"...There's Un In Every Crowd..."

Along with all its other allures, pop music has a wonderful way of being available to writers who, from time to time, like to use well known songs to illustrate contemporary circumstances.

I'm a big fan, and user, of that application.

In that spirit, Joni Mitchell fans, please stand by.


Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- North Korea's threatening rhetoric has reached a fever pitch, but the Pentagon and the South Korean government have said it's nothing new.

"We have no indications at this point that it's anything more than warmongering rhetoric," a senior Washington Defense official said late Friday.

 

The official was not authorized to speak to the media and asked not to be named.

 

The National Security Council, which advises the U.S. president on matters of war, struck a similar cord. Washington finds North Korea's statements "unconstructive," and it does take the threats seriously.

 

"But, we would also note that North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric and threats, and today's announcement follows that familiar pattern," said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the security council.

 

The United States will continue to update its capabilities against any military threat from the North, which includes plans to deploy missile defense systems.

 

Pyongyang's propaganda machine flung new insults at the United States on Saturday.

 

It compared the U.S. mainland with a "boiled pumpkin," unable to endure an attack from a foreign foe, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.

 

North Korea, on the other hand, could sustain an offensive from the outside, the report said. It claimed the government had built shelters around the country "against any enemy nuclear and chemical weapons attack."

 

The rhetoric and military show of force by the North have heated up in the face of annual joint military exercise between South Korean and U.S. forces called Foal Eagle.

 

The routine maneuvers are carried out in accordance with the armistice that put an end to armed hostilities in 1953. There was no peace treaty to officially end the war.

 

The North Korean government declared the armistice invalid on March 11, 10 days after Foal Eagle began. It is something Pyongyang has done before during heightened tensions.

 

In an added slap, North Korea has declared that it had entered a "state of war" with neighboring South Korea, according to a report Saturday from the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

 

"The condition, which was neither war nor peace, has ended," North Korea's government said in a special statement carried by KCNA.

 

Saturday's reports also asserted any conflict "will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war."

 

The statements made the prospect of war contingent upon "a military provocation ... against the DPRK" in sensitive areas on the border between North and South.

 

 

I freely admit that I have neither the education nor experience to consider myself credentialed when it comes to assessing a global, sociologial, geopolitical situation.

 

That said, I think, given what we all pretty much know about the situation, that it's not unreasonable for even a layman like me to be able to offer the following observations:

 

North Korea is now, has always been and, it's safe to assume, will always be an Asian continental equivalent of the neighborhood bully.

 

For those of you less versed in world politics than in, say, "A Christmas Story", simply substitute the name " Scut Farkus" whenever and wherever you read the name "Kim Jong Un" and you'll get the primary drift here.

 

Bullies, by their nature, are predisposed to bluster, bravado, bluff and/or bullshit, not necessarily in that order.

 

And what gives North Korea a unique advantage in the bully business is that, under ordinary circumstances, a bully would, at one point or another, sooner or later, have to make good on their bluster, bravado, et al or be exposed, to those all around him, as a fraud, fake, phony paper tiger.

 

Or punch the livin' bejesus out of him, ala Ralphie finally going pre-holiday postal on Scut.

 

But I got five bucks in my pocket against the five in yours that nobody in North Korea is going to ever step up and cry fraud, let alone start wailin' on Un while one of his generals runs to get momma to break up the bashing.

 

And the family Un really doesn't much care about what anybody else thinks.

 

So, the wheel on the bully bus can go round and round / round and round / round and round / for years to come/ years to come/ years to come.

 

At the same time, though, I think it's, at best, naive and, at worst, foolhearty, to assume that Koocoo Kim won't decide to take a plutonium pot shot at someone or someones before all of this arrives at the end credits.

 

Because Kim Jong Un seems to have one personality trait that Scut Farkus lacked.

 

Bat shit craziness.

 

And, as our most very good friend Forrest, Forrest Gump might offer these days....

 

"...crazy is as crazy does."

 

So, notwithstanding full of patriotic pride, bona fide U.S. of A. confidence and/or arrogance, manifesting in the form of tsk, tsk, scoff, scoffing at this leechie nut bag with the bad Leroy Jethro Gibbs haircut, I appreciate that, to all appearances, those in our government who are tasked with taking this kind of silliness seriously are, in fact, taking this silliness seriously.

 

And keeping their fingers close to whatever button might become necessary should the Un and only let his finger get a little too close to the button he calls his own.

 

Again, I can't possibly know the who, what, when, where or how that would result from the pushing of either button nor what the ultimate damage and/or loss of life would be.

 

But, arrogance and tsk, tsking aside, I feel pretty sure that, given the respective stats that North Korea and the United States of America bring to the playing field, there are, at least, a few discussions being held behind closed doors in their locker room on the subject of insuring that rattling is all that Junior is allowed to do with the saber Daddy bequeathed him.

 

Because should push come to button push, it's a pretty fair bet that Kim Jong Farkus would be shown that he was better off barking, given that biting resulted in his acqusition of far more than he could chew.

 

And while it's equally naive not to think that someday, somewhere, someone is going to push that button and there will be a mushroom cloud themed fracas, it's also likely that, should it be, oh, say, Un and his posse who draw first, they're going to find themselves, for good or Un, waist deep in the middle of a fun rewrite of a classic Joni Mitchell song.

 

We took North Korea / turned it into a parking lot.

 

Ideally, cool and calm trumps crazy even in Korea.

 

And one can't help but hope that somewhere there in Pyongyang, Un's more lucid peeps are trying to get him to take a break and chillax a little.

 

Maybe with a viewing of that perennial holiday classic, "A Christmas Story."

 

 

 

 

"Van Halen, Van Morrison, Meet Vanguard...."

Old rockers never die.

 

Or, apparently, take a moment's rest from zealousy watching the wall for us.

 

 

That's one way to mark Black History Month: When Ted Nugent hits the road this year, he's calling his tour "Ted Nugent Black Power 2013," he writes on the conservative website World Net Daily.

In a column that describes "dirty Democrat politicians" as the enemies of black Americans, the right-wing rocker reels off a string of statistics he says demonstrate how ineffective Democratic policies, including Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, have been at helping African-Americans overcome poverty, crime and a lack of education.

"The truth is that the Democratic Party has been the engineer of the destruction of black Americans, and everyone knows it except the very people who need to know it the most – black Americans," he writes.

Nugent, on the other hand, says he celebrates Black History Month "every day," because his "fire-breathing musical career was literally launched by black musical thundergods" including Bo Diddley, Little Richard, James Brown, Wilson Pickett and more.

"There is no doubt that my 2013 tour will be the best of my life," he writes. "With world-class virtuosos paying tribute to our black heroes nightly, it is only fitting that this year's tour is aptly titled, 'Ted Nugent Black Power 2013.' Say it loud: my music is black and I'm proud!"

Nugent hasn't been subtle about his dislike of Democrats, particularly President Obama. The rocker credited the president's re-election last year to "pimps, whores and welfare brats," and met with the Secret Service last year after describing his opposition to the president in violent terms. Nugent attended Obama's State of the Union speech earlier this month without incident.

Ted Nugent, to all appearances, prides himself on passionately availing himself of his Constitutional right to self expression.
 

Fair enough.
 

In a reciprocal spirit, may I respectfully offer my opinion back to Mr. Land of the Free?
 

Any moron can stand outside a tent and piss into it.
 

 

And any fool can burn down a village.
 

 

So, yo, Tedster...if you want to percieved by anyone with an IQ greater than six as something other than the aforementioned moron and/or fool, then here's a thought.
 

 

Run for something.
 

 

Get elected to something.
 

 

And show those gnarly liberals what real change looks like.
 

 

Put more acronymically, clean up D.C with the power of R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.
 

 

Otherwise....
 

 

STFU.

 

 

"You Get What You Pay, and Vote, For...."

This whole "fiscal cliff" business seems to want to seem complicated.

It's really not.

What follows is a garden variety, "update" (as of the time this piece is being written) on where they are in terms of getting this seemingly complicated business resolved.

Feel free to read away.

If, though, you're pressed for time and want the simple, quick read bottom line, simply skip down to the very last paragraph of the news article.


Washington (CNN) -- The Senate's top Democrat and Republican are working this weekend to forge a compromise to prevent the country from going over the fiscal cliff, the combination of sweeping spending cuts and widespread tax increases that will otherwise take effect in days.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, on late Friday afternoon called the next 24 hours "very important" in the grueling effort to avert a crisis that has been two years in the making. House Speaker John Boehner has called on the Senate to go first, and then his chamber -- which reconvenes Sunday -- will act.

 

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Minority Leader, expressed hope that he and Reid will agree on a plan to present to their respective caucuses "as early as Sunday."

 

Early Friday evening after a meeting involving him, congressional leaders and top administration officials, President Barack Obama said he was "modestly optimistic" the Senate leaders would reach an agreement. At the same time, he conceded, "Nobody's going to get 100% of what they want."

 

The two senators' chiefs of staff -- David Krone for Reid, and Sharron Soderstrom for McConnell -- will lead the talks, much of which will be carried on over the phone and by e-mail, aides said. Neither of their bosses is expected to be in the Capitol on Saturday, though that could change.

 

Staffers for Boehner, the top man in Republican-led House of Representatives, won't directly take part in the negotiations, but they'll be kept informed by McConnell's staff, a GOP aide said. The White House will learn what's going on through Reid's staff.

 

Democrats believe Republicans should make the "first move" -- basically by saying what changes should be made to the president's proposal, which calls for tax rates to stay the same for all annual family income below $250,000. The expectation is that Republicans will try to raise that income threshold to $400,000 and push to keep estate taxes low; Democrats said they might be open to one such scenario, but not both.

 

If the offer is "laughable," a Democratic aide said it will probably be leaked to the media. If it is reasonable, it should remain private -- which would mean, for Saturday at least, that no news may be good news.

 

And if the two sides don't agree on a bill over the weekend, Obama said he wants his latest proposal to be put up for a vote in both the Senate and House. He predicted his plan -- which, in addition to his tax rate proposal, would extend unemployment benefits and "lay the groundwork" for deficit reduction -- would pass in both chambers with bipartisan support.

 

As members of Congress and their staffs talk, Obama will make his case to the public by appearing Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," his first appearance on a Sunday political talk show in three years.

 

Reid said, at the very least, that he'd prepare legislation that includes elements favored by for a vote by Monday. Still, he insisted he'd first work with his GOP colleagues.

 

"I look forward to hearing any good-faith proposals Sen. McConnell has for altering this bill," the Nevada Democrat said.

 

If no legislation passes both chambers and therefore remains unsigned by the president by year's end, the fiscal cliff will go into effect -- something economists warn could trigger a recession.

 

The lack of political movement thus far, and lack of confidence Washington politicians can get anything done with so little time left, has spurred consumer confidence to sag and stock market values to sink.

 

Some like Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York expressed cautious optimism Friday that the looming deadline, and the key players renewed engagement, would spur a deal. But others, like Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, derided the process so far as "a total dereliction of duty on every level."

 

"I've been very surprised that the president has not laid out a very specific plan to deal with this," he said on CBS "This Morning."

 

"But candidly, Congress should have done the same. And I think the American people should be disgusted."

 

The principal dispute continues to be over taxes, specifically Democrats' demand to extend most tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush while allowing higher rates of the 1990s to return on top income brackets. During his re-election campaign, Obama said this would protect 98% of Americans and 97% of small businesses from tax hikes.

 

Republicans have opposed any kind of increase in tax rates, and Boehner suffered the political indignity last week of offering a compromise -- a $1 million threshold for the higher rates to kick in -- that his GOP colleagues refused to support because it raised taxes and had no chance of passing the Senate.

 

Obama and Democrats have leverage, based on the president's reelection last month and Democrats' gains in the House and Senate in the new Congress. In addition, polls consistently show majority support for Obama's position on taxes, and Democrats insist the House would pass the president's plan with Democrats joined by some Republicans if Boehner allowed a vote on it.

 

However, influential anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist has vowed to back primary challenges against Republicans who violate his widely signed pledge not to raise taxes. Even if a deal is reached, Norquist has predicted yet more budget showdowns every time the government needs additional money to operate.

 

The two sides seemingly had made progress early last week on forging a $2 trillion deficit reduction deal that included new revenue sought by Obama and spending cuts and entitlement changes desired by Boehner.

 

Boehner appeared to move on increased tax revenue, including higher rates on top income brackets and eliminating deductions and loopholes. But his inability to rally all House Republicans behind his plan raised questions about his role and what comes next.

 

All this has fueled disdain for politicians by many Americans. Such contempt is deserved, said Rep. Steven LaTourette, an Ohio Republican, who is retiring from Congress.

 

"I think America should be embarrassed by its leadership in D.C.," he told CNN on Friday. "The fact that we have been unable to do things, and instead worried about our next elections. ... I think it's sinful."

 

 

We are, by nature, a population of disagreeable sorts.

 

The kind of people who can always be counted on to oppose each other on every subject from gun control to birth control, from who should win "The Voice" to what we should all have for lunch.

 

Even whether or not we should make it possible for teachers to have weapons to protect themselves, and their students, from nut bags with Bushmasters.

 

But, every now and then, a tiny trace of togetherness rears its too seldom seen head and we find ourselves, to a person, saying "right on", "damn skippy", "amen" or "effin A".

 

Being unable, of course, to be inclined to agree on just one way to say that we all agree.

 

Said tiny trace has reared here.

 

"I think America should be embarrassed by its leadership in D.C.," he told CNN on Friday. "The fact that we have been unable to do things, and instead worried about our next elections. ... I think it's sinful."

 

Three things occur to this mind.

 

We are sure to all agree with what Mr. LaTourette has to say.

 

The fact that he is leaving, and not entering, the Congress should scream volumes about the continuing decline of that supposedly "governing" body.

 

And, here's one that is sure to get us back to disagreeing mode in a nano second....

 

We have no one to blame for all of this but ourselves.

 

Because we keep re-electing these clowns.

 

Can I get an amen?

 

Or maybe an "effin A"?

"...I Do Solemnly Swear, That I Will Faithfully Execute, If You Really, Really Think You Need Me To Do This...."

It's often said that the first step to correcting a problem is to admit that there is one.

As my New Orleans brethren would suggest, true dat.


(Yahoo News) Mitt Romney didn't want to be president, anyway.

That's what Tagg Romney, Mitt's oldest son, told the Boston Globe for its big post-mortem on his father's failed presidential bid published on Sunday.

“He wanted to be president less than anyone I’ve met in my life," Tagg Romney told the paper. "He had no desire to ... run. If he could have found someone else to take his place ... he would have been ecstatic to step aside.

"He is a very private person who loves his family deeply and wants to be with them," Tagg continued. "He has deep faith in God and he loves his country, but he doesn’t love the attention.”

Romney's reluctance to become commander in chief has been hinted at by his sons before. Before their father sought the 2012 GOP nomination, several said they tried to convince him not to run.

"I tried to convince him not to," Matt Romney told Conan O'Brien in June. "I think there were a few of us that tried that. I just felt for us as a family, this isn't the best thing. But ... for the country, we think it's the right thing."

A Republican Party seemingly obsessed with getting rid of Barack Obama and they nominate, as their standard bearer, a guy who "wanted to be president less than anyone I've ever met in my life?".

Not to mention the millions and millions of dollars spent to promote a guy who apparently didnt really want the promotion in the first place?

If the Republican Party wants to be a force in 2013 America, common sense would indicate the way to do so is to realize they need to tap their pool of talented, passionate and committed young and visionary office seekers.

And avoid dragging their old, tired war horses into a limelight they don't even want.

Uh, hey, G.O.P.....there's your problem.

"...And The Republicans Insist On Calling It The Grand Old Canyon..."

Politics, as oft observed, is about perception.

Because perception is reality.

The perception of that reality, though, can be easily altered with spin.

Spin, in the political sense, is like a universal remote control.

It can be configured to be usable, and useful, in any and all occasions.

The end of the logic trail and evidence of assorted assertions to follow momentarily.


(YahooNews) While camping in the Grand Canyon with her boyfriend earlier this month, Samantha Busch, 22, decided to pull a prank on her overprotective mom, Rebecca.

Busch texted a photo of herself looking like she was falling off a cliff, when in reality, she was perfectly safe standing on a ledge below.

"For five days up to when we left, my mom had warned me about falling off the cliff or being blown off," Busch told ABCNews.com. "So when we were hiking around the corner, I found a good spot where I could stand on the ledge. He angled the camera just right and he took a great picture."

Her mom and all her co-workers, however, were not amused.

"I messaged it to her first and she works for a medical auditing company and there are women who have known me since day one, and they freaked out over it also. I emailed it to them, too, and they were all freaking out over it saying I gave them a heart attack," Busch said.

To take the prank one step further, Busch, of Westmont, Ill., turned off the GPS locator on her phone so her mom could not track her.

"I work for her, so constantly every single day we communicate over work stuff," Busch explained. "So for the whole week I decided not to let her know where I'm at. I had to give her some practice to not know where I am every day."

She posted the photo to Reddit with the caption, "Mom was worried about my trip to the Grand Canyon, I sent her this picture," and it instantly went viral.

Luckily, Busch's mom has forgiven her.

"She's fine. She wasn't even angry. She was just relieved upset," Busch said.

When asked if she had more pranks on the way, she replied, "There's no end to my pranking."

As to the earlier supposition about the the simplicity of spin application?

Allow me.

Upon release of this photograph...

ABC interviewed the mother and daughter and spun the story into a humorous segment illustrating the mischievous, if slightly twisted, relationship between parent and offspring.

PETA announced that this unfortunate incident could have been avoided if only Grand Canyon officials would install the pet guardrails they insist will save doggie lives.

Ann Coulter released a statement accusing the girl of being a retard for actually hanging on to the rocks instead of simply Photoshopping it while waiting for her Amazon order of Coulter's new book to be confirmed.

Rachel Maddow told her nightly MSNBC audience that this episode marked a new advance in the lesbian movement, given that this is apparently the first time a woman has pulled the kind of doofus stunt you most often expect will be pulled by a drunken male.

Wolf Blitzer interrupted the regular broadcast of The Situation Room with a breaking news segment of The Situation Room and brought "the best political team on television" on live to discuss what effect this prank would have on Hillary's chances in 2016.

Mitt Romney announced that forty seven percent of people seeing the picture assumed it was real because they were too lazy to read the story accompanying it.

Donald Trump issued a statement saying he had documented proof that the Grand Canyon was, in fact, not in Arizona, but in Kenya.

And Fox News pre-empted Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and the whole Fox News gang to devote an entire evening to, in their words, proof positive of the impending collapse of the American economy in the form of irrefutable photographic evidence of the first victim hanging on, for dear life, to the edge of the fiscal cliff.

Wow.

Makes you just a little dizzy reading all that, doesn't it?

That's why they call it spin.

"...Well, What Ya Got Here Is A Cassette Deck That Yer Tryin' To Play Yer BlueRay In...."

The outcome of the 2012 presidential election is good news.

But not for, depending on the color of your particular political stripe, the conclusion to which you might be immediately tempted to jump.

More in a moment.



(YahooNews)(NOTE: BOLD lettering added by original author of the news piece)

Losing is never a great way to increase your popularity. But to an unusually vocal degree, Republicans are going out of their way to show Romney the door.

A week and a half ago, Mitt Romney was the king of the Republican Party, drawing big, genuinely enthusiastic crowds to his presidential rallies and basking in glowing press from the conservative media. Now, after a landslide loss and post-election comments blaming his crushing defeat on "gifts" President Obama had doled out to young and minority voters, "Republicans are essentially coming together in a collective 'go away, Mitt,'" say Benjy Sarlin and Evan McMorris-Santoro at Talking Points Memo. "For conservatives and Republicans trying to make the GOP friendlier to those groups, Romney's comments have not been well-received. To say the least."

 

Romney is still in shock over his loss, and wants to keep on "rehashing why he didn't win" — blaming the voters, not his campaign — while Republicans are clearly trying to "move on as quickly as possible from an election that badly exposed their weaknesses," says Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post. And since Romney embodies just about everything his party is trying to ditch — namely, "the stereotype that it is of, by, and for white, affluent men " — you can't blame the GOP for telling its failed nominee: "Thanks for playing. Now go away." The problem for Republicans is that "Romney has no motivation to toe the party line now," and no incentive to shut up.

But it doesn't really matter what Romney says now, says Michael Tomasky at The Daily Beast. His losing campaign already irreparably — and unforgivably — damaged one of the GOP's sacred cows: Trickle-down economics.

Yes, Romney "killed Reaganomics." Voters had a stark choice between Obama's pledge to raise taxes on the rich while keeping middle-class taxes the same and Romney's central promise to cut everyone's taxes by a fat 20 percent.

There was a time when a promise of a 20-percent tax cut would have ended the whole conversation in Romney's favor. But all it accomplished this time was to raise questions — legitimate and never answered — about how he was going to pay for it. Romney had nothing to say to the middle class beyond cutting taxes and watching the magic happen. But voters have stopped believing in that magic. Some conservatives understand this. But it's literally three or four people right now.... The rest of the Republican Party is still in fantasy land.

 

Hey, let's give Romney some credit here, says Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo. He's already managed to do something that's eluded Obama for four years: "Uniting the country across party lines." Of course, what's uniting everyone's is the belief that "he's someone who should leave as soon as possible and not say anything publicly again." But even there, Romney's hardly the first losing candidate to be thrown down the memory hole by his own party. Michael Dukakis? Bob Dole, anyone? The part of this that's amusingly unique to Romney is that a candidate who "was never more than a tolerated transplant among professional conservatives" is being drummed off the national stage by the GOP "precisely because he's continuing to make the kind of makers-and-takers type statements you might hear on a particularly feral and untethered right-wing blog."


First, I'm not entirely sure that the outcome constitutes the "landslide" that the author labels it in the second graph, so, I'm swallowing the whole of what he/she has to say with the obligatory grain of salt.

That said, though, I think there are a couple of key observations made that relate to my own opening assertion that the results of the election constitute good news.

Primarily that "......Republicans are clearly trying to "move on as quickly as possible from an election that badly exposed their weaknesses," says Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post. And since Romney embodies just about everything his party is trying to ditch — namely, "the stereotype that it is of, by, and for white, affluent men..... "

When it comes to a preferred position, I would, if pressed, freely admit that, as a rule, I tend to find my feet on the liberal side of the line betwen liberal and conservative.

Although, I would always feel compelled to add to any admittance the assertion that I've never really been much for the whole "one side or the other" way of doing business, believing that life's issues are far too complex for them to boil down to a strictly "either/or" choice.

Unless, of course, a particular issue clearly belongs in the common sense folder in which case common sense would prevail.

Notwithstanding the amusing human paradox that common sense often seems neither common nor sensical.

But, I digress. And meander a bit.

The good news that comes from this election is that while the change that many were wanting will, obviously, not occur, change, in another form, will, in fact.

Occur.

That being that the old, traditional, once tried and true, but now no longer viable, practical or, more fundamentally, relevant way the Republican Party did business will evolve into a more viable, practical and relevant alternative recipe to whatever the Democrats are cooking up at any given time.

Spirited, passionate, even emotional, but, at its core, loyal opposition is a bedrock upon which this country was founded and has continued to survive/flourish through two plus centuries of its existence.

And all of the rambling rhetoric in the world (present dissertation included) can't alter the fact that our progress as a country and civilization always hinge on a couple of very simple premises.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

If it is broke, fix it.

And...

Out with the old. In with the new.

A lot of people would have preferred seeing that last one defined as a change in the hands opening the "OCCUPANT" mail at 1600 Pennsylvania come January.

And they are, for the moment, feeling like they were robbed of the change they expected.

Not yet realizing that what they got, instead, was the change that they needed.

"...I Won't Be Greedy By Asking For The Ann Coulter Muzzle..."

Whatever our differences might be, we all, as Americans, share one particular challenge each and every holiday season.

 

Finding the perfect gift for that special someone, or someones, in our life.

 

At this point, this year, I think I have the what to give to who pretty much laid out, if not already done and did.

 

Of course, I've been around enough years now to realize when it's time to start thinking about Christmas and planning accordingly.

 

I just keep eyes and ears peeled as to when my friendly, neighborhood retail stores start decking the halls, and aisles, and know that its time to start fa la la la looking.

 

Usually sometime in late July.

 

This year, though, I was stumped as what I might offer up in glad tidings to my favorite little Fox News gnome.

 

Then, as our friends and/or loved ones so often do, he, himself, provided me all the inspiration I needed. 

 

 

Conservative political strategist Karl Rove has used a provocative phrase to explain how Mitt Romney lost the presidential election Tuesday, saying President Obama won reelection “by suppressing the vote.”

 

Really? Few others make that assertion about the Obama victory.

And normally, the words voter suppression refer to efforts by the politically powerful to make it harder for people – especially people who might oppose the politically powerful at the polls – to cast ballots. The online reference Wikipedia defines it as tactics that "can range from minor ‘dirty tricks’ that make voting inconvenient, up to blatantly illegal activities that physically intimidate prospective voters to prevent them from casting ballots.”

 

Mr. Rove, a force behind big-money ad campaigns aligned with Republican candidates, appeared to redefine the term.

Appearing on Fox News Thursday, Rove implied that Obama’s suppression strategy was to make Romney unlikeable, so that the Republican’s potential supporters wouldn’t show up to vote for him.

“He succeeded by suppressing the vote, by saying to people, 'you may not like who I am, and I know you can’t bring yourself to vote for me, but I’m going to paint this other guy as simply a rich guy who only cares about himself,' ” Rove said.

By his definition of suppression, it sounds just like traditional “opposition research” and negative advertising. Does Rove (himself a purveyor of negative ads in his work for George W. Bush and now at the Crossroads GPS group) have some different point to make, or is this just sour grapes over the election outcome?

Fox News host Megyn Kelly responded to Rove. “But I mean [Obama] won, Karl, he won.”

Before she interjected, Rove had also said this: Obama has become “the first president in history to win a second term with a smaller percentage of the vote” than four years before.

 

Twas the month before Christmas / and bless all my stars /
I know just what gift / I should get Karl R.

A one of a kind, personally printed and published dictionary.

With the clear and concise definitions of only a few, very special words and/or terms.

Cry baby.

Sore loser.

Candy ass.

Whiny puss. (Although that one's similarity to cry baby might result in its being edited out of the final version).

And, last, but not least, the one word I'm pretty sure would suffice if the cost of this very special custom made volume should necessitate cutting back.

Hypocrite.

Excited as you can imagine I am about this idea, I've already fired off my letter to the North Pole.

Dear Santa,

Please bring my favorite Fox News gnome, Karl Rove, a one of a kind, personally printed and published dictionary with the clear and concise defintions of only a few, very special words and or terms, which I have included here.

Oh, and Santa, if you think I've been a good enough little boy this year to add a little sweetening to the nog, I'd be delighted if you could have Karl take the place of Grandma this year when it comes to that getting run over by a reindeer thing.

Thank you...fly safe and say hello to Rudolph and the posse...

P.S.      Cookies by the tree will be double stuff this year if you can pull all of this off.

Two feelings like no other each and every year about this time.

The joy of knowing the joy of the season.

And the joy of knowing all my shopping is done.