Image © 20th Century Fox @ Foxmovies.au
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In a last-ditch effort to recover the brains of CSRs*, a team of forensic proctologists were reduced to the size of large molecules, transferred into glasses filled with liquor, placed on a giant table in the 'reep' caucus room with "Drink Me" signs taped to the outsides, and consumed by the swollen-headed (though somewhat dim) members.

As the first teams reached the cranial cavity they began to send back images of vast empty spaces with only a few marginally connected blood vessels - a huge echo chamber with absolutely no brain mass. Teams eight and fourteen had - luckily as it turns out - been unable to escape the pull of the large intestine, and so nearing the exit orifice almost crashed into a gray millimeters-in-diameter mass directly connected to the walls of the bowel. The brains had been found!

After careful review, and on the advice of the Commander of the Expedition they were instructed to leave them as they found them, owing to the risk of sudden shock should the brains be reconnected using a full-power-restart.

"They seem to have been functioning that way for decades, so better leave well enough alone", she said.
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*California Senate Republicans, ca. 2008. For the life imitating fiction see:

- Aurelio Rojas/sacbee: Budget defeated in Senate
- Jim Sanders/sacbee: GOP lawmakers put 'no new taxes' pledge in writing

bumped -- Friday night movie watching after a strange VP nomination today -- cho

"Lions for Lambs" is a haunting movie. There are three separate stories being told that all weave together.

Meryl Streep is (of course) awesome as aging journalist, Janine Roth. Roth has been invited to interview Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise's character). Cruise is devilish as the charming Senator trying to sell the war.

Anyone that thinks this is going to win over former Hillary Clinton supporters already firmly in the Democratic party fold don't understand the fact that Hillary supporters were and are strongly Pro-Choice for the most part.

Her lifetime membership in the NRA may help solidify one of McCain's many weaknesses in his own party base, as well as her advocating religion in schools under the banner of "creationism" may help solidify some of the Christian fundies, but I fail to see how any of it will get her anywhere with moderates or women, in general. Some of the Christian fundamentalists may even despise her just for the fact that she is woman seeking power.

As for her supposed record of cleaning up Alaskan politics and conservative cred?

Well?

Recently, a friend pointed out that the selection of Sarah Palin¹ as John McCain's Vice Presidential running mate was more a political calculation than any type of decision to pick someone qualified for the job. One of the biggest reasons she was selected was that she was female -- a calculation intended to pick up disgruntled Clinton fans. My friend said that the selection of a woman, in spite of the reasoning, clearly brings the GOP into the 20th century.

After thinking about it a moment, I had to agree with him.

Early 20th century, circa 1920; definitely nothing centered around 1973 or beyond.

This is an Open Thread.

Hat-tip JohnnyNYC

The ePluribus Media Journal continues to get its face "lifted," thanks to Bronxdem's efforts, and the Community site here is getting migrated and upgraded to the new version of Drupal.

Just a reminder that the upgrade will be happening over the weekend.

For those who are interested in what the ePluribus Media feed looks like for the news agencies and others that are subscribers, take a look here.

ePluribus Media RSS Feed

In my days as a realtor I became familiar with the issues involved in radon testing.

Home buyers had the right to demand radon tests and to abrogate a contract should the emission level be high than EPA standards and the sellers unwilling to provide remedial measures involving ventillation systems. During the housing bubble buyers frequently were forced to overlook such niceties as home inspections, not to speak of radon testing.

AP/MSNBC: Two U.S. gold medalists to be on Wheaties box

That about sums up this latest breaking news from the people that brought you the Olympics. Sigh.

Sorry to open with a Jeff Huber-ism, but this is another one that can't be repeated often enough: if the Bush administration put as much effort into winning its wars at it puts into spinning its wars, it wouldn't have to spin them. A story titled "Taliban Gain New Foothold in Afghan City" in the August 26 New York Times illustrates how much our cockamamie conflict with Islamofablulism is about perception and how little of it has to do with reality.

Reporter Carlotta Gall tells the tale of a spectacular June prison break staged by the Taliban in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Elements of the militant group exploded a fuel truck to free 900 prisoners—350 of them Taliban members—from a detention facility in the Afghanistan's second largest city. Gall characterized this extraordinary setback for U.S. and NATO forces not as a major tactical defeat or a profound exploitation of the inadequate security apparatus in Afghanistan, but as a "spectacular propaganda coup" for the Taliban.

That's a bit like calling Hitler's invasion of Russia a "public relations campaign."

Paul Pringle/LAT: Congress investigates L.A. local of the Service Employees International Union:

A congressional committee has opened an inquiry into a financial scandal enveloping the Service Employees International Union's biggest California local because of six-figure payments made to firms owned by relatives of its president.

Complete series: Union boss under fire: A Times Special Report. Union payroll information is in the USDOJ OLMS/ESA Database.

From the Transcript of Obama's Speech:

But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism.

If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.

You make a big election about small things.

But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.

Those are a few of the lines that stood out for me tonight that (I hope) finally lower the volume on those who have been demanding Obama "attack!"

He has been all along, they just couldn't hear it through the noise.