Who Could Ever Have Anticipated (Besides You, Of Course)?

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This week, truth-seeking bloggers answer the "who could've anticipated" questions in spades: who could've anticipated that there would ever be a "wingnuttiest blog post award?; who could've predicted that Fred Thompson's cocaine/tax cheat buddy might be a campaign problem?; Twofer Alert: who could ever have anticipated that the Today show's Meredith Vieira would be humiliated by Al Gore, and who could've anticipated that Gore's roommate, "Tommy Lee," could morph into a rock star? All this, plus DUers KingFlorez, Me., and whereismyparty rock our world. Enjoy!

Will Al Gore's Real College Roommate Please Stand Up?

From Mollygood:


Who could've anticipated that Tommy Lee Jones could morph into a rock star? And what does this mean for Pamela Anderson? Truly heavy sigh. The actual college roommate is probably proud to learn this week (from Fan Trust) that Al Gore is getting a special International Emmy Award on Nov. 19th "for his role in launching cable/satellite channel Current TV and his ongoing effort to alert the world to one of the great challenges of our time, global warming." Al's gonna need a bigger mantel. Way to go, Al!

I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Send Ron Paul A Dollar

Ron Paul has broken a fundraising record... of sorts. Headlines scream, "Paul raises more than $3 million in one day!" MyDD's Jerome Armstrong has posted all you'd ever need to know about Paul's online prowess, including this bubble bursting fact:

Paul has now broken the both on and offline combined single-day record for Republicans:

Ron Paul has raised 3.5 million from over 22,000 donors with just under 4 hours left in the day. Paul has also passed Mitt Romney's one day haul of 3.1 million dollars in a single day fund raising effort, making it the largest one day fund raising effort among all Republicans this campaign.

Update (2007-11-6 0:4:50 by Jerome Armstrong): It looks like Ron Paul will bank over $4.2M in a single-day from online contributions, but Paul will have to settle for the primary record for online fundraising in a day. The most successful online fundraising day ever is John Kerry's $5.7 million on the day he accepted the Democratic nomination in 2004. Clinton holds the record for raising the most in a single day overall, raising $6.2 million on June 30, 2007.

Come on, Ron! Get that third party bid ready to launch, buddy. By the way, I consider my $5 purchase of a 1992 Perot For President T-shirt one of the most valuable campaign donations I ever made to a candidate. Perot siphoned off just enough R votes to... well, we all know how well 1992 turned out.

Condoleezza Rice Never Could Have Anticipated _____ (Fill In The Blank)

Secretary of Friggin' State, Condoleezza Rice, says it's "highly regrettable" that Pakistan's president has declared a state of emergency. Duh. Rising Hegemon has the "no one could've anticipated..." details.

We're all waiting for Condi to say that no one could have anticipated the Turks getting just a wee bit angry, too. Note To Bush: This is why you surround yourself with smart people, idiot! Meanwhile, Deficient Brain adds:

Pakistan: Elections may take a while

"The state of emergency was only declared last night so a lot of things have to be decided," Junior Information Minister Tariq Azeem said in a telephone interview today from Islamabad. "Now that an emergency has been declared, one needs to look at the schedule again, and we will learn in the next day or two what the new schedule is going to be."

No shit, Sherlock.

Fred Thompson's Cocaine And Tax Cheat Go-To Guy

Fred Thompson could never have been expected to anticipate that his long-time pot/cocaine-dealing "personal friend" might be a presidential campaign problem. Does anyone really think that Fred might've wondered about those arrests and probabtion deals? Jeez! What's everyone so riled up about? BarbinMD (at Daily Kos) explains:

Need Drugs? Call Thompson's Co-Chair

What is it with Republicans? If they're not getting arrested themselves, they're buddying up with criminals.

Republican presidential candidate Fred D. Thompson has been crisscrossing the country since early this summer on a private jet lent to him by a businessman and close adviser who has a criminal record for drug dealing. (...)

Martin entered a plea of guilty to the sale of 11 pounds of marijuana in 1979; the court withheld judgment pending completion of his probation. He was charged in 1983 with violating his probation and with multiple counts of felony bookmaking, cocaine trafficking and conspiracy. He pleaded no contest to the cocaine-trafficking and conspiracy charges, which stemmed from a plan to sell $30,000 worth of the drug, and was continued on probation.

And of course, Thompson, who has been friends with Martin since the early 1990's, had no idea. And Larry Craig didn't know that playing footsie in a public restroom could be misconstrued.

Speaking of the old "actions were misconstrued" defense ...

This Week's Conservative Church "Married With Children" Boy Chaser

Remember when Pharaoh allegedly destroyed all evidence that Moses ever existed? Well, a Florida megachurch, First Baptist Church at the Mall, has ordered all the destruction of all references to "a trusted church member" accused of molesting three young church boys. And the weirdest part: this trusted church member had done this before. All Spin Zone writes:

Now, the First Baptist Church at the Mall bemoans the straying of their staff member, but they've evidently made sure he's no longer on their web site. Nope, his name shows up nowhere. And there is no official notice there about Marshal Seymour's transgressions while he was working for the First Baptist Church at the Mall's Youth ministry. Jay Dennis and Marshal Seymour's fellow parishioners had a few things to say, praying for the families of the victims and Seymour's wife and child, but they have not explained why they placed Marshal Seymour in a position where he could victimize young people.

So many right-wing churchified hypocrites, so little time. Truly heavy sigh. Remember, Remember...

Which Bloggers Do You Miss The Most?

Great question, posed by Ezra Klein this week. Klein laments the loss: of Jesse Taylor, his old co-blogger at Pandagon; The Mighty Mighty Reason Man; Fafblog; Tapped's Nick Confessore; Spencer Ackerman (now at TPM); and Max Sawicky. Be sure to check out the reader comments for more sorely missed bloggers. Steve Gillard tops the list. And give your favorite bloggers a shout out this week. It means more than you think. While we're on the subject of blogs...

Who Will Win The Wingnuttiest Blog Post Contest?

No one could have anticipated that Kevin Drum would someday hold a contest for the wingnuttiest blog post ever. But it's happened, and here are the contenders:

All-Time Wingnuttiest Blog Post Contest(Choose up to 5)

Ann Althouse: "Let's take a closer look at those breasts."

Steven Den Beste (shortly before the Iraq war started): "It's the waiting that wears."

(Cut and paste the link to read the post: http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2003/03/Itsthewaiting.shtml)

John Derbyshire (after the Virginia Tech shootings): "Where was the spirit of self-defense here?....It's not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons."

Ben Domenech: "Pachyderms in the Mist"

Kim du Toit: "The Pussification of the Western Male"

Pam "Atlas Shrugs" Geller: "My Sharia!"

Jonah Goldberg (before Katrina): "ATTN: SUPERDOME RESIDENTS....grow gills...."

Robert Hahn: "I will suggest that President Bush understands money better than any President we have ever had."

Hugh Hewitt: "I'm sitting in the Empire State Building...."

John Hinderaker: "It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius...."

Michelle Malkin: "The Defeatocrats Cheer"

Glenn Reynolds: "Maybe we should rise above the temptation to point out that claims of a 'quagmire' were wrong....Nah."

Lee Siegel: "The Origins of Blogofascism"

Bill Whittle (after Katrina): "Tribes"

So may wingnutty blog posts to choose from! So, who won? Click here for the top five winners (in order). And be sure to note the great logo...


By the way, #1 was a landslide victory. While you're waiting for freeper heads to explode...

Who Could've Anticipated That It Would Take A Woman...?

No, not Hillary. This time, it's a Canadian stock picker named Meredith Whitney, who exposed the naked emperor and brought down Citigroup without breaking a nail. Le Revue Gauche has the details, along with the best explanation of the current U.S. economic nightmare, how it came to be and what's likely to happen. Here's the scariest part (quoting Jim, who blogs as The Great Depression of 2006):

Banks, hedge funds and what ever are taking billions of dollars in loan loss provisions. I have been suggesting for over a year, that a lot of this money may be coming from our retirement funds. Think about it. If your wife buys a new fur coat with your paycheck, now you can't pay the rent, that is obvious very fast. If the wife turned a trick with the old geezer down stairs and bought the coat, you are stuck wondering how she did it. The reason I suggest Retirement funds, is that the losses suffered so far appear to affect no one. But bear in mind, retirement income funds deal with the future. Most people are not ready to retire so these funds should have plenty of time to recover losses (keep quiet, keep your job). The write downs are massive. Nobody even blinks an eye. What's a 10 billion dollar loss? The perspective is beyond comprehension. This money has to be coming from somewhere. Whoever's money it is, they don't seem to need it--yet.

Conclusion: How're ya fixed for retirement? Ya better check. Meanwhile...

Thank A DUer!

Thanks to KingFlorez for this great joke:

Headline News has been asking viewers to send in jokes this morning and this is one that someone sent in about Bush.

"Due to the writer's strike, President Bush will be repeating the same speech over and over. The public isn't expected to notice."

Good one!

Thanks to Me. for summarizing Al Gore's smackdown of Meredith Vieira and the "some people say" craporama fest, masquerading as "balanced" reporting, on The Today Show:

What I Loved About Al Gore's Appearance On The Today Show This Morning

Aside from just plain seeing and hearing him speak, I loved the way he called the host, Meredith Vieira, on that equivocation thing all these media types do. It's the 'on the other hand' or 'some people say' scenario. In this case, after Al said his piece, she challenged him by saying a scientist who worked with the group that won the Nobel said he was all wrong.

In response Al first told her that the scientist in question was no longer with the group and had become an outlier, he discredited the man completely. Then he said the media had to stop presenting both sides of an argument as if they had equal merit. He said that some people still believe the earth is flat and yet the media, as things have come to be, present that belief as if it was equal to that of those who know the earth is round.

This is an important point, for it has been done so often in the last 7 years. It, presenting truth and untruth as having equal merit, is part of what has created the mess we're in. People really need to push this point home. Just because someone someone has a counter argument or belief doesn't mean that's it's either credible or true. And, untruth IS Not the same as the truth.

George Bush believes a lot of things and most of them are untrue. Cheney says a lot of things, and very rarely are they true.

As if on cue, whereismyparty has posted the video link. Thanks!

Driving King George Mad

Blogging at The Huffington Post, Ephron states concisely what most grassroots Dems are feeling. Here's a snippet:

It's probably unfair to blame Schumer entirely for this; after all, Dianne Feinstein made the same decision. And more than half the Democrats in the Senate are apparently prepared to vote for Mukasey.

But here's what they should do instead:

Reject Mukasey.
Make Bush send up another nominee.
Reject that nominee if he won't take a position on waterboarding.
And just keep on doing it.

Because it's the right thing to do. Because waterboarding is torture. Because we are torturing people and it has to stop, and it will never stop unless the Democrats make it stop.

As one reader's comment suggests...

"I think it would be a good thing to drive King George mad. It worked 230 years ago, no?"

Interesting idea, considering that this week marks the 402nd anniversary of the gunpowder plot, and Guy Fawkes didn't even reveal anything his torturers didn't already know. Remember, remember. Keep sending those great blog links and fighting those tightie righties. And let's make 2008 the Dem landslide year no Republican ever could've anticipated.

-- Delilah Boyd

[nxylas]

1. Thought some of the Golden Wingnut nominees were crazier than the actual winners

John Derbyshire, in particular, is one of the great comic figures of our age - a guy who looks as though he hasn't left his chair in 25 years constantly bragging about how much braver he would be in extreme situations than the people who actually lived through them ("Holocaust survivors? Bunch of pussies. If I'd been in Auschwitz, I'd have ripped those Nazis' heads off and shat down their necks").