Wednesday, December 3, 2008
News The Morning News
Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 7:59 AM
General Motors: Knows it needs cuts, but the big three still want $34 billion.
It Was the Goatee, Wasn't It?: Bill Richardson, skipped over for Secretary of State, to be named as Obama's choice for commerce secretary today.
Knuckle Down: Sez Condoleezza Rice to Pakistan.
250,000 Jobs: Lost from the private sector in November.
Putting Baby in a Corner: Canadian PM might make parliament do a time-out.
A Desire Named Streetcar: City Council puts 600 million streetcar plan on the fast track?
"Impeach Bush" Christmas Tree Ornament: Banned from the White House.
DUI'm Not Guilty: Venus Velazquez denies she was drunk when her political career ended.
Thai Airport: Open for business.
Coleman Still Leads: He's good enough, he's smart enough, but gosh darn it, do enough Minnesotans like Al Franken?
The New 9/11 Truth: Anti-tax activist insists Obama's not a "natural-born citizen."
You Can Spell "Kentucky" Without "God": Atheists sue to remove Kentucky's reliance on God for homeland security.
It Was So Long Ago: Roman Polanski wants those pesky statutory rape charges dropped.
And now, a few minutes with my personal heroes:
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2
If they'd selected a Christmas ornament artist with an online popularity vote, they'd never have picked Deborah Lawrence. Probably someone more like Thomas Kinkade.
3
I loathe George W. Bush just as much as the next progressive American, but right now my loathing is directed at Christmas tree ornament artist and pathetic loser Deborah Lawrence. This is the kind of person who, while Rome was burning, would have been passing around a petition asking for Nero's head.
The problems this nation is facing now are too enormous--and the choices we have to make are too painful--for us to be looking backwards and focusing on tit-for-tat revenge. And if you want to impeach Bush, then you should want to impeach the American people. You get the elected leaders you deserve, and George W. Bush's stupidity and biases are a function of the American people's stupidity and biases.
I'll tell you, though, the person who should really take the blame for this little ornament fiasco. Jim McDermott. It's just this kind of uncritical, self-satisfied childishness that McDermott has encouraged with his political pulpit for how many years now. It's time to go, Jim. It's time to go.
The problems this nation is facing now are too enormous--and the choices we have to make are too painful--for us to be looking backwards and focusing on tit-for-tat revenge. And if you want to impeach Bush, then you should want to impeach the American people. You get the elected leaders you deserve, and George W. Bush's stupidity and biases are a function of the American people's stupidity and biases.
I'll tell you, though, the person who should really take the blame for this little ornament fiasco. Jim McDermott. It's just this kind of uncritical, self-satisfied childishness that McDermott has encouraged with his political pulpit for how many years now. It's time to go, Jim. It's time to go.
4
Those two grumpy old coots are old and therefore PA-THE-TIC, just like scary tyler moore. Please post more videos with The Coolest Muppet Ever, and if I have to tell you who that is, Constant, then nunya is right about you.
5
Fuck Venus Velazquez. Even if she wasn't "drunk", doing 50mph in a 30 zone after having two gin and tonics displays horrible judgment. GUILTY!!!
6
@3: You're a fucking moron.
Excepting the artist, everyone interviewed in the ornament article is acting like pussies.
Thank you. I feel better now.
Excepting the artist, everyone interviewed in the ornament article is acting like pussies.
Thank you. I feel better now.
8
Cressona, please tell me that you don't really believe that the nation's problems will be worse because of this Christmas ornament. Are you like saying the recession will be longer or something? And you really think Deborah Lawrence is political because of Jim McDermott's influence and encouragement? Do you think McDermott was trying to get all radical by letting 4Culture pick the artist? The sad part really is that Laura Bush couldn't show some class and just let it go.
9
wow. I am flabbergasted at how easily an X-mas tree ornament can rile some folks up! the comments that are posted elsewhere about Deborah Lawrence are so filled with hate, you would think she created an insulting cartoon depiction of Mohamed, rather than doing what she always does, which is to create visual art with a strong message. perhaps you don't agree with her and think that Bush is the best, but this still is America, where everyone, including artists, have the right to express their opinions!
10
the greatest muppet ever was Beaker. I'm also fond of lew zealand and his boomerang fish, not to mention the all-fruit glee club and their stirring rendition of 'yes we have no bananas'. cookie, cookie, cookie, please take your pill and lie down. megan, why not have a muppet SLOG? put the name of your favorite muppet on your name tag! fnarf would be the perfect Sam the Eagle, paul constant Kermit, Mr. Poe Beaker, Elenchos Scooter, w7ngman Link Hogthrob, and me, STM, as Fozzie Bear!
11
elenchos @8: Cressona, please tell me that you don't really believe that the nation's problems will be worse because of this Christmas ornament. Are you like saying the recession will be longer or something?
OK, elenchos, you know what, let's you and me and every other individual who gives a crap about this country spend whatever energy we have crying about what a horrible president George W. Bush has been. Let's do that because, hey, we've got nothing better to do.
Let's write letters to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Barack Obama demanding they investigate the crimes against humanity committed by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. There's no harm in doing that, right?
Actually, I do fear for what's going to happen to this country if anyone decides to spend one ounce of precious political capital making the next four years in any way a retrospective on how horrible the last eight years was.
OK, elenchos, you know what, let's you and me and every other individual who gives a crap about this country spend whatever energy we have crying about what a horrible president George W. Bush has been. Let's do that because, hey, we've got nothing better to do.
Let's write letters to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Barack Obama demanding they investigate the crimes against humanity committed by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. There's no harm in doing that, right?
Actually, I do fear for what's going to happen to this country if anyone decides to spend one ounce of precious political capital making the next four years in any way a retrospective on how horrible the last eight years was.
12
Ruby Re-Usable @9:
A strong message? There's nothing strong or challenging or subversive at all about that message. "Impeach Bush" is a banal, trite, little sentiment delivered to the choir.
And I know this is a hard concept to appreciate for those who are completely averse to nuance. But a person can believe George W. Bush was one of the worst presidents in American history and still believe that Deborah Lawrence's little political statement was about as juvenile and counterproductive as the political philosophy of William Ayers.
wow. I am flabbergasted at how easily an X-mas tree ornament can rile some folks up! the comments that are posted elsewhere about Deborah Lawrence are so filled with hate, you would think she created an insulting cartoon depiction of Mohamed, rather than doing what she always does, which is to create visual art with a strong message. perhaps you don't agree with her and think that Bush is the best, but this still is America, where everyone, including artists, have the right to express their opinions!
A strong message? There's nothing strong or challenging or subversive at all about that message. "Impeach Bush" is a banal, trite, little sentiment delivered to the choir.
And I know this is a hard concept to appreciate for those who are completely averse to nuance. But a person can believe George W. Bush was one of the worst presidents in American history and still believe that Deborah Lawrence's little political statement was about as juvenile and counterproductive as the political philosophy of William Ayers.
13
I'm so glad that I don't have toxic Bush bashing syndrome fermenting in my system causing me to prematurely age into a frowning wrinkled bitter old humbug like Deborah Lawrence and Jim McDermott.
14
OMG - The the ornament is soooo tackily constructed it looks like it came from a 3rd grader. Ueven cutting, sloppy aligment.
16
I thought it was god/allah who got us into the whole homeland security problem in the first place.
"A desire named streetcar" Nice!
Oh, and the best muppet is bork bork bork!
"A desire named streetcar" Nice!
Oh, and the best muppet is bork bork bork!
18
Yeah, Bush just completely fucked the entire U.S. of A. in the ass for the last eight years what with: rampant political corruption; kow-towing to the neo-con agenda; lying his way into a foreign military quagmire that's cost thousands of American and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives; ruining our economy with policies that make laissez faire Capitalism look quaintly naive in comparison; squandering our reputation abroad; devastating our environment; and fostering culture of greed not seen since the days of the Robber Barons - in short, presiding over what will no doubt one day be characterized as the worst executive administration in American history.
But hey, let's not dwell on all those awful, awful things, right? Let's not hold anyone, especially the guy supposedly running the show for the past eight years accountable, right?
Naw, let's just do what shrub's cronies have always done when he's cocked up yet another of the positions they've finnagled him into: let's just move him quietly out of the way, and into yet another position where maybe he can wreak only slightly less havock than the one before.
I'm thinking maybe a board seat at Halliburton would be about right - let him do for them what he's done for the rest of us, eh?
I AM - Bunsen Honeydew!
But hey, let's not dwell on all those awful, awful things, right? Let's not hold anyone, especially the guy supposedly running the show for the past eight years accountable, right?
Naw, let's just do what shrub's cronies have always done when he's cocked up yet another of the positions they've finnagled him into: let's just move him quietly out of the way, and into yet another position where maybe he can wreak only slightly less havock than the one before.
I'm thinking maybe a board seat at Halliburton would be about right - let him do for them what he's done for the rest of us, eh?
I AM - Bunsen Honeydew!
21
COMTE @18, the question is not how horrible Bush has been. The question is, how fucked do we want the United States and the world to be five or 10 or 50 years from now?
If you think it was a political miracle for Barack Obama to get elected president, he's going to need to pull off a few more political miracles to keep the economic and environmental disasters from coming one after the other.
Frankly, I don't see how he's going to do it--or even whether he's going to have the will to do it--when the only real solutions involve painful choices. But I do know one thing: Jim McDermott isn't helping with his little distraction of an impeachment crusade.
If you think it was a political miracle for Barack Obama to get elected president, he's going to need to pull off a few more political miracles to keep the economic and environmental disasters from coming one after the other.
Frankly, I don't see how he's going to do it--or even whether he's going to have the will to do it--when the only real solutions involve painful choices. But I do know one thing: Jim McDermott isn't helping with his little distraction of an impeachment crusade.
22
Spilling precious ounces of political capital? That's fucking hilarious. Will it make me go blind?
I don't mean to imply that this silly Christmas ornament thing will have the slightest effect one way or the other, but I have to say that prosecuting political malfeasance and corruption is never a waste of time. It is never too late to hold official criminals accountable.
The fact is that right now, most people in the Bush administration, as well as the incoming Obama administration, have very good reason to believe they are above the law. That is unacceptable.
I don't mean to imply that this silly Christmas ornament thing will have the slightest effect one way or the other, but I have to say that prosecuting political malfeasance and corruption is never a waste of time. It is never too late to hold official criminals accountable.
The fact is that right now, most people in the Bush administration, as well as the incoming Obama administration, have very good reason to believe they are above the law. That is unacceptable.
23
GWB policies have done unmeasurable harm to the country and the world. To just move on will only embolden the next round and current people of power whether private or public sector.
Prosecute, Prosecute, Prosecute
Prosecute, Prosecute, Prosecute
24
Okay scary, you're on: let's have a muppet SLOG, so you can attempt to out me in public. I'll come disguised as David Letterman, so you can push a grapefruit in my face. And if you don't get that joke, you're as inadvertently funny as John Bailo.
25
Wait, if STM is shoving a grapefruit in your face Cookie, wouldn't that make you Mae Clarke?
Or am I just dating myself?
Or am I just dating myself?
27
Streetcar. We need as much streetcar as we can get. Not only will ridership improve as more streetcars become interconnected but it helps transform a city and makes urban density issues more palatable.
Look at Portland. 15 years ago the Pearl District was a shitbox. Now it's a thriving community (although some of the architecture is lacking in thought). Portland continues to be on the forefront of developing usable, real and economically viable public transit.
I lived in Melbourne, Australia for a number of years not long ago. The tram system (read streetcar) meant I never needed a car while living there. The interconnected system, plus the fact they came along every 10-15 minutes during the day meant I didn't need a schedule. You simply bought a ticket (good for two hours) or presented a pass.
Building one line was a start. We should be building multiple lines, going multiple places. Use buses where streetcars can't go, and use light rail to do the heavy lifting.
Interconnected modes of transit are what we need. And council members that don't see that are short sighted and wrong on this issue. Licata, Rasmussen and McIver listen up: do the city and its citizens a favor and consider the possibilities. Don't undertake the Seattle Process route of studying this thing to death. Do something about it. It seems like the other council members have.
Look at Portland. 15 years ago the Pearl District was a shitbox. Now it's a thriving community (although some of the architecture is lacking in thought). Portland continues to be on the forefront of developing usable, real and economically viable public transit.
I lived in Melbourne, Australia for a number of years not long ago. The tram system (read streetcar) meant I never needed a car while living there. The interconnected system, plus the fact they came along every 10-15 minutes during the day meant I didn't need a schedule. You simply bought a ticket (good for two hours) or presented a pass.
Building one line was a start. We should be building multiple lines, going multiple places. Use buses where streetcars can't go, and use light rail to do the heavy lifting.
Interconnected modes of transit are what we need. And council members that don't see that are short sighted and wrong on this issue. Licata, Rasmussen and McIver listen up: do the city and its citizens a favor and consider the possibilities. Don't undertake the Seattle Process route of studying this thing to death. Do something about it. It seems like the other council members have.
28
CWM is referring to MTM's short lived TV show 'Mary', which co-starred a then unknown David Letterman. MTM shoved a grapefruit into his face for laughs.
i will gladly furnish a grapefruit, CWM, but it will be shoved further south than your your face. Who's up for being dr. strangepork, janis, and animal?
i will gladly furnish a grapefruit, CWM, but it will be shoved further south than your your face. Who's up for being dr. strangepork, janis, and animal?
29
According to MN SOS webite http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/2… Franken is ahead. Confusing...
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