As the Gray Lady would say, climate changes*; women, children, minorities, dogs, email, and the earth’s core hardest hit.

(Headline via the cool, objective journalists at AP.)

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Moe Lane writes that New Jersey’s infamous Torricelli gambit of 2002 could return with a whole new twist:

…the Democrats are thinking about giving us another bite at that particular apple.  To summarize this… scheme:

• Jon Corzine resigns prior to January.
• Richard Codey becomes acting Governor (remember: no Lt. Gov before this election).
• Frank Lautenberg (currently 85 years old) resigns as Senator.
• Codey appoints Corzine Senator.

(H/T: The Campaign Spot)  Let me add the next step:

• Republicans pick up an unlooked-for Senate seat via a 2010 special election.

…which is probably not Corzine’s intent; but then, neither was losing the governor’s race.  As for this prospective race… a recent loser, a Democrat, and an incumbent in 2010.  That would be perfect, thanks.

Are New Jersey Dems likely to run Corzine again?

In Louisiana North politics, anything can happen.

Andrew Sullivan savors the secrets…of the Necronomicon!

This is only the second time in its nearly ten-year history that the Dish has gone silent. The reason now is the same as the reason then. When dealing with a delusional fantasist like Sarah Palin, it takes time to absorb and make sense of the various competing narratives that she tells about her life. There are so many fabrications and delusions in the book, mixed in with facts, that just making sense of it – and comparing it with objective reality as we know it, and the subjective reality she has previously provided – is a bewildering task. She is a deeply disturbed person which makes this work of fiction and fact all the more challenging to read.

The key phrase there being “objective reality as we know it”; always a moving target with Andrew.

(Via Dan Riehl, who sees a Kurtzian metaphor in all this;  for more Lovecraftian fun, just click here.)

Update: Jim Treacher writes, “As we all pray for Andrew Sullivan’s safe return, a look back: Palin Dodges Tough Questions About Existence of ‘Alaska.’”

As always, there’s no way a satirist can improve upon real life for the perfection of its absurdity:

In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park.

Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city’s largest municipal union.

Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.

“We’ll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails,” Balzano told the council.

Balzano said Saturday he isn’t targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city’s decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said “there’s to be no volunteers.” No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.

What about bike paths? Or is only Howard Dean allowed to clear those?

Last year, when Obama and his backers were on the campaign trail portraying America as some sort of impoverished Dickensian nightmare (when not advising the huddled, starving masses to share the wealth, and cut back on how much they eat, and drive their big eeevil SUVs), Michelle Obama famously said:

Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones.

You first, Nick.

I’ll say one thing about the Hollywood studio system of the 1940s and ’50s: every actor and actress had the occasional bomb, but you rarely heard Cary Grant, John Wayne, Bogie or Bacall blaming the customers when their picture tanked:

Another day, another nugget of awesomeness from Megan Fox.

The actress tells The New York Times that her movie “Jennifer’s Body” tanked because “the movie is about a man-eating, cannibalistic lesbian cheerleader, and that pretty much eliminates middle America.”

Which sounds like a repeat of the blame-the-booboisie quote uttered by the screenwriter of the craptacular sequel to Basic Instinct when it bombed, as City Journal’s Stefan Kanfer wrote in 2006:

Paul Verhoeven, director of the first Basic Instinct, made in 1992, avers that politics in the U.S. of A. have taken the fun out of eros. Indeed, insists the Dutch native, “anything that is erotic has been banned in the United States. Look at the people at the top. We are living under a government that is constantly hammering out Christian values.” Scenarist Nicholas Meyer (Fatal Attraction; The Human Stain) agrees. “We’re in a big puritanical mode. Now it’s like the McCarthy era, except it’s not ‘Are you a communist?’ but have you ever put sex in a movie?”

On which planet do these gentlemen live? It is difficult to determine from their remarks. In an epoch when XXX rated videos are available at the local DVD store, when the Internet contains countless pornographic sites, when surveys show that more Americans hear suggestive language than ever before, when celebrities promote oral sex for teenagers, when nudity and semi-nudity are a part of prime time programming, it is impossible to reconcile the opinions of Messrs. Verhoeven and Meyer with the facts of life.

Still, we must congratulate them for their originality. It used to be fashionable to hold the Jews responsible for everything that went wrong. Blaming Christianity is a new one.

Heh. So why didn’t you take your low expectations for what Americans will accept at the box office into account before you made the movie?

Now it all makes sense!

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(For a devastating profile of Sharpton, don’t miss Jay Nordlinger’s 2000 article, “Power Dem.”)

Jonah Goldberg catches an “amazing” moment from Anita Dunn, the Mao-loving lame duck Obama White House communications director:

The other day I listened to some of an interview with Anita Dunn. I loved this bit of Q&A from the audience:

QUESTION: Hi. Yes, I’m Mark Kaiser, and I work for the Freedom Forum here. I just had a question about – back to the FOX issue. I think it’s pretty safe to say that there’s, you know, opinions, strong opinions on both sides at the networks.

My specific question would be if it was helpful to the overall discussion to say that FOX was not a legitimate news organization. Granted, they’re in opposition to a lot of Obama’s policies, and there’s a lot to be said about that, but, I mean, was it helpful to identify them so strongly?

DUNN: You know, it’s - I recommend everybody, if you get a chance to go on YouTube, Jon Stewart actually did one of the most amazing pieces of journalism last week or a couple of weeks ago in which he actually looked at the way FOX, on their opinion shows, raises some, you know, some – some issue that then gets reported on by their news division as, quote, “a controversy,” and then they go find someone to comment.

It wasn’t the only time she plugged the Daily Show’s journalistic genius. I don’t object to criticism of Fox from the left any more than I object to criticism of MSNBC from the right (even if I might disagree on the substance of the criticism). But when the communications director wants to justify an effort to delegitimize a major news organization simply because it is critical of the president, she might want to avoid holding up a comedy show as an exemplar of legitimate journalism.

At least Ron Ziegler knew that…even if Ron Nesson didn’t.

Headline via Paul McCartney and John Lennon, the flaming statue of Obama on cover of Time magazine by way of the an enthusiastic Chinese sculptor. I’m sure the mullahs in Iran are ordering copies of this satue, and plenty of lighter fluid for their offices:

The Chinese have learned English from his speeches and celebrated the way he rolls up his sleeves .  [Only Nixon could to China, only Obama could go to Van Heusen--Ed] Now President Barack Obama is finally coming, and he’s being greeted with “Oba Mao” T-shirts and a statue of him that bursts into flames.

Oba Mao?! I’m sure Obama will pick a few of those for Anita Dunn and Ron Bloom. More from the AP:

Sunday’s arrival of a U.S. president admired for his charisma is already a source of profit and brief fame for some Chinese.

Strangest is the burning Obama, tucked away in a Beijing warehouse. Artist Liu Bolin hopes Obama can take time from his visit to drop by.

“He’s so hot right now, so I wanted to translate that through my work,” said Liu, who was inspired by the idea of the first black U.S. president.

The bronze Obama bust is modeled on Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” cover and is speckled with holes for gas that ignites every couple of minutes.

It’s a positive work, Liu said.

“Yes, setting something on fire can have negative connotations, but this piece represents energy and life that Obama has given to the world,” said the 38-year-old, who made a similar piece for former revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.

“We’re eager to see what he can do for China and U.S. relations.”

I’ll bet they are.

(H/T: Moe Lane.)

Related: More from Mo on those Oba-Mao duds.

There’s a memorable scene in Lawrence of Arabia between Omar Sharif’s character “Sherif Ali” and Arthur Kennedy, who plays “Jackson Bentley”, a thinly disguised version of one of the real-life Lawrence’s biggest promoters, American journalist Lowell Thomas:

Bentley: What are you learning from this?

Sherif Ali: Politics.

Bentley: You’ll be a democracy in this country? You gonna have a parliament?

Sherif Ali: I will tell you that when I have a country.

[BEAT]

Did I answer well?

Bentley: You answered without saying anything. That’s politics.

With that in mind, watch Robin Carnahan, a liberal secretary of state (and would-be US senator) from the centerist midwestern state of Missouri dissemble for nearly three minutes without saying anything about PelosiCare or the Stupak Amendment:

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On the other hand, you can understand her reluctance to put her cards on the table: “Pelosi: Jail time “very fair” for failing to buy your patriotic ObamaCare coverage.”

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Montel is ready to party like it’s 1942! “Montel Williams Suggests Ft. Hood Shooting Could Cause Massive Internment, Like Japanese Under FDR.”

Uh-huh. Still though, Time magazine warned us that President Obama was the second coming of FDR…

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The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” But Nancy Pelosi (D-North Pole) just blurted out that her socialized medicine proposal is her “Christmas Present to the American people.”

Obviously it’s time to bring in the ACLU to put an end to the medieval religious fantasies of the faith-based Christianist reactionaries currently running Congress. Perhaps having committed such an egregious thoughtcrime against the people of San Francisco and Berkley, Pelosi will do the deed herself.

Incidentally, does this mean that those who don’t celebrate Christmas can opt out without going to jail or receiving a lump of coal — sustainably mined for use clean coal facilities of course — in their stockings?

The New York Observer sagely notes, “Drudge’s Henchman Hits Big Time With Book.”

For their legacy brethren’s look back at the early days of Drudge himself, click here and savor the calm, objective, rational reportage.

(Incidentally, speaking of bias, the New York Observer was where Al Gore launched this classic post-9/11 leftwing meme.)

Found via Big Hollywood, there’s a BBC article titled, “Why did Britain fall out of love with Sesame St?”, which includes this passage:

The show crossed the Atlantic 18 months after its US launch, but the BBC rejected it because of its “authoritarian aims” in trying to change children’s behaviour.

“This sounds like indoctrination, and a dangerous extension of the use of television,” said the head of children’s programmes at the time, Monica Sims.

Of course, that was from a less enlightened era in the BBC’s history.

Update: And if the Brits thought Sesame Street was trying to change children’s behavior then, they hadn’t seen anything yet:

The pedagogy hasn’t changed, but the look and tone of “Sesame Street” has evolved. Forty years on, this is your mother’s “Sesame Street,” only better dressed and gentrified: Sesame Street by way of Park Slope. The opening is no longer a realistic rendition of an urban skyline but an animated, candy-colored chalk drawing of a preschool Arcadia, with flowers and butterflies and stars. The famous set, brownstones and garbage bins, has lost the messy graffiti and gritty smudges of city life over the years. Now there are green spaces, tofu and yoga.

As the New York Times notes, in a phrase loaded with unintended irony, Sesame Street is “still a messianic show.” But what religion is it proselytizing?

Stalin goes Meta! Washington University inadvertently stumbles onto the perfect meme to celebrate the end of the Cold War — they airbrush a makeshift Gulag setup by the students right out of history.

Hey, all you haters trashing Obama for sending a video of himself to the ceremonies memorializing the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, just remember one thing, maaaan:

This time around, he got the region code right!

So there.

As Jim Geraghty writes, “Joseph Cao’s Opponents, Left With No Easy Avenue of Attack:”

Neither of the most prominent Democrats who seek the job of Rep. Joseph Cao, R-Louisiana — State Representative Juan La Fonta or State Representative Cedric Richmond —  has anything about the congressman’s health care vote on their campaign web sites. And what is left for a Democrat challenger to say? “I would have pushed the “aye” button harder”?

Cao represents, by far, the most Democrat-leaning district currently represented by a Republican right now. By casting this vote, Cao has a chance – not a great chance, but a chance – of winning reelection by arguing that he always puts the interest of his district first, and is willing to defy the arm-twisting of every other GOP member.

Or, he could have left Nancy Pelosi with 219 votes, and guaranteed his defeat in 2010.

UPDATE: I’m informed Richmond did issue a statement, denouncing Cao for voting to block the bill on his previous procedural votes and noting that his yes vote came “after the bill had already received the two hundred and eighteen votes to secure a majority.” Richmond pledges to “break from Congressman Cao’s record of ineffectiveness and blind partisanship.”

Well, yeah — just watch this video interview with Cao, and it’s immediately obvious that the man is a fire breathing hyper-partisan right wing neocon death beast who listens to hours and hours of Rush Limbaugh each and every day.

Jay Nordlinger posts on the intersection of reflexive anti-gun kneejerks and the leftwing politicization of sportswriters:

A reader notes that I wrote recently about the intrusion of politics into sportswriting (here). Then he quotes Peter King of Sports Illustrated, today:

My heart goes out to the victims of the Fort Hood and Orlando shootings and their loved ones. Senseless, senseless incidents. I will not go quietly into the night on this one. America needs to do something about idiots with handguns. How many more Fort Hoods and Orlandos do there have to be before our political leaders have the guts to severely restrict access to murderous weapons?

Our reader comments, “Good point. An Army base is no place for weapons.” And, to add insult to injury, we know what the Associated Press reported, here: “Packed into cubicles with 5-foot-high dividers, the 300 unarmed soldiers were sitting ducks.”

Meanwhile, at Pajamas Media, Bob Owens writes:

The American media has a long and ignoble history of firearms ignorance often based upon the propaganda of anti-gun organizations.

Finally, if but for once, that ignorance and fact-free hype may have served to actually save lives.

Read the whole thing — especially if you’re a bored producer at low-rated CNN looking for material to inflame your remaining viewer.

You know you’re in trouble when Sullivan titles a post, “Consistency Revisited.”

And apropos of nothing, Andrew sure knows how ruin someone on the right — my reputation amongst my fellow Neocon Rightwing Death Beasts is forever tarnished, as Sullivan utters those dreaded words, “Ed Driscoll has a good point”:

I’ve noticed a few right-of-center blogs complaining of double standards on the left, in the denunciations of extremist rhetoric and imagery of the Tea Party marches. Ed Driscoll has a good point. The extremes of the anti-war left before Iraq were every bit as inflammatory and loopy as the Tea Partiers today. Now, they were opposing a war that turned out to be a catastrophe for all involved [Especially for Saddam -- Ed], while the Tea Partiers are just opposing the working poor having a chance to buy health insurance. But if Godwin’s Law is the point, many (but not all) on the left currently do not have a leg to stand on.

Of course, Andrew backed the Iraq War himself, at least until his great schism of 2004, which led to writing this about President Bush’s opponent in 2004: “Kerry may be the right man – and the conservative choice – for a difficult and perilous time.”

By 2007, Andrew found a neat way to make a subtle variation on the increasingly shopworn Bush=Hitler chorus, by arguing that Bush equaled Hindenburg(!), when Sullivan dubbed him “The Weimar President.” Back then, I wrote:

My current favorite is Andrew Sullivan’s newest riff, on “The Weimar President”. I can only guess that Andrew believes that President Bush is an elderly figurehead leading a weakened but relatively benign quasi-socialist administration suffering the ravages of hyper-inflation and that Hillary, Obama or whoever his successor is, is the next Hitler, about to install a terribly malevolent war machine and concurrent massive welfare state?

Further deconstruction of this lead zeppelin of an analogy, here.

As I suggested in that post, perhaps Sullivan was merely getting a jump on the next administration. And speaking of which, in May of 2009, Sullivan wrote:

This speech, to my mind, was a conservative one by a conservative president who seeks first and foremost to use existing institutions to address the new challenges of the moment, and then seeks pragmatic compromises, always open to future checks and balances, in those places where such institutions clearly need reform and adjustment.

So Kerry and Obama are conservatives; Bush, whom Andrew once staunchly defended for his decisive response in the wake of the terrorist atrocities of 9/11, was the president of the leftwing but impotent Weimar Republic.

Consistency.

AP reports that Tommie Harris was ejected from the Bears-Cardinals game after this incident:

CHICAGO (AP)—Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris was ejected from Sunday’s game against Arizona after just 65 seconds of play for slugging Cardinals offensive tackle Deuce Lutui.

At the end of an Arizona running play, Harris and Lutui ended up on the ground and a replay showed Harris hitting Lutui near the face.

The Bears got a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and Harris got a quick shower after referee Ed Hochuli announced he had slugged Lutui and was ejected.

Video of the incident here:

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