... from Paul Campos at LGM (via).
Seriously, when was the last time the guys at Power Line showed any evidence that they've been outside of the bubble since, like, 1974? And I will tell you this, from reading the whole post that Paul caught: if Scott Johnson were any more uptight, you wouldn't be able to pull a needle out of his ass with a tractor.
DougJ has a fun post up on Balloon Juice, "Clinging to bitters," about a local business called Fee Brothers, which I hadn't heard of before now.
From back in the days when I spent virtually every waking hour in a nightclub (for pay, people! While clothed!), I have always had a fondness for bitters and soda. Placebo effect or not, it really does work to settle the stomach, and it tastes good, too. DougJ is already mixing some of his new purchases with booze and liking it, so I hope he picked up some club soda, too, but who knew there was so much more to know about this subject?
And who knew I lived in "flyover country?" If DougJ says it, on the Internet, it has to be true, but this is also news to me. I guess I feel good about it, since I can now be considered a Real American, and like DougJ, I now get to make jokes about the bitters and the clinging without being hated for being a coastal elitist.
The downside to the honor of having Doghouse Riley comment on your blog is that the comment is better than the post.
Or counter-surveillance, to be precise.
If the thought of being on gummint teevee everywhere you go IRks you, go see what Harry Hutton just added to his wish list.
Way, way cooler than a tinfoil hat, although I suppose it doesn't do much to stop inbound transmissions.
Here is a copy of an email that I just sent to a couple of people. It occurred to me right after I CTRL-entered that I probably ought to have CCed more heavily. So here you go, with a few minor edits and the fancy embedding part added.
Hi, H. and C.,
Here is something I think the two of you would really enjoy watching the next time you have a spare hour, based on my impression of how your minds work:
If the thought of sitting in front of your computer for an hour to watch streaming video seems dreadful, you could instead download either the video or audio file from the same page and stuff it onto your iPod for future reference.
This is a diavlog (from dialog + video + blog). One of the two participants is Jennifer Ouellette, who is a science writer and blogger, who among other things (1) runs a project to help Hollywood make their depictions of science and scientists better, and (2) has recently decided to tackle a stumbling block from her school days by teaching herself calculus. (As she will tell you, she is not hampered in these endeavors by her husband, Sean Carroll, of Cosmic Variance fame, a physicist who is also one of today's best -- and one of my favorite -- science communicators.)
The other participant is Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, who is a professor of physics at University of Texas-Dallas, whose most recent book (for the lay audience, at least) is The Physics of NASCAR.* I had not heard of her before today, but she (like Jennifer) immediately comes across as someone I know I'd like to hang out with at least once a week. She also blogs at the site that Jennifer started: Cocktail Party Physics.
They talk about all manner of things, including but not limited to these topic titles that I swiped from the show page:
I found the whole thing a delight to listen to.
Okay, enough of a sales pitch. Hope you like it!
P.S. If what I recommended at all appeals to you, do not miss the "Links Mentioned" section posted to the right of the video box on that same page. I have not had a chance to look at them yet, but from the diavlog, some sound intriguing, particularly "Diandra’s new TV spots for the NSF" and "The Science and Entertainment Exchange," which is the home on the Web for Jennifer's fix-Hollywood-science project.
* As I said in the forums over there:
Ann Coulter would totally hate the opening segment [update: the whole] of this diavlog, the thought of which only added to my enjoyment of it.
I don't much visit Politico's site anymore. Now that the campaign is over, I don't have any interest in the Very Latest, ten-minute-shelf-life gossip, and I find their increasingly rightward slant by turns ham-handed and pathetic. However, that bastard TBogg tortured tricked me into reading an excerpt from one of their posts, and it was so far over the top that I … that I … fired off an angry email! Maybe I will even Twitter about this! Bow down, Mike Allen! YOU OWE ME AWE.
I sent the "email" through the microscopic complaint box on his fancy profile page. This box doesn't even have a subject line, just to be sure you get the hint that there is no chance in hell he will ever read it. Here is a CC, so that you may laugh at my ineffectual bleatings, along with instead of him.
Mike:
In your post "Obama consulted widely on memos," you allowed a "former top official" in the Bush Administration to comment anonymously. The official was not talking about anything that could have hidden behind the usual "not authorized to speak on this issue" dodge. He or she was not sharing any sensitive information. From your description, he or she is not even part of the government anymore. He or she was only giving what might politely be called an opinion, and would more honestly would be called fear-mongering spin.
You should not have used this person's statement if he or she was too gutless to go on the record. You let yourself get used as a mouthpiece. This is either obvious bias in favor of the GOP or the worst form of stenography on your part.
I know it is your organization's policy to try to "win" every news cycle, but this one gets marked down in the loss column. Journalistic independence and credibility still count for something, you know. Or should know.
Brendan Keefe
Here's a more serious follow-up to the last post, which sampled cherry-picked Wingnuttia's hysterical reactions to Steve Schmidt's suggestion that the GOP drop opposition to same-sex marriage.
Robert Farley of LGM passes along a link to an online poll of bloggers conducted by NationalJournal.com, which asked, "Which statement comes closest to your political views on gay marriage?"
Results from the left are unsurprising: 88.9% chose "My party should support it," 11.1% chose "My party should avoid the issue," and 0% (i.e., nobody) chose "My party should oppose it."
However, the righties are surprisingly split: 29.4% chose "oppose," another 29.4% chose "support," and 41.2% chose "avoid the issue."
Which ... wow. That means close to 70% of the rightosphere thinks the GOP should join the 21st century or at least not stay stuck in the Karl Rove mentality of appealing to people's phobias to win elections.
Granted, this is not a scientific survey (although it appears to be done by invitation, and is not just a dumb Web poll), and granted, as Farley notes, "right wing bloggers are more libertarian than the party as a whole," but still. Maybe that Steve Schmidt is on to something.
__________
[Added] Farley's assertion is backed up by another poll on NJ, which this time asked the same question to "Political Insiders," who they claim are "members of Congress or political operatives."
Results for the Republicans are: support (8%), oppose (50%), avoid (37%).
The Democratic PIs are a little behind the curve of their bloggers, but not too horribly: support (59%), oppose (2%), avoid (32%).
(Good for you for doing the arithmetic, math nerd. The numbers don't add up to 100% because Political Insiders, unlike bloggers, apparently get to order off the menu.)
I'm reminded of an episode of This American Life from two or three years ago. The show was all about evangelical Christians, and part of it was an interview with a minister. He was staunchly opposed to the idea of same-sex marriage, but he did startle me when he said, "In another generation, we'll have lost on this one. Even the kids in my church just don't see what the big deal is."
We're getting there, maybe even faster than that. Group hug!
What I said earlier? About how Real Republicans hate John McCain and Steve Schmidt and now Steve Schmidt was likely going to be in the wingnuts' crosshairs for saying the GOP should drop opposition to same-sex marriage?
It's already begun.
Riehl World View headlines, "McCain Guru? Is That An Oxymoron, Or What?" Riehl continues:
Hey, you have to give him points for courage, ... or stupidity. If I were billing myself as a "top McCain adviser" I'd probably be afraid to stick my head up on anything for a few more years. Funny how McCain Blawghette is pushing this, too. But what else are they going to do when they aren't spreading rumors about Palin?
This is the very same GOP establishment we have to combat. [...] When the GOP starts siding with liberal judges over the people, stick a fork in it, it's done. Just as McCain was done, in part, thanks to this idiot's advice.
American Power says:
I don't know how the party's going to reconcile the "postmodern conservative" push by many top GOP officials and strategists …
... interjects with some butt-covering (heh, not intentional) about how he doesn't actually hate teh gheys, and goes on:
… I see this ideological shift only strengthening the forces of sectarian radicalism on the left …
He probably meant secular, don't you think? Which then seems a little redundant, but maybe the right has a branch of secular radicalism, too? Who knows. Anyway, he goes on to introduce a humungously long blockquote with:
Rod Dreher had a great interview with Maggie Gallagher …
... which, if you know anything about those two homophobes, you stop reading at the word "great" and remove whatever doubts you had about American Power, too.
One of Erick Erickson's lieutenants in the RedState Trike Force begins by excusing John McCain's daughter (the "Blawghette," as wit Dan Riehl calls her) for suggesting that the GOP consider joining the 21st century:
I will give Meghan McCain a pass. She’s young, naïve and out of her league discussing conservativism and political strategy.
Charitable! And not at all patronizing! He then waves some statistics around (was there a reference link? You have to ask?), reminds his readers of the "crushing" Mormom-bought victory of Prop H8 in California, and concludes:
McCain lost. Gay marriage lost. Loser squared does not equal winner.
... which is too obvious even for me to touch.
Another one of the Trike Force begins:
Heckuva job Steve.
Hey! He stole that bit of mockery from us libtards! SUE HIM. (Oh, wait, I forgot. Real Republicans hate George Bush now, too.) He then rambles on forever, giving the kind of campaign strategy Steve Schmidt would follow, if only he didn't "suck" and need to "STFU" and wasn't "a double agent planted by Howard Dean," and somewhere in there, he suggests:
Maybe we could even run more transgendered candidates.
I'm guessing that's supposed to be sarcasm, but what is this "more?"
Remember Scott Beauchamp, the US Army private who contributed some diary entries about his life in Iraq to The New Republic two years ago, who was subsequently set upon with all the fury the right-wing smear machine could muster? Whereupon TNR threw him under the bus?
You should really read what John Cole and Atrios (via) have to say about recent developments. Won't take you but a minute or two, and Beauchamp deserves that time from everyone.
[Added] Also: Attaturk.
Pandering to your nutty base is one thing. Pandering to the nutty fringe of your nutty base is just mighty powerful stupid.
-- Blue Texan
Clearly, BT is one of the deadender 82% of the Lone Star State.
(Update below)
Following up on the good news in the last post, there's this: GOP operative Steve Schmidt, notorious for being a Bushie and the guy brought in to run John McCain's campaign, will be giving a speech to the Log Cabin Republicans today (or may have already) in which he will be urging the GOP overall to give up opposition to same-sex marriage.
(!)
Of course, Steve Schmidt is right out of the Karl Rove mold, so for him, it's just as likely he only cares about this in the context of it being a winning or losing issue. And of course, anyone who still calls him- or herself a Republican these days hates John McCain, and more importantly, hates John McCain for losing, which means they hate Steve Schmidt and will hate him even more, starting tomorrow. But still, it's another step in the right direction.
And it's also a hanging curve for your Wonkette editors Jim Newell and Sara K. Smith.
So ... rejoice!
Update: A reaction to this post, and my response, available here.
Two more states making good moves on civil rights:
Might be a fight in NY, and we'd like the actual M-word in WA, but at least we're moving in the right direction.
(h/t: Steve Benen)
What list would have, among others, the following people on it?
Ayn Rand, Mick Jagger, Alan Turing, David Gilmour, Noam Chomsky, Jodie Foster, and Bruce Lee.
(h/t: Number 49)
This may be of interest to some of you:
Bush Torture Memos Released By Obama: See The Complete Documents
[...]
The Huffington Post has obtained the memos and is putting them on the website for the public to view. Please help us read through the material and report back what you find.
Email address for reporting your results at the link, along with statements (excerpts?) from Obama and Patrick Leahy.
I've skimmed them -- so far, it does not look like more than an occasional name or codeword has been redacted. Hurray for Obama.
The documents are displayed through a fancy viewer of some kind. Use the full screen button on the viewer, unless your eyes are way better than mine. If I come across a more readable version, I'll update this post. [UPDATE BELOW]
(Cross-posted on the BH.tv forums)
[UPDATE] The ACLU has PDFs of the memos, links to which are all gathered up on one handy page, along with some remarks of their own for context, and some other materials. Came across this thanks to Glennzilla, whose post you might want to look at, and whose blog is certain to be a good place to watch for the next few days, even more so than it usually is. Also, hat tip to Jim Newell of Wonkette for pointing me to Glenn -- nice laugh there despite the gruesomeness of this situation.
(In contrast to the last, I mean.)
A few hours ago, Twin and I were talking about the hysteria on display by Malkin and her ilk over the recently released DHS Report ("Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment" [PDF]). I finished up by saying:
I'm waiting for the next reasonable conservative to tell them to take a deep breath, or call them on their hypocrisy, whereupon they'll tear him to shreds. Or, I suppose, it could all just go away because of the big teabagging news of tomorrow.
Looks like I should have stuck with my first guess. John Cole:
First They Came For…
Charles Johnson. Then they went after AJ Strata.
CJ (proprietor of Little Green Footballs) has long since been booted from the wingnut ranks for insufficient purity. (Even I could see that, remember?) I've noticed a couple of flickers of sanity from AJ (proprietor of Strata-Sphere) in the past, but I don't pay enough attention to him, I guess. CJ's post is sensible, as is AJ's first (the "AJ" link). His second (the "Strata" link) is cackle-icious, to a libtard like me. But after a few moments of glee, it's also something that demands respect. All three posts bear reading, and these two guys deserve props for saying to the hard core of their side: I've had enough of you people.
I sent a follow-up email to Twin with the above links, and finished:
Divide and conquer. That's how we're winning. Keep pushing the crazies to show their craziness, and anyone worthwhile will sooner or later be separated out, either by them, or by him- or herself.
P.S. BTW, CJ's post, as of this moment, has over 1400 comments. I skimmed [them] for a little while -- seems like a lot of people are where CJ and AJ are at: fed up with the crazies. They're piling on Malkin, and they're piling on some guy with the handle Bumr50, for his comment (#765) about wanting to shoot illegal immigrants.
Know hope.
[Added] If you'd rather not yet be nothing but charitable, even as you know that CJ and AJ deserve it and that you'll be welcoming them back into the reality-based community fairly soon, there's always Glennzilla for some righteous finger-wagging. We all said the same things to the right-wing back when they were cheering on Bush & Co.'s crumpling up of the Constitution, and Glenn says I told you so, I told you so, I told you so well enough for all of us.
You might have heard about the recent DHS report that's causing Wingnuttia to order up another sixty tons of batshit, stat. But he who dines out on wingnut welfare checks also knows that building the world's bestest collection of Star Wars collectibles means keeping the MSM coin coming for wearing his "thoughtful conservative" costume, too. So what is Lucianne's boy to do?
If you said "punt" or "flee," you know him all too well. Following is his entire post on the matter. This is Doughy to the P to the L-O-A-D:
The DHS Report [Jonah Goldberg]
This Powerline analysis looks like the best criticism so far.
I'm off to deal with edits to my magazine piece, and then I'm taking a nap or launching cocktail hour, whichever comes first.
... so he can let the new guy take a turn being the Senate's most sanctimonious prick.
AdNag has a piece in the NYT on the consequences of the endless delaying tactics being used by Coleman to prevent Al Franken from taking the Senate seat that Franken long ago won. In the article, Franken talks about trying to do the parts of his job that he can do right now, while waiting for Republican Governor Pawlenty to grow a spine and do what's right. By contrast, Coleman just trowels it on:
He said that every morning, he puts tefillin — black leather boxes containing scrolls — on his arm as part of a morning Jewish prayer ritual. “I bind myself every morning,” he said. “I bind myself to God every morning because it’s in his hands.”
He paused. “David Letterman will make fun of me for this,” he said.
Spare us the weepy helpless lamb act and the cringing before the imagined persecution from the evil secular comedian. You've been more than willing to lie and cheat to try to steal this election for going on half a year now.
And look, Holy Norm, you blew it. You were a Bush toady, you refused to take your opponent seriously, you lost the recount, and you've lost every time you've gone to court to argue about it. Matter of fact, the latest decision only increased the margin by which you lost. So show us that there's some grain of sincerity to your piety act: take these as signs from your God and step aside.
Reminder for Windows users: today is Patch Tuesday. If you don't have Windows Updates set to run automatically, you know what to do.
This month had a quite a few patches, including some for Office. Depending on which versions you have, there could be as many as eight. Elinor Mills at CNET's Security blog has details if you want them.
Mills also says some of the that these patches address are already being exploited, so don't delay. Be a hell of a thing if your computer got pwned and you couldn't surf the Web tomorrow to download Form 4868 enjoy all of the hilarity that the tea-bagging parties are sure to offer.
(h/t for the vid: Tom65, in the Comments at Rumproast)
... can be used to prove almost every dark thought you've ever had about our broken political system:
Here is another one of those things where those who would gain the most by watching are the least likely to do so.
Nonetheless, you (whose open-mindedness is proved by your presence here!) might pick up some handy rhetorical aids and/or derive some comfort if you're lately feeling besieged by the forces of the willfully ignorant.
For more from this producer/director, see the YouTube channel page for QualiaSoup.
(h/t: Andrew Sullivan)
Freelance saboteur James Wolcott has just served notice.
(If you're a little behind on what the wingnuts are paranoid about this week, first visit Thers for background.)
... you haven't yet seen this clip of Jon Stewart from last night's Daily Show (or you have, but you know how worth watching it twice will be):
NOM, NOM, NOM! Seen the new hate teh gheys ad put out by the so-called "National Organization For Marriage?" Steve M. finds the talking points (read: tips on how to lie) on NOM's website, and later links to an article from the Human Rights Campaign that debunks the lies in the ad. For even more hilarity, HRC has links to videos posted on YouTube that show actors auditioning for the ad.
Teabaggers! Media Matters documents the promotional efforts on behalf of those conservatard protest gatherings about … who knows? who cares? … being made by the "news" network that brings you "Fair and Balanced" and "We Report. You Decide."
Update: Oliver digs up another nugget: The president of NOM is that fake journalist from the Bush Administration's payroll. No, not James "Jeff Gannon" Guckert. No, not Armstrong Williams. The other one: Maggie Gallagher.
If you'd like a change of pace in your news diet, you could do a lot worse than to watch the Bloggingheads.tv diavlog between Daniel Levy and Nuh Yilmaz.
Levy you probably already know. Yilmaz was a Washington-based correspondent for a Turkish newspaper and TV station, and is now at a think tank called SETA, based in Ankara.
The news hook, of course, is Barack Obama's recent visit to Turkey. Yilmaz's reports about reactions in Turkey make it clear that one of the principle reasons we've had for being Obama supporters continues to bear fruit. Other topics of interest discussed include the relationship between Turkey and Israel, how Turkey might help the US and Israel deal with Hamas, and the Turkish perspective on the situation in Iraq, with special attention, obviously, paid to the Kurds.
You can watch the diavlog as a stream, or download the video or audio files of the conversation, all on the same page.
If, during the last election, you followed the hilarity swirling around those few hundred crazy bitters who called themselves PUMAs, you probably already know about the fine people at Rumproast. After the results of 4 November made even the MSM acknowledge their insignificance, Kevin K. pledged to adopt a stance of Masterful Indifference towards them, but the latest automotive news was apparently too much to resist. For which I for one am thankful.
This, currently on the home page at nytimes.com, strikes me as fairly offensive, and I'm not even Iraqi:
Yeah, who knew Those People were capable of acting like human beings?
ACTIVIST LEGISLATORS will probably next force the governor to marry his own pets.
(h/t: Dana Goldstein, via Scott Lemieux)
... who aren't already aware that Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is a complete loon and grotesquely irresponsible, head on over to Wonkette and listen to five minutes of audio from her latest interview.
Two words: re-education camps.
Yep. She's actually claiming that's what President Obama is plotting. While calling (again) for people to be "armed" and "dangerous."
Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler of the RedState Trike Force Eric Erickson ups the ante in the never-ending contest among the wingnuts to see who can be the most hysterical over nothing at all:
At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?
At some point soon, it will happen. It’ll be over an innocuous issue. But the rage is building. [...]
[...]
Were I in Washington State, I’d be cleaning my gun right about now waiting to protect my property from the coming riots or the government apparatchiks coming to enforce nonsensical legislation.
Of course Erick does not live in Washington. He lives about as far away from that state as is possible while staying within the continental United States. Erick lives in Macon, Georgia. He will of course remain puddled on his couch, disavowing any responsibility for any gun-related tragedies that happen in Washington, even as he proudly points to himself as being named by the London Telegraph "the sixty-ninth most influential conservative in the United States."
Erick also claims to be a deacon at his church. Remember that smart guy last year, who got so much heat for mentioning the bitter people who cling to their God and guns? Yeah.
Oh, by the way? The reason the fat kid thinks encouraging others to beat politicians and shoot people is a good idea?
A proposed new law that will require dishwasher detergent sold in the state of Washington to be phosphate-free.
Seriously.
(h/t: Twin, via email)
