BunkoSquad

• raised doubts about even the most indisputable scientific evidence
• funded an array of front organizations to create the appearance of a broad platform for a tight-knit group of vocal climate change contrarians who misrepresent peer-reviewed scientific findings
• attempted to portray its opposition to action as a positive quest for "sound science" rather than business self-interest
• used its access to the Bush administration to block federal policies and shape government communications on global warming

Not that I'm against 60-degree days in January, mind you, but the time for "honest debate" about whether climate change is happening or not is gone. On one side, you have hundreds and hundreds of scientists; on the other, hacks that may or may not be on the take from the oil comapnies. Game over, man.

Posted by Michael at 02:58 PM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2007

Introducing BunkoSquad Polls

PS - Thank you David for the shoutout.

Posted by Michael at 05:05 PM | Comments (0)

January 01, 2007

A Hell of An Idea

Today on CNN.com:

Posted by Michael at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)

December 31, 2006

Romneymania

Very little this side of "attacked by velociraptors" could make me feel sorry for Mitt Romney, but it's a little pathetic watching his campaign catch fire like it's being sparked by Becky and Sundra. Four members of Romney's steering committee in Michigan (one of Mitt's eleven home states) are considering bailing out.

Why? Because he's an empty suit? Because he was as hard to find in Boston as a parking space this year?

No, it's because his "conservative credentials" are suspect. The problem is that, in order to win in Massachusetts, he had to voice the opinions that

• Gay people aren't all monsters, and
• Women might have brains in their heads,

which, of course, are positions you don't want to have attached to yourself if you hope to get anywhere in the Republican party. Thanks for playing, Mitt. You'll have all the vacation time you need now.

Posted by Michael at 11:50 AM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2006

Ah, The High Road

Upset that your civil rights are somehow being violated because you're not being allowed to violate the civil rights of others? Worried because every day, society advances a little further, and you start to look even more like a fossil than the day before?

What do you do?

You knock a woman to the ground, then say that you didn't do it, but if you did, it was her fault. Of course.

Boy, you guys just prove every day exactly how on the right side you are.

Posted by Michael at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2006

Lame Duck

December 12, 2006. It's the first time I've laughed anywhere the words "Mallard Fillmore". Not that drunk driving is funny.

But TBogg, Nitpicker, Sadly, No, and World O'Crap bring more funny in one day than Mallard Fillmore has brought in years. And let's once again remember the wonderful Gipper, the Talking Points Duck.

Posted by Michael at 02:48 PM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2006

Dumbass of the Decade

You assumed it would be George Bush, didn't you?

Well, there's a thundering in the distance, and it's the sound of Dennis Prager closing in on the President. I'd never heard of Prager until today, but his column today is a doozy. He says that Keith Ellison, new Congressman from Minnesota, and a practicing Muslim, must swear his oath on the Bible, and not the Koran, because not swearing in on the Bible is unAmerican.

And maybe it's unfair to lay the Dumbass crown solely on Prager and Prager alone. The list of trackbacks to this article reads like Knee-Jerk Wingnuts on Parade. Because if Ellison brings a book that, while holy to him, scares the easily-terrorized, it means we're only ten minutes away from Sharia Law. Aagh! Islamists hiding in the cupboard! When we said church and state are inseperable, we meant Christian faith!

What Prager and his legions of nitwits seem to forget is that Congressmen put their hands on the Bible and swear allegiance to the Constitution, and not the other way around.

Posted by Michael at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)

Meet Your Christians

The incoming President-to-be of the Christian Coalition, Rev. Joel C. Hunter, decided not to take the job after all. Seems he thought that Christians would be interested in things like fighting poverty and helping the environment. The board said, that's great, but we only really care about stopping abortion and gays.

Dare we hope that the Republican Party is completely splintering and disintegrating before our eyes?

(via AmericaBlog)

Posted by Michael at 07:33 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2006

I'm Already Laughing...On the Inside

Fox News is working on a weekly comedy show to provide a counterbalance to "The Daily Show". Because, man, if there's one thing conservatives know, it's the funny.

This is an excellent time to revisit Gipper, the Talking Points Duck.

Posted by Michael at 09:44 AM | Comments (2)

November 20, 2006

I Like A Man With Initiative

My hat's off to you, John Orman.

Step one: Watch Joe Lieberman form the "Connecticut For Lieberman" party to ease the pain of being rejected by his own party.
Step two: Switch your party registration from Democrat to Liebermanite.
You're the only one? Great! Step three:

"Then I went home and called a meeting of all registered Connecticut for Lieberman members to reflect on our party's victory in the U.S. Senate race (and) organize and submit rules to the secretary of the state," Orman said.

He nominated himself chairman, seconded the nomination, cast his vote for himself and proceeded to establish party rules.

Step four: .....?
Step five: Profit!

Posted by Michael at 08:22 AM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2006

Dear Bill O'Reilly

I see where you're trying to claim that your Fox is completely different than the Fox that's giving OJ Simpson a forum to hype his (what's the word for vile x 1000) book.

"For the record, Fox Broadcasting has nothing to do with the Fox News Channel."

Bill, you're going to have to relinquish the phrase "No Spin Zone". Because, frankly, if you spin this Foxtrocity any harder, you're at serious risk of completely shifting the earth's rotation.

KTHXBYE.

Posted by Michael at 09:28 PM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2006

Man of the Hour

I thought this was pretty obvious, but from comments on a couple other blogs I've read, I think it may need a little emphasis.

Democrats won Senate seats in Montana, Virginia, and Missouri. House seats in Arkansas and Wyoming. Forced Bush to campaign in Nebraska and Houston, which is like sending Al Gore to try to rally the folks in Cambridge.

And who said the Democratic Party had to be active in all 50 states? Who took flak for thinking Democrats had any business spending money in the South and the West? Who gave stupid Republicans all sorts of pathetic ammunition while he quietly went out and helped win Congress back?

Thanks, Howard. We owe you one.

Posted by Michael at 11:18 AM | Comments (1)

November 08, 2006

November 7th vs. October 27th

I can't help it. I've been walking around all day trying not to call attention to myself by laughing or doing little fist-pumps. I haven't felt this feeling of "things are going to be a lot different, and a lot better" since October 27, 2004.

And today and 10/27 had a lot in common. I could sort of let myself dream that it might happen, but didn't want to do anything to jinx it. I'd had my heart broken before, whether in 1986, 2003, or November 2000, but I kept hoping. There were foes - Red Birds in 2004, Red States yesterday - but I was a lot more worried about my side shooting itself in the foot than about anything the enemy could bring.

I'll still give the slight edge to 10/27, because I spent all that night calling everyone I knew. And because 86 years is a lot longer than six.

But I can't help feeling like Charle Brown, as his foot finally connects with that football.

Posted by Michael at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)

This Feels Good

Welcome back, America. Six years in a coma is a long time.

Posted by Michael at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2006

Jealousy

Today...

I kind of wish I lived in Virginia, so I could vote for Jim Webb against the vile George Allen.

I kind of wish I lived in the 4th District in Colorado, so I could vote for Angie Paccione against the hateful Marilyn Musgrave.

I kind of wish I lived in Pennsylvania, so I could vote for Bob Casey against the noxious Rick Santorum.

I kind of wish I lived in Connecticut, so I could vote for Ned Lamont against the craven Joe Lieberman.

Sure, I get to vote for Deval Patrick, and against the intelligence-insulting campaign style of Kerry Healey. And I get to make my perfunctory votes for Michael Capuano and Ted Kennedy. I can and will try to throw a monkey wrench by voting Jill Stein for Secretary of State. And I get to make my last-second decision whether I'm going to vote for (and spite the deceptive liquor store cabal) or against (to stick it to the woe-is-us big supermarket chains) the wine question.

But I can't help wish my role in the high stakes was a little larger.

Posted by Michael at 10:51 AM | Comments (1)

October 25, 2006

Political Miscellany

• An alert reader sent me to this commercial ripping apart the Bush Administration's recent decision to back away from their "stay the course" rhetoric.
• One Paul Henry has made an amazing Ken Burns-style documentary about the brave boys of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders. It's pretty long (and not even finished yet), but if you've read the warblogs for the last three years, it's definitely worth a look.
• I shy away from using the word "douchebag" willy-nilly, but Sean Hannity leaves me no choice.

  Hannity, who does a show for ABC Radio that reaches 13 million people a week as well as a television show for Fox News, said his shows give politicians the opportunity for "real interviews, not soundbites" -- the sort of unfiltered access to voters that mainstream media don't offer.

  Dude. You have a show on ABC radio and one on Fox News. Sean Hannity complaining about mainstream media is like Sean Hannity complaining about egomaniacal idiots.
• I had considered voting for Grace Ross for governor, just because I see the need for something other than the 2-party system. But I'm absolutely going to vote for Deval Patrick, because I want to help create such a lopsided landslide that no Republican in Massachusetts will ever again think they can win on a vapid, misleading campaign of fear and racism. Even the empty-suit Mitt Romney ran a better campaign, thanks to Lank Thompson.

That's all for now.

Posted by Michael at 11:47 PM | Comments (2)

October 15, 2006

Get Lost, Mitt

Seriously. The only things that make you actually show your face in the state you allegedly govern are disasters and antigay rallies. What a stand-up guy.

So the ridiculous Family Research Council chose a rally in Boston to show to all their friends at churches nationwide the horrible effects gay marriage has wrought on the Commonwealth. Horrible effects like....well, I can't think of any. But clearly there are some, because if this is a big enough issue to bring the Governor to Boston, there must be some compelling reason.

Mitt told the rabid religious crowd that "activist judges struck a blow to the foundation of civilization -- the family". Again, I haven't heard of one family in Massachusetts dissolving because of gay marriage, but what do I know, I've only been in Massachusetts this whole time and not going to fundraisers in South Carolina.

Romney continued, "What (the judges) ignored is that marriage is not primarily about adults, marriage is about the nurturing and development of children ... every child deserves a mother and a father." Actually, Mitt, as someone in charge of state government, you ought to be aware that marriage is a legal contract issued by the state. You can look over the relevant laws if you like; I didn't see anything there about children. But the facts are certainly on your side; that is, assuming you're running for President in 1952.

Tony Perkins, head of the noxious FRC, said, "When we look at what has happened with same-sex marriage, as it began in this state and threatens to spread across the country, we've seen in its wake the loss of religious freedoms and the ability to speak out based upon one's moral convictions." Again, he has no actual examples of anything happening, but since he spends all his days researching families, I'm sure he has some concrete evidence.

And Mr. Perkins, I'm going to go ahead and speak out based upon my moral convictions. You are a first-class bigot and liar, and history will soon see you as a fossil. And if Americans have any sense at all, they'll soon send you and Governor Mitt into the irrelevance you so richly deserve.

Posted by Michael at 10:23 PM | Comments (6)

July 18, 2006

Lunch Update

It's not every day you're asked to volunteer to go pick up lunch for a former U.S. Vice-President. So there I was, at one of Cambridge's finest restaurants, fetching a steak and salad for Al Gore, who was signing books at my bookstore this afternoon.

And to answer your questions: medium; no, he's not a hippie vegetarian; yes, he likes Caesar salad; no, it's not cool to hang around and watch him eat; yes, I hope he runs again; yes, I'll vote for him this time if he does.

I also got to help Toscanini's come up with Gore-related flavor names. They used "Gore-Liebermint" and "Senate Strawberry", but space limitations ruled out "I Invented the Internut".

Posted by Michael at 10:35 PM | Comments (1)

June 22, 2006

Mmmmmm....Cake......

Just in case you had any doubt about who your government is and isn't representing, some of this week's headlines:

* US House votes to cut the estate tax
* Senate Republicans block boost in minimum wage
* House lawmakers accept $3,300 pay hike

Anyone know what time the next French Revolution is scheduled?

Posted by Michael at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)

June 01, 2006

Never Forget. Sort Of.

Remember September 11, 2001?

Remember how "everything changed" that day, and how America would "never forget" what happened that day?

Yeah, well.

Two bits of news yesterday. First, we learn that NYC's first responders that day are getting sick and dying. I guess when you're spending days sorting through the ruins of skyscrapers and jets, you get exposed to toxic chemicals. Of course, the White House downplayed any concerns about air quality (scroll down to #7), which is bad enough. But John Viciguerra, a 38-year-old FDNY Medic who's developed lung disease, said:

"I was denied workman's compensation. They told me that too much time had passed since 9/11."

Which, admittedly, is a New York City issue and not a federal government issue. But the federal government joined in the parade yesterday, announcing that they are cutting funding that would help keep major cities protected and ready for future attacks. I was expecting to read that funds had been diverted to protect ski resorts and Mormon temples, but no - they're just cutting money across the board. (They are giving more money to Louisville, though, so I guess the terrorists won't be hitting next year's Kentucky Derby.) I guess that means all our cities - even Louisville - are prepared for the worst now.

So to sum up. You "heroes" of September 11th: screw you. You cities/targets: lotsa luck. But if you asked the President why we're still in Iraq, he'd still tell you because we'll never forget 9/11.

Posted by Michael at 10:35 AM | Comments (1)

May 24, 2006

A Bit On The Da Vinci Code

I'll admit it. I'm a huge Arnold Ahlert fan.

Pretty much every day, I like to read the New York Post opinion page, just to shore up my beliefs in the exact opposite of whatever opinions are expressed there. Recently, I've become hooked on Arnold Ahlert, who writes two or three times a week. His columns are always very short, very predictable, and usually quite amusingly knee-jerk. But he looks like a nice guy in his picture (except I can totally picture him wearing a Yankees cap).

Yesterday's columnette was vintage Ahlert. The premise: There weren't riots about The Da Vinci Code, but there were riots over the Danish Mohammed cartoons, so we're better than them.

First of all, he acts like Dan Brown and Ron Howard are radical revolutionaries. All the theories in the book/movie are old theories (a post from a friend of Carpundit goes into good detail on that) and Brown merely wove them into a FICTIONAL NOVEL. The people who are outraged are either ignorant of this, or don't care because they like to feel outraged. Or both.

Secondly, the fact that there weren't riots over The Da Vinci Code doesn't exactly mean that outraged Christians are better than outraged Muslims, it just means they've had a little more time to get used to this kind of thing. Don't forget, by the Islamic calendar, it's the year 1427. Now, I just read William Manchester's A World Lit Only By Fire, a very interesting book about the transition from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance.

So I can make a couple of (slightly) educated guesses about what would have happened if The Da Vinci Code had come out in A.D. 1427. Best case scenario: Dan Brown, Tom Hanks and Ron Howard burned at the stake over a slow-burning fire. Partly for blasphemy, partly for writing in a non-Latin language, which could conceivably ignite anti-Papal feelings in the unwashed masses (at least, the 5% of them that could read). Worst case scenario would probably be something like the Peasants' War, which set Germany on fire to the tune of 100,000 killed in 1524 and 1525. Kind of makes all those Danish cartoon protests look like not too much, huh?

But I guess if Arnold and the Post wants to congratulate their easily offended readers for not burning down every Loews in sight, more power to them.

Posted by Michael at 09:58 AM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2006

I'm An American Hero

I haven't had much to say about politics lately. It's all so depressing. But then I read that George Bush is saying that he foiled a terrorist attack in LA in 2002, but was too modest to tell any of us about it. Since the Bush Administration is nothing if not honest and forthright, I decided it was time to come clean myself. That's right, I myself, have thwarted NINE separate and impending terrorist incidents since 9/11.

1. 11/18/2001: Threw away all my bills to guard against spread of anthrax.

2. 10/12/2002: Bought the last chocolate glazed donut at Dunkin's; terrorist behind me in line had a sugar crash later that day and fell asleep before he could bomb the Red Line.

3. 3/2/2004: Cut a guy off in traffic at the Fresh Pond rotary; he was on his way to spread mustard-gas in Worcester.

4. 5/30/2004: Bought tickets from a scalper at Fenway; terrorist could have bought it instead and released nerve agents in the grandstand.

5. 12/4/2004: Finished Xmas shopping early; weakened terrorists' resolve.

6. 4/18/2005: While on vacation in Miami, I noticed a man fiddling with what looked like a cell-phone, but was actually a remote detonator. I alerted security, and they whisked him away.

7. 11/24/2005: Declined to attend Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. This lowered the crowd by one, pushing it under the terrorists' threshold of being worth their while.

8. 1/14/2006: Riding the B train back from Kenmore. I saw something; I said something.

9. 2/8/2006: Killed a fly that, according to chaos theory, could have set into motion a chain of events that would have ended with a nuclear detonation in Milwaukee.

Posted by Michael at 11:54 PM | Comments (3)

July 04, 2005

July Fourth

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

...

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

...

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

- The Declaration of Independence.

Posted by Michael at 02:00 AM | Comments (0)

June 29, 2005

The True North, Strong And Free

Canada legalized gay marriage. Being a bigot is starting to look like less and less like a growth industry, huh?

Posted by Michael at 12:40 AM | Comments (0)

June 25, 2005

A Point For the Libertarians

I've been trying to look at this week's Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain from any angle other than, "Now they can send in troops to take your house and build a Walmart", but I haven't yet found the right angle.

This should have been the easiest Court decision ever. The conservatives would have (and, in fact, did) take the side of the property owners. And the so-called "liberal" justices would have (but completely didn't) made an important distinction between eminent domain cases that truly improve the public good (hospitals, highways) and those that are merely land-grabs for the well-heeled (malls, business complexes). But they didn't. The SCLJ apparently think that the promise of increased property-tax revenue is public good enough to tear down a neighborhood in Connecticut to build condos and a playground for Pfizer.

And now all it will take is for Walmart to convince ($$$) a local government that your land isn't living up to its full potential, and in come the bulldozers. Oh, they'll make sure you get "fair market value", which of course is whatever they say it is (see how the valuation of your property when it's time for Walmart to cut a check compares to the property tax you've been paying).

There are ways to avoid this. Local and state governments are free to pass their own laws strictly curtailing the abuse of eminent domain. Maybe every possible case should be put to a local election, and your neighbors and townspeople can decide if the "public good" is served by tearing down your neighborhood. But go ahead and ask me how optimistic I am that local and state governments will do the right thing ($$$).

Once I told my libertarian brother that I'd probably agree with his party, if corporations didn't have legal recognition and rights as persons. With this ruling, the "person" of Walmart has legal permission to march into your yard, throw a handful of dollar bills at you, and start marking off the boundaries of the parking lot. And I'm not sure if the libertarians are willing to stand up to that. But it's clear nobody else really will.

The obvious quick-fix solution, of course, is to declare that the homes of the five Justices who voted for this travesty would be put to better use as casinos.

(Note: if it seemed like I was picking on Walmart too much in the above....too damn bad.)

Posted by Michael at 12:09 PM | Comments (3)

June 22, 2005

Like Clockwork

Terror alerts are so 2004. But the Republicans are in trouble. So time to drag out that old standby...flag burning! Because, y'know, it's so prevalent.

But this time the ridiculous debate has an even more ridiculous standard-bearer: Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (Guess-CA).

"Ask the men and women who stood on top of the [World] Trade Center. Ask them and they will tell you: pass this amendment."

D. U. M. B. A. S. S. If you actually had a chance to talk to anyone there (which there weren't, since they were all running like hell or jumping to a certain but quick death), they'd probably be more interested in things like the fact that 15 of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. Or maybe the August 6 memo that was ambiguously titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike In U.S."

Maybe they'd even want to talk about how their coming deaths would be avenged. I wonder how many of them would want to be commemorated by a prolonged war in an uninvolved country. I wonder how many of them, for that matter, would want to be used as political props by some shady idiot Congressman to pass a law that has nothing to do with the tragedy about to claim them.

But we'll never know, because they're dead. This, last I checked, was still alive:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amazing how some people are determined to defend the flag, but don't care so much about burning the Bill of Rights.

Posted by Michael at 09:36 PM | Comments (5)

June 13, 2005

State and Local Governments Hate America

At least, that's the impression that you'd get. A lot of cities and towns (including here in Boston) have, or are organizing, wireless broadband access citywide. Sounds great, right? The idea of a city facilitating Internet access for its citizens should be embraced by all, shouldn't it?

Not so fast. Naturally, big telecom companies hate the idea of anyone getting online anywhere without a buck changing hands in their direction, so they've mobilized. They've found a friendly in Congressman Pete Sessions, a formber SBC executive (take a guess if he's a Republican), and want to shut down any local efforts to hook local people up. The bill is named, without even a nod to the charred mangled corpse of irony, the "Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act".

There's a petition you ought to sign if you believe in local governments serving the needs of local citizens.

Posted by Michael at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)

May 21, 2005

In Which I Give Backhanded Praise to Mitt Romney

I've taken some shots here at our handsome Republican Governor. And I totally reserve my rights to do so again. But, for all his rhetoric and puffery, Mitt really hasn't been able to cause real panic in the Commonwealth. Stem cell research is continuing, the wingnuts are displeased, and the sky has still failed to rip open and rain down brimstone since gay marriages started last year.

So we'll continue to watch Mitt, but you have to concede he's been Mostly Harmless as governor. Not so in Maryland, where Gov. Robert Ehrlich just waved a scythe through a whole bunch of recent legislation. He vetoed a bill that would make certain employers (read: Walmart) spend more on health benefits, then vetoed a raise in the minimum wage (Walmart health plan: don't get sick!)

And then the topper: he vetoed a bill that would allow -- not gay marriage, not civil unions -- but just a few basic rights to gay couples that registered with the state. In his veto message, Bob the Impaler said he is

sympathetic to the needs of mutually dependent couples and [wants] to support compassionate efforts to expedite health-related decisions for Marylanders in need

The bill he killed would have

granted nearly a dozen rights to unmarried partners who register with the state. Among those: the right to be treated as an immediate family member during hospital visits, to make health care decisions for incapacitated partners and to have private visits in nursing homes

I guess I just don't see how prohibiting those things resembles in ANY FREAKING WAY AT ALL "sympathy to the needs of mutually dependent couples".

So Mitt, thanks for lacking the power, if not the resolve, to be as bad as this guy.

Posted by Michael at 09:36 PM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2005

Sick and Twisted and Funny

If you're easily outraged or offended, you might not want to check out the following. But here's a safe one: a member of that crazy Hollywood elite weighs in on the Schiavo affair.

OK...we're all adults here, right?

The second funniest thing I've read/seen on the Schiavo affair is the sixth cartoon down on this Get Your War On page (the one that starts with "My wife and I made our living wills...").

The funniest thing was a comment on a Fark thread where someone compared Terri to Michigan J. Frog; when only her parents are in the room, she sings, dances and talks, but can't do a thing when someone comes in to witness the event.

I guess the actions of the Republican leadership are bringing out the evil in all of us.

Posted by Michael at 01:07 AM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2005

Hey, South Carolina, You Can Have Him

Mitt Romney, the latest Massachusetts governor to pull off the "reasonable Republican" bait-and-switch, has finally revealed his true identity. At a Republican fundraiser in South Carolina, Mitt ripped off his cloak of moderation, throwing the crowd red meat related to Mitt's hatred of gay marriage, stem cell research, and in fact pretty much everything about his adopted home state.

But it's not, emphatically not, about testing the waters for a Presidential run. Mitt still insists his first priority is his "native" state, and he's focused on winning the 2006 gubernatorial election. The logic of how he's serving the Commonwealth by bashing it to a bunch of Spartanburg right-wingers eludes me somewhat, but maybe I'm just confused. Probably not as confused as I'll be when he does run for President (you might want to keep a copy of this article from 2004 handy when he does), but no matter.

Unfortunately, for some reason the article doesn't mention the dozens of people traveling around with Mitt whose lives and relationships have been destroyed by gay marriage. I wonder why not.

Posted by Michael at 01:52 PM | Comments (1)

February 15, 2005

Life Imitates Art, Or Something

So I had a really great idea for a novel. A real potboiler suspense thriller. Here's the plot:

A Presidential Administration, with no real ideas and resistant to any questioning or challenging, plants a friendly patsy in the White House briefing room. As soon as the press secretary (or, in a few cases, the President) gets uncomfortable with the line of questioning, he calls on the patsy to lob him a softball and take the heat off. In fact, maybe at one press conference, the President will call on the patsy right after stating that he isn't going to manipulate the media. What a great start!

But a good novel needs a good twist. And I was going to have one. See, you'd think a good patsy would be an eager-beaver fresh graduate from journalism school. But I thought, what if they don't go the obvious route, and instead pick a guy from a "news organization" nobody's ever heard of, and have the patsy use a fake name...say, Jeff Gannon...when presumably everyone in the White House would have to go through rigorous security screening, and married female reporters can't even use their maiden names if that's what they go by professionally. Would anyone believe that?

But that's not enough of a twist. Here's the crazy part...the patsy may be a prostitute! Specifically, a gay prostitute who's been affiliated with m4m military-type escort sites. That may be hard to reconcile with a staunchly pro-military and anti-gay White House, but we can make it work. The folks at Americablog have some great story ideas and twists on this whole angle.

I'm toying with the idea that this prostitute, who somehow was brought into White House press briefings, may also have been involved with the leaking of the name of an undercover CIA agent whose husband had started questioning the Administration. That's an interesting subplot idea, though it might take over the whole story.

Some questions before I write this novel: (1) Does the patsy get into the White House with a fake name because of crappy security, or because someone high up in the Administration owes him a favor? (2) Would this favor be at all connected with the patsy's past work as a prostitute, or is that stretching it? (3) Would the opposition party - who had just seen a President almost taken down because of a sex scandal - investigate at all? (4) Won't the mainstream media be a little outraged that this all happened right under their noses in the briefing room, and that it took bloggers to start investigating the story?

Would anyone believe that?

Posted by Michael at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2005

Howard's Back!

DailyKos is inviting all lefty bloggers to put a link on their site to give money to the DNC, now that Howard Dean is there to actually start fighting for us.

As Kos says, "Everytime you hear the 'Dean Scream' without context, consider donating. When you hear some empty head talk about the party 'moving left' with Dean, consider donating."

Oliver says Dean is an angry Democrat.. But

...unlike Republicans who were angry that the President was getting something on the side and they weren't, its an anger fully justified by the factual data at hand. To recap: the Republicans impeached my President, perpetrated a fraudulent election, cleared brush while terrorist threats gathered, misled my country into war, demonized all opponents to the war as anti-American, sent 1400+ of our finest to die, and ran a campaign based on smearing a decent man.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Anyone who hasn't wanted to scream at the sheer absurdity of the Bush White House isn't someone I want to ride in an elevator with, let alone run my political party.

Posted by Michael at 11:35 PM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2005

Headache

In Which I Attempt To Make Some Sense of the Impending Social Security Meltdown, But Come Away Ten Times More Confused Than When I Started, Though Still Apparently Less Confused Than the President And Chief Architect of the Solution:

George Bush says Social Security is in imminent danger. And since Bush has learned his lesson, and will never again make shit up to support a dubious hypothesis, he must be telling the truth.

Now I've never paid much attention to Social Security; like I once thought about the Red Sox winning, my attitude has always been "don't count on it". All the reports I had seen in the past have the whole system going belly-up around 2040; regular readers of this site may note that that's the year I'll turn 66. (In fact, my plans for retirement saving are a lot like Homer Simpson's plans for the Nuclear Physics 101 final: "I'm going to hide under some coats until the test is over, and hope that it all works out somehow.") But I was duly alarmed and panicked by Bush's assertion that the whole thing will fall apart within hours. So I started investigating.

Luckily there's a website called There Is No Crisis. I don't know who runs it and I don't know who updates it, so it automatically has more credibility than the Bush Administration. They, and Josh Marshall, dissect the plan a lot more carefully than I ever could. But there are some aspects of the S.S. fix that I find troubling.

George dreams of making America into an "ownership society". Which means, of course, that we all get pWn3d. See, by diverting a portion (not much) of your Social Security tax into your choice (not really your choice) of stocks and bonds, you will (might) have extra left over when you retire. I think. Keep in mind, of course, that five years ago, the people in charge of this would have probably thought that Enron was a safe stock to invest S.S. money in. So it's kind of like betting your nest egg on the blackjack table, except there aren't free drinks and you have to wait 30 years to see if the dealer can beat your 15. The fact that mutual fund managers and bankers and Wall Street and other Republican-leaning institutions get a big immediate windfall out of this is, I'm sure, just a happy coincidence.

But clearly we have to do something, or Social Security will be broke by 1988. Or something like that. So Bush is on the road, visiting friendly red states, standing arm-in-arm with Republican Senators who embrace his policy...or do they? Josh Marshall says "it is striking just how few Republican senators are willing to go on the record in support of the president's plan.".

Maybe the problem is with semantics. Bush and company were gung-ho about the "privatization" of S.S...until they learned that people didn't like that term. Enter "personal accounts", and Bush will snap at you if you call them what he called them a month ago.

But private, or personal, or potential, or pitiful - the fact remains that this is a complicated issue, and it's good we have a good communicator to distill it down to its essence:

THE PRESIDENT: Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.

Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

Okay, better? I'll keep working on it.

Um....good idea.

So that's what I've learned. Some of your money can/should be diverted to handpicked (not by you) stocks and bonds, and you may get some of it back when you retire or die, but maybe not, and somehow if you're already rich you'll get more out of it than if you're not, and this has to happen now or your grandmother will be living in a cardboard box and eating cat food. And somehow this will fix the fact that black people don't live as long as white people, but I can't even get my brain in a state where I can figure that out.

I may stick to sports.

Posted by Michael at 02:04 PM | Comments (1)

February 01, 2005

Happy Thoughts

I'm a little disappointed. My personal members of the Republican Truth Squad, whose job it is to monitor left-leaning blogs and call us out on any statements that don't praise and glorify George W. Bush, have apparently left for greener (or more frequently-updated) pastures. Which means, so far, no one has taken me to task for not dancing in the streets about the Iraqi elections.

But just in case you were wondering...I'd like to think that this is a turning point. However, since the turning point failed to come with the fall of the statue, or the "Mission Accomplished" photo-op, or the capture of Hussein, or the assault on Fallujah, or the (already-brushed-aside) revelation that the WMDs weren't there, forgive me if my unrestrained glee is still a bit...restrained. On the election myself, and the American reaction, my views are about the same as Charles Pierce (scroll down to "Correspondent's Corner").

Posted by Michael at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2005

A Tale of Two Scandals

The Poor Man compares and contrasts.

Posted by Michael at 08:07 PM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2005

The Worst Thing I've Ever Read

Sometimes, when I'm feeling like checking out a little knee-jerk stupidity, I'll check out the letters page of the NY Post. It's such a right-wing echo chamber that I swear if one day the headline read "Bush to dissolve Fed; US to go Socialist" the letters page the next day would praise his bold leadership and implore the citizenry to get in line and support the President.

But I didn't even make it to the Post today. Here in our own Boston Globe is this doozy, from one Virginia Hamel of Brookline:

HOMOSEXUAL marriage and civil unions are not a "Beacon to the future" (editorial, Dec. 30) but a warning signal of social irrationality and corruption. Homosexuality is not a healthy, alternative lifestyle but neurotic behavior with negative physical and mental consequences.

Ms. Hamel doesn't give us her psychiatric credentials, but she may be looking at an old edition of the DSM. The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality as a disorder in 1973. I hope for her patients' sake (if she is in medicine) that she generally stays more current than that.

For thousands of years homosexuality has been condemned and punished by all societies as repugnant, perverted behavior.

All societies? Or just the ones built upon rigid, patriarchal monotheism? That's a pretty sweeping statement, for which I'd need some serious citation. Which I'd counter with two words: Ancient Greece.

Some countries have put homosexuals to death.

And...? Is this wistful thinking on Ms. Hamel's part? Some countries have also put to death women who dared speak their mind in a public forum. Surely she realizes that that standard for execution can change.

Promiscuous homosexuals today are a major source of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Was this letter written in 1985? HIV rates are slowing down in the West; the most affected group these days are children in Africa. Is Ms. Hamel suggesting that children in Africa are having promiscuous homosexual sex? Again, I'd like to see citation. From a more current source than a Time magazine with Cyndi Lauper on the cover.

To make homosexual marriage legal is not a right but misguided social approval to immoral and dangerous behavior.

Sez you. The Supreme Court of Massachusetts feels otherwise.

It will encourage youngsters in that direction at a time when they are too young to know better.

That's why you can't get married when you're a youngster. Y'know; age of consent and all that. As for "encouraging youngsters in that direction", I don't know. I haven't really seen a huge number of people leaving hetero relationships to go gay. Maybe things are different in Brookline.

It will cause much social destruction and pain and should be publicly condemned.

See: end of slavery, women's suffrage, civil rights, integration, blah blah blah. Don't people ever get tired of being this wrong?

If it is all right, why is the number of suicides among homosexuals so high?

Oh, now the ham-fisted attempt at compassion. I wonder if some of these suicides have anything to do with growing up, knowing who and what you are, but knowing that a sizeable portion of the world sees you as "repugnant" and "perverted", and blames much "social destruction and pain" on you? Maybe growing up in a house with the kind of person who would write a letter like this?

Focus on the facts, not your sympathetic feelings. Life is real.

Ms. Hamel, you have not given us one fact to focus on. All you have to offer is your bigotry and fear. Once in a while someone will claim that being against gay rights doesn't mean you're intolerant and bigoted. But then Ms. Hamel comes along and strips it all down to the bone. Life is real, ma'am. But so is justice.

Posted by Michael at 10:02 AM | Comments (2)

November 26, 2004

More on Red Vs. Blue

A guest blogger at Eshcaton makes some good points.

Posted by Michael at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2004

Your Government At Work

Congress Passes $388 Billion Spending Bill

The Senate voted 65-30 for the legislation late on Saturday that sets aside funds for a range of priorities including a presidential yacht, foreign aid and energy. It is one of the final pieces of work for the 108th Congress and they may return to finish a spy agency overhaul before the end of the year.

(bolding is mine) Maybe I'm just an out-of-touch Eastern elite, but my moral values don't include making a yacht a priority. When will the Republicans learn that the "rising tide lifts all boats" mantra doesn't apply when most people are clinging to liferafts?

Posted by Michael at 01:47 AM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2004

Christmas Shopping?

Oliver Willis has rolled out Brand Democrat, a huge bunch of slogans emphasizing the good in the Democratic Party, that can go on T-shirts, bumper stickers, what-have-you. Very thought-provoking stuff.

Posted by Michael at 09:02 PM | Comments (0)

November 05, 2004

Let's Start With This

Isn't it time for a shakeup in the Democratic Party? Let's start with the DNC. Terry Mcauliffe's been head since 2001 and has presided over the 2002 midterm slaughter and Tuesday's...well...disappointment.

We need someone with Passion and Fire; someone who connected to a lot of people last year, and someone who spooked the establishment enough for them to turn their media guns on him early. Someone who comes in with established credibility in building a movement that can counter the "grassroots" movement the religious right has been kicking our asses with.

Someone like this guy.

Posted by Michael at 01:25 AM | Comments (3)

November 03, 2004

Time Capsule 2004

A woman's right to control her own body.
The Arctic National Wildlands Refuge.
Affirmative Action.
The good opinion of the world.
The First Amendment.
Science.
A volunteer army.
The slow-but-steady march toward human rights.

Probably some of these will survive until 2008. I wonder which ones.

Someone once said that a people get the government they deserve. I hope that's not true. I fear that maybe it is.

Posted by Michael at 08:56 PM | Comments (7)

September 22, 2004

CBS

I've been trying not to follow politics too closely, partly because my mind's pretty made up about who I'm going to vote for, and partly because the desperation and obfuscation of the Bush campaign is starting to feel like a Christopher Guest mockumentary about a floundering campaign.

But this CBS thing goes beyond all limits. CBS finds some documents that question what exactly the hell Bush was doing when he was in the Texas Air National Guard, to throw on the pile of evidence that he wasn't really doing all that much. The Right is outraged because a couple of CBS' documents were fakes - never mind that they aren't challenging any of the claims made from any of the sources. So CBS has to apologize, and once again the attention is deflected away from the fact that Bush has never been substantially challenged on this.

At least that's my understanding, from my half-paying-attention. If someone has proof that Bush served honorably, let me know...but you might want to collect the $50 grand reward first.

So if I'm CBS and want to make nice with the Right (ahem), why not this: give Bush a full hour to explain, at length and in great detail, everything that he did during his ANG service. No reporter, no possibility of misunderstanding or journalistic confusion. Then we can move on from the past, and find out what if any plans Bush has for the future.

Posted by Michael at 10:49 PM | Comments (1)

August 04, 2004

Not-So-Good News From the South

James L. Hart of Tennessee is running for Congress in the 8th District of Tennessee. From the article:

He is an unapologetic supporter of eugenics, the phony science that resulted in thousands of sterilizations in an attempt to purify the white race. He believes the country will look "like one big Detroit" if it doesn't eliminate welfare and immigration. He believes that if blacks were integrated centuries ago, the automobile never would have been invented.

He is running unopposed in this week's Democratic primary.

(pause for audience reaction)

Just kidding. He's a Republican. To their credit, the Tennessee GOP has found a write-in candidate who's familiar with the 20th Century.

Posted by Michael at 10:57 PM | Comments (2)

July 19, 2004

What Bush Isn't

It's hard to pin down exactly what GWB is, but he and his spokesmen are pretty specific about what he isn't.

(Link found at The Talent Show)

Posted by Michael at 11:32 AM | Comments (1)

July 18, 2004

Stat-us-QUO! Stat-us-QUO!

I don't understand this. A group of Young Republicans is planning to join in on anti-GOP protests and protest the protestors. If this makes you confused, you're still a step ahead of these Young Republicans.

First of all, the Right doesn't protest. They don't need to. They're the party of the comfortable and the well-heeled. There's no great tradition of conservative folk-protest music ("We have the plant...and we have the power"), no notable marches (you think they're going to give up their weekends in the country?), and except for the rabid anti-choicers, not much makes them take to the streets. And now that they control all three branches of government, and most of the media, what are they after?

Second, they can't (or, more likely won't) see that those of us against the Iraq "war" aren't against all war. Well, most of us. They crashed their first anti-Iraq-war rally with signs that said "''Except for Ending Slavery, Fascism, Nazism and Communism, War Has Never Solved Anything". Iraq has done none of these things; we don't know what it's done, and that's why we're against it. (And incidentally, which war, exactly, broke Communism? Vietnam? Grenada? Falkland Islands?)

Finally, it seems a bit odd that young, testosterone-fueled guys who are adamantly pro-war would spend their time messing with the hippies, when the Army needs new recruits to join the actual fight. I guess maybe the difference is that the hippies won't shoot at them.

Posted by Michael at 07:15 PM | Comments (0)

July 06, 2004

Kerry/Edwards

I like it. When Howard Dean's campaign fizzled (grumble), I found myself listening to, and liking, Edwards a lot more. He has the whole Southern populist thing going, which I think resonates with the public (see: 1992 and 1996), and he's going to look like an absolute dynamo of youth and vitality if he ever gets a chance to debate Dick Cheney. I honestly think this wins us NC, and probably puts VA and TN back in serious play. (As much as I respect Dick Gephardt, he didn't bring anything much to the Electoral table.)

I also really was impressed by the fact that, more than any other candidate, he's been willing to voice the fact that poverty is still out there and very real (Oliver Willis found a great quote that sums it all up). And with two of the four big-ticket guys being well-connected Ivy-Leaguers, and a third being an evil businessman, it's good to have someone who's made it himself. And Edwards was a trial lawyer - fine. Let's put the Republicans on the defensive, though, and have them explain why they want to make it harder for people to sue businesses that have wronged them (and if they pull the McDonalds case out as their argument (and they will), point them here).

All in all, I think it's a winner. Vice-President John Edwards. I can get used to that.

Posted by Michael at 08:39 AM | Comments (3)

June 25, 2004

Thank You, John Breaux

From Tuesday: The Senate votes 99-1 to fine the crap out of any broadcaster who broadcasts something obscene.

From 1791: Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.

Hmmm. Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, the prune-faced Puritan who sponsored this bill, stuck it onto a defense spending bill and rammed it through without debate. "This is something the public wants," he said.

Really? I know a pretty decent number of the public, and they all seem to be capable of turning off stuff that offends them. Maybe it's different in Kansas.

So thank you, John Breaux of Louisiana, for being the only one to resist the crusade. I'd like to think your fellow Democratic Senators would stand up to this more; I'm curious why not.

But then again, I'm not thinking of the children.

Posted by Michael at 10:48 AM | Comments (2)

June 05, 2004

Ronald Reagan

Reagan was President from when I was 6 years old to 14. He's the first President I ever knew of, and I guess part of me thought he'd be President forever.

And now he's gone. I'm strangely ambivalent about the Gipper's legacy; on one hand, his policies and his politics helped pave the way for the train wreck that's happened since. There's a lot about him that makes me want to go up to every Baby Boomer I see and scream, "How could you let this happen?!?" But more on that another time, maybe.

And yet, for all that, there was a charm and an earnestness about him that we haven't seen since. There's also an anecdote about him I read somewhere that I want to share. He was doing radio broadcasts for a minor-league baseball team in Illinois. The station couldn't afford to send him on road trips, so they installed some kind of telegraph system that would send constant updates. Ron would then use his charm and wit to flesh the numbers out into a realistic-sounding play-by-play. Well, in the middle of one game, the machine broke. So Reagan just narrated the batter fouling off pitch after pitch after pitch until someone could come in and fix it.

Reagan was a true American original, and for better or worse, the country wouldn't be the same without him.

Posted by Michael at 11:45 PM | Comments (1)

May 27, 2004

Righteous Fire

I've been meaning to write down my thoughts on the Iraq debacle (Iraqcle?), but Al Gore beat me to it. I hope, when all is said and done, this goes down as one of the most famous speeches in American history.

That said, I hate to quibble...but AL, WHERE WAS THIS FIRE FOUR YEARS AGO????

I'd print the speech out if I were you. If the worst-case scenario happens, Al Gore may very well wind up playing the role of Emmanuel Goldstein and it would be nice to have a copy in physical form.

Posted by Michael at 04:46 PM | Comments (5)

May 21, 2004