Cinco del Este de Los Angeles

The Cinco de Mayo celebration at TWDQ HQ consisted of some chips with salsa and a spin of this during a quick run to the grocery store, but it was enough to jog loose This Week's Discussion Question:

Has America produced a better rock 'n roll band than Los Lobos?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not even consider suggesting The Doors.

Discuss.

I Can't Remember

Today President Bush said that last Thursday's testimony by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales "increased my confidence" in him. Having heard a fair piece of the AG's memorable, so to speak, performance, we pose This Week's Discussion Question:

Is this a definition of "increased" with which the rest of us are unfamiliar?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Cool! It's Opposite Day again!" or "I don't recall."

Discuss.

Crazy

Because they don't want idiots to get the idea that they'll get to be on the teevee if they leap onto a ballfield and run around like, well, idiots, baseball telecasts don't show idiots running around on ballfields. (Well, unless they're wearing Tampa Bay Devil Rays uniforms.) This brings us to This Week's Discussion Question:

Why did the networks broadcast the demented ramblings of a mentally ill man?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Baseball also has the sense to come in out of the rain" or "Legovision rules!"

Discuss.

Why?

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and students at Virginia Tech in the wake of today's unimaginable tragedy. As these students and families begin to deal with the aftermath of this horror, we have several queries as part of This Week's Discussion Questions:

Do you really think arming college students to the teeth is A Good Idea?

Why the hell do semi-automatic handguns even exist?

Why the hell do Brian Williams AND Matt Lauer need to be in Blacksburg?
(Substitute the name of every other network anchor you see on location. We just happened to catch a bit of NBC at TWDQ HQ tonight.)

Please keep the discussion civil and go tell your kids that you love them.

Discuss.

What the World Needs Now (Part #403)

Once again, we must pose the question that's becoming a regular feature of This Week's Discussion Question:

Why does anyone waste their precious time with "American Idol" when these giants walk the earth?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Whoa!" or "American what?"

Discuss.

Money for Nothing

The news that Major League Baseball Commissoner Bud Selig was paid $14.5 million for the 2005 season prompts This Week's Discussion Question:

Fourteen and a half freaking million? Are you kidding me?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Seriously. You are joking, right?" or "Damn! How can I get me one of them commissionerin' jobs?"

Discuss.

Requiem

It is with joyful memories and great sadness that we pose This Week's Discussion Question:

Was there ever a more wonderful sound on a summer afternoon than the voice of Herb Carneal?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Yes," because you'd be wrong.

Requiescat in pace.

So Long, It's Been Good To Know Ya...

The Friday afternoon "Gosh, we totally forgot about these!" document dump turned up this:

WASHINGTON, March 23 — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senior advisers discussed the plan to remove seven United States attorneys at a meeting last Nov. 27, 10 days before the dismissals were carried out, according to a Justice Department calendar entry disclosed Friday.

The previously undisclosed meeting appeared to contradict Mr. Gonzales’s previous statements about his knowledge of the dismissals. He said at a news conference on March 13 that he had not participated in any discussions about the removals, but knew in general that his aides were working on personnel changes involving United States attorneys.

Tasia Scolinos, a Justice Department spokeswoman, told reporters on Friday evening that Mr. Gonzales’s attendance at the hourlong meeting was not inconsistent with his past remarks.

“He tasked his chief of staff to carry this plan forward,” Ms. Scolinos said. “He did not participate in the selection of the U.S. attorneys to be fired. He did sign off on the final list.”

Ms. Scolinos said the meeting was in Mr. Gonzales’s conference room at the Justice Department. The meeting focused on “rollout” of the dismissals, she said, and from available records was not a meeting in which a final target list was determined.

Another department official said that Mr. Gonzales did not recall the meeting and that his aides had been unable to determine whether he approved the dismissal plan then.

Hokay.

Here's the Alberto Gonzales Memorial This Week's Discussion Question:

Hell, why not just say his staff happened to conduct this particular meeting in Vogon, which, unfortunately, Mr. Gonzales does not speak?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Hey, Al! Do you need help packing?" or "Y'know, that Bad Memory Defense didn't work too well the last time it got trotted out."

Discuss.

The Name Game

Now that we have this guy at The Barn and this guy looks to be a lock for the rotation, here's a special episode of This Week's Discussion Question:

What other town has two sports figures with better names?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "How would you insult a guy who goes by 'Tubby'?" or "Booooooooof!"

Discuss.

Hammer Time

Former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Jack Abramoff) has been making the rounds on the news shows (and on Fox, too) lately encouraging the President to hang tough on the U.S. Attorney firings scandal.

We'll set aside the Haskellian aspect of someone under a felony indictment gushing about what a great job the Department of Justice is doing and instead pose the larger question, which happens to be This Week's Discussion Question:

What? We're out of wooden stakes?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Hey, see how we're stocked on garlic cloves" or "We'd better check on the silver bullets, too."

Discuss.

It's the Same Old Song

On the first day of the fifth year of the war in Iraq, President Bush asked for the nation's patience.

Much like he did on:

October 25th, 2006
Conceding Missteps, Bush Urges Patience on Iraq - New York Times

June 14th, 2006
After Iraq Visit, an Upbeat Bush Urges Patience - New York Times

March 13th, 2006
Bush Urges Patience Amid Iraq Violence - CBS News

December 18th, 2005
Asking for Patience, Bush Cites Progress in Iraq - New York Times

November 29th, 2005
Bush: Iraq ‘will take time and patience' - MSNBC.com

June 28th, 2005
Bush urges patience, long view on Iraq war - The Boston Globe

And that's just the first page of Google results for "bush patience iraq", which brings us to This Week's Discussion Question:

How much more patience do you think we have?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Hey Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat! This time for sure! Nothin' up m'sleeve...Presto!" or "How long, how long must we sing this song?"

Discuss.

Again.

Dammit.

Ramblin' Gamblin' Man

Charlie Hustle told Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann that "I bet on my team every night," so here's a bonus edition of This Week's Discussion Question:

Is there a dumber guy on the planet than Pete Rose?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Well, there's..." or "And...".

Discuss.

Rear View Mirror

Former baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn passed away today at the age of 80.

We at TWDQ HQ thank him for coining the phrase "in the best interests of baseball" and will always fondly remember him sitting umbrella-less in the pouring rain at a prime-time NLCS tilt, trying to a) pretend it wasn't raining and b) decide if he wanted to take the heat from the network if he did the sensible thing and pulled the players off the field.

Mr. Kuhn's tenure takes us back to another much-reviled leader from that era, prompting This Week's Discussion Question:

How frightening is the thought that, compared to the current occupants of their respective offices, the reigns of Bowie Kuhn and Dick Nixon look positively rosy?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Hey, the guy DID suspend George Steinbrenner" or curling into a fetal position and trembling.

Discuss.

All Apologies

Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby batted 1 for 5 today in court and the reaction of many on the right to Scooter's conviction on four counts of perjury and obstructing justice prompts This Week's Discussion Question:

Considering how many people have forgotten what a big deal perjury was when President Clinton was the perjurer-in-question, might there indeed be something to Scooter's "faulty memory" claim?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Boy, a guy coulda made a bundle selling fainting couches today" or "I wonder if Vice President Cheney can get assigned a room at Walter Reed, Building 18 while he recovers from his blood clot?"

Discuss.

What the World Needs Now...

After a cursory low-volume spin in the office today and a louder sampling of the first handful of songs on this on the drive home, we arrive at This Week's Discussion Question:

Why does anyone bother with "American Idol" when this giant walks the earth?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Whoa!" or "American what?"

Discuss.

Hot in Here

When learning that his daughter's seventh-grade science class would be viewing "An Inconvenient Truth," a Washington-state parent said, "No, you will not teach or show that propagandist Al Gore video to my child, blaming our nation -- the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet -- for global warming."

The story goes on to say "His angry e-mail, along with complaints from a few other parents, stopped the film from being shown" and that the teacher was sent a disciplinary letter for "not following school board rules that require her to seek written permission to present 'controversial' materials in class."

Here's This Week's Discussion Question:

Should the school board also discipline art teachers for presenting the controversial description of "black" actually being black and "white" being white?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Don't forget that heresy about 'up' and 'down' in physics class" or "Oh, for....Honey? Do we have more vodka?"

Discuss.

I Don't Believe You

They're having a bit of trouble filling the jury box for Scooter Libby's perjury trial, since many potential jurors are being excused "for their strong views on the Bush administration, the Iraq war, or other elements of the case." The story says "Many of the residents of the largely Democratic city (Washington, D.C.) said they would have a hard time finding Libby's former boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, a credible witness if he were called to testify as expected."

So here's another bonus edition of This Week's Discussion Question:

How screwed are you if everyone thinks your star witness is a big, fat liar?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Credible? I'd sneak a peek out the window if he told me it was sunny" or "Three posts in one day, Dave? What's up?"

Discuss.

Who Woulda Thunk It?

Today Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) announced that she's running for president in 2008, providing fodder for a bonus edition of This Week's Discussion Question:

Wow! Who saw that coming?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Yawn" or "Are you happy now, Russert?"

Discuss.

Neighborhood Bully

Last week we saw this headline at Yahoo News: Bob Dylan bores me to tears -- Simon Cowell. The story cites an interview in the February issue of Playboy, in which Cowell says he never bought a Dylan album and would "plug my ears and run in the other direction" if he were to see a 21-year-old Dylan singing "Blowin' in the Wind."

It makes perfect sense to us here at TWDQ, prompting This Week's Discussion Question:

Could anyone who owned a Dylan album possibly have created American Idol?

Please keep the discussion civil and do not wander off into "Yet you sat there and listened to William Hung?" or "What the world needs now is another pop singer like I need a hole in my head."

Discuss.

Since You Asked

Saturday, in response to critics of his plan to escalate the war in Iraq, the President said, "To oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible." Because to propose nothing would be irresponsible, we at TWDQ would like to interrupt This Week's Discussion Question to offer one up:

Resign. Now. You AND the Vice President. Now. Before you send another 20,000 American men and women into the meat grinder to stall for time so you don't go down in history as another president who had to helicopter the last Americans off the rooftops in a war zone. Now. Before you start poking Iran and Syria with sharp sticks to provoke yet another war, though we fear you've already started doing that. Now. Before Congress decides we ought to take a good hard look at getting behind the International Criminal Court.

Resign. Now.

There's your proposal, sir.

Thank you. We now return you to our regular discussion.