The N-Word. No, the Other One.

Diane McWhorter has a phenomenal essay up at on the valid comparisons to be made between the current administration and the lessons of Nazi Germany. It's very good and should give all sides food for thought.

Suck it, Godwin.

Caption Contest

Another caption contest featuring the Decider!

Just think -- only two more years of this tired schtick!

Now Playing

This past weekend, the lovely and talented Malibu Stacy and I had a chance to catch up on some recent new releases.

First up, Casino Royale. I know there was a whole lot of grumbling about Daniel Craig taking over the helm of the Bond franchise, but I've been rooting for him from the start. I loved his work in Road to Perdition and Munich, and especially his absolutely brilliant turn in Layer Cake. Not surprisingly, I thought Craig did a tremendous job here, bringing the rough tones needed for the origins story. (He'll bring the more polished appeal of Layer Cake to the next installments, so no worries there.) The real surprise, for me, was how they rebooted the whole franchise, dialing down the over-the-top gadgetry of the last couple films -- invisible cars? orbiting heat rays? -- and paring it down to the hard-edged, hard-nosed spy thriller at the heart of the Fleming novels. There's some terrific action -- including a phenomenal parkour fight scene -- and some actually decent acting as well. I'd have to say it's the best Bond film since Goldfinger.

Second, we had a chance last night to see Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. I'd been a little wary about this one, since I wasn't sure how they could maintain the premise for an hour and a half without running out of steam. It did wind up getting a little old by the end, but that might have just been physical exhaustion I felt from laughing so hard for so long. I don't want to spoil any of the jokes here -- in the comments, maybe -- but I will say that there's a bit with former Republican Rep. Bob Barr that had me crying, and a piece with Alan Keyes that wasn't far behind. This one's going to involve multiple viewings, I think, and I doubt they'll disappoint.

Finally, I've got to join the growing blogospheric chorus in raving about this season of The Wire on HBO. I've been a tremendous fan of this show from the very first episode, largely because I saw it as a reincarnation of my all-time favorite cop show, Homicide: Life on the Streets. But The Wire is, in truth, even better. Not only is it a fantastic drama that includes a wide array of richly-drawn characters and some terrific acting; it's the only piece of entertainment I've seen that also carries a political message subtly and strongly. Each season has been a study in the deterioration of urban institutions -- the law, the unions, the political process, and now the schools. If you haven't been watching this show, do yourself a tremendous favor and start lining up Season One in your rental queue. You won't be sorry.

Feel free to drop your own thoughts on any of these in the comments below, or throw out your own recommendations for new shows in the motion picture theaters or coming out on that there teevee.

Pay It Forward

Remember when the neocons said the fighting in Iraq would pretty much pay for itself? Turns out, they were right all along.

The insurgency in Iraq is now self-sustaining financially, raising tens of millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, corrupt charities and other crimes that the Iraqi government and its American patrons have been largely unable to prevent, a classified United States government report has concluded.

The report, obtained by The New York Times, estimates that groups responsible for many of the insurgent and terrorist attacks are raising $70 million to $200 million a year from illegal activities. It says that $25 million to $100 million of the total comes from oil smuggling and other criminal activity involving the state-owned oil industry aided by “corrupt and complicit” Iraqi officials.

As much as $36 million a year comes from ransoms paid to save hundreds of kidnap victims in Iraq, the report said. It estimates that unnamed foreign governments — previously identified by senior American officials as including France and Italy — paid Iraqi kidnappers $30 million in ransom last year.

Actually, on further review, they said our fighting in Iraq would pay for itself. They're sort of half-right, though, and that's as close to right as they've ever come.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Please note the following video includes thoroughly immature humor which may offend the following - Ghost Hunter fans and people suffering from IBS.

Enjoy.

Friday Random Ten

Due to tryptophan poisoning, there will be no Friday Random Ten this week. I'm sorry, but I'm so sedated from a day full of turkey, wine, and a stuffing that apparently included horse tranquilizers that I can barely type.

To make up for the musical absence, I offer you this gift of the White Stripes live in concert in December 2001. Enjoy.

Revenge of the Nerds

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

So, as you settle into your turkey slumber watching some silly pro football games, remember that this weekend marks a truly rare opportunity in college football.

Georgia Tech is the No. 15th team in the nation boasting a 9-2 record. They have clinched a shot at next weeks ACC championship in Jacksonville.

Up highway 316 in Athens GA, God's pride and joy (The University of Georgia) finds itself at 7-4 including 2 losses to Vandy and Kentucky. The university is still investigating why other signs of the apocalypse including the seas to blood and the stars falling from the sky didn't accompany this event. Experts (meaning me) have concluded that Georgia's experiment with fielding a team of players not on a pending academic probation or a criminal investigation commencing conveniently in January - may have backfired.

Mark your calendars for 3:30 EST on CBS for this year Georgia Tech may (pause...deep breath) have a shot at winning.

The Ghost of Thanksgiving Future

If you'd like a guide to how a true American should celebrate Thanksgiving, check out Big Daddy Drew's forecast over at Kissing Suzy Kolber.

The Did-Nothing Congress

Courtesy of TPM, I'm proud to present the last throes of the Republican Congress:

Republicans vacating the Capitol are dumping a big spring cleaning job on Democrats moving in. GOP leaders have opted to leave behind almost a half-trillion-dollar clutter of unfinished spending bills.

There's also no guarantee that Republicans will pass a multibillion-dollar measure to prevent a cut in fees to doctors treating Medicare patients.

The bulging workload that a Republican-led Congress was supposed to complete this year but is instead punting to 2007 promises to consume time and energy that Democrats had hoped to devote to their own agenda upon taking control of Congress in January for the first time in a dozen years.

These guys already accomplished the least amount of work in modern history and took the highest number of vacation days. I guess we shouldn't be surprised that they're abandoning ship before the job is done.

Ku Klux Kramer

Recently, Michael Richards -- Cosmo Kramer from "Seinfeld" -- exploded in a full-blown, crazy-ass, really really racist tirade at a club appearance. Go take a look. It's so far off the charts into Crazytown that I've got to assume he owed Mel Gibson some money and he decided to pay off the debt by making Gibson's anti-Semitic comments seem sane by comparison.

I'd like to echo the thoughts of Shakespeare's Sister here, in thanking Richards for ruining "Seinfeld" for me, forever. Asshole.

Caption Contest

Bring. It. On.

Hindsight Not 20/20

People have different opinions. That's not interesting. What is interesting is when someone looks at the past and sees something entirely different from what I would have thought.

After getting the gas face from the nation and own party, President Bush pulled a play from the President 101 handbook and went international. The Chicago Tribune reports that when:

Asked what lessons the war in Vietnam offered for the war in Iraq, Bush's response suggested a need for patience and determination--a nod toward the U.S. decision to abandon Vietnam after a protracted and unsuccessful war there.

"We'll succeed unless we quit," Bush said.

There were two things that surprised me about the Decider acknowledging the parallel.

(1) Could we ever have won the Vietnam War?

(2) Even if we could have won, was it worth it?

My personal opinion is that the answer to both of these questions is "no." I'm curious if I am in a minority. I am more than happy to understand how the Vietnam War might have been won. Nuclear? Attack China? Arrest all protestors?

What are your thoughts?

Compare and Contrast

If you happen to know any Greens or Nader voters who think there's no difference between the Democrats and the Republicans -- and, surprisingly, there are still some out there in the wild after six years of Bush -- feel free to point out to them this small study in contrasts.

First up, consider Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma). Inhofe is a certifiably crazy man, who can be seen in this illuminating segment on "Fox and Friends" discussing his belief that global warming is "the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people" and reminding us that God's still up there. (As an aside, I'd like to see scientists study just how much dumber repeated viewings of "Fox and Friends" can make you. I watched thirty seconds and forgot my own name.) Anyway, why are Inhofe's ravings important? Well, for the last several years, this nutty little raisin cake has been the head of the Senate committee which determines federal policy on the environment. He's been a chief obstacle to any kind of government action on global warming, a champion of rolling back the Clean Air Act, and the Bush administration's point man on killing the Endangered Species Act.

Next, consider Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California). Because the Democrats retook the Senate, she's the new head of the aforementioned committee. She's already sketched out an ambitious agenda, one that seems just a little bit different from her predecessor's. She intends to introduce legislation to drastically reduce greenhouse gas pollution, to strengthen environmental laws affecting public health and to hold hearings on federal plans for cleaning Superfund hazardous waste sites across the country. And, in a sign that she's clearly a dangerous left-wing feminazi from gay California, she not only believes all the science about global warming, but also thinks we should do something about it! Crazy!

If that doesn't make the contrasts clear enough, then take a look at virtually any committee in the Senate. The Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will no longer be led by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Tantrum), a man who thinks the internet is a "series of tubes" and who famously wasted $233 billion on his "bridge to nowhere." The Finance Committee will no longer be led by adminsitration water-carrier Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) but instead by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-SD), who just pronounced that Social Security privatization is "dead" with him on the watch. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) has kept all investigations of 9/11 and Iraq intelligence failures bottled up in the Intelligence Committee, but new chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is going to pry it all open.

The list goes on and on. Education now goes through Ted Kennedy, who's itching to revisit the failures of No Child Left Behind. Judiciary is now run not by Stepford Senator, Arlen Specter, but by Pat Leahy, an aggressive guy who reduced Cheney to profanity and who's already calling for investigations into voter suppression tactics in the midterms. And so on.

You'd have to be willfully ignorant not to see the real differences between the two parties here. Wait -- wasn't that Nader's 2004 slogan?

Friday Random Ten

There's nothing like seeing the eyes of a child delighted by the magical whimsy of music. And, indeed, this album is nothing like that.

I don't have much to add about this trainwreck, except for my fervent hope that that man is Deborah's father.

We might as well just move along to the Friday Random Ten.

1. Dead Kennedys, "Kill the Poor" -- One of Jello Biafra's subtler songs. I guess the ham-handed politics aren't surprising when you realize he wrote "California Über Alles" to mock the evil, right-wing, fascist tendencies of, uh ... Jerry Brown. Seriously? Governor Moonbeam? OK, then. 5/10

2. The Red Paintings, "Mad World" -- One of the many cover versions of the Tears for Fears classic. It's not the most well-known -- that would be the Sacre cover from the Donnie Darko soundtrack (and some new XBox ad, I think?) -- but all things considered it's almost as good. A little more emotion, but still in the creepy acoustic mood. Very nice. 8/10

3. Lou Rawls, "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" -- What a great fucking song. Not much to add about this, except if you watch the commentary tracks for the movie Anchorman, you'll be treated to a ten-minute segment where they ignore the movie and just interview Lou Rawls. He spends half his time wondering why the hell he's there. Hilarious. 9/10

4. Thom Yorke, "Black Swan" -- This is from his recent solo album, which I found pretty underwhelming. This is one of the better tracks, one that sounds like a leftover song from Kid A. Eh. 4/10

5. San Francisco Seals, "Don't Underestimate Me" -- Some rollicking indie rock from Barbara Manning. Nothing too spectacular, but solid enough. 6/10

6. Groove Armada, "My Friend" -- I think I'd like this little bit of technopop a bit more if it wasn't currently being used in 90% of the ads on TV. They're approaching Bob Seger levels of commerical overexposure. 5/10

7. Modest Mouse, "Bukowski" -- I've never actually read a single thing by Charles Bukowski and I can't say that this song makes me want to dive into his realm of assholery. Great tune, though. 8/10

8. Nina Simone, "See-Line Woman" -- Sweet. If I had to pick a paragon of musical coolness, Nina Simone would be at the top of my list. She could do it all, from heartbreaking ballads to funky soul numbers like this one. Such a great song I'm tempted to take the score up to eleven, but I'll respect the system. For now. 10/10

9. The Fugees, "Take It Easy" -- Well, there's a coincidence. Right after Nina Simone, I get a little bit of Lauryn Hill, a later-generation badass who once crooned, "So while you imitatin' Al Capone / I be Nina Simone and defecating on your microphone." One of the Fugees lesser songs, though. 5/10

10. Ray Charles, "What I'd Say?" -- I know this is a standard and one most folks might consider tired, but give it another listen. The organ work is absolutely blistering. I know subjects of Oscar-winning biopics aren't usually deemed cool, but I can live with your scorn. 8/10

Well, that gives me a 6.8 average. That means I'm more than two-thirds cool! I bet I could make Deborah happy. Well, two-thirds happy. Bemused, I guess.

Alright, let's see what you've got. Feel free to drop your own FRT in the comments, with or without the coolness self-audit. Or just mock me for my Bizzaro Ratings where the DKs aren't cool and Ray Charles is.

Shutout

The announcement that Democrats held on to those two endangered congressional seats in Georgia is a good sign for so many reasons.

First and most obviously, it provides an even wider margin in the House. Second, it shows that the Democratic wave was strong even in the Deep South, where we ceded no ground.

But most importantly, it's an historic achievement. The Democrats pitched a total shutout this election. They not only made huge gains in the House, the Senate and the governors' offices, but they prevented the Republicans from picking off a single Democratic incumbent anywhere in the nation. Not one.

Political guru Larry Sabato of U.Va. predicted this a couple days before the election and noted that it would be historic:

Five days out, let's rephrase the question this way: when's the last time a major political party has failed to capture a single House seat, Senate seat, or governorship of the opposing party in a federal election year?

We bet it's never happened before, and it certainly hasn't happened in the post-World War II era. After all, even when a party suffers miserable net losses, it usually picks up at least several consolation prizes in the form of open seat pickups or an against-the-tide incumbent defeat.

Yet look at our 2006 predictions: at this moment, the Crystal Ball cannot identify a single election for Senate, House or Governor in which a Republican is likely to succeed a Democrat in office. Just imagine how devastating an absolute shutout would be in the eyes of history if this proves to be true!

This election was an historic defeat of devastating proportions. The Republicans were repudiated at every single level in every single state. And every single dime spent by the GOP and their voters to try and oust an incumbent Democrat was an absolute waste of time and money.

Shutout.

In your face, Flanders.

Miracle of Life My Ass

I know everyone's been standing around, arms raised, asking "Where's Poochie Thrillhous?" I'm happy to say Mrs. T gave birth to a healthy baby girl recently, and it's been all baby all the time. Pretty typical so far: baby eats, sleeps, and cries while parents stay awake, forget to eat, and cry.

We're holding out for a big fat contract from The Enquirer for the first photos, but I have commissioned this artists' rendering of what the baby looks like after about 5 minutes in my hands (the outfit is a little off; we tend to use a Windsor knot).

I can't promise I'll start posting more often just yet, but I'll try to try.

Laugh Riot

This past Sunday, the New York Times Magazine had an issue devoted to Hollywood humor. One of the smaller features was a running bit where they asked comic actors and directors to name their five favorite funny films.

The answers were interesting. Some replies were clearly tongue-in-cheek, with Judd Apatow selecting Terms of Endearment and David Cross selecting Rent. Some were on the borderline between sarcasm and sincerity, like Will Ferrell giving the nod to Weekend at Bernie's. And many more were going for old school comedy cred, with numerous selections of trailblazers like the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, and Buster Keaton and a disturbingly high number of Abbott & Costello and Laurel & Hardy flicks.

Anyway, I thought this might make for a nice time-killing exercise for the day.

What are your five favorite funny films? To start the ball rolling, here are mine:

Blazing Saddles
Dr. Strangelove
The Jerk
Raising Arizona
Waiting for Guffman

Drop your own favorite five in the comments, and/or your bewilderment over what I chose or ignored.

Hitlerrific

Conservative commentator Tony Blankley has an, um, interesting metaphor for the rebuilding process that the Republicans will have to go through:

Like the Berliners of 1945-46 who picked through the rubble to separate still usable bricks for re-building from that which was destroyed beyond repair, the Republicans now start the same lamentable process of finding something of value in the rubble that was their majority. And just as the Berlin of today is physically both similar to and different from the Berlin that stood before it was flattened during WWII, so, too, the new Republican majority that someday will be rebuilt will be similar but not identical to the one that was constructed in the Reagan-Gingrich era.

I guess it's alright to compare Republicans to Nazis if you do it in a positive way. Take note, MoveOn.org!

The Un-Macaca

I know we were all thrilled to shove George Felix Allen Jr. out of the Senate and into the cold, cruel world of wingnut welfare, but I'm not sure how many people realize just what a terrific find his replacement is going to be.

Check out this brilliant op-ed piece by Jim Webb in the Wall Street Journal. He's going to be a great voice for economic populism in the Senate and a nice face for the party on these issues.

Don't Call It a Comeback

Oh, the good news for liberals just keeps on coming.

Sen. Trent Lott, ousted from the top Senate Republican leadership job four years ago because of remarks considered racially insensitive, won election to the No. 2 post Wednesday for the minority GOP in the next Congress.

Lott returned to the center of power by getting the position of vote-counting GOP whip, nosing out Sen. Lamar Alexander. Sen. Rick Santorum told reporters that Lott beat Alexander by a 25-24 vote.

After an intense evening in which both men lobbied colleagues during floor votes, the Republican caucus elected Lott, a one-time whip and majority leader, by secret ballot. Lott will be the GOP's second-in-command to Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who was elected unanimously to be the Senate minority leader in the new Congress.

This is great on so many levels. Obviously, McConnell and Lott are a terrific combination to have leading the Senate Republicans, since they combine a particular brand of right-wing Southern insanity that the voters are clearly clamoring for. They're going to make Harry Reid look incredibly rational and moderate in the next two years and should do a wonderful job of helping tee us up for what should be a Democratic landslide in the 2008 Senate elections.

Alexander is also a Southerner, and even though he comes from a state sandwiched between Lott and McConnell's, he's fairly sane. By Republican standards. He would've injected a level of reason and civility into the GOP leadership, which would've been disastrous for us.

So thanks, Republicans!