Liberal Talk Radio

Hi folks,
This week’s episode will be about 24 hours behind schedule, due to, um, some really crappy Seattle weather… or something.

Never let ‘em see you sweat:
US soldiers are working around the clock in twelve-hour shifts to rebuild the strategically important bridge in Taji that was hit by a suicide bomber in an oil tanker truck on Tuesday. Officials expect that at the current rate, the bridge could be back in operational condition in a [...]

How do you beat child pornography charges? Start appealing to the film geeks! And in a Faustian deal, traffic to IFC’s website has increased 300 percent since they started streaming R. Kelly’s latest installments of Trapped in the Closet:
The story began simply enough: the love triangle of Sylvester, Kathy and Rufus. But after 12 chapters [...]

In an editorial this morning, the NYT lauded Fed chairman Ben Bernanke for his steady hand at the wheel during the recent turmoil on Wall Street:
Over the last two weeks, as debt-market woes have mounted, Mr. Bernanke has come under pressure to cut rates in order to ease borrowing and, in the process, boost stock [...]

The Rainier Cold Storage building, a landmark in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood, is set to be demolished. The building is a striking fixture of the neighborhood. Georgetown simply won’t be Georgetown without it. But before we start blaming the developer and clamoring for the torches and pitchforks, let’s first read a bit about [...]

Back in the 80s, everyone wanted to ride in a limousine. Then in the 90s, the limo lost its shine: Kurt Cobain would never be caught dead in the kind of car that David Lee Roth liked to party in.
These days, private jets are the new limos:
A one-time charter is still more [...]

Autopia opines about why Toyota’s had such a hard time developing a successful full-size truck:
Early Japanese and German pickup trucks were diminutive, high in utility, cheap to operate and remarkably practical. But they couldn’t haul 2,000 pounds of trailer and boat to the lake on the occasional weekend. Worse, they offended the very [...]

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg almost makes the urban gentrification pro-immigration argument* but doesn’t quite articulate it:
Mayor Bloomberg is taking on presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and others who’ve said the federal government should slash funding for cities that don’t strictly enforce immigration laws.
“Boy, let them come,” Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday when asked about Mr. [...]

An article on Basra in IraqSlogger includes this image, which, on this particular Saturday morning, I find very disturbing.
It’s a picture of an “insurgent,” or maybe a militia member. He’s dressed in grey slacks, loafers and a buttoned-down white shirt. All the trappings of a middle-class Iraqi. And then on top of [...]