Charles Pierce has a first-rate rant on the Trayvon Martin murder (yeah, I’m calling it murder) that includes this retort to Geraldo Rivera’s “Every time you see someone sticking up a 7-11, the kid is wearing a hoodie.”
“And every time I see someone convicted of ripping off pension funds, he’s wearing a $500 suit.”
Actually, I don’t think that’s true. It’s more like a $1500-$2500 suit, if not higher. It may have been awhile since Mr. Pierce shopped for a suit. But it’s a good point.
Someone asked Newt about polls that say many Republicans think the President is a Muslim. And Newt actually said, “Why does the president behave the way that people would think that [he’s Muslim]?†And John Cole asked, “Why Does Newt Gingrich Behave in Ways That People Would Think He is an Asshole?”
And finally — it surprises me that Rick Ungar writes for Forbes, since the rest of their writers are obvious Koch Brother puppet think tank hacks. Ungar tends to get his facts straight, however, so do read “The Giant Medicare Fraud Committed By Congress: Repeal Of The IPAB.” Compare/contrast to this insipid puff piece on the imbecilic Paul Ryan at Fox.
For more on IPAB and why it’s a good thing, and why Big Pharma wants to kill it, see Sarah Klliff.
P.J. O’Rourke had the best description of our Congress, when he wrote his book:
“Parliament of Whores.”
And he wrote that over 20 years ago!
And, at that time, at least more than a few of the members of Congress might have been considered ‘high-class call-girls/boys.’
Today, most members of our Congress make the poor, run-down crack whores, look like dates from a high-class ‘escort service.’
At one time, it was “The Best Congress Money Can Buy.”
Now, it’s “The Easiest Congress Anybodies Money Can Buy.”
We need to blow-up our entire political system, and start from scratch.
We need a Parliamentary system, with public financing for the people running for it.
But, before that happens, there’s a better chance of me marrying a Victoria’s Secret model BEFORE winning Powerball!
On a personal note: OY!
Just what I need – more laptop problems!
Ive had a few over the last 2 months, and I tried to restore, and a few other things.
Now, my commenting icon looks like a one-toothed triangle with glasses. What did I do to deserve that? 🙂
A question to maha and the commenters here:
Does anyone know anything about those companies that sell Microsoft Registry Correction programs? Are they any good? Do they work? Are any of the honest? Most important – are any of them free (I know: SATSQ – of course not)? Not ONE of the f*ckers lists their price until AFTER you’ve let them run their diagnostics. WTF is up wid dat?!?!?! Shouldn’t that be illegal?
I’m getting to the point where I either need to bring my laptop to someone, or try one of these. But these companies want upwards of $100, which I can’t afford right now. But giving my laptop to a techie will probably cost more.
And ideas or suggestions?
And that was about the last intelligent thing he said, IMO.
If it’s any consolation, it looks the same to me.
Have you reinstalled the monitor driver? If you go to the manufacturer’s website and plug in the exact model number of your laptop, you ought to be able to download a fresh driver for free. It’s probably a long shot, but it’s worth a try.
I’d be very happy to host a “fix c u n d gulag’s laptop” fundraiser, although it would help if you’d get a Paypal account.
One nit pick: When was the last/most recent time we’ve seen someone (anyone) who ripped off a pension fund arrested, indicted, found guilty and jailed…
There was a guy in New York convicted of ripping off state pension funds, but that’s the only one in the U.S. I know of.
This is because we have invented this phony thing called “white collar crime” in America, which leads to reduced prison sentences and stints in this other made-up thing called “minimum security prison.”
Eliminate both, and consider it theft, fraud, stealing, and a felony and put the “white collar” criminals in with the “criminals” and be done with it.
We should stop calling it White Collar crime and just call it White people crime and give them less of a sentence for it. When white people commit a crime, they get less of a sentence then when black people commit the crime. There is no chance that if Zimmerman was black and Treyvon was white that Zimmerman would not be looking at a murder charge in a capital case. Staring at old sparky. I am absolutely convinced of that. FWIW, Zimmerman got booted from the community college he had been attending since 2003, working his way toward an Associates Degree. Not knocking the community college or an associates degree, but should it take you ten years??
I’m with you, CUND Gulag, a parliamental model for me!
cundgulag – I’ve been using this product for years. ccleaner.com It’s free if you don’t want the premium version with support. Don’t know how much good a registry cleaner would do, but hopefully won’t hurt. Best of luck from the purple, one toothed, star with glasses.
I am so glad I live in the universe that has Charles Pierce in it.
Off-topic: I am watching the movie about the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson fight with the Bush II White House. It is very frustrating and irritating to know that these jerks did so much damage to this country–up to and including treason. Karl Rove and Dick Cheney should be in jail. Think I will watch the NCAA tournament to get over the anger and frustration that I have revisited with watching this movie.
My comment disappeared?
I don’t mind if I say something offensive.
But. what did I say/do?
I don’t know why, gulag, but your comment wasn’t in the spam filter. I think my spam software just plain doesn’t like you.
Cund, when I did reset safari on my mac, I got a new icon, too. I think the cookie by which I was being recognized/identified was wiped out during my reset, which is the price of progress, I suppose.
As of right not, 6:30 on Saturday, I think your icon is back, if it was a yellow, wavy-mouthed x-eyed face with one eye larger than the other. If you wanted that back, then you’re good.
Madame, If you were my wife, I’d drink it!…. 🙂
CUND Gulag – I am using a used(reconditioned) laptop I got from TigerDirect. IBM Thinkpad. $250. If yours is croaked, that might be a place to look.
The yahoo who shot Travon Martin is named Zimmerman. It occurred to me that the police did him no favors with the cover-up. Had he been charged three weeks ago, it would have been Page 3 news, and he could have plea bargained down to manslaughter. Now he’s famous – including in Florida State prisons. Those guys in the joint have time on their hands and TV. So if/when he gets convicted, he may find the brothers are waiting for him. If the police had not made Zimmerman famous, no one would have known or cared. Since this trial will have national attention (yes, I am assuming a trial, but I will take all bets on that point) there will be no plea bargain. So if he gets convicted, because of the ‘favor’ of a failed cover-up, the big Z will be a punching bag for years in jail. I hope he remembers to sent the x-police chief of Sanford a thank-you card.
Second thought. The police had Trevon’s phone, but never tried to use it to ID the John Doe in the morgue. Is it possible that they checked the number and it had a Miami area code. The murder happened near Orlando where he was visiting his dad, but he was from Miami and lived with his mom. So did the Sanford police think/hope that they could bury the dead kid as a John Doe? Granted, it’s a lot of speculation, but how do you NOT try to ID a dead kid when you have a phone? Were other protocols for handing a John Doe ignored? Does somebody in the Sanford PD have inside proof that there was a conspiracy to protect Zimmerman by sweeping the body under the rug, so to speak?
Zimmerman was a violent, stupid asshole. I don’t know or care if the incident was racially motivated or not. What concerns me more is the reaction of the authorities, which looks more like a premeditated act than mere incompetence or misreading the law.
Probably for the same reason they didn’t take photos of the crime scene; they didn’t take the shooting seriously.
“Premeditated” and “Incompetent” are exclusive of each other. It’s not both.
If the decision was to cover-up the murder by deliberately not doing a toxicology (check the sobriety of the shooter) not doing ballistics, not taking photos of the crime scene, not locating the family of the victim… If these were deliberate decisions to delay and/or sabotage a potential trial, there is a second crime much greater than the first with Lady Justice the victim.
I agree.
YAY! I got my ‘face’ back!
Thanks for the tips everyone!
I paid $40 – I talked them down from $70 since I couldn’t afford that – to a company named OmniTechHelp. It wasn’t a downloadable program – they had an actual Tech take over my laptop and work on it. It took almost 4 hours for him to fix it. And it seems to work better since then.
But, time will tell…
On Zimmerman,
The investigation was handled so poorly, that it’s likely that he’ll walk.
Yeah, like Emmit Till almost 60 years ago, it was just another black kid getting killed in a neighborhood that he didn’t belong in.
“Ho-hum…”
The police save their full investigative powers for black on black, and especially black on white, crime. Now, the latter, they take very, very seriously!