Danny Doom’s Booze Cabinet

It could be Marc Thiessen. And that’s sad because the world does not need another Bill Kristol. But this guy really has some kind of media stronghold that is hard to understand. Read Conor Friedersdorf’s “Why Self-Respecting Editors Should Be Embarrassed to Publish Marc Thiessen” and Glenn Greenwald’s “High Standards at The Washington Post” to fathom the former Bush speechwriter’s rise.

Anyway, here’s part 2 and part 3 of that Jon Stewart interview. Punch punch punch.

I saw this last night and had a hard time not wanting to punch the face of Marc Thiessen through the screen. Eminently punchable. If you watch this it goes on for three parts–after the allotted time is up Thiessen whines about not getting to talk. If I were The Daily Show I would do a count and show the minutes each spoke. This guy’s such a baby. The problem? Your point is garbage!

Sullivan: “Thiessen’s arguments were both morally repugnant, legally absurd, McCarthyite and ignorant.” Yep, they were that too.

Bummer. I had wondered what happened to Jon Swift–no, not the 18th century Irishman but the 21st century blogger. His blog, which was written in the pure satiric fashion of his namesake, hilariously supported conservative buffoonery in a way that Stephen Colbert would appreciate. As his tagline read:

I am a reasonable conservative who likes to write about politics and culture. Since the media is biased I get all my news from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Jay Leno monologues.

Well, he suddenly stopped writing on the blog a year ago and for a long time no one said or knew anything. I periodically checked to see what was up and nothing changed. Weirdly, the final post he made was about another blogger’s tragedy. Now, a year later, we find out that Jon Swift, aka Al Weisel, died at the age of 46 on the way to his father’s funeral. Young man. Sad. He was a truly talented writer. I didn’t know him, obviously, but have linked to him in the blogroll for a long time and appreciated his work. So long, Jon Swift.

Well, it’s Oscar week, so let’s get it going. I finally got “The Hangover” from Netflix but I don’t see that as a nominated movie so that’s unfortunate. No, it’s not Oscar-caliber but…I’m just glad to see an R-rated movie that doesn’t relent in the end, the way that “40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Wedding Crashers” did. I mean, yeah, they made it back in time but it didn’t get all sappy…well, I don’t want to give it away for those who are as behind as I am.

Anyway, I have seen four of the ten (!?!) movies nominated for Best Picture: “Up,” “A Serious Man,” “The Hurt Locker,” and “District Nine.” Why ten? Bad idea. That’s just too many movies. Of those four, I’d say “The Hurt Locker” is the only one that deserves to be in such a high honor. I hope “Inglourious Basterds” or “Up in the Air” are great movies because so far I’m just not seeing it. I understand that the Coen Brothers movie has to be in there simply because it’s them but that movie was no “No Country for Old Men.”

“District Nine” for Best Picture? I liked it but it wasn’t that great. A real stretch, as far as I’m concerned. “Moon” would have been more appropriate a choice.

What I’m wondering is, where is the classic? Where’s the “There Will Be Blood” or “Lost in Translation” (neither of which won of course). Maybe it’s just me, but I haven’t seen a movie that deep, emotionally, or well-written, in a while. And so I just checked the queue and once again I have been passed up on “Inglourious Basterds”! Coming next: “Paranormal Activity.” No Oscars for that one.

I finally got around to reading that Esquire profile of Roger Ebert. I didn’t need to read it to understand what he is and where he is–I’ve been praising him here since the beginning for his writing and I read his journals and reviews fairly regularly–so there’s no huge revelation or anything. But, wow. What an article. What a life.

He writes like a madman on Twitter, posting again and again and again, and so I follow that now too. I don’t know what else to say about this guy, but what a writer. Here’s his journal about the Esquire article. Amazing. I want and hope for him to keep on writing for a very long time.

Interesting about Obama’s physical. Dude weighs 179 pounds! That’s pretty thin. I mean, I’m a lot shorter than him and I probably weigh within 30 or so pounds of him. Maybe a little less, I haven’t weighed myself in a long time but I’m gonna guess 145 (I’m on a Wii fitness program, but that’s another story).

And so he has 20/20 vision. It feels like no one has 20/20 vision but maybe that’s just because I’ve had glasses/contacts since the early days of yore. I wonder if Michelle does too. Those 20/20 people need to stick together and perfect our diminishing human eyesight race or we’ll all be blind in a few thousand years. Wait, am I advocating eugenics?!? Ah, we kid, we kid here at the Booze Cabinet…

Still smoking too, I see. Hmm. I really went off the rails on smoking. I was never a smoker but since I spent most of my life in bars with smoke it was no big deal to me. Until now. Since the no smoking laws I have found that smoke really bugs the shit out of me and makes me feel bad. And after experiencing a recent night of being surrounded by a gang of smokers I can’t believe that I put up with the smell on my clothes for all those years. Wow, it makes me want to puke just thinking about it.

The doctors also recommended “moderation of alcohol intake”. What does that mean? This is the best part of the story and that’s all they say about it. Is Obama a boozer? Sounds like the man is throwing them back big-time. Big-time! This is what I like to hear! Ah, I really have to work on my drinking…

The truth is I have barely drank at all this month and it is really hurting my Friday booze pictures. This year, really. I’m like, sober most of the time. And this, the most depressing month of all. Well, I’ll see what I can do about this little problem but I can’t guarantee anything.

Okay, need any further proof? Nope, me neither. That summit was a farce. Basically, the Democrats and Obama have wasted a year-plus trying to get the GOP to work with them on this. And yet, six more weeks he’s giving them?!? Why? Why bother? You could put in tax cuts for the rich, outlaw abortion and throw in a war with Iran and they still wouldn’t vote for it. They have no interest in giving the appearance of success for the Obama presidency. And passing a healthcare reform bill would be a success.

It’s over. Pass the bill, ram it through, whatever. Funny that term, “ramming it through.” I’ve never heard of an over year-long debate preceding anything that was “rammed through.” If only the Iraq War debate were so. Man, I’m so sick of politics.

Let’s put it this way: if the roles were reversed the Democrats would have helped the Republicans pass healthcare reform AND begged them to throw in an illegal bullshit war for them to vote for. And it would have been done in three months.

A thought, as the health summit has begun today:

Are Democrats, as they exist today, the only group who can take a resounding election victory and a 60 (now 59) to 41 majority and interpret it as a need to, time and time again, reach out for bipartisan support before doing anything? I respect Obama’s attempts but at some point it has to be quite obvious that these Republicans have no interest whatsoever in agreeing on anything the Democrats propose. Come on!

Okay, I’m back and bigger and better than ever. No time, really, to prattle on about bullshit but I’m going to have to take back what I said last week or whenever about that nutbag (who shall not be named). There was a moment where I thought “Oh god, she’s going to keep gaining credibility in the media and suddenly be considered a real candidate and be taken seriously and next thing you know, boom, she’s president.”

But that was stupid. There isn’t the slightest chance in hell that’ll happen. In fact, after watching some clips from the wackjob conference (that she didn’t even attend) I think this whole conservative wave is completely overblown. These people really are fringe characters. Let’s forget about it and focus on the right-wing Democrats who are stalling Obama. There’s the real problem.

A lot of behind-the-scenes technological wizardry going on around here this week, so I don’t have access to all my usual devices. The short story is that Windows sucks and I am leaving it forever, or at least until the world spins around a few times. This laptop came with Vista on it and as happens regularly, Vista has failed. So I am moving into a new world known as Ubuntu. Ubuntu! A Linux operating system, and I’ve already said more than I know what I’m talking about. So I leave it to my advisers, my wizards, my extensive team of programmers to save me from the horror that is Bill Gates and Windows. We shall return shortly.

I’m not sure why Democrats should be upset with Evan Bayh retiring, any more than they should be upset about losing the 60 vote super-majority in the Senate. They didn’t anything with it while they had it, no thanks to Mr. Bayh. What’s the big difference now?

Not much to add on this besides what Bill Maher said here. Right friggin’ on.

Back in the High Life, that is. Taken at Mike n’ Molly’s, Champaign, IL.