they got rid of star and got a new set, it appears

surely even redstate apologists would like this (via)

just remember, 26 is the new 22

knows comedy, knows history, knows politics, and knows how to deliver the smackdown. His show Countdown is one of my favorites to TiVo because it presents the news seriously for a little while, then brings in racing pigs, then sends us home with something to think about at the end.

Wednesday he showed a little clip of Def. Secretary Rumsfeld yammering on to a group of Veterans about fascism and patriotism and this so-called war on terror. Keith took out the peckerhead and deserves all the space in this blog that it takes to repeat his beautiful monologue:

The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack.

Donald H. Rumsfeld is not a prophet.

Mr. Rumsfelds remarkable speech to the American Legion yesterday demands the deep analysis and the sober contemplation of every American.

For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence — indeed, the loyalty — of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land. Worse, still, it credits those same transient occupants — our employees — with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor this administrations track record at home or abroad, suggests they deserve.

Dissent and disagreement with government is the lifes blood of human freedom; and not merely because it is the first roadblock against the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as his troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq.

It is also essential. Because just every once in awhile it is right and the power to which it speaks, is wrong.

In a small irony, however, Mr. Rumsfelds speechwriter was adroit in invoking the memory of the appeasement of the Nazis. For in their time, there was another government faced with true perilwith a growing evilpowerful and remorseless.

That government, like Mr. Rumsfelds, had a monopoly on all the facts. It, too, had the secret information. It alone had the true picture of the threat. It too dismissed and insulted its critics in terms like Mr. Rumsfelds — questioning their intellect and their morality.

That government was Englands, in the 1930s.

It knew Hitler posed no true threat to Europe, let alone England.

It knew Germany was not re-arming, in violation of all treaties and accords.

It knew that the hard evidence it received, which contradicted its own policies, its own conclusions its own omniscience — needed to be dismissed.

The English government of Neville Chamberlain already knew the truth.

Most relevant of all it knew that its staunchest critics needed to be marginalized and isolated. In fact, it portrayed the foremost of them as a blood-thirsty war-monger who was, if not truly senile, at best morally or intellectually confused.

That critics name was Winston Churchill.

Sadly, we have no Winston Churchills evident among us this evening. We have only Donald Rumsfelds, demonizing disagreement, the way Neville Chamberlain demonized Winston Churchill.

History and 163 million pounds of Luftwaffe bombs over England have taught us that all Mr. Chamberlain had was his certainty and his own confusion. A confusion that suggested that the office can not only make the man, but that the office can also make the facts.

Thus, did Mr. Rumsfeld make an apt historical analogy.

Excepting the fact, that he has the battery plugged in backwards.

His government, absolute — and exclusive — in its knowledge, is not the modern version of the one which stood up to the Nazis.

It is the modern version of the government of Neville Chamberlain.

But back to todays Omniscient ones.

That, about which Mr. Rumsfeld is confused is simply this: This is a Democracy. Still. Sometimes just barely.

And, as such, all voices count — not just his.

Had he or his president perhaps proven any of their prior claims of omniscience about Osama Bin Ladens plans five years ago, about Saddam Husseins weapons four years ago, about Hurricane Katrinas impact one year ago we all might be able to swallow hard, and accept their omniscience as a bearable, even useful recipe, of fact, plus ego.

But, to date, this government has proved little besides its own arrogance, and its own hubris.

Mr. Rumsfeld is also personally confused, morally or intellectually, about his own standing in this matter. From Iraq to Katrina, to the entire Fog of Fear which continues to envelop this nation, he, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their cronies have inadvertently or intentionally profited and benefited, both personally, and politically.

And yet he can stand up, in public, and question the morality and the intellect of those of us who dare ask just for the receipt for the Emporers New Clothes?

In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised? As a child, of whose heroism did he read? On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day to fight? With what country has he confused the United States of America?

The confusion we — as its citizens must now address, is stark and forbidding.

But variations of it have faced our forefathers, when men like Nixon and McCarthy and Curtis LeMay have darkened our skies and obscured our flag. Note — with hope in your heart that those earlier Americans always found their way to the light, and we can, too.

The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense, and this administration, are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the terrorists seek: The destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake City, so valiantly fought.

And about Mr. Rumsfelds other main assertion, that this country faces a new type of fascism.

As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that — though probably not in the way he thought he meant it.

This country faces a new type of fascism – indeed.

Although I presumptuously use his sign-off each night, in feeble tribute, I have utterly no claim to the words of the exemplary journalist Edward R. Murrow.

But never in the trial of a thousand years of writing could I come close to matching how he phrased a warning to an earlier generation of us, at a time when other politicians thought they (and they alone) knew everything, and branded those who disagreed: confused or immoral.

Thus, forgive me, for reading Murrow, in full:

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty, he said, in 1954. We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.

We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.

And so good night, and good luck.

ikea dog story + john travolta kisses men + death to simpleton

they were fucking awesome. im so happy i went.

i told her and meant it and she said your cooking lacks any flavor whatsoever.

i said youre just jealous that im going to drive around the country without you. she said im jealous that youre going to drive around two countries without me. i said then dont be mean about my beef stroganoff.

what she senses is that im excited to go. what she probably noticed was that i never unpacked my bag from last time. what she probably sees is my place is clean because all ive cared about has been work and sleep.

overnight ive become the most boring man ever and she cant find out about my life through the blog so she text messages me and i say anna dont you have a bf to be bothering

i went to the grocery store looking for anti inflamatories for my hands. i remember that the doctor many years ago got me the technical version but his nurse told me that it was either advil or alleve or tylenol or something and strangely enough none of those boxes says anti-inflammatory on it.

someone left tiger woods pga 2006 on my doorstep for the psp this morning

either this person is really nice or really mean since i really should be resting my hands as much as possible.

although cooking was nice.

dave letterman just had the worst comedian of all time on his show. charlie hill a native american comedian. he seemed stoned. almost like they werent his jokes. for his sake i hope he was stoned And those werent his jokes.

i pay too much for my post office box. but i get some sweet shit in it.

in less than a week im back on the road.