Sadly, No!

Ah, the miracles never stop during Festivus. Google now reports that Sadly, No! ranks 7th and 8th when doing a search on Amber Pawlik (barely edging out The Snarky Cat at # 10.)

Thanks to all those that have made this possible — so far this month 39 people found our site by searching on Amber Pawlik, and this makes us happy. (Much happier, we will concede, than the fact that one person got here by searching for “amber pawlik tits.” That, honestly, is just plain wrong.)

The greatest hits of Amber, as collected by our editors, can be found here and here.

You have to read Den Beste today.
When you do, you will slap your forehead and wonder why no one’s said this already.
Then you’ll remember that Den Beste is a genius. link

This praise for a SDB post that trots out his favorite mythical beast, transnational progressivism. We never know whether we should laugh or cry reading about conservatives convinced that they are at the forefront of a great battle against the forces of world government. Oh well, at least there’s this entry in the Wingnut Debate Dictionary:

den Beste ex machina – The creation of a fake political movement, such as Transnational Progressivism, that has virtually no basis in reality in order to disparage ideological opponents

We would link to the Den Beste post, but they’re all essentially the same. Indeed, one of D-Squared’s very first Shorter Steven Den Beste can be adapted for any post:

My dislike of the French is independent of any facts about the world.

Just replace French with whatever he’s whining about, and voil

It was with many tears in our eyes that we went to bed last night, having found no daily TownHall roundup on World O’Crap. Some say WOC author s.z. was sick — we believe that Bill O’Reilly’s Army of Killer Robots was involved. And yet, although robots are strong (and made of metal) we see that our daily fix is back today. And because TownHall roundups are to us what Oxycontin is to Rush we can say once more, happy days are here again.

SullyWatch and John Kusch comment on Sullivan’s incessant, spite-driven bashing of Angels in America (AIA.) Kusch is especially on target given Sullivan’s claim that 4.2 million viewers indicates that AIA is, well, crap:

Comparing Angels’ 4.2 million viewers to the 13 million who watched the Trista and Ryan’s Wedding is like comparing ratings for competitive men’s curling versus the Superbowl. …

While you go read the rest we’ll add a couple of things here: first, that the potential viewership for such work aired on paid cable is necessarily limited. According to HBO and Nielsen:

That made the first half of the six-hour drama, an AIDS-era epic adapted from the stage by Tony Kushner, the most-watched made-for-cable movie of the year, HBO said.

TV writers with knowledge of the industry (as opposed to grumpy, bitter and overpaid masters of copy and paste who only got cable a few days ago) had different views:

The numbers were down 30 percent from the Dec. 7 debut airing of the first part ? which pulled in a solid cable audience of 4.2 million.

As well as:

Over on the premium cable side, the second part of HBO’s ambitious “Angels in America” slumped to only 2.93 million viewers, ranking second for the week behind a screening of “Two Weeks Notice.”

Second for the week — will the gigantic failure never end? Since Sullivan appreciates idiotic comparisons, let us offer this one: 2.93 million viewers for the second half of Angels in America is more than the total number of unique monthly visitors to the Daily Dish for all of 2002.

And while it is unrelated, we can’t help but point out that for Thursday and Friday (as we write this) the total output of the $75,000/year man consists of:

Quotes from emails: 279 words.
Quotes from whatever-award nominees: 527 words.
Entries of no consequence whatsoever (InstaPundit length links to other blogs:) 101 words.
Original material (2 entries:) 521 words.

So next time you’re in New York City, please be sure to drop by the “offices” of andrewsullivan.com to say hello and congratulations for the hard work. Strangely enough, they are located here:

Chelsea is now home to Manhattan?s most extraordinary new luxury apartment rentals. The Westminster, in a neighborhood already home to many of New York City?s finest art galleries, antique shops, and restaurants. The Westminster offers discerning New Yorkers the style and sophistication of an elegant pre-war building along with the luxurious finishes, services, and amenities of a 21st century luxury apartment, brilliantly conceived and designed by world-renowned architect Robert A. M. Stern. The Westminster is in a class by itself ? not just in Chelsea, but in the entire New York City portfolio of Related Rentals.

When we grow up, we want the editorial offices of Sadly, No! at the Trump Plaza. So please do fork over way over $75,000/year to help us, ok? Merci.

Straight from the Sadly, No! inbox:

Subject: Rudolph Giuliani and Zig Ziglar are coming to Washington, D.C. April 6th!

Get Motivated Seminars want to give YOU the best seats in the house on Tuesday, April 6th, 2004 at The GET MOTIVATED Seminar with Zig Ziglar at the MCI Center Arena! At age 77, Zig is not retired, but “refired!” Join Zig and the Dream Team of Expert Trainers for a day that you will never forget. …

This show is so HOT it SIZZLES!
#1 Motivator Zig Ziglar will be joined by this dynamic team of experts:
[snip]
– Tom Hopkins will show you how to strengthen your sales and negotiation skills!
– Rick Belluzzo, former President and CEO of Microsoft, will give you his top business strategies!
– Goldie Hawn will teach you how to attain and exceed your goals!

After the seminar, Goldie will be signing copies of the original Wildcats script and explain that she hasn’t been in a commercially successful movie since 1996 by choice. These seminars are so much more fun than making movies you know.

Rick Belluzo will explain how you can overcome looking like a used car salesman, only less trustworthy, to achieve business excellence.

Jesse links to this Washington Post story about the White House’s latest efforts at information management:

White House officials were steamed when Andrew S. Natsios, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said earlier this year that U.S. taxpayers would not have to pay more than $1.7 billion to reconstruct Iraq — which turned out to be a gross understatement of the tens of billions of dollars the government now expects to spend.

Recently, however, the government has purged the offending comments by Natsios from the agency’s Web site. The transcript, and links to it, have vanished.

Vanished? Oh no — let’s hope someone can post a copy of it somewhere…

TED KOPPEL: (Off Camera) Well, it’s a, I think you’ll agree, this is a much bigger project than any that’s been talked about. Indeed, I understand that more money is expected to be spent on this than was spent on the entire Marshall Plan for the rebuilding of Europe after World War II.

ANDREW NATSIOS: No, no. This doesn’t even compare remotely with the size of the Marshall Plan.

TED KOPPEL: (Off Camera) The Marshall Plan was $97 billion.

ANDREW NATSIOS: This is 1.7 billion.

TED KOPPEL: (Off Camera) All right, this is the first. I mean, when you talk about 1.7, you’re not suggesting that the rebuilding of Iraq is gonna be done for $1.7 billion?

ANDREW NATSIOS: Well, in terms of the American taxpayers contribution, I do, this is it for the US. The rest of the rebuilding of Iraq will be done by other countries who have already made pledges, Britain, Germany, Norway, Japan, Canada, and Iraqi oil revenues, eventually in several years, when it’s up and running and there’s a new government that’s been democratically elected, will finish the job with their own revenues. They’re going to get in $20 billion a year in oil revenues. But the American part of this will be 1.7 billion. We have no plans for any further-on funding for this. [Emphasis added]

But Andrew wasn’t done — this came after the commercial break:

TED KOPPEL: (Off Camera) And we’re back once again with Andrew Natsios, administrator for the Agency for International Development. I want to be sure that I understood you correctly. You’re saying the, the top cost for the US taxpayer will be $1.7 billion. No more than that?

ANDREW NATSIOS: For the reconstruction. And then there’s 700 million in the supplemental budget for humanitarian relief, which we don’t competitively bid ’cause it’s charities that get that money.

TED KOPPEL: (Off Camera) I understand. But as far as reconstruction goes, the American taxpayer will not be hit for more than $1.7 billion no matter how long the process takes?

ANDREW NATSIOS: That is our plan and that is our intention. And these figures, outlandish figures I’ve seen, I have to say, there’s a little bit of hoopla involved in this. [Emphasis added]

Boy, all this hoopla — that sure had to be annoying. Any last words Andrew?

TED KOPPEL: (Off Camera) But what you are saying is, maybe, maybe fewer tasks will be accomplished. The amount of money, however, is gonna be the same?

ANDREW NATSIOS: That’s correct. 1.7 billion is the limit on reconstruction for Iraq. It’s a large amount of money but, compared to other emergencies around the world. But in terms of the amount of money needed to reconstruct the country, it’s a relatively small amount. [Emphasis added]

Thank you Andrew.

Steve at No More Mister Nice Blog links to a Drudge report story that further documents the crap that comes out of Bill O’Reilly’s mouth:

FOXNEWS’s top-rated host Bill O’Reilly recently claimed that he is “running against Hillary for most copies of nonfiction books sold this year!”

But numbers obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT show a dramatically different sales scene for 2003.

NIELSEN, the same company that ranks O’Reilly #1 on Cable TV, currently places O’Reilly at #6 for the year on the nonfiction charts — trailing rival Al Franken by nearly 30%!

“We’ve outsold that guy [Franken] all over the place,” O’Reilly claimed Monday on NBC’s TODAY show. “We’re running against Hillary for most copies of non-fiction books sold this year!”

Which gives us a chance to take a stroll down memory lane and read the wonderful things Rush Limbaugh & Friends had to say about sales of Living History this summer:

“Mrs. Clinton’s first printing is rumored to be 1 million. But we’ve got a source … an unnamed source at Simon & Schuster saying they made that up, saying, ‘Where would we put a million books? Where could we hide ’em? And we don’t know how many have been sold we’re just saying this because it’s part of a PR campaign.’ …

Despite some media accounts of initially hot sales, WorldNetDaily reported that bookstores across America’s heartland were not seeing any strong demand for “Living History,” …

According to Publishers Lunch, Living History has sold in excess of 1 million copies.

Moment of Truth

Chirac, Blair and Bush lied — but the fact that Blair and Bush lied for a good cause I agreed with makes them extremely courageous.

Shorter concept inspired by busy, busy, busy from an idea by D-Squared.

For your reading pleasure, the full transcript of ABC’s interview with President Unelectable:
Read the rest of this entry »

WorldNetNutDaily, the internet’s leading source of unintentional (?) humor delivers this exclusive story:

A Mexican-American separatist website, La Voz de Aztlan, is claiming the U.S. capture of Saddam Hussein is a hoax.

The pro-Arab and viciously anti-Israeli organization also sees a spontaneous uprising of popular support for Hussein throughout Iraq ? a phenomenon unnoticed by news organizations throughout the world, including those in Arab countries.

Based on pictures released, the group added that it believes the US has the late Walter Matthau in custody.