SOTFU

Yes, I did not post about it because I'm still running a BP of 5000/2000 at that incredibly patronizing, self-aggrandizing display of the purple fingers like the GOP "owned" the courage of the Iraqis: the same dipshits who ran for cover during the anthrax and other scares.

The GOP showed how tough they were when they whined so badly about a few boos. Anybody care to remember how they used to behave toward Clinton?

And in other sad news, Gonzalez has been sworn in as Ratfuck General while we hear Rummy tried to resign twice for the Iraq debacle but our Commander in Cheat kept refusing to accept it. That was at least several dead hundred soldiers and countless hundreds of dead civilians ago. No circus has ever boasted clowns like this.

This Fellow at MSNBC Needs to Get Out More"

As expected, MSNBC offered Tucker Carlson his own show. Ick. Ugh. Urm.

From the Wash Post talking about Carlson:

"He is without a doubt one of the sharpest minds and best writers in this business," said MSNBC President Rick Kaplan. "His passion and enthusiasm are both energizing and remarkable. He is truly a pleasure to work with."

My God. I've seen more remarkable wits at the bottom of my soup bowl.

I keep wondering if Michael Jackson has ever invited Carlson, with his perenially 80s sense of preppie boy style and his signature hair replacement and bowtie, over to Neverland Ranch for an afternoon of magic. Perhaps this explains Carlson's huge overcompensation in ways like having 4-5 kids in almost as many years (see? really, I'm virile!) and his attempts to sound like an intelligent wingnut (oxymoron, anyone?).

Testing

Blogger has been a bad little blog server today.

Announcing My Candidacy for the Pope

I hope JP2 all the best, but just in case, I'm tossing my hat (actually, I only have a Siberian snowcap) into the smoke ring to be the next Pope.

Here are some of my strong points that should be considered by the Papal College:

* I'm a woman (and it's high time for a Popette)
* I promise to loot Vatican City and send the money back to the parishioners who've funded all their gold and precious art treasures
* I'll get rid of the silly hat and Vatican City; we'll run the Church from Jersey City or someplace
* I'll sell the PopeMobile to Michael Jackson or Arnold S or some dipshit like that to start funding programs for those who were abused by priests
* I'll keep the Latin (I like Latin) but dispense with a bunch of the "great mystery" that's just a way for the current Papal system to commit egregious acts outside of public scrutiny
* I'll personally spank some sense into Antonin Scalia
* Think "women" priests and "married" priests
* Think training and evaluating priests so the molestation shit doesn't happen
* This teaching poor people that contraception's a bad thing's gonna stop

Oh, I've got a lot more, but there's my smarting platform.

Surrounded by Fumes of Sulphur and Brimstone

From CNN:

In a stinging parting shot at administration critics, Attorney General John Ashcroft on Tuesday warned of serious threats to public safety and security if Congress fails to restore stiff sentencing guidelines and does not renew portions of the Patriot Act.

In his final hours in office, Ashcroft delivered the hard-hitting remarks notable as much for his characteristic stark language as for his uncompromising message.

He was especially blunt in his view of the 5-4 Supreme Court decision that dealt a blow to federal sentencing guidelines.

And then John Ashcroft spontaneously combusted in a fit of rapture, cursing Mel Carnahan's name as he went.

Pope's Been Taken to the Hospital

Could we please get a progressive one this time, asked the lapsed Catholic?

It's time everything in the Catholic Church didn't flow to Vatican City to buy more and more gold, while leaving local parishes poor. It's also time to get a Pope whose mind isn't stuck somewhere around the 15th century. We had one perhaps in JP1, but if you notice, he didn't last too long (popes don't retire, they expire).

But JP2 isn't dead but frankly, I thought he would pass soon after that special year they had around the millennium where he traveled everywhere.

Er... Uh... I Was Having a Bushian Moment

That has to be why I listed the incorrect URL for Trailing Edge Blog in my blog roll.

Wait! Phone's ringing. With this kind of goof, I know they're calling from 1600 Penn Avenue to offer a lucrative consulting job.

Uh... I Hope this is a Joke But With the Bushies, Who Can Tell?

From Michael Berube:

Washington, January 31– Following on her protest last week against a PBS cartoon character’s visit to Vermont, where he encounters a lesbian couple, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced at a press conference today that her department was not engaged in a “trivial” or “merely symbolic” campaign against a children’s television program.

“Buster Bunny is not the problem,” said Spellings. “Though I note with some dismay that Buster travels the country accompanied only by his father because his parents are divorced, and I do not see why our children should be subjected to yet another glamorization of the divorce lifestyle. No, the problem is Vermont itself. It is Vermont to which I object. Christians everywhere should be outraged that it was represented in this children’s program.”

Spellings proceeded to unveil the Department of Education’s proposed map of the “forty-nine God-fearing United States,” with the “territory of Vermont” represented by a lightly shaded area. “Until such time as Vermont sees fit to rejoin the rest of the nation in condemning gay ‘civil unions,’” Spellings said, reading from a prepared statement, “we propose that Vermont be visually expelled from the heterosexual Union. We further propose that the nation’s students be instructed that Vermont is no longer a real state, and that they will not be responsible for remembering its capital, which is not only obscure but French-sounding as well.”

Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute of Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization, had warm praise for Spellings. “Parents don’t want their children homosexualized in the name of ‘education,’” Knight said. “Mrs. Spellings has given notice that left-wing lobbies will have to find other ways to peddle their pansexual propaganda. Let’s hope that other leaders in federal and state agencies find a backbone thanks to her courageous example.”

Focus on the Family director James Dobson also endorsed Spellings’ decision, saying that “it kills a lot of birds with one stone” by taking a strong stand against gay rights while eliminating “three or four really bothersome figures” from American politics. “We’ve long known that ‘Vermont’ is basically just a code word for the gay agenda,” Dobson said, “and it’s about time our nation’s leaders eliminated Vermont, just as we at Focus on the Family have eliminated other homosexual code words like ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance.’”

As a Vermonter, I can honestly say we're not much in love with a good part of the rest of the U.S. either. Each week, more and more people are talking about breaking off to become a separate republic again.

Uh... There's This Little Matter of $9 Billion We Misplaced

From the Kansas City Star and other venues:

The US occupation authority in Iraq was unable to keep track of nearly $9 billion it gave to government ministries lacking financial controls, security, communications and adequate staff, a government audit has found.

Nine billion is ALMOST enough to buy Richard Perle a month of dinners.

Apropos of Nothing

Did anybody happen to notice that Condi Rice wore to her "official" swearing in as Sec of State ceremony a white suit of the style many women of her age might be married in?

There is a weird and strange thing going on between her and Bush. I don't mean they're having an affair. It's sicker than that.

New Poll, Changed Some Links

Killed Jeff Jarvis (his link - what was I thinking) and added DailyRead's Trailing Edge Blog.

Not to Be Overlooked: The Dangers of Depleted Uranium

Dailyread has some excellent refs up about all the depleted uranium we've dumped into Iraq and elsewhere. If you aren't aware of what's going on and how it affects both their citizens and our soldiers, you should go read and check out the links.

Juan Cole's Remarks on Election

From his blog:

...if the turnout is as light in the Sunni Arab areas as it now appears, the parliament/ constitutional assembly is going to be extremely lopsided. It would be sort of like having an election in California where the white Protestants all stayed home and the legislature was mostly Latinos, African-Americans and Asians.

Telling Polls

CNN's been running some polls the last few days which have been interesting.

At one point yesterday, 80% of respondents did not feel that the Iraqi elections would bring democracy to the country, while one being conducted right now shows 69% of respondents saying "no", that violence in Iraq will not decline after elections.

What I suspect it may do is bring us closer to an out-and-out civil war there, of our making.

I also worry how many Iraqis will die because they bear those big purple stains on their fingers which mark that they've voted. Those are difficult to miss since the marks I've seen aren't small dots but one third to one half the index finger dipped in indigo ink.

Iraqi Election Coverage

I'm glad that the violence seems to be much less than expected, but a voter percentage of 18% overall is REALLY slim. Only Kurds voted in large numbers.

I don't think this is the big end of strife. I think this begins the new phase of conflict.