After the Alito madness this morning, I just wanted to see things get blown up. Mr. Shakes had the day off work, so we went to see a cheapo matinee of Doom. First of all, we were the only two people in the theater, so that rocked. And then there was the movie—OMG. If you’re a video game freak, especially first person shooters, you will totally love this movie. It was like Doom and Resident Evil had an evil video game baby, and this film was a huge porno of that spawn making dirty, dirty love to the movie Alien. Loved it!
(Karl Urban is so supersexy. I thought I’d never find him dreamier than clad in his supersexy horse helmet as Eomer, but turns out he’s pretty much droolworthy all the time.)
It’s now pissing down rain here, so there aren’t many trick-or-treaters. Wah wah wahhhhh. I’m off to watch 28 Days Later, which is one of my favorite creepy movies. Zombiethon 2005 continues…
Happy Halloween! Mwah ha ha ha!
BFG
Question Of The Day: Halloween Edition
Happy Halloween, Shakers! In honor of my favorite holiday, I'll throw out the obvious Question Of The Day: what’s your favorite horror movie? (Or, at the very least, a movie that seriously creeped you out the first—and maybe last—time you saw it). At the top of my list would be Jacob’s Ladder, The Changeling, and The Tenant.
Who needs Karl Rove…
…to orchestrate covert conference calls designed to reassure conservatives about a nominee’s position on abortion when you’ve got Rose Alito?
Abortion emerged as a potential fault line. Democrats pointed to Alito's rulings that sought to restrict a woman's right to abortion. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Republican who supports abortion rights, said that Alito's views on the hot-button issue "will be among one of the first items Judge Alito and I will discuss."Isn’t that just precious?
Alito's mother shed some light. "Of course, he's against abortion," 90-year-old Rose Alito said of her son, a Catholic.
I’m bursting with pride that this is what the American judicial nomination process has come to—interviewing a nominee’s mother to make sure he’ll overturn 30-year-old cases protecting a woman’s right to choose.
(Hat tip No Blood for Hubris.)
Give Me a Break
Christopher at After School Snack:
Does this mean “garlic eater” is off limits?Hey, dimwits—don’t project your idiotic measuring sticks onto us. That ain’t the way we roll. I don’t give a rat’s tit if Alito is a straight white guy or a wheelchair-bound, multi-ethnic, queer deaf-mute with a glass eye. Anyone who wants to curb our rights is a turd onto which no amount of polish can be applied to make him look pretty.
They've gotta be kidding - the wingnuts are saying lib'ruhls hate Alito because of his ethnicity!
Earlier today on Fox News, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), a member of the Judiciary Committee, followed Matt Drudge’s lead and implied that opponents of Samuel Alito’s nomination may be motivated by Alito’s ethnicity. He warned senators “to be very careful here,” because a vote against Alito would be “held against them” by Italian-Americans…
Of course, I’ll never have the chance to prove it, since your
(And btw, nice attempt to disguise—as a “warning to Democrats”—a reassurance to the racist peabrains among your supporters that the vaguely swarthy Alito is, indeed, white.)
Caption This Photo
I can see right inside his head.
It’s dark. It’s eeeevil. I like it.
(Photo via The Left Coaster.)
White House Talking Points on Scalito
Here. They know his weaknesses, and here are their responses. Passed on by Charlie.
You know, the thing that makes me angriest about this is that Bush is still playing to his base, that 30% or so who think that Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs to church, as if he’s still running for something. It’s always, always politics; it’s all they know how to do. Never has there come a time when he has seemed to recognize that he needs to govern instead of campaign, or that he’s president of the entire United States. He has never even remotely acknowledged that he is supposed to be a steward of this country for all of us, instead of turning the country into a utopian paradise for its cruelest and most self-interested elements. Prick.
Other Stuff to Read on Scalito:
LeMew’s got a good round-up here.
The Heretik: Roe, Roe, Roe Your Boat.
Pam, with more, including the celebration in Freeperville.
Ez says:
I've been trying to settle on the right word for the Bush administration's decision to start Alito off with a photo-op in front of Rosa Park's casket. For now, I'm going with "despicable", which just barely beat out "repulsive" and "enraging", but I'm open to other suggestions.How about ironic? Nauseating? Mocking? Sociopathic? Plain old fucking dumb? Grr.
Scalito Hates the Gays, Too
Reason #1 I support gay rights: Because I believe in equality for everyone. Period.
Reason #2 I support gay rights: Because attacks on the LGBT community are inextricably woven together with attacks on women. Anytime there’s some conservative nutwit with a demonstrable lack of respect for one group’s sexual autonomy, they inevitably have no respect for the other’s, either.
Scalito is no exception. This retrograde reprobate is not only hostile to women (believing they should be required by law to notify their husbands if they get an abortion, for a start), but is hostile to gays, too.
In 2001, Judge Alito authored a decision in Saxe v. State that declared unconstitutional a public school district policy that prohibited harassment against students because of their sexual orientation or other characteristics.In other words, to protect the right of bullies to go around and shout, “Four-eyes!” and “Fatass!” at their fellow classmates—you know, harmless fun like that—Scalito ruled unconstitutional a policy designed to protect gay students from harassment, even if it is so severe as to interfere with their education. I guess his position is best summarized as No Straight Child Left Behind.
The policy focused on harassment that had the purpose or effect of interfering with a student's educational performance or creating and intimidating, hostile or offensive environment.
Alito reasoned that the policy was unconstitutional because it could cover what he called "simple acts of teasing and name-calling."
Scalito
Does this doughy face look like
the stuff of nightmares?
Shaker Deborah passed on the link to Think Progress’ round-up of Scalito facts (not blockquoted due to length):
ALITO WOULD OVERTURN ROE V. WADE: In his dissenting opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Alito concurred with the majority in supporting the restrictive abortion-related measures passed by the Pennsylvania legislature in the late 1980’s. Alito went further, however, saying the majority was wrong to strike down a requirement that women notify their spouses before having an abortion. The Supreme Court later rejected Alito’s view, voting to reaffirm Roe v. Wade. [Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 1991]
ALITO WOULD ALLOW RACE-BASED DISCRIMINATION: Alito dissented from a decision in favor of a Marriott Hotel manager who said she had been discriminated against on the basis of race. The majority explained that Alito would have protected racist employers by “immuniz[ing] an employer from the reach of Title VII if the employer’s belief that it had selected the ‘best’ candidate was the result of conscious racial bias.” [Bray v. Marriott Hotels, 1997]
ALITO WOULD ALLOW DISABILITY-BASED DISCRIMINATION: In Nathanson v. Medical College of Pennsylvania, the majority said the standard for proving disability-based discrimination articulated in Alito’s dissent was so restrictive that “few if any…cases would survive summary judgment.” [Nathanson v. Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1991]
ALITO WOULD STRIKE DOWN THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT: The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) “guarantees most workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a loved one.” The 2003 Supreme Court ruling upholding FMLA [Nevada v. Hibbs, 2003] essentially reversed a 2000 decision by Alito which found that Congress exceeded its power in passing the law. [Chittister v. Department of Community and Economic Development, 2000]
ALITO SUPPORTS UNAUTHORIZED STRIP SEARCHES: In Doe v. Groody, Alito agued that police officers had not violated constitutional rights when they strip searched a mother and her ten-year-old daughter while carrying out a search warrant that authorized only the search of a man and his home. [Doe v. Groody, 2004]
ALITO HOSTILE TOWARD IMMIGRANTS: In two cases involving the deportation of immigrants, the majority twice noted Alito’s disregard of settled law. In Dia v. Ashcroft, the majority opinion states that Alito’s dissent “guts the statutory standard” and “ignores our precedent.” In Ki Se Lee v. Ashcroft, the majority stated Alito’s opinion contradicted “well-recognized rules of statutory construction.” [Dia v. Ashcroft, 2003; Ki Se Lee v. Ashcroft, 2004]
-----------------
People for the American Way’s fact sheet is here.
Scalito is about as repugnant as it gets. It’s filibusterin’ time.
Get Your Filibusterin’ Boots On
Bush has nominated Alito to the SCOTUS. Back in my February “Gettin’ Hip on the Judiciary” series, I said this about Alito:
Alito so closely emulates Scalia that he has earned the nickname "Scalito."Fuck.
If that doesn’t make your blood run cold, then nothing will.
A Halloween Letter
Dear Bush Conservatives,
There’s an eerie specter among you—haunting your dreams and whispering assurances that he is real, that if you reach out you can touch him. Sometimes I see you try, and when your hands come up empty, a closed fist wrapped around nothing but the puff of smoke where the specter has been, you knit your brows and reassure each other, "Yes, he is real," though all evidence points to the contrary.
This specter makes you promises, and entices you to follow him, trust him, as he leads you ever deeper into the darkness. The form he assumes is nothing but an illusion, a deceit that conjures a mirage of strength and fortitude out of a thick fog that dissipates at any sign of challenge to its corporeality. You think it is clever defensive trickery, but fail to realize that is you being tricked. There is no substance; only mist.
Twice you have cast votes on this specter’s assurances and thinly fashioned figure, and as his image grows dimmer in the light of day, you continue to follow him deeper into the abyss where he determinedly leads you—the void where no sunlight can burn away his dew.
He makes you afraid of the things that go bump in the night, of monsters and ghouls, under your bed, in your closet, and in faraway places. He promises to protect you, but doesn’t tell you that he needs those summoned fiends to keep you scared and keep your eyes on him, believing in him, convinced he is real, ignorant to the reality that it is he of whom you should most be frightened.
I implore you to rub your eyes and see that the man you follow is nothing more than a figment of your imagination. He is not strong; he is not wise; he is not good. He is not your friend, he is not like you, and he does not have your best interests at heart. A specter, you see, has no heart.
The phantom in whom you’ve believed is not real. No treat; just a trick. It’s time to give up the ghost.
Happy Halloween,
Shakespeare’s Sister
Bizarro Kristof; Same Old Bush and Cheney
The only explanation I have for the NY Times’ Nicholas Kristof launching into a tirade which culminated in a recommendation of the vice president’s resignation should he continue his evasive silence, is that a day before Halloween, the evil spirit of a traitorous liberal has taken residence inside the normally empty space in his skull cavity and assumed control of his being.
Since Mr. Libby is joined at the hip to Mr. Cheney, it's reasonable to ask: What did Mr. Cheney know and when did he know it? Did the vice president have any grasp of the criminal behavior allegedly happening in his office? We shouldn't assume the worst, but Mr. Cheney needs to give us a full account. Instead, Mr. Cheney said in a written statement: "Because this is a pending legal proceeding, in fairness to all those involved, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the charges or on any facts relating to the proceeding."]Egad! Spooky.
Balderdash. If Mr. Cheney can't address the questions about his conduct, if he can't be forthcoming about the activities in his office that gave rise to the investigation, then he should resign. And if he won't resign, Mr. Bush should demand his resignation.
Meanwhile, appearing on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Sen. Harry Reid noted that Bush and Cheney chose to laud Libby’s dedication. (“Scooter has worked tirelessly on behalf of the American people and sacrificed much in the service to this country. He served the Vice President and me through extraordinary times in our nation's history.” – Bush; “Scooter Libby is one of the most capable and talented individuals I have ever known. He has given many years of his life to public service and has served our nation tirelessly and with great distinction.” – Cheney.) Neither took the opportunity to register a modicum of anger, frustration, or disappointment with Libby, should the charges prove to be true. I imagine that’s because they already know they’re true—and don’t bloody care, just like they didn’t care about preventing three-quarters of a million dollars of taxpayer money from being spent on an investigation into something to which they could have provided an answer two years ago. These apathies should be of particular concern to American voters, but since the media has seemed reluctant to clearly acknowledge them, perhaps it hasn’t been given due consideration.
Then again, if there’s one success the Bush administration has had, it’s solidifying the cynical and too-popular notion that the government is irreversibly corrupt, so no one can be bothered to be shocked anymore. Quite a legacy that is—the killers of hope that goodness and governance are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
(Crossposted at Ezra's place.)
Helen
Helen Thomas is my hero. One of the earliest signs of how truly loathsome the Bush administration actually is was when they relegated her to the back of the room during press conferences. Pigs.
Bill Maher had her on Real Time Friday night, and she was awesome. If you missed it, Crooks and Liars has the video here.
34%
Great line from the always-clever Tina Fey during SNL’s Weekend Update last night, after noting that support of Bush (on some issue—the Iraq War?) is divided: “66% do not support the president; 34% think Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs to church.”
Wilma
Shaker Skywind is located in south Florida, and is, quite fortunately and to my great relief, okay, but she needs some help. You see, Skywind and her mother are junkies—West Wing and Commander in Chief junkies. The West Wing was pre-empted last week due to the hurricane, and then the power was out, so they missed an episode of each. I’m hoping perhaps someone has copies on tape or DVD that they would be willing to lend (Skywind will pay for shipping charges). Sure, it’s just a little thing, but in the midst of such upheaval, it’s the little things that help one feel a bit closer back to normal. If you can help out, email me, and I’ll put you in contact. As Skywind notes, “We need our weekly fix of fake Presidents in order to tolerate the real one.”
She also sends along an update on relief efforts:
I’ve been out of touch for a week: it’s been very weird. I just got internet service back about an hour ago, we also lost power and running water, which is a major PITA. But it’s much worse in Immokalee, a very poor farming community just east of here. Many of the residents are migrant farmers here to pick the fall crops, and the crops were destroyed. They live in trailers, and the trailers were destroyed. They’re desperately poor, and yet our governor had the nerve to shake his finger and say “people should have planned better. You had plenty of warning, and you should have had 72 hours worth of supplies in advance, because of course FEMA is going to take a few days to get organized.” Blech. We had volunteers here with hot food trucks and coffee and boxes of food within 24 hours. We had insurance companies with mobile response units. We had scam artists with fake contractors licenses offering to fix people’s roofs. But FEMA trucks couldn’t get here because “the roads were impassable.” Ri-i-i-i-igt.It’s quite amazing that even though no amount of heartlessness or incompetence manages to surprise me anymore, my capacity for disgust at the same seems to have an endless reserve. I just don’t think no matter how much they screw up, I’ll ever be inured to experiencing anger at them when they do so yet again.
I’m glad you’re okay, Skywind.
The Dark Wraith Delivers
Anyone interested in improving their HTML skills should defintiely check out Issue #1 of the Wraith's new series: Coding Hacks Corner.
Also, check out his piece on Libby's indictments, here, for a darker interpretation of events.
From the Friday News Hole Files
Even on a regular Friday, this story may well have been missed, but particularly on Fitzmas Day, when there seemed to be no other news at all, it had no chance of being acknowledged, despite its importance as well as the irony that bad news for the White House is undoubtedly what prompted it. The story? The Federal Marriage Amendment has been resurrected.
And why wouldn’t it be? A new strategy memo issued by Carville and Greenberg notes that public confidence in the Republicans has collapsed, and with many of their most prominent members currently under investigation and/or indictment, it’s time for the GOP machine to kick the old hate-mongering mechanism into high gear. Sure, we may be criminals, but at least we’re not gay!
And what coincidental timing. The Senate Sub-Committee on the Judiciary will meet about the FMA on Nov. 2 to hold a vote, and then send it on to the full committee, with the hope of its supporters that it will come to a full vote in both Houses of Congress just before the 2006 mid-terms. So once again, we face an election cycle where the GOP tries to hide its heinous agenda and resolute incompetence behind the exploitation of homobigotry. And they say the Democrats have no new ideas?
With the possibility that they may be successful in making this an issue yet again, the Dems need to stop punting; semantic contortions about civil unions versus marriage are both unnecessary and unproductive. It’s time for a firm, simply stated position on the right of equality for all Americans, which should be about the least controversial position one could imagine.
Two days ago, the actor George Takei, most famously known for his role in Star Trek, came out. A Japenese-American, who lived in a U.S. internment camp from age 4 to 8, likened discrimination against the LGBT community to racial segregation, and noted, “It's against basic decency and what American values stand for.” There’s something deeply touching to me about a man who spent four years of his childhood exposed to the ugliness of an internment camp and experienced a lifetime of bias because of his sexuality being more in touch with the notions of basic decency and genuine American values than many Americans , including those at the highest levels of government. Prejudice against gays is against basic decency and what American values stand for. Such a simple truth. Are the Democrats finally ready to say the same?
(Crossposted at Ezra's place.)
The Nerve
Via The Heretik, who offers a lovely picture of Humpty Dumbty you should check out, here’s Cheney’s statement on the indictments (interspersed with my italicized translations):
Mr. Libby has informed me that he is resigning to fight the charges brought against him. I have accepted his decision with deep regret.
I put on my shit-kickers and busted that fucking idiot’s skinny ass out the door, because peckerheads who get caught are of no use to me.
Scooter Libby is one of the most capable and talented individuals I have ever known. He has given many years of his life to public service and has served our nation tirelessly and with great distinction.
That kid was a pretty good little minion, though, while he lasted. He woulda dropped down on his knees and sucked my wrinkled old fatty if I’d asked him to. Damn if that Prettyboy Fitzgerald don’t even know the half of the scummy shit that dickhead pulled for me.
In our system of government an accused person is presumed innocent until a contrary finding is made by a jury after an opportunity to answer the charges and a full airing of the facts. Mr. Libby is entitled to that opportunity.
Thank Christ it ain’t me headed for the bighouse. Seeya, Scooter. Don’t drop the soap, kiddo.
Because this is a pending legal proceeding, in fairness to all those involved, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the charges or on any facts relating to the proceeding.
Screw the resta yas. I’m not saying anything, and I’m not going anywhere. And no matter how much you hate it, whether you run me outta here or I retire with my fat white butt having escaped the jail cell it so richly deserves, I’ll be flush with Halliburton options and I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank. Suckers.
Bush’s Statement
(As liveblogged to me by my friend Joe.)
Scooter, Scooter … extraordinary times, new phase … innocent, trial … got a job to do … protecting people … naming somebody … working with congress.
Wev.
Press Conference
Okay, I just watched most of Fitzy’s press conference (couldn’t liveblog it, because my TV’s upstairs and my computer’s downstairs). Here are my two big impressions:
1. Anyone who thinks they have the inside track on whether this thing is over or just getting started is nuts. Fitzy says mostly over, but at the same time, Official A remains unnamed. We may not know for awhile whether these are the only indictments or not. “Mostly over” in the context of 24 solid months of investigations may or may not be very different than “mostly over” in the context of “We want answers yesterday!”
2. Fitzy fucking rules. He made it perfectly clear that these charges are extremely serious. When some clever reporter asked him about the GOP talking points about these being “technical” charges, he came out swinging: “I’ll be blunt—that talking point won’t fly… The truth is the engine of our justice system… It is a very, very serious matter that no one should take lightly… These charges vindicate a serious breach of the public trust.”
Suck it, spinners.
Read the indictments...
...here.
2 Perjury
2 Making false statements
1 Obstruction of Justice
UPDATE: Read the prosecutor's statement here. It's really good.
Also, great juxtaposition of sub-heads at MSNBC:
And Raw Story says: "Bolton eyed as indictment reveals State Dept aided Libby; Sources confirm State Dept., NSC officials made deal with Fitzgerald... Soon..."
And there was much joy in Shakesville...
After so many years of lying through their crooked little teeth to the American people, seeing the dominos start to fall on charges of being BIG, STINKING LIARS is just too poetic. Do your worst, Shakers: caption this photo.
Lying Libby
Friday Blogwhoring
Blogwhoring! Blogwhoring! I love you, blogwhoring. You're only a blog away!
I'll pimp Spudsy, who's got a follow-up to yesterday's Question of the Day.
Fitzmas Update
Ho Ho HoWell spotted. Looking forward to that press conference.
U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald will hold a press conference at 2:00 P.M. EDT today, Friday October 28, 2005, regarding the status of the Special Counsel's criminal investigations. (emphasis added)
I realize this is the ultimate picayune exercise in tea leaf reading, but I've looked through a bunch of the older documents on Bulldog's website, and as far as I can tell this is the first time he's ever referred to this investigation as a criminal one, AND the first time he's ever used the plural noun instead of the singular.
Make of it what you will.
Movie Times
There’s a big debate going on in “Hollywood” about reducing the wait time between big screen releases and DVD releases of movies. The distance between the two keeps getting shorter and shorter, and some moviemakers are advocating doing away with it altogether. Steven Soderbergh, for example, is a supporter of eliminating the window during which movies can be seen only in theaters.
M. Night Shyamalan, on the other hand, has a big problem with the possibility and is warning that it could mean the end of theaters.
Speaking at the annual ShowEast convention in Orlando, Fla., M. Night Shyamalan… [warned it] will not only destroy the exhibition industry… but it will also diminish the artistic integrity of moviemaking.I understand and sympathize with what Shyamalan is saying, and I do think there are certain films that are better on the big screen (although, ironically, I don’t count Shyamalan’s films among them). Films like Lord of the Rings or The Bourne Identity or Star Wars are more fun when you see them the first time in the theater. Or, at least they used to be.
"Art is the ability to convey that we are not alone," Shyamalan told the gathering of more than 800 theater operators and suppliers at the convention's closing night dinner. "When I sit down next to you in a movie theater, we get to share each other's point of view. We become part of a collective soul. That's the magic in the movies."
Then he added: "If this thing happens, you know the majority of your theaters are closing. It's going to crush you guys."
…Shyamalan said his speech at ShowEast was intended to address what he believes has been sadly missing from the debate: what he called "the human factor" of the moviegoing experience. Simply put, he said, part of what makes movies an art form is that they are viewed on a big screen with a big audience.
Now, movie-going is routinely an unenjoyable experience, and it’s specifically because of “the human factor” that Shyamalan references, which rarely entails becoming part of a collective soul but instead becoming part of a hideous, throbbing organism that seeks to destroy its own parts through unmitigated rudeness. I’ve had the kind of movie-going experience that Shyamalan describes, but they are too few and far between these days.
Years ago, we started choosing which films we would see based on what was playing at the theaters that seemed to have the lowest irritation factor. It wasn’t as much a problem for smaller art films, but if you want to see something even remotely mainstream, or, god forbid, a blockbuster, even waiting until the midnight shows isn’t a guarantee of peace and quiet, since apparently babysitters don’t exist anymore.
And while I feel for filmmakers like Shyamalan, I have no sympathy whatsoever for movie theaters, because it’s their fault. They used to have a thing called ushers, who would make sure people kept quiet, and escort people in and out as needed. Now, ushers no longer exist, so audience members are left to risk getting into it with other patrons by shooshing them themselves, or grind their teeth and try to ignore it, all while sitting in a theater that’s no longer completely dark—because ushers have been replaced by little lights all over the blasted place.
Money concerns, they say. I say, then keep the theater closed during the day. Many of them have done away with matinee pricing except for the very first showing of the day, so unless you want to go to a show at noon, you’ve got to pay full price, anyway. I’d happily switch to having fewer movie times from which to choose if I were guaranteed a pleasant experience when I went. As it is, I hardly ever go to the movies anymore, and when even this movie fiend has been driven home, willing to wait for the DVD, that’s really saying something.
If you want me back in the theater, then bring back ushers. Make the theaters dark again. Quit letting kids into R-rated movies. Prevent theater hopping so I don’t end up with six chattering teens behind me halfway through the film. And stop making me pay to watch ten commercials at a volume that makes me cringe. Otherwise, I’m with Soderbergh.
Friday Blogrollin'
The Defeatists, where you'll find the un-retired Agi T. Prop causing all kinds of trouble.
Margaret Cho, who just should have been on the old roll ages ago.
Center of Gravitas, for all your Wonder Woman needs.
The Fat Lady Sings, and I can assure you, she has a lovely voice.
Once Upon a Time…, Arthur Silber's new blog.
The Washington Note, for all kinds of good insider stuff.
Swoopes Out, Too
Make sure you also read Nancy Goldstein’s great column about WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes coming out, too.
George Takei Comes Out
Apparently this is news. I thought the guy came out years ago. Guess not. So, congratulations to George Takei for bravely going where few actors have gone before and publicly announcing that he’s gay. Like half of the queers I knew in college, starring in Equus prompted him to come out of the closet.
Takei, a Japanese-American who lived in a U.S. internment camp from age 4 to 8, said he grew up feeling ashamed of his ethnicity and sexuality. He likened prejudice against gays to racial segregation.There’s something deeply touching to me about a man who spent four years of his childhood in an internment camp being more in touch with the notions of basic decency and genuine American values than many Americans who never had to face anything as difficult as one the ugliest expressions of racism sanctioned by the government or a lifetime of homobigotry. Prejudice against gays is against basic decency and what American values stand for. Such a simple truth. Thank you, Mr. Takei.
"It's against basic decency and what American values stand for," he said.
Fitzmas
Shaker Deborah reports: “CBS just did a televised special report that Scooter Libby will be indicted today. I believe it's on perjury & obstruction at this point. No word on all the others just yet.”
From the AP wire just now: “Karl Rove won't be indicted Friday as prosecutors and his lawyers try to resolve questions in the CIA leak investigation, two people close to Rove told The Associated Press. The White House, however, still braced for an indictment against another top aide. In discussions Thursday, Rove's lawyer was told by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's office that investigators have not resolved all their questions about his conduct in the case and they will continue investigating, the people said, speaking only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy.”
Reuters also confirms it appears likely Libby will be indicted today but Rove will not.
Question of the Day II
(Since clearly, my first one's a dud, lol.)
We sort of just touched on it a bit as we discussed funny women the other day, but we've never done this as an official QotD: Who's your favorite stand-up comedian?
My favorites that I've seen live are Seinfeld, Margaret Cho, Eddie Izzard, George Carlin, and Dave Chappelle. Best ever is almost impossible for me to choose, especially since occasionally a great comedian (Eddie Murphy) is side-achingly funny sometimes (Raw; Delirious) and other times decidedly unfunny (everything else). If I were forced to choose, I'd probably pick George Carlin (which will make KQ very happy!), because he's been around for so long, and he's always hilarious.
Breaking: Cheney, Libby Withheld Key Info From Senate
Courtesy of our esteemed colleague blogenfreude, it appears that Dick Cheney and “Scooter” Libby’s disingenuousness goes even deeper than was previously suspected. Shocking, I know, but read on. The National Journal is reporting that the two were responsible for the decision to withhold critical documents from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 while it was investigating pre-war WMD intelligence claims, in an attempt to deflect accusations that the administration distorted intelligence data to lie the country into war.
Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby , overruling advice from some White House political staffers and lawyers, decided to withhold crucial documents from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 when the panel was investigating the use of pre-war intelligence that erroneously concluded Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, according to Bush administration and congressional sources.Of course, at the offices of the RNC, I’m sure fingers are furiously typing and pasty white thumbs are furiously Blackberrying tomorrow’s talking points to respond to all this. More “technicalities,” I’m sure.
Among the White House materials withheld from the committee were Libby-authored passages in drafts of a speech that then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell delivered to the United Nations in February 2003 to argue the Bush administration's case for war with Iraq, according to congressional and administration sources. The withheld documents also included intelligence data that Cheney's office -- and Libby in particular -- pushed to be included in Powell's speech, the sources said.
(snip)
The Intelligence Committee at the time was trying to determine whether the CIA and other intelligence agencies provided faulty or erroneous intelligence on Iraq to President Bush and other government officials. But the committee deferred the much more politically sensitive issue as to whether the president and the vice president themselves, or other administration officials, misrepresented intelligence information to bolster the case to go to war. An Intelligence Committee spokesperson says the panel is still working on this second phase of the investigation.
Had the withheld information been turned over, according to administration and congressional sources, it likely would have shifted a portion of the blame away from the intelligence agencies to the Bush administration as to who was responsible for the erroneous information being presented to the American public, Congress, and the international community.
Let them come up with whatever they want. It’s high time these two traitorous sons of bitches got handed the lifetime prison sentences they so richly deserve.
Burt Bacharach, Nicest Man on Earth, Gets Cranky…
…and I’ll give you one guess who made him feel that way:
Pop composer Burt Bacharach has written his first lyrics in a career spanning nearly 50 years, expressing his disillusionment over the war in Iraq.This is a man who wrote love songs while Nixon was in office.
The 77-year-old, who wrote songs such as Walk On By with lyricist Hal David, has written a number of political songs on his latest album At This Time.
"I had to do it. This is very personal to me," he said.
[…]
He also expresses frustration with US political leaders.
"You could say 'how does a guy who has written love songs his entire life suddenly decide to rock the boat?'" he said.
"I thought that was very important because I couldn't have somebody else write these lyrics."
(Weird aside: My godfather is a doppelganger for Burt Bacharach. One time, the car driving in front of him skidded off the road and into a ditch where it flipped over. He pulled over quickly and ran down the embankment, where he found a woman trapped inside the car and pulled her out. “Are you okay?” he asked her. She blinked, dazed, and said, “Did anyone ever tell you that you look just like Burt Bacharach?”)
Hat tip to Shaker Deborah for the story link.
Question of the Day
Get your creative juices flowing, Shakers…this is a good one!
Remember that old Billy Joel song, We Didn’t Start the Fire? Okay, I loved that song—not because it was a particularly great musical piece, but because it was so interesting for history buffs. I remember when it came out, my mom asked me whether I knew what all the references in the song were. We sat down together and went through the lyrics sheet (from my cassette tape!) line by line, with my telling her all the things I knew, and her explaining to me the things I didn’t know. To this day, I can still sing the entire thing from memory.
The thing is, it ends in the ‘80s, and I was thinking that the Bush administration needed its own verse. With apologies to Mr. Joel for stepping on his toes, I realized it needed two verses—one for the first four years (ascension), and one for the second (crash and burn).
My attempt is below, and the Question of the Day is: What’s your We Didn’t Start the Fire verse for the Bush administration? And for those of you who don’t know the song, or don’t like it, a verse (or two) from another song, or a krazy karaoke submission, are also welcome.
9/11, war abroad,
Condoleezza, Donald Rumsfeld, neocon cabal.
Mushroom cloud, “Dead or alive,”
More tax cuts, “Now watch this drive,”
Rightwing pundits, propaganda, marches on The Mall.
Swift Boat Vets, Rove takes aim,
Novak outs a covert name,
Terror warnings, Abu Ghraib, Ashcroft takes a hike.
Powell out, Gonzales in,
Kerry takes it on the chin,
Moral values, faux mandate, Georgie rides his bike.
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
Hurricane in New Orleans,
Papers filled with ghastly scenes,
Cronyism, “No blame game,” Miers to the court.
2K dead now in Iraq,
Miers out—she’s just a hack,
Bush in trouble, Scotty spins, dwindling support.
Crooked, lying GOP,
Bill Frist and the SEC,
Abramoff, Robert Nye, indicted Tom DeLay.
Fitzy grills, Rove denies,
Libby didn’t out no spies,
Come one day, Bush will pay, what else do I have to say?!
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it…
Tom Noe Indicted
In what has to be the most boring (and nerdy) political scandal of all time, Toledo-area coin dealer Tom Noe has been indicted on three counts of money laundering which allowed him to contribute egregious sums of money to President Bush’s re-election campaign.
Please sit down, Shakers. What this means is that the Ohio Republican Party is crooked and that the Bush administration does business with criminals. I'm sorry to have to be the bearer of this devastating news.
This is so going to be on Law & Order in a few weeks...
Hanging Mistaken for Halloween Decoration
FREDERICA, Del. - The apparent suicide of a woman found hanging from a tree went unreported for hours because passers-by thought the body was a Halloween decoration, authorities said.
The 42-year-old woman used rope to hang herself across the street from some homes on a moderately busy road late Tuesday or early Wednesday, state police said.
The body, suspended about 15 feet above the ground, could be easily seen from passing vehicles.
Blech. When I was a kid, I used to see the "hanging" decorations in front of people's homes, and think "Gee, that could be a real person, and no one would know." This premise was actually used in the film Clownhouse, and probably several others that I can't think of offhand.
It's just a little surprising to me that no one clued in earlier. I mean, isn't it rather easy to tell the difference between a human body and a scarecrow? I realize it's Halloween-time, but still....
(Grim Grinning Ghosts come out to cross-post...)
Question
Not a Question of the Day - just a question...
I'm updating the blogroll to include more publication blogs and more media links, mainly just because I'm lazy and want to have them at my fingertips at all times. But I figured before I go ahead, I'd see if anyone had any requests to be added. I'm adding links to Tapped, Broadsheet, War Room, the BBC, NPR, Independent, The Scotsman, Der Spiegel, The American Prospect, Page One Q, 365Gay, MSNBC, CNN, Yahoo News, and Google News. Anything else I've forgotten or that anyone would like to see added? No promises that I'll add every suggestion, but I'm certainly open to them.
Ass and a Half: Jonah Goldberg
The full name of the book is Liberal Fascism : The Totalitarian Temptation from Mussolini to Hillary Clinton. And I’m seriously so annoyed that I can’t even construct a decent response, so go read The Green Knight, who already did.
Oh, here’s something else that serves as a good critique:
We may be living in the worst period of Holocaust denial since the Nuremberg trials. I'm not referring to the twisted morons who insist that the Holocaust never happened the way the Monty Python guys insisted the parrot wasn't dead. I'm referring to the legions of Holocaust deniers in [politics], on the Web, on college campuses, in the mainstream press and, most acutely, in my e-mail box every morning, who reduce to the Holocaust to a triviality…Wow—good points, Jonah.
At every event protesting war, Bush, America, this, that and the other thing, one can find pictures of various administration officials in SS garb or bearing Hitler mustaches. On the Web…insubstantial people [bolster] their self-esteem by pretending to "speak truth to power" to the unfolding Nazification of America…
If you're going to call [someone] a Nazi, show me the children with tattoos on their arms. Show me the stockpiles of emaciated corpses. Show me files cabinets full of memos detailing how [they] plan on disposing of millions of dead American citizens killed with poisonous gas.
If you can't show me any of these things - and you can't - then stop calling [someone] a Nazi.
I haven’t read his book yet, but I guess he’s got evidence of Hillary Clinton planning to dispose of millions of dead Americans killed with poisonous gas and pictures of children with tattoos on their arms. Explosive stuff!
And just to show you what an absolute, inveterate wanker Jonah Goldberg really is, here’s another snippet from the same article:
This isn't a partisan point. I would make the same argument if Al Gore were president. I loathed Bill Clinton as president, but I always took pains to chastise conservatives who compared him to Stalin or Hitler. As bad as Clinton's behavior was, only a man in leave of his senses would compare it to the systematized and bureaucratized mass-murder of millions of people.I’ll get your padded room ready, you useless douche.
“More than a little scary.”
So says Ezra at Tapped about Kathryn Lopez’s truly bizarre response to Miers’ withdrawal, which, to summarize, was “Phew. It looked like the entire wingnut conservative movement was going to implode, but now that the crisis is over, we can go back to pretending Bush is infallible.” There’s some kind of massive disconnect causing people like Lopez to blithely ignore all the things happening—including Miers’ nomination—that lit the wick in the first place are Bush’s responsibility.
Ez gets it totally right when he notes:
While a cult of personality focusing on Bush's mid-40s spiritual resurrection and his quiet, determined morality has long been necessary to hide his essential lack of commitment to conservative causes, the belief in George W. Bush is beginning to take on a religious subtext: Even when Big Things go wrong, like floods, plagues, and earthquakes, you can take comfort in knowing that they were temporary detours in a benevolent, carefully examined master plan. This isn't political analysis or pop-psychology, it's theology. Back in reality, what actually happened to Miers is that her nomination was greeted with hostility from the right, bemusement from the left, and was finally slapped back by an angry conservative base and Bill Frist's admission that she wouldn't be confirmed. In politics, that's not called a detour; it's a defeat. That Lopez has instead taken it as more proof of Bush's infallible internal compass is, to be honest, more than a little scary.
Harriet Miers’ Resignation Letter
Tyrannosaurus Sex
Shaker Angelos forwards this article from Slate, which reports more middle-aged male hand-wringing at the woeful state of modern women…from Harvard, no less.
Last week, Harvard government professor Harvey Mansfield told students that the sexual revolution may not have served the best interests of young women. Instead, it had merely "lower[ed]" us to the crass level of men, who pursue sex thoughtlessly and without hopes of marriage. In a talk titled "Feminism and the Autonomy of Women," he suggested that men who grow used to "free samples" in the bedroom are going to leave women high-and-dry when it comes to committed relationships. And then he revealed his insights into the erotic: "[Today's] women play the men's game, which they are bound to lose. Without modesty, there is no romance—it isn't so attractive or so erotic," said the professor. The solution to the problem, clearly, was for women to start saying no a little more often.It’s patriarchal, in it’s most literal definition—fatherly counsel, bestowed upon a generation of younger women, whose own fathers, presumably, were so scarred by the feminist movement that they’ve been rendered incapable of advising their daughters themselves. Lucky for those poor, pathetic wretches, we’ve got men like Professor Mansfield, a qualified women’s expert by nature of his expertise in government, to intervene in their stead.
[…]
[I]t is curious to watch middle-aged male traditionalists trying to keep up. If they have not quite absorbed the notion that women need to have a voice in shaping their own sexual identity, they acknowledge that it is no longer permissible, or at any rate very popular, simply to pronounce that premarital sex is wrong. Thus they cast the sexual revolution as something that makes women unhappy…
There's something slippery about the "sex will make you unhappy" position. It relies on a retrograde notion of female vulnerability while pretending to take women's side.
Ahem.
The article itself does a fine job of explaining exactly why the professor’s recommendations are bunk, from both a philosophical and evidentiary perspective, so I won’t rehash that here. It strikes me, however, that women seem to be getting all kinds of advice lately from “the experts” on How to Get a Man. Don’t be funny; don’t be sexy. But, as has been well established in the comments threads here, smart, funny, sexy men prefer smart, funny, sexy women, so if a woman who is all those things indeed wants to “get a man,” she’s probably not going to have to fundamentally alter herself to do it. And not only that—she’s going to choose a man who loves and values her specifically for those reasons. Not a man, say, like Professor Mansfield.
Could it be that these middle-aged experts are just a dying breed who see issuing dictates to young women from their bully pulpits as the only glimmer of hope to stave off their being rendered extinct through natural selection? Hmm. Maybe this is evidence of intelligent design after all.
Soxtober!
Congratulations to the White Sox for bringing home a championship to Chicago! This Cubs fan was with them all the way!
Awesome game last night. The Sox’s fielding was unbelievable, and after a season of grinding out so many one-run games, that they won the Series in a one-run game was just poetic.
How about Uribe diving into the stands and coming up with that catch? Fucking wow.
(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
(As an aside, was anyone else annoyed by how, uh, white the coverage seemed to be last night? Live feed from Jimbo’s during the game, live feed from Bourbon Street after the game, Joe Buck warbling on about all the “Italian, Polish, Irish, and Greek” fans on the South Side… Um, how about a live feed from a bar on Stony Island? Is there some reason not to acknowledge the black population on Chicago’s South Side along with the rest of its residents? Comiskey Park (no, I will not call it US Cellular Field) is in a predominantly black neighborhood, for crying out loud. Shocking. The only black diehard Sox fan I saw, aside from a few faces in crowds on the street, was NBC's Warner Saunders, sitting at the anchor desk. It didn’t look like the Chicago I know.)
UPDATE: I forgot to mention...I was so irritated with the constant shots of George and Barbara Bush last night. Like I really want to keep seeing those old douchebags when I'm trying to watch a baseball game. I did love it, however, when they cut to footage of the Bushes reacting to Uribe's throw to first for the final out, and they looked all disappointed. Ha! Suck it, losers!
Another One Bites The Dust
So Shrub is claiming he “reluctantly” accepted Harriet Miers decision to withdraw her nomination. What the hell did he expect? Miers blathered on in a letter about how her “duties” to “protect the Executive Branch” interfered with the nomination process, which would have involved turning over documents from the White House that would have given the Senate, and the nation, at least some idea of her judicial reasoning. The White House, as usual, refused to provide anything, thereby torpedoing her nomination on the spot and turning her into just another patsy to deflect attention from all that “background noise” Mr. Fitzgerald is creating. Memo to Shrub: If you don’t want people finding out about the council you receive, then don’t nominate your own goddamn personal lawyer for a spot on the nation’s highest bench. And if Miers wasn’t, in the end, what she was made out in the press to be; namely, a Bush family loyalist and crony nominated solely to ensure the crime family would have an ace in the hole should any of their various acts of malfeasance be brought before the Court, then why withhold any documents? It couldn’t be because, oh, I don’t know, the White House had something to hide, could it?
Miers Withdraws
What a shocker. I think people will still notice the death toll has passed 2,000 and that your White House is chock full o' criminals, though.
Question of the Day
Okay, we've kind of done this one before, even though it wasn't specifically a QotD, but it was quite awhile ago, and it was fun, and the comments are now gone, and I'm feeling unoriginal, so here it is again...
What should be the theme song of Shakespeare's Sister?
The Sick Sense
All right kids, gather ’round: it’s the Dick Cheney Halloween Fright Fest!
Hat tip to BuzzFlash.
Uh, ABC News?
Nutrion is not a word. Just a heads-up. Hey, if you guys ever need a proof-reader, I'm available. For a small fee. Hmm, I can't make it into the office tomorrow, so why don't you just fax over the copy, and I'll mark it up and send it back? Okay, sounds great.
And I don't mean to be overly cynical here, but don't people who eat McDonald's already know it isn't good for them? (I include myself in that group, because Chicken McNuggest are delicious and I don't care!) Are nutrion labels going to change anything? "34 grams of fat" is abstract and meaningless until you're looking at the x-ray of your various arterial blockages. I predict this changes nothing. But hooray for headline-whoring, eh? This Tart says, Proper Nutrion Starts at Home!
Women Aren’t Funny
It’s a well-known fact. That’s part of why women are crap, because they’ve got no sense of humor.
You know I think are especially unfunny? Diane Keaton. And Margaret Cho. And Amanda at Pandagon, who writes today about some new pseudo-science about exactly why women aren’t funny.
I think my favorite part of article is this:
A woman who deploys a typically male sense of humor—one that's aggressive or competitive—is a turnoff to men, says Don Nilsen, a linguistics professor at Arizona State University in Tempe and an expert on humor. Many men feel threatened, perceiving a funny woman as a rival or worrying that they'll become a target of her sharp tongue.To which men, exactly, is that sense of humor a turn-off? Oh yeah—the kind of men no woman with a wicked sense of humor gives a diddly shit about.
Pfft.
King Tut: Sideways
I knew there was a reason I always liked King Tut:
October 26,2005 | LONDON -- King Tutankhamen drank red wine, says a researcher who analyzed very dry traces of the vintage found in his tomb. Maria Rosa Guasch-Jane, who briefed reporters Wednesday at the British Museum, said she had invented a process which gave archaeologists a tool to discover the color of ancient wine.
Guasch-Jane also discovered that the most valued drink in ancient Egypt, shedeh, was made of red grapes.
"This is the first time someone has found an ancient red wine," said Guasch-Jane, who earned her Ph.D. in pharmacy from the University of Barcelona in September.
Wine bottles from King Tutankhamun's time were labeled with the name of the product, the year of harvest, the source and the vine grower, Guasch-Jane said, but did not include the color of the wine.
(snip)
Winemaking dates to 5400 B.C., according to American molecular archaeologist Patrick McGovern, who discovered the earliest known traces of grape residue in northern Iran in 1994.
Grapevines are not native to Egypt, McGovern explained at Wednesday's presentation. Scientists believe the first wine discovered in Egypt, buried in King Scorpion's tomb in about 3125 B.C., was produced in Jordan and transported 500 miles (800 kilometers) by donkey and boat to Egypt, he said. Eventually, grapevines were planted in Egypt.
Research shows that ancient Egyptian kings and members of the upper class drank wine regularly, but common people consumed it only during festivals and special occasions, Guasch-Jane said. Wine was offered to gods in ceremonies, and kings were buried with jars of wine and food similar to what they consumed when they were alive, she said.
No Pardons!
The Green Knight instructs us to sign John Conyers's letter, demanding no pardons for Plamegate.
Signed proudly. And as an aside, John Conyers is the best Democrat in office. Period.
Nicholas Cage is a Nut
But an amusing nut:
Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage decided to call his baby son Kal-El because he believes the name has a "magical ring" to it. Cage, 41, and his 21-year-old wife Alice welcomed the arrival of their first child together earlier this month, and stunned fans when they announced the baby's unusual name, which was originally given to fictional superhero Superman at birth. The Leaving Las Vegas star says, "Alice and I wanted to have a name that was exotic and American and which stood for something good, because our son is exotic and he's American and we both think he's good. But having said that, I always liked the sound of the name. It has kind of a magical ring to it: Abracadabra Kal-El Shazam!"Fairly idiotic, but the prize belt for Stupendously Stupid Baby Name remains firmly in the grasp of Jason Lee, who named his son Pilot Inspektor.
Runners-up:
Bob Geldof for naming his daughters Fifi Trixiebell and Peaches
Robert Rodriquez for naming his sons Racer, Rebel, and Rocket
Fitzmas (Again)
Looks like no official news until tomorrow, although it seems as though Rove and Libby may be indicted for perjury and/or obstruction of justice, with perhaps an additional indictment for Libby for knowingly outing a covert agent.
Meanwhile, please enjoy Catherine's Fitzmas Poem.
Standing Up For The Little (Orange) Guy
Today in Lame News: In Rome, land of pet-law, where failure to walk one's dog daily is punishable by a $700 fine, it is now illegal to house one's goldfish in a circular bowl. Apparently round bowls cause blindness in fish. And it's also illegal to give fish away as prizes at carnivals, a practice which I've thought was totally creepy since I was a kid but never thought it possible to criminalize...hey Rome, while you're at it, there's some stuff that's been bugging me lately. Maybe you could help me out?
-Smelly hamster cages. They can't be good for the olfactories.
-My roommate keeps a fishbowl full of water on top of the TV, but there's no fish in it. She just keeps it there. Can you kill her?
-'Involuntary sterilization' is a nasty term, but we could call it something different, right...? Call me.
-I've always wondered what pesto cereal would taste like. I'll be accepting samples via express mail. Thanks a decaliter.
Wal-Mart Blowzzz
Adding onto D's post below, I just need to rant for a moment...
I hate Wal-Mart. I mean, I really, really hate it. I refuse to step foot inside a Wal-Mart anymore, because I find them so thoroughly loathsome—though avoiding them is becoming increasingly difficult, as their mega-meganess usurps all other choices out of communities. I have the same visceral reaction at the sight of a Wal-Mart as I would looking through a microscope at a sample of a hideous virus.
I didn’t think it was possible for me to detest Wal-Mart any more than I already did, but they’ve found a way to turn my hate into mega-hate. (Here's some more of that article; emphasis mine.)
She wrote that "the cost of an associate with seven years of tenure is almost 55 percent more than the cost of an associate with one year of tenure, yet there is no difference in his or her productivity. Moreover, because we pay an associate more in salary and benefits as his or her tenure increases, we are pricing that associate out of the labor market, increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart."You know what, Wal-Mart? Shut the fuck up. If you want to keep moving into communities and force out the competition by offering the cheapest bloody prices on everything from milk to tractor tires, then you’re stuck with whatever job force you get, unhealthy or not, because you leave people with nowhere else to work. And when your mega-presence ends up forcing Ma & Pa’s Little Local Grocer to close their doors, their staff, who may have been with them for years and years, is going to come knocking on your door—and yeah, some of them might be old, or unhealthy. Tough. It’s called corporate responsibility.
The memo noted that Wal-Mart workers "are getting sicker than the national population, particularly in obesity-related diseases," including diabetes and coronary artery disease. The memo said Wal-Mart workers tended to overuse emergency rooms and underuse prescriptions and doctor visits, perhaps from previous experience with Medicaid.
The memo noted, "The least healthy, least productive associates are more satisfied with their benefits than other segments and are interested in longer careers with Wal-Mart."
[…]
"It will be far easier to attract and retain a healthier work force than it will be to change behavior in an existing one," the memo said. "These moves would also dissuade unhealthy people from coming to work at Wal-Mart."
And by the way, if wanting a rotating workforce of young and skinny and healthy folks who will leave before you have to pay them too much is your new paradigm, then I never want to see one of your lame-ass commercials trumpeting the great work conditions for the elderly, or featuring some fat, middle-aged, middle-America mom blathering on about how great a place it is to work, or especially the ones with some dude talking about how he started as a cashier and has worked his way up to district manager, because “you can have a career” at Wal-Mart. Lying pieces of shit.
The Robber Barons, Finishing The Job
Not content with seeing the amount of impoverished and desperate citizens left in the wake of Katrina and now Wilma, House Republicans grunted, sharpened their knives, and merrily resumed grinding the poor ever harder under their heels:
Impoverished Americans are being set up as targets this week in Congress's desperate attempt to find budget cuts after four straight years of tax cuts for the affluent. House Republicans propose harmful cuts in Medicaid access and benefits, while forcing another 10 hours of work from welfare families and giving states free rein to pile more draconian reductions onto the most vulnerable citizens.It should come as no surprise to anyone here that Congress actually had to argue about whether or not to award itself its annual pay raise. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart, ever ready to do its part in its ongoing quest to destroy the middle class, recently circulated an internal memo seeking ways to slash employees’ already meager benefits without getting any bad P.R.:
(snip)
The proposals would have the federal government - supposedly the protector of the neediest - give the states broad leeway to restrict current benefits; to require co-payments by the poor for medicine and for care by doctors and emergency rooms; and to cut preventive care for children, who represent half of the Medicaid roll. The food stamp program would probably also be hit with a $1 billion cut, and even welfare payments to elderly people who are sick would be crimped by using federal bookkeeping tricks.
An internal memo sent to Wal-Mart's board of directors proposes numerous ways to hold down spending on health care and other benefits while seeking to minimize damage to the retailer's reputation. Among the recommendations are hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart.Finally, Ms. Chambers is responsible for my Quote of the Day:
In the memorandum, M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, also recommends reducing 401(k) contributions and wooing younger, and presumably healthier, workers by offering education benefits. The memo voices concern that workers with seven years' seniority earn more than workers with one year's seniority, but are no more productive.
To discourage unhealthy job applicants, Ms. Chambers suggests that Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering)."
(snip)
Ms. Chambers proposed that employees pay more for their spouses' health insurance. She called for cutting 401(k) contributions to 3 percent of wages from 4 percent and cutting company-paid life insurance policies to $12,000 from the current level, equal to an employee's annual earnings.
Life insurance, she said, was "a high-satisfaction, low-importance benefit, which suggests an opportunity to trim the offering without substantial impact on associate satisfaction." Wal-Mart refers to its employees as associates.In other words, the “associates” were hauled into a back room, where it was “suggested” that they take the “opportunity” to “trim” their life insurance benefits. And any who didn’t feel comfortable taking advantage of this “option” should just hand in their uniforms, get the hell off the property, and don’t come back.
I wonder if some day, a filmmaker of John Sayles’ caliber will make another Matewan, only about Wal-Mart and the America of 2005 instead of the Stone Mountain Coal Company and the America of the 1920’s. Aside from the time change, I doubt the script would need any revision.
Fitzy...
...has arrived at the court!
(Seriously, how weird would it be to have wire stories about your showing up for work? Yeesh.)
Question of the Day
Technically, this is the second QotD, following up on Tart’s Famous Last Words (to which you should hop over and throw in your favorite last line of a novel if you haven’t already). This one was requested by Catherine from Poverty Barn and Daily Pepper, and it’s about name changes in association with marriage and/or long-term partnership.
For the straight women: Why did (or will) you decide to keep/change/hyphenate your name?
For the straight guys: What are your thoughts—do you have a preference as to whether your wife keeps or changes her name? Would you consider taking your wife’s name?
For Ls/Gs/Bs/Ts: A) If you’re in a state that allows legal marriage, same questions; or B) If you’re in (or if you were in) a long-term relationship, do you have any interest in taking your partner’s name, or having your partner taking your name, or doing a hyphenation of the two for both of you?
(Any straight people who may be in non-marriage life partnerships are welcome to weigh in, too, of course.)
As an aside, I know two different couples where the man took the woman’s last name, because he liked hers better.
I changed my name because my maiden name was hard to spell and pronounce, and I thought McEwan would be a piece of cake. As it turns out, I was wrong. I still have to correct pronunciations and spell it all the time.
Don’t tell me to stop being so sensitive…
…I can’t help it:
Women feel more pain than men, studies have shown. New research reveals one reason why.I predict the following exchange will soon happen at Shakes Manor:
Women have more nerve receptors, which causes them to feel pain more intensely than men, according to a report in the October issue of the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
On average, women have 34 nerve fibers per square centimeter of facial skin. Men average just 17.
"This study has serious implications about how we treat women after surgery as well as women who experience chronic pain," said Bradon Wilhelmi, a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and author of the study. "Because women have more nerve receptors, they may experience pain more powerfully than men, requiring different surgical techniques, treatments or medicine dosages to help manage their pain and make them feel comfortable."
Earlier this year, separate research found that women report more pain throughout their lifetimes, in more areas of their bodies and for longer durations.
Mr. Shakes: Fooking hell, Tschoobs—why so irascible?
Shakes: Because you are getting on all of my 34 nerve fibers per square inch!
Did anyone see the Bush speech?
Rob at Americablog says during the speech, he was joking about an anniversary gift for Laura.
Anyone have a transcript?
Jesus Christ. And they say liberals are sick for gathering in mourning and rememberance. I guess we should have thrown a $800-a-plate dinner and joked about looking for WMDs under coffee tables.
Update: Uh, I'm back, by the way. ;)
More Fitzmas
An uber-insider source has just reported the following to TWN:Anyone want to make predictions? I say it’s Libby and Rove in the conservatory with a lead pipe.
1. 1-5 indictments are being issued. The source feels that it will be towards the higher end.
2. The targets of indictment have already received their letters.
3. The indictments will be sealed indictments and "filed" tomorrow.
4. A press conference is being scheduled for Thursday.
The shoe is dropping.
More soon.
Grooming Time
My cat Olivia has taken to “grooming” me while I’m writing. She sits on the back of my chair and starts to sniff and nudge my head. For some reason, my hair is most attractive when it is half wet and half dry after a shampoo.
If I lean forward, she reaches out and tangles her claws in my hair to pull me back toward her.
Then she starts licking my hair.
I swear she would do this all day and night if I didn't constantly thwart her attempts to become a salon diva.
Meanwhile, Matilda sits with all her 15 pounds wedged between my back and the chair, in her continuing effort to make me a hunchback. I couldn’t get a picture of that, but I did get a picture of her making herself comfortable in the chair, which she does every time I get up for more than two seconds.
Part Two: Mockery
All right, have at it, Shakers...
Give us your best effort at a slogan mocking the idiot Dems. The separate thread for genuine entries is below.
(If you don't know what I'm talking about, see here.)
Part One: Genuine Entries
All right, have at it, Shakers...
Give us your best effort at a Dem '06 slogan. This is the thread for real attempts at coming up with a decent slogan. I'll put up a separate thread for mockery.
(If you don't know what I'm talking about, see here.)
TDS
In case you missed it last night, Daily Dissent’s got video of Jon Stewart interviewing Bill Kristol, which was very funny.
Kristol has the dubious distinction of being the only person who doesn’t make me want to put my foot through the TV when I see him interviewed even though I disagree with him on very nearly everything under the sun. He has kind of a nice, nerdy personality that I like; it’s just too bad he’s such a misguided lunatic.
Who’s Getting Paid for This Shit?
If only I were laughing because this is a joke:
The Hill: "House Democratic leaders are holding a closed-door meeting with members of their caucus this afternoon to discuss a new slogan for the 2006 midterm elections: 'Together, We Can Do Better' or 'Together, America Can Do Better,' according to Democratic sources."Cliché hell?! That piece of shit slogan aspires to cliché hell.
Over the last few weeks, the phrase "has become a common refrain in Democratic leadership statements, usually appearing at the end of Pelosi's press releases or sprinkled liberally in Reid's comments."
Chris Bowers comments: "I suppose it is impossible to ever be excited about a quick catch phrase. This is especially true in politics, where pretty much every catch phrase long ago reached the lowest level of cliche hell."
Aside from the language itself being about as inspiring as a stinky wet sock, the sentiment behind “We Can Do Better” rings appallingly devoid of what I can best describe as self-esteem. The Democrats have internalized the old “at least we’re not the Republicans” chestnut to such a sickening degree that they’ve turned it into their blasted slogan. Why oh why oh why oh why are the Democrats allowing their own message to reinforce the notion that the GOP is “the norm,” so inescapable that the Dems’ own party identity must even abstractly reference the GOP, in answer to the question of whom, exactly, they can do better than.
Beyond its insipidity, this asinine slogan says nothing new. The Dems have been going on about how they’re better than the GOP for years, but what we have here is a failure to communicate how they’re better, so the American people don’t believe them in large enough numbers to vote them into office. It’s a rehash of the same strategy to position themselves as a milquetoast alternative, wrapping it up with an inoffensive little bow and hoping it can compete with the three-ring circus of insanity the GOP puts on for its base.
The Dems need to get back to the drawing board ASAP, because this is pathetic. For crying out loud, I’ve seen high school student council campaigns with more gusto. Pfft.
Fitzmas Update
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has decided to seek indictments in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and has submitted at least one to the grand jury, those close to the investigation tell RAW STORY.We'll find out this week.
Fitzgerald will seek at least two indictments, the sources say. They note that it remains to be seen whether the grand jury will approve the charges.
Those familiar with the case state that Fitzgerald likely will not seek indictments that assert officials leaked Plame's name illegally. Rather, they say that he will focus charges in the arena of lying to investigators.
Famous Last Words
Welcome, Shakers, to the requisite Last Line Question of the Day. I find it difficult not to drool all over myself while talking about books. So in answer to Salman Rushdie's riddle in Haroun and the Sea of Stories, "what's the use of stories that aren't even true?" I say, come here, and let me drool all over you. Do you find you have to divide them into categories? Yeah...
'Most disturbing' goes to Don DeLillo's White Noise:
"This is the language of waves and radiation, or how the dead speak to the living. And this is where we wait together, regardless of age, our carts stocked with brightly colored goods. A slowly moving line, satisfying, giving us time to glance at the tabloids in the racks. Everything we need that is not food or love is in the tabloid racks. The tales of the supernatural and the extraterrestrial. The miracle vitamins, the cures for cancer, the remedies for obesity. The cults of the famous and the dead."
'Made me cry all over myself for an hour' goes to Jayne Anne Phillips' Machine Dreams:
They walk on, and finally it is so dark that Danner can't see Billy at all. She can only hear him, imitating with a careful and private energy the engine sounds of a plane that is going down. War-movie sounds. Eeee-yoww, ach-ack-ack. So gentle it sounds like a song, and the song goes on softly as the plane falls, year after year, to earth."
'And I know I'm getting totally morbid here, but it's so lovely',Jim Crace's Being Dead:
"These are the everending days of being dead."
'Ooh look I found a happy one', Willa Cather's O Pioneers!
"Fortunate country, that is one day to receive hearts like Alexandra's into its bosom, to give them out again in the yellow wheat, in the rustling corn, in the shining eyes of youth!"
Hey, wait a minute...that one's about death, too!
Sigh.
You?
Read-Ems
Twisty Faster with more on crap ad execs.
Ol’ Cranky has more on a pharmacist’s right to choose.
Praxxus has more on the disturbing changes to the National Parks Service.
Brad Plumer’s got a good smackdown of Maggie Gallagher’s idiotic arguments against legalizing gay marriage.
PusBoy makes me wonder in what the fuck century we’re living?
Watertiger with a great picture.
John Howard with an important announcement.
John Lombard with a rather interesting quote.
Me4Pres has some questions for Jesus.
Shamanic with some good thoughts on the Ohio Senate race.
Greg with a highly amusing post on thin-skinned babies.
Glen asks why there’s anyone left in the military who trusts this administration.
Demagogue’s Eugene Oregon on the Right’s expectations of Miers’ martyrdom.
Driftglass suggests “You bought it…Now live in it.”
Fuming Mucker discusses a victory achieved through tedious attention to detail.
SB Gypsy offers some beautiful pictures of fall.
Farley with some random TV notes. His assessment of Rome is spot-on.
MediaGirl on Pakistan and how we can help.
Thomas at Seeing the Forest on the ungodly punishment of Nigerian teens for allegedly being lesbians.
Time Imitates Art
Via Mannion, who got it via Linkmeister, comes TIME Magazine's list of the 100 Best English-language Novels published since 1923. Link explains, “Why 1923? Because that's the year Time started publishing.”
Whatever, Time.
Link notes the list is “highly subjective,” as these lists tend to be, and Mannion takes issue with some of the list's rather strange choices, particularly Gone With the Wind:
But it's on the list for the same reason Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Are You There, God? It's Me Margaret are on it---so that there are novels that the average TIME reader will have read. All of those, except for Gone With the Wind, are good books too but they have another virtue as well. They are all standards of high school reading lists, which means that teenagers can have a connection with the list.I think something else seems to have influenced the list. Take a look at it. Does it also strike you, by any chance, that an inordinate number of books on this list have been turned into films that are either award-winning, regarded as classics, or have a cult following? I suspect many of these books would likely be off our collective radar (not to mention left off this list) had they not been turned into films of some acclaim.
Unlike Mannion, I happen to like Naked Lunch, but I don’t think it belongs on any “best” list, aside from perhaps “Best Books Written by Morphine Addicts Who Killed Their Wives During a Game of William Tell.” (In fact, I think it’s a shoo-in for that list.) If David Cronenberg (following not long after the 1985 documentary Burroughs) had never turned Naked Lunch into a film, which quickly developed a devoted following and introduced a whole new generation to its author’s work, I daresay the novel in question would have escaped consideration by the compilers of this list.
And I wonder if even a book like To Kill a Mockingbird, which inarguably deserves its place on the list, is offered some advantage because of the spectacular film made of its story.
In any case, these lists usually suck, and this one’s no different. Until I see a Best of… list that contains Parts Unknown, Life of Pi, and The Secret History, I’ll remain decidedly unimpressed.
Death of 2,000; Dearth of Ideas
The death toll of US troops in Iraq has hit the 2,000 mark, so what does the administration plan to do about it? Page 3 in the playbook—send out Bushie-Boy to give a speech at Bolling Air Force Base today.
Bush will try to put the sacrifice in perspective by portraying the Iraq war as the best way to keep terrorists from striking the United States again, the official said. He will make the same case in another speech Friday in Norfolk.Wow, fucking genius!
Although Bush has made this case often, aides hope the public will be more receptive in the aftermath of the apparently successful referendum vote for a new Iraqi constitution, whose official results will be announced this week.Good luck with all that.
Failing to have come up with any new ideas for dealing with the onslaught of bad news resulting from five years of dreadful policy, the Bush team has decided to borrow a page from some other bloke’s playbook:
Consciously or not, Bush seemed to echo that line last week in the Rose Garden when he was asked about all the problems afflicting his White House. Dismissing all the "background noise," Bush said, "the American people expect me to do my job, and I'm going to."Indeed. And I think the country as a whole was better off when the questions just went to the pants of the presidency.
"I think I've heard that one before," Mark Fabiani, a former Clinton White House lawyer, said with a laugh yesterday. "But it comes down to the person. Anybody can deliver the line. The question is: Can you compartmentalize these issues so they don't consume you? And I think Bush's job is more difficult than Clinton's because the questions here go right to the heart of the presidency."
For a start, we didn’t have 2,000 dead soldiers to mourn.
RIP: Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was 42 years old when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man who demanded it 50 years ago. Her act of defiance got her arrested—and galvanized a civil rights movement, inspiring legions of people to speak up and demand change. She was a hero to lots of people, and I count myself among them. When Skippy recently asked for a list of the most important Americans, she was on my list. When Toast recently asked with which 5 living people we’d like to have a beer, she was on my list. I can remember hearing the story of Rosa Parks and her act of civil disobedience for the first time, when I was a little girl, and how I thought, “That’s the kind of person I want to be.”
Her eyes tell her story.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called her the "mother of the civil rights movement,” and by the end of her life, she had received both the Presidential Medal of Freedom (in 1996) and the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor (in 1999) for her outstanding contributions in making America a better place for us all.
Every reason to smile:
A genuine American hero.
Her work isn’t done, and we must carry on what she started in her mold—one person, deciding to take a stand against injustice, and making a difference.
"I am leaving this legacy to all of you ... to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die — the dream of freedom and peace."
Now It Goes Big Time
So says The Heretik, linking to a report in the NY Times, which contains the following:
I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.Oh yeah. There’s more. Like:
Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby’s testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.
The notes, taken by Mr. Libby during the conversation, for the first time place Mr. Cheney in the middle of an effort by the White House to learn about Ms. Wilson’s husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was questioning the administration’s handling of intelligence about Iraq’s nuclear program to justify the war.
[T]he evidence of Mr. Cheney’s direct involvement in the effort to learn more about Mr. Wilson is sure to intensify the political pressure on the White House in a week of high anxiety among Republicans about the potential for the case to deal a sharp blow to Mr. Bush’s presidency.Heh. Ya think?
Shakers, get your Fitzmas lists ready and put out some milk and cookies. Merry old St. Patrick is bringing us pressies this week!
