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By Weldon Berger, on November 19th, 2011
I don’t know what to say about this other than that I thought it was a joke because I first saw it on America’s Third Finest News Source. Now it’s only sad.
Say goodbye to the United States of America. Say hello to “the United States of Awesome Possibilities” as it looks to visitors from abroad to help lift it out of the economic doldrums.
By soft-pedaling patriotism, the newly-formed US national tourism board tasked with getting more tourists — and their money — onto US soil is reinventing the nation as a hip new land of diversity and possibilities.
Continue reading “The United States of Awesome Possibilities”
By Weldon Berger, on November 10th, 2011
Lots of people know by now that of the three federal agencies alleged Texas governor Rick Perry wants to eliminate when he becomes President, Perry could only remember two during the GOP presidential primary “debate” last night. Apparently a large subset of the people who know about it think the spectacle of him doing the cranial potty dance on live TV for about a solid minute signals the end of his campaign, but they forget that there are no stupidity, cupidity, liquidity, lividity, lucidity, rancidity or validity barriers to presidential candidacy in the GOP. You only have to be alive (and that’s a prejudice we here at BTC News intend to shatter).
But like Glen Campbell in “True Grit,” Rick Perry ain’t dead yet. (Although we should note that Campbell’s character was fatally wounded at the time.) The alleged Texas governor managed to find his way to the press room to slather some soothing “Aw Shucks” balm on reporters after the debate, and his campaign sent out an email fundraising appeal not long after that.
Continue reading Rick Perry, for the win
By Weldon Berger, on November 7th, 2011
I have nothing of interest to say today, so …
Once upon a time my blog got a lot of traffic, or at least it seemed like a lot to me. Then stuff happened and now most of my traffic comes from spammers trying to log into the site or leave comments or both.
One consequence of the spam is that when it gets really heavy, my little blog exceeds the amount of CPU time my web site host allows an individual site to use, so the server starts limiting my usage and access to the blog slows way down. This doesn’t discourage the spammers at all, they just keep banging away, but it does annoy actual people trying to read something.
Continue reading Customer service
By Weldon Berger, on November 6th, 2011
Disclaimer: BTC News doesn’t advocate stealing any books, and especially not this one because pretty soon they’ll be giving it away.
Continuing with our heroic plunge into the depths of GOP presidential primary emaul email campaigns … Michelle Bachmann has a new book, Core of Conviction, which may or may not be in bookstores but is definitely available to supporters who donate $75 or more to her campaign. For $125, you can get an autographed copy. We understand it to be a riveting courtroom potboiler.
Not to undercut the campaign effort, but if you really want the book—non-autographed copies only, we regret to say—you can donate $37.50 to BTC News and we’ll send you one. Half off! It’s a steal. Act now. We promise not to spend the money on a political candidate.
Continue reading Steal this book! Michele Bachmann gets in the authorial game
By Weldon Berger, on November 5th, 2011
I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink …
— “Love Potion Number Nine”
A few weeks ago I signed up for emails from several candidates in the GOP presidential primary freak show. Nobody is bringing any noteworthy crazy in their private notes to their strongest backers, like me, so I’m reduced instead to reporting on the humanity of it all.
Newt Gingrich, for instance, is in far deeper trouble than anyone knew. He’s picking fights not with the Washington Post or the New York Times or even whatever newspaper is still standing in San Francisco, but with Mother Jones Magazine. We have to think Mother Jones was previously unknown to most of his supporters, as it is unknown to most people in the country—no offense intended, just saying the numbers aren’t huge—but now they’ll be slinging the name around with knowledgeable contempt.
Continue reading The Batrachian Candidate squares off against Mother Jones
By Weldon Berger, on October 30th, 2011
The Financial Times has a little story about the UK’s latest Tory member of the European Parliament. He’s Rupert Matthews, and FT introduces him to readers in fine style. His hair is less than perfect but other than that he has all the qualities required for a GOP up-and-comer.
Continue reading Why isn’t this man a Republican candidate for high office?
By Weldon Berger, on October 25th, 2011
In recent years, both the civilian government and the military leadership have made a serious effort to elevate the cultural station of military personnel from that of citizen soldiers to the loftier and more separatist “warrior.” They’re all warriors now, and heroes. The end result is that both soldiers and civilians increasingly view the former as a breed apart.
That’s not a good thing. For obvious democratic reasons, one wants the military to identify and empathize with the populations whence they spring. Identifying common experiences is one way to do that, and one experience a lot of military personnel have in common with a lot of civilians is that they’re making crap money and the people signing their paychecks don’t seem to care much about them. Another is that if they lose their jobs, they’re in deep trouble almost instantly.
I ran across a couple of items yesterday that suggest an avenue for amplifying the Occupy protests within the U.S. by involving military personnel. One was a comment by my pal Schmutzie over at his place about a plan announced by Senators Carl Levin and John McCain to inflict some serious Bad upon veterans benefits, and the other was the first truly useful Twitter message I’ve received during my limited relationship with the service.
Continue reading Occupy the Military
By Weldon Berger, on October 25th, 2011
There is always a certain amount of tension in a democratic society between the right of citizens to know what their governments are doing and the need for governments to preserve vital secrets. The Obama administration, in pursuit of its announced intention to become the most open administration ever, has announced prospective new rules seeking to advance the free flow of information.
Continue reading Obama administration Freedom of Information Act rules are fair and balanced
By Weldon Berger, on October 25th, 2011
The Obama campaign has drawn a line in the tar sand, and if you’re reading this you’re probably on the wrong side of it. A former lobbyist for TransCanada, the giant energy company desperate to build a pipeline from Canada’s oil tar sand fields through the US to Gulf Coast refineries, is the latest high-powered addition to the campaign.
Continue reading Reaching out to underserved communities, Obama hires bank, pipeline lobbyist
By Weldon Berger, on October 22nd, 2011
I just completed a frank exchange of views with a devout Obama supporter who believes her president is curbing his liberal impulses from respect for the views of the losing voters on the right (they did lose, didn’t they?) and in order to establish a dynamic in which subsequent right-wing presidents will moderate their own ambitions from respect for Obama’s example and the voters who support it.
Well. Not exactly her president. She’s Canadian, although also Floridian. Hot Sun Bakes Canadian Brain. In the end we agreed that when Rick Perry invades Iran in five years after taking office by winning 45% of the popular vote, I will deserve to be drafted and sent off to fight and presumably die in that war because I think Democrats should pursue big projects like universal health care, the cramming of which down American throats led George W. Bush to invade Iraq. Damn you, Harry Truman!
Continue reading Let’s trade Obama to Canada for players to be named later
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Word of the Decade Ignoranus: An ignorant asshole.
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