Weekend Update - Hangin' In There Edition

• Except in the case of Harry Reid and the U.S. Census questionnaire, use of the word Negro to describe a black person has largely fallen out of polite conversation. On the questionnaire, under "What is this person's race?" is an option that reads, "Black, African Am., or Negro." That has raised the ire of certain black activists and politicians as the Census Bureau gears up to mail out its once-a-decade questionnaires. TIME reports.


• We received the news recently of the untimely death of Air America Network. Damn shame. The Right Wing people are wetting themselves over their "victory" but it was ultimately typical liberal mismanagement that brought it all down. It was just a radio network, after all. What Righties never have understood is that we Lefties normally don't spend our time glued to our radios drooling and nodding in agreement with everything we're told by our "Ministry of Truth." Think about it. Why do they call them "Dittoheads?"


• It was not a referendum on Barack Obama, who in every poll remains one of the most popular politicians in America. It was not a rejection of universal health care, which Massachusetts mandated (with Scott Brown’s State Senate vote) in 2006. It was not a harbinger of a resurgent G.O.P., whose numbers remain in the toilet. Brown had the good sense not to identify himself as a Republican in either his campaign advertising or his victory speech. And yet... Frank Rich comments on "After the Massachusetts Massacre."


• Overall, Armageddon has one hell of an irresistible appeal. Sexy, dirty, dangerous, liberating, stripped to the raw, bare-bones morality of it all. Total bonus: You get to eat whatever you want, because there isn't much food left, and anything you can find/pillage/kill is yours to munch, unless the scary inbred hill/sewer people get to it first. Mark Morford tells us "What To Wear to the Apocalypse."


• I told you he'd be back: Right Wing talk show host-drug addict-rascist windbag-all around asshole and Badhat Idiot of the Week Rush Limbaugh played the Jewish hate race card this week. Damn, you gotta love this guy.


• President Obama took aim at the Supreme Court on Saturday, saying the justices had “handed a huge victory to the special interests and their lobbyists” with last week’s 5-to-4 decision to lift restrictions on campaign spending by corporations and unions. I gotta tell ya folks, we consider this one of the finest signs of the coming apocalypse as we've seen so far. The Supreme Court has apparently taken sides with special interests and big business and overturned a major portion of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. Corporations now have the same rights as a citizen. But would you want one marrying your daughter? Candidates can now actually be sponsored by CitiBank. I could go on here, but I'm starting to weep for my country.


• I leave you with this: A memorial service for George and Betty Jean Weltch of Springfield, Oregon will be held Friday, January 29, 2010. George passed away Monday, November 30, 2009, and Betty Jean passed away December 27, 2009. Both died in their home in Springfield. George was 83, Betty Jean was 79. The memorial service on January 29th was have been the couple's 62nd wedding anniversary. Among a clan of people, they left 30 great-granchildren. I read this notice in the newspaper this morning, and while I didn't know or ever meet either of them, I wish I had. These two knew what it's really all about.