The Truffle

Via WaPo , we find that Senator Tom Coburn, an Okie like fellow douchebag Jim "I Don't Believe in No Stinkin' Global Warming!" Inhofe, was holding out for one small, slim chance that health care reform wouldn't pass. "What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight," he said. "That's what they ought to pray." It was difficult to escape the conclusion that Coburn was referring to the 92-year-old, wheelchair-bound Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) who has been in and out of hospitals and lay at home ailing. It would not be easy for Byrd to get out of bed in the wee hours with deep snow on the ground and ice on the roads -- but without his vote, Democrats wouldn't have the 60 they needed. A sitting senator wishing for a colleague's death. Disgusting. Of course, the reporter, Dana Milbank, went on a "Democrats do it toooooooo!" tirade, referring to Sheldon Whitehouse's speech. Excuse me. ...

From MSNBC : A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to driving his motorized La-Z-Boy chair while drunk. A criminal complaint said 62-year-old Dennis LeRoy Anderson told police he left a bar in the northern Minnesota town of Proctor on his chair after drinking eight or nine beers. Prosecutors say Anderson's blood alcohol content was 0.29, more than three times the legal limit, when he crashed into a parked vehicle in August 2008. He was not seriously injured. (Via Stuperb )

Did the Disasta from Alaska really think she could make up stories without someone doing some fact-checking? In "Going Rogue" Palin wrote: "In that first year, I was alerted to threats against Willow by students at her Juneau school, one particularly disturbing. Someone posted a note on an Internet site threatening to gang-rape her at school. I never felt safe for her after that. Later, the same thing happened to Bristol." Willow Palin attended Dzantik'i Heeni Middle School, while Bristol Palin attended Juneau-Douglas High School. Palin provided no details about where the Internet site was, how seriously she took the threats, how she knew it was posted by students, or what steps she'd taken to ensure her family's safety. Former Juneau School District Superintendent Peggy Cowan was superintendent during the period in question and said she never heard of such concerns. "That was never reported to my office," she said. "I am completely confi...

Via Ed Brayton comes the Notorious GOP, a.k.a. Michael Steele and his interns gettin' doooowwwwwn ! But wait--is this a terrorist fist jab? At some point, a Fox News anchor's head will explode. No wonder the GOP pretends Rush is the party leader.

A judge blocked the ban on funding for ACORN. At least one of the yellow elephants young conservatives involved in the sting on ACORN isn't going to be happy. One commenter on this case sums up my feelings exactly: ACORN has the misfortune of being an organization with extremely worthwhile goals (even if they do upset the rich folks bankrolling Faux News) and yet filled with associates that apparently don't take their role as ethical exemplars seriously and as a result end up besmirching the organization as a whole. Even if the right-wing operatives that want to strip ACORN of its ability to fulfill its mission use extremely underhanded tactics, ACORN itself can only survive by sticking to the highest levels of ethical conduct. It's clearly an indictment of their organization that the leadership cannot communicate this fact to its staff. However, the legions of inner-city poor who have benefited from their works shouldn't have to pay the price for the stupidity of ...

Hence "The 8 Days of Scientology."

Farnsworth sums up my feelings on Afghanistan. I hate to see Obama pouring even more military and money into that rathole. But at this point I don't know what else can be done--there's no easy solution now. We've stepped into another lake of quicksand... Hey, how could've I have missed a band with a great name like Salad ? I thought I was a '90s music hipster. Sigh... I have nothing to say on Tiger Woods, except that professional athletes sleeping with bimbos is hardly front page news. Oh, and golf is boring. Via BlueGal , we have Andy Mckenna , former head of the Illinois GOP, who thinks Illinois' minimum wage ($8.00/hour) is too high. Mr. Mckenna missed his calling. He should be writing for the Onion . President Obama says banks don't get it re financial reform. Uh, Mr. President? You do remember you've got Geithner and Summers in your cabinet, right? These aren't exactly reform-minded guys.

I've been on a Hollies kick lately. Truly an underrated band--perhaps the most grossly underrated group of the 1960s. They're a link between the purest of pure British invasion pop and the power pop artists of the 1970s (Raspberries, Big Star et al.). They were also great singers and musicians. The hits continued even after Graham Nash quit the band (a proposed Dylan cover album was the last straw before he hightailed it to Laurel Canyon). From the 1960s, "I Can't Let Go." This should've been a huge hit in the USA. From the 1970s, "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress."

I have a question: Am I the only one sick of vampires? I don't want to read any Twilight books, see any Twilight movies, read any Sookie Stackhouse novels, or watch any vampire related shows. There are too many vampires. Enough already! Can't we have more werewolves? Okay, there are exceptions.

Check out my new blog addy . Nothing against Blogger; just wanted a change of scene.

...Where do wingnuts get the impression that liberals support Islamic terrorism? If that were true, wouldn't there be a lot of liberals in Gitmo? Really, they're just making things up. Again.

Li'l Tucker Carlson still hasn't forgiven Jon Stewart for being mean to him on "Crossfire." Say, what has Tucker been up to these days, anyway?

In 2006, Rush Limbaugh claimed he'd been "liberated" from his role as GOP stooge. Now, he's the freaking party's de facto leader, declaring once again, at CPAC, that he wants Obama to fail. This is good for the Democrats. In the words of Rahm Emmanuel on "Face the Nation": He's asked for President Obama and called for President Obama to fail. That's his view. And that's what he has enunciated. And whenever a Republican criticizes him, they have to run back and apologize to him and say they were misunderstood. He is the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party. He has been up front about what he views and hasn't stepped back from that, which is he hopes for failure. He said it and I compliment him for his honesty. But that's their philosophy that is enunciated by Rush Limbaugh and I think that's the wrong philosophy for America.... When a Republican did attack him he clearly had a turn-around and ...

From Cleek : Obama should go on TV and read the dictionary definition of “socialism“. Then he should ask, “Have I ever suggested that the government should take over the means of production? No? THEN SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU IGNORANT DOUCHEBAGS. Thank you. And God Bless America.”

In memory of Kelly Groucutt, ELO bassist (1945-2009):

"C-P-A-C" (Sung to the tune of the Village People's "Y.M.C.A.") Wingnut! Do you feel out of place? I say, wingnut! Why that frown on your face? Are you sick of 'Bama, Hillary and Joe? There's gathering where you should go Wingnuts! Pundits giggling at you? Hey wingnut! You're rubber and they're glue Because wingnuts! Are Americans true So show them you're patriotic Bring yourself to the C-P-A-C Yes, you'll have fun at the C-P-A-C We will make you look sane! We will make you look hip! Believe us, it's worth the trip! C-P-A-C! You'll have fun at the C-P-A-C! Joe the Plumber is there! So are Coulter and Steele! So come over to cool your heels! Wingnuts, we've got teabags unused Our plans for a tea party fell through But we'll pretend that it was a success As we dig our way out of this mess Wingnuts! Where is Jindal? Here's Mitt! Where is Sarah? Our movement's in deep shit But they passed on our gathering this y...

Chip Saltsman was, just a short time ago, one of the assorted wannabe GOP leaders. A candidate for party chairman, in fact. Now, however, the wannabe is a won't-be . Note to other GOP hopefuls: Do you guys want to be a Southern party forever? If the answer is "no," then quit with the racist crap, will you please?

The letter Bush left for Obama.

From Best Week Ever , via Socialite Life .

With Obama's election, Americans are suddenly patriotic again. How cool is that? They painted Barack Obama as an unpatriotic, "terrorist sympathizing" candidate whose values are foreign to the American way of life. How could it be that his ascendance to the presidency should be the occasion for the new patriotic spirit sweeping America? Yesterday on the mall in Washington hundreds of thousands belted out "This Land is Your Land" led by 90-year-old labor activist and folk singer Pete Seeger who was blacklisted in the 50s. The eyes of white middle aged working guys moistened as they listened to a black children's choir sing "America the Beautiful". And throughout the crowd -- even among the aging 60s activists who had struggled against the Vietnam War -- there was a genuine, deep admiration for the men and women who risk it all every day in our armed forces. And it's not just in Washington. As unlikely as it might seem to the right, the election...

Lena Horne singing "Stormy Weather." Hope that wherever she is, she's loving this inauguration.

Alberto Gonzales isn't the only Bush staffer who can't get hired. Via WaPo : As President-elect Barack Obama's team transitions into the federal government tomorrow, President Bush's political appointees will be locked out, and in these tough economic times many of them are scrambling to find new jobs. High-ranking White House loyalists have deluged Washington headhunters with pleas for jobs. Corporations and nonprofit organizations have stopped hiring. With the GOP out of power, jobs on Capitol Hill are scant and K Street lobbying firms have trimmed their golden parachutes. So this is the new reality: Instead of boasting to friends and colleagues of new jobs in goodbye e-mails, many longtime Bush aides have offered home phone numbers and Gmail and Yahoo e-mail addresses as their new contacts. "For Republicans, the inn is full," lamented veteran GOP operative Ron Kaufman, a close White House adviser to former president George H.W. Bush and an executive at Dut...

It's President Bush's last day in office (man, it feels so good to write this), and he hasn't pardoned Scooter Libby. Who wants to bet Scooter's tell-all will be hitting bookshelves in two or three years?

This is just funny. Beelzebub and Lucifer--uh, I mean, Mike Huckabee and Ann Coulter--are doin' the "I'm more of a wingnut than YEW!" thang. Meanwhile, here's the condensed Rush Limbaugh : "Waaaaaaaah! Liberals were mean to Bush in 2001! They never liked him! Why should we conservatives be nice to Obama, huh? Waaaaaaaah!"

Apparently, this isn't a joke : KRISPY KREME CELEBRATES OBAMA WITH PRO-ABORTION DOUGHNUTS Washington, DC (15 January 2009) - The following is a statement from American Life League president Judie Brown: “The next time you stare down a conveyor belt of slow-moving, hot, sugary glazed donuts at your local Krispy Kreme, you just might be supporting President-elect Barack Obama’s radical support for abortion on demand - including his sweeping promise to sign the Freedom of Choice Act as soon as he steps in the Oval Office, Jan. 20. Hear that, kids? When you eat Krispy Kreme doughnuts, you kill babies. How can Judie Brown say this crap with a straight face, anyway?

Them Beltway folks sure is silly. I mean, there's clueless, and then there's clueless . From WaPo : With a black first family in the White House and a diverse group of appointees and Cabinet nominees, the all-white dinner party feels all wrong. Certain hosts are suddenly grappling with a new reality: They need some black friends. Overnight, black politicians, lawyers and journalists are hot properties, receiving engraved invitations from people they never got invitations from before. Blacks have gone from barely being on the list to being in charge of the list. "Everyone knows that his campaign was about inclusion," Jarrett said. "We would expect that spirit of inclusion to also reflect on Washington's social scene." They finally realized that the young black kids with the hors d'œuvre trays don't count, eh? This has been another edition of The Beltway Is Totally Out of Touch. Via Booman Tribune .

Someone with a lot of spare time has posted Far Side Reenactments . Thanks to Elayne Riggs , who checks out this stuff so other people don't have to. I owe her some black metal links.

But the video below, combining the Scissor Sisters' quasi-disco and three goofball black metal videos, works, in a seriously perverse way. I originally discovered this in the Facebook group Any Picture Can Be Improved by Adding Immortal to It.

You too can be a political speechwriter! Here's how! My fellow Americans, today is a floppy day. You have shown the world that "hope" is not just another word for "chapeau", and that "change" is not only something we can believe in again, but something we can actually smack. Today we celebrate, but let there be no mistake – America faces heavy and delicious challenges like never before. Our economy is sordid. Americans can barely afford their mortgages, let alone have enough money left over for dopes. Our healthcare system is odd. If your kidney is sick and you don't have insurance, you might as well call a sales representative. And America's image overseas is tarnished like a keychain floppy disk. But groping together we can right this ship, and set a course for Dubai. Finally, I must thank my tipsy family, my luscious campaign volunteers, but most of all, I want to thank Hawaiians for making this historic occasion possible. Of course, I must...

Victoria Hesketh, aka Little Boots, performing "Meddle."

Bush's farewell speech was brushed aside as the miraculous plane landing in the Hudson monopolized the news. He's boring. He keeps saying the same shit over and over. And basically, he sucks. We all know this. It'll be fun to hear the wingers whine about Obama for the next four years. This time, sensible people can say, "Well, do you really think anything was better under Bush?" That should shut them up.

A former Republican aide has been caught scalping tickets to Obama's inauguration...just hours before the practice became illegal. Oops.

I used to like Caroline Kennedy. Now...not so much. Sure, she was a curiously pallid figure, but she was classy. She had a low-key life writing books, serving on assorted foundation boards, raising money for the New York City schools, and carrying the Camelot torch. After watching her mother run the paparazzi gauntlet, you couldn't blame her for avoiding a life on the public stage. There are only two things that could explain her current interest in La Hill's Senate seat: a. Uncle Ted put her up to it, because there just has to be a Kennedy in the Senate. b. She's going through a mid-life crisis. I'm inclined to believe the former. Uncle Ted's not long for this world, so he's nudging his publicity-shy niece into the spotlight. Weirdly enough, she's playing along with it--and why? If anyone's gone out of her way to avoid controversy during her half-century on the planet, it's Caroline Kennedy. This is not a bad thing, of course. Except when you...