Fox News, get a fucking life.

Re the Common non-controversy, Jon Stewart pays a visit to Bill O'Reilly's show and owns him good. But I'm not posting because Stewart is "a shot of Levittown to [O'Reilly's] ass" but because it is so depressingly insane (and inane).

Fare thee well, Labour.

Alas, a gritty Gordon Brown didn't do the trick. (Actually an April Fool's Day poster. And they forgot the comma. How common.) Good thing there was a wellspring of euphoria from the 2008 election that has basically buoyed liberals in every political confrontation from America to the UK since then. All I'm going to say about that right now, since it's 6:30a and I haven't slept, is that Nick Clegg ought to be satisfied with himself.

2 shots of PMQs to liven up my 5a.

January 6, 2010

January 13, 2010

The Hate that Hate Produced

Melissa Harris-Lacewell lays it down. I don't know how much more hate and stupidity I can take (the two go together), but I guess I better get used to it because it's not going away.

Better halves.

No political rant today because I'm lighting up the blog boards. Controversy du jour is Skip Gates and the white folks who are saying calm the fuck down - to which I say, people of color will calm the fuck down when we all admit that there is a problem with institutional racism and acknowledge that a black man does not see a white officer entering his home the same way that a white man sees it. And that's how I feel about that.

Artist of the Day: Keith Urban. I liked him a lot back in 2004-5. Then I went to China and there were sadly no country music stations. That's why we have youtube. Here is a live version of one of my favorite songs of his, Better Half.

Dumb Ass

Birthers. I don't even know why I'm legitimizing this shit by posting, but it's almost 8a and I haven't slept or done much writing and this just about makes me want to shit my pants it's so crazy. The dumb ass birther conspiracy goons have invaded cable news and will not get a motherfucking life. They brewed this Molotov cocktail of stupid, racist shit and now are lobbing it into every news show they can find. I can't even write about how illogical, unnecessary, and RACIST this all is. I've never smashed my head into a brick wall, but I don't need to; I just listen to fuck up birther goons.

Here is Chris Matthews squaring off with a straight up crook, G. Gordon Liddy. I'm posting this because of all the interviews on this stupid ass subject, Liddy's broke ass, punched in the face one too many times response sums up the whole deal. Matthews presents him with the facts and the evidence more times than he has fingers and all Liddy can say is Obama's step-grandma gave a signed deposition stating he was born in Kenya (later shown to be a gross mistranslation). Fuck you.

Round Three

Rachel spitting the truth.

Here's the shit that started it all, if you can stomach listening to this.

Let's kill racism once and for all. I'm sick of this guy. I'm sick of writing a thesis about race in the 19th and 20th centuries and drawing parallels to the 21st. Stop the hate already.

Round Two

Another Daily Kos post that refutes Pat Buchanan's nonsense. Word to your mother, fucker.

Pat Buchanan is racist and other observations.

Pat Buchanan has been spewing crazy again. He tussled with Rachel Maddow over the Sotomayor hearings, and the result was an ugly, intolerant, patronizing, self-absorbed train of verbal shit in a week where there was a lot of it to go around. It was racist plain and plain, effortlessly distilled into the one argument that "This country has been built basically by white folks." Yes, that's right, he said it. Rachel Maddow smacked that bitch around a bit, but he needs to be whipped (figuratively, not literally - no violence here). MSNBC needs to stop treating him like a grumpy old man because he ain't just a grumpy old man; he's a grumpy old racist man and there ain't no reason for that to be on television - unless it's some made-for-tv movie on ABC Family (is that channel still around?) about old school bigots back when Jim Crow was still flying high. Daily Kos breaks it down but you can find similar chatter all over the blogs. Bastard.

Glenn Greenwald offers an enlightened take on Walter Cronkite's passing, more specifically on the self-serving journalistic lovefest that these tv tributes are turning into. I'm glad he wrote about it because I had similar feelings watching Anderson Cooper 360 today. The Silver Fox gave a short memorial but he wasn't anchoring; in his place was John King who waxed lyrical about Uncle Walter's lasting contributions to journalism and to the nation and about his irreplaceablity. Clearly CNN did not see the irony in pushing two of its pretty stars to expound on the greatness of journalism past. I've said before that I do enjoy some of Cooper's reporting, namely on 60 Minutes, but giving him a show kind of ruins it. Once these cable folks get a show, they have to become a brand. Good reporting doesn't have to be snazzy though; it just has to be good.

U2's I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight. Sounds like a win-win situation. Actually sounds like my daily predicament. From their Letterman appearance earlier this year.

Wimbledon Edition

News of the Day:

• Federer wins, Sampras unseated, Roddick bites the dust.
• Paul Begala offers one of the more amusing takes on Sarah Palin's latest whack out. He lets loose on her English prowess, or lack thereof.
• The MI6 Facebook row once again proves that Americans aren't the only ones who commit royal fuck ups. In fact, British intelligence has a pretty good track record of fouling up these last few years. It's curious that the story is now plastered across publications the world over. Way to minimize the damage.
• You already waste your time looking at forwards of oversized animals and stupid human tricks. See which ones are real and which ones are really photoshopped. But mainly see the gigantic cat.
• Blind man has sight restored via tooth implant. You can't make up this kind of crazy. Especially when it comes from the Telegraph.
  

I read a lot of news about a lot of places and, because I'm from a small town, always find it surreal to see a bit of hometown projected onto the national stage. Obama did a lot of Southern Illinois name dropping during his campaigns though so I started to grow accustomed. Anyway, I caught an article in Huffington Post about a handful of US cities clamoring for Guantanamo detainees - including Marion, Illinois. The report was even filed from there. Why that sends a chill up my leg, I don't know. Maybe because I was surprised to learn that Robert Butler is still mayor after many, many years. Whatever works for you, Marion, Illinois.

This went up on my Facebook the other day. It's a bit from the Times debating the merits of a masters degree. Oh, we know where I fall on that one. A wise friend also posted a status recently that read something to the effect that these courses - Basic Life Skills; Meeting Deadlines; and The World Does Not Revolve Around My Research - should be required for all higher degrees. I vigorously second that motion.

Colin Powell lays it down.

From the New York Times, Colin Powell tells critics of Sotomayor to shove it. He then segued to his own criticism of the Republican Party and its shoddy record with minorities and briefly addressed the blowback from last year's endorsement of President Obama.

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has called Powell "just another liberal," said he should become a Democrat and charged that Powell endorsed Obama based on race. Powell said Sunday that Limbaugh "doesn't decide who I am or what I am no more than I decide who he is or what he is."'

Smack. And that's the difference between strength and a loud fucking mouth. Powell's statement says more about Limbaugh than the radio host manages to say about himself. It's hard to evaluate how truly infantile he is when taken in isolation; his bloviations, while not credible, might echo of import to the uneducated ear. But when you contrast his spittle-inducing diatribes with Powell's staid, confident demeanor, you see how utterly irrelevant Limbaugh is - or should be. Like the high school bully with the swollen head, and midsection, trying to pick a fight with some coed - with an MBA from George Washington - they inhabit two worlds. One is a place of nuance that requires complex approaches to difficult issues and the other is some hyper-reality that inflates with every blustery outburst. Unfortunately, free speech allows blowhards like Limbaugh to insert their helium heads into the national dialogue. Thank goodness for folks like General Powell who stand firm and immune.

Thought I'd revisit his endorsement given on Meet the Press shortly before the election. I can't admire him for his role in crafting Don't Ask Don't Tell, but I do respect him for something he said in this interview. More than his praise of Obama, it was his insistence that one's patriotism and Muslim faith do not conflict in America that I found important and necessary, especially considering the strong anti-Muslim sentiment pulsating through the McCain campaign. The very fact that he needed to address this though saddens me.

July 4 prelude

Feeling...political, which is just what I need to infuse myself with a sense of purpose. Here are 2 of my favorite speeches from last year's election season.

Dennis Kucinch's Wake Up America! number at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. Fighting the good fight.

Barack Obama's keynote at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, or the one that turned me into a believer. I have distinct memories of catching that speech midway through and being dumbfounded not only by his ability to identify certain problems plaguing the country but his willingness to articulate them. Few politicians before him could so boldly proclaim the simple truth that we need to "eradicate the slander that a black youth with a book is acting white" or that when "an Arab American family [is] rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process that threatens my civil liberties." Powerful. True.