Hilarious Flash- Nikkoman!

Via Matthew Stoller at The Most Fun Bestest Commentary Anywhere Ever.

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Great stuff from the "Fishwrapper" in Creative Loafing.

So do your part. Stand up for your country -- and SPEND. Run up that debt. You say you only owe $5,000? Don't you know that's exactly what Saddam Hussein wants? You'll cripple America by not spending enough. Start flashing those credit cards. Get that debt up to ten big, twenty grand or more.

You're not quite sure how you're going to squeeze those payments for the new road monster into your budget. And God only knows what to do about the soon-to-arrive Christmas credit card bills. But it's treasonous to worry about such twaddle. Are you a traitor? I should hope not.

What you shouldn't do is pay attention to the news that home foreclosures in Fulton County were up 22 percent this month compared to November . Don't sweat those dunning notices from the mortgage company. Bet your paycheck on the Georgia lottery, and ignore the cynics who chide that the games are just a tax on the stupid.

And, puh-leeze, don't pause in your shopping to wonder why the banks -- the same ones that sent you those credit cards -- lavished their friends in Congress with cash in order to change the bankruptcy laws so that, while gangrenous outfits like WorldCom and Enron can dodge their debts, you'll have to keep paying and paying and paying.

And there is more.

Here are some other things you don't want to ponder if you're a stand-up patriot. Don't you dare fret over the fact that while the median income of all American families increased only a little more than $3,000 over the last two decades, the wealthiest 1 percent saw their earnings soar more than $400,000 -- and as the Bush $1.3 trillion tax break for the rich kicks in, that separation is going to accelerate. Zoom. The rich really will be different -- in ways not imagined since the Middle Ages.

This column I am linking to again is a must read. I really like the dig at Republican hack, crappy AJC columnist Jim "I can kiss Republican ass better than anybody else" Wooten, while looking at the year's political spin.

To wit: Last week, Republican Party spokesman and sometimes AJC columnist Jim Wooten penned this clever line: "Sen. Trent Lott, in an attempt to save his skin, has flipped. Now he's a liberal Democrat. Bye." Interpreted: Being a racist, a segregationist, a bigot, was just dandy with Republicans such as Wooten. To renounce such ideology -- as Lott pathetically tried to do on his infamous BET network interview -- makes one a "liberal."

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The poor are still poor after the holiday handouts.

Look, the people who are putting themselves out to help are good people and they are doing good things. Bless each and every one, but the fact remains that the day after this happy lightning strikes them, the recipients of all of this effort and all these good intentions are just as poorly off as they were the day before it hit.

.....

We will spare no amount of money in the (admittedly) worthy cause of holding Saddam Hussein to the deal he cut to stop the Gulf War just short of unhorsing him. We can afford tax cuts that, in gross disproportion, mostly benefit our most affluent, with, we are told, more of the same on the agenda for '03.

And the voice of privilege, The Wall Street Journal, laments that the poor are unfairly getting away without paying income taxes and calls them "lucky duckies" because of it.

We have indeed slipped into class warfare in our country, but it is being fought top down, as the well off harvest new gains for themselves from the powerless poor. And no number of charitable gestures, admirable as they are in their own right and welcome as they may be for the moment, can make up the difference.

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A Take Back The Media flash on Bush's falling poll numbers.

What falling poll numbers? Bush's falling poll numbers. The poll done by Time and CNN. Time did not even mention the poll's results on its web page. CNN briefly mentioned Bush's falling numbers. Did you know that 51% of the American's polled do not trust Cheney? Some very interesting numbers.

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Who was the athlete of the year?

Well, you have to get the correct people on the list. For the men, at least they included Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds. Mario Cipollini was more dominant than Lance in cycling this year, winning more grand tour stages and the World Championships. He should have at least made the list. To have a women's list without Paula Radcliff is moronic, however. She only shattered the Women's world marathon record this year, as well as dominated on the track.

Super Mario, aka the Lion King.

Paula Radcliffe.

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