From Pine View Farm

. . . er, Honda.

To the Toimes. Excerpt:

I have heard that you have hired the utterly discredited neo-conservative William Kristol to write a weekly column. I am aghast at this decision: Mr. Kristol was one of the loudest voices agitating for war in Iraq, and at every turn he has been proven wrong. He was wrong about the weapons of mass destruction; he was wrong that our troops would be met as liberators; he was wrong about the cost of the war; he was wrong about the length of the war; he was wrong about Iraq’s stability; and he was wrong about Saddam Hussein’s ties to September 11. Thousands of American soldiers are dead and wounded because of Kristol’s errors, and thousands more maimed and psychotic. Why would you hire someone with this record? Wasn’t one Judy Miller enough?

Addendum, The Night Before New Year’s Eve:

Susie.

Media Matters. (Via Eschaton)

The return of Naderism:

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a potential independent candidate for president, has scheduled a meeting next week with a dozen leading Democrats and Republicans. They are expected to join him in challenging the major-party contenders to spell out their plans for forming a “government of national unity” to end the gridlock in Washington.

The underlying fallacy of this idea is that we need more, not less partisanship.

It is time for people of good will to unite against those who undermine the Constitution of the United States of America, who sell the nation to the highest bidder, who defraud the electorate, who violate the ideals of the Founders, and who betray the blood shed by those who fought to make us free.

It is not time to compromise with them.

I mentioned earlier that my server room hub died.

In looking to replace it, I’ve found that small hubs are apparently nowhere to be found.

They’ve been replaced by little switches. These are not the same as the industrial-strength switches you will find at a corporation. They are rather hubs with enough sense to know what came from where.

So I ended up with a switch and now the webserver and fileserver are both back on line.

In case you are not familiar with the Peter Principle, you can read about it here.

John Cole:

If the Peter Principle were true, George Bush and Bill Kristol would be the street-cleaner and dogcatcher in Crawford, Texas.

FactCheck dot org’s year end round up of the biggest whoppers of the year.

Dems 4, Repubs 6.

Top ten signs your country may be becoming fascist:

Via Phillybits.

Penn State alumni think that Happy Valley is the Only Place on Earth.

Sort of like Virginia Tech alumni, who think that Blacksburg, Va., is the only place on earth.

(Happy Valley and Blacksburg have something in common. They are both surrounded by miles and miles of not much of anything except mountains.)

Nevertheless, I hope Penn State wins the ball game tonight, because I am a Joe Paterno fan.

He is one of the few really classy coaches in American College Football.

I remember the first time I saw a Joe Paterno coached Penn State team in a bowl game. Orange Bowl, 1969, Penn State vs. Kansas. My brother and I sat up and watched it.

Kansas had a seven-point lead going into the final seconds of the game.

Penn State scored.

And went for a two point conversion. And this was back when the field goal was king and taking the safe choice was the common choice. Penn State went for two–almost unheard of in those days.

And made it.

After the game, the interviewers asked Joe Paterno why he had his team go for two. Now, I can’t remember his exact statement–it was many years ago. But it was something to the effect that

“Ties aren’t fun. This game should be fun.”

I hope Penn State wins tonight.

(If you don’t understand what “go for two” means, go here.)

(Link fixed. Thanks.)

Help restore America here.

If you are unsure, read this.

. . . despite what modern marketing may lead us to think.

He and his “Green Mountain Boys” fought for freedom.

Their spirit still lives in their home state:

A group in Brattleboro (Vermont-ed.) is petitioning to put an item on a town-meeting agenda in March that would make Bush and Vice President Cheney subject to arrest and indictment if they visit the southeastern Vermont community.

“This petition is as radical as the Declaration of Independence, and it draws on that tradition in claiming a universal jurisdiction when governments fail to do what they’re supposed to do,” said Kurt Daims, 54, a retired machinist leading the drive.

And Republicans cause him to cry.

Andrew Sullivan:

This is actually something like the consensus among most of the GOP candidates:

“Our most basic civil liberty is the right to be kept alive.”

It’s a very, very, very long way from “Give me liberty or give me death,”. . . .

The Republican Party, though, has shown that it doesn’t care about liberty.

It cares only about reducing taxes (for the rich, that is); making up wars; and making the rich richer, the poor poorer.

I guess Abraham Lincoln is crying right along with Patrick Henry.

Sadly, McCain may be mostly sincere, but he is wedded to the failed policies of a failed president. But his ad is right on target.

Via Andrew Sullivan.

Well, it looks like my son ain’t gettin’ no raise.

Addendum, 12/29/2007:

What digby said.

Good question.

Addendum:

Jesus General.

Of course, no one really knows what Mitt Romney believes, because he has more skins than a chameleon.

But, ya know, he makes stuff up real good. From Fact Check dot org:

Romney’s latest ad attacks McCain in New Hampshire with false and misleading claims:

• It claims McCain “voted to allow illegals to collect Social Security.” That’s untrue. Nobody who is in the country illegally could be paid any Social Security benefits under McCain’s immigration bill.
• It implies McCain supported “amnesty” for illegal immigrants. That word isn’t accurate. Illegal immigrants wouldn’t have received a blanket pardon under McCain’s bill. Instead, they would have had to pay thousands in penalties and fees to gain legal status. In fact, in 2005 Romney called McCain’s proposal “reasonable” and said it wasn’t amnesty.
• The ad says Romney “cut taxes” in Massachusetts. While he did cut some taxes – for example, enacting business tax credits – tax rates remained unchanged. Plus, Romney raised state revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars per year by increasing fees and closing corporate tax loopholes.

What an empty suit. Romney really doesn’t seem to believe in anything except that he deserves to be president. And he seems willing to believe in anything that would further that goal.

Because he looks good in a suit, I guess.

Remember, he used to be a consultant.

What is a consultant?

Someone who borrows your watch, tells you what time it is, and keeps the watch.

(And I’m no fan of McCain either, but, really, there’s plenty of facts to attack him with. No reason to make stuff up. But, then again, making stuff up is the Republican way.)

Josh Marshall:

A long time ago, I wrote a long, wordy, rambling post on securitization and the real estate market.

Now comes Atrios, who summarizes the entire concept in just a few words.

He must have been watching those annoying Toyotathon commercials about trying to find a reason to buy a new Toy Auto:

A man pushed his Ford Mustang down a mountain as part of a scheme to claim it was stolen, authorities said.

Richard Way Jr., 28, pushed the car down an embankment along Wopsy Mountain in Blair County last year, then reported it had been stolen from the parking lot of a hot dog restaurant, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office said.

Susie.

Moral: RTFM.

Ian Simpson, a factory worker from Darlington, Yorkshire downloaded TV programmes onto his laptop using his mobile phone as a modem – and racked up charges of £27,322 in just one month. He says he may go bankrupt unless Vodafone “takes a sensible approach” to his bill.

Simpson thought he had an all-you can eat deal for unlimited web use and “probably” downloaded 20-30 TV shows and four albums. But his £41.50 per month contract maxed out at 120 megabytes of downloads per month, enough for most users, Vodafone says. “Few customers exceed the fair usage. But it seems clear Ian has run up these charges legitimately,” a spokesman told The Mirror.

This is a magnificent post.

I am not even going to try to summarize it.

Please check it out.

The news from Pakistan today is not good.

It sort of goes with something I said a little while ago.

I’m not going to spend my time going over ground that others have gone over before me.

Instead, I’ll just point you to what digby said.

Afterthought: Oh, yeah. Our nation is led by fools.

It’s a neat list.

Check it out here.

. . . sez the Republican Party. Dick Polman (emphasis added):

One durable Republican staple is the alleged commitment to “small government.” I’ve heard this repeatedly during the GOP presidential debates. The candidates declare that the feds should butt out, that “one size fits all” policies enacted by Washington would burden the states. On everything from guns to abortion, the GOP politicians say that states should be allowed to come up with solutions that reflect the will of their own people. This is supposed to be a cornerstone of the conservative ethos.

But it’s really just pap for the stump. In reality, and for a fresh insight into contemporary Republican hypocrisy, let us behold (yet again) the Bush administration in action.

A couple days ago, the Bush team – acting through the Environmental Protection Agency, in violation of the law that created the EPA, and in defiance of federal court rulings – decreed that California, and 16 other states would not be permitted to act on their own to reduce global-warming emissions from automobiles. The EPA explained that it favors a “national solution” (i.e., one size fits all) over what it calls “a confusing patchwork of state rules.”

This came back to me as we planned the Christmas Eve menu.

When I used to travel with Jack–and Jack and I were teamed together a lot back in my Amtrak days; just about any wierd or unusual assignment turned into the Frank and Jack Show–we traveled well.

Jack knew great places to eat in every city we visited.

We were sitting in the Lobby Bar of the Algonquin Hotel when the cheese dip ran out and I watched the bartender make a new batch. It’s very simple and very tasty.

This was a while ago. Jack’s been retired for about 14 years and it’s nine years since I left Amtrak left me.

• 1 jar Cheez Whiz. (Yeah, I know. It seems surprising that a classy dive like the Algonquin used Cheez Whiz, but I saw with my own and Jack’s eyes.)
• dry sherry (I think the barkeep used Dry Sack)
• cayenne pepper

Empty Cheeze Whiz in a bowl
Add sherry and stir until it reaches a smooth, but not runny, consistency
Add a dash or two of cayenne (may substitute Frank’s Red Hot).

(If you need to store the dip, press plastic wrap across the surface of the dip, forcing out all the air, to keep a film from forming.)

David Ignatius explores the writings of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams (emphasis added):

My Christmastime reading of the Adams-Jefferson letters was prompted by this year’s most interesting political speech but one I also found troubling — Mitt Romney’s Dec. 6 speech on “Faith in America.” It was a fine evocation of our twin heritage of religion and religious freedom, until he got to this ritual denunciation of the bogeymen known as secularists. “They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America — the religion of secularism.”

Anyone who reads Adams and Jefferson — or for that matter, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton or other voices of the American Enlightenment — can make their own judgment about what the Founders would say about Romney’s broadside against secularism. My guess is that their response would be something like: “That is bunkum, sir.”

(snip)

One theme in this year’s political campaign has been whether the United States will move from the faith-based policies the Bush administration has celebrated to a more rationalist and secular approach. In this debate, religious conservatives like to stress their connection to the Founders and to the republic’s birth as “one nation under God.” But a rereading of the Adams-Jefferson letters is a reminder that in this debate, the Founders — as men of the Enlightenment — would surely have sided with the party of Reason.

We had to keep someone on table duty all evening.

(Look at them eyeballs. He’s going for the pepperoni and leaving the Chivas for the people.)