Obama’s baby
Taylor’s got a quote from Tom Brokaw that makes me ashamed to admit I used to like him. Maybe it’s senility, but his going with the “both sides do it” meme screams to me of Tom having had way the fuck too much money for way the fuck too long.
More and more I’m thinking of the French precedents for dealing with the monied classes when they forget to share with them that made all their furnishings, built their homes and provide all their essential services. But mostly I’m thinking how sharp a tuxedoed torso would look without a big-mouthed gasbag perched on its shoulders.
In the absence of anything remotely approaching reputable mainstream news media sleuthing in the U.S. of A., the Guardian’s Nick Davies has gone to New York where, in less than a week, I’m sure he’ll dig up more on Rupertgate than our media has in the years they’ve spent busily ignoring Murdoch’s sins. [Russ Baker on what Murdoch's done to us]
I mentioned that David Cay Johnston had to retract a column in which he made a research boehner, but now Reuters is revamping their entire retraction process to deal with liberal errors more quickly (rightwing errors/lies will continue to just lay there, stinking up the entire news profession).
Ironically, AP, long a standard bearer for spreading Republican lies, actually has a pretty strong policy on anonymous sources: no name given, no opinions or speculation are to be attributed. [UPDATE: more]
More from those who would be our masters:
Scott Walker quotes scripture (while some of his fans do the devil’s work) (while LaCrosse burns, Dane County dithers)
I guess all the recalled GOoPers are now in play
White Mississippians have an endearing pet name for African Americans
Nickel and diming the taxpayers for bogus mileage claims
Hit in the face with some true facts, Bolton splutters and calls them mixed-up
Full extended clip of Bachmann quotes
Advisor Frank Gaffney warns that Bachmann will initiate her first purge against Muslims (but they will come for the atheists, just give them time)
I find the term and the story of the tar baby quite useful, but if you just use the term tar baby without any context, most people will take it in a racist way, especially when it comes out of the mouth of a racist
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Good news:
Two heroes who helped pull 40 teenagers from the water at Utøya
Susana Bacha named Peru’s new Minister of Culture
MPD paying out the ass for their culture of thumping
Fed up lefties petition Kos and Chris Bowers to stick their third-party ban up their Obama receptacles
Touring to make money from his music, Ted Nugent develops total political amnesia!
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More on the debt ceiling:
Laura Clawson: no unemployment extensions (silly blogger, unemployment has been replaced by golden parachutes)
A sugar-coated Satan sandwich (you know a lefty said that because they spelled Satan correctly)
Klobuchar to vote for Obama’s baby, rest of MN delegation not so sure (MnIndy’s vote count)
Yves Smith with some blistering Real News [video]
Krugman’s Sunday morning talk show take
Jonathan on Going Bananas
Deunionization driving income inequality (no part of which is addressed by the debt ceiling compromise)
Dave Johnson with more on the extortion side of the deal
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I suspect nearly all of my Breivik links will now be about Pam Geller, NYC’s terrorism Quisling:
Charles Johnson (a rightie I should link to more often, it seems)
Raising money off the bodies of those you despise
Morrissey elaborates on why he’s as bad as Breivik
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Etc.:
U2 accidentally wraps up their world tour with more cash on hand than Apple and the U.S. Treasury combined
I noticed this some time ago, but the online version of Cracked is much more sophisticated and on-target than the print mag ever was
New software tool allows you to graphically compare movies side by side
I didn’t link to the NASCAR prayer last week, but now that it’s been autotuned, it’s actually kind of catchy in an utterly distorted values sort of way
Please, please, please tell me Tom Cruise is not under contract to Warner Bros.
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More 17-year-old prodigies please. So long as they play newer stuff with the old, classical’s worth keeping around.
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New mast to commemorate the four years since Gov. Bridgefail changed the subject and started taking long trips out of state to avoid answering questions about infrastructure neglect.
The dead are still dead, and Bridgefail is still an asswipe politician who thinks that if you wipe well and take daily showers, shit never sticks to you. And, he’s right. That’s not shit you smell. That’s the stench of decay as the bodies of thirteen Minnesotans continue to rot, unavenged and unlamented in this most Pawlentyized of debt-ridden states.
(from Taibbi … and precisely, undeniably true)
if the Democrats suck so bad at political combat, then how come they continue to be rewarded with such massive quantities of campaign contributions? When the final tally comes in for the 2012 presidential race, who among us wouldn’t bet that Barack Obama is going to beat his Republican opponent in the fundraising column very handily? At the very least, he won’t be out-funded, I can almost guarantee that.
And what does that mean? Who spends hundreds of millions of dollars for what looks, on the outside, like rank incompetence?
It strains the imagination to think that the country’s smartest businessmen keep paying top dollar for such lousy performance. Is it possible that by “surrendering” at the 11th hour and signing off on a deal that presages deep cuts in spending for the middle class, but avoids tax increases for the rich, Obama is doing exactly what was expected of him?
I’d like to be on record as saying that the sight of John Boehner triumphantly banging the gavel on the successful vote at 6:10 this evening really annoyed me. The idea that this guy won, with Obama’s help, just takes the cake. The whole lousy process and what it took for him to win, and what it means and what it will lead to is nauseating.
The thing about people like Tom Brokaw making comments about “both sides do it” and other comments from people like “ridiculous” (which it is) is that it’s a way of refusing to think about the problem. It’s an abdication of one’s citizenship. An admission that you don’t matter. This is the kind of person who votes based on the last campaign ad they saw. And then they wonder why politics is so nasty in this country.