Yes, it's a shame we didn't hear more details about the Gore-Obama meeting. Especially in light of what Bush is doing last minute with policy re: drilling and so forth near Federal parks...

Wait, Blagojevich was arrested? All I can find are articles about Oprah's weight!

Steve, do you happen to know if the financial instruments that have us in this mess can be outlawed?

The conservative group, launched in mid-2007, was bankrolled by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and catapulted on to the political scene after being billed as the Republican’s answer to the left’s MoveOn.org.

Oh the puns are endless:
Adelson bets the house, FW buys the farm.

FW craps out.

FW, a gamble that didn't pay off.

... I heard they refused a TARP bailout on principle.

Am I the only one who's noticing the similarity in hairstyle between Blago the Hutt and Jim Traficant (D-Federal Bureau of Prisons)?

a story of interest to everyone who comments here [or anywhere]

the Maryland Court of Appeals is hearing a case asking if the host of an online forum can be forced to give up the real names of people who leave "allegedly defamatory comments," using screen-names...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/08/AR2008120803405.html

What a day. I'd like to weep for the general worthlessness, corruption and what-might-have-been of it all, but it's just too funny. FW's going under is like one of Mallard Fillmore's straw men going up in smoke. Emmanuel outing Blagojevich? Considering rumors about him, it's just too wonderful. And, other resemblance aside, Blago has a far better toupe than Traficant -- in the same league as Jack Riley, Carlin of the old Bob Newhart show, who played a guy wearing a toupe while insisting he, the actor, had a full head of hair and doing it so well I could never figure out if he was kidding or not. Since he was never photographed without it and none of his online bios have recent pictures, I still don't know. So -- great toupe, Rod. Hope they let you keep it in the slammer. And Newhart is still on every Monday night on Senior Citizen, excuse me, American Life TV.

Steve Benen wrote: "It's a real shame this got buried today, but Obama, Biden, and Gore apparently had a good discussion this afternoon about global warming."

It is indeed a real shame.

The president-elect meets with a Nobel laureate former vice-president to discuss matters that affect the very survival of the human species on this planet, and everyone is focused on some run-of-the-mill Corrupt-Politician-Of-The-Month.

Rearrange deck chairs much?

If I were Serbian I'd demand that Blagojevich change his last name to something not so clearly ethnic. The Serbs haven't had any positive public relations since that unfortunate assassination of Archduke Ferdnand in 1914.

Maybe they should hire "Duke" from Doonesbury to do PR for them. I understand that he has lost his gig with the President-for-life of Berzerkerstan recently and he's available.

Regarding the IED article, I have two names to add:
Donald Rumsfeld

Al Qa'Qaa

Brilliant strategy, Don, heckuva job.

* After a couple of good sessions, Wall Street had a rough day, with the Dow dropping another 242 points.

What is the fucking point of this day by day reporting of inane wall street stats? How about the average temperature of the US? Was today warmer or higher than the historical average?

Jesus fucking christ. People who give a shit know where to look to find this information.

And news flash: people who give a shit about wall street don't give a shit about much of anything else. Fuck them.

There I Said It, maybe time for some anger management classes? You sound like Mrs. Blago discussing the Cubs. (And she wasn't discussing the DeRosa-for-Peavy trade.)

My wife just found out Blagoyevich is Serbian (and did Lou Dobbs ever mangle his name a second ago), only the second Serbian to be elected governor after George Voinovich of Ohio. The consonantal swearwords are flying thick in the air around here. Jebem vam boga! Ne vre dis ni pola pizde vove! (You don't want to know.)

Another big story that seems to have gotten buried by the Blagorrhea: Waxman excoriating the FreddieMac & FannieMae execs, who fired their chief risk manager because he warned them against continuing to issue bad loans that generated them huge cash bonuses.

These crooks ought to be forced to make full restitution, and then take a minimum wage job for 5 years as part of their probation agreement.

Did you notice that government debt is so attractive, compared to other investments, that the 3-month T-bill discount rate went negative today?

Says something about how unwilling anyone is to invest in anything else. And, incidentally, why debt-financed public stimulus makes sense.

It's a real shame this got buried today, but Obama, Biden, and Gore apparently had a good discussion this afternoon about global warming."

Hard to tell from the article whether it was a meaningless, typical photo-op meeting with some dignitary or a real policy session. Nobody will cover it in depth because it's just boring stuff, about the fate of the planet. That doesn't compare with the escapades of celebrities and politicians, and now we've got a real scandal to contend with, too. But I was surprised when looking in on the cable shows that they still had time for that manufactured controversy over the crazy, shrill leftists going after Obama for breaking his promises.

My wife just found out Blagoyevich is Serbian [...]
The consonantal swearwords are flying thick in the air around here. Jebem vam boga! Ne vre dis ni pola pizde vove! (You don't want to know.) -- ericfree on @18:53

But I *do* (want to know) :) You can skip "jebem" and "pizde", because they're the same in Polish, but the rest... I understand the first sentence and I'm already in awe of Serbian imagination -- none of our curses are quite that inventive. I bet the second sentence is a doozy, too and am looking forward to a full translation.

I had been wandering about his origins because the name is "generic Slavic" and could, easily, have been Polish. The "yevich/jewicz" ending means "little" (as in: child [of someone]) in just about all of them. And "blaga" is a cant term for "big lie" or "trick/scam" in Polish...

exlibra: Probably better not, even on the internet, out of respect for our host. Just say that the second one is pornographic and, as you figured out, the first one is pornographic AND blasphemous, not a combination you often find in English.

There I Said It,

Perhaps you shouldn't have.

One of my biggest pet peeves are trolls who question the topics a blogger decides to write about.

If you're name is Paul Glastris, then by all means, be critical. Otherwise, scroll past what you don't want to read and stop clogging up the comments with bandwidth wasting complaints.

Thain's "honorable and voluntary" request to forgo a 10 million dollar bonus was a good start. Now he should return his 15 million dollar signing bonus because he certainly didn't produce.

Look for Blagojevich to be the new Bill Ayers. Right wing talk radio is already pushing the campaign of innuendo and guilt by association.

Interesting, Boy George will say he kept America safe from further attacks on U.S. soil,

Let's remind the GOP, true, but it's no secret the terrorists made it clear, the foreign fighters crossed borders into Afghanistan and Iraq to fight us there to get real combat training!!!!

So true, not on U.S. soil, but on Middle Eastern soil - false!!!

Questions questions... How do they decide that $4500 is enough bail money? Do you suppose he hit someone up for the cash? Do they take off the wiretaps once he is charged?

Paulo,

that's called political grandstanding = politics

For all the people who think that you shouldn't make fun of someone's misfortune..... I think it is AWESOME that Sheldon Adelson has lost more than 16 billion dollars over the last 11 months.

It couldn't have happened to a better person. Just think... He sponsored the Swiftboaters, and many other unsavory Rove-style groups that allowed Bush to be re-elected in 2004.

You could argue that the vast amount of money Adelson spent during that election cycle was partly responsible for Bush's victory.

Thanks to Bush' victory and Adelson's identical belief system in Free Market and Low Taxes - which was allowed to continue we now see the demise of Adelson and the disgrace of the GOP in pretty stark black & white terms.

Black and White contrast: the only thing Republican voters understand.

It's great to see another GOP attempt fail.

First off, everyone is innocent till proven guilty. One could say anything in a complaint. To make it into a legal chase in the United States, the complaint is often associated with misdemeanor criminal charges presented by the prosecutor without the grand jury process. Like now, Fitzgerald is grand standing in the media about a complaint not an Indictment.

In most U.S. jurisdictions, the charging instrument presented to and authorized by a grand jury is referred to as an indictment. In many U.S. jurisdictions, a complaint submitted to a court must be accompanied by a Case Information Statement, “which sets forth certain key information about the case and the lawyers representing the parties.� This allows the judge to make determinations about which deadlines to set for different phases of the case, as it moves through the court system.

For me, the whole initialization including the arrest is very funny especially when on one reads paragraph 12 here Fitzgerald opens up to his own admission “I have not included each and every fact known to me concerning this investigation.� This does not fill the character of an honest drag net principle. Just the fact folks, just the facts. Watching news clips of Fitzgerald is interesting; he looks uneasy, actually uncomfortable, and not very confident. Here, if the judge knows these each and every fact that Fitzgerald is not including in the indictment one can submit that the judge is complicit with a conspiracy to frame an elected official, so the judge should be removed from office?

Don’t forget this is a Complaint not an Indictment. For me, there is a very troubling part about this Complaint in the sense that the background of John Harris does not fit in this story. Mr. Harris who is grounded in legal matters is disturbing,
NAME — John F. Harris
TITLE — Chief of staff to Gov. Rod Blagojevich
AGE-BIRTHDATE — 46; Feb. 17, 1962
HOME — Chicago
FAMILY — Wife, Patricia, and three sons.
EDUCATION — Graduated from Northwestern University in 1984 and Loyola University law school in 1987.
EXPERIENCE — Intelligence officer and judge advocate general in U.S. Army, 1984-1992; administration of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, including stint as budget director, 1996-2005; Blagojevich administration 2005-present.
and if proven to be accurate and in a scheme, if Mr. Harris is found guilty that is deceitful with lies, he should be prosecuted and convicted along with Blagojevich.

With that said, and knowing from the time Blagojevich was elected he was under investigation and continuous harassment with that singular press that is anchored in the Republican Party.

This whole story is partisan biased and loaded questions with hate in what might be not considered massive corruption in the State of Illinois but really is a massive political battle across the nation were the Republicans, Bush and Company, could be flushed out more than they figured. But from what I understand there is a huge line up of first line Journalist that have legal degrees, Such as Joe Scarbough, and the former judge on Fox News, too which are public broadcasters and diligently receive six figure pay checks and bonus’s to accomplish what one could say is the same objectives, the same reasons to get a good job, good pay, and personal growth. Very few of these perpetrators are held accountable.

Inclosing, Blagojevich is characterized as a “PUNK� on CNN NEWS. Here is a special example of the real national new low in news when this sort of smearing occurs. If one takes a hard look at Sarah Palin and her campaigning speeches one can come away with the same notion. Sarah Palin come across as a “PUNK� in the same sense only she is easy on the eyes so she gets away with that feminine stuff. Guy’s have more of that disadvantage even if they claim honesty like Rod. Now we shall see how tough Blagojevich is or John Harris.

One wonders when it’s a story like this can have the him, him, and him starring out you, but don’t forget Fitzgerald has the me, me, me through out his career too. Then we have the Mainstream Media out of the Blue telling all America the sky is falling we are in chaos. Sheesh.

Another item: David Axelrod is now saying he "misspoke" when he told Fox News in November that he "knew" Obama had spoken to Blagojevich about the Senate seat. True or not, I don't like that: "misspoke," indeed.

Megalomania,

As a female, I find it quite insulting to say that Sarah Palin is given a pass because she's female and easy on the eyes.

First of all, to me, it would be like listening to Roseann Barr talk all day. Don't get me wrong, I like Roseanne. But, can you imagine talking to her all day. Her voice is irritating.

Second, she's not bright at all. No, I don't proclaim to be the smartest chip on the block, but I'm not that dumb. Why give her a pass? Besides, she's no Diane Lane, nor is she Julie Banderas from Fox News.

One important note, you guys think that it's all Sarah's idea to be forefront on the political stage. It's not, it's Todd. Why do you think Todd sits in on all business dealings in her office. Apparently, there's something in his background preventing him from running office. Just like Rove is Bushes brain, Todd is Sarah's Brain. Without him, she's your typical dingbat.

Why is the Drudge Report taking credit for something it didn't do?

http://muchedumbre.com/the-buggery-of-the-drudge-report

What a surprise Blogo isn't going to resign. Somehow I knew that this guy is so selfish and egotistical that he will try and wait it out. Too bad the people in Illinois have to suffer. Hopefully the legislature can figure out a way to boot his sorry ass.

From Annjell,

“Megalomania,
As a female, I find it quite insulting to say that Sarah Palin is given a pass because she's female and easy on the eyes.�

Heck, Annjell, sorry if your insulted, did not mean to press your hot button but that is just my opinion and don’t think it relates to many other men because I don’t see it discussed here.

However, for me, I would push the envelope to extend that sort of thing to who the Media likes and dislikes, up front or behind the scenes. That goes especially for political types.

Across the board my distrust of the modern media journalist has developed through the years. The real distrust has been with many of the women commentators and journalist. Because, not only appearance but also personal connections, political, business, and professional.

The whole system smacks of cronyism and likely telephone interplay way beyond anything Blagojevich could ever dream of in activity between all types on the three basic CNN, MSNBC, and FOX. And hate radio. Bet your bootie they talk like hell off screen.

Annjell, just like these political big shots know who the perverts are, they just weasel them out as collateral damage when the time is ripe for any political advancement.

Gay, or Straight, exampled the Senator wide the wide stance or by adultery like Barbra Walters, yet is just shoved under the carpet. Heck if that was Hillary, it would be videoed for 24x7 till your head spinned off and Jay Leno died all his hair black for his boy friend.

Or take Andrea Mitchell wife of former Federal Reserve chairman key player in America’s economic chaos is primer advisor and political commentary on MSNBC is way more discussing than anything Blagojevich is doing. This gal is in the trillion dollar scams. If anything Blagojevich is small time compared to Andrea Mitchell. Love to hear Andrea’s phone conversations.

Certainly folks in the Pentagon deserve blame for not taking the IED threat in Iraq more seriously, but you can find a similar attitude in the staffing decisions for the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq), where opposing the Roe v. Wade decision was more important than having the ability to get the job done. The common factor in these cases was a president who wasn't serious about winning the war in Iraq.