The only voting irregularities I have heard about since November are 2 coleman supporters who forged signatures/filled out ballot for some other person and Ann Coutler who, for the second time voted in the wrong place, or more than once or something.

I once saw a homeless man drinking a beer while soliciting money for "food." From now on, I'm kicking any and all homeless person I see, in order to discourage them from going to homeless shelters for food when they're out buying tattoos and heroin. It's obvious they're the "rich" that Jesus told us to kick whenever we see them, otherwise, I wouldn't feel so smug in doing so.

Interesting that at 10 a.m. Dean said he didn't want the job -- because CNN reported at 4 p.m. this afternoon that he definitely IS interested in the job. And it was Ed Henry, who seems fairly reliable, reporting it.

So we shall see. We. Shall. See.

Vanity Fair made fun of Thomas Friedman for all of his failed predictions.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2009/03/friedmans-follies.html

Paragraphs of the day

From the NY Times story Food Problems Elude Private Inspectors:

Another audit of the peanut plant, by the Michigan-based NSF Cook & Thurber, raises further questions about the usefulness of private audits. That audit found nearly two dozen problems that it characterized as “minor,� but it nonetheless gave the peanut plant an overall score of 91 out of 100.

NSF officials said that for their audits, this was a low score. But the company that paid for the audit, the insurance giant American International Group, then sold the peanut company insurance to cover the costs of recalling products, according to lawyers for the Peanut Corporation.

Guess who is paying Peanut Corporation's policy now?

I keep thinking someone at CNN management will look at the wreck of Beck and Hughley and will say, "Maybe if we got some durned librul to host a show, we could get some ratings.."

Naaaa.

Lieber Leader Limbo? I like it; it pisses Repubs off no end. Even those who don't "get" the "lieber" part...

Recently, I had an occasion to express my displeasure with Obama's Econ team (Summers and Geithner)to a Repub acquaintance of mine, which got her hopes up "T, are you turning rightwards???" When I said I wasn't because the idea of having to kiss Lieber Leader Limbos's fat ass gave me the ickies, she quickly concurred that Limbo was revolting. And insisted he wasn't her leader at all. "Where else do you get your lies then?" I asked. Which ended the discussion.

Hmmm . . .

1. RNC chair makes anti-Limbaugh comments on Hughley's show.
2. RNC chair gets embarrassed by said comments and subsequent groveling.
3. Said high-profile comments and capitulation bring lots of interest in Hughley and his show.
4. CNN fires Hughley.

It ain't exactly CBS dumping the Smothers Brothers when they were #1, but it ain't like it doesn't smell, either.

"Conservative bloggers find the strangest things to write about."

That was a strange story. I can't even imagine what a conservative would do if they were actually faced with danger. They recoil in horror at the sight of a homeless person with a cell phone? I'm guessing they'd just kill themselves if someone waved a wet noodle at them. I guess it's a good thing they won't serve in the military. We sure don't need people like that fighting for us. But here's something conservatives might want to think about. People in the Third World buy cell phones before they buy shoes. Homes are way down on the list from there. Conservatives obviously wouldn't know that because they're too afraid to leave the country. Hell, most of them won't move out of mom's basement until they're fifty years old.

I am sorry but after Sarah Palin and Bush not knowing Musharafs name this requires a mention:
Reuters called Clinton "Tongue tied" at her first EU meeting. She misprenounced names, called Solana "high representative solono" and in an observation about multiparty democracy, mentioned that the US had been a democracy a lot longer than European democracy.
I imagine this was quite a surprise for the Greek delegation.

Sorry but I always worried about the ideological Clinton liberal imternationalist crowd. If we in the rest of the world don't even get the basic competence of shutting up about subjects you don't know but can safely avoid, then I doubt I can forgo faulting Obama for choosing to incorporate them regardless of the political expediency.

When I said I wasn't because the idea of having to kiss Lieber Leader Limbos's fat ass gave me the ickies, she quickly concurred that Limbo was revolting. And insisted he wasn't her leader at all. "Where else do you get your lies then?" I asked. Which ended the discussion.

This is what I keep hearing as the three major critiques of Obama's Recovery Plan:

1. Too much 'pork'/earmarks--I understand that the definition of "pork" varies widely. I also understand that most of the Stimulus Bill does NOT include this--that relatively speaking it's a teeny, tiny portion...

2. Too many tax increases. (I thought it was mostly tax deductions for the MAJORITY of Americans, right?) Tax increases are only imposed upon a very select MINORITY. So why does Whoppi complain on "The View" that it's too much for her, and that she's "mad as hell"?????

3. Too little on infrastructure spending on roads and bridges. Say what? this is central to the Stimulus! Infrastructure is yet again a loosely defined term--had folks been able to adequately define many of these terms, I don't think there would be this much confusion.

But then again, that's assuming folks really care to adeptly and succinctly define this stuff...

Krugman takes apart the Bernanke-Geithner plan on creating a market for toxic assets.

Geithner has so far been one of Obama's worst decisions.

Steve: "And CNN dropped D.L. Hughley's Saturday night show -- which I thought was pretty good -- but he'll stay on as a contributor for the network based in Los Angeles."

Wow. That was fast. And I agree with you; I liked the Hughley show.

Why did it take CNN several years to finally purge its system of toxic Glenn Beck?

Krugman takes apart the Bernanke-Geithner plan on creating a market for toxic assets.

The lack of substantive progress on the banking system is becoming dire, both economically and politically. As a Michigander, I'm watching my State fall apart because there is no credit because the government is not taking the necessary step of putting failed banks into receivership so the bad assets can be auctioned off and the remaining assets sold back to the private sector.

Politically, this inaction is becoming the one thing the Repubs have been able to drive the discourse on because they have succeeded in labeling "receivership" as "nationalization."

The cellphone story is funny for a lot of reasons, but I'm particularly tickled by the idea that a cell phone is a "luxury." That's really the basis for their supposed outrage - and it's amusing, because it's an indication of an obsolete world-view.

It reminds me of people who still cut short long distance calls by saying, "this must be costing you a fortune."

A cell phone used to be a supplement to a person's standard utility array. Now it's often the only one, and in fact, far cheaper. And for someone without a stable address, a prepaid phone is really the only option.

So it's not just that the wingnuts are petty-minded and nasty and always looking to see whether someone else is taking more than they deserve - they're also hopelessly and foolishly out of touch with the advances of technology and culture and the way people live today.

In fact, it's the landline that's the luxury now, not the cell phone.

I kinda like "Angstlos Fuhrer Limbaugh", but I admit it's a bit of a mouthful. So I'm going with "Boss Limbaugh."

They (conservatives) recoil in horror at the sight of a homeless person with a cell phone? -- fostert, @18:59

Nah. They don't "recoil in horror"; they draw their skirts around them in disgusted surprise. I remember -- a couple of years ago, was it? -- Malkin droning on, and on, and ON, about the "marble" counter-top a family had in their kitchen, while getting their children's healthcare via SCHIP.

See, unless the proles are *totally* dependent on the (whimsically dispensed) goodwill of people like Malkin (et al), they'll never be *properly* grateful (lick the floor, peon) for the bounty. And, of course, a mere tax deductible isn't enough; it has to be served with a peck of self-debasing gratitude.

Apologies for venting, but it was my day at the Free (not entirely) Clinic today and I'm totally disgusted with our universal pain "system" and all other miseries visited on us by the uncaring Repubs. We had an emergency visit from someone who's been enrolled for a couple of years (which means that her earnings have never exceeded $10K a year) but who held off coming, for a week, until a friend brought her in. "Why didn't you come when you first started hurting?" I asked. The friend said: "she lost her job, couldn't afford the $20", while handing me the money, in dollar bills and quarters.

Two words I hate: Earmark and Entitlement

How 'bout

Earmark: Stimulus for the community

Entitlement: Stimulus for the People

Democrats couldn't break the filibuster.

What filibuster? I don't see any Republicans reading out of the phone book on the Senate floor.

What happened is that Democrats tacitly approved Republican stonewalling. Which is what always happens whenever the Democrats fail to insist upon an actual filibuster. End of story.

exlibra, in the late '90s Malkin wrote columns for the Seattle Times - In one, she railed against helping children of Upper Middle Class parents - The State of Washington had to align it's policies with the Federal program in order to qualify children for healthcare - The Federal upper limit was $38,500 for a family of four. So, MM, who was living in Wallingford west of the University of Washington, where the average home cost around 300 thou, raved about thirty eight five being "Upper Middle Class". Don't know what garage or outhouse, one could have qualified to buy in Wallingford for that income. She reminds me a Seattle cop who busted a homeless man. The cop carped about the guy having 500 bucks on him and scoffed about him being homeless. At that time, a weekly rent in a Seattle motel would have set you back about a couple of hundred. Yeah, this guy was "RICH"!

Obama spoke in Columbus, Ohio, today, talking up his stimulus package. He appeared at the graduation ceremony for 25 police recruits who wouldn't have been hired were it not for the economic recovery bill.

Whenever any Republican Congressperson takes credit for some little goodie that his district got through the stimulus bill, the WH should schedule an event like this for Obama or Biden or a cabinet member to have them go into the district and casually mention that the people standing behind them are employed in spite of the Congressperson, who voted against the bill. And hopefully the national media will cover every single event.