Dan Toler

RIP

Prominent Republicans

Hahahahahahahahaha

Blue Monday, Epiphone edition

You can't fight the Evil Empire

It's official.

The panel of judges sided with the Yankees, ruling that the Yankees are strongly associated with the phrase. Allowing anyone else to use the phrase exclusively would likely cause confusion, ruled the judges.

"In short, the record shows that there is only one Evil Empire in baseball and it is the New York Yankees," wrote the judges. "Accordingly, we find that [the Yankees] have a protectable trademark right in the term . . . as used in connection with baseball."

Magic Slim

RIP, sir.

The hunting of the snark, Chuck Hegel edition

Jay Carney brings it.

 Might President Obama heed the call and withdraw his nomination of Hagel? Don't count on it, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Thursday. "Absolutely not," Carney told reporters at Thursday's daily briefing when asked whether there's any chance the Hagel nomination will be withdrawn. "Any suggestion to the contrary might have been found in the minutes of the meetings of the Friends of Hamas."

Cali-rock

Along Comes Mary

Tandyn Almer, RIP.

50 years ago

Imagine the outrage today if Obama invited a French singer to perform at the White House.  Socialism. Smelling salts.

One more to close it out for good

The savior of the GOP

Well, that crazy Hoosier nails it again.

Look, don't get me wrong; I've lived through the political popularity of Ronald Reagan and Mitch Daniels, and at least three resurrections of Richard Nixon. I know anything's possible. I also know that Marco Rubio can take all the soundings he wants, train his crew 18 hours a day, and buy the best admiral's hat he can find, and his boat will still be on the rocks, and the scuppers overflow'd, and the only functioning lifeboat will already contain the Koch brothers, Rush Limbaugh, and two or three anti-abortion activists waving Bushmasters. I look forward to his finessing that for the next three years.

[...]

The Republican party is frickin' insane, to the point that Insanity is the party's signature principle. The current Republican message isn't "smaller government" (and perhaps the party would be better off if they'd been called on that little fiction thirty years ago); it's "feces-hurling psychosis". The proper venue for that message is "Post-war apocalyptic hellscape." Marco Rubio's not ready for his closeup, but his party ain't ready for even small adjustments, and small adjustments ain't gonna get the job done.

It's kinda weird.  I start sweating getting out of bed this morning, so I felt profound empathy as I watched the tell-tale twitch that indicated Rubio was feeling the beads of sweat were tickling his temples.  And for the next 10 minutes Madame Cura and I couldn't help ourselves from just sympathetically talking over his remarks, as we considered  this remarkable performance that only reminded everyone of Jindal and Ryan's similar deer in the headlights moment.  So we, just like pretty much every other American watching, didn't hear his worn out, loopy, fun-house description of the socialist tyranny of the Obama administration and his rote recital of Republican tropes that are proven failures.

Donald Byrd, RIP

I don't know if it was a coincidence, or if they knew he was ill, but WKCR* featured Byrd for a full afternoon on their "Jazz Profiles" show on Sunday, Feb. 3.  It was a wonderful retrospective of his incredible career.  Byrd died the next day.

Almost from the day he arrived in New York City in 1955 from his native Detroit, Mr. Byrd was at the center of the movement known as hard bop, a variation on bebop that put greater emphasis on jazz’s blues and gospel roots. Known for his pure tone and impeccable technique, he performed or recorded with some of the most prominent jazz musicians of that era, including John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins and the drummer Art Blakey, considered one of jazz’s great talent scouts. As a bandleader, Mr. Byrd was sometimes a talent scout too — one of the first to hire a promising young pianist named Herbie Hancock, who, like Mr. Byrd, would later be called a renegade for an approach that won a wide audience but displeased many critics. 

* A station that desperately needs money to stay alive.

Blue Monday, Jimi Hendrix and John McLaughlin edition

Churchill also drank

I was not going to post on the hacking of the Bush email account, but it has been pushed in my face by none other than the vanity press of Bill Kristol's son-in-law, so fuck it.

The paintings demonstrate a command of line and color that is rarely seen in the modern-day “art” world. Former President George W. Bush appears to be influenced by such painters as Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet. The portraits also clearly capture the personality of their subject.

 Winston Churchill also painted.

As Charlie Pierce writes, "It's the Churchill line that makes it art. Truly."

And, by the way, for those of you keeping score at home, the snowpocalypse dumped about 14 inches here, we suffered no loss of power, and the snow plow guy did get here by 3:30 this afternoon...early enough to get out to bolster the dangerously dwindling bourbon supply.

RIP Reg

Blue Monday, Chuck Berry edition

No more fun in the monkeyhouse?

The moneyed interests have grown tired of bankrolling a party consisting primarily of glue huffing, misogynistic creationists.  Or rather, tired of bankrolling glue huffing, misogynistic creationists that, of late, are losing elections the powers that be had thought bought and paid for.

The group, the Conservative Victory Project, is intended to counter other organizations that have helped defeat establishment Republican candidates over the last two election cycles. It is the most robust attempt yet by Republicans to impose a new sense of discipline on the party, particularly in primary races. 

“There is a broad concern about having blown a significant number of races because the wrong candidates were selected,” said Steven J. Law, the president of American Crossroads, the “super PAC” creating the new project. “We don’t view ourselves as being in the incumbent protection business, but we want to pick the most conservative candidate who can win.” 

The effort would put a new twist on the Republican-vs.-Republican warfare that has consumed the party’s primary races in recent years. In effect, the establishment is taking steps to fight back against Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations that have wielded significant influence in backing candidates who ultimately lost seats to Democrats in the general election. 

And, oh noes, Steve King, a rapologist as well as other crazy, is likely to be their first target.

Trouble is, as the good Doctor Pierce would say, the GOP elders no longer control the conservative Id, and that is the closest thing the Republican party has to both authenticity and intellectual ferment.

The NRA's enemies

Having an "enemies list" is typically a sure sign that an individual or an organization is surely on the way to jail or irrelevance.  The NRA may prove to be the exception, but if listening to Wayne LaPierre didn't make you think its leadership is batshit crazy, what do you think of this?

So, what put the Royals, Chiefs and Rams in the NRA's, uh, crosshairs? After a series of failures, the state of Missouri in 2003 passed a law that allows individuals to apply for a permit to carry a concealed weapon. The Royals, Chiefs and Rams — quite understandably — didn't want to encourage fans to pack heat at ballgames.

We'll meet again someday on the avenue