The light non-existent posting, I mean.

I been busy:

Hiking, rafting, bike-riding, view-taking. . . drinking ice cold Sierra Nevada ale while lookin’ at waterfalls.

As provided by Mark Halperin of Time Magazine:

“I’m not an economist, but I do believe that we’re growing… It’s not growing the way it should, and I’m sorry people are paying as high gas prices as they are.”

Says government should not bail out private firms, and denied the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac support package is a bailout, just “temporary assistance.”

Jokes: “I’m 62, I’m having trouble remembering things.”

“The president doesn’t have a magic wand. I can’t just say, ‘low gas.’”

And my personal faves:

Wants to let the first economic stimulus package “runs its course” before considering a second.

Declines to ask Americans to conserve energy, says it would be “presumptuous” to tell people what decisions to make.

DoughBob Loadpants: The day after his execrably stupid column asking whether Obama’s call for national service was not equivalent to a call for slavery, can-only-aspire-to-moron-status NRO nepotism exhibit Jonah Goldberg has the temerity to ask whether Obama is “Dishonest or Stupid?”

Why? Because in his view, bilingualism has nothing “to do with the importance of teaching kids a second language” and anyone who things that bilingualism is connected to learning a second language has no idea what he’s talking about.

Pantload, meet Mr. Webster:

Main Entry:
bi·lin·gual·ism
Pronunciation:
\-gwə-ˌli-zəm\
Function:
noun
Date:
1873

1 : the ability to speak two languages 2 : the frequent use (as by a community) of two languages 3 : the political or institutional recognition of two languages

But then again, Jonah’s primary vocation for the past few years has been the exhibition of stupidity to grotesque excess.

Although Jonah’s fact-challenged and intellectually-stunted writing often raises the question “stupid or dishonest” reflection on his past works pretty quickly leads to one conclusion: it’s the stupid.

Well, not really.

Wolcott, pondering the increasingly batshit-crazy musings of Trainwreck Media mogul Roger El Simon:

Multifaceted ignorance can be exhausting, requiring a lot of upkeep to maintain the flow of misinformation. Given that Simon is now haplessly writing the opposite of what he means to impart, perhaps he ought to consider taking a summer-long sabbatical to spare himself further self-embarrassment and mental fatigue

Via TBogg.

The exact sort of thing McCain and his neocon advisors insist is impossible and will undermine all the “progress” 5+ years and $3,000,000,000,000 has bought. But this particular politician is the Prime Minister of Iraq:

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has for the first time suggested establishing a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, a step that the Bush administration has long opposed.

Maliki raised the idea Monday during a visit to the United Arab Emirates, where he spoke with Arab ambassadors about a security pact being negotiated to determine the future U.S. military role in Iraq.

“The current trend is to reach an agreement on a memorandum of understanding either for the departure of the forces or a memorandum of understanding to put a timetable on their withdrawal,” Maliki said, according to a statement released by his office. “In all cases, the basis for any agreement will be respect for the full sovereignty of Iraq.”

The comments reflect the political dilemma confronting Maliki and other members of his Shiite-led government. Their primary rival in upcoming provincial elections, Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, is a leading critic of the American presence who has long called for a timetable, a position that is widely popular among Iraq’s majority Shiites.

Meanwhile, in a masterpiece of ill-timing, the WaPo’s increasingly pathetic editorial page applauds Obama for a supposed retreat from a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq — a position which Obama has not yet taken — which timetable, of course is what Maliki is seeking in order to allay domestic concerns among his constituents that the absence of a timetable augurs a permanent American presence, and threatens to undermine thin support for his government. Heckuva job, WaPo.

Associated Press: Iraq insists on withdrawal timetable for US troops

Iraq’s national security adviser said Tuesday his country will not accept any security deal with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.

The comments by Mouwaffak al-Rubaie were the strongest yet by an Iraqi official about the deal now under negotiation with U.S. officials. They came a day after Iraq’s prime minister first said publicly that he expects the pending troop deal with the United States to have some type of timetable for withdrawal.

McCain says that withdrawal cannot be be set “by an artificial timetable.” But the Iraqis are now insisting on a timetable. Maybe we can invade Iraq all over again, if McCain becomes president.

Received an email today from an old friend.

The L.A. Dodger-themed photo exhibit he has curated opens July 12 at the Los Angeles Public Library (aka the Central Library). The email reads, in part:

“Play Ball! Images of Dodger
Blue, 1958-1988” opens on July 12th and runs through
November 9th in the Central Library’s first floor
galleries. (No opening reception is scheduled.)

Like the previous exhibit that I curated (“Play By
Play: A Century of L.A. Sports Photography,
1889-1989“), the Dodgers exhibit draws exclusively
from the LAPL’s historic photo collection. Most of
these photos are from the archives of the now-defunct
Los Angeles Herald Examiner newspaper (which shuttered
in 1989); many of these images haven’t been seen since
their original publication in the newspaper.

“Play Ball!” traces significant Dodgers stories,
including the team’s arrival in 1957, Wally Moon and
baseball at the L.A. Coliseum, Sandy Koufax, Don
Drysdale, Walter O’Malley and the battle over Chavez
Ravine, Roy Campanella, Vin Scully, Jaime Jarrin,
Maury Wills, James Roark’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated
photograph of Rick Monday’s rescue of the American
Flag, Tommy John surgery, Andy Messersmith and the
advent of free agency, Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey, Dusty
Baker and the first “high five,” Fernando Mania, Al
Campanis, Orel Hershiser, Kirk Gibson, and more.

If this exhibition is anything like “Play-by-Play” it should prove fascinating. The Herald’s old photographs have mostly been in storage since the paper shut down the presses, getting a chance to see them — and to see them used to articulate the history of the Dodgers, a history inexorably linked to the recent history of Los Angeles — is a rare treat.

Um, no. Not really.

But while we’re on the subject, batshit-crazy NRO-welfare recipient K-Lo opines:

A totally crazy Saturday-morning thought: Wouldn’t George W. Bush make an awesome high-school government teacher?

Once again, K-Lo is guilty of epic understatment when she describes this particular synaptic phenomena (which she mistakenly describes as “thought”) as “totally crazy.”

Pattycakes is upset because others aren’t grieving over the death of vicious, unrepentant, racist assholes he admires:

P.S. I firmly believe “TBogg” wouldn’t be this happy if the dead man were Osama bin Laden, instead of Jesse Helms.

P.S.: I firmly believe that Patterico is a vapid, soulless cocksucker who breathes new meaning into Samuel Johnson’s old saying, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

Of course, if I’m wrong, it’s easily proven. All you need to do is dig up all his old posts denouncing vapid, soulless douchebag cocksuckers who hijack patriotism like a methed-out wise guy to use it like a cudgel.

Of course Patterico, being the disingenuous prick that he is, ignored the prefatory quotes to TBogg’s eulogy:

“The University of Negroes and Communists” - Jesse Helms 1950

“They should ask their parents if it would be all right for their son or daughter to marry a Negro.” - Jesse Helms 1968

( …but he wasn’t a racist )

“The New York Times and Washington Post are both infested with homosexuals themselves. Just about every person down there is a homosexual or lesbian.” - Jesse Helms 1995

“Homosexuals are weak, morally sick wretches.” - Jesse Helms 1995

“Your tax dollars are being used to pay for grade-school classes that teach our children that CANNIBALISM, WIFE-SWAPPING and MURDER of infants and the elderly are acceptable behavior.” - Jesse Helms 1996

Confronted with evidence that D’Aubuisson directed death squads to murder civilians, Helms made it clear that some things are more important than human life. “All I know,” he replied, “is that D’Aubuisson is a free enterprise man and deeply religious.”

Assholes like Patterico are deeply averse to context, aren’t they?

Scott adds:

The symbols that stick most prominently in my mind are his use of the blue slip to prevent the integration of the Fourth Circuit and “whistling ‘Dixie’ while standing next to Senator Carol Moseley-Braun.

Just the kind of spirited racist scumbaggery that tugs at a faux-patriot’s heart.

Good fucking riddance.

Conservatives admired him for his opposition to abortion and what he called “indecent art,” while liberals accused him of using race as a wedge issue to defeat black opponents.

Helms opposed civil rights and a holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He was one of a small number of senators who opposed extending the Voting Rights Act in 1982, eventually giving up a filibuster when then-Majority Leader Sen. Howard Baker, a Tennessee Republican, said the Senate would not take up any other business until it acted on the extension.

Helms also opposed letting niggers vote or queers breathe, which is what really endeared him to conservatives. He represented the basest and meanest instincts in American politics, which made him a perfect embodiment of Republican politics that last couple of decades. There was a time when having voted against the Voting Rights Act would have branded a politician as a dangerous kook; now, however, he’s a venerated conservative:

“Today we lost a senator whose stature in Congress had few equals,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate’s Republican leader. “Sen. Jesse Helms was a leading voice and courageous champion for the many causes he believed in.”

No, we lost a hateful bigot and demagogue who was committed to preserving racial divides and inequality. And a conservative icon.

MORE: Reactions to Helms’s long overdue demise.

Patterico is upset about insufficient respect being paid to a racist, homophobic hate-monger, to the point of mental incontinence — claiming TBogg hearts terrorists. Only a truly vapid asshole could connect those two thoughts.

American Power is similarly upset — because “common decency” demands we pretend that Helms wasn’t a vile specimen of humanity. Perhaps if Helms had exhibited a bit of common decency towards those targeted by his prejudices, he’d have a point.

And last (and possibly least) President 23% mis-remembers Jesse (”The University of Negroes and Communists” . . . “They should ask their parents if it would be all right for their son or daughter to marry a Negro” . . . “The New York Times and Washington Post are both infested with homosexuals themselves. Just about every person down there is a homosexual or lesbian.” . . . “Homosexuals are weak, morally sick wretches.”) Helms as: “a kind, decent and humble man and a passionate defender of what he called ‘the Miracle of America” [ed: unless you happened to be a nigger or a queer] and a “great patriot.”