This bounty hunter is my kind of scum: fearless and inventive.

Just saying.

(I haven't done a Rush post in a while. As a warning- Jabba quotes always equal Rush.)

Han, mah bukee, keel-ee caleya ku kah.

I'm just posting this headline from the Washington Post because it makes me chuckle: Limbaugh Weighs In.

No doubt the byline goes to Al Franken.

As for the substance of the article I'd just point out that the Limbaughs and Coulters of the world think they're too clever by half with this stuff. Whether they're trying to pull a reverse head-fake or just stir up their audience it's not effective because they JUST AREN'T RELEVANT.

People have to care what you say before you can actuallyget a rise out of them.

They will all suffer for this outrage.

I'm with Jane.

Jabba has no business on Armed Forces radio.

Now you're Bantha fodder.

How could I not bring up this quote? It's not often there's a story that combines Rush Limbaugh, Star Trek and our own Congressman Wu. In fact I doubt I'll be able to type those three things again in the same sentence so I ought to strike while the anvil's hot.

In Rush's defense and as a fan of Star Trek I have to say Wu's quote is rather lame. He says that Neocons are closer to Klingons than Vulcans. That's nuts. Klingons are an honorable race. Neocons wouldn't know honor from a hole in their head.

All that matters is that two stood against many. That's what's important!

It's been a crazy week. Besides the wonderful things that have been happening nationally work's been just nuts and my ability to post has been cut considerably by the collapse of my home computer to the dreaded motherboardblowsup virus. It appears it won't be recovering. So here are a few random thoughts on various items I'd wanted to talk about this week but didn't get the chance--

The Virginia Senate seat - I was trying to figure out the math on the senate make up with Lieberman and what it would mean if Allen beat Webb. In that case the Senate would have stood at 48 Democrats and 50 Republicans with 2 independents. As I understand it (I could be wrong about this) the Vice President doesn't vote when it comes to determining Majority Leader, only on bills before the Senate that are tied. This would've really put Lieberman in the cat bird's seat. Webb's win then diffused some of Lieberman's bargaining power though I don't doubt he'll still leverage quite a bit out of Democrats.

Governor Schwarzenegger - I don't believe his moderate act but, truth be told, what really gets me down about his re-election is that it makes it unlikely this film will ever be made. I may not like Arnold the Governator but I enjoy Arnold the bad actor immensely.

Conservatives - My very cool brother gave me John Dean's "Conservatives Without Conscience" for my birthday and probably the best parts of that book are the beginning chapters in which Dean searches for the definition of "conservatism" itself by examining the statements of it's leaders. The long and the short of is that it that the only thing conservatives seem to have in common is an overwhelming belief that "liberals" are bad. It's really a movement more easily defined by what it isn't rather than what it is.

With that in mind I got a good chuckle out of people like Ann Coulter, George Will and Rush Limbaugh trying to spin this election as a victory for conservatives by concentrating on the moderate Dems just elected and claiming America was really voting against liberals again. Who did they vote for? Who did the rest of the Bush wingnut base vote for? Moderate Democrats or Republicans?

Face facts guys: this election was to movement conservatism the same thing that Ned Beatty's run in with a toothless hillbilly on a river rafting trip did- America saying "Squeal piggie!"

Investigations vs. Impeachment - A lot of progressives seem to be fretting because Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have said impeachment is off the table. First comes first, guys. Investigate and THEN impeach. ;-)

Rummy b' Gone - I spent yesterday morning looking for a quote from Rumsfeld which was something he said at his press conference with Bush to the effect that "if voters understoond what kind of war we're fighting the election would've been different." Bush made similar comments- owing the results to the inability of our simple minds to wrap around the complex strategy they've put in place to prosecute the GWOT.

Dear Rummy - You're no Sun Tzu. You aren't even a Sonny Bono. True military strategists adapt to the patterns of the enemy, not stumble blindly forward on the same path fighting the war you wish you were fighting. Small, rapid troop deployments combined with high-tech military equipment may be effective when fighting conventional armies but that's not what we're facing in Iraq, you worthless hack.

I will not be threatened by a walking meat loaf!

Somewhere in a comment section in one of the numerous blogs I read I came across a comment in reaction to the blow-up over the Michael J. Fox commercial that went along the lines of "this reminds me of the dust-up over the Wellstone memorial." As I continue to see more and more about the ad and Limbaugh's comments I'm inclined to agree. The GOP and their agents in the media are able to create a false controversy by poo-pooing(*) perfectly legitimate behavior by Democrats that hasn't crossed any traditional lines of common sense.

Don snabalus highlights the value of these sorts of fake controversy- they keep us from talking about legitimate issues such as the value of stem cell research in finding a cure for Parkinsons as in the case of Fox. Let's not forget they provide the additional perks of firing up the GOP base and dehumanizing their opposition by making them, us, out to be heartless political automatons.

It's the sort of stuff that leaves most sane people who follow politics throwing up their hands and asking "why in the hell are we talking about this again?"

Along those lines: Tristero seems to be channelling don snabalus this morning. He links Jane Hamsher who does a great analysis of the greater context to Rush "moving the goalposts" on all sorts of issues.

(* as opposed to the act of "pooh-poohing" which involves plotting to steal honey from bees, asking Christopher Robin all sorts of silly questions, and being dragged down the stairs by your foot while hitting your head on each step.)

Start pulling your weight guys or you go back to the cemetery.

I'm trying to avoid this Michael J. Fox thing for obvious reasons: it involves Rush Limbaugh and would force me to write a post with a picture of Jabba which would throw me off my whole seasonal horror film motif.

But this bit about Republicans running a counter-ad filled with their own B-list celebs is just too damn funny. Charles P. Pierce over at the Prospect sums the whole thing up
pretty well:

And lastly, in case it escaped the ad wizards who dreamed up this mess -- Michael J. Fox didn't do the McCaskill spot just because he was a famous person. He did it because he is a famous person who has Parkinson's disease, and thus can be reckoned to be more of an expert on the topic than Mrs. Raymond. I was prepared for things to get ugly. Stupid caught me by surprise.

Wonkee chee sa crispa con Greedo?

It really doesn't bother me that much any more when Limbaugh goes of on another non-sensical tangent (via Digby) and blames Democrats for the Foley scandal. I'd be shocked if he said something marginally sane.

What does continue to bug me is this is exactly the sort of stuff Republican use to self-justify election fraud. They tell themselves that the damn, filthy Democrats set Foley up so they deserve to wait 8 hours in line to vote in Ohio, or have their ballots tossed in Florida or some other such nonsense.

Screw them and their faux outrage. What a pathetic bunch of flat-out losers.

There will be no bargain, young Jedi. I shall enjoy watching you die.

In response to Keith Olbermann's excellent 911 speech Rush writes:

All right, folks. I think that is revisionist history. This idea that we were all unified on 9/11 is just bunk, and I am going to say it. I don't believe it for a moment. I think that when 9/11 happened, a lot of kooks on the left said, "A-ha! This is how we're going to get Bush. He's incompetent," or they were either saying, "Oh, no! The country is going to come together." You can't tell me that the people who hated Bush ten months earlier over the Florida aftermath, the Florida recount, all of a sudden came together and it was all kumbaya time. I do not believe it."

I'd make the observation that anyone who cannot imagine that those whose politics they disagree with would put country before party in a time of national crisis must themself be someone who consistently puts party before country and sees everything through this same lens.

(Bring me Solo and the Wookiee. They will all suffer for this outrage.)

Paragon of all that is good and decent in the world, guardian of morality and voice of modern conservatism Rush Limbaugh is arrested on drug charges.

It just goes to prove you never can trust a Limbaugh...

Bo Shuda!

Cousin Rush gets his pasty, white rear chewed off. An oldie but a goodie. (video)