A Spork in the Drawer

A Bit Of Stanley Kubrick

Club, Chicago, 1949


Yes, that Stanley Kubrick.

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The Crazy Won't Quit...

...even if Caribou Barbie has:

In an extraordinary four-page letter, Alaska-based attorney Thomas Van Flein warns of severe consequences should speculation that until now has largely been confined to blogs about whether Palin embezzled funds in the construction of a Wasilla, Alaska, sports arena find its way into print.

“This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law,” Van Flein warned, citing Alaska liberal blogger Shannyn Moore.

Unless Mr. Van Flein obtained his JD from a box of Cap'n Crunch™ he knows that the Wasilla Whackjob has no case. Of course, the real purpose of this is to intimidate a blogger who probably can't afford to defend herself.

Also.

[Via Steve Benen.]

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Independence Day Palate Cleanser

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Gov. Moose-For-Brains Quits Mid-Term

Weird.

BooMan: "Her speech was totally incoherent and made more odd by the loud ducks in the background."

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ADDED: She's certifiable:

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Programming Note

Real Life has intruded with a vengeance.

Make of that what you will.

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Ossification

This is something I've been thinking about lately, particularly this item:

3. Norms and practices. Bloggers have undermined the blogosphere. Bloggers do not link to each other as much as they used to. It's a lot of work to look for good posts elsewhere, and most bloggers have become burnt out. Drezner and Farrell had a theory that even small potato bloggers would have their day in the sun, if they wrote something so great that it garnered the attention of the big guys. But the big guys are too burnt out to find the hidden gems. So, good stuff is being written all the time, and it isn't bubbling to the top.

I appreciate all the points and I can't say any of this surprises me but the blogosphere has changed and become a less vibrant and less interesting place.

[Via Kevin Drum.]

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Adding, I also think that opposition to Republicans in general and the BushCheney regime in particular was an energizing force but now with Democrats controlling Congress and the White House it's becoming obvious that said Democrats are little better than those they replaced. This has a dispiriting effect.

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Your Liberal Media

I have to admit that despite my deep-seated cynicism this has left me stunned:

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff."

The offer — which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters — is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.

The smart thing would be to assume that anything one reads in the WaPo is pure propaganda.

DougJ writes:

It’s time to stop pretending that elite national media does anything other than represent wealthy interests, isn’t it?

This is an astounding development.

[Via Romenesko.]

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60 And Done

And thus begins The Al Franken Decade.

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Update: Norm throws in the towel.

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To The Highest Bidder

Republicans effectively eliminate the Federal Elections Commission.

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Republican Math

In a 5-4 decision all 9 Supreme Court justices voted against Sonia Sotomayor.

We should call this "Base-Republican Mathematics."

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Everything Old Is New Again

Bush 2.0:

President Obama signed the $106 billion war-spending bill into law Friday, but not without taking a page from his predecessor and ignoring a few elements in the legislation.

Obama included a five-paragraph signing statement with the bill, including a final paragraph that outlined his objections to at least four areas of the bill.

[...]

The Obama administration announced in the statement it would disregard provisions of the legislation that, among other things, would compel the Obama administration to pressure the World Bank to strengthen labor and environmental standards and require the Treasury department to report to Congress on the activities of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Three months ago:

In another effort to undo acts by the previous administration, President Obama issued a memo Monday instructing executive branch officials to ignore Bush administration signing statements, the written assertions presidents sometimes make when signing bills that raise constitutional questions.

At the same time, Obama cited the guidelines he would follow in issuing his own signing statements.

He signaled that, unlike President George W. Bush, he would not use signing statements to do end runs around Congress. [emphasis added]

Feeling the hopenchange yet?

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A Bit Of Robert Demachy

Female Nude, ca. 1900-1910


Robbert Demachy at Wikipedia
Pictorialism
How to make a bromoil print

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