Why, for the LOVE OF WALT DISNEY ON ICE, why?!!!

Isn't it bad enough that Disney pushed a musical about Chihuahua's this year?

In an interview on the Fox News Channel (where else?) George W. Bush set out to lamely defend his legacy on the "Hey, I wasn't here most of the time Tour":

Bush said he didn't think he would be viewed as the 21st century's Herbert Hoover, who was president during the Great Depression. He said he worked to keep the economy from collapsing. "I'm a free market guy," Bush said. "But I'm not going to let this economy crater in order to preserve the free market system.

On the factual side, Bush is naturally wrong. Hoover didn't sit on his arse as the economy collapsed, it's just that he couldn't conceive of the bigger, bolder ideas that FDR would bring about after he came to office.

Of course, there are other big differences.

-- Hoover didn't lose one war, let alone two.
-- Hoover performed great Humanitarian works in the aftermath of both world wars saving millions from starvation and was one of the world's most popular Americans. Bush tortured people, and bombed and starved millions of them.
-- Hoover had only one MacArthur to deal with, Bush had hundreds of pseudo MacArthurs, including himself.

[cross-posted Firedoglake]

Help out if you can

In the long, rich, tradition of Iowa political blogs (ed: huh?) it's time to come together as a community and help someone out -- if you can.

A few weeks ago, Mike, of the blog Iowa Liberal was mugged in, of all places, Fort Dodge, Iowa. It was a pretty violent mugging and he was hurt fairly severely. He has medical bills that are not covered by insurance. So if you can help please consider doing so.

"7 years 97 days since 9-11-01. Where is Osama bin Laden?”

Cheryl Stewart, I salute you. (And send you condolences on the loss of your partner.)

Not breaking news...more like what else is new?

We may finally be seeing the coming of JISM BOB DUGGAR!

Dec 24, 6:00 pm 30 min(s)

17 Kids and Counting
Big Family Meets Big Apple

Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar have a big secret: they are pregnant

How the hell is that a secret, you have 17 already? It's only news when Jim Bob leaves you the fuck alone and isn't spreading his essence by being crane hoisted into your sex-chair for conception!

When you can field not one, but two baseball teams, it's time to give it a rest.

My Brain hurts

Trying to wrap itself around this story:

The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, denied a birthday cake with the child's full name on it by one New Jersey supermarket, is asking for a little tolerance.

But wait...that's not all:

Karen Meleta, a spokeswoman for ShopRite, said the Campbells had similar requests denied at the same store the last two years and said Heath Campbell previously had asked for a swastika to be included in the decoration.

Now how much would you pay?

Heath Campbell said he named his son after Adolf Hitler because he liked the name and because ''no one else in the world would have that name.'' He sounded surprised by all the controversy the dispute had generated.

So it's all just an innocent misunderstanding, right?

The Campbells' other two children also have unusual names: JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell turns 2 in a few months and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell will be 1 in April.

Where's the real corruption?

The U.S. Attorney that brought down Elliot Spitzer, who as a public attorney aggressively pursued fraud, managed to ignore the greatest defrauders in history -- but managed to successfully attack someone for a knob-job or two.

Meet Michael Garcia, aka Ken Starr, Jr.:

* leaving his post as U.S. attorney in Manhattan to take up a $3 to 4 million per annum partnership at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis.

* Garcia’s sudden move to Kirkland & Ellis was engineered by executive committee member Jay Lefkowitz—a high-powered neoconservative who authored President Bush’s stem cell research policy and was once considered to serve as White House chief of staff.

* Former Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr also makes his home at Kirkland, and the firm recently hired former U.N. ambassador John Bolton as a “special advisor.”

These are all from the Scott Horton profile of Garcia, but its most compelling issues are in these two paragraphs:

Garcia served as the AWOL “sheriff of Wall Street” during the most serious collapse of financial institutions since the 1929 Depression. A consensus is building that this collapse is largely linked to a failure of regulatory oversight. That oversight should have been provided by Garcia’s office, which historically offers the prosecutorial muscle for the SEC and other regulators. In his 39-month tenure as U.S. Attorney, however, Garcia can claim no high-profile enforcement effort—not one.

Even more curious, however, is his most glittering prize: Eliot Spitzer, a man seen by many as a rising star in Democratic politics who was steadily eroding Republican power in Albany and built a reputation as a Wall Street watchdog. Spitzer got to the New York state house after a precedent-shattering two terms as New York’s attorney general. He used the position to eclipse the traditionally dominant role of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney in regulation of financial institutions, bringing sweeping lawsuits that challenged the barons of Wall Street over abusive practices—notably their habit of selling stocks aggressively to the public, while commenting internally, usually in quite colorful language, that the stocks were a bad bet.

So, Wall Street was saved (in time to be nearly ruined) by the non-harmful perversions of one man who made his reputation watching over them.

The GOP, saving their friends in time to bring down America...while not allowing one to actually "go down".

Let's all let out a collective "awwwwww"

It's so very sad:

Just months after he was ousted from Lehman Brothers, Joseph Gregory put his mansion in tony Bridgehampton on the market for $32.5 million.

The former president of the sinking investment bank could not have picked a worse time.

The Hamptons, a summer vacation playground for New York's financial and celebrity elite, are being hit hard as Wall Street power houses like Lehman and Bear Stearns succumb to the financial crisis.

I don't know about you, but I'm sure I'm crying a river of tears...on the inside, so deeply I am not even aware of them.

$900 Billion and counting, that's a lot of shoes

The Bush Administration and its greatest accomplishment per the non-partisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (pdf page 31):

A total of about $818 billion in supplemental funding has so far been provided to DoD for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan—some $648 billion and $170 billion, respectively. Judged by these figures, the war in Iraq alone has already cost more than every past US war but World War II (See Figure 5). The most costly US conflict since World War II was the war in Vietnam. If the projections of future funding requirements discussed earlier (which would bring total DoD costs for the war in Iraq to some $878 billion to $1.227 trillion) are close to the mark, it is possible that, ultimately, that war will end up costing more than twice as much as the Vietnam War.

And since 35 years after Vietnam an American can go there and be treated, almost, as if the war never even occurred (which is literally all we accomplished), we should be able to do that in Iraq right?

Anyone not named Bush think that's a sure thing?

(pic from here)


[Cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Where is the Horror?

Call me cynical but I, for one, am tired of the death culture in the United States.

For twenty-plus years we have known who killed Adam Walsh why an announcement now?  What purpose is served in reopening such a painful loss?  So help me if this announcement  is simply cover for some new true crime book...

Adams Walsh's 1981 murder, which shocked parents everywhere, launched a national television crusade, and confounded detectives for more than two decades, will be declared solved today, says the Orlando Sentinel. Hollywood, Fl., police are expected to identify Ottis Toole as the killer of the 6-year old snatched from a Sears store. His severed head turned up two weeks later and his body has never been found. John alsh became a vocal advocate for the plight of missing children after his son's death, testifying before Congress, founding the Adam Walsh Foundation and, in 1988, debuting his crime-fighting television program.

What do you think?

Like Caroline Kennedy

I would like to be appointed to a position which my family's past so richly has earned.

But, as the most prolific writer for a middling bloggy-blog I have apparently already achieved it.

Defiling sacred porn scripts

Cable companies are not allowed to do parodies - I don't need to know why the cable guy is late.

Whacka-cha-whacka

The Bush Administration, a legacy of malevolence with no real purpose other than being a jackass:

A high-ranking Interior Department official tainted nearly every decision made on the protection of endangered species over five years, a new inspector general report finds...Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant secretary overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service, did pervasive harm to the department's morale and integrity and may have risked the well-being of species with her agenda, Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney said in his report out Monday.

And, like so many Bush appointees, she was incredibly qualified to make decisions in the position she was appointed to:

MacDonald, a civil engineer with no formal training in natural sciences

And here is my favorite example of her "skills" as an administrator in action:

In once instance, the report said, MacDonald sent information about a contentious endangered species issue to a friend she had met in an online role-playing game. She told investigators she took part in the Internet games to relieve stress created by her job.

That could have come in handy if she was dealing with orcs or the Kagans at a meeting of the American Enterprise Institute.

"Dear Hasbro Corporation,

Have you ever considered manufacturing "The Nerf Shoe"?

Could be productively used against all manner of former Presidents (or perhaps one in particular) without the nasty Secret Service over-reaction.

Would sell quite well, I should think, at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Please direct all royalties to my PayPal account.

Sincerely,

Atta J. Turk"

The Best Opium Mules

Get ribbons instead of enemas.

"TAKE THAT RAY BOLGER!"

(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Oh, how we luvs the internets

Like some other bloggers, who I've forgotten so I can't immediately link to, it is very impressive that al-Maliki barely flinches. Like it is "just another day in Iraq" to the guy.

Meanwhile, Bush shows cat-quick reflexes that will come in handy in the years ahead. Although some rotten vegetables are harder to dodge than others. I mean he dodged those things like they were "Vietnam".

The Only War the GOP can win...

Is a class war.

While using blue-collar workers as scapegoats to facilitate the coming of "Herbert Hoover Time" the GOP shows just how concerned they really are about equity and fairness.

Congress wanted to guarantee that the $700 billion financial bailout would limit the eye-popping pay of Wall Street executives, so lawmakers included a mechanism for reviewing executive compensation and penalizing firms that break the rules.

But at the last minute, the Bush administration insisted on a one-sentence change to the provision, congressional aides said...

...Now, however, the small change looks more like a giant loophole, according to lawmakers and legal experts. In a reversal, the Bush administration has not used auctions for any of the $335 billion committed so far from the rescue package, nor does it plan to use them in the future. Lawmakers and legal experts say the change has effectively repealed the only enforcement mechanism in the law dealing with lavish pay for top executives.

But the UAW and its members "MUST" immediately make a major sacrifice or the Big Three will die.

So, how has that all worked out for you "Reagan Democrats"?

(pic from sd-optimist)

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Iraq chooses to follow the gourd

The shoe is a HUGE symbol of disdain in Middle Eastern culture. You may remember when Saddam fell Iraqis took off their shoes and pounded the various Hussein murals with them.

So, while the Emperor Disgustus was taking a victory lap on your dime and the Iraqi dinar an Iraqi Journalist took to symbolic measures to show his pure disdain.

McClatchy identified the man as Iraqi television journalist Muthathar al Zaidi and reports he threw both of his shoes at Bush just after he finished prepared remarks.

The New York Times notes that the first shoe “narrowly missed” and the second shoe also missed. “This is a farewell kiss, you dog,” Zaidi shouted.

Outstanding, that guy is officially my "Sole Brother".

UPDATE:

Here is the video



Bush wasn't hurt, of course. But this tax-payer paid for dog & pony show comes in the wake of economic collapse -- and more importantly after a war started by that jaghole has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, if not millions.

For Bush to take a goddamned victory lap is reprehensible.

Suck.on.that.

Dear NBC,

You had a lot of time to consider this decision -- and you went with ratings black hole David Gregory.

Today we learned that Gregory's intelligence was not restricted by Cable News -- rather it was disguised by the presence of others who could walk, chew, and breathe on their own volition.

I wouldn't call him a syphilitic moron, but only because I'm not sure he's smart enough to understand how that whole thing works so a social disease risk would be minimal.

Let's spend a few more million for vanity shall we?

It's all about me, day 2,884.

President Bush made an unannounced visit Sunday to Baghdad

We know which side they're on

To the surprise of no one, the GOP opposition to the bailout was all about fucking over the laboring man or woman. God forbid they put restrictions on bankers.

Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio), a strong auto industry supporter, acknowledged that some of his colleagues simply did not want to help the UAW.

"We have many senators from right-to-work states, and I quite frankly think they have no use for labor," he said. "Labor usually supports very heavily Democrats and I think that some of the lack of enthusiasm for this [bailout] was that some of them didn't want to do anything for the United Auto Workers."

One major car dealer said conservatives let political ideology get in the way of protecting the country's interests.

"Being a Republican myself, I feel very betrayed by the Republican Party right now," said Beau Boeckmann, vice president of Galpin Motors Inc. in North Hills. Galpin has the nation's largest Ford dealership as well as lots where it sells eight other foreign and domestic brands.

Welcome to the rest of the country's suffering.

Praying For (Preying On) Recession

NYT: Evangelical Article of Faith: Bad Times Draw Bigger Crowds

In Seattle, the Mars Hill Church, one of the fastest-growing evangelical churches in the country, grew to 7,000 members this fall, up 1,000 in a year. At the Life Christian Church in West Orange, N.J., prayer requests have doubled — almost all of them aimed at getting or keeping jobs.

(But I thought your Jesus wanted you to be rich?)

Generic Preacher No. 3,456:

”We need to leverage this moment, because every Christian revival in this country’s history has come off a period of rampant greed and fear. That’s what we’re in today — the time of fear and greed.”

One Age of Leverage ends, another begins. Somewhere, P.T. Barnum is smiling ...

Post Titles I with I had come up with

Damn you, John Cole!

What If Instead of GM, We Started Calling Them Terri Schiavo Motorworks?

The Uno Family

They seem awfully well-adjusted.



Y'know Dick & Lynne Cheney used to play Russian Roulette with their kids...good times!

(pic part of a series from here)

Affirming and disturbing

That Paul Krugman so totally gets blogging. I don't know whether this raises my self-esteem or lowers my opinion of him.

Truth be known, I focused on this blog post of his, because the others scare the shit out of me.

Not enough attention ...

Since the media is taking time out from watching the GOP ride the Economy into the ground the way Slim Pickens rode an A-Bomb to concentrate on the truly surprising story of an Illinois Governor being a crook, this escaped notice -- but deserves much, much, more.

DAMN LIBERALS, RIGHT AGAIN!

The physical and mental abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was the direct result of Bush administration detention policies and should not be dismissed as the work of bad guards or interrogators, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Thursday.

The Senate Armed Services Committee report concludes that harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA and the U.S. military were directly adapted from the training techniques used to prepare special forces personnel to resist interrogation by enemies that torture and abuse prisoners. The techniques included forced nudity, painful stress positions, sleep deprivation, and until 2003, waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning.

The report is the result of a nearly two-year investigation that directly links President Bush's policies after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, legal memos on torture, and interrogation rule changes with the abuse photographed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq four years ago. Much of the report remains classified. Unclassified portions of the report were released by the committee Thursday.

Administration officials publicly blamed the abuses on low-level soldiers_ the work "of a few bad apples." Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., called that "both unconscionable and false."

"The message from top officials was clear; it was acceptable to use degrading and abusive techniques against detainees," Levin said.

Arizona Republican and former prisoner of war Sen. John McCain, called the link between the survival training and U.S. interrogations of detainees inexcusable.

"These policies are wrong and must never be repeated," he said in a statement.

You take the good, you take the bad...

Small miracles happen. Apparently, there will not be a "Full House" reunion movie.

Awwwwww....some.

No word on whether they can convince Tootie to give up on the "Facts of Life" remake.

Which side they're on

The GOP, barely live and never learn. A century ago they attempted to crush the union movement via the railroading of Bill Haywood, the Western Federation of Miners' Union Head described in Anthony Lukas's amazing book "Big Trouble":

Other men have died, other men have died in the same cause in which Bill Haywood has risked his life, men strong with devotion, men who love liberty, men who love their fellow men have raised their voices in defense of the poor, in defense of justice, have made their good fight and have met death on the scaffold, on the rack, in the flame and they will meet it again until the world grows old and gray. Bill Haywood is no better than the rest. He can die if die he needs, he can die if this jury decrees it; but, oh, gentlemen, don't think for a moment that if you hang him you will crucify the labor movement of the world.

Don't think that you will kill the hopes and the aspirations and the desires of the weak and the poor, you men, unless you people who are anxious for this blood--are you so blind as to believe that liberty will die when he is dead? Do you think there are no brave hearts and no other strong arms, no other devoted souls who will risk their life in that great cause which has demanded martyrs in every age of this world? There are others, and these others will come to take his place, will come to carry the banner where he could not carry it.

Gentlemen, it is not for him alone that I speak. I speak for the poor, for the weak, for the weary, for that long line of men who in darkness and despair have borne the labors of the human race. The eyes of the world are upon you, upon you twelve men of Idaho tonight. Wherever the English language is spoken, or wherever any foreign tongue known to the civilized world is spoken, men are talking and wondering and dreaming about the verdict of these twelve men that I see before me now. If you kill him your act will be applauded by many. If you should decree Bill Haywood's death, in the great railroad offices of our great cities men will applaud your names. If you decree his death, amongst the spiders of Wall Street will go up paeans of praise for those twelve good men and true who killed Bill Haywood . In every bank in the world, where men hate Haywood because he fights for the poor and against the accursed system upon which the favored live and grow rich and fat--from all those you will receive blessings and unstinted praise.

But if your verdict should be "Not Guilty," there are still those who will reverently bow their heads and thank these twelve men for the life and the character they have saved. Out on the broad prairies where men toil with their hands, out on the wide ocean where men are are tossed and buffeted on the waves, through our mills and factories, and down deep under the earth, thousands of men and of women and children, men who labor, men to suffer, women and children weary with care and toil, these men and these women and these children will kneel tonight and ask their God to guide your judgment. These men and these women and these little children, the poor, the weak, and the suffering of the world will stretch out their hands to this jury, and implore you to save Haywood's life.

Some things just never change. Where have the "spiders of Wall Street" led us in comparison to the person on the Chevy Cobalt assembly line?

Even Herbert Hoover

Would say these guys are un-fucking-believable.

Dear Senate Dems

Come January, time to go nuclear.

xxx...res

Government and Its Discontents

Its not just Blago. I open my paper and just today I read about ...

Nora S. Anderson, a candidate for judge in New York Surrogate Court accused of campaign finance violations.

Anthony Seminerio, a New York assemblyman accused of selling state business to the highest bidder.

Diane Wilkerson, a Massachusetts state senator accused of stuffing bribe money up her sweater.

Charlie Rangel, a U.S. congressman with a plethora of problems.

Then there's the past eight years of BushCo and general Republican corruption and malfeasance.

So I ask you -- what is going on? Are these isolated incidents? Or did politicians as a group grow tired of watching the hedge fund guys go from moving their cash with wheelbarrows to moving it with with shipping containers and decide to get in on the action?

My Kind of Town

What with Barack Obama's thorough beat-down of John McCain, the Blagojevich implosion, and those striking factory workers at Republic Windows and Doors, it feels like the whole axis of the country has tilted toward Chicago these past weeks. So I had to smile when I read this obituary, today. Elmer Valentine was from Chicago. And although his biggest contributions to the culture -- the Whisky a Go Go and its famed Go-Go Girls -- came later in Los Angeles, his obit makes him sound, for better or worse, like a real Chicago kind of guy.

Anyway, I just enjoyed reading his obituary, and I thought you might, too. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Yet, anyway.

Shorter Tommy Friedman

"I give the Auto Makers "Six Months" tops (the ol' F.U.).

Now, Shopping Malls, that's an industry that really needs a bailout!!!

That's what the anonymous, randomly chosen, Syrian Cabbie tells me."

Attention Hollywood!

Hard as it is to believe, the same town that has given us several Brady Bunch Movies, and is no doubt crying out for Norbert II (I have a feeling Eddie Murphy certainly is) has never given us a sequel to the Sylvester Stallone/Kurt Russell vehicle "Tango & Cash". Somehow, missing the chance to say "This time it's personal".

Well, thanks to the world of politics, it's time to relaunch the franchise, I give you:

BLAGO & BUSH

For once, Bush gets to be the smart one.

Think about it, Sarah Palin could be the "love" interest; Joe the Plumber could be the villain.

Such a dense cast of morons has never been seen on any media display...other than Mondays through Fridays on Fox & Friends.

The Mystery of Statham

Well explained by Jesse Taylor.

As for myself, who can forget his memorable role as a balding-butt-kicking guy set in a medieval fantasy world in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale? Oh, everyone -- voluntarily.

(That's right a Medieval Dungeons & Dragony movie with Burt Reynolds and Ray Liotta in it...hard to believe that sucker failed isn't it?)

They dug up the body of Irony so they could kill it again...

Remember when Kissinger and Le Duc Tho won the Nobel Peace Prize...and how awesome that was -- you remember right, surviving Cambodians?

Well, as always the sequel is not quite as good as the original, but just as sad.

The Economic Collapse comes to Sports

The most profitable and successful league in the world...starts to feel the pinch.

One Hundred-fifty employees of the National Football League laid off. The "Arena Football Leage", which is heavily financed by the NFL, and has a television contract, is shutting down in 2009. Probably pretty good odds they aren't coming back.

This global meltdown is going to shake out in numerous ways, but I wouldn't be at all shocked if several teams in the NHL went belly up, if not the league itself; or the NBA for that matter. Don't be shocked if several English Premier League teams, sell themselves into relegation and further down if some go extinct.

Happy Human Rights Day: Live and Do So Peacefully.

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first global definition of human rights and the standard on the appropriate treatment of individuals, groups, and societies.

The document was written to promote the universal human right: to live and to do so peacefully. With versions available in more than 337 languages, the UDHR holds the record for the world's most translated document.

To celebrate Human Rights Day, we here at Rising Hegemon are following the example of WITNESS -- who normally use video to document and expose human rights violations --  and are turning the reflection around on themselves, friends, and family to ask a question sorely needing answering in these days of perpetual war:

"What image opened your eyes to human rights?"

In that spirit we want to encourage dialogue here and ask... "What image or event opened your eyes to human rights?"

Lincoln isn't spinning, he's snickering

Far be it from me to criticize Patrick Fitzgerald, he's certainly a very intelligent and capable attorney. But his use of history for a soundbyte was off yesterday when he said that Ol' Blago's corruption would cause Ol' Abe to spin in his grave.

Hardly.

Lincoln was no stranger to political corruption and scandal.

The name Simon Cameron ring a bell?

Cameron's sleazy reputation was well known and generated a drumbeat of opposition to his nomination in Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. However, "Cameron and Lincoln were another of those odd couples that politics occasionally produces, to the wonderment of all. Cameron was a political insider of the slickest kind. For helping nominate Lincoln in Chicago in 1860, Lincoln's floor managers had promised him a cabinet seat. Lincoln had honored the promise and appointed him secretary of war," wrote John Waugh in Reelecting Lincoln.

Sound familiar? Only this time Honest Abe's hands were directly implicated in the quid pro quo, whether he liked it or not, not off in the distance and giving Cameron "nothing" while he maneuvered.

Cameron turned out to be monstrously corrupt, to no ones, especially Lincoln's, surprise, interfering in all manner of government military contracts at a time of war to the profit of his cronies. Lincoln eventually eased him out in late 1862.

A particularly apocryphal story for the current day, involves a conversation between Lincoln, then President-Elect, and powerful Pennsylvania Representative and Republican Thaddeus Stevens:

During one interview with Lincoln, the president-elected questioned Thaddeus Stevens pointedly: 'You don't mean to say you think Cameron would steal?"

"No,' said Stevens drily, 'I don't think he would steal a red-hot stove."

Lincoln partly as a joke and partly perhaps by way of delicate warning, repeated the statement to Cameron. He was not amused.

Stevens later returned to demand of Lincoln: 'Why did you tell Cameron what I said to you?"

"I thought it was a good joke and didn't think it would make him mad."

"Well, he is very mad and made me promise to retract. I will now do so. I believe I told you he would not steal a red-hot stove. I will now take that back."

To use Lincoln as completely clean of corruption, completely unaware, totally innocent, a saint in all things, is to ignore history in favor of canonization -- which makes Lincoln unrealistically dull -- the same thing we've managed to make George Washington into, even though all of the praised giant intellects of the Founders (Jefferson, Hamilton, etc.) always were small in any room the original George W. occupied.

Not good at all

Our situation in Afghanistan might improve if we can manage to stop doing shit like this:

U.S. Special Forces killed six Afghan police and wounded at least 11 early Wednesday in a case of mistaken identity after the police fired on the Americans during an operation against an insurgent commander, officials said.

How many times has this happened now? I don't mean to play armchair general, but if you keep accidentally killing civilians and your allies it starts to look to the afflicted group as less and less of an accident.

The Power of Jeff Gerth Compels You!

You can tell a Democrat is coming to power, because the New York Times is revisiting the era when money-losing land deals were a tell-tale sign of corruption.

Mr. Obama placed the call to his political mentor, Emil Jones Jr., president of the Illinois Senate. Mr. Jones was a critic of the legislation, which sought to curb the influence of money in politics, as was Mr. Blagojevich, who had vetoed it. But after the call from Mr. Obama, the Senate overrode the veto, prompting the governor to press state contractors for campaign contributions before the law’s restrictions could take effect on Jan. 1, prosecutors say.

Which naturally leads the Times to say this:

Beyond the irony of its outcome, Mr. Obama’s unusual decision to inject himself into a statewide issue during the height of his presidential campaign was a reminder that despite his historic ascendancy to the White House, he has never quite escaped the murky and insular world of Illinois politics.

Okay, first of all, as Will Bunch notes, getting elected President sort of qualifies as an escape from Illinois politics. Second of all, making an effort at reform in your home state equals corruption?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Threading the Late Night Needle

Any predictions for the Rod 'Rodster' Blagojevich's scandal?

Also, how much soap did his parents make him chew?  The guy's got a dirty mouth.  Although his use of profanity does remind me of a few other political bureaucrats. 

For example, his  non-creative use of profanity and condescension of perceived enemies reminds me of Dick Cheney.  Any one else see the similarity there?  Are there other commonalities?

Free Advice

For Blegojevich: I have this sinking feeling that he has been working the wrong party on Obama's open seat. Now he can really do something good for himself by selling the seat to a Republican for a pardon from the outgoing president. Wouldn't that make this REALLY delicious. An aging man can dream, can't he?

The Latest

According to a breaking report out of Sweden, the first ever brain transplant is scheduled for Friday on Rod Blagojevich for 'amazing levels of stupidity.' Dr. Sorenson, the team's head of surgery, was quoted as saying "...its a miracle there's enough brain power to keep him breathing.  Twice we had to remind him to breathe."  The hospital predicted success "so long as Blagojevich remembers to show up."

Hours after federal investigators announced they had arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff on corruption charges, U.S. attorney Patrick  Fitzgerald declared Tuesday a “sad day for government.”

“Gov. Blagojevich has taken us to a new low,” he said. “This conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.”

Fitzgerald said the government had bugged the governor’s campaign office and placed a tap on his home phone.

Now, seriously how long before the right-wing blames this on liberals?

Welcome, Illlinois ...

...to the Governor-as-Punchline™ Club.

You're in good company.

xxx...

New York

P.S. Looks like Blagojevich got into either Howard Fineman or Byron York's Clairol for Men.

North Carolina Mormons

Get revenge on Steve Young opposing Prop 8 (and good for him and his family):



I don't think the guy (and let's face it, it was a guy it has masculine idiocy written all over it, and a Mormon would only use beer as a weapon -- why LKF the Mountain Meadows Massacre occurred not with guns but tossed Budweiser bottles) would've have wanted to be near Emmitt Smith when he made his toss.

How many years can one column set us back?

Ruth Marcus, trying to out shallow Jonah Goldberg.

Close. But no bubble-gum cigar.

Pantload is still the dumbest writer on the planet not inhabiting K-Lo's mass.

THEY'RE LAME AS HELL, AND YOU'RE GONNA TAKE IT SOME MORE!

God forbid the television networks even try to produce entertainment programing. NBC, the network that saved Howie Mandel, is going to make everyday, hump day.

NBC will keep Jay Leno five nights a week, but in prime time, competing not with David Letterman, but with shows like “CSI: Miami.”

The network will announce Tuesday that Mr. Leno’s new show will appear at 10 o’clock each weeknight in a format similar to “The Tonight Show,” which he has hosted since 1993.

Oh, boy, Jay Walking in Prime-Time. Somebody pinch me, and then shoot me.

So their line up in 2009 will be as follows:

8:00 p.m. Deal or No Deal/Unnamed "Howie Mandel/Sharon Osborn project"
9:00 p.m. Heroes (no really, it will stop sucking this time)
10:00 p.m. Jay Leno's 'Not Even Tryin' Anymore' Hour

Paddy Chayefsky was an optimist.

[Cross-Posted at Firedoglake]

Catching Up With Bada & Bing

The legal woes of New York Republicans continue (to entertain) apace ...

Legal defense fundraising for failed 2008 and sure-to-be-failed 2012 Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani's BFF Bernie Kerik. No word if either Rudy or Judith Regan sent a check.

Sentencing day for disgraced former Republican congressman Vito Fossella. No word whether Vito's family (either of them) will attend.

Two Icons delighted to see Condi horn in on their moment

Twyla Tharp looks damned enthused too.

(AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

You think...


They talked about their noses?
(AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)

Oh, and look who else crept out of the crypt...Mr. "Wouldn't Fuckin' Die"

"Before he got old"
REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Welcome to 3rd Place

Yes, ratings juggernaut David Gregory officially named MTP host.

The Lotus Eater

Oh, fuck me, Bill Kristol, you fucking wank!

I can’t help but admire some of my fellow conservatives’ loyalty to the small-government cause. It reminds me of the nobility of Tennyson’s Light Brigade, as it charges into battle: “Theirs but to do and die.” Maybe it would be better, though, first to reason why.

It's the theme of the last 8 years you asshole. And you're in large part responsible for needless death. How clever of you to just use it as a toss off phrase, you tosser.

George Bush

In like the Lions...

Out like the Lions.

(pic from here)

No longer suprised

Far be it from any of us to defend the rights of those with poor taste, but...well, this just sums it all up.

A Congressional oversight panel plans to ask the National Security Agency to start an investigation into new evidence that the agency illegally wiretapped a Muslim scholar in Northern Virginia and concealed the eavesdropping during a 2005 trial in which the scholar was convicted on terrorism charges...

Mr. Timimi’s lawyers maintain that the N.S.A., without acquiring court-approved warrants, used the eavesdropping operation approved by President Bush weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks to wiretap his communications, and that the interceptions might include evidence that would point to his innocence in what they regard as a free-speech case. They charge that the government has intentionally withheld that material despite repeated requests.

Apparently, what we have is evidence of bad taste:

During Mr. Timimi’s trial, prosecutors presented evidence that in a phone conversation... Mr. Timimi had celebrated the 2003 destruction of the space shuttle Columbia.

Um...what?

This was evidence used to support a conviction and a term of life-imprisonment? Does this mean we can convict Bush on the "No WMDs over here" joke?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Proposed Memorial Observance

I suggest starting next year, we strap waterwings shaped like a black bat onto Bush and send him flying into the remains of the USS Arizona.

It'll combine Pearl Harbor, 9/11, Abu Ghraib and Katrina all in one. If we make the water-wings out of recycled credit cards it will be even better.

Yoo can run but he can't hide

Okay, I admit, that pun was also a crime against humanity. But still, it's good to see this:

On Monday, Berkeley's city council will vote on a proposal by its Peace and Justice Commission as to whether they will recommend war crimes charges for [John Yoo] UC Berkeley constitutional and international law professor. If passed, the measure would also order UC Berkeley to provide alternative courses to Yoo's class at the Boalt Hall School of Law.

Now that is a Headline...

Police respond to rude, nude motel patron

Ah, so many jokes...

We now return you to your scheduled program already in progress.

Are they jumping for 28%?

With just under 50 days left in the Bush catastrophe, some are commenting on an increase of  approval rating from 24% to 28%.  Is this the definition of damning with feint praise? 

The approval rating of Bush jumped to 28 percent and is expected to continue increasing during the president's final weeks in office.

That's only a 4 percent increase from the 43rd president's record low of 24 percent, but pollsters predict Bush will enjoy renewed support that is common for outgoing presidents.

"The last three presidents, and four of the last five who departed at the end of a term, saw significant rises in their ratings. Some of these increases were evident beginning with the first poll conducted after the election," Gallup's Jeffrey Jones writes.

Someone explain to me why anyone with a functional brain in their head is trying to justify this clown?

Idiot on Idiot action

No other possible description for this.

41 Days, 51 Minutes To Go

A McMansion fit for a Gigantic Failure

Never will feel your pain:

The President and Laura Bush will move to a sprawling 8,501-square-foot house in an ultra-chic North Dallas enclave next year...Built in 1959 and recently renovated, the home boasts 1.13 acres, four bedrooms, 4-1/2 baths, a wet bar and a separate servants' quarters.

So, 8,500 square feet for a pair of empty-nesters, about five times larger than a typical American home -- and a wet bar -- humble man o' the people indeed.

(found via Watertiger)

The Diddler

While unemployment surges, Booman sums up Bush's determination to take down another American city:

Bush says he is concerned that the automakers will not survive, but he is totally unwilling to take any action. It's clear that General Motors will be forced into bankruptcy by the end of the month and that Chrysler will fail no later than late January. Those collapses will then eat away at Ford's supply base and ultimately destroy whatever is left of the auto industry in the upper Midwest. Dealerships will close, tool-and-dye shops will close, subcontractors of all kinds will either slash their work force or go straight out of business. All autommakers will then be disrupted. The United Auto Workers will basically cease to exist.

Not his problem anymore. He's too busy not doing anything to actually do anything.

UPDATE: And here's the proof his party is willing to join on in, a half-assed $15 billion package that is much less than is needed and will start the whole thing over again in January:

Several officials in both parties said a key breakthrough on the long-stalled bailout came when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bowed to Bush's demand that the aid come from a fund set aside for the production of environmentally friendlier cars.

NATURALLY, the short-sightedness that caused this in the first-place occurs again.

Un-fucking-believable -- except I've lived through 8 years of "un-fucking-believable" so now I'm wondering if rational is the new "un-fucking-believable"?

No need to be diplomatic anymore!

I remind you, George W. Bush will get a substantial pension, benefits, and round the clock protection the rest of his life -- all for so many notable fuckups. The latest of which is revealed in this exchange:

Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner KEITH HALL: If I were to characterize this jobs report I would say it’s very dismal jobs report. There’s very little in this report that’s positive. This is maybe one of the worst jobs reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics has ever produced.

Rep. ELIJAH CUMMINGS: Ever?

HALL: Yes.

CUMMINGS: And how long has the Bureau been around?

HALL: 124 years.

That takes you back to 1884. There have been a LOT of recessions, and depressions -- including "THE" Depression in that period.

The first "George" was First in War and First in Peace, the last "George" sure bookends all that.

About the only thing he's ever accomplished.

I Think They Should Wrestle For It

TPM:

Four votes.

That's how many votes the Franken campaign just said they're leading Norm Coleman by, with the hand recount now officially finished. In other words, with every single precinct in Minnesota now done counting (except for the one where they're still searching for the missing votes), the Franken campaign is claiming the lead. An extremely slim lead, but a lead nonetheless.

NYT:

Luckily, Minnesota’s electoral law has a provision for ties. After all the counting and recounting, if the vote is statistically tied, the state should invoke the section of the law that requires the victor to be chosen by lot. It’s hard to swallow, but the right way to end the senatorial race between Mr. Coleman and Mr. Franken will be to flip a coin.

Wiki:

Franken was born in New York, the son of Phoebe G. Kunst, a homemaker and real estate agent, and Joseph P. Franken, a printing salesman. Franken had a Jewish upbringing and grew up in St. Louis Park, a suburb near Minneapolis. Franken is a cousin of MSNBC's Bob Franken. His older brother, Owen Franken, is a photojournalist. Franken attended St. Louis Park High School until the tenth grade. He graduated in 1969 from The Blake School, where he was on the wrestling team.

No matter how this thing turns out, I take great pleasure in a comedian (albeit a Harvard educated comedian) having humiliated Norm "Chicklets" Coleman to the extent Franken has.

Why...

...is the "Transition to Digitial TV" one of the thirteen most "urgent" issues facing incoming President Obama?

Replace that one with your suggestions in comments, people.

Ménage à triage

They must be using one of those "Big Three Automaker Jets":

The election is behind them but the three amigos – Senators John McCain, Joseph I. Lieberman and Lindsey Graham – are still jetting from place to place...

The trio turned up today in tiny Bhutan, a Buddhist kingdom nestled between India and China

Don't hurry back.

(pic REUTERS/Andrew Biraj)

Who needs Hoover?

Holy fucking shit!

Skittish employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years, catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic proof the country is careening deeper into recession...

The loss of 533,000 payroll jobs was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting.

That is, I believe more than double the worst prior month this year (though not in the revised numbers which are also frightening) a year that has, I believe, yet to see a jobs report that actually had a (+) sign in front of it.

But, by all means, GOP, fuck over the big three automakers and their employees too.

After all, they aren't banks, right?

Oh, Canada...

The Prime Minister of Canada, Li'l Bush, has used the Queen of England as an excuse to keep from having his ass tossed out of power?

What the fuck, Canada? First, you let the Queen modify the two-line pass rule in hockey, but you'll allow this?

The Grift that keeps on Giving

While turkeys paid the ultimate price:

Gov. Sarah Palin’s traveling makeup artist was paid $68,400 and her hair stylist received more than $42,000 for roughly two months of work, according to a new campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Lou Dobbs still employed

So at least CNN has it's "priorities" in order:

CNN, the Cable News Network, announced yesterday that it will cut its entire science, technology, and environment news staff, including Miles O’Brien, its chief technology and environment correspondent, as well as six executive producers. Mediabistro’s TVNewser broke the story.

When Pinheads Explode

Obviously, this is merely a plan to destroy his original birth certificate, the one that reveals he was hatched in a manger outside a terrorist madrassa, the child of Malcolm X, and Judith Campbell Exner:

Barack Obama told a group of donors in California early last year that his first international trip would be to Muslim Indonesia, a supporter who was present recalled today.

"Obama told the 20 or so of us at breakfast that 'his first trip as President would be to Indonesia - the world's most populous Muslim country,'" [Ted] Leary recalled...

He said Obama told donors to “imagine if on January 20, 2009 a guy named Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in on the US Capitol steps as the President of the United States, what that would say to the world, especially the Muslim world, about our nation.”

Imagine the message it will send to right-wing bloggers?

(pic from jeffhall2069)

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Um, what?

Peggums Noonan, provides the Underwood Deviled Ham treatment of policy:

But it comes at a key moment for Mr. Obama, because it gives him a certain amount of cover to be serious about what needs to be done. What's at stake for him is two words. When Republicans say, in coming years, "At least Bush kept us safe," Democrats will not want tacked onto the end of that sentence, "unlike Obama."

Yeah, it was really awesome when Bush prevented the worst terrorist attack in the history of the country and prevented the death of 3,000 people and then used it to start a completely needless and unrelated war in a different country. That was fuckin' amazing.

Nice

And true to life.

I'm Still Not Bored of This

Nor will I be any time soon, I suspect.

Peggy Noonan, November 4, 2004:

I do not know what the Democratic Party spent, in toto, on the 2004 election, but what they seem to have gotten for it is Barack Obama. Let us savor.

Yes, do savor -- and then suck it -- wingnuts!

Yo, Peggy. He won INDIANA!

British Big Brother

Gets a smackdown!

The European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously on Thursday that Britain’s policy of gathering and storing the fingerprints and DNA of all criminal suspects — even those who turn out to be not guilty — was a violation of the human right to privacy.

The ruling, handed down in Strasbourg, is a severe blow to the law-enforcement policies of the Labor government, which has led Europe in aggressively collecting and retaining personal information on its citizens. Using unusually strong language, the court declared itself “struck by the blanket and indiscriminate nature” of the police’s policy of holding DNA material indefinitely in its data base.

Wonder if this will have any implications for U.S. efforts at creating a national DNA criminal database.

Is Smaller always Better?

It depends.

The trend among commentators toward discussion of restructuring the automakers is assuming smaller is better.  However, what part of the company is getting smaller?  Production?  Size of cars?  Stock?

What needs to be shrunk is the over-reliance on excessive executives, the top of the company not the workers.  CEOs, CFOs, and all the acronyms in between are consistently overpaid and the oft overlooked over-perked. 

Perhaps now we are finally seeing the end of the corporate perks such as the unnecessary corporate jet, but what is needed is more accountability AND balanced pay and compensation.  Hopefully we can examine the imbalanced nature of pay expectations in banking, automobile manufacture, and other industries.

What Democrats have to put up with

I know it's been a long time, slightly less than a month, but I recall Barack Obama running with a "D" behind his name on the ballot.

Suddenly, appointing 1 Republican to one of the 3 major cabinet positions is insufficiently bipartisan. Now, bipartisanship requires Obama appoint at least 2/3rds Republicans to run the government.

Making it one-third less reprehensible.

In like Douchebags, Out like Colostomy Bags

Oh, the final 46 days after eight years of pettiness and arrogance goes out the way you'd expect:

The outgoing Bush administration is planning to announce a broad new "right of conscience" rule permitting medical facilities, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers to refuse to participate in any procedure they find morally objectionable, including abortion and possibly even artificial insemination and birth control. For more than 30 years, federal law has dictated that doctors and nurses may refuse to perform abortions. The new rule would go further by making clear that healthcare workers also may refuse to provide information or advice to patients who might want an abortion.

Oh awesome, now medical practitioners can refuse to even "advise" you of things like RU-486, condoms, let alone abortion. Finally, via President Bunnypants we as a society have evolved (sorry "creatively designed") to the point where your medical treatment is determined by the guy at the Wal-Mart Pharmacy who doesn't want to give out your birth control prescription. Because "God" has so obviously blessed him. Rollback, indeed.

(pic from here)

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Remember This Guy?

He was one of the few bright spots in the last eight years. I loved this kid when this picture came out. I hope he's doing well (and still kicking Republican Jesus Freak ass) today. Don't know why I just thought of him, but there you go ...

I've got insomnia, which I blame on Colleague P, who forced that third gin and tonic on me at tonight's borg Christmas party. Yeah, we had the party even thought the whole damn world is falling apart. As Aravosis says, it's okay to have a Christmas party even when you have no money because, well, it's freaking Christmas, right? Anyway, never go to a Christmas party with an open bar with a bartender. They know how to work all the angles and the next thing you know, you're up at 3:30 AM and your wallet's $15 lighter because you had to cab -- rather than subway -- it home.

I read today that Obama's giving Bush's ambassadors a collective pink slip. That's fine with me, but can he please do the same with the entire DoJ? That whole department is seeded with vile little Goodlingesque Republican poison pills who need to be sent packing for wingnut welfare gigs. I know ... I know ... a bunch of them probably have civil service protection now, but for crissakes, you're lawyers -- you'll figure out an argument to boot their wingnut asses. Barring that, I say go completely Milt Waddams on them. You assign every little budding Rachel K. Paulose important tasks like inventorying department office supplies ("I said count the staples, not the boxes of staples!") for the foreseeable future. They'll have their resume out to The Heritage Foundation before you can move them downstairs to storage B.

Bring Me Man Hands!

Rehabilitating the country's reputation in the middle-east has proven not challenging enough so now Karen Hughes has been summoned for a really tough job: the Bush legacy project. Good luck Man Hands, you are going to need it.

Just to be Clear

So, now the problem is that Obama is bringing together too many talented people?  Wow, Bush really lowered the bar!!

What We am NOT thankful for...

Enough with the thankful lists and how we need to appreciate family and friends during the shopping extravaganza known collectively as "The Holidays."  I was waiting to have my hair trimmed while being forced to watch the Today Show and once again I was confronted with evangelical boosterism and attempts to manage my sentiments and emotions.  Enough.  Seriously.

Because what is all this really?  When did the Today Show become a sales force for conservative Christianity?  Have I missed something here?  Matt Lauer did the worst interview I have seen since Sarah Palin and Sean Hannity with the purpose driven life mega-curch minister.  Do I have to remind the Rel-Cons that these dates were chosen for business (read shopping) reasons not to celebrate a birth which would have occurred in the summer not December.

Sigh..........

So, in this 'spirit' I propose we create a list of what we are not thankful for in the comments... What say ye?

Music Time Fun

Interesting article on newly minted music genre 'Smart Rock'. I would put the Smiths into a different category myself.  Although the essay is overly focused on self-alienating musicians, it does help promote some under appreciated music.  Does the genre title mean all other rock is 'Dumb Rock' - I would certainly apply that to Kid Rock.  Ugh.

Speaking of music that deserves a wider audience, what are your favorites of 2008?  There was much to love this year.  I am personally struggling on where to put Kings of Leon and My Morning Jacket CDs in the top 20.  What did you think was great this year?

Have I mentioned?

My new sitcom proposal involving the adventures of the Sham-Wow guy ("you know how good the Germans are at making things") and the woman who "got cash for the Jewelry from my first marriage" in the "Cash-4-Gold.com" commercial.

It would be awesome.

And absorbent.

Jackass Classic

As George W. Bush leaves the White House on a "high note" (but that's just the pisco sours talkin') blaming everyone but him for the nation's problems, let us note that the delusional gene runs strong in his party.

And to make Chris Wallace happy, let's return to that magical era of wide lapels, wider ties, and awesome audiotapes as Tricky Dick strode the country like a colossal ass:

Early December 1972:

Both men [Nixon and Kissinger] sometimes avoided the word "bombing." Instead, they talked of "the action."

As Nixon said, "Let's look at the action. We can't have any doubts about it."

Meanwhile,

...in a Dec. 9, 1972, conversation, Nixon told his daughter, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, that the purpose of the presidency is "to do good things every day."

Oh, for a secret taping system in of the last eight years.

(pic from here)

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Nothing says FAIL like...

"The Dow closes down about 680 points, as manufacturing hits a 26-year low and the U.S. is declared to be in a recession."

Or can we imagine worse?  Bush only has a matter of weeks left, dare we worry about what else he can mangle on his bumbling way out of office?

Still Exaggerating...

(AFP/Mandel Ngan)

Thanks, Nino

Hmmmm,

A court dissolved Thailand's top three ruling parties for electoral fraud Tuesday and temporarily banned the prime minister from politics, bringing down a government that has faced months of strident protests seeking its ouster...

We got Bush v. Gore instead. Sort of the opposite result.

Query

How long until some meat puppet on cable TV asks if the Clintons are going to try to poison Obama or assault him with a cigar?

It's really a conspiracy that exists only in their own collective minds.

In normal parlance that would be applicable under several categories of the DSM-IV.

Oh boy!

People will be soooooooooooooooo happy, the man's a ratings giant! Check out the way the dude's show is a ratings sinkhole wedged between Tweety and a Tweety repeat. That's demographics you can believe in!

David Gregory will take the reins as moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press," the Huffington Post has learned. Gregory has been a leading contender for the permanent spot since Tom Brokaw stepped in as interim moderator following Tim Russert's death in June.

Look at the majestic journamalism in action!


Karl Rove is starting to look a lot like Mary Jane Blige. How is that possible?

Press Still Unable to Move On

When will the press let the campaign go?  We need to move on to the new administration and the problems we face rather than interpreting and debating every comment from former rivals.  Senator Clinton and President-Elect Obama are far more than former rivals.  Come on Press... (apologies to the few members of the press who have moved on) can we focus on more than rivalry?  What is this kindergarten?

World Aids Day

Long past time to do more to fight this disease, today - the 20th anniversary of World Aids Day - reminds us to redouble our efforts.  How depressing that we are having a 20th anniversary!

I wonder how Bush sleeps having cut advanced research funding?  Does he sleep like a man damned or does he not even care? 

Year and Counting

Ah, so we have been in recession since December 2007... that explains a great deal, doesn't it?  How long have you been experiencing tough economic times Hegemonians?

Time for a Hissy

Over at the intersection of Mustard Gas Street and Leftover Chili Avenue, K-Lo has spent many of these last several years obsessing about Yahoo or Google not appropriately honoring one day or another in their headers.

You'd think she'd give up imbecilic whining for Lent, but damned if the cartoon headers for Lent were missing from one or the other.

So, it is with real satisfaction that I announce, she will really not like his header embellishment:

Ego much?

Let me see if I get this straight.

Jim Carey has played...

1. A guy who can't lie;
2. A guy who becomes God;
and now,
3. A guy who says yes to everything.

Way to challenge yourself there guy. You and Eddie Murphy have the same agent?

A Thank You Visit

Obama is appearing on Letterman this Friday, December 5th. Sounds like a big thank you for his years of service.

The Liberationator

In a recent interview with a vigorous and demanding questioner, his sister, George Bush had this to say about his "chosen" legacy:

"I'd like to be a president (known) as somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace"

And I'd like to be known as the People Magazine's Sexiest Blogboy, but Harry Knowles just won't stop writing HTML mash notes to Guillermo del Toro.

Let's look at those awesome accomplishments.

Iraq, brutal to woman; brutal to Christians, Jews, brutal to Shiias and Sunnis, or about any other religion; brutal to gays. But I guess it's awesome for every other person in Iraq, all two of them.

And, of course, Afghanistan is just as well off.

Heckuva legacy indeed.

[Cross-Posted at Firedoglake]

(pic via Vanity Fair)

Et tu, Canada?

Oh noes, conservatives getting tossed all over.

Well, there's always Mexico Lou Dobbs -- maybe you should flee across the border?

Remarkably Consistent

Oh, the Bush Administration, is there nothing they didn't completely fuck up?

No.

The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.

"Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.

Bowing to aggressive lobbying — along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK — regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.