“Lieberman’s no quitter. Sources in his campaign tell me that if he loses in November, he’ll start his own Senate.” –Samantha Bee, The Daily Show

Also: “Joe Lieberman has made up his mind. If not nominated, he will run. If not elected, he will serve.”

After not one but two false alarms, it looks like the trailer for Eragon is finally going to be released… with Snakes on a Plane next Friday. Sweet!

Continuing a trend begun by Andrew and Bea, another couple who attended Becky’s and my wedding last December, Tim Stevens and Janelle Sagness, are engaged!!!

Apparently Tim proposed over the weekend. I don’t know any details yet, but perhaps he’ll grace us with the story in comments? (Hint, hint.) Anyway, their wedding is set for next year.

For the uninitiated, Tim is a good friend of mine from high school (for the truly uninitiated, that would be Newington High School in Newington, CT — Class of ‘99, baby!), and was one of my groomsmen. Janelle is from Minnesota; they met during, if I remember correctly, a semester “abroad” from their respective colleges in Washington, D.C. in fall 2001, and have been dating ever since. Janelle has apparently somehow melted Tim’s black heart, and for that we are all greatful, because otherwise, I’m pretty sure his plans for world domination would have gone forward by now.

Anyway, congratulations, you crazy lovebirds!

P.S. Tim is also a comic-book nerd (I say that in a loving way, of course… er, not that kind of loving… er, not that there’s anything wrong with that!), and he mentioned his engagement yesterday in his “DC News & Views” column on Inside Pulse’s Comics Nexus. (Hat tip: Sean.)

Did I just call myself a rat? Yes, yes I did. (Does that phrase actually have a negative connotation vis a vis the rats, or only vis a vis the ship? Inquiring minds want to know!) [UPDATE: It seems to me, the connotation shouldn’t be negative. I mean, the rats are smart! If they didn’t abandon the ship, they’d die! Of course, they might die anyway, unless they can swim… but I am now officially thinking too hard about this…]

Anyway, it’s not just me and my mom and this guy. Lots of centrist Democrats are feeling unwelcome in the Democratic Party today. Weekend Pundit writes:

I polled a number of friends of mine in Connecticut — Democrats all — and with one exception, they all feel the Democratic Party has abandoned them or has been taken from them by fringe elements within the party. (Of course I take this with a grain of salt as most of those friends are moderate Democrats.)

I’m not sure that caveat is really salt-worthy, considering a party can’t win elections without its moderates. Here’s another disgruntled Dem:

I’m tempted, like Brendan Loy and his mother, to just file for divorce from the Democratic party, but I stubbornly (and perhaps futilely) cling to the hope that with my one vote I can save the party from itself. …

Like many conservative and centrist pundits, I tend to think that the Democrats are headed for a meltdown. They’ve thus far heroically resisted the efforts of the, er, saner portion of the party and chosen to swing further and further left into the land of hysteria—which is a great way to get elected and stay elected.

Indeed. (BTW, as noted earlier, you can add this and this blogger to the category of disgruntled-but-not-quite-deserting Democrats.)

Now we just need the Republicans to do something equivalently stupid (with wider implications than just a Michigan House race). Suppose, for example, George Allen outmuscles John McCain or Rudy Giuliani to win the 2008 presidential nomination, using some dirty tricks and insinuations that they’re not conservative/doctrinaire enough. The loser bolts, along with a lot of moderate Republicans. Then we could really get this centrist party — this “new politics of unity and purpose” — started. Bring it on!

[UPDATE: Andrew offers a compelling argument that my third-party dream is a vain hope, and that the real solution is to join the dark side GOP:

[T]he anti-Bush Leftist mindset comprises a solid 40% of the electorate, making it the single strongest ideology in America today. Conservatives and libertarians and their various stripes run about 30%, while the rest are somewhere in between. …

[T]he Dems are not going to die out anytime soon per your fantasies. The Left will be around for a loooong time; their propaganda, ideologies, and proponents are too well-ensconced in seats of power, whether in media and bureaucracies, academia, or the cultural elite. It also doesn’t help that secular progressivism is still the driving political force in Europe. …

You’re going to hate this answer like all hell, but the true answer is for people like you to join the Republican Party and help us weaken the Pat Robertsons, Tom DeLays, and George W. Bush’s of the party so that we can have a broad-minded coalition of people who largely agree on free-market economic principles, conservative fiscal policy, muscular, neoconservative-like foreign policy, and libertarian social policy. You’d have to sacrifice a few sacred shibboleths… but then again, so would we. For example, the Religious Right would have to decide the protection of Western culture and economy and the defense of classical liberalism is more important than minimizing the participation of homosexuals in American culture and society or achieving legislative prohibitions against abortion. In return, you’d have to abandon the precepts of Big, Helpful Government in the grand tradition of FDR and LBJ in favor of more market-oriented tax-and-spend principles. Neither sacrifice will be easy or painless, but they are both more probable, more possible, and more beneficial for America than your alternative dream of a dead Left and a “Third Way� centrist party to battle against right-leaning Republicans for control of America–a dream that is both seriously contra-ideological reality and probably less beneficial, because if moderates like yourself become the new dominant foe for the GOP, the Right will only go further to the right in contradistinction, to your chagrin.

Read the whole thing. No, really. It’s good — and he bashes Bush in it! Sorta. (For the uninitiated: Andrew was my “Republican friend” in college, when I was a more liberal Democrat, and more recently he was my Best Man. He’s also a long-time regular conservative commenter on this blog.)

That said, before I get Andrew’s hopes up too high… no, I’m not running out this instant and buying my Vast Right Wing Conspiracy membership card. I just said it was “compelling”; I didn’t say I agreed. Andrew’s arguments are often compelling, even when wrong. :) But certainly, this one is food for thought.]

(more…)

Blue State looks hilarious.

From IMDB: “Blue State is a romantic comedy about a disgruntled Democrat who actually follows though on a drunken campaign promise to move to Canada if George ‘Dubya’ Bush gets re-elected.”

Coming 2007.

William…    Shatner…    roasted!

Comedy Central is taking command and putting William Shatner in the hot seat. Shatner will brazenly travel where only the strongest have survived and will be Roasted on Sunday, August 13 at The CBS Radford Studios in Los Angeles. Actor Jason Alexander will jump in the captain’s seat as the evening’s Roast Master. “The Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner” will air on Sunday, August 20 at 10:00 p.m.

This year’s Roasters include Andy Dick, Greg Giraldo, Lisa Lampanelli, Artie Lange, Nichelle Nichols, Patton Oswalt, Kevin Pollak, Jeffrey Ross, Sharon Stone, George Takei, Betty White, Fred Willard. In addition, talent confirmed to attend include Shatner’s “Boston Legal” cast mates, Julie Bowen, Mark Valley, Rene Auberjonois, “TJ Hooker” co–star Adrian Zmed, Star Trek alumni Brent Spiner, Jolene Blalock, actor Eric Roberts, actresses Lake Bell and Carrie Fisher, among many others.

(Hat tip: TrekToday, via Technorati.)

Also: “Beginning August 11, users can log on to www.comedycentral.com/motherload to view the uncensored clips from previous Roasts including the outrageous and raucous Pamela Anderson, Jeff Foxworthy and Denis Leary.” The only one I saw was the Pam Anderson roast, and damn, it was indeed outrageous and raucous, as well as hilarious. Although I think it really should have been called “The Comedy Central Roast of Tommy Lee’s Penis.”

Dinner with the siblings in rochester ny.

U haulin it to utica

Submitted via his Senate website:

Dear Senator Lieberman,

I am writing to express my sincere admiration for all the good you have done in your 18-year Senate career, and my overwhelming disappointment with the decision by Connecticut’s Democratic voters to choose a political neophyte — a combative, single-issue cardboard candidate with a hefty checkbook — over a proven leader like yourself, simply because they disagreed with you on an issue of conscience. It is a sad day when a committed progressive is no longer welcome in the Democratic Party because he was unwilling to put blind party loyalty ahead of his honest opinions. You deserve better; Connecticut deserves better; America deserves better.

I have been a Democrat since I was 10 years old, but last night I renounced my affiliation with the party because I no longer see any hope for moderates like you and I to win the battle for its soul. I believe a third-party movement is probably our best hope at this point, and once you have been re-elected as an independent, I hope you will seriously consider joining forces with like-minded centrists on both sides of the aisle, such as Senator McCain, to pursue on a national level the “new politics of unity and purpose” that you mentioned in your stirring speech last night. I have never been much of a political activist, but I promise you that I would gladly devote whatever time, energy and money that I can spare to such an effort.

I suspect that you are getting quite a few letters today from Lamont supporters urging you to drop out of the race. I am writing you in hopes of doing my small part to help counterbalance their efforts. Don’t listen to those fools. Most of them are well-meaning and genuine, but they are also angry and vicious and radical, and they will run this party and this country into the ground. If they tell you to withdraw for “the good of the party,” don’t listen. For one thing, you owe the Democrats nothing at this point; they have basically told you to get lost. For another thing, given the weakness of the Republican candidate, they have nothing to fear from your continued candidacy — except, of course, that you will win and they will lose. As for the notion that your candidacy will distract the netroots’ attention and energy from other races involving vulnerable Republicans: that’s their problem, not yours. If they can’t prioritize well enough to understand that defeating Republicans is more important than defeating you, they bear the blame for that, not you.

Although I grew up in Connecticut, I am now an Indiana voter (I attend law school at Notre Dame), so unfortunately I will not be able to vote for you in November. But I will definitely send you a campaign contribution once your website is back up and running, and if there is anything else I can do from afar to assist in your campaign, please let me know.

Sincerely,
Brendan Loy
Honorary member of the “Indiana for Lieberman” Party

P.S. Meanwhile, in comment #132 on my “I am no longer a Democrat” post, we learn that a Republican in Michigan is also divorcing his party today:

I had the same reaction as you did to yesterday’s results. I left my party to become an Independent due to the extremists who leave no room for principled moderates. However, I was a Republican before today. In Michigan’s 7th primary, our representative Joe Schwarz was defeated yesterday because he is too soft on immigration and estate taxes for the modern GOP. It’s sad that there is no room for me anymore there, since I do agree with the foundations of modern conservatism and could never have seen myself voting Democrat before today. Like you, this was not a quick or easy decision. It started in 2000, when I saw Bush using his evangelical base and pandering to them with policies clearly contradictory to modern Republicans. Terri Schiavo, stem cells, gay marriage… slowly I came to realize that despite my more libertarian leanings that have traditionally been more comfortable on the right, the Republicans have left me. I am truly sad today, but it is a new beginning for me.

I’m telling you, Peggy Noonan is right: there is a real opportunity for a serious third-party movement in this political climate. Someone just needs to pick up the ball. I’m looking at you, Joe and John! (Or perhaps Rudy!)

P.P.S. Here are a couple of Democrats who aren’t quite ready to jump ship yet…

Tammy Bruce:

Even after years of watching my party decline, I have refused to abandon it, even if it means remaining as an example of what being a Democrat used to mean, and the difference between Classical Liberal politics versus today’s stink of leftist tripe. I would expect Joe to remain a Democrat, but a win for him on November as an Independent will mean this entire nation wins. All in all, the November election is shaping up to be even more important than we could have imagined.

And Dustbury:

Those who have been waiting for me to make such an announcement [of abandoning the Democratic Party] will have to wait a while longer. While I agree with Loy that “the Democrats have jumped off the cliff, and are in free fall,” I’m not at all horrified by the prospect: if they right themselves before they hit bottom, that’s good, and if the party’s current crop of Super Geniuses wind up flat on their faces like Wile E. Coyote, well, I wield a pretty mean spatula. …

Sanity eventually will return to the Democrats, even if Brendan Loy doesn’t. I can wait.

If there was a viable third-party alternative, I bet they’d both be on board.

P.P.P.S. Another Democrat jumps ship.

Becky just missed our exit!

Austin Bay jumps on the McCain-Lieberman ‘08 bandwagon. I’d prefer Lieberman-McCain, of course, but realistically, Austin’s suggestion is the far more likely one. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.) My brother-in-law Casey is also on board:

Man, at this point the Lieberman-McCain ticket is like those two friends from school who have been eyeing each other all year and just seriously need to knock boots.

Do it for America, John and Joe. Make some fruity purple babies and fix the freaking country already.

Heh.

It’s a longshot, I know. But as I wrote yesterday, Lieberman’s “concession” speech really did sound, in parts, like the opening salvo of a third-party movement. He talked about a “new politics of unity and purpose.” Sign me up, Joe! If yesterday’s result is the event that ultimately triggers the formation of a principled centrist party, I will kiss Kos’s and Ned Lamont’s feet.

I meant to post about this yesterday, but with all the Lieberman-Lamont stuff, I never got around to it. Via Drudge… is Iran planning something big for the second day of my 3L year?

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Tuesday, Princeton’s Bernard Lewis writes: “There is a radical difference between the Islamic Republic of Iran and other governments with nuclear weapons. This difference is expressed in what can only be described as the apocalyptic worldview of Iran’s present rulers.”

“In Islam as in Judaism and Christianity, there are certain beliefs concerning the cosmic struggle at the end of time — Gog and Magog, anti-Christ, Armageddon, and for Shiite Muslims, the long awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the final victory of the forces of good over evil, however these may be defined.”

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced. It may even have a date, indicated by several references by the Iranian president to giving his final answer to the US about nuclear development by Aug. 22,” which this year corresponds “to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427. This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to ‘the farthest mosque,’ usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (c.f., Koran XVII.1).

“This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world. It is far from certain that Mr. Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind.”

Noted.

On the other hand, Casey argues that “Iran is deterrable. The only way we will wind up in open war with them is if we start it.”

You know, there’s something rather liberating about saying, “I am no longer a Democrat.” After wasting so much time trying to distance myself from the idiots in “my” party, it’s a relief to know that they’re not my idiots anymore. After expending so much energy searching for the kernels that were still worth defending in today’s Democratic Party (as opposed the the Democratic Party of the 1960’s, which today’s Democrats seem to spend half their time talking about, at least in front of black audiences), it’s a load off my mind to not have to think about that anymore. Defending the Dems is someone else’s job now — not mine. I’m an independent! It feels nice… in fact, it feels kinda like…

source file

Okay, so I wouldn’t go so far as to say “let the guilty pay” with respect to Lamont’s supporters… but you catch my drift. :) Declaring my “independence” actually feels kinda nice.

An Israeli Cabinet minister says the Security Cabinet has approved a wider ground offensive in Lebanon, wire services report. Visit CNN for the latest.