We had a Democratic mayoral primary last night as mistermix mentioned. Just to emphasize the point he made (and throw in some links), a Siena (pretty respected pollster) poll showed a few days ago:
Richards Lead Over Warren Increases to 36 Points
Here’s what actually happened:
Warren defeated Richards with 58 percent of the vote. Richards received 42 percent of the vote.
Turn-out was very low. I didn’t vote myself because I had a meeting scheduled on me at the last minute…and because I thought it was a done deal after the Siena Poll.
Because this is New York State, there’s a million lines to run on and they’ll do this all over again in November with one additional Green Party candidate.
A friend of mine just started a local political blog. Here’s his take on it.
cvstoner
Reality is a harsh mistress.
Suffern ACE
So you had a meeting that ran from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm called at the last minute?
J.D. Rhoades
I clicked the link, saw the headline about “Lovely Warren Wins Democratic Primary” and thought, “well that’s a bit sexist, innit?” Then I realized that’s her name.
J.D. Rhoades
@Suffern ACE:
The shorter the notice, the longer the meeting.
Belafon
Hey, Dough, thanks for making my point in the previous post.
PeakVT
The parasite class reacts with horror to de Blasio win, according to unsourced whispers published by the NY Times, our “paper of record.”
mai naem
Completely OT, does NBC have to rerun the 9/11 tapes every year? I understand doing it early on – maybe the 1-3 anniversary and then the big number ones -5,10,20,25 etc. but jeezus every freaking year. I hate hate hate watching that clip with the first tower going down, then the second tower, then going to the people running down the street. I’m not underplaying the momentousness of 9/11 but I would be willing to bet NBC wouldn’t be doing this if it had been in some other part of the country – they’re so New York-centric.
Suffern ACE
@PeakVT: yep. Lets call those the Chris Christie Democrats.
Xecky Gilchrist
@J.D. Rhoades: The shorter the notice, the longer the meeting.
Quoted for sad-but-truth.
Ash Can
@mai naem: I generally don’t watch TV news, but I make a particular effort to avoid it on 9/11 anniversaries. I know what happened on 9/11/01 and have no desire to relive it, TYVM.
Suffern ACE
Hmmm. The Lhota campaign is going to have loads of cash. I wonder if I could get some. “Noted political commenter and former City resident Suffern ACE was thinking of moving back to the city until the thought of class warfare under De Blasio made him reconsider.” I wonder if my opinion could be worth $25.
CaseyL
… except turns out it wasn’t a done deal after all.
What would have happened if you had said, “Sorry, you’ll have to reschedule the meeting; I haven’t voted yet”?
Jay C
@PeakVT: @Suffern ACE:
Actually, I think the NYT’s piece was focusing less on the voter-in-the-street than on the moneyed class and big-business types who (as “CW” instantly has it) are supposed to be soiling their undies in fear of a potential de Blasio admin which will unleash the Red Terror on NYC. Or, supposedly, damage its “business-friendly” reputation, which they seem to consider as about the same thing…
mai naem
Well, Anthony Weiner got more votes than Joe Lhota and Christine Quinn got almost as many votes as Lhota and Casimidis combined.
@PeakVT: Seriously fuck these people. They had the article yesterday that the top 1 percent have more wealth than ever in US history. Even beyond the roaring 20s. Bill Moyers had piece about how the big Wall Street CEOs who lost their jobs from the financial crisis are doing just fine. Dick Fuld still has several hundreds of millions of dollars , a mansion in Fla and two apartments in Manhattan because,well, who can only do with one apartment in Manhattan. Jimmy Cayne and Ken Lewis got the same golden parachutes.
patroclus
I just turned on MSNBC and, apparently, two planes have just crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. I wonder how President Bush will respond to this apparently terrorist act. Hopefully, he won’t invade the wrong country, start wars all over the planet, institute torture, extraordinary rendition and black sites as an instrument of U.S. policy, enact some idiotic all-encompassing anti-terrorism act, open up a torture gulag at GITMO, create some idiotic Homeland Security Department, out some undercover CIA agents, lie through his teeth about supposed WMD’s in countries having nothing to do with the atack, forget about going after the actual perpetrators of this attack. It’s just awful!
Starfish
@mai naem: At least they do not show the people jumping out of the buildings?
PeakVT
@Jay C: To whom do you think I was referring to when I typed “parasite class”?
Chris
@mai naem:
@Ash Can:
Word.
No desire to relive it, and no desire to subject myself to the inevitable inch-deep flag-waving dreck that inevitably comes with it. If 9/11 had actually led to a patriotic revival that went any deeper than flag lapel pins, yellow ribbon bumper stickers, and shreiks of “traitor!” at anyone who didn’t vote Republican, I might feel differently, but it didn’t and I don’t.
Tone in DC
People where I work are playing the news with the volume on, which never happens. I was working in north Arlington, VA that sunny Tuesday morning.
I don’t need to be reminded what happened 12 years ago, either.
PeakVT
@patroclus: It really does make me long for a big fat reset button. Everything that happened since midnight on Nov. 7, 2000 could stand to be redone.
SiubhanDuinne
@mai naem:
@Ash Can:
I’ve avoided most TV news for a while now. I did hear on NPR that POTUS, VPOTUS, FLOTUS and SLOTUS had a moment of silence this morning, I think in the Rose Garden, and that the families in NYC are reading the list of names, as has seemingly become tradition.
But, now, here’s my question. How many years do these anniversary observances take place? Not that there’s an etiquette or protocol book spelling it out, but I mean, what is sensible and reasonable and not too cold-hearted? I was born in 1942, and I do remember annual mentions of the attack on Pearl Harbor every year until I was about 10. But after that, it seems that the calendar date was generally met with an “Oh, yeah, that happened,” until eventually it became one of those “On This Day in History” things in the paper. And I suspect by now there are a great many people who have no idea of the significance of December 7th. So what I am curious about is, how long does that cycle take, from the obsessive and somewhat maudlin observances early on, to a kind of pro forma acknowledgement, to commemorations only on the big (ending in zero) anniversaries, to a point where only professional historians know or care?
Lol
The conference I’m at has been a bit insufferable. They handing out “9/11 Never Forget” buttons…. Which to be fair, I did forget it was today.
Omnes Omnibus
@patroclus:
It would be absurd to think that something like that could happen. Cheney is an experienced politician – and a realist; he’ll keep Bush in check.*
*I threw up in my mouth a little as I was typing that.
Jay C
@PeakVT:
Sorry, I think my comment was probably better directed @ #8…
I think the GE is probably going to be closer than thought (or liked), but listening to Joe Lhota’s victory rant last night, I really think he is going to have to cook up a better campaign theme than a lot of huffy woo-woo about “class warfare” and “back to the bad old days” scare-talk to pull in enough votes to make it a race. Unfortunately, he’ll have a shitpot full of money to push his message, whatever it is, and Bill de Blasio is going to have to really hone his campaign to blunt Lhota’s BS. Fun times ahead.
SFAW
@Suffern ACE:
Hey, it takes awhile to get to the airport, fly to Florida, witness an execution, listen to Rick Scott go on about … something, attend that Pam Bondi fundraiser, get back on a flight, clear Customs, etc., etc.
So cut Doug some slack, please.
gogol's wife
This seems to be kind of an open thread, so I just have to re-post this to get it off my chest, since the open thread below seems to be dead. (Yay De Blasio)
Maureen Dowd has really jumped the shark this morning. Her admiration for Putin knows no bounds. Paraphrase because I refuse to look at her putrid text again: “Obama’s and Kerry’s saber-rattling looked like knees rattling when Vlad shut them down.”
Will someone rid me of this disgusting excuse for an op-ed columnist? She makes Douthat look like Montaigne.
patroclus
@Omnes Omnibus: You’re probably right. At least Bush will keep the economy growing, so everyone’s 401K will be safe, and hopefully, he’ll re-invigorate financial services oversight so that excessive risk-taking with the securitization markets won’t occur. I’m sure he’ll invest in infrastructure and green technology and we can probably still count on FEMA with natural disaster relief for things like hurricanes. I’m glad Iraq had nothing to do with this, so we won’t see yet another war there.
Omigod – they just hit the Pentagon! I sure hope Bush doesn’t over-react!
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Didn’t anybody see Colbert’s take down of Lhota last week over the kittens on the subway tracks event:
http://www.ecorazzi.com/2013/09/09/watch-colbert-invites-joe-lhota-to-kill-the-subway-kittens/
Ain’t no way this guy gets elected mayor of NYC. Just keep reminding everybody that he’s the Pro Kitten Killing Candidate and watch what happens come election day.
shelly
God, 12 years since 9/11. Long enough that the news referred to ‘the ‘traditional’ 9/11 ceremonies.”
Ash Can
@SiubhanDuinne: I think the families can and should observe the date however they want, for as long as they want, especially if it means something as dignified as simply reading a list of names. How many years it continues is up to them. I also think something as low-key as a moment of silence on the part of the prez is appropriate, for as many years as the families see fit to publicly and collectively observe the date. In addition, any broadcast-media celebrity who did not lose any friends and/or family in the terrorist attacks and who nevertheless gets maudlin and obstreperous on air should be horsewhipped through the streets for the entire rest of the day.
SFAW
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
In Boston or LA, that might be a negative. NYC and DC? Not so sure. And in most of Texas, he’d get something like 113 percent of the vote.
Botsplainer
So you’re saying that he was the George Zimmerman of presidents, and the US military and entire US security apparatus became the analog of Zimmerman’s gun….
SFAW
@Botsplainer:
So did Saddam wear a hoodie? And did Uday and Qusay carry bags of Skittles? Or am I missing something? (Again)
David in NY
Polls in NYC were pretty close, though.
Bobby Thomson
So Doug, you knew one of the Democratic candidates wanted to close the public schools and still didn’t vote? For someone who whines about totebaggers so much, you don’t seem very politically aware yourself. Maybe you should start reading Kay’s posts.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: I think to some extent it is generational. My grandparents and their cohort, the group who fought in the war, marked December 7 as a big day for most of their lives. My parents, who are around your age, did not. To me and those younger than me, the date isn’t any more worthy of note than April 19 – that is, “hey, a historic event happened on this date in the past; oh yeah, I need to get milk.” My guess is that 9/11 will work the same way.
gogol's wife
@Bobby Thomson:
Was that in NYC? I think DougJ is outside NYC, in New York State. Not that he shouldn’t have voted.
SFAW
@gogol’s wife:
Rochester area, I think? (And since Lovely Warren is there, I’m a-guessin’ Doug may be as well.)
PurpleGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I have no idea when the ceremonies will stop. When I was working in the downtown area I dreaded this day because the transportation system got all messed up, especially the buses.
A numberof the cable channels are replaying various documentaries about the attack. I watched some of them when they were first broadcast, I don’t want to rewatch them.
gogol's wife
@SFAW:
Yes it looks as if he’s talking about the race for mayor of Rochester, but was too clever by half in his post and so many of the comments are about NYC.
MomSense
@gogol’s wife:
She is an ignoranus! I too am sick of all of them.
You know what else pisses me off? The whole idea that this is a last ditch idea or gaffe from Kerry when it in fact has been on the table for more than a year. It is only with the threat of force that Putin was willing to help broker a deal. There is enough information in the public record that there really is no excuse for “journalists” to keep repeating things that are not true.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/09/220775117/obama-to-make-case-for-syria-strike-in-network-interviews
piratedan
all of this remembrance and most likely nary a mention of the current fact that Obama directed Seal Team Six to go into Pakistan and take this fucker out. Probably got lost in all of the fear mongering and pity parties….
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
A new McCrory campaign ad is showing up on the tee vee here.
What do you mean, the gubernatorial election is still three years away?
Omnes Omnibus
@gogol’s wife: I have skipped primaries before in off year elections. It isn’t uncommon for every race here to have only one candidate running.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ash Can: Oh, certainly, and on re-reading my comment, I see I came across as snarkier than I intended. Yes, families paying tribute is fine, however they want to and for as many years as they wish — as are moments of silence (President is now at the Pentagon to lay a wreath, also very fitting).
I guess I was musing on the intersection of media-driven anniversary coverage with the effects of attrition, and wondering whether there is a natural life-cycle to these things.
Mike in NC
@SiubhanDuinne:
To this day there are people out there who pitch a fit if their local newspaper or TV station doesn’t prominently mention December 7, 1941 or June 6, 1944 when the date rolls around.
Same now apparently applies to September 11, 2001. They were setting up bleachers at the local high school for some sort of ceremony the other day. Also, too, stay away from the TV to avoid the inevitable 9/11 pron, which will continue to lavish praise on our fearless leaders Dubya Bush and Darth Cheney, but neglect to point out the ignored warnings of impending terrorist attacks.
Ash Can
@gogol’s wife: Intellectually, I know that I shouldn’t be surprised anymore at what a certain large faction of people in this country do or say, but I can’t help but be boggled by all the Putin-worship going on. Yes, I get that the blah guy and the Frenchie can’t do anything right in their eyes, but to pile all the glory on Vladimir Fucking Putin, of all people. Christ on a cracker, these are the people who have sanctified Ronald Reagan and hated the Rooskies right along with him back in the day. Now they’ve become that which they hated the most — or, maybe more likely, they were like this all along and hated the Rooskies because they envied them for doing the authoritarian bit so much better than the RW in America could.
It makes me wonder: Would Ronald Reagan, if he were alive (and sentient) today, be horrified at all the Putin-worship? Or would he, like so many other white Americans, have flipped his shit upon the election of the first black POTUS so thoroughly that he’d feel that all was forgiven with the Soviet Union and start holding the Rooskies up as paragons of statecraft and morality too?
Jeremy
@mai naem: Well New York city is the most populated and most important city in the country. It’s a global power city. So it makes sense that it would get greater attention.
PurpleGirl
@SFAW: Lhota’s comments that he wouldn’t try to find/save the kittens caused the other mayoral hopefuls to make statements supporting the saving of kittens. What people need to be reminded of is that Lhota was Chairman of the MTA and responsible for many of the changes in service a few years back. Nevermind the increases in the fare, it’s the changes in service that made traveling harder at the same time.
Lhota, I believe, also said it wasn’t the mayor’s job to decide on saving kittens but the MTA. And the current MTA leadership went with saving the kittens. And most people, when they learned of the reason for the stoppage, agreed with it. Also they sent buses to take over some of the train route.
SFAW
@gogol’s wife:
Understood, wasn’t snarking you, sorry if it came across that way.
RSR
“This is a win for the corporate education privatization lobby.”
Ugh. Just last week, we warned our teacher friends in Rochester to be on guard for the ed reformers. This is not good news.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s the simplest and likely the most accurate answer to my convoluted perplexities. I really shouldn’t comment before coffee.
Jeremy
@MomSense: Even USA Today has a breakdown on how we reached this potential diplomatic solution. Reporters should not be repeating lies just because they hate the President.
PurpleGirl
@SFAW: Yes, Doug is in the Rochester area.
SFAW
@PurpleGirl:
Must have been Beantown expats. No self-respecting Noo Yawkuh …
David in NY
@Jay C: Listened to Lhota’s and de Blasio’s speeches last night. Seemed to me that Lhota had all the charisma of, well, an MTA suit, and de Blasio was really inspiring.
The big questions now are, what’s Bill Thompson going to do and what’s the teachers’ union (which supported him) going to do, and the two may be connected. Thompson really can’t possibly win, even if de Blasio comes up with less than 40% of the vote (which would require a runoff). My guess is that reality, the sudden absence of money, and, I hope, the teachers’ support will make him bow out gracefully.
But if there’s no runoff for mayor, the runoff for public advocate, with Tish James as the more progressive opponent of Daniel Squadron, will be a very quiet affair, which probably hurts James.
Finally, Lhota on kittens can’t compare with Giuliani on ferrets and their owners. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxLP6ni8vVo
Ash Can
@SiubhanDuinne: I didn’t take your comment as snarky, and if my reply came across that way, I apologize, and meant nothing of the kind. I thought it was a valid and interesting question. Also, what Omnes Omnibus said, about it being a generational thing.
SFAW
@Ash Can:
Why does this (apparently) surprise you? I would hazard a guess that far more than the 27 percent would praise/applaud Hitler/Stalin/Satan/Pol Pot if any/all of them came up with something that made Obama look bad, or was even the merest whisper of an inkling of making Obama look bad.
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it EVER WAS
gogol's wife
@Ash Can:
He was shrewd enough not to be fooled by Putin, but in public he would probably say anything that he thought might harm Obama, just as his successors are doing now.
TCM recently aired an interview with him on Johnny Carson when he was governor, and I was astounded at his glib demagoguery. The memory of it had faded.
Botsplainer
@SFAW:
Misidentification of a threat followed by a violent overreaction causing catastrophic harm, followed by obfuscation and a lack of introspection as to the problems in process and ethic which led to the problem.
PurpleGirl
@David in NY: Right. How could I have forgotten that. He really riled up ferrets lovers and their friends. (The Peekskill animal menagerie included 3 ferrets.)
gogol's wife
@Botsplainer:
Good analogy, but in both cases the misidentification of the threat was rather disingenuous.
SFAW
@Botsplainer:
That’s SOP when you have the (either figurative or literal) gun, and the other guy doesn’t.
David in NY
Oh, one more note on NYC. Real Estate interests have gotten together (sort of a local Club for Bigger and Bigger skyscrapers and upscale condos in every empty corner) to take over the City Council. I saw that one of their puppets, who didn’t actually campaign much, tied for first, 30-30, with someone who did. Hoping for a concerted effort to push back against the developers many of whom are members of the 1% (not push totally back, but some ideas, e.g., Yankee Stadium in the West 30’s, are just nuts).
Kay
That it is. However, privatizers and profiteers lost big in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
When Rochester has a coupla years of “reform” under their belt they can then send the “reformers” packing, too.
It’s frustrating to watch, because each city has go through this cycle. It would be great if we could save time and…. Rochester could look at Bridgeport! Don’t do it, Rochester. Look at Bridgeport first.
Rochester could even look at NYC, where education was the 2nd most important issue to voters, and they wanted to go in a different direction from Bloomberg’s privatization push.
You ALL could have looked at Ohio! We’ve had Milton Friedman style “market based” ed reform for SIXTEEN YEARS and it’s a goddamned disaster. I’ll take you on a personal tour of our for-profit school industry!
SiubhanDuinne
Just made the mistake of checking my FB page, and the 9/11 pr0n over there is something to behold.
The exception is from a friend in Lewisporte, Newfoundland. That’s one of the communities that took in hundreds of passengers whose flights were diverted. One of these was Atlanta-bound Delta #15. On the return to ATL, the crew and passengers decided to set up a scholarship fund for Lewisporte HS graduating seniors. The first recipient, class of 2002, is one of the people pictured on the cover of People Magazine’s “One Year Later” anniversary issue. That young lady went to university, then med school, and is now doing a family-practice residency. Anyhow, she and her mother are friends of mine IRL and on FB, and the mother changes her profile pspicture to the magazine cover each year on this date. Very proud, and very understandable.
Ash Can
@SFAW: It’s the sheer irony that gets me. ODS has driven these people to extremes that would have seemed utterly absurd, to them and everyone else, 25-30 years ago.
Doug Milhous J
@CaseyL:
I still could have made it even with the meeting. Just trying to paint myself as an example of someone who almost always votes and meant to vote…but was too lazy because I thought it was a done deal.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@SFAW:
I always got the impression that Noo Yawkers were actually big giant softies underneath their tough exteriors. Maybe I watch too much TV.
And being anti-kitten is not going to help anyone with the conservatives I know. They may not like their fellow humans, but they love puppies and kittens.
Chris
@MomSense:
It’s been nothing short of spectacular watching Obama and his cabinet be the only adults in the room – like a reverse image of the Bush years. Every other public figure, plus every wingnut or firebagger acquaintance of mine, is now running around like a chicken with his heads cut off shreiking to all who will hear that Obama is either 1) abolishing “American Credibility” and dooming us all to a dark age of rule by Caliphate, or 2) plotting the murder of Syrian children because he’s a stealth neocon/Muslim Brother (depending on who you talk to). Everything that doesn’t fit the script, they consider either a diabolical ploy, or proof that the White House is “confused” and “out of its depth” (rather than proof that their badly written Palpatine fan fiction doesn’t actually correspond to the world in front of them). No one, and I do mean no one is considering the possibility that maybe, just maybe, what Obama’s been saying all along (that he thinks the use of chem weapons is a serious enough crime to merit action, but that he’s willing to discuss nonviolent outcomes) is all there is to it – or that it might actually have been quite a good idea to do things that way, or that the last couple days show that it might have a chance of working out after all.
And I thought white people had lost their shit after 2008. 2012 has somehow managed to drive them another order of magnitude crazier.
SFAW
@Ash Can:
Not just utterly absurd – they would have been visited by the proverbial men-with-the-straitjacket.
They are, collectively, perhaps the single most convincing piece of evidence that Darwin was wrong.
Suffern ACE
@gogol’s wife: that is your Lhota voting liberal dem.
Chris
@Ash Can:
It doesn’t surprise me at all. After the Cold War was over, the Russians stopped being communists and a new bogeyman emerged (Islam), I’d have been surprised if ex-KGB thugs weren’t embraced by the GOP, in the same way that after World War Two, fascist regimes in the Mediterranean and Latin America were warmly embraced as allies against the left.
ETA (FYWP, I wasn’t done writing): if you’ve read enough comments sections on wingnut blogs, every now and then the theme will pop up that Clinton fucked up by involving us in Yugoslavia, because Milosevic was actually fighting the war against Islamo-fascism, and Clinton brought us in on the Islamo-fascist side because he’s either stupid or a Muslim Brotherhood agent, and the biased liberal media prevented us from getting the Serbian side of the story, they were just protecting their homeland from (insert event that happened between 50 and 500 years ago).
I suppose I’m a little surprised that wingnuts would be putting their love for ex-commie thugs out there so blatantly. But then over the past five years I’ve seen so many things that used to be reserved for the comments sections of right wing blogs, “just between us white guys,” go mainstream that I really shouldn’t be.
SFAW
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
“How many New Yorkers does it take to change a light bulb?”
A. “None of yer goddam business, asshole!”
B. New Yorkers aren’t afraid of the dark.
mai naem
@Jeremy: Yes, NYC is the most important city in the US but I don’t think it deserves a national replay of 4 hrs every anniversary of 9/11. And I don’t think London, Tokyo, Frankfurt,Paris,Beijing or Mumbai would get this kind of coverage in their respective countries 12 years after an event. .
Chris
@Ash Can:
Also don’t forget – liberals have been mad at Putin lately for the crackdown on gay people. That alone is enough to make them defend him. Remember that blogger who tweeted after the new Pope was chosen “if the rumors are true that he supported the junta throwing left wingers out of airplanes, my opinion of him just went up.” There really are no limits to how far the “because it pisses off liberals” mentality will go.
Suffern ACE
@Chris: Yep. They completely miss the point that Putin also flip-flopped here. But only Dems are weak-kneed flip floppers, so that won’t do. The only course of action once it is announced that one is willing to drop a bomb is to follow through and drop the bomb. With what passes for ideal “leadership” for Dowd’s class, It’s a wonder that they all haven’t been led off a cliff by someone, praising God while they plummet for such steadfast leaders who lead them over cliffs even when there are stairs available.
Chris
@Suffern ACE:
Agreed. I wonder if it’s reading too much into it for me to suggest that Putin’s homophobic crackdowns lately, and the Democrats’ protests against them, have solidified his manly man image among conservatives and ramped up their support for him. They would, after all, probably be supporting him anyway. But they’ll feel better about it after what he did.
And yes, the media’s image of what a True Leader should look like is absolutely pitiful.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@SFAW:
Uh-huh. But show you big tough Noo Yawkers a fluffy iddle kitteh, and this is what happens:
http://bit.ly/aoY6Jj
Ash Can
@Chris:
I don’t think it’s reading too much into it at all. They have an obsessive hatred for queers and along comes someone (other than the melanin-rich folks in Africa who have made homosexuality a capital offense) who’s actually doing something about it. What’s not to love about that?
Frankensteinbeck
@Suffern ACE:
No. They won’t pay $25 for your opinion. They might pay $25,000. Or better yet $250,000. That little quirk of human behavior is why the GOP is a feeding frenzy of grifters right now.
NotMax
Nearly halfway through the day on the east coast and FOX hasn’t yet run a Chyron stating that most of the hijackers on that past Sept. 11 were Syrian?
“It was an unintentional miscommunication,” said the FOX spokesperson. “Saudi, Syrian, they both start with an ‘S’ you know. And in the high pressure environment of today’s television newsrooms, foreign names occasionally are mispronounced.”
(Not an actual quote – yet.)
Another Holocene Human
Here’s my take: 5 years ago, some things happened that started the African American community on the path of voting more than every before. Last year, their participation levels rivaled or exceeded other groups. Every ethnic group has to get to that point to exercise any real power. This year, we’re seeing the African American voting public “spoiling” local elections, then trading that heft for concessions once the pol is in office. This is a big, and important change. It’s no surprise that it’s happening in local elections because state districts are gerrymandered, and the national politicians (who might like some swing vote support) are on a white supremacy all the time jag.
We know the GOP as it now exists is dying and is going down. But I see a possible future where it realigns and comes back to life. But the platform is going to have to change, and that’s going to start at the local level.
Enjoy your day in the sun, white supremacists. You have an expiration date.
Another Holocene Human
@SFAW: Just one, but he wears web shooters?
SiubhanDuinne
This item gave me a nice lift:
H/T Zay Smith, via.
Yatsuno
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): They get sent to The Hague???
(methinks ur link is wrong)
Mnemosyne
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Ha! Bad linky, obviously:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WUR_3QcvSM
It will be very handy once John unblocks me from home and I don’t have to use the iPhone to try and post links.
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne: More evidence that Chuck Jones was America’s greatest filmmaker.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne: Can’t believe Cole still has you blocked. You’ve emailed him, of course? I understand that’s the most effective way to get his attention.
rikyrah
Warning, you will be crying from laughter by the end of this post:
Whose Mighty Mouse Swag Brother is This? Featuring Roast From My Readers
[ 30 ] September 10, 2013 | Luvvie
Yesterday, I was perusing Tumblr when I came across the picture of a strapping young lad, captured by someone on public transportation. I posted the picture on my Awesomely Luvvie Facebook page and the comments my readers replied with were better than anything I could come up with
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2013/09/whose-mighty-mouse-swag-brother-featuring-roast-readers.html
Yatsuno
@SiubhanDuinne: Using all caps and multiple e-mails with stronger urgency tags works too. Or so I hear.
Actually I e-mail SG if anything goes sideways.
@MikeJ: He did win three Oscars and got nominated eight times. Eat that Spielberg!
pamelabrown53
@Chris: Actually, I think the firebagger segment of the “liberals” has been uncharacteristically quiet re: Putin’s horrible embrace of the anti-gay laws. Personally, I’m perplexed.
Anya
You only need to read this insanity from The Nation‘s Bob Dreyfuss to realize that wingnuts on the right and President Obama’s most extremist critics on the left are basically the same. Via Bob Cesca:
Yatsuno
@pamelabrown53:
I’m not. Putin is useful to their aims (namely, getting THAT ONE out of the White House so they can install Worstest Republican Evar and end up with Magical Purity Progressive Pony) so who cares if a bunch of kweerz in Russia get killed over it? Eggs and omelettes people!!!
Chris
@Anya:
@Yatsuno:
… and that’s why I’ve been drifting to the Obot side of the Obot/Firebagger divide for years now. Which wasn’t at all preordained, but watching them unjustifiably and completely lose their shit on issue after issue while endlessly moaning about the deficit of ponies just gets unbelievably old after a while.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yatsuno: I’ve had good luck emailing mistermix. Found that out when I suddenly got banned in the middle of an AL thread a couple of months ago, emailed her, and she forwarded my message to mixie. Now I just cut out the middle(wo)man and go straight to the expert.
Mnemosyne
@Anya:
As I keep saying, that perspective only makes sense if you’re working from the assumption that what Obama wants is to bomb Syria and is looking for any excuse to do that. If that’s your belief, then of course this looks like White Hat Putin thwarting the evil desires of Black Hat Obama.
If you actually take Obama at his word that what he really wants to stop is the use of chemical weapons, then the whole “Putin cock-blocks Obama!” narrative looks really, really stupid since it means that Putin blocked Obama by … giving Obama what he said he wanted this whole time.
TriassicSands
That may be the worst reason in the world to not vote. The polls said…. Sheesh!