Dependable Renegade

Um . . . ohhh-kay.

Is this what the Brits really think of us?

Took this pic at a birthday gathering last night.

Maybe we need an Assholes Anonymous.

God knows, the entire Tea Party would need to attend meetings:

Colorado Senate candidates Ken Buck (R) and incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet (D) met for a debate on Meet The Press this morning and sparred on the budget, the Tea Party and flip-flops. But the most controversial moment came when host David Gregory asked Buck if he believes that being gay is a choice. Buck responded that he thought it was a choice, but allowed that "birth has an influence over it, like alcoholism and some other things."

I can't take much more of this stupidity. Time to start looking into emigrating to New Zealand...

Sunday Bonus Squee.

That's one mellow cat.

[h/t Elliott]

Saturday squee.

You may find the music a tad annoying. Mute your speakers.

[h/t Elliott]

Nobody let Darth Cheney or Nino Scalia

see this guy in those pajamas...

via TPM

Yes, he's a Republican. From Texas. Running for election.

[h/t hauksdottir]

Just because.

These days, this is what it means

when Obama says we're "moving forward."

Yeah, I know. I'm responsible for the enthusiasm gap. Bite me.

Sounds like somebody's getting tired

of playing runner-up to beautiful African American women:

(CNN) – Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin seemed to have the 2008 election – and, specifically, first lady Michelle Obama – on her mind during a speech at a conservative forum Thursday night.

"You know, when I hear people say, or had said during the campaign that they've never been proud of America, haven't they met anybody in uniform yet?" Palin opined during her remarks at a Liberty and Freedom Foundation forum in San Jose, California.

Lest we forget, Michelle Obama was named "most powerful woman" in the world by Forbes last week. Caribou Barbie came in 16th. Just like that beauty pageant she entered where she showed the world how well she plays the flute. *Cough*

I really want to use the "c" word...

UPDATE: Heh. Jesse Ventura almost goes there.

Why I love this town.

Because after the doo wop guys and the wandering mariachi bands, rock gets its turn on the subway.

[I don't really care whether it's a viral ad for the iPhone. I love the people watching and not telling them to shut the fuck up.]

"I'd rather be out here than in

some stuffy old political office."

That's a direct quote. Everyone hear that? She'd rather be outdoors, pretending to be cross-country skiing with not a hair out of place, than in political office. Just for future reference, when she's going on about how everyone wants her to run...

It's enough to make you want to stab yourself in the eyes with a frozen smelt.

Oooh, aren't WE full of ourselves?

There's going to be no living with her after Election Day:

They say [O'Donnell] is loudly complaining about how they won't support her -- and they are not -- as a way to generate angry, send-them-a-message donations from her Tea Party base.

Specifically, according to two top GOP insiders, she said at a strategy meeting with DC types last week: "I've got Sean Hannity in my back pocket, and I can go on his show and raise money by attacking you guys."

O'Donnell attempts to prevent another stream of ideological effluvia from spewing from her mouth.

Nice typo.

So now he's "Rich Whitey".

The last name of Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney (G) is misspelled as 'Whitey' on electronic-voting machines in nearly two dozen Chicago wards -- about half in predominantly African-American areas -- but election officials said the problem cannot be corrected by Election Day, the Chicago Sun Times reports.

The year America lost its shit.

I'm still swamped at work, but I had to stop to read The Rude Pundit's weekly recap of imbecility couched as debate.

It's really amazing that the election of a corporatist tool who also happens to be black has sent this country running for the rubber room.

If he had died,

I'm sure Dick Whittington's family would have issued a posthumous apology to Cheney:

The shotgun sprayed upward of 200 birdshot pellets at Whittington, causing scores of wounds. His facial lacerations were the most dramatically bloody, but the injuries to his neck and chest were the most serious. Four days after being hit, the birdshot near his heart prompted it to beat erratically, forcing him back into the intensive care unit. Doctors said Whittington suffered a mild heart attack; he thinks it was something less, a heart "event."

Still, the injuries were more dire than previously disclosed. Whittington suffered a collapsed lung. He underwent invasive exploratory surgery, as doctors probed his vital organs for signs of damage. The load from Cheney's gun came close to, but didn't damage, the carotid artery in his neck. A rupture could have been fatal, particularly since it took the better part of an hour to transport him from the vast Armstrong ranch to the Kingsville hospital.

God forbid they'd airlifted him out of there. That would have created a scene!

"I read all of 'em!"

Summer Wheatly's Christine O'Donnell's Debate FAIL.

The debate moderator Nancy Karibjanian of Delaware First Media asked O'Donnell to talk about a recent high court opinion she disagreed with. The Republican, who defeated Rep. Mike Castle in a primary last month, paused.

"Oh gosh. Give me a specific one," O'Donnell said after a deer-in-the-headlights moment which you can watch below. Karibjanian said, no, because that was the point: she needed O'Donnell to name one.

"I'm very sorry right off the top of my head, I know that there are a lot but, uh, I'll put it up on my website I promise you," she said.

You're going to have to dance faster, O'Donnell.

Chile 33, Massey Energy 0.

This is what happens when your government gives a shit.

The rescue team after the last miner made it to the surface.

Lulz.

Via BoingBoing

[h/t WillendorfVenus]

Completely apropos of nothing,

this picture is making me laugh uncontrollably.

Via Gawker

Massey Energy's Don Blankenship

is watching this miner rescue thinking, "Meh, what a waste of money, refusing to cut corners."

Someone show this to I[di]ott.

Eeee-gah, it's enough to make you

eat nothing but raw vegetables for the rest of your life:

New York City-based artist and photographer Sally Davies . . . bought a McDonald's Happy Meal back in April and left it out in her kitchen to see how well it would hold up over time.

The results? "The only change that I can see is that it has become hard as a rock," Davies told the U.K. Daily Mail.

She proceeded to photograph the Happy Meal each week and posted the pictures to Flickr to record the results of her experiment. Now, just over six months later, the Happy Meal has yet to even grow mold. She told the Daily Mail that "the food is plastic to the touch and has an acrylic sheen to it."

I'm going to go vomit now. BRB.

Holy crap.

Ohio's teabag candidate/Nazi dress-up doll Rich I[di]ott just keeps digging:

Iott defended the members of the unit, who he said "wanted to fight what they saw as a bigger threat to them than Germany," so they joined up with the Nazis to fight the eastern front of the war against Soviet forces. "I don't think we can sit here and judge that today. We weren't there the time they made those decisions," he said.

...

Iott called "what happened in Germany during the second World War one of "the low points in human history," but defended the Wiking Division when Cooper referred to them as collaborators: "I don't know that I would put that label on them. They were doing what they thought was right for their country. And they were going out and fighting what they thought was a bigger, you know, a bigger evil."

Iott also contended that "this particular unit was one that was never charged with war crimes," though Cooper pointed out that one member was recently charged with the murder of 58 Jews. Iott replied: "The war on the eastern front was extremely brutal on both sides. Nobody was lily-white, that's for sure. Horrible things that happened on both sides."

...

"I think that they thought they were fighting for their homeland," Iott said. When pressed further, he replied: "I don't think we can sit here and judge that today. We weren't there the time they made those decisions."

Earth to Space Station I[di]ott: FUCKING JOSEF MENGELE WAS THE GODDAMNED MEDIC FOR THE WIKING DIVISION, YOU ANTI-SEMITIC DOUCHEBAG!

Aw, poor baby.

Bristol Palin discovers the downside to grifting: it takes WORK!

Bristol Palin says working (all right, dancing) and being a mom at the same time is "exhausting."

"Mentally, it's exhausting," the 19-year-old tells "Extra." "Physically, it's exhausting. But I'm making it work."

But Mom makes it look so EAAAAAASY!

The wheels come off

Paladino's crazy train. Over at the Lake.

Sorry, gang.

Was absolutely buried under work today. Should be letting up a little toward midweek.

Teabagger Carl Paladino

has difficulty deciding if "homosexuality is a choice":

That's what the Republican nominee for governor of New York told me this morning when I asked if he thinks people have a choice to be gay.

“I’ve had difficulty with that. My nephew tells me he didn’t have that choice. And I believe it’s a very, very difficult life for a young person,” Carl Paladino told me. “I believe that young people should not necessarily be exposed to that without some really, really mature background first before, so they can learn to deal with it. It is a very difficult thing. And I sensitize with it totally.”

The Tea Party backed candidate drew fire last night following remarks before Orthodox Jewish leaders because he told them he does not want his children “to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option- it isn't.”

Being a closed-minded, sexist, bigoted pig, on the other hand...