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Friday, June 30, 2006
Shorter Lee Siegel
Yes. I was always the last one picked for sports teams. Why do you ask?
posted by tbogg at 2:35 PM
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An unopened gift from The DeciderWhen discussing the quality of decisions made by an administration that has possibly the finest intelligence and information gathering agencies in the history of the world at its fingertips, it is important to remember that they were going to hand the reins of Department of Homeland Security over to a man who was having personal apartment renovations worth about $200,000 done for $30,000 by a mobbed-up contractor while he was a corrections commissioner under Rudy Giuliani. Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, pleaded guilty today to two misdemeanor charges as the result of accepting tens of thousands of dollars of gifts and a loan while he was a city official in the late 1990's.
The former New York City police commissioner entered the pleas in a Bronx courtroom and was sentenced to a total of $221,000 in fines.
He entered the pleas, one to a violation of the city charter and the other of the city administrative code, in a Bronx courtroom before Justice John P. Collins and was sentenced to a total of $221,000 in fines. He was accompanied by three lawyers and three supporters for the proceeding, which lasted about 10 minutes. Take away the minor blots on his record and he will have ended up paying $251,000 for $200,000 worth of renovations, but when you add in the other unspecified gifts he received I guess you might be able to call it a push. Too bad about the Homeland gig though. At this very moment, he could have been admonishing us about the media exposing government efforts to track the finances of evildoers. Oh, sweet irony.
posted by tbogg at 12:22 PM
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Goober Watch Another dignified appearance by KristinnFreepers to descend upon the NY Times: To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: Kristinn Taylor of the D.C. Chapter of Free Republic.com, 202-309-1589 or kristinn@verizon.net
News Advisory:
WHAT: Groups to Protest Treasonous Reporting by New York Times at Washington, D.C. Bureau on Monday
WHEN: Monday, July 3 at 12 p.m.
WHERE: 1627 I Street NW, Washington, D.C.
The D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com, an independent grassroots conservative organization, and Accuracy in Media (AIM) will hold a demonstration at noon, Monday, July 3, at the Washington, D.C., bureau of The New York Times, 1627 I St., NW, to call for the prosecution of New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., Executive Editor Bill Keller and reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau for giving aid and comfort to al Qaeda by publishing stories exposing national security intelligence programs. Normally I'd say that we should advise the military recruiters to leaflet the area but I hear the enlistment standards haven't fallen to the "able to fog a mirror" level quite yet. Then again, it's early and things can change during the weekend, so hope springs eternal...
posted by tbogg at 12:04 PM
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Oh. My. Dear. God.Why do I get the feeling that, at the divorce proceeedings, Mr. Pamela Atlas walked away without a penny, naked to the world, and that he was grateful for his freedom. Jeebus. Her videos make Malkin's Vent look like Ken Burn's Baseball. Well, almost. I remember when MTV started up and bands that nobody had ever seen, but sounded realtively cool on the radio, suddenly collapsed because we saw what the guys in the band looked like and "Omigawd...they're wearing clothes from the Mall of America rock n' roll store. Eject! Eject! Non-fuctional headbands! Aiiee!" (I am speaking here of Loverboy, of course). That's the inevitable result of the proliferation of v-logs which are popping up like Neil Bush's herpes. Outside of their obvious ten-car pile-up charm, we can see that some people are ready for primetime...and most, with their stammering "uh's" and digressions (Atlas) or awkward pauses, lame-ass jokes, and mallrat speech patterns (Malkin), are not. The good news is that we can actually see that some of these people really are fucking loons.
posted by tbogg at 7:46 AM
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Can't lose for winnin' Shades of greyOy. They just don't know when they are beat: Dennis Byrne makes an important point about today's Supreme Court decision in favor of Osama bin Laden's driver -- the decision in no way supports the claim that the administration's actions towards Hamdan and his fellow terrorists violated or disregarded the rule of law. As Byrne notes, there was no settled law regarding the issues raised by Hamdan's lawyers. The Bush administration's position had some support in the law, as did Hamdan's position. In the end, Justice Kennedy sided with Hamdan's position and given the current composition of the Court, that was enough. The fact that Justice Kennedy saw the matter differently than the Bush administration doesn't make the administration lawless. But now that the Supreme Court has ruled, the administration must (and will) comply with that ruling. So, you see, it's not like George Bush so much lost as it is that he came in second first place which is like a tie except that someone else did slightly better but if you round it off you'll see that it's just the same as winning.
posted by tbogg at 12:41 AM
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Thursday, June 29, 2006
Pre-Friday Random Ten In a low-cut blouse she brings the beer
Rousseau paints a jungle flower behind her ear
Those cannibals-of shuck and jive
They'll eat a working girl like her aliveLast week we were Linkin Park/Limp Bizkit-free which kept the cooler-than-thou comments to a low hum. Sigh. Here we go again: A Thousand Trees (live) - Stereophonics
Mario's Cafe - St Etienne
Better Version Of Me - Fiona Apple
Mama's Got A Girlfriend Now - Ben Harper
Because The Night - Patti Smith
Betting On Trains - Hem
The Jungle Line - Joni Mitchell
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 2 - The Flaming Lips
Ohio - CSN&Y
Paper Doll - Rachel Yamagata Bonus #11..... Washington Bullets - The Clash..and now I want to plug my favorite CD from this year:  Regina Spektor - Begin To HopeA friend at work gave me Regina Spektor's Begin To Hope to listen to and I wasn't quite ready for what was to come. Somewhere between cabaret and one of Tori Amos's meltdowns with a little bit of Joni Mitchell and Ricki Lee Jones thrown in for fun. Because every song is an adventure I'm not sure she's for everyone, but you really have to appreciate the thought that went into the arrangements and her sense of fun and style. " On The Radio" is the most original thing that I've heard this year, " Après Moi" is a big mess that works, and " Samson" is simply beautiful in its own off-the-shoulder way. There. You have been warned and encouraged. Proceed accordingly. (Added) Thanks to George in the comments, the " On The Radio" video.
posted by tbogg at 4:22 PM
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Thursday Night Basset Blogging Beckham waits and ponders and waits and ponders...Going out tonight so we're early, blogger willing. And, no, I didn't pose his ear that way,it just...flopped. Labels: basset, bassets
posted by tbogg at 4:06 PM
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So it is written, so it will be ignoredAs much as I appreciate the Supreme Court's ruling on Guantanamo this morning, I don't expect that we will see a chastened White House throwing open the gates and admitting that they are sorry. To do so would be a sign of weakness in The War on Terror, which is all they've got. I would expect that they have contingency plans (compliments of the Attorney Homunculous Alberto Gonzales) to shuffle the prisoners around for awhile...at least until George Bush is out of office leaving his faux tough guy protector-of-the-goobers image intact for his hagiographers. The Bush people are nothing if not experts at running out the clock. The Supreme Court made him King and the King does not appreciate their interference from that point forward. Glenn Greenwald goes into detail here. His counterpart on the right, Jeff Goldstein, will be along shortly to discuss the impact the decision will have on slapping terrorist prisoners in the face with the COCK OF AMERICAN FREEDOM. Or something like that. It depends on when the meds kick in.
posted by tbogg at 9:15 AM
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Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Let's look in Big Rusty's Pharmacopeia and see what's upYou want legal advice, see a lawyer. You want medical advice, talk to a userI have received many e-mails and comments on my back injury and recuperation from CQ readers, giving me their personal stories and advice based on their own experiences, and I have found all of it tremendously helpful. I have been grateful for all of the correspondence, but I would like to acknowledge one correspondent whose personal story and outreach to me touched me very deeply, especially considering his experiences with his own difficulties.
I wrote last week about the excruciating pain that the disc rupture caused and the painkillers that doctors prescribed to ease the situation. Some of you wrote to caution me about Vicodin and Percocet and their addictive qualities. One person in particular wrote to me about his own addiction, and in particular gave me solid advice on physiological conditions that would indicate an addictive response from my body. Given the very public nature of his addiction, his note had one hell of a lot of impact on the decisions I have made this week.
That man is Rush Limbaugh.
I know that some people think that conservatives all take orders from Rush, but we're really not that lucky. I have corresponded with Rush' staff on a couple of occasions where they wanted to quote my blog -- they are extremely scrupulous about asking permission -- but other than that, I have never written directly to Rush nor him to me. He read my post and wanted to make sure that I took precautions with pain medication in order to avoid the problems that he faced in very public (and very overblown) fashion.
It takes a special kind of person to reach out in those circumstances to a man unknown to him just to help protect that man from a danger he might not see. That correspondence informed my decisions in the hospital to hold down my pain medication and to transfer to Ibuprofen as soon as possible. I've been fortunate; my pain since the surgery has allowed me to rely on the over-the-counter analgesic instead of the Vicodin and Percocet. Had I never heard from Rush, I might not have had the discipline to make that decision. I guess we should be thankful that we were spared a recounting of a conversation between Limbaugh and Special Ed on the pros and cons of the four hour erection. That way lies madness...
posted by tbogg at 11:19 PM
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Pleading ignorance A shortage of top-notch peopleI'm not sure how who is stupider here: Tom Kean, the people from the Treasury Department who briefed him, or Jake Tapper for not asking the logical follow-up question. To help understand the controversy about the New York Times reporting of the CIA/Treasury counterterrorism program that accessed the database of the European banking consortium "Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication," called SWIFT, I phoned up former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, chair of the 9/11 Commission.
What I wanted to understand: what would terrorists and those who wish the US harm know now, with the Friday disclosure of the program, that they wouldn't have already known from the first few weeks after 9/11 WHEN PRESIDENT BUSH ANNOUNCED that the administration would do everything it could to get all data from every bank around the world.
(Bush on 9/24/01:"We're putting banks and financial institutions around the world on notice, we will work with their governments, ask them to freeze or block terrorist's ability to access funds in foreign accounts. If they fail to help us by sharing information or freezing accounts, the Department of the Treasury now has the authority to freeze their bank's assets and transactions in the United States.")
Kean said that when he was briefed by the Treasury Department on the program, "I was told very few people knew about this facility," which provides transaction processing services for over 7,000 financial organizations located in 194 countries worldwide.
"I was told that very few financial houses in this country knew about it; it was not well known even by people in banking," Kean said. "The terrorists didn't know the financial transactions went through this one group. Treasury told me, this was a method of financial tracking that people didn't understand, that nobody knew this was how things were done. Top-notch people in the US didn't even know." (my emphasis) Then Treasury sold Tom Kean a time-share in Candyland, USA which Kean flipped and sold to Tapper for a tidy profit. People in banking don't just shuffle papers through to some magical ...something...that processes financial transactions. I was in banking over thirty years ago and even as a lowly teller I knew how wire transfers worked, who they went through, lead and lag times, and what was looked at and what wasn't. Large transactions are scrutinized; from depositing an escrow check to the transfer of millions. They have been doing it for eons in an effort to track money laundering or the movement of drug money. There is nothing new here. It's not magic.
posted by tbogg at 10:17 PM
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War! Hunh! Good Gawd y'all
What is is good for?
Dana Irey's bankbook
Say it again, y'all. Baby needs blingI did not know, until reading this link from Taylor Marsh's post at Firedoglake, that Diana Irey, John Murtha's opponent for Congress, is married to a war profiteer: Last January, the Associated Press published a fascinating and thorough feature story about a $300 million deal awarded by the Iraqi Defense Ministry to a consortium that included Robert Irey and his brother William Irey. The Irey brothers had joined up with a shadowy arms dealer named Dale Stoffel, whose Iraqi patron was none other than Ahmed Chalabi -- the former exile leader and alleged conman who provided deceptive intelligence about Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction," and who has remained a favorite of Pentagon neoconservatives despite his checkered history. With Chalabi's support, Stoffel and the Ireys won a bid to rebuild military equipment for the Iraqi armed forces and market military scrap metal from all over the war-ravaged country.
Clever as Stoffel's scheme may have been, it ended very badly. He soon became embroiled in bitter financial disputes with the Iraqi Defense Ministry, which he accused of corruption. In December 2004, not long after Stoffel started making official complaints to Washington, unknown assailants murdered him and an American associate in a mysterious drive-by shooting near Baghdad.
Explaining her husband's involvement in this bloody mess could prove difficult for Irey. According to the AP, the huge deal won by her husband's consortium was obtained by hiring the same "powerful Washington lobbyists" who had represented Chalabi in his quest for American money and support. So , you see, continuing the war in Iraq isn't just about the War on Terror and bringing democracy to Iraq. It's also about new granite counter-tops and a pair of Ferragamo stilettos that are to die for.
posted by tbogg at 10:07 AM
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...and the laminated pages are drool-proof ! Kofi sent us for your guns
... and your Tom Clancy XBox gamesI'm glad to see that the NRA is still eternally vigilant in making sure that people in every country of the world (even the bad Islamojihadifarian ones) have easy access to military-style weapons.On the other hand, if I were the Pentagon, I would find this a little disturbing seeing as how you never know who we're going to be invading next. Yup. The word on Main Street USA is that the UN is coming for our guns, proving that the classics never go out of style, and they are meeting at this very moment and right after lunch they will start going door to door and taking your guns (presumably from your cold dead hand because that's the only way they are supposed to get them). Later, they'll come back for the white women. And in a brilliant tie-in promotion, not to be confused with the McDonalds Happy Meal UN GunGrabber™ action figures (" Look mommy! Mine comes from Libya! Now can I give daddy's guns away? I have a key to the gun safe.") Wayne LaPierre just happens to have a new book out describing this creepy One-World-Government-Run-By-Dusky-People movement - The Global War on Your Guns : Inside the UN Plan To Destroy the Bill of Rights So You Can't Shoot Mexicans Like The Lord, Our Savior, Jesus Christ Commands You. Available wherever books are sold to people who have to have their children read to them because they didn't have that fancy "book-larning" when they were growing up.
posted by tbogg at 8:45 AM
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Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Whoops. Our bad. Never mind. We take it back. Sorry. If you need me, I'll be under the bedAll that wasted rage by the right over something John Murtha (you know: Mad Jack!) didn't say: The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported on Sunday that Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) had claimed that the United States is the greatest threat to peace in the world:
American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to a crowd of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon.
Though the Sun-Sentinel never provided a direct quote of Murtha, the story was featured on the Drudge Report and Murtha immediately came under attack from conservative pundits:
Bill O’Reilly, Fox News, 6/26:
Murtha has lost all perspective and did months ago, but his message is firmly entrenched in America’s far-left precincts. … [T]hat kind of extreme thinking, based on little evidence, by the way, is putting all Americans in danger.
[...]
One problem: Murtha apparently never said anything of the sort. What he did was cite a Pew poll released two weeks ago showing that people around the world, including in closely-allied countries like Great Britain, believe the U.S. is the greatest threat to peace.
A statement released by Murtha’s office today quotes an email from Melissa Sanchez of the Miami Herald, who also attended the speech, saying of the purported Murtha “quote”: “That was in reference to international polls. It was not so much his own conjecture, but a conclusion drawn from polls in various countries.” We expect all of the rightwing sites to post a correction noting the error by the Sun-Sentinel and apologizing to Congressman Murtha. Okay. We really don't. We know better. This will just become more Murtha wingnut apocrypha endlessly referenced in long postmortems about how Murtha/The New York Times/Kos/Michael Moore/Hollywood/The MSM/Cindy Sheehan lost the war and how it's their fault that Sharia is the law of the land and we're all gonna die now and please God, I don't want to die, oh shit, I'm out of Klonoptin! Has anyone got a Xanax? Anyone? Anyone? C'mon I need it bad...what was that noise? Ah crap! I pissed myself again. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Or something like that.
posted by tbogg at 11:23 PM
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Jonah meets his match Anyone have a Simpson's question? Anyone?Jonah Goldberg- The Man Who Writes His Own Punchlines: I'm begining to think that virtually all interesting critical writing about Leo Strauss must descend into conspiratorial nonsense in order to be interesting. In order to be interestingly critical of Strauss you must prove his relevance to contemporary politics. And in order to prove his relevance — beyond the usual counting of real and alleged Straussians among the conservative chattering classes — you have to assert that alleged Straussian X or supposed neocon Y committed crime Z based on his (almost never "her") intellectual indebtedness to Strauss. The problem is that virtually all such assertions are exactly that: assertions and often rank ones reaking of b.s. For example, this letter about Strauss and Straussians (yes, yes over at Andrew Sullivan's site) starts pretty interesting but in order to sell his case he must assert that Paul Wolfowitz lied about WMDs out of some Straussian conviction. The letter-writer even insinuates that Don Rumsfeld is arrogant for some vague reason having something or other to do with Leo Strauss. Indeed, Rumsfeld is supposedly some kind of "Nietzschean Straussian" according to this Sullivan-approved epistle. This is so sand-poundingly stupid it defies simplistic scorn. And if you need simplistic scorn; Jonah is on your speed-dial.
posted by tbogg at 8:20 PM
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Who knew the EIB Network meant Erection In a Bottle?The worst on radio brings out the best of the blogs. Digby: Rush should be urged to share his story with America. Here's he is, an impotent, thrice divorced, ex-drug addict, conservative, parolee who went on a sex tour in the Caribbean and found himself rudely embarrassed for carrying recreational prescription drugs in his doctor's name. Who can't relate to that? This is a man who has been run through the mud and I think we would benefit from a thorough national conversation to try to understand Rush's urgent need for sex in one of the most poverty stricken countries in the world. Wouldn't he feel unburdened if he could share his thoughts with some of his staunch allies like James Dobson or Pat Robertson? Surely they'd be willing to hear his testimony. Wolcott: As a shocked and grieved nation now knows, Rush Limbaugh was detained at the Palm Beach airport upon returning from a trip to the Dominican Republic. His offense: trying to smuggle potential erections through customs and security. A search of his luggage turned up a quantity of Viagra, or as those pills are known to those who gratefully pop them, "boner boosters."
Now there is no shame in requiring wood enhancement. Men have needs, and if Viagra enables the little fella to jut proudly from the folds of the dragon kimono bequeathed to Rush by the late Allan Bloom, it is not for us to cast judgement. Some of my rude blog bretheren have rudely speculated as to why Rush needed to be toting a bottle of shock-and-awe erectile launchers around the sultry Caribbean isle. Some wonder what he was doing in the Dominican Republic in the first place. Jeralyn: Rush Limbaugh doesn't learn. After all his trouble with his doctor shopping case, and his being under a deferred prosecution, he asks his doctors to put his viagra script in their name instead of his "for privacy purposes." Today he was detained at the Palm Beach Airport for three hours when a search of his luggage uncovered them.
For privacy? That sure worked out well, didn't it. Now, instead of just a pharmacist learning he takes the drug, the whole world knows. Sniff. Kinda makes you glad to be an American.
posted by tbogg at 4:52 PM
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You know? Shakespeare?
Themanwhocreatedromeoandjuliet Pissed he didn't write Scenes From A MallMy favorite post of the day comes from Roger L. Simon the manwhocreatedmoseswine who, in a post on John Murtha makes a snippy remark because, you know, Murtha isn't all cultured and shit like Roger: Well, okay, John, "it is so, if you think so," as Pirandello once said [hint to Murtha: that's a deceased Italian playwright]. But reading the Congressman's latest made me wonder why he would say something so obviously asinine. And speaking of asses: So my suggestion is we start to ignore Mr. Murtha. He will do either of two things: 1. Go away. 2. Become even more outrageous to get our attention and get voted out of office in the process. Failing these, we can always "fix an ass's head" on him like Lysander (scratch that - Bottom) in A Midsummer Night's Dream. You'll note that one of his commenters had to point out to him that he got Lysander wrong. Hint to Roger: "Oh, I am fortune's fool!"
posted by tbogg at 12:26 AM
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Monday, June 26, 2006
Projection: It's all the rage... They're mad I tell you...madHey Kids! Get in on the ground floor as the latest craze, nicknaming Congressman John Murtha, gets under way, Courtesy of John " You Stupid Asshole" Hinderaker, John Murtha is now... Mad Jack. Mad Jack Murtha is one of the most disgraceful members of Congress, in a class with William Jefferson, Cynthia McKinney and Maxine Waters. Hmmmm. Jefferson, McKinney, Waters. No "Duke" Cunningham, no Bill Janklow, no Bob Ney, no Jerry Lewis, no Don Sherwood. Hmmm. I wonder why? You would think he would spell it out in black and white. I guess he's cool with bribery, conspiracy, manslaughter, and assault. And I didn't even mention Tom DeLay. Oh well, back to Mad Jack. Here is The Absurd Report: If you would like to help send Mad Jack Murtha into a much-needed retirement, consider contributing to his Republican opponent, Diana Irey Common Sense and Wonder: The column tracks the points we’ve been making here about Mad Jack Murtha’s proposed “redeployment” of the American forces in Iraq to Okinawa, but Kelly makes these points with a special gusto. ...and a variation on the theme from The Strata-Sphere: Surrender on the brink of final, lasting success is all you need to know about Mad Murtha - and his fat backside is all you will see if you are in a battle with him as he retreats at warp speed to the rear. Madness takes it toll...
posted by tbogg at 9:58 PM
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As God is my witness...if I wasn't an atheistLast summer at a party at SteveAudio's I told Ezra, Jane, the Fabulous David E, and someone else (hey, it was a year ago, okay) that the reason Rush didn't want his medical records made public was becase he was being prescribed Viagra and he didn't want that to get out. Viagra being needed because of the effects of his Hillbilly Heroin jones. I know I posted somewhere about it, but I can't find it. Dammit. (Added) Jane did.
posted by tbogg at 8:34 PM
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Everything WWII is new again Gives Malkin ladywood (Click to enlarge) Decked out in the latest in pundit wear (" Hmmmm. Wearing the tank is bit underdressed, but if I don't wear the hat backwards people will know that I should be taken seriously") Michelle Malkin advocates the return of The World War II Loose Lips campaign advising people not to say anything that might tip off the enemy that they are winning the war and our President is a chimp. Malkin seems particularly taken with the Private Snafu cartoons,which is a good thing for her readers since reading and translating "words" into "crazy head pictures" is exhausting work; cartoons cut out the middleman. Of course, when Malkin starts feeling nostalgic for WWII we can think of a few other things she is also thinking about (as evidenced by the screenshot above). Also, for those who didn't get the MalkinMemo, the WarWord of the Week is: " blabbermouth", to be added to " unhinged", " moonbat", " boo-freaking-hoo", and " wah-bulance" and should be giddily repeated over and over and over again just like a three year-old who has just learned to say "poopy". And please use your 'inside' voice.
posted by tbogg at 7:00 PM
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Jimmy Gurule: Treasonous bastardThe Treasury Department's Undersecretary for Enforcement, Jimmy Gurule: JIMMY GURULE: Well, one example, the president stated this in his statement in the Rose Garden today. Hamas receives money from the Holy Land Foundation with respect to schools. There are schools that are supported by the Holy Land Foundation, and these schools encourage children to engage in terrorist activities specifically suicide bombing activities. So that's one example.
Another example is the money that is raised by the Holy Land Foundation is used to support the families of suicide bombers that engage in suicide terrorist attacks, an insurance policy, if you will, for the survivors of terrorist attacks by suicide bombers.
MARGARET WARNER: Now, are you able to track that? Are you actually able to track money from the Holy Land Foundation to Hamas, to actually these families, or are you saying the Holy Land Foundation, let's just take that example directly supports these families?
JIMMY GURULE: We're able to track money from donors to bank accounts, from bank accounts to the Holy Land Foundation back to the Holy Land Foundation to schools that support terrorist activities.
We do this through the use of the Bank Secrecy Act, the database that is administered by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which is an agency within the Treasury Department.
We are able to do this through the Foreign Asset Tracking Center, which is an agency within the Treasury Department as well, so there are several vehicles, several mechanisms that we use in order to track terrorist assets. From December 4, 2001
posted by tbogg at 10:28 AM
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Shorter Hugh HewittAnyone unwilling to be be bullied on a broadcast by a dumbass like me is not to be taken seriously.
posted by tbogg at 8:10 AM
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Shorter Megan DaumBrevity is the soul of wit. Making fun of widows is the pulsing heart of satire. And I am the uvula of irony.
posted by tbogg at 12:19 AM
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Sunday, June 25, 2006
Okay. These two Hayekians walk into a bar...Comedy gold at The Corner: T. J. Hooker [Matthew J. Franck]
The late Aaron Spelling was responsible, inadvertently, for a Straussian joke that was (and may remain—we’ll see) strictly inside baseball. “T.J. Hooker” (starring you-know-who) came on the air when I was in grad school studying political philosophy, and my pals and I used to joke that the esoteric teaching of the show could be revealed once one realized that the show’s full title was “The Judicious Hooker.” We kept watching for the veiled references to The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity . . . ...and then we laughed and laughed, finished our Zimas and went looking for pussy.
posted by tbogg at 12:57 PM
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Saturday, June 24, 2006
Why don't you pass the time with a game of solitaire?  Markos Moulitsas Zuniga is the kindest, bravest, warmest,
most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life. I just finished getting caught up on all the posts and links and assorted effluvia regarding the TNR/Kos brouhaha in which, to borrow from Yo La Tengo, nothing turned itself inside out to reveal ...nothing. Aside from a cameo appearance by Marty Peretz (in the role of the pissy captain of the Titanic admiring the ice cubes in his drink) the highlight has to be the Lee Siegel " blogofascism" post that is long on set-up and short on payoff. Some people don't work well under pressure, I suppose. The lowlight, of course, is when a Bobo deigns to walk among the hoi polloi on a fifteen-minute anthropological expedition into the fetid backwaters of the blog jungle, make a few notes, and then heads back to the veranda for a quick de-lousing, cocktails, and dictation to the scrivener. Anyway, the benign presence of Professor Reynolds provides a list of links to the K-list goobers who have contributed their usual assorted grunts and guttural clicks on the topic, as best they understand it. I assume that they will have since run into the "TV room" proclaiming, " I got an Instapundit link!". Their wives will be unimpressed and will go back to watching Wife Swap and the promise of a celebratory blow job will have, once again, withered upon the vine.
Sic transit gloria mundi
posted by tbogg at 10:05 PM
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The suprise return of I Don't Like the Drugs But The Drugs Like MeRegarding the Heritage Foundation/24 Fan Boy Convention (see below), a strung-out Rush Limbaugh does improv: Limbaugh peppered the panel over whether “24” influences public perceptions about counterterrorism, and whether the actors are snubbed by Hollywood liberals for participating in what Limbaugh called a “pro-America show.”
Gregory Itzin, who plays the nefarious President Charles Logan, said he has had to defend himself from one or two people “about the fact that the show does have torture issues and how could I live with that.”
“It's a show!” he said. “I've done Shakespeare and have killed people with a sword.”
Later, Limbaugh went back to the program's creation, saying: “You got lucky with 9/11 happening shortly after the show started.” He quickly stopped himself, saying: “Sorry – not got lucky – bad choice of words.” At another point, he offered a story line for a political cameo: Democratic Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a tough critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, as “head of the new KGB.” Rush knows that the only person that "got lucky" on 9/11 was George W. Bush whose presidency was already faltering. Who knew that doing a poor job by ignoring your paperwork would turn put to be a good career move? And I would be remiss if I didn't point out that, at the time that John Murtha was serving in Viet Nam, Rusty couldn't go because he hadn't learn how to wipe his ass yet. No wonder he became a stoner...
posted by tbogg at 1:04 AM
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Friday, June 23, 2006
The Coulter OptionFrom the brain trust at Hot Air discussing Risen and Lichtblau of the New York Times: “Our belief that it did not have any tangible impact has been borne out,” he said. Thus sayeth the all-knowing Lichtblau.
I truly believe that the only tangible impact should be the judicious and righteous exercise of our Second Amendment rights against he and Risen. We are at war and I can easily make a perfectly legal case for the termination of saboteurs by any means necessary. I am not concerned in the least for the martyrdom theory that some of you purport. There are more important issues at stake and the deliberate publication of information that aids the enemy is one of those issues. We are at war. I’m afraid some of you have forgotten that inconvenient truth.
csjd on June 24, 2006 at 1:57 AM Sounds like the bedwetters are getting uppity...
posted by tbogg at 11:48 PM
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Freaks The Freakishly Untalented TrioJason Apuzzo (who probably won't go see Oliver Stones's World Trade Center because Ann Coulter told him it's full of harpies and bitches. But, then again, he only reviews the trailers anyway) is displeased for some reason that they are making a movie out of Charlie Wilson's War, which leads to this comment that says volumes about the reasons why Jason can't find work in Hollywood: Variety is reporting that Philip Seymour Hoffman has agreed to star with Tom Hanks in Mike Nichols’ forthcoming adaptation of Charlie Wilson’s War, the book about wild Texas congressman Charlie Wilson - who helped arrange the CIA’s support of the Afghan mujahedeen in the 1980’s, back when they were fighting the Soviet Union. Hoffman, it may be assumed, will be doing one of his usual turns as a freak. Would that be the freak in Capote, Empire Falls, Cold Mountain, Almost Famous, State and Main, Boogie Nights, or The Talented Mr. Ripley? Oh wait... Hoffman has played gay characters and you know they're... freaks. Too bad Bruce Willis isn't available.  Now that's an actor....
posted by tbogg at 11:44 AM
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Damn. And I already have tickets to X-Men -The Last Stand: Trends In Transhumanism or Just A Comic Book Movie? The Bush Cabinet. (Colin Powell has since left)I think that The Heritage Foundation is starting to slip a little: "24" and America’s Image in
Fighting Terrorism:
Fact, Fiction, or Does it Matter?
Friday, June 23, 2006
Moderator:
Rush Limbaugh
Host, The Rush Limbaugh Show
Featuring:
The Honorable Michael Chertoff
Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
James Jay Carafano
Senior Research Fellow,
Defense and Homeland Security,
The Heritage Foundation
David Heyman
Director and Senior Fellow,
Homeland Security Program, CSIS
Howard Gordon
Executive Producer and Writer, "24"
Joel Surnow
Executive Producer, Creator and Writer, "24"
Robert Cochran
Executive Producer, Creator and Writer, "24"
PLUS Members of the "24" Cast:
Gregory Itzin - "President Charles Logan"
Mary Lynn Rajskub - "Chloe O'Brian"
Carlos Bernard - "Tony Almeida"
This is a ticketed, invitation only event and is sold out.
NO TICKETS AVAILABLE.
I think it would be really coool in they could get Jack Bauer to crash through a skylight midway through the program. Cliff May would positively squeal with delight...
posted by tbogg at 10:25 AM
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You see, it's a 'Journal' not a 'Times'.
They are two different words. "I'm sorry. Who did I forget?"Malkin froths and fumes: They can buy ink by the barrel, but we can fight back now with bandwidth by the terrabyte. I'm getting inundated with furious readers' letters to the Times, most of which the editors won't bother to read or publish--since they're not in, you know, the "public (Pulitzer) interest." So I'm reprinting a representative sample here and I'll keep adding to it. Don't forget that it's both the NYTimes and the LATimes that blew off security concerns in favor of blowing the cover of the terrorist finance tracking program.
Send a letter to the editor by e-mailing letters@nytimes.com or faxing (212)556-3622. Snail mail:
Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
LATimes e-mail form here. Ahem. Aren't we forgetting someone? The White House and Treasury Department issued statements about the secret subpoenas after The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times posted stories about the program on their Web sites. I must have Paul Gigot's phone number around here somewhere.... Meanwhile her sidekick, Duh Boy chimes in: The Times’ they are a-hangin’ together. Both the NY and the LA Times are flogging the Swift story. Both Times have published this leak that helps terrorists dodge the law “in the public interest.” By which they actually mean, in their own and in the terrorists’ interest. The public gains nothing from the disclosure of this program other than increased political acrimony and increase anxiety over the rising possibility of losing this war thanks to the treasonous Times. Both of them. Too bad about the increased "anxiety" there, Bryan. Maybe Goldstein will share some of his good shit...
posted by tbogg at 8:54 AM
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Thursday, June 22, 2006
Now batting for Edroso... Beware the Noonan-wock, my son!
She who humps the Reagan shoes
Beware of God's dolphins and Elian
And please make sure to hide the boozeSince Roy is unable to fulfill his Noonan duties this week, the sash and tiara go to DonBoy who enters the Would-Scare-The Shit-Out-of-Lewis-Carroll mind of Peggy Noonan.
posted by tbogg at 11:21 PM
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Tears of a clown Irrelevancy makes the baby Jason cryI'm not exactly sure what Jason Zengerle has against Kos or the other blogs other than the fact that he works for the faux-liberal financial suckhole that is The New Republic which makes the National Review look like a Warren Buffet investment. But he has created quite the inside blogball kerfuffle. Following up on this, why did so many of the people on the "Townhouse" e-mail list follow Kos's orders to stay silent about the Armstrong story and the Kosola allegations? Part of it, I'm sure, has to do with their political allegiances to Kos. But let's not underestimate their financial allegiances. As you can see, my blog is advertising free because I'm living comfortably (having sagely invested in Klonopin futures, pre-9/11) and I'm not part of the Liberal Advertising Mafia (" Nice little blog you got there, Commie boy. Be a shame if nobody read it") so I wasn't in on the doubleplus supersecret mailing list which had coded instructions to avoid... you know... wink wink... nod nod.. blog no more, blog no more. I just didn't see what the big whoop was about. But, as we all know, it's not the crime - it's the cover-up. Unless it is about Scooter Libby and Valerie Plame. That doesn't count. And it's not as if Jason Zengerle enjoys dumping on those who are more liberal than thou. As he once said: "If there's a theme that attracts me, it's pieces that are somewhat sad; I much prefer to write in sorrow than in anger. I don't like to rail. But I'll rail when I have to." So it is, in sorrow, that Jason seems to think that he has a big scoop here which puts him in line to be the next Bob Woodward and with that comes fame, fortune and the inevitable selling out. But since he works at The New Republic, two of those three are non-starters. As for the third one: Mission Accomplished. (Added) One Trick Pony Jeff Goldstein reduces everything down to the one area of expertise that he has...besides knowing 1001 Things To Do With Your Dick, I mean: The modern progressive movement—which is founded upon loyalty to established narratives and which defines its members by that loyalty—has nearly completed its transformation from a coalition group interested in guiding policy to an identity group, where membership is thought of in ontological terms. Which is why Kos doesn’t allow that TNR could be comprised of liberals/progressives who disagree with his tactics and/or strategies; instead, they are now essentially right wingers. Which is to say, they are defined by their Otherness. I think that the only thing that keeps Goldstein's wife from smothering him with a pillow while he sleeps is the high cost of daycare in America. Then again, everyone has a breaking point...
posted by tbogg at 11:09 PM
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Pre-Friday Random Ten I know sometimes I just have to leave
In the night, while you're fast asleep
But I don't worry, I move in the dark
There were lights, there were border lights
I thought I heard that drum in the distance playing
I turned around, I crossed my heart and beat angels were there
Okay. Last week a certain Limp Bizkit song popped up and much merriment was made at my expense. Let me just warn you that there is the potential for a few more Bizkit songs to show their face and let's just say that anyone with any smart-ass comments had better hope that no Rush, Journey or Pavement songs pop up on their list. It could get real ugly. So just behave. Understood? Okay then... Abbatoir Blues - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
I Missed the Point - Neko Case
Sparkys Dream - Teenage Fanclub
Red Tan - The Raveonettes
Pinball - Stereolab
Sacrifice - The Roots
Beat Angels - Rickie Lee Jones
Walk In The Fire - Doves
The Magdalene Laundries - The Chieftains with Joni Mitchell
A Little Warm Death - Cassandra Wilson Bonus #11: Son of A Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield. Looks like nobody is going to get hurt this week...
posted by tbogg at 10:43 PM
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Thursday Night Basset Blogging Satchmo The Good and PatientSatchmo will stand and wait for hours to get in the door if he has to. Occasionally Satchmo will get locked in the walk-in closet or bathroom and he won't make a sound no matter how long he is stuck. He'll just sit there and look at the bottom of the door. Beckham would chew a hole in the door and stick his head through like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. He's funny that way. Labels: basset, bassets
posted by tbogg at 8:53 PM
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Condolences Image sourceBefore getting on to lesser unimportant things I just want to extend the sympathies of my entire family to Jane at Firedoglake on the passing of her mother. In conversations that I have had with Jane the topic of her mother came up several times and I was always struck, not only by her affection for her mother, but by the pride and respect that she had for her. You don't hear too much of that when people are discussing their parents. Jane's mom must have been a hell of a woman because she raised a hell of a daughter. I think we will all miss her in some way.
posted by tbogg at 8:24 PM
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It's not that I've been slacking off...at least not muchBlogger has been sucking...again. I'll be back later tonight with the boys, music, unfair and completely inappropriate commentary. You know. The usual shit.
posted by tbogg at 3:21 PM
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Parties With WolvesThat would be our little Mickey: The fete was a who's-who of LA political bloggers, including Matt Welch and Luke Thompson, Joseph Mailander of the Martini Republic, Moxie, Andrew Breitbart of the Drudge Report, Pajamas Media head honcho Roger L. Simon, and of course recent birthday girl Emmanuelle Richard. Coulter was escorted to the garden party by Slate's Mickey Kaus.(my emphasis) Kaus doesn't get to go out with many women. That day was no exception.
posted by tbogg at 10:29 AM
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Wednesday, June 21, 2006
The hits from the fifties I have in my hand...Let's see....we have an unpopular homo-hatin' Senator who is about to lose his job and wonders how he is going to pull down the big bucks to feed his family since he won't have a PAC to pick up his Starbucks tab anymore. So he shows up with a fake list of Communists WMD's to booga!-booga! the populace.....and the goobers who are watching their war tumble down around their ears point and say, "See! See!". It's official: Rick Santorum is in his last throes... And here is your very special Special Ed moment: I think that we have known of a handful of recovered chemical-weapons shells, but not 500. That number has more significance. An artillery company could have laid down a very effective attack on an enemy position, quickly killing or disabling them in a manner outlawed for decades. Of course, that had been the entire point of the UN Security Council resolutions -- to strip Saddam of that capability -- and he obviously retained it, and lied about it .Later followed by: The DoD reminds people that these munitions likely would not have worked if deployed and were not necessarily the WMD that intel agencies reported. However, they also acknowledged that Saddam's retention of his Gulf War munitions shows his deception to the UN and the cease-fire powers Tell you what: If the neocons can find someone at the CPA to remember where they put that $9 billion they misplaced in 2003, maybe they can figure out how Saddam misplaced 500 artillery shells from pre-1991. Don't expect an email from Michael Ledeen on that one.
posted by tbogg at 10:55 PM
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Tuesday, June 20, 2006
We, on the other hand, are above all thatWith all of the glee of the thirteen year-old that she is, rageaholic Michelle Malkin makes with the funny with really cheesy John Murtha photoshopped pictures. Courtesy of John at Crooks and Liars: we don' need no steekin' Photoshop...   Meet your new Bipolar poster girl Signs and symptoms of mania (or a manic episode) include:
* Increased energy, activity, and restlessness
* Excessively "high," overly good, euphoric mood
* Extreme irritability
* Racing thoughts and talking very fast, jumping from one idea to another
* Distractibility, can't concentrate well
* Little sleep needed
* Unrealistic beliefs in one's abilities and powers
* Poor judgment
* Spending sprees
* A lasting period of behavior that is different from usual
* Increased sexual drive
* Abuse of drugs, particularly cocaine, alcohol, and sleeping medications
* Provocative, intrusive, or aggressive behavior
* Denial that anything is wrong
A manic episode is diagnosed if elevated mood occurs with three or more of the other symptoms most of the day, nearly every day, for 1 week or longer. If the mood is irritable, four additional symptoms must be present.
Signs and symptoms of depression (or a depressive episode) include:
* Lasting sad, anxious, or empty mood
* Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism
* Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness
* Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed, including sex
* Decreased energy, a feeling of fatigue or of being "slowed down"
* Difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions
* Restlessness or irritability
* Sleeping too much, or can't sleep
* Change in appetite and/or unintended weight loss or gain
* Chronic pain or other persistent bodily symptoms that are not caused by physical illness or injury
* Thoughts of death or suicide, or suicide attempts
A depressive episode is diagnosed if five or more of these symptoms last most of the day, nearly every day, for a period of 2 weeks or longer. I report, you decide....
posted by tbogg at 8:19 PM
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2 White, 2 Privileged, 2 Die After reading this: WINGNUT JOHN HINDERAKER SMEARS DEAD SOLDIER'S UNCLE. A couple of minutes ago I came across this Associated Press story saying that the uncle of Kristian Menchaca -- one of the U.S. soldiers who was missing and is now said to be dead -- criticized the United States for Menchaca's disappearance and death. My first thought was to do a post asking how long it would take before the wingnuts started smearing the grief-stricken uncle.
Alas, I'm too late. Over at Powerline Blog, John Hinderaker has already cranked up the slime machine and let fly:
In a sick coda, Menchaca's uncle, Ken MacKenzie, appeared on the Today show and recited weirdly inapplicable Democratic Party talking points in relation to his own nephew's death...No shame.
I've asked this before, but what is it about the relatives of people killed by terrorists that these wingnuts hate so much? Recall that Ann Coulter smeared the widows of 9/11 victims and that many righty bloggers smeared the father of Nick Berg, who was beheaded in Iraq. Their sin, of course, was that they criticized America and George Bush.
Let me put this as clearly as I can: To the likes of Hinderaker, the pain of those who lost loved ones to this war only matters to the extent that the bereaved allow their grief to be used to prop up the war effort and Bush himself. If the bereaved relatives don't allow their grief to be used in this fashion, their sacrifice and loss no longer matter a whit -- they're not to be pitied or empathized with, but scorned and humiliated as brutally as possible. Despicable. I was reminded that each of the Power Line boys has at least one child who is of fighting age and therefore I think that one of these privileged children should immediately enlist and volunteer to take Kristian Menchaca's spot in Iraq. With two of the Power Linettes slated to start attending Dartmouth in the fall (with Scott's daughter still fresh from her victory over Juan Cole at the Battle of Yale), I'm sure they can spare one to see that freedom stays on the march. Anything less than that would constitute prima facie evidence that John, Paul, and Scott are deeply unserious about the War on Terror. And then the terrorists will have won.
posted by tbogg at 10:12 AM
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Monday, June 19, 2006
No-bama Someone take the wheelI would really like to think that Barack Obama is the great hope of the Democratic party. He's got it all; smarts, charm, looks, the whole package. But as Matt Stoller points out, he's like a bag of chips that, when you open it, you find that the contents have settled and there's not as much in there as you were expecting. Obama likes to passive aggressively excuse his non-impact in the Senate by talking about how he's 98th in seniority. The problem is that the 98th in seniority argument is reasonable only if Obama rhetorically acknowledges that he can't get anything done when he's speaking. What he's doing, though, is playing to the crowd by criticizing those in Washington (as if that doesn't include him) for acting small while giving excuses to progressives as to why he himself must act small. It is important to read the Sirota column linked in Matt's post to get a feel for the real Obama, and, quite frankly, Sirota's take is pretty much the vibe that I have gotten from watching the Senator from Illinois. I don't know if he is overly cautious by nature or if he is allowing himself to be held hostage by the dreaded consultants from the Clinton years who have convinced everyone that they were responsible for the selling of Bill Clinton when selling Bill Clinton was like trying to sell ice water in the desert. I would buy Obama's deference to leaders in the Democratic party if I felt that were any leaders in the Democratic party (Anyone? Anyone?) but he doesn't seem to want to fill the void and so we end up with a bland parsing pol who spends all of his time trying to not leave anything distinctive on his permanent record...and we already have an Evan Bayh. Personally I'm tired of Democrats who are obsessed with process and talking about how they need to get their message out. There comes a time to decide what you stand for...and then stand for it. I don't have a horse in the 2008 Presidential election and I'll vote for any Democrat short of the Joe's (Lieberman and Biden), I only have one requirement for my candidate: someone who can win. And for that, and because both parties bases are pretty much set in stone, you need someone who can excite the mushy middle (also known as the "independents") and I don't think that you can get them off the couch them with more mush. If you want to lead the party, then lead. Otherwise stop wasting my time and sucking the air out of the room...
posted by tbogg at 11:47 PM
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20,000 Leagues Beneath the Best Seller list Summer reading really calls for JawsFrom Wolcott: In contrast, a certain resident of NRO's The Corner finds his latest effort limp in the water. In the latest issue of The New Republic, Alexander M. Belenky, who I believe used to serve in the Duma, reports that the anti-Hillary book boom seems to have peeped out. Since this article isn't available either (except for TNR subscribers), allow me to quote.
"For an example of increasingly lukewarm reception that Clinton books are getting, take a look at John Podhoretz's latest screed. This call to arms, Can She Be Stopped? Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President of the United States Unless..., was just published last month by Crown Forum with a strong first printing of 75,000 copies. On the surface, the book possessed all the right ingredients for success: a big-name author with a proven track record; solid, print, radio, and online publicity, including a rare exclusive with Matt Drudge; and a novel take on the subject...
"Yet, with only 2,000 copies sold so far, according to Nielsen BookScan, the book hasn't lived up to expectations... Podhoretz is still out doing media promos, but it's unlikely that sales will pick up much."
Underperformance can happen to any author, but such laggard sales help explain the needy, plead-y tone of The Corner in the last few weeks as Podhoretz and Ramesh Ponnuru have been plugging and flogging their books as if they were working adjacent corners in a deserted part of town. I have nothing to contribute to this except for the picture (called back from hiatus) and the suggestion that this doesn't bode well for Jonah who is apparently writing his book by clenching a Sharpie between his fleshy buttocks and painfully squatting out each word out, straining to meet that March 2007 deadline. Why, yes, that is an unpleasant image, isn't it?
posted by tbogg at 11:08 PM
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NanoNerds and the World of Tomorrow Live-blogging Amos n' AndyI'm going to join in with Atrios and Matthew Ygelsias in pointing out that blogging is neither the path to enlightenment nor is it going to replace the traditional media (also sneeringly called "legacy media" or the dreaded "MSM" by the basement dwellers who want so badly to be a part of it that they daily fling feces at it in an effort to bring it down to their level...and then they can join! Neato!) Without real reporters who actually go out and do real reporting, bloggers are nothing more than the bubbleheaded meatpuppets that man the anchor desks at the all-news cable channels reading from a script and editorializing with a raised eyebrow or voice inflection. Does anyone really believe that Brian Williams, Rita Crosby, or Noron O'Donnell could hold their own in a discussion with, say, Glenn Greenwald or Digby or Bilmon unless the subject was tanning beds, missing coeds or the conventional wisdom? Not. Fucking. Likely. Regarding the Utopia that is right around the corner, Yglesias writes: Liberals -- including liberal bloggers -- tend to think that we need new and/or improved institutions of global governance to combat such problems as global warming and nuclear proliferation. Reynolds thinks that the former can be solved without regulation by mysterious technological improvements while the latter can be solved because deregulation will lead to private sector colonization of space thus allowing humanity to survive despite the risks of nuclear or biological warfare. If Reynolds really believes that, then someone should point out that we all read Atlas Shrugged and the Foundation trilogy when we were thirteen... but we grew out of it.
posted by tbogg at 9:33 PM
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Hell In A Handbasket (Click to enlarge)Everyone else is plugging Eric Boehlert's Lapdogs (which I just finished yesterday at the beach and I strongly recommend it as well as a nice SPF8) so I want to take the opportunity to plug Tom Tomorrow's Hell In A Handbasket which takes complex socio-political shennanigans and condenses them down into bite-sized six-panel snark. Go buy it here. I can't think of a more wonderful Fourth of July present to put under your Fourth of July tree to open on Fourth of July morning....unless you're one of those America-haters who don't give gifts on the 4th in which case you're a terrorist-loving bastard and you disgust me. Did I mention that I used to be in marketing?
posted by tbogg at 8:29 PM
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But I thought everything changed after---Oh. never mind...Jonah Goldberg's thinking is still stuck on 9/10/2001: Al Gore refuses to endorse Joe Lieberman — his former running mate — in Lieberman's re-election fight. (Nod to Ezra Klein ). I guess Lierberman (sic) would have been good enough to run the government if something bad happened to Gore. But he's not obviously the best qualified to be the junior senator from Connecticut, even though he had the same job when Gore tapped him in 2000.
That's not to say that he still not best qualified to take Dick Cheney's spot. Outside of the face-shooting, we'd hardly notice...
posted by tbogg at 12:50 PM
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Sunday, June 18, 2006
The Wrong Stuff Trial and error. Mostly 'error'....NASA: The "Fuck it. Let's see what happens..." agency. Dr Griffin said: "I do not see the situation we're in as being a crew-loss situation. If we are unlucky and we have a debris event on ascent, it will not impede the ascent. The crew will arrive safely in orbit, and then we will begin to look at our options." "crew-loss situation" = death "debris event" = shit happening + death Houston, we have a moron.
posted by tbogg at 10:53 PM
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Time for the No Troops Left Behind Act Not quite ready for prime timeFar be it from me to want to damage the self-esteem of the nascent Iraqi fighting forces, but the end of the year report cards just came out and it looks like some of them aren't going to be moving up a grade next year. Also swept under the rug, according to an earlier Hearst report in the Detroit Free Press (thanks SA) are statistics on the state of readiness of Iraqi army units. It seems that the U.S. has decided to stop releasing detailed readiness reports. The decision, Hearst says, came after the publicly released reports "showed a steady decline in the number of qualified Iraqi units."
That number is now classified. I spoke to a JCS source about this report. It appears that the issue in "the building" is that the four-tiered system used for rating Iraqi units was too stringent and perhaps "misleading."
Under the system, Iraqi units are rated Levels 1 through 4, from most capable to least prepared, and though the Pentagon rated three Iraqi battalions in Level 1 -- "capable of conducting attacks without U.S. involvement" -- last June, by February, no Iraqi battalions were so rated.
The talking points stress that "Level 1," that is, requiring no U.S. assistance whatsoever (meaning no assistance with logistics, intelligence, command and control, etc.), doesn't describe a absence of readiness. Some NATO units, my JCS source says, could not meet the Level 1 standard.
The solution? Well, guess what, it isn't to get more Iraqi units to Level 1 or come up with new standards that might reflect combat readiness; instead, the Pentagon decided to make the numbers classified. The Pentagon now rolls statistics into a larger grouping that combines Level 1 and Level 2.
My source though also muttered something very Washington and elliptical about not undermining the al-Maliki government, about "encouragement" and "progress." He proved he could be national security adviser to the President in his carefully parsed explanation about conveying the wrong "impression" of both Iraqi readiness, that the statistics were really owned by Baghdad and it was up to them to reveal the readiness of their forces, not Washington. Maybe we could buck up their spirits with Everyone Gets A Trophy Day
posted by tbogg at 9:24 PM
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The Battle of the Bulge We attack at the crack of dawn. Pass it on...It's almost as if Ann Althouse has super human powers that allow her to focus on the least important part of an argument like a laser beam before confessing that she really doesn't get what the hell the argument was about in the first place: Russert bases the interview on a clips from a speech Karl Rove gave in New Hampshire last Monday, and Murtha should have been well prepared to answer this. Rove's remarks are clear: the Democrats want to "cut and run." "They may be with you at the first shots, but they are not going to be there for the last tough battles." Murtha's response is nothing but babble about how Rove isn't personally fighting the war:
He’s, he’s in New Hampshire. He’s making a political speech. He’s sitting in his air conditioned office with his big, fat backside, saying, “Stay the course.”
You know, most Americans are fat. Including Murtha. This kind of personal invective may be hilarious among fellow Rove-haters, but it's frustrating to listen to an answer like that when Rove has articulated exactly the issue Democrats need to address. It's always been the case that the leaders are back home in physical comfort -- though it's an unusually bad week to dredge up that hackneyed observation, since Bush just went to Iraq. George Bush spent five whole hours battling evildoers (with a small break for lunch and a photo-op) in Iraq while John Murtha just singlehandedly lost for the Democratic party the Fat-Ass-American vote. War is hell. Pie is yummy.
posted by tbogg at 8:15 PM
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Friday, June 16, 2006
Blue Dress Republicans and the Women They Love I don't usually link to the Right Side for their humor (which is generally inadvertent), but watching the commenters contort themselves attempting to defend She Who Shall Be Referred To As "Le Skank" is worth the price of admission...which is free, by the way. I mean, after everything that Le Skank has said over the years, is it really going to take her being accused of being an anti-Semite to make people stop and say, "Hmmm. I think that may be a bit over the top."? To get you started: Ann Coulter defender Xrlq offers still more ammunition against Coulter: her own words. Our pal X provides this link to excerpts from Chapter 1 of her latest book. This way, you can form an intelligent opinion about whether the book is crap without having to pay her a dime. Xrlq cites a disturbing passage in which Coulter suggests that she hopes liberals won’t make it into heaven: I don’t particularly care if liberals believe in God. In fact, I would be crestfallen to discover any liberals in heaven.
To me, this kind of sounds like she wants liberals to roast in hell, but I’m sure her defenders will have all sorts of explanations: she didn’t say the word “hell”; maybe she meant they should go to purgatory; she didn’t really mean it; liberals should roast in hell anyway. As much as I like that passage, I have another favorite: Liberals use the word science exactly as they use the word constitutional. Both words are nothing more or less than a general statement of liberal approval, having nothing to do with either science or the Constitution. (Thus, for example, the following sentence makes sense to liberals: President Clinton saved the Constitution by repeatedly ejaculating on a fat Jewish girl in the Oval Office.)
Here’s what I find especially interesting about that passage: why did Coulter find it necessary to include the word “Jewish” in that last sentence? We have all sorts of Coulter apologists populating the comments here, so I am sure someone can explain this to me. To me, every word in that sentence is designed to show how repugnant and disgusting Clinton’s actions truly were. I mean, just look how bad his behavior was. He didn’t just kiss her; he ejaculated! Not on a woman, but a girl! Not just once, but repeatedly! Of all places, in the Oval Office! And she was fat! And to top it off, she was Jewish! I just don’t know how else to read this. I can’t see the inclusion of the word “Jewish” in that sentence as anything but an attempt on her part to heighten the outrage. As if the fact that she was “Jewish” somehow makes it worse. As if it is somehow relevant to anything. My initial impression is that this is about as strong evidence of the repugnance of Ann Coulter as anything I’ve ever read by her. If I’m wrong, why did she use that word? UPDATE: Some explanations from commenters are offered in the extended entry. Scanning the explanations, I find one that kind of makes sense, from PrestoPundit: What the language does is to make the act impersonal — Clinton isn’t doing this with a unique individual, he’s doing this to what they call in the social sciences an “ideal type”. The language objectifies the target, turning her into a familiar kind rather than a singular person on equal terms as an individual with Clinton — making Clinton look even more the sexual pred[a]tor.
OK, I’ll buy that as a possibility. It seems to me, though, that there is a deliberate (and, at a minimum, curious) choice in the decision to pick the word “Jewish” as one of the words used to objectify Lewinsky. “Naive intern” would objectify her as well — but it would have a different effect. Evidently Coulter needed the effect that comes only with objectifying Lewinsky as a “fat Jewish girl.” Another explanation is offered by commenter nash: that the line “plays to a sterotype of single Jewish women which Monica Lewinsky seems to fit into, if barely.” This stereotype, nash explains, is one of a “Jewish American princess” as a “grasping, selfish, lazy, and sexually manipulative” person — like those “JAP” jokes you hear. Uh, OK. Go. Read. Have fun. Don't get any on you....
posted by tbogg at 10:03 PM
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The grave that they dug him had flowers
Gathered from the hillsides in bright summer colors When the wars of our nation did beckon,
A man barely twenty did answer the calling.
Proud of the trust that he placed in our nation,
He's gone,
But eternity knows him, and it knows what we've done.- The Grave by Don McLean Tony Snow, representing the President of the United States: Q Tony, American deaths in Iraq have reached 2,500. Is there any response or reaction from the President on that?
MR. SNOW: It's a number, and every time there's one of these 500 benchmarks people want something. 2500.Cpl. Michael A. Estrella, 20, of Hemet, Calif., died June 14 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. I'm not sure if Michael Estrella is exactly #2500, it's hard to tell with the way that the Pentagon releases fatality information. Regardless, even if he was 2497 or 2504, he wasn't just "a number" and I'm sure his family would want him back. Alive.
posted by tbogg at 1:15 PM
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Go outside and play... The red spot is my spotIt is way too pretty outside (80 degrees/slight breeze) to stay inside and blog. Off to the beach. Back tonight. In the meantime...  Bush sucks
posted by tbogg at 12:54 PM
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This is Michael Barone reporting from
the Ministry of Truth...back to you, Jill What you don't know won't hurt usMichael Barone: Vietnam and Watergate were arguably triumphs for honest reporting. But they were also defeats for America--and for millions of freedom-loving people in the world. They ushered in an era when the political opposition and much of the press have sought not just to defeat administrations but to delegitimize them. WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
posted by tbogg at 10:19 AM
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Thursday, June 15, 2006
Pre-Friday Random Ten Its all about the he says she says bullshit
I think you better quit
Lettin' shit slip
Or you'll be leavin with a fat lipI could have done it last week but I was too busy in Vegas hitting titty bars with Wesley Clark and Adam Nagourney (who unaccountably kept yelling out for Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me)...so I never got to it. Here ya go: Wrath - KMFDM
Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet
She Bangs The Drum - The Stone Roses
Red Rain - Peter Gabriel
Break Stuff - Limp Bizkit (Oh, bite me)
South Tacoma Way - Neko Case and Her Boyfriends
American Witch - Rob Zombie
Glósóli - Sigur Rós
River of Fools - Los Lobos
Superman - Stereophonics Bonus eleven and twelve (to make up for last week): Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of The War Drums - A Perfect Circle
Listed M.I.A. - Rancid
posted by tbogg at 8:39 PM
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Thursday Night Basset Blogging -The OuttakesThe svelte and more-popular-than-me Mrs TBogg accidentally took the camera and media card home with her to Santa Barbara this week so I'm rummaging around in the back of the hard drive, like a teenager looking for something in the refrigerator (" There's NOTHING to eat!") for an unused basset pic. Using the quantity over quality excuse, here are a few leftovers:  Outtake #1 - Pre-green Beckham Outtake #2 - Baby Beckham and Mrs TBogg's hands Outtake #3 - Not forgetting the doleful-looking SatchmoIsn't this just like summer reruns? (As usual, you can click to enlarge) Labels: basset, bassets
posted by tbogg at 8:02 PM
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The cryogenically frozen William F. Buckley craps little tiny ice cubes
The Corner (the biggest loss leader in the United Federation of Planets that is National Review) has sunk to non-stop Star Trek-ivia. Or maybe, in their case, they've elevated their game depending upon your nerd tolerance. Thank jeebus Mr. Buckley didn't live to see this. The horror...the horror....* *(This is a Heart of Darkness reference, just in case Jeff "The Derrida of Dick" Goldstein stops by)
posted by tbogg at 3:58 PM
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Wednesday, June 14, 2006
No water to wine, please. We're Christians Go ahead. It's an O'Douls!Buried deep within this article in which a few Southern Baptists who are homeschooling their kids want the other Southern Baptists to join the ignorance parade (Jesus was a gay-hatin' dinosaur rider...that kind of stuff) is this little tidbit: Also Wednesday, the SBC unofficially barred members who drink alcohol from serving as trustees or members of any SBC entity.
The ban, part of a larger anti-alcohol resolution that was easily approved by delegates, was proposed by Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. While stopping short of officially preventing drinkers from serving, it "urges" that no one be elected or appointed to SBC offices if that person is "a user of alcohol."
"Use of alcohol as a beverage can and does impede the message of Jesus Christ" that Southern Baptists are trying to spread, Richards said. I'm not saying that the belief in a cloud-borne cosmic recluse might go down a bit better after a drink or two, but is sure can't hurt.
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