Too much serious today. Some cheap snark, fizzy-water to refresh the parched spirit…
Dave Weigel at Slate ruthlessly examines “The Misadventures of Ginni Thomas, Action Journalist“:
Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has joined The Daily Caller… There haven’t been many media interviews with Thomas, but that’s because she prefers to ignore requests then snipe from some safe vantage point about how unfair they are to her. Her last public interaction with the Caller was a December 2010 interview in which she claimed she was staying with her nebulous Tea Party group Liberty Central, right before she left it to start a consulting firm. Spin a media outlet; get a job with the media outlet. That’s good work…
Alex Seitz-Wald at Think Progress brings out the Cavuto Mark:
Tea Party At Its Dregs? Major Convention Attracts Few
With Fox News host Glenn Beck’s ratings down and the biggest tea party rally eclipsed by a recent pro-labor rally in Wisconsin, could the tea party be losing steam? One new sign: a big tea party convention in Tampa, FL this weekend — headlined by such conservative favorites as Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Fox News Judge Andrew Napolitano, and former GOP Congressman Tom Tancredo — attracted only about 300 people. The Save America Convention’s website lists 25 guest speakers, meaning there was one speaker for every 12 attendees. If one includes the 13 musicians and other performers listed as entertainment, that ratio drops to one for every 7 and a half…
And David Frum goes to CNN to reward the Twenty-Seven-Percenters who pushed him out of his comfy gig AEI with a fine piece of concern trolling: “Is Palin’s Israel visit alienating friends?”:
… Over two months of campaigning in September and October 2008, Palin’s poll numbers tumbled among women and independents. Yet even after the November 2008 loss, Palin remained hugely popular among Republicans.
__
She has spent the past 2½ years throwing that popularity away, piece by piece. Palin has worked hard to convince even the most ardent Republicans that she would be a doomed candidate and a disastrous president. With the particular plan she chose for her trip to Israel, Palin alienated a few more potential friends — important ones…
__
I’ve been a Palin critic, but until now most of my colleagues have disagreed with me. Yet, once again, Palin seems to focus her energy on proving her critics right.
__
Even as a non-fan, I have to say: It all seems so sadly unnecessary.
Redshirt
Reagan proved that facts don’t matter; numbers don’t matter. All that matters is the spin. So, spin on, Tea Party! You surround us.
lamh32
Video of Obama’s trip to South America, since it got virtually NO coverage here in America. I’d love to know from anyone who watches Spanish language TV if the South America trip received more coverage?
‘City of God’ welcomes Barack Obama
lamh32
Obama cheered at Brazil’s ‘City of God’ favela
Villago Delenda Est
Palin’s animal cunning seems to have been overrated. Her grand tour of the Holy Land has been a flop.
I believe she’s nearing her Warhol limit.
kdaug
You kids running Firefox, 4 is out today. Get it now. Wicked fast, way safer, WebGL, et blah.
Now we dance.
Ana Gama
Journalism help-wanted ad for the ages:
We want to add some talent to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune investigative team. Every serious candidate should have a proven track record of conceiving, reporting and writing stellar investigative pieces that provoke change. However, our ideal candidate has also cursed out an editor, had spokespeople hang up on them in anger and threatened to resign at least once because some fool wanted to screw around with their perfect lede.
We do a mix of quick hit investigative work when events call for it and mini-projects that might run for a few days. But every year we like to put together a project way too ambitious for a paper our size because we dream that one day Walt Bogdanich will have to say: “I can’t believe the Sarasota Whatever-Tribune cost me my 20th Pulitzer.” As many of you already know, those kinds of projects can be hellish, soul-sucking, doubt-inducing affairs. But if you’re the type of sicko who likes holing up in a tiny, closed office with reporters of questionable hygiene to build databases from scratch by hand-entering thousands of pages of documents to take on powerful people and institutions that wish you were dead, all for the glorious reward of having readers pick up the paper and glance at your potential prize-winning epic as they flip their way to the Jumble… well, if that sounds like journalism Heaven, then you’re our kind of sicko.
For those unaware of Florida’s reputation, it’s arguably the best news state in the country and not just because of the great public records laws. We have all kinds of corruption, violence and scumbaggery. The 9/11 terrorists trained here. Bush read My Pet Goat here. Our elections are colossal clusterfucks. Our new governor once ran a health care company that got hit with a record fine because of rampant Medicare fraud. We have hurricanes, wildfires, tar balls, bedbugs, diseased citrus trees and an entire town overrun by giant roaches (only one of those things is made up). And we have Disney World and beaches, so bring the whole family.
Send questions, or a resume/cover letter/links to clips to my email address below. If you already have your dream job, please pass this along to someone whose skills you covet. Thanks.
Matthew Doig
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
1741 Main St.
Sarasota FL, 34236
(941) 361-4903
[email protected]
http://afewtastefulsnaps.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/award-winning-journalism-job-post/
Chyron HR
@Villago Delenda Est:
Well, they’d better get out the flags and fix a parade. Some kind of coming home in triumph is required!
Steeplejack
@kdaug:
Just installed it a while ago and am putting it through the paces. Looks pretty good.
Jim, Once
@Ana Gama: Omigod. That’s beyond awesome.
Corner Stone
@kdaug: FF 4 makes this site and a couple others load so much faster it’s unbeweavable.
It seems to also have reduced some framing and opened up the viewable space. I like it so far.
jl
I think a lot of Palin’s initial popularity was due to the fact that Alaska politics is so obscure to most of the US that she was an unknown quantity. During the weeks of VP speculation before McCain’s very poor and irresponsible choice, I remember reading in supposedly informed politics blogs that she was a moderate conservative.
When I ran that by my Alaska family and connections (who are all non Teabagger), they all said that was wrong and that she was a hack, movement Republican nutcase, who was not very capable at actually getting anything accomplished in the real world (like for example getting community centers built, or performing due diligence public contracting and legal work out of the way before sending in workers to dig up someplace).
Doesn’t surprise me that the very diverse collection of dupes, swindlers, selfish short sighted narcissistic bitter well off white people, oppressed deluded uneducated white losers, and corporate astroturf operators, and paranoid nutters that we call the teaparty movement is falling apart.
It was transparently a corporate media stunt at the beginning, and had a short intimidating heyday. But now the movement has the House, and the House has to actually, like, get something accomplished in the real world of real reality, the movement wilts in the face of even mild reality therapy.
Cris
@kdaug: Firefox has been my default browser on Windows since it was called Firebird, and one policy I’ve developed in that time is Never Install A Dot-Oh Release. Glad to see that 4 is out, but I’ll wait at least until the next update.
Ana Gama
@Jim, Once: Yeah…it made me wish I had pursued writing when I coulda…
Tonal Crow
If life were just, Palin’s antics should convince everyone but hardcore conmunists (no mis-spelling there) that not only was she a horrid VP choice, and not only was McCain a horrid Presidential choice, but that Republicans generally are fatally-incompetent judges of character, and their opinions (and the “facts” that they cite to “support” them) should trigger hysterical fits of pointing and laughing.
MikeJ
@Villago Delenda Est:
The turning around before the first checkpoint on her trip to B-ham had to be the high point.
Tonal Crow
@kdaug: FF4 has a wicked big memory footprint for those who open many tabs. I’ll wait until they fix that problem.
PurpleGirl
@kdaug: I’ve been told by one friend that it crashed his Windows 7 system. He tells me to wait before installing it and see what other reactions are to it.
Jim, Once
@Ana Gama: I did pursue it – and was ready to quit when I did – but that makes me want to go back in.
Incoherent Dennis SGMM
@kdaug:
Been running the Beta for a while. Firefox 4 rocks and/or rolls.
AhabTRuler
@kdaug: Done. 10-Q.
MikeJ
@PurpleGirl: I’ve been using the minefield nightlies. It’s pretty solid, way faster than it was, comparable in speed with chrome on many tasks, more stable. And Firefox with noscript is the safest browser on the market even if you set noscript to allow all.
I do think some of the ui changes were just monkey see monkey do, but anything really annoying in firefox can always be fixed with an add on.
Corner Stone
@PurpleGirl: Running Windows 7 Pro and FF4, so far it’s smooth as a tl;dr post with no comments section.
schrodinger's cat
@Villago Delenda Est: How did she do in India. I didn’t read much about that either? The Indian media also seems to have ignored her by and large.
jl
Here is what I want to know, is Trump a Democratic mole planted on a heroic mission to create so much insanity, foolishness. and pure high voltage hyper ultra crassitude into the presidential primaries that no one will be able to beat Obama in 2012?
I mean, even the lowest info independent voter has got be rolling his or her eyes at Trump’s act. At least I hope so.
The Daily Show will have plenty of material for awhile.
Valdivia
@lamh32:
thanks for that link. I loved the picture of him playing soccer with some kids there. I’m sure that makes him a kenyan america hating communist though….
:)
amazingly enough I got my info on his trip from the fashion blog on Mrs O, cause nowhere else did you see it mentioned, as you say.
Bob L
@lamh32: What do you expect? The cable news only has twenty four hours to show all this stuff. They only have time for the headlines.
MikeJ
@schrodinger’s cat: Rumproast had a link to the Indian audience facepalming.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodinger’s cat:
Apparently, she passed up a chance to visit the Taj Majal for a trip to a luxury mall.
Say what you will, but the woman knows how to shop using other people’s money.
lamh32
@Bob L:
Oh, I expected nothing much Bob L. I just wish I could understand spanish, cause spanish language videos are available. From antecdotal evidence, people I know from South America have said that the “down there” is was obviously a big story.
SFAW
Slightly OT (or perhaps covered in another thread?):
Apparently a new meme is that being Preznit would be a step down for Caribou Barbie. Some wingnut, impressed with his/her/its own half-wittedness, explained that it’s so, because Oprah is more powerful than B. Hussein Osamabama, Jr., and Failin’ is just like Oprah, only white and not as rich nor as smart nor as talented nor as hard-working nor as capable at anything.
Also, too.
Tim, Interrupted
@Chyron HR:
EVITA. My fave musical of all time.
Cris
Ever notice that “Open Thread” and “Off Topic” have the same acronym?
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
How dare you besmirch this fine woman with your so-called snark. I can attest with some authority that she is *very* well behaved at home, especially in certain rooms. But then again, I am the original Coke Brotha, and you ain’t.
.
.
Steeplejack
@Tonal Crow:
I have 37 tabs open, and Task Manager says Firefox is using 458 MB of RAM. Even on my old mongrel system (2.4GHz Pentium 4, 2 GB of RAM, Windows XP), Firefox 4.0 seems to be handling well and feels subjectively a fair bit faster than the previous version. Word and Outlook (Office 2007) are both open and running fine, Word with a 186-page document open.
I will report if I run into any problems.
PurpleGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: She skipped a tour of Taj Mahal to go to a new shopping mall.
J.W. Hamner
@Cris:
Also “On Topic” nebulously enough.
bemused
Whoa, only 300 tea partiers at the convention. They shouldn’t have bothered to ban video/audio. Did Fox talk up this convention or was it too much work to fake a huge turnout?
jl
@SFAW:
Not sure even gabazillions of Kochcash can rescue the reactionary party at this point.
Newt has been advocating a no fly zone for weeks, and then had to do an instantaneous 180 degree about face on it once there was… a no fly zone, because Obama’s the one who got it done through the UN.
TPM says it has a team of its crack political nonsense decipher SWAT team analyzing his latest statement for some traces of meaning.
I am puzzled why the nutcase brigade did not roll out the One World Government meme. The thought of furriners rappelling down from black helicopters, breaking into your house to steal your wimminfolk, big screen TVs, guns and booze would have immediate impact in some quarters.
Why did that blast fax not go out to their corps of crack media hacks”
jl
@bemused: Maybe they know there are too many eyes on the watch out for stock footage in fake news reports these days?
Mnemosyne
@jl:
I’m suspecting a desperation move on the part of the big money boys who are behind the Republican Party, who are picturing having an Arnold Schwarzenegger-like figurehead who will save them from the teabaggers.
Unfortunately for them, Obama is no Phil Angelides, and Trump’s not up to Schwarzenegger’s level of political savvy, so it’s pretty much doomed. Plus the Republican base isn’t going to go for Trump anyway.
Steeplejack
In fairness to Palin–can’t believe I am writing that–I read that the Taj Mahal was closed and she went shopping instead. Somewhat better than passing it up outright.
Ah, linky (from the soon to be fenced-in New York Times:
Frank
I think the Tea Party numbers will continue to dwindle because that much anger and resentment and crazy takes a lot of energy. Seriously, it’s difficult to maintain that much vitriol for long. Beck’s numbers are shrinking, too, we all know. I don’t think it’s because all the T.P.ers are dying off so swiftly; I think you just burn too many calories and brain cells to be that angry for long.
PurpleGirl
Thanks for the responses.
I’m currently on a Asus netbook, running Win XP Home. I use FF 3.X (whatever the last update was). I usually am a little behind in updates and/or new versions. I have used noscript in the past although I currently don’t have it loaded on the netbook. I do have Flash blocker running. I’ll consider what all you guys say about the new Firefox and what my friend says. Eventually I’ll download and install FF4.
Warren Terra
@PurpleGirl:
Not just a shopping mall – some sort of masters-of-the-universe monstrosity, where according to one press report nothing is for sale with a price tag of less than $5,000. I don’t really believe that number, but it’s not your typical mall.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne:
Why not? He’s white, he’s rich, he’s male, he’s not Mormon…true, he’s not a “good Christian” like the deserting coward, which I guess would be a debuff…
Roger Moore
@kdaug:
No, 4 was out yesterday. At least that’s when I updated to it.
pragmatism
mcmegs is lamenting the state of journalism. by linking to pj o’rourke. the ironing is delicious. starchy.
http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2011/03/the-problem-with-journalists/72914
bemused
@jl:
I’m thinking only 300 was pretty embarrassing so Fox wouldn’t want to draw attention to that.
jl
@Mnemosyne: And for them, Arnold is a commie. Arnold was not stark raving mad on every issue (in fact he was stark raving mad mainly on anti tax mania, and was merely weasly and half hearted on other issues, and sensible but ineffective and politically incompetent on others). So Arnold is Satan in their book, in terms of many policies.
But maybe the Pawlenty guy will move up from F grade to C grade action hero in time. I mean, if Segal and Van Damme can do it, Pawlenty has a shot, right?
JPL
@Steeplejack: I mentioned this the other day. If I ever have the chance to visit India, even if the Taj Mahal is closed, I would not go to a mall to shop. She was only there for a day.
gex
@jl: Fraid not [about the eye rolling]. Lot’s of dummies out my way are convinced that Trump is what we need. From what I can tell that is based on the qualifications that 1) he’s rich and 2) they’ve heard of him.
PurpleGirl
@Steeplejack: You mean her trip planners couldn’t have checked that out during the planning stages. Ditto for information about the check points she’d have to pass through to go to Bethlehem, and knowing that it was in Palestinian territory.
Villago Delenda Est
@Steeplejack:
Um, you go all the way to India, and your crack staff can’t find time to get you into the Taj Mahal on a day it’s open?
The thing is a friggin’ wonder of the world, for crying out loud.
This is like going to Rome and not realizing the Sistine Chapel is closed one day a week for ceiling cleaning, or that they dust the statues in the Louvre on alternate Thursdays in Paris, or something.
I mean, it’s like travelling to California for the sole reason of going to Wally World and finding it’s closed for maintenance…
bemused
Trump/Palin would be a hilarious ticket.
Jay in Oregon
Gah, a week after I make the switch to Chrome 10, Firefox 4 comes out?
I do still have Firefox installed for the awesome Firebug add-on, so I guess I’ll have to update.
I’m not a tech curmudgeon, but I was hoping to give Chrome a decent shake before migrating back.
gex
@Steeplejack: I can believe you are writing it. We’re on the “context matters” side. Although I realize it can’t have felt very comfortable.
@jl: At which point it will be fun to watch Bachmann and Pawlenty tear each other down if she’s at all serious.
Warren Terra
@Steeplejack:
I finally got my Lincoln Ad, letting me have free access for the next nine months. I’m glad I got it, I guess, but they’ve really fouled up this paywall launch completely, haven’t they? First they make the announcement, and the price point is too high to get a sort of eaasy acceptance ($180/year basic), and the mobile/tablet app support is extra, and absurdly extra if you want both mobile and tablet, and there’s no introductory discount (though the paper delivery is available for 50% off for three months, and is actually cheaper than electronic-only during that period), then word gets around organically (rather than by an announcement) that there’s a free access offer, but you can’t go and sign up for the free-access offer, you have to wait and see if they’ll give it to you, and maybe they will and maybe they won’t, and if they do it might be immediately or (as in my case) it might be a day later …
I mean, what are these people thinking? A paywall was never going to be a popular decision, but it arguably makes sense for America’s only real national newspaper, which has a huge web presence – but the introduction has been mishandled pretty much in every conceivable way.
Villago Delenda Est
@jl:
Pawlenty has a huge problem. It’s called a bridge falling into the Mississippi River on his watch.
Villago Delenda Est
@Warren Terra:
1. Put up a pay wall
2. …
3. Profit!
schrodinger's cat
@PurpleGirl: How shallow and typical. As if there is nothing else to see in India besides a shopping mall and the Taj. May be the shopping spree was a part of her a speaker’s fees. I wonder why she was even invited.
Tonal Crow
@Steeplejack: I’m glad it’s working for you. For me, it uses more than twice as much memory as v3.6.x, which breaks the (memory) bank, as I’ve got >100 tabs.
BGinCHI
You can’t WAIT to attend this:
“The State of White America”
Bradley Lecture by Charles Murray at the American Enterprise Institute
JPL
Earlier today someone mentioned the 100 year anniversary of the triangle shirtwaist factory fire and it reminded me that we are a nation of laws. The NYTimes series on the secession has an article on Charles Francis Adams. It made me wonder how the libertarians would view this.
We should be celebrating the regulations that the government has rather than tear them down.
Tonal Crow
@jl: I hope they’re dying of propaganda overdose. But I doubt it.
Suffern ACE
@JPL: Acra is not as close to Delhi as one might like. I can’t see her taking the train. She should have at least poked into Dilli Haat. For some reason, the Indian hosts want visitors to go there. There are marvelous crafts there.
Mnemosyne
@Warren Terra:
It could be 5000 rupees, which would be about $110 USD. I think reporters have mistaken the two for each other before.
@jl:
No, for the big money boys, Ah-nold was exactly the ticket. He got pushed forward during the recall for the sole purpose of stopping the state’s fraud lawsuit against Enron. It’s our nutty California Republicans who hated his guts (let’s just say that Darrell Issa is a pretty typical California Republican — in fact, he’s probably a little smarter and saner than the general run).
@Villago Delenda Est:
He’s too New York. They all loved the idea of Rudy! too, until he actually started campaigning.
lamh32
@JPL</a
@Steeplejack:
I went to India last April. I visited the Taj Mahal in fact. My tour group passed that shopping center that Palin visited, and the real travesty is that I kid you not, but as you drove past the shopping center, you see the people in their “shanties” or the workers who live on the job site (most of the workers as I understand it are the poor class of India, so many of them are migrant workers. They live and go where the work is).
There is more things to do in India than the Taj Mahal. The Taj in is Agra, and there are other places of interest which includes:
Agra Fort (**)
Fatehpūr Sikrī (**)
I’timād-Ud-Daulah (**)
Akbar’s Tomb, Sikandra (**)
Jamā Masjid
Chīnī kā Rauza
Rām Bāgh
Mariam’s Tomb (**)
Mehtāb Bāgh (**)
We spent at least a day an 1/2 in Agra and managed to visit most to these places (indicated by **). There was more for Palin to do rather than going shopping at a mall that 90% of residents in Agra could never afford to go.
In comparison, on his trip to Brazil, the Obama family visited the “City of God” shanty towns in Brazil and ya know actually played soccer an interacted with the children of that town. A place where Brazil probably wishes people didn’t even know about.
Hell Michelle Obama went to India and danced with the local children and totally charmed a whole damn country.
Palin is not fit to speak Michelle Obama’s name.
GOD I can’t stand that woman!
BTW, This list doesn’t include the many bazaars and local sites to see in Agra.
schrodinger's cat
@Suffern ACE: True, Agra is about 3 hours away. However, there is plenty to see in Delhi itself. It has been India’s capital since before the Mughals. It is one of the oldest cities of India.
ETA: I see that lamh32 got to it before I did. Sorry for the repetition.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
My favourite quote from Palin’s trip to Israel:
And indeed, if you look at past photos taken in her house you see … No flags of Israel. But hey, Jewish people are going to Hell anyways so it’s OK to lie to them.
Will
Now we know why the GOP spent $150,000 dressing her.
The woman is wearing one of those padded vest things…in contrasting color even.
The single ugliest garment ever invented. Looks terrible on a man, and even worse on a woman.
schrodinger's cat
@Mnemosyne:
May be their calculator had gastritis.
kdaug
@Cris: Generally the best way to go, but I’ve been poking around with the beta since December, and it’s been solid so far. (Hmm – something about a not-for-profit open consortium of open-source developers doing it just because they want to results in a more stable product. There’s a word around in these parts for something like that…. “hoocooda…”? “Whocoulda….”? Something. Don’t remember.)
Oh, and releasing it for free. That part. Also, too.
Mnemosyne
@schrodinger’s cat:
Remember when the president’s trip to India last year was costing taxpayers $600 million a day because journalists didn’t seem to realize that other countries have their own currencies that are not valued at one-to-one with the US dollar?
Good times, good times.
Calouste
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
Actually, I remember seeing a photo of Palin at her desk with an Israel flag. That might have been the governor’s office though. They’re probably not all over the place though.
Steeplejack
@PurpleGirl:
No argument here. Just saying it’s not quite as awful as “She blew off the Taj Mahal to go shopping.” But, yeah, if she really wanted to see it, she–or her awesomely efficient staff–could have checked the logistical details. Ditto for Bethlehem.
Calouste
@Steeplejack:
You wouldn’t expect Palin to hire staff who is smarter than her, would you? Or Palin probably expected that they would open the Taj Mahal specially for her.
Incoherent Dennis SGMM
@Mnemosyne:
Indeed. Just as lying us into a war was the source of a fountain of praise for “W” (May he rot in Hell) but intervening in Libya is an impeachable offense.
Disclaimer: I’m still not comfy with our intervention. Time will tell.
scav
@Villago Delenda Est:
I don’t know, is collapsing infrastructure a minus anymore to certain quarters? Or it is simply a sign that he was a founding father of the death to all transportation infrastructure movement?
Steeplejack
@Warren Terra:
Yes, it’s a clusterfuck. I have a Times account, but it’s linked to an e-mail address I haven’t checked in two years (and for which I have forgotten the password). I went in and changed the e-mail address today, so I’ll see if I get the free invitation in time.
I’m still on the fence about whether I want to pay. Have been trying to quantify how much I’m going to miss the things I’m going to miss: Krugman, the Book Review (and other book and movie stuff), other odds and ends.
Sko Hayes
@Villago Delenda Est:
Or like visiting Israel, and not having your crack staff know that Bethlehem is in Palestine.
JPL
@Steeplejack: The NYTimes series on the secession has been excellent and today’s coverage of the Triangle Fire is outstanding.
Mike in NC
@Sko Hayes:
Upon touching down in Israel, did Palin denounce Yasser Arafat, whom she presumably thinks is still alive?
Omnes Omnibus
@Sko Hayes:
Like that would ever happen. Oh, wait. Never mind.
Steeplejack
@JPL:
Yeah, there is a lot that is good in the Times. I definitely think that, even with its flaws, it is the premier U.S. news outfit. I read quite a bit more than the things I mentioned, but they’re hard to categorize.
stuckinred
@JPL: I ask again, any word on the .edu accounts?
Chyron HR
@Will:
Because she needed to be dazzling–she wanted to be rainbow high!
Okay, I’ll stop now.
lamh32
Okay, this is so not on any sort of topic, but I’m not a fan of American Idol’s “Motown” or “soul music” nights. My problem with American Idol contestants singing “Motown”, it’s “soul music”, but certain “type” of singers completely take the soul out of it! I’m sure ya’ll know what I mean by “type” of singers.
For every Teena Marie, there’s a Jonas Brothers singing “superstitions”… Now if I was watching “British Idol”, I’d place a bet that those Brits would truly “bring it” to soul night. The Brits love their soul music.
Southern Beale
Oh Jesus Christ. The big “National Tea Party Convention” in Nashville last February, the one that drew one reporter for every three attendees and was on the front page of the New York Times for three days straight and drew live coverage from CNN and the like … yeah THAT one … had just 600 attendees.
The Tea Party is the biggest media fraud EVER.
jl
@gex:
OK, you got me beat.
I for one, welcome our new filthy rich ultra crass overlord, The Donald.
On the bright side, we will get to appear on a gigantic continuously running episode or ‘You’re Fired’ (that was the name, right?)
Edit: some one else said The Donald was just the thing in their parts, but can’t find the comment now.
gex
@scav: You can always make the case that government couldn’t handle the bridge and that it should have been privatized. Well, you probably can’t. But they can.
jl
@gex: I agree with gex, letting the ‘government run’ bridge fall down just might be a plus in the Teabagger primaries.
And to save money some states are moving to state conventions instead or primary elections, and goodness knows what kind of zoo will that will be, at least on the GOP side.
If you see grade F minus action clips of The Big Paw heroically bringing the bridge down to save us from government oppression, then you will know how bad a zoo the GOP primaries will be. That ad might be a hit, if they can work in references to whatever Ayn Rand had her Galtian heroes blow up in her
endless juvenile screedsbooks.Suffern ACE
@Southern Beale: In a big shock, the media pretended for a year to have never met Republicans before.
Will
@Chyron HR:
I came from the people! They need to adore me, so Christian Dior me, from my head to my toes!
(ugh….that vest…)
I’m their product, it’s vital you sell me, so Machiavelle me…
Love it.
JPL
@stuckinred: I don’t know.
PurpleGirl
@Southern Beale: Don’t forget that one convention for Las Vegas had to be “postponed” because of a lack of attendee registrations.
Southern Beale
This is scary ….
Southern Beale
@PurpleGirl:
Don’t be silly. It wasn’t postponed because of lack of registrants. It was postponed because nobody had any idea that Las Vegas in July is hotter than a motherfucker.
Hoocodanode?
Calouste
@Southern Beale:
I didn’t know senility could infect buildings.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Villago Delenda Est:
We can only hope. I fear perhaps not, but then, I’m having neurotransmitter issues.
Jay C
@scav:
Not THAT much of a problem: all he has to do is convince the teatards that he deliberately had it demolished to prevent Obama’s death panels of illegal aliens from expropriating it for use by a high-speed rail system, and they’ll applaud him from now ’til Wednesday.
PS: I also upgraded to FF4 this afternoon, and am seriously underwhelmed by it. No discernably better performance, and all the tabs are out of place….
Southern Beale
@Calouste:
It’s ironic, no? Reagan fired the air traffic controllers and look what happened…
Southern Beale
@Calouste:
It’s ironic, no? Reagan fired the air traffic controllers and look what happened…
Will
Bet it all boils down to a slow night, two people on duty, sex in a closet, and one of them belatedly saying, “Oh shit, I think a plane is landing” and the other replying, “You’d better believe it!”
licensed to kill time
@Jay C: I really don’t like tabs on top.
If you want them back in the usual place click View-Toolbars-then uncheck Tabs on Top.
Or if you have the orange Firefox button go to Options and uncheck Tabs on Top.
JPL
@licensed to kill time: Thanks. I find it a lot faster and like some of the new tools but that irritated me also.
asiangrrlMN
@jl: Nope. That’s my job. Democratic mole. But, I have far to go before I can outcrazy Donald Trump.
MikeJ
@licensed to kill time: I didn’t like it at first, but tabs on top I got used to. But you’ll have to pry my status bar from my cold, dead hands.
Anne Laurie
@Southern Beale:
Considering that St. Ronnie’s Busting of the Air Traffic Controllers’ Union (PATCO) is one of the Official Rethug Miracles(tm), what an appropriate place for the Air Revolution to begin!
In the Glorious Galtian Future, only private planes will criss-cross the skies, and they don’t need traffic cops, right?
licensed to kill time
@JPL: I’m still getting used to the refresh button being on the right side of the ‘awesome’ bar. I automatically go left haha.
I also don’t much like the orange ‘one button to rule them all’ because it seems like more clicks to do what you want. I’m keeping the menu bar on for now.
licensed to kill time
@MikeJ: To me the tabs on top just seem backwards. I thought I’d miss the status bar but on XP I still get status in the lower left corner. It looks a bit different but it’s functional, even hovering on links.
Ash Can
@Ana Gama: O. M. F. G. That is too awesome. But I do recall that, during the 90s when my mother lived in the Sarasota area, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune was a crackerjack mid-market publication. Looks like their quality hasn’t suffered in the least since then. :)
Corner Stone
@Tonal Crow:
Can I ask what does one do with so many tabs open?
JPL
@licensed to kill time: Actually I just figured that out. I started using F5 and finally found it. I tend to keep both chrome and firefox up and alternate between the two but I do like some of the new firefox features.
Corner Stone
And I just added on Pixlr Grabber for FF4 and it is fantabulous for simple on the fly stuff.
And I kind of like the tabs on top, makes it seem like I have more viewable space for some reason. I hit F5 to refresh so that change doesn’t bother me.
MikeJ
@licensed to kill time: Different strokes, etc. I’ve got status4evar to fix my problem, you’ve got a quick pref setting for yours. Easy peasy.
BTW, the link destination coming up in the hover was a last minute compromise that the UI group is still bitching about. They really, really, wanted the stupidity of putting in the awesomebar. They seem to suffer from this disease a lot of software people get: if it seems logical, it must be *better*.
gex
@Anne Laurie: Competition will solve it. True Galtian genius would never crash a plane.
Steeplejack
@licensed to kill time, @JPL, @MikeJ:
At first I sort of liked “tabs on top,” because it gave me a slightly larger effective page with less visual shmutz at the top, most of which I use rarely. But I’ve been switching back and forth every so often to see which way I like better. This is probably the browser equivalent of fiddling endlessly with the seat settings in your new car.
One thing that is bugging me is that the orange “Firefox” button in the title bar nukes the title of the current page. I wouldn’t have thought that mattered much to me, but it turns out that it does. I like to see the title of the current page in the title bar. Go figure. Anyone know how to fix that?
Still think version 4.0 is an improvement. Seems to be running faster, and I haven’t noticed any non-cosmetic problems so far.
licensed to kill time
@MikeJ: I was all set to grab status4evar because I’d heard about the crazy idea of putting it in the awesome bar. THAT was not gonna fly. But I find the popup box for status works ok for me.
The greatest thing about Firefox is how customizable it is for personal prefs. Well, that and NoScript.
Jay C
@licensed to kill time:
Thanks – now that I’ve finally figured out where the “Refresh” button got to, I’m set.
I’m still underwhelmed, but even so, FF is still the best browser going
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Anne Laurie
In my Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum at Hogwarts we teach wards and charms against the Greater Succubai to first years, because they are at the greatest risk. Sadly Old White Christian Men cannot be defended against the succubai. She will devour them alive.
Did you see the Other Morloc from Wasilla?
Family friends.
Steeplejack
@licensed to kill time:
Ah, turning on the menu bar gets rid of the orange button and restores the title bar title. That’s good, but now I’ve got four rows of visual shmutz at the top again (title bar, menu bar, navigation toolbar, tab bar). Decisions, decisions.
(Bzz! bzz! bzz! sound as I adjust the seatback angle.)
licensed to kill time
@Steeplejack: In Windows you can turn on the menu bar from Options. Then it shows up.
licensed to kill time
@Steeplejack:
Here’s some tips for customizing FF4 .
(screwed up the link first go-round)
Steeplejack
@licensed to kill time:
The other thing that is killing me is that they changed the order of “Open Link in New Tab” and “Open Link in New Window” in the context menu. “Tab” used to be second, and it is second nature for me to right-click on a hyperlink and then click the second choice to open the link for viewing later in a new tab. Now I automatically perform that muscle-memory motion and I get a new Firefox window instead. WTF?! So I am having to relearn that.
The only time I get a status bar at the bottom is when I hover over a hyperlink. Is that normal? I already can’t remember how it worked in the previous version, but it seemed like I had a permanent status bar with number of windows open, how much memory used, etc. How do I get that back?
ETA: I see that your link to Fligtar gets into that. Thanks.
licensed to kill time
@Steeplejack:
As MikeJ said above, there is an add-on called status4evar that adds status bar functionality back.
The switching of the ‘open link in new…’ positions has fooled me a few times, too. Whoa, new window? We get so used to doing things a certain way. I love your analogy of fiddling with the car seat buttons ;-)
gex
@jl: I was racking my brain for the other thing, which has barely gotten any mention compared to the bridge.
We had that huge gas line explosion that closed a couple highways. Our state has trimmed down to 12 inspectors responsible for monitoring the lines of 95 different companies.
Of course, now that I know that some of those companies don’t bother to maintain their lines, I’ll use the market place to correct this problem. /snark
Gian
@SFAW:
to paraphrase Uncle Joe, how many divisions does oprah have
well I’d as wingnut Palin fan that…
I mean really, Oprah is quite the celeb, but how many cruise missles has she launched in libya in the last week?
Sarah ain’t running, being president is more work than being governor, and she quit governor.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Chyron HR:
Win!
Julia Grey
I can explain that: How much were they charging for registration and rooms?
I can also explain the Donald Trump phenomenon: what knowledge most people have of Trump these days consists of him acting tough and smart on the “Apprentice” shows. A lot of stern talkings-to and steely-eyed “YOU’RE FIREDs!”
No wonder the authoritarian crowd thinks he’s perfect, in exactly the same way and for the same sort of “reasons” they thought Fred Thompson was so wonderful: they’re confusing his TV image with his real-life self. In Thompson’s case he was portraying a fictional character written by others; in Trump’s case he’s portraying a fictional character he has invented himself.
Come to think of it, many voters confused Schwarznegger’s tough-guy movie image with the man, too. Seems to be a largely Republican phenomenon. Another symptom of their inability to deal with reality?
Julia Grey
Hmm…once again I’m replying to a thread long after everyone else has gone….