Not sure how much I am going to be blogging this weekend, so I thought I would leave you with this, which was mailed in from one of our readers:
Elroy having some dinner.
I think it is time to resurrect Friday catblogging here.
by John Cole| 84 Comments
This post is in: Cat Blogging
Not sure how much I am going to be blogging this weekend, so I thought I would leave you with this, which was mailed in from one of our readers:
I think it is time to resurrect Friday catblogging here.
by John Cole| 99 Comments
This post is in: Blogospheric Navel-Gazing
Via the Great Orange Satan, this:
Ad Campaign Criticizes Pro-Life Members of Congress for Voting against Children’s Health Insurance
Washington, DC- Catholics United will launch a radio advertising campaign targeting ten members of Congress whose opposition to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) have compromised their pro-life voting records.
The ads, which feature a mother urging her Congressional Representative to support SCHIP, will primarily air on Christian and talk radio stations from Monday Oct. 15 to Wednesday, Oct. 17 as Congress approaches a critical Oct. 18 vote to override President Bush’s veto of bipartisan SCHIP legislation.
“Building a true culture of life requires public policies that promote the welfare of the most vulnerable,” said Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United. “At the heart of the Christian faith is a deep and abiding concern for the need of others. Pro-life Christians who serve in Congress should honor this commitment by supporting health care for poor children.”
***The script for the radio commercial reads: “I’m the mother of three children, and I’m pro-life. I believe that protecting the lives our children must be our nation’s number one moral priority. That’s why I’m concerned that Congressman X says he’s pro-life but votes against health care for poor children. That’s not pro-life. That’s not pro-family. Tell Congressman X to vote for health care for children. Call him today at XXXX, that’s XXXXX.”
ATTN: Dan Riehl, Michelle Malkin, NRO, you have your marching orders. When the ad airs, it is your job to find out what you can about the woman reading the message. Some possible questions for you citizen journalists:
Is she really a woman?
What is her address and where can I find her house so I can drive by it?
Does she really have three kids?
Are they her kids?
Did she swap one in the hospital?
Is it possible she swapped one at the hospital?
Is she a good mother?
Is she really Catholic?
Does she go to church?
What was her last confession about?
Is she really pro-life?
Has she ever had an abortion?
Have her neighbors ever had an abortion?
Does she use birth control?
Has she ever done anything that could technically make her not Catholic? Not a good mother? Not pro-life?
And most important of all, what do her kitchen counters look like?
Have at it, you sick SOB’s.
by Tim F| 37 Comments
This post is in: Media, General Stupidity
Scott Horton asks a simple question.
My simple answer – when one party goes completely fucking insane, pundits who define “balance” as reflexively arguing that both parties are just as bad on every imaginable issue have to either give it up or stake out absolutely moronic positions. To some people sounding like a raving idiot is less of a threat than admitting that in some cases one of the parties is slightly worse.
What’s Wrong With The <em>Washington Post</em>?Post + Comments (37)
This post is in: Excellent Links, Politics
I guess I really am a card-carrying liberal now, because I think Paul Krugman gets it exactly right in this perfect summation of the last week:
Soon after the radio address, right-wing bloggers began insisting that the Frosts must be affluent because Graeme and his sister attend private schools (they’re on scholarship), because they have a house in a neighborhood where some houses are now expensive (the Frosts bought their house for $55,000 in 1990 when the neighborhood was rundown and considered dangerous) and because Mr. Frost owns a business (it was dissolved in 1999).
You might be tempted to say that bloggers make unfounded accusations all the time. But we’re not talking about some obscure fringe. The charge was led by Michelle Malkin, who according to Technorati has the most-trafficked right-wing blog on the Internet, and in addition to blogging has a nationally syndicated column, writes for National Review and is a frequent guest on Fox News.
The attack on Graeme’s family was also quickly picked up by Rush Limbaugh, who is so important a player in the right-wing universe that he has had multiple exclusive interviews with Vice President Dick Cheney.
And G.O.P. politicians were eager to join in the smear. The New York Times reported that Republicans in Congress “were gearing up to use Graeme as evidence that Democrats have overexpanded the health program to include families wealthy enough to afford private insurance” but had “backed off” as the case fell apart.
In fact, however, Republicans had already made their first move: an e-mail message from the office of Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, sent to reporters and obtained by the Web site Think Progress, repeated the smears against the Frosts and asked: “Could the Dems really have done that bad of a job vetting this family?”
And the attempt to spin the media worked, to some extent: despite reporting that has thoroughly debunked the smears, a CNN report yesterday suggested that the Democrats had made “a tactical error in holding up Graeme as their poster child,” and closely echoed the language of the e-mail from Mr. McConnell’s office.
All in all, the Graeme Frost case is a perfect illustration of the modern right-wing political machine at work, and in particular its routine reliance on character assassination in place of honest debate. If service members oppose a Republican war, they’re “phony soldiers”; if Michael J. Fox opposes Bush policy on stem cells, he’s faking his Parkinson’s symptoms; if an injured 12-year-old child makes the case for a government health insurance program, he’s a fraud.
He even addresses the ‘choices’ bullshit that had me ready to scream all week:
I don’t know about you, but I think American children who need medical care should get it, period. Even if you think adults have made bad choices — a baseless smear in the case of the Frosts, but put that on one side — only a truly vicious political movement would respond by punishing their injured children.
Not in the “compassionate conservative” crowd. They are too busy proving to each other what good Christians they are by getting all worked up about gay marriage.
E.J. Dionne lets loose, too.
by Tim F| 9 Comments
This post is in: Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.
Two recent stories illustrate the glorious fruits of the Bush Doctrine.
* The Inspector General at CIA proves again why the administration cannot function when IG’s do their job. CIA IG John L. Helgerson got a little too curious about torture at CIA, so director Michael Hayden decided to investigate him. Will Helgerson investigate Hayden’s investigation? And if so, how will Hayden respond? Updates no doubt coming soon.
* Whodathunkit? If you create a huge voucher subsidy for private schools but free them from having to comply with government standards, you get a shoddy mess. Thinking about the children might be a cliche but yeesh, a little wouldn’t hurt.
No oversight, no accountability.
by Tim F| 79 Comments
This post is in: Politics, Popular Culture, Science & Technology
Michelle Malkin’s head go ‘splodey.
Norway—Former Vice President Al Gore says he’s “deeply honored” to be the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Gore — who is in the Bay Area this morning — has been named the winner of the prize for his efforts in the fight against global warming.
He’s sharing the honor with the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Gore says he will be donating the proceeds from the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection. The group is a bipartisan non-profit organization working on the climate crisis.
He’s expected to be in Palo Alto today to meet with the group.
Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” won an Academy Award this year for best documentary.
Go ahead and try not running for president, you coy prong. We’ll nominate you anyway.
***Critical Update***
I had about the same reaction as the Commissar – I want Al’s desk.
Don’t need the papers, though. I already have those.
Bonus question – is Al using Mac or PC? The Apple laptops that he used in the movie suggest Mac, so that’s what I will guess. These questions are important, people.
by John Cole| 53 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
So I was reading this piece by Joan Walsh (on the Frost bit, of course), and I decided to see if this is Joan Walsh who occasionally appears on hardball and other shows. So, I clicked on the about Joan tab:
I’ve written for everyone from the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post to Vogue and the Nation. I love baseball, Bruce Springsteen, Stephen Colbert and long walks on the beach. I live in San Francisco with my daughter, Nora, the best teenager ever.
Am I the only person who couldn’t care less for long walks on the beach? Sand in my toes, the option of either grit in my shoes or flip-flops or having to carry them, etc. Screw that. I would rather be in the damned water. Am I alone in that I would rather be drinking fruity drinks or nursing the inevitable beach vacation hangover before eating lots of seafood at the raw bar?
In fairness, she may just be joking as that is such a cliche.
Take Your Long walks on the Beach and Stuff ItPost + Comments (53)