IAmATVJunkie.com is a Torchwood Spoiler Free Zone Until July 20

2 Clips -- Al Franken's A Senator! Coleman Conceeds, Finally!

First SNL cast member to make it to the US Senate. Jane Curtin*, I'm surprised at you, letting Al get there before you.

(* I have no idea if Jane Curtin has political aspirations, I just know that I'd enjoy seeing her on Meet the Press.)

Thanks to ThinkProgress.org for the YouTube clip below. As you watch, listen to what Coleman says about disinfranchised voters. I can't find it, but do you think he was singing the same tune in 2000 re Bush v. Gore?

Congrats to Al, Frannie, Andy Barr and the whole Franken team. Finally Bess Lindstrom (seen with her mother Phyllis, above left) has two Senators in Washington.

Two clips after the jump. Coleman conceeds in clip one. Clip two has Al playingformer Presidential candidate and host of The 700 Club, Pat Robertson, in a Church Chat segment with Dana Carvey.

(The other guest, the incomparable Phil Hartman as Jimmy Swaggart. Phil was the best. Absolutely the best.)

What's Long And Hard and Will Make You Sick?

I know, it's one of my favorites, too. Though I do prefer it cooked. Either cooked or raw, though, don't do it. If I had some at home, just to be safe I would throw it out.

And if you're going to throw it out, wrap it well. Pets might be tempted.

CNN:

The company said it is recalling an estimated 300,000 cases of the dough as a precaution after reports of food-borne illness in 28 states.

There are concerns that the premade dough may be contaminated with the bacterium E. coli 0157:H7, which causes abdominal cramping, vomiting and diarrhea, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Young children and the elderly can suffer more serious symptoms.

Nestle issued a statement saying, "While the E. coli strain implicated in this investigation has not been detected in our product, the health and safety of our consumers is paramount, so we are initiating this voluntary recall."

According to Nestle spokeswoman Laurie MacDonald, raw dough was one of the things the sick people reported eating.

"The health and safety of our consumers is our No. 1 priority," she said. "We felt the best thing to do is a voluntary recall."

Just thought you'd wanna know.

Maddow Jay Bybee Video -- What Exactly is the LDS Church Teaching, Anyway?

So I click over to Americablog, which I do in the morning like getting a Sweet-n-Low for my coffee, and I read this excerpt from the Salt Lake Tribune, written by former Utah state legislator and US Army interrogation instructor David Irvine:

Although the decisions which put us in the grim business of torture, body-snatching, extraordinary renditions, making people disappear, indefinite confinement without charges and warrantless wiretapping were made by the president and vice president, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints served as helpful enablers. Not only did they provide the legal architecture, they provided the "scientific" patina for the plunge into the barbaric business of torture.

Take Latter-day Saint Timothy E. Flanigan, deputy White House counsel, who, along with David Addington, John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, and Jim Haynes comprised the secretive "War Council" of lawyers -- a self-appointed group Mayer describes as having virtually no experience in law enforcement, military service, counterterrorism or the Muslim world....

BYU law school graduate Jay S. Bybee was the assistant attorney general directing the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel. At the instigation of Addington and Yoo, Bybee issued official legal opinions that redefined the crime of torture to make it all but impossible to commit. Barbarity was not torture unless it created pain equal to death or organ failure. A newly-declassified Bybee memorandum lists 10 previously top-secret interrogation techniques approved for use by the CIA, including waterboarding.

Incredibly, Bybee seems to have been unaware that the United States had prosecuted waterboarding as a war crime after World War II. In 2003, before his role in authorizing U.S. torture was known, Bybee was given a lifetime judicial appointment on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Had his role in torture been known, it is unlikely he would have been confirmed.

(Irvine also wrote about the depiction of torture on the Fox series 24 for Huffington Post, at this link.)

(Bybee pictured above right, btw.)

Unconstitutional, creates more hatred of the US in the Muslim world, puts our own military in harm's way, and DOESN'T PROVIDE ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE!!!

In fact, the only intelligence that we've gotten from an Al Qaeda operative that has lead to usable intelligence happened in the last two months by use of the US justice system (see the Al-Marri news yesterday -- NY Times link).

Isn't it funny (okay not funny but sad and pitiful) that August 1, 2002 was 360 days after that famous August 6th Presidential Brief that was titled, "Bin Ladin (sic) Determined to Strike in the US"?

The Mormon Church, bringing violations of the Constitution and torture to America since August 1, 2002. Good job, Joseph Smith would be soooo proud.

After the jump, Rachel (our Rachel ... Maddow, get with the program, gang!) talks to NYS House member Jerrold Nadler from the April 21st show on why and how Jay Bybee can be impeached from his LIFETIME APPOINTMENT to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

More on the Nadler effort at the Journal of the American Bar Association.

Then, read this on Bybee from the UK London Times.

And then, a site called ImpeachBybee.org might be just what you're looking for.

And Flanigan (pictured left)? Not as critical as he never did get the appointment apparently promised by the Bush administration for playing ball. Has 14 kids, so apparently he doesn't have cable TV. He never did get confirmed as Deputy Attorney General under Gonzales so he left goverment and immediately went to work at Tyco.

Tyco, Dennis Kozlowski's company, the guy with the umbrella stand that cost a bazillion dollars paid for by Tyco shareholders and customers and had an ice sculpture at his wife's birthday party in Sardinia where the vodka seemed to flow from Michelangelo's David's penis.

First thing Timmy did? He hired Jack Abramoff, who of course is now in jail (fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials).

Oh Mormon Church, you have a way of getting involved in a lot of bad, bad things. Is it that dogmatic response to the world? That "by any means necessary" take on the world? Or is it that you think you're just right and the rest of us are stupid?

Doesn't sound too God-like to me. You gotta wonder what the Bush administration promised to these guys that would make them do things that will send them right to hell.

(Not that I believe in hell, or an afterlife, but they certainly do.)

Was it more money? Stature? Or maybe it was a chance to rise in the Justice Dept. hierarchy so that they could remake the nation to look just like Mormon Utah?

By any means necessary, indeed.

Clip after the jump.

Mormons facilitating torture. Good morning, gang o' mine!

2 Clips -- VP Biden on Today, DHS Sec. Napolitano on MSNBC Re Swine Flu ... Oops, I Mean H1N1!

No, I mean swine flu, but countries have to stop banning pork products from the infected countries if we will continued to be able to call it that.

(More cute pigs today above, yes, but when you see a cute pig these days you should think about covering your mouth when you cough and don't go out if you're sick, that's what Janet Napolitano, our DHS Secretary says in the second clip with MSNBC's Tamron Hall. BTW, Tamron Hall is gorgeous. Just thought I'd say it.)

In his clip, Biden tells Lauer that if he was advising family, he would advise against commercial air travel and possibly using mass transit during this event. "But that's just me," he says.

I have no plans in either area.

Biden also talks to Matt about his involvement in getting Arlen Spector to switch parties, and about how he didn't get chosen as one of People Magazine's Barack's Beauties section in the Most Beautiful People issue (Christina Applegate very appropriately graces the cover, and it's the heretofore not mentioned third and bonus clip after the jump.)

All clips after the jump.

Obama Abandoning Current TV's Laura Ling, Euna Lee? Must Be Today's RNC Meme to All the Sheep

It must be in the daily talking points that will eventually get downloaded into the very outdated computer mechanism that is Elisabeth Hasselbeck's brain.

First of all, it's not true. Secondly, it probably wouldn't be so much of a problem if the Bush Administration hadn't spent eight years threatening North Korea instead of carrying out the mission, which is diplomacy.

Then again, George W. Bush thought diplomacy was best done at the end of a weapon. Idiot.

So far I've found two instances of this, and I'm most disappointed with former woman's activist and NOW President Tammy Bruce, who after Dennis Miller is the weirdest shift to the hard right that I've ever seen among people who previously employed sense and rationality in their public proclamations.

She has a column these days at the Fox News website and I guess it gets distributed to the best of the bird cage floors too, since I can't imagine what good it is otherwise.

Back in March she called Michelle Obama trash. So she's certainly not operating in the rational sphere. Actually might be pretty standard for her, back in the days of the O.J. trial, the first one, she was censured by NOW and eventually had to leave that post because of racially insensitive things she said about black people during that trial.

Shoulder? Meet chip.

(And this image above left with the revolver? It's one of her publicity photos, believe it or not. Who does PR pics with a gun in their hand? People really trying to boost their NRA credentials, actors on cop shows and ... crazy people!)

About this situation she says (and I apologize in advance for linking to the Fox Noise website, but it's the only place I can find this, her personal site with her columns doesn't seem to be working):

When you abandon Americans held by terrorists, and then reward terrorists who trained with Al Qaeda, some might argue it’s more than priorities that are screwed-up in the White House.

So, why has the Obama administration allowed these kidnappings of Saberi, Ling and Lee to stand? The hostage-taking of these women is no different than the kidnapping of the Maersk Alabama’s Captain Phillips by terrorists on the high seas. Obama’s mob has made pathetic noise about Saberi’s kidnapping, noting Obama was “disappointed” when Iran announced they had found her guilty of a sham crime by a sham trial.

Allowed to stand? What, we can wave a wand and make it go away? Sheesh.

Maybe it's because we don't have any avenue for diplomacy with either of these nations. Might have something to do with that Axis of Evil shit that Bushie was yelling about for all those years.

Yeah, we can get people out of harm's way using ships and guns and Navy SEALS. But Tammy, and you know this (or, you just write with half the information at your grasp, which is just as bad as being stupid when the info is available), North Korea is a nuclear nation that has been testing rockets and spouting all kinds of warning crap.

And in Iran (where Roxana Saberi is being held) we are hamstrung by the Bush administration's failure to prosecute the Iraq War in a way that didn't strengthen the ties between the Maliki government in Iraq and the clerics in Iran.

Moves in either area of the nature you are suggesting would come with bad complications.

So, because of the failures of the Bush administration, who have been gone 101 days today, Tammy Bruce is willing to say that our new President is abandoning women reporters that are held in two nations that make up 67% of her preferred president's Axis of Evil.

Disingenuous, sloppy, ill-informed, and ultimately using those three journalists (two who work for Al Gore, to whom I know she can't have an ounce of good feeling) to advance her own career, which also makes her ... revolting. But, you know, she has books to sell. And if she doesn't have something new to say she can't get those tasty bookings with Bill-O and Manatee on Fox.

Hey, next time you're on with Hannity why don't you also offer to be waterboarded. By then maybe Lee and Ling and Saberi will be back and they'll get to "do you." It's the least we can do for them after all the zazz you're getting from their incarceration.

Video -- NBC Today Show Investigates Car Warranty Pest US Fidelis

Above, that's Brendan Gaughan NASCAR car. I wonder if NASCAR fans know that the same car they might be rooting for is doing business with this very very questionable operator the business world.

(Remember how the FCC's Bush-era appointee Kevin Martin decided that the DTV transition needed to be advertised with sponsoring a car and then the program ran out of money, partly because the car kept crashing and they had to keep repainting cars? What is it with questionable operators and NASCAR? Doesn't NASCAR check out the cred of companies or individual actors with whom they do business?)

I dunno about you but I was getting calls twice, sometimes three times a day from this company. And mail, and they were all over the web.

They are not in any way connected to the auto makers whose cars they allege to provide warranty service for and you need to know that and act accordingly.

The company's run by a convicted felon, which always just gives you a big hug of joy, huh?

Here's this morning's Today show report on it. Is it surprising that their mega complex looks like an Iron Cross from the sky?

Video -- Denise Richards' Funbags and Earth Day, Combined!

This site is the only place you can observe Earth Day and Denise's funbags.

But really? From you, Joe? Are you sure? Since when are YOU interested in Denise Richards' funbags?

Well, it started ... oh, just watch the clip. It's after the jump.

Apparently we're ramping up soon for a new season of Denise Richards (Colon) It's Complicated on E!

Honey, I hope that's a spray tan. On this Earth Day a reminder to all of you to ...

a) Wear your sunscreen

b) Decrease you carbon footprint, and finally ...

c) Go visit my brother Dr. Bill the meteorologist's page at Daily Kos, filled with all kinds of political and environment news and analysis.

Well c'mon, I couldn't just write about Denise's funbags, could I?

Of course, her show is brought to you by E! and Ryan Seacrest Productions.

And global warming is brought to you by deniers like Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe and others, and your neighbor's wasteful energy habits.

Because that's not you still using incandescent bulbs, is it? Well, is it?

Go green, use compact flourescent. More details from EnergyStar.gov at this link.

Happy Earth Day! To everyone, and to Denise Richards' funbags (which I believe are biodegradable).

2 Clips -- Teabagging Roundup with Rachel Maddow and Ana Marie Cox, and Jon Stewart

Hehehe, I said Cox. In a post about teabagging.

Okay, so, yesterday was the big teabagging of the nation. Stewart made a great point last night on The Daily Show -- to protest wasteful spending you go out and buy a million tea bags that you're going to dump in the park?

And Rachel notes that they couldn't even do that because they forgot to get permits for dumping.

Of course, the DC protest was broken up when some teabagger took his business to the lawn of the White House. Granular substances being hoisted over the White House fence? That's what a terrorist might do.

And Glenn Beck (the comedian, he's just announced a comedy tour, believe it or not) decides to host the teabagging event at The Alamo. The Alamo has historically not been a great place for Americans to make a stand, as Rachel notes.

But Glenn Beck doesn't read history. He might not even read, can't be sure. I can't believe that stuff he spews he reads off a teleprompter, no prompter operator in good conscience would type it in there for him.

And you'll see that there were a lot of people out there not interested in this tax thing at all, they just wanted to hold their Hitler=Obama signs and once again content he's not a US citizen and make reference to him "shining shoes" on their placards.

Look at the photo gallery of the DC event from the Washington Independent at this link.

When the dregs of your party is all that's left, it really is the dregs.

Two clips for you after the jump. This was fun conservative base, whatcha got next? Felching? Snowballing?

Don't know what they are? Do your own homework, I'm done.

Oh, what the hell, at the end I'll throw you The Daily Show coverage of the events, too. All past the jump.

Instead of Watching that Hateful Bigoted "Gathering Storm" NOM Anti-Gay Marriage Ad ...

... Watch this! Created by Arch at FeyFriends.com. It's genius.

I love you, Martha Wash!

"Everybody Dance Now!"

LINK

Gathering storm my ass. It's finally sunshine pelting these people between the eyes. When will they realize that we're just not gonna take it anymore?

I welcome all of you NOM freaks to wear your logo t-shirts to the next Pride event in your town. We'll be ... waiting!

Kelvin Lynch at Examiner.com has more on the participants in what he calls "a hilarious ad" by the New Jersey non-profit National Organization for Marriage:

Damon Owens, the African American man featured at the end of the ad as a spokesman for NOM, is not on the list of personnel on the NOM website.  It turns out Mr. Owens is a member of the secretive Catholic organization Opus Dei, an extremist group portrayed most popularly in The Da Vinci Code, and his beliefs about marriage are hardly in line with mainstream Christianity.

Brown is the former executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut, whose mission is "to encourage and strengthen the family as the foundation of society and to promote sound, ethical and moral values in our culture and government."  The group is pushing for a federal Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

George is a Princeton professor who believes in what he calls "God's eternal law" and  compares homosexuality with abortion.   George believes Christianity should play a prominent role in forming public policy.  Separation of church and state, anyone?

I hope people see the bunch of lies in this video for what they are, and the whole campaign backfires on NOM.  It's unbelievable to me that in the 21st century, people could still be influenced by such obvious scare tactics.

What's hilarious is that they thought people would just take them at their word when these "people of faith" spout the most ridonkulous lies I've ever seen.

(Hope they went to confessional for lying! Easter Sunday's just around the corner.)

More after the jump.

Maddow Video -- She Fact Checks Lying Rethuglicans Inhofe and Will (and that wackadoo Michelle Bachman)

If you don't know Michelle, she's that lovely woman who's taken up where Pink Sugar Katherine Harris left off as the crazy cougar of the right.

(Now, I don't know if the Young Republicans in Minnesota are lining up to "date" Michelle like it was alleged in Florida with KH, but she's just as nuts.

And you, George Will, you're a journalist. Well, purportedly. You should know better.

Inhofe, of course, is still claiming that global warming is all a conspiracy to separate conservatives from their money. So out there. I've been to Oklahoma, there are intelligent people there. Next time, please elect one to the Senate. Just one. Between him and Tom Coburn, it's surprising the state hasn't self-destructed.

Check out Rachel setting the world straight.

"I-rony!"

Clip after the jump.