State of the Union tonight!

Oh my lord... tonight is Bush's last State of the Union address. 6pm PST, 9pm EST. I can't believe I forgot that this was coming up... normally I'd try to host a little party of people to play a drinking game while he's talking. So if anyone wants to come over tonight, I'll provide the booze.

If you can't come by, feel free to play along at home. http://www.drinkinggame.us/. That link has a fantastic drinking game that'll probably have you dead 20 minutes into the speech. =D

I'll pop back on after the speech and pass my eternal judgment upon it.

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One Down, Two to Go...

Karl Rove resigned today! In the Republican Axis of Evil, he's #2 behind Cheney and ahead of Bush. This is pretty awesome news... he's always seemed so untouchable, despite all the horrible things he's done (see salon.com's War Room for a mere sampling of the shit he's pulled).

Sticking with the old political mainstay, he's resigning to spend more time with his family. I love that BS... it's always code for "I fucked up and I need to flee before I end up in jail." Again, salon.com's War Room says it best when they say, "It's not clear why, after six and a half years of the Bush-Rove presidency, Rove's wife and college-age son need him so much on Aug. 31, 2007, that they can't wait until Jan. 20, 2009." Hahahaha.

The really heinous piece of all of this is that somehow, resigning immunizes you from prosecution. I've never understood that. It's like politicians get to choose between retaining power and facing consequences for their illegal actions, or resigning and retiring into plush lobbying jobs, consequence-free. How is that fair, again? I bet you anything the federal government never levies charges against Rove. Fucking system... where's justice!!!!

Enough of that rant... I'll leave this with my rosy prediction that I fear his resignation is simply a part of Rove's Evil Master Plan for World Domination (tm). I don't trust the man, and I don't trust that he's going to disappear into the wordwork like Ari Fleischer did lo those many years ago. He's been the spider in the center of the web for far too long to give it up now... I think we'll start feeling his hand in the next 6 months as he somehow monkeys with the 2008 presidential race. Ugh. Where are all the demon-slaying paladins when you need one.

Jerry Falwell's dead

... and I can't be happier. I feel bad saying that, because despite how evil and fucked up he was, he was still a person with family and friends who loved him.

But seriously, let's not forget just HOW evil and fucked up he was. Check out what he said during an interview with Pat Robertson on the 700 Club, on September 13, 2001. They were talking about the 9-11 attacks that happened just 2 days earlier, when he said: "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen.""

So yes... basically he said 9-11 was the liberals' fault. Damn gays and their alternative lifestyles... it's our fault Osama attacked!! .... Oy fucking vey. What a nutjob.

So yeah, I'm really happy to see this windbag leave us and face his judgment. I have no doubts that God will be rather harsh with him for spreading so much hate and discord in his time.

Edit: A great opinion piece on Falwell's legacy can be found here on salon.com, written by Alan Wolfe. I <3 salon.

This just in: Evil Death Flu Could Cost Us Money!

zomg! According to CNN, a severe flu pandemic could cause a 5.5% drop in US GDP, costing our economy roughly $683 billion! Who knew that the deaths of over 2 million people (and the sickening of another 90 million) could wreak so much havok! Oh, the humanity!! And that's not even including the losses in that elusive "core sphere" of economic activity!

So yeah... it seems profoundly stoopid to point out the economic costs of such a pandemic... as if millions of deaths would slide off the economy like water off a duck's back. Still, I guess it's good to quantify it. It gives us an opportunity cost against which to compare the cost of developing a robust vaccination infrastructure. So I suppose it's not all bad... just very silly, on the face of it.