Bye The Times

Permalink | Comments

as his treatment of Paul Krugman - and subsequent petulant and huffy “defenses” of same - show. There is no excuse for the hatchet job the coward did in his final column; a column where he libeled Krugman with no specific examples and runs away before giving anyone a chance to respond.

Typical, and what we’ve come to expect, but still cowardly nonetheless. Krugman’s pissed (as well he should be), and is pursuing this in every forum available, including, I believe, a live debate somewhere soon. Right now there’s an ongoing public email/forum exchange. Brad DeLong posts on the matter, including some responses to Okrent’s mendaciousness and simple wrongheadedness.

Not to mention the fact that Okrent has apparently been having long, loving exchanges with Donald “NRO whackjob” Luskin.

Our e-mail correspondence on Krugman totals almost 40,000 words (some of which was “off the record,” so I’m using my judgment here in determining what portions are fair to reveal now that Okrent’s tenure as “public editor” is over). Yes, I’m the one Okrent was talking about when he referred to “Krugman’s enemies.”

Okrent comes across pretty clearly as an unvarnished petty little asshole, and it’s not an unclear image there that he’s projecting.

Permalink | Comments

He was doing an “undercover investigation” for his school newspaper. Along the way, he enlisted the help of his 11yo sister and his mom. Among the things the recruiters helped him do:

• get a drug clean-out kit (he said he was high and couldn’t kick the habit)
• get a high school diploma from a diploma mill

The premise was simple: McSwane would try to join the Army as a high school dropout with an insatiable fondness for marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms. No matter how stoned and stupid McSwane acted, a pair of recruiters wouldn’t wouldn’t let him go.

The recruiters are desperate due to the manpower demands of an elective war of imperialism begun by this administration. They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, and the blame all goes to duhbya.

Permalink | Comments

It was Felt

Permalink | Comments

as told by emoticons based on text from The Washington Note.

Permalink | Comments

Cheney says Iraq insurgency in ‘last throes’… which is apparent because of their increasing effectiveness, open operation, infliction of casualties, and persistence.

I don’t know if he’s a fool, dissasociative, or handled by some old Howard Hughes men (probably all three), but this is ridiculous. I thought the Orwellian/Monty Python Black Guard statements were merely posturing for the 2004 election, knowing that the sheeple of this country wouldn’t bother to find out if he was lying. Guess I was wrong.

Permalink | Comments

Two days after winning reelection last fall, President Bush declared that he had earned plenty of “political capital, and now I intend to spend it.” Six months later, according to Republicans and Democrats alike, his bank account has been significantly drained.

In the past week alone, the Republican-led House defied his veto threat and passed legislation promoting stem cell research; Senate Democrats blocked confirmation, at least temporarily, of his choice for U.N. ambassador; and a rump group of GOP senators abandoned the president in his battle to win floor votes for all of his judicial nominees.

“There is growing sense of frustration with the president and the White House, quite frankly,” said an influential Republican member of Congress. “The term I hear most often is ‘tin ear,’ ” especially when it comes to pushing Social Security so aggressively at a time when the public is worried more about jobs and gasoline prices. “We could not have a worse message at a worse time.”

Couldn’t happen to a nicer, not, guy.
So much business as usual in the Bush White House.

Permalink | 1 Comment

Ladies, stereotypes aside, sometimes men just don’t want to put out. We are not machines.

A Texas woman faces a misdemeanor assault charge for her rough treatment of a man who refused to prolong a recent sex session between the pair. According to the below Travis County Sheriff’s Office affidavit, Jannette Pulido, 23, climbed on top of Frederick Parke and squeezed his genitals after he declined additional trysting.

… which is the nice way of putting…

Jannette then agressively climbed on top of Ben grabbing him by the thrat and stated[sic] “come on fuck me again”. When Ben refused Jannette began verbally abusing Ben and stated the following to him “your[sic] just a looser[sic]“, “you’ll always be a looser[sic]“, “I’m going to cut of[sic] your dick off while your[sic] asleep”, “I’m going to bite off your balls”.

Permalink | Comments

… is braving the mad, sale-inspired crowds at Home Depot, getting an expensive air conditioner, lugging it home, and getting it up the stairs on your own.

Then finding out that it’s broken (cracked) and have to take it back and exchange it. Wash, rinse, repeat.

yarg!

Update: took it back. Got a new one. Moved it in. It didn’t work, plus as an added bonus it took out my power. Fuck that brand. Took it back, refund. Ditched the whole AC thing and have a window fan now. I’m sure I’ll cave again come July, but I’m damn well getting a window model then.

Permalink | Comments

… now featuring product placements in his political ads. What a tool.

Permalink | Comments

After 35 years in prison for stealing a black-and-white television set, Junior Allen is a free man.

Allen, 65, walked out of prison Friday, ending a case that attracted widespread attention because he remained in jail while other inmates convicted of murder, rape or child molestation were released.

Rich Rosen, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law professor who took up Allen’s case three years ago, said it was a shame that Allen had not been released decades ago. “At least he’s got some years left,” Rosen said.

Allen did not meet with the parole commission until January 2004. Prior to that time, his record was reviewed regularly by the commission and denied.

Rosen said the parole commission “hasn’t been able to articulate a reason that Allen wasn’t released.”

“For a black-and-white TV, how much do you have to pay?” Hasberry said. “We’ve got an in-house joke here: How much time would he have gotten if he had stolen a color TV?”

Still not safe to be black and live in a red state…….

Permalink | Comments

With orders of shoot to kill. That’s crazy, yo.

Permalink | Comments

He’s turning into a parody of a parody of the team owner in Major League.

This time? Removing players’ massage chairs from the locker room.

Nobody puts Dunn in a corner! Nobody.

Permalink | Comments

Sitting in the bill that authorized No Child Left Behind is a clause that requires public high schools to provide the names, addresses, and home phone numbers of their students to the military for recruitment purposes. Schools that fail to comply with this requirement are subject to loosing their federal funds.

This provision known as section 9528 was inserted into the No Child Left Behind Act by Rep. David Vitter of Louisiana, who learned from the Pentagon that many public schools had strict privacy policies protecting student information from being released to any outside parties, thus preventing aggressive military recruiting.

Permalink | Comments

The headline pretty much says it all, but … great parody, peeps!

Permalink | 1 Comment