Well, what’s in store for us this week? On Press the Meat, Timmy the Potatohead (did you know, watching him is only “half the experience?”) has the dick from Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, plus an increasingly disappointing Chuck Schumer. Then it’s a discussion on just how free a free press should be with, get this, Bill “Double or Nothing” Bennett, John Harwood (prick from the WSJ), Bill Safire (retired prick from the NY Times), and token press person Dana Priest, who reported on the US’s secret gulags around the world.

On Faze the Nation, Bush buddy Bobby has Bill Keller from the NY Times on to grovel and seek forgiveness, plus faux moderate who can be counted on to talk sorta kinda tough, but always willing to roll over and take it for his pal dubya, Arlen Specter, along with Carl Levin.

On CNN’s Late Emission mit Wolf Blitzer, it’s Republican asshole and anti-free speech douchebag Peter King, on with Barney Frank. Then we’ll see whether or not Shimon Peres and Saeb Erakat strangle each other. Next up, it’s NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, and then Tony Orlando. Really? Tony Orlando? OK, well, that’s nice (trivia time: Telma Hopkins – half of Dawn, or one third of TO and Dawn, I guess – is the person who says, “shut your mouth,” after Isaac Hayes sings about Shaft being a “bad mother…”). Oh, and whoever books for CNN apparantly fucked up and booked Sy Hersh; maybe he’ll smack Wolfie upside the head.

This Weak with George Snufalufagus has fake moderate and enemy of the Internet, John McCain, plus fake Democrat, Dianne Feinstein. At the roundtable, it’s fake liberal and mental midget Joe Klein, Cokie “Sea Hag” Roberts, and, he doesn’t just play a Republican schmuck on TV, he’s one in real life, too: former Senator Fred Thompson. Plus, Mia Farrow on UNICEF’s fight for the world’s children (she should get Woody involved; he’s got a warm spot for the kids).

Over at Fux News, “Fuxface” Wallace has Lindsey “Poof” Graham, plus Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, on to talk about how this week’s ruling by the Supreme Court really isn’t gonna change a fucking thing at Gitmo. Plus, I guess Michael Griffin really gets around, since he’ll stop by to talk some shuttle, and what’s up next for NASA.

Later, on 60 Minutes, it’s the first man on the moon (assuming it wasn’t all a hoax, of course), Neil Armstrong (who doesn’t say much, so this might be worth watching). Then, Bob Simon interviews – believe it or not – Elian Gonzalez, who’s 11 now. :jerk: And Lara Logan talks about how the US “took back” Tal Afar from Al Qaeda. I guess.

There’s a new episode of Deadwood on tonight, plus new (I think) episodes of the 4400 and The Dead Zone.

Have a good Sunday.

Well, it’s Saturday. Happy July everybody! The night’s are getting longer (except for egotils and our other friends south of the equator, of course), and summer will be over before you know it.

I haven’t had a chance to look at much in the news, except I noticed a story they were all hot over at DU, about how polls show Americans want the Democrats to be in control of Congress. That would be great if that was how we elected Congress, but of course it isn’t. Between the gerrymandering and the parade of pork, incumbents are harder to get rid of than a chicken on your ventile (hey, look it up). Then again, we only need 15 seats in the house, and that’s a lot less than the Republican “revolution” of 1994. And if you think the Democrats are no better (and I find it difficult to put up too much of an argument there, to be honest), conisder how far things have degraded since 1994, how much worse they’ve gotten since 2000, and how terribly wrong things have gone since 2003, when Republicans assumed control of the Senate (and that’s not even counting Zell Miller and Joe Leberman), paving the way for Republican control of all three branches of government.

We may not get the judicial branch back in my lifetime (if you think it’s only about the Supremes, you’re wrong; in fact, the US Courts of Appeals, US District Courts, and US Bankruptcy Courts handle thousands – tens of thousands, even – of cases every year that affect how we live our lives, who we live them with, and how we die. Only a handful make it to the Supreme Court, and these lower courts are loaded with Republican minions). And dubya has had lots of vacancies to fill, since the hypocritcal Republican swine blocked over half (42 of 81) of Clinton’s judicial nominees, and refused to confirm even moderate nominees – especially to the appeals courts, where only 8 Clinton nominees were confirmed.

Republicans also refused to create new judgeships, in spite of a burgeoning population and caseload. As a comparison, consider that under Reagan and Bush I, 85 federal judgeships were created (each). Under Clinton? Nine. By the time dubya slunk into office, 8 of the 13 federal appeals courts were dominated by Republican judges, and only the Sixth Circuit had a slight majority of Democratic appointees (but with four vacancies left for dubya to fill).

So, anyhow, enjoy your Saturday. Let’s make this weekend last a while, shall we? It’s already going too damn fast.

Friday, and I get to take Siggy for a walk for the first time in forever. He tells me he hasn’t been having nearly enough fun, so I guess I’d better take care of that. Sure is nice to sleep in my own bed for change. Hopefully this flooding nonsense is all over with. Anyhow, y’all have have a good Friday.

Well, if all goes as planned, I’m going in for about a half a day today, and then I’m heading for Syracuse. I was thinking of heading down to the Dominican Republic for a little “relaxation,” but my Cialis prescription has my wife’s name on it, and if I have to go through airport security, it’ll be obvious that I’m “packing.” So, I guess my wife’ll just have to be stuck with me for a few days.

I hope to hit the road by 1:00 or so, which will hopefully get me home before dark (depending on how rainy it is up that way, I guess). Let’s hope the traffic gods are kind to me. I need to average 62 miles per hour door to door to make the trip in six hours (yes, I have the whole thing plotted out on a spreadsheet, and I printed out twenty seven eight-by-ten color maps with circles and arrows and turn-by-turn directions on the back of each one; it’s kinda like a statin analog gps system), including stops (which I try not to make, except for a gas stop somewhere in PA, which I won’t need to do if I fill up here, ‘cuz my Hyundai, though unfortunately not a hybrid, gets a shade over 40 mpg on the highway).

Have a good day, and I’ll see y’all later (if not sooner).

Looks like the rain’s finally let up enough for my office to open back up again, though last I heard the phones weren’t working yet. Since nobody’s likely to call me, that shouldn’t be a problem. So, it’s back to work, or whatever it is I’m doing while I’m forced to endure this purgatory. Beats walking circles around the Pentagon City Mall, I guess.

In other news, the gubberment is irate – appalled, even – that the NY Times would expose their bank records spying (on top of their phone records spying on top of their Internet and e-mail spying, on top of their renditioning…), at the same time the DoD admits they’ve been spying on gay college groups. Is this national security, or are they just trying to find dates? Israel invades Gaza. People still being killed by the bucketload in Iraq (which, since things are imporving so much, is costing us more now than it ever has, and well, basically we’re pretty much staying the course all the way around.

I can’t wait to get this week over with.

Well, what’s going on today? Apparently there’s been a rash of flag burning, ‘cuz the Senate is gonna take up a flag burning amendment (how they can keep anything lit in this weather is beyond me). I’m not sure how that fits in with the whole Nicole Kidman getting married thing, but I guess exempting multimillionares from the estate tax works out OK for her and her kids. Odds are they’ll never need to survive on a minimum wage job, so killing any increase there shouldn’t be a problem. They’re white and privileged, so killing the Voting Rights Act works out OK, too. And I certainly doubt they’ll be joining the military, so staying in Iraq permanently should be fine, too.

So let’s hear it for the rich folks. Nothing’s too good for ’em, as long as they keep their yaps shut and don’t express any “bad” opinions. As for the rest of us, well, try not to get stuck in a flooded subway tunnel.

Okay, explain to me again why I give a shit that Nicole Kidman married Keith Urban (whoever that is)? I mean, they were rumored to be gonna get married, they were gonna get married, they were gonna get married any day now, and now they’re frickin’ married. Well, whoopdie freakin’ doo, man. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I hope they’ll be happy and he won’t turn into a crazy fuckin’ scientologist or something, but I barely care when somebody I actually know gets married, I sure as hell don’t care when strangers do it. Then I’m checking out of the grocery store, and I see she’s got a “bump.” Oh, fer crissakes. Now they’ll be relentless with that shit until she has puppies.

Look, unless one or both of ’em comes out and says we need to pull out of Iraq as soon as possible, and oh, by the way Bush & Cheney should be impeached (and convicted), and damnit it’s about time the Marc Maron Show was syndicated, well then goddamn it, I don’t wanna hear from or about them.

But, anyways, I suppose today will mark the start of another week filled with nasty things directly screwing with our right to life, liberty, and the presuit of happiness being overshadowed by a whole lotta stupid shit about celebrity babies, demoted goats (OK, I thought that one was funny, especially the guy who said Billy the Goat “was trying to headbutt the waist and nether regions of the drummers”), and bimbos battling aboard JetBlue.

Oh well, whatever happens this week – reported on or not – I hope, by the end of it, y’all find yourself a little bit closer to that whole happiness thing.

Sorry, only time for a quickie:

On Press the Meat:
Russ Feingold, David Broder, Ron Brownstein, David Gregory and Anne Kornblut

Faze the Nation:
Dick Lugar, Barbara Boxer, Doyle McManus

This Weak:
Mitch McConnell, Dick Durbin, Larry Summers, Fareed “Token” Zakaria, Martha Raddatz, and Lou Dobbs. Plus John “Complete and total asshole” Stossel

Fux News & Fux Face Wallace:
John Warner, Carl Levin, Arlen Specter, and Peter King

On CNN’s Late Edition with the Wolfster:
Hamid Karzai, Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel, Hussein Shahristani, Madeleine Albright, and Henry Fucking Kissinger.

No clue what’s on 60 Minutes. New episodes of the 4400 and the Dead Zone.

Have a nice Sunday.

Hey, it’s Saturday. Supposed to be some nasty weather here today, so I don’t know what I’ll wind up doing. Might just hang out and do nothing. Not exciting, but pretty cheap. Maybe I’ll see if I can fill up AAR’s voicemail. At least I can think about getting through the next six days or so, and then being in my own bed by this time next week. Have a good Saturday.

Finally, Friday’s here. Supposed to be heavt t-storms today, and rain all weekend, so I don’t know if I’ll get to get out to the parks or not. If the weather looks good, I may head up to Catocin Mountain Park. It’s about 60 miles from here, but it looks worth the trip. Otherwise, The Road to Guantanamo opens tonight, so maybe I’ll go and see that (though it may be a tough one to watch).

The Senate Commerce Committee is getting ready to vote on net neutrality. Specifically, they need to pass the Snowe/Dorgan amendment. Firedog Lake has more info, and who to call.

And, of course, you can always give AAR a call, and see how thigns are coming along with syndicating that Marc Maron Show.

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