Open Thread
By bluegal Monday Dec 07, 2009 8:30pm
Would more people pay attention to Afghanistan if we drafted Tiger Woods? Click here for larger image.
Open Thread below...
bp
Open Thread
By bluegal Friday Oct 23, 2009 7:30pm
For the low, low price of $12.99, you can own a high quality 4X6 lustre print of Peggy Noonan, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, James Baker, and Henry Kissinger snubbing John McCain at the Reagan Foundation Dinner held at the US Capitol Building.
It's brought to you by Washington Life Magazine, which has it categorized on its "blog" under, and I am not making this up, "Pol-lywood Events."
Some days, satire just fails me.
Open Thread below....
Open Thread
By bluegal Monday Sep 28, 2009 7:30pm
Mrs. Palin, it MUST be a typo: your publisher's press release says your upcoming book is called "Going Rogue." That can't be true...that's a French word. Whoops, so's "rouge." Oh, whatEVER!
But why did your publisher let us know the title during "Banned Books Week" instead of "Remaindered Books Week"? Is it time to quit your publicist?
Open thread below...
Open Thread/Caption This Photo
By bluegal Saturday Sep 26, 2009 7:30pm
I came across this photo and sent it to my Photoshopper buddies for magic or captioning. Driftglass calls it "Wasilla's Sense of Snowe," and the photoshops came in from Zaius, Tengrain, D-Cap, Darkblack, and Mark Hoback at Fried Green Al-Qaedas.
Open Thread and your captions below (keep it clean).
Leaked Memos: Lockerbie Bomber Was Traded for BP Drilling Rights
By Susie Madrak Monday Aug 31, 2009 5:00amSo apparently punishing terrorists (assuming we had the right people in the first place) isn't quite as important as U.S. and British officials make it seem. It's all about the oil, baby!
The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.
Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.
The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely criticised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahi’s release.
The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests.
Edward Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: “This is the strongest evidence yet that the British government has been involved for a long time in talks over al-Megrahi in which commercial considerations have been central to their thinking.”
Two letters dated five months apart show that Straw initially intended to exclude Megrahi from a prisoner transfer agreement with Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, under which British and Libyan prisoners could serve out their sentences in their home country.
Downing Street had also said Megrahi would not be included under the agreement.
Straw then switched his position as Libya used its deal with BP as a bargaining chip to insist the Lockerbie bomber was included.
The exploration deal for oil and gas, potentially worth up to £15 billion, was announced in May 2007. Six months later the agreement was still waiting to be ratified.
Backstage Weekend - Tom Waits at The Troubadour, Hollywood - August 16, 1975
By Gordonskene Friday Aug 21, 2009 10:06pmYou can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!
DOWNLOADS: 143
PLAYS: 47
(Tom Waits - perfect for an August night - even 35 years ago)
I originally ran a short clip of this concert some months back, but promised I would run the whole thing as soon as the snappy C&L embed player got hooked up. Well now that it is, and we're 35 years past the exact day of the show, I thought I would put it up now so you can finally hear the whole thing.
If you heard the earlier excerpted version, you know what a great show this is - vintage Waits and his second set of the night.
A caveat - we had some mic problems that night, most notably a radio mic that was picking up the acoustic guitar. It was sounding weird and causing some hum and we eventually had to dump it mid-way through the set. But it's a small inconvenience and I've tried working around it so it's not all that noticeable.
At any rate - it's a great concert and a memorable night with Tom Waits at The Troubadour during its heyday on August 16, 1975.
Open Thread
By driftglass Thursday Jul 16, 2009 7:30pm
The Onion (edited for safe-for-work viewing, see original here) finally gets the 40-year-old headline right. The interactive website commemorating today's anniversary is worth the click.
40 years ago we were a nation that spent billions of dollars on the crap shoot of putting three men on top of 3,200 tons of hellfire wrapped in an aluminum skin and firing the whole thing at a dead rock 240,000 miles away because our destiny demanded it.
40 years later we are a nation that will not spend billions to keep its 300 million citizens alive, healthy and productive because the insurance industry lobbyists who own our politicians forbid it.
[Blue Gal's taking the night off to celebrate her birthday. Have a good one, BG.] Open Thread in comments...
Open Thread
By bluegal Saturday Jul 04, 2009 7:30pm
Decision Day on California's Prop 8: Updated
By David Neiwert Monday May 25, 2009 3:00pm
Rainbow Bear Flag by Gilbert Baker
Ed. note: We're cross-posting this insightful piece by my co-blogger at Orcinus, Sara Robinson, today on the coming Prop. 8 ruling. Sign up with The Courage Campaign to receive an email about the decision the moment it is announced.
By Sara Robinson
Tomorrow is D-Day in California: the day that the state’s Supreme Court will render its decision on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the initiative passed last November to put an end to legal gay marriage in the state.
Nobody has a clue which way they’re likely to rule. Activists on both sides have been scrying the tea leaves and chicken bones on this ever since the court heard the case back in March, but have divined nothing. But there’s one forecast I can offer right now: if Prop 8 is overturned by the courts, the backlash from the right is likely to be far more ferocious and intense than anybody on the left reckons right now.
In recent weeks, I’ve been in discussions with some of the state’s gay leadership about how the hardcore right across the country is likely to react if Prop 8 is overturned. From their viewpoint, even a loss in the courts will only be a momentary setback. In that case, they’ll simply put the issue back on the ballot, over and over, for as long as it takes to regain their right to marry. They know (and the most recent polls support them in this) that time, demographics, and the generally tolerant culture of California are all on their side. They may or may not be able to outspend the Mormons and the Catholics; but they know for sure that they can outwait them.
For that reason, they’re not particularly worried about the right-wing reaction to a decision in their favor. In their view, victory is (sooner or later) preordained. In the long run, the anti-gay-marriage forces are fighting a losing battle. If they’re not irrelevant now, they will be soon. And so they’re not much worried about that.
But they should be.
Yes, the right wing is losing on gay rights issues. That is, very precisely, why they’re more dangerous now than they have been in the past. Their impending irrelevance is not a reason to worry less; it’s a reason to worry more. And getting Prop 8 overturned in the courts would ignite the situation, because it will hit absolutely every angry-making right-wing button there is:
Open Thread
By driftglass Friday May 08, 2009 7:30pmNow that Joe's run away, do we have to re-shoot The Wingnut Family photo?
First row seated (L - R): Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck.
Second row standing (L - R): Joe the Quitter, Rupert Murdoch, Brit Hume.
Open Thread below....
