Geeks rule!

This warmed my heart:

The scientist and engineer activists are out in full effect, including current and former Fermilab scientists and support staff and academic colleagues of Bill’s. There are several people here from around the country who went to grad school with Bill and are incredibly excited about his campaign.

Some background: in Illinois today (IL-14), voters will select the replacement for former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. IL-14 is a solid red district, and this election was never supposed to be much of a horse race. Conventional wisdom had it that Republican dairy millionaire Jim Oberweis would take the seat without much fight. But then former Fermilab physicist Bill Foster (who got his doctorate from Harvard) stepped into the race. (Look at him, he even looks like an eggheaded geek. GEEKS EFFIN RULE! Do you hear me? WE RULE! Yes, I contributed to Foster.)

Now, it’s a competitive seat, and it’s costing the NRCC nearly one-third of its cash on hand to try to hang onto it.

I’m following the results here. Nothing back yet.

FOSTER WINS!

Remember, live blogging tonight.

D.

Dubya’s Dominatrix safe and sound?

Not Condi. That woman’s a bottom, don’t you think? No, I’m talking about Leola McConnell — the body builder, dominatrix, political activist, and candidate for the Nevada gubernatorial election of 2006 who claimed to have had S&M sex with George W. Bush in the 1980s, and who further claimed that Bush had had an affair with Victor Ashe, former mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee. She wrote all about this in her book, Lustful Utterances. From some online promotional material quoted here:

“Lustful Utterances” will leave many readers with knots in their stomachs but will provide clarity as to why the homoerotic-sado-masochism of Abu Ghraib prison could only have manifested itself on George Bush’s tenure as leader of the free world.

Indeed. The wife and I often wonder what Bush (whose love of torture goes back to his Yale days, maybe earlier) does with those interrogation tapes and transcripts from Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and all those black sites. Wouldn’t be surprised if videos exist, too. I wonder if he wipes them off before sharing them with Dick Cheney?

In November, there was a slew of reports that Ms. McConnell had gone missing. Conspiracy theories popped about (like a rattan cane on pasty presidential buttocks, perhaps? Choose your metaphor), given that Ms. McConnell published Lustful Utterances after Bush failed to abide by her public request that he come clean about his bisexuality. Payback, perhaps? Did Bush go nukular on his former domme and present nemesis?

Well, maybe not. I had a difficult time finding info on Ms. McConnell, but her website appears to have been recently updated (January, perhaps even more recently). I hope she’s okay. The world needs every last one of its ass-kickin’ dommes.

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Why am I checking such things? Research, my friends. Research.

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My review of The Hub Issue 43-46 is up at The Fix. Check it out.

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FUNNY.

D.

Hillary jumps the shark

Not a good debate tonight for Hillary Clinton. From her pettiness at the outset (Waaah, why do I always get asked the first questions, waaaah, don’t you watch Saturday Night Live? You guys love Obama more than meeeee! Stick a pillow under him, why dontcha?) to her dog-with-a-bone act over health care, she looked desperate, not presidential.

The true shark-jumping moment came when Tim Russert asked Obama about Louis Farrakhan’s support for him. Russert wanted to know, do you reject Farrakhan’s support? Obama replied that he has repeatedly denounced Farrakhan for his antisemitism.

Here’s the video.

What does Hillary do? At 5:55 on that video: “You asked specifically if he would reject it [Farrakhan’s support] and there’s a difference between denouncing and rejecting . . .”

Hmm. You know, she’s right:

Reject 1 a: to refuse to accept, consider, submit to, take for some purpose, or use <rejected the suggestion> <reject a manuscript> b: to refuse to hear, receive, or admit

Denounce 1: to pronounce especially publicly to be blameworthy or evil

<they denounced him as a bigot>

Denounce is the stronger word, and that’s the one Obama used. You would think Hillary would have more respect for words, given that her hubs will probably be scorned for all time for his mincing of the word “is.” Words matter. But, I forgot — she’s not running on her rhetorical gifts.

In any case, Obama’s reply hit it out of the park (6:22). Bwaaahaahaha. And the audience loved it, too.

“Good, good, excellent,” Hillary replied — as if she had just scored a major victory. Riiight.

D.

The Republican War on Christmas Trees

Why does Senator Mitch McConnell hate Christmas?

“A Christmas tree of legislative goodies that might not even get signed” by the president was how the stimulus bill was described by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R)

Yes, friends, the obstructionist Republicans have struck again, blocking passage of a $158 billion economic stimulus package. The package would have provided aid to senior citizens, veterans, and the unemployed — all bright shiny baubles the Republicans apparently want off their tree. (Or, to switch metaphors, the Republicans are yet again playing Mr. Wilson to the Democrats’ Dennis the Menace. Get off my lawn, kid!)

Senator Reid shares some of the blame, though, because he insisted on the 60-vote “supermajority” necessary to avoid a Republican filibuster.

If a Republican threatens filibuster, Reid cowers. If a Democrat threatens filibuster (as with Sen. Dodd and the FISA amnesty dispute), Reid makes the Senator go through with it. We might as well let Cheney run the Senate, since Reid’s leadership is nonexistent.

But I think it’s worth asking (metaphorically, if not literally): why do the Republicans hate Christmas Trees? You’ll hear Sen. McCain rail against ear marks and out-of-control spending — this is a Republican staple — but no tears are shed for the hemorrhage of young lives and wasted billions overseas. Apparently, we need a new austerity at home to fund our largesse abroad.

No post last night . . . I was home only two hours before the ER called me back. Not a good night.

D.

NPR sucks.

Not a half hour ago, some butt wipe on NPR said, in regard to Democratic voters:

“What’s the white male voter to do? Now, all he has to choose from is Hillary or Obama. All you have to do is look at them and you’ll see the problem. He has no one to vote for now.”

I’m paraphrasing, but you get the idea. This same yutz said that men don’t vote for Hillary and white people don’t vote for Obama (tell that to the citizens of Iowa). So, in one sweeping overgeneralization, he labeled all us white males racists and sexists. Not only that, but by implication, the only reason I backed Edwards was because he had all the right qualities — white and male.

What. A. Dick.

D.

Damn it.

You’ve probably heard: John Edwards has pulled out. Now the mainstream media needn’t do the wink-wink, nudge-nudge whenever they portray this as a two-horse race. Like it or not, that’s what we have.

It’s rare for a politician’s words to choke me up, but Edwards’s concession got to me. It reminded me of everything I’ve loved about him — first and foremost, his commitment to making this country a better place for ALL Americans, not just the wealthy.

Crooks and Liars has the full transcript. Here’s a snippet:

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Duggars

Wendy’s August, 2007 post at Snarky Gossip still gets comments.

The reason why they have so many kids is because they don’t believe in birth control or having surgery to stop getting pregnant. It’s part of their religion. Every child is a gift from God and they should accept it with open arms.

You guys need to think before you comment. Seriously.

As an initial response, I considered picking apart the commenter’s choice of pronoun (accept it with open arms? IT?) That one little word seemed to summarize all that is wrong with the Quiverfull group’s attitude toward children. But maybe “it” was a slip, the sort of error an inexperienced writer makes when he’s eager to avoid the appearance of sexism. Maybe I was getting a little too overheated, once again, about She of the Bottomless Womb. Yeah. Overheated.

And then I had an epiphany:

America needs the Duggars.

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