Pittying Fools

So, apparenlty Mr. T has a reali-T show (his words, not mine) that consists of him driving from town to town pittying fools.

My initial reaction is to call it genius. But really, it'll be banal and probably rather boring.

The Republicans Are Coming!

Well, I suppose it would be more accurate to say the Republicans are going, considering I'm not in Minneapolis any more. But I will likely be! So read this post again in a year. The subject will be accurate.

The Democrats are looking at either New York or Denver. Denver is the better choice for two reasons:

1. If the Democrats choose New York it will only serve to highlight and reinforce the fact that they have no other campaign strategy than to dig through the Republicans' trash bin for ideas.

2. New York is full of hippies anyway. Reach outside of your comfort zone and represent yourself somewhere other than the Northeast for once.

And St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman gets the award for Telling It Most Like It Is:

"The good news about the Republicans choosing us instead of the Democrats," Coleman joked, "is they have more money."

He's Saying What We're All Thinking More Modest and Less venomous Versions of

Hugo Chavez, Robin to Mahmoud Ahmadenijad's Batman, is doing his job as rhetorical hyperbolic rabblerouser quite well. He's telling it like it is, folks:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took his verbal battle with the United States to the floor of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, calling President Bush "the devil."

You go girl.

Toss It on the Pile, I Suppose

The Washington Post sez: Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq

I won't give an analysis of this article or draw any conclusions, because its implications are, to me, painfully obvious. In case you don't feel like reading the entire thing, here is a selection of memorable lines:

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.

O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade .

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience.

And this:

"I'm not here for the Iraqis," one staffer noted to a reporter over lunch. "I'm here for George Bush."

And this:

Haveman, a 60-year-old social worker, was largely unknown among international health experts, but he had connections. He had been the community health director for the former Republican governor of Michigan, John Engler, who recommended him to Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense.

...

Haveman replaced Frederick M. Burkle Jr., a physician with a master's degree in public health and postgraduate degrees from Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and the University of California at Berkeley. Burkle taught at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where he specialized in disaster-response issues, and he was a deputy assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which sent him to Baghdad immediately after the war.

He had worked in Kosovo and Somalia and in northern Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. A USAID colleague called him the "single most talented and experienced post-conflict health specialist working for the United States government."