Author: Fuzzy Curmudgeon

…things to be protesting. Haven’t we taken all the Sixties’ trash out yet? I thought Dick Gregory was dead.
(Just kidding. I knew he was alive. Doesn’t make him any less Sixties’ trash.)

(the so-called White House “press gaggle“) from yesterday, and tell me that the Washington press corps aren’t just a bunch of nit-picking assholes.
What the fucking earthly difference does it make if W ever visited Johnson Space Center before yesterday or not? Jesus. I suspect that if a nuke went off in NYC, the press would want to know if W had ever eaten at Sardi’s, or some other damn stupid thing. They have absolutely no fucking sense of what is really important. None.

Lileks is in rare form this morning.

It is time instead to consistently support democracy. Perhaps it is unfair to expect George W. Bush to understand democracy, much less consistently promote it –
Ah yes. Selected, not elected. It rhymes, so it must be true. I’ll still take him over Clinton, whose impeachment trials could be described as ERECTED, NOT EJECTED. But tarry if you will over that line: Perhaps it is unfair to expect George W. Bush to understand democracy. The Greens have entered the territory previously occupied by the right-wing fringe who thought Clinton would use Y2K to suspend the Constitution and use FEMA to institute martial law.

Read the whole thing. I’m still guffawing over “ERECTED, NOT EJECTED”.

I’m surprised that nobody seems to have asked the obvious question: “Since you knew that there had been an incident at liftoff, why didn’t you have the shuttle stand off close to the ISS and have the ISS crew film and observe the underside of the shuttle?”

But they both suck.
Just rebuild the towers exactly as they were (with obvious structural enhancements, but externally identical). That would be the best FUCK YOU we could send to the enemies of freedom.

Via BOTW, this article is somewhat stunning.
Imaginative litigation on the part of the City of Detroit, but I’ll bet that goes to the state supreme court and gets overturned. If they had sued a car rental company it would be one thing. But for the purpose of everything but titling, at least in Indiana, that car belongs to the person who leased it. For instance, I lease a Dodge Intrepid. I have to pay for the insurance, repairs, license and registration (which is in MY name, not Chrysler Finance’s name). So for all intents and purposes, and as far as the State of Indiana is concerned, I own the car, and the leasing company is not responsible for anything I might do with the car during the period of the lease.
And that raises other concerns. If I commit a crime (like a bank robbery) and use my leased vehicle for a getaway car, is my leasing company going to be held partially responsible for the crime (like the gun manufacturers who are being held partially responsible for murders committed with their weapons)?
There’s a seriously slippery slope here, and I hope the Supreme Court of Michigan has enough sense to slap the shit out of the Court of Appeals on this.

From Ari Fleischer’s press briefing this afternoon:

QUESTION: The President has repeatedly said he wants to bring democracy to Iraq. But here in the District of Columbia, citizens have no elected representatives in Congress. On the license plate, there is a permanent protest. It says “taxation without representation.” What is the President doing to bring democracy to the District of Columbia?
MR. FLEISCHER: Per the Constitution, the District of Columbia is a unique entity and the President has expressed no desire to change the representation that the District of Columbia was given by the framers. And I don’t really think you can equate the District of Columbia being a democracy with Iraq’s failure to be a democracy, and it’s, in fact, of course, a totalitarian state.

I don’t think I would have been as nice. I would have said, “Nobody says you have to live inside the District. You can always move across the line, either direction, and be instantly represented by an elected Congressman and Senators.”
So if you’re really that damn concerned about being represented, District residents, then MOVE YOUR FUCKING ASS OUT. Who the hell wants to live in that place anyway?
I wish I knew who asked this. It almost had to be that harridan Helen Thomas.

and make it work. http://www.defendamerica.mil has a generic thank you note that you can send to the troops.
Right now they appear to be having server problems, so you may need to try again later.

Ledeen on Mandela.

(found here) starts out really fucked up but ends up making a great deal of sense.