You know why Johnny Rotten's making that face? Because your mom just threw her underwear on stage. It sounded like somebody dropped a dictionary.

Posted by: LauraW. at 10:10 AM | Comments (347)
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Senator Joe Lieberman, self-billed as "the only independent Democrat," took the Democratic presidential candidates to task for "pander[ing] to this politically paranoid, hyper-partisan sentiment in the Democratic base." He seems particularly disgusted with the various conspiracy theorists who are running the show at the DNC these days.

A senior aide to Mr. Lieberman said the senator was attempting to draw out the long arc of the modern Democratic Party's approach to foreign affairs and persuade fellow Democrats that now was the time to embrace the Truman-Kennedy tradition again.

By Truman-Kennedy tradition, he means support for international pro-democracy efforts. What he's missing is that a solid core of the modern Democratic party didn't support the democratic traditions of Truman or Kennedy. They were communists.

They and their intellectual progeny have now been folded squarely into the Democratic camp. For them, democracy is nice when you have it, but is no panacea. In fact, it leads to the horrors of globalization and, inevitably, to consumerist capitalism.

In short, Senator Lieberman is pining for the Democratic Party of old. He was looking the other way when his party abandoned him. I think he's on the Zell Miller trajectory. He just doesn't know it yet.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:37 AM | Comments (28)
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Peggy Noonan has a devastating op-ed over at Opinion Journal. She contrasts Hillary Clinton with Margaret Thatcher and finds that Clinton is an unfocused hater (to paraphrase).

The point is the big ones, the real ones, the Thatchers and Indira Gandhis and Golda Meirs and Angela Merkels, never play the boo-hoo game. They are what they are, but they don't use what they are. They don't hold up their sex as a feint: Why, he's not criticizing me, he's criticizing all women! Let us rise and fight the sexist cur.

When Hillary Clinton suggested that debate criticism of her came under the heading of men bullying a defenseless lass, an interesting thing happened. First Kate Michelman, the former head of NARAL and an Edwards supporter, hit her hard. "When unchallenged, in a comfortable, controlled situation, Sen. Clinton embraces her elevation into the 'boys club.' " But when "legitimate questions" are asked, "she is quick to raise the white flag and look for a change in the rules."

Then Mrs. Clinton changed tack a little and told a group of women in West Burlington, Iowa, that they were going to clean up Washington together: "Bring your vacuum cleaners, bring your brushes, bring your brooms, bring your mops." It was all so incongruous--can anyone imagine the 20th century New Class professional Hillary Clinton picking up a vacuum cleaner? Isn't that what downtrodden pink collar workers abused by the patriarchy are for?

Noonan concludes:

But I don't think Mrs. Clinton is the exemplar of a generation, she is the exemplar of a quadrant within a generation, and it is the quadrant the rest of us of that generation do not like. They came from comfort and stability, visited poverty as part of a college program, fashionably disliked their country, and cultivated a bitterness that was wholly unearned. They went on to become investment bankers and politicians and enjoy wealth, power or both.

I hope this made the print version.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:56 AM | Comments (25)
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I'm trying to make bail and get my ass to the airport, so apologies for the brief reminder. I should be able to update with standings later this afternoon if I can convince that behemoth at TSA to give me the full strip-search routine.

I gotta be in the mood.

Anyway, picks. Bart's leading AoSHQI at 74 and I'm only 6 points behind him after my lucky brilliant 10-4 week.

Later ladies.

UPDATE: PHenry posted the combined standings in the comments section.

1 PHenry 77
2 Bart 74
3 Stashiu3 73
4 Slublog 72
4 Drew Beldsoe for HoF 72
6 eddiebear 71

I wonder why?

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 08:53 AM | Comments (4)
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He was confirmed by 53-40. Most are noting the Democratic crossovers (especially Senators Feinstein and Schumer).

The fractured tally signals that Mukasey will face a deeply skeptical Democratic Congress as he takes over at Justice, which has been demoralized and emptied of senior leadership in the wake of scandals.

I was more interested to see which Senators were too busy to bother to vote (or were too afraid to stake out a position). That would be Alexander (R-TN), Biden (D-DE), Clinton (D-NY), Cornyn (R-TX), Dodd (D-CT), McCain (R-AZ), Obama (D-IL).

Biden, Clinton, Dodd, McCain, and Obama should be ashamed of missing this vote. As of October 31, Clinton and Obama opposed Mukasey.

Clinton said, "We cannot send a signal that the next attorney general in any way condones torture or believes that the president is unconstrained by law."

Well done, Senator. You sent a signal all right. You were either too busy or too afraid to stand up for your principles.

Update: Glenn Greenwald is lamenting the fact that congressional Democrats didn't have the stones to "filibuster" the confirmation (and thereby require a vote of 60).

Over and over again this year, Republican filibusters were depicted (both by Senate Democrats and the media) as nothing more the routine need to obtain the "60 votes required" for passage of any measure in the Senate. That "requirement" was said to apply to everything, including immigration ("The Senate voted 52-44 for the DREAM Act, but 60 votes were required to end debate"); Iraq withdrawal timetables ("Support is expected to top 50 votes but fall short of the 60 required"); troop leave requirements ("Webb's Iraq bill inches closer to 60 . . . . Winning at least three of those Republicans over could give the Democrats the 60 votes they need"); and warrantless surveillance ("Democratic-sponsored bill failed to reach the 60-vote majority").

In his warped world, the consequences of obstructionism are irrelevant. He wants to have a tantrum every day until President Bush is out of office.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:04 AM | Comments (22)
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Don't change a thing, babe, you're a star.

From the casting call for the next Star Trek film:

Talent with interesting and unique facial features such as: long necks, small heads, extremely large heads, wide-set eyes, bug eyes, close-set eyes, large forehead, short upper lip. . .

Freaks, in other words.

Update: Light blogging advisory. Me, Gabe, Jack, Dave, and Purple Avenger will be packing, getting some headshots taken, and making travel arrangements the rest of the day.

Thanks to Spongeworthy.

Update [Gabe]: Winona Ryder joined the cast to play Spock's mother, Amanda Grayson. Ryder is only seven years older than Zachary Quinto.

Posted by: LauraW. at 07:35 AM | Comments (29)
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Peaceful anti-Chavez protestors in Venezuela were attacked and shot at by masked thugs on Wednesday.

Pictures and a link to video at the blog linked above.

From the NYT:

“At the moment the students arrived, they were attacked by others wearing hoods,” Mr. Rivero said in comments broadcast on the radio here. “We do not know what faction they belong to,” he said of the assailants.

Yeah, it's a fuckin' mystery.

You can tell a lot about a person by who their supporters and friends are.

Posted by: LauraW. at 07:16 AM | Comments (22)
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Ace is sleeping one off in a dumpster somewhere, so someone has to make a victory lap posting for this moronic blog's completely bizarre inevitable win in the Weblog Awards.

Slub, Zombietime, Michael Yon and some others I approve of emerged victorious as well.

Woot w00t update [Gabe]: About that hump dance?

Woot w00t update 2 [Jack M.]: About that Epic Victory Poem?

[PA] Maybe NSFW boobies below the fold. Who says we don't respond to customer requests? more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:29 AM | Comments (67)
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So you're sitting there wondering what you can do with a ton or two of ferret shit. Everyone has this problem of course, its epidemic. Its in the attic, the basement, the kitchen cabinets, all over the place, right? Well now the US government has figured out that you can clean out your medicine cabinet that's chock full of old drugs you might otherwise be tempted to sell on the street for some extra cash...and use up all that ferret shit in the process!

Stuff all that medicine cabinet gold into ferret shit before disposing of it. Apparently ferret shit is like kryptonite to druggies scrounging for a score in the garbage.

..."Ferret waste, like nearly any other form of pet waste, can be effectively used to help prevent the abuse of unused prescription drugs," SAMHSA spokesman Mark Weber said...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:08 PM | Comments (27)
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Jules put me onto this posting by IraqPundit. Not a lot of love here for the defeatocrats

...I know those who are wedded to the idea of a failed Iraq are calling me a deluded idiot and worse. But things are improving slowly. My relatives in Baghdad say there's no comparison; things are much better than they were six months ago. They can visit friends in different areas and walk about the neighbourhood in the evening.

Frankly, I don't understand why so many mock us for wanting a future for Iraq. Is your hatred for George Bush so great that you prefer to see millions of civilians suffer just to prove him wrong?

It really comes down to this: you are determined to see Iraq become a permanent hellhole because you hate Bush. And we are determined to see Iraq become a success, because we want to live

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:39 PM | Comments (131)
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