tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50502782024-03-08T06:18:20.130-05:00musclehead...Let me not be too consumed with this worldJustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07445101646840367488noreply@blogger.comBlogger762125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-61511147706802717052008-03-30T20:19:00.003-04:002008-03-30T20:21:46.947-04:00I've MovedBoth figuratively and literally. Now reside in Boston. And in the ether I reside at unattributed musings.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-78025086256158190032007-05-22T18:27:00.000-04:002007-05-22T18:37:34.729-04:00Democratic CowardiceOnce again, the Democratic Party in Congress fails to exhibit anything resembling a backbone. Faced with the White House's intransigence over the Iraq War funding bill, the Congressional leadership goes wobbly and gives Bush everything he wanted. There is no longer a timetable for ending the War. I probably should not be surprised, given the Party's lack of resolve and fight over the past seven Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-45768615113539673182007-04-25T14:39:00.000-04:002007-04-25T14:59:16.466-04:00Another Wednesday QuickieLaura Bush is just as awful as her husband. The First Lady had the audacity to claim that, "no one suffers more than their president and I do" with respect to Iraq. Just wow. No one? Really? Do you think that maybe the families of the 3000+ soldiers who lost their lives or the tens of thousands of injured service members might suffer more than you and Shrub? God, the Bushies clearly are the scum Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-29045305943814284342007-04-19T14:41:00.000-04:002007-04-19T14:58:11.655-04:00Republican StupidityOk, so maybe that headline is redundant. Apparently, John McCain thinks that turning the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann into "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran." Now that is sure presidential timber, isn't it? Nevermind the clusterfuck that is Iraq, or the Taliban's ascendance in Afghanistan and Pakistan, let's sing about bombing Iran. Ignore the fact that our military is stretched beyond the breaking Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-26750815126489802962007-04-18T13:47:00.000-04:002007-04-18T14:22:29.418-04:00Wednesday Afternoon QuickiesThe GOP hates the free market and won't allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices on behalf of Medicare recipients. Heaven forbid that the federal government be allowed to use its market power. Instead, Republicans prefer allowing only insurance companies and pharma benefits managers to negotiate prices. Apparently benefits that accrue to their corporate masters Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-66126641110635824422007-04-07T15:02:00.000-04:002007-04-07T15:04:26.929-04:00Saturday Quick HitsJohn McCain is both delusional and a bigger gambler than Bill Bennett. McCain will apparently make winning in Iraq the centerpiece of his campaign. Apparently McCain thinks he can win the race for President with the votes of all three people who agree with him- Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and Joe Lieberman. I'm trying to find a way to accept McCain's bet. As they say, a fool and his money are Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-77827486696591835292007-04-07T13:10:00.000-04:002007-04-07T13:40:37.945-04:00Music We LoveI have always wanted to use the royal we, but since there is no other musclehead it has been difficult. So, in this case the we refers to me and my pot of french roast. Chris Garneau makes achingly beautiful pop songs. Garneau uses piano and his falsetto to engage the listener even deeper into the emotional world created by his lyrics. Music for Tourists is quite simply a gem of a record, perfectAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-87269990432594762842007-04-06T16:33:00.000-04:002007-04-06T16:45:09.789-04:00Post Q1 Presidential ThoughtsNow that the fundraising numbers are out and have been digested, I think there is a striking difference between the Clinton and Obama campaigns. We still don't know whether or not Obama beat Clinton in dollars raised for the primary election (Clinton has not disclosed the breakdown of her contributions), but we do know that Obama did best Clinton in number of donors. By about a 2 to 1 margin. AndAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-657696572636588702007-04-06T16:15:00.000-04:002007-04-06T16:33:14.568-04:00No More Polls, Please!The deluge of presidential polls is such a phenomenal waste of time for a couple of reasons. First, spare me the national polls. We do not elect a president by popular vote. The only value in national polling is to get a sense of where people stand in the aggregate. The second problem with polls this far out is that they do a poor job of predicting actual voter behavior. Now, I am sure you think Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-10643689138692152002007-04-05T22:14:00.000-04:002007-04-05T22:35:38.655-04:00While You Were OutSome recent developments that warrant a mention.The capture of British soldiers by Iran led to much chest-thumping in the wingnutsphere. They mustered all their chickenhawk outrage at the "cowardice" of the Brits. It would seem that many of our arm chair generals (who have never bothered to serve) would have preferred the 14 men and one woman had returned to England in bodybags. I'm sure these Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-14600518989629883122007-03-30T14:50:00.000-04:002007-03-30T14:55:04.378-04:00Dancing with the DevilColor of Change has launched a campaign to let the Congressional Black Caucus know what people think about their co-sponsorship of a Presidential debate with right wing smear artists Fox News. I urge you to sign their petition and also to contact members of the CBC directly. My congressman, John Lewis, is a member of the CBC and below is the letter I sent to his office.Congressman Lewis-I am Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-31361393744908253692007-03-28T13:50:00.000-04:002007-03-28T14:03:18.295-04:00Form Over SubstanceHere's a shocker- talking about how Christian you are is more important than how you live your life, according to evangelical leaders. Just try to wrap your mind around these two comments about a Thompson candidacy coming from Focus on the Family leader James Dobson and his spokesman."Everyone knows he's conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands forAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-22416652052037162282007-03-23T18:21:00.000-04:002007-03-23T18:44:43.108-04:00More Media MusingsI just love alliteration, don't you? Anyway. I have been thinking more about the media and why it continues to do such a poor job of covering the news. I've also given some thought to the incredibly negative reaction some media-types have towards those who offer criticism from what might be termed the Left. I believe that both have the same root cause.For the past twenty years or so, Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-22777398784004380802007-03-23T13:59:00.000-04:002007-03-23T14:21:36.081-04:00Why Does the Press Suck?Stories and framing like this drive me insane. Without any evidence, David Lerman asserts that Senator Webb is a "maverick senator" who wants to "steer his party toward a centrist path." But the long quote from Webb used in the story reads-``If the Democratic Party gets back on that message, I think they have a very strong chance in red-state America."What you might ask is the message to which Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-3954695445474537262007-03-23T12:58:00.000-04:002007-03-23T13:24:54.383-04:00Worse than Nixon?As the evidence of politicization of the DOJ continues to accumulate, it is a legitimate question to ask. Not only do we know that eight US Attorneys were pushed out of office because of either their failure to bully Democrats with specious investigations and prosecutions or their investigations into Republican corruption, but new information suggests that other cases and areas of the department Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-10570291860884805742007-03-22T14:35:00.000-04:002007-03-22T14:41:00.924-04:00Get Well ElizabethI'd be remiss if I failed to note today's announcement by Elizabeth and John Edwards that her cancer had returned. Not only has Elizabeth's cancer returned, but it is uncurable. But, the good news is that it is treatable.My heart goes out to the Edwards family during this difficult time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-87151743169633570322007-03-20T23:54:00.000-04:002007-03-21T00:01:22.217-04:00Just Getting It InToday is/was Back Up Your Birth Control day of activism. So, if you want to know more, just click on the handy button to your right. I don't have a whole lot to say about EC except to say that its availability is under attack from the same Right Wing crackpots who want to take away all of our other reproductive freedoms. Don't fall for their bullshit about EC being the same as an abortion. EC Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-18565080599191820782007-03-19T19:55:00.000-04:002007-03-19T20:11:05.780-04:00F*ck AIPACRegular readers of this blog know that I generally side with Israel in the Arab-Israeli conflict. But over the past few years I've become more and more distressed by the demands of AIPAC and other members of the Jewish lobby. This latest bit regarding Obama's lack of support among AIPAC types just throttles me. This bit captures the essence of his lack of appeal:The root of the matter, as some Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-37731642955157925972007-03-19T15:27:00.000-04:002007-03-19T16:47:36.098-04:00Aiming for MediocrityMark Kleiman had a good post about public education. I believe his main point, and one which I agree with him completely, is captured by this paragraph:One of the many bad features of NCLB is that it focuses entirely on the bottom of the distribution. Our smartest students are being systematically cheated. That's less true in rich neighborhoods than in poor ones, but it's true everywhere.In emailAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-52122964629070806892007-03-18T12:40:00.000-04:002007-03-18T13:10:07.998-04:00Pathological Disdain for OthersThis bit about Barbara Bush (from today's Frank Rich column in NYT Select) speaks volumes of how pro-war Republican elites think of soldiers:March 18, 2003Barbara Bush tells Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she will not watch televised coverage of the war: “Why should we hear about body bags and deaths, and how many, what day it’s going to happen, and how many this or what do youAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-5660926248961271582007-03-17T13:36:00.000-04:002007-03-17T14:16:30.745-04:00In Defense of ElitismElitism has become something of a dirty word over the past several years. It first came under attack by the Know-Nothing wing of today's GOP, who sneer at higher learning, science and rationality. As has been noted before, the GOP and its mouthpieces in the media have used appeals to "common sense" as brickbats to discredit expertise and the scientific process. But lately the progressives, at Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-40572854855617888712007-03-16T15:28:00.000-04:002007-03-16T16:02:23.776-04:00Just WowThis is about all you need to know about the attitudes of the South and the folks who form the base of today's GOP. Georgia's Senate is about to pass a bill to make April "Confederate History" month. They want to honor the sacrifices of Georgians who fought against the Union. Of course, this comes at the same time Republican leaders have rebuffed attempts at legislation that would have the state Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-51216404773791075972007-03-15T14:08:00.000-04:002007-03-15T14:30:58.269-04:00P 2008 MusingsIt's hard to believe that at this time next year, we will be most of the way to picking a nominee (given the front-loading) for the White House. I have been unable to make up my mind about who to support. Each candidate has their strengths, yet they also have weaknesses. Plus, one of my favored candidates, Wes Clark, has yet to decide whether he is even running. This all would have been easier Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-61455140045407491972007-03-14T14:12:00.000-04:002007-03-14T14:46:26.209-04:00Realignment and Missed OpportunitiesThe huge gains made by Democrats in the 2006 elections were fueled by several factors. Combined they provided the chance for a significant realignment of the the nation's politics. If the opportunity were seized the Republican Party could successfully be marginalized as a regional party of the South. However, I will argue that some of this opportunity has already been squandered, simply by a Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5050278.post-38029985358084427472007-03-13T14:17:00.000-04:002007-03-13T14:41:10.731-04:00Government as Criminal EnterpriseIs there any other way to describe how the current administration operates? Nothing has made this more apparent than the firings of several US Attorneys. Some were sacked for their unwillingness to pursue specious voter fraud cases; others were canned for investigating Republicans; some were axed for failing to indict Democrats before the elections. This level of politicization of the DOJ is Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0