News Roundup for 12/9/08

Some dildo gives Gov. Blago a fucking t-shirt that says 'Blagojevich Sucks'

-Headline of the day-
"FBI: Blago wanted payoff to give Obama adviser Senate seat."

What an unfortunate nickname, huh? "Blago" is Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich -- as in "soon to be former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich" -- who reportedly wanted to sell the Senate seat vacated by president-elect Barack Obama. According to the report, the adjective-challenged Blagojevich told aides the power to appoint Obama's successor was something "fucking golden" and it was "a fucking valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing."

Actually Rod, you do.

Which, of course, he found out when he was arrested for corruption this morning by one-time hero of the left, federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. There's no info on who he wanted to sell it to, but records mention senate-candidates by number, with the final one being "Senator 5." We do know that Blago tried to use the seat to strongarm Barack Obama into making him the secretary of health and human services. He was turned down.

According to the report, "When Blagojevich was spurned, he went after Obama in expletive-laced conversations with the governor’s top aides and his wife. " Golly, from the quotes given, that seems so unlike him...

Why is it that corrupt politicians are always foulmouthed idiots? It's like a law or something. (Politico)


-Not what they had in mind-
The ACLU has issued a press release announcing a poster contest, of all things. According to their release, "The American Civil Liberties has issued a call for poster design submissions that depict the transformation of America into a country that holds its leaders accountable, strives to restore civil liberties and works to fix unconstitutional policies. The winning designer will be awarded $500 and the poster will be used as part of the ACLU's national campaign to renew America's commitment to the Constitution."

I'm guessing that this from my buddy Jon-A wouldn't qualify.



Maybe it can be the "before" in a "before and after" comparison. (ACLU)


-Bonus HotD-
"Who Started the War on Christmas?"

Turns out it wasn't Democrats or "Secular Progressives" or atheists or Satanists or al Qaeda. According to journalist Max Blumenthal, it all started in 1990s with a paranoid nutjob named Peter Brimelow -- then an editor for Fortune -- who "grew incensed with the increasing use of the phrase 'Happy Holiday' by retailers like Amazon.com."

“I just got real interested in the issue,” Brimelow told Blumenthal, “because I noticed over the years there was this social shift taking place where people no longer said ‘Merry Christmas.’”

So he wrote a lunatic screed of a book called Alien Nation that warned of a bunch of "weird aliens with dubious habits" from the third world who were wrecking America's white Christian "ethnic core." In Brimelow's overactive imagination, when Amazon.com said, "Happy Holidays," it meant they had joined into a multicultural (read, "Not white, not Christian") "struggle to abolish America." This was picked up by right wing media to sell magazines and boost radio ratings and off we went down the road to Crazytown.

So there you go. Some loonietune had a racist freak out over a decade ago and now we've got talk radio whackjobs and Foxbots warning us about a War on Christmas.

The explanation is just as stupid as I always suspected it was. (The Daily Beast)

-Wisco