The grapes of wrath

...and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage. . .(Steinbeck)

One of the reasons I love reading John Cole is that when he's wrong, he doesn't hesitate to say so:

So yeah, I’m looking back at my snide post where I called the vanguard of this “trustafarians,” and once again, I feel like an idiot. This may still fizzle out without any real change, but right now, it seems to be building, and the reason it is is because a small group of people went out there and publicly voiced their displeasure with the shit I’ve been sitting on my fat ass writing dyspeptic posts about for the last year, but not really doing a god damned thing to enact change. Yeah, it was some jackasses with a drum circle, and no, they didn’t have a point by point plan or coherent media strategy like some anal retentive douchebags like me were demanding. But they went out there and did something, and it seems to be working. Let’s hope it keeps growing.

And read Charlie Pierce's description of who is at OWS now and why they're there.

There are limits

As enjoyable as it is to watch the media ferret out scandals about egotistical ministers jetting around on military planes to attend lobster dinners, I think we've maxed out this story line when we start harping about using a military jet to transport an injured pilot back to Canada.

Let them eat cake

Montreal Simon writes about the champagne drinkers on the balcony watching the #OccupyWallSt protests below:

Whatever else these protests are achieving, they are drawing a line between THEM and US.
Today the fat cats laugh.
Tomorrow they'll be sorry...

But I don't think the balcony people are quite as sanguine as they are pretending to be. They don't exactly know what to do, but they can read the signs, too.

We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore

I've heard people complain that they don't know what the #OccupyWallStreet protest is trying to achieve. But that's the beauty of it -- this is a protest without a goal, so we can all invest in it our own agendas. And that's why its growing, and spreading. Here's a short history of #OccupyWallStreet and who's involved:

There are liberals and conservatives and libertarians and tea party adherents in the crowd. One person described the crowd as not politically “left and right,” but “up and down,” all victimized by corruption in our political and economic systems.

Who could disagree with that?

Oh, dear

Sounds like Stephen Harper had another terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad week.

Sunday morning cartoons

From the Giving Up Smoking group at Daily Kos, some Far Sides including two I had never seen before:

Cargo cult conservatives

John Cole thinks conservatives have become cargo cults:

How do you have a sensible policy debate with people who reject basic facts? It’s like trying to debate members of a cargo cult- the modern GOP carry the crosses but have no idea what it means to be christian. They talk about free markets, but have no understanding of economics. Just say deregulate and tax cuts a lot, and MAGIC WILL HAPPEN. Evolution? LIES! Climate change? LIES! Modern Medicine and vaccines? LIES! KEEP GOVERNMENT OUT OF MY MEDICARE! That scooter just magically showed up from the scooter store, like a coca cola bottle from heaven!
The cargo cult analogy is closer than many of us are comfortable admitting, and our media has decided to just cover their eyes and pretend that it’s just two sides of the same coin. It’s crazy.

UPDATE: And I notice Rick Perry is proving the adage that it's better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Pfffft!

Hubris already? Colour me unsurprised!
MacKay:

Defence Minister Peter MacKay used one of only three search-and-rescue helicopters available in Newfoundland to transport him from a vacation spot last year, CTV News has learned.

Dechert

In an apparent attempt to dodge reporters, Dechert on Wednesday arrived for the daily question period through a loading dock entrance at the back of the Centre Block. He was dropped off by someone driving a minivan.

Flaherty:

Parliament Hill was buzzing Tuesday over news that Ottawa hired management consulting firm Deloitte Inc. to advise the cabinet and senior officials on how to erase the federal deficit by 2014-15. The Aug. 15 contract is worth up to $19.8-million. Because it only runs until March 31, its cost works out to about $90,000 a day.

The session is three whole days old.
And here's the guy they all once thought would do such a great job on setting a Conservative agenda for Toronto:

Mayor Rob Ford has talked the talk on the need for budget cuts. He declined to walk the walk when he had the opportunity on Tuesday morning.
In a significant concession to public opposition and to queasy council allies, Ford voted at the end of a 20-hour executive committee meeting to reject some proposed cuts and to put off decisions on almost all of the others to the 2012 budget process, which begins in November and ends in mid-January.

So after a lot of people went through a lot of misery, in the end Ford deflated like a pricked balloon.

Margo Martindale wins an Emmy

For her brilliant role on a brilliant show Justified:

Exceptionalism

Sometimes I find if very hard to understand Americans.

Why wouldn't they take this man's death seriously? Do they really believe that "you can just go to the emergency room" to get healthcare? Are they so terribly afraid of giving something "free" to supposedly "undeserving" people -- blacks, latinos, poor people -- that they won't set up their own health care system so it can care for their own citizens?
I hear a lot of chat about American exceptionalism -- well, I certainly hope so. I hope this callous attitude is not the norm among civilized nations.

They should be ashamed of themselves.

UPDATE: From Roy:

Forget the Gettysburg Address, forget even "Tear down this wall"; the progress of the modern Republican Party is the progress from "You lie!" to "Let him die!

Your lying eyes

Alison has posted a brilliant Colbert Report video about the 9/ll conspiracy theory.
Basically, we have always been at war with East Asia.

Update: corrected -- thanks, Purple, I hadn't read Alison's reference correctly.

Shooting themselves in the foot?

If the NDP pick Brian Topp for their new leader, a man who has never run for public office, are they shooting themselves in the foot?
Well... yesterday he compared himself to Brian Mulroney.
Yes, that will be a winning message, won't it.

Perspective. Now you have it

Twenty-one-million years ago, a star exploded, turned spectacular, and faded out. And we are now watching it go.

Sorry

Echo seems to be eating my comments tonight -- hopefully it will fix itself by tomorrow.

911 stories

I dreaded the media approach to the tenth anniversary of 9/11 because in 2001 it took me weeks to stop seeing the towers fall every time I closed my eyes.
And I am now getting increasingly snitty about how we mis-remember that day -- I read about "seeing the first tower hit" when there was actually no real-time coverage at all of that terrible moment -- videos of the first hit were accidental, and were not found and broadcast until hours or days later. Even the TV coverage I saw of the second hit was from across the river, so it wasn't very clear at first what had happened.
And I am also now getting increasingly worried about how our politicians continue to use the attack as an excuse to abuse our civil rights and drive a religious wedge between east and west.
But, in spite of all that, there are some amazing stories now being told about courage, fortitude and sacrifice on that day:
F-16 pilot was ready to give her life on Sept. 11

The story behind the Falling Man photo

The hated, the hater and 9/11

Mexican firefighter ran into the twin towers

World Trade Centre survivor emerged from wrecked tower, but never left it behind

9/11 Remembered

and 9/11 rescue dogs