A Wedding (Or "Somewhere, Robert Altman is Smiling"

Sordid Sally Quinn working through the problems of her equally sordid family in her Washington Post column is funny, but the comments the column generated are absolutely side-splitting. 

Saturday AM 10

1. Book recommendation for Rudy Giuliani's soon-to-be incarcerated best budy, Bernie Kerik.  I've mentioned You Got Nothing Coming before, but it's worth another shout-out because it really is good.  Bernie:  you got something coming and it ain't nothing nice.  
2. If you haven't overdosed on Bernie/Rudy schadenfreude yet, read gossip fossil Cindy Adam's post-sentencing interview with Bernie.
   
3. On Thursday night, I headed over to Madison Square Garden to see Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck in a "Together and Apart" show.  Beck played a set, Clapton played a set, and then they played a set together.  Here are the set lists for those who are interested, and yes, they really did play "Moon River" and it was great.  The concert-goers ranged in age from sixteen to about seventy, which I found rather cheerful.  The kids came out to see the guitar gods and the old folks came out to see, well, the guitar gods.    
4. Roger Ebert put up a worthwhile follow-up post to that Esquire interview I mentioned the other night.  
5. Speaking of Chicagoans, if you're one and looking for a gig, (little) Mayor Daley is advertising for aldermen on the internets. 
6. Even more Chicagoans: are you listening to the driftglass/blue gal podcasts?
7. Today is obviously Chicago Day: the library tells me that, The Adventures of Auggie March, which I reserved a few weeks back, has arrived. (BTW, I wonder what Hitchens has to say in that Auggie intro?  Hitchens' review of Wolf Hall has made me want to read that, too.  Look at what he says about Orwell's 1984 at that link.  Tell me what you think.)
8. As a follow-up to The Dark Heart of Italy I need to see Videocracy.
9. Massachusetts:  thanks for sending this buffoon to the greatest deliberative body in the world. /rolls eyes  
10. Somewhere, William F. Buckley is smiling. 

What a surprise

I remember the bombardment of advertisements "Our Little Genius" got on Fox as the NFL season wore down -- struck me as yet another low point in game/reality show programming another knotch in creepy up from child beauty pageants.

But as rarely watch Fox in prime time with the exception of an occasional episode of the Simpsons I hadn't paid attention to the fact it never actually aired (that's a lot of ad revenue wasted).

Apparently, it's like they made it into a baby version of Charles Van Doren.

I'm not surprised Tiger's Wife didn't attend his press statement

About how he's guilty of only having "loved too much, so very very very much".

But I'm kind of surprised who was there.

Sarah Palin is really enjoying the Olympics

Especially curling.







Although, once they add 'Snowmachine Racing' to the competition, it will be truly awesome!

Literally true, if politically incorrect

Sarah Palin substantially outwitted by a retarded person*.

I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor. I thought the line "I am the daughter of the former governor of Alaska" was very funny. I think the word is "sarcasm."

In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.

*(I know, I know, but it doesn't work without the phrase)

And as they were complaining

Three Cheney posts is really three too many, but this deserves a whoopin', while Dick and Dickette were bashing Obama on his prosecution of their wars...

Pakistani authorities, aided by U.S. intelligence, have apprehended more Afghan Taliban chiefs following the capture of the movement's No. 2 figure — arrests that together represent the biggest blow to the insurgents since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

The arrests of more than a dozen Taliban leaders, including known associates of Osama bin Laden, came as militants fought to keep a grip on their southern stronghold of Marjah...

The arrests follow the capture in Karachi of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, second only to the Taliban's one-eyed leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. The White House and the Pakistani army have confirmed Baradar's arrest but have released few details, including when and how he was apprehended.

Pakistani intelligence officials said Baradar was traveling by car on the outskirts of Karachi when agents intercepted his vehicle, arresting him along with three bodyguards. One intelligence official said Baradar has provided "useful" information that led to the arrests of other militants.

Extensively quoted from the AP (don't sue and/or taze me bro).

Meanwhile, it hasn't been without costs.

And I also hear he is perceived to have a vision-problem

Good job New York Times!

New York Governor Patterson seen as aloof and increasingly remote...

This is their big scoop? That a guy with really shitty approval ratings, who is going to be clobbered in a primary, likes to be alone?

Shocking, who could have anticipated?!

No to Affirmative Action, Yes to a Meritocracy

That's the Republicans for you!

Liz Cheney leaves open the possibility of a Presidential run in 2012, and Mitt Romney is definitely running. Jeb Bush is a possibility too. All, of course, achieved their current status solely on the basis of their clear talents, having come to prominence from absolutely no where.

But the real key will be who Bill Kristol, Jonah Goldberg, John Podhoretz and Meghan McCain endorse.

Because it is TOTALLY about merit!

Thanks for not coming out to vote Massachusetts Democrats

Because your new Senator has agreed there are three meaningful ways to express your frustration.

1. Not Voting

2. Voting for Scott Brown

3. Flying Planes into Buildings to protest the actions of the American government.

Yeah, that's right, he said it.

Must be getting ready for CPAC, because it isn't terrorism if it's a white guy who hates the government.

In the name of Love being an Asshole

Let some Republicans just pass up the subtle offensiveness, and just get on to the full-blown obnoxiousness assholery:

Utah State Sen. Mark Madsen (R) is introducing legislation to create a holiday honoring John Moses Browning — the Utah native and “gun pioneer” who founded the Browning Arms company — on the same day as Martin Luther King Day.

Oh, if only he could celebrate it at the Lorraine Motel?

Noblesse O-bilge

Well look who showed up at the 38th Annual Hotel/Motel Art Fair and Book Burning yesterday...

Liz Cheney also came out swinging in her conference address.

"There's no polite way to put this, but that kind of incompetence gets people killed," Cheney said, accusing the Obama administration of missing warnings from the intelligence community that Yemeni terrorists were plotting an attack.

"There is no doubt that the daily intelligence briefings that the president receives contained much more information on the threat from Yemen," she said, without a hint of irony...

If this was a reality-based community, as opposed to CPAC, Liz would then have turned around and arrested her father (and commenced the torture immediately, she is a Cheney after all).



[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

This guy makes Sarah Palin look like a Rocket Scientist modestly intelligent

What a moroon!

The Tea Party's choice in the Florida Republican primary, Marco Rubio, began his address to a crowd of conservative conventioneers by taking a shot at President Obama for reading from a teleprompter. He did it while standing in front of two easily visible teleprompters...A HuffPost reporter, however, watched his speech from the front row and Rubio could clearly be seen looking intently and repeatedly at the teleprompters.

"This Plays Well for Rudy Giuliani!"

Yes, those were the first words I heard out of Joe Scarborough's mouth upon his colleague's announcement of the death of Benazir Bhutto. I wonder if the odious Scarborough would use the same words now:

Kerik is Sentenced to Four Years in Corruption Case

This guy was almost our first Secretary of Homeland Security based on Rudy Giuliani's flawless assessment of his sterling character.

Bye, Bernie.

And more importantly, Bye forever, Rudy.

Conjugal Visits or will he just have to settle for a mop handle?

Rudy's BFF is off the market for four years, due to get out, just in time to see Rudy 2016 tank about the time of the Iowa Caucuses.

Save it for the 'Ice Capades'!

One thing that people my age (mid-40s and over) remember about the Olympics growing up was the stylized "Good vs. Evil" bullshit that was touted whenever an American squared off against a Russian.

Hence the 'Miracle on Ice' victory of the college kids against the almighty "Red Army Machine" -- which turned out to be full of decent guys who could really play hockey and about which the only real tragedy is that some of them didn't get to come and dominate the NHL. I mean the 'Miracle on Ice' is an awesome story, but the Soviet hockey players were not exactly the East German female swim-team.

And then there was Russian weight-lifter and jovial fat man Vasiliy Alekseyev who symbolized nothing more than that some people love beets too damn much.

But the Cold War is over, dead and buried, and we won by TKO. U-S-A! U-S-A! -- though as a technicality it also royally fucked us over at the same time as we choke on our military expenditures and ever-awesome overseas occupations.

Anyhoo, NBC seems determined to try to make a Commie-Monster out of a Russian men's figure skater.

I'm sorry NBC, but I just don't fear the Russians ability to out do us in the realm of sequins and feather-boas.

Matlock!!!

Who could not have predicted Grandpa Davey would cut-and-paste yet another mash note to a retiring self-proclaimed centrist who made Broder swoon by mouthing platitudes and professing love for Republicans all while soaking up as much cash as they possibly could?

Maybe only Steve Doocy and the rest of the Fox & Friends crew is dumb enough to not have anticipated that one (yeah, right "maybe").

Uh, he's a golfer

It's bad enough network news departments appear to believe McCain is President or something, but it's one thing for ESPN to cover this, but Tiger Woods is not a head of state:

Expect the broadcast networks to break into their daytime lineups at 11 a.m. Friday to cover Tiger Woods's news conference in step with the cable news networks -- just as though it were a presidential address to the nation.

Golly, I bet he's going to say he's sorry.

Surely, this ranks up there with the moon landing.

Well-heeled Racists

Let's call a teabag a tagbag:

Tea Party activists are 60 percent male and 80 percent white, with 77 percent of them self-identifying as “conservatives” and 44 percent identifying as “Republicans.” While 47 percent of Americans report making less than $50,000 a year, only 26 percent of Tea Party activists make that little, while 34 percent make $75,000 or more.

The kind of pinheads that can afford to go from motel convention to motel convention dressed up like Button Gwinnett.

NBC's Olympic Coverage is epically awful

With the refusal to show live programming dispite the availability of four channels, interrupting sports etc.

But hey, Colbert is in Vancouver and he is sticking it to those syrup-sucking iceholes and their free health care!