Loudon Wainwright: New Paint

If you're not familiar with the old Loud'O - and you really should be - this is a really nice song/story to be introduced with. And, uh, watch out: at about 3 minutes 30 seconds in somebody really close to the camera coughs. Scared the crap out of me.

At the station you can meet her
With that smile you couldn't cheat her
A woman that kind is hard to find
It's good to take a girl
In the not so very good world
And walk in the park until it gets dark
Sometimes I feel ugly and old
Excuse me baby if I'm acting bold
My head gets hot but my feet aren't cold
Excuse me if you will

Take a breather on a bench
Helps to build up the suspense
Then the two of you go to a movie show
If she's woman there's a chance
That she maybe likes to dance
So you go to the hall and you out step em all
Don't make a hullabaloo I'm not the hoipaloi
I'm try any trick and I'll pull any ploy
I'm a used up twentieth century boy
Excuse me if you will

She takes you home to meet the folks
Laughing at the fathers jokes
Shall we watch TV, it's all right with me
Time to go you're going to miss her
In the doorway try to kiss her
Oh it tastes so good, like you hoped it would
If I was 16 again I'd give my eyetooth
I'm tired and I'm hungry and I'm looking for my youth
I'm a little uncool and I'm a little uncouth
Oh excuse me yes excuse me if you will

At the station you can meet her
With that smile you couldn't cheat her
A woman that kind is hard to find

Oh Dang: J.D. Salinger Has Died

R.I.P.

NYT obit here.

Photo.

The Samuel L. Jackson State of the Union Address

Go. Read. Laugh. Fall over. Die.

"Hey Jersey Shore - sit the f*ck down!"

Super Spy/Journalist Ordered to Live With Mommy and Daddy

Funnier and funnier.

And, uh, wow:

James O'Keefe and his crew of intruders did not intend to tap Mary Landrieu’s phones, but rather disrupt service and gauge the office’s response to being cut off from constituents, a law enforcement official tells MSNBC.

Remember, these doofuses are charged with "entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony," which carries a punishment of up to ten years in prison. If disabling a phone in a Senator's office is a felony, these guys may be in more trouble than I thought.

John Aloysius Farrell on Obama and Alito

In the U.S. News and World Report:

The Court deserved the smackdown it got from the President of the United States last night, and Justice Sam Alito's rude protest--this year's Joe Wilson outburst--was just further proof of what a bunch of political hacks the justices have become.

Tell The Malkin: Oregon Says "Bite Me"

The Malkin and a host of others are wetting their pants over my state's wonderful referendum result last night. The Malkin says "Oregon to Business: Screw You."

Why does The Malkin hate America? Do Republicans now hate Americans voting?

And: Actual Oregon businesses would like to tell The Malkin to shut her f*cking pie hole:

The Oregon Small Business Council, representing about 400 actual small businesses that employ people and put money into local economies and stuff like that, pretty much nailed it (emphasis mine):

"The decision was made that the return on the investment in terms of having quality education for a skilled workforce was deemed to be the right move," says Andrew Plambeck, director of the OSBC. "Small business owners have children in public schools, and we benefit from the services that would be cut if these measures did not succeed."
"This election is being painted as business vs. labor," Plambeck continues. "How it really works out is Big Business vs. Oregonians."

Big Business (and teabag-mentality) against Oregonians. That's exactly what it is.

Here's another actual Oregon business owner (The Malkin doesn't even live here):

I don’t relish paying taxes; nobody does. But I consider them a fair price for doing business in a state that values education. I’m in the communications business, so I depend on educated readers. I wouldn’t do well in a state that didn’t care about its schools.

I believe most business owners would agree that educated, trained, skilled citizens are essential to a strong economy and an attractive quality of life.

The Malkin wouldn't agree with that last sentiment. She needs ugly people to keep her audience strong.

Hey, Idiots: Obama Didn't Use a Teleprompter With the Sixth Graders

Sadly No! corrects the fools. And even Jon Stewart (and Raw Story) got this wrong. Too bad.

Here's the video of Obama with the kids, sans teleprompter.

Passing Health Care Reform SAVES Money

Democrats have done a terrible job countering the "It costs too much!" screams from the teabaggers and other Republican miscreants regarding health care reform. How difficult is it to get this across:

• Passing a health care bill, say the Senate bill, which will cost $849 billion over ten years, SAVES money- billions and billions - because the government would spend MUCH MORE than $849 on health care over the next ten years without the bill.

• Again: The government already spends money on health care. We just do it horribly. Passing the bill would save billions and billions of government dollars.

• Passing the bill would save money - while providing thirty million more Americans with coverage, and ending the odious practice of denial of coverage due to preexisting conditions.

How hard is that to get across to the "It costs too much!" crowd?

Many Dark Actors [updt]

The Bush-Blair legacy gets darker and darker. More here:

"The official heading an inquiry into the suspicious death of a British weapons inspector who cast doubts on the main argument for invading Iraq has secretly ordered all evidence locked up for 70 years.

Lord Hutton, who chaired the 2003 inquiry, which controversially concluded that Doctor David Kelly's death has been a suicide, secured a 70-year seal on all major evidence, including medical records — none of which had ever been made public.

The unprecedented move was revealed last week, sparking fresh uproar and allegations of a government cover-up, since by 2073 anyone with the least interest, or stake, in the case will probably be long dead.

Kelly was mysteriously found dead in the woods near his Oxfordshire home in July 2003, just days after his name was leaked as the source of a pre-war BBC documentary that undermined the now-notorious 45-minute dossier as highly exaggerated."

David Kelly may have killed himself - how the hell would I know? But a 70-year seal on medical records? That protects national security how? This horrible story just got much, much worse.

Emptywheel has much more.

Update, 1/27/10: The medical records will be released to a group of doctors.

Hey Dems: Grow a Pair

This is a funny video, but this just isn't funny anymore. Democrats might have actually managed to screw meaningful heath care reform - while having a supermajority in the Senate, a 78-seat majority in the House, and a Democratic president - who campaigned on health care reform - in the White House. It's just unbelievable.

Supreme Court: Elections Not Corrupt Enough; Need More Money

Justice Stevens sums it up perfectly in his dissent against today's Supreme Court decision:

"While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics."

P.S. Republicans love this decision. And Democrats hate it. Just to note. (John McCain may be one of the very few exceptions.)


More.

More.

Arguing With Large Pieces of Wood

When you're fighting a political army that that has "Tea Party" rallies against "too much government spending!!!" - and they actually support Republicans - what do you do? It's like arguing with wood. Honestly. If you showed a Tea Partier this chart (click to enlarge), it would mean nothing to them. It would change nothing. (And I agree with them on too much spending!)

It is impossible to win arguments with wood. Wood always wins.

And it's not just Tea Partiers. Check this out, from the great minds at the Washington Post, concerning last night's Republican win in Massachusetts:

"Voters, not just in Massachusetts and certainly not just in the Republican Party, are worried about government spending. Budget deficits and the national debt alarm many Americans, and rightly so."

Voters are worried about spending! And rightly so! That's why a Republican won last night!

Jesus in a freaking burkha - what do you do?

P.S. Last night was one of the biggest Republican victories in decades. They now have 41 seats in the Senate. The Dems: only 59. Sigh.

Chart source.

How to Save Health Care Reform

I think the Democrats should turn power over to the Republicans right now so they can fix our broken health care system by cutting taxes, starting unnecessary wars, and driving up the deficit even further than they have in the past.

Sound good?

"Palin" is So Close to "Pain"

Ow. Just ow. "All of them"? Are you kidding me? She walked into another "all of them" moment? Good gawd, that is just too much.



And is it just me or does Glenn Beck hate Sarah Palin? She looks close to tears when he says, "What, for a beer?' to her "collectively they came together" gibberish.

Ellis Paul: 3,000 Miles

I met this good dude years ago at the mighty Kerrville Music Festival and he just now popped into my head. Nice memory, nice guy, really nice songs. Here's one:

Shorter Michael Gerson of the Washington Post

"Brit Hume's on-air proselytization of Tiger Woods showed intolerance toward Buddhism - and that proves that everybody but Brit Hume is guilty of intolerance. Including - though I'm not aware of it because of the depths of twisted nonsense I've gone to writing this article - me."

Deep Thought

There is no such thing as a "Republican".

All Hail Our CIA/Blackwater Overlords

Not like it's anything new I guess, but still:

In 2004, the CIA sent a team from the private security firm Blackwater, now Xe, to Hamburg to kill an alleged al Qaeda financier who was investigated for years by German authorities on suspicion of links to al Qaeda, according to a little-highlighted element in a Vanity Fair article to be published this month.

This is related to the illegal assassination program born under the Bush administration in 2001 and revealed to Congress only in June 2009.