...thy name is Hummer.
Huzzah
A federal court has denied the Bush administration’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that the NSA eavesdropping program is illegal. Glenn Greenwald’s got the details.
Oh, snap.
Somebody call the waaaaaambulance for the GOP:
The National Republican Congressional Committee sent a fundraising pitch this week over the name of Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.) who chairs the committee.From that bastion of liberalism, the Chicago Tribune. It would be nice if more journalists shared Frank James’ opinion, but even nicer if the GOP could get it through their thick bloody skulls that the media is not—and was never meant to be—their dutiful manservant.
…At least one passage in the email struck me as particularly noteworthy. "I realized you need to know about some of our all-star Republican candidates running for Congress. The liberal media will not help our candidates, so we are taking matters into our own hands," said the passage.
Whoever wrote the memo is absolutely right. We in the media (I'm not going to deal with the whole "liberal media" business right now) do not see it as our role to help political candidates. Isn't that what partisan political parties are for? That's the job of paid political operatives and party volunteers. I thought everyone knew this, but apparently not.
We're journalists, not part of the political party apparatus.
The "liberal media bias" claptrap has its roots in the regrettably waysided history of reporting facts, and because the American conservative movement can't win with facts, but only by subverting them, they began their assault on that tradition by claiming a liberal bias. The media was never one-sided; they were interested only in presenting the truth, and that always favors progressives. It's much harder to malign the LGBT community if the discussion is dictated by truths like straight marriage isn't remotely affected by the legalization of same-sex marriage, and like gay parents are good parents. It's much harder to undermine reproductive rights if the discussion is dictated by truths like most women don't use abortion as birth control, and like late-term abortions are done to protect the health of the mother. Ad infinitum.
Only by insisting that "both sides" are given equal time are conservatives guaranteed their time in the media spotlight, because when the media sticks to the facts, there's no room for conservative arguments on a whole host of issues. And because the media has capitulated, the GOP will fight and claw for more and more and more. "The liberal media will not help our candidates." Yeah well, they're not supposed to.
So! Thought you could pull a fast one on Dr. Zero, eh?
Hello, folks! I'm back from New York City (Nooo Yawrk CITY??); the show went really well. We sold every seat in the house, and the audience had a blast. Our two new sketches got a great reaction, and our tech guy had done some video skits parodying MySpace that got big laughs.
Yep, that's me with the guns, playing Dr. Zero: Arch-villain, heartless and cold, enemy of all that is good, who is defeated easily by a quick kick to the balls. I'm wearing an eye patch under my glasses.
Well, I thought it was funny.
Also, a BIG thank you to Shakespeare's Sister for keeping everything humming in Spudville while I was away. She's a peach, that one. *mwah*
So, did I miss anything? 
Aw, christ... Someone's always gotta upstage you....
(Thanks again for all the great cross-posts, Shakes!)
Friday Blogrollin'
Diary of a Freak Magnet
The Bulldog Says…
Marked Hoosier
Rose City Rant
Swede and Czech
No More Mister Nice Blog
Monkeys for Helping
Just a Bump in the Beltway has moved here.
Question of the Day
What's your favorite video game?
This is an easy one for me: Oddworld. Hands-down my favorite of all time. It's also one of Spudsy's favorite games, too, and both of us were made inordinately happy by discovering our shared ardor.
It's all about Abe.
Quote(s) of the Day
Taken from Tuesday’s House debate on the federal marriage amendment (which failed):
Rep. John Carter (R-TX): “It’s part of God’s plan for the future of mankind.”“…and God said to Moses, ‘In my image did I create Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve’.”
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN): “It wasn’t our idea, it was God’s.”
Rep. Bob Beauprez (R-CO): “We best not be messing with His plan.”
Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA): “I think God has spoken very clearly on this issue.”
Rumorzzz
Yeah, well, I heard that Glenn Greenwald is really Gary Glitter, glam rock trailblazer and convicted pedophile. They even have the same initials, for crying out loud! It’s so obvious. Have you ever seen them in the same place at the same time? Neither have I!
As far as I’m concerned, it’s up to Glenn to prove he’s not Gary Glitter, or I’m going to write posts about how he is Gary Glitter for an entire week! Maybe more!
Because that’s what real patriots do, bitchez.
Actual Headline
Bush Acknowledges Racism Still Exists. Seriously.
Everybody give Georgie a big round of applause for acknowledging that racism still exists in America. Yay, Georgie!
How freaking pathetic is it that this is a headline?
And, of course he employed one of our all-time favorite phrases to acknowledge it. He understands.
"I understand that racism still lingers in America," Bush told the [NAACP]. “It's a lot easier to change a law than to change a human heart.”Yeesh.
This and that from the Mail Bag…
Blogenfreude is addicted to mocking The American Thinker.
Toast finds love in the Hartford Courant.
AldeaMB writes to NARAL and Planned Parenthood about their support of Joe Lieberman.
Cernig has three questions.
Gropergate continues…
Mad Kane with an Ode to the Groper.
And grumpy, bald Scotsman Mark Day had better be careful or pate-fetishist George Bush will attack his head like there’s no tomorrow.
(Click here if you can’t watch the video inpage.)
It’s raining, it’s pouring…
I snapped this on my way home today, parked at a red light on Wells. Grim days make for lovely pictures, if not particularly enjoyable travel.
It’s beginning to clear up a bit now. There are fallen tree branches all over the roads and some minor flooding in the area, but in the wee open green space directly across from my window, the Siamese cat who wanders there most of the day has returned.
I Shit You Not
Pledge Protection Bill passes in House. “It is unclear whether the Senate will take up a companion bill during the current session.”
For the love of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I hope that within the Senate there yet remains enough of the fading remnants of integrity and seriousness to give this piece of horseshit legislation a pass.
Shazam!
I'm back, after spending four hours white-knuckling it to Midway Airport and back in one of the worst rainstorms we've had in awhile. Right now, it's still pissing down, we're getting lots of lightning, and the electricity keeps flipping on and off...so I'm just going to shut down shop until this passes, heeding the urgent warnings from Mr. Shakes and my friend Sam to unplug, les the computer get fried by an errant bolt.
Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic: What the heck is wrong with George Bush and what made him that way? That ought to keep you busy for awhile!
Later, Shakers.
Insult to injury
George Bush's poll numbers are so bad that he's taking the desperate step of talking to black people.
For five years in a row, President Bush has declined invitations to address the annual NAACP convention. This year, with the Senate poised to renew the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Bush said yes.The White House says Bush wants to address the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Thursday to show his commitment to civil rights.
The astonishing aspect of this story is that after being slapped five times in a row, the nation's oldest civil rights organization woud bother to issue the president yet another invite. Sixth time the charm, apparently. Thus Bush gets his photo op - you know, for the record - and the NAACP gets to hear the president issue bland calls for "unity," though only the extremely credulous - or Donna Brazile - would look for for genuine action on black issues from a chief executive busily pleasing his own base, and whose bags are already halfway packed for departure from office.
(Cross-posted.)
Boom, boom, out go the lights
St. Louis was hit by some wild, wild weather last night: a storm that is being called the worst to hit the region in years, and which utility company Ameren calls the worst in a hundred years. At the moment, nearly five hundred thousand customers in the area are without power - one hundred thousand in St. Louis proper, your friends at Casa Waveflux among them. To compound the power issue, today is expected to be the hottest of the year so far, with temperatures approaching the century mark.
Last night introduced locals to the concept of a "gust front," which is apparently the meteorological equivalent of the blitzkrieg. Indeed, it was literally a "lightning war," with the kind of bolts from the blue (and into the blue, strictly speaking) that dazzled the eye and unnerved nearby residents.
Damage was simultaneously widespread and annoyingly scattered - that is, it was annoying if you happened to be one of the afflicted while others escaped unscathed. Einstein once famously said that God does not play dice with the universe. Einstein was a hack. Also a faithless adulterer, but that's another story. As M and I ate dinner in an unlit basement (chicken saltimbocca and salad), we listened to the guys on KMOX delivering incredible accounts of tractor trailers overturned on two of the three bridges connecting the city to Illinois with a wall section from a building fallen on the third bridge (and trapping an eight-month pregnant woman in her car in the process), shattered windows in the press box at Busch Stadium, a great Biblical wall of dust that engulfed folks downtown who were headed for the ballpark. Farther west in the city and suburbs, stories of fallen and broken trees were common, as were accounts of straight-line winds approaching low-grade hurricane status. In our neighborhood, KMOX reported (not yet verified) that a house roof had blown off its structure and onto a parked car. A hot time in the old town, indeed.
And, well, here we are. M and I counted ourselves lucky to have gotten by with only the one sizable tree limb fallen into our back yard. And the power's out, of course, and has been since 7:15 last night. M is home today; we decided that one of us should stay so that the windows could be open for the sake of our four cats. Better to have some air flowing than to seal up the house. Word is that Ameren will make restoring power to areas surrounding hospitals a priority. We live four blocks from such a medical center. Fingers are crossed.
Personal accounts from others may be found at the P-D's Weather Talk blog.
(Tempest tos't and cross-posted...)I'll Be Back...
I have to drive my mom's friend to the airport this morning, so I'll be out for awhile. Consider this an open thread in the meantime.
Question of the Day
I'm making it a Walken trifecta!
What's your favorite Christopher Walken movie? Before you snort, check out his résumé. There are lots from which to choose!
The Deerhunter, for which he won an Oscar, is pretty damn brilliant, and I adore him in Annie Hall, but I have a special place in my heart for his turn as Carlo Bartolucci in The Suicide Kings. And I love him as Captain Koons in Pulp Fiction.
"I hid this uncomfortable piece of metal up my ass for two years."
