The Truffle

Student Janine Perri writes a guest op-ed in Newsday about today's teachers and their lackadaisical attitude toward typos. Like apostrophes that don't belong there. And messages that "congradulate" spelling bee winners. And administrators who brush off these boo-boos by saying, "We all make mistakes." Granted, I've been guilty of the occasional "typo's" in this blog. And elsewhere. But what does it say if a student is more concerned about basic grammar 101 than her "teacher's"? As Ms. Perri puts it: It makes you question today's teaching standards and wonder how much students actually learn in school, compared with how much know-ledge they gain on their own. It is pretty scary. Perhaps "teacher's" should be required to take some grammar test's before they're certified? Of course, some damage is done already. Take the case of Stephen Sabludowsky , who doesn't know the difference between ...

I think I might check out the Sex and the City movie after all. Strictly out of morbid curiosity. I mean, I don't know anyone who lives like Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, or Charlotte do.

The subject line says it all. Wire played at the Seaport last night and kicked all kinds of ass. Photographic evidence below.

Scotty "I Found My Conscience After I Quit" McClellan likes Barack Obama. And just might vote for him. In his own words: It's a message that is very similar to the one Gov. Bush ran on in 2000, and won on, promising to bring bi-partisanship and honesty and integrity to Washington.

The late Elis Regina, queen of Brazilian pop, singing one of her finest songs, "Madalena."

Conyers has subpoenaed Rove. It would be nice if said subpoena were actually enforced.

Scummy boy band impresario Lou Pearlman. Scummy Bush advisor Karl Rove. One almost single-handedly helped ruin Top 40 radio for several years. One almost single-handedly helped ruin America for several years. One is now in prison. One is, inexplicably, not yet in prison. Is there a way to do a DNA test on these guys?

Am I the only Noo Yawka who's barely seen a single episode of "Sex and the City" and isn't all that interested in the movie? Does this make me weird?

From The Albany Project comes news that Darth Cheney will rise from the crypt appear at the annual dinner for New York State's GOP. Said swank get-together will be held in Manhattan. This despite the state GOP's professed antipathy to all things Big Apple. We have seen one upstate Republican state senator hold a fundraiser in Manhattan and the NYS Senate Republicans held their own fundraiser in Manhattan also. This from the party that, on a state level, always labels the Democratic Party as the party that caters to the downstate and New York City interests. And let's not forget where the 2004 GOP convention was held. This has been a dispatch from Planet IOKIYAR.

...but it may not be Hillary Clinton. As I've said before, I was never totally sold on La Hill as a presidential candidate, but she didn't repulse me either. At least not in 2007, as the great presidential free-for-all began and assorted Republican wannabes turned their attention from Reagan hero-worship in one debate to relentless Hillary-bashing in another. Seriously, you wanted to see La Hill get the nomination and win the election if only to make wingnut brains explode. Even if it was, frankly, hard to defend her. The thought of Hillary Clinton as a tough-minded, pragmatic politician was pretty exciting. But instead, we are confronted with the reality of Hillary Clinton as pander-prone, distaff Dem version of Mitt Romney, willing to say that the sky was mustard yellow if it would ensure her a shot at the Oval Office. Hillary is ruthless and ambitious; this is true of just about every politician, male and female. She may be corrupt and willing to say anything to be ele...

Generally, I can't stand Chris Matthews, but this clip makes me feel sorry for the guy. I'm serious. I wouldn't want his job if it meant dealing with people like...like...oh, just watch the clip. Let's help Kevin James, shall we? Here's a short bio of Neville Chamberlain. Where did Mr. James go school, anyway? Was this lady, perhaps, one of his classmates? (Via Balloon Juice .)

While Democrats keep winning in "red" districts and George Bush pretends that he's done sacrificed a lot in this here Situation FUBAR by not playing golf, the Beltway Republicans are trying to do damage control. How? By borrowing slogans from drug companies and trying the same liberal/race-baiting tactics that worked so swimmingly down in Mississippi. The Carpetbagger Report has more and points to this memo from Rep. Tom Davis. “Hispanic voters are a swing group in this election and future elections. John McCain, being from a border state, may be out of sync with many Republicans but he has standing among Hispanics. Barrack [sic] Obama has not made the sale to Hispanic voters. Thus, this issue is a tar baby for anyone who touches it, with land mines everywhere.” Forget the mixed metaphor. TAR BABY?!? Who does this guy think he is? George Allen?

Travis Childers, Democrat, won the special election for Mississippi's First Congressional District. This is the third House seat--from a very conservative district, no less--to be won by a Democrat. Even losing Denny Hastert's seat doesn't sting quite this much. Needless to say, the wingnutosphere really isn't taking the news very well. A handful of right-wing bloggers have become so unhinged that they've resorted to reprinting entire Ann Coulter columns . (Yes, I'm linking to Technorati. Really, if all you have to offer is a cut-and-paste Coulter post, you really aren't worthy of direct linkage.)

Yes, it looks like Bob Barr is going to take the third-party spoiler crown from Ralphie boy. The accompanying FDL link includes amusing footage of Sean Hannity blowing a gasket on Faux News. Breibart's comments section is full of fed up conservatives. Like this guy: There are many, many, MANY conservatives who are very unhappy with LIBERAL McCain. Barr provides an avenue for those of us who do not want a liberal in the White House. I believe Barr will do extremely well with the base, well enough even to capture the popular vote. If Barr performs well in the debates it will be a close race. Not just Liberal McCain. LIBERAL McCain. There are people who really feel this way, and now it's okay to have fun at their expense.

Via HuffPo comes this Seattle Times story about young evangelicals who are fed up with the GOP. They haven't floated into the Dem fold yet, but they have decided that some issues are more important than abortions and gay people. Like, say, the Iraq war. The story quotes a student at an evangelical university: Most of us would never blindly follow the old Christian Right anymore. James Dobson has nothing to do with us. In other words, count on a schism in the evangelical vote in the years to come.

The Small faces, performing "Song of a Baker" and kickin' serious ass. RIP Steve Mariott and Ronnie Lane.

Oh dear. The 28 percenters aren't going to like this . Over the Fourth of July weekend of 1999, I had the good fortune to accompany my then fiancée (and now happily my wife) to the McCain vacation home in Sedona where she was interviewing them for a Home and Garden Television show. The interview itself was entirely apolitical, focusing on fabrics and furnishing in their lovely Oak Creek abode, topics about which I do recall the senator was less than comfortable discussing. Always the goods hosts, the McCains also invited us to spend the day with them, including for barbeque, a favorite of John's. And as McCain flipped burgers, I could not help but ask his views about then candidate George W. Bush. "He's as dumb as a stump," McCain offered. We then went on to discuss other matters (including Vietnam) but that quote remains seared in my memory. I suspect more stories of McCain dismissing and ridiculing Bush are going to come out as this election cycle progresses.

Is it just me, or is Jenna Bush's wedding just not interesting to read about? Seriously, neither of the Bush daughters is very interesting, not even when they're kicked out of Argentina.

Maybe you should look for a new line of work. You were not much of a DNC head. You are not doing Hillary any favors. And don't even think of floating the idea of an Obama/Clinton ticket. You and the rest of Team Clinton have burned your bridges in that area.

Rep. Peter King (R-Lawn Guyland) is now defending his li'l buddy Vito Fosella against the meanies who want him to resign. From Newsday: King said Republicans "who are supposed to be his friends" should be giving the Staten Island-Brooklyn Republican "the time and opportunity to make that decision" -- whether to resign, to serve out his term but leave afterward or to stay in office and seek another term -- "himself." That's really noble of you, Congressman. That reminds me--how did King react when Eliot Spitzer was caught in the prostitution ring? Funny you should ask. “He has to step down. No one will stand with him,” said Rep. Peter King, a Republican congressman from Long Island. “I never try to take advantage or gloat over a personal tragedy. However, this is different. This is a guy who is so self-righteous, and so unforgiving.” Self-righteous and unforgiving. Kinda sounds like that GOP party line that Vito Fosella was so fond of toeing, is...

It's not enough that Rep. Fosella drove drunk. It's not enough that he's a classic do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do, socially conservative GOP congresscritter who cheated on his wife and sired a kid out of wedlock. Seems he isn't even supporting his second family. His dad and uncle are. The guy opposes abortion but doesn't really care once a kid is actually born. Why is this not surprising? Count on the Fosella, Vitter, and Spitzer kids to form a support group at some point.

If you're going to harp on making English the official language, shouldn't you, like, LEARN THE LANGUAGE FIRST?!?!?

Barack Obama and the Democratic party represent the views of millions of mainstream Americans, including plenty of independents and--gasp!--Republicans. The fact that GOP scions including Susan Eisenhower, Lincoln Chafee, and Julie Nixon Eisenhower are on Team Obama is proof of this. Barack and the Democrats are centrists. Not radical leftists.

Parenthetical Remarks has learned some new things since becoming a dad. His baby goes gaga for certain professional bloviators, and he thinks there is a reason for this.

Supposedly, Obama is now doing what he's supposed to be doing: focusing on John McCain and not La Hill. Alas, McCain is taking all this personally, saying that Obama's making fun of his age. Lieberman, meanwhile, follows McCain like the neocon puppy dog he is. I'm sure he's jockeying for a VP slot. I also suspect that he won't get it. Just an instinctive thing. Both seem to be in serious denial--and I'm not talking about a goodwill trip to Egypt, either. Anyhow, Obama's pointed out McCain's disconnect from The World as It Truly Is: Speaking to a few dozen employees of a software company, Obama said McCain was "dead wrong when he said recently that he thinks our economy has made 'great progress' under George Bush. Is there anyone outside of Washington D.C., who could truly believe that?" Meanwhile, McCain keeps insisting he did in fact vote for Bush in 2000. Next up: the wingnuts will be asking why they should vote for a guy who...

John McCain's efforts to introduce a third Bush administration have just hit a snag . It turns out that hobnobbing with liberal blogger Arianna Huffington and the cast of NBC’s "The West Wing" on the left coast can be a risky proposition for a Republican with White House ambitions. In Jersey City Friday morning, John McCain emphatically denied a report by Huffington on her blog that he confessed, during a Beverly Hills dinner party in 2001, that he had not voted for George W. Bush after his bitter defeat in 2000. But "West Wing" cast members -- who said in published reports they supported a Democratic ticket -- back up Huffington’s story. I have only one thing to add to this: MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!

Julie Nixon Eisenhower donated money to Obama's campaign. Julie. NIXON! EISENHOWER! If Tricky Dick were a poltergeist, I can't imagine what he'd do about this.

It's been one thing after another. I moved. I got sick (with a cold or a sinus infection? I still don't know). I had a lot of work. Now, I have my life back. Yay! Le Sweetie alerts yours truly to... The Empire Strikes Barack! What a difference a couple of weeks makes. La Hill wins PA and all of a sudden Obama has a "bubba problem." La Hill barely wins Indiana and loses NC. All of a sudden, she's the one with a problem, and the problem is that she doesn't know when to quit. Oh yeah, and after 2004, when the wingnuts whined about Teresa Heinz Kerry's tax forms, they're weirdly silent on the fact that beer heiress Cindy McCain won't release hers. Welcome to Planet IOKIYAR, folks.