First, it was Jesse Ventura.  It must be said: for an ex-professional wrestler, he didn’t do too poorly.  In fact, the dude has some facets that make me like him somewhat.  (Of course, in twenty years, he’ll probably be cranky as hell and go to the right of where, say, Tom Tancredo is now.  Crankiness is a symptom when you catch a serious case of Old.  But, for right now… he and I are cool.)

Now: it’s Linda McMahon, who may just be the next senator from Connecticut.  Lots of ways you can go with that.  To be charitable, we can say that WWF/WWE is a business that was actually successful during her reign (or, honestly, her co-regency with her husband, Vince).  Compare this to, for example, HP.

Read more »

Rep. Mike McMahon (D-NY) has fired his reelection finance director after she compiled a list of more than 80 donors to McMahon’s opponent who she said are Jewish to the New York Observer. She provided the paper with a list of donors entitled “Jewish Money Q2.”

From the Observer: McMahon’s (former) finance director, Jennifer Nelson, who is Jewish, complied a list of Jewish donors to one of McMahon’s potential Republican opponents, an ex-FBI agent Mike Grimm.  A spokesperson for McMahon’s campaign told the Observer that Nelson identified the donors as Jewish because “she knows a lot of people in that community” and could recognize their names.

[SFL: Nelson? That sounds more like a shiksa name. Carry on.]

Read more »

Oakland Police and Alameda County prosecutors have confirmed the fears of some of us that a big disaster was averted when California Highway Patrol officers pulled over Byron Williams on 580 in Oakland on Saturday night after he was weaving and speeding in traffic.

Williams, who was wearing body armor and carrying an arsenal of handguns and rifles, proceeded to get a lengthy gun battle with the police because of his hatred of people of the “left wing agenda.” 

OPD and the DA announced today that Williams was headed to Ess Eff to try to kill staff of the ACLU of Northern California and the nonprofit Tides Foundation, which funds environmental and social justice groups in California and across the country.

What did these two groups do that was so bad?

Read more »

California Sen. Gloria Romero (D-El Ay), with the backing of an asbestos awareness organization funded by asbestos attorneys, is sponsoring S.B. 624, a bill that would remove serpentine’s designation as California’s state rock.

And geologists, a usually mild-mannered bunch who only get riled up about whether the Hayward or San Andreas Fault is going to rupture first, and if the State Earthquake Map accurately reflects the risk of that fault east of Sandy Eggo sliding another 10 feet, are fighting back.

Geologists rock!

Read more »

Yeah, you guys know this already, but it’s still a classic headline. 

From the Daily Telegraph: “Tory MP ‘too drunk to vote in Commons debate.'” Snips, including some nice turns of phrase, and a positively Pythonesque name on the offender:

Mark Reckless [Oh, dear. — Ed.] was one of a number of MPs accused of being “well-refreshed” and “convivial” during the late night sitting which finished at 2.48am on Wednesday.

The 39-year-old new MP for Rochester and Strood had been drinking alongside scores of MPs on the Commons Terrace and was not the only one said to be worse for wear.

John Randall, the deputy chief whip, was accused by Angela Eagle — the shadow Treasury minister — of having indulged in “rather a liquid evening”.

Stephen Pound, the Labour MP, said Miss Eagle could not be heard in the Commons “because of the well-refreshed ejaculations [Oh dear, cont’d.  — Ed., cont’d.] from the benches opposite.”

Mr Reckless, who became an MP at the general election in May, was understood to have had difficulty standing and has scant recollection of the night.

“I feel very embarrassed,” he said. “I’m terribly, terribly embarrassed. I apologise unreservedly and I don’t plan to drink again at Westminster. It was a mistake I will not be repeating. I have learned my lesson.”

No, Mr Reckless.  Booze it up.  Maybe Steve King (R-Dumb Half of Iowa) might take a lesson and give us all what would be some of the best legislative comedy EVER.

The good news is that the past involvement of Robert Byrd in the Ku Klux Klan was not papered over in most of the obits we saw today.  People stumble over themselves to not tell the bad with the good at times like these — it’s refreshing to see that shelved here, for it does tell part of the story that’s worth hearing. 

The bad news is that there wasn’t a loop of Byrd’s speeches from the October 2002 debate on the Iraq War resolution.  Not snippets here and there, but long-form, unedited.  Of course, he totally nailed it — and if there is a God, He’d whisper Byrd’s speeches in Cheney’s ear when he is breathing his last.

The worst news?  There wasn’t enough of this — which, to be truthful, is chock full o’AWESOME.

Safe travels, Senator.

“We don’t want the World Cup. We don’t like the World Cup. We don’t like soccer. We don’t want anything to do with it. You can package it any way. You can spend all kinds of money. You can force it on our television sets. We will not enjoy the World Cup.”

This might have been up the flagpole on a bunch of blogs run by dirty hippies, but it bears repeating.

Glenn Beck?  Have a big ol’ slice of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_2m4EH7-0g