Good morning fellow Kossacks! The Nothing Decade is gone! Time to put behind us hanging chads, Al Gore snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory, eight years of George W Bush, 9/11, "Mission Accomplished," Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, swiftboaters, "24," tea baggers, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, several scams ranging from Enron through gas prices spiking to the mortgage securities that should never have been allowed in the first place, two severe recessions, two conservative nutcases on the Supreme Court, and a whole lot of broken American dreams.
Yes, today is the second day of a new decade! (Not to mention a palindrome, 01/02/2010). And what will the new decade bring? I don't know about that, but I do know about the next few minutes, which brings some hot, tasty ITEMS!
ITEM! From the President's weekly address:
"Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred, and ... we will do whatever it takes to defeat them and defend our country."
More here. Now, not that I disagree with President Obama on this matter, but does anyone else think it's a mistake to let Dick Cheney dictate the language that Barack Obama should use? Doesn't this, you know, give Cheney control of the narrative?
ITEM! 96 people (at last count) are dead after a suicide bomber hit a volleyball game in Pakistan. It looks like this was in response to tribal leaders forming a militia to keep Al Qaeda and other terrorists out of their village. Details and links here.
ITEM! Meanwhile, the Somalis are planning on sending support to the Yemeni militants. More here. Patrick Cockburn points out that Yemen could very well turn into another Al Qaeda quagmire in the style of Afghanistan.
ITEM! Who carried out the CIA suicide bombing in Afghanistan? Turns out that's a damn good question -- since there are a lot of groups claiming credit. More here. Remember this as the Sunday talk shows wax ignorant on the topic.
ITEM! Meanwhile, the Somali guy who was shot while trying to kill Kurt Westergaard appeared in court on a stretcher. You might remember Kurt Westergaard as the man who published the cartoon of Mohammad wearing a turban that looked like a bomb. Of course, other militants have praised what the Somali guy did. Read all about it here.
We're going to wipe out attitudes like these the same way we wiped out Communism? Really?
ITEM! Good news for dittoheads: Rush Limbaugh has "no heart disease whatsoever," according to El Rushbo himself. Which should be obvious from the fact that he doesn't have a heart.
MICE!
Obviously, not mine. And by the way, mice will, despite what this lady says, sometimes take a test bite if they think you're tasty.
ITEM! This is not going to end well.
ITEM! There's 357 shopping days until Christmas. Here's something to consider for the Theoconservative in your family!
(You can buy the book here.)
ITEM! Want a Linux distribution that's even easier than Ubuntu? Try SuperOS.
ITEM! Do you really want to know what's in her purse? Of course you do. Find out here.
And now, a word from our sponsors: