Drinking Liberally in New Milford

3/27/10

An Arizona Minutemen Group Folds

Apparently, either they were shocked that people answered their calls to violence or they are broke from their profiteering leaderships' greed.

The only question in my mind is "how will they reincarnate their particular brand of crazy?" Because as long as there are crazy people around there will always be someone around willing to take advantage of them for political advancement and/or personal profit.

3/26/10

Welcome Back To The New and Improved New Milford Brewery

This is just a switch over to the new Blogger In Draft Templates... But I plan on overhauling the place more, installing some better vats, dusting off the mugs and shot glasses. Be careful as you wander around and try not to knock over the cases of empties over on the side bar because recycling broken glass is a real pain.

And don't be shy to let me know if you think the fonts are darned near impossible to read or something. That is, if you can even read this? :)

Eric Cantor: "Dem Thugs Did This To Me!"

From Jed Lewison:

It's clear from the Richmond police statement that Cantor's office was not directly targeted. Rather, an office that he has used in the past (but not his main campaign office) was randomly struck by a bullet that had been fired into the sky.

I'm not minimizing the dangers of randomly shooting bullets into the air, but for Eric Cantor to describe this as an attack targeting his campaign office is supremely dishonest, an obvious attempt to deflect attention from Republican Party's violent and extreme rhetoric in recent days.

Next thing you know, Cantor will be claiming a backwards B was carved in his face.

Shorter Eric Cantor:

"Dem Thugs Did This To Me!"

Actually, Mr. No, I am a little "i" indy. :)

3/14/10

The view from here...

Pretty sure you can guess where I am. Hope you had a nice green beer kind of weekend. :)

3/5/10

Grayson's Message Embraced By Florida Republicans

That all mythical squishy middle centristy stuff that The Village preschoolers can not read or write beyond? The one that Obama keeps trying to to pander to and live off of while producing medicocre to pure crap legislation, IF he can get anything to pass at all, which is pissing everybody on all political sides off. Needless to say they, not one single one of these bipartisan hacks, just don't get it:

Republicans like a politician who stands up for what he believes -- even if he believes the Republican Party is populated by a bunch of "knuckle-dragging Neanderthals."

The candidate leading the Florida GOP primary to determine who will take on Rep. Alan Grayson, the Democrat who represents the Orlando-based district, is none other than Grayson himself, according to a poll paid for by his campaign. Grayson is a freshman congressman who has drawn scorn from the GOP and has quickly built a nationwide following of progressives.

The poll has Grayson leading the 13 Republicans -- among Republicans -- with 27.8 percent of the vote. The congressman who mocked the GOP health care plan by saying that it amounts to telling people not to get sick and if they do, to die quickly, received more support than all of the Republican candidates combined.

No GOP candidate scored above 3.7 percent; 57.7 percent said they were undecided.

If Grayson were running as a Republican candidate he would the runaway leader of the pack.

What will The Village idiots say? Look no further than below...

Naturally, the national GOP establishment dismissed the results -- "This is the most bogus thing I've ever seen in my life," said Andy Seré, Regional Press Secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Can we just take The Village to a YMCA, toss them all in the deep end of pool and let their idiocies drag them down?

3/3/10

RIP Jon Swift

A sad day for the entire Bloggosphere as Al Weisel, AKA Jon Swift, has passed away:

The great Jon Swift has died. That's the "blogging" angle to a personal tragedy. In reality, the voice of Jon Swift - the hilarious faux conservative blogger whose talent and passion were evident in every post - belonged to Al Weisel, a sweet and good-natured journalist who happened to be the college roommate of my once-and-future collaborator Jason Chervokas.

...snip...

Al was on the way to his father's funeral in Virginia when he suffered a sudden aortic aneurysm and underwent several surgeries in an attempt to save his life. Sadly, they did not succeed.

Heartbreakingly, Al's mother has posted this comment to the Jon Swift blog, unmasking the true identify of her brilliant son - and yes, he was a blogging super-hero to many of us.

I don't know how else to tell you all who love this blog. I am Jon Swift's Mom and I guess I'm going to OUT him. He was Al Weisel, my beloved son. Al was on his way to his father's funeral in VA when he suffered 2 aortic aneurysms, a leaky aortic valve and an aortic artery dissection from his heart to his pelvis. He had 3 major surgeries within 24 hours and sometime during those surgeries also suffered a severe stroke. We, his 2 sisters, his brother, his partner and his best friend since he was 9 years old were with him as he took his last breath. We have all lost a shining start who warmed our hearts, tormented us and made us laugh as he giggled at our pulling something over on us. He passed away on February 27, 2010. My beloved child will live on in so many hearts. I miss him more than I can say. If you are on Facebook, go to organizations and join "Friends of Al Weisel, Unite!" It will give you just a taste of how special he was. Farewell, Jon (Al)
Al Weisel was the political poser's worst enemy as Jon Swift, but he was also a good guy to hang around the pub with and commiserate over New York's shrinking freelance rates. Gone all too soon, he'll be truly missed by many.

One of the greatest satirists in the entire Blogosphere, for certain. And someone I considered a friend even if our only contact was through comments, posts and occasional emails. I had assumed for a longtime that something had been wrong with him as he had not updated his blog in nearly a year. Now we all know why. :(

Here is the Facebook group his mother mentions.

And here is a glimpse of some of what he did beyond the Blogosphere from his profile.

RIP Al Weisel...

[update] I should note that Al began the idea of B.A.D. with some help from skippy, a linking celebration meant to take the Blogroll Amnesty Day that had created some negative feelings in the Blogosphere and turn it around into a positive for everyone of which many Blogs, myself included, were early participants. Here is a list of some of the original B.A.D. participants taken from Jon Swift's own post on Blogrolling and just to give you an idea of how much sway he had in the Blogosphere:

Polimom, My Left Wing, Kiko's House, Blue Gal, Brilliant at Breakfast, Thoughts of an Average Woman, Blah3, Mockingbird's Medley, Hot Potato Mash, Mad Kane, Chapomatic, Howard Empowered People, Instapundit, Classical Values, Mock, Paper, Scissors, Drinking Liberally in New Milford, Pen-Elayne on the Web, Three Sticks, Man Eegee, Barefoot Bum, Three Wise Men, The Apostate, Debsweb, Newshog, Spiidey, The Talking Dog, BostonJoe, Booman Tribune, The News Blog, The Field Negro, If I Ran the Zoo, The Galloping Beaver, The S.N.A.F.U. Principle, driftglass, Republic of T, Faux Real, The Debate Link, Creek Running North and Blogroll Amnesty Day Sucks.

Since that original frenzy of linkage it has grown to become a yearly celebration of Blog discovery. And skippy suggests linking to memorial diaries from the many others that Al's Jon Swift personae has touched and inspired in honor of Al's typically liberal linkage policies:

you made life on earth and in blogtopia a better place.

- - -

you can read other memorials for jon/al here:

tom watson, who also knew al/jon in real life

blue gal

drinking liberally in new milford

john cole @ balloon juice

mad kane

maryscott o'connor @ my left wing

oliver willis

jill @ brilliant @ breakfast

sadly, no!

michael j.w. stickings

carl @ simply left behind

mock paper scissors

distributorcap

blue girl @ blue girl in a red state

glenn reynolds @ instapundit

melissa mcewan @ shakespeare's sister (where jon was a contributor)

instaputz

libby spencer @ the impolitic

kevin k. @ rumproast

kathy kattenburg @ the moderate voice

kathleen maher @ diary of a heretic

mike the mad biologist

mustang bobby @ bark bark woof woof

jill @ feministe

vast left @ corrente

man eegee

steve hynd @ newshoggers

chuck for..., who, sadly, was the subject of jon swift's last post when tragedy visited upon chuck's family

attaturk @ rising hegemon

the mahablog

james wolcott

lance mannion

pamela @ the democratic daily

batocchio @ vagabond scholard

shawn russell @ the tardisgrade

busted knuckles @ ornery bastard

dj @ buzztwang

ann althouse

jeff fecke @ alas! a blog

driftglass

liberal values

jurassic pork @ welcome back to pottersville

pam @ pam's house blend

ed morrisey @ hot air

thers @ whiskeyfire

and blue gal over @ crooks&liars.

we are sure that jon would want his idea of linking to other deserving voices in blogtopia to continue. if you write a memorial on your blog for jon, pls. send us a link and we will post it here.

also, sadly, no! has a special thread for posting links to your favorite smaller blogs, all dedicated to jon's memory.

addendum: the next morning...tributes keep rolling in for al/jon:

joe gandelman @ the moderate voice writes a very heartfelt tribute

terrence @ the republic of t

m.a. peel

tbogg

right wing nut house

outside the beltway

eric martin @ obsidian wings

kevin @ the american street

brad jacobson @ mediabloodhound

cogitamus

the dc trawler

dan @ pruning shears

avedon carol @ the sideshow

m and t @ agidita diaries

steven d. @ booman tribune

david e. @ fablog

the sailor @ vidiotspeak

zencomix

out of context @ oocradio

and ~~lucskyward~~ kevin @ am. street tells us that dougj @ balloon juice is trying to endow an annual al weisel award for internet humor. more on this later.

the day after that: the tributes keep coming in:

shy ann @ cheyenne's campsite

enigma4ever @ watergate summer

that's right nate

zenyenta

ina @ unbound confine

Here is another post from another satirist, William K. Wolfrum, but he lays off the satire in this one. And Reconstitution 2.0 has added another voice to the Blogosphere memorial.

3/2/10

Where did the time go?

If it seemed like today went by a little faster than usual it might be because it could very well have:

The massive 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have changed the entire Earth's rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet, a NASA scientist said Monday.

The quake, the seventh strongest earthquake in recorded history, hit Chile Saturday and should have shortened the length of an Earth day by 1.26 milliseconds, according to research scientist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth's axis," NASA officials said in a Monday update.

I had more links for this post but I lost them when the axis shifted. Can you find some? :)

2/9/10

Medicare spending rose an OUTRAGEOUS 5% !eleventy!!one!!!

That is according to the CBO:

Adjusted for timing shifts, Medicare spending rose by $7 billion (or 5 percent).

Of course this is reason to be outraged at all that government spending coming out of our pockets, right? Right? Thankfully those fiscally responsible Republicans have come up with the great idea of privatizing Medicare.

Rep. Paul Ryan self-destructively wants to destroy Medicare and Social Security:

He's shilling for Wall Street yet again as he usually does. He wants to privatize medicare and social security although he uses words like "vouchers" to mask what he's saying.

While I understand that pointing out a fact like that is called "attacking" their favoritest Republicans evah - and their ideas - by some defenders of the magic free market faerie dust. And as a moderate liberal I have grown used to the reality of their victim card being pulled out every time they are so wrong it is almost embarrassing to enjoin them in debate... But for now, let us look at how Medicare compares to St. Ronny's vaunted "free market", the free market that Rep. Ryan wants you to turn to solve all of our problems:

The AFL-CIO calls out Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which has requested a rate hike of up to 30 percent in Connecticut, for example, while spending more than $9.5 million on lobbying activities. Similarly, UnitedHealthcare recently proposed a premium increase for its Medicare supplemental insurance while spending more than $2.6 million on lobbying activities in the first half of 2009 alone.

Golly... You mean under the Republican healthcare plan people could get off of Medicare's outrageous 5% increases in costs and have the privilege of joining the Free Market's 30% increases? And double their pleasure by giving Corporate Welfare "vouchers" to the very people that cause 99% of the problems in American healthcare?

It is all very nice to claim the government will save money in your plan... But the reality is that it will save taxpayers a few measly pennies in taxes and cost them BIG DOLLARS in the free market to replace their plan. And the reality is that a lot of the government programs that faux-conservatives rant and rail about in the name of fiscal responsibility are pretty darn good government programs and they already are the real answers to being fiscally responsible. But they are not the Corporate Welfare you advocate for.

Let's put these to the voters and see how much they love your ideas, OK? While I come up with my sides' slogans for our bumper stickers... Here is the one for the GOP:

Of course, those of you that do support this Corporate Welfare as the cause du jour for the GOP, those of you that are the fringiest Republicans and the Teabagrrrrs in the minority of the minority party, can you please do us all a favor?

Get your own Connecticut GOP candidates on the record concerning where they stand on this.

Because when you do and no matter what they answer, we win.

2/4/10

1000 people show up for free healthcare clinic

I was watching Countdown last night and Keith Olbermann had said that 1000 people got free healthcare at the clinic in Hartford. Most of them had not had access to a Doctor in years. Whether it was the unemployed, the underemployed, the working poor. The common thread among them all is that access to medical professionals is beyond their financial reach because of our completely broken healthcare insurance for profit. MSNBC's Ed Schultz broadcast from there yesterday, their network had organized the fund raising for this effort, and he had some harsh words for the politicians that are ignoring these people that are in dire straights.

Lives were saved because of this.

American people that had been guilty of nothing more than slipping through the gaping cracks in our winner takes all "social safety nets", ever weakened safety nets because of an unbalanced "free market run amok" rigged to keep the poor in a permanent stasis of desperation, got much needed treatment they will never receive, ever again, if we don't fix things properly.

ctblogger has more video from this at My Left Nutmeg:

From the Keith Olbermann sponsored free clinic today in Hartford. Rep. Joe Courtney made a brief appearance on The Ed Show, while his wife Audrey (a nurse) attended the event. I'm told Ned Lamont also attended.

I don't know what they are doing in Washington.
I know that there aren't any house members here and there aren't any senators here. And I can tell you one piece of information here in Connecticut, the house and the senate passed Universal care for everyone and the governor vetoed it. The public option in this state polls overwhelmingly well, but in Washington, Joe Lieberman, not only is he not here tonite, but he's against the public option.

7:17 minutes: I could look Joe Lieberman in the eye, and Senator, I don't care if it costs me my job, I don't care, you are a coward.

Lieberman is not the only one, Ed.

2/3/10

BAD !!!

Yes... It is that time of the year, according to my favorite kangaroo:

email skippy if you want the code to these logos!

yes, once again, it's blogroll amnesty day!

loyal readers of this humble space know that b.a.d., or blogroll amnesty day for short, is a celebration of blogs of all sizes thru-out blogtopia, and yes we coined that phrase!

our inexplicably missing friend, jon swift, describes the origins of our holiday here.

in a nutshell, which is where we keep all our salient points, b.a.d. is a day where we ask everyone to "spread the linky love" (as blue gal so aptly puts it) thru-out blogtopia (y!wctp!) to the lesser-trafficked of our brethren and sistren.

we believe that not only will this open your readership to new and exciting voices; it can't hurt your cyber-karma, either.

with that in mind, we now take a moment to thank those participating blogs:

ornery bastard

brilliant @ breakfast

welcome to pottersville 2

feel free to link to some smaller blogs, and email your post to us; we will happily celebrate your efforts here!.