Anyone looking for another opinion on that doughy douchebag?

At first, I didn't feel like commenting on the Beck sideshow in DC, he was so clearly a clown it was better for my blood pressure to ignore him.

But then I had a discussion with some friends who I consider pretty reasonable (i.e. Democratic) but told me the so-called Ground Zero so-called mosque shouldn't be built. Oh, no one was arguing they didn't have the right to build their center, but "they should be more sensitive" to others. I pointed out that it's difficult to be sensitive to manufactured fake outrage because there's absolutely no way to alleviate it, but it occurred to me that no one was arguing that Beck was being insensitive by appropriating a definite moment of the civil rights movement for something that was clearly wasn't.

Because, of course, that was the point. By associating his event with the earlier march on Washington, Beck was trying to provoke normal people into a response that would send his followers swaddling themselves in the cloth of false victimization. It was as disgustingly cynical a moment in our history as I'd ever hope to see, and my only solace in it is that Beck can't make himself any more noble by trying to redefine Dr. King's legacy just as last weekend didn't make Dr. King a posthumous douchebag.

Actually, it's not fair to call Beck that, those have at least known the touch of a woman...

Heh. Two corgis.

Bro sent me this link (via Warming Glow) of two corgis on a treadmill. Awwwww, the left one's a fluffie!



This almost makes me forget yesterday when Mr. Monty, in his anxiousness to run in for dinner, ran over my bare foot and slashed me with his short-but-motherfucking-sharp claws leaving a wound resembling the one on Simon Le Bon's neck in the Hungry Like The Wolf video (and no, I'm not linking to that oh fine here).

I want to be kind to Ken Mehlman...

And while I understand the righteous anger of all the commenters in this article I think we should applaud him for this, because the sooner we can get all the closet cases out of the Republican Party and let 'em know it's all good, the happier we'll all be.

So, so true...

...what Mr. Jaquith wrote about Perriello's meeting with The Tea Party yesterday.

When I told bro about this his response was "So, did he give them a bill for his brother's cut gas line?"

Robert's gonna Hurt jobs in our district.

Reading this article was very depressing (and not just for the doofy comments) because it illustrates the challenge Perriello is going to face with his message and the intellectual dishonesty of the Hurt campaign.

As much as it may be true, "it could have been a lot worse" is not a great political slogan. And as much as the congressman has done to help our district with projects like the Cane Creek Centre and Monogram Snack Foods in Martinsville, and the Robertson Bridge, all these small projects that are making a real difference are being drowned out by the shouts of "socialism".

I think it's only fair to point out that all of these projects are in sections of our district that are not expected to break for Perriello.

And Robert Hurt needs to answer the question, if you think the stimulus is so horrible, which of these projects should be cut? And not in the way his spokesman tries to crapweasel his way out of it:

When asked whether Hurt supported any of the local projects, such as the Robertson Bridge, Harrison said there “may be projects in the 5th District that are worthy of federal funding, but they shouldn’t require a trillion dollars of additional debt and hundreds of millions in other wasteful government spending projects to get them done.”

Perhaps the state senator can spending a little time reading about these projects and the difference they're making in between offering his opinions on Cordoba House and ducking debates.

Kevin McDonald is the funniest Kid in the Hall.

This is a fact, not a value judgment. So the AV Club's Random Roles feature on Kevin is a must-read. I love that the "Don't Put Salt In Your Eyes" sketch is based on fact.

And here's another one of his brilliant sketches and one of my personal faves.

Dammit, Madsen, that "Bust The Pro" t-shirt was mine!

Playing a Full Tilt $5 KO tourney, and Jeff Madsen's at our table. Not really playing, though, he was in instafold mode and then started pushing randomly. I wake up with pocket jacks when he tries it again, and he turns over 6-9 of diamonds...and hits the straight. And I hit the bottle...

That's poker, and idiots like me get the anguish they deserve for playing it.

Someone want to remind Robert Hurt where he lives?

I'll give him points for honesty; it's clear Hurt wants to talk about anything except the 5th District.

Still, it takes a special kind of balls to claim the congressman should be focusing on jobs and then asking about the Cordoba Center in the exact same press release.

Of course, if Hurt chose to attend debates or even read the news, he would have known the Congressman voted for 439 jobs in this district not too long ago.

I also can't wait to hear Sen. Hurt's opinions about unicorns and leprechauns...

Because we all know the country's being overrun with anchor babies, as immigrant mothers throw themselves on their backs on the border in the last stages of labor so that with one mighty push they can propel their newborns onto American soil.

But credit where credit's due, at least Senator Hurt seems more enlightened then his Republican brethren and isn't so quick to scribble a Sharpie over the Constitution.

It's just that with his quick comments on this issue and Cordoba House, I can't help but wonder if he plans on offering ideas to create jobs for the constituents in the district he ostensibly hopes to represent. If only there were some sort of forum for him to present these ideas...

8 Bits O' Nevsky - Adrien Brody-lookin' Japanese sheep-man edition

And sometimes, the subject lines just write themselves. I have no fucking idea what's going on in this game, but I want it...

LEAVE HOWARD ALONE!!!!

I think what Dean said about the Cordoba Center was dead wrong, period.

Nonetheless, it seems to me that for some reason a lot of blogs are enjoying piling on, and I can't go for that. Because Dr. Dean will always be to me the guy who had the balls to say in 2003 what everyone else was saying in 2006.

And referring to that link, how does Dean's faux pas prove that he shouldn't have been Secretary of HHS? C'mon, this is the administration with Joe futhermucking Biden (and I love the guy)...

Blogging burgers bloopers bosoms...

Just after my blog post about Five Guys, our local weekly just finished its annual poll of favorite places and in a surprising upset (in my opinion), Five Guys was denied its repeat win by our local joint Boylan Heights. And I can't say I disagree; I don't get there too often because it's usually packed with UVA students, but when I've gone, it's been deeeeeee-licious.

It occurs to me that given my recent posts the four people who read this blog would think I do nothing but stuff burgers down my gullet all day. I'll have you know that with my exhausting regimen I've dropped twenty pounds in just this past month, and as this photo will attest, I've never looked better.

Good one, Tom...

Via Blue Virginia, Congressman Perriello has a new ad up. This one hits hard and has a killer punchline...

Hoping against hope sanity prevails...

I'd like to think this Time article is the walking back against the Cordoba House hysteria I was wishing for, but I won't hold my breath.

I was pleased, however, to see our congressman refusing to take the bait and addressing the controversy for what it is, an attempt at distracting the voters from the real issues in our district.

Mmmmm, mmmmm, that IS a tasty burger!

Sis sent me this link as Five Guys managed to beat out In n' Out for the best burger in America according to Zagat. As a resident of the East Coast and having frequented the three Five Guys locations in Charlottesville, that's a tough but reasonable call. I'd certainly understand it if In n' Outers (giggle)were puking their guts up at the injustice; on a recent trip to Vegas with the sibs we all made a special trip to experience the mouth-watering glory of the double-double, and we were not disappointed. And given the choice between the two, I'd pick In n' Out for lunch. The burgers are a close enough call but only In n' Out has strawberry shakes. And they're damn good.

Still, I not much of a meat-eater (giggle); once a week tops. And when the boo-boo and I have burgers for dinner, more often than not I make 'em at home. Two ingredients: fresh ground meat from The Organic Butcher and a little seasoned salt. I don't sully the meat with Worchestershire sauce or eggs. I'm making hamburgers, not no goddamn Egg McMuffins.

And while I emulate Five Guys with my home burgers, here's how to make your own double-double.

Dammit, I made myself hungry.

8 Bits O' Nevsky - Just buy this now edition...

Look, I'll make this quick. The World Ends With You is on sale for $15 at Amazon today. It is the single best DS game, period. So go buy it.

Shut up. Buy it now.

Heh. Corgis.

Bro sent me this video; nothing much more to say about it, except that for some reason our own Monty never seemed to take to the water...

Wow, we all just love getting played, don't we?

Never mind the bigotry of past generations, you'd think everyone would have learned the lessons of Shirley Sherrod a few weeks back. Just because a bunch of right-wingers start beating their chests about something doesn't mean we have to listen...and good on Mayor Bloomberg and the Prez for not caving in.

Goddammit, Best Buy sucks...

So I finally get a new monitor after the old one gives out, as there's an Acer monitor for sale, $99. And I ask the guy if it matters that my computer's as old as dirt and runs Windows XP, and he goes "no, no, just change the resolution"...

So of course, the best resolution here is 1024 x 768, which looks like ass, and I try to download a driver for the monitor, and surprise! No driver for Windows XP.

What really sucks is I like the monitor better than the computer...

Update: And of course, ten minutes after posting this I figure it out. I take it back...

Dear Warner Bros., just take my goddamn money already...

The new Looney Tunes discs came out this week and my response was the same I used to have to the Golden Collections magnified: strong desire for what should have been.

I've blogged in years past when one of the new Golden Collections were released, and despite having all six (sigh, yes, I know) and getting a whole lot of use of them, I found the haphazard nature of the collections frustrating. Every collection had a few gems, more than a few clunkers, and the WB trope of devoting a disc to a special theme ruined a bit of the magic through repetition. Seeing ALL the Speedy Gonzalez cartoons one right after the other really brings to light the recycled gags. I get, he knows everybody's sister in the sleepy Mexican hamlet. And by "knows" I mean "screws". Wait, getting off the point...

So while the new single discs seem a bit chintzy to me they do have the advantage of being focused on Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. But once again, I have to deal with the absences. No "Racketeer Rabbit"? No "Captain Hareblower"? For the love of Elmer what the hell do I have to do to get these?

And to cap it all off, there's the ridiculously vague feather-across-the-taint pricktease announcement that a Looney Tunes Blu-Ray is forthcoming. Which brings me to the subject line. Just release 'em all, or at the very least release are the cartoons in a certain period so I KNOW WHAT ELSE I'LL NEED TO BUY. The six Golden Collections together were about $300 and represented about half of the total oeuvre. So tack on a twenty percent asshole tax and let's be done with it. You don't have THAT long to milk nerds, soon it'll all be the cloud. I'm telling you right now, WB, get on it.

And then, fully satiated with my Blu-Rays, I'll be nice and docile while you rape my childhood.

Credit where credit's due to Congressman Perriello...

...from The Roanoke Times.

Incumbents generally have little to gain in debating lesser-known challengers, and sometimes contrive to avoid them altogether. Perriello has not done that, and instead has agreed to terms more favorable to his Republican opponent.

He might have acted on principle or out of necessity, as a first-term Democrat in a conservative district. Either way, he did what was right for voters.

Cue complaints about the Roanoke Times being a liberal rag in five...four...three...

Holy shit, Russia really is on fucking fire...

Mrs. Nevskaya has been following very closely the events this past week in Moscow and showed me this very chilling clip about a group of volunteers who were trying to get back home (starts about a minute in)...

Two candidates for our rep aren't afraid to face their constituents...and Robert Hurt ain't one of them.

Tom Perriello and Jeffrey Clark faced off in the first VA-5 debate, and Robert Hurt (surprise, surprise!) chickened out. It's the first time in the debate's history (since 1996) this has happened.

Hey, Hurt won the Repub primary without debating, so maybe it was a savvy political move. But let's not pretend that he's going to "restore" accountability to Congress. Our district has already contributed more than its fair share of that...

Robert Hurt: Anti-jobs, anti-truth.

Thanks to our congressman for voting to save teachers' jobs here in Virginia. As he says, this bill is a no-brainer, so of course Robert Hurt is against it.

But it would be nice if in Hurt's opposition he could simply tell the truth, I see three whoppers right in the article without looking too hard. 1) The stimulus bill was under a trillion, 2) the stimulus bill saved and created 3 million jobs while tax cuts twice as expensive as the stimulus didn't do jack, and 3) the jobs bill the Congressman voted for didn't add a single penny to the deficit. Hurt knows that. Or at least he SHOULD know that, I'll freely admit that he could just be an idiot instead of a liar.

But either way, it looks like Hurt is simply going to be a puppet for Boehner rather than looking out for the needs of his constituents.

Why such a hardon for teachers, Repubs?

You can't even vote for a fucking jobs bill? And then you'll have the balls to turn around and complain Obama's not doing enough for jobs? What the fuck's the matter with you, really? How can this be even controversial? I realize I'm not contributing anything but ranting, but we may as well argue about the sun being hot...

If you're looking for something substantial, read Digby...

8 Bits O' Nevsky - Lobster Claw edition

I have nothing but praise for BlazBlue; adrenaline-pumping action, odd (to say the least) but memorable characters, fantastic animation, all wrapped up in a hardcore sensibility that makes the geek in me swoon...but the game does illustrate a horrible flaw with the PS3.

Namely, the d-pad on the controller sucks dick, balls, and shit. Even the Wii Classic Controller does a good enough job on Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, but on the PS3 controller a simple quarter-circle, necessary on any move stronger than a slight breeze, registers about a quarter of the time despite your thumb tendons ripping apart at the seams with the effort. A few hours on BlazBlue and it looks like the PS3 controller is intent on finishing the job ten years of repetitive office work has started on my hands.

Given the game's insistence that you memorize elaborate combos in order to have a chance in hell (OK, there's a beginner's mode but I would sooner go full teatard than use it), I've actually given thought to the purchase of a fighting stick. Normally, I would have called such a purchase a display of opulence on the order of a gold-plated yacht, but I figure now that a purchase like this will allow me a few more precious years before I need to go on disability. My buddy (similarly addicted to BlazBlue) got the Hori Fighting Stick and likes it; it's surprisingly big but it certainly works. Combos were easier and it was ergonomically pleasing, it also brought me back to those nostalgic days when people used to play in these ancient meeting halls called "ar-cades". And at fifty bucks it seems reasonable considering some other options. I'll continue to shop but if there are any recommendations from any other gamers out there please feel free to add your comments.

Die in a fire, Associated Press...

Seeing this fucking article just burns me up, especially the headline: House members scurry back to pass jobs bill. Ho, ho, using the word "scurry" adds to the image of Congress as vermin, I see what you did there! Never mind that this is a bill to fund jobs for teachers and first-responders that would have been lost if the bill didn't pass. Never mind that the reason this session had to be called because the Senate Republicans ruthlessly filibustered the bill. Ask the people whose jobs this bill will save what they think.

And what's the most galling is that the Repubs knew damn well that there is no political loss for this delaying tactics. The Dems could either call the bluff and let these jobs be lost to prove the point, or they can act like grownups and still get shit like this article.

I'd say if anyone in the modern press or the Republican caucus had any sense of honor left they quit their jobs and devote themselves to doing something more useful, like throwing themselves into a woodchipper for horse feed.

You never go full teatard...



Once again, bro comes through with a winning design, suitable for wearing at your next casual function...

As always, feel free to check out the full range of designs available at our Cafepress store, Geek 3000...

You can't spell, "Christ, CNN is full of frickin' morons" without "CNN"...

I stopped blogging for a while to help my blood pressure, and it's shit like this that made me quit.

This is the goddamn headline, I'm not kidding.

--
Small biz jobs bill: FAIL
--

I know times are tough for news services, but do you have to let the copywriter's 8-year-old Mountain Dew-addled nephew write the headlines?

And it's the same "views differ on the shape of the earth" bullshit that misses the point completely. The small business bill isn't passing because of "Washington gridlock", it's Washington OBSTRUCTION. It's Republicans making sure nothing gets improved because they're going to run on the idea that nothing's improving. They make no fucking bones about it. Waiting for the media to call them on this is like waiting for motherfucking Godot...

Robert Hurt US Congress: Anti-Reality

Hurt was meeting the Lynchburg Tea Party in a closed event, presumably part of his avoiding-debate strategy, but someone did manage to get in and hear what he had to say, and it seems he's gone the full bibble-bibble-oatbran.

"Joke" about abolishing the IRS. Check.

Getting rid of health care reform? Check.

And let's see what fellow nut Jim McKelvey says he's going to do: "Robert has promised to work to cut or eliminate funding to government agencies which have no constitutional basis for existence". Check. No, wait, what? Is that English?

I would have hoped that tinfoil-hat-conspiracies and Underpants-Gnomes-economics would have gone the way of Dubya, but it looks like Hurt understands the way to woo the hard right is to ditch any and all hints of moderation. Way to go.

Personally, I'd rather have the grownup for a rep...

TIMMMMMMMMMMM-ber.
We've had some nasty violent storms these past couple of days; a tree just fell down the street from us a few houses away. Fortunately, no one was hurt and no damage. At least the power stayed up this time around...

(and here's the subject line reference, last gag)...

It was the President's birthday today! But really, no matter what the occasion...

...you can always count on the Republican Party to be childish fucking assholes.

Tell Rush Limbaugh to get off my balls, it's 2010 not 1864...

For all the yelling the teabaggers do about the Constitution, they don't seem to have a problem rewriting the parts they don't like...

Maybe after Repubs are done with the 14th they can reinstitute that whole three-fifths thing.

And if you found this post just to be a cheap excuse to use the subject line, hello, my regular reader!

Is "I don't want you to ask me questions, but vote for me anyway" a valid campaign slogan?

It seems to be Robert Hurt's (it does beat the other one, "HURT U.S. CONGRESS"; seriously, no one on your staff noticed that?). Oh sure, he'll meet with fringe groups behind close doors, but he's backing out of more debates even though I'd be shocked if nutball Jeffrey Clark gets more than 10% of a poll.

I guess Hurt doesn't want to take the chance of dealing with an extremist right-winger. Oh sure, I can't blame him, but if that's going to bother you you're really running in the wrong district.

Despite what the audience said, Primus definitely do not suck.

An excellent concert with a great choice of songs that stuck pretty much with Frizzle Fry and Seas of Cheese (and a surprise pick of Golden Boy, which I love but had no expectation of hearing).

Other high points: Pudding, Mud, and Tommy. Notable absences: John, Jerry, and Wynona.

And Gogol Bordello was also awesome though I couldn't give you a single song title. Really, every song I've heard from them on disc doesn't come close to replicating the awesome energy of their live performances. This is a band I'd pretty much recommend to absolutely anybody to see live.

Just call me Aloysius Devadander Abercrombie (that's long for Mud)...

Bro and sis are down in gorgeous Charlottesville to catch the Primus/Gogol Bordello show tonight, which, according to mathematical equations, must at least be awesome...