OK, first off we’re going to do a little before and after.
Here is a picture of my garden from last May:
And more recently:
a shot from the side from last May:
and this week:
Also, here’s a shot of my wife and my nieces from when they were up here last week:
and finally, a shot of me in the studio a couple of weeks ago:
Yes, that’s a James Brown t-shirt.
And fuck those scouts. Who cares?
The Fixer breaks it down:
BOWLING GREEN, Va. — The Boy Scouts marched onto the field singing, plopping down in the grass to wait for President Bush. But hours later, the news that Bush couldn’t make it was drowned out by sirens and shouts as hundreds fell ill because of the blistering heat.
About 300 people, most of them Scouts, suffered from dehydration, fatigue and lightheadedness Wednesday just days after four Scout leaders were killed at the national Jamboree while pitching a tent beneath a power line.
[. . .]
Nice. Left ’em twisting in the wind for hours while you made up your mind, didja? Wasn’t like you were heading across the country, was it? Didn’t even have to fire up Air Force One. Could have done it with six Suburbans.
I left this in the comments over at The Alternative Brain:
He was afraid of THUNDER? I have a dog like that, but y’know, he’s got an IQ of about 40.
C’mon, the Commander in Chief couldn’t get out in the rain a little? What, does he have a hairpiece of something?
Wasn’t getting out in the rain at Central Park the thing that revived Diana Ross’ career? She’s got more stones that President Flight Suit?
Billmon takes a hard look at the voting on CAFTA. Oh, and it’s so ugly…
The thing that really alarms me about all this is the utter brazeness with which the loot is being divvied up now. The Dixiepublicans are acting as if there is simply no chance they will ever be held accountable for their sins anywhere short of the pearly gates. (And DeLay’s probably thinking: “If I just slip ol’ St. Peter a couple of C notes . . .” )
This whole “We’ll be kings forever… let’s wreck this joint” attitude is so collegiate. It really is like Congress has been overrun by the Ole Miss chapter of Pi Kappa Phi. I have expect to see CNN footage of beer bottles rolling down the Capitol Steps.
My outrage nerve is fried. Now I’m just worried about what this means for the rest of us.
You gotta see this. It’s stupid raised to new heights…
It is 2021, tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of 9/11 It is up to an underground group of bio-mechanically enhanced conservatives led by Sean Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North to thwart Ambassador Usama Bin Laden’s plans to nuke New York City …And wake the world from an Orwellian nightmare of United Nations- dominated ultra-liberalism.
A couple of things to note-
This little screed is just dripping with little racist innuendos:
The letters A-L-I are a different color in the title “Liberality for All.” Subtle anti-Arabic slur? Is the “artist” trying to link “liberality” and pro-Arabism? What are you trying to say here, Dexter?
Additionally-
On page 10 of the preview of the comic book you may notice that there is only one character who speaks broken/improper English. He is, of course, the Negro. “Stop that! You Kriminell!” See? Black people can’t spell even when they’re not spelling!
Page 11– same Negro cop says “That means he is close. No?” In this simpleton’s worldview, I am guessing what he is trying to imply is that the cop is some sort of foreign occupier. This is the sort of Gunga Din English these Turner Diaries types are always attributing to dusky people and other Others.
Here’s my favorite quote from the whole thing:
“WARNING: Expect this to sell out very fast.
”Dream on, fanboy.
1. Passport. Check.
2. Sunscreen. Check.
3. Good Sunglasses. Check.
4. Loose Clothing. Check.
5. Good books. Check.
6. Blog sub? 4Aug-15Aug. Who’s game?
I am cruising around in my grandfather’s ’93 Crown Vic this week. It’s got like 34k miles on it. The air conditioning is an arctic wind that leaves my fingertips numb after ten minutes. It rides like a velvet hovercraft.
Last week it was my folk’s ’95 Suburban, which is an ecological nightmare and ugly as three kinds of sin. Early nineties GM products feel to me like they’re just waiting for an opportune moment to shit the bed and leave me stranded somewhere. Plus, who wants to be seen driving a fucking gas hog like that? (The ’84 Benz is down for the count just now, and the family needs me to hang on to these cars while they work out where he’s going to live.)
But this Crown Vic… no wonder you see these old guys in them all the time. Damn car feels like a million bucks.
Today is “smack-yer-forehead” day, right? That’s why I am finding out about all this stuff, right?
Marsha Walker’s son survived a suicide bomb in Iraq.
Her daughter spent a year in Kuwait last year, and her father is a former Marine reservist. She’s part of a military family; she and her sister went into criminal justice because their father dissuaded them from a military career. Marsha is a Blue Star mother, a mother whose son is serving overseas.
So it came as a bit of a surprise when an email exchange with her local Blue Star chapter concluded with an expletive: “fuckoff.”
Today’s republican party’s message to the troops and their families: We’re only gonna support you if you think like us. (and if you’re a piss poor speller.)
Her words back to her assailant:
I am the daughter of a Marine officer and have a background in law enforcement so for you to imply I’m even a Democrat is a joke. I am an informed person who knows the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Geneva protections…
Our troops recently trained on what to do if their camps are overran. Do you understand the implications of that? Our soldiers are greatly outnumbered, their equipment is getting broken, and replacements are behind. Do you understand? If you continue to support this war, you will eventually be standing alone. Educate yourself-do not take my word for it.
Funny you would think my SONS were involved. My daughter just returned from a year in Kuwait. My children and other soldiers are proud of the military but not proud of politicians who have sent them unprepared into a war of choice. That is unacceptable. My own family has spent thousands of dollars for equipment for my son-some of it needed JUST SO HE COULD DO HIS JOB IN THE WAR. I guess this is acceptable to you. It is not to me…
She ended her letter with this FANTASTIC Teddy Roosevelt quote:
That we are to stand by the president, right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
so… they told her to “fuckoff.”
Astonishing.
I can’t believe this.
I mean, I guess I do.
What’s it mean to be a republican these days?
Slime anyone who opposes you. It doesn’t matter who they are, or how honorably they have served their country.
Win at all costs. Even if that cost is your own soul.
Atrios is all over this.
Arianna Huffington has an interesting take on the Valerie Plame leak. What if Judith Miller has an even larger stake in this story that we’ve been thinking?
Here it is: It’s July 6, 2003, and Joe Wilson’s now famous op-ed piece appears in the Times, raising the idea that the Bush administration has “manipulate[d]” and “twisted” intelligence “to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.” Miller, who has been pushing this manipulated, twisted, and exaggerated intel in the Times for months, goes ballistic. Someone is using the pages of her own paper to call into question the justification for the war — and, indirectly, much of her reporting. The idea that intelligence was being fixed goes to the heart of Miller’s credibility. So she calls her friends in the intelligence community and asks, Who is this guy? She finds out he’s married to a CIA agent. She then passes on the info about Mrs. Wilson to Scooter Libby (Newsday has identified a meeting Miller had on July 8 in Washington with an “unnamed government official”). Maybe Miller tells Rove too — or Libby does. The White House hatchet men turn around and tell Novak and Cooper. The story gets out.
This is why Miller doesn’t want to reveal her “source” at the White House — because she was the source.
That’s the meat of the story- there is some interesting evidence reinforces this theory.
Man, I totally don’t get Japanese pop culture.
Razor Ramon “Hard Gay” Sumitani’s cutting humor parodying stereotypical homosexuals has made him a firm favorite of Japan’s fickle schoolgirl fans, according to Asahi Geino (7/28).
Looking akin to an outcast from the Village People, clad entirely in black leather — a body-hugging, sleeveless, shirt, micro-hotpants and a studded black cap — and his every move accompanied by Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca” blaring out in the background, 29-year-old Razor Ramon is fast becoming one of the most recognized faces on Japan’s small screen.