Nita Lowey edition: “Less than two weeks ago the American public made it clear that they want a middle ground approach to our nation’s most pressing problems,” New York Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey (news, bio, voting record) said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this appointment says loudly and clearly that the president simply did not get that message.” A. Continue reading Happy Democrat Photo

REUTERS/Jim Young watertiger has the complete “Chimpy muffs the lei” caption. Continue reading No Tongue!

It seems that Uncle Rupert was so set on airing O. J. Simpson’s near-confession during Sweeps Week that he was willing to payhush money to the families of Simpson’s alleged victims. The O.J. Simpson book saga took another twist Tuesday when his former sister-in-law, Denise Brown, accused the media company behind the project of trying to buy her family’s silence for “millions of dollars.” [snip] A spokesman for News Corp., owner of Fox Broadcasting and publisher HarperCollins, confirmed that the company had conversations with representatives of Nicole Brown Simpson’s and Ron Goldman’s families over the past week and that the … Continue reading Now It Gets Interesting

REUTERS/Sespres-Abror Rizky/Handout AP Photo/ Achmad Ibrahim Continue reading Photo Fun

The next time someone tells you that we shouldn’t pull out of Iraq because conditions there will only get worse if we leave, ask them how it could possibly be any worse than it already is. In the past eight days, 714 Iraqis have fallen victim to the country’s sectarian bloodbath. They’ve been beheaded, tortured and blown up while looking for work. They’ve been shot, kidnapped and felled by mortars. The number of killings in the past eight days is more than all but a few U.S. states see in a year. Iraq’s death toll has reached at least 1,319 … Continue reading Better and Better

Time magazine has published their list of the100 All-Time albums. “All-Time”what, I wonder. My biggest disappointment with this list is the inclusion of so many “greatest hits” compilations, four from the current decade alone. I take it the staff who selected albums for this list are rather aged. Continue reading Let the Quibbling Begin

Thehousing bubble, that is. Sales of existing homes fell in 38 states during the summer, led by steep declines in Nevada, Arizona, Florida and California, as the once-booming housing market showed further signs of a steep slowdown. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales dipped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.27 million units nationwide, down by 12.7 percent from the same period a year ago. Continue reading Busteded

Here’s the instruction book: 1. Preface your post by saying “this is just something I noticed in all Jews/Hispanics/Blacks/Asians”. I mean, if its just an observation, it can’t be racist. 2. Preface your post by saying how you have plenty of Jewish/Hispanic/Black/Asian friends, but you need to let this off your chest. 3. Before making a blatantly racist statement, CLEARLY state that you are not a racist. This absolves you. 4. Make sure you insult that particular race’s women. Do they have big butts? Hooked noses? Greasy hair? Let them know! After all, its just something you noticed. 5. ALWAYS … Continue reading How To Post At LGF/Freeperville/Red State

Chimpy went to church inHanoi. Nothings More Basic Than Basic A whole society is a society which welcomes basic freedoms, and there’s no more basic freedom than the basic — the freedom to worship as you see fit. Right Up There WIth Talk Freedom and Write Freedom My hope is that people all across the world will be able to express religion freedom. UPDATE:From Indonesia. I believe the vast majority of people want to live in moderation and not have extremists kill innocent people. And so, therefore, our policies are to promote that kind of form of government. It’s not … Continue reading Your President Speaks!

Tom Noe gets18 years. A former GOP fundraiser at the center of a scandal-plagued state investment in rare coins that helped Democrats seize power in the midterm elections was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison. Tom Noe, a prominent coin dealer accused of taking at least $2 million, was convicted last week of theft, corrupt activity, money laundering, forgery and tampering with records. “Based on a review of the record, a short prison term would demean your conduct,” Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Osowik told Noe. Chimpy greets Tom Noe. Continue reading Bush Pioneer Goes Long

Oh, God: DULUTH, Minn. – Prosecution of a case involving alleged sexual contact with a dead deer may hinge on the legal definition of the word “animal.” Bryan James Hathaway, 20, of Superior, Wis., faces a misdemeanor charge of sexual gratification with an animal. He is accused of having sex with a dead deer he saw beside a road on Oct. 11. A motion filed last week by his attorney, public defender Fredric Anderson, argued that since the deer was dead, it was not considered an animal and the charge should be dismissed. “The statute does not prohibit one from … Continue reading Bobo’s World: Dead Deer Edition

First of all, I’m going to get this as a tattoo:

HOT.

Second, if I read one more pseudo-conservative “I AM NOT A CYLON” post wanking away about how the Cylons don’t deserve our sympathy because they wiped out humanity so we should have all the clearance we want to rape and beat and genocide their shiny metal asses, I’ll scream, I swear I will.

It’s not about them and what they did. What you are willing to do in war is not and never was about your enemies. If you’re going in with the intention that you’ll murder and rape and kill and do whatever, you’ll do that regardless of how your enemies behave. You’ll do that regardless of the level of justification they provide, because if they don’t provide the proper justification, you’ll find some come hell or high water. And it’s not some stunning act of bravery to be benevolent towards an enemy that acts with some semblance of honor, to adhere to some fucked-uply balanced sense of fairness. All that requires is a spreadsheet and a calculator. Bravery entails not responding to savagery with more savagery.

It isn’t about whether they deserve genocide. It’s about whether you can commit genocide. Not even whether you should, whether youcan. Is it within you to do such a thing? Can you carry that for the rest of your life? Can you lay that down among your burdens? And I humbly submit that every 101st Fighting Keyboarder shouting in the bar about how yeah, give him a chance and he’d do some genocidelike you’ve never seen, motherfucker, that guy would shit his pants and run the first time he stared down a gunsight. Barroom bravado is a long and time-honored tradition among assholes, but I get offended when it’s applied to my pop culture, so if you’re annoyed by the twinges of recognition you get from a story like this and want to lash out at the writers because they made you remember where you left your conscience, just stick to the stuff you understand, go play some Halo or something, and shut the fuck up.

Sympathizing with the Cylons is not the point.

Jacob:

It’s a kindergarten motherfucking sense of entitled, playground morality that assumes just because A is an asshole, B is blameless. It’s possible for B to grow the fuck up and act in accordance with a stable morality, instead of leveraging their evil based on some kind of flimsy “Mommy, he started it” excuse. At the end of the day, A is not your problem, because A is not your responsibility. Your behavior is your problem, and what you did to excuse it, because you are the person in charge of you. There are a lot of unanswerable questions here, but that is not one of them, and somebody should have told these motherfuckers when they were younger, because now they are grown up and I am ashamed for them. Your personhood doesn’t go in the closet until things get easier — that’s like the one thing I disagreed with Tigh about, down on New Caprica — it’s there all the time. You can’t write your bullshit self a hall pass to be “your worst” or commit atrocities right up until the very second that things get perfect and awesome, at which point like a wonderful jackpot prize you get to be who you are “at your best,” and how one of these days, you’ll get to be that you. As soon as nothing bad ever happens, nobody ever calls you an asshole, and everything is perfect and quiet and still. I’m not saying don’t “wipe ’em out,” I’m saying be really damn sure you know why you’re doing it, because that’s the only question that matters. Fucking…be better. It’s the easiest thing of the world.

My leftbreast, I would give, to be able to write like that boy.

Now click “Read More” for the spoilers.

Continue reading “Where The Poison Comes To Settle: Galactica Thread”

Mad props toP. O’Neill for the link totoday’s gaggle.

First up:Can We Call Him “Hanoi George” Now?

Q Why is he going to Communist Party headquarters?

MR. SNOW: To meet with the Secretary General of the Communist Party. It’s a Communist Party state, it’s a Communist state and he will meet with the head of the party.

[snip]

Q The last time an American President went to Hanoi, there was some concern about having the President appear with all of the trappings of the Communist Party headquarters — the photos of Ho Chi Minh and so forth. Have you done anything at this point to diminish the optics of this in any particular way, or have you heard any concern from Republicans?

MR. SNOW: No, David, we haven’t.

Obsession continues…

Continue reading “Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle”

He appears to be seeing triple. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause Continue reading Shtifaced in Hanoi

A quickie, from Australia. You know, Laura and I were talking about — we were talking about how amazing it is we’re here in Vietnam. And one of the most poignant moments of the drive in was passing the lake where John McCain got pulled out of the lake. Continue reading Your President Speaks!

Stripe still hasn’t caught up on his “bubble wrap lounging” time. A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging: Election Adrenaline Hangover Edition

New AP-IPSOS Poll: Bush Job Approval: 36% (-1) Bush Job Disapproval: 62% (+1) Bush Handling of Iraq Approve: 31% (-5, All-Time Low) Disapprove: 66% (+4, All-Time High) Continue reading More All-Time Lows for The Chimpster

Happy birthday to the most succesful Chairman in the history of the Democratic Party. Continue reading Happy Birthday Howard Dean!

I suppose “family values” includesbeating children. U.S. Rep.-elect Tim Walberg [R-MI] is working in Washington this week to hire a 10-person staff, but he refused to rule out employing a former official who pleaded guilty to domestic violence during his campaign. Daniel A. Coons, 30, of Eaton Rapids could face up to two years in prison for third-degree child abuse, depending on a District Court judge’s ruling Dec. 7. This week, an Eaton County prosecutor asked the judge to throw out the Sept. 18 plea deal for domestic violence, a lesser misdemeanor, because it was based on “inaccurate information.” “I … Continue reading More Republikkkan Family Values

Caption away, kids. A. Continue reading Happy Nancy Photo

TPMMuckraker linked to aWall Street Journal blog today reporting that the head of Chimpy’s GITMO military commissions has resigned. One detail slipped by the Muckers that I found fascinating. As the Bush administration gears up for another try at prosecuting suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, it’ll have to proceed without the retired Army major general who’s run the effort since 2004. John Altenburg said that when he accepted the job as “appointing authority” for the military commissions, he expected Guantanamo trials to start in short order—and that he’d be back athis job at the Washington law and lobbying firm Greenberg … Continue reading Abramoff Is Everywhere

Republikkkan Congressman Adam Putnam wants to be the House GOP conference chair. But he sure has afunny way of collecting votes. “White rednecks” who “didn’t show up to vote for us” partly cost GOPers their cong. majorities, Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL) told fellow Republicans today. [snip] Putnam’s chief of staff, John Hambel, said his boss has used the word “redneck” only in the context of sharing polling data from last week’s elections. Hambel said Putnam was listing off different constituencies and ended with saying: “Heck, we even had rednecks who go to church who didn’t come out to vote.” I’m … Continue reading Polly Wants A Cracker?

There’s a newPew Poll out today. Bush Job Approval Rating: 32% (down 9 points, All-Time Low) Bush Job Disapproval Rating: 58% (up 5 points, All-Time High) Here are some interesting excerpts. Six-in-ten Americans say they are happy that the Democratic Party won control of Congress; in December 1994, roughly the same percentage (57%) expressed a positive opinion of the GOP’s takeover. Half of Americans approve of the Democrats’ plans and policies for the future, which also is comparable to approval of the GOP’s proposed agenda in 1994. However, there is one important area where the parallels to 1994 do not … Continue reading Bush Sets Two Records In Latest Pew Poll