Happy New Year or April Fool's Day?

Two quick hits today.  Although there is much to rant about in the news today, two stories in particular elicit an OMFG reaction. Frankly, I wish it was April Fools' Day.

WTF?

CNN reports that GOP reaction to a controversial parody song "Barack the Magic Negro", distributed as a Christmas gift by party chairman Mike Duncan on a compliation CD entitled "We Hate the USA", is divided.  Well, what else can I say except WTF?

Reaction is divided?  Really?  Even if you accept that the CD was meant as a gag gift -after all, Duncan didn't write the song; it first aired on Rush Limbaugh's radio show in 2007, which is about the only unsurprising factoid in this whole mess - it is at best a joke in exceedingly poor taste.  Show me a Republican who can defend Duncan on this with a straight face, I dare you.  How about trotting out Sarah Palin?

Gov. Sarah Palin (R - AK): I'm telling you, Anderson, this is some funny shit.

Anderson Cooper: Excuse me?

Gov. Palin: Trust me on this.  I speak for the entire GOP when I say, laughing at n------ is funny, funny shit.

Anderson Cooper: Doesn't that show stunning racial insensitivity?

Gov. Palin: It might, if any of 'em voted for us.

Sigh.  I miss her.

The problem with defending the song as satire - duh - is that is misses the point.  When the Chairman of the GOP sends the song around as a Christmas gift, it cannot help but to be seen as a statement.  It legitimizes race as a suitable vehicle for attacking or denigrating the President.  What should an African-American voter think but that the GOP has written them off?

O RLY?

Since the prorogation of Parliament and the selection of Michael Ignatieff as Liberal leader, not much news has seeped out of the federal parties.  At least, until now.  What better way to ring in the New Year than to re-open the debate on abortion.  Frankly, I prefer to have the Conservative "secret agenda" out in the open.  The Tories are not defenders of womens' rights; don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

In an opinion piece in the National Post, Tory MP Rod Bruinooge, chairman of a secretive parliamentary group known as the Pro-Life Caucus, pledges a new era of advocacy on behalf of the unborn.  Mr. Bruinooge illogically compares kidneys to fetuses and raises the spectre of late-term abortions.  Legal or not, I dare Mr. Bruinooge to show me one single legitimate doctor who would perform an elective abortion "moments away from delivery".

Unless Mr. Bruinooge can point to a recent spate of questionable late-term abortions in Canada, this issue does not deserve the attention of the criminal law but is a question of ethics and practice for the medical profession.

Until then, I'll assume Mr. Bruinooge is playing up to the social conservative base of the party - one more round of ammo for the Torys to use should a coalition emerge or the country heads back to the polls.

YA RLY!

Oh, one more.  I couldn't resist.

Providing a great capper to the shitty, shitty year that was 2008, one BILLION gallons of coal waste sludge has been spilled in the Clinch River, a tributary of the Tennessee River.  Congratulations for this epic environmental fail go to the Tennessee Valley Authority.

How many days left in 2008?