Reasons To Be Thankful

Roger Ailes will be counting his blessings at an undisclosed location this year. Posting should resume on Saturday, barring unforeseen trichinosis.

We leave you with this year's shortlist of reasons to be thankful (listed in no particular order):

Only 13 more months of misrule.

The Bill of Rights.

Public libraries.

George Soros (That's rogerailes@fastmail.fm, George).

Crossword puzzles.

The American Cancer Society.

(What's left of) the California coastline.

BBC Radio online.

Family.

Friends.

The fine men and women whose sites are listed to the right, who make this world a wiser, fairer and more enjoyable place.

Two Questions

What are the names of these punks?

Can Hannity be prosecuted for recieving stolen property?

And when will a certain Tennessee cracker call for the subpoenaing of Hannity?

Okay, that's three questions.

Any answers to the non-rhetorical questions will be greatly appreciated.

Kevin McCullough of WorldNutDaily, last seen slandering Ed Anser as a Stalin apologist, has set his sights now on crap clothier Abercrombie & Fitch. McCullough claims the latest Christmas catalog from the company contains forty-five "specific portrayals of sexual imagery" (sic), including the kinds of depraved acts Neil Bush would indulge in if only someone else would pay for it. Apparently this year's holiday motif is "teens/young adults frolicking in a river engaging in sexual activity in multiple group settings." I hate it when group river sex becomes commercialized.

Apologies, Anyone?

Let's review how some of the nation's most respected opinion leaders previously characterized Captain James Yee, an American serviceman and chaplain who stands accused of adultery and browsing internet porn.

Michelle Malkin:

There's something terribly wrong when an American soldier overseas can't receive Scriptures in the mail, but a Muslim chaplain can preach freely among al Qaeda and Taliban enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay.

This is a story of two soldiers, one Christian, one Muslim. It's a cautionary tale that suggests how religious double standards and politically driven hypersensitivity threaten not only our troops, but us all.

Mona Charen:

This ought to shut up our European detractors who've been screaming that we are torturing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Not only do we provide the inmates there with medical care, surgery, dentistry, reading matter, familiar and religiously permitted foods, copies of the Koran and religious services -- we've also provided spies. Two, at least -- and counting -- to judge from news reports.

The first is Capt. James Yee, 35, who served as a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo. Yee is a Chinese American who was raised a Lutheran but converted to Islam while in the military.

John Leo:

The military prison at Guantanamo Bay is the most secure facility the United States has ever built. At least it�s supposed to be. But it�s beginning to look as though Muslim terrorists or their sympathizers may have already figured out how to penetrate it.

Frank Gaffney:

One can only hope that the surveillance that resulted in Yee�s arrest is part of a wider effort to ensure that chaplains ministering to Muslims in the U.S. military are promoting the sorts of moderate, pro-American views he purportedly held in 2001, rather than the sort of radical, intolerant and jihadist views of the so-called �Islamists.� Otherwise, the danger is very real that serving members of the armed forces could be subjected to ominous proselytizing intended to give rise to clandestine Fifth Column activities in this country and a whole new front in the War on Terror.

To be sure, these blowhards all inserted "allegedly" or the like somewhere in their columns, no doubt at the insistence of their syndicates' lawyers. But from their prose you know they were all well lubricated by the idea of a Muslim traitor in the U.S. Army.

These cretinous columnists have two things in common: (1) The source of their reports: The Moonie Times; (2) You know they won't revisit Captain Yee's story any time soon.

Way to Go, Matt

Matt Yglesias is not afraid to throw down when wingnuts start to smear. Commenting on a Washington Times profile on George Soros, Yglesias says:

"Worst of all, he backed the McCain-Feingold bill, but now is contributing money to liberal political causes in ways that don't violate the McCain-Feingold rules. Scandal! Leaving this aside, let's note that the Times, financed as it is by a deranged cult, is not exactly well-positioned to complain about where the left gets its cash." (Emphasis added)

Those are the words that everyone needs to hear every time the Moonie Times is mentioned.

Sanctify Me, Baby

President Bush criticized Tuesday's ruling by Massachusetts' highest court striking down the state's ban on same-sex marriage and said he would work with Congress to "defend the sanctity of marriage."

"Marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman," Bush said in a statement released shortly after he arrived in London for a state visit. He said the ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court "violates this important principle."

How ... sacred ... is ... it? Just ask Neilsie:

The Bush divorce, completed in April, was prompted in part by [Neil] Bush's relationship with another woman. He admitted in the deposition that he previously had sex with several other women while on trips to Thailand and Hong Kong at least five years ago.

The women, he said, simply knocked on the door of his hotel room, entered and engaged in sex with him. He said he did not know if they were prostitutes because they never asked for money and he did not pay them.

"Mr Bush, you have to admit it's a pretty remarkable thing for a man just to go to a hotel room door and open it and have a woman standing there and have sex with her," Brown said.

"It was very unusual," Bush said.

Sacred like room service. Motherfucker didn't even leave a tip.

Hey, Professor Milton Rosenburg of WGN's "Extension 720" has his own blog. I think Milt's far to the right of me, but his show is thought-provoking and literate and Milt's unfailingly polite to his guests. (Just the opposite of this site.) And he links to Kieran Healy and Crooked Timber!

You'd think WGN would pay to get rid of his Blogspot ad, though. C'mn you cheap bastards, show Milt some respect.

KURTZ: Jonah Goldberg, is Michael Jackson being convicted by the media?

JONAH GOLDBERG, "NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE": I think somewhat, yes. I mean, I think...

KURTZ: And you're not troubled by this?

GOLDBERG: Not terribly, because I actually think he's guilty. But -- and I think James raises a very good point about how this is a continuation of a story. In many ways, I liken it to the O.J. Simpson case.

In many ways, I liken Jonah Goldberg to a used condom. Very profound, JoJo.

Despite Jonah's efforts to suck all intelligence out of the program, Wolcott got off a great line: " Also, I have to say that my favorite new TV personality is Michael's personal magician, Majestic Magnificent. I mean, you would think calling yourself Majestic would be enough. But no, he's majestic and magnificent."

And James Wolcott really nailed Rush to the mast with this comment:

And apparently over a number of years it adds up to $300,000 or $400,000, which he said was for gratuities and travel and paying off the contractors. I mean, you know, it sounds like he's throwing out thousand-dollar tips to the bellhop. That's a very interesting development, and that blows up the -- you know, the mode of Rush's personal saga, that it's all about him beating drugs. Now we know.

Hack to Basics

Little Mickey Kaus is back to his old tricks again. The plagiarists' pal is criticizing Howie Kurtz for not commenting on Bernard Weinraub, a NYT journo who lifted paragraphs from a website for a showbiz story in the Times. Kaus wonders why Kurtz wrote about a Denver Post plagiarist but is silent on Weinraub.

If you click on the link to Howie's story, you see the Denver plagiarist was guilty of 13 separate incidents of plagiarism, which might make his misdeeds more newsworthy than a single incident by Weinraub. But Mick doesn't have a hardon for the Denver thief like he does for the Timesman. (Kaus could try to find 12 more incidents (or even one) by Weinraub, but that would require actual effort.)

And why isn't Kaus kvetching about Howie's lack of coverage for Slate's own resident web-plagiarist, Margo Howard? Does Kurtz have to clear all his plagiarism stories with Kaus to make sure he's writing about a Kaus enemy?

And let's not forget Kaus' own friendship with the woman who invented cut-and-paste journalism, Ruth Shalit. I don't recall Kaus waxing moralistic when any of her many thefts were disclosed.

Southern Heritage ... Gun Ownership ... Tennessee...

This story has it all.

Where's Professor Reynolds with the in depth coverage?

(Via Atrios)

Mr. Krugman, for his part, said he did not remember seeing the cover until prepublication copies were sent to reviewers. "I think it was intended to be ironic," he said.

The cover images of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney were borrowed from puppets carried by protesters outside the World Economic Forum in New York in 2002. Mr. Krugman said that he took part in the forum and does not share the protesters' views. He noted that his columns have defended free trade and argued that the administration's war in Iraq was not about oil.

"It is a marketing thing, not a statement," he said. "I should have taken a look at that and said, `What are you doing marketing me as if I am Michael Moore? This is silly.' "

Incivility is one thing, he said, but the book cover "may be undignified, which would be a reason to object."

Krugman did not go on to say "If you can't argue with the facts, attack the cover of the English edition." But he should have.