Dick Cheney is an asshole

and a bad dresser.
I mean really Dick, it's Auschwitz fer chrissakes!

[Later edit: I would like to point out that I was on this way before Wonkette (like, almost 2 hours). Take that, Ana with one N. I officially name this mini-scandal "Parka-gate," a phrase which, as of 4:59 PM EST has zero, nada, zilch hits on google. Let's see what happens Monday. Catch the wave kids! The zeitgeist is us!]

Johnny we hardly knew ye

We at Brand Blue HQ (aka the couch) loved Johnny as much as the rest of 'em. He was a soothing yet sharp (is that possible?) wrap-up to every evening. We'll miss his rascally little self.

But what we're really steamed about (for a change) is W's response. Check this White House Statement:

Laura and I are saddened by the death of Johnny Carson. Born in Iowa and raised in Nebraska, Johnny Carson was a steady and reassuring presence in homes across America for three decades. His wit and insight made Americans laugh and think and had a profound influence on American life and entertainment. He was a patriot who served in the United States Navy during World War II and always remembered his roots in the heartland of America. We send our prayers and condolences to the entire Carson family. (emphasis added)

Do you believe that shit? They're trying to make him into some super-patriotic warrior. Notice all the red state-y references? The never forgetting his roots? The heartland of America? That's code, folks. What they don't seem to mention is what he did and where he actually lived - TV in Los Angeles (Gomorrah West).
Here's the joke: according to Peter Lassally, his long-time (like, since 1962) executive producer, Johnny (who kept his views to himself) was a flaming liberal. Eat that, W.
And yes, it makes us even sadder that he's gone.

Social Security

I haven't really said that much about social security - but that's mostly because it's too ghastly to think about, not because it's not important. Anyway, here is a good place to start.

In trolling around the web today I noticed a couple of things about social security that made me angry (only a couple? well, I am trying to get some work done at the same time). First off, notice whenever you read about "personal" accounts. They're not saying "private" anymore because that would scare people.
Secondly, they keep saying that over time, the stock market goes up. Well, duh, sure, and so if you could choose when you were going to age, that would be fine. But since you have to take your money out at a certain point, you still have a good chance to be royally screwed. An good example of this is the place where I am working. The employees all have really good stock purchase options, so a lot of them have a lot of the company stock as their retirement plan. And the stock has performed really well. Until an investigation was started into some of the company's practices, and then the stock tanked. The woman who works next to me, a secretary, lost about $45,000 overnight. And sure, that stock will probably climb its way back up, but if my co-worker wants to retire any time in the next 5-8 years while it's still climbing, she's screwed. Now multiply that by millions if the whole market tanks, and we are all screwed.

(later edit: looks like I'm riding the wave in noticing this. check out this on Al Franken.)

Write somebody

Or do something, because this stuff is killing us. Contacts at the bottom of the link.
More on everything over the weekend when I'll have more time.

Reasons why religion is fucked up, part I

Jesus H. Christ. I mean really. Check this out.

totally unrelated to politics

but like i said, a girl's gotta branch out once and a while. so now, for your enjoyment, the true story of brad and jen.

oh and yay me! check out the snazzy new links on the right. those don't just write themselves, you know. and you're very welcome.

don't be afraid

it's still us here. i'm just messing around with the template. hoping to get it just right, but that seems to involve learning some html. want to get you some links over on the right side but patience.

Random

This is just an aside, but wtf with Prince Harry? I always rather liked him as he was loose and a little wild. But really, how dumb do you have to be to dress up as a nazi? That's not even funny when you're not, you know, a prince.

But the thing that really galls me is that no one seems to have a problem with the fact that the whole theme of the damn costume party was "Colonials and Natives" which is in itself really freaking offensive. How many white upper-upper-upper class british twits do you suppose were dressed up like Native Americans, Indians and Africans? Because frankly I would be no less offended if wee Harry was in blackface with a spear.

William, who I've always though of as a bit of a stiff, did rather well as a lion. Although I suppose they are also still reeling from the effects of colonialism. But still, I'm going to assume that other lions were not offended.

Lazy Girl

Bad, lazy chiniqua. been slacking off on the posting - the truth is still stunned from the brad & jen split-up (who'd have thunk it? they were such happy little stoners together) to really think about anything else. there are rumors that it was politics that drove them apart - brad becoming more active with the democrats and jen being more conservative

also, this week was the macworld convention, and of course that means the stevenote (steve jobs's keynote speech, during which the new apple products are announced) and i've been burning up the internets reading about all that. by the way, if you are a windows user and ever wanted to switch, your time has come. the mac mini is here. give apple a look and see whether you can resist. word of advice - wait until it comes standard with OS 10.4 ("tiger") some time around may, i suspect.

so that's it with the distractions.

in other, real, news:
dean has officially announced for DNC chair. we here at the blue day wholeheartedly support him, much more so than we did for prez. it's a shame that the chair has to be mostly about raising money and seems to me it ought to be divided into the money-raising arm and the policy-guidance arm. it's a lot to hope that someone will kick ass at both.

and i know this is old news, but i'd just like to mention how fucking funny it is that jon stewart got tucker fired.

Mississippi -- FUCK YEAH!

from the NY Times:

"The most infamous unresolved case from America's civil rights struggle four decades ago - the 1964 abduction and killing of three voter-registration volunteers by nightriders on a lonely rural road in Mississippi - was revived last night with the arrest of a longtime leader of the Ku Klux Klan, the authorities announced.

"The suspect, Edgar Ray Killen, a 79-year-old preacher who, investigators say, organized and led two carloads of Klansmen on the night of the killings, was arrested at his home in Philadelphia, Miss., and charged with the murders of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, Sheriff Larry Myers of Neshoba County said.

"The sheriff said there would be more arrests in the notorious case..."

I wasn't even alive then and I feel vindicated! Further on in the article it says that Killen wasn't convicted originally because there was a hung jury: one of the jurors said she could never convict a preacher. What kinda twisted-ass red state logic is that? 'Just cuz it's something a preacher did, doesn't mean it's something a preacher WOULD do,' as Rob Corddry might point out.

At least in the modern era of American disenfranchisement, no one's getting brutally murdered. We probably passed that torch on to Iraq..

You go, girl!

Who says women don't have balls?

Today is a big day

First of all, all hail Barbara Boxer! She has apparently signed on to the House's challenge of the Ohio vote. This is great, great news. It won't change the outcome of the election, but it will at least let a little sunlight into the murky waters of Cuyahoga County. Catch it live on CSPAN, 1:00 pm EST today!

Secondly, Alberto Gonzales is a dickhead and the White House refusing to release his papers is typical dillweed behavior. Listening to him is making me ill.

Welcome back edition

Happy New Year!
I am bogged down with the evil reinsurance work, but here's a semi-hopeful tidbit for the day - it doesn't quite compare to my dream of Turner and Soros taking abck CNN, but it might be pretty cool - after all, we had low expectations from the Air America too. What? you don't listen to Air America?? Well get the hence and
stream!

This is from the Washington Post. There's more good stuff there but you need to register.

Al Gore's INdTV: The People's Programmer

By Richard Leiby
Tuesday, January 4, 2005

Tuning in to Gore TV: Little is publicly known about the cable news network planned by almost-president Al Gore except that it will be called INdTV (say it like "indie"), aims to wow the youth market, has set up shop in San Francisco and is supposed to launch this year. But what kind of shows will it carry?

We've received a glimpse of some of the programming envisioned by INdTV execs, who just sent out an e-mail to prospective "digital correspondents," seeking edgy video submissions to serve as pilots. Gore's programming gurus say they hope to "democratize television" by relying on Generation Y contributors and "real-life video."

Admittedly, Al Gore TV does not sound riveting.