A trend in Wisconsin is far right tea party conservatives eschewing the traditional (patriotic?) red and stars for a green that suggests they are somehow progressive or, even more laughable, a friend of the environment. (Ron Johnson suggests that sun spots cause global warming.)
VW and the Los Angeles Deutsch ad agency are mocking your pathetic little “fly-over state” dream of owning a VW Jetta.
Depending on how old you are , “Contra” means two distinctly different things. If you’re of the Y Generation, it probably means an album by Vampire Weekend. If you’re of the X Generation, Contra is probably a Nintendo game you played all night long.
You can hear the steam escaping from the Bros Icing Bros engine. The website is gone. Smirnoff has taken action. The dream is dead.
With lines like “Bros Icing Bros? It involves Smirnoff Ice and humiliation, kind of like your third ‘real’ girlfriend,” Foster Kamer over at his new gig at the Village Voice has absolutely owned the Bros Icing Bros beat. Is he a fan? Doesn’t seem like it.
Kamer wrote that Bros Icing Bros was “the province of fratty assholes and the assholes who cynically patronize them.”
Interesting then that Kamer felt it necessary to protect some of those fratty assholes and their cynical patrons. (more…)
What the hell happened in the transition between the 70s and the 80s?! Really fucked some people up for while didn’t it? Ringo?
Here’s professional liar and self-promoting nincompoop Andrew Breitbart’s Twitter retaliation attempt for last week’s Real America column over at The Awl which pointed out what a bunch of racists Mr. Breitbart hosts at his self-named “news” site Breitbart.com. Let’s look at the ways this is wrong.
First, Andy points out that I am promoting ” ‘Black Monopoly’ board at The Awl.” One would think that Andy, a veteran of both the Drudge and HuffPo, would understand that something posted on abesauer.com, my personal blog (where the “Black Monopoly” game was), is not the same as it being posted at The Awl.
Second, he clearly does not understand the dark tenor of the “joke,” that black men are disproportionately incarcerated. Andy probably thinks the satirical Monopoly board in question (above) is racist because displaying it means you want to send all blacks to jail on every space. This mistake is understandable though looking at the readership company Mr. Breitbart keeps at his site:
See, THAT Breitbart reader probably doesn’t get the joke either!
Note that Andy did not respond directly to the piece in question. He didn’t even link to it. Coward. I don’t have $10,000 with which to make a stunt out of it, but I dare him to try and reply anyway. But without anything in it for him, it’s unlikely.
Ever wonder what an Islamic website reads like but don’t speak anything other than English? Thanks to the arrest of the Michigan “Christian” militia, you’ve got the chance.
Here is a post on conservative blog Say Anything that is a true bizarro world argument about religious persecution.
“And as for the FBI and the JTTF, are they investigating the Muslim camps around the country where firearms and paramilitary training are known to be going on? Are they doing so with the same energy and resources that they obviously have devoted to the investigation of this Christian militia? If not, why not? If the allegations against this group are true, they richly deserve to be raided and arrested and shut down. But there have been allegations made against Islamic compounds in the U.S. that are quite similar, and nothing has been done. Why is that?”
It really is a spectacular rant of paranoid victimhood.
A Quinnipiac poll this week on the make-up and prospects of the Tea Party movement found a bunch of interesting, if largely predictable, results. Self-identifying tea partiers are 88 percent white; 74 percent of them are or lean Republican. Blah Blah. And then this:
“…if there is a Tea Party candidate on the ballot, the Democrat would get 36 percent to the Republican’s 25 percent, with 15 percent for the Tea Party candidate…”
For those (on either side) who have for years sought a viable third party, this should be good news, even if the that party’s views are not. Those who supported the doomed Ralph Nader campaign in 2000 on sheep principle, were treated to a paltry 2.75 percent of the popular vote. That missed the 5 percent that would have qualified the Green Party for public, federal funding in the next election (a big fucking deal).
With 15 percent of the vote, a “Tea Party” would more than qualify for funding and be a viable party for years to come. It would also put the party on a national platform and force it to argue actual positions (instead of just “NO”). That should be good news.
From the Washington Post:
Gates foundation survey shows libraries key to getting low-income populations online: One-third of all Americans over the age of 14 have used a public library to access the Internet during the past year, according to a study released Thursday by the University of Washington and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Despite that, here is a sampling of recent national public library news:
MILLERSBURG — Despite initial projections state funding of local libraries would run 7 percent-9 percent less this year than in 2009, after three months, the financial picture seems to be looking much more grim. That’s according to reports from Holmes County District Public Library Director Arlene Radden and Fiscal Officer Paula Cicconetti, who said public library funding for March was $56,540, which is 15 percent less than last March.
Northern New Jersey — Staff members will not be the only ones feeling the effect of the budgetary cuts. The library may have to start closing earlier, shutting down during the week at 8 p.m. and on Saturdays at 2 p.m.
Tallahassee, Florida — This year, Florida libraries received more than $21 million from the state. But the early budget proposals from the House and Senate both slash that funding next year.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – The plan includes reducing library service hours, closing and merging locations, reducing staff, and increasing fines and fees…
Boulder, Colorado – Under the previously proposed budget, both library branches would be forced to close one extra day each week to save a total of $60,500.
New Hartford, New York – The town of New Hartford has proposed a cut in library funding of $135,000 in the 2010 budget.
Berkeley, California – Doe Library and other branch libraries are no longer open on Saturdays, a change that began this June and may continue until at least June 2010 in attempts to offset the library’s budget deficit.
Naperville, Illinois – The Naperville Public Library is facing $1.1 million in budget cuts next year, putting library hours and programs on the chopping block. The city has asked the library and Naper Settlement to come up with the cash to help it fill a $6 million shortfall in its general fund next year…
Chicago, Illinois – Unable to get the union that represents library workers to agree on budget cuts, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley fired half of the 279 pages in the Chicago Public Library System. Without the help of the pages, who stock books in the library’s branches, books have been piling up unshelved, preventing patrons from getting books as readily as before.
Dayton, Ohio – The Dayton Metro Library released its schedule of five furlough days designed to help meet the budget shortfall caused by $4.9 million in state cuts.
Annapolis, Maryland – In July, the nine smaller branches ended Monday morning hours. The system will have three large branches, down from five, open on Sundays…
Springfield, Illinois – Seeking to compensate for a $7-9 million projected budget shortfall, the city of Springfield is considering drastic spending cuts. In addition to eliminating jobs in the fire and police departments, the Lincoln library and its two branches may be closed altogether.
Toledo, Ohio – Due to a provision in Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s proposed budget allowing money to be taken out of the state public library fund, which affects all 250 of Ohio’s public libraries, the Toledo Lucas County Public Library stands to lose more than $200,000.
Woodbine, Georgia – Under consideration is the elimination of three paid positions at the Bryan-Lang Historical Library, and running the facility on an appointment-only basis with volunteers, saving about $80,000. In addition, the commissioners are considering cutting $25,000 from the Camden County Library in Kingsland…
Greensboro, North Carolina – The Greensboro Public Library has cut $353,000 so far in its budget, as part of a wider initiative to address the city’s budget shortfall, by suspending bookmobile services and leaving job openings unfilled. Despite these large cuts, the county wishes the library to cut an additional $400,000, and the State of North Carolina is expected to decrease funding also.
and then:
Jackson County, Fla — The Florida Library Association warns that appropriations committees in the Florida House and Senate have “adopted positions eliminating all funding for Florida’s State Aid to Public Libraries program.”
Which is why this is tremendous:
Madison, Wisconsin – While many libraries are cutting back on their operating budgets, the city of Madison, WI, is moving ahead on a $37 million new Central Library for the Madison Public Library.
Proving that the new Predator film (Predators?) is missing the point entirely is the sneak peak over at the film’s site. In addition to starring Adrian Brody (?!), producers have gotten creative with the Predators themselves, adding more creatures like what I assume is Predator’s dog Fido, below:
Part of the attraction of the first film was that it was a lone creaturethat was picking off the toughest, most beefed-up American heros ever. And using stealth to do it. Their guns and brawn were pointless in the face of this myserious enemy. And in the end it was intelligence and cunning, not muscle, to defeat it.