This Is Interesting

The Mainstream Media actually reported on this story this morning (at least the radio did):

Declassified government files have revealed fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a UFO that was following a Greek airline passenger jet.

In November 2007 the pilot of Olympic Airways flight 266 first spotted the UFO shortly after taking off from Athens en route to London. The flying object was also seen by staff at Athens airport, the pilots of two other passenger planes and people at a nearby air force base, The Sun newspaper reports.

The breathless Greek pilot radioed the airport control tower in Athens to ask if there was another jet close by.

"I see on my right, at approximately the same altitude, an unknown target flying from south to east," the unnamed pilot told the control tower.

"Altitude and heading are not stable — it is increasing speed — headings are erratic."

The Greek air force sent two fighters to investigate the UFO, which was described as looking like a star that moved erratically and constantly changed shape. However, it vanished into the upper atmosphere before the fighter jet pilots could get close enough to view it.

"I can confirm the incident," an Olympic Airlines spokeswoman said.

"It is the first of its kind involving our pilots."

Greek authorities kept the close encounter secret for over a year but have now released the documents and conversation recordings, generating huge public interest.

The UFO was not detected by radar, and Greek officials say it was probably mistaken for the planet Venus, which can be seen in the autumn night sky.

Needless to say, it is rare for such a story to receive mainstream coverage. Plus, I had no idea that the existence of Venus was a secret.

Some Interesting Roland Burris News

From Lynn Sweet:

Embattled Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) meets with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday afternoon. Burris understands that he needs to try to mollify Durbin and he will attempt to do that.

Scoop: Burris will also be sending, directly or indirectly (maybe this is it) two messages: he will not resign in the wake of the controversy surrounding his appointment by the ousted Gov. Blagojevich and he will not run for the seat in 2010. Burris has finally realized that not seeking election next year is the least price he will pay. * * *

This sounds about right to me. I got the impression from the start that Burris really only wanted to do this so he could top off his tombstone with something really cool.

Who Needs Liberal Talk Radio?

Well, it looks like liberal talk radio is in a bit of trouble right now.

But should we be surprised by all of this? Liberal talk radio doesn't work because liberals don't need someone else to tell us what's going on or to tell us how stupid right-wingers are.

I tried listening to Air America when it first came on the air, and it was ok for awhile (particularly in the days before the 2006 election), but it just became stupid because progressive-minded folks don't need people on the radio to tell us how to feel about shit because we feel it is our patriotic duty to keep ourselves informed when it comes to important political issues.

But right-wingers, for the most part, don't share that particular brand of patriotism, and instead rely on fucking idiots like Rush Limbaugh and Heil Hannity to keep themselves "informed." And I'll go one step further -- right wingers are too fucking lazy to keep themselves informed on shit, and that's why they gladly let assholes like Limbaugh tell them how to think. God forbid they try to learn about an issue on their own.

These people have elevated idiocy to an art form, and that is why morons like Sarah Palin are held in such high regard by our country's extreme right wing.

Dick Cheney: A Failure Right Up to The End

This is funny:

In the waning days of the Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney launched a last-ditch campaign to persuade his boss to pardon Lewis (Scooter) Libby - and was furious when President George W. Bush wouldn't budge.

Sources close to Cheney told the Daily News the former vice president repeatedly pressed Bush to pardon Libby, arguing his ex-chief of staff and longtime alter ego deserved a full exoneration - even though Bush had already kept Libby out of jail by commuting his 30-month prison sentence.

"He tried to make it happen right up until the very end," one Cheney associate said.

In multiple conversations, both in person and over the telephone, Cheney tried to get Bush to change his mind. Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the federal probe of who leaked covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to the press.

Several sources confirmed Cheney refused to take no for an answer. "He went to the mat and came back and back and back at Bush," a Cheney defender said. "He was still trying the day before Obama was sworn in."

After repeatedly telling Cheney his mind was made up, Bush became so exasperated with Cheney's persistence he told aides he didn't want to discuss the matter any further. * * *

Had Bush learned how to say "no" to Cheney a bit earlier in his presidency, things might have turned out differently for him. Instead of being the seventh worst president in American history (as determined by a recent poll of historians), he could have ended up closer to the middle of the pack.

Fitzgerald Will Stay

From First Read:

Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago who brought criminal fraud charges against Rod Blagojevich, will be staying in his job in the Obama administration, even though he was appointed to the position by President George W. Bush.

U.S. attorneys are political appointees. The normal practice, when there's a change of political parties in the White House, is for the incoming administration to replace all 93 U.S. attorneys with appointees from the new president's party. For now, the Obama administration has asked the current Republican-appointed U.S. attorneys to remain in their posts while it considers how many to retain.

But Fitzgerald will not be asked to move on. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois has recommended that Eric Holder, the new attorney general, keep Fitzgerald. That suggestion was "positively received," according to officials at the Justice Department and Sen. Durbin's office.

Timing Is Everything

Just when you think that Republicans might be getting the upper hand on this whole stimulus deal by acting like they won the election, shit like this happens:

Mass layoffs across almost every line of business catapulted the nation's unemployment rate to 7.6 percent in January and lent more urgency to Washington's attempt to quickly hammer out an economic stimulus package.

Friday's data from the Labor Department was a laundry list of misery milestones: The most jobs lost in one month since 1974, the highest unemployment rate since 1992, the largest one-month drop in factory jobs since 1982 and the most jobs lost in 12 months since the government began keeping records in 1939.

The report showed the terrible toll the drawn-out recession is having on workers and companies. It also puts even more pressure on President Barack Obama to revive the economy. * * *

Actually, all the bad news probably puts more pressure on the Republicans. It certainly introduces a dose of reality to the whole stimulus debate.

I must admit that I've been caught up in the old politics lately. My biggest gripe was that Obama hasn't been going on the offensive enough against the GOP sons-of-bitches who caused this mess. Although he seems to be fixing that to some extent, all of the political maneuvering almost becomes irrelevant given the latest news, which does seem to indicate that the economy is truly going into the shitter.

The whole thing reminds me of when McCain named Sarah Palin as his running mate. Sure, it gave the GOP ticket a boost in the short term, but Palin became a liability once her idiocy was exposed for all to see. In other words, reality sunk in.

A similar thing is happening with regard to the stimulus debate. The GOP, with some help from Obama and the House Democrats, won a short-term victory, but all the dire economic news will soon overwhelm this victory and Obama will end up getting most -- if not all -- of what he is asking for.

WTF?

Via Talking Points Memo:

Elana Schor has a post this morning showing the four Senate Republicans who appear to be in play for President Obama on the Stimulus Bill, based on their vote last night on Sen. DeMint's alternative Stimulus Bill. But there's something else last night's vote tells us. There were 36 out of 41 Republican senators who voted to scrap all spending in the Stimulus Bill. All of it.

This approaches flat earth territory in terms of where the economy is right now and what conventional macroeconomics suggests about how to combat the problem.

I've long suspected that a lot of Republicans actually hate America, but I wasn't sure about that until now. And they called us traitors for opposing the Iraq Debacle. UnFuckingBelievable.

Quote Of The Week

"I don’t know if the American public deserve me, but my son definitely deserves my time now."

-- Samuel Joseph "Joe The Plumber" Wurzelbacher, when asked if he thinks he might have a career in politics.

Palin/Wurzelbacher 2012!

And by the way, this is weak (from Josh Marshall):

I think it's understandable, though unfortunate in terms of the future of the country and the interests of justice, that Sen. Gregg (R-NH) made it a condition of his accepting the Commerce appointment that he'd be replaced by a Republican. But now comes word that he's recusing himself from any votes on the Stimulus Bill.

Note that in this case a recusal amounts to a no vote since the Dems will likely need 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster. And now he's unavailable to provide one.

And finally, disgraced (and former) Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was on Letterman last night. Here's how Dave opened up the exchange:

Letterman: "Why exactly are you here? Honest to God..."

Blagojevich: "Well, you know, I've been wanting to be on your show in the worst way for the longest..."

Letterman: "Well, you're on in the worst way, believe me."

Hilarious. You can watch the video here.

Lest We Forget . . .

From Think Progress:

Today on ABC’s This Week, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) criticized the economic recovery package currently before the chamber as “the largest spending bill in history.” Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) shot back that in reality, the largest spending bill in history “is going to turn out to be the war in Iraq.”

Frakking-A.

It never ceases to amaze me how these right wingers could spend hundreds of billions of dollars on Iraq without even blinking yet scream socialism at anyone who proposes that we actually spend money on our own country.