Mission Accom-- huh?

Why, I wonder, does Glenn Reynolds not begin his post with "THEY TOLD ME THE TERRORISTS WOULD STRIKE AGAIN IF OBAMA GOT ELECTED" -- but instead approvingly quotes:

Today, we see the emergence of a dark, new, and different army, with new branches that include all the components of a military, yet still utilize the terror doctrine.

Wasn't allying with Pakistan and pursuing terrorists overseas a scenario that would bring about an ... End to Evil?

After seven years of doing everything necessary - Guantanamo, wiretaps, invasions, etc - how and why is it possible for this "dark, new, and different" army to emerge? The author quoted by Reynolds writes that -

the advantage of terrorist armies is first and foremost the fact they are not subjected to any law or international convention

Haven't we been told time and time again that the reason why we've ignored these 'international' laws and conventions is precisely to destroy this type of terrorist army before it can emerge?

Good Riddance.

Putz mourns:

KIM DU TOIT is retiring from blogging. He’ll be missed.

By whom, I'm not sure. But surely Putz recognizes a kindred spirit:

-- "We find the manifestation of traitors in those who espouse causes other than (small “r”) republican ones: those who call themselves “progressives”, “socialists”, “communitarians”, “populists”, “globalists” and so on."

-- "So here’s my solution for the African fiasco: a high wall around the whole continent, all the guns and bombs in the world for everyone inside, and at the end, the last one alive should do us all a favor and kill himself."

What an asshole.

Better Late Than Never: Six Random Things About TS.

K. “tagged" me to list six random things about myself. The rules, WHICH MUST BE LISTED, are at the bottom:

1. I was tossed from the high school chapter of Amnesty International when they discerned I was pro-death penalty. I didn't have any real understanding of politics until junior year in college...
   

2. ...During which I attended my first pro-choice march, in Washington, D.C., not because I had a deep understanding of the issues, but because I had a crush on one of the girls (hi, Babs!) along for the trip. That's all it takes, I guess.
   

3. I think Mad Men is ball-numbingly awful. People think they're watching art, when they're really just being condescended to.
   

4. I have urinated against a mailbox only once, after a night of drinking this.
   

5. I once hooked up with a roommate. It didn't end well.
   

6. Girl at parties are easily impressed by a recitation of Hamlet's "What a piece of work is man" speech. I don't tell them that it's easy enough to memorize Shakespeare when it's been set to music.
   

Sis B., your turn.

THE SIX RANDOM THINGS RULES:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Evil or Stupid? The Jury's Still Out.

Putz admits to sleeping through the 2004 GOP convention:

ZELL MILLER CROSSES PARTY LINES AND endorses Saxby Chambliss.

If you click through -- I don't recommend it -- you'll see that Putz has encouraged his readers to donate to the Chambliss campaign. I hope he clarifies who, exactly, he's soliciting donations from: "our folks," or, um, blacks.

I Am Thankful...

For this. The ROAR!!1!!!1 contingent is predictably displeased.

Well done, Mr. President-Elect.

Saxby's Thanksgiving ad.

Um, ewwwww.

BTW, I don't think Chambliss realizes he's doing anything creepy. The point is it looks really, really creepy. And his campaign should've caught it. Unless they're going for the dirty old man vote.

Misc.

• I swear I'm not a yuppie, but I'm going on an honest-to-god vineyard crawl today. Knowing my pals, they're looking for a classy way to get drunk before noon.
  
  
• I am thankful for... Putz. Putz is a force that gives us meaning.
  
  
• Also, merits of the story aside, couldn't this have been published 10 years ago?
  

Seriously, it's gotten this bad.

When Ed Morrissey tells a Republican he's drunk, he should probably sit down.

The American Consciousness Can Handle Only One Famous Black Man At a Time.

Says Putz:

I feel a little sorry for Martin Luther King — his enormous accomplishments got less attention than they deserved because of the cult of Malcolm X, and now he’s being eclipsed by Barack Obama.

It burns.

Mr. Faith-Based's Sordid (Recent) Past.

As G. would probably agree, it's nice that whatever parasite fed off Joe Klein's cerebral cortex for the first six years of the Bush administration is now, presumably, gone. But the sad fact is that Klein was unforgivably late to the party. Let's not forget that the following exchange with Hugh Hewitt is from April of 2006:

JK: No, no. Hugh, in the past year, I've stood for the following things. I've taken the following positions. I agreed with the President on social security reform. I supported his two Supreme Court nominees, and I support, even though I opposed this war, I support staying the course in Iraq, and doing whatever we have to do in order to stabilize the region.

HH: All right. There are two critical aspects...

JK: So where do you put me on the spectrum?

HH: I'm going to put you as an old liberal with some hope of coming around.

JK: You know, I keep on getting hammered by the left.

HH: Oh, I know, but they're crazy now, Joe, as you write in this book. That's what's so wonderful about it. Your descriptions of the Democratic Party made me chuckle. It's lost. It's off the cliff.

JK: It made me cry.

[...]

JK: Well, you know, I also run in the kind of faith based circle. In fact, one of Bush's nicknames for me is Mr. Faith Based.

HH: Well, that's good.

JK: And at the very end of the book, I acknowledge Bill Bennett as giving the best advice on how to judge a presidential candidate.

HH: At a Christian Coalition meeting. Yeah, it's a great anecdote.

JK: And Bill's a good friend of mine. But I've kind of got to give these guys cover. You don't want to be praised by what you call a traditional liberal, do you?

[...]

JK: But can I just say this about the President? You were saying this before the break. Let me say that of all the major politicians I've covered in presidential politics in the last two or three times around, he is the most likely to stick with an issue, even if the polls are bad, and to govern from the gut as you said. I don't always agree with the decisions that he makes, but I think he is an honorable man, and when I've criticized him, I've tried to criticize him on the substance, and certainly not on his personality, because I really like the guy.

It's true that in June of '07, Klein appeared to cut his ties with Hewitt, but this was less of a divorce than a trial separation. Earlier this year, Klein again took to the airwaves, and the results were nothing short of pathetic:

HH: The gay and lesbian community up in arms over his relationship with James Meeks, who is very, in the words that they use, very homophobic. Does that sort of an attack from a traditional Democratic interest group bother you?

JK: No. I mean, really, I’ll tell you, bother me? I mean, the things I’m interested in are the big ones. I’m interested in foreign policy, national security, an alternative energy plan, the economy, those sort of things.

HH: Gay rights don’t matter?

JK: …And on those issues. That’s where I think that this campaign can go. You know, Hugh, we have a big choice this year.

HH: But do gay rights matter, Joe?

JK: No, I mean, I don’t think that they matter nearly as much as this other stuff.

Charming.

Classic Putz.

In the same spirit as this honey of a Lopez quote, I offer this gem from February 13, 2007:

ARE THE MEDIA TURNING ON OBAMA already?

Big Tent Attempts to Rehabilitate Himself.

John's commenters, hilariously vicious, say "thanks, but no thanks":

Was that really Armando up there? Wow, I haven’t been this choked up since Rocky’s big speech at the end of Rocky IV.

Undeterred, Big Tent executes a reach-around and pats himself on the back.

Classy.

The War Is Over...

And we won.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The U.S. military says two American troops have been killed after coming under small-arms fire while distributing humanitarian aid in northern Iraq.

A senior U.S. military official in Iraq says preliminary reports indicate that the shooter was wearing an Iraqi army uniform and opened fire from a distance.

Well, I'm sure it will be a comfort to their families that wingnuts have not only declared victory but have already begun the festivities.

The Palinization of Wingnuttia.

So, when The Bible says that marriage between two men is unholy, that's theologically sound. But manna from heaven? Totally implausible!

Buckley's Legacy.

K-Lo, 9:27 a.m.:

Contrary to the anti-intellectual talk, there's a lot of thinking going on in these parts.

Mona Charen, one hour earlier:

Right on Schedule [Mona Charen]
Apropos of my column today, here is the all too predictable fracas over kids dressing up for Thanksgiving.

K-Lo, 4:09 a.m.:

Keith O & Martha Stewart Talk Turkey [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Palin, natch.

That Lopez was posting at 4:09 a.m.elicits in me an unfamiliar feeling. Sympathy, I think it's called.

Despite the fact that she's a hateful, horrible person, I actually feel bad for her. I must be coming down with something...

Top Billing.

The Times might as have called Bush "that douchebag who won't go away."

Pretty funny, in a really horrible we're-totally-fucked kind of way.

Why Blogs Were Invented.

Matthew Yglesias says

I never wrote anything this dumb and always — always — regarded Steven den Beste as a fool.

and his commenters use the thread to prove him wrong.

Brutally.

A Good Definition of Insanity.

When you seem to believe that a teevee character can "channel" an actual, albeit cartoonish, human being, as opposed to the inverse.

Chambliss Swiftboats Martin.

Stay classy, Saxby!

Detumescence in One Easy Step.

Katie, preznit-fer-life of the Pantload fancub, pretty much ensures that the ways of wingnut women will remain unknowable:

Yes, the phrase "Mr. Gorbachev,tear down this wall!" puts me in the mood.

Other things that put Katie "in the mood":

-- the "good parts" of Hotel Rwanda
-- dead kittens
-- Hugh Hewitt in a tank top

InstaBitching.

Old meme:

"[The media's] Bush-hatred trump their patriotism."

New meme:

"[The media's] in the tank for Obama."

There's just no pleasing Putz!

"Come on, I’m begging..."

I love this. The magazine that spent the last eight years unwinding its founder's legacy (for better or worse!) and -- in merely it's for latest crime against humanity -- foisted Sarah Palin unto the public sphere, wants to be rewarded for services not rendered.

Say it with me: awwwww.

A month ago, The Corner mocked the fall of The New York Times stock price, a move that almost begged for karmic retribution.

Well, they got it. I, for one, hope to see Lopez, Fowler and the rest of 'em on the street, offering to perform humiliating, deeply unconservative acts in exchange for nickels and dimes -- preferably before the end of the first term.

...I love this idea.

Nine Must Die So Camille Paglia May Live.

This seems unjust:

[Salon] Editor-in-chief Joan Walsh, in an e-mail to Politico, said that nine staffers were let go last week, the first cuts since 2001.

Kind of like firing Krugman but leaving Kristol.

Elections, Consequences, Etc.

Eh.

Michael Beschloss, the presidential historian, agreed the move would be significant, considering the context in which Obama is taking over from an unpopular and beleaguered president.

“For Barack Obama to appoint somebody tied to George W. Bush’s administration, and especially his foreign policy, would be a significant gesture across the aisle,” he said.

Nevermind his point, which is bad. Why does Beschloss, who for all the world reminds me of a used car salesman, get quoted? He's got the intellectual chops of Doris Kearns Goodwin -- minus that pesky plagiarism scandal.

Saxby goes wild!

Oh, my.

Bad.

Assuming the report that Obama plans to put the "don't ask don't tell" repeal on the backburner is true, I can't think of any explanation that isn't really, really ugly.

(Yeah, the story appeared in America's Worst Newspaper^TM, but I haven't seen any denials.)

Starts with P, Rhymes with Flailin'?.

"Why," Hugh Hewitt asked Karl Rove, did the Republicans "get hammered two weeks ago?" Here's Rove's very thorough, 489-word answer, in toto:

Well, first of all, let’s put it in perspective. Let’s before the mythology gets out there, Barack Obama got 2.1% more than George Bush got last time, 3.1 points better than Al Gore got in 2000, and 4.6% better than John Kerry got four years ago. I mean, this was, you know, the Electoral College magnified it, but I think a couple of things happened. First of all, there’s a natural desire for change at the end of eight years of one party running the White House. Second of all, our campaign did not inspire people to turn out. There are 4.1 million fewer Republicans who turned out to vote in 2008 than turned out in 2004. 2.7 million fewer veterans turned out to vote in 2008 than 2004. Over 4 million fewer people who go to Church more than once a week failed to turn out to vote. And then Barack Obama very wisely and smartly worked hard to grab very small but significant slices of our vote. He went after Evangelicals, he ran ads on Christian radio talking about his personal faith, suggesting that he was more pro-life than he was, he went after small business people. Look, he ran a center-right campaign. This guy, you know, we’ve now seen two Democrats get elected president by saying vote for me, I’ll cut your taxes. This guy talked more, a heck of a lot more about cutting taxes for 95% of Americans than he was ever willing to admit that he was going to raise taxes on 5% of Americans. And in a battleground state, people, your listeners who are in battleground states, heard on the radio and saw on TV an ad in which he said you know, there are two extremes – John McCain’s go it alone health care plan, and government-run health care, which is also extreme. And Barack Obama’s in the middle. I mean, when did you think you’d hear a Democrat decrying government-run health care as extreme? He ran an ad against John McCain saying he wants to tax your health care benefits, he’s a tax raiser. So you know, we had an unusual campaign. And at the end of the day, spurred on by the fact that he was an African-American with a good chance of becoming president, 3.3 million more African-Americans voted Democrat in 2008 than voted so in 2004, and 2.5 million more Latinos voted Democrat than voted Democrat in 2004. So you know, we’ve got to put it in perspective. This was a loss, I hate losing, they swept a whole bunch of good people out, but on the other hand, you know, they were talking 30-50 House seats. They got 19. And when Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, nearly a hundred state senate seats changed hands. This year, ten did. When Ronald Reagan got elected president in 1980, three hundred state house seats changed hands. This year, 94.

TURDBLOSSOM FAIL.

How About Never—Is Never Good For You?

Quoth Special Ed:

We will win elections when Republicans do the following:

• Find a First Principles approach that will unite the conservative coalitions, as Reagan did in 1980
• Have a zero-tolerance policy for corruption
• Stop supporting pork-barrel spending
• Take concrete steps to shrink the federal government
• Take responsibility for their own actions and the consequences for them instead of scapegoating talk radio

That is so cute! Corruption and pork-barrel spending are part of your platform, silly goose!

Ed, my jolly friend, you ought to come up with a more realistic set of goals, or the GOP will never never never ever never win another election.

OMG OBAMAS GONNA TAKE MY GUNS AWAY!!11!1

They're back.

Hey, Goldberg...

I got yer oogedy-boogedy right here.

What planet is Ross Douthat living on?

Wrong.

Even with the GOP brand in the toilet, Republicans are still trusted as much or more than Dems on foreign policy, mostly for somewhat nebulous "toughness" reasons.

No they aren't, Ross.

I'd like to see some hard evidence to support Douthat's claim.

Harriet Christian Lives!

...Incidentally, this is my favorite comment ever. Grace Nearing, I think I love you.

Isn't that the same woman who ended Morty Seinfeld's reign as president of the Del Boca Vista condo association when she recognized Jerry as the marble rye thief?

Kevin Drum smacks Pantload around.

Ouch.

There will always be plenty of votes for a culturally conservative party. That's not the problem. The problem is the venomous, spittle-flecked, hardcore cultural conservatism that's become the public face of the evangelical wing of the GOP. It's the wing that doesn't just support more stringent immigration laws, but that turns the issue into a hate fest against La Raza, losing 3 million Latino votes in the process. It's the wing that isn't just a little skittish about gay marriage, but that turns homophobia into a virtual litmus test, losing 6 million young voters in the process. It's the wing that isn't just religious, but that treats belief as a precondition to righteousness, losing 2 million secular voters in the process. It's the wing that isn't just nostalgic for old traditions, but that fetishizes the heartland as the only real America, losing 7 million urban voters in the process. It's the wing that goes into a legislative frenzy over Terry Schiavo but six months later can barely rouse itself into more than a yawn over the destruction of New Orleans.

Hillary.

I'm almost at a point where I just don't care what she does. I'm having flashbacks to her goddamn endless listening tour.

Make up your fucking mind already.

/irritation

This Has Been...

Putz, via Laura Bush's former man servant, asks a criminally stupid question:

SARAH PALIN: Destined to be “the white Oprah?”

No. In fact, just three weeks ago Putz himself was singing a different tune:

Yeah, [Palin] gets record ratings wherever she appears, but I don’t see her as the next Oprah.

What's changed in the last three weeks? Nothing, except that Palin's gone from being a probable loser to simply a loser.

I assume these clowns have no sense of who Oprah is and what she's accomplished. Myself, I don't care for her, but I'll readily admit she's neither stupid nor a failure. Like Palin.

Kathleen Parker tells the truth.

If she's not careful, she's going to lose her membership at the country club.

Holiday...From Sanity.

Wingnuts, in an ejaculatory mood about their "victory" in Iraq, have already picked out a day to bathe in the blood of hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis and Americans pat themselves on the back.

Nevermind that it's a little gauche to don the party hats while the bodies are still warm...













...But, um, why must this glorious holiday coincide with the anniversary of Kennedy's assassination? A twofer, perhaps?

Things One Should Not Do for Extra Traffic.

Namely: Consent to having your stuff reprinted in a snake pit.

Peter Kaplan Joe Conason is smarter than this.

(Memo to the No Quarter racists: The New York Observer is a newspaper, not a magazine.)

...Rereading the NQ post, it looks like the EOC of the Observer -- the esteemed Mr. Kaplan -- gave them permission. It probably wasn't Conason's call to make and the blame was carelessly assigned.

If a Hemorrhoid Could Talk, What Would It Say?

We have a pretty good idea, actually.

Those Republicans that survived the massacre are exhausted, scattered and foraging for scraps. It was a bloodbath, and one that should have satiated the blood lust of even the most committed Democratic partisans. Yet some Democrats can’t seem to accept a complete and total victory -- they want to round up the wounded and execute them. Joe Lieberman’s name is at the top of their list.

Like you, dear readers, I'm shocked a campaign stocked with poindexters like this guy didn't win.

If Anything.

This exchange, between The Beast from the Deep and Banana Tits, is telling:

HH: John, the Latino vote had gotten up to 44% for Republicans under W.’s second run. It dropped precipitously this time. What if anything ought Republicans to do about that?

JP: Well, I mean, I think the answer is obvious. Immigration reform, or anti-immigration sentiment, is a political and demographic disaster for the GOP. And people are going to scream and holler and shout and yell about how awful it is that I’m saying this, and what about illegals and everything is terrible and blah, blah, blah. And that’s fine. And so you can ride that into oblivion if you wish.

Podhoretz to Malkin: You have no purpose in life!

The "if anything" is precious, no? Hewitt actually thinks that the GOP may retain its status as the party of bigots -- if it wants to. Which is great, if its only goal is to get the PUMA vote...

Big-Budget Concern Trolling.

The party that has, in its necrophiliac zeal, rendered Reagan's corpse Swiss cheese, says

With the election of Barack Obama and huge Democratic majorities in Congress, liberals must now practice something other than the politics of nostalgia...

Really? Yes, Democrats -- let's take advice from a guy who thought Sarah Palin was the second coming of Truman and Roosevelt.

Christ, Brookhiser.

After all these years, must we still pretend our soon-to-be ex-President wasn't born in New Haven?

Bush is as much of a "son of the Lone Star State" as my right nut.

Perfect.

The dateline on this could not be more appropriate. It is a Lopez joint, so of course the piece is a complete abortion, but this line, god bless K-Lo's enlarged heart, is a wonder:

We’ll never know what could have been in a straight-on Obama vs. Palin contest.

Also?

The know-nothing party.

The Chambliss contribution to the "Republicans Don't Know Shit About Anything" database.

PS.
Googlebomb Saxby Chambliss.

Rathergate Was a Joke.

From the NYT, we learn that the high watermark of the conservative blogosphere -- the Cheetoh-stained accomplishment by which all others are measured -- was a steaming pile of partisan wankery:

Mr. Rather attracted the ire of Republican bloggers and talk radio in particular after the segment, which was broadcast on a weekday edition of “60 Minutes” in September 2004. It purported to have unearthed evidence about favorable treatment extended to President Bush during his Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard.

The network eventually responded to its critics by saying it could no longer vouch for the authenticity of the documents on which the report had been based. The network also commissioned an investigation led by Dick Thornburgh, a prominent Republican and former United States attorney general, and Louis D. Boccardi, a former chief executive of The Associated Press, not so much to verify the documents, but to determine how the segment got on the air.

[snip]

Some of the documents unearthed by his investigation include notes taken at the time by Linda Mason, a vice president of CBS News. According to her notes, one potential panel member, Warren Rudman, a former Republican senator from New Hampshire, was deemed a less-than-ideal candidate over fears by some that he would not “mollify the right.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Thornburgh, who served as attorney general for both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, was named a panelist by CBS, but only after a CBS lobbyist “did some other testing,” in which she was told, according to Ms. Mason’s notes, “T comes back with high marks from G.O.P.”

Another memorandum turned over to Mr. Rather’s lawyers by CBS was a long typed list of conservative commentators apparently receiving some preliminary consideration as panel members, including Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge, Ann Coulter and Pat Buchanan. At the bottom of that list, someone had scribbled “Roger Ailes,” the founder of Fox News.

At the time, wingnuts -- Putz included -- were quick to denounce the report as a "whitewash." I eagerly await their admission that it was, in fact, far more just than it could have been.

The blogosphere self-corrects, no?

Glenn Reynolds and "small government."

Hilarious.

Meanwhile, instead of moping that "we blew it," I'd encourage Republicans and others on the right to look to the future and figure out how to advance the cause of small government and liberty.

Leaving aside that Republicans have created the biggest government in our history, and Putz went merrily along, "small government and liberty" is what the GOP ran on in '06 and '08 -- and they lost.

And they lost because "small government" doesn't address the generational problems we face. It doesn't solve the climate crisis, it doesn't resolve two losing wars or the financial crisis, it doesn't get us an upgraded infrastructure for the 21st century, it doesn't do anything about healthcare, and it doesn't solve the energy problem.

That Putz doesn't seem to understand this is astonishing. But I hope Republicans keep running around talking about lower taxes and smaller government.

It's a sure winner. For Democrats.

OMG they're going to take away Rush!

The crazy, it burns.

Define "Over".

Putz writes:

"THE WAR IS OVER AND WE WON:" Michael Yon just phoned from Baghdad, and reports that things are much better than he had expected, and he had expected things to be good.

I hope this is true, but this triumphalism in the wake of bloodshed seems, um, familiar....

In 2003:

SGT. STRYKER writes that the war is over, and we've won. Thank goodness. It was starting to seem like a quagmire.

And 2005:

KARL ZINSMEISTER says the war is over and we won...

How Convenient.

Putz, éminence grise concern troll, has discovered bipartisanship:

JON HENKE: Republicans and Democrats can and should work together. A little. While they still can.

Eh, the Democrats are working with Republicans. In fact, one of 'em heads the Homeland Security Committee.

So, I suppose Putz is now a Phillies fan too?

Assrocket Gives Up.

Wow. I didn't think it would happen so fast:

It's looking increasingly plausible that the Dems may achieve a 60-vote majority in the Senate and, as of January, control every lever of power in Washington. It will be interesting to see what they do with such unfettered power.

I'm pretty sure Hindy's teeth are clenched even tighter than his sphincter.

Why Does Sarah Palin Exist?

This gal has too much time on her hands and she's pretty clearly an egomaniac:

Palin's Newser [Byron York]
Greetings from Miami, where Sarah Palin has just finished a news conference. It wasn't much of one. She took four questions and spoke for a little under seven minutes, leaving everyone pretty amazed at the brevity of it all. She didn't say anything of great import, but appeared uninterested in talking about the McCain campaign. "You guys in the media are wanting to dissect the past," she said. "As far as we're concerned, the past is the past."

My guess is that the media oversaturation is a big mistake. She's not a bag of Pringles -- people will get tired of her, even Lopez. Byron York is halfway there already.

When you get down to it, Sarah Palin isn't much more than Joe the Plumber writ large. Which means that now is a great time to dredge up this Mickey Kaus quote from October 2, just after the veep debate:

Big loser, again, is Hillary. In two years Palin will be so much better she won't even be in the same league. ...

I Give It 24 Hours...

Before this shows up on No Quarter:

CHICAGO—In a devastating blow to millions of unsuspecting Americans, newly elected president and international con man Barack Obama fled the country Wednesday with nearly $85 million in campaign funds.

According to FBI investigators, Obama's sudden disappearance was discovered at 6:15 p.m. when the former Illinois senator failed to arrive at a gala event in Lincoln Square, prompting several aides to rush back to his campaign headquarters. At 6:23 p.m., flight logs at O'Hare International Airport confirmed that two passengers, a male carrying two silver briefcases and dressed in a perfectly tailored Brioni tuxedo, and an African-American female wearing a fur coat and speaking in a thick Russian accent, were seen boarding a private plane.

Good News In Iraq.

Says Putz:

MORE GOOD NEWS FROM IRAQ, VIA REUTERS: Iraqi Sunni guards join Shi'ite government payroll. "It's pay week for the patrolmen who helped flush al Qaeda militants out of their Baghdad neighborhoods. Only this time, it is the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government that is paying the mainly Sunni fighters, rather than the U.S. military." Funny, now that the election is over the good news just keeps coming!

Yes. Funny.

BAGHDAD — Two American soldiers were killed and six others were wounded by an Iraqi soldier in an altercation in the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday, according to the United States military, Iraqi security officials and witnesses. The shooter was immediately killed by other American soldiers, they added.In Baghdad, at least 11 Iraqis were killed and 60 others were wounded in a new spate of attacks, witnesses and police officials said. The violence erupted just two days after attacks that killed 28 Iraqis in the capital, in the bloodiest day since June.

Saxby Chambliss channels Lee Atwater.

Nice.

Compare and contrast.

Sully:

The Palin nightmare also happened because a tiny faction of political professionals has far too much sway in the GOP and conservative circles. This was Bill Kristol's achievement.

It was a final product of the now-exhausted strategy of fomenting fundamentalist resentment to elect politicians dedicated to the defense of Israel and the extension of American military hegemony in every corner of the globe. Palin was the reductio ad absurdum of this mindset: a mannequin candidate, easily controlled ideologically, deployed to fool and corral the resentful and the frightened, removed from serious scrutiny and sold on propaganda networks like a food product.

This deluded and delusional woman still doesn't understand what happened to her; still has no self-awareness; and has never been forced to accept her obvious limitations. She cannot keep even the most trivial story straight; she repeats untruths with a ferocity and calm that is reserved only to the clinically unhinged; she has the educational level of a high school drop-out; and regards ignorance as some kind of achievement. It is excruciating to watch her - but more excruciating to watch those who feel obliged to defend her.

Dr. Mrs. Putz: "Why Palin is a fantastic choice."

I was thrilled to hear that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was chosen as McCain’s running mate...I hope she lives up to my expectations and will get the chance to serve as our vice president come November.

That Sneaky National Review.

I'm pretty sure the only reason this post exists is to provide the NRO with enough cover to use the word "negro" without fear of backlash.

Next week's installment should be fun:

NRO Holiday Shopper: Where to find your kid a cheap jew's harp!

Putz Never Disappoints!

Michael Barone has famously concluded, somehow, that

journalists trashed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republicans' vice presidential nominee, because "she did not abort her Down syndrome baby."

Putz's reaction?

Joking or not, I think he's right.

Seriously? In a way, I'm happy about this. The fact that Putz & co. refuse to admit the obvious -- that the press dug into Palin because she was a) new and b) had an astonishingly long, rank paper trail the length of the Iditarod -- almost guarantees that their time in the wilderness will be indefinite.

Look, if McCain's constituency can't admit their mistakes -- or count to ten without using their fingers, for that matter -- they will surely not correct them.

Well Said, Jim!

TNR has an eye-opening, hilarious article on Jim Gilchrist and the anti-immigration movement. This is my favorite part:

But even Gilchrist, sitting at his kitchen breakfast nook with pie-wielding Mammy salt-and-pepper shakers and a tablecloth decorated with Sambo-style figures eating watermelon, has concluded that most of the people left in the anti-immigration movement are "xenophobic, racist, schizophrenic, wackjob ne'er- do-wells."

Someone's ears are burning!

Obama’s illegal alien auntie: The rest of the story
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2008

I hope Barack Obama remembered to thank George Bush on behalf of his illegal alien aunt this week. The lame-duck Republican president did the Democratic president-elect a generous — and dangerous — favor right before Election Day: Putting politics above homeland security, the Bush administration ordered immigration authorities across the country to halt all deportation enforcement actions until after the campaign season was over.

And so on. Malkin ought to thank Gilchrist: she now has an epitaph.

McCain insufficiently grateful to Palin for helping him lose the election.

Or something.

The more the Malkinites desperately cling to Palin, the happier I get.

Pitbull 2012!

Pick Another Battle, Putz.

Putz:

I wonder if fairness-doctrine fears are already having a chilling effect.

Yeah, but only among the bedwetter set, of which Putz is a charter member. Why does he find this so hard to understand?

"Sen. Obama does not support reimposing the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters. He considers this debate to be a distraction from the conversation we should be having about opening up the airwaves and modern communications to as many diverse viewpoints as possible. That is why Sen. Obama supports media-ownership caps, network neutrality, public broadcasting, as well as increasing minority ownership of broadcasting and print outlets."

Duh.

It's as if I was worried that Sean Hannity might break into my apartment and rape my parakeet. There's no evidence that he intends to do so, but you can never be too careful!

Go Read Now.

Thank you, Mr. Cole. This is a magnificent post because a) Armando is a Hindenburg-sized prick -- speaking for me only! -- and b) it's the most justifiably mean thing I've read since Hitchens' obituary of Reagan.

Cole, this Sugar Hill, Harlem's finest, is for you:

McCain to campaign for "reprehensible" Saxby Chambliss in Georgia runoff.

Extra Mavericky!

Oh Please Oh Please Oh Please...

With the caveat that she's kind of an idiot, Siri Agrell brings some good news:

Harvard professor Samantha Power and Ms. Rice, a protégé of Madeleine Albright, are both being considered as national security adviser.

Yeah, because of the source it's tempting to ignore this, but Jim Hoagland, who is not an idiot, hints that

Samantha Power ... will be rehabilitated politically.

So maybe, right?

Her appointment would be awesome for a bunch of reasons, the most important of which is that would pissed off all twelve remaining PUMAs.

ROAR!

Whatever Gets You Through the Night....

It's alright, it's all right.

"WHY OBAMA LOOKS LIKE A ONE-TERMER:" A little early for those predictions, I'd say -- even if they're really predictions about the economy, not Obama.

From the link:

If history is any guide at all, voters may still be terribly cranky about the economy when they cast their ballots on Nov. 6, 2012 and thus likely choose the 45th president of the United States -- be it Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal or some other Republican without "Bush" for a last name.

I think the fact that of the three the exorcist is the most plausible candidate says a lot about the dumbfuckery this prediction.

K-Lo's Moment of Clarity.

I was digging through the Corner archives and made a delightful discovery. From March 7, we find that K-Lo once held a sensible view of Sarah Wet My Spear Palin:

re: Chick Veep [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
Needless to say, McCain should pick a qualified conservative, not someone because she's a she.

And Lisa may be right about it not being Palin's time, especially considering she's pregnant.

Heh. Indeed.

The party of Glenn Reynolds' East Tennessee.

The GOP is officially the party of the Old Confederacy.

What may have ended on Election Day, though, is the centrality of the South to national politics. By voting so emphatically for Senator John McCain over Mr. Obama — supporting him in some areas in even greater numbers than they did President Bush — voters from Texas to South Carolina and Kentucky may have marginalized their region for some time to come, political experts say.

...

Southern counties that voted more heavily Republican this year than in 2004 tended to be poorer, less educated and whiter, a statistical analysis by The New York Times shows. Mr. Obama won in only 44 counties in the Appalachian belt, a stretch of 410 counties that runs from New York to Mississippi. Many of those counties, rural and isolated, have been less exposed to the diversity, educational achievement and economic progress experienced by more prosperous areas.

Bleg.

Please halp to decipher that last sentence:

"Don't Count Matt Drudge Out" [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
A Slate piece says in a backhanded compliment kinda way. No one who wasn't jealous ever did.

K-Lo does to sentences what shrapnel does to bodies.

Hahaha! Dean will be such a disaster as DNC Chair!

I remember when that was the wingnut reaction. After '06 and '08 who's laughing now?

Palin has Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Where is Putz/the Anchor Baby on this?

“I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration?” Palin told the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska’s KTUU Channel 2.

“How have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration? If we're talking change, we want to get far away from what it was that the present administration represented and that is to a great degree what the Republican Party at the time had been representing. So people desiring change I think went as far from the administration that is presently seated as they could. It's amazing that we did as well as we did.”

Why didn't Palin say any of this during the campaign?

No, Of Course Not.

Larry Johnson is funny:

Now, I’m not saying Barack is a Korean dictator...

I'm told the Obama administration will make it a first order of business to overhaul the employment guidelines of the CIA; bowl haircuts are out.

Civility.

Mikey O'Hanlon not only thinks it would be a mistake for the Dems to spank Joe Lieberman, but that

whichever way this issue is decided, all sides should then make an effort to return to collegiality and civility.

Still-President Bush -- of all people! -- said it best:

Putz Refuses to Join Any Club...

...that would have him as a member.

Idiot.

Oh Mittens!

Any management advice for the next president? How does he rally a depressed nation to meet the challenges we face?

He should forget entirely about reelection and focus solely on helping the nation at a critical time. He should dismiss the people who helped him win the election and bring in people who are above politics and above party.

It's that kind of political acumen that made Mittens such a rollicking, awesome success and a frequent recipient of Hugh Hewitt's b-cup tongue baths.

Mitten 2012!

My personal definition of hell.

What neither of these idiots seem to understand:

US voters want the Republican Party, which took a beating in this week's general elections, to embrace progressiveness and work with Democratic president-elect Barack Obama to get America back on track, a poll showed Friday.

"By nearly three to one, voters think the Republicans should support Obama's policies," Robert Borosage, co-director of CAF told reporters.

Even among Republicans, nearly half -- 45 percent -- thought their party should work with the new Democratic Party president elect and help him bring about change.

Where is Andy McCarthy and What Have You Done With Him?

Andy McCarthy, best known (to us) as the guy who thinks Obama didn't write his own memoirs, observes that his idiot colleagues lack the capacity to take a joke unless it involves bashing the French -- exs. 1, 2, 3 -- and snaps:

The Nancy Reagan Jab [Andy McCarthy]
C'mon folks, let's not be a bunch of mirthless wusses here. Mark Steyn's cover story for NR's April 21 edition on Mrs. Obama's America was laugh out loud stuff, and we all howled over the unintentionally hysterical New Yorker cover that depicted Michelle as a militant. First families and their eccentricities, real or imagined, have never been off-limits. What Obama said, whether you think it was funny or not (I thought it was kinda funny) was not offensive — it didn't come close to John McCain's infamous joke (at a 1998 fundraiser) at Chelsea Clinton's expense, and I don't recall too many protests around here about our candidate's occasional low-brow jape.

Oh my. Saturday at The Corner should be a hoot.

Noonan: Obama must govern like a moderate (Republican).

She really needs to lay off the bottle.

Keep the change!

From Jeff Gannon's old employer (GOPUSA):

...And Remove All Doubt.

One of things I'm most looking forward to in an Obama Administration is a resurgent respect for experts. You know, the kind of people who won't put the head of the International Arabian Horse Association in charge of FEMA.

The kind of people, in short, who would write this:

A READER EMAILS: "Why doesn't anyone including Instapundit, say the obvious: The market was up when it looked as though McCain had a chance. Now that Obama has won -- as a direct result -- the market is tanking. Obviously -- almost 500 point loss each day since Obama has won the election!"

Well, the stock market is certainly tanking:

Major indexes have lost about 10 percent since Barack Obama was elected president -- a vote preceded by a steep rally -- and the losses represent the Dow's worst two-day percentage decline since the October 1987 crash.

Is it really fair to blame this on Obama? I don't know, but those who thought he was going to bring about a stock market rally by being elected have certainly turned out to be wrong.

If you don't know, Putz, then kindly STFU. It doesn't take a genius to see that the markets have been reacting to unemployment, the precarious state of hedge funds and the auto industry -- among many factors.

Blaming it on President-Elect Obama is not only stupid, but it conveniently ignores the fact that Putz's boy, George W. Bush, is currently the guy leading this country.

Ah, Shit: John Leonard's Dead.

In his prime, John Leonard's scorched-earth reviews were without equal, with the possible exception of Pauline Kael. Others will say plenty, I hope, so because I love you I'll reproduce a short paragraph from my prized first edition of This Pen for Hire.

Herein Leonard addresses a particularly egregious case of copyediting in The New York Times:

This was the only time during my year and a half as a Times reviewer that such a thing occurred--although once I was asked to change a phrase which described John Lindsay as "like a younger brother or a clubfoot; we are stuck with him."

He will be missed.

Heh. Indeed.

This rules:

...A guy at the bar announces that he’s going to call his Republican friend in Cincinnati. A few minutes later, he’s gleefully shouting into his cell phone.

“Say it!” he laughs. “Say it with me! Say it! ‘PRESIDENT BARACK — ‘ Say it, you fucker! PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA! COME ON, SAY IT!”

It takes several minutes, but his friend apparently complies. A one-man rapture ensues.

Not a landslide?

The wingnuts are naturally trying to downplay the magnitude of Obama's win. And it's true -- I think a "landslide" probably should be reserved for any EV count over 400. By that measure, it wasn't a landslide. But...

• Obama received the most votes of any presidential candidate in history -- over 63M, besting W's 62M in 2004.
• Obama received a higher percentage of votes (53%) than George W. Bush in '04 or '00, than Clinton in '96 or '92, and more than St. Reagan in 1980 (50%). He matches George HW Bush's mark in '88 -- and posted the highest percentage by a Democrat since LBJ's 61% in 1964.
• Obama received more electoral votes (364) than George W. Bush in '04 (286) and '00 (271), more than Carter in '76, and more than Nixon in '68, Kennedy in '60, and Truman in '48.
• Obama brought with him increased gains in the Democratic Senate and House -- the first time Democrats have extended their majorities in back-to-back elections since the 1930s.

Bottom line: the size of Obama's win crushes either of W's, who posted two anemic, 1-state wins, and lost the popular vote in 2000. And this is the guy who they chriped for years about having a "mandate" and was going to remake the country with permanent majorities for the GOP and Peggy Noonan was savoring.

So no, it's not LBJ in 1964. But the wingnuts have lowered the bar for the word "landslide."

Why McCain lost.

Sure, he was probably going to lose anyway -- but these three reasons nailed his coffin.

Who's the Loser?

Putz:

WHAT A BUNCH OF LOSERS. The McCain campaign had its flashes of brilliance, but overall it was a lousy effort. Post-election slams against Sarah Palin merely underscore its not-ready-for-primetime quality, and would make me, if I were a Republican candidate, -- or donor -- far less interested in having anything to do with the slammers in a future campaign.

Other trappings of losers: believing that Palin would bring in Clinton voters and that it was "good advice" for Democrats to not attack Sarah Palin.

Violent Tennessee wingnuts.

First the Knoxville shooter, now this.

More fun from Putz's home state.

The State of Things.

Half of conservatives are angry that Palin was, as Democrats claimed, an idiot; the other, chromosomally-challenged half, are angry at the first half.

I swear, it's like watching a really big, stupid snake eating its tail.

Meanwhile, Putz is still claiming "it wasn't a landslide."















Why? Because Obama didn't win Mississippi and Alabama? I think the sooner Putz gets used to his Socialist overlords, the less painful it'll be for him.

Survey Says...No.

Last week:

AN ARMY OF SARAH PALINS. Will they all be Brainiacs?

In what respect, Charlie?



[via]

...Damn, BT got here first. Late to the party, as usual...

Fox News is in the tank for Obama. And elitist.

Gratifying.

Amazingly reliable.

Like the setting of the sun in the west.

So Funny.

Because he's such a magnanimous wingnut, Yuval Levin is offering advice to President-Elect Obama on how to pick a chief-of-staff:

The White House chief of staff is not a chief strategist or a chief advocate. He is a manager of people and of process. Above all else, he sets the tone internally, and shapes the president’s decision process and the feel of the upper tiers of the administration. Obama is especially in need of someone who will lead him to decisions, because he appears to be intensely averse to making difficult choices—which is the essence of what the president does. His inclination is to step back and conceptualize the choice out of existence, looking reasonable but doing nothing. To overcome this, he will need a chief of staff with a sense of the gravity of the choices the president faces, and one capable of moving the staff to decision, keeping big egos satisfied and calm, and resisting the pressure to be purely reactive to momentary distractions. None of this spells Rahm Emanuel. There is definitely a place for a Rahm Emanuel type of brilliant ruthless shark in a White House staff, but not in the Chief’s office. Not a good first sign.

What's that smell? Oh, right. Flop sweat.

...This should be fun. Let the bloodletting commence..

Peggy, I've Waited A Long Time To Write This:

Savor.

...Thank you, Jason Henderson.

Hey. Peggy.

Let us get our heads around the size and scope of what happened Tuesday. Barack Obama, soon to be the 44th president of the United States, the first president born outside the continental United States, has won a landslide victory. He has done so with a message of hope and aspiration. Resoundingly he has done so.

The Democrats have defeated not only John McCain, but Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina, as well as Republican Senators in (as of this writing) New Mexico, Virginia, and New Hampshire. In the House, there is not a single Republican congressman left in all of New England. This is huge.

Savor.

The whole thing is pretty awesome.

Dear PUMAs,

Love,
TS

Say it With Me: Mandate.

In '04, Putz printed an e-mail that read, in part:

The reason Bush can claim a mandate is fairly simple: his is the only coherent, and wide-ranging "worldview" which is being articulated in this campaign. Everything else is a reaction to and a criticism of that worldview. Should Bush win, even by a relatively narrow margin, I think he can claim that it is vindication of his policies...

To which he replied, "I think that's right."

Fast-forward four years: President-Elect Obama earned more votes than any presidential candidate in U.S. history, and Putz finds this verdict (yawn) rather underwhelming.

Funny, that.

...That was fast.

[Obama] may have opened the door to enactment of the long-deferred liberal agenda, but he neither received a broad mandate from the public nor the needed large congressional majorities.

Ambinder gets it.

Ticking off the reasons McCain lost, MA writes:

-- Sarah Palin. Polling shows that she drove some voters away from Sen. McCain and to Barack Obama. Voters judged her to be too inexperienced to be president. Also, instead of appealing to independents, she became a polarizing figure. ALSO -- her persona highlighted McCain's age and health since she could have taken over. ALSO -- her selection killed the "inexperience" argument against Obama.

But over at The Corner and at Putz's at Dr. Helen's and Red State and Michelle Malkin's, they'll keep insisting Palin is awesome and she should be the nominee in 2012.

Yes He Motherfucking Did.

Until I get the photos, you'll have no idea what last night was like. Until then...

Holy shit.

8 long years, folks.

Bye, John. Bye, Sarah.

It's over.

I blame the media.

How's that taste, Ramesh?

Mmmmm, mmmm good.

Fox Calls OH For Real [Ramesh Ponnuru]

It's over. Obama wins.

Bye, John. Bye, Sarah.

Tom DeLay on MSNBC just now.

Talking about how the Democrats were going to wreck the economy? How can he say this with a straight face?

And could Tweety kiss his ass more?

OMG THEYRE STEALING THE ELECTION OMG!!11!!!!!

A candidate Glenn Reynolds can get behind.

When things go wrong, blame the media.

Possible Headlines for Tomorrow.

-- For the First Time In My Adult Life, I'm Proud to Vote For An Inadequate Black Male.

-- Man·date.

-- ROAR!

Credit Where It's Due.

They certainly know their audience.

Glenn Reynolds' bizarre death wish.

Still doesn't get it:

SO IF, AS SEEMS LIKELY, MCCAIN LOSES TOMORROW, people will be blaming him and Sarah Palin. But let me point out that the Republican Party has been exhibiting a bizarre death wish since 2005. And you can't blame either of them for that. . . .

No, Putz. Most people will blame George W. Bush -- but you certainly won't. The bizarre death wish started in 2000, with choosing a half-wit lightweight as your standard bearer.

In Other News, Pam Geller Tells Us Not to Drink So Much.

Putz is hilarious:

We've had eight years of Bush Derangement Syndrome. Before that, we had eight years of Clinton Derangement Syndrome. And though people forget it now, President Reagan inspired a lot of anger and hatred, too. Can I ask that, regardless of who wins, we tone things down a bit?

That's pretty rich, coming from this guy:

May 03, 2004

THEY'RE NOT ANTIWAR: They're just on the other side.

Sadly, a continuing series.

March 26, 2003

THEY'RE NOT ANTIWAR -- THEY'RE JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE: A continuing series.

Yeah, I'll do my best to not accuse my fellow Americans of treason.

The Perils of Chastity.

Behold:

We're at war. How many of us remember this as we vote today?

The subtext, I guess, is that if you think war is the GREATEST THING EVAR!!11!, well, then by all means vote for Senator McAngrypants.

GOTV!

K-Lo desperately clings to one last pathetic shred of hope.

Heh:

Better today than Thursday, but the Times can feel free to cover it while in full-Obama mode because the damage has been pretty much long done.

Although after your abortion undecided-voter post earlier, maybe there's a significant portion of the population whose vote hangs on this report. Weirder things have happened.

No they haven't.

The Deluge.

Two weeks ago, wingnuts conducted themselves with the expected grace at the news of Madelyn Dunham's illness.

Now that she's passed on, we will no doubt see the these mongoloids crackheads at their best, by which I mean worst.

...It begins.

...The mere existence of this proudly anti-abortion wanker is, paradoxically, an airtight case for abortion:

I also can't help but wonder if perhaps losing his grandmother at this moment might temper down some of the unbelievable hubris of Obama's campaign...

The future leader of the Republican party.

Still stupid.

Clever.

Glenn Reynolds, concern troll.

How does the NY Post print this shit?

The tragedy is that Obama would probably have done just as well - and perhaps better - if his campaign had lived up to his early claims of nice-guy nonpartisanship, instead of looking more like a dirty Chicago Machine effort. Now, if Obama wins, he'll have to deal with a lot more resentment and suspicion. And the rest of us will have to try to push for reforms to make such abuses more difficult.

"Perhaps better" than being +10 in several national polls and leading in 6 of 8 battlegrounds?

And from whom is this suspicion going to come from? The people like Putz who think Obama's a terrorist.

Glenn Reynolds: George Will's an idiot, and Palin is incredibly popular.

Look at the tripe Putz links to these days:

Some polls show that Palin has become an even heavier weight in John McCain’s saddle than his association with George W. Bush.

Will doesn’t name any such polls, of course, nor does he explain what it is about the polls that supposedly show this. Before naming Palin as his running mate, McCain was down by about 10 points. If he ends up losing by significantly more than that, then sure, it would be reasonable to suggest that Palin may have been a limiting factor (though even then it wouldn’t be a slam dunk). But if the net effect of the Palin nomination is for McCain to lose the election but beat the spread, all this Beltway mumbling about Palin hurting McCain is little more than wishful thinking.

Will doesn't name any polls because if you've been paying attention, he shouldn't have to.

What about this one?

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Sunday indicates McCain's running mate is growing less popular among voters and may be costing him a few crucial percentage points in the race for the White House.

Or this one?

Sarah Palin has become a drag on the Republican presidential ticket, the first time in recent political history that a running mate has made such a difference.

Among many independents and moderate Republicans, she's raised serious questions about John McCain's judgment, become too much of a national punch line and reinforced concerns about McCain's age.

There are no polls I'm aware of that show Palin is helping McSame. Her negatives are high and people don't think she's ready for the job. This isn't opinion, it's a fact.

To argue that she's helping McCain is to deny reality.

As far as the claim that "McCain was down by about 10" before naming Palin, let's cue the tape. (McCain on the right, Obama on the left).

So a couple weeks before he named Palin, two of the polls showed that McCain was actually ahead. Generally, it seems like Obama had small lead until McCain named Palin, but the idea that he was up 10 is not supported by the facts.

Seen In Fort Greene.

Dear K-Lo,

Please die.

Love,
TS

PS:



...to elaborate somewhat: when they lose on Tuesday, wingers have no real right to complain. Mere days before an election, a leading light of the party -- that's a problem, isn't it? -- is doing everything she can do ensure that the GOP gets zero votes from teh gays.

Well done, you fucking manatee.

...also, I know it's wrong to wish death on someone, but I've got no truck for such casual homophobia. Over at The Corner, gay is the new black.

Putz Takes the High Road on the Obama's Aunt Story... But Not Really!

"I think people should leave her alone," Putz intones, as he links to the AP story and a post by Powerline.

K-Lo on Palin.

What word is missing from this K-Lo defense of Palin? Polls.

It is true that Palin isn't ultimately to blame -- McSame picked her. But the idea that somehow she's helping the ticket is demonstrably false.

Studs Terkel, RIP.

This sucks.

“I’ve met hundreds, no, I’ve met thousands of interesting people, and I’ve been so caught up with them and fascinated by them and intrigued with them, it’s almost like there’s no room inside me to be interested in my own feelings and thoughts,” he told an interviewer.

It may be the one time in his life that Mr. Terkel’s ruling passion failed him. “I don’t have to stay curious, I am curious, about all of it, all the time,” he once said. “ ‘Curiosity never killed this cat’ — that’s what I’d like as my epitaph.”

Studs was a prince. He never had an unkind word about anyone, save for maybe Christopher Hitchens, who, it will not surprise you, deserved it.

There's much that can and will be said about him, but Studs' death -- like Bellow's -- is jarring because he was, in a very real way, the last of Old Chicago.

"I'll keep going till I check out," he once told a reporter. "I've gotta keep goin', you know?"