Friday Stuff

Geez oh man, it looks like it’s all BENGHAZI BENGHAZI BENGHAZI BENGHAZI anymore among our Beltway media political industrial complex, as noted here – easier to focus on that I guess instead of “dumb” stuff like, y’know, the deterioration of our environment, decreased opportunities for our kids graduating from colleges and the overall collapse of the middle class while we descend into an utter plutocracy.

With that in mind, I think this is a timely clip once more (and this is about as much of Charles Cooke as I can tolerate, by the way – always worth it to hear Glenn Greenwald, though)…



…and the contest for the next mayor of Newark, NJ is something that is barely on my radar, as it were, but I still think that it’s important to give a bit of a push to Ras Baraka, if for no other reason than the fact that his opponent is a pal of “Governor Bully,” as noted in the ad (here)…



…and I don’t want to let the week end without nothing these recent laudable words from retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens (and bravo to Cenk for this)…



...and from the “disillusioned words like bullets bark” file (here), I give you this.

Thursday Stuff

(I also posted here.)

After watching this video, I think it’s safe to say that Heartland CEO Joe Bast’s pulmonologist must have obtained his medical degree from inside a box of Cracker Jacks (great work from Lee Fang, practicing actual journalism – shocking! – as opposed to this idiocy…more here)…



…and once again, paging the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops – zzzzzzzz…



…and after watching this, I cannot possible imagine how anyone can defend capital punishment…



…though somehow I guess Paul Ryan and Mary Fallin (and the ridiculously misnamed Mike "Christian") manage to sleep at night – one of life’s mysteries as far as I’m concerned.

Wednesday Stuff

Kudos to the Rutgers students protesting Our Gal Condi’s commencement speech there next month (here) – yep, we know what it probably will amount to in the end, but the protest matters…



Update 5/3/14: Geez, I was wrong (it happens) - score one for our side (here - yeah, Rice is a "distraction"...yeah, that's it).

…and by the way, I’ll "see" the wingnuts the Leland Yee stuff and "raise" them this, in terms of stories supposedly not covered by our national media, which I think would present Not Your Father’s Republican Party in yet another unfavorable light, and richly deserved too (commentary is a bit snarky and NSFW also, but I think it’s fundamentally right)…



…and I don’t know what happened to the clip in the beginning of President Obama – kind of broke up a bit – but the rest of the video is well done; kudos to Mayor Reed, who is quite correct to emphasize what needs to be done to the congressional Republicans who continue, in their dunderheaded stupidity, to block a federal increase in the minimum wage…



…and is anyone in the mood for kind of a perversely dreamy tune loosely inspired by a “spaghetti western” or two from days gone by? Well, tough – here it is anyway.

Tuesday Stuff

Herman Cain, where art thou – how quickly they forget, and rightly so (and by the way, I thought this was a nice article about TV’s real “pizza man” and his pals)...



…and gosh, whaddaya know? It’s not just filthy, unkempt liberal blogger types such as yours truly arguing this stuff (and this definitely helps too)…



…and Ed Schultz gives us the latest on the TPP, which (God willing) isn’t going to go anywhere…



...and can’t everybody just LEAVE PAUL SIMON AND EDIE BRICKELL ALOOOONE??!! (here, and yes, I’m kidding).

Monday Stuff

I thought this was about as even-handed a commentary on Not Your Father’s Republican Party and the Dems as you can expect from Bill Maher (yes, I know he needs to present the “other side,” but I’ll never understand why he chooses to confer legitimacy on Charles Murray by letting him appear on the show...and yes, NSFW)…



…and Joy Reid brings a little historical perspective to the mess with Donald Sterling, apparently bigoted owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team (and kudos to the players for this, as Reid notes)…



…and even though the climate crisis is most definitely not a game, I thought this was a well done-presentation (hat tip to C&L)…



…and happy belated birthdays to Jim James and Patrick Hallahan of My Morning Jacket.