James is in town, visiting Gotham. What should he do while he’s here? Tell us about your favorite things in New York City in comments. (And the usual election chatter, too, of course.)
P.S. If you haven’t yet, please take the BlogAds reader survey. So far, 36 people have filled it out. I’d love to get up to 50. Thank you so much!
In the white room, with black curtains, near the station,
Black roof country, no gold pavements, tired starlings,
Silver horses ran down moonbeams in your dark eyes.
Dawn light smiles on you leaving, my contentment.
Inhofe, speaking to the press before Cheney’s arrival, lambasted Democrats for Thursday’s Senate vote to begin withdrawal from Iraq by Oct. 1 and the press for “mischaracterizing” the reasons for U.S. involvement.“The whole idea of weapons of mass destruction was never the issue, yet they keep trying to bring this up,” Inhofe said.
When asked why Gen. Colin Powell, then U.S. secretary of state, told the United Nations in 2003 that such weapons posed an imminent danger, Inhofe replied: “I can’t answer that. In fact, I’ve never been one of the real strong fans of General Powell.”
Pressed for an explanation, Inhofe said weapons of mass destruction were “incidental” to the decision to invade Iraq.
“The media made that the issue because they knew Saddam Hussein had used weapons of mass destruction. So we knew that they were there. But that was incidental to the fact we were going after terrorist camps.”
If this is what Republicans and braying idiot pundits call “serious people” on the issue of national security and foreign policy, the lunatics have indeed taken over the asylum. (H/T: Senate 2008 Guru)
Given that I’ve been cramming for exams all day, I don’t have much on my radar as far as discussion items go, but here’s one thing: what the heck is up with Bob Kerrey?
Share what’s on your mind.
I can’t believe it, but I just finished the last day of classes for my degree. While it’s a relief, it’s a bit surreal to be finishing college.
I’m going to be going into semi-bunker mode during the next couple of weeks while I write my exams, but I don’t anticipate that the level of posting will dry up too badly, because I was already keeping up with a hectic schedule for the last couple of weeks to begin with!
So, do tell: what’s on your mind?
Friday Night Discussion Items:
Since I had so much fun last time, I figure it’s high time for another music-related open thread.
Here’s what’s been in my CD player this week. As you can tell, I’ve been on a real power pop kick lately:
Big Star – #1 Record/Radio City (1972/1974, Ardent; r: 1992, Stax)
Cheap Trick – Rockford (2006, Big3) [Surprisingly, the best CT record since Heaven Tonight. This flat-out rocks.]
Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home (1965, Columbia; r: 2003, Sony)
The Flamin Groovies – Shake Some Action (1976, Aim; r: 2005, DBK)
Mudhoney – Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles (1990, Sub Pop)
The Posies – Frosting on the Beater (1993, DGC)
Screaming Trees – Ocean of Confusion: 1989-1996 (2005, Epic)
Sloan – Never Hear The End Of It (2006, Murder/Sony)
What have you been listening to lately? And is anyone else as excited as I am about Trent Reznor’s upcoming Orwellian dystopia, Year Zero?
(Bumped. – promoted by James L.)
Q: How bad do you think it’s gonna be?
A: Pretty goddamn bad. Probably all the other Families will line up against us. That’s alright – this thing’s gotta happen every five years or so – ten years – helps to get rid of the bad blood. Been ten years since the last one. You know you got to stop them at the beginning, like they should have stopped Hitler at Munich, They should never’ve let him get away with that. They were just asking for big trouble.
Saturday Night Discussion Items (James):
The ex-cons belong to traditionally Democratic demographics — many are African-American, and many are poor. If they’re allowed to vote, they’ll likely go to the polls at lower rates than everyone else; Uggen and Manza’s work suggests felons turn out to vote at about the half the general turnout rate in any given election. But in a state as closely divided politically as Florida, that could still make all the difference. In the past several decades, say Uggen and Manza, at least two Senate races in Florida would have gone to Democrats instead of Republicans had felons had the right to vote. Buddy McKay would have beaten Connie Mack in 1988, and Betty Castor would have beaten Mel Martinez in 2004. And, of course, the 2000 presidential election would have gone to Al Gore. Uggen and Manza’s research suggests Gore might have picked up 60,000 votes from felons.
In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the… Anyone? Anyone?… the Great Depression, passed the… Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered?… raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression. Today we have a similar debate over this. Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before? The Laffer Curve. Anyone know what this says? It says that at this point on the revenue curve, you will get exactly the same amount of revenue as at this point. This is very controversial. Does anyone know what Vice President Bush called this in 1980? Anyone? Something-d-o-o economics. “Voodoo” economics.
(Bumped. – promoted by DavidNYC)
You are… my density.
PC Load Letter? What the f*** does that mean?
My internet access at home is on the fritz, so I might as well put up an open thread while I still have the chance.
Lots of buzz around the tubes lately, from Chuck Hagel retirement/Presidential chatter to the netroots scoring a big win over Fox News. Also, if you missed DavidNYC‘s front page action alert on DailyKos targeting ethically-challenged Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM), please check it out and help prod the House into initiating an ethics investigation against Wilson.
What’s on your mind lately?
UPDATE: A little birdie tells me that Darcy Burner (D) has just filed for a rematch against Rep. Dave Reichert (R) in WA-08.
UPDATE 2: The Wall Street Journal speculates that Woody Jenkins, who narrowly lost a bitterly disputed election in 1996 to Mary Landrieu, will challenge her for the seat once again this year. Jenkins last ran statewide in 1999, for his bid for Louisiana Commissioner of Elections (which he lost to fellow Republican Suzanne Terrell). It remains to be seen whether or not Jenkins still has enough mojo to get the Republican nomination (remember, Louisiana is now using a closed-primary system for federal offices).
UPDATE 3 (David): Another former netroots candidate, Erica Massa (NY-29), is throwing his hat back in the ring for a rematch against “Shotgun” Randy Kuhl.