Thou art a soiled condom, sir!

Slick Willie done apologized for calling some asshole reporter (actually, editor) a "scumbag." He's got to walk on eggshells to avoid screwing his wife... 's campaign, but man, show some balls. Do they all have to apologize anytime they say something that might make Grandma frown? For reference:

The article, by Vanity Fair magazine's national editor Todd Purdum, suggested that Bill Clinton's personality had changed since his 2004 heart bypass surgery and said that there were reports of Clinton "seeing a lot of women on the road." - CNN

If that indeed was the charge laid out by this guy, then sure, he's a fucking scumbag. I don't think people really equate the word with its original meaning (a used condom), do they? Maybe I'm wrong. If so, then yeah, apologize for the image, but my understanding is that it's just taken as a general insult these days. Am I wrong?

Meh. Meanwhile, reports are up and down on the idea of Hillary wanting the Veep position. I hope Obamarama resists the urge. After all, I've already decreed that he should take Dennis along for the ride. Kucinich 2016! Kucinich 2016! His wife will still be hot.

Quote of the Day

Regarding his very distant blood relationship to Barack Obama, our beloved Creepy Veep Dick Cheney said that the Cheney line on his father's side of the family dates to 1630's, and a Cheney family line on his mother's side dates to the 1650's.

Thus:

"So, I had Cheneys on both sides of the family — and we don't even live in West Virginia," Cheney cracked. After pausing for laughter from the crowd, Cheney added, "You can say those things when you're not running for re-election."

As the CNN item detailing this adds:

Afterward, West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd lashed out at Cheney for the "insult to all Americans." In a written statement, Byrd declared that Cheney showed "contempt and astounding ignorance toward his own countrymen" with the comments.

Sadly, that weird old Byrd just went into the hospital tonight. Damn. First Our (drunken) Man Ted, now the aged one (I had no idea he was 3rd in line to the presidency... can you fucking imagine?). If Kennedy has to retire, we're pretty safe (but not completely) with his replacement being a Democrat. But for Byrd in West Virginia?

On the Daily Show, they interviewed some random W Virginians on the day of their primary, asking why people weren't voting for Obama. Those made for some other great quotes (paraphrasing here): "I ain't votin' for no Muslim," and "his middle name's Hussein... I had enough'a Husseins."

Mind-boggling Article of the Day

From Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/02/9373/

60 Minutes: Pentagon’s Raygun Demonstrated on Mock Protesters

by David Edwards and Muriel Kane

The Pentagon has been developing a raygun which can harmlessly repel enemies by causing a burning sensation in the top layer of the skin. However, according to CBS’s 60 Minutes, the military is unwilling to actually trust this weapon enough to deploy it in Iraq.

“We are now stepping into the Buck Rogers scenario,” explained Colonel Kirk Hymes, who is in charge of testing the “Active Denial System” at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia.

Hymes demonstrated the weapon by staging what CBS somewhat oddly called “a scenario soldiers might encounter in Iraq” — a handful of military volunteers, dressed as civilian protesters, who carried signs saying “peace not war” and threw objects at a small group of soldiers. A series of raygun blasts from half a mile away disrupted their chants and finally sent them running.

Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisiton Sue Payton calls the Active Denial System a “huge game-changer” which “would save huge numbers of lives.” She told CBS, “It could be used to read someone’s mind, in effect. … If they continue to come at you, then you’re fairly sure … they’re probably a terrorist or an adversary who wants to do you harm.”

(skipping a paragraph)

However, the failure to deploy the weapon as planned has raised suspicions that the real intention is to use it for domestic crowd control.

In 2006, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne was quoted as saying that the device should be used first on Americans, because “if we’re not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation. … If I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press.”

All together now:

WTF