A Spork in the Drawer

New Dog Whistle

posted by gyma

Obama can't win.

Rachel Maddow addressed the topic on last night's show when she compared the blowback Obama is getting from his talk at the National Prayer Breakfast this week (specifically the part about how Christianity teaches us that the rich owe something to the poor) and Rick Santorum dressing down a child and later a woman who wanted to know what he would do to make life-saving drugs more affordable.

Here's Orrin Hatch's take on Obama's attempt at telling the Prayer Breakfast attendees how his faith informs his policy:

"Someone needs to remind the President that there was only one person who walked on water and he did not occupy the Oval Office," said Hatch during a speech he made from the Senate floor. "I think most Americans would agree that the Gospels are concerned with weightier matters than effective tax rates."

I think Hatch needs to re-read those Gospels.

 

Opening Today

posted by gyma

Pink Ribbons, Inc.

I'll go out on a limb and say this won't help the scumbags running the Susan G. Komen corporate-shilling organization.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to put my feelings about this group into words. My sister died of breast cancer in 2007 leaving behind two teenaged daughters and an OB-GYN husband who also performs abortions. We've never been impressed by the pinkwashing bullshit and in some ways I'm glad it's finally being investigated.

Please tell everyone you know to go see this movie. 

 

Victory?!

The twitters tell me that Komen has apologized, restored PP funding.

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Yep. A win in and of itself but this doesn't change the fact that Komen still shills for the chemical industry and works to keep cancer drugs expensive because of their "partnership" with Big Pharma. Which is to say, they always were a lousy organization and that basic fact hasn't changed.

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Impressive

Mad haxx0r skillz:

Hackers from the Anonymous group have hacked into a private conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard, accessing details of a major international cybercrime investigation, the FBI has confirmed.

The FBI and Scotland Yard confirmed that the security of the call – between the FBI, the Yard, and, it is understood, someone from MI5 – had been breached.

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What Do We Want? Eternal War!

Shorter WaPo Crayon-Scribble Page: Until all of Afghanistan has been turned into a nice, polite suburban subdivision we must stay, and fight, and die, and spend. And we never should have left Iraq, dammit.

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No, Really?

S.E.C. Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks

My gob, it is smacked.

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Not-Horrible News

Jobs.

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Komen-E

Good for the New York Times (and, as much as I hate to say it, Michael Bloomberg). This is telling:

Mr. Stearns’s “investigation” is nothing more than a political witch hunt, stirred up by Republican leaders and by a right-wing antichoice group, Americans United for Life, which now displays the pink ribbon on its Web site as part of a fund-raising campaign for Komen.

If Brinker and Handel want to turn their organization into yet another far-right Christianist group I suppose that's their business. And until the big corporate sponsors decide there's too much heat her, they might get away with it.

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Republican Endorsements

posted by gyma

So who got the bigger endorsement today? The "You're Fired!" short-fingered vulgarian's nod to Mittens or Sharron a chicken-in-every-waiting-room Angle's shout out to Rick Santorum?

To celebrate the good news, here's a Stephen Crowley (NYT) photo of Rick Santorum being the blah person in front of a crowd of very sleepy and obviously bored black people.d He's even brought one woman to tears!

(photo Stephen Crowley/NYT)

This photo should become an instant classic.

And There We Go

Komen goes after embyonic stem cells.

Next?

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We Shall Not Lack For Trains

Fans of the critically acclaimed world-wide mega-hit Atlas Shrugged: Part I can now know that their long wait shall soon be over as the creative genius behind that award-winning film has decided to emerge from Galt's Gulch and grace us with Atlas Shrugged: Part II.

Be sure to say hello to Rep. Paul Ryan at the concession stand!

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If I Squint Hard Enough

posted by gyma

Oh, who am I kidding? No matter how much I squint I just don't see it. But as we all know, Newtie lives on another planet somewhere far, far away.

Hahahahah. Newt wants Brad Pitt to play him in the movie of his life.

The Goods

Jeffrey Goldberg:

But three sources with direct knowledge of the Komen decision-making process told me that the rule was adopted in order to create an excuse to cut-off Planned Parenthood. (Komen gives out grants to roughly 2,000 organizations, and the new "no-investigations" rule applies to only one so far.) The decision to create a rule that would cut funding to Planned Parenthood, according to these sources, was driven by the organization's new senior vice-president for public policy, Karen Handel, a former gubernatorial candidate from Georgia who is staunchly anti-abortion and who has said that since she is "pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood." (The Komen grants to Planned Parenthood did not pay for abortion or contraception services, only cancer detection, according to all parties involved.) I've tried to reach Handel for comment, and will update this post if I speak with her.

The decision, made in December, caused an uproar inside Komen. Three sources told me that the organization's top public health official, Mollie Williams, resigned in protest immediately following the Komen board's decision to cut off Planned Parenthood. Williams, who served as the managing director of community health programs, was responsible for directing the distribution of $93 million in annual grants. Williams declined to comment when I reached her yesterday on whether she had resigned her position in protest, and she declined to speak about any other aspects of the controversy.

More at the link, including Komen internal memos.

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Your Liberal Media

Erick Erickson, the pride of CNN:

[Y]ou should just watch this video, if you go to wtpo.com you can watch it, I won't play it on the radio because the number of F-bombs the guy just starts yelling as they're tazing him . . hahahah . . ahh, but watching that hippy protester get tazed just made my day, wtpo.com, you can watch it for yourself, it is just made of awesome.

Try and imagine what it would have been like if Joseph Goebbels had had modern media technology in 1931. Wait, now you don't have to!

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And don't "Godwin" me, bro: if you think the Brownshirts wouldn't have been broadcasting this exact sort of thing, then hie thee to some history books.

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So It Wasn't Just My Imagination!

I've been feeling so much safer of late and now I know why:

The size of the US government's secret list of suspected terrorists who are banned from flying to or within the country has more than doubled in the past year.

The no-fly list jumped from about 10,000 known or suspected terrorists one year ago to about 21,000, according to government figures. About 500 are US nationals.

Hurrah for making us safer!

And I'm sure none of those terrorists are simply British tourists who use Twitter; our Government is only after the Bad Guys!

And in even better news, which will no doubt also make us safer, soon you will be able to pay a private company money and be able to fly (heh, see what I did there?) right through those airport security lines! No more forced-mixing with the poors!

Ain't America grand?

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Logic Failure

Kevin Drum:

I'm unhappy with the creeping growth of religious conscience exemptions to public policy, and this affects my belief that such exemptions ought to be pretty limited. I can live with exceptions for abortion, for example, but not contraception.

Mr. Milquetoast strikes again!

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WTF Wednesday

posted by gyma

This week's WTF comes from FOX News. If you're wondering what to have for dinner tonight, may I suggest the following recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 Large red bell pepper, stemmed and seeded
• 1 Onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 Clove garlic, germ removed, thinly sliced
• 1 Sprig thyme
• 1/4 Cup Water
• 2 Tablespoon Olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon Capers, rinsed
• Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Lamb testicles, prepared
• 2 Tablespoon Flour
• 1 Egg, beaten
• 2/3 Cup Fresh bread crumbs
• 2 Tablespoon Unsalted butter
• 1 Tablespoon Chopped flat-leaf parsley

Preparation

Step 1:

Cut the pepper into quarters and then slice thinly from the shorter side. Place the pepper, onion, garlic, thyme, water, and olive oil in a frying pan. Cover, place over medium heat, and cook for 10 minutes, or until the vegetables soften. Remove the thyme, stir in the capers, and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Step 2:

Cut the testicles into 1/2-inch slices and season with salt and pepper. Place the flour in a shallow dish, pour the egg into another shallow dish, and place the bread crumbs in a third shallow dish. Toss the slices of testicles in the flour, then in the egg, and then coat well with the bread crumbs.

Step 3:

In a frying pan over medium heat, melt the butter. When it begins to foam, add the breaded testicles and cook until golden, about 4 minutes on each side.

Step 4:

Meanwhile, reheat the onion and pepper mixture, add the parsley, and spoon onto a warm serving plate. Top with the crisp golden testicle slices and serve.

Funny, but I've never seen lamb testicles for sale at my grocery store. You?

 

"I'm Not Concerned With The Very Poor"

Duncan calls it right:

I think it's important to understand what Mitt's saying here. He isn't saying fuck the poor. He's saying that the really poor actually have it really really good! The government basically gives them free cars and housing and medical care and food stamps they can use at the liquor store etc. The rest of you struggling to get by, you don't get anything. In fact, the really poor (and we know who they are) are taking your hard earned money.

This is truly going to be an ugly year (and longer than that).

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Prediction

At some point in the future corporations and wealthy individuals will decide that "being forced" to spend so much money on elections is too damaging to their bottom lines and will work to get rid of them entirely.

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Susan G. Komen Foundation

Jen details how the "Pink Ribbon" people have been corrupt for quite a while now.

And TBogg shows that one of the top people at the Komen Foundation is a Sarah Palin acolyte.

It will be fun when the Fundies decide that only sluts and harlots get breast cancer and go after the Komen Foundation itself. Don't think it can't happen.

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The Copyright Wars

Erik writes on the emerging pernicious side-effects of the shutdown of Megaupload. Without taking a stand on file-sharing, I do want to point out this comment:

I would like to see copyright law rewritten to set forth not only the rights of copyright holders, but also the RESPONSIBILITIES: namely, if you can’t be bothered to make your material available, charging what price the market will bear, you should lose copyright protection for that work.

This is exactly right. Most works classified as entertainment will never make the transition from one format to a newer one and thus will no longer be available. If they're no longer available, then nobody is losing a penny by the "piracy" of these works, and copyright ceases to be relevant. I suppose one could argue that any work could one day be revived but the number of times that happens likely approaches zero.

But I remember watching an interview a long time ago with the great Chuck Jones. Jones told of how he had gotten word that Warner Brothers was going to burn the cels the made up the classic WB cartoons - Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the like - so he went to the appropriate person at the studio and volunteered, with his own money, to take the cels and save them. The response was, of course, No. Jones then offered to raise the money to buy the cels outright and save them. The answer? You guessed it. Those invaluable cels were burned.

The point is power and control. Which is why copyright law will not be reformed in our lifetimes. If anything, that power and control will become even more rigid.

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Nations Are Dumb

Perhaps we'll have a Falkland Islands War II to entertain us. Hey, it's what "made" Maggie Thatcher; Davey Cameron is looking like he needs a bit of help.

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I Agree With The Mittens!

posted by gyma

Agreeing with Mitt on this issue most certainly makes me a very, very bad person.

Jonathan Chait:

Romney’s disdain for the electorate is one of his more deeply rooted traits. During his father’s 1968 presidential campaign, Romney wrote, “how can the American public like such muttonheads?”

I find that contempt pretty well-founded, and it is a relief that Romney does not believe the nonsense he spouts during the campaign. But the persistent awkwardness of Romney’s campaign style reflects this basic tension. It’s easy to try to persuade somebody for whom you have basic respect. It’s persuading somebody whom you consider stupid — while you must conceal any trace of your disdain — that’s excruciatingly difficult. Romney’s awkward manner on the trail is the agony of suppressed contempt.

Actually, I think muttonheads is tame in comparison to how I describe most Republicans/Tea Partiers. I wonder what Mitt would call them if he thought he could get away with it?

This Is What The Future Looks Like

posted by gyma

Starbucks already has 500 stores in China and is on the verge of opening its first store in India. As consumers, it's only a matter of time before we'll no longer be needed and then the 1%ers will be able to do whatever the hell they want.

Or so they think.

Touché

posted by gyma

Well done.

State Senator Janet Howell, a Democrat from Fairfax (VA), attached an amendment that would require all men to have a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test before obtaining a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication to a bill that requires women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion.

Sadly, the amendment was rejected, but the vote was close.

And Yet, They Haven't Hit Bottom

Of all the political insanity over the past few years - really, the past couple of decades - the absolute weirdest is the idea that Obama can't string two words together without the help of a teleprompter. Besides pointing out the obvious, the irony is that at conservative confabs, Republican politicians and pundits will unironically tell Obama-teleprompter jokes that they are reading off of...teleprompters.

Of course, perhaps it isn't so weird if you start with the premise that a black guy can't be smart enough to be easy with words. Perhaps.

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Only The Little People Have To Obey Copyright Laws

posted by gyma

I don't know why this didn't come up a couple of weeks ago when we were all protesting SOPA. Gingrich certainly isn't the first politician to use a campaign song in violation of copyright law. But it is telling that politicians are more than willing to dictate to the rest of us what we can/can't do as long as it doesn't apply to them!

Newt Gingrich, fighting for the Republican Party’s nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, was sued for unauthorized use of “Eye of the Tiger,” the Grammy-winning theme song from “Rocky III.”

Too bad there isn't an eye of the newt song out there.

Primary Tuesday!

Republicans: just pick someone already so it can be over.

Thanks bunches.

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Robbing Peter To Pay Paul

posted by gyma

Or in this case: robbing students to pay overcompensated academic windbags. Even the Regents at the University of Colorado are unhappy about being lied to last year when they agreed to a 9.3% tuition hike. They believed some of the money raised by the tuition hike would be used as a merit-based salary pool to reward overperforming faculty and staff.

But what did CU do with the money?

They increased the Chancellor's salary from $340,000 to $389,000 because it's hard to find a good Chancellor these days.They also gave the freakin' Human Resources Director a $30,000 raise, increasing her salary to $240,000.

In addition to these two, 7 more top administrators received pay raises in excess of $10,000.

So what are they going to do now? Ask for a 15.7% increase in tuition next year, because lord knows you can't live comfortably on $390K!

Here's An Excellent Use For Post-Its

posted by gyma

I actually have a post-it note covering the lens on my computer's webcam. I put it there a couple of weeks ago when I was setting up a webinar and didn't want to see myself on the monitor. I left it there and since reading this article in GQ, I'll likely not remove it.

Not that I ever do anything at my computer or in my office I wouldn't want broadcast to millions of viewers.

This is a very scary story about hacking into computers with webcams and virtually stalking you. This guy was so good he knew everything about the people he hacked. He had access to not only a view of the room where the computer was, but also helped himself to everything on the hard drive and remotely installed keystroke logging software so he could access password-protected accounts. He also claimed to have figured out a way to disable the glowing LED light so you'd never know when he was watching.

By the time authorites tracked down the hacker he had amassed over 15,000 webcam-video captures, 900 audio recordings, and 13,000 screen captures from more than 230 victims.

As 'smart' as this guy was he did one thing wrong. He failed to protect his identity when registering domain names!

Would Livestreaming Voters In The Act Prevent Voter Fraud?

posted by gyma

Vladimir Putin seems to think so. Or he has a financial interest in the company that will be doing the livestreaming. He's talking about installing more than 90,000 web cameras at polling stations at a cost of $840 million. (I'm thinking about investing in web camera technology!)

I expect Republicans to introduce similar legislation any day now.

Magic Underwear Not Belonging To Mitt

posted by gyma

For some reason unbeknownst to us, Newtie isn't going after Mitt's magic underwear. But once Rush Limbaugh hears the claim that Michelle Obama spent $50K on lingerie, all hell's gonna break loose.

At least she isn't using taxpayer money for it! And as far as we know, the only people benefiting from it are the POTUS and FLOTUS.

And like most things about the Obamas, it's probably hogwash.

Warped At An Early Age

posted by gyma

This politician was warped at a very early age and not much has changed since then. As the story goes, one of his young friends would pretend to beat him up and leave him crumpled at the curb. When cars would stop to see what was wrong, this prankster would jump up and yell, "Surprise!". It was so much fun they'd do it over and over and over again.

(photo/Robin Nelson/ZUMA)

Guess who?

This Crap Just Pisses Me Off

posted by gyma

Must be a rounding error:

(CNN) -- The U.S. Defense Department cannot account for about $2 billion it was given to cover Iraq-related expenses and is not providing Iraq with a complete list of U.S.-funded reconstruction projects, according to two new government audits.

[snip]

The Iraqi government in 2004 gave the Department of Defense access to about $3 billion to pay bills for certain contracts, and the department can only show what happened to about a third of that, the inspector general says in an audit published Friday.

Republicans, of course, want us all to believe Obama is gutting, gutting the military. Considering the sloppy handling of their budget, perhaps this is a good thing.

 

There Are Nice Libertarian Islands Being Built For People Like That

Athenae.

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Because It's Sunday

posted by gyma

Lookin' for redemption? Here ya go!

I'm thinking that's a mirror on Jesus' belly. If not, this is the first pregnant Jesus I've ever seen!

And if you think this is a joke, you'd be dead wrong.

Saturday Palate Cleanser

Milk gives you pep and energy!

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Words, They Are A-Written

George Fwill:

Obama, an unfettered executive wielding a swollen state [...]

People marching in serried ranks [...]

fused into a solid mass by the heat of martial ardor [...]

proceeding in lock step [...]

obedient to orders from a commanding officer [...]

Mr. Will also uses the word "equipoise", which isn't common, and clearly indicates intelligence, even verbosity, and has nothing to do with horses.

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Id

What fuels them:

"I think it’s about time the Republican Party put somebody up not because it’s their turn,” said Carroll Jaskulski, 63, who works in real estate, “but somebody who will get in the opposition’s face."

[...]

“I got up out of my couch when he did what he did in South Carolina,” said Stephanie Garlin, 49, a real estate agent in Fort Lauderdale, recalling a standing ovation for Mr. Gingrich. “There’s something I feel about that man — that he has the strength and the ability and the forcefulness to win this election.”

Feeling important is what's important.

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"Chuck"

Did Fedak and Schwartz intend us to hate the last five years of our lives?

The invasion of Italy back in '43 was less painful.

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Sweet, Sweet Music

posted by gyma

I saw this the other day somewhere else and failed to bookmark it. I don't know that much about Steve Schmidt other than he was an advisor to the Grandpa Walnuts 2008 presidential campaign. Failed presidential campaign, I might add.

Regardless, he sat down and talked to Rachel Maddow recently and had this to say about Newtie:

Not only are we not moving toward a coalescing of support with the establishment of Newt Gingrich, we're probably moving toward a declaration of war on Newt Gingrich by the Republican establishment. And if Newt Gingrich is able to win the Florida primary, you will see a panic and a meltdown of the Republican establishment that is beyond my ability to articulate in the English language. [emphasis added]

People will go crazy. And you will have this five week period until the Super Tuesday states that will be just as unpredictable, tumultuous as any period in modern American politics. It will be a remarkable thing to watch, should that happen in Florida.

Heh. Popcorn, anyone?

 

I'll Give The Right This

They forced me to read Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.

I fail to see what the hubbub is.

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