Many news organizations, including Reuters, have reported that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been admitted to a hospital following the discovery of a small blood clot stemming from the concussion she suffered earlier this month.
Many in the right wing media have been trying to say, sometimes in a roundabout way and sometimes directly, that she was faking her concussion to get out of testifying about what happened in the Sept 11 attack on the Benghazi Consulate. Of course, there is no basis whatsoever for these accusations, but when did the truth ever stop the right wing from saying anything? Fox News hasn’t been shy about questioning the veracity of Secretary Clinton’s claims or the seriousness of her injury. While she was following doctor’s orders and getting bed rest (a smart thing to do after a concussion, especially when you were sick when you got it), some Fox News people have wondered aloud (and on camera) why she still couldn’t testify as scheduled on Benghazi. (I’m no doctor, but I’m guessing the brain damage prevalent at Fox News was not the result of concussions, but simply a prerequisite for being hired to work there as an on-air “talent.”)
Bill O’Reilly dismissively said, “If She Was In The NFL I Wouldn’t Let Her Play, But I Think She Can Make A Phone Call.” And former unconfirmed G. W. Bush UN Ambassador John “I Am The Walrus Mustache” Bolton even pushed a story about how diplomats lie to get out of meetings they don’t wish to attend.
Fox News contributor John Bolton told host Greta van Susteren that when foreign service officers “don’t want to go to a meeting or conference or event,” they have “a diplomatic illness. And this is a diplomatic illness to beat the band.”
And Fox’s Laura Ingraham mocked Sec. Clinton’s condition saying, “We Are Now Calling This The Immaculate Concussion.” It’s actually pretty ignorant of them to say, “No one knows where she is.” Of course people knew – she was at home, as previously reported, where her doctor’s told her to stay. O’Reilly even said where she was later in the segment.
It’s time for Fox News to start apologizing for accusing the Secretary of State of faking her concussion so she wouldn’t have to testify regarding the Benghazi attack. And they’re not the only ones. Soon-to-be former Congressman Allen West said that she was trying to get out of testifying with a bout of the “Benghazi Flu.” To her credit, Fox’s Greta van Susteren has pushed back on these accusations saying, “I don’t agree with any of my (Fox News) colleagues or anyone else who is a tad bit sarcastic on our air about Secretary Clinton’s health.”
Given his well-documented obsession with Hillary Clinton, we can only imagine what Rush Limbaugh has said on the subject. We have to because none of us here can stomach listening to that blowhard.
Surely their apologies are imminent. Yeah, just as surely as I’ll be sworn in next month to replace Secretary Clinton.
This is our daily open thread. Feel free to discuss Hillary’s concussion, Rush’s obsessions, O’Reilly’s brain damage, or any other topic you wish. And from all of us at The Zoo, please enjoy your New Year’s Eve celebrations safely and responsibly.
TheZoo 
In the event Secretary Clinton’s health required her to resign as Secretary of State, before the next appointed person could be confirmed, I wondered who would serve as acting Secretary of State? That would be the Deputy Secretary of State, William Joseph Burns, a career diplomat since 1982. He was confirmed by unanimous consent of the Senate to that post on July 27, 2011. He speaks Russian, Arabic, and French, and has served as ambassador to Jordan and Russia, in addition to numerous ascending duties in the State Department.
What prevented him from getting a promotion to Secretary of State?
Hillary did a great job in this cabinet position. Next to the Presidency, Secretary of State has to be the worst job.
I would think that the Secretary of State has to be a person close to the President in order to implement the foreign policy vision of the President. A career State Department official might be neutral or opposed to some of those goals. Susan Rice would be close enough to Obama for that to work. John Kerry’s own goals must closely mirror Obama’s already, for him to be the next best choice. That’s what made Hillary so good at the job. They opposed each other for President, but there really wasn’t that much difference in how they viewed US foreign policy.
There really wasn’t much difference between any of their policies. I explained there difference with two words; “I” vs “We”. Hillary would say, “Yes, I can” whereas Obama would say, “Yes, we can”. Other than that, their positions were very similar. The only reason I didn’t vote for Hillary in the primary was my concern about the return of the right wing attacks of her husband’s presidency. Now, Hillary is the darling of the right wing. That will change quickly if she runs for the presidency, again.
I would have liked to sleep late this morning. Once I get up to go to the bathroom, and realize I have to add wood to the woodstove, then have to drink something to soothe my dry throat, I’m up. Oh well, I slept five hours, maybe that’s enough.
Back in October, at my job, we were told to start coming in an hour earlier, at six am, and that we would be working every Friday, except Thanksgiving, until Christmas at least. That results in a fifty hour week, with four elevens and 6 to noon on Friday. Then only a couple of guys worked any Fridays in December, and I didn’t get to work even one. Before anyone could put in for vacation for the three days between Christmas and New Year, the company put up a notice explaining that no one would be allowed to use vacation those three days, to make a long holiday break, because so many would ask off, that it wouldn’t be worthwhile to keep the shop open those days. Thursday before Christmas, we were told we would work that following Wednesday through Friday, ‘so we could get as close to forty hours as we could’. This last Thursday, we were told we wouldn’t work Friday, and then we were sent home an hour early. With the eight hours holiday pay, we got 29 hours last week. Some are having to use vacation now to make their check a full week. Plus on Wednesday, we’re back to the seven am starting time, indicating that the work has slowed down.
Were we treated fairly by this company? I’m curious to get some other opinions from people in different areas.
It’s been many years since I worked for company where I was paid “hourly”. My last two jobs were salaried positions which means that I put in as much overtime as needed without additional pay. If my work load slowed down, then I would take the extra hours that I worked as “comp time”. My schedule was flexible which suited me fine. Also, the salaried positions paid well for which I am grateful for today as it raised my Social Security income.
I’m not sure if the comp time that I took made up for all the extra hours that I worked. I do know that those extra hours involved getting a project done on time and that I never resented it because I always felt like I did my best to achieve my goal no matter what it took to get there.
How do you feel? Do you feel like you have been treated unfairly?
My main complaint is being told we would get forty hours, then weren’t offered that opportunity. Denying everyone in the company the chance to get an extended holiday break with just three days vacation was my next annoyance.
We were running out of work on the shop floor, by early afternoon on Thursday. There wasn’t enough to do to keep people productive, but they could have seen this coming and let folks take the vacation ahead of time, so the work wouldn’t have run out.
Maybe ask for a meeting with management and explain the situation. If they know that there won’t be enough work, then they should plan for that.
You may have been treated unfairly if those Fridays were allocated unfairly to management’s favorites. I also worry about any firm that cannot predict its labor needs more than a day ahead. If hours are shortened we “paycheck to paycheck” folks need to be able to plan for that, so fair or not it seems callous.
Our standard work schedule is four ten hour days, Monday through Thursday. In the last hour or so on Thursday, we are informed whether or not we are to work the next day.
I haven’t seen a lot of favoritism on assigning Friday work. Whoever is doing a ‘hot’ job gets asked to work. The boss’s favorite might be asked to work Friday in order that enough machines run to make it cost-effective to have the lights on and run the air compressor.
The other thing about poor scheduling by your management is that some people have second jobs or other responsibilities like child care and need to plan ahead for these.
Are benefits dependent on number of hours worked?
That could be part of the ‘cost cutting’ that they aren’t calling ‘cost cutting’.
Our vacation and sick leave is accrued by the week, whether you work a full 40 or not.
August 1, 2011:
Boehner: I got 98 percent of what I wanted
Well, we saw what good that did for the country. It’s time for Obama to get 98 percent of what we, the people, want.
The Republican pundits are all trying to make the case that President Obama can get a deal any time he wants, as long as their side gets 98 percent of what they want again.
I do believe that Obama set a trap for the Republicans back on August 1, 2011.
In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells]
by Lord Alfred Tennyson
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
Wishing all of you a good new year.
Very nice, Outstanding. Looking forward to a better year in 2013.
Happy New Year!
And lo, the Angel of the Lord broke the Seventh Seal, and Fame Whore of Babylon did conceive the next generation of useless celebrity. Kim Kardashian is pregnant with Kanye West’s demon seed.
Oh yikes!
Guess Kim Kardashian is the recent “britney spears”. Do people really care about these so called “celebrities”?
I don’t. I don’t even care about the personal lives of those with actual talent, let alone someone that I don’t even know what she is famous for.
What does she do???? And why does the press chase the Kardashians????
Good questions. I’ve run across the name here and there, but have absolutely no idea as to the who and why behind it (or the ‘what’ for that matter). I think that, in this vein at least, I may be one of the lucky ones.
PS: Who or what is “Kanye West”?
Rap artist. I actually like some of his music. He’s also the guy who went on TV during a Katrina benefit concert and said George Bush didn’t care about black people.
I believe the Kardashian daughters’ father was Robert Kardashian, one of OJ’s lawyers. Robert may have hidden the knife used in the murders (in that gym bag he was seen carrying to an airport), but that may be a secret he took to his grave (assuming his wife, Kris, didn’t know; and if she were smart, she would have said she didn’t want to know.)
Britney Spears, by virtue of millions of record sales, has a talent. The Kardashians are famous for merely being famous.
I’m too nice a guy to post a link to her photo. Suffice it to say her baby will be very well fed!
Rap Artist is an oxymoron.
What a terrifying prospect. 😯
I can’t decide what’s more terrifying: Those two as parents, or the child itself.
Demon seed? You are going all out for New Years Eve badmoodma. 🙂
No wonder he gets called an appeaser. Obama may be at it again:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/12/why-is-obama-caving-on-taxes.html
Not sure that this writer is up-to-date on the negotiations. I don’t anyone really knows what is going on and I expect to “go over the cliff” on January 1.
let’s hope so….i love the prospects that could evolve from going over the speed bump…
God @TheTweetOfGod
As of {tomorrow} there are teenagers who were born in the 21st century. In a related story, you are old.
And God would be wrong because the 21st century started Jan 1, 2001. The first year was 1, not 0, so the last year of the 1st century was 100, not 99. The 2nd century ended in 200, the 3rd in 300, and so on. So the 20th century ended at the end of 2000, and the 21st began 01/01/2001.
Looked at another way, all centuries begin on 01/01/01 (by our current calendar.)
So I have at least one more year before I am “old.” 🙂
Meh. In a universe that’s roughly 13.8 billion years old, … well, you know, even I’m still “young.” By comparison. 🙂
As the great philosopher Groucho Marx said, “You’re only as young as the woman you feel.”
i’ve used that and have been slapped…..
I prefer “A man is never old as long as he still finds a woman his age attractive.”
There are A LOT of old men in this world. 😉
I do, truthfully, find ALL women attractive. Unless they turn out to be wingnuts (or, I suppose, Republicans, period). Them, not so much (or, stated a bit more succinctly, “Oh Ick.”)
Wayne, yanno you can be a real killjoy.
Per DK: President to address the nation about budget negotiations
1.30p (EST)/12.30p (CST)/11.30a (MST)/10.30a (PST)/8.30a (HST)
Mr President, take the rest of the day off, let’s go over the fiscal speed bump and let’s get some popcorn ready for the Republican slasher movie that will erupt in real time.
C-Span live
(Pres to speak momentarily)
He’s always late.
That was Obama’s offer to Boehner, more or less. Will the House still say no?
Oh gawd.
Oh for fuck’s sake….
The Senate still has to pass this and so does the House.
I wonder why McConnell is willing to negotiate with Biden but not with Reid. That’s a bit strange.
Off the top of my head, Reid has been regularly mocking McTurtle on the Senate floor, so McConnell couldn’t be seen negotiating with his tormentor. By negotiating with Joe Biden, McTurtle may be thinking that it makes Reid look unimportant in the process, while it makes Turtlehead look important enough to have to deal with the #2 boss. It doesn’t.
Let’s revisit this, shall we:
“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was set to face a grilling from Congress this week over the terrorist attacks in Benghazi when she started channeling the late poet Shel Silverstein. “I have the measles and the mumps / A gash, a rash and purple bumps,” said Clinton, in effect, informing the House and Senate (with regrets!) that she was suffering too many maladies to testify as expected about the Sept. 11 attack in Libya…
Clinton’s story beggars belief: While traveling in Europe, she contracted a stomach virus . . . which made her dehydrated . . . which made her faint at home . . . which caused her to fall and hit her head . . . which gave her a nasty concussion,” – the New York Post editors, December 18.
Dehydration in seniors, yes Hillary is a senior, is serious. It is also very serious in children, especially babies and toddlers.
In regard to the Dehli rape victim who recently died…
In a culture of rape, you’re blamed for fighting back, and accused of being a slut who really wanted it if you don’t fight back.
Why is this even a topic of conversation? Men should be trained not to be god-damned rapists.
Well this looks to me like a win for the White House and the economy:
“Taxes would rise in some sense on the top 2 percent of earners, as Mr. Obama had wanted. That is because the deal would reinstate provisions to tax law, ended by the Bush tax cuts of 2001, that phase out personal exemptions and deductions for the affluent. Those phaseouts, under the agreement, would begin at $250,000 for single people and $300,000 for couples.
The estate tax would also rise, but considerably less than Democrats had wanted. The value of estates over $5 million would be taxed at 40 percent, up from the current 35 percent. Democrats had wanted a 45 percent rate on inheritances larger than $3.5 million. Under the deal, the new rates on income, investment and inheritances would be permanent.
Mr. Obama and the Democrats would be granted a five-year extension of tax cuts they won in the 2009 stimulus law for middle-class and working-poor taxpayers. Those include a child credit that goes out as a check to workers who do not earn enough money to pay income taxes, an expanded earned income credit and a refundable credit for tuition. Democrats also secured a full year’s extension of unemployment insurance without strings attached, a $30 billion cost.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/us/politics/2-sides-in-talks-inch-closer-but-no-fiscal-deal-on-final-day.html?hp&_r=0
No wonder the repiggies are dragging their feet.
I suspect they’ve also messed themselves, stained their shorts sotospeak. Good. Too bad shit stains aren’t fatal (to the issuer, of course) is about all I can say to that whole concept.
George Clooney
I have to agree with George Clooney on this. We share similar beliefs.
rAmen.
Stupid or evil? Obviously, both are in play but I can still never decide which is really the driving force.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/12/31/10-dumbest-things-fox-said-about-climate-change/191859
QOTD:
“If Republicans think I will finish the job of deficit reduction through spending cuts … then they have another thing coming,” – President Obama, about 90 minutes ago.
Hope that the “thing coming” is a fast moving train.
Shayne, thanks for posting this story.
(it’s not being stated where the clot(s) may be)
Blood clots are serious – especially if they begin to travel and end up in the lungs.
It is disgusting that the RWNjobs take the time to denigrate Hillary.
I read this online today. The writer references a particularly vile blog
“I am a practicing general/trauma surgeon here in Cleveland. Hillary Clinton’s blood clot (or “deep venous thrombosis”) is almost certainly related to her recent closed head injury. Trauma patients, particularly those with significant head or spinal trauma, are considered high risk for the development of these clots. The fact that Mrs Clinton developed a clot a few years ago additionally raises her risk portfolio. We see this all the time in medical/trauma practice. Head injuries alter the coagulation parameters of the body in unpredictable, potentially deleterious ways. As a result of this, I would expect her to require anticoagulation therapy for the rest of her life.
The Althouse response is hysterical on so many levels. The part where she writes – ” Was it her brain (recently concussed)? Was it her leg (where she had a blood clot back in 1998)? The former is a big deal, the latter, not so much. Why not specify the site, since it make such a big difference, medically? ” – is about as ignorant as it gets. A blood clot in the leg is extraordinarily dangerous. Those clots have a propensity for breaking off and traveling to the main arteries supplying the lungs where you can, you know, die instantly.”
I’ve been taking Warfarin for more than 20 years, even had a ‘Greenfield filter’ inserted into my vena cava about ten years ago, all thanks to leg DVT’s. My brother also endured DVT’s in his legs (following colonic surgery ca. 2006) till his doctor took him off the Warfarin sometime in mid-2011. He died an hour before midnight one year ago tonight, from an embolism.
DVT’s are nothing to casually dismiss, they can be deadly. Godspeed Hillary, and STAY ON THE WARFARIN!!!
God, how I’ve come to DETEST Republicans. I mean, really. Worthless fuckers.
Your daily walks are good for your circulation. Here is a list of causes that create a thrombosis.
http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/t/thrombosis/riskfactors.htm
People don’t realize that a broken bone especially in the leg increases the risk of a deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
So Frugal, just keep walking. 🙂
2049.4 miles in 2012, and yep, I’m gonna best that in 2013!
DVT’s can also result from hospitalization, esp. if one has already had a DVT (as has Hillary, if my info is correct … 1998? Leg?). My first one showed up in 1992, reason unknown. Then, in 2000, after 18 hrs of surgery plus a week in ITC recovering, it took about a month before DVT’s in BOTH legs showed up at the same time. I’ve been on Warfarin ever since, with regular (monthly) INR tests for clotting time, and will never not have to take the damn stuff. Plus, I have a Greenfield Filter in my vena cava to reduce the probability of embolism. So far, so good, but sometimes I have to wonder about medication for decades when it’d be simpler (and, near as I can tell, no less ‘pleasant’) to simply do as my brother did and die from an embolism.
Then I take a walk, six or seven miles across the prairie, out there with the deer, bears, cougars, coyotes, rabbits, snakes, crows, et al. et al. (not a Republican in sight, ‘cept when driving their pickups way-too-fast down the paved streets, once I get back in ‘civilization’) … life ‘out there’ is well worth wandering through. Life amongst people, not so much. Interesting and ironic, seems to me.
Which is one big reason why, I suppose, that I keep on taking my Warfarin. Life can be sweet, now and then.
DVT’s are a big risk post surgery. That is why the nurses get patients up and out of bed post surgery as soon as possible.
My mom suffered a near fatal pulmonary embolism after knee replacement surgery, and I think it was because they took her off the blood thinners way too soon.
Agreed on all counts. My experience with DVT began when I broke my leg, in 4 places, when I was 17. I made it until I was almost 50, with no ill effects aside from an occasional dull ache, and then the “fun” started. Oddly enough, the first clot that needed treatment was in my other leg but it was soon joined by a cluster around the old breaks. Now? The old leg looks like someone ran a baseball over with a mower and stitched it back together in the dark, after a bottle of tequila, wearing mittens. Thankfully, after a couple really rough years, the Warfarin has done its job.
MSNBC is reporting Hillary Clinton suffered a clot between her brain and skull.
And that she’s in good spirits! I was worried that the news silence was because her condition was more grave.
Q: What do you call a billionaire who gets a 15% tax hike?
A: A billionaire.
Q: What do you call a billionaire who paid up to 90% on his/her income under Eisenhower?
A: A billionaire.
Btw, the NYSE is up 142 points as it closes for the day and year. The “cliff” is not an end-of-the-world doomsday scenario like in 2008 when the House rejected the bank bailout bill. The NYSE tanked about 8% that day.
The repiggie/conservative/teabagger wingnuts are in mourning.
Rep John Lewis’ wife of 44 years has died.
More info about the couple.
http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2012/12/31/rep-john-lewis-wife-lillian-dies/
John Boehner is a FAILURE.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/breaking-house-wont-vote-on-fiscal-cliff-deal
And water is wet…
Nancy Pelosi was a great Speaker, but these days she’s looking like the best Speaker of all time, in comparison to the Weepy Orange Boner.
We should all send him boxes of tissues.
Robert Reich says:
The deal emerging from the Senate is a lousy one. Let me count the ways:
1. Republicans haven’t conceded anything on the debt ceiling, so over the next two months – as the Treasury runs out of tricks to avoid a default – Republicans are likely to do exactly what they did before, which is to hold their votes on raising the ceiling hostage to major cuts in programs for the poor and in Medicare and Social Security.
2. The deal makes tax cuts for the rich permanent (extending the Bush tax cuts for incomes up to $400,000 if filing singly and $450,000 if jointly) while extending refundable tax credits for the poor (child tax credit, enlarged EITC, and tuition tax credit) for only five years. There’s absolutely no justification for this asymmetry.
3. It doesn’t get nearly enough revenue from the wealthiest 2 percent — only $600 billion over the next decade, which is half of what the President called for, and a small fraction of the White House’s goal of more than $4 trillion in deficit reduction. That means more of the burden of tax hikes and spending cuts in future years will fall on the middle class and the poor.
4. It continues to exempt the first $5 million of inherited wealth from the estate tax (the exemption used to be $1 million). This is a huge gift to the heirs of the wealthy, perpetuating family dynasties of the idle rich.
Yes, the deal finally gets Republicans to accept a tax increase on the wealthy, but this is an inside-the-Beltway symbolic victory. If anyone believes this will make the GOP more amenable to future tax increases, they don’t know how rabidly extremist the GOP has become.
The deal also extends unemployment insurance for more than 2 million long-term unemployed. That’s important.
But I can’t help believe the President could have done better than this. After all, public opinion is overwhelmingly on his side. Republicans would have been blamed had no deal been achieved.
More importantly, the fiscal cliff is on the President’s side as well. If we go over it, he and the Democrats in the next Congress that starts later this week can quickly offer legislation that grants a middle-class tax cut and restores most military spending. Even rabid Republicans would be hard-pressed not to sign on.
I think Obama knows what he is doing. He is well aware of how the Republicans in the House will respond. They will stamp their feet, hold their breath until they turn blue in the face, and then cut their nose off to spite their face and say “NO DEAL”. Then they will proceed to get drunk, celebrate New Year’s Eve and their spouses will start spending THEIR raise on January 1, 2013.
And then he gets everything (or most) he wanted? Or the Bush tax cuts just expire — finally?
I’m seeing a peculiar effect with Zooey’s gravatar. All parent comments have the champagne glasses, but the replies are still the FSM!
I guess I’ll be having things both ways this evening. 🙂
Perhaps a refresh will clear that up. I just opened the comments up and I see her champagne glass in all her comments.
Yes it’s normal now. I tried several refreshes at the time I saw that.
Hillary Clinton has more guts, patriotism, determination, drive and willpower than any of the RW Assholes who are dogging her about sidestepping “her duty” to testify at the witch burning.
fuck them….just my humble two cents
I posted today’s press conference by President Obama as a separate thread.
with a twist of my knife hand i will gladly shuck my way through a couple dozen kumamoto oysters….right on through the new year.
I have to drive myself home from the party tonight so I will have to pass on this game. Nonewhere is not feeling well so he is staying home and I am going to the party.
Nonewhere is still feeling yucko? I’m sorry to hear that. Stay safe tonight, Cats.
Thanks. I don’t have far to go, maybe 1 mile on a country road and I’ll probably leave before midnight. It will be nice to see some of my friends. The person that is having the party always has great parties. The house will be filled with liberals. Just the way I like it. 🙂
The deadline is closing fast and I am just not sure what one should wear for stepping off a fiscal cliff. If it is anything like the various RW claims of doom, I’m thinking a nice comfy pair of shoes.
I could be wrong, but I think they can pass a deal retroactively restoring anything lost at midnight tonight. The House plans no votes. Probably because Boehner is drunk already.
Still. 😉
No, Wayne, as of midnight the country will tumble into an abyss of no return as predicted by the Mayans. We are doomed, I tell ya, doomed for all eternity! Or at least til sometime next week.
Ramen I say to you my brotheren and sisteren (not to be confused with cisterns) the FSM shall rise up and provide pasta for our fall so that when we land after our tumble from the heathen fiscal cliff we shall rise again. Cloaked in Alfredo and Marinara, we, as a country, will once again become the leaders of the world, spreading ravioli and linguini in piece to all. Those who embrace the wisdom of portobellos and provolone shall be shielded from the iniquities of Republicans and their dogfood prophecies. In the realm of the FSM there are no fiscals, only noodles.
Can we also land in olive oil and garlic? It’s good for skin.
What is pasta without olive oil and garlic? Ya think the FSM is chintzy? 🙂
I was concerned since it wasn’t mentioned. Thanks for confirming it. 🙂
“What is pasta without olive oil and garlic?”
Chef-Boyardee?
An heretic!
The Chef was probably a Republican!
Before you go to bed tonight make sure you have a Chinese-English translation dictionary handy ’cause when you wake up and finally turn around after looking up at the cliff you just fell off of, all the road signs, all the books, everything, will be in the language of the new overlords. This is true because the Mayans told me.
Thanks for letting us know. Will we be falling to the other side of the planet?
It will be just like the poles switching every 33,000 years or so.
Is anyone else watching The Revvies?
I saw it last week. Everyone looks so nice 🙂 Love the Rev.
It’s time for the annual Banished Words/Phrases list from Lake Superior State University…
Fiscal Cliff
Kick The Can Down The Road
Double Down
Job Creators/Creation
Passion/Passionate
Yolo
Spoiler Alert
Bucket List
Trending
Superfood
Boneless Wings
Guru
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php
Was Czar on an earlier list?
It was on the 2010 list.
Yolo?
you only live once…. I had to ask too
Ah okay. It’s on the banned words list before I ever heard of it. I like it!
Portland paper had a bunch…
I actually heard someone use it for the first time last week. I had to ask them what it meant.
hmm, the citizens of Calif. Yolo County, that includes UCDavis, may have a thing or two to say about doing away with *yolo* (even though it’s a tweety corruption).
Happy New Year, everyone!
I’m heading out for prime rib and home brewed beer and a solid night’s sleep on a friend’s couch. For those of you who might recall the last time I slept on his couch, said couch has been replaced and the exterminators assured him that the bed bugs have been eradicated. I guess I’m going to be the guinea pig.
Happy New Year pete!
Any guinea pig would love to have a couch all to itself! Have fun.
Have a bed bug-free New Year, pete. 🙂
The Ball Drop
The New Year’s Eve tradition began when Alfred Ochs, the publisher of the New York Times, “successfully lobbied city leaders to change Longacre Square’s name to Times Square”:
“[Ochs] resolved to throw a New Year’s Eve celebration that would be the talk of the town. “An all-day street festival culminated in a fireworks display set off from the base of the tower,” according to an official history published by the Times Square District Management Association, “and at midnight the joyful sound of cheering, rattles and noisemakers from the over 200,000 attendees could be heard, it was said, from as far away as Croton-on-Hudson, thirty miles north.” An annual event was born — but two years later, the city prohibited the fireworks display. “Ochs was undaunted,” the official history continues. “He arranged to have a large, illuminated seven-hundred-pound iron and wood ball lowered from the tower flagpole precisely at midnight to signal the end of 1907 and the beginning of 1908.” Thus the origin of today’s celebration.”
I did not know Dick Clark was that old.
On one hand, I would love to be at Times Square for the ball drop.
On the other hand, I would hate to be in a crowd that large!
We went to the Chinese New Year parade in NY once and we both were overwhelmed by the size of the crowd and difficulty in moving around. Times Square would be worse I’m sure. I’ll stick to watching it on the tube.
Happy New Year to all of you here! We’ve done our fireworks and are now having beer and crisps, cuddling on the sofa. Not making plans, not making New Years resolutions, just being together and enjoying our company.
Happy New Year EV!
Happy New Year, EV! Love and hugs all around. 🙂
Froliche neues Jahre! (Ich glaube?)
We are doing our annual ‘New Year’s Eve at Home, I Hope We Make it to Midnight’ party. We have what we call ‘snack night’ with some wings, then shrimp, then veggies and dip, and anything else in the pantry that is quick and bad for your health and not a full meal.
Already done beer #1 with over 6 hours to go. The over/under is not looking good for making it to midnight.
Sun was over the yardarm here in portland at about 11:30am!!
I hope this pic posts. The account may have been protected.
Who’s a good dog!?
Conor Friedersdorf rants against NYE festivities:
“On December 31, mediocre restaurants throughout America string absurd velvet ropes outside their doors, inflate black and white balloons as decoration, and charge three times the usual price for the same old fare plus bad champagne. Is it any wonder that our elders, as they grow older and wiser, opt to stay home and turn in before midnight? America’s most iconic New Year’s Eve celebration, the one that captures the attention of the whole country, has massive crowds gathering in New York City’s most garish neighborhood, where they watch a large ball drop as C-list celebrities narrate on TV. The typical NYC dweller can’t be lured to Times Square for dinner on an ordinary evening, so I can’t imagine how pre-New Year’s conversations go for those who attend. “Would you like to stand out in the freezing cold for hours with no place to sit or use the bathroom and drunks pressed against you on all sides?”
Even more bizarre is the fact that Californians watch a tape-delayed rebroadcast of the spectacle as the clock strikes midnight on the West Coast, with whole parties pausing to gather around the television. “Hey, quiet down,” people actually say, “Ryan Seacrest is about to come on!” ‘
I’m mainly concerned with Kathy Griffin myself. She’s got to top last year!
She and Anderson are a hoot. Wonder what she’ll do this year since Cooper has come “out.”
If the pic doesn’t show, click the link on Kathy’s tweet
Heh, she will pay!
Does AC have a steady? He’ll get hit on a lot after this.
I don’t know what he can do to get even. Kathy might go topless this year!
From what I read after he came out, yes. He and his boyfriend ride their bikes through the Village a lot. Their friends and neighbors knew he was gay, but they also respected his wish to keep quiet about it, as it really wasn’t anybody else’s business.
I loved Colbert’s reaction the day he came out. “If Anderson Cooper is gay, then I’m secretly a Liberal.”
YAY… oh wait…. maybe
I’m not a big fan of Griffin, but I have to say there is good chemistry with Cooper…. best of a not-so-good crowd…. at least Willard Scott seems to have got the message.
I like to stay home on New Year’s Eve, simply because I don’t like big parties and know how many drunks are on the road, but yeesh — Whatta crank.
Dude should throw his own party and get over himself.
Dude should throw his own party and run over himself.
Even better. 😀
I got blood in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl tonight. Clemson head Coach Dabo Swinney is an Alabama Alumni, who played on the ’92 National Championship team.
OMG! LSU just had 3rd and 11, Clemson rushed two, and got a sack/intentional grounding!
Message to Grover: Get bent, you traitorous asshole.
Hey Grovey, Frank Gaffney is coming for your wife.
No, not that way – the other way.
*snort*
Time to pay the bills Norquisling! The last time the debt was 100% of GDP the rich ponied up 91%. Quicherbitchin’!
Groveler is sweating his job.
Hanging with old friends in Portland (about 400yards from the first McMenimans for those in the know).
We are staying at home 6 kids all paired off in ages, HUGE curry cookoff going on (6 or 7 dishes) including a homemade Tandoori oven in the back yard….. no plans to go anywhere, but eat, play games and try and stay up to 12. A proposal to celebrate ‘East Coast New Year’ was squashed by children and an opportunity to set all the clocks in the house forward last night was missed… 😦
Turtle is getting old!
Happy New Year!
(I’m drooling over reading about a curry cookoff…)
veggie samosas (all eaten)
tandoori chicken
chicken tikka masala
lamb vindaloo
sweet and sour curried shrimp
tarka dal
pillao rice
naan bread
Now that’s a feast!
Summing up the science of champagne bubbles:
“During secondary fermentation of champagne, yeast in the wine consume sugars and excrete carbon dioxide gas, which dissolves in the liquid. Since the bottle containing the wine is corked, this increases the pressure inside the bottle, and this pressure is released when the cork is popped. Once champagne is in the glass, the dissolved carbon dioxide will form bubbles on flaws in the glass, which may be due to dust, scratches, or even intentional marks from manufacturing. These bubbles rise to the surface, expanding as they do so because the hydrodynamic pressure of the surrounding wine decreases with decreasing depth. At the surface, the bubbles burst, creating tiny crowns that collapse into Worthington jets, which can propel droplets upward to be felt by the drinker.”
In related news: there’s a science site called Fuck Yeah Fluid Dynamics.
http://fuckyeahfluiddynamics.tumblr.com/
Kewl.
I was reading an article today about how you can tell if your champagne is the good stuff — tiny bubbles!
Or price tag…
– Tiny Bubbles
Isn’t that what Don Ho sang about?
Some sort of agreement has been reached in Washington DC. *yawn*
That’s what the pain in my ass is….. somebody shafted me while I was in the kitchen
Oops. Too soon.
WBAP Announces Death of George H.W. Bush, Quickly Realizes He’s Not Actually Dead
He’s just faking being alive//
And people everywhere from Mexico City to Santiago will dance on his grave….
And the RWNJs will say, “Oh, great. More illegal immigrants!” 😉
BTW, she tweeted this shortly after my tweet
La di da!! 😀
I’d vote for her, too.
Wayne – you smoothy….. 😉 .
(Jane, call me baby…..we could be so much more you know it….)
well that chased SammytheTurtle off, Zoo, she legged it when Freddy showed up…
She doesn’t like Freddie? 😯
Freddy doing ‘dress up’ – when I started singing Fat Bottomed Girls at the top of my voice.,….. she ran for it
Heh, understandable. 😀
We put Greatest Hits on to bring in the lkast hour in the kitchen…
I was just listening to that. 🙂
Here’s five minutes of fireworks – Hogmanay Celebration from Edinburgh.
Surprised they found a sober one to light the fuse….. 🙂
Shoulda posted this on Friday, but New Years will do. Apparently, The Shaggs were for real. This is stunningly atrocious:
Oh. My. Gawd.
Happy New Year, EV! It must be past midnight where you are by now. 🙂
I’m still waiting for Darrell to answer me. For some reason, he still follows me. And it’s not like he follows everyone who follows him, only about a third of them. Why me, I have no idea.
Really Darrell, a 4 to 1 ratio, in a NY minute?
In the first primary debate, All TEN GOP candidates for president said they would NOT take a tax hike even if the ratio was 10 to 1.
Excellent point. I debated between my tweet and tweeting what you said.
Who?
That orange-colored guy who got kicked out of the Oompa Loompahs because he was too tall.
LMSAO
Arf Arf
Food’s ready, see ya later !!! 🙂
Yeah, now it’s stuck in your heads.
You’re welcome. 😆
Apparently a deal has been struck…meh…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/31/fiscal-cliff-deal_n_2348269.html
New Year’s Eve when many:
It was suppose to be ‘Stand Up and Shout’:
supposed
When it comes time for Saban to leave Alabama, whatever the reason, I want mama to call Dabo Swinney home.
Clemson 25 LSU 24 FINAL
oooh, that was close!
Hear hear!
Yep, that’s my new project. I call it my “I don’t give a fuck what you think of me” project.
It goes along with my “I’m so done with your bullshit” project.
Sounds like you’re “Project”-ing again. 😉
Indeed. 🙂
Both of those go along with my “If you’re a friend, act like it” project.
Those sound like some very good projects. I’m here to support you in your endeavors. 🙂
I wish I knew how to do this. I’ve seen some amazing tweets doing stuff like this
I reckon I am really old. I’m the only one left awake in my household and I’m not even much more than tipsy.
I’m going into the next room now, so I’ll say this now:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I’ll see everyone tomorrow. (That whole “See you next year” thing is so cliche.)
Happy New Year, Wayne & Jane, Cats & Nonewhere, dbadass, Outstanding, and everyone else I haven’t named on the East Coast!
Happy New Year, Eastern Time Zoofolk!
Happy New Year, House & kitty friends!
Happy New Year friends.
Happy New Year, Outstanding & family & piggies. 🙂
Happy New Year to the East Coast & European/ Canadian Zoosters. We on the West Coast are waiting for time’s tide to roll in from your direction. Seems that the middle class escaped an economic smackdown, if the compromize tonight holds against the House’s dysfunction. Whatever. GO JOLLY TO ALL!!!!
z=s
Happy New Year, nwoldguy & Reno. 🙂
Yeah, well Reno is pissed at me because I didn’t take her to the dog park today. 😉
Happy New Year to you, your boys, and of course Honeybump.
Dogs forget everything at midnight, so you’re good for the new year. 🙂
She’s a she. Shes don’t forget. Thanks anyway. 😉
Wishing the Easterners a year of good health and grand adventures!
That goes for the entire population of the planet!
Wishing the same for you West Coasters, and unable to stay awake another three hours in order to tell you at the appropriate time.
Happy New Year, Ebb & birdie friends. 🙂
Hippo Gnu Bear, Zoosters!
A vibrant 2013 to you, BnF!
Happy New Year, Central Time Zoofolk!
All the best to you, house as the New Year crosses your time zone!
It’s after midnight on the east coast so Happy New Year!
I arrived home safely from the party.
Hope you had a grand time.
Let nonewhere know we are thinking of him and hoping his health rapidly improves.
happy new year cats…. ! best to you both
Goodnight all. Tomorrow is another day to get it right. For your listening pleasure…
Goodnight and good year to you, nwog!
Sounds like a bloody war outside my house.
Same with my neighborhood – and it’s not yet midnight!
Does the noise bother your cat?
Mellow pricks up his ears for a few seconds then continues to groom…
bring out the vacuum and he vanishes.
The fireworks aren’t as loud as a thunderstorm, so he doesn’t notice them. Klaus doesn’t mind the vacuum, and it’s a 20 gallon Shop-Vac! He does hide when I’m trying to start the chain saw, though.
Smart cat!
Wishing a very splendid year to the Turtles!
Thanks Ebb – we are *so* *full*
Happy New Year to the Mountain Time and Pacific Time Zoofolk! I must crash now.
Back at ya House.
Happy New Year everyone!!!