Or are we buying into the media habit of deciding the outcomes way ahead of time? I'm just wondering if there might be other outcomes (and thus, other memes) that we could cite. Maybe there will be very vigorous opposition by truly Progressive challengers -- and voters will vote for them! I'm simply not believing that the electorate is suddenly re-enchanted with the Repubs, who did such incredible damage to the foundations of our society and economy while they were in control. I'm thinking that ...

I just discovered this treasure trove of knowledge this morning. Sorry if it's already been posted. (Link)

50 fun things for professors to do on the first day of class 1.Wear a hood with one eye hole. Periodically make strange gurgling noises. 2.After confirming everyone's names on the roll, thank the class for attending "Advanced Astrodynamics 690" and mention that yesterday was the last day to drop. 3.After turning on the overhead projector, clutch your chest and scream "MY PACEMAKER!" 4.wear a pointed Kaiser helmet and a monocle and carry a riding crop. 5.Gradually speak softer and softer and...

Just grabbed this screenshot about 1:30 MST (1/21/2009). Notice the tickler headlines I enclosed in the small red rectange. Guess yesterday's activities haven't sunk in for CNN yet. Sheesh. What a bunch of maroons. (Image)

"As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska." ... um, the president of Russia is DMITRY MEDVEDEV -- has been for some months, now. Putin's completely (formally, that is) out of the game.

Believe me, I'm one of those holding out hope for him to enter the presidential race. But after hearing him, seeing him give his presentation, I've come around to thinking he actually IS doing much more toward "saving" this country than he ever could in the office of the president. He's not beholding to ANYONE right now, and he can say whatever is the truth without worry. In his own gentle way, he lambasted the bush* White House and all the ways it has ignored the climate crisis and advanced th...

(Question that should have been asked when Petraeus said he didn't know what he'd tell the president if he asked how long the war would have to go on) "I keep hearing safety situation on the one hand and national reconciliation on the other. Which is it, General: a diplomatic problem or a military problem?" "You keep talking about our 'strategy,' General. Exactly what IS our strategy?" "How will you know we've "succeeded"? How do you define success and how will you recognize it?"

Okay, I posted some of this in another thread, but I thought that since the media aren't asking questions about the statistical legitimacy of NYPD's terrorism study, the good ol' DU thinktank could do the media's jobs for them. I SERIOUSLY question the legitimacy of extending these findings to the country as a whole. NYPD's website: (Link)/ link to PDF of 90-page study: (Link) Edited to add: The way this report begins, it's VERY CLEAR this study began with the assumption that terrorism = Isl...

Since when is NYPD enough of a thinktank to determine what the biggest threat our entire nation faces from terrorism. Who the hell funded this "study"? How long was it conducted? Which research arm of NYPD conducted the study? And what a goddammed coincidence that these "results" were made public on the very same day as our government announced it would turn its spy satellites on us. AND WHY THE HELL AREN'T THE MEDIA ASKING THESE QUESTIONS ALREADY? Just plain, unsweetened, non-low-fat BULLSHIT!...

I'm pretty sure that qualifies as -- how did you put it? -- rereading history. Maybe you need to verify that you aren't just swallowing some of these things whole. Oh, and on this whole notion of revising history (which you disguised as "spin in the figures ... after the fact") -- people who throw this accusation around are obviously ignorant of history anyway. Our understanding of history is ALWAYS being expanded and revised as new information is disclosed or discovered. And the history of ANY...

I disagree with the part about a discussion being impossible, though. Difficult, maybe, but not impossible. Douglas Hofstadter (of Goedel, Escher, and Bach fame) wrote a wonderful essay a couple of decades ago about this. His essay, "Default Assumptions," I think, talked about this very issue -- that we hold some of these bigotries -- default assumptions -- without meaning to and without knowing it. Here's an example of a default assumption -- NOT a bigotry, just an example of a belief I didn't...

I cannot believe the gall of this incompetent asshole telling us that the product of his having run Homeland Security now for what -- two years? -- is that he has a GUT FEELING that we're going to see some attacks this summer. I'd love to see someone in the MSM take him to the cleaners over that statement (as if). I'll start the questions. Mr. Chertoff, what is Homeland Security's budget this year? Of that budget, how much is dedicated to prestidigitation and entrail-reading? How many fortune t...

ABOUT TERROR ATTACKS! We fund you and your fucking sorry department to DO YOUR FUCKING JOBS -- to gather and analyze HARD INTELLIGENCE DATA! Don't come whining to MY airwaves and display your total-ass ignorance and incompetence in the intelligence area. Either you FUCKING have some good intelligence or you don't. In any case, Mr. Jerkoff-Chertoff, STFU and do your fucking JOB!!! :mad: :grr: :nuke: :mad: :grr: :nuke: :mad: :grr: :nuke: :rant:

It's that you asked the WRONG questions. Whatever the RIGHT questions are, they have to do with WHY Mexicanos are coming here to work. WHICH employers continue to "fund" the flood of undocumented workers? Why do our agricultural and construction economies continue to survive on the backs of those who can ill afford to protect themselves from job slavery? What's going on in the underground labor market that the "black" market for crop and construction workers continue to grow apace? WHICH AMERIC...

(edited to change thread title) Please tell me why this WOULDN'T work. NOTE: This is not an all-inclusive proposal; it looks only at what we might do to address some of the very large problems facing us by reallocating the money we're spending in Iraq. It does NOT look at Constitutional issues, immigration issues, educational and childcare issues, women and minority issues, individual spending and saving issues, veterans' issues, and the like. 1. Repair our relations with the Middle East Rem...

Wonder what the actual mix says about the reading public's mindset in general? Let me take a shot at it: "Even though Einstein TOLD us that doing the same things but expecting different results is the definition of insanity, a coalition of the idiotic in this country continues to follow Ray-Gun's policies. This has led to a religion-fueled insanity in the White House. with those on the opposite side beseeching the Dem party for ANY candidate who has cojones. But, alas, all we have is more insan...

brought to you by fucktards of the highest order. I can't imagine how you're coping even right this second! Have you ever read anything about mindfulness philosophy? It's based in Buddhism (which I've read about but don't practice), and basically says that we neither "have" the past (it's already gone) nor the future (which hasn't arrived yet). This moment -- and this moment and this moment -- are all there are. "This is it," is the mindfulness "mantra." I ask this because when I was facing th...

1. The OP is SICK of this stupid JerryFalwellJamesDobsonPatRobertson brand of religion being publically foisted off on America as a whole -- and funded by the White House to do so -- very loudly and repeatedly by the MSM and AM Talk/Hate radio. As if we actually ARE a christian nation of the JerryFalwellJamesDobsonPatRobertson persuasion. As if Americans actually all DO believe that way. 2. You christians who took offense at the OP's statements are TOTALLY missing the point that no matter how r...

I've been thinking about this all day: the news articles this morning said the kid had been recommended for mental evaluation several times over the last couple of years. He'd been reported to the police for stalking people. His teachers had recognized that he was scary-disturbed. In other words, the many people who noticed his mental state HAD tried to intervene. But it came down to that old saw from the police: "We can't do anything until he actually does something." So here's the rub: maybe ...

"... and had killed the shooter, this tragedy wouldn't have happened." This was the comment a shopkeeper offered me today (he brought it up unbidden by me). He went on to do a small rant about how complacent we Americans are and how soon we forget September 11 and how if we don't fight them over there, we'll be fighting them over here. I was flummoxed by his running together all these issues as if they were one thing, but more than that, I've been thinking ever since about how MUCH the freeps (...

I'm one generation off the dirt farm and first in my family to go to college -- and I went to college totally without support from my family. I grew up having to wear hand-me-down clothing and doing all the other things that go along with being poor poor poor poor. I was a high-school dropout. At 27, I decided that I'd never be able to support myself or anyone else if I DIDN'T get a college education, and I'd never be able to do the work I dreamed of doing all my life without a college education...

In a hastily arranged press conference, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow today announced President *'s plans for expanding the War on Terror. "The president felt we weren't doing enough to secure our homes and our families and our religion," Snow said. "We are under constant attack from sources of terror and the president intends to go after each one until America is totally safe." Snow then handed out a list of new focus areas and left the room without taking more questions. Afterward, the...

"Taken Too Soon: The Cost of War" I woke up this morning to this incredibly moving Memorial Day tribute to people who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq (on Peace Talks Radio). The interesting thing about this tribute, though, is that they read the names of Americans, Iraqis, AND Afghanis -- both soldiers and civilians -- who have died because of these wars. It's totally not just a celebratory reading of our soldier-heroes. I feel very ashamed that my country has waged this destruction in my na...

* IMs Dan Bartlett about Josh "Boltass" Bolton. (Ya gotta go back and read ALL these IMs, especially the one between * and Berlusconi about Cheney "poppin' that dude in tha face.") <snip> Chat with BigBartlett 6:14 p.m. BigBartlett: Mr. President? Kickass43: wers boltass? BigBartlett: He is on the phone, sir. Kickass43: did u tell im I need im PRONTO? BigBartlett: No, sir. Kickass43: ?! Kickass43: >:-[ BigBartlett: I'm sorry, sir. BigBartlett: He waved me away. BigBartlett: ...

PRAYER in school is NOT ILLEGAL. School-led prayer is illegal. Period. End of story. Students -- and faculty and staff -- are free to pray whenever they wish, providing the prayer isn't forced upon others and isn't conducted in a disruptive manner. We've GOT to stop letting the religious bigots frame the terms of the debate. PRIVATE, VOLUNTARY prayer has NEVER been outlawed in schools.

(How CONVENIENT!) I was browsing documents at the Congressional Budget Office's website (trying to find the document in which they said the tax burden had shifted overwhelmingly to the middle class), when I found a very interesting document titled, "Letter to the Honorable Steve Chabot regarding the potential budgetary impact of recognizing same-sex marriages." Hmmm, I thought to myself. Why in the world would the CBO be studying the financial impact of same-sex marriages? So I decided to take ...