The Countertop Chronicles

Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California Legislature

Fuck You

Seriously

“80% of the guys who hit on me are married. I go home with 50% of them. What’s your story?”

Bar Tramp to my buddy, at Capitol Grill bar (aka Cougarville) tonight.

So far at least – actually, and fully in the spirit of Godwin’s law – David Brook’s pulled of two in his stunner of a fantastic NY Times Op-Ed

The first:

These events have heralded a new era of partnership between the White House and private companies, one that calls to mind the wonderful partnership Germany formed with France and the Low Countries at the start of World War II.

And the second:

These executives have been invited to make these donations in the same spirit that the Cossacks invited my ancestors to emigrate to the Lower East Side.

Yes, he’s right. It is beautiful change occuring before us. I can almost hear the Angel’s Rejoice.

Leigh Scott

Politics today is very similar to Hollywood. We have a President known more for his wife’s fashion and his great speeches than any policy achievements. After all, do you call someone lost without their script (i.e. teleprompter) anything but an actor? It’s all style and no substance. People pick politicians like they pick movies, based on the short version, the “trailer,” and not on the substance of the actual individual. It’s an emotional decision, based on immediate needs and not on actual principles.

Valencia Mohammed, the director of Mothers of Unsolved Murders, a D.C. advocacy group for mothers of homicide victims

She is speaking about the D.C. Voting Bill which looks likely to come up for a vote – with the language repealing the District of Columbia’s gun control laws intact – before Congress breaks for Easter recess.

Oh yeah, she has also lost two kids to gun/gang violence in Washington, D.C.

“This is one of the inalienable rights that I wanted,” she said. “I want my vote to be counted. I want representation in Congress. And I also want the right to bear arms.

“I’m just looking at the history of my ancestors and what they went through and how they were shot and killed, tarred and feathered and burned to death,” she said. “Guns was one of those things that they could not have and a tool for other people that kept them enslaved. I’m saying no more of that. I want to enjoy all of those rights that they were denied. . . . It’s time.”

I have sent her an email and have offered to buy her lunch at the downtown restaurant of her choice.

With apologies to my gay friends and readers

From the comments at Katie Granju’s blog

Andrew Sullivan can stick it up …. uh, what did you say?

Oh, he does?

Never mind.

Victor David Hanson

When Palin talks about her present life it sounds as authentic as Biden�s showy populism came off as false. Enraged feminists are apparently the gatekeepers for less well-educated American women, who are supposed to have 0-1.5 children not 5! Their husbands must be professors, lawyers, CEOs, editors�not snowmobile champions, union members, oil workers, and fishermen�or, worse, all in one! And unlike a Pelosi, Quinn, or Clinton, Palin, God forbid, did not rely on a powerful, wealthy husband or father to energize her career. Worse still, she took no women�s studies class, never attended the Ivy League, and shoots moose. The danger is not just that Sarah Palin could win McCain the election, but she could expose the entire flimsy structure of doctrinaire liberalism as the hypocrisy�and chauvinism�it has become.

Sebastian

I have one basic litmus test for determining whether a person or organization is the kind of person I want to work with or not: Are you looking for allies, or are you looking for heretics?

I have no idea what the Appleseed discussion is about – I’ve been too busy to pay any attention to it (heck, I don’t even know where it originated) but I think his quote is sage advice for anyone.

Ever

I just wish I had the balls to leave something like this

Don’t know where they got this

According to Michele Foster, InStadium’s head of marketing, people go to the john an average of 2.3 times per game (we didn’t ask about the .3 times). They’ll look at ads for at least 90 seconds, longer if there’s a line, she says.

I’ve been to 5 games at the new Nationals Ball Park, and over the last 4 years have attended an average of 25 games a season. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve taken a leak at either RFK or the new stadium

Del. Kenny Alexander

The presence of firearms in the Statehouse shouldn’t surprise people, some legislators say.

“It’s reflective of all of Virginia,” said Del. Kenny Alexander, D-Norfolk, who also has a concealed weapon permit. “It’s not just rural white men.”

Here he is with Virginia’s bigoted gun banning Governor Tim Kaine (bleh!)

There was a saying during my years in DC that the GOP operated on two principles: screw your friends and appease your enemies. Yup.

Matt Bai

Of course, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s supporters had never trusted Iowa. The party insiders who backed Mrs. Clinton said for months that Iowa wasn’t representative of the country, that it was too white and too rural to enjoy such influence on the nominating process. And of course, Iowa proved them right. It rejected the clear choice of the party’s urban base — and selected the black guy from Chicago instead.

: