BlogSheroes

Obit For A Chickenhawk: Paul Harvey, RIP

Though why ANYONE should mourn the passing of Paul Harvey is quite beyond me, unless they're related to him, or he owed 'em money?

Yeah, here's "the rest of the story" of the man who led the way for all the unhinged, jack-booted, chickenhawk, conservotard pundi-thugs of the right.

Paul Harvey was the prototype of fuckwit Fascist Radio

He opened the way for (first) Joe Pine, then later the deluge of total fuckwitted shitwhistles: Slimeball, Falaffel Bill, Vannity, Blech, Malkin, Ingraham--all of 'em are his 'step-children.'

Saturday Open Thread

Rebuilding Our Schools: The Legacy of "No New Taxes"

We are cross posting this for a Tacoma activist that is working hard for our schools

Crossposted at Washington Woman

I am deep in the throes of campaigning for a local school bond election.  Every year or two our school district has to undertake this ritual, the legacy of a state constitutional amendment that limited property taxes to 1% of assessed value, unless voters approve a bond levy by a 60%  majority.  "So what?"  You say. "Shouldn't the voters have a say?"  Well, yes, in theory, but in practice it means that necessary school construction projects are put off until our schools are literally crumbling around the kids.  It also means that in times like these, when construction prices are low and construction jobs are desperately needed, voters balk at the idea of any additional property taxes.  

But all of that is just talk.  It is easy enough to say "fine, but not now" to school construction until you see the reality of what some of our kids are asked to live with every day.

This is a hallway ceiling at Hunt Middle School in Tacoma, Washington.  Large parts of the school feature water damage just as severe.  Maintenance staff dutifully replace ceiling panels and repaint when they can, but the water just seeps right through.

Colbert's "Apocalypto"

Sorry about the obvious borrow from an "orange" essay, but Stephen Colbert comically makes a point that I have striven mightily for some two years to make - that even in our darkest hours, even even under the most terrible leadership imaginable, with truly evil men crafting heinous policy, with greed and stupidity threatening to destroy the giant Ponzi Scheme that passes for a reflection our economy...we Americans still live in the most amazing, and, yes, "exceptional" nation on earth.

Why?

Because someone as gut-splitting funny as Colbert could only be of this place, this Western Babylon...this place of which John Lennon said, when asked why had immigrated...

"If I'd lived in Roman times, I'd have lived in Rome.

Where else?

Today America is the Roman Empire and New York is Rome itself."

Comedy like this doesn't come out of the provinces, folks.

Blue Cinema

Cross-posted from Blue News Tribune and Blue Hampshire.

Here is one way we know we're not conservative Republicans.

If we were, we would clearly claim an affinity with The Watchmen.

Their leader is blue. He's in great shape. And he and his crackerjack team are protecting humanity from itself.

Instead, our in-house media organs, NPR and The Washington Post, don't even like the movie.

You think I'm joking -- and I am, at GOP expense. Last year someone tried to claim The Dark Knight was Bush, and they even tried to say March of the Penguins argued for intelligent design (the alleged intelligent designer, apparently, is not benevolent).

What's the ultimate Republican movie? I don't know, maybe Reservoir Dogs. An elaborate plan to commit a crime goes horribly wrong, everybody gets hurt or worse, and nobody reins in the crazy torture guy until it's too late.

Who’s Being Radical?

Some articles that highlight Our Present Insanity — Michael Lind in Salon and Paul Krugman in the New York Times both complain that President Obama is being way too cautious and timid and “centrist.” Lind is especially harsh, saying that Obama is falling into the neoliberal pattern of buying into the Right’s “market friendly” fetish. [...]

Freaky Friday Open Thread

QOTD: Superhero Edition

I went to see the midnight showing of "Watchmen" tonight, even though I didn't really know anything about it.  I've never read the book, nor have I even done any preliminary reading to make sure I'm not lost.  So why would I go to see the movie, given the lateness of the hour and such?  Because I'm a junkie for superheroes and superhero movies.  

Ever since I was a little kid and "Spiderman and His Amazing Friends" was on TV (this was the one with Iceman and Firestar), ever since the very old episodes of X-Men, for years and years, I've been nuts for superheroes.  Why?  The psychological analysis is probably something about my latent powerlessness and feelings of inadequacy, but really, I'm just a big fan of super powers.  It's my favorite part of the whole comic book / superhero thing.  My question may now seem obvious, but follow the jump anyway.

The Daily Rant ©

Yeah, I know. It's been a few days. But with Bush out of the White House and not producing a new outrage every couple of days, there seems to be less immediacy to the Ranting©.

Then, OTOH, there are the "Still Bushed" scandals to "Scrub. Rinse. Repeat.", to quote Keith and Rachel. Such as the recent revelations about the 2001 Bush Justice Dept. memos. If someone has a link to the texts I would be much obliged to be able to see just how bad they were.

Wasn't this the reason we were forced to read 1984 in high school? I'll admit that the immediate relevance at first glance became much less if it was assigned to you after 1984. (Me, I read it in the late 60s.) But shit, Orwell was only off by 20 years, if the implications of those memos are the ones I've heard.

Some of our more alarmist blogotopia (Y! Sctp!) colleagues were right, it seems. The only things which may have stopped Darth and his colleagues from declaring martial law before the elections, on the basis that we were still "at war", and then making the "war" permanent, were the economic handwriting on the wall, the fact that anyone they really saw as an acceptable candidate was at least four years from viability, charismatic Democratic candidates who knew how to use the Web...and the realization among some that there would be a second American Revolution. I hope.

We read 1984 as a cautionary tale. They read it as a blueprint.

Our salvation: the 'net is too big, too essential, too decentralized. I do believe that if it had been really possible to shut it and the cell phone networks down and take over, they would have done so.

Let's keep it that way. "You can't stop the signal, Mal."

QoTD -- Oh, man, it's fucking Thursday again...

I don't do New Year's resolutions.  Why set myself up for one big failure just once a year when instead every day is a fresh chance to set unrealistic goals for myself, and have dozens of little failures every year?

The flip side on, well, the flip side...
It also means that I can't think maybe I should eat less, exercise more, be more patient, work harder, get a job, swear less,  whatever, and that I will get right on that next January 1.

So I don't make New Year's resolutions so I haven't broken any.