I hope this doesn’t become a regular thing, being pissed off before 9am. Maybe I should just avoid the news until after lunch. Anyway, here are a few things I’m not terribly happy about this fine morning:

• Clear Channel is for sale. Boy, that sounds good, because very few things have exerted a more corrosive influence on our culture in recent years than this soulless megacorp and its full-Monty assault on music. So maybe the next owner will be an improvement, he thought to himself as he petted his unicorn and basked in the shiny happy sunshiny perfection of all things great and small. Or not. Turns out one of the big suitors is Bain Communications, and Bain’s partners include one Mitt Romney. Let’s see here. Mormon politician courting the Wide Right in his run for president – yeah, that bodes well for the devil rock. Let’s not forget CC’s openly pro-GOP rallies in the past – surely this ought to be raising some red flags at the FCC and Justice, right?
• Remember in the last election cycle how there was all this talk about pushing legislation empowering Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices and how that could save $30B a year? Uh-huh. The GOP and their buddies in the pharma lobby killed it dead yesterday. Read the balanced WashPost story and then have a look at the more advocacy-minded take at OurFuture and draw your own conclusions.
• Here’s one you probably didn’t hear about – FEMA wants its damned money back! I got this note from a Louisiana native who has asked me not to use his name:
  

  I just got a call from my staunchly Republican parents, and they’re so %!$$ed that they’re ready to resign their US citizenship and move to Canada. Why? Because they just got a letter from FEMA demanding a return of the $2,000 the agency gave them in relief money after they were forced to evacuate for Rita and suffered damages to their businesses. The agency is also asking for fat repayment checks from my grandmother and great-aunt. It took people months to get their FEMA checks, and now the agency is asking for refunds from folks who did not defraud the government, are still struggling, and simply cannot pay. Check out this link, for instance, to see how it’s playing at McNeese State U., the local community college in Lake Charles.

  Boy, where’s Brownie when you need him?

• John McCain is joking about bombing Iran. Look, I don’t want that crazy bastard Ahmadinejad armed with nukes any more than my Republican friends do, but if you’re going to be president you need to at least hold out the possibility that at some point you might need to resort to diplomacy. I fully understand why so many conservatives hate McCain. What I can’t wrap my head around is why so many Dems and independents ever liked him. Once upon a time he looked like a man with some integrity, I guess, but lately he reminds me of the cheap daytime hooker from My Name is Earl.
• Is Alberto Gonzales a flip-flopper? The following is a dramatization: “Those attorney firings were routine and had nothing to do with their insistence on investigating Republicans. I didn’t know anything about it. Wait – I sort of knew about it. Okay, I approved it, but it was Harriet Miers’ fault. THEY DESERVED TO BE FIRED. If, of course, I had known about it.” At least the nard-stomping from Specter was fun.
• Dammit – Idol finally turfed Sanjaya. Now there’s no reason to watch at all. But please, PLEASE, in the name of all that is sacred, can we get this chick on Idol next season. (Thank you, BitchPhD, for bringing this to our attention.)

Okay. I feel better now. Happy Thursday, America….