Friday, July 21, 2006

Friday Blogroll! You know you love it!

At some point, I'll be changing this to "Sunday Blogroll" just for purposes of free time, but for now, it's still Friday. Let's jump in!

Avedon points us to a Guardian column from Sidney Blumenthal. Two things: 1) It continues to make me sad that so much of the country is just now figuring out how much of a creepy loser our president is, and it makes me sad that I can't gloat about it because the world is at stake; 2) "Not everybody thinks the exact same way we think. Different words mean different things to different people"?!?! Again, I'd like to remind everybody that WE RE-ELECTED THIS GUY. And if we didn't actually re-elect him, we sure did make it easy for him to steal it again.

You know a blogger is good at what he does when I can honestly say that, reading him on a daily basis, I actually think I somewhat understand things that are happening in the Middle East. Billmon's
latest. Wolcott weighs in as well...and it's quite Wolcotty. And while we're at it, Left Coaster has a take as well. And Mercury Rising. Meanwhile, damn that liberal media (Lefarkins)!

Oh, and we've got visuals (Upyernoz)!! (Read the comments, by the way. Interesting discussion.)

Now that blogspot and typepad sites are blocked at my job (in case you were wondering why my posting has slowed recently), I pretty much rely on BooMan for my blog fixes during the day. What an underrated site.
Here's the latest on Iraq. Reality's a bitch (Susie Madrak). I think this post by Chris Andersen (with quote from Kevin Drum) pretty much gets to the bottom of the issue: it's not about being right, it's about feeling right, and war makes you feel right better than anything else. Even when you are horribly wrong and are destroying your own country. This is a good enough post that I'll forgive the lack of knowledge about Dylan's "Masters of War".

And you know it's gotten bad when
Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan (Great Society) are a) ripping Republican leaders and b) making sense. Too bad we both know that Matthews will be the first one on the "Oooh...so manly" bandwagon if/when we invade Iran/Syria/whatever other country we decide is the root of all evil in the world.

And speaking of underrated, Existentialist Cowboy tackles the
stem cell debacle so nobody else has to. And thank goodness, because my fury about this wasn't allowing me to actually formulate words and sentences yet...now I don't have to worry about it. Then again, Alicublog helps us to understand what I wish I had a long time ago. The religious right isn't anti-science...we are. I feel so silly. And used. What a waste of good anger on my part. Meanwhile, Missouri's own State Auditor and Senatorial Candidate got on NBC's Nightly News (Fired Up! Missouri) for the stem cell topic. Nice. Makes me almost wish I watched the Nightly News. Not quite, but almost. (I do complain about McCaskill's lack of campaign prowess, but she's been all over this extremely important issue, and kudos to her for that.)

When I grew up, Wal Mart was the only option for shopping in my small Western Oklahoma town, and I was okay with that. I didn't know any better. I was actually disappointed when they built a SuperCenter in a neighboring town and now ours. If I had the guts, I'd ask berlin niebuhr if Wal Mart has always been
this prickish (Dana Blankenhorn), or whether that's a more-or-less new phenomenon. But I'm afraid of the answer, so I won't ask.

Well, I guess
this explains why Demosthenes hasn't been posting recently...busy building a colony ship...

It ain't just Kanye
saying it (Debate Link) anymore. Seriously? Estate tax? We knew there was no chance of him actually addressing anything substantive (Pandagon), but still...THAT's what he chose to bring up? First Draft has video.

Actually, I'm not going to post a Digby link here because I've got a large Digby roundup coming today or tomorrow. What a fantastic week of posting on his (and tristero's and poputonian's) part.

Echidne, you only wish his next move were a
bra strap snap. I think the only place he can go next is a straight-up ass grab.

As always, Firedoglake is your home for all things Lamont/Lieberman, though can I just say...
this float was a little too well done. It creeps me out to look at it.

I guess it wasn't enough to use 9/11 footage for a campaign ad directly after criticising Democrats for using flag-draped coffins...they actually had to
doctor the 9/11 footage (Gadflyer) first.

Not that this will affect anything down the line, but it's always enjoyable when crazy wingnuts get
noticed (Glenn Greenwald) on a national level.

Chris at AMERICAblog comments on something amazing that happened yesterday and went pretty much unblogged because, well, it's the Tour de France. American Floyd Landis had an awful, awful day on Wednesday. As they say in cycling lingo, he bonked. He went from holding the lead to following an impossible 8+ minutes behind after an awful mountain stage. He was done, finito. So he came out and started sprinting on Thursday...and didn't let up until he'd made up all but 30 seconds of that deficit, shocking everybody. He went from sure thing to not a chance to almost sure thing again in 48 hours. Oh, and he has a hip problem and walks with a limp. That's awesome.

Mannion makes book recommendations...without rubbing it in too much that he's on the Cape right now...meanwhile, Missouri's has been at 110+ heat index all week.

And finally...because somebody had to mention it (Attaturk)...