Why was gas so expensive? (Consumerist)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Licking the Zeitgeist: Go ahead, let the Obamafied optimism wash over you. For now
(sfgate)
(sfgate)
They know their 15 minutes are up. They know they had their shot, gave it everything they had. Six solid years of complete control, their most potent leaders, their best ideas, war and terror and jingoism, anti-gay anti-women anti-science. Also: a million new surveillance cameras, ten thousand right-wing judges, a front-loaded Supreme Court, pummeling the line separating church and state, blaming gays for 9/11, keeping Christian rock alive, creepy museums in Kentucky where humans walk with dinosaurs.
And they failed. Spectacularly. Historically. Unsurprisingly.
In fact, their failure is now so complete, nearly every idea they offered up now proven to be so regressive and detrimental to the advancement of the human experiment, theirs will go down in history as one of the most profound collapses of any totalitarian power cluster in our short history. Mark your calendars. You were there. You survived. Barely.
Meet Sarah Palin's right wing radical pals (salon)
Whew.. talk about (literally) Anti-American.
So long as Alaska remained under the boot of the federal government, said Chryson, the AIP had to stand on guard to stymie a New World Order. He invited a Salon reporter to see a few items inside his pickup truck that were intended for his personal protection. “This here is my attack dog,” he said with a chuckle, handing the reporter an exuberant 8-pound papillon from his passenger seat. “Her name is Suzy.” Then he pulled a 9-millimeter Makarov PM pistol — once the standard-issue sidearm for Soviet cops — out of his glove compartment. “I’ve got enough weaponry to raise a small army in my basement,” he said, clutching the gun in his palm. “Then again, so do most Alaskans.” But Chryson added a message of reassurance to residents of that faraway place some Alaskans call “the 48.” “We want to go our separate ways,” he said, “but we are not going to kill you.”
Whew.. talk about (literally) Anti-American.
So long as Alaska remained under the boot of the federal government, said Chryson, the AIP had to stand on guard to stymie a New World Order. He invited a Salon reporter to see a few items inside his pickup truck that were intended for his personal protection. “This here is my attack dog,” he said with a chuckle, handing the reporter an exuberant 8-pound papillon from his passenger seat. “Her name is Suzy.” Then he pulled a 9-millimeter Makarov PM pistol — once the standard-issue sidearm for Soviet cops — out of his glove compartment. “I’ve got enough weaponry to raise a small army in my basement,” he said, clutching the gun in his palm. “Then again, so do most Alaskans.” But Chryson added a message of reassurance to residents of that faraway place some Alaskans call “the 48.” “We want to go our separate ways,” he said, “but we are not going to kill you.”
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
AIG knows how to party (with your bailout money) (nytimes)
A week after the insurance giant the American International Group received an $85 billion federal bailout, executives at its life insurance subsidiary, AIG General, held a weeklong retreat at the exclusive St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif. Expenses for the week, lawmakers were told, included $200,000 for hotel rooms, $150,000 for food and $23,000 in spa charges.
A week after the insurance giant the American International Group received an $85 billion federal bailout, executives at its life insurance subsidiary, AIG General, held a weeklong retreat at the exclusive St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif. Expenses for the week, lawmakers were told, included $200,000 for hotel rooms, $150,000 for food and $23,000 in spa charges.
[Make Believe Maverick] Rolling Stone uncovers the real McCain
"John has made a pact with the devil," says Lincoln Chafee, the former GOP senator, who has been appalled at his one-time colleague's readiness to sacrifice principle for power. Chafee and McCain were the only Republicans to vote against the Bush tax cuts. They locked arms in opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And they worked together in the "Gang of 14," which blocked some of Bush's worst judges from the federal bench.
"On all three — sadly, sadly, sadly — McCain has flip-flopped," Chafee says. And forget all the "Country First" sloganeering, he adds. "McCain is putting himself first. He's putting himself first in blinking neon lights."
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Obama and McCain advisors debate healthcare.
Obama's stance on Insurance Companies:
"Their party will be over, just like Wall Street's party will be over," he said.
Obama's stance on Insurance Companies:
"Their party will be over, just like Wall Street's party will be over," he said.
"DON'T VOTE!"
That's what the condescending cavalcade of reverse-psychology-talkin celebs have to say, anyway!
That's what the condescending cavalcade of reverse-psychology-talkin celebs have to say, anyway!
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Our good friend Toyama Koichi is back. And this time he's running for president of the United States, despite the trifling legal prohibitions.
Previously.
Previously.
I thought it was funny at first. He played it like an over-the-top chuckling generalization about fundy ignorance, but dammit if Matt Damon (yt) didn't see it coming... Sarah Palin, an idiot, believes that man and dinosaurs coexisted.
Why why why won't the press attack these dangerous cultists about this absurd horseshit? Why do we have to smile and accommodate morons and their psychopathic fantasies?
Why why why won't the press attack these dangerous cultists about this absurd horseshit? Why do we have to smile and accommodate morons and their psychopathic fantasies?
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Mini House
A 15sq meter house that can be built in a weekend. All for less than the price of a car (you supply the scenic lakeside property). Yet another cool thing that Americans are apparently incapable of designing. We never did catch on to the whole minimalism thing.
(dezeen)
Hide the veep (sfgate)
McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb said Palin will do at least one news conference before election day. That could mean that the person who could potentially lead the free world will have done one national press conference before being sworn into office.
McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb said Palin will do at least one news conference before election day. That could mean that the person who could potentially lead the free world will have done one national press conference before being sworn into office.
The Democratic vice presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has given more than 89 national and local interviews over roughly the same period of time.
Monday, September 29, 2008
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) has released its Economic Outlook. The title sums it up nicely.
I'm hearing more and more frequently that Sarah Palin's colossal ineptitude and interview bungling is prompting the McCain insiders to consider replacing her on the GOP ticket. At first it was almost joking; these days the calls seem to be more serious. While replacing Palin with a more mature, informed veep candidate (who, though? Rudy's got an uneasy association with Wall Street that's not going to help) would be no doubt good for the Republicans, I'm pretty sure they won't because the signs and buttons have already been printed. Plus, they're not exactly known for their honesty in confronting horrible the choices they've made.
Salon article on same.
Salon article on same.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
“I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principles of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale”
--Thomas Jefferson
--Thomas Jefferson
[Deine Arbeitpass, Bitte!]
In direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, George Bush will be permanently activating an Army Unit inside the U.S. (yt) to assist with civil unrest and crowd control.
Check out the Army Times article on same for a decidedly different slant on this horrifying new bit of domestic fascism.
In direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, George Bush will be permanently activating an Army Unit inside the U.S. (yt) to assist with civil unrest and crowd control.
Check out the Army Times article on same for a decidedly different slant on this horrifying new bit of domestic fascism.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
If you're sick of Congress treating corrupt banks to favors they would NEVER bestow upon working taxpayers, sign MoveOn's petition to let them know.
Buy My Shitpile, Henry
Use the form below to submit bad assets you'd like the government to take off your hands. And remember, when estimating the value of your 1997 limited edition Hanson single CD "MMMbop", it's not what you can sell these items for that matters, it's what you think they are worth. The fact that you think they are worth more than anyone will buy them for is what makes them bad assets.
Use the form below to submit bad assets you'd like the government to take off your hands. And remember, when estimating the value of your 1997 limited edition Hanson single CD "MMMbop", it's not what you can sell these items for that matters, it's what you think they are worth. The fact that you think they are worth more than anyone will buy them for is what makes them bad assets.
Monday, September 22, 2008
How We Became the United States of France (Time)
Put it all together, and the America that emerges is a cartoonish version of the country most despised by red-meat red-state patriots: France. Only with worse food.
Put it all together, and the America that emerges is a cartoonish version of the country most despised by red-meat red-state patriots: France. Only with worse food.
Friday, September 19, 2008
McSweeney's is running a long, reader-contributed tribute to the recently departed David Foster Wallace
See also The New Yorker (see Related Links sidebar for New Yorker stories) , and Village Voice
See also The New Yorker (see Related Links sidebar for New Yorker stories) , and Village Voice
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Here's some video of Sarah Palin cavorting with sick, disturbed End-Times lunatics. Patriots get all up-in-arms about Obama's association with a pastor who dares to speak his mind on the pathology of the U.S. social system, but these deranged mouthbreathers don't bat an eye about people who have retreated so far into mental disease and sociopathic fantasy that they pray for the world to end by way of the destructive power of Jesus-magic.
Ideological incompatibility - and frankly, the danger of close proximity - has reached the point where we can't share the same government with these dolts. I just don't want to be physically near somebody who wakes up and wants the world to end, and who might even do something to speed the process along in a psychotic wish-fulfillment episode. I think breaking up would be best for both of us.
Ideological incompatibility - and frankly, the danger of close proximity - has reached the point where we can't share the same government with these dolts. I just don't want to be physically near somebody who wakes up and wants the world to end, and who might even do something to speed the process along in a psychotic wish-fulfillment episode. I think breaking up would be best for both of us.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Attention-starved? Willing to resort to any level of buffoonery to get people to notice you? Try the speedvest.
Return of the Geeks
An excellent Mother Jones piece on Republican political meddling, censorship, and obstruction with science.
An excellent Mother Jones piece on Republican political meddling, censorship, and obstruction with science.
Waxman had this to say: "While I appreciate the value of vigorous scientific debate, I question why White House economic advisers are apparently conducting their own research on right whales and why the vice president's staff is challenging the conclusions of the government's scientific experts." And indeed, the whole saga does seem pretty over the top. But it also perfectly fits a recurring pattern across President Bush's two terms.
Again and again, at agency after agency, government science has been undermined, torqued, twisted, muzzled. For eight years the scandals have just kept coming—so much so that even very high-level appointees like the surgeon general and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have encountered interference with their attempts to convey scientific information. "It is an outcome of the 'faith based' presidency, with many decisions made based on instincts rather than facts," says Judith Curry, chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, who's served as a nasa adviser. "The whole thing about faith is to believe things for which there is no empirical evidence. The Bush administration treats science as if you have a choice regarding whether or not to accept demonstrable scientific knowledge, analogous to the choice of which church to go to or which type of automobile to drive." Meanwhile, the battery of insults has dragged down the morale of scientist civil servants and amped up the cynicism of Americans who've watched their government grow increasingly dysfunctional. "We're beyond 'here's another abuse,'" says Francesca Grifo, director of the scientific integrity program at the ucs. "It's more how they changed the system to turn it into this new kind of machine that perpetually sidelines the science."
The same administration that made it almost impossible for an individual to relieve themselves of crippling debt liability - most often due to healthcare costs - has in only 1 day's time agreed to wave the magic wand for their embedded cronies at AIG - WITH YOUR TAX DOLLARS
With time running out after A.I.G. failed to get a bank loan to avoid bankruptcy, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, convened a meeting with House and Senate leaders on Capitol Hill about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to explain the rescue plan. They emerged just after 7:30 p.m. with Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke looking grim, but with top lawmakers initially expressing support for the plan. But the bailout is likely to prove controversial, because it effectively puts taxpayer money at risk while protecting bad investments made by A.I.G. and other institutions it does business with.
How does McCain feel about government intervention in the free market, you ask? Depends on when you ask... He's brazenly changed his mind on it 5 times - in 24 hours.
With time running out after A.I.G. failed to get a bank loan to avoid bankruptcy, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, convened a meeting with House and Senate leaders on Capitol Hill about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to explain the rescue plan. They emerged just after 7:30 p.m. with Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke looking grim, but with top lawmakers initially expressing support for the plan. But the bailout is likely to prove controversial, because it effectively puts taxpayer money at risk while protecting bad investments made by A.I.G. and other institutions it does business with.
How does McCain feel about government intervention in the free market, you ask? Depends on when you ask... He's brazenly changed his mind on it 5 times - in 24 hours.
