I can't believe it's not a democracy!

I'm back and, as usual, I'm exhausted.

Seems that one of my filthy co-workers (or a hygiene-challenged passenger on Amtrak) gave me a cold.  Wore me down a bit for the first two days.  I'm at the tail end now, just coughing and dealing with a very mild form of laryngitis.  Looking forward to a long night's rest in my own bed. 

Hope you all had a lovely holiday.  Mine was really restful, despite the cold.  I got a lot of sleep and plenty of good family interaction time.  Even went shopping with my oldest niece for some xmas gifts this morning.  She is like me with regard to organization skills: knew what she wanted, made her list, consulted it and wrapped everything as soon as she got home.  Ah, genes do tell.  Now my nephew....I am awaiting his request to do some "last minute" shopping on xmas eve.  Just like last year.  But he always makes it in the end.  There's that.   

Off to engage in some desperate xmas shopping, followed by excessive turkey eating.

Yes, I am off once again to south Jersey for laughs and hijinks.  Ok, I'm going there to get my xmas shopping done (laugh) and to eat too much turkey and antipasto on Thursday (because there must always be antipasto).  Posting will be light to non-existent until Sunday.   

Hope you all have a lovely holiday.  

A leopard cannot change its spots:

Disgraced pastor Haggard returns as Christian businessman. What's he selling? Life insurance. No, I'm not kidding.

This had better be a fucking joke:

Advisers say Obama may delay tax-cut rollback on wealthy. Jesus H. Christ, how the hell does Obama plan to pay for his stimulus package if he doesn't raise more revenue? And it's not as if the rollback will raise the highest marginal tax bracket to astronomic levels. The highest tax bracket is currently 35%. The highest bracket in 2001 was 39.6%. 4.6% percent difference, not 10% or 20%. Given that the top 10% earn as much as the rest of us and own a hell of a lot more, isn't it time that they do their part to right this country? What the fuck is Obama thinking?

Yet another financial giant that's "too big to fail":

Citigroup May End Up With U.S. Government Rescue.

As I recall, China and a lot of rich arab princes from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia etc. own a big chunk of Citigroup. Shouldn't they dig into their pockets to save the bank? It's not like they don't have a lot of assets. And think about it, rescuing Citigroup means that, ultimately, some significiant portion of our money will be used to shore up their investments, no? That said, what is the right size for failure? Sadly, it seems the answer is your average middle class family with an upside down mortgage that just reset. Screw the masses, the rich need to feed.

Remember when oil was over $140 a barrel?

Oil prices drop below $50 dollars, hit 3.5-year lows. A small handful of evil filthy greedy people have made a lot of money off of the rest of us, and they are laughing their asses off. And why shouldn't they? Nothing will happen to them. Not a fucking thing.

Just in time for xmas?

Palin memoir could be coming soon to a bookstore near you. No, I haven't pre-ordered.

Obama offers the attorney general position to

Eric Holder. Who? Another Clintonista, it seems.

And here's a little light reading about Eric Holder: Holder? Why, oh, why?. Looseheadprop at Firedoglake writes: I think I am having an aneurysm. Why in the name of all that is sensible would Barack Obama want a Clinton re-tread as AG? Not just any Clinton re-tread, nope, the brain trust behind the Marc Rich pardon.

Not good. Change we can believe in, my ass.

On the plus side, Blue Gal tells us that Holder apparently isn't happy with the Patriot Act. There's that.

43 motherfucking douchebag democratic pieces of shit just voted to

let Joe Lieberman feel special and pretty and keep his chairmanships in the senate.  That's right: 43 democratic senators voted to not take away Holy Joe's chairmanships even after he actively worked to get McCain into the white house and criticized Obama.  No, I'm no surprised at all.  If the democrats showed some strength and kicked that whiny-assed bastard to the curb then--and only then--would I have been surprised.  Nope, I am solidly into a "I expect to be disappinted at every turn" phase.  You see, last night I heard that some Obama aides were saying that there won't be a formal investigation of who in the Bush administration was reponsible for greenlighting torture...because we need to move on.  After hearing that, this Joe Lieberman stuff really doesn't matter, does it.

So, I have to think about what I am going to do from now on.  You see, I don't know if I can continue to read about--much less blog about--political stuff anymore.  I am beyond disgusted.  My contempt knows no bounds.  Et cetera.  I have to think about what I am going to do going forward, because I feel like I can't spend another fucking minute thinking or caring about this.  And no, I haven't made any decisions, but I feel like I am getting closer to the answer.  In the interim, I need to take some time off to chill and think, and posting will be very light, at best, between now and the end of the Thanksgiving Day holiday.   

I'm cool with this:

The Guardian reports that Hillary Clinton is going to accept Obama's offer of secretary of state job. But gmb, you may be thinking, you are hardly a Hill fan, why do you like this? It's simple. If Hill become Secretary of State, then she will have to leave her senate seat and maybe, just maybe, a real New Yorker, one who is truly progressive, could fill that slot. I'm not sure if the governor would appoint someone to fill the vacancy, but if that were the case then I hope that Governor Paterson, who I respect, would go with a bold choice instead of some long-serving political hack. We shall see. Oh, and we have to get rid of Schumer next. He's up in 2010, so we had better start looking.