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November 24, 2007
Awwww. What A Shame.
You mean -- no-one likes Tucker?
Rumors have been flying recently that Tucker Carlson could soon be on the way out at MSNBC. In a report that aired this morning on NPR, Phil Griffin, a senior vice president at the cable network, described Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as part of the MSNBC "brand". Asked whether Mr. Carlson was also part of that brand, Mr. Griffin replied: "He is right now."
How could that be? I thought everyone liked contrarian, petulant twerps who don't have any discernible insight or sense of humor.
08:56 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
"I don't know how a man decides what's right for his own life. It's all a mystery."
08:53 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
November 23, 2007
Surge-ery!
At least 13 people were killed and more than 50 wounded by a bomb at a crowded pet market in central Baghdad today, the deadliest attack in the capital for weeks.The explosion left headless bodies, dead birds and shattered fish tanks around the Ghazil animal market in east Baghdad where many families of all sects visit one of the most popular attractions in the city on the Muslim day of prayer.
The surge has totally worked and Iraq is a paradise. More here.
09:39 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Fred And McCain
Google Ads for Fred Thompson and Senator McCain are popping up here. It goes without saying that I have nothing to do with those.
09:22 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
Pariah dogs and wandering mad men -- barking at strangers and speaking in tongues.
09:19 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
November 22, 2007
Thanksgiving Morning Awesome
Happy Thanksgiving!
08:12 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
November 21, 2007
Musharraf Is Mushawesome!
GIBSON: Is there a line he cannot cross in your mind? Something that would go too far, when you might say to yourself, okay, that’s enough?BUSH: He hasn’t crossed the line. As a matter of fact, I don’t think that he will cross any lines. Today I thought it was a pretty good signal that he released thousands of people from the jails.
Suspending the constitution, imprisoning activists, disbanding the courts, declaring martial law. No problem. But I'm sure if Musharraf provided government health care for children, President Bush would smack his funny haircut clean off his scalp.
05:01 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Sucking It Down Like Water
I hate being right about this shit. The AP:
Americans packed up and headed to airports and train stations hours ahead of time Wednesday to get a jump on what was predicted to be the largest Thanksgiving pilgrimage ever — despite rising gas prices and fears of air delays.A record 38.7 million U.S. residents were expected to travel 50 miles or more for the holiday.
[...]
About 4.7 million U.S. residents were expected to fly for the holiday, according to AAA, and about 31.2 million travelers were expected to drive in spite of gas prices that were nearly 85 cents more per gallon than they were a year earlier. The national average for regular gasoline on Nov. 16 was $3.09 a gallon, up from $2.23 on Nov. 17, 2006.
"The question becomes 'Is $10 or $15 more for gas enough to change travel plans?' and obviously most Americans said 'no,'" said AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman Lon Anderson at Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport.
Yeah, but... $15 more x 31.2 million drivers = $468,000,000 in additional revenue for Big Oil this week alone.
01:44 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
America In One Minute
Wal-Mart on Black Friday two years ago. If I had to choose 60 seconds of videotape that embodied the death rattle of American greatness, this might be the one. It's both disgraceful and depressing.
12:27 PM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Poison Friday At Wal-Mart
The day after tomorrow will be excellent for both shopping bargains and lead poisoning. Be patriotic, America, and buy lots of tainted Chinese shit.
Another research group, the Center for Environmental Health (CEH), on Tuesday unveiled a list of several new toxic toys found at major retailers such as Wal-Mart (Charts, Fortune 500) and Target (Charts, Fortune 500).Representatives for Wal-Mart and Target were not immediately available for comment.
The group tested 100 toys, of which 9 contained extremely high levels of lead. A Starletz small ceramic tea set purchased from the gift novelty store AlMart had a lead level of 12,600 ppm - the highest amount the group recorded.
Other toys on the list were the Dora Game Pack and Sponge Bob Bat & Ball set purchased from Target and an H2O Extreme Zone bath toy-rubber ducky from Toy Castle. The group did not specifically name manufacturers, but said that all the toys were made in China.
12:15 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Supplanting The Troops
We're paying Blackwater employees six-figure salaries and the president is cutting taxes in wartime, so the cash has to come from somewhere. Tough titties:
The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.
Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.
More at Carpetbagger.
12:04 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Malkin Is So Awesome And You're A Dick
Malkin says Chavez is totally a fuckwit, but she doesn't mind buying his gasohol.
Also, I think it says a lot that Malkin is beginning to channel the photo-scribblings of gossip blogger Perez Hilton. You know, because wingnut bloggers are so sophisticated and decent.
11:37 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
The Actual Retail Price Is...
Place your bets on the following:
1) Will it be a record-breaking travel holiday this week?
2) Will oil break $100 today?
My money is on yes and yes.
10:03 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
I Agree With Huckabee
I can't believe I wrote that headline, but in this case, it's mostly true. Regarding the McClellan allegations:
"It's stunning. It's one of those moments where I'm glad to not be a Washington insider...they are serious allegations but we don't know whether they're true...they deserve to be thoroughly investigated and the truth brought to the American people."
09:59 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Crazier Than Bush
The new Wednesday article is up over at Huffington Post. If you love Giuliani as much as I do, you'll enjoy this one.
09:12 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
The Perino Unit Responds Robotically
White House press secretary Dana Perino said it wasn't clear what McClellan meant in the excerpt. "The president has not and would not ask his spokespeople to pass on false information," she said.
So it begins. What she's basically saying here is that McClellan lied in the briefing room and in his book -- entirely on his own volition.
08:53 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
Smashing Pumpkins go to the moon.
07:44 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
November 20, 2007
No, No, No! She's Said What?!
Outgoing Homeland Security advisor and Bush sycophant Fran Townsend told CNN that the evildoers could target our elections next year...
...but she has NO SPECIFIC INFORMATION ABOUT ANYTHING.
This is so criminal on so many levels. Let the flagrant disruption of democracy begin!
10:33 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Gobble Gobble!
Oil jumped to $98 a barrel today as the dollar continues to fall apart. More from Bloomberg. Keep sucking it down, America.
10:09 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Did McClellan Lie To Fitzgerald?
The question on my mind since this news broke today has been: did Scotty perjure himself for the president and the senior White House staff? We know he was questioned by the FBI and in the Fitzgerald grand jury investigation. Rewind to February, 2004:
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said yesterday that he talked to the grand jury on Friday.McClellan said at a briefing on Oct. 10 that Rove and Libby, the only interview subjects about whom he had been publicly questioned, "assured me they were not involved in this."
McClellan told reporters on Air Force One yesterday that his appearance was a matter of "doing my part to cooperate, as the president directed all of us to do."
It stands to reason that he gave the same information to the grand jury. So why is he still walking around? Or did he tell the truth to Fitzgerald and it was overlooked -- or ignored? I'm going to enjoy watching this play out.
09:49 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Giuliani: The First Insane President
Senator Obama would be the first black president; Senator Clinton, the first woman president; Governor Romney, the first Mormon; Fred Thompson, the first persistant vegetative state president. And Rudy Giuliani would be the first insane president.
Here's some presidential advice from Giuliani's close personal friend and advisor: FOX News bloated corpse, Roger Ailes.
UPDATE: I've expanded this into my Huffington Post article for this week.
08:38 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
07:57 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
November 19, 2007
I Love Eggs!
Is a fertilized egg a person? Of course this isn't a question that should be answered by scientists and philosophers -- but instead by the non-scientist, non-philosopher voters of Colorado. Jack Cafferty has more at C&L.
My question is this: if a woman's body naturally rejects the zygote -- even after only a few hours -- should that be considered involuntary manslaughter? What if the zygote slips out of the fallopian tube and attaches to, say, the bladder or large bowel causing serious harm to the mother, who gets the state sanctioned protection? The bundle of cells or the fully grown human being?
11:03 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Driving Under The Influence Of Being Latino
Maybe I'm missing something. Ingram is hosting The Falafel Factor tonight and she's interviewing the parent of someone who was killed by a drunk driver.
The hook: the drunk driver happened to be an illegal immigrant. I'm sitting here wondering how that detail made the crime more awful.
I'm not a biologist or mixologist, but does alcohol have a more potent effect on illegal immigrants? Or does this have more to do with the racist right-wing trying to pin crimes on illegal immigrants that have nothing to do with their illegal immigration status? I mean, if the drunk driver was legal, the victim would still have been killed, no?
08:33 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
1968
Chris Matthews has been comparing this coming election year to 1968. Tonight he wrangled Brokaw into talking about it. Great, Matthews. The year in which both Martin Luther King and the presumptive Democratic nominee were assassinated. The same year in which the Democratic convention was an exercise in chaos; and the year in which Richard Nixon ultimately won the White House.
What an awful year to use as a comparison -- especially considering the Obama candidacy. Are we to gather from this comparison that the Democratic nominee will be killed and a demon on the level of Nixon will win for the GOP? Jesus H.
But the very smart traditional media thinks its fun and looks good on screen because both years have an 8 at the end, therefore the years MUST be similar. Awesome.
07:39 PM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Outsourcing Our Support For The Troops
I was in Gettysburg on Saturday for the Remembrance Day parade and in one of the restaurants, there was a pile of dark blue "Support the Troops" wrist bands for sale. There was only one thing printed on the cheap clear-plastic wrappers: Made In China.
05:22 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Novak's Awesome Sources
You can cram a lot of horseshit into an old withered hack:
Novak disclosed that his source for the story was not anyone close to Clinton but rather, someone who was "told by an agent of the Clinton campaign" about the alleged dirt. Got that? So Novak was not privy to the dirt itself, nor did he talk to Clinton's people. Rather, he heard it from someone who had heard it from someone else. Another secondary source, Novak went on to say, claimed to have heard the same thing. Fact-checking = completed.
I heard from someone who's close to someone else who might be associated with Novak's doctor that he had his integrity surgically drained and replaced with horseshit.
04:56 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Immigration Hardball
Watch this clip from Hardball then come back. It's Rachel Maddow debating Pat Buchanan about immigration.
First, note Chris Matthews smacking Rachel for smiling.
MATTHEWS: And you're laughing. You think it's funny.MADDOW: What? Why? No I'm not laughing at this. This is the reason we haven't done it. The difference -- the thing that you guys aren't grasping is that this hasn't changed.
While Rachel is saying this, Matthews begins to grin and chuckle. Then less than a minute later at 2:52, Pat Buchanan cracks a joke which prompts a Chris Matthews HA-HA! cackle. So it's okay for the guys to laugh, but not Rachel. Considering both his angry shaming of Rachel Maddow as well as his on-going obsession with Senator Clinton's laugh, I wonder what Matthews has against women who laugh?
The other tragic thing about the exchange is that it exposed the fact that Pat Buchanan gets paid lecture fees from businesses that hire and exploit illegal workers. In other words, it doesn't matter whether these corporations hire illegal immigrants -- as long as the check clears, it's fine by him. Way to stand by your convictions, Buchanan.
MATTHEWS: Pat, when you talk to business groups, do the business people you talk to agree with you about putting serious penalties on people who hire people illegally?BUCHANAN: No! One of the guys says, "You're gonna put me in jail!" And I said that's right if you hire illegals. That is right!
MATTHEWS: Well that cuts down on the lecture fees I think if you try to give a speech to a bunch of guys that know they're going to the can if you get your way--
BUCHANAN: You get your lecture fee then you tell 'em.
MATTHEWS: HA! HA!
Meanwhile, Rachel nailed the point of all of this at the very end. She basically says that this is an issue that's been around forever, but a strategy for mainstreaming xenophobia and racism was never established until the GOP needed a wedge issue for the 2006 midterms. Then suddenly, in the Spring of 2006, the modern version of the debate began and it became much more than just the pet issue of Buchanan and Dobbs. Unfortunately for the GOP it failed as both a wedge and as a rallying cry for that campaign.
Why? Because I believe that it overshadows the real border issue -- the issue that really hits home with middle class Americans. The debate should be about the jobs leaving America and not so much the immigrants coming in. NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, CAFTA and free trade at large is killing America -- draining it of the middle class and transforming us into, as Carlin says, a giant shopping mall.
Stop the jobs from leaving, then maybe work on the illegal workers coming in. By the way, it's no coincidence that both sides of this coin involve huge corporate profits on the backs of the poor and middle class.
12:17 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
OPEC and The Dollar
I'm just thinking out loud here (big disclaimer -- I'm not an economist!). What if OPEC decided to switch from the weak dollar to the euro? And let's say OPEC priced a barrel at, say, 90 euros. A barrel of oil would cost $131, based on today's exchange rate. OPEC would boost the euro, making Europe happy, while pocketing billions of additional American dollars.
By the way, it's worth noting that in November, 2000, pre-invasion Iraq began to price its oil based on the euro. According to Project Censored (quoting The Nation and The Sierra Times), the value of the euro began to increase and the dollar, well, you know. Guess how Iraqi oil is priced now? The dollar. And guess which OPEC nations want to drop the dollar now? Iran and Venezuela.
Am I way off or in the ballpark?
UPDATE: We dodged a bullet:
Ahmadinejad claimed OPEC's member countries want to convert their cash reserves into a currency other than the depreciating U.S. dollar, which he called a "worthless piece of paper."Chavez said the dollar was in free-fall and that its "empire" must end, and proposed trading oil in a basket of currencies excluding the dollar.
Both were unable to generate support from enough in the 13-member cartel — many of whom, including Saudi Arabia, are staunch U.S. allies.
One thing should be clear here, though. These nations don't need nuclear weapons. Just the oil.
08:37 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Greenwald Kung Fu
Greenwald pummels Tom Friedman and Maureen Dowd and doesn't let up.
Republican authoritarian warmongers who swagger around in tough guy costumes -- Friedman's Cheney and Dowd's Giuliani -- are Real Men whom we need to keep us safe. Men who don't crave war are faggots and aggressive Democratic women are unshaven, threatening bitches. That's the core belief of the Beltway Religion of Seriousness, as practiced on Sunday so vividly by these NYT columnists.
Must read.
08:32 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
From the 2nd season episode The Midterms.
08:20 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
November 18, 2007
This Isn't Good News
OPEC will study the weak U.S. dollar's effect on the oil cartel's earnings and investigate the possibility of a currency basket, Iran's oil minister said Sunday.[...]
Iran and Venezuela have been pressuring OPEC to study the effect of the falling dollar. But the suggestions were met with resistance from other OPEC members, including Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, who warned Friday that even talking publicly about the currency's decline could further hurt its value.
I didn't know what a currency basket was until I just now looked it up. The basic idea here is (I think) that OPEC wants to drop the dollar as their standard for the price of a barrel of oil and replace it with a price that reflects several currencies.
How much longer are we going to submit to being bullied for fuel? I love it when I get e-mails from so-called conservatives who are proud -- boastful -- of their massive oil and gas consumption. Odd that they don't mind bashing Sheehan, Belafonte or Spacey for meeting with Chavez, but they'll gladly give him money in exchange for oil. You know, because they're patriotic middle Americans and all.
02:24 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Rove Gives Hackish Advice
And we're all supposed to be a-scared of his (28 percent) political genius. His first Newsweek column:
Shortly after the 2001 Inauguration, I made a little talk saying I appreciated having [Hillary Clinton's old West Wing office] because it had the only full-length vanity mirror in the West Wing, which gave me a chance to improve my rumpled appearance. The senator from New York confronted me shortly after and pointedly said she hadn't put the mirror there. I hadn't said she did, just that the mirror was there.
Clearly he was implying that the First Lady put a mirror in the office. Why mention it otherwise? Typical of the entire Bush Republican attitude. "I never said Saddam orchestrated 9/11," they say. But they obviously implied it many times.
Every presidential election is about change and the future, not the past. So show them who you are in a way that gives the American people hope, optimism and insight. That's the best antidote to the low approval rates of the Republican president.
Translation: Don't talk about the administration (and nation) I helped to destroy with all of my sucky political advice. But make sure to listen to my advice now because it's not sucky like before.
Don't be afraid to say something controversial. The American people want their president to be authentic. And against a Democrat who calculates almost everything, including her accent and laugh, being seen as someone who says what he believes in a direct way will help.
Translation: calculate and orchestrate a controversy -- because you shouldn't be calculated like Senator Clinton.
And this is all from page one of the Newsweek column. I'll save you the time on page two: "cliche, cliche, cliche, obvious, obvious, duh, the end."
12:43 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
The Deadliest Catch
Your grandchildren might not know what if feels like to swim in the ocean. More from the new IPCC report:
Humanity is rapidly turning the seas acid through the same pollution that causes global warming, the world's governments and top scientists agreed yesterday. The process – thought to be the most profound change in the chemistry of the oceans for 20 million years – is expected both to disrupt the entire web of life of the oceans and to make climate change worse.[...]
[Germany's top global warming expert] recalls how something similar happened when a comet hit Mexico's Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago, blasting massive amounts of calcium sulphate into the atmosphere to form sulphuric acid, which in turn caused the extinction of corals and virtually all shell-building species.
If this was framed as a profoundly devastating economic issue -- as important as any off-the-shelf economic issue we face (deficits, trade, taxes, etc) -- the climate crisis would take on a personal importance to American voters. Here's what it will cost you personally right now, but HERE'S what it will cost you 25 years from now. Which do you choose?
09:59 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Cut The Crap, Mike Huckabee
FOX News Sunday has Mike Huckabee on the show. He's doing the "Democrat Party" thing. Can you imagine the chaos if Senator Clinton began to say Re-PUBE-lickin'?
Also, Charles Krauthammer strangles baby animals with his thoughts.
09:40 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Morning Awesome
Outside it's America...
09:35 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
