If the Gov is indeed ousted today, the Illinois Tollway will almost immediately shroud all those signs proclaiming Rod's awesomeness (like this one). Then they'll take them down.I almost think we should leave them up, just to remind everyone who is responsible for the crap job they did re-paving I-90. After 1-2 years of winter (who knew it got so cold and there was all that snow and ice?), some sections already look like the surface of the moon or as if they were shelled.
. . . the whole post-partisan song is nothing more than a political game, a super-shrewd, exotic political tactic Obama is employing in order to cast the GOP as obstructionists.Not exactly that, of course - That comes from Glenn Greenwald's post today regarding Dick Armey's latest display of class. Obama even invited the Rethugs to the White House for cocktails! How brilliant!
As I've documented many times before, Beltway "bipartisanship" means that Democrats adopt as many GOP beliefs as possible so what ultimately is done resembles Republican policies as much as possible (anyone doubting that should simply review these "bipartisan" votes of the last eight years). I'm glad that the stimulus package yesterday -- which Democrats watered down and comprised on as much as possible to please Republicans -- did not attract even a single Republican vote in the House: not one.Argh. I'm going to have to continue to hope that Obama's a game-changer who will outsmart the GOP's goons. It's going to be awfully tough, though, with the wimpy wing of the Democratic Congress being their usual spineless, Charlie-Brown-with-Lucy's*-GOP-football selves. Harry Reid?? GAWD. Can't we just let Jim Webb get up there and kick some ass?
Republicans aren't interested in "bipartisanship" except to the extent that they can force Democrats to enact their policies even though they have only a small minority thanks to being so forcefully rejected by the citizenry. And why should they be interested in bipartisanship? Why should they vote for a stimulus package that they don't support and that is anathema to what their most ardent supporters believe? It's very hard to find any virtuous attribute of the contemporary Republican Party, but one thing that can be said for them is that -- unlike Democrats, whose overarching desire in life is to please the needy harmony fetishists by adopting as many GOP views as possible -- Republicans are willing to incur criticisms by opposing what they oppose and supporting what they support.
Huzzah to Joan Walsh who has far, far more patience than I would have had in dealing with that misogynist moron, Dick Armey. What a piece of garbage:Mine too!Former Rep. Dick Armey (R-Texas) still needs some lessons in etiquette.If you are unfamiliar with Dick Armey's bizarroworld discussion about the economy, where the "income redistributonists" have screwed up the economy by not giving enough tax cuts to the rich, you will understand why we are in this mess today. (And you will understand why my head explodes when I see the Republicans on television sanctimoniously lecturing everyone about economics.
Armey, who once referred to fellow Rep. Barney Frank as "Barney Fag," lost his temper during an appearance with Salon Editor-in-Chief Joan Walsh on MSNBC's Hardball Wednesday, and lashed out, saying:I am so damn glad that you could never be my wife, 'cause I surely wouldn't have to listen to that prattle from you every day.Joan responded, "Well, that makes two of us." She'll have more to say in her blog later on. Video of the appearance is below [ed. note: In the original post]]; the exchange comes about 9:42 in.
Dick Armey is one of the foremost conservative economic gurus in the land and is one of the guys they turn to for serious policy advice. I'm not kidding.
Joan, you are my hero.
Can someone tell me . . .The SN readers' comments are great.
…why Republicans are attacking Democrats for funding STD prevention? Like, where is the partisan gain in all this? Can you imagine campaign ads that say something along the lines of, “Mike Pence voted AGAINST Barack Hussein Obama’s plan to prevent you from getting a sexually transmitted disease!” In a sane country, this stuff would just not be controversial.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
“It is well past time to ask the question: What has Barack Obama really accomplished as president, anyway?”That’s right. After all it’s been 48 hours hasn’t it?“the first couple danced at 10 balls and Michelle’s dresses are getting pretty good reviews. But the economy is still in the deep freeze, we’ve still got troops in Iraq and global warming continues apace. How long are we supposed to wait for the change we’ve been waiting for?”Ask Laura Bush for a Xanax, dear.”Passing legislation, getting programs to work, is often a process measured in inches. A president can inspire, can use the bully pulpit, but when banks aren’t making loans, people are losing their homes and the Detroit automakers are teetering on the brink, speeches aren’t enough.”Really? That’s not what you clowns thought when Reagan was president.
Cute, crazy kickerClick on the link for a couple of photos and of course the latest Li'l Bastard Comix, one of the absolute bestest things on the teh internets evah!
Life of party, crackin’ jokes
Keep showin’ your stuff!
Listen, I get it,In the summer, it's flip-flops. In the winter, it's Ugz. Both have the potential to make a lot of noise, particularly when the wearer feels the need to not pick up
Okay? Fashion, whatever.
But the boots must go!
There once was a time
When Ugz were in - maybe you
Could be less trendy?
These people can dish it out, but when it comes to taking it they whine and cry like little bitty babies.Amen, sister. She's referring to this piece in the librul New York Times where Dubya's cronies were mewling about how mean Obama was to them in his inaugural address. Here's the odious Karen Hughes being sanctimonious:
“There were a few sharp elbows that really rankled and I felt were not as magnanimous as the occasion called for,” Karen Hughes, a longtime Bush confidante, said in an interview. “He really missed an opportunity to be as big as the occasion was and, frankly, as gracious as President Bush was as he left office.”Oh, honey - spare us, will ya? Yessir, that Bush is one gracious-ass dude. As if he had any choice but to stay out of the way? Everyone was through with him long before Obama was even elected. Still, it's cute that Karen thinks he was still relevant.
Dan Bartlett, another top adviser, used similar language. “It was a missed opportunity to bring some of the president’s loyal supporters into the fold,” he said.Yeah . . . there were tons of the (thankfully former) president's loyal supporters waiting to be brought into "the fold" until Obama said all those awful, horrible things. The wingnut 22% positive-approval-rating base was so totally ready to accept Obama as a legitimate President, stop saying murderous things about him and plotting his destruction, and join the fold--until he hurt their feelings. Is there an ounce of self-awareness in that entire crowd?
It doesn't matter how much you "reach out" or try to find "common ground" with conservatives, they are so thin-skinned that any criticism is seen as a threat to their honor. Their worldview is formed around the idea that they are a misunderstood and besieged minority who are victimized by traitorous, hedonistic liberals and their lives are organized around their belief in their oppression.Yup, those ungracious libruls. After all Dubya & Co. have done for us! Tsk.
That they are actually saying Obama is ungracious is pretty unbelievable, but there it is.
but yeah, the mongers are on both sides, on that there is no debate. The left has Michael Moore, Franken, Maher, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins etc...the right has Limbaugh, Colter, Hannity to an extent.but it's all way too much of a distraction for a work day. More on that later.
I am watching people from somewhere in this country parading down the street in front of the White House, before the new president, with brooms and lawnmowers. And none of the gasbags could be bothered to explain who these people are or what that means because they are so in love with the sound of their own voices saying the words "historic" and "symbolic" over and over again that they just don't have the time.In one particularly nauseating moment of verbal diarrhea yesterday, Tom "Greatest Generation" Brokaw was waxing poetic about how two Obama staffers from Chicago happened to find apartments in the same building in DC . . . "and they were comforted by that." Oh, the humanity - adults have to voluntarily relocate for a job! I hope they find comfort somewhere!
Bush Blurts Out The TruthOh for fuck's sake, Dubya, will you give the "my job is to protect you, Larry" crap a full and final rest already?
A reader notices a revealing section of the president's interview with Larry King last night. Money quote:KING: So there's nothing you've done in the area of treatment of prisoners that causes you any kind of pause?Isn't that an admission that he demanded legal cover for illegal acts? And had "lawyers" like John Yoo and Jay Bybee all too willing to write and say anything for their boss.
G. BUSH: No. No. Everything we did was -- you know, it had legal -- legal opinions behind it. Look, you're sitting there, you've captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He's the guy that ordered the September the 11th attacks. And we want to know what he knows in order to protect the United States of America. And I got legal opinions that said whatever we're going to do is legal. And my job is to protect you, Larry. And I've given it my all. I've given it my all.
One more thing: no pause. No reflection. Not even a smidgen of doubt or wrestling with the profound legal, constitutional and moral issues involved. What a pathetic excuse for a president. What a sad, callous, callow man.
Stranger editorial director Dan Savage said he didn't take the threat too seriously: "I get a death threat a day with Savage Love," he said, referring to a sex column he writes.I say "Bravo!" to Dan and the bar owners/patrons for their defiant stance. I second the glorious Ms. McEwan's motion that we:
. . . all take a moment to note, appreciate, and summarily despise the bitter irony that the GOP made gay-hating a centerpiece of the 2004 Bush reelection campaign in a desperate bid to put their boy back into office because it is only the GOP who can protect us from the terrorists.I curse the chickenshit(s) who sent the letter. I am compelled to travel to Seattle for a pub crawl. [I had a great time at Re Bar (the addressee in the version of the letter shown above) once - would've had an even better time if I could've closed the deal with that guy in the RISD shirt, but I digress.]
Dear Netflix,As I said in my comment, I love it. So true.
I know about you. You can give it a rest with the pop-ups and pop-unders.
If I run into anyone who's just awoken from a decades-long coma or relocated from their last residence under a rock in uninhabited Siberia, I promise to tell them about you.
Love,
Liss
Walt | August 15, 2007, 10:58pm | #How about that?: "Liberalism is born the moment you notice how your life intersects with others." Very well-put, Walt. Bravo.
Look, the reason liberals tend to be a bit short with you people OUGHT to be fairly obvious. Who are the enemies of gays? Any clues? Please, read the platform of the Republican Party. Better yet, tune into Sean Hannity or Michael Savage. Or read blogs like Little Green Footballs. Gays aren't blind. We know who hates us. And when we meet gay conservatives, we want to know why they are blind to THAT reality. An ideology that gains power by demonizing gays fully deserves the scrutiny and contempt of gay liberals.
The problem is not gay liberals asking impertinent questions of blindered conservatives. It's really why any self-respecting citizen would compartmentalize his life in order to overlook such obvious gaps in self-interest. The most common reason given is that their self-interest is economic, and not political or social.
Liberalism is born the moment you notice how your life intersects with others. The innumerable interdependencies of life present an escape from the smugness and small-mindedness of modern conservatism. The moment you start seeing these connections, you cease being parochial.
I and 67 million of my fellow citizens brought the era of conservative dominance to a thundering close. For those of us who've been told for eight years that we weren't real Americans - liberals, urbanites, non-believers, cabernet-sippers, same-sex lovers, anti-war-mongerers, Volvo drivers - well, the tables have turned. We're the real Americans now.Hell, yeah! That's Michael Tomasky in the Guardian, in his piece on America's Hall of Shame. (Why does he hate freedom?)
