First Draft

Happy Democrat Photo: Feel the Tammy-mentum!

AP photo via Politico. I know. I feel dirty, too. 

My favorite Democrat is opening up a can of whoopass on Thompson: 

Already down almost 10 points in the PollTracker Average, Tommy Thompson has now shown up in a video from a Tea Party meeting in June bragging that who better than him to “do away with the Medicare and Medicaid”.

A. 

 

Booty. Called.

Republicans were never going to dump Akin, not really. Sure, they made a show of abhorring what he said, but in the end, he's still not a Damnable Liberal, and so the 27 percent of people who'd vote for a syphillitic hamster if it had an R shaved into its fur will turn out, and the bright lights of the party will support him, and all will be as it was. 

A. 

Quote of the day

It comes from former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard who yesterday pled guilty to a shitload of felony corruption charges:

"At 23 years old I came into politics as a dragon slayer. At 63 years old I'm going out as a dragon."

Broussard is best known nationally for having wept on Meet The Press during the post-Katrina clusterfuck/fog of war period.

Obama Single-Handedly Surrenders America to Radical Islam

Quoth Zombie Andrew Breitbart: 

Obama left precious little time to address the civil war in Syria or the threat of a nuclear Iran. He gave several pages to assuaging the feelings of radical Muslims angry about a YouTube video; he provided a few sentences to the question of what to do about a nuclear-armed Iran, saying only that "time is not unlimited" for talks.

Yes. What he should have done was tell people to make stupid fucking YouTube videos in attention-seeking maneuvers. For free speech. 

I am just about done equating people waving their e-penises around with First Amendment martyrs. There is a vast difference between standing up for one's rights in the face of actual persecution, and deliberately setting shit on fire so as to complain about the amount of time it takes for someone to sound the alarm. 

Are people allowed to draw stupid cartoons of Muhammed and make offensive videos? Sure. But it's entirely possible to separate "allowed" from "the president of the United States needs to encourage it from the podium at the UN or else he hates the freedomz." 

A. 

Boardwalk Empire Thread: Coffee and Spaghetti Talk

Nucky Thompson has gone full gangster in Season 3 of Boardwalk Empire. That means that he's insulating himself from day-to-day bootleg sales. It's causing him all sorts of problems with the man on the right above, Gyp Rosetti. You know, the guy who called him a "fucking bread stick in a bow tie." Gyp is now obliged to buy booze via Arnold Rothstein. Gyp is not amused and he's one scary motherfucker when he's not amused. 

Okey doke, on to this week's random and discursive comments on episode 2, Coffee and Spaghetti:

Eli's Coming (Home) Nucky's feckless and rather dim brother got out of jail and immediately fell prey to the insulation-no, not pink fiberglass-campaign. He was met by the Jewish gangster with the Irish name, Mickey Doyle, and not his big brother. Eli was not amused. He's also gone to work for Doyle and his annoying laugh. Eli is a ticking time bomb and his first eruption could involve putting a bullet through Doyle's derby...

Chalky's Back and Badder Than Ever: We see Chalky presiding in his roadhouse/speakeasy. He meets the squeaky clean, and terribly boring, med student that wants to to wed his daughter. Chalky, a hustler to his core, green lights the notion, seeing in it a chance for his family to rise. His daughter would rather marry a tough guy like her dear old dad. Conflict ensues.

In the best scene of the season so far, we learn that Dr. Dull is in touch with his inner hard ass. He gets into it with a thug at Chalky's joint who slashes the Doctor wannabe's face with a switchblade. After Chalk's lackey beats the attacker down, Dr. Dull insists on doctoring his assailant. Chalky was impressed. I was too. He may be one of DuBois' "talented tenth" but he got game as the kids would say. Not then but now...

Nucky's new nookie: Our anti-hero has a cute and adorable new show girl. She sort of a cross between Margaret and his former show girl mistress; you know, the one that got knocked up by Agent Van Weirdo. The Nuckster and Margaret seem to be living separate lives after she gave away part of his fortune to the Catholic Church. There are more hints that she and Owen the IRA dude may hook up again. I hope he doesn't wear his gat to bed...

Gypped:  My new favorite character brings an air of menace to everything he does and says. I was afraid that he was going to stick an icepick through the gas station attendant's head during their brief chat. He did not but he brings that Sonny Corleone vibe to BE and that's a good thing.

I got a kick out of Gyp's ordering spag and meatballs at that Anglo diner in North Jersey. Guess it wasn't too bad since he didn't spit it out. He did, however, spit out and return Nucky's booze shipment to Rothstein. Mr. Thompson will rue the day he fucked with the Gypper...

Like some other HBO dramas (Treme and Game of Thrones spring to mind) there's sometimes too much going on in Boardwalk Empire. There are a few too many characters BUT unlike Treme there aren't any I'd flush down the terlet along with the fish from the opening moments of the episode. I wouldn't say the same about Fake Davis and his unmagical musical misery (for the tourists) tour. A sombrero? Really, dude?

Your Hermetically Sealed Republican Party

Have you heard the latest? Republicans have decided that the LAMEstream LIEberal media is in the tank for NObama because there's no way those polls showing the Kenyan usurper in the lead could possibly be right, so they've developed their own polls which -- shocker! -- show Mitt Romney with an insurmountable lead. I know, what are the odds, right? 

Isn't that just typical? Whenever reality contradicts conservative ideology, it's always the reality that's wrong, and the conservative solution is always to create their own version of whatever so-called "liberal" thing vexes them at the moment. It must be exhausting creating your own alternate reality: your own news network, your own Bible, your own science and history, and on, and on. Expensive, too. But there you have it.

Last week Mistermix over at Balloon Juice observed:

...the Romney campaign is what you get when your incubator is Fox News.

Y'know, I'd never seen it stated quite so bluntly before. I smacked my forehead and went, "Duh! Of course!" And so I'd like to take this moment to thank Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch and Rush Limbaugh and all the rest for effectively killing the Republican Party as we know it. By creating this alternate reality hermetically sealed against anything dangerous like, y'know, facts, they've effectively cut themselves off from any political party's oxygen supply: reality.

Jonathan Bernstein put it better than I ever could:

The truth is that Romney is constantly constrained by what conservatives want him to do and by what they believe. Furthermore, what they want is generally unpopular, and what they believe is far too often simply cut off from the reality that the rest of the nation lives in.

So Romney cannot have a coherent foreign policy because what his voters want to hear is that Barack Obama sympathizes with terrorists. Most Americans, meanwhile, think of Obama as the guy who took out bin Laden. Romney cannot have a sensible tax policy because conservatives insist that he promote large, self-funding tax cuts for the rich. Most of the nation, however, supports raising taxes on the rich, and reality insists that cutting taxes also reduces revenues. Also, Romney didn’t invent the 47 percent nonsense; whether he truly believes it or not, he was simply parroting back what his voters have been hearing for years from Rush Limbaugh and others like him.

Somewhere back in the 80s and 90s a bunch of conservatives got together in a smoke-filled room and decided if they didn't like what the "LIEberal establishment" was doing in the news media, the entertainment media, at the nation's universities and science laboratories, economic policy think tanks, etc., they'd use their vast wealth to make their own. That was deemed such a good idea that over the years it's grown to some ludicrous extremes like Andy Schlafly's Conservative Bible Project, for example. Or, think the AARP is too liberal with their Medicare-loving, Social Security-supporting enabling of life on the taxpayer teet? Welcome to AMAC, the right-wing version. Or the 60 Plus Association. Or, um, the ASA.

Anything deemed "liberal" by conservatives now has its right-wing counterpart, catering exclusively to right-wingers. The results have been predictable: a core group of intractable true believers increasingly cut off from the rest of the electorate.

Ghettos are never a good idea, but when a political movement willfully and intentionally separates itself from the people at large -- the very people it needs to reach if it's going to continue to exist -- it has become irrelevant.

Porkmageddon?

Someone else already used the term Porkocalypse so I had to root about for my own pun. It sucks in either event:

Might want to get your fill of ham this year, because "a world shortage of pork and bacon next year is now unavoidable," according to an industry trade group.

Blame the drought conditions that blazed through the corn and soybean crop this year. Less feed led to herds declining across the European Union “at a significant rate,” according to the National Pig Assn. in Britain.

And the trend “is being mirrored around the world,” according to a release (hat tip to the Financial Times).

In the second half of next year, the number of slaughtered pigs could fall 10%, doubling the price of European pork, according to the release.

The trade group urged supermarkets to pay pig farmers a fair price for the meat to help cover the drought-related losses.

In U.S. warehouses, pork supply soared to a record last month, rising 31% to 580.8 million pounds at the end of August from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The surge came as farmers scaled down their herds as feeding the animals became increasingly expensive.

In July, global food prices leaped 10% from the month before, according to the World Bank. Maize and wheat jumped 25% while soybeans rose 17%.

What will porkaholics and baconphiles do? Is this the revenge of the vegans? Nah, it's that "non-existent" climate change thing...

Jeez, I feel like Les Fucking Nessman. Hmm, I wonder if they're still awarding the Silver Sow award?

Today In Scab History

What in the ever-loving fuck was that.  Just--what was that?

Matt Lauer Is a Sexist Douchebag

Well, the Today Show finally did it. They finally broke me. I actually yelled SHUT UP at the TV in the waiting room of my doctor's office:

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I think my favorite part, aside from how he asks her to talk about sex with her husband and then shames her for talking about it ("I'm blushing, I'm blushing") is when he basically asks why she didn't quit the Olympics because she knew she had had sex and therefore might be pregnant. 

Lauer asked whether the couple considered perhaps waiting to try to expand their family until after the Olympics. With a laugh, Walsh Jennings replied that restraint "only lasts so long.”

“I just felt like it would take me a while this time to get pregnant for some reason,” she said. “So a month before, we’re like, ‘Should we start trying?’ I had never experienced morning sickness. We were in Gstaad, Switzerland, one of my favorite places, our favorite places, in the world ...  we decided just to get going on the process.”

“Apprently we’re very fertile,” she said before covering her eyes with embarrassment.

Dr. Nancy Snyderman, NBC’s chief medical editor, says competing at the games did not increase Walsh Jennings’ risk of pregnancy complications.

“The risk that she put to herself and fetus was zero to none,” she said.

Five weeks into a pregnancy, fetuses are tiny, well protected and “very, very, very hearty[sic],” Snyderman says.

“The embryo is microscopic. It’s just implanted in the lining of the uterus,” Snyderman says. “It would take an act of God to dislodge it, not a bump on the tummy, not a dive.”

Well thank God NBC's "chief medical editor" (please tell me there isn't more than one "medical editor" because I've been told journalism is in trouble financially) weighed in to tell us that this woman and her doctor and her husband made a smart decision, because otherwise I'm sure we'd have some fucking busybody in the comments second-guessing her every move OH WAIT: 

ill never understand the concept of "trying" to have a baby. it's not like you build up enough sperm and suddenly it happens. it can happen the first day you try. good for her, but she shouldve waited until after the olympics to "try". glad the baby is healthy.

Someone please explain the male and female reproductive systems to this idiot. And take away his/her car keys. I don't need anybody that stupid on the road with me. 

I mean, how dare she win a gold medal while carrying a baby! Sit at home and sip weak decaf tea and watch soap operas while you're knocked up, ladies! Don't work or drive or walk too fast. Don't do anything but eat and sleep! After all, you're pregnant, so you're done accomplishing things now! If you need achievement, try living through your husband's and kids' accomplishments. That never goes badly. 

A. 

Check out my lizard...

 

This is what I get for assuming you all are broke like me. :)

I had planned a tasteful "Sticky Fingers" cover shot, but since it was hard... Uh... difficult to get my lizard to cooperate, we had to go with the handful shot.

In any case, this is Archer, a baby leopard gecko that I fell in love with. Always wanted a gecko for a pet and The Missus finally convinced me to give this a shot. He's usually decent about "hand time" and he's a hell of a lot of fun to watch run around. He'll climb all over you if you let him. I have yet to get salmonella.

Seriously, thank you all for donating to this fun little place we all call home. If I could think of something to do with him next year for this that wouldn't get me bitten, I'd probably agree to it for the fundraising trick.

Archer don't do hipster glasses.

Doc.

The Kids Are Alright

Go you, Daily Princetonian. 

We are firmly against “quote approval” and do not practice such a policy. When I refer to “quote review,” that is a non-binding courtesy we provide to sources in limited circumstances. If they provided factual information that they later found to be wrong (eg “I said five but I meant six”), that is the only instance in which we would consider replacing a quote. If there’s a question of whether the quote was transcribed accurately, that would be addressed then as well. This happens entirely at the discretion of the editors.

To be clear, if a source said it, a source said it. We don’t do revisionist interviewing.

Showing the supposed pros how it's done.

 A. 

Today on Tommy T's Obsession with the Freeperati - The 47% Solution edition

 

Good morning, gentle people - I was going to do a "putrid potporri" edition, but as the wheels comtinue to come off the crazy train (how's that for mixing your metaphors?), some current events have the Freeperati more stirred up than a bad martini.

Into your suits, everyone Southern Beale, please check the containment seals, because I'm about to open up a drum of I feel so inar-inar-inar-inar-inar-inar--tic-u-late!

 

Ryan: Romney was 'obviously inarticulate' in fundraiser comments http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/09/ryan-romney-was-obviously-inarticulate-in-fundraiser-135955.html?hp=r1 ^

Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 6:31:34 AM by timlot

Asked what he thought of Romney's remarks, Ryan told the Nevada station: "He was obviously inarticulate in making this point." Ryan went on to say the point the Republicans are making is that, under the Obama economy, government dependency is up and economic stagnation is up.

Asked if he thought Romney regrets the remarks, Ryan says he thinks Romney would have said it differently, adding, "that's for sure."

1 posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 6:31:38 AM by timlot

Oh, my.

To: timlot

STOP APOLOGIZING, MAN UP AND STAND BY YOUR COMMENTS, DAMMIT!

2 posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 6:33:13 AM by NRA1995 (I'll cling to my religion, cigars and guns till they're pried from my cold dead fingers!)

I'm sorry - couldn't hear that.  Could you type a bit louder, please?

To: timlot

How to take a GREAT speech line and stomp it into the ground until dead 101!

4 posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 6:37:14 AM by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)

Yes, boys and girls - the Freeperati think that Mitten's blurting out of the wingnut "victims" screed was a good speech. They've become pretty much untethered from reality at this point.

Their grip was always tenuous, but now not only do they discount everything outside The Bubble, but have forgotten that anything outside The Bubble exists. Their world is complete.

To: timlot

Prime material for a Campaign ad.

5 posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 6:47:37 AM by HotKat (Politicians are like diapers; they need to be changed often and for the same reason. Mark Twain)

That's pretty much what I was thinking.

To: timlot

Paul Ryan said WHAT??

 

What is WRONG with so many Conservatives when it comes to just OPENLY EMBRACING and DEFENDING Limited Government and a free market for free people?

They need to just DO it, and stop being such pusillanimous WIMPS!

7 posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 6:50:10 AM by NH Liberty ("For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus..." [1 Timothy 2:5])

.

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To: txrangerette

I am a moocher. I don't pay income tax.

Because my social security benefits are not taxable and the earned interest income off my savings are below taxable levels, I don't pay taxes.

There are a lot of retired people who don't pay income tax or pay a relatively small amount of income tax on interest income who will be in a world of hurt when Romney and the GOP start taxing SS benefits.

17 posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 7:25:02 AM by Ben Ficklin

.

To: timlot

” - - - Ryan says he thinks Romney would have said it differently, adding, “that’s for sure.” - - - “

The election-winning topic of Marxist Redistribution of Wealth has been delivered to you on a Silver Platter by David Corn of the Liberal Agenda Media, and you Ryan, choose to stab Romney in the back?

The Liberal Agenda Media spent all day yesterday telling their Liberal audiences that 47 % of Voters pay NO Personal Federal Income taxes. What a great promotion they performed for us Conservatives, and you stab Romney in the back?

Get on board the Smack-Down Express, Ryan, or shut your mouth!

30 posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 9:25:29 AM by Graewoulf ((Traitor John Roberts' Obama"care" violates Sherman Anti-Trust Law, AND the U.S. Constitution.))

 

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More after the linky thingy..

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Deep Treme Thought

Not the neighborhood, the HBO show. I'm a bit underwhelmed by the Season 3 premiere. What was up with the celebrity chef dinner? It seemed gratuitous to me. Hope the show's staff got some decent eats out of it.

I'm sticking with the show but the short scenes and choppy editing style have got me calling it "short attention span theatre," and that's not a compliment.

That is all.

WHO IS ADVISING THIS GUY???!?

Did Shrum switch sides or something? 

The former Massachusetts governor and his wife, Ann, could have claimed more in deductions, the trustee of Romney's blind trust said when the candidate's 2011 tax returns were released.

But, Brad Malt acknowledged, the couple "limited their deductions of charitable contributions to conform to the governor's statement in August, based on the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13 percent in income taxes in each of the last 10 years."

In other words, the governor made some shit up, and then we had to make it true. Not unusual in politics or life, but YOU DON'T EVER SAY THAT OUT LOUD. I know that, and my extensive experience in crisis PR consists of drunk dinner conversations with people who teach this stuff. 

I have never seen anything this inept in my entire life. It is so inept I am starting to go to the eleven-dimensional-chess place, where I start fearing this is all part of some secret evil plan because they cannot be this bad.

I mean, they're Republicans. They've been beating us blind for decades. All of a sudden it just all falls apart? I laugh and laugh and then a voice in the back of my head says don't laugh too loud, something big must be coming down the pipe because this can't be all there is, just this fucking assclown and this team of assclowns. I have seen better managed candidates for school board. 

A. 

Sunday Morning Video: Peter Gabriel Live in 1986

Here's Gabriel's brilliant set from the final show of the Conspiracy of Hope tour at Giants Stadium in Joisey:

 

Rising Tide 7 Live Stream

Live from New Orleans, it's Rising Tide. The program kicks off at 9 a.m. And my panel will be on at 4:15 p.m. CST.

 

We hope you are enjoying the Rising Tide webcast. Please consider making a minimum $10 donation to help us put on future Rising Tide events.

Weekend Question Thread

Are you allergic to anything? 

I don't know what's blooming around my house these days but this year has been just brutal on whatever pollen/tree/grass/outdoors allergy I developed in my early 30s. I get sneezy and wheezy no matter what I take. Come on, good hard frost! 

A. 

Claire Supported First Draft Before It Was Cool

Supporting your favorite blogs is so mainstream nowadays. 

(Yes, those are actually glasses on her, though we 'shopped out the weird-ass decor going on at Casa Athenae these days in favor of this fine photo studio background. People make little glasses for dolls. I am glad we live in a world where this is the case.)

WE DID IT! Doc will be posting a picture of his lizard shortly since you maniacs can't be stopped!

Thanks to everybody who contributed to First Draft, who hit up the tip jar, posted about the drive, retweeted and commented in support! I've tried to get everybody a personal thank you e-mail and I apologize to anybody I missed sending one to. It means a lot to know you care about what happens here and want to keep it going. Our 10th year is going to be a great one. 

A. 

The New Bullies

Sometimes it takes a stupid argument over a stupid thing to reveal a greater truth. After a week of “Oh, hey, you still live here?” chaos that meant seeing my wife for about three minutes a day, we finally had an evening to catch up on some together time. We decided to watch a few episodes of “Project Runway” we had gathered on the DVR, which isn’t as tortuous as I thought it would be when she asked for a season pass to this thing.

If you haven’t see this over the ten seasons it’s been on, the concept should at least be familiar: Gather about 12-14 people from all over the place with an interest in being famous at X job. Put them together in a living space and force them to do all sorts of impossible work-related challenges. Have three or four assholes on a panel judge them in some of the meanest ways possible.

They shit-can one of them each week and we all listen to the person who got shit-canned say, “I learned a lot and I know you haven’t heard the last of me.”

We then officially never hear from that person again and move on to the next week to start the process all over again.

This week’s fashion challenge was to move away from designing clothes for people that anorexics call thin and try to design something for a “real woman.”

(I hate that phrase, despite its constant use in the program. It’s like models turn in their vaginas when they take to the catwalk. Or like we’re trying to come up with a nice way to say “size four is too fucking heavy.”)

These were all women whose friends had sponsored them. They were too short, too heavy, too “fuck fashion” to be fashionable and the challenge was to create a look for them that took who they were and translated it to fashion.

One of the designers is named Ven. Ven is a talented guy and doesn’t fit the stereotype of “male fashion designer.” Most of the guys on the show seem like they’re picked based on number of tattoos, tightest Daisy Duke shorts and how catty they can be. It’s like they went to Fire Island and hired life coach Jerry Springer to conduct a “Gay Off.”

(I talked to one of my good friends who watches the show and who also happens to be gay. He said, “I finally understand how my friend (Name of an Italian lady he know) feels when she watches the Sopranos and Real Housewives.”)

In any case, Ven has the body shape of a potato with a half-sucked Milk Dud stuck on the top for a head. He’s the kind of guy who the mean joke “Have you see his new shoes? No. Neither has he” applies.

His model for this challenge was a woman who was about a size 12-14. She didn’t like the way she looked so she wore things that were comfortable. And speaking comfortable, she clearly wasn’t comfortable in the world of high fashion.

I get it. When I had to buy a suit for the Cardinal Reunion, I felt like I was walking into “Jimmy’s House of Get Ready for a Random Anal Rape.”

I was tense. I needed help but I didn’t want help. I felt like something at the Westminster Dog Show. I was afraid to touch something to have the sales guy say, “That? Are you kidding?” 

So, of course, the first thing Ven does is complain about his plus-sized model, right in front of her. He then starts talking about how they’re going to do certain things because she’s a plus-sized woman. Again, right in front of her. He then proceeds to fuck up his design (a common theme on the show: Try something, fuck it up, bitch about it.) and complain both on camera and to her that if she weren’t such a plus-sized model, this would be better.

The woman breaks down, Ven almost gets kicked off the show and the show ends with this guy still saying, “I’m not designing for people like her.”

Thus, the argument.

My wife, someone who loves fashion but hates clothes because of designers like Ven, is arguing that he wasn’t being that big of an asshole. I, someone who could probably be a lot more fashion-forward because everything for dudes is somehow in my size, am losing my mind about this guy being a complete bag of dick. We argued about this for an hour, went to bed and woke up arguing about it again. The Missus said she was DREAMING about this and wanted to continue the argument because of it.

That’s when it really hit me why this bothered me: This guy was the new bully.

Bullies have been around for forever. They usually were big and strong and demanded lunch money if they were guys. The girls bullied in more subtle ways through power gained by beauty, money and status. However, bullies were bullies. They were the top of the evolutionary food chain and they used their power and your fear to make you something less than you were.

I find it highly likely that people on “Project Runway” including Ven were victims of bullies. The word “fag” keeps coming to mind as the insult de jour. For some of these guys, I’m sure it was even worse that they were coming to grips with being gay and doing so at a time when even the most well-adjusted kids teetered on the edge of insanity. Ven probably was the fat kid in the class as well. He liked fashion. He was quiet: The perfect target for the loud, boisterous assholes among us.

He probably found solace in being good at something and eventually realizing that being able to throw a ball for a high school team wasn’t the end all and be all of life. He left high school, left college and began to find himself in a world where different was embraced. He was chosen for a show that celebrates that in its own way and allowed him to create his own power.

The first chance he got to take his skill and his power and give some hope to someone else, he turned into a bully.

Earlier this month, I got a phone call from home. Mom was having a week that feels like you fell off the top of a giant pine tree and the branches are smashing into you constantly. You hope to hit the ground and die, if only because you want this shit to be over.

Problems with sick family, bad kids, weird administrators and general bullshit were beating her up. She had the grace and strength to handle all of that.

Except for one thing.

The district had decided to install new computer programs to chart and track kids. Even more, it mandated that the faculty members all have their own personal websites that could be used to contact parents and provide homework information and such. The district hired a guy to help oversee the training of the faculty and this guy was supposed to be an expert on the topic.

The in-service day of training turned into what you would expect: Faculty fumbling around, computers that were older than my car not being fast enough to do things right and general mayhem. Of course, the expert was an expert, not a teacher, so this became a lot of “Well, that SHOULD work.” When it worked for a few people, thanks to their previous knowledge and the fact they had faster computers, his sense that failure was based on human error appeared justified.

Of course, when you coupled my tech-phobic mother with the slowest machine out there (a PC, no less for a Mac person), you have the makings of trouble. She couldn’t get things to pull up, she couldn’t get things to link and she had trouble making her stuff work.  

She became the perfect target for a bully.

The man kept saying, “Well just do what I told you to!” When it didn’t work, he mocked her in front of the class. When someone asked for help, he nodded in my mother’s direction and noted “Why don’t you ask her?” as others laughed.

I could feel her pain. I could feel her embarrassment. It just seeped through the phone in that broken, crippled way.

“I just… I SWEAR to you…” she said as she broke down in tears. “I am NOT stupid! I WILL learn this and I WON’T retire until I do…”

The computer guy should have known better than to be like this. From every account, he was probably the guy other kids picked on. He probably liked modems instead of models, SCSI instead of sports and programming instead of playing. Of all people, he should have been the one to say, “I know how it feels when it seems like everyone else is laughing at you. Let me help you.”

Instead, the instant he had the upper hand, he played it in the most merciless and mean-spirited way possible.

I could feel it building. I wanted to grab my Louisville Slugger and drive two hours and fuck this guy up. I wanted to just rage against him and scream, “See if you can .html code your way out of this you FUCKING FUCK!” It was the same way I wanted to stick Ven on a treadmill and say, “Let this lady watch you run until you’re the size of the models you think are worth designing for, asshole.”

Then, I realized why that wouldn’t work. To beat a bully, you have to beat him at his own game. The reason kicking the unholy shit out of the bully I faced in sixth grade worked was because he was using violence to perpetuate superiority. I out-violenced him and thus was left alone.

I couldn’t out-design that turd in a striped shirt, but I sure as hell could do something to help my mother. I told her everything was going to be all right and that we would fix this somehow.

The next weekend, I headed to Milwaukee for a card show and basically locked myself in The Computer Room with Mom for about four hours. We slowly went through each program and we got her website to work. I helped her add images, links, email references and more. We used her scanner to grab photos and homework. We found references online to her previous awards. We built it together, slowly and scholarly. We also managed to get her classes updated, her kids added and her parents emailed.

“You’re really a great teacher,” she said with a smile. “If he had been able to explain things this way, I know I could have gotten it.”

Later that week, I called Mom to tell her my book had finally published. Before I could get excited and share my news, she interrupted me and said, “I’ve gotta tell you something first! I updated all my classes homework by myself! I got all the kids over there and everything!”

She sounded elated, a mix of triumph and giggles.

She then told me that they had another session and she was one of the few people to have a website done.

“I wasn’t going to show my site,” she said. “I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but then that asshole said, ‘Well, maybe we should look at HER site!’ and it got a big laugh. So I told him to open it up and the room fell silent. He mumbled, ‘Nice job on adding those photos. How did you do that?’ I told him it was because he was such a great teacher.

“People laughed.”

Friday Catblogging: The king stay the king

Thus spake D'Aneglo Barksdale in The Wire. It also applies to Kaspar, the King of Baton Rouge:

Because I Can

And I'm awesome:

So awesome.

Pulp Fiction Thursday: Pulp Kinkiness

This cover isn't politcally correct but it' *is* hilarious so here we go:

 

When Even Symbolic Action Is Too Much

Go read Dan and listen to the embedded recording at the link. Frack this: 

A group of citizens concerned about fracking spent the summer drumming up support for more local control. This was an effort of grassroots activists who weren’t paid a dime and who gathered signatures on their own time. We went door to door in the time that was left over after work, family and other obligations were taken care of. We ended up with hundreds of signatures.

Earlier this month we took the signatures to the trustees, along with a nonbinding resolution expressing our concerns about fracking and our disapproval of Columbus for usurping the sovereignty of local communities. The key word is “nonbinding.” It was a purely symbolic resolution, and it was presented as such. Nothing in it required any action, conflicted with the state or put the trustees in legal jeopardy with the oil and gas industry. We emphasized that this was about being representatives: literally representing the views of many of their constituents, even if they themselves disagreed with the sentiments.

One of their refrains over the past few months has been that they would love to help, but their hands are tied. This nonbinding resolution gave them the chance to do something with their hands untied, even if it was just a purely symbolic gesture. 

What a bunch of chickenasses. I think my favorite part of the recording, besides where the board is all WE WILL ARREST YOU FOR ANNOYING US WITH YOUR BEING RIGHT, is how people keep repeating, "our hands are tied." 

Because, um, no they're not. We do ourselves no favors when we pretend that what we're doing is not what we're doing, when we take away our own power under the guise of letting ourselves off the hook. Because it's one thing to make what you consider a legitimate choice, out of expediency or financial concern, and another to kid yourself and everyone around you about what you are and what you want. 

Lying about powerlessness is the thing that drives me craziest. Your hands aren't tied. You may not have anything you want to do or anything that's easy to do or anything that won't bring ten tons of hell down on your head, but your hands aren't tied. There's a vast difference between that and this. 

A. 

The Mittistry of Silly Walks

From Album4

 

Rachel Maddow noted Mitt's engaged in somewhat unusual tactics for this late stage of the presidential campaign, mostly avoiding big rallies in swing states in favor of fundraisers in safely red ones. 

I dunno, maybe they need the money (sarcasm)...or maybe that's just what makes them feel comfortable while avoiding any more embarrassing moments of Romney telling us what he really thinks. 

First Draft Fundraising Day Four: The Bribery Begins

All right, we're nearing the midway point of the drive, which is usually when I have to remind everybody of what you can get when you generously donate to First Draft: 

That's right. You get a ferret in an outfit. If we reach our goal by Friday, we'll give you a Claire, or a Bucky, or maybe even a Chicken-Riot, in a hat. Or a hoodie. Or a fetching pair of earmuffs. Because that's how we roll around here. Other websites may give you more trenchant observations on the human condition, or funnier cock jokes, but we pimp our pets for your enjoyment. My mother is incredibly proud. 

(Adrastos has not volunteered to have Della or Oscar dress up in anything. Yet. The day is young.)

In all seriousness, thank you to everyone who's contributed so far. And if you haven't hit up the tip jar, please do so today!  

A. 

Mitt Don't Delve

The "secret" Romney tape is starting to remind me of the Nixon White House tapes only without the f-bombs or anti-Semitic paranoia. There's self-aggrandizement, self-pity and far too much self for my taste. And I'm not talking about Kansas Jayhawks hoops coach Bill Self...

Now where was I? Oh yeah, my *current* favorite bit of the tape:

All right, we have a potentially volatile situation but we sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it. We don't go to war to try and resolve it imminently. On the other hand, I got a call from a former secretary of state. I won't mention which one it was, but this individual said to me, you know, I think there's a prospect for a settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis after the Palestinian elections. I said, "Really?" And, you know, his answer was, "Yes, I think there's some prospect." And I didn't delve into it.

There's Romney's peace plan in a nutshell. Let Bibi do whatever the hell wants while the US sits on the sidelines wringing its hands. How’s that for strong leadership? It's procrastination as a substitute for policy. In any event, I'm sure Willard thinks that all Palestinians are terrorist moochers…

I don't know about you, but if a former Secretary of State told me that there's a chance of a settlement after our election, I, for one, would delve. The whole statement was a weird combination of know-it-all-ism and know-nothingism if that makes any sense. Mitt is one of those guys who refuses to listen because he thinks he knows everything when, in fact, he knows bupkis.

At the risk of sounding like a religious bigot, this is classic LDS male crapola. Mormon men are raised to think of themselves as mini-Gods who have reserved seats in the great luxury suite in the sky. The Willards among them lack curiosity because God, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and Ezra Taft Benson are on their side or some such shit.

I guess I should stop. This whole post sounds like an exercise in delving...

The War's Never Over

Never.

Ever.

As part of my job, I talked to a young man today who had recently been fired.  He is 26 years old.  We sent him to Iraq when he was 19 years old.  Yes, "we."  You and I.  Everyone who lives in the United States of America sent him there.  And he got broken.  Ruined.  He has post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury that you and I are responsible for.  He did not incur those injuries defending our freedoms, or securing weapons of mass destruction, or "fighting them there so we won't have to fight them here," or any of the other reasons we were told that we had to send young men and women to Iraq.

No. 

We sent him to go get ruined for the biggest bunch of bullshit I've ever seen in my entire life.

And ruined is exactly what he is.  He got fired from a job for some chickenshit reason.  That was the longest employment he'd had since returning to the States in 2006.  He'd worked there 17 months.  He can't remember things on a day-to-day basis.  He has problems dealing with what most of us would think are simple situations.  He gets very nervous when he hears sudden, loud noises.  And his wife has to help him with what you and I would think are simple tasks.

We did this to him.  We ruined him.  We destroyed his life and the lives of those who care for him and deal with his disabilities on a daily basis.

That's on us.  We simply cannot put him back together again, because what was broken is no longer something that can be reassembled.  And we did that.  We let people send him, and thousands of men and women like him, to a pointless war.  We did that because people thought that we needed to look strong, or that there wasn't any appreciable difference between electoral choices, or that we just needed to teach Those People In That Part Of The World a lesson. 

But we ruined that man.  And his wife.  And his parents.  And his siblings, cousins, in-laws, and everyone else who has been personally touched by this fucking ridiculously unnecessary problem.  Us.  We did that.  I'm not saying that he's a hero, or a "wounded warrior," or any other stupid platitude we use to refer to the people we ship off to fight our stupid wars. 

What I am saying is that if we, as a people, hadn't decided that there wasn't a difference between Bush and Gore, or that we needed to "send a message to the Arab street" after 9/11, or that Saddam Hussein (a secular dictator who imprisoned and killed people we would refer to as "Islamic extremists") was in cahoots with Osama bin Laden (an Islamic fundamentalist who thought Saddam Hussein was an affront to Islam), then this man wouldn't be in the situation he is today.  He probably wouldn't be reviewing his investment portfolio, and he might be looking at four years upstate for a stupid felony, but that doesn't matter--we didn't give him those choices, because we took those options from him. 

Yes, that's right.  We created a society where this bullshit outcome was not only possible for some people, but likely.  And that makes me sick.  I drove to work today, and I had to stop on the way home, open the door, and puke on the road.  Because this shit makes me sick. 

I'm sick to fucking death of dealing with the people that we have broken, or given up on, or just never even acknowledged existed in the first fucking place.  Not because that work isn't important, but because it never ends.  Because we refuse to acknowledge that we are all in this together, and to see that, as the boss so eloquently says, your fate is our fate.  That's what makes me despair.  And to see that we have a large percentage of the population that has decided that these people--the people who live nearby, that serve you food, or drive you places, or clean your hotel rooms, or pick your orders, or do any of a thousand other tasks that are necessary to the functioning of a society--not that they don't matter, but that they are somehow taking shit that is yours that doesn't belong to them--that just makes me want to go to the liquor store, buy all the whiskey that I can afford, and go outside and drink until I'm dead. 

Maybe I'm just a little too drunk to make sense tonight, but that's what I've got to say.  Be well, everyone, and take care of your fellow people.  That's all you can do that matters worth half a shit in this world.

Further Annals of the Passive Voice

Here we have the anatomy of some bullshit, laid out in such a manner as to make clear that it is bullshit, yet laid out nonetheless, despite being utter bullshit: 

"The president's view is one of larger government, there's a tape that came out today where the president's saying he likes redistribution," said Romney during an interview with Fox News' Neil Cavuto, the candidate's first interview since the leaked videos showed Romney referring to 47 percent of the American people who feel "entitled" and who are "dependent" on government.

"I disagree," said Romney on the issue of redistribution. "I think a society based upon a government centered nation where government plays a larger and larger role, redistributes money, that's the wrong course for America."

Romney was referring to an audio clip of then-Sen. Barack Obama's speech at a conference at Loyola University in 1998. Obama said at the time that he thinks he does "believe in redistribution."

"I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution, because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level, to make sure everybody's got a shot," Obama said at the time.

The audio file was posted on the conservative website The Drudge Report, which is run by Matt Drudge, a close friend of Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades, under the headline "Revealed."

In other words, we know that this is crap, we are aware that this video in no way implies what Romney and Drudge are trying to imply, and yet here is a story that leads with it, because otherwise bias. 

(Pooling resources and redistributing them, natch, is the entire POINT of government, when it comes to things like roads, and schools, and armies, and other things for liberals and gays.) 

Romney used the audio to try and paint Obama as someone who supports the government taking "from some" to "give to the others," dubbing it an "entirely foreign concept."

Foreign. Like with Kenyans and Muslims and French mimes in the faculty lounges and such. 

A. 

This Ain't No Freepathon: First Draft Fundraising Day 3

No, I'm not going to shut the site down and send the whole Internet home without its supper if we don't get our way. That isn't how this works. I can't scare you with tales of server expenses and, I dunno, a new gas grill because mine got knocked over in the rain or something. 

What I can tell you is that your contributions are a vote of confidence in what we're building here. An independent place for commentary, discussion, fun, and good. A place for people who don't just want to bitch about stuff. A place for people who want to make things better. A place to tell each other to get back up, and to figure out how.

Your contributions tell me that that's something you think is worth doing every day, worth getting up and writing for, worth maintaining right down to the Freeper sewers and the filters full of Chinese porno spam. Your tips mean we can do what we want to do here, but they also mean you want us to keep doing it. 

Hit the tip jar. We're about a third of the way to our fundraising goal. I'd like to see us get there. I'd like to hear you think it's worth it. 

A. 

Best graphic ever

Posted at the Wapo's web site. Some folks checked into the Mittbot's claim that Obama voters are all moochers. It looks as if the electoral vote count of the states with the most non-taxpayers is Romney 95, Obama 5. But when the did the wingers ever let the facts interfere with their narratives?

The dang thang has given me an earworm. Mercifully, it's a good un: