Yeah, but that movie wasn’t real, right? I know it looked very real, but apparently everything was staged.

*whew* A real bunch of losers winners here…

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN); Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD); Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK); Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND); Jim VandeHei, Politico.

Good morning. Talking Heads up early. Thanks Elliott.

yo

Thanks, Elliott. I’m watching Chris Matthews, unusual that panel mostly agrees – to do anything in coming elections, must push through health care. But Kathleen Parker and Harris, think losing the House anyway and that health care will not get through, surprise, surprise.

My cable, and thus my internet, was gone most of yesterday as a consequence of the storms, but electricity was OK. This morning the internet is working but TV isn’t. So I read & baked: biscuits and peanut butter cookies. Took some strawberries out of the freezer and gonna have strawberry shortcake today. Yum. Almost makes cabin fever worthwhile.

Good morning, pups. It’s Friedman, Kristof and Rich this morning. Life is good today. MoDo is off so we don’t have to suffer through another of her attempts at fiction. The Moustache of Wisdom explains “How the G.O.P. Goes Green” and says Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is courageous in his stance on the country’s energy policy. It is to larf. In it he says “Five more G.O.P. senators like him and we could have a real energy bill.” Right, Tommy. They’ll get around to voting on an energy bill just as soon as that moron Sen. Inhofe is done with his witch hunt. (He wants a criminal investigation of American climate scientists.) Mr. Kristof, in “Learning From the Sin of Sodom,” says that a growing number of conservative Christians are acknowledging that to be “pro-life” must mean more than opposing abortion. Mr. Rich has been paying attention. In “The Axis of the Obsessed and Deranged” he says violent invective, once largely confined to blogs and talk radio, is now spreading among Republicans in public office or aspiring to it.

Here they are.

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got waffles with warm maple syrup. I feel guilty every Sunday — Elliott puts together a comprehensive list of the Sunday babblers and I look at it, shudder, and avert my eyes. I see President McCain is on Press the Meat again… Have a good day.

Yes, nice to see that President McCain has come out of seclusion and is making a rare television appearance. Where has he been, anyway? [/snark]

Thanks Marion, was just reading Rich, he’s gotten interesting facts. The scary deranged bunch rallying around that suicide teapartyer in Austin.

Tweety panel thinking there will be bush nutstalgia in the coming election, Tweety thinks not.

Complacencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug, mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice.

I have a certain nostalgia for W in a sick kind of way (maybe neuralgia would be a better word). For the large part, W said what he did. As for O, his words mask his deeds (or try to).

Cannot imagine wanting back war criminals.

We’ve got them now. What’s the diff?

Winding the war down just isn’t the same as starting them and contracting out to mercenaries.

What makes you think any wars are being wound down? O started 2 more wars against Islam and accelerated an existing one. And it looks like he’s getting ready to bomb Iran. As for Iraq, so far all he’s done is follow W’s agreements. And when it heats up, watch him abandon that.

‘it looks like’ seems to be the constant accusation against O. Seems to me he’s getting out, and putting humpty dumpty back together again with a lot of resistance.

Listen to the link on my ‘seems like’ and then comment.

Tom Friedman reminds me of the guy with the mulch selection at my hardware store.

Oh, and what about the $6 billion U.S. arms sales to Taiwan? How does that lessen world military tension? Other than the MIC benefit, the only other advantage to that is to keep China upping its military budget so the U.S. can claim China as an enemy just in case terrorism disappears.

Truly amazing…he’s almost W-like in his inability to put a sentence together…why is he on?

Fox News AllStars: Bill Kristol, Mara Liasson, Liz Cheney, Juan Williams

Now there’s a lineup!!

And FWIW this will be the McGluehorse’s 20th appearance on the Sunday blatherfests since Obama’s inauguration, and the 4th on MTP since last March. Steve Benen has been keeping track (linky):

That’s an average of 1.5 appearances a month, every month, for over a year — more than any other public official in the country.

He needs a number of opportunities to explain himself…I guess.

st johnnie making another ‘exclusive’ appearance with dancin dave on meet the press i see. the ads have actually been touting it ‘exclusive’.

Thanks Elliott.

Good morning pups.

eCAHN,
we are anxiously waiting to try our fist scratch made cheesecake. It is white choc-rasperry. I know it isn’t strawberry shortcake but we are very pleased that it appears we pulled it off.

mr hopey changey also signed the extension of the patriot act last nite.

The Senate also approved the measure, with privacy protections cast aside when Senate Democrats lacked the necessary 60-vote supermajority to pass them. Thrown away were restrictions and greater scrutiny on the government’s authority to spy on Americans and seize their records.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gmao3Tg9nvBQeAOMAVzmeZkrmAoAD9E4QD501

I made a scrumptious pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving, with gingersnaps in the crust. They really aren’t difficult and the results can be spectacular. Enjoy! Yours sounds yummy!!

Lame Sunday lineup. A full spread of conservatives and wingnuts, a couple of party Democrats and zero progressives, (unless you count Krugman as a progressive). And these people wonder why viewership is falling.

I’m still trying to understand the dems not forcing a filibuster over Unemployment Ins extension. Mind boggling.

I never would have thought of gingeesnap crust! We used crushed Girl Scout Thin Mints for a crust. We have no idea if it worked. Yet.

Made even worse by promising that they were going to “stay in session” until Bunning relented. If anybody can turn around the political fortunes of the Republican party, it’s the Democratic party. Because the only reason that the Republicans are doing as well as they are is due to the hapless Keystone Comedy that are the Democrats right now.

W00t! Homemade cheesecake! Always good for breakfast.

Saw that.

Oh, that sounds really good. The ginger snap crust would cut some of the cloying sweetness.

I made a pumpkin flan with my leftover can of pumpkin. First time for flan, and although it wasn’t quite restaurant quality, it tasted great.

Good piece on Daily Beast about O’s losing his way.

Allowing 1 f*cking loon to hold an entire nation hostage is so far beyond anything even remotely resembling sane it is truly a crime. Harry Ried and ALL his Dem enablers in the Senate should be made to bear deep and lasting shame for this.

Since my TV is out, I’m catching up on Scott Horton interviews on antiwar.com.

The combination of white chocolate, raspberry and Thin Mint cookies sounds yummy. Would you share the recipe? My mouth is watering and I just ate breakfast!

I found my recipe online, I think. I’m guessing you could use any kind of crisp cookies for cheesecake crust. Mine was a mix of graham cracker crumbs and crushed thin gingersnaps, which I ate out of the box as I was making the crust (one for me, two for the crust, one for…)

On edit: I did find the pumpkin cheesecake recipe online — Food Network, Paula Deen, but the mix of graham cracker and gingersnap crumbs was from ANOTHER online source. 1 cup graham cracker crumbs, 3/4 cup ginger cookie crumbs.

I’d count falling viewership for these programs as a good thing — provided the lost viewers aren’t tuning out completely, but are instead turning elsewhere for info. I haven’t watched one of the Sunday shows for two or three years and haven’t missed a thing. I get pissed off enough just looking at the line-ups!

The recipe is from the interwebs.

Cbl put pictures here.

May you be right.

Morning everybody, I have a hankering for cheesecake, I wonder why?

P.S. the crust also had brown sugar and ground cinnamon in it.

sounds absolutely divine

Thanks! I am going to have to try that. I have three granddaughters who are scouts, so I buy a box from each, but they live 135 miles from me, so I have them donated to the service personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq. Maybe I should pick up a box locally and freeze them for cheesecake crust!

Kyl arguing lamely against reconciliation. – FNS
Wallace devil advocating it

Pelosi on CNN. She’s wafflin’ and weasel-wordin’ and it sounds to me like she’s cavin’ to Stupak! Say it isn’t so!

By covering them up Obama has become an co-conspirator.
And personally, I do not believe all the torturing has stopped.

You are surprised?

Ditto.

Plus O has pushed it all a lot farther. Now the prez can do summary execution of U.S. citizens, for example.

I do.

I’m off. I’m not staying around for the morning blather. No Rachel, no watchee.

Pity?

I don’t think Gregory pities him.

Good Morning Elliott and Firedogs -

ooh boy twolf, your pic is simply perfect.

good morning cheesecake before lunch twice.

yes, twolf is a genius.

The same power any dictator would have. Just getting the Empire up to speed.

It was snark.

If W/Cheney didn’t invent Yoo, O would have had to.

I better find more caffeine :)

Would have been part of the 9 dimensional chess game.

Any word on Pat Robertson’s “take” on the earthquake in Chile?

I listened to Pelosi on This Week and thought she was quite good.

Get some and then please read my diary and let me know. Pls.

If W/Cheney didn’t invent Yoo, O would have had to.

Come on, you are to sharp for this kind of hyperbole.

Do you really think actual prosecutions could be avoided without some sort of legal fig leaf to provide cover?

I am not clear on what you are asking me.

But, my point is that Obama is not Cheney. A failure to recognize and appreciate this is to surrender to nihilism.

from MTP twitter:

@SenJohnMcCain on HC on #MTP: It’s not bipartisan. I know bipartisanship. … let’s start over then. It’s not too late”

McCain on HC #MTP: “This bill was written by Dems for Dems & then they tried … to peel off a couple of Repubs …and call it bipartisan.”

and of course the clip Gregory plays is Obama responding to McCain, not McCain rerunning the campaign. typical Villager

Oh, so you think that O wouldn’t bother with any ‘legal’ rationale for executing U.S. citizens without any process. You could be right.

It looks to me like this administration, Holder included, have worked hard to avoid prosecuting anyone for clear torture violations. Without some tenuous legal cover it seems like it would be impossible to avoid prosecutions of those involved. I agree with eCahn that if Bush & Co. had gone ahead and did what they did without Yoo’s BS memos this administration would have come up with some other equally disingenuous cover for them. I don’t see any exaggeration there.

Now that I understand the question you posed at entry 65, my answer is a measured and qualified no.

I just read about Pelosi’s appearance on This Week, and how she is calling upon House Dems to vote for Health bill ahead of preserving their own butt positions in Congress. On the one hand she brings up the public option at the so called bipartisan televised summit, and happily will discard it in the final analysis, and then on occasion takes a jibe at Obama making promises on the campaign trail that he has not kept.
She wants it all ways.. and I just tried calling both her offices in DC and in SF. She has no fax number unlike the majority of Reps and Senators, and
I couldn’t leave a voice message because 1) her message box was full in DC
and in SF, the messages JUST don’t take.. period. I sense that she is sealing herself up from public feedback, and in many cases outrage. What a charade this whole Health Insurance reform is..Do they think we the People are stupid, or what, and not on to all the duplicity and hypocrisy and corporate ingratiation?

You are right, O is no Cheney. Cheney himself never got the SCOTUS of officially grant him the right to sign a piece of paper and make anyone a “non-person” thus ineligible for any and all Constitution protections.

Good point. O outdid W and The Dick with that one.

The point is O is no better than W and The Dick on far too many issues, and on some even worse. To not see that is to surrender to hallucinations.

Yes, and as evidenced by O signing extension of Patriot Act–

.