Went to the dentist and upgraded WordPress. Two quite similar experiences. Here’s an old song and an open thread.
Early Morning Open Thread: “Saboteurs in the Potato Salad”
(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com — click link to enlarge)
Mad props to Tim Egan in the NYTimes:
Just now, a cell of several hundred people has been dispatched into the American summer, to picnics, town halls, radio stations, hospitals and Little League playing fields, with a mission to derail the economic recovery and drum up support for sabotaging federal law. They’re not terrorists, nor are they agents of a foreign government. This is your United States Congress, the Republican House, on recess for the next five weeks.
They even have a master plan, a 31-page kit put together by the House Republican Conference, for every member to follow while back home with the folks. It’s called “Fighting Washington for all Americans,” and includes a prototype op-ed piece, with a political version of the line usually reserved for dumping lovers: “This isn’t about me. It’s about you.”…
And what if I have a child with cancer, and the insurance company plans to dump him if Republicans stop Obamacare in its tracks? Can I attend? Or what if I’m counting on buying into the new health care exchanges in my state, saving hundreds of dollars on my insurance bill?
The kit has an answer: planting supporters, with prescreened softball questions, will ensure that such things never get asked. More important, this tactic will assure that any meeting with the dreaded public will go “in the direction that is most beneficial to the member,” as the blueprint states.
I thought this wasn’t about you.
Oh, and Republicans should be sure to “engage with all demographics,” the memo insists. It’s very specific about what that means: Asians, Latinos and women. Blacks aren’t mentioned. Lost cause. But millennials are included, because nothing works with young people like inauthenticity….
Also worth reading, Jonathan Cohn in TNR with “Six Reasons Hipsters Will Bite on Obamacare“.
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What’s on the Friday doc dump agenda for the end of another work week?
Early Morning Open Thread: “Saboteurs in the Potato Salad”Post + Comments (64)
Late Night Open Thread: Someone Who Hates Romney Even More Than I
…or the Romney daughters-in-law, who have got to get very tired of Willard’s heads-I-win-tails-you-lose “competitive spirit”. NYMag tells us about Steve Showers:
When we last spoke to Steven Showers — the 60-year-old white Republican who erected a large neon sign in his front yard last summer to communicate his belief that Mitt Romney (and all Mormons) are racist — he had just been released from county jail after three weeks for refusing to turn off the sign, which violated various local ordinances, according to a jury. While Showers was incarcerated, the sign had been unplugged, and Showers was back at home, wrestling with whether to turn it back on even though doing so would violate his parole and could land him another eighteen months in jail. Such is his conviction that Romney’s nomination remains a blight on the Republican Party and that his sign is protected by the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of speech.
Today, Showers turned the sign back on…
From the earlier post:
… To be clear, Showers is well aware that the election is over and that Romney lost. But he’s also convinced, despite conventional wisdom, that Romney hasn’t given up his White House dreams. “Mitt Romney isn’t gone; he’s going to come back,” Showers says. “This guy wants to get a Mormon in the White House. You think he’s gone? No way.”
But this (frankly delusional) fear of a future Romney presidency isn’t really what has Showers digging in his heels against the courts and his neighbors. To him, the dispute comes down to a basic question of constitutional rights. Showers believes that he’s being targeted not because of the lights, but for promoting an unwelcome message in a Republican-leaning area. His neighbors across the street had Romney signs — normal small ones — in their front yard during the campaign season…
The pictures at the link are… (wait for it)… illuminating. Maybe living under the iron fist of a Ventura County HOA just drove the poor man past his limits?
Late Night Open Thread: Someone Who Hates Romney Even More Than IPost + Comments (61)
RIP, Jerry
He’d have been 71 today.
Bon Jovi is still touring. Fuck me.
And here is one for the expat Yinzers:
So funny. So true. And if you are like me, you’re negotiating all this with hands that are still greasy from an egg and sardine or a hot gabagool and cheese or hot Italian from Primanti’s because you were down in the strip at PennMac and Wholey’s and all the other awesome shops.
Open Thread
Busy day today. Had a bunch of stuff going on, then went shopping for some new shirts in the big and fat section at JCP (that’s right bitches, I only sport upscale stuff like JCPenneys). Got a couple of shirts, and as always, got a kick out of asking the cute young girl by the door to direct me to the “clothes for fat people.” They reliably giggle and blush because they feel obligated to say I’m not fat, but always just stammer and point in the right direction. It’s cruel, probably, but it’s the only revenge us fat bastards have on you judgmental pricks.
Washed the denim bib overalls so they will be nice and clean for the Madison meet-up, and tomorrow I am going for a hair cut and to have the neck-beard trimmed so I look somewhat presentable in the big city. Other than that, I’m starving because I didn’t start cooking down the roma tomatoes until about 4:30, so my spaghetti dinner isn’t ready yet. Good sauce takes a while, and after waiting five hours, it would be criminal to not give it the extra time it needs. And no, I don’t fucking put sugar in my sauce. I do always put two anchovies in with the onions and garlic, unless I know vegetarians are coming.
And the Pirates are getting demolished, so I think I am going to watch something else on the idiot box. Also, too, those of you who suggested Steve’s name was bugger because he demanded constant attention were spot on. And I love that about him.
What are y’all up to?
*** Update ***
This:
Will be here on Saturday. New throne for the new boss. This one might use it.
This should be here next week.
Open Thread: Yes, the Corporate Persons Are Doing Nicely
Following up on MisterMix’s “(no) value for money” post, here’s Michael Maiello (subbing for Charles P. Pierce at Esquire) on our high-dollar NSA security contractors:
… Whatever you think of Snowden, the Teflon character of his former employer, which is where the leaker got access to all of government intelligence secrets, is truly stunning. But, from a pecuniary perspective, the Snowden affair has been a non-event for Booz. Yesterday, Booz reported that quarterly sales held steady, year over year, at $1.4 billion while profits jumped 13 percent to $73.2 million. The higher profits are a result of Booz’s ability to increase rates for its billable consulting hours, a measure of the company’s prestige with clients. Booz stock is up nearly 50 percent this year.
A couple of weeks ago, the U.S. Air Force cleared Booz of any accountability for Snowden’s data heist, saying that the firm could not have known. In the earnings call, Booz chief executive Ralph W. Shrader addressed the Snowden issue for the first time, saying that “Mr. Snowden was on our payroll for a short period of time, but he was not a Booz Allen person and he did not share our values.”…
For the more civil liberties minded observer, the issue is whether or not such sensitive functions are being turned over to the private sector where public accountability is so limited. Snowden’s betrayal was informed by Libertarian zeal. The next data brigand might have malicious intent…
No matter, Shrader told investors. Booz is having no post-Snowden problems winning government contracts and is even raising prices as Snowden fades into its distant corporate memory.
Open Thread: Yes, the Corporate Persons Are Doing NicelyPost + Comments (45)
Open Thread: Sean Parker’s Festival of Cheese & Whine
Talk about the gift that keeps on giving — here’s crool sophisticate NYMag once again mocking Facebook billionaire Sean Parker’s “Tolkien inspired” wedding:
Mean Bloggers Forced Sean Parker to Cancel His Honeymoon
Tech billionaire Sean Parker’s massive, medieval-themed wedding earlier this summer — about which the world’s longest blog post has already been written — was a resplendent festival of dorkishness. According to a new photo spread in Vanity Fair, the wedding — which was attended by the likes of Girls star Allison Williams, Square founder Jack Dorsey, and Metallica drummer (and former Parker nemesis) Lars Ulrich — featured an impromptu performance by Sting, a “feast pavilion,” a nine-foot-tall wedding cake, and a lounge area with beds covered in fur pelts….
Also per Vanity Fair, for extra schadenfreude:
For the first dance, the groom serenaded the bride with a song from The Little Mermaid: “Look at this trove, treasures untold / How many wonders can one cavern hold?” Sean Parker, the billionaire Internet wizard who helped create Napster and Facebook, knew the lyrics by heart…
…In the end, the couple canceled their honeymoon to do damage control….
While Parker is said to claim both Tolkien and steampunk as inspiration, if the VF photos are to be believed, the actual production seems to have been a bastardization of late-1880s Aesthetic design as reimagined by Herb Ritts. Just imagine Oscar Wilde ‘dipping his pen in acid’ to write up the event…
Open Thread: Sean Parker’s Festival of Cheese & WhinePost + Comments (58)