Motley Moose – Archive

This from Balloon Juice:

I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years.

We need to overcome the 60 Vote problem in the Senate, get the rest of the Democrats behind Obama, and let the Republikites go to Hell.

Under The LobsterScope

Many liberals cheered when the New York Times decided to stop carrying Bill Kristol’s column. Those cheers were premature. The Washington Post added Kristol to their stable of neo-cons within a few days of his leaving the Times.

Those who follow politics closely are well aware of Kristol’s abysmal record. He has become something of a joke. “How do you know what not to do? Read Bill Kristol and do the opposite of what he proposes.”

The Moose’s own, Stipes!, wrote a diary about Kristol’s hiring. In it, Stipes! put it well, “Monkeys pounding on keyboards will occasionally come up with the right answer.  Bill has had to work very hard to avoid the accidental, random, rightness that we would expect to see occasionally from lower order primates.”

It didn’t take long for Kristol to resume his brain-in-rectum pontificating. He’s already living up to his reputation with a column in the WaPo.

Kristol’s column is titled, “The Republicans’ Opportunity.” I’d say that reflects quite nicely on Mr. K’s partisan view of the world.

It doesn’t end with the title.

A little moosey told me that it was fogiv’s birthday today, so I thought a Lounge celebration was in order!

(Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

On December 22, 2001 this man changed the world.  He assaulted an airplane with his shoe.  Ever since that day and every day since, anyone who travels by airplane can count on long security lines with no shoes on.  It was a breakthrough move, both in choice of weapons and the sheer number of people effected.  Mr. Reid took a size 15 Air Jordan from the discount rack at Nine West onto the pages of Jane’s Weapons Index.  His invention generated hundreds of millions of dollars in security revenue worldwide, legislation in thousands of national and local governments and a name brand recognition that is truly global.  Unlike other Intellectual Property (IP) pioneers who are rewarded with lucrative IPO’s and multi-million dollar contracts, Mr. Reid sits in a jail cell, alone.

(Cross posted at The National Gadfly)

I hate odd numbers.  I will go to almost any length to avoid them.  Odd-numbered TV channels are tolerated because I don’t have a choice.  I was greatly relieved when my new television didn’t have numbers next to the level of volume.  I only do even numbers of sit-ups, curls, etc.  I only do the elliptical for an even amount of time.

The only exceptions are 1 and 5, and sometimes 7.  1 because you can’t get to the other numbers without going through it.  And, 5 because I do like to count by 5s.  I’ll tolerate 7 if I have to because it is a nice straight-line kind of number.

I hate the fact that it is 2009 but love the fact that Obama is the 44th president, which got me thinking.  If we looked at the “good” and “bad” presidents how many would be even-numbered and how many would be odd-numbered.

That was the essence of Joe Biden’s important Foreign Policy speech at the Security Conference in Munich Today.

“I come to Europe on behalf of a new administration determined to set a new tone in Washington, and in America’s relations around the world… We will engage. We will listen. We will consult. America needs the world, just as I believe the world needs America“

More below the flip…

In other news today, Michael Steele’s fascination with moving money around may be catching up with him.

From this morning’s Washington Post:

Michael S. Steele, the newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, arranged for his 2006 Senate campaign to pay a defunct company run by his sister for services that were never performed, his finance chairman from that campaign has told federal prosecutors.

Sounds rather pedestrian, right?

It get’s better after the fold…

I’ve been watching these debates in the Senate for three days and I’m very disappointed by the way the Stimulus Bill is turning out.  As it stands now they have put 42% of the Bill as TAX CUTS…. and tax cuts don’t stimulate a thing!

Because of the 60 vote minimum needed to pass this thing in the Senate, Democrats have let Republicans re-insert the very things that caused the economy to dive into the pits over the last eight years… TAX CUTS!

This is a STIMULUS BILL! That means we have to SPEND MONEY that will go into the economy and be re-spent two or three times. It has to be money spent to make people BUY THINGS!

Jarring, isn’t it?

I have a secret, and it’s all about Billy.  If you want to find out, follow me after the fold!

As I sit watching the Senate (and, unfortunately right now, Holy Joe Lieberman) debate the amendments to the Stimulus Bill on C-Span 2, I spend most of the “quorum calls” toodleing around the net looking at recent events and searching for job openings in any of the fields that I’m capable of (I lose my adjunct teaching position in June and I’ve got to find something, at least part-time, to take its place.) One of the things that stands out in recent events is the issue raised by Michael Phelps photographed smoking pot with a bong.