Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2007 > December > 21 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USTom Murphy, an institution with the power
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There is a majesty to the rituals of government, from the sanctity of the oaths neighbors swear to serve their fellow citizens according to the rule of law, to assemblages like the one Friday to pay tribute to former House Speaker Tom Murphy, a man described by the current speaker as “a giant of Georgia politics.”
Combine eloquence and sincerity with the grandeur on the institution that is the Georgia House of Representatives and, whether political friend or adversary, and the farewell is a tribute that honors him the politics of the state he served.
One moment, in particular, stands out.
Both House Speaker Glenn Richardson and his predecessor, Terry Coleman, the lieutenant who served Murphy loyally and patiently before getting a brief opportunity to be speaker, spoke. Below the podium, Murphy’s flag-draped coffin, carried into and out of the chamber by 10 resplendent Georgia State Troopers.
The speaker’s chair directly behind the podium sat empty, draped in black ribbon.
Neither he nor Coleman would occupy it while Murphy was in the chamber, said Richardson.
But the most touching moment came at the end, after both had delivered their eulogies.
Coleman offered prayer “that his legacy of service will forever remain an example and an inspiration to all who serve in public office.”
And then, joined by Richardson, he declared: “I adjourn this service, Sine Die.”
The “Sine Die,” declaration means literally that the proceeding is adjourned without a fixed day to gather again. On the final day of every session, the speaker pronounces it and then rushes from the chamber, pausing for farewell bows, before leaving the floor. It’s a signal that the business of state is over; the business of ordinary life resumes.
It is an old and treasured tradition of the House.
Another Tom Murphy may exist one day. It won’t be in our lifetimes. Coming along now, Tom Murphy couldn’t be Tom Murphy.
When he came to power in 1974, rural white males ruled. The system, like that of Congress, honored seniority. Intelligent and ambitious men willingly accepted long apprenticeships, recognizing that once in power they could enrich their communities with state grants, employees and facilities. It was an orderly world with clear rules and roles: bring Atlanta money home, just as the role of Georgia’s senators and congressmen was to get in positions of power so money from the Northeast could be transferred South.
Murphy adapted when women and blacks came. He did it by ignoring ardent feminists and vocal black activists while drawing in those inclined to work within the system. He had well-publicized road-to-Damacus conversions, often stemming from personal experiences, that caused him to champion aid to Atlanta.
The reality is, however, that even before Murphy left office in 2002, the old rules had changed. His party’s power base had shifted from rural Georgia and had given it a nearly unmanageable coalition of rural whites, blacks and intown liberals. While rural white generally conservative men still dominated, had the Legislature not addressed the concerns of key constituencies, including Atlanta and DeKalb County, he could not have survived.
Murphy became an institution because he became the power in a homogenous institution fighting for independence where rules were clear and legislators were inclined to wait their turn. That House no longer exists. Neither does the Georgia that saw, through the camera’s eye, a rough-hewn autocratic figure who defined its politics. Georgia is a microcosm of the nation. It can’t be led by brute force — or by leaders who effect that style.
At the service for Murphy, the old and the new gathered. Most every living politician of historical significance, men and women whose contributions created the modern Georgia, was there. His life and his service touched them all — from, as Coleman noted, an era of ” post-war turbulence through the dot-com boom — then bust; from spittoons under the desks to lap tops on top of the desks.” No rigid man could have survived to become the longest-serving speaker in the nation’s history. Sine Die.
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By Redneck Convert
December 22, 2007 8:34 AM | Link to this
Well, old Tom was OK till he started working with Those People. That’s when us rednecks turned against him. It was unAmerican the way he helped them out. We needed godly Republicans to nip it in the bud and that’s why he lost his election. He had Democrat after his name and that means librul and that means welfare and civil rights and all that junk. He had to go. He didn’t even fight to keep the Stars and Bars flying over the capital. I hope God will forgive him for all the wrong he done.
Well, I’m headed out for some shopping at WalMart. If you go there be kind to all the rednecks you see cause one of them could be me. Look for the guy wearing the John Deere cap and the overalls with a ladder on his truck.
Merry Christmas, everybody, and I hope TFTT is back on his meds today. I’ll check in later to see if this carpetbagger Glenn and him is still fussing. Maybe this Captain guy will show up again but I doubt it. This Aquagirl is after him something fierce and he better hide out if he knows what’s good for him. Otherwise he’ll be writing out child support checks for the next 18 years. His wife won’t never come home then.
By Another taxpayer
December 22, 2007 9:23 AM | Link to this
Hey Red,
I resemble that statement.
By Dusty
December 22, 2007 9:48 AM | Link to this
Well, it seems RedNeck is doing his usual unercover job out there from Chateau Elan Trailer Park. Sorta funny. Like seeing Mickey Mouse every day. Sorta funny, every… single… day.
If you think I’ve lost the Christmas spirit, no…only slightly. Last night on Lehrer News Hour, I watched Democrat Harry Reid tell us how much Dems in Congress had done done for the country (investigations) and how much they had done for the armed forces (bullet proof vests) and how they supported the troops.
This big “guffaw” came right after Defense Sec. Gates said that the armed forces could not continue successfully with funds coming in little bits at a time, the only way the Democrats willl approve them. Right now, Congress has approved funds only up to March of next year. Long range planning and support for our troops is just not the Demo way.
So, as I watched Harry Reid whine away, my Christmas spirit was taking a beating. While Democrats dither, our troops are over there fighting for us and deserve better than Harry Reid and his likes. So there, stick it in your stocking.
In the meantime, all respects to our departed Tom Murphy, who was a good Democrat. We could use more of those good ones. Cheers!! I promise to be sweet and kind tomorrow……maybe.
By Tiny Tim
December 22, 2007 9:51 AM | Link to this
Speaker Murphy looked the part more than any politician in my memory. That face was southern good-old-boy. That body was two-pint power lunches. That cigar was more at home in his aplomb than in George Burns’s, Groucho’s, or even Fidel’s. Why, it made you feel sorry for Bill Clinton, who no longer dares to be seen with a cigar. The country still needs men like Tom Murphy, (along with a good five cent cigar).
The passing of such a man is the end of an era of life imitating art, for Murphy certainly came from central casting.
I suppose now that he’s gone, Cynthia McKinney is going to dig up and present a gaggle of progeny-and-the-old-hags-who-raised-them to start to chip away at the honor of our beloved speaker. He was a man, after all, and there will be some who can believe such an outrage.
But after we see ourselves remembering Tom Murphy, and watch ourselves burying him, we can all step forward bravely into Georgia Politics from a solid base of tradition and ceremony. Only Mother Nature could silence such a man, but if his earmarks should break a thousand budgets, let them know: This was our finest farceur!
By The AJC is a POS
December 22, 2007 10:14 AM | Link to this
Murphy was part of the corrupt golden dome boys who stole from the rich Atlanta region to give to the rural red necks. He is roasting in hell right now, waiting for his pals from the Golden Dome to join him.
By time for the super cool truth
December 22, 2007 10:59 AM | Link to this
Watching Canus biting and biting and biting like a flaccid sullen bleating COCKroach is enormously amusing. C**anus still doesn’t get it - and that’s mighty revealing from one so anally and smugly self proclaimed to be so freaking cerrrrebraaaal and KKKlever and interlecKKKtual and brainy and smart and everyfinkkk like that.
Goading such pompous pretentious supercilious leftist human scum as this C**anus wanking tosspot is wot true cyber sport is all about!! Any sad fecker that boasts ENDLESSLY about watching vintage jap amateur homosexual porn movies with its poor kid on divorced father supervised access days sure needs a cyber kicking from U’rs truely!!
Such spiteful elitism and arrogance is ALL we ever get from these spittle soaked surrender monkeys. But at least Canus recoknyses that U’rs truely does indeed manage an occasional “nugget in me offal”.
A sh!tload of cheers for that selfless Mammy Theresa like complimeant and condesenncion Canus … U reeeelly is truely the Einstein of the blog and de rest of us hapless mongs aint got no idea bout nothink. U need to start tellin us wot to rite - then we kan all be great Larry Flynt and Adam Sandler like ffinkkkkers jus like U bubbafeckfaceturd!!!
Lessson might beeee wotdefook is a bleedin’ duble negative??!!!
Wot time is ur next masterclass in blogging bollock chops??? PLeese Pleeese Pleese let it be reeeel soon!!!
Happy Mithra’s Berthday n all that sunshine!!
By getalife
December 22, 2007 11:15 AM | Link to this
Stop worshipping the corrupt fossils and wish your posters a Happy Hillary er Holidays Jim.
Geez.
By Glenn
December 22, 2007 11:22 AM | Link to this
tftt,
Would you do me a favor please, and break open your very most special stock of vintage invective for this column?
I’ll be with you shortly, after I towel off. I had to shower after reading this, this… [See? I need you to supply the words, Wanker.] I mean, it’s so unctuous it’s an unction. It oozes. It oozed onto me and I had to bathe for the second time this morning.
Wooten’s outdone himself. Yesday he treated us to an especially active dose of his customary edulibberish, and today he shows us that he not only loves liberalism so much he can’t shake it from his eduspeak, but that he loves politicians also. The Father of the Wootenism has given us a fresh neologism: politography.
Please take the keyboard. I’m to the gunwales…
By time for the super cool truth
December 22, 2007 11:53 AM | Link to this
glenn
howdy wankface …
don’t be such a sodding (cyber) drama queen.
sardonically mocking the gleefully but groundlessly supercilious likes of canus is almost as much fun as mocking the likes of redneKKKs NAMBLA and crackpipe debbieturd.
In the wise old words of Del Boy Trotter … “pretentious … moi?”
Regardless of his politics and pugnacious persona, all Wooten did today was very reasonably, in the Georgia liberal fishwrapper of record, pay a respectful tribute to Murphy. Which is hardly deserving of ur almost frenetic wannabe Ivy League ire.
U are now quite frequently playing the same puerile elitist game that canus does, replete with all them fancy $50 words. Errudiite cyber p!ssing matches are sooooooooooo fooking tedious!!!
If the unctuous unctiousness is too unctuous try using a napalm shampoo!!
Please give my best regards to Mithra at tomorrow’s service.
By Camus
December 22, 2007 12:01 PM | Link to this
Glenn,
cf. 10:14 for verification of my position on the tosser. I guess it is fun to see how easy it is to push his button, though.
As for today’s topic…really interesting to see how Wooten pines for the reign of Tom “Mr Potato Head” Murphy. Here was a guy who was the walking embodiment of government by pork, yet somehow it seems to hearken back to a better time (old ones which perhaps were not forgotten?) when men were men and everyone knew their place.
Personal point of pride: I was in attendance at the House covering the opening session one time. Potato Head announced the prayer. I used the time to write some notes on the proceedings. A few minutes later, a security guard appeared at my side and escorted me out of the chamber. It seems that Murphy had seen me not praying, and he instructed security to throw me out. How he saw me if he was praying properly (eyes shut extra tight and face all scrinchy to demonstrate the intensity of one’s supplication seems the widely accepted form) has always been a mystery.
By Camus
December 22, 2007 12:04 PM | Link to this
Noted: for some people, the only thing worse than an enemy is someone who tries to be a friend.
By AmVet
December 22, 2007 12:05 PM | Link to this
Tom Murphy - the colorful and commanding legislating speaker from Bremen worked alongside, sometimes even well with, Jimmy Carter, George Busbee, Joe Frank Harris, Zell Miller (Lester Maddox’s proxy) and Roy Barnes.
His legacy to me was that he was a country boy who was smart enough to see, and fully accept, the writing on the wall, especially in regards to the nascent but ascending and soon to be unstoppable women’s equality movement and the black power structure in Atlanta, and the country in general.
And this progressive, moderate biracial coalition helped keep those damn Republicans at bay for some 20 years! And this, even in an era when the most hard-core post-Jim Crow segregationists, and assorted nutty reactionaries, were flocking to the GOP in droves elsewhere in the “new” Dixie.
And the disfavor he earned from the soon-to-be mighty, but now mainly discredited and fallen-from-grace, Newt was sheer classic southern politics! Gerrymander me and I’ll gerrymander you a$$ right back!
More significantly, he was also instrumental in championing the economic development of Atlanta, pushing through financing for public transportation, a highway system, a convention center and a stadium. He also worked to improve services for children, veterans (YEAH!), the elderly and the disabled.
And the man was no chickenhawk, like so many of our current crop of “leaders”, as he served in the US Navy’s Pacific campaigns during WWII.
So for me his great strength was his prescience in seeing how the GOP was to soon become little more than this motley crew of “conservative” posers and his sage hostility to that party is a great lesson to learn from.
By @@
December 22, 2007 12:30 PM | Link to this
Jim:
It would appear as though Speaker Murphy was an enigma. Hated for his rural conservatism and loved for his urban liberalism.
I don’t know that much about the guy as I was too young to be paying attention when I first moved from California to Georgia and took little notice of politics until Ronald Reagan. There’s a book available on the life of Mr. Murphy, “Mr. Speaker” The Biography of Tom Murphy.
He sounds like a fascinating character. An excerpt from the book…
“He (Speaker Murphy) wasn’t the cream in the coffee but he sure kept it stirred up.”
I’ll buy that book and take “a sip” over the holidays.
By Glenn
December 22, 2007 12:36 PM | Link to this
Camus, I can’t stand this s*…stuff. Wanker cites one of my favorite jokes, and dammit he’s right again to do so; it is pretentious, but more deliberately so than he suspects. It’s for effect. What would be really pretentious would be a presumtuous explication of why it is beyond ridiculous for people to elevate fixers like Tom Murphy and the Speakers for whom I worked, one of whom had a running bet with his friend Murphy as to which would outlast the other. (Murphy won, of course, as he always did.)
I don’t want to hear how Murphy came up from the sticks; as you alone say with lucidity, he’s across the Styx now where he belongs and where he’ll be in just company. If Jim and the Wootenites and anti-Wootenites want to rehash war stories, fine. I just don’t like that particular strain of Southern nostalgia. As O.W. Holmes knew, it can be deadly. It’s ugly.
The moment they raise their one hand with the other on the Bible or The Cat in the Hat, they surrender their right to be spoken of sweetly when they’re dead just because they’re dead. A ballplayer, sure. A church matron, of course. Or a judge or a grocer or a Kiwanian or a neighbor or a colonel or a hornblower. But if any of those is principally a politician—and Murphy was nothing else—then, no.
What he did to you off the Floor was the bum’s rush, which is a Speaker’s prerogative. When dealing with bums. Especially bums who interfere with the People’s business. But you’re not a bum. You’re a sovereign citizen who preferred not to pray, and that peckerwood kingfish, that transparent rustic POWER MANIAC promptly used the force of law to eject you from the People’s house merely because you were not sufficiently like him.
You and I have seen far too many of this subspecies at close quarters. It’s not a good idea to feed the animals, as Jim and Amvet and even PoFo and tftt are doing.
The trouble with most pols, and also of parapoliticians such as Jim, is that they cannot resist using their power—often augmented with pilfered power—to force the rest of the world to be a little more like them. They sleep better under the glow of that prospect. Thing is, it never works. It always—always—does more harm than good.
Why? Because to be like them is to be a POS.
*[How’s that for psychodrama, Wanker?]
By Luckoduh
December 22, 2007 12:53 PM | Link to this
Dearest Urinal:
Thank you very much for your everyday hysterical crying jag reports about the amount of water “left” in the Atlanta metro area:
{{{{Gift of rain isn’t giving enough - By Rebecca McCarthy - The Atlanta Whiny Times The rain that’s fallen in the past month has had little impact on the drought gripping the Southeast. It’s like watering a lawn with a bottle of eyedrops.}}}}
What a wonderful public service, lake measurements with nasally shrill commentary, it is a stark reminder for those of us who are able to think, that if our government cannot manage what falls from the sky for free and is bountifully abundant just a hundred or so feet in the ground, why would we ever trust them with our health care?
What a terrific job they did with this one, just like all the other mundane chores they undertake, lavish the mussels in Florida with cool, crisp clean water from Lake Lanier until you can see the bottom of it, react to this “new” development with wonder and surprise and then stick it to the citizens who were stupid enough to count on you doing your job:
{{{{Instead of a uniform price for water, the utilities were asked to set three rates tied to consumption. The more water used, the higher the price.-Urinal}}}}
Oh great, price controls, those worked so well in the 70’s, yes, let’s reintroduce them in 2007.
And this should really curtail all the well to do, those for whom money is no object, they have basically just been told to go ahead on with it, wash the damn siding off the house if you so please.
Our government is a total, useless, utter incompetent failure, except for taking out nasty little dictators of course, I bet you can’t name one freaking thing that they do well.
Traffic “management?”
It doesn’t help at all that the democrats have created a bloated, stupid “politically correct” bureaucracy that probably knows more about the sexual harassment laws than they do about the job they’re getting paid for.
And with this fresh new infringement upon our rights as citizens of the United States, that is bizarrely called the energy bill, even though it reduces the energy our automobiles will soon have, it confirms my long held belief that there is no junk science that the government just doesn’t adore.
We are screwed.
By Tiny Tim
December 22, 2007 12:57 PM | Link to this
Sip THIS, @@!
(“Tiny Tim, how dare you insult someone only hours before Xmas?”)
f-f-ff—ff-fffff-f-f-f-f-
By Glenn
December 22, 2007 12:58 PM | Link to this
Luckoduh,
Why don’t you listen? You’re making sense again. Can’t you see this isn’t the day for it?
By Spence
December 22, 2007 1:13 PM | Link to this
Luckoduh, excellent post at 12:53!
This just goes to show you why this state and this country are desperate for new leadership.
Republican governors from Georgia, Alabama and Florida YOU ARE A DISGRACE! Republican President Bush YOU ARE A DISGRACE.
Republican President Nixon YOU ARE A DISGRACE for giving us that stupid Environmental Protection Act.
VOTE OUT THE REPUBLICANS!
Throw the bums out!
By Tiny Tim
December 22, 2007 1:36 PM | Link to this
THe problem isn’t in our czars, duhng, the problem is in our cars: the internal combustion engine should never had made it off the drawing board. Electric cars were the way to go, & everyone knew it. Imagine a hundred years of development in the electric car, and 100 years of evolution of car batteries to power them.
The story of why we went gasoline is a sordid tale of corruption, murder and meyhem pepetrated by none other than Rockefeller himself. John D Rockefeller ended his days in the back seats of limosines groping and fondling young interns. (true). He’d give away dimes to children, (worth about $76,000 in today’s money), so the media would paint him as a honey, but he was surely surly, (groping shirley)
By @@
December 22, 2007 1:39 PM | Link to this
Sip THIS, @@!
and to think I wished you a Merry Christmas just yesterday PoliFore.
On second thought I may have to spank you with your bag of switches.
Naahhhh, scratch that — a pervert such as yourself would find that erotic so it’s back to the original…
Merry Christmas and God bless us everyone Teeny Weinie Tiny Timmy.
By Luckoduh
December 22, 2007 1:46 PM | Link to this
Glenn: You’re welcome.
And yes, I am totally aware of the forum that I have interjected my comments^^ into, I’m sure that Tom Price was probably a great and wonderful person in life, but at his place of work, he was nothing but another cog in the machine that we call government, a mindless, unwielding bureaucracy that has done absolutely nothing for us.
Nothing.
Housing projects?
Social “Security?”
Nothing.
And here we are worshipping him like some fallen hero, the way we don’t worship our Creator or even a soldier returning from Iraq.
I truly believe that the government doesn’t even consider it’s citizens essential to it’s well being anymore, except for election years, of course, and probably views us as some sort of hindrance to it’s long term unchecked growth.
Can you imagine my surprise, driving into the city during rush hour on a major metropolitan area expressway, at the height of the Christmas shopping season, no less, and finding that the bureaucracy had shut down one lane of the highway to do some menial maintenance work?
While sitting there parked, it struck me that We The People are no longer of major concern to them, it has become a government for the government.
Just ponder for a moment the idea that there was an actual discussion among the bureaucrats over which was more important, We The People or the mussels.
We are nothing but American dhimmis anymore, totally dependent on some vast monolithic wasteland that doesn’t even spend one minute of it’s precious time worrying over our well being.
This is truly sad.
By the way, on a side note, I sure do like some of the things Fred Thompson has been saying lately:
{{{{Our government is outdated, inefficient, and wasteful. It is often unable to perform even the most basic tasks our citizens expect. It is no longer enough just to want limited government; the American people deserve more effective government. Given today’s challenges, we cannot afford—and shouldn’t accept—anything less than a nimble, effective, and efficient government that is able to focus its resources on the important issues facing our country. It must be able act on behalf of the American people and our national interests in a timely manner. The key to competent government is strong, committed leadership from the top. The key to good government is good people who are well-managed and put the national interest first.}}}}
And you are absolutely right, Spencie, Bushie is just another Pinko to me.
By getalife
December 22, 2007 1:49 PM | Link to this
And so it begins:
Tent city in suburbs is cost of home crisis
Violence in New Orleans.
2008 will be much worse than 2007.
Nice work wingnuts.
Geez.
By getalife
December 22, 2007 2:03 PM | Link to this
So what is lazy fred’s plan duh?
Is it the Ron Paul plan to shrink government and eliminate taxes?
Will he go after corporate corruption like Edwards?
That is just lame rhetoric with no solution.
By B.P.O.E.
December 22, 2007 2:08 PM | Link to this
That Thompson sure is great Luckoduh, here is a transcript from a recent speech.
(((((You know whats good before a nap? A big glass of chocolate milk. Napping is underrated. So is stretching and yawning. Not that pre exercise yawning either just a regular stretch followed by a yawn. I like my yawns to make a little noise at the end. It seems to promote sleepiness. I don’t take long naps. An hour each and I’m good. Four of those a day, perfect. Anything over an hour and I’m done for the day. Last week I had 2 hamburgers for lunch then took a 4 hour nap. Big mistake. I got a little cranky and thats not a good thing when you’re campaigning for President. Can you imagine enduring a Cheese festival in Wisconsin while cranky from a long nap. Good god dome of those freaking Midwest women are so easy to make fun of anyway. Speaking of the Midwest, I always have pie there. Heated in the microwave, just before a nap. I sure had to get used to sleeping in those dang motor coach buses. Thats one thing people don’t realize about these dang gum campaigns, you have to get used to sleeping in planes, buses, limos, and helicopters. Whats worse is trying to stay awake for the damn festivals. Ever try and stay awake for a speech by the Brussel Sprouts Queen? Some of those glasses that make you look like your eyes are open would be great.)))))
By Camus
December 22, 2007 2:11 PM | Link to this
Spence,
You forgot to thank Nixon for one of Luckoduh’s peeves du jour…wage and price controls.
The reign of Murphy does offer some useful points for consideration. As per Wooten, the man was flexible when he had to be. Any notion that Murphy’s “liberalism” had anything to do with an awakening or “Damascus” moment is nonsense. Murphy doled out the crumbs when he had to, when he saw the calculation of power that required him to acquiesce. Nothing more noble than a power-drunk looking to guarantee another round of his favorite intoxicant.
But that’s politics, right?
I really find it funny sometimes (funny in that vague sick-feeling way, not so much ha ha ha) that many of the people who hate the Democrats so much (and there is certainly justification for that feeling) have somehow managed to convince themselves that the Republican party is somehow less of a problem. The policies of Reagan, Bush I and Bush II have been wholeheartedly about consolidating wealth and power in the hands of the already wealthy and powerful. It has been all about the swells protecting their own. Yet somehow there is this odd distortion that the Dems represent the elites and the Repubs are about the regular guy. A great triumph of spin and branding, but completely without basis.
Granted, the Dems have been no better. I would argue that anytime the Dems have pushed through “progressive” legislation, it was done entirely out of a recognition that the social imbalance was too great to sustain, and crumbs needed to be thrown to settle the grumblers. For example, FDR’s efforts under the New Deal were almost entirely undertaken to make democracy safe for capitalism.
Thus, the New Deal was possible only because the Republicans over-reached during the 20s. And I suspect that the over-reach of the Bush II raj have set the stage for some “progressive” gains as well. Whether the Dems have a figure prepared to sieze the moment and buck the demands of their funders is another matter entirely. Courage in the face of established power has not lately been a Dem strong suit, and they have more of an enabling party than an opposition party.
But yes indeed, a funeral is indeed an occasion to intone with gravitas about the wonderful works so-and-so did for the state, blah blah blah. It is a fine tradition, and everyone plays along so that when their turn comes someone might say a nice word or two about them, too. The best of the funeral displays was when Nixon died. Bob Dole sat there and blubbered like a baby. The sight of one of the nastiest politicians of modern times grieving over the nastiest (title held until recently, anyway) was alternately hilarious and emetic. But hey, the format must be honored.
Sine die, Potato Head.
By Luckoduh
December 22, 2007 2:17 PM | Link to this
{{{{By Tiny Tim December 22, 2007 1:36 PM THe problem isn’t in our czars, duhng, the problem is in our cars: the internal combustion engine should never had made it off the drawing board. Electric cars were the way to go, & everyone knew it.}}}}
It takes oil to make electricity, duhllard.
Next question.
~~~~~
{{{{By getalife December 22, 2007 2:03 PM So what is lazy fred’s plan duh?}}}}
I know one thing for sure; it ain’t Shrillary’s plan.
Even that “genius” admits we can’t afford it:
{{{{Clintoon recently floated the idea of issuing a $5,000 bond to each baby born in the United States to help pay for college and a first home, but it immediately inspired Republican ridicule and It quickly said It would not implement the proposal. “I have a million ideas. The country can’t afford them all.”}}}}
Thanks for asking.
By getalife
December 22, 2007 2:27 PM | Link to this
duh,
Here is the Clinton plan
Now show me fred’s plan.
By Repro ALAN FARAGO: Bush Thieves Robbing Florida
December 22, 2007 2:28 PM | Link to this
Jeb Bush and the Subprime Mortgage Crisis The Huckster and the Wreckage By ALAN FARAGO
It was a classic run on the bank. Until his recent resignation under fire, Coleman Stipanovich, a Bush loyalist, headed the Florida State Board of Administration, responsible for investing billions of dollars of state funds. Stipanovich’s brother, “Mac”, is a former chief of staff in the governor’s office, Jeb Bush campaign manager, and now partner in the law firm, Fowler White, Boggs-the Tallahassee lobbying whip of the Growth Machine (he is also board member of US Sugar).
Jeb Bush left Tallahassee for Miami in January 2007, having served two terms as governor. He incorporated Jeb Bush & Co., and in June was hired as a consultant with Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street investment banking firm.
In July and August, Stipanovich approved the purchase of $842 million in securitized mortgage bonds from Lehman.
Today the value of those bonds is practically zero, vanished in the debt crisis that is tipping the national economy into a recession.
So far, the media is buying the state spin: that Florida’s municipalities made their own decisions to invest with the state government investment pool. Senate President Ken Pruitt, another Bush loyalist, huffily defended the state investment pool with Indian River county officials, “No one put a gun to your head.”
But that is only half of the story, as any investor knows: the other half is that the state was fiduciary and obligated to invest those funds within tolerable risk parameters.
Any fiduciary that bothered with due diligence could see in the overdevelopment of Florida that the bubble in housing markets would pop, and that financial instruments that created the bubble would vanish into the ether.
The mortgage derivatives were only as good as their ratings, and their ratings and insurance were administered through incestuous relationships with originators on Wall Street, like Lehman.
The suburban housing bubble was a function-not of market demand-but of insider politics and campaign contributions that persuaded everyone involved to “mis-price risk” (risk to families, risk to wetlands, risk to government infrastructure budgets) leading to the theft of quality of life, the environment, and an equitable future.
Most of all, the speculative boom depended on very risky mortgage derivatives, exactly those investments in Florida and everywhere else that are disappearing in puffs of smoke. The implosion in housing markets could have been seen from the Space Shuttle.
Jeb and the laws of predetermined outcomes (it is a family trait, to expect that reality will conform to expected results, as expressed best by Karl Rove to the New York Times in 2002: “We’re history’s actors and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”) are the model or prism through which even the lowliest city and county commissioners understand their roles.
Floridians are owed an explanation to certain questions related to those July and August sales: did conversations take place, between state investment managers and Bush after he was hired by Lehman as to investments? Did those investments comprise mortgages sourced by Florida developers who contribute to Republican campaigns? How was Jeb Bush compensated by Lehman: was it a monthly retainer, a “success” fee, or was he paid a commission on the sale of those bonds? Did Lehman in 2007 make contributions to charities or organizations related to Jeb Bush or his loyalists?
These are questions are as legitimate as the fine print on the deal to publicly finance a new condo on the bay or professional baseball stadium in Miami, in which the votes of local commissioners may or may not have been bought off.
The behavior of the anti-Robin Hoods in low places only reflects what happens in high places, where disaster capitalism is held in esteem.
In the case of Lehman and the State of Florida, not only is the money gone but the commission and fees on those bond deals are gathering interest in someone else’s bank account
By B.P.O.E.
December 22, 2007 2:34 PM | Link to this
Fred Thompson on Hillary Clinton.
(((((I just don’t like that lady. I know one of her campaign workers. Thinks she is just plain crazy. She says Hillary thinks she has Restless Leg Syndrome. Lol. Thats just Hilarious. Does anyone even admit to something like that? I played a doctor on an old Matlock once and even a phony doctor could tell a phony disease. Restless Leg Syndrome! Lol. I take a lot of medications for my damn Acid Reflux Disease. That ain’t no phony disease I’ll tell you. Especially after a campaign trip to the Sauerkraut Festival. Good God that was a night of Hell. You know what works good is that Purple Pill. Tacos give me acid. You won’t see them like you did when W was campaigning. Thank God. Nope, tacos on the campaign trail are a big no-no on the Republican circuit this year. Don’t want to be seen as soft on immigration. Hot Dogs are okay. Sure been eating a lot of chicken. Beats the hell out of the tofu we were served on the Law and Order set.)))))
By Luckoduh
December 22, 2007 2:37 PM | Link to this
{{{{By B.P.O.E. December 22, 2007 2:08 PM That Thompson sure is great Luckoduh, here is a transcript from a recent speech. (((((You know whats good before a nap? A big glass of chocolate milk. Napping is underrated.}}}}
B.P.O.E: Thanks for lowering the discussion down to a level that can be understood by the average liberal.
I was starting to worry that I was leaving y’all behind.
By the way, do you have a link to “lazy” Fred’s speech, I oddly cannot seem to find it.
By Camus
December 22, 2007 2:42 PM | Link to this
Luckoduh: “It takes oil to make electricity, duhllard.”
Hydropower.
Solar.
Wind.
Nuclear.
Many options, all with their own pro-con sheet. But all are non-petro based options.
You like the extreme reductive approach, Lucko, but it often undermines your arguments. Valid points end up buried and you end up sounding like Abe Simpson.
By getalife
December 22, 2007 2:43 PM | Link to this
Lazy fred calls his plan “government effectiveness”.
In other words, “stay the course”.
Geez.
By getalife
December 22, 2007 2:48 PM | Link to this
Abe Simpson.
Bwa.
The “junk science” to “Abe” is way over his head.
They discovered a better lithium power plant for cars.
A new solar panel is now on the market from Silicon Valley.
This is a huge investment opportunity like the Internet.
By AmVet
December 22, 2007 2:51 PM | Link to this
Glenn, thank you for the seasonal salutations yesterday. Right back at ya!
Yesterday my girlfriend talked me into taking her to CostCo for some last minute holiday shopping. Fortunately, it was not of the gift variety. (I hate all of that damnedable gift giving! Ho Ho Ho!)
As we approached the building I heard a loud commotion and some “happy” soul was engaged in a VERY demonstrative confab with the checkout and security gang at the exit. Something about how he had been offended. I would imagine he has since been black-balled from that particular enterprise.
The place was packed but I noticed one very absent item after I had moved into the bowels of the building. And that was ANY sense of good tidings and joy. Other than the people working there (ironically) most seemed very cranky as if on a distasteful mission, buying expensive foods, large screen TVs and assorted sundries. And I can assure you, there were PRECIOUS few smiles or happy faces. Odd, but I think its a testament to the power of the commercial and communal feeding frenzy with it’s associated “stress”. Or perhaps its just another day in the life in the suburbs where so many people are in hock up to their eyeballs.
Maybe that more erudite crowd at WalMart has some of that good holiday mojo.
And Andy, put your beloved Timothy McVeigh collection down! And for godssakes please stay away from all federal buildings…
By time for the anti-pompous wankers truth
December 22, 2007 2:53 PM | Link to this
I see glenn the drooling simpleton evangelical sHuckabee like feckwipe is yet again puking up its endless, turrrrrrrgid “me, me, me, look at me - I’m so fooking klever” bollocks again!!
Its sad but hopelessly inevitable to see so many pompous anal wannabe Ivy League arsewipes on here endlessly preeening themselves because they gotta high skool diploma when it was a wee bit harder than it is - thanks to demoNcrat pandering to blacks, illegals and todays morons and the liberal dumbing down the kurrikulum -today!!
Even more hilarious is beholding our lice ridden resident uber supercilious amateur Jap homo porn voyeur canus asserting its “pushing my buttons”. LMFAO!!!
I’ll leave U two preppy PMSing ladies to swish ur erudite cyber handbags at eeech other - safe in the knowledge that the biggest bloated wankpig ego on ‘ere will never finally emerge as these two wormy rancid dogturds will never ever have the grace to STFU!!!
By Luckoduh
December 22, 2007 2:57 PM | Link to this
{{{{By Camus December 22, 2007 2:42 PM Luckoduh: “It takes oil to make electricity, duhllard.”}}}}
What a maroon:
{{{{Hydropower.}}}}
The bureaucrats gave all the water to the mussels, remember?
{{{{Solar.}}}}
On a cloud covered day like today?
{{{{Wind.}}}}
Not in Swimmer Kennedy’s backyard, you won’t.
Bird killer.
{{{{Nuclear.}}}}
Oh come on man, try to be serious when you address me.
The very thought of a nuke plant causes eye popping hysteria and shrieks of terror among your feminists, like John Edwards.
Scare mongering has it’s down sides, dude.
By getalife
December 22, 2007 3:07 PM | Link to this
The Clinton plan
vs
The lazy fred plan:
“Stay the course”.
Geez.
By B.P.O.E.
December 22, 2007 3:08 PM | Link to this
Fred Thompson on relations with Mexico.
(((((Why is cultural diversity always a one way street? Take Taco Bell for instance. This is a company that has absolutely no respect for diversity when it comes to protecting good old fashioned American values. Remember the Bell-Beefer, a taco like hamburger with a hamburger bun, taco meat, cheese, tomato, and lettuce???? They took it off the menu!! The only American style item they had. Could you imagine the hysteria if Wendy’s took chili off their menu? Every Mexican Cesar Chavez wanna-be would be organizing picket lines. I say we turn the tables. Lets say we boycott Taco Bell until they change their name to “Freedom Bell.” Every patriotic American that is sick and tired of our American culture being destroyed like this should join. Bring back the Bell Beefer. NOW.)))))
By getalife
December 22, 2007 3:23 PM | Link to this
duh,
I got you a present for the Holidays
Happy Holidays!
By Glenn
December 22, 2007 3:47 PM | Link to this
Luckoduh,
You’re giving expression to many of my thoughts, but better than I could do.
getalife,
For the first time I’m considering throwing in with Hillary. Her plan says not one thing about education, which puts her several pegs above Wooten.
By Another taxpayer
December 22, 2007 4:00 PM | Link to this
Keep it up…Keep it up. YESSSSS!
This thing is working GREAT!
1kW, 2kW, 3kW in only 6 hours.
Man, this hot air conversion thing really works!
Thanks you guys.
By getalife
December 22, 2007 4:00 PM | Link to this
Glenn,
The only thing wingnut wooten is running for is a train for retirement.
Here is her education plan
By Another taxpayer
December 22, 2007 4:44 PM | Link to this
No measurable power output in the last 30 minutes:
The good news - Confirmation that the converter needs lots of hot air.
The bad news - Confirmation that the converter needs lot of hot air.
Oh well, another failed energy policy.
I guess we can strike off hot air along with shale oil, coal oil, ethanol from corn, switch grass, fuel cells, ……
The heck with it. Let’s just burn oil.
By Luckoduh
December 22, 2007 4:49 PM | Link to this
al-Gitmo: It took me three hours of scouring the Internet and I could only find one issue that Kueen Clintoon has ever talked about, other than whining about Bushie, of course:
{{{{That’s why we need a phased redeployment—moving our troops out so they have to stand and fight for themselves. Q: Give us a timetable for that phasing out. A: When we originally proposed it, we said that 2006 should be a year of transition. We’re running out of time in 2006. I think this needs to be done immediately.}}}}
Yeah, she got right on that one.
Say, how is that withdrawal plan going, anyway?
By the way, has anyone bothered to tell this idiot that Bushie ain’t on the 08 ticket?
Well, I guess we can study Billy’s “accomplishments,” after all, he is the one with the “brains:”
{{{{Don’t ask, don’t tell - It was introduced as a compromise measure in 1993 and approved by then President Bill Clinton who, while campaigning for the Presidency, had promised to allow all citizens regardless of sexual orientation to serve openly in the military, a departure from the then complete ban on those who are not heterosexual.}}}}
So he lied to the gays just like the Thing lied to Code Pinko about the “withdrawal,” go figure.
And what makes you so sure they are telling you the truth?
Bwa.
By getalife
December 22, 2007 5:01 PM | Link to this
I ruled you on the issues and you reverted back to the same old duh.
Looks like the genocide in Iraq has slowed down for now, just waiting on the Iranian er Iraqi government to do something.
They did take another month off. We will withdraw after the election but more troops in the forgotten war with osama been forgotten.
By Luckoduh
December 22, 2007 5:20 PM | Link to this
Listen to “Old Ironsides” lie and whine:
{{{{SEN. HARRY REID: Well, we’ve been able to accomplish quite a bit, but not very much, certainly not as much as I wanted to. I’m kind of frustrated, like the American people.}}}}
Ahh, the old quite a bit but not much.
Aren’t we all just so awed to be in the presence of such brilliance?
{{{{We have Osama bin Laden, who is still taunting us. He is still free and loose.}}}}
Gee, the same tired talking points of any third rate Daily Kooks blogger.
Take me to your leader, haha.
{{{{“Let’s send some more troops over there, and that will give the Iraqis the time to take care of themselves.” We sent other troops over there, and there are a lot of reasons the surge certainly hasn’t hurt. It’s helped. I recognize that.}}}}
Ooops, there goes the Daily Kooks blogging rights.
~~~~~
{{{{Thousands of Baghdad residents took advantage of the newfound sense of security Saturday to leave their homes in droves and pack the capital’s parks and amusement rides.}}}}
{{{{“I wish peace and prosperity to our beloved country Iraq and hope all our brothers, sons and families who live abroad come back and God willing, during the next Eid all Iraqis will come together and peace, security and brotherhood will prevail,” Abdul Jabbar Kadhim, an employee at the Dora oil refinery, told AP Television News as he played with his children in a riverside park.}}}}
Me too.
By MomCat
December 22, 2007 5:23 PM | Link to this
By Dusty December 22, 2007 9:48 AM In the meantime, all respects to our departed Tom Murphy, who was a good Democrat. We could use more of those good ones. Cheers!! I promise to be sweet and kind tomorrow……maybe.
Of course you’ll be sweet Dusty. You eat soooo many sweet rolls……If only @@ and R(whoever) would adopt your techniques, the world would be a better place.
By getalife
December 22, 2007 5:23 PM | Link to this
duh,
Since I ruled you on the issues, you have to give me some booty.
Its only fair dude.
The loser of every debate has to bend over.
By SuggaBugga
December 22, 2007 5:38 PM | Link to this
By Redneck Convert December 22, 2007 8:34 AM Look for the guy wearing the John Deere cap and the overalls with a ladder on his truck.
Dang it Redneck! I thought Hubby (yep! that’s him-Hubby and if anyone tries to change his name, you’ll get the cra* slapped outta ya)” That’s just a joke of course…. was the only one wearing overalls in WalMart.) Now you’ve spoiled it! Anyhoo (oops! that’s @@’s word), y’all be sweet now!
By getalife
December 22, 2007 5:41 PM | Link to this
Tis the season to be gay, fa la la la la, la la la la.
I love sucking c@ck, fa la la la, la la la la .
By getalife ( not the gay wanker)
December 22, 2007 5:46 PM | Link to this
Stop wanking duh.
Geez.
By Glenn
December 22, 2007 5:46 PM | Link to this
Well get, here’s how Hillary’s 10-Point Plan (not 9, not 11) for education works out:
The first two are meaningless phrases; leaves 8 points.
The third and eighth points are the same; leaves a 7-point plan.
The remaining seven points make the bold claim that Hillary’s done a lot of “advocating” for this and “helping” to accomplish that—which is to say, actually doing nothing. There are at least three amateurish conceits in the staff-built list: it’s in their voice, when it should be in hers, speaking directly with the voter; they split bullets to pad the piece and balance the points at a nice round 10; they deliberately and awkwardly mislead the reader into concluding that she’s done things not done; advocates actively for other things done more than two decades ago; and and is responsible for accomplishing things to which she gave only lip service. So, pretty standard BS, only with the Clinton twist of pure pride in one’s own ugly nakedness.
There are two of these things worth “advocating”, or even, heck, doing as President: better access to early childhood education, and using federal resources to research the impact of electronic media on child development.
The remaining five of the seven actual points are things mostly, and appropriately, reserved to the states and their subdivisions, and all of the remaining Hillary Plan is exhorbitantly expensive stuff, half of it expensively counterproductive.
But hell, who cares? It looks good to have a plan for everything, right?
By getalife( the real deal)
December 22, 2007 5:51 PM | Link to this
Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean you can wank me Duh.
Geez.
By getalife ( not the gay wanker)
December 22, 2007 5:51 PM | Link to this
Glenn,
Yes it is compared to the rudy plan.
At least, you posted on an issue.
By Luckoduh
December 22, 2007 6:03 PM | Link to this
{{{{By getalife December 22, 2007 5:01 PM I ruled you on the issues and you reverted back to the same old duh.}}}}
al-Gitmo: Why would I spend any of my precious time hashing over Clintoon Kampaign promises when we all know they are nothing but bald faced lies.
Are you really that naive?
These klowns want to get back to the White House so they can hook back up with the Chinese smack and control the Justice Department so that it, in Janet “Baby Burner” Reno’s words, can say that it “has found no administration wrong doing.”
Ummm, exactly what has It done for New York?
Duh.
By Luckoduh
December 23, 2007 8:22 AM | Link to this
{{{{Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi warned that Sunni tribal militias, or Awakening Councils, would not be allowed to become a separate, permanent military force and would be disbanded once areas in which they operate are calmer.-Urinal}}}}
Why the scare language, Whiny Times?
Are you trying to hide the fact that Iraq has been stabilized and the “Awakening” councils are no longer needed?
Or the fact that Iraq’s government is strong enough to now assume control of these areas?
~~~~~~
{{{{Countdown 2008: ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE: Gov. Huckabee seldom met a gift he didn’t like-Urinal}}}}
So what did you expect out of a hick from ArKKKansas?
Gee, I wonder if he became president, would he open the Lincoln Bedroom to the highest bidders like some Super 8 Motel/ Truck Stop and steal all the furniture when he leaves, like the Clintoons did?
~~~~~~
Look at what the libs call a Republican Pinko:
{{{{As an abortion-detesting, evolution-denying homophobe, Huckabee is fast winning the devotion of his party’s Christianists, who seem to confuse the office of president with that of preacher or priest.-Queen Pinko, Urinal}}}}
So drilling a hole in an unborn child’s head or tearing it limb from limb in it’s mother’s womb is not “detestable” now?
By the way, exactly who is the one confusing the office of the presidency with some priesthood:
{{{{“We welcome the stranger because the Savior himself was not welcomed in mainstream society,” said Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics. “The whole teaching of ‘no room at the inn’ was about someone poor and marginalized and pushed off to a stable.”-Queen Pinko}}}}
Of course, Sybil goes on to quote a Bible thumping Republican to bolster her case:
{{{{As President Bush has warned, Republicans risk permanent minority status if they alienate Latinos, the fastest-growing and largest ethnic group, accounting for about 15 percent of the population.-Queen Pinko}}}}
ABC News Poll. Sept. 27-30, 2007.
“Do you think the United States is or is not doing enough to keep illegal immigrants from coming into this country?”
Not doing enough- 67%
Gee, I didn’t know that there were that many Bible thumping Republicans in America.
~~~~~~
{{{{OTHER OPINION: Congress shouldn’t brag about ‘07 record, George Will-Urinal}}}}
{{{{Hell bent on driving its approval rating into single digits, Congress adjourned after passing an omnibus spending bill larded with at least 8,993 earmarks costing at least $7.4 billion}}}}
{{{{It raised the hourly minimum wage from $5.15 to $5.85 —- less than the $7 entry wage at McDonald’s —- thereby increasing the wages of less than 0.5 percent of the work force.}}}}
The Urinal doesn’t necessarily agree that 9000 earmarks and a paltry minimum wage increase are such a bad thing.
~~~~~~
{{{{State climatologist David Stooksbury said that without adequate rainfall in the next four months, the drought condition will worsen-Urinal}}}}
Ahh, such brilliance, gosh, years of research and millions of federal tax dollars must have been spent to discover this vast wealth of information.
By the way, the State has a climatologist?
Hasn’t anyone told them about the National Weather Service?
Well, on the bright side, at least he can see the obvious things.
After it’s too late.
We are screwed.
By Tiny Tim
December 23, 2007 8:37 AM | Link to this
Vote 4 Huckabee!
He had me at “Halo”.
By Tiny Tim
December 23, 2007 10:13 AM | Link to this
Christmas is dead ahead. Christmas is dead. Ahead, I see some fleeting moments of joy, provided by some traditional earmarks of yuletide, like the turkey stuffing, children who should have been stuffed, the stuffed adults, why do they stuff themselves at xmas? We all do it. Why? Cant we have one little thin slice of turkey with skin and gravy and small mound of mashed potatoes and gravy, and a insignificant portion of pumpkin pie and whipped cream….okay, I see their point, but it’s still disgusting.
I did some quick mental calulations about how long santa clause would have to spend at each house in der verld and I’ve come to realize something: santa doesn’t exchange gifts for milk and cookies in every household. He really does keep a list. All jews are out, they dont even want him to show up. All Islamics are out, they think christ was a prophet. (What a bunch of dopes, eh?) No atheists. (ditto). I mean, when you eliminate all non-christmas observers, there’s really only a small percentage of the worlds population left. There’s a billion catholics in the world, but most of them have had divorces, abortions, and DUI’s, (and are total sex fiends). If you confine santa’s trip to those people who are worthy of entering the kingdom of heaven, which is what christ was trying to tell us to prepare for, (and the reason he was born of a virgin and everything), then santa can easily deliver the goods on one night. (about 1200 people).
So merry christmas to the 1200! and to hell with the rest of you horrid overeaters.
By RealRep
December 23, 2007 10:39 AM | Link to this
While Mike continues to pray for Giuliani’s recovery, one really must question Rudy’s physical ability to handle the Presidency of this great nation.
A vote for Giuliani is a vote for Hillary.
Huckabee ‘08
By Redneck Convert
December 23, 2007 10:39 AM | Link to this
Well, the Christmas tree is up at the trailer. Its a long story but I didn’t want to pay no 100 bucks for a tree. So me and my buddy Jim Earl was driving thru Johns Creek yesterday and we seen this beautiful tree in the yard of some guy in a big house. Anyway, he’s probly out there scratching his head this a.m. We had to cut the top off of it to make it fit in the trailer, but it sure looks good. I figure he didn’t need the tree and I did. So he done a good deed without knowing it.
Anyhow, it ain’t no diffrent from taking money out of my pay to pay for some kids doctoring that I don’t even know.
We just got finished with the Christmas service down at the Church of Holiness. All the kids showed up on account of the candy that gets passed out. There was this one kid that didn’t get no candy on account of he has sugar diabetus. They give him a bag of nuts but I felt sorry for him. So I slipped him a little bag of Hershey bars and you never seen a kid so happy. He promised not to tell his mama but I bet they are suprized at how happy he is right about now.
Anyhow, I’m headed back to WalMart in a little bit. You never know when they will put the guns on sale and I don’t want to miss out. Same with the gun cases.
Have a good day and Merry Christmas everybody.
By Tiny Tim
December 23, 2007 10:52 AM | Link to this
v-v-vote 4 h-h-huckabee. h-h-h-he had me at h-h-halo.
By AmVet
December 23, 2007 10:53 AM | Link to this
Great.
Three hundred and sixty five days a year, the AJC’s two major blog site’s usually begin, and ofttimes end, with that unmistakable enmity, diatribe laden antagonism and Christian love from Atlanta’s resident misanthrope.
Not even at this joyous and special time of the year, do we fellow bloggers get a break from the “compassionate conservative” and his hyperbolic and rhetorical message of ill-will, hostility and the over arching and unspoken wish for War on Earth, Good Will to (some) Men.
I have the Pandora.com station cranking out the rock and roll Christmas tunes and in that spirit, Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays/Season’s Greetings to one and all, including Jim W., Redneck Convert, THE Captain, Glenn, jbmlaw, getalife, @@ and all the other “regulars” (however irregular you may be!) and the numerous otherwise friends and “foes” who share in this little slice of heaven. Yes, and you too Andy!
But I’m warning you people right now - Santa’s making a list…
By WFC
December 23, 2007 11:18 AM | Link to this
Non-sequitars run amuck. Not worth the time for looking up the proper spelling.
By Tiny Tim
December 23, 2007 11:24 AM | Link to this
r-r-retard
By Glenn
December 23, 2007 11:28 AM | Link to this
Speaking of halos, Timesis, check out the hagiographic portrait of Putin on the cover of Time.
That’s the sort of kitch which in other days would have been made by Italian artisans for Irish consumption!
Ah. I forgot that Time’s the printhouse of CNN.
By Tiny Tim
December 23, 2007 11:44 AM | Link to this
hagiographic? you use that word alot. I dont think it means what you think it means.
By AmVet
December 23, 2007 11:59 AM | Link to this
Tiny, I believe Glenn is as erudite as he seems and just to verify it, I looked up the term and sure enough, it is the writing and critical study of the lives of hags. So frankly, for you to accuse him of pedanticalness is…inconceivable.
BTW, do you know anyone with a good recipe for figgy pudding?
By Tiny Tim
December 23, 2007 12:13 PM | Link to this
Yes, amvet, that is true, but there is something that I myself have not disclosed to anyone, not evern glenn. I have been blogging all this time with my left hand, when clearly I am right handed. I know, it’s not fair, but there it is.
By AmVet
December 23, 2007 12:31 PM | Link to this
As a neophyte escribitionist, I daily stand in awe of several of the blogging gods here.
And in the spirit of the magi, but without that cloying frankincense, I care not if they be Republican or sentient. (just kidding!)
And you, no doubt, my ambidextrous ally, are in that esteemed and elite aggregation.
Here’s to hoping you and yours had a satisfying Saturnalia!
By Glenn
December 23, 2007 12:49 PM | Link to this
Timesis, as a pispoor teacher and failed theologian and religious scholar (methodologies: historiography and exegesis, a la mode New Haven), I am neither pedantic nor unaware of the meaning of the word. As you’ve observed from time to time, I tend to view many things through my own funkadelic lens as eruptions of a hilariously lame and sometimes frightening secularization, a byproduct, but also the historical objective, of modernity and especially of industrialization.
Hence my not really all that frequent use of the word hagiographic. The word also looms in my hothouse mind come Christmastime.
Incidentally my coinage of “politography”, to characterize yesterday’s column, was not meant as a play on hagiography, but rather on pornography, a close relative.
The tendentious (in my book another indispensable word) editors of Time thought to cast Putin in the glow of a Russian Orthodox icon. That’s all. They invariably fall in love with their clevernesses, and as you know conceits generally make for bad literature.
I’d like you guys to know how much I appreciate your stylistic attentions, especially those which endeavor to put academical thinking into democratic plainspeak. I’m trying to learn this object lesson daily, through this blog. And for me it’s a necessary lesson, as I’m as schooled up as the rest are, if not more so (the thousand presumptions that went into tftt’s Ivy League crack had me giggling for hours).
Difference is that I’m aware of it, and try to face it down.
By Glenn
December 23, 2007 12:58 PM | Link to this
Pull your head out, Amvet: on the contrary, you’re a stellar stylist in this medium, as witness your neologolicious “escribitionist”.
If only Wooten were into such playful puns, istead of confused and portentous metaphors.
By Glenn
December 23, 2007 1:07 PM | Link to this
Dear Santa:
Auntie Kepila says it’s OK for me to ask you to supersede this ugly column prior to the impending mass of Christ.
By Luckoduh
December 23, 2007 1:09 PM | Link to this
Dear Jim Wooten:
I sense that a fellow blogger is making a request of you to start the first commenting everyday at 10:38 a.m. sharp, so that he can make sure the day starts out in a manner that he approves of.
In the spirit of the Christ*mas Season and goodwill towards mankind, I graciously ask that you fulfill his wishes.
Merry Christmas all!
By Tiny Tim
December 23, 2007 1:14 PM | Link to this
Then Glenn, I propose a contest, a duel. Have you ever heard of “Make-a-sap-outta-da-moron”? It’s the most poisonous of trolling techniques. Now, I will make a comment, and you will decide if the moron is me or you. Be careful, it’s not as obvious as you think.
I am Political Foreskin aka Analchord. You flamed my father. Prepare to cry.
By Glenn
December 23, 2007 1:21 PM | Link to this
I know who you are, Mimesis, but I don’t get the reference to your father. Would you please clarify?
By Glenn
December 23, 2007 1:38 PM | Link to this
And PetitFors, your pettiness is too petty to pit me against self-pity.
By Glenn
December 23, 2007 1:52 PM | Link to this
Haven’t got all day, Ignorance-Is-Briss. Have been making a killing on eBay.
By Tiny Tim
December 23, 2007 2:09 PM | Link to this
You’re trying to make me give something away. It wont work.
Now you opened with braggadoccio, which is common amoung native australians, who come from prisoner stock, therefore I clearly am not the moron.
By Glenn
December 23, 2007 2:45 PM | Link to this
TT, I don’t see the braggadocio, and certainly don’t feel like a braggart today, though sometimes it’s fun to point to the centerfield fence just for the sheer sharkskin style of doing so. I wasn’t aware that I was trying to subborn information; thought I was missing something you wished me to know.
If you actually have a necessarily hapless father and I insulted him unduly, then please send him my apologies or else tell me how I may do so. I don’t recall but two occasions on which I was angry enough to do so herein, and can’t think of anything strictly untoward.
Look, it’s Christmastime, and Yom Kippur looms as well, and it’s time for me to clear the books. Just tell me what I did, and I’ll deal with it. OK?
By Glenn
December 23, 2007 3:03 PM | Link to this
Are you perhaps the child of one Dwight L. Brown, whom Margaret and I allege is an embezzler of the first order? If so, then guilty as accused.
The son of Willie L. Brown, Jr.? Well that might explain it, but how is it that you so markedly lack your father’s humor, and his talent for distinguishing oneself from one’s persona, if one’s got one (and you’ve got too many)?
Or the child of Lea Donosky, soon to land the AJC in court?
Or of the defamatory plagiarist republished at LD’s informed and malicious behest?
Now I seem to remember that you were uncharacteristically silent on the literary parody of the Wootenism, though normally such satire is right up your alley. That?
No? None of these?
Well then I don’t care. And don’t care otherwise, unless you give me reason to care.
Back to greed…
By Auntie Kepila
December 23, 2007 3:58 PM | Link to this
Anyway, Jim, the thing about charters, especially the kind Gates is talking about, is that they are by definition at best half-measures. And half-measures, in public services, exacerbate.
Here’s how charters do that. They load up a given school with, variously, costly faculty, curriculum, assessment, technology, administration, or some combination of these. And you’re right, in return you get higher test scores. Can you show how that constitutes an actual improvement in student outcomes? Because I can show you how it doesn’t so constitute.
Moreover, I can show you how it is, unless we apply a bankrupt definition of productivity, counterproductive. It is counterproductive because it gold-plates schools we already cannot afford. And to take the charter system to scale would quite literally break the bank. Like class-size reduction and school-size reduction, it’s a counterproductive but soul-satisfying game for dilletantes.
The trouble with Gates, on education, is that he fails to think like A.P. Giannini, in terms of a service which needs all the help it can get in coming to be delivered more ubiquitously and, however counterintuitively, more efficiently. Ironically Mr. Gates’ own professional contributions help to make this objective more feasible. To deliver his lucrative services Giannini used every means at his disposal—including bricks and mortar—and then some. But at the end of the day he had a more efficient, more profitable bottom line, not a red one.
In education there are at least two stunning examples of this kind of thinking on a large scale, both from the early half of the last century. The examples are A.S. Makarenko of the former Soviet Union and Jose Vasconcelos of Mexico, the two greatest educators of the 20th Century.
Gates could do what they did, only better. And in a thrice.
By Tiny Tim
December 23, 2007 4:14 PM | Link to this
You have a dizzying intellect, and you’re stalling… so if you are making money on ebay then you studied business in college and if you went to college you would have studied history and learned that man in mortal so clearly you’re not the moron.
Have you made your choice yet? Which is it, am I the moron, or you? (eyebrow arch, whisker twist)
By jbmlaw
December 23, 2007 4:23 PM | Link to this
Dear Inigo @ 2:09, are you still trying to wind? You’ve got an overdeveloped sense of viagra.
By Auntie Kepila
December 23, 2007 5:02 PM | Link to this
Neither of us is a moron, moron. I’m smart, you’re smart, Wooten’s smart, every one of the habitues here is smart. So what?
I thought you were going to start, since it’s your game. Why would I have presumed to do so unbidden? If you invite me to start, I will. But I’m not sure what you want. Do you want to joust over some point of contention, as jbm sometimes does with me, and often with others, just to keep sharp, as he says?
Clue me in, to the extent you’re willing to.
gtg
P.S. thank you for the very atypical compliment, but mine’s more dizzy than dizzying, I think, the later resulting perhaps—though I doubt it—from the former. But you detest narcissism, as only a narcissistic mimetic narcissist could, so let’s be on to some bone over which to contend.
By jbmlaw
December 23, 2007 5:21 PM | Link to this
Dear Glenn @ 5:02, PoFo is rewriting the movie script that had the best dialogue in the last half century, if that helps any.
By Luckoduh
December 23, 2007 5:25 PM | Link to this
{{{{Mike Huckabee Another Bill Clintoon?}}}}
Remember, you heard it hear first.
So Romney is reading the Duh Report, eh?
{{{{“They’re very different people, and obviously the area of concern relates to spending and taxation. We think of Bill Clintoon as being a tax raiser and a spender,” Romney said - then mused that he had read somewhere that Huckabee had raised more taxes than Clintoon when they were governors.}}}}
Bwa.
~~~~~~
{{{{When the world hears It’s commitment at It’s inauguration about ending American dependence on foreign fuel, Clintoon says, oil-pumping countries will lower prices to stifle America’s incentive to develop alternative energy.}}}}
{{{{Clintoon argued that former President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s actually started moving in the right direction toward energy independence, but his successor, Ronald Reagan, “dismantled” that work.}}}}
Perhaps this as-shole should look up “India Economy” on the Internet.
The only thing this socialist POS will do is choke America to freaking death, just like Jimmy Carter tried to do, I agree with that.
You think the $5000 baby bond got this mental gimpy ridiculed, wait till you see what happens when the Conservatives get back from celebrating Christmas.
~~~~~
{{{{In a campaign marked more by who voters are against than by who they are for, Fred Thompson is a safe choice. His views — which he articulates well — offend none of the core constituencies in the GOP. The more Mitt and Huck fight, the better he looks to Iowa voters.}}}}
{{{{If Mike Huckabee’s been the hare in this race, Fred Thompson is the tortoise. In Aesop’s fable, it was the tortoise who eventually won.}}}}
Wear yourself out Huckie.
~~~~~
Baghdad Comes Alive After Dark
Everyday the sacrifice of America continues to pay dividends, look at a people who are experiencing Freedom for the first time in their lives, without fear of retribution from some scumbag terrorists or tosspot dictator.
Another of many gifts given to others by this great country that we call home.
Just as Jesus was Given to us so many Christmases ago.
Merry Christmas!
By Tiny Tim
December 23, 2007 5:27 PM | Link to this
WRONG! You only THINK you detected narcissism. You fool! You just fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is never get involved in a land war in asia, but only slightly less well known is this: never go up against a silly man when the death of your reputation is on the line.
My name is Political Foreskin aka Analchord. You flamed my father. Prepare to cry.
By Glenn
December 23, 2007 5:43 PM | Link to this
Mais non, for I don’t have a reputation and care not what anyone does who comes across it in whatever landfill in which it reposes.
Besides, you flame my Father all the time. So there.
That’s funny about the narcissism, and you & Mac & Colin & Gen. Romulo (I believe) are right about land wars in Asia. In 1989, I learned two other blunders to avoid: Don’t stand in front of the tanks, and never drink Mescal.
OK. So you win that round. Now, avenge your father.
By Glenn
December 23, 2007 5:59 PM | Link to this
You know, your duelist’s epithet is like straight out of Dumas Pere. You could have been one of the many staff ghostwriters he and his son hired in what I believe to have been the first mass assembly line for books since Aquinea paced in circles dictating his chapters, in sequence, to four amaneunses, on in each corner.
And don’t worry about flaming my Father. His Son says they both can’t take it.
By Tiny Tim
December 23, 2007 6:00 PM | Link to this
Merry Christmas, Gelnn.
By Glenn
December 23, 2007 6:13 PM | Link to this
Thank you. And to you and yours as well.
By jbmlaw
December 24, 2007 8:19 AM | Link to this
Merry Christmas all.
An extraordinary, and ultimately revealing, set of quotations of prominent democrats over the past 200 years: http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110011033
Brief note to TFTT: watched the Zeitgeist movie (or at least part 1.) I know you believe you have found a pearl of great value here, and I am loathe to say anything that could hurt your feelings, but it did not impress me. The film is entirely based on a false form of argument, “A says the same thing as B, and A did not happen, therefore B did not happen.” I also note a fundamental false statement: that no historians contemporary to the first half century AD mention JC, and the movie names only three historians. The Gospels of Matthew (around 75 AD), Mark (around 65 AD), Luke (around 75 AD), and John (around 95 AD) are contemporaneous to the life of JC and those authors, by the nature of their writings, fit my definition of “historians.” I cannot justify total disregard of their works just because they are supportive of the religion. (That would be like ignoring the NYT just because it corruptly slants left – wait, bad example.) Sorry, but overall the movie’s logic is defective.
By jbmlaw
December 24, 2007 8:23 AM | Link to this
Morning humor for a slow Monday:
Pat Sajak on corrupt voting: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=24056
The best of many parodies of the notorious Huckabee “floating cross” advertisement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-PuR029yl0&feature=related
By Tiny Tim
December 24, 2007 8:54 AM | Link to this
It may be a slow monday for the rich and influential and well heeled like you, JBMlaw, but I’m working, and I’ve got problems to solve by 2PM or it’s curtains for me. Technical problems. It takes an expert to frame the problem. It takes an expert to frame the problem. But it takes a schlepp like me to actually solve it. I will never understand chemistry or why it’s impossible to repeat an experiment exactly. I hate the laws of chaos. Nature cant be quantified. Even Rachel Ray burns the toast. Oprah talks to her vajayjay. Cant you see, JBMLAW? We’re all sitting ducks for the hot magma that circulates under our feet. That magma is concocting a global-warming spew of volcanic ash and dust that will destroy us. It wasn’t comets what killed the dinosaurs. It was volcanoes. It was magma. Volcanoes are always erupting. Think of it like good pitching beating good hitting. (and vice versa) The dinosaurs would be killed by something that is always there, not by one random screwball comet.
So, as I waste time trying to make this funny, the clock ticks toward the 2pm Fex Ex deadline. The packages aren’t ready. I’ve got to solve the loopholes in heat transfer theory before I pack them. But you enjoy your eggnog, sir. You put another star on your xmas tree, sir. I’m going back to work. Where’s that broom? Oh yeah, my wife has it. I need someone to step forward and save me from my marriage……
merry xmas, jbmlaw
By jbmlaw
December 24, 2007 8:58 AM | Link to this
Merry Christmas PoFo, thanks for much mirth in 2007.
By Glenn
December 24, 2007 9:42 AM | Link to this
Merry Christmas to you and yours, jbm, and to Ensign S.C. in the coming year, Godspeed.
By Glenn
December 24, 2007 10:02 AM | Link to this
Still making the dog nervous over my reaction to the Huckabee thing…
…There. That’s better. [It’s all right, Goof Dog, it’s all right. You’re OK.]
The Sajak thing is too good for Sajak to have written it, so I’m set to wondering which clever CA hack did it for him. You may consider it telling that my reaction to the headline was to assume a satire in which Mr. Gore is suing Time Immemorial itself. So I with that and your recommendation, who wouldn’t enjoy what actually lay ahead?
By Glenn
December 24, 2007 10:08 AM | Link to this
Timesis, if you should need me to forward the chapter on thermodynamics from Einstein for Dummies, just let me know.