Or maybe, just add another justice or five to SCOTUS (of my choosing, obvs)?
Clarence Thomas is useless. We all know it. He hasn’t spoken in Court in five years. Not one question. Not one “Say that again?” Not one “Do you smell that?” Not one “Asphinctersayswhat?”
He just sits there — silent in his black robe — like a non-ambulatory ninja.
Well, as it so happens, he might be is a crook also, too:
When questions were first raised about the retreat last month, a court spokeswoman said Justice Thomas had made a “brief drop-by” at the event in Palm Springs, Calif., in January 2008 and had given a talk.
In his financial disclosure report for that year, however, Justice Thomas reported that the Federalist Society, a prominent conservative legal group, had reimbursed him an undisclosed amount for four days of “transportation, meals and accommodations” over the weekend of the retreat. The event is organized by Charles and David Koch, brothers who have used millions of dollars from the energy conglomerate they run in Wichita, Kan., to finance conservative causes.
Arn Pearson, a vice president at the advocacy group Common Cause, said the two statements appeared at odds. His group sent a letter to the Supreme Court on Monday asking for “further clarification” as to whether the justice spent four days at the retreat for the entire event or was there only briefly.
“I don’t think the explanation they’ve given is credible,” Mr. Pearson said in an interview. He said that if Justice Thomas’s visit was a “four-day, all-expenses paid trip in sunny Palm Springs,” it should have been reported as a gift under federal law.
The Supreme Court had no comment on the issue Monday. Nor did officials at the Federalist Society or at Koch Industries.
Common Cause maintains that Justice Thomas should have disqualified himself from last year’s landmark campaign finance ruling in the Citizens United case, partly because of his ties to the Koch brothers.
He should have recused himself. Full stop.
::crosses fingers for Obama to go straight FDR on everybody’s asses and pack the Court::
It could totally work, y’all! Right? No? Maybe?
Sigh.
[Consider this your, “Seriously, What the Fuck?” Open Thread. Happy Whatever Day! ABLxx]
[cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles]
DougJ®
Where did you get that picture? It really makes me laugh.
Redshirt
Judge for Life. That’s a serious position, and difficult to change without obvious and blatant crimes. Silence is not among them.
Johannes
Oh, as usual, dear.
Angry Black Lady
@DougJ®: It’s Uncle Ruckus from The Boondocks. :)
General Stuck
No such thing as conflict when little baby jeevus lives in your pants.
Angry Black Lady
@Redshirt: yes, but lying about your political dealing should be, especially if getting a blow job and lying about it is impeachable, FFS.
ETA: I know he wasn’t under penalty of perjury. But some more shit is going to come oozing out of the woodwork.
Watch.
Redshirt
I’m more concerned about the wife for some reason…
Martin
@General Stuck: I’m going to have that engraved on the wall above my office door.
Keith
Ruckus? Damn, that’s harsh.
Yutsano
@Angry Black Lady: IOKIYAR, ABL. This applies to wingnut justices too. Though the whole thing smacks of Thomas daring someone to do something about it.
handy
@Angry Black Lady:
Oh that’s different. Clinton was president was disrespecting the office, y’know, since he was busy
having affairs in the Oval Officebeing a Democrat. You can’t go after chief justices unless they areactivists overstepping their bounds by politicizingcorporatists like Clarence Thomas. Just here to help.Pooh
Having offered a qualified defense of CT in the “never talks” thread, this just stinks. Between this and his wife’s politicking, there’s a pretty decent case to be made for removal for cause. Not that it would ever happen. At least not while the guy in the Oval has (D-Kenya) after his name…
Angry Black Lady
i thinks it very odd that he doesn’t ask questions. what judge doesn’t EVER want to grill appearance counsel in FIVE YEARS? i mean, seriously.
it’s just bizarre.
Donut
This is a story that Democrats and progressives cannot let go. Alito and Scalia appear to have engaged in similar activities. It is an easy issue for low info people to grasp, even – much like “President Clinton lied under oath”. We should treat this story with the same bulldog attitude that the Right treated the Paula Jones story.
J. Michael Neal
I’m with Matt Yglesias on the talking in court part. As far as I can tell, oral arguments at the Supreme Court are nothing but theater of very little significance. To the extent that the justices haven’t made up their minds ahead of time, the real arguments are made in briefs. Not saying anything in oral arguments doesn’t bug me.
That said, Clarence Thomas is an embarrassment. Just for other reasons.
Kadin
He’s not obliged to speak in court. Does speaking in court actually accomplish anything? Criticise him for his godawful jurisprudence, not for his failure to mimic Scalia’s attempts to show off and provide soundbites for the media.
The Republic of Stupidity
Well, shucks, ya’ll…
While we’re busy musing over The Misadventures of Clarence Thomas in Conservativeland, let’s not forget this little doozy…
TWENTY YEARS of forgetting to disclose?
TWENTY?
Whoa… that is some serious overlooking of the law there…
freelancer
You are awesome. I <3 you. Happy VD.
handy
@handy:
Oh, and Kagan and Sotomayor ought to do the right thing and recuse themselves for every case that goes before the Court, since they bring bias and are all empathetic and stuff.
Warren Terra
Thomas is a twisted, bitter, and deeply sick man (some of the interviews from his last book tour were incredibly revealing of the positive hatred he cherishes for liberals and the educated middle class) and – as shown in this latest inquiry – he cares not one whit about the need for impartial justice separated from a partisan agenda.
All that being said, I really wish people would lay off about him keeping mum in court. Sure, I find it weird. Sure, on the occasion when he attempted to explain it his claims were risible (Clarence Thomas is not a man uncomfortable in the use of spoken English, his claims about humiliation as a Gulla-speaking chiled to the contrary). And you might think that in the course of five years some question or need for clarification might have occurred to him. But my understanding is that most of the oral arguments are meaningless and ineffectual and most of the questions asked are theatrical point scoring or are intended to give a false appearance of open-mindedness. My understanding from legal scholars is that Thomas may be a frighteningly rigid ideologue who seeks to drag this country back to the fourteenth century, but he is a perfectly intelligent person who has his own opinions and expresses them forcefully. Thomas may be a carbuncle upon the nation, but his silence in court really isn’t really a problem, and attacks wasted on the statements he doesn’t make should more usefully be directed at the statements he does.
JGabriel
ABL @ Top:
To be fair, it’s reported that Thomas sometimes whispers to Breyer during the hearings. So, it’s quite possible there was a “Do you smell that?”, but that only Breyer heard it.
.
Omnes Omnibus
@Warren Terra:Questions to counsel at the Supreme Court level are frequently used as a way of making a point to other Justices. Persuading, poking a hole in an argument, or signaling; they use it as a communication tool. Thomas doesn’t do it because he has no interest in being a part of the conversation.
KG
@Pooh: I’ll co-sign this.
@Angry Black Lady:For what it’s worth: I’ve not met Thomas, but have heard second hand (from among others, a former clerk who was one of my law professors) that Thomas thinks a lot of the questioning by his colleagues is for show and that as a former appellate attorney he’d prefer to let the attorneys make their case on their own.
Angry Black Lady
@Kadin: i understand he’s not obliged to speak in court. i’m saying that i think it’s odd. a lot of federal judges make rulings without oral argument from counsel. but to sit there silently for five years, whether it’s theater or not, is odd.
James E Powell
@Donut:
Name me one, just one, Democrat who has shown bulldog talent. Attacks on other Democrats don’t count.
Loneoak
Uncle Ruckus! Good call, ABL.
rikyrah
you know I’m with you, ABL
KG
@James E Powell: I was in high school during Clinton’s first term, and then in college during his second, so I didn’t pay much attention until the trial actually happened in the Senate, so please, some one remind me, where did the story really start? Who pushed for appointment of the Independent Counsel? as it someone already in Congress or did it start from the activists?
Angry Black Lady
@rikyrah: i know. xx
Yutsano
@KG: As I recall, and my memory is pretty hazy on this, the original Special Prosecutor was called to investigate the Whitewater land deal, which pretty much led nowhere. But Special Prosecutors have pretty wide discretion for what they can investigate, and the course of events led them to Monica Lewinsky. The rest, as they say, is history. And yes I know I’m leaving a bunch of stuff out.
suzanne
@freelancer: I second freelander’s assessment. You are rad.
Happy Valentine’s Day, all. Have some cute. :)
RareSanity
@Angry Black Lady:
I wish this whole thing would go quiet until something bigger comes out (heh). Although these latest revelations, in a sane world (or, if he were liberal), would be grounds for some kind of formal investigation.
However, these come nowhere near a requisite level for a present day inquiry, by Democrats. No one is paying attention because it’s not a juicy (heh) as oral sex in the Oval Office.
To be honest, it’s starting to sound like straw grasping to me, and I’m a liberal!
poicephalus
Think one of us proles would get similar treatment?
I wish him and Ginni long lives.
Disgraced.
C
Hawes
I noticed this article here:
http://zombieland-nowbrainfree.blogspot.com/2011/02/clarence-thomas-is-in-your-court.html
The thing is, his failure to participate in argument means that he’s not really interacting with the arguments. He simply sits there stonily and then makes shit up in his opinions.
You can’t pack the Court. It nearly sunk FDR and it would certainly sink Obama.
In terms of impeachment, he’d literally have to be arrested first before you could even talk about it. And you’d have to wait until the 113th Congress anyway. Samuel Chase pretty much insured we wouldn’t impeach Supreme Court justices.
Cacti
Ever since Bush v. Gore, it seems like the right wing of the Court has dropped any pretense of acting like they’re not in the tank for the Republicans. Scalia, Thomas and Alito anyway.
RareSanity
OT:
Did you guys know, that according to Glen Beck, Google is pretty deeply in bed with the government?
Therefore, his audience should not trust ANY information garnered from a Google search.
You can’t make this stuff up…
Steaming Pile
@Warren Terra: Except that most people of the Gullah culture are quite proud of it.
Elisabeth
@Omnes Omnibus:
Someone on MSNBC this morning said that Thomas feels that if he needs to make a point to one of his colleagues he knows where to find him/her.
I don’t care if he’s Chatty Cathy but it would seem he’d have something to say once in awhile.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elisabeth: Oh, I agree. I think it is part of the job to take part in the rituals associated with it.
Elisabeth
@Omnes Omnibus:
Plus it wouldn’t make people wonder about him. :)
Me? They’d have a hard time shutting me up.
freelancer
@RareSanity:
Does that include “Obama is a secret Muslim”?
Angry Black Lady
@freelancer: aw shucks, thanks. :D
@suzanne: thanks suzanne! i didn’t mean to crap on your VD. :) (ew.)
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
Ok, the following is hearsay of hearsay, as far as y’all are concerned, but I trust my source completely — you’ll have to decide if you trust me or not.
I have it on very good authority that at least one of the reasons that Thomas doesn’t talk is because he is so often asleep.
You heard me: The lawyers that go before the Supreme Court apparently know this to be the case — Thomas sleeps through the whole kit and kaboodle, on the regular.
Angry Black Lady
@RareSanity: i heard him rambling a bit about that in his o’reilly interview. the man is certifiably bonkers. could you imagine if any pundit on the left routinely wore weird costumes and frantically scribbled on chalkboards?
why do we put up with this shit?
Cain
@RareSanity:
Obama is visiting Intel here in sunny Hillsboro, OR. I wonder if Beck believes Intel is also deep with the government! Hell I bet their in on the whole global warming thing.. oh man, I hope Glenn adds Intel to the mix too. They’ll have to hit AMD for their conservative processors!
cain
Donut
@ James E. Powell
Didn’t say any elected Democrats willl bulldog it. They should. But won’t. No argument from me on that.
@ KG
The wikipedia entry on Whitewater is actually a pretty decent and straight accounting of the chain of events that led to Clinton’s impeachment.
burnspbesq
Alas, none of this is going anywhere. Just note it for the record and move on.
And on the subject of things that aren’t going anywhere, unfortunately, I think that describes the $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron that was handed down in Ecuador today. Good luck collecting. Which means good luck remediating the environmental damage Chevron did. Fuckers.
suzanne
@Angry Black Lady: No crap anywhere, Lady, it’s all good. :)
RareSanity
@Angry Black Lady:
Well, we (those with any measure of common sense) don’t put up with it. However, there are a lot of people that do. They’re lost, there’s nothing we can do for them, we have to let them go.
An old saying comes to mind, “Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it!”
Suffern ACE
@Cain: If Intel is in on it, you can’t trust anything that you obtain from your computer. Best watch the TV then.
Chris
I agree with Kadin. His opinions are awful, but who cares whether he asks questions during oral argument? Lots of cases get decided by appeals courts without any oral argument at all. If it were a liberal justice who didn’t ask questions, none of the people complaining about it now would be bothered at all by it.
Mark S.
From the article, I don’t get why he was supposed to recuse himself from the Citizens United case. The Kochs weren’t parties; they may have “been among the main beneficiaries” of the ruling, but who cares?
Also, if you give a speech and you get your expenses paid, is that a gift? I honestly don’t know how that works.
I’ve been defending Thomas a lot here lately, but it’s not out of any irrational love for the man.
C-bot out.
RareSanity
@Cain:
Indeed.
Only someone that follows Glen Beck, could ever think that having a “conservative” processor, is a good thing.
burnspbesq
You can impeach Justice Thomas any time you can get a majority of the House and two-thirds of the Senate to vote yes on articles of impeachment. That may happen in the parallel universe in which I wake up next to Rachel Maddow (who is straight) every morning and the Mets are the dominant franchise in all of baseball, but it’s not likely to happen in this one.
Warren Terra
@RareSanity:
“Let Me Google That For You” now has such a sinister, chilling ring to it, doesn’t it? It’s like that old scary line, “We’re here from the Government and we’re here to Google that for you”.
Karen
In other words, the last word in legality for the US has to decide what is legal.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
I’m sorry, it’s either laugh at the irony or laugh insanely at the red smear I leave on the wall as I bang my head against it til I pass out.
Sly
“White Heaven” is probably my favorite scene from the Boondocks. Uncle Ruckus and Colonel Stinkmeaner are two of the best comic villains ever.
Karen
@burnspbesq:
It’s funny you mentioned the Mets because my Dad was telling me that spring training started today and I told him not to tell me and let my keep my hope alive at least until Opening Day.
RareSanity
@Warren Terra:
Can you imagine the hilarity that would ensue, if a rabid Glen Beck disciple, experienced the goodness that is LMGTFY?
I’m almost in tears, laughing, just thinking about it…
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
You people need to remember that your criticism of a Black man is racist – no matter what you say afterward. Google “balloon-juice.com” for proof.
.
.
elle
@freelancer:
VD….Venereal Disease? Oh lawks-a-mussy! I hope I don’t get banned for this.
Yutsano
@burnspbesq: Sadly you’re right. But the hearings themselves could be popcorn worthy. And I’m sure it goads at least one teabagger that one of THEM is sitting on the court, even if Thomas votes their way reliably.
Anne Laurie
@Mark S.:
Well, the Koch brothers probably figure they own Justice Thomas already, so those little luxuries aren’t “gifts”, they’re maintenance.
However, let me make it clear that thinking this way would be racist, as well as wrong.
Mark S.
This has got to hurt:
She’s also sucking in Iowa:
Get off my turf, bitch!
Mnemosyne
@Mark S.:
Either it’s a gift or it’s payment for services rendered. Either way, it’s something you have to report as income.
burnspbesq
In other news, my undergrad school (Union) is up to number seven in the men’s hockey polls, it’s highest ranking ever.
Be a shame if I had to go to St. Paul for the Frozen Four. Why, I might even get to meet Asiangrrl.
burnspbesq
@Mnemosyne:
Not quite. General rule is that gifts are not income. See Code section 102(a). May have to be disclosed, but not on Form 1040.
tofubo
failing upwards
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/world/asia/15envoy.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fpolitics%2Findex.jsonp
one of sibel’s named names gets a promotion, joi
curious
@RareSanity: well, while beck’s off on a wild google chase, operatives from altavista, lycos, and 1998 in general are quietly fomenting revolution in antarctica. wake up, sheeple!
Angry Black Lady
@Uncle Clarence Thomas: and with that my evening is made. i was hoping you’d come by and drop a little turd, UCT.
Mnemosyne
@burnspbesq:
But you can’t claim something is a gift if you received it in exchange for goods or services. It would be a pretty hard road to argue with the IRS that the Koch brothers just happened to comp your airline ticket, room and meals out of the goodness of their hearts after you agreed to give a speech at their little shindig and certainly didn’t intend it as payment for that speech.
Yutsano
@Angry Black Lady: To be honest, you DID bait it ABL. But yeah, flies and shit and all that.
burnspbesq
@Mnemosyne:
You’re assuming an awful lot of facts that aren’t in evidence.
Violet
Speaking of the Kochs, I was in the car last week and either Hannity or Rush was on the radio and whichever host it was pretended not to know who the Koch brothers were, to the point where he asked how to pronounce their names.
I was stopped at a light at the time. Had the car actually been moving I might have driven off the road I was so taken aback. I know they lie, but that was a whopper.
General Stuck
Every time I click on this thread and see that picture, the creepier it gets and I imagine it could be a likeness of our mental giant that is Uncle Clarence Thomas, somewhere in some psychotic internet dream.
Mnemosyne
@burnspbesq:
Here’s what the article says:
The dispute seems to be over the amount of the “gift” — four days of expenses doesn’t seem to reflect the Thomas spokesperson’s claim that he only made a “brief drop-by.”
asiangrrlMN
Hola. I am old. I just had to say that. I watched the Grammys today (in less than an hour!), and I came to the conclusion that not only am I terribly uncool (not unusual. I’ve always been uncool), but that I just don’t give a damn. Lawn. Kids. Off. Oh, and I don’t like either Aretha Franklin or Barbra Streisand. There. I said it.
As for CT, I have no opinion, much like him!
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN:
Heh. I knew there was a reason I fake-married you.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: You married me ‘coz you like resting between my jubleys. The uncoolness factor is just gravy.
ETA: The saddest part about the Grammys is that my favorite performance was of a song I hated because it was done in such a fun way–and I still only watched half of it (Cee-Lo).
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@asiangrrlMN: A bunch of industry assholes patting each other on their increasingly irrelevant backs. I think I stopped watching when I figured out that Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd had never won a Grammy.
asiangrrlMN
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): This is true. Even when I was younger I never found it to be very relevant to my experiences in music. And, seriously? Floyd never got a Grammy?
The funniest twit I saw was someone (I think A BJer, in fact) raging about the Ramones getting the lifetime achievement award now that three out of the four are dead.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
Uh, that’s *Zeppelin.
Add The Kinks & The Who to that list. Absurd.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: I think that got mentioned over here. I think I just shrugged and moved on with my day. Kids and lawns and such.
PS Lexie is on top of the dresser pouting. I done did something to offend her and of course she won’t tell me what.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Did you make the appointment? That might be it. And, how you feeling?
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Better than I was. Jewish penicillin helped a lot. That and sleeping half the day. Lots of liquids, you know, the stuff you’re supposed to do.
Of course I’m negative in my sick leave balance again. But since I’ll make that back in a month it’ll all work out.
And I decided to do as much nothing as possible, including talking on the phone. Tomorrow I may be better motivated.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Good. Glad you’re feeling better. What’s your take on a gubmint shutdown?
Rathskeller
@Mark S.: that’s kind of ahead of schedule, but welcome nonetheless.
However, i hope if Bachmann turns out to be a candidate for a few GOP primaries that Tweety learn a different insult than “balloon head.”
MJ
@asiangrrlMN:
Why, oh why do you hate America so?
Angry Black Lady
DEDDED.
asiangrrlMN
@MJ: Because what has America ever done for me, bitchez?
ETA: I twitted that on the Twitter and someone asked if I liked either Celine Dion or Whitney Houston. I said no. Boy, I really do hate America (and Canada), don’t I?
@Rathskeller: If Michele Bachmann is the Republican candidate for prez in 2012, I will do something drastic. I don’t know what yet, but something. Mark my words.
@Angry Black Lady: Can’t. I dedded you first. Remember?
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: BRING ON THE FORCED VACATION BABAY!!
Actually, my division might still be operational. I don’t see how as there won’t be money for our paychecks, but we’re a revenue generator, so I guess it goes like that. However, in a neat little quirk of government, I get paid through the Department of Agriculture. Don’t ask, I don’t understand it either. So it will either require free labor from us (which my union will have a shit fit about) or I get to goof off until the impasse is over. This of course presumes no continuing resolution to kick the can down the road.
freelancer
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
Kubrick won one Oscar, for Special Effects, for 2001. That’s it.
suzanne
@asiangrrlMN: I am so old that I love that song, but still didn’t watch it, ’cause I hate Gwyneth Paltrow and might punch my television if I did so.
And I still have to type in my email address every time I want to comment on the mobile site. Dumb.
suzanne
@freelancer: Hitchcock never got one, either. Tools.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: What the? I haz a confuzzled. Gubmint is hard!
@suzanne: Heh. That’s when I stopped listening, actually–once she started singing. I liked Cee-Lo and the Muppet-like creatures, though. Very Elton John-ish.
@Anne Laurie: Um, The Who are British, aren’t they?
Anne Laurie
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
They’re awarded by the “National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States“. Wikipedia doesn’t say the nominees have to be American, but it’s not terribly surprising that American industry workers would demonstrate a bias towards American artists. (Yeah, Bieber’s technically Canadian, but then, he lost, dinthe?)
Anne Laurie
@asiangrrlMN:
You’ll understand them once you’re a grown up, dear. (said in my best oba-san voice)
freelancer
@suzanne:
I turned the mobile site off on my ipod touch (wish I could tell you how though). Much easier that way. Double tap resizes the screen to the width of paragraphs/objects, etc. And the cache keeps filled out fields, like the way BJ used to load. The mobile site was more annoying to navigate if you weren’t a lurker. I like the old way of doing things.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Did someone say Muppets and singing? Or meeping, as the case might be.
Mark S.
@Rathskeller:
I hope both Michele and Sarah run. Maybe Atlas Pam will throw her hat in the ring as well.
Greatest. Primary. Ever.
hamletta
While you may have flawless taste in men (Hello, Alan!), your musical tastes are all in your mouth.
Aretha and Barbra don’t enjoy their elevated status just because. They enjoy it because they earned it by dint of their hard work and their touched-by-God fucking genius.
Singers train for years to learn how to do what those two women have been able to do just by opening their mouths. Their ability to connect with an audience despite their well-documented fears and neuroses makes me grateful to the Lord that I’ve lived at the same time they were making music.
They really are that great.
freelancer
@Anne Laurie:
You obviously didn’t hear Dylan’s performance from last night then. The man’s vocal cords could scrape wallpaper at this point.
asiangrrlMN
@Anne Laurie: Well, since I highly doubt I will ever be a grownup, I’ll add them to the list of things I will never have to understand.
@Yutsano: Heh. That makes me laugh. Here’s the vid. It really is lotsa fun.
asiangrrlMN
@hamletta: That’s fine. I still don’t like them. I don’t have to like them. That’s part of what makes America great.
@freelancer: He sucked. I could only listen to him for about three seconds.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@suzanne & freelancer: And they expect to be taken seriously. What a bunch of frauds.
My ex was a big film buff and loved watching the Academy Awards but I had a hard time watching after the year Gladiator beat out Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. No knock on Gladiator which I found to be perfectly entertaining, but Crouching Tiger was just mind-blowingly beautiful IMO.
Suffern ACE
@freelancer: The cords just need to be expressed, that’s all.
Yutsano
@freelancer: Note to the young’un: Dylan’s voice has always been rough. He just has aged not too well besides.
@asiangrrlMN: Umm…her outfit does not fit the theme at all. Cee-lo is all in full Elton John homage (in fact I bet Sir Elton even lent him that outfit!) and she comes out in staid black. And what, Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem wasn’t available? I WANT MY JANIS FIX DAMMIT!
Other than that, yeah it must have been a shit ton of fun to do.
apathy
Is anyone else concerned this silence means Clarence Thomas has actually been dead for 5 years and we are witnessing some sort of elaborate Weekend at Bernies scenario, or a very sophisticated animatronic dummy?
asiangrrlMN
@Suffern ACE: Snert. SNORT. I’m snickering.
@Yutsano: No kidding. She stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. She can sing, though. She did fine in that department.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Anne Laurie:
Meh. As long as an album or song is released by an American label, the artist and the work are eligible.
Recall the first year that there was a category for “Best Heavy Metal Album”? Jethro Tull beat out Metallica.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: She does have decent pipes. Especially for someone who never sang a note until she did a duet with Huey Lewis. And FWIW she did that song on “Glee” last season (or this one, I forget which) and she owned it then.
And for your water is wet moment, David Frum still insists on being an embarrassment to Canada.
Ailuridae
@burnspbesq:
And me. Right around the corner in Irvine Park.
Ailuridae
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
For not watching the Oscars that’s a really weird line in the sand. Just Sayin.
freelancer
@Yutsano:
Some of it can be based on ability to mimic. Right now, in my life, I could probably do a pretty good rendition of “Like a Rolling Stone”, but do you know how many Marlboro Reds I’d have to suck down in order to do the version of “Maggie’s Farm” that he did last night?! I’d have to sound like Sylvia Browne before I even got halfway there.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Anne Laurie: The Beatles have won 14 grammys. I always chalked it up to riaa’s aesthetic conservatism. And ignorance.
asiangrrlMN: I’m with ya on Aretha and Barbara.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@freelancer:
I’m not so sure that he ever made a film worthy of the Best Picture Oscar the year it was released. Scorcese had three films- Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas– that all should have won the award (and I’ll go it one further and say that The Aviator was probably the best film of the year when it was released)- and won the award for what I thought was a so-so work by Scorcese’s standards. But which Kubrick films are worthy of consideration the years they were released, and which films won the award? Because, quite honestly, I can only think of two of his films that are just complete masterpieces- Paths of Glory and 2001– and I’m not sure what they were up against in their respective years.
Honestly, Chaplin and Hitchcock got screwed by the Academy much worse than did Kubrick.
freelancer
@apathy:
Well, Wonkette informs us that the Magic Kingdom has experienced its share of glitches, so if the Imagineers are clueless as to unforseen complications, then who knows what the Bilderberg Group, those pesky socia|list Muslins, and Google have in store for us.
Ailuridae
@hamletta:
I can’t speak to asiangrrlMN’s point specifically but broadly in contemporary rock and country if you aren’t writing your own songs and singing them you are a karaoke singer. The genius if far more in the creation than the interpretation for me.
asiangrrlMN
@burnspbesq: I missed this! That would be awe-sum!
@Ailuridae: You come, too!
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): Hi-five! Just for that, I will triple as your mad roadie whipper, your sexy merch seller, and your surly ticket taker.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Ailuridae: Your right, I know. I think I was just looking for an excuse to not watch 3+ hrs of celebrities fellate each other.
@no one in particular: Why do I have to keep filling in my email address when I am on my phone. I really loathe the mobile site.
Mark S.
@Yutsano:
I’m going to go out on a limb and state that Davie is full of shit. If he’s right, there was a great injustice done at Nuremberg. Those guys were just following German law!
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: She did that song. I saw it on the YouTube. As for Frum. Ugh. Canada can haz him back.
freelancer
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
Don’t invent a blood feud here. It’s not necessary. That you left out Dr. Strangelove is quite telling.
Yutsano
@Mark S.: I don’t know how you could POSSIBLY come to that conclusion with Davey Boy waving his foam finger in the Swiss faces and screaming, “AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!!” at the top of his lungs. The logic twists in that would make any Gordian knot proud.
@asiangrrlMN: I say we ship him off to Nunavut. In winter. With no boots.
asiangrrlMN
@Mark S.: Yeah. This is what I don’t get. Isn’t the whole fucking point of an international trial the fact that the rest of the world doesn’t think the country did a good enough job on its own? So, putting W. on trial would be putting the whole American legal system on trial, sayeth Frum. Well, duh. Yeah. Obviously. We couldn’t get it done ourselves, so the rest of the world had to step in. What am I missing?
@Yutsano: Sounds good to me.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Ailuridae:
“The genius if far more in the creation than the interpretation for me.”
Now you’ve done it. You’ve just made a best friend for life. I’ve got a spare kidney, when you need it.
Ailuridae
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
Not to be a dick but 2001 wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture. I am assuming it would have been eligible the year Midnight Cowboy won. I mean, I hate science fiction, and I realize how awesome that movie was. And I did when I was 16.
Yutsano
@Ailuridae: 2+ hours of movie, 20 minutes of dialogue. My dad took my mom to go see it in the theaters when it first came out. They both said it scared the living shit out of them worse than any horror movie. And IIRC was heavily unappreciated at the time.
Ailuridae
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
You’re a Chicagoan, too. Right? I had a weird conversation a long time ago when a friend and I were arguing about which was a better version of “They City of New Orleans”. He argued Arlo Guthrie and I argued for Willie Nelson. I pointed out that if he really liked the Arlo version he should check out (Chicago’s own) Steve Goodman singing it. It is his song after all. He loved it.
And here it is
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@freelancer:
I love Strangelove, but I think it’s quirky, and black comedy is in a ghetto all of its own. And look at what it was up against:
My Fair Lady (the winner)
Becket
Mary Poppins
Zorba the Greek
Admittedly, Mary Poppins doesn’t hold a candle to the rest of the field, but think of these films as an Academy member in 1964, not 2011, and it’s pretty easy to figure out why Strangelove didn’t win the Oscar. And while Kiubrick’s film may have been more influential on future film makers, the other four are quite great and memorable in their own right, no?
Villago Delenda Est
@freelancer:
The thing is, the “Academy” often totally blows it on “Best Picture” in retrospect. I mean, really: “The Greatest Show on Earth”? Totally forgetable. “High Noon” lost to that?
freelancer
@Yutsano:
It’s in my top 20, but I rarely watch it. It’s so damned masterful, yet so slowly paced, I rarely feel I can set aside time anymore.
Ailuridae
@Yutsano:
Well yeah. 2001 was a weird movie to toss at people in 1968. the point was that of the two movies Andy K thought should have gotten Best Picture chances the more prominent missed the cut (unfairly, IMO)
Ailuridae
@Villago Delenda Est:
*Cough* Shakespeare in Love *Cough*
Also, too … Oliver!
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Ailuridae: Oh, sure. I’m well acquainted with that version. I was a devoted, regular listener to WFMT’s Midnite Special program.
Yutsano
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Mary Poppins was a controversial nomination at the time, mostly because of the partially animated parts. That may have sucked a lot of the oxygen out of the room and given the 1964 Academy voters a reason to go with a safer pick. Thus My Fair Lady, with a dubbed over singing voice (and the Academy fave Rex Harrison) ran off with it. Not saying it was right, Kubrick was always way too advanced for his time, but just how it goes.
Speaking of flicks, this one might just have some promise if they do it right. But there’s a thousand ways to fuck it up too.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Ailuridae:
And here’s the list of nominees in 1969:
Midnight Cowboy (yep, the winner)
Anne of the Thousand Days
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Hello, Dolly!
Z
Okay, Anne of the Thousand Days didn’t deserve the nomination (I write this having never seen it, but having barely heard of it). Hello, Dolly seems to be the obligatory (for the day) musical nomination…But, man, and I do appreciate 2001, but did it clearly deserve the Oscar more than those other three films?
freelancer
@Villago Delenda Est:
I know this now, but when I was just coming into my appreciation of film, and first identifying as a movie geek, a lot of my favs were winning. 1999 was a great year for film.
Even in the last several years, my favs have been nominated and sometimes winning.
freelancer
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
I’m a huge fan of Butch Cassidy, but the answer to your question is YES.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: ::gives you the stank eye::
I think it’s gonna be fucked up. But, kind of a hoot that Mary-Kate Olsen plays the woo-woo lady (thought I recognized her). And, let me know when they do the premise in reverse. Pretty girl becomes ugly and gets gorgeous, sweet guy to fall in love with her.
ETA: And, dude is way hotter when he’s “ugly” than when he’s not.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@freelancer:
More than Midnight Cowboy and Z? Sorry, not seein’ it. Not even 42 years later.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
And can you guys believe Tron never won best picture? I mean, come on! Tron!
I’m kidding…mostly.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@freelancer:
Broadbent should have been nominated for his role in Topsy-Turvy that year. Other than that, you’re right, really solid year.
Mark S.
I thought Crash was pretty terrible and I couldn’t believe it won.
I’ve never seen either of them, but Cimarron and Greatest Show on Earth are usually strong contenders for Worst Best Pictures. From the descriptions I’ve read, they do sound pretty bad.
Suffern ACE
Sarah Watkins sings some Dylan as he can’t any longer. Good breakup song for those cynics who couldn’t stand all the mushy mushy forced gift giving of Valentine’s Day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTkLYsnED90
Aretha sings a breakup song by Stevie Wonder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl7o7eZjLC4&playnext=1&list=PLAE118B58FC4A277A
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): Hmmmm. Stevie Wonder. From 70-79 when pink Floyd and Led Zepplin were releasing their best albums, its kind of difficult to look at who actually won best album and think the academy was getting it completely wrong. There wasn’t a rock category and the albums that won weren’t exactly one-hit novelty bands.
freelancer
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
Midnight Cowboy will be remembered as a catchphrase, and Z will be irrelevant. 2001 will outlast your great-grandchildren.
That is why you fail.
Yutsano
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): Tron got two nods: Best Sound Mixing and Best Costume Design. Not a notice for effects, even though it was far beyond what anyone else even thought was possible in 1982.
@Mark S.: Crash was pure gross Scientology trash. How it won when it didn’t win a single other award anywhere stuns the shit out of me.
Villago Delenda Est
2001 wasn’t even nominated for best picture in its year (1968).
That’s the year Oliver! won.
I rest my case.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Suffern ACE: Ah. Stevie Wonder. Yes, inarguably deserving for Inner Visions.
I’m on my phone so I can’t easily peruse a list of winners. Didn’t the Starlight Vocal Band win for Afternoon Delight? Or am I tripping?
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Mark S.:
Ah, yeah…Cimarron wins the Oscar for Best Picture, while City Lights isn’t even nominated.
Yutsano
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): Teh Wiki says no, but I’m not sure how definitive that is.
@asiangrrlMN: I agree. And I shall now go prepare the virtual couch.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Villago Delenda Est:
You’re right. I was a year off. Easier to make the case for 2001 that year. Oliver!, Funny Girl and The Lion In Winter.
Mark S.
@Yutsano:
It was backlash against Brokeback Mountain, but it was still a piece of shit and any of the other nominated movies would have been a better choice.
But that’s an interesting point. I didn’t know Haggis was a Scientologist until a week ago. But I’m not going to watch it again to spot the L Ron influence.
freelancer
@Yutsano:
The Academy didn’t feel quite yet comfy awarding Best Picture to “teh ghey” movie. So the nominations split the difference and the plurality non-ghey movie won.
As for my top 10 for that year, it went something like (in no particular order):
Batman Begins
Good Night and Good Luck
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Syriana
Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room
Munich
The Constant Gardener
A History of Violence
Brokeback Mountain
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Yutsano:
But Starland Vocal Band got their own variety show on the strength of that single. A summer replacement show, iirc, and possibly the worst ever. Worse than Shields & Yarnell and Pink Lady and Jeff.
Suffern ACE
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): You’re confusing Album with Song. I would think that the Who in the 70s would have been pissed to win for best song. As would Pink Floyd.
Suffern ACE
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): If you were 8 at the time, Pink Lady wasn’t a bad show.
Yutsano
@Mark S.: @freelancer: My personal opinion: I knew they weren’t going with Brokeback simply because of the content (and the rather graphic sex scene, that I’m sure caused a few letters) but you would think the safe pick would have been Good Night and Good luck. Instead that craptastic shithole of a movie won. At least Ang Lee got Best Director. And BBM won a shit ton of cinematography awards, which it definitely deserved.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Yutsano: Tron was like oxycontin to my 11yo self. Maybe better.
I made it 20min thru Crash and turned it off. Everyone seemed to love that film and I felt like a dick for not liking but I just found it so damn odious. Now I feel redeemed that others were as turned off as I was.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Wow, 1976 was all kinds of fucked up for Oscar.
Rocky (the winner)
All the President’s Men
Bound for Glory
Network
Taxi Driver
Okay, Network is a bit OTT, but the other three are all much better films than Rocky. Taxi Driver was probably the best of these, but I’ve got a special place in my heart for Bound for Glory.
Yutsano
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): I don’t know anyone who saw it and liked it. I know its sales spiked after the Oscar buzz but I can’t think of a single person I know who saw it and thought it was teh awesome. Hell I refused to watch it from the trailer alone.
And Tron was a huge part of my childhood. It was the first movie my mom let us go see by ourselves and we raved about it for months afterwards. And yeah I played disc wars with Frisbees after too.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Suffern ACE:
I was just a bit older- 14- and it was horrible.
You’re problem is that you didn’t have the classics against which to compare it: Sonny & Cher, Flip Wilson, Johnny Cash…
Villago Delenda Est
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
Network is one of those films that just hits too close to home for the vile Ferengi scum that run the entertainment industry. Incredibly prescient, outrageous, right on the money about how fucked up the American corporate system actually is.
Taxi Driver was pretty raw, too. The “Academy” knew it was a significant film, but they couldn’t make the leap from a nomination to handing Scorsese that statue.
All The President’s Men, in retrospect, and given what a total whore Woodward has turned into, may have inspired me to take some journalism classes, but in the long run, it damaged journalism, by making it seem glamorous. “We brought down a President!” The take on this in Dick is an interesting alternative.
Broadcast News shows us how bad the rot has become, without being as over the top as Network. The idiots covering the Clinton sex scandals were all trying to imagine who would play them in the movie of their tell-all book on how they sleuthed out the blue dress…
Jebediah
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
I didn’t see Crash, but several people around me were saying “zomg greatest you have to see it.” I also didn’t read any reviews.
What was so shitty about it? I’m not going to watch it – too many of y’alls opinions jibe with mine, so I would probably not dig it either – but I am curious about its suckitude.
Also -re the creator versus interpreter of songs thing – I seem to remember some dude singing “It’s the singer not trhe song/That makes the music move along” – but wasn’t he singing someone else’s words?
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
Suffern ACE: Afternoon delight offered as an example(a wrong one) of where grammy’s head was at. The Who wrote radio friendly singles through out their career. Pink Floyd too.
kdaug
Y’all do realize this conversation has drifted from Clarence Thomas, to music, to movies, to old TV shows…
One of the best things about this place is that the headline topics are just suggestions, and every thread is an open thread.
Yutsano
@kdaug: Especially for the night shift. But we iz definitely good at digression. It’s just the normal evolution of a conversation if you think about it.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Villago Delenda Est:
And while I agree with everything you say here, I still think it plays OTT. I can only suspend disbelief to a point…That is, I’m willing to roll with sci-fi and fantasy…But the “Mad as hell..” scene, and Ned Beatty in the the nod to the Byzantine throne room? Sorry. This is where understatement might have worked better.
MattR
@Yutsano:
I believe the conversation was intelligently designed to go to all of those places.
kdaug
@Yutsano: I’ve just been re-watching Connections, so I’ve got that James Burke mindset right now.
Villago Delenda Est
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
I think it had to be OTT to get greenlighted, myself. It had to push the envelope of suspending disbelief to get made. It had to be outrageous, so that its truths could be, in effect, camouflaged by all that excess.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Jebediah: imagine a “ripped from the headlines” episode of Law & Order written by 8th graders. That’s how I remembered it. To say it was ham-handed would be insulting to people who have actual hams for hands.
Kdaug: let’s bring it all back home and ask: what kind of music does Clarence Thomas listen to?
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@kdaug:
Oooo! Oooo! Oooo! Me like!
kdaug
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
And… that’s how Clarence Thomas is connected to Ned Beatty.
Villago Delenda Est
@kdaug:
I just love Burke. Connections is such a great series. Burke’s style is so easy for the layman to follow, and as former history major, I just love those sorts of things. Makes the Hitler Channel look cartoonish.
Villago Delenda Est
Probably post Johnny Cash/Hank Williams C&W. Lots of Lee Greenwood. Don’t get me started on my loathing of God Bless the USA.
kdaug
@Villago Delenda Est:
“I’m proud to be a justice,
Where at least I fly for free…”
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yeah, I suppose…It just grates on me in the same way that A Thousand Clowns does, in that the shrillness keeps me from really liking it more.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
I think Anita Hill would’ve said it was ‘Afternoon Delight’. Amirite, fellas?
Is this thing on?
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Villago Delenda Est:
See, I’m thinking Joe Tex for some reason. Not sure why.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
B’doom ching!
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
Villago Delenda Est: Lee Greenwood is the permanent interior soundtrack to the wingnut. Playing on a loop.
hilts
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
Are you any relation to Temporary Like Achilles?
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
You have a very kick-ass screen name. How did you come up with it?
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@hilts:
No…But I may have to keep that handle until the Packers get knocked out of championship contention again.
BTW, Firesign Theater is the other influence on the handle.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@hilts: Jewish Steel is a violation of advice I give to young musicians: don’t name your band any thing too clever or funny. After a while it will feel like being told the same knock-knock joke over and over again. “Jewish Steel” was, so I kidded, Judas Priest’s less successful follow-up to their break out “British Steel.” Kinda funny once. Not funny after you read it fifty times. Soul-sucking after reading 1000 times. I’m phasing it out.
Parallel 5ths are a no-no in traditional part writing (that’s the way that voices move between chords) but very common, inevitable practically, in guitar harmony.
Jebediah
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
Well, maybe that explains its success. Lots of folks don’t get or appreciate subtlety or ambiguity.
And I laughed for a while imagining a bunch of people with hams for hands getting all pissed off at you…
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Villago Delenda Est: The Day The Universe Changed was my intro to Burke. Holy smokes, it’s on youtube! Hooray!
kdaug
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): TDTUC is more ideas (and my favorite, next in the queue), and Connections is more inventions/technology, but both are worthy viewing for all interested parties.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@kdaug:
dude, that shit is like porn to me.
Mark S.
@Villago Delenda Est:
Blech. It’s even worse if you watch the video.
Another shitty song in that vein is Toby Keith’s Courtesy of The Red, White and Blue.
The Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist
Tancrudo
The logical continuation of the Uncle Ruckus Theory states that Thomas will speak at the Supreme Court the day a lawyer darker than he is argues a case.
Jebediah
@Tancrudo:
Darker complexion, or darker heart?
One is easy, the other not so much.
Mean Old White Woman
Mean Old White Woman hearts Angry Black Lady. Clarence Thomas should never have been graced by the Senate. That’s the fault of a lot of Stupid Old White Men. The same Stupid Old White Men who are still running/ruining the country as I type.
kay
I don’t care about the questions, but I wish Common Cause would ask my question, which is this: why does Justice Thomas continue to flout reporting rules? What’s the deal? Is he unaware of them? Does he have some principled conviction that they don’t apply to him?
He sits on a court where an ordinary person can lose their life or property if they file something at 5:01 instead ofg 4:59, yet he was permitted to file a correction 9 years late. Why isn’t he complying with his own rules? If he has to amend his disclosure forms again with the Koch junket, is he going to suffer any fine or penalty? How many strikes does he get?
AmyFarr
Just really want to live (and practice law) in a world where ABL has appointed the Supreme Court.
Steeplejack
@kay:
This, this, this.
liberal
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
Dr. Strangelove is definitely a masterpiece.
priscianus jr
@tofubo:
“one of sibel’s named names gets a promotion, joi”
You forgot to say “OT.” But as long as we’re OT, what a coincidence, today it is announced that Mean Jean Schmidt is under investigation by the Ethics Committee.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/house_ethics_office_investigates_rep_schmidts_ties.php?ref=fpi
you will find both Schmidt and Grossman mentioned in this article about “Sibel’s named names”.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24886.htm
A Humble Lurker
It doesn’t sound like there’s a snowball’s chance in hell of Thomas getting impeached, but I’d settle for Citizen’s United being struck down because of conflict of interest or something. Yes I know, daydream believer, me. But a person can dream, right?
Marc McKenzie
@Angry Black Lady: Thank you so much for putting up that image, ABL. Boondocks is one of my favorite shows, even if, at times, it makes me go, “Man…that was wrong!”
As for Obama packing the Court FDR style…well, he could try it, but let’s not forget that FDR caught a lot of s**t for doing that, and rightfully so. Remember, Obama is being a President–unlike Bush, who strutted around pretending as if he were a king.
redoubt
@kdaug: I’ll make a fourth for TDTUC, Connections (and bridge). I even have the books.
Angry Black Lady
@Yutsano: i really did, didn’t i. :D
Angry Black Lady
@Marc McKenzie: oh definitely. it wasn’t a serious suggestion.
Phoebe
That picture is perfection. Especially with the glowy Thomas Kincade cottage in the back there. Just perfection.
Joe Buck
FDR’s attempt to pack the Court was feasible because he had majorities in both houses. A simple majority in the House and Senate could pass a bill saying that the Supreme Court has 15 judges instead of 9. It only failed because enough members of his own party thought it was dirty pool.