December 2010
96 posts
Confessional headline I'd like to see
Significance of events not necessarily proportional to “wild” estimates of their economic impact, expert admits
“I knew of a French baker who turned a class of schoolchildren away from touring...”
– From the phenomenally good Tartine Bread cookbook.
““We see the emerging opportunity to ‘snackify’ beverages and ‘drinkify’ snacks...”
“Trisha Yearwood, country singer and Mrs. Garth Brooks, offers Home Cooking which...”
“Conservationists write me these nasty letters because I support an industry like...”
How soon will we be out of the season where adding pumpkin to something makes it seasonal?
Bank of America prepares for WikiLeaks
According to Domain Name Wire, the US bank has been aggressively registering domain names including its board of Directors’ and senior executives’ names followed by “sucks” and “blows”. For example, the company registered a number of domains for CEO Brian Moynihan: BrianMoynihanBlows.com, BrianMoynihanSucks.com, BrianTMoynihanBlows.com, and BrianTMoynihanSucks.com. #
Huh, I guess British journalists are as stupid as American ones:
‘Asked by [BBC reporter] Humphrys: “Are you a sexual predator?” Assange said the suggestion was “ridiculous”, adding: “Of course not”. The Today presenter then asked Assange how many woman he had slept with.’
“Theatergoers who attended Monday’s performance of “Spider-Man,” a $65 million...”
– Hell of a stunt double.
The seminal legal theory exploded onto the scene, after which we experienced a pregnant pause as the notion gestated that perhaps this was a miscarriage of justice rather than a delivery of something new, let alone the birth of a new generation.
A carol for opposite day
Boisterous day, sacrilegious day All is stressful, all is dark Round yon slutty mother and child Wake to devilish war, Wake to devilish war.
“Bank of America Corp. said Friday evening that it was joining other financial...”
– They must be fairly confident they are in fact the next big leak.
“Cuba banned Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary, Sicko, because it painted...”
– Fascinating tidbit from The Guardian!
Don't feel bad, Fidel — it happened to all of us
WikiLeaked today:
“Fidel mostly sympathised with [Obama] – in his own way,” said a memo from Jonathan Farrar, the US chief of mission. “Fidel then continued his attempts to walk a thin line between a positive impression of a popular US president and the idea that the evil empire will never change.”
New poll sponsored by FOX (PDF of poll results here) reveals all kinds of charming info on our odd sense of the constitution. Wording of poll questions is dodgy in spots, but nothing too extreme:
66% of Americans think the leader of org. that published leaked info (i.e. WikiLeaks) should be arrested. Not surprising except that this is I believe higher than the % of Americans who think the leader...
There’s just something about a dour bus driver in a Santa hat.
“A map last Friday with an article about the tensions arising nationwide because...”
– NYT corrections page today. It took them a week to realize where West Virginia was!
“No fresh food. Just canned food. Nothing fresh, do you understand me? All food...”
“KABUL, Afghanistan — The International Committee of the Red Cross, which usually...”
– (from the NYT). How will the US Government blame Julian Assange for this?
All-purpose slander
Use freely in all cases. Make sure to bring along links to really bring the case home.
[insert name of figure to be undermined here] has a website which is linked from several different sites which also link to the websites of terrorists, rapists, holocaust deniers, and intellectual property pirates.
I think this is pretty explosive if true — Verizon and AT&T may be blocking employees’ access to WikiLeaks stories. Sure, they can block whatever they want for workers on the job, so this is more stupid than a freedom issue per se. But what’s creepy is the implicit suggestion (implicit in my head at least!) that this is tied to a filtering function done in concert with the US...
Now that's an odd job title
Emphasis mine:
Nancy Jacobson has worked in as a strategic advisor, fundraiser and relationship/network cultivator for Gary Hart, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Evan Bayh.
This from the board of the maddeningly muddleheaded No Labels post-partisan stupidity group. (No relation to No Label, the Polish-Norwegian”well-established 3-D animation studio” [warning — website...
Tom Harkin's predictive powers
Tom Harkin, today:
Tom Harkin: ‘Fireworks’ And Shot At Filibuster Reform Coming Jan. 5
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats will make a dramatic effort to reform the rules of the chamber when the next Congress begins, one of the body’s primary filibuster-reform advocates said Wednesday morning.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who has championed a weakening of the procedural mechanism...
This is why House Democrats get rolled every time. Because they occasionally huff and puff but always give up before the fight has even begun. This isn’t about bringing a knife to a gun fight — they’re not even bringing an appeal for mercy to their own execution.
U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen said this morning that President Obama’s “tax cut compromise has me livid.” However, in the same...
Patty Murray’s Washington View — her official email newsletter — is out in the email today. It has no mention whatsoever of the tax cut deal she is supporting, despite the fact that this is *the* key issue in DC right now.
If she’s that embarrassed of it, why did she vote for it and put out an absurd press released pretending it was all about unemployment?
“The White House announced Tuesday that Bon Jovi (or is it just Jovi?) will join...”
When The Market says “jump,” the Democrats go ahead and sing *all* of Van Halen’s greatest hits.
Julian Assange’s lawyer said he’s being held in “Orwellian conditions,” according to The Guardian. But what does that mean? Is his jail is called “free”? Are there pigs in charge of the whole prison? What?
Assange gets bail! Good news for a change!
Every single piece of this statement from Obama was formerly a republican talking point, now I guess a bipartisan talking point:
“I urge the House of Representatives to act quickly on this important matter. Because if there’s one thing we can agree on, it’s the urgent work of protecting middle class families, removing uncertainty for America’s businesses, and giving our...
It is so so *so* pathetic that keeping the Bush tax cuts in place for anyone is now considered a key part of the Democratic agenda.
Notably, neither Murray *or* Cantwell voted for the Bush tax cuts in the first place. Murray apparently did not vote for some reason or another, and Cantwell voted no:
...
“What’s important is that the farmer be able to choose the technological...”
– Monsanto spokes-ass on GMO corn in Mexico. It is appalling how much the rhetoric of consumer choice has infected most every political debate around. Mainstream reproductive rights orgs bear a significant part of the responsibility for this.
I think the legal arguments that the individual mandate piece of the Health Care Reform bill is unconstitutional are pretty compelling — even though I’m no lawyer, and the arguments are coming from arch-conservatives.
Anyway, it just seems pretty correct to me that the Constitution would prevent the government from compelling citizens to purchase a product, particularly a product sold for...
Confusing headline on cnn.com right now:
Black caucus on tax cuts: This isn’t Santa Claus
Follow-up story will presumably be:
Progressive caucus on Guantanamo trials: No connection to Easter Bunny
Final thought re: British student protestors
I hope to someday participate in a similar political activity: this is, one where shouts of “off with his head” have a particularly threatening historical resonance.
“A movie producer who showed British cruelty in a film about the Revolutionary...”
– Interesting piece on the history of the Espionage Act from Naomi Wolf, who is, confusingly, a different person than Naomi Klein, who I believe is herself not directly related to Calvin Klein.
“After a Reuters article reported that WikiLeaks has the files of every...”
– Ick, that’s gonna be some troubling reading. That can’t be the “thermonuclear” revelation though, can it?
Have noticed a lot of US coverage (minimal as it is) about the British student protests / bungled regicide say that they’re protesting “tuition hikes.” which us strictly true but sort of misleading.
Tuition will triple. Triple! And tuition had been free until 5 or 10 years ago, as in much of Europe, as a bit of openness to class mobility. With high tuition so new, there’s...
“The U.S. government did not write to PayPal requesting any action regarding...”
– State Dept. spokesperson PJ Crowley on twitter. Note the communications professional’s use of the word “write.” Of course they didn’t “write” — there was no time. They either “emailed” or “called.”
Unless the “not true”...
