I Don't Like You Either

InstaSnark: The Media & the Wingnuts Play: Connect! the!! Blago-Obama Dots!!!...

...which are, of course, in completely different coloring books. Meanwhile, the Left just laughs the bitter laughter of adults who have seen it all before because OF COURSE everyone knew it was coming, even though it is all so stupid, so stupid and transparent, so stupid and transparent and bogus, and yet full of wingnutty media-fuelled portentousness and pomposity.

Whiskey Fire: BREAKING: The Untold Story of the Blagojevich Corruption Scandal! (Did Anyone Say... WILLIAM AYERS!?)

Edroso: Times Pretends to Believe Blago is Trouble for Obama

Sadly, No!: They’ll Get To That Part Later

Sadly, No!: Blago Bung¹ [another shorter Michelle Malkin]

The Poor Man: Blagwater

Attackerman:  Oh, My.  He's So Gangster

Lawyers, Guns, & Money:  Gangster - The Rod Blagojevich Story

Rising Hegemon:  Lincoln Isn't Spinning, He's Snickering

Balloon Juice: Make It Stop

Balloon Juice: Sometimes Doing the Right Thing Pays Off

The Rude Pundit:  Note to Republicans and the Media: We Don't Care About Obama and Blagojevich

The Heretik:  I Swear

Blago Found Guilty by Association with His Own Hair

Wonkette and Princess Sparkle Pony are all over this one.  Princess Sparkle Pony has courtroom drawings!  And says:

I love the dominance of Blagojevich's mighty hairdo. ...It's like the artist got dazzled by the enlarged coiffure, pulled into its vortex. I can't blame him! Me, too!

Ken Layne at Wonkette:

Here’s a quick tip for voters on the lookout for “clean” candidates: If they have hair like this, in 2008, they are a complete fucking criminal. No exceptions. (Rod Blagojevich’s Terrible Hair Found Guilty of Everything)

Olbermann: They're All the Worst Person in the World

Keith Olbermann hits "the conservative trifecta," says Danny Shea, with O'Reilly winning the gold medal, Hannity winning the silver, and Will coming in last with the bronze.

Bill Ayers on "Hardball"

Here's "the washed-up old terrorist," as McCain called him, speaking for himself but also with strange prescience.  Highlights:

Asked about his reaction to Palin's "palling around with terrorists remark, Ayers said: "I thought it was outrageous and profoundly dishonest, and I chose not to react to it at the time."

Ayers added, "I was on a board with President-Elect Obama, we did live in the same neighborhood, but the dishonesty of the narrative is that if you can place two people in the same room or prove that they took a bus downtown together, that they're somehow responsible for one anothers politics, policies, outlook, and behavior, and that seems to me to be patently absurd."

Tweety concluded that  "Ayers is a changed man." Uh, as Jason Linkins said, make of that what you will.

Jon Swift on Derrierism, the Sensible Conservative's Answer to "Hollyweird"

Conservative Andrew Breitbart intends to start a new website on which conservatives will review films. Derrierism, a new school of film criticism that Jon Swift identified in August 2007---and a tag which made its way into the Urban Dictionary--- has evolved from "an esoteric school of film criticism championed by a few forward-thinking critics." (Swift 12-9-2008).  Quoting extensively from Mr. Swift, the Urban Dictionary defines derrierism as follows:

The critical method of judging movies by whether your buttocks moves in the seat while watching them. Derrièrists dispense with such niceties as subtlety and thought in movie criticism, believing that intellectuals, relativists, existentialists, pacifists, and no doubt the Communist Left have had the upper hand in film-making for too long.

In short, a "derrierist" is a film reviewer who pulls film reviews out of his---or indeed her---ass.

Ride the Wayback Pony: The 10 Worst Prognostications of 2008

William Kristol made number 1, with his prediction that Hill had the Democratic nomination all sewed up. Kristol is, of course, reliably wrong, which is why we love him so.  Cockney Robin wrote a piece back in 2007 deconstructing Kristol's "Why Bush Will be a Winner" that still makes us laugh out loud.  (Naturally, we're laughing at Kristol rather than with him).

But our personal favorite, which ranks number 2, will remain forever and always Jim Cramer.

H/t to Wall Street Jackass---whose tagline ("This is me not listening to you") we can only envy---for the link.

The Daily Show: Blagojevich--What Isn't He Being Charged With?

Jon Stewart:  "Rod Blagojevich is quickly going from being a sleazy politician to something out of a 19th century German children's fable."  

Corruption:  an Illinois tradition!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

(D-IL) Weed

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Snark O' the Day: IOZ, Larison, & TBogg Dis Camille Paglia, Raising a Question that Begs an Answer

Yeah. First IOZ, addressing Paglia's genius at connecting the dots between separate universes and wagging the dog by its tail.  IOZ:

Because he is a cruel man, Daniel Larison reminds us all that Camille Paglia . . . exists . A . . . passage:

Dept of Needful Diversions: You're Probably Fed up with the Blagojevich Scandal, So Check Out the Hamster on a Piano, Eating Popcorn

I posted the video in its original form ages ago at my first blog, but here it is with the musical accompaniment that---pace HuffPost--- has caused it to go viral.

Snark O' the Day: Obama's Birth Certificate---The Ongoing Questions

Now that Obama has a real scandal on his plate, this birth certificate one looks sort of sad and sketchy and tattered.  At the rate we're going the Right will be calling for impeachment before he's inaugurated.... But anyway, here's Gavin M. bringing the eyerolling fun. 

Dept of Valedictions: Bush Dances (April 25, 2007)

Lest we forget.

Dept of Valedictions (the Present Day): President Goofus & President Gallant

Obama unveils a stimulus package.

Bush unveils his self-portrait and says something (intentionally) funny.  Jon Stewart: "Is it possible that his entire administration was a set-up for that joke?"

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - President Goofus and President Gallant

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Did the Media Suppress Stories that Would Have Reflected Poorly on McCain?

Huh.  Politico reports:

Rove & O'Reilly: The Dire Economy is Just a Media Ploy to Make Obama Look Better Than Bush

So...we can all stop worrying.  Santa Claus WILL come down your chimney as usual with his bag full of toys for your kids and a new job and a new mortgage for you!  There WILL be presents under your tree and a turkey dinner (with razzleberry dressing) on your table! 

Would Papa Bear or Karl Rove misrepresent the facts?

Think Progress has thoughtfully published a transcript:

Joe the Plumber Rips on McCain; Thinks Palin is "the Real Deal"

"Who in the what now?"  I hear you thinking.  "Joe the---oh, you mean this guy?"

No:  Joe.  JOE WURZELBACHER. Joe the Plumber?  McCain's pal?  Remember him?  Sure you do.  Big block-headed guy---claims to be a plumber--- summoned up out of obscurity by McCain during one of the debates?   Nothing? 

Blago-gate!

Obama's first "scandal"---and he's not even in office!  Things move faster than they used to and not always in a good way.

 Marc Ambinder points out that Obama has long considered Blagojevich a tumor on the Democratic party's behind (Ambinder put it a bit differently).  UPDATE:  This article suggests that maybe he hasn't thought so for that long.   And a Chicago reporter thinks Rahm Emanuel might have tipped off the feds to Blago's "Pay to Play" gambit. 

But the fall of the Illinois Democrat---while pleasing to those of us who like our government corruption free--does its part to wilt the petals in our winner's bouquet and we haven't even had the inaugural ball yet.

InstaSnark: Jeb Bush for Senator?

He did not actually get Florida involved in an illegal war.  But when you have said that, you have said it all.

The Department of Valedictions Daily Show Threefer (Jan 2006): This is Wire Tap

If someone from al-Qaeda was calling you, Bush wanted to know why.  And he was going to protect our civil liberties, with or without a warrant!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Headlines - This is Wire Tap

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Snark O' the Day: Neocons Want Barry O. to Fix Everything Bush Broke

Suddenly, it's our problem and only our problem.  They'll just stand on the sidelines and jeer.  If they had any constructive ideas, or anything like a solution, we'd have heard them back when it mattered.

From Father Tyme at  BlondeSense:

Ain’t it just curious now with the NeoCon and Republican roaches braving the light of day, that all of a sudden they profess concern about, oh, food quality, health items, housing, jobs...ethics...etc.?

Dept of Valedictions: Bush and the Plutocrats ("There Goes the Neighborhood")

As Bush prepares to move into his exclusive new neighborhood his neighbors are worried that his presence might disrupt their Way of Life.  Those neighbors include "former presidential candidate Ross Perot and Mark Cuban, the billionaire businessman and Dallas Mavericks owner" and some guy next door who just installed a "trout-filled lake" on his property.  (Raw Story)

Will Bush turn their American dream into a Bush administration-style nightmare?

The Pointlessness of Religionizing Politics

Among us are a couple of religious people---even one very religious person---and we all agree that when Jesus said "Give what belongs to Caesar to Caesar and what belongs to God to God", he was endorsing the view that mixing religion with politics just makes everyone mad.

John Cole has an excellent post on why citing God as your authority never really persuades anyone.

The Department of Valedictions Daily Show Threefer (Dec. 2006): When Bush Was in "Listening Mode" About Iraq

In celebration of Gen. Shinseki's selection, let us ride the Wayback Pony to that later time when everyone knew he was right.  Rumsfeld wanted to take his hand off the bicycle seat; Bush wanted to hear "from as many ideas and opinions as possible." And he wasn't going to stop fighting and put diplomats on the ground till all violent means were utterly exhausted!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mess O'Potamac - Listen, Bush Will

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Dept of Valedictions: Rove Plans to Call Out Bush Haters in His New Book; PLUS!! Bonus Harry Shearer Music Video ("Rove" Sings "Turd Blossom Special")

We've been trying very hard not to think about the "Bush legacy project," since its very existence defies common sense, decency, geometry, and reality.  We're afraid of getting sucked into some GOP black hole of revisionism and coming out on the other side in a world like Camazotz in A Wrinkle in Time where everything is controlled by "Bush's Brain" and all the moms stay home, the dads all go to work, and everyone does everything in exactly the same way and at the same time, all the time. And (channeling Berke Breathed now) is compelled every Sunday to attend the Christianist Church of his or her choice (no Quakers on Bush World).

Bad Moon Risen

From our step-parent blog, Buck Naked Politics:

Lawsuit Alleges Halliburton & KBR Made Soldiers Sick Via Tainted Food, Water, and More

Forbes' Endorsement of Jeb Bush is Unburdened by Facts

Media & Politicians Fail to Mention Nasty Effects if Automakers File Bankruptcy (updated)

Five War Contractors Indicted For Killing 17 Random Iraqi Civilians: A Retrospective

A New Fired Attorney Crisis? Bush-Appointed US Attorney Won't Tender Her Resignation

Big Three: Begging for a Bailout Through the Govt's "Money for Incompetence Program"

With the Economy in Free Fall, Barney Frank Wants the Slacker Obama to Start Being President Now  

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Chris Matthews (An Updated Poetic Tribute)

by Damozel | Full disclosure:  Ashamed though I am to admit it, I am---like Nora Ephron---practically in love with Chris Matthews.  This does not make me blind to his faults (with his Hillary-hatred topping my personal list), but it does impel me from time to time to compose a poetic tribute.

This one, for which I tender in advance my profoundest apologies to the late and very great Wallace Stevens,  was composed in honor of Matthews' recently announced political aspirations and their (apparent)  soon-to-be-announced deferral or retraction. 

Attack of the Blue Meanies (Mean Progressive Blogger Round-Up)

So mean.  No wonder the wingnuts moan, rage, and clutch their pearls.

The Economic Crisis: A Tragedy for Those Who Feel

At The Left Coaster, Paradox has put up a post arguing that it's time for a little less detachment about the impending Depression [see The Agonist] and a little more thought about the damage that's already been done, and being done, and the suffering that's already started.

Imagining (& Reimagining) Hillary: Also: The Favreau Facebook Incident

Our colleague at Buck Naked Politics wrote way back even before the primaries about the ever-evolving Hillary mythos, and it's true: no matter how she behaves or what she does "she thicks men's blood with cold." Equally chilled---so they claim---is the blood of certain well-known female pundits.  Why is that?  Hmmm?  Why?

Dept of Valedictions: Let's All Give Outgoing Bush Some Credit and Make Those Popularity Levels Soar!

Mick Arran at Fact-esque calls for a round of very slow clapping for Bush.

Snark O' the Day: Christmas Comes Early for the Constitution (The Talking Dog)

Yes, now that Bush doesn't need them anymore, the Supremes will finally take a look at the limits on the executive's powers in what The Talking Dog calls "the second most important case of our lives."