Too Progressive

Most awesome blog post. Ever.

She purses her lips provocatively, flashes a half smile, as if she?s sharing a secret, intimate joke with the TV camera, and then there?s that toss of her thick blond mane. Then she slightly lowers her head and tips it to the side as she looks coyly into the camera again.
Of course, she?s wearing the ever-present little black dress hiked thigh high and her legs are crossed as she sits slightly sideways on the stool.

I don’t know why nobody has ever noticed this before, but Ann Coulter’s body language, while lobbing her nasty little bombs of hatred, is that of a barroom skank at a pickup joint at half past three in the morning. Closing time. There?s a slight air of desperation as she flirts, minces, and attempts to seduce the audience and the usually male talk show host.

Continue reading here.

Unlike many others in the Virginia blogosphere, I haven’t really been talking about the Tyson’s Tunnel debate too much. However, this is certainly worth noting and could serve as a major talking point for the Tyson’s Tunnel crowd.

Some 3.3 billion people — more than half of humanity — will be living in cities by next year, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday. By 2030, cities will be home to close to 5 billion.

Without proper planning, cities across the globe face the threat of overwhelming poverty, limited opportunities for youth, and religious extremism, U.N. Population Fund Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid told The Associated Press in London, where the report was released.

“In 2008, half of the world’s population will be in urban areas, and we are not ready for them,” said Obaid, a U.N. undersecretary-general.

Her agency’s “State of the World Population 2007″ report outlines the rate and scale of urban growth and calls for the policy initiatives to manage it.

With the anticipated rise in urban populations, let’s plan for smart growth, not piss poor attempts at finding a “quick fix” which will almost certainly lead to even more problems in the future.

Two weeks from today I’ll be moving into my new apartment in Arlington (Rosslyn, to be exact) about a five minute walk to both the Rosslyn, and Courthouse metro stations. I’ve lived in Richmond my entire life, with the exception of one year when I lived in Nags Head, and to be honest I hate it here, and I won’t be sad to leave it behind. For the past two years I’ve spent almost as much time in the imperial District as I have in Richmond, and I feel like I know the DC metro area a lot better than I do Richmond.

I also got a job at Human Rights Campaign in downtown DC, and will be in school full time (hopefully to be finished with both of my degrees in about a year to a year and a half)!!

I applaud the U.S. House of Representatives for it’s passage of a bill today that would fix flaws in the national gun background check system that allowed a Virginia Tech student to obtain weapons despite mental problems. I applaud the NRA for endorsing the bill, and I applaud the fact that it looks like the bill will get passage in the U.S. Senate as well. That having been said, I have a major problem with concessions that were made to the NRA in order to get them to endorse the bill.

The NRA did win some concessions in negotiating the final product.

It would automatically restore the purchasing rights of veterans who were diagnosed with mental problems as part of the process of obtaining disability benefits. LaPierre said the Clinton administration put about 80,000 such veterans into the background check system.

So let me get this straight, you can be mentally insane and still purchase weapons, as long as you’re an armed services veteran? Now, I have nothing against those who serve in the military, or those who have done so previously, but why the hell should anyone, regardless of military background (or lack thereof) be allowed to purchase weapons if they have been diagnosed with mental problems?

Not only that, but why aren’t the background checks being extended to every single American wishing to purchase a gun, period! As some of you already know, I’m getting ready to move to Arlington — and in looking for a new apartment, I was told I would have to have a background check run on myself at nearly every single place I was interested in. If having a background check run is almost always necessary in seeking a place to live, why isn’t it a necessity when looking to purchase a deadly weapon?

[Cross posted at Daily Kos]

Hey look! Instead of killing our enemies during war, some dumb fuck somewhere in the Bush administration proposed a plan (and the military researched continues to research it too!) to build a bomb to turn our enemies gay!

A Berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting.

So the military believes that the only thing on the mind of homosexuals is sex?

The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon.

Your tax dollars hard at work!!

“The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistibly attractive to one another,” Hammond said after reviewing the documents.

All gay people are irresistibly attracted to each other! Just like all black people are irresistibly attracted to one another, and all Jews are irresistibly attracted to one another!!!!!

“The Department of Defense is committed to identifying, researching and developing non-lethal weapons that will support our men and women in uniform,” said a DOD spokesperson, who indicated that the “gay bomb” idea was quickly dismissed.

However, Hammond said the government records he obtained suggest the military gave the plan much stronger consideration than it has acknowledged.

“The truth of the matter is it would have never come to my attention if it was dismissed at the time it was proposed,” he said. “In fact, the Pentagon has used it repeatedly and subsequently in an effort to promote non-lethal weapons, and in fact they submitted it to the highest scientific review body in the country for them to consider.”

What a bunch of jackasses. Homosexuality is something you’re born with. It’s not something you choose, and it’s not something that is a product of how you were raised, or circumstances you may have faced in the past. It is not a disease, you cannot cure it, and I highly doubt you can create some magic chemical to turn people gay. But, you know, don’t let science get in the way of anything.

[Cross posted at Daily Kos]

So I broke down (I had originally planned not to go) Saturday afternoon and decided to head up to Maryland for the ninth annual Starscape music festival at Fort Armistead Park near Baltimore. This was my third year attending and was probably the best of the three so far. It ended up running until almost 6:30am Sunday, and was (as always) worth the drive up, and the money. I didn’t feel like carrying my camera around all night, but here’s a few of the highlights:

Oh hey there! I’m Fred Barnes, and I support global warming!

Funny crack cocaine stories seem to follow Marion Barry like a shadow.

Everyone wants a piece of that action.

Whackette scores the comment of the week year!

Back to jail for Paris Hilton. “Do you love it?”

West of Shockoe mascot Paris Hilton is headed back to jail. No word on whether she’ll be serving the rest of her 40 some day sentence, or if it’s again just going to be left up to the sheriff as to when she gets to head home.

UPDATE: Looks like she’s headed back to jail for 45 days:

Paris Hilton was taken from a courtroom screaming and crying Friday seconds after a judge ordered her returned to jail to serve out her entire 45-day sentence for a parole violation in a reckless driving case.

“It’s not right!” shouted the weeping Hilton. “Mom!” she called out to her mother in the audience.

UPDATE 2: Checkout this video of the announcement that triggered one bystander to shout out, which of course meant members of the media had to yell at him to “shut up” like a bunch of fourth graders.

Congratulations to Kiran Chetry of CNN for somehow managing to make it through this painstakingly boring (but funny!) live interview:

[h/t Gawker]

Seems like every one’s trying to get in on the Hillary Clinton American Idol theme song contest action! A reader sent me this song which he wrote and recorded himself. Check it out, and don’t forget to vote in The Colette’s very own Hillary theme song poll.

Earlier: Pick Hillary’s theme song: The Colette edition

Now that I’ve finally figured out how to encode ‘mailto’ links (thanks to Whackjob, and Vivian), I’ve added an email me link to the page (it’s over there to the left under the archives)!

Start sending me things! Like tips, and pictures of Congress(wo)men/Senators/other bloggers doing things they shouldn’t, shots of Lynn Mitchell at the local gay bar, and whatever else you have! It’ll be fun.

Hey look! Another crack cocaine story involving Marion Barry!!

Via WaPo online:

The woman charged with driving through a crowded Southeast Washington festival this weekend — injuring dozens — had been “smoking crack all day long,” Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said yesterday, citing witnesses and the woman’s statement to police.

The driver, whom police identified as 30-year-old Tonya Bell of Oxon Hill, is charged with aggravated assault while armed. She has felony and misdemeanor arrests dating to at least 1995 and has served time in prison for charges involving cocaine. Bell suffered a sprained ankle Saturday night in an episode Mayor Adrian M. Fenty described as “one of the worst serious traffic accidents” in D.C. history.

At least 40 people, including seven children, were hurt when Bell drove her station wagon through the crowd. In the midst of the mayhem, parents pushed their children aside and tossed empty strollers in her path, hoping to block her. Police on bicycles and motorbikes didn’t dare use their weapons with so many people at risk. Instead, they threw two motorized scooters beneath Bell’s vehicle, bringing it to a stop.

The article goes on to say:

D.C. Council member Marion Barry said his chief of staff is trying to determine whether Bell works as a temporary employee for Barry’s council office. Barry…said someone named Tonya Bell has worked in the office for several weeks. “Whether it is the same person or not, I am trying to check it out,” Barry said last night.

Faux News has confirmed that she is indeed, an employee at Marion Barry’s office. I’ll have a link as soon as I can find one.

UPDATE: This is hilarious, except for the fact that she hurt 40 people:

“I dragged the young lady out of the car. When I dragged her out of the car people were trying to hurt her. They were beating her, they were stomping her in the head, but she didn’t feel a thing. She reached to get her pipe, a crack pipe and lit it,” the witness told News4.

UPDATE #2: Linkage, finally!

The woman who plowed through a crowd of people with her car Saturday night will no longer be working as a receptionist in the office of Washington, D.C., Councilman Marion Barry.

Barry, the former mayor, terminated a contract with the company who provided Tonya Bell as a temporary employee for his office.

“Needless to say we are greatly saddened by the incident not only because of the tremendous pain and suffering of the victims, but also because our office relied on the integrity of your screening procedures in agreeing to the placement,” Barry wrote in a letter sent to NAI Personnel, the employment agency.

“The behavior of your employee, although outside of work, indicates that you may not have properly investigated her background prior to placing her in our office,” the letter reads.

Last night I was bored, and flipping through the channels looking for something to watch, and finally settled on “Special Report w/ Brit Hume” on Fox News. I happened to catch the “Fox All Stars” segment that appears at the end of the show featuring a “fair & balanced” panel (of GOP political hacks). In this case, “fair and balanced” meant Fred Barnes, Morton Kondracke, and Charles Krauthammer. Of course, with such a “fair and balanced” panel of commentators, you would expect a few good laughs, and boy did they deliver! At the end of their discussion on global warming, Fred Barnes had the following to say:

“We’re not even sure if global warming is a bad thing. Me? I like warm weather!!”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! I really want a video of this, but so far have been unsuccessful in finding one. If anyone happens to find it on YouTube or elsewhere, please post it in the comments.

Boeing loves torture, so fuck you ACLU!

Mitt Romney has a new bffl!

Bill Richardson is (still) a Mexican, and he likes baseball, too!

George Macacawitz Allen vows to protect us from all those who aren’t exactly like us!!!!!11!!1111!

Don’t forget to vote for Hillary Clinton’s REAL campaign song here.

Fear not Virginia, George ‘Macacawitz’ Allen is back! Back to defend you from all the things you fear — Gays, Atheist, Blacks, Mexicans, Lowell Feld, Muslims, Jews, Democrats, Howard Dean, and basically anyone else who isn’t exactly like you!!!!

Via the RTD Online:

Getting back into the political fray, former U.S. Sen. George Allen formed a political-action committee yesterday to raise money to help like-minded conservative candidates.

Papers to create “Good Government Action Fund” were filed with the State Board of Elections by Richmond lawyer Richard Cullen, a longtime Allen associate.

“My goal is to stay involved and have an impact,” Allen said in a phone interview from his Washington office.

The purpose of the PAC is to support causes “to improve freedom, opportunity, justice and common sense Jeffersonian conservative principles,” according to the statement of organization.

Awesome!