I can't be the only loyal Olbermann watcher to have noticed this. Starting (I think) sometime last week, I started noticing 30-second spots for Amway/Quixtar during Countdown. I may have missed them if they aired before a couple of weeks ago - I usually TiVo KO and zip past the commercial breaks. However, I was on vacation and watching from a TiVo-free location.

"Oh, crap," I thought, "are you freaking kidding me?" The company whose name is synonymous with multilevel pyramid scams is sponsoring KO? That one of the worst of the MLM rackets, those predatory cult-like schemes that have destroyed the lives of millions with false promises, gets to show its face anywhere near the hour of nightly goodness and rationality that is Countdown - well, it was enough to leave me more than slightly annoyed.

"Well," I thought, "TV, be it cable or otherwise, is in business to make money. Maybe if I were running the advertising department at MSNBC, I would be looking to take what I can get. Likely that KO has little or no say over what ads run during his show anywhay, and that assumes that he even knows anything about Amway or MLM in the first place."

I let it slide, annoyed but newly vigilant for what else might show up.

Then I saw Wenesday night's broadcast.

Per Reuters, via Yahoo:

Hillary and Bill Clinton are again teaming up on Barack Obama - this time saying the first-term U.S. lawmaker, whom they have derided as inexperienced, would be a strong running mate on a Democratic presidential ticket headed by the former First Lady.

My god, desperation has an ugly smell, don't it?

Right this way...

To death and taxes, let me add one more thing in life that is sure:  Whoever gets the Democratic nomination for President will be subjected to smears, lies, half-truths, distortions, mischaracterizations, straw man argumentation, and straight up old-fashioned ad hominem attacks like we have not seen before.  The GOP national organizations, 527's and Republican billionaires no longer doubt their ability to sway any election by funding the propogation of outrageous lies.  The last few elections were just essays in the craft, pushing the envelope a bit further each time.  Now they, and we, have learned, just how much they can get away with, and the answer is "as much as they want."  The more outrageous the lie, the better it seems to work, to our surprise and sorrow.  Can anyone doubt that this time around will be one of jaw-dropping dishonesty on the part of the GOP?  After all, the stunning effectiveness of the Swiftboat lies in '04 took everyone by surprise, including the GOP.  Anyone want to bet something along those lines is in the cards for next year?

My proposal.  LET NOTHING LIKE WHAT HAPPENED TO JOHN KERRY EVER HAPPEN TO A DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AGAIN.  Follow me over the flip.

While discussing whether homo sapiens is "exceptional" in the comment section of Dan Quixote's excellent evolution diary, Anna M asked some very serious questions that forced me to defend my position. Rather than hijack the thread with what proved to be a very long winded, point-by-point response, I've moved my remarks to this diary. Apologies in advance to Anna M and anyone else who reads this for my diarrhea of the word processor. I'm never one to use just one sentence if 46 will do.

I present here a short paper I wrote for a Social Psychology class in Fall of 2006. My purpose is to stimulate conversation, invite comment, and provoke thought. A primary source for this work is the research of of Dr. Bob Altemeyer of the University of Manitoba, whose decades of research into the psychological construct of authoritarianism has received a fair amount of attention lately. Dr. Altemeyer's work was a primary source for John Dean's book Conservatives Without Conscience, and not long ago Dr. Altemeyer participated in a stimulating discussion of his latest work, The Authoritarians, right here on DKos.

I take a small bit of pride in having caught on to the significance and topicality of Dr. Bob's work before it became so widely known. I had not read Dean's book when I wrote this paper, and Altemeyer had not yet published The Authoritarians online. This paper expands on one of Altemeyer's themes, in which the normally mutually exclusive personality dimensions of Right Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation are in fact found together in certain individuals - people whom denizens of DKos will recognize immediately by description alone.

Sound interesting? Follow me over the fold...

I threw up in the back of my throat a little today, walking past the beautiful green lawn west of our library on the campus of lovely Chapman University here in Orange County. The otherwise picturesque scenery had been defiled around its perimeter, with dozens of little handwritten signs quoting D'Souza's inane assertions about the "cultural Left" and it's responsibility for 9/11, the huge crush that jihadists allegedly have on Democrats in general and Nancy Pelosi in particular, etc. etc. ad nauseum. Interspersed of course with the obligatory American flags, as if that noble standard makes his hateful tripe defensible. As if invoking the flag was evidence of a rational argument.

Rant continues, right this way please...

To absolutely no one's surprise (except maybe Harry Reid's), the toothless crapola resolution died today, 49 in favor of debate, 47 against.  Sixty needed for cloture, and all.  Why do I sense that this is the shape of things to come for the next two years?

This is less for public consumption and more for my own catharsis.  I have been a lurker for some months, only posting a diary for the first time a few days ago.  Since I am new here, however, some my wish to know:  Who is this "meatball" guy?  Whence cometh he?  Mostly I want to get some things off my chest.  Some of them will be familiar to many.

For most of my life, I too was deceived by Republicanism, and the stated ideals of conservatism.  My father, though never a very political man, instilled in me the notion that "liberal" equals "weak."  Then I reached the age of reason, with my personal realization that I needed to start embracing my intellectual side rather than continue to chase the rock-star pipe dream, and my return to college.  (I am currently finishing up my Psychology B.A., and anticipating grad school and a Ph.D.)  All of this happened to coincide with the timeline of the Iraq debacle and all the lies and malfeasance accompanying W's tenure.  

Apologies if someone else already diaried this.  This is my first post.  Bush and Co. now evidently have two high-level intelligence bombshells to deal with.  The United Nations has weighed in with their assessment of the impact of the Iraq occupation on training and recruitment opportunities for al-Qaeda and the Taliban.  And it doesn't sound a damned thing like anything Chimpy is telling us.  This just in, courtesy of Reuters: