Glowing In The Darkness

Blue Gal finds a bizarre new official license plate:


Can I get one that says "My family gave two lives in Vietnam. Do we have to do it again in the Gulf?"

Note To Nancy

The next time the unindicted war criminal tries to patronize you, take a lesson in how to respond from Jim Webb.

You Know, For The Kids....

Just for a science experiment, I'm posting this link, as found at Peripetia. Comes of it what never know may we.

We Weren't Using It Anyway....

The zombie Newt is back from the grave, attempting a Sister Souljah moment by telling a freedom of speech dinner:

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.

Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.

"We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade," said Gingrich....

My response was, if we really will be forced to reexamine someone's freedom of speech, can we please start with his?

But John at Americablog made an even better point:

We already lost a city, Newt. It's called New Orleans. And it was your party, the Republicans, who lost it.

Missed Opportunities

Nancy Pelosi, as most party leaders in Congress do, is timidly tiptoeing her way along.

I was disgusted when she said impeachment was off the table, thus going to a gunfight with no weapon at all. (Some are trying to put it back on the menu.)

I was revolted when she went to the White House "for George Bush posing as a bipartisan" (to revise the phrase of the 9th Marquess of Queensberry). She should have responded to that invitation by pointing out that this man has accused her party of treason, and he has not withdrawn, apologized for, or even promised not to repeat this grossly un-American charge. When he publicly does that, then he knows where to find her. To meet with him without his repudiation of his conduct would be to sanction it -- which is just what her meeting with him did, even before his patronizing decorating remarks.

Now I'm sickened that she is delaying a vital decision and letting the war party takes shots at her. The right wingnuts are denouncing her for even considering putting in someone else as Chair of the House Intelligence [sic] Committee instead of Jane Harman. That Bush puppet is either an incompetent fool or a willing warmonger. Bite the bullet and get rid of her. No, not for Hastings (who actually was not guilty of crimes that merited impeachment any more than Clinton was, but he's irrevocably been tarnished by the accusaions anyway; fortunately, word is today he is withdrawing from consideration) but for somebody else, like Rush Holt.

Nancy, you are not in the divine Sarah's class. Stop auditioning for Hamlet and charge ahead full speed.

Our Lone Star Loon

On Late Edition:

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: ...I think we're talking about 20 to 50,000 additional troops to embed them with the Iraqis, so that when we clear areas, we can actually secure them.

Then we need to disarm the militias. We need to arrest al-Sadr and make sure the government has a monopoly on the use of legal force.

Of course, they already do have a monopoly on the use of legal force, which proves that is worth nothing in the middle of a full-scale civil war. As for trying to arrest al-Sadr, he is surrounded by lots of armed fanatics who will die to protect him. There would be lots of American casualties and even more Iraqis, probably including al-Sadr himself. Killed, wounded, or just captured, he becomes a martyr and tens of thousands of his supporters take to the streets with guns and mortars and bombs. The U.S. forces would have no choice but to slaughter thousands of them in self-defense as they retreat to no-longer secure bases, and then we'll see pictures of the last stragglers trying to grab onto the landing gear of the helicopters leaving the embassy roofs as we abandon the country.

Let me tell you this as a Texan and one of your constituents: Senator Cornyn, you are stark, raving mad. This idea is beyond delusional, it is criminally insane. In a just world, the International Criminal Court would sentence you to personally dig graves for all the Americans and Iraqis your bloodthirsty proposal would destroy. With a short shovel. In the Iraqi sun. Shown live on Al-Jazeera television.

Rotting Fish In A Barrel

Roy ponders penguins:

When someone as proud of his verbal skills as Lileks starts spitting rank foam like this, a charitable interpretation is possible. In this case, I think he is trying to protect art from himself.

What's Hecuba To Me?

Booman praises with faint damns:

If I have to choose, I will choose Murtha. But I am under no illusions about John Murtha. Just because he has credibility on issues of the military doesn't make him good on other issues. I give him the nod because Pelosi wants him, because he projects a strong image, and because he wants out of Iraq now and Hoyer doesn't.

And what has Pelosi done for us lately, other than preemptively unload the only weapon she has against Our Lame Tyrant, namely impeachment? What in that merits removing the thorn in her side, for a backroom thug whose record could stand reelection campaigns in reddest Texas? Might we not be better off entrenching endless struggling between the "leaders", so that Bush will have to work harder to make any deals to sell us out?

Can You Say "Envy"?

A giant wooden sculpture of a penis on display at Taipei's international airport has stirred up controversy....

Some foreign crew members and flight attendants refer to the sculpture as "The Thing" and have posted the photo of it on their websites, saying it is an offence to female visitors and flight attendants.

Notice that it is not women complaining about this. Can't stand the comparison, huh, guys?

Guten Tag der Erfinder

In German-speaking countries, this is "Inventor's Day", celebrated because it is the birthday of Austrian Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler (shown at left at age 9). Her main invention was the frequency-hopped spread spectrum, patented in 1942. This perfect example of Pat Schroeder's line "I have a brain and a uterus and I use both" became somewhat better known as a film star.

Don't Let The Door Hit You....

Blue Gal links to some delightful post-election greeting cards. My favorite says "You've suffered a humiliating, demoralizing, agonizing defeat." On the inside it adds "Let's do this again in 2008."

Another Awakening

Amanda at Pandagon has a theory:

Republicans tried to ride a tidal wave of misogyny to power, particularly with regards to reminding Americans at every turn that a woman would be Speaker of the House if the Democrats won. I'm going to go out on a limb and say I think this strategy backfired. A lot of generally conservative women were on the fence this election, and I know from experience that a lot of women who are conservative but not wingnuts tend to be more femininst than you'd think. Certainly feminist enough to hear Fox News reporters saying, in essence, "Scary scary a skirt with power" and think, "Well, good, I want a woman to have that job."

How About Here?

Yes, Dallas County went Democratic, with a flood. We won every single county-wide race we ran in here, and even a few of the statewide candidates carried this county. (Chris Bell even got a plurality here, though not a majority.) Kirk McPike, who was a big factor in the win by running the volunteer GOTV program from the north Dallas office, expresses jubilation at Burnt Orange Report. Hopefully he will post some of his detailed number crunching soon. In the meantime, there is a quick summary and links to detailed results (reprinted from the DCDP's email Roundup) over at StoutDemBlog. And Daily Kos links to a Houston Chronicle story about it.

There is a lot more to say about the ins and outs of this massive victory, but I'm still recovering -- and keeping my fingers crossed that none of the narrowly defeated Republicans demand a recount, even though I think the figures will hold up. As one blogger noted (sorry, but I misplaced the link), the Republicans set up these paperless machines (which we used here only for early voting) in the belief that they would be the presumed winners, since they knew no trail means no way to change the votes. Ooops!! Now they're on the short end of that scheme. It reverses the old poem applied to the Democrats after the 1876 Presidential election commission debacle:

"They digged a pit,
They digged it deep,
They digged it for their brothers;
But it so fell out that they fell in
The pit that was digged for t'others."

And it serves them all right. Good riddance to the Republicans.

Passages....

You go get involved in campaigns and let posting slide, and what happens? People start changing their URLs. Jude Nagurney Camwell of Iddybud, one of the very first to cite anything from this blog when it began, has decided that her blog took too long to load, so has moved to a new site at Iddybud Journal, a "daily blog of progressive politics, faith, photography, and my life in Upstate New York".

Considering the election results, the forgotten part of the state should be feeling upbeat now. As for the Democratic contenders that didn't quite make it this time, recall the words of Heinlein back in 1950: "In the year 2050, there will still be outhouses in upstate New York." And, apparently, still a few members of Congress who belong in them -- but not as many as there were on Monday. Congratulations.

And another one moves on: Matt Glazer is shuting down JAB to do more posting at Burnt Orange Report and at the blog of DriveDemocracy. Good luck to him on his new gigs.