"Suck. On. This." Day

From Atrios, who rules our world:

"...But the problem with Tom Friedman is that he's very serious and taken very seriously. Unlike Maureen Dowd whose gibberish has lost its influence over the years, Tommy "Suck On This" Friedman is still The Most Serious Foreign Affairs Man In America. When Tom Friedman speaks, people listen, even as his metaphors become as bad as his advice.

So on Suck On This Day we should do our part to convince as many people as we can that Tom Friedman is a blithering idiot and a moral monster. Suck On This Tommy!"

I don't know what it's like to be so morally bankrupt that the concept of killing innocents in an indiscrimiate assault is a source of amusement. I pray to the Almighty that I never do.

Suck. On. This.

I wonder...

It seems like a significant part of the electorate still confirm, when asked, that they believe that Obama is a Muslim.

Do they really think that? Do they even care? Or, as I believe, is "Obama is a Muslim" simply dogwhistle for "I ain't voting for the black guy"?

Trivia

Over at Eschaton, Avedon asked about a Poll:

"Is Joe Lieberman Worse than Zell Miller Yet?"

It occurs to me that I don't know a single person in RL who could tell me exactly who either of these men are, or why they matter.

Jingles

"YOUUUUU start to live
when you learn to drive,
You start to have fun,
where you used to have none!
Make your life complete,
take the driiiiver's seat!
Call Automobile Club of A-MER-I-CA!"

Just had to get that out of my system. I can find NO reference to this ad anyplace else online.

"...Of the poor and the very poor alike..."

Professor Wagstaff : "Didn't Lisa Simpson describe the city bus as "the transportation choice of the poor and the very poor alike"?

I had a conversation with one of my bus drivers the other day (three each way), and I suggested they look into increasing frequency on the last leg - just talking, of course, drivers have no say.

His opinion was, "there's no increase without an increase in ridership"; my argument, "increase frequency and you'll increase ridership".

I mention all of this because Houston is an interesting case of a love-hate relationship with public transit. I don't know if we have MORE concrete here than anyplace else, but they are increasing I-10 to 18 freaking lanes. At the same time, they've hired George Foreman as a spokesperson to increase ridership.



A situation worth watching.

On Myanmar

I've needed to write this for a few days now.

From The Rude Pundit:

What's occurring right now in Myanmar, post-cyclone, is nothing short of the slow-creep beginning of a genocide. When a nation's leaders willfully keep aid provided by humanitarian and relief agencies, governmental and non-governmental, from the desperate, starving, dying people who need it, then that nation's leaders want large numbers of people to die.

Right now, in addition to the complete fucking abomination that is the junta's refusal to allow the wave of aid workers needed for the devastated nation, there are credible allegations that the regime is hoarding high quality food from relief shipments for itself and the military while giving the citizens poor quality or spoiled food. 'Cause, you see, if you run a country with the military, then you better fuckin' feed the military first, or revolution is gonna happen. That's 400,000 members of the military and roughly a couple of million family members. Yeah, the people of the Irrawaddy Delta are fucked.

We're at a likely 100,000 or more dead, at least a million homeless. Bodies are polluting the rivers, bloated corpses bumping into sewage and debris. If there's an uprising by people who are watching their kids starve to death, the well-fed military will take care of that. Otherwise, it's just kick back in the bunkers of Naypyidaw and wait for those bastards who dared to defy the junta to get their fill of cholera. You can goddamn well bet there's gonna be a paucity of monks in Burma come summer...

I blasted Laura Bush the other day for her utterly unnecessary comments on the Myanmar situation, noting that no Bush or Bushist should ever comment on anyone else's response to a disaster without mentioning New Orleans in the same breath. I still believe that.

The Myanmar leadership have taken the Bushists' incompetence and criminal negligence and are turning it into outright genocide of their own people.

Thugs? Still evil, however.

Boiled In Oil

From Moonbootica at Eschaton:

http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2008/05/review-mind-of-market-by-michael.html

The average American, likewise, looks at the inequalities and injustices of our corporatist economic system, made possible by massive state intervention on behalf of organized capital, and sees it defended as the "free market." And his response is the same: "If this is the free market, I'll go to hell."

Case in point: A local contract worker was, and I shit you NOT, literally boiled in oil here. Because he was a contract worker, all of the health care and money he will ever get is from the Worker's Compensation fund, due to a recent decision by the State Supreme Court:

Eiland says big business had already been pushing a law that would shield them from contract employee accident claims in Texas, but, “Since 1995, there have been five attempts,” he said. “Five times, shot down.”

So, without the legislature’s help, experts say industry began focusing on another possibility: the Texas Supreme Court and the case of Entergy vs. Summers.

It’s where they finally succeeded.

In the case, the judges ruled that if Texas companies bought a certain type of worker’s compensation insurance, they were protected from contract worker lawsuits stemming from injury.

Eiland’s reaction?

“My initial reaction was ‘they didn’t do this,’” he said.

"If this is the free market, I'll go to hell."

Adventures In Dinnertime - Flank Steak

Reading through the Chronicle on Sunday, the Red Queen comes across a tasty-looking recipe that she insists that I cook for her. Flank steak - since the picture of red meat set her little carnivore heart aflutter.

Of course, says I.

What could be the problem with flank steak? It requires a marinade.

What could be the problem with the marinade? It requires balsamic vinegar, to which the Red Queen, bless her little contrary heart, is allergic.

Natually, in my eagerness to please (an unfortunate tendency which I continue to try to stamp out) and my utter joy at finding something that she'll freaking eat, I go for it, forgetting the dietary restrictions, like an idiot.

The wheezing, it haunts me still.

Why "Speed Racer"?

The Red Queen and I were over at Target the other day, and there was an entire wall of Speed Racer stuff.

Including a Speed Racer helmet.

That made "vroom-vroom" noises.

My inner nine-year-old simply fell to the floor.

That's why "Speed Racer".


Christina Ricci on Leno:

Republicans Are Evil™ - Laura's Turn

From attaturk

http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2008/05/not-even-phoning-it-in.html

7:58 a.m.: By e-mail, the White House Communications Office sends out its "Morning Update." It lists two events on Bush's schedule for the entire day: a "Social Dinner in Honor of Cinco de Mayo" and, an hour later, post-dinner entertainment. To react to the main news of the day -- thousands of deaths from the cyclone in Burma -- Bush sends his wife out to make a statement. She criticizes the Burmese government for its failure "to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm's path" and "to meet its people's basic needs." Reporters, too tactful to draw parallels to New Orleans, quiz her instead about daughter Jenna's wedding, and the names of future grandchildren. "George and Georgia, Georgina, Georgette," the first lady says.

Not gonna say it.
Not gonna say it.
Not gonna say it.

*snap*

DO YOU MEAN, LIKE NEW ORLEANS?!?!?

You have to give it to Barbara - she picked as heinous a bitch as she could possibly find to be Shrub's spouse.

Suddenly, I'm not so worried...

Suddenly, I'm not so worried about the so-called "division of the party" and whether or not Clinton voters will abandon the Democratic Party if Obama is the nominee:

In one ad run against Cazayoux, Republicans said, "A vote for Don Cazayoux is a vote for Barack Obama and [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi." Another also brought up Obama and Pelosi, who had also been discussed in Boehner's strategy presentation. "Is Obama right for Louisiana? Is Pelosi? You decide," that ad said.

But on Saturday, Cazayoux won his race, taking over a seat held by Republicans for years.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Lost at the Start

Interesting article at Salon this morning that indicates that once again, we were right all along: Hillary lost at the beginning.

By using her "inevitability" as her main strength, and by playing to the mainstream Dems' old-school tendency to take the black vote for granted, she lost valuable votes that could have been making the difference for her now.

It's important to note that Obama was never inevitable, not even amongst black voters. Black voters would certainly never vote for an obvious puppet or token (look at the various Thug attempts to put forward a Black candidate), but they (we) only came aboard as became clear that his campaign was a legitimate concern in its own right.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/05/05/clinton_blackvote/