Friday Stuff

(I have a feeling that there will be a couple of no-posting days next week also, just to let you know.)

Yeah, you go Christine O’Donnell and your references to “Democrat” policies, or whatever – do your best to utterly screw up what would be a highly likely “R” U.S. Senate pickup for “70-year-old, bad heart Republican” Mike Castle (And a quarter-million-dollar ad buy, huh? Aaah, I can smell the Astroturf)…



…and I know I’m a little late with this, but I didn’t want to let the week go by without showing this clip of K.O. interviewing Jeremy Scahill of The Nation about the “thanks” that Bushco is supposed to get over Iraq (spare me – kudos to Scahill for expressing the outrage we all should feel, though many do)…



…and here is my little “tribute” to Number 43 and his gang of pirates (and here is another item about Commander Codpiece)…



Update 9/4/10: And here is more "credit" for Iraq.

…and finally, I should let you know that The Philadelphia Inquirer plans to do something truly unbelievable this weekend; they plan to publish a Sunday edition without an Op-Ed section...

Yes, that’s right. The only published-everyday newspaper for the city of Philadelphia plans to go to press without their incredibly-inaptly-named “Currents” section.

And though it will be good to give their readers a break from Kevin Ferris, Smerky (who has been “phoning it in,” and I’m trying to be kind here) and whatever DC-simpatico, slightly-left-of-center pundit they feel like rewarding with black and white real estate, to say nothing of Bill Lyon waxing nostalgic in the wrong section, it all still begs the following question: what the hell is a newspaper anyway if it doesn’t provide a vehicle for reader feedback?

Geez, if you’re going to do that, do it on Monday and spare some of the Inky’s readers the agony of another Krauthammer whine about Obama and the Democrats, willya?

Well anyway, this goes out to the Inky, doing its part to enhance blog readership everywhere.

Thursday Stuff

(I also posted here.)

So, reporters who use anonymous sources are "limp" and "impotent," former governor Palin (here)? Gee, it looks like you have the same thing on your mind that Rich Lowry had in the clip below; maybe you two should get together (don't tell Todd, though)...



...and this one goes out to Sister Sarah (tongue in cheek, of course - didn't get the hair thing quite right, but nothing a bottle of peroxide can't fix).

Wednesday Stuff

Maybe that idiot Alan Simpson should go out and talk to some real people on Social Security, as Sam Seder did here (h/t Daily Kos)...



...and on September 2nd, 1965 (getting ahead of myself a bit), The Doors recorded their first demo recordings at World Pacific Jazz Studios in Los Angeles, California, where they cut six Jim Morrison songs; this probably wasn't one of them since it showed up on a recording later, but here it is anyway.

Wednesday Mashup (9/1/10)

(Posting is questionable for tomorrow and Friday, by the way.)

I give you the very latest from Tucker Carlson’s crayon scribble page…

Well, I suppose it makes a bit of sense that you would go to this location to read both a story like that and editorial commentary from Joe Pitts.

Also, how about giving a hearty welcome to J.D. Mullane of the Bucks County Courier Times, having just returned from vacation.

Did you check out President Obama’s speech on Iraq, J.D. (here)?

Gosh, J.D., what happened to your sense of journalistic curiosity (full disclosure: I didn’t see it either, but then again, I don’t make my living as a news professional).

I mean, I thought J.D. would want to take a look if, for no other reason, to find fault with the fact that our commander in chief is doing his best to put an end to the mess in Mesopotamia, one of many handed to him by his predecessor.

And speaking of Former President Nutball, this post recalls how Mullane positively gushed when 43 brought his little fear-and-smear show to Bucks County (J.D. didn’t have “better things to do” for this occasion)…

Bush spoke of the stakes for the world in the global war on Islamo-fascist terror.

He spoke of Afghanistan and how, for the first rime in its 5,000-year history, it had held democratic elections to choose a president, and the first voter was a 19-year-old woman.

"Freedom is on the march," Bush said. "The world is changing because of our deep belief in freedom. We believe everybody wants to be free. Freedom is not America's gift to the world. Freedom is the almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world."

The crowd went nuts - the loudest and longest ovation of the night. Bush's words weren't Lincolnesque, but his presence made up for it.

And as a note to the Patrick Murphy campaign, I should point out that the post above from May ’06 contains the following quote from Mikey Fitzpatrick: “If Bush had 50 percent or better job approval marks, Fitzpatrick estimated his victory spread in November would be as high as 10 points.”

So, to sum up as far as J.D. is concerned, right-wing triumphalist warmongering is good, but statesmanlike and reasonably intelligent leadership is bad.

Actually, with this in mind, I think Mullane should get more vacation time. If that’s one way to shut down his wretched blog, then that would be a triumph for adult discourse.

Next, it seems as if those zany teabaggers have now set their sights on Repug U.S. House Rep Mike Castle of Delaware, running for that state’s U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Joe Biden; they’re ready to mount yet another incumbent primary challenge, this time with Christine O’Donnell, who actually ran against Biden two years ago (here).

And, like all teabaggers, she apparently lives in an accountability-free world (here)…

- She has an almost $12,000 tax lien from the IRS from 2005
- She has a campaign debt of $24,000. She has raised $11,000 for this race so far.
- She has an unpaid settlement to her alma mater of Fairleigh Dickinson which dates back to 1994. Fairleigh Dickinson is withholding her degree. Is she reporting herself as a college graduate in her resume?
- She lives in a house owned by a campaign staffer. At least half of her rent is paid by her campaign donations.
- She had a well-known dispute with a previous employer, ISI. She sued them for gender discrimination and they accused her of running a for-profit PR business on the company’s time. That suit has been dropped by O’Donnell.
- A house she bought in Hockessin went into foreclosure. She owed $90,000 on the house. The house was about to be sold by auction when she sold it to Brent Vasher, her boyfriend at the time for $135,000.

And as noted here, Tea Party Express spokesman Levi Russell says that they plan to spend “six figures” in Delaware (and, ever classy, O’Donnell’s campaign manager called Castle a “70-year-old, bad heart Republican”).

So let’s all root for Christine O’Donnell anyway. We haven’t seen a brand new, utterly vacuous, clueless-on-the-issues teabagger candidate emerge for a few weeks or so now; I would say that her timing is perfect.

Update: More from kos here...

Continuing, MoDo of the Times (speaking of vacuous and clueless) brings us the latest imaginary Obama scandal (here, also reported here today by Sheryl Gay Stolberg)…

If we had wanted earth tones in the Oval Office, we would have elected Al Gore.

(Oh, yeah, we did.)

On the night we were reminded that George W. Bush ended up in the White House and heedlessly, needlessly started the war with Iraq, President Obama did his Mission Relinquished address from his redecorated man cave.

The Oval Office was done over by the chichi decorator Michael Smith, who was previously paid $800,000 for his part in refurnishing the lair of the former Merrill Lynch C.E.O. John Thain (a $1.2 million project featuring the notorious $35,000 antique cabinet, or commode).

…

The recession redo, paid for by the nonprofit White House Historical Association, was the latest tone-deaf move by a White House that was supposed to excel at connection and communication. Message: I care, but not enough to stop the fancy vacations and posh renovations.

Oh, please – am I supposed to point out for the umpteenth goddamn time that there are plenty of places on Martha’s Vineyard that aren’t “fancy” and “posh”?

And by the way, when it comes to “fancy” and “posh,” I hereby submit the following (here, concerning the Obama inaugural parties last year)…

The hottest party so far was held by Maureen Dowd, whose Georgetown house was like one big Washington keg party Sunday night as guests packed in like sardines to fete David Geffen. By the time Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa showed up around 8, the place was so crowded none of them could even get through the front door. “My party’s a total failure,” bemoaned the hostess. Actually, it wasn’t. Those who did make it inside included Larry David, George Lucas, Anderson Cooper, Rahm Emanuel, and Diane von Furstenberg. Also present was Alan Greenspan, who’s apparently just as ubiquitous on the party circuit as he was before his role in creating the subprime mortgage crisis was revealed. “Why shouldn’t he show up at parties?” said one partygoer. “This is Washington. There’s no shame in Washington.”

Is there anything wrong with Dowd hosting a swanky party? No, it’s her business.

Is there anything wrong with Obama redecorating the Oval Office with private funds? No, it’s his business.

So let’s do a deal, MoDo – you don’t carry on about this supposed misbehavior from Obama, and I won’t tirelessly point out that journalism, as opposed to the way you practice it, is supposed to be a craft devoted to comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, not one where you become one of the “comfortable” yourself.

In addition, we have this story from the New York Times today…

A reputed former top adviser to Osama bin Laden who stabbed a federal jail guard in the eye with a sharpened comb in 2000, leaving the guard with severe brain damage, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday.

The defendant, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, was a founding member of Al Qaeda and helped manage Mr. bin Laden’s businesses, prosecutors have said. He was arrested in Germany in 1998 after the bombings of two American embassies in East Africa, and extradited to the United States, where he was awaiting trial on broader terrorism charges at the time of the assault.

Mr. Salim has not been tried on the broader charges, which remain open. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to the stabbing of the correction officer, Louis Pepe, 52, and was sentenced to 32 years in prison. But a federal appeals panel overturned the sentence in 2008, agreeing with prosecutors that the judge had failed to apply a provision of sentencing guidelines related to terrorism that could have led to a longer term.

On Tuesday, the judge, Deborah A. Batts of Federal District Court in Manhattan, imposed the life sentence, calling Mr. Salim’s attack on Mr. Pepe “unusually cruel, brutal and a gratuitous infliction of injury.”

Mr. Salim participated in the proceeding through a video connection from the so-called Supermax prison in Colorado (where he is being held, according to the print version of the story).

I’m glad this animal got what was coming to him, and even though it’s small comfort to Mr. Pepe and his family, it’s good that Salim will be left to rot in a jail cell.

However, let’s take note of where Salim is being held for a minute, OK?

And that would be a “Supermax” prison in this country, the prospect of which terrified weak-kneed politicians on both sides while we were wondering what to do with the inmates at Guantanamo (including Harry Reid and Jim Inhofe, noted here).

One of these life forms would have to go a long way to do something worse than Salim did. And I don’t recall that there was any furor when he was first moved.

So, can we have a reasonable, mature debate the next time the issue of federal trials for terrorists resurfaces in our corporate media, seeing as how we already have one of the very worst taking up space on our continent already?

Finally, when it comes to Iraq, Senator “Country First” tells us the following about Number 44 (here)…

“When you succeed, you give credit to others, and when you fail, you take responsibility. The President, I guess, never got that lecture.”

Wonder if the President ever got the “lecture” about blaming people for events that aren’t their fault (here)?

Tuesday Stuff

Hey, congrats to Joke Line on this terrific career development (brought to us by the Onion News Network)...



...getting serious, I would also consider this to be a good ad from Jack Conway (h/t Daily Kos - more here)...



...and oh yeah, about that fraud running against Admiral Joe, check this out (more here)...



...and happy 65th birthday to Van Morrison (from "The Last Waltz," of course).

Tuesday Mashup Part Two (8/31/10)

(Part One is here.)

This is one of the nuttiest opinion columns I’ve seen in a long, long time; basically, the author, Anton Wahlman, says that Net Neutrality is “akin to socialism” (I guess a remark like that was inevitable).

And, doubling down, he actually invokes a comparison to “Cambodia's ‘Killing Fields’ and of every other socialist utopia attempted over the last 100 years or so.”

Wow, FCC Chair Julius Genachowski as Pol Pot?

Is this guy out of his freaking mind (Wahlman, I mean)?

And just for the record, Wahlman says here that "Medicare and Medicaid in particular, are hugely inefficient and unnecessarily bureaucratic ways to induce people to over-consume health care services"...says you, but if Obama were to cut anything, as they're thinking about with Avastin here (second item), then the "death panels" outcry would begin in force anew.

Meanwhile, for the reality point of view, I attempted to bring us all up to date on what is happening with Net Neutrality and the latest Google/Verizon antics here.

Next, I give you Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times today (here)…

The president also said he and his team were “hard at work in identifying additional measures,” including extending tax cuts for the middle class that are scheduled to expire this year, increasing government investment in clean energy and rebuilding more infrastructure.

None of those steps, however, will come close to the $787 billion stimulus measure that Democrats passed at the outset of the Obama presidency. With voters angry about government spending, and economists divided about just what approach is the correct one, such aggressive steps are by now out of the question.

Really? As noted here…

The actual views of the American people are at odds with the corporate media’s portrayal of a nation of deficit hawks. According to a June 11-13 USA Today/Gallup Poll, 60 percent of Americans favor "additional government spending to create jobs and stimulate the economy." Only 38 percent of the respondents opposed the proposal, while 2 percent had no opinion.

Yep, those “bond vigilantes” sure are saddling up, making ready to enslave us all in debt forever unless we bow down before the “catfood commission” and privatize Social Security.

Memo to Stolberg – next time, try reporting.

And sticking with the Times, I came across this great letter on Sunday…

I always find it amusing that politicians who seem to be the most vociferous in their complaints about high taxes and wastefulness in the federal government so very often represent states that, like Alaska, take back significantly more in federal dollars than they provide to the Treasury.

I might actually find some of these politicians credible in their statements if they weren’t so often at the front of the pack feeding at the federal trough.

How about it, fiscal conservatives — why don’t you begin balancing our federal budget by accepting only the same amount in federal dollars that your state sends to the Treasury?

Any takers? Didn’t think so.

Kevin Beauchamp
New York, Aug. 22, 2010

And with that in mind, Ezra Klein tells us here about the states that get the largest proportion of federal dollars and which ones don’t (he compares the map of largesse versus the map of the last election, and there are some eerie similarities).

It should also be noted that this lends itself to some rather humorous story lines, including this one.

Finally, it looks like The Orange One made a funny (here)…

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Hours before President Barack Obama marked a symbolically important US draw-down in Iraq on Tuesday, his Republican foes acidly noted he had opposed the "surge" strategy that helped make it possible.

House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner charged that Obama and other senior Democrats who opposed that military escalation, announced in January 2007, are now trying to "claim credit" for the results.

"Today we mark not the defeat those voices anticipated -- but progress," Boehner said in a speech to be delivered to the American Legion veterans group ahead of Obama's own remarks on the matter from the White House.

"Some leaders who opposed, criticized, and fought tooth-and-nail to stop the surge strategy now proudly claim credit for the results," said the lawmaker, who underlined that credit for a more stable Iraq "belongs to our troops."

Obama initially sharply assailed former president George W. Bush's "surge" approach, warning it would fail to stabilize Iraq and could even make things worse, before ultimately saying it had succeeded beyond anyone's expectations.

I’m not going to dignify Boehner’s idiotic remark about the men and women of our military who served bravely when told to execute the war of choice in Mesopotamia upon the orders of Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History.

Instead, I’ll merely point out that, in addition to then-Senator Obama, the surge was opposed by fellow Repug Senators Richard Lugar, John Warner and “Errrr, Errrr” Voinovich, who of course do not merit a mention from Boehner (here).

(Seriously, people, this guy could be House Majority Leader. And why that prospect doesn’t motivate anyone into action is something I utterly cannot fathom.)

Monday Stuff

Earlier, I said that we need to support the Dems - well, along with just about all of the "Bush Dogs," I don't give a fig about what happens to Dame Blanche Lincoln.

Remember the "senior White House official" who said that "organized labor flushed $10 mil down the toilet" supporting Bill Halter, Lincoln's primary challenger here? Well, take a look at this (with Lincoln trailing 2-1).

Looks like "the left" got it right again while the DC politicos badly misread Lincoln's supposed electability.

Oh, and don't strain to hear the supposed geniuses in charge of our party admit that we were right and they were wrong...



...and glad to see the Dems are still reminding everyone how we got into this mess to begin with...



...with most of the same motley bunch ready to do it again, along with some new faces singing the same sorry tune (and how the #@!$ is Ron Johnson even within shouting distance of Russ Feingold?)...



Update 8/31/10: And they're such good sports too, aren't they?

...and is it my imagination, or does Roger Moore appear on that screen?

Monday Mashup (8/30/10) (updates)

(I also posted here.)

The new Public Editor introduced himself over at the New York Times yesterday (here)…

(Executive Editor Bill) Keller also said reporters are encouraged to respond to readers, except in cases of vitriolic attacks and organized campaigns.

But is this enough in the age of Maximum Personal Expression, when readers and other critics chisel away daily at The Times’s credibility with such a potent arsenal of communication tools?

Ok, time out.

If the point of this blog or any other online endeavor of mine all this time had been Maximum Personal Expression or something like it, then I would have to say that I’ve been doing a pretty lousy job. There are a hell of a lot more things I could do, had I the inclination, time, or facility, to publicize myself personally at the expense of generating the best content that I can, and you can take that statement anyway you want.

It’s basically a good thing that the Times has someone serving in this role, but this person does his or her readers a disservice by automatically trying to dismiss anyone who voices a contrary opinion by implying that the only goal of such a person is to draw attention to him or herself. Also, similar comments from Arthur Brisbane about “nitpickers,” “wounded lovers” and “armed antagonists” attempt to trivialize would-be critics of the paper also.

Speaking for myself, I just want to read the story written and reported straight with no spin. And if the paper cares to know this, I should point out that, when I don’t say anything about their coverage and am devoting blogging real estate to the usual right-wing culprits instead, then the Times is doing a good job.

In addition, is it too much trouble for the Times to take on someone for this role who has some kind of an actual familiarity with social media and emerging forms of communication? I kind of get the impression from Brisbane that he has never been to Daily Kos, Think Progress, Huffington Post, or even some right-wing sites (that’s kind of given away in his opening column by his generally dismissive tone towards these entities).

I guess it is too much to ask. Oh well.

Next, we have the following “Foto Funny” from Mark Halperin…

Somehow I don’t think everyone is gong to get the “boomer” references to Richie Rich and late actor Jim Backus as tycoon Thurston Howell III on “Gilligan’s Island,” Mark.

And Obama gave an economic “soliloquy”? Is Halperin kidding us? Did he expect Obama to pose holding a human skull saying “Alas, poor Yorick – I knew him, Horatio”?

Well, with that in mind, then, I would guess, if Number 44 were a true thespian, it would sound something like this…

To be or not to be, president – that is the question
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The intransigent obstruction of Republicans and cowering Democrats
Or revolt against financially compromised courtiers Geithner and Summers
And by opposing, end them. To die, to put fall Republican hopes to sleep
And by asleep, I say denying House and Senate majorities
By revealing their plans for inquiries of my office, killing our initiatives
To sleep – perchance to dream that they may yet win!
So I thus say that we need more stimulus, Rasmussen and Quinnipiac be damned!
Especially with historically low rates on treasury notes
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time
With a stalled recovery amidst one active war?
Yea, it would be the Senate and House Minority Leaders
With their insolence of office, I may yet approach them
With a bare bodkin, telling them to approve Elizabeth Warren for the CFPA
And if Chris Dodd, he of Countrywide, continues to oppose
I will dispatch him to The Undiscovered Country, where he will not be a FOA
But nay, shall I tolerate them all into the midterms
Be they elected as I, while others grunt and sweat unto a weary life
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is discolored by the daily TV diatribe from Fox News
And enterprise of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action, depending on my approval numbers.

Yeah, actually I’m starting to think the whole “Hamlet” thing could work. I’d go for a production where Darrell Issa gets the part of Polonius, and ends up standing behind a curtain while Obama makes ready with his sword.

(Only a joke…).

And with the arrival of a new week, we receive pretty much the same as last week (stale propaganda, I mean) from Pancake Joe Pitts (here)…

…in an address this week, the Vice President praised the government weatherization program that has been broadly criticized as a terrible example of government waste. The rules for the program were delayed for months as government bureaucrats had to account for numerous wage requirements written into the bill.

Now that the program is up and running, things have been messy. According to the Associated Press, no home in Alaska has participated in the program yet. In Texas, the contractor receiving the most money in the state did shoddy work on the majority of homes it weatherized. In Biden’s home state of Delaware, the program has been shut down since May after auditors discovered fraud.

I honestly can’t think of a word to note how laughable it is that Pitts has taken it upon himself to offer this critique of the weatherization plan across the country without even telling us its progress in his own district. As noted here, Lancaster has received about $18 million in stimulus funds for low-income households, green energy projects, and local governments and non-profit entities, among other uses.

We know what Pitts is, and I know it gets a little repetitive to keep pointing it out, so I’ll just provide this link to the site of Lois Herr, his Dem opponent for his PA-16 seat, and only add further that, to paraphrase the song, I guess you have to be a weatherization man to know which way the wind blows:-).

Finally, there are a couple of other items I intend to get to at some point, but not this moment, because I want to point out something else. Previously, I commented on Halperin’s note about Obama’s economic “soliloquy,” – well, according to this, it didn’t go well (h/t Atrios).

Yet again, we experienced a moment of vacillation from the White House (including more avoidance from Press Secretary Robert Gibbs) because they apparently don’t plan to go back to Congress for more stimulus. Once more, we witnessed the at-best-mixed signals from Ben Bernanke this weekend over the role of the Fed in trying to stimulate employment (here – with jobs being really the only issue that matters this fall; the war in Afghanistan should factor into it also, but we are where we are…and yes, I realize that Bernanke came from Buscho).

So now, are we all sufficiently bummed to the point where we feel like we should throw up our hands over Obama and the Democrats admittedly not getting it completely right on the “big ticket” items, such as the economy, the environment and our military commitments?

Good. Now hold onto those thoughts for a minute and read Paul Krugman’s column today (here).

Yes, I know the bunch in power doesn’t completely deserve all of our support; Obama is, at heart, a disciple of Milton Friedman more than John Maynard Keynes on the economy, which should be apparent by now to all but single-celled life forms, including those employed at Fix Noise – we needed a much more robust response than we got after he was inaugurated, cries of “socialism” be damned particularly since he would have heard those cries regardless of what he did.

But seriously people, have you considered the alternative (spelled out in horrifically accurate detail in Krugman’s column)?

Endless investigations. A new “revelation” every day about the First Family (get ready for the return of Bill Ayres, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and hearings into the alleged “New Black Panther Party” Philadelphia polling scandal on Election Day 2008, for starters). And no legislation (none of any good to us, anyway).

Privatizing Social Security. Defunding Health Care Reform. The return of Tax Cuts for the Rich which will “pay for themselves.” Bye Bye Cap And Trade. Endless investigations. Testimony of Cabinet members before Congress as to why they’re actually doing their jobs instead of rolling over for the institutions they’re supposed to regulate, as they did under Dubya.

So long Lilly Ledbetter Law. New restrictions on stem cell research. Legislation to enshrine the worst excesses of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling. Reopening “K” Street for business. A bill to abolish Net Neutrality forever.

Oh, and did I mention Endless investigations? And don't think the "I" word is out of the question either, people.

Basically, we can sit around and mope and let the corporate media narratives define themselves, or we can become involved again as we once were to build the majorities we should be working to defend with all the energy and talent we can muster (I don’t know how many of you were paying attention to the Congressional politics of the ‘90s, but I definitely was, and I never want to see those days again).

If we choose the former path, destruction is imminent, and it will be irrevocable. And despite the ways those we’ve supported have fallen short, we really will only have ourselves to blame if they get turned out (well, maybe not Blanche Lincoln, who will lose anyway; let's work to get them back and then beat on them, so to speak, if they don't do what we want - imagine how silly we will feel while the “Tea Party” Repugs rule the roost and we’re still licking our wounds over the fact that the stimulus was only $787 billion instead of $1.2 trillion).

If we choose the latter path, we can stand the people working for news organizations with initials for names on their heads, as it were, as they search for their next narrative (and wouldn’t it be nice if it were “A Dem Resurgence Confounds The Republican Revival,” or something like it?).

We have work to do, people. All of us. And we’d better do it. Fast.

They can’t win unless we help them by our inaction.

And Dear God, we absolutely must not let that happen!

Update 1 8/31/10: I read stuff like this, and words fail, people, truly.

And I know it’s bad form to call out my “A” list “betters,” but I received this link from Atrios, whose attitude is “we should’ve ‘clapped louder’,” which of course is snark.

And Chris Bowers, someone else I respect, is circulating a petition over at Daily Kos to get the Senate to “reform” filibuster rules. And Jed Lewison, another person I respect, wrote a lengthy post yesterday about how Glenn Beck’s rally couldn’t possibly have drawn the attendance Beck claimed.

Which to me begs the question, why the #@$! are you people bothering with this stuff when our hard-earned Congressional majorities are in danger from our own distracted disinterest and the unending money fueling the Repug fear-and-smear machine?

Don’t bet that the people of this country will sober up on Election Day and vote for us without our strong prodding. Remember, we’re talking about a country that elected (more or less) George W. Bush twice (once after the worst foreign terrorist attack on our soil).

Unless, of course, you actually want to see all of this bad stuff happen.

And in that event, I have neither the time nor the inclination to deal with you in any way whatsoever.

Update 2 8/31/10: I’ll tell you what – I’ll put this as simply as I can.

I’m tired of reading blog posts, news articles, opinion columns, etc. telling us how we’re all going to get hit with the metaphorical train on Election Day. Why don’t we all work harder to change the direction of the track instead?

Update 9/3/10: What this person sez here...

Update 9/11/10: A look at the horror that (potentially) awaits (here)...

Update 10/14/10: And I wasn't kidding about the "I" word either, as noted here.

Sunday Stuff

With all due respect to the lady near the end of this clip, she must have accidentally shown up at the wrong place at the wrong time (here - part of me wishes that we could just give these people another country and see how far they get spending their day venting over their crackpot conspiracy theories as opposed to trying to practice actual governance)...



...and yeah, I think this is appropriate for the occasion.