Remembrance of things posted

Timeless. Not to mention an apt image with which to shut down this blog. I’ve figured it out now and this is how it works: If I blog, I don’t work on the novel(s), but if I don’t blog but continue to read eight newspapers and several dozen blogs a day, I don’t work on the novel(s) either.

Which is not even to mention just how completely sick and fucking tired I am of American politics. Reading Jeff Sharlet’s “The Family” is helping me to realize that the super haves in this country have been fascists for as long as there’s been fascism. If anything, we know more about them and their agenda now than we used to (when we thought the two parties really ran everything).

So I guess what I’m saying is that I need to be done with this, this being this blog which is much more than just a metaphor for my incomeless life and deer-in-the-headlights take on this new but already ass-fucked and left in a ditch for dead century of ours. I could comment further, but I already have — far too many times.

While I haven’t really accomplished anything with this blog (shee-it, I couldn’t even parlay a decade of C-tier blogging into a free Netroots Nation membership) I have been on the winning side a few times. Well, once that I didn’t end up regretting later, anyways.

 

For them that foolishly think they can’t get by without my links, here are some folks that routinely post at least one links aggregation post a day (and several “real” posts), and all do so more coherently and straightforwardly than I ever did:

emptywheel

Steve Benen (Political Animal)

Avedon Carol’s Sideshow

Not to mention newssloggers like ThinkProgress, TPM Muckraker and Raw Story.

For straight up politics heavy on the writing and the ugly, do keep reading:

Hullabaloo

A Tiny Revolution

Driftglass

TalkLeft

Media Matters for America

Firedoglake (I’m a firebagger, you’re a firebagger — hell, we’re all firebaggers except for the fucks we elect)

Crooks and Liars

However much money you have, they’re going to fuck you out of it but for those who think otherwise here are some good blogs about money and economics:

Ian Welsh

Naked Capitalism

Matt Taibbi

Real Economics

For the few of you who liked my tech links, all you really need to know is TechDirt, TorrentFreak, and, if you’re into quantity over quality, Techmeme.

Minnesota? If you clicked on my Minnesota links, you already know more about those blogs than I do. No links as those I omit will just feel slighted all over again and I think I’ve slighted the DFL enough these last eight years.

Arts? Everything you ever got me from either came from James Wolcott, Max Sparber, JafaBrit or Eyeteeth. Food: Heavy Table. Generic weirdness? BoingBoing and Waxy.

Humor? There is no god but TBogg, whose memes I took in vain constantly. Honor my memory by reading him (actually, I think he’s on vacation right now but it’s a blogger’s vacation, i.e., working at his real job too hard to find time to snark). For the polytheists among you, I also recommend Roy Edroso, and if you don’t mind being baffled once in a while, Crazy Internet Beatz.

And if you need something to be outraged about, what KBR is doing to Jamie Leigh Jones should be outrageous enough to hold you until the start of the new school year. If not, check in with Clusterfuck Nation once a week.

Never stop being offended by the dirty, creepy things powerful people do when they think no one can hold them accountable but, for my part, accept that I can’t keep sorting through this shit day after day after day. Eight years of political blogging was probably about four years too many, especially when every link in the world wouldn’t be enough to make a difference.

The book(s), assuming it/they get written, probably won’t make a difference either, but they’ll be entirely of my own making, something the news never was.

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Acknowledgments: [insert selfless copy here, followed by mumbled this and that] … Minnesota Observer for being a contributing blogger once upon a time, Tild for countless inspired graphics, and my readers who, despite my telling them to go the fuck away, never did and yes, I still think you should talk to someone about that.

For the record, I am not killing this blog. I’m just not planning to write any more posts for the foreseeable future, with no plans for resuming posting without being adamant about it. Yes, this book(s) better be good.

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Jerry Leiber, R.I.P.

He wrote Hound Dog about the time I came into this world, and I’ve heard that song once or twice since then, not to mention having been a hound dog once or twice or mebbee five or seven other times besides.

Oh, and Amy Winehouse had no drugs in her system other than alcohol when she died. So I guess that was OK that she died then and that’s probably a good place to leave it (her and this blog).

O & SS

Jon Talton with more reasons to hate Obama:

The Robert Rubin wing of the party, of which Mr. Obama is a member, has long wanted to welsh on the government’s obligations to younger workers, including by giving part or all of Social Security to Wall Street. As for the right, they are fervently in favor of privatization, notwithstanding the shellacking George W. Bush received for attempting this. And, oh, what a great nation we would have if your Social Security had been hostage to the stock market casino. We’re told that we’re living longer. But that’s hardly true for everyone. We’re told the baby boomers are too big an obligation. How is that in a nation of 310 million people? America is broke! Hardly. It’s the richest nation in the history of the world, even richer than in the 1950s through 1970s, but the wealth has been redistributed up. Social Security is a Ponzi scheme! If so, why hasn’t it collapsed with the chief administrator making off the with proceeds?

They just keep stacking it higher and deeper. [TBogg]

And Wall Street keeps crashing. Today it was Morgan Stanley adding their no shit Sherlock take to S&P’s downgrade of the USA’s credit rating. [Yves Smith]

How bad is it? Even Pope Natzinger says enough is enough: end self-regulation, protect labor unions and redistribute wealth! I can’t wait to hear what Rick Perry has to say about that!

emptywheel has a video of Americans given a choice of unlabeled pie charts describing an ideal economy, Sweden’s and ours. Almost everyone picked Sweden’s. The only person who correctly identified our pie chart was a foreigner. Maybe he was an escaped student from the Hershey work camp in Palmyra…. [h/t Rob from Chicago] (Didn’t we used to mock the students who traveled to Cuba to help with the sugar cane harvest?)

Chuck Grassley confirms Matt Taibbi’s story about the SEC destroying documents, yet can’t seem to find it in himself to threaten anyone with prison or even a tongue lashing. Hell, we can’t even get our courts to stop cut and dried price fixing! [emptywheel notes the establishment media is linking to Chuck and not Matt]

Mormons continue to be one of the least popular religious groups in America.

Mormons are fighting back, PR-wise, but Jon Huntsman offers a model for how Mormons can get elected to national office: call yourself a Mormon and a Christian. (A better choice than owning up to being a Bolivian Mennonite, imho.)

John Kasich declared it “my way or the highway” season in Ohio, and then after the polling numbers came in, switched to “so yeah, let’s talk.”

Is the GOP already tiring of Perry and looking elsewhere? Looks like it. And the existing players are upping the ante. If media asks a question they don’t like, they walk off the set. (Bachmann’s been evading questions for years.) What happens in Wingnutterdonia stays in Wingnutterdonia!

Patrick McHenry eats a townhall.

What is acceptable to talk about? Totally made up bullshit is still OK. Rush can toss his biracial cookies into the mix as often as he likes.

Here in Minnesota, it looks like Senator Amy will get a free pass next year. Republicans would rather run against Al Franken. Shouldn’t this be telling us something about the kind of job Amy’s doing?

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Another Supreme Borks decision results in a dreadful lower court ruling. An enterprising foreign student was buying textbooks overseas, then reselling them to American college students on eBay. Not the easiest way to make money as greedy textbook publishers are constantly updating or replacing textbooks, so you really need to know the market to make money this way.

Now the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that this kid now has to pay John Wiley & Sons $600,000 for selling eight textbooks on eBay.

When you give corporations all the protectionist legislation they want, you end up with a nightmarish system hell wouldn’t have. Getting rid of Obama won’t fix this. We need aggressive progressive leadership that will do the dirty work of impeaching and removing Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy from the Court, and a strong enough majority in the Senate to confirm new, not insane Supreme Court justices.

And no, I don’t see that happening either so just figure that before you sell anything on eBay ever again, you’ve tripled checked with the maker of your item to make sure that your physical possession of their product allows you resale rights. So far the Borks have decided that you can’t re-sell digital music or movies or books, and you can’t sell dead tree editions of books printed overseas. I’m sure that’s an incomplete list but don’t worry about it. If you screw up, their lawyers will get in touch.

Meanwhile, a new report finds that big ISPs do well by bittorrent traffic. Torrents are designed to use what bandwidth is available, and doesn’t put any strain on the system (which Netflix’s streaming strains considerably). Not that the big ISPs are showing any gratitude. Don’t expect AT&T to stop trying to cap bandwidth (even as the Baby Bells mostly go with the flow).

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Etc.:

Epic Rap Battles of History: Dr. Seuss vs Shakespeare [video]

Six new things on a stick at this year’s MN State Fair

Still more new science that can’t find any problems with pot

Ridley Scott inexplicably decides to remake the best science-fiction movie of all time

Cool! Google maps now lets you toggle weather information on/off

Did MPR just hire Garrison Keillor’s replacement?

Trailer for Hysteria (which appears to be a very funny movie) [video]

Best sniper rifle in the world? Try Accuracy International, a small British firm

Another Kindle owner whines about his inability to adjust the type size on real books

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And that’s that for a while. I guess I really do need to focus exclusively on clients and the book for a while. Doing this makes me get my mad on, and that’s not where I need to be right now.

See you after Labor Day.

Sistah Souljah by proxy

Evening blogging sucks as I’m rapidly learning. I see some news in the morning, jot down a few notes and by evening all my notes are old news. Greg Sargent addresses Ray Sandoval’s “firebagger” diss in this Plum Line column.

The Obama official, Ray Sandoval, circulated the email just after the debt ceiling deal passed Congress, hammering lefty critics for deriding the deal as a surrender. Sandoval’s email included a blog post that derided Krugman as a “political rookie” and decried critics for “pure, fanatic, indomitable hysteria.”

The term “firebagger” appears to be a reference to Firedoglake, whose bloggers frequently hammer the White House for giving too much ground to Republicans….

Sargent, however, thinks Obama’s getting ready to wow the left, and that this was not a pre-planned thing. I am, frankly, past giving a shit. Sandoval’s not some newbie, and this was a Sistah Souljah trial balloon by proxy. Jane Hamsher is right to be pissed, and has a chart to justify the firebagging. But for my money, the coldest shoulder comes from Obama’s former volunteers.

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United States of White Collar Crime:

If you missed my update, do read Matt Taibbi’s HUGE SCOOP on how the SEC has been criminally enabling Wall Street’s crimes, and then read Yves Smith’s take (yes, this shit started on Bill fucking Clinton’s watch)

emptywheel with Michigan mortgage fraud horror story

Incredibly, Michele Bachmann has a criminal on staff more heinous than Frank Gaffney (but maybe not as douchey as Steve Wilkins)

Even T.Rump is willing to pay more taxes, but mostly he wants the govt. to stick it to oil companies (ranted like a true landlord)

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I was all set to pounce on this story about the noxiously racist Abercrombie & Fitch, then saw this Romenesko item:

Mark Gongloff of WSJ.com’s MarketBeat blog says it was a “brilliant move” for Abercrombie & Fitch to pay “Jersey Shore” star The Situation not to wear its clothes, but points out that investors didn’t care for it. ANF shares were down nearly 9 percent the last time I looked. Still, “every blog from here to Mars won’t be able to resist running [A&F's] press release today,” notes Amy Odell. Rebecca Greenfield adds: “The company is obviously doing it for attention, of which they’ve gotten a lot. But unfortunately it looks like their efforts have backfired, as much of the press points out their nonsensical reasoning and attention grab.”

I think we’re about due for some new TV shows and movies in which all the vilest characters wear branded clothing, mostly A&B.

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More politics:

Lots of folks reassessing the recalls: Greg Sargent, Cognitive Dissonance, and Rachel Weiner

Ruben Bolling on Corporations are People Too! (also, we learn that after ripping Obama for vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, Mittens will be there too, raising money)

Joe Lieberman just won’t shut the fuck up

Why we’re not getting Rupertgate updates, and why that matters

Crystal Sugar lockout update and links

More on why Ron Paul gets no press

More on J. Christian Adams’ astonishing ability to get press

Two grafs into Roy Edroso’s latest I twig on where he — and every pirate on earth — is going (only a Libertard could be so dumb)

Smearing government for doing what we pay it to do

Robert Reich has three speaking gigs coming up in Iowa

And no, Chris fucking Christie’s not running for president, but a lot of Republicans are already looking past Rick “phony baloney stats with a side of libel” Perry and are pining for the fat guy. And yes, it will kill Gov. Goodhair when the TeaPers hear that half of Perry’s jobs miracle was due to hirings by the state of Texas. Perry’s even getting attacked (and endorsed!) by the loony right, but the best rip came from Jon Stewart:

Rick Perry is not George W. Bush on steroids; Rick Perry is what happens if Lex Luthor distilled down George W. Bush essence in a laboratory and crossed it with gunpowder and semen from the finest thoroughbred in Lubbock — and then strapped that concoction onto a nuclear missile and shot it into the f**king sun.

I don’t care if his writers wrote that, kudos for having said it. [more] [more] [more]

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Etc. and no, I do not get this Mr. Fish cartoon — leave a comment if you do:

MO school makes raped student write note of apology to her rapist, who then raped her again (and for those too disgusted to click, she’s retarded, he isn’t and yes, this could have only been worse had it happened at a Jesus camp)

I’m not really clear on why Air Force Staff Sgt. Daryn J. Moran’s military discharge hasn’t been downgraded to “general” from “honorable” as he certainly isn’t the latter (fyi: “general” discharges will kill your ability to get a civilian job, which is why they always gave them to gays)

L.A. Times picks up on the DARPA conflict of interest scandal

Each and every day, I hate Target a little more, and not just because those fashionista fucks have never heard of a 50-inch waistline

Sugarland: we paused to pray and God killed some lesbians instead of us!

Due process meaning “we’ve already decided to make you pay, now here’s what you did wrong”

Probation/parole: a period of time during which you learn that you’ll never again hold a job with a reputable company (rehab is for squishes, real men just get another gun and start all over again)

emptywheel on sports so yeah, obviously this is a very gratifying read!

WINston’s London Calling moment (I may be the last blogger not to have linked to The Clash in recent weeks) [News Cut with a telling map but no Clash video?!]

I stopped posting while drunk mostly because I stopped drinking (to lose weight), but also because of this

I’m reading Jeff Sharlet’s The Family right now, but if you just want a taste of his take on prosperity gospel creeps, check out The Heavenly BMW

Not sure why I’m feeding the MN trolls, but yes, the new Conan the Barbarian is from Iowa (oddly enough, when the first movie came out my little brother was simultaneously into Schwarzenegger and Queen)

More Kindle million-selling authors

That’s a whole lotta etc.

Cameron Todd Willingham, RIP (RIck Perry)

UPDATE: Matt Taibbi has just ripped the lid off SEC corruption. MUST READ!!!!

 

Is anyone else already sick to death of Rick “I Texecuted a man just to watch him die” Perry? He’s got the kind of sense of humor that would start a bar fight in 99 out of 100 drinking establishments conjoined with the victimized right’s standard refrain of “cantcha take a joke?” Actually yes, I can take a joke when it’s a joke and not a fucking insult.

Rick Perry moved heaven and earth to stop an arson expert from halting Cameron Todd Willingham’s execution, and then covered his tracks like the backstabbing, yellow dog sumbitch he is. If a cold-blooded. lying prick like Rick Perry can be elected President of these United States, I truly am done with this country forever. Elect a Bush once, shame on you. Hijack the Supreme Court and install another Bush, shame on you. But after all that if we elect another Bush, well, that’s shame on all of us. Even Barack fucking Obama would make a better president than this cattle-less waste of hat.

Dominionists, No, we can’t have too many Dominionists, not after they’ve worked so hard at turning Jesus Christ into a blunt object suitable for cracking walnuts and busting heads. Hilariously, the WaPost gave free space to a Christianist who’s not a Dominionist, and he got slaughtered in the comments (so much so they’ve throttled them so you have to manually keep clicking to keep reading but do click and do read. And no, I don’t think America is ready for candidates who praise Jesus just as often as they spit on liberals.

What miracle?

Rick Perry’s moment of corn dog

Taibbi on Perry v Bernanke

Lying about tractors

Americans no longer have any confidence in America and I don’t have enough fingers (and toes) to point to all the reasons why but here’s a chart

Bachmann flunks another fact checking and yet another blogger finds it necessary to rerun THE FREAKING VIDEO OF BACHMANN CALLING GAYS “PART OF SATAN” because the right refuses to believe the shit she’s said (which does make sense because they know how many lies they tell about us, so why wouldn’t we lie about them?)

Juan Cole on Bachmann’s confused understanding the Middle East (once she puts the baby Jesus on the felt wall chart, she seems a bit lost)

A reminder that you can’t win the Ames Straw Poll if you don’t spend a lot of money [and a reminder of how much the last straw poll was worth to the winner]

He’s a weird old racist geezer, but Ron Paul deserves more respect than sloppy day late kisses from Fox

Babygate still gestating

Abe Sauer on the Tea Party

Incredible but true: this video will make you hate the Koch brothers even more than you already do

Regina Dugan, the living embodiment of the term conflict of interest

UPDATE: Oh. My. God.

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I will defend Obama on one count, and one count only. Ryan Rhodes, a Tea jackass in Iowa, called Obama out on the thinnest most specious charge imaginable:

“He just denied [that Joe Biden called Tea Party members terrorists]. He said the vice president didn’t make any of those assertions,”Rhodes said.  “If he doesn’t want to even admit what was on TV nationally — all over the place — then how can you have a conversation?”

All over the place being on Fox News. There is zero footage of Biden saying this because all the stories are based on hearsay coming out of a closed meeting, and most of the hearsay attributes the terrorist remark to Rep. Mike Doyle. Fox News is whipping their viewers into a frenzy over hearsay that is almost positively false because had Biden actually said it, Fox would have produced their wiretap of him saying it.

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Etc.:

Bono is richer than Paul McCartney and Elvis’s estate put together

I had to dig, but the insurance company that’s stiffing the miracle hockey shot kid is Odds on Promotions (their website says BIG PRIZES, BIG RESULTS but they left off the BIG SCREWJOBS part)

There are two Scott Hortons?

Bachmann-Perry Romney drive

No link credit as all the major dailies said the same thing

Politico’s Roger Simon thinks Ron Paul got shafted by the media’s bizarro coverage of the Iowa Straw Poll. To be sure, I found the media anointing of the first, sixth and seventh place finishers as the big three to be arrogant, but not out of line.

The Iowa Straw Poll is a pissing match between whores. Even the winner was reported to have only gotten five votes for every six tickets she purchased, so yeah, lots of lies all around. [Would you count on this guy's vote?]

How did Candidate Bachmann capitalize on her big win? Apparently by cowering in her trailer in Waterloo, waiting for Rick Perry to leave the room and for the lighting to be adjusted (I’m guessing there weren’t enough incandescent bulbs….) [more from Driftglass]

The only good thing to come out of the straw poll was Gov. Bridgefail’s departure, but City Pages gets that one right by calling his early quit one of his 10 biggest failures. The actual Iowa Caucuses won’t be held for another five months. Pawlenty’s getting out because absolutely no one cares about him because his accomplishments were all as fake as his tough guy talk. Bill Scher called him a milquetoast mimic of wingnut soundbites. Seriously, given boxing gloves and stuck in a ring with Michele and Marcus Bachmann, does anyone think that the ensuring fight would be anything but comedy gold? [hat tip to Tild for having seen BridgeFAIL coming years ago]

Given this godawful batch of losers, it’s hard to pick the nominee, but I hope Ian Welsh is wrong about it being Rick Perry.

Krugman on the Texas Unmiracle

Cornfuck Nation

Cons already whining about media quoting Perry accurately

Perry pushes for caveat emptor anarchy (no, people don’t deliberately put e.coli in your food, but without regulations there’s nothing to thwart amoral MBAs from cutting corners to the point where they might as well be shitting on your chicken tenders)

Rick Bush? George W. Perry?

Gay Perry? (emphasis on the second syllable)

The worst part of all of this? If you take the media three as the most likely nominees, what does it say about the Republican party that two of those three candidates (and Sarah Palin in the wings) are Dominionists?

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Some excellent screeds were posted today. I recommend The Immoral Minority on Obama, Norwegian Shooter on Obama, Jonathan on the continuing collapse of everything, and this seven-minute video on banksters.

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More politics:

Funniest two-minute clip about Sarah Palin ever (and yes, Hannity looks like a total fool because Frank Luntz just gave away Fox’s entire dirty little schtick) [more Hannity fail]

Roy Edroso rounds up the Redcoat-coddling right’s reaction to London burning [Sam Pizzigati on the "feral underclass" as in, we did'na wanna shoot them, but they gae us no other choice, the bloody rotten fookin' shoplifters!]

Wisconsin finally finds a Prossercuter

Tomorrow’s round of recall elections in WI looks like a slam dunk for both Dems (the Nazi quote leaking out didn’t hurt)

Sarah Palin quotes Mark Twain (no, she shouldnta oughta not done that) [more]

Mormon watch

Leura Canary sighting

More heroes who’ve proved to be zeroes

WBBM-TV in Chicago brutally edits a four-year-old’s words to make a future cop sound like a gangbanger (never let the real story interfere with the story you want to tell)

Floridians showing surprising interest in AG’s corruption

Hate comes to Montana

New Tom Tomorrow and no, I don’t think Tea Party Tim is supposed to be Gov. Bridgefail

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Money, and why they have it and we don’t:

Warren Buffet on how his friends rape our economy [emptywheel]

Profiting from politically induced human misery

NYTimes nails Darrell Issa [Dayen's take] [TPM Muckraker]

Student loan debt skies 25% in just three years

Jim Hightower on foreclosures

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Fuck CUNA.

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Etc.:

Google’s acquisition of Motorola isn’t just a big deal for Google, it may signal the end of cable [please, please, please let cable die (about five minutes after this deal goes through would be perfect timing)]

Someone else saying what I’ve been saying about the USPS caving to Fed Ex/UPS cherrypicking

In the distorted world of comics, men are musclebound and women are sexpots — but I agree with Alyssa Rosenberg that there’s a big difference between sexy and slutty

Yet another link to Britain’s drunkest woman, but not one story will be written about why she drinks (no, I don’t know, but if I did, I’m sure that it would spoil the joke) (all that’s really important is that the super drunks be mocked so that the every day falling down drunks have someone to look down on)

Another moron claiming technology is addictive: no, the shit you do with your technology may be addictive, but technology is no more addictive than a syringe or rolling papers are

Record-setting thin ice in August (no reason the Arctic should be any different than the global economy that’s being torched by the same greedbags)

If you live in Chicago, consider scraping together some coin for Sheila Jordan at the Green Mill, August 19-20 (she was insanely hot in the ’50s, and hasn’t slowed down — legendarily unique vocal stylings)

A 13-minute clip of Dennis Rodman’s emotionally powerful Hall of Fame acceptance speech

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Kudos to Corey and a happy fourth birthday to MinnPost!

Home of the Daily Glean, consistently the best roundup of Minnesota politics anywhere whether written by David Brauer, Max Sparber or Brian Lambert. The inability of the Strib or PiPress to match their collective output is FAIL spelled in all caps.

Evening posts, my novel approach to blogging

I have been working on a book this summer, but until I put the blog on standby, I wasn’t making much progress so from now on, Norwegianity posts will upload in the evening, if at all. Paying customers and this book now own my morning hours and this blog will get sloppy seconds/thirds only.

This being my first stab at a novel, I am, of course, writing a trilogy. It took me all summer to develop a 2,500-word outline; since Wednesday that outline has grown to over 5,000 words. Simply put, I do my best writing/thinking in the morning. I don’t make money from this blog, so it’s now an evening project. Maybe some afternoon posts, but only if I’ve had a productive morning.

Frankly, I’d shut Norwegianity down entirely except the book project is very political, and I need to stay on top of political trends. So yes, I need to keep up with Michele Bachmann’s deer in the headlights moments, even Marcus’s “I’m not gay” lip mushing [TBogg], as well as her little victories * and not so little victories. She’ll be gone by next April, but in the meantime it will be fun watching her freak out over the fact that people do keep track of what she says. Likewise, I’m still tracking Phil fucking Gramm-endorsed Rick Perry’s acclamation-by-media, drought-ridden, evangelical-infested stroll to the nomination over Mitt’s Mormon still fucking means Mormon body and the wives his forebears rode in on. [scary Perry pix]

None of which excuses Obama, and yes, my novel will map the future of American politics by name. (Just because 1984 wasn’t as horrible as Orwell predicted doesn’t mean he still wasn’t right.) What we are in the middle of is not a case of both sides behaving like asses. [more (in which Digby accidentally beats the crap out of D.J. Tice's phony argument)] The equivalences between the parties is growing, but we’re not there yet, however hard both sides work at it, Obama by righting our side and saner Republicans by paying attention to the god-awful bottom line. [the more articles like this one you see, the faster moderate Republicans will flee their party]

Ever wonder what happened to August townhall meetings? Turns out congresscritters are still holding ‘em, but it’s the cons getting lambasted this time around so the media’s skipping this story. The sad part is that this noncoverage bubble would burst if just one talk show guest reamed their host over this, but that won’t happen and no one who counts reads lefty blogs so there goes another one down the ol’ memory hole.

Not all members of Congress are on vacation. Fully one-fifth of them are junketing in Israel where they get wined and dined and get to experience firsthand what it’s like to wipe your boots off on a Palestinian.

Spotty on Gov. Bridgefail’s weekend tumble into the Raccoon River

Ron Paul on abortion, proving what a sorry-assed Christianist excuse he is for a libertarian

Hunter on the clusterfucked side of Republicanism

It’s all about class, and the fact that one side has no class, just money

WINston on the recall

And more links from Digby (some pretty good ones, as a matter of fact)

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Newsiness:

Who exactly does Chuck Schumer think wants to blow up our power plants, and wouldn’t it be simpler to resolve our differences?

More U.S. troops killing themselves than are being killed by insurgents

Anders Behring Breivik, still smirking

Armando on Frederick Douglass

51% of Coloradans favor legalization

More on how humans are not wired for reading (but how we can get addicted to tanning)

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Etc.:

Hundreds of millions of dollars later, Yoko finally gives away some free John

Not sure if I linked to a Jonathan Turley account of this last week or the week before, but the case of the little old lady from Warroad failing a faulty drug test finally caught the Strib’s attention

Arguments for copyright (I often disagree with Monday Note, but they make their cases clearly and coherently)

Ted Nugent has, apparently, figured out that his audiences come as much for the politics as the music, and has again unleashed himself

Go Satan Go [video]

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International Humanist of the Year PZ Myer’s speech to the Humanists on biology and creationism [warning: on my Mac this stream took over my entire computer! it's an hour long and the video is for crap and the stream is very CPU clogging, but the sound is good and it's a good speech]

Bridgefail buys distant 3rd in Iowa straw poll

Bachmann wins, Ron Paul a very close second and any Republican who might actually be able to beat Obama came in sixth through tenth.

Never before has any American political party been so thoroughly determined to get their ass kicked.

Weigel saw this one coming (as did everyone else who was actually there, but kudos to the other media for keeping the obvious a secret just to keep the horse race golf cart race going)

Amanda Marcotte on Michele Bachmann

Michele goes down on a corn dog (while Santorum fellates an ice cream cone)

There is no truth to the rumors that Marcus Bachmann and Phil Hinkle used to be college roommates

Someone should take a golf club to Louie Gohmert’s face (why hasn’t Congress impeached and removed this eliminationist piece of shit?)

The Republican party has gone batshit insane, and no one in the media can make themselves talk about the giant pile of elephant shit on the living room floor.

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David Atkins writes about the Democratic Dolchstoßlegende which, apparently, Jeff Fecke has invested in. You do not owe loyalty to incumbents who lied as candidates. [After posting this I reread everything and decided this sounded maybe a little too harsh. Defend Obama if you like, I just really don't understand why anyone would bother, at least not before the fall of 2012.]

Personally, I have ALWAYS believed that it is not disloyal to criticize incumbents right up until they have overcome their primary opposition, and then only if you admit to being a member of the same party.

What’s at stake? Who wants to be the next UK? [more] Obama’s living W’s thug life all over again, and it’s only a matter of time before he graduates from torturing terrorists and defunding welfare recipients to giving medals to citizen-killing thumpers. No, I wouldn’t vote for Michele Bachmann over Barack Obama, but don’t make me pick between him and Ron Paul because if we’ve got to have a racist president, I’d rather he was white and anti-Wall Street. (Too harsh? WTF do you call a black President who has yet to do one fucking thing for beleaguered minorities in this country?)

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Life in the United States of after George W. Bush:

1 out of 4 car owners can’t afford to fix their cars (I’m guessing they would be among the 66% of all Americans without $1,000 in their savings account) (for more perspective, $1,000 in 2010 = $187 in 1971)

Global cult leader Sun Myung Moon’s Washington Times portrays Obama as Dopey from the Seven Dwarfs (personally, I think this Dopey looks more like Ron Paul)

Strategies for dealing with global warming deniers

emptywheel on how outsourcing lowers everyone’s wages

WI State Fair rioters: meet Paul Captain, white rage-a-holic

In These Times on suppressing the vote

John Dean on Rupergate lawyering up

Is “mail” dying? or just under nonstop assault from assholes who refuse to accept that grown nations have post offices, even if they have to subsidize them

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Etc.:

Amazing but true: you can fuck up a monopoly so bad people will go without rather than put up with your shit

Case studies in journalistic ethics

If you’re surfing on a Mac, you may be wondering about all those MacKeeper popups….

Apple sued for price fixing, as well they should be

Been pretty productive the last couple of days, and my out of town trip has been canceled so I think I’m going to go straight from time off to posting erratically.

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A big shout out to PZ Myers, the 2011 winner of the International Humanist Award!

Inside Scientology, + links

Based on a recommendation from the former Mr. Sponge, I’ve been reading Janet Reitman’s Inside Scientology. I did not think it was possible for me to hate this cult more than I already did, but now I do.

Scientology sucks up to Louis fucking Farrakhan

Scientology held their own members prisoner and treated many of them abysmally

Scientology is first and foremost an investment racket in which they shake down members for money and then invest in more tax-free property

Scientology routinely terrorizes their opponents — even the IRS backed down on Scientology’s terms

A simple IRS forensic audit of Scientology would put an end to this cult, but for that to happen we would need:

A President with balls (figuratively speaking)

A Congress that would instantly impeach and remove any judge issuing any court order stopping an IRS audit of Scientology

A mobilization of combined local and federal law enforcement to protect each and every individual involved in auditing Scientology

They are, simply put, some of the worst people in the world, and their leader David Miscavige, is human waste personified.

How evil is Scientology? I finally got around to watching Hobo with a Shotgun last night, and the over-the-top bad guys kept reminding me of Scientologists. Just to give you an idea of how bad the bad guys are, they make a psychotic hobo with a shotgun look like a credible good guy by comparison.

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On schedule with my other stuff so I thought I’d commemorate my finishing the Reitman book with a quick links dump:

Ian Welsh on London burning

Harold Bloom on Bush, etc.

Fox being Fox

First new 9/11 news I’ve seen in years

PZ’s new blog home is here

If I did have money to invest, I’d seriously consider putting some into Amazon

I would not, at this time, invest in a restaurant

And if I wanted some money, I’d look to see which cheap labor-seeking European companies are building plants in the U.S.

USPS considering laying off 120,000 because they’re too fucking stupid to bump 1st class stamps to 75¢ while cutting overnight deliveries to $5 (thereby putting FedEx and UPS out of business forever)

This map of state by state cigarette taxes looks remarkably similar to a map I saw a while back of which states have the highest mortality rates (think red) (and I suspect this healthcare bar chart broken down by state would follow the same pattern)

Hungary does not, apparently, have any laws about using earthmoving equipment to turn industrial tanks into water parks

From the Iowa State Fair, Michele Bachmann as Dorothy, deep-fried butter on a stick and corn in a jar

And from Dave Trott, which candidate would you pick?

Candidate a) He’s been known to associate with crooked politicians. He’s consulted astrologers for help with decisions. He chain smokes, and drinks 8 – 10 martinis a day.

Candidate b) He’s been kicked out of political office twice. He stays in bed until nearly noon. He used opium in college. He drinks copious amounts of whiskey and champagne. People accuse him of being a warmonger.

Candidate c) He’s a decorated war hero. He doesn’t smoke, and only drinks an occasional beer. He’s a vegetarian and he’s never committed adultery. He’s a charismatic leader.

Answers here, but I suspect you all knew better than to go with C. This taps into new research that suggests all our great leaders are somewhat messed up in the head. The longer I stay off antidepressants, the more I’m beginning to realize that most of what I know that’s really good to know, I learned only because I’m bipolar, and that the only reason I don’t go up and down anymore is because I stopped taking meds and instead learned more about myself. If your life has always been swell, you probably don’t know yourself or your capabilities as well as the less perfect folks among us.

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Posting to this blog is my lowest priority right now, but then again, it’s what I do did do. Did.

Do.

Just Darling

Disappointing, that’s for sure. The few remaining Milwaukee precincts broke as more for Darling as Pasch, suggesting they were suburban precincts being held back like they tried to do with Waukesha. Too much money spent and not enough to show for it.

The state senate will be 17-16 Republican now, but not the lockstep bunch it was as the few GOP moderates will own that chamber from now on, and even the lockstep crowd will tread more cautiously having reaped the whirlwind.

I need to reap some time off. Big project that needs this time slot and some travel for family business coming up. Figure no posts for a week or so, and maybe spotty after that will full production returning after Labor Day.

Until then, Mr. Fish has a suggestion as to how you can spend your time.

UPDATE: What TBogg said.

 

Let the counting begin

Polls just closed in Wisconsin. Just the recalled Republican seats up today with the two recalled Dems up next Tuesday (buddy Jon voted absentee in one of those races today). TPM has an election scoreboard up and should have some results fairly soon but give the numbers a while to warm up because no one turns in results faster than conservative rural polling places.

Here are some WI-related links while you wait:

Greg Sargent on the GOP’s big lies [Sargent also says turnout is highest in the districts Democrats targeted]

C&L with notes on GOTV

Right wastes no time, gets right into illegal electioneering

Walker signs redistricting bill (if Pasch beats Darling, he’ll be in a different district next year)

Getting election results online can be frustrating, but nowhere near as bad as the old system where you had to listen to despicable network gasbags bloviate endlessly while waiting for results to trickle in.

UPDATE: Bummer. Just tried to listen to Netroots Radio’s coverage and found out that, like Netflix, you have to reboot in 32-bit mode to use their radio player.

So far two of the safe Republicans look quite safe but the three most interesting races have the lowest numbers reported. Shilling’s leading Kapanke, but only a quarter of the vote has been counted. The Randy Hopper and Albert Darling races both show only 7% of the votes counted a full hour after the polls closed. Don’t be surprised if things get nasty later tonight if those races are close.

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Via Dave Weigel, AP has county by county results. Not one vote reported from Milwaukee yet, ditto La Crosse.

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The AP results show Pasch pulling away from Darling with a lot of Milwaukee yet to be counted. Hopper is holding on 53-47 but most of that one hasn’t been counted yet, and Shilling has Kapanke down 53-47 with plenty of votes left in that one. We need Pasch, King and Shilling to beat Darling, Hopper and Kapanke to take back the state senate, assuming the Dems hold on to their two seats that are up next week.

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Now King has a 100 vote lead on Hopper, Shilling is still leading Kapanke and Pasch is holding her lead over Darling. Lots of votes to be counted.

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Milwaukee’s coming in and Pasch is pulling away. King still tied with Hopper but no Fond du Lac precincts reporting yet! Shilling should beat Kapanke and that makes three if King can pull it off.

Just saw that C&L’s election thread reported this half an hour ago:

The Ed Show is saying that most of the votes in so far are from rural areas and that many of the bigger cities had polls stay open for more than an hour after closing to complete the lines.

Cool. Explains why the cities are so slow to report and gives hope for good news when they do.

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Odd they haven’t called SS14 for Olsen yet. He’s up 54-46 with 95% of the vote reported but apparently those last precincts are going heavily for Clark. ??

SHIT. Fond du Lac came in all at once and for Hopper who now leads 51-49 with twenty some precincts left to report, all from Winnebago where King’s beating Hopper 53-47. Sit tight, this may take a while.

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SS14 called for Olsen so it’s up to Pasch and Shilling to hang on and for King to catch up.

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Winnebago keeps comiing in (37/51 pcts) and King’s back in a hundred-vote lead over the notoriously Randy Sen. Hopper. Shilling looks like a lock but there’s lots of votes out in the Pasch-Darling race yet.

Shit. Isn’t Waukesha where the Republicans pulled all their Supreme Court tricks? Only one of eleven precincts have reported in so far but it went huge for Darling. Half of Milwaukee’s in and so far breaking 63-37 for Pasch.

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They just called SS32 for Shilling, so that’s one of the three in the bag. With 94 out of 108 pcts in, King and Hopper are tied. Pasch up 56-44 but only 33/82 pcts reporting with most of Waukesha out.

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Most of the missing votes in the King-Hopper race are in Oshkosh, b’gosh.

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Shit. Pasch-Darling just tightened up to 51-49 and Waukesha has still only reported 1 precinct with the very odd Pasch tally of 200 exactly to Darling’s 397. 36/51 Milwaukee precincts reported but I think some of the ones still out might be in the burbs. Darling’s numbers in the rural areas are ridiculous with 73% of the vote in Washington county. This could be a real stinker in the making. If it’s tight and only Waukesha is out, they should send in international teams of observers to re-count the Waukesha ballots.

King-Hopper is stuck with 94/108 precincts in and King up 147 votes.

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The University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh is the third largest university in the state. Those are the precincts the King-Hopper race is waiting on.

But Waukesha is still bugging the hell out of me. The shit they pulled in the Prosser election was insanely criminal.

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A few more MIlwaukee precincts in and Pasch is back up 52-48, but those ten missing Waukesha precincts look huge.

Meanwhile, more of Winnebago came in and King is up 51-49 with only three precincts left to count, all in Winnebago. Whew!

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With 100% of the vote in King has beaten Hopper! That’s it for me as Milwaukee/Waukesha is going to go late and get nasty.

 

Not WI:

MO Lt Guv and his stripper obsession

AdWeek says the FBI is going RICO on News Corpse

3-day, 9% Dow drop not a crash so yeah, we’ve still got that to look forward to

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London:

Ian Welsh with #3 of his London Riots post

Burning and looting (which, really, is doing it backwards)

Also, the New York Review of Books on The New European Far Right.

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Etc.:

Debtor prisons alive and well in Michigan

Shocker: study shows upper class less empathic than the lower classes (dicks being less sensitive than the dickees)

Too busy responding to emails today to realize email is dead

Porn industry lawyers suing blind man for downloading porno movies

River rock balancing