No. 2,000!

It's milestone day around here at The Garlic, today.

Post No. 2,000.

We were going to celebrate it with a really, hard-hitting, political cartoon, the type-of-thing, that wasn't really satire, but we'd say it was satire once people started complaining about it, but The New Yorker beat us to-the-punch.

What about raising a glass, filled with a good ol' American beer, like, say, Budweiser, but that went out-the-window.

I hadn't really been aware of it, until early last week, when posting and noticed the count, and said "Holy Cow!"

So, what to do for such an endeavor ...

What about taking our most popular post, comment on it, waxing it with an update?

Well, out of all those 2,000 posts, our post popular, based on views, search engines, etc, turned out to be this;

Hooters Applauds FDA Breast Implant Vote; Opens Doors For More Woman To Become 'Hooter Girls'

Okay, scratch that one ...

Along with generating a comment or two to "keep you day job", our satire did, on a few occasions, befuddle some people.

During the uprising in Burma, we posted this;

Breaking News! Burma Junta Contracting Blackwater For Internal Security; Could Mean Exit From Iraq For Embattled Mercenary Firm; Radio's Limbaugh Charges "Phony Monks" Stirring Up Trouble

Which generated a buzz, before it got clarified;

Your quotes come from a parody blog, meaning the statements concerning Blackwater being hired by Shwe and Rush Limbaugh calling Burmese protesters "phony" are false and completely made up for the purpose of satire.

Also, the post "Ahmadinejad “Sort Of An Islamic Lyndon LaRouche”; Said To Have Made Offer To Mexico; Ahmadinejad Claims Letter A Hoax, Cites Propaganda, Prelude To U.S. Invasion; Other World Leaders Received Similar Tomes; Mexico Offered Iran National Guard Deployed on Their Side of Border", generated a small fit on some rightwing blogs, in particular, this passage;

“This Bush you call President does nothing but lie,” declared a defiant Ahmadinejad during a 4-hour rally in Tehran, before an estimated crowd of 500,000. Later in his speech, Ahmadinejad charged that “Bush wrote the letter himself ... To prepare for his evil forces to invade our great country.”

Many of those gathered carried white envelopes, with the name “President Bush, White House, USA” scribbled in English on them. Iranian government officials worked their way through the throng, with large baskets, collecting the letters for mailing, to which Ahmadinejad exhorted the crowd with chants of “We will bury him with letters” and “Send Satan the Iranian truth”.

Regrettably, I can't find, or lost the email, of the comment thread, that had those hotheads steaming, and calling for a similar campaign, of good ol' American patriots writing letters back to Ahmadinejad.

Unfortunately, we don't generate such uproar every day, however, we endeavor, ever so mightily to such ends (you can take a scroll down the left column to view some of the highlights and favorite posts).

From when I started The Garlic, in late January, 2005, I had no clear vision as to ending up here, at post 2,000.

I was coming off the end of a dream, the crash and failure of my own business, that I saw as being the last job (a non-profit Jazz Festival and Jazz Education Outreach Program) I would ever have, and, along the way, the situation on the homefront has become more cumbersome with the Aunt I am caretaker to.

So, for many of these 2,000 posts, it was an escape, a hiding place, to sneak refuge in for a few hours and, hopefully, whether you are a longtime reader, have just recently stumbled on The Garlic, or only read it via the feeds, the hope is you have been entertained, perhaps, enlightened on occasion.

And, it's enough of a hook that you'll stick around for the next 2,000 ...

Lastly, a heartfelt tip-of-the-hat to folks like Barry Crimmins, Michael Stickings, Joe Gandelman, Steve Benen, Sean Collins, and a boatload of others, who have assisted, tagged, linked, promoted, pushed, or otherwise helped me along the way.

Peace!
JTD

Was The Mukasy Vote Part Of That Rovian New Math?

When throwing someone out of the room can often be called giving them the "bum's rush", what kind of bum or rush is it when they're rammed through the door?

Many a Senate Democrat called for giving New Attorney Crony Michael Mukasey the bum's rush, but, as has been their habit, they caved (thank you again Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein), while their Republican colleagues rammed him home - and without their pet 60-vote rule;

Senate Confirms Mukasey By 53-40

Salon's Glenn Greenwald showed up the MSM, with his post today "What happened to the Senate's "60-vote requirement"?"

"The so-called "60-vote requirement" applies only when it is time to do something to limit the Bush administration. It is merely the excuse Senate Democrats use to explain away their chronic failure/unwillingness to limit the President, and it is what the media uses to depict the GOP filibuster as something normal and benign. There obviously is no "60-vote requirement" when it comes to having the Senate comply with the President's demands, as the 53-vote confirmation of Michael Mukasey amply demonstrates. But as Mukasey is sworn in as the highest law enforcement officer in America, the Democrats want you to know that they most certainly did stand firm and "registered their displeasure."

And Greenwald uses a great quote from Steve Benen, of The Carpetbagger Report, in his post "The GOP — Grand Obstructionist Party".

I won't spoil it for you here, but there's another great line from it;

"In April, Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said, “The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail … and so far it’s working for us.”

So much for those great Republican leadership qualities.

It's a good read, and it nails the caving Democratic Congress to a cross.












The Cavingcrats

Was Something In the Air, or Water, Last Week?

Man, the Rightwing Freakshow was at it last week.

Maybe they went off their meds, or there was something in the air, or water.

Garlic readers know of our fleeting brush with the infamous faux reporter, Jeff Gannon (okay, he spam commented a bunch of sites, seemingly, anyone that called him a fake reporter, but, it was all we had to work with).

Our good friend Barry Crimmins also took note of it, in his post Dang me!, along with Dennis Perrin, author and another great humorist, who has been butting heads, of sort, with some dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds on that Un Poco Pink Balls, or some such moniker.

Check it out, or go straight over to Dennis Perrin and read his hysterical posts on it.

And, while you're in the mood, check out Steve Benen at The Carpetbagger Report, and his riff on Fox News’ Hannity rails against Halloween, which ‘teaches kids to be liberals’

Lame Duck President and a Lame Duck Freakshow ... Not sure which one is going to be worse ...

Oh, God help us!