Evel Knievel, dead at 69. And just a few days after he settled with Kayne West, too.
When I was a kid he was like a superhero. Always remember him “jumping,” or attempting to jump, Snake River Canyon in the “Sky Cycle.” And of course I had all the toys, like the Scramble Van, pictured below.
As […]

[Read more →]

Just because conservatives have hopelessly fouled up the War in Iraq and needlessly antagonized the Muslim world on the whole doesn’t mean that Islamists like those in Sudan aren’t real, live whackjobs.

[Read more →]

Is it time for some Teenage Fanclub? It’s always time for some Teenage Fanclub - especially when they’re covering the Byrds, as in this clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tcl2jGiY98

[Read more →]

Amazing. I’d heard about this but Sullivan posted it. Cojones, thy name is Karl Rove.
Busy today, light posting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTqACtWRJT0

[Read more →]

Nail, meet hammer:
Overall, we’ve got the most speculative economy in more than 100 years. Americans have embraced a culture where a cash settlement derivative contract is considered to be a solid investment vehicle and where opaque complex structured assets are sold to public pension funds. There’s been a complete abandonment of prudential rules and guidelines, […]

[Read more →]

Ian over at The Agonist gazes into his crystal ball:
1) Housing prices and sales will continue to decline. Expect 3 years before the bottom, as a very optimistic best case scenario.
2) Commerical real-estate will go suffer a steep decline as well.
3) Consumer demand will drop. Unemployment will rise.
4) The US will go into a recession […]

[Read more →]

It’s really difficult to fit this much gee-whiz cluelessness into a single piece. But Jonah Goldberg, firing wildly on all cylinders, gets the job done.
First, we get the straight-faced denial that the United States is an empire. Then we get the acknolwedgement that, well, sure we have lots off military bases in other countries. (Chalmers […]

[Read more →]

White House: U.S. not seeking permanent Iraq bases.
If we’re not seeking them - maybe it’s because we already have them.

[Read more →]

Juan Cole on McCain’s equating Americans who don’t think we should be invading and occupying Muslim countries with Hitler appeasers - and Ron Paul’s brief, devastating answer:
Paul: He doesn’t even understand the difference between non-intervention and isolationism. I’m not an isolationism, (shakes head) em, isolationist. I want to trade with people, talk with people, travel. […]

[Read more →]

Didn’t watch the debate last night, but everyone I talk to seems to reiterate this line, from Sullivan:
With the Biblical literalist question, you see what Bush and Rove have achieved: the suspension of secular politics in the Republican party, and, by inference, the country as a whole. This has become, thanks to Bush and Rove, […]

[Read more →]

Will wonders never cease?
Brody: Some Republicans like Giuliani and others said that some Democratic candidates refuse to talk about a global war on terror and Islamic terrorists. Do you believe there is a global war on terror?
Biden: Sure there is, but with these guys, he knows so little about foreign policy he confuses terrorists cells […]

[Read more →]

Seriously.
In response to a question during a speech at the University of Colorado last night, Ashcroft said he’d be willing to do it:
The first question came from a woman who asked if Ashcroft would be willing to be subjected to waterboarding.
“The things that I can survive, if it were necessary to do them to me, […]

[Read more →]

I’d actually noticed this yesterday, perusing the Corner, where Larry Kudlow was arguing that now that a recession appears to be waiting just beyond the door to 2008, what we really need is… wait for it…
Tax cuts!
But not just tax cuts; we need the right kind of tax cuts - tax cuts for the rich, […]

[Read more →]

Holy smokes:
Shea Quinn thought he was dead.
As the well-known musician left Dorado early Friday after a Thanksgiving-night performance, he was sucker-punched by one of two men he’d had words with during the show, East Pennsboro Twp. police said.
As Quinn lay unconscious outside the front door at 1:30 a.m., two men kicked him in the face […]

[Read more →]

This can’t possibly be true.
(Ruffles through mental rolodex: Larry Craig, Mark Foley. Ted Haggard)
Well, OK, maybe it could be - but at this point, only Larry Flynt seems to know for sure.

[Read more →]

Props to NewsLanc for doing what I think good blogs do, or have an opportunity to do - go do some actually reporting, in this case by covering the RRTA meeting and telling us that ridership is up, among other things.

[Read more →]

And really, how embarassing is this:
Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, will receive a $7.5 billion cash infusion from Abu Dhabi to replenish capital after record mortgage losses wiped out almost half its market value. …
<snip>
With the purchase of a 4.9 percent stake, Abu Dhabi, the largest emirate in the United Arab Emirates […]

[Read more →]

Together 4-evah, 4-evah we two…
Iraq’s government, seeking protection against foreign threats and internal coups, will offer the U.S. a long-term troop presence in Iraq in return for U.S. security guarantees as part of a strategic partnership, two Iraqi officials said Monday….
<snip>
The Americans appeared generally favorable subject to negotiations on the details, which include preferential treatment […]

[Read more →]

Can they be sued for false advertising, do you think?
Recently, The New York Times did an analysis of the “face time” the various candidates received through midsummer on all networks and cable outlets. The distinguished historian Dan Carter dug a little deeper into the Times’ data, comparing the amount of interview time all candidates received […]

[Read more →]

We get letters, this one from a guy who drives the RRTA “Historic Downtown Trolley”:
There are many people who take my Trolley simply because it is not a “bus”. The fact that it looks different allows them to believe that they are not “bus riders”, a designation which seems to alienate people […]

[Read more →]