Actor-singer Robert Goulet dies at age 73

Stark’s Latest Gaffe Is Just One In a Long Line

Pete Stark, being an asshole, is among the members of Congress I would hate if hatred were allowed. (Jim McDermott and Jerry Nadler being the others.) And I doubt that his apology (for commenting that Republicans send troops to Iraq “to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement”) was sincere.

I would challenge the Washington Post’s use of the word “gaffe” to describe what he said. Gaffes are more along the lines of social mistakes, misstatements, blunders. What Stark did was along the lines of…his normal assholish behavior.

Not that I didn’t enjoy the article, which references such Starkian highlights as “You think you are big enough to make me, you little wimp? Come on–come over here and make me. I dare you, you little fruitcake.”

And my favorite bit: “In a private meeting, Stark called then-Representative Nancy L. Johnson (R-Connecticut) a ‘whore for the insurance industry.’ ‘He didn’t call her a “whore,”‘ defended Stark press secretary Caleb Marshall. ‘He called her a “whore for the insurance industry.”‘”

Any time a press secretary needs to use the words “he didn’t call her a ‘whore’” followed by “he called her a ‘whore…,’” the message has spun out of control.

Anyway. I don’t have a point here, other than sharing a latent hatred of Pete Stark. And Jim McDermott and Jerry Nadler.

And I really don’t care for Peter DeFazio. Or Anthony Weiner.

And Steve Cohen’s a little fruitcake.

A fun little multiple-choice word game: pick the right definition, and ten grains of rice are donated to starving folk.

Guess incorrectly and ten grains are taken away–snatched right out of the bowls of hungry little kids.

Get too many of them wrong, and they steal all the squeaky toys from that little dog that Ellen DeGeneres used to have.

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind: the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

Hmm.

Go close all your doors and windows if you’re running the air conditioner in your house right now.

There. I’m all sanctimonioused up. Gimme my damn Nobel Peace Prize.

I’m sitting at the computer and half-watching the Indians game on the teevee behind me, turning around when I hear the announcers and/or the crowd react to a play.

It’s reminding me of the days when I would sit and read and half-watch the Indians or the Browns and only look up when my dad reacted to something on the screen.

Every day I miss him, but some more than others. And I said I’d blog about him more, but haven’t been–so here’s this.

“The American people have uncertainty about their economic situation. There’s a middle-class squeeze on. There’s uncertainty about access to health care and whether they can afford it. The cost of higher education for their children, the flat purchasing power of the minimum wage–they expect Congress to do something that is relevant to their lives. They have to work five days a week. I don’t know why we shouldn’t.'’–Nancy Pelosi, 2006.

“The Majority Leader has just announced that no votes are expected Friday, October 12, 2007, or Friday, October 26, 2007. As previously announced, there will be no votes on Friday, October 5, 2007, or Friday, October 19, 2007. Therefore, we do not expect votes on any Friday during the month of October.”–bulletin from congressional leadership, 2007.

2006: “This is a place where we really need to throw up the shades and pull back the curtains, and…have the fullest possible disclosure, and it has to be on earmarks in appropriations, in authorizations, and in taxation.”–Nancy Pelosi.

2007: “After a recent House vote, [Representative John] Murtha stopped for a moment in the lobby adjacent to the House floor, just steps from his corner, to take a question from a reporter about the difficulty of piecing together which members got how much money for which projects in his bill. Murtha answered abruptly before walking away: ‘So, you have to work,’ he said. ‘Tough shit.’”–Congressional Quarterly.