Annoy a Liberal

I apologize for the poor quality of this photo, but I snapped it real quick through the passenger window and I'm just glad the toothless wonder who was driving this vee-hichle didn't notice me and kick my ass....

A few of the choice slogans:
-- Welcome to America, NOW SPEAK ENGLISH!
-- I Work Hard to Support Millions of Slackers on Welfare
-- Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Sarah Palin
-- Their Mascot is a JACKASS. Any Questions?
-- The UN is NOT your friend!
-- Gun Control means using BOTH HANDS
-- Annoy A Liberal: thank a soldier

What a moran.

Another Ignoramus Named Bush

Just having the name Bush must make you an idiot.

From today's San Luis Obispo Tribune comes this letter to the editor:

Bush merits lofty rating

I hope I am still alive to see President Bush elevated in the history books to the high position he deserves. George W. Bush has kept us safe from fanatic terrorists for the past 7-1/2 years and strengthened our homeland security using approved aggressive interrogation and surveillance methods.

Women should applaud Bush for freeing 25 million women in Iraq.

Parents must thank our president for implementing the No Child Left Behind Act, which has raised test scores all across the country.

Under his administration, we had a robust economy for seven years until the Democrats gained control of Congress.

No person has done more for the people of Africa than our president with massive amounts of aid to fight the AIDS epidemic.

Don’t tell me that George W. Bush is stupid! There is no way you can fly an F-102 Interceptor and not be brilliant. Do stupid people earn an MBA from Harvard? Our president has been smart enough to realize that humans having anything to do with global warming is just a hoax.

May God bless George W. Bush.

Ralph Bush
Arroyo Grande

Reading is Fundamental

Recently Karl Rove wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal in which he claimed that he got into a "reading contest" with George W. Bush. Rove sez he came out on top, 110 to 95. Hmmm... a hundred or so books over 8 years? You might say to yourself, "Wow, that's a pretty good contest." But you'd be wrong underestimating our heroes' reading skills. According to Rove, that was the tally for the 2006 contest. In 2007, Rove bettered Bush 76 to 51, and in 2008 the tally is Rove 64, Bush 40.

Let me be the first -- well not so much the first as perhaps the loudest -- to call BULLSHIT on that nonsense. There is just no way.

I'm a bit of a reader myself, after all, and even with much more spare time on my hands than The Decider (and a healthy dose of extra IQ points to boot), there ain't no way I'm reading 100 books in a year. Not that I ever counted, but I'd venture to say that I've never read 100 books in a year ever, even during my college days, when I was taking English lit and philosophy classes with regularity. I'll bet I've never read 40.

So now, after all this time, after 8 years of Bush malapropisms and ignorance, we're expected to believe this impudent, incurious child of a man read 186 books in three years? No fucking way. I mean, maybe, if he were reading this or this or this. Or this. [Note the book in Bush's hands is upside-down].

And now comes this quote from former Presidential adviser Richard Clarke to buttress my point:

"The contrast with having briefed his father and Clinton and Gore was so marked. And to be told, frankly, early in the administration, by Condi Rice and [her deputy] Steve Hadley, you know, Don't give the president a lot of long memos, he's not a big reader -- well, shit. I mean, the president of the United States is not a big reader?"

Rags and Bones -- Nomeansno

It's Elementary

Everybody hates Dubya.

Most Excellent Ultimate Highlight Video

Musical accompaniement from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

Merry F%$#ing Xmas

At least Bob Cratchit had a job...

WASHINGTON -- New claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, the government said today, as layoffs spread throughout the economy, more evidence the labor market is weakening as the recession deepens.

The Labor Department reported that initial requests for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 586,000 in the week ending Dec. 20, from an upwardly revised figure of 556,000 the previous week. That's much more than the 560,000 economists had expected.

That's also the highest level of claims since November 1982...

If you're hard up for cash, you can always take out a loan...

With its quaint downtown and tree-lined streets, the unpretentious city of Cleveland, Tenn., in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains seems an unlikely epicenter for a $50-billion-a-year financial industry.

But this is where W. Allan Jones founded Check Into Cash, the granddaddy of modern payday lenders, which cater to millions of financially strapped working people with short-term loans -- at annualized interest rates of 459%.

It's Going to Be a Long Eight Years

Good to see the media has recovered its backbone after eight years of fluffing George W. Bush. This Obama presidency is going to be only slightly less scandal plagued than were the Clinton years. You just watch.What's that? Not true?

President Yoked

When I first saw this picture I thought it was Alex Rodriguez...

The Day in 100 Seconds

Talking Points Memo puts out a clip each day that boils down an entire 24 hours of cable news talk into "100 seconds" of pure, unadulterated BS. While today's post (of yesterday's insanity) is probably indicative of what you might see on any day, it sure comes across like an all-time classic [low]...

Holiday Nugget: The Hanukkah Song

"What Happened to Yesterday?"

Here's a man with a story....

Dock Ellis, who infamously claimed he pitched a no-hitter for Pittsburgh under the influence of LSD and later fiercely spoke out against drug and alcohol addiction, died Friday. He was 63.
[...]
Ellis went 138-119 with a 3.46 ERA from 1968-79, spending most of his career with the Pirates. He went 19-9 in 1971 when Pittsburgh won the World Series, and made his only All-Star appearance that summer -- and what a show it was. Ellis was tagged for one of the most memorable home runs in All-Star history, Reggie Jackson's monster shot off the light tower at Tiger Stadium.

In 1970, Ellis overcame eight walks to pitch a no-hitter in the first game of a doubleheader at San Diego. Several years after he retired, the right-hander said he was high on LSD during the victory.

Simple Answers to Simple Questions Dept.

Question: "Should the Department of Justice consider prosecuting Bush administration officials for detainee abuse as the New York Times and others have urged?"

Answer: Yes.

Things are Tough All Over

Panhandler today asked me for 14 cents. 14 cents!?! I told him I didn't have it. Because I didn't!

Minor Detail

The governor of New York spells his name Paterson, not Patterson. Watch how many times you see the news media mess that up during coverage of the Caroline Kennedy story.

Spot the Looney

San Luis Obispo is quintessential small-town America. Our downtown -- where I live, work and play, btw -- is comprised of about 5 or 6 square blocks, and the main drag is a one-way street with shops, bars and restaurants along both sides. They've surely not been bustling like usual this Holiday season, which I would take as yet another indicator of a national consumer malaise.

I was just out for a walk and did see one pretty hilarious thing. Outside the Beverly's Fabrics store on Higuera Street there's been a Salvation Army bell-ringer stationed for the past couple of weeks. Today she was blessed to enjoy the accompaniment of our town's one and only bag lady, who was sitting about 15 feet away from the kettle keeping time with the bell by blowing [loudly] into a whistle. "Tweet-tweet-tweet. Tweet-tweet-tweet. Tweet. Tweet. Tweet. Tweet-tweeeeet." That's right, she was blowing "Jingle Bells" on the whistle!

I'll bet that doesn't last long. Hope they don't tase her when they drag her away.

GYWO: The Day Traitors

[Audio not safe for work....]

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

"Trade up? From Jennifer Aniston? She's untradeuppable... She's like a cotton candy Cadillac driven by Abraham Lincoln with a beard made out of diamonds."

The Football

There's a funny story going around about how Illinois mobster Governor Rod Blagojevich refers to his hairbrush as "the football," similar to the way the President of the United States refers to the suitcase with the nuclear codes as "the football."

And yet, Mr. Blagojevich, 52, rarely turns up for work at his official state office in Chicago, former employees say, is unapologetically late to almost everything, and can treat employees with disdain, cursing and erupting in fury for failings as mundane as neglecting to have at hand at all times his preferred black Paul Mitchell hairbrush. He calls the brush "the football," an allusion to the "nuclear football," or the bomb codes never to be out of reach of a president.

[from The Huffington Post]

"You're not going to answer questions at all?"

BUFFALO — The first day of Caroline Kennedy’s tour through upstate New York on Wednesday was meant to be a low-key, decorous excursion, mindful of the skepticism surrounding her bid to be appointed the state’s next United States senator.

In her brief public appearances, Ms. Kennedy remained circumspect, speaking to reporters in her soft, slightly plummy tones, with an expression suggesting amusement at all the attention she was receiving. But at times she seemed jolted, as when she was asked what her qualifications were to hold office.

“I just hope everybody understands that it is not a campaign but that I have a lifelong devotion to public service,” Ms. Kennedy said as she left the office of the Monroe County Democratic Committee in Rochester. “I’ve written books on the Constitution and the importance of individual participation. And I’ve raised my family. I think I really could help bring change to Washington.”

Hang Time

December 17, 1903

One of my Dad's ongoing fascinations was with the Wright Brothers and their historic achievements in flight. It was on this day in 1903 that Wilbur and Orville Wright finally took to the air in the first controlled flight in human history. Here's their story....

Here's Your My Problem

Let me expand a little on the your vs. you're Public Service Announcement I made the other day. Below you will find five examples of correspondence I have received -- just this week -- in which the your vs. you're abuse cries out for a grammarian's revenge...





[Click on the image for a larger view. There are actually three examples of the same error in this missive. I managed to highlight only one of them.]

Come on people! They can't all be typos, can they?
We must do better.

Xmas Classic: Santa Claus and His Old Lady

Back to the Future

Why post this infamous photograph, you might ask? Because you're going to be seeing it a lot in the coming weeks, as those divisive Republicans in the Senate are up to their old tricks again....

Senate Republicans have requested information about Attorney General nominee Eric Holder's role in the Elian Gonzales controversy as part of a broad probe into his tenure with the Clinton administration and potential ties to presidential scandals during that era.

Eight of nine GOP members on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote Clinton Presidential Library Director Terry Garner on Thursday to ask for 10 categories of material, and that includes any information on Holder's involvement with the Cuban boy seized by U.S. agents in April 2000.

Holder was deputy attorney general at the time. While the senators have publicly stated concerns about Holder's role in the 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, the move to focus attention on the highly controversial Gonzales case indicates the confirmation of President-elect Obama's top law enforcement official will be anything but smooth.

So much for comity.

Digby breaks it down for ya....

Keep in mind that they are just doing this to generate enough heat that Obama will find it in his best interest to withdraw Holder's nomination so that these hearings don't turn the first days of his administration into a circus. They want a scalp. It proves their relevance, it is yet another shot at Clinton (which guarantees the media will eat it with a spoon) and it puts Obama on notice that they can still gin up a hissy fit at a moment's notice if they feel they need to. The press is already showing they will move right along with them without missing a beat, so it's a logical strategy.

Let's hope he doesn't give it to them. Once you start meeting their lunatic demands, there is no end to it.

Failure to Think Logically

Last night, while out drinking liberally and watching Monday night football, I bumped into a woman I know who had just graduated from Cal Poly with a degree in political science.

"Did you Barack the vote?" I asked her with some enthusiasm.

"No way," she said, "I voted for McCain," and I recalled that she and I had a conversation about the relative merits of the candidates prior to the election.

"Why would you vote for McCain over Obama?" I asked, remembering full well our prior discussion. "You are pro-choice and pro-gay rights," I reminded her. John McCain strongly opposed both those positions.

"Gun control," she replied. "It's all about gun control."

"_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _" [That's me, speechless.]

"And that Barack Obama smokes cigarettes," she added. "How can he run the country if he can't even quit smoking?"

These are the kind of people who vote Republican.

Wingnut Letter of the Day

San Luis Obispo Tribune, Letter to the Editor, 12/16/2008...

Is Obama a U.S. citizen?
I saw in the Dec. 5 Tribune that the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to take up a lawsuit challenging President-elect Barack Obama’s U.S. citizenship.

Things have been going around the Internet about this same thing. I got mail that said he went to Hawaii to find out about his birth certificate or to make sure it wasn’t found, even though he said he was going there to see his grandmother. I still wonder if he was born in the United States. I think this should be settled as I know I’m not the only person getting this kind of information.

M. C. Daugherty
Morro Bay

If you're marveling at how well-informed Mr. Daugherty is, consider that the Supreme Court rejected this case over a week ago. I guess he never got that information. His skepticism is only exceeded by his foolishness and ignorance. Down in the comments section at the Trib, another wingnut takes up the cause:

Starburst wrote on 12/16/2008 07:14:30 AM:
If Obama does not produce a valid birth certificate, every law passed while he is in office can be challenged. It would be so simple for him to release his birth certificate and settle the rumors. Why would he not do this as the candidate that ran on a transparent government?

I'm reminded of that old George Carlin joke (paraphrasing): "Think how stupid the average American citizen is, and then remember that half the people are stupider than that."

Public Service Announcement

Your is not a contraction for you are.

Please make a note of it.

That is all. Carry on.

Let's Get Some Shoes

The Rude Pundit on the "Shoe-hurling Incident"...

This morning, the Rude Pundit decided to honor the efforts of Muntader al-Zaidi, the Iraqi shoe-tosser, by taking out a raggedy old pair of sneakers, putting them in a Priority Mail shipping box, helpfully provided by the United States Post Office, and shipping them to President George W. Bush at the White House. He included a note that read, "This is a farewell kiss from the American people, you dog."

Since throwing objects at the president is generally considered a crime, the Rude Pundit figures sending shoes to Bush is a small, good thing, a gesture of contempt that has context. Sweet Christ, at this point, there should be giant sacks of shoes heading to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC, 20500, like letters to Santa.

Idle Thought

Remember when a billion dollars was a fucking lot of money?

Mr. President, It's for You!

Maybe the shoe-thrower was just offering to let Bush use his phone....

That Settles It, Right?

The Obama team has finally released a statement detailing contacts between the President-elect and crooked Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich vis-a-vis Obama's now-vacant Senate seat: There were no contacts.

That should quiet all the wingnuts trying to tie this scandal to Obama. Right?

It's Gotta Be the Shoes...

Good thing there weren't bombs in those shoes!

Shoe of Disrespect

Most of the reporting I've seen about the "shoe throwing incident" takes pains to point out that the throwing of one's shoe is a serious insult in "Muslim culture"...like perhaps it wouldn't be quite so much of an insult if someone threw a shoe at Bush in Western society?!? Personally, I've wanted to throw more than a shoe at him for some time now. Alas, all I have is invective, but I offer a tip of the hat to that Iraqi shoe bomber. And nice job by the Secret Service, too. (NOT!)

Who Knew?

A new report produced by the government spends over 500 pages telling us what we witnessed with our own eyes:

Money quote:

The history records how Mr. Garner presented Mr. Rumsfeld with several rebuilding plans, including one that would include projects across Iraq. “What do you think that’ll cost?” Mr. Rumsfeld asked of the more expansive plan.

“I think it’s going to cost billions of dollars,” Mr. Garner said.

“My friend,” Mr. Rumsfeld replied, “if you think we’re going to spend a billion dollars of our money over there, you are sadly mistaken.”

The tally:
Casualties: 4209.
Cost: $579-billion
Duration: 2098 days

Food for Thought

from the Washington Post via C&L.....

We have been hearing since the election that Republicans want to re-brand their image. During the debate on the auto bailout, we have seen their new ideas on two important areas affecting the public – the economy and health care. For the economy, their mantra has become 'If you have a good paying job, you are paid too much. If you have a pension, it should be reduced.' In regards to health care, their position has changed from blocking universal health care to wanting to reduce health care for those who already have health insurance.

Will these platforms help them win elections? I think not. To gain seats in Washington, they will either have to change their beliefs, or hide their agenda with political slogans and hope most voters have not learned that a person should be judged by what they do, not what they say.

Of course, Republicans might pick up votes if they could prove they believe what they say. This could be done by 1) forgoing their government health care plan, and 2) reducing their salaries to that of non-union auto workers (which is what they asked Detroit's auto workers to do) and scale back on their pensions. If they do that, I might vote for them. After all, taxpayers are funding Congressmen and Senators, why shouldn't the same standards be applied to our elected officials as they want to apply to the auto industry?

"This is your farewell kiss, you dog!"

Diaper Boy

Just to make clear: Prostitute-loving, family values conservative hypocrite David Vitter is the point man in the Senate as the Republicans seek to destroy the domestic automobile manufacturing industry.

The UAW's rep in Louisiana has a few choice words about that:

"I don't know what Sen. Vitter has against GM or the United Auto Workers or the entire domestic auto industry; whatever it is, whatever he thinks we've done, it's time for him to forgive us, just like Sen. Vitter has asked the citizens of Louisiana to forgive him, " said Johnson, president of Local 2166. Otherwise, Johnson said of Vitter, it would appear, "He'd rather pay a prostitute than pay auto workers."

Albatross

I thought it was ridiculous when the Republicans began refering to our current economic crisis the "Barack Obama recession," tearing down That One before he'd even taken the oath of office. Rest assured, they'll continue down that road every day from now until 2016 (regardless of reality), but this Blagojevich thing is juicy red meat for the wingnuts. It's going to be Obama's Whitewater, you just watch.

The Scrapple Song

Hardball.

I just don't get this auto bailout thing at all beyond the strong feeling that Democrats in the Senate are spineless weasles who got rolled by the Republicans again.

Show some backbone, you fools, and make those fuckers filibuster...

What I do think makes sense is for the majority to actually require the minority to filibuster -- as in talk and talk and talk. We've arrived at a point in which it's become standard, even in the most contentious of cases, for the minority to be allowed merely to signal the intention to filibuster rather than doing the actual thing itself. Filibustering is a tool of obstruction. It's a critical right of the minority in the senate. But it is, by definition, obstruction. So it makes sense to put the obstructionists to their task, make them do it publicly. I don't know why the Democrats are not doing that in this case.

What Dad Said

Wonkette feels the same way about Blago's weird hair as my old man woulda. Wonkette just sez it a bit more colorfully:

Rod Blagojevich's Terrible Hair Found Guilty of Everything
Here’s some courtroom sketch of that Blaggy guy, Illinois mafioso Rod Blagojevich, suffering under the burden of this incredible hair monster. Here’s a quick tip for voters on the lookout for “clean” candidates: If they have hair like this, in 2008, they are a complete fucking criminal. No exceptions.

Jon Stewart Takes Huckabee to School

It's a sad state of affairs when you have to go to Comedy Central to get an enlightening interview like this one:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

SYEWART: ...“I’ll tell you this: Religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality. And the protections that we have for religion? We protect religion—and talk about a lifestyle choice—that is absolutely a choice. Gay people don’t choose to be gay. At what age did you choose not to be gay?”

Father Knows Best

One of my Dad's longstanding truisms was:

"Never trust a man with a good haircut."

I'm not sure I would necessarily call Rod Blagojevich's haircut "good," but it certainly is carefully maintained.

TNT

Fitzgerald's Press Conference

Bill Ayers: Nurturing Delusions

While I think the whole Bill Ayres thing was mostly a tempest in a teapot, his post-election comments regarding his role in the Weather Underground seem to whitewash things a smidge. When you refer to the bombings of a bathroom in the United Nations and an unoccupied office at the US Capitol (among others) as "symbolic acts of extreme vandalism" I think you fail to grasp the magnitude of your dirty deeds. Much props to Ayres for becoming one of Chicago's finest citizens, but dude bombed the US Capitol.

Katha Pollit has more here on her disgust with "the Weatherpeople."

Hardball

Nobody plays politics harder than Rahm Emanuel...

CONATY: We did receive a tip this morning that perhaps all of this came together so quickly because the Governor may have reached out to Rahm Emanuel, the president-elect’s chief of staff, in attempting to leverage filling the Senate seat. And it may have been Rahm Emanuel who tipped the scale and made this move as quickly as it did.

Dude ratted out the gangsta guv for trying to squeeze President-elect Obama on a quid pro quo.

UPDATE: Alas, it appears the Rahm the tipster story is untrue.

Compassionate Conservatism

The more things change...the more they stay the same.

On December 9, 1983, Attorney General Ed Meese claimed that people go to soup kitchens "...because food is free and that's easier than paying for it."

Chicago Style Politics?

A political scandal for the ages?

[Illinois Governor Rod] Blagojevich was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps during the last month conspiring to sell or trade Illinois' U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama for financial and other personal benefits for himself and his wife.

The US attorney investigating this case is none other than Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the same man who put former Illinois Governor George Ryan behind bars and won a conviction against Scooter Libby in the Valarie Plame case. Yep, that Patrick Fitzgerald. The smart money sez the man is going to be the Attorney General of the United States one day.

With money quotes like this one from Fitzgerald -- "But the most cynical behavior in all this -- the most appalling -- is the fact that Governor Blagojevich tried to sell the appointment to the Senate seat vacated by President-Elect Obama. The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave" -- it's clear that this story may go down in the annals of history along with Watergate and the Teapot Dome scandal.

UPDATE: Video...

Shorter version:
Dude tried to sell the President-elect's senate seat. Huevos!

The indictment indicates Obama wouldn't play ball.

What Really Happened at the Tribune Company

And you thought it was because the newspapers (and the baseball team) sucked...

One of the trickiest issues will be how to handle a financing scheme Zell used to buy Tribune that relied on a tax-exempt employee stock ownership plan, known as an ESOP. Although employees had no say over how the ESOP was used, Tribune's board approved Zell's bid, which used the ESOP as a vehicle through which he borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars to tax-efficiently fund the transaction. The scheme allowed Zell to pony up just $315 million of his own cash to wrest control of the company and made employees technically Tribune's owners.

But ownership came at a price: Tribune cut back its 401(k) contributions and instead committed to use a portion of its payroll to pay down the hundreds of millions in debt that a trust set up for the ESOP used to buy Tribune shares, according to employee stock owner plan expert Corey Rosen. "It was like a mortgage that you use to buy a house with no money down," says Rosen, who wrote a report that goes into detail on Tribune's ESOP arrangements.

Waiting for Obama

Vladimir and Estragon.

If Only

George W. Bush: "Welcome to My Hanging"

THUD.

Listen carefully in this clip and you'll hear Charlie Rose's jaw hit the table [clarifying: I think it's actually his hand] after economist Nassim Taleb give his assessment of the nation's financial woes...

Shinseki Was Right

It's about time somebody who was right about the war in Iraq was rewarded with a leadership post in the Obama government. Maybe now that he'll be head of the VA, Shinseki's the man to fix Walter Reed. And let me just add, again, Paul Wolfowitz is a total DBag.

Staying Sane

26 years and counting!

Bailouts.

Overheard comparison of the federal government's bailout of the financial sector as opposed to the Big Three automakers:

"They care more about the people who take a shower before work than they do about the people who take a shower after work."

That about sums it up.

Bush Legacy Tour

Dubya reminisces about his legacy...

Oh, America. Eight years went by so fast, didn't they? I feel like I hardly got to know you and methodically undermine everything you once stood for. But I guess all good things must come to an end, and even though you know I would love to stick around for another year or four—maybe privatize Social Security or get us into Iran—I'm afraid it's time to go. But before I leave, let me say, from the bottom of my heart: I can't think of another country I would've rather led to the brink of collapse.

A Valid Question

While everyone's casting stones at the Big-Three for their profligate ways, the UAW's Ron Gettelfinger wonders why state and local governments are funding foreign automakers in direct competition with their American counterparts:

Since 1992, states where we have transplants have located have put in over $3 billion dollars in incentives and I would point out that is the money that the state settled for and I want to go specifically to Alabama if I could for a minute. We have Hyundai Motor Company that got $252 million in incentives. Toyota there got $29 million in incentives. Honda, $158 million and Mercedes $253 million in incentives. It just seems odd to us that we can help the financial institutions in this country and that we can offer incentives to our competitors to come here and compete against us but at the same time, we are willing to walk away from an industry that is the backbone of our economy. [emphasis added.]

And while I read these figures to you, which are the actual figures that we have been able to dig up. I want to go to one particular story and that is the plant in Mercedes, the Mercedes plant in Alabama.

As it turned out, as I said Alabama offered $253 million but the state offered to train the workers, clear and improve the sites, upgrade the utilities, buy 2,500 vehicles and it is estimated that that incentive package totaled somewhere around $175,000/per employee to create those jobs there. And on top of this, that state gave this automaker a large parcel of land-around $250-$300 million dollars. That was the same price or cost to them of building a facility.

So we can support our competition but we can’t support an industry that is in need? And this need was not brought about because of what the industry has done.

Hardly seems fair.

Idle Thought on the Big Three

The free-flowing dollars coming out of the financial sector bailout are going to end up cost taxpayers at least $700-billion (and probably much, much more than that). The "Big-Three Automakers" are seeking a relatively paltry $34-billion.

So how come nobody asked the CEOs of AIG, Citigroup or any of the other shysters in the financial sector to work for a dollar?

ZAPPA

Today is the 15th anniversary of the death of Frank Zappa.

Filibluster

There seems to be some consternation on the Left that with Saxby Chambliss' Senate run-off victory Tuesday in Georgia, Democrats will be stuck at 59 in the Upper House, one vote shy of their "filibuster-proof" majority. Well, I say screw it.

Let the Republicans filibuster. Pass a universal health care bill and make them filibuster it for hours. Pass a green energy bill and make them filibuster it for days. Pass a Veterans Affairs funding bill and make them stand there and filibuster it for weeks. Pass a middle-class tax cut and make the Republicans stand the hell up and filibuster it until April 15th. They can only lose on the issues. All they have left is obstructionism.

This 59-41 majority (pending the results of the Franken-Coleman race) can be used as a political sledgehammer on the Republicans to finally drive them underground for good...but that's assuming the milquetoast Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid grows a pair and decides to play some high-and-tight hardball. How did a guy from Nevada get so freaking soft anyway?

Conservapedia: Barack Obama

The first two paragraphs of the Conservapedia entry on President-elect Barack Obama:

Barack Hussein Obama II (allegedly born in Honolulu,[1][2][3] August 4, 1961) served as a first-term Democratic Senator from Illinois (2004-2008) and then, along with his running mate Senator Joseph Biden, won the presidential election[4] after twenty-three months of campaigning, raising and spending an unprecedented $650 million, most of which came from anonymous donors. An apparent Muslim, Obama could use the Koran when he is sworn into office.[5]

Obama has espoused the socialist idea of "spreading the wealth,"[6] in other words raising the tax rates on business and the wealthy to a burdensome level in order to redistribute their income to low income individuals, many of whom don't currently pay income taxes.[7] His health care plan forces employers to purchase health care or pay a fine and will force many into a poorly run single payer system.[8] To announce his trip to Berlin in July 2008, Obama used posters which show a marked similarity to posters of Lenin.[9] During Obama's youth in Hawaii, he developed a strong, almost Father/Son relationship with Frank Marshall Davis, a known Communist[10]. For these reasons and others, he is generally considered to hold Marxist/Socialist views - views directly contrary to those of most Americans. And it is because of these beliefs that he has kept hidden from the view of the general public that many are suspicious of his agenda for the future of the US.

Read the whole thing for tons of wingnut comedy gold.

Ha Ha, FOX Takes the Collar

FOX News is 0-for-5 at President-elect Barack Obama's news conferences.

Bush Still Speaks in Palindrones

Quote of the week, George Bush on the government efforts to repair credit markets...

"The system is becoming unthawed, and it's going to take time for the system to become unthawed. What the American people have got to know is we've taken the steps to unthaw it, which is the first step to recovery."

As columnist Michael Goodwin notes in the NY Daily News, "That's what he said - what he meant was just the opposite. If the credit system was becoming "unthawed," it would be freezing, which was the problem in the first place. At least I think that's what he meant."

Or, better still, "The man's a freaking moron."

PS -- The column also includes Bush's not to be missed confession that the whole Iraq War may indeed have been a huge mistake. That's change you can believe in.

Update...

...hollow leg not yet full.

Apologies...

...for the light posting over the holiday.

I shot myself in the leg Friday night.