Friday’s Mini-Report

December 15, 2006

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* MSNBC mentioned my post about Tony Snow and “on the couch” on the air today — except the network referred to me as the “Carpetblogger.” Presumably, the audience assumed I have some kind of connection to carpets?

* The definition of irony: “Border Fence Firm Snared for Hiring Illegal Workers.” Classic.

* At Donald Rumsfeld’s going-away ceremony today, Dick Cheney described Rumsfeld as the “toughest boss I ever had, the most demanding, the most commanding.” Given that the VP works for the president, isn’t Cheney supposed to describe Bush this way?

* Michael Crichton, for his ridiculous smear of TNR’s Michael Crowley, was named yesterday’s “worst person in the world” by Keith Olbermann.

* Two in three Americans want diplomatic ties with Cuba. Is it me or is that surprisingly high? Especially after 40 years of the opposite policy? On a related note, two in three Americans may just get their wish. (thanks to E.T. for the tip)

* Tom DeLay believes conservatives don’t go to Congress to “pass laws.” No wonder he was so impressed with the 109th Congress.

* Stat of the day: More Americans express doubts about a candidate who served in Bush’s cabinet (59%) than one who is gay or lesbian (53%).

* Wouldn’t it be fun if Dick Cheney had to testify in Scooter Libby’s trial? “Cheney, who would be the trial’s most anticipated witness, has said he may be called to testify,” the AP reported. “If so, prosecutors could ask how the White House responded to Wilson’s criticisms. Cheney was upset by Wilson’s comments, Fitzgerald has said, and told Libby that Plame worked for the CIA.”

* When the right starts complaining bitterly about Drudge being part of the “liberal media,” you know conservative media criticism has completely lost touch with reality.

* Jack Abramoff believes he was “swiftboated“? What a sick joke.

* I don’t know what made Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) change his mind, but it’s a tremendous disappointment (and setback for the world) that Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) will be the ranking member on Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

* I don’t have anything special to add to the subject, but E.J. Dionne Jr.’s column about Bush, the war, and tax cuts, was really good today.

* Yearly Kos will be in Chicago in August. I missed last year’s and ended up regretting it.

* Reading about the recent botched execution in Florida is truly horrific.

* Why is Glenn Beck on Good Morning America?

* It looks like Al Gore and MoveOn.org are going to make good use of this prime holiday-party weekend.

* And, finally, on Fox News last night, Bill O’Reilly asked “why,” if children suffer no psychosocial deficit from being raised by same-sex parents, “wouldn’t nature then make it that anybody could get pregnant by eating a cupcake?” Seriously, he actually said that. Now, if someone could tell me what on earth he was talking about, I’d appreciate it.

If none of these particular items are of interest, consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.

Carpetblogger???? Aw man all they had to do was get the name right and they screwed that up. Did they get your url right at least?

  • Some sample posts on “The Carpetblogger Report”:

    Berber vs. Pile; the debate rages on.
    Curing rugburns in two days or less!
    Why those carpet rakes are ripoffs.
    How to remove blood stains from a welcome mat outside of a bar, as shared by the NYCPD.
    6lb pad at a 4lb price — the ultimate con.

    Okay … so that was admittedly weak. It’s been a long, long day and I haven’t been commenting a lot lately.

    I’ll try harder next time.

  • Oh, and on another completely unrelated note …

    Anyone know what’s happened to Billmon? Did my work just block the text on his site, or is the Whiskey Bar shot for everyone else?

  • Yearly Kos will be in Chicago in August. I missed last year’s and ended up regretting it.

    Why did you end up regretting it? (in all seriousness, this isn’t meant to be construed as a shot at Kos or Yearly Kos).

  • Unholy Moses — I’m not sure what’s happened to billmon either, and the home page is messed up on my computer as well. I don’t think it’s being blocked, because if you click on the titles of the posts on the left, it pulls them up just fine. I’ve been wondering if he is just taking some more time off … he has gone lenghty periods without posting in the past. I still miss him though, when he’s not writing regularly.

    BTW, I got great chuckles out of your carpetblogger titles… maybe it’s my long day as well, but thanks for the giggles.

  • Yeah, I picked up on Roger Ailes’ pickup of Alicia Colon’s sticking a big blue “L” on Drudge’s forehead. Thank God Fedora Guy’s on our side.

    Anyway, it’s been a while but I finally did a new Twenty Bucks, Same as in Town post. I hope it was worth the wait, because I have some great links up, so…

    Oh, you weren’t waiting for it? OK. Carry on, then…

  • At Donald Rumsfeld’s going-away ceremony today, Dick Cheney described Rumsfeld as the “toughest boss I ever had, the most demanding, the most commanding.”

    Cheney was Deputy Chief of Staff under Rummy in the Ford Administration.

  • Billmon’s mainpage doesn’t show any posts for me, but if I click on the links at the left I can see his archive. He mentioned before the election that he was taking a hiatus, then all hell broke loose and he continued to blog. The last new post was “Comrade Webb”.

    I have two points about the “Carpetblogger” thing. First, perhaps they were wowed by your fantastic work on “Bush and the Optimistic Rug“. Second, any chance you can get the NYTimes blogger who covers the Oscars to use the name “Carpetblogger”

  • “The definition of irony: ‘Border Fence Firm Snared for Hiring Illegal Workers.’ Classic.”

    Did anyone really expect otherwise?

    So when will we all be able to attend the first “Yearly Carpetbagger?”

  • Maybe they were thinking of “Carpetbombing” since you go after so many GOP targets. (Of course the GOP does present what is called “a target-rich environment.”)

  • Two in three Americans want diplomatic ties with Cuba. Is it me or is that surprisingly high? Especially after 40 years of the opposite policy?

    whoo-fuckin-hooo! finally!

  • Carpetblogger? Virtual prayer rugs (each positions itself, automatically, to point at DC) a daily special?

    * And, finally, on Fox News last night, Bill O’Reilly asked “why,” if children suffer no psychosocial deficit from being raised by same-sex parents, “wouldn’t nature then make it that anybody could get pregnant by eating a cupcake?” Seriously, he actually said that. Now, if someone could tell me what on earth he was talking about, I’d appreciate it. — CB

    Um… Perhaps you were just joking when you said you didn’t know what he was talking about. And English isn’t my first language, so I maybe wrong, but…

    First, there’s the slang definition of cupcake (as a noun):
    http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/cupcake/
    though, to be sure, I only knew the earlier one, meaning a pretty/sweet girl, not the one meaning a “girly man”. Then, there’s also the slang expression “to eat pussy”. Add the two together and you get O’R’s logic in regard to “getting pregnant from eating a cupcake”

  • A girl in my high school got pregnant from eating a cupcake. At least that what she and her boyfriend said when Papa came ’round with his shotgun.

    [ Don’t you just love it when Rs use the term “swift-boating?” ]

  • y’all have lost a step. i can’t believe i’m this late to the thread and still get to make the first connection between “carpetblogger” and channeling the White House Optimistic Talking Rug. 🙂

  • When the right starts complaining bitterly about Drudge being part of the “liberal media,” you know conservative media criticism has completely lost touch with reality.

    That woman gives a wholly new and original definition to the term “looney wingnut.” Holy maloley! But then I realized it’s in the NY Sun….

    As to “The Carpetblogger” – you gotta watch out, CB, Are they referring to the way Hitler used to “chew the carpet” when he was blogging, er, I mean raving???

  • Can we get an Alicia Colonectomy?

    She recommends Lucianne Goldberg????? Hoooooo-weeeeeeeeeeeee…

  • What? You mean I’m the only one around who notices the daily “shagging” that America gets from Bush? Shame on y’all for leaving that out of the carpetblogger report. It deserves a daily byline of its own!

  • To those who asked about Billmon above, he himself described how he was taking a break in a post he titled Between Sets, but things got a little nuts and he decided to hang in there for a bit longer. My guess is he will be back sometime early next year.

  • The really bad mojo is that Castro is going to croak while BushCo is in power.

    What are the chances of them repeating the good old Reagan doctrine of “make people forget about failure in the Middle East by beating the shit out of a Caribbean island.”

    I think the proportions are about the same… Lebanon:Grenada :: Iraq:Cuba.

  • Yeah, MSNBC got it wrong, but anytime you get a shameless plug in the MSM, it’s cue-the-Jeffersons-theme time.

    As for Beck’s “And everybody focuses on the birth of the baby, and I think it’s about the death of the man. And the whole message of Christmas is about redemption, and starting over again, and having a second bite at the apple. ” comment,

    First off, Mr. Christian, I believe the death of Jesus is remembered on Good Friday.

    “Redemption, and starting over again” would be celebrated on Easter, Jesus’ Resurrection.

    “Having a second bite at the apple”? Huh? So, you want to be guilty of Original Sin again?

    This is just a part-time Catholic’s (or CINO) views here, so don’t take them as Gospel

  • Hell, the xtians can’t even get their own nativity story right. Avoiding the fact Jesus’ birth was most likely in the spring (and not on the pagan holy day of Sol Invictus/Saturnalia), the magi were never at the manger–they visited the family in their house; and Jesus (if he even existed) would have been close to two years old. It’s all right there in Matt. chapter 2, if these wing-nut people raging at the non-existant “war on xmas” ever bothered to read the entirety of their scriptures, rather than the ones that seem to support their preconceived prejudices.

    That the early church co-opted the pagan holidays is no real surprise, but they could at least have tried to match up the details of their scriptures with the holidays they appropriated.

  • “wouldn’t nature then make it that anybody could get pregnant by eating a cupcake?”

    You don’t know what this means? It’s so obvious.

    O’Reilly has a pastry fetish.

  • Intercourse with a cupcake. Would that make the baby a morsel or a crumb?

    Bill O says the silliest things.

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