Although nobody’s actually interested in his opinion (especially the NY State Legislature), the Governor of NY has jumped on the “don’t bring the scary terrorists to trial in NY” bandwagon. Apparently it’s just too darn soon after the attacks (it’s only been 8 years, after all), and NYC is “not over” it yet (jeez, get over it already, New York). I’m sure it has nothing to do with Paterson wanting to stick it to Obama a little bit, what with Obama telling the Blinkster he ought to spend more time with his family and all (that’s no way to treat a brother). As evidence, the Guv cites the fact that there’s still just a big hole in the the ground where the Twin Towers used to be. Well, can’t argue with that, I guess. How can NYC try criminals with such a shortage of office space (and why hasn’t Obama rebuilt the WTC, anyway? Fer crissakes, he’s had like 10 months already; might as well give the terraists something to aim at)?

Our favorite yellow-toothed teabagger – Dough Hoffman – licked the boots of his hero, Glen Beck, and says he’s un-conceding (if he can) from the NY 23rd Congressional race, what with the vote margin being down to about 3,000 with 10,000 absentee ballots still outstanding. So, that makes him both a quitter, and a moron. No wonder Sarah Palin endorsed him.

Speaking of our poor Sarah, she’s apparently not too happy with Newsweek for using a “sexy” photo taken for Runner’s World on the cover of their magazine. First, Sarah is only “sexy” when compared to Dick Cheney. I know she’s the current star of the masturbatory fantasies of old Republican men everywhere, but that’s just ‘cuz the best they could do before were Liddy Dole and Bay “Pat in a dress” Buchanan (and maybe Larry Craig).

Second, aw, c’mon Sarah. You know you love it. I think thou doth protest too much. That photo will sell you a bunch of books, and, let’s face it, you’ve only got a short amount of time left to exploit those Miss Alaska second runner-up looks and fancy pageant-walkin’ skills. A few more years, and it’ll be time for Todd to float you off on an ice berg.

On a side note, Sarah Palin is one of the few people who have attended more colleges than I did before finally graduating from one, having attended Hawaii Pacific University (one semester; probably bitched she couldn’t get a decent hunk of salmon the whole time she was there) North Idaho College (home of the Golden Potatoes, where she spent two semesters before making the move to the more prestigious University of Idaho), then heading back to Alaska for a semester at Matanuska-Susitna College, then back to the University of Idaho again for three semesters, finally graduating in 1987.

Tom Harkin says if the Republicans try to delay passage of a health care reform bill by forcing a reading of the bill, the Democrats will keep them there “24/7.” Well, not ’til after their Thanksgiving holiday, of course. Woo-hoo, that’ll scare ’em, Tom. Sounds good. I’ll believe it when I see it.

The SU women’s basketball team won big against Presbyterian College last night. I mention this mainly because the PC team’s nickname is the “Blue Hose,” which I thought is a pretty goshdarn stupid name for a team (especially a women’s team). Not sure what genius came up with that one (maybe it’s because they wear blue socks?). I wonder if Don Imus would get in trouble if he referred to them as the “nappy-headed Hose.” Though, from the game photos, most of them appear to be blonds (which is probably why SU beat them by 41 points).

Robin Williams comes to town today. I’d go see him, but it would mean leaving the house on a school night, and I don’t even leave the house at night on the weekend. I’ve got one of his concert DVDs around here somewhere – that should be just as good.

I’m not feeling particularly inspired this morning. Monday after a three-day weekend (a spectacular one, weather-wise, though pretty lame on the sports front) will do that to you, I guess. So will looking at the faces of the Republican Party in the post-booblehead show wrap-ups. I mean, there’s a reason I don’t watch these things on Sunday, do you really have to shove them in my face on Monday? First there’s the truly disgusting Guidi Ruliani (I know you straight gals and gay guys think he’s hot – especially in the Marilyn outfit – but he makes me sick; look up putrefaction in the dictionary, and you’ll see his maggoty picture). Yesterday, he told the world that trying criminals in US Courts was “giving them an advantage,” and that it’s just too darn dangerous for NYC to try them there (though I guess at least a couple of hosts called him out for his 2006 praise of the civilian trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, when he said he was “in awe of our system” and that we “are a nation of law”). I mean, I thought DA-types were supposed to get all moist an dewy over bringing criminals to trial. And when will people finally realize what a bunch of f*cking cowards and hypocrites Republicans are?

Then there’s chinless ferret-face f*ck Mitch McConnell, who officially announced that the Republicans will just be trying to delay health care reform as long as possible. Between the idiotic rules of the Senate (that Democrats were too feeble to use when they were in the minority), assholes like Joe Lieberman, corrupt schmucks like Max Baucus, and the feckless wonder that is Harry Reid, I have no doubt they’ll be able delay reform until President Palin is sworn in on January 20, 2013.

As if that thought isn’t scary enough, the evil spawn of evil, Liz Cheney (rumor has it that she was conceived on a dark and stormy night in November of 1965, after daddy Dick got himself off watching torture porn, and his spattered black spunk coalesced and crawled up the steps from his basement dungeon, slithered up Lynne’s leg – nestling itself in her icy nether regions, patiently waiting to hatch nine months later) ventures on Fux News that her daddy would make a great candidate in 2012 (they have her sister Mary’s kid for spare parts, after all), and would never bow to those low-down dirty chinks.

Great choice: Lucifer, or Alaska trailer trash.

Speaking of trailer trash, I’m somewhat dismayed to find myself agreeing with David Brooks – at least with his opinion of Sarah Palin, who he called “a joke.” How much do you wanna bet he changes his tune and says he admires her fresh, plain-spoken, no-nonsense “outside the box” thinking when she takes the Iowa caucuses? Brooks went on to say

I mean, I just can’t take her seriously. We’ve got serious problems in the country…. The idea that this potential talk show host is considered seriously for the Republican nomination — believe me, it’ll never happen. Republican primary voters are just not going to elect a talk show host.

No, of course not. A fake cowboy who’s afraid of horses and lives on a pretend ranch? You betcha. And a crappy “B” move actor with Alzheimer’s who runs the nation based on the advice of his dessicated wife’s astrologer and sells weapons to the Axis of Evil in order to illegally fund a bunch of civilian-butchering “revolutionaries?” Oh, hell, all he’d be is just the new Republican messiah – the standard by which all future Republicans would be measured.

But a talk show host? Never.

On Press the Meat today, it’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, plus Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the totally irrelevant (to everybody but the media) Newt Gingrich, and Rev. Al Sharpton.

Over at CBS, Faze the Nation has Pete “Hokie” Hoekstra , the rankest Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Sen. Pat Leahy, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the WaPost’s Dana Priest, and Juan Zarate, CBS News national security analyst.

On Fux News Sunday, Weaselface Wallace will whine about the Obama Administration’s insistence on relying on the US criminal justice system to prosecute criminals, along with Guidi Ruliani. Also on, Sen. Jack Reed, chinless f*ck Mitch “the prick” McConnell, and the man who is singlehandedly keeping us all from dying of the Swine Flu, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The Goebbels network will have the two most qualified people on the planet to talk about foreign affairs, as George Snufalufagus hosts Former NYS Senator and current Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and guy who used to mayor of a big city who appointed a criminal as Chief of Police, recommended the same criminal as head of Homeland Security, and put an emergency command center above ground in a complex that had already been attacked by terrorists, Guidi Ruliani. At the roundtable, it’s George :jerk: Will, former journalist Bob Woodward, the Washington Week’s Gwen Ifill, Douchebag Dave Brooks and David Corn.

At CNN, Fareed Zakaria Fareed gives us a sneak peak into the upcoming HBO film (it premieres on the 19th) he narrated entitled Terror in Mumbai (those attacks were just about a year ago, if you recall). Plus, a panel discussion on President Obama’s first trip to China and the relationship between Beijing and Washington.

Damn, half way through November already?

Have a good Sunday.

Some good news for everyone this morning: the economy is once again back on track. Things were tough there for a while – so tough that rich people stopped buying shit. But take a deep breath and relax, America, ‘cuz times are good for rich people once again. Oh, things still suck for the rest of us, of course. Unemployment is almost as high as it was under St. Reagan, and those of us who still have work are faced with higher insurance premiums, and are left to scurry around trying to collect the crumbs that fall from the rich folks’ throbbing jowls, but, hey, guess what? The more the rich folks eat, the more crumbs there are for the little people. And that, my friends, is the how capitalism and the free market work.

As for health insurance, it turns out that the “historic reform” being contelmplted by the Senate is filled with loopholes for insurance companies (gee, who could’ve seen that coming). Basically, we’d all spend a lot of time and taxpayer dollars to wind up with basically the same system we have now (and that’s how the government works).

I guess everyone’s heard that AG Eric Holder is planning on bringing five Gitmo detainees to New York to stand trial for their (alleged) crimes. Amazingly (to me, if not to Wolf Blitzer), trying criminals for the crimes they’ve committed has somehow become “controversial.” Guidi Ruliani, for instance, has a great deal of contempt for our criminal justice system. That’s why he put a criminal in charge of the NYPD, I guess. Jim Webb thinks it’s a bad idea, too. And Bush AG Frank Murkasey went so far as to predict death and destruction for New Yorkers if criminals are put on trial there. Even the “9/11 Families” are “split” over the decision.

“I’m very, very disappointed in the government,” said Anne Ielpi, whose son, Jonathan Ielpi, was a firefighter who was killed in the south tower.

“It’s like throwing it in our face again,” she said, speaking by phone Friday. “We can’t get away from 9/11, we can’t.”

Well, with all due respect to Mrs. Ielpi and other family members who may be upset (and no respect whatsoever for the likes of Ruliani of Mukasey), sorry, but it aint up to you. I’m sure if one of my family members was killed in a robbery or something, I’d just as soon have his murderer packed off to some Kafkaesque prison cell somewhere, never to be seen again (personally, I’d prefer having him rot in a hole somewhere for 20 or 30 years to a quick execution). But that’s not how it works here. Victims and their families don’t get to decide who gets a fair and open trial, and who doesn’t.

If we can’t even agree on that, then we’re really screwed.

In the meantime, I think I’ll move to Portland (Oregon, that is).

The DC City Council seems poised to enact legislation allowing same sex marriage, paving the way for the first ceremonies to take place in the spring (ah, all decked out under the apple blossoms; how romantic). Predictably, the Catholic Church has worked itself into a petulant frenzy over it, and is attempting to blackmail the City by saying it’ll suspend all its charitable works in DC if they’re forced to treat “those people” like regular human beings. I think that’s how God would want it, don’t you?

I also think God would want the City Council to revisit its mechanism of determining what constitutes a “tax exempt” entity. If the Catholics want to abandon the vast amount of homeless and poor folks in DC, that’s cool. Now start paying taxes on all that prime real estate you own (including that University with the shitty dorms). In fact, I’d go beyond that, and tell them they need to perform at least a dozen same sex marriages (Priests and Altar Boys don’t count) a week in that fancy schmancy Basilica of theirs (which looks pretty gay to me), or all their property will be assessed at full value, and we’ll be needing a check by the end of January (and another one for the school taxes in September).

Turns out Kimberly Munley – the heroic female cop credited with “taking down” the Ft. Hood shooter – was certainly heroic – just not the person who put Major Hasan down. It was Sgt. Mark Todd who plugged Hasan and then kicked he shooter’s gun away. Kinda makes you wonder what else we aren’t hearing about this whole thing. I mean, first, they told us Hasan was dead – and that was the official story for many hours. Then for some reason (why? Better story?) they tell us – despite lots of other eyewitness accounts – that one cop ended the ordeal, when in fact it was somebody else. They say Hasan shouted “Allah Akbar,” too. Will that turn out to be true? Or just another good story? I’m starting to wonder if Nidal Malik Hasan’s name will turn out to be Nicholas Michael Hogan, and instead of being a Muslim, he’s a Scientologist.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think the Army is just incapable of telling the truth or something. But that can’t be, ‘cuz I saw Stanley McCrystal on the teevee, and when he says he can win in Afghanistan if only he gets more troops, I just know it’s true. 🙄

Last Friday, when I noticed it was November 6th, I had a premonition that we would soon have a Friday the 13th – and here it is. Spooky, isn’t it? I’m kind of Nostradamic that way. To celebrate, I decided to take the day off (since it’s going to be a nice, sunny day, and I’m getting tired of coming home from work when it’s pitch black out). Looks like the dogs are gonna get a nice long walk today.

Watch out for black cats, and stay away from ladders today.

I guess Wolf Blitzer was channeling his Nazi U-Boat Commander roots last night, as he used the classic “some people wonder” ploy to attack retired JAG Colonel John Galligan for having the audacity to be willing to provide a competent defense for accused Ft. Hood shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan. Galligan tried (somewhat in vain) to remind Wolfie that, back in the olden pre-Bush/Cheney days, we used to have this quaint notion that everybody had the right to a fair trial (not just to protect the rights of the accused, but also so that the rest of us can be reasonably certain that if somebody is found guilty, they really are guilty). Not that we’ve always lived up to that ideal, of course, but at least we usedta sorta kinda pretended we believed it. Wolf, I guess, would rather have a show trial where opposing counsel argue whether the defendant is guilty, or really guilty. It’s amazing how crappy CNN has become.

Speaking of CNN, it just got slightly less crappy. By now, we’ve all heard the tragic news that everybody’s favorite immigrant-hater, Lou Dobbs, abruptly ended his CNN career last night, saying:

“Some leaders in the media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond my role here at CNN and engage in constructive problem-solving.”

(you gotta love how these hacks always manage to sneak in a “some say” in one form or another, no matter what the premise).

This can only mean one of three things. He’s either going to run for public office (maybe move to Louisiana and return the statehouse to regular Americans), start working out to be in good enough shape to compete in the 2011 Miss California pageant (the beauty there is that Lou can afford his own breast implants, so he won’t be beholden to anybody, and can speak freely against same sex Mexicans getting married), or Lou is gonna pack up a cooler full of beer and his shotgun, then set up a chaise lounge on the north side of the Rio Grande and wait for some varmints to try and cross.

Speaking of shotguns, back in my day, we had to figure out how to shotgun a beer all by ourselves. It was a sacred ritual handed down from one generation to the next (like, sophomores to freshmen). Not anymore, though. Now there’s a “how to” wiki for it. Of course, as is typically the case, the wiki is both incorrect, and filled with wimps.

For starters, the bozo in the video lets beer spill out of the can. Wasting beer, as we all know, is a sin. Also, they suggest that a bunch of guys should stand around in a circle. That’s just wrong (there are only a limited number of reasons for a bunch of guys to stand around in a circle, and none of them are appropriate). Also, they say to use a knife, but everybody knows you use a screwdriver. And if they were real men, they’d be shotgunning tall boys, not wimpy little 12 ounce cans. Of course, the real kicker is that they have a disclaimer to “drink responsibly.” Puh-leeze. If you’re gonna shotgun a few beers, you obviously aren’t intending to taste the beer, let alone drink responsibly.

It’s stuff like this that makes me worry about the future of this great nation.

Happy Veteran’s Day to those of you who are veterans, or are family of veterans. To celebrate, a new study by Harvard researchers published in the American Journal of Public Health tells us that 1.46 million veterans between the ages of 18 and 64 were uninsured in 2008, resulting in the deaths of 2,266 of them. For those of you keeping score, that’s 14 times the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, and about half as many as have been killed in Iraq since 2003. So, one might say it’s safer to be deployed to a war zone than to be a veteran stateside (not counting the fact that as much as 20% of Iraq/Afghanistan veterans suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the suicide rate for male veterans is double the national average, and veterans account for some 25% of all the homeless in this country ).

“Like other uninsured Americans, most uninsured vets are working people – too poor to afford private coverage but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or means-tested VA care,” said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a professor at Harvard Medical School who testified before Congress about uninsured veterans in 2007 and carried out the analysis released today [Tuesday]. “As a result, veterans go without the care they need every day in the U.S., and thousands die each year. It’s a disgrace.”

Don’t worry, though. While the health care “reform” just passed by the House won’t really do much of anything to change that (nothing at all, until at least 2013), Joe Lieberman will make sure that not even a hint of a public insurance option will pass in the Senate.

So, anyway, Happy Veteran’s Day!

I got an e-mail yesterday from somebody or other (Democrats.com or MoveOn or something; can’t find it right now), that said the House had voted for the “public option,” and now it was time to put pressure on the Senate. I wish you could actually reply to these e-mails, ‘cuz I’d like to ask them, what option? As far as I know, there’s no “option” involved in what the House passed. An public option would be, like, you have the option of choosing between your employer’s plan or the public plan. Not, you must take your employer’s plan or get fined. That’s the real option there – get fined or don’t get fined, depending on what you can afford best.

There also seems to be no real regulation on the insurance companies, either. First off, they get until 2013 to jack up rates as high as they can (which they’ve already promised to do). After that, they’re not allowed to deny people based on existing conditions (supposedly; who wants to bet they won’t find some loophole in nearly 2,000+ pages of needlessly complicated legislation), and supposedly caps out of pocket expenses, but I don’t see where it limits how much insurance companies can charge for premiums. And the idiot Republicans have the audacity to call this a “government takeover” of health care.

Which just goes to show that they should have just insisted on Medicare for everybody. Then maybe we could have gotten something worthwhile (that didn’t attempt a “back door” ban on abortion).

Oh well. On the bright side, it’s still OK to send grown-up babies to their deaths in Afghanistan, as CBS is reporting that Obama has decided on sending about 40,000 additional troops there – upping our presence to 100,000. Or not. That report was quickly denied. Whether it was just a trial balloon, or the Obama administration doesn’t really know what the hell it’s doing, who knows? Both of those seem plausible to me. One thing I’ve come to believe in the past 10 months or so is that the Obama machine is a lot better at running for office than actually being in office.

Did you think that Carrie what’s her name with the fake boobs was finally over with? You were wrong. Her fifteen minutes has been extended once again, and she’ll be on the Today Show this morning to talk about masturbating on video. I must admit, I’ve been a bit behind the curve on this one, haveing not even heard about it until I watched last Friday’s podcast of “Countdown” yesterday. No word on whether or not the video is available on line somewhere (just a matter of time, I reckon), or who was behind the camera (or did she just set up a tripod and have at it), but, well, pardon me but is it illegal to masturbate? Or even immoral or whatever? As always, I admit I’m no bible expert, but I don’t recall reading about that being in there. “Thou shalt not diddle thyself, nor be diddled by others.”

Of course, if you think about it in the extreme sense, masturbation is kinda like gay sex, in that you’re having “same sex.” So nobody who has ever masturbated should be able to get married. Or is it that you just shouldn’t marry yourself?

I dunno, this bible shit is just piled too deep for me to understand.

OK, time to bore you sports talk today, ‘cuz it’s a big night here tonight as SU basketball season officially begins (and none too soon the way football season is going). Our coach – Jim Boeheim – begins his 34th season tonight against Albany. In his first 33 seasons (all here at Syracuse), Boeheim had 799 wins (better than 24 wins per season), which means he’ll be trying to become just the eighth coach to reach 800 wins. Boeheim hasn’t been known exactly as a personable person over the years, but I’ve always liked him. For one thing, he’s from these parts, having grown up in Lyons, NY (about an hour west of here). Back in 1962, Boeheim passed on a scholarship to Colgate, and instead walked on to the Syracuse freshman team. He never left. By the time he was a senior, he’s earned a scholarship, was team captain, and – along with teammate Dave Bing and coach Fred Lewis – had helped take SU from the one of the worst teams of all time (including what was, at the time, an NCAA record 27 consecutive losses over two seasons) with a 2-22 record in 1961-62, to a 22-6 record and Sweet Sixteen finish in the 1966 NCAA tournament (which was a lot harder to get into back then). Boeheim went on to become an assistant coach under Roy Danforth (fun fact: my sister went to school and was good friends with Fred Lewis’ daughter, and I went to school and was good friends with Roy Danforth’s son), and took over as head coach in 1976 (becoming the first NCAA Division I coach to win 100 games in his first four seasons). Boeheim also holds the record for most 20-win seasons: 31. He’s been asked why he never left Syracuse, and has always said it was because he never wanted to go anyplace else. Of course, my favorite Boeheim quote comes from when a reporter asked him if he was looking forward to getting out of Syracuse in December to go play in a tournament in Hawaii. “Ah, Hawaii,” he replied. “Syracuse in July.”

Press the Meat has creepy Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, and Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylania.

Faze the Nation has Governor-elect of VA, Bob McDonnell, plus members of both Congressional armed forces committees: from the Senate, he’s got Jack Reed and l’il Lindsey Graham, and from the House it’s Ike Skelton. Also on, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Democrat of Florida, and Ed Rollins, a Republican political consultant.

On Fux News Sunday, Weaselface Wallace has Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, and Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland. Plus Bob McDonnell.

At the Goebbels network, George Snufalufagus has Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Bozo the Clown, Michael Steele to talk about the 2010 midterm elections, health care and the economy.

CNN’s State of the Union has General George Casey, the Army Chief of Staff, to discuss the shootings at the military base in Ft. Hood, Tex., combat stress, and the war in Afghanistan, plus Mikhail Gorbachev, to talk about the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago.

On CNN’s GPS, Fareed Zakaria discusses the Afghanistan and Pakistan – including Hamid Karzai, and the prospects for peace in the region – with Pervez Musharraf, former president of Pakistan.

So, the House managed to pass a version of Health Care Reform last night (at least, I think they did; word was they had the votes, but I had to call it a night before the final tally) – in part due to the leadership of the President, and also in part due to Bill Owens, the newest Congressman in the House, who showed the chickenshit Democrats that you don’t have to run as a fake Republican to win an election. As flawed as the bill is, I reckon I’m happy that it passed, mostly because it helps to put the Republican Party in its place.

Republicans are the party of Satan. And everybody knows you gotta keep the devil way down in the hole.