Saturday Shuffle

Pancake - Tori Amos
2HB - Roxy Music
Animal Mass - Machines of Loving Grace
Ed Is Dead - The Pixies
Almost Cried - Duke Ellington
Ticket To Ride - The Beatles
Hot Wire My Heart - Sonic Youth
Last Night - Lush
Roxy (live) - Concrete Blonde
Reprise - DeVotchKa

Profiles in Cowardice

Please call the Congressional switchboard if anyone finds a missing spine:

 

(CNN) – Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia apologized Wednesday for criticizing conservative hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hanity, assuring his supporters that "I am one of you."

 

...The mea culpa comes one day after Gingrey appeared to take issue with Limbaugh's recent criticism of congressional Republicans. The conservative radio host said GOP leaders weren't adequately challenging President Obama on his proposed stimulus package.

"I mean, it's easy if you're Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks," Gingrey told the Politico. "You don't have to try to do what's best for your people and your party."

The comments, published in a Politico story Tuesday afternoon, immediately prompted a flood of calls from aggrieved conservatives to Gingrey's congressional office, prompting the Georgia Republican to issue a clarification reasserting his conservative bona fides.

I always wondered what it takes to "aggrieve" a conservative.

 

Not that much, apparently.

 

Pathetic that an elected official falls over himself to bow and scrape just for telling the truth: that, unlike our representatives (and most other people in society), bloviating gasbags like Limbaugh and Hannity have no accountability for what they do.  These hacks don't have to accomplish a damn thing except agitate from the sidelines--which they do purely out of their own self-serving interest to keep their ratings up, which sells commercial time, which lines their pockets.

 

And these blindly contrarian, foot-stomping, overgrown children are the people that "conservatives" find to be above criticism?

 

A telling choice of sacred cows, to be sure.

Saturday Shuffle

There She Goes, My Beautiful World - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
You and Whose Army - Radiohead
The Times They Are A-Changin' - Bob Dylan
Lucretia, My Reflection (Extended Single Mix) - The Sisters of Mercy
Cease - American Lesion
Sorrow - David Bowie
Battersea - Hooverphonic
If This Is It - Huey Lewis & The News
I Can Do Anything (Delacratic) - De La Soul
She (live) - Kiss

Balls.

Obama has them.

Obama to GOP: ‘I Won’

The top congressional leaders from both parties gathered at the White House for a working discussion over the shape and size of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan. The meeting was designed to promote bipartisanship.

But Obama showed that in an ideological debate, he’s not averse to using a jab.

Challenged by one Republican senator over the contents of the package, the new president, according to participants, replied: “I won.”

Kind of puts the "Chief" back in chief executive, doesn't it?

Now I cast ballots for both of them, but I really can't imagine hearing Al Gore or John Kerry saying anything like that. And unfortunately, since 2006, we haven't heard anything remotely like that from our Congressional leadership, either.

This is the first time in recent memory that we've seen any Democratic politician show some confidence in the confidence the people showed in him/her. Candidates win elections for a variety of reasons, but chief among them is that the people want you to do what you say you'll do. Unfortunately, the Reids and Pelosis can never seem to remember that simple fact, choosing instead to huff and puff and then fold like a card table.

There's a new sheriff in town.

Hopefully the deputies finally learn a thing or two...

Elections have consequences, Part II

The end of another "long national nightmare":

Obama signs order to close Guantanamo Bay facility

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Promising to return America to the "moral high ground" in the war on terrorism, President Obama issued three executive orders Thursday to demonstrate a clean break from the Bush administration, including one requiring that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility be closed within a year.

...A second executive order formally bans torture by requiring that the Army field manual be used as the guide for terrorism interrogations. That essentially ends the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods.

...A third executive order establishes an interagency task force to lead a systematic review of detention policies and procedures and a review of all individual cases.

This week keeps getting better and better.

It was all well and good to be excited about the prospect of things being different, but it's something else to actually see steps being taken to get us back to that whole "nation of laws," thing.

And, it may be petty, but it puts a grin on my face to think about the wailing and gnashing of teeth that's going on in the right wing circles that think the scripts from 24 represent sound policy plans.

Elections have consequences

Hitting the ground running. Me likey.

Obama Halts All Regulations Pending Review

WASHINGTON - One of President Barack Obama's first acts Tuesday was to put the brakes on all pending regulations that the Bush administration tried to push through in its waning days.

The order went out shortly after Obama was inaugurated president, in a memorandum signed by new White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

Former President George W. Bush's administration moved into overdrive in the last year or so on a host of new regulatory proposals. Now the Obama administration will review everything that is still pending.

Can I say again how good "Former President George W. Bush," sounds?

Theres a helluva lot of garbage to clean up after the last eight years. These last frantic tweaks and alterations are but the top of the heap. You have to start somewhere, though.

Good to see Obama putting the work gloves on from the get-go and showing he's not looking to easy into things.

Winning is a beautiful thing

President.

Barack.

Obama.

Has a hell of a ring to it, doesn't it? Almost as good as "former President George W. Bush."

Saturday Shuffle

Anything, Anything (I'll Give You) - Dramarama
Change - Killing Joke
Transylvanian Transmissions, Pt. 1 - Rob Zombie
Norwegian Wood - The Beatles
Falls Apart - Stabbing Westward
Wrong To Love You - Chris Isaak
What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
Duel of the Iron Mic - GZA
Vodevil - Marilyn Manson
Do Your Thing - Basement Jaxx

KHAAAAAN!

Ricardo Montalbán, 1920 - 2009

In case you couldn't see what the problem is

This might help you put your finger on it. From The Politico:

GOP sees Franken as top public enemy

With only a longshot court appeal standing in the way of Democrat Al Franken’s election to the Senate, Republicans are gritting their teeth and bracing for the arrival of a new senator whose every utterance will sound like nails on a chalkboard to them.

While Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) has filed suit to contest the results of a disputed recount process that turned his narrow lead into a 225-vote deficit, his likely defeat stands to turn Franken, the polarizing former “Saturday Night Live” writer, into the senator who launched a thousand direct mail fundraising appeals.

“I don’t know if we’ve ever had an opponent who is so disliked by Republicans as Al Franken,” said Minnesota Republican Party Chair Ron Carey, who cautioned that Coleman’s election challenge could still turn the results back his way. “It’s one thing to lose to an honorable opponent, but Al Franken is not considered an honorable opponent by Minnesota Republicans.”

“It’s going to be hard for Franken to be very effective with any Republicans, in terms of having any credibility with us, just because he’s been so nasty in the past,” (Marty) Seifert said. “He certainly has callous and very partisan behavior in the past that is beyond the pale.”

According to Carleton College political scientist Steven Schier, Franken’s record as a “flamboyant and aggressive partisan” would make him ripe for criticism back home.

“I think it’s impossible to overstate the hostility Minnesota Republicans feel toward Al Franken,” Schier said. “He will be a very useful fundraising tool.”

Republicans outside Minnesota are equally apoplectic when it comes to Franken. Prominent conservative Rush Limbaugh, who Franken mocked in the title of one of his books, has already jabbed Franken on his radio show, telling listeners in December that Franken “won’t quit [the Senate race] because he doesn’t know how to get a real job…He’s a pathetic figure.”

...Matt Entenza, the former DFL Party leader in the Minnesota House, said Franken had defied expectations in the Senate race by restraining his sense of humor and campaigning as a sober workhorse.

“The struggle for the campaign was always trying to communicate that he was a serious guy, and in some ways I think they toned him down almost too much, tried to be almost too serious,” he explained. “You would see local TV anchors giving him questions that were designed to give him an opportunity for a humorous response. He would give a very serious, wonkish policy response.”

Former DFL Sen. Mark Dayton agreed: “He had to show people that he was really serious about issues, that he had a depth of policy understanding.”

Tim Penny, a former DFL congressman who joined the Minnesota Independence Party to run for governor in 2002, said he expected Franken to be hyper-cautious about reviving concerns about his past career as a comedian and political provocateur.

“I expect that on Capitol Hill he will be a very serious legislator – almost to the extreme,” Penny said."

Economic disaster, ever-increasing instability in the Middle East, energy crisis and the GoOPers are focusing their frustration on

Al.

Franken.

A (likely) freshman senator, with no clout, whatsoever, all because he used to say nasty things in his books. Congress as "Washington Junior High" at its finest.

By all means, focus on Franken for his barbs and the desire to fundraise and eventually oust him. All he has to do is stick with his metamorphosis into policy wonk and he'll be working for the people, while they'll be grinding an axe for the past.

See how *that* plays at the polls...

Saturday Shuffle

Angel - Masive Attack
Wish - Cranes
Nothing's Changed - Chris Isaak
Part of the Process - Morcheeba
Tic (live) - Helmet
Taboo - Treat Her Right
All Mine (live) - Portishead
Goin' Out West - Tom Waits
Departure - R.E.M.
777 - Danzig

Saturday Shuffle

Rolling Thunder - Ride
Walk the Dogs - Royal Fam
Something - The Beatles
I Alone (live) - Live
Napoleon (live) - Ani DiFranco
Never Believe - Ministry
Lovelife - Lush
School - Nirvana
Coin-Operated Boy - The Dresden Dolls
Doctor Rock - Ween

Saturday Shuffle

Get Low - Lil' Jon and the Eastside Boyz
Message in a Bottle (live) - The Police
No. 13 Baby - The Pixies
And The Dance Goes On - The Mission UK
Venus in Furs - The Velvet Underground
Cowboy - Kid Rock
Into Dust - Mazzy Star
Little Man, What Now? - Morrissey
I Burn For You - The Police
Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel

Do the right thing

Well, George, here's your chance.

 

While it will not--by the longest of long shots--atone for what your policies have wrought over the last eight years, you now have the opportunity to do whats right for the country and working Americans.  Word is, you and Paulson are thinking about using part of the $700B TARP funds to supply the rescue loan for the Detroit Three.

 

It's time to stop thinking and start doing.

 

After years of trying to convince us that things like pre-emptive war, torture, unlawful surveillance, and indefinite detention without trial are in our best interests, here is a no-brainer.  Jobs and American industry?  No convincing necessary.

 

By way of contrast, your brethren in the Seante have decided that crucifying the UAW is what's in America's best interests.  Now, maybe they were figuring you'll step in and leave them blameless for whatever happens: spending the money or the industry collapsing through their inaction.  Maybe it's a calculated move to give you one, last "white horse" moment with which to shore up your legacy and go out on a high note.

 

I don't care why they did it and frankly, doubt that either was the case.  Breaking the union was the purpose, here, no matter the cost.  The election is over and with it the pandering to blue collar interests.  In their minds, that union membership card trumps the bluest of collars, and puts the worker squarely in the enemy camp.

 

Legacy time, Mr. President. 

 

Years ago, you famously talked about the choice to stand with us or stand against us.

 

What's it going to be?

Russian Roulette usually endangers only one

Leave it to the GOP to manage to draw a bead on everyone else, too:

Cheney: It's 'Herbert Hoover' time

Senate Republicans' dramatic revolt against a White House-backed auto industry rescue plan is fraught with political risk.

While the high-stakes gambit places them squarely within the mainstream of anti-bailout public sentiment, at the same time it exposes the party to potentially devastating criticism that its failure to compromise doomed the Big Three automakers and deepened the economic recession.

...By opposing the automaker bailout, Republicans now find themselves vulnerable to charges that they are insensitive to ailing American auto companies and the millions of workers reliant on the domestic auto industry, a problem compounded by their inability to rally around a clear alternative to the $14 billion package of loans that had been backed by Democrats and the White House.

Administration officials have been warning for weeks that failure to pass the bill could lead to an even deeper recession.

That was the message Vice President Dick Cheney brought to a closed-door Senate GOP lunch Wednesday, reportedly warning that it'll be "Herbert Hoover" time if aid to the industry was rejected, according to a senator familiar with the remarks.

Dick Cheney thinks this stand is out of line.

Think about that.

Dick.

Cheney.

When *that* raging liberal can hear the train coming, you just might want to get off the track.

Detroit Three rescue plan collapses

This is all manner of not good:

A $14 billion emergency bailout for U.S. automakers collapsed in the Senate Thursday night after the United Auto Workers refused to accede to Republican demands for swift wage cuts.

...The implosion followed an unprecedented marathon set of talks at the Capitol among labor, the auto industry and lawmakers who bargained into the night in efforts to salvage the auto bailout at a time of soaring job losses and widespread economic turmoil.

"In the midst of already deep and troubling economic times, we are about to add to that by walking away," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman who led negotiations on the package.

Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the GOP point man in the talks, said the two sides had been tantalizingly close to a deal, but the UAW's refusal to agree wage concessions by a specific date in 2009 kept them apart.

The autoworkers' contract doesn't expire until 2011.

"We were about three words away from a deal," said Corker. "We solved everything substantively and about three words keep us from reaching a conclusion."

In case you were wondering just how much the Republican party hates unions, I give you Exhibit A. We're going to have an absolute bloodbath on our hands when the markets open, tomorrow.

It's reprehensible that the Senate GOP is so hell-bent on bending the UAW over that they're willing to risk the collapse of the domestic auto industry. For months, all we heard was Joe Sixpack this and Joe Sixpack that. Guess if ol' Joe has a union card in his wallet, he doesn't matter quite so much.

A word on Rod Blagojevich

Jackass.

Removing the log from our own eye

Good.

Anh 'Joseph' Cao beats Rep. William Jefferson in 2nd Congressional District

Indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson suffered what may be the final blow of his storied political career in the most improbable way Saturday, when an untested Republican opponent took advantage of Louisiana's new federal voting rules -- and an election delay caused by Hurricane Gustav -- to unseat the nine-term Democrat.

With the upset victory, Anh "Joseph" Cao, a eastern New Orleans attorney who fled war-ravaged Saigon as a child, becomes the first Vietnamese-American in Congress. He will represent a district that was specifically drawn to give African-Americans an electoral advantage and one in which two of every three voters are registered Democrats.

...Cao said he began eyeing a run for the 2nd District seat shortly after a Virginia grand jury indicted Jefferson last year on charges of bribery and public corruption following revelations in 2005 that FBI agents found $90,000 in marked bills in his freezer and linked him and several relatives to a wide-ranging bribery scheme.

I guess the feds finding $90K stuck between your Klondike Bars and Tater Tots does present an opponent with a rather ripe opportunity, eh?

Not shedding any tears for Rep. Frigidaire, that's for sure. Dems like that, we don't need. It would've been a thorough embarrassment to see Ted Stevens voted out and Jefferson remain. If ever there was a time to start with a clean slate--well, at least as clean as possible--this is it. Pretty hard to work on an agenda when our reps keep having to answer questions about being able to caucus with Mr. Freeze.

Saturday Shuffle

Surf Beat - Dick Dale & the Del-Tones
Asian Rut - Morrissey
Wild Thing (live) - Jimi Hendrix
Where Is My Mind? - The Pixies
We Can Work It Out (live) - Tesla
Surf Rider - The Lively Ones
Pride & Joy (live) Stevie Ray Vaughn
Wail - The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
I Woke Up In A Strange Place (live) - Jeff Buckley
Spacegrass (live) - Clutch

Kind of a "live" week, I guess...

This man wears a robe?

Via Politico:

SCOTUS to debate Obama citizenship?

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide Friday whether to take up a case over president-elect Barack Obama’s citizenship — one of a few around the country seeking to nullify his election, but this one has an interesting lineage. It was referred to the high court by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s only African-American justice.

Maybe Thomas is just returning the favor — putting through a case that questions whether Obama should be president, after Obama said he wouldn't have picked Thomas for the high court.

Awesome addition to this already pathetic "story."

If this explanation bears even a passing resemblance to how this actually materialized--and the fact that Justice Souter already told the plaintiff to hit the bricks adds to the suspicion--then Thomas sounds like he should be sporting a diaper, instead.