Funniest Thing Heard So Far Today

I'm taking the day off to attend to some neglected household tasks and have Morning Joe on...which is where I heard this chuckle-inducing quip.

"My Dad was home watching the Knicks last night; Your Dad was a clue on Jeopardy!"

--Willie Geist to Mika Brzezinski (referring to her father, Zbigniew)

Lest I Forget Before the Week Slips By...

We can't get past T'giving without listening to Alice's Restaurant.

Lazily Linking up Videos

Hoping to not give in and do any real work today, but it's never a bad day for REM's Finest Worksong. This is from the Glastonbury Festival in 2003.

Enjoy this on the Lord's Day!

This Made Me Giggle

If you don't get this, it's because you're lucky enough to not have the Cash4Gold commercials playing in your area...God love ya!

It's Like Deja Vu All Over Again

Sorry for the slow posting...should pick up in the next week or so...life has a way of getting in the way.

But this FNC headline this morning made me think back to the Clinton years...

Funniest Phrase I've Heard All Day

I have Larry Kudlow's CNBC show on now and some panelist just referred to "fiscal nymphomania" going on with regards to the bailout feeding frenzy.

Apt.

Barack Obama Watched The Godfather Closer Than I Did

In an interview last winter, Barack told Entertainment Tonight that The Godfather movies were among his favorite.

Shame on me for letting these few days go by before I realized the real wisdom of getting Hillary locked down in the State Department under his thumb and unable to openly lay the groundwork for a primary challenge in 2012.

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

Someone Should Have a Talk With the Headline Writers at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune

How Is a British Accent Supposed to Help You Quit Smoking?

Seriously, Chantix has to cut it out with this annoying Limey narrating.

The March of the Clintonistas Continues

It's not as surprising as it sounds...if President-elect Obama is going to pick people who already know their way around Washington, he's going to be very likely to get people with some kind of connection to a previous Democratic administration.

The Politico and others are calling it a done deal that Monicagate defense attorney Greg Craig is slated to be Barry's White House counsel.

He's notable not only for helping Bubba wrap a legal towel over his torso, but also his notable defection to Team Obama, which included a detailed rebuttal of Hillary's claims of foreign relations cred during the Dem primary.

The Drudge Report is Not a News Site?

At least that's what you have to believe if you listen to Nielsen Online.

They have a posting up on the wire about the increased traffic to news sites during the election season, but Drudge, who certainly gets more traffic than some of the listed sites there, didn't make the top 30.

You can argue either that Drudge produces little original content or that ideology might play into his editorial decisions, but when Google and Yahoo! News, as well as HuffPo made the list, both of those arguments go out the window.

WTF?

Here's Kim Gandy...Bet She's Pissed About Something!

NOW is upset that of the zero cabinet level positions announced so far, none of them are women.

Some McCartney Before Heading Out

I guess it'd be too cheesy to post Cold November Rain on a day like today, so here's something more optimistic...Paul McCartney doing I'll Follow the Sun in Paris, 10-22-2007.

Enjoy!

For the Love of God, Barack, Don't Make Richardson the Secretary of State

Much as my testicles shrivel when I hear Hillary scolding the person who's most recently pissed her off, and for all the times my toes are sure to curl when I hear John Kerry pontificate on world affairs, I would take one right after the other rather than suffering through a month of having Bill Richardson represent us abroad as Secretary of State.

Now, even Richardson would be better than the over hyped, abysmal failure named Condie Rice, but there are so many more ways that Barry can repay the New Mexico governor for his act of betrayal on Good Friday, 2008 than making us suffer through his brainless observations on the world stage.

Let Them Eat Fruitwood-smoked Quail with Quince Gastrique Quinoa Risotto

The Hotline has the menu from last night's G20 summit dinner.

Hats Off to the Cleveland Plain Dealer

I've goofed on the PD's website here, off and on, for some time now, but I have to give them credit for finally coming around and doing a bit of a homepage redesign.

The site is much more friendly to the variety of people looking for different information, it resembles other news sites more, seems to be updated frequently and they've integrated some video which is even embeddable.

Nice job.

The Dream Tream

I'll grant that nightmares also qualify as dreams, so the post's title will be accurate for more than just the Obammies (we need to come up with a good collective noun for his supporters).

Anyway, I came across a picture from Barack's hotel room on election night.
Robert Gibbs, David Plouffe, Barry, David Axelrod.

The Socialist Bickering Continues

I know, I know...the friggin' election is over. And, I should have caught this a little earlier, but I checked out Hendrik Hertzberg's neato blog over at The New Yorker and he's right on the same page with me when it comes to calling the Wasilla Hillbillly out on her socialist oil profit sharing.

Yeah, This is Odd

I agree with Ta-Nehisi Coates....this endeavor can't end well.

Step 1: We Admitted We Were Powerless Over the Democrats ; That Our Party Had Become Unmanagable

The Politico polls a bunch of hooked-in people to get their opinions on the GOP's road to recovery.

The Terrorist Speaks!

One of Barry's "associates" will be interviewed on ABC tomomrrow morning...

Letter to the Editor

Frequent reader, gadfly, and attempter at keeping Dan honest, 'Chode' sent me this letter today and gave me permission to re-post it. He submitted it to the editor of the Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

At the risk of stepping in on a well-written letter I should probably just leave as it is for the reader, I'll only offer that I largely agree with him and he has a slightly different flavor of my argument to some right winger friends the other day here in Cleveland. They were bent out of shape about news reports that Barry might use executive orders to reverse some of Shrub's decisions on stem cells (among others).

While I don't pretend to be a scientist, I appreciate and respect the viewpoint some hold on stem cells, but I'm disturbed about their terribly narrow definition of what constitutes a "respect for life." It seems to me that there are so many more egregious affronts to life and to pretend that abortion and stem cells constitutes the most important parts of it is either dangerously ignorant or cynical.

Sorry for editorializing so much...this stands well-enough on its own.

After briefly catching up on today's news, both online and in the local print, one thing jumped out at me as particularly disturbing. The article titles said it all: "Bishops Fire Shots At", "Bishops Warn", and the "Bishops Plan to Forcefully Confront" Obama over abortion. It became clear that the formal representers of our faith, who are meeting in Washington DC this week, are preparing to douse the embers of real progress on issues of social justice in favor of continuing to fight the old fight and of playing the old games.

Not only are the bishops pursing a faulty strategy of confrontation rather than partnership with the President-Elect, they fail to understand the sentiment and attitudes of lay parishioners from around the country--particularly young Catholics. Many of us see much more pressing issues such as poverty, injustice, war, and disease as much more urgent issues for the clergy--and the Church-- to be focused on. These are issues on which the Church can provide a valuable leadership role, and where there is broad consensus for action. The Church should be focused on the very real needs of people, rather than the political squabbles of yesterday.

Sincerely,

(Chode)

George W....A Real Hands-On Guy

Sorry, Ladies...He's Take (Well, Actually Dead)

It's been a little while since I've posted some homegrown videos/slideshows of the bootlegs, so tonight is as good a time as any.

This is from New Years Eve, 1969 at the Boston Tea Party. It's the Good Old Grateful Dead doing Big Boy Pete.

They only did it a few times (including at my dear Loyola's Rambler Room) and this is one of the times with Pigpen...enjoy!

G.O.P Dog Days?

I generally don't have a hell of a lot of use for William Kristol.

During the campaign, he spawned silly rumors like the imminent arrival of Mike Murphy in Team McCain that never happened.

He's a regular panelist on Fox News Sunday and has the awful habit of finding himself more charming than just about anyone else on the panel or off does.

But this morning in the Times, he comes through with a mildly clever observation about Barry's dog talk...and how it might not bode well for conservatives.

Up until now, many of the swing voters who decided to go black did so on the hope of competence rather than because of some seismic ideological change in the country. But in talking about the dog, he added the deadly element of empathy for dog lovers and parents throughout the country.

If Barack can bring not only competence to the table, but also a healthy dose of "I feel your pain," it could be a long few years for the Republicans in the wilderness.

Job Search

Yeah, maybe what I do currently just isn't socially meaningful enough...maybe I should go work for Barry and Joe...

The Odd Couple has a transition website up. Will need to explore this later on, but they do have some kind of job application forum.

Transparency is good.

Beatles Break Time

Just burning off some tunes for the week and came across a marvelous 17-disc compilation, The Ultimate Get Back Collection. I've no idea how someone got their paws on this studio material, but it's mindbending if you're into listening to The Beatles, horsing around, doing cut after cut of certain songs in ways that never made the album.

Anyway, I'm too lazy to make a slide show for you right now, so here's I've Got a Feeling from The Rooftop Performance.

Enjoy!

Crap! I May Have Screwed the Pooch!

There are a number of arguments against Obama...

Socialism? I don't care. We're socialist enough, Hillary.

A black guy in the White House? Stifle yourself, Archie. No one cares about that anymore.

A White Sox fan? Well, maybe I can see why I should have had a troubled conscience over this.

But there's one consequence I didn't fully consider when casting my vote.

Dang.

Let Sarah Be...For Your Own Good

I didn't expect that I'd ever be defending Sarah Palin...from (using my John McCain airquotes) "Republicans," no less, but it's the position I find myself in this morning.

Some staffers, who apparently share the integrity gene with the mountain goat, have decided to throw the Governor under the bus, accusing her of a full range of nonsense caused by her being a stupid hillbilly, basically.

I don't dispute the claims they made about her nor would I excuse them for a Vice President were they true, which I suspect most are.

But if this woman was so incompetent to not know that Africa is a continent, not a single country, it was practically criminal of them to not be screaming bloody murder during the campaign to get someone so unfit for office off the ticket.

I understand the motivation to protect the bossman and can even appreciate some degree of deceptiveness in said pursuit, but this scheme is just so ill-thought-out because at the end of the day, if you believe their claims about Palin, the loss was all McCain's fault...just like he said in his speech.

Jesse Jackson in "The Question is Moot"

This may very well be my favorite SNL bit of all time...I finally found it.

Bill O'Reilly is an Idiot

Getting ready for work here and have Bill's show on from last night.

He had Howard Wolfson in for an interview and popped off about how Howard Dean must be locked in a basement and that he's been completely unheard of since the election, being that he's kind of a nut.

Yeah, Bill, he's been under wraps except for a speech he gave at the National Press Club yesterday that was shown live on CSPAN.

Idiot.

Highlights and Low Lifes From Tuesday's Elections

I guess I paid attention to the same bigger issues/races that most other people were on Tuesday night, but here's my little take from the roller coaster we just got off of...


The Big Enchilada- Like anyone else, whether for or against his candidacy, I extend congratulations and a skeptical eye towards Barack Obama. I could have done without the shots of race-baiting bigot, Jesse Jackson and self-centered attention whore, Oprah Winfrey, weeping for the cameras in Grant Park, but it is what it is and they are who they are. I was talking with a friend out west last night and, while we come from different parts of the spectrum, we both had a similar experience in the voting booth. I stared at my paper ballot before turning it into the machine, not quite believing what I was doing, but on Jerry's good name, it never even crossed my mind that I was voting for a black guy. Obviously, I know Barack is black, but the big "whoh!" moment of it all didn't really occur to me until Tuesday night when a panting Keith Olbermann made the call. This was a big moment for the country, one which I didn't really give a lot of thought to when deciding who to vote for, and that's probably both a good and generational thing.

And I'll side with Joe Scarborough and others who think it's time we taunt the liberal European countries with this one. While they often like to look down their pointy noses at the crass, racist America with our imperfect present and more imperfect past, I have to ask where their President/PM of African descent is if they're so damned enlightened.

But now it's time for the guy to get to work and, as I've said, I'm skeptical of him. While I'll concede the possibility that, in his heart, the guy is every bit the bleeding heart/pinko that some claim, I also think that he's a pragmatist above that. The guy is smart and wants to retain power. He would not have gotten where he is without those qualities. And he must know that he won't be able to get the legacy and time in office he wants if he governs like a left-wing loon, so I think his alleged/reported tapping of Chicagoan Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff is telling. Barry's heading to town to get shit done. His biggest challenge could actually be fighting back the beady-eyed, angry liberals who've been waiting to stick it to the GOP for the last eight years.

California Prop 8- Shame on the voters of California for choosing to put a ban on gay marriage in their Constitution. Before anyone gets smart with me, I realize that they probably have the right to do so (current ACLU challenges notwithstanding), but it's just in such bad taste. I won't waste my free space here recycling the full laundry list of arguments for gay marriage, but for the life of me, I can't see why it's worth their share of $74M to build the case for why two people can't just spend their lives together. For years, the rap against gays was that they're just a bunch of pleasure-seeking hedonists so then when it turns out that they want to settle down just like anyone else, the argument shifts. I'm neither a theologian nor an expert on what God believes, but my guess is that he's got bigger trout to fry.

Connecticut 4th District- As has been well-noted, New England now has no GOP representation in the House of Representatives since Chris Shays lost his seat. While smarty pants guys like Chuck Todd and Michael Barone might be able to correct me on this, this is probably the starkest regional imbalance in federal representation for either of the two major parties. The GOP is becoming the party of stodgy old white men and it's just not good for its future. Anyone who's interested in this might pick up Grand New Party. I guess the first big shin-dig will be today, when a bunch of 'thinkers' get together at the home of rabble rouser Brent Bozell to plot a comeback strategy.

Minnesota Senate- The Senate race in the Land of 10K Lakes is still going on. I've blogged here before of my visceral dislike for Norm Coleman so I'm really rooting for them to make up for the few-hundred votes short Alan Franken is before the recount.

North Carolina Senate- While the race had more history than took place in the last week of the campaign, Liddy Dole's "Godless" ad spoke volumes about the GOP's tactics. The Democrat party is not above deceptive, tasteless ads, but this one just hit a lot of people in the gut and I'm actually happy she lost, if for no other reason than as punishment for pulling such a ridiculous stunt.

Selah.

Campaign Addicts Confront the Morning After

The Wall Street Journal hits the spot...even though I have a few more hits coming from the Senate race up in Minnesota, which is headed for a recount with a less-than 1% difference as of this morning.

Cabinet Speculation

HuffPo has a little rundown of the conventional wisdom leaders for the various visible cabinet positions in the Obama Administration.

This Car's Owner Must Be Happy Now

This interestingly-adorned vehicle was parked out in front of the house this afternoon...and I'm sure you're impressed how I managed to get my neighbor's trash bag in the bottom corner of the pic.

Barry Better Be Ready

Well, I cast the vote the way I intended. While I know that some friends who used to think I was a bit of a goof probably think I'm more of a goof now. It is what it is.

Be that as it may, I don't think I came into this thinking that the guy will multiply the fishes, turn water to wine, etc. He seemed to be the lesser of two evils.

But now I'm starting to think about all these 'fired up and ready to go' people who are going to be gathering in Grant Park tonight and I'm a bit worried. It seems implausible that Barack will be able to deliver anything close to the 'change' some of these newbies are expecting.

Assuming tonight goes the way the talkies are hinting, he's going to be getting quite a few more gray hairs...

Some Election Day Music

Conventional wisdom seems to be that Indiana will be the first good indicator of how it's going tonight and if the Mac has a chance...

If Barry cleans his clock in the Hoosier state, it's hard to envision a scenario where McCain pulls it off.

Here's some wonderful Louis Armstrong, doing Back Home Again in Indiana in 1959.

In Cuyahoga County, Voting's OK, Smoking's Not

Did my civic duty...

Archie Bunker on the Democrat Party

It's About 4AM...CNN is Already Running Live Election Coverage

Just doing my voting cheat sheet now...I've not paid much attention to downballot stuff, so sorting thru that now. I think I'll be cool and save it on Google Docs, so I can look at my little spreadsheet in the booth. The Plain Dealer actually had a pretty nice voter guide to use and go through the whole ballot, with links to their endorsements on the various office-seekers and referendums. I didn't go with them all the time, and could have had some usability suggestions, but it was still pretty useful.

My only beef with it was that it wanted you to check who you want so you could email your results back to be printed out. While I get the overt use of it, you start the process with entering your address so they're doing a de facto poll. I just copied the information out and pasted it into my own sheet.

I really hate all these damned referendums they have us voting for.

Isn't that what officeholders are for?

Archie Bunker had an interesting way of figuring out who to vote for.

"Tory, Feldman, O'Reilly, Nelson... That's an Italian, a Jew, an Irishman, and a regular American there... what I call a balanced ticket."

Here's to Al Franken's Campaign

No one can fill the shoes of the man who was my Senator for the time I lived up in the frozen tundra, but it's really a shame that Norm's boney ass has been sitting in Paul's chair for the last few years...I hope he's swiftly removed tomorrow night.

Here's Paul Wellstone's last floor speech before he checked out...hard to watch this without getting choked up. Love his policies or hate them, the man believed every word that came out of his mouth and apologized for none of it. We should only be so lucky to have a few more like him...

Screw you and the horse you got your teeth from, Norm.

Cold Feet

I'm really stuck now...as decided as I thought I was, now I am starting to get cold feet about voting for Barry.

I know it's just one vote and part of me feels like I'm being too melodramatic about it, but I'm very far from thrilled with casting a vote for Barack. The things that drew me to his candidacy...the perception that he's a thoughtful guy and a smart organizer remain. I don't think he's prone to rash decisions. He seems like a measured guy.

What pulls me back from jumping right in the deep end, though, is the fear that he's some kind of serious-ass bleeding heart that will explode spending and won't be able to offset the costs of any domestic plans by getting out of Iraq a whole hell of a lot sooner than McCain.

McCain's no angel and I really question his judgement...from fearing that he'll jump the gun and go after the next towel head that pisses him off to the knowledge that he picked someone like Palin to join him on the ticket. She's clearly a natural campaigner and the textbook case of an overachiever, but in McCain's own words, the real job of the Veep is to be able to take over and as much of a verbal loose cannon as Biden is, I think that these two individuals are best-suited for very different kinds of activities at 3 in the morning.

I trust Joe more than someone who can't name a newspaper she reads. Sue me.

I'll probably end up going with Barack, but I really need to sleep on this one. Luckily, I can see the polling place from the front door, so can wait till the lines are short.

Funniest Thing I've Read in Personal Correspondence Today

from liberal, friend, co-worker and occasional reader, DB...


What's funny is when I see comments online from people who actually live in socialist countries who think that Americans are morons for calling Barack a socialist. Maybe people just use "socialist" the same way that I use "dumbass" to describe Palin.

I Hate Illinois Nazis

An interesting Obama endorsement.

RIP, Studs Terkel

I was really bummed to hear that old Studs Terkel died yesterday.

He wrote one of my all-time favorite books, and one you should pick up, Working. It's just a collection of interviews with people about their jobs...everyone from the mailman to the CEO to the prostitute. It's such an eye opener, if you're ever tempted to think that the frustrations and challenges you have on your job are unique to you.

He also did a really cool interview with Jerry Garcia I remember hearing on Minneapolis' KFAI back in the day when Area 51 was still on the air, but I do not have a copy of it.

Nifty Google Earth Election Presentation

Some smarty pants got all US election results, by county, back to 1980, into Google Earth.

This is pretty cool to play with.

To me, Google Earth is like a whole hunka potential. To date, I've just kind of played around with it, and found using it like a Flight Simulator is fun, but have not done much useful with it yet...same for its iPhone app which was released this week. But I think it will only be a short amount of time before my Birks are knocked off by it.

Mark Ambinder's blog at The Atlantic is where I saw this mention first.