I almost missed Jim Hightower's checklist of big oil's most recent tax write-offs:

• BP can write off 70 percent of the rent it paid to TransOcean for the oil rig "rental." - $225,000 per day
• TransOcean moves its offices to Switzerland and avoids paying $1.8 billion in U.S. taxes.
• Exxon Mobil raked in $19 billion in profit, but thanks to available subsidies, it got a $156-million tax refund.

Benefits for the unemployed are subject to "debate" but corporate welfare gets the backing of the Congressional oil whore caucus until forever.

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Jamison Foser writes a brilliant article that exposes the Queen of the Village, Sally Quinn.

You cannot caricature Sally Quinn. Don't even try. It simply can't be done. No matter how hard you try to exaggerate her preening self-regard and utter frivolity, she comes right along and shows herself to be worse than you could possibly imagine...read on

Read it all to get a better understanding of the Village mindset. Quinn uses the movie "Avatar" as some sort of analogy, but Digby writes that Quinn reminds her of Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. Hey, when the movie fits....

politibits: In a whirlwind of position changes and drama queen spotlight chasing, McCain rushed to the rescue and everything went 'kablooey.' All of a sudden, the congressional republicans, whose ideas from 1994 thru 2006 got us here, decided they didn't like the deal. So the Maverick flip flopped and went to Oxford to change minds.

Adult Christianity: In another Christianist email smear, a former employee of CBN and CampusCrusade for Christ, has posted an essay suggesting that God chose Sarah Palin to defeat Barack Obama.

William K. Wolfrum Chronicles: John McCain hires Palin's Kenyan pastor to "remove witchcraft from the economy."

Bread With Circus: Prior to her visit to the UN, the only foreign leader Caribou Barbie had met was former drug dealer, now Premier of the Yukon Territory, Dennis Fentie.

Corrente: The crisis explained

Vagabond Scholar: Right-Wing Cartoon Watch

Ha ha, just kidding, Mister Murdoch! Strange Tales (syndicated):

The BBC is spending more than $1 million to teach its staff the importance of telling viewers the truth. Vin Ray, director of the BBC's college of journalism, said the cost of taking 17,000 workers off the job for the two-hour training seminar would add at least another $1 million to the cost. Mark Thompson, the BBC's director general, ordered the training after the broadcaster admitted a series of bogus broadcasts, including made-up winners for phone-in contests and a misleading promotional video for a documentary about Queen Elizabeth.

Well, no one wants to say it but you will be reading this shortly: The Golden Globes and the Academy Awards will be cancelled.

On Monday December 17th, the WGA turned down requests for waivers by the Oscars and the Golden Globes to put those telecasts on air without the Guild’s writers. With the rejection of the waivers for the Academy Awards (ABC), set for Sunday February 24th, and the much faster approaching Golden Globes (NBC), set for January 13th, the WGA has essentially cancelled both awards shows by its actions.

The SAG Awards did receive a waiver and are scheduled for Jan. 27th.

But the other two awards shows will be cancelled and no one or should I say everyone in the industry is avoiding the mention of this 600 pound LaMotta because a) they are holding out the now near impossible hope for a settlement and b) no one wants to interrupt the cash flow from the media promotions of the potential nominees.

That is unless they want to go the route of the People’s Choice Awards which announced it will air its show Jan 8th (CBS) in a 2 hour “magazine” format of prerecorded videos and no audience yet featuring Queen Latifah as the prerecorded "host."

The Oscars and the Golden Globes will not play that game.

Leslie Unger, spokeswoman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said, “It’s very difficult for me to envision that we would follow the model.”

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(h/t Heather)

You knew we had to post this...

On a related note, the most news generated by this debate was unfortunately not the substance of the issues as raised by Kucinich and Edwards, but that Hillary Clinton was heckled. Turns out that it was a Code Pink member.

Hey media? Do you think maybe focusing more on the ideas brought forth, like Kucinich here, and less on the prom queen popularity aspect might actually be helpful? It's only the health and future of the planet we're talking about...

ARRGH! Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day, also known in the blogosphere as Link to Cap'n Dyke Day. Cap'n Dyke is the most worthy lesbian pirate queen that sails the blogosphere seas.

By the way, what does Anderson Cooper see when he looks in the mirror?

2 Political Junkies: Greenspan Update about how liberal blogs have gone all crazy about one sentence in a five hundred page book, so Alan G. says about twenty more sentences on the TV circuit that prove he said the one sentence, and...

...so why aren't we talking about oil running out? Because Iraq bombed the World Trade Center? Ask any kid. Or the Commander in Chief and his right-wing blogger friends..

Off the beaten path, very, very, guilty pleasure edition: Hot Chicks with Douchebags. Oh, wait. Here's a set they missed..

Guest blogged by Blue Gal, My email is bluegalsblog AT gmail DOT com, unless you're a Nigerian royal in need of urgent banking help. Or Neil Cavuto.

Via TPM Muckraker:

What 83 year-old William Sidwell of Queen City, Missouri found in his mailbox last week scared him. It was a letter from the Republican National Committee, but it seemed to bear grave news: "Our records show that you registered as a member of our Party in Schuyler County, MO," the letter said. "But a recent audit of your Party affiliation turned up some irregularities."

Audit? Irregularities? Was he in trouble? Were they threatening him? Sidwell went immediately to his ask his son, Dennis, a licensed public accountant, for advice. You can see the letter, and the accompanying "Voter Registration Verification and Audit Form," right here. Particularly puzzling to the both of them, Dennis told me, is that his father is a life-long Democrat.

The letter, it turns out, is just a misleading pitch for a contribution to the RNC -- one of the "irregularities" cited in the letter is that "I cannot find a record of you taking a single action in support of the Republican Party -- not locally, not nationally!" A contribution, the letter suggests, would help set the record straight.

The letter is signed by Bill Steiner, the director of the RNC's Office of Strategic Information, a title Steiner assumed at the end of July. His responsibilities "include managing the RNC’s national voter file and Voter Vault, the committee’s highly touted micro-targeting operation," Roll Call reported last month. And indeed, the voter "audit" requests detailed information about the voter's voting history and current opinions on the 2008 presidential race. Read more...

Read the entire letter here.

Via Startribune.com: By Nick Coleman, Star Tribune

The cloud of dust above the Mississippi that rose after the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed Wednesday evening has dissipated. But there are other dark clouds still hanging over Minneapolis and Minnesota.

The cloud of dust above the Mississippi that rose after the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed Wednesday evening has dissipated. But there are other dark clouds still hanging over Minneapolis and Minnesota.The fear of falling is a primal one, along with the fear of being trapped or of drowning.

Minneapolis suffered a perfect storm of nightmares Wednesday evening, as anyone who couldn't sleep last night can tell you. Including the parents who clench their jaws and tighten their hands on the wheel every time they drive a carload of strapped-in kids across a steep chasm or a rushing river. Don't panic, you tell yourself. The people in charge of this know what they are doing. They make sure that the bridges stay standing. And if there were a problem, they would tell us. Wouldn't they?

What if they didn't?

(Read the rest of this story)

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George, George, George. Hasn't anyone ever taught you that when dealing with a woman's age, guess low?

Dana Milbank at WaPo:

UPDATE: Now with video! Download | play Download | play

President Bush lasted only about 14 minutes into the state arrival ceremony (for Queen Elizabeth) before implying that the British monarch was 300 years old.

"You've dined with 10 U.S. presidents," Bush said on the South Lawn with the 81-year-old sovereign at his side. "You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in seventeen s --" -- here the president caught himself -- "in nineteen seventy-six."
The crowd laughed. Bush looked sheepishly at Elizabeth, who glanced up from the text of her own speech, smiled politely, and said something that sounded like "some year," or "you're near," or even "oh, dear."
"She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child," a quick-thinking Bush reported back to the assembly.

At least he didn't credit her with signing the Magna Carta.

"Quick thinking," Dana? Um, okay. He used that famous Bush charm elsewhere too:

The informal Bush enjoyed the formality so much that he even took time out to torment an underdressed photographer. After his walk with the queen after lunch, Bush got the photographer, Newsweek's Charles Ommanney, to agree that it was "a special day" at the White House. "Then why," the president asked, "didn't you wear something other than hand-me-down clothes?"