First Draft

Weekend Question Thread

What's your bedtime?

My insomnia's back with a vengeance, so mine is somewhere between midnight and 3 a.m. depending on whatever is kicking around in my head and/or has happened that day.

A.

Kickoff to Get Out the Recall Vote!

We Are Wisconsin hosted a picnic tonight to kickoff the biggest GOTV weekend for the six, critical recall elections on August 9th. Several volunteers spoke along with John Nichols and Rep. Tammy Baldwin.

Here is our video of John Nichols fiery speech:

Here is our video of Representative Tammy Baldwin. BTW, Baldwin received a great round of applause and cheers when Nichols spoke of her recent No vote on the debt ceiling bill.

Here are the 6 Republicans who hopefully will be recalled on Tuesday. Click on pics to read.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

You can go to We Are Wisconsin for info on volunteering to GOTV or to make a donation.

You can also volunteer from home by making phone calls through DFA and PCCC. (h/t DKos)

Pocan kicked out of ALEC event

Yesterday I linked to WI state Rep. Mark Pocan's report from the ALEC convention in NOLA.

Dane 101 reports that last night he was kicked out of an ALEC event.

Not only had Pocan paid for his registration to the conference he also had an invitation to the reception. Pocan issued a statement this afternoon in which he said, "despite being a dues paying member of ALEC, paying to attend the convention and having an invitation to a corporate reception, I was still kicked out of the cigar reception by an employee of ALEC. ALEC has become a secret society where they will kick out anyone with a video camera, tape recorder or an original opinion."

Additionally 2 reporters from Think Progress were ejected but not before being physically attacked.

While we stood by the second floor lobby of the conference hotel, security guards surrounded us, demanding that we leave. As we were leaving, they approached us, violently pushed us and twisted our arms. A guard approached Fang from behind, tackling him and later bending his arm to take his camera. Keyes, faced similar treatment: two security guards roughed him up on the escalator, taking his video camera, and cutting Keyes’ hand as he attempted to leave the premises. As Keyes asked why he was being forced to leave, he was shoved from the back.

Think Progress has pics and video at the above link.

Insanity in Bulk

“You OK?” A asked me late tonight. “It’s not like you to miss a deadline.”

To be fair, it was only 9:50. I hadn't "missed" anything, Bob.

Truth be told, I’d had part of a block all day. There’s only so much you can write about when it comes to these recall elections. I swear there isn’t enough time in a commercial block to fit all of the vitriol I’m seeing during the local news. It’s also not worth complaining about education, budgets or anything else. Pondering the events of the day yielded little either.

Besides, it was a Friday in the summer without The Midget, who was spending the week with my folks, which meant a chance to poke through other people’s crap.

Ever since I was a little kid, summers meant estate sales with Mom. She’d circle dozens of entries in the morning paper and we’d hit them all day. Usually, Friday was the big day as we waded through boxes of stuff, knocked on pieces of furniture and haggled over glassware. Some days, the bargains were small, like figurines or dishes for Mom. Other times, it was something ridiculous, such as the time we had to cram a 1950s grocery cart into the backseat of my Thunderbird because Mom just had to have it.

Even without Mom, estate sale shopping has been in my blood. When I was about 12, I rode my bike to a sale about three miles away. I found a huge stack of paper placemats that had the box scores from old Milwaukee Braves games on them. For $2, I procured the stack and took them home to show Dad. He took them to one of His Guys who said, “They’re not worth much. Only about $4 each.” Each month, we took them to the local card show and sold a handful in the auction. After one such adventure, a guy who lost out on the bidding asked if we had any more.

Dad brokered a deal with the guy for about $5 each and we sold them all.

Over the years I’ve sought old wood furniture for refinishing, old tools to add to the collection and various other items. Dad and I have also bought and sold old newspapers, Playboys and Ichiro ornaments. All part of our “buy low, sell high” adventures.

The one moment that lives in infamy, however, was The Beer Can Incident.

My wife was about 8 months pregnant and we were in Milwaukee for her baby shower. Mom took her to get a mani/pedi and Dad and I were left to our own devices.

We took a walk and found a rummage sale that didn’t have much that we were interested in. The lady running the sale, for some reason, asked us, “You guys wanna buy a beer can collection?”

We had no interest in it, had never collected cans and realized this was likely to end poorly. However, as is always the case with my father, he asked a fateful question:

“How much?”

“Fifty bucks.”

We left the place and walked back toward home in silence. I finally turned to him and said, “Dad, I can hear the gerbil running around in your head. You’re thinking about those beer cans.”

“How do you know?” he asked.

“Because I am too.”

We went home and grabbed the SUV and drove back. The lady still had the cans and we bought them.

We loaded up the truck until bursting and we had to come back for more. When we had the second load almost ready, the lady said to us, “Don’t forget the ones on the side of the house.”

I looked down the side of the house and there were cases stacked four deep that ran almost the entire length of the house. After another couple runs, we got them into Dad’s garage and almost filled the entire stall where his Escalade usually sat.

When Mom and The Missus came home, they could tell something was up, so we showed them.

“You should have just watched their faces,” Dad told me. “I can’t even describe the look they had.”

After several Wisconsin-to-Indiana trips later, I had several thousand beer cans in the nursery, thus, setting me on a deadline: sell all these damned things before The Midget was born.

I got to know the guy at the post office on a first-name basis and I became and eBay super seller of some kind. When all was said and done, the cans were gone shortly after she was born and I had enough money to buy a video camera to keep an eye on her early moments of life. Our $50 investment had gone all “loaves and fishes” on us. Still, to this day, whenever Mom sees a beer can at a rummage sale, she pulls my father away from it like it’ll give him herpes if he gets too close.

Today, I had a much simpler goal. There was a plastic cow creamer thing that I saw online at an estate sale that reminded me of something my grandmother used to have. Figured a long drive and a cheap purchase would be enough to shake the cobwebs loose.

When I got there, the cow was long gone, but it was still worth digging around. In the garage, I found a box of programs from the 1970s Green Bay Packers. Behind it was another box. And then another. I figured there were about 100 in there.

“How much for these?” I asked the guy in charge.

“Buck each.”

I could feel myself channeling my father. “How much for all of them?”

The guy paused and counted and hemmed and hawed.

“$35?”

“Sold.”

“You know,” he said. “There’s more in the bedroom.”

“You throwing those in?”

“Uh…”

“I asked for all of them,” I pushed.

The guy took me back there and only one thing came into my mind.

Oh shit.

The whole place was filled with these things. Boxes, piles, bags and more.

“Give me another $20 and we’ll call it good.”

Now, I was screwed. Had to do it. Of course, I’d taken Betsy, not the truck so this got interesting.

I poured them into the trunk. When that was full, I filled the back seat and the foot wells. I kept going back and the guy kept finding more of them. I must have had at least 400 of these things. The guy kept stacking crap into my car.

When I told the Missus I’d made a buy of some kind, I could practically hear the panic in her text message.

“Please no bear cans.” Despite the odd text correct function on the iPhone, I knew what she meant.

I started sorting until the dust made my nose run all over the place. After several hours, I figured out what I had. It’ll take months just to figure out the prices, though.

I stood up and looked at the bounty that had covered my basement floor. I grabbed the phone and called home.

After chatting with Mom, I got Dad on the line.

“Hey,” I said. “You wanna get in trouble with me?”

After hearing about the whole thing, he muttered, “Christ, I don’t even know how you got all that home. Still, there’s no way we don’t end up ahead on this. Count me in.”

Another adventure begins.

Who Needs Sources When You Have Angry Radio Dipshits?

How do you report an event? Maybe you could just open up your news broadcast to whatever knob can dial a phone and report, unverified, everything he says:

But of all the local media outlets, TMJ4 had the most interesting—and rash—approach to the story: printing nothing but testimonies from Newsradio 620 WTMJ callers. Here’s one of the more levelheaded:

“It was 100% racial,” claimed Eric, an Iraq war veteran from St. Francis who says young people beat on his car.

“I had a black couple on my right side, and these black kids were running in between all the cars, and they were pounding on my doors and trying to open up doors on my car, and they didn't do one thing to this black couple that was in this car next to us. They just kept walking right past their car. They were looking in everybody's windshield as they were running by, seeing who was white and who was black. Guarantee it.”

First of all, I don't know who was cruise director on the HMS Amateur Hour that night, but what the hell does his status as a veteran have to do with this? Does this make his "testimony" more trustworthy? Or do we just think serving in the military gives you a special edge when it comes to identifying black people?

Second of all, for those of you unfamiliar, NewsRadio 620 hosts fantastic broadcasts of Brewer games, and then a stream of "news" broadcasting that runs the gamut from smugly self-satisfied suburban fear-mongering to outright racist wingnuttery. Their callers are exactly who you think they are, even adjusted for the normal psycho shut-in percentage of talk radio listeners. 

So if I'm the cruise director here, I'm asking what in the blue fuck is so hard for the reporter to go out and interview some eyewitnesses to this apparently very violent event him- or herself, rather than sitting and listening to the radio and reporting on what various people who claim to be eyewitnesses have said after the fact. That way, there could be a story with actual sources, numbers, police report information, and other such quaint relics of a bygone era of journalism.

TODAY'S TMJ4 video shows West Allis police handcuffing at least one person, but they won't say how many people they took into custody.

Some witnesses described attacks on the State Fair Grounds as well.

Milwaukee Police said that their officers were sent to State Fair Park for "complaints of battery, fighting and property damage due to a large, unruly crowd."

A police sergeant told TODAY'S TMJ4's Melissa McCrady that the number of calls describing injuries are still coming in, so they could not give an accurate number of people who were injured.

That sergeant explained that some injuries were serious, and local hospitals were attending to the injured.

As of early Friday morning, Milwaukee Police said they had no one in custody.

Unanswered questions: WHY wouldn't West Allis police say how many people they arrested? And why was no one in custody Friday morning, if this was such a catastrophic event? Did everybody just sober up and go home? That doesn't sound like something you do after a OMG RACE WAR.

The Journal Sentinel cites "at least" 24 people being arrested.

This is the sort of story you start to recognize after a while. Like the Trench Coat Mafia bullshit, the Marilyn Manson crap that came out after Columbine. Like Jessica Lynch, like half the shit we thought we knew about most major disasters. Things move fast. I am not questioning that something happened here. I am questioning that running with the loudest nutjobs you can find who are claiming it was basically the Titanic out there might be a thing best done on day two, when everyone has sobered up.

Or you can just get some really quality conversation going before the ink's even dry on the police reports:

Alds. Bob Donovan and Joe Dudzik issued a joint statement in reaction to the violence: "Let's face it, it also has much to do with a deteriorating African American culture in our city. Are large groups of Hispanics or Hmong going out in large mobs and viciously attacking whites? No."

A.

Shame Shame Shame

Where ever Walker goes, there we are.

This time it was at the opening of the WI State Fair where he was met with chants of "Shame" and "Recall Walker" as he was speaking. This is rather common place when Walker makes public appearances.

Friday Riotblogging

Riot got an optimistic report from the vet today: the cancer drugs are holding things at bay, and his tumors don't seem to be any bigger. His weight is up, and he feels we should celebrate this by me bringing him whatever treats he wants while he sits around like a little furry princess.

A.

Friday Catblogging: Della Smirks

Here's Della Street in full "more awesome than Jude" mode:

Thursday Night Music: Just One Of Those Things

Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson was the first CD I bought after getting my very first CD player. It's still one of my favorites and since it's the 110th Anniversary of Pops' birth, let's swing along with Louis, Oscar, Ray Brown, Herb Ellis and Louie Bellson:

 

 

Malaka Of the Week: Open Thread

I'm crazy busy this week so I don't have the time to write a full blown malaka of the week post. Besides, the guy I had in mind will still be a malaka next week so it can wait.

Just remember that malakatude is wankery and not evil, so no zombie Dr. Mengeles please.

Comment away.

The War Finally Ends

Last known gay concentration camp survivor dies:

In a 2008 interview with the French gay magazine Têtu, Brazda spoke for the first time of his imprisonment since he made remarks at the dedication ceremony of a Berlin memorial to gay victims of the Third Reich. “The way Nazis treated the ‘pink triangles’ is unspeakable,” Brazda said, referring to the emblem gays were forced to wear. “They had absolutely no mercy.”

Via Seth, who writes, "66 years ago is nothing, no time at all."

We think these things were a million years ago and that they're over. There are people still alive who lived them. They're not over.

A.

ALEC Watch

 

WI state Rep. Mark Pocan (D) is reporting from the ALEC conference in New Orleans. This is from his first post:

As I was waiting for my bags, I heard a mid-thirties woman talking on the phone. “Yah, I’m down in New Orleans for the American Legislative Exchange Council meeting. We write legislation, and they pass our ideas. It’s the free market.”

I could have taken the next flight home, as that pretty much summed up what I am to experience over the next three days. ALEC (it’s acronym) is an organization that is much like a dating service, only with legislators and special interests. It matches them up, builds a relationships, culminates with the birth of special interest legislation and ends happily ever after. That’s happy for the special corporate interests that is.

SNIP

Governor Bobby Jindahl (R-Louisiana) opened the lunch on the first day, with a pretty good delivery of some red meat - European Socialism bad, debt worse, Obama THE worst. He also gave some pretty sage advice based on the debt negotiations nationally: "It pays to be stubborn." Those are his words, not mine.

He basically told the gang of about 2,000 people that they win when they hold out and hold out and hold out. Just like they did in the debt ceiling fight. I wish he had delivered that speech to a big group of Congressional Democrats.

You can stay tuned for more from Rep. Pocan 

Twit of the Year

From Album4

With other news being pretty depressing, I've taken small comfort and a bit of schadenfreude with the crash-and-burn-ongoing-slow-motion-train-wreck that is Newt 2012.

The latest:

Gingrich complained yesterday that the press is ignoring his prodigious Twitter audience: "I have six times as many Twitter followers as all the other candidates combined, but it didn't count because if it counted I'd still be a candidate; since I can't be a candidate that can't count." Which is true! Gingrich currently boasts 1,325,842 followers, whereas competitors Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann have yet to crack 100,000.

But if Newt is winning the Twitter primary, it's because of voter fraud. A former staffer tells us that his campaign hired a firm to boost his follower count, in part by creating fake accounts en masse...

Couldn't be happening to a more deserving creep and lifelong con artist. It's hardly the justice he's earned -- and you can bet his reaction will be to wallow in self-pity while loudly crying personal martyrdom -- but you know it's gotta sting for this alleged "idea man" to realize his political swan song is...having his petty little frauds exposed while getting his clock cleaned by the likes of Mitt, Michele, Herman, Te Paw, and maybe even Huntsman, leaving Newt to battle with little Ricky Santorum for the booby prize.

Ouch.

Humphrey Weeps

Hubert Humphrey was one of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement because he worked within the system instead of manning the barricades. But he was the main Senate sponsor of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the man who gave an awesome speech at the 1948 Democratic convention that led to the Dixiecrats bolting and eventually to Truman's victory:

To those who say that this civil-rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states' rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.

Here's an audio clip of the speech:

 

 Now that I've given you some much needed uplift, here's the story that would have made Hubert weep:

 Students at a high school in Red Wing, Minnesota brought school spirit to new lows with a "Wigger Wednesday" dress-up day tradition, according to a lawsuit filed against the school district.

Quera Pruitt, a Red Wing high school alumna, is suing the school district and administrators over creating a hostile and racist educational environment.

Here's what happened: Students during the 2008 and 2009 homecoming celebrations wore "oversized sports jerseys, low-slung pants, baseball bats cocked to the side and 'doo rags' on their heads," according to the suit. About 60 or 70 students took what was supposed to be "tropical day" and turned it into "wigger day," the suit claims. To the unfamiliar, and as the case points out, the term "wigger" is a derogatory term for a white person who emulates African-American culture.

"'Wigger Day' is the same thing as 'nigger day,' " Pruitt's lawyer, Joshua Williams, told TPM. "That's what my client feels, and that's what I feel."

At least they could have called it "wigra day." For the young'uns out there: nigra was the word that segregationists such as Mississippi Senator James Eastland used when they were trying to be polite.

This story provides an answer to a question Dr. A has asked me more than once: "How can the state of Humphrey, Mondale and Wellstone have produced Michelle Bachmann?"

Bigots don't respect Minnesota nice.

Rising Tide 6 Brass Band Panel

  


It's shameless plug time again, y'all. I'm not only one of the organizers of Rising Tide but a little birdie tells me that we're going to have a record turn out of First Draft bloggers this year.

Anyway, we've decided to do something completely different to end the conference, a panel discussing the NOLA brass band tradition that concludes with a performance from the TBC (To Be Continued) Brass Band. Here's how Cousin Pat described it at the RT blog:

The Brass Bands Panel will feature Lawrence Rawlins, band director of Roots of Music; Alejandro de los Rios, producer of the Brass Roots documentary; members of the TBC Brass Band Edward “Juicy” Jackson, Joe Maize and Sean Michael Roberts; moderated by writer Deborah Cotton and followed by a performance by the TBC Brass Band.

The conference takes place on Saturday August 27th at Xavier University. For more information and how to register CLICK HERE. Lunch will be catered by J'anita's at the Rendon Inn and served up by my dear friends, J'anita's owners, Craig and Kim Giescke.

Finally, here's a sample of TCB's music as filmed by moderator Big Red Cotton:

 

Blogger Ethics Panel, Chicago CBS 2 Edition

If only the Internet hadn't ruined all journalism ethics ever.

A Chicago television station is being blasted by civil rights leaders and news media professionals for airing edited video of a 4-year-old boy that took his statements out of context, violating the basics of journalism ethics.

The Maynard Institute published a story on July 21 detailing how Chicago CBS station WBBM ran a story about the June 29 shooting of two teenagers in the Park Manor neighborhood.

A freelance photographer interviewed the youngster about whether the shooting frightened him. The station aired the portion of the interview in which the boy responded by saying he was not afraid and wanted his own gun.

However, it failed to air the portion of the child’s quote in which he said he wanted a gun because he planned to be a police officer.

Via Beachwood. Go read and then come back.

You know, let's for a moment pretend the quote WASN'T taken out of context, and the little boy did seriously believe the best way to protect himself was to get all armed up with an AK or whatever these privileged anchors assume he was talking about. Let's say that genuinely was his outlook, rather than a wish to be a police officer.

That's an indication of something deeply fucked up, not just with this kid but with the world around him. That's troubling, and depressing, not the least bit because it would be so understandable. So IF this kid really was talking about becoming a gang enforcer or something, is this really the response you'd want to give on the air?

The following is a transcript of what the station aired June 30th.

Boy: “I’m not scared of nothing.”

Reporter: “When you get older are you going to stay away from all these guns?”

Boy: “No.”

Reporter: “No? What are you going to do when you get older?”

Boy: “I’m going to have me a gun!”

Anchor Steve Bartelstein ended the story saying, “that was scary indeed.” Co-anchor Susan Carlson exclaimed, “hearing that little boy there, wow!”

Bolding mine. Yeah, it's scary. Scary that all you can come up with in the way of social commentary and editorial is "scary" and "wow!" This isn't a goddamn cartoon. You don't just get to watch this on your TV and flinch into your popcorn. Jesus.

A.

Fuck Yeah, America!

Native American tribe okays same-sex marriages ... unanimously.

A.

Mubarak on Trial

Wow:

Even the most ardent in calling for his prosecution doubted until hours before the trial began that Mr. Mubarak, 83, would appear in a cage fashioned of bars and wire mesh, a reflection of the suspicion and unease that reigns in a country whose revolution remains unresolved. As a helicopter ferried him to the courtroom, housed in a police academy that once bore his name, cheers went up from a crowd gathered outside.

“The criminal is coming!” shouted Maged Wahba, a 40-year-old lawyer.

Go read the whole thing.

A.

 

Take Your Hand Out Of My Pocket

This week's musical money/greed fest continues with our old frenemy Van Morrison:

 

Did the AP Get Religion?

Were they visited by three ghosts or something?

A.

They Thought They Could Control It

David Frum, going, "I say, old chap, maybe inviting this frothing, flea-infested, mangy were-panther to our lovely garden soirée was a bad idea."

I feel about this the way I feel about people who keep grizzly bears and gorillas and tigers as pets. They keep animals that outweigh them as pampered houseguests, feeding them raw salmon and steak and putting cute little collars on them and shit, and then are ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED when their "best friends" get bored one day and eat their faces.

I mean, COME ON. Did you really not think you'd be lunch at some point? It's one thing to know it and have a death wish. People jump out of planes. People do all kinds of shit they know is dangerous as hell and it's kinda sexy to live that far on the edge, but only if you know. If you've got yourself a degree in Advanced Self-Deception and you think it is going to be okay to keep a zoo animal in your living room because it owes you something for naming and putting a little hat on it, I don't even know what to do with you. That kind of idiocy exhausts me down to my bones.

They nurtured these freaks for years. The entire apparatus of the sensible Republican Party of which Frum is so enamored, which started unprovoked wars and slashed necessary funding for programs that helped people but at least did it with pinky finger properly cocked, was RUN on keeping people like this chained to the machines. We've all seen these movies. The slaves always rise up and kill their masters. Free Willy always breaks out of the whale enclosure. Thinking you can use and use and use people and there won't come a point when they'll start demanding the right to choose their own names and clothing and get their own elected to Congress, that says more sorrowful things about the intelligence of those running the party than even the debt ceiling crisis can.

A.

Racist Pigs Dream of Electric Fences

What Steve Almond wishes Obama would say about immigration:

It’s hard for me to understand why Americans living hundreds miles from the U.S. border would devote so much fear and paranoia to undocumented workers. Here’s my guess: because deep down most of these fat, white, racist pigs know that they’ve done almost nothing to earn their good fortune. They just lucked out. They hit the geographic lotto. And it drives them crazy to imagine people who still believe in the American Dream, who would die to reach this country, to take a shit job for shit pay, simply to make a better life for themselves and their family. It’s a sort of patriotism they’ll never experience.

They're SCARED. God, the conversations I have with these people. They've been raised from birth on tales of when the slavering brown hordes moved into the nice neighborhood and ruined it. I mean they've been told this stuff in stories and sung it in songs like other people heard Winnie the Pooh. It's not just an article of faith for them. They're actually more rational about the church. It's the underpinning and justification for their entire existence.

It's why they live where they live, because they're not safe where they were. It's why their kids go to school where they go to school, because the other schools are bad. It's why they take the route they take to work, because certain streets are verboten. Their whole world is a land of imaginary barriers that might as well be ten feet of concrete topped with barbed wire, they're that physical to them.

I first heard something years ago, when I was working among tribal racists and going home every day pretty much wanting to punch holes in walls because of the fucking idiocy, that made it understandable for me: Think of your favorite place in the world, the place where you felt happy, where you felt safe. Now imagine your parents have told you that that place is gone, and you can never go back, and here's how it happened and who's to blame for it. Imagine they tell you that story every day, feeding it to you like poison into your veins.

It is a story they have been telling themselves for ages, and the reality of the situation, that greedy unscrupulous real estate agents and lazy city politicians and avaricious urban planners created a situation in which people's natural inclinations — to run from trouble, to not make noise about problems in the neighborhood, to do what their friends did — combined with other people's selfish desire to profit, doesn't even register. You don't hear anything like the lullaby your mother sang you, and this was their lullaby.

I sometimes wonder what's to be done. Before the Tea Party I used to think everybody could be convinced, given time and exposure to other adults with different ideas. I'm starting to think we just need to wait a few years for the worst fantasy of the wingnuts to come true, when all the old white racist jackasses are just outbred and die off.

x-posted to Firedoglake.

A.

Monday Night Music: It's Money That Matters

Randy Newman. Mark Knopfler. Say no more:

 

Edwinmania

Above is the logo of my Krewe du Vieux sub-krewe's parade theme in 2007. It got a big response from the crowd because Edwin Edwards was the last of his kind: a larger than life and colorful populist politician. Politics in the Gret Stet has long been an entertaining spectacle but those days seem to be over. Thanks to Jindal and Vitter, we've gone from focusing on personality to ideology. I doubt that even PBJ's biggest supporters would argue that he's interesting or charismatic. They keep telling us that he's whip smart but his administration has been dedicated to pandering to teawads and anti-science morons in service of the Governor's delusional national ambitions.

These political doldrums have, in turn, led to Edwinmania. He was, after all, a 4 term Governor who did some good things alongside the chicanery. Edwin had at least one foot planted in the Longite populist tradition. Corruption was also a part of that tradition but "conservative reformers" such as Jindal get nothing worthwhile done whereas the rascals have built highways, universities and hospitals. The biggest point in Edwin Edwards' favor is that he was the first Governor to treat black folks as full citizens.

So now that the former Governor is free to wander the streets after his 8 year stretch in the slammer,  the Gret Stet press is following his every movement. He married a woman some 50 years his junior and was roasted at the Montelone Hotel in NOLA in honor of his 84th birthday last week:

Edwin Edwards may be Louisiana's most controversial governor in the modern era, but you never would have known it Saturday night at his 84th birthday roast, which was largely a no-carve zone.

Instead, more than 500 political and business heavyweights heard a panel of "roasters" including state Sen. John Alario, state Democratic Party chieftain Buddy Leach, former Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown and "blue dog" artist George Rodrigue crack jokes and toss bouquets, including numerous testimonials to Edwards' legendary sexual exploits.

Referring to the 50-year age gap between Edwards and his new bride, Trina, Alario related a story that Edwards' brother Marion, the evening's emcee, told him. Marion had warned his brother that at his age, sex could be dangerous to one's health.

"Well, Marion," Edwards replied, "if she dies, she dies."

Yeah, Le Guv's sense of humor is dated in a rat packy kind of way but at least he has one. Ring a ding ding.  I racked my brain trying to think of one funny remark PBJ has ever made but couldn't. His rapid fire delivery, uh, delivers only earnest wingnut mush.

Here's Edwin on PBJ:

Edwards also took aim at Gov, Bobby Jindal, mocking the fact that Jindal participated in an exorcism of a young woman while he was in college. Edwards feigned amazement and said that if he saw a girl lying on the floor, seemingly under a spell, "I wouldn't waste any time trying to take the devil out of her."

<snip>

Edwards also weighed in on Jindal and Jindal's possible interest in running for national office. "I think he makes a good governor for California, Minnesota, Florida -- all those places where people keep putting up all that money, concerned about who the governor of Louisiana is," he said.

I'm not sure I'd wish PBJ on any other state but wouldn't mind him skedaddling out of here before his second term concludes. In the end, I blame Edwinmania on the dullness of a Governor with a shitty record who remains essentially unopposed. The Louisiana Democratic party has been on life support since  Hurricane Katrina. We've gone from purple to deep, deep red, which means that PBJ is likely to win re-election in a landslide even if a well-financed opponent should materialize out of the ether. Hmm, maybe True Blood's Vampire King Of Louisiana, Bill Compton, should run. Now that I think of it, he's just as boring as Jindal. Never mind.

They just don't make 'em like Edwin Edwards any more...

'The Rat's Perspective on the Bubonic Plague'

Driftglass on our broken pundit machine:

Grover Norquist: Regulations are the real problem. Next week the EPA might try to shove a liberal light bulb up your ass!

Krugman: Guy's a liar. Also a moron. Also, a liar.

This week's black-and-white differences between Amanpour's show and Gregger's Carnival of Beltway Bukkake are clearly visible and, I think, easy to understand.

Gregger's audience -- which is basically the same as media-bestriding colossi like David Brooks and Tom Friedman -- consists of a few thousand insider players in D.C., a few hundred plutocrats who own property and keep homes in New York, and the millions who are obtuse enough to believe their drivel.

Amanpour is trying for a more international audience, and the America where David Gregory is considered the gold standard of journalist and Grover Norquist has not been flogged into the street by mobs of sensible humans is a foreign land indeed.

And you know, I think I might be a little more open to the "pro-business" argument that we need no regulation and taxes whatsoever, if we hadn't just spent the last 30 years trying basically that and having it DEMONSTRABLY NOT WORK. I really wish somebody would start asking, loudly, when we were going to see results from all this freeing up business from the nightmares of energy efficient light bulbs and prohibitions on poisoning people, plus making sure they don't have to pay for the street their HQ sits on or the cops that patrol it. 

A.

Today on Tommy T's Obsession with the Freeperati - Fiscal Follies (female) edition

Good morning, everyone!

Since Adrastos is busy with Rising Tide VI - Electric Boogaloo (shameless plug) and Kibitzer is still recovering from strolling into the iso chamber, noting the rotating red beacon lights, the warning sirens and the people rushing for the airlock in a frantic attempt to outrun the unleashed Freeper crazy - and then looking around saying "What's up?" while the toxic fumes engulfed him - I'd like to thank the erstwhile Elspeth Ravenwind (still sounds better than Wendy) for doing a yeowoman's job helping me get the insanity sponged off the walls.

Let's see what's cooking this week, shall we?

First of all - Freepers luvs them some Laura Ingraham.

I mean, luvs. 

Laura is on O'Reilly

Posted on Wednesday, September 02, 2009 7:49:33 PM by fatima

She is doing a great job and looks Beautiful.

1 posted on Wednesday, September 02, 2009 7:49:33 PM by fatima

Would you still love her if she looked Ugly?

To: fatima

She is one smart woman.

2 posted on Wednesday, September 02, 2009 7:51:40 PM by svcw (Legalism reinforces self-righteousness - it communicates to you the good news of your own goodness)

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To: fatima

She is doing a great job and looks Beautiful.

She always does...and always does...

 

3 posted on Wednesday, September 02, 2009 7:51:50 PM by jessduntno ("Integrity is the lifeblood of democracy. Deceit is a poison in it." - Ted Kennedy (D-HELL)

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To: SoCalPol

Thanks.That’s means she is on the rest of the week.:)Love Laura.

14 posted on Wednesday, September 02, 2009 8:13:25 PM by fatima (Free Hugs Today :))

Get the picture?

"I love Laura and she loves me - She's as brittle as she can beee"

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Now?

Not so much.

Why?

Laura Ingraham pushes back on Sarah Palin primary threat Politico ^ | July 29, 2011 | ALEXANDER BURNS

Posted on Friday, July 29, 2011 4:00:56 PM by ejdrapes

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, one of the high-profile certified non-moderates urging the GOP to support John Boehner's debt ceiling bill, leveled criticism at Sarah Palin during today's show for raising the prospect of 2012 primary challenges to House Republicans.

***************

No, Larua thank god

You're going to Hell for failing to capitalize "God".  Just so ya know.

we have people who stand on principle. Most of the time that's the reason we get half a loaf.

Metamucil can help you with that.

If it wasn't for the grass roots we'd be totally screwed. I do agree with her though that throwing out primary challenge threats right now isn't helpful. I can't believe Palin really thinks someone like Paul Ryan or Alan West should be primaried because they're voting for Boehner 3.0. So I'm not sure who that challege was directed at.

1 posted on Friday, July 29, 2011 4:00:59 PM by ejdrapes

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To: ejdrapes

Ingraham argued in her broadcast that Palin's note was unhelpful to the GOP — and to the tea party

I have had about enough of Ingraham too.

 

Lindsey Graham's old girlfriend.

4 posted on Friday, July 29, 2011 4:04:40 PM by kcvl

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To: ejdrapes

Makin’ friends inside the beltway there Laura? Don’t let the cash trump the ol’ principles.

12 posted on Friday, July 29, 2011 4:07:48 PM by Invincibly Ignorant

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To: ejdrapes

Certified non-moderate?????????????????? The woman is a RINO!

The ultimate insult!! Could there be anything lower in the eyes of the Freeperati?

An unmarried RINO!

26 posted on Friday, July 29, 2011 4:13:15 PM by Doc Savage ("I've shot people I like a lot more,...for a lot less!" Raylan Givins)

 

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More of The Battle Of The Babes after the folded faces, with gratutious Allen West (remember when they loved him, too?) bashing.

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Sunday Night Music: Everything Is Good For You

The tune's title is not a commentary on the train wreck going on in Washington because it's clearly not good for us even if it won't kill us. I agree with pretty much everything Athenae has said today but would like to add one thing: Barack Obama is uniquely incapable of dealing with the craziness that today's GOP brings to the table. House Republicans are more than willing to blow up the economy to win this battle. Like many people whose childhood was chaotic, President Obama craves order and logic so he has a hard time fathoming fanatics. He's Spock when we could use a Klingon like Worf to kick the crazies in the bollocks or make them listen to <shuddering> Klingon opera.

Okay, here are the Crowdies:

 

Thanks, Chris Matthews' Racist Uncle

You helped get us into this, you fuckers:

It's a simple fact that media empires are very costly to acquire, and, for that reason, there is a much greater danger that they become biased toward the interests of those people who can afford to purchase them.  Could it be any other way?  Our nation's economic survival is not a question of left vs. right. Media content that uses partisanship and social issues to make it look that way must be exposed for what it is: soap opera. The Debt-Ceiling Hostage Crisis is a professional wrestling marathon with a little more clothing, and a little less sincerity.

And tomorrow when all this is done, Republicans and Teawads will still rail against the Liberal Media, and Romenesko will still be full of exasperated defenses of the principles of journalism as if people cannot BELIEVE that these semi-pro victims and power-humpers don't respond to actual evidence before their actual eyes. We gave them everything, bent over backwards to do what they wanted, reported on this fake crisis as if it was a real crisis just like they told us to do in their press releases, so why do they hate us?

BECAUSE THEY DO. Because it's fun. Because it gives them a reason to get up in the morning. Because all their friends do. Because despite all this cutting, and all this anger, and all this capitulation, despite getting everything they want, THEY'LL WAKE UP TOMORROW STILL NOT KING AND WILL NEED SOMEONE TO BLAME FOR IT AND YOU'RE THERE. Just because, okay, because it's what they do, and after all this time I no longer blame them for doing it, I blame you for getting rolled.

And that goes double for Congressonial Democrats and our alleged Democratic president, who didn't have the stones to say okay, just shut it all down then, if that's what you want. The piece above talks about how Obama had no choice but to embrace this "ambush," which, um, fuck no. He had plenty of choices. They weren't popular and they weren't very good and probably some of them would end up doing some serious damage, but he had choices. Pretending we had no choice when we had nothing but is what got us into this mess as a country, and it cuts Obama and Reid slack for not having the balls to use whatever procedural tricks they had to use to get done what needed to get done.

(Apropos of that, I am kicking the next person who talks to me about civility in politics right in the dick.)

What is the endgame here? What did we save? We're now going nowhere slowly instead of fast, with cuts to Medicare, with mandates for more cuts to more programs people need, with agreement on the general principle that we can do anything to anybody so long as it isn't raising their taxes because THAT is the greatest evil we can think of. It's nothing less than a capitulation, the latest of many by Democrats, to the Republican economic strategy, and it's going to fix absolutely nothing.

I know, okay, financial system disaster if this hadn't happened, but we're already going to hell in a handcart. It's a little late to worry about grease on the rails.

Via kwhittman on Twitter.

A.

 

Get In Line, Sarah Silverman

Matt Damon:

Off to update Netflix list now please:

A.

Super-Charming

From Facebook, a billboard in Wisconsin. YAY!

These are the people who really, really care about federal spending, you know.

A.

Well, This Sounds Like Fun

Triggermen:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) isn't saying why both sides aren't any closer to a debt deal after a day filled with feverish negotiations Saturday, but Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) spelled it out during a floor speech Saturday night.

The sticking point for Dems, Kerry said, involves detailed negotiations over an enforcement mechanism that would require Congress to act on entitlement and tax reform by a date certain or faces the consequences. Democrats want to ensure that such a trigger does not simply mandate severe spending cuts, but also includes tax increases -- the so-called "shared pain" Democrats have cited lately.

TPM characterizes this as some kind of epic slip-up on Kerry's part, letting us all know the kind of bread they'll be serving the shit sandwich on, but hey, I'd rather know exatly what is coming down the assembly line at us. There again, please remember that by the time I wake up later today and jack the Matrix back into my head, this could all be over. They're basically just throwing stuff at the wall right now and seeing what sticks.

A.