Balls and Walnuts
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Once Upon a Time on TCM
Walnut sez: Balls never goes halfway with things. Why buy 100% Kona coffee from Hawaii when you can buy it green and roast it yourself? And why grab pastries at the supermarket when you can make your own puff pastry?
Well. She doesn’t do that too often, but you get the idea. Lately, she’s been watching movies. The same movie. Over and over again.
Thank God it’s not Titanic.
Below the fold: Thirteen Things about Once Upon a Time in the West, by my beloved Balls.
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Wingnut sighting!
In response to Monday’s post on Hillary Clinton, Tim1 writes:
youre a dipshit. the idea that anyone who says anything bad about hillary is pure and holy and anyone who defends her is sullied and acting disgraceful is dumber than dumb…jeeze – yes go vote for someone else…fuck you we will have the numbers (we undersand the math side of this stuff a hell of a lot better than you or the revered kos) but dont worry – youlll have nader to vote for again…so you will be able to consider yoursel unsullied.
I was hoping this would happen. So…did I attract a pro-Hillary psycho? Or a Republican nut case who wants her to be the Democratic nominee because she’ll be easier to defeat?
Going by the blind hatred against Ralph Nader, I suspect Republican. Also, the commenter lacks even elementary writing skills yet manages to use the word “unsullied” and the phrase “sullied and acting disgraceful” seems closer to the rhetoric used by hatred-spewing pseudo-Christians. This person may be following instructions to insert key talking points into his own incoherent rant.
Before anyone accuses me of rampant paranoia, recently Fox News and their Republican masters attempted to smear Barack Obama with the madrassa lie and then blame the attack on Hillary Clinton. Perhaps this nut is trying to drum up a fight between the supporters of Democratic candidates.
Any way you cut it, the letter is worth its weight in humor gold. That combination of ignorance and arrogance . . . sweet.
K.
Hillary Clinton’s Internet Goon Squad Attacking Daily Kos?
Not everyone spends ridiculous amounts of time perusing the left-wing blogosphere, certainly not me. But since Doug was away in Orlando, I spent some time on Daily Kos, the flagship of internet-savvy left-wingers.
Daily Kos may be the most famous and influential political meta-blog with 200,000-300,000 hits per day. Kossacks care passionately about supporting progressive candidates and aided in the Democratic victories last November. Even if you don’t believe that they exercise significant power, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have 100,000 people contributing time and money in close elections.
That is what makes Hillary Clinton’s idiotic remark last Saturday particularly stupid. In response to persistent questioning on her vote to authorize the Iraq War, according to this NY Times article she stated:
“If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from,†Mrs. Clinton told an audience in Dover, N.H., in a veiled reference to two rivals for the nomination, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
Not surprisingly, the majority of Kossacks took that as an official “fuck off†from the Democratic Senator from New York.
What politician willingly alienates 100,000+ voters?
In all fairness, perhaps she felt that she had nothing to lose. Daily Kos’ diarists routinely criticize Hillary Clinton. They find her cold, calculating, opportunistic, arrogant, etc. In straw polls on that site, she routinely scores at 3-4%, far behind Barack Obama and John Edwards. Still, they would have supported her if she was nominated since they hate Republicans far more than they hate her; well, at least, that USED to be true.
In the flurry of initial postings on Daily Kos over her idiotic remark, a strange pattern emerged. The first 300-400 or so comments were predictably negative. Some mentioned her apparent belief that she already has the Democratic nomination sewn up since she’s raised so much money from corporations and wealthy donors. Others thought she was following the directions of her consultants and trying to withstand the controversy with pig-headed stubbornness like a certain president we all know.
After the initial wave came the Hillary supporters. They dominated the thread with a constant stream of admiration for the strength of her character, how presidential she looked, etc. With quite a bit of repetition, they went on and on like, oh, right-wing talking points? A few even mentioned the positive editorial from the notorious right-winger, David Brooks, which they said showed how Hillary Clinton’s wonderful character has won over even a strident Republican. Excuse me? Politically active Democrats are reading David Brooks and taking his comments seriously? Hell, someone on Shakespeare’s Sister even mentioned Clinton’s strong showing in a Fox News poll.
Is it paranoid to think Clinton would use proxies to stage a counterattack on Daily Kos? On the other hand, perhaps some Republicans would like to see Clinton win the Democratic nomination – and there can be only one reason for that.
They think she’s beatable.
K.
Walnut Has No Underwear…
because the airline lost his luggage. God only knows when the Delta is going to find it. I asked Jake how often they lose our luggage and we estimated about 33% of the time. They have approximately 24 hours to find it before having to cough up some money to replace it so, of course, they dig it up after 23 hours.
It could have been worse, I suppose; he could have booked a flight with JetBlue. To quote from the AP article,
JetBlue is offering refunds and free flights to passengers who were stranded on airplanes [at New York’s JFK airport] for more than three hours during an ice storm. The airline is under heavy criticism for leaving hundreds of passengers on planes for up to 10 hours…Many of the stranded passengers didn’t make it back to the terminal until 6 p.m. Most had boarded their aircraft before 8:10 a.m. Some of those jets were incoming flights that had been on the ground since 10 a.m. Six flights were stranded for more than eight hours.
JetBlue wasn’t the only culprit this time; American Airlines stranded passengers on a Miami flight for more than three hours. And last December, according to this AP report,
A similar incident happened on Dec. 30 [2006], when American Airlines and American Eagle diverted 121 flights found for Dallas to other cities because of thunderstorms. About 5,000 passengers were left sitting on parked aircraft, some for eight hours. One of those advocating for a passengers’ bill of rights, Kate Hanni, a California real estate agent, was stuck for hours on the tarmac on American Flight 1348, with her family.
And before that, according to this USAToday article,
The delay that intensified pressure on airlines in 1999 involved the so-called “prisoners of Northwest” — thousands of passengers who sat grounded in airliners during a winter storm at Detroit Metro Airport. Some planes had no food or water and overflowing toilets.
On Jan. 2, 2002, passengers on dozens of planes at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta waited up to 10 hours during a snowstorm. Delta apologized for inconveniencing 50,000 passengers, saying it had underestimated the storm and the time it would take to de-ice planes before departure.
I could probably dig up even more egregious examples of this type but I think the point is made. Of course, the airlines will fight any legislation to regulate their behavior as they did in 1999 when they promised to follow voluntary guidelines (worked really well last Wednesday, right?). So what to do? Rep. Mike Thompson and Sen. Barbara Boxer will be offering legislation on a Passengers’ Bill of Rights. Write and/or email your legislators in support of this bill. If you scroll down on the left, you’ll see the links under Don’t Worry ’bout the Government.