Saturday, January 11, 2014

Make no mistake, the GWB scandal is pure Chris Christie

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The politically-motivated closing of lanes on the George Washington Bridge, targeting Democrats (probably not Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich but rather Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg), speaks volumes about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, those close to him, and the culture of bullying and retribution that lies at his core both personally and politically.

And while his various Republican pals and conservatives in the media are using this opportunity to slam President Obama, by suggesting that Christie, in contrast, owned up to the problem, apologized, and thereby showed true executive leadership, what we're actually seeing, and what is actually becoming more and more apparent as more and more comes out, is that Christie directly enabled this to happen whether he was in on the details or not and that there was a concerted effort to cover things up after the fact:

Some of Governor Christie's closest loyalists made an effort to keep information about the George Washington Bridge lane closures out of public view for months, as questions swirled about what now appears to have been a politically motivated vendetta, thousands of documents released Friday show.

The documents provide a sweeping timeline of the internal deliberations taking place among at least 10 of Christie's trusted aides. They stretch from the weeks before the September lane closings up to and beyond the November election and are punctuated with vulgarities aimed at the media and signs of tension between New York and New Jersey officials who share control of the agency that operates the bridge.

The documents also show that Port Authority Chairman David Samson, Christie's top appointee at the agency, blamed a New York official — the one who reopened the lanes and said the closings were possibly illegal — for a leak to the media.

Comparisons to Richard Nixon and his henchmen are apt, but any such historical perspective tends to shroud the point: This may all be rather Nixonian, but it's also pure Chris Christie: playing politics as if it's a feudal (and very personal) bloodsport, pitting loyalists against everyone else, bullying the media when the story emerged, resorting to sarcasm and ad hominem attacks to try to blow things off, along with that Jersey swagger that is so typically his, supposedly apologizing but hardly taking responsibility and really just blaming others, throwing anyone and everyone under the bus, whatever is required to save his political skin, showing his massive egotism in stressing how hurt he is by all this, how he was let down, suggesting he's the real victim here, his sycophantic minions circling the wagons and waging an ongoing campaign of lies and smears to protect their master, just he wanted from them.

Really, this whole scandal has it all. And however much he may continue to deny that he had any knowledge of anything that was going on, it has his fingerprints all over it.

Labels: , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

Mischief and punishment

By Capt. Fogg

We hear of cases like this too often and the only thing that distinguishes this one from most in my mind is that it's from Canada, a country that I somehow am inclined to see as more rational, less hysterical than the United States. Perhaps I'm wrong, but if a 16-year-old girl sends "explicit" JPEGs of her 17-year-old boyfriend's ex-girlfriend to a few of her acquaintances via cell phone it isn't the kind of "child pornography" we pass draconian laws to suppress. It's perhaps more of an example of adolescent lack of control and the kind of hurt that young people are likely to feel at rejection. 

Canadian courts have nonetheless found her guilty of distributing child pornography and she is awaiting sentencing. Somehow I agree with her attorney that although the deed was inappropriate and perhaps actionable in some way, the kid isn't a "child pornographer" and that the laws in Canada and the U.S. weren't designed to punish such childish acts with huge prison sentences.

Is there really a "law" of unintended consequences? I have no idea, but there's a strong tendency to write bad law in proportion to the ire of the zealots and activists that draft them. There's a strong connection between "zero tolerance" for misdeeds and zero forethought. There's a strong tendency to force events into the scenarios provided by our own fears and loathings and anger and it applies not only to failing to discriminate between people who prey on children and children doing childish things. The six-year-old who plants a kiss on another six-year-old isn't a rapist and doesn't deserve to be branded as one. The 12-year-old who takes a picture of herself or of another kid isn't a pornographer and isn't deserving of our pious rage and punishment. 

Perhaps sometimes our own best motivations make us blind, stupid, pompous, and inhuman.

(Cross posted at Human Voices.)

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share

Bruce Soord and Jonas Renkse: "Frozen North"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Here's another of my favorite songs of 2013: "Frozen North" by the duo of Bruce Soord (from The Pineapple Thief) and Jonas Renkse (from Katatonia), from their album Wisdom of Crowds. (I like Pineapple Thief a lot, and while I'm less of a fan of the more metal Katatonia, this Soord-Renkse project, which allows these two prog masters to explore new sounds together, and apart from their successful bands, has proven to be extremely worthwhile.)

Enjoy!

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Friday, January 10, 2014

On the Hustings


(The Hill): "Christie jam opens lane for other 2016 hopefuls"

(New York Times): "Gillespie, former Republican chairman, readies to run for Senate in Virginia"

(Chicago Sun Times): "Rauner in newly surfaced video: ‘adamantly, adamantly’ against raising the minimum wage"

(Stu Rothenberg): "The race Democrats can’t afford to lose"

(Politico): "Nancy Pelosi raised $35M for Democrats in 2013"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Chris Christie the Bully faces his political comeuppance over GWB scandal

By Michael J.W. Stickings

It's a scandal that no amount of his usual swagger and sarcasm can put to rest. And so New Jersey Governor (and, to some, leading Republican light in 2016) Chris Christie put his tail between his legs yesterday and came out to address the media with the appearance of a humbled man:

In a remarkable day of swirling political drama, Gov. Chris Christie tried on Thursday to control the damage from revelations that his administration ordered the revenge-closings of traffic lanes at the George Washington Bridge by firing a top aide, cutting ties with a longtime political adviser and repeatedly apologizing in a nearly two-hour news conference.

Sounding somber and appearing contrite, the normally garrulous Mr. Christie said he had had no advance knowledge of the lane closings and had been "humiliated" by the entire episode.

"I am a very sad person today," the governor said. "I am heartbroken that someone I permitted to be in that circle of trust for the past five years betrayed that trust."

Was he genuinely apologetic? I would suggest that he was politically apologetic, that is, apologetic because the scandal has grown into a political disaster for him, apologetic because his political life demands it. And indeed, as New York magazine's Adam Martin points out, his entire statement was oddly passive in its presentation, as if this is all happening to him, as if he's just the victim. Note that he's "sad" and "heartbroken." Oh, really? And somehow that's really what this is all about, not the bullying message sent to the the mayor of Fort Lee, not all those people who found themselves trapped in the bullying tactics that are central to Christie's character and career? 

Read more »

Labels: , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

A.M. Headlines


(Bloomberg): "Christie flunks crisis management with I am not bully quote"

(Politico): "Chris Christie’s damage control"

(The Hill): "Christie official held in contempt"

(New York Times): "Obama seeks balance in plan for spy programs"

(Roll Call): "New year, old headaches for Democrats on Obamacare bills"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Thursday, January 09, 2014

David Brooks inadvertently argues for legal marijuana

Guest post by Ted Leibowitz

(Ed. note: To listen to some great music, check out Ted's BAGeL Radio. For my take on David Brooks's remarkably stupid column on marijuana, see here. -- MJWS)


Okay, so if you haven't yet, you really must read David Brooks recent op-ed in the New York Times, "Weed: Been There. Done That." decrying marijuana legalization. While reading, please replace the words "weed" and "pot" with "alcohol," and the words "high" and "stoned" with "drunk," and you'll get a sense of what a total douchebag Brooks is. Then read the rebuttal, "I Smoked Pot With David Brooks," written and published by an old friend of Brooks' referenced in the op-ed. It is genius, I tell you. GENIUS. Besides exposing Brooks as a self-righteous gasbag, it lays out just how weak and nonsensical the arguments against marijuana legalization really are.

Labels: , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

The semantics of weight

By Carl 

It's easy to make jokes about Chris Christie's weight. After all, even he's admitted it's an obstacle to any presidential campaign he might launch, and once you open that door, people will step into the breach. Connecting his weight to his niggardly attitude towards other people, such as the poor or the long-term disabled, is within bounds, I think.

I'm not above making weight jokes, to be sure. Like smoking, it's most often a behavioral problem and therefore generally controllable. I keep in the back of my mind, however, two things: one, it's important to know the boundaries of taste and harm, and two, there but for the grace of God go I, having been abruptly reminded last year that I was bordering on obesity myself (BMI near 29) and even after losing that all-important first twenty pounds, the last twenty never really seemed to come off.

So it may be a controllable issue, but it's a struggle, no different from poverty or illness, and we need to respect that.

So it surprised me a little to see this on Bloomberg.com:

A New Jersey judge is set to hear an emergency request to block the testimony of a political ally of Governor Chris Christie today before the state Assembly about a traffic scandal that has drawn national attention.

The ally, David Wildstein, sued yesterday to quash a subpoena compelling his testimony over closures in September of lanes in Fort Lee, New Jersey, that lead to the George Washington Bridge, which connects with Manhattan. The closures snarled traffic for four days and now threaten to tarnish the image of Christie, a Republican weighing a run for president.

Now, it's a common phrase, to be sure and I don't want to put myself out there as some bluenose grammatician, but it seems to me some editor or other might have used a different wording like "considering." "Pondering" is also possible, although the adjectival form of that, ponderous, carries some connotations of bulky and ungainly.

In this instance, on this story, it seems a cheap shot.

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Labels: ,

Bookmark and Share

On the Hustings


(Real Clear Politics): "House Democrats McCarthy and McIntyre to retire"

(Anchorage Daily News): "GOP targets Begich over Affordable Care Act - with ad that airs just once"

(Greg Sargent): "Steve Beshear: Don’t fear the politics of Obamacare, Dems"

(The Hill): "Step one for Gillespie: Unite Virginia’s GOP"

(Roll Call): "Republicans form new polling firm"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Of rats and men

Or, in vino veritas

By Capt. Fogg

When I watched Dennis Rodman's drunken rant the other day, I was astonished, dumfounded and amazed that none of the commentary included the compelling, obvious, unavoidable observation that the man was dead drunk: smashed, stewed, tanked, wasted, three sheets to the wind and shitfaced. It was probably more obvious to the sheepish players sitting next to him who were, I'm sure, worried about any open flame in such hazardous atmosphere. If we needed any further reminder of the somewhat erratic journalistic and public tendency to forgive athletes for their often disgusting outbursts, perhaps here we have it.

Nonetheless, we now have the inevitable apology from the man who might not give a rat's ass about being a rat and an ass himself but just might respond to worries about the financial consequences on those too rare occasions of sobriety. I'm not expecting any such retraction from the Reverend Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson, who not only couldn't find the strength to criticize the friend and defender of a grizzly mass murderer and psychotic tyrant, but still defends him. "I had been drinking," says Rodman through a face full of hardware. No shit! reverberates throughout the cosmos.

Is it time at long last for America to examine the way it selects people for elevation to the status of hero, prophet, and role model for our children -- examine the reasons we give to explain our support or condemnation? 

Shhhh -- what's that sound? No shit! says the universe.

(Cross-posted from Human Voices.)

Labels: , , ,

Bookmark and Share

A.M. Headlines


(CNN Politics): "N.J. politician wants probe into Christie bridge controversy"

(Politico): "Bill Pascrell on bridge flap: ‘Worst is yet to come’"

(Los Angeles Times): "Republicans call for a new approach to fight poverty"

(Bloomberg Politics): "Big business doubles down on GOP civil war with Tea Party"

(CNN Politics): "Progress worsens for Senate passage of unemployment benefits"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Bluster to sell books

By Carl

Here’s what’s really weird about Robert Gates’ new book:
In Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary of War, Mr Gates recounts how Mr Obama appeared to lack faith in a war strategy he had approved and the commander he named to lead it, General David Petraeus, and did not like Afghan President Hamid Karzai, according to The New York Times and The Washington Post.

"As I sat there, I thought: the President doesn't trust his commander, can't stand Karzai, doesn't believe in his own strategy and doesn't consider the war to be his," Mr Gates writes of a March 2011 meeting in the White House.

"For him, it's all about getting out."

First, everyone is entitled to his opinion, even the most underinformed yahoo in Bugtussle, Pennsyltucky. However, you’d like to think that a Defense Secretary would have, you know, done a little research before forming an opinion or, moreover, writing a book. Back in 2008, Randy Scheuneman, then Senator John McCain’s foreign policy advisor, pointed out that then-candidate Barack Obama was focused on getting out of South Asia (Iraq and Afghanistan) at the expense of the security and safety of American troops.

And it’s true: Barack Obama campaigned on an exit strategy from, first, Iraq and then after winning some form of the battle in Afghanistan, out of that nation as well.

Afghanistan was a mess, pure and simple. When Obama took office, there was no strategy. The war seemed to be lip service to the fact that Osama bin Laden was based there and had the support of the Taliban. And even that, then-President Bush didn’t give a rat’s ass about finding him.

Obama focused the military on that conflict, and look what happened. Even Gates had to admit that it was a stunning decision on the part of a President.

So we can only conclude that Robert Gates felt his book would be remained quickly, and decided to…conflate…his opinions.

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Bookmark and Share

On the Hustings


(USA Today): "Pro-Clinton super PAC raises $4 million in 2013"

(Portland Press Herald): "LePage says children should have work option: Not allowing children to work is 'causing damage to our economy,' the governor says"

(Gallup): "Record-high 42% of Americans identify as independents"

(The Hill): "Economy will save their majority, say Senate Democrats"

(The National Journal): "The Cheney brand Is dead"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Meet the Flintstones

By Mustang Bobby

Newt Gingrich isn’t worried about climate change.
Newt Gingrich, a self-proclaimed “amateur paleontologist,” said Monday that the Earth’s rising temperature is not a major issue.

“The age of the dinosaurs was dramatically warmer than this is right now and it didn’t cook the planet,” he said on CNN’s “Crossfire,” as recorded by the Huffington Post. “In fact, life was fine.”

Yeah, we were all having a yabba-dabba-do time.

So, Newt, you’re the “amateur paleontologist.” What happened to the dinosaurs? How come they all disappeared?

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

Labels: ,

Bookmark and Share

Hubble telescope captures images of the oldest galaxies

By Michael J.W. Stickings

This is just awesome:

Hubble Space Telescope astronomers Tuesday released views of the oldest galaxies yet seen, about 13.2 billion years old. They offer intriguing glimpses of the chaotic birth of the first stars.

The images are the first in a series called Frontier Fields. 

Explaining the earliest stars would answer astronomers' questions about how galaxies such as our own Milky Way arose and how stars such as our sun came to reside within a galaxy.

The universe is about 13.7 billion years old. Since 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope has provided astronomers with glimpses of galaxies ever closer in age to the early days of the cosmos.

This is galaxy cluster Abell 2744. It's "the deepest image ever made of any cluster galaxy":


Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share

A.M. Headlines


(New York Times): "Bipartisan critic turns his gaze toward Obama: In his new memoir, Robert M. Gates, the former defense secretary, offers a critique of the President"

(The Hill): "White House rejects Gates criticisms"

(Washington Post): "Senate moves ahead with measure to extend long-term unemployment benefits"

(Roll Call): "Radel returns to Congress amid a flurry of unanswered questions"

(Reuters): "Rodman sings Happy Birthday to North Korean leader after outcry"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Bad news that looks like good news: Possible changes to New York's marijuana laws

Guest post by Ted Leibowitz  

Ed. note: Ted is good friends with our former associate editor and co-blogger Creature, and Ted often wrote for Creature's now-on-long-hiatus blog State of the Day. He's an occasional guest blogger here at The Reaction. -- MJWS  

Ted Leibowitz is an award-winning internet radio music director / DJ focused on bringing the best new and interesting indie rock to his worldwide listenership via his 10-year old station BAGeL Radio. He has been featured on panels at music/tech conferences and writes about the exciting new business of music as well as the foot-dragging, entrenched, dinosaur-like old music industry. 

**********


The headline reads, "New York State Is Set to Loosen Marijuana Laws." To marijuana advocates, this sounds good on the surface. However, Governor Andrew Cuomo's gesture is being made more for political reasons than for the betterment of New Yorkers. 

This is not good news for legal marijuana advocates and should be opposed and worked around. As with what Governor Chris Christie did in NJ, or the mistakes made in Connecticut (legal since May 2012; however, the state still has no dispensaries!), a baby step like this will do more to delay medical marijuana for most people and legalization in general than doing nothing. 

Making medical marijuana legal for a very limited number of people doesn't help the hundreds of thousands in jail for possession, nor the hundreds of thousands more who will be incarcerated in the coming years due to way-out-of-line draconian New York State and federal drug laws. 

The continued destruction of lives by criminalization and incarceration for a benign activity partaken of by so many is a social injustice equal to denying sick people medicine that will improve their quality of life. 

Read more »

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Bookmark and Share

On the Hustings


(Dave Weigel): "An interview with former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, the Democrat most likely to challenge Hillary Clinton in 2016"

(The Note): "Exit Liz Cheney"

(The Atlantic): "The agony of Frank Luntz"

(Politics PA): "Rep. Gerlach will not seek reelection"

(Roll Call): "Election scheduled to replace Watt in North Carolina"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

The world is flat

By Mustang Bobby

A Virginia lawmaker would like to make it so that science teachers in Virginia would be free to teach that the world is flat, that Jesus rode a dinosaur, and that you can turn lead into gold.
A new bill, up for consideration this year in the Virginia General Assembly, would give Virginia’s public school teachers permission to teach about the “scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses” of “scientific theories” like evolution and global climate change. The bill is part of a national trend of legislative proposals, led by creationist organizations like the Discovery Institute and climate-change deniers such as theHeartland Institute.


Virginia State Delegate Richard “Dickie” Bell (R) pre-filed House Bill 207 over the holidays for consideration by the House of Delegates when it reconvenes this week. His proposal would require Virginia elementary and secondary schools to teach about “scientific controversies” in science classes.

[...]

Whether Bell and educators acknowledge it or not, scientists have identified climate change as a major threat to the the Hampton Roads area in southeast Virginia. The populous area, along the Atlantic coast, is already experiencing growing problems from rising sea levels. The National Journal reported last February that, “the economic impact of these forces will be profound; some estimates run as high as $25 billion.”

The sea levels aren’t rising; the land is sinking.

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share

A.M. Headlines


(Reuters): "Yellen punches through 'glass ceiling' at U.S. Fed"

(Politico): "Chicago's ban on gun sales overturned"

(Roll Call): "Spending bill on track to avert shutdown"

(CNN): "Support for legal marijuana soaring"

(Fox News): "East, South brace as record cold sweeps across US, freezing air travel"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Monday, January 06, 2014

One presumes they may be of the mental kind

By Carl

Item: Liz Cheney to quit Wyoming Senate race.

WASHINGTON -- Liz Cheney, citing "serious health issues" in her family, is ending her campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in Wyoming.

A statement by the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney does not specify whose health has become problematic or the nature of the issue, but implies that one of her children is involved.

The announcement Monday comes nearly six months after Cheney picked a surprise fight within the Republican Party by challenging three-term incumbent Sen. Mike Enzi. The effort quickly became shadowed by a dispute within her own family over same-sex marriage.

The implication that it might be one of her children having health trouble comes from a statement averring how she entered the race to secure the future health and well-being of her kids. The implication, of course, is that she’s leaving because that is now threatened.

Naturally, this has nothing to do with the fact that she trails incumbent Senator Mike Enzi by 50 points, or has embarrassed her entire family with her reactionary stance on gay marriage.

Despite decades of public service pere et jeune filles, the Cheneys value their privacy. Just not anyone else’s, I guess.

And despite pere et jeune fille being the darling of conservatives for decades, Cheney has run into a brick wall of opposition from establishment Republicans in her ham-handed challenge to Enzi, who is also a deeply conservative…possibly the very definition of “rock-ribbed”…conservative. Even a Cheney, even in Wyoming, can overstep a boundary every now and then.

Of course, we wish the Cheney clan health and that whatever is challenging them at this time should pass quickly, but I can’t help that I get the feeling there’s a deeper emotional issue at stake. You don’t get this deeply in denial about what life is all about without being really screwed up.

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Bookmark and Share

On the Hustings


(CNN): "Liz Cheney to abandon Senate bid"

(Politico): "Liz Cheney: 'I have decided to discontinue my campaign'"

(Politico): "Hillary Clinton's shadow campaign"

(Los Angeles Times): "Congress looks ahead to a year of pre-election battles"

(Roll Call): "Unpopular Obama's new gig in 2014: Fundraiser-in-Chief"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Fun with science

By Mustang Bobby
This should be entertaining.
Bill Nye “The Science Guy” is scheduled to debate evolution and biblical creation next month with the founder of the Creation Museum in Kentucky.

Nye will square off against creationist Ken Ham on Feb. 4 at the Petersburg, Ky. museum’s Legacy Hall. The debate is titled: “Is creation a viable model of origins?”

In a statement on Thursday, Ham described the choice of Nye for a debate partner as a kind of natural selection.

“Having the opportunity to hold a cordial but spirited debate with such a well-known personality who is admired by so many young people will help bring the creation/evolution issue to the attention of many more people, including youngsters,” Ham said in a statement on Thursday.

Get it? “Natural selection?” Ha ha hoo boy.

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

Labels: ,

Bookmark and Share

Behind the Ad: Republicans are so sad Obamacare had a poor launch. Really

By Richard K. Barry

Who: The Thom Tillis U.S. Senate campaign

Where: North Carolina

What's going on: State Speaker Thom Tills is one a few Republicans who hopes to challenge Democratic Sen. Kay Hagen in North Carolina. This week he will begin running his first ad, which, predictably, centers on the Obamacare.

This is what Tillis wants the voters of North Carolina to believe:
Obamacare is a disaster, but the president won’t admit it. The debt is out of control, and neither party has stopped it. Kay Hagan has enabled the president’s worst ideas. She refuses to clean up his mess. So you and I have to clean up hers.

Yes, well, get used to hearing that.

Hagan is certainly vulnerable, and the race to unseat her will be one of the most competitive. In fact, as The Hill notes, "it currently holds the title of the most expensive Senate race of the midterms, with outside spending topping the $2 million mark halfway through the cycle."

At his point, both Rothenberg and Cook have it listed as 'lean Democrat."

As for Tillis, who the hell spells Thom with an h?


Labels: , ,

Bookmark and Share

A.M. Headlines


(The Hill): "Obama looks to re-launch second term"

(Politico): "White House unemployment benefits push kicks into high gear"

(Washington Post): "Unemployment insurance extension lacks GOP support"

(Roll Call): "3 reasons Congress’ year might start unexpectedly strong"

(CNN): "Deep South braces for deep freeze as brutal cold grips the Midwest"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Sunday, January 05, 2014

P.M. Headlines


(Wall Street Journal): "Congress returns to spar, set up midterm elections"

(Bloomberg Opinion): "The Jewish state question"

(The Hill): "Boehner open to extending unemployment benefits"

(TPM): "Romney wishes he could 'turn back the clock'"

(The Hill): "Reid won't rule out filibuster elimination"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

GOP strategy won't change 2014 elections

By Frank Moraes


Martin Longman wrote an interesting article over at Booman Tribune yesterday, GOP's Irrational Exuberance. It's about the Republicans and their conviction that they are going to totally rock in the 2014 elections. Longman isn't so sure. He thinks that "they will have to develop a positive message." If he's right, then all hope is lost for the GOP in 2014, because the party just doesn't have a positive message. That's what made Reagan so important to the conservative movement: as vile as his policies were, he seemed like he cared. (He didn't really; he was the leading edge of winner-take-all conservatism.)

What I think will happen in the 2014 election regarding the Republicans is what always happens. The Republicans will run the same old candidates and hope that the Democrats just don't come out to vote. (This is unfortunately, a highly successful approach.) But as I discussed this last week, the GOP attempt to get better candidates won't work. Almost half of the Republican Party is made of fools who believe the Fox News propaganda as faithfully as they believe the Bible.

You see, it doesn't matter what the "establishment" Republicans want for candidates. What they believe in are exactly the same things that the Crazy 40 believe in. Oh, I know! The establishment types don't really believe that it is better to let a pregnant woman die than get an abortion. And they don't believe that God Hates Fags. But they know that they can't upset the Crazy 40 or they will be decimated in the general election.


Read more »

Bookmark and Share

A.M. Headlines


(Boston Globe): "Plane skids off runway at NY's JFK; flights halted"

(The Hill): "Romney to make rare Sunday appearance"

(Politico): "Dems seize on income inequality in 2014"

(New York Times): "New York State is set to loosen marijuana laws"

(National Review): "A Duck Dynasty, or an Obamacare election?"

Labels:

Bookmark and Share

Neko Case: "Ragtime"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Here's one of my favorite songs of 2013, "Ragtime" from Neko Case's critically celebrated The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You. (An intricate examination of individuality, it's another strong effort, though is as always the case with Case's albums I'm generally pulled in more by individual songs than by the whole thing, which lacks coherence and ends up in an odd dichotomy of introversion and disconnectedness.)

It's hard to match her powerfully gorgeous voice singing lyrics like:

Last night, late, I was watching it snow,
It always goes sideways in the city,
It comes right out from the streetlights, you know,
Pumped out by an engine deep inside the earth's core
It goes sideways in the city...

Enjoy!

Labels:

Bookmark and Share