There were a few precious moments on MSNBC right after Clinton's speech, when Olbermann was gushing forth in an extended baseball metaphor ("...out of the park, across the street...") and Matthews appeared gobsmacked into speechlessness. Then they went to Brokaw and Wilson, who had a few moments to recover, I suppose, because both began blathering about how "...keep in mind, this is a carefully choreographed event!", i.e. don't trust your lying eyes, it was all staged and fake.

Except I kinda doubt the bawling women (and men) in the audience were fake. I can only imagine a blinking sign above Hillary: first "Applause", then "Raucous Applause", then "Go Berserk!" then "Cry Like a Baby!"

But the most precious was the look on Brian Williams' face. I mean, he was trying, but he knew nobody was buying it. He tried anyway. And then they had technical difficulties. And then they were interrupted by a train whistle. It was awesome.

I paid my climbing gym membership with that stimulus package. Then again, my credit card debt ended up being settled exactly before I got the stimulus check, so I had this luxury. And as far as I know, most people in this country have vastly larger debt than I do, so they ended up throwing that pittance into the gaping maw of the credit card companies.

I saw stores offering deals if you wanted to spend your stimulus money there. Looks like it didn't work.

I think that when parents consider their kids not human beings with feelings but dolls and toy action figures that you can do anything you want with, it's a failure of THEIR parents and of the education system, and perhaps even a sign of cultural degeneration.

And heck, if the State can restrict what sort of license plates people can put on their cars, I think it stands to reason that something as long-lasting and intimate as a name can, in theory, also be regulated. But it's so so so so sad that it has to be, isn't it?

Do we think that the Republican effort to goad Obama into taking a foreign trip will be written about in textbooks as a GOOD idea?

Um... by the time they're writing textbooks that cover 2008, most of the country's population will have forgotten who John McCain was and what he was doing at the time. Political junkies may remember towering giants like McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis and uh, Dole but most of us regular Joes? Let's just say that if there IS a textbook (for whom? Campaign Management majors?) that covers in excruciating blow-by-blow details the events of the summer of 2008, 99.99999% of the world's population isn't going to know it exists, let alone give a damn.

Political commentators may get off on the exciting minutiae of the campaign, but what a candidate does in their presidential campaign pales in comparison with their record in office. Nobody is going to remember any of this. Maybe a blurb on Wikipedia. Maybe.

...makes me hungry. And I just had lunch.

Hell, I'd suffer to dine with Johnny Mac himself only to get my fork into a plump, sizzling sausage... oh bloody hell, I'm drooling now!

Evil, evil Salon bloggers.

Make that "Stone Age Technology". In the late 19th century they had the telegraph. In the early 19th century and all the way back into the Bronze Age they had, um, written correspondence. All of these allowed heads of state to be in communication with the troops in the field in any particular conflict zone and thus be appraised of the situation at hand.

I suppose when you say "neocon", the "neo" part stands for "Neolithic." Neolithic Conservatives. I like it.

"Rather than listening to MoveOn.org to set his strategy, Barack Obama should withhold judgment until he meets with our commanders in Iraq."

Ummm. Yo. Am I the only one who noticed how obscenely absurd this statement is? Seriously, how uninformed does one have to be to actually go for that drivel?

Yeah, Barack Obama, pawn of MoveOn.org. My teeth hurt just from typing that.

You know, I've been getting more and more pissed off by Mr. Koppelman's mindless repetition of various crap from various news networks, but this is hilarious. Literally minutes ago I read Steve Benen's blog where he actually took the trouble to look around the other news outlets and see if there's any other reporting on these "talks" and found... not a thing! Furthermore, he went on to analyze these claims and found numerous logical holes. He then expressed a professional opinion (backed up by logic and evidence) that this piece of "news" Mr. Koppelman is so mindlessly regurgitating to us is completely bogus.

Maybe it's not. Benen is only one blogger. Who knows? I certainly am not THAT invested in the whole thing to go looking on my own, but I expect a professional who gets paid to do his job (likely more than I get paid to do mine) to, you know, do his job. Not to nag, but maybe investigate this a little? Tell us how likely it is, in your professional opinion? Cite some evidence in favor or to the contrary? You think, maybe? No?

Copy / pasting CNN bullshit does not a good journalist make, Mr. Koppelman.

Oh yeah, she's right to make him squirm. He fricken' deserves it. Next up, Rob Riggle talks to him about not bothering to show up to vote for the new GI Bill. And so forth.