What's Afoot Among USA's?

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UPDATED FROM ORIGINAL PUBLICATION FRIDAY, 12/5.
One's an occurrence, two's a coincidence, are there more?

Ever since the election, I've been watching something brewing in my home state, North Dakota. A letter to the editor here, another coming from there, all pushing the argument that the North Dakota USA, Drew Wrigley, should be kept on by the incoming Obama Justice Dept.

Most recently, an article in the local paper, front page, above the fold, touted the, what, P.R. campaign to keep Wrigley on? And noted his insistence that he stay on until the Dru Sjodin case was finished. Well, her killer has already been convicted.

But reading that Dru's mother is part of this budding crusade complete with Facebook page, to keep on Wrigley really raised my political radar antennae.

And the skeptical side of me started to think, how disgusting. To be so self-aggrandizing and cynical and conniving and self-serving that you'd manipulate the emotions of a distraught mother of a crime victim to perpetuate your own agenda.

Yeah, I know, describes the Bush DOJ modus operandi to a T.

And young Mr. Wrigley is considered one of the up-and-comers in ND Republican circles. How better to fluff his vitae than a continuation into the Obama administration for a Red State USA where all our national congressional delegation are Blue.

And then I ran across ThinkProgress' blogpost about the USA in Pennsylvania. She, too, according to her, is indispensable....

And couldn't help but notice her connection to this woman that digby reminds us of, too.

And now I'm wondering. Any other USAs around the country firing up their PR campaigns to stay on? Kinda amusing if you think about the USAs the Bushies' minions were so quick to dispense with—from their own team.

And then you think about the activities of the Bush administration, in and out of DOJ, and maybe it's not so funny after all. Maybe it's a cancer trying to stay within the body politic that needs radical and thorough and complete excision come January 20. No exceptions.

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UPDATE: Today, the hometown Forum editorializes that the Rethug USA must stay...that it's a test of Obama's postpartisanship. Blithely blows off Wrigley's close ties to Alberto Gonzalez, while tugging the emotional blackmail some more on the Dru Sjodin case. Add the Forum editorial board and its heavy-handed collaboration in the pr drumbeat to preserve Wrigley as USA to the list of the craven. I restate my conclusion of Friday: thorough and complete excision come January 20. No exceptions.

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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette and North Decoder.

The Car Deal

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There will doubtless be much muttering about Nancy Pelosi "caving" to George W. Bush on the bailout for the big 3. Caving's supposed to be George's speciality. But I guess that only applies to his idiotlogical neocon diehard lobbyists determined to rip the gold teeth outa the cadaver on its way to the grave....

(Anybody else think that if the car guys, the politicians, the media and all the rest of the great chatterati had called this a loan package instead of a bailout, the sell would have been easier?)

Anyway, back to Nancy. Did she "cave"? I guess if you call recognizing that you're dealing with an arrogant, stubborn, stupid, willfully ignorant idiotlogical zealot for the have-more's, so you bow to reality thinking we'll do the best we can till this bozo goes back to Texas and then we can try putting the economy and the rest of the country back together again....then yeah, I guess she "caved."

I choose to think of it as recognizing reality and thanking God he's going to be Laura's mess-only soon, not the rest of us. And good riddance.
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Still Hiatusing

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Still kickin' back.

Have you read Tales of Beedle the Bard? Go ahead. Give yourself a treat.

(No, there's no link. I'm on hiatus, remember?)
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Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllllll, it was nice while it lasted....

On Hiatus

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We're takin' a little break from blogging in Prairie Country. Stepping out into the Real World. You know, the place that's there when you step away from the keyboard.

A Real World where amid all the dire news—pick yer poison yerself, I'm not linking to any of it right now, not even the shameful KBR who should all get lumps of coal in their stockings...in their hometown hoosegows—still there are moments of warmth and hope.

Where college kids freeze their buns off even with their snowmobile suits collecting supplies and clothing for the local women's shelter in single-digit temperatures in the grocery store parking lot today.

Where the bell ringer inside said grocery store is an old friend from long ago. And the chatting is cheery while tucking money into the slot.

And a bag-full of pet food and medicine goes into the bin at the local Petco—a bin already brimming.

And despite the raw winds of the Real World, smiles build. Go ahead, go out there with a giving heart and give it a try. I guarantee you'll smile, too.
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NYT Says, So It Must Be So

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The New York Times finally jumps on yesterday's blogosphere bandwagon to chime in that David Gregory is the likely host of Meet the Press.

And, according to the Times article, it's all about the Today Show.

Yep, that's right. The long-standing gold standard of Sunday morning gasbaggery has been relegated to stepping stone to the Today Show.

And ol' twinkle toes is being catered to bigtime lest he leap to ABC GMA.

Which leaves me with questions:

The Today Show is a news show? Since when is infotainment "news"?

And, why not Lester Holt?

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Prairie's Reading: Taibbi on Rightness

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Rolling Stone's genius writer Matt Taibbi recounts why McCain and Palin, yes, and even the brush cutter, have done everything in their power to restore what's right with America.
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Vapid Insipid Press Strikes Again

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The media's Clinton Derangement Syndrome was on full display again this morning during the Obama presser to introduce his National Security team.

When the second "reporter" [Did all these people go to the Sarah Palin School of Journalism?] asked Barack Obama another booga-booga you said bad things about Hillary in the campaign, how you gonna get along question, I turned off the teevee and ventured out into the real world.

By the time I returned a couple hours later, hoping for change, instead I got the predictable CNN bobblehead asking Carl Bernstein, oooh booga-booga, what's this gonna do to Hillary's chances to run for president again.

Good grief, M$M, shape up! No wonder people are turning you off.

Meanwhile, in between, I caught a bit of Michele Norris' show on African American oratory on NPR and listened to the voice of Fannie Lou Hamer reaching out from the 1964 Democratic Convention to talk of civil rights and justice and "sick and tired of being sick and tired."

And oh, my, wouldn't she have been proud today to look at that National Security team entrusted to protect us and represent us to the world. Black and white together, diverse in age, three men, three women joined in service to our new president-elect and vice-president-elect...and the United States of America.

That was a story.

And I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of the way the vapid insipid press dumbs-down momentous occasions with the banal and inane.

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(crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette)