Aug 18th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Endgame
He said I was his friend:
— Dave Roberts on the bleak prospects for climate legislation.
— Connecting with nature makes you nicer.
— Even just sticking to MBTA, “Wonderland” is a way better name than “ruggles.”
— Robert Novak’s death seems like a good time to revisit Amy Sullivan’s articles on his horrible ethics and DC media’s perverse indulgence of his bad behavior.
— Kevin Arnovitz on Brendan Haywood’s homophobia.
— “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” in flow chart form.
Last night I watched Nirvana Unplugged on DVD in honor of the last time universal health care died in congress. Max Baucus reminds me of “The Man Who Sold the World”. Or, if you prefer, Bowie’s original.
55 Responses to “Endgame”
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August 18th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Gazed a gazely stare… Well, there’s a line. Gotta love that song anyway.
August 18th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Do long commutes create meanness and counteract the niceness gained from living in nature?
August 18th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Bowie’s version, 100 times out of 100.
August 18th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Today the world is a better place since the goat fucking piece of filth, Robert fuckface Novak kicked the bucket. To bad his mother didn’t have an abortion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/business/media/19novak.html?_r=1&hp
August 18th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
If Obama was a real Leader who cared about the People he would solve or bypass the “structural problems.” I really don’t think the military would get in his way.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Man, I haven’t seen this many lefties refusing to say anything nice about a dead guy since Falwell croaked.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
To bad his mother didn’t have an abortion.
It’s not often that I agree with SLC’s personal attacks, but Novak was definitely a load that should have been swallowed.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Actually, a better Bowie song for healthcare reform is “This is Not America”.
Based on my fellow TRW intel worker Christopher Boyce’s exploits passing info to the Russians as a political protest. Judge didn’t see have a sense of humor and Boyce went to the pen for a decade or so. Evidently you have to be a Member of Congress to sell out the country without penalty.
Sean Penn was in the movie (Falcon and the Snowman), as the inept middleman. Put not your faith in coke dealers, a motto as good today as it was then.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJRF8xGzvj4&feature=PlayList&p=59A2079B63475269&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=14
August 18th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
If Obama was a real Leader who cared about the People he would solve or bypass the “structural problems.” I really don’t think the military would get in his way.
I don’t think he can dissolve the Senate until the new battlestation is fully operational.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
I don’t seem to be able to post on Grist, so I’ll do it here. The people of the United States do not seem to understand that the vast majority of people in the world are seriously torqued at us for not doing something about our GHG emissions.
We had better watch out. If we continue down our headstrong, selfish path the rest of the world will shun us and may very soon decide that we shouldn’t be given any more Saudi Joy Juice.
Can’t say I’d blame them.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
SLC’s animus for Novak is well-documented on Matt’s patch, though I’ve never quite worked out the basis for such vehement loathing: is it because Novak was a Jew who went goy (in a big Opus Dei way)?
August 18th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Re pseudonymous in nc
Gee, does Mr. pseudonymous think that someone who claims that Jesse Helms was one of the greatest senators of all time and that Tom Delay was a fine upstanding Christian gentleman is anything but a piece of filth? This, of course, is in addition to his long time friendship with the traitor Robert Hansson (who was responsible for many of his so called scoops), and his membership; in the fascist Opus Dei organization, to which his pal Hansson, also a member, directed his attention.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
This is actually just as relevant if you think metaphorically:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xHl-P_arVA
August 18th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
pseudonymous in nc:
My impression is that SLC is a lefty guy on every issue except, you know, that one. I know a lot of people like him, unfortunately.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Do not need to read about bleak prospects for climate legislation. We know the problem, a desire by progressives to run the problem through Congress so they can protect their supporters. The problem belongs in the judiciary, Tort in particular, but common sense has never stopped the progressives.
Like healthcare, social security and the rest; like conservatives, the game as Mark Thoma says, is to control the process. Getting the right result is secondary.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
I just got some spam from someone named David Plouffe:
“Donald –
President Obama is holding a live strategy meeting on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time for all Organizing for America supporters. I hope you can join us, online or by phone.
The President will update us on the fight to pass real health insurance reform — what’s happening in D.C. and what’s happening around the country. He’ll lay out our strategy and message going forward and answer questions from supporters like you. And we’ll unveil the next actions we’ll organize together.
This is a critical time in this President’s administration, and in the history of our country. I hope you can join us.
Here are the details:
What: Organizing for America National Health Care Forum
When: Thursday, August 20th, 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time
RSVP and submit a question for the President.
———–
Anyone know what this is about?
Anyone planning to submit any questions?
August 18th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
I haven’t seen this many lefties refusing to say anything nice about a dead guy since Falwell croaked
Au contraire, mon vieux. They (and I) think it’s extraordinarily nice that Novak is dead. So let’s have no more of this blather about our being unwilling to say anything complimentary about that purulent old shitbag.
August 18th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
If Obama was a real Leader who cared about the People he would solve or bypass the “structural problems.” I really don’t think the military would get in his way.
By that def, W was a Real Leader(tm).
August 18th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
“Fall Apart” needs an arrow to “Turn Around.”
August 18th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
I’m not bullish on this round of climate change legislation. But after the EPA then takes action, I suspect something will get done.
August 18th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
“Man, I haven’t seen this many lefties refusing to say anything nice about a dead guy since Falwell croaked.”
I normally refrain from speaking ill of the recently deceased. But Novak was an asshole. He literally admitted that some of his “anonymous sources” didn’t actually exist and he just made it up. Lying is not a form of journalism. But he thought it was. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on. He’s a disgrace. Or was, and I’m glad he’s dead. Too bad he didn’t take Glenn Beck with him. Someday, I’ll be glad to piss on his grave. Unfortunately, I’ll probably have to travel to some backass redneck state to do it. But pissing on his grave will be worth it.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Two problems with “Wonderland”:
1. John Mayer’s “Your Body is a Wonderland.”
2. The Wonderland murders involving John Holmes.
L.A.’s nicest-sounding rail stop is probably “Mariposa” (”Butterfly”) in El Segundo off of the Green Line, but “Hollywood/Western” sounds like a movie genre and “Imperial/Washington” sounds like a critique of U.S. foreign policy.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Well, in Novak’s defense, I would like to note that Fitzgerald could never have fucked Scooter Libby like a dog if Novak had not kicked off the game. And Scooter Libby’s felony conviction/loss of law license and George W’s refusal to issue a pardon seems to have deeply perturbed Dick Cheney and broken his relationship with George W.
Enough So that Cheney seems about to start a nasty, bloody war with the Bushes. Maybe with a few new revelations.
So that shot Novak took at Ambassador Wilson seems to have whacked Scooter , is still ricocheting and may take out George W or Cheney before it hits the ground. That should give ole Bob sometime to laugh about in the fires of Hell.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
It’s just that Novak always merited (and will merit, I’d guess) specific, personal abuse from SLC when other fascist scumbags, fuckfaces, cocksuckers and assholes might have benefitted from similar.
August 18th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIu_iM8s1×8
In honour of Bob Novak: Douchebag of Liberty
August 18th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
The terrible thing about the Novak example is not that he was….all those terrible things just said here about him, and worse, but that he was not only tolerated but celebrated in Washington and in journalism. his books are still in print, in fact.
what is wrong with us that we continue to make giant successes out of this kind of putz? or the even worse filth that is Beck or Limbaugh?
in particular, why do journalists continue to allow these creeps their free passes, their participation in various seminars, their prestige. Is it the same sort of ‘professional courtesy” that encourages cops not to write tickets against or arrest their fellow cops??? we know what kind of damage that does. do reporters/columnists really think they should not, as Bergala did not, call horrid liars on their journalistic lies ‘because he’s a friend?”
yech. yet another reason people are fleeing traditional news sources by the millions. this is not some fatuous complaint–imagine the circulation and the street cred the Times or the Wash Post or the LA Times would have gotten if they had taken Novak on–just on the facts, the lies, etc. THAT kind of media would not now be fighting for its life.
they are so far ennervated now that even thinking in this way is beyond them.
otherwise they’d be out there right now taking apart the American Enterprise Institute, and the like. In fact, the neocon experiment would have had a much different outcome if there were real mainstream media out there that believed in seeking and speaking truth.
oh, forget all this. i’m a romantic idiot.
but i’m glad novak is gone. i’m glad, so glad.
August 18th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
One of the rare times I agree with SLC. May Novak burn in hell.
August 18th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Re brendan
To follow up on Mr. brendans’ comment, the thing that made shithead Novak worse then his fellow goat fuckers Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh, Savage, Coulter, et al is that, unlike them, he was accepted in Washington society by other reporters and columnists as one of them, despite the fact that he was a lying piece of crap. Not even his association with the traitor Robert Hansson, the source of many of his so-called scoops and inside gossip, and his membership in the fascist Opus Dei society could shake their acceptance. Nazi Novak was a thoroughly evil man who did not deserve to die in his bed.
August 18th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
[...] Via; also, original (4.9m views) and literal (3.4m views) videos. [...]
August 18th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Let’s not forget that Ruggles is also the middle name of one Thomas Pynchon (who, like Tyrone Slothrop, comes from a very long line of New Englanders apt to have streets named after them).
August 19th, 2009 at 12:16 am
“comes from a very long line of New Englanders apt to have streets named after them”
If you go to State College, PA, there’s an intersection of Foster avenue and Sparks street. They are both named after branches of my family. The Sparks side wasn’t very important. But the Fosters sold their land to the state of Pennsylvania to create the Penn State campus. That, and three dollars might buy me a latte. It surely wasn’t enough to prevent my brother from getting kicked out of Penn State. But a felony conviction on a drug distribution charge pretty much gets you kicked out of any university. But in the end, my brother was really lucky. The cops found the pot, but they didn’t find the acid. My brother had some Indian chemistry major cooking it for him, and he pretty much sold all of the acid in central and western Pennsylvania. Strangely enough, they both ended up in the same jail cell, but not for the acid. The Indian guy murdered his fiance the day before my brother was busted for pot. The world is a very small place. But I wouldn’t want to paint it.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:01 am
Ah, but there are things buried at State College other than drugs, fostert.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:13 am
Ever heard of Raytheon? E-Systems? HRB-Singer?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raytheon_Intelligence_and_Information_Systems
http://www.stormingmedia.us/corpauthors/HRB_SINGER_INC_STATE_COLLEGE_PA.html
August 19th, 2009 at 1:16 am
“I don’t understand why the left of the left has decided that this is their Waterloo,” said a senior White House adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “We’ve gotten to this point where health care on the left is determined by the breadth of the public option. I don’t understand how that has become the measure of whether what we achieve is health-care reform.”
“It’s a mystifying thing,” he added. “We’re forgetting why we are in this.”
the left of the left, is that a new planet? please explain.
Another top aide expressed chagrin that a single element in the president’s sprawling health-care initiative has become a litmus test for whether the administration is serious about the issue.
“It took on a life of its own,” he said.
gee, maybe Ezra and Matt and the roundtable writers at The New Racist can explain what this newfangled phenomena is all about?
August 19th, 2009 at 1:22 am
Pseudonymous in NC,
While I would not wish the horrors of abortion on anyone save Nazis and Klansmen, SLC is certainly correct that Novak was a pigf*cking piece of sh*t.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Jim Kessler, a vice president at the nonpartisan Third Way think tank, said that to the public, the health-care debate appears to be a “muddle.”
doesn’t it rock to be in the same bed with Ceci Connolly.
cue Nelson Muntz!
August 19th, 2009 at 2:33 am
Off-topic, but some fairly big news from the scientific world:
Building Blocks of Life found on Comet
And to add to the article, its already been shown that amino acids can survive an impact with earth. In fact, the heat and pressure of the impact often polymerizes them.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:39 am
“Ah, but there are things buried at State College other than drugs, fostert.”
Yeah, but every city has buried their past deeds. But not always so well. Sometimes those skeletons rise up. I live in Boulder now, and it’s liberal to the bone. But it was founded by the KKK. You never know where a city might go, do you? I’m sure the founders of my town are rolling in their graves. Roll on, baby!
August 19th, 2009 at 2:42 am
Wow, all the regulars out in force on a Tuesday night.
Just goes to show you that while we on Matt’s blog may often use our shared language to revile each other, we can occasionally look beyond our petty disagreements to reach an accord on issues that truly matter.
Like the fact that a certain sleepy town on the Potomac, the population of which already occupying a lofty position in the annals of douchebaggery, has lost a resident who stood as a city upon a hill to his brethren, a beacon of light shining across this great land that proves, yes, you too, young man, can ascend to the dizzying heights of shameless corruption and grasp the mantle of complete asshole.
Oh, and get paid countless millions to do so.
I sincerely hope Old Scratch wasn’t napping on this one, and that his new position was already warmed and waiting.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:01 am
“I’m sure the founders of my town are rolling in their graves.”
So here’s weird concept, I find it strange that people bury their dead. But at least doing so is actually legal. I’d like my body to be eaten by vultures, but that’s not legal despite it being the standard practice of Tibetan Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. So isn’t the fact that it is illegal an infringement of religious practices? Apparently not. But some religions are more equal than others. If being eaten by vultures was a Christian practice, it would surly be legal.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:05 am
“Wow, all the regulars out in force on a Tuesday night”
Yeah, even Hector showed up, and he’s been absent for a while. Too bad we didn’t get an outrageous rant from him. Man, I miss that.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:08 am
Its legal to have your remains fired out of a cannon, a la Hunter S Thomson.
Also, apparently the body-devoured-by-vultures method is becoming problematic even where it is practiced these days since pesticides have killed off all the vultures, and the bodies are rotting because there are no vultures around to devour them.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:08 am
@41;
Never fear, just check the post on israel.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:28 am
“it would surly be legal”
I meant ’surely’, but ’surly’ kind of works. Sometimes, accidents work out. How did a military contractor like Amana invent the microwave oven? Some dude’s Hershey bar got melted by his radar experiment. So what did he do? He made popcorn, of course. How did copper electroplating get invented? Well, they were actually trying to do it, but it didn’t work until someone pissed in the vat. Turns out, urea is what was needed to make it work. My grandfather invented polypropylene. Why’d he do it? He needed it for his tree grafting hobby. So he whipped it up in his basement lab (he stole that equipment from Standard Oil, where he worked). And his tree grafting efforts really did produce fruit. He had an apple/pear/peach tree, and it produced all three fruits. He also had flashing Christmas tree lights in 1943. Needless to say, the neighbors thought he was crazy, and they were right. But they got to use another one of his inventions: butyl rubber. It’s what your car tires are made of. And he made that in the basement, too. I’ve seen those home movies. Welcome to the world of invention. It seems to take insanity to come up with a new idea.
August 19th, 2009 at 3:41 am
In many instances, nature is coming to us.
Presently I live in the same town I grew up in. When I was kid, 40 years ago, I never saw a hawk soaring over my town. It would have been unthinkable. But today, like almost every day, I saw several hawks catching currents high above, gazing down at my town from several thousand feet. There is a surreal quality to seeing hawks every day. I know why they have come, yet still; how cool is it to have such magnificent birds of prey find a home in my suburb?
On the town’s golf course, incredibly, a family of foxes has moved in. There is a scratchy patch of heather and tall grass in the middle of the course. It’s half the size of a football field. There have been signs posted around it since I can remember, saying “keep out, Nature Preserve. Free drop.” I always though it was a joke. Nature Preserve? A small, old, semi-buried toxic dump, more likely. The only creatures that could possibly call it home were squirrels and groundhogs, I always thought.
But now, several times a week, when I am practicing, as I always have, around the 11th green as the sun begins to set, four young foxes come out of that small Nature Preserve that lies adjacent -and watch me chip and hit bunker shots.
My guess is they’re siblings, about a year old. They look healthy, strong, and well fed. They seem happy as hell and they are totally unafraid. Sometimes they lay in the surrounding bunkers and peer out over the top, half-interested, or they lope around the green, chasing and nipping each others tails.
I hope the town lets them live. My guess is not. We no longer allow geese to land and set up shop anywhere on town property. Two town-hired geese-chasing dogs see to that. The foxes will most likely be shot. Until then, though, I’ll just enjoy the ethereal experience of working on my chipping with four young foxes watching me.
August 19th, 2009 at 5:47 am
Max424, that’s beautiful. And a lot of people don’t understand how animals have adapted to urban life. Peregrine Falcons were nearly wiped out until they became urban birds. They were cliff dwellers, and they’ve learned that tall buildings are like cliffs. And they learned that urban areas have many pigeons to feed on. So they will do fine. My brother had a bird bath that attracted many small birds, robins mostly. And he noticed that the Peregrine Falcon only came by on Tuesday for lunch. And that lunch was fun to watch. Unless you’re a robin, of course. Sucks when lunch means you’re the food. The falcon apparently had other places to eat the rest of the week, but Tuesday at Jim’s was his lunch date, and he never missed it. And that’s a really weird thing. Why do birds adopt our seven day week? I have no idea why they would do that, but they do. As for foxes, I miss the fox that used to come around. I guess a mountain lion got him. Mountain lions are normal, foxes aren’t. But I can’t blame the mountain lion for eating the fox. But I wish the mountain lions would take out the deer. The deer are a serious threat to our gardens. And we build tall fences to keep them away, but they still come. And they come often enough that we recognize the individuals. And we name them. Bob and Nancy had a few new kids. Their hope is that the kids will be successful enough to move up to Nederland. Well, I’m guessing that’s what they’re thinking. It’s not so easy to talk to deer.
August 19th, 2009 at 6:08 am
“Mountain lions are normal, foxes aren’t.”
And if your dog or cat has been missing for three days, sorry. It became food. Your cat met a bigger cat. And your dog used to like messing with cats and then he faced one that was a little too big. Pound for pound, cats are more dangerous than dogs. So when a 40 pound dog faces a 120 pound cat, it’s pretty obvious what will happen. And whatever that cat might do to your dog, the cat is protected by federal wildlife regulations, so it gets away with it. So sorry about your dog.
August 19th, 2009 at 7:30 am
So I have a problem now. My roommate left the gate open. It happened when the deer aren’t there, so it was okay. But if he does that at night, every garden in my block will be devastated. One simple fuckup, and my entire neighborhood loses their gardens. Deer are extremely efficient, and they will eat anything that’s a plant. But they really like early shoots. But this is what is so weird: simply failing to close a gate wipes out everyone’s garden. It’s the kind of offense that really does deserve at least a shot of rock salt in your leg. I’ll let it slide, but if he does that again, he’s simply out. The issue is very serious, and the deer welcome a fuckup. But the deer are surely not welcome. I will not kill them, but I don’t want them eating my food.
August 19th, 2009 at 8:21 am
One of the things I despise most about the contemporary right is the vitriol of their language. It’s mean-spirited and shows, nearly always, a catastrophic lack of empathy. It’s repellent. Can we talk about the bad things Novak did without wishing for preemptive abortions, etc.? We can get our points across with some sense of decency.
August 19th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Jesus Christ, fostert, did you take some seriously strong shit before coming to this thread? That’s some serious drunken/stoned logorrhea right there. Not that it isn’t fun to read.
August 19th, 2009 at 10:23 am
How did he go? Stake? Decapitation?
Someone walk 3 times around his grave counterclockwise smoking a pipe?
August 19th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Even just sticking to the Blue Line, “Maverick” is a much better name than “Wonderland.”
August 19th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Re Njori
Unfortunately, much as I would have liked to see shithead Novak be burned at the stake, it appears that he died in his bed of brain cancer.
August 19th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
[...] finally, in the spirit of inter-religious dialogue, here’s your moment of Zen (via Yglesias). Posted by Adam Kotsko Filed in Zizek, academia, link posts Leave a Comment [...]
August 23rd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
[...] Eclipse of the Heart” in flowchart form (via Yglesias). Funny, but I’m still a fan of the literal video [...]