Per aspera

That’s not an ad over there in the sidebar.  I mean, it is an ad, but it’s not like anyone’s paying me for it.  I threw up a link to order Greg Palast’s new book because I like his work and think it’s important, and believe that all right-thinking sons and daughters of liberty should […]

John Rogers, blogging at Kung Fu Monkey:
There is truth in the idea that soldiers are our designated warriors. But the accidental revelation in these attitudes is the bizarre concept that by soldiers choosing a life of taking risks on our behalf, these war supporters are somehow absolved of any responsibility to them other than emotional […]

I think Fred Rogers was a great man.  I think greatness is often an emergent property, as it was in Mr. Rogers’ case, of a lifetime committed to goodness.
Crooks and Liars has a clip up of Fred Rogers’ testimony before Congress in 1971, opposing cutbacks to the funding of Public Broadcasting.  He speaks to senators […]

Scott Lemieux has a post about the panty-sniffing article about the Clintons’ sex life that the New York Times put on the front page Tuesday Sunday, above the fold.
To those of you who think this entry exists only so I can link to a post that makes reference to a Rilo Kiley song in its […]

From Warren Ellis’ “Bad Signal” email:
There’s a bit in one of the later Jack Ryan books — and you’re damn right I read them all, those things sold in the multimillions and were acting on the heads of a mass audience like no-one since Stephen King — where a general says to Ryan, “we will […]

The indispensable Dave Neiwert:
You know, I think I was just talking about how the anti-immigration movement is increasingly drawing its material from the white-supremacist right …

The source for that image, as you can barely make out, is the Council of Conservative Citizens, a racist hate group.
What’s on the news is not an “immigration debate.”  This […]

“Even Baby Jesus accepted gifts, and I don’t believe it corrupted him.”
- North Carolina State Senator Drew Saunders (D)
Now THAT’S how you weasel yourself a higher donation-reporting limit!  God damn.  It’s your world, Sen. Saunders, we just live in it.
(via Pandagon)

Apparently, you get to 29% in the polls, and the crazy gets so deep you reach for the Mike Dukakis playbook.

This morning I read that the Senate has voted to make English the official language of the United States.  Apparently there’s suddenly such a crisis in Republican poll numbers immigration that we need an official language for the first time in our nation’s history.  James Inhofe, rock-stupid Senator from Oklahoma, was the sponsor, and the […]

Hot damn: 
WASHINGTON, May 18 /U.S. Newswire/ — House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.), along with Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and others, today introduced bipartisan legislation to preserve Internet freedom and competition. Over the last decade, the Internet has revolutionized the manner in which Americans access and transmit a broad range […]

Bird flu’s coming, and we live in a banana republic.  The government’s taking a market-based approach to preparation (”People will help each other out!  It’ll be like a country-wide Amish barn-raising of disaster relief!  You’ll be happy about bird flu before it’s all over!  Government help?  I guess we’ll probably arrest some looters or something, at […]

In a Political Animal post about John Conyers responding sensibly to the press’ totally liberally-biased repetition of the Republican talking point about how the Democrats will IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH if the voters are foolish enough to elect them this fall, I read this:
When I asked some prominent Democrats how the party should conduct oversight if […]

Digby has a graphic s/he says is circulating in conservative circles:

Awesome.  “Wait!  The conclusion that they’re huge fuck-ups is unavoidable?  Uh, they’re liberals!  They suck therefore they’re liberals!  Ah, that feels better.”
Rats fleeing a sinking ship.

It shines! It shines upon my sodden city! Oh, it is lovely and bright.

And since I’m all about fostering understanding, here’s some crib notes for Christianity, to help our Big-City Reporter friends understand where all those folks down the church are coming from:
The Pope
The Pope is the President of Christianity. He is elected every four years by the Congress of Cardinals, which is divided into the Senate and […]