It's time for the digital revolution to live up to its name. If you have a digital camera (or a traditional camera and the means to convert your photos into digital files) please get out and start snapping shots of the America we rarely see depicted elsewhere. The closed factories, the abandoned business districts, the substandard housing and environmentally insulted land, air and water. How about some pix of abandoned malls. Perhaps you have some old photos that could show before and after in your town. Maybe you could take pictures of an empty Main Street and then contrast them with the new superstore conveniently located where the city limits meet the edge of oblivion. How about pictures of the growing lines at soup kitchens, food banks, homeless shelters and health clinics? Well you get the idea. And there's nothing new about it. Some of the most amazing pictures I've ever seen, documented the Depression and were done via WPA/Art grants and government agencies such as the Farm Services Administration
It's a timely calling, to document just what condition America is in, as we rocket down the pathway to a new day (hopefully), with the Presidential elections coming this fall.
Barry has been posting, for months, photos of deteriorating homes and empty, desolate Main Street USA's in his area of Upstate New York and Pennsylvania.
For a second, a split-second, you may believe you are looking at 1930's, Depression-era photos.
But, alas, they are current ... Now ... Today in America!
And Barry would like to do something about it.
I want to steal the WPA/Art idea except it can't be stolen because it was a gift. A gift of the acknowledgment of the humanity of impoverished people. A gift not for the poor but from the poor for all of us. A gift that gave us a chance to see what we ourselves were made of. We are again at a point when we need to see just how bad we've allowed things to become. We are at a point when the tangible damage of misguided priorities is everywhere, if only we would open our eyes and see it. We need to see all that's been lost because we haven't watching out for one another. We need only look at Depression era photos to see how much worse things can get if we continue to wear blinders.
Look around, whether you live in the big city, or a small, nowheresville berg, and snap a few shots ...
Whether you have a cellphone camera, digital camera, or an old, classic Brownie, take a moment in your travels, on the way to work (if you have a job), while your out shopping, jogging, taking an evening stroll, and snap a few shots and send them to Barry.
We would be remiss today, if we didn't let the bubbly flow ...
Raise one up to one of our favorite, flat-headed pundits.
Yes, the title honoree of the "Friedman Unit", Thomas Friedman, celebrates today his bold foreign policy observation, as to our illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.
FRIEDMAN: You don’t think, you know, we care about our open society. You think this bubble fantasy, we’re just going to let it grow? Well, suck on this, ok. That Charlie, is what this war was about. We could have hit Saudi Arabia, it was part of that bubble. Could have hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could. That’s the real truth.
Folks of Middle Eastern descent will still be pissed that Americans thought it was acceptable to invade their country on false pretenses, slaughter their people and continue to revere a pundit who thought "Suck on this" was an appropriate expression of America's foreign policy.
They're trying to say it's another unfair bashing of Hillary.
Father Michael Pfleger, in a guest slot, at the, now infamous, Obama-attended, Trinity United Church, in Chicago, did an over-the-top sermon, mocking Hillary Clinton (it's a matter of interpretation) that has had everyone in a buzz, lamenting that Obama has "another" pastor problem, etc, etc ...
If you can't view it, Melissa, over on Shakesville, one of those in a tizzy over it (and, in general, the misogyny in the campaign) has a transcript;
Transcript from 1:58: I don't really want to make this political, 'cause you know I'm very unpolitical [laughter], but when Hillary was crying, and people said that was put on, I really don't believe it was put on. I really believe that she just always thought: "This is mine." [applause] "I'm Bill's wife; I'm white; and this is mine! I just gotta get up and step into [sic] the plate." And then outta nowhere came: "Hey, I'm Barack Obama." And she said, "Aww, damn! Where did you come from?! I'm white! I'm entitled! There's a black man stealing my show!" [cheers and applause] Waaaaaaaah! [pretends to weep and cry; wipes face with hankie] Waaaaaaaah! She wasn't the only one crying; there was a whole lotta white people crying!"
Okay, what's the problem?
Yeah, he's really into, on a roll, with nothing more than satire.
I speculate, strongly, if this was a Saturday Night Live skit, it would be getting equal play on the cable television programs, but in the manner of praising it, saying how hysterical it was, how sharply satirical it was, and, undoubtedly, leading into the discussions of how SNL was so on top of the campaign.
When the satire is aimed at, and against, Obama, that's okay.
But the Clintonistas, unless it's pure, straight-from-the-heart, adulation and Hillary-worship, it's Hillary Bashing, misogyny, revolting, disgusting, hatred, and dissing of her candidacy, of a woman running for office, blah, blah, blah ...
6. No, Mr. President ... Yes, it is a book, but we wouldn't call it Ek-A-Lec-Tic
5. Mr. McClellan, this is the Vice President's office calling ... The Vice President would like to know if you are free this coming weekend, to join the Vice President on a hunting trip
4. We don't want this one coming back on us ... Check all the records for the President saying "Heck of a job, Scottie"
We had the good opportunity yesterday, to bring to your attention Michelle "Stalkin' Malkin's latest fiasco, going after Rachel Ray and Dunkin Donuts over the Right Wing Freak Show-hyped "jihadi chic keffiyeh"(see our "She's Stalking Donuts Now!" for all the dirt)
UPDATE: (Nicole) Uh oh. Malkin may need to start a boycott of herself. This Woman Is Insane has found a picture of Michelle in possession of the dreaded “jihadi” chic. Can we get her readers to flood her inbox with messages accusing her of sympathizing with the terrorists?
"That as a government-protected monopoly the U.S. Postal Service ..."
"But what really burns me up is that this postage hike was engineered in part by lobbyists for liberal media giant Time Warner and other large publishers to benefit themselves at the expense of smaller, conservative operations such as HUMAN EVENTS."
"The bottom line: HUMAN EVENTS' very survival may be at stake. Unless they raise $100,000 soon to defray the cost of this outrageously unjust postal increase, HUMAN EVENTS may not be able to continue publication."
"P.S. -- This postage hike threatens HUMAN EVENTS' very existence. If the Left gets away with this outrage, the consequences for the future of our country -- beginning with the upcoming presidential elections -- will be dire. We need your help now. Please be generous! Thank you."
You learn something new everyday ...
Here, I thought they only lied and fearmongered to the other side ...
Laugh, and piss your pants among yourselves ...
Dear Friend of HUMAN EVENTS:
You won't believe it... my father's favorite newspaper, HUMAN EVENTS, is facing a life-or-death struggle over a government-imposed mandate. It is all too ironic that government bureaucrats are threatening the future of what Ronald Reagan called his "favorite newspaper".
But it's true. Right now the very existence of HUMAN EVENTS is threatened in a way that would have made my father furious -- because it involves the Left's manipulation of Big Government to benefit some at the expense of others.
Unfortunately, the threat is so dire, so immediate, that it has prompted me, as a longtime friend of HUMAN EVENTS, to ask for your help -- help I have no doubt my father would have asked for, too.
Here's the situation. As you may have heard, the U.S. Postal Service just raised the cost of mailing a first-class letter yet again -- this time by one penny. Sounds like no big deal, right? But keep reading. For small publications like HUMAN EVENTS, it's not a one penny increase, it's worse -- much worse...
You see, the bureaucrats hit HUMAN EVENTS with not just a penny increase, but a one-two punch of postal-rate and fee increases that have driven up delivery costs by more than 20% in just the past 6 months!
First, HUMAN EVENTS' per-copy postal rate was raised 16.9%. Then they hit them with a brand-new "container fee" (don't ask -- it's absurd) that will hike their total increase to 20.3%.
Together, it adds up to a staggering sum that HUMAN EVENTS simply can't afford.
That as a government-protected monopoly the U.S. Postal Service can jack up postal rates as much as they want whenever they want, without worrying about free-market competition is outrageous enough. But what really burns me up is that this postage hike was engineered in part by lobbyists for liberal media giant Time Warner and other large publishers to benefit themselves at the expense of smaller, conservative operations such as HUMAN EVENTS.
So while conservative publications such as HUMAN EVENTS get hammered with increased delivery costs, the cost of delivering liberal Time and other Big Media publications decreased in some cases, and barely increased at all in others.
The bottom line: HUMAN EVENTS' very survival may be at stake. Unless they raise $100,000 soon to defray the cost of this outrageously unjust postal increase, HUMAN EVENTS may not be able to continue publication.
The alternatives are for HUMAN EVENTS to cut its editorial staff -- or to hike its subscription rates.
Both alternatives are unacceptable. Cutting editorial staff would harm HUMAN EVENTS' ability to report and comment on the urgent issues of the day you've come to expect, and raising rates would be an unacceptable burden to too many subscribers -- at a time when, as you are well aware, America needs its thriving alternative conservative voices more than ever.
But here's why I don't think HUMAN EVENTS will have to take either action: because of loyal supporters like you. I am confident you know the value of HUMAN EVENTS, and that you will respond, as you once did before when my father himself called on you with the following inspirational words:
"All conservatives are indebted to HUMAN EVENTS... for its faithful devotion to the conservative cause... I hope that Americans will respond generously so that HUMAN EVENTS can survive and prosper."
Please, friend, "respond generously" as my father once urged -- and together, we'll beat back this threat to HUMAN EVENTS' survival.
Sincerely,
Michael Reagan Columnist, HUMAN EVENTS
P.S. -- This postage hike threatens HUMAN EVENTS' very existence. If the Left gets away with this outrage, the consequences for the future of our country -- beginning with the upcoming presidential elections -- will be dire. We need your help now. Please be generous! Thank you.
The fall seems to be worse that previously thought.
We offered a Top Ten Clove List on some of the things we thought Michelle "Stalkin'" Malkin would do, after being fired from The O'Reilly Factor and, darn it, we didn't have in there that she would hassle, spewing her bile in the direction of Dunkin Donuts, and their advertising star, Rachel Ray.
Some observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin’ Donuts boycott.
‘‘The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,’’ Malkin yowls in her syndicated column.
‘‘Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.’’
The company at first pooh-poohed the complaints, claiming the black-and-white wrap was not a keffiyeh. But the right-wing drumbeat on the blogosphere continued and by yesterday, Dunkin’ Donuts decided it’d be easier just to yank the ad.
I guess I missed that DHS memo, the one indicating to be wary of terrorists popping out of Boston Crème donuts.
More famous Carlyle members and alums, of course, include George H.W. Bush, Reagan defense secretary Frank Carlucci, James Baker III, some of the Binladins, Colin Powell, former British P.M. John Major, and several other ex-heads-of-state (e.g. Anand Panyarachun of Thailand, Fidel Ramos of the Phillipines, and Park Tae Joon of South Korea).
Since she's so good a whipping up things, perhaps Rachel Ray will come up with a zinger.
I think there's a real possibility that he'll go too far. His trajectory is starting to look a bit like Ann Coulter's -- every criticism generates an even greater desire to provoke, and no apology is ever forthcoming.
The problem is, when you're provoking at this level of public scrutiny (i.e., if you're more mainstream than, say, Michael Savage), you eventually find yourself, like Coulter, regularly testing the limits, and eventually you go over the edge, with the mainstream press watching, because you're just in a unilateral rhetorical arms race. Coulter went over the edge when she started fag-baiting heterosexual Democratic politicians while declaring Jews "incomplete" Christians (along with attacking 9/11 widows and embracing McCarthy); Lieberman, I think, is just going to keep backing Hagee (and probably other Christian Zionists) ever more publicly while making increasingly strident McCarthyite attacks on Democrats until, by November, I expect to see him in the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal or on a Sunday talk show saying flatly, "Yes, I do think Barack Obama hates his country and would like to see it destroyed." His buddies in the media, like Coulter's, will continue to see him as not having gone too far, but it will be increasingly clear, particularly to Senate colleagues, that he's gone too far.
Maybe, Stumblin Bumblin' John McCain's Mini-Me Lieberman can be talked into, when he speaks at Hagee's summit, he can do it in costume, say, as Gumby or Pokey ... Or a soggy brown paper bag ...
While, almost certainly, the O'Reilly Protest contributed to his firing, there was another action Nolan took, that he doesn't mention in his Think Progress guest post, which likely had just as much, if not more, reason for his firing;
Nolan accepted, while on suspension from CN8 Comcast, an assignment from the television rag, Extra (who Nolan once worked for), covering the breaking Ted Kennedy brain tumor news.
Nolan says in the interview with Rooney (yes, daughter of cranky Andy) that he emailed his bosses at Comcast, seeking permission to do the 'Extra' assignment and they replied back that they "preferred" he didn't.
Nolan, in faux outrage, says he would have "preferred" he wasn't suspended, so, with a "To-hell-with-it" attitude, off he went on the assignment.
Now, maybe, and especially if O'Reilly and Fox put some heat on Comcast, that the suspension would have turned into a firing, that they were just setting the stage to axe Nolan.
However, not being in the industry, I'll take a wild stab here;
That, when you work for one media company, they don't want you going off and doing work for another media company
Especially not cool, when you're already in the doghouse.
Nice try at riling up the masses, there, Nolan ... Keep banging away on O'Reilly, but chill out, or at least, be up front, on all the details of your firing.
JOB INTERVIEWER (uncredited): Have you ever had any experience running a high-speed digital electronic computer? VIRGIL: Yes, I have. INTERVIEWER: Where? VIRGIL: My aunt has one.
Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain is going about putting on five-figure, rubber chicken dinners, with his best-buddy, The Commander Guy, that can't sell enough tickets and have to be downsized from convention centers, to private residences.
Yet it’s had another consequence that has gone all but unnoticed. The campaign finance reports filed by Obama and Clinton have grown so massive that they’ve strained the capacity of the Federal Election Commission, good government groups, the media and even software applications to process and make sense of the data.
A milestone of sorts was reached earlier this year, when Obama, the Illinois senator whose revolutionary online fundraising has overwhelmed Clinton, filed an electronic fundraising report so large it could not be processed by popular basic spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel 2003 and Lotus 1-2-3.
Those programs can’t download data files with more than 65,536 rows or 256 columns.
Oh My!
Sounds like we're on that Woody Allen train, again ...
The pair will be seen together before TV cameras only fleetingly, at the airport as Mr. Bush departs on Air Force One, and there are no plans for either to formally say anything. […]
A senior adviser to Sen. McCain said the campaign considered the risk of having the candidate appear with the president at all but concluded there was no way to avoid it given that the event was in Sen. McCain’s home state.
About a week after SB John finally was told that he had to dump the Hateful Hagee, with the latest reports surfacing on Hagee's account of how, actually, Hitler helped the Jews, Mini-Me Lieberman isn't ready to let go;
And in light of all the recent rants on Hagee, this really shines for Mini-Me;
Last year, when Lieberman spoke at Hagee's summit, he compared the Texas televangelist to the biblical prophet Moses, dubbing him "an Ish Elochim," or "a man of God." Unless he rescinds his pledge to appear at this year's summit, Lieberman can be expected to deliver another soul-stirring tribute.
So, it’s not that Hagee loves Israel, so much as he foresees a blood-soaked war in the Middle East that leads to Jesus’ return, at which point the Jews who survive will become Christians.
Lieberman is not only comfortable with all of this, but is even willing to headline one of Hagee’s events?
Hey, Joe: Last time I looked, Moses didn’t advocate establishing the Jews in Israel just so they could be the disposable caretakers of the staging area for the end of the world.
We keep telling you, this campaign is going to side-splitting fun!
A convention with the candidate winning on the 6th ballot.
Boy, that must have sent a thrill up Hillary Clinton's leg, daydreams of what could be, if she decides to wield the flamethrower in the Democrats nomination process.
If Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain thought the Ron Paul crew was going to be a pain-in-the-ass, he now has to look over his other shoulder, with Bob Barr hammering away at him.
If this makes Barr a spoiler, he doesn't seem to mind. "I daresay that those people who would be inclined . . . to vote for Bob Barr as president would not likely fall into the category of people who would be enthused about voting for John McCain -- if such exists," he said with relish.
Noah Millman had an item last week in which he argued, “I’m becoming increasingly convinced that Bob Barr’s candidacy could have a significant impact on the 2008 election.” He makes a compelling case, not that Barr could actually win a state or electoral vote, but rather that Barr will be in a position to draw votes from John McCain by appealing to disaffected Republicans.
Hmmm ... Double that bet on McCain's infamous temper surfacing, more-and-more, during this campaign.
Now, there's still plenty of time for Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain to go into fourth-gear, on his pandering, once he clears the To-Do List of going out and buying himself another (presumably one without doom-and-gloom, anti-Catholic, anti-Gay and anti-Israel YouTubes) evangelist.
We have said for some time now, how much fun this election is going to be, and the SB John-Ron Paul-Bob Barr sideshow should yield many-a-nugget over the summer.
Being the nominee for Libertarian party is kind of like being the star slugger for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sure, you are in the game and everything, but you aren’t getting anywhere near the title.
So, yeah. While there are certain core aspects of the libertarian message I feel are very important, you have to recognize what voting Libertarian really is- a protest vote.
"Impeachment is off the table," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "Democrats are not about getting even. Democrats are about helping people get ahead." ... She used the word "bipartisan" at least eight times in her few minutes before the media, and said that she had promised the president that she would cooperate with him as much as possible.
Once upon a time, kids asked their fathers, "What did you do in the war, daddy?" It's a question the next generation could ask all of us who stood by as our government invaded Iraq to start a war whose purpose and rationale keep shifting and whose end is nowhere in sight, and who look now with nonchalance upon the unseen scars of those who are fighting it.
This Memorial Day is the first we will observe since losing a hero who was also a military veteran. His name was Bruce Phillips. You might have known him better as "Utah." Bruce may or may not have behaved heroically during his duty in Korea. His return home, according to his official obituary, was anything but heroic -- until misfortune led him to a providential destination.
No, not the classic, reporter-rushing-into-city-room, all breathless, and then an explosion of reporters flooding the scene, all yelling "Get me rewrite!".
No, not even any shoe-leather was applied.
In fact, as Emptywheel notes, the reporters covering Hillary that day were completely out-of-the-loop, as was the ground-zero, Argus Leader;
So: the NY Post to Drudge to the editors to the reporters actually "traveling" with Hillary ...
Whether or not it was Aravosis or Drudge who decided this comment had to be a story (nice company, Aravosis), it was, at last according to both Aravosis' account, some random guy reading the news who did so--he told them they might have a big scoop. And, ultimately, it was a newspaper reporter watching the live feed of an interview from someplace comfortable who first reported the comments--it was neither the press corp reporters who were traveling "with" Hillary nor editors of the Argus-Leader with whom Hillary was meeting.
Hillary is spending time on the reverse treadmill, wearing belt, with digging tools hanging from it, so she can shovel her way out of this incredible faux paus.
In an article in the New York Daily News, with the headline of "Hillary: Why I continue to run", Hillary is all Mea culpa city, to a certain extent, and back on her soapbox, spinning her unique brand of electoral math, and, of course, gaffe aside, she's still the best candidate out there;
I am running because I still believe I can win on the merits. Because, with our economy in crisis, our nation at war, the stakes have never been higher - and the need for real leadership has never been greater - and I believe I can provide that leadership.
Finally, I am running because I believe I'm the strongest candidate to stand toe-to-toe with Sen. McCain. Delegate math might be complicated - but electoral math is not. Our campaign is winning the popular vote - and we've been winning the swing states we need to get 270 electoral votes and take back the White House: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arkansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Michigan, Florida and West Virginia.
Little Hillary, er, we mean Georgie Stephanopoulous, to the rescue!
And running interference for her, to make sure she has a clear path, gaffe behind her, completely forgotten, was Little Hillary, er, we mean Georgie Stephanopoulous.
Little Hillary, er, I mean Georgie, pressed, virtually badgering Axelrod, seeking a commitment that the Obama Campaign wasn't going to bash Hillary over her RFK gaffe, repeating himself, repeated asking if the Obama people sent out Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on Hillary's RFK gaffe.
It was embarrassing ... Little Hillary, er, I mean Georgie, seemingly was uninterested in any other campaign news, other then getting Axelrod to say they would leave Hillary alone.
"Clinton also spoke against bullying superdelegates to make up their minds, saying, "I cant believe it. It is just frantic the way they are trying to push and pressure and bully all these superdelegates to come out. 'Oh, this is so terrible: The people they want her. Oh, this is so terrible: She is winning the general election, and he is not. Oh my goodness, we have to cover this up.'"
"She is winning the general election today and he is not, according to all the evidence," Clinton said. "And I have never seen anything like it. I have never seen a candidate treated so disrespectfully just for running. Her only position was, "Look, if I lose I'll be a good team player. We will all try to win but let's let everybody vote and count every vote.'"
Well, they got a lesson on running a primary campaign, so I suppose, they'll need some extra instruction on losing, with a little class.
