Sep 282006
 

I read a great post today on a post over on DailyKos. I get the feeling that Markos is of the opinion that third party candidates are a waste of time because they can’t get the support and don’t have the infrastructure that the Democrats already have. This is a practical point of view, but the post over on This Modern World points out why this is a problem. You end up supporting a bunch of people who aren’t willing to take a stand regardless of the consequences. It’s an old song and dance. The framers of the constitution never intended there to be “career politicans”. Who the hell would want to be one? It’s supposed to be a service to your fellow citizens and your country, not a career in and of itself. I feel an extended rant coming on, but it’s just so frustrating.

I’m also annoyed on a state level. We’ve got a four-way race for governor this year. I can’t stand Rick Perry. He’s a known prick and hasn’t done a damn thing as far as I’m concerned. As I’ve mentioned, I can’t vote for Strayhorn for several reasons, chief among them, the fact that she spawned Scott McClelland. I had a passing interest in Kinky. I agree with him on certain issues, but not on others. The recent trashing from Burnt Orange Report has really put me off though. I totally agree with those who’ve pointed out that the guy’s a satirist and a cowboy satirist at that. Of course he’s going to have said things that, taken out of context, will seem overtly racist. Look at any comedian or satirist who focuses on race or plays a character. I can’t really defend the crackheads comment, but going after old routines seems over the top and shrill on the part of BOR and turns me off of them, and by association the Democrats, as well. At the same time, Kinky can’t be surprised that this stuff is coming back to haunt him. He can’t play the character when he’s trying to run for governor. You can read all of the BOR articles on Kinky for yourself and Kelso’s commentary on the issue.

[tags]thismodernworld, dailykos, kinkyfriedman, burntorangereport, democrat, independent, texas, governor[/tags]

 Posted by on September 28, 2006 at 9:14 am
Sep 132006
 

There were tons of opinions and articles written over the last week to coincide with the 5 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I posted something of my own on the Austin Metblog. My del.icio.us posting setup does a decent job of echoing links now, so I’d like to try and avoid that, but here’s the best of what I saw this past week.

 Posted by on September 13, 2006 at 10:26 am
Jun 152006
 

I watched the Tonight Show last night. The sparks I anticipated didn’t appear. Carlin did a long riff when he came out. It was impressive, but ultimately unsatisfying. He made a few references to religion, bombs and a slightly incorrect version of the old european heaven and hell joke. Coulter followed him and, other than a lame joke about the first time he’d moved to the right, he and Jay both let her spout her usual crap. She made a comment about how no one who had edited or proofread the book had any problem with the 9/11 widows section or any other part for that matter.

Crooks and Liars has some post-appearance commentary and Rude Pundit is claiming that Coulters book is full of unattributed borrowing. Pharyngula has a flurry of posts on Coulter, echoing some of the bits in Crooks and Liars, mentioning the plagiarism and countering her views on evolution.

[tags]anncoulter, pharyngula, plagiarism, evolution, georgecarlin, tonightshow, jayleno[/tags]

 Posted by on June 15, 2006 at 1:07 pm
Jun 132006
 

I’d probably only heard of Ann Coulter in passing until I read Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. I still don’t really care what she has to say. She’s one of those people that says completely outrageous things to get attention and, of course, make money. I’m not linking any of her crap because I don’t want to give her traffic. You can google her yourself if, by chance, you haven’t heard of her by now. Anyway, I bring her up for two reasons:

  1. She’s apparently going to be on Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight Wednesday to plug her most recent book. George Carlin is also going to be on plugging Cars. He’s the voice of Filmore. There’s no guarantee that they’ll face off, but it’s worth watching in case they do. As Kevin Seconds notes, Carlin should be able to put her in her place. Speaking of Carlin, Pharyngula linked a skit of his from MadTV yesterday that I’d never seen.
  2. Somebody else linked a YouTube posting of the “Letters from Henry” segment from the third episode of The Henry Rollins Show on IFC. There’s no reason to resort to YouTube though. IFC allows access to segments from all of the shows on the site in addition to web-only extras. If you’re not watching this show, you should be. It’s been pretty solid so far. I’ve yet to miss an episode.

Mary Cheney is still trying vain to plug her new book, but it appears that no one gives a shit. I’m not surprised. There’s a wide swath of members of her own party who’ll avoid the book because she’s a lesbian. The lesbian and gay community will avoid the book because she’s seen as a traitor. And, honestly, in the end, who really cares what the vice president’s daughter has to say? Shuffle her off to current and former presidental offspring camp with Amy Carter, Chelsea Clinton, and Ron Reagan Jr. Can anybody even name the offspring of previous vice presidents? I can picture Gore’s kids and remember that one of them was hit by a car, but can’t come up with names.

Anyway, speaking of possible sparks, Cheney will be on Fresh Air with Terry Gross today. I doubt we’ll get anything on the scale of the Gene Simmons or Bill O’Reilly interview, but ya never know.

[tags]henryrollins, anncoulter, marycheney, georgecarlin, tonightshow, freshair, ifc, npr, kevinseconds[/tags]

 Posted by on June 13, 2006 at 10:21 am
May 182006
 

I couldn’t pass this up. I went and got a little more of the quote from the press briefing for context:

Q Okay. But, I mean, maybe it was a terrific meeting. As far as I can tell, that has not stopped Republicans, particularly in the House, from going gangbusters against this President before they’ve had a chance to read everything, as you say they should do.

MR. SNOW: Well, as I pointed out — I mentioned this yesterday, and for — let me see if I can find my quote, because I pulled it out. Chuck Hagel, as you may recall, made a fair amount of news over the weekend when he first said that — let’s see — “Well, I want to listen to the details and I want to listen to the President,” said Senator Hagel — he said this on “This Week” on a competing network. But I would say this: I think we have to be very careful here. That’s not the role of our military, that’s not the role of our National Guard.” That’s what Senator Hagel said on Sunday.

Poor Tony Snow, working for Fox News long enough to view all of the other media outlets (This Week with George Stephanopoulos is on ABC) as competition. This is all still just too surreal.

[tags]tonysnow, foxnews, abcthisweek, staterunmedia, slipup[/tags]

 Posted by on May 18, 2006 at 8:45 am
May 172006
 

I posted last week that it appear that AG Gonzales lied at his NSA hearings. Well, this week, Wolf Blitzer asked him about his grandparents, three out of four of whom were born in Mexico, and wanted to know if they were legally documented when they came to the U.S.. Gonzales’s answer?

You know, it’s unclear. It’s unclear. And I’ve looked at this issue, I’ve talked to my parents about it, and it’s just not clear.

Yeah, right. What a load of shit. He doesn’t know how his grandparents got here. Let’s have a quick poll. How many people in whole goddamn country who’re still in contact with their family don’t know how their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents arrived in the U.S.? I’m guessing it’s almost no one. Hell, my mother was adopted and only recently found her birth mother. I had an excuse for half of my family until recently and now even I fucking know. If Gonzales had any shred of honesty, he’d admit that they were illegal and then use that to speak about how he’s glad that we’re addressing the reasons why they did so. And if they weren’t illegal, they why the fuck wouldn’t he just say so? What a douche.

[tags]albertogonzales, immigration, attorneygeneral, cnn, wolfblitzer, liar[/tags]

 Posted by on May 17, 2006 at 10:52 am
May 112006
 

The “Internets” are abuzz with new revelations about NSA snooping and then there’s this story about the government abruptly ending a probe into the first revelation of NSA snooping. And, of course, Bushie has nominated the guy who was in charge at the NSA to head the CIA.

Let me be clear. I’m not willing to allow the NSA in cahoots with AT&T and most of the other telecom companies to break the law and make 1984 a reality to protect me from the remote possibility that a wacko terrorist might try to off me. This does not mean that I’m “for the terrorists”. It means that I’m not willing to make a massive trade-off in civil liberties and trust an administration that’s done nothing to warrant it that they won’t use the information for other purposes. Don’t make me pull out the classic Hermann Goering quote.

Update: Looks like AG Gonzales lied about the NSA program. Good thing he refused to testify under oath.

[tags]nsa, tia, at&t, bigbrother, 1984, goering, bush[/tags]

 Posted by on May 11, 2006 at 9:52 am
May 032006
 

Arlen Specter has finally grown a pair and is calling for hearings on W’s presidential power grab. The impetus was this article from the Boston Globe, calling out the massive number of signing statements that POTUS has issued and how his use of them differs from past POTUS’s. It also calls attention to the fact that W is the first president in modern history not to issue a single veto. Not one. Another sign that something’s not right. Did W have a basic government class in high school or college or was he doing lines in the bathroom or something. Here’s more on what Specter said.

Glenn Greenwald sums it up:

To recap: a Republican Senator is vowing to hold hearings because the President of the United States has embraced theories which maintain that he has the right to break the law and has, consistent with those theories, been breaking the law repeatedly and deliberately. Maybe some journalists other than Savage and The Boston Globe could tell their readers about that extremely significant fact.

Stephen Colbert got nervous laughter at the White House Correspondents dinner on Saturday because he dared to point out that the press hadn’t been doing their jobs. Of course, many on the right interpreted the nervous laughter was Colbert bombing. He wasn’t. He was right on and when somebody hits that close to home, people get uncomfortable. It’s about fucking time.

Update: More on Colbert’s performance.
[tags]stephencolbert, bush, abuse, specter, feingold, signingstatement, constitution, bostonglobe[/tags]

 Posted by on May 3, 2006 at 11:52 am