Culberson edges Barton for "Douchebag of the Week"

By virtue of continuing the secessionist crazy talk, my very own Congressbum John Culberson is awarded the inaugural "Douchebag of the Week".



He edged out his butthole buddy Joe Barton, who took a peculiar and smug satisfaction in asking Energy Secretary David Chu -- a Nobel laureate -- "where the oil in Alaska came from", apparently to make a completely obtuse point about global warming.



Yes, it was a very close contest, but Cumbersome earned the victory solely on the basis of having home field advantage.

That "five states" business is hypothesized in detail by Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com. Here's his map:



Now I see El Norte electing two Democratic Senators, as well as one each from Gulfland and New Texas, a scenario that would leave the same 60-40 split that currently exists provide a net gain of two more Republicans in the US Senate. That must be the "six rock-ribbed conservatives" he refers to.

But I'm trying to apply some rationale to an ultraconservative fantasy, which is surely a fool's errand. So I will stop that.

Congratulations, Mr. Culberson. Can you make it two championships in row, like the Green Bay Packers?

Sunday Funnies

"Vice President Cheney is a man who frightens easily."

A dozen other spot-on observations from Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (Ret.), who was Colin Powell's chief of staff.

Eugene Robinson (the recent Pulitzer winner) also observed that there are just three questions regarding this sad chapter of American history: is torture moral, is it effective, and is it legal. And a fourth I would add: what are we going to do about it if the answer to the first three are 'no'.

Probably the saddest observation of Wilkerson's was that "there is neither the political will nor the skill" in the current administration to follow through on that last.

Enhanced Prevarication Techniques

I'll have something to say about l'affaire torture soon, but this will do for now...