I’m sitting here watching Rachel Ray make a quick Thanksgiving dinner that working moms and dads can easily whip up in no time, with gravy, and apple pie, and all sorts of things, and all I can think is “I can’t believe they tried to turn her into a symbol of pro-Jihadi anti-Americanism.”

It really was just crazy, and after reading @tcot on twitter today, and reading my usual wingnut blogs while also stopping on the Bill O’Reilly show while channel surfing and watching him interview Glenn Beck about buying gold, and I realize they have just gotten worse since the United Pastry Jihad.

John +1 (Black Box Shiraz FTW. What’s another torpedo in a sinking ship, I say…)

Read this:

In its largest reconstruction effort since the Marshall Plan, the United States government has spent $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, building tens of thousands of hospitals, water treatment plants, electricity substations, schools and bridges.

But there are growing concerns among American officials that Iraq will not be able to adequately maintain the facilities once the Americans have left, potentially wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and jeopardizing Iraq’s ability to provide basic services to its people.

The projects run the gamut — from a cutting-edge, $270 million water treatment plant in Nasiriya that works at a fraction of its intended capacity because it is too sophisticated for Iraqi workers to operate, to a farmers’ market that farmers have not been able to decide how to divide up space for, to a large American hospital closed immediately after it was handed over to Iraq because the government was unable to supply it with equipment, a medical staff or electricity.

I sure could go for another lecture about fiscal conservatism from Republicans right about now.

I honestly have no idea what I want to do tonight. Read? Watch the boob tube? Game? Go out? Feh.

*** Update ***

Just heard Chris Matthews refer to this administration as the “egghead” administration because they are too smart and aren’t in touch with the common person’s emotions. I wonder what Luke Russert thinks?

Just found my evening plans- I’ll be drinking.

Sorry, but I don’t feel bad at all about any moran who stood outside in the cold all day just to get Sarah’s autograph and then got stiffed by her. You got what you deserved, and please tear up your voter registration card in protest.

On the other hand, maybe you will get luckier on the Carrie PreJean book tour.

It was almost exactly 23 years ago that Ronaldus Magnus signed the Simpson-Mazzoli Act granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.

Consider this an open thread.

Matt Yglesias claims this isn’t a parody:

I love the voice-over guy. Almost NFL Film quality.

How many of you have read Harrison Bergeron?

It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn’t think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn’t think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his
intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his
ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a
government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would
send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair
advantage of their brains.

That is sort of what it is like trying to work while following the top conservatives on twitter (#tcot). Every twenty seconds or so, tweetdeck will chirp, and up comes something so stupid that it just jars you, and by the time you have recovered, lo and behold, another top conservative will want to share their deep thoughts.

The Ohio Attorney General, Richard Cordray, is swinging sweet, sweet lullabies:

Ohio’s attorney general sued Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings on Friday, asserting that they provided misleading credit ratings that led to hundreds of millions of losses for state funds.

The official, Richard Cordray, filed the lawsuit in United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on behalf of five Ohio funds that assert they lost more than $457 million because of “false and misleading ratings” of mortgage-backed securities by the ratings agencies.

Officials at Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, which is owned by McGraw-Hill, could not be immediately reached for comment. A spokesman for Fitch Ratings, which is owned by Fimalac S.A., had no immediate comment.

I’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time.

John and I were just discussing Chuck Todd’s unbelievably idiotic tweet defending McCain’s latest primary-induced flip-flop. Todd’s an idiot, but not as dumb as Howie Kurtz—was John’s take on it. Mine is that neither Todd nor Kurtz is dumb in the usual sense. To stay in the good graces of elite media is simple—just keep saying everything is good news for conservatives, that we are a center-right nation, that John McCain is a principled maverick and so on. Criticize the Iraq war and you get shit-canned—ask Ashleigh Banfield or Phil Donahue. Any reporter interested in having a cushy, high-paying gig for the rest of his or her life would be foolish not to keep repeating the Village-approved talking points.

It really is that simple.

I realize that, per Forrest Gump, one could argue that stupid is as stupid does. And obviously, saying things that aren’t true, making incorrect predictions, etc. is in some sense stupid. So I see that point.

Here’s how I look at it: once a barnacle finds a good rock to attach itself to, the barnacle eats its brain, because it doesn’t need the brain anymore. The barnacle would be stupid not to eat its own brain. The same applies to Chuck Todd, Ben Smith, Mike Allen, Howie Kurtz, etc.

***Update*** Due to a miscommunication, I believed (my fault rather than his) that IndieTarheel took the pic that he sent. The top picture was in fact taken by Flickr user sweber4507. I apologize for any confusion.

To clarify my policy for this series, I prefer to run pictures sent in by the photographers themselves, as the email indicates consent. Thanks again to everyone who has contributed so far.

IndieTarheel sweber4507, Lower Lewis River Falls, WA.

Mr. Furious, The Upstate.

Email me a link to your one or two favorite pics on a photo site like Flickr (do not send the image itself please) and I will put up favorites in open threads. Send a short caption if you want one.

Click on the photos for a link to the photographer’s website. To see all photo threads, click on ‘photo blogging’ at the bottom of the post.

If your computer cannot read our email links at top right, my email is (remove the zeroes): portus0jackson0ii at yahoo dot com.

This came across my feed thirty seconds ago:

Hrmm. I wonder if anyone else has had this unique insight? I wonder what Google News says…

I seriously need to remove some people from my twitter feed.

Mr. Wrong About Everything, Bill Kristol, signs his political death certificate:

The new Rasmussen poll for the 2010 Arizona GOP Primary—John McCain 45%, J. D. Hayworth 43%—will generate a fair amount of buzz. But August is a long way away, and I assume that when McCain gets back to Arizona and campaigns, he’ll pull it out.

I hear McCain will be greeted with flowers and the primary will pay for itself.

Mein GOTT twitter is frustrating:

Yeah, the problem here is Obama has not reached out enough.

Some of these guys never learn anything, ever. John McCain has never been a maverick. He has never been a major player in legislation- his only signature bill is McCain/Feingold, and that is due in large part out of guilt and an effort to rehabilitate himself (Keating Five, anyone?). He flips and flops depending on what is best for him, personally, at that very moment, and some talking head somewhere will excuse his lack of consistency as “John McCain being a maverick” or “John McCain being John McCain” or some other nonsense. For chrissakes, he put Palin in a position where she could have been a heartbeat away from the Presidency. That alone should tell you that John McCain is in it for himself, and himself only. That is all he cares about.

So put two and two together, guys. John McCain is looking at a very tough primary against Hayworth and Simcox, a Minuteman, and he senses he needs to run to the right to shore up his flank. The Obama White House didn’t “lose” John McCain, John McCain is just doing what he always does- looking out for himself.

In fact, you can almost bet that the next couple of months leading up to his primary, McCain will step up his criticisms of Obama, will become louder and more vocal and more strident, and will move to the right of his past stated positions and his alleged “core beliefs.” And you know what else you can bet on?

Some beltway bobblehead looking at McCain’s behavior and wondering- “Gee, what did the Obama administration do to piss off John McCain?”

Ausgezeichnet:

In January, Mike Rowland was so broke that he had to raid his retirement savings to move here from Boston.

A week ago, he and a couple of buddies bought a two-unit apartment building for nearly a million dollars. They had only a little cash to bring to the table but, with the federal government insuring the transaction, a large down payment was not necessary.

“It was kind of crazy we could get this big a loan,” said Mr. Rowland, 27. “If a government official came out here, I would slap him a high-five.”

In its efforts to prop up a shattered housing market, the government is greatly extending its traditional support of real estate, including guaranteeing the mortgages of middle-class and even upper-class buyers against default.

Personally, I would just slap the person responsible for this.

I really don’t see what other options the military has here:

Sarah Palin kicked off her book tour in Michigan this week, and thousands gathered outside a Barnes & Noble chanting her name, giving the event the feel of a political pep rally. The Army wants Palin’s appearance at Fort Bragg on Monday to be much quieter.

The base has asked Palin not to make a speech at a public book-signing at the base exchange; she also will not write personal notes, pose for photographs or sign anything besides her new memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life.”

Fort Bragg also wanted to bar reporters from the event. Garrison Commander Col. Stephen J. Sicinski determined that by keeping out the media, the base would prevent Palin, a Republican and possible candidate in 2012, from having a platform from which to attack President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

“Fort Bragg, nor any other Army installation, cannot be used or appear to be used as endorsing criticism of the commander in chief,” said base spokesman Thomas D. McCollum. “Because this book signing is turning into a political platform with the addition of media coverage, we are restricting the media coverage.”

They really don’t have much choice in this matter.