POTUS' SOTU: The drinking game played once a year

Tonight, on the 1,050th day of the Iraq war (George Will points out the 912th day of American participation in World War II was D-Day), our POTUS will make the State of the Union (SOTU) address he is constitutionally bound to deliver. In response, many Americans will make the gagging-dry-heave noises they are morally bound to deliver.


The Democrats' responses (filmed before a live, non-studio audience) will be given by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, in English, followed by a Spanish response from L.A. Mayor Antonia Villaraigosa. Neither of the leaders are expected to deviate from the core message of the Democrats rebuttal, which is to make clear that John Kerry is not the guy giving the response.

For those seeking some appetizers prior to tonight's main course, here are some highlights from today's news:

The NY Times and Washington Post's prep pieces, the NY Daily News on Bush's body language, two updates (one from the top, one from the bottom) on the role of religion in both Parties, and the Daily News again on Sen. Hillary's guest for tonight's speech.

All of the above links can be found in today's The Note, the immensely praiseworthy and free daily digest of news and analysis provided by ABC News. Nowhere is there a greater quality or quantity of coverage to be found in a single source. Beware though, it's more addictive than crackrocks.

An example of The Note's SOTU analysis from ABC News' Polling Director Gary Langer in today's Note:

"Partisans watch these things; rather than torturing themselves, people who don't like the guy can just turn to another of their 100 channels. When we polled on the SOTU in 2003, we found that the president's approval rating among speech watchers was 70 percent, versus 47 percent among those who didn't watch. As we put it at the time: 'Simply put, people who don't like a particular president are considerably less apt to tune him in.'"

"These speeches tend to be composed of poll-tested applause lines, so the people who watch are already predisposed to like what they hear."

People predisposed to like what they hear, eh? Hmmm...well, I can think of only one way to guarantee my predisposed enjoyment of tonight's latest truth-massacre, and that's to turn it into a drinking game. Here are the rules.

So gather your buddies and get down on Bush's special brand of truthiness. Because remember: If you watch the speech, you're gonna feel like shit tomorrow morning anyway.

When it rains, it pours

Third post of the day. Should've been the first.

My homie, my stromie from back in the day, DK Meth, has dropped his first mash-up for your aurul pleasure.

Check him out dudes: Fiddy meets George Benson in GiveMeDaNightClub. When you're done, email him your request to release the uncirculated-but-heavily-rumored-to-exist Mammoth demo tapes.

For a refresher on Fiddy mashups gone wrong, go here

File under "N" for No Doy

The Washington Post reports something the electoral map pointed out years ago.

"That study found that supporters of President Bush and other conservatives had stronger self-admitted and implicit biases against blacks than liberals did...

...The analysis found that substantial majorities of Americans, liberals and conservatives, found it more difficult to associate black faces with positive concepts than white faces -- evidence of implicit bias. But districts that registered higher levels of bias systematically produced more votes for Bush.

Obviously, such research does not speak at all to the question of the prejudice level of the president," said Banaji, "but it does show that George W. Bush is appealing as a leader to those Americans who harbor greater anti-black prejudice...

"...If anyone in Washington is skeptical about these findings, they are in denial," [Krosnick] said. "We have 50 years of evidence that racial prejudice predicts voting. Republicans are supported by whites with prejudice against blacks. If people say, 'This takes me aback,' they are ignoring a huge volume of research."

It's hard to feel sympathy for Condi Rice, but right now, I do.

State of the Union: Insane

If you have the stomach to watch our President deliver tomorrow night's SOTU here's an excellent article from this Sunday's Washington Post to frame the issues. Below are the results of a poll conducted Jan. 23-26 by the Post and ABC News asking Americans which issue should receive the highest priority by Bush and the Congress. Margin of error = +/- 3%


Interesting to see lobbying reform at the bottom of the list. It seems the Abramoff affair didn't surprise anyone but only confirmed that Americans already believe that Congress is available to the highest bidder. And yet, still not a priority. The blind trust people have in their government to self-regulate follows the textbook definition of insanity: to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

The issue directly above lobbying reform is a bit harder to rationalize. It's not a problem we as a species have had to deal with before although blind trust in our leaders is certainly not something we can rely on here, either. The debate stiffens, and Blair shows he's not like Dubya on all fronts.

Think about this stuff too much and before too long you might find yourself adopting alter-egos the better to join your insane countrymen.

Somebody, anybody, please...put me back to work before it's too late.

The Human Torch was denied a bank loan

SSA Audio Volume One - Vocals: yikes. I'm really sorry. I have no idea how to sound like I'm not speaking from a podium when I sing. Guitar: passable. Whistling: like a goddamn canary. If the above Flash thingy doesn't work, click here to hear it elsewhere. Don't fit and don't play is a bad combo. Make sure to leave all constructive feedback in comments box below. Thank you.

Inhabitat.com

1. Naturalicious covers for your iPod and laptops


2. Imagine trying to pull this off in NYC. "Hi Officer, how are you today? Oh this, it's just a little public art-open space reclamation project my friends and I have - what? Permit? Oh no, but we're feeding the meter! What? OK, yessir, we'll be removing it right now." Gotta love the SFPD...

Here I come again, I'm bringin my friends

1. The "Ooh-la-la-la" gets reunited for Chappelle's Block Party. Coming soon to a theater near you. Check the trailer here.


2. A-10 basketball classic: GW v. Rhode Island, home of Cut Mobley and Lamar "Gettin paid to watch Kobe is cool" Odom. Buff n' Blue now lookin to run the table. First ever Top 10 ranking possibly in the offing. SSA roots hard for the home team as Syracuse gets its act together.

SLY LIVES!

But damn, Sly's welcome-back committee is Maroon 5, Steven Tyler and that fool from the Black Eyed Peas? Stay gone, Sly!

I'll kick your sister's ass

1. Dave Chapelle takes his turn on Inside the Actors Studio on February 12th and does some thinking outloud about Hollywood. More episode previews on the front page

2. The Wand, The Flaming Lips : From the first Lips' album since 2002's Yoshimi. And in a completely different although Lips' related story, an earlier Lips' album, Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, always reminds me of downtown Jersey City, NJ. Specifically, the intersection of Columbus and Grove by the PATH station. I was driving through that intersection, slapping the shit out of my steering wheel in time to When Yer Twenty-Two, when the van I was following side-swiped and then completely ripped the side-view mirror off another van. I wouldn't have done more than brake to rubber-neck for a second before going about my business if the van that I was following hadn't been full of my campaign staff. And a rental. With a 17-year old driver. Who had no driver's license.

I tried to imagine a non-cement shoe related repurcussion of being the one responsible for the campaign being dropped from its rental agreement statewide. Drawing a blank, I ran to the van and told the kid behind the wheel to run. Run fast, far away. But the kid's hesitation blew it and we had to make our stand.

Luckily the guy was a Democrat and didn't want to hassle us. When I got back to the car, the CD had played through back to the beginning:

"It's like at the circus, when you get lost in the crowd.
You're happy but nervous, definite sign that you've lost it"

It's got handclaps too, y'all.

With a Gun, The Minus 5 : The Gun Album, the latest by The Minus 5, features a guestlist that could easily fill out a festival bill. The Minus 5, along with Golden Smog (also dropping a new album this year), are where Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy goes to re-connect with his alt-country roots. If this song also turns out to closely resemble the sound on Wilco's upcoming studio album, I would not be unhappy.

Bring the Noise...

From Musings of a Liberal Texan...

"There are times when you say, no more. Yes, the republicans won and have the power. But guess what? 52% of the people in this country believe that Bush should be impeached! 52%! Last time a percentage was used, I believe it was 51%, it was called a mandate. So what is 52%? A direct freakin’ order? Over and over again we heard it said – mandate! mandate! mandate! all over the news. What was the percentage of people that wanted Clinton impeached? 36%? Yet silence from the media on the issue of impeachment. No amount of head bobbing, arrogant dismissal of facts, minimizing of ethical violations or deflection of attention will ever, ever justify blatant law breaking."

More here...

BENSCOT DOT BLOGSPOT DOT COM IN THA HOUSE!

1) A rap based on the HTML code found in Strike Sparks Anywhere, courtesy of HTTP in tha House

HTTP in tha House
lyrics by: http://benscot.blogspot.com

then worry
wanna go br slurry
this comment
the radio prewar
b aptonym
rock n roll for
blogger com comment g blogID
deselectbloggerimagegracefully

is a paragraph
span be bork
wwf monster car fantasy
content article ar lsd
em posted by
pete best pete rye
by big easy a href chef
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BENSCOT DOT BLOGSPOT DOT COM IN THA HOUSE
BENSCOT DOT BLOGSPOT DOT COM IN THA HOUSE
BENSCOT DOT BLOGSPOT DOT COM IN THA HOUSE
BENSCOT DOT BLOGSPOT DOT COM

* the weird part: pete rye is a friend of mine in Boston whose name does not appear anywhere in this blog until now. Pete warned that "the intranet will kill us all". It knows, Pete, it knows.

2) Leeeeee-ROOOOOOOY JENKINS! Though I'm aware these games exist, I've never played them but this dude's battle-cry cracks me up. And at least he has chicken. I'm totally using this in my everyday life.

3) A short list of reasons why I like staying up late: It's quiet. Pressure to do something with the day is gone. Can drink lots more water. Though I've quit, the cigarettes taste so good. The phone calls are better. The meds finally wear off.

4) Haiku for Ron Artest:

Trade me! Just kidding?
Ron? Is Larry Bird gonna
have to choke a bitch?

5) The new Mac is cooler than a box of popsicles.

6) Dan Snyder pimps the system aka no salary cap for coaches: The New Org Chart

7) Another 2005 Did You Know: Rupert Murdoch bought Myspace? If true, shouldn't Bill O'Reilly have to sport a scarf and chunky glasses? Seems fair.

800K Arcade Fire fans might be wrong

Am I the only one that doesn't see a happy ending here?

Anyway, I have a confession to make.

For the past year, I've been trying really, really hard to get into the modern indie music scene. I've read the reviews, clicked the downloads, seen the shows, etc. I've spent hours browsing artist websites, mp3 blogs and the blackhole of time and energy known as Myspace. Two days (!) I spent chasing down samples of the bands listed on different 2005 End Of Year Best-Of lists. But in the end, all I find myself left with is a handful of songs that I wouldn't mind listening to again (and again and again and again) but nothing worth the hype really. I can't front any longer - I must come clean.

It don't pass the It's-Fine-For-The-Internet-But-Would-I-Play-It-In-My-Car test. At least not the stuff the kids are going nuts for: Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, Decemberists, The New Pornographers, Clap Your Hands Say YeahYeahWhatever-I-Liked-It-The-First-Time-When-It Was-Called-The Talking-Heads. It's just not doing it for me.

Sufjan Stevens seems to be doing the most with the tools of his genre: celestial strings, muted horns, a male lead vocalist that sounds like he's either ten or been neutered. But the rest of it kind of all runs together to me. Again, a handful of good stuff (see below) but most of it's either too lightweight, or fey, or twee, or whatever the fuck the kids are calling it; or it's rock n' roll without the edge, a la Spoon or The National. It's not what I'm looking for in my music. Although the first track on that Arcade Fire album does kick ass.

Frankly, being unemployed four months out of the year gives me a lot of time to sift the sands of the web to find the good stuff. But it's fucking exhausting. I got loads of spare time and I still can't keep up with all the bands that are supposed to be just "envelope-pushing", let alone "genius". Good luck staying twee and employed, kiddos.

Turns out all I want in my music is some harmonica and some handclaps. Thank you, Southeast Engine (click on One Caught Fire - and wait for it).

More good music: Doh! The song I wanted to put here had fun lyrics, triumphant horns, a loud bass, Doo-Doo'n backup singers, and more handclaps! But the blog it appeared on just killed the link, so....here's the same band, the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, but a different tune. It's still a good one.


OK, I like a little bit more in my music than just handclaps. I like it traditional sounding but with a touch of discord. Weirdness is good, gimmicks are lame. Noise can be great as long as it's not a replacement for substance, unless of course you can make it work like that. I also need my vocalists to sound like they've been old enough to understand what they're singing about. The Unicorns know better than to try to wrap their feeble limbs around the disillusionment of adulthood. SYGC almost pull that one off but, listening to the guy's voice there, I can't help but get the feeling that if he's dismayed by 23, just wait til he gets a load of 30.

My "indie" favorites from 2005: My Morning Jacket, Z; Devendra Banhart, Cripple Crow; Eels, Blinking Lights...; Caps and Jones, Moving in Stereo; and my man Jens.

Oh yeah, shouts to Yacht Rock. It's the smoothest.

Avoiding the Google Monkeys

Illadelph
I had to pull the plug on my first attempt at blogging earlier this year due to stupidity. It's difficult to live in the worlds of a candid blogger and a slightly-connected political operative at the same time. Hence, all controversial names have been intialized to protect their identity from the aforementioned Google monkeys.

If someone had told me a year ago, when I was just starting to dip my big toe in the milky world of political consulting, that, at this time this year, I would be editing the 2006 statewide voter contact plan for Ohio at a desk in the office next to SR (1, 2), I would've called bullshit. But truth stranger fiction blahblahblah...

Quick weekly recap:

Monday - supervised finishing touches on new kitchen being installed in old house

Tuesday - gym, surfed web, baked lasagna in brand-new kitchen

Wednesday - got my D.C. on: attended reception for swearing-in of Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) at D.C. Hyatt, shook hands with Ted Kennedy, sipped champagne in the Thomas Jefferson suite at the Willard Intercontinental, shook hands with Steve Rothman (D-NJ's Fightin 9th), got tanked with next mayor of Hoboken at several swingin D.C. establishments.

Thursday - edited Ohio statewide plan, met with SR and others

Friday - gym, surfed web, cooked chili

Now for the goodies:

One guy in Washington State refers to "Eye Gunk" as "Kitty"
1) Soda vs. Pop cleared up, but apparently the jury is still out on the sprinkles/jimmies debate. I find this site endlessly fascinating.

2) I think if we pooled our money we could not only afford three of these things, but also hire a goon to forcibly attach them to Tucker Carlson's nipples and perineum.

3) Bork bork bork! (1, 2)

Well, barring a major upset, it looks like the SSA Express will be pulling into the City of Brotherly Love for it's next campaign stop. Two big seats at stake and a chance to crush Mr. Frothy Mixture himself. Living up to its name, the O.G. made me an offer I'd be stupid to ignore.

(sigh)

Someday Portland, someday.

Press rewind

Remember me?
I said something like "Oh-ho-ho-ho sheeeeeeeeeut" when I found this on the web earlier today. Memory lane, son.

Maxell's UR 90s. WAVA's Top 8 at 8. Frank Ski's Doo Doo Brown mix. Monkees Greatest Hits. The mix tapes for hebrew school. Say word.

That DooDoo Brown tape was my prize posession back in 7th grade. Post-2 Live Crew, pre-2 Hype Brothers and a Dog, there was Baltimore's Frank Ski, and DooDoo brown was his calling card. Side A was all Ski beats and samples, Side 2 was all mix: Black Box, Turn this Mutha Out, 2 Live Crew, a BBD medley and UMC's Blue Cheese!. I taped it off this dude at camp named Neil who claimed he mixed it in his basement at home, and that sexy voice that came in repeatedly to say things like "You're listening to Frank Ski's megamix, oh baby, oh baby, ohhhh baybee" was his mother. Doubted him then, worry about him now.



I graduated to these Maxells in high school and rocked them like spinning rims until college. Honing my skills in mixology. Stacks of mixes for any occasion. Converting my dad's vinyl: dylan, carlin, otis, cosby. Like Ragu, it's in there.


I still have a blue bag that holds about 10 gajillion of these babies. The College Years aka the "bootleg" tapes. Grateful Dead. Dylan. Phish. DMB. The radio shows of Jay Vincent, Syracuse's overnight Deadhead sensation. Road trip mixes, etc.

Once upon a time my uncle Gary wanted to take me to a Grateful Dead show. I'm pretty sure it would have been at the Philly Spectrum sometime in the late 1980s (Note to still-lurking inner deadhead: look up all Philly Spectrum shows circa 1986 to see what you may have missed - assume it was the one with the most rare songs played). I believe the conversation went something like this:

Uncle Gary (to my parents): I'm gonna take Junk to see the Grateful Dead.

* Junk was my uncle's nickname for his daughter - my cousin - Jacalyn.

My parents: Really? That's great!

Me: I wanna go!

UG: Yeah, you like the Grateful Dead?

Me (no clue at this point): Yeah!

UG (to my parents, smiling): He wants to go too.

My parents: Uhhhhhhm...he has a Bar Mitzvah to go to that day.

Yeah, I wuz robbed. To think I could have spent my high school years dazed and confused rather than misanthropic and on the debate team.

Uncle Gary persevered, however, in his quest to expand my cultural horizons at an early age. During future visits to my relatives in Philadelphia Unka Gar would be my chaperone through the world of WWF matches, monster car rallies and multiple S&M shops on a trip down South Street. I'm pretty sure my father was there for that last one but not sure if that necessarily makes it any better.

ANY-hoo, fate eventually brought me to a Dead show at RFK, a month or so after my avoidance of Tour Rat status had culminated in being Class Speaker at graduation. It was there I was spied by two burnouts that had disappeared sometime after freshman year, only to reappear for a month or so every year hence, clad in tye-dyes, looking spun out and with tales of rehab.

They (on a grassy hill somewhere in the lot): Hey dude.

Me: Hey Bob. Hey Gumby.

Gumby (with deep voice, passing balloon to Bob): Nice speech.

* Gumby exhales, decks out.

Bob (nodding and hitting balloon): (decks out)

Me: Thanks, see ya guys.

Anyway, I can't see myself getting nostalgic over blank CDs. Viva los mixtapes.

Don't Call Us, We'll Screw You

Dollar for dollar, is there a worse market for consumers than within the cell phone industry? I understand the genetic code of the modern corporation compels it to create the widest profit margin possible. But what happened to "The Customer is Always Right"?

It's been replaced with "The Customer Only has 4 Options", that's what. Verizon, Sprint, Cingular and T-Mobile took a look around, realized they had the high ground, and decided customer satisfaction was for suckers.

Short of the The Fight Club Solution, there are few practical solutions. SSA's small contribution to public sanity is helping to spread this cheat code which shows the quickest way to navigate to a human being in many large businesses customer service.

Back in VA

Progress on the ol' To Do List got off to a slow start today as noted earlier. Package from Grandma discovered upon arrival and contents made day not a total wash though: Hooray for Yiddish! A book about English by Leo Rosten. Includes this classic gem:

A Jew asked his son, "Exactly what did Einstein do that was so smart?"

"Einstein revolutionized physics. He proved that matter is energy. That when light goes past the sun, it bends. That -"

"Awright, awright," said the old man. "But tell me: from that he makes a living?"

Oy.

1. Tell me bout the whistles. "The whistles go 'WOOOOOOOOOOOO'. And the kids play it over and over again.

2. Two part mindblower courtesy of El Stence:
a) "Don't give up, Mac! Join the Nintendo Fun Club today!" Press Select now for the power boost. Kudos to Johnathan last-name-unknown for bringing in to the world's attention via La Stence.
b) "Mirror neurons make these complex cells look like numbskulls." Wow.

3. David Cross is a funny, funny dude. His letter to Larry the "Git Er Done" Cable Guy has been circulating for awhile but in case anyone missed it, check it here.

4. "Rudolf Hess, man of peace" - lyrics taken from Sacrifice by Prussian Blue. That's right, it's the Blue, baby! Sorta like the Olsen Twins, only wicked racist. Check out the lyrics to some of their awesome songs, like "I Will Bleed For You", "The Road to Valhalla" and "Weiss Weiss Weiss". Please send them hate mail.

All I need is an annoying fat guy that sells shower curtain rings...

Reporting live from Chicago...this is BEN.

Argh...last night's flight from Portland into Chicago arrived after my flight from Chicago to D.C. had already taken off. After shelling out the bucks for a discounted hotel room nearby, and setting a 5am wake up call to make the first available plane out, fog in D.C. has cancelled the friggin' flight. Apologies for the harsh language folks...it's been a long 20 hours. In the meantime, here's my list of stuff to do during the next two weeks to D.C.:

Clean car, sell car, appear in court to plead guilty to driving with an expired and suspended license, touch base with contacts at Democratic Governors Asso, America Votes and elsewhere re: potential work in second half of 2006, cash-in $100 credit towards phone upgrade, firebomb Verizon customer service HQ, pack essentials for Oregon.

Unless I hear an offer I can't refuse, it looks like I'll be organizing the field effort to qualify 4-6 ballot initiatives in Oregon for the next few months. Good issues, good people to work with, good pay, good city = good times. More on campaign specifics later.

Alright, this post is costing me money. O'Hare doesn't have wifi so I'm paying $.65 a minute to sit in a faux office, complete with Epson black and white printer, impressive-looking phone with many buttons and a sign telling me I can call Malaysia with no extra charge. All so I can unburden myself to you, my hypothetical audience. What a country! In Soviet Russia, audience unburdens you! Or something.

OK, last thought: Though I haven't left the airport, I forgot how great a city Chicago is. The people, the newspapers, the attitude, everything. Don't sleep. Later.

Almost Gameday

1. No less a blue-collar authority than Tim Russert says the PBIP are the great equalizers of D.C.

Learned from Limericks

Taking inspiration from Steve over at The Sneeze, I've decided to have a go at creating what we at SSA hope will be only the first in a recurring series of posts, aimed at sharing knowledge which can only be gleamed from exploring man's greatest creation, The Internet. This series is titled: Learned It From Limericks.

I discovered the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form (OEDILF) while tracking down the definition of an aptonym. Turns out an aptonym, or what the Romans also called nomen et omen, or "prophetic name", is a term used for a person's handle that also happens to correspond with their profession, i.e. the custodian named Joe Dirt, the ornithologitst Bill Bird and my friend's dog, Mr. Barksalot.

OEDILF: Not to be confused with the expression "Oh DILF!" (where the "D" stands for Drew)

OEDILF, however, and as the true title suggests, chooses to illuminate the mind with the illustrative power of Limerick. For aptonym, OEDILF offers the following entries, all user-submitted:

aptronym, aptonym by BobHale

In aptronyms, names really fit:

For example, the dentist named Bitt,

Or the baker named Bunn,

Or the sniper called Gunn,

But not quite the sewerman, Schmidt.

also...

Best, Pete, aptonym, aptronym by Chris J. Strolin

An aptonym, Ringo had guessed,

Was a name where one's job is addressed.

Had this been the case

For the guy he'd replace,

You'd have known him as Pete Second-Best.

Pete Best (b. 1941), unfortunate recipient of one history's great shaftings, was the drummer for the Beatles just before that group's popularity went through the roof.

So there you have it. Another major crisis averted thanks to the awesome powers of Limericks. I'll be sure to check in with OEDILF the next time any of those showboatin authors (yeah you Eggers and Perelman! More like Dave BoringDick and S.J. NoOneRemembersMe) try and stump me with one of their Susan B Antony-cent words. Who'll be laughing then? Me, Ben AwesomeBlog, that's who.

Big Things

Hello everybody. Happy New Year. Hello 2006, I dig your style already.

1. Abramoff Scandal Spurs Buyer's Market on Bejesus in D.C.

"There's a lot of talk coming out of various quarters that the Justice Department is going to pursue a different definition of bribery, meaning that if somebody were to give a gift or a campaign contribution in the same time period as a member took an official action, that in and of itself would constitute bribery," said a former Republican leadership aide who insisted on anonymity. "That scares the bejesus out of people."

Jack Abramoff gets ready to sing as (mostly) Republican cohorts begin to scramble. I love it. Excellent graphics and full NYT story here.

So, to review the information to date, here are the things Republicans have to worry about as the midterm elections approach:

1) In the investigation of Mr. Abramoff, accusations of influence peddling and improper dealings with Indian tribes, among other things.

2) In the money-laundering and conspiracy charges against Representative Tom DeLay, questions about the funneling of corporate money to Republican candidates.

3) In the C.I.A. leak case, the special counsel’s scrutiny of conversations between White House officials and journalists.

4) In the war on Iraq, continued questions of exit strategy and press manipulation as American death totals continue to rise

There is so much to keep track of and so little faith in the Democrats' ability to make any of it stick when it counts, or even emerge clean themselves. It's times like this you really have to wonder....WWBD?

2. Seller's market on PBIP playoff tickets

The Peoples are in, baby. This train is bound for glory, this train don't carry no unholy. Skins go 5-1, including a 3-0 run to end the season, against NFC East opponents. Team also re-ups AHC-D Williams big-time at the perfect time. Playoff rematch against Tampa Bay this Saturday. The world makes a little bit more sense.

3. Some 2005 R.I.P.s you may have missed.

4. Bush's best lines, 2005-edition

5. Letterman smoots Bill O'Reilly