Completely Unnecessary

First off, apparently some people don’t think it’s a good idea for George Stephanopoulos to run debates between Clinton and Obama. I mean, they’re acting like he used to be one of Bill Clinton’s main communications staffers…

Oh.

I mean, they got round to policy after the first hour. So what?

[Actually, the original version of the NYT debate story, which they since replaced with this, was hilarious. The writing practically screamed, 'I SUPPORT OBAMA!' I can't be assed to find it, unfortunately - it's late. The second one seems more pro-HRC.]

Meanwhile, over in Iraq… you must be fucking kidding me.

And lastly - the drought got a shout out in the NYT! (Plus, and one of my students told me today that the SA incest couple made it onto Perez Hilton.)

We’ve arrived, Australia.

Links:
Ourage as ex-Clinton Staffer Runs Debate [the Age]
Iraq Cracksdown on Seatbelt Scofflaws [NYT]
A Drought in Australia, a Global Shortage of Rice [NYT]
Clinton Uses Sharp Attacks in Tense Debate [NYT]

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I was beating myself up earlier today because I promised myself that I would stop looking for references for my thesis and, you know, actually read them. And then I added at least six more…

I’m currently cruising at over 60 references, and will probably only need about 30 of them.

So what about this feels good?

I just started reading this woman’s Masters thesis that I found via Google Scholar, and I totally caught her plagiarizing! Plagiarizing, in fact, one of the other references I read tonight, Devitt (1999)!

It was a hard to locate reference, I know, but she could have at least changed the wording a wee bit more.

Busted!

Luckily, she’s graduated, and I don’t really care that much.

And really, her writing is more shocking than the stealing. If her uni let her pass, a little bit of plagiarism clearly wasn’t going to make the difference.

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Pat Buchanan wrote a piece in which he actually said African-Americans (or ‘blacks’) should be grateful they were brought to America as slaves:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
…
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?

So vile do I find these words (and the piece as a whole) that I had serious doubts about even posting them on this space that belongs to me. In the end, however, I reckon the more people that see this kind of hate the better.

As a side note, he continually refers to Obama as ‘Barack’ - which, as I believe we’ve covered by now, is a way of belittling your opponent. Usually, only women and children are referred to by the first names in the press. See, for example: Hillary.

Given the tone, I think the word Buchanan would really like to use is ‘boy,’ but he doesn’t have the cajones. Don’t worry, Pat, we know what you meant; you have gall aplenty.

[Actually, I'm so pissed about this, I'm not even giving him pageviews. I've taken two screen captures of the article, and you can read it after the jump. Enjoy my commentary, which I'm pretty sure makes this reasonably legal. Give Jezebel the pageviews instead if you want a link.]

(more…)

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Is there a critical mass for cognitive dissonance?

This link will take you to video of Fox Friend Brian Kilmeade stomping off the set after his co-hosts refuse to stop slamming Obama.

The clip includes what appears to real footage of Chris Wallace defending Obama’s comments, criticizing Fox & Friends for taking an Obama quote out of context, and belittling a slack-jawed Steve Doocy over the amount of time spent bashing the candidate.

Um. Seriously, if I watch it a third time, might my brain actually explode?

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Or, rather, one picture that’s been floating around the Internet for a long time now.
I really just hate this more than I can say (which is why it only gets a thumbnail). It’s racist and sexist at the same time… (and a friend of mine has it on his myspace profile. Boo.)

Who do I stab for this?

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Everyone else: ‘Not so much.’

I really hope Clinton realized how ridiculous this sounded as she said it:

Mrs. Clinton, in an appearance before a Hispanic business group in Washington Wednesday morning, argued that the delegates should be seated based on the results of the Michigan and Florida primaries, which were held in January in violation of Democratic Party rules.
…
“The results of those primaries were fair and should be honored,” she told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here.

Okay, for those of you who haven’t been following this saga: Florida and Michigan wanted to move their primaries earlier in the year, probably to garner some of the huge amounts of cash that visiting and commercialing politicians leave in their wake.

The DNC told them, ‘don’t do that, or we will strip you of your delegates.’ They did it, and the DNC stripped them of their ability to put up delegates for a candidate at the nominating convention.

Since we were punishing them, all the other (major) candidates removed their names from the Michigan ballot. Except for Clinton. And no one campaigned in Florida. Kind of:

Clinton won after all the Democratic candidates agreed not to campaign in either state because they violated the party rules. Clinton, who flew into Florida on primary eve but did not hold a public rally, tried to argue that Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois had violated the pledge by airing a national ad campaign that also showed on Florida television stations.

Not to mention that this same AP article is mostly about Howard Ickes, now a Clinton campaign delegate counter, arguing that the two states’ delegates should be put back into play. Ickes is one of the DNC members that voted to strip the delegates in the first place.

To be fair, Clinton went on to say yesterday that an alternative to seating the ‘fair’ delegates would be to hold a new primary, probably by mail-in ballot. This is being discussed, but no one seems to think it’ll really work. And is it really fair, they’ve never done a mail-in vote, etc., etc.

Basically, this is really stuffed up. Whether or not Clinton saw this coming months ago - because that Michigan thing is hard to justify - she can’t really think that Obama’s going to say, ‘Oh sure, let’s seat the delegates from a state in which I was not even a choice.’

Clinton won Michigan 55% to ‘Uncommitted’s’ 40% - and you have to assume that many Obama and Edwards supporters just stayed home that day.

Her campaign (and campaign strategy) gets more ludicrous every day. I mean, does no one read these things out loud before talking?

Links:
Clinton and Obama Split Over Florida and Michigan [NYT]
Clinton Aide Changes Mich., Fla. Stance [AP/MyWay]
Fla. Presidential Primary Re-Do Unlikely [AP]

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This, right here, is why people in Australia look at me and say, ‘What is wrong with your country?’

In response to recent campus shootings, State Senator Karen S. Johnson has proposed a bill to allow concealed weapons on the campuses of Arizona’s public colleges and universities.

The police, she said, respond too slowly to such incidents and, besides, who better than the people staring down the barrel to take action?

She initially wanted her bill to cover all public schools, kindergarten and up, but other lawmakers convinced her it stood a better chance of passing if it were limited to higher education.

“I feel like our kindergartners are sitting there like sitting ducks,” Ms. Johnson said last week when the bill passed the committee by a 4-to-3 vote.

To Johnson’s credit, she described herself to the NYT as ‘right-wing wacko.’

Australians frequently ask me, ‘Why does America think its gun problems can be solved with more guns?’

I don’t know, but stories like this give me an itchy bridging-visa finger.

Arizona Weighs Bill to Allow Guns on Campuses [NYT]

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He probably saw them frequently, perhaps as he and his parents gathered around the breakfast table each morning. But we’ll leave the incest jokes for a moment, as I urge you to watch at least the first minute and a half of the video below.

The backstory on this is that Florida’s Board of Ed just approved classroom materials containing the world ‘evolution’ for the first time. Previously, the ’science’ taught to Florida schoolchildren simply referred to ‘changes over time.’

When you think with quiet rage about what has been passing for education in Florida, the fact that right-wingers got the Board to refer to evolution simply as ‘a theory’ really doesn’t seem so bad. It’s like they’ve finally been given math - the fact that they aren’t learning calculus is small beans.

To clarify: there are generations of Floridians who apparently never heard the word ‘evolution’ during their K-12 schooling.

Anyway, the man above is clearly the product of such an excellent system. Even given the primary source material, he’s failed to grasp its salient points.

Ps - I love the look on the Board member’s face about eight seconds in. Rarely does one see ‘what the fuck?’ so honestly personified.

h/t to Wonkette and ThinkProgress

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Um, there’s a film in preproduction right now called Dali & I: The Surreal Story.

Who would be bold enough to take on the part of everyone’s favorite artistic crazy man? Why none other than Hollywood’s favorite crazy man: Al Fucking Pacino.

Al Pacino is playing the part of Salvador Dali in a film.
To clarify, Salvador Dali is being played by Al Pacino.

These are the things I learn stalking Cillian Murphy on IMDB. Sunshine was pretty weird, but oh, oh so worth it.

Um, so I have to go to Asia now. Bye.

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It appears I’m already in Iowa, sporting my old haircut:

Seriously, what is this about?

Ps - Call me, dopplegangtrix.

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