I hate to start the thread on a sour note, but I thought everyone would like to here the latest about Lieberman. Not sure whether it is good or bad news, but at least he has not kept us in suspense too long:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Joe Lieberman, who won re-election as an independent, has a message for his Senate colleagues in the next Congress: Call me a Democrat.

The three-term Connecticut lawmaker defied party leaders when he launched his independent bid after losing to Democrat Ned Lamont in the August primary. During the campaign, he vowed to be an “independent-minded Democrat” if he were re-elected. In Tuesday’s election, Lieberman won strong GOP support and given the closely divided Senate, Republicans are expected to court him.

So will he count as a Democrat or an independent who caucuses with the majority Democrats? In an e-mail message late Thursday, Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein said the senator will begin his new term as a Democrat.

With the Democratic takeover of the Senate, Lieberman is in line to become chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

In a post-election news conference, Lieberman said he was reassured by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid that he would retain his seniority when the new Senate convenes.

HOWIE!
JANE!
BLUE AMERICA!~

fitz!

errr

Rootz!

Science!

You forgot to post the best part of the article:

“Some Republican officials on Saturn are sticking their fingers in their ears and singing LA LA LA, others are on the other side of the planet playing guitars and eating cake.”

From our Dear Leader, a Memo to Every Democrat:

Dear Everyone Who Thinks They Singled-Handedly Won the Last Election,
The DNC and Howard Dean couldn’t have won this by themselves. They are not the source of all good in the world. Or all evil.

The DCCC and Emanuel Rahm couldn’t have won this by themselves. They are not the source of all good in the world. Or all evil.

The DSCC Chuck Schumer couldn’t have won this by themselves. They are not the source of all good in the world. Or all evil.

The netroots and grassroots couldn’t have won this by themselves. They are not the source of all good in the world. Or all evil.

The 527s and unions and allied organizations couldn’t have won this by themselves. They are not the source of all good in the world. Or all evil.

The big dollar donors couldn’t have won this by themselves. They are not the source of all good in the world. Or all evil.

They were all part of a glorious puzzle. And working together, even if not always harmoniously, led to great, great things.

Hugs and kisses.

kos

p.s. As for the know-nothing pundits in DC and the DLC? Well, we won because they were ignored.

hugs and kisses back.

Hey Rush! Is that the view from Uranus?

just an insignificant solar cystem on the far right edge of the galaxy..

Will the Republicans spin this as another reason to ignore Global Warming?

two beers @ 9

punaise @ 8

Hey Rush! Is that the view from Uranus?

If you incyst

Waaa ha ha ha!

…Hyde rant! HA!

I’m slow on the uptake today.

I wondered what that giant sucking sound was.

*xyz @ 1

I’ve heard that Harry Reid is denying he told JoeL he’d have seniority (or much of anything else). I hope Harry didn’t make any promises to JoeL, because Joe owes us. He owes us explanations for that ‘petty cash’ fund, for being funded by the GOP, for running after losing the primary …

*xyz @ 13

As most of you know, James Carville today called for Howard Dean to be replaced by Harold Ford as DNC chairman. Here’s a link to the Kos article on the subject:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…../135814/54

I encourage everyone to send James Carville an email explaining how foolish this idea is. Be sure to cc Howard Dean, and be sure to mention that the DNC will get no more money from you if Dean is replaced.

James Carville can be reached at:
james@carville.info

Howard Dean can be reached at:
info@deanforamerica.com

An immediate and strong response to Carville will help to discourage him from acting against the netroots in the future. And be sure to cc Dean so he knows that we have his back.

EPU’d, but I did respond. Urge others to do the same.

this is TOO rich;

HARAZ N. GHANBARI / APU.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, September 2006
Nation
Exclusive: Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse
A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the outgoing Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo
By ADAM ZAGORIN
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHORCover: The Abu Ghraib Scandal
Background: Behind Rumsfeld’s Fall
World: Impact of Rumsfeld’s Departure in Iraq

Posted Friday, Nov. 10, 2006
Just days after his resignation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany’s top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called “20th hijacker” and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a “special interrogation plan,” personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski — who the lawyers say will be in Germany next week to publicly address her accusations in the case — has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part: “It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld .”

A spokesperson for the Pentagon told TIME there would be no comment since the case has not yet been filed.

Along with Rumsfeld, Gonzales and Tenet, the other defendants in the case are Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone; former assistant attorney general Jay Bybee; former deputy assisant attorney general John Yoo; General Counsel for the Department of Defense William James Haynes II; and David S. Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff. Senior military officers named in the filing are General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top Army official in Iraq; Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of Guantanamo; senior Iraq commander, Major General Walter Wojdakowski; and Col. Thomas Pappas, the one-time head of military intelligence at Abu Ghraib.

Germany was chosen for the court filing because German law provides “universal jurisdiction” allowing for the prosecution of war crimes and related offenses that take place anywhere in the world. Indeed, a similar, but narrower, legal action was brought in Germany in 2004, which also sought the prosecution of Rumsfeld. The case provoked an angry response from Pentagon, and Rumsfeld himself was reportedly upset. Rumsfeld’s spokesman at the time, Lawrence DiRita, called the case a “a big, big problem.” U.S. officials made clear the case could adversely impact U.S.-Germany relations, and Rumsfeld indicated he would not attend a major security conference in Munich, where he was scheduled to be the keynote speaker, unless Germany disposed of the case. The day before the conference, a German prosecutor announced he would not pursue the matter, saying there was no indication that U.S. authorities and courts would not deal with allegations in the complaint.

In bringing the new case, however, the plaintiffs argue that circumstances have changed in two important ways. Rumsfeld’s resignation, they say, means that the former Defense Secretary will lose the legal immunity usually accorded high government officials. Moreover, the plaintiffs argue that the German prosecutor’s reasoning for rejecting the previous case — that U.S. authorities were dealing with the issue — has been proven wrong.

“The utter and complete failure of U.S. authorities to take any action to investigate high-level involvement in the torture program could not be clearer,” says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a U.S.-based non-profit helping to bring the legal action in Germany. He also notes that the Military Commissions Act, a law passed by Congress earlier this year, effectively blocks prosecution in the U.S. of those involved in detention and interrogation abuses of foreigners held abroad in American custody going to back to Sept. 11, 2001. As a result, Ratner contends, the legal arguments underlying the German prosecutor’s previous inaction no longer hold up.

Whatever the legal merits of the case, it is the latest example of efforts in Western Europe by critics of U.S. tactics in the war on terror to call those involved to account in court. In Germany, investigations are under way in parliament concerning cooperation between the CIA and German intelligence on rendition — the kidnapping of suspected terrorists and their removal to third countries for interrogation. Other legal inquiries involving rendition are under way in both Italy and Spain.

U.S. officials have long feared that legal proceedings against “war criminals” could be used to settle political scores. In 1998, for example, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet — whose military coup was supported by the Nixon administration — was arrested in the U.K. and held for 16 months in an extradition battle led by a Spanish magistrate seeking to charge him with war crimes. He was ultimately released and returned to Chile. More recently, a Belgian court tried to bring charges against then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for alleged crimes against Palestinians.

For its part, the Bush Administration has rejected adherence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on grounds that it could be used to unjustly prosecute U.S. officials. The ICC is the first permanent tribunal established to prosecute war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity.

TRex @ 2:16 pm (#12)

I wondered what that giant sucking sound was.

In space, no one can hear you making a giant sucking sound.

I know Democrats and you sir……..

Best quote I’ve heard yet about the election results comes from my broher:
“Bush is fucked. And he’s gonna have to take it without vaseline this time”

P J Evans @ 13

*xyz @ 1

I’ve heard that Harry Reid is denying he told JoeL he’d have seniority (or much of anything else). I hope Harry didn’t make any promises to JoeL, because Joe owes us. He owes us explanations for that ‘petty cash’ fund, for being funded by the GOP, for running after losing the primary …

Yeah, what ever did happen with the investigation into that cool 300K that just fell off the back of the bus? What’s the word out there?

RagingGurrl @ 18

Best quote I’ve heard yet about the election results comes from my broher:
“Bush is fucked. And he’s gonna have to take it without vaseline this time”

stay on methage…

RagingGurrl @ 18

Best quote I’ve heard yet about the election results comes from my broher:
“Bush is fucked. And he’s gonna have to take it without vaseline this time”

LMAO.

Jacqrat @ 14

EPU’d, but I did respond. Urge others to do the same.

I did, but I can be admonished for mentioning his subservience to his wife. Mia culpa :-(

RagingGurrl @ 18

Best quote I’ve heard yet about the election results comes from my broher:
“Bush is fucked. And he’s gonna have to take it without vaseline this time”

Ha! If Ted Haggard isn’t coming to the white house for prayer counseling anymore, he might be off the hook.

My goodness, on MSNBC:

Should Bush be impeached?

YES: 87%

over 342000 responses.

JohnSwifty @ 22

Jacqrat @ 14

EPU’d, but I did respond. Urge others to do the same.

I did, but I can be admonished for mentioning his subservience to his wife. Mia culpa :-(

I hope the Howard Dean email address is working for everyone. I had to search around for it quite a bit and I am worried it might be out of date. Has anyone had their emails bounced back? Is there another, better, email address that we should use for Dean?

And what about the false charges of Lamont’s people hacking into Lieberman’s website? Big to-do, lots of press, investigation initiated… Isn’t that against the law?

SamTheLurker @ 11

…Hyde rant! HA!

I’m slow on the uptake today.

dude! that was, like, three or four threads ago…

James Carville should be shunned from the party. He was a good servant at one time, but now I feel that he is hopelessly corrupted.

He sold Kerry down the river to curry favor with his wives venomous friends and now he wants to put a pseudo-Republican into the drivers seat of the party. One who just lost his race.

Let the Republicans use their loser, Michael “Democrat” Steele, let’s keep our rallier in chief right in place.

-GSD

Carville, go screw yourself.

punaise @
8

Hey Rush! Is that the view from Uranus?

Giant sucking sound…

kemo @ 24

My goodness, on MSNBC:

Should Bush be impeached?

YES: 87%

over 342000 responses.

Henny Penny the sky IS falling.

-GSD

Jacqrat @
14

*xyz @ 13

As most of you know, James Carville today called for Howard Dean to be replaced by Harold Ford as DNC chairman. Here’s a link to the Kos article on the subject:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…../135814/54

I encourage everyone to send James Carville an email explaining how foolish this idea is. Be sure to cc Howard Dean, and be sure to mention that the DNC will get no more money from you if Dean is replaced.

James Carville can be reached at:
james@carville.info

Howard Dean can be reached at:
info@deanforamerica.com

An immediate and strong response to Carville will help to discourage him from acting against the netroots in the future. And be sure to cc Dean so he knows that we have his back.

EPU’d, but I did respond. Urge others to do the same.

And the link to Dean’s e-mail comes back. DNC has a place to send Gov. Dean a message.

punaise @ 27

SamTheLurker @ 11

…Hyde rant! HA!

I’m slow on the uptake today.

dude! that was, like, three or four threads ago…

I had to go off to work for awhile. I was embarrassed at how humor-impaired I was earlier. It’s been a long six years.

GSD @ 30

kemo @ 24

My goodness, on MSNBC:

Should Bush be impeached?

YES: 87%

over 342000 responses.

Henny Penny the sky IS falling.

-GSD

oh baby!!!

kemo @ 24

My goodness, on MSNBC:

Should Bush be impeached?

YES: 87%

over 342000 responses.

I guess we’d better get right on that, then. Hour 101 anyone?

sofistic @ 29

punaise @
8

Hey Rush! Is that the view from Uranus?

Giant sucking sound…

Sorry… late to the party, just got back from the store and this was the first thing I saw. Shudda knowed everybody would jump on this.

McStain is getting ready for his Manchurian Candidate round II.

Good luck slappy, we are on to you now.

-GSD

In other good news, the Republicans are learning nothing from their drubbing and are supposedly lining up behind the immensely unlikeable New Gingrich for Prez….

Now that is great news.

Here’s a possible scenario: Like a friend and playing the good soldier, Rummy conveniently offered his resignation to Bush after the democratic sweep, hoping Bush would not take him up on it, but Bush did. This scenario requires that Bush is capable of independent thought, therein is the flaw.

This Baker angle makes a lot of sense. As yet another creepy ghost resurrected from Iran Contra, who should have been prosecuted and thereby would have been made a felon, David Gates will handily provide more CYA to the Bush adm.. He should not be confirmed.

Jacqrat @ 14

*xyz @ 13

As most of you know, James Carville today called for Howard Dean to be replaced by Harold Ford as DNC chairman.

This is MAJOR; the first push-back from the Clintons. Remember the Star Trek phenomenon of ‘being probed’?

As a DEAN Democrat, I am very concerned that I have yet to see an organized Netroots response???

GSD @ 36

McStain is getting ready for his Manchurian Candidate round II.

Good luck slappy, we are on to you now.

-GSD

In other good news, the Republicans are learning nothing from their drubbing and are supposedly lining up behind the immensely unlikeable New Gingrich for Prez….

Now that is great news.

Reminds me of when I was a kid and my brother and I used to catch sharks and when we dragged them onto the beach, they still tried to attack us. Dead and didn’t know it.

SamTheLurker @ 32

I had to go off to work for awhile. I was embarrassed at how humor-impaired I was earlier. It’s been a long six years.

Man, you got that right. I don’t think I found my funny bone from 2000 until Stephen Colbert addressed the DC press corp. And even then, you can argue that an appreciation for fine satire is something slightly askew from droll.

Liarman coming up on Tweety. I can’t watch.

The Dems should ponder a little on why the Dixie Chick’s song “I’m not ready to make nice” is such a hit.

The people clamouring for bipartisanship are the very ones who renditioned it for the past 2 years.

Balrog @ 41

Liarman coming up on Tweety. I can’t watch.

Lieberman as a guest. Well, I guess he’s controversial. Shows very poor taste, however, to feature Droopy McBackstabber after our historical democratic mandate.

I just don’t think anyone could have imagined a 5,000 mile wide hurricane coming ashore on Tuesday…

I like Frank Rich, but he certainly mangled his metaphor in this comment from Wednesday:

A pre-election Rumsfeld firing would have taken some air out of the national wave that raised so many Democratic boats, even some fairly flimsy ones.

Maybe he thought he was broadcasting on the airwaves? Or waving to his audience from an airboat?

Regardless, it remains my opinion that he’s (Rich, not Rummy) not even close to being an airhead.

OK, yous guys, who is clogging up NASA’s toobz at Astronomy Picture of the day. I can’t get in there. Keeps timing out. So. For amazing pictures go to APOD when it isn’t too busy.

Ya wanna know how the blogs helped win the election?

Maybe you think you already know, but I think that is really good:

We were jedburghs, according to Steve Gilliard.

And I gotta say that Steve does a deft job on the Greens while he is at it.

Don’t get me wrong. Ralph Nader inspired me greatly when I was a law student (oh, about 3-1/2 decades ago). That probably helped me make my career in public interest law. But it’s time to move on, and time to figure out how to win continuously for the D’s, and how to help move D’s to do the left thing. And I think that Steve’s take on how the Greens have become a part of the Republicans election strategies is pretty spot on.

punaise@8..That was the first thing I thought..WTF is Jane doing posting a picture from a colonoscopy..the tube and the ridges look just like the lower colon.

*xyz @ 25

JohnSwifty @ 22

Jacqrat @ 14 .

I hope the Howard Dean email address is working for everyone. I had to search around for it quite a bit and I am worried it might be out of date. Has anyone had their emails bounced back? Is there another, better, email address that we should use for Dean?

You could try http://www.democrats.org., the return address the DNC put on a recent mass e-mailing I received. I don’t know if it will reach the chairman’s attention, but it might.

JohnSwifty @ 40

SamTheLurker @ 32

I had to go off to work for awhile. I was embarrassed at how humor-impaired I was earlier. It’s been a long six years.

Man, you got that right. I don’t think I found my funny bone from 2000 until Stephen Colbert addressed the DC press corp. And even then, you can argue that an appreciation for fine satire is something slightly askew from droll.

I look forward to the return of my political sense of humor (in other matters it’s been just fine, but with politics the reality was so grim I had a hard time laughing). I haven’t been able to watch politics on TV since Desert Storm began, because even then it was starting to get insane and Poppy’s announcement of the bombing made me physically ill – I swear he was grinning and shifting on his throne like he was packing wood. It’s only gotten worse since, with the attacks on Clinton and all.

Maybe now I can start getting back into things a bit.

“I just knew that, somewhere out there, we’d find Rush Limbaugh’s home planet.”

If Rush is thinking about returning home to check out the storm damage, we could take up a collection for his ticket. I, for one, would be happy to contribute, as long as it’s one-way fare.

QBU @ 51

“I just knew that, somewhere out there, we’d find Rush Limbaugh’s home planet.”

If Rush is thinking about returning home to check out the storm damage, we could take up a collection for his ticket. I, for one, would be happy to contribute, as long as it’s one-way fare.

Are prostitutes and illicit prescription drugs as plentiful on Saturn as they are in the Dominican Republic?

When does the Deadeye Dick (figurative) dead pool start? Three obvious holiday weekends coming up…

More challenging: who replaces the shootist. Anyone from a state with a Dem governor would seem to be out of the running, hmmm? Sorry, McCain…

Steve @ 48

punaise@8..That was the first thing I thought..WTF is Jane doing posting a picture from a colonoscopy..the tube and the ridges look just like the lower colon.

Ahmmm…and you would know this how? *g*

two beers @ 53

When does the Deadeye Dick (figurative) dead pool start? Three obvious holiday weekends coming up…

More challenging: who replaces the shootist. Anyone from a state with a Dem governor would seem to be out of the running, hmmm? Sorry, McCain…

And come January there will be what? eight less states with Republican Govenors?

He better hurry!

Mad Dogs @ 54

Steve @ 48

punaise@8..That was the first thing I thought..WTF is Jane doing posting a picture from a colonoscopy..the tube and the ridges look just like the lower colon.

Ahmmm…and you would know this how? *g*

Actually, that is a view with which Limbaugh should be quite familiar, considering where his head usually is…

SamTheLurker @ 50

Maybe now I can start getting back into things a bit.

And, if nothing else, we learned that satire is still a powerful, powerful tool. I’ll make a modest proposal that we use it, every freakin’ chance we get…gotta go eat a baby! Ciao!

This is extremely cool:

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/11/10/17531/095

“Not a day too soon, ActBlue.com jumps into the ‘08 field with its newest fundraising tool. The Democratic online fundraising giant met with the FEC this week to get their latest project approved: Setting up fundraising accounts for potential 2008 presidential candidates.

Let’s say someone, for example Stephen Colbert, was considering a run for President, but was wary of the fundraising bar. ActBlue has the go ahead from the FEC to let its users set up a fundraising pages for “Draft Colbert” or other prospective candidates. So when ActBlue donors raise the millions Colbert thought he couldn’t raise himself, he can take that seed money with him to start his campaign for El Presidente.

But let’s say Colbert ignores all of those donors because he wants to keep his job at Comedy Central. If he doesn’t get in the race by the DNC Convention, all of the raised funds go straight to the DNC.”

Tucker: “I try to avoid the use of the word ‘blogosphere’ because I’m not that big a loser.”

The priss doesn’t like the taste of his sour grapes

ha

Oh puhleeze.

Will somebody put Tucker Carlson out of my misery?

Pleeeeeeeze?

He HAS to go.

How can an aging College Republican whining brat do MSNBC (not to mention the whole rest of the world) any good???

sofistic @ 46

The picture of the day is the transit of Mercury. (I visit APoD first thing in the morning.)

Vote!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904/

My daughter in extreme rural MO sends along this from the Saint Louis Dispatch—a good analysis on how McCaskill won. Bottom line, it wasn’t the red rural vs blue urban votes. McCaskill won on her positions, her campaigning, and the general dissatisfaction with Bush and the GOP. Good read.

U.S. Sen.-elect Claire McCaskill didn’t win on Tuesday because she won over many Missouri Republicans.

She won because she found a lot more Democrats or swing voters.

Whether they flocked to her because of their opposition to the Iraq war, their support for the polarizing stem cell proposal or McCaskill’s aggressive campaign strategy, the results are clear.

McCaskill attracted a strikingly large number of votes in solid Republican territory such as St. Charles County, where GOP candidates rely on huge vote tallies to counter the Democratic-leaning cities.

More of Poppy Bush’s retreads to the rescue of the flailing and floundering Unfortunate Son, G.W. Bush.

Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes of a Marlborough cigarette, here comes Larry Eagleburger.

-GSD

Mrs. K8 @ 60

Oh puhleeze.

Will somebody put Tucker Carlson out of my misery?

Pleeeeeeeze?

He HAS to go.

How can an aging College Republican whining brat do MSNBC (not to mention the whole rest of the world) any good???

I don’t recall seeing his haircut this short before. Does he think it will make people take him more seriously?

And oh–I just noticed–not only did he get rid of the bowtie, he has now replaced with a conventional one!

Mrs. K8 @ 60

Oh puhleeze.

Will somebody put Tucker Carlson out of my misery?

Pleeeeeeeze?

He HAS to go.

How can an aging College Republican whining brat do MSNBC (not to mention the whole rest of the world) any good???

They show him over there so we don’t have to fight him over here.

Tucker just said there is a rumor that Dean will be forced out of his chairmanship:

WTF??

Can we figure out who is behind this [surprise] and squash this immediately?

A colossal, swirling storm with a well-developed eye is churning at Saturn’s south pole…

Well, now “We the people…” know where to dump all those unemployed ReThuglicans and their 5th column support staff (I`m looking at YOU JLoserman)

of course it would take a lot of delta-V to get them all there which woud be a waste of good energy but it would make for a much nicer planet for us to live on going forward

“All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door.” – John Kenneth Galbraith

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that Tucker is not the enemy.

We’ve got bigger fish to fry, people, let’s not get distracted.

Now what the bl**dy he** is this about Dean being forced out? We’ve gotta be ahead of the curve on this one.

egregious @ 67

Tucker just said there is a rumor that Dean will be forced out of his chairmanship:

WTF??

Can we figure out who is behind this [surprise] and squash this immediately?

There is a rumor that Tucker Carlson eats his own boogers.

egregios – look no further that the dem consultant who is married to Cheney’s sidekick. Yup, Carville want Harold Ford to become chair of the DNC. DailyKos has LOTS to say on this mess. As does MyDD

egregious @ 69

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that Tucker is not the enemy.

We’ve got bigger fish to fry, people, let’s not get distracted.

Now what the bl**dy he** is this about Dean being forced out? We’ve gotta be ahead of the curve on this one.

It’s James Carville acting on orders from MataTron.

Mrs. K8 @ 60

Oh puhleeze.

Will somebody put Tucker Carlson out of my misery?

Pleeeeeeeze?

He HAS to go.

How can an aging College Republican whining brat do MSNBC (not to mention the whole rest of the world) any good???

You got that right. Seems they were trying to do something fresh with the frat turd with the dancing show. That did flop, didn’t it? I find him as disdainful as Billo, or greta or hannity or tweety or glen beck or larry king or…

egregious @ 67

Tucker just said there is a rumor that Dean will be forced out of his chairmanship:

WTF??

Can we figure out who is behind this [surprise] and squash this immediately?

James Carville, apparently.

O.K., I give up typing alltogether. So sorry I misspelled your name egregious.

Mrs. K8 I love you dearly and have the deepest respect for you and the utmost encouragement for you in your struggle with illness, but must ask that we rise above this kind of attack and go after the big ones.

hi egregious!

Apparently this one started with Carville or one of his wannabe buddies. At least, his was the first name attached to this: he apparently proposed Harold (Losing) Ford for chairman.

GrandmaJ @ 71

egregios – look no further that the dem consultant who is married to Cheney’s sidekick. Yup, Carville want Harold Ford to become chair of the DNC. DailyKos has LOTS to say on this mess. As does MyDD

WHAT????

[there followed a long stream of very un-egregious like curses]

I know we’ve all been busy the past week, but no mention of the November 1 posting (itself a reposting of a 1/16/06 item) on waynemadsenreport.com re: McCain? (An interesting angle even if you read Wayne Madsen “for entertainment purposes only”.)

“Why is John McCain so supportive of Bush and Cheney after being so viciously attacked by them in the 2000 campaign? The answer to this question may partially rest in Navy records detailing the events that took place on the USS Forrestal on “Yankee Station” in the Gulf of Tonkin at the end of July 1967. The neo-cons, who have had five years to examine every file within the Department of Defense, have likely accessed documents that could prove embarrassing to McCain, who was on board the USS Forrestal on July 29, 1967, and whose A-4 Skyhawk was struck by an air-to-ground Zuni missile that had misfired from an F-4 Phantom.

What have sealed Navy records given to the neo-cons to blackmail McCain? Plenty, according to an eyewitness on the USS Forrestal [a sailor who was permanently disabled by McCain’s dastardly horseplay].

According to an eyewitness to the Navy’s worst fire disaster that killed 134 sailors and injured 62, McCain and the Forrestal’s skipper, Capt. John K. Beling, were warned about the danger of using M-65 1000-lb. bombs manufactured in 1935, which were deemed too dangerous to use during World War II and, later, on B-52 bombers. The fire from the Zuni misfire (strongly rumored to have originated from McCain’s own A-4 as a result of horseplay on his part) resulted in the heavy 1000 pounders being knocked loose from the pylons of McCain’s A-4, which was only designed to hold 500-pound bombs.

During the fighting of the fire and while VF-74 and VF-11 were still counting their dead, McCain was helicoptered off the Forrestal to the USS Oriskany, which suffered a major fire on October 27, 1966, that killed 44 sailors. In that event, thousand pound bombs were jettisoned away from the fire but the lessons of the Oriskany went unheeded by the Forrestal’s officers, including McCain, who served with the VA-163 Saints on board the Oriskany when the fire on that vessel occurred. On October 26, 1967, McCain was shot down over North Vietnam during a bombing sortie from the Oriskany.

The unstable bombs had a 60-second cook-off threshold in a fire situation and this warning was known to both Beling and McCain prior to the disaster. On January 14, 1969, the USS Enterprise, steaming 75 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor, suffered a major fire. In that episode, similar unstable 1000-pound bombs detonated, killing 27 sailors and injuring more than 100. At the time of the Enterprise disaster, the Commander-in- Chief of US Pacific Forces was Adm. John S. McCain, Jr., Sen. McCain’s father.

At the time of the Forrestal disaster, Admiral McCain was Commander-in-Chief of US Naval Forces Europe (CINCUSNAVEUR) and was busy covering up the details of the deadly and pre-meditated Israeli attack on the NSA spy ship, the USS Liberty, on June 8, 1967. The fact that both McCains were involved in two incidents just weeks apart that resulted in a total death count of 168 on the Forrestal and the Liberty, with an additional injury count of 234 on both ships (with a number of them later dying from their wounds) with an accompanying classified paper trail inside the Pentagon, may be all that was needed to hold a Sword of Damocles over the head of the ‘family honor’-oriented (McCain’s family persona is supported by his book about his father and grandfather, both Navy admirals, titled “Faith of My Fathers”) and the ’straight talking’ McCain.”

If true, it would be preferable that it come out as a Republican attack in the primary. Will Rove sign on with McCain or one of McCain’s opponents?

Tucker’s editorializing consists of him screwing up his face in disdain when he says “blogosphere” or “Howard Dean.”

If that doesn’t work, he tosses his college haircut and says “pfffffft.”

What intellectual heft!

egregious @ 67

Tucker just said there is a rumor that Dean will be forced out of his chairmanship:

WTF??

Can we figure out who is behind this [surprise] and squash this immediately?

Check the comments in the last thread. It’s not a “rumor” it’s wishful thinking by Carville and his DLC ilk. Nobody who’s actually in a position to force Dean out is at all unhappy with him. The state party chairs and such elected him, and they’re even happier with him than on the day he started.

TRex @ 72

egregious @ 69

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that Tucker is not the enemy.

We’ve got bigger fish to fry, people, let’s not get distracted.

Now what the bl**dy he** is this about Dean being forced out? We’ve gotta be ahead of the curve on this one.

It’s James Carville acting on orders from MataTron.

eg is right. We need to get ahead of the curve on this one. What actionable items can we develop?

GrandmaJ @ 75

O.K., I give up typing alltogether. So sorry I misspelled your name egregious.

I am most forgiving about typing errors. As one of my favorite commenters here is looseheadprop, and how we recognize her posts is precisely by her spelling errors, we hold such things in a kind of affection.

Small errors versus egregious affronts to civilization: we need to differentiate and attack the big ones. Let’s not get distracted.

There are so many opportunities for us right now. Need to focus.

Wow, that image is amazing. The first thing I thought was, “if it were lime juice, tequila and ice, that would be the biggest Margarita being made!”

Is it okay for me to do a shameless blogwhore, just this once? I have an analysis up about the election that I’d like some feedback on, see if I’m missing anything or forgot something. It’s at this link: Politics 101.

Muzzy @ 59

Tucker: “I try to avoid the use of the word ‘blogosphere’ because I’m not that big a loser.”

Yes, you are, Tucker. Denying it doesn’t make it any less true, it just calls attention to it.

Via Laura Rozen, James Mann writes a piece for WaPo that puts a little different spin on Gates – as in, a Gates who has, in the past, allied himself
with Cheney and against Baker

fwiw.

Anyone following the Times “exclusive” (*g* ok, maybe more like ROFL)on the complaint filed against Rumsfeld, here’s some quickie background, context and trivia.

1. Right now Italy has an open case on the kidnapping from Italy of “Abu Omar” and has indictments against 25 or so American CIA, ex-State and military, in addition to indictments against several members of Italy’s intelligence agency, SISMI. If there were cooperation (which there won’t be, and Dems in charge don’t seem like it will change this) there could be some interesting cooperation with an independent counsel vis a vis the Niger documents, especially as people like Nicolo Pollari – head of SISMI and looking at charges – may be willing to cut deals that could go up the ladder to implicating even Berlusconi. Italy also polled as one of the country’s with the lowest tolerance for torture which may be an indication of how seriously they will take this case.

2. There is a recent WaPo article about a letter describing the torture Abu Omar claims he is receiving/has received in Egypt. The letter is “in the news” bc it was turned over to DEFENSE COUNSEL for the Americans by the Italian prosecutor. BTW – one of the defendants had recently retired from State, bought a lovely villa in Italy, and was planning on retiring there (per Ghost Plane info) when he got a last minute heads up that the Italians were coming to pick him up – he made it out to Switzerland but not without leaving a computer behind at the villa – a computer that Italian authorities picked up.

3. In connection with what seems to be some pretty rock solid investigation in Italy, the prosecutor approached Germany with what appears to be good proof that their country was used as stopover for the flight that took the Italian kidnap victim for torture rendition. This is pretty clearly against the law there and Germany has opened an investigation.

4. Germany also has been investigating the kidnap-torture of its citizen el-Masri and reportedly has “real” identities on most of the participants, but to date has held back, under mounting pressure, from indictments.

5. Now, added to the flight investigation via Italian cooperation and pressure; the released findings of Spain and the continuing Spanish investigation into rendition flights; the mounting pressure over the el-Masri kidnap torture particularly in light of the Canadian investigation of the kidnap/torture rendition of Arar; comes the RENEWED complaint against Rumsfeld.

6. Renewed, bc this has already been tried once. There was across the water bickering and the prosecutor in Germany, in response to the political aspects, said that Germany would not pursue jurisdiction in the matter bc it could not be shown that America would NOT be pursuing these matters on its own.

7. The amnesty provisions of the MCA are now being used in part to support the renewed charges as a “well, amnesty provisions are pretty good evidence they won’t be pursuing those matters, doncha think” argument.

8. WHile only Gonzales seems to be named on this renewed complaint, Ashcroft and Larry Thompson’s names appear pretty prominently in the el-Masri investigation. So that gives us two AGs (one of which may have different issues in his aspects as counsel for the President separte from his AG status), a deputy AG (maybe more), Office of Legal Counsel lawyers including currently a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge (nominated and approved during the coverup period of the torture memos), counsel for the Vice President and the current General Counsel for the Pentagon (who has also been pushed as a nominee for the Fourth Circuit and blocked by Patrick Leahy who has so many Karma points he will have to start giving some away soon). All with war crimes charges.

Heckuva job America.

So, we’ll see. But if you listen to people who follow the journalism and reactions in Europe – rendition/torture isn’t going away in Europe as an issue, no matter what their own problems with terrorism. The Ghost Plane book and Looming Towers etc. – they all make it that much less likely to go away. While the terrorist threats are real, IMO the reason M15 has suddenly become so talkative about them (after so much secrecy) is bc there is some very real involvement by Britain and they know some of it is coming home to roost and they want to start paving the way now to increase sympathy and ramp down public opinion on kidnap/torture — but all without also making their own Muslim populations feel like they have not been betrayed by their own govt.

Not an easy tightwire act.

egregious @ 76

Mrs. K8 I love you dearly and have the deepest respect for you and the utmost encouragement for you in your struggle with illness, but must ask that we rise above this kind of attack and go after the big ones.

Not to worry, egregious. While leaping up and down on my trampoline, I had Tucker on.

And he annoyed me, like a buzzing gnat in my face.

That’s all. I certainly didn’t advocate any kind of program to “get him” or some such. He’s not on my to-do list.

He’s just an annoying twit who does no one any good. Not MSNBC, not the nation, not even College Republicans get anything of value from him. He’s a waste of teevee air.

Not a priority.

And, if it helps, my blogwhore kinda addresses the Tucker/Dean brouhaha–and why Dean probably won’t be going anywhere.

Tucker is about to do a story on what could be a new job opportunity for the defeated Harold Ford.

[DNC chair? Stay tuned.]

EPU’d last thread

I sent Carville this and I will appologize in advance to the fine folk here at FDL for being crass, but Trex is right a netroots action plan is called for, NOW:

James,

You dottering old crawdad. How far can you possible crawl up Hillary’s mudhole before you choke and die. Harold Ford is a fine young man, but he is absolutely no replacement for Howard Dean. You and the foolish old farts who managed to lose the last three elections for the Democrats just can’t seem to handle the fact that Dean’s 50 state strategy was sound and well executed. It is time for you to spend the rest of your days spewing general idiocy on Fox News. It is the only place your words can be regarded as something which passes for truth.

Sincerely,

John

And I’m not sure what any illness has to do with my opinion.

Please, please feel free to disagree with me, VEHEMENTLY, about anything at all. Don’t ever hold back because of any physical condition I have.

OK, love? :-)

two beers @ 53

When does the Deadeye Dick (figurative) dead pool start? Three obvious holiday weekends coming up…

More challenging: who replaces the shootist. Anyone from a state with a Dem governor would seem to be out of the running, hmmm? Sorry, McCain…

My bids for the Deadeye AKA “The Shoootaaar” are:

Day: November 24th, the Friday after Thanksgiving. The whole country is trying to recover from a tryptophan buzz and won’t even notice.

Possible Replacements:

Mitt Romney
Joe (fucking) Lieberman
Harriett Meiers
James Baker

Anyone else?

P J Evans @ 77

hi egregious!

Apparently this one started with Carville or one of his wannabe buddies. At least, his was the first name attached to this: he apparently proposed Harold (Losing) Ford for chairman.

Redshift @ 81

egregious @ 67

Tucker just said there is a rumor that Dean will be forced out of his chairmanship:

WTF??

Can we figure out who is behind this [surprise] and squash this immediately?

Check the comments in the last thread. It’s not a “rumor” it’s wishful thinking by Carville and his DLC ilk. Nobody who’s actually in a position to force Dean out is at all unhappy with him. The state party chairs and such elected him, and they’re even happier with him than on the day he started.

In this blowout election, the DLC types lost and WE WON. Let’s take advantage of that and pushback in a big way against their attempt to use our energy for their own narrow efforts.

And btw let’s get the hell out of Iraq? And maybe restore habeas corpus and end the torture policy?

Just a thought.

I know this thread is meant to loosen folks up abit. Nothing wrong with that. I haven’t seen anything posted quoting friend Froomkin today.

Y’all may want a shot of Jameson’s (or your everage of choice) Froomkin does Veteran’s Day:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..00879.html

The Circle, by Sgt. Sharon D. Allen

The camp is under red-lens light discipline, which means we can’t use an unfiltered flashlight. It severely lessens our evening entertainment options. So, soon after we arrived, we began our strange nightly gatherings. You won’t find it on any schedule, but you can set your watch by it. As the sun nudges the horizon and the gravel cools, some of us give up our battle with the ambient light and surrender our reading until the morning. Others collect up their poker winnings or grumble about their losses. And we all drag our chairs and cigarettes and joylessly warm water out to the gravel and talk. We call it “the circle.” In the Army there is an incredibly varied cross section of society, and we are a diverse group. We have a couple kids straight out of high school, who’d either joined to get a little excitement out of life or to get a leg up on it so that they could go to college. We have older guys, who’ve already put in their time. They tend to be either jaded or genial, both in reaction to the accumulated bullshit slung at most soldiers who’ve been in the service for years. We have everyone from idealists to realists to fatalists, more than a few who began at one end of the spectrum and eventually meandered their way to the other.

I always find it amusing when people talk about “the military” vote, perspective, or whatever. My company has 170-some soldiers, and 170-some opinions. We might have more invested in foreign policy than people back home, but that doesn’t mean we all agree on exactly what those policies should be. Two of the guys, Jeff and Sam, are brothers serving together here but in different platoons. They are both slightly to the left of extremely conservative, yet also very anti-Iraq war. Their father threatened to cut off his own head and send it in to Al-jazeera if his sons aren’t returned home soon.

…

Froomkin:
In honor of Veterans Day, here’s an excerpt from a remarkable book, Operation Homecoming , an anthology of eyewitness accounts, private journals, short stories and other writings about Iraq, Afghanistan and the home front, from U.S. troops and their families.

The book, published by Random House, is the result of an initiative by the National Endowment of the Arts.

Muzzy @ 59

Tucker: “I try to avoid the use of the word ‘blogosphere’ because I’m not that big a loser.”

Maybe Tucker should try to avoid using the phrase, “Dancing With the Stars”

sofistic @ 82

TRex @ 72

egregious @ 69

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that Tucker is not the enemy.

We’ve got bigger fish to fry, people, let’s not get distracted.

Now what the bl**dy he** is this about Dean being forced out? We’ve gotta be ahead of the curve on this one.

It’s James Carville acting on orders from MataTron.

eg is right. We need to get ahead of the curve on this one. What actionable items can we develop?

Call your state Democratic Party headquarters and ask for the contact information on your state’s party chair and national committeepeople. Then let them know how you feel.

This is 100% total friggin’ bull!

With the Democratic takeover of the Senate, Lieberman is in line to become chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

In a post-election news conference, Lieberman said he was reassured by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid that he would retain his seniority when the new Senate convenes.

This sorry sack of crap shouldn’t get 1 damn thing. Nothing. He skirted the entire system for his own GD ego!!! ARGH!!!!!!

Dan Abrahams should really look for someone with a little more than what Tucker has.

I’d even settle for Monica Crowley.

-GSD

He’s just an annoying twit who does no one any good. Not MSNBC, not the nation, not even College Republicans get anything of value from him. He’s a waste of teevee air.

Not a priority.

There’s a rumor going around that Tucker Carlson eats his boogers.

egregious @ 76

Mrs. K8 I love you dearly and have the deepest respect for you and the utmost encouragement for you in your struggle with illness, but must ask that we rise above this kind of attack and go after the big ones.

Add me to that list. I will add you to my family’s prayers…

I doubt that Howard Dean will be going anywhere.

There are WAY too many state party organizations who are DEEPLY indebted to him.

He’s given hope to state parties for the first time in many, many years.

I think John Tester would give a bloody nose to anybody who actively sidelined Howard.

LJ/Aquaria @ 88

And, if it helps, my blogwhore kinda addresses the Tucker/Dean brouhaha–and why Dean probably won’t be going anywhere.

Perhaps you are right. I want to hope so. The thing that stands out to me is that the people who are so comfortable with hierarchy are really threatened by a networked “heterarchy.” And because of this they think if a thing that has no center, but instead is everywhere all the time cannot possibly be effective. Old thinking vs new thinking.

moeman @ 62

Vote!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904/

Like shooting fish in a barrel. 87% ‘yes’ from 348443 responses

hackworth @ 98

He’s just an annoying twit who does no one any good. Not MSNBC, not the nation, not even College Republicans get anything of value from him. He’s a waste of teevee air.

Not a priority.

There’s a rumor going around that Tucker Carlson eats his boogers.

You know what? I heard that somewhere.

SENATOR WEBB coming up on Lou Dobbs…

i like the cut of his jib!

shooogarp @ 92

two beers @ 53

When does the Deadeye Dick (figurative) dead pool start? Three obvious holiday weekends coming up…

More challenging: who replaces the shootist. Anyone from a state with a Dem governor would seem to be out of the running, hmmm? Sorry, McCain…

My bids for the Deadeye AKA “The Shoootaaar” are:

Day: November 24th, the Friday after Thanksgiving. The whole country is trying to recover from a tryptophan buzz and won’t even notice.

Possible Replacements:

Mitt Romney
Joe (fucking) Lieberman
Harriett Meiers
James Baker

Anyone else?

Santorum? [a big middle finger from Bush to the people of the United States]

OT but interesting:

Diane Arbus’ photo of baby Anderson Cooper (mom: Gloria Vanderbilt).

http://trotz.com/blog/mtarchiv…..-thumb.jpg

Or Jebby?

shooogarp –

Thank you, dear! Much, much appreciated.

And where’s that wedding video? You making a Colbert entrance is something I’d love to see show up on youtube. Any chance? (If you don’t like the idea, that’s cool — I can understand not wanting to share wedding videos with the entire universe, it just sounded waaaaay coooool.)

Mrs. K8, you have my official permission to go after any Reich Wing twit who gets on your nerves. Big game, small fry, whoever you want to aim your arrows at. We here at the Lake are equal opportunity destroyers.

I heard this rumor that Tucker Carlson eats his boogers, but I’m not sure where.

There’s been A Lot of Talk About It, though.

Perhaps this a little payback to Howard for supporting Lamont. Didn’t the Big Dog showed up in TN to campaign for Ford, and in CT only during the primary to support Liberman.

And don’t forget, Obama is being shopped around as the chosen one for ‘08. He’s a big supporter of Ford.

No documentation on that photo link, but it came from a salon.com review of *Fur* today.

The following was on topic last thread.

Evil Parallel Universe @ 129

You give too much credence to the power of the Base. They’ve always been a small number of the population and they are only powerful (in terms of electing people) if the remainder of the nation either believes the bullshit, doesn’t go out to vote, or both. That didn’t happen this election, and thanks to TEAM LOSER and their non-centrist policies, and INABILITY to ever change, isn’t going to happen in 2008.

I’ll repeat myself, beyond the base, you can only sell shit if people don’t know it’s shit; and now enough people do, with more to follow.

By buying into the idea there is this all powerful base that TEAM LOSER has to whistle for and they come running and save the day, you empower at least 2 myths upon which TEAM LOSER has relied: 1. That the base is bigger and more powerful than it is (i.e., the base isn’t just wingnuts and survivalists, but soccormoms, etc.); and 2. That the extremist conservative issues which motivate “the base” are really mainstream issues.

Either way, you’re making your job needlessly harder.

And, going back to Swopa’s post yesterday, the above is why trying to come up with a “progressive” agenda to counter the “bases” (conservative) agenda, is playing the game the wrong way. Progressive isn’t a counterbalance to the extreme conservatism of the “base,” which extreme conservatism is out of touch with the beliefs (and as we see the political preferences) of a majority (and a to be growing majority) of voters. You are the “middles,” bring the goal posts back into alignment; don’t accept their political theories. Otherwise, you give them hope where they should have none.

neurophius @ 106

Or Jebby?

Aaargh! Wash your mouth out! Heaven forfend!

Now that the American people have proven themselves to be sane (thus earning the thanks of grateful folks the world over), such a choice would put them right back in the world’s loony bin.

Mrs. K8 @ 91

And I’m not sure what any illness has to do with my opinion.

Please, please feel free to disagree with me, VEHEMENTLY, about anything at all. Don’t ever hold back because of any physical condition I have.

OK, love? :-)

You are far more gracious than I. Thank you for that, I hope to learn from your example.

Fdl has a history of intersticing [a new word, from intersticial: dare any of you to find it in the dictionary] comments that range from the solemn to the lighthearted. Upon reflection, I can see that my reaction to your comment was hotheaded [shock: egregious loses her temper, call the newspapers].

We are a great blog because we have the combination of high and low, serious and frivolous in a very creative way.

Please accept my apology for being too hasty in my criticism. It may be that I am still running a teensy bit manic due to the elections this week.

Someone please come over here and seize the sword from my hand? Altho the day spa was a good start.

Here’s a twisted thought on two current stories:

How about Harold Ford to replace Cheney as VP?

Mary @ 86, regarding Mann’s piece on Gates, we can’t expect anything good to come out of the Gates/Baker families of the Bush Mafia. They will all be looking out for their best interests, and their best interests are not our country’s. This is what happens when it is deemed in the best interest of the country not to prosecute criminals who have violated their high government office. They’re baaaacckk and smellier than ever.

LJ/Aquaria @ 84

Wow, that image is amazing. The first thing I thought was, “if it were lime juice, tequila and ice, that would be the biggest Margarita being made!”

Is it okay for me to do a shameless blogwhore, just this once? I have an analysis up about the election that I’d like some feedback on, see if I’m missing anything or forgot something. It’s at this link: Politics 101.

I think you’ve done a pretty good job. The only thing I’d make more explicit is to smack down the meme going around that the Democrats won the election by “winning the middle” (which is true, if incomplete), and therefore they shouldn’t do anything liberal, because it might scare off the moderates. This is the height of idiocy, for two reasons. First, they won by winning the middle and the liberals, and if they want to keep both, they need to do things that both want. Second, it assumes that anything liberals want will turn off moderates (the “so-called centrist” fallacy, assuming that the center is halfway between the liberal and conservative position.) In fact, self-described moderates hold views on issues much closer to liberals than conservatives, which is why conservatives have to lie to them and stir up emotional rather than rational responses to get their votes.

And Tucker says the nose detritus is quite good.

neurophius-

“Santorum? [a big middle finger from Bush to the people of the United States]”

That sure would be a BIG middle finger. But he flipped off the American public before….

Here is an excerpt from an e-mail I received today from a friend who just moved to Florida.

Yes…the midterm elections were most satisfying, as
was Rumsfeld’s quick exit. Too bad it took 6 years for
people to figure out this administration was full of
evil dingleberries that needed to be voted out of
office. I like that Rick Santorum was ousted. I mean,
we’re talking about a guy who TOOK HIS STILLBORN CHILD
HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL and introduced his children to
their dead sibling, took pictures, and then had the
funeral. I am not making this up. WOW. Anyway,
toodle-ooo, Rick Santorum! Of course, I see Orrin
Hatch was once again voted into office for the
zillionth term by his constituency of Utards. Okay–I
can’t talk too much: Floridians elected another Repub
governor….but at least they didn’t vote Kathryn
Harris in. I can’t help but wonder about the people
who DID vote for her. Who would vote for a harpy?

EPU at 112:
Right. Instead of trying to right the Titanic and get it on course, why not just build a big sleek new catamaran and sail it on a different course altogether?

TRex @ 109

Mrs. K8, you have my official permission to go after any Reich Wing twit who gets on your nerves. Big game, small fry, whoever you want to aim your arrows at. We here at the Lake are equal opportunity destroyers.

I heard this rumor that Tucker Carlson eats his boogers, but I’m not sure where.

There’s been A Lot of Talk About It, though.

Having the official permission of the most famous (infamous?) T-Rex in history means a lot to me. Thanks!

I will say, though, I think it’s irresponsible to spread the gossip that Tucker Carlson pays a LOT of money to have the booger stains cleaned from his teeth.

neurophius @ 115

Here’s a twisted thought on two current stories:

How about Harold Ford to replace Cheney as VP?

Oooh, you bad.

Mrs. K8 @ 108

shooogarp –

Thank you, dear! Much, much appreciated.

And where’s that wedding video? You making a Colbert entrance is something I’d love to see show up on youtube. Any chance? (If you don’t like the idea, that’s cool — I can understand not wanting to share wedding videos with the entire universe, it just sounded waaaaay coooool.)

Mrs. shooogarp and I are going to San Francisco for our honeymoon soon and will get our edited wedding video, which was done by her lil’ sister. I’ll see if she will snip the Colbert entrance and YouTube it.

It was a blast! I was nervous about how it would be received by all those there…but they loved it. Cheering, hootin’, hollering!

I just couldn’t see myself walking solemnly down the aisle to some mellow song when I’m thinking to myself: I getting MARRIED! WOOOOOT! : )

Mrs. K8 -
We could always feel your presence, but I can’t even begin to say how nice it is to have you back and commenting regularly.

Hope you stay and play awhile.

bdu you still here? Looks like you won the pony for your 6 and 31.

Sofistic – Sorta, but I would say that I see it as deratting and fumigating the ship of state/politics, and returning it to what it once was.

Now Tucker’s going to tell us how “MoveOn.org Democrats” feel about the election of non-MoveOn.org Democrats like Jim Webb and Bob Casey.

Oh, good. I’ve been wondering how I feel about that. Now Tucker’s going to tell me.

Behold!
The only asshole in the solar system bigger than Rush.

Hi Jane,
I think this is a marvellous picture of a hurricane. Saturn is a gasgiant and the density of the swirling gas is much higher than the density of our air at sealevel. This storm is just colossal.
I hate to send Rush to such a magnificent scientific miracle. I think a better home for Rush would be in the torture chamber of Torquemada or the lowest circle of Dante’s inferno.

GSD @ 36

McStain is getting ready for his Manchurian Candidate round II.

Good luck slappy, we are on to you now.

-GSD

In other good news, the Republicans are learning nothing from their drubbing and are supposedly lining up behind the immensely unlikeable New Gingrich for Prez….

Now that is great news.

So when President McCain is tragically **** then the pre-ordained VP comes into power? Surely this never happened before *cough*Reagan attempt*cough*

egregious @ 114

Mrs. K8 @ 91

And I’m not sure what any illness has to do with my opinion.

Please, please feel free to disagree with me, VEHEMENTLY, about anything at all. Don’t ever hold back because of any physical condition I have.

OK, love? :-)

You are far more gracious than I. Thank you for that, I hope to learn from your example.

Fdl has a history of intersticing [a new word, from intersticial: dare any of you to find it in the dictionary] comments that range from the solemn to the lighthearted. Upon reflection, I can see that my reaction to your comment was hotheaded [shock: egregious loses her temper, call the newspapers].

We are a great blog because we have the combination of high and low, serious and frivolous in a very creative way.

Please accept my apology for being too hasty in my criticism. It may be that I am still running a teensy bit manic due to the elections this week.

Someone please come over here and seize the sword from my hand? Altho the day spa was a good start.

{{{{{{{{{ *egregious* }}}}}}}}}}

I do SO wish that I could hug you in person today.

(And I hope there’s a day in the future when we can meet face to face so I can do so.)

And really, that’s what the problem most often is — not being face to face to see facial expressions and hear tones of voice. The past week has been a major roller coaster ride for ALL of us, so if a checklist of mania symptoms were given here, ALL of us would rate pretty *high*, methinks, no pun intended. Lucky for me I can jump on a trampoline to release the catecholamines (is that the right word?) — I can *literally* get “high.”

I was so glad to hear you had a visit to a day spa today — I’ll bet you smell real good, too! ;-)

You’re one of my favorite people here, you know. XOXO.

I think it was this political ad that made all of the difference on Election Day.

Sally @ 116 – yep. It’s like watching wounded, bleeding sharks and healthy barracudas (barracudi? barradcucix?) in the waters and watching to see who becomes chum(s).

Egreej,

I think McStain’s fortunes are over with. It will be interesting to see what frothy cretin rises to the top of the GOP sludge pool.

Jim Webb on Dobb’s was great. If the Democrats keep pushing the economic populist message, the party will be doing really well for a really long time.

-GSD

T- @ 124

Mrs. K8 -
We could always feel your presence, but I can’t even begin to say how nice it is to have you back and commenting regularly.

Hope you stay and play awhile.

Gosh….*blush*

Know what I’m going to do? I’m going to save this thread to file — then when I have a really, really lousy day (they’re always inevitable, aren’t they?), I’ll pull it out, read it, and smile deeply.

Whenever I can’t be here I miss you and all the other Firedogs in this amazing place. In our nighttime prayers, we always say “God bless the Firepups, every one.” My life is much richer for this place, and Jane and ReddHedd have my undying gratitude for that.

marksb at 63, re Republican votes in St. Charles County, MO, my very conservative sister and her even more conservative husband live there.

In ‘04 I talked with her about the Presidential election. I said, you have been unemployed for 2 years, you have lost your family health insurance, and you intend to vote for the Republican? Answer yes. I just wonder if that might have changed within the privacy of the voting booth this time.

EPU at 112: In the NYT yesterday, their analysis showed that about 25% of those who voted Tuesday identified themselves as Christian/evangelicals — and 70% of them voted for Republicans. That was only slightly different from the previous elections. There was no significant falloff in showing up to vote, although there was a slight increase in their support for Dems.

But the fact remains there is a fairly solid 17% or so of the electorate (25%X70%= 17.5%) that some Republican strategist who wants to play to can count on. This is, I suspect, partly why we saw Hillary pandering to this group earlier this year.

This election showed we can win without most of them, but the Republicans cannot, and that limits how far they can move away from this “base” without becoming a near-permanent minority.

Since he’s gone, I just wanted to highlight what a fucking insane looney he was.

“As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

- Donald Rumsfeld, Feb. 12, 2002,
Department of Defense News Briefing

sofistic @ 120

EPU at 112:
Right. Instead of trying to right the Titanic and get it on course, why not just build a big sleek new catamaran and sail it on a different course altogether?

Or even just stay home with the cabana boy?

Just trying to make sure all options get consideration.

Redd – Does Rutgers beating Louisville make it any easier to swallow the WV loss?

shooogarp –

Did you and your luverly missus put off your honeymoon until after the election? Political dedication like that is impressive, indeed.

Hope you have a terrific time in San Fran! Say hi to all the wild liberal moonbats for me, OK?

Evil Parallel Universe @ 126

Sofistic – Sorta, but I would say that I see it as deratting and fumigating the ship of state/politics, and returning it to what it once was.

You are right. As the article on Huffpo the other day said, “Thomas Jefferson got it right 200 years ago.”

GSD at 134, Webb is the real thing. People here might find him too conservative, but that is necessary to get elected in Virginia. Yet consider that he vigorously and publicly opposed the war in 2002 before it began, and his philosophy about both guns and gay relationships is “the government stops at my door.”

I have had the great privilege to meet him twice in small gatherings, and found only confirmation that he is an authentic, accessible person with flaws that only serve to endear him to those of us who are his supporters. He just hates to raise money. I told him as a charity president saving lives in Russia I also hate asking people for money, and recommended that he view fundraising as a way of asking us for support so that he can be our leader.

He didn’t need to run for office, he has both fame and fortune from being a successful author and Secretary of the Navy. He is here because he loves his country, and offers to serve the nation one more time. We are indeed fortunate that such people are still willing to step up.

Mrs. K8–thanks. I don’t know what else to say.

Mrs. K8 @ 141

shooogarp –

Did you and your luverly missus put off your honeymoon until after the election? Political dedication like that is impressive, indeed.

Hope you have a terrific time in San Fran! Say hi to all the wild liberal moonbats for me, OK?

We both had work unfortunately. But it will definitely be more enjoyable with some hope on the horizon. I really have had a great last few months. Married and the Dems are going to Washington!

San Francisco will be great….great to not have people flip you off for your bumper stickers. : ) Then down the coast….Big Sur, Lucia, Gorda, San Simeon….

Redshift @
117

LJ/Aquaria @ 84

Wow, that image is amazing. The first thing I thought was, “if it were lime juice, tequila and ice, that would be the biggest Margarita being made!”

Is it okay for me to do a shameless blogwhore, just this once? I have an analysis up about the election that I’d like some feedback on, see if I’m missing anything or forgot something. It’s at this link: Politics 101.

I think you’ve done a pretty good job. The only thing I’d make more explicit is to smack down the meme going around that the Democrats won the election by “winning the middle” (which is true, if incomplete), and therefore they shouldn’t do anything liberal, because it might scare off the moderates. This is the height of idiocy, for two reasons. First, they won by winning the middle and the liberals, and if they want to keep both, they need to do things that both want. Second, it assumes that anything liberals want will turn off moderates (the “so-called centrist” fallacy, assuming that the center is halfway between the liberal and conservative position.) In fact, self-described moderates hold views on issues much closer to liberals than conservatives, which is why conservatives have to lie to them and stir up emotional rather than rational responses to get their votes.

Well, I did mention that the Dems, policy-wise, have been in line with “mainstream” America for a long time, yet it didn’t result in votes. I’ll look at spicing up that part with some bits about the “running to the center” bullshit.

I have in the past stood up for love, and asked us not to demonize Carville just because he fell in love with a Republican spokesman.

With the Ford incident, however, I sadly must conclude that he has gone over to the dark side.

I still believe in love between two people from widely disparate backgrounds. Love goes where it will.

shooogarp @
138

Since he’s gone, I just wanted to highlight what a fucking insane looney he was.

“As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

- Donald Rumsfeld, Feb. 12, 2002,
Department of Defense News Briefing

Believe it or not, if you were trying to do a statistical model of uncertainty, these are about the categories of uncertainty you’d have to capture in your model—using intercepts, coefficients on factors, and components of error terms, for example—or try to explain somehow in you commentary.

The craziness, or immorality perhaps, comes in treating the unknown unknowns (and in this case every other combination of knowledge and state) as little treats or souvenirs to pick up on this great road of discovery you’ve embarked on, when in fact they are the things that will cause your rash and unnecessary enterprise to bring immiseration and death to hundreds of thousands of people. The distance between a model and reality is far greater than that between your ass writing pad and elbow telephone.

egregious @ 147

I have in the past stood up for love, and asked us not to demonize Carville just because he fell in love with a Republican spokesman.

With the Ford incident, however, I sadly must conclude that he has gone over to the dark side.

I still believe in love between two people from widely disparate backgrounds. Love goes where it will.

I love my dog and he believes in all sorts of things I don’t believe in. For exapmle, that the word God comes from Dog, sniffing the butt of everyone you meet, licking yourself, eating food off the ground….

shooogarp @ 138

Since he’s gone, I just wanted to highlight what a fucking insane looney he was.

“As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

- Donald Rumsfeld, Feb. 12, 2002,
Department of Defense News Briefing

Don, I think it was the things that you thought you knew that you didn’t is where you went off the rails.

Science note: this storm on Saturn is cyclonic (center spiraling upward) like our hurricanes. Jupiter’s Big Red Spot, which has spun for at least 400 years and could swallow 3 earths, is anti-cyclonic (center spiraling downward).

The central eye of this storm does bear at least a figurative resemblance to Joe Lieberman. All heads now turn in his direction — to give him head! The Democrats dare not piss him off.