Just in case you thought it was only the US arm of the Murdoch “news” empire that’s a bunch of morons, we bring you Kay Burley of Sky News (Murdoch’s News Corp. owns somewhere in the neighborhood of 40% of British Sky Broadcasting – not that anybody cares, but I need more words here to get the text to wrap properly around this picture). Burley – who is apparently Catholic, for gosh sakes – wondered just what the hell was going on with the bruise on Joe Biden’s forehead.

“What’s happened to his head?” Burley asked on Sky News. “I’m sure that’s what everyone’s asking at home…it looks like he’s walked into a door!”

Her equally brilliant co-host speculated that perhaps Joe had slipped on the ice in Vancouver (apparently they’re not aware that it’s been in the 50’s in Vancouver this week – or perhaps they thought the VP was out wandering around the “killer” bobsled run). Alas, Joe is a nice Catholic boy, and the “bruise” on his head was just his Ash Wednesday ashes. There are at least some differences between Sky and Fow, though. When Burley realized what an idiot she was, she ‘fessed up and apologized.

“I know that I am a very bad Catholic,” Burley said. “I know now that it is Ash Wednesday and I know that those are ashes on his forehead. I hang my head in shame. I’ll be back in just a moment.”

Speaking of Fox, Michelle Obama will be making her Fox debut this Saturday with Mike Huckabee (who apparently has a show; I had no idea, but then why would I?). She and the Huckster will talk about how awful it is to be fat (Kevin Smith would make a great surprise guest for this segment), though they’ll talk abotu other things, like “including what life is like at the White House.” That’s about as close as you’re gonna get to it, Mikey.

As for Michelle’s husband, he’s apparently willing to go on the Daily Show, but is apparently (and appropriately) terrified of Stephen Colbert.

“I think the President would love to,” Gibbs said when asked if President Obama would appear on “The Daily Show.” “Just maybe not Colbert,” he said.

Gibbs explained his reasoning for avoiding Colbert: “I have yet to see a politician best Stephen Colbert in an interview on his show. I mean, he’s really, really good.”

Big mistake, in my opinion. Obama could be Colbert’s new “black friend.”

First, Levi knocks up Bristol. A shotgun marriage is quickly arranged, but Sarah’s a loser, so the marriage never occurs. Then Levi disses Sarah. Sarah disses Levi. “Yes she did.” “No I di-int.” Levi does a photo-shoot for Playgirl. Now Bristol is going after Levi for more child support money.

The lawyer for Sarah Palin’s kid is scoffing at legal docs filed by Levi’s lawyer — docs claiming Levi made but a pittance over the last few years and should not have to pay $1,688.42 a month in child support – which is what Bristol wants.

Sounds a lot like an episode of ‘Trailer Park Boys.’

Speaking of trailer trash, Tiger Woods will be making a public statement on Friday. This is big news (I feel compelled to point that out, as you may, for some reason, not really give a shit).

Woods will apologize for his behavior, his agent Mark Steinberg said Wednesday. No questions will be allowed.

“While Tiger feels that what happened is fundamentally a matter between he and his wife, he also recognizes that he has hurt and let down a lot of other people who were close to him,” Steinberg said in an e-mail.

Didn’t he already do that, like, a couple months ago? I didn’t care then, so why would I care now? Although I did hear a couple of pretty good Tiger Woods jokes.

Rumor has it a certain SU alum and his boss will be attending the Georgetown basketball game tonight in DC, as Georgetown takes on…um…let me see…I had it here a couple of minutes ago. Oh well, whoever they’re playing tonight, let’s hope the Hoyas lose. Otherwise, you might find me a little grumpy tomorrow morning.

It’s less than nine months ’til election day, and hopeful candidates for statewide office are bravely making the rounds “Upstate” (which, for politicians from NYC and Long Island, is an area somewhere north of Westchester consisting basically of a few barns, trees, and lots of cows, goats, and chickens, that they’re required to pander to briefly every few years in an effort to get elected). Harold Ford Jr. was in town a couple weeks back, chiding incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand for not “spending enough time” in our area. Yes, that’s right, the person who’s lived her entire life in New York, and is from the Hudson Valley doesn’t spend enough time here. That’s in contrast to Tennessee transplant Harold, who lives in Manhattan (except for the purposes of voting and paying taxes), but has been to both Rochester and Syracuse once or twice, and has seen exotic places like Staten Island via helicopter. I really don’t think anybody’s buying what Harold’s selling, to be honest.

Speaking of Downstate politicians, former Long Island congresscritter (and failed Senate candidate himself) Rick Lazio was in town yesterday as part of his campaign for Governor. I think his message to those of us who aren’t livestock up here was that the way to solve our unemployment problem is to give more tax breaks to rich people, so that we might be able to scurry around collecting some of the crumbs that fall from their ample jowls. This, of course, is the theory that former NY Governor George Pataki (and every other idiot Republican in recent memory) espoused, which is why we have such huge deficits that have Governor Blinky (hey, where’s our scandal, anyway?) cutting health care and education. How Ricky intends to cut taxes and balance the budget is unclear.

Speaking of Blinky, his latest brilliant budget balancing brainstorm is to withhold NY State income tax refunds until after the start of the next fiscal year. In other words, if you filed a return now, you wouldn’t get your refund until after April 1st. Apparently NYS law allows them to hold your refund for up to 45 days after April 15. I gotta tell ya, Guv, this really aint gonna fly. I don’t know how much money this interest-free loan from us to you would net the State, but I can’t imagine it’s a lot, “we the people” aren’t gonna like it, and State Republicans and Democrats are gonna run away from this like it’s a Snickers bar floating in a swimming pool.

Please don’t run again, Dave.

Not to be left out, Kirsten Gillibrand also came to town yesterday. In contrast to Lazio and Ford, she held an open meeting and took questions from the local livestock folks in the audience. I’m not sure who the Republicans are planning to run against her, but I don’t think she’ll have much trouble winning a full term (assuming she doesn’t appear in a sex tape with the Governor or something).

Though they do make a cute couple, I think.

There was a big scare in Buffalo yesterday at UB’s Lockwood library. Apparently, there were reports of somebody with a gun. UB is one of my alma maters (assuming going there for two years qualifies as an alma mater), and I’m vaguely familiar with that library, having visited it on several occasions in my time there. As I recall, they had chalkboards on the toilet stall walls – great idea, too; has to pay for itself in not having to clean/paint over the graffiti every semester – and the couple times I went there to “study,” I wound up mostly reading various newspapers and scouring through the vintage Sports Illustrated magazines, trying to relive SU’s past sports glory. That was all during my first year. Once I moved off campus in my second year, I rarely bothered to make the trip to campus – let alone the library.

Going to the library really got in the way of my beer drinking.

Speaking of beer, thanks to Vernon for passing along this link to the new “Sink the Bismarck” beer from the Scottish Brewery BrewDog. It’s a quadruple IPA that comes in at 41% ABV (that’s alcohol by volume). I believe that makes it somewhere in the neighborhood of 72 proof. 72 proof beer? What’re you supposed to do, invite a few friends over and do shots? It sure would alter a game of quarters (or Buzz). Something tells me I’d better stay the hell away from that – it could be fatal.

By now, everybody’s heard the earth-shattering news that Evan Bayh has decided to retire from the Senate because of all the partisan rancor. There’s some speculation that he’s thinking of running for President, but I figure it means there’ll be a new sex tape coming out any day now (possibly featuring Bayh in a compromising position with John Edwards). My guess is that Bayh’s a bottom.

A “secret raid” in Pakistan has netted us another “#2” guy – this time the supposed Taliban number two man and top commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (who I thought was rumored to be dead after a drone attack last week). A Taliban spokesman, however, said “no you di-in’t.” So, we shall see.

Oh well, I think I’ll go try and figure out what to give up for Lent. I’ve narrowed the choices down to beer, and work. Unfortunately, I need to work to afford the beer, and I need the beer to make work bearable. Kind of a Sophie’s choice.

Another Dayton 500 is in the books, which is apparently a big deal, what with NASCAR being the #1 spectator sport in the US (especially south of the Mason-Dixon line, though there are plenty of “fans” even up here). Go figure. It doesn’t do much for me, but to each his or her own. A typical racing weekend consumes 6,000 gallons of gas, so, at 20 pounds of CO₂ per gallon, that means there’s another 60 tons of it in the air today. That doesn’t count all the cars and RVs the spectators and participants rode to the race in, of course (never mind the beer farts).

Watching cars go around in a circle never really seemed all that exciting to me. I used to like those figure 8 races (do they still do that?), though. I mean, everybody just wants to see some crashes, and a track in the shape of an 8 pretty much ensures that.

Motorcycle ice racing isn’t bad either, though I don’t think they should be allowed to spike the tires – where’s the challenge in that? Then there’s the demolition derby, which is kinda fun to watch. For a while, anyway. It’d be better if the cars blew up on occasion. Maybe they could wire them with dynamite, and when a car can’t go any longer, the Race Emperor gives the thumbs down, and KABLAM!

Unless it was a valiant effort, of course, in which case, he gets the thumbs up and lives to race another day.

Racing and other sports-related activities that I shall not mention aside, it was a fairly productive weekend. First off, I was looking for the portable speakers that I use with my MP3 player, but hadn’t seen in a while. I was actually pretty sure where they were – in one of two drawers next to my bed. In order to open the drawers to look, though, I have to move the dresser that partially blocks them. And in order to move the dresser, I have to move the dog bed (which is hard, ‘cuz the dogs always follow me into the bedroom, and then jump in their beds and besides, there are “things” – unspeakable things – under the dog beds).

Suffice it to say, it’s been a while since I looked in those drawers, and even though I knew the speakers were in there, I had previously lacked the considerable ambition required to get them out. On Saturday, however, I was feeling quite spry, and decided to go for it.

Not only did I find the speakers (right where I knew they’d be; don’t tell me I’m not organized), but, in the void that exists between the dresser and the headboard, I scored a pair of underwear, three and a half pairs of socks (OK, more like two, and three half-pairs of socks), several quarters (I didn’t bother with the pennies), two pairs of shorts I’ve been looking for, a t-shirt I’d forgotten about, and a sweatshirt that I haven’t seen in a couple of years. Pretty sweet.

I also managed to finish the inside of two of the windows we put in a couple years ago. Well, more like five (could be six) years ago. We’re being very “shelfish” with them. Since there are never enough flat surfaces to put shit on (apparently the floor and kitchen table – though undeniably flat – don’t count, for some reason, but the top of the toilet tank does – so many rules to learn), I put six inch shelves on the sills, and 9 inch ones up on top. The cats are thrilled (though they’re trying not to show it). Just another five (could be six) to go.

The process wasn’t without tragedy, though. Mostly, I seem to have collected an inordinate number of splinters (even more than usual), with nary a finger unscathed. One, in particular required rather extensive surgery this morning with a box cutter (don’t worry, I wiped it off on my shirt, first). Can I sue Home Depot for that? I mean, it’s not like they had a “not responsible for splinters” sign in the lumber area.

BTW, are those signs legally binding? For instance, you always see those “not responsible for damage due to carts” in store parking lots. Are they informing me of what the law is, or are they absolved of any legal responsibility just by virtue of putting them up? I may put one on my car: “not responsible for running your ass over, so get the hell out of my way.”

I heard a commercial on the radio the other day for some new “jingle” business. This explains why every freakin’ local company now has a teevee commercial with a crappy, sappy jingle. I hope these people are working cheap.

Note to Southwest Airlines: if you must fuck with fat people, try not to fuck with famous fat people (especially ones that make movies; Kevin Smith and Michael Moore should automatically be on your “do not screw with” list). Especially after they’re already buckled into their seats, ready to go. What, it isn’t bad enough you have to run us through a virtual strip search machine now (and we know you’ll be posting pictures on the Internet)? Now you gotta haul us off the plane in front of everybody, like terrorists?

You know, fat people have taken an awful lot of shit over the years. Comedians make fun of us, skinny little shits look at us with smug disgust and disdain, we can’t even go to the salad bar for a frickin’ salad without being ridiculed, and now you make airplane seats tiny so you can cram more people on every flight, and then make it seem like we’re the assholes.

You know what? We’re in the majority here (in number, volume, and sheer mass) assholes, so y’all better quit messing with us, or we’ll rise up (of course, if we rose up a little more often, maybe we wouldn’t be so fat). I know you think you can outrun us, but you just better hope we don’t catch you while you’re in the toilet with your fingers down your throat. Then we’re gonna go all Sumo on your ass.

No banks, no mail, no school, no gubberment business today. And yet, I have to go to friggin work. That just doesn’t seem right.

Today, Joe Biden visits Press the Meat to talk about what a Dick that Cheney guy is. Then it’s a roundtable with douchebag Dave Brooks, Rachel Maddow, the too rich to pay taxes “Democrat” Harold Ford Jr., and some Republican schmuck (who’s got “closet case” written all over him) named Aaron Schock from Illinois.

Joe Biden also pops up on Faze the Nation.

On Fux News Sunday, Weaselface Wallace has Jim Jones, White House national security adviser, and l’il Lindsey Graham.

The Goebbels network calls in the Big Dick (isn’t he time for him to just shut up already?), plus a roundtable with George :jerk: Will, Peter Beinart, Paul Gigot and Jane Mayer (John’s sister?).

At CNN, Fareed Zakaria has Paul Volcker, a discussion about Iran and nukes, and a chat with South African President Jacob Zuma.

Far be it for me to agree with Dan Quayle (fun fact: Dan Quayle was the 44th Vice President, which tells me that we’ve gone through a lot VP’s in this country – FDR had three), but he was right: the founders didn’t have a 51-vote majority in mind when they set up the gubberment – at least in the Senate. For one thing, when the Senate first convened in Federal Hall in NYC (another fun fact: their meeting space was on the top floor, which is how they came to be known as the “Upper Chamber”), there were only, like, 22 Senators, since only 11 states had ratified the new constitution at that point. And even with all 13, there were on 26. So 51 votes would have been impossible. As for the House, there were only about 60’ish Representatives back then, so 51 votes would have been about 85%. That sounds about right, if the Republicans are in the minority. Of course, there were no Republicans back then, so clearly the founders never had Republicans in mind, and therefore Dan Quayle should shut the f*ck up.

Speaking of things the founders never intended (the part where only Congress can declare war that, ironically, I remember learning about in school at around the same time my brother was in Vietnam), we seem to have launched a major offensive in Afghanistan. Oh, wait, that wasn’t us, it was NATO (or, as Dan Quayle would say, ‘NATOE’). That makes it OK, then.

Harold Ford continues to ponder a run for Senator from New York. He loves New York. He loves it a lot, and whenever he flies over it in a helicopter, he loves it even more. Just not enough to pay taxes here. He pays taxes in Tennessee, though (fun fact: TN doesn’t tax wages). Not having to pay tax on your wages sounds like a pretty good perk. Normally, that would have a downside in that you’d have to live in Tennessee, but Harold seems to have found a way around that.

Thing is, we could kinda use the money, Harold. I know you haven’t really been around here long, but we have this whole deficit thing going on that has our Governor cutting money for schools and hospitals and other frills like that. I know that it’s hard to make ends meet on your Merrill Lynch/NBC/Fox News/NYU salaries (especially since you took a 45-day unpaid leave from Merrill), and helicopter rides probably aren’t cheap, but still.

Hmm. Seems to be some trouble in Tea-land. Tea Party Grand Poobah Dale Robertson is a little ticked off by the hijacking of his “movement” by the GOP.

[W]hat I am witnessing is an attempted defilement of the concept of what the Tea Party’s purposes are and where we are going. The bastardization of our message I find bilious and disingenuous on its face.

Tea Party members are being eyed as just another piece of voting meat. Tea Party members are targeted for filling the rank and file of minion laden political operations, most of which are lead (sic) by failed Republican hacks.

Old Dale doesn’t seem very enchanted with Caribou Barbie, either. He says she has a “neo-con flippant viewpoint” and he refers to her as “a duck out of water among true constitutional conservatives.”

Um, Dale, I appreciate your sentiment and all, but, you know, ducks actually do get out the water rather frequently. They, like, fly and walk around and stuff.

Dale continues:

She represents a growing insider’s attack to the heart of the Tea Party. Very much like a wolf in sheep’s clothing entering in at the gate as an ally, but for all intents and purposes there to seize and capture, not only one or two stray sheep, but the whole flock!

Wow, a duck and a cross-dressing wolf. That’s harsh, dude. And to think, Obama only called her a lipstick-wearing pig.

Speaking of pigs, it’s heartwarming to witness the transition of the GOP from a bunch of mouth-breathing, arrogant, ignorant, faux-Christian douchebags, to a kinder, gentler group, sensitive to the feelings of diverse religions.

Missouri state Sen. Gary Nodler, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the open seat of GOP Rep. Roy Blunt, has offered up an argument for keeping the ban on gays in the military: That allowing gays to serve openly would…[offend] the people of the Muslim countries where we are fighting.

Allahu Akbar, Gary.

Today we celebrate the birthday of Abe Lincoln. Well, I do, anyway. Turns out today is a holiday for me for some reason or other (Monday, however, is not – go figure) . Normally, I’d just work today and get a day to use later, but, well, screw that; I’m taking today off. I was always pretty interested in the Civil War, for some reason, and I can kind of relate to Lincoln – an ugly guy with a beard, married to a short woman that was kinda nuts (doesn’t seem right that that they picked the date of his death as tax day). Of course, Lincoln was also tall, skinny, and smart, while I’m, well, not. Then again, I’m hoping to not get assassinated anytime soon. There are always tradeoffs. Naturally, the dogs figured out I was off today, and got me out of bed to go out at about 4:30. This wasn’t good enough, so they got me up for keeps by about 5:20 (I think the noise of the snowplow going by repeatedly was freakin’ ’em out; they’re just not used to it, with this relatively snowless winter we’ve been having).

Speaking of lack of snow, we’ve been knocked out of first place in the Golden Snow Globe competition, and are now four inches behind Baltimore, of all places. Baltimore? Really? It’s the middle of February, and Baltimore has more snow than we do? Oh, the shame. And to think, I was gonna buy my wife a new shovel for Valentine’s Day.

In what passes for a “victory” these days, Republicans “allowed” the confirmation of 27 Obama nominees yesterday. Woo-hoo. Of course, that’s less than half of his outstanding nominees, but when you’re 25% of the way into your failed one-term presidency, I guess you gotta take what you can get. Why he doesn’t send Michelle down to the Capitol Building to punch Mitch McConnell in his chinless fucking face is beyond me.

Speaking of old white men that need their asses kicked, feckless fuck Harry Reid is soundly poo-pooing the idea of getting rid of the Senate filibuster. No matter how large a majority Democrats have, Harry always keeps his “minority mentality.”

Now that I’ve replaced my appliances, NY is offering rebates for replacing your appliances – if you do it between today and Feb 21st. Wow, they’re giving us a whole friggin’ week. Did you know that “[i]t is recommended you change your appliances every 4 – 6 years given the rapid changes in appliance technology”?

What world do these freakin’ people live in? Hey, I’d love to spend a few thousand dollars on new appliances every 5 years. I mean, I could potentially save tens of dollars a year on my utility bill. I’ll be needing a little bit bigger rebate, though – and more than a week to save up for it.

I wonder if they’d consider giving a rebate for a new energy efficient dual-band wireless router?

The Olympics, apparently, are scheduled to open tonight. This has driven the “cast” of the Today Show (aka, the “rainbow coalition” of the ratfaced white guy, Matt Lauer, the Portugese shriveled husk of Meredith Vieira, the comic relief of non-threatening black guy Al Roker, and the exotic – and least annoying of the bunch – Japanese, Cherokee, French, German, Irish, Scottish mutt, Anne Curry) to unprecedented levels of insipidness. I guess I gotta go put my CANADA sweatshirt on.

This will be the first time ever that the Winter opening ceremonies will be held indoors. Not because Canadians are pussies afraid of the cold, but because they’re pussies afraid of rain, which apparently happens rather frequently in Vancouver on Lincoln’s Birthday. I know this, because Bob Costas told me so (and, since he went to SU, I trust him).

I didn’t really care much about the whole Leno/Conan thing, but now they’ve gone and pissed me off by announcing that Season 5 of Friday Night Lights will be the last. Here I’ve just finished watching the Season 4 finale (on DirecTV; if you’re relying on NBC, you won’t see the premiere until April), and they’re gonna go and kill it after next year. I mean, here’s a critically acclaimed show that combines cute 20-something girls like Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki, and Aimee Teegarden playing high school chicks (though, in a depressing sign that I must be getting old, it’s the “mom” character that I have the hots for) with football that even my wife doesn’t hate, and they kill it.

It’s been said before, of course, but NBC sucks.

Speaking of how NBC sucks, the Today Show is up next, which is a good reason to get up and go to work every day. Since that’s not an option today, I wonder if the dogs will let me go back to sleep instead?

I’m not one to criticize other people’s religious wardrobe choices. I mean, if nuns want to dress up like penguins (or wear a sea gull hat like Sister Bertrille), it’s OK by me. And if the pope wants to wear a turkey’s ass hat (or a red yarmulke on “casual” days), it’s no skin off my nose (I think the outfits are a little flamboyant, personally, but what do you expect from a bunch of single guys living together). Hey, whatever floats your boat. But there are some drawbacks to dating a chick wearing a beekeeper suit. Namely, that her family might just pull the old bait and switch, and show you pictures of her good-looking sister.

An Arab ambassador in Dubai has had his marriage annulled after discovering that his bride, behind her veil, was bearded and cross-eyed.

The couple had only met a few times during their courtship. Each of these times the woman had worn a niqab, an Islamic veil that covers most of the face.

After the marriage contract was signed in Dubai, the ambassador tried to kiss his new wife. However, as he removed the veil, he was shocked at what he saw.

“He was absolutely horrified,” a guest said. “The bride had a nice personality, but there was a good reason why she was hiding her looks behind a veil.”

Yeah, well, that’ll happen. They really should have given the guy a chance to get used to her first. Cross-eyes are one thing (might make you a bit paranoid, wondering what the hell she’s looking at all the time; “what, is somebody sneaking up behind me?”). But the time to find out your wife’s got a beard isn’t when you go to give her that first smooch. Some things you just gotta ease your way in to.

And, hey, dude, there might be one or two other things under that veil you wanna get a look at before you get hitched, too. You think a beard is a shocker…?

Just sayin’.

Speaking of stating the obvious (like, at least take a quick look under the hood before you buy a car), it also should go without saying that if you’re a fugitive from the law, maybe you shouldn’t be quite so diligent in updating your Facebook page.

U.S. marshals captured a Lockport man Wednesday in Terre Haute, Ind., after Lockport Police learned his whereabouts via his Facebook and MySpace pages.
[…]
Christopher Crego…was wanted for second- and third-degree assault charges…and fled the state just before his sentencing date last fall, police said.

Less than a year later, Lockport police charged Crego again with driving while intoxicated and unlawful possession of marijuana….

Podgers said through Crego’s Facebook and MySpace pages, police were able to find him.

“He had all of his information right online,” Podgers said. “He even wrote one time that police were never going to catch him.”
[…]
Lockport police posted a thank-you note on Crego’s Facebook page that read, “It was due to your diligence in keeping us informed that now you are under arrest.”

I know what you’re thinkin’. You’re thinkin’, here it is, like 8-9 years since 9/11, and no new pictures. Well, it’s your lucky day, ‘cuz ABC News filed a FOIA request to get aerial photos taken from police helicopters released. Now, why these photos would be a freakin’ secret is beyond me. What, they didn’t think we could take it?

No doubt these photos will conclusively and scientifically prove that 9/11 was an inside job because steel doesn’t melt in a fire (all those old movies with blacksmiths aside; those were faked by the Illuminati, who are all powerful and can wire skyscrapers for demolition without anybody noticing, and control the shadow world government – but can’t quite seem to control that pesky Alex Jones).

Now we can get to work on cracking the whole chem-trail thing.

I got an e-mail from Patrick over at thesnotgreensea.com the other day. He’s getting out of the Morning Sedition show archive business, and was looking to hand things off to some other sucker fan of the show. Well, what else could I do but say, sure, I’d give ’em a home? The files are all uploaded now, and now I’ll need to put up some sort of a front end to access them. Nothing fancy to start with. Ideally, I’d love to catalog them in a database by date, hosts, guests, etc., but that’s a long project that would involve a lot of show listening. I’m not sure it would really be worth the effort (you gotta wonder how much anybody really cares anymore). But, being Irish and German, I’m pretty goddamn stubborn, and I refuse to let Danny Goldberg win. Besides, isn’t the Sedition Party gonna take over the world eventually?

UCONN comes to town tonight. The last time they played SU, it was a six-overtime game in Madison Square Garden. If they’re planning on doing that again tonight, they’ll have to do it without me, ‘cuz I need to get some sleep.

Good thing they’re not playing down in NYC tonight. Looks like they’re in for a bit of snow down that way, along with DC and a lot of other places. Here, not so much. We’re supposed to get a few inches, but nothing major. I had to laugh at last weekend’s snowstorm, with headlines proclaiming that Washington, DC was “paralyzed.” What else is new? They’ve been paralyzed for months now.

I’m feeling pretty paralyzed this morning myself. I hope I can manage to get up and out of the house.

In a show of brave solidarity, brave “Democratic” Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson has announced that he will, um, filibuster his President’s nominee for the NLRB, Craig Becker. Craig’s crime? Being former counsel for both SEUI and the AFL-CIO. And we just can’t have that. As we all know, since St. Ronald assumed the Presidential Papacy back in the late 20th Century, the duty of the NLRB has been to crush organized labor under its boot heel, and then piss on its quivering bloody shell as it dies. Ronnie is long gone, but we can count on men like Ben (and the ferret that lives on his head) to keep labor in its place.

Another big storm is headed east, and once again it looks like it’ll stay well to the south of us. Normally I’d lament the lack of snow, but since I’ve kind of gotten out if the habit of shoveling, I guess I won’t complain.

The world’s tallest structure – the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai – closed suddenly, due to electrical problems. Looks like they’ve got some more construction work to do before they can start packing tourists into the elevator to the observation deck (at $27 a pop). That construction stuff just never seems to end, does it?

Speaking of endless construction projects, just in case you were wondering, when last we checked in, my kitchen was looking kinda like this:

Now, it’s looking like this:

Next up, ceiling, floor, bathroom(s)….