After 30 Rock’s second season (my first) my inclination was to already put it in the pantheon of best TV comedies ever. It never declined from there, only went up. Then when I watched the entire first season back-to-back over a weekend, I knew it to be the truth. Open those hall of comedy fame doors, this group of people, the work they’re doing and their comedic voice is special. That voice, which I presume to be the voice of my second wife presumptive Tina Fey, is one that feels to me like a best friend – we just click, it’s always comfortable and I wish it would never end. I have never laughed so much at a TV show, week after week.  I even laugh at the repeats, and I do not generally watch repeats even of shows I love.

I did not want to love 30 Rock.  Because Tina Fey came from Saturday Night Live, a series of words that evokes scowls in my house, I did not have any intention of watching 30 Rock. When it won the Emmy for best sit-com that first season I chalked it up to the usual TV crap being feted by the usual morons (see Modern Family, yeah I said it)

So when I was turned onto 30 Rock in the middle of season 2 and found myself laughing uncontrollably through the episode, it was a revelation.  The machine gun approach to jokes just works for me, so long as the jokes are smart and well executed and 30 Rock always was. From the theme song on it’s a high energy, percussive rat-a-tat-tat of jokes, hitting a target and moving on, if you missed that arcane reference, wait no more than a few seconds, there’ll be one you do get. I got ’em all, so 22 minutes of 30 Rock could sometimes leave me drained wanting a cigarette and a cuddle like after other enjoyable spiritual acts.

When a show like 30 Rock has it’s farewell I feel it like a real loss. I’ll never see these characters again, hear that voice again in quite the same way. There is a real sense of sadness.  I expect tonight to be hard and I will need a good episode of Workaholics to get through.

So we hereby induct 30 Rock into my own personal (and yes, this is all subjective) TV comedy Hall of Fame along with Monty Python, Kids in the Hall, Bob Newhart (Chicago and Vermont), Get Smart, Mary Tyler Moore, All in the Family, Taxi, Cheers, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Curb Your Enthusiasm – the friggin’ pantheon of funny for me.

Shout out to Tina Fey (adorable genius extraordinaire)
Alec Baldwin
Jane Krakowski
Tracy Morgan
Jack McBrayer
Judah Friedlander
Scott Adsit

And some of the greatest recurring characters ever
Chris Parnell (Dr. Spaceman is maybe the funniest character ever, ever)
Elaine Stritch (a legend, say no more)
Kristen Schaal
Will Arnett
Rip Torn
Jon Hamm
Dean Winters (the “mayhem like me” guy was the worst boyfriend ever)
Steve Buscemi
Will Farrell (“Bitchhunter”)
Margaret Cho (if you actually recognized her as Kim Jung Il, congrats)

One is important, one is freaky. Blogz iz hard. 

This is it. Things start moving today, or not. I’m optimistic. They’ve got crazy Wayne LaPierre testifying that it’s all a sham and we’re foolish to do anything about guns. They accept no restrictions, registrations or checks at all, even the ones 90% of the country support.

We have Gabby Giffords, the parents of murdered children, the police chiefs, etc.

Sen. Gillibrand and Sen. Kirk will introduce The Gun Trafficking Prevention Act today. The first bi-partisan gun safety legislation. So important because a lot of gun violence that happens in big cities with strict gun control laws is caused by guns that travel from places like Virginia with lax gun laws. That has to be controlled. And end the straw buyers – individuals who buy multiple guns for other people who couldn’t legally buy those guns. So many insane holes in the system that the NRA has deliberately created, but denies responsibility for the mayhem that ensues.

By the way a 15 year-old from Chicago who performed in inaugural festivities was fatally shot yesterday. The tragedies just keep coming. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/30/hadiya-pendleton-dead-chi_n_2581309.html

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/opinion/krugman-makers-takers-fakers-.html

Jindal said the other day that the GOP “has to stop being the stupid party.” But the stupid is strong, and so is the bullshit.

Mr. Jindal posed the problem in a way that would, I believe, have been unthinkable for a leading Republican even a year ago. “We must not,” he declared, “be the party that simply protects the well off so they can keep their toys. We have to be the party that shows all Americans how they can thrive.” After a campaign in which Mitt Romney denounced any attempt to talk about class divisions as an “attack on success,” this represents a major rhetorical shift.       

Meanwhile, back in Louisiana Mr. Jindal is pushing a plan to eliminate the state’s income tax, which falls most heavily on the affluent, and make up for the lost revenue by raising sales taxes, which fall much more heavily on the poor and the middle class. The result would be big gains for the top 1 percent, substantial losses for the bottom 60 percent. Similar plans are being pushed by a number of other Republican governors as well.

To replace progressive income taxes with regressive sales taxes is the most transparent effort to engineer reverse Robin Hoodism and transfer funds from the bottom to the top.  The guy who wants to stop the stupid has been one of the biggest proponants of same and worse. Think Progress noted five reasons Jindal himself is responsible for the GOP’s stupid streak. Just to name one:

1. He permits Louisiana schools to teach creationism. Thanks to Jindal’s educational voucher system in Louisiana, students will be attending private or parochial schools on the taxpayer’s dime. But those schools don’t necessarily meet the standards of the state’s public schools, and may teach students creationism instead of standard science curricula.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/01/25/1495721/jindal-stupid-party/

I, for one, do not worry about the Republicans becoming a mainstream party anytime soon. 30 years of RWNJ indoctrination has rendered the average self-identifying Republican incapable of smelling the bullshit their leaders are selling. A legitimate grass roots movement of Republicans (like they said the tea party was) is absolutely not possible at this point. Democrats are the devil. Moderation is the devil. Taxes are the devil. Government is the devil. Evolution is the devil (“a lie straight from the pit of hell”). Women aren’t the devil, but they’re susceptible to his charms and need to be protected from their sinful nature. Black people are the devil, descended from Ham http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/nation02.htm (no kidding). They have invented an entire reality for themselves and internalized it to such a point that they deny anything that isn’t bona fide conservative orthodoxy.  They are constitutionally incapable of moving to the middle or changing their fundamental beliefs.

Some of them may go along with common sense immigration reform or gun reform, enough to enact these things with the majority votes of Democrats. But there will be a larger contingent that will not go along and will distance themselves from the collaborators as if this was Vichy France and anybody who consorts with Democrats is a nazi. The extreme right will concoct primary challenges in order to drive candidates back into the fold, and it will work. We’re very likely to get more extreme candidates nominated which will, in some places, help to elect Democrats ala Donnelley, McCaskill, Reid, Coons etc.

So keep it up Jindal. Keep it up Reince. Keep arguing that the GOP just has to change tactics and get the message out better. Like the idiot speaking to someone who doesn’t speak their language and is sure they just have to talk louder to break through the language barrier. It would be embarrassing, if they could see themselves. But they can’t.

Think Progress – California has a budget surplus. Yeah, California. After being pointed to as a lost cause of dysfunctional government.  How?  They got rid of the damn Republicans. It’s that simple.

Progressive Democratic activists … transformed the electorate and sidelined Republican obstructionists.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112257/california-balances-its-budget-how-progressives-balanced-books#

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China Online Daily (which I usually only read for the sudoku)

Wind power now no. 3 energy resource.  Passed nuclear.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90778/8109836.html

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The New Republic – Chris Christie (R-Hindenberg) vetoes an increase in minimum wage. A reminder that he’s a useless turd, Sandy notwithstanding. Just FYI- there’s not one state in these United States (50 total in case you forgot) in which a person earning minimum wage could afford a 2-bedroom apartment. You can not live on the minimum wage.  And the cost of living in NJ is 30% higher than the national average.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/01/28/1505761/new-jersey-governor-vetos-minimum-wage-increase/

Always sad when the inauguration tree comes down after a joyous inauguration season.

(It was actually a Christmas tree, but we were too lazy to take it down so it became a Martin Luther King tree and then an Inauguration tree. We thought it better come down before it becomes a Valentine’s tree.)

So NJ state Sen and ex-Gov. for a cup of coffee Richard Codey doesn’t want to run against Chris Christie.  I am very well rested but couldn’t squelch a condescending yawn.  Codey’s mother may be broken hearted about this but the rest of Garden State is as unmoved as a Springsteen fan at a One Direction concert. Gov. Chris Christie (R-Blimp) is a massive sitting target (joke intended) that is going to be able to slow walk back into the state house (which is a good thing because at his current planet-size stature he cannot possibly run). 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/26/richard-codey-governor_n_2557647.html

Simply put, Christie, although he’s the mainstream media’s latest mancrush, is a paper tiger whose ridiculously well documented bullying demeanor, his increasing friction with the rest of his party and his actual freaking record (um, 9.8% unemployment, duh) would render him quite vulnerable to a well run and financed campaign toplined by a household name (cough, Cory Booker, cough).

But nooooooo!  Saint Cory decided to take the easy way out and go for the 2014 senate seat currently being kept moderately warm by 89 year old Senator Frank Lautenberg. That Lautenberg’s nose is out of joint over this, because he hasn’t decided whether he’s going to run for another term or not, would make for a heart-warming episode of the Golden Girls in which a delightfully spry octogenarian proves he’s still sharp just before a dramatic illness on the big day forces the character to step aside.  Point hilariously made, but sanity prevails.  Cut to Jamie Leigh Curtis Activia commercial.

Yo NJ Dem party.  There are very good names in the NJ Congressional delegation that can take 2014 to the house, um, senate. Congressman Rush Holt, (D-nuclear scientist), would be an awesome senator who could debate any GOP candidate under the table. Meanwhile back at the ranch if you’re looking at state Senator Barbara Buono to take on Christie you might as well sit the whole thing out at the Vince Lombardi Rest Stop.

Update:
Jersey Jazzman at Blue Jersey.com thinks Buono can win.

Chris Chrstie has a problem with women: he regularly insults and berates them, and he pushes policies that deny women adequate health care. His war on teachers is a proxy war on women. Pre-Sandy Christie had a big gender gap in his favorability ratings; it would be foolish to think the storm blew that gap away permanently.

http://www.bluejersey.com/diary/22418/can-buono-win