Feeling Big Now, Little Men?

This made me want to vomit.

H/t Smooth Like Remy from SeattlePI.

Here.  Watch it again.  Throw up.  Then watch what happens after they remove this young lady from her cell.  Perhaps a longer form will put it in context.

I get that policemen have a hard job, but if you can't do it professionally, it's not a field you should be in.  And you know what?  This mouthy young girl at least got to live.

Oscar Grant did not.  Do not watch if watching a young man face down on the pavement being subdued by several officers getting shot in the back upsets you.

I wish I could be more eloquent, but these two incidents just make me sick.

President's Address to the House and Senate

UPDATE:  I found and cropped this from Hulu.com.  It won't automatically play.

BSG

I'm watching Battlestar Galactica from the beginning.  I'm halfway through Season 3.  I forgot what a raging bitch Starbuck is.

Alan Brings The Nutty

Keyes is, like, 2 seconds from calling President Obama the anti-Christ.  I especially like his "Laugh, fools, laugh" line when the people off camera can't hold their giggles at the crazy.  It's sad, though, too.

Panama Canal Locks

This is so cool.  I was intrigued by the Locks when I learned about them in, what...grade school?  Wikipedia here.  H/t Andrew.

Love

Though I often wonder if I've just been single too long and heartbroken too many times and heartbreaker too many times and too uncomfortable with beings other than my poor dead cats (*sniff*) around me all the time and too selfish and too available and too thin-skinned and too cynical and too naive to ever have love, this video makes me kind of want it.

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

It would be nice if you signed this petition and help some people have what I'm too chicken to have.

Dollhouse

Anybody that knows me knows that I am ALL ABOUT BUFFY.  Here's the story.

I completely ignored Buffy when broadcast.  Why would I want to watch some little white girl named Buffy no less, for an hour out of my life?  Please.  I'll pass.  I ignored it for 5 years.

Then...

I was home sick as a dog on, like, Thanksgiving or New Years Day or somesuch, and FX ran a marathon.  They didn't just run a regular marathon.  Apparently fans picked the episodes to air and the order.  I caught the two parter inaugural episodes of of Season 1 -- Welcome to the Hellmouth and The Harvest.

There is a scene in The Harvest.  Jesse, geeky friend to geeky friends Xander and Willow, has been turned into a vampire.  He's at the Bronze (local teen club), stalking Cordelia, the uber-popular girl bitch who in the past had been downright cruel in spurning his advances.  Vampire Jesse watches her dancing and when a slow song comes on, he walks over, takes her hand and starts dancing.  Unaware that Jesse is a vampire or indeed that vampires exist, Cordelia reverts to mean girl mode and says "Hello, Caveman Brain...." and continues to whine abuse at him.  He fixes his deep vampire sex eyes on her and says "Shut up," and Cordelia melts and says "Okay.  One dance."

I laughed my ass off and was hooked.  Despite my awful illness, I think I stayed up 24 hours watching every episode they broadcast.  I felt like the universe had let me down.  Why didn't anyone tell me Buffy the Vampire Slayer was like this:  well written tight as a drum story telling with suspense, humor and heartbreak.  I felt really cheated and kind of ashamed of myself that I judged the show so harshly based on the title and what I thought it was.  Bad.  Bad me.

The finale to Season 5, entitled "The Gift" is, in my opinion, the best hour ever written for television.  Watching each time, I whisper to myself "That's the bravest thing I have ever seen."

I gobbled up all things Buffy.  I descended into deep nerdy geekdom and started writing for a fictional role playing website (now defunct) called LA By Night, which based its environment on the Buffyverse but in which you designed and wrote your own characters.  The character I designed was a 200 year old vampire named Parasol.  Hmmm.  Maybe I'll revive her on an alternative blog.  She was a good character.

I wore my zombie cult follower badge proudly.  I proselytized about Buffy every chance I got, bringing several members into the fold.  I went to comic cons.  I paid big money to go to the John Kerry fundraiser creator Joss Whedon threw where I talked to him for, oh, 35 seconds and walked away renewed.  I got tix to the broadcast of the last episode at the Hollywood Athletic Club with about 1500 of my fellow zombie cult followers.  I found I liked my fellow zombie cult followers tremendously  -- conversations with those who shared my obsession were long, deep, thoughtful and bonding.  I bought books, magazines, action figures (yes, action figures that are STILL in the original packaging, you Philistines).  No.  I am not ashamed.

Every year, I hold a 10 day marathon of the entire series which, of course, I have on DVD.  Each year, I learn and see something new about the Buffyverse and myself.  What I perhaps glossed over last year when I watched, now has meaning and substance this year because of where I am in my life...even at 52.  No.  No.  I am not ashamed.

The creator of Buffy is Joss Whedon who, if you're going by me, is a god walking amongst us.  He can write the hell out of a scene and he gets women.  He gets how women relate to men.  He gets how women can't relate to men.  He gets how strong women are naturally.  He gets that women are no less human than men.  He gets me.  How do I know?  Because I cannot count the times I've been watching Buffy weeping bitter salty tears on my couch going "Yeah, Buffy girl.  I know.  I know.  I know."  And Joss wrote and created that.  He is brilliant and I throw the gauntlet at the feet of anyone who says otherwise in my presence.  No.  No.  No.  I am not ashamed.

(Here is an interview with Joss at Salon.)

He has a new series on Fox called Dollhouse, starring Eliza Dushku who played my favorite character in Buffy -- evil slayer Faith.  It premiers Friday.  Because I promised tribute to whatever entity governs television marketing, Hulu will have it up the next day.

I'll be stalking Hulu at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Stating The Obvious: Is The GOP Tanking The Stimulus For Political Gain?

From Brian Beutler (pronounced Boyt-ler), the young man who was shot by a mugger last summer in DC regarding Republican obstructionism to the stimulus bill.  Playing off of John Cole's post about the purpose of partisanship re the bill:

...If you understand that the core of the Republican party loves nothing more than doing big business' bidding (and I'm sure they'd love to be helping big business right now) then you have to conclude that their current actions are intended to deepen the depression so that the Democratic party fails.

Basically what's happening is that Republicans are looking ahead to November 2010 and November 2012, while big businesses are looking ahead to their coming quarterly SEC filings, and that's bringing the GOP's two chief purposes into tension with each other. My guess is that if Mitch McConnell sat down with the good folks of the Chamber of Commerce, he'd try to convince them to eat big losses now in order to enjoy major perks when Democrats lose power. But that's a Devil's arithmetic that even big business can't countenance. Self-preservation has become the Republican party's only rudder.

Is the Republican Party that craven?  Is being in power so important to the party that they would tank the American public for 2-4 years to achieve it?  Or are Cole and Beutler just cynical?

Hmm.  The House vote on the bill was telling.  Eleven Democrats opposed the bill.  Not one Republican voted for it.  Not one.

Upshot?  I don't think Cole and Beutler are cynical.

Note to self:  Come ON, you lazy hussy.  Will you please write something about the difference between Republican and conservative.

Off topic:  Here is a good discussion between Beutler and Ta-Nahisi Coates in which they discuss Beutler's shooting.

Oh Man...Come On Steele

Honestly.  Only in the Republican bizarro world would obtuse thinking like this be even considered.  Michael Steele on This Week w/George Stephanopoulos.

STEELE: But you've got to look at the entire package. You've got to look at what's going to create sustainable jobs. What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that's a job.

STEELE: No, it's not a job. A job is something that -- that a business owner creates. It's going to be long term. What he's creating...

STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn't count if it's a government job? [..]

STEELE: ... That is a contract. It ends at a certain point, George. You know that. These road projects that we're talking about have an end point

STEELE: As a small-business owner, I'm looking to grow my business, expand my business. I want to reach further. I want to be international. I want to be national. It's a whole different perspective on how you create a job versus how you create work. And I'm -- either way, the bottom line is...

STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess I don't really understand that distinction.

STEELE: Well, the difference -- the distinction is this. If a government -- if you've got a government contract that is a fixed period of time, it goes away. The work may go away. That's -- there's no guarantee that that -- that there's going to be more work when you're done in that job.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, but we've seen millions and millions of jobs going away in the private sector just in the last year.

STEELE: But they come -- yes, they -- and they come back, though, George. That's the point.

H/t Crooks and Liars.

I hate to compare men based on color but Steele is like the anti-Obama.  Did Republicans hoodoo a rip in the time space continuum so they could get their own colored guy?  Did they grab some middle management altverse box thinker and believing one is as good as the next, shove him through the shimmering hole in time?  Listen, Bizarro Obama would be sharper than this.  Remember that Star Trek episode where Evil-verse Spock had a goatee and sash and liked pussy and completely owned Kirk?  Yeah.  That's not Steele.

Work is not a job because work ends and jobs don't?  Tell that to those who are losing jobs at Microsoft.  Microsoft.  Come on Steele.  Lookit.  I'll just out and out say that I'd really like you to do some good because you're a black man.  There.  I said it.  I'm probably going to be diametrically opposed to your positions but still I'd like to kind of look at you kind of like I look at Colin Powell.  Yes indeed -- Republican military careerist, but day-um.  At least try to kick it up.  And here you have an opportunity to make something substantive out of this position and prove that all the intelligent visible Negroes aren't all democrats.  You can't do that if you're parsing the difference between work and a job to the working...er...I mean...jobbing, public on TV!  It's stupid.

Oh, and just a thought.  Do you think Republicans will be parroting your "work is not a job" line of reasoning as a salient talking point?

I don't think the stimulus is meant to be there forever and ever amen.  It's for an injection of capital into the revenue stream to get the economy back on track, without any false economic bubbles, which in turn will give those small business owners capital to work with and expand their business to hire more people.  I don't completely understand this economy in all of its subtle glory, but I think I understand that because I've been paying attention.

When You Put It That Way

I'm sitting here watching "Devil In A Blue Dress," enjoying Denzel (playing great fictional gumshoe Easy Rawlins) in all his fine fine fine glory and this scene comes on.  Two white LA cops grab him at his house, take him to the station and use semi-"enhanced interrogation" techniques on him.  They terrorized my baby.

It occurred to me that I can clearly imagine that Cheney (yeah, I know...he's on topic again even though I said I was through) would be okay with what was going on in that scene and much worse.

Blech.  I've got to get Cheney out of my head, particularly if he's encroaching on productive Dreamy Denzel time.

I'd Have This Woman's Babies If My Eggs Weren't So Old

Hat tip to my new prolific blog crush Smooth Like Remy.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I Can't Keep My Fingers Off The Cheney Scab; It's Bugging Me

Keith Olbermann can get on my nerves.  But I give him a pass most times because he piped up in his Special Comment about the flagrant gutting of the country by BushCo when no one else would.  His righteous fury can be trying and I'm fairly certain he can be insufferable, but what he says is choice.  Criticism of him says that he's the left wing version of Bill O'Reilly, which I call bullshit on because Bill O'Reilly's fury is based on inaccuracies and talking points and xenophobia and bigotry and bullying.  Keith may be tough to take at times, but at the very least, he's got the Constitution in mind.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

So, let me get this straight.  US Intelligence caught a terrorist mid-plot, tried him, sentenced him and in the process got information that told of a terrorist plan to mass murder US citizens, put the information in an August memo of 2001 to the then president and STILL 9/11 happened?

Why?  Why would the Bush Administration ignore such a thing?

I Don't Resent You Driving A Porsche; Just Don't Make It Hard For Me To Maintain My Camry

People who've known me a while know this story.  I think it's on point regarding executive pay capping, at least as I'm thinking about it now.  We'll see if it hangs that way when I finish writing it.

I used to work for a small mom and pop law firm specializing in personal injury.  It's where I learned the craft of litigation secretaryism.  In personal injury, most of the work is done on a contingency basis, i.e. the firm will front the costs of the suit until either a settlement or a verdict is reached.  If there is a settlement or the case is won, the firm recoups the costs and attorney fees at a fairly hefty percentage, as much as 45%.  There are all sorts of caveats but that's the basic structure.

So, in pursuing a case, it is in a PI firm's best interest to keep costs low, since they're fronting the money.  Consequently, small PI firms use paralegals like associates and secretaries like paralegals and secretaries, of course.  Also, the volume of cases is larger than non-PI because of that contingency issue; the more cases you are handling, the more possibility for pay day.  And still also, even small cases have their value, particularly if some poor schlub has an opposing party dead to rights in neglect.  That's why grocery stores are manic about wiping up spills and marking unsafe areas...as they should be.

Anyway, because of the volume, anyone working in PI will see and more importantly, learn on a pretty rapid basis, how a case runs.  At smaller firms like the one where I worked (3-5 attorneys, 1 paralegal, 3 secretaries), it's a group effort for success.

The firm where I worked was fairly successful.  They had been in business for over 15 years.   The two partners and their wives lived a well-to-do life.  They drove Porsches, lived in the hills, sent a bunch of children to good private schools and universities, ate out frequently, vacationed marvelously and dressed well.

They paid every two weeks, which if you're a wage slave like me you know it cuts your monthly salary in 10 out of 12 months to, in my case, $400 less monthly even though I was making annually about the same as my former job.  Also, this firm paid with a hard check.  No automatic deposit there.  But again, it was a mom and pop shop, so I'm sure there was a reason for it, mostly that Mom was the bookkeeper for the firm and she had costs of doing business to pay on the professional side and two little angels to keep in private school, Porsche payments to make, vacations to take, etc., so cutting costs was not only in the firm's interest, but in her personal interest as well.

I don't say this with any bitterness.  The firm had undertaken responsibilities as a business that I did not have as an employee.  Just like in PI, they took the risks of business ownership, so it is more than fair that they reap the reward.  I'm not unreasonable.

Here's where I was bitter.  There was no set time that they handed out your paycheck.  It was nearly always after 2:00 p.m. and often as late as just before you walked out the door.  Every other Friday, I was mad.  After 2:00 p.m., any money deposited to the bank is not posted until Monday.  And to have the Mom of mom and pop drive her Porsche up at 4:30 p.m., sweep into the office after a day of shopping with Fred Segal bags in her hands to give me my paycheck that I could not take advantage of would make my blood absolutely boil.  I didn't begrudge her shopping at Fred Segal, but I did begrudge her keeping my money, money that I earned by doing my best job possible, in her hands and in those Fred Segal bags, where I could not use it.

When the public sees the fruits of their efforts (a few ducats of that bailout money was contributed by me) given to companies that have CEOs paying more than our yearly salary for a rug, it makes us resentful.

It shouldn't have to be legislated what CEOs can make, any more than I should have to complain relentlessly about getting my pay on pay day.  It is something that given the situation and dictated by moral conscience, should have automatically been done.  However, well-to-do people often have absolutely no shame, so legislation and whining incessantly are necessary.

Hmmm.  This kind of hangs together, though the equivalency is a bit off.  Though...  My blood boils about these bailout CEOs in exactly the same way it did every other Friday at the mom and pop legal shoppe.

Spending IS Stimulus...That's The Whole Point

A self-indulgent, rambling, perhaps TMI post ahead.  It's after 1:00 a.m. and it just kept writing itself.  Meh.  Blogging.

I know very little about economics.  I should knock wood as I say this, but the economic crisis hasn't much affected me other than scaring the shit out of me on behalf of my country.  I don't own a house, renting instead a house owned or nearly owned by someone else.  I paid off my car this month.  (Yay me!)  I have no children to send to college.  I have no husband with ex-wives I have to split my income with.  I have no ex-husbands who need help.  I have no hot deadbeat boyfriends with bad habits or artistic dreams.

I'm in more debt than I would like and have more credit cards than is probably wise, but I'm not tipping on the edge of the max.  I take that responsibility seriously so I usually pay an amount over the minimum payment and I pay early.  Though I worry about layoffs, I have a job at which I excel and am vain enough to think that if my company felt that I was no longer necessary, they would suffer with the loss of my efforts.  I'm fairly secure in thinking I could get another one quickly...perhaps not at my current pay but working as a litigation secretary in a litigious town is sort of like working in the tampon industry or at a mortuary.  No matter how hard times get, people are always going to need my services.

I didn't start saving for my retirement until I was well into my 40s so I contribute faithfully to my retirement.  I don't want to end up in an old folks home drooling alone in a wheelchair by the nurses station.  My retirement did take a big hit when the market fell, but I have enough working years left that I can only hope things will get rosier before I'm too old to work.  I will probably be working into my 70s, God willing, the creek don't rise and I have my wits about me.  (Nothing worse than an old incompetent legal secretary.)  So retirement and visiting my mother fairly regularly are my big expenses.

I am living paycheck to paycheck but without the car note, I hope to change that slowly but surely.

So, if circumstances in my life maintain the status quo for a while, I should be okay.  If they don't, however (and I can damn near guarantee that they won't because nothing in life does), I'm going join the half million people each month who are in a world of hurt.

There is before the Senate the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  This is the stimulus it is offering to the economy:

Tax cuts ($275 billion):
Payroll tax cuts ($500 for each individual, $1000 for couples)
$2500 tax credit for higher education
$7500 non-repayable tax credit for first-time home buyers (for houses bought until July 1)
Education investments ($141.6 billion):
$79 billion in state fiscal relief to prevent cutbacks to key services, including $39 billion to local school districts and public colleges and universities distributed through existing state and federal formulas, $15 billion to states as bonus grants as a reward for meeting key performance measures, and $25 billion to states for other high priority needs such as public safety and other critical services, which may include education
$41 billion to local school districts through Title I ($13 billion), IDEA ($13 billion), a new School Modernization and Repair Program ($14 billion), and the Education Technology program ($1 billion)
$15.6 billion to increase the Pell Grant by $500
$6 billion for higher education modernization
Health care investments ($112.1 billion):
$87 billion for a temporary increase in the Medicaid matching rate for the states
$20 billion for health information technology, including electronic medical records to prevent medical mistakes, provide better care to patients and introduce cost-saving efficiencies
$4.1 billion to provide for preventative care and to evaluate the most effective healthcare treatments.
Welfare/unemployment ($102 billion):
$43 billion for unemployment benefits and job training
$39 billion for short-term Medicaid insurance and Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) subsidy
$20 billion for the Food Stamp Program
Infrastructure investments ($90 billion):
$31 billion to modernize federal and other public infrastructure with investments that lead to long-term energy cost savings
$30 billion for highway construction
$19 billion for clean water, flood control, and environmental restoration investments
$10 billion for transit and rail to reduce traffic congestion and gas consumption
Energy investments ($58 billion):
$32 billion funding for an electric smart grid
$20 billion for renewable energy tax cuts
$6 billion for weatherizing modest-income homes

There must be sub-categories not published on Wikipedia -- i.e. how does the $6 billion get allocated for weatherizing -- the Republicans have their panties in a wad about because to me it looks like Ol' Glory unfurled.  Oh, yeah.  Spending is evil.  Two'll get you five they want Food Stamps out out out.

Which brings me to Pres. Obama's remarks at the House Democrats’ retreat in Williamsburg, Virginia.  Go here to C-Span for his remarks in their entirety.  Upshot?  It's there at minute 14:30.  Spending IS stimulus...that's the whole point.

UPDATE:  The video of that particular moment.  H/t Smooth Like Remy.

Now, Wonkette Can Write Some Headlines

I know I said I was through with The Corner too.  This isn't actually me checking in on The Corner, per se.  It's through a third party; one of my favorite third parties, Wonkette.  They're hilarious.  NRO Dildo Has Been Accurately Predicting President Obama’s Failures Since March ‘08.  Now that's a headline.

See, what had happened was...  Victor Davis Hanson, essayed Pres. Obama's apparent epic failure on The Corner.  Wonkette saw.  It snarkily and accurately conquered.

So who can elitist Washington journalists turn to for PROOF that Obama has already failed 1,000% at everything, forever? How about some dingbat National Review Online blogger who is consistently wrong about everything, always, but somehow gets a pass because he used to teach history and lives on a raisin farm in Fresno?

Victor Davis Hanson, come on down!

...

There is only one small problem with using a wingnut NRO blogger as the barometer of Obama’s presidential success: Victor Davis Hanson has been regularly announcing the complete, dismal failure of Barack Obama’s presidency since March of last year. Each and every time, Hanson has been wrong. No matter the historical analogy that might or might not been relevant, no matter the educated certainty of the tone — he sounds pretty smart next to mouth-breathing fartsacks like Jonah Goldberg or Kathryn Jean Lopez! — the endless hopeful predictions of Obama’s failure never manage to actually come true. But keep trying, Victor! Even a broken clock needs to be thrown in the fucking trash.

I can shout "Fuck You" at idiocy, but I have a hard time calling people names like "mouth-breathing fartsacks,."  Go figure.  So I pretty much rely on Wonkette to do it for me.

Also, per Wonkette, The Economist (The Economist!!) took the time to catalogue Victor Davis Hanson's consistent inaccuracies.

I'm Through With Dick -- Cheney, That Is.

Cheap headline, I know, but after my morning cup of ire and then the 70 minute commute / hard ass day at work / 60 minute commute day, it's all I got.  Headlines aren't really my strong suit anyway.

On topic.  This is what a reasonable reaction to Dick Cheney's terrorizing boogedy-boogedy looks like.  If I hadn't been so furious, I may have come up with a third of the elegance of this.  (Though in my experience, a hearty "Fuck You" also serves a solid purpose.)  From Joe Klein at Swampland, I post in its entirety.

Let's leave aside the fact that if Dick Cheney and his alleged boss had been more vigilant--if they had listened to the Clinton appointees like Sandy Berger who warned about Al Qaeda, if they had paid attention to their own intelligence reports (notably the one on August 6, 2001)--the September 11 attacks might never have happened. Actually, I can't leave that aside...but in any case, it is sleazy in the extreme for Cheney to predict another terrorist attack. For several reasons:

1. Some sort of terrorist attack is likely, eventually, no matter who is President.

2. Cheney has done here what the Bush Administration did throughout: he has politicized terror. If another attack happens, it's Obama's fault. Disgraceful... and ungrateful, since it's only Obama's mercy that stands between Cheney and a really serious war crimes investigation. Which leads to...

3. The means that Cheney has supported to combat terror in the past, especially "enhanced" interogation techniques, are quite probably illegal. He is criticizing the Obama administration for not being willing to defy international law.

4. Cheney's track record of mismanagement in Iraq and Afghanistan--his sponsorship of Donald Rumsfeld, the worst Secretary of Defense in US history-- disqualifies him from having any credible say on the security policies of his successor.

This is a man who should either be (a) scorned or (b) ignored.

My scorn is below.  I shall henceforth attempt to ignore Cheney, along with those uncooperative, unproductive partisan hacks at The Corner (except for John Derbyshire whose writing style if not content I enjoy reading).  He'll never again ruin my morning.

UPDATE:  Another sensible reaction from Coates.  Takeaway:

A man who knows he's right about something this serious, who truly has faith that history will vindicate him, who really doesn't care what other think (remember that "So?" moment) doesn't need to take to the papers barely a few weeks out of office. His conscience is clear in knowing that he did all that he could do, not simply to protect American lives, but to protect the American way of life. I'm not talking about gas-guzzlers and credit cards, but liberty and happiness. That man doesn't try to rehab his image. He knows that this country is freer and safer now, than it was when he came in. That man is secure in himself.

But that man isn't Dick Cheney...

Ta-Nehisi is always more generous than I.

Apparently, I am not through with Dick.

You Talkin' To Me? You Talkin' To Me?

Three, count 'em, three Politico writers got together to do up this interview, entitled "Cheney Warns of New Attacks" with Dick the Dark Lord.  What does Dick have to say?

"When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” Cheney said.

Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.”

Citing intelligence reports, Cheney said at least 61 of the inmates who were released from Guantanamo during the Bush administration—“that’s about 11 or 12 percent”—have “gone back into the business of being terrorists.”

The 200 or so inmates still there, he claimed, are “the hard core” whose “recidivism rate would be much higher.” He called Guantanamo a “first-class program,” and “a necessary facility” that is operated legally and with better food and treatment than the jails in inmates native countries.
...

“The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I’m not at all sure that that’s what the Obama adminstration believes.”

Yeah?  Fuck you, Dick Cheney.  Don't threaten me.  9/11 happened on your watch.  Your watch.  I watched my people jump out of windows on your watch.  I haven't forgotten that.  I cried for weeks.  What are you going to do?  Call your vast network of bloodmongers and make sure something happens.  I wouldn't put it past you.  You betcha there are dangerous people out there and you are one of them.  You pimp my values?  You corrupt my beliefs?  You wipe your filthy feet on my rights and then threaten me?  Fuck you, Dick.  I despise you and what you've done to my country.  Talk about respect?  You lost mine when you sat around a boardroom and devised ways to have OTHER people torture human beings to get what you claim you need instead of figuring out a way to work for it.  Work.  Just like I do every single motherfucking day.  You took the easy way and threw intelligence out the window.  You're a thug.  And an opportunist.  And a fat cat.  And right now my lips are drawn back with disgust, you cheap unimaginative entitled bully.  Fuck you. 

I'm too livid right now to write something coherent.  Maybe later.

Something I'VE Always Wondered

Do Conservatives Have A Voice At Yale?

Glenn Greenwald Don't Play

Oh, no...he don't.  He will call out anyone on anything at any time about what he believes is right.  He was a constitutional law and civil rights litigator.  Litigator.  He is accustomed to getting facts and he will argue you or a point into the ground and won't let go.  Even I was annoyed* with him over his haranguing then Sen. Obama's position on the FISA vote.  Yeah, I disagreed with Obama on his position, but frankly, got tired of Greenwald being such a harridan about the point.

Greenwald took a position against appointing John Brennan as anything having to do with the Intelligence Community in the Obama Administration because he saw Brennan as condoning torture...and he wouldn't let it go, getting into several back and forths with other bloggers including Spencer Ackerman.  Spencer, bless his heart, argued his point more than ably but admitted that arguing with Greenwald is not for the faint of heart.

Greenwald does not play.  After years of working with litigators, some good, some bad, some lazy and some downright stupid, I think I can spot one who is not just in it for aggrandizement.  Greenwald, I believe, is in it for the love of the Constitution and the rule of law and will slap anyone who sullies them in the face.  And oh...to have been able to type or edit his legal briefs.  He is the kind of lawyer who old lit sec battleaxes like me at the very least, respect.

And he hates hypocrisy.  This update paragraph in his column today about what a DC whore Tom Daschle apparently is, is priceless.

When they met, Tom was 33 and married with three children, and Linda was 23 and single (and 3 years away from having been crowned Miss Kansas). He and his first wife then divorced and shortly thereafter married Linda. It's amazing how many politicians love to self-righteously tout what a "sacred and traditional cultural bond" is the male-female marital union even as they parade around with their much-younger latest wife, whom they met while still enmeshed in a "sacred and traditional bond" with their first wife.

Preach it, Glenny.  This thought is an aside.  You should really read the whole column.  Greenwald thinks and writes in argumentative legal briefs.  I don't always agree with him, but damn I love the way he sets it out.

* I am sorry to say that Too Sense is no longer in existence so the link within my post won't work.

Super Bowl XLIII

Sick as a dog this Super Bowl Sunday with messy and unladylike symptoms.  Damn breakfast at greasy spoons.  Good to be alone.  But I'm watching the game on the television I haven't turned on since, well, last Super Bowl Sunday.  NBC isn't streaming it.  The commercials are fun.  Star Trek is coming out in May.  I may have to unass the house and see it.  And G.I. Joe.  (Yay to my girl who follows Cobra Commander twitter.)

SGWhiteinFla at Smooth Like Remy predicts 34 to 21, Steelers.  I dunno.  It's down to nearly 10 minutes in the 4th quarter and it's 20/7 Steelers.

Oooohhh!  Lookee what I found.

Of course, my job NOW doesn't make me feel this way, but God knows I have punched a steering wheel or two while shrieking behind rolled up windows.  And also...I may have wept constantly going to and coming from work for perhaps a year or two IN THE PAST.  

And word of advice.  If you're crying over horses falling in love, it's time to find a lovah.  What?  I'm not crying.  Don't be silly.  It's HORSES for chrissakes.

Here are all the ads.