Lucky to be noticed at all... That's Gallagher...G-A-L-L-A-G-H-E-R. No. Not the guy with the watermelon...
For once in his life D-level hate-radio host Mike Gallagher gets noticed and he's not happy about it:
So this morning, a friend of mine sends me a link to Wolcott's blog. In it, he calls fellow radio host Michael Medved and me "useless loads." The reason for his ire, of course, is the recent meeting we had with President Bush in the Oval Office which was written about in the New York Times. I just knew that when the meeting was chronicled in the Times, liberal jackals like Wolcott would go bonkers. After all, when they're doing everything they can to destroy the Bush Administration on a daily basis, how fair is it that they be kept outside the White House windows, trying to peer in to get a glimpse, while such "useless loads" as Hannity, Boortz, Ingraham, Medved and Gallagher, represesenting our 30 million weekly listeners, would get a seat at the table?
Um, no Mike. Wolcott called you and Medved "useless loads", not Hannity, Boortz, and Ingraham. Just you two. He was quite specific about that. The other three are "useful loads"; that's different. And, to be perfectly honest, your little "Nyah nyah I'm getting to meet the President and you're not" schoolyard taunt should pretty much dispel any doubt that anyone might have previously had. Thanks for clearing that up.
On the plus side, getting together with George Bush, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Mark Steyn to develop a war plan to fight creeping liberalism must have been a dream come true. After all, you wrote the book.
Actually we don't really do Halloween much anymore. This year it's the lovely and talented Casey going to see Saw III with her boyfriend (they're teenagers... whaddya gonna do?), the libidinous and shapely mrs tbogg is in a bar somewhere on State St in the SB, and me? I'm just hangin' with the boyz waiting for trick-or-treaters who never come. We've lived in our current house for about eight years and my guess is that we have seen approximately six of the little bastards adorable tykes in that time.
Our neighborhood is made up almost entirely of apartment -dwelling college student roommates, condo-living singles, and older couples who have lived in their homes since the Eisenhower administration (now that was a Republican!). Not a lot of kid traffic you might say, which keeps Mark Foley out of the neighborhood. That's not to say that people aren't prepared. When the L&T Casey was six we dressed her up as Dorothy from Kansas (with a reluctant Cooder the Good forced to play Toto. No, not that Toto. That would have been cruel.) and walked the neighborhood. People seemed so relieved to see an actual child on their doorstep that they were practically dumping entire bowls of candy into her bag. The older couples were particularly happy to see her since she was dressed up as something that they recognized, as opposed to any one of the many characters from The Lion King who were popular that year ("I'm a meerkat!" "A MEER-kat?" "Yes, a meer--- look, just give me the damn Snickers, 'kay?").
I think that was the last year I went out with the girls who soon opted for going to a friends house in a real neighborhood (i. e. a suburban cul-de-sac lousy with blond soccer moms and their ever-present Starbucks cups) for their festivities. That was then; nowadays it's slasher movies and bar-hopping and the boyz and I are still waiting. We're giving out rawhide chews this year.
Ever since growing up the oldest of seven children in the Renton Highlands and Kent, U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert has been watching out for the other guy, even the president of the United States.
His belief that someone can disagree with George Bush but still show respect for the president was tested in June by an Issaquah school bus driver.
Reichert rode with Bush in his motorcade when the president came to the Eastside in June to raise money for Reichert and the state Republican Party.
First, the procession roared along Interstate 5 and State Route 520 to get to the Medina mansion where the fundraiser was scheduled.
Stopped on an entrance to the freeway from I-90, students in several Issaquah School District buses crammed their faces against the windows and waved to the president's motorcade. Bush waved back.
Bush was having a great time, Reichert told a group of veterans in Orting recently. At least until he came even with one of the bus drivers.
The president turned to Reichert and said the bus driver had flipped him off.
Later, Reichert called the school district. After an investigation, the 43-year-old bus driver was fired in early September. She filed a union grievance earlier this month against the district, claiming wrongful termination.
"Due to events on that day and a gesture that is not at all appropriate modeling for students on the bus, the bus driver was terminated," said Sara Niegowski, an Issaquah School District spokeswoman.
Thin-skinned, isn't he?
(Added) From the comments:
The reason Reichert made an issue of this was that there were children on the bus. Do you "hate" so much that you have lost your sense of decency in front of children? There were plenty of other obscene gestures and free speech that day that were left unmentioned. But the judgement of a school bus driver should be questioned when they do something like that to children who themselves were waving at the President of the United States. So it was reported to the school board - who conducted their own investigation and fired the driver. If you stopped "hating" for five minutes and considered the behavior and judgement you would want of a school driver of your own children you might reconsider this criticism. Then again, some of the "haters" in this district give the finger in front of their kids so maybe not. You and the bus driver are the small people in this discussion.
Maybe it's because I'm one of those coastal elites who get up every morning wondering how to coarsen the culture, but I spent a lot of time around little kids when I was president of Little League and I can say that by about eight, there aren't too many kids who are unfamiliar with that particular hand gesture, not to mention certain words..
True story: the L&T Casey spent her first five years attending a Montessori school (something I highly recommend). One summer when she was six an employee of mine suggested that we enroll her in a day camp at the Christian elementary that just happened to be right next door to her Montessori school. Just try it for a week and see how she likes it. What the hell, I thought. Guess what she had learned by Tuesday?
Not that I blame the Christian kids for the language she has picked up along the way. That would be her mother's fault...
Like Andy Rooney for people who have lost the will to live
Many years ago I used to run a raquetball club and every once in awhile all you would hear was the the echoey pock! of the ball hitting the walls and the squeaks made by the shoes on the wooden floors.
The 101st Fighting Keyboarders on full alert Memeorandum:
johnkerry.com: Statement of John Kerry Responding to Republican Distortions, Pathetic Tony Snow Diversions and Distractions — Washington - Senator John Kerry issued the following statement in response to White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, assorted right wing nut-jobs, and right wing talk show hosts … Link Search: Google, Ask, Technorati, Sphere, and IceRocket + Discussion: Michelle Malkin, The Huffington Post, Redstate, Iowa Voice, TIME, Riehl World View, The American Princess, Say Anything, Sister Toldjah, Atlas Shrugs, Wizbang, Scared Monkeys, The Jawa Report, IMAO, Little Green Footballs, QandO, Don Surber, Blue Crab Boulevard, PoliPundit.com and Gay Orbit
103 dead in Iraq this month, 2814 dead in the war, and they're fighting the Battle of Don't Get The Joke.
Driving home tonight, I listened to Hugh Hewitt inerviewing Mark Halperin, political director of ABC News. Since then, I've reviewed the entire transcript here. I would urge you to read the interview, or track down Hugh's podcast of it when it appears at TownHall. It was one of the most remarkable interviews I've listened to in a long time. Remarkable, in part, because Halperin came across very well. He was promoting a book, The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008. But the conversation ranged far beyond the usual book-plugging discourse, and Halperin was much more than a reluctant foil for Hugh's questions.
[...]
As I say, I found Halperin likable and intend to buy his book. Check out the entire interview; it is fascinating and intelligent. The latter quality is especially welcome in the last days of what has mostly been a dispiriting campaign season.
It seems like only yesterday when Mark Halperin was attempting to bring down the government from his perch at ABC:
IS THE ESTABLISHMENT MEDIA BIASED against conservatives? Dan Rather remains in the anchor chair at the CBS Evening News despite his involvement in recent news stories based on dishonest reporting, fabricated documents and even Internet gossip falsely alleging that President George W. Bush secretly intends to begin the military conscription of students. These stories were obviously designed to damage Mr. Bush in the final weeks before a national election.
And now ABC News has left in place its Political Director Mark Halperin. ABC has done this despite the network’s acknowledgement that Halperin wrote a memo that to many seems to direct ABC reporters, anchors and producers to slant its coverage by downplaying the misstatements of Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry and by viewing negatively any misstatements by Republican candidate Bush.
Halperin’s directive reached ABC people on October 8, the very day that ABC “Good Morning America” co-host Charlie Gibson would be selecting questions for and moderating the second presidential debate between Bush and Kerry. Did Halperin intend to influence Gibson’s decisions in this debate?
Who is Mark Halperin, and does his memo reflect leftwing bias in his shaping of the news at ABC? To find answers to these questions, we need to consider the details of this memo-gate controversy in the light of Halperin’s past and of the famous radical left-wing father who shaped his political values. As we shall discover, Halperin has veered Left and crossed the line of ethical journalism many times...
As one can see from the story, Halperin is most likely being manipulated by his father Morton Halperin who is in league with International Man of Mystery and Evil Genius George Soros. I wouldn't put it past Soros to have orchestrated Mark Halperin's entire life and career from zygote to Harvard to ABC in an effort to gain the trust of Hugh Hewitt and John Hinderaker with the intent of later making fools of them-- which seems like a lot of time, effort, and money for such a simple task when you think about it. But, what the hell, you can't take it with you and it's just as plausible as a Clive Cussler novel...
The Bull Moose knocks back a Super Big Gulp of Code Red and gets totally xtreme, dude!!:
The Moose luxuriates in the ascendancy of the center.
[...]
After all the attention that has been devoted to the nutroots and the like, folks are awakening to the fact that it is cool to be centrist. Hopefully, the Democratic Presidential wanabees will wake up to the fact that they must court the center of American politics in order to reach the Oval Office. Democrats can conquer red America - but they must do it as radical centrist insurgents.
Color me skeptical, but I don't expect the base to go BASE jumping with radical dudes Holy Joe or Evan Bayh anytime soon...
Muqtada al-Sadr is particularly obsessed with MN-06
Let us give due credit to Eric Ruff for showing remarkable restraint in not pinning all 100 deaths in Iraq this month on the Democrats:
“The level of attacks has gone up, true,” said Pentagon press secretary Eric Ruff. “What is the reason for that? Ramadan is one and because of our elections.”
“It would seem that if they can increase the violence, they can increase opposition to the war and have an influence against the president,” Ruff told reporters on Friday, discussing the month’s rising death toll.
But defense officials did not say what information had led them to that conclusion. Ruff said he had not seen intelligence to back it up.
He and others have also declined to say whether the Pentagon expects attacks to decline after the elections in which polls show President George W. Bush’s Republicans may lose control of Congress due in large part to anger over Iraq.
Ruff stopped short of saying insurgents in Iraq or al-Qaida want Democrats to take control of Congress.
I believe making that assertion is above his pay grade and besides, he wouldn't want to step on Dick Cheney's toes.
By the way, you may remember Mr. Ruff from the days when he was trying to get Donald Rumsfeld killed:
The Pentagon is set to announce a new press secretary, Eric Ruff, to help the department do a more effective job at getting out news from Iraq.
One of Ruff’s qualifications? He’s got “good access” to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. That’s a bit of an understatement.
If you remember that far back, in March 2004, Ruff left a hand-drawn map to Rummy’s home on a table at a Starbucks near Dupont Circle in the capital. He also left behind briefing notes on how the administration planned to counter Richard Clarke’s testimony on the lack of evidence linking Saddam Hussein to terrorists.
A nearby resident who found the notes gave them to American Progress, who posted them online sans the map to Rummy’s pad.
That was over three months before those treasonous bastards at the New York Times made an ill-fated attempt on Rummy's life...
I know that a lot of people have been following the story of Zeke over at Creek Running North, but I just read this post a few days ago (yes, I know it's from over a year ago) and I think that it's the finest piece of writing I've ever come across on a blog.
I believe that "Rutting in the streets" is item number three on the Gay Agenda. It's right after "Destroy NASCAR". Homo hatin' Kevin McCullough and some woman
Fear of the butt-sex renders Kevin McCullough almost incoherent in a foam-flecked Townhall column that sets a new standard for hand-flapping hysteria:
This week - dateline Trenton New Jersey... where a unified panel of seven judges agreed that illegitimate sexual unions should be made equitable under law to that of monogamous married persons. Without the consent of the governed these tyrants in black robes sat in judgment of healthy families across the universe and demanded that New Jersey residents accept immoral construction of sexual unions as the equal basis for families and family life in their recreated sexual, liberal, utopia.
With utter contempt for God, and for the voters of their state the New Jersey seven unanimously said that all who live in the confines of its borders must fundamentally agree to the moral premise, that what the Bible terms perversion, the voters should call healthy.
But why? What's the real goal of the activists, the judges, and the radicals who seek to subvert a moral world view?
The answer is simple, no longer satisfied with practicing the unspeakable perverse sexual pleasures that their hearts seek in private bedrooms, they wish to be able to do so in public. They are also suffering from such immense guilt over the actions of their sexual behaviors because they know inherently that the actions they perform are in fact unhealthy - that they will go to any means necessary to try and shut down the voices in their heads that tell them it is wrong.
This might come as quite a shock to Kevin, but there are married couples who are practicing "unspeakable perverse sexual pleasures that their hearts seek in private bedrooms" at this very moment. Any suggestion that these things aren't happening is just a dirty filthy lie... probably spread by Mrs. McCullough.
On the off-chance that Democrats screw up yet another election, it's good to know that the country will still be run by people who, even if they don't know how to have a good time, their kids do: A Bush
A Bilbray
A Frist
Another Bilbray
A Corker
Another Bush
George Allen's illegitimate son
They don't call it the Grand Old Party for nothing...
Like Kevin Drum I had no idea that Dianne Feinstein was actually on the Nov. 7 ballot defending her seat. I'm not a big TV watcher, but I did see Feinstein's commercial once last week I think, so today I actually took the time to go find out who the 'stealth candidate' is.
No, he's not a porn star. That would be Mary Carey who ran for governor and, no, I' not going to provide a link.... so you can just put it away.
You can read about Dick here, but it's kind of sad:
And few people seem to know who Mountjoy is, despite his role as one of the architects of 1994's Proposition 187, which would have made it illegal for undocumented immigrants to receive many government benefits. Mountjoy's 29% support among all registered voters in the most recent Los Angeles Times poll is less than the 34% of state voters enrolled as Republicans. And in a July Field poll — one of the last to ask the question — 62% of voters said they did not know enough about Mountjoy to have an opinion about him.
Little has changed since then. Feinstein entered the late-summer push with more than $8 million in the bank to Mountjoy's $21,000, making it likely that this will be the second California race in a row for the Senate in which the Republican challenger was unable to air crucial television ads in the final weeks of the campaign.
The next financial reports aren't due until today, but even Republicans seem to have given up. The National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee — a key funding and organizing tool for Republican Senate incumbents and hopefuls — doesn't even list Mountjoy as a candidate on its website. To add insult to injury, where his face and biography should be posted, the website lists Barbara Boxer, a red flag for Republican bulls.
Next time I need to use an alias, I'm using Dick Mountjoy because nobody will know the difference.
This contest started off badly and never really recovered. After the primaries, Allen made the "macaca" mistake and then took too long to apologize for it. Rather than let the incident speak for itself, the Webb campaign decided to start grilling Allen's schoolmates for any bad words Allen might have said. When that didn't stick, they went after his mother's heritage, forcing her to reveal family secrets publicly and humiliating her. It was a disgusting display, and many people on both sides of the political divide recognized the gutter-dwelling nature of Webb's campaign.
In fact it was television reporter Peggy Fox who brought up the issue of whether Allen was Jewish during a debate, not the Webb campaign. What was appalling was Allen's blustery pissed-off response as if being Jewish is some kind of venereal disease. Now if Allen had gone out and burned a cross on his own lawn, that would have been embarrassing...
The White House said Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney was not talking about a torture technique known as "water boarding" when he said dunking terrorism suspects in water during questioning was a "no-brainer."
Human rights groups said Cheney's comments amounted to an endorsement of water boarding, in which the victim believes he is about to drown.
"You know as a matter of common sense that the vice president of the United States is not going to be talking about water boarding. Never would, never does, never will," presidential spokesman Tony Snow said. "You think Dick Cheney's going to slip up on something like this? No, come on."
I'm sure he was talking more along the lines of the Cheney family Halloween tradition of having the grandkids over to bob for puppy heads...
Go get a monkey of your own Every which way but funny
A couple of years ago (during an era best forgotten) someone at CNBC thought it would be a good idea to give that fount of flopsweat, Dennis Miller, yet another show because people used to think that he was funny for about five minutes in his career ... which is slightly more than two minutes over the Carrot Top entry-level position. To ensure that this Titanic idea would float, it was decided to add a monkey to the act since it is an old show business truism that dates back to vaudeville that states: "Monkeys are funny...Dennis Miller isn't."
Part of the blame for this miserable failure of a show can be placed on CNBC for their decision to not employ a laughtrack so Miller's fan would know when to laugh, opting instead for a recording of crickets chirping, lending the show and Miller's act a patina of verisimilitude: a courageous act, but ultimately a foolish one and faster than you can say "Cha-Chi" the show disappeared down the drain scarcely making a sucking sound as it passed.
Flash forward to 2006.
The Fox News Network, faced with declining ratings after many of their viewers lose the instructions for turning on the TV, decides they need to pep up the ratings for Hannity & Colmes. Surely this calls for a monkey, but the auditions went poorly as guests began to discuss the November elections with the monkeys while Sean Hannity smoked cigarettes, mugged for the camera, and picked nits out of Alan Colmes hair. Although the monkeys were willing to work for bananas, Sean Hannity has a no-trade clause in his contract and the Food Network was unwilling to part with Rachel Ray, so Fox decided to bite the bullet, stick with Hannity, and look for something within their budget that would also make Hannity look, if not Mensa-like, at least as if he didn't have to be chaperoned all day so that he wouldn't stick his tongue in wall sockets.
Enter Dennis Miller.
Unfortunately during Millers retirement/hiatus/alcoholic spiral/stint at Chick-fil-a, his act didn't get its groove back and we are left with this:
Hey, folks. Tonight, we're going to talk about Nancy Pelosi, because the mere thought of the nosy neighbor from Bewitched as third in line to be the leader of the free world has stoked me into a Rain Man-like panic attack. A quick glance of her record reveals she voted to cut intelligence spending. Well, if anyone in the universe should vote for more intelligence, it's Nancy Pelosi. Let's just say that the whistle on Representative Pelosi's train of thought is barely audible off in the distance.
Now, I've worked in office scenarios before where a nimrod rose to a position of power in the office through mere inconsequentiality, and it drove me berserk. And I just know that every day I turn on C-SPAN, which, granted, is never, and see her wielding the wrong end of that gavel, it will give me Krakatoan shpilkes. To think that a C-minus, D-plus applicant like this, who no doubt would have been drummed out of the Mary Kay corps after an initial four-week evaluation period, might have a seat at the table of true powers, the speaker of the House, is absolutely insane.
[...]
Every time I see Pelosi in her little Chanel suits -- a latter day "Wacky O" -- regurgitating the Democratic talking points that she had to learn phonetically because the word "grasp" is not even vaguely in her vocabulary, I shake my head so badly you could blend paint colors in my mouth. Now, I know in public the Dems will paint Pelosi as merely a more saucer-eyed version of [former Prime Minister of Pakistan] Benazir Bhutto, but the behind-closed-door fact is that they won't let her be speaker for long, if at all. They can't afford to let this mask of Nefertiti for harridans front their party for the next two years, because it will blow away any toehold they've established with real humans.
Bewitched, Rain Man, Mary Kay, "Wacky O"; references almost as quaint as the sexist drivel about Chanel suits and "Nefertiti for harridans". If it weren't so expected of him it would almost be embarrassing.
Miller hasn't bottomed out yet, but it's not for lack of trying as he spirals to the right and down the drain one last time taking his dated Bob Hope-era cultural references with him, shvitsn all the way.
But Bush calls the war "a struggle of good versus evil," adding, "Maybe it's not nuanced enough for some of the thinkers and all that stuff -- that's fine. But that's exactly what a lot of people like me think."
The blustery windbag known as Camille Paglia comes down from Mt. Lookatme to admonish the mortals, define the zeitgeist, and give advice to the Democratic party.
The Democrats have to start fresh and throw out the entire party superstructure. I was bitterly disappointed after voting for Ralph Nader that he didn't devote himself to helping build a strong third party in this country.
Sadly, No! and I have been volleying the dumbfuck shuttlecock known as Dan Riehl back and forth this week and it seems to be my turn. Witness:
The Ultimate Selfishness Of Michael J Fox
One item hasn't been pointed out that speaks to the tremendous selfishness of Michael J Fox. He was born in Canada and apparently has dual citizenship now allowing him to credibly politic in America.
That's fine. But why here? Might it not be because we have one of the finest and richest health care systems in the world? I think that's fair to say. So what is it Fox would do to get what he wants? He would abet the very party which would nationalize our health care system and turn it into nothing better than what Canada has.
No big deal for wealthy individuals like Fox. He can always pop off to some other country. Sorry, I think his motivation is more selfish than it is anything else. Apparently he doesn't give a damn about destroying the very thing he would attempt to exploit. And I watched his entire interview with Couric.
In it he admits to managing his day, timing his medication - though at the same time covers himself by suggesting he doesn't have such control. Sorry, it can't be both. He's lying about it one way or the other. And if you watch him in the interview, while it is clear he suffers from a terrible disease, his appearance isn't quite so compelling as it was in the ad he filmed.
I feel for Michael J Fox as an individual with a dreadful disease. As a player in the political world, I don't feel for the push back he is getting ... not a tall.
Watch both performances and decide for yourself.
As Digby has noted here and here, we have really reached an interesting point in time where people feel free to say the most godawful things about victims of tragic diseases, 9/11 widows, and grieving mothers. Riehl says he "feels for Michael J. Fox".
Bullshit.
Why would he care about a stranger like Michael J. Fox when he couldn't be bothered to give a fuck about how, when, and where his own brother died until he decided to use his death to make a cheap, not to mention inept, political point?
That was an older brother of mine, John. He's dead and, yes, he was Gay. You want to know how he died? He died alone, probably of aids for all I know and probably in a San Francisco flop house living on the government's dime. I say probably because it was the last address I ever had for him from letters exchanged, not having seen the boy/man since I was about 15.
And you know why he died alone? Not because he was Gay. He died that way because of small minded assholes who think that being Gay in America is a crime.
Yes, his brother died probably of "aids" probably alone, probably in a "flop house" and probably on the "the government's dime". And it's because of you "small-minded assholes".
I'm begining to think that he died of embarassment.
Pre-Friday Random Ten Suddenly Mary fell in the water I found myself married to somebody's daughter Loving, she told me Is a question of bravery But when she started to hold me It was closer to slavery
What Is The Light? - The Flaming Lips Five Hearts Breaking - Alejandro Escovedo Snake and Martyrs - TV On The Radio Life Is Sweet - Natalie Merchant Girl From North Country - Eels with Strings Svo Hljótt - Sigur Ros Electric Funeral - Black Sabbath Bodhisattva - Steely Dan Suddenly Mary - The Posies Lost and Found - The Poems
Bonus #11: Fight The Power - Public Enemy
If someone were to ask me what is the greatest song in pop music, taking into account every possible element (musicianship, songwriting, lyrics, production and harmonies) I would immediately answer Golden Blunders by The Posies from the CD Dear 23 which also contained Suddenly Mary above. I've always thought that it sounded like something that Brian Wilson whould have written if he had ever grown up. The video below is pretty weak, but definitely go download the song on iTunes (or wherever you hijack your music). Grab Suddenly Mary too.
Google/Blogger/YouTube hates bassets, so we're a little behind with the posting: Still rooting around and found this one of teenaged Satchmo
Beckham about fifteen pounds ago
The nights are getting cooler now, and so both dogs have taken to sleeping on the bed with me, pressed up against me as hard as they can. Imagine sleeping with an eighty pound sandbag on either side of you all night. Two sandbags that snore...
(Added) Since this always seems to come up -
They have an ottoman that they jump up on to get on the bed.
We started out crate-training the dogs as puppies but the delicate and soft-hearted mrs tbogg couldn't bear to hear them whining at night and would invariably bring them to bed to snuggle, which was fine when they were about eight pounds. In Beckham's case he had kennel cough as a puppy which turned into pneumonia and she slept on the floor with him for two weeks holding his head up so that he could breathe. The rest is history.
I might not have done that which is why this is what he thinks of me
Let's be honest here: if one of Malkins two children could be saved by embryonic stem cells, Michelle would personally rip Fetus Jesus out of his mother if that's what it would take.
Tales of the Erudite Bibliophile George Bush's bedstand
When he's not playing 40 games of chess at once, George Bush likes to unwind with a big thick wonky book. In fact this past summer the White House was kind enough to provide an extraordinarily diverse list of books that Uncurious George was supposedly reading to show that he's a serious student of the human condition ( The Stranger by Albert Camus) , a man of the people ( Cinnamon Skin: Travis McGee Mysteries by John D. MacDonald), a lover of the Great Books ( Macbeth by William Shakespeare) and a guy you can have a beer with at the corner bar (The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth by Leigh Montville). Quite the polymath, eh?
And here it is late October and George has finished the 26 books on his Summer list and has moved on to bigger and better things:
Asked by George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week programme on Sunday what was the last book he read, President Bush answered: "I'm reading A History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900. It's a great book." He went on to say that he was taking from it the importance of taking the long historical view.
I think most people listening would have assumed he meant Winston Churchill's tetralogy - which actually ends in 1900. The President's "...since 1900" suggests that the book he's been reading is in fact the new one by Andrew Roberts,
Yes. The first thing I though of was George Bush was reading Churchill's tetralogy, because that is so him. And just in case you're didn't catch George on the Stephanopoulos "programme", Michael Barone just happened to bring it up again:
On the way out the door, I asked him what he had been reading lately. The answer: Andrew Roberts's A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 (an advance copy, apparently). Roberts is a friend of mine (and of Mark Steyn), a British history writer who has written the definitive biography of the 3rd Marquis of Salisbury (prime minister 1885, 1886–92, 1895–1902) and a delightful volume of essays on Winston Churchill's opponents, Eminent Churchillians. Roberts's English-Speaking Peoples is an extension of Churchill's multicentury history that ends around 1900, and I expect that it will take Churchill's view: that the English-speaking peoples have over the centuries taken up the responsibility of expanding freedom and spreading democracy and the rule of law around the world.
That is Bush's view as well, as I was reminded when I noticed the bust of Churchill as I was leaving the Oval Office.
Fortunately A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 is a scant 752 pages so it shouldn't conflict with the President's promise to Victor Davis Hanson to translate his A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War into Greek before the end of the year.
Providing the Clash of Civilizations doesn't flare up, of course, in which case Hanson will probably have to wait until January 10....January 12th at the latest.
The lovely and talented Casey and I just got back from a womens soccer game (SDSU vs. USD) and I'm still catching up, so keep your pants on. Unless you want to take your pants off in which case you might want to kill some time by IMing Mark Foley.
Just have a ruler handy.
And no cheating...
(Update) I guess it was rude of me to not mention that USD (University of San Diego) beat SDSU aka San Diego State) 2-0. Also we were both both of the opinion that non-scholarship Division II UCSD could have beaten either one of them.
When Michael J. Fox uses his Parkinson’s Disease to address an issue, he’s being manipulative. When I use my lifelong battle with Cystic Fibrosis to address Michael J. Fox, I’m just being honest.
Crawling from the wreckage Hasta la vista, Bab--. Oh hi! I'm back.
When we last saw Brendan "Opie" Loy he was citing irreconcilable differences and leaving the Democratic Party (...or it was leaving him since that's the way it always ends) because the party wouldn't let him keep his pet Lieberman. It was a sad state of affairs since Loy had been a loyal Democrat going back to his days as the kid nobody in the neighborhood wanted to play with:
I’ve been calling myself a Democrat since I was ten years old, when I marched around the schoolyard in fifth grade chanting “Jerry Brown! Jerry Brown!” and, later, played the part of Bill Clinton in a sixth-grade mock debate. At the age of 13, I threw my hands up in dismay when the GOP took over Congress. When I turned 18, I registered without hesitation as a Democrat. I proudly cast my ballot for Al Gore in 2000, and — somewhat less proudly — for John Kerry in 2004. In recent years, I’ve seen the “base” of the Democratic Party drifting away from sense and sanity, and at the same time, I’ve felt my own ideological compass pulled somewhat to the right by world events. Yet I remain profoundly uncomfortable with the Republican Party for a variety of reasons, and I’ve never much liked the idea of being an “independent,” considering it — with all due respect to those who wear the label proudly — something of a cop-out in many cases.
However, these days, a nerd has to do what a nerd has to do:
But now the voters have spoken. Lieberman may still consider himself a Democrat — he says that, if elected as an independent, he’ll vote to organize with the Dems, and I believe him — but the Democrats don’t consider Lieberman a Democrat anymore. That’s the cold, hard truth of today’s results. He’s been kicked out of the “big tent” because his loyalty wasn’t blind enough, because his conscience wasn’t pliable enough. He’s been replaced by the shiny new millionaire who said all the right things to win over the hearts and minds of the netroots. The war in Iraq is wrong, wrong, wrong; President Bush is bad, bad, bad; and Joe Lieberman is a traitor, a traitor, a traitor. That’s the undeniable message that Democratic voters from my home state have sent out across the land this fateful day.
Well, if there’s no room in the Democratic Party for Joe Lieberman, then there’s no room in it for me.
So I’m done. I’m out. See ya later. Sayonara.
But he left himself a little wiggle room:
Well, I don’t see the point is holding out hope anymore. It’s official now: the Democrats have jumped off the cliff, and are in free fall toward a richly deserved oblivion. I’ll continue to vote for Democratic candidates when and if they’re the best for the job. I might even continue to root for a Democratic takeover of the House and Senate this November, if only to shake things up and rebuke the Republicans for their corruption, their lies and their failures. But my “default” setting in the voting booth is no longer the Democratic column. As of today, I’m an independent.
But still:
P.S. If you get the sense that I’ve been working on this post for a while… I have. I started drafting it when it became clear that Lieberman was trailing badly in the polls and was very likely to lose. I sincerely hoped that I wouldn’t have to post it. But here we are. Democratic voters have just given a big, unambiguous “f*** you” to moderates like me, and you know what? I can take a hint. You don’t want me in your party anymore. I get it. I’m going. Bye.
Alright already. Go. Go! (Cue Born Free, Andy Williams version)
But no. Like a Nerd Terminator who won't stop...who can't be stopped...he comes crawling out of the flaming wreckage that was the Lieberman Primary Massacre to vote Democratic once again:
Me? I’ll be voting for the Democrat for my local, hotly contested House race. (Heaven help the Democrats if Pelosi breaks her anti-impeachment pledge, because I’m depending on that, and they’ll lose my vote for a long, long time if they’re lying to me.) As for the Senate, there is no Democratic nominee running against Dick Lugar (R), so I have to decide whether to vote for Lugar, vote for Libertarian candidate Steve Osborn, or cast a write-in vote for Joe Lieberman — a protest vote, of sorts, against both major parties. At the moment, I’m leaning toward the latter option. After all, I did introduce myself to the senator last week as “the inaugural member of the ‘Indiana for Lieberman’ party.” :)
(To clarify, Opie is a native of Connecticut who is currently a third-year law student at Notre Dame ...or he's indulging in voting fraud which makes him a Democrat by default! Woo-hoo!). The lesson for you Brendan is that you vote for the Democratic Party that you have, not the Democratic you wish you had. Besides there is aways the make-up sex.
No. Not for you. But, you know, somebody's having it....
How sad is it when the most reasonable person in the room is Bill O'Reilly?
For someone who is such a creature of the media, Malkin has never quite learned how to keep her emotions in check when discussing issues that either honestly mean a lot to her or that she wants to pump up in an effort to keep her fans on that razors edge of hysteria and rage that fills their best left unexamined lives. The linked video is illustrative as it shows Malkin becoming, hmmmm...what's the word?...oh yes, unhinged when Bill O'Reilly refuses to agree with her contention that the people at CNN took a vote and decided that they really liked the Islamojihadiricans a whole lot better than American soldiers. Unable to convert O'Reilly to the cause, Malkin attempts a sickly smile before the cutaway, after which we assume she ran off to the green room, slammed the door, screamed "I hate you, hate you, hate you!" before kicking over the muffin table.
Kirsten Powers, on the other hand, get the short end of the interview stick from O'Reilly and mails it in by channeling Barbara Bush. She must have the world's largest collection of unicorn and rainbow posters...
Holy Kirsten On A Cross Research is for losers who lack the courage of their convictions
Won't someone please pound the last nail in for Kirsten Powers as she martyrs herself in the name of the helpless Fetal-Americans?
Continuing in our series on Kirsten Powers: Obtuse MediaWhore-Wannabe or Insincere Opportunist? Kirsten still keeps changing the subject when it comes to her failure to do the decent thing and admit that she was talking out of her ass about the case of Biting Beaver:
It's sad that this is seen as an act of bravery, but one only needs to check out a few of the liberal blog postings in response to my comments in this Vent to see how devoid the far left is of any of that famous liberal tolerance.
Perhaps a video is in order to illustrate an example of people talking about things they know nothing about:
Although the similarities are eerie, that wasn't Kirsten in the video, but with a little effort, luck, and pluck, that could be her someday.
Still not too good at this blogging thing Dan Riehl's World Domination Dream #47
In his ongoing campaign to prove that he truly is the Dumbest Blogger on Earth, Dan Riehl writes a simple two sentence post and still manages to fuck it up:
I believe it was in New York State of Mind that Billy Joel suggested contrast among newspapers ... the New York Times ... the Daily News.
Except for the fact that it wasn't the Boston Herald that responded to New York Times ombudsman Byron Calame. Instead it was obscure Boston Herald columnist Jules Crittenden, a writer the 101st Fighting Keyboarders turn to whenever Christopher Hitchens is sleeping it off in a pool of his own vomit. Claiming that Crittenden speaks for the whole paper would be the same as claiming that David Brooks speaks for the New York Times.
Of course, you may remember the Boston Herald as the newspaper that hired Mike Barnicle after he was fired by the Boston Globe for plagiarism and fabricating stories.
So consider the sources...and that includes poor dumb Dan.
Calame says that his intial support came from an impulse to protect journalism from the "vicious criticism" of the Bush administration. "Vicious"? I'd like Calame to define that. The administration rightly condemned the Times for risking their ability to track terrorist financing, but I don't recall the administration calling anyone "traitorous", for instance, although plenty of bloggers did.
Of course it's not like George Bush or Dick Cheney are going to come right out and say "traitor, traitor, traitor". That is either implied or left to other bomb throwers:
George Bush, as reported by the AP and widely reprinted, said, "For people to leak that program and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America … [and] makes it harder to win this war on terror."
Peter King, (Republican, NY), also speaking to the AP, said, "We're at war, and for the Times to release information about secret operations and methods is treasonous."
"Some of the press, and particularly The New York Times, have made the job of defending against further terrorist attacks more difficult by insisting on publishing detailed information about vital national security programs," Cheney said the day the story was published. (Toronto Star)
"Loose lips kill American people," said the Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert. (Toronto Star)
"Running the story about the money-tracing program is a version of giving Anne Frank’s address to the Nazis." Richard Valeriani (Huffington Post)
* Melanie Morgan, radio talk show host: "I see it as treason, plain and simple, and my advice to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at this point in time is chop-chop, hurry up, let's get these prosecutors fired up and get the subpoenas served, get the indictments going, and get these guys [Keller and The New York Times] behind jail." [MSNBC's Hardball, 6/26/06]
* Ann Coulter, right-wing pundit: [R]evealing a classified program, which no one thinks violates any laws ... that has led to the capture of various terrorists, and to various terrorist money-laundering operations. If that is not treason, then we're not prosecuting anymore." [MSNBC's Scarborough Country, 6/26/06]
* William Kristol, editor, The Weekly Standard: "I think the Justice Department has an obligation to consider prosecution. ... This isn't a partisan thing of the Bush administration. This is a U.S. government secret program in a time of war, willfully exposed for no good reason by The New York Times." [Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, 6/25/06]
You see George Bush is not only the Decider, he's also the Delegator.
Meanwhile Patterico thinks, in light of Calame's decision to offer up a mea culpa, that he should resign because publicly admitting to an error in judgement is just not enough.
Just in time for Christmas...or Hanukkah (whatever) the Dr. Laura Action Figure: As seen on the Night Gallery episode: The Doll
Dr. Laura Schlessinger is not only one of the most popular radio personalities in America, she is also a best selling author of 14 books, including 4 children's books. Best known for her no-nonsense approach to parenting and her unwavering commitment to children, Dr. Laura always believes everyone should "go do the right thing". Now you can share Dr. Laura’s wit and wisdom with your friends and family with the "Dr. Laura Talking Action Figure".
Below are only a few of the 23 different phrases that the highly anticipated Dr. Laura action figure says when you press her button:
* “I am the proud mother of an American Solider.”
* “Now go do the right thing.”
* “Please don’t argue with me – it makes me testy.”
* “Be the kind of person you’d like to come home to every day.”
* “Are you sure this is the hill you want to die on?”
* “I am my kids’ mom.”
The "Dr. Laura Action Figure" stands 11 inches tall and is packaged in a display box that includes her biography and photos from her personal collection. Dr. Laura was involved in developing this action figure, so you can be sure it is as true to life as possible.
Additional phrases include:
* "Hey look, a 'Dr.' is a 'Dr.' okay? Now give me twenty sit-ups."
* " Sure! What could be the harm in posing for a few pictures?"
* " If you are a little boy playing with me - put me down you, little biological error."
* " 'Honor your mother' is really more of a 'guideline' and does not mandate frequent phonecalls."
* " Now you're sure these pictures won't end up on the internet, right?"
* "Steal money from your mommy's purse and buy my book But I Waaannt It! "
* "Is that a crop-top you're wearing, you little slut?"
* "Well, in the sixties the Brazilian hadn't even been invented yet."
* "Look Lewis, either leave that bitch or you can find yourself another hoochie-mama."
Intolerant of intolerance C'mon. Make some babies for us. That's why you're here.
Kirsten Powers slaps the "typical pro-choice intolerance" label on me because I accused her and her Vent With A View gal pals of being sloppy, glib, and dismissive when discussing Biting Beaver's attempts to get EC and her subsequent decision to have an abortion; instead choosing to demonize BB for getting her slutty-self knocked up. After Malkin designates BB as a "victim" while applying the snide airquotes around it (something Barber does later with "feminist") Powers' herself admits that she doesn't know why this whole situation came about so she turns to the ever-accurate La Shawn Barber who calls the whole thing "convoluted" and then misrepresents what happened by claiming it was all about the refusal to provide "medical information". From this thinnest of premises they make the leap to all "pregnancy centers are good and loving and feminist" as opposed to the evil Planned Parenthood Fetal Babygrinder.
This isn't being intolerant of their views on abortion. This is being intolerant over their refusal to do the basic minimal amount of research on their topic before launching into their tsk-tsk fest. Powers seems to think she is above such drudgery because she paid her dues in a training course at a pregnancy center some time back where she learned compassion towards women; the same compassion that she seemed unable to muster for BB. Oh, my mistake, she did pray for her.
That and $3 will get you a latte.
But this shouldn't be too surprising. The purpose of these "Hey, let's dress up and put on a show" Vents is to provide a spectrum of viewpoints all the way from A to A and-a-half, with each woman representing a demographic; Barber ( TheoAmerican Bluenoses), Powers (Faux Concerned Liberals), Malkin (Bedlamites), and Ham (mallrats) while pretending that there is some kind of serious debate going on amidst the giggling and hair-flipping.
The specific purpose of this edition of Girls Gone Mild is to demonize "so-called feminists" and Planned Parenthood because it should be obvious to all that these people live to dispense death to babies while promoting free-loving skankism. And if there are reports of fundamentalist groups setting up deceptive pregnancy centers, and advertising in the phonebooks and on websites under abortion, well they deplore it and, if forced, will supply a stern finger-shaking at them but by god it's better than those cold-blooded baby-murdering bitches over at Planned Parenthood.
A word to the wise: Beware of the fake "You go girl..." when it is followed by "straight to hell, you whore" in their hearts.
(Added): See Amanda for more on the Casters of Shame. Also, some edits have been made above for clarity... all evidence to the contrary.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A senior U.S. diplomat said the United States had shown “arrogance” and “stupidity” in Iraq but was now ready to talk with any group except Al-Qaida in Iraq to facilitate national reconciliation.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera television aired late Saturday, Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department offered an unusually candid assessment of America’s war in Iraq.
“We tried to do our best but I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq,” he said.
We're too fucking lazy to do any research on a blogger we're discussing or Planned Parenthood but that's not going to stop us from tut-tuting.
Now, not so short: The blogger that they are discussing can be found right here and it's fairly obvious that their dismissive attitude towards her is the result of the fact that they could care less about the details of the situation when those details would just get in the way of a good old-fashioned pecking party; all pursed lips and condescending "we're praying for her" insincerity.
An added note: Michelle Malkin's Pet Liberal Kirsten Powers seems to be unaware that the "pregnancy centers" that she blanket endorses are deceiving women:
A report in July from congressional Democrats found that the federal government has contributed $30 million to antiabortion pregnancy centers since 2001. Most of that money paid for sexual abstinence education. But some was distributed as grants to help pay for ultrasound machines, the report found. For example, Life Line Pregnancy Care Center in Loudoun County received a $50,000 federal grant last year to buy a machine.
The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, based in Fredericksburg, organizes conferences across the country to train nurses on ultrasounds in antiabortion clinics. Nurses are taught to determine whether a pregnancy is viable and to identify the sex. They are not taught to identify developmental problems.
The institute also helps centers complete paperwork to become medical clinics. In most states, the process is fairly simple. The main requirement is for a licensed physician to become the medical director and supervise medical services, though the director does not have to work on site, institute President Thomas A. Glessner said.
A few states, including New York and California, have more stringent inspection and licensing requirements, according to the institute. Maryland and Virginia are not among them. The institute did not analyze D.C. regulations. But the director of an antiabortion pregnancy center in the District that is seeking to become a clinic described an apparently simple application process.
Abortion rights activists are calling for tighter regulations. They say the antiabortion centers mislead women about the health effects of abortion.
Antiabortion networks reply that the information their centers provide is based on scientific research. "We are very careful that everything we present is 100 percent factual," said Peggy Hartshorn, president of Heartbeat International.
Defending the decision to locate antiabortion pregnancy centers near abortion clinics, Hartshorn said abortion foes are not seeking "to be deceptive or to trick people, but to be right where they are when they are making decisions."
But many women say they have felt duped.
The National Abortion Federation has received hundreds of calls and e-mails from women who say they went into pregnancy centers with vague or confusing names, many of them found under "abortion services" headings in the phone book. Rather than receiving unbiased counseling on all of their legal options, these women said, they found themselves listening to frightening, sometimes false, information.
Last year, Allyson Kirk, 24, of Manassas, a student at Northern Virginia Community College, became pregnant and made an appointment at an abortion clinic in Manassas to talk about her options. When she arrived at the office park where the clinic was based, she saw a sign advertising "free pregnancy test" at a center called AAA Women for Choice. She walked in.
Kirk was given some forms to fill out. A woman took a urine sample for her test. While she was waiting for the results, the woman asked a series of questions about her religious beliefs and then told her about high rates of infection, depression and even death among women who had abortions, Kirk said.
When Kirk was shown a video depiction of a fetus's head being severed during a surgical abortion, she walked out.
"I was outraged," Kirk said. She recalled saying: "This is horrible. I can't believe you do this to women who are lost and looking for help."
The abortion clinic, as it turns out, was next door. Kirk arrived late for her appointment that day and ultimately decided to have an abortion. The decision felt like "a relief," she said, giving her "another chance" to achieve her goal of finishing school and becoming a veterinarian technician.
The gentler face of the centers makes their health care pretenses slightly more plausible, even if their function is primarily political. Sarah Wheat said she and her staff regularly make phone calls to crisis pregnancy centers to learn more about the services offered there and, as a general rule, these pseudo-clinics have few or no paid employees, no medical personnel on staff and no real facilities to provide any medical care. Generally speaking, the medical treatment provided by the largely volunteer staff is nothing more than handing clients a pregnancy test that could be purchased over the counter for $10.
A friend warned me to be careful when contacting crisis pregnancy centers, as they are known to give callers the runaround, refusing to give information over the phone and asking you to come in for an appointment. Curious, I called Austin Life Care, a prominent local crisis pregnancy center and grilled the unlucky receptionist about the services offered. She said they offered pregnancy tests and counseling. When I asked about the credentials of the counselors, she replied, "Well, we have all different levels of education and some of them are really academic."
I followed up by asking what kind of medical staff they had on hand and she replied, "Well, we have sonographers."
When I asked her what a sonographer was, she was curt: "It's someone who can do your sonogram."
Actually performing a sonogram on a client probably adds to the illusion that crisis pregnancy centers are providing care. In fact, this allure explains why there's a bill pending in Congress to grant crisis pregnancy centers ultrasound machines, despite the fact that having a sonogram performed by an unsupervised technician could be dangerous. Dr. Diana Kroi, the ob-gyn who authored "Take Control of Your Period," explained that ultrasounds need a trained physician to look for problems like ectopic pregnancies and other dangerous indications that a woman's health is imperiled.
If a woman who's had an ultrasound mistakenly thinks she's had actual prenatal care, she may not go elsewhere for real care. Anti-choicers are banking on the ultrasound's appeal as a pre-born snapshot machine, though it's an actual diagnostic tool, or as the Mayo Clinic puts it, "[Ultrasound] isn't meant primarily to provide parental thrills or souvenir snapshots," and it's irresponsible to treat it as if it were. This is especially irresponsible in a setting where clients are being told that Planned Parenthood and other affordable clinics are nothing but abortion mills who want to hurt the woman and the expected baby.
So it's possible that these centers are not only detrimental to those women seeking abortions, they could be inadvertently stopping women from obtaining proper prenatal care. And from what I could gather on the website, most of the "counseling" available is for the only syndrome that crisis pregnancy centers show any interest in treating; one they call "post-abortion stress syndrome." The problem with this syndrome is anti-choice activists made it up. Unlike, say, post-natal depression, neither the American Psychiatric Association nor the American Psychological Association recognizes "post-abortion stress syndrome." So add proper mental health services to the list of services not rendered
Additionally, the Vent group's assertion that Planned Parenthood fails to provide counseling and alternatives to abortion is a a flagrant lie, but after misrepresenting the blogger and glossing over the "pregnancy centers" should we really expect anything less?
I found this over at Lindsay's and I just have to say that, if they offer a Bulwer-Lytton award for bad blogging, I'm using my first-round draft pick on Dan Riehl:
Jonah Goldberg has lost his faith, not in God, but in what freedom can bring to a free Iraq and ultimately a more free Middle East. Nothing else is going to eventually lance the festering boil which is radical Islam.
Yes, I know it's hard. I know more people will die. And I know it's easy for me to say because I'm not one of them. But I also know how easy it is to lose faith when you set out upon a noble cause.
I hope for Jonah's sake he finds comfort while he meditates in the belly of the whale. And I hope one day he is regurgitated on the shores of a more free, more Democratic Iraq.
One just imagines Riehl running his finger down a page in his thesaurus:
Hmmmm...disgorge....expel....puke...regurgitate...upchuck...vomit...wait a minute..regurgitate. That's good. Lofty sounding. r-e-g-u-r-i-no-g-----
Raising Santorum Well... it sure ain't "Ozzie and Harriet."
Rick Santorum, who will soon be spending a lot of time around the house watching old movies, has recently taken to talking about all of his positions by referencing popular movies.
“As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else,” Santorum told a newspaper editorial board. “It’s being drawn to Iraq and it’s not being drawn to the U.S. You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don’t want the Eye to come back here to the United States.”
HH: In Pennsylvania, the counter-attack began in Pennsylvania, in the skies over Pennsylvania.
RS: Flight 93.
HH: Flight 93. And if people remember the wonderful and amazing movie, Deer Hunter, in Western Pennsylvania, there was an understanding of the war even then. It was a controversial movie, and people can have...but this has never been other than a hyper-patriotic state.
Because Rick needs all the help he can get, I thought I would provide him with some handy cinema talking points for any possible questions that might come up.
On Abortion:
Say that reminds me, how'd you get that kid so darn fast? Me and Dot went in to adopt on account a' somethin' went wrong with my semen, and they said we had to wait five years for a healthy white baby. I said, "Healthy white baby? Five years? What else you got?" Said they got two Koreans and a negra born with his heart on the outside. It's a crazy world.
On pre-war intelligence:
That's you're forte, ain't it? Chasing down crooks and Commies and shit. That's you're whole Goddamn raison d'etre ain't it?
On popular culture:
And this here's the TV. Two hours a day, either educational or football, so you don't ruin your appreciation of the finer things.
National Amber Alert:
Nathan Arizona Sr.: Dammit, are you boys gonna chase down your leads or are you gonna sit drinkin' coffee in the one house in the state where I know my boy ain't at?
[...]
Policeman in Arizona house: What did the pyjamas look like? Nathan Arizona Sr.: I don't know - they were jammies! They had Yodas'n shit on 'em!
On bipartisanship:
There's right and there's right and never the t'wain shall meet.
On the minimum wage:
Policeman: Do you have any disgruntled employees?
Nathan Arizona Sr.: Hell, they're all disgruntled. I aint running no damn daisy farm. My motto is "Do it my way or watch your butt!"
On unemployment:
H.I., you're young and you got your health, what you want with a job?
On taxes:
All right, boy, I guess you got a reward coming. Twenty-five thousand dollars. Or, if you need home furnishings, I can give you a line of credit at any of my stores. In fact, that's the way I'd rather handle it. Tax reasons.
On stay at home moms:
Gale: Why ain't you breast-feeding? You appear to be capable. Ed McDonnough: Mind your own bid'ness. Evelle: Ma'am, you don't breast-feed him, he'll hate you for it later. That's why we wound up in prison. Gale: Anyway, that's what Doc Schwartz tells us.
On gay marriage:
H.I.: A man for a husband. Ed McDonnough: That ain't no answer. H.I.: Honey, that's the only answer.
On gay adoption:
Biology and the prejudices of others conspired to keep us childless
On the place of God in the public square:
H.I.: Do you ever get the feeling that there's something... Powerful pressing down on you? Glen: Yes, I know that feeling. I told Dot to lose some weight but she don't wanna listen
On the future of America:
If not Arizona, then a land not too far away. Where all parents are strong and wise and capable. And all children are happy and beloved. I don't know. Maybe it was Utah.
He can write me a thank you note later when he has some spare time.
Gitmo is going to need some fishbowls. Really big fishbowls. It'll take an army of Bassmasters to stop us
In his conversation with Bill O'Reilly (apparently all of the real journalists were booked up or might ask something unscripted or something) President George W. Bush played coy when it came to how we extract information from random brown people we pick up for no reason terrorists:
O'REILLY: Is water boarding torture?
BUSH: I don't want to talk about techniques. And — but I do share the American people that we were within the law. And we don't torture. We — I've said all along to the American people we won't torture, but we need to be in a position where we can interrogate these people.
O'REILLY: But if the public doesn't know what torture is or is not, as defined by the Bush administration, how can the public make a decision on whether your policy is right or wrong?
BUSH: Well, one thing is that you can rest assured we're not going to talk about the techniques we use in a public forum. No matter how hard you try because I don't want the enemy to be able to adjust their tactics if we capture them on the battlefield
Now why Bill O'Reilly wants George Bush to discuss our water boarding torture techniques on national television (even if it is on cable) is beyond me. Perhaps O'Reilly hates America...or maybe he thinks waterboarding has something to do with getting a woman into the shower and rubbing her boobs with a falafel until her nipples get hard; I don't really know, nor do I want to. But I do know that broaching the subject on TV does as much damage to our nations security as pointing out that one of Vice President Richard Cheney's daughters has little interest in a certain male organ that is remarkably similar in name to his nickname. I am speaking, of course, of 'Face Shooter'.
Maybe I ought to get back to the water boarding. Yeah, that's probably a good idea.
In fact, ever since those blabby treasonous bastards over at the New York Times started shooting off their stupid mouths about 'water boarding this', and 'water boarding that', our enemies have begun breeding a super-race of gilled Islamoaquaterrorists (or al Aquada) who will be smuggled into our country through our porous southern border (primarily South Padre Island) where they will mix in with Spring Breakers before wreaking havoc on our waterways.
Well, they'll get to it right after One Dollar Jägermeister Shot Night. Oh, and the Girls Gone Wild tryouts...and the SpringBreak2007 Thong-a-Thon Beauty Pageant, which I think is scheduled for Thursday afternoon. I'll get back to you on that. Anyway, the FBI has plans to pick up as many of them as they can at the Thong-a-Thon (easily spotted in the crowd when they yell "Aaoooo! Allah Akbar! Show us your tits! God is great! Aaoooooo!") but there is always the risk that some of them will slip through our net and make their way to our water reservoirs where they will relieve themselves in our nations supply of drinking water, poisoning it because, let's face it: that Jägermeister is some pretty nasty shit.
All I'm saying is, now would be a good time to stock up on a few extra cases of Aquafina.
Pre-Friday Random Ten Young love was kissing under bridges Kissing in cars, kissing in cafes And we were walking down main street Kisses like bright flags hung on holidays In france they kiss on main street Amour, mama, not cheap display
Bossa Nova - Shivaree New Planet - Medeski, Martin & Wood Devil May Care - Diana Krall (Live in Paris) Teardrop - Massive Attack In France They Kiss On Main Street - Joni Mitchell Rectify - Beth Orton Do You Wanna Touch Me - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts Alpha Beta Gaga - Air As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls - Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays Pushit - Tool
Bonus #11: Hours - TV On The Radio
Nobody was more surprised than me to see that there was actually a YouTube video of Shivaree featuring the delightfuly named Ambrosia Parsley
If you can find a copy of I Oughtta Give You A Shot In The Head For Making Me Live In This Dump...buy it.
