Picking My Brain 06-10-25

If you find my keys among today's pickings, please drop them in the nearest U.S. Mail Box.

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"This morning my administration released the budget numbers for fiscal 2006. These budget numbers are not just estimates, these are the actual results for the fiscal year that ended February the 30th."
-- Dubya releases budget numbers for a fiscal year that apparently ended on a fictional date, Washington, D.C., Oct. 11, 2006 (courtesy DubyaSpeak.com)
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Scarborough Country

Kinky Friedman was on a three-way of "pundits" and used a good term. He said he represents "The Middle Finger Vote". I like that. It has a better ring than "protest vote". (Sheesh, that sounds like something a liberal would say, which is why I'll stop using it.) It's "Middle Finger" for me from now on. But to be honest, as funny as the guy is sometimes, I'm glad he's not gonna be my governor. He's a little scary, though Jane says she does like his story about the hummingbirds. I won't go into it here; you can read his book. Nice story.

As I write this, Bill Maher is waiting to come on the show. As the first segment ended and they went to commercial, they showed Bill sitting in whatever little room he was in (his home?) and he had a strange look of what might be concern on his face. And I wondered then (and still do because he hasn't come on yet) if Bill would ask Joe about what Kinky said as he signed off. He said, "You know Joe, I define politics like this. You've got 'poli-' which means 'many', and you got 'tics', which means 'blood-sucking insects'." That was a joke on the cover of one of Bill Maher's books. Did Kinky know that Bill was going to be on?

P.S. They didn't discuss it in the first part of the interview. The second part airs tomorrow night, but I don't always watch Scarborough. I almost wish I hadn't watched this half. I forgot that one of my favorite new shows Eureka was on at the same time. I still haven't adapted my TV viewing. Luckily I remembered the episode from the first time they aired it. [Full disclosure: I did that link because I need the practice. I'm still learning. Still, it's a good show, especially if you like sci-fi. Very intelligent and funny.]

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Unless I'm mistaken, it appears that the White House was used for partisan political purposes during a campaign when a bunch of talk radio hosts broadcast from there, interviewing members of the administration. Something doesn't sound right about this. I may be ignorant, but I could have sworn that this was a highly illegal use of the White House and taxpayer money. You know, it is our White House, and if it is being used illegally, don't we as private citizens have some recourse to demand that the Justice Dept investigate to see if any laws were broken? I need to look into this. Keep your ears open about this, folks. I might be getting all jittery over nothing. I hope so, though I don't like what that implies, either.

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Glenn Beck (guest on AC-360 [transcript] right after the above crime was reported) suggested that reading Bush's words, rather than hearing them, is more uplifting (on account of he's so bad at public speaking). I have to presume that Beck is referring to Bush's speeches, and not his extemporaneous comments. Of course Bush's words look better on paper, they're not his words! They're the speechwriter's words, and he probably cringes whenever he hears Bush speak them. (Personally, I wouldn't want to listen to Bush read any speech that I wrote for him.) I suggest that Glenn Beck check out Dubya Speak. It always makes me laugh, and they even have a number of audio clips so you can hear it for yourself.

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First item on the list of Things to Do once the Democrats take over at least one of the Houses of Congress: The first time they sit down to negotiate anything with Bush, they must make it absolutely, positively unmistakable that the American people have made it crystal clear that they are dissatisfied with this administration and its policies. If they were happy with them, the Democrats wouldn't be there to negotiate. There is no way around that simple fact. If people want the Republicans to continue rubber-stamping Bush's agenda, then they won't vote for change in thirteen days.

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Well, have a good day, everyone. As Krusty the Clown says, "Give a hoot! Read a book!"