Before too much more time passes, I have to say something about “Treme,” which wrapped its second season this week. Y’all know my conflicts/prejudices. I feel bad about not writing something sooner. Back before the show even launched, I was asked* about contributing to Back of Town, which quickly became the definitive “Treme” blog, but it became obvious I was out of my league there, and anyway, I didn’t have time.
*My memory may be faulty here; it might have been another work-of-David Simon blog. One of those.
Also, while it’s true I have an opinion on pretty much everything and can overanalyze with the best of them, I’m claiming my TV more for entertainment these days. I’m reserving the right to sit back and enjoy more. The world isn’t short of people who can slice, dice, unpack, unravel and unwind TV with the best of them, and for this one, I mostly choose not to participate. To fully appreciate, “Treme” requires a knowledge of New Orleans that is both broad and deep, and mine is neither. To illustrate, a sample conversation with the late Ashley Morris:
Me: I love New Orleans. We went there on vacation a few years ago.
AM: Oh?
Me: Yes, we stayed in a guesthouse on Ursulines Street. Run by a couple of gay men.
AM: Well, that narrows it down.
So let Ray Shea and the rest of them at BoT do the heavy lifting. Me, I just watch.
As frequently happens when quality television is involved, second seasons are when the ripening occurs, and that’s been the case with “Treme.” The show started with enormous expectations — anything that followed “The Wire” had to — and swiftly disappointed many by not being “The Wire.” But it was definitely in the mold of other Simon work, which is to say, it was about cities and how they work (and don’t work). You’d think, given where people live in these United States, we might want to see more of this. But the world is also full of people who, when they sit down for a night of telly, want the sweet balm of escapism. There are quite a few more who believe urban America is a hellhole, and seek confirmation in following bullet trails through viscera, because that’s what happens to you when you go there — you get shot.
There’s also been some critical backlash, like this piece, which basically says: Yawn. BO-ring. I disagree, obviously. You don’t need multiple shootings and drug busts to give a show forward momentum. “Treme” runs at a more leisurely pace than “The Wire,” but has no shortage of pleasures, the most obvious of which is the music.
The music this season has been wonderful, and there’s more of it than in season one. Every city has its own soundtrack, but New Orleans’ might be the richest on the continent, and the show goes out of its way to depict it, from high to low, to show how its threads weave together and keep making New Orleans’ musical tapestry so unique. I’ve always thought the most interesting places on the map are those where worlds and cultures collide, and they’ve been colliding in New Orleans, at the end of the big river, for centuries, and nowhere is this more evident than in the music coming out of every window and door. Truth be told, if “Treme” was little more than an excuse to link performances together, I’d probably still watch. (And if Albert and Delmond Lambreaux ever release their mashup of modern jazz and Mardi Gras Indian chants, I’ll probably buy it.)
Some of the efforts to include the city’s other big cultural scene, food, feel more strained. Anthony Bourdain got lots of writing credits this season, and while his pen is talented, I hope he doesn’t quit his day job. The scenes of Janette the chef’s evolution as a culinary artist were my least favorite of the season. (Although I probably will never cook fish again without thinking I should listen to it more.) Also, I’m in full agreement with the writer at Dark Brown Waffles who found Lucia Micarelli’s Annie Tee character a big bundle of who-cares. She spent several episodes struggling to birth an unmemorable song. Which goes to show you that in a musical town, some are bandleaders and composers and some are just players. Annie’s a very fine player. End of that story.
You can quibble over the details, but to me, “Treme” is at its best when it shows what’s wrong — and what’s glorious — about urban America, where the country built its strength and lost its way and now can’t come to grips with. We’re a mobile society; we like to strike it rich and find the next thing. New Orleans — and Baltimore, and Detroit, and many others — are reminders that we can’t just move on, that we owe cities something. The road to figuring that out is what “Treme” is all about.
New York magazine’s critic was kinder than the Atlantic’s. You might want to read.
In bloggage today:
I flipped on Nancy Grace last night for about half an hour while I worked. I’ve never watched more than 30 seconds of the blonde harpy, and I wanted to see if the top of her skull would blow off last night. I lasted longer this time, but not much; this clip should give you an idea why. What the–? Is this typical? If so, Fox isn’t the only cable-news outfit with an embarrassment to apologize for. That Susan Moss person! I’m still traumatized.
My appreciation of Monaco’s new princess continues. I tried to link to a single photo from this slideshow, but failed. If you have time to page through, it’s the very last one that made me laugh out loud, no. 27. Princess Stephanie, in her tobacco-colored tan and wrist tattoo — she’s the French version of Aunt Mimi in “Treme.”
And now, the hour grows late, and I gotta go. Happy Wednesday, all.
prospero said on July 6, 2011 at 10:44 am
Nancy, I’m pretty sure I can over-analyze more, or better, or more better. I’ve never seen Treme. Listen, Nancy Grace made up a wholly from whole cloth backstory for herself about her husband’s murder. Pure bullshit, to get on TV. She is one lying bitch. No semblance of truth ever passed her lips. Look up her story. She made the whole fucking thing up. And She’s like Oh, I’m a victim, like some guy ever wanted to make his marriage bed with somebody with snakes for hair. This bitch hounded an innocent woman to suicide. She is about as trustworthy a messenger of justice as maybe John Wayne Gacy Bachmann. What is wrong with people in general?
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adrianne said on July 6, 2011 at 10:45 am
Nancy Grace is a horror who feasts on stories like Casey Anthony. One of the reporters here in the H.V. got a full-on Nancy Grace treatment when she buzzed into town for reporting on a little boy who was murdered and stuffed in a vacant lot in Newburgh. His mother’s boyfriend, with a history of child abuse arrests, was eventually arrested. The “interview” done by Nancy is 90 percent her, and 10 percent terse comments from the reporter, who was dying to get off camera.
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nancy said on July 6, 2011 at 10:46 am
Prospero, I’m saying it here in front of witnesses. I’m stealing this line: “… like some guy ever wanted to make his marriage bed with somebody with snakes for hair.”
A few years ago, I did a story on paparazzi in Detroit, pegged to the celeb invasion during the Super Bowl. The guy I interviewed bragged about having attended Nancy Grace’s birthday party, earlier that week. Just establishing his sleazebag cred, I guess.
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Deborah said on July 6, 2011 at 11:03 am
“… about urban America, where the country built its strength and lost its way and now can’t come to grips with.” My favorite phrase of the post.
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Joe Kobiela said on July 6, 2011 at 11:04 am
Does anyone else think prince whats his name from Monico looks like a cross between wgn weatherman Tom Skilling and George Castansa from Sienfield, also do you think any one would give a shit if this Casey Anthony was poor fat white trash or black instead of a partying white girl?
Pilot Joe
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Dorothy said on July 6, 2011 at 11:10 am
We delighted in Treme’s season-ending show Sunday night, and were glad the next day was a holiday so we could stay up like the big kids and watch it all the way through. Amazingly enough neither of us drifted off to sleep in our chairs, either. I loved this season so much more than the first, probably because the characters seemed so much more familiar now. Could not get the smile off my face as LaDonna’s husband kept grinning at her and he did what he did about the bar!
I accidentally got to overhear some of Nancy Grace yesterday at 2:45 or so when I was getting some testing done at the hospital. The t.v. was on in the waiting room. It got on my nerves that she couldn’t pronounce Caylee’s name correctly. I just ignored everything else that came out of that vile woman’s piehole.
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Jeff Borden said on July 6, 2011 at 11:23 am
Pilot Joe, you speak the truth. The overcoverage of what is obviously a terrible, terrible story –but still a local murder story– is yet another indication of how poorly we are served by our news outlets. My wife watches NBC Nightly News and goddam if it wasn’t the lead story last night. WTF? Three wars? A potential government shutdown? Debt ceiling shenanigans? And this is the lead story?
You’re also right in your assessment about how this would be played if the kid were not from a nice, white suburb. There’s an awful case unfolding in Northwestern Indiana, where a 4-year-old boy was found in a shallow grave with obvious marks of many years of abuse. His “parents” kept him in a dog crate. . .beat him and burned him with cigarettes. . .never let him go outside. . .I mean, sick stuff. But they are trailer-dwelling, welfare-receiving, ugly and unemployed trash and this story is not attracting any attention outside of our media sphere.
Nancy Grace is a vampire who feasts on tragedy. And Prospero is right about the “victim” persona she has created for herself. She ought to be a laughingstock.
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Randy said on July 6, 2011 at 11:36 am
Nancy, I’m with Deborah…
“…where the country built its strength and lost its way and now can’t come to grips with.”
That’s the stuff that gets you asked to contribute to Treme blogs, as you so clearly get what it’s about. Thanks for another great post.
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ROGirl said on July 6, 2011 at 11:37 am
I can’t decide if I feel sorry for Charlene for agreeing to marry this guy when she clearly looks so miserable and full of misgiving, or feeling that she deserves the life she’s going to get in exchange for the things she will acquire and do: clothes and jewelry, living in palaces and lounging on yachts, and access to celebrities and rock stars who are paid a lot of money to appear and perform in Monaco.
Stephanie looks like some white trash from Ocala, Florida.
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Sue said on July 6, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Judging from the minimal footage I saw last night, the whole Anthony family needs to go into hiding, pronto. Someone needs to set up a pitchfork and torch stand, because that was a mob.
The closest thing I can compare this to in my mind is the people in the crowds when Michael Jackson died, all of them emotionally engaged to a scary degree in something they have no personal connection to.
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Deborah said on July 6, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Pilot Joe, if Casey Anthony was a young blond woman there would be even more of a media frenzy, if that’s even possible.
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MaryRC said on July 6, 2011 at 1:08 pm
I think Susan Moss’s role on Nancy Grace’s show is to make Nancy Grace look sane.
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4dbirds said on July 6, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Was it here or on my facebook where someone said Nancy Grace also hounded the guy (who eventually died of a stroke) who was first (wrongly) suspected of taking the Smart girl?
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Dorothy said on July 6, 2011 at 2:13 pm
BTW thanks for the crack about Princess Stephanie being the French version of Aunt Mimi. That was a good one.
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prospero said on July 6, 2011 at 2:16 pm
It’s a matter of time until Nancy Grace get’s somebody murdered. She already caused a suicide, by hounding a grieving mother. Melinda Ducket blew off her own head with a shotgun hours before the bitch aired an interview in which the Tri-Delt tbitch assaulted the victim about her missing toddler. Nancy Grace is an egregious liar.
Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jack McCoy could get this bitch convicted of murdering Melinda Duckett.
And ROGirl, then why wasn’t Stephanie wearing jorts and sporting a mullet? That is what they do in Ocala. That, and set the Glades on fire. And please let FLA go with Tejas when they secede. Assholes elected the biggest Medicare Fraud Artist in history to be Governor.
As for Nancy Grace, I’m betting her fiance tried to diddle the guy that killed him, who had a court-tested IQ of 76. So given the fact that Medusa made this shit up, why isn’t she just canned for lying her fatass twat off? And it wasn’t her husband, it was her fiance, by which I’m sure she means they’d hooked up. And Sue, the mob has been watching Nancy Grace rush to judgement on this case for months. Bitch is a menace, and a serious visual affront.
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Catherine said on July 6, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Prospero, people might pay attention to your opinions if your language weren’t so sexist. Just sayin.
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velvet goldmine said on July 6, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Isn’t Princess Stephanie the Monegasque version of Mimi? I’m reminded of Hercule Poirot flinching whenever someone referred to him as French … although Stephanie may no longer possess the little grey cells necessary to notice such slights.
Does anyone recall the good old days when everyone thought bachelor Prince Albert was gay? Either that was way, way off the mark or it’s one of the worst cases of overcompensating ever.
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Dorothy said on July 6, 2011 at 3:00 pm
You are correct, velvet. Mssr. Poirot’s little Belgian boxers frequently got in a twist when someone mistook him for a Frenchman. Steph sure has fried most of her bodily cells in one way or another. What’s happening to her skin is the reverse of what Michael Jackson was doing in slow motion for about 15 years.
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Brandon said on July 6, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Does anyone else find Nancy Grace resembles a Furby?
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alex said on July 6, 2011 at 3:28 pm
Does anyone else find Nancy Grace resembles a Furby?
Now, now, let’s not insult Furbies. They may talk gibberish, but at least they don’t do it in an ear-splitting voice with a drawl.
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brian stouder said on July 6, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Well, I also tuned into the cable shows last night to hear the Nancy birds squawk and carry on* – but I did NOT actually tune in CNN’s graceless Nancy herself!
I guess I’ll have to quit using that (otherwise marvelous) term “Nancy bird”, now…but it was fun right up ’til it got spoiled
*the prosecutor – Ashton – gave a reasonable and relatively low-key response to the verdict, and took care not to slime the jury or their considered judgment. The guy who sat in for Lawrence O’Donnell took the last 5 minutes of his show to comment on the oddity of the whole thing, and highlighted a case that has never – and will never – get a tiny fraction of the attention that this trial did, wherein a citizen (who happens to be black) in Louisiana shot a policeman who was coming through his window. The police were raiding the wrong house, and all this guy knew was, he had an aggressive intruder coming in. He has spent the last 20 years in prison, since that series if mistakes and misjudgments occurred…
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nancy said on July 6, 2011 at 3:49 pm
What I find most appalling about Nancy Grace is what a terrible broadcaster she is. Her weird speech rhythms, her limited vocabulary, her innate misunderstanding of HOW TO COMMUNICATE GOOD — she just sucks at the job they pay her millions to do. If that clip from Gawker is typical of how she runs her show, I’d think even a half-bright CNN executive would catch on that they could do much, much better. Women like her and Marcia Clark like to flatter themselves by thinking “real” women identify with them, and who knows, maybe they’re right. Certainly I hear regular women using odd journalese from time to time, but just taking one small detail — her use of the phrase “tot mom” — is so telling. She slurs it so much it sounds like one word: “Breaking news tonight — the verdict watch in the case of totmom Casey Anthony, on trial for the alleged murder of her 2-year-old little girl, Caylee, IS OVER. In the last hours! The totmom jury renders a verdict. Of not guilty. We are here, camped outside the Orange County, Orlando, courthouse. Bringing you the latest. At the end of the courthouse day. In the last hours! A jury delivers a stunning blow. To justice! A stunning blow! To police. And prosecutors. In the totmom Casey Anthony case.” And so on.
I mean, why call her “tot mom,” which describes every mother of a tot? Who’s writing her tabloid headlines? Why not “death mom,” “disco mom,” or even “bad mom.” Then there’s “her 2-year-old little girl,” which is redundant, but OK, let’s assume she’s doing this without a script. (Once a child is described as “little,” I know I’m in for it.) Is a “courthouse day” different from a regular day? And so on. Who IS this freak? Who gave her this job? Geraldo Rivera could do this with more professionalism.
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Dexter said on July 6, 2011 at 3:58 pm
BoT is a fine blog, but I knew I was out of place there and I realized quickly this wasn’t like HBO blogs where anyone from anywhere could chime in. BoT is a place to go not to celebrate the joy of a show you just watched, but to learn a lot about New Orleans, and to tap into the spirit of the contributors.
Yeah, I posted some light comments there and I was not run off, but I wasn’t contributing anything except opinions, and I knew it, and of course I am the guy who got stuck in Slidell and never even entered The Crescent City.
Ray Shea? He fucking blew my mind with his posts. How often do you read something in a blog that tugs at your emotions , makes your blood run faster, and you mouth “Oh my God, that was some great writing”. Well…Ray writes like that.
I feel like Red in Shawshank, riding that bus, but I hope that someday my destination is New Orleans. See, I actually do love crayfish.
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Dexter said on July 6, 2011 at 4:01 pm
alex…the Detroit Tigers currently employ a young pitcher who is named Charlie Furbush. No typo…Furbush. Damn, what a handle
:o:
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LAMary said on July 6, 2011 at 4:03 pm
She originally worked on Court TV with Johnnie “if it does not fit, you must acquit…” Cochran. She’s awful and she’s crazy. She’s also a liar. I’m surprised she isn’t on Fox since those three things are in the job descriptions there.
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coozledad said on July 6, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Nancy Grace looks and sounds just like my sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Whitfield, when she was explaining that we were going to have to start wearing deodorant.
That’s also the face and voice that ultimately crops up after all that “Southern Charm” bullshit has worn through. I’ve seen women like that saw the balls off a truck driver at 250 yards by just screeching their name.
That Southern accent might sound adorable from a twenty something, but let the estrogen wear off it, and you’ve got some idea why the poor whites thought the Civil War might be a refreshing change of pace.
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nancy said on July 6, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Once again, Coozledad for the win!
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prospero said on July 6, 2011 at 4:45 pm
What’s most appalling about Nancy Grace (and, sorry, but the word twat shows up in dictionaries next to her picture, same with bitch) is that she made up this whole thing about a guy she claims she loved, but abusing his memory and the facts is just fuel on her road to being Nancuh Grace, girl prosecutor and victim’s rights avenger. Of course there is also her right-wing lockstep insistence that nobody has ever been falsely convicted, even if it’s for a different crime they get punished. Oh and Catherine. sorry, she’s a floozy, a harridan, a harpy, it’s got nothing to do with her gender or her accent. She’s a lying judgemental asshole.
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John (not McCain) said on July 6, 2011 at 4:56 pm
“Does anyone else find Nancy Grace resembles a Furby?”
I’ve always thought she looked like Jan Brady after finding out that Marcia was elected the first female president.
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Sue said on July 6, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Pilot Joe, your opinion please?
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/sen_inhofe_wants_to_ease_desperation_of_pilots_fac.php?ref=fpb
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MaryRC said on July 6, 2011 at 4:58 pm
One of the worst things about Nancy Grace’s show are the call-ins. Nancy gave birth to twins at the age of 48 and every — I mean every — caller to the show goes through the same ritual …
Caller: Nancy, ah just have to tell yew that yew are a saint and a wonderful mamma!
Nancy: Wha, thank yew!
… before they get down to business.
I don’t know if having twins at 48 really makes you Mother Teresa in the eyes of a segment of the population, or if the callers just realise that they’re expected to give Nancy this tongue bath before they can unload their opinions on-air.
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velvet goldmine said on July 6, 2011 at 4:58 pm
OT, but has anyone had luck posting photos in the body of the comment box? Many of you contributed to sending my daughter Phoebe to a leadership conference, which starts next week. I seem to recall someone suggesting pictures, so I thought I’d post the grand drop-off at Yale, if I can figure it out. Either way, I’ll have her post a report from the conference the week after next, when she gets back, if it’s OK with Nance.
Oh, and coozledad, you are so right. I had a southern stepmother, so I know exactly what you mean. The way she said “Oh, sugar!” in place of a conventional cuss could make your blood freeze. Anyone who was in hearing range headed for the hills if we heard that.
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prospero said on July 6, 2011 at 5:09 pm
I didn’t follow the trial at all, so I could be wrong, but from the little I know, the defendant’s dad seems like a very likely perpetrator. Expecially since Nancuh is sure mom was a murderer. She is almost always wrong. And her track record as a prosecutor? Georgia Supreme Court said twice she cheated.
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prospero said on July 6, 2011 at 6:07 pm
If you’re one of these women, don’t worry: the (Supreme) Court says it’s still okay for you to sue Wal-Mart — just be sure you hire the best legal team an eight-dollar-an-hour cashier can buy. Because thanks to the Supreme Court, you will have to sue them as an individual — but the $420 billion corporation gets to fight you as a team.
~ Stephen Colbert, on the Supreme Court’s ruling that women may not sue Wal-Mart for sexual discrimination as part of a class action.
Including Scalia’s kid.
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Jeff Borden said on July 6, 2011 at 6:28 pm
Thanks for the link, Prospero.
Our SCOTUS is dysfunctional and staffed by raving right-wing zealots (Scalia, Thomas) and smiling, low-key right-wing creeps (Roberts, Alito) and God help us they are going to be sitting there ruining the lives of lesser folks for many, many, many years to come.
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Jeff Borden said on July 6, 2011 at 6:34 pm
OT, but the government shutdown of state facilities in Minnesota, precipitated by the usual gang of knuckle-dragging conservative asshats, has led to the state’s beautiful parks being vandalized to the tune of thousands and thousands of dollars. Bobo Brooks was right. The GOP is not a political party, it is a fucked up religious cult.
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moe99 said on July 6, 2011 at 6:51 pm
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/07/06/261319/scott-walker-prison-labor/
state workers in wisconsin replaced with prison labor. When we get done, Dickensian will be seen as good times.
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MarkH said on July 6, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Based on Prospero’s earlier description of her, Nancy Grace will always have a place to retire:
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2011/07/05/snake-force-family-from-home-into-bankruptcy/
As the story says, there’s one in Idaho, too.
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prospero said on July 6, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Makes sense Moe. GOP plan: bankrupt the middle class and put them into privatizexd debtors prisons owned by obscenely wealthy GOP donors. Closed system.
Nancy Grace commentary on Twitter. Some of these are hilarious. Some, not so much, like, In America, you’re innocent until Nancy Grace spends three years telling everybody you are guilty.
Palate cleanser: Way cool photograph.
And Jeff, Raygun wanted National Parks privatized and sold to fast food chains. The Mickey D Grand Canyon courtesy of James Watt, no Beach Boys need apply. Hasn’t it passed time for people to realize that privatization works for the few that rake in the cash but not for anybody else, and that it invariably turns out costing a fortune in bucks up in smoke, or flat out stolen. I mean, it’s great for Blue Cross, but not so good for clients. And what happened to those pallets of $millions that just disappeared in Iraq? People that are convinced that Social Security is some horrendous fiscal problem should consider what the situation would be these days had Bush gotten away with handing it all over to Goldman and Lehman Bros. In the long run, people can bitch about government spending and bureaucratic waste, but this attitude displays gross ignorance of what bureaucracy even means. All business and industry is bureaucracy, and in general, it is fraught with more indolent self-interest, lassitude and inefficiency than the US federal government. But those costs to individuals are more or less hidden.
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prospero said on July 6, 2011 at 7:27 pm
Jeff,
The rapture cannot come soon enough.
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Joe Kobiela said on July 6, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Sue,
The faa motto is were not happy unless your not happy, however in this case the politition is in the wrong, he dicked up. I have found in most cases the faa does try to help more than restrict, there is a system in place that seems to work. I’m more worried about our current president,harping about those rich jet owners not paying their share of taxes. Do you realise that he is talking about making them depriciate the jet over 7yrs instead of 5 and that was one of the things HE HIMSELF put into the last stimulas package, so now he is going against something he put in himself. Crazy
Pilot Joe
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lisa said on July 6, 2011 at 8:23 pm
“grief pornographer Nancy Grace.” Ha. Wish I’d written that.
I call her “Ol’ Rabies Face.”
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Suzanne said on July 6, 2011 at 8:53 pm
Brian (#21) You sure that poor guy who has been in jail isn’t in Indiana? Where you can’t defend yourself if the cops break into your house by mistake. Can’t defend yourself with that same gun that you can haul to the public liberry in case some liberrian causes you anxiety.
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brian stouder said on July 6, 2011 at 9:16 pm
Suzanne – that very thing occurred to me.
I cannot see how anyone can ever reap anything but the whirlwind when they once pull a firearm and begin shooting; especially if it turns out that the police are coming through your window.
Me – I’ll throw myself on the floor and surrender, and find the slickest ambulance chasing contingency lawyer possible, when it’s all over.
And if an honest-to-goodness lunatic comes through my window, I’ll hit him with whatever I’ve got – lamps, books, mugs, shoes; and trust to 911 in the meantime.
I will never, ever, ever own a firearm as a “personal protection device”. If it is loaded and ready and close at hand all the time, then it is a terrible, terrible threat to any young person who comes across it.
And if it is properly unloaded and stored away, then it will be utterly useless when the lunatic comes through the window anyway.
Gimme a charged cell phone.
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Linda said on July 6, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Joe:
A lot of stimulus stuff has been removed from the law, at the request of Republicans. If the rest of us have to lose goodies, so do the wealthy. They need to get over it.
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Dexter said on July 6, 2011 at 9:28 pm
Tech complaint: I received a Sony Silver Pocket Edition Reader and it came with a tiny instruction booklet with no website, even, to guide me through the set-up process. Sheesh. I had to Google the model number to find a how-to video from Sony.
I wonder how long it will take me to memorize all the little things a guy has to do to make this thing work properly.
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Deborah said on July 6, 2011 at 10:09 pm
Prospero, the tweet about the new name for the red crayon, “Nancy Gracy Face”, was my favorite.
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brian stouder said on July 6, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Rachel Maddow taught me the name of the big sand storm that engulfed Phoenix, and it has become my favorite word of the day…or maybe of the month (or even the year) –
Haboob.
She ran a montage of reporters using the word, including one who exclaimed that they were being “engulfed by a mighty haboob”.
To which I said aloud – “Cool”!
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Joe Kobiela said on July 6, 2011 at 10:42 pm
Linda,
You can do the same thing with a pencil and paper that you can do with a computer, just not as efficently, its the same with a corp jet, why would you want to take away a tool that makes your business more efficent, which makes it more profitable, which lets you reinvest and grow and gives you a need to HIRE more people. The president doesn’t fly commercial or take a train. Let me ask you this, how would you move 5 mid managment people from Fort wayne to Keokuk Iowa,for a meeting at 9am? be sure to add hotel and food plus lost productivity while traveling. I’ll wait for a answer.
Pilot Joe
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Linda said on July 6, 2011 at 11:12 pm
Joe:
Oh please. We need private jet tax breaks to create jobs. Of course, we also need private jets to create deals to move the jobs offshore. Or merge companies to kill the jobs altogether. Or to move a rapper’s party from Vegas to LA. All of which are interchangably Sacred To The Economy. Don’t bother waiting for the answer.
Do you know how I know that the conservative movement ripened into rotteness? When they defend the least defensible positions, come flood, fire, hell or high water. When every single tax deduction is a sacred relic that needs to be defended, like some brain-dead liberals used to defend the right of dysfunctional people to pop out a ton of kids on the public dole. Let’s see how low we can rigidly bow to something without firing a neuron.
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Deborah said on July 7, 2011 at 5:05 am
Sorry about the typo, the tweeted name of the red crayon was supposed to read “Nancy Grace Face”. I hate it when I do that.
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Deborah said on July 7, 2011 at 5:13 am
Well for one thing, Pilot Joe, the meeting in Keokuk could be scheduled for later in the day. Most of my business trips these days take place in one day. Fly out in the morning return in the evening. And a lot of the trips have turned into on-line presentations.
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Joe Kobiela said on July 7, 2011 at 6:17 am
Deborah,
How effeciant are you while you are waiting at ohare? Are you well rested ready to give 100% after flying with the screaming 2yr old? What if you can’t move the meeting? Ever wonder what happens to the people who build service fly and maintain those jets? What about their jobs?
Pilot Joe
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Linda said on July 7, 2011 at 7:01 am
“Ever wonder what happens to the people who build service fly and maintain those jets? What about their jobs?”
Completely true. When you take federal money and tax breaks off the table, it hurts the people who have been supported by those tax breaks. But that’s true with all of them–including people working in clean energy industries who lost some of their tax breaks in the latest deal brokered by Obama and the Republicans last December (at the Republican’s insistance, because “propping up an industry with incentives” is So Wrong). How can Republicans cut programs for the poor, who depend on them for survival, if their own sacred cows can’t take a haircut?
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coozledad said on July 7, 2011 at 8:22 am
Linda: Excellent points, but spoken into the chasm of epistemic closure.
America is becoming a kind of roadside attraction where just about anything you say will be answered with a ghostly echo of Rush Limbaugh. Now we just have to figure out how to make money from visiting foreigners. I guess we could sell them Jackalopes or plastic tomahawks that double as a dildo or pencil sharpener.
You can’t really expect too much from a crew that just erected a statue to a Ligget& Myers saleswhore on the grounds of one of our embassies.
The mental image they carry of themselves is the “faithful retainer” to their betters, completely blind to the fact the rich regard them as a public urinal.
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prospero said on July 9, 2011 at 1:23 pm
All well and good, but anybody that claims that corporate entities aren’t t burying that cash like a windfall into veritably untaxed hedge funds instead of creating jobs is a bona fide moron. They will continue this practice of screwing job growth until there is not a Scwartze as President.
Surely nobody wants to try to make similar arguments about big oil, that made 34 billion i pure profits in the first quarter of 2011 and lives off the “Oil Depletion Allowance”. And closing these subsidies according to GOPers is raising taxes and, secondarily, killing jobs. What a load of bullshit.
And Cooz, have you ever read “Another Roadside Attraction” by Tom Robbins? Hippies stole Jesus’ mummy from the Vatican. To augment their astounding flea circus.
And Joe, corporations are not going to stop flying their very own Gulfstreams because of two years on depreciation schedules. This is pretty much like Cleavon Little holding a gun to his own head. There is an airport half a mile from my condo, pretty much serving general aviation exclusively, including corporate jets. The airport has a 139 commercial certificate, and gets one flight per day from Piedmont under a contract with USAir. The airport is funded with about $1mil from the FAA, user fees from USAir, and county taxes on property. I’m a property owner that doesn’t benefit in the slightest from the operation of the airport, except for once when somebody flew a B-29 in about 30 ft. from our balcony. One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. The general aviation users pay no user fees whatsoever. They also land on Hwy 278 or the beach once in awhile at additional cost to county taxpayers because the gas gauge wasn’t all the way in the red. These general aviation interests want Beaufort County taxpayers to expand the airport and lengthen the runway to the detriment of historical buildings and a whole neighborhood, largely black of course. The argument to opponents is tired, You knew the airport was there when you bought your property. True, and its current operation is fine. Expanding is bullshit, and screw the FAA money. If we need more Gulfstreams landing here, charge the general aviators user fees. Nobody with a job is going to lose it over two years of depreciation. Sorry, but that is utter bullshit. On the other hand, cutting funds from WIC and Planned Parenthood as GOPers want to do will actually kill people they claimed to care about when they were fetuses.
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prospero said on July 9, 2011 at 1:38 pm
One way or another Joe, I think Mr. Paulson will keep employing people and I’ll continue to fish near his dock. This entire tax and employment argument is entirely like the bullshit people claim on the right about minimum wage. People will lose their shitty Mickey Ds jobs if the corporation is made to pay a living wage. Like they are employing these grunts out of the milk of human kindness flowing through their veins? So, cutting back on the dogass service labor force is likely because a ding in profits would result from paying employees a respectable wage. Somehow, I don’t think so. Can anybody contest the idea that minimum wage should be somewhere around $20/hr. Sorry, otherwise we are talking about indentured servitude.
And if somebody has an example of an employment opportunity ever produced by tax cuts, please share. I suspect that artifact is pretty much like a splinter from the True Cross, or maybe the Grail.
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