"Street Hassle" - Lou Reed (with a cameo appearance by Bruce Springsteen at around the 9 minute mark). A suite containing multitudes from the perpetual, pansexual pagan party.
- As Michael Kinsley long ago observed, in Washington a gaffe is saying what you really think -- I am much more bemused than outraged about Mark Halperin accusing Obama of acting like a "dick" at his press conference. I am overjoyed that this charlatan has revealed himself to be the right wing cheerleader you always knew he was. I don't give a shit if MSNBC fires him or gives him a promotion -- just as long as we can stop pretending that this asshole is some sort of wise, neutral observer. Halperin has always been a mouthpiece for Republican talking points and received Broderesque wisdom. The fact that he is treated as a proverbial Very Serious Person in Washington (and believe me he is) is indicative of the sickness of the Village. (A journalist friend of mine was astonished that I described him as an idiot -- she insisted "he's very smart" -- I was equally insistent that there was simply no objective evidence to actually suggest that this was true.) And you see Joe Scarborough, another right wing extremist who gets to masquerade as a moderate in the kabuki theater of Washington, direct his outrage to the proper person, i.e. the producer who failed to bleep out Halperin's heartfelt sentiment. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain . . . ." [I think if I had to pick the five people in DC I would most like to smack in a bar room, Halperin would make my list -- he's just so manifestly irritating.]
- This made me laugh. Crazy birthers at the Wing Nut Daily and Jerome Corsi (Clifford Irving without the chops or the integrity) are suing Esquire for a satirical article they wrote about Corsi's ridiculous birther tome being pulled upon the release of Obama's birth certificate. (Naturally the book had not been pulled -- WND and Corsi doubled down and claimed Obama had foisted a forgery upon the public.) The complaint has been filed by publicity hound Larry Klayman in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (not the first venue I would have chosen) and is pending before Judge Rosemary Collyer, a pretty well-respected Republican appointee. If I were Esquire I would most certainly ask for a jury trial -- I am pretty sure that birthers are going to have a tough time with a DC jury. Not that I expect Collyer to let it go that far. I would imagine a rather quick grant of summary judgment will be the outcome here.
- All at sea -- This article gives you a pretty good sense of the ideological incoherence at the heart of populist right wingers, exemplified here by Mike Huckabee, during a cruise of evangelical right wingers up to Alaska. Huckabee expresses sympathy with the plight of those left behind in the current economy, but what are his policy prescriptions -- abolishing the 16th Amendment and with it, the federal income tax, eliminate the gift, estate, and capital gains taxes, privatize Medicare and replace it with a voucher system, and rely for all federal revenue on a 23% consumption tax. It boggles the mind just how regressive the Huckabee program is and what an unmitigated disaster it would prove to be for his adherents, people who strike me as sad exemplars of small-mindedness, romantic nostalgia, religious fanaticism, and just a little bit of racism. As with the Ryan Medicare Plan, I long for the day where a GOP nominee actually runs on this platform. Even with 9% unemployment Obama would win by 15-20%.
Who have you called a dick today?
Recent Comments