So perhaps we haven't paid enough attention to how many holes have popped open in his domestic socks.
Joblessness that was supposed to be stanched by the Bush tax cuts. Urban food kitchens overwhelmed by the demand from people who are working but underemployed and end up out of money three weeks into the month. A domestic Peace Corps program (AmeriCorps) that is praised publicly by the president as admirable volunteerism but is being starved of money by the White House and congressional Republicans. But, still, you wouldn't think he would stiff children and their schooling. That's maybe the most disappointing thing this president has done here at home."Looks like the "No Child Left Behind/'accountability is the true foundation of education reform'/Texas education miracle" is just another Texas tall tale. [metafilter.com]
One of the funniest bits in Al Franken's brilliant and scathing Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right is the comic-strip "Supply-Side Jesus." Now the strip's online -- enjoy!
Tons of wacky spoofs on the latest iPod ad campaign, courtesy of somethingawful.com.
The Scarlet Pimpernel sends this example of Los Angeles freewayblogging:It's about 10'X10' and reads "Dear America,
Thanks for all the money, sorry about your kids. -- Halliburton Oil" on one
side and "Nobody Died when Clinton Lied" on the other. Somebody's
opened a website dedicated to this mysterious group, and I'm thinking of
doing the same. In the meantime, check out Nobody Died.
From Smart Money:
Halliburton Corp.'s (HAL) U.S. government contracts to restore Iraqi oil production and provide support services to troops will cost taxpayers an estimated $2 billion and are expected to rise, Army spokesmen said.An Army Corps of Engineers contract to rehabilitate the country's oil fields, controversial because it wasn't competitively bid, now is valued at $948 million, more than $200 million above the level projected last month. One particularly expensive item: importing fuel to the oil-rich country, at a cost of as much as $6 million a day.
Meanwhile, ex-Halliburton chief Dick Cheney continues to receive deferred compensation payments from Halliburton.
Gangstah Pirate fo'ties bottles o' rum bling bling booty Yo! Avast! Homey Matey Bee-atch Scurvey dog
(via Making Light) [Boing Boing]
[A] way-too-short informative clip (you want it to go on for days) features a typical Marin County self-help group talking about actualizing your dreams. The story goes that, halfway into filming, the leader of this bizarre yuppie cult decided “everything has to be destroyed – RIGHT NOW!” The filmmakers managed to salvage this 15 minutes before the rest was lost forever.
HIGHLIGHT: A man rests on his knees and, after being encouraged to say what he feels no matter how much it hurts, bursts into sobs and screams, “I want to touch people. I want people to TOUCH ME!!!!”
Link, (Thanks, ESC) [Boing Boing]
MODDER: Rainer Wingender
Manager, BITS-Consulting
Siegenburg, Germany
SPECS: left side: 1.8-GHz AMD XP Thoroughbred 2200, 512 Mbytes RAM, Nvidia GeForce4 graphics card, 110-Gbyte hard disk, DVD-ROM; right side: 450-MHz AMD K6-2, 256 Mbytes RAM, 44xCD, CD-RW, 40-Gbyte hard disk.
COST: $1,000 in cooling plates, exhaust, intakes, and gauges; $2,000 in computer components
TIME: 250 hours over three months
INSPIRATION: "A 1971 Ford Mustang I owned when I was 18. If you've ever driven a V-8, you know the feeling."
CHALLENGE: "Designing good-looking feet. Early tries seemed too small, but when I added the punched bars, it balanced just right visually."
BBC story about a gizmo that cuts out external sensory stimulation so you can make a phone call. Involves getting into a warm pool and sticking your head in a lightproof bubble. Link (via Smart Mobs)
