McSurge Fails to Pay His House Taxes

...course, he has an excuse: he and Cindy have 7 or 8 houses (he can't remember how many, exactly).

This is a common problem for American families these days, and I can sympathize, even though I have only 1 house. I'll bet the vast majority of foreclosures in this latest housing crisis are due to folks forgetting to pay the taxes on their seventh or eighth, or even ninth, houses.

side comment - Obama, however, is the elitist in this race: do not forget!

In their case, the condo in question was occupied by an elderly aunt of Cindy's. And who hasn't wanted to sequester/disappear an aunt or two indefinitely...as long as it doesn't come out that this disappeared aunt was also waterboarded, McSurge will be able to explain this away at his next media barbecue, I'm sure.

Dream Job #5: Astronomer Royal

This was a repetitive fantasy of mine in my teenage years. Did I mention that my teenage years were also bereft of dates?

Lounging around all day in a stone tower, wearing a fancy robe and crunching logarithms and predicting eclipses for an erudite, worthy ruler. Watching with glee as the rabble scurry around during said eclipse with fear-stricken faces; then hanging out at court and bantering with the likes of Gauss and Bach; flirting with the Princesses.

The current rep has lost the fancy garb, and with it, some of the appeal.

I think AR circa 1750 would have done the trick for me.

The Tenacity of Life, Take Two

Drove by a crushed stone pile 15 feet high...and there was a chunk of grass growing out of the top of it.

Still no life in the denuded moss spot in my yard.

34th Floor Hailstorm

If you ever get the chance to witness bad weather from a panoramic window on the 34th floor of a hotel, don't turn it down. I am a fan of bad weather, especially when I can do the viewing from a safe location.

I'm in Boston for a seminar (my better half is a speaker), and happened to be in our room when this storm hit. The room is on the corner, with windows facing west towards the Charles and Fenway Park, and south towards the Hancock building. If the windows could be opened I would be able to run and leap onto the Boston Public Library, like Spiderman.

Coming out the west, the storm cell reduced visibility from 2-3 miles to about 300 feet in a matter of 60 seconds or so. The hail appeared to be about a half-inch wide, and lasted a minute or so. There were a few lightning strikes mixed in for good measure.

Fifteen minutes later, the Sun popped out. The lights came on at Fenway, and it looks like the Red Sox game is on for tonight, not that I'm going.

We have dinner plans with friends instead...and the weather looks cooperative.

Good N' Pawlenty

I just watched a few video clips of this dude on talkingpointsmemo.com (scroll down to "Tim Pawlenty V.P. Madness!")

Wow....he is really Mr.Enthusiasm. He makes McSurge sound like Richard Simmons on crystal meth.

So if Bobby Jindal (the Exorcist) doesn't pan out, well, McSurge has found the blandest white man on the planet, this side of Orrin Hatch, to replace him.

FISA Capitulation

So Steny Hoyer and Pelosi have capitulated on FISA and retroactive immunity. That was not a huge surprise, just extremely disappointing.

And now that Sen. Obama has signalled only token resistance in the Senate, the deed is nearly complete.

If only our Democrats in Congress had real spines.

The Florida Gambit

Sounds like a shuffleboard move, don't it?

McSame is now FOR off-shore oil drilling near Florida, when only 3 weeks ago he was "agin it." And it is more ammo in the "Let's destroy Alaska to get a few years worth of oil from ANWR" argument.

Does St. John really think we're all so stupid that we will not notice this?

McSurge, McSame, McLame, McInane...

There are so many ways to pay tribute to this pasty robotic Bush Clone, aren't there?

I was partial to "McSurge"...but the use of "Surge" is buying into the Orwellian NewSpeak that the Bush Administration has reinvented.

There was never any "surge"in Iraq...it is just that the Bushies had not the cojones to call it what it was: an escalation.

Blaming Teen Prenancies on Juno

So there was a group of 17 or so Gloucester Mass teens who decided it might be fun to all get pregnant at the same time. Time is apparently all over the story, and the Globe and the Herald are playing catch-up.

Why this happened is open to speculation, I guess...I can't say with any great authority that girls in that age group are prone to particularly savvy life decisions...

But to blame this on the movie Juno, or Knocked-up, seems kind of ridiculous.

Though I should be happy that they didn't automatically blame it on Massachusetts' gay marriages.

Russert, RIP

Tim Russert died today, Friday the 13th. He was only 58; sad to die so young. He and his wife had just returned from Italy, after going there their son to celebrate Luke's recent graduation from BC .

Who would have thought he'd be outlived by:

1. Dick Cheney?!?!?!?
2. Big Russ (his 80+ yo dad)?
3. John McCain?

Although I thought the "gotcha" questions were at times grossly unfair, and that the casting was extremely anti-women and anti-minority, I still watched Meet the Press semi-regularly. So I'll miss watching him. I do hope the next host of Press the Meat can get fewer old white men.

Target and Feed Your Prostate

I don't have any issues with my prostate, knock on wood.

But there is an irritating radio spot I keep hearing on sports radio WEEI (Boston)...the voiceover guy's voice drones on until he starts describing some supplement designed to "target and feed your prostate."

Ummmm...I think the goal with prostate problems is to reduce the size of your prostate. Any supplement or treatment would probably work better if it "target(ed) and STARVE(D) your prostate," I think.

And the guy's voice is so drony that I haven't heard the ad in full yet. By the time I recognize it, they are in "repeat the 800 number so many times you'll never forget it" mode, and they already stopped mentioning the name of the product. I can't bring myself to call the 800 number, but when I get the product name I'll be sure to follow up with more info.

A Good Whine Needs Aging

LIEberman gives good whine...ya gotta give him that.

Obama takes him to task for his sleazy Muslim rhetoric and weak-on-foreign -olicy crapola that Joe is trying to sell...and poor Joe is complaining about the treatment he's getting.

I cannot wait for Holy Joe to get stripped of his Homeland Security chairmanship...should be no longer than November 5th, by my reckoning.

Bush and Abramoff Together Again

Abramoff and Bush...

Like Rogers and Astaire, like Gilbert and Sullivan, like Currier & Ives, like Ben & Jerry's...

4 new pics of Black Jack Abramoff with his buddy Bush have suddenly appeared, after the White House staff had assured us that they only had met twice (based on 2 previously release photos). Of course the Giant Corrupt Abramoff Lobbying Machine had nothing to do whatsoever with Junior Bush and his Giant Corrupt Administration.

And there's word now that Rove would secretly meet Abramoff on Washington street corners to avoid a paper trail of their meetings.

The plots thicken. And tomorrow is the day that Henry Waxman has indicated he wants all the Plame-related FBI interviews with Bush and Cheney. Interesting-er by the minute.

Gang Green Dream Team

McSurge's dream team came up with a hideous green background for yesterday's robotic speech that made him look older and more sickly and pale than Montgomery Burns on a four day absinthe and Geritol bender.

I'm thinking Bobby Jindal's advance guys had suggested it, and the McCainiacs just went along with it. Bad move. Not even the suckups at FOX News liked it.

O'Reilly Doesn't Know Nukes Are WMDs

BillO needed Scott McClellan to point this out to him.

And of course Keith Olbermann got a few laughs out of the exchange.

Here's the thing, though: we're talking about someone who thinks he scrubs his torso in the shower with a falafel.

Meats of Yore

A couple of days ago I tried canned deviled ham again for the first time in decades.

I have survived the experiment, with no ill effects so far. It was a lot greasier than I remember it being.

And we now have a farmer's market in town. There's a local cattle farm that sells their own meats. I tried a spicy Italian sausage which wasn't bad last week; today I bought a London broil, though it might be a while before I try that.

The New Yorker had a recent article on the many evils of processed food, especially factory meats, but I can't bring myself to eat vegetarian. No amount of liberal East Coast elitist nagging will do it.

Larry Craig Bobblefoot Night

Yes, folks, you can't make this stuff up.

The St. Paul Saints of the Independent League in Minnesota had a Larry Craig Bobblefoot Night (scroll down some for the image).

Too bad Minnesota is so far from Rhode Island. I would have gladly driven 300 miles or more for one of those babies, even if gas was $10 a gallon.

It Don't Mean a Thing...

...if you aint got that King.

So Nepal joins the long list of countries that have deep-sixed their monarchies. At least the Nepalese had a tragic Shakespearean reason or three to do it.

King Gyanendra ascended after his nephew Dipendra died, who in turn was King for only 3 days (and in a coma!).

Dipendra had been blamed for the 2001 brutal massacre of the previous king, Birendra (Gyanendra's brother) and the rest of the royal family. The public viewed Gyanendra as responsible for the massacre even though Dipendra was the official culprit. Gyanendra had spent much of 2005 dissolving the Nepalese parliament.

From April 2006 Gyannedra's status has been that of a ceremonial monarch. He was then deposed peacefully 3 days ago (May 28, 2008) and Nepal became a federal republic. So much for ceremony...

Welcome Nepal! Long live your tiny republic!

Now how long before this tale becomes a hit on Broadway?

Bob Barr: This Year's Nader

So Bob Barr has finagled the Libertarian Party nod. Good for him!

"I'm sure we will emerge here with the strongest ticket in the history of the Libertarian Party," Barr stated in his victory speech shortly after being selected as the Party's nominee. "I want everybody to remember that we only have 163 days to win this election. We cannot waste one single day."

Yes...waste not, want not. I don't really foresee this as having much impact in the general. Obama will crush McSurge like hot grape. But it could be fun watching the returns from places where third party candidates historically do well, such as Alaska.

On a trivia note...when was the last time a Presidential canddiate had facial hair?

And Schicklgruber notwithstanding, moustaches are usually pretty good indicators of electoral failure (see the early John Rowland, former CT governor and felon, who had a moustache and lost the CT governor's race, then shaved and won, if I remember correctly...).

Snuggle Time

McSurge is running low on fundage for his doomed campaign.

Call in the Grand Pioneer hisself: George W. Bush!

``Any sitting president, even one whose approval rating is in the low 30s, can raise money,'' said Jim Pinkerton, a Republican strategist. ``McCain has to distance himself from Bush, but he also has to reassure the Republican base -- and that means snuggling up.''

Mmmmm. Snuggling up to W. Doesn't get any cozier than that!