"RNC Embraces Restraint, But Not the Fiscal Kind"

From The Nation:

"This week, an RNC spokesperson confirmed that the committee is looking into a report that thousands of dollars from the committee's account was spent at a Los Angeles club called Voyeur West Hollywood, which offers discerning customers a chance to sample simulated bondage scenes and nudity. The ambience of this club, one web site promises, "transports you to a world of risque sexuality and eroticism."

I'm certainly not going to criticize the RNC for reaching out to the country's more sexually-adventurous communities. Presumably, the GOP's spin doctors considered making the case that recent developments should be seen as a measure of progress for which Steele could claim credit.

Ultimately, however, the chairman proved to be a tad shy about the Voyeur connection."

(Hannah Giles of fake-hooker ACORN sting fame.)

The kids are alright: Twin Sister plays Coco66

Despite unavoidably being reminded of my significant age advantage during their show, almost two weeks ago, at Coco66 in Greenpoint, Twin Sister (download a free four song EP also) are indeed something to experience live. Here's my FlipVideo of one of my current fave songs: "I Want a House".




Another video clip, this one not my own, is worth a look, too. Thank heavens, The National are finally putting out a new album this year. Here is the first song, "The Terrible," I've heard/saw. And we have (unfortunately, because, as I've previously made clear, I hate him) Jimmy Fallon to thank. And BrooklynVegan, for that matter.

Capital punishment proponents and opponents agree: Isn't it ironic?

Don't you think? So says NPR, anyway.

Ohio is about to execute a man who, last week, was brought to a hospital to be revived after attempting suicide. Why bother? you ask. Good question.

Ethics aside, lawmakers in some states are reconsidering the efficiency of the death penalty. It costs less to try and convict someone of murder who might get a life sentence, rather than going for capital punishment.

(I realize this pic alludes to the electric chair, which as far as I know isn't used anymore, though still legal in some states if the prisoner chooses it--yeah right, like that will happen--but I had no gurney photos.)

I grew up reading The Washington Post

And I grew up listening to my father rant, while religiously reading the thing, that the Post was just another liberal rag, on par with the holiest of holies, The New York Times.

Well, apparently nothing lasts for ever--if it ever happened in the first place. Like most candy-colored "things that used to be so great" nostalgia--you know, when America was America for Americans, capitalism was "free" and government was "small"--that never were (not the way people that use them mean them), this never existed.



Anyway, now they've run afoul of the rightist-watching Media Matters:

"The Washington Post just hired Marc Thiessen, who now becomes the second former George W. Bush speechwriter-turned-columnist at the paper. Thiessen isn't just any right-wing shill: He's an unapologetic advocate for torture. And he isn't alone. Charles Krauthammer, Michael Scheuer, and Richard Cohen have all used the editorial pages of the Post to defend torture.

"In his book and even on the pages of the Post, Thiessen has repeatedly made dishonest and dubious statements in support of torture. For example:

1. He falsely claimed in his most recent book that, since CIA interrogation of terror suspects began after 9-11, there were no attacks by Al Qaeda on U.S. interests at home or abroad.
2. He also claimed, falsely, in a Post op-ed that Bush oversaw "2,688 days without a terrorist attack on [American] soil," ignoring the anthrax mail attacks, the El Al shooting in Los Angeles and other domestic terrorist attacks.
3. In a Post op-ed, he called President Obama's decision to release Bush administration torture memos "irresponsible" and claimed that "Americans may die as a result.""