Bike Messengers are Cool

I like the part at 1:48 where he knocks over the traffic cones with his foot. Who hasn't done that?

Sign of the Times

Car commercial heard on the radio this morning:

If you buy a car from Hyundai and end up losing your job in 2009, Hyundai will buy the vehicle back.

That's some marketing you can believe in!

Art for Art's Sake

I ran into my buddy Keith downtown. He's an artist of some local renown, and he did a portrait of Barack Obama that appears in this week's New Times. I told him I thought the pic is pretty damn cool and suggested maybe there was a way he could market it as a print and make some money (you know, he is a starving artist and all). He was shocked I would even suggest such a thing and smacked me down with this priceless quote:

"I don't want money, I want immortality!"

Bravo, my friend, bravo.

"Read a MFing Book"

[caution: adult language]

What would Fat Albert say?

Blago's Closing Argument

Blago's gone, and late night comedians and amateur psychologists everywhere are really going to miss him...

Mother Hubbard

Why would a woman with six children be taking fertility drugs?

The woman who gave birth to octuplets this week already has six young children and never expected that the fertility treatment she received would result in eight more babies, her mother said Thursday.

The woman, who has not been publicly identified, had embryos implanted last year, and "they all happened to take," Angela Suleman said, leading to the eight births Monday.
[...]
She acknowledged that raising 14 children is a daunting prospect.

"It's going to be difficult," Suleman added, noting that her daughter's father is going back to Iraq, where neighbors said he worked as a contractor, to help support the expanded family.

Neighbors said she and her six children -- ages 7, 6, 5, 3 and 2-year-old twins -- live there with her mother. Her marital status is unknown.

Messed up.

Blago's Toast

We never could lay a glove on Dubya or Shooter Cheney, but Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is O-U-T.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted at his impeachment trial and thrown out of office Thursday, ending a nearly two-month crisis that erupted with his arrest on charges he tried to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.

Blagojevich becomes the first U.S. governor in more than 20 years to be removed by impeachment.

After a four-day trial, the Illinois Senate voted 59-0 to convict him on the broad charge of abuse of power, then again to disqualify him from ever again holding office in Illinois.

Under state law, the verdict instantly removed Blagojevich, a second-term Democrat schooled in the bare-knuckle politics of the Chicago Machine.

Maybe they can get Roland Burris to replace him.

News from BF-Egypt

Here is the above-the-fold headline story in today's SLO Tribune...

Homeless man sent to jail for poaching dinner

Nothing like keeping your readers well informed.

"Ain't Post-Partisanship Grand?"

Here's Digby's take on the economic stimulus imbroglio, before The Vote....

It's Republican day on the cable networks. They are crawling over every show like fire ants. I presume the Democrats must be too busy combing the bill for what they can take out of it to stop the cacophonous whining. But they really should be out there trying to defend themselves because the conventional wisdom is gelling that Obama is going to fail in his most important mission --- his promise to end partisanship --- because the Democrats are corrupt spendthrifts who want to lard up the stimulus with pet projects and defy their own president's allegedly heartfelt desire that conservative policies be continued.

Ain't post-partisanship grand?
[...]
The GOP hissy fit has worked like a charm. The villagers are all on the same page: the "problem," as always, is that Democrats are not doing everything they are precisely told to do by the Republicans. They are being partisan. The Republicans weeping and wailing like Victorian spinsters works every time.

Word to the Wise

Always make sure your cigarette is fully extinguished before leaving your mobilehome to attend your somking cessation classes....

San Luis Obispo Fire Department officials have ruled that the fire that burned a mobile home in San Luis Obispo was caused by a cigarette.

The mobile home was owned by 68-year-old Bill Lewis who lived there with his mother Chessie, who’s in her 80s.

Bill Lewis said the fire – reported at 12:10 p.m. – was started by a cigarette butt left behind by Chessie before the mother and son left for a meeting at the County Public Health Department to help her quit smoking.

On the Extinction of the Dinosaurs

STFU Already.

Last I checked the Crusades were a "very violent sport" as well.

Look where that got us.

No Deal

How'd all that sweet-talkin' and compromise work out for you Mr. President?

Washington -- In the first major test of President Obama's ability to push his ambitious agenda through Congress, the House on Wednesday approved the largest attempt since World War II to use the federal budget to redirect the course of the nation's economy.

Obama had worked hard to gain bipartisan support for the $819-billion stimulus package, beginning to negotiate possible compromises with Republicans even before entering the White House. But the measure passed on a strict party-line vote, 244 to 188. Not a single Republican supported the bill, and only 11 out of 255 Democrats opposed it.

Negotiation is futile. There is no way these Republicans will ever -- ever -- compromise with this president or these Democrats. The very idea that they manage to go on TV and accuse the Democrats of "partisanship," of failing to work with them in a bipartisan manner, is laughable. Don't expect any help from the media in pointing that out.

Pwnd again.

Change You Can Believe In

A new Gallup poll finds that there are only 5 "red states" left.

Blagojevich Explained

Blagojevich Claims Behavior Was Just Elaborate Plan To Surprise Patrick Fitzgerald With Senate Nomination On His Birthday.

Demographics

Overheard Sarah Palin-related bar conversation...

"There are only two kinds of people in Alaska: fishermen and strippers."

[h/t Melissa]

Stategery

When it comes to dealing with obstructionist Republicans, President Obama ought to follow a fairly common law enforcement/diplomatic strategem:

We don't negotiate with terrorists.

Still Doesn't Get It

From TPM video...

Here's ex-Merrill CEO John Thain explaining the whole $1.2 million office renovation story in an interview with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo this afternoon.

Mind you, that "office remodel" included an $87,000 area rug, a $1,400 parchment wastebasket and a $35,000 "commode on legs". I believe former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers is doing hard time these days for a similar misuse of funds. Here's the full inventory.

Package Envy

Apparently the problem with the stimulus plan is that the Republicans don't like the size of President Obama's package.

Bush Leaves Note for Barack

"During his last moments in the Oval Office, former President Ronald Reagan scribbled a note for his successor on a notepad with a turkey insignia that said "Don't let the turkeys get you down." He, too, slipped the note in the presidential desk for his successor, President George H.W. Bush."

Here's Dubya's note to Barack Obama, courtesy of Booman...


Create your own right here...

One Act Morailty Play

Cast of Characters:
Charlie Brown -- The Democratic Party
Lucy van Pelt -- The Republican Party
[h/t to Atrios for the apt metaphor...]

Democratic Party Theme Song

"Fooled Again" -- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

No Deal

Somebody needs to explain to President Obama and the Democrats that there ain't gonna be no deal. Not now; not ever. Any hint by the Republicans that they might compromise is nothing more than a ruse. When the chips are on the table, the GOP is going roll you.

So, Democrats...no more negotiating.

Make. Them. Filibuster.

That's Not Punny

I realize that headline writers get paid for their creativity, but is it really necessary to get this cutesy when 8000 people are losing their jobs?

President Obama on Arab Television

Working hard to undo George W. Bush's screw-ups...

President Barack Obama on Tuesday chose an Arabic-language satellite TV network for his first formal television interview as president, delivering a message to the Muslim world that "Americans are not your enemy."
[...]
The president expressed an intention to engage the Middle East immediately and his new envoy to the region, former Sen. George J. Mitchell, was expected to arrived in Egypt on Tuesday for a visit that will also take him to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
[...]
Obama said the U.S. had made mistakes in the past but "that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that."
[...]
"What I told him is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating," Obama told the interviewer.

The president reiterated the U.S. commitment to Israel as an ally and to its right to defend itself. But he suggested that both Israel and the Palestinians have hard choices to make.

"I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people," he said, calling for a Palestinian state that is contiguous with internal freedom of movement and can trade with neighboring countries.

How Would You Feel?

...if this were your country?

Capitulation is so Demeaning

Wait a minute, I thought we won?

WASHINGTON – House Democrats are likely to jettison family planning funds for the low-income from an $825 billion economic stimulus bill, officials said late Monday, following a personal appeal from President Barack Obama at a time the administration is courting Republican critics of the legislation.

I have a simple message for Obama and the Democrats:

Make. Them. Filibuster.

Dishonest Debate

Republican lawmakers are nit-picking away Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan in a apparent blatant effort to obstruct the measure by any means possible. Some are up in arms about the {ahem} insertion of contraception funding into the legislation, while Congressman Eric Cantor [Wingnut-Virginia] says setting aside money to weatherize peoples' homes "does nothing to create jobs." Well, I'm no economist, but wouldn't such a project require the hiring of plenty of "house weatherizers?" And, given the extreme cold temperatures across the country this year, isn't weatherizing peoples' homes a worthy goal?

Maybe we should ask this guy? Oops too late.

Leading Economic Indicator?

What does it say about the state of things that one of the few companies whose stock is performing adequately is McDonald's?

NEW YORK (AP) — McDonald's Corp. proved on Monday that its burgers and fries can still tempt thrifty consumers around the world despite a deepening recession that has chomped on the profits and sales of its pricier sit-down competitors.

As most restaurant companies prepare for what will likely be a dismal fourth-quarter earnings season, the nation's No. 1 hamburger chain reported strong same-store sales in its fourth quarter, helping boost the company's profit past Wall Street's estimates.

"While we clearly prefer a more robust environment, today's market conditions play to our strengths," Chief Executive Jim Skinner said on a conference call with investors and analysts, adding that its price-sensitive customers "are feeling the pinch almost everywhere else in their daily lives."

Thanks god for the dollar menu! Ouch.

Rock on!

I'm the man on the mountain, come on up.
I'm the plowman in the valley with a face full of mud.

Delusion is not just a river in Egypt anymore....

In addition to comparing the FBI's early morning raid on his home to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, beleaguered Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has compared himself over the past few days to Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, the Jimmy Stewart character in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, John Doe, and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.

Here's the day in 100 Seconds...

Trickle-Down Economics Revisited

With tough economic times nipping at the heels of many Americans, and taking a bite right out of the ass of just as many more, the emotional stories told in this 60 Minutes piece on the struggles of workers at a DHL distribution site in Wilmington, Ohio will likely come as no surprise. That doesn't make it any less painful to watch...

Watch CBS Videos Online

With this story fresh in my mind this morning, I fired open the fishwrap clicked on LA Times.com and found out that the news is only getting worse:

From drugs to computer chips, top companies announced today that they are laying off nearly 50,000 employees as a reeling economy took a heavy toll on the already strained job market.
[...]
Caterpillar, the world's largest manufacturer of construction equipment, announced that its fourth-quarter profit dropped 32%, a symptom of the worldwide economic slowdown. Because of the drop, the company will eliminate 20,000 jobs, about 18% of its workforce, through a combination of layoffs and buyouts, Caterpillar announced.

Drugmaker Pfizer Inc., which announced it will acquire rival Wyeth for $68 billion, also said it will cut about 8,000 jobs from its current workforce. Once the companies are merged, another 15% of the workforce, nearly 19,000 jobs, could be eliminated in the first years, said Pfizer spokesman Ray Kerins in a telephone interview.

Home Depot, the nation's largest home-improvement retailer, announced that it will cut about 2% of its workforce, or 7,000 jobs. It also said it will eliminate about four dozen stores, including all of its specialty Expo Design Center stores, including three in L.A. County and three in Orange County.

Sprint Nextel Corp. announced that it will eliminate 8,000 jobs by the end of March as it seeks to reduce internal and external labor costs by about $1.2 billion on an annualized basis.

Texas Instruments Inc., which makes chips for cellphones and other gadgets, said it will cut 3,400 jobs, about 12% of its work force -- 1,800 jobs through layoffs and another 1,600 jobs through voluntary retirements and departures.

And General Motors Corp. said it will cut shifts in the second quarter at plants in Ohio and Michigan, eliminating about 2,000 jobs, and decreasing production at other plants in the United States and Canada.

Consider that every one of those 50,000 lost jobs only serves as an exclamation point on the 2.6 million jobs the nation lost last year, and every new unemployed worker makes recovery all the more elusive for the economy as a whole and represents yet another family facing a future of unpaid bills, "food uncertainty," lost homes, deferred college educations and -- perhaps most financially damaging of all -- limited heath insurance options.

The real tragedy here is that these job cuts are coming because, now that businesses are suffering, management has determined that the best route back to financial solvency is by reducing labor costs. That means layoffs. That means more half-time workers and that means reduced pension benefits and lower health insurance contributions. That means the worker is getting screwed. Again.

Funny, when everyone was living high on the hog, when stock shares were going through the roof, it was the shareholders who saw the lucrative returns. Real wages barely moved a blip since the 1980s, while executive salaries and shareholder dividends were skyrocketing. Now the chickens have come home to roost, and this crisis is going to be fixed on the backs of the middle-class, just you watch.

I got an email today from Joe, and he had some interesting thoughts on all this. I guess his wife's company is facing major layoffs, and she's safe for now...but who knows, they're cutting 2500 people at her firm, and who's to say they won't be back for more 6 months from now? So here's Joe's take:

I've been on a rampage lately against corporate layoffs. Lynnette's company is in the process of cutting 2500 people (7% of the workforce). Fortunately, she was saved by her old boss, who's now VP of their software division. I should be safe here thanks to my move to NYC. But I'm concerned that we'll whack some people too.

I'm a total idealist when it comes to full employment. I believe every American who wants to work should have a job. And when I'm king of the world, any CEO who announces layoffs must first lay HIMSELF off - with no golden parachute. For example, it's due to the poor decisions and lack of vision from Steve Ballmer that Microsoft has to let 5,000 people go. He should be the first in line. Any IDIOT can make a company profitable by cutting heads. It takes a real businessman to keep a company going and keep everyone employed.

From what I'm hearing from Cliff, it sounds like his company (led by a very good man, [name redacted]) will NOT be laying people off. It makes sense, because they have plenty of cash, still consider themselves a growth company, and want to be positioned to take advantage of a good economy when things turn around. There are plenty of other ways to save money besides cutting people. I hope our guys have the same balls.

I hope so too, Joe. I hope so too.

Language Pedantry Responsible for Bungled Oath?

So speculates Steve Pinker in the NYT...

How could a famous stickler for grammar have bungled that 35-word passage, among the best-known words in the Constitution? Conspiracy theorists and connoisseurs of Freudian slips have surmised that it was unconscious retaliation for Senator Obama’s vote against the chief justice’s confirmation in 2005. But a simpler explanation is that the wayward adverb in the passage is blowback from Chief Justice Roberts’s habit of grammatical niggling.

Language pedants hew to an oral tradition of shibboleths that have no basis in logic or style, that have been defied by great writers for centuries, and that have been disavowed by every thoughtful usage manual. Nonetheless, they refuse to go away, perpetuated by the Gotcha! Gang and meekly obeyed by insecure writers.

Among these fetishes is the prohibition against “split verbs,” in which an adverb comes between an infinitive marker like “to,” or an auxiliary like “will,” and the main verb of the sentence. According to this superstition, Captain Kirk made a grammatical error when he declared that the five-year mission of the starship Enterprise was “to boldly go where no man has gone before”; it should have been “to go boldly.” Likewise, Dolly Parton should not have declared that “I will always love you” but “I always will love you” or “I will love you always.”

Any speaker who has not been brainwashed by the split-verb myth can sense that these corrections go against the rhythm and logic of English phrasing. The myth originated centuries ago in a thick-witted analogy to Latin, in which it is impossible to split an infinitive because it consists of a single word, like dicere, “to say.” But in English, infinitives like “to go” and future-tense forms like “will go” are two words, not one, and there is not the slightest reason to interdict adverbs from the position between them.

Tell it to the Grammar Police.

Not Following This Logic

How does increased funding for contraception amount to "a taxpayer gift to the abortion industry?"

That kind of thinking just doesn't make any sense to me, unless it's just more divisive political rhetoric. Oh, now I get it.

Failure is Not an Option

Rush Limbaugh wants Barack Obama to fail.

How about you?

Ovah

Battle Cry

Free Rod Blagojevich!

Italian Soccer Team Practice

Tasteless Cookies

Incredible as it may seem, this story comes to us not from Kentucky or Alabama, but the melting pot liberal bastion of Greenwich Village in New York City.
Despite the optimism and euphoria felt this week by so much of the nation, it's people like baker Ted Kefalinos who remind us that we've still got a really, really long way to go in America.

Not a Bad First Week

The man has hit the ground running, that's for sure. And America seems to be happy about that. [click image for larger view]

Relevant Question

Atrios asks the relevant question:

Without even getting into the actual accuracy of the latest bit of wingnut porn about how 61 released Gitmo detainees supposedly returned to take up arms against the US, can anyone explain how this is supposed to represent a failure of Obama's policies? He didn't let them go. Liberal bloggers didn't let them go. The ACLU didn't let them go.

And if George Bush has "kept us safe," what exactly is it that these terrorists have done?

What's in a Name?

Check out the petty hoodlum's name in this story from the local fishwrap:

San Luis Obispo Police arrested a man on suspicion of stealing property out of vehicles Thursday.

Chance Vigilante, 19, a transient, was arrested around 1:13 a.m. in the 1000 block of Southwood Drive on suspicion of possessing stolen property, said police. A person called police after spotting Vigilante and another man looking into cars with a flashlight in an apartment complex parking lot.

No Honeymoon for Obama at FOX News

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

Fox News Fear Imbalance

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

They really are the worst people in America.

Obama's Message to the GOP: Get on Board or Get Out of the Way

President Obama bottome-lined the situation pretty clearly during his economic policy meeting with Republicans yesterday. Responding to GOP efforts to nit-pick their way through his $800-billion plan, Obama offered a succinct two word reply:

"I won."

Whoops!

To quote Indigo Montoya, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Progress

At the rate Obama is going, we should have that whole global warming thing licked by February.

Peace in the Middle East by summer!!

Jessica Alba: Fox Outfoxes FOX

Watch Jessica Alba call Bill O'Reilly an "A-hole" right into a FOX News camera:


Added bonus for this exchange:
FOX reporter: "Do you have any last things to say to Bush as he leaves office?"
Jessica Alba: "Goodbye."

And smiling all the while...SNAP.

Day Two Review

Think how lucky we are that George W. Bush is not president right about now...

WingNuts Never Rest

Over at the Appraisers Free Forum, an "interesting" [and I use the term loosely] discussion on the relative merits of US Presidents led to this post:

Gawd, I do hope this category is below the other three. Lincoln??? LINCOLN??? Yuck!
That sonofabitch failed at everything he ever tried, including the presidency. Failed as a farmer, failed as a general store owner, couldn't get re-elected as an alderman, failed as a lawyer (low fees, quick turn-arounds), and failed as a president. He introduced paper money, tried an income tax that got smacked down by SCOTUS, and got over 350,000 Americans killed.

Oh, yeah, but he "freed the slaves."

Needless to say, most of the eejits over there think one of two things: A) Bush was great all along, or B) Bush will be redeemed by history. Hah!

Rolling Up the Sleeves

From DKos...

[His] first full day in office included retaking the presidential oath; seeing Hillary Clinton confirmed as Secretary of State; issuing two executive orders and three presidential memoranda on transparency, lobbying, salary freezes, ethics and presidential record-keeping; calling Middle East leaders and appointing an envoy to the region; meeting with economic advisors about the stimulus; convening a meeting with the Secretary of Defense and other senior military advisors about Iraq and Afghanistan ...

When comes the first Obama vacation?

Melting Pot

Remember when Tiger Woods so famously described himself as a "cablinasian?" "[Translation: caucasian, black, indonesian and asian.]

What, then, does that make the First Family? Here's a great piece on Barack and Michelle Obama's family history.

For well over two centuries, the United States has been vastly more diverse than its ruling families. Now the Obama family has flipped that around, with a Technicolor cast that looks almost nothing like their overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly Protestant predecessors in the role. The family that produced Barack and Michelle Obama is black and white and Asian, Christian, Muslim and Jewish. They speak English; Indonesian; French; Cantonese; German; Hebrew; African languages including Swahili, Luo and Igbo; and even a few phrases of Gullah, the Creole dialect of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Very few are wealthy, and some — like Sarah Obama, the stepgrandmother who only recently got electricity and running water in her metal-roofed shack — are quite poor.

“Our family is new in terms of the White House, but I don’t think it’s new in terms of the country,” Maya Soetoro-Ng, the president’s younger half-sister, said last week. “I don’t think the White House has always reflected the textures and flavors of this country.”

Obama Retakes Oath of Office

I thought the whole "he screwed up the Oath" thing was pretty much a red herring from the get-go, and I'm pretty sure Chris Wallace had tongue in cheek when he hinted that Barack Obama "might not actually be President," but it's a testament to the power of FOX News over the wingnuts that Obama retook the Oath of Office yesterday.

And therein lies an object lesson in the danger of FOX. Sure, Chris Wallace knows he's full of shit, and sure, he was [probably] kidding. But his idiot viewership was fully prepared to take his molehill and make a mountain out of it.

Sabotage

Oscar Nominations

The Academy Award nominations came out this morning and, as I had been predicting hoping, Robert Downey Jr. is among those up for Best Supporting Actor for his farcical turn as Oscar-winning actor Kirk Lazarus in Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder. There were some protests about the racial aspects of Downey's portrayal, but I thought he was brilliant.

"I know who I am," says Lazarus in the film. "I'm a dude playin' a dude disguised as anutha dude."

Daily Show Inauguration Coverage

In case you missed it, The Daily Show offered up some brilliant takes on Inauguration Day in a rare live telecast:

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

Changefest '09 - Obama's Inauguration

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Lexicography 101

The word you're looking for is drivel. You dribble a basketball.

Go Steelers!

What a maroon....

More Good News

I just thought of something. From this day forward, when you see or hear the words "White House officials say..." or "from the White House transcript..." or "a spokesman for the administration says..." they'll be the words of Barack Obama, not George W. Bush.

It's a new day.

"History Trembled"

Final crowd estimates for the inauguration came in at around 1.8 million, and reports are that there was not one arrest made.

The Washington Post offers a detailed account of the event, including a few interesting bits of trivia:

Barack Hussein Obama took the oath of office as the nation's first African American president yesterday, summoning a vast crowd and a watching nation to the task of reviving a country in crisis.
[...]
Obama was accompanied to the West Front of the Capitol by President Bush. At the stroke of noon, the man who had served not even a full term in the U.S. Senate became the nation's commander in chief, and at 12:04 p.m., he was sworn in by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

Obama took the oath by stating his full given name, which he had once said opponents had used to try to set him apart from mainstream America.

It was the first time Roberts had administered the oath -- and the first time any chief justice had sworn in a president who voted against his confirmation -- and both men stumbled over the words. But the sight of the two youthful leaders -- Roberts, 53, the second-youngest chief justice, and Obama, 47, the fourth-youngest man elected president -- underscored the theme of generational change.

Obama laid his hand on the burgundy-velvet-covered Bible that Abraham Lincoln used for his inauguration in 1861, and history again trembled. The chief justice that day was Marylander Roger B. Taney, who wrote the Dred Scott decision that said blacks could never be citizens. The Constitution, he said, recognized blacks as "beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations."

It's a new day.

A Good First Step

Washington -- Military judges will consider Wednesday whether to halt the Guantanamo war crimes trials after President Barack Obama ordered prosecutors to request a 120-day suspension during a review of the system used to try suspected terrorists.

The motions, filed just hours after Obama's inauguration, will be heard in the cases of five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks and of Canadian Omar Khadr, who is accused of killing an American soldier with a grenade in Afghanistan in 2002.

"It has the practical effect of stopping the process, probably forever," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, Khadr's defense lawyer.

Into the Breach

What do we do now?

Ballin'

Time to head out and Barack the Graduate.

Inauguration Day in 100 Seconds

Hat Tip

...from the Commander-in-Chief to the "non-believers." Thanks Barack.

The Inaugural Address...in two parts

Who Flubbed the Oath?

You probably saw the awkward moment along with the rest of us. What was up with the hemmin'-and-hawin' during Barack Obama's 36-word oath of office? The early word was that Prez. #44 messed it up, but if you review the tape, it's pretty clear that Chief Justice John Roberts is the one botching The Moment.



Talking Points Memo is reporting that Roberts thought he could free-lance it without a script...

Now hearing that Roberts tried to get through the oath from memory without the text in front of him. Trying to nail that down. Great idea.

Dude, just feed him the lines, you goddamn showboater. Republicans proving once again that they can't get anything right.

Sightings

Gray Davis, Dustin Hoffman, Magic Johnson, Annie Leibovitz, Muhammad Ali.

What Next for the Bushies?

Karma begins to work its magic....

The [final Bush admin.] party, organized by outgoing White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and his predecessor, Andy Card, was held in a room with no heating. They couldn't get any entertainers, because they'd already been booked for better events.

"Are these all white people -- I mean White House people?" I asked someone in a genuine Freudian slip. Turned out the crowd was a mix of alumni from the White House, State Department, Treasury, and Justice and a few campaign workers. The mood felt more sweet than bitter. Many staffers had spent the weekend clearing out their offices. The question I kept hearing was "What's next?" Some were applying to grad schools, others were heading to D.C. law firms or think tanks, and others were returning to their home states or traveling. One outgoing Treasury employee had already landed a job as a manager at Abercrombie & Fitch.

Bankruptcy can't be too far off for A&F.

ADDING: The Inaugural Parade as seen through George W. Bush's eyes...

Sexy

Jill Biden appears to be rocking some pretty hot go-go boots.

The Manchurian Candidate?

Only in America

C-SPAN cameras have a Don King citing sighting down near the VIP seats. How does he keep pulling off the con?

1.20.09...The New Day is Here

"I woke up this morning, feeling brand new
'cause the dreams that I've been dreamin'
have finally come true."

A Day to Remember

I'm taking the day off work tomorrow to bear witness. A group of us are getting together to "drink liberally" ( before noon!) and celebrate this momentous occasion in American history at McCarthy's Irish pub in San Luis Obispo, CA. Later on tomorrow night I'm going to a more conventional party with about 600 other die-hard Democrats.

I hope your plans include similar revelry and rejoicing.

MLK, 1965: "How Long? Not Long."

The End of the Embarrassment

It's over....

Less Than 10 Hours, 24 Minutes to Go

Do you suppose he'll switch it up at the last second and go with the Koran?

Who's Missing Out?

Over at Daily Kos they're talking about all the people who should've lived to see Barack Obama become President of the United States tomorrow.

Martin Luther King, the man with The Dream, would have been 80 years old. Malcolm X would've been 83.

My Dad, who also missed out on seeing his beloved Phillies win the World Series just a couple of months ago, would have been 75.

I'll bear witness for all of them.

Rejoice

It's our last weekend with George W. Bush as our (p)resident.

Look for the Union Label....

Emptywheel via firedoglake:

They're calling it a miracle--the successful landing of a US Airways jet in the Hudson and subsequent rescue of all 155 passengers. They're detailing the heroism of all involved, starting with the pilot and including cabin crew, ferry crews, and first responders. What they're not telling you is that just about every single one of these heroes is a union member.

There's the pilot: Chesley B. Sullenberger is a former national committee member and the former safety chairman for the Airline Pilots Association and now represented by US Airline Pilots Association. He--and his union--have fought to ensure pilots get the kind of safety training to pull off what he did yesterday.

Then there are the flight attendants: They're are members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. Yesterday's accident should remind all of us that flight attendants are first and foremost safety professionals--they should not be treated like cocktail waitresses.

There are the air traffic controllers: They're represented by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Someday, they'll rename National Airport for the work these men and women do to keep us safe in the air.

There are the ferry crews: They're represented by the Seafarers International Union. They provide safety training to their members so they're prepared for events like yesterday's accident.

There are the cops and firemen: They're represented by the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and the Uniformed Firefighters Association and Uniformed Fire Officers Association (IAFF locals).They're the men and women who performed so heroically on 9/11--and they've been fighting to make sure first responders get the equipment to do this kind of thing.

So next time your plane drops out of the sky to make an unscheduled water landing...and everyone walks away mostly unscathed...thank a union worker.

Amazing

Yesterday: 100 Seconds

It was such an interesting day that Dubya's lame-assed speech didn't even make the highlight reel.

This Land is Your Land

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings....

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Look to the Left and hit it....

Scandal Monger

Remember when Hillary Clinton fired the whole entire White House travel office?

Comin' Down

Coming down from the mountain
I have seen the high and mighty
I will go again someday
But for now I'm coming down

Coming down from the mountain
I have seen the lofty glory
I will go again someday
But for now I'm coming down
[...]
Picking slowly up the rockslide
One thing always seems apparent
If the climb becomes too much
I can always turn around...

Hornet

Hoodwinked

Dateline Nashville, Tennessee: Here's a wonderful tale of classic political snookeroo:

The Republicans and Democrats were even in the State Senate and the Dems held the state House prior to the election. This was only the case because one Senate Republican broke ranks, voted for the Dem as Lieutenant Governor, and became an independent. He was beaten by a Republican this year. The Republicans took a solid 5-seat majority in the Senate and a squeaky 1-seat majority in the House. There was much talk that former House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh might peel off a Republican vote and remain Speaker, but it didn't happen.

What DID happen was that right wing nut job and Speaker Apparent Jason Mumpower LOST the race when all 49 Dems voted for Kent Williams, a Republican who also voted for himself, and thus became Speaker 50-49. He is still a Republican, but he is a moderate one, and he may be able to help us retain our excellent Comptroller of the Treasury. Right-wingers were red-faced and angry, and fun was had by all.

You can watch it here

Here's another explanation of just how righteously the TN GOP got rolled:

The mood in the hall of the General Assembly Tuesday morning oozed with anxious anticipation.

Republicans stood poised to take control of the Tennessee General Assembly for the first time in nearly 140 years. Even Gubernatorial candidate Zach Wamp roamed the halls. "What I say to all my new colleagues here in the state house and state senate is with this new majority, is you cant just be the opposition party now because the burden is on you to govern."

Some Democrats felt the change in the air too, beginning to box up items in their offices. Rep. Joanne Favors says "there are many Republicans I hope will vote their conscience and hope they will."
[...]
What happened next some may describe as the political play of the decade as all 49 Democrats backed Kent Williams, a Sophomore Republican from Carter County, a district just miles from Mumpower's hometown.

During the voice vote on the Speaker's position, the House clerk called every Democrat first, then every Republican, except Williams. The 49 to 49 split was then decided by Williams.

Williams accepted the position amid cheers and boos, prompting state troopers to enter the House chambers ready to respond to an outburst.

If memory serves me, the Democrats pulled off a stunt similar to this in California about 10 years ago.
SNAP! Ha.Ha.Ha.

UPDATE: And here's the video...

Gaza Strip

If you want to understand the the plight of the Palestinian people living in Gaza, you must watch this powerful film:

"GAZA STRIP (map with filming locations) was filmed during the first four months of 2001, a period that covers the election of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and extends to the first major armed incursion into "Area A" by the Israeli military.
[...]
At first it was daunting, to say the least. I didn't speak Arabic, I had no contacts on the ground. I had never even met a Palestinian in my life. The current intifada had been underway for five months and hundreds of people -- mostly Palestinian civilians -- had already been killed in the violence. After a number of dire warnings from Israelis about the likelihood of my being attacked by angry Palestinian mobs, it was with much trepidation that I crossed alone through the Erez Crossing checkpoint into the Gaza Strip one rainy day in January.
[...]
To my great relief, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip turned out to be people like everyone else. It is the situation they find themselves in that is extraordinary: The Gaza Strip is essentially an open-air prison for Palestinian refugees, guarded on all sides by the Israeli military. Barely 28 miles long and 4 miles wide, it contains more than 1,200,000 Palestinians -- over one third of them living in squalid refugee camps built in 1948 to hold the people forced out of their homes by the creation of modern-day Israel. It is one of the most densely populated places on the planet. Nobody can pass through its borders without the permission of the Israeli soldiers. Like the West Bank, the Gaza Strip has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. Most people living in the Gaza Strip have never known a single day of real freedom.

My plan was to find a main character to follow -- probably a stone-throwing kid or an ambulance driver -- who would be able to give a narration and framework to the events taking place. I knew from the start that I didn't want to write a narration for the film; I wanted the characters I filmed to speak for themselves and tell their own stories.
[...]
I found the film's principal voice in the person of Mohammed Hejazi, a 13-year-old paper boy in Gaza City. He was the first person I filmed inside the Gaza Strip. One afternoon early in my stay I walked out to Karni Crossing, a place in east Gaza where many children have been killed and wounded by Israeli soldiers while throwing stones at tanks, and the kids there pushed him in front of the camera as their spokesperson. It was no accident: Mohammed could talk the ears off a donkey, and he has a great deal to say. I followed him for several weeks, recording hours of interviews and verite material.
[...]
I fell into a routine of filming every day, all kinds of subjects. I filmed women in tents whose houses had been bulldozed. Children dodging machine-gun fire on their way home from school. Rock-throwing demonstrations. Patients suffering in the hospitals from a gas attack. An old couple in Rafah whose small villa was gradually being destroyed. A boy whose friend was blown up by an Israeli booby-trapped device. Palestinians circumventing a roadblock by driving along the beach. Assassinations carried out with Apache helicopters. Funerals. Lots of funerals. It ran together in my camera like a kaleidoscope of slow suffocation punctuated by moments of extreme terror.
[...]
My idea of a good documentary is a film that captures the most essential aspects of its subject, a film that shows rather than tells. I wanted to make a film that would convey not only the hard facts of life inside the Gaza Strip, but also the emotions, sensations and driving desires of the people I filmed. I made the film to fill a gap in our knowledge and a blind spot in our thinking about this conflict, but more than anything this film is an attempt to record the humanity of the people I met there, the thing that is impossible to tell in words."

Last Digs

My reply to the Ralph Bush letter cited below was printed in the Tribune last week:

Litany of falsehoods
I am compelled to raise a voice of dissent with regard to The Tribune’s decision to print the letter from Ralph Bush (Dec. 31) extolling the alleged achievements of President Bush. In fact, I believe it was journalistically irresponsible for The Tribune to publish Bush’s letter, as it gives the imprimatur of truth to a whole host of claims that are demonstrably false.

It would be one thing for Ralph Bush to voice an opinion (“I believe George Bush is a good president”), but it is quite another for Ralph Bush to offer a litany of falsehoods that only serve to illustrate his willful ignorance, give cover to a heaping wreckage of a presidency and affirm the farcical beliefs of a dwindling minority of the American people.

I realize space is limited, so rather than refute each preposterous claim in Ralph Bush’s letter, I will close with a recent quote from former Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski, who told a misguided Bush apologist: “You know, you have such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on that it’s almost embarrassing to listen to you.”

Jim Mallon
San Luis Obispo

[They used "litany of falsehoods" as the headline, but I would have preferred "heaping wreckage of a presidency."]

The Full Disaster

By special request, here's the full video of Dubya's final press conference....

What a moran.

One Shining Moment (NOT)

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

Epic Fail

[h/t Vic]

Laying Off the Smack

Fellow travelers: Apologies for the sparse posting of late. The obssessive compulsion it takes to do this job correctly can, at times, be hard to sustain. I'm taking a little time right now to slow down and simply enjoy the transition from Bush to Obama, without the necessity of throwing up 5 or 6 or 10 posts each and every day. It's a tough gig.

With that, did'ja happen to catch the Decider's final press conference today? He can't even pronounce "misunderestimated" correctly anymore. What a maroon: