Goes To Twelve

U.S. Speedskating

And then Jon Stewart adds a tremendous Mexican plume to his 'Only Real Journalist In America" hat

http://www.thedailyshow.com/

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Exclusive - Lou Dobbs Extended Interview Pt. 1

http://www.thedailyshow.com/

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Exclusive - Lou Dobbs Extended Interview Pt. 2

http://www.thedailyshow.com/

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Exclusive - Lou Dobbs Extended Interview Pt. 3

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Listen as teabaggers (unwittingly) demand to be sent back to Europe .

"Let’s send these European immigrants back where they came from! I don’t care if they are Polish, Irish, English, Italian, or Norwegian! European immigrants are responsible for the most violent and heinous crimes in the history of the world, including genocide and slavery! Its time to restore the sovereignty of people native to this land! I want more workplace raids, starting with the big banks downtown"

All that matters is the Xenophobia shared

Drop A Line

Help A Home today!

Today is our National Call-In Day for Equality--- these call-in days are a coordinated effort by scores of organizations to flood Capitol Hill offices with calls as we move closer to a House vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Congressmembers tell us that what influences them most are calls and emails from people back home. Make a difference, call Capitol Hill now. And get your friends and family members to call too!

Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121. Give your zip code and ask to be connected to your Representative.

Say: My name is _____ and a proud resident of (your city, state). I am calling in support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 3017), to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from job discrimination. Please pass ENDA before the end of the year. I can be reached at _______ (give your phone number). Thank you.

Let's burn up the phone lines to Congress, telling them ENDA is next, ENDA is NOW! Let Congress know how important ENDA is to LGBT people and all those who care about equality. Call today! Call now!

You can also e-mail:

Find Your Congressman Here.

Find Your Senator Here.

Write the White House Here.

Twitterers can also use @whitehouse.

Look The Part, Be The Part,Mutherfucker

With Mad Men done for the year we are left without any really special premium -cable series.

So we look back:

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

MMMMPPHHHHrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh

Oh, dear. I don't think Christmas (or me) will ever be the same

Send 'Em All Back Home!

This is where the problem is?!

Immigrants likelier to support smoking bans
By TALI ARBEL

SMOKE-FREE ALLIES: The strongest American advocates for smoking bans in public venues are the newest Americans, one study said.

Immigrants and their children were most likely to approve of smoke-free spaces, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. Census' Current Population Survey from 1995-2002.

Over those years, 75.7 percent of foreign-born U.S. residents supported a smoking ban in at least four different types of public space, while 59.1 percent of U.S.-born Americans with U.S.-born parents did so. Of the total population, 61.6 percent said they would support a ban in at least four of the six public venues listed, which included bars, restaurants, offices, hospitals, and indoors sports venues and shopping malls.

Americans overall have become increasingly likely to support smoking bans in public places.

I must stop blaming the liberals.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Everyone's A Little Bit Crazy Sometimes

We all have those subjects that we can't discuss rationally. For me the subjects of Nuns, Terry Gilliam's 'Brazil' and Devo really shouldn't be broached.

For Andrew Sulivan it's Sarah Palin. Keee-rist! He just 'live-blogged' her Oprah interview, excpecting, apparently, that Oprah is as much a journalist as Katie Couric.

Of course, the interview was tailor-made for Wonkette Live-blogging. And Gawker. And Chris Lehman.

The Long Roll-Out Continues

Laying the groundwork for 2010's big reform (via think Progress):

Retired Military Chaplains Announce Support For Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Last week, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) revealed the legislative timeline for a repeal of the military’s discriminatory Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy. “Military issues are always done as part of the overall authorization bill,” Frank told the Advocate. “’Don’t ask, don’t tell’ was always going to be part of the military authorization.”

Now, the movement to repeal the ban on gay men and women from serving openly in the military has gained even more momentum. Three former military chaplains are announcing today that they support a full repeal of the DADT. In a Q&A released by VoteVets, the three men, Charles D. Camp, Chaplain (Colonel), USA (Ret.), John F. Gundlach, CAPT, CHC, USN (Ret.), and Jerry Rhyne, Chaplain (Colonel), USAF (Ret.), also addressed implementation concerns regarding a repeal:

What would be the impact of changing the current law on unit cohesion and morale?

The 2009 Joint Forces Quarterly article states clearly, “After a careful examination, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that unit cohesion will be negatively affected if homosexuals serve openly.” A 1993 RAND Corp. report concludes the same, as do several other military-commissioned reports. In addition, 68 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan troops said, according to a 2006 Zogby poll, they either knew for certain (23%) or suspected (45%) there were gays in their own unit. That means there are tens of thousands of known gay service members currently working and fighting alongside their straight peers, and there is no demonstrable negative impact on unit morale, cohesion or combat readiness. In fact, 73% of troops in the poll said they were “comfortable” in the presence of gay peers. [...]

Polling data from current U.S. troops combined with the experience of our foreign military allies demonstrate that known gays in a unit do not degrade morale, cohesion or operational readiness.

Disputing the claims often made by supporters of DADT, Camp, Gundlach, and Rhyne argue that repealing the policy would actually help the military’s recruitment and retention:

What would be the impact of changing the current law on recruiting and retention?

Repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” would help recruiting and retention. The recent issue of Joint Forces Quarterly, an article—reportedly signed off on by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen–convincingly makes the case that current law has been “costly both in personnel and treasure,’’ referring to the cost of discharging service members and recruiting replacements, including those with language or other specialized skills. Approximately two service members are discharged each day under DADT. This number includes linguists, physicians, pilots and others highly trained personnel in mission critical specialties. Costs for the training of replacements are in the hundreds of millions. According to the UCLA’s Williams Institute, an estimated 2500-3000 service members either leave the service, or choose not to re-enlist, because of the law. When the number of involuntary discharges under “don’t ask, don’t tell” is combined with the voluntary attrition because of this law, the result is an annual loss of 4000 trained, experienced and often combat tested troops. Replacing these veterans with recent graduates of recruit training or newly commissioned officers would naturally reduce unit readiness.

VoteVets is “gathering names of veterans to give to the White House and Congress to let them know now is the time to overturn this discriminatory policy.” Veterans can sign the petition here and civilians can sign a petition of support here.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Anals Of Discourse

That's not a typo.

A couple of things came together to help us remember how far we still have to go to wipe away the stain of the Bush years.

Andrew posts this today

The Barbarian Inside The Gate
"I was very struck also by Janet Napolitano’s comment, I hadn’t read it before to see her say that, that the number one priority is to bring [Hasan] to justice is such a knee-jerk comment and such a stupid comment. He’s going to be brought to justice. He is not going to be innocent of murder. There are a lot of eyewitnesses to that. They should just go ahead and convict him and put him to death," - William Kristol, appearing on Fox News.

Let us be clear: this is a fascist statement.

You begin to understand now why these goons instituted torture. They have total contempt for the Western system of justice, utter contempt for the rule of law. Kristol here is all but calling for a lynching. This is what "conservatism" has come to: the worship of violence and revenge. It makes the Cheney years more comprehensible, doesn't it?

Yesterday I chatted with a particularly pungent example of the authoritarian follower on the Twitter:

HULAgate @GoToTwlv I'd make the argument that the ACLU and the rest of the Diversity First crowd should be tried right next to the 9-11 thugs.

HULAgate @GoToTwlv "The Nuremberg Trials dealt w/ officials of an actual state." Bin Laden says he's king of the camels. Who would argue with that?

HULAgate @GoToTwlv It is about lib Political Correctness run amok, just as Fort Hood was the victim of leftist stupidity playing enabler to terror.

HULAgate @GoToTwlv "Being terrorized can do that" Enough about the brave Dutch, how much did you give to Obama in 2008 to appease the PLO in 2009?

HULAgate @GoToTwlv And still, even after your jive, NO MERIT to AG Holder's stupid decision to re-terrorize the 9-11 victims. Some change, that one.

HULAgate @GoToTwlv So you're saying these were just more late term abortions, on 9-11? I can see how the loon left might take comfort in that, sure.

HULAgate @GoToTwlv Your lost liberal logic is rounder than Oprah's head. Holder has given Al Queda EXACTLY what they wanted, on a Tiffany TV platter.

Because liberals believe in an open and free society with transparency I will post the last 4 messages I sent Mr @HULAgate (the name is some sort of jab at Obama's heritage or something ... I don't know. The man's got a bunch of Beck/Limbaugh/Hannity buzz phrases bouncing around in his skull and they pop up throughout his feverish postings - in lieu of reasoned conversation) You can decide if I wound up as crazy as him. (The posts are printed here in reverse chronological order)

@HULAgate hey, F-the victims right? NY & DC R overwhelmingly liberal/socialist/muslim lovers right? Prob lots of ACLU mbrs too! U think bad about 16 hours ago
@HULAgate I'm sorry that after 233 years this country's resilience and strength has not yet become apparent to you. I gotta go. about 16 hours ago
@HULAgate Friend, for anarchy/death/fear to occur a terrorist needs *us* to be scared, die or abandon our society's rules.They care abt us about 16 hours ago
@HULAgate How come you guys flit from one topic to another? A lack of commitment 2 serious discussion. Being terrorized can do that to a guy about 17 hours ago
@HULAgate You are classy. And you're responding just the way a terrorist would want you too.

And they're not too bright. I found a tongue-in-cheek GT12 post being cited on an pro-Obama Impeachment Website.

(Side note: I remember starting a new job in September of '93. My new boss, an idiot of the first order, had a homemade 'Impeach Clinton' bumbersticker on his ratty Honda. 1993!)

27% of the country still likes Palin.

27% of Illinois voted for Alan Keyes over Obama in 2006.

27% of humans are just genetically wired to think like that.

AMY GOODMAN: [John Dean,] talk about your research, going back in time, what social science you drew from.
JOHN DEAN: Right. What happened in looking for answers, I first went down a lot of bad alleys, where nothing was there. Then I ran into this body of research that really commenced after World War II, where social scientists were trying to figure out if we could ever have in the United States what had happened in Italy and Germany under Hitler and Mussolini. And the short answer was, they found, yes, we could have that. There is clearly an authoritarian personality.
The initial research was very Freudian-based. Other researchers quickly, who debated that and didn’t think that was the most solid, began asking empirical questions, asking surveys of people, and developing scales to determine, you know, which personalities were more likely to become followers and those that are leaders.
So they did develop—now we have 40 years of this material, and it has been replicated time and time again, and we know an awful lot about this type of personality. There are people who submit very easily to an authority figure. They do it because they’re frightened. 9/11 drove an awful lot of people into submitting to authoritarianism, and they’re very aggressive once they submit. This explains a lot of the incivility, the nastiness, the mean-spiritedness. They’re not self-critical, and they become true advocates, not unlike the clips you saw earlier in the show, of whatever position they’re advocating and pushing.
AMY GOODMAN: One of the quotes you begin with is Jonathan Schell. “The administration of George W. Bush is not a dictatorship, but it does manifest the characteristics of one in embryonic form,” he writes.
JOHN DEAN: Yes, well taken. I must say that as somebody who was in a White House where it was dubbed an imperial presidency, which had its own authoritarian nature, we now have a presidency that is the imperial presidency on steroids. They have really bulked it up. It is unchecked by the Congress.
I found when I started looking and applying this research, Amy, that it really starts in the Congress, and it blossoms there in the congressional leadership, setting up a very almost dictatorial system within the House. And then, when Bush and Cheney come in in 2000, they give all this a new legitimacy. 9/11, they exploit that further and give it more legitimacy. And it’s a very troublesome thing, because it is proto-fascist behavior.
Now, are we on the road to fascism? No. The problem is we’re not very far from it. And I’m told by the experts in that area that if it comes here, it will come with a smile on its face, and we’ll give up things that we’ll wish we’d never given up.

Our goal is to to worry about the other 73%

Friday, November 13, 2009

FACT CHECK: Palin's book goes rogue on some facts

Sent from Express News
WASHINGTON - Sarah Palin's new book reprises familiar claims from the 2008 presidential campaign that haven't become any truer over time.

Ignoring substantial parts of her record if not the facts, she depicts herself as a frugal traveler on the taxpayer's dime, a reformer without ties to powerful interests and a politician roguishly indifferent to high ambition.

Palin goes adrift, at times, on more contemporary issues, too. She criticizes President Barack Obama for pushing through a bailout package that actually was achieved by his Republican predecessor George W. Bush - a package she seemed to support at the time.

A look at some of her statements in "Going Rogue," obtained by The Associated Press in advance of its release Tuesday:

---

PALIN: Says she made frugality a point when traveling on state business as Alaska governor, asking "only" for reasonably priced rooms and not "often" going for the "high-end, robe-and-slippers" hotels.

THE FACTS: Although travel records indicate she usually opted for less-pricey hotels while governor, Palin and daughter Bristol stayed five days and four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House luxury hotel (robes and slippers come standard) overlooking New York City's Central Park for a five-hour women's leadership conference in October 2007. With air fare, the cost to Alaska was well over $3,000. Event organizers said Palin asked if she could bring her daughter. The governor billed her state more than $20,000 for her children's travel, including to events where they had not been invited, and in some cases later amended expense reports to specify that they had been on official business.

---

PALIN: Boasts that she ran her campaign for governor on small donations, mostly from first-time givers, and turned back large checks from big donors if her campaign perceived a conflict of interest.

THE FACTS: Of the roughly $1.3 million she raised for her primary and general election campaigns for governor, more than half came from people and political action committees giving at least $500, according to an AP analysis of her campaign finance reports. The maximum that individual donors could give was $1,000; $2,000 for a PAC.

Of the rest, about $76,000 came from Republican Party committees.

She accepted $1,000 each from a state senator and his wife in the weeks after the two Republican lawmakers' offices were raided by the FBI as part of an investigation into a powerful Alaska oilfield services company. After AP reported those donations during the presidential campaign, she said she would give a comparative sum to charity after the general election in 2010, a date set by state election laws.

PALIN: Rails against taxpayer-financed bailouts, which she attributes to Obama. She recounts telling daughter Bristol that to succeed in business, "you'll have to be brave enough to fail."

THE FACTS: Palin is blurring the lines between Obama's stimulus plan - a $787 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, social programs and government contracts - and the federal bailout that Republican presidential candidate John McCain voted for and President George W. Bush signed.

Palin's views on bailouts appeared to evolve as McCain's vice presidential running mate. In September 2008, she said "taxpayers cannot be looked to as the bailout, as the solution, to the problems on Wall Street." A week later, she said "ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy."

During the vice presidential debate in October, Palin praised McCain for being "instrumental in bringing folks together" to pass the $700 billion bailout. After that, she said "it is a time of crisis and government did have to step in."

---

PALIN: Says Ronald Reagan faced an even worse recession than the one that appears to be ending now, and "showed us how to get out of one. If you want real job growth, cut capital gains taxes and slay the death tax once and for all."

THE FACTS: The estate tax, which some call the death tax, was not repealed under Reagan and capital gains taxes are lower now than when Reagan was president.

Economists overwhelmingly say the current recession is far worse. The recession Reagan faced lasted for 16 months; this one is in its 23rd month. The recession of the early 1980s did not have a financial meltdown. Unemployment peaked at 10.8 percent, worse than the October 2009 high of 10.2 percent, but the jobless rate is still expected to climb.

---

PALIN: She says her team overseeing the development of a natural gas pipeline set up an open, competitive bidding process that allowed any company to compete for the right to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48.

THE FACTS: Palin characterized the pipeline deal the same way before an AP investigation found her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited a company with ties to her administration, TransCanada Corp. Despite promises and legal guidance not to talk directly with potential bidders during the process, Palin had meetings or phone calls with nearly every major candidate, including TransCanada.

---

PALIN: Criticizes an aide to her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, for a conflict of interest because the aide represented the state in negotiations over a gas pipeline and then left to work as a handsomely paid lobbyist for ExxonMobil. Palin asserts her administration ended all such arrangements, shoving a wedge in the revolving door between special interests and the state capital.

THE FACTS: Palin ignores her own "revolving door" issue in office; the leader of her own pipeline team was a former lobbyist for a subsidiary of TransCanada, the company that ended up winning the rights to build the pipeline.

---

PALIN: Writes about a city councilman in Wasilla, Alaska, who owned a garbage truck company and tried to push through an ordinance requiring residents of new subdivisions to pay for trash removal instead of taking it to the dump for free - this to illustrate conflicts of interest she stood against as a public servant.

THE FACTS: As Wasilla mayor, Palin pressed for a special zoning exception so she could sell her family's $327,000 house, then did not keep a promise to remove a potential fire hazard on the property.

She asked the city council to loosen rules for snow machine races when she and her husband owned a snow machine store, and cast a tie-breaking vote to exempt taxes on aircraft when her father-in-law owned one. But she stepped away from the table in 1997 when the council considered a grant for the Iron Dog snow machine race in which her husband competes.

---

PALIN: Says Obama has admitted that the climate change policy he seeks will cause people's electricity bills to "skyrocket."

THE FACTS: She correctly quotes a comment attributed to Obama in January 2008, when he told San Francisco Chronicle editors that under his cap-and-trade climate proposal, "electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket" as utilities are forced to retrofit coal burning power plants to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Obama has argued since then that climate legislation can blunt the cost to consumers. Democratic legislation now before Congress calls for a variety of measures aimed at mitigating consumer costs. Several studies predict average household costs probably would be $100 to $145 a year.

---

PALIN: Welcomes last year's Supreme Court decision deciding punitive damages for victims of the nation's largest oil spill tragedy, the Exxon Valdez disaster, stating it had taken 20 years to achieve victory. As governor, she says, she'd had the state argue in favor of the victims, and she says the court's ruling went "in favor of the people." Finally, she writes, Alaskans could recover some of their losses.

THE FACTS: That response is at odds with her reaction at the time to the ruling, which resolved the long-running case by reducing punitive damages for victims to $500 million from $2.5 billion. Environmentalists and plaintiffs' lawyers decried the ruling as a slap at the victims and Palin herself said she was "extremely disappointed." She said the justices had gutted a jury decision favoring higher damage awards, the Anchorage Daily News reported. "It's tragic that so many Alaska fishermen and their families have had their lives put on hold waiting for this decision," she said, noting many had died "while waiting for justice."

---

PALIN: Describing her resistance to federal stimulus money, Palin describes Alaska as a practical, libertarian haven of independent Americans who don't want "help" from government busybodies.

THE FACTS: Alaska is also one of the states most dependent on federal subsidies, receiving much more assistance from Washington than it pays in federal taxes. A study for the nonpartisan Tax Foundation found that in 2005, the state received $1.84 for every dollar it sent to Washington.

---

PALIN: Says she tried to talk about national security and energy independence in her interview with Vogue magazine but the interviewer wanted her to pivot from hydropower to high fashion.

THE FACTS are somewhat in dispute. Vogue contributing editor Rebecca Johnson said Palin did not go on about hydropower. "She just kept talking about drilling for oil."

---

PALIN: "Was it ambition? I didn't think so. Ambition drives; purpose beckons." Throughout the book, Palin cites altruistic reasons for running for office, and for leaving early as Alaska governor.

THE FACTS: Few politicians own up to wanting high office for the power and prestige of it, and in this respect, Palin fits the conventional mold. But "Going Rogue" has all the characteristics of a pre-campaign manifesto, the requisite autobiography of the future candidate.

---

AP writers Matt Apuzzo, Sharon Theimer, Tom Raum, Rita Beamish, Beth Fouhy, H. Josef Hebert, Justin D. Pritchard, Garance Burke, Dan Joling and Lewis Shaine contributed to this report.

By CALVIN WOODWARD Associated Press Writer

Friday the 13th

You want some transcendence with your scary?

From the second greatest album of the eighties:

and, then, take your chances on The Wall Of Death (it's the nearest thing to being alive)

The title track ...

The Cost Of Fox

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Sean Hannity Apologizes to Jon

Thursday, November 12, 2009

More Catholic Love

From Andrew's in-box:

It's this very thing that sent me into the arms of the Anglicans. I added premature twins to my family of two other children. My mother was unable to come help me, and suggested I ask the church for help. I was sure they wouldn't help me, but she called, and they said they couldn't help. She then called the long distance operator and explained her plight, and they helped her connect with a home-help service to send a nice woman to help me until I got back on my feet. She got more help in a crisis concerning newborn babies from the PHONE COMPANY than from the Catholic Church.

Then when I took all my children to mass, the priest would go on and on about the sanctity of life and choosing life, even though when I needed someone to help me after choosing life, they weren't there. I'd sit in the pew steaming, thinking that this man, who had no idea what it was like to give birth to and take care of one, never mind two, new babies, could tell me what I should do, and then go home to the quiet house, bigger than mine, which I helped pay for, and get an uninterrupted night's sleep, while I was awakened every two hours by my "Gifts from God."

Make no mistake, I'm deeply grateful for my darling twins and all my children, but when you tell a woman who hasn't had a good night's sleep in months or years, that she should "just choose life", and then go home to a quiet, empty rectory, well, rage is a good word. My husband suggested that if I was just going to go to church and steam in the pew every week, that maybe this wasn't the best plan. Going to Protestant churches with married and female ministers who have actually dealt with the difficulties of raising children, instead of the romantic "Choose life and it will all work out", gave me the support I needed to do a good job with my darling children, and I bolted.

Incidentally, that priest had to leave the priesthood. The young man he was dallying with was (barely) over 18, so he didn't go to prison, like the other priest from the same parish, whose chosen one was younger.

Much of this sounds just like St Rose Parish in Perrysburg Ohio

Nothing Is Scarier Than Stupid

Jon Stewart and team's daily real reporting:

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Is Blackface Ever OK?

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Like Snow In January

You know, not all of those teabaggers really play well with others......

Tea Party Civil War? Lawsuit, GOP Friction Splits Leaders

Some major cracks have emerged in the "Tea Party" movement's leadership.
In October, Amy Kremer, a founder and top staffer for the Tea Party Patriots (whose activists swarmed health care town halls last summer) was forced out of the group for joining a second, more "moderate" Tea Party organization -- the Tea Party Express. Now, the Tea Party Patriots have filed a lawsuit against Kremer and issued a temporary restraining order because she tried to lock down TPP resources on her way out.
The Tea Party Patriots describe the conflict with Kremer as an "intellectual property" dispute. On Kremer's personal blog, (about me: "A genuine Southern Belle with a passion for life, politics and current events... Oh yeah, did I say I am a conservative?!?") she writes that the lawsuit is "frivolous."
... Dave Weigel, who has been reporting on this story since it began, noted in October the growing friction between the Tea Party Patriots and the Tea Party Express. The Tea Party Patriots is a grassroots organization, while the Tea Party Express is a more corporate "astroturf" offshoot of the conservative Our Country Deserves Better PAC:
"As an organization, we do our best to be completely nonpartisan," said Mark Meckler, a national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots. "That's one of things that's allowed us to survive when we were called Republican tools. Tea Party Patriots are very dissatisfied with the Republican Party -- we have nothing against Our Country Deserves Better PAC, but they raise money for Republicans."

Of course, this type of thing has been happening since time began ....

What's Different Now - The Video

James Gordon Meeks visits MSNBC to talk about his experience yesterday at Arlington

BTW, if you haven't yet, you must visit Arlington National Cemetery. The men and women resting there deserve your attention.

Glenn Cartman

A classic last night folks!

What's Different Now - Ctd

Political Wire

Politics and War

Andrew Sullivan on President Obama rejecting the war options for Afghanistan:

"What strikes me about this is the enormous self-confidence this reveals. Here is a young president, prepared to allow himself to be portrayed as 'weak' or 'dithering' in the slow and meticulous arrival at public policy. He is trusting the reality to help expose what we need to do. He is allowing the debate -- however messy and confusing and emotional -- to take its time and reveal the real choices in front of us. This is politically risky, of course. Those who treat politics as a contact-sport, whose insistence is on the 'game' of who wins which news cycle, or who can spin each moment in a political storm as a harbinger of whatever, will pounce and shriek and try to bounce the president into a decision. And those who believe that what matters in war is charging ahead regardless at all times will also grandstand against the president's insistence on prudence."

As True Today As It Ever Was

Buddha Bless Calvin & Hobbes

An Onion Update

Steven Tyler Laid Off From Aerosmith As Band's Jobless Rate Hits 20%

BOSTON—After years of relative stability, the Aerosmith unemployment rate soared to an all-time high of 20 percent Monday following the downsizing of the band's vocal sector, Steven Tyler.

The announcement of the largest-ever round of Aerosmith layoffs sent shock waves throughout the group, but band leaders said that four decades of perfect employment was "unrealistic" and that it was necessary to shed some of the graying, outmoded workforce.

"Explaining to a longtime Aerosmith employee that his or her job is being eliminated is one of the most difficult challenges we face in this business," Aerosmith manager Trudy Green said in a statement released this morning. "We thank Steven for his many years of loyal service, and wish him the best of luck in all his future endeavors."

Analysts speculate that the sector-wide layoff was a result of multiple factors, including redundancies in the singing-songwriting division, rising rehab fees that have cost the group millions, and a 34 percent decline in jump-kicks since 2003. In addition, some of Aerosmith's younger, more ambitious employees, such as Joe Perry, 57, are willing to sing and play an instrument at the same time, often for half the salary.

How Can You Just Not Hate Religion?

Quite painful when the religion is the one you were born into and grew up with...

to say nothing about it's own twisted sexuality.

Catholic Church gives D.C. ultimatum

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.

Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.

Fearful that they could be forced, among other things, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, church officials said they would have no choice but to abandon their contracts with the city.

"If the city requires this, we can't do it," Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said Wednesday. "The city is saying in order to provide social services, you need to be secular. For us, that's really a problem."

Several D.C. Council members said the Catholic Church is trying to erode the city's long-standing laws protecting gay men and lesbians from discrimination.

Watch for The Pox

Fax for Fox

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Grover the Hill

www.colbertnation.com

U.S. Speedskating

Jon Stewart Now Totally Successful As Only Journalist On The Tee Vee

Last night this:

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Sean Hannity Uses Glenn Beck's Protest Footage

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Led to this:

What's Different Now

President Obama's visit to Arlington National Cemetery had a few precedent breaking highlights.

This is just, well, what happens when a real man is Commander In Chief:

My solemn meeting on Veterans Day with President Obama at my friend's resting place in Arlington

BY James Gordon Meek DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Thursday, November 12th 2009, 4:00 AM

ARLINGTON, Va. - He didn't introduce himself. He didn't have to.
President Obama simply stuck out his hand and asked for my name as he stepped toward me amid a bone-chilling drizzle in the Gardens of Stone.

This was Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery. I wasn't there as a reporter, but to visit some friends and family buried there when Obama made an unscheduled stop - a rare presidential walk among what Lincoln called America's "honored dead" - after laying a Veterans Day wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

What I got was an unexpected look into the eyes of a man who intertwined his roles as commander in chief and consoler in chief on a solemn day filled with remembrance and respect for sacrifices made - and sacrifices yet to be made.

I'm sure the cynics will assume this wasjust anotherObama photoop.

If they'd been standing in my boots looking him in the eye, they would have surely choked on their bile.

His presence in Section 60 convinced me that he now carries the heavy burden of command.

I had stopped at Arlington to see the resting place of Ken Taylor, Ed Lenard and Dave Sharrett. Ken and Ed survived their service, in World War II and Korea, and died as old men. Dave did not leave Iraq alive. He was 27.

Obama arrived just before noon at the serene Section 60, where many of the dead from Iraq and Afghanistan are buried together - and where many more heroes will undoubtedly be laid to rest before this President leaves office.

It's a section typically bustling with those visiting loved ones. Every time I go there, more and more graves have been dug into the earth.

The President and First Lady Michelle Obama emerged from their armored limousine hatless in the frigid downpour and took a slow stroll into the soggy rows of white marble headstones.

They stopped first at the grave of Medal of Honor recipient Ross McGinnis, an Army private who threw himself on a grenade in Iraq three years ago to save four buddies.
A sad-faced woman reached for Obama's hand and pointed him to a nearby plot.
The face of another woman - who had grimly sat in a folding chair for hours next to a headstone she'd arranged flowers around - suddenly broadened into a smile as she stood to embrace Obama and thank him for paying his respects.

She was so overcome with emotion that a soldier from the Army's Old Guard had to console her afterward.

The President patted backs of a dozen other Gold Star relativesand troops visiting buddiesnow in the ground.

He gave hugs. He shook wet, chilly hands. He wanted to know something about each fallen warrior.

He began to slowly trudge back toward the motorcade - and to another White House huddle with his war council, which is advising him whether to send up to 40,000 additional troops into harm's way in Afghanistan.

And then Obama noticed a tall, bearded figure. He probably didn't see the mud-caked combat boots I trudged around Afghanistan in a few years ago.

"What's your name?" a somber President asked as he extended his hand.

"James Meek, sir," I replied, struggling to pull off my wool glove and pull my hood back from my head. "I'm here visiting a friend, Pfc. David H. Sharrett II, who was killed in Iraq last year."

He asked how I knew Dave. I explained that his father, also named David, was my high school English teacher in nearby McLean, Va. My classmates and I knew Dave as a little boy playing at our feet.

"He became a star football player and was one of the toughest soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division," I told Obama.

I didn't tell the commander in chief that Dave was killed by friendly fire. Or that the Army bungled notifying Dave's parents of a probe that concluded his lieutenant tragically mistook him for a terrorist in the dark and shot him. Or that his family had to fight for accountability - which two battlefield commanders promised but stateside generals derailed.

That wouldn't have been appropriate, Dave's deeply grateful father later agreed.

"Well, we appreciate his service very much," Obama told me.

I then told him I'm a reporter for the Daily News - but was just there to visit friends.

"Well, James," he said, looking me in the eye, "just because you're a journalist doesn't mean you can't honor your friends here."

The First Lady smiled and squeezed my hand. I thanked her for coming to Section 60.

Her face opened up into a smile filled with warmth and comfort, a welcome antidote for the weather and sadness around her. She said there was no finer place to be on Veterans Day.

Ironically, I was ready to leave the cemetery an hour earlier, but it went into lockdown because of Obama's visit.

"Sorry for any inconvenience," a terribly polite Secret Service agent whispered in my ear.

As the Obamas ended their pilgrimage through Arlington's hallowed ground, inconvenience was hardly what I felt standing there as the rain pelted my coat, staring at blades of grass around a headstone etched with a name and a date I will never forget.

At Least It Wasn't A The Boy Next Door

Maybe this is Nancy Botwin's next career move.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

DADT Repeal in 2010

Politico reports that President Obama is on my timeline.

"Kerry Eleveld reports that there's a plan and a timetable for repealing "don't ask, don't tell":
Repealing "don't ask, don't tell" will likely be included as part of next year's Department of Defense authorization bill in both chambers of Congress, Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Wednesday.

"Military issues are always done as part of the overall authorization bill," Frank said, insisting that this has been the strategy for overturning the policy all along. "'Don't ask, don't tell' was always going to be part of the military authorization.""

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Gotta Be A Relapse - Updated

I say Steven's taken the old 12-backward-steps move....

Aerosmith Says Steven Tyler Has Quit

The sweet emotions that the members of Aerosmith once felt towards each other have apparently come to an end. In an interview with The Las Vegas Sun, the group’s lead guitarist, Joe Perry, said that the singer Steven Tyler quit after a concert in Abu Dhabi. “Steven quit as far as I can tell,” Mr. Perry told The Sun. “I don’t know any more than you do about it.”

Mr. Perry was responding to remarks that Mr. Tyler made in an interview with Classic Rock, a British music magazine, in which Mr. Tyler said that he was preparing to focus on a solo career. “I don’t know what I’m doing yet,” Mr. Tyler said, “but it’s definitely going to be something Steven Tyler: working on the brand of myself - Brand Tyler.”

Mr. Perry said he had had difficulty confirming this with Mr. Tyler because the singer doesn’t return his phone calls. “He’s notorious for that,” Mr. Perry told The Sun. “That’s one thing I’ve learned to live with. I try to overlook it.”
Aerosmith canceled several concerts over the summer amid an injury-plagued season after Mr. Tyler fell from a stage on Aug. 5. A publicist for the band referred questions to its management, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(NY Times)

Musto (Musto!) reports

Is wiry, big-lipped frontman Steven Tyler walking this way right out of Aerosmith? That seems to be the case according to some of the signs popping up in the media--like the fact that he quit.

Are these the photos of a sober man?

But ... well, THIS affected my life:

Joe and Steven ... so much cooler than the rest of the band.

UPDATE: Mr G Baker leads us to this link and it's confirmation of my susupicions

Pople who know the deal with Tyler say two things are contributing to his downfall: much loathed girlfriend Erin Brady and newish best pal, Justin Murdock, 35, heir to the Dole Pineapple fortune. Friends say Murdock, who’s been photographed going into nightclubs with Tyler, is helping the historically drug addicted singer live on the Pineapple Express by allowing him to party hard.
... I’ve made several calls to Tyler’s new manager, but none have been returned. I am told that Tyler’s situation these days is much like Michael Jackson’s was in the years before his death. “The people who work for him are afraid to do anything,” one source says.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Don't Call Them Teabaggers!

The new term is ...

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Guy-Fawkers

www.colbertnation.com

U.S. Speedskating

On the outside chance that we're the first place you go to today, GT12 posts the Jon Stewart bit that you will find on every blog in Liberaldom.

Jon Does Glenn (it is a must see):

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

The 11/3 Project