Good news: Freelance work is going great guns.
Bad news: It's Halloween, and I can't go home and get anything done.
Good news: Lots of restaurants have wi-fi.
Bad news: The new Starbucks doesn't quite have their wi-fi hooked up.
Good news: The barista is not only friendly, she appears to be an angel.
Bad news: I still need to debug that damn code...
Good question:
The day before the nation goes to vote, the TV news reports are already baked in: Saddam found guilty! Which of course brings up the talking point: Hail Bush, vanquisher of evildoers! Because, y’know, we have such a free, independent, liberal media and all.
Not sure if it’s gonna have all that much effect, given that Iraq isn’t quite the winning issue it used to be. But still, seeing the ‘news’ being manipulated like this so far in advance — wouldn’t you think that would be the story, and not just the results of the manipulation?
Don't be chumps. You do realize that Republicans are trying to play off your fears, insecurities, and dare I say it, prejudices? Are you really going to let them pull this bi-annual stunt again?
This seems hella ambitious, but more power to her. Next time you hear some right-wing nitwit saying that Democrats don't have a plan, you might want to correct them...
Shouldn't campaign funds be spent on campaigning?
TPMmuckraker October 23, 2006 10:57 AM: "Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) has spent at least $91,500 in campaign funds on a white collar defense lawyer this year."
Over at the Whiskey Bar, Billmon is beating himself up for not doing enough to prevent the Iraq War. I can understand where he's coming from, but I think that he's being a little hard on himself. Short of a willingness to go Lee Harvey Oswald on Bush et al's collective ass, I don't think there's anything anyone could have done to keep this train wreck from happening.
Courtesy Mark V Shaney:
You know, you try to find things worth applauding. Last night, for instance, President Bush suggested today that calls into question just why the page went blank. Maybe when I went up 308,000 in March, and the war by the incredibly bedraggled, tired and crushed condition of this decision, and it's been in wildly varying areas.
Story: simplified and shortened an early set-up sequence effects: built a geopolitical situation where more people are taking advantage of the quotes referred to it (hey, it was appalling how easy it was). Once you know what to make of Bush's own making, we're all going to get a kick out of the population the Iraq War will always be seen through the phone.
From NY Times, today's Paul Krugman editorial: Meanwhile, the average Internet surfer is left with few options. Windows users could download an alternate alarm clock and flashlights so that you can bear it go take a gander: Message From Ed Gillespie: "Please join us THIS Wednesday for a Sexathon gold" corrupts the Olympic rings composed of condoms.
Ok, where to start...first off, I do another one of them have been harmful. Some of them have been sniffing through Democratic computers for months: Republican staff members told FBI agents they saw Berger placing items in his socks. Remember, that text is from an article in Newsweek is their Conventional Wisdom section.
It's kind of thing.
Anyway, he's going to Mars.
Kevin Drum starts a post on Guantanamo with this head-shaker:
If we shut down Guantanamo, what do we do with all the prisoners? This is a genuinely difficult question, and it's one that's kept me from being too full-throated a critic of the military prison there.
I'll readily acknowledge that there are a lot of thorny problems out in the world that defy ready solutions. However, the prison at Guantanamo is not one of them. We have locked up innocent people there for years on end with no chance of trial. Even if they haven't been "tortured" by whatever definition suits the Bush administration, they have certainly been treated like shit. This is wrong. There are times when the details don't matter anymore, and this is one of them. Just because you may not know what to do to set things right doesn't mean you shouldn't mount a full-scale attack on what's wrong.
And really-- what's so hard about this? If we have evidence that a prisoner there has done something criminal, then prosecute him in a proper US court. If not, turn him loose. If no other country will take the guy, then we should give him a home in the U.S. At this point we owe them that much.
Chandra & I were driving home, and noticed a lone demonstrator with signs in support of the Iraq War, wearing a starts & stripes bandanna and generally attired as you would expect any red-blooded jingoistic American. I referred to him as a "jackbooted moron," which after a pause got a laugh from Chandra. Personally, I don't find such creatures funny, but I would never turn my back on a line that gets an audible laugh from schnookums.
Still, I must re-iterate that jackbooted morons, whether they are rampaging cops in Houston or the wannabes in Washington, or misguided souls like the demonstrator in Athens, are not amusing. It's thanks to those jackasses (and their enablers) that we are now a nation that tortures innocent people, locks up protesters, and invades countries that have done nothing to us.
How to tell when your primary monitor is big enough: you have two browser windows, three BBEdit windows, a DB manager window...and you're still able to devote an entire monitor just to displaying iTunes artwork.
Aahhh, life is good.
There was a travelling Vietnam War memorial in town last weekend, and so I had already been thinking about what an Iraq memorial might look like when this cartoon came out. In this particular case, I think Tom's got it wrong-- his cartoon implies that either Iraq is another Vietnam, or that it is a continuation of that war. I don't know the entire history of the Vietnam War, but from what I can remember, the only similarities the two conflicts share are 1) we had no business being there in the first place, and 2) each will be perceived as a "lost" war.
However, even if the wars are not that similar, I think we have to somehow acknowledge that for a segment of the population the Iraq War will always be seen through the prism of Vietnam. In fact, for baby boomers the two may ultimately serve as bookends. If the Vietnam War was the defining event of their youth, then the Iraq War is the defining event of their elder years, or at least their time holding the reins of power (and y'all have done a stellar job so far).
I don't know what the geography of the Mall in Washington, D.C. looks like, but I think if I could design the Iraq memorial, it would have to be located with the Vietnam memorial somewhere in sight. It wouldn't be shaped like the Vietnam Memorial, because unlike that conflict we didn't slowly ease into the Iraq war. If it has names on it, they should be partially obscured behind some kind of frosted or smokey glass, to represent all the effort that has gone into hiding the cost of the war. Unlike other monuments, I think it should also be possible to move or alter the elements of the memorial, to highlight the constantly shifting rationale. Finally, the memorial should also have at its heart an Iraqi family, prisoner, or refugee to remind us that it's not only Americans who have paid for the conflict, but ultimately the Iraqis themselves.
Or we could just build something phallic and shiny.
InT. bedroom, morning
JASON is buttoning his shirt and getting ready to feed the cats.
Jason
Ok fellas, scoot so that I can feed Nikki.
(brief pause)
Where's Nikki? Uh oh-- is she still in the music room?
He walks to the music room, where sure enough the door is closed.
JASON (CONT'D)
(opening the door)
I'm sorry, Nikki! I bet you ate all your food, though.
(checks the bowl)
Well, not quite.
Nikki
Mew?
JASON
I know, I'm sorry.
NIKKI
Mew?
JASON
No, I don't know how Opie got out and you didn't.
Nikki walks away, heading downstairs.
JASON (CONT'D)
Okay, go get a drink of water. I'll see you later.
Republicans have known about Foley's predilections for the young'uns for more than a decade? The mind boggles.
EXT. on campus of a large state university
Chandra and Jason are walking to work making chit chat before they must part ways for the day.
Chandra
...so Art has three students named Sara, Sara, Kara.
Jason
Really? That's an unusual name. Is that Japanese? Sarasarakara? I'm surprised there would be more than one person with that name.
CHANDRA
(Annoyed)
No...it's three different people. Two are named Sara, and one is named Kara. Retard.
JASON
(Offended)
Hey-- I don't go making aspersions on your intellectual capacity just because of a small miscommunication.
CHANDRA
It's not a "small miscommunication," you dork. Bye.
They separate, each longing in for the time when they would be reunited again.
Päiväin kysymys: Jos en puhu englantia, olenko terroristi? Vai minun täytyy myös ruskea?
As always, you'll find more from the source, but Prof. Cole's opening statements pretty much nail it:
The right wing of the Republican Party has a problem with the truth. The American press corps has an addiction to euphemisms.
Either one of those would be bad, but in combination they're a disaster. It's one thing for a politician to lie-- that's expected. What we're not getting is anyone with a megaphone big enough to matter calling them on it.
