The Election HELPS Shrub?

Maybe.  That's what Newsweeks's Jonathan Alter says.  The only missing piece I can see is 43's seemingly endless stubbornness.  Is he willing to back down from his bully pulpit to accept dissenting views?  Will he shun Rove and Cheney and listen to more moderate GOPers - or even listen to some from the other side of the aisle? 

 

If I'm Rove or Mehlman, I do everything I can to give this presidency as soft a landing as possible.  Right now, that's they're best hope to avoid another big surge to the left in 2008.

Colbert Mourns

Seems that Stephen is a bit shaken up about the GOP losses on Tuesday  He's at a loss for words during 'The Word'  Rip-roarin' hilarious.

Colbert Mourns

Seems that Stephen is a bit shaken up about the GOP losses on Tuesday  He's at a loss for words during 'The Word'  Rip-roarin' hilarious.

Rush Fesses Up

On Wednesday's confessional, El RushBo stepped behind the mic and said that he's been making it all up the last four or so years.  Really.  He does.  He casts stones at the far right that's been running the country - the same far right he routinely supports and endorses five days a week.  Well now that they've lost the election, he's kicking them to the curb.  It's back to true conservatism - whatever that is.  Liberals be damned.  Far right be damned.

 

Wanna know the best part?  The sheep that blindly follow this fat pill popping idiot have already bought into this nonsense.

 

Deep down, you KNOW that Rush is happy about the shift in Washington.  He's said as much before - remember Rush came into prominence when Clinton was in office.  Now he's got at least two years of a Democratic congress that he can take shots at.  The GOP lost the election, but I'm quite sure Rush is pleased.  It extends his miserable existence and self-created relevance a few more years.

Greatness isn't Permanent

One more shot from Maher on how America isn't as great as some people with blind faith in old glory would like you to believe that it is. 

 

The quote is Maher's.  The bold text is mine - this has nothing to do with hating America, all you simple-minded, right-wing neo-con freaks. 

 

And finally, New Rule: America must stop bragging that it's the greatest country on earth and start acting like it. Now, I know — I know this is uncomfortable for the faith-over-facts crowd, but the greatness of a country can, to a large degree, be measured. Here are some numbers: Infant mortality rate, America ranks 48th in the world; overall health, 72nd; freedom of the press, 44; literacy, 55th. Do you realize there are 12-year-old kids in this country who can't spell the name of the teacher they're having sex with?

Now, America, I will admit, has done many great things: making the New World democratic comes to mind, the Marshall Plan, curing polio, beating Hitler, the deep-fried Twinkie. But what have we done for us lately? We're not the freest country. That would be Holland, where you can smoke hash in church, and Janet Jackson's nipple is on their flag.

And, sadly, we're no longer a country that can get things done, either. Not big things, like building a tunnel under Boston or running a war with competence. We had six years to fix the voting machines. Couldn't get that done. The FBI is just now getting email!

Prop 87 out here in California is about lessening our dependence on oil by using alternative fuels, and Bill Clinton comes on at the end of the ad and says, "If Brazil can do it, America can, too." Excuse me, since when did America have to buck itself up by saying we could catch up to Brazil?! We invented the airplane and the lightbulb. They invented the bikini wax, and now they're ahead?!

In most of the industrialized world, nearly everyone has health care. And hardly anyone doubts evolution. And, yes, having to live amid so many superstitious dimwits is also something that affects quality of life. It's why America isn't going to be the country that gets the inevitable patents in stem cell cures, because Jesus thinks it's too close to cloning!

Oh, and did I mention we owe China a trillion dollars? We owe everybody money. America is a debtor nation to Mexico! We're not on a bridge to the 21st century. We're on a bus to Atlantic City with a roll of quarters.

WHITMAN: Take those — bring those quarters to Atlantic City, yes.

MAHER: And this is why it bugs me that so many people talk like it's 1955 and we're still number one in everything. We're not. And I take no glee in saying this, because I love my country , and I wish we were. But when you're number 55 in this category and number 92 in that one, you look a little silly waving the big foam "Number One" finger.

As long as we believe being the greatest country in the world is a birthright, we'll keep coasting on the achievements of earlier generations and we'll keep losing the moral high ground. Because we may not be the biggest or the healthiest or the best educated. But we always did have one thing no other place did. We knew soccer was bulls***.

And...and we also had a little thing called the Bill of Rights. A great nation doesn't torture people or make them disappear without a trial. Bush keeps saying the terrorists hate us for our freedom. And he's working damn hard to see that pretty soon that won't be a problem.
 

Sweeney Donates to a Pal

Birds of a feather flock together. 

 

The latest Siena poll shows that Gillibrand just might pull this off.  BTW, Gaia, or Gayle, or whatever the hell your name is, STOP CALLING ME!!!

Voter Suppression

An old GOP standby, at least until Election Day when they quickly move on to Voter Disenfranchisement. 

 

This is an innovative (ha!) and clever (ha ha!)...well ok, low ball conniving below-the-belt trick from our friends on the right.  Supposed crank phone calls from the democratic candidates. 

Vent

Allow me to vent.

 

I'm sitting at a $0.05/$0.10 NL cash game.  Bets are capped...so no matter how much $$ you have, you can't bet more than $3 at any hand.  I bring $5 to the table. 

 

Guy to my left seems to be playing quite loose.  Saw him lose a hand with cards he never should've played with.  I took a smaller pot from him when he continued to bet with nothing.  It's the guy you'd rather have on your right than on your left, but I think there's some profit to be made here.

 

A few hands in, I get 35o in the big blind and check.  Flop comes 2-3-5.  Hot damn.  I bet the pot, he calls (??), and we go to the turn.  Turn is a 7.  I bet the pot AGAIN and he calls. 

 

What do you put this guy on?  Me - I've put him on A-x.  Take two guesses to what the river is.  He bets out and I fold to save my money.  I'm 80% positive he had the A...maybe A-6 or K-6.  There was no way to get him off the hand. 

 

In the next few minutes, he's throwing back cash from playing too loosely.  Eventually, I get AQo.  Flop is Q-x-x, but two hearts.  I bet something like 1/2 pot.  Calls me.  Turn is a blank.  I bet the pot, he calls again.  River is a K.  I bet, he raises, we cap the bet, and he turns over K-x of hearts. 

 

In BOTH CASES, I get my money in with the best hand, make bets/raises which stack the pot odds against him...and he continues to draw and ends up sucking out on me both times. 

 

This drives me completely batshit crazy. 

Olbermann Tees Off Again

and stripes one long and down the middle. 

 

NOW, can we PLEASE put the Kerry gaffe to rest and focus on the ineptitude of the past six years?

Maher on Think Tanks

Just a fabulous "New Rule" from the 20 October episode. 

 

Details below.  The full transcript of all that episode's New Rules is here.

 

And finally, New Rule, in two parts: A) You can't call yourself a think tank if all your ideas are stupid. And B), if you're someone from one of the think tanks that dreamed up the Iraq War, and who predicted that we'd be greeted as liberators, and that we wouldn't need a lot of troops, and that Iraqi oil would pay for the war, that the WMD's would be found, that the looting wasn't problematic, and the mission was accomplished, that the insurgency was in its last throes, that things would get better after the people voted, after the government was formed, after we got Saddam, after we got his kids, after we got Zarqawi, and that the whole bloody mess wouldn't turn into a civil war...you have to stop making predictions!

You know, there's a name for people who are always wrong about everything all the time: husbands. You know, it's a shame what happened to think tanks. They used to produce valuable, apolitical analysis. But partisanship crept into many of them. And the Bush Administration doesn't just come up with something as stupid as "If we leave now, they'll follow us home." No, they have someone from a think tank say it first. It's a way to lend respectability. The same reason a titty bar has food. I hear.

The think tanks that incubated the Iraq war have lofty names like the Heritage Foundation and the Project for a New American Century. Whatever. They've been wrong so often, I'm surprised they're not my broker. Richard Perle thought we could win Iraq with 40,000 troops. Paul Wolfowitz predicted, in 2003, that within a year, the grateful people of Baghdad would name some grand square in their fine city after President Bush. And he was right when he said they'd be waving American flags. They were on fire.

William Kristol pooh-poohed the fears that Sunnis and Shiites would be at each others' throats, as "the stuff of pop psychology." Right. And having your head chopped off is just a quick way to drop 11 pounds. Kristol, of course, is revered by much of the right because he was Dan Quayle's chief of staff, and was known as "Quayle's Brain." You know that. Which sounded impressive until I remembered Dan Quayle didn't have a brain.

And now, Mr. Kristol proposes immediate military action against Iran, predicting the Iranians will thank us for it. Hey, you know what, Nostrodamus? Why don't you sit this one out?

We'll get by using the Magic Eight Ball for a while. Because you guys have been so wrong about so much for so long, people are actually turning to the Democrats. So, we can say Iraq was a noble experiment, if that helps you. Our intention was good: to penetrate Iraq and bring it to a glorious, euphoric climax. But it's clear now that's just not going to happen. And yet we're still pounding away.

Causing the whole area to become painfully inflamed. And in that situation, the kindest thing you can do is...just pull out.