Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today.

The Mrs. asked me last night why I have a problem with Hillary Clinton's candidacy. Here's a perfect example.

NEW YORK -- Calling Iran a danger to the U.S. and one of Israel's greatest threats, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said "no option can be taken off the table" when dealing with that nation.

A comment that will of course be rubbed in our faces as the bombs fall on Tehran.

Memo to Hillary: when it comes to this administration there IS no other option other than the use of military force. Someone who was more interested in the future of this country rather than their own political future might take just a couple of moments to take a look at recent history and realize this.

I don't care who her audience is. When her comments are removed from their context and added to a long list of Democratic politicians who "supported" the attacks on Iran by conservative knuckle-draggers next year it won't really matter. Equivocation on matters of war is killing this country.

I was not put on this earth to listen to meat!

Gilliard does a terrific job of tearing apart Boston's Aqua Teen idiocy yesterday. The entire city was brought to a standstill by Lite-brite and the idiocy of Mayor Menino combined with the overreaction of the media.

Menino is going on TV and insisting he's going to send a 27-year old artist to jail for not breaking any law, because his police department overreacted and wasted a million dollars feeding a media frenzy and terrorizing the population of his own city. That's a cowardly act of self-preservation, and were he not threatening the life of an innocent young man it would be laughable.

The whole think has me hankering for a little Adult Swim.

I don't want to be worshipped. I want to be loved.

I had the honor a few years ago of seeing Molly Ivins speak live at an ACLU event. She was even more ribald and plain spoken than she was in her columns.

She told a bunch of stories about the Texas politics she'd spent most of her life covering but my favorite involved a huge fight in the Texas legislature over an anti-sodomy law passed many years ago. After the Republicans, ahem, rammed it through the chief sponsor of the bill and the head of the fundamentalist Christian group promoting it hugged on the floor of the state senate. On seeing this the Democratic Senator who had led the fight against the bill approached the Sergeant at Arms and told him he wanted them arrested.

"Why," the Sergeant at Arms asked.

"Because in this state," he responded, "we've just made it illegal for a dick to touch an asshole."

The world is just a tad darker without her around.

A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming.

Digby must have 10 posts up in the last few days covering perpetual victim/ Freeper Joshua Sparling's "spit" exchange with peace marchers this last last weekend. (The latest.)

As much as I love Digby and share the disgust at Sparling's act I have to say that I can't help but feel that on this issue he/ she is missing the bigger picture. To whit: what the hell was Jane Fonda doing in front of a microphone at this peace rally?

The problem, as Digby and Duncan regularly point out, is that Democrats and progressives win on the issues but lose on the larger media narrative. Even though a solid majority of Americans now oppose the war in Iraq the media continues to protray those against the war as "Damn, dirty hippies." The media has already shown a predisposition to frame this issue via forty year old outlines.

The last thing the anti-war movement is to have "Hanoi Jane" associated with them because, with all do respect to Ms. Fonda, probably the biggest obstacle to the anti-war movement is breaking the media frame and all here presence does is reinforce it. Why not just have her pose with an IED while they're at it.

Fonda's involvement made it too easy for the lazy Washington press corps. The "protesters spitting on soldiers" bit practically wrote itself.

I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just gonna bash your brains in.

What do I keep saying? The President is a sociopath.

GEORGE W. Bush, like most pollies, has no real love for the press that dogs his every step, but at least our elected leaders don't try to physically flatten critics. Touring a Caterpillar factory in Illinois yesterday, the US Commander-in-Chief got behind the wheel of a giant tractor and played chicken with reporters. "I would suggest moving back," Bush said as he climbed into the cab of a massive D-10 tractor, "I'm about to crank this sucker up." As the engine roared to life, White House staffers tried to steer the press corps to safety, but when the tractor lurched forward, they too were forced to scramble. Even the Secret Service got involved, as one agent began yelling at reporters to get clear of the tractor. Watching the chaos below, Bush looked out the tractor's window and laughed, steering the huge machine into the spot where most of the press corps had been positioned. Bush was still laughing when he pulled to a stop. He gave reporters a thumbs-up. "If you've never driven a D-10, it's the coolest experience," he said.

Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?

While I'm on the subject of annoying fish-people with voices like nails on a chalkboard: how about that Bill Gates?

Windows Vista might the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back for this longtime Windows/ PC owner. It appears Microsoft basically caved to everything the MPAA and recording industry wanted. So now I get to pay for the privilege of not being able to use all the media files I might have stored on my hard drive. And this is a huge step forward how exactly?

As I can't see switching to Mac I might have to bite the bullet and go Linux. I seem to know a few people who've been singing it's praises for some time now...

Yeah, you're crazy Jar-Jar.

I'm sorry about the Jar Jar. Apologies go out to every one that was offended by my use of the cartoon fish-man in my last post. Even if I was joking about his demise, I recognize that Jar Jar is an acquired taste. (Usually acquired through severe head trauma or accidental contact with a power line.)

Don snabalus' suggestion that the kid from Lord of the Flies should take him out is well taken if not for the fact that the kid in question is Piggy. When it comes to taking someone out Piggy inevitably will wind up on the wrong end of the equation.

Again - I want everyone that reads this blog to feel comfortable and secure and happy in their own personal space. It was wrong of me to harsh that mellow.

Sincerely,

Dean

Better dead here than deader in the Core. Ye gods, whatta meesa sayin'?

The Simpsons ran credits last night "dedicated to all the characters killed by George Lucas in the Star Wars films." It's understandable that I couldn't find it on YouTube given last week's lawsuits but it read something like this-

Stormtrooper 22

Darth Vader

Stormtrooper 3

Obi Wan Kenobi

Yoda

That Guy Jimmy Smits Played

Jango Fett

Unfortunately Not Jar-Jar

Stormtrooper 77