Nothing is more delicious than the sweet, sweet taste of right-wing bitterness. And in the wake of yesterday’s historic civil rights victory for gays, the reaction across wingnuttia has been tasty to watch.

Professor Cowen explains that the US belongs to the hyper-rich. You don’t count.

The day I arrived on earth back in September, 1953, the number one song in America was Les Paul and Mary Ford’s “Vaya Con Dios.” Go With God? Go? Hell, I’d just gotten here. Where was I supposed to go? A month earlier, the Soviet Union helped put the boom in Baby Boomer by exploding [...]

After World War II, the use of citizen initiatives dropped dramatically as booming populations made gathering sufficient signatures to qualify for the ballot a more daunting task. During the ’50s and ’60s statewide ballot initiatives became rare, and much like today, many of the initiatives that did appear were thanks to big corporate spending. This all changed in the early ’70s, thanks in large part to the California couple Edwin and Joyce Koupal and their People’s Lobby.

According to the transcript of a February 19, 2002 meeting of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board (AFEB), “[a] number of the detainees have died of the wounds that they arrived with” at Guantanamo. The statement was made by Captain Alan “Jeff” Yund as he discussed “mortuary affairs” at Guantanamo, part of a larger discussion on health issues at the new prison facility. The big question is: why have we never heard of this before? Meanwhile, DoD has issued denials of any deaths at Guantanamo prior to June 2006.

The Attorneys General of Arizona and Nevada have sued Bank of America for violating consumer protection laws in the loan modification process. The civil lawsuits allege that BofA’s servicer is defrauding homeowners who try to modify their mortgages, telling them they would get a permanent modification and then rejecting their applications and evicting them. In addition, according the the lawsuits BofA is violating a settlement from a 2009 lawsuit against Countrywide, now owned by BofA, to modify loans of homeowners who were victims of predatory lending.

Hallelujah! DADT passes, but still more steps to open service. Digby and Susie Madrak will be Virtually Speaking. FDL Book Salon centers on presidential party building (Bev has such great timing) and Movie Night is Bhutto.

Hope everyone is toasty warm and ready for the holidays. The Winter Solstice is a rare treat this year, there will be a full moon, eclipsed, this hasn’t happened since 1554. Now on to the talking heads…

Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol was the first animated holiday special created specifically for television and originally aired on December 18, 1962. Grab your razzleberry dressing and woffle jelly cake, put your feet up on the coffeetable, and try to keep the spitballs off the screen please. This is Late Late Night FireDogLake, where off topic is the topic … so dive in. What’s on your mind?

The United States Senate is a preposterous institution that has no place in an advanced democracy — or even the turd-festering cesspit we’re currently soaking in. The pig-stupid disgraces of the Senate are multiple. It is antidemocratic; states where nobody lives except gay cowboys and halfwit moose-slaughtering reality teevee stars are as equally represented as [...]

Echoing Lt. John Kerry’s long-ago question to the US Senate about the Vietnam war, how do ask a soldier to be the last servicemember kicked out for a policy that’s wrong?