tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58471452009-02-21T07:36:37.088-05:00begemot"You left poor Behemoth, betraying him for a glass of brandy -- though it was very good brandy!"sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-40919049969784940662007-11-14T14:57:00.000-05:002007-11-14T14:59:07.232-05:00Book now outEmail me at address on right to find out how you, too, can get it for a bargain basement price.Well, not exactly bargain basement.sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1170103591824865602007-01-29T15:43:00.000-05:002007-01-29T15:46:31.836-05:00Historical ParallelsI've been meaning to post this little description of Nicholas II from the textbook I've assigned this semester.* It's ... uncanny.Here it is, to save future Bush historians much time:Nicholas's intellectual limitations and restricted social outlook might not have mattered so much had he relied on some of the talented and far-sighted nobles and bureaucrats who gained prominencesdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1169756657041462892007-01-25T15:21:00.000-05:002007-01-25T15:32:44.456-05:00Richard Cohen agreesTHIS is funny:Little said he hasn’t yet settled on his material for the April correspondents’ dinner. He has a vast repertoire of voices. His Web site features a hundred and sixty-three impersonations, including those of eight cartoon characters, three Muppets, and a hundred and fifteen people who are dead. These include Red Skelton, Broderick Crawford, Telly Savalas, and sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1169749597428547982007-01-25T13:24:00.000-05:002007-01-25T13:26:37.443-05:00A Revival:For personal amusement purposes only, I will, shortly, be reviving this much-beloved and desperately missed blog.Try to contain yourselves.-- Stusdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1090451950009802532004-07-20T19:18:00.000-04:002004-07-21T19:23:07.276-04:00Please come follow me to my new home:
PoliticalStrategy.orgsdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1089010440608233442004-07-05T02:51:00.000-04:002004-07-05T02:54:00.610-04:00Kerry Picks Jesus Christ as VP Running Mate; Bush Campaign Responds
[reposted from my dKos diary]
A Bush administration spokesperson responded today to presumed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's surprise announcement of Jesus Christ, a carpenter from Nazareth, as his running mate:
The Democratic Party is offering us a ticket that includes two ultra-liberal politicians out of touchsdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1089011513060237332004-06-24T01:45:00.000-04:002004-07-05T03:13:36.603-04:00John Gorenfeld, Moon the Messiah, and the Media Echo Chamber
[Reposted from my diary at dKos]
I've been thinking about how the story that John Gorenfeld has been following for months concerning politicans' close ties to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and in particular the bizzarre ceremony this March where Moon was crowned messiah, has suddenly burst into the open in the past several days. It has sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1087427661188360962004-06-16T19:09:00.000-04:002004-06-16T19:14:21.186-04:00Political Taboos, pt. 2: Payroll Tax Reform
[reposted from my diary at dKos]
Part two of my series on "taboos" in American political discourse will argue for the need to reshift the tax debate from income to payroll taxes. Previously I have posted an introduction to the series and an entry on the need to eliminate agricultural subsidies. All posts in this series will also be reposted on my sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1086839695562260682004-06-09T23:52:00.000-04:002004-06-12T02:31:31.556-04:00Suggestions for W's Speech
I sent some suggestions to Chimpy for his speech at the Reagan necropallooza
(Oh, I should add, I suppose, that they are adapted from Stalin's speech at Lenin's funeral):
In leaving us, Comrade [Reagan] commanded us to hold high and to keep pure the great name of Member of the Party. We swear to thee, Comrade [Reagan], to honour thy command.
In leaving us, Comrade [sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1086135457552662022004-06-01T20:15:00.000-04:002004-06-01T20:19:52.873-04:00Political Taboos, pt. 1: Eliminate Agricultural Subsidies
[Reposted from my diary at dKos]
Last week I announced, to rapturous acclaim (or was it rapturous indifference?), that I would begin a series on topics that I believe to be taboo in American politics. Not, that is, that they cannot be talked about, but that they are unlikely at the present time to be pushed with any seriousness throughsdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1085526463922246022004-05-25T19:04:00.000-04:002004-05-27T23:51:05.970-04:00Political Taboos, the Series: Introduction
[Reposted from my diary at Daily Kos]
For some time now I have been scheming (but not producing, dilettante that I am) to write a series of essays concerning political taboos – that is, issues that will or can not be debated within the current parameters of American political discourse. Most of the energy on dKos and other liberal blogs is rightly sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1076571567740781902004-02-12T02:38:00.000-05:002004-02-12T02:42:55.390-05:00For now I'm mostly hangin'
At the truthandhope blog.
But I may resume here eventually.sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1074039473928896702004-01-13T19:02:00.000-05:002004-01-13T19:22:40.686-05:00Wonder of Wonders
That is, the frigging UPI posts a piece by Martin Shieff wondering whether Bush's teflon will remain so impenetrable. On l'affaire Paul O'Neill:
Only a day later it called for a probe into how government documents labeled "secret" could be aired on the O'Neill interview on national network TV in prime time.
But this response contrasted strikingly with the far slower responsesdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1073373694601180702004-01-06T02:14:00.000-05:002004-01-06T02:22:08.683-05:00No One Wants to Get to the Bottom of It
So, as Josh Marshall notes, Scott McClellan declines to say whether Bush wants his aides to sign the forms that would release the "Cold Call Six" from their confidentiality agreements. But, McClellan adds, apparently with a straight face (at least Mike Allen doesn't tell us that he was bustin' out laughing), "The president has always said that leaking sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1073336311610656712004-01-05T15:58:00.000-05:002004-01-05T16:02:17.410-05:00On the MooniePI
Back from hiatus, at least temporarily ...
[Reposted from my dKos diary]
This came up several months ago, after this excellent piece in Salon, but after Atrios's post today on the latest utterly ridiculous Rachel Marsden UPI-sponsored anti-Dean rant I think it needs to be said again.
Why is anything associated with the Rev. Moon given any brook in any quarter in this country?sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1071177221290232202003-12-11T16:12:00.000-05:002003-12-12T02:25:17.563-05:00Spreading the Meme
Okay, following Atrios:
unelectabale
Update: Boy can't even type right.
unelectable
There!sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1070231407298636692003-11-30T17:28:00.000-05:002003-11-30T17:30:16.920-05:00Busy, busy, busy
Yes, yes, yes, my thousands of adoring fans.
Life and work have taken me away from blogging, but I hope to return eventually. In the meantime, support Atrios and make a fashion statement.sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1067490339879106842003-10-30T00:00:00.000-05:002003-10-30T00:05:37.366-05:00Fox Nearly Sues Itself
According to Matt Groening, Fox nearly sued itself over a parody of Fox News on the Simpsons a while back. Here is the streaming audio of Groening's interview on Fresh Air this past week.
I remember seeing the episode (with running scrawl such as "92% of Democrats are gay") and thinking it was one of the most brilliant recent moments on what is after all these years stillsdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1067449607466867892003-10-29T12:44:00.000-05:002003-10-29T12:46:48.700-05:00Putin's Russia
(reposted from my diary at Kos.)
The arrest of Russia's richest man, YUKOS oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky, this past weekend has already produced an explosion of amateur Kremlinology. (For a sampling see this piece in Slate.) The general consensus is that this was unquestionably a political arrest, motivated by the fact that Khodorkovsky was bankrolling Putin's opponents in this sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1066938310930231612003-10-23T15:08:00.000-04:002003-10-23T15:46:09.456-04:00Our Ally, the Human Rights Nightmare
The Memory Hole has the pictures up: Bush, Powell, and Rumsfeld shaking hands with one Islam Karimov, President of Uzbekistan and one of the world's most renowned human rights violators. Human Rights Watch has the other pictures -- victims of Karimov's oppression, those who have been beaten and died in pre-trial detention.
As the Guardian noted earlier sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1066800877998712632003-10-22T01:34:00.000-04:002003-10-22T01:34:37.690-04:00NONE!
A public service announcement from Garry Trudeau.sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1066760661278718272003-10-21T14:02:00.000-04:002003-10-21T14:25:00.096-04:00Lockyer's Folly
So it has come to light that California Attorney General Bill Lockyer voted no on the recall, but yes on Schwarzenegger. In essence, he declared all out war on Bustamante.
"I voted for Arnold. First time I've ever voted for a Republican in my life for a partisan office," he said. "I looked at the list (of candidates). It was a crappy list. He represented for me what he did for sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1066329288364850702003-10-16T14:08:00.000-04:002003-10-16T19:30:19.880-04:00Busheviks and Bolsheviks, pt. 2
For part two in what is to be a running series on "how the Republicans are like the Bolsheviks" (the very brief pt. 1 is here), I turn to the recent "kerfuffle" over the identical letters to the editor supposedly sent by our soldiers in Iraq but in fact formulated by an over-eager batallion commander desirous of counteracting all of the bad news that the "filter" sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1066090247904544202003-10-13T19:57:00.000-04:002003-10-13T23:22:36.666-04:0092 Days and Counting
Novak's article exposing the identity of an undercover CIA operative appeared on July 14th. That was 3 months, or, to be exact, 92 days ago. That's 92 days where Bush could have, but hasn't, discovered the identity of the person(s) who leaked Valerie Plame's name. As of midnight tonight, that'll be 2196 hours ago, if we assume that someone first alerted Dubya at noon on sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5847145.post-1065894687126258222003-10-11T13:43:00.000-04:002003-10-11T13:51:35.420-04:00Gitmo's Too Good For Him
So Pat Robertson is suggesting that the state department should be nuked. Sounds like provocation to terror to me. While we can all see the poetic justice in sending him down to Guantanamo to spend some time with those Muslims he hates so bitterly, it seems to me that advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government is high treason. Couple this with his prayers for the sdfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11376392751167510049noreply@blogger.com