Keeping Busy

It's that slow time of year here in DC and all around really, when everyone takes off for the Holidays. Posting will be light at best from now through new years. In the mean time here are a few things to think about and keep you busy...

Lots of folks are still upset about Rick Warren being invited to give the invocation at the Inauguration.

The author of Lies and the lying liars who tell them seems poised to become the 59th Democratic Senator in the next congress. (Bonus points if you knew it was the Democratic Farmer Labor Party in Minn.)

The internal Obama report on their contacts with Gov. Rod 'bleeping' Blagojevich is out.

Slate has some of the weirdest light displays to be found.

Happy Solstice...

Nerf-Tastic

We used to transform my buddy's basement and have epic nerf battles back in the day, but we only had access to the old-school models like the four ball popper and the bow and arrow I think we had an automated dart gun but it shot like six darts, not 500 per minute...



(via GL)

posting will be light until the new year, stay warm kids.

Read This Now - Board Games and Wires

Haven't these people ever watched TV?

The WaPo has a well put-together article detailing much of Assistant US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of pay to play corruption in Illinois politics that culminated in the arrest of Govenor Rob Blagojevich. Turns out the Feds have been flipping people and using wires for years...

Here is the graphic, the WaPo has been getting better with it's online graphics but still lags the NYT which has easily the best dead tree media site online. Also this article isn't available in single page format, arrgh!

It's That Time Of The Year Again...

Best of and Old / New lists are making the rounds. The best to date comes from Chris Buckley...

	Old	New
Worst U.S. President	Buchanan	Bush (II)
Reassuring African- American Leader	Colin Powell	Obama
Menacing Ruskie	Stalin	Putin
GOP Clotheshorse	Nancy Reagan	Sarah Palin
Toxic Substance	Asbestos	Collateralized Debt Obligation
Three Stooges	Moe, Larry, Curley	Detroit Auto CEOs
Spurious Casus Belli	Tonkin Gulf Incident	WMDs
Supremely Self-satisfied Talk Show Host	Bill O'Reilly	Keith Olbermann
Over-The-Top Crooked Pol	Duke Cunningham	Gov. Blagojevich
Eponymous/Onomatopoeic Financial Scoundrel	Ponzi	Madoff (MAY-Doff)
Martin Luther King Wept	Sharpton	Wright
Fugitive	Richard Kimball	Osama bin Laden
Wise Man	Greenspan	Buffett
Hunky Aussie	Russell Crowe	Hugh Jackman
Downed Aviator	Amelia Earhart	Steve Fossett
Oxygen-Depleting, Single-Named Blonde Divorcée	Diana	Madonna
Caribbean Hell Hole	David's Island	Guantanamo
Sapphic TV Personality	Ellen de Generes	Rachel Maddow
Cancer Phobia	Cell phones	Bottled water
Unfortunate Sanguinary Photo Op	Saddam Execution	Sarah Palin at Turkey Slaughterhouse
Illegal Substance	Meth	Canadian Lipitor
Guilty Pleasure	Downloading Napster	Leaving Lights On
High-minded Catchphrase	Compassionate Conservatism	Audacity of Hope
Cool Brit	Tony Blair	Boris Johnson
Politically Incorrect Gas guzzler	Hummer	Gulfstream
Texan Wind Bag	Ross Perot	T. Boone Pickens
Weirdo Actor	Christopher Walken	Joaquin Phoenix
Scary Weather Event	Perfect Storm	Katrina
Potty-Mouthed Illinois Pol	Rahm Emmanuel	Gov. Blagojevich
Repugnant African Despot	Idi Amin	Robert Mugabe
Crown Kennedy	Ted	Caroline
Cupcake	Sarah Jessica	Jen
$6 Million Book Advance	Colin Powell	Tina Fey
Ubiquitous Historian	Douglas Brinkley	Niall Ferguson
Hyper-Adoptive Actress	Mia Farrow	Angelina Jolie
Tantalizing Opener	Please to contact me most Very immediately re: $16 Mil Dollars (US) In Your Bank of Nigeria Acct!	In the event of an erection lasting more than four hours...
Creepy Pol	Larry Craig	Eliot Spitzer
Village Atheist	Madalyn Murray O'Hair	Christopher Hitchens
Hot Wheels	Boxster	Tesla
Frigid, Cash Strapped Landmass	Russia	Iceland
Presidential Reading	My Pet Goat	Team of Rivals
F--- You VP	Rockefellar	Cheney
Cute NASA Gizmo	Mars Rover	Orbiting Tool Box
Fun Clinton	Bill	Hillary
Torture Device	Water-board	401(k) Statement
Chicago G-Man	Eliot Ness	Patrick Fitzgerald
Hot First Lady	Carla Sarkozy	Michelle Obama

That's Doctor Horrible To You

So I finally saw Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible with a grown up Doogie himself, Neil Patrick Harris is straight killing it these days (whatever it may be).



I now also have They Might Be Giants stuck in my head...

Happy Holiday Burritos

I feel a little bad spreading something so obviously put together to go viral (as Bloggasm mentioned) but this is pretty great.

I wish I had a warehouse and the money for a load of microwaves, I've got the time right now...

Franken Pulling Ahead

Democrat Al Franken has pulled ahead in the recount of the Minnesota Senatorial Election.

According to the Star Tribune Franken currently leads by 272. Up to 283 while I typed.



I'm following the Strib coverage and that of Minnesota Public Radio (both have streaming feeds as does the uptake). The Minnesota Supreme Court ruling on the counting of absentee ballots declared invalid sets a deadline of December 31 for decisions to be made (jointly by both campaigns and the relevant county boards) on which of the previously disallowed absentee ballots to count. So we won't have official results until the newyear it seems (I doubt the Coleman will concede). The conventional wisdom says that Franken will gain ground through any absentee ballots added to the recount and the current tally asumes none of them will be counted so things are looking good for the SNL alum.