bit o’ fun

"Ideas" from the Party of Ideas

Dana Hunter


I came across this photo on Pundit Kitchen today. It’s so true, so very true:

I see via Politico that House GOP Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) has put together an online “Solutions Center,” which purports to answer the four big questions Americans are asking. Patrick O’Connor and Mike Allen see this as the GOP scrambling “to show it has ideas,” which suggests, perhaps, that they didn’t spend too much time on the site. Because in all their scrambling, House Republicans didn’t come up with much that hasn’t already cost them the last two elections.

Here’s an abbreviated version of the problems Americans face, and the solutions the GOP is positing.

Q: How will I keep my job? A: We’ll give your boss a tax cut!

Q: How should we use taxpayer money?
A: By giving it back to you through tax cuts!

Q: How will I grow my savings?
A: We’ll toss out capital gains tax on new assets. And then we’ll let you write off up to $10,000 in losses on your taxes.

Q: How will I keep my house?
A: With a $5,000 refinancing tax credit, of course. We’ll also give your lenders a tax credit if they help you out. But just in case they don’t, we’ll make it harder for you to sue them.

Also included in there is a pitch for the House GOP’s failed alternative budget–so it’s not just about cutting taxes. It’s also about freezing spending. Let’s see–where have I heard this all before.

What’s that they say about gold-plating shit? Yeah. It’s still shit. Hate to break it to the GOP, but putting inane, discredited and discarded ideas on a snazzy new website doesn’t make ’em fresh and new. Especially not when the site looks like it was created for the Children 4-8 set.

Sad, sad, sad.

"Ideas" from the Party of Ideas
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My Cat Can't Even Be Bothered to Laugh

Dana Hunter1 Comment

So I’m still getting used to where things are. Like, y’know, the sofa. This is important to know when you’re sitting on the floor with your back to it, and you whip round to get up without paying attention to small details like how close the sofa is to your face. And when I misjudge such matters and slam into it, causing the whole sofa to shiver, what does the cat do? Continues to sleep, inches away, as if nothing interesting ever happened.


Ah, well. What else does one expect from a feline whose food bowl is full?

My Cat Can't Even Be Bothered to Laugh

Get Out of the Cantina and Go Have Some Coffee

Dana Hunter1 Comment

I think my heart sister NP is in the high-energy phase of her pregnancy. Her coffee house is hopping, and she’s got plenty of projects for you to participate in.

April is National Poetry Month (NPM). Care to join the celebration? NP’s making it easy for you:

If you’d like to share a poem, you can email me with the poem, poet, and source, and a few sentences about why you’re sharing the poem. You can send me a link to your NPM posts on your own blog or site and I’ll promote them, as well. If you’d like to send an original poem, please include a few sentences about yourself to serve as a brief bio.

I’ll be doing that in just a few days here. Maybe I’ll even be really cruel to you lot and post a Dana Hunter original.

If you’re poetically inclined, you can participate in NaPoWriMo. This year, they’re not just encouraging you to write a poem a day, but gather sponsors to keep poetry freely flowing through the intertoobz. NP will be happy to give you some exposure by posting links to your poetry. I’m not much of a poet, so I’m giving this one a miss. Still, it’s a fun idea, and for a good cause!

Want some handcrafted love from a professional writer? NP has a pay-it-forward project going. Act fast – there’ll only be five lucky people! I’ll stay out of the running so you have a chance, although I feel like I’m cheating. NP’s already giving me something homemade: a nephew. So, if you lose out over at her place, comment here and get a little something crafty from Dana. I make no warranties as to quality, however.

And, finally, there’s the 100 Books Project:

Andromeda Ramano-Lax, and friend of Moonrat, decided to collect “a list of 100 books that she wants to have read in her life to fill in some of her reading gaps of classics and great contemporary fiction.” She gave herself 5 years to get through the list, and gave herself a 75% passing percentage (meaning if she finishes 75 titles in the 5-year span, she’s accomplished her goal).

Got title suggestions? Send ’em to her! And if you decide to create your own list, let both of us know so we can link you.

It’s nice to think of something other than pollyticks for once, innit? Go have yourselves some fun! I’ll meet you back here later for more fun with stupity.

Get Out of the Cantina and Go Have Some Coffee

Great Minds

Dana Hunter1 Comment

Digby and I are thinking alike, which gives me hope for the eventual greatness of my mind:

I was just reading this interesting piece about narcissistic personality disorder and musing about the mindset that believes it’s ok to take down the world economy and then dictate the rules by which it is fixed.

So we don’t agree on the actual pathology, but at least we’re on the same track. Woot!

If we have any clinical psychologists in the audience, they should feel free to weigh in. Who’s closer to the proper diagnosis of the Wall Street fucktards, Digby or your own cantinera?

Great Minds

Webster's Dictionary? That Damned Liberal Rag!

Dana Hunter

Page Bernard Goldberg! Evidence the dictionary’s “written by some liberal person!” They’re changing the definition of marriage – civilization will end!

Conservatives have their tidy whiteys all twisted because (ZOMG) the nation’s most popular dictionary updated the definition of marriage. Guess what, language gets updated all the time, that’s why there are new editions of dictionaries. *facepalm jpg*

Merriam Webster added a new definition of marriage in 2003

the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage

but as Andrew Sullivan points out, conservatives seem to have just noticed it. One guy got so upset about the “homosexual agenda” he made a video about it (above).

Two things, here. It took them six years to crack open a dictionary and discover this “outrage.” That’s fucking pathetic even by wingnut standards. And that video’s as pathetic as they are. They’d better pretend it’s a Poe.

How long do you think it’ll be before some absolute idiot in Congress or a state legislature tries to push a bill defending marriage against dictionaries?

Webster's Dictionary? That Damned Liberal Rag!

St. Patrick's Day Redux

Dana Hunter

Have I mentioned lately I love Michelle Obama? I love Michelle Obama. For the first time, the White House fountains flowed green for St. Paddy’s, and she’s the one who made it so (h/t):


That’s just awesome.

She of course got the idea from Chicago, which dyes its river green:


Some of use celebrate a little differently, o’ course:


And some of us are probably a little more superstitious than absolutely necessary:


Well, you know what they say: hope in one hand, shit in the oth – oh, wait, you don’t have hands. Well, nevermind, then.

May your hangovers be short, my darlings.

St. Patrick's Day Redux

We're Not Worthy

Dana Hunter1 Comment

I must now, with some regret and no little awe, acknowledge I’ve been knocked from the pedestal of Grand High Extreme Progressive. Radha has pwnd us all:

I beat Dana! I beat Dana!

372

Now anyone just TRY beating that!

We are all merely in Radha’s shadow. Which will be super nice come summer.

Congratulations, Radha! And thankee kindly for all the lovely shade.

We're Not Worthy

Great Minds

Dana Hunter1 Comment

All right, so mine’s not so great as Hilzoy’s, but we were thinking alike. Here’s me on the Wall Street wonders last night:

They need to put down the champagne and pick up some history books. I’d advise them to start with the French Revolution. Specifically, what happened to the “let them eat cake” crowd.

Here’s Hilzoy on the Wall Street wonders who’re whining about people wanting to take their outrageously enormous bonuses away:

As someone who thinks that levels of compensation in the US are absurdly unequal, and that this is bad for the country, it’s tempting to say: oh, go ahead, you idiots. Keep your sense of entitlement to other people’s money. Make people come after you with pikes and tumbrils. See if I care.

Ha. HA! I’m not the only one thinking French Revolution.

And Hilzoy and I aren’t the only ones with visions of violence:

Something about the AIG story is bringing out strange reactions. Chuck Grassley:

“In a comment aired this afternoon on WMT, an Iowa radio station, Grassley (R-Iowa) said: “The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them if they’d follow the Japanese model and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry, and then either do one of two things — resign, or go commit suicide.” (…)

And no, none of us really want to see the Wall Street robber barons bleeding in the streets. Much. But when someone’s robbed you blind, then demanded you pay them for the privilege, it’s pretty hard not to think of things like tumbrels and hari kiri, even though you’d be horrified if those things actually came to pass.

But this is one other good thing about AIG’s outrageous behavior: it allowed a Republican to get off a cutting one-liner that absolutely delighted me. I agree with Sen. Grassley without reservation on that point.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go have a lie-down after such a shock.

Great Minds