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

Get out your handkerchiefs, part IV:

Bad economy hits Harvard, despite $37 billion endowment. No doubt Harvard's endowment took a hit, but think about what even a small return on $37 billion looks like. Why only a 5% return would be well over one billion dollars. And remember, as a nonprofit, Harvard isn't paying any tax on tuition payments and probably get quite a few state tax exemptions (property,income and sales and use taxes) too. Add in the Ivies continued practice of letting in the ne'er-do-well offspring of the rich and powerful (i.e., the chimp) and you can see why I couldn't give a good shit that the president of Harvard has to look under the sofa cusions for extra cash. That said, I have no doubt that the university will try to save a few bucks by screwing over the cleaning staff. Because a leopard can't change its spots, that's why.

How can they tell?

Britain's "Iron Lady" Thatcher has dementia. And she was no lady.

Iraq is a fucking mess, the economy is in the toilet, the world hates our guts, and this counts as news?

McNamee's lawyer predicts Clemens pardon. Wake me when the headline reads: BREAKING: W jumps White House roof in response to impeachment, hits Cheney; Speaker Pelosi sworn in, Rep. Barney Frank elected Speaker. Because republicans' heads would explode, that's why.

Jeanne Kirkpatrick and Pinochet have a new playmate:

Former Rep. Henry Hyde dies at 83. Meanwhile, all around the country Americans reacted to the news by asking "who?" 

And the nation, as one, yawned:

Gephardt endorses Clinton. He's still alive? Who knew? More importantly, who cares?

Can you feel the excitement?

Romney joins 2008 presidential race. And the nation yawns.

Mary Cheney is pregnant.

And apparently Lynne's birth was the result of an immaculate conception, because I don't see a baby daddy. MSNBC reports: Mary Cheney, the openly gay daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney and wife Lynne, is pregnant, according to a published report. Mary Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, are "ecstatic" about the baby, due in late spring, The Washington Post reported in Wednesday's editions, quoting an unnamed source close to the couple.

* * *

Mary Cheney, 37, was an aide to her father during the 2004 campaign [during which the GOP upped its efforts to demonize gays (except Mary, of course) to whip up their base], as was Elizabeth [the other Cheney daughter], and now is vice president for consumer advocacy at AOL.

Needless to say, as soon as I heard I ordered my gift for the baby shower. Hope they don't get duplicates.

And do read The General's take on the news. He thoughtfully wrote a letter to Laura Bush urging her to "[g]o easy on the Cheney girl," adding, "I know you must be very disappointed with the Cheney's right now. The news of their unwed daughter's pregnancy will certainly stain your husband's legacy. It is a shame that Dick and Lynne failed to raise their Mary to be as chaste and virtuous as your Jenna and not-Jenna." The General, showing us true christian values with each post.

Hell just got a little more crowded:

Monetarist economist Milton Friedman dies. The Guardian reports: Milton Friedman, the Nobel prize-winning economist and Margaret Thatcher's monetarist guru, died today at the age of 94.

* * *

A great believer in unfettered markets, Mr Friedman was the leader of the Chicago School of monetary economics. The central tenet of the school was that the money supply determined inflation.

As the flipside to his belief in the central role of markets, Mr Friedman, who won the Nobel prize in 1976, thought the role of government should be as limited as possible. That view made him highly popular with free market devotees such as Margaret Thatcher and Chile's Augusto Pinochet, who relied on his advice as they put his ideas into practice.

Wow, he was highly popular with Maggie Thatcher and Augusto Pinochet. Remember that saying that you can tell a lot about a person by the company he keeps? It's true. Now he can spend time in hell helping Pol Pot and Rehnquist get the place ready for Cheney.

Former Sen. Jesse Helms

Has Dementia. How can they tell?

Do you want

fries with that. According to this Raw Story article, that may be what Michael Brown will be repeating shortly: Ex-FEMA Administrator Michael Brown, was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows, seems to be doing for his career what he did for the beleaguered agency. Less than a week after FEMA's dismal Hurricane Katrina response forced Brown out of the agency, he has been shopping his resume to headhunters and Washington PR firms.

And it's not working.

"He's radioactive," said one exec. An ally of Brownie in the PR world said he should have waited a month before starting his job hunt. "It's just a bad play.

After a few years, maybe he could become an assistant manager. You know, once he has skills.