The ReThug Party recruits the best & the brightest. Long or no-shot, this is why the ReThugs will be a small, regional party. Of course, this could also be a reason. Or from a congresswoman who deserves to lose big time, it could be this.

Not So Secretly Happy

At least Minneapolis had some on-air people who could, as a DJ famously said: "Take a leak out the window to see what the weather's like." That aside, Clear Channel gets none of my sympathy since they worked hand-in-glove with the Bu$hCo/Dick "Dick" Cheney junta.

Greed & Central Authority

It is clear that some in the financial community just don't give a shit about the American economy in gneral & working Americans in particular. The inability of 46 hedge funds to understand the need to keep 54,000 people working in Michigan says to me anyway, that the financiers are more interested in getting more public money than they are in being patriotic. What a pathetic situation. The federal government should just have said, "...tough shit morons....", here's a fair amount of money, if you want it, fine, if you don't, who cares. The need to save 54,000 mitigates any need to compromise with the Mr. Potters of the country. Come on, President Obama, do the right thing.

Talks between Chrysler LLC's lenders and the Treasury Department to reduce the automaker's $6.9 billion in secured debt and keep it out of bankruptcy protection have disintegrated, a person familiar with the talks said early Thursday.

****

But several of the funds came back with their own different counterproposals, leaving the Treasury Department to bargain with 46 funds, the person said. Treasury extended the deadline into the evening, but when it appeared there was no central authority to negotiate with, decided to end talks around midnight.

I wonder if this sort of action isn't actually part of the ReThugs plan to thwart any & all positive proposals to get the country going again? It wouldn't surprise me if the 46 hedge fund chiefs had a bonding experience at some spa with Karl Rove. It hardly matters, I suppose, Chrysler is now headed for bankruptcy, maybe toward extinction. The market speaks again. My emphases.

41 Days Apparently Makes A Difference For Arlen Specter

That & the fact that he wants to be reelected, but as a ReThug, Specter just wouldn't be able to swing it. He would have had the true nutcase Pat Toomey as an opponent in the ReThug primary, but now it looks like he will face Toomey in the general election.

Help Pat Toomey put an end to Arlen Specter’s long liberal career – let’s put a real conservative in the Senate.

Here's Specter's statement.

A Short, Sort Of, Explanation Of Why The Left Will Ultimately Prevail

Shorter? Shorter? Well, Doh!

1As Gavin is tampering with the sacrosanct format of the Sadly, No! shorter, there is now no reason that a shorter can’t be longer than the post that it is shortening.

Laughter, my friends, deep, abiding, 4:30 in the morning laughter.

One Of The Grandaugters Speaks

Over at The Minnesota Twins place

A conversation between Lucy and Dada tonight at bedtime:

Lucy: I don't want to go to sleep, I want to go downstairs.
Dada: It's bedtime.
Lucy: I want to go DOWN!
Dada: That's irrelevant.
Lucy: That's not irrlellavant.
Dada: It is too.
Lucy: It's NOT two......it's one.

This is another reason, of course, why I am a dirty, fucking hippie who wants to see the Bu$hCo criminals in jail.

Late, Late, Late

I'm really late with this, but we all need our truths reinforced now & then.

But a document filed in a federal lawsuit demonstrates that even as the coalition worked to sway opinion, its own scientific and technical experts were advising that the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted.

“The scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied,” the experts wrote in an internal report compiled for the coalition in 1995.

Frank Rich

Mr. Rich speaks for me when he says things like this:

...but also to promote an unnecessary and catastrophic war. Instead of saving us from “another 9/11,” torture was a tool in the campaign to falsify and exploit 9/11 so that fearful Americans would be bamboozled into a mission that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. The lying about Iraq remains the original sin from which flows much of the Bush White House’s illegality.

Levin suggests — and I agree — that as additional fact-finding plays out, it’s time for the Justice Department to enlist a panel of two or three apolitical outsiders, perhaps retired federal judges, “to review the mass of material” we already have. The fundamental truth is there, as it long has been. The panel can recommend a legal path that will insure accountability for this wholesale betrayal of American values.

President Obama can talk all he wants about not looking back, but this grotesque past is bigger than even he is. It won’t vanish into a memory hole any more than Andersonville, World War II internment camps or My Lai. The White House, Congress and politicians of both parties should get out of the way. We don’t need another commission. We don’t need any Capitol Hill witch hunts. What we must have are fair trials that at long last uphold and reclaim our nation’s commitment to the rule of law.

My emphasis.

David Broder Is An Asshole

I, for one, have a desire for vengeance. I do believe, however, that my desire is completely wholesome, like lusting after Catherine Denueve. & I've been wholesomely lusting for her since the winter of 1968.

To which I have two responses. First, who died and made David Broder Sigmund Freud?

....

Second: let's just stipulate for the sake of argument that all of us who favor investigating torture do, in fact, have "an unworthy desire for vengeance". So what?

My emphasis.  I want all of those bastards in jail, including George & "Dick" Dick. Then, via Shutterwi, we have this to think about.

Bea Arthur, R.I.P.

Maude is dead.

Don't Forget

It's Continuing...

Two female suicide bombers have attacked Baghdad's main Shia shrine, killing at least 60 people and injuring 125 others, officials in Iraq say.

The attack happened at the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in the Kadhimiya area as people gathered for Friday prayers.

It comes a day after 84 people were killed in two separate suicide attacks in Baghdad and Baquba.

My Friend Al

Thanks to DK for passing this along to me.

Well, We Did Have Two Nice Days In A Row

OK, Impeach The Criminal Jay Bybee

Jay Bybee authored the first of the now well-known torture memos that President Obama recently released. To reward this s.o.b. Bu$hCo/Dick "Dick" Cheney named Bybee a judge, a judge with a lifetime appointment. It's time for some accountability, I know, I know, it does seem pointless, but what the hell? Go here to sign a petition to remove him from his lifetime wingnut welfare position. It will be a small victory, but a victory nonetheless. Thanks loyal four readers, thanks.

I'm Down

It seems pointless to get all bent out of shape by the torture memos. We all knew Bu$hCo & Dick "Dick" Cheney were doing it, sorry about that image. I don't know, but it seems that the Democratic Party is the ultimate protector of ReThuglican criminals. I guess it is all pointless.

More Change

Good change.

Jean Bopp, R.I.P.

Cool name. Obit here.

Unintentional My Ass

Come on President Obama, make somebody accountable. Somebody needs a Leavenworth time-out. This country needs justice for the crimes against its own citizens.

If They All Close What Will The Older Folks Do For Exercise?

I suppose this needs to be filed under not good.

Too Bad

Just too damn bad.

Tell Me Again How Guns Are For Sport

One more reason why I'm another hunter for strict gun control. It's really too bad that the right-wing has managed to put fear into people's heart regarding gun control. What a waste.

John Phillip Hernandez, a 24-year-old unemployed machinist who lived with his parents, walked into a giant sporting goods store here in July 2006, and plunked $2,600 in cash on a glass display counter. A few minutes later, Mr. Hernandez walked out with three military-style rifles.

One of those rifles was recovered seven months later in Acapulco, Mexico, where it had been used by drug cartel gunmen to attack the offices of the Guerrero State attorney general, court documents say. Four police officers and three secretaries were killed.

*****

Noting there are about 1,500 licensed gun dealers in the Houston area, Mr. Webb added, “You can come to Houston and go to a different gun store every day for several months and never alert any one.”

My emphases.

Ivory Soap Seller Behind The Green Door

Obit here.

My Friend Al - WINS!!!

My friend, Al Franken, was declared the winner of Minnesota's Senate race.  Yes, Coleman truly put the ass in asshat.

The judges swept away Coleman’s argument that the election and its aftermath were fraught with systemic errors that made the results invalid.

“The overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates that the Nov. 4, 2008, election was conducted fairly, impartially and accurately,” the panel said in its unanimous decision.

My emphasis.

Krugman

Nice column.

So what’s the implication of the fact that Republicans are refusing to grow up, the fact that they are still behaving the same way they did when history seemed to be on their side? I’d say that it’s good for Democrats, at least in the short run — but it’s bad for the country.

My emphasis.

Well, Any Dog Owner Will Tell You

If you ask, that they own a thinking dog.

Change I Can't Believe In

In appointing these "moderates", President Obama has made some serious mistakes. Re-exterminating wolves is one of them. I suppose Gov. Palin winked at Ken Salazar & that was all that it took.

Private Lenders Just Dont Care

We, the lowly taxpayer, bailed these rich bastards out & now they want to, once again, screw over needy students. These bankers appear to have no sense of citizenship.

Nicholas Hughes, R.I.P.

This is too bad, he was only 47 & he studied salmonids, the best of the fish world. I never liked his mother's writing or her life-drama, but I found his father, Ted Hughes, to be a great & wonderful poet. Obit here.

...and it offered a kind of blessing to Nicholas, who had long kept the literati at bay:

So leave her.

Let her be their spoils. Go wrap

Your head in the snowy rivers

of the Brooks Range.

I Approve

It's a Portuguese Water Dog. More info on the breed here & here & here.

What A Great Nation

Things like this used to really piss me off. Now, I such sink lower in my chair & deeply wonder whether this nation actually gives a shit about people. For this to happen now is difficult to understand. Aren't we the richest, most innovative people in the world? Thanks to the goddamn ReThuglican Party we have become a nation of me-firsters, me-gotsit, mescrew you. & the ReThugs response to all of this? Hey, you lazy, overweight people, get rid of you dogs & save enough money to pay for your care. & you autistic kids, you're all faking & you need a decent kick in the ass to straighten you out. Don't worry parents, nobody will come investigating you these days.

My Friend Al Is Going To Win

& it's time for the douchebag asshat Norm Coleman to realize that he has lost the election. Minnesota  would then have the two sitting Senators they are allotted under our Constitution. As pointed out in the link, even the right-wing nutjobs are suggesting to Coleman that he's a loser. It's time to sit my friend Al. & then, hopefully, retribution. The following is the thinking driving the ReThug Party in almost everything they do & think these days. Pathetic.

Moreover, Raju says, the Republicans advancing this idea are looking to an infamous precedent -- Bush v. Gore, the case that ended the recount in Florida following the 2000 presidential election. Raju quotes Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, as saying, "The Supreme Court in 2000 said in Bush v. Gore that there is an equal protection element of making sure there is a uniform standard by which votes are counted or not counted, and I think that’s a very serious concern in this instance." Other prominent GOP senators have also made similar arguments.

My emphasis.

Wisco Elections

Finally, the absolutely criminal Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce were unable to elect a right-wing tool as a Supreme Court justice. Shirley Abrahamson easily won reelection to a 10 year term.

Abrahamson, nationally known as an influential state judge, waged an aggressive and largely positive campaign that touted her experience and integrity to defeat Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Randy Koschnick, based on preliminary results.

The victory makes Abrahamson, 75, only the second justice in Wisconsin history to be elected to the court four times. If she serves four years of the 10-year term that begins in August, she will become the longest serving justice in the state’s 161-year history. With 70 percent of precincts reporting, Abrahamson was leading Koschnick 60 percent to 40 percent.

Legislative Effort This Time

A wonderful override of a patently stupid veto. Good for the Vermonters. The time's they are a changin', indeed. If we can keep this up, the ReThugs will be marginalized at an even faster pace.

The House recorded a dramatic 100-49 vote - the minimum needed - to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto. Its vote followed a much easier override vote in the Senate, which rebuffed the Republican governor with a vote of 23-5.

The Awful Legacy Of The Last Eight Years Continues

Bu$hCo did a lot of damage to institutions, among many other things, during his reign. I hope the medical professionals (& I use that term very loosely) who helped torture understand exactly what they did. I looks like the schools that trained these criminals had better examine their ethics courses, if they even have them.

Medical personnel were deeply involved in the abusive interrogation of terrorist suspects held overseas by the Central Intelligence Agency, including torture, and their participation was a “gross breach of medical ethics,” a long-secret report by the International Committee of the Red Cross concluded.

*****
...the medical professionals’ role was primarily to support the interrogators, not to protect the prisoners, and that the professionals had “condoned and participated in ill treatment.”

*****

Mr. Mansfield added, however, that Mr. Panetta “has stated repeatedly that no one who took actions based on legal guidance from the Department of Justice at the time should be investigated, let alone punished.” The C.I.A.’s interrogation methods were declared legal by the Justice Department under President George W. Bush. (So much for change, or honor, or decency, the rule of law. - ed.)

*****

Another critic of medical involvement in harsh interrogation, Dr. Steven H. Miles, a physician at the Center for Bioethics of the University of Minnesota, said he had counted about 70 cases worldwide after World War II in which physicians were punished for participating in torture or related crimes. Most were in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, he said. None have been in the United States.  (Surprise, surprise. - ed.)

My emphases.

Jeff Gordon Wins!!

It's been awhile, but Jeff Gordon is the points leader & he has finally won a stock car race.  For those among you who are wondering about my choice of drivers to root for, let me just tell you this, 24 - The Kid was born on the 24th, plus, he's just plain hot, IMHO.

Bridge To Somewhere Shatters

But, but, but, but, global warming is just am made-up crisis, made up by liberal Marxists, or liberal fascists, or liberal liberals, who knows? Somebody made it up, look at how cold it's been up here in northern Wisco this spring? It sure is hard to keep denying global warming. The dickwads on the right will keep trying, however.

An ice bridge holding a vast Antarctic ice shelf in place has shattered and may herald a wider collapse caused by global warming, a scientist said Saturday.

*****

The loss of the ice bridge could mean a wider breakup of the ice shelf, which is about the size of Connecticut.

Image from here.

The Fool That Is Little Bobby Jindal

But even as Mr. Jindal has criticized the stimulus bill, his own subordinates have continued to request money from Washington, notably in replacing Charity Hospital, which for generations served the poor in downtown New Orleans. State health officials, disregarding restoration work at Charity done in the months immediately after Hurricane Katrina, say they need a brand-new hospital and an additional $500 million; the Federal Emergency Management Agency has balked and is offering only $150 million.

*****

In Louisiana, however, the consequences have hardly been dire — just the opposite, in fact. One of the governor’s leading aides, the state’s recovery director, Paul Rainwater, praised the federal relief effort in Louisiana in recent remarks to Congress, the day after his boss scorned federal help on national television in the Republican Party’s response to President Obama’s first address to Congress.

“No other state in the nation has been blessed with such generosity from Congress and the American people,” Mr. Rainwater said.

The more we find out about this stooge, the stupider he appears. With this ReThugs, it's always ideology over common sense. This article just how hollow his words were when he spoke in rebuttal to Pres. Obama's SOTU speech.

There was so much insane gobbledygook that came out of Gov. Bobby Jindal's mouth last night that I could keep wring for days about it. I couldn't believe my ears when Bobby Jindal used the utter failures of the Bush administration over their "Brownie" handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster to attack the role of the federal government in our lives. Especially when the state of Louisiana has received billions of dollars from the federal government to help them recover. [I can believe it, ed.]

My emphases.

Deep Thoughts

From my little sister-

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

This Makes Me Happy

One more Supreme Court, when asked, has done the right thing. What is unfortunate, however, is that it has taken up so much time & used up a lot of resources in order to do this thing state-by-state. & the worst of is that this shouldn't even be a legal or moral or religious issue, it is about two people loving each other & wanting to commit to each other in a normal, formal manner. It's a no fucking brainer. But the right-wing morons have accomplished one thing: they have forced progressive folks to give up their time & money in order to set things right. I have more rights about my health care than gay & lesbian & transsexual people have. I can fill out as many forms as I like to allow my health care providers to talk to each other about my sorry ass. Imagine, filling out forms to let people talk about you, what will they think of next?

It All Began In 1983

All of the lawyers must have been laid off last month.

Heh

GPS to the rescue? I think not.