Never mind what you saw and heard. Never mind that liberal elites like Pat Buchanan and Bill Kristol and Mike Murphey said it was an amazing speech, strong, filled with specifics, unifying, calling all of us to our better selves.

Then she went even further and mocked democrats and liberals and our struggling single mothers with our "two-headed kids that we can use for a bowling ball..." I couldn't hear the rest because Mika and Joe were laughing their asses off at how clever and funny Noonan was.

I hope this video gets played over and over and over again so that everyone can see exactly how ugly the Republicans have become.  I have never witnessed such raw contempt in my life.  She thought she was clever as hell. LOL Peggy Noonan!

He's talking about the GOP's Southern Strategy and how it's coming back to haunt them now in a big way.

In its pursuit of power, the Republican Party has dismembered and reassembled itself so that a thousand livid sutures are showing. It's not a party but a Frankenstein monster, patched together from dead and discontinued materials, organ transplants that may yet be rejected, rough pieces that look familiar but never match. Since the party's symbol is the elephant, the parable of the blind men and the elephant is relevant: Touch the thing here and it's a briefcase, over there a cross, down there a bomb, a gasoline pump, a pistol, a golf club, a fetus--a noose? Republicans are no longer a party but a loose coalition of Americans who hate things--different things--praying that fear and aversion can win them another four years of power and excess. Ed Rollins, the old Ronald Reagan operative now working for Mike Huckabee, recently acknowledged the party's unnatural composition and the fact that hasty old stitch work is coming undone. "It's gone," said Rollins. "The breakup of what was the Reagan coalition--social conservatives, defense conservatives, anti-tax conservatives--it doesn't mean a whole lot to people anymore."

What is this quilted, decomposing thing, lurching across the cornfields, scaring crows in Iowa and moose in New Hampshire, terrifying the lowly possum in the South Carolina pinewoods? It used to be my daddy's party, his beloved GOP. Without a coherent identity, without appealing or plausible candidates who can even simulate sincerity, the patchwork party's primary season has been a ghoulish cabaret, scary-funny, more Mel Brooks than Mary Shelley. Every morning's newswire yielded comic treasure. Did Giuliani really say "I took a city that was known for pornography and licked it to a large extent"? Is it possible that his panicked opponents have tried to hamstring the surging fundamentalist Huckabee, who repudiates evolution, by calling him a liberal? And Huckabee, pressed to defend a son who killed a stray dog at a Boy Scout camp--god love our working press--did he say "It was mangy--it looked like it was going to attack"?

Maryb - who remains the voice of class and reason during turbulent times and I hope our paths will cross again.

AndiF - who has almost singlehandedly kept the Froggy Bottom Cafe up and running every. single. day. which provides us with a safe, accepting and fun place to drink coffee, mix up a mean marmotini, smoke the peace hookah, or tell the latest crummy joke.

keres - without Thursday dog (and other critter) blogging the pond would be barren.  No dogs, rabbits, wallabies and yes even pooties would grace our pages.

Man Eegee - who is wise beyond his years and constantly enlightens me with his well-researched and heartfelt stories of immigrants and their families, as well as injustices around the world.

RubDMC - whose Iraq war daily witness is heartbreaking but necessary to remind us all of the cost of war.

Boran2 - whose Saturday painting diary is always entertaining and fun to watch his paintings progress and to share our own attempts at creativity.

Family Man - whose folksy sort of wit belies his great and patient wisdom.  Follow the link to his blog.  He's a gifted writer and his love of family will touch you.

Arthur Gilroy - who has made me fall in love with double-spacing and I never have to wonder what he really means by that...

refinish69 - who has the energy of someone half his age and never ever sleeps.  He works hard on the local level to bring about change in the whole country.  His podcasts are amazing and entertaining to boot.  Have a listen.

Kidspeak - who is wise and patient and funny as hell sometimes and has a heart of gold.

Teach313 - who is teaching the next generation to be good guardians of the light.  I'd clone him 1000 times over to give more kids a chance to learn from him.

That's my list and I'm sure I've left someone out.

Who do you want to give a shout out to?