President Bush, Sen.-elect Webb have words (The hall monitor almost got involved!)

New senator gives Bush a chilly reply
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Democratic Sen.-elect Jim Webb of Virginia avoided the receiving line during a recent White House reception for new members of Congress and had a chilly exchange with President Bush over the Iraq War and his Marine son.
Webb recalled the exchange in an interview Wednesday.

"How's your boy?" Bush asked Webb during the reception two weeks ago.

"I told him I'd like to get them out of Iraq," Webb said.

"That's not what I asked. How's your boy?" the president replied, according to Webb.

At that point, Webb said, Bush got a response similar to the one that Webb has given reporters and others who have asked him about Lance Cpl. Jimmy Webb, 24, since the young man left for Iraq around Labor Day: "I told him that was between my boy and me."

The White House had no comment on the reception. But it did not dispute an account of the exchange in Wednesday's Washington Post.
Buffalo News

Buffalo News: New senator gives Bush a chilly reply
TPM Cafe: George Will Distorts WaPo's Own Reporting To Smear Jim Webb
AMERICAblog: Why you should love Jim Webb
Wonkette: Jim Webb Almost Beats Bush Senseless
Faux News: Brit Hume: Senator Webb's Frosty Exchange With President Bush
The Hill: Son also rises in testy Webb-Bush exchange
Washington Post: In Following His Own Script, Webb May Test Senate's Limits

Bush stood up by Maliki on the night of the big dance

Bush-Maliki meeting postponed
The White House says President Bush’s talks with Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki have been :"put off until Thursday," Fox News reports. Think Progress

Prospects for the already-delayed meeting were put into further doubt when al-Maliki canceled a presummit dinner with Bush.
[...]
Even before the meetings began, ABC News had learned the Pentagon was considering essentially writing off Iraq's deadliest province for American forces, pulling U.S. troops out of Anbar, and moving them to fight what may be an even more difficult battle: the fight for Baghdad.

Professor Noah Feldman from New York University helped write the Iraqi constitution.

He said, "As Baghdad goes, so goes the nation."

But the fact that the Pentagon is considering abandoning Anbar shows the "ineffectiveness of the strategy and troop commitment to this point," Feldman said. "We have spent so much blood there."
ABC News via AMERICAblog

Face-Saving Update: Class President Bush and Maliki were just going to the prom as friends. It was nothing romantic. (At least that is what they have agreed to tell all of their their friends at school on Monday.)

Bartlett: "The President is going to have a bilateral and dinner with the King of Jordan. Since the King of Jordan and Prime Minister Maliki had a bilateral themselves, earlier today, everybody believed that negated the purpose for the three of them to meet tonight, together, in a trilateral setting. [...] So it was going to be more of a social meeting anyways. [...] And the President and Prime Minister Maliki will have a very robust and lengthy dialogue tomorrow morning."

Think Progress: "So the President flew to Jordan to have a "social meeting" with Maliki, which Maliki decided not to attend. There’s nothing more to it. That should put all the speculation to rest." Think Progress

Think Progress: Bartlett On Cancelled Maliki Meeting: 'It Was Going To Be More Of A Social Meeting Anyway'

The latest wrinkle in the Britney Spears / Kevin Federline Rubic's Cube of Matrimony

The timing for an emergency congressional amendment to save the
Britney Spears/Kevin Federline marriage is growing critical!
(Why we must Save Britney's Marriage!)

Click here for the unrestricted view of Britney's "no-no special place"
Warning: The content is not nearly as adult as you might think

Who Needs Panties?
Britney Spears, out with Paris Hilton, bares way too much
Britney Spears Parties With Paris Hilton, Leaves Underwear at Home
In the past week, Spears — who has a 1-year-old and 2-month-old at home — has spent every single night partying with Hilton (and, occasionally, Lohan).

A quick study, Spears — long absent from the scene, what with being married and pregnant and all — has already picked up such "It" girl tricks as how to make sure your picture winds up everywhere.

Such as, don't wear underwear and flash your crotch while pretending you hate the paparazzi and tearfully begging for them to leave you alone.
Another important family oriented story brought to you by Fox News

For all of the latest important updates about Britney Spears lack of panties:

the official FOX News Britney Spears Celebrity Panties No Panties Center

(sponsored by L.L. Bean!)

Britney -- Hit Me With Your Best Shot
It's official -- Britney Spears hates panties.

For the second night in a row, and the third time in a week, Britney Spears gave the world an unrestricted view of her no-no special place.

The pop princess gave photogs the sneak peek late last night at a gas station in Santa Monica. This time, Paris Hilton was nowhere to be found.

Britney's shocking actions are causing some of her fans to panic. After Perez Hilton posted a series of revealing shots from Monday night, fans began to flood Brit's MySpace page with concerned notes. One fan begged, "I have supported you since forever. PLEASE. PLEASE. PLEASE, don't make it harder to stay by your side." tmz.com

Britney Buys Panties!
Despite persistent sightings of Brit's bare bits, she just spent more than $3000 on thongs and other fancy underthings at trendy Le Bra Lingerie boutique in West Hollywood, the place where Katie Holmes picked up her honeymoon unmentionables.

Spears charged up a camisole and thong for $1315, a bustier and thong for $510, a black corset and matching red thong for $300, and a yellow bra and thong for $333, among other things. So many thongs, so little time! tmz.com

Britney goes "cowboy" on her fans
FOX News: The Britney Spears Celebrity Center (sponsored by L.L. Bean!)
postchronicle.com: Britney Spears Hates Panties: Show It Baby, One More Time!
National Ledger: Britney Spears Without Paris Hilton, Without Panties: Yes, Again
MSNBC: Brit's bits: Pop star caught without panties
tmz.com: Britney -- Hit Me With Your Best Shot
tmz.com: Britney Buys Panties!
National Ledger: Britney Spears No Panties Tour Making Fed-Ex Look Good
postchronicle.com: Britney Spears Is A Mess, Photographed Without Panties
tmz.com: Hey Britney, Wake Up! You're Rich! And a Mom!
gurl.com: that mystery in your panties
Save Britney's Marriage Links
Jon Swift: Save Britney's Marriage
Zaius Nation: Won't congress do something?
Zaius Nation: We must save Britney's marriage now--before it is too late!

Latest GOP Talking Point: Freedom of Speech = Bad, Newt Gingritch = Good!

Newt Gingrich Advocates Changing Free Speech Laws
Newt Gingrich, former Republican House Speaker, said ironically enough, at a free speech advocacy rally that a "different set of rules" should be created to reduce a terrorist's right to free speech.
In keeping with the Republicans' continuing power grab and trampling all over the US Constitution, Newt says free speech laws need to be changed "before we lose a city," which he said "could happen in the next decade."
Newt's speech created some concern at the rally. The event was intended to honor those who fought in favor of free speech. shortnews.com

shortnews.com: Newt Gingrich Advocates Changing Free Speech Laws
Yahoo News: Bob Cesca: Step Away From The Constitution, Mr. Gingrich, And Put Your Hands Where We Can See Them
New York Sun: Gingrich: Free Speech Should Be Curtailed To Fight Terrorism

Newt Gingritch is hoping to carry on the Evil Empire Bush legacy

Gingrich '08: The stealth candidate
The controversial former House Speaker seems to throw his hat in the ring as a GOP presidential candidate, and promises that health care reform will be the big issue. An exclusive Fortune interview.

WASHINGTON - Even a crisp Guinness stout can't chill the note of exasperation coming out of Newt Gingrich's mouth. "You still don't get it, do you?" he asks.

The subject is the 2008 presidential race and whether the former speaker of the House will run. The news is that Gingrich is running, but not on any official campaign trail.

The radical realist who defied conventional wisdom 12 years ago by stealing the House out from under the noses of entrenched Democrats now plans a surprise attack for the presidency. "I'm going to tell you something, and whether or not it's plausible given the world you come out of is your problem," he tells Fortune. "I am not 'running' for president. I am seeking to create a movement to win the future by offering a series of solutions so compelling that if the American people say I have to be president, it will happen." So he's running, only without yet formally saying so. money.com

money.com: Gingrich '08: The stealth candidate

White House: "Bush twins ran naked through a hotel hallway to foil terrorists"

If the girls keep this up, they are going to be accused of being Democrats!

Goodbye girls: Bush twins told to go
Amid Argentinian tabloid reports that President Bush’s irrepressible twin daughters have run naked through a hotel hallway and were targeted by thieves, U.S. embassy officials have 'strongly suggested' the spirited lasses cut short their trip to Buenos Aires, ABC News reported, citing diplomatic and security sources.

But the First Girls won’t go! They’ve stayed on, celebrating their 25th birthday over the weekend and garnering even more headlines. They aren’t due to leave till Thursday. Boston Herald

Bush Twins Asked to Leave after Naked Hotel Romp
Jenna and Barbara Bush, the twin daughters of President Bush have ignored a 'strong suggestion' from the United States embassy in Argentina to leave early due to security issues and concerns the two could upstage the new US Ambassador, Anthony Wayne.

The pair have been constantly in the headlines. An Argentinean tabloid claims the two girls have been seen running nude in the hotel they are staying in. Earlier one of them had her purse and phone stolen while being protected by the secret service.

More security concerns were raised when a producer from the ABC News network was able to walk unimpeded into the hotel where the twins are staying and converse with Barbara as she checked her emails while Jenna sat nearby. :

shortnews.com: Report: Bush Twins Asked to Leave after Naked Hotel Romp
huffingtonpost.com: The Bush Twins Audition for Broadway
news.bostonherald.com: Goodbye girls: Bush twins told to go

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Matt Drudge: "My Photoshopping Kung Fu is better than your Photoshopping Kung Fu!"

Drudge makes light of mourning Iraqi woman with resemblance to Bush
Mike Sheehan

The Drudge Report is highlighting a Reuters photo of a mourning Iraqi woman whose partially obscured face bears a slight resemblance to that of President Bush.

The blog "Confederate Yankee" was first to report on the curious resemblance in the Kareem Raheem photograph, which Drudge is now featuring with the caption "WIRE PHOTO MYSTERY: BUSH IN BURQA?" and an additional headline questioning whether the image has been altered, or "photoshopped." The woman, accompanied by two other grieving Iraqis, is standing behind what appears to be a coffin.

"Confederate Yankee" remarks that evidence for the alteration of the photo include "rather odd smudges and apparent artifacts around the heads of the two women on the left when the photo is enlarged" as well as the woman's "rather uncanny resemblance" to Bush.

Earlier this year, a Reuters photo by Adnan Hajj that had obvious changes in it triggered a wide reaction from bloggers. Raw Story

Raw Story: Drudge makes light of mourning Iraqi woman with resemblance to Bush

Funny that Drudge is complaining about photos being altered or "photoshopped." I remember when his handiwork was all the rage right before the debates.

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You say tomato, and NBC says Civil War

Bucking White House, NBC says Iraq in 'civil war'
Usage increasing in news media
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- NBC's "Today Show" host Matt Lauer yesterday told millions of American television viewers, many sitting at their breakfast tables, that the network would buck the White House and from now on describe the Iraq war as a "civil war."

Some media analysts compared it to CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite's declaration in 1968 that the United States was losing the Vietnam War -- a pronouncement now considered a turning point in public opinion -- and Ted Koppel's ABC updates on the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 and 1980 that infuriated Jimmy Carter's White House.

"How you frame a problem frames what the public thinks is the right thing to do," said James Steinberg , dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. "If Iraq is a democracy struggling against insurgents and you describe it that way, people might still support you. If it is a civil war, it is indisputably the case that Americans will say, 'What are we doing in the middle of a civil war?' "

Steinberg, who was deputy national security adviser under President Clinton, added: "The more they hear 'civil war,' the harder it is going to be to support a strategy that keeps a lot of American troops there in large numbers."

A few other media outlets with reporters in Baghdad have slowly begun to refer to the conflict as a civil war and still more said yesterday they were debating the issue after the NBC announcement. Lauer, whose announcement was termed "a bombshell" by the industry magazine Editor & Publisher, explained that NBC did not come to the decision lightly. boston.com

boston.com: Bucking White House, NBC says Iraq in 'civil war'
Crooks and Liars: NBC decides to call the violence in Iraq a “civil war”
Crooks and Liars: NBC calls it a "Civil War" (video)

Ministry of Twooth

White House Caught Doctoring "Mission Accomplished" Video

Cartoon Time

The "War on Christmas" is a little early this year.

Woman faces fines for wreath peace sign
By ROBERT WELLER, Associated Press Writer

DENVER - A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

Some residents who have complained have children serving in Iraq, said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He said some residents have also believed it was a symbol of Satan. Three or four residents complained, he said.

"Somebody could put up signs that say drop bombs on Iraq. If you let one go up you have to let them all go up," he said in a telephone interview Sunday.

Lisa Jensen said she wasn't thinking of the war when she hung the wreath. She said, "Peace is way bigger than not being at war. This is a spiritual thing."

Jensen, a past association president, calculates the fines will cost her about $1,000, and doubts they will be able to make her pay. But she said she's not going to take it down until after Christmas.

"Now that it has come to this I feel I can't get bullied," she said. "What if they don't like my Santa Claus."

The association in this 200-home subdivision 270 miles southwest of Denver has sent a letter to her saying that residents were offended by the sign and the board "will not allow signs, flags etc. that can be considered divisive."

The subdivision's rules say no signs, billboards or advertising are permitted without the consent of the architectural control committee.

Kearns ordered the committee to require Jensen to remove the wreath, but members refused after concluding that it was merely a seasonal symbol that didn't say anything. Kearns fired all five committee members. Yahoo News via AMERICAblog

Yahoo News: Woman faces fines for wreath peace sign

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Super Fun Patrol: Zaius announces candidacy for President of the United States!!!

Super Fun Patrol: Dr. Zaius announces candidacy for President of the United States!!!

Pelosi in the house

Save Krypto the Super-Dog!

The Carpetbagger Report:
"It's as clear a through-the-looking-glass argument as the Bush administration has ever offered. Khan was one of 14 high-value detainees transferred in September from a secret CIA "black" prison to Guantanamo Bay. A lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents many detainees at Guantanamo, is seeking emergency access to him, but the administration is denying access — arguing that the tortured detainee might talk about the abusive interrogation techniques, and thereby divulge a national security secret."

"In other words, by torturing someone, administration officials are inadvertently sharing state secrets (i.e., the "alternative" interrogation methods themselves). Therefore, the Bush gang believes they have the power to torture suspects and the power to stop detainees from talking about it, even after the suspect has been released."

"Joseph Margulies, a Northwestern University law professor who has represented several detainees at Guantanamo, said the prisoners "can't even say what our government did to these guys to elicit the statements that are the basis for them being held. Kafka-esque doesn't do it justice. This is ‘Alice in Wonderland.'"
The Carpetbagger Report

Dick Cheney loves puppies and rainbows

Cheney and Neo-Cons Plotting More Wars
Nov. 20, 2006 -- On March 11, 2003, as final preparations were under way for the neo-cons' greatest triumph--the invasion of Iraq--New Yorker magazine investigative reporter Seymour Hersh exposed an extortion scheme by neo-con Richard Perle, to extract tens of millions of dollars out of the Saudi royal family, in league with the infamous Iran-Contra arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. The scheme involved a Perle company, Trireme Partners LP, which wanted a piece of the billions of dollars in homeland security contracts soon to be issued by the Kingdom. The proposal, according to Prince Bandar bin Sultan, then the Saudi Ambassador in Washington, smacked of a quid pro quo: Perle, a leading critic of the Saudi regime, would drop the propaganda barrage and the calls for regime change, coming out of his Defense Policy Board, and the Saudis would cough up.

Several senior U.S. intelligence officials recently told EIR that some higher-ups in the Saudi royal family, perhaps including Prince Bandar, who is now the national security advisor to King Abdullah, regret that they didn't take the bait and pay off Perle and his partners back in January 2003. A few million dollars might have saved them several years of headaches, as the neo-con propaganda Wurlitzer waged a non-stop regime-change campaign against them. But even more to the point, suddenly, the Saudis, along with several other Sunni Arab regimes, find themselves as strange bedfellows with Washington's neo-cons and with the Ehud Olmert government in Israel -- in common cause against Iran.

A Nov. 3, 2006, teaser from Vanity Fair magazine revealed that the neo-cons are going through a major retooling -- wiping their hands of the entire Iraq fiasco, and placing the blame for the failure squarely on the shoulders of President George W. Bush and his team of national security incompetents and nincompoops. In a preview of a story to appear in the January 2007 Vanity Fair, author David Rose delivered excerpts from interviews he conducted in October 2006 with some of the cream of the neo-con crap -- starting with the ``Prince of Darkness,' Perle himself, and also including Kenneth Adelman, who gained infamy by proposing that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq would be a ``cakewalk'; Michael Ledeen, Frank Gaffney, and Michael Rubin.

Lovers of Iraqi faker Ahmed Chalabi, and Iraq warhawks to a man, these neo-cons are now saying that if they had it to do over again, knowing that the Bush-Cheney-Rice team was the most incompetent national security management group in the post-World War II history of America, they would have opted for an alternative to war. World News Trust

Why Democrats are evil

Slowpoke

"Help us Obi Wan Pelosi! You're our only hope!"

In the January, 1984 advertisment for the Apple Macintosh computer, an unnamed heroine throws a sledgehammer at a television broadcast image of Big Brother. The effect that the commercial had was significant at the time. It was played on the news for days.

The imagery of the hammer has been used rhetorically in recent history to decribe former congressman Tom DeLay as a tough-nosed, unyielding leader. I think Nancy Pelosi is going to redefine the word and hammer through the evil empire that the Republican party has become. Viva La Pelosi!

Well, we can at least hope. The recent bashing she and other democrats are getting in the media is disheartening. The Republicans hardly have to swift boat John Kerry or any other candidate any more, CNN and MSNBC gladly fill in all of the media-whore falsehoods. Let's steal their lunch money!

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This just in: It's really footage of the Cookie Monster

Stabilized Ewok "bigfoot" footage

Total crap

"It's worth noting that the last time the House turned over, in 1994, Tom Delay beat Newt Gingrich's handpicked choice for majority leader and somehow the whole town didn't interpret that as Newtie's waterloo. As a matter of fact, the press was giving him such wet slurpy b***jobs they could hardly come up for air." Digby

Media Matters has documented previous attacks on Pelosi. For example, on the November 13 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked political and social commentator Mike Barnicle if Pelosi was "going to castrate Steny Hoyer" if Hoyer was elected House majority leader. On the October 31 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Republican pollster Frank Luntz said of Pelosi, "I always use the line for Nancy Pelosi, 'You get one shot at a facelift. If it doesn't work the first time, let it go.' " And on October 26, in his recurring weekly segment on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, "comedian" and Fox News contributor Dennis Miller called Pelosi "intellectually ... not up to the task" of assuming the House speaker position. Miller further assailed Pelosi as a "nimrod," "a C-minus, D-plus applicant ... who no doubt would have been drummed out of the Mary Kay corps after an initial four-week evaluation period." Media Matters

New York Times: Speaker Pelosi Tempts Disaster
MSNBC: Her Own Worst Enemy
Media Matters: Situation Room onscreen text: Is Pelosi "Damaged Goods?"
Media Matters: Even though she hasn't yet taken office, media already questioning Pelosi's suitability as House speaker
Media Matters: A tale of two covers: Time's '94 postelection cover touted " G.O.P. Stampede," '06 cover asserts "the center is the new place to be"
Media Matters: Pelosi labeled "Wicked Witch of the West" by Kondracke, "shrew" by Orin-Eilbeck
huffingtonpost.com: FOX NEWS INTERNAL MEMO: "Be On The Lookout For Any Statements From The Iraqi Insurgents...Thrilled At The Prospect Of A Dem Controlled Congress"...

Know your party

The Grates

youtube.com: Science is Golden
youtube.com: 19-20-20
youtube.com: The Grates youtube user profile
thegrates.com: The Grates homepage
thegrates.com: lyrics
jumpcut.com: the grates at spaceland, 11/14/06
laist.com: Six Questions for The Grates
youtube.com: The Grates - Artist of the Day
thegrates.com: music-lyrics
thegrates.com: Album - "Gravity Won't Get You High"
last.fm: last.fm/The+Grates
mp3.com Up and Coming: The Grates
video.google.com: The Grates SXSW 2006
video.google.com: The Grates in Oxford

Lies Are Much More Fun 19 20 20 Rock Boys Howl Trampoline Science is Golden Feels Like Pain

Nothing Sir Inside Outside Sukkafish Seek Me Little People I Am Siam

Galactus believes in supply side economics

GALACTUS IS COMING!

Turkey is off this year

Got Leia?

Slave Leia photo shoot at DragonCon

youtube.com: How to mesmerize a stormtrooper
youtube.com: Leia Live at ConnectiCon 2006
youtube.com: Two Leias
youtube.com: Amira bellydances with Cantina Band
youtube.com: Stormtroopers Gone Wild!

Shulkie Pelosi

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Little does the dog know what the cat has in store for him...

via Betsy Devine

Link Round-Up!

echidneofthesnakes: Keroack Needs To Go
pacificviews.org: Women's hormones exactly like a female prairie vole
Washington Post: FDA Rethinks Women's Chief
Washington Post: HHS Nominee Has Prescribed Birth Control
Urban Outfitters: Xmas ornament in the shape of a handgun via spiiderweb
youtube.com: Le Tigre - "Peace Now"
surveyusa.com: SurveyUSA 50-state Senate approval ratings via MyDD
MyDD: The lessons we can learn from the Houston janitors
Tennessee Guerilla Women: Dowd: Squeaker of the House
masslive.com: State psychiatric hospitals to stop admitting new patients
True Blue Liberal: How Rent Makes Poverty

Overheard In New York

via Cap'n Dyke, Pirate Queen

Girl on cell: They said that I'm smart, and that I can articulate well. But I'm not... you know... Oh, whatever.

--Queensboro Community College
Overheard In New York

---

Very drunk suit: Hey, bartender! Do you know what a car bomb is?
Irish bartender: Yes, it's Spanish for, 'you're an asshole.'

Overheard In New York

---

I Can, I Just Can't Get Them to Pay Girl: That Susan's such a whore.
Guy: Yeah, but wouldn't you be?
Girl: What?
Guy: You know, hypothetically, if you could get people to sleep with you.
Overheard In New York

"...so nothing official is planned, and liberals have become quiet."

A recent Los Angeles Times article shows an increase in child poverty to be connected with housing costs which are spiraling out of reach. Real wages are down again, while living costs are spiking: a second report in the same newspaper shows the asking rent for Southern California residential units now averaging $1,413 per month, far above a working class family’s means. To keep a roof over their heads, many are moving to unsafe neighborhoods like Central and South Los Angeles, working multiple jobs to pay rent, and living in seriously overcrowded units, causing the children to suffer. South Los Angeles statistics resemble those of some third world countries: poverty rates are high (over 30% in some zip codes), the children’s schools are abysmal, child disease rates are high, birth weights are small, and violent crime rates are high. Fear, poor nutrition and bad education all ripple forward into the children’s adulthood, perpetuating the poverty.

That type of article is not uncommon for the Times but it omits the point that nothing will be done. First, these statistics are part of a national problem and you can always point to more expensive rents in New York, and worse health sinks in Boston and New York. Second, the liberal line is that nobody really understands the causes of poverty, which are like the branches of a tree, multiple and entangled. National experiments like the War on Poverty failed, so nothing official is planned, and liberals have become quiet. True Blue Liberal

True Blue Liberal: How Rent Makes Poverty

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Humble pie, Insurgent stuffing and rebellious cranberry sauce

The Conservative Crusade Against Cartoon Characters: If you're visiting with family over Thanksgiving, and you see children being entertained by a popular animated movie, be sure to remember that, in all likelihood, conservatives believe the cartoons are part of some nefarious liberal plot. Crooks and Liars

"It's not clear how long presidents have been pulling this morbid presidential ploy; the Bush White House's Web site appears to have been scrubbed of previous years' Thanksgiving menus. But it's probably safe to assume that it predates the Bush 43 years. I wouldn't be surprised if the two-faced tradition has been a dark shadow lurking behind presidential turkey pardonings since Harry Truman began the practice nearly 60 years ago."

"If this is how they treat the turkeys when the country's distracted, one can only imagine what they're doing to the vegetables." TPMmuckraker

MaxSpeak Summary: "the Puritan Christian fundamentalists, of whom the Pilgrims were a subgroup, were murderous, treacherous swine who made a treaty with the indigenous people around Plymouth until they had enough forces to wipe them out. This they later did with smallpox and guns, unless they were able to sell them into slavery, all of course for the greater glory of Jesus Christ."

"Wait a minute. That wasn't quite right. Let's try it again. Here's how it goes...." MaxSpeak, You Listen!

Crooks and Liars: The Conservative Crusade Against Cartoon Characters
TPMmuckraker: Thanksgiving: the White House "Pardoning" Scandal
Wonkette: So Many Turkeys
MaxSpeak, You Listen!: The Story of Thanksgiving

Oh, my stars and garters!

youtube.com: screwed by Bush via C&L

Happy Thanksgiving!

peanuts.mid

After hearing this, Oprah Winfrey said, 'Yeah right.'"

"Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff reported to prison today for his six-year term for bribing members of Congress. Here is the ironic part -- on his first day in prison, he ran into more congressmen than he did when he was on Capitol Hill." --Jay Leno

"Germany is filing a war crimes lawsuit against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for allegedly allowing the torture of prisoners in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. Man, that's when you know you've crossed the line -- when Germans are accusing you of war crimes." --Jay Leno

"As a result of this week's election, the new Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, is now the most powerful woman in the country.
After hearing this, Oprah Winfrey said, 'Yeah right.'" --Conan O'Brien

link round-up!

haaretz.com: Bush: I would understand if Israel chose to attack Iran
miami.com: Diebold dilemma
thinkprogress.org: Cavuto: America's #1 Movie, Happy Feet, Is 'Offensive'
newshounds.us: Cavuto: Movie, Happy Feet, has a Far Left "Hidden Agenda"
thinkprogress.org: Newt has plan to become president 'almost by magic.'
gahzette: GOPigs
jwharrison.com: Daily Show Interview with Ted Koppel
Daily Kos: 10 Ways to Support the Troops
Daily Kos: Irony, thy name is "hunger banquet" [ 2 ]
yahoo.com: Democrats call for ouster of U.S. health official
New York Times: DOD: "nonviolence training" = Terrorist
tpmmuckraker.com: The Pentagon's Counter-Vandalism Unit
Daily Kos: Crazy ol' K-Lo
Crooks and Liars: Olbermann Delivers A Special Comment Educating Bush on Vietnam
Once Upon a Time...: The Painful Object of the Verb via Crooks and Liars
yahoo.com: O.J. Simpson book, TV special canceled
mediamatters.org: Rupert Murdoch: US death toll 'minute' from a historical perspective.
lfpress.ca: Rice says Iraq has potential to be a Vietnam-like success
youtube.com: Iraqi Kid Runs For Water
bbc.co.uk: Oslo gay animal show draws crowds
accesshollywood.com: Whitney & Britney: The Uncanny Parallels
ajc.com: Wal-Mart boycott called over link to gay group
seeingtheforest.com: The wit and wisdom of Chad Castagana
mediamatters.org: CNN's Beck to first-ever Muslim congressman: "[W]hat I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies' "
iava.org: IAVA Congressional Ratings
Daily Kos: Who Supports The Troops? Democrats, As It Turns Out...
tpmmuckraker.com: HarrisWatch: The Divine Secrets of One Seriously Ya-Ya Sister
reuters.com: Brazil mourns as anorexia claims another model's life
Crooks and Liars: Olbermann on The Colbert Report
michellemalkin.com: Another GOP Maalox moment
CNN: Town makes it illegal to fly a foreign flag [ 2 ]
designdyke.vox.com: Supertelevangelistic Sex-and-Drugs Psychosis
youtube.com: Magic pussy cat

Arming bears so that they can bear arms

Senator George Allen has decided that as his parting shot to the cruel world that has sent him packing that he shall introduce legislation that will make it easier for bears to get firearms! Colbert's gonnna freak, dude.

A Parting Shot From George Allen
As a last little gift to America, Senator George Allen, who was narrowly defeated by James Webb this month, has introduced what may be his final piece of legislation: a bill that would allow the carrying of concealed weapons in national parks. The argument behind the bill is that national park regulations unfairly strip many Americans of a right they may enjoy outside the parks. The bill has passed to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, where we hope it will die the miserable death it deserves. New York Times

The Orgasm Heard Round the World!

Have an orgasm... for peace
Washington - Standard excuses like "Honey, I have a headache" would, no doubt, be highly inappropriate. Indeed, who can say no if world peace is at stake?

So, if you believe there is too much killing in the modern world, you might consider shedding your clothes and engaging in passionate sex on Friday, December 22.

Because if White House strategists argue for "peace through strength", veteran peace activists Donna Sheehan and Paul Reffell counter by saying it will come through sex - and a loud worldwide orgasm.

"The intent is that the participants concentrate any thoughts during and after orgasm on peace," the organisers said in a statement posted on the project's website www.globalorgasm.org.

That, explain Sheehan and Reffell, could change "the energy field of the Earth" and "reduce the current dangerous levels of aggression and violence".

In addition to the war in Iraq, the two are seriously concerned about the US naval build-up in the Gulf, which they fear could be a prelude to a war against Iran.

The label of mischievous youths is hardly applicable to either of the two: Sheehan, who is not related to anti-war demonstrator Cindy Sheehan who has been laying siege to President George W Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, is 76, and Reffell is 55. news24.com

globalorgasm.org: Global Orgasm - December 22nd, 2006 - Peace through Global Ecstasy

The Cheney riddle

IN THE 10 days since President Bush fired Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, one figure is eerily missing from public view and public accounts of what occurred: Vice President Dick Cheney. As usual, America's de facto prime minister is either literally or metaphorically in an undisclosed location. boston.com

boston.com: The Cheney riddle

Know your party

Letters to God

Yoyodyne

youtube.com: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (part 1 of 8)
youtube.com: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (part 2 of 8)
youtube.com: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (part 3 of 8)
youtube.com: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (part 4 of 8)
youtube.com: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (part 5 of 8)
youtube.com: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (part 6 of 8)
youtube.com: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (part 7 of 8)
youtube.com: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (part 8 of 8)
youtube.com: Olbermann and Greenwald expose war profiteers

Damn Hippies!

Hippies still trying to ruin the country
Editorial from the Lexington Herald-Leader

America won't win another war until the 1960s flower children are pushing up petunias. Radicalized, the flower children morphed into lefty loonies who now masquerade as social progressives. No matter what they rename themselves, however, their agenda hasn't changed.
[...]
Oh, the unfairness of irony.
(LOL!)
[...]
Must we surrender our country to our enemies because our weapons are too terrible to use?
(Can't we do both?)
[...]
Which is more sacred: a mosque hiding a weapons cache or a plane of tourists?
(What if the plane was full of hippies?)
[...]
Abstract institutions neither bleed nor shoot back. Demonstrations, marches and sign-carrying don't accomplish much these days, but they are a lot more fun and allow the fiction of activist moral superiority to persist.
(Thus moral superiority belongs to institutions that are not abstract and can either bleed or shoot back, or both. WTF?)
Their BAWL (Buddha-Allah-Wicca-Lenin) is better than some old Judeo-Christian God.
(She left out Cthulu.)
After all, lefty loonies want their social justice and their pensions, too.
(And she doesn't want social justice OR pensions?)

kentucky.com: Hippies still trying to ruin the country via Crooks and Liars

"Ygor, peel me a grape..."

Top-Secret Torture
The Bush administration claims detainees can't disclose how they were treated.

The trouble is that at least some of the secrets the government is trying to protect are the very techniques used against people such as Mr. Khan -- and its means of protecting them is to muzzle him about what the CIA did to him. CIA official Marilyn A. Dorn said in an affidavit that Mr. Khan might reveal "the conditions of detention and specific alternative interrogation procedures." In other words, grossly mistreating a detainee now justifies keeping him quiet.

The problem with this argument is not just its Kafkaesque sheen. If the courts accept it, it would have vast practical implications. The integrity of any military trials of the high-value detainees will depend on their excluding evidence obtained by unduly coercive means. By the logic of the government's argument, however, all of that litigation will have to take place in secret. Detainees are also supposed to be able to appeal their status as enemy combatants to the federal appeals court here in Washington. The government's logic would all but assure that the bulk of any such appeal would be secret as well. So accepting this theory would mean that no claim of torture could be resolved in a transparent and accountable fashion. Given the importance of open trials for the high-value detainees, it's hard to imagine a principle that would more thwart the effort to bring them credibly to justice. Washington Post