Not Moneyshots, but still on the mark...

"The federal government began investigating allegations of fraud against the Coalition Provisional Authority, a U.S. contractor accused in a bid-rigging operation involving millions of dollars. Asked to comment, a spokesperson for Halliburton said, 'Millions? With an M? That is adorable.'"

-- Amy Poehler on Saturday Night Live

"President Bush, is on his Asian tour now. He'll visit Japan, China, South Korea, Mongolia. Once again, he's skipping Vietnam."

-- David Letterman

"Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito says he's embarrassed by some of the things he wrote in the 1980's. Apparently Alito wrote the song 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.'"

-- Conan O'Brien

"While the Democrats are focusing on how we were misled to war, Bush is focusing on how to mislead us out of it. ... If we were wrong about why we went in, we have to be wrong about why we're leaving. Otherwise it sends our enemies the message that America lacks the will to remain incorrect."

-- Rob Corddry on The Daily Show

"President Bush is planning on spending Thanksgiving out at his ranch in Crawford. And you know how he always pardons the White House turkey? Bad news for the turkey: There are three cabinet members ahead of him."

-- Jay Leno

If I don't see you again before the holiday, have a happy Thanksgiving.

2008 Presidential straw poll

Daily Kos is conducting the last of these for 2005, so go cast a vote here.

The Kossacks have consistently picked Wesley Clark as their favorite, with Russ Feingold and John Edwards running second and third. The MSM's presumptive front-runner, Hillary Clinton, barely leads the rest of the pack, which includes Senators Kerry and Biden, Governors Warner and Richardson, and a few lesser lights.

So far the order for November holds true to form: Clark, Feingold, Warner (who is obviously getting a bounce from the November 8 results in Virginia) and Edwards.

Update (11/22): The results are in.

Lack of an exit strategy

Another Swift Boat blown up

The latest incarnation of the New McCarthyism blew up in the Republicans' faces on the floor of the House last night.

The vote last night on the rule to bring the "Murtha Resolution" -- that's what the Shut Up and Clap Louder Crowd called it before they suddenly all started saying 'this isn't about one man' -- to a vote passed 210-202, but every Democratic representative voted nay. And 5 Republicans joined them.

The actual vote on the referendum itself (which was to end the occupation of Iraq immediately) was 403-3, with the nays carrying. John Murtha voted against it. Even Dennis Kucinich voted against it.

But the signature moment was the nasty attack on Murtha by Rep. Jean Schmidt -- the GOP House member with the least seniority, who managed to squeak past a decorated war veteran in a special election, who built herself a straw man in order to call another decorated war veteran a coward.

That said it all.

The Republicans went after the wrong Marine.

This has all the earmarks of a Karl Rove-Swift Boat-style smearjob. Hunter at Kos writes about Newsweek's Howard Fineman indicating precisely that.