The Impolitic

Tea Party - The Movie

2009-11-20T14:47:00.002-05:00

Ha! I really thought this had to be a spoof, but I'm hearing it's a for real, made for web broadcast documentary. If it's as funny as this trailer, it's going to be a big hit.

[via Wonkette]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Unbalanced Fare

2009-11-20T12:47:00.004-05:00

I burned out yesterday. Had to deal with the moving thing and frankly, I just couldn't face the news. Wasn't much anyway in the tradmed, unless you want to talk about Palin. Which I'm going to do again today oddly, since Rump Roast found some interesting feedback from her fans.

It appears her book tour is leaving some of them disenchanted with their Yukon Princess. Apparently despite having waiting for most of the day in lines, and most of that time in the freezing cold and rain, some 400 of the 1000 lucky wristband holders didn't get their books signed. Ms. Mooselina skulked off to her bus at the stroke of 9:00 with a royal wave and had her minions dispense pre-printed signature plates for their books instead. Some unhappy campers to say the least. Click over to see the vid and the comments.

Meanwhile, Fox admits another *inadvertent* mistake in airing old campaign footage and pretending it was film of the crowds who showed up to buy her book.

Media Matters collects a list of Fox's year of apologies, and it's a good one, but hardly seems comprehensive to me. I know they've made more *mistakes* than that, but I guess these are just the ones they've owned up to.

Of course, Fox was forced to apologize. You won't see any mea culpas coming from Wingnuttia's greatest fabulist, Gateway Pundit, who lied in his lede by misquoting President Obama. None of his deluded fans caught the discrepancy anyway, despite the fact the video and the transcript were available on the post. So eager are they to believe the worst, and validate their hate, mere facts don't matter. I know. Not exactly news, but still never fails to astound me.

The President was talking about his Asian tour in the quote in question. Not that you saw much coverage of that. The journos on Twitter were mostly talking about themselves but thanks to Mark Knoller for passing on the link to White House photographer Pete Souza's blog where he has posts, video and photographs of the tour.

Completely unrelated to politics, my friends Rich and Flo scored a cover story in the local alt-newspaper. They're the ones with the toilet paper museum, but that's not the only thing that's cool about them. I believe they were the first, or at least one of the first musicians to sell their albums strictly through the internet. And they collect lots of other fun stuff too. It's a nice write-up.

And I haven't had time to look at this, but I want to archive the link so I can. Thanks to HBK for flagging Fine Vintage: Sexiest Men (Not Necessarily) Alive. Apparently, you can add your own choices. I assume this was done in response to whichever magazine declared Johnny Depp to be sexiest man of the year. I think he's pretty sexy I guess, but I would have chosen Mark Knoller of course.

Late addition: One more photo link from John. This is a nice one. He just figured out some fancy trick with his camera. New Yorker Hotel with Chrysler Building in the background. I love New York.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Yes, I'm obsessed...

2009-11-20T12:05:00.004-05:00

...with the Empire State Building. I remember the first time I went to the top, it was still the tallest building in the world. Boy did I think that was cool. It's one of the few tourist sites that I've revisited regularly in NYC. One of the others being the Staten Island Ferry. That's the best, cheapest, touristy thing you can do in NY. Anyway, I expect some of you are bored with my links to photos of ESB, but this one is so especially cool, that I'm posting it as photo so you can't avoid it.

Love the way the fog wrapped around it. Definitely click to enlarge to get the full effect. Thanks to my new NYC friend John who as it turns out, also dreams of the day when people bust out in song on the sidewalks, just like an old Fred Astaire musical.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

1000 False Words

2009-11-18T18:06:00.000-05:00

Archiving this in case it comes up in the comments at DetNews. Factcheck.org debunks the latest viral email circulating "a photograph purporting to show President Obama at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day, listening to the national anthem without his hand over his heart." You'll no doubt be shocked to learn the photo was taken on Memorial Day and the reason Obama was just standing there was because at that moment they were playing "Hail to the Chief."

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Down on C Street

2009-11-18T17:57:00.001-05:00

Didn't get around to this earlier. One small bright spot in a lot of dismal news. The IRS cracked down on the C St. House. They determined that it wasn't really a church since they're renting rooms to philandering GOPers at below market rates and revoked 65% of their tax-exempt status.

Not sure why they still let them keep the 35% for a few prayer meetings but then again, I recall quite a few people using the Universal Life Church, of which I'm an ordained minister by the way, as a tax dodge to write off their wine purchases back in the day, so I guess I'm willing to let that slide. Good to see the IRS going after some big hitters for a change in any event.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

I Love This Man

2009-11-18T10:44:00.003-05:00

In case you were wondering why I have a pretend crush on Mark Knoller, besides his adorable, geeky fixation with historical White House stats, it's for tweets like this:

"Bite Me Award" of the day to the Fox News promo dept trumpeting its Obama interview: "only we ask the tough questions." Puh-leese.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Goldman's Latest Joke

2009-11-18T10:42:00.001-05:00

You've got to be effing kidding me. Goldman Sachs is so sorry it made a mess of the economy and to prove how truly contrite they are, will show such largess as this:

A little more than a week after Goldman’s chairman and chief executive drew fire for saying the Wall Street giant was “doing God’s work,” the bank said Tuesday that it would spend $500 million — or about 3 percent of the $16.7 billion it has so far set aside to pay its employees this year — to help thousands of small businesses recover from the recession.

Do they honestly think that a paltry $500 million is going to make it all better and the "little people" or as they no doubt privately refer to us, "the easy marks" won't be mad at them anymore? Either they're really stupid, or they think we are.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Blaming John McCain

2009-11-18T08:25:00.001-05:00

Sully posts on something I was thinking last night as well. While I'm continuing my embargo on reading about Sarah Palin, I do of course read the headlines and I see the McCain camp denying the allegations she makes in her book about the campaign. I tend to believe them. She started her stint in the national spotlight with lies and hatemongering and stuck to that deceitful script for the duration. The truth and facts don't serve her purposes.

The point Sully makes is that John McCain is responsible for this, or more accurately it's his irresponsible choice that unleashed this horror on us and no one holds him accountable for it. Thinking back, it was clear to me within 8 hours of googling that Sarah's ladder to success was built of the bloody bodies of the allies she backstabbed for her personal gain. Hard to believe McCain and his team could have been so incompetent as to miss such obvious clues. So why does the media still treat McCain, or anyone involved in that epic show of impossibly bad judgement, as credible commentators -- about anything?

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Time to Move

2009-11-17T13:45:00.001-05:00

Posting has been light because I'm moving again. Hope this time I'll be able to settle down. This old place was nice in a lot of ways, but it's just not right. It's too damp and too cold and too far from downtown. My new digs are practically in the heart of what passes for an urban hellhole in this little city. I'm hating the moving part, but looking forward to living there. My plan when I got here was to find a place downtown and this is the closest I've come to approximating my old digs in lovely downtown Northampton since I've moved south.

About to take another load over to the new place so just a couple of links to amuse you. Slim pickings out there if you want to avoid Palin, but I'm happy to see Karen Tumulty's "Make Em Filibuster" campaign seems to be gaining some steam.

And this photo gallery of odd vacations spots is quite stunning. I want to go to the glass beach for sure and most of the other places look tempting to me as well.

And if babies make you happy, this is the spot to follow the progress of my favorite preemie. They're holding a fundraiser today. They're going to donate a dollar for every click on the blog. They may have upped the ante to leaving a comment too, so do let them know how much you enjoy little Sam.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Palin Madness

2009-11-17T12:45:00.002-05:00

I'm disgusted with the amount of media attention Palin is getting this week and frankly I don't think that all the snarking from the left is really helping marginalize her. It's just more ink about her, her, her. At this point, the only ones fooled are her fans and the snark just solidifies their loyalty. If anything, I see it as increasing her support, just because the wingers love to piss us liberals off.

At this point, I'm basically refusing to read anything with her name in it, but I do occassionally get tricked by a shortened link and this piece by Joan Walsh makes a good point. Palin isn't that worrisome but the anger of the working poor that she is tapping into is dangerous to ignore. Read the whole thing, but the closer sums up the problem well.

So while I'm not worried about President Palin, I remain worried about President Obama. I'm particularly concerned that his increasingly triangulating, anti-deficit administration will do the wrong thing, morally and politically, and move to the right, without understanding that some right-wing rage could be rechanneled by acknowledging its roots: That the economic system seems rigged for the have-a-lots v. the have-a-littles, and despite their promises, the Democrats haven't done enough to change that. Palin can't change any of that, but Obama can. There's still time for him to do so, but the clock is ticking.

Walsh links to a couple of others making the same point, that being, it is dangerous to discount this public mood. I've been predicting since 04 that the year of the anti-incumbent is nigh. I think in 2010, I'm finally going to be right. I don't think there's enough Tea Party people to elect Palin president, but there's enough to elect some nutcases to office. They'll vote them in to piss us off, no matter how suicidal it is.

On a different note, since I'm breaking my Palin embargo, this twitpix is worth passing on. I'm told it was taken in front of her favorite consignment store. Says it all.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

A few brave conservatives

2009-11-16T11:56:00.001-05:00

Reading through the uproar over the decision to try some of the Gitmo detainees in the US, it's clear that most conservatives are either pants-wetting cowards who are trembling in fear of the idea of a handful of OMG terrorists setting foot on US soil, or are afraid that the Bush administration's illegal conduct will be exposed during the course of the proceedings. Likely it's both. So I was surprised to see Grover Norquist, David Keene, and Bob Barr come out in favor of the trials.

We, the undersigned, urge Congress and the President to support a policy for detention, treatment and trial of suspected terrorists that is consistent with U.S. treaty obligations and constitutional principles. As it moves to close Guantanamo and develop policies for handling terrorism suspects going forward, the government should rely upon our established, traditional system of justice. We are confident that the government can preserve national security without resorting to sweeping and radical departures from an American constitutional tradition that has served us effectively for over two centuries.

I admit the cynic in me wonders what their angle is in releasing this statement, but I'm willing to take it at face value. So little sanity comes from that side of the fence. Maybe some of it will rub off on the terminally disengaged from reality hordes. [via]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Meteors Tonight!

2009-11-16T11:50:00.000-05:00

Attention skywatchers. Leonid meteor shower is tonight through Thursday night. I'm told the best viewing will be between 1 am and dawn Tuesday. That would be after midnight tonight. [graphic via]

Our Corporatocracy

2009-11-15T08:11:00.001-05:00

Remind me again why we bother to have elections? Might as well just drop the pretense and let the corporations move their offices onto Captiol Hill.

In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies. [...]

Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points — 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for lobbyists.

Yet the single payer advocates don't even to get to speak at hearings. They get arrested for showing up. It's like I've been saying for years. It's not the system of government that's broken. It's that we have the wrong people running it.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Sunny Saturday Snippets

2009-11-14T14:57:00.002-05:00

Went over and picked up the keys to the new place this afternoon. It looked better than I remembered it. And bigger. Usually it's the opposite. Looking forward to living there. Meanwhile, it's just too lovely an afternoon to spend in front of the computer so just a few links to entertain those who are stuck indoors with bad weather. I'll be back later I think.

New proof that Bush administration lied about the response to 9/11. Willing to bet this won't become a media obsession. They're too busy following around Palin on the world's lamest book tour.

The first of the retrospects that I've seen. Newsweek does the decade in seven minutes. Most of it is pretty depressing. Glad that one is almost over.

This is the best response I've seen so far to the bed-wetters who are freaking out that we're going to try some of the Gitmo prisoners in US courts.

I love the intro John Dickerson gave this link: The stoned guy at NASA who said " bet we'll find something on the moon if blow up stuff," is getting his sweet high-five.

I've never seen The Highlander, so this Colbert clip didn't make much sense to me, but maybe you'll find it as entertaining as my tweeps did.

And it's been at least two days since I posted a ESB pix. Loved the angle on this one, even though the Christmas tree made me cringe. Gah. Remember when they had the decency to wait until after Thanksgiving to put up the Christmas stuff. Those were good times.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Big Business Rebuffs GOP

2009-11-13T15:37:00.000-05:00

Sure the megacorps are the GOPers BFF when they're pushing tax breaks and blocking regulation of their industry but the Business Roundtable's loyalty only goes as far as their wallets.

GOP aides say the party’s relationship with the business association has deteriorated in recent weeks as the Roundtable continues to work with Democrats in the White House and on the Hill to advance healthcare reform.

GOP lawmakers have become increasingly critical of the Roundtable for failing to take more of an active role in standing up to Obama on healthcare reform. But several said they were disappointed and perplexed by the business group’s latest action: the release of a report that gives Obama valuable rhetorical ammunition against Republicans.

Well there's a reason for that. "We estimate that if enacted properly, the right legislative reforms could potentially reduce that trend line by more than $3,000 per employee, to $25,435," the report stated. Of course, much as I love seeing the GOP slapped down on their obstructionism, I admit I'm a bit leery of the BRT's sudden support. Experience tells us that what's good for Big Business is rarely good for the working class. Hoping that's not true this time.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Fox Running Scared

2009-11-13T15:25:00.001-05:00

Ha! I guess Fox is sick of being caught in doctoring their videos. They're trying to shut down the opposition.

But today, it appears that Fox News determined it was time to close this one-stop Liberal blog fodder shop: They sent more than 150 DMCA takedown notices to YouTube regarding Fox News clips on the News1News channel, said the channel's proprietor, John. (John, a doctor living in Washington, DC, didn't want his last name used.) This put the channel well over YouTube's controversial "three-strike" copyright violation limit. News1News was shut down, and John was inundated with emails from caffeine-addled bloggers asking, frantically, "what happened!?"

So now there are a bunch of blog posts on the internets that feature black screen YouTubes saying the content has been removed. But the effort is likely to be futile. Apparently John already launched an alternate channel and there are other GOP friendly channels still in operation that host the vids. Besides, everybody knows the snarkers of the intertoobz will not allow themselves to be silenced. They'll find a workaround. They always do. [via Progressive Pam]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Palin Family Freak Show

2009-11-13T12:15:00.001-05:00

Atrios is right of course about the ongoing Palinpalooza. "The point is the whole thing's a freak show, and that's much more important than any of the "facts" of the freak show, none of which matter at all, true or not..." As he points out, since when did the media continue to relentlessly, (and breathlessly) follow every move of a total political loser? And frankly, the blogs aren't much better as they report on the freak show too, which contributes to the media interest.

Me, although I admit I occassionally succumb to the gossip, I don't read 90% of it. And I wonder if I'm the only person in America who doesn't care if Levi Johnston waggles his wang in Playgirl this month. I'm certainly not going to look at it. Frankly, I find the kid a little creepy and the idea of seeing him nude nauseates me a little.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Getting A Burr Out of the Saddle

2009-11-12T14:08:00.002-05:00

My computer did one of those automatic update things while I doing the dishes last night and I lost a whole day's worth of links because I neglected to save the file. I thought autosave would have spared a few, but not many made it. I may be able to resurrect some of them but in the interim, this is interesting. My good for nothing Senator Burr is ripe for a challenge. It will be a little harder in an off year without the Obama groundswell that helped us get rid of Dole, but depending on how the economy swings, we could conceivably get rid of this dinosaur too.

In any event, first thing on my list when I move is to change my voter reg to this town and figure out how I'm going to help do that, even if it means joining the local caucus where they start their meetings with a prayer.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Chance Encounter with the President

2009-11-12T12:54:00.001-05:00

Mark Knoller passes along this link to an engaging NY Daily News story about a chance encounter between President Obama and an off-the-clock reporter who was in Arlington Cemetery yesterday, visiting the grave of a friend.

I'm sure the cynics will assume this was just another Obama photo-op. If they'd been standing in my boots looking him in the eye, they would have surely choked on their bile.

His presence in Section 60 convinced me that he now carries the heavy burden of command.

Really worth reading in full. It's not long, and I found it moving. Not to mention, it validates my thoughts from yesterday that right or wrong, Obama is clearly weighing the human costs of his decision on Afghanistan.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Lou Dobbs Leaves CNN

2009-11-11T20:55:00.003-05:00

In a surprise announcement on tonight's program, Lou Dobbs 'quit' CNN, effective immediately. It's not absolutely clear he was fired. But it is odd CNN suddenly released him from a contract that wasn't suppposed to end until 2011 so he could "pursue his advocacy journalism" at will. And I get a fired-guy vibe from the video of his farewell address despite the veiled hints towards a possible political candidacy.

I admit when the news first broke on Twitter a couple of hours ago, I was delighted. It's not that I'm celebrating Dobbs misfortune. I don't wish ill on others, not even on people who perpetrate evil. But I do rejoice that hatemongering to the extreme that Dobbs took it, is apparently losing steam as a business model. Gives me greater hope for a restoration of civil society.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

A Speech for the Ages

2009-11-11T16:58:00.001-05:00

I've only read the transcript, but everyone is raving about President Obama's speech at Ft. Hood yesterday. The speech is moving on paper, but I'll watch the video tonight because reading the tweets alone from people who were watching live brought me to tears.

Meanwhile, Obama honored the dead and the living military servicepeople again today for Veteran's Day. He gave another good speech, but what got the buzz was his unprecedented stroll among the gravestones at Arlington Cemetery. He and Michelle stopped and spoke with the families there. Video at the link.

We complain a lot about his foreign policy decisions and I will never be happy about escalating our military involvement anywhere, but all that aside, I don't really see how anyone can accuse our president of a lack of empathy. Whether I agree with him or not, it's clear he takes the responsibility for those decisions seriously and the human cost weighs on him heavily.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

The War to End All Wars

2009-11-11T14:20:00.002-05:00

I admit as lifelong pacifist and a long time anti-war blogger, I have a little trouble "celebrating" Veterans Day. Especially in the US, we seem to focus more on the killing instead of on peace. Most countries in contrast celebrate the moment as Armistice Day, when hostilities ended in the war that was supposed to end all wars. As Matt Yglesias notes today, in these contentious times it's other countries that seem to better recognize "What was needed from the political leadership of the time was a way to avoid the war, not a way to win it."

Our present day leaders don't seem to get that at all and Americans don't have the same emotional investment in today's conflicts. I think that's because "war" today isn't so clearly defined, the media coverage is santized and no one sees a moment when we can say this war is over. Steve Hynd posts on this theme today too and finds a quote from Kurt Vonnegut that captures the public mood of those times that are missing today.

When I was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. [...]

It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one and another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

Sadly, it seems the lesson has been forever lost and only the dead truly rest in peace.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Happy Veterans Day

2009-11-11T09:35:00.002-05:00

Thanks to all our veterans and current serving military for all you do and have done for our country.

America salutes you on this day and every day. Veterans eat for free at Applebees today and also free meals for veterans at Golden Corral on Mon 11-16-09 from 5:00-9:00pm.

Adding: Videos of dogs and kids greeting returning soldiers. Have your Kleenex handy.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Everybody's talking at me...

2009-11-10T11:58:00.002-05:00

Suffering through a little burnout this week. Too much to do and the news feels stupider than usual but here's a few items worth notice.

As you know, I've been developing an odd sort of twitter relationship with Jake Tapper. It's not like we're close or anything, but over the weeks I've warmed up to him as a person. He's not some great courageous hero who bucks the conventional wisdom or stands up to the corporation that controls his job, but I've come to believe he genuinely cares about being fair and getting the facts right and often does. In any event, he just got an exclusive interview with President Obama and I thought he did a good job. I liked his presentation. He didn't come across as a smug and entitled media star and the questions were fair enough. Decide for yourself if I'm just succumbing to his accessibility. Transcript is here or you can see the full video here.

Not sure how long this contest is running, but if it's still on, please vote up #2 which was submitted by my friend Dirk. Note that you have to click the icon that's right next to the title and not under the post.

Long time readers will remember how pissed off I was about the Kelo emminent domain case where the SCOTUS allowed the city to take a bunch of poor people's houses to make way for private development. Well, that turned out well. The houses are gone, but the land was never developed and now Pfizer is taking their whole operation out of the town. Meanwhile, the former neighborhood where Suzette Kelo made her home, is a wasteland of fields of weeds. Way to do urban development idiot powers that be of New London, Conn.

Moving on to more pleasant distractions. Erin tells me, "I am completely addicted to this site. It's got some very cool photos, but not all of them are safe for work.

Liked this pix in Greg Mitchell's ongoing Pix of the Day. No long hair hippies may apply.

And my new tweep John de Guzman continues to delight with his visual love for the big city. Fred F. French building, a relatively unknown NYC gem.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

These people are insane

2009-11-09T11:34:00.003-05:00

I'm sure you'll be shocked to learn this was a production of professional hatemonger Fred Phelps.

This just in from David Shuster's twitter feed:

Shocked by tea party like protest outside the Obama girls' school this morning. A dozen activists with homophobic/anti-Obama signs and etc.

Was driving by on Wisconsin Avenue and couldn't understand why traffic was so backed up... until I saw the scene. The right has no shame.

Hopefully, some of the more rational conservatives/Republicans will condemn this stuff today. It was beyond the pale.

More likely that Limbaugh and Beck and the rest of the wingnut cretins will be celebrating these neanderthal's abuse of the First Amendment. And you just know that the idiot protesters likely were howling about the "liberal media attacks" on the Palin kids in the past. Disgusting.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]