News Roundup for 12/30/08

Because gas will be cheap forever!

-Headline of the day-
"Truck and SUV Sales Up?"

I know what you're thinking and, yes, American consumers can be that stupid. CNN cites "low gas prices and fat incentives" as a reason for a recent increase in sales. Consumers, apparently, have the memory capacity of a goldfish, since the drop in sales was caused by the high price of gas.

What dropped the price of gas? Supply and demand -- people stopped buying stupid-huge trucks and SUVs and, as a result, stopped buying so much gas. So now that gas is cheap, everyone thinks they can afford these behemoths again, which will increase the demand for gas, which in turn will increase the price of gas, which will get people to stop buying trucks and SUVs. Then we'll do it all again because we're dumber than cold gravel and we think we need all-wheel drive to get to the Shopko down the street.

In a year, people will be driving their Hummers to rallies to protest gas prices and demand offshore drilling again.

I'd say this was some sort of merry-go-round, but merry-go-rounds are fun. (Donklephant, via reddit)


-Laziest. President. Ever.-
With Gaza going all to hell, you might wonder where George W. Bush is. If you guessed, "On vacation," you'd be right. With just three weeks left to his term, George has checked out to Crawford, because that brush isn't going to clear itself.

This vacation breaks the record for presidential vacations, previously set by some guy named George W. Bush. That record was set way back in March, when George spent his 879th day at his country mansion that he's somehow convinced everyone to refer to as a "ranch."

People who track this sort of thing tell us that President Absent (or would "Vacant" be a better choice?) has spent one third of his entire presidency either at a vacation spot or making his way to one.

You know what's weird about all this? Super-efficient George has still found plenty of time to really, really suck. Imagine how much worse off we'd be if he were a workaholic. We'd be fighting WWIII dressed in the skins of our vanquished enemies or something -- that is, if we actually managed to vanquish anyone.

Tell you what, Mr. President. Why don't you go and take all the time you want? In fact, take three weeks. I think we'd all be better off. (ABC News)


-The year in wingnuts-
How to be a right wing blogger; 1) get a blog, 2) lose your mind, 3) you're in business!

I usually hate year-end roundup lists, but Roy Edroso's The Top 10 Rightblogger Stories of 2008 reminds us of why the left seems to rule the internet -- because the only conservatives on the web seem to be insane Ann Coulter/Michelle Malkin types.

We're reminded that Fred Thompson was supposed to be a shoe-in, that hyper-kinetic Food Network star Rachel Ray loves her some terr'ist donuts, and that Michelle Obama wants to kill whitey. The idea that the recession is Obama's fault should be in here, but that'll easily last into next year and "top eleven" would be a screwy number.

My favorite rightie blog story that Edroso missed? Rich Lowry's creepily stalker-like Sarah Palin post at National Review.

Keep it in your pants, Rich. (Village Voice)