Think of England.

The American Spectator, a publication which infamously spent itself and whatever intellectual capital it had on an Ahab-like pursuit of the Clintons, took the time today to congratulate Rush Limbaugh on the eve of his fourth marriage, the ceremony set for tomorrow.

The strength and attention span required to splutter over this, I lack at the moment. The latest sacrifice is a 33-year-old “party planner” in south Florida. There’s a job that didn’t exist when I was a youth, else I might have given it a whirl. I certainly planned plenty of parties, although in the spirit of generosity a good hostess requires, I’ll give you my secrets now: Concentrate on the guest list. The right people can make any kegger into a blowout. Whereas with the wrong people, even designer martinis and a naked-woman sushi buffet will fall flat. You don’t need a chocolate fountain if Coozledad has RSVP’d in the affirmative. (And tell him to bring some friends with him.)

Gawker, on the other hand, is approaching this event with the spiritual reverence it requires. They’ve rented a banner-towing plane to fly over his compound, and is asking readers to suggest what the banner should say. My favorite so far: Kathryn, what do you think of England?

Pals, I have reached the end of this week in my customary Friday head: Exhausted, but still with most of a day’s work to go. There are lots of good things to talk about today, so let’s get to it.

This WashPost story about Michele Bachmann gets right to a topic that’s bothered me for a while — how the fragmentation of news media has allowed certain people to build a national image and reputation entirely apart from mainstream media scrutiny. There’s a book in this, not a paragraph from a blog, but this profile is a glimpse at what I’m sure we’ll see in the near future — a presidential candidate who will campaign entirely apart from the networks and major newspapers, speaking only with friendly “journalists” on talk shows and cable-news channels. It might happen in 2012.

On the other hand, you see what happens when you do meet the mainstream media. They quote you accurately:

BP, already bedeviled by an out-of-control well spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, now finds itself with one more problem: Tony Hayward, its gaffe-prone chief executive.

Among his memorable lines: The spill is not going to cause big problems because the gulf “is a very big ocean” and “the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest.” And this week, he apologized to the families of 11 men who died on the rig for having said, “You know, I’d like my life back.”

Or this guy:

“We already got one raghead in the White House,” Knotts said. “We don’t need another in the Governor’s Mansion.”

And that is so totally unfair!

And with that, I’m outta here. Final verdict on yesterday: Yes, I popped for a new machine. The old one had corrupted firmware, and for a lot of reasons too boring to go into, I decided to start from scratch. The old one is being repaired, however, and once I get done scrubbing the grime off with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, will be gifted to a member of our household who is closing out the final days of the school year with a 4.0 average. We tell her her job is to be the best student she can be, and excellent job performance should be rewarded with bonuses. And now we’ll find out if she reads this blog, because my guess is, when I make this presentation on the last day of school, it will come as a total surprise.

Have a great weekend, all.

Posted at 10:08 am in Current events |
 

56 responses to “Think of England.”

  1. Laura Lippman said on June 4, 2010 at 11:16 am

    Please let us know if the computer is a surprise or not. I have been under the impression that no one close to me reads my blog, or Facebook. And I’m generally right, but there are just enough surprise check-ins to keep me on my toes. But that’s wonderful about the 4.0.

    270 chars

  2. LAMary said on June 4, 2010 at 11:17 am

    Too bad Rush dumped that classy NYC pied a terre. I’m sure the new Mrs. L would have loved the master bedroom. Between the wedding news and the article about Michele Bachmann I can’t decide which is more depressing. Probably the Michele Bachmann one since we likely will be dealing with her sort of politics for a while.
    Something about Rush’s intended reminds me of Rielle Hunter.

    http://gawker.com/5482793//gallery/gallery/4

    432 chars

  3. Deborah said on June 4, 2010 at 11:39 am

    How gross. Just looking at the pictures of Rush and his bride-to-be, with his hands on her makes my skin crawl. Super creepy. Why would a 33 year old reasonably good looking woman marry an old, fat, blowhard? Oh yeah, I forgot – $$$$.

    234 chars

  4. LAMary said on June 4, 2010 at 11:41 am

    Deborah, I figure she is hoping to be the Mrs. Limbaugh who is around when Rush croaks. The previous three Mrs. Limbaughs didn’t last long enough, but the more time that passes, the better the odds.

    199 chars

  5. Sue said on June 4, 2010 at 11:42 am

    I have something to share with the writers and educators out there, an article appearing recently in a local paper, written by an educator at our high school. It discusses a proposed charter school. I started reading it casually but ended up totally, completely impressed. Just not in the way intended.
    Here are some excerpts:
    First sentence reads “Modes of learning have changed dramatically over the two decades.”.
    Ok… possibly just a little typo, forgot the “last” or something. But there’s more.
    “The cooperative charter high school … will implement a project-based learning (PBL) approach within an individualized instruction context that emphasizes student engagement via relevance to their interests, needs, and futures.”
    “School staff will recognize the primacy of motivation in today’s learning and innovation processes, and structure instruction accordingly to make learning tasks simultaneously challenging, enjoyable and inherently interesting.”
    Not just interesting, folks. INHERENTLY interesting.
    “The Academy will acknowledge and incorporate the various influences and resources of the “digital revolution” into pedagogical practices and learning activities.”
    By far my favorite sentence in this whole long article.
    “To avoid the dis-engagement that too often results from traditional “sit and get” instruction, as well as from the depersonalization that over-reliance on technology can create … [the Academy] will be organized, instructionally and spatially, around relationships between advisors, students, mentors, and the community, not around subjects.”
    “The school has five learning goals, but does not have standard graduation requirements defined by Carnegie Units in specific disciplines focused on stipulated content or knowledge skills. The five learning goals are: Communications; Empirical Reasoning; Personal Qualities; Quantitative Reasoning; and, Social Reasoning.”
    Yes, those are semicolons, and that is a comma before Social Reasoning.
    Told you it was impressive.
    I need to emphasize that I don’t have a problem with looking at options, trying new things, etc., even from academics who have little real-world exposure. But, two things here. One, I don’t know a high schooler who wouldn’t find a way to work this system big time. Two, this charter school is being considered by a district with the unofficial motto of “Zero tolerance for the most minor infraction unless you’re a jock”. A charter school like this connected to a high school like that can best be described as bipolar.

    2546 chars

  6. Bob (Not Greene) said on June 4, 2010 at 11:46 am

    Ah, Michelle Bachmann. If anyone wants to see what fascism looks like when it comes riding into town, they can look her way — cultivating the stupid, the no-tax cranks, the loons who religiously show up at village board meetings and ramble on about conspiracy theories and offer arcane interpretations of zoning law. This happens on the local level too (as evidenced by the fact that Bachmann’s hometown paper can’t even get info about her schedule). And it’s starting to trickle down into municipal politics (and I’m talking small towns). They have their stormtroopers out there on the chat boards and local meetings sowing innuendo and making outright fabrications to further a political end while trying to shut out the local paper. Unfortunately, most people just don’t give a shit, and you end up getting what you get. And the faithful, even while getting screwed by the very person they adore, continue to defend and shill for them.

    940 chars

  7. moe99 said on June 4, 2010 at 11:47 am

    Another Rush in the news. Rand Paul told not to play Rush at his campaign gatherings:

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/06/rock-band-rush-tells-rand-paul-to-quit-playing-their-songs.html

    204 chars

  8. brian stouder said on June 4, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    So I clicked the American Spectator link, and immediately tripped over these two sentences, the first of which is referring to women (“’em”):

    Still, you can’t live with ’em and the Bible won’t let you live without ’em, so what’s a fella to do? In the case of Rush Hudson Limbaugh IV, he has decided to take Kathryn Rogers as Mrs. Limbaugh IV on June IV, which shows you the ivy can be as potent as the mistletoe

    The bible won’t let a person live without a woman? Did I miss something? And – they’re getting married on a Friday (today)? Or was the “June IV” thing a typo? If so, this screws up the (lame) IV/ivey joke that the writer worked so hard on.

    Anyway – excellent to hear that the proprietress’s daughter is making good use of all those brains she no doubt inherited.

    Also – I love the word “splutter”; a great example of a word that has a visceral quality

    882 chars

  9. LAMary said on June 4, 2010 at 12:50 pm

    The writer missed the opportunity to work IV drug use into the article.

    71 chars

  10. ellen said on June 4, 2010 at 1:17 pm

    HS graduation followup: 1,100 little angels across the stage in 2.5 hours, including invocation and benediction (student-led, of course, in line with 5th Circuit opinions on school prayer). The only beach balls and air horns came from relatives and friends in the audience, some of whom chose the klassy option of heading for the exits as soon as their family member crossed the stage. Metal detector answer — the kids have to open their commencement robes and turn out their pockets. They are allowed only to have their car keys. No cell phones, otherwise the 2.5 hours would have been spent watching them text each other.

    624 chars

  11. brian stouder said on June 4, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    Ellen – I never even thought of cell phones/texting! (I must be getting old)

    Mary – hah! And your IV-pun would have made me laugh.

    Laura – I always always always read your blog. The Memory Project site always puts me into a pleasant state of mind, and poses interesting questions.

    ‘Course, if you incite an argument there from time to time, that would add more participants to the fray…but then again, that’s probably an excellent reason not to change one scintilla, over there.

    510 chars

  12. Jeff Borden said on June 4, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    Everyone has the right to be happy, so I guess it’s congratulations to the future Mrs. El Rushbo the 4th. But even if this union, like the previous three, ends in divorce, I expect she will benefit handsomely, even if there is a pre-nuptial agreement involved.

    I don’t know if I will attempt to read the new book on Rush. The excerpts have been interesting –scented candles throughout the house, a bevy of $400,000 Maybach automobiles tucked into the garage– but I don’t think I have the stomach to finish such a book.

    One observation: Some of these professional entertainers give so much to their performances on air, they are kind of empty people when the microphone is off. When he was married, Howard Stern was said to arrive at his Long Island home after his shift and make his way directly to his office in the basement, where he would begin working on the next day’s show. He spent virtually no time with his wife and kids. Profiles I’ve read of the right-wing leviathan over the years have painted him as something less than a joyous person to be around when he has no audience.

    It would be nice to think that the love of a good woman might soften the big fella’s heart and alter his way of thinking, but since those are the critical components to his on-air success, the chances of that happening are beyond remote.

    1335 chars

  13. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 4, 2010 at 2:16 pm

    Is this all about a SATC2 sequel? And why have I never heard of Maybach motorcars before (RIP Whitebeard), and have seen them mentioned 12 times in the last two weeks?

    Maybe Rush Limbaugh is a character is a very successful reality program a la The Truman Show, and we’re the ones being fooled.

    297 chars

  14. nancy said on June 4, 2010 at 2:25 pm

    Fun facts to know and tell: Maybachs are in the niche called “super luxury” in the car biz.

    I saw a Chevy Volt parked on Mack Avenue the other day in Grosse Pointe Woods. White. Sharp-looking.

    Once, while Googling a guy I was writing about just to be nosy, I learned that he once collected the largest settlement ever under Florida’s lemon law. He sued for a refund on an Aston Martin that displeased him. He said when the sun shone on the dashboard, the digital instrument panel went blank.

    Now you know.

    515 chars

  15. brian stouder said on June 4, 2010 at 2:34 pm

    Leaving aside the looming marriage of the right’s Maybach-driving “lovable little fuzzball”, check out this stuff, helpfully collected from the cock-fight participants who will contest for the seat in the smoke-filled room process which my district’s congressional seat was tossed into, by our disgraced former representative:

    http://indiana.typepad.com/fwob/

    Mr. Stutzman writes, in part:

    I hesitate to use the word change; the term has obviously been hijacked by the leftists and our current president who have focused their energy on redefining America. So, let me be clear. We need to change Washington NOT America. I believe if we conservatives can stand together we can begin the process of reforming Washington and installing a government that will make us proud again..

    [ … ]

    I, like many, have at times wondered if our government and our political leaders are a lost cause. When we have a scandal hit so close to home, some may want to simply throw in the towel. However, I still believe. I believe we can elect leaders who be responsible and responsive. I believe we can elect a new generation of fresh conservatives who will actually stick to their guns on spending, upholding the Constitution, and standing strong for our families.

    He sounds like an intellectual inferno, doesn’t he?

    1322 chars

  16. Dave said on June 4, 2010 at 2:53 pm

    What I never understand is how someone like Limbaugh marries someone almost half his age. Isn’t there a little voice, somewhere, telling him, “She’s doing it for the money”?

    Graduating class of 1,100 students, Ellen? It’s a figure I can barely grasp. Although all three children graduated from classes far larger than mine, my class of 1968 was only either 54 or 56, I can never remember at least half of which I started first grade with. Even now, seeing a figure like 1,100 floors me.

    Stutzman and that whole crowd (and it is a crowd) make me go ugh. Enough about that.

    586 chars

  17. Bob (Not Greene) said on June 4, 2010 at 2:57 pm

    My take on the new Mrs. Rush is that in both of the Gawker pics, but especially the creepy one where Rushbo appears to be hiding behind her, she looks like a figure in a wax museum. Nothing says, “Here’s my trophy wife!” more than a guy standing behind his babe, holding onto her as if she were a trophy. Gah.

    309 chars

  18. basset said on June 4, 2010 at 3:01 pm

    About 130 in my graduating class, 600-some in the whole school. Gym held 4800, though, and was full every Friday night. Ya gotta have priorities.

    147 chars

  19. Peter said on June 4, 2010 at 3:19 pm

    Well, with Ms. Bachmann it’s certainly nothing new under the sun. After all, McKinley got elected president without leaving his front porch. The sad part is you’d think that we have progressed, somewhat, as a nation, but then again, maybe not.

    I’m just amazed that when people like Bachman and Our Sarah are plainly shown as lying idiots they just deny deny deny and blame the evil media. And get away with it.

    416 chars

  20. Deborah said on June 4, 2010 at 3:42 pm

    My graduating class of 1968 from North Miami High School had to have been over 1,100. There were about 3,500 in the whole school, 3 grades (soph, jr, sr). What I remember about graduation day was a graduate that I hardly knew (how could I with that many?) scrambling across the street in a pouring rain getting hit by a car. As I watched in horror he was plopped up on the hood of the car momentarily and then went flying off landing in a giant puddle on the side of the road. He got up, brushed himself off and limped into the auditorium where he accepted his diploma along with the rest of us, in his soaking wet gown. The car never stopped.

    643 chars

  21. brian stouder said on June 4, 2010 at 3:58 pm

    One thing I remember from somewhere near the end of my senior year (1979), was getting an unexpected kiss from a beautiful young lady; the memory of which still makes me involuntarily smile!

    190 chars

  22. coozledad said on June 4, 2010 at 4:04 pm

    You must be very proud of Kate. It’s a good week here when we don’t hear about someone in my or my wife’s extended family walking into a liquor store with a ten gauge shotgun and a gorilla mask.
    I’m afraid all my old party friends have died in alcohol fueled mishaps(some apparently spectacularly) or taken the pledge.
    I’m good to go, though. Bag that chocolate fountain.

    373 chars

  23. Sue said on June 4, 2010 at 4:38 pm

    Speaking of schools, if I could just ask, what the hell is wrong with Arizona?
    http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/06/04/20100604arizona-mural-sparks-racial-debate.html

    177 chars

  24. Jeff Borden said on June 4, 2010 at 5:03 pm

    Arizona decided it wasn’t fair for the Deep South to be seen as the nation’s most consistently bigoted region and is working hard to replace them as the national haven of hate.

    The Grand Canyon State is a very ugly place to be these days, but that will change within the next 20 years as the Hispanic population continues to rise. Here’s why.

    I read a story within the past few weeks about the incredible damage SB 1070 has done to the Hispanic view of the Republican Party. This was a group that was seen as a natural ally of the GOP: very religious (albeit Catholic rather than evangelical); large families; hard-workers with an entrepreneurial streak; socially conservative (like many African-Americans, Hispanics are not predisposed toward gay rights). One of the signature accomplishments of W. was his courtship of Latino votes in Texas, and he carried a significant number of Hispanic voters with him to the White House.

    Not any more.

    SB 1070 and the horrible anti-immigration rhetoric from so many right-wing loudmouths have turned that tide emphatically. Hispanics are now identifying with the Democratic Party by huge margins. The story suggested that Arizona soon may be as consistently Democratic as California.

    For now, all we can do is avoid that place and make our dismay with these racists policies count where it counts — in the wallet. I’ve written letters to Major League Baseball requesting the 2011 All-Star Game be moved from Phoenix and to the Chicago Cubs asking them to decamp from Mesa and move to Florida for spring training. The cancellation of meetings and conferences continues and numbers of musical artists are canceling performances in Arizona to protest the law. Los Lobos is only the most recent example.

    We certainly have no interest in ever visiting Arizona. But then, we are water and mountain folks, not desert people, so it’s an easy move to make.

    1906 chars

  25. brian stouder said on June 4, 2010 at 5:09 pm

    Sue – that is a bizarre-ass article.

    It was interesting that the mural guy is named Wall, and the racist radio guy (and council member) is named Blair (or blare), and the blinkered principal of the school is named Lane.

    With characters named like this, Arizona begins to make me think of England (or France); they’ve gone all Dickensian on us (and it is a sort of Tale of Two Cities – or worlds)

    415 chars

  26. brian stouder said on June 4, 2010 at 5:37 pm

    To Mitch Harper’s credit, his site now features the mailer that the local teevee news guy sent out – and highlights a spelling error!

    http://​indi​ana​.type​pad​.com/fwob/

    But, we trust that the prospective member of congress, and tireless defender of the “Second Ammendment” would read complex bills more carefully than his own campaign materials, right?

    379 chars

  27. Bob (Not Greene) said on June 4, 2010 at 5:38 pm

    That city council guy in Arizona sounds like a complete dope. Say goodbye any minority vote you may have gotten in the past, dimwit. Sounds like an awesome place to live. If you’re wearing a hood.

    196 chars

  28. MaryO said on June 4, 2010 at 7:06 pm

    Re Rush and his new trophy wife: as Henry Kissinger said (I think, please correct me if I’m wrong), power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. Believe me. I live in Washington DC.

    171 chars

  29. Jean S said on June 4, 2010 at 7:07 pm

    Graduating class at Miami Palmetto, 1973, was 1,084 folks. (Odd, the things one remembers.)

    Arizona is just one curious place. South Carolina also…

    Edited to add: I also demand a full account of Kate’s reaction!

    223 chars

  30. Connie said on June 4, 2010 at 8:12 pm

    The recent Butler graduation I attended was more than three hours long, and it was shivering cold in Hinkle Fieldhouse. My kid tells me that all the capped and gowned grads spent the whole time texting, unless of course they were in line and headed across the stage.

    My HS class was 176.

    291 chars

  31. Little Bird said on June 4, 2010 at 8:31 pm

    I read some of the comments at that site linked to the Rush wedding news. I feel ill now.
    My graduating class had a grand total of 27 students. All but one of us actually graduated. The school warned us a few days before that one of us had not made the grade, but they wouldn’t tell us who (not even the one who wouldn’t be getting that diploma). The idea being that this way everyone would show up. All of us, save the valedictorian were terrified we were the “one”. All of our fears were alleviated when one of our classmates showed up in a torn muscle shirt, ripped jeans SANS cap and gown. He had forgotten them and wanted to wear a Hefty sack in lieu of a gown. That guy? He now has a masters in business and I think he makes more money than any of the rest of us.

    778 chars

  32. Dexter said on June 4, 2010 at 8:47 pm

    Fuck R Limbo…I can’t even read this thread, I hate him so much. I ignore him.

    Here’s the new Trailmix video of still photographs; I am “Dexter” in this video also. We’re in alphabetical order in the video. The guy who uses MQW for his handle actually is a Mississippi River barge driver or captain or whatever…he goes up and down the Mizzsippi, for sure.
    http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/06/our-fifth-birthday.html

    435 chars

  33. Christy S. said on June 4, 2010 at 11:53 pm

    Brian Stouder: I tripped on the ‘Bible won’t let you live without women’ part too but I think what the writer meant is the Bible won’t ‘let’ you have a same-sex relationship and that’s why men need women. I’m sad for myself that I was able to figure that out. Too many years around the gay-haters, I guess.

    Love, love, love this blog and the commenters! You all give me hope that clever, thoughtful people still exist out there. And Nancy is a writing goddess, but you knew that already.

    490 chars

  34. Dexter said on June 5, 2010 at 1:06 am

    Coach Wooden, R.I.P. My fave Coach Wooden memory…I was at the Atlanta Omni in 1977, NCAA Final Four, and at halftime of the Marquette-UNCC game I used the restroom…and Coach Wooden was using the next urinal…I actually struck up a conversation with him, big thrill, odd place for it. R.I.P., pride of Martinsville, Purdue, and UCLA.
    http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-john-woodenlong-20100605,0,409375.story

    419 chars

  35. ROgirl said on June 5, 2010 at 8:55 am

    I’ve been wondering what happened to wife #3, the aerobics instructor (they were married by Clarence Thomas). She must have signed an ironclad non-disclosure agreement to get her payoff. When he married her 16 years ago she was older than the party planner, #4.

    Interesting tidbit from Wikipedia: Rush was classified as 1-Y (later 4-F) “due to either a football knee injury or a diagnosis of Pilonidal disease.”

    Pilonidal disease is “a cyst or abscess near or on the natal cleft of the buttocks that often contains hair and skin debris.”

    543 chars

  36. Jean S said on June 5, 2010 at 9:09 am

    well, thanks, ROgirl; that pretty much explains it all…

    57 chars

  37. nancy said on June 5, 2010 at 10:49 am

    A friend of mine had one of those. As I recall, it was removed in the doctor’s office, and after a few days of watching TV lying on her stomach, she was good as new.

    165 chars

  38. coozledad said on June 5, 2010 at 11:18 am

    My sister had one of them complete with some tiny fragments of bone and hair. The physician speculated it might be the remnants of a devoured twin. It would be consistent with her personality.

    192 chars

  39. del said on June 5, 2010 at 11:29 am

    My friend had a cyst like that too in her lower belly (that was thought to be a failed twin). She put on a bikini and noticed a bulge that felt hard to the touch. Turned out to be very big – grapefruit/volleyball sized.

    221 chars

  40. coozledad said on June 5, 2010 at 11:34 am

    del: Cooool!

    12 chars

  41. Jeff Borden said on June 5, 2010 at 1:40 pm

    El Rushbo usually talks up his Vietnam deferment as a product of his days playing high school football, but I’ve read about that cyst before. As with most things he says, I tend not to believe his tales of gridiron glory.

    He’s, of course, not alone in avoiding military service while calling on the children of others to fight wars in service of the conservative outlook. The Bush administration was absolutely chockablock with them, none more egregious than the most repulsive man in the world, Dick Cheney, who somehow wangled five separate deferments to keep his cowardly ass out of ‘Nam. This did nothing to damage his standing as an uber-patriot, so long as it was other people’s kids who did the dying. Fucking bastard. I’d let the rest of the Bush administration skate if that bald-headed sack of poisonous pus would be prosecuted and sent to prison for the rest of his miserable, shit-eating life.

    908 chars

  42. Connie said on June 5, 2010 at 1:59 pm

    Dexter, I too paused a moment on learning of John Wooden’s death.

    Spring Break 2001 we took our daughter back to Minnesota to visit her friends, after having moved to Indiana the year before. My husband and I had a weekend to ourselves and headed north to the Mall of America. Not knowing it was the Saturday of the NCAA Final Fours being held in Minneapolis. Mountain Dew had taken over the mall and we got lots of goodies, including the very first release of their new product Code Red. We came around a corner and realized we were seeing the end of a very very long line. Curious, we walked all the way to the next corner to find the head of the line, where John Wooden was autographing his new book. Had to be a thousand or more in that line.

    Hoosiers will remember that for many years the state basketball championships were held in Hinkle Fieldhouse. The very first state championship game to be held there was in 1928. John Wooden was the captain of the losing team. (Martinsville.)

    I have now managed to mention Hinkle twice in this thread, each for entirely unrelated reasons.

    1103 chars

  43. crinoidgirl said on June 5, 2010 at 3:15 pm

    Fuck BP.

    http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/06/05/us/JP-PELICAN-3.html

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/us/05pelican.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

    152 chars

  44. Deborah said on June 5, 2010 at 3:41 pm

    Those poor birds. Don’t know if this is true but one of my facebook friends said that someone from BP said something like, “the gulf isn’t the only place that has shrimp…”. In which case the proper response she said was “BP isn’t the only place to buy gas”.

    259 chars

  45. Jeff Borden said on June 5, 2010 at 4:01 pm

    UPDATE ON FAT RACIST CRACKER IN PRESCOTT, ARIZONA

    The poor baby was fired from the radio station because of the shitstorm his remarks on that beautiful mural stirred up. Apparently, Prescott has higher standards than this douchenozzle.

    Nothing makes my Saturday afternoon more than to read of a racist pig joining the ranks of the unemployed. Now. . .how long before he gets a gig at Fox News? LOL

    403 chars

  46. Jeff Borden said on June 5, 2010 at 4:06 pm

    Crinoidgirl,

    I wonder how much money BP is spending every day on full-page mea culpa ads in the New York Times and major city newspapers. Better the bastards used all that money to help the wild life they’ve so grievously injured than to tell us they’re trying as hard as they can to clean up their mess.

    In a perfect world. . .BP would be dismantled and all those billions paid out to the places their cold-hearted pursuit of maximum profits have rendered unlivable. Instead, we already have wingnuts calling for more offshore drilling including –amazingly– Gov. Bobby Jindal and Sen. David “Diaper Man” Vitter of Louisiana.

    633 chars

  47. alex said on June 5, 2010 at 5:50 pm

    With Americans’ short attention spans and high tolerance for shit, BP will probably get by paying some paltry fines and going back to business as usual, probably with a new name, logo and graphics.

    197 chars

  48. Hattie said on June 6, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    Best thread evah!

    17 chars

  49. LAMary said on June 6, 2010 at 3:09 pm

    The oily or dead bird photos are hard to take. The photo that really put me over the edge was of a dead sea turtle floating in oil. I heard there were dead dolphins on the beach in Florida as well.
    This isn’t the biggest oil spill in history. Not even close. That’s not a reason to stifle the outrage.

    303 chars

  50. moe99 said on June 6, 2010 at 3:48 pm

    LA Mary, what is the biggest oil spill in history if not this?

    62 chars

  51. Kirk said on June 6, 2010 at 5:16 pm

    Sitting here twiddling my thumbs, so I decided to check. This comes from Envirowonk, whose veracity I cannot vouch for:

    Kuwait – 1991 – 520 million gallons
    Iraqi forces opened the valves of several oil tankers in order to slow the invasion of American troops. The oil slick was four inches thick and covered 4000 square miles of ocean.

    340 chars

  52. MichaelG said on June 6, 2010 at 7:39 pm

    I’ve seen couple of dead dolphins – on video. I can’t watch that stuff anymore. It’s too sad.

    95 chars

  53. Carolyn said on June 6, 2010 at 8:26 pm

    Greetings from West Palm Beach, where I type five miles from The Breakers, site of last night’s Limbaugh wedding.
    Not to spoil the suspense, but The Gawker banner was: Rush, Congrats on Your 4th Marriage, XO Gawker
    Biting column on Friday from The PB Post’s Frank Cerabino saluting the make-believe president of the alternative-universe United States – http://bit.ly/dxdPBP

    375 chars

  54. LAMary said on June 7, 2010 at 12:12 am

    There was a huge oil slick in the South China Sea as well. I need to look it up, but I know it was a lot bigger than this one. This current one in the Gulf is not even in the top ten.

    183 chars

  55. Dexter said on June 7, 2010 at 2:05 am

    I posted a couple videos of Krewe du Vieux and Mardi Gras on my Facebook page yesterday , warming up for last night’s Treme episode, which focussed on the first Mardi Gras Carnival parade post-Katrina. It was a great episode.
    Only two episodes left. What can Simon do to top Treme & The Wire?

    299 chars

  56. moe99 said on June 7, 2010 at 10:56 am

    I googled Top Ten oil spills and got this:
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7643760/Top-ten-oil-spills.html

    I just have a problem translating British tonnes into our gallons.

    188 chars