Line of the Day: 2008-08-11

(Actually, from last week.)

I still detect this strange reticence among marquee Democrats to treat John McCain as just another Republican, still conning themselves that he's somehow a cut above his rabble colleagues, capable of being reasoned with, a figure of respect. Based on the coarse, cheapshot, meretricious campaign McCain has run thus far, he's forfeited any respect beyond the minimum norms of discourse. The good thing is that he's shown his true shitty colors early, looking more like Karl Rove's concept of Don Rickles than the Teddy Roosevelt action figure that's besotted Beltway pundits for far too long.
-- James Wolcott

He's got another great line in the same post about McCain VP short-lister Tim Pawlenty, which must be read in context. Go.

Backing Up Your Blog

I just noticed a post on the Blogger in Draft blog, dated 26 June 2008. It looks like the Blogger team is working on tools to export and import an entire blog in one shot, comments included. This is something I've wanted to have for a while now, and I know other people do, too.

Be aware that this is a work in progress, so there are some known bugs; e.g., there is a limit to the size of the blog that you can import. But, if you're like me and you think that you can never have too many ways to back things up, you may want to look into this -- you could be saving your whole blog right now.

I haven't played around with this yet, or looked around further. There may be information newer than that post. (Some of the comments on that post are useful.) I expect to give this a test drive shortly, and will report more then. If you get to it before me, I'd appreciate hearing how it went. Leave a comment or send me an email. Thanks.

No, Please. We Need To Hear More About Edwards.

John Cole:

So let me get this straight. A candidate has received a bunch of funds from a guy named Abdullah funneled through Jordan and the media is ignoring it? That just doesn’t make any damned sense. How is Obama getting away with this?

Oh. Never mind.

The Arizona Angle

Amy Silverman has a long piece posted on the Phoenix New Times's site, titled "Postmodern McCain: the presidential candidate some Arizonans know — and loathe."

Silverman has been working for the New Times for 15 years, so she's got some serious stories and delightful dish to share. Well worth your time.

(h/t: HumboldtBlue (6th comment))

Noted Columnist Channels His Inner Blogger

Paul Krugman starts off today's op-ed thus:

So the G.O.P. has found its issue for the 2008 election. For the next three months the party plans to keep chanting: “Drill here! Drill now! Drill here! Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad!” O.K., I added that last part.

And the debate on energy policy has helped me find the words for something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.

Glad to see his irritation coming to the surface. Of course, I don't know how we get the people who actually need to hear his message to read the NY Times in the first place, but maybe he'll get some of the talking heads to pick up on the idea.

Even if you already know what he's going to say, it worth reading the whole thing, if only to find out what he thinks the Republican's new slogan has become.

More Embarrassed Than Proud, I Have To Say ...

The above is a partial screen capture from the output of a Javascript app that uses your browser history to guess your gender.

Was it all the gay porn, do you think?

Try it for yourself. (If you get a "script busy" pop-up, just click "Continue." The script will finish a few seconds after that.)

(h/t: Andrew Sullivan)

Yup. That Screen Grab Is From Fox News. Who Would Have Guessed?

Notice anything about the caption?

Correct. That guy with his back to the camera is Ted Stevens, the Senate's longest serving Republican.

Al Franken proved right, once again.

(h/t: Earl G., entry 6)

What's New? Old Guy Showing Old Footage.

But check out the new, agile Democratic response team!

Kevin K. at Rumproast has the whole story.

If there was ever a reason to stop using friend as a verb ...

I thought nothing could top my earlier find for Definitive Sign of the Coming Apocalypse, but I have to say …

… Sornie has me beat.

Yes, you guessed it. David Hasselhoff now has his own social networking site. Oh, go on. We're already doomed. You might as well visit the dog-abusing drunk.

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(pic. sources: dog abusing | drunk)

Back to School Suggestion of the Day: 2008-08-07

This fits the Bill.

The Third Man

(click pic to enlarge)

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This picture is undoubtedly one of the premier icons of the 20th century, at least here in the United States. I don't remember the event from when it happened -- at the time, the only sports thing I cared about was hoping the Mets could beat the Astros in the race for ninth place. However, I also can't remember not knowing that the men wearing the gloves are named Tommie Smith and John Carlos. As for the third man, I knew he was the silver medalist, but nothing apart from that.

Having skin of a tone that Procul Harum once wrote a whole song about, I have often stared at the third man in this picture. Usually, I have cringed on his behalf, wondering what I would have done in his place. I would have wanted to raise my fist in solidarity, but on the other hand, that would have felt like empty me-tooism. If you've ever heard Morgan Freeman say, "God save us from well-meaning white liberals," you know what I'm talking about. So, I have always read a little discomfort in his posture, a tension between I'm proud to be here at this historic moment and I can't believe how white I'm feeling right now … when is this going to be over?

Yeah, projection.

Hold on tight. It turns out I was wrong.

Thanks to Alastair, reporting in the Comments on another post, I have learned that the real story is both happier in the moment, and sadder over time.

That third man's name is Peter Norman. He came from Australia. His silver medal-winning time in this race still stands as the Australian record for the 200 meter dash. He strongly supported what Smith and Carlos were doing. He came up with the moment-saving suggestion, when it turned out that Carlos had forgotten his gloves, for Carlos to wear one of Smith's, which is why the two men are raising opposite hands. He wore the badge of the Olympic Project for Human Rights on his uniform, while standing there on the podium. He would suffer consequences for this and other actions at the Olympics (linguistic irony coming), being blacklisted in his own country for most of the rest of his life.

Alastair also informed me of a movie called Salute that's come out recently. It's a documentary, made by Peter Norman's nephew, Matt. Sadly, the movie was not finished in time for Peter to see it. He died of a heart attack in 2006. Tommie Smith and John Carlos delivered eulogies and served as pallbearers at his funeral.

Thanks, Alastair. And good on you, Mr. Norman. Sorry it took me so long to find out about this.

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Salute trailer | a good review | a good back story | Salute movie web site

Wikipedia entry for Peter Norman -- good links

Pic. sources: men | badge

Fifty-Year-Old Eye Candy

And still plenty fresh:

(alt. video link)

(h/t: Yeah. Hey, YOU'RE still here, right?)

Okay, One More From The Doghouse

See what fury is unleashed when Mr. Riley is exposed to David Brooks. It's worth reading just to marvel that he can keep so much anger so tightly focused, even as it spreads to consume the likes of David Frum, the AEI, St. Ronnie, and Ross Douthat.

More Doghouse Awesomeness

Refusing to let the Pantload be the Pantload.

Yeah, I knew I'd heard that phrase somewhere before, too. TBogg.

Blow Up Your TV

Catching up on my reading, I came across a real gem, posted a couple of weeks ago: Doghouse Riley's masterful shredding of Meredith Viera's FBI puff piece. Highly recommended.

Pump It Up!

Here's your two-minute shot of awesome:

(alt. video link)

Did you catch the key line? It tells you all you need to know about the McCain campaign, the GOP, and the entire Right Wing Noise Machine:

It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant.

Isn't is great having a presidential candidate who's not afraid to call a wingnut a wingnut?

By the way, if you're surrounded by people who think waving a tire-pressure gauge is what passes for humor, point them to the U.S. Department of Energy's tips for improving mileage page and Bill Scher's collection of links, and then ask them, "Would you rather start saving 12 cents a gallon right now? Or 6 cents a gallon, twenty years from now?"

And then show them where to stick that tire gauge.

No, no, no. On the valve stem, I mean.

(h/t: John Cole)

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Update: Internet time now instantaneous. Check the new site: Take Pride In Your Ignorance!

(h/t: Instaputz)

Update 2: And check out the Obama ad that Blue Texan is showing at Firedoglake (or on YouTube, if you like).

Why Our Nation Ails

Hear about George H. W. Bush's phone call, the one where he wasn't aware that he was on the air?

"Our man Ailes," indeed.

If this doesn't convince the last six holdouts that Fox News is nothing but a wholly-owned subsidiary of BushCo., I don't know what will.

And no, not that Roger Ailes. Him, you can trust.

(h/t: Harry Shearer, starting at about 41:00)

An Open Dear John Letter

Dear Sen. Kerry:

Looks like you were right all along:

Abstract

How do terrorist groups end? The evidence since 1968 indicates that terrorist groups rarely cease to exist as a result of winning or losing a military campaign. Rather, most groups end because of operations carried out by local police or intelligence agencies or because they join the political process. This suggests that the United States should pursue a counterterrorism strategy against al Qa'ida that emphasizes policing and intelligence gathering rather than a "war on terrorism" approach that relies heavily on military force.

Sorry we let the GOP get away with making fun of you for saying this in 2004. Here's hoping we're smarter this time around.

(Signed) The American Electorate

P.S. Kind of interesting how the report's Figure 1 looks like a peace sign, isn't it? If one is willing to look at things from a slightly different perspective, I mean.

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(h/t: Harry Shearer, starting at about 18:30)

Serendipity

John D. MacDonald
(Internet connection not shown)

While pitching the Travis McGee series to a friend via email, which was prompted by my paraphrasing Meyer's belief that the written word was the best way to convey complex ideas (said email and this blog not necessarily included), I had to look up a factoid (guess where I went) and while browsing the page came across something I'd never heard of before:

Unknown to most followers of McGee, the Library of Congress's "Center for the Book" commissioned a short work by MacDonald. He responded with an essay entitled "Reading for Survival", which is a conversation between McGee and Meyer on the importance of reading. The 26-page essay was released in a limited edition of 5,000 copies and was available for a small contribution to the Center for the Book.

To those of you searching for last minute gift ideas: hint, hint.

Anyway, I had a fantasy that I could find this online somewhere (my inner wingnut wants to say SINCE MY TAX DOLLARS PAID FOR IT). I haven't come across the full text yet, but I did find some excerpts posted on the Rambles and Byways web site. Which, of course, I shamelessly CTRL-Ced and now shamelessly CTRL-V SINCE MY TAX DOLLARS PAID FOR IT:

"The nonreader in our culture wants to believe. He is the one born every minute. The world is so vastly confusing and baffling to him that he feels there has to be some simple answer to everything that troubles him. And so, out of pure emptiness, he will eagerly embrace spiritualism, yoga, a banana diet, or some callous frippery like Dianetics..."

"Here in America, as elsewhere, there will always be tremulous little people of dim intellect and hyperactive imagination, burning for explanations to all life's vicissitudes. They grow impatient with learned analyses of the present. They are defeated by histories that illuminate the past. No species of scholarship or analysis could ever satisfy them; for they need that Wondrous Explanation that will quiet all their fears, thrill them with villains to revile, and never tax their feeble powers of intellection."

"The same idea was said in a different way by Eric Hoffer, the old dock-walloper, in his book years ago titled "The True Believer". Hoffer's theory was that the best fanatics are people who have nothing in their heads but wind, smoke, and emptiness. Then if any idea manages to slip in there, it does not matter how insipid or grotesque that idea might be, it will expand to fill all the available emptiness, and it takes over the individual and all his actions. He cannot hear any voice but his own. He is beyond reason, beyond argumentation. He is right and everyone who does not believe exactly the same as he is wrong."

"My point is that the man who reads is using the fabulous memory storage and relationship analysis of the brain his ancestors developed eons ago. He is facilitating his survival in the contemporary world. He will recognize the pockets of fanaticism around him and know what is causing these universal foci of dementia. Of course, he will be called an egghead or a bleeding heart or a secular humanist, but he can lean back and, in a certain way, enjoy the marvelously crackpot rantings of a Jesse Helms, a Botha, a Meese, a Kohmeni, a Falwell, a Qaddafi, a Gorbachev, an Ortega, a Noriega----people from both ends of every spectrum, whooping and leaping and frothing, absolutely livid at the idea their particular warped vision of reality is not shared by everyone. Their basic lack of education, of reading, of being able to comprehend the great truths of reality has left empty places in their heads, into which great mischief has crept."

Awesome.

Thanks, Internet!

I forget, did I say this already? Hint, hint.

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(pic. source)

Village Soon To Be Short One Idiot

I just heard about this. If you already have, sorry for boring you.

Thanks to a comment by MoeLarryAndJesus, I was led on a little search, and it looks like they're striking the props from this stage: the "ranch" in Crawford has fulfilled its purpose and may now be sold. Laura is looking for a house in the Dallas area.

If you'd like to follow the rest of my link-hopping, it was David Dust to Kos to HuffPo to Miya Shay, blogging for the Houston ABC affiliate. Miya has a link posted on her blog that points to some stealth video of Bush speaking at a fundraiser, where he spilled the beans.

By the way, if you're ever in the mood for funny comments scattered around the Web, Google MoeLarryAndJesus sometime. Here's a gem, via Instaputz:

If the McCain campaign burned a cross on Obama's lawn the usual suspects would say there was nothing racist about it and that it was just making a positive statement about Christianity and alternative energy sources.

A Call To Action

Glad to see some in the MSM are finally starting to realize the necessity for quotes when saying "Honest" John McCain. Here's a nice piece of work from BraveNew PAC gathering up some of their responses to a recent McCain TV ad:

(alt. video link)

Sign the petition here.

(h/t: TC, via email)

Who Says There Are No Good Country Songs?

Besides me, I mean?

Okay, I'm not really quite that bad. But I do think we need more songs like CPBS: Trace Elements.

(h/t: AemJeff, aka Eponym)

The "18,000,000" PUMAs Meet Up!

Rumproast has observations and links from the big event of a couple of weeks ago. Be sure to follow all links. You'll be glad you did.

Hear me them snore roar!

(Something) of the Week

Not really just the blog post title, because the picture is part of it. Not really a caption, because it's funnier to read the words before seeing the picture.

Anyway, go feast on Betty Cracker's wit.

Now That's Juxtaposition

Screenshot of part of a great post on HillaryIs44:

(click pic to enlarge)
(or go see the original)

And Speaking of Hitting Back ...

If you're pressed for time, jump ahead to about the 1 minute, 45 second mark:

(alt. video link)

(h/t: hillaryis44 (!))

He's Back!

Billmon has two new posts up on DailyKos!

Don't know from Billmon? Here's a quick bio.

Move Over, "Wingnutosphere"

John Cole has a great new term: the 101st Chairborne.

Outstanding!

Mything Links

From the left, Bob Herbert:

Spare me any more drivel about the high-mindedness of John McCain. You knew something was up back in March when, in his first ad of the general campaign, Mr. McCain had himself touted as "the American president Americans have been waiting for."

From the right, Daniel Larison (via John Cole):

... McCain's alleged transformation from fabled truth-telling man of honor to the candidate he is today, all of which is premised on the bizarre assumption that McCain was once a civil, respectful politician in the past and is now throwing that away in pursuit of power.

They're starting to come at John McCain from all sides. It's about freakin' time.

All three links are well worth following.

[added] John Cole also comments on Bob Herbert's piece.

LowRoadExpress.com

One of my favorite things about Barack Obama is that unlike so many other Democratic candidates, he's not afraid to push back against the Rightwing Noise Machine.

Here's the latest effort: LowRoadExpress.com, a website devoted to documenting the smears and lies coming from John McCain and his empty campaign.

Awesome!