DINGBUST

It has always been my intention to create my very own list of infamous individuals -- people who have indistingushed themselves in our society by their words and deeds.

The title of this list? Dirty Rat Bastards.

I had no concrete plans as to when I would begin the list, probably around the first of the year. But after reading this column via this post from today's Kos, I just couldn't wait any longer to get it started.

Welcome to my list, Rush Limbaugh.

Limbaugh's idea of commentary Sunday involved an absurd
attack on Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb and on "the media" that
have overrated him because "the media has been very desirous that a
black quarterback do well. There's interest in black quarterbacks and
coaches doing well." McNabb, Limbaugh said, isn't "as good as everyone
says he has been."


I knew from the very first frickin' minute when ESPN hired that (formerly) fat blowhard that I would never purposely watch one second of their Sunday pregame show -- and in all honesty, I never remember to turn to it anyway, because we're always getting ready to go to church. But just the fact that he's on there is reason enough for me to never watch the damn show.

And kudos to Phil Sheriden for pointing out something that I've wanting to bring up for quite awhile:

Conservative sleight-of-hand artists like Limbaugh love to use the
label "the media" (alternately "the liberal media") as a kind of blanket
insult. Well, guess what, Rush? You've got a nationally syndicated radio
show. You have your own Web site. You had a national TV show. Now
you're on ESPN every Sunday morning.

You.

Are.

The.

Media. (Emphasis mine.)


See, that's what kills me about these damn conservative comentators bitching about "the media." If the media is as liberal as you guys (Tucker Carlson, Coulter, Ingraham, etc.)...well, why are you on it????? And since you make these appearances on all these shows...then are you, not, in fact, the media???? (Or, as Sheridan says, "a part of them"?)

Again, welcome to my list, Rush -- ya Dirty Rat Bastard.

Mr. Limbaughtomy, the ball is now in your court.

Hi, ho everybody.

As I write this, all is good with the world:

-- the Cubs are in the playoffs...

-- the Titans came back and beat the Steelers (my favorite team dating back to my youth)...

-- Tennessee and Tennessee State pulled out key conference victories...

-- and Bush is finally getting his ass handed to him (see my man Josh for the latest and greatest on info on this stuff)

But alas, there are some things NOT going my way:

-- it looks like it's going to be Governor Ah-nold in California (can we all say "frickin' ego trip"?)

-- and time may be running out for us trying to get My Main Man back in the race (but we're still trying!)

As far as Governor Ah-nold is concerned, I've had some...ohhhh, let's say, concerns about the Gallup results, especially since recent state polls found the race to be tightening up. But then I went to Uggabugga and found this post about a previous Gallup poll....so maybe we're all just worrying for nothing. God, I hope so.

Gotta go...yeah, I know, it's a short one. Just doing enough to keep from being MIA. Talk to y'all later.

Hi ya folks...

I thought things would start getting nasty soon for The General, but not like I imagined.
I haven't read the original story, but my friends on the left side of the blogosphere (a few of them on the right side of this page) are talking about it -- including Josh at Talking Points Memo, starting here and here.
And speaking of Josh, I'm about to hit the sack with some great reading material:
part one of his interview with former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. (I had to print the whole thing out, because it's just too damn long for me to read straight off the monitor.) I'll get to Part Two before the week is out.

And speaking of my friends on the left side...I've added a new blog on the right -- and it comes from Lefty Headquarters itself. It seems the D.C. Dems have finally gotten serious about the blogosphere (thanks to Kos and Howard Dean), and know it's their first line of defense against the GOP and their "friends" in the media.

Bye for now.

Hi, ho, everybody...this one is going to be real short, so here goes...

Well, it's official...the general is suiting up for political battle. At the risk of sounding like I'm jumping ship, I have to confess that I like Clark, and think he'd make a good, solid president. But as I said a couple of days ago, things may get real ugly, real soon, between the General and Governor. And whaddya know, I'm not the only one who believes that:

The Clark plan is probably simple enough -- set themselves up as
the anti-Dean. (Emphasis mine.) They probably figure Dean will
take care of Gephardt (Iowa) and Kerry (NH) all by himself. So they'll give
Dean a temporary pass and train their guns on Edwards and Lieberman....
Take those two out, and Clark has a clear path in the SC and OK primaries.
Then he and Dean can fight over AZ, DE, MO and NM -- the rest of the states
on Feb 2.
After that, it would be a Dean/Clark battle to the bitter end. And with
Fabiani and Lehane in the mix, it won't be clean or amicable.
It pains me to say this, but it's not looking like a Dean/Clark
or Clark/Dean ticket will be viable. (Emphasis you-know-who.)

Fabiani and Lehane, of course, are Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane, who pretty much have a reputation as the Democratic version of Karl Rove, especially Lehane.
And then Kos has this to say about the "Draft Clark" groups:

There's the classy team of DraftWesleyClark.com, and then there's
the DraftClark2004.com team (who should get along really well
with Lehane. They're cut from the same cloth). There is no love lost between
the two groups.

Read the rest of Kos's post. Again, I'm no soothsayer -- and who the hell is? -- but I'm feeling a little (just a little) smug right now.

Big Al...don't go away just yet.

Bye now.

Hi folks....so how about `dem Titans?!? Sheesh....

They must be feeding cats to that boy, or they've been giving him cats to boil when he makes his special miracle potion on Death Row -- but whatever: Philip Workman has once again been spared his date with the executioner. And as far as political nine lives, you gotta give it up to my man Gray Davis. Now get ready for Chief Will, Doubting Thomas and (as Jo Fish calls him) "Big Tony" to step in and say "To hell with you minority voters....move to precincts with good machines! "

Well, it was inevitable: my man Kevin says My Main Man should not run next year, despite the new Zogby poll. Granted, he makes several good points why Al shouldn't get in, including raising money (a point I didn't exactly touch on, but similar to what I predicted people would say in my last post.) And then there's this:

"All of those problems can be overcome, but there is one that I do not think can: the press loathes him." (Emphasis yours truly.)

I would have to respectfully disagree with Kev on that one. Yes, they loathed him in the 2000 campaign -- and MoDo over at the NYT looks like she's itching to continue that theme . But nearly three complete years have passed now, and the once kiss ass press is finally waking up to the fact that things have really gotten fucked up since January 20, 2001 (economy/deficit, Iraq/Afghanistan, overall foreign policy, war on terrorism, smokescreens on education reform, environmental issues, etc.). And with the bloom finally off the rose, the main issue that hounded Gore throughout 2000 -- honesty and integrity -- will be all but gone, and the tables will be turned on Bush to prove how the nation has improved under his watch. When he can't prove it (and by God, he can't), Gore will look better and better to the voters, especially to the Greens (who did just a good a job as the Rethugs in smearing My Main Man last time) and Independents. And as the poll shows, there's still lots of support at the grassroots level for Gore, so any attempts by MoDo, Howie Kurtz, and the rest of those smart-ass, high paid insider journalists won't mean a damn hill of beans to the voters (and it really didn't the last time, when you think about it). And don't forget the theory I posted at post below (and yes, it may sound off the wall...but hey, did we think George W. Bush would really become president?) Plus,

Besides...this go around, my peeps over at the right hand side of the page will have his back BIG time.

More later.

Hey folks....remember me?

Yes, I've been gone a loooooooonnnnnnnnggggggg time. Fortunately, our RTB Daddy hasn't declared me MIA yet, and I appreciate that. So let's see, where do I begin? We went to Detroit and Chicago, as I said in my last post, we had a good time for a good week...and when we came back, we had no friggin' A/C! So when stayed in a hot box for a good three days, and believe me, we were quite miserable. But all is well now...so back to the present....

Enough has been said about the Man in Black, so I'll just leave that alone. And we can't leave out someone else with Nashville ties, John Ritter. Right now, I'm watching the Southern Heritage Classic on BET, and Tennessee State has been struggling on offense, so the defense has been carrying the load (they blocked a punt and ran it in for T-D in the first quarter, and tackled a Jackson State player in the end zone for a safety late in the second) But finally the offense scored, so now it's 16-6 at the half.

Sooooooo....have y'all seen the latest Zogby poll? You know, the one that has My Main Man in a statistical dead heat:

The Sept. 5-9 poll shows Bush with less than majority support and only with the narrowest of margins over Al Gore, 48% to 46% -- a difference smaller than the poll's margin of error (3.2%). Moreover, Gore leads Bush among independent voters by 47% to 43%. (Emphasis mine.)

Oh, and here's another interesting point:

The poll, conducted by Zogby International for Draft Gore, also shows Gore leading all major contenders for the Democratic nomination with 24% -- compared to 16% for Dean, 12% for Lieberman, 11% for Kerry, 7% for Gephardt, and 2% for Edwards. (Again, emphasis mine.)

So, a guy who's not on the campaign trail, who says he's not going to run, who has largely been silent on the issues (except for this speech), is leading in the polls against the other nine declared candidates. Hmmmmmmmmm.....

Now, I know a lot of folks would dismiss all that for various reasons: it's because he's well known, he was vice president, there's still a lot of unhappiness over the 2000 election, etc., etc. And now with Wesley Clark on the verge of jumping in himself, there's no room for Al to back in if he wanted to, and time is running out, more etc., etc., ad nauseum..... But then...let's suppose....

I found this little ditty this week from my man Josh Marshall: Is the Dean camp trying to set up Wes Clark? Josh links to the WaPo article about the latest Clark/Dean meeting...and the fact that the Dean folks floated the idea of Clark taking the number two spot on the ticket with Dean (even though the damn caucus/primary season is still four months away). Well that same day -- September 11, of all days -- Josh comes right back and linked to the "Washington Whispers" column from U.S. News & World Report about Clark's potential candidacy and possible V.P. selection:
"Supporters say that's a dirty-tricks campaign pushed by rival Howard Dean
who's scared of a Clark candidacy." (Emphasis you
know who.)

So keeping all this in mind, it's possible (and granted, I'm no political soothsayer) that Dean and his campaign, desperate to keep their front runner status, starts going after Clark. Clark may be able to stay above ground for a little while, but he's got a late start, and knows he's got to defend himself against Dean. So that sucks up all the media attention and oxygen from the other candidates, who may also resort to negative campaigning. So the whole field remains nothing but a "babble", and the Democratic voters are split all to hell and demoralized. So could that mean a certain someone from Tennessee gets back in the race to unify the party?

Just thinkin'.

UPDATE: Tennessee State's offense finally got on track and pulled away for a big 44-14 win! Phew!!!!