This FISA/Amnesty for lawbreaking telecoms bill is simply the litmus test for me. How Democratic leaders respond to this will determine whether or not I ever give them support again. This thing really is THAT BIG! (BTW, many thanks for all the coverage on this blog) Simply put: it's retroactive legalization of outright and absolute law breaking. I mean, like, why should people pay taxes or wear seat-belts, or follow any other law if a precedent like this is being set. SHAME ON SENATOR REID!! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!

Yes Toto, adverts too.

Furthermore, carbon footprints come in a menu of infinite variety, my little gas passers.

From a mortgage meltdown to liquidity constipation to credit evaporation to insolvency liquefaction, I just can’t wait until next year gets underway. However this lotus unfolds will have an assured guarantee of unprettiness.

Even if you live in Cole Valley, own a Volvo and have a baby as the latest must have fashion accessory. But, whatever you do, make sure it's genteel, understated and tasteful, or you will be shunned.

He said "froth" or "frothy", or something. Maybe at first he was thinking of what was on top of his morning latte, and not the kind that comes out of a rabid dog. Well, he did say "froth".

"I'm a militant agnostic. I don't know and neither do you."

I actually made it two thirds of the way through this post, and I'm actually sad I didn't ingnore it in the first place and move on to some other Salon.com article.

Whatever modern professional sports is (are?), with its wildly over-paid gladiators and totally rigged draft picking process, has nothing to do with health, fair-play or anything sportsmanship like. It staggers my imagination that even semi-intelligent people can find this ball wacking dreck interesting.

But, whatever you do... LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!!! *sob*

Dang, one of the things I liked about the old commie China was how green they were with their nifty bicycles zooming around all over the place. Of course, America isn't setting a very good example, is it? Oh well... GOODBYE GREENLAND ICE SHEET! *yeehaw*

Diane Feinstein's rule #1: Never, ever let them see you cry.

Oh Hil, dear, you nearly flunked!

We all have a right to drive a car; you just have to prove to your social peers you know how to do it safely - same for guns. Of course the NRA will say proving your competence infringes on your right to bear arms. That's a canard and a big pile of crap. *Punto!!!*

Check out this little doozy:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/50d659d2-c1f3-11dc-8fba-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

Whew! I nearly fell off the floor.

P.S. It's really interesting how it is only now that we're finding out about all these cool and wonderful "finacial instruments". Wanna play air guitar anybody?

Finacial Times makes you register, so here are the mind-blowing paragraphs of Wolfgang Münchau's column:

"The CDS market is worth about $45,000bn (€30,500bn, £23,000bn). This is not an easy figure to imagine. It is more than three times the annual gross domestic product of the US. Economically, credit default swaps are insurance. But legally, they are not, which is why this market is largely unregulated."

"It is not difficult at all to see how the CDS market has the potential to cause serious financial contagion. The subprime crisis came fairly close to destabilising the global financial system. A CDS crisis, under a pessimistic scenario, could produce a global financial meltdown."

"This is not a prediction of what will happen, merely a contingent scenario. But it is contingent on an event – a nasty and long recession – that is not entirely improbable."

I know that wasn't nice, but I'm beginning to wonder.

I remember how eloquent Tony Blair was after 9/11, and he sure turned out to be a disgusting little poodle, didn't he?

I'm no big fan of Hillary Clinton, but at least she's the devil we know.

In the primary I think I'm going for John Edwards.

When the it's this close and the stakes are this high, things are bound to get a little rough. And we the voters are the ones that win. You don't want a coronation, do you? I didn't think so.

My pie-in-the-sky desire? I want nothing less than the defeat that Nixon gave McGovern way back in '72. Darling, do you remember? Let me remind you: only two places carried McGovern, and they were the state of Massachusetts... And yes! The City and County of San Francisco. And that was all!! I want a Democratic version of THAT!

Can I have that. Pleeeeeeease.

One thing that I've noticed - maybe you have, too - is that these Milton Friedman trickle-down supply-siders, when things get a little rough, start becoming a little too Keynesian for their own good. And maybe that's the problem right there.

Maybe, just maybe, a good ole' economic contraction is just the medicine we need right now. Sometimes a crisis brings out the best in people. Like that old canard about "no gain without pain" - except it sure seems pretty unfair it doesn't happen to the super rich, too (dang!). Then after we start recovering, we can begin to adopt a more Scandinavian style mix of small socialism and small capitalism, with a large honest, transparent and accountable government.

Whoa!! I better hurry-up and read "Choke". Heavy handed, huh? Hey, the heavier the better, I say. I almost died laughing reading "Lullaby", and "Diary" was totally cool, with the strangest happy ending ever; and his factoids are fabulous. According to Palahniuk ("Lullaby"): there was this man named Eugene Schimmelman, or some name like that, who was sad that New York City's Central park didn't have all the birds in Shakespeare, so he released 60 Starlings and within 15 years they had made it to the west coast.

I love Starlings. Palahniuk ROCKS!!

Well, may I suggest slipping LSD in their beer kegs. That might work!!