Our power was out for about 12 hours (maybe more) yesterday, then on for an hour, and off for a couple more. Not exactly what I needed. Better it should have happened today, when all I’d have missed was….

On Press the Meat, you’ve heard him spread White House lies and deception Mon thru Fri, now it’s your chance to hear him lie through his teeth on a Sunday, as Timmy Potatohead hosts Tony Snowjob. Timmy also has Senators Jack Reed and Chuck Hagel, on to tell us how proud they are of the US Senate, and then Richard Engel crawl out from under the rock he’s been hiding under to tell us how brave he’s been pretending to cover Iraq, while the real journalists have been out there with their asses on the line.

Over at CBS, Bush buddy Bobby Schieffer has a throughly exciting show in store for us, with Presidential “hopeful,” Joe Biden (keep hopin’, Joe), Dick Lugar, and hack writers Doyle McMAnus of the LA Times, and Josephine Hearn of The Politico.

On the Goebbels Broadcasting Channel, it’s a thrilling EXCLUSIVE with Republican “front-runner” Mitt Romney (really? The Mormon from NJ is a front-runner? Says a lot about the rest of the field, doesn’t it?). Then, at the roundtable, it’s The Nation’s Kristina vanden Heuvel, Fareed “Token” Zakaria and George :jerk: Will. Plus, Michael Douglas, for some reason.

Over at Fux News with Weaselface Wallace, it’s Carl Levin and the Newtster.

Wolf Blitzer trots out the Snowman again, as well as a bunch of other people that I don’t really give a shit about, and later, on 60 Minutes, Bob Simon tells us about Kurdistan, “the other Iraq” (must be a nice place), Lesley Stahl tells us all about autism, and Kenny Chesney tells Anderson Cooper he’s not gay (no, really, honest). No word on if Anderson Cooper will tell the rest of us, “who gives a shit.”

Plus, there’s all your usual Sunday night hijinx. All assuming your power stays on, of course. Enjoy.

Still trying to get over whatever the hell it is I’ve got in my armpit. Hope your day goes a bit better than mine.

Another Marc Maron finale show today. You’d sure think there’d be a place for him in the lineup somewhere. Anyhow, as with yesterday, you can stop over to the Franken show blog and blog over there, if you want.

Hope you all caught Marc on Conan last night. Don’t forget, he’ll be in the noon – 3 eastern slot on most of your AAR stations (sorry, Gypsy). I hear tell that Al’s blog will be left open for a couple of weeks, so if y’all want to blog over there during the show, it might help to show the new brass how great an idea it would be to bring Marc on board permanently. Just be nice to Al’s bloggers, if there are any there. They’ve just seen their favorite show come to an end, and – no matter what any of us, personally, felt about Al – we all know how much that sucks (twice). Guess I’d better go see if I need to shovel again. See ya.

So, here we go, another Wednesday. And Valentines Day, to boot. It’s rather an odd day to have representing “romance,” really. Back in the olden days, (like, the fourth century B.C.), the Romans had an annual lottery around this time of year (for the festival of Lupercalia), where the names of teenage women in the vicinity were placed in a box and drawn at random by young men. The two were then paired off for a year, until the next lottery (although sometimes they fell in love and stayed together permanently). Not a bad set-up, really – one year trial, and if it doesn’t work out, well, better luck next time. None of this sat very well with the Christians, of course (ever the spoilsports), so they figured they’d better fuck things up. That’s where they came up with the whole Valentine’s Day thing.

The Christians (unlike the Catholics) hated all that pagan stuff, but they knew if they were to successfully control everything (and everyone), they needed to give the people their little rituals (kind of like sitting though a lecture on the King of Peace and the meek shall inherit the Earth, before heading out to the football stadium and screaming in a drunken rage, “kill, kill, KILL“). So, they decided to create a day to honor Saint Valentine – a priest who refused to quit performing marriages after they were banned by Emperor Claudius II (seems they were having trouble getting people to enlist in his legions, which he attributed to married guys not wanting to leave their wives and families). Valentine was given quite a few chances to knock it off, but he refused and was eventually beaten to death with clubs, and then beheaded (just to make sure, I suppose; the Romans were quite thorough that way) on February 14th (actually, there were a bunch of Valentines – at least three, and maybe as many as seven – but the story works better with only one). What with the Christians – even back then, apparently – having a difficult time separating brutality, blood, and death, from love, they figured this was just the sort of thing to make a lover’s holiday out of.

Supposedly, before his execution, St. Valentine (one of ’em, anyway) send a note to the jailer’s daughter (whom he had cured of blindness, or so the story goes – far be it for me to suggest there was something more untoward going on) signed “From Your Valentine.” Aw. So, instead of the lottery, the Roman guys and gals started exchanging Valentines cards (probably saying something like “sayus, babyus, putteth down que plumbus, and getteth mei plumbus surgo surrexi surrectum”), and then some kid probably cried ‘cuz he didn’t get one, so his mother bitched, and then they came up with a rule that everybody has to give a Valentine to everybody else.

So, anyhow, in keeping with the romantic customs of the day, has anybody out there every had an increasingly sore armpit, accompanied by chills, fever, fatigue, and night sweats? Just curious.

It’s amazing how many hours can pass without anything seeming to happen. Now I’ve got a pile of shit to do, and no time left to do it. I need to sleep for a couple of months.

Even if you’ve already seen this, it’s worth watching again:

Happy Birthday to Honest Abe, and to Charles Darwin, who were both born on this date in 1809. And it’s also the day that Sal Mineo was stabbed to death, back in 1976. Best of all, it’s. Isn’t that special?

It gets more and more tiresome to see the hacks, wingnuts, Republican apologists, and tut-tutting purveyors of conventional wisdom (and outright bullshit artists) they feel compelled to trot out every Sunday. Was I just uninformed and naive back in the olden days when I’d watch these shows, and think I was actually getting some news and intelligent discussion? Now, it’s all I can do to read the guest lists – let alone torture myself by watching these chowderheaded urinalists and their quacking guests giggle, titter, sigh, and scoff through these shows with feigned indignation and the wink-wink, nudge-nudge of self-important “Washington Insiders.” If I have to hear these clueless, isolated, elitist bastards tell me what “the American people” want one more time, I think I’ll fucking scream. But anyways….

On Press the Meat, Timmy Potatohead tries to pretend he has any credibility whatsoever left, as he hosts a Steny Boehner “exclusive” debate on sending more kids over to Iraq (the sooner the better, too, now that they’re getting pretty good at shooting down our helicopters). Then it’s an especially dreadful collection of skags, headed by “Dean” David Broder (he’s kind of a cross between Yoda and the fluke man from the X-Files), who will be accompanied by the administration-friendly Gwen Ifill, that two-dollar whore “journalist” Howard Kurtz, and flatulent hack writer, Roger Simon. :barf: Gee, that’s worth getting up early to watch.

It isn’t much better over at Faze the Nation, with bush buddy Bobby Schieffer hosting Chris Dodd and Senator Brylcreem, Trent Lott. Plus, whiny Republican transcriptionist, John Harris.

Over at Fux News Sunday, did Pentagon officials illegally produce their own fake intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq? Hell no, and Doug Feith will be on to prove it. Plus, weaselface Wallace hosts head Senate Republican asshole, Mitch “the prick” McConnell, on to talk about how the evil Democrat party hates our troops, and how the brave, righteous Republicans are gonna stand up and defeat them – no matter how many American kids (let alone Iraqi civilians) have to go die in Iraq to do it. Oh, there’ll be token Democrat Jack Reed from RI, for fairness and balance. Also, I hear-tell the weaselly one will talk about Republican plane envy, and Nancy Pelosi demanding a flying cruise ship.

Over at Goebbels, George Snufalufagus boasts an EXCLUSIVE with, um, John Kerry. Really? John Kerry? 😕 OK, well, then it’s former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee Hound. He may not get the same publicity as the “top-tier” Republicans, but he’s just as fucking racist and crazy (and, since those wingnuts just can’t get enough of their fundamentalist evangelical Kristians, he’s not a bad bet for the nomination). Around the round table, it’s little Robbie Reich, ABC News whore Cokie “the Hag” Roberts and George :jerk: Will, and then Sean Penn will be on to talk about the failed court-martial of Ehren Watada.

On CNN’s Late Emission with Wolf Blitzer, it’s Ron Wyden of Oregon, batshit crazy (even for a Texas politician) John Cornyn, Duncan “Donuts” Hunter, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan (remember Afghanistan?), and everybody’s favorite Syracusan, Terry McAuliffe.

Later, on 60 Minutes, it’s Obamamania with Steve Kroft, Scott Pelley tells us about a mentally ill prison inmate who died of thirst after being restrained for 17 straight hours (a mere 15 hours past what the policy allowed), and then, you just gotta take the good with the bad. If you wanna see Norah Jones, you’ll have to suffer through Katie Couric interviewing her.

For anybody who actually gives a shit, the Grammy Awards are on after 60 Minutes, or you can watch all new episodes of the Simpsons, King of the Hill (Peggy Hill uses a Mac, by the way – just sayin’), Family Guy, and American Dad. And there are also new Dresden Files, and Battlestar Galactica. Enjoy your Sunday.

It’s a big weekend here at the old homestead, as my stepson will be leaving the nest, and moving into an apartment. Tried to get him to take a couple of cats with him, but he’s not going for it. It’s gonna be kinda strange, I must say. Odd for me, and I’ve only been around here for ten years. I can’t imagine how it it’ll be for my wife. I guess she’ll have more time to cater to my every whim, which should be good for her. The bad news is that we have to get him moved, and there are few things in life worse than moving (better him than me, though). Now, I wonder if a pool table will fit in his room?

OK, so it isn’t actually Good Friday (probably not even a good Friday), but all this talk of the repression of Catholics by “anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots” (could be worse, I guess; at least they’re not pedophiles – or Republicans) has me all full of thoughts of the crucifiction. Imagine, the nerve of anyone writing something satirical and :omg: vulgar about the poor downtrodden catholic church.

Update: As Pap suggested on Sam today, call ABC at 212-456-7777 and tell them to get Glenn Beck off of their our airwaves.