Category: Deep political thought

The Shit Monsoon: Repairs revisited

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 16 Comments
At left, fresh vinyl in the laundry room; at right, new tile in the crapper (though still no crapper).

Yesterday was a perfect day for a bike ride. The temperatures peaked somewhere in the upper 70s, I had a tailwind for most of the uphill bits, and it even rained a bit during the homebound stretch. I didn’t have a rain jacket, but I didn’t care, because it felt great. Plus the bike had fenders.

Good thing I made time for cycling, too. Because today, after nearly three months of not much happening as regards restoration of the basement following The Shit Monsoon of Memorial Day Weekend, not one but two crews showed up to lay tile and vinyl. Tomorrow comes the carpet, and later this week, the toilet and vanity. Good times.

The downside — and there always is one — is that it is another beautiful day for cycling, yet here I sit, enjoying a symphony of jackhammers and saws, because Herself has pissed off to Denver for a meeting and there is no one else to mind the store. The cats are notoriously unreliable in such matters, and Mister Boo would be down there happily eating adhesive and grout because he thinks everything is food. Swear to God. He’d scarf down a bowl of cat piss and sawdust as though it were steak tartare.

Speaking of folks who will swallow anything, David Stockman isn’t one of them — not when it comes to Paul Ryan and his alleged budget “plan.” Ronnie Raygun’s OMB chief ripped Ryan a new one in The New York Times, and Ed Kilgore of Political Animal adds his personal touch to the bits and pieces he quotes.

Over at The Nation, meanwhile. John Nichols takes the opportunity to contrast Ryan’s Randite vision with Wisconsin’s progressive tradition.

And at The Maddow Blog, Steve Benen calls out Ryan for hypocrisy, noting that while he was raising against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Ryan was right there with his hand out like everyone else.

Robot-Zombie 2012

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 20 Comments

The RomneyBot v2.012 has picked Charlie Pierce’s “zombie-eyed granny-starver,” Paul Ryan, to be its running mate. And as usual, Mr. Pierce nails both the timing of the announcement and what it means.

Meanwhile, the fine folks at Political Animal remind us of Ryan’s pedigree and plans for us:

• Ed Kilgore says the RomneyBot’s choice “makes the task of exposing Mitt Romney’s agenda for the future of the country — already mortgaged to the conservative movement as the price of his nomination — vastly easier.”

• Ryan Cooper revives Jonathan Chait’s profile of the ZEGS in New York magazine.

• And James Fallows, writing for The Atlantic, calls it a “good” choice, but reminds the press corps to avoid terming Ryan’s crackpottery “serious.”

Over at The Maddog Blog, meanwhile, PA alum Steve Benen says the RomneyBot’s pick means voters will be voting not on whether the Obama administration has been a success, but on the right-wing ass-hattery of the Robot-Zombie “vision.”

And at Mother Jones, David Corn says Ryan is the GOP vice-presidential candidate of Obama’s dreams.

Myself, I’d caution against overconfidence in the analytical ability of the American electorate, which has shown a disturbing hunger for the taste of bullshit in recent election cycles. Plenty of people heehawed at the notion of a faux-redneck trouser stain from Texas making it to the White House, as you may recall.

More as I unearth it.

Democrats sighted in Bibleburg; film at 11

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 12 Comments

That coffee-colored fella from Washington DeeCee, Barack Hussein Obama, the fabled Kenyan Muslim socialist Antichrist who’s gonna snatch up all our guns and give ’em to the United Nations, the North American Man/Boy Love Association and The New York Times, will be addressing the Democratic hordes of Bibleburg tomorrow, and Your Humble Narrator and Herself will be among those in attendance.

Tickets were free, but had to be picked up in advance, and since much of bright-red Bibleburg still calls Abraham Lincoln a RINO for freeing the slaves I figured this would be about as tough a hustle as scoring duckets for a N.W.A. reunion concert in Branson, Missouri.

There were two pickup spots. The first was Colorado College, the site of tomorrow’s presidential address and an easy walk or bike ride from Chez Dog. The other was the Obama for America office up north in Briargate, a 20-minute drive at the best of times — and the announced pickup time of 5 p.m. is never the best of times. The rule of thumb in these parts is never head north on Interstate 25 after about 3 p.m. unless you really, really, really like your car, especially its first gear.

Herself was working in Denver and motored straight to the Briargate location for her ticket, and what with the honkified north end of town being Romney country she was in and out in a flash. I chose the Colorado College location, an easy five-minute trip by bike, and stood in line for about an hour and a half with a couple thousand of my deeply blue brethren and sistren. Another real-world proof of the Larry’s Wife Theorem®.

This afternoon I took the Vespa for a spin past CC en route to the Colorado Farm and Art Market for a passel of Doug Wiley’s Larga Vista Ranch pasture-raised pork and the security types have the place fenced off in a fashion that would make an Arizona Minuteman smile, until he remembered why.

Tomorrow we’ll ride our bikes down to CC to catch the prez in person. I don’t believe I’ve seen an occupant of the Oval Orifice in corpus since LBJ visited Randolph AFB when I was a sprout. Should be interesting. I’ll have a couple cameras and the iPhone; maybe I can post a little sumpin’-sumpin’ from the scene.

 

Sky high

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 29 Comments

Wow. Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome crushed it today in the Tour’s first big time trial, opening up a 10-gallon-can of whup-ass on Cadel Evans and everyone else — including El Fabuloso, Fabian Cancellara, who must be pinching himself to see whether he’s still asleep and having a nightmare.

I was over at Red Kite Prayer, helping Charles “Live Update Guy” Pelkey track the race for our friends sentenced to cubicle farms worldwide, and we had a record haul in terms of contributions to the tip jar— in no small part to some silly little hooter logged on as Two700c, who complained about “politics” being injected into the play-by-play (oddly enough, it was one of our least political live updates ever).

Two700c slagged me in a snippy note to Charles, which goes to show you that not even the anonymity of the Internet is comfort enough for at least one timid Tea Bagger. Still, I feel obliged to thank him for helping us rake in a pile of coin. I’ll be donating a portion of the proceeds to the Democratic Socialists of America.

If you’re not already joining us for the daily live updates, swing on by. Always room for another pinko in the Party photo.

But it’s not all politics, all the time. Today, for example, I reprised one of my favorite National Lampoon covers to urge readers to contribute to the Cause.

If you don’t support this website, we’ll kill this dog.