Josh Marshall drops bombs(yes, I am trying to get him arrested via an NSA sourced warrant. Some of us work other beats and would be interested in such a story). Understated while hes does it , too. Boy would do well in an English pub.
Today Scott McClellan went on the offensive against Ben Barnes for describing the "shame" he feels over helping President Bush duck service in Vietnam.
"It is not surprising coming from a longtime partisan Democrat," he said. "The allegation was discredited by the commanding officer. This was fully covered and addressed five years ago. It is nothing new."
It turns out that Barnes is such a down-the-line partisan that he supported Texas's Republican State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn for reelection in 2002.
Strayhorn is Scott's mom.
Ouch.
Currently attending the Community Wireless Summit at UIUC. Plenary session is onging, hosted by Robert McChesney. We'll se if anything interesting comes up.
So, Michelle Malkin get called out on Hardball by the insufferable Chris Matthews for saying John Kerry's wounds in VietNam were "self-inflicted".
Today, the guest on the Rush Limbaugh radio show is Michelle Malkin, talking about how she was attacked by Chris Matthews.
Apparently, calling someone out on their attacks is an attack.
And then Malkin promoted her new book, the one that defends internment of Japanese in WWII by the US.
She's gonna be a star, kids. They just can't resist that type of stuff.
This Olympics is just loaded with ridiculous crap. I guess what I really mean is NBC's coverage is just loaded with ridiculous crap-.
I just caught the end of the men's 20km race walking competition(seriously), and the winner enters into the stadium, and the announcer says "Here he comes, entering the stadium to the roar of the crowd!".
Of course, the only problem is that the stadium is completely empty, which NBC's camers were kind enough to capture for us whiloe this idiot announcer blathered his false crap.
Stuff like this is just surreal, where the announcer yaps out some crap, and the camera obligingly provides us with visual refutation of every word spoken, and said refutation is supplied simultaneously with the awful caterwauling of lies.
Like I said, jusr fucking ridiculous.
These blogs make me laugh, mostly because they are more cynical and twisted than myself, which I appreciate heartily.
Bad News Hughes Newly discovered, handy information for women about the masturbatory habits of the average male.
Fafblog Bizarre and possibly in need of medication. Fear Giblets, as you were intended to.
Izzle Pfaff Work is soul sapping, but there are the memories of a soul sapping youth combined with whitewater rafting as work.
One of these blogs will appeal to your inner howler monkey.
This article on Venezuela's recent recall attempt on Hugo Chavez sure did sound about right to me. And Palast may be a bit of a self-promoter, but I like the way he writes;
"Oddest demonstration I've ever seen: frosted blondes in high heels clutching designer bags, screeching, "Chavez - dic-ta-dor!" The plantation owner griped about the "socialismo" of Chavez, then jumped into his Jaguar convertible."
That is funny.
It sounds like Jim Lampley, but it might be another moron, but it's definitely a moron, as this quote proves;
"Do the husbands of the women on the USA softball team get together during these games and discuss caring for children and, say, shopping? You know, like the wives of baseball players?"
Uhm, what the fuck is that even supposed to mean? I mean, this comment is hysterically psychotic in so many directions at once, and this man is the announcer for the women's softball competition, paid a handsome salary after being flown to Greece to do this type of work.
NBC is just flat out weird sometimes.
Joe Darby is the soldier that gave the army's Criminal Investigation Division the photos of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse.
Now, Joe Darby is in protetctive custody. In the United States.
This is exactly the reason why I read Digby.
Well, I can understand where you are coming from. I'd like to see someone stand up and kick the crap out of George Bush too.
But one thing is becoming apparent. Bush has a rock solid 40% that will vote for him even if her announces he has converted to Islam and wants to go to Mecca next week.
But he doesn't appear to have any support outside of those people. Aside from that base, no one seems to be getting converted to the Bush position.
I think the tide has changed, I think Kerry's pollsters know that, and I don't think there is any way that Bush can appeal to anyone that he doesn't already have, mainly because his techniques for appealing to voters alienate people that aren't already in his camp.
Or, to put it another way, almost all Bush campaign tactics have been geared towards building his base, and almost none of his appeals to voters so far have been about building a bigger coalition of his base and people that have been called to line up behind him.
I think that the "America, love it or leave it", "with us or against us", Southern strategy plus Reagan Democrats plus NASCAR dads routine is going to leave him 5% short come November.
And I don't think they have anything that can get them that 5%.
So, while I might not dispute that Kerry could have a team that handles the retarded media better, I also think that the current administration has a slight problem in that they can't find a majority, no matter how they shuffle their cards. And that's a really shitty position to be in going into a national referendum on your skinny butt, yea or nay.
So I read Atrios(real surprise). Atrios has a comment section, and most of the time I avoid it, but was interested in reading responses to Barack Obama's speech at the DNC. In those comments I saw someone mention that she would be proud to have Obama, along with Dick Durbin, as her senators. Now, I like Durbin, I think he is really under-rated as a sensible representative.
So I check the commenters name, and she has a blog. I check out the blog, and it's interesting, variety of topics, lively writing style, fun and interesting.
So, I throw her onto my RSS readers list of blogs to track(love that NetNewsWire Lite, by the way), and check into her whenever she has a couple of new posts. Then, one day she mentions living across the street from the high school, next to a statue of Abe Lincoln. Hey, I know where that is. Let's check the archive of posts, yep, she lives in the same town I do.
Well, small damn internet, no?
OK, so I regale my Dad with this tale, as an amusing anecdote. We giggle, and he tells me about produce he is getting from a little family run plot of acreage just outside of town. Turns out it's run by a girl I knew from the ice rink of my youth, when I played hockey and she was a speed skater.
Then the blog lady relates a tale of being at the farmers market and picking up heirloom tomatoes at a good price from a couple of teenage boys with a distinct farm name. Yep, sons of the speed skating organic veggie producer.
So, last night, my daughters 22nd birthday, myself, the Mrs., said daughter, and my younger sister are driving to big family get-together at The Great Impasta(daughter's choice, her b-day), and come to a stop sign at Green and Race, glance over, and there's the blog lady and her son, walking uptown(recognized from photos on her blog).
And I say "hey, there's Madame Insane!".
And the three women in the car all begin to gang up on me for randomly slurring some innocent bystander.
And I, wittily retort "No, that's her name, she's online, I know her, well, I don't know her, but, she's buying tomatoes from the speed skater, and well, ah, fuck it, let's go eat.".
So go read Madame Insane, so I don't sound like such a random nutter when I mention her, OK?
Some people discuss John Kerry's service as "four months in Vietnam". In fact, the time Kerry served in Swift boats for four months was actually during his second tour of duty in Vietnam, the first being in a blue water Navy ship in the Gulf of Tonkin.
The Pakistani intelligence service recently captured an Al-Qaeda computer technician, and managed to "flip" him. He was convinced to continue contact via e-mail and encrypted messaging with various Al-Qaeda operatives internationally. This apparently successful project ended last Thursday when someone in the current administration revealed the name of the flipped operative to the New York Times. The operative is now in hiding under the protection of the Pakistanis, and the UK intelligence forces had to scramble to capture the operatives that had been revealed in London. Some, however, escaped.
Walls in most buildings, old and new, are almost never square or plumb. Ask anyone that sets countertops or hangs wallpaper for a living.
The newest and most efficient solar cells were just released, and have 17% rated efficiency. Projected efficiencies of 19% are expected next year.