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.