all you need to know about Mitt Romney

what the End Times will look like: a preview

Godspeed, Smiffy

"A few small mud flows and some falling rocks have been reported on backcountry roads, including state routes 79, 76 and Lake Wohlford Road," according to a survivor.

LoC: a mixed bag

The no.1 Google hit for "golf/plutocracy nexus," but only no.11 for "George W. Bush is a fucking asshole."

65% of the total vote to Dems...

Iowa Wrap Up

Total Voter Turnout (approximate)
356,000

Percentage of total vote
24.5% Obama
20.5% Edwards
19.8% Clinton
11.4% Huckabee (R)

Phokked up the @$$

Well, I just wanted the first half of the picture, but there you have it. http://www.hydrogen-pro.com/ for all the details on how to stop this unfortunate affliction.

Republican civil war: the Uncle Cholly / Chuck Norris wing vs. the plutocrats

Two-Buck Huck

Class war is forbidden in the Republican playbook. But Huckabee, despite an inept last week of campaigning, has forced the Republican party to face the Wal-Mart shoppers that they have long taken advantage of. He’s here. He’s Gomer. And he’s not going away.

Huckabee revels in the class war. He’s Two-Buck Huck, and darn proud of it. He likes nothing better than playing the Hick from Hope. He and his wife lived in a trailer for a while, he points out. His son killed a dog one summer, “a mangy dog” at that, as Huckabee explained to the befuddled national press corps. He said he used to eat squirrels, cooking them up in his popcorn popper. Ewwwwhhh!

dis could be it for Smiff

K-Mad might have to take over the now 2nd place Zeniths...

Biblical proportions?
It's gonna be a big. The question is, will it be big down here? Whether you call it one storm or three, various places are talking about some of the biggest impacts in years...

And watch John Coleman predict the possible one day record rainfall for San Diego tomorrow. Hey, he has studied it, he knows he is correct. Also notice how completely fucking insane he is in this clip.

More Cheatin' Cheaters

Tennis: Hingis gets two-year ban

Sorry Sarge, but your tennis gal is a cheater.

of course, one of the side-effects of steroids is lying...

In his 60 Minutes interview, Roger Clemens said former trainer Brian McNamee injected him with Lidocaine and B-12, never with steroids or human growth hormone. Lidocaine is a local anesthetic that can be used by dentists and in minor surgery. It also is available as part of ointments used to treat skin inflammation. "Lidocaine and B-12. It's for my joints, and B-12 I still take today," Clemens told Mike Wallace. McNamee claimed to have injected Clemens with steroids in 1998, 2000 and 2001 and with human growth hormone in 2000.

Meanwhile, in Chicago...

Stunning 55 degrees temperature rise ahead
Tom Skilling
January 3, 2008

Early-bird risers who step into sub-zero temperatures this morning might find it hard to believe, but it's true: The city will be basking in 50 (degrees) readings (or higher) in another three days.

A major weather pattern shift begins haltingly on Friday as upper winds that have been blowing with considerable strength from the northwest gradually diminish and are replaced by southwesterlies. Southwest winds, surface and aloft, strengthen on Saturday, then persist through Monday.

Mild, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico arrives here on Saturday and, as that air spreads across our snow-covered landscape, it becomes a recipe for a heavy gray overcast, widespread fog and plenty of light rain and drizzle through the weekend. The multi-inch layer of ice and crusty snow that blankets the area today will be history by Monday.

----------
Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.

So, according to dis, we could be as warm as San Diego. In January. If dat isn't global warming, I don't know what is...

speaking of disasters

5-day totallyphokkedcast

---

Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon
Partly Cloudy	Rain	Rain	Chance of Rain	Chance of T-storms/End-times
65° | 49°	63° | 50°	62° | 52°	58° | 47°	57° | 43°

dere is annudder doomsday directly behind dis one

Daley won't use Skyway money for CTA

(AP) — Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says he won't use the $1.8 billion windfall he generated by privatizing the Chicago Skyway to give a boost to Chicago Transit Authority funding.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has suggested the idea of raiding Skyway funds for the CTA after twice coming up with short-term state funding fixes.

But Daley says it wouldn't be prudent for a city to sell assets to use them for its budget. Daley adds that if the governor wants to generate dollars for state infrastructure projects, he could follow the city's lead and lease the Illinois Tollway to a private contractor.

The problem of transit money has been on the legislative agenda for months. Transit officials say that without additional state aid, they'll be forced to make deep layoffs, service cuts and fare increases on Jan. 20.

News Headline: "Nine out of 10 New Year's resolutions will fail, according to study."

Ok, dis is how i'm going to approach dis:

1) Drink more.
2) Gain more weight.
3) Spend more money.
4) Not see the Phillies in the World Series.
5) Not see Barack Obama as the next President.
6) Not hope and pray for Dick Cheney's heart to explode.
7) Not win Wellness Center again (yeah, right).
8) Not finish ahead of the losers here in Parcers.
9) Waste more time on da internets.
10) Continue not to get laid.

Kill Kenny empties minor league system...

Maybe he should have done this last year instead of signing Darin Erstad (and did you see dat Dead Weight in Houston signed him?). And it looks like Billy Beane is shooting for 110 losses this year...

White Sox acquired outfielder Nick Swisher from the Athletics for LHP Gio Gonzalez, outfielder Ryan Sweeney and RHP Fautino De Los Santos. It's going to be interesting to see how the White Sox try to fit these pieces together. If they're willing to use Swisher in center field, they're improving their lineup immensely with the deal, though it's at a steep cost in the team's top two pitching prospects and the still promising Sweeney. If they're doing it with the idea of using Swisher in left field, leaving no room for Carlos Quentin, then the deal could prove to be a major bust. We're guessing they'll pencil him into center for now but continue to look for alternatives. Either way, Swisher gets a nice upgrade in fantasy value with the switch to the AL's best home run park. He'll be a threat to hit 35-40, especially if the White Sox are smart enough to hit him second.

Life imitates The Simpsons (cont'd)

Men claim all-you-can-eat buffet banned them for eating all they could eat

Meanwhile, Homer watches an advertisement on television about "The Frying Dutchman," an all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant run by Captain Horatio McCallister and wants to go... Homer goes to the restaurant with Marge, but Marge is allergic to fish. Homer orders the all-you-can-eat and eats everything. Captain McCallister kicks him out after midnight. He goes to trial with his lawyer, Lionel Hutz, claiming false advertising. Homer and the captain make an agreement: Homer is put on display as "Bottomless Pete; a remorseless eating machine", or "nature's cruelest mistake".

Lionel Hutz: Now, Mrs. Simpson, tell the court in your own words what happened after you and your husband were ejected out of the restaurant.
Marge: Well, we pretty much went straight home.
Lionel Hutz: Mrs. Simpson, remember that you are under oath.
Marge: We drove around until three in the morning looking for another open all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant.
Lionel Hutz: And when you couldn't find one?
Marge: [crying] We... went... fishing.
Lionel Hutz: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, do these sound like the actions of a man who's had ALL he could eat?

speaking of totally sucking

Of the children that die under age of five:
In Kenya 35% die of aids
In Namibia 48% die of aids
In South Africa 50% die of aids
In Zimbabwe 50% die of aids
In Botswana 64% die of aids

For the rest there is starvation, malaria, and fun stuff like genocide. Oh yeah, and shit blowing up after rigged elections. What a hoot.

Just spitballin', but a self-proclaimed born-again Christian and God-fearing man might want to spend money on these problems instead of blowing shit up in the Iraqi desert. Too bad we've got dat phokking @$$hole in charge instead.

More 2008 Suckage

Though this is old suckage recycled and renewed...

Now RIAA says copying your own CDs is illegal
Infringes even if only for personal use

I now understand Sarge and his pining for the end of Fight Club...

something totally shocking (cont'd)

2008 already SUCKS

How much more will you pay for craft beer? "My suspicion is a buck a six-pack," says Hugh Sisson, president of Clipper City Brewing Co. in Baltimore...

Very hoppy beers might increase even more or just disappear from the market as the supply of prized aroma hops dries up.

Oh yeah, and the Cats are getting spanked. By Penn State.

a few new year's wishes

1. the death of the plutocracy and the cartels who love it
2. Paul Giamatti getting some good roles again - no more of this M. Night CRAP!
3. sorting out all the dvd/digital television crap so we can watch our FOX news in peace
4. the awakening of the American public spirit so that we don't put up with FOX and the assorted death of democracy that accompanies it
5. Meaningful and well-played Cubs baseball
6. Meaningful and well-planned strategies against the spread of any kind of extremist thought that carries the contagion of terrorism
7. real progress in the rights of workers
8. a growing realization that the value of the earth is more than an abstract
9. Morrissey's continued happiness and graceful aging
10. The Coen Brothers continuing not to make movies like Intolerable Cruelty and that horrible thing with Tom Hanks

more on rewarding incompetence

Hmmm, maybe the New York Fucking Times will give Dumbya his own column, too...

Bill Kristol is rewarded for being “wrong” on everything: NY Times gig is a comin’

This is really sick - especially when you consider it is happening at a time when the country is clearly moving more progressive, and there are so many good progressive columnists who have guest columned for the Times before (Ehrenreich, Katha Pollit, Tom Frank, etc.).
Either way - it is an absolute abomination from the standpoint of basic accountability. A pundit being factually wrong on almost everything he hung his hat on is rewarded by the largest newspaper in the world for his track record. If ever there was an example of the world of journalism literally thumbing its nose at basic accountability, this example of Bill Kristol falling up is it.

The New York Times Crawls Into the Gutter Agtain...

on hiring William Kristol:

To Whom It May Concern,

It is not so much my vehement disagreement with the beliefs of William Kristol that compels me to write against his hiring, it is his intellectual laziness and obvious and unquestioning partisanship, better suited for formats that seek profit through shrill pronouncements and simplifications rather than clarity and understanding through reporting. Perhaps this is the direction of your newspaper, it is not a direction I am comfortable with, nor one that does justice to conservative political beliefs. He lacks intellectual stamina and often fails to parse arguments with any kind of sophistication.

For instance, in his article "The 2008 Formula," a dismal piece that appeared in Time Magazine (for which he was paid to write an article that said exactly nothing) he argued that this was a "war election" and that war elections typically engendered results favoring hawkish candidates. Fair enough. What his argument ignored was how central the idea of winning the war was to Americans during these elections, in which, whether it was defeating fascists or communists (for naively, we thought communism was what we were fighting in Viet Nam and Korea and not anti-imperialist nationalism with totalitarian overtones, less communist than we could believe), we felt the future survival of America was at stake. Kristol has failed here and elsewhere to understand that Iraq is not central to Americans' idea of winning against terrorism. Winning Pakistan is more central, winning Saudi Arabia and Iran are more central, and to a lesser extent, winning states unstable and easily belligerent like North Korea. Americans understand these will be the future battlegrounds where terrorism will either flourish or dissapate, and the battles to contain terrorism will be fought not so much with weapons and attempts to force others to bend to our ways, but through deal-making, diplomacy and hard bargains on both sides. Sacrifices will have to be made, and for sure, the might of the United States must back up its desire to create stability and destroy havens of terrorism, but the policies Kristol has supported with weak argument and false evidences have completely failed. Kristol's columns, here particularly, relied on a basic fallacy common in arguments that use history: the fallacy of historical analogy.

Comparing one thing to another in a straightforward statement that takes into account none of the external factors in the case of either thing is a common mistake often leading to a misunderstanding both of history and of the current object of study (like Iraq). Americans understand this and they understand that the paranoias of 1952 and 1968 led only to more heartache and often, half-baked and self-destructive policies (vietnamization, Abu Ghraib, HUAC and other needless and painful reminders that democratic principles remain things to be aspired to rather than bedrocks of our country), and I believe that most Americans don't see the future of Iraq leading to a victorious conclusion in the war on terror - they see it for what it most probably is: a disastrous detour that stole much needed resources from the war on terror as well as the struggle to create an America that can keep up with the rapidly progressing Europe and Asia. The "war on terror" remains most what it should not be: a long wet kiss to the various cartels that control so much of America today.

The idea that a New York Times columnist would be so lazy as to make the kind of sophistry evident in the above cited article, in which history is so sloppily compared and contrasted, and in which a conclusion is so cavalierly arrived at, is depressing. Can anybody write for the New York Times? Who's next? Bill O'Reilly?

I understand that the New York Times is committed to the illusion of a neutral point of view in its reporting, and to the idea of offering room on its pages to "both sides of an argument." This would work if you hired people who were not partisan, but genuinely philosophical, married to ideas rather than interest groups and parties. People who were not afraid of complexities and who could think with any kind of empathy. You are offering the reputation of your paper to a writer who deserves neither that aura of respectability nor the space on your pages that could be offered to any number of more well qualified persons.

The decision to hire William Kristol represents another low point in this first decade of the 21st century of your paper's history. Not a decade that will make the future editors of the New York Times proud of the legacy they carry. Perhaps, we can hope though, they will be inspired to commit to a more rigorous examination of the news than this generation's editors. I pray that the New York Times will, at some point, take its responsibilities to report the news that is rather than the news certain policy groups and political parties wish it to be, more seriously.

best wishes,

Sarge
Brooklyn, NY