Without actually using the word idiot.
Monday Open Thread
Now playing on my iTunes: Big Audio Dynamite- This Is Big Audio Dynamite.
Go ahead, make fun of me. I don’t care. Up next is TP and the HB’s- Let Me Up I Have Had Enough.
Consider this an open thread, and since I have been out of town and otherwise occupied, fill me in on what I have missed.
*** Update ***
I am working and uploading more cd’s to iTunes at the same time, and one of the things that I found truly surprising is how much Tom Petty I have. I have always liked him, but I didn’t realize I liked him as much as I did- I have put in 5 albums this morning and I know I have double that amount at home. Weird.
*** Update #2 ***
In a strange turn of events, the comment spam (which you never see, but I get to delete out of the spam filter with an annoying regularity) has now switched from merely advertising penis enlargement procedures, but instead offers instructions on how to use said enlargement techniques.
*** Update #3 ****
Average White Band.
Go ahead- make my day. Punk.
Tim Russert: The False Dilemma
For those of you who are actually interested in straight talk, I would recommend you peruse yesterday’s Obama appearance on Meet the Press. Despite Russert’s incessant and unceasing idiocy, attempting one gotcha after another, to include even engaging in Dowdification of the first order to attempt to portray Obama as a hypocrite, the Senator calmly, rationally, and clearly answered the questions.
It was, in a word, refreshing. I felt like a candidate was actually treating me, the viewer, like an adult with a brain (in my case, this can be a risky assumption at times). My favorite exchange (which illustrates perfectly the sheer stupidity of Russert while demonstrating the endearing honesty of Obama), which I have cut from a larger segment on campaign fund-raising:
MR. RUSSERT: But if you say you don’t take federal lobbyist but you take state lobbyist money…
SEN. OBAMA: Well, Tim…
MR. RUSSERT: …or you take money from people who work for federal lobbying firms, or you take $2 million from people who work on Wall Street or hundreds of thousands of dollars from people who work in pharmaceutical companies, isn’t it just a word game?
SEN. OBAMA: Tim, I mean, this is the problem when you want to try to fix Washington is if you take certain steps to improve the process, then people will say, “Well, it’s not perfect.” Well, of course it’s not perfect. That’s the problem for running for president right now is you’ve got to raise millions of dollars in order to compete. We’ve got more small donors than every other candidate on the Democratic side combined. We have set out admittedly imperfect rules to try to reduce the influence of money in politics. But you are absolutely right. Most of the people that are writing $2300 checks are wealthy people, and that’s one of the problems with our political system. That’s something that I am intent on changing, and I’ve got a track record of actually bringing about change that I believe nobody else has.
Obama clearly believes money in politics is a problem (we can agree to disagree- I say let it all hangout and have immediate public disclosure), and has worked to “fix” this problem, yet what Russert is trying to do is to make him choose- have no chance at be elected because he takes NO money to finance his campaign, or to ackowledge he is a hypocrite.
It is, of course, insulting to anyone who actually listens to what Obama is trying to say, but typical of the sort of drivel that passes as hard questioning on MTP.
At any rate, I am still not inclined to vote for Obama (I am still holding out hope for Dodd), but I thought his performance yesterday was very solid. It is not too often that someone appears on MTP and I have a much higher opinion of them afterwards (Russert’s idiocy seems to sully everyone it touches). This was a rare exception.
John McCain’s Bullshit Express
Cute:
The so-called Wounded Warriors Act, legislation intended to improve health care for veterans, has attracted nearly unanimous, bipartisan support in Congress. So why would the newly formed Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America begin running a television commercial urging the citizens of South Carolina to tell Congress to pass it?
The answer lies in the commercial’s glowing images of Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican banking on a South Carolina victory to jump-start his cash-poor Republican primary campaign. The group that paid for the advertisement operates independently of Mr. McCain’s campaign, but was set up and financed by his supporters seeking to help him as much as possible up to the limits of the law.
***Mr. McCain has crusaded for years against just this sort of unencumbered political spending and has publicly called upon the foundation to stop the advertisement, a request competitors say seems half-hearted and the group’s leader has ignored.
Personally, I think this group should be able to do whatever it wants (despite the fact that I think it is exceedingly tawdry that a group is using wounded vets to engage in what is pretty clearly candidate advocacy). But John McCain doesn’t, and, as the article notes, has worked long and hard to make it very difficult for you, me, and everyone else to pool our resources to engage in political advocacy for the candidates WE like. It is just another example of John McCain’s slide from “principled” outsider maverick to the the candidate who really will say anything to get elected. John McCain’s behavior on all things, from CFR to torture to, well, you name it, has been nothing short of disgraceful since 2000. I am actually shocked he is not the candidate of choice for Greater Wingnuttia.
At any rate, hopefully this will soon pass, and we can get back to the really important issues of the day, like hyperventilating about a candidate planting questions at campaign stops (and no I don’t like it, but Christ, I thought I was supposed to be the naive one here). It is almost like people forgot about the Bush Administration ACTUALLY buying the press. Which is worse?
*** Update ***
The campaign disavows it. Will it stop?
Open Beer Thread
Don’t ask about batch one because I don’t want to talk about it. Pouring that much would-have-been beer into a drain feels like an almost unforgivable party foul. Batch 2, a hoppy porter based on extract and mixed crystal malts, went well except that the boiling wort needed more attention than expected. The homemade wort chiller worked well.
Waiting 24 hours for the airlock to start bubbling was agony. Starter cultures for me and to hell with kit directions. It’s not like I respect recipes-as-written for any other type of food.
One question for the community: I bought a 2-gal. fermenter to try making beer with genetics research yeast, so now I’m searching for beer recipes that go well with (or cover up) suboptimal yeast strains. Finnish sahti comes to mind, although I’m not sure that many will appreciate a sour juniper-tinged rye beer that tastes like bread yeast. Or will they? Discuss.
***Update***
As per the comments, feel free to submit names for my first successful batch made with genetics yeast. The winning entry will go on the label.
Feinstein Responds to Oil Spill
Sen. Dianne Feinstein lambasted the oil-spill response effort of the past week, saying Sunday that it revealed a disturbing lack of readiness for disasters in the Bay Area – and that the full weight of the federal government will now be brought into a rigorous investigation to find out what went wrong.
Now that the “full weight” includes Mukasey, Feinstein also noted she’d waterboard the shit out of anyone, anytime to get to the bottom of it.
Same Old Browns
Steelers win, 31-28. If our special teams had not been so horrible, it would have been a blowout.
The Browns, though, true to form, can not win on the field, so throw a Hail Mary to… the Refs, hoping that an obvious touchdown to Miller in the final minutes of the game would be overturned. Not only was it clearly a touchdown, but now you blew two time-outs challenging it. Well played, morons. A time-out might have been handy on that last drive, ehh?
PS- All you Browns fans who were talking shit on forums all over telling us how this week it would be different, and that you weren’t the same team as you were the first time we met? Whatever- see you next year.
Oh, and btw- our QB rushed for more yardage (49) more than your entire team (40). Nice balanced offense you have there.