The Hinterlands, or no net access and no real news for a few days

I am preparing to go into the hinterlands for the holidays where I have no broadband access and only long distance dialup, so I have decided to combine a few of my passing thoughts into a single diary before I go.  I will no doubt have to watch only MSM TV to get any news at all and will no doubt get behind on real news like we get here on dKos.  

• New Rules (Bill Maher is missed while not in season)
  
• Piled Higher and Deeper?
  
• Real Republicans Waking Up?

More after the jump!

New Rule

No more stories on a real news station/web site/paper if it is also very likely to appear in People Mag, Entertainment Weekly, or The National Enquirer, et al.!

If I have to see just one more story about Michael Jackson in the mainstream news, I am going to start screaming at the TV when they come on and not just when Bush-Cheney-Scotty-Rove-Gonzalez-etc are visible.  My wife, children and cats will not appreciate that.  The cats are already starting to look at me in such a way that they believe in just a few more days, I will literally explode and provide plenty of fresh meat for them!  The same goes for any of the following people:

• Britney
  
• Brad
  
• Jennifer (Anniston, I still wanna hear about Garner)
  
• Paris
  
• Nicole
  
• Ahhnuld
  
• Mel
  
• etc.
  

They can all just f*** off.  I am tired of hearing anything about them, from them, to them, or how multi-colored and good smelling their shit is.  The only thing that could be worthy from any of them is if MJ were to get a real African-American nose-job/transplant to replace that clitoris-of-a-nose he has now.  Now that would be news-worthy.

Piled Higher and Deeper (with no disrespect to actual PhD's out there!)

Are we keeping up or gaining?  Is it finally happening that we have reached an instability in the pile of manure that BushCo is standing on and using to squelch dissenters?  Are Feingold, Rockefeller, Pelosi, and Slaughter protected well enough from the inevitable shit-slide that they are inducing?  How about Fitz?  Cantwell? (Go Maria!  Ask Sen. Stevens if he is good on his word to retire now that he has been thwarted not once, not twice, but five (or is it more?) times!!!)

Abramoff's pending flip could really polarize the Repugnants next week.  I suspect a whole lot of them will cower and toe the line, but which ones will explode a la DeLay in defiant rhetoric about "Liberal Persecution" and "Kangaroo Courts?"  My answer to them?  Hey, it's your court buddy!  You nominated/approved of these judges.  GTFOI and take your licks.

I am happily waiting for Fitz's next indictment party.  My hope is that every day next week is a veritable Christmas landslide of gifts.

• Fitz indicts Rove and Cheney and says that he is taking the rest of the week off before launching into 2006 and spending every day of 2006 uncovering all of the Plame affair and wherever else that leads.
  
• Abramoff flips and names 50 or more Repugnants for campaign finance fraud, money laundering, and vote buying
  
• Rep. Louise Slaughter gets BushCo to bend over and squirt out their justfication documents for warrantless spying.

Real Republicans Waking Up?

There seems to be some hope there, what with a few of them joining in voting Nay on cloture this week.  They are going to be the true heroes in this if/when they complete their 180° turn against the BushCo Radicals.  We should limit our "told ya so's" to something simple, like "We welcome you back to reality, and yes, while we did 'tell you so' five years ago, we can sure use your help now."  

<snark>
We might also extend them an olive branch by showing them how to register as Independents or Democrats.  Of course, we can do the same to the damn DINO's that come back to reality too!
</snark>

That about covers it--I have to go finish wrapping packages and packing up stuff for the drive to the hinterlands of eastern WA.