We Are In Agreement

They're not saying "boo"

They're saying "coup."

The curtain in the background wishes it shared Obama's consistancy

Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

Sullivan advocates containment

We didn't invade the Soviet Union to destroy communism. We were self-confident enough to let it destroy itself, while never relenting on exposing its moral bankruptcy, political poison and economic failure. In Iran today, there exists a more vibrant and empowered popular opposition than ever existed in the Soviet heartland. And yet we remain fixated on military options and stay unmoved by the possibility of a nuclear stand-off in the Middle East between Israel and Iran.

Makes sense to me.

The Daily Dish

Super-majorities are for pussies

Ben Nelson ("D", NE) says that health care reform will require 65 votes to ensure legitimacy.

"I think anything less than that would challenge its legitimacy," he said.

Related: Ben Nelson can eat a bag of dicks.

Chris Matthews is fucking insane

Matthews just asked Michael Rubin,

"is it possible for Israel to do some Entebbe-style assault and go into Iran and kill 6 or 7 top guys?"

This like asking your dog if he's a good boy and wants a treat. Rubin practically clapped his hands and started to wheeze. This is because (a) bombing Iran gives everyone at the American Enterprise Institute, including the women, a boner and (b) it made Rubin's response, whatever it may be, sound sane by comparison.

Though Rubin gave it a shot,

"What's more feasible is if Iran has buried nuclear materials in underground facilities, [the Israelis] don't have to blow up the facilities, they just have to blow up the entrances."

So there's your false choice. The Israelis can either conduct a raid of the Evil Iranian Hideout and kill the 6-7 top leaders (we presume they hang-out together) or, more prudently, we can bomb the exterior of their nuclear facilities.

Paraphrasing,

"should we invade, or just bomb?"

"great question, Chris."

In fairness, maybe EVERYONE is a gay child predator

Conservative blogger Dan Rhiel, who may or may not be a a gay child predator, says that Bill Sparkman, the slain census worker, may have been a gay child predator.

But he also may not have been.

Dan writes:

You'd think a moonshiner, or Meth head would have just buried the guy. Why hang him and invite the Feds into it by writing Fed on his chest? Why strip him naked and bind and gag him, which has serious sexual overtones?

Why Dan finds a bound-and-gagged man to be "seriously sexual" is between him and his therapist. As to why a meth-head would take the time to write "fed" on Sparkman's chest, I can't be certain.

For that matter, why would a meth-head disassemble and reassemble their toaster? Why would they clean their oil-filter with a q-tip? Why would the government plant microscopic GPS aphids in their cheeks?

The point is, once you start throwing "whys" at meth-related conduct, you fall down a slippery, paranoid, (if tidy) slope.

Rhiel continues

I have no idea what happened, but from the reporting I've seen, neither does anyone else. If he adopted a boy as a single man, or was married and split with the wife and kids, who knows. But I never assume I know a story or motive until I know it. Right now we don't. I'm simply speculating on one possible alternative, however impolite.

Bolding mine. Rhiel concedes he doesn't know a thing about the story, but neither does anyone else. That said, why not make the leap to gay sex? With children?

The condition of the body and his being naked also seems curious.

I bet it does.

Why strip someone down to their socks only to kill them?

What a waste.

The strangest quote I've seen in all the reporting around apparently murdered Census worker Bill Sparkman is this one from his Mother located in Florida.

“I have my own ideas, but I can't say them out loud. Not at this point,” she said. “Right now, what I'm doing, I'm just waiting on the FBI to come to some conclusion.”

She didn't say she had been advised not to speculate. Being in Florida she has nothing to fear from Kentucky locals, so why the secrecy? Add that to the somewhat mysterious way this case is being revealed by authorities and whatever is behind it, I wouldn't be surprised if there's another surprise in store here.

And for Dan Rhiel, the only conceivable surprise would be of the sex-with-children variety.

This last part is just...bizarre...

Finally Sparkman's bio and work history suggests at the least he was not just your average guy. No teaching degree, no full-time means of employment and no wife or kids so far as I am aware. But he certainly did gravitate towards children. I can't help but wonder if this wasn't a revenge killing disguised to look like something else. If he did have issues in this regard and messed with the wrong kid, it isn't as if something like that can be ruled out until we know more.

Until we know that Sparkman was not a child-predator, we have to assume that he may have been, because we don't know that he isn't.

Census worker possibly slain

This is awful.

Potential Onion headline: Census Vows to "Count the Shit" Out of Area Where Fallen Worker was Found"

Oh Politico

GOP 'cranks' dominating debate

Nor are Democrats strangers to having their crazy uncles take center stage. During the run-up to the Iraq war, for example, Reps. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and David Bonior (D-Mich.) famously flew to Baghdad, where McDermott asserted that he believed the president would “mislead the American public” to justify the war. The trip made it a cakewalk for critics to describe the Democratic Party as chockablock with traitorous radicals.

Haha. What batshits.

[checks earpiece Jon Stewart style]

Oh wait, they were right?

Sorry.

Memories of 9/11

On 9/12 I went to a bar on the Upper West Side to have a beer. I discovered too late (i.e. after ordering) that it was a karaoke night.

Some guy got on stage and announced "this is for the firefighters!!" and treated us to a drunken, stirring rendition of Piano Man.

...a single tear ran down my cheek...

As a heckle, I give it a C+

I would have gone with "I've got a solution- you're a dick! South Carolina, what's up? GAMECOCKS MOTHERFUCKER!!!"