Genson probably just didn't feel like doing any more pro bono work for Blago, who still owes his last criminal defense attorney a half mil.

Hey! Does this mean Blago will represent himself?! That'd be entertaining if it didn't make me flush scarlet with shame for my state.

The final cylon is Muffit II
http://www.examiner.com/x-1765-Underground-Examiner~y2009m1d8-Underground-prediction-final-cylon-is-Muffit-II

more good news on solar power:

http://www.solardaily.com/reports/Suntech_Achieves_1GW_Solar_Cell_And_Module_Production_Capacity_999.html

I think that this means they can manufacture 1 GW of electric power generating capacity per year, which is approximately the equivalent of 1 nuclear power plant. It is not, however, really "green" power, because the electricity used in manufacture comes from the dirtiest coal in the world. Once the electricity comes from previously manufactured PV cells (as with one factory in the U.S.), then electricity from future PV cells will be green. Or "almost green" -- the materials in the PV cells are toxic, but they are also expensive, so most likely the materials from old PV cells will be recycled into new PV cells -- we just don't know yet.

From my reading, I anticipate that numerous companies in Japan, U.S. and Germany will announce that they have at least 1 GW power per year of output capacity.

Here is an Update on the Tennessee GOP Debacle.

Speaker to Be Mumpower, a wingnut of great renown, had planned a coronation completing with Official Photographer and 65 flags to be flown over the capital bldg in his honor.

Things didn't go according to plan

Sully sounds like an amazingly adept pilot and all around terrific guy. I wonder if it was a 'Zen-like' moment when he realized that he was on his own?

If he just went by intuition which was guided by years of practice and paying attention (?).

_________________________________________________

Hopefully we can look at this and learn--I don't think this was a "Miracle" by any stretch of the imagination.

He was clearly darn lucky what with these three factors that also combined to save lives:

1. Time of day
2. Hudson River is no Ocean
3. Ferry boats right there to rescue

Not to mention the good works of the co-pilot,
the good works of bystanders on commuter ferries,
the ability to get out of the plane and onto it's wings in rapid time, the diving rescue of some who did indeed submerge into frigid waters..
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Amazing stroke of genius competency (Co-pilot too) along with luck of factors they had no control of.

Fred Barnes: when someone refers to the next president as "Monkey Boy," muster the courage to express some kind of disapproval.

Why? Democrats and liberals have been referring to the current president as "Chimpy", yet you have not called upon Democrats and liberals to express "some kind of disapproval". Other presidents have been called lower primates, such as chimpanzee for Nixon and Reagan, and gorilla for Lincoln. An Obama advisor called Sen. Clinton a "beast" and a "monster", and other prominent Obama supporters supplied equally insulting epithets to Clinton and to Gov. Palin. In support of Obama, Sen. Kerry drew attention to Sen. McCain's alleged need for Depends. Judge Thomas, SecStates Powell and Rice have been called "Uncle Tom", "house slave", "oreo", "trained monkey", and worse.

Citing Truman: "It goes with the territory" and "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." Obama doesn't deserve extra rudeness because he is an African-American, but neither does he get a pass.

I give up. Is this a parody or not?

Why Do Homosexuals Want to Serve in the Military? For Sex, Of Course

The guy's other columns and his website look serious (well, as serious as your average rightwing blogger). Yet this site does do humor as well as serious commentary. And stuff like this:

I’ll tell you why having openly homosexual military members in the military is an awful idea. Go to West Hollywood or San Francisco the last weekend in June during “Gay Pride� festivities and take a good look at what these people are doing. Then ask yourself if any of them should have anything to do with national security, and if they should serve with, or be in charge of you, your son or your daughter if they were in the military.

If that doesn’t convince you, then you need to understand that homosexuals predominantly want to serve in the military in order to have access to people their own age with whom to engage in sex. It’s just that simple. It’s all about sex, and not about serving the nation.

...sure doesnt seem like it could possibly be for real.

I just wanted to remind everyone that this blog is still ugly and will never truly replace The Carpetbagger Report. In other annoying news, I'm still blogging.

Oh, and I'm hosting The Carnival of the Liberals blog carnival on January 28th, so be sure to check that out. The theme will be "I Know Obama Will Betray Me Because...", though other submissions are welcome.

Why?

Because of the long history of African-Americans being portrayed as subhuman beasts closer to monkeys than white people are. Why do you think they called Lincoln a "gorilla"? They weren't talking about his appearance. They were promulgating the rumor that he himself was black (which was supposedly why he was so concerned about slavery).

If you watch a little too much BBC America and start going around calling people "cunts," the guys probably won't care. The women will probably punch you in the face. Because -- brace yourself -- different words mean different things when applied to different people.

MatthewRMarler - Do you understand the concept of false equivalency? Samantha Powers was speaking off the record when she called Clinton a monster. Kerry was criticized for the Depends Joke. You don't say who, specifically calle Bush Chimpy, or Thomas et al Uncle Tom, etc. or whether they happened in public. But if you're a serious pundit, and someone calls you on TV and calls someone one of these things, it's only civil to ask them to refrain.

Meanwhile, I'm guessing I'm not the only one who is getting really tired of your insincere nonsense.

If that doesn’t convince you, then you need to understand that homosexuals predominantly want to serve in the military in order to have access to people their own age with whom to engage in sex. It’s just that simple. It’s all about sex, and not about serving the nation.

What? 19-year-olds are interested in sex? And they might even have sex with their co-workers from time to time?

Gosh, you never, ever hear about straight people getting together at work and having sex, especially when you get a bunch of young people together. Nope, that's strictly for homosexuals, apparently. Straight soldiers, sailors and Marines all spend their evenings at home reading the Bible.

"Pakistan has begun torturing the leadership of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Given its suspected role in the Mumbai attacks, that's a good move."

If the stimulus plan includes a reduction in FICA withholding as stated in the NYT article today, how are the self-employed and unemployed going to get any of it? Neither category of people gets paychecks, where FICA is deducted.

- Do you understand the concept of false equivalency?

Well, it is one thing to claim that an equivalency is false, and another to show that it is false. Powers, for example, has been hired back onto the Obama team, and she was an advisor, not a pundit, so that's arguably worse; though she did in fact apologize and repent later. I didn't list every example of rude public commentary that I could, but there are lots of them. Of course, Commentary about Pres. Clinton was rude and disgusting, as was commentary about Bush I, Reagan, Carter, and every previous president.

The really good near equivalency was: "monkey man" is to Obama as "chimpy" is to Bush. I heard, on university campuses, lots of rude comments about Bush by liberals with nary a request by other liberals for an apology. "chimpy" was not the worst.

mnemosyne: Because -- brace yourself -- different words mean different things when applied to different people.

True enough. I wouldn't be offended to be called an "oreo" or a "house slave" [incidentally, "house slave" is not exactly the phrase used by Belafonte and others], but when applied to African-Americans I think they are offensive. Perhaps you also are concerned that they are not "equivalent" to "monkey man". Well, not exactly, but close enough: "monkey man" is not explicitly racist, but "oreo" is.

A water landing is not a landing, it's a crash.
-George Carlin

Why is Bank of America receiving $20 Billion??? Paulson continues to treat public money like a piggy bank. It's smashed and all the coins are pilfered. Incredible and pathetic.

A constant looting of the treasury... and not a word as to justification. This is CRIMINAL ACTIVITY !!!

The comparison of Bush to a chimp goes back to at least 2000, when some wag created a website of photos of him next to similar photos of chimps. I still get a kick out of it.

Bush or Chimp?

Barnes. Face. Fist.

Anybody got a link to a paid pundit on CNN not batting an eye when Bush is called Chimpy by a caller?

If so give it up.
If not stfu...

Barnes ought to be fired right now.
Failing that, someone ought to punch this little freak in the face and accept the assault charges.
After all, if Barnes and CNN want to allow incendiary hate language as part of their broadcast, then they must also accept its consequences: Barnes. Face. Fist.

In other words: For every action there is an equal an opposite reaction. And the equal and opposite reaction to hate speech is violence.

Someone out there... anyone...
Go knock Barnes' two front teeth out.
You've got my permission. And CNN's.

Unless of course, CNN doesn the right thing and reprimands Barnes with a choke chain...
Until then: Go kick his ass. Please.

Yeah, if Capt Sully wanted a water landing, he would've had more room to the north; and from the track it seemed he was to make a turn for the jersy airport, but decided he wouldn't make it to the airport - which was another half the distance from the bird strike.

He obviously aimed for the area where there are docks and ferries as opposed to turning north where there aren't any. I'd love to hear the cockpit recording to find out! That was a great, textbook landing.

Did you know they're considering putting power turbine in the hudson there, because of the tidal forces which are restricting access to the aircraft (which is mostly submerged in 30' of water)? So far they've been unsuccessful, because the water flow is just too heavy, it bends the turbines ^-^

The really good near equivalency was: "monkey man" is to Obama as "chimpy" is to Bush.

Actually, no, unless you can demonstrate a history of comparing white people as a whole to apes so as to insinuate the entire Caucasian race's innate inferiority. Since...

a) you cannot,
b) you know perfectly well that Bush's nickname was born of his curious resemblance through the upper lip to a chimpanzee--the pointing out of which is unkind but not by any stretch of the imagination racist,
c) every other example you gave other than "Uncle Tom," "oreo" and the like was an example of a personal, not a strongly-established-by-historical-usage racial insult...

...you may STFU now with your disingenuous fucking nonsense.

Only an imbecile such as Marler would fail to see that "monkey man" is a racist slur when applied to an African-American. Then again, Marler might be intellectually dishonest. No, on second thought, one has to have an intellect on order to be intelletually dishonest.

There have been some last minute characterizations of the Bush Administration.

My characterization is simple: Pump and Dump.

Pump & Dump works in a certain context which requires addicts and a pusher who appears to have access to insider information.

The addict/pusher relationship is important because the addict can never perceive that they have been short changed. Any outside critics must appear uninformed, which fully explains their criticism.

But Pump & Dump must remain a moving target for critics. If the pusher had to find new addicts for every new pump, that would be too expensive. Eventually you run out of addicts. Pump & Dump requires refocusing on the next Pump. The Dump is something which becomes second nature to these addicts. They expect outside forces to destroy a good thing, so timing is everything. So the Dump is not associated with the Pump. The Pump is true, due to virtue. The Dump is due to evil.

Above all, the Pump & Dump requires a lot of skill. The pushers must know they are running a P&D, and know that they must plan for the next P&D, and when to execute the transition.

Bush's uncanny resemblance to a chimpanzee (especially as shown in the cute "Clueless George Goes to War" book) is about the only thing that almost makes him endearing at times. That's one of the reasons I prefer to stay with "Shrub" rather than "Chimp".

Steve, you forgot the most important thing of all:
For all intents and purposes, Bush is now out of office. He's out of the White House and only a skeletal staff remains.

As such, let me say with gusto:

Mr. Bush,
Thanks for NOTHING.
Thanks for screwing us all royally and then denying with unbelievable arrogance and by employing willful ignorance you even came close to doing any harm. (It was 'disappointing' to learn there were no WMD's, you say? Ha!)

Thanks for setting us back so far here and abroad, morally and diplomatically and in everyday ways--all at our expense--

Thanks for setting us back so far that Obama will likely only be able to do damage control for several years.

So please--do us a big favor:
Shut the hell up and go away and
don't let the screen door hit you on your way out.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Was this all just a long, bad eight year nightmare? I'd like to think so.

In any case...
May the healing begin for us all.

* NASA Administrator Michael Griffin's unorthodox campaign to keep his job didn't work. -- Steve Benen

Perhaps that's why it (the unorthodox campaign) is not even mentioned in the article? If all you knew about Griffin came from the article, you might have been excused for thinking that the highly qualified man, with enormous achievements, behaved honorably (tendered his resignation) only to be shafted by Obama. But, the hero he is, his lower lip barely quivered when, in a 45 minute farewell, he exhorted all the NASA employees to co-operate with the next head and with the incoming President, however bad they may turn out to be...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* I can't believe we're paying these clowns (literally) -- Steve Benen

From the article:
“Having sex before you are married is just like juggling machetes!�
“Sex before marriage will destroy all of your life’s dreams!�

Surely, that's not right? Slicing off one's dreams while juggling machetes is something that's much more likely to happen to males than to females? And, perhaps, not even to males, if they don't get too excited about it? Also, doesn't the show illustrate that, providing you're a very *skillful* juggler, there's no risk at all?

Why are those people lying to our children?

Can anyone tell me what the point is in namecalling? I've always winced when 'my side' did it, going back to the cries of 'baby-killer' that other Vietnam War protestors used. I could even understand it a little then -- or in 2004-2006 -- when it looked like we'd irretrievably lost, and our only outlet was to 'rage against the machine.'

But Vietnam ended, Nixon fell in glorious disgrace, and it was possible to write a book with the title How the Good Guys Finally Won.

And in 2006 we discovered that the Rove Prophecy of the Reigning Republicans was as much a lie as everything else he had said. And then we discovered how much the country could get behind a strong, center-left candidate (instead of a Kerry running as "Bush lite").

So even that feeble excuse for name-calling is gone. Can someone tell me what the bloody hell good it does?

(I'm talking about the mindles vitriol of "Chimpy" or "Rethuglican" or "Bush Crime Family" or -- for some reason the one that most annoys me -- "Repiglican." It's different with 'nicknames' which can make a point quickly and can stick in a person's mind. Calling McCain "The Corkscrew Express" or Palin "Baroness Munchausen" or Cheney "Shotgun" or Bush "The Decider" or "The Deciderer" can get people thinking, the adolescent 'nyah,nyah's don't.)

The only people that respond favorably to them are 'people who don't need convincing.' (And even some of us stop paying much attention to the name-callers.) But anyone who's even 90% convinced of the rightness of our detestation of Bush may stop listening or start questioning comments made by apparent adolescents -- and, if they become too common may turn him off to anything said here by any of us. (I think Kos suffered from that for a while.)

I know I won't stop many of you, and may get some choice vitriol from some of you -- the same ones who damned me for arguing that Obama was right to keep from trying to out-Rove McCain. But I felt it needed saying.

I don't mean to offend, but I think "hero" is overused. Sully did a great job - what a competent pilot should do. And he saved lots of people. But, I think "hero" should be reserved for those who risk something important for others.

you know perfectly well that Bush's nickname was born of his curious resemblance through the upper lip to a chimpanzee

That's news to me. I thought it was because he was considered stupid. As for "all" of some group being called "monkeys", I thought that almost all of any group was called monkeys (or some other animal) by some other group, as some Muslims call all Jews "monkeys". American policemen were called "pigs" without differentiation between some and others. NFL defensive linemen are called "gorillas" (sometimes with intense derision, sometimes comically.) I have been called some of these animal names because of some of my group memberships.

In the phrase "monkey boy" (that I misremembered as "monkey man"), I think that "boy" is actually less commonly applied to white men than to African-American men, and is really the most pejorative part of the phrase, for that reason. But then "boys will be boys" is applied to white men as well as other men.

Congrats on making it from annonymous blogger to luminary, Steve.

I have tried to get with BSG, but find it to be unwatchable. The jerky, hand held zoom camera doesn't work for me at all in this setting. That technique can be effective in action sequences such as 24, or one of the Bourne flicks, where our hero is sneaking up on the bad guys with bombs going off and whatnot. But, for long drawn out conversations? On a space ship?? Every space ship worth it's salt has inertial dampeners! It's like we're being told this story by a bobble head doll.

, I think that "boy" is actually less commonly applied to white men than to African-American men, and is really the most pejorative part of the phrase, for that reason.

This, of course, gets it completely backwards.

I don't mean to offend, but I think "hero" is overused. Sully did a great job - what a competent pilot should do.

And he gets a paycheck for it. Why do we constantly try to make heroes out of people for simply doing their jobs?

"Why do we constantly try to make heroes out of people for simply doing their jobs?"

So a person can't be heroic in doing their job?

That certainly was an unusual day for rivers - While it was a Miracle on the Hudson, in DC, it was Delusion on the Potomac.

In that 16-1 vote for Mrs Clinton, for the negative vote, did the Progressives over at HuffPo get to vote as a block? Perhaps, many of them thought it would be all right for her to take the position of SOS, as long as she had been drawn and quartered, first. But, in reality, Vitter does have such high ethical standards in voting his conscience.

I thought the chimpy moniker came from the close resemblance of Non-Curious George to that of "Curious George". However Mr Marler, I have never referred to Long Dong Silver Tom as an Uncle type.

Geez, all that jumping and frolicking in parades in San Francisco - No, I would prefer leadership which takes sober reflection at the Bohemian Grove meetings in Northern California. They, merely, wanted to screw the entire country.

It was not a "miracle." To call it a miracle undermines the fantastic work done by the flight crew.

Sully and his crew did the work, not Jesus.

I agree with Prup that namecalling does not help advance an argument. Generally when I
see namecalling in a comment (whether it's "Chimpy" or "Barack Osama" or whatever), I skip to the next comment. Anybody using that level of critical thinking isnt worth reading, in my opinion.

And the moderator really needs to delete the comment that advocates physical violence to Fred Barnes. Namecalling is bad, but threats of violence are completely unacceptable.

I find it very sad that the progressive media and most of the progressive bloggers are fixated on the "miracle on the hudson" and totally ignoring the life or death situation in rural Alaska. As folks complain about the cold in Washington DC during Obama's inauguration, perhaps they can spare a second or two to remember the rural Alaskans who have to choose between eating or heating, and maybe the progressive media might take a moment or two to consider their silence as akin to the Bush response to Katrina.

, I think that "boy" is actually less commonly applied to white men than to African-American men, and is really the most pejorative part of the phrase, for that reason.
...
This, of course, gets it completely backwards.

I have been recalling all the other bad things that I have heard groups of people called. I won't mention them here except "capitalist insect" and "capitalist running dog." Of pejoratives belittling African-Americans, I have heard a lot a won't repeat here; I have heard and read "boy" applied pejoratively to African-American men lots more than I have heard and read "monkey" applied to African-American men.

Perhaps it's true that African-American men are called "monkey" more often than they are called "boy", and I missed it.