Hey, Obama, we're not the ones bringing freaking assault rifles to public meetings.

Then again, this:

some administration officials welcome a showdown with liberal lawmakers ... The confrontation would allow Obama to show he is willing to stare down his own party to get things done

sounds like the sort of unsourced, agenda-pushing bullshit in which the Rahm DLCers, and Politico, excel.

Call the House progressive caucus, and let the White House know: public option or nothing.

Dick Goddard on widipedia - no mention of a PHD in Climatology or Global Warming expertise. Am I missing something?...He then attended Kent State University, where he majored in drama and broadcasting. While there he had notable success as the lead character, Curly, in the school's production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!.

Well, there you go, then. He sang, "Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day, I got a beautiful feeling, Everything's going my way"

No catastrophic anthropogenic warming there at all! What more proof do you need?

Whenever the American military scored an onscreen hit, Lieberman pumped his fist and said, "Yeah!" and "All right!"

Who acts this way watching a movie? A child? Someone trying to visibly display their war-loving bona fides?

I would have loved it if some frustrated patron had ended up tossing a cup of ice or something at the Distinguished Gentleman From Connecticut and screaming, "Hey! Down in front! Shut the fuck up!"

The fact remains: A nuclear Iran would be a threat to world peace.

That's not a "fact".

Don't you understand? If Iran got the bomb, they would immediately start exploding to smithereens under US or Israeli bombs. And there you go: world peace, gone, all because Iran aggressively forced us into a peace-defending nuking.

can someone translate Tommy for me?

Easy: "Iran is bad--bomb now--bad men go away."

I mean, someone who will point out that destroying a a certain set of facilities will only delay their replacement, and create a far worse threat (to us or Israel) than faced at first. That's what Yamamoto did when asked if he could develop a plan to destroy Pearl Harbor. He said he could, and thus eliminate the US Navy as a threat in the Pacific for a year or two, "and then what?"

An Osirak-type attack will not work. Iranian nuclear facilities are dispersed, and fortified. (The frustrating reality for boosters of American Empire is that a simple technology, the tunnel boring machine, defeats any aerial weapon fairly easily--yes, even 5 MT fusion warheads.) The Iranians who were out in the streets from last summer will not oppose the regime if they are attacked. Our only military "solution" is full-scale invasion--a choice precluded by our present military overcommitments/fiascos.

Sorry, hawks, the only answer is to find an acceptable diplomatic way to the eventual compromise: they get their nuclear power, we keep them from getting the bomb.

Says the guy named after an Austrian gun.

This is from an AP story today, wherein Geir Lundestad, secretary of the Peace Prize committee, attempts to debunk several myths about the prize (link at sig). It's not necessarily for past accomplishments:

-- Myth: The prize is awarded to recognize efforts for peace, human rights and democracy only after they have proven successful.

More often, the prize is awarded to encourage those who receive it to see the effort through, sometimes at critical moments. [Emphasis mine.]

And note to Peace Prize haters of the right or left: the Peace Prize was never awarded to "Arafat" and "Kissenger" by themselves. Arafat shared the Prize with Rabin; Kissenger shared his with Le Duc Tho--their negotiating partners, their enemies. That's why they got the prize.

Earlier this evening, as most of you now know, one of our own, Rush Hudson Limbaugh, while taking withering fire, crashed and burned.

I get this image of a giant Limbaugh, floating over the landscape, then crashing to the ground in flames.

Just like the Hindenburgh. A big, fat, Nazi blimp.

(And yes, I know the Hindenburgh wasn't a blimp, strictly speaking.)

Do you right wingers know how to read? The ad said Nevadans support a public option by 52 to 40%.

Nevadans. Are they your "Far Left Elitist Liberal Progressives?" Very well then, it looks like 52% of Nevada is "far left."

Here's to more pressure on Reid.

Everybody's raging at the LW's teacher, but he obviously struck a chord. It caused our correspondent to ask a simple, devastating question: "What good are video games?"

Now everyone wants to talk him back into game design. Didn't you guys read the letter? He doesn't care about designing video games anymore, and hasn't in years.

Furthermore, he says, "I don't care about success, about working in a big company, about having a big car." Good for him; it sounds like he wants to be of service to people, or to express himself fully. "I want to have a voice," he says. LW, it sounds like you have a voice already. When I read a line like, "I abandoned myself to her; of course, in doing so, I injected lethal venom into the relationship," I say to myself, "Dang, that's a couple of edits away from being a fine lyrical hook."

So maybe you should take up the guitar. Or writing. Or, hell, become a programmer for Engineers Without Borders, or something, where you can find fellow geeks who want to help a struggling world. Or, yeah, join the Navy for just that reason. (That's why they call it "service.")

But as others have said, don't join the military on a whim. Go to France, finish your schooling. (But do not go into graduate school because you don't know what else to do. There's far better ways around that problem.) Maybe you'll meet some French girl who'll turn your world upside down--again--and you'll write some good stories out of the experience. Good luck.