On a Wing and a Pilot

All Hail Sully !! ... one guy on TV said it "was a miracle", and the other guy replied, "yes, a miracle of training and experience."

I say it was a magic choreography created by a bunch of very good people dancing with every move they knew.

It was humans supreme - All Hail Sully and the Ferries of the Shining City !

The Unbearable Lightness of Citizenship

Ted Haggert - Speaker Pelosi Sent Words of Comfort and Support After Scandal: "Our view of what it's like sitting in an emergency room and not knowing if your insurance card is going to work—I understand that emotion now. I know what it feels like to walk somewhere instead of driving somewhere to save gas. And so, I'm different. And I am optimistic about the new administration. This whole thing had changed me. I never dreamed I would be left out this quickly."

Healthcare - the humanity within citizenship

..."And we knew that if something happened, if that that support didn't come [from New Life]—because I was an incredible failure at trying to find a job that would work—we knew we would have to depend on programs that Democrats had put in place."

The Seventh Pooch

"I can't quit you!", cries Microsoft, and screws the pooch yet again!

Windows 7 beta hits the street: "I was looking for a 'mea culpa' and some solid integration tools and compatibility features. What I got was a prettier GUI and new ways to share music with my dog. Ugh!"

If you keep screwing pooches you're gonna get - wait for it - more dogs !!

The Big Chilada

Like so much else in W's America, there's no such thing as a Big Chilada: but to W it will always be the evil pretzel that almost killed him! "This is Bush's legacy -- a stunning series of alibis," writes Nora Ephron.

"It's true what he said: we misunderestimated him.

George Bush came into his presidency with a huge wave of goodwill. Not from me, but from many others. An amazing number of people who should have known better thought of him as a charming guy whose intellectual limitations would somehow be as benign as Ronald Reagan's, whose promise of a fairly passive presidency would be as survivable as Dwight Eisenhower's..."

"He was misunderestimated in every way. It was hard to imagine that this feckless leader could do so much damage.

"...after all these years in the dark, we're ready for a little overestimation. Which is, unlike misunderestimation, an actual word. But come to think of it, misunderestimation ought to be a word. I certainly know what it means."

Meth Labs on Mars

Life on Mars - Nasa discovers methane gas on Mars: "UK Mars expert Professor Colin Pillinger believes the methane can only point to the presence of life on the planet."

Out there in the ether you can still here Percival Lowell yelling at his family's trust fund managers, "Give me the fucking money you Edwardian retards!, they ARE CANALS !!! Live with it !!!"

Joe's Got the Conch

Joe the Magic Plumber Fights With Israeli Reporter:

"JOE: The story here is people are being killed and the media's slanting it and trying to make it Hamas is, uh, as far as, that Israel's being bad. Do you believe Israel is bad?
REPORTER: Do I believe it?
JOE: Yeah, do you?!
REPORTER: I'm Israeli, so...
JOE: So answer the question"
REPORTER: No, I don't think Israel is bad.
JOE: Do you think Israel has every right to protect itself?
REPORTER: Yeah.
[pause]
JOE: You do?!
REPORTER: Yeah.
JOE: Have you said that on air?
REPORTER: I'm just a reporter."

Many of America's more obnoxious middle-aged Republicans were conceived in the back seat of a car at an aging drive-in theater while Fox Movietone News blared out of a cheezy speaker box. That's the only way to explain why there is a whole slice of society filled with Joes that can't get it up unless Fox News is somehow involved.

"The culture of the Internet is that information wants to be free."

Eric Schmidt wishes that Google could save Newspapers: "I wish I had a brilliant idea, but I don't."

"I don't think our purchasing a newspaper would solve the business problems... Until we can answer that question we're in this uncomfortable conversation."

I shudder a bit to think that soon I won't feel that hard-to-fold thickness, where all the news is in your physical grip.

I want to ask, "is there anythnig here that we should be thinking about before we pull the drapes on printed things, and paint over the still-life of "Book on a Table" and "Man Napping with Sports Section Ripped to Shreds On His Lap?"

And while it might be true that "information wants to be free", it's also true that reporters need to be paid or you don't get any.

State of Shame

Mickey Rourke: "When you used to be a somebody and you aren’t anybody any more, you live in what my doctor calls a state of shame. It’s when you had a career, then you mess up and you don’t have a career any more — and it’s all your fault."

Are We Being Lied To About Pirates ?

Our breathtaking gullibility: "In 1991, the government of Somalia - in the Horn of Africa - collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since - and many of the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.

In a surreal telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali, said their motive was 'to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters... We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas.'"

"Think Global, Act Global"

Local, Schmocal, says outgoing US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson: "Mr Paulson cast the crisis as partly the result of a collective failure to come to terms with the way the rise of emerging markets was reshaping the global financial system. These imbalances – arising from differences in the inclinations of different nations to save and invest – are reflected in large current account deficits and surpluses around the world.

The US Treasury Secretary said that in the years leading up to the crisis, super-abundant savings from fast-growing emerging nations such as China and oil exporters – at a time of low inflation and booming trade and capital flows – put downward pressure on yields and risk spreads everywhere.

This, he said, laid the seeds of a global credit bubble that extended far beyond the US sub-prime mortgage market and has now burst with devastating consequences worldwide."

This is the new thinking, analog to the mental landscape of climate change, with events seen in global focus.

Growing Up Brzezinski - life at Mika's house

Dr. Z paints Joe's face: "'You know, you have such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on that it's almost embarrassing to listen to you.'"

Joe, like countless other TV bloviators, relies on hiding behind the ignorance of his audience rather than tackle the requirement of his calling - presenting information distilled with judgement. But that would mean he would have to stand behind his story and behind that judgement.

Be a pro, Joe! It's not news that the public is very satisfied with being uninformed; very content to hear its' superstitions respected and its' ignorance serenaded and celebrated. But it's dishonorable to rely on these facts and think of yourself as a professional, doing your job. As Mika's dad said, "If you are going to judge your knowledge by collective standards of 300 million people don't be surprised if you are embarrassed."

Now that's good television!

HuffPo commenter TstormVA explains his take on Dr. Z's statement: "Meaning if you are not going to be a responsible journalist and take the effort to be more informed than the average person on the street before spouting off at the mouth then don't be so sensitive when the Chief big dog taps your nose with a newspaper. The Republican party has made a living at talking to the ignorant masses with ignorance."

Pass the Magic Asshat

...and drown the GOP; they wallowed when they should have served, and lied to you and me.

"'The core play in the GOP playbook for 44 years has been the magic negro playbook,' said Simon Rosenberg, head of Democratic organization NDN and one of the most well-versed party figures on racial politics. 'They don't have another play or another playbook. Whether it is Willie Horton, or welfare queens and tax and spend, or the way they have dealt with immigration... they don't have a play in their playbook that doesn't start with the exploitation of racial divisions... They are going to have to reject 44 years of GOP politics in order to have any chance in the 21st century America.'"

Spot on, that Simon Rosenberg.

Wet Dreams of Russian Thugs

Professor/KGB Retiree Predicts End of U.S.: "He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in."

It's all very cinematic, certianly possible, and...

Sell His Blood

He Made Off With My Friend's Security:

I have a dear friend that has lost everything because of this dirtbag. She is 61 and has for years served the arts community, all the while building a retirement income fund from what she believed to be secure, steady, diversified investments managed by a highly recommended fund manager named Madoff. And, let's get this straight, she also believed - as I would, that the SEC and other government entities were run by professionals who knew their duty and, at the very least, were capable of detecting some of the most obvious criminal scenarios - like the world-famous Ponzi scheme.

My friend has been attacked and is devastated and is in great pain, and it is yet more painful to know that Madoff is not in jail at this very moment. He should not be in his home under house arrest. The crime is too great, and the accusations against him involve the ruination of people suddenly financially disemboweled, with fear and poverty staring them right in the face.

That he walks around his home - while so many others will lose theirs, is hard to stomach. Somebody in the justice system must lead the way in getting this monster behind bars before he enjoys the mercy of taking his own life, and certainly before he lives another moment believing he belongs among us.

Is it illegal to yell RUSH! in a Caribbean brothel?

It used to be, but then a good man spoke up:

Powell isn't after media adulation - or even exposure. What kind of idiot would think that? Oh yeah, that kind.

Let's review, ok? Day one: Colin Powell says he is supporting Obama. Day two: Powell elaborates on why America is on the chopping block in the hearts of god-zillions of the world's citizens. Day three: ...there is NO day three because that was it - Powell did not do anything else. He did not court the press, did not book himself on every Lenoman nightshow; in fact became a notable supporter of sanity and anti-excess, and a no-show on the unsane cable news circuit.

So what is Limbaugh talking about? Nothing important, but his voice takes the place of ours when we let the little pervert sleep well.

The Tall Puke in the Man Suit

A Pounder for the Right:

When the actual story comes out about the Blago-Obama "connection", we will all get to verify the quality of Joe Scarborough's thinking; the power of his discernment. In the next act, we'll get to see Joe re-chewing the scenery until it looks like he didn't say what he actual did say.

Charles Joseph Scarborough is the confederacy's yellow journalism queen, come to life in our time to entertain the throw-back righties we all know and love.

Way to go, Charlie Joe !

____________________________

12-16-2008 - another thought...

Joe Scarborough and his littler repeater, Mika, are off the deep end with their constant sniggering and outright misstatements about Obama-Blago.

Joe is the perfect definition of what the GOP looks like today: doing his job as the Glans Mignon of the uber-righties, exposing bias at every turn of the camera, all the while as Mika stutters and grimaces and then - like Oliver Hardy, looks into the camera as if to complain that "here's another fine mess he's gotten me into."

He didn't get her into a mess; she crawled there herself. That she sits beside him is all the information one needs about where she's coming from.

But, who am I kidding? There's no way to insult Joe, because he really doesn't exist - not as a real person; he's a controlled foil.

Please tell the Third-Class passengers that we'll miss them terribly

Dear Cable News Personality Currently Bloviating On My Screen:

Please. Just stop. Stop your speculation on the auto industry's errors and problems. Some of us can't stand your snarking at working people and their desire to have realistic health-care options, retirement security, and dignified citizenship.

But I bet you'll listen with attentive consideration to the thoughts of self-serving political junkmen like the retreaded Senator Shelby.

Are you guys as good as it gets? Did Jesus pass your village by?

Fuck The Workers, Pass Me The Bonus

To hear on-air network personalities dump on the workingman makes me sick to death. 700 billion for Wall Street and it's horde of boring jerks, and for autoworkers? - cut their pay, cut their benefits, cut their retirement, cut their dreams in half.

These on-air 7-figure income carnival hacks have no IQ beyond what it takes to sneer, unknow and rant. They all stink on ice.

The Unsanity of the GOP Marches On...

"Capitol Visitor Center Fails to Honor Faith", says GOP Senator Jim DeMint: Commenting on this in The Hill," Eric writes "This is exactly what's wrong with today's GOP and the reason it's hard for people like myself, who want limited government, to get excited about the party. Worry about your superstitions at home, on your own time. Stop bringing that garbage to work. There are all kinds of problems facing our country and this clown takes the time to issue a statement regarding his disdain for secularism. If you want religion in government, move to Iran, jackass."

"I don't think we did enough"

"Campaign Boogeyman" starring William Ayers

comment by: TruEngineHearing: (from Huffington Post)

"From reading some of these posts, one would think that an entire generation of war resisters didn't know what they were doing.

From reading some of these posts, you can imagine the writers doing anything their leaders told them to do. When you read some of these posts, you can hear the arguments of those that will go and kill and die for bad reasons.

You see, Timmy, sometimes the only holy thing to do is keep names off a black wall."
__________________________________

... then ...

reply from: reliant1:

"Sometimes Timmy, the only holy thing to do is tear down the government that is intent on drafting and killing kids. Sometimes good people are supposed to stand up and fight for what is right and give everything they have for it if needed.

Not here. The good people looked away. The good people shut their eyes. The good people sold the soul of their nation for a wall.

Sorry Timmy, nothing holy is left, anywhere."