Olbermann masterfully takes on Team Chimpy’s latest assault on common sense, the media, and Nazi Germany comparisons.

This guy is so quickly becoming my favorite. Does anyone know where a sad and lonely expatriate, bereft of the mind-numbing platitudes of U.S. television, might be able to access full episodes instead of having to rely solely on You-Tube Clips?

Anyway, enjoy!:

 
   

Bush to Couric: "One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror."

Try, if you can, to remember those distant days of yore, way, way back to the nethertime of October 2000.  An eternity in political years, I know.  But those amongst you with a brain cell or two to spare may perhaps recall Governor Bush’s campaign’s response to his rather vacuous demeanor and lack of verbal acuity – “he may be dumb as a brick but that’s ok, we’ll put some smart folks around him to make all the decisions.” 

Of course, I may be paraphrasing a bit, but the question remains: with so many of those learned ladies and gentlement around him, why the hell is this guy ever allowed off script?!

Err, not really.  Just taking some time to respond to the barely coherent blather spewing from Coultergeist’s food-deprived, whiskey-soaked lips: 

Fighting for national security--securing the homeland or wanting to make the nation safe--ought to be an unassailable objective, similar to the Amber Alert, Megan's Law, and providing body armor for the troops. Regardless of who the messenger raising these issues might be, the goals are inarguable because they are pure, true, and right. Will these issues receive more focused attention if the message is delivered by people who speak passionately because they have been personally affected? Yes, absolutely. But it's the issue that is unassailable--not the people espousing that issue. If your conservative Republican friends are on the wrong side of the issues, that's their problem.…

Ann, I don't want to get into a debate with you. It's not because I am afraid of you or your nasty bullying tactics. I'm not going to debate you because we have many, many more important issues to deal with in our country right now.  But I will leave you with this: We live in America, the world's oldest democracy. Democracy can prevail (is that what you and your friends really fear?), but that requires hard work, as President Bush might say. Every citizen in this country is entitled to his or her beliefs, and every citizen is entitled to participate. We still have the right to speak our minds to effect change (within the parameters of the law, of course). So don't try to silence the voices of victims or anyone else, merely because you disagree with them or feel threatened by their political choices. In my opinion, your method of using intimidation and insults to "win" a debate is truly unpatriotic. 

Actually, I expect that you will continue to scream and shout and smear as nastily as you want, so long as you think that that kind of behavior sells books. But we have tackled bigger bullies than you and lived through far worse circumstances than your book tour. We're not intimidated by you. We're not running away. 

And under no circumstances will we be silenced by your "godless" rantings and ravings. 

The letter is actually quite long, though well worth the read.  Ms. Breitweiser has once again proven herself articulate, intelligent, determined, raw, and righteous. 

Bye bye, see ya! Hope ya had a good, good time!

Oh, and in case anyone interested in viewing the precise moment in time when Blair began his tragic downfall, I include it here for your nostalgic edification:

Well, you may have noticed over the last few days that the site has either been down, stagnant, or both. The reason for this is that I seem to have developed some irreconcilable differences with my web host and was forced to switch servers which proved to be a helluva lot more work than I'd expected! At this point, this site seems to be both live and stable and most of the glitches seemed to have been worked out. Some of the archive text appears to have been slightly garbled in the transfer though it is not serious and I have no plans to do anything about it.

In the meantime, enjoy the site again and please please please report any glitches you find via the site's Contact link.

On a separate note, spamming on this site has evolved from a minor nuisance to an all-out menace. I am taking aggressive measures to deal with the problem. Suffice it to say that if you plan on spamming this site, you can expect to end up on the internet blacklist. So don't do it!

Well, obviously the site went down yesterday for lack of bandwidth. With the onset of a new month, the site is back up for business, but I'm resigned to the fact that I have more serious server problems that need to be addressed in light of the site's recent growth. I am currently in the process of switching to a faster and more reliable server. Hopfully the process will be complete before the weekend is out.

In the meantime, it is Friday, so enjoy these pics from Jolly ol' Dublin!

Yup, double-decker buses - ain't they cool! I'm quite sorry to say that Dublin Bus is probably one of the worst systems of any city I've ever lived. The complete lack of scheduling aside, the entire bus system is shaped like spokes on a wagon wheel originating from City Centre (An Lar). This is fine if you want to go to or from downtown, but is utter crap if you want to go between any two other points in the city. Along with the lack of free transfers, it woulnd't be unusual to have to wait an hour or more to arrive at a destination that would have been 15 minutes by bike.

On a lighter note, if you look at the bus signs you may notice that the destinations are listed in Irish (Gaelic) as are all the signs around the country. Although Irish is rarely spoken in daily life, it is still the official national language which means that all public works and organizations operate bi-lingually. There is even a T.V. station called TG4 which is an all-Irish network (although they mostly show programming in English).

There is a spectacular short film about this called "Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom" - My name is Yu Ming where "A bored Chinese shopkeep learns Gaelic and moves to Dublin only to find the locals no longer speak their mother tongue." I highly recommend taking the 13 minutes to watch this film.

On the other hand, a short ride on Dublin bus can get you here:

and here:

Ok, here you go. Suggest your own captions in the comments section or by clicking here .

 

 

More charts for you fun-lovin' kidddos out there.  Courtesy of Think Progress:

Poverty, All Races (Millions)

 

But don't worry people, the economy is booming, just like Bush says.  There's nothing to see here.  Please disperse! 

 

Ok, at this point 95 out of 100 Senators have confirmed that they were not the secret shadow Senator of Evil who placed the hold on the porkbuster accountability bill. Check out the link and see if you can get a confirmation from the remaining five.

TPM has their money on Senator Stevens - you know, the crotchedy old kook from Alaska, the Bridge to Nowhere dude - after digging this little number up:

One of the senators most criticized for his personal projects, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has a hold of his own on Coburn’s bill to make public the spending patterns of the government. Called the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, the legislation calls for the creation of a database open to the public where citizens can track government spending.

“He’s the only senator blocking it,” Coburn said of Stevens.

So the Head Honcho of Pork Politics, huh? Why am I not surprised?