Remember when you got drunk in your brother's house?

So, here's W.  stopping by someone's house.  The owner NEVER THOUGHT he could own a house.  But W thought everyone should have one.  So W made it happen.

That was 2001-2002, when W was looking for ways to stay popular (read: BEFORE  "911" became part of the excuse vernacular)

A clip from the past:

Darrin West could not believe it. The president of the United States was standing in his living room.

It was June 17, 2002, a day Mr. West recalls as “the highlight of my life.” Mr. Bush, in Atlanta to unveil a plan to increase the number of minority homeowners by 5.5 million, was touring Park Place South, a development of starter homes in a neighborhood once marked by blight and crime.

Mr. West had patrolled there as a police officer, and now he was the proud owner of a $130,000 town house, bought with an adjustable-rate mortgage and a $20,000 government loan as his down payment — just the sort of creative public-private financing Mr. Bush was promoting.

“Part of economic security,” Mr. Bush declared that day, “is owning your own home.”

A lot has changed since then. Mr. West, beset by personal problems, left Atlanta. Unable to sell his home for what he owed, he said, he gave it back to the bank last year. Like other communities across America, Park Place South has been hit with a foreclosure crisis affecting at least 10 percent of its 232 homes, according to Masharn Wilson, a developer who led Mr. Bush’s tour.

“I just don’t think what he envisioned was actually carried out,” she said.

Who knows what that mofo envisioned?  Not me.  Holy FuShizzle.

Sorry....I got caught

I try never (honestly) to judge people. And I hope I'm not doing that right now. But I just can't feel this plea is a little insincere.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Sarah Palin Turkey Incident: Does TV Interview While Turkeys Are Slaughtered In The Background (VIDEO)

I couldn't watch...after she started talking about what she's grateful for. Bet she's grateful she's not a turkey being mishandled in front of a tv camera.... hey, wait a minute....

As for grateful, I am. That she's back in Aye-Kay.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

World Leaders Attend Bully Management, Show off Progress

Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy

A source close to the New Yorker reported the President-elect's approach to the English Language in the verbal form may cause some confusion and perhaps raise question of his elitism:

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS' "Sixty Minutes" on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.

But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language.

Israelis Destroying Agricultural assets in Gaza

The BBC is reporting today that the Israeli army has entered the Gaza strip with tanks and bulldozers:

The Israeli military has launched an incursion into the Gaza Strip and clashed with Palestinian gunmen there.

Witnesses say the Israeli troops were accompanied by bulldozers which have been destroying agricultural land east of the town of Rafah, in southern Gaza.

There was no immediate reports of any injuries or deaths.

What can an attack on a peoples' food supply be interpreted as, other than terrorism?  The food grown does not act politically.  Israeli spokespeople said they were looking to disable landmines, but who plants mines with their tomatoes?

The US needs to re-think the support of this administration, or at least conditionalize it's support on more humanitarian practices.

Palin Calls Her Critics "Jerks," "Cowardly"

Interesting she waited to get back outside America's borders to make these comments.  Oh wait, I mean.... never mind.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Joe Lieberman To Be Stripped Of Committee Chair?

CT still seems to love this guy. I just don't understand it. If you're blue, and watched Joe, you should not have a lot of love for him, except if you think he hurt McGrumpy's chances by running around with his nose (heck, whole head) up McGrumpy's butt. And if you're red, well, watching this weasel try to reel back to the winning party ought to draw a fair amount of disgust.

Ostracism, after bankrupting him of any status of position held for the Democrats, is entirely appropriate. "Hangin's too good fer 'em."
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Post-Election Corporate Communications

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

Headlines Obama Doesn't Want To See In The New York Times Tuesday Morning

This just in: Obama is is own Grampa.
About Barack Obama
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McCain Accidentally Agrees: Western Pennsylvania Is Racist

It is sad that people are so unforgiving of older err atic Americans who so desperately need psy cho logical.... hey wait a minute.... isn't that guy running for ... oh man.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Fox News Manufactures Outrage Over Fox Network Show

Didn't little Stewie sound kind of like Ringo Starr in HELP! ??

Talk about confused little kids.... anyway.

Ya gotta walk a fine line between earning the huge bucks for low humor, and complaining about it.
About Fox News
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Family Guy: Nazis Back McCain-Palin (VIDEO)

Darn, I knew I shoulda stayed up to watch last night.
About John McCain
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Warren Buffett: Buy Buy

Warren's written an interesting op-ed about the market in the NYT. Have a read on me.

White House Ordered Waterboarding by CIA

The Washington Post reports today that the Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects -- documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public.

Does it take the CIA off the hook for carrying out torture?

The classified memos, which have not been previously disclosed, were requested by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet more than a year after the start of the secret interrogations, according to four administration and intelligence officials familiar with the documents. Although Justice Department lawyers, beginning in 2002, had signed off on the agency's interrogation methods, senior CIA officials were troubled that White House policymakers had never endorsed the program in writing.

Perhaps, but given the fact the CIA already knew that waterboarding wasn't an effective way to get valuable information - a water-boarded detainee will say literally anything to get the torture to stop - the point is moot. They should have pushed back, and said, 'listen, we know how to get information out of people, and it's by respecting their humanity.  We don't need to be in the torture game.  It is ineffective and demeans us a a country.'

Man behind "Obama is a Terrorist" Line Identified By NY Times

Until this month, the man who is widely credited with starting the cyberwhisper campaign that still dogs Mr. Obama was a secondary character in news reports, with deep explorations of his background largely confined to liberal blogs.

Now we find out he's basically a pimp-for-attention scoundrel with a history of unstable acts.

What happens if abortion is made illegal?

Time to Ask McCain: "Have You No Sense of Decency Left?"

Last night, Bob Schrum wrote a piece which began:

The McCain campaign crossed the line today from negative character attacks to the kind of character assassination that plays to the basest impulses and incites the most dangerous reaction. We've seen the prelude this week in the McCain crowds and in Sarah Palin's well-rehearsed, carefully telepromptered and increasingly ugly diatribes.

To which one reader responded:

' What a laugh, he doesn't even have control over his own rallies.'

What a laugh, the reader's silly enough to think McGrumpy doesn't know EXACTLY what he's doing!  Politics, like growing old, ain't for sissies. And McGrumpy is versed well in both.

About John McCain
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Troopergate Report: Palin "Unlawfully Abused Her Authority"

"I think there are some problems in this report," said Republican state Sen. Gary Stevens, a member of the panel. "I would encourage people to be very cautious, to look at this with a jaundiced eye."

Yes sir, you are indeed correct. In this report there are problems for the G.O.P.

No wonder he would recommend viewing it with sick, rather than clear, eyes. They're gonna spin this one large and long.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

About Sarah Palin

Ouch.

Can you say ....Grumpy?

NYT Editorial: McCain-Palin Have Sunk To "Race-Baiting And Xenophobia"

I applaud the NYT for finally doing what needs to be done: Addressing the negativity as divisive and destructive (and ineffective).

I too hope McGrumpy's campaign comes up with something a little more honorable to blather about. If only to give the contest a little more of the dignity it deserves.

Last night I was at a meeting where a man came in with a McCain/Palin button, hiding the spot on his shirt where a tie might have gone. I politely asked him whether he was planning to watch the debate, and he didn't think he'd bother, but allowed as someone will probably shoot that Obama guy anyway. I reminded him there are people out there protecting him and kidded him that he shouldn't be overheard saying this stuff. 

Know what he said?

"They can't all protect him. No one can protect him."

Someone who can Get It Done should take McGrumpy out IN PUBLIC and call him on this behavior. And demand an appeal from him, sans sarcasm, smiles, and any of the other Moosecrap, that people stop thinking in this fashion

He doesn't get that once you whisper into a lizard's brain, that's all they know.

About Sarah Palin
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

A Plea for Transparency

Swiftboat, Anti-Obama Author Bites Hand that Feeds Him

This is not new news, (it's from Nov 7th last year) but it's new to me, and perhaps to others. Seems that Jerome R. Corsi, late of Unfit For Command defame, decided along with other conservative writers that his publishing house was avoiding royalty payouts.  How one may ask?

Five authors have sued the parent company of Regnery Publishing, a Washington imprint of conservative books, charging that the company deprives its writers of royalties by selling their books at a steep discount to book clubs and other organizations owned by the same parent company.

In a suit filed in United States District Court in Washington yesterday, the authors Jerome R. Corsi, Bill Gertz, Lt. Col. Robert (Buzz) Patterson, Joel Mowbray and Richard Miniter state that Eagle Publishing, which owns Regnery, “orchestrates and participates in a fraudulent, deceptively concealed and self-dealing scheme to divert book sales away from retail outlets and to wholly owned subsidiary organizations within the Eagle conglomerate.”

Now, ordinarily I'd have an issue with someone not getting their due for distribution of intellectual .... whatever you want to call what these guys write.  It's not cool to deprive these guys of royalties.

But consider something:  The point of the publication here is not really to get the truth into millions of hands, it's to get an editorial point of view into the public dialog.  It's to get a piece of red meat out to the Bill-O's and pill-popping hate jockeys, so they can drone the contents into the lizard brains that listen to them.

In short: their reward is not of this earth.  It is of the airwaves.  The sales numbers these guys achieve to make the best-seller lists would be impossible without the massive dumping of books into book clubs, remainder tables, and recycling centers that is routinely done by the conservative masters they serve.  So why should they get royalties for books no one reads?

Mr. Miniter said that meant that although he received about $4.25 a copy when his books sold in a bookstore or through an online retailer, he only earned about 10 cents a copy when his books sold through the Conservative Book Club or other Eagle-owned channels. “The difference between 10 cents and $4.25 is pretty large when you multiply it by 20,000 to 30,000 books,” Mr. Miniter said. “It suddenly occurred to us that Regnery is making collectively jillions of dollars off of us and paying us a pittance.” He added: “Why is Regnery acting like a Marxist cartoon of a capitalist company?”

Waaaaaaah.  But not all of these authors are completely disingenuous about the way things are:

“You get 10 per cent of nothing because they basically give them away,” Mr. Patterson said in an interview.

Ohhhhh.  Guess you gotta put something in those books to make folks wanna read 'em!

Not that we need to think about this now, but....

Some folks are saying that McGrumpy's choice for veep might make a surprisingly viable contender for the Executive in '12.

Obama Hatred At McCain-Palin Rallies: "Terrorist!" "Kill Him!" (VIDEO)

Perhaps the Secret Service should be attending these rallies, to locate and detain the person/s calling for this violence. They've detained people for less before. And who knows if McGrumpy will actually spawn violence from these events?
About John McCain
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Who Knew Wiki Knew?

There's been a posting at The Register, an online news source (meaning they verify before printing, an old concept with little respect these days) that suggests the Wall Street Journal, Wikipedia, and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation may have known, and encouraged, the downfall of the market due to Naked Shorts.... and get this..... for money.

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised.  I just hope we have enough rope to hang them all.

Palin On Fox News: Couric Annoyed Me

Man the comments on this article were hot!  That Catie Couric.  So mean to Ms. Palin. She doesn't know how hard it is to look good when ya just aren't so gosh darn smart

God help us if Sarah finds a reason to need to look presidential.
About Sarah Palin
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Frank Demolishes O'Reilly: "Your Stupidity Gets In The Way Of Rational Discussion"

I'm afraid, this is why the Repugs have won in the past. They lie and lie and lie and don't care when people call them on it... this phenomenon has been in the discussion for a while, and the Dems are starting to understand if they play in the frame they're given, they reinforce it. When they reply with their own frame and project new and different ideas, they can get new ideas into the heads of viewers.

That was a cute try last night, wasn't it? Palin winking at the camera and smiling slyly when she corrected Joe and said "No, Joe, it's Drill Baby, Drill!" That's gotta go into Larry Flynt's new movie script....
About Video On HuffPost
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A Brief Guide to the Debates by George Lakoff

A simple set of rules to follow, to navigate the people behind the debate. I wonder if Sarah will have a box on her backside as W did not so long ago. If Biden follows this good advice even that may not save her.

Thanks again Mr L. for some clear sane thinking.
About Vice Presidential Debate
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

New Yorker Cover Mocks Palin's Claim Of Foreign Policy Experience

Hey, I can see my dacha from here!
About Sarah Palin
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Roost is filling up

A recent article on the Risk and Governance Blog of the Risk Metrics Group discusses another aspect of the Wall Street mess:  The surge in class-action lawsuits.  These aren't the "knew or ought to have known" kinds of injuries, many are over disclosure or lack thereof: mis-statements or omissions in financial statements; leaking insider information, and "breaking the buck" on money markets.

None of this seems unusual in the litigious world we're shuffling through.  The next act I suppose will be for the class action firms to wind up, generating print and television spots that troll for customers  "injured" by financial entities of all sort.

While I'm certain that some players do deserve a wack upside the head, civilly and criminally, I'm equally certain that the larger result will be the creation of a new trough in which the lesser lights of the legal profession will feed.

John McCain Cancels Letterman Appearance, Keith Olbermann Fills In

So, McCain cancels on Dave, and then goes on Rachel Ray to make veal Piccata.  Nice.  See the videos for an explanation of this silly comment!

About Video On HuffPost
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Ex-Adviser: McCain "Blinked," Campaign "Governed By Tactics, Not Ideology"

Wow. Maybe in McGrumpy 's mind the debate did take place, and he won??

I wonder if the Rove play book suggests that staggering incompetence can be a unifying force?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

A Note to Bill Clinton

NO Clinton is better than the X-President right now. I don't think he'll even rise to the challenge about McCain's dump on Hill and Chelsea, because he's too self-obsessed to look favorably on his country and do the right thing.
About Bill Clinton
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

McCain Campaign has changed it's attitude towards the Media

Dirty Secret Of The Bailout: Thirty-Two Words That None Dare Utter

I think somebody's found a way to make our government small enough to drown in a bathtub.

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

Please, someone, tell me this isn't going to be permitted!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Olbermann Gives $100 To Charity For Every Palin Lie, $3700 This Week Alone

$3,700 to the Alaskan Special Olympics Fund, and one a can of Aunt Sarah's Moose Stew, is a good way to publicize the fact that lies are being repeated over and over and over.

As many others have observed, The G.O.P. appear to be in the process described in the Rove playbook, where you repeat the lies until people don't question them any more. And whizzo! Your wishes become reality.

Why the funny look? It worked for W didn't it?? And it'll work again if things don't change.
About Sarah Palin
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Al Franken's Saturday Night Live Return: Franken Helps Write SNL's McCain Skit (VIDEO)

Al "phoned in" the idea for the McCain skit on SNL!  Who knew!  Except anyone who knows his style, anyways.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

WSJ Editorial Board Hits McCain For Cox Threat: "Deeply Unfair ... Un-Presidential"

I am not the first person to note that the campaign trail is taking a toll on ol' Johnny McCain. The picture used for this story shows a guy on the bubble, he can't quite believe where he is and he's desperately hoping the election will be over before he wakes up and finds it was all a dream.



Sorry John, but it's true, dude. Strength and resolve ain't anger, and whatever you've got passing for a mush in this picture sure ain't presidential. Looks like you're trying to visualize "change" you can believe in.
About John McCain
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tina Fey As Sarah Palin On SNL (VIDEO)

Amazing. Chevy Chase was on MSNBC this morning, ostensibly to discuss his wife's charity auction (go find the link yerselves, I don't have it handy) but the only thing they really discussed was this SNL segment!

The funniest part of that interview was that old C.C. is now looking more journalistic than ever. He reminded me in voice mannerism and vaguely visibly of Brokaw.

Also - too bad this was the high point of the show. SNL needs some more new (and crazedly-endearing) characters on the show.
About Sarah Palin
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Don't Think of a Maverick! Could the Obama Campaign Be Improved?

I just finished watching MSNBC's morning coverage and have finally clued into the fact they are anything but a pro-Progressive network. Silly me. They just seem less evil than Fox on comparison.

But this isn't about my slow reflexes, it's a response to Mr. Lakoff, whom I greatly admire:

Mr. L., Obama needs to do more than Frame the proposals the republicans are presenting as 'what they'll do to fix things.' He needs a way to identify - quickly and unambiguously - the fact that the Republicans don't care when their messages contain lies about the Democratic candidates. and that when their lips are moving, lies are being told. Consistently.

Until and unless we can get this truth out - on the evening news by the candidates, coordinated with spokespeople distributing evidence supporting it - we won't be able to shut these people up.

Someone's got to give the American people an 'Aha!' moment, in the next two weeks, or we'll be waiting another eight years for the next chance to do so.

About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Primary Day in NH is Tomorrow!

[sigh....] tomorrow is the primary for NH and while the Republican party has some challengers to the incumbents there is not any such luck for the Democrats.  In fact, the Dems keep a pretty low profile around this corner of Rockingham County, while the Grand Old Party has taken over one of the old municipal buildings and blossomed literally onto route 33 with banners and signs attached to just about everything that is not moving.  And a few trucks that do, on occasion.

Nearby is Frank's Furniture, proud owner of the second-highest flag pole in town.  I am wishing the Flag Police would come down from Portsmouth and cite them today:  their old glory is split in two, and both pieces' ends are in tatters.

Who knows if their new neighbors might offer some help - perhaps a needle and thread?

It's a Progressive Disease...

 This is the Republican First (and Second) family portrait.  I had to include it here (thanks, People Magazine) because I want to know what readers here think the picture is trying to communicate.

I guess 'Baby Daddies' and adopted children were not invited to this love fest.  How will they fare in the America of the future?

Modern Persian Art

Quite by accident I became aware of the TeheranWalls blog.  It is authored by A1one and contains a large collection of art and links to other locations.  This is simple beautiful street art.  Go and look, already!  The PeacePack PDFs are good starting points.

Baby Daddy???

WHO in HEAVEN'S NAME thought the term 'Baby Daddy' would be appropriate, for anyone??
There's something about the term that is just not right. Sounds like....like I don't know. 

Who says stuff like that, 'Baby Daddy?' I've heard Jerry Springer say it. Can't remember anyone else saying it.
So is the author endorsing the idea that the young man in question is Springer material, or is the author perhaps promoting themselves as such? Either way, it doesn't sound good for the MSM.  Once again.