Author: NewMexiKen

See ya’ Alberto

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales met with senior aides on Nov. 27 to review a plan to fire a group of U.S. attorneys, according to new documents released last night, a disclosure that contradicts Gonzales’s previous statement that he was not involved in “any discussions” about the dismissals.

washingtonpost.com

As long as I’ve been around government and Washington (since 1973), I am still repeatedly dumbfounded when these people get caught and lie. Have they never read any history of Watergate or Iran-Contra or even Clinton’s blow job? It’s always the lie that is the undoing. It’s always the lie that makes the difficult situation an impossible sitiation. It’s always the lie that causes the resignation — or the firing — or the conviction.

As it should.

Sheriff Buford T. Justice

A friend reports at least two dozen police vehicles, lights flashing, parked perpendicular to traffic on a major limited access road — apparently a sobriety check being set up on a freeway. At the moment this is written the police are simply standing around.

Traffic is backed up over a mile already and they haven’t done more so far than close a lane.

Readers of this blog know how I feel about drunken driving. But this kind of keystone cops activity is to drunken driving prevention as airport security is to fighting terrorism.

Huh?

This strange conflict in Saturday’s New York Times:

Headline: Ex-Interior Aide Is Guilty of Lying in Lobbying Case

Lead: The second-highest official at the Interior Department during President Bush’s first term, J. Steven Griles, pleaded guilty on Friday . . .

Would you call the number two person in your organization an “aide”?

16 things it takes most of us 50 years to learn

From Scribd, 16 things it takes most of us 50 years to learn. I’ll give you a few:

1. The badness of a movie is directly proportional to the number of helicopters in it.

2. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight-saving time.

5. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is: age 11.

6. There is a very fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness.”

Link via kottke.

Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em

New landmark research concludes that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal drugs like marijuana or ecstasy and should be classified as such in legal systems, according to a new British study.

In research published Friday in The Lancet, Professor David Nutt of Britain’s Bristol University and colleagues proposed a new framework for the classification of harmful substances, based on the actual risks posed to society. Their ranking listed alcohol and tobacco among the top 10 most dangerous substances.

Nutt and colleagues used three factors to determine the harm associated with any drug: the physical harm to the user, the drug’s potential for addiction, and the impact on society of the drug’s use.

CBC News

Best ‘got your back’ line of the day, so far

“Unless Mr. Bolton knows a different Abraham Lincoln from our 16th President, which I suppose is possible, I can categorically say, and hundreds of historians will back us up, you are historically right and he is historically wrong.”

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to Jon Stewart. Stewart was seeking confirmation for what he had said to former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton the previous night about Lincoln seeking varying points of view. Bolton had claimed Stewart was wrong about Lincoln.

Bolton typifies much of the Bush Administration: Often wrong, never in doubt.

Crooks and Liars has the video. Ms. Goodwin’s book about Lincoln is called Team of Rivals.

NewMexiKen’s original post on the Bolton-Stewart video.

Best line of the day, so far

“Some people might say this was a victimless crime, but I think that depends on whether the perpetrator has recently broken up with a girlfriend. If so, I would say she’s not too happy about this development. It’s one thing to lose your guy to a cheerleader, but it really has to sting when you lose your guy to road kill.”

From Scott Adams at The Dilbert Blog, which has more on the Wisconsin case, all of it sick and all of it funny.

Lewis and Clark

… began their return from the Pacific on this date in 1806.

the rained Seased and it became fair about Meridean, at which time we loaded our Canoes & at 1 P. M. left Fort Clatsop on our homeward bound journey. at this place we had wintered and remained from the 7th of Decr. 1805 to this day and have lived as well as we had any right to expect, and we can Say that we were never one day without 3 meals of Some kind a day either pore Elk meat or roots, not withstanding the repeeted fall of rain which has fallen almost Constantly Since we passed the long narrows on the [blank] of Novr. last

Excerpt by Clark from the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

But as for me

It is in vain, sir, to extentuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace–but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

The last paragraph of Patrick Henry’s famous speech, given on this date in 1775 before the Second Virginia Convention at St. John’s Church, Richmond. The entire speech may be found here.

Still altogether too apt

First posted here two years ago today:

A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolved, and the people recovering their true sight, restoring their government to its true principles. It is true that, in the meantime, we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war, and long oppressions of enormous public debt. … If the game runs sometimes against us at home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost. For this is a game where principles are the stake.

Thomas Jefferson, 1798

The overhead compartments were full

“Here’s a creepy story. A guy is flying on a long flight. Six-hour flight, British Airways. Half way through the flight, he realizes the person sitting next to him is dead. Long flight. Six hours. Person in the seat next to him, dead. I say, ‘Hey, count your blessings.'”

Letterman Monday night.

Are there no competent people left?

AAA customer service rep on the phone yesterday: “Is there another city nearby? I can’t find Tucson.”

(That’s because it was listed as the West Tucson and East Tucson offices.)

Arizona MVD today: “We need to have his signature. Send him a form to sign and have notarized.”

(I signed an affidavit and the car title and both were notarized by MVD itself last month! I guess you needed to sign a statement saying that your signature on the affidavit that you signed in front of them was your signature.)

And don’t even get me started on Verizon.

Donde está dicha la ignorancia

According to Washington State Minuteman leader Bob Baker, “No nation has ever succeeded with two different languages.”

. . . [W]e need to figure out who’s going to gently deliver the heartbreaking news of their “failure” to quadralingual Switzerland, China (with a minimum of six), and India — which recognizes a breathtaking 23 official languages.

Orcinus

Or Canada.

Where ignorance is bliss,
‘Tis folly to be wise.

Toyota’s lightweight

Dan Neil, such a delight to read, speculates about Toyota. Is the Yaris its tipping point? He begins:

TOYOTA Motor Corp. is the colossus of roads. It is, or soon will be, the largest car company in the world. Its worldwide sales are up year after year, as are its profits, as are its stock prices. In the U.S., the world’s largest car market, Toyota’s sales rose an astonishing 12.5% in 2006, grabbing even more market share from the oxygen-starved domestics. To meet the demand, the company is putting down factories and expanding facilities in this country like it was playing automotive Monopoly.

The company builds Lexus, the best-selling luxury brand in the U.S. It builds the Prius, the hybrid shuttlecraft with more green cachet than macrobiotic tofu. It created Scion, which in three years went from a Scrabble word to the last word in Gen-Y branding.

So is this the company that can do no wrong? Not really.

I give you the Toyota Yaris, a surprisingly routine and summarily undelightful B-class subcompact that feels as mailed-in as if it had a stamp on it.

March 22nd is the birthday

… of actor Karl Malden. The Oscar-winner (supporting actor in A Streetcar Named Desire) is 95. Malden was also nominated for supporting actor for On the Waterfront. He played Omar Bradley in Patton and was Detective Lt. Mike Stone in Streets of San Francisco (with Michael Douglas as his partner).

… of pantomimist Marcel Marceau. He’s 84.

… of Stephen Sondheim. The composer-lyricist (West Side Story) is 77.

… of actor William Shatner. Captain Kirk is 76.

… of musician George Benson. He’s 64.

… of broadcaster Wolf Blitzer. He’s 59.

… of Andrew Lloyd Webber. The composer (Cats, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Phantom of the Opera) is 59.

… of sportscaster Bob Costas. He’s 55.

… of Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon. She’s 31.

Inhofe: Looking for the third digit in his IQ

This from the Daily Howler:

In today’s Post, Dana Milbank captures one small part of Inhofe’s disordered performance:

MILBANK (3/22/07): Inhofe informed Gore that scientists are “radically at odds with your claims.” Displaying a photograph of icicles in Buffalo, Inhofe demanded: “How come you guys never seem to notice it when it gets cold?”

Could Inhofe possibly be this stupid?

Simple answer: Yes.