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Ron Silver Blacklisted Before Death, He Claimed
SCOTUS Chief Justice Trips Up Nation's Perfect New President
Brother Of Dead Anthrax Scientist: "He Can Go To Hell"
Behind American Morning's Very Wrong Music Intros

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SarakshiLabdacus
03/17/09

In reply to Ron Silver Blacklisted Before Death, He Claimed
a pro and a gentlemen,worked with him on HBO BLINDSIDE M O W had many great conversations about how to be of service LEAD BY EXAMPLE TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE . SCOTT CASEY
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skahammer
03/17/09

@SarakshiLabdacus: Strangely and surely inadvertently, you bring up an interesting point: When I go, I dearly hope that any testimonials that get presented in my honor (if for some unfathomable reason there are any) seem at least cognizant of generally accepted rules of English style and usage.

BookishLookish, can I make a pre-mortem deal to have any queries on this topic referred to you?
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OMG! Ponies!
03/17/09

In reply to Ron Silver Blacklisted Before Death, He Claimed
Ron Silver appeared a few times on Law & Order: The Colonel's Original Recipe. As I recall, he played a douchebag defense attorney who represented a racist.
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Swordfish
03/17/09

In reply to Ron Silver Blacklisted Before Death, He Claimed
What was Silver talking about? He had a regular gig on West Wing for years.
It was Ronald Reagan who didn't get much work in Hollywood after switching sides. So he decided to run (and many including me would argue wreck) California and the United States (and thus the world) instead.
I liked Ron Silver a lot, saw him at Democratic events in Washington all the time in the 80s, he lived in the most excellent house in LA--a Frank Lloyd Wright House--and he started the Creative Coalition, which was fantastic, but, really: Wanh.
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SinisterBill prints in color on both sides
03/17/09

@Swordfish: Real quick, what did Reagan do to break California? Seems to me the liberals have had that covered for decades here.
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Mediahohoho
03/17/09

@SinisterBill: I agree with you. It was Howard Jarvis and Proposition 13, both of whom came after Reagan, who broke California but good. They took a world class university system that was practically free and ruined it, among other things. Reagan was before that and one of the last to be governor state that worked.
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Preopsician
03/17/09

In reply to Ron Silver Blacklisted Before Death, He Claimed
Neocon? It has kind of an unfortunate connotation; just somehow, most of the people getting the tag are Jewish. Why use a slur? How about "conservative"? Or "anti-terrorist"?
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skahammer
03/17/09

@Preopsician: Well, I consider the word "neocon" to refer to a specific subset of conservatives: Those who might have been socially liberal at one time, but whose rather Manichaean view of foreign policy led them to make common cause with other conservatives during and after the rise of the New Left, and who may take their inspiration from classical texts read esoterically in the manner of the University of Chicago political philosophy faculty in general, or Leo Strauss in particular.

I don't think the terms "conservative" or "anti-terrorist" convey nearly that much information. But it's possible I'm defining the term too narrowly.
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Mediahohoho
03/17/09

@Preopsician: It's kind of hard to refute that Silver was a neo-con when he's standing next to one of the leading proponents of ideals in the picture used to illustrate this story.

The main foreign policy ideal of the neo-conservative movement is that the U.S. has to use violence to remake the Middle East in order to put an end of the terrorist threat coming from that part of the world. Can you think of anything in the sentence you just read that Ron Silver would have disagreed with? Probably not.

At the same time, the idea I mentioned above is anything but conservative, either in the original sense of the word or as a political philosophy, as conservatism is marked by a much pragmatic, less idealistic view of the world.

Just because an idea failed doesn't mean people shouldn't own their adherence to it, either in this life or whatever comes next. As much as I liked Ron Silver and feel bad about his death, I can imagine that one possible karmic outcome for him is that he'll be born poor and Muslim in a Palestinian ghetto.
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Kari's Favorite Mark
03/17/09

@skahammer: Nicely summed up. The change from left to right is key; I'd not considered the manicheanism before, I always thought it was the need for a narrative that made sense of history, an eschatology that was comforting. In previous centuries they would have been the most devout of Catholics.
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BadUncle
03/17/09

@Preopsician: Who is not "anti-terrorist," except, of course, terrorists?
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valet_of_the_dolls
03/17/09

@BadUncle: Democrats, obviously! (And the French, I hear.)
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Mediahohoho
03/17/09

@valet_of_the_dolls: And actors who get to play them in movies.
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skahammer
03/17/09

@formerly it takes a lot to laugh: I'd suggest that the impulse to interpret the world in eschatological terms is itself a Manichaean impulse....

But at that point, I no longer have any real idea what I'm talking about.
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freedc
01/20/09

In reply to SCOTUS Chief Justice Trips Up Nation's Perfect New President
Roberts didn't do it on purpose. It was an honest mistake.
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Mediahohoho
01/20/09

In reply to SCOTUS Chief Justice Trips Up Nation's Perfect New President
To be fair, Roberts really isn't much of a stickler for supporting or defending the constitution. He's more of a party man.
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eatsshootsleaves
01/20/09

In reply to SCOTUS Chief Justice Trips Up Nation's Perfect New President
Since Obama was president even before he took the oath (right at 12), it doesn't matter.
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saintjim
01/20/09

In reply to SCOTUS Chief Justice Trips Up Nation's Perfect New President
So how long before Limbaugh, Coulter & Co. start telling everyone that Obama isn't really president because he didn't take the oath correctly?

Getting out my stopwatch....
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Cafezinha
01/20/09

@saintjim: If the obnoxious Facebook statuses are any indication, it happened before you could even reach in your pocket for that stopwatch.
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Mymoustache
01/20/09

In reply to SCOTUS Chief Justice Trips Up Nation's Perfect New President
You know there are some nut jobs who are going to say that Obama is not president because the oath was screwed up.
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Lysergic Asset
01/20/09

@Mymoustache:

He became President at 12pm Eastern time, regardless of the oath.
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Astigmatism
01/20/09

@Lysergic Asset: But now because he wasn't properly sworn in, he can use the Constitution as toilet paper and nobody can make him stop!
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Lysergic Asset
01/20/09

@Astigmatism: No, that was Bush/Cheney's job.
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Xylo
01/20/09

In reply to SCOTUS Chief Justice Trips Up Nation's Perfect New President
I think Obama paused, hoping Roberts would correct himself. If it was me taking that oath (ha!), I would be wondering for a split second, "Is it legal to mix up the words, can I repeat what he just said??"
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Weegee's bored
01/20/09

In reply to SCOTUS Chief Justice Trips Up Nation's Perfect New President
The Roberts flub was only one of the indignities. There was a bigoted, homophobic pastor, a screeching soul singer, and a pastor who rhymed, recalling Johnny Cochrane. My audacity of hope is that one day America will present itself to the world in a dignified manner. O well.

Obama's speech was pretty good -- he touched all the bases, including a nice shout out to the world's one billion muslims -- and in all it was an extraordinary moment. It certainly justified all the thought power his supporters, including me, put into all this. Now can the end-zone celebrations end and the governing begin? Bloomberg will begin his campaign in three years, and the economy had better be in better shape by then or else the next inaugural will be very different.
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NoWireHangers
01/20/09

@Weegee's bored: Sorry, but "When the Red man can get ahead, man" was brilliant!
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Bitter Poor
01/20/09

@Weegee's bored: Oh please. Among other indignities, Rev. Lowery had his property confiscated by the government for being a civil rights activist. He can say whatever in hell he feels like at the inauguration and it has all the dignity in the world, because it's offered by a man who has given his entire life to others' rights and freedoms.
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raesanni
01/20/09

@Weegee's bored: are u aware of the call and response/rhyming tradition of african american churches? u must not be, b/c to trivialize something that is intended to bridge obama to black tradition at such a historic moment by drawing comparisons to johnny cochran is an indignity on your part my friend.
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Bitter Poor
01/20/09

@raysanni: Hell, yes. The "song-sermon" form of spiritual is a huge part of the african american musical tradition.
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jiminy.peep
01/20/09

In reply to SCOTUS Chief Justice Trips Up Nation's Perfect New President
To be fair, Roberts was probably a bit uptight - everyone knows that the scotus experiences shrinkage in cold weather like this.
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Steve Holt's Mother Part Deux
01/20/09

@jiminy.peep: "My junk!"
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TheHonJudgeSmails
01/20/09

In reply to SCOTUS Chief Justice Trips Up Nation's Perfect New President
Perhaps Robets and Barry, like me, were simply distracted by the ostentatiously sparkly outfit that our First Lady is wearing?
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misslinda
01/20/09

In reply to SCOTUS Chief Justice Trips Up Nation's Perfect New President
Not surprised he screwed up, if I had a job for life I'd be kickin back, slackin off, readin Gawker all day...
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Barack
01/20/09

In reply to SCOTUS Chief Justice Trips Up Nation's Perfect New President
So maybe Obama isn't really the president now.
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Sproing
01/20/09

@Barack Yo-Mama: The wingnut meme begins/continues/is bionically augmented.
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