Posts from — February 2008

No Blue Eyes For You

Forget it, we know about the light, Flashboy.

[Editor: Excise, sprawled on a blanket older than I am, managed to close his eyes every time I took a picture.]

Friday Ark

Eric Alterman had a bit about a brokered convention from The Note [like The View, but not as serious] and then I started hearing Repub concern trolls talking about what a terrible disadvantage it was to only have two months of campaigning left after the convention in August, while John McCain is the Republican nominee now.

First off, in most of the civilized democracies on the planet the elections are six weeks, from start to finish. Second, normal people aren’t is paying any attention until the last two weeks of October. Third, no one has the money to run ads for the entire 8 weeks, much less longer. Fourth, a real convention will generate a lot more coverage and media time than a coronation. Fifth, this thing has been going on so long now, what in hell can anyone say about any of the candidates that hasn’t already been said?

Think about it. The Repub race is over, McCain won, why cover the non-race. On the Democratic side there is still competition, so fire everyone who was covering the other Republican candidates, and only cover the Democratic story. McCain drops off the shows and disappears, and it’s all Democrats all the time among the talking heads.

What exactly is the down side?

Because they can’t tolerate not getting money from every possible human need, Wal-Mart to open in-store medical clinics

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will open its first in-store medical clinics under its own brand name after leasing space in dozens of stores to outside companies that operate the quick-service health stops.

The world’s largest retailer said Thursday it will open “The Clinic at Wal-Mart” as a joint venture with local hospital systems in Atlanta, Dallas and Little Rock, Ark., starting in April.

I wonder if they’ll run specials on things like broken bones, you know, 20% off after the end of football season. Medical care as a commodity – this is what we’ve come to. How long before there’s a self-service aisle, or you need a barcode tattoo for billing? How many insurance companies are going to require you use them?

By throwing those needing heating assistance or use food stamps or are unemployed overboard, Harry Reid managed to grovel his way to a $170 billion stimulus package, the House has since passed it and sent the bill to the Shrubbery.

When do the Democrats get to win one Harry? Is it too much to ask after we organized a Democratic majority in the Senate, that the party occasionally wins a vote?

Rightwingers React

In a move that surprised everyone as it shows a unsuspected connection to reality by a Republican candidate, CNN reports Romney suspends presidential campaign:

(CNN) — Mitt Romney suspended his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday, saying if he continued it would “forestall the launch of a national campaign and be making it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win.”

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is suspending his campaign.

“In this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror. This is not an easy decision. I hate to lose,” the former Massachusetts governor said.

“If this were only about me, I’d go on. But it’s never been only about me. I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, in this time of war I feel I have to now stand aside for our party and for our country.”

Romney made the announcement Thursday afternoon at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

I’m quite sure that the attendees at CPAC have nothing to worry about as there is absolutely no proof that John McCain intends to draft college Republicans for his hundred year war, or that he intends to allow ayatollah Huckabee enshrine his interpretation of the Bible in the the Constitution when he becomes Secretary of Religion in the McCain administration.

Update: Here’s an interactive CNN map of affected areas.

Excuse me, while I open a space in the political discussion to point out something beyond the primaries on Tuesday – a powerful series of thunderstorms ripped through the Mid-South with tornadoes that killed at least 54 56 people and injured hundreds. They have been promised help by George W. Bush, which I can tell you as someone who lives in an area struck by hurricane Ivan in 2004 and knows what the Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas Gulf Coast still looks like after Katrina and Rita in 2005, is not going to happen any time soon.

With so many states involved, many of the mutual assistance agreements, with sharing of manpower and resources, is overwhelmed. One of the tornadoes stayed on the ground to plow a 25 mile long ditch in Tennessee. People are hurting, and it would be in the best traditions of liberals, Democrats, and “hippies” to help them out.

Monkeyfister live-blogged the storms, and has the links for direct assistance. A lot of our neighbors in the Mid-South became instantly homeless, jobless, and foodless. It would be a good thing to do for your karma to put aside politics for a short time and walk the walk. Everyone knows that we can talk the talk.

[crossposted at the American Street]

Year of the Yellow Rat

Chinese New Year
[Spring Festival]

The Associated Press is reporting that GOP senators block alternative stimulus plan

WASHINGTON – The fate of $600-$1,200 rebate checks for more than 100 million Americans is in limbo after Senate Republicans blocked a bid by Democrats to add $44 billion in help for the elderly, disabled veterans, the unemployed and businesses to the House-passed economic aid package.

Make them talk. If they want to filibuster, make them filibuster. Keep the Senate open and make quorum calls. Make the Repubs put up or shut up. This is a much better stimulus package than the dishwater House bill, and a filibuster stalls progress on everything else, including the telecom amnesty bill, so make them talk.

I haven’t made it a secret that I am not a fan of Hillary Clinton, but let’s keep the record straight.

Dave Johnson at Seeing The Forest does the work on Hillary Clinton’s legal career: she was an intellectual property law specialist and did a lot of pro bono work on child advocacy, not a typical corporate attorney.

Another issue is that she was on the board of Wal-Mart from 1986 to 1992.

It would be hard to find anyone who dislikes today’s Wal-Mart more than I do. They are a destructive force that: hired “non-English-speaking workers” to build a “Supercenter” that sucked the life out of many of my favorite local merchants; stiffed a local city for tax abatements and infrastructure improvements when they built their original store; abuses their workers by not adequately staffing the store while maintaining a large roster of part-time employees to avoid paying benefits; etc. ad nauseum.

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$3,100,000,000,000

Now we are definitely talking unreal money. Not even Exxon or Bill Gates gets beyond Gigabucks. This is obscene.

Distributor Cap NY covers the lowlights on this latest example of budgeting with kazoo, pig’s bladder, and rubber chicken. [It needs more cow bell.]

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[For Kryten]

The last day before the beginning of Lent on the Gulf Coast that once belonged to France, it is Mardi Gras, “Fat Tuesday”: Laissez les bon temps rouler!

It was first celebrated [1703] in Mobile, Alabama, but the big show these days is in New Orleans, and it is a holiday in the state of Louisiana, because people wouldn’t show up for work anyway, so why fight it.

The tradition is to serve King cake [great recipe], which is a circle pastry with white frosting on top, sprinkled with sugar colored purple, gold, and green. If that weren’t bad enough, they now put the figurine of a baby in the dough [a dried bean is traditional], and whoever finds it in their piece is supposed to be lucky. Actually if you find it and don’t choke on it, I guess you are lucky. You should use a small ceramic figurine, as some of the cheap plastic versions melt in the oven [yummy].

Everyone should just forget about politics for a day and party…oh, wait, what idiot scheduled all of these primaries on Mardi Gras? Doesn’t anyone own a calendar any more?

Via Wampum I have learned that a fourth cable between the islands of Haloul and Das in the Persian Gulf is now down, although the word is that it is a power problem and not a physical break, like the other three.

Move along, citizens, nothing to see here…happens all the time…well, occasionally…OK, so three cables have never been out at the same time before, but nothing to be concerned about and it’s just a coincidence that they are all running from or affecting the same area.

Depending on whether you have ever been involved in one of these disasters, you are ready to laugh or to cry as the FBI eyes $1 billion surveillance deal:

CLARKSBURG, West Virginia (CNN) — The FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people’s physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better identify criminals and terrorists.

But it’s an issue that raises major privacy concerns — what one civil liberties expert says should concern all Americans.

The bureau is expected to announce in coming days the awarding of a $1 billion, 10-year contract to help create the database that will compile an array of biometric information — from palm prints to eye scans.

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