Shakesville

Like School on a Sunday

No class.

I'm sure you all remember the recent dustup between Jim Webb and Prezint Bulldoze McHeartlesson:

At a recent White House reception for freshman members of Congress, Virginia's newest senator tried to avoid President Bush. Democrat James Webb declined to stand in a presidential receiving line or to have his picture taken with the man he had often criticized on the stump this fall. But it wasn't long before Bush found him.

"How's your boy?" Bush asked, referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq.

"I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.

"That's not what I asked you," Bush said. "How's your boy?"

"That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.

Well guess what. This wasn't simply a situation where Bush happened to bump into Webb and was trying to "extend a nice gesture," as O'Reilly harrumphed. Bush was briefed about meeting with Webb, and cautioned to be "extra sensitive."

But according to Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), Bush was told that Webb’s son had a recent brush with death in Iraq and was warned to be “extra sensitive” when talking to the Sen.-elect. ThinkProgress yesterday spoke with Moran’s office and confirmed the congressman’s statement, first reported by hcc in VA:
Not only did Bush know about it, he was specifically briefed on the incident before meeting with Webb, and was cautioned to be extra sensitive in speaking with Webb about his son.

And yet, even with kid glove handling and specific briefing, he still managed to fuck it up. He specifically seeks out Webb, all frisky and feeling intelligent after his briefing, and gets all pissy when things don't go his way. Webb said something he didn't want to hear, and he immediately got snappish and petulant.

He's either still cranky over the elections, pining for Rummy, unconsciously embarrassed about his lack of military service or just plain old pissy about his biggest failure... but this is a "man" who can't take the slightest bit of criticism.

Webb has been called "classless," a boor," and worse by the Right. Well, what does that make Bush?

(Hey hey hey... it's Fat Cross-post!)

Jet Green

Richard Branson is a cool mofo. So says my girlfriend Miller (a cool mofo herself) in passing on this item about Branson finally bringing back Virgin Air to Chicago—and along with it, a new idea he’s promoting to make airports more environmentally friendly. (If you caught him on Bill Maher’s Real Time a couple of weeks ago, he was talking about this idea there, too.)

Instead of having Hummer-like vehicles simply tug jetliners away from the gate, Branson wants to tug them all the way to a holding area at the end of the runway.

It’s an initiative that’s about to get under way at JFK Airport in New York and at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick Airports. If Daley can find a way to duplicate those efforts in Chicago, 80 percent of the total emissions of carbon monoxide would be eliminated, leaving the air around Chicago a whole lot cleaner, Branson said.

“We believe it’ll speed up the process — not slow the process down. You’ll have a holding bay at the end of the runway where you’ll take the planes to. They won’t actually start the engines until eight minutes or so before takeoff. The tugs themselves can be run on ethanol. They can be very friendly. And the same can happen to the planes when they land. You can just have the tugs there. They can take them straight back” to the gate, Branson said.

…”It’s something people should have thought of before. The airline industry has cost itself hundreds of millions by not doing it. The environment has been damaged,” he said.

Branson says the tugs will save two to three tons of fuel per flight. If the tugs are available at both ends, it also saves an additional ton of fuel in the air, because the plane doesn’t need to carry the extra tonnage to taxi about the airports. Implementing Branson’s suggestion could thusly save as much as seven tons of fuel per flight. There’s a reason this guy’s a billionaire.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who’s been interested in ways to green the city for years, is looking into the idea, and says as long as it doesn’t slow O’Hare’s operations and the FAA approves, he’s into it—and will consider it alongside other proposals like requiring alternative energy in airport vehicles. It would really be something if O’Hare, which is the busiest airport in the world, leads the way in making air travel more environmentally friendly.

Branson, by the way, got the idea while talking to one of his pilots on the set of Casino Royale, while he was waiting backstage to shoot a cameo. What a life this guy leads. I love him endlessly—and not just because he’s a wonderfully eccentric knighted pothead and gay lion* who provides the best flights on the planet between Chicago and London, but because he gives a shit. You may remember he recently pledged $3 billion toward alternative fuel development:

Check out the airline mogul talking about how airlines providing flights on routes for which trains are more efficient and more environmentally responsible should be taxed out of existence. I believe that’s called putting one’s money where one’s mouth is.

----------------

* Richard Branson is technically neither gay nor a lion.

For the End Credit Blooper Reel...

Jackie Chan Injured on "Rush Hour 3" Set

Damn it, Jackie... be more careful. Action movies will simply cease to exist if anything happens to you.

HONG KONG - Jackie Chan re-injured his chest while filming a fight scene for "Rush Hour 3," but doctors said it wasn't a major injury, the veteran action star says in an entry on his Web site.

Chan, 52, injured his chest in March when a stuntman wearing the wrong shoes kicked him during the shooting of a scene for his recent action comedy, "Rob-B-Hood."

This time, he was hit by a steel-reinforced wooden table, Chan said in a posting dated Nov. 27.

Chan said he tried to work through the pain, wearing a stunt belt across his upper chest and taking medication, but the movie's producers eventually sent him to a doctor. An X-ray cleared him of broken bones or organ injury, he said.

"I was in a lot of pain because it was in the same spot where I had gotten hurt during the filming of `Rob-B-Hood,'" he said.

Rob-B-Hood. Groan. I love Jackie unconditionally, but these "Hey, it's an Asian guy and a Non-Asian Guy thrust together into a wacky situation for some reason! They're on a collision course to zaniness!" movies just make me shudder. But frankly, Jackie could come out on screen and eat a bowl of cereal for two hours and I'd watch it.

Imagine the Gropinator or one of the other "action stars" getting hit with a table and going right back to work; refusing to see a doctor. Hell, just imagine them doing their own stunts in every film they make, no matter how dangerous. It wouldn't happen. That's why Jackie Chan is the greatest action star in the history of motion pictures. He is. Don't question me.

In the "Rush Hour" series, Chan plays a Hong Kong police officer and Chris Tucker portrays his Los Angeles counterpart, with the movie's humor drawing on cultural differences between the two.

Yeah, its hilarious. Let's go to the tape:

CrankyCritic®: Were you concerned about doing a sequel to Rush Hour?

Jackie Chan: I knew there was a sequel going on after part one finished. I don't think part one was a success. When I look at the film, I don't like it.

CrankyCritic®: Why not?

Jackie Chan: Just different. I am from Asia. I only know Asia. Rush Hour in Asia isn't a success compared to my old Jackie Chan films. Not funny, the action isn't good. For myself I look at and see there's another Big Brawl 20 years ago. Bye Bye. Then just boom, a big hit and I just don't know what happened. Then I realized oh, that's a very typical American film, very local. The dialogue was 'What's up Nigga?'. In Asia the whole theater goes huh? In the United States it's ha ha and everybody claps. From that time I know I have to make two kinds of films, one film for the American market and one film for my own market. My own market has been watching Jackie Chan films for so many years.

Jackie Chan, I love you, and I want to have your babies. So start being a little more careful, huh?

Update: For the record, "Rob-B-Hood" isn't an American flick. The groan was for the cheesy title.
(Cross-post socky.)

Um…

Why the hell is Dennis Prager on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council in the first place?

In a syndicated column last week, Mr. Prager asserted that a new Democratic congressman from Minnesota, Keith Ellison, was tearing at the bulwarks of American society by seeking to use the Muslim holy book at his swearing-in next month. "He should not be allowed to do so — not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization," Mr. Prager wrote. "Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don't serve in Congress."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, known as Cair, said yesterday that Mr. Prager's comments were so outrageous that he should be removed from the Holocaust board, which oversees the Holocaust museum in Washington. "No one who holds such bigoted, intolerant, and divisive views should be in a policy-making position at a taxpayer-funded institution that seeks to educate Americans about the destructive impact hatred has had, and continues to have, on every society," the group said.

Agreed.

Of course, the whole swearing-on-a-book thing is utterly absurd, anyway. It’s not the book that’s important, but the integrity of the person whose hand is placed upon it.

If you’ve got contempt for the Constitution, there isn’t a book in the world upon which swearing to protect and uphold it will make a damn bit of difference.

Congratulations, Pam!

You totally deserve it, bloggrrl. Way to go.

Evolution Schmevolution

Fundies fundies everywhere...

Famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey is giving no quarter to powerful evangelical church leaders who are pressing Kenya's national museum to relegate to a back room its world-famous collection of hominid fossils showing the evolution of humans' early ancestors.

Leakey called the churches' plans "the most outrageous comments I have ever heard."

...Leaders of Kenya's Pentecostal congregation, with six million adherents, want the human fossils de-emphasized.

...[Bishop Bonifes Adoyo, head of the largest Pentecostal church in Kenya, the Christ is the Answer Ministries] said all the country's churches would unite to force the museum to change its focus when it reopens after eighteen months of renovations in June 2007. "We will write to them, we will call them, we will make sure our people know about this, and we will see what we can do to make our voice known," he said.

Steve M points out that Adoyo is no stranger to controversy, having inserted himself into the issue of rooting out Satan worship in Kenya and calling Islam a "destructive monster," as examples. Trying to make science only "one side" of the story in a national museum is clearly right up his alley.

For its part, the museum sounded like it was trying to walk a tightrope. It said it was in a "tricky situation" in trying to redesign its exhibition space for all kinds of visitors.

"We have a responsibility to present all our artifacts in the best way that we can so that everyone who sees them can gain a full understanding of their significance," said Ali Chege, public relations manager for the National Museums of Kenya. "But things can get tricky when you have religious beliefs on one side, and intellectuals, scientists, or researchers on the other, saying the opposite."

Hang on a second, says PZ Myers: "This is not a tricky situation at all. There is no rational reason we should respect 'religious beliefs' as equals to the evidence and ideas of 'intellectuals, scientists, or researchers'. This false equivalence, supported by the people who claim to be defending science, lies precisely at the root of the problem. Museums should never have to defer to myths and superstition."

And yet, they do. So the fake debate rages on...

(PEEK-ed.)

But it would be HARD!

The federal advisory panel created by Congress to advise the Election Assistance Commission has rejected a proposal that "would have required electronic machines used by millions of voters to produce a paper record or other independent means of checking election results."

The failed resolution, proposed by Ronald Rivest, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer scientist and panel member, closely mirrored a report released last week warning that paperless electronic voting machines are vulnerable to errors and fraud and cannot be made secure.

Some panel members who voted against the proposal said they support paper records but don't think the risk of widespread voting machine meltdowns is great enough to rush the requirement into place and overwhelm state election boards.

"They should be longer-range goals," said Britain Williams of the National Association of Election Directors. "You are talking about basically a reinstallation of the entire voting system hardware."

BaB's Jill (who gets the hat tip), retorts: "And....what's your point, Mr. Williams? The 'entire voting system hardware', as you call it, doesn't work, and doesn't accurately count the votes. As an American, I don't give a shit about overwhelming state election boards. I have a right for my vote to be counted the way I cast it which outweighs the right of state election boards to have an easy time of it."

Seconded. And I'm not sure how two years isn't enough for each individual election director to sort out his or her piece of this admittedly large puzzle. At some point, someone's just going to have to make a damn decision to get this done once and for all so we can all trust in the integrity of our elections again. It's always going to be a pain in the ass, and delaying it isn't going to lessen the posterior agony. Enough excuses. Just get it done.

(PEEK-ed.)

Hazed, Threatened, Arrested, Ignored

You know, there were many times I've told my wife—in just a state of panic, and just being so upset—that I really wished I just died over there. Cause if you just die over there, everyone writes you off as a hero.—Iraq veteran Tyler Jennings
Jennings is only one of many soldiers whose post-traumatic stress disorder has been exponentially complicated by dark despair as they have been denied the help they need and subjected to ridicule, hazing, and even imprisonment.

Almost all of the soldiers said that their worst problem is that their supervisors and friends turned them into pariahs when they learned that they were having an emotional crisis. Supervisors said it's true: They are giving some soldiers with problems a hard time, because they don't belong in the Army.

Jennings called a supervisor at Ft. Carson to say that he had almost killed himself, so he was going to skip formation to check into a psychiatric ward. The Defense Department's clinical guidelines say that when a soldier has been planning suicide, one of the main ways to help is to put him in the hospital. Instead, officers sent a team of soldiers to his house to put him in jail, saying that Jennings was AWOL for missing work.

"I had them pounding on my door out there. They're saying 'Jennings, you're AWOL. The police are going to come get you. You've got 10 seconds to open up this door,'" Jennings said. "I was really scared about it. But finally, I opened the door up for them, and I was like 'I'm going to the hospital.'"

A supervisor in Jennings' platoon corroborated Jennings' account of the incident.

Jennings is being discharged for "patterns of misconduct," along with other soldiers whose misconduct includes symptoms of depression, slashing wrists, and drug use—and whose files indicate that they, also like Jennings, have sought help for mental-health issues. Instead of support and treatment, they're thrown out of the Army with less than an honorable discharge.

In other words, the Army is pushing them out in disgrace.

Quite a homecoming for our troops.

(Via Erik at Alterdestiny; PEEK-ed.)

An unstoppable force?

New piece up at Comment is Free about Hillary:

Clinton, so the meme goes, is unstoppable. Which would be a good thing if the left were unanimous, or something close to it, in their adoration for Clinton. But we're not. And there are legitimate concerns about Clinton, having nothing to do with one's personal support of the candidate, that go something like this: she can't lose the primary but can't win the general election. Or: her peerless name recognition and unrivalled megawatt fundraising power will make her unbeatable on her path to the nomination, leaving us with a candidate with a great name, loads of cash, and far too much baggage to actually win.

Read the rest here.

Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

What's Happening!!

Question of the Day

What's your favorite word?

I have lots of words I really love, and I'm not sure I have a single favorite, but the first one that came to mind is tintinnabulation.

Ta-Daaaaaaa!

Via Chris.

Caption This Photo

MC Krazy Eyezzz

Via Rox.

Sobs with Joy

Via Chet, (via skippy) we have one of the greatest things ever to grace the internets: The gethuman 500 database. Calling a company and want to speak directly to an actual human being? Here's how.

My usual tactic is to keep hitting zero until the system figures I'm too much of a dumbass to follow directions and sends me to an operator, but that involves a lot of listening to "I'm sorry, I don't understand your choice. Please enter again. Blahblahblah." Now you can skip everything.

The creators of this should win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Wow.

Just.... wow.

Let me tell you something about niggers, the oppressed minority within our minority. Always down. Always out. Always complaining that they can't catch a break. Notoriously poor about doing for themselves. Constantly in need of a leader but unable to follow in any direction that's navigated by hard work, self-reliance. And though they spliff and drink and procreate their way onto welfare doles and WIC lines, niggers will tell you their state of being is no fault of their own. They are not responsible for their nearly 5 percent incarceration rate and their 9.2 percent unemployment rate. Not responsible for the 11.8 percent rate at which they drop out of high school. For the 69.3 percent of births they create out of wedlock.

Now, let me tell you something about my generation of black Americans. We are the inheritors of "the Deal" forced upon the entrenched white social, political, and legal establishment when my parents' generation won the struggle for civil rights. The Deal: We (blacks) take what is rightfully ours and you (the afore-described establishment) get citizens who will invest the same energy and dedication into raising families and working hard and being all around good people as was invested in snapping the neck of Jim Crow.

In the forty years since the Deal was brokered, since the Voting Rights Act was signed, there have been successes for blacks. But there are still too many blacks in prison, too many kids aggrandizing the thug life, and way too many African-Americans doing far too little with the opportunities others earned for them.

If we as a race could win the centuries-long war against institutionalized racism, why is it that so many of us cannot secure the advantage after decades of freedom?

That which retards us is the worst of "us," those who disdain actual ascendancy gained by way of intellectual expansion and physical toil—who instead value the posture of an "urban," a "street," a "real" existence, no matter that such a culture threatens to render them extinct.

"Them" being niggers.

Via Jill at Feministe, who has a few things to say.

All I Want for Christmas

Actor Charlie Sheen is auctioning a letter of apology sent to him by movie legend Marlon Brando. The actor invited Brando to his 26th birthday party in 1991, but the heavyweight star - who appeared in Apocalpyse Now with Sheen's father Martin - was too ill to attend.

The letter reads, "I'm feeling like a very large turd on a very thin stick. I'm holed up in bed and taking everything from sled dog urine to powdered East Indian vulva. I really feel bad for not showing up at your birthday bash but I really feel shitty and best stay in bed. I'm sure it will be a kick in the ass, and I hate to miss it - Happiest of birthdays to you, Charlie."

The handwritten letter appears on auction site Lelands.com and has a reserve of $1,000, reports the New York Daily News.

Must have it.

I was never a swooning fan of Brando’s acting (or appearance) nearly as much as I was interested in him as a person. He was totally fucking bizarre in a way that appealed to me—wildly vulgar and eccentric, yet profoundly compassionate; deeply flawed and equal parts regretful and hopeful in his regard for those flaws; indifferent to critics, but responsive to legitimate criticism.

Anyway, I’m totally using “very large turd on a very thin stick” for the rest of my bloody life.

Unhinged Lunatic President Out of Control

...film at Eleven.

And no, I'm not talking about Chavez. Calm down, wingnuts.

Never one to rest on his laurels, Bush is continuing a six-year run of bad ideas with yet another really, really bad idea. He is considering ending the drilling ban in the Alaskan bay.

WASHINGTON - President Bush is deciding whether to lift a ban on oil and gas drilling in federal waters off Alaska's Bristol Bay, home to endangered whales and sea lions and the world's largest sockeye salmon run.

Leasing in a portion of the area rich in oil and natural gas ended nearly two decades ago — while Bush's father was president — in the outcry after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.

But with natural gas prices higher, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service proposed reopening up the North Aleutian Basin. That includes Bristol Bay and part of southeastern Bering Sea.

[...]

Environmentalists oppose drilling there because of the potential for oil spills and harm to wildlife. They have speculated in recent days that Bush might allow such drilling before Democrats regain control of Congress in January.

"If the Bush administration decides to allow drilling in Bristol Bay, it will simply illustrate the level to which they will sink to satisfy Big Oil," Carl Pope, the Sierra Club's executive director, said Saturday. "They are willing to risk a valuable, renewable resource like Bristol Bay's salmon fisheries for limited, shortsighted drilling plans."

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass, a senior member of the House Resources Committee, said opening up Bristol Bay and expanding drilling off Florida's coast — a goal of House Republicans before losing power to Democrats — would amount to "a last minute giveaway of public lands as an early Christmas present to the big oil companies."

If there is anyone left that still sneers when people claim that Iraq was "all about the oil," here's a little more evidence to hopefully shut you up once and for all. Every single step of the Bush "presidency" has been about nothing but securing more power and money for the friends of Bush & Cheney.

Some 200 million barrels of crude oil, about what the U.S. imports every 16 days, are thought to be there. The agency estimates the region could yield 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas — a quarter of all U.S. annual production.

So... all the oil will be used up in 16 days, and all of the natural gas will be gone in about three months? Or am I reading this wrong? I'm to understand that wasting all of this time, money, and resources on non-renewable resources is somehow more important than working on alternate, renewable sources of energy? Not to mention that, with the current seafood crisis, monkeying around with a valuable source of food might not be the smartest action.

Its findings are startling. A global study lead by Dalhousie's Boris Worm shows current trends projecting the collapse of all currently fished seafoods before 2050. The international group of ecologists and economists show that the loss of biodiversity is profoundly reducing the ocean's ability to produce seafood, resist diseases, filter pollutants, and rebound from stresses such as over-fishing and climate change.

The study, published in the November 3rd issue of the journal Science, reveals that every species lost causes a faster unraveling of the overall ecosystem. Conversely every species recovered adds significantly to overall productivity and stability of the ecosystem and its ability to withstand stresses.

"Whether we looked at tide pools or studies over the entire world's ocean, we saw the same picture emerging," says Dr. Worm. "In losing species we lose the productivity and stability of entire ecosystems. I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are -- beyond anything we suspected."

Damn scientists and their findings! They must be watching those damn liberal propaganda movies! No, not the Gore one, that other one!

Environmental groups said they are confident the new Democratic-controlled Congress would work to restore congressional protections on Bristol Bay.

You know what? It might not be a bad idea to give them a call, anyway. Jellyfish aren't just found in the sea anymore.

(I'd like to be... under the sea... in a cross-post's garden, in the shade...)

Record-Breaking Awesomeness

Another unfortunate milestone in the reign of George W. Bush and the recently-deposed Republican Congress was reached on Saturday when the federal minimum wage set a new record for the longest period without a raise since its establishment in 1938. As of December 2, the $5.15-per-hour wage rate has remained unchanged for nine years and three months.

Not surprisingly, the prior record also occurred under Republican administrations, when the minimum wage rate remained stagnant from early 1981 until April of 1990 under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

…An American working 40 hours per week at the current minimum wage makes only $10,712 a year, which is less than $900 a month to cover housing, health care, food and all other living expenses.

…According to the Economic Policy Institute, the current minimum wage has also deteriorated in real value to the point that buying power for that compensation is at its lowest level since 1955.

Raising the minimum wage at long last is a priority on the Democrats’ agenda, and is almost certain to happen now that they’ve retaken both houses of Congress. In June, the GOP rejected the Democrats’ attempts to raise the minimum wage only one week after blocking a Democratic resolution to block their own pay increase, thusly giving themselves a $3,300 raise.

Bush may yet go down as the worst president in history, but I hope we won’t forget his enabling Republican Congress, so replete with hubristic avarice that they took from the poor and gave to the rich and maligned as traitors anyone who would not fete their magnanimity.

Ice, ice, baby

I received this morning a thoughtful email from Bitty asking if I was weathering the ice storm that struck the American Middle West last week, and I only realized then what an insular idiot I've been. I haven't mentioned word one about the weather and the accompanying power outage that affected over four hundred thousand people. Bad on me. First, let me say that M and I are fine. The capricious nature of the local power grid spared us this time around; we've not lost a minute of power. I'll admit that I spent a nervous, sleepless night when the front came through; the transformer behind our house emitted distressing sounds and unnerving flashes of light as ice covered everything in sight. I was certain that we'd find outselves without electricity at any moment. Unable to sleep, I got out of bed and got dressed - you want to be fully dressed when an emergency strikes, you know - then went down to the living room to read and watch the climatic state of things ouside the front window. My heart began to sink as the street lamp in front of the house began to dim, white light becoming first yellow, then amber, then a dull and dim brown. The landscape faded into near darkness as though eclipsed. Then a turn of the tide! The light reasserted itself, growing stronger, brighter. When I was certain that all of my wide-eyed staring out the window had protected us from powerlessness, I fixed myself a cup of hot chocolate. That has been the extent of our peril this time around, and we are very grateful.

If I recall correctly, about 414,000 people in the Ameren service area lost electrical service due to ice-laden trees and strong winds. According to the local paper, just over 300,000 Ameren customers still lack power, and eight people have died. Several of the area's warming shelters had themselves lost power. M and I were set to house a couple of friends whose power was out - friends who had graciously provided a refrigerator for our perishables during the storm-related blackout in the summer - but they got their electricity back by the afternoon of that first awful day. We are now cat-sitting for another friend who had found a place for herself and her dog but not the kitty.

I may post more on this later; just wanted to let folks know that, so far, we're doing okay.

(Cross-posted.)

Buh-Bye, Bolton

Bush accepts Bolton’s resignation. President Pouty McPoopypants complains that meany Democrats won’t give Monsieur Moustache "the up or down vote he deserved," then elucidates the devastating consequences these traitors’ actions will have for America: "[T]heir tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time. This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country, and discourages men and women of talent from serving their nation."

Stupid me—this whole time I thought the military was suffering recruitment shortages because of the war in Iraq, but really it’s because Democrats don’t like John Bolton.

(Thanks to the busy Litbrit for the heads-up.)