(L to R: Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson, Tony Slattery, Stephen Fry, Penny Dwyer, Emma Thompson, Paul Shearer.)
I can’t even begin to describe how much I wish I’d been a part of that Cambridge troupe.
And the celebrity bad news train keeps rolling down the tracks…
I love South Carolina. I really do. I can’t say I plan to grow old here, but Charleston is really a wonderful town for anyone who hasn’t visited. Yet, some of the attitudes shared by too many locals, and now this Sanford thing, really make us think that we should just forget about being close to family, pack up the wagon and move back to New York, where people are sane.
Then I read stories like this one:
Gov. David A. Paterson raised the possibility on Wednesday that the State Police could be summoned to compel state senators to return to work if necessary, after they defied him and refused to take any action during a special session he convened.
enate Democrats, who in a rare rebuke of Mr. Paterson, their party leader, spent only five minutes in the Senate chamber on Wednesday afternoon and then announced that they would be going home.
Well played, New York State Legislature. Well played.
You thought for even a fleeting moment that people in NY are sane? Silly boy.
Two words: Sheldon Silver.
Now you know why the Democratic caucus in the NYS legislature is so permanently and irrevocably fucked up. It’s a damn shame.
Also, don’t get me started on Paterson.
[ Confession: a couple of years ago I seriously toyed with the idea of running for state assembly, after prompting from a lot of friends in political circles who thought I’d actually make a very good progressive candidate. But, you know, atheist. That pretty much keeps me from running for any elected office, like, ever. ]
“These arguments will come from the very people who denied that the economic recovery plan created any jobs. We have a very odd economic philosophy in Washington: It’s called weaponized Keynesianism. It is the view that the government does not create jobs when it funds the building of bridges or important research or retrains workers, but when it builds airplanes that are never going to be used in combat, that is of course economic salvation.”
-Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), responding to the newly-minted fiscal scolds who moan from one side of their mouths that cutting production of new jet fighters–planes that even the Pentagon doesn’t want–will result in job losses, while screaming about “runaway deficits” from the other side.
(via ThinkProgress)
[edit: Digby has a good take on this as well, citing Obama’s first use of a veto threat on this particular issue.]
