Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Not all heroes wear capes.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

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

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

So very ready.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

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

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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Archives for 2009

Millions for blowjobs but not one cent for torture

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Another day, another online chat with a Washington Post reporter who opposes investigations of the Bush administration:

New York, N.Y.: Hi, Lois. I’m hoping you’ll take this question, even though it’s a bit stinging. I’m trying to get my head around the fact that the D.C. establishment (and certain of your colleagues’) conventional wisdom is that it would be a bad idea to prosecute members of the Bush administration for authorizing torture. But I’ve also read that under the terms of international agreements that we are signatories to, that the Obama administration has an obligation to investigate the Bush/Cheney alleged crimes? So how does the law jibe with D.C.-establishment’s commonly held viewpoint that investigations would be counter-productive?

Lois Romano: I’m sure they are looking into the law and reviewing options and responsibilities– and there may be a time to focus on the issue you raise. But I think right now, President Obama wants to follow the concerns of most americans–which are the economy and health care. Starting a partisan fight- even if it is legal- would be a major distraction for him and likely not sit well with millions of americans who are out of work and losing their homes.

And here was conventional wisdom about the multi-year, multi-million-dollar Starr investigation of the blowing of the president:

Similarly, independent counsel Ken Starr is not seen by many Washington insiders as an out-of-control prudish crusader. Starr is a Washington insider, too. He has lived and worked here for years. He had a reputation as a fair and honest judge.

[….]

Many say the impeachment inquiry should go forth in some fashion, if only to clarify and explain the offenses and to let the system work. The system is important here.

[….]

“He shouldn’t get by with it,” says Baker. “The question is, what can the Senate do short of removal?”

It’s good that they have their priorities in order.

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And 1,000 Sadly, No! Posts Are Born

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There is so much to love about this 18 minute video with Dr. Helen and the Advice Goddess, but I think if I had to choose my favorite moment, it would be at around the 12:30 mark when the Advice Goddess compared having sex with your partner to rotating the tires on your car. My first thought was “UR DOIN’ IT RONG!,” and then I realized that maybe I had just witnessed the birth of a new euphemism. I will have to check the urban dictionary to see if ‘rotating the tires‘ has taken on a whole new meaning in a few months.

And yes, I watched all 18 minutes. I sent Tim an IM with the link, and about ten minutes later he told me that watching it was like “being rickrolled for 18 minutes.”

Also worth checking out (especially you gaming dorks), apparently it is patch day for the US.

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Why Is This Allowed To Happen?

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This just makes no sense whatsoever:

If the Obama campaign represented a sleek, new iPhone kind of future, the first day of the Obama administration looked more like the rotary-dial past.

Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts.

What does that mean in 21st-century terms? No Facebook to communicate with supporters. No outside e-mail log-ins. No instant messaging. Hard adjustments for a staff that helped sweep Obama to power through, among other things, relentless online social networking.

“It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of his new digs.

I read another report somewhere that half the computers are still using Office 2000, and unless my memory is playing games with me, I remember similar stories when the Bush team took over in 2000. I understand that there are massive security concerns, and I understand that there are most likely thousands of rules and regulations guiding (obstructing) the acquisition of new equipment for the White House, but this just makes no sense to me whatsoever. I think the first order of business for the tech staff at the White House is to make sure that at the very least, the White House is using technology equivalent to what you would find in the average High School computer lab. There really is no excuse for this, and if there are laws and rules that need to be changed, change them. This should not be a partisan issue, and a complete overhaul of the WH technology along with an update of the rules that guide the acquisition of that technology so that they never fall behind again would be a solid move, and one that would serve future administrations, regardless of political affiliation, well.

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Oscar Nominations

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The nominations are out, and yet another year in which I have not seen one of the nominees for Best Picture:

* “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
* “Frost/Nixon” (Universal)
* “Milk” (Focus Features)
* “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company)
* “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight)

As I haven’t seen any of them, I am in no position to judge the picks,but the Benjamin Button pick surprises me, as it just seems like such a gimmicky concept. We get it- he is aging in reverse. Not sure how it sustains itself after the first 20 minutes, but apparently a lot of people loved it. I have seen all the Frost/Nixon previews 100 times, and still am not motivated to see that in the theatre. Never even heard of the Reader (am I so on top of pop culture), but I do want to see Milk and Slumdog Millionaire. I am a little surprised that Doubt was not up there, considering all the buzz.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman is up for Best Suporting Actor, but he is matched against Heath Ledger, who I would bet is a lock.

Your thoughts?

*** Update ***

This is great:

*** Update ***

A fun game. As always, I go with noted film critic and author Jonah Goldberg.

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Norm Coleman’s new gig

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I don’t know if this means he’s essentially conceding, but now he’s working for the same outfit that put together an infamous push poll message-testing poll last fall.

Washington, D.C. (January 22, 2009) — Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks announced today that Senator Norm Colelman (MN) has agreed to join the RJC as a consultant and strategic advisor. In this capacity, Coleman will help the RJC as it plans for the future and looks at ways to continue its historic record of growth and success. Coleman will also provide strategic guidance on important policy matters affecting the organization and the Jewish community. In addition, Coleman, a tremendously popular speaker, will travel around the country on behalf of the RJC, speaking in Jewish communities across the country on the state of current affairs. Finally, Coleman will also help the RJC recruit and expand its national leadership base. Coleman will not engage in any lobbying on behalf of the organization.

RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said, “We are thrilled and honored to have Norm Coleman join us at the RJC at this critical time. We look forward to having the benefit of his experience and wise counsel to help the RJC plot its future course. We are confident that in a few months Senator Coleman will return to his seat in the Senate, but until that time, we are eager for him to travel across the country on our behalf and to be an important voice within the organization.”

No link yet, this is a press release.

Update: Ben Smith has more.

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Of Course It Is Because Of A-holes Like You

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Byron York, reacting to the news that Obama was administered the oath a second time:

The AP reports that Roberts re-administered the oath to Obama at the White House this evening, in the presence of some reporters but with no press cameras in the room. (There was, apparently, a White House photographer there to record the event.) It all went smoothly.

Meanwhile, in the span of a few minutes, I’ve gotten a number of emails informing me that Obama only took a second oath to head off criticism from people like…me. “Reasonable people believed that a—holes like you and your ilk would make the oath an issue and out of an abundance of caution, to head off a—holes like you, they re-did it,” wrote one correspondent.

Think what you like.

Here is what I think, Byron. I don’t think it was necessary at all. But I am not Obama’s lawyer, Greg Craig, who just so happened to also be Clinton’s lawyer during the impeachment hearings. Here you are discussing that little bit in 1998:

PHIL PONCE: Byron York, how about that? What is the logical connection between looking at a land deal that happened years ago to the charges the President is facing now?

BYRON YORK, American Spectator: Well, it takes a couple of steps to get there. One of the things Starr has been investigating is whether Webster Hubbell, a former high-ranking official in the Justice Department, was paid off to not cooperate with Kenneth Starr in testimony about the Whitewater deal. One of the people who arranged for Hubbell to receive large amounts of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, was Vernon Jordan. And one of the things that connects these two cases is that Jordan is allegedly involved in helping to arrange a lawyer and an affidavit from Monica Lewinsky, and so the allegation goes, tried to arrange for her to change her story and deny ever having any sort of sex with the President.

PHIL PONCE: So you’re saying in this case there’s a question of a pattern of misbehavior on the part of “a” person?

BYRON YORK: That is one reason Starr is going after it, and the other reason Starr is going after it is that this woman, Linda Tripp, simply came to him. Linda Tripp has some history with Kenneth Starr. She had worked as a secretary in the office of White House counsel. She knew and admired Vincent Foster and was the last person at the White House to see him alive. As such, she testified before the grand jury about this. She has talked to Starr’s people quite a bit about the Foster case. So she knew Starr; she trusted Starr; she went to Starr. At that point he had credible allegations in front of him, and what was he to do?

In 2004, years after Clinton had been out of office, with a TON of other things going on, what were you writing about? Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Still:

Winning the government shutdown battle was the turning point in Clinton’s recovery from his devastating loss of Congress in 1994. The president was so happy that that very night, November 15, he began his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky.

From the very beginning, Lewinsky has said that was when she and the president first fooled around. But Clinton always denied it. In his testimony before independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s grand jury, he claimed that the affair began in 1996. The White House legal rebuttal to the Starr Report made the same assertion.

Considering you work for the very same magazine as Jonah Goldberg (Liberal Fascism), Lisa Schiffren (Obama’s birth is a communist plot!), and Andy McCarthy (Obama’s not an American!!!oneoneleven!!), I think your email correspondent had it exactly right. Obama took the oath a second time PRECISELY because of “a-holes like you.”

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