TV sucks

AoS has a discussion regarding the great tv theme songs. It doesn't get any better than this:



I want need my disks back! Greatest. Show. Eva.

I did this last year and it did me NO GOOD

But, you know ... hope spring eternal. To family members who don't know what to get me for my b-day or Christmas ... I would LOVE any of the following albums.

"R" by QOTSA - too late, I already downloaded it.
"The Downward Spiral" or "Year Zero" by NIN
"Master of Puppets" - Metallica
a gift of music from iTunes (they've got a complete The Smiths collection that I would love for the rock bottom price of $24.99

You Only Have Yourselves To Blame

Most of you have left me to entertain myself, so this is what you reap. Christmas songs. This is not only one of my favorite, but it also serves a double purpose. We can be "Thankful" that most of us live in the US with American dentistry. YEA for fluoride !



You guys think I can come up with a song a day from now until Christmas?

YES WE CAN! Hope and Change right here on this blog.

PS- PCachu posted a Christmas music recommendation in comments. Pour some nog and enjoy!

Annual Christmas Music Bleg

I heart the Christmas music. We did this last year, so try to be new and fresh. Unlike this blog.

So far, the only thing that has piqued my interest is Yo-Yo Ma's Songs of Joy & Peace." and he he loses MAJOR points for that horrible title. He does "The Wexford Carol" With Allison Krause which is all sorts of awesomeness.

So ... find something good for me and put it in the comments.

Or, go back to your Thanksgiving preparations and ignore me, bitches. I see how you guys are.

More fun

I've posted a little thingy over there ---->

It's my current reading list. Descending order, so I'm reading the top one now, and the ones below I've already finished. I added two previous books just to kind of get it rolling, ifyouknowwhatImeanandIthinkthatyoudo.

Feel free to drop in a comment about what you're reading, what you want to read, what you've intended to read for years and haven't been able to get through.

And, then go read Michele's slam of Twilight give her a big raspberry.

I ♥ Twilight like a teenage girl.

Charlie Rangel, a primer

Tax cheat or stupid?

1. Used a rent-stabilized NY apartment as an office.
2. Failed to report rental income ($75,000) of villa he owned in the Dominican Republic. Owed $9,500 in taxes.
3. Took "homestead" tax break on Washington DC house for years, while simultaneously living in multiple rent-stabilized apartment in NY, breaking a variety of laws in both locations.

Now Charlie, as you may know, is Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Which, ironically, is in charge of writing tax legislation and bills affecting Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlement programs.

Fox. Hen House.

Lookie!

At my kewel new blogroll! I'm going to move some more links over, but not all. Some links on that old list aren't even active anymore.

Also, blogrolling has been fubar for a long time and I've been unable to add or edit for a least two months.

As Seen on Other Sites

This image has been making it's way around the intertubes, but I really wanted it here where I could love and nurture it.


It's one of the ballots Al Franken is questioning. I mean, if only we could figure out the voter's intent! I suppose some mysteries are never meant to be solved.We should just put this ballot in Franken's pile and call it a day. I mean, after all, Franken voters are less educated and thus more likely to fill in those bubbles wrong. GOD KNOWS it takes a college education to fill in circles.

h/t:Hot Air

A day late

I missed the anniversary of the Jim Jones massacre. It's been twenty years since the atheist, marxist Jones, who dreamed of creating a socialist heaven-on-earth, convinced his followers to drink the Kool-Aid.

How did he do it? He was dynamic. He could draw a crowd. You know what else? The media gave him a free pass.

Jones wasn't some backwater preacher existing beyond the fringe and knowledge of those in power. He met with Rosalyn Carter and Walter Mondale and Jerry Brown. He was awarded the local Martin Luther King, Jr. humanitarian award. A few journalists try to uncover and reveal him for what he was, and those stories were squashed.

But all this is too uncomfrable to think about. Hows-about we just pretend that the Jim Jones Massacre was the result of a Christian zealot? Yess ... that feels much better ...

H/t:dicentra

Ayman al-Zawahri on Obama

Al-Qaida calls Obama a house negro.

I thought the world was going to love us? I'm gonna go hug my unicorn.

The Hope and Change of the Obama Cabinet

Truth be told, I'm beginning to thing that "change" doesn't mean what we thought it would mean. First we've got the name Hllary Clinton floated around as AG. Then we find Obama is hiring lobbyist left and right as part of his transistion team.

But, Obama's choice for White House Counsel certainly is a change. Who's familiar with the name Gregory Craig? Well, he defended Clinton during the impeachment, but he's got more experience than that:

Elian Gonzalez’s father - Craig represented the father who demanded the return of his son after his estranged wife died trying to take Elian to freedom. Most people saw this as a thinly-veiled publicity stunt from Fidel Castro, attempting to embarrass the US. The dispute got resolved when Janet Reno ordered an armed assault on the house where Elian’s family in the US provided him a home.

John Hinckley, Jr - Craig presented and won the insanity defense that allows Ronald Reagan’s would-be assassin to spend weekends with his family now.

Kofi Annan - The former Secretary-General of the UN hired Craig to defend his interests in the Volcker Commission probe of the Oil-for-Food scandal, which put billions of dollars into Saddam Hussein’s pockets while providing cash for Annan’s son, his deputies, and some allege Annan himself.

Pedro Gonzalez Pinzon - A Panamanian legislator wanted for murdering an American soldier in 1992. The Dallas Morning News demanded that Obama force Craig to drop the case during the campaign, but no report of whether he did is easily available.

Now, I don't think anyone can deny that having such a defender of assassins, scandals, and Castro as White House counsel is some CHANGE you can dig your teeth into.

heh

DNC plan for fiscal responsibilty - T-shirts!

The DNC raised $100 million dollars on top of the $600+ million raised by Obama. The latter was a record-breaking number, and the DNC’s wasn’t too bad, either. Instead of simply spending what they raised, though, Howard Dean took out massive loans that left the Democrats in the red by $15 million.

In government, we call that deficit spending, something Democrats decried during the 2006 elections. And who gets to pay for all the overspending and fiscal mismanagement? The contributors who already coughed up record amounts of money for Hope and Change, that’s who. And the new administration will hold the Hope and Change hostage until it gets all of the loose change possible first, Plouffe tells us.

Can we wear those shirts to our mandatory volunteer service? You know, like uniforms?

While I'm at the dentist this morning ...

You can enjoy this loverly Tool Video:

The candidate who just keeps asking for your money

The election may be over, but Obama and the DNC still want your money.

h/t: Hot Air

Sarah Palin is NO LONGER RUNNING FOR OFFICE

My new sub-header is my feable attempt to pacify my disgust with radio talk-show asshole Mitch Albom. Some may be familiar with his books or perhaps with his career as a sports writer. But, here in Detroit, we have the burden of being at the receiving end of his radio show. He started out with a lot of sports talk and local issues. But, through the years, his ego has grown and now he drons on (and ON) about national politics. He appears to be mortally wounded that he failed in his attempt for national syndication, and daily attacks (like a crying bitch) popular syndicated radio shows that are heard daily on the same very station from which he broadcasts, attacking listeners who turned in earlier to listen to the other radio personalities.

Anyway, yesterday he opened his show with a fifteen minute attack on Sarah Palin. I listened only to see HOW long he'd go on about it, then I quickly turned it off and washed my brain with some Metallica. At that point, though, I vowed that somehow I would get my personal message to Mitch. I need to to tell Mitch that's he's a flaming asshole. I don't know if I CAN make my dream into reality, but a gal can try.

Not everyone is of the opinion that Sarah Palin is teh stupid.

Liberal Democrats are going to wake up from their sadomasochistic, anti-Palin orgy with a very big hangover. The evil genie released during this sorry episode will not so easily go back into its bottle. A shocking level of irrational emotionalism and at times infantile rage was exposed at the heart of current Democratic ideology -- contradicting Democratic core principles of compassion, tolerance and independent thought. One would have to look back to the Eisenhower 1950s for parallels to this grotesque lock-step parade of bourgeois provincialism, shallow groupthink and blind prejudice.

I like Sarah Palin, and I've heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is -- and quite frankly, I think the people who don't see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma. So she doesn't speak the King's English -- big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes. She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns -- that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World.

As for the Democrats who sneered and howled that Palin was unprepared to be a vice-presidential nominee -- what navel-gazing hypocrisy! What protests were raised in the party or mainstream media when John Edwards, with vastly less political experience than Palin, got John Kerry's nod for veep four years ago? And Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, for whom I lobbied to be Obama's pick and who was on everyone's short list for months, has a record indistinguishable from Palin's. Whatever knowledge deficit Palin has about the federal bureaucracy or international affairs (outside the normal purview of governors) will hopefully be remedied during the next eight years of the Obama presidencies.

People need to get a grip. Attacks on Palin aimed at her values or style or beliefs reveal the disdain you have for women with similar traits. And, there's a whole bunch of us. It belies your bullshit "let's all unite" message. You don't mean it.

'Cause if you did, you wouldn't still be attacking Palin.

Headache, tired ...

But, I had to make mention of Oceancat calling Bob a conservative. Heh.

Oceancat, I've decided you are completely humorless. Did you get your sense of humor removed? Donate it to those less fortunate? It's really rather sad.


And, despite Michele's non-review panning of the new Metallica album, I bought it anyway. I've only give it a first one-through, so I can change my mind, but so far I like it.

If I don't, I'm blaming Michele. I know, how fair does that seem? But, asked her to REALLY review it, or suggest something else. And she didn't.

Palin, NAFTA, and Africa

I know all those haters out here just LOVE the stuff coming out (unsourced) about Palin- but until you can put a name to the smears, I think you need to STFU about it.

NRO has a name. Steve Beigun:

He says there's no way she didn't know Africa was a continent, and whoever is saying she didn't must be distorting "a fumble of words." He talked to her about all manner of issues relating to Africa, from failed states to the Sudan. She was aware from the beginning of the conflict in Darfur, which is followed closely in evangelical churches, and was aware of Clinton's AIDS initiative. That basically makes it impossible that she thought all of Africa was a country.

On not knowing what countries are in NAFTA, Biegun was part of the conversation that led to that accusation and it convinces him "somebody is acting with a high degree of maliciousness." He was briefing Palin before a Univision interview, and talking to her about trade issues. He rolled through NAFTA, CAFTA, and the Colombia FTA. As he talked, people were coming in and out of the room, handing Palin things, etc. She was distracted from what Biegun was saying, and said, roughly, "Ok, who's in NAFTA, what's the deal with CAFTA, what's up the FTA?"—her way, Biegun says, of saying "rack them and stack them," begin again from the start. "Somebody is taking a conversation and twisting it maliciously," he says.

So, if any commenter is going to repeat those smears, I'm going to call you on it. You'd better have a name.

Last post

Glad to see Obama's presidency is healing the racial divide. This from Michelle Malkin:

My senior at an upscale Cobb County Georgia (Newt’s old district) high school came home today in tears. Every black student at this school, where race isn’t usually an indicator of whether or not the teens are friends…they all get along and are for the most part, almost all college bound… was wearing their Obama t-shirts today. Many of them said, “My president is BLACK.” Many had Obama’s head printed on cardboard and waved them through the halls taunting the white kids with, “McCain sucks” and “F– McCain.”
Anyone who’d previously professed support for McCain is being taunted with “racist.”

Fuck McCain! But, let's unite! Dear 52 ...

Change you Can Believe In

All you Obama voters? I think you should start signing your kids up FIRST for those 50 and 100 hours of mandatory volunteer service for students PER YEAR.

"Mandatory Volunteer Service?" Sound DOUBLEPLUSGOOD!

More 52 to 48 stuff

Heh.


Comments on that post have a wonderful answer to those who are requesting that we unite under the mantle of Obama's Hope and Change. We're not Ready To Make Nice.

I mean, did you think we'd just forget this:



I mean, is HE gonna send up a "from-52-to-48-with-love" note?

Oh Honestly

This is specifically what Treacher was talking about below. It's worse than I thought.

Don't click over if you've recently eaten lunch. Hypocrisy, thy name is democrats.

I sorta want to respond to this, and I sorta don't.

Mostly I take issue with:

The same crowd that vilified the left wingers for disowning their president, for threatening to move, for calling him a dictator, are doing the same exact thing now to Obama. The people who were in an uproar in 2004, calling the wingnuts on the left traitors for saying they would never support the president are claiming the same words as their own.

Hey, right wingers? You have become the people you hate. You have become everything you screamed at people for being in 2004. You are running around claiming that Obama cheated, lied and bought his way to the White House. Looking around the blogosphere and its comments I see the words slimy, corrupt, devil, Antichrist, communist, evil, Stalin, Lenin, Hitler. That the people who voted for Obama are ignorant, idiots, stupid, corrupt, racist, Jew haters, the enemy.

In two days? Two days and we've equaled the vitriol spewed for the last 7 years? While there are some unhinged people making unreasoned arguments against Obama, many others are making perfectly reasonable ones. Get back to me when there are assassination fantasy plays, and people cheering when Chavez calls President Obama the devil.

Jim Treacher, though really has a better response to arguments such as Michele's, which were stated in her PMJ article a few days ago:

There's nothing easier than telling the guy you just beat that he should forget the depths you plumbed to do so.

And I forgot to mention the whole deal with, y'know, the last 8 years of lefty rage? It's just become such a part of the scenery, you almost forget sometimes. Plus Obama's voter fraud and credit-card fraud and constant lies about his past and false accusations of racism and the fact that he's already making far-left appointments and he wants to shut down talk radio because he can't handle criticism and all that other silly stuff we all need to get past now because we're going to need to work extra hard to pay for our own oppression. Whoops, there I go again!

As I've said, if you expect me to give Obama half a chance, howz-about you don't preface that request by mentioning Bush's stupidity?

Beware, the stupid, it burns

h/t: Darleen, AGAIN from the Protein Wisdom pub.

Obama Zombies! Shoot 'em in the head ...

It's The Onion and it's really funny. Trust me. Clicky now

h/t Darleen

What media bias?

Offered with minimal comment:

On Friday, Politico's, Kenneth P. Vogel and Michael Calderone reported on the sky-high cost of covering the campaigns. Apparently media organizations have paid $9.6 million to the Obama campaign in travel expenses. (By contrast, they spent $4.4 million to travel with Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Pali

Why, do you think, the media spent more than twice as much covering Obama? In your answer, explain how this is NOT media bias.

If you've come here to gloat .../with updates

Well, then you've come to the wrong place. For a variety of reasons.

First, and foremost, I'm saving you from yourself. Any assholish comments made will magically disappear, because Baracky's Hope and Change™ for America doesn't need your classless comments polluting this day.

Second, and listen closely, McCain wasn't my man. Sure, he was NotObama, which was a good enough reason to vote for him, but overall he was a rather poor choice. He didn't really espouse the tenets of classical liberalism which I've come to love. And, if you need a definition of Classical Liberalism I'll find it for you.

A McCain presidency would have probably been bad news for republicans. He would have had NO support, and the derangement from the left would have continued. Possibly to epic proportions if Teh One had been defeated.

I'm going to say this only once, and it's only because the left is so unhinged that I have to type it at all, but I did NOT oppose Obama because he was black. Oceancat/Meya - your comments accusing me of racism will be deleted, so spare us both. I could go on and on about which views of his with which I disagree, but we'll have plenty of time for that later.

But, Obama ran as a moderate. So, I expect my taxes are going to go down as he promised, right? And he's going to be bipartisan, right? He's gonna reach across that isle. He's going to heal America. Oprah said there is no red and blue anymore, we're all purple. Well ...alllright. I'm HYPED! Plus, the whole world loves us now, so we've got that going for us. This is a day of victory for all of us!

I've been looking around what others have to say, and thought I'd share:

Lileks:

I’m off to the Mall to sell razor blades so people can scrape off their “Question Authority” bumper stickers. Just remember: Dissent is still the highest form of patriotism. Except now it will be practiced by the lowest form of people.
Seriously, though: congratulations to President-elect Obama. Right or wrong - and I hope for more of the former, obviously - he’s my President now, dammit, and I’m not going to spend four years treating him with the contempt the Kos side heaped on Chimpy McPretzelchoker. He could turn out to be a horrible President. He could turn out to be a great one. History pushes people in unexpected directions.
More to come, of course, but let’s not spoil the moment.

Byron York:

How many times did you hear that voters believed this was the most important presidential election of their lifetime, and therefore that turnout would be through the roof? Voters waiting in line for hours. Huge numbers of early and absentee ballots. Unprecedented get-out-the-vote operations. Well, as I add the totals on CNN's election website now, it looks like about 117.6 million votes have been counted so far — which is less, I believe, than in 2004. There are still votes left to be tallied, but I think it's safe to say that there wasn't a historic leap in turnout this time around. After all the hype, what was the reason for that? (H/T Seth Liebsohn)

John Derbyshire:

I'm sour about the GOP too. What did it all get us, those 8 years of pandering and spending? If GWB had turned his face against new entitlements, closed the borders, deported the illegals, held the line on calls to loosen mortgage-lending standards, starved the Department of Education, and declined those invitations to mosque functions, would the GOP be in any worse shape now?

What won this election was the packaging skills of David Axelrod, the swooning complicity of the media, the ruthless opportunism of Barack Obama, and the unprincipled thuggishness of his supporters.

What lost this election was the cloth-eared cluelessness of George W. Bush, the timid squeamishness of John McCain, and the deep lack of interest in conservative principles among Republican primary voters.

Sour? You bet I’m sour. Where was conservatism in this election? Where was restraint in government? Where was national sovereignty? Where was liberty? Where was self-support? And where are those things now? Where are they headed this next four years? Down the toilet, that’s where. Pah!

Lord news I've been in agreement with Derbyshire for a while, but he knocked that one out of the park.

Novak:

Obama won the Democratic primaries by getting to the left of Sen. Hillary Clinton and all the others on foreign policy. The most activist part of the Democratic party is its most passionate left wing. Winning their hearts, Obama then gradually moved toward the center—making his views on the war in Iraq barely distinguishable in practical fact from those of Senator McCain. In any case, the foreign-policy issues that dominated the primary season dropped speedily out of sight, as it began to become clear that violence was dropping very quickly in Iraq, and something like “normalcy” came ever closer. The press virtually stopped covering Iraq. (Their passion had been to humiliate Bush; and when things turned better, they seemed no longer interested.)

Does the victory of the Left in 2008 mean that President Obama will try to make the United States more like a Euro-socialist nation? All the signs he has given us of where his heart really lies suggest that he will try to do that, within some rather severe limits. In particular, he will surely try to rush through a program of U.S. government-run and -managed health care. But under President Clinton, Hillary Clinton came to grief trying to do that.

The United States is a large nation, with an extraordinarily diverse range of populations, regions, climates, and cultural habits. Imagine trying to run one single continental health-care system that embraces Germany and Portugal, Scandinavia and Greece, and Albania through Belgium. That image suggests how difficult it will be to run one single health-care system from Washington, from Maine and Florida out through Alaska and Arizona, and everything in between. The United States is more culturally unified than Europe. But it is far from uniformly so.

Besides, Americans do not much respect the government-run programs that are now in place. Rather than rely on the inefficient Post Office, for important matters Americans prefer to pay a little more for the reliability, good manners, and good spirit of private carriers such as FedEx and United Parcel Service. Service is so much better and more cheerful in the business sector than in the government sector.

It will be interesting to see whether or not the far left continues with it's drumbeat against Iraq if Obama merely continues along the same path established by Bush. Of course, I am prepared for Obama to take credit for any success that may be achieved there.

Saving the BEST for last, the master Den Beste comes out of hiding to comment:

The main reason this will be a "coming of age" moment is that now Obama and the Democrats have to put up or shut up. Obama got elected by making himself a blank slate, with vapid promises about "hope" and "change" -- but now he actually has to do something. Now he has to reveal his true agenda. And with the Democrats also having a majority in both chambers of Congress, now the Democrats really have to lead. And they're not going to do a very good job of it. It's going to be amusing to watch.

And the people who fell for the demagoguery will learn an invaluable lesson.

But, you HAVE HAVE HAVE to read the whole thing. And here's another link.

More Updates:

This is just plain creepy.

Working today

So, don't interpret my non-presence as some sort of avoidance. I'm working, then voting.

If you need a place to hang out, I'd recommend Ace's today, because he's got a ton of co-bloggers, and they're going to be all over the election.

If you want something less coverage aimed, I'd go hang at Protein Wisdom.

Did he, or didn't he?

$9000 "Chump Change" to someone making $250,000

So says Obama.

Someone making $250,000 owes $90,000 in taxes. Under Obama, that goes up to $97,500.

That is simply a phenomenal amount of money to pay in federal taxes alone.

After Election, Obama's gonna shift (even further) to the Left

Which, of course, we know would happen. Memo to voters: he's not going to cut your taxes, he's going to raise them. OR, he's going to be unable to carry out all those campaign promises. Obama says he's going to cut spending by streamlining government, but that goes against everything all the liberal activists want.

he Campaign for America's Future, a progressive Washington group founded by a former adviser to the Rev. Jesse Jackson's presidential bids, is organizing a conference for this month on creating a government-funded investment fund for public works projects. The Center for American Progress recently released a two-year, $100 billion plan for producing renewable energy, and its president, former Clinton administration Chief of Staff John Podesta, has been tapped to lead the Obama transition team.

Last month in Washington, an organization recently formed by Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil-rights leader, attracted more than 100 leading activists on poverty and other social issues to a daylong conference. Mr. King demanded that the next president appoint a cabinet member dedicated to eradicating poverty. In a keynote address, Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs called for substantially higher tax collections to fund government investments in energy production, public works and eradicating poverty and other ills.

You know, I'm gonna try-out for that cabinet appointment dedicated to eradicating poverty. My plan? Simple:

Go to school, and STAY in school until you graduate.
Don't break the law.
Get a job.
Don't have a baby before you are 25, unless you are married and have a job.

How much do you think I'll get paid?

Obama: Under my plan electricity rates would skyrocket

Oh goody! Can't wait!

You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know — Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.

They — you — you can already see what the arguments will be during the general election. People will say, “Ah, Obama and Al Gore, these folks, they’re going to destroy the economy, this is going to cost us eight trillion dollars,” or whatever their number is. Um, if you can’t persuade the American people that yes, there is going to be some increase in electricity rates on the front end, but that over the long term, because of combinations of more efficient energy usage, changing lightbulbs and more efficient appliance, but also technology improving how we can produce clean energy, the economy would benefit.

And skyrocketing energy prices won't disproportionately effect the middle class or the poor, will it? Hope and Change.

Sunday Morning Newspaper Rant

I don't even know what I pay for that piece of garbage anymore. Before I go off to church to pray for our country, I must pass along this piece of utter nonsense. From Ron Dzwondkowski, Free Press editorial page editor.

Whatever happens in Tuesday's election, don't worry, be happy, get spiritual. A new age is dawning in America, to be marked by four "metamovements that separately and together are redefining the American Dream."
And these are according to pollster John Zogby, living with limits, embracing diversity, looking inward, and demanding authenticity.

Zogby's got a new book, and in it he predicts a future "of a more tolerant America living frugal lifestyles." Oh boy.

Today's young adults - growing up amid the Panic of '08 or however it will be known - will get used to living with less after decades marked by America's conspicuous consumption. The country, Zogy says, will by 2020 have "embraced the Zen of more minimal lifestyles" and will expect our leaders to talk straight; Hype, hokum and hooey, in politics, in advertising, wherever it appears will be punished.

See, our youth are simply better than us. Smarter. More wordly. And if you believe that ...

Honestly, I have so much to say about this article, I can't even begin. So I'll go to church and pray.