ATLmalcontent

I'VE MOVED

I'm on WordPress now -- hope you like. Check me out here and update your links.

i'm still here

Big changes coming -- stay tuned.

would you buy a used car from this woman?

You'd be called a sexist if you didn't. Regardless, those all-powerful superdelegates might want to consider this little nugget from last night's exit polls:

Is Clinton honest and trustworthy? 52 Yes, 48 No

And that's from her fellow Democrats, further validating those Nixon comparisons.

i hope she brought a good book

Only in Kansas:

Authorities are considering charges in the bizarre case of a woman who sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years -- so long that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the boyfriend finally called police.

Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman's skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.

"We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Whipple said. "The hospital removed it."

A neighbor said "it really didn't surprise him." The Heartland must have a high standard for the bizarre.

victim to victim

Geraldine Ferraro stepped down from her role as a member of Clinton's finance committee today, blaming everyone but herself for the divisive comments which prompted the move.

"The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you," she wrote in a letter to Hillborg. "I won't let that happen."

romneytron reprograms

Observe the White House communications team in action:

Bush favors Romney as vice-president, reports Fred Barnes, the same Fred Barnes who penned the Bush valentine, "Rebel-in-Chief." (Sample passage: "Success in at least laying the foundation for representative government in Iraq had many authors … but one in particular stands out. That's Bush.")

The next day, human GOP talking point Sean Hannity "interviews" Romney, who affirms his desire to be McCain's running mate.

“I think any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included. Of course this is a nation which needs strong leadership. And if the nominee of our party asked you to serve with him, anybody would be honored to receive that call … and to accept it, of course.”

McCain hates Romney, of course, but picking him might help assuage crotchety right wingers. I'd rather he told them to go fuck themselves.

feminists who know better

Not all are blinded by enforced gender identity --

"I can't see that Hillary would appeal to feminists because, why is she there? She is there because she is Bill's wife, and it's a bit useless to pretend, 'Oh, it's because of her wonderful job as a senator.'"
Germaine Greer, who says Clinton is "brassy and cold and manipulative."

"The arrogant, self-absorbed Clintons have shown their unscrupulous hand to all who have eyes to see. Yes, Hillary may know the labyrinthine flow chart of the Washington bureaucracy, but her peripheral experiences as a gallivanting first lady scarcely qualify her to be commander in chief. On the contrary, her constant resort to schmaltzy videos and cheap entertainment riffs ("The Sopranos," "Saturday Night Live") has been depressingly unpresidential. Is this how she would govern? All that canned "softening" of Hillary's image would have been unnecessary had she had greater personal resources to begin with. Her cutesy campaign has set a bad precedent for future women candidates, who should stand on their own as proponents of public policy."
Camille Paglia

george carlin on euphemisms

Classic, and more relevant than ever -- can you say enhanced interrogation techniques?

the south, race and the clinton campaign

In Georgia, Barack Obama captured 43 percent of the white vote. A majority of whites, ages 18-44, voted for Obama.

In Mississippi, 72 percent of whites voted for Clinton.

Naturally there have been shifts in the race since Feb. 5th, but they tend to favor Obama. So why are white voters flocking to Hillborg -- and not just in Mississippi? Seventy percent of white Dems in Ohio supported Clinton.

Is it racism, race-baiting or both?

Remind yourself to scream next time Hillary portrays herself as a uniter, not a divider.

island kingpin

One could imagine the Professor and Ginger sharing a big fattie. Today we learned of Mary Ann's habit.

It goes deeper than that; turns out Mary Ann was the island's dealer. The wholesome Kansas farm girl act was merely a clever ruse.

In 1998, (Bob) Denver was arrested when he signed for a FedEx delivery of 30 grams of marijuana. ... Reports at the time suggested that Denver's Gilligan co-star Dawn Wells had arranged the shipment, that his checkbook included several suspicious payments to Wells, and that prosecutors were pressuring him to name Wells as his supplier. Instead, Denver testified that "some crazy fan must have sent it."

maybe barbara bush was right

Geraldine Ferraro says something patently disrespectful (further dividing an already fractured base) and Hillary offers but a mild rebuke. Ferraro can't even bring herself to apologize; instead, mimicking her candidate, the former vice-presidential nominee says she's a victim.

"Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up," Ferraro said. "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

Sounds like something David Duke would say In truth, it's the Clinton campaign that's screamed sexism whenever criticized. Obama has generally resisted the cheap lure of identity politics.

Not that he has anything to complain about. Blacks have it so much easier than everyone else, at least according to privileged white women like Gerry and Hillborg.

is sinbad qualified to answer the red phone?

If Clinton is, then I guess the dirt poor man's Bill Cosby is as well; along with Sheryl Crow, the comedian accompanied Hillary to Bosnia in 1996, a trip the former first lady described as "harrowing." Hillborg claims she led negotiations with Macedonia to open up its border to refugees from Kosovo during her visit.

Not only was the border opened the day before she arrived but, according to Sinbad, the trip was anything but harrowing:

In an interview with the Sleuth Monday, he said the "scariest" part of the trip was wondering where he'd eat next. "I think the only 'red-phone' moment was: 'Do we eat here or at the next place.'"

Clinton, during a late December campaign appearance in Iowa, described a hair-raising corkscrew landing in war-torn Bosnia, a trip she took with her then-teenage daughter, Chelsea. "They said there might be sniper fire," Clinton said.

Threat of bullets? Sinbad doesn't remember that, either.

"I never felt that I was in a dangerous position. I never felt being in a sense of peril, or 'Oh, God, I hope I'm going to be OK when I get out of this helicopter or when I get out of his tank.'"

A former top official in Bill Clinton's administration also debunks Hillary's alleged experience.

She did not sit in on National Security Council meetings. She did not have a security clearance. She did not attend meetings in the Situation Room. She did not manage any part of the national security bureaucracy, nor did she have her own national security staff. She did not do any heavy-lifting with foreign governments, whether they were friendly or not. She never managed a foreign policy crisis, and there is no evidence to suggest that she participated in the decision-making that occurred in connection with any such crisis. As far as the record shows, Senator Clinton never answered the phone either to make a decision on any pressing national security issue - not at 3 AM or at any other time of day.

the audacity of audacity

How, at this point, can anyone rationalize the arrogance and duplicity of the Clinton campaign? Obama is not qualified for the presidency, they say, but he's qualified to be a heartbeat away. Her presumption is breathtaking, considering she trails in delegates, the popular vote and states won.

But Hillary has prevailed in the big states, never mind that nominations go to the candidate with the most delegates. It's like (SPORTS ANALOGY ALERT) a baseball team losing a game 5-4 but arguing they should've won because they hit more home runs.

How do you sell that? Or this load of crap from Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson:

Clinton would not pick a running mate who has not met the “national security threshold” — as Clinton’s military advisers and Wolfson put it on the call — but that it is possible Obama could meet that threshold by this summer's Democratic convention.

What could possibly happen in the next three months that would allow Obama to meet Hillborg's threshold? Caving to her ambition, perhaps?

Today he ridiculed the idea, saying "I don't want anybody here thinking that somehow, 'Well, you know, maybe I can get both.' Don't think that way. You have to make a choice in this election."

Obama should be even more definitive. Running on a ticket with Hillary counters his theme of change and would reveal him as just another party hack. I'd lose considerable respect for him, and I doubt I'd be alone.

Besides, she's just using him. In her attempt to secure the nomination without a majority of elected delegates, Hillary is making a pitch to the superdelegates: choose me and I'll make sure Barack plays along. Never mind that her repeated dismissals of Obama reek of Old South paternalism.

Of course, to hear one of her top supporters frame it, Obama's race is his only qualification.

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," said Geraldine Ferraro. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

Clearly, no one has it easier in America than a black man with a Muslim-sounding name.

How does anyone swallow such bullshit?

“The bigger the lie, the better the chance they think they’ve got," said former senator Bill Bradley. "That’s been their whole approach. She’s going to lose a whole generation of people who got involved in politics believing it could be something different.”

"i helped to bring peace to northern ireland" and other clinton lies

No she didn't. Hillborg claims this as part of her foreign policy experience, but the province's former First Minister remembers otherwise:

"I don’t want to rain on the thing for her but being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player."

Clinton has also said she negotiated with Macedonia to open up its border to refugees from Kosovo. Also not true.

The Macedonian government opened its border to refugees the day before Clinton arrived to meet with government leaders. And her mission to Bosnia was a one-day visit in which she was accompanied by performers Sheryl Crow and Sinbad, as well as her daughter, Chelsea, according to the commanding general who hosted her.

A third lie: Hillborg said she lobbied her husband to intervene militarily in Rwanda to stop the ongoing genocide there.

"In my review of the records, I didn't find anything to suggest that military intervention was put on the table in NSC [National Security Council] deliberations," said Gail Smith, a Clinton NSC official who did a review for the White House of the administration's handling of the Rwandan genocide.

More proof (as if it were necessary) that Hillary cannot -- and should not -- be trusted.

"come this way, you maverick renegade," or the 20 best movies of the aughts

A random flipping yields"Team America," so I'm glad I stayed in tonight.

If future historians want a broad take on life in 2003, here's their source. Yeah, it (the year, not the movie) mostly sucked, but at least there were some people around who could laugh at it. Depicting Kim Jong-il as an adult Eric Cartman was most inspired.

"Team America" is among my Top 20 of the decade thus far, along with: "No Country for Old Men," "Notes on a Scandal," "Y Tu Mama Tambien," "21 Grams," "You Can Count on Me," "Lost in Translation," "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," "Gosford Park," "Requiem for a Dream," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" "Rushmore," "Sexy Beast," "Shattered Glass," "Brokeback Mountain," "Borat" and "The Bourne Ultimatum," with "City of God," "The Lives of Others" and "Ghost World" topping the list.

when the red phone rings

Luckovich nailed it.

"a world without fear"

Hey Black Eyed Peas guy -- you want Obama to win? Stop making these insufferable videos. I'm sure Macy Gray appreciates the work, but involving her, Mopey Actor With Chin Stubble, the Hispanic Jim Belushi (George Lopez) and Jessica Alba in the same project begs failure.

Are they shilling for a Messiah or The Gap?