It's as if a train wreck managed to keep moving at full speed

Good Lord, did anyone ever think that Roland Burris was clean?

No. Seriously. Anyone?

Because that was how Capitol Hill behaved when it came time for him to be seated by the Senate. And if you thought those press conferences he gave when he was on the outside pleading to be let in, the one where he seemed to have about himself a total ignorance or indifference to the fact that EVEN HIS OWN CONSTITUENTS DIDN'T WANT HIM THERE cast him in a favorable light then, well, I don't know what to say.

When asked, specifically, if he'd ever spoken with Rob Blagojevic about the Senator's seat, he spoke only of unnamed staffers and compatriots. Since the oath goes "tell the whole truth," I believe that there is a clear-cut case for perjury. If there's even enough to indict him, he's gone. And it could be in the end that the only reason he had to go is because he was determined to give this whole matter the hand wave and try to pretend that this whole business wasn't as sleazy as it seemed.

But let me ask you this. Could you ever trust someone who'd taken that job under those circumstances? Ever?

Oh and another thing. As of this writing, the only other person to have been revealed to have been offered the Senate seat post-indictment was also a black man. Which to me only serves to reinforce the idea that he wanted someone that a governing body currently devoid of black members would be reluctant to turn down. Blaxploitation: Because that haircut just wasn't enough to satisfy Blago's quota for embarrasing holdovers from the 70s.

It's an unwelcome complication now that we've apparently found ourselves in a different sort of democracy, where a majority doesn't actually mean anything anymore. Predictably, the fucktards who threatened to nuke the filibuster because the Democrats wanted to use it to keep fascists out of lifetime terms on the bench (given what happened at the Department of Justice under Bush I can't imagine anyone claiming that this wasn't an utterly reasonable use of the power) have at this point already forced twice as many cloture votes as the Democrats did between 2004 and 2006.

This is going to be interesting. I wonder where the 19% approval rating for Republicans in Congress will go once they're forced to actually get up and start reading from the phone book.

A note to third parties on the left: There are gains to be made in 2010 if you're actually interested in being more than just a distraction. Just saying.

In any case, because leaving with a laugh is a thing for me, I want to share with you all that which may just be the greatest thing ever.



Translation: Drat, thwarted so close to freedom’s sweet caress… I dreamed for but a taste of the decadent west, and now my eulogy is sung by guard dogs and alarm bells.

From Яolcats. Eastern Bloc lolcats translated from Russian into English. It's fantastic. It's the reason I now wish to get wrecked on Stoli and drive a tank through downtown Moscow.

Someone take my keys and Passport from me...