Friday, December 11, 2009

Clear!

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The tea party types are planning a “die in” at the Senate office buildings next week, to simulate how we’ll all die waiting for help under O...

Baby’s first jihad

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Ousted Honduran President Zelaya was about to, finally, leave the Brazilian embassy for Mexico, but the coup regime won’t let him unless he...
Thursday, December 10, 2009

Today -100: December 11, 1909: Of arbitration, dictators, and bino

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The striking shirtwaist-makers and the bosses have agreed to arbitration (the employers are trying to get around recognizing the union). It...

Money is fungible, you know

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How long before the Republicans propose banning women from possessing money, because they might spend it on abortions?

My accomplishments are slight

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Obama got his Nobel. He gave a speech. Possibly the most war-mongering Peace Prize speech ever. At one point he got carried away and decl...

Don’t make us get all Viking on your ass

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One of the delegates at the Copenhagen summit refers to the controversy over the hacked emails as “a storm in a teacup.” There’s probably ...

Today -100: December 10, 1909: If President Taft set off by train from New York to Chicago and weighs 300 pounds...

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The NYT Times Traveler Blog, which inspired my own (lamely titled) Today -100 feature, is being discontinued , but don’t worry, Taft-lovers,...
Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Not unlike Jefferson and Adams, I’m sure

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CONTEST : Sample dialogue from this meeting of the minds, please.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009

That’ll leave a mark

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Alberto Gonzales has written something for Esquire . He says it was cool to work in the White House. He says that “The notion that what h...

Today -100, December 9, 1909: Of pro-Americanism in Nicaragua

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Sloooow news day. The fighting in Nicaragua too is in a lull. The NYT says “President Zelaya, recognizing the growing sentiment in Nicara...
Monday, December 07, 2009

Who does Blair think he is, Thomas Friedman?

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Tony Blair’s claim that Iraq could launch WMDs on 45 minutes’ notice evidently came from ... a taxi driver. Who said he’d heard it from two...

Today -100: December 8, 1909: Of the State of the Union and pickle secrets

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Taft has sent Congress his first State of the Union Address (which nobody seems to call by that name). Throughout it, notes the NYT, “run...

He knows what he did

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The Archbishop of Canterbury can just go fuck himself.

Today -100: December 7, 1909: Of white slaves, mud flats, black hands, and employes

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Congress is back in session. Rep. James Mann (R-Ill.) introduces a White Slave Traffic Act (yes, the Mann Act). And Rep. William Sulzer (...
Sunday, December 06, 2009

The Case of the Funnel Cake Hit-Man

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Harry Reid on Max Baucus: “Max is a good friend and an outstanding senator and he has my full support.” This is why people distrust the et...
Saturday, December 05, 2009

Swing swing together

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Gordon Brown has been making fun of the Conservative leaders for being toffee-nosed (whatever that might mean) upper-class twits. And indee...

Today -100: December 6, 1909: Of peppermint, normal women, and kings carrying coal

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Bridgeport, Ohio, where the tin plate strike erupted into violence, is now under martial law, occupied by 1,500 militiamen. John Kipp of th...

Merited – wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean? Merited. Say no more.

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Headline of the Day ( AP ): “Baucus: Girlfriend Merited US Attorney Nomination.” Tone-Deaf Quote of the Day: In a story about how, when Gord...
Friday, December 04, 2009

Today -100: December 5, 1909: Of commissions, strikes, Hebrews, and aerial sign-posts

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President Zelaya finally responds to the downgrading of diplomatic relations, and it’s a bizarre response: he asks the US to send a commiss...
Thursday, December 03, 2009

Today -100: December 4, 1909: Of women in unions and hats in museums

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Striking shirtwaist makers marched to NY City Hall to protest the “insults, intimidations, and... abuses” of strikers by the police, includ...