Facebook Ad Targeting Fail

Is it just me or does the juxtaposition of these two Facebook ads strike you as just a wee bit mismatched?

I've often been a bit irked at the incessant flashing of almost exclusively gay singles ads whenever I visit Facebook.

Like I need a daily reminder that I'm perpetually single. And I certainly don't think many gay singles are trolling around with solid Christian values as their chief dating criteria. But what do I know, I'm just a jaded gaytheist.

Anyone know of a way to block particular ads on Facebook?

Cheney Ordered CIA to Break the Law by Withholding Information from Congress

The New York Times breaks a big story and reports that Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to break the law by withholding information from Congress about Bush's secret spying programs:

The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal the still-unidentified program from Congress deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush administration had put a high priority on the program and its secrecy.

Mr. Panetta, who ended the program when he first learned of its existence from subordinates on June 23, briefed the two intelligence committees about it in separate closed sessions the next day.

Efforts to reach Mr. Cheney through relatives and associates were unsuccessful.

We REALLY Dodged a Bullet Back in November

Salon has an awesome article on what really matters about the ever-unfolding Sarah Palin drama nightmare:

Disaster is often followed by recrimination, a bitter aspect of human nature that can be observed among the Republicans as the Sarah Palin fiasco continues to unfold. The Alaska governor's surprise resignation, amid negative press coverage in Vanity Fair and elsewhere, suddenly revived dormant feuding among campaign operatives and conservative media figures -- notably between Steve Schmidt, the former campaign manager, and Bill Kristol, the Weekly Standard editor and Fox News commentator.

In ordinary circumstances, all their bitchy backbiting, spinning and fabricating would be of little interest except as comic entertainment for political junkies. Who first called Palin a "diva"? Who insinuated that she might suffer from postpartum depression? Who searched computer files to find out which staffer was leaking these bilious tidbits to the press? And who cares now, eight months later, except for these losers?

Plainly there is no reason why anyone should care, except for one small nagging concern. It is worth remembering that these are the same people who chose Palin, a manifestly unqualified and incompetent politician unable to string together a series of coherent sentences, as the potential presidential successor to a 72-year-old cancer survivor. So it would be refreshing and salubrious to see the perpetrators of that contemptuous and cynical tactic held accountable for endangering the country.

Nooners Unloads on Sarah Palin

My my, I never want to be on HRH Peggerton Noonanshire's bad side. She penned a double-barreled torpedo against Sarah Palin today in the WSJ that has to be read to be believed. Here's a theme she touched on that my mom and I were talking about the other day:

"The media did her in." [Wrong, h]er lack of any appropriate modesty did her in. Actually, it's arguable that membership in the self-esteem generation harmed her. For 30 years the self-esteem movement told the young they're perfect in every way. It's yielding something new in history: an entire generation with no proper sense of inadequacy.

Quote of the Week: Dean on Washington

Ha!

Washington is the most conservative town in America. Its culture is the most resistant to change except a few religious cults.

The Rise and Fall of Contrarianism

DougJ has a very interesting post on the rise of fall of contrarianism, which contains this spot-on quote from Yglesias:

My strong sense is that contrarianness reached its apogee in the 1990s when a general sense took over that politics was basically silly and that punditry should be seen as basically akin to the college debate circuit wherein the idea is to construct the most clever possible argument rather than to actually hit on the truth. When this general spirit of the times merged with the elite press’ inexplicable loathing of Al Gore you started getting really bizarre arguments being made with a straight face. People would say that one good thing about George W. Bush was that he was dimwitted, which made him understand leadership. Or that a big problem with Gore was that he was interested in public policy.

This attitude brought us thousands of Americans killed in a terrorist attack, thousands more killed in a senseless war, and eventually the collapse of the world economy. But that in turn has at least to a small extent reminded people that it actually does matter what happens and who’s right.

Rep. Boner Feels the Heat After Lying About Stimulus Jobs

It's strange but I've started to only get surprised when Republicans actually get called out for their bald-faced lies (via C&L):

Last Sunday on Fox News, Ohio Republican John Boehner raised a few eyebrows when he told host Chris Wallace that there hasn't been a single stimulus job started in his state:

In Ohio, the infrastructure dollars that were sent there months ago -- there hasn’t been a contract let, to my knowledge. And the fact is -- is I don’t believe it will create jobs.

John Boehner is either a liar or he's clueless:

When U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner told a newscaster Sunday that not a single stimulus-funded road contract in his home state of Ohio had been let, he was wrong.

The Ohio Department of Transportation has OK'd 52 stimulus-funded
road and bridge projects at a cost of nearly $84 million.

Boehner released a statement to "clarify:"

"The entire process has been absurdly slow moving just as Republicans warned it would be when we called for an economic recovery bill
based on fast-acting tax relief for small businesses and working families,"
Boehner said in a statement. Read on...

And out the other side of the Crying Boner's mouth, here's what he said a few weeks ago:

"With Ohio’s unemployment rate the highest it’s been in 25 years, I’m pleased that federal officials stepped in to order Ohio to use all of its construction dollars for shovel-ready projects that will create much-needed jobs."

All this mendaciousness has spawned a new ad by the DNC:

Ultraconservative Blogger Steps Off the Crazy Train

First Little Green Footballs became more sane, and now this:

Some of you may have come across a neo-fascist blogger, Ace of Spades, who makes Glenn Beck seem like Jim Lehrer. All of this is to say: even he can't quite put up with the degenerate dorks who now constitute much of the Republican base. Here he is inveighing against the commenters he has spent the last few years whipping into an anti-elitist frenzy:

And I do think I am taking off the week. You guys only seem to want to talk about sarah palin and furthermore you only want to hear the same thing -- she's running, this is a great move, she's now perfectly poised for the race, etc. It's nonsense. And I hardly need to blog about it, because you all seem to know the words to the song. So you don't need me as part of the chorus. You can sing the same words well enough without me. I am really tired of this relentless nonsense and occasional nastiness whenever someone is believed to have departed from the conservativey correct line.

In the end, the tiger eats them all.

Most Americans Still Think I'm an Evil Abomination

Sullivan highlights why we still have a long way to go:

Undead Teabaggers Heckle Their Own

Schadenfreude can be delicious sometimes:

On Saturday, right-wing astroturf organizers held a number of sparsely-attended anti-tax protests in several locations across the country. At one such event outside the Texas Capitol, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was labeled a “traitor” and was “booed at the start and close of his remarks.” Later at the same event, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) “drew scattered boos, notably from crowd members aware of his advocacy of toll roads to relieve traffic congestion.”

Last week, Cornyn expressed a bit of anxiety about how he would be received by the crowd, saying, “I don’t yet know exactly what it’s going to be like.” He asked a reporter, “What do you think? You think it’s going to be OK? I’m waiting to see. I didn’t want to come some place that I wasn’t wanted.”

Update: And the racist/Nazi messages continue unabated:

During July 4th celebrations last weekend, anti-Obama protesters again assembled for tea parties across the country. The Washington Independent has noted that the tea party movement has lost steam since April, and that the protests last weekend were sporadic. In Jacksonville, FL, attendance was estimated to be 4,500 people for the April protest, but last week drew only 1,000.

The Duval County Republican Party, one of the organizers of the Jacksonville protest, has been engulfed in controversy because of numerous posters featured at the rally depicting President Obama as Adolf Hitler:

The Duval County Republican Party posted the pictures on the Party Facebook page. Racist and offensive posters have become a norm for tea parties, with signs comparing Obama to Osama Bin Laden distributed at the very first rallies.