Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Books are my comfort food!

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

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

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

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

In my day, never was longer.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

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Archives for 2009

Saturday Open Thread

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I see you all have been left alone and are getting restless. Sorry about that- I watched Monk (Sharona returned!) and then that new show White Collar last night, and just called it a night. I’ve been doing the various Saturday morning chores before gam eday and honestly forgot about the website for a change.

BTW- that new show White Collar is going to be a lot of fun, and once again, it reminded me of how many shows over the years I have really enjoyed from the USA netword:

Monk
Psych
Burn Notice
the Dead Zone
the 4400
Royal Pains
In Plain Sight

And on and on. You can add White Collar to the list. I don’t know if it is just a matter that I’m just the right demographic that USA is shooting for, but I seem to like an awful lot of their programming. Far more quality shows on USA than any other traditional network.

At any rate, I hope your team wins.

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Speaking of Windows 7

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Following the advice of too many readers to name, I wrote this post on a Toshiba Netbook running Win7. After removing the crapware and installing Google Chrome and MalwareBytes the tiny computer runs quite smoothly. A system like this will not power the next Pixar movie, but for office tasks and internet surfing, even image-heavy sites like flickr, the system honestly runs just as fast as any other computer that I have used.

Win 7 unquestionably works better out of the box than Vista, at least on a new machine (sorry, John), and several people have told me that it even benchmarks a little faster than XP. On the other hand Redmond made the weird decision to bundle a crippled version of Win7 (“starter”) that will not do ordinary things like play a DVD movie unless you pay for a $79 upgrade. The decision makes some sense since you cannot use DVDs at all without buying a separate external drive, but it still feels like a dick move.

Battery life looks like a high point. A test similar to what Walt Mossberg does* suggests that the 6-cell battery should weather more than seven hours of continuous use. God knows how long it will run in Toshiba’s proprietary “eco mode”. For those who need to know, Toshiba took a hint from Prius and tossed in meters that can measure savings in units ranging from processor power to amusing trifles like grams of carbon.

Overall the netbook seems like a well thought out niche product for people like me who travel professionally and don’t need to play Crysis on the plane.

(*) Internet radio streaming through itunes, surfing the net with Chrome, OpenOffice running, no sleep for the screen or processor, medium sound volume and screen brightness.

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Stopped clock

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Mickey Kaus, of all people, has one of the best takes on Obama v. Fox that I’ve seen:

I think Fox is also not neutral (which, again, doesn’t bother me) but it’s also not independent (which does). This isn’t because it’s owned by Rupert Murdoch–moguls are, typically among the more independent sorts. It’s because it’s run by Roger Ailes. I have zero faith that Ailes is independent of the Republican party or, specifically, those Republicans who have occupied the White House recently–the Bushes. As I said, I think if Karl Rove called Ailes in 2003 and said “We don’t want so much coverage of X” it’s extremely likely that X would not be covered on Fox. A … suggestive example of Fox’s loyalty is the debate on immigration, in which Ailes’ network initially seemed to try valiantly–against the beliefs of most of its audience–to push the Bush White House line in favor of “comprehensive” legalization (while brushing aside its viewers’ views).

It’s certainly possible, in theory, to have a faux news organization that pretends to be an ordinary, ideologically biased journalistic outlet but that, at the top, is actually taking orders from Moscow, or from Kennebunkport. That news organization might have lots of viewers and money and White House press passes and some great on-air correspondents–it’s not as if you could rip off their masks to uncover the alien underneath, like in V. ABC’s Jake Tapper would refer to it as “one of our sister organizations.” But that’s not what, ultimately, it would be about. It would be different in nature, just like Organizing For America would be different in nature if it decided to buy some cameras and cable time and start reporting the news.

As if one cue, there are report that Republicans want Roger Ailes to run for president:

“Ailes knows how to frame an issue better than anybody, and that’s what we need now,” said one friend of the he Fox founder, chairman and CEO.

Frank Luntz, the well-known Republican pollster, said Ailes would be a force if he made the run.

“I have known Roger Ailes for 29 years,” says Luntz. “No one knows how to win better than Roger.”

There’s really not much else to say. Fox News is run by a Lee Atwater protege who Republicans see as a possible 2012 Republican candidate for president.

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The Right Answer

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This is exactly the right answer:

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had a blunt response on Friday to the latest broadsides from former Vice President Dick Cheney: “Who cares?”

In the latest exchange between old and new administrations, Mr. Biden rebuffed his predecessor’s criticism about President Obama’s handling of Afghanistan as “absolutely wrong.” And Mr. Biden rejected the last review of the war conducted by the White House under former President George W. Bush and Mr. Cheney as “irrelevant.”

They had their eight years, and their record speaks for itself. Why the hell the beltway media still have their lips planted on Cheney’s behind is beyond me, but Biden got this exactly right. The answer to any question involving Dick Cheney’s policy opinions is “WHO CARES?” And that goes double for his idiot daughter.

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Weird Stuff

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I honestly have no idea what is causing this, but my computer is now making odd noises for no reason whatsoever. Every now and then there is a piercing cat screech, sometimes there is someone hitting a single key on a piano and singing “meow,” etc.

And no, I am not losing my mind.

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