Who would have thought that sodomy-loving, latte-drinking Noo Yawk City would have been Ground Zero for what happens when government services are cut back to the bone, but apparently because the Sanitation Department lost a bunch of employees, streets weren’t getting snowplowed as quickly as usual (Exhibit A: Blogenfreude’s crazy pictures of West 30th Street yesterday).

The problem with streets not being plowed is that while the locals can strap on snow shoes or cross-country skis, it’s a bit of an issue for the sick, the pregnant, and the ambulances.

To wit:

Read more »

That’s what mom said when I “nearly” won the 200 sprint race in high school, or nearly got an A in a class. Or nearly got in to Harvard. The list goes on. You get the point.

Needless to say a Pavlovian reflex triggered when I saw the Gray Lady’s headline: Tax Package Will Aid Nearly All, Especially Highest Earners

Who are these “Nearly” People?

Read more »

“I’m not getting myself into another Situation,” says Celebrity Teen Mom Bristol Palin, warning Our Nation’s Young Women that if they allow Rogue Tappers into their Mama Grizzlies, they’ll be fated to a miserable life of national television and unendurable abdomens.

[via Hill Rat]

NBC counts 130 “Tea Party-backed candidates” running for House seats. Only 40 won, with eight races still undecided Wednesday afternoon.

HuffPo counts 48 conservative Blue Dog Democrats running for re-election. Only 23 won, with three races undecided Wednesday afternoon.

Daily Kos counts 72 members of the House Progressive Caucus. Only three lost.

Read more »

Just kill me now:

An outspoken opponent of the so-called ground zero mosque in Manhattan is also taking on Islam in Chicago. 

Pamela Geller, leader of a movement called Stop the Islamization of America, asserts that Muslims are increasingly taking over schools, financial institutions and the workplace.

Geller’s latest campaign against “Islamization” has appeared in ads this summer on top of 25 Chicago cabs. Beside pictures of young women who were allegedly killed by their Muslim fathers for refusing an Islamic marriage, dating a non-Muslim or becoming “too Americanized” is the message: “Is your family threatening you?” and the Web address of LeaveIslamSafely.com. Though the placards appear to offer a haven for young women who want to leave Islam, critics contend the signs stoke fear among passengers and passers-by about the way an estimated half of the city’s taxi drivers worship, and seek to suppress the religious liberty on which the nation was founded.

What is it about Chicagocentric stories about cabbies in August?  Last August, Blackhawk star Patrick Kane punched out a cabbie in Buffalo over… twenty cents.   (It turns out that Kane had a decent year after that — silver in Vancouver, Cup-clinching goal against Philadelphia in June.)  Now: this crap.

If this Geller [REDACTED] has a tenth of the success that Kaner got…. Jesus.  I need a drink.

Wow, it’s been a crazy day, what with right wing blowhards dying, gay marriage in California put on hold yet again, and more pandering with Muslim cultural centers two blocks from the World Trade Center just like titty bars.  And Tom DeLay skated!

You know what I need after a long day of craziness?

I mean, besides a martini or three?

Time for some puppy cuteness! Tonight is courtesy of Stinque’s Caribbean correspondent, baked.

Read more »

As much as Barry might be pissing most of us off with his “recalibration” of his remarks on the separation of church and state or his calculated change in his position on gay marriage from that of ten years ago, let’s take a step back and just enjoy this moment of a kinda-dorky/kinda-cool dad sincerely celebrating when his awesome daughter Sasha made a hole-in-one on the first hole of a miniature golf course during their photo-op visit to the Florida Panhandle.

Even that lump of coal I call my cynical heart melted a little bit at this.

Read more »