What the...

Can someone explain how in the world the unemployment rate dropped 2/10 of a percent with 193,000 jobs created last month?

I'm on free wireless for a little while longer (another advantage of visiting Charlotte). Wish I had time to find a Robert Reich commentary somewhere.

What??

Did anyone hear Bush's Porter Wagoner quote earlier today in Nashville?

How cool would it have been to give a State of the Union speech in a Porter Wagoner outfit?

Jesus. How fucking insane is that?

GOP "Morning After" Screwing.

With George W. Bush's "major speeches," it's always worse the morning after, when the whole crew takes the "message to the people."

Here comes the real screwing. Don't buy it.

Here's the lyrics to the theme song:

Shake it up, shake it down
Move it in, twist it round, disco lady
Shove it in, pull it out, slide it in round about, disco lady
Jump on top, then go down
Astro-Glide all around, disco lady

Coverup: Kendall County Accident.

If you were involved in an accident in Kendall County on New Year's Eve, I would like to hear from you.

Same goes if you know someone who was in an accident; if the vehicle was struck by a pickup truck, please contact me at your earliest convenience.

Please don't drink and drive.

Cheers!

GOP Lie Machine Revs Up for More.

This seems to be everywhere today, which is part of our problem.

In our retail and services economy, media players lick their chops for nonsense like this.

And all it does is feed the juggernaut and propel us into a new round of senseless ad wars.

How many billions of dollars do people have to spend before we, as a nation, as the most powerful economy in the history of the world, realize the waste of it all?

Why in the world would I -- if I were a GOP supporter -- spend my money to spread this message around?

The "middle class tax cut" would easily be eaten away by such frivolous spending in our household.

And why would I not see that only those with money and a lust for power would play a part in this ugly game?

He Forgot About Mars.

The President of the United States would not forget a plan like Mars. Nosir.

If you're going to re-hash five years of nonsensical speeches made for TV, you should remember Mars.

Note to CNN:

Jesus Crimony. Fire JC Watts.

Who on planet earth had the idea to hire him as a "political analyst" in the first place?

If he has something important or some perspective to add to the discussion, that's one thing. Puking out talking points is another.

Start over.

Summary of Tonight's SOTU.

The Classic Rock side of me says go with Three Dog Night.

The angry part says go with the Rollins Band version, which is just so much more fun.

If you don't have iTunes, please get it. It's so much fun.

The title of both, and the one-word summary of tonight's speech:

Liar.

Nearing My Summary of the SOTU Adress.

The Temptations, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Ball of Confusion.

OK. I just can't do it anymore...

I've finished the text of Chaucey Gardener's speech.

Nothing but a bunch of corned beef hash from March 19-20. Leftovers. Re-hashed shit that's just bad for you.

Most of the proposals are either laughable, or are completely unworkable.

This is a great line: "...For all Americans, we must confront the rising cost of care, strengthen the doctor-patient relationship and help people afford the insurance coverage they need."

Notice how he's going to help you "afford the ...coverage." Sounds like more HMO/Medicare coverage to me.

Chauncey's energy challenges are so great at this point that developing the technology to generate ethanol from wood chips in six years is like a farmer asking for rain some time in the future.

This president has so badly miscalculated, so badly managed, so badly led, so badly prioritized that we will likely take a generation to fix the damage done.

Cutting the Deficit in Half by 2009.

What Mr. Chauncey Gardener means by that is that instead of overspending us into oblivion by blowing $400 Billion Dollars past what we take in in taxes each year, he'll only blow past it by about $200 Billion by 2009.

OK. Maybe $250 Billion. Nobody's perfect.

More emptiness.

Bush Calls for Renewed Patriot Act.

I think this calls for the Stones.

Leadership?

This president wants to talk about leadership?

We gotta get outta this place.

Cindy Sheehan is Arrested at Capitol.

Dirty sons of bitches.

Whiskey River, Take My Mind.

Tonight's Theme: Music.

With my occasion now over, and this looking like a big night for the Democratic message, I've decided to set a cheery tone tonight with posts that use either a song title or lyric. I'll try to link them to iTunes whenever I can.

Oh, yeah. This should make up for all the nasty stuff last night.

Bush's Buddy.

Wonder if the president will bring this up tonight.

Good old Vladduhmurr. I'm glad George W. Bush was able to look into his soul and see this coming.

A Large Vessel of Emptiness.

While the press is waiting breathlessly to find out who will sit on either side of Lorr Bush tonight (it is rumored, alternately, to be Mrs. Alito or someone who has a business in the energy sector), let's take a moment to reflect.

Try to list as many of the empty challenges Bush has issued to Congress in his past four addresses (no fair if you copy and paste the text of all four speeches).

To round out the emptiness in this vessel, now list all of the "hard work" that Denny "J. Dennis" Hastert has done to make things better for all Americans in his time as Speaker.

Bush Fatigue.

Even the White House got a bad case of Bush Fatigue while preparing a story for the website.

Looking for information about the tonight's State of the Union speech, if you follow the "more information" link, you get a canned piece about the history of the annual address.

WH Insiders Release SOTU Practice Tapes.

You get just enough of the flavor of tomorrow night's speech from this. Surprisingly, a number of speakers were at the dry run.

Sheesh. This is sickening. Playing the terror card.

And This God-Damned Sonofabitch...

Would have been blown out of his fucking house slippers if Al Gore had rightfully occupied the White House.

Instead of taunting us with, "Missed me..."

Presidential transition taken into account, a Kerry White House might have gotten the job done by now.

Don't even fucking get me started.

And this crazy motherfucker would have had his limbs run through a fucking chipper before being sealed into a septic tank on a small farm in southern Illinois to be shat upon by the well-fed brasseros eating black beans, rice and molé three times a day.

I'll tell you what the God-Damned State of the Union is...

Celebrating Lie Fest Eve.

Sorry about the anger, gentle readers.

H is a bit hot under the undies tonight (relax) over revelations today that we were all right about the Beirut bombing link to Reagan's utter stupidity (uh, and the intelligence of electing a career mediocre actor as POTUS).

I'm just waiting for some smug little Dorkville creep to say something snotty at the bar tomorrow night, as the SOTU plays, like "Get over it..."*

I have just fucking had it.

Start your protest tomorrow night.

*I am not watching this little bastard's speech. We have a function at a restaurant Tuesday night in Kendall County, and yocals will undoubtedly be at the bar whooping it up.

Don't Confuse The Two.

This one is a Lying Motherfucker, not the Lying Cocksucker mentioned in the previous post.

Wonder if this one will lie some more and deny Weinberger's de facto indictment of Reagan on the Beirut bombing.

Jesus. Next we'll probably find out North and Reagan are linked to drugs, or something totally insane, like the introduction of crack cocaine to the U.S. drug market.

Fucking Lying Mobsters: The Reagan Years.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Who Ya Think's Gonna Sit With Lorr?

Miss Eleeto, 'course.

Jesus. I hope she doesn't start bawling.

Are we expecting anything other than something just below mediocre, anyone?

I'm not giving him that much credit, this time around.

NOLA.

I had to send my images to someone who actually knew how to use Quicktime, so these images have been delayed for quite some time. I know I've received plenty of emails asking when the images would be up. Hopefully, starting now.

A once-beautiful and unique American city is wiped out. As I mentioned Saturday night, I looked at these for the first time on the plane and had hoped to post Sunday.

Unfortunately, time, and my software got away from me. Photoshop exploded and refuses to re-install, and I did not have a "photo stitcher" program with me.

Here's the first panorama (you need Quicktime for this).

There are two shots in the middle of all of this mess that were ignored by the software (for whatever reason). You get the idea.

That is, indeed, a barge on top of at least one house on the far right. The house is literally under the bottom of the barge, and not at all visible. The barge apparently came through the levy breach and is sitting clear of the levy itself.

Notic that the only buildings that still stand (everywhere you pan here was once homes and trees) are next to the barge. Ironically, winds and water blew well past the barge and protected these two structures.

This was shot one month ago. The devastation is just breathtaking.

Hastert's $Trillion Medicare Nightmare.

The corrupt practices that were honed to perfection during the Gingrich-DeLay-Hastert reign of terror were at their zenith in the passage of the Medicare Part D Nightmare that has just now been unleashed on seniors.

The only two questions that remain are:

"When will the criminals in Congress be held accountable?"
"When will the Medicare program that's been horribly broken by Hastert and his cronies be fixed?"

An excellent compilation of information that may get you thinking about these questions is here.

Steve and I may not see eye-to-eye on a couple of candidate issues, but this is a must-read for everyone.

The Hastert-Menard Link.

Word comes to me that Mr. Menard, who owns the Menards chain of home improvement stores, is very close to Mr. Hastert (Massuh Hassut, I've decided to call him). In fact, I'm told they have vacationed together.

Little wonder then, that the Hastert Highway, which Denny has been pushing for his political cronies since he first got into the state legislature, has a final plan that goes right next to the Menard's warehouse in Plano.

What great planning!