Woooo! Roland Burris! Alright!!

So NOW Barak is promising to take precautions not to bomb UN facilities? Maybe they could have done that a wee bit sooner.

Ken Salazar vowed to clean up the "mess" at the Interior Department. That's no small task.

Well, as long as he can keep his staffers from openly running bribery and prostitution rackets, he will already be way ahead of the standards the Bush administration set for the department.

As to Playmobile security checkpoint, if you go to the product page on amazon, you see 'Customers who viewed this item also viewed... "Safecracker (thieves)"' which comes with two crooks, a big safe, a cutting torch with associated tanks, and a case filled with swag. But hurry, only one left at the supplier (there were 2 but I could not turn it down....)

"All five pets on board perished due to their location in underbelly of plane."

1. "Grave mistake" my ass. Olmert's just doing what we've done in the past.

2. Salazar? The man once threatened to sue Fish & Wildlife if it put the black-tailed prairie dog on the ESA. Some Interior Secretary.

Oscar Grant? Yeah, that's a pretty straightforward murder charge. I hope the Alameda DA also remembers to charge other BART cops who tried to confiscate cell cams, for obstruction of justice or whatever will stick.

I found this post on hotair to be pretty funny:

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/01/15/what-are-the-best-conservative-movies-of-the-past-25-years/

The idea is to list the most "bona-fide conservative movies" of the past 25 years. Ed Morrisey says:

Saving Private Ryan (1998) - For many of the same reasons as The Great Raid, made even more clear by the highly realistic battle scenes, which make clear the sacrifice asked and made.

Because sacrificing during wartime is a conservative value. I guess that's why Bush asked for all those sacrifices over the past several years. Well, he did ask poor kids to sacrifice their healthcare (SCHIP), but I guess asking the wealthiest Americans to roll back some tax breaks would be *too much* sacrifice.

Requiem for a Dream (2000) - Harrowing depiction of the destruction of lives from drug addiction, even from prescription drugs. Definitely not for everyone, but brilliant in every aspect of production. In the end, the main characters lose their souls, their freedom, and their minds. Perhaps Ellen Burstyn’s best performance.

All non-conservatives are drug addicts. Got it.

United 93 (2006) - Harrowing and heartrending depiction of the 9/11 flight that didn’t hit its intended target, thanks to the heroism of the passengers on the flight. Facing certain death, they fought back against the Islamist terrorists, becoming the first Americans to do so on that awful day.

All the passengers on Flight 93 were conservatives. Didnt know that.

Glory (1989) - The true story of the Massachusetts 54th in the Civil War, which led an ill-starred assault on a fortified position for the Union and suffered massive casualties. The all-black regiment fought for freedom, dignity, and honor, and gave their lives gladly for those causes. Great performances by Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman make this highly compelling.

No bigger hallmark of conservatism throughout the years than racial integration. Yep.

Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) - The trilogy should occupy one spot, but it’s an important one. In the fantasy realm, it speaks to true evil and the need to fight it, even to the death. The final battle, in which Aragorn attempts to sacrifice his entire army so that Frodo can complete the quest, has one of the most stirring battle speeches in film history. No one in this film argues for moral equivalency or the idea that Sauron might just be misunderstood.

Gee, maybe the reason there was no need for understanding the other side's viewpoint was *because* it was a fantasy realm?

There are others from his readers that are just as ludicrous. It's amazing that these folks can keep a straight face while insisting that things such as "a family that works together", "bravery", "Christianity", "hard work", and yes, even "love" are all de facto examples of conservatism.

All liberals are dysfunctional, cowardly, lazy atheists who wouldnt know love even if it pierced their tiny black hearts!

* A terrible mistake: "Israeli forces shelled the United Nations headquarters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, setting fire to the compound filled with hundreds of refugees [...] -- Steve Benen, after MSNBC

However, Think Progress, linking to NYT, has this quote:
While continuing to shell Gaza today, Israeli forces hit “the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that assists Palestinian refugees and another occupied by several media organizations.�

Please note the "and another, occupied by several media organizations". Then, add in the UN school (where refugees were hiding, also) which they bombed a few days ago, and ask yourself whether it sounds like a "terrible mistake" (in singular, yet!), or a concerted effort at blocking all relief to Gaza, eliminating refugees en masse and making sure that none of it is reported to the world. Or, perhaps, they just share Bolton's opinion of UN and the press...

"Israeli forces shelled...."

Mistake my ass. These goons have the training and technological capacity to hit a single moving automobile on a crowded street---and they can't avoid hitting a UN warehouse full of food?

By the way---the "hospital" they hit was being operated by the International Red Cross. Not the "Red Crescent," but the RED CROSS. If you click the link, you'll note how they just "accidentally" hit the front entrance and the pharmacy (courtesy of hyperaccurate GPS targeting capabilities provided, of course, by our good old US Government.

Query---is Israel a signatory to the Geneva Conventions? If they are, today's atrocities constitute blatant war crimes....

Why would Israeli forces, supposedly so tech savvy and well-trained, have so much damn trouble so often with these "accidents" that happen to involve the UN facilities so much?

Atrios linked to the Playmobil Security Checkpoint 3 or 4 years ago. I've had it on my Amazon wishlist ever since.

Any decent US President would ask our Intel whether they thought such shellings etc. were mistakes, and then publicly announce those findings to embarrass rogues like the Israelis (almost certainly trying to teach the UN a lesson and not a mistake.)

NB, all, like I said before, Israel probably learned from our Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, shelling the media and such.

Sanctity of Human Life Day?

Indeed. If you actually look at the press release, it's clear that the only life they consider sacred is that of unborn fetuses. Postpartum life, particularly if Muslim? Not so much. It goes on to note that "[l]ater on, the President joined a group of pro-life supporters at a nearby airbase to write the message "Suck on it, bitches!" on 2000 lb. bunker-busting bomb warheads due to be flown to Israel on Friday in support of ongoing operations in Gaza."

"Israeli forces shelled the United Nations headquarters in the Gaza Strip"

Everything I was about to say was already posted.

* Sanctity of Human Life Day? -- Steve Benen

On which day, all married Christian women will submit to their husbands, headaches or not. Also, all unmarried Christian men will refrain from masturbating. Nothing to do with things like suspension of wars for 24hrs, so that aid could be delivered to hospitals and such.

jonas, @18:34,
The more I listen to their definition of "human life", the more I have a feeling it's not even about the sanctity of the fetus; more the sanctity of the male seed. Which, God forbid, should be spilled wastefully, a la Onan. If it were otherwise, they wouldn't be railing against contraception.

Query---is Israel a signatory to the Geneva Conventions? If they are, today's atrocities constitute blatant war crimes....

Yes, Israel is a signatory. Do they care if what they're doing is objectively a war crime under said treaty? No. Why? Because you're an antisemite.

Technically, the PLO also ratified the Geneva Conventions in 1989, but since there is no officially recognized "state" of Palestine as of yet, it's unclear if, e.g. Fatah, would be bound by it or not. Hezbollah and Hamas naturally don't consider themselves bound by anything like it, which makes it easier for the Israelis to claim that if their enemies aren't playing by the rules, why should they?

UPDATE:

ABC News just had video of Olmert saying that they INTENTIONALLY hit the UN compound because "Hamas gunman" had used it and "they HAD to respond".

So much for it being a "mistake".

Oh, and the UN staff at the location said Olmert's claims were "NONSENSE".

@ TD Chicago: If the Lord of the Rings trilogy were really a conservative movie, Aragorn and Gandalf would have realized that to beat Sauron's forces, they would have to be willing to act like Sauron as well, torturing Hobbits, Men and Elves who might have information as to the movement of orc armies. Minas Tirath would have been saved, but then completely looted and destroyed in the aftermath of the battle and Sauron would have been allowed to escape while Aragorn assumed the throne and pretended that he had been defeated.

Sanctity of Hymen Life Day is just as hypocritical as County First while picking Palin as VP candidate.

Bush is clearly insane. His outgoing fantasy of what he stood for is just pathetic. I'm surprised he didn't announce a "Just Say No to Poverty" day.

Sanctity of Human Life Day coming from a president responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths of innocent men, women and children and massive destruction of an entire country who also had innocent men women and children tortured...tortured...how much more absurdly insane can one get??? Give the man back his pet mouse and piece of felt...yes, you're the president...yes.

jonas,

"Hezbollah and Hamas naturally don't consider themselves bound by anything like it, which makes it easier for the Israelis to claim that if their enemies aren't playing by the rules, why should they?"

Eh, easy answer is that Hezbollah and Hamas don't have Israel under illegal military occupation.

Second Guest for Glenn Beck will be Palin's true-blue soul mate:
Joe the skin-head Plumber.

Let the UK present a new UN resolution, making sure it comes up after noon Jan. 20. Let's see what Olmert does then, and what Obama does then.

Olmert is saying, "Look, the US got away with shock and awe didn't they. Nobody's gonna stop us if we decide to kill 'em all."... Here is a pathetic comparable story:

"Me and the boys had to share a territory with another gang. We had to be cool because we got protection, weapons and money from a backer who always wanted us to be “fair� and not start embarrassing fights with ‘em which always ended up being costly and didn’t make the backer look good.
So-s we had to be subtle and get these other guys mad enough to attack us first…then we could clean house…I mean eat ‘em up and spread out…end up with more territory and a better deal. But these guys weren’t so easily riled. We called ‘em names…spit in their faces, pissed in their water…set up check points and blockades. It took awhile but the blockades kept ‘em from doing business and their wives and kids couldn’t get food or medicine and so on…so they starts throwing bottles over the houses onto our cars and busted out windshields. By the time we got to the back yards they’d be gone to another yard and throwing more bottles over the houses. Now we had ‘em going. We let it go on for awhile and barely bitched about it but made sure our backer knew every time bottles landed…that way we look like the victims…hahaha. Then after weeks of this…we started let ‘em have it…boy did we let ‘em have it…and the funny part is …the backer thinks they started it and they deserved what we were doin’ to ‘em….hahaha…suckers. Now soon we’ll be sittin’ down with ‘em again and getting a better deal than ever….and the backer will give us whatever we ask for. Funny, huh?"

I almost died laughing at the checkpoint reviews. Absolutely brilliant.

@exlibra

Oh, you're absolutely right. The politics of abortion has been, since antiquity, about male control of female reproductive capability. Greek, Roman and then Christian laws all frowned upon, if not prohibited, seeking or providing abortions -- not out of concern for the "innocent" preborn life -- but because people (viz. men) presumed it was primarily being used by women to conceal pre- or extramarital affairs. If you were a properly married women, why would you want to abort a child. Unless birth of said child was ironclad evidence that you had been fooling around? If that was the case, it was of course the pater familias' prerogative to order the child exposed or killed, which was fine because it was the man's decision. Christianity, to it's credit, largely did away with that practice in Europe, but the logic of banning abortion remained the same. The so-called pro life movement has found, however, that they get more traction politically using the "protecting innocent life" rhetoric than the "every sperm is sacred" stuff, which is what they really believe.

that Oscar Grant footage is disgusting. do police not understand YET that everything they do is being filmed now? this cannot be anything less than 2nd degree murder. even accidentally, you point a gun at someone lying handcuffed on the ground and it goes off? sorry, if I did that, it would be murder, same for the police in this circumstance.

In other news, Israel attacks UN as part of its scorched earth policy in Gaza.

Sen. Biden said Obama would be tested early on, but who knew it would be Israel doing the testing?

Stop the violence.
Just say 'no' (or is it 'know'?).
Israel is giving Jews a bad rep.
A person could embrace Jews and Judaism, but still not support Israel's overkill in Gaza.
Enough is enough.

Why does the Israeli Defense(sic) Forces shell hospitals, schools and UN refugee centers?

Because it can.

Well, as long as he can keep his staffers from openly running bribery and prostitution rackets, he will already be way ahead of the standards the Bush administration set for the department. Posted by: jonas on January 15, 2009

If I hadn't read about it before I'd have thought this was a silly joke. Truth can indeed be stranger than fiction.

George Bush has just announced in his speech this evening that in the waning hours of his administration he intends to end all poverty and war around the world. He admits there is little time left, but says people have misunderestimated him before and he will get this done, right after his vacation ends.
/snark

Like everyone else, I don't believe Israel at any level. They better change, or they are dooming themselves.

On Dec. 27th, 2008, The Spirit of Dignity, aid boat traveling to Gaza, ship was rammed by Israeli Navy, forced to land in Lebanon.

Today, according to www.freegaza.org, The Spirit of Humanity, aid boat was surrounded by Israeli Navy in international waters. Aid workers aboard this ship alleges the Israeli Navy threatened to shoot everyone on board if they didn't turn around and go back to Cyprus.

Over a week now, Palestinians have reported to www.freegaza.org that the Israelis were using phosphorus and that the bombs were tearing/burning the flesh of the Palestinians.

I'm sure Glenn Beck WON'T be asking Palin about the fact that Alaskan native villagers are starving and freezing to death. I'm sure that Beck won't question Palin as to why she believes the Cook Inlet Beluga Whales should be rendered extinct in order to drill baby drill. I'm sure Beck will lick her feet and make her feel pretty. It will definitely be a meeting of dual stupids.

another successful biojetfuels test:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4299105.html

Algae, jatropha, camelina: take your pick.

oh yeah right, the Israelis made a mistake when they bombed the UN building. RIGHT, like they made a "mistake" when they bombed the USS Liberty. give me a break...

God damn, I was about to write what richard Madrid did in almost the same words.

Last week I saw on CNN early morning edition, that John Chapetz & another republican staying-living in the Capitol to save money. Mr. Chapetz from Utah said otherwise, he'd have to rent an apartment at $1500 a month, and he needed to send this money home to his family.

Today, CNN reported that a Federal Agency will give Boy George an office of 8,000 sq ft near his home after he leaves office.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055906.html - U.S. will give $1 billion in loan guarantees to Israel over WestBank settlements.

also,

Israel wants to replace Thai workers with Sudanese Refugees - what? Two years ago, it was Chinese workers. I remember the Chinese were upset that they weren't making money, and when tried to escape, the Israelis claim they didn't know who they were. The Chinese workers trying to escape were either/or sent to jail/deported.

Sanctity of Human Life Day?

Silly rabbit, Palestinian children don't count as "human life" like caucasian embryos do.

The darkness that we see floating to the surface reminds me of something that I experienced as a nurse. When someone is shocky and whose systems have been close to complete shutdown is resuscitated, for a while, things get much worse as all the poisons that were trapped in the periphery due to poor circulation and other systems failures, are delivered into circulation. There is frequently a period when you think that you can't save the person --- things are too bad, to dire (though you keep working at it and stay hopeful). Recovery is raggedy, sometimes ugly for quite some time.

If we take that analogy to our current events, we are still in the phase of the patient crashing. Stuff will get much worse once we institute measures to make things better and may get really bad before they get better...

Bush's address tonight was the last seizure, the last big bleed, the last acute exacerbation of the condition that has afflicted our nation. We just have to stay heads down and working on recovery, on our path forward -- each of us lined up to donate our (citizen) blood, our caring and attention through the next time period.

I am so proud of our country/nation on this eve before the inauguration...I cannot express to you my determination to work -- to bring us together...(and you know that it is us, right)...

Thanks to all of you, to all of us --- this evening -- the eve of the birthday of MLK --- one of this nation's founding fathers even years after 1776....

With the shelling of the UN building, makes one wonder if Cheney, finally, had volunteered for military service and had been assigned as a forward observor for an Isreali artillery battalion. "Blue flag, fire for effect" sorta guy.

Salazar, along with Mary Shapiro at the SEC and Vilsack at Ag are three terrible choices for the new administration. It will be more of the same go along get along with mega business interests. Yes, President Obama, you could have done far, far better.

In his most recent screed the increasingly odious Thomas Friedmann hypothesized that Israel's strategy in Lebanon was to cause significant collateral damage; and as collateral damage is by definition inadvertent and unintended, this is a complete oxymoron. It does, however, seem that the IDF is doing a lot of damage "accidentally on purpose," so Friedmann's Orwellian language may actually be sadly close to the truth.

Um, any chance we could get the USAir pilot to run the TARP program?

That landing on water was astounding. So much could have gone wrong and it all went right. Tail down, nose up, wings level, wheels retracted, miss the bridge, dodge the ferries, avoid land, seal your intake and exhaust valves, get life vests on everyone, don't even think of what it would do to New York City to hit a building, don't hit any cruise ships, remember to document that there was a flock of birds in your way, alert the emergency responders, slow your speed and make it all look easy.

Planes aren't boats. Imagine if some ship captain tried to get his cruise ship to fly. Yeah, right. Now stop and admire perfection. You don't get to see it every day.

Captain Sullenberger is right up there with Robert Piche. He's the pilot back in 2001 who glided an Airbus 330 for 18 minutes over the Atlantic with no fuel to make a deadstick landing in the Azores.

Note: For the record, Captain Piche's success was the biggest plane story in the month of August 2001. September, of course, had it's own story of the month...