I am a little late to the game on this, but I just want to be on record mocking the new Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle Red State Strike Force. The Bradrocket made a really solid point today in an unrelated matter when he said the following:

Everything you guys write is tainted by the simple fact that you’re crazy assholes. If you’d like your work to be taken seriously by anyone who isn’t on your own personal LISTSERVs and Twitter accounts, the first step is to stop being crazy assholes. If you enjoy being crazy assholes and don’t want to give up the habit, that’s cool, but don’t expect to earn much respect from normal people. Make sense?

The key to electoral success for the GOP is not an elite strike force of blithering idiots spamming everyone’s email with bullshit about Obama’s birth certificate. The nation doesn’t need a trillion twitters about William Ayers, they need a Republican party that isn’t batshit insane. Spending all this time pretending the only problem is insufficient text message spam is going to get you nowhere, because the reason we elected a bunch of Democrats the last couple of years is because the Republicans and their ideas suck.

Andrew McCarthy, who spent the entire fall writing unhinged screeds about Ayers and Obama’s birth certificate, doing his best Col. Jessep imitation at the Corner. Should this guy be discussing the intelligence and understanding of anyone?

Is today a banner day for wingnuttiness, or was I just lulled into a false sense of serenity over the holidays, and now the stupid is churning around at full speed once again?

Looks official to me:

The Minnesota Board of Canvassers certified Democrat Al Franken as winner of the state’s Senate race, but incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman’s attorneys have vowed to challenge the decision.

After two months of political and legal wrangling by both campaigns since Election Day, the board officially recognized Franken as the victor, marking the latest in a number of dramatic turns of events that have characterized the state’s Senate election.

The board certified Franken’s 225-vote lead over Coleman, moving the Democrat one step closer to unseating the first-term lawmaker. That tally includes both the hand recount of votes throughout the state, as well as hundreds of absentee ballots that had previously been disqualified for no stated, legal reason.

True to form, the GOP is pissed. CNN is reporting that the Governor refuses to sign the certification, and John Cornyn is promising a filibuster in order to stymie the seating of Franken. One last gasp from the whinging, wheezing GOP- a fitting tribute to the end of a disastrous eight years that began in the electoral chaos of Florida. They don’t like the results, so they will do what they can to get their way.

But don’t worry. In a few years, when the tables are turned, John Yoo will be around to provide the legal reasoning for the seating of a Republican in the exact same situation, the NY Times will give him premier space to spread the message, and Cornyn will forget all about his noble stand in this little Franken unpleasantness. That is just how they roll.

And let me just add- given how difficult it is to unseat an incumbent Senator, and given that Coleman lost to an SNL actor/writer in a three-way race, it gives you an idea how much he must suck. A smart person would just go away and lead a quiet life, given that repudiation.

There is so much going on, what with the economy, multiple wars, the crisis in Gaza, and the terrible threat posed to America by Rick Warren’s minor speaking role at the inauguration, that it is easy to forget how deeply and utterly screwed we are right now, and that every portion of our government has been infected with the Bush rot:

After 29 years enforcing the civil rights laws at the Department of Justice, in 2002 Richard Ugelow was abruptly transferred from his position as deputy chief of employment litigation to an administrative job in the civil division, which defends the government against, among other things, claims of civil rights violations. Ugelow was just one of many highly experienced justice department lawyers who, beginning in the early years of the Bush administration, were transferred, demoted or otherwise pushed out of their positions at Justice because their aggressive enforcement of federal laws didn’t match the new administration’s conservative ideology.

That’s just one of the many serious problems at the Department of Justice that the incoming Obama administration will have to rectify, say former Justice Department employees, law professors and civil rights advocates. As internal government reports and congressional hearings have documented, the Bush Justice Department over the last eight years expelled or ignored attorneys that it didn’t agree with and replaced them with inexperienced lawyers hired more for their ideology than their qualifications. Many of those promoted and implemented conservative agendas that in some cases turned out to be illegal. Those lawyers who were given career positions can’t simply be pushed out by a new administration, however – and they could make it difficult for Obama to implement a new agenda.

On our plate we currently have a number of disasters, near disasters, and emerging disasters we have to deal with immediately. The hurdles for the incoming administration are mind-numbing, notwithstanding the infighting among the rival factions within the Democratic party, and that is without factoring in the Republican party, who can be counted on to sabotage anything and everything if there is the slightest hint of electoral gain to be had. As an example of the sort of nonsense we will be expected to swallow (on top of the Yoo/Bolton bit in the post below this), just today we learn from Mitch McConnell that the Republicans are fiscal conservatives! Who would have thunk it! When did this happen?

November 4th, at around 11 o’clock, to be exact. We all knew they were going to have to re-write history, to re-invent themselves as fiscal conservatives, we just didn’t realize how clumsy and silly they were going to sound while doing it. I thought they would at least be quiet for a few months, lurk in the shadows, and then re-invent themselves. Instead, they are just pretending that yesterday didn’t happen. Check out Cheri Jacobus on LKL:

JACOBUS: Obviously, I think that—Hamas, dealing with Hamas and what’s going on in Gaza is going to be first on his list whether he wants it to or not. What he wants to do, Larry, is to have this big kind of dog and pony show. They want to have this big stimulus package, this huge spending bill on his desk ready for him to sign the moment he’s inaugurated on the 20th.

And—you know the Republicans don’t want that to happen. We want them hearings. We want to look at what’s in the bill because this could potentially be the largest spending bill ever in the history of the United States.

So I think the Obama folks are going to have to ratchet back sort of what they want to do with the—with the big sort of dog and pony show, the big circus, and get real and—take these priorities the way they need to be taken, rather than…

KING: Cheri, don’t—don’t many Republicans support that stimulus package?

JACOBUS: Well, we don’t know what’s in it. And what we want are hearings. We want to take a look at this because this has such a huge potential for pork, quite frankly. And that’s not something we want to happen. Republicans let that happen before. We’re not going to let it happen again. So we want some time to take a look at it, to make sure that the money…

KING: James?

JACOBUS: ... is going to the right places.

CARVILLE: I’m just—I’m flabbergasted by this thought of Republican concern with the fiscal things. There was an article by (INAUDIBLE) who won the Nobel Prize that the Republican administration left a deficit by $10 trillion.

Join the club, James. The next few years are going to be a real PITA.

*** Update ***

And I don’t know how Republicans can even write stuff like this:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to re-write House rules today to ensure that the Republican minority is unable to have any influence on legislation. Pelosi’s proposals are so draconian, and will so polarize the Capitol, that any thought President-elect Obama has of bipartisan cooperation will be rendered impossible before he even takes office.

Pelosi’s rule changes—which may be voted on today—will reverse the fairness rules that were written around Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.”

We can debate whether or not Pelosi should make those rule changes, and whether or not the rules changes are a good idea or not. I can handle that. What I find absurd is the notion that the the House GOP has any desire to work with the Democrats and the incoming administration. A quick reminder of who we are dealing with here:

Pelosi is most likely rewriting the rules so the Republicans can not use them as tools of obstruction. They simply don’t know how to act in good faith. Period.

*** Update #2 ***

What I thought:

According to Republicans aides familiar with the rules package, the change being considered would prevent members of the minority from effectively killing legislation by sending it back to the committee of jurisdiction.

Republicans used this tool repeatedly over the last two years to stymie Democrats on the floor, particularly during an extended debate over domestic oil drilling, when the GOP embarrassed the majority week after week and forced Democrats to suspend the annual spending process by threatening to offer a measure repealing a 27-year ban on offshore oil and gas drilling.

Given that dynamic, GOP leaders expected Democrats to make these changes to limit their ability to engage in these political stunts. Still, Boehner and his colleagues insist in their letter that Democrats are already failing to deliver on “the kind of openness and transparency that President-elect Obama promised.”

Petulant brats.

No one could have predicted this would happen. John Yoo and John Bolton, in the NY Times, discuss the need to limit executive authority.

Up next, David Addington and Dick Cheney write in the Washington Post on the need to reject Unitary Executive theory.

I knew these wankers would do this, I just didn’t expect it immediately and so brazenly. The balls on these people.

The voting ends at 8 pm:

Krista:

You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.

And when I look out my window I can see the moon. Doesn’t make me a fucking astronaut now, does it?

Michael D.:

Ahmmm, I’m a ghey, and I wouldn’t do anything with the words “Cruise” and “Hugh Hewitt” in it.

Of course, with all those social conservatives in one place, it’ll probably sound like Riverdance in the bathrooms.

JasonF, with the Auto Industry as a Play. A sample (and really, read the whole thing):

ACT THREE

UAW: I have fulfilled my end of the deal by building the automobiles that you have asked me to build.

BIG THREE: Oh no! I am undone! My automobiles are no longer competitive due to my years of poor planning and poor judgment!

MITT ROMNEY: This is all UAW’s fault!

And, our final entry, Tbone with Hillary Clinton’s Tuzla War Journal, a fictionalized version of the sniper fire incident (and again, click the link for the whole comment):

It was a simple mission, they had told me – get in, shake a few hands and mouth a few platitudes, get out. Simple. Yeah.

Things had started going wrong while we were still in the air, and only gotten worse from there. So here we were, pinned down, choking on the acrid tang of cordite and the heady scent of human blood. The mission was even simpler now: survive. Whatever the cost, survive.

There was a grunt and a clatter of equipment as Sinbad threw himself down at my side. Sweat glistened on his bare arms, and I could see tendons contracting and relaxing as he squeezed off bursts from his M14. The motion was hypnotic, like a snake about to strike. Perhaps, when all this was over-

No. Concentrate. Focus on the mission. Survive.

A shout from my left drew my head around. Sheryl Crow, guitar still strapped to her back, had taken cover behind a pile of decaying corpses. Her once-lustrous hair, now limp and stringy, was held back from her eyes by a dirty red headband, and her slim nostrils flared, seeking air free of the funeral taint permeating the airfield. Still, I saw a fierce exultation in her expression that I knew mirrored my own.

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I guess it is over in Minnesota:

A state election board on Monday will announce Democrat Al Franken has defeated Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race, state officials told CNN Sunday.

The canvassing board on Monday will say a recount determined Franken won by 225 votes, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie told CNN.

However, Coleman’s campaign, which contends the recount should have included about 650 absentee ballots it says were improperly rejected in the initial count, has indicated it will challenge the certification.

Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan said his team believes the recount process was broken and that “the numbers being reported will not be accurate or valid.”

“The effort by the Franken campaign, supported by the secretary of state, to exclude improperly rejected absentee ballots is indefensible and disenfranchises hundreds of Minnesota voters,” Sheehan said.

After the results are certified, Coleman’s campaign will have seven days to file a challenge.

The initial count from the November 4 election put Coleman, a first-term senator, 215 votes ahead of Franken—known for his stint on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” and as a former talk-show host on progressive radio network Air America.

The real joy in this election is that no matter which side wins, the other is going to claim it was robbed.

*** Update ***

Double heh.

Fluff piece on 60 Minutes about Texas Tech.

Timing is everything.

Also, Steelers v. Chargers, almost fourteen years since the “Three More Yards” heartbreak. Loved that team.

You may talk about John’s cat.

Personally, I will be rooting for the Eagles and the Dolphins.

And this is a football thread. Keep that in mind, as you will have to find another thread to attack the weight of my cat.

The other day, I passed along a particularly offensive post by Michael Goldfarb to Glenn Greenwald. The comment by Goldfarb was disgusting even by his low standards, and I am glad that Glenn took some time to take the Weekly Standard’s OD Original Dungeonmaster to task. What is so disturbing about it is that Goldfarb is just glibly contemplating the possible positive outcome of killing a bunch of civilians. Those are not the thoughts of a healthy mind, notwithstanding the fact that we know from past experience that their deaths will serve as a rallying cry to inspire more martyrs. In other words, vile and counter-productive- a genuine twofer.

If twisted folks like Goldfarb are an example of the next generation of conservatives, then the Republican party has more to worry about than a disparity in conservative media.

You don’t have anything to hide:

The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy groups was far more extensive than previously acknowledged, with records showing that troopers monitored—and labeled as terrorists—activists devoted to such wide-ranging causes as promoting human rights and establishing bike lanes.

Intelligence officers created a voluminous file on Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling the group a “security threat” because of concerns that members would disrupt the circus. Angry consumers fighting a 72 percent electricity rate increase in 2006 were targeted. The DC Anti-War Network, which opposes the Iraq war, was designated a white supremacist group, without explanation.

One of the possible “crimes” in the file police opened on Amnesty International, a world-renowned human rights group: “civil rights.”

According to hundreds of pages of newly obtained police documents, the groups were swept into a broad surveillance operation that started in 2005 with routine preparations for the scheduled executions of two men on death row.

The operation has been called a “waste of resources” by the current police superintendent and “undemocratic” by the governor.

People need to be fired, people need to go to jail, and those spied on illegally deserve redress.

(via)

Voting for Comments of the Year is still active. The entries are:

Krista:

You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.

And when I look out my window I can see the moon. Doesn’t make me a fucking astronaut now, does it?

Michael D.:

Ahmmm, I’m a ghey, and I wouldn’t do anything with the words “Cruise” and “Hugh Hewitt” in it.

Of course, with all those social conservatives in one place, it’ll probably sound like Riverdance in the bathrooms.

JasonF, with the Auto Industry as a Play. A sample (and really, read the whole thing):

ACT THREE

UAW: I have fulfilled my end of the deal by building the automobiles that you have asked me to build.

BIG THREE: Oh no! I am undone! My automobiles are no longer competitive due to my years of poor planning and poor judgment!

MITT ROMNEY: This is all UAW’s fault!

And, our final entry, Tbone with Hillary Clinton’s Tuzla War Journal, a fictionalized version of the sniper fire incident (and again, click the link for the whole comment):

It was a simple mission, they had told me – get in, shake a few hands and mouth a few platitudes, get out. Simple. Yeah.

Things had started going wrong while we were still in the air, and only gotten worse from there. So here we were, pinned down, choking on the acrid tang of cordite and the heady scent of human blood. The mission was even simpler now: survive. Whatever the cost, survive.

There was a grunt and a clatter of equipment as Sinbad threw himself down at my side. Sweat glistened on his bare arms, and I could see tendons contracting and relaxing as he squeezed off bursts from his M14. The motion was hypnotic, like a snake about to strike. Perhaps, when all this was over-

No. Concentrate. Focus on the mission. Survive.

A shout from my left drew my head around. Sheryl Crow, guitar still strapped to her back, had taken cover behind a pile of decaying corpses. Her once-lustrous hair, now limp and stringy, was held back from her eyes by a dirty red headband, and her slim nostrils flared, seeking air free of the funeral taint permeating the airfield. Still, I saw a fierce exultation in her expression that I knew mirrored my own.

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Vote while you can.

Via memeorandum, this:

RESIDENTS of a model housing estate bankrolled by Hollywood celebrities and hand-built by Jimmy Carter, the former US president, are complaining that it is falling apart.

Fairway Oaks was built on northern Florida wasteland by 10,000 volunteers, including Carter, in a record 17-day “blitz” organised by the charity Habitat for Humanity.

Eight years later it is better known for cockroaches, mildew and mysterious skin rashes.

A forthcoming legal battle over Fairway Oaks threatens the reputation of a charity envied for the calibre of its celebrity supporters, who range from Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt to Colin Firth, Christian Bale and Helena Bonham Carter.

The case could challenge the bedrock philosophy behind Habitat for Humanity, claiming that using volunteers, rather than professional builders, is causing as many problems as it solves.

April Charney, a lawyer representing many of the 85 homeowners in Fairway Oaks, said she had no problems taking on Habitat for Humanity, despite its status as a “darling of liberal social activists”.

While at memeorandum, I saw that Malkin had linked to this, and I was curious: who will get the hate? Will it be the “darling of liberal social activists,” or will it be the poor, shiftless, lazy SOB’s who get the house for free, sponging up the hard work of others?

It really is a tough call. Answer after the flip.

Who is this interloper? Where is my man? I don’t like change.