Well, not a banner week, as far as the idiots out there, someone to really step up, clutching, body askew, to claim our IDOTW award.
Sarah Palin?
Sure, Mommy Moose was like the Emergency Broadcast Signal, popping up everywhere, on every television, at every moment, earning her the praise of becoming The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla, as labeled by Dick Cavett, rarely rises above just being your average, run-of-the-mill dolt.
Evan Bayh, who, every time he speaks, appears to be auditioning for the mascot job with Ambien, gets an honorable mention, for, apparently believing, that all Revoltin' Joe Lieberman (R-I, CT) needs to do is stand in front of the class, and write on the blackboard 500 times, that "I am sorry for ...", the choices being;
Obama is a Marxist
Obama palling around with terrorists
Obama voted to let the troops die
Dissing Obama, as an "Independent Democrat", at the Republican National Convention
Campaigning for the Republicans, against Democrats, on Congressional and Senate races
By weeks' end, there was one person that appeared to be reaching ...
Ellie the Chimps' former CNBC Co-Host, Dennis Miller.
Yes, the former SNL smart-ass, later moving on to HBO (while both offered a stable of writers, the latter, I know, gave him a whipping, cracker-jack staff), and even a stint at Monday Night Football.
While, now, having his own radio show on Westwood One, Ellie's former partner also moonlights with the Grand Ayatollah of Ignorant Dolts, Bill O'Reilly, on the Faux News Channel.
Last night on the O’Reilly Factor, Dennis Miller said President-elect Obama should “flatten these punks at AIG.” When O’Reilly suggested Obama should arrest Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Miller laughed and said, “Barney might want to be arrested.” O’Reilly laughed and then acted disgusted by the idea of homosexuality. Watch it ...
Oh, Jesus ... Fag jokes?
Barney Frank has been out-of-the-closet since around the time an, undoubtedly, precocious toddler Miller may have paraded around the house in his mother's high heels.
If Ellie was around, no doubt, she would have been hittin' the buzzers on that one.
For another, with Miller riding herd with the dying Pachyderm Party, it's a mighty tall glass house he spews his locker room barb from if he wants to color his jokes pink.
She’s a great dame. People are fascinated by her because the Left hate her. I think the Left hate her — mostly women on the Left hate her — because to me from outside in it appears that she has a great sex life, all right? I think she has non-neurotic sex with that Todd Palin guy. … I think that snow mobile looks like mechanized foreplay to me and that’s why people are fascinated.
Does Dennis Miller, sitting straight up, see starbursts every time the GOP Clothes Horse pops up on the screen?
Has he gone out and purchased an official Todd Palin snowsuit and snow mobile of his own, placing it in a special room of his house, rocketing across the carnal ice of Alaska, all frenzied with fascination?
Oh, wait a minute ... Wait a minute ...
I get it now.
It was so obvious ...
Dennis Miller is Bill O'Reilly's Ellie!
They just took away the Howard Dean Scream buttons.
Dennis Miller ... The Garlic's Ignorant Dolt of the Week!
Spam, a gelatinous 12-ounce rectangle of spiced ham and pork, may be among the world’s most maligned foods, dismissed as inedible by food elites and skewered by comedians who have offered smart-alecky theories on its name (one G-rated example: Something Posing As Meat).
Because it is vacuum-sealed in a can and does not require refrigeration, Spam can last for years. Hormel says “it’s like meat with a pause button.”
Invented during the Great Depression by Jay Hormel, the son of the company’s founder, Spam is a combination of ham, pork, sugar, salt, water, potato starch and a “hint” of sodium nitrate “to help Spam keep its gorgeous pink color,” according to Hormel’s Web site for the product.
“There are all kinds of people who have an emotional connection to Spam,” said Gil Gutknecht Jr., the former Minnesota congressman, who was in the gift shop at the Spam Museum buying a Spam tie, sweatshirt and earrings. Mr. Gutknecht recalled that he once served as a judge in a Spam recipe contest.
“The best thing was Spam brownies,” he said, with more or less a straight face.
OMG!
I just can conceive using Spam as an ingredient for some other food item.
And remember, it is not to be confused with "Green Eggs and Ham", which you may like, in bog, covered with fog, sitting on a log, guarded by a dog, reading this blog.
And, speaking of Monty Python, we would be remiss without posting this, as well;
Things got, kind of, jammed up on the homefront, we had a "new med watch" going on, and it all, pretty much, snuffed out time to sit down and write (and I have a handful of things in the chute).
After an F-bomb dropped on "Morning Joe," the MSNBC news-talk show has installed an early-warning system.
A seven-second delay was added with Tuesday's broadcast, to protect against future eruptions such as that of host Joe Scarborough, who seemed to surprise even himself with his verboten utterance.
Scarborough slipped Monday while attempting to describe the rawboned manner of Rahm Emanuel, incoming White House chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama.
Amid his many on-air apologies, Scarborough said, "My wife is going to kill me when I get home" and spoke of washing out his mouth with soap.
And, did you know that you can "Seal The Deal" in seven-seconds?
Can you close a sale in just seven seconds? You can do it faster if you use a sales technique to make a great first impression. Seven seconds is the average length of time you have to make a first impression. If your first impression is not good you won' t get another chance with that potential client. Make a great first impression and the client is likely to take your small business seriously.
You've got just 60 days to prove yourself on a new job - and just seven seconds to make a good first impression. Seven seconds is all that people need to start making up their minds about you, says Roger Ailes. Formerly a top Republican strategist and now chairman and CEO of Fox News, Ailes is one of the world's leading practitioners of the smart art of personal persuasion.
Fake copies of the NYT, possibly a year in the making, were distributed in the city today, and apparently some commuters thought it was for real. The banner announces the end of the Iraq war and other stories reveal that Tom Friedman has resigned and so on. It's set in the future--next July.
Alex S. Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a co-author of “The Trust,” a history of the family that controls The Times, said in a telephone interview that the paper should be flattered by the spoof.
“I would say if you’ve got one, hold on to it,” Mr. Jones, a former Times reporter, said of the fake issue. “It will probably be a collector’s item. I’m just glad someone thinks The New York Times print edition is worthy of an elaborate hoax. A Web spoof would have been infinitely easier. But creating a print newspaper and handing it out at subway stations? That takes a lot of effort.”
He added, “I consider this a gigantic compliment to The Times.”
And, if you are not hip to The Yes Men, their motto, more-or-less, is "Impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them. Targets are leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else".
Here's an example of one of their previous efforts
"Without oil, at least four billion people would starve. This spiral of trouble would make the oil infrastructure utterly useless" -- unless their bodies could be turned into fuel.
That was the satirical message delivered by two corporate ethics activists to the Gas and Oil Exposition 2007 in Calgary, Alberta. The activists, part of political trickster collective the Yes Men, used the Exposition to stage their latest theatre of corporate absurdity, with Exxon/Mobil and the Natural Petroleum Council playing the fools.
The prank, intended as a critique of the fossil fuel industry's influence on energy policy, caused confusion and consternation on the final day of the Exposition, one of the industry's largest gatherings.
After noting that current energy policies will likely lead to "huge global calamities" and disrupt oil supplies, Wolff told the audience "that in the worst case scenario, the oil industry could "keep fuel flowing" by transforming the billions of people who die into oil," said a Yes Men press release.
Yes Man Mike Bonnano, posing as an Exxon representative named Florian Osenberg, added that "With more fossil fuels comes a greater chance of disaster, but that means more feedstock for Vivoleum. Fuel will continue to flow for those of us left."
What happens when a 26-year-old man with Down syndrome meets a soon-to-be grandmother close to four decades older than him? In the case of Nantucket residents Connor Gifford and Victoria Harris, a beautiful friendship was born that ultimately changed both their life paths and led to the publication of a book about our nation's history, "America According to Connor Gifford."
Veterans Day is an annual American holiday honoring military veterans. Both a federal holiday and a state holiday in all states, it is usually observed on November 11. However, if it occurs on a Sunday then the following Monday is designated for holiday leave, and if it occurs Saturday then either Saturday or Friday may be so designated.[1] It is also celebrated as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world, falling on November 11, the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.)
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed an Armistice Day for November 12, 1919. The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting the President issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday; "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."
In 1953, an Emporia, Kansas, shoe store owner named Al King had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who served in World War I. King had been actively involved with the American War Dads during World War II. He began a campaign to turn Armistice Day into "All" Veterans Day. The Emporia Chamber of Commerce took up the cause after determining that 90% of Emporia merchants as well as the Board of Education supported closing their doors on November 11, 1953, to honor veterans. With the help of then-U.S. Rep. Ed Rees, also from Emporia, a bill for the holiday was pushed through Congress. President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law on May 26, 1954.[3]
Congress amended this act on November 8, 1954, replacing "Armistice" with Veterans, and it has been known as Veterans Day since.
We have seen, firsthand, the effects of war on veterans.
I am a son of a veteran, who served in World War II, the Navy, aboard a Mine Sweeper in the South Pacific.
My father's war experience was kept private mostly, as he did not want to talk about the death and carnage he witnessed.
Later, growing up, we witnessed the effects of the Vietnam War, claiming the lives of three guys from the neighborhood, and sending home about a dozen more, pretty messed up.
There is hope this Veterans Day, that with the incoming President Obama, we'll see an end to reckless aggression, and also, watch our government step up to their responsibility of caring for veterans, which this current administration has hideously failed.
And, to the day, where we will come upon a future Veterans Day, where the only Veterans honored will those of long, long ago, the world having evolved to the point that the horror of war was antiquated, and abandoned as a means to settle differences between countries. Visit The United States Department of Veterans Affairs for more information
Media Statement Issued by: ZM Makeba Trust and Siyandisa Music 10th November 2008 Johannesburg The world was dealt a blow early this morning, in a small town outside Naples, Italy when Zenzile Miriam Makeba..Mama Afrika to the world, passed away.. and left this earth, aged 76 years. She was born on 4th March 1932. Whilst this great lady was alive she would say “I will sing until the last day of my life” Zenzile Miriam Makeba collapsed on stage, at the end of her set, after singing Pata Pata,. She was immediately attended to by her grandson Nelson Lumumba Lee and others before being rushed to the nearest hospital. Tragically, in the early hours of this 10th of November 2008 morning, the doctors pronounced that they were unable to revive her. Ambassador Makeba, was with her band, and was performing before an outdoor audience, in the open air at Via Verde, in the small town of Castelvolturno, not far from Naples. The audience included her long time friend, Italian promoter, Roberto Meglioli, who she had called on Friday from Holland, and asked to attend her show. He was on stage with her at the end of the show, and there she collapsed into his arms. Dr Miriam Makeba never forgot her struggle through her life, and never stopped identifying with those who were downtrodden and who suffered. An activist to the end, the event where she was performing at, was an Anti-Racism and Anti-Mafia Event. “Mazi” as she was affectionately known by those who knew her well, never shied from speaking her mind and standing for her beliefs. She was an outstanding South African, a and indeed a gracious and true citizen of the World. Zenzile Miriam Makeba is survived by her grandchildren Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Monique Lee, and her great- grandchildren Lindelani, Ayanda and Kwame.
In 1959, she performed in the musical King Kong alongside Hugh Masekela, her future husband. Though she was a successful recording artist, she was only receiving a few dollars for each recording session and no provisional royalties, and was keen to go to the US. Her break came when she starred in the anti-apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa in 1959 by independant filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. She attended the premiere of the film at the Venice Film Festival.
Makeba then traveled to London where she met Harry Belafonte, who assisted her in gaining entry to and fame in the United States. She released many of her most famous hits there including "Pata Pata", "The Click Song" ("Qongqothwane" in Xhosa), and "Malaika". In 1966, Makeba received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording together with Harry Belafonte for An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid.
She discovered that her South African passport was revoked when she tried to return there in 1960 for her mother's funeral. In 1963, after testifying against apartheid before the United Nations, her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked. She has had nine passports, [4] and was granted honorary citizenship of ten countries.[5]
In a statement on Monday, Mandela said the death "of our beloved Miriam has saddened us and our nation."
He continued: "Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
"She was South Africa's first lady of song and so richly deserved the title of Mama Afrika. She was a mother to our struggle and to the young nation of ours," Mandela's was one of many tributes from South African leaders.
In an interview with Hugh Hewitt yesterday, Kristol said that he would like to set up a similar organization to operate during an Obama presidency:
HH: And I think he will be very concerned with the two issues I’m going to raise with you – national security and immigration. Now I believe the Committee On the Present Danger filled a need in the 70s which we need to reorganize an equivalent now. But what do you think, Bill Kristol?
BK: Oh, I agree, and we did a little of that in the 90s with the Project For the New American Century. And I actually think there are people talking about this. And there’s a lot of good foreign policy and defense thinking on our side, the Fred Kagans and Bob Kagans and Reuel Gerechts of the world, Victor Davis Hanson, et cetera. But a little bit of a political organization for them wouldn’t be bad. And I think we should support Obama, incidentally, if he does the right thing.
Isn't that big of Little Billy Kristol.
"I think we should support Obama, incidentally, if he does the right thing"
The "right thing", being, naturally, listening to, and following the plans, of the PNAC.
The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle.
The Project for the New American Century intends, through issue briefs, research papers, advocacy journalism, conferences, and seminars, to explain what American world leadership entails. It will also strive to rally support for a vigorous and principled policy of American international involvement and to stimulate useful public debate on foreign and defense policy and America's role in the world.
William Kristol, Chairman
Well, that, pretty much, guarantees, they'll be busting Obama's balls, much in the way they busted Bill Clinton's, hounding him during his presidency to pound his cock on the table, then unleash the bombers and the forces to go invade some sovereign nation, who happens to not be "just like us", and, of course, success will be measured by the number of dead bodies.
This is done in the name of "democracy", not, as some may believe, to give a bunch of pantywaisted old white farts a boner (the younger ones get "starbursts").
Some have regarded the PNAC's January 16, 1998 letter to President Clinton, which urged him to embrace a plan for "the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power,"[6] and the large number of members of PNAC appointed to the Bush administration as evidence that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a foregone conclusion
Matt Duss reports, “It looks like Bill Kristol may be making good on his threat to revive the Project for the New American Century. Since May, visitors to PNAC’s website were informed that ‘this account has been suspended,’ but now the website is back up, though it does not seem to have been updated with any new material.” Duss speculates that PNAC’s reincarnation may serve to boost the future prospects of Sarah Palin.
Oh Jesus, they're going to do it to pump up Mommy Moose?
Hmmm ... Does that mean Kristol and Kagan start pumping out foreign policy white papers with The Wasilla Whiz Kids' name of them?
Will they base a new course of action from the vantage point this Hockey Mom has of Russia?
It will be good for business to reignite that old Cold War ... Lots of Military-Industrial Complex contracts to be had ... A carnival of cable news shows (including their own network, Faux News) to go on and blather away about this growing threat, and how the Obama Administration is squandering away American Power!
Morning Joke got so worked up, palming off his pontificating pea-brained knowledge, he let fly a "F___ You" in his excitement, only to be chided, in a very jocular manner, from others on the panel, and, of course, Mommy Meekstress Mika. Joe Scarborough drops accidental f-bomb on live TV
Today on “Morning Joe,” host Joe Scarborough was discussing the calm nature of the Obama campaign and accidentally used the f-word. His guests joked about needing a seven-second delay. After apologizing, Scarborough said, “My wife is going to kill me when I get home.”
Well, notwithstanding what his wife will do, or the soap, since Morning Joke is on MSNBC, which is on cable, it's doubtful that he will be nailed by the FCC.
Perhaps parent company General "We Bring Fucking Things To Life" Electric will weigh in on it.
While it is not shown on the clip, and I no longer watch Morning Joe because of the endless idiocy of the two hosts, it is pretty clear what happened here- Time’s Jay Carney told a story off camera about Rahm Emanuel’s habit of using the word “fuck,” but when Carney told the story, he just used the initial “f-” to let them know what he meant. Scarborough then goes on camera and passes on the story, but forgets to use initials, and just blurts out “screaming fuck you at the top of their lungs.”
So, it turns out that Joe is a massive hypocrite. Shocking, I am sure. The funniest thing about this is that Joe hails from the Redneck Riviera in Florida, where the f-bomb is not an unknown word.
And, of course, there is such robust, dripping irony here.
Glenn Greenwald points out (in his "Joe Scarborough: Hoisted by his own sanctimonious petard"), what will quickly surface, the hypocracy of Morning Joke, detailing the apocalyptic, head-exploding rage Morning Joke went in, over the infamous Janet Jackson Super Bowl Affair;
Two days later, Scarborough collected hordes of outraged emails from his angry viewers over Janet Jackson and flew them to Washington DC to deliver them to Trent Lott and other right-wing officials, demanding government punishment against CBS, Viacom, MTV, and even the NFL ..."
And Greenwald added this
UPDATE II: From the Comment section, an outraged parent speaks out:
My kid heard that
It's funny you write about this today. I was getting ready for work this morning, watching Morning Joe (which I like despite Joe). My 10-year-old son got up, came into the living room, and is typical of a day when he doesn't have school, plopped down on the couch and started watching with me. I was just about to hand him the remote to change to less-newsy fare when Joe popped off with this. I was flabbergasted. And there's no question my kid heard that. Ugh.
One shudders to think how many other American children were exposed today to the raunchy filth of Joe Scarborough. The outraged emails are already pouring in. Keep them coming. Let me hear especially from other parents. I'm going to fly down to Washington with the emails and comments in hand (and a camera crew in tow) to demand government punishment against NBC, MSNBC, GE, Scarborough, Time-Warner, Inc. (due to Jay Carney's instigation) and others.
See kids, you can learn all kinds of new words, just by watching Morning Joke.
Maybe, what will come out of this, will be a new legal strategy.
Well, after submitting myself to a proverbial "My Sister/My Daughter" today, mapping out a handful of posts, I decided to file them, and take the day off, catching up on some much-need rest.
Not to leave you totally dry, we will point to an excellent Frank Rich today, and leave you with a snapping musical interlude.
Dawn also brought the realization that we were at last emerging from an abusive relationship with our country’s 21st-century leaders. The festive scenes of liberation that Dick Cheney had once imagined for Iraq were finally taking place — in cities all over America.
So let’s be blunt. Almost every assumption about America that was taken as a given by our political culture on Tuesday morning was proved wrong by Tuesday night.
The same commentators who dismissed every conceivable American demographic as racist, lazy or both got Sarah Palin wrong too. When she made her debut in St. Paul, the punditocracy was nearly uniform in declaring her selection a brilliant coup. There hadn’t been so much instant over-the-top praise by the press for a cynical political stunt since President Bush “landed” a jet on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in that short-lived triumph “Mission Accomplished.”
