and we can hope that, over the next four years, we begin to achieve the objective of a future in which our country’s international reputation and economic stability are restored.
kay
@sus:
Thanks so much. I hadn’t planned to watch it, but if conservatives think it’s a waste of time and money it’s probably vitally important I sit down and do that.
Laura W
Lou Dobbs just came.
sus
Kay,
It had something for everyone. I didn’t know some of the entertainers, cuz i’m stuck in a time warp. I should have just watched it today (with the FF button) instead of the encore last night. Except that my computer is old, and memory is always an issue. (both computer memory, and realtime life memory.)
I did get a little misty when Seeger took the stage.
So, do your duty, watch the thing.
Indylib
There are some really nice moments in the concert – my favorite is when Garth Brooks waves at Sasha and Malia – teh cute was almost overwhelming.
slag
@demimondian: Fair enough, but all of these qualifiers are going to be hard to quantify.
smiley
@Laura W: Just heard on Fox News radio that these will be the last 2 acts of clemency. There will be no more. So, Ted Stevens, Duke Cunningham, Scooter Libby, too bad.
Zuzu's Petals
@Indylib:
I kept imagining they were looking at most of the performers and wondering, "Who ARE these geezers?"
Springsteen a geezer…aren’t we all.
Balconesfault
Ich bin ein geezer.
At least as of next month, when I roll over 50.
gil mann
I dunno who the first guy is, but yeah, it’s nice that Common has sworn off using homophobic taunts in his lyrics.
Zuzu's Petals
Compare:
GWB concert, Jan. 2001
Laura W
@smiley: Are you confident that today is the day to start trusting what they say, smiley?
smiley
@Laura W: I report, you decide. Actually I don’t necessarily trust them but the half-hourly Fox radio news updates are usually played pretty straight (they only have 2-3 minutes at a time).
TheHatOnMyCat
Well, there go a few brain cells I can never get back.
Face
Ruh-roh.
Michelle Malkin is a wonderful person.
Crusty Dem
Zuzu, great link. Answers the question of "What if they had an inauguration and nobody came?". How could they have spent $100 million on that?
For all the wingnutters in rage over Obama’s inauguration being expensive, just recognize that if we broke it down on a $/person basis, it’ll be about 1% as expensive as W’s…
Crusty Dem
@Laura
.
And Michelle Malkin gets that tingly feeling in her hated areas, South of the Border she gets when she hears of brown people suffering, accuses a liberal of treason, or runs over a squirrel.
fmbJo
And here’s to all those far-leftists who predicted Bush and Chaney would perform some sort of hoo doo and stay on after the 20th. YOU WERE Crazy. Now join the rest of us and get a life.
Blue Raven
@jenniebee:
A thing of beauty is a joy forever. This comment is one such thing.
MikeJ
Damn. Look at that line up from 2001 and compare it to yesterday’s:
2001: Brooks and Dunn, Charlotte Church, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sandi Patti, Jon Secada, Wayne Newton, Marilyn McCoo.
2009: Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, U2, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher, Shakira, , James Taylor, will.i.am, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder.
demimondian
@Blue Raven: Word.
Jenniebee, I bow down before you in abject awe.
Surreal American
@fmbJo:
Not to get technical or anything, but it’s not Tuesday yet and I won’t believe I’ve truly seen the last of Bush & Cheney until they actually leave. Even then, I would urge the Obama staff to count the silverware after Team Bush’s departure.
gwangung
2009>>>>>>>>>>>>2001
with those two names alone.
sus
Great link Zuzu.
You can compare with HuffPo’s slideshow from yesterday.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/18/lincoln-memorial-inaugura_n_158905.html
Zuzu's Petals
@Crusty Dem:
To be fair, the weather was extra crappy. But I don’t know how that explains the pathetic talent lineup.
Plus, if it were today, you’d still have a couple of hundred thou just showing up with umbrellas.
smiley
@MikeJ: And tonight for Sasha, Malia, and children of military families, Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Bros., whoever they are.
Zuzu's Petals
@MikeJ:
Don’t forget Ricky Martin.
NonWonderDog
@TenguPhule:
I don’t believe you people haven’t figured this one out from Throw’em in Ovens Bill. He’s referring to his racist belief that white people are "more evolved" than the black people they split from 30,000 years ago. He is criticizing those people who object to creationism but are not racist. This is actually a pretty common thread amongst the white supremacist crowd.
I don’t think you need me to point out the gross errors of science and logic inherent in this belief.
Zuzu's Petals
@smiley:
A geezer-free concert!
They must feel they’ve earned that like they’ve earned their puppy.
Sean
@demimondian: Really – Malkin v. Meteor Blades? I read his post today, and yesterday, and they were both totally sane. Find me two days in a row where Malkin doesn’t spew ignorance and hate and I will give you a prize.
I do not recall MB advocating for immigrant prison camps either – that is a sign of Malkin being a totalitarian freak. Outside the main stream. Both sides of the street are not equivalent. Right wingers always advocate ceding freedom for a whiff of security – see where I’m going?
demimondian
@Sean: Um, Sean? You must have read different columns than I read. The two you list are quite obscene, from his anti-rationalist views on energy, to his pro-hypocrisy views on national security.
Crusty Dem
@Zuzu: I know, but you’d think people who’d traveled from across the country would at least show up. You know, those good, honest, regular folks that rioted in Florida to stop the recount. Technically, I think they’re called lobbyists.
robertdsc
Gold-plated win.
Comrade Darkness
@smiley: "And tonight for Sasha, Malia, and children of military families, Miley Cyrus …. whoever they are."
Remember the pain of achy breaky heart? The all out assault on music sensibility? The bad fashion line dancing, stomping with so many cheap cowboy boots in a zombie parade? … well, he spawned a young-un. Yup. The mind reels.
Brick Oven Bullshit
Damn that Franklin Roosevelt! He shoulda kept Eleanor at home where she belonged. She was the one went out and found the coloreds. We didn’t know they was there!
libarbarian
In all fairness "o" and "i" are adjacent on a keyboard.
I think Occam’s Razor would argue for cutting Malkin some slack on this one.
Brick Oven Bill
Wow. You know you hit a nerve when…
I was incorrect though. The local government say their combined costs ‘could exceed’ $75 million. The federal government is $49 million, for a total of ‘more than’ $124 million in tax payer money. So let’s figure $135 million in taxpayer money.
Team Obama (the one that says that it believes Geithner, the future Treasury Secretary, paid his 2003-04 taxes but didn’t realize the 2001-02 ones were due until they told him in 2008) claims that their budget is:
"We have a budget of roughly $45 million, maybe a little bit more,”
So let’s figure $51 million. So our new estimate is $180 million, not the $160 million previously stated. I’ll still take the under.
One other fun fact: Clinton capped individual donations at $100 for his second inaugural; Obama’s cap is $50,000. $50,000 should buy one nice trick.
Steve V
Re pardons: seems to me that it could be useful to keep legal jeopardy hanging over all the possible defendants/witnesses. If Obama or some other federal committee decide the best route is to do some kind of investigation first then worry about prosecution (which seems likely), then the 5th amendment helps ensure that the minimum amount of useful information comes out of that investigation. They probably don’t really have to worry about prosecution in any event, so keeping legal jeopardy out there, even if it’s just theoretical, does bring the benefit of allowing maximum secrecy to continue.