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.

Time To Take Another Pill, Rush

Drug addict Rush Limbaugh said this about Obama the other day:

He’s obviously more frightened of me than he is Mitch McConnell. He is more frightened of me than he is of, say, John Boehner, which doesn’t say much about our party. I mean, to tell you the truth, folks, if the president is a little more worried about somebody on the radio than he is about somebody on Capitol Hill … I think Obama wants me to fail, there’s no question.

Limbaugh was responding to Obama, who recently told GOP leaders: "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done." I would normally frown upon a prominent Democrat making such a reference to Limbaugh, but I think this is a good move on Obama's part.

I have no doubt that Limbaugh loves all the attention -- and he's clearly more comfortable when Democrats are in power (as Limbaugh admitted a couple years ago, he doesn't like carrying water for the GOP). But Obama is trying to put a face on all of the right-wing failures of the past eight years; and now that Bush is out of the picture, it looks like he's chosen Limbaugh's face.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. I do think that if the President's stimulus package passes with little to no GOP support, then Obama should take the gloves off and start going after the Republicans who opposed it. And he should tell it like it is, namely, that these right wingers are more interested in protecting a failed ideology than they are in helping their fellow citizens during this time of crisis.

Al-Qaeda's Worst Nightmare?

Barack Hussein Obama:

Soon after the November election, al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader took stock of America's new president-elect and dismissed him with an insulting epithet. "A house Negro," Ayman al-Zawahiri said.

That was just a warm-up. In the weeks since, the terrorist group has unleashed a stream of verbal tirades against Barack Obama, each more venomous than the last. Obama has been called a "hypocrite," a "killer" of innocents, an "enemy of Muslims." He was even blamed for the Israeli military assault on Gaza, which began and ended before he took office.

"He kills your brothers and sisters in Gaza mercilessly and without affection," an al-Qaeda spokesman declared in a grainy Internet video this month.

The torrent of hateful words is part of what terrorism experts now believe is a deliberate, even desperate, propaganda campaign against a president who appears to have gotten under al-Qaeda's skin. The departure of George W. Bush deprived al-Qaeda of a polarizing American leader who reliably drove recruits and donations to the terrorist group.

With Obama, al-Qaeda faces an entirely new challenge, experts say: a U.S. president who campaigned to end the Iraq war and to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and who polls show is well liked throughout the Muslim world. * * *

As I was reading the above-linked article, I was reminded of when Bush sent Karen Hughes to the Muslim world in an attempt to rehabilitate America's image there. Her mission, of course, was doomed from the start and epitomized just how out-of-touch Bush and his people were with regard to how this country is perceived in the Middle East and beyond. I think it is interesting that Obama's landslide victory did more to repair America's image than BushCo could have ever dreamed of doing.

Barbara Boxer was right: elections really do have consequences.

Making A Comeback Can Be A Real Bitch Sometimes

The world's most famous evangelical sodomite is back in the news again:

Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard's former church disclosed Friday that the gay sex scandal that caused his downfall extends to a young male church volunteer who reported having a sexual relationship with Haggard — a revelation that comes as Haggard tries to repair his public image.

Brady Boyd, who succeeded Haggard as senior pastor of the 10,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, told The Associated Press that the man came forward to church officials in late 2006 shortly after a Denver male prostitute claimed to have had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard.

Boyd said an "overwhelming pool of evidence" pointed to an "inappropriate, consensual sexual relationship" that "went on for a long period of time ... it wasn't a one-time act." Boyd said the man was in his early 20s at the time. He said he was certain the man was of legal age when it began. * * *

And speaking of controversial religious figures, here is an interesting quote:

"I believe there were no gas chambers... I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but none of them by gas chambers. There was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies!"

Holocaust-denier Richard Williamson made that statement last November during an interview with German television. But this particular Jew hater is also an excommunicated Catholic bishop -- well, at least he was an excommunicated bishop:

The Vatican stirred a diplomatic maelstrom yesterday when it announced that it had lifted the excommunication of four rebel bishops, including the British Holocaust-denier Richard Williamson.

The decree repealing the 20-year-old Vatican punishment, imposed after the traditionalist French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated the four as bishops in defiance of the Pope's authority, was signed on Wednesday by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the Prefect for the Congregation of Bishops. This coincided with the broadcast on Swedish state television of an interview with Mr Williamson in which the breakaway bishop denied the Holocaust. * * *

Nice move, Ratzenberger.

And finally, this is hilarious:

A senior Vatican official on Saturday attacked US President Barack Obama for "arrogance" for overturning a ban on state funding for family-planning groups that carry out or facilitate abortions overseas. It is "the arrogance of someone who believes they are right, in signing a decree which will open the door to abortion and thus to the destruction of human life," Archbishop Rino Fisichella was quoted as saying by the Corriere della Sera daily.

"What is important is to know how to listen... without locking oneself into ideological visions with the arrogance of a person who, having the power, thinks they can decide on life and death," he added. ***

"I do not believe that those who voted for him took into consideration ethical themes, which were astutely left aside during the election debate. The majority of the American population does not take the same position as the president and his team," he added.

Maybe it's just me, but I think The Vatican should stop cuddling up to Holocaust deniers before it begins questioning the morality of Barack Obama and the nearly 70 million Americans who voted for him.

Great Daily Show Clip

You gotta love this.

And while we're on the subject of extreme right-wing neo-fascist m*therf*ckers, I thought this was pretty funny as well.

It's Finally Sunk In

Obama's ascendancy to the presidency didn't seem real to me, even after I saw him (1) being sworn in (what was up with Chief Justice Roberts screwing up the oath?), (2) giving an excellent inauguration address, and (3) driving off in "USA 1."

But now I believe.

This Is Interesting

Patrick McGoohan died last Tuesday. He was the actor who played No. 6 in "The Prisoner" television series, and he also played Longshanks in Braveheart, the warden in Escape From Alcatraz, and the bad guy in Silver Streak. This article details some of the roles McGoohan turned down:

Having early in his career deprived himself of an annuity by passing on Bond (and "The Saint," whose Roger Moore became Bond), he more recently turned down both the roles of Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings" and Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films. This might have been for reasons of health, as has been reported, but I prefer to think of him once again exercising his right to be perverse: "I am not a wizard," he might well have said, "I am a free man."

Maybe he just didn't like playing good guys. I knew that a lot of actors besides Ian McKellen wanted to play Gandalf -- including Patrick Stewart and Christopher Lee -- but I had no idea McGoohan actually turned down that role. I think he would have made a great wizard.

Interestingly, Ian McKellen will be playing "Number 2" in the upcoming remake of The Prisoner on AMC.

These Freebooters Will Be Tellin' No Tales

Hilarious:

Five of the pirates who hijacked a Saudi supertanker drowned with their share of a $3 million ransom, a relative said Saturday, the day after the bundle of cash was apparently dropped by parachute onto the deck of the ship.

The Sirius Star and its 25 crew sailed safely away Friday at the end of a two-month standoff in the Gulf of Aden, where pirates attacked over 100 ships last year. Hundreds more kidnapped sailors remain in the hands of pirates.

The drowned pirates' boat overturned in rough seas, and family members were still looking for four missing bodies, said Daud Nure, another pirate who knew the men involved. * * *

The Top Five Conservative Characters In "Lost"

This is a pretty funny post.

Season 5 of "Lost" premieres on January 21, and I'm nearly as pumped about it as I am about the upcoming season premiere of "Battlestar Galactica" (January 16). It's a good time to be a sci-fi fan.

One show I used to be a fan of (but not so much anymore) is "24," which has its season premiere this Sunday. Last year's season (which I think was actually two years ago due to the writers' strike) really sucked, so they better hook me in the first few episodes or I'm done with it.

The Quadrantids

I caught a lucky break this morning. I woke up a little after 6 am and decided to take a short soak in the hot tub. It was cold out, but not too cold (perhaps in the upper teens). One of the first things I noticed upon going outside was how calm it was. We've had some pretty high winds in the last few days, but there was no wind this morning, and the sky was clear.

The first inkling of sunrise was starting to appear in the east as lowered myself into the water. The stars were out, but due to the proximity of our neighbor's house, we can only see a small portion of the sky from the hot tub.

I was soaking only a few seconds when I observed the first meteor. It appeared from an area behind the Big Dipper, was very bright, and moved across the sky in a northwesterly direction. We occasionally see stray meteors when we do early morning soaks, so I didn't think much of it.

But a couple minutes later, I saw another one, and then another. I ended up seeing ten meteors over the period of about 20 minutes or so, six of which were very bright. All of them seemed to emanate from behind the Big Dipper. I'm certain I would have seen more had I been able to see a bigger portion of the sky.

The sky was getting brighter, so I ended my soak and went inside to check the internets. It turns out that the name of the meteor shower is The Quadrantids:

The Quadrantid meteor shower is one of the strongest meteor showers of the year, but observers can be disappointed if conditions are not just right. The point from where the Quadrantid meteors appear to radiate is located within the extinct constellation Quadrans Muralis. On modern star charts, this radiant is located where the constellations Hercules, Boötes, and Draco meet in the sky. The shower can appear almost nonexistent until about 11 p.m. Unfortunately, the radiant does not attain a very high altitude for most Northern Hemisphere observers before morning twilight puts an end to the show. The best observations are actually possible from countries with high northern latitudes, such as Canada, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. The display is virtually nonexistent for observers in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Quadrantids generally begin on December 28 and end on January 7, with maximum generally occurring during the morning hours of January 3/4. The Quadrantids are barely detectable on the beginning and ending dates, but observers in the Northern Hemisphere can see from 10 to around 60 meteors per hour at maximum. The maximum only lasts for a few hours.

I've never had much interest in observing wintertime meteor showers, mostly due to the fact that it is freaking cold outside this time of year. But a hot tub really seems to help in that regard. Maybe I'll take another shot at The Quadrantids tomorrow morning.

Is It Just Me . . .

. . . or does anyone else out there have no interest in politics these days?

By the way, this is pretty cool.

My Top Fifteen Favorite Motion Picture Comedy Scenes

This was a difficult list to compile. Your mileage may vary and I'm sure I left out some killer scenes, so feel free to chime in. I essentially chose these scenes based on how hard I laughed when I first watched them.

Anyway, here is my list (in no particular order -- viewer discretion is advised on some of these videos):

(1) The Marshall Lucky commercial in "Used Cars"
(2) The Don't Take Those scene in "Up In Smoke"
(3) The Oktoberfest scene in "The Pink Panther Strikes Again"
(4) The Filth Farmers scene in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
(5) The Master Exploder dream from "The Pick of Destiny"
(6) The Gene Wilder in Blackface scene in "Silver Streak"
(7) The part in "Tootsie" where Dustin Hoffman reveals his identity
(8) The fight scene in "Borat" (not suitable for viewing anywhere)
(9) The de-thawing scene in "Austin Powers" (here is part of it)
(10) Peter Sellers' final scene in "Dr. Strangelove"
(11) The Sex Scene in "Team America" (unrated version)
(12) The I Have a Gweat Fwiend In Wome Scene from "Life of Brian"
(13) Unkle Phukka from "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut"
(14) The Weed Fantasy scene in "Harold and Kumar I"
(15) The Ruprecht scene in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"

Honorable Mention: Mongo's arrival at Rock Ridge in Blazing Saddles, The Sweating Scene from Broadcast News, the "Stupidest Man On Earth" scene in Ruthless People, the "That's Our Hitler!" scene in The Producers, the "Nobody F*cks With The Jesus" scene from Big Lebowski, the scene in All of Me where Steve Martin is trying to walk, the "Severed Hand v. Man" fight scene in Evil Dead 2, the "Go to Eleven" scene in Spinal Tap, the scene in Office Space where Peter meets with the Two Bobs, the "Pros From Dover" scene in MASH, the "Boy Visits Cockpit" scene in Airplane!, and the Battle of Wits in The Princess Bride.