Embarrassing VIDEO-- Kyra Phillips' "Swagga" moments

By GottaLaff

In case you missed this... Could she be any whiter? Cringe Factor: 1000. "Let's hug it out"?? ... and do the bump? Really, Kyra? Here's a thought: Be who you are, and who you are is not cool, or black, or hip.



Ouch. It's like being in ninth grade... at a dance... and your parents are the chaperones.. and they decide to join in and dance... like teenagers... in front of your friends... and your secret crush. ::shudder::

And no, that never happened to me. But that video did.

Reporters' hair irks The Boehner

By GottaLaff

That Boner, he's a regular laugh riot:

As he launched into his regular refrain about the Democrats' budget, saying it "spends too much, it taxes too much, and it borrows too much", he stopped himself — trying to hold back laughter during his own opening comments.

He quickly singled out a young print reporter, telling him, "You really do need to do something with that hair of yours." As reporters laughed, he joked, "I couldn't wait any longer."

He went on to finish his opening comments, but before calling on the same reporter, he teased, "Get a brush, would ya?"

The reporter had good sense of humor about the crack from Boehner, and shot back, "I'll get a haircut if you pay for it."

Tell you what: I'll get a haircut if you let your faux-tanned skin go au naturel.

When Boehner called on the next reporter, he referred to him as "the bald guy."

Ogodheissodamnfunny. Get this guy on Letterman. Nobody can beat that sense of humor, nobody! Not even a real comedy pro like Pauly Shore.

But Boehner didn't confine his critique to male members of the Capitol press corps. When a female reporter, wearing her long hair pulled back, prefaced her question by joking that she hoped her hair was ok, Boehner couldn't resist: "You mean what's wadded up in the back of your head?"

Ohstopplease! Omystomach! I'm in pain from all that guffawing! SNL, why haven't you booked The Boner?! He's the next Carrot Top! The Daily Show shouldn't hesitate to scoop him right up, before someone else grabs him!

Some reporters chuckled, but others thought the GOP leader was being a little harsh.

Boehner continued his hair assessment, saying, "It looks so nice hanging down. It looks like you got up a little late and decided that, you know, I just wadded up the back. For those of you that don't know about me and ponytails, males get it — males get it just as bad as females."

Ogeez! No seriously! What a card! I'm barely able to contain myself! The hilarity! Wow! He's the best ever! A gen-u-ine equal opportunity buffoon! Didja see that? See how he did that?

He then apologized to the reporter, joking "you started it," and let her ask her question on the budget.

Ohahaaaahahawhawhawhahaha::deeeep breath::HAHAHAAA! ::pant, pant!:: Whew! Whoa. Where'd he find lines like that?

With Congress about to start a two week recess, Boehner blamed the long stretch of six straight weeks in Washington for his punchy mood and attempt to have some fun with reporters. "That's why I'm trying to be humorous today to my friend who needs a brush and a friend who needs some hair," Boehner said.

Nonono, please stop! Stop, I tell you, stop! I can't take much more!

As reporters walked out of the press conference, one asked Boehner's press secretary what she put in the Republican leader's coffee this morning.

Then one of them asked if it would be okay to put one just more thing to his coffee. The press secretary scowled, reminding the reporter that that would probably be a felony.

I have Obama connections!

By GottaLaff

Mr. Laffy just got off the phone with his cousin. She is the sister of three other cousins, and what cousins they are! So far, I know three of the four, and am happy to say, adore them all. However, here's what I didn't know:

Mr. Laffy's first cousin, I now find out, is a Philadelphia lawyer who was co-chair of the Pennsylvania finance committee for Obama, and part of the national finance committee, during the election. Now he's part of the transition team! He's the one I have yet to meet.

Cousin #2, the other brother, is in charge of Caroline Kennedy's finances. So, I guess that means he's the one responsible for giving out her financial disclosure information. The last time I saw him and his family was a couple of years ago when we all had dinner together (and had a cool Elton John sighting only a table away). That was before I got into blogging, so any political talk was brief and across a large, crowded table.

And if all that's not enough, their sister, Ellen Alderman, is the one I've mentioned previously who has co-authored two best-sellers with Caroline. They were Columbia Law School students together. She was recently quoted here in the New York Times.

I will now officially begin a campaign to get them to introduce me to the future president.

Lying to the mother of a dead soldier

By GottaLaff

Jean Feggins, the mother of Pfc. Albert Nelson

Salon has a gut-wrenching account of yet another friendly fire cover-up. Please read the whole thing, since I can't do it justice. Here are a few excerpts:

Col. Sean MacFarland, who told Jean Feggins her son was killed by enemy action, is the same officer who may have covered up her son's death by friendly fire. [...]

On Dec. 4, 2006, U.S. Army Pfc. Albert Nelson was killed in Ramadi, Iraq, in an apparent friendly-fire incident. As first described in Salon, interviews with soldiers and a graphic battle video seem to indicate that a U.S. tank shell hit the roof of the building where Nelson was positioned, taking off his left leg. He suffered for half an hour before dying on the way to a military hospital. A subsequent Army investigation, however, blamed Nelson's death on enemy action.

Nelson's mother was not satisfied by the Army's official statement. Jean Feggins had heard that her son's death might have been caused by friendly fire, and she started a letter-writing campaign, demanding more information.

In early 2007, Feggins finally received an in-person briefing, complete with PowerPoint slides, from a high-ranking officer. The officer gave her the official Army version of her son's death, saying he'd been killed by enemy mortars -- a version of events contradicted by the video obtained by Salon. He also assured her that Nelson had died instantly and had not suffered. "When we found him on the roof, he was still in his position," the officer said, "holding his weapon."

Salon has now learned that the Army officer who visited Feggins was Col. Sean MacFarland -- the same officer who conducted the investigation that exonerated the Army. The news comes just as the Associated Press is reporting that the father of the other Army soldier killed in the same incident is demanding answers of his own. Roger Suarez of Carson City, Nev., is asking that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates conduct a new investigation into the circumstances of Pfc. Roger Suarez-Gonzalez's death. His death, like Nelson's, was officially attributed to enemy action. [...]

The day the initial Salon article on the friendly-fire incident appeared, Oct. 14, MacFarland spoke with me by phone. He said his December 2006 investigation of Nelson and Suarez's death included 170 photographs, dozens of interviews and hundreds of pages of ballistic analysis. He called it "the gold standard of investigations."

On the evening of the day the Salon article ran, three soldiers from Nelson and Suarez's unit were ordered to shred two boxes of documents, mostly records with Nelson or Suarez's name, the soldiers said later. Those soldiers do not know what all they destroyed.

I can't possibly imagine the pain, the sorrow, the suffering of the families involved, and my outrage can't possibly match theirs. Pat Tillman was the poster boy, but think of all the others whose stories have gotten swept under the carpet.

All we can do is push these stories so that they are no longer a sickening little military secret.

H/t: Izzy

For All Your Holiday Baking Needs

h/t and OMFG