On the odd chance that I got too hammered playing the SOTU drinking game last night to get up and write a post this morning, I’m getting this out of the way ahead of time.

Boy, what a great speech, huh? The preznit was mighty impressive, and only somebody secure in his manhood could shove his tongue that far down Joe Lieberman’s throat. Or really, really drunk. But what were those odd hand signals Larry Craig was throwing out? Must be some kind of bathroom thing.

I sure do hope those cowardly traitorous Democrats pass retroactive immunity for the telecom companies so we can all be safe from democracy again.

Oh well, have a happy Tuesday.

And Art, Melina says “my vet said to use bag balm…and if that doesnt work to get an RX called Kerasolz, which solughs off the dry cells and moristurizes the nose underneath.”

I really wish I could feel happy about the way the Democratic primaries are going, but I’m afraid I just can’t. I really wish the media had picked better candidates for us. Better than Bush is a pretty low bar to set, but I guess we’re just gonna have to take it. Unless one of the Republican bozos manages a win – which seems quite plausible to me, sad to say. I don’t think another 100 years of invading and occupying middle east companies to ensure high profits for oil companies and bolster repressive (but ‘friendly’) regimes that we can do business with is a particularly bright prospect. For many reasons – not the least of which being that we need to get off the oil to save the planet. Not too crazy about the prospect of a Kristian States of America, either.

Not to mention it’s back to work today. Bleh.

Today on Press the Meat, Timmy Potatohead has Maerick McCain, and then for some political “insight,” it’s the snarktacular Maureen Dowd of the NY Times, GOP shill Chuck Todd of NBC News, and Byron “The Dork” York of the National Review.

On Faze the Nation, Bush Buddy Bobby Schieffer has Hillary Clinton and Guidi Ruliani.

At Fux News Sunday, Weaselface Wallace has Treasury Secretary Henry “don’t call me Pat” Paulson and Huckleberry Huckabee, plus the usual Fux News douche panel.

On This Weak with George Snufalufagus, it’s Barack Obama and a roundtable of political mastermind Donna Brazile, Slates’s Jacob Weisberg, Cokie “the hag” Roberts, and George :jerk: Will.

Over on Wolf Blitzer’s Late Emission, Huckleberry Huckabee and Henry Paulson get trotted out again, plus there’s David Betray Us Petraeus, and Mitt and his magic underpants.

Later, on 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft reports on the Mortgage Meltdown, and Scott Pelley tells us how FBI Agent George Piro got the truth out of Saddam Hussein without torturing him even a little bit.

Have a good one.

Today is gonna be a fun Saturday for me. I get to go and help my brother-in-law install their new pellet stove. This may not sound too exciting to you all, but for me, this is the equivalent of going to a really posh party. Yeah, pretty goofy, I know, but I not only get to hang out with my sister and her hubbie (and their critters), but I get to do some HVAC-related manual labor which, god help me, I miss. Hope youze guys have something fun to do today, too.

So, I was reading this column from Joe Conason over at Salon, where he was talking about some of the letters he receives in reaction to his columns:

A surprising number seem unable to tolerate so much as a skeptical word about Barack Obama:

“Why don’t you perform a few hit pieces on Hillary, too? Just to balance thing out … Shame on the editors of Salon to allow Conason to continue his blatantly biased pro-Billary rants … You have surely pissed away your reputation as a journalist with this hideous anti-Obama garbage … I’m so angry that this filth is in my highly esteemed Salon … What is going on with Joe Conason? … I really used to respect you, but seriously, how many of these pro-Hillary, anti-everyone else articles are we going to see?”

Of course, Conason goes on to recount some of the critical things he’s written about Hillary (among others), and some of the nice things he’s had to say about Obama, too. But it’s all typical of something I find terribly annoying about Obama’s campaign and its supporters: the whining. That seems to be their reaction to every criticism, no matter how slight, of their hero.

Christ, what a bunch of friggin’ babies. Is that what an Obama administration is destined to look like? Pandering to the Republicans, and whining whenever somebody takes issue with him (while not really addressing the actual criticism on the merits)? I hope not, ‘cuz guess what? What little we’ve seen in this primary season so far is nothing compared to what the Republicans will throw at him in the general.

I’m no Hillary fan, but what, really, has been so horribly unfair about what Bill or Hillary have had to say about Obama, anyway?

That he was against the war when he was a state senator, but hasn’t exactly been forceful in opposing the Iraq occupation (certainly never voting against funding it) since being in a position to do something about it? I think that’s a pretty fair assessment, and he’s free to make a cogent argument in his own favor, if he can.

That he invoked the name of Saint Reagan and called the Republicans the “Idea Party?” Well, he did that, too; he can argue that his words have been twisted and he didn’t really mean it but, guess what? He knew what he was doing when he said it, and what he was doing was saying whatever he figured he needed to say to appeal to the “Reagan Democrats” (and Reagan Independents, I suppose). Like it, hate it, don’t give a shit – whatever – that’s what he was doing. And to act all indignant and whine when you get called on it is just, well, irritating.

Or that he’s managed to avoid voting on the tough votes, skipping them in the US Senate or voting “present” in Illinois? Well, he seems to have been pretty weaselly plenty of times that I can think of, so I don’t see anything to get all bent out of shape over on that count, either.

So, enough of the bitching already. Act like a grownup, and if you’re serious about “change,” get your ass to DC next week (or whenever the hell a vote finally comes up) and support Chris Dodd’s filibuster. While you’re at it, call out the 12 DINOs who voted to kill the SJC version of FISA, and stand up and tell Harry Reid you’re tired of his spineless caving-in to these goddamn Republicans.

I’d love to support Obama. He just needs to give me a good goddamn reason to do it.

So, I’m in the preliminary stages of creating a Roman Catholic themed version of Clue^®. I figure the idea will be to determine who killed the altar boy. So far, all I have is, it was Father Gagen with the crucifix in the rectory (sounds painful, don’t it?), but I’m also looking at Sister Sarah with the rosary beads in the vestibule (which actually sounds a bit erotic). I’ll let you know how that works out.

Otherwise, not much going on.

Too tired to think of much to say this morning. I thought this story was pretty interesting, though. Wonder if the teevee news will ever pick it up?

Did you watch the big debate last night? I didn’t. I don’t even know if it was on the teevee anywhere, though I reckon it probably was. Watched the SU/Georgetown game in HD off and on (whereas I’m not what you’d call a good sport, I occasionally need to change the channel when things aren’t going well, lest I throw a cat through the screen). In between, I watched some creepy movie with Reese Witherspoon and Marky Mark when they were both puppies, and after SU blew the game and lost by two in OT, I decided to call it a night, and drift off to some old time radio (Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar). And now I gotta go to freakin’ work. Not that I don’t love my job, as I may have mentioned once or twice, but it’s just that I hate having to leave the dog alone. Poor boy.

I hope you don’t have to go to work today. I’m certainly glad I don’t. I postponed all my usual exciting Sunday activities (laundry, charge my cell phone, etc.) to today.

Kinda cold here, but I won’t bitch about it, ‘cuz I know it’s even colder for you Minnesohtuns. And just north of here, they’re getting three to six feet (yeah, they measure it in feet up there) of snow, while we don’t have much of anything at all here.

Didn’t watch any football yesterday, but I saw the friggin’ Patriots won again. I’m pretty sick of them. Didn’t catch the score of the Giants game, but hopefully they, at least, managed to win. Probably not, though. Nobody I want ever seems to win these days.

Speaking of which, there was John Edwards. Here’s what he had to say yesterday:

“I got my butt kicked. That is what happened in Nevada,” the former North Carolina senator told Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s Late Edition. “And the job for me now is — I have learned this from my whole life experience, is when you get knocked down, you have got to get up. You have got to get up and start fighting again…

Well, I like the sentiment, at least. And I hope he continues to be a pain in Clintama’s ass from now until the goddamn convention.

One thing you can say about Nevada – at least they get their shit over with early. And what a huge, huge victory it was for Hillary, as she raked in a whopping 12 delegates. Obama was a distant second with, um, 13 (do we really elect people this way?). Edwards, sadly, got zilch. The Obama true believers are in quite a quandary. They hate Edwards, and want him to go away. But the most recent conventional wisdom says Edwards is “stealing” votes from Hillary. So now they don’t know what to think. Fortunately, in this country, you don’t need to know what to think, ‘cuz every Sunday there’s a bunch of talking heads right there on your teevee to tell you.

For instance, on Press the Meat today, Timmy Potatohead hosts a gaggle of very serious experts ready to shit out conventional wisdom all hour long. There’s presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Newsweek editor and Bush administration shill Jon Meacham, Peggy Noonan (always ready to felate the dead body of Ronald Reagan), Tom Brokaw and NPR’s Meeeshell Norris. Whoopie.

Faze the Nation is apparently still looking for a webmaster. Maybe I should apply.

Over at Fux News Sunday, Weaselface Wallace will be Star Fuxing Mannequin Mitt Romney, fresh off his big win in Nevada, and then Chuck Schumer will pop in. Plus, it’s those zany Fux News panelists, including Brit Hume Cronyn, liberal NY Times columnist Bill Kristol, and the usual Fux News NPR whores, Juan Williams and Mara Liasson.

At the Goebbels Network, George Snufalufagus has everybody’s favorite old Italian grandmother, Guidi Ruliani (why these people continue to insist on pretending that Mr. 911 is even slightly relevant, is beyond me; he’s got less juice than Grandpa Fred), and the ever-entertaining Charlie Rangel. Then it’s a roundtable of Bush-Cheney campaign mastermind, Matthew Dowd,the Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel, Chrystia Freeland of the Financial Times (one of many women to be insulted by Chris Matthews) and of course the very serious George :jerk: Will.

On CNN’s Late Edition, U-Boat commander Wolf Blitzer has John Edwards. We should get a pool going to see how many times Wolf asks him when he’s gonna drop out.

Later, on 60 Minutes, there will be no 60 Minutes. Instead, it will be “The Age Of Warming,” where Scott Pelley goes to the poles to watch them melt, and talks to NASA’s top scientist studying climate, who says the Bushies have restricted what he can say about global warming. Which everybody who’s been even slightly paying attention already knows about. Maybe it’ll finally sink in to the rest of the people out there.

Nah.

Have a good one.