Thanks a lot, Sarah Khawad...

... secretary at Unity High School in Khartoum, obviously no fan of teddy bears or at least one of her colleagues. Now you have your 15 minutes of international fame.
People are silly.
Free the teddy bear lady! In the name of sanity.

Cool Thing of the Day: FreeRice.com

It's a fun, addictive little word game that improves your vocabulary, and for every word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated through the United Nations to help end world hunger.

It's simple. It's tangible. If people are going to slack at their desks, (and people always will, as long as there are desks at which to slack) it may as well be for a good cause.

Check it out.

Coalition of the Willing: Who's Left

from the Boston Globe

If any good comes of this...

... nearly unbelievable case of injustice in Saudi Arabia, it's an awakening of the rest of the world, and indeed, Saudi Arabia itself, which is actually engaging in debate on the issue, to both the haphazard state of the justice system in that country and the hopeless state of women, whose lives are limited in every aspect from the cradle to the grave.

Although, of course, the State Department doesn't have much to say on the issue, beyond "astonishment." But that's no huge surprise.

Unhappy Holiday, America

Americans enter holidays in dark mood: Reuters poll

I knew our friend Scott McClellan was pissed...

... when he was asked to step down, as everyone knew, because of the Plame incident, but didn't think he'd speak out so soon...
Remember when he was on the Daily Show (ah yes, remember the Daily Show ;) and basically said he didn't know what the **** his considerably-closer-to-retirement boss was talking about when he gave Scott a parting line about how, one day, they'd sit on a porch somewhere as old men together and laugh about these crazy times.
Yeah, he's pissed, and if he was truly as ignorant as he claims, then well he should be.

Writer's Strike Update

Week Two

Related:
Speaking of writers...
Almost the Daily Show...

The Gen X Demographic: Why are we so cynical?

The naivete of the Baby Boomers' 60s leaves a bad taste in our mouths. It seems they gave everything an honest try, and failed.
We were born in the 70s, at the pinnacle of decadence, when everything was in decline.
Then we saw America born-again in the Reagan '80s. We (the lucky ones) were too young to know that renaissance was built on lies, staged by cynics with a handsome frontman saying all the right things.
In the early 90s, at the start of the first Iraq war, it looked like we might get our own movement together. We didn't. I guess we just didn't have the heart for it. We were too clever, and knew too much, although most of it was secondhand. We let our parents blame the media for that.
Things were looking up in the Clinton era, and a lot of us got on the prosperity bandwagon, hoping all our country's foibles would just work themselves out, one dotcom success story and trade agreement at a time. Some of us stayed by the sidelines, but to listen to us, there wasn't much difference anymore, between the sell-outs and the rest of us, in contrast with the Boomers.
Oh, what went wrong with us?
We were such a beautiful baby. Look at those Gerber commercials.
And who will set us straight?
In 2008?
Stay tuned.

***

Pop Culture Brats: The Songs of our Lives

"Good Times" by Chic, 1979

Boys will be boys, better let them have their toys.
Girls will be girls, cute pony tails and curls.
Must put an end to this stress and strife.
I think I want to live the sporting life.

"The End of the Innocence" by Don Henley, 1989

Armchair warriors often fail
And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, 1991

With the lights out, it's less dangerous.
Here we are now, entertain us.

"The Impression That I Get" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, 1997

I've never had to knock on wood
And I'm glad I haven't yet
Because I'm sure it isn't good.

"Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer, 2006

It's not that we don't care.
We just know the fight ain't fair.

Almost the Daily Show...

... for those like myself who need a fix before 2008 (an early prediction for when the strike will end.)

Not the Daily Show, With Some Writer

The best assessment of Thursday's Democratic debate...

... I think, came from conservative columnist David Brooks, on Friday's NewsHour.

... I always think almost -- and especially last night -- that Biden, Dodd and Richardson won the debate. I just think, if you didn't know anything about these people, you saw those three, you'd say they're pretty qualified to be president. [or vice president.]

Yep, Harry, you've got to watch that guy...

... in the White House. He's a sneaky one.

Reid shuts down Bush recess appointments during Thanksgiving.

With nothing to veto and no midnight appointments to make, I guess he'll have to content himself with pardoning turkeys over the congressional break (yes, I did mean that literally... he's not much for the pardoning of the featherless.)

Busted: Highlight from Wednesday's hearing...

... of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, on assessing whistleblower allegations against the State Department Inspector General (Howard Krongard):

REP. DIANE WATSON (D-CA): If your brother [Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard] is currently at the hotel in Williamsburg, Virginia, sitting on that [Blackwater advisory] board, would you repeat that you would recuse yourself?

KRONGARD: Immediately.

WATSON: OK. Then maybe you want to do it today...

KRONGARD: Recuse myself from anything having to do with Blackwater, yes. I mean, I wouldn't step down.

WATSON: Blackwater, yes, that's what I'm referring to. He's sitting on the Blackwater -- I understand he's in the hotel. He's checked in the hotel. You might want to follow up on that.

KRONGARD: Well, if he's -- if he's there for that meeting, as a member of that committee, he may be there to tell them he's not joining. I don't know.

WATSON: OK, now, remmeber you're on the record.

KRONGARD: Yes, sir -- I mean, yes, ma'am.

WATSON: OK, and you know what today's date is?

KRONGARD: Yes.

WATSON: OK. Will you recuse yourself from any inquiries, audits, or investigations your office conducts regarding Blackwater?

KRONGARD: Absolutely.

WATSON: OK. We have it on the record. Now...

Krongard clears things up later in the hearing, after a little phone call. Oops.

Speaking of writers...

... I have mixed feelings about the ongoing television writer's strike.
I'm rooting for them, but I miss my Daily Show/Colbert Report hour. Oh well...

Photos: Writer's Strike Grows Stronger

Norman Mailer...

... tough guy, Luddite, and consummate writer, 1923-2007, RIP.

Quote du Jour: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

from Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee vote on the Mukasey nomination (he was approved, of course, and his nomination sent up to the full Senate. I can understand why many in the committee voted for him, in the interest of the Justice Department and its dire straits, and in the interest of future precedent -- since not every nomination can be all-out war, and this nominee was recommended by anti-Gonzales bulldog Chuck Schumer, after all, who had second thoughts, post-hearing, before coming back around. However, I am also heartened to hear opinions like this one, and wish more in the committee had expressed them -- and backed them up with a vote.)

WHITEHOUSE: The reason that I voted against Judge Mukasey is that I feel that the discussion about torture that we have had has provided the opportunity for this country to have a moment of clarity about what should be a simple and clear proposition. And I'm afraid that by allowing this nomination to proceed, we will lose that moment of clarity.

I don't think we can look to this administration to provide that moral clarity to the world.

Unfortunately, it is my belief that when Vice President Cheney, for instance, gets on the television and tells the world that we do not torture, around the world, far too many people believe not only that we torture, but that we lie.

And so, Congress has the chance to provide that moment of moral clarity that I think is important.

No one, I doubt, feels the harm to the Department of Justice more than I do. I served as a United States attorney and the calling that that department represents is very, very, very important to me, to this country, to the values that we share.

So, I am very deeply torn to have voted against this nominee.

But I do see a nation under the Bush administration that is on a slow and sickening slide from the city on a hill that earlier presidents talked about.

We have compromised our values. We have disregarded our Constitution. We have degraded our standing in the world. And people died for this stuff.

So, in some respects, it is a sacrifice to the Department of Justice. And that pains me and grieves me.

But in pursuit of that moment of clarity that can be a signal to the rest of the world that the fires of our values still burn alive in American hearts, I have voted against this candidate.

Pakistan: Who Saw This Coming?

Just about everyone but the White House and the State Department, it looks like.

No, that's not fair... of course they saw it coming; they just didn't really have the time to spend on the fact that

• one of the world's eight nuclear powers,
• next door to India, a fellow nuclear power who's contributing greatly to the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan, thus pissing off those in Pakistan who support the Taliban,
  
• ruled by a general who seized power in a coup,
• (and he's the good guy, if you don't count exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who can't even enter the country without an attempt on her life)
• a good proportion of whose people support the Taliban and view Osama bin Laden as a hero while burning George Bush in effigy (sure, he's not my favorite person, either, but he ranks a lot higher on my list than Osama... not saying much, I know)
• who most likely are sheltering bin Laden, if he's still alive, as well as other top Al Qaida leadership, not because Musharraf wants to, but because he can't control entire regions of his country,
• which recently have come to include his own capital.

So now Musharraf's declared martial law, and speculation is that it has more to do with an upcoming supreme court decision that would have prohibited him from being re-elected in January, than with any other of the overwhelming problems facing his country.

So far, all we've had is a "statement" from our secretary of state, the same person who threw around the term "mushroom cloud" back when it was oh-so-safely hypothetical...

Quote du Jour: Tony Blair on his hopes of personal redemption...

... and a salvaging of his legacy...
... or, more precisely, a peace deal between Olmert and Abbas.

from "Late Edition" this morning.

And so, for all sorts of reasons, strategic, tactical, immediate, long-term, we've got to just make this work. And however difficult it is for the leaders, in a way, this is the toughest option at one level for them but also the surest way to show people the leadership they want to have shown.

... or maybe it's Fred Phelps He's not so fond of...

He certainly wouldn't be alone in the sentiment.

Invading soldiers' funerals really pushes the boundary between one person's freedom and another's, under the law.
Personally, I'm glad the grieving father's right to grieve in peace was acknowledged by the jury before the right of a family of deranged hatemongers to crash his son's funeral.