Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
No soup for you, Laura W.
Also, not sure how this has happened, but I had an unopened copy of Dark Knight that has completely gone AWOL. So, instead, I decided to watch the Big Lebowski. Also missing. If these were in any way edible, I would be looking at Tunch. As it is, they are missing.
I believe that many of the Bush administration’s worst failures can be attributed to the fact that they staffed the federal bureaucracy with cronies and idiots. A FEMA not led by Michael Brown would have reacted differently to Katrina, a DoD not led by Rummy, Wolfie, DiRita, and the dumbest fucking person on the planet wouldn’t have fucked up the planning of Iraq so badly, an economic team not led by clowns like Chris Cox and John Snow would have done a better job of dealing with the then looming financial crisis.
Of course, the Villagers don’t care about this kind of thing. It involves smart, faceless, unglamorous bureaucrats, not dashing mavericks or Texas cowboys or wise old men from the heartland. But my gut feeling is that DeBushifying the federal bureaucracy is going to be a lot more of a problem than anyone thinks. You’ve probably read about the Bush appointees who burrowed themselves into nonpolitical positions at TPM. But what caught my eye is the hard-on that David Brooks and Mike Gerson have for the Bush Global AIDS Coordinator (Mark Dybul) who was recently let go. Brooks wrote about how great it was that it looked like Obama was keeping him on, Gerson threw a hissy fit when Obama let him go.
Gerson and Brooks are the types you have to keep an eye on. They’re sneaky fuckers; unlike, say, Charles Krauthammer and George Will, who are mostly peddling their own crazy brand of nonsense, Gerson and Brooks are generally working a long con. You can be pretty sure they didn’t get all hot and bothered about Dybul at the same time by accident.
So watch out for a lot of media backlash as Obama starts kicking the Bush lackeys to the curb. Remember Travelgate.
And there’s one other thing here to keep in mind, and I don’t want to push this too far (for fearing of sounding like a nut), but no public Republican that I know of has renounced and rejected (or whatever it was Obama was supposed to do with Jeremiah Wright) Rush Limbaugh’s statements about wanting Obama to fail. I’ll bet that most Bush appointees who remain in Washington want Obama to fail as well, but getting them all out is going to be tricky.
So I don’t have to keep answering this repeatedly in the comments, yes, I will no longer be with the PJ Media network starting 1 April. They are apparently moving on/the business model didn’t work/whatever. Life goes on.
I understand there is an inordinate amount of bad feelings and some hostility being chucked around, and I want no part in it. Roger Simon and the others at PJ always kept their word to me. From where I sit, PJ Media was an ad portal that provided advertising content for this site, and that was about it. I never understood claims at the beginning of this several years ago that somehow I was “losing my independence” or the rest of the nonsense for signing up with them. As I have stated repeatedly, maybe others had different experiences, but the company was great to me. They always kept their word, their staff was top-notch and great to work with (and I really hope they find jobs quickly/keep their jobs), and Roger Simon was a great person to do business with the past couple years. I signed a contract through the end of March, PJ Media and I are both honoring it, and they are moving on to something different. This sort of thing happens hundreds of thousands of times every day all over the world, and is really rather unremarkable.
And that really is all there is to it. I thought that when PJ started, there would be more original reporting from people on issues in their region, but that never seemed to materialize. Regardless, I have no complaints and wish them well.
As to any changes to this website, well, just like when we moved to PJ, there really won’t be any. I might go back to blogads (digging up the old account info will be fun), might throw up some other ads from teh google or amazon, or maybe I will just use the sidebars for pet pics and to display the Super Bowl trophy we the Steelers are going to win tomorrow.
Long story short- I’ll still be an idiot on 1 April and this site will still be here.
Every search I do comes back with a “This site may harm your computer.”
*** Update ***
What she said. And before Larry Kudlow starts whining about stifling creativity and what not, let us remember this is only for people receiving TARP money. By definition, they gave already failed.
When I joined the Red State Strike Force, I began receiving emails from Newsmax as well. And I have to say that Newsmax emails make Erick Erickson sound like Thomas Jefferson. Here’s a taste of one of the articles they were pushing:
The Coming War with Iran: 6 Days in Hell!
Newsmax Magazine’s blockbuster issue has major cover stories, including an exclusive special report by Newsmax contributing editor and Iran expert Kenneth R. Timmerman, “Six Days to War,” which lays out the scenario likely to unfold if the U.S. and Iran go to war.
[….]As the Bush administration ratchets up the pressure, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs says the military option is still on the table and warns Iran that the U.S. can launch massive strikes using Navy and Air power.
There’s a lot of problems with this article, but let’s just pick on this one: the article is dated January 31, 2009 and writes “As the Bush administration ratchets up the pressure”. Mostly, though, I just like the picture.
Here’s some of the other important issues we’ll see in the next issue of Newsmax:
* Michael Savage mulls candidacy.
* Michael Jackson may convert to Islam.
* Reverse mortgages are often a smart choice.
* China bans adoptions to the obese.
* Rich Little: Don’t knock Bush.
* Dr. Laura: A great marriage isn’t hard work.
All of this makes me ponder Don DeLillo’s classic question: were people this dumb before television?
