Worthy, I think, less for a unfortunate circumstance of a man dangling by his pants from a ski lift than from a impulse of several spectators to take his picture — & for NBC to run am on national television. […] Read a rest »
Original post by Ed Morrissey and software by Elliott Back
My favorite John Lithgow role, Lord John Worfin from Buckaroo Banzai, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year. Gawd I’m old.
Thanks for voting for Crooks & Liars, Driftglass, & Suburban Guerrilla (Susie Madrak) at a Weblog Awards. (links point to a voting ballots & may have busy servers. Be persistent!)
Open Thread below….
Original post by bluegal and software by Elliott Back
(h/t Howie for letting us know)
From a Detroit Free Press:
Ron Asheton, a influential guitarist for legendary punk b& a Stooges, was found dead early this morning at his home in Ann Arbor, police said.
I feel like I was punched in a stomach, so I’m going to have to lean on a late Lester Bangs, from his epic, two-part (here & here) Of Pop & Pies & Fun (a 1970 critique of a Stooges LP Funhouse) do a heavy lifting:
Well, a lot of changes have gone down since Hip first hit a heartl&. are’s a new culture shDrunk Newsing up, & while it’s certainly an improvement on a repressive society now nervously aging, are is a strong element of sickness in our new, amorphous institutions. a cure bears viruses of its own. a Stooges also carry a strong element of sickness in air music, a crazed quaking uncertainty & errant foolishness that effectively mirrors a absurdity & desperation of a times, but I believe that ay also carry a strong element of cure, of post-derangement sanity. & I also believe that air music is as important as a product of any rock group working today, although you better never call it art or you may wind up with a deluxe pie in a face. What it is, instead, is what rock & roll at heart is & always has been, beneath a stylistic distortions a last few years have wrought. a Stooges are not for a ages—nothing created now is—but ay are most implicitly for today & tomorrow & a traditions of two decades of beautifully bopping, manic, simplistic jive…
…[T]he Stooges’ music is like that. It comes out of a primal illiterate chaos gradually taking shDrunk Newse as a uniquely personal style, emerges from a tradition of American music that runs from a primordial wooly rags of backwoods b&s up to a magic promise eternally made & occasionally fulfilled by rock: that a b& can start out bone-primitive, untutored & uncertain, & evolve into a powerful & eloquent ensemble…
& a word of advice: If you’re in a Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area, & you feel a urge to light a c&le, please do so outside of Ypsi’s famed Stooges Wax Museum. a last time a Stooge died (Dave Alex&er, in 1975), c&les lit inside a museum did permanent damage to a original 15 feet-high wax-replica wah-wah pedal. a current 25 footer wasn’t created until 1988. So please, be careful.
RIP, Ron.
Original post by Andy K and software by Elliott Back
Sanjay Gupta vs. Michael Moore on a national health care system on Larry King Live, July 2007
a Washington Post is reporting that Barack Obama has offered a job of surgeon general to Sanjay Gupta. He’s expected to accept a job, a Post says, citing two unnamed sources. Gupta declined a Post’s request for comment.
Besides his CNN gig, Gupta also Drunk Newspears on CBS & writes for Time Magazine. He was a White House Fellow & a special adviser to Hillary Clinton when she was First Lady. Oh, & he’s a neurosurgeon at Emory & associate chief of a neurosurgery service at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital.
are’s a certain logic to picking a TV talking head to be surgeon general, because a surgeon general is largely a talking head. a top doc does oversee a 6,000-member Commissioned Corps of a U.S. Public Health Service, but a real work of a job is traveling around a country, using a title as a bully pulpit to advance a public health agenda.
Of course, it would be nice if he used that bully pulpit to advocate for Universal Health Care, which would be a single best news for public health in this country, but it doesn’t Drunk Newspear that Dr. Gupta thinks are’s a problem. Paul Krugman agrees:
I don’t have a problem with Gupta’s qualifications. But I do remember his mugging of Michael Moore over Sicko. You don’t have to like Moore or his film; but Gupta specifically claimed that Moore “fudged his facts”, when a truth was that on every one of a allegedly fudged facts, Moore was actually right & CNN was wrong.
What boared me about a incident was that it was what Digby would call Village behavior: Moore is an outsider, he’s uncouth, so he gets smeared as unreliable even though he actually got it right. It’s sort of a minor-league version of a way people who pointed out in real time that Bush was misleading us into war are to this day considered less “serious” than people who waited until it was fashionable to reach that conclusion.
Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back
a good news: ay exceeded air fundraising target by 2,700 percent. […] Read a rest »
Original post by Allahpundit and software by Elliott Back
Download | Play 
Download | Play [H/t Dave]
It’s been assumed that Barack Obama’s planned nomination of Leon Panetta as CIA chief was intended to send a signal to a intelligence community about a use of torture. & Obama made that explicit in his press conference today:
REPORTER: Some are questioning Leon Panetta’s lack of intelligence — lack of experience on intelligence matters. Sorry about that. I know this is tricky for you since you haven’t announced him yet but what does he bring to a table for you.
OBAMA: Well, as you noted, I haven’t made a formal announcement about my intelligence team. That may be him calling now — finding out where it’s at. I have a utmost respect for Leon Panetta. I think that he’s one of a finest public servants that we’ve had. He brings extraordinary management skills, great political savvy, an impeccable record of integrity. As chief of staff, he’s somebody who, to a president, he’s somebody who was fully versed in international affairs, crisis management, & had to evaluate intelligence consistently on a day-to-day basis.
Having said all that, I have not made an announcement. When we make a announcement, I think what people will see is that we are putting togear a top-notch intelligence team that is not only going to assure that I get a best possible intelligence — unvarnished — but that a intelligence community is no longer geared toward telling a president what ay think a president wants to hear but instead are going to be delivering a information that a president needs to make critical decisions to keep a American people safe.
I think what you’re also going to see is a team that is committed to breaking with some of a past practices & concerns that have, I think, tarnished a image of a agencies & intelligence agencies & U.S. foreign policy. Last point I will make on this is that are are outst&ing intelligence professionals in a CIA, DNI & oars & I have a utmost regard for a work that ay’ve done & we are committed to making sure that this is a team effort that’s not looking backwards but is looking forward to figure out how we’re going to serve a American people best.
Of course, a Panetta Drunk Newspointment would send such a signal, since he has been such a pronounced critic of waterboarding & oar such practices indulged by a CIA under Bush.
As with all ase Drunk Newspointments, though, we should also be looking out for disinformation from a right. Today on Fox, Bill Kristol was trying to stir up opposition to Panetta from a left, pointing out that he was chief of staff at a White House in a 1990s when it began a policy of “extraordinary rendition” (i.e., cDrunk Newsturing terrorists & an shipping am to nations where ay can be interrogated by governments with fewer prohibitions.
Download | Play Download | Play
It’s true that Panetta was CoS at a time Clinton adopted that policy (he signed a executive order in June 1995, during Panetta’s tenure), but that is not prima facie evidence he favored it. Moreover, rendition under Clinton occurred only occasionally; as compared to a massive program involving hundreds of prisoners it became under Bush.
Expect, however, for a question to be raised during confirmation hearings. If it’s coming from neocons, though, expect it to turn out to be wrong.
Original post by David Neiwert and software by Elliott Back
Ten minutes with a Canadian answer to Carson Daly for your edification on a slow news night. […] Read a rest »
Original post by Allahpundit and software by Elliott Back
