Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

šŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockinā€™ šŸŽµ

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

SCOTUS: Itā€™s not ā€œbriberyā€ unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, itā€™s merely ā€œsparkling malfeasance”.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Museums are not Americaā€™s attic for its racist shit.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

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

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

I really should read my own blog.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Consistently wrong since 2002

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

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Tom in Texas wrote at Balloon Juice in 2008.

Tom in Texas

NY Up for Grabs?

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A new Marist poll has McCain/Rice beating any combination of Clinton/Obama. In New York. I don’t trust the results of this holding up in November, nor do I think there is the slightest chance the GOP will put Rice on the ticket. I think Rice is far too close to Bush, and the Republicans will want to make a clean break with the Bush administration, especially her signature failure of managing Iraq prior to McCain’s surge strategy. He will do all he can to paint Iraq as a strategic failure led by Republicans that ignored his advice early on. That narrative disappears if Rice is by his side while he makes it.

On top of that, putting Rice on the GOP ticket might actually cause the Solid South vote to waver. Condi and McCain do nothing to reassure the arch conservatives who want to shut down the border and remove affirmative action. I also think putting a single black female on the ticket will push a few voters who can’t stand at least one of those categories away from the ticket.

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Wild Wild MidEast

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The Nation reports on another contractor accusing KBR of covering up gang rape among their employees.

That dawn, naked, covered in blood and feces, bleeding from her anus, she found a US soldier she did not know lying naked in the bed next to her: his gun lay on the floor beside the bed, she could not rouse him and all she could remember of the night before was screaming and screaming as the soldier anally penetrated her while a colleague who worked for defense contractor KBR held her hand–but instead of helping her, as she had hoped, he jammed his penis in her mouth.

Over the next few weeks Smith would be told to keep quiet about the incident by a KBR supervisor. The camp’s military liaison officer also told her not to speak about what had happened, she says. And she would follow these instructions. “Because then, all of a sudden, if you’ve done exactly what you’ve been instructed not to do–tell somebody–then you’re in danger,” Smith says.

Read the whole thing. Her story is nauseating — the hurdles she’s forced to endure seem Kafkaesque. Jamie Leigh Jones was not alone. She is using a pseudonym not only to avoid the metascrutiny she would be subjected to otherwise, but because she is going back — if she doesn’t she loses her family’s health insurance, critical for her husband who suffered a partial stroke the day she returned from Iraq.

According to the order, imposed by Paul Bremer, US defense contractors in Iraq cannot be prosecuted in the Iraqi criminal justice system. While they can technically be tried in US federal court, the Justice Department has shown no interest in prosecuting her case. In fact, for more than two years now, the DOJ has brought no criminal charges in the matter. Representative Ted Poe, a Texas Republican who has taken up Jones’s cause, reports that federal agencies refuse to discuss the status of the investigation; meanwhile, in December, the DOJ refused to send a representative to the related Congressional hearing on the matter.

Even more appalling, the Justice Department, which can and should prosecute most of these cases, has declined to do so.

Her alleged attackers are effectively immune from criminal prosecution unless a President willing to administer justice can be found. The only way she and others like her (one firm has fifteen clients with sexual assault, sexual harassment and retaliation complaints against Halliburton, KBR, and SEII) can seek justice is through the US Justice Department, or Michael Mukasey. The only person he listens to is George W. Bush. January can’t come soon enough.

If I were Lisa Smith I’d accidentally amputate the dick off the next asshole who came to me for medical help after raping me. What are they gonna do, sue for malpractice? All contractors are immune from any criminal liability whatsoever right? KBR surely will have her back.

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Opening Day Thread

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I love this time of year for sports. Tripleheaders all week as baseball kicks in and March Madness comes to a raging climax.

Predictions:
Detroit edges Boston in the ALCS, and the Mets ruin Chicago’s dreams by ousting the Cubs in the NL. The Reds are surprisingly competitive and earn a wild card. The Astros eke out a .500 record, and the Pirates will be pulling a Clinton and pointlessly playing out the string after being mathematically eliminated in June. Detroit wins the WS, and Red State wonders whether the Tigers or Obama winning will lead to riots in the streets.

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Great Timing

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Billy Richardson is set to endorse Obama in Oregon today. This is sure to help with the all important Hispanic vote in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Oregon. No doubt his endorsement will also ring in many Philadelphian’s ears a month from now when they vote (and as soon as most of them figure out who the hell Bill Richardson is and why they should care who the governor of New Mexico thinks they should vote for).

Snark aside, I do think this is a sign of what Barack’s efforts this week are achieving. A major target of his speeches (especially the penultimate More Perfect Union) were the undecided superdelegates, since his popular delegate lead is nearly insurmountable. They are beginning to trust him on defense — specifically his own defense.

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Best Meal Ever

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Use this time to discuss the best meal you’ve ever had. No election talk, please.

Livingston is a town of around 5,000 people in East Texas. It’s about an hour north of Houston. There is a tiny restaurant, off the farm road that bisects the state highway that serves ribs, brisket, fried catfish — basically your quintessential Texas cuisine. Florida’s Kitchen uses recipes that were created by the wife of a colored farm worker in the segregated south — she cooked for her husband and his crew when they returned home. Eventually, she began selling meals out of the family’s shack. The family still runs the place, and smokes its meat in 14 foot long smokers that are grounded within a few feet of the door. It’s an eye-watering, but savory preview of the meal within.

It’s been expanded a few times, but is still far too small to handle huge rushes. I’ve been on a Sunday morning and waited hours to be seated — it was worth it, by the way. Part of this is simply the place’s capabilities. It’s basically a three room house converted into a restaurant. I think a large part of it is the small town mindset. People just move slower and take their time doing things. Drivers go 15 under the speed limit. Fast food takes 20 minutes in a drive thru. You learn to accept it.

I first ate at Florida’s when I was around 12 years old. I’ve eaten at Florida’s dozens of times. My father owned a lakehouse in Onalaska, TX (pop 700) that he purchased in the early 1990’s. He was forced to sell it after Enron when his retirement fund was cleaved approximately in half. I have driven more than 2 hours out of my way to eat there since then. The food has never disappointed, and it is the perfect introduction to small town Texas on Sundays. If any Texan here is driving from Houston up 59, take the time to stop by. It’s only about 5 minutes off the highway. It is a little under an hour from I-45 if you’re going from Houston to Dallas, and the drive there along with the food make the detour well worth it in either case.

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Hey Kids! Get Off My Lawn!

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That lovely home gracious enough to donate their space for what should have been a dreary caucus (2004 had around 50 attendees) was overrun this evening in a shockingly subdued fashion by hundreds of very patient caucusgoers.

The caucus was scheduled to begin at 7:15, but there was a slight delay as overwhelmed volunteers tried to sign everyone in. Around 8:30, I finally weaved through the line. These poor souls were still in line as I left:

In fact, the line still stretched around the block:

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Primary Open Thread

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Including some Texas info:

This is my voting precinct location:

There were two Obama volunteers there, both middle aged white men. Neither was standing within the frame of this shot — they flanked the sidewalk leading up to the house. The young girl in a wheelchair was from New York. Her mother was a Hillary supporter who was very much in favor of Clinton’s health care plan.

The street out front featured two more Hillary Clinton backers:

One carries a “Honk for Hillary” sign. No one honked in the 30 minutes I was there.

A volunteer at the B&B said that up to that point in the day (and including early voting) around 35% of the precinct’s eligible voters had voted in the primary. This location only hosted the Democratic primary — the GOP’s was several blocks away. The staff was in a panic because they are concerned they may have to move the caucus outside due to the size of the crowd, or even move locations ( a resolution the volunteers out front were protesting against vigorously).

And as further evidence of his Communist leanings, the side of Barack Obama’s Houston headquarters:

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