Ben Elton is a fucking genius

I'm watching this documentary on the history of BBC's "Top of the Pops" and in the late 80s they tried to do this "trendy, hip" thing in getting young people to be the hosts of the show, and it ends up an exact match of the "Young A-Dults" bit by Ben Elton on that first Young Ones episode back in 1982.  I found myself wanting to smash the TV just as Rik did all those years ago...

Cheney actually told a funny!

"First, John Kerry was FOR the joke, before he was against it."

"$2000 tax hike for families" is a national campaign issue

Basically, the Republicans are accusing the Democrats of "wanting" and "planning" to increase taxes on "families" by $2000 if they get elected.

I thought this was just the anti-Webb ads, but it shows up in Republican-sponsored anti-Democrat ads all across the country.

It is, of course, spin.

What it really means is that the Democrats are likely to not make the (MANY) Bush tax cuts permanent, so when they expire in 2011, that average $2000 that was cut from the lower and lower-middle class tax burden will likely come back.

The reality is that the Democrats are likely, if they hold the House after 2008's elections (and have a sympathetic new President, regardless of party), to simply propose a whole new tax plan that will ease that burden on families while undoing the ridiculously out of whack tax cuts on the top 1%.

But Republican campaigners, policy-makers, and spin-meisters are hardly likely to look at reality anymore...they haven't for the last decade as far as I'm concerned...

Right now, Democrats can't campaign on that truth yet because 1) they know it will be spun even worse as an admission they plan to "raise taxes" (even if it's just for the ones who can easily afford it), and 2) they are still beholden to corporate overlords as much as Republicans are for funding and aren't yet ready to piss off that financial source yet.

justice is VERY quick...

'Dr. Dino,' wife guilty | Local News | PensacolaNewsJournal.com:

Jury deliberations took about three hours.

A federal jury has convicted Kent Hovind and his wife, Jo, of tax fraud.

Hovind faces a maximum of 288 years in prison. His wife faces up to 225 years. Her charges include aiding and abetting her husband with 44 counts of evading bank-reporting requirements.

For those who don't know, "Dr. Dino" Kenv Hovind is a young-earth creationist who set up one of those "museums" off of rt 29 in Pennsacola showing the "evidence" that man and dinosaurs co-existed and the dinosaurs were wiped out in Noah's flood. He had other views and theories that were so drastically ridiculous that even ID powerhouse the Discovery Institute was distancing themselves from him.  In other words, a nutball.

He insisted that his operation was a "church" and thus shouldn't have to pay any taxes. While doing that, he also failed to withhold taxes for his employees and didn't tell them they needed to handle the taxes themselves. He said "ministers" didn't have to pay. A completely wrong misinterpretation of the establishment clause and court history on the matter. Along the way, he also insisted his operation and buildings never needed permits or safety inspections and eventually the authorities closed the place down for lack of permits. In other words, a nutball.

He didn't even mount a real defense or attempt to actually persuade the court or the jury of his interpretation of "separation of church and state" that supposedly justified all this madness.  His defense merely tried to say that the government hadn't proved its case, without any witnesses or alternate evidence.  He could have saved the county (Escambia ain't exactly rich these days) thousands and himself a lot of his jail time by plea bargaining.  In other words, a nutball.

One nutball gone...I don't want to count how many are still out there...