Twitter-watcher watertiger makes a nice catch.
Friday, February 12, 2010
I have a dream ...
... that someday soon, making jokes like this will be considered by everyone to be as indicative of ignorance as racist "humor."
I don't much believe in dreams anymore, though.
[Added] Shoutout to Tintin over at S,N! for fighting the good fight, though.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
A report from the Teabaggers' Ball
Says Jonathan Kay (via):
I consider myself a conservative and arrived at this conference as a paid-up, rank-and-file attendee, not one of the bemused New York Times types with a media pass.
However ...
After I spent the weekend at the Tea Party National Convention in Nashville, Tenn., it has become clear to me that the movement is dominated by people whose vision of the government is conspiratorial and dangerously detached from reality. It's more John Birch than John Adams.
"Black Helicopters Over Nashville" is a worthwhile read, if you haven't already figured these people out.
(x-posted)
The Sick Sense
Shorter David Broder:
I see starbursts.
__________
How a guy who for the last ninety-eight years has written nothing but columns fetishizing bipartisanship can listen to the nonstop stream of hate spewing from those lips, and think there's something good about it, is nothing short of nauseating.
(h/t: Curse you, Twin! | pic. source)
(?)
__________
[Added] From attaturk (whence the pic), we also have a link to a WaPo article reporting its latest poll findings. Among them:
Although Palin is a tea party favorite, her potential as a presidential hopeful takes a severe hit in the survey. Fifty-five percent of Americans have unfavorable views of her, while the percentage holding favorable views has dipped to 37, a new low in Post-ABC polling.
There is a growing sense that the former Alaska governor is not qualified to serve as president, with more than seven in 10 Americans now saying she is unqualified, up from 60 percent in a November survey. Even among Republicans, a majority now say Palin lacks the qualifications necessary for the White House.
Palin has lost ground among conservative Republicans, who would be crucial to her hopes if she seeks the party's presidential nomination in 2012. Forty-five percent of conservatives now consider her as qualified for the presidency, down sharply from 66 percent who said so last fall.
Among all Republicans polled, 37 percent now hold a "strongly favorable" opinion of Palin, about half the level recorded when she burst onto the national stage in 2008 as Sen. John McCain's running mate.
Bubble? sez Dean Broder. What bubble?
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Google Buzz (Updated 3x)
It looks like Google has decided that this social networking thing is for reals, and hence, has launched something called Google Buzz. (Their previous effort apparently only being popular in Brazil, he added snarkily. (Not that there's anything wrong with Brazil, he hastened to add.))
I've just started playing around with it. Here are a few first gripes.
- Google tries a little too hard to entice you into sharing perhaps more personal information than you might otherwise be inclined to, by badgering you to add more information to your Google Profile in order to make it "eligible" to be added to Google's search listings. Personally, I think I'm easy enough to find on Google (although curse that TV reporter!) already, so I don't much care that my lack of desire to tell you where I was born, where I live, what my superpowers are, etc., make me "ineligible." I do think, however, that many people might be nudged into oversharing. (Also noted on Buzz.)
- Another minor privacy concern: Google Buzz suggests people for me to follow, based on, among other things, my Gmail contacts. People who send me email from a Gmail account might not like the world to know, especially via their real names, that I'm connected with them. FWIW, I decided not to take Google's suggestions except for those who have started following me and/or who have created their own Google Profiles, but I suspect not everyone will be this circumspect. (Also noted on Buzz.)
[Update: I just tried looking at my Profile page after logging out of all things Google, and this time, it does not display my followers or followees. Therefore, I am not sure how much merit there is to my concern. Could someone who has a Google account (Gmail, Blogger, etc.) please visit my Profile page and let me know what you see? Thanks.] - Conversation fragmentation. This is nothing to do with privacy, but more of blogger's peeve. It's nice that I can pipe my posts to Google Buzz, as it is nice to be able to pipe them to Facebook, but one problem is that people who are moved to comment on something I post are likely to comment in place. This means that while I get feedback, other readers aren't likely to see everything everyone else might have said. Not that I'm one of the world's great conversation starters, but occasionally, I do slip up and say something that others find worthy of reaction, and sometimes, this leads to good discussions between the commenters themselves, whether or not I am part of what develops. It would be the killer app if someone could figure out how to make comments on a blog post automatically cross-post to all places where the post itself appears.
That's about it for now, as far as negativity goes. Minor gripes aside, it looks like a fun thing, and I like the way it integrates with Gmail. Check it out, if you like.
Finally, here's a link to my Google Profile, and it's also over there in the sidebar, if you're interested. If you'd like to follow me on Google Buzz, I'd be flattered. As I said, I won't follow you unless you ask me to, explicitly or implicitly as described above.
[Added] Here are three short articles on Buzz from the NYT.
[Update 2] Google has posted some relevant information, and slightly changed how they handle some aspects of Buzz. (Thanks, A.)
[Update 3] Here is a strong complaint passed along by Charli Carpenter on LGM, here is another NYT piece (h/t: A), on the backlash more generally, and here is the latest post on Google's Gmail blog -- a response of sorts. Importantly for some, it describes a new option to turn off Buzz completely.
Chart of the Day
From the WaPo's "Behind the Numbers" blog, via Andrew Sullivan:
Both posts are worth a look, but in case you don't have the inclination to click over, here's another nugget from the WaPo one:
Nearly six in 10 in the new poll say the Republicans aren't doing enough to forge compromise with President Obama on important issues …
In conclusion, even after a year's worth of high-octane FUD from the right-wing noise machine, two out of three Americans still want this to be done: Pass The Damn Bill.
(h/t: Twin, via PM)
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
This Ought To Be Good Enough To Win Some Scholer ...
... a full schoolarship.
To any university not accepting morans or muslins, I mean.
We can also be confident that this home-abused child's parents support making English America's Offical Language, because they respect are-country, and don't want to let the terriosts win.
Your smart enough to know what's going on, right? Speak up!
Remember descent the highest form of patriotic.
__________
Click 'em to big 'em. Pic sources at the text links.
Another One Of My Great Ideas, Stolen
Okay, my own laziness is the sole cause. Or, to channel my inner member of Congress, my strategic decision to take a measured approach has allowed the spirit of American initiative to produce results! All hail the free market!
Where was I? Ah, yes. There's a fun article in the NYT describing analysis that was done on their Most Emailed articles list, based on "checking it every 15 minutes for more than six months." (Full disclosure: I was thinking more like doing it once a day.)
There are some interesting and uplifting observations, not least of which was the large percentage of science articles that were, at least fleetingly, thought worth sharing. (By the coastalibrulintelleckshual elite, I mean.)
Nice bit of snark from Tierney, who says well what I'm sure many of us have thought at one time or another:
The results are surprising — well, to me, anyway. I would have hypothesized that there are two basic strategies for making the most-e-mailed list. One, which I’ve happily employed, is to write anything about sex. The other, which I’m still working on, is to write an article headlined: “How Your Pet’s Diet Threatens Your Marriage, and Why It’s Bush’s Fault.”
Anyway, here it is.
(x-posted)
Rightward, Ho!
Mavericky!
Mr. McCain now sharply criticizes the bailout bill he voted for, pivoted from his earlier position that the Guantánamo Bay detention facility should be closed, offered only a muted response to the Supreme Court’s decision undoing campaign finance laws and backed down from statements that gays in the military would be O.K. by him if the military brass were on board.
No surprise here. As we have been noting, the one thing you can count on John McCain doing is fleeing to his right at the drop of a challenge, but if you'd like some more details on his most recent flip-floppery, the NYT has finally gotten around to writing them up.
Monday, February 08, 2010
Best Tweet I've Seen In ... Oh, Hours
(At least, not counting ones tagged #palinhand or #telepalmer.)
Now, the challenge of a lifetime: Carrie Prejean must plan and execute a wedding with help of only straight people.
Yeah, she is. Now DFHs will have reason to learn the name of someone else in the NFL.
Why Are We Not Surprised?
From some Facebook group page full of fail:
Some time later, it appears, a note was added to the sidebar:
__________
I came across this when following PZ's link to "We can find 1,000,000 people who DO believe in Evolution before June," which is silly, but why not click it? (And see PZ's advice if you're troubled by the word believe in this context.)
And while you're at it, click "I bet we can find 1,000,000 People who Support Same Sex Marriage." Again, because why not?
By the way, the numbers at this moment: Believe has 197,810 fans and Don't Believe has 44,562. Also, Support Same Sex Marriage has 723,416.
Numbers don't lie, people: this proves that the Internet is liberally biased and thoroughly gay.
All My Children
Today's news about "Democratic Illinois lieutenant governor nominee Scott Lee Cohen, of steroids, prostitutes, knife-cutting, knife-cutting prostitutes while on steroids, etc etc, fame …"
… brought to mind a past moment from the never-ending soap opera that is American politics:
Harold, Please
Like Tom Robbins, I thought MoDo's recent column fluffing Harold Ford was pretty comical. Not to mention eventually nauseating, which is what I blame for reading right past the dumbest part.
But the best line was a headscratcher about Eleanor Roosevelt and Bobby Kennedy...
Ford summoned up the spirit of the great Eleanor Roosevelt and insisted she had opposed Robert F. Kennedy when he successfully carpetbagged his way into a New York senate seat back in 1964: "I'm not comparing myself to Bobby Kennedy by any stretch, but he was opposed by the liberal establishment, too," Ford said. "Eleanor Roosevelt was the biggest opponent to him running."
This one caused great head-scratching among readers, and the Times online edition has this addition:
Editor's Note: Harold Ford was quoted in this column as saying that Eleanor Roosevelt opposed Bobby Kennedy's New York Senate run. But as many of our readers pointed out, Ford was mistaken; Mrs. Roosevelt died two years before Bobby Kennedy's run for the New York Senate.
(title: vide)
Small Sign of Hope
At the moment, two of the NYT's top ten emailed stories from the Technology section have to do with using the Web to learn a new language.
One presumes, of course, that it is all smart foreigns looking to talk weller English.
¡Marque dos para español! ← (In hopes that Tom Tancredo is reading this.)
Best-Decorated Post of the Day
Go see what some clever person chose for a picture to dress up a story on trying to be all science-y about online dating.
Line of the Day: 2010-02-08
Having “ruthlessly cut the price of his papers to below cost in order to win audiences or drive out competition,” Mr. Rusbridger said in a recent speech, “this same Rupert Murdoch is being very vocal in asserting that the reader must pay a proper sum for content — whether in print or digitally.”
Alan Rusbridger is editor of The Guardian, and he wants to keep his site free. Harruh fro teh Grauniad!
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Steal The Whole Thing
Obama is nothing without a teleprompter, other than when he’s waxing the floor with top GOP lawmakers in a little unscripted Q & A slaughterfest. But he is part African, which means he’s dumb. Get it.
Sarah Palin, on the other hand, well, obviously, white people don’t need no teleprompters. Even for scripted Q & A fluff fests.
Fear the Dumbpocalypse.
I Can Haz Broder Resignation Letr Naow?
James Fallows has a couple of posts up, "Why bipartisanship can't work: the expert view," and "More from the 'why bipartisanship can't work' guy," which are worth a read if you'd like a slap in the face from reality. They are mostly just reproduced emails from Fallows's source. Here's how the first one begins:
I got this note from someone with many decades' experience in national politics, about a discussion between two Congressmen over details of the stimulus bill:
"GOP member: 'I'd like this in the bill.'
"Dem member response: 'If we put it in, will you vote for the bill?'
"GOP member: 'You know I can't vote for the bill.'
"Dem member: 'Then why should we put it in the bill?'
"I witnessed this myself."
I wrote back saying, "Great story!" and got the response I quote below and after the jump. It is worth reading because its argument has the valuable quality of being obvious -- once it is pointed out. The emphasis is mine rather than in the original; it is to highlight a basic structural reality that has escaped most recent analysis of the "bipartisanship" challenge.
Read them both. U2 plz, Mr. Preznit.
And then maybe, just maybe, an idea, from Fallows: "Do we need another Turnip Day?"
(h/t: The Editors | title: vide)
From the Department of "We'll See How Long This Lasts"
Villager of Villagers Dana Milbank pines for The Old John McCain™. Not as in age, as in yoostahbee.
But even this ...
Before writing this column, I reached out to many of McCain's closest aides from the 2000 campaign to see whether they thought there still was such a man inside McCain. Most of them begged off, some saying they had lost contact with him or become estranged.
... doesn't stop him from closing thus:
I may be the last one who still holds some hope that McCain, long before he draws his last breath, may yet rejoin the fight.
[Insert Lucy and football reference here.]
(h/t: Atrios)
Oh, My
The hot new hashtags on the Twitter are #telepalmer and #palinhand. This appears to be due to St. Sarah the Commonsense Conservative and Savior of RealAmerica being busted for having notes written on her palm during the totally not scripted part of her Q&A at the Teabaggers' Ball.
To be clear, these were not exactly the sort of concepts you'd think would be that hard for someone being paid $100,000 to give a policy speech to memorize; e.g., "We have got to jump start these energy projects that we have heard so much about."
She actually explicitly wrote "Lift American Spirits." Wow.
RisingHegemon calls it the Triggmata.
One thing's for sure: there will be no stopping the libtards and their snark.
__________
Moar ...
More pix and vids documenting this at the Stefan Sirucek post (same link as above).
__________
• Too bad #telepalmter didn't catch on quite as well. That's even funnier.
• TMZ headline: "Sarah Palin's Hand Gets Job Done."
• The Sunday spin shift at Wingnut Command Central is pathetically not up to the job, but at least we can now be sure that Stephen Spruiell rhymes with tool.
• TBogg also too has an Oh, my. His connection to Ol' Starbursts is FTW.
• And Blingees? Of course there will be Blingees!
Wanna Help Dig?
If you're not exhausted from moving snow around, you might head on over to msnbc.com
Nearly 3,000 pages of e-mails that Todd Palin exchanged with state officials, which were released to msnbc.com and NBC News by the state of Alaska under its public records law, draw a picture of a Palin administration where the governor's husband got involved in a judicial appointment, monitored contract negotiations with public employee unions, received background checks on a corporate CEO, added his approval or disapproval to state board appointments and passed financial information marked "confidential" from his oil company employer to a state attorney.
They have posted what they have and would like to crowdsource the scrutinizing effort. Many eyeballs make all deep secrets shallow!
The most troublesome aspect so far:
While 1,200 separate e-mails were released this week, 243 others were withheld by the state under a claim that executive privilege extends to Todd Palin as an unpaid adviser to the government.
"Executive privilege?" I guess "I quit" doesn't quite mean what it used to, hmmm?
The most delicious bit of dirt so far:
The governor coached her staff on how to disguise the $3,252.35 cost of electrical work at the mansion to hook up her new tanning bed.
Cackling aside, these emails appear to document or at least hint at a lot more questionable behavior than just the above quoted bits indicate, so even if you don't want to shovel through them, the article bears a look.
(h/t: Attaturk)
Why We're Elitists -- Update
Remember that note I posted way back in February of aught-seven, about Harlequin, the romance novel publisher, hooking up with NASCAR?
The spawn is now a swarm.
On the upside: no snowmobiles. Oh, wait ...
(h/t: Attaturk)
Deep Thought
I wonder how many wingnuts have made the joke See, now that Obama is in Washington, even the weather is practicing Chicago-style thuggery!!!1!
'Bout Time Someone Said It
(Someone in the MSM, I mean.) You go, Frank Rich:
John McCain, commandeering the spotlight as usual, did fulminate against the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” But the press focus on McCain, the crazy man in Washington’s attic, was misleading. His yapping was an exception, not the rule.
The whole column is pretty encouraging.
Which, BTW, doesn't mean we should let up on the pressure. And here's a good thing to keep in mind, should others start taking their cue from Angry Johnny (the 2010 edition, I mean):
Recalcitrant Congressional Republicans will have to explain why their perennial knee-jerk deference to “whatever the commanders want” extends to Gen. David Petraeus and Gen. Stanley McChrystal on troop surges but not to Mullen, who outranks them, on civil rights.
As in, Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"The Way the Future Blogs"
Who knew Frederik Pohl is blogging? Not I.
Here is part 1 and here is part 2 of his early memories of Isaac Asimov.
h/t: John Scalzi, who linked to the first, saying:
You Know —
Posts like this are why one of the best blogs you can read right now just happens to be written by a 90-year-old man.
Still need incentive? Pix at the lynx!
(x-posted)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
