Gates seeking a “more humane” DADT law. Don’t expect applause for advocating sanitized bigotry. I didn’t vote for this. http://bit.ly/VB5KT

From this point forward, the party that worships Ronald Reagan doesn’t get to refer to Al Franken as a “comedian”. Sorry, starf%ckers.

Now that Dems have a filibuster-proof majority, can we start work on the socialist re-education camps? All hail Supreme Leader Obama!

Unfortunately, you can’t do anything with only 60 votes in the Senate. Sure, 51 GOP votes can do anything, but 60 Dems? Maybe next election

The United States Senate is our national shame. It was founded on the elitist notion that a people’s house would be subject to passions that the “upper” house would need to calm. Ironically, rather than be the intellectual bedrock that the founders envisioned, the Senate has evolved into an institutional roadblock which elevates the voices of the ignorant and makes a joke of the notion that anyone would ever consider this country a true representative democracy.

As long as a deep blue state like California only gets two Senators to represent its 36 million residents (vs. blood-red Wyonng who gets an equal number of senators for its half million residents), I don’t think it’s enough to have Democratic Senators like Dianne Feinstein who brag that complaints from the left “doesn’t move [her] one whit”. When it comes to counting votes for progressive legislation, I want a crazy-ass liberal who make Dennis Kucinich look like Barry Goldwater. Somebody whose liberal bona fides are so golden, no one would ever think to question whether or not they’d support a reasonably progressive agenda.

I’m getting really sick of sitting on the sidelines while people die because there are too many tiny state idiots in the Senate who actually believe their own bullshit (taxation is socialism, global warming is a myth, stem cell research is murder, etc.) . Even worse, the best our side can come us with is a bunch of more-or-less tenured cynics who dare not try to accomplish anything significant because they’ve been around so long they realize “the way Washington works” is to not do any work at all.

This goes far beyond right and left. I’m perfectly willing to have a reasonable debate and try to come to a consensus. Taxing emissions vs. cap and trade? A public option vs. a non-profit co-op? Cool, let’s find out the basics on where we agree and hash out the details on the rest. That’s the way things are supposed to work, but it’s increasingly hard to stay optimistic when it becomes ever clearer that “their” side isn’t bargaining in good faith and “our” side doesn’t share my values.

But, hey, there’s another election next year. Maybe THEN we’ll get something done.

Knowing census results determine congressional apportionment, I fully support right-wing crackpot conspiracy theories.

NPR’s On the Media this week features a discussion with NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard about their news department’s refusal to refer to waterboarding and other — what’s the word? Oh, yes — torture techniques as torture. I urge you to listen to the segment, in which host Bob Garfield rightly poses an utterly logical case for using the word torture, using question after question for which Shepard has absolutely no satisfying answer. The following is the full text of a comment I left, edited for length because there’s some sort of foolishness about using fewer than 2,000 characters in comments. It outlines the case that basically anyone with an ounce of sense and half as much courage would make.

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During this week’s discussion of whether or not NPR should use the word torture when referring to waterboarding, Ms. Shepard stated more than once that it was not up to her or to NPR to define what is and is not torture. This is quite correct. In the process, she also mentioned enraged people e-mailing her demanding to know why abortion doctors aren’t called murderers on the air, though she did not follow that up with an explanation.

The answer is the same in both cases: Abortion doctors are not referred to as murderers because the legality of performing is not in question, nor is the proper terminology for referring to them. In other words, it has been determined by our nation’s legal authority that abortion doctors are not murderers. (more…)

If movie reviews worked like Amazon : “Transformers (1 star) – Michael Bay won’t return my emails! Buyer beware!”

Palin’s “smackdown” was a lot funnier when I heard it on The Daily Show five years ago. Also, really clumsy set-up. http://bit.ly/1788qv

Jeffrey Toobin just reminded everyone of Jackson’s “ugly side”. Wolf’s response : “Thanks, let’s play a clip from Thriller.”

I really like Michael Jackson’s early solo stuff and LOVE the Jackson Five, but I cringe every time I hear the phrase “King of Pop”.

Would the GOP like a public option if the gov’t takes away your healthcare the moment you get sick? That’s what “unfair competition” means.

For those of you who believe Gov. Sanford’s office knows where he is, I’ll be selling a bridge later this week.

Hey right-wingers. If you think 9/11 was Clinton’s fault, stop whining every time Obama points out the mess Bush left. At least until Sept.

Daschle 2002 : “Vote for the war and hope the issue goes away.” Daschle 2009 : “Drop the public option and hope the issue goes away”.