Archive for November, 2009
Rick Warren Scrambles to CYA
Yesterday “Christian” pastor Rick Warren refused to say whether he thought it was a bad idea that Uganda has decided that its official policy will be to slaughter gays who are HIV positive.
As you might imagine, that didn’t go over so well so voila — Pastor Rick and his wife have arranged for a gathering tomorrow at the Saddleback church; people can get free AIDS testing, $1.00 tacos, and “speakers, prayer, testimonies and music.”
What a guy.
(H/t JG.)
No Thanks Obama
Tomorrow night President Obama will commit millions of dollars, and who knows how many years and how many lives, to continuing a war against 100 al Qaeda guys in Afghanistan. The ratio will be something like 1,000 U.S. troops to every one al Qaeda member.
On Wednesday Obama will hold a “jobs summit” at the White House and on Thursday he’ll kick off a “White House to Main Street Tour.“
I can’t imagine going to a “Main Street Tour” rally. The pandering that’s going on here is just sickening.
4,367 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq
We don’t hear about the total number of U.S. soldiers killed in “Operation Iraqi Freedom” very often anymore — Iraq! George Bush’s war — but I think we should keep the number in mind. 4,367 Americans. 4,685 “Coalition of the Willing” forces.
What a waste. What an awful, awful waste.
I’m proud to say that before Bush launched his war I was a member of the “focus group” that protested against the loss of those lives.
Those 4,367 people were alive then. They didn’t have to die.
Palin’s “Bus Tour” is as Fake as She Is
Sarah Palin’s salt-of-the-earth “bus tour” is actually a Gulfstream jet tour. Guess they park the bus around the corner from wherever she’s going, put her on, and drive a few hundred feet to make it look authentic.
Chinese Company Awarded Giant U.S. Construction Projects
From ChinaDaily:
China State Construction Engineering Corp, the largest contractor in China, has bagged a subway ventilation project worth about $100 million in New York’s Manhattan area, marking the construction giant’s third order in the United States’ infrastructure space this year.
[...]
“The new project, along with the $410-million Hamilton Bridge project and a $1.7-billion entertainment project it won earlier this year, signals China State Construction’s ambition to tap the American construction market,” said Li Zhirui, an industry analyst at First Capital Securities.
[...]
In the first three quarters of this year, the Chinese construction giant signed more than $2 billion worth of contracts in the US market. China State Construction was also the contractor for a high school, a railway station and the Chinese embassy in the US.
Are we crazy?
Rick Warren Refuses to Take Sides When it Comes to Slaughtering Innocent People
You’d think that for a, ah, “Christian” pastor this would be a no brainer. But no. Here’s the scoop.
Wall Street’s Partying Like It’s 2006
On Saturday the New York Times published an article titled: Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades:
From the ailing resorts of the Florida Keys to Alaskan villages along the Bering Sea, the program is now expanding at a pace of about 20,000 people a day.
There are 239 counties in the United States where at least a quarter of the population receives food stamps, according to an analysis of local data collected by The New York Times.
The counties are as big as the Bronx and Philadelphia and as small as Owsley County in Kentucky, a patch of Appalachian distress where half of the 4,600 residents receive food stamps.
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal published an article about Wall Streeters who are “spending money like the financial crisis never happened:”
From $15,000-a-week Caribbean getaways to art auctions to $200,000 platinum wristwatches that automatically adjust for leap years, signs of the good life are returning.
“What we’re seeing in the last four to eight weeks is a fairly substantial uptick” in demand for extravagant purchases as Wall Street employees grow more confident that the market’s steep rebound so far in 2009 will soon bring them fat bonuses, says David Arnold, senior vice president at Robb Report, a magazine targeted at the super-wealthy.
I volunteer at a food bank. I see the people who don’t even qualify for food stamps. They could live for years and years and years on what people are paying for a watch.
The Pentagon Shows Utter Disrespect for American Taxpayers
In 2000, the Pentagon admitted it has lost — yes, lost — $2.3 trillion. In 2003, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that a subsequent Department of Defense study said it was only $1 trillion. To put such numbers in perspective, contemplate what those sums could finance. $1 trillion, for instance, could pay the total cost of universal health care for the long haul. $2.3 trillion would cover universal health care plus the bank bailout plus the stimulus package.
As We Move Into the Second Decade of the 21st Century…
…or is that a typo? Is it the 1st century?: Uganda proposes death penalty for HIV positive gays.
Mike Huckabee’s Willie Horton?
Former Arkansas governor, Republican Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Maurice Clemmons, the man wanted for questioning in a Parkland, Washington ambush that killed four cops early today.
Sarah Palin’s Favorite Prop: Trig
Sarah Palin didn’t wait to get inside Hastings bookstore this morning to greet the thousands of people who’d stood in line for hours to meet her.
On the drive to her scheduled book signing at the 1425 George Washington Way store, Palin made an impromptu stop along Jadwin Avenue and Torbett Street to thank her fans. She walked along the street for at least 20 minutes shaking hands and posing for pictures, while carrying her young son Trig.
And her fans say she’s “such a great mom!”
Why is Bin Laden’s Escape from Tora Bora Such Shocking News?
Tomorrow the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will formally release a report asserting that in December, 2001,
Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force.
In other words, if we’d captured Bin Laden then, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq would have been pointless but since the Bush administration wanted to wage both of those wars, they let him escape.
But why, eight years on, is this news? For those of us who have been paying attention, it isn’t. Take this for example, from March, 2002: How bin Laden Got Away.
So why is the media feigning shock about this report? It isn’t news. The news is that the media didn’t do its job. Were we a nation that was honest about its past, we would have put to bed as a national embarrassment by now.
Don’t Waste Your Money America!
You’ve got to be drunk (which they just might be counting on) to buy this gaudy watch — made in China of course — that the Home Shopping Network is hawking tonight (for $69.90, plus S&H):
Far as I can tell, the only “real” thing about this watch is the “quartz movement” and the “stainless steel back.”
It’s unbelievable the junk we charge and then pay for month after month.
Bye-bye Newsweek
The editor of Newsweek magazine, John Meacham, has decided that he’s going to put his energy (and presumably, the magazine’s) into promoting a run by Dick Cheney for president in 2012.
So, what with print media in decline, and the percentage of people who think it would be a gobsmackin’ great idea if Cheney ran for President at something like 21%, one can only assume that Meacham is a bubble boy living in his own world. Hey, I don’t care if Newsweek dies, but I do care about the employees who will lose their jobs and who must be wondering what the hell the guy’s thinking.
Christian Leaders as Anarchists
Extremist Christians apparently think they can ignore any law they don’t agree with.
Hey, let’s all adopt that attitude and we’ll see where it gets us.
Oh, and note to the media: Start calling these guys out for what they are: anarchists. Don’t limit that word to “hippies” throwing rocks during oh, say, the G-8 Summit or a meeting of the WTO.
Why Did the Twitter People Decide on 140 Characters?
How did the Twitter people decide that tweets should be limited to 140 characters?
It’s pretty simple really:
Originally, Twitter had no character limit and several issues were aroused. For example, users tend to compose tweets of over 160 characters (the default SMS carrier limit). … They settled on 140, in order to leave room for the username and the colon in front of the message.
Worse Than Ketchup as a Vegetable
I just bought the fixin’s for “Chex mix,” which I love having around at Christmastime. I like to add Goldfish to the mix so I bought some in the “Garden Cheddar” flavor. Incredibly, the container claims that there is “1/3 serving of real vegetables in each serving,” a serving being “55 pieces.”
Next thing you know they’ll claim that the “fish” contain omega-3 fatty acid.
Tiger Woods
The universe holds its breath, waiting for the police to release the 911 call made after Tiger Woods’ car accident.
Life is on hold until then…
Why Are We Blaming Rahm? Obama’s His Boss
I came upon this tweet a few minutes ago and for a split second I thought, Yeah! Fu*k you Rahm. But then I thought, hey, Rahm works for Obama. Obama’s his boss for God’s sake. Why isn’t Obama bustin’ some chops here?
Sadly, Rahm isn’t the problem. Obama is. I mean really. Let’s face it.
Our Unspoken Shame
I’m watching a special program about the history of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. on C-SPAN, a building that was built to “symbolize freedom,” but that was “largely built” by slaves.
Imagine what those slaves were thinking.
Oh, and the narrator said that there is no mention of slaves in the “official” history of the building.
We sure have dressed up our history, haven’t we?
Is Fox Photoshopping Pictures to Smear Obama?
Excuse me but this picture up on the homepage of TheFoxNation looks suspicious to me:
Click on the picture and you go to this:
Click on “Read The Full Article,” and you don’t go to an article at all. You’re taken to another version of the picture above:
Something’s fishy here. That magazine cover is just too clear to be true in my opinion. Not only that — and even more suspect — is when was this picture taken and, more importantly, by whom? Why isn’t Fox giving credit to the photographer like all credible blogs do?
The Whole Dubai Thing
Yesterday morning I watched a bit of CNBC and listened to their chatter about the financial situation in Dubai, which wasn’t very informative.
This afternoon I’m going to take some time to try and make sense of what’s going on there — at least in a general, over-view kind of way. Looks like this is as good a place as any to start.
Break Time — Hair Balls
Geez, I had no idea I was so stylish — that is — when I wear black and walk out the door with 10,000 pieces of white hair sticking to me from one or both of our English Setter dogs: The newest trend? Hair ball pins.
Woo hoo!
Finally, I can relax and stop spending hundreds of dollars on lint rollers.
Tweet of the Day
From Jim Gilliam:
And I would add that the same applies to the entire Washington punditocracy.
Ralph Nader for Senate?
Ralph Nader is apparently considering a run for the Senate in Connecticut, challenging incumbent Chris Dodd.
I think he just might be able to pull that off.
