I have been slacking on the pet photos, and they are starting to stack up, so here are a few:
Claim your pets.
Archives for 2009
Good Luck Silencing the Haters
Via TNC, this list of the top ten Super Bowl drives of all time from CHFF:
3. Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh, Super Bowl XLIII
Final score: Pittsburgh 27, Arizona 23
Big Ben’s legend-making drive began with a holding penalty that moved the ball back from the 22 to the 12. Roethlisberger then accounted for all 88 yards, passing for 84 and running for 4, ending the drive with a gorgeous pass over the heads of three defenders and into the hands of Santonio Holmes, who tip-tapped his feet in the end zone before falling out of bounds. It was a picture-perfect toss that capped a drive that will forever be remembered as Roethlisberger’s signature moment, and a pass that silenced once and for all the Big Ben doubters.
It won’t silence them here, just posting this will cause the Big Ben haters to come out of the woodwork, and on top of that, I will get called a “sore winner.” Whatever- I wave my terrible towel in their general direction.
That Will Leave A Mark
Sullivan laughs at a Captain Ed quote, but misses the better quote:
First, the Republicans need to re-establish credibility as the party of fiscal responsibility, and supporting Porkulus is antithetical to that effort. No matter how big a tent the Republicans need to pitch, they still need to stand for core values — and among them should be fiscal responsibility and smaller government for greater individual liberty. Porkulus fails on both counts, which is why the House GOP maintained a solid wall of opposition to it. Specter, Snowe, and Collins apparently don’t share those values.
About those core values- how well are they holding up to the test of time? Not very well, it seems. A couple graphs:
And none of these graphs include the violence done to the budget in the last year of the Bush administration. Long story short- even during the years of Republican Jesus Ronald Reagan, Republicans were never “fiscal conservatives.” It took me some time to come to terms with it, too, because I deified Reagan with the best of them and still have my ‘Peace Through Stregnth’ buttons from the 80’s, but you just can’t argue with the facts.
And just because I am full of spite and like to rub things in, let me point to this:
I find it amazing that the Republicans who doubled the debt of the country in eight years and produced no new jobs doing it, gave us an economic record that was totally bereft of any productive result are now criticizing him for spending money. You know, I’m a fiscal conservative, I balanced the budget, I ran surpluses.
That was Bill Clinton, aka the Clenis. That should leave a mark. The Republican response to their utter failure? To run around hollering “porkulus” and releasing Aerosmith videos.
The Ideas Party
Ross Douthat and David Frum wonder if the GOP is hopeless, and in the mean time, Republian Minority Whip Harry Ellis Eric Cantor releases the following celebratory youtube video (with a rock beat from those hip young guys at Aerosmith) announcing that the House GOP is Back!:
It might be worth rewatching that SNL skit I posted yesterday. At any rate, say it with me:
Permanent. Republican. Majority.
*** Update ***
I am reminded in the comments that I was begging for Cantor to get a leadership position in October because I knew the joy it would bring.
The lede and how to swing it
Amy Sullivan’s piece on the 2010 census has a big picture of Judd Gregg at the top and begins:
When Republican Senator Judd Gregg announced on Thursday that he no longer wished to be the Commerce Secretary nominee, he said that the decision was based in part on serious disagreements with the Obama White House over the 2010 census.
It ends:
And Gregg himself backed off the issue in a news conference after he announced his withdrawal, insisting that his concerns over the census were “slight” and refusing to address it further. Nonetheless, the experience has reminded partisans on the left and the right of their investment in the census. The fight to determine how it happens and what the consequences will be has only just begun.
Shorter Amy Sullivan:
The role of the census issue in Gregg’s withdrawl is a red herring and I admit it. Nonetheless, I decided to lede lead with it to sex up a boring he-said, she-said column about a statistical issue I don’t understand.
This really, really bothers me. If the census wasn’t an issue for Gregg, then why the fuck do you lede lead by suggesting it was? How is that not the kind of thing that would get you an “F” in Journalism 101? And why did her editors let it in and then make things worse by putting a big picture of Gregg biting his lip at the top of the article?
Blast From the Past
I was just going through the spam filter during lunch (joy of joys), and I found a comment signed “Dash Riprock.” This has nothing to do about anything, but I remember seeing them in the early 1990’s on leave right after the Gulf War, when a buddy of mine and I went to New Orleans and raised all sorts of hell for a few days. If I remember correctly, they played at Tipitina’s. I don’t remember much of their music, but I do remember that one of the songs talked about the bridge over Lake Pontchartrain.
Memories. I was young and skinny, so you know it has been a long while.
*** Update ***
Found it- the name of the album is Boiled Alive!
Decade At Bernie’s
This is why Paul Krugman drives me insane. Last week, I thought his column was pedestrian and not very helpful. Today, however, I think it is one of his finer efforts, with as concise an explanation of what is happening and what he thinks needs to be done that could be done in an op-ed column for mass consumption (complete with pop culture reference!). His description of the mess we are in makes a great deal of sense, is hard to disagree with, and is depressing as all hell. I don’t know about his solutions, because I don’t know if there is a solution.
Edited for clarity (for a change).