Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Second rate reporter says what?

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

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

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

No one could have predicted…

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

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Archives for 2009

Apparently, Everyone Was Wrong

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Because this old dog has some new tricks:

At 10 years old, Stump the Sussex spaniel should be well into his dotage. Instead, the dog who technically retired four years ago took home Best in Show on Tuesday at the 133rd Annual Westminster Kennel Club show at Madison Square Garden, becoming the oldest to win the award.

Stump, officially named Ch. Clussexx Three D Grinchy Glee, might have surprised aficionados, who had their eye on a giant schnauzer, but the crowd clearly preferred the jaunty spaniel. Stump was greeted with deafening applause each time he plodded around the ring.

It was the first time that a Sussex spaniel won the top prize, although the breed, which originated as a hunting companion in England, was among the first to be recognized by the American Kennel Club.

Judge Sari Brewster Tietjen said she made her decision at the last minute.

“I didn’t know who he was or how old he was,” Tietjen said. “He’s just everything that you’d want in the breed, and I couldn’t say no to him.”

Stump won the sporting group at Westminster in 2004, but in early 2005 fell seriously ill with an undetermined sickness, said Scott Sommer, Stump’s handler and an owner along with Cecilia Ruggles and Beth Dowd.

Stump eventually returned to health, and by last year he was looking quite good. Still, Sommer said he was not sure until last Wednesday that he would definitely show Stump at Westminster.

What a great story.

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Blast from the past

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It’s interesting to compare the tough coverage George W. Bush received during his first few weeks in office with the disgusting, pro-Obama bias that we’re now seeing. Here’s Fred Hiatt in January 2001:

In these honeymoon weeks, Mr. Bush’s more open-minded opponents have seemed willing to work with him, and those who have spurned his overtures have been left looking churlish. As time goes on, it may be harder to sustain optimism. Mr. Bush wins points now by declaring that he aims to “rid the system of rancor.” At a certain time, however, his promises will begin to sound hollow unless he has helped foster real change in the political culture.

[….]

Yet precisely because power is separated, the system desperately needs charm to lubricate it. That is why “bipartisan” sometimes seems to be the highest compliment in Washington, and why the tone of President Bush’s first fortnight deserves a warm welcome.

Heh indeedy.

Update: To be fair, Hiatt could have been influenced, I suppose, by the fact that Bush received a resounding mandate in 2000 while Obama squeaked into office with a controversial victory this fall.

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Outreach Fail

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***

Via the comments, this:

“What we are dealing with today is the greatest power grab by the federal government since the war of northern aggression,” Stevenson said, R-Webb City, referring what Southern states called the North’s attempt to end slavery in the 1860s.

The remark caused a sudden gasp heard throughout the House’s chamber.

This is excellent news for John McCain.

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I like this ad

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Americans United For Change is running a hard-hitting ad against Boehner, McConnell, and Cantor for their opposition to the stimulus package (via Ben Smith):

These guys deserve to be taken apart for their bullshit, caveman-like attitude towards the stimulus package. It’s a disgrace. And I certainly wouldn’t say that about their possible opposition to the Geithner “plan” (which may very well be fatally flawed, if it even deserved to be called a plan) or about their positions on a lot of other issue. What’s disgraceful here is that they have no alternate plan, that we’re facing the worst recession since WWII, and that the stimulus package proposed by Obama is right out of a macroeconomic textbook (albeit with too many tax-cuts), as Paul Krugman puts it.

To let them off the hook because they’re Republican or southern, or whatever the excuse is, is almost like some kind of racism. They know better, they can do better, and they need to be held accountable, the same way that normal adults are supposed to be held accountable when they make cynical, selfish decisions that hurt other people. It really is that simple.

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For the Doubters

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In the last thread with Ginny and Guesly, there was some doubt in the comments section whether or not the dogs were actually watching the Super Bowl. Dad sends along this picture of the puppies watching the Westminster Dog Show last night, when a dog that looks like a neighbor’s dog was on the screen:

Click for a bigger image.

The defense rests.

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Open Thread

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I’m tired for some reason. It has been raining and crappy all day, and that always screws up my sinuses. Also, Tunch, for no reason whatsoever, just ran into the office, attacked my right foot, and then screamed out of the room like a cruise missile.

It is only a little scratch, but it did draw blood. The fat bastard has gone feral.

A live action shot from five minutes ago.

*** Update ***

An early entrant for the 2009 Golden Wingnut Award. I’m laughing hysterically.

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The Madonna standard

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Jen R points me to the following from Howie Kurtz:

DeKalb, Ill.: Dear Howard, Was a question about A-Rod really appropriate during the President’s press conference last night? Why not also ask about Jessica Simpson’s weight gain or the fact I missed House…. I would expect that question from a sport reporter, but I was shocked a “serious” reporter would ask it based on the topic at hand.
Howard Kurtz: You know, there are different views of this, but I didn’t have any problem with Michael Fletcher’s question. A-Rod is not only the biggest star in baseball, he’s a huge celebrity. I mean, he hangs out with Madonna!

Maybe I should just be grateful, there were no questions about Michael Phelps (there weren’t any, right?). But I can’t be alone in thinking that a multi-trillion dollar bank bailout might be more important.

Howie also thinks Obama screwed up by giving long detailed answer to the more important questions.

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