Quote of the Day

(By Air Force Tech. Sgt. Cherie A. Thurlby, in Wikimedia Commons)

Gene Lyons:

As the Republican core shrinks, its ideology grows more anti-intellectual and authoritarian. Australian economist John Quiggin points out at crookedtimber. org that this is only partly due to reality-based voters turning away from Bush’s failures. It’s also due to “the party’s success in constructing a parallel universe of news sources, think tanks, blogs, pseudo-scientists and so on, which has led to the core becoming more tightly committed to an extremist ideology.” On many issues, the Republican right increasingly resembles a quasi-religious cult. GOP true believers appear increasingly committed to an obscurantist world view exalting “Christianist” theology over facts, superficially mimicking real science while rejecting its methods.

*Gag* *Choke*

What was Saint James the Martyr Lileks getting from the Strib to write his “Daily Quirk”?

The scuttlebutt is $92,000 per annum, according to Brian Lambert of The Rake (which itself is not long for this world, hence my preserving this bit of evidence by quoting it at length before it goes away):

If they gave awards for networking and self-promotion, Star Tribune columnist James Lileks would long ago have been handed a gold-plated trophy for Lifetime Achievement. It has not passed without notice that amid the wholesale turmoil of the latest round of staff cuts at the Star Tribune that Lileks somehow made himself a centerpiece of the purge, the Sydney Carton if you will of the current terror.

Remarkably well connected … hell, “enviably” well connected to prominent national columnists, bloggers and right-wing radio jockeys, Lileks’ reassignment/demotion from columnist to whatever comes next brought out waves of protest. (No one expects him to stay on.)

Bemoaning Lileks’ fate on his show yesterday, Hugh Hewitt, a kind of clueless, insulated, fat cat banker version of Sean Hannity, declared Lileks, “the most beloved columnist in the Twin Cities.”

Huh? (And who do you think fed him that line?)

I confess to never being a big fan of Lileks’ work. The relevance of what appeared in the Star Tribune utterly escaped me. I just didn’t care. That also pretty much describes my attitude toward his far better-attended blog. What was of occasional interest were his florid musings on politics and the war in Iraq. While I always thought Lileks jumped on the wing-nut bandwagon in the early ’90s because it looked like a sure ticket to a radio career, and then stayed after cultivating a following, when writing on politics he at least was dealing in topics that mattered to someone other than himself, his wife, his daughter and any pets they had around the house.

But “most beloved”? Please.

As I have said before, the purpose of “The Daily Quirk” escaped me, (especially for the rumored $92k the Strib was paying him for it). It read like someone applying the Word of the Day to the retelling of the previous night’s not-too interesting dream. But subjective tastes withstanding, the guy has obvious talent. So my question for Strib managers (long before the current crowd) was … why not make him apply his talent to topics of actual relevance?

Darkness at noon: Posada Carrilles free

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20 

Posada Carriles skates on immigration charges, ironically because the immigration judge says that the US Goverment acted with “fraud, deceit, and trickery” in his immigration interview by not telling him they were doing a criminal investigation.

I am not going to call evil good by saying that immigration’s behavior was what our law prescribes. I doubt it was.

But how many tens and hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who come across the southern border, not by jet with a snack, but on foot and at the risk of their lives have received that pristine sort of justice?

Now, a self-confessed mass murderer who, in an act of terrorism killed dozens of teenagers—civilians all—is returned to freedom. He’s unlikely to ever be brought to terms for his crimes. A self-confessed mass murderer who happens to be a Bush family friend, he gets special justice.

Our so-called justice system is rapidly becoming an abomination before God.  

Digby Speaks. Go And Do.

Here it is.

You can save habeas corpus if you act now.

“Hypocrite Al Sharpton Won’t Take Rappers To Task!” Um, Wrong Again, Wingnut Breath.

I’m not a running buddy of Al Sharpton, but it is amazing how he manages to send the wingnuts into low-altitude Earth orbit.

For the record (because the wingers have been trying mightily to imply otherwise):  Sharpton has and will continue to criticize black rappers as well as white dingbats like Don Imus.  Thank you.

On This Day in History

May 9, 1974 – The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opened formal and public impeachment hearings against President Richard M. Nixon.

It’s a good day for impeachment. A girl can dream.