Happy Birthday, Tracey!

I really like Garrison Keillor’s essays. So fanciful and yet so pragmatic.

However, knowledge does not predict behavior. Smart people can do dumb things. They can fall in love with vampires. Some cardiologists are chain smokers. Einstein unlocked the secrets of the universe, but he ran his sailboat up on a sandbar. I have met nutritionists with Ph.D.s who confessed that while driving alone late at night in strange cities and seeing the giant yellow arches, they have pulled in, ordered the double cheeseburger with bacon and the super-size fries, and parked in the shadows and slid down low in the seat and eaten the whole bucket of slops. Theologians have cashed in their pensions and flown off to Rio with Amber the cocktail waitress.

for the full effect


Think you know how bad Cheney is? Well, you’re probably wrong!

They [VP office] terrorize other government officials, and they’re so secretive that their names aren’t even revealed to a harmless federal employee directory. And they’ve helped ruin the country. Meet Dick Cheney’s staff.

But officials who have opposed Cheney believe that President Bush has “views” only about basic principles, and that in making dozens of complex decisions he relies on pre-determined staff papers. Says one insider deeply involved in U.S. policy toward North Korea: “The president is given only the most basic notions about the Korea issue. They tell him, ‘Above South Korea is a country called North Korea. It is an evil regime.’ … So that translates into a presidential decision: Why enter into any agreement with an evil regime?”

If you’re not easily frightened, read the full story here


Found this new word in a commentary on some blog, just really like the sound of it:

I’m reminded of a German word which I learned last year – ‘Amoklaufer’; ‘one who runs amok’. The usage was in a German newspaper in Summer, 1939; the country being described that way was Poland.

here’s "some blog"


Another new word: AmTaliban. Don’t think this is what the righties had in mind when they were calling Lind the “American Taliban”, but this is so fitting!

The whining bible beaters are not satisfied with the progress the Bush administration and Congress have made on implementing the theocracy. The AmTaliban has made it clear that if Congress doesn't act on abortion and gay marriage pronto, something bad (as in sheeple staying home on election day) is going to happen.

for your scarification…


It’s so entertaining to listen to Countdown, and this is a significant part of the entertainment value-

As if set on an elementary-school playground, the Olbermann-O'Reilly feud sets the sassy class wit against the bruising class bully.

That O'Reilly and Olbermann compete in the same time slot is pure gravy for Olbermann. That his ratings are up in recent months is a maraschino cherry on top of the gravy.

Gadzooks! First it’s Rob with his “gravy on the cake”, now we get a cherry on top?? keep reading here


Special event…

"Does an event like this encourage use? Every college in the U.S. struggles with student use of drugs and alcohol," said Jim Hoppe, associate dean of students. "But this is a group of students who feel really strongly about the issue and want conversation about it and to raise awareness about it. We have to encourage and provide a forum for the discussion — that's what higher education is all about.”

Higher education indeed!


There is a hilarious video to go with this, I didn’t have the sound on, you don’t really need it:

Joe Lieberman's best friend Colin McEnroe and AP Capitol Reporter, Susan Haighs, were on WTIC's Beyond the Headlines on Sunday and they explained why everyone should take Ned Lamont's campaign very seriously. They also go into why Joe's running scared and threatening to run as an independent (here's a hint: it's because there's a VERY good sign that Lamont will beat him in the primary)BTW: Colin's snoozing is an instant classic...

This could be a sleep aid…


I can’t wait for the new Neil Young album! This guy has some inside info…

He and Neil had a long talk about Bush's war in Iraq and what the Bush Regime has been doing to the U.S. The discussion helped Neil flesh out an idea that was germinating in his mind, a concept album about Bush's America, something he started getting at when he wrote and performed Greendale. From the time he started writing the songs until the album was recorded, 9 days passed. Neil can be fast, but that is really fast.

I spoke to some of my old comrades at Reprise today. They're still getting their heads around a marketing strategy for the album, although it looks like an early summer release, perhaps with songs streaming on the internet early and probably a single to radio "very soon."

Here’s the full scoop


More reasons to fear the coming theocracy..

Via Atrios we came across Digby's coverage of the so-called father/daughter "purity balls." Little Fundamentalist Christian girls pledge to "give themselves (meaning their virginity) as a wedding gift to their husband," while the dads vow "to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity ... as I lead, guide and pray over my daughter and as the high priest in my home."

As the father of a wonderful grown daughter, may I say from the bottom of my heart: "Ewww!" Her mother and I (and later, her stepmother) raised her to respect herself, to have pride in her accomplishments, and to make her own decisions in life.

Read it and try not to weep


Andy Borowitz is another favorite of mine:

After stating that the U.S. had made thousands of tactical errors in the war in Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice restated that number upward today, telling reporters that the actual figure was "probably closer to a billion."
Dr. Rice apologized for initially low-balling the number of U.S. mistakes, explaining, "Quite frankly, I forgot about a lot of the mistakes that Rumsfeld made." [...]
The State Department today issued an official list of the billion mistakes made thus far in Iraq, but Dr. Rice warned that the list was far from complete: "We are currently making between four and five thousand mistakes a day, so this list is very much a work in progress." [...]
At a press briefing at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was mum on the list of mistakes issued by the State Department, but said that later in the week he would be issuing a list of mistakes made by Dr. Rice. "And that number is closer to a zillion," he said.

More via Daily Kos


Carl Bernstein doesn’t seem to have fallen under the Bush spell like his old partner has:

In terms of imminent, meaningful action by the Congress, however, the question of whether the president should be impeached (or, less severely, censured) remains premature. More important, it is essential that the Senate vote - hopefully before the November elections, and with overwhelming support from both parties - to undertake a full investigation of the conduct of the presidency of George W. Bush, along the lines of the Senate Watergate Committee's investigation during the presidency of Richard M. Nixon.

most of the Vanity Fair article is here


Molly Ivins explains it all…

If I understand what McClellan is saying, Bush leaked bad information from a classified intelligence report because there wasn't enough time for the contradictory DIA report to go through a declassification process. All of which would make more sense if we hadn't just gone through this Valerie Plame episode, where the White House says if the president leaked it, then it's legal to leak it. No problem, the president can declassify at will, they said. I don't know about you, but none of it is becoming clearer for me. Does anyone understand why we have to bomb Iran yet?

More fun here