The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Does Shirley Sherrod float?

    That is the real question the radical right is asking. For they have vested in Shirley Sherrod all their pent-up racial hatred and, in willful ignorance of the facts, have accused and convicted her of being the Wicked Witch of...
    Richard Day's picture

    BERT THE TURTLE

                                                                                           GLENN BECK IN COSTUMEThe damage extended beyond Mr. Bush's presidency. The attacks on Mr. Bush poisoned America's political discourse. Saying the commander-in-chief intentionally lied America into war is about the most serious accusation that can be leveled at...

    The Self-PiTea Party Doubles Down

    "He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave." -- Andrew CarnegieFor a political organization whose smear tactics make cholera smell like Clorox, the tea party seems awfully upset...
    Richard Day's picture

    THE DANGERS OF REFUDIATION

                                                          THE WEBSTERIANSarah Palin, never a stranger to controversy, decided to weigh in on the one raging over the plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero -- that is, a mosque and community center two blocks north of where...
    we are stardust's picture

    Marvin Booker Died After Denver Police Tased Him Repeatedly; Godspeed, Mr. Booker.

        Marvin Booker, 56, was a homeless ordained street minister.  He'd spent the last several decades living back and forth between Denver and Memphis.  He had a string of crimes in his past: loitering, carry a concealed weapon, disturbing...
    Richard Day's picture

    PONTIUS PILATE & JAY BYBEE

                                          ANTHONY QUINN & FRIENDS37"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.       Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify...
    we are stardust's picture

    Is BP Trying to Buy Gulf Oil Science?

      The short answer seems to be yes.    Ben Raines of the Alabama Press-Register has spoken with a number of marine scientists at private universities who say BP representatives are offering $250 per hour for them to join...
    Barth's picture

    Things That Spew

    We all know now, after months of this, that oil which does not remain where nature placed it, or does not get "harvested" in a way where we can use it, spews. Apparently, after more than 80 days of continuous...
    Richard Day's picture

    WHEN PIGS FLY

    A flying pig is an adynaton, that is a figure of speech in the form of hyperbole taken to such extreme lengths as to suggest a complete impossibility. Thus the popular saying that something will happen "when pigs fly" or...
    Richard Day's picture

    ANACHRONISM & RACISM

                                                         FREDERICK DOUGLASS                                   A RECENT TEA PARTY RALLYWho the hell is Mark Williams anyway? Mark Williams is Mark Williams is an American radio host and author (Books: It's Not Right Versus Left, It's Right Versus Wrong; Exposing the Socialist...
    CVille Dem's picture

    OK, TPM! Let's Get Behind Elizabeth Warren for Head of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency!

    It Seems that Tim Geithner doesn't want Elizabeth Warren in the new position.If we have a voice here at TPM, it is time to raise it now:Warren has been an aggressive proponent for the bureau in public and behind the scenes, working...
    Richard Day's picture

    THE SPECIFIC & THE GENERAL

                                                                                                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQUmHqlPf5Y There is the specific and then there is the general. We tend to use a specific example to prove the general rule. There are obvious flaws in this approach to rhetoric. A specific example cannot prove the...
    Joe Wood's picture

    The Legend of the Barefoot Bandit

      I believe, at some point, every good person has drempt of the perfect heist, the perfect getaway--because for most good people life is tedious, boring, dull--and somehow we know there is a more exciting life to be led,...
    we are stardust's picture

    Oscar Grant Was Shot Dead. The Jury Called It Involuntary Manslaughter.

    Oscar Grant and his daughter   On New Year's Day 2009, Bay Area Rapid Transit Police officer Johannes Mehserle shot him while he was lying face down on the platform at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland, CA.  Two...
    Barth's picture

    If You Can't Say Anything Nice....

    A week or so ago, a cellist named Dan Cho, a young husband and father who also covered soccer for a few publications in his spare time, drowned in Lake Geneva. I did not know him, but his death has...
    Richard Day's picture

    FREQUENT FLYERS

                                                 A FREQUENT FLYERI found this little tidbit at The Beast today: What hath Sully wrought? Every single goose--including the babies--was rounded up, put in crates, and gassed to death in Brooklyn's Prospect Park last week. The geese--about 400...

    Obama, U.S., Israel and Nuclear Proliferation. US and Israel Quietly Announce Plans to Reconstitute Their Nuclear Stockpiles.

    As if more proof was needed Israel does indeed have nuclear weapons."Threatening World Order:US and Israel Quietly Announce Plans to Reconstitute Their Nuclear Stockpiles" by Anthony DiMaggio, Saturday 10 July 2010.http://www.truth-out.org/threatening-world-order-us-and-israel-quietly-a...'...The world looks like it's about to become a more...
    Richard Day's picture

    FOR WANT OF A NAIL

    For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; For want of the shoe, the horse was lost; For want of the horse, the rider was lost; For want of the rider, the battle was lost; For want of...

    Pondering the Cosmos

    I have questions, lots of questions, and not just about politics.• Why do hot dogs come in 10-packs, but hot dog buns come in 8-packs? Is there no communication at all between meat packers and bakers?• If "Whatever doesn't kill...
    Richard Day's picture

    CERTIFICATION

    Geoffrey Chaucer Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 American crime film based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways...
    we are stardust's picture

    What a Goddam Waste of Time

     This is for Obey; wherever it may find him...   Our son seemed to have been born with a predisposition to love grandparents.  I don't know how he came by it; could there have been a genetic cause, hardwired somehow into...
    Ramona's picture

    It's Jobs and then it's Jobs and after that it's Jobs

    The consensus, no matter who says it and why, is that American manufacturing industries are no longer of Americans, by Americans, or even for Americans. It's beyond a worrisome rumor, it's an established fact: American manufacturing, compared to manufacturing world-wide, fills a niche no bigger than the size of an ant farm box.
    we are stardust's picture

    'Rethink Afghanistan. com' Offers Facebook Meet-ups to End the War

    "Want to do something about ending the War?" they ask. Here is a link to their Facebook page allowing people to make or meet groups this weekend to watch this Brave New Foundation video, and discuss 'What's Next?' This is their...
    CVille Dem's picture

    To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

    Years ago I had a recurring dream.  I was in a house (in each dream it was a different house, but it was always my house; one that I was familiar with).  I would open a door, or go around...
    Richard Day's picture

    SCREWED BY SCROOGE

                                      SCROOGE McDUCKThis somehow led to a lesson Paul said Kentuckians should hold dear: Sure there are "problems" with the way America deals with the poor, but when they think about it, poor folks should thank goodness they're not stuck...

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