The Truffle

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...