Reason Morning Links: Deportations, Dissent, and Dead People

• Deportations hit a record high.
• September's jobs report comes out.
• The Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo wins the Nobel Peace Prize; the Chinese government cries blasphemy.
• New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie shuts down an expensive construction project.
• Barack Obama signs a bill to reduce the number of documents classified as secret…
• …and vetoes a bill that would have made it easier to accept out-of-state notarizations.
• The Mexican town of Ascensión fires its police force.
• I pay dead people.

Comments

[Mister DNA]

Good morning, Reason!

[Fluffy]

Here's my morning story:

The new movie Secretariat opens today. I have seen lots of commercials for this movie on TV, and paid enough attention to them to make snarky negative comments like "I liked this better when they called it Seabiscuit" and things like that. So I have an awareness of the film and its marketing.

And this morning I said to my wife, "Do you want to see that new Secretariat movie? You know, with Joan Allen?"

And she looked at me and said, "Joan Allen? That's Diane Lane."

Time in its aging course destroys all things, I guess. I watched TV ads for a month, each time mistaking the at-one-time unbelievably smoking hot Diane Lane for aging character actress Joan Allen. Don't get me wrong, Joan Allen is attractive, but at one time the notion that one could mistake Diane Lane for her would have been utterly unthinkable.

Getting old sucks.

[SugarFree]

I'm going to get me Sum Poosie!

[SugarFree]

Stupid threading. Not a reply to Fluffy's depressing story.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Revealed: Sum Poosie is a vagina-themed cherry-flavored energy drink...

Someone wake me when they market a cherry-themed vagina-flavored energy drink.

[SugarFree]

Cherry-flavored? Cruel or aspirational?

[BakedPenguin]

Convert to Islam, and get the 57-pack.

[sloopyinca]

Oh no he di-int.

[Rich]

the drink has been unfairly characterized by its promiscuity

Huh? Must mean "precociousness".

[Pat Lynch]

Ben Quayle for congress! He's gonna knock the hell out of 'em!

from
Proud 'merican!

[-]

That was more than uninteresting.

[Fluffy]

Yup, but I took your time away and you'll never get it back.

I WIN AGAIN!!!!!!!!

[Fatty Bolger]

I enjoyed your Grandpa Simpson story.

[Fluffy]

"They'll applaud a dancing octopus, but they won't applaud an old man complaining about everything" - Grandpa Simpson

[BakedPenguin]

"I wore an onion in my belt, which was the style at the time".

[Nasty Old Man]

I like to watch them cry when they're blowing me.

[Mo]

I like how they're making a movie about the most dominant horse in history and underdog story. What's next, the untold story of Wilt Chamberlain and how he struggled through the NBA before scoring 100 points in a game?

[SugarFree]

I like how they're making a movie about the most dominant horse in history

Someone is making a Man o' War movie?

[Fluffy]

Poor Wilt Chamberlain, struggling to meet chicks...

[T]

I bet he could remember who they were.

[West Texas Boy]

I suspect 'ole Wilt and Secretariat had a lot in common besides sports, iykwim.

[Mr. FIFY]

Raaaacist!

[CrackertyAssCracker]

It's racist to think horses have big dicks?

[BakedPenguin]

Even better, Secretariat got a couple million dollars each time he got laid.

[JW]

Welcome to every single day of my life.

[John]

The magic of makeup. Makeup makes Lane appear more smoking hot than she is. If you don't believe me, spend a few minutes looking at the celeb pics they have at the Ny Post. They had a picture of Katherine Heigel without makeup walking around New York and she looked downright plain. Lane is beautiful. But she is not as beautiful as she looks in movies. And also the part she is playing is of a woman who is not supposed to be distractingly attractive. So makeup magic works the other way. See Charlize Theron in the Eleen Worno movie for an extreme example of this.

[BakedPenguin]

Jesus, what a fucking amazing performance that was.

[sloopyinca]

Even better than The Italian Job remake? I gotta see this!

[Hollywood Makeup Artist]

Thanks.

[Fist of Etiquette]

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie shuts down an expensive construction project.

A tunnel from NYC to Jersey. The money would be better spent building a tunnel allowing people to leave either NYC and Jersey without having to escape to the other place.

[MP]

Not one whiner in the article suggested how NJ should cover the cost overruns.

[TrickyVic]

LaHood is meeting with Christie to see if he can change Christie's mind. The feds may pickup the tab. We'll see if Christie is willing to take pork to keep the project going.

[Whiner]

Christie is lying about the cost overruns!!!! There will be only minimal cost overruns, and if he would just raise the gas tax, then it's all covered. Why does Christie hate regular Americans and why is he killing all of this stimulus?!?!

[sloopyinca]

Sarcasm I hope. The overruns are to the tune of around $2.5BB, and that's over and above the $8.7BB they were going to spend on the project out of the state's coffers. The way I see it, Christie just saved state taxpayers over $11BB and the nation $6BB in stimulus money. Of course, these funds will likely be spent elsewhere, but at least he had the balls to see the project for what it was: make work for unions, and a pipeline for people from his state to work (and spend money in) NYC.

[TrickyVic]

""The way I see it, Christie just saved state taxpayers over $11BB and the nation $6BB in stimulus money.""

I agree that the stimulus money will be spent else where, assuming NJ hasn't spent it already.

But with LaHood trying to keep the project alive, this isnt' over. Christie may accept hooking the US taxpayer for the project if offered by the feds.

[Snake Plissken]

Always plan for the future.

[Virginia]

How does Christie get anywhere with those gigantic huevos?

[Hobie Hanson]

Good, the Nobel Peace committee is pissing off all the biggest offenders against civil rights and democracy. The Chinese government this year, Obama opponents last year, etc.

But if what happened to our President since he won the prize is any indication, Xiaobo can expect even worse attacks from his enemies in the future. I hope he learns from Obama's example of how to persevere under persecution.

[SugarFree]

Please don't be his porn.

[Dumpster Baby]

Concern troll is concerned?

[Mike Laursen]

But, but he just wrote that our poor POTUS is persecuted. He actually saidi that. Actually using the word, persecuted. Must respond...

[Mr. FIFY]

Hobie, do you like movies about gladiators?

[BakedPenguin]

Hobie, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?

[Sarcasmic 2000]

SugarFree|10.8.10 @ 9:08AM|#
"Please don't be his porn."

Successful as always.

[reverpsyk]

Wow, HH, what a great point! I'm glad we have you around to make these observations.

[Warty]

Smith stared straight ahead, lost in thought. The possibility of attempting to land at Pangar Nine had crossed his mind, but he had quickly dismissed it. It had been eons since Federal Starcraft were allowed anywhere near that system. The last time a cargo ship had attempted an emergency docking there, in fact, the Nyr-Roimms blasted it to bits with a beewtryl cannon.

[dbcooper]

Have a horror movie theme mix to get into the season a little early.

http://muzak.arawa.fm/wordpress/wordpress/?p=1568

[dbcooper]

Stupid threads.

Reading that was rather horrific though.

[The Gobbler]

A film about masturbation?

[Aresen]

I hope he learns from Obama's example of how to persevere under persecution.

Anyone got any Tylenol or Aspirin?

I got a headache from reading that.

[SugarFree]

Liberal hand-wringing over making an honest buck. No wonder they have no problems advocating mass theft.

[Fluffy]

If he works 80 hours a week at it, and is embarrassed because it's "too easy", he has deep-rooted neuroses and self-hatred.

[x,y]

Let's go ahead and assume the "what you can make" numbers are lowballed (there's no way he's reporting all his income to the IRS) and the number of hours he works each week is exagerrated (to emphasize the woe-is-me effect he's going for). My best guess is he's working 65 hours each week and making about $70k each year.

[prolefeed]

He's creating value. He's moving assets from people who don't value them much to people who do.

You'd have to have ideological problems that keep you from accepting basic economics to feel bad about that.

[Fluffy]

It's the same old leftist garbage about "speculation".

They really don't see the ways in which intermediation adds value.

This guy is finding wasted assets [literally wasted - at most library book sales, whatever isn't sold is thrown into the dumpster], databasing them, making that information available to consumers with Amazon's assistance, and then shipping the goods to the consumers who want them.

Nope, no value add there, though.

What a douche.

[Nick]

You'd have to have ideological problems that keep you from accepting basic economics to feel bad about that.

You just defined a liberal.

[Brett L]

What do you mean you haven't read all the books you've ever touched?! What sort of Philistine are you? You just... sell them?

Also, 10,000 books, taking an average of 10 hours to read, would take a minimum of 13.5 years to read -- that's reading 24/7/365. So either the haranguer in the story was exaggerating, or he had 10000 childrens' books.

[SugarFree]

I and my wife are voracious readers and retainers of books and we probably only have 4,000 or so books, too many to even keep in one room of our house. 10,000 books seems a little nuts. (To be fair, probably 2/3rd the books we have both read were either library books that were returned or ones we resold.)

I know people who have 10,000+ book collections, I just can't imagine the point of doing so.

[T]

Me and the wife have about 2000 or so. I can easily see myself having 10K by the time I die, but then I also just like the physical artifact of a book.

It's easily possible to have read 10000 books, especially if you read fast. A typical fiction work I can get through in about 2 hours if I'm left alone.

[SugarFree]

We only retain what we reasonably believe that we will want to re-read. It's a compromise we came to the 3rd time we moved. 4000 is still nuts. We are going to have another of our great purges this winter. We're hoping to get rid of at least a 1000.

[The Gobbler]

You know who else had great purges in the winter?

[SugarFree]

At least no one tries to break into my house when it's cold.

[Fluffy]

Put them in a box and mail them to me please

[SugarFree]

Actually, I'm thinking of getting one of those laser scanners. I have an old Pocket PC that software should run on.

[cmace]

You like cats too?

[SugarFree]

We have two. What's your point?

[capitol l]

I think he meant that cats are low in sugar, meaning that you could eat them.

[prolefeed]

A typical fiction work I can get through in about 2 hours if I'm left alone.

If you can rip through it and read it in two hours, it can't be all that good. A really good book takes time to read, as you take time to enjoy the writing and ponder what was said.

[T]

You just read slow. That's cool, just don't try to make a virtue out of it.

[Nick]

A typical fiction work I can get through in about 2 hours if I'm left alone.

I watch movies, too!

[Mo]

The haranguer probably takes less than 10 hours to read the average 300-400 page novel.

[Spoonman.]

Wow. He feels bad about getting people the books they want because he doesn't read every book he touches? That might be the stupidest thing I've ever read.

[Fatty Bolger]

Other people make him feel bad about it. Shame that he lets them, though.

[sage]

That might be the stupidest thing I've ever read.

So I now know that you've never read Paul Krugman's columns...

[The Gobbler]

+ some bullshit number

[BakedPenguin]

You forgot to add a multiplier to your bullshit number.

[The Gobbler]

It was implied.

[Spoonman.]

Zing. It's true. I never have.

[JW]

I have trouble imagining a lefty doing *anything* that's not tinged with self-flagellating guilt or condescending elitism aimed at "everyone else."

It's just their way.

[Fatty Bolger]

What sucks is how they try to force everybody else into their schemes because of the guilt they feel about their own success.

[BakedPenguin]

Fuck it, that's a good idea. I might take a week off from work and see how much I can make doing that.

[Solanum]

From the comments:

You Ruin Book Sales for All of Us
by vanowen

The last book sale I went to I was shocked to find about a dozen of your type huddled in corners with stacks and stacks of books they had yanked off the tables - piled all around them. One by one they were scanning the books for the going price. Others were texting collectors to see if they wanted this, that, or the other title.

Of course - all of their activity meant the rest of us couldn't see the books they were selfishly protecting - not until they picked out what they wanted and threw the rest into a pile on the floor and left. There were hundreds of books no one else could get to.

Ebay, Amazon, and technology have conspired to turn what used to be a hectic free for all, a scrum of book lovers reaching over and under each other for books piled on or under tables, (but where everyone had the same chance of finding a good book) into a business. I don't admonish your type for running a business, or even the fact you have no intention of reading the books - I hate what you have done to book sales.

I don't got to book sales anymore. All the fun has been taken out of it.

WAAAAHHHHH

[Fatty Bolger]

Ebay, Amazon, and technology have conspired to turn what used to be a hectic free for all, a scrum of book lovers reaching over and under each other for books piled on or under tables, (but where everyone had the same chance of finding a good book) into a business.

Ignoring, of course, that book sales themselves are a business.

[Madbiker]

Yeah, you have an unfair advantage because you leverage technology and innovation to improve your success, while I with my noble Luddite ways suffer under the harsh banner of so-called progress.

I really don't get people sometimes. It reminds me of greenies who think life in tipis (which I've tried and like for it curiosity value and as a w/e fun trip, but not as a way of life) is preferable and more moral than using applied science to solve our problems.

[SugarFree]

I can relate to the commenter. I too think something has been lost from Internet sales of books. Used bookstores are dying and the rare stumbled upon treasure is usually behind the counter being bid on at ebay or posted on Alibris/Amazon, etc.

But then, I accept that loss as the price of progress. Being able to by 90% of out of print books after a simple Internet search is pretty good too.

[John]

I see your point. But I am a lazy bastard with a decent bank account. I am happy to pay these people a tidy profit to get a hardback version of a book I want. I hate paperbacks and am too lazy to wonder around used book sales to find out of print hardbacks. So for me, Amazon and e-bay are a god send. Sorry about your hobby.

[SugarFree]

It was fun while it lasted.

[prolefeed]

I've been buying music CDs off Amazon for my car, since the radio stations all suck here. I listen to Pandora, and when I hear a song that really rocks, I go see if the CD is cheap enough and sample a few tracks to hear if the other songs are as good. I've bought great music for as little as a penny plus the 3 bucks shipping, and rarely more than a couple bucks plus shipping.

I shed no tears for fucking brick and mortar stores selling CDs for high prices and with no way to sample the music. The Pandora / Amazon combo rocks!

[Pope Jimbo]

SF,

I love our new digital overlords. I bought a Kindle a year ago and absolutely love it. Still has flaws, but the ability to get just about whatever book I want RIGHT NOW is great.

I also remember the early 80's and trying to find any cool music in the boonies of NW MN (you know you are hurting when you have to go to Fargo, ND because that is the "big" city). Now I watch my kids be able to get just about whatever song they want right away without having to scour shop after shop. As a bonus they also get to buy just the one good song on an album instead of an entire turd of a CD or LP (Safety Dance anyone?).

[Night Elf Mohawk]

I'm not sure that it's the leveraging of technology, I think it's the temporary hoarding of books and attempting to exclude access until he's gone through them.

Leverage technology on one at a time rather than take a big pile and act like should have a superior claim to the ones you haven't even looked at yet and I think that issue largely goes away.

[Mo]

In fairness, there were a boatload of people in the comments thanking the guy for his service. The positive comments definitely outweighed the negative ones. There are always going to be whiny haters.

[Fluffy]

Easy answer to this problem:

Get to the book sale on time.

I go to library book sales, too, and the rule even before these guys turned up was that if you weren't there in the first ten minutes the best stuff was gone.

In fact, the scanners have improved the situation, because the dealers used to huddle over books for HOURS before they decided what they wanted and didn't want. Now it takes minutes and the books they don't want are back on the tables again.

[Zeb]

Good point. Dealers have always showed up early to book sales, yard sales and the like and bought up everything good in the first ten minutes.

[hmm]

It's odd there's no mention of text books and how amazon and ebay broke that monopoly. Especially over seas online book stores.

[West Texas Boy]

You mean he buys low and sales high? Surely the system is rigged against all the people who cannot sell high or afford the fancy PDA. Somebody call Barney Frank and let's confiscate this asshole's "windfall" on the backs of poor book readers.

Seriously, this is about as indicative as can be about how these people understand the free market.

I feel a "fuck fuck fuck" rant coming on, so I'll stop there.

[Adam Smith]

The property which every man has in his own labour, as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable. The patrimony of a poor man lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands; and to hinder him from employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper without injury to his neighbour, is a plain violation of this most sacred property.

(zoltan's italics)

[Brett L]

I fucking hate employment new stories. The one cited in the links maintains with a straight face that the economy lost 95,000 jobs in September AND that the number of unemployed persons in America DECLINED by about 100,000. I'm not sure we've stepped up deportations by that much, even Whitman and Dobbs together didn't have that many illegals working for them.

[Mango Punch]

# of unemployed persons = total work force - # of employed persons

So basically, "# of employed persons" went down by 95k, but 195k dropped out of the work force... so # unemployed went down by 100k.

[Brett L]

Yes. I understand. But why did 195k people drop out of the work force? To spend more time with their families? Because they're so rich they can't spend it fast enough?

[The Other Kevin]

They gave up looking for a job.

[R C Dean]

I don't see why giving up looking for a job means you aren't unemployed, personally.

[Fluffy]

Then we'd have to count retired people and housewives as unemployed too.

[Brett L]

I understand that there will always be adults who do not work because they cannot or will not. But aren't the factors that drive people into one of those categories of some interest to financial reporters? Is it too much to ask that they do something more than cut and paste the latest government number?

[T]

That'd be like, work, dude. Journalists didn't get into the profession to work, they got in it to change the world.

[Mango Punch]

They do - it's called "Underemployment" and it's 17.1%.

[Chris]

My dad is one of these who just gave up looking. He's 65 and has enough to retire VERY comfortably now. When he lost his job about 6 months ago, he said he'd give it 6 months of looking, if he didn't find anything he liked, then he was done. I think he was just looking to pad his nest egg.

[The Gobbler]

Why wouldn't he collect unemployment benefits for 99 weeks? I bet you're also gonna tell us that he doesn't drink, smoke, watch TV or take pain meds.

[Tulpa]

With sufficient time living under totalitarian regimes, people learn that there are some questions you just don't ask, not even in the silence of your own mind.

[Fatty Bolger]

Because they've become convinced that unemployment benefits will be extended indefinitely?

[Fatty Bolger]

On the other hand, I assume people receiving benefits are automatically counted as job seekers? So it must be something else.

[hmm]

What you really want is U6 numbers if you want a more realistic view of employment.

[Jerry]

Hire census workers over the age of 65. They immediately retire after the census, and are thus not available for the job market anymore.

[sloopyinca]

Ageist!!!

[Fluffy]

"Two decades or more in the planning and then 30 days or less to kill it," said Kate Slevin, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a group that had advocated building the tunnel.

Two decades of planning and you still wildly underestimated the cost to completion?

Maybe next time you have two decades to waste you'll spend some of that time coming up with genuine cost estimates, instead of just bullshitting people in the confidence that the taxpayers will make up the difference later.

[Joe M]

Yeah, this is pretty great news.

[TrickyVic]

""Maybe next time you have two decades to waste you'll spend some of that time coming up with genuine cost estimates, ""

Part of the problem is contractors claiming they can do the job for less just to get the bid.

[Madbiker]

And, often the project managers are either a) tremendously inefficient at doing their jobs, or b) are beholden to some artificial deadline for the completion of portions of a job that are contingent upon other aspects that have not been completed.

Case in point: Mr. Madbiker is a welder (disclaimer: in a private union) that contracted work with the now-renamed School Construction Corporation. The PMs for the SCC had a schedule that said certain portions of a heating/cooling/water delivery system had to be completed by a certain date. OK, fair enough - but the schedule also said that the finished surfaces (drywall, tile, etc.) had to be finished by an even earlier date. So the SCC had a team of carpenters come in to finish the wall construction and put up nice tile in the locker room that was being refitted. Then, a group of carpenters had to come in to take our the wall so Mr. Madbiker and his team could fix the pipes behind the wall. After he was done, the carpenters came back to re-build the destroyed wall. The PM technically hit his deadlines, but drove costs up by having to do some of the work twice.

Which lead to billing the state for more money than the job should have cost.

Which is asinine.

This is the level of management and service that lots of government jobs get (at least in NJ; I'm willing to bet other places experience the same thing).

[Zeb]

Why don't they ask the contractors who are bidding for binding quotes? If they had to contract to do the job for a certain amount in a certain time, then they would probably come up with more realistic numbers.

[Madbiker]

Christie has balls to do this. I mean that in a good way - he is not cow-towing to the public works lobby and is genuinely concerned that the state not spend more than it can afford.

He did recently apply for a federal loan of $1 billion to cover existing transportation infrastructure maintenance, but only because the legislature shot down, inside of only one day, any talks of which projects to sideline. None of them were cancelled, and NJ needed the money from somewhere. Dems here say he speaks from both sides of his mouth, but I don't see it that way - he is not the God-emperor with sole decree over the land. This is the confusion some people have with our leaders. Comprehension of the system of checks-and-balances and the fact that our local, state, and federal governments were designed ON PURPOSE to avoid monarchical-type decision making just doesn't enter some peoples' minds.

[Pope Jimbo]

WTF? Why isn't he cow-towing? That would be awesome!

I'd watch hours of a TV program where they hooked cows up behind various trucks and then towed them down the road until they were just hamburger.

[cynical]

Get help.

[John]

But that is the game fuffy. Lie about the costs work on it accomplishing nothing for a few years and then say "you can't cancel this we have already started. Now pay up the extra few billion we never told you about before now". Good for Chirstie for not playing it.

[TrickyVic]

""Good for Chirstie for not playing it.""

Oh, it's still in play. Will he accept pushing the expense onto the federal tax payer? Trans Sec to meet with him today about keeping the project going.

[prolefeed]

Maybe next time you have two decades to waste you'll spend some of that time coming up with genuine cost estimates

If they came up with genuine cost estimates, they wouldn't get approval to build.

The only government transit projects that get built are the ones that wildly overestimate ridership and wildly underestimate costs of construction and ongoing operation and maintenance.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I pay dead people.

I was hoping that was going to be a story about George Romero making a new movie.

[Ragin Cajun]

Zombies on the dole? That would be a satire of modern American society.

[Rich]

Or a decent band name.

[Nick]

That's a very interesting concept. Does the hunger for brains finally motivate people to get off their asses? Box Office Gold.

By the way, Box Office Poison is going to be my band's name if I ever become musically inclined.

[Michael]

Good morning!

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.....ouple.html

[Michael]

The money quote:

"My parents are refugees from the Soviet Union. They are naturalized citizens. They have relatives there who were abused for political reasons. You might expect it there, but not here," Jakymec said.

[Joe M]

I'm sure the police will be cleared of all wrongdoing. I mean, they had a warrant, what more do you want?

[Rich]

A Republican majority in Congress would mean "hand-to-hand combat" on Capitol Hill for the next two years, ... President Obama warned Wednesday.

With all due respect, isn't this speech getting close to, um, sedition?

[Tulpa]

The more violent Obama's metaphors get, the more obvious it is that he's not very good at making violent metaphors.

Still not sure what it is that he is good at, but at least we can cross that one off the list.

[Spoonman.]

The more Obama does "x", the more we learn he's not good at "x".

Valid where x != campaigning.

[sloopyinca]

Valid where:
x=WoT execution
x=closing Gitmo
x=ending Unconstitutional Patriot Act provisions
x=improving race relations
x=having the most transparent admin ever
x=not raising taxes
x=working in a bipartisan way
x=acting presidential and being above the fray
x=/=perpetually vacationing on the taxpayer's dime

[Brett L]

Only if you believe that the fat loudmouths who make up Congress are actually going to be having fist-fights. That would be awesome.

[Tulpa]

I can't wait to see Pelosi come in, whip out her cane, and beat the shit out of Bohner for making an anti-union speech.

[Joe M]

It would be better if she had an actual whip.

[West Texas Boy]

and a leather bustier and boots

[BakedPenguin]

No. Just... no.

[sloopyinca]

and a leather bustier and boots

Dude, I'm trying to eat here. WTF?

[Spoonman.]

BARF

[Brett L]

Walking sticks should make an alarming comeback among Congresscritters and their aides. I'm looking foreward to the committee staff fight club.

[Rich]

"Bring it on!"

[Nick]

I would find C-Span on my guide and hit record until I delete.

[R C Dean]

A Republican majority in Congress would mean "hand-to-hand combat" on Capitol Hill for the next two years,

He says that like he thinks it will make people not want to vote Republican.

[hmm]

Two men enter one man leaves.

[Jim]

Our pencil necked, limp wristed leader talks of "hand-to-hand combat" like he wouldn't swoon and faint at the sight.

[sloopyinca]

Hey, he hits a 185 yard drive and bowls a 60. He may not be retard strong but he's still got one hell of a jump shot.

[hmm]

Do not fear. He's graduated from a prestigious self defense class.

[Old Mexican]

Deportations hit a record high.

How'd you like them apples, my Latin American brothers???

[sage]

Let Freedom Ring With A Shotgun Blast.

[West Texas Boy]

That would have been funnier if you'd said something about "como gusta manzanas" or something like that

(I don't speak Spanish, so I don't know how to exactly say it)

[Old Mexican]

The Mexican town of Ascensi?n fires its police force.

Oakland to follow suit . . .

[Brett L]

Oaklanders lack the juevos.

[Old Mexican]

Los huevos, my friend. They lack los huevos.

[Warty]

Juevos, of course, being balls on Wednesday.

[Brett L]

Shit. I've been out of Texas too long. Fucking redneckistan North Florida is getting to me.

[cynical]

Probably sounds like a good idea to Ecuador right now too.

[Old Mexican]

Barack Obama signs a bill to reduce the number of documents classified as secret...

F'instance, his political appointees' tax returns . . .

[Old Mexican]

The jobless rate has now topped 9.5 percent for 14 straight months, the longest stretch since the 1930s.

So the Great Tlatoani is indeed like FDR, after all!

Except, now, the foist loidee is not homely...

[BakedPenguin]

Not as homely.

[P Brooks]

You Ruin Book Sales for All of Us

Yes, because better information makes better markets.

[P Brooks]

I like the palpable stuttering outrage of the people in the comments for the Christie Murders Thomas the Train as Horrified Onlookers Stand Helplessly By story.

"But- but- but! The government monies! Spend them, we must!!"

[Warty]

Nussbash
137th St IRT Broadway Local Station, northbound platform
October 7th, 2010
2:45 pm
Yup, because that's investing in the future of New Jersey! The dogma of right-wing spendophobia is scary.
Recommend Recommended by 183 Readers

"Spendophobia". I love it.

[Mr. FIFY]

Just fucking great. Yet another "-phobia".

I thought we'd gone over the PC edge with terms like "ageist" and "speciesist", but apparently there's still room for the Ministry of Truth to expand.

[sloopyinca]

Go see their comments on the story about Supreme Court justices and the recusal process.

They're hilarious.

[Warty]

I like this NYT headline: Cuts in Government Led U.S. Economy to Lose 95,000 Jobs. Just imagine what those Tea Party types would do to the economy! Fret fret wring hands fret!

[Old Mexican]

Re: Warty,

Makes one wonder what would they place when the private sector starts hiring again... "Government Policy Spurs Private Employment Up" or some other Pravdian spin.

[CoyoteBlue]

The only thing keeping the american economy afloat are the paychecks of our heroic soviet teachers and parks and recreation workers.

[SugarFree]

Cuts in Government Led U.S. Economy to Lose 95,000 Jobs; Women, Minorities Hit Hardest

[hmm]

I too read it that way after reading it twice.

You can't manipulate the employment numbers too easily, but you can manipulate the undertones of how they are reported.

[dbcooper]

Have a horror movie theme mix to get into the season a little early.

http://muzak.arawa.fm/wordpress/wordpress/?p=1568

[P Brooks]

Speaking of stuttering outrage, Krugabe weighs in.

on Thursday, Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, canceled America's most important current public works project, the long-planned and much-needed second rail tunnel under the Hudson River.

It was a destructive and incredibly foolish decision on multiple levels. But it shouldn't have been all that surprising. We are no longer the nation that used to amaze the world with its visionary projects. We have become, instead, a nation whose politicians seem to compete over who can show the least vision, the least concern about the future and the greatest willingness to pander to short-term, narrow-minded selfishness.

Repent, the end is nigh!

[West Texas Boy]

We have become, instead, a nation whose politicians seem to compete over who can show the least vision, the least concern about the future and the greatest willingness to pander to short-term, narrow-minded selfishness.

And he has no fucking clue about the irony there. Or the acorn he just found. Or twice day. etc etc.

[cynical]

I didn't realize "vision" was now a synonym for "Ozymandian hubris"

[CrackertyAssCracker]

Where the fuck have you been?

[prolefeed]

The unemployment rate held at 9.6 percent last month, the Labor Department said Friday. The jobless rate has now topped 9.5 percent for 14 straight months, the longest stretch since the 1930s.

Good thing we're * officially * out of that recession.

[JW]

Did anyone else have the urge to reach through the tee-vee last night and slowly strangle the life out of the smarmy, coked-out, pro-union fuck on Stossel last night?

[sloopyinca]

Not really. I was wondering how Lincecum doesn't win 25 games a season the way he was pitching.

[Nanny-state asshole]

Weed.

[Brett L]

Because Buster Posey is the only reliable hitter in the lineup?

[prolefeed]

Re: the Jersey tunnel:

The review found that the cost would probably exceed $11 billion and could be higher than $14 billion ...

Ms. Slevin said Mr. Christie's sudden turnabout was unprecedented. "We've seen delays on transit projects before," she said, "but never when the financing was as solid as it was on this."

"Solid" doesn't mean what she thinks it means.

[Aresen]

The review found that the cost would probably exceed $11 billion and could be higher than $14 billion ...

I think they left out a zero.

[Aresen]

The Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo wins the Nobel Peace Prize; the Chinese government cries blasphemy.

Ah. Just this morning I was wondering who would get the Nobel Prize For Not Being George Bush.

At least this year, they chose a man of courage, vision and integrity who really is trying to bring about Hope and Change.

[Pro Libertate]

Instead of peace prizes, they should be giving out prizes to people who fight oppression. . .while under the heel. How about a prize for the dead guy who stopped that tank in Tiananmen Square? That's the kind of person who needs international recognition, not state leaders--especially those "leaders" who don't do jack shit for peace.

[Tank Man]

I answered all three questions right so they let me go.

To find the Hory Grair
Yerrow
African or European

[Tulpa]

There's a good chance he won't even know he won the prize for quite some time, considering he's in prison with extremely restricted access to visitors.

[MJ]

Is it strange that a Communist regime would cry "blasphemy"?

[Corduroy]

If you like to be irritated by NPR then read and listen to this...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsal.....mpaign-ads

[Nick]

Yeah, it has nothing to do with the policies of the current Congress that makes people fork over cash during a recession to political ads. Nothing at all.

[Zeb]

Yesterday seemed like stupid whining about Citizens United day on NPR. Rather annoying. At least some of the commenters on that blog get it.

[Colonel_Angus]

So then, the government is going to destroy most of the documents classified as "secret"? Or probably bury them somehow to make it appear that the number of secret documents has been reduced?

[TrickyVic]

""The new tunnel would add two more tracks, more than doubling the number of NJ Transit trains that could pass under the river."""

I'm pretty sure NJ Transit has cut some service over the last 5 years. Why are they talking about doubling service if their ridership isn't supporting the number of trains they once ran?