Tag: The Stars Hollow Gazette

So I was poking around in one of my boxes of salvage parts today and I ran across an old IBM keyboard.

Not so old because it has one of those PS/2 connectors instead of the older style AT (the main drawback is that people plug their mice into the wrong hole) but old enough that IBM was still making a point about their keyboards and how nice the feel was.

People claim that the IBM Selectric Typewriter had the best keyboard ever.  I know that my Olivetti portable had a real snappy action.  Early on in my computing career I got myself 2 Northgate Omnikey Ultras, THE BEST KEYBOARD EVER, with function keys where God intended them, across the top AND down the side.  Sadly they each need about $50 dollars of repair that is not in my current budget, the last one having gone down a little less than a year ago.

Since then I have suffered with a “Windows” keyboard of the mushiest kind imaginable with innumerable function keys to run your Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player.  You have to turn them all off to make it not screw up your whole system.

It worked, but it was like pushing your fingers into squishy memory foam.  I’m quite happy to have snappy keys that push back under my digital control again.

Now with extra appeasement!

Yesterday I ran across the piece that NLinStPaul discusses in Full-Blooded Americans at Atrios and it sent me scurrying to teh Google to find some speeches by Hitler that contained “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher”.  As it turns out it is so pervasive a theme of Nazi propaganda that searching on it is kind of hopeless, though I did run across some of Goebbels “Our Furher” speeches (birthday speeches for Hitler) that were evocative but not entirely on point.  Just as well because NL’s essay is much better than mine would have been and I’ll Front Page it tomorrow.

So I went instead with my little celebration of Republican party disarray which continues today with-

Six ways the GOP can save itself

Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, Politico

Thu May 15, 5:25 AM ET

Summarized they are-

1. New ideas and an attractive agenda
2. Purge scandal-stained members, swear off boondoggle spending projects and promote strong ethical standards
3. Re-build network of donors, think tanks and activist groups
4. Disassociate from President Bush
5. Fresh, reassuring packaging and new spokespeople
6. Stir up concerns about Democratic patriotism and their commitment to national security

and-

Hagee’s apocalyptic support of Israel

Ben Smith, Politico

Thu May 15, 5:16 AM ET

Hagee’s commitment to Israel, however, is itself controversial: It’s rooted in the belief that the Jewish state will — soon — be the site of Armageddon.

Hagee, who leads the evangelical group Christians United for Israel, is a proponent of U.S. aid and support for Israel, and he is a major ally of Israeli conservatives who reject any “land for peace” formula in dealing with the Palestinians. But Hagee is viewed with distrust by some Jews and Israelis because his brand of Christian Zionism closely links support for Israel to the end of the world and the conversion of the Jews to Christianity.

Hagee’s predictions are very clear. Armageddon, the final battle, could begin, he wrote in his 2007 book “Jerusalem Countdown,” “before this book gets published.”

Indeed Troutfishing said today that he had a copy of Hagee’s specially annotated Bible (free for a small “faith donation”) where he lays out all his eschatology.

But I want to talk about appeasement.

How bad is it to be a Republican?

“Really the mistake they have made is to nationalize these elections when the national image is poisonous for Republicans right now,” explained Craig Shirley, a Republican strategist with Shirley Bannister Public Relations. “What they should do is focus on local affairs. When you are sending in big time politicians from Washington and cater to the national media, you are reminding people why they are upset with the Republican Party in the first place.”

…

“This is as bad as I can remember since post Watergate,” said Shirley. “It was so bad in 1974 after Gerald Ford was nominated for Vice President that there was a special election for his congressional district, which had been Republican since the civil war, and it went Democratic… The fact is that these are comparable races. These are all three seats that have been in GOP hands for a long, long time… Ultimately voters want to know what a politician is going to do for them. What has happened with the Republican Party over the last eight years is that some of the consultants have decided it is too hard to define what we stand for so we are just going to paint Democrats as worse than us.”

…

“This is 1994 all over again,” Frank Luntz, a famed Republican communications consultant, told The Huffington Post. “I was there. I saw it firsthand. The Republicans of 2008 are behaving exactly like the Democrats of ’94 and making exactly the same mistakes. It’s pathetic.”

GOP Adviser: This is ’94 In Reverse, We’re Pathetic

Sam Stein, The Huffington Post

May 14, 2008 04:49 PM

“The political atmosphere facing House Republicans this November is the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than the fall of 2006, when we lost 30 seats (and our majority) and came within a couple of percentage points of losing another 15 seats,” Rep. Tom Davis, a moderate Northern Virginia Republican who previously headed the National Republican Congressional Committee, wrote in a 20-page memo to colleagues.

GOP cancer: Party could lose 20 more seats

John F. Harris, Josh Kraushaar, Politico

Wed May 14, 9:09 PM ET

“Well, this is the floor,” Davis said, stomping on the concrete beneath him. “And we’re underneath the floor.” Without strong medicine, he said, Republicans will lose 25 seats in November. “We’re the airplane flying into the mountain.”

Agitated? Irritable? Hostile? Aggressive? Impulsive? Restless?

By Dana Milbank, The Washington Post

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Glenn Greenwald has finished reading all 8000 pages the Pentagon has released in the Pentagon Propaganda/”Military Analysts” Scandal.  For the past few days he has been reporting on their content and it is just damning!

For a reminder of just what we’re talking about-

Brian Williams’ "response" to the military analyst story

Glenn Greenwald, Salon

Wednesday April 30, 2008 07:00 EDT

New analysis from Greenwald below.

George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.  He graduated last in his class at West Point.  At the end of the Civil War, Custer was promoted to major general of volunteers. In 1866, he was appointed to the regular army position of lieutenant colonel.  His title of “General” was a courtesy only.  He established a reputation as an aggressive cavalry commander willing to take personal risks at Gettysburg among other places, but was also known for the Battle of Trevilian Station, where Custer was humiliated by having his division trains overrun and his personal baggage captured by the Confederates.

And there was that Greasy Grass thing.  You could look it up.

The reason I mention it is he reminds me of somebody.

McCain – War Hero or Just Incompetent Pilot? by DrSteveB

Now as DrSteveB admits, one of his main sources is Wayne Madsen who doesn’t have a sterling reputation, but this is DocuDharma not DailyKos and conspiracy theories and questionable sources are explicitly allowed.

I thought I’d share it so you can think about it the next time you hear someone call McSame a “war hero”.

John Kerry drove a Swift Boat and killed gooks with his bare hands like Rambo.  McSame was a washout who used his daddy’s influence to get a job driving a bomb dump truck (an A-4 is not a fighter) so he could kill people from 30,000 feet.  He was a boozer and a skirt chaser.  He participated in propaganda broadcasts while captured.  He cheated on his wife who stood by him during his captivity and then dumped her when she was injured to marry a drug addicted charity thief who was prettier and richer so he could have a political career.

This is John McSame- “maverick”.

I found it quite amusing to watch the reverse MSNBC meltdown last night.  It was New Hampshire all over again.

What these Beltway Butt Kissing Access Whore Media MORANS don’t get is that people don’t buy their bullshit anymore.  Eight years (at least) of continuous cognitive dissonance has taught them better.

It’s objectively true.  Disregarding the disintegrating broadcast audience it in fact takes many many more impressions to achieve the same sales effect- ask any ad buyer.  We are resistant, which is why viral marketing is such a big deal.

But it’s not just their credibility, these dying Dinosaur Dolts have dumbed down their job so that any Hair Sprayed Made Up MORAN pretty enough to read a teleprompter and stupid enough to charge less than your ELITIST ULTRA-RICH SALARY can get the same ratings.  What makes you better than the next Faux Noise Bimbo?

Sucks to be an actor when Hollywood for the Ugly goes all pretty on ya.

So you’ve outsourced your own employment.  You deserve to be extinct.

We all get cable TV and we watch it every night.  We remember when you re-work the same tired (do you think he looks it?) old plot lines substituting Jamie Sommers for Steve Austin and even having the same tired old B-List uncle cousins of the Producers in the same stinking old parts.

The reason you hate hippies is you’re unhip.  You’re ugly.  You’re just outcasts who haven’t gotten over High School so you’ve formed your own kool kidz klub (initials intentional).

Well good luck with that.  You’re being hoist by your own latte drinking life styles you chauffeured cell phone chattering chumps.

The average person graduates High School and understands things better than your 7th grade schoolyard gossip stories.

But Wait!

Glenn Greenwald

10 am 5 Who needs Dana Perino when you have the NYT’s Michael Gordon?

Glenn Greenwald @ Salon.com

Monday May 5, 2008 07:23 EDT

Like clockwork, the administration’s most stalwart surge supporter/journalist — the New York Times’ Michael Gordon — has a lengthy article today bolstering the administration’s war-justifying accusations against Iran. It claims in the lead sentence that “militants from the Lebanese group Hezbollah have been training Iraqi militia fighters at a camp near Tehran,” and that “the training, the Americans say, is carried out at several camps near Tehran that are overseen by the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Command, and the instruction is carried out by militants from Hezbollah, which has long been supported by the Quds Force.”

As usual with Gordon’s articles, nothing is done here other than uncritically repeating Bush administration claims under the cover of anonymity. Virtually every paragraph in this article is nothing more a mindless recitation of uncorroborated assertions which he copies from Bush officials and then weaves into a news narrative, with the phrase “American officials say” tacked on at the end or the phrase “according to officials” unobtrusively interspersed in the middle…

…

The administration’s war-threatening rhetoric against Iran has plainly reached new heights in the last several weeks. Whether they really intend to follow through on those threats before Bush leaves office is unclear, though some commentators with a history of insight and prescience — such as Scott Ritter — are convinced they will. But what is clear is that the administration has no better ally in disseminating its war-provoking accusations than Michael Gordon and his NYT Editors, for whom “reporting” consists of repeating whatever Bush officials say — no matter how significant or dubious — and to do so without challenge and while baselessly granting them anonymity to do make their provocative accusations without accountability.

The All-White Elephant in the Room

By FRANK RICH, The New York Times

Published: May 4, 2008

BORED by those endless replays of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? If so, go directly to YouTube, search for “John Hagee Roman Church Hitler,” and be recharged by a fresh jolt of clerical jive.

What you’ll find is a white televangelist, the Rev. John Hagee, lecturing in front of an enormous diorama. Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice. The woman is “the Great Whore,” Mr. Hagee explains, and she is drinking “the blood of the Jewish people.” That’s because the Great Whore represents “the Roman Church,” which, in his view, has thirsted for Jewish blood throughout history, from the Crusades to the Holocaust.

…

Mr. McCain says he does not endorse any of Mr. Hagee’s calumnies, any more than Barack Obama endorses Mr. Wright’s. But those who try to give Mr. McCain a pass for his embrace of a problematic preacher have a thin case. It boils down to this: Mr. McCain was not a parishioner for 20 years at Mr. Hagee’s church.

That defense implies, incorrectly, that Mr. McCain was a passive recipient of this bigot’s endorsement. In fact, by his own account, Mr. McCain sought out Mr. Hagee, who is perhaps best known for trying to drum up a pre-emptive “holy war” with Iran. (This preacher’s rantings may tell us more about Mr. McCain’s policy views than Mr. Wright’s tell us about Mr. Obama’s.) Even after Mr. Hagee’s Catholic bashing bubbled up in the mainstream media, Mr. McCain still did not reject and denounce him, as Mr. Obama did an unsolicited endorser, Louis Farrakhan, at the urging of Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton. Mr. McCain instead told George Stephanopoulos two Sundays ago that while he condemns any “anti-anything” remarks by Mr. Hagee, he is still “glad to have his endorsement.”

…

There is not just a double standard for black and white politicians at play in too much of the news media and political establishment, but there is also a glaring double standard for our political parties. The Clintons and Mr. Obama are always held accountable for their racial stands, as they should be, but the elephant in the room of our politics is rarely acknowledged: In the 21st century, the so-called party of Lincoln does not have a single African-American among its collective 247 senators and representatives in Washington. Yes, there are appointees like Clarence Thomas and Condi Rice, but, as we learned during the Mark Foley scandal, even gay men may hold more G.O.P. positions of power than blacks.

Glenn Greenwald

Brian Williams’ "response" to the military analyst story

After I wrote about Williams’ blog item yesterday, his blog was deluged with commenters angrily demanding to know why he has failed to address the NYT expose. In response, Williams wrote a new blog item last night in which he purports — finally — to respond to the story, and I can’t recommend highly enough that it be read by anyone wanting to understand how our establishment journalist class thinks and acts.

…

What makes all of this even more astounding — and what makes Williams’ glib dismissal of these issues yesterday all the more indefensible — is that all of these conflicts and all of this deceit was well-known long before the NYT article added more details. As I’ve repeatedly noted, concerns over the use by news networks of retired Generals masquerading as “independent analysts” were raised for years in multiple venues — including by the NYT and by the astoundingly prescient Colman McCarthy in The Washington Post, and the networks simply ignored those concerns, marching along with their pro-war parade of military analysts.

But far worse, the specific, undisclosed conflicts of both McCaffrey and Downing — the two Generals cited by Williams to prove NBC did nothing wrong — were disclosed more than four years ago by The Nation. And there is no way that NBC and Williams can claim not to have known about them, since The Nation described those ties as specifically as could be. Did NBC ask the Generals about these ties? Did they consider disclosing them to their viewers? Did the undislcosed ties violate NBC News policy? Does NBC have policies now to prevent this from happening again? Who knows? NBC refuses to comment on any of this.

…

Just consider what is going on here. The core credibility of war reporting by Brian Williams and NBC News has been severely undermined by a major NYT expose. That story involves likely illegal behavior by the Pentagon, in which NBC News appears to have been complicit, resulting in the deceitful presentation of highly biased and conflicted individuals as “independent” news analysts. Yet they refuse to tell their viewers about any of this, and refuse to address any of the questions that have been raised.

More amazingly still, when Brian Williams is forced by a virtual mob on his blog yesterday finally to address this issue — something he really couldn’t avoid doing given that, the day before, he found time to analyze seven other NYT articles — Williams cited McCaffrey and Downing as proof that they did nothing wrong, and insists that his and their credibility simply ought to be beyond reproach because they are good, patriotic men. But those two individuals in particular had all kinds of ties to the Government, the defense industry, and ideological groups which gave them vested interests in vigorous pro-war advocacy — ties which NBC News knew about and failed to disclose, all while presenting these individuals to their millions of viewers as “independent.” Is there anyone who thinks that behavior is anything other than deeply corrupt?

Petty Egotistical Gob of Fat.

It appears that Timmeh has barred Arianna Huffington from NBC and MSNBC because she has some less than flattering things to say about him in her new book- Right Is Wrong: How The Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded The Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe.

Seems she called him “a conventional wisdom zombie”.

Now actually I think that Arianna’s “blog” is nothing more than a celebrity masturbation society and I’ve never forgiven her for her early fascism.  Kind of hard to get over the fact she was a Coulter/Ingram/Malkin clone without the bulimia and with an accent like a Gabor sister.

But I have to give her credit for this.  Way to stand up against the man sista!

Here is the coverage on her own site.  The video plays automatically- don’t say I didn’t warn you.

It’s a post by ZP Heller @ BraveNewFilms.org that is too short to quote extensively, but includes this gem-

If Huffington’s claim is true and Russert has been pulling rank with NBC, then this whole affair smacks of immature middle-school antics.  Is Russert really that sensitive that he can’t take criticism from Huffington?

Arianna’s latest is-

Shameful Days: Why Won’t The Media Pursue the Pentagon Propaganda Scandal?

The last ten days have been among the most shameful in the history of American journalism.

On April 20th, the New York Times published its expose of the Bush administration’s use of Pentagon-approved, prepped, and financially-enriched “military analysts” to appear on TV to help sell the invasion of Iraq, and then put a positive spin on the occupation — even as conditions on the ground deteriorated.

It was a powerful illustration of the Bush administration’s commitment to propaganda and disinformation. But it was also a damning indictment of the mainstream media’s complicity in the wholesale deception of the American public on the single most important decision a country can make — the decision to go to war.

I’m pretty angry tonight.  People are being stupider than usual and if you know my general attitude toward humanity you know that’s saying something.  The source of my discontent this evening is, of course, the incestuous Beltway Bendover for Ass Access Butt Sniffing Feces Flinging Media and their Hollywood for the Ugly Uncle Brother Wife Sisters in the institutional political class.  

Reverend Wright IS Right!

Never heard a preacher like Reverend Wright before?  Did you sanctimonious morons ever GO to Church or are you Christmas/Easter Christians?  Can’t remember the last time?  You’re going to burn in hellfire for eternity you GOD DAMN SINNERS!

YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND YOUR OWN GOD DAMNED RELIGION!

NOBODY is worthy to sit at the feet of the Lord your God.  You were “conceived in sin (disobedience)” which is why SEX IS EVIL!  There is not a one among that doesn’t offend the sight (not to say smell, for you stink of death and corruption) of your vengeful jealous GOD who doesn’t care whether it’s a Golden Calf or Mammon that you put before him, and thinks that coveting and killing and lying and stealing ARE EVIL!  Who would demand the sacrifice of your first born son and punish you (to say nothing of your innocent kin- wives, children, servants, livestock, whatever) ON A BET!

Wrath of God?

But he loves you.  Nope, really.

In addition to smiting your enemies for real estate, he loves you enough that he incarnated some part and yet all of himself into a fully HUMAN being who lived his whole life without sinning at all, Jesus Christ our Saviour.

If you believe in some carefully selected texts of dubious historical provenance called The Gospel (and I know you believe that they’re the inerrant Word Of God) Jesus was a teacher with at least 2 strong messages; one of which I’m going to characterize as temporal and social, and the other of which I’m going to characterize as spiritual and to hell with parallelism.

Jesus’ Social message was that there are things God can do for you other than smiting your enemies.

He can make you kinder and more compassionate.  He doesn’t much care for the greedy and sanctimonious.  He’s not that into violence toward others even when provoked.

Jesus’ Spiritual message was unmerited favor by grace.

By believing that he was the incarnation of God sent here to spread God’s message of love and forgiveness of sin, you can spare yourself the torment of an eternity of existence after death separated from God’s presence.  The proof is that Jesus died and was raised from the dead (plus assorted other miracles).

Some Christians think that outward prosperity is an indicator of God’s grace.  Some Christians think that sacrifice guarantees prosperity.  Some Christians think that avoidance of sin through conformist behavior is sufficient, but they are mistaken because the OMNIPOTENT GOD who sees the fall of every sparrow can look straight into your heart and mind and knows your EVERY unworthy motivation and secret.  Every lazy self indulgent moment of your stinking existence for which there is not enough incense for the nostrils of GOD!

When was the last time you washed the wounds of a leper?

But even the mildest of Christians contend that evidence of acceptance of the teaching of Jesus is that you strive to emulate his actions.  Heal the sick.  Help the poor.  Turn the other cheek.  Love your neighbor as yourself and forgive them their trespasses.

Little stuff.

Some people are not Christians.  People like me for instance who don’t believe in God at all and follow teachers who have something to say about the human condition in practical terms and find other excuses for altruism than fear of punishment.

Can deathbed acceptance forgive a life of sin?  Are you repentant enough?

God Knows!

Late Night News

Iraqis see red as U.S. opens world’s biggest embassy

By Howard LaFranchi, The Christian Science Monitor

Thu Apr 24, 4:00 AM ET

…

“It is a symbol of occupation for the Iraqi people, that is all,” says Anouar, a Baghdad graduate student who thought it was risk enough to give her first name. “We see the size of this embassy and we think we will be part of the American plan for our country and our region for many, many years.”

The 104-acre, 21-building enclave – the largest US Embassy in the world, similar in size to Vatican City in Rome – is often described as a “castle” by Iraqis, but more in the sense of the forbidden and dominating than of the alluring and liberating.

…

Designed according to what are called the “Inman standards” – the results of a 1985 commission on secure embassy construction headed by former National Security Agency head Bobby Inman – recent embassies have been built as fortified compounds away from population centers and surrounded by high walls.

…

The $740 million compound – expected to cost more than $1 billion a year to operate – was originally expected to cost $600 million to build and was to open in September 2007. Design changes and faulty construction caused repeated delays.

…

But even the embassy’s opening may not be assuaging diplomats’ concerns about assignments in Iraq. Last week, the State Department warned that it may start ordering employees to serve at the embassy next year if more volunteers do not come forward for the 300 posts expected to open.

But wait!