Who's on First? Mitt and Newt

Romney's Secret Service Name?

Even though to get a cool code name, gossip is you actually have to be POTUS, Mitt Romney gets secret service detail today and Twitter is HAWT with code name suggestions for Mittens. Check out #RomneySecretServiceCodeName for some solid laugh time.

My suggestions will be in my twitter feed at this link and, of course, in the right column of this blog.

Cincinnati Casino Collapse, Bus Driver Got a Job to Do

There was a collapse at the new Cincinnati Horseshoe Casino during construction. Unfortunately, the press conference got in the way of one bus driver who hit a news van on live television. Awesome. Way to Go go Ohio!

The Face of Conservatism: Dead Kids Are Funny

From this piece of foul bloggery:

One would have to have a heart of stone to fail to be amused by the death of this little punk:

A 65-year-old man who was knocked off his bicycle by three teenagers on a Pennsylvania trail shot two of them, killing one, police said according to reports. The Reading Eagle newspaper said the wounded teen, 16, was taken to hospital and the third, aged 15, was taken in for questioning and was later committed to a youth center.... According to police, the 65-year-old was riding his bicycle when the teens knocked him to the ground, the station said. Police said two teens then assaulted the man, who drew his gun and shot them.

What a pity that's not on YouTube. Can you imagine the expression on the face of the dying little prick? One moment, he thinks he's a happy-slapping bad ass impressing his friends with a little casual assault-and-battery and the very next moment, it's game over. For good. Way to go, tough guy.

Concealed carry is certainly one of the more effective means of teaching the little bastards to show the elderly at least a modicum of respect.

Unfortunately, it speaks for itself.

Drudge's Pitchfork & Reagan's Corpse: Tonight We Eat Newt

Awww, shit. It was to happen eventually: the powers that be on the Right would have to make a move to determine their candidate outside the electoral process. As the above image shows (click to embiggin), a stand has been made. Drudge has picked up the pitchfork (or had it handed to him) and figuratively killed the Gingrich campaign by invoking the Holy Ronald and calling up from the depths the Newt-flavored betrayals on the "Real Conservatives'" hallowed Saint. Drudge is the Kraken and he has been released.

They couldn't shut him down personally, could not point out his multiple stands on multiple issues, could not address his personal manifestation of the antithesis of morality. They had to say "Dude dissed RayRay!"

The supposed high-brow political discourse that Gingrich stood for is dead. Long live low-brow political discourse.

Now, about that Romney fellow...

In Short: Hannity Didn't Watch SOTU

I know, I know. Every time I begin a post with "Yesterday on Hannity's radio show..." a little part of your soul dies and a dribble of vomit leaks inexplicably from your left ear. Me too. So weird.

However, yesterday on Hannity's radio show, after listening for a few minutes on the way to Kroger, it became apparently clear that Sean Hannity was relying on what other people had to say about the SOTU Tuesday evening:

• He mocked Obama for saying "the state of the union is strong," but Obama notably did not say that. He said "The state of our Union is getting stronger."
• He said that Obama's recognition of the Military as an example was a call to work together, but Obama's statement was using the US Military as an example to focus on a mission and get the job done.
• Working together obviously brought out the "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun" quote from Obama, but it was directly implied that Obama had said that to the military (when it was a one-off to the press pool about a debate in Philly with McCain in '08).

I know Hannity artfully and gleefully spins facts and pulls emotionally charged rhetoric - however disproved or irrelevant - to be another powerful voice in painting Obama as "the other," but this seemed particularly ignorant, like he was spinning an intern's notes.

Or maybe he's purposefully deconstructing every argument against Obama into a single, timeless, reference-less amalgam of foul vitriol, an abstract, artistic work in progress that will culminate Election night 2012 in a single, forced, guttural syllable followed immediately by his very essence being expelled in a protoplasmic blob as his human shell collapses like an ancient paper wasp nest whacked with a snow shovel.

Or he's just being a dick.

Republican Response: Women Don't Count

Last night I watched the whole SOTU and Republican Response. The item that left the biggest impression for me was when Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN), near the beginning of the official Republican response, stated

One in five men of prime working age…did not go to work today.

Immediately after that, my brain went into a repeating loop of questioning stupid. Did he just say that? What sausage-fest proofed that speech? Did he really mean it? What the hell is "prime working age?" Was the intent to really address only the working men of our country?

I can find the quote a couple of places through Google and full text on his campaign page (he does not have an official twitter himself), but no one seems to be addressing the misogynist angle that's pretty damn apparent.

HARDCORE Juliet: 8 years old

I could watch this all day. Seriously. Agent. Now.

In Brief: Republican Debate as NFL Pre-Show

You ever listen to the pre-show of an NFL game? It reads like this:

In order to win we've got to fire that hot offense, knock it down with the defense, get first downs, get that ball to the end zone and if we can't, get it through the bars for something.

And that stupid obviousness is the definition of the debate tonight.

"We've got to fix the budget, get into vaginas, and give free enterprise every fucking right they may or may not need and that fixes America. USA!" *flagpin*

I'm working on my notes, but that's what you get tonight. Because I need to get the notes up, watch the last ep of Supernatural, and then we'll be good for tomorrow.

Blue Laws: Etymology Edition

(image CFC original)

Back in the day here in Ohio, you couldn't buy alcohol before 1pm on a Sunday (certain stores: NO ALCOHOL ON JESUS DAY). Now it's settled down a bit, but there are still these "blue laws" on the books to keep us from buying (state-controlled) liquor on a Sunday or Federal holiday.

Anything under the flag of "Blue Laws" tend to refer to control of alcohol or relate to antiquated "still on the books" stuff like banning sodomy. Some (more British) phrases speak of porn as "blue movies." So, clearly, any laws that are "blue" have something to do with sin and punishment.

But Why "Blue"?

If you read your terrible internets or emails from Uncle Joe, you may believe that they were called "blue laws" because "back then" they were printed on blue paper. And if you take that in without question, I've a cousin in Nigeria who wants to send you $5,000,000.

I did a minimal amount of searching and found this article on Snopes.

The listing talks about the Puritan colony of Connecticut and that "the Reverend Samuel Peters' 1781 book, General History of Connecticut, described onerous colonial laws in the following manner:

Blue Laws; i.e. bloody Laws; for they were all sanctified with whipping, cutting off the ears, burning the tongue, and death.

Okay, Still, Why Blue?

In the sordid etymology of "bloody," there are many considerations put forth about how people changed "hell" to "heck" and "Christ" to "Crikey" and "God" to "Gosh" in the avoidance of swearing or taking the Lord's name in vain.

Now this is entirely English-degree speculation, but I propose the Puritans did the same to the second degree: While "bloody" laws was a fine descriptor, as noted above, with a British origin, "bloody" also has many secondary, swear-y, uses, even if it is a first-tier morphology to avoid directly referring to the Virgin Mary or the Blood of Christ. So they switched it up to "blue."

Wouldn't want to be punished for a "bloody law" because you said "bloody law," right?

That's the linguistics and my own extension, but what do you think?

Hipster Jesus Sends Rich to Hell

Gingrich on Drudge?

Today I took my painful peek at Drudge's site and saw - prominently - something that read "Obama plays golf with hooker-solicitor." Awesome.

And I thought to myself: what would happen if Drudge actually had a site that talked realistically about conservatives?

Here's my answer, your little peek into an alternate universe:

Perry's Pounce Commercial

Rick Perry might just be the most awesomely-misguided candidate when it comes to his marketing department. Here's his latest video which I refer to as "Pounce."



So I was able to do this:

Perry Push-Up!



Perry Ninja!



Enjoy your evening.

Bad Lip Reading: Newt Gingrich

"NEWT GINGRICH" — a Bad Lip Reading Soundbite - watch more funny videos

Cafe Press: That's No Moon

So I opened a CafePress account finally because I'm fun and create some cool images that people might like on shirts and stuff.

This was actually brought on by finding an image online in reference to a story about Earth's moon. The appropriate response to any reference to the moon is the Obi-Wan quote from Episode IV: "That's no moon."



So I stumbled upon a mediocre Photoshop of René Magritte's "Ceci n'est pas une pipe"



But the 'shop was all wrong: the top of the Death Star was cut off and - *gasp* - it used an image of the Death-Star-in-construction, which only existed AFTER it was destroyed, which was after Episode IV. So I did this:



And now you can buy that on a t-shirt.

(CafePress killed it on an undisclosed copyright thing.)

Yay nerds!

Racist Spelling Bee?

2 years old, but still good.

Mark Simone is a Lying Idiot

In my daily adventures traveling the dark and terrifying highways of the AM band, I'm bound to run into monsters. Many have been demystified; most I've encountered before. But while quietly observing these beasts I may see some new depravity, like a wild creature eating its own feces.

Thus was today's experience with this guy:



Mark Simone's got a gig on WABC in NY but today was subbing for Sean Hannity. The topic turned to Ron Paul because Ron Paul showed up on Leno and said Michele Bachmann doesn't like Muslims. You can see it here:



Oh, the humanity!

(Sidenote: Michele Bachmann, back in '05, in reference to Muslims in France, stated "Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal.")

But we're getting off topic. So we're back on Ron Paul and Mark Simone is jerking the Paul-supporting callers back and forth, putting words in their mouth, extrapolating opinions, generalizing, and changing the subject - for which all right wing nut radio hosts must have a book.

During one call, in order to discredit a caller, Mark said Ron Paul goes nutty, says crazy things, implies you'd have to be nutty to support him. The caller disagreed. Mark Simone then stated (paraphrase):

Ron Paul said that we were to blame for 9/11. Do you believe that? No patriot would back Ron Paul.

Not 3 minutes later, Mark received a call from an active duty member of our military who mis-attributed "No patriot would back Ron Paul" to the previous caller and said that was an awful thing to say.

Mark responded by saying (paraphrase):

I don't know, I didn't hear him say that; that would be a wrong thing to say.

Thus, Mark Simone is a lying idiot.

This is a prime example of the psychological back-talk and denial of reality that has gripped conservative radio for so long. It's obvious; it always is to thinking people. Unfortunately, most listeners are not thinking people.

I Didn't Know Iowa was so French

Iowa state flag

I Can Has Boehner Tumblr?

I'm not one to brag, but I started a Tumblr.

Boehner Has A Sad

I promise more sad quotes, pics, and videos based entirely on Boehner.

I love Ohio.

Boehner Blue n Buzzed

I see you!

Seriously, I need to start a Tubmlr on Boehner pics.