The Sideshow: Something old, something new

Lawyers, Guns & Money: To know is to hate?

Wonk Room: Mitchell reaffirms 'linkage' in remarks on direct talks

AlterNet: Dylan Ratigan's Crusade

field negro: "Your glasses or your life"

Dennis Perrin: In Gawd's Image

Sociology 101

The Sideshow has a great post today: "What is Michael Kinsley trying to say? First he talks about all the "national myths" we have about equality, and then he notes that upward mobility is declining, but then he acts like upward mobility never existed....

" Well, now we seem to have a leadership that absolutely glories in that ugliness. They have an entire theology based around the idea that the rich and powerful deserve to be rich and powerful and lord it over the rest of us."...read on

his vorpal sword: Global Notwarming Tanks Rumble Across Tundra

The Sardonic Sideshow: Obama: The Flame War President

Stinque: Talibunny laundering PAC money through PAC-sponsored book buys

Brilliant at Breakfast: A few words about the Edwards debacle

Vagabond Scholar: Health Care reform and football

Groundswell Blog: Responding to Republican Diggs Brown: A smart, realistic foreign policy

Lost in Tarnation: Talking to your children about Scott Brown winning in Massachusetts. Now, how do we talk to WATB Dems?

Advice Unasked: Hillary Clinton's primary voters went for Brown?

First Draft: What a dick

Rumproast: Good for Cindy McCain

MediaBloodhound: My interview with Health Insurance whistleblower, Wendell Potter

The Sardonic Sideshow: The MSM doesn't exist...not anymore

(photo courtesy of AP)

Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe is the Grand Poobah of right wing nutjobs in the Senate, and is probably the leading Global Warming denier on Capitol Hill. On Friday, he proved yet again why he is nothing short of an embarrassment to the United States. Using taxpayer money he flew to Copenhagen with no schedule, no plans or arrangements made, and did little more than put on a right wing sideshow for anyone who would listen. He found the European press a little less accommodating than the media lap dogs here in the good old USA:

COPENHAGEN — Sen. Jim Inhofe flew across the Atlantic and — on little sleep — braved the snow, the cold and the dark to deliver his skeptical message at the international climate conference.

What he found when he got here: a few aides and a single reporter.

“I think he’s going to be a little disappointed,” one of his aides remarked.

When he was finally able to find a few reporters to listen to him, he went full on lunatic fringe:

“We in the United States owe it to the 191 countries to be well-informed and know what the intentions of the United States are. The United States is not going to pass a cap and trade,” he said. “It’s just not going to happen.”

A reporter asked: “If there’s a hoax, then who’s putting on this hoax, and what’s the motive?”

“It started in the United Nations,” Inhofe said, “and the ones in the United States who really grab ahold of this is the Hollywood elite.”

One reporter asked Inhofe if he was referring to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Another reporter — this one from Der Spiegel — told the senator: “You’re ridiculous.” Read on...

The Baseline Scenario: Bankster loving Dems sneak loophole language into Barney Frank's financial regulation bill

The Progressive Puppy: Anti-Gay Music: Pepsi's "mistake," Grammy's deadly homophobia

The KC Blue Blog: In a major turn of events, a newly released police report states that the woman was not only allegedly beaten by Republican Speaker turned powerful consultant Rod Jetton, but was allegedly forced against her will, drugged, tied with a belt and raped.

AlterNet: Meet the billionaire brothers funding the Right-Wing war on Obama

The Sideshow: Assorted Stuff

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: How a Crock of Sh*t gets to your breakfast table...Why journalist Gary Webb died...New rightie media mogul...Gretchen Carlson dumbs down...Bumper sticker analysis...Pro-War corporate media...Worse than useless...They even wanted Dobbs...Dana Milbank still an assh*le... I rest my case...It's how they roll...The further adventures of Peggy Noonan

Some Guy's Blog: Happy Thanksgiving!

James Fallows has been posting on how our myopic media manufactured a failure out of Obama's China trip

Angry Bear: Another Reagan myth bubbling back to the surface

cab drollery: They Knew

The Sardonic Sideshow: Has the American Dream drifted north?

onegoodmove: The Right Side of History (h/t reader Geoff)

Too late to impeach?  The Sideshow revisits a Clinton-era commentary by a legal scholar who argued that a president could be impeached even after his term expired - "and disqualified from holding further federal office."

Gin and Tacos: A history of the pardon, or the long, slow slide from "scrupulousness and caution" to "weakness [and] connivance."  (Plus: a history lesson for Tony Snow.)

Scott Ritter:  The politically-motivated shutdown of UNMOVIC, the agency tasked with finding Iraqi WMD's, could mean a "farewell to arms control."

Washington Babylon interviews Joost Hiltermann on the unintended consequences of U.S. support for Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war.

No More Mister Nice Blog on George Will: Does "colorblindness" equal "amnesia"?

Pam's House Blend:  Although Marriott board member Mitt Romney has been criticized for his hands-off stance re: hotel-room porn, many evangelicals are reluctant to cast the first stone.

Guest blogger Simbaud is still recuperating from his brief flirtation with Independence.  Send your links, both pithy and pissy, to Simbaud AT gmail DOT com. 

Intrepid Liberal Journal: Hillary's announcement is like drinking soda without carbonation, but hey, it beats the Republicanade a certain cowboy is drinkin'.

Sardonic Sideshow : The war in Iraq is a narcissistic disaster. Turns out the war on Jimmy Carter isn't going so well, either.

The Fifth Annual SOTU Predictions Quiz is here! (big h/t to Redd Turtle)

at-Largely: Gonzales, Libby & Co. doing intelligence laundry: Place a piece of propaganda with a foreign news service and have it come back into US media and there you have it, news from foreign reporters, no longer propaganda.

Bob Geiger : Cartoon Round-up, including bonus animation. On topic, Harper's has one of the best cartoons of the month .

Guest round - up by Blue Gal, bluegalsblog AT gmail DOT com.

It's "Merry Christmas", damnit!!!!

Crooked Timber: A century ago, King Leopold of Belgium invaded the Congo and justified his grab for Congo's natural resources with much talk about bringing philanthropy and Christianity to darkest Africa. Now what does that remind you of?

The Mahablog: Nobody can whine about being picked on better than righties, but this is outrageous even by rightie standards.

Balkinization: The Anti-Torture Memos...a compendium of substantive analyses on some of the key issues of the War on Terror

Bob Geiger: Has the cartoon's up...and this

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Your Right Hand Thief...Mary MacElveen...Lawrence of Cyberia...The Sardonic Sideshow