Bill Clinton--The Turquoise President

I miss this guy! He's a blue Dem and a green environmentalist.

The Enforcer

The Republicans are currently at an extremely low point, with Scooter Libby under indictment, possibly more bad news coming from the Department of Justice and the death toll rising too quickly in Iraq. Then we have Tom DeLay and Bill Frist, both looking like common criminals. The president's polls are deservedly way down; Congress isn't looking much better. Unfortunately, the Democrats' ratings aren't much higher than those of the Repugs.
But, according to an October 20th article in Rolling Stone, we may have a Democrat who is able and willing to take advantage of the 'mess the GOP has made'. Read about Rahm Emanuel, Illinois House member and head of the DCCC, in the Rolling Stone story; then read his voting record. It sounds to me as if he is just what we need to round up our lost and straying Congressional cattle and get them on a winning path.
Now all we need is a really great candidate for president.

This Week on the Daily Show

Monday, 10/31: D.L. Hughley, host of Weekends at the DL

Tuesday, 11/1: Senator Barbara Boxer, D-CA

Wednesday, 11/2: Mike Wallace, 60 minutes correspondent and author of "Between You and Me"

Thursday, 11/3: David McCullough, author, "1776"

Rosa Parks arrives at the Capitol

Seen on C-span. Rosa Parks' family arrived via a 1955 era bus. Ms. Parks' casket was taken into the Capitol rotunda by pall bearers, while We Shall Overcome was hummed quietly. She was placed on a bier, and then the Morgan State University choir sang. President and Mrs. Bush were there. Bush looked like he had been made to attend, he had that sucked up, thinned lip look that he affects when he is doing things he doesn't like. He kept looking right and left like he had never seen that many black people assembled in one place in his entire life; obviously uncomfortable. In the background I could see Sen. Frist (with a dorkey smile) and Sen. Harkin (IA)looking thoughtful. (And yes, I am biased, because I like Sen. Harkin). Bush and wife shook hands, I could not read his lips all the time, the one time I could, I think he said, God be with you. Then they left.
Rosa Parks deserves to be remembered as a woman of great strength. If you have not read any history of her life, google her name and get to work. What a gracious and courageous woman.

Clinton Gives Dems a Kick in The Pants

President Clinton this weekend gave us hell and told us to get off our duffs. We needed to hear it!

Bush's Ethics Worse Than Clinton's---Duh!

The latest poll indicates the American people find Bush's ethical issues a little more problematic than that of Clinton's. Boy, this is getting more fun by the day!

Saturday Knight Blogging

The fair, but fierce Marguerite, has come to fight on the Blue Team! She says she can help kick Rove's butt.

Rosa Parks to lie in state in Capitol

Congress gave final approval Friday to a resolution to allow the public to pay respects to Rosa Parks in the U.S. Capitol building Sunday and Monday - a unique honor for a private citizen.

When I was about 4 years old (1955) we lived in Montgomery, Alabama while my father attended the US Air Force War College. We lived in a rented house in downtown Montgomery. It's one of my earliest memories. There was a big, wide front porch, and a scary, scary whole house fan on the 3rd floor (where my oldest sister's bedroom was). That fan was so huge I felt it would suck me in! I remember several things about living in Montgomery for that short period of time:
• I got a cracker smeared in my face at the playground for drinking from the “wrong” water fountain (the “colored” one)
• I remember my father talking about civil rights, and seeing KKK rallies either on TV or on our block, I am not sure
• Our maid, telling my father that she would walk home rather than accept a ride, because it was important that she walk and not ride the bus

Background on this is important. My father, a USAF Chaplain and veteran of WW II, was a missionary in the Philippines from 1949 to 1952 (and was a USAF reservist). He returned to active duty during the Korean War, and we were transferred to Japan when I was less than 2. I spent most of my time in the car of maids, who did not speak English, and who certainly did not look like me. My first language was Japanese. Obviously from a very young age I thought all people were the same inside, some just looked different on the outside. To this day I do not know why I remember the bus boycotts so vividly, but I do. I like to think it is because I had already experienced the fact that a person’s outward appearance has nothing to do with what they can and cannot do, achieve, or aspire to be.

I was also fortunate to have a father who marched with Martin Luther King, who heard King’s “I have a dream” speech in person, and who worked for civil rights, freedom of expression, and the downtrodden all his life. I helped him with an equal housing initiative in Allentown, Pa while I was in high school.

Rosa Parks, took a seat so my father could stand up, so I could stand up, so my children could stand up, so we could all stand up for the promotion of equal rights in this country.

So, over the next 2 weeks or so, during early voting this week, or on Nov. 8th, remember Rosa Parks and vote NO on proposition 2. In doing so, we will be violating the civil rights of many people.

Proposition 2: "The constitutional amendment providing that marriage in this state consists only of the union of one man and one woman and prohibiting this state or a political subdivision of this state from creating or recognizing any legal status identical or similar to marriage."

Scooter Libby's indictment

A Washington Post editorial noted, "And as absorbing as this criminal investigation has been, the big point Americans need to keep in mind is this: There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." link

The key issue, IMHO, is that there is a potential that this investigation into the Plame leak will lead to a broader investigation of abuse of power and the lies that led us into Iraq. We can only hope that in the end, the liars will be exposed. This is a matter of national security, and is of utmost importance to our democracy.

I just got socks and underwear

Here it is, Fitzmas, and so far all I got were the boring presents that are useful, but not very exciting. I need a Barbie Dollhouse! Mr. Fitz, please indict that S.O.B Rove!

Turnabout's Fair Play. Right?

Nighty night, talking point. I hope that's the last we hear of you!

Paul Begala Weighs In on Prince George

This was on the TPM Cafe.
Mr. Bush would do well to augment his current staff, a C-Team if ever there was one, with some stronger characters. But to read the Bush-Miers correspondence is to gain a disturbing insight into Mr. Bush's personality: he likes having his ass kissed. Ms. Miers' cards and letters to the then-Governor of Texas belong in the Brown-Nosers Hall of Fame. You can be sure the younger and less experienced Bush White House aides are even more obsequious. The last thing this President wants is the first thing he needs: someone to slap his spoiled, pampered, trust-funded, plutocratic, never-worked-a-day-in-his-life cheek and make him face the reality of his foul-ups.

Hat tip to Bill in Boerne

Poor Harry Takes Her Ball and Heads Home

It seemed inevitable.

Today's Headlines

"CALEDONIA, Mich. - A woman who took an unpaid leave of absence from work to see her husband off to war with an Indiana National Guard unit has been fired after failing to show up for her part-time receptionist job the day following his departure."--Associated Press, Wed.


"U.N.: 2,000 Cos. Gave Iraq Illicit Funds
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer 40 minutes ago

UNITED NATIONS - More than 2,000 companies paid about $1.8 billion in illicit kickbacks and surcharges to
Saddam Hussein's government through extensive manipulation of the U.N. oil-for-food program in
Iraq, according to key findings of a U.N.-backed investigation obtained by The Associated Press."

And of course:

"Miers Withdraws Under Mounting Criticism
AP - 3 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Under withering attack from conservatives, President Bush ended his push to put loyalist Harriet Miers on the Supreme Court Thursday and promised a quick replacement."

The Dark Horse

Here's the third choice for Texas Governor next year. He charmed and delighted the crowd at the local library tonight, so we have to make sure our candidate can be just as scintillating! Here's a pic of Kinky working his dark magic.

A SEAT ON THE BUS, A SEAT AT THE TABLE

This is from my favorite Episcopal Priest, and is one of her almost daily eMo's (eletronic meditation)
To the end of her life, Rosa Parks was beautiful: her radiant smile, the knowing snap of her black eyes, the braided coronet of her hair that went from coal black to white over the years. Her clothes were classic and understated, and you never saw a photograph of her in which she was not elegant.

But these things were details, not at all her main focus in life. She had more important things to think about than her hair or her clothing, and she thought about those important things for as long as she could think at all. The dangerous act of integrating the seating arrangements on Montgomery's public transportation was begun by this slight young woman and carried forward by thousands of people who walked, drove, bicycled, even skated to work and school -- got there any way they could that did not involve taking a city bus, and did it there for more than a year.

A lovely young woman, looking younger than her 42 years. A very young Dr. King -- we forget how young he was when all this was going on: he was only 39 when he was killed in 1968. We forget how young and how human they were: not supermen and superwomen, not without fault and not without error -- just human beings who understood their own worth and were brave enough to claim what they knew was theirs by right. And smart enough to know that the rightness of their cause would not by itself ensure its success, but that sheer numbers would, that you can't run a bus system if nobody rides the bus.

Depending on how you count, Mrs. Parks either had no children or millions of them. "The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement," she is often called, although she herself usually brushed that title aside. She was more interested in the movement. She knew that the movement had many fathers and many mothers, that it was in its unity that its strength and its future lay.

And in its children. Mrs. Parks feared that young people would take their freedoms for granted, would not remember what it had cost to win them. That their parents would be embarrassed to tell them how they used to live, about the colored restrooms and drinking fountains, the restaurants in which they could not eat, the car trips they planned carefully, carefully, so that there would be a colored motel to stay in, a colored gas station on the way, a place to pull over and have a picnic of food they brought themselves because there might be no place for a black person to buy any. About being cautioned never to look a white person in the eye. About yielding, always yielding, always giving place, no matter what.

White people didn't know the strength of the black community. Didn't know about its dedicated teachers, doctors, ministers, merchants and business people. Did not know about its reverence for education and civility. Did not know how self-sufficient it had been forced to become, and what that self-sufficiency would mean for the system of American apartheid that was beginning to show cracks.

But on December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat on a city bus to a white man who demanded it, they were about to find out.

Copyright © 2005 Barbara Crafton - http://www.geraniumfarm.org

This Week on the Daily Show

Monday, 10/24: Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard

Tuesday, 10/25: Al Franken, host of The Al Franken Show

Wednesday, 10/26: Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Thursday, 10/27: Janis Karpinski, Army Reserve General

New Federal Reserve Chief Nominated

Bush has picked this guy. I personally don't know a thing about him.

Leave Our Children Alone!

Bruce Kates is doing a story about high schools giving out information to military recruiters. It's scheduled for 5PM today on WOAI-TV in San Antonio, which may be inconvenient to you working folks...but it will likely be re-broadcast in some form tonight at 6 and/or 10.
Feel free to pass on to people the fact that they're broadcasting the story, and if they need more info about the recruitment issue, there's plenty at this website.

If you have any friends associated with peace groups or any group that you think would benefit from hearing about this, please pass it on.

Hutchison Flip-Flops on Importance of Perjury

Yesterday, offering a hint of the attack White House allies will launch on special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald if and when he announces any indictments, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison dismissed the possible felony indictment of perjury as a mere “technicality”

BUT......

On February 2, 1999, Hutchison stood with a bipartisan group of senators at a press conference announcing a resolution to open the Senate trial on the impeachment of President Clinton. At the time, Hutchison said it was vitally important to prosecute on perjury charges because telling the truth is the lynch pin of our criminal justice system link

What a hypocrite! I plan to call her on it, do you?

Merry Fitzmas to Us? We'll See!

I'm just giddy these days, at the prospect of seeing Karl Rove and all his buddies being indicted. It could come as early as Tuesday, so I don't know how I can wait until then to open my presents! Read the latest from Reuters.

Wouldn't You Love to Sneak a Peek at these Papers?

"Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) today introduced a Resolution of
Inquiry to demand the White House turn over all white papers, minutes,
notes, emails or other communications kept by the White House Iraq
Group (WHIG).

'This group, comprised of the President and Vice President's top aides,
was critical in selling the Administration's case for war,' stated
Kucinich. 'We now know that the Administration hyped intelligence and
misled the American public and Congress in their effort to 'sell' the war.
After over 1,900 American troops have been killed in Iraq, it is long
past time for this Congress to ask serious questions about WHIG and its
role in the lead up to the war.'

A Resolution of Inquiry is a rare House procedure used to obtain
documents from the Executive Branch. Under House rules, Kucinich's resolution
is referred to committee, and action must be taken in committee within
14 legislative days." --press release from Kucinich's office, Friday

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Take a gander at this video. Jackie promises that it's hilarious!

Harriet Miers--Human Albatross

According to this article hating Harry is really just a good excuse for Repubs to lash out at their increasingly unpopular president.

A Delightful Dinner

This year's Eleanor Roosevelt Dinner was a splendid event! The crowd was large, the food was great, and the speaker inspired us to look for a more noble person to go to the White House. I'm not sure how many people came, but the room was pretty much filled to capacity, with guests ranging in age from 8 to 90. Kudos to Stu Adamslundy, who headed a kitchen crew that created a delicious dining experience, and a big hand for Jan Jarboe Russell, who told a great Ann Richards joke. The silent auction had loads of political memorabilia, as well as some unusual products, such as the bizarre candles we ended up taking home with us! It was all for a good cause, though, and surely raised lots of money for the KCADW.

If you missed the fun this year, don't worry, there's always next time! We'll keep you posted.


Jan Jarboe Russell posing with KCADW member Carol Carpenter.


Jan Jarboe Russell chats with young Dem, Cyra Dumitru.

On the Road Again

"November in Crawford, Texas, Spend Thanksgiving with Cindy Sheehan outside George Bush’s Ranch

For those who made it to Crawford during the historic 26-day vigil in August, it was an experience of a life-time. Now you’ll have another chance to join Cindy Sheehan and other military families and veterans as they once again camp on the doorstep of George Bush’s ranch, demanding that he bring our troops home from Iraq. Please check back frequently for more updated information on this trip." --from Code Pink

The Eleanor Roosevelt Dinner...it's TONIGHT!

Don't forget to remember to not forget the Eleanor Roosevelt dinner tonight. There will be excellent food and drink, as well as the smartest, most interesting people in Kendall County. Don't consider yourself smart or interesting? I beg to disagree. If you're coming to the dinner, that means you're both!

Proceeds will benefit the Kendall County Area Democratic Women. Will there be a guest speaker? Of course: Jan Jarboe Russell, none other than Texas Monthly writer and Lady Bird Johnson's biographer (when I said smart and interesting, I wasn't exaggerating).

So leave that television behind, mute the cell phone and deal a small blow to the Republican majority: get together with Democrats and have a good time. It's tonight at six at the Boerne Community Center. Be there or be...sorry you weren't!

Inspired by Mr. Smith

I just finished watching Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. Yeah, it's Hollywood, and yeah, it's hokey as all get out, but man, I sure would like to see Democratic senators grow the cajones that Mr. Smith had! I've seen this movie before, but what struck me this time is that as much as the world of politics has changed, it's also very much the same! Graft and corruption have been partners of politicians for centuries. We need honest men and women to fight it, and start fighting for the little man again. Is there even such a thing anymore?

"Reconsideration" of the Posse Comitatus Act: Part 2

The Bush administration's incompetence in the response to Hurricane Katrina has caused Bush to consider eliminating the Posse Comitatus Act, as posted on this blog by ProgressiveGrannie on September 30, and is still making news. A very frightening essay was written in 1992 by Lt. Colonel Charles J. Dunlap, Jr. (now a brigadier general) in the Army War College journal Parameters titled The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012. The essay was written in the form of a letter to an old classmate by a retired armed forces officer who had been court-martialed for opposing the military coup of 2012, and is now known only as Prisoner 222305759.
Reading the essay reminds me of the feelings I had when reading "The Plot Against America", by Philip Roth and "It Can't happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis: pure horror.

While vacationing in California, we found that DeLay surrended to a Sheriff

We were thrilled to read about it in the local paper, the San Diego Union Tribune!
Hurrah, it's just too bad that he deprived the Democrats of well deserved footage of his arrest. By the way, we as health care professionals are giving the Governator/Gropinator the finger for his treatment of health care professionals in Calif, and his attempts at union busting.

Here is an article on DeLay:

DeLay Quietly Surrenders to a Texas Sheriff
By BILL DAWSON and CARL HULSE

Published: October 21, 2005 link

HOUSTON, Oct. 20 - Representative Tom DeLay, forced by criminal charges to step aside last month as House majority leader, was fingerprinted, photographed and released on $10,000 bond Thursday after turning himself in at the Harris County sheriff's office in downtown Houston.

Harris County Sheriff's Office, via Associated Press
The booking photo of Tom DeLay was taken soon after he surrendered Thursday in Houston.

Forum: The 109th Congress
The booking photo of Mr. DeLay, whose surrender was carefully choreographed, showed him smiling, his Congressional pin visible on his suit lapel, and did not include booking numbers that many associate with a mug shot. His allies on Capitol Hill joked that the picture was suitable for the Congressional Directory.

"I just may use that photographer for my family Christmas photo," Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay, said in Washington.

Mr. DeLay had been expected to surrender in adjacent Fort Bend County, his home. By doing so here instead, he avoided a scrum of about 25 journalists waiting outside the Fort Bend sheriff's office, many with cameras. Democrats were thus deprived of powerful videotape.

Poor Dopey, Starry-Eyed Harry!

The Senators aren't real impressed.

A Whole New Plame Blame Game!

As they say, there is no honor among lying, stinking thieves.

Here're the folks who brought adult behavior back to the White House!

Go here to see babies in action!

Bull Session in Boerne Tonight

Hear ye, Hear ye:

Are you mad as hell and don't wanto take it anymore? So are we! So we're getting together tonight for a Democratic bull session at El Matador in Boerne. Get it? bull session at El Matador?. (El Matador is the old Magaritas, and yes they still serve margaritas. Good ones).

This is the monthly informal Kendall County Democratic dinner where we just talk about what's on our minds, stuff ourselves silly, and speculate over which administration buffoon will be indicted first. If you'd like to eat great food, drink to nearly--but not quite--excess, and talk with the smartest, most interesting folks in Kendall County, come to El Matador tonight at 7PM. Tie is not optional--it's not even allowed! Bring your opinion, your sense of humor and your hunger.

O'Reilly's on the Daily Show Tonight!

Should be very interesting...no love lost between those two. O'Reilly's got him beat in the height department, but I think Jon Stewart's kept a few more of his brain cells. Comedy Central @10 o'clock here.

If you're reading this at 10:30, stop reading! Go back to your TV and turn on The Colbert Report. Stephen Colbert is a fictional Bill O'Reilly type, suspicious of book learning and intellectuals. A very funny program...

Darth Vadar Himself is now a Target

Man, maybe we can get rid of the whole White House by the time this is over!

Just In: From the HuffingtonPost

BREAKING: Barber Cancels Ed Schultz’s Debut on Armed Forces Radio
Armed Forces Radio (AFR) is a station that is broadcast to American troops overseas through “over 1,000 outlets in more than 175 countries.” It currently features an hour of programming from right-wing host Rush Limbaugh. There is no comparable progressive program.

Today, that was supposed change. Ed Schultz – the most popular progressive radio show in the country — was supposed to start broadcasting on Armed Forces radio. Jones Radio, the company that syndicates the Ed Shultz show, received an email on September 29 from an Armed Forces Radio official confirming that one hour of the Ed Schultz show would begin airing today, October 17.

But morning this at 6AM, the producer of the Ed Schultz show, James Holm, received a call from Pentagon communications aide Allison Barber. She told Holm that she was calling so early to let Schultz know his show would not begin airing on AFR today. You’ll remember Barber as the aide caught coaching troops before a photo-op with President Bush last week.

Barber told Holm that the Ed Schultz show would not start on AFR today because her boss, Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita, was out of the country and couldn’t approve it. Barber also said she was going out of the country soon for a week-and-a-half. Holm asked Barber if the show would begin when DiRita and Barber returned. Barber said she couldn’t guarantee that.

Here’s the really interesting part. Barber told Holm she heard Ed announced that he would begin on AFR during his show Friday. Schultz’s show Friday began with audio outtakes of Barber sounding foolish as she rehearsed the troops “Q&A session” with Bush.

Filed under: Media, Ethics
Posted by Judd at 1:50 pm

This Week on the Daily Show

Monday, 10/17: Dolly Parton, country music artist

Tuesday, 10/18: Bill O'Reilly, host, "The O'Reilly Factor"

Wednesday, 10/19: Louis Freeh, former FBI director

Thursay, 10/20: The Rock, actor "Doom"

And don't forget "The Colbert Report" (or as those in the know say, the 'coal-bear ray-poor'), which follows TDS at 10:30 on Comedy Central. Steve's guest tonight is Stone Phillips of NBC.

March to Drive Out the Bush Regime, Nov. 2 in SA

Join others across the nation in saying "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!"

Code Pink is sponsoring a march to Drive out the Bush Regime on Nov. 2.

In San Antonio:
4 PM at Travis Park, 301 E. Travis; 5:30 PM, Rally at Milam Park sanantonio@worldcantwait.org, 210-733-8666

Sign the Petition

Tom DeLay is a Shameless, Shameless Man

Here's Tommy Boy's latest strategy. Lord forbid he just prove his innocence. Snicker snicker.

The Bad Old Days

Three Good Reasons Not To Join The Military, is an anti-recruiting pamphlet written by Tariq Khan, a junior at George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia. He is a 4 year veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a Pakistani-American who was born in the United States.
On September 29, Khan was put in a chokehold and arrested and threatened with criminal charges for protesting a Marine recruiter on campus and holding a sign saying "Recruiters lie. Don't be deceived". The same week that this happened there were other protests at other universities, but it is the community college student protesters who will suffer the most, because they are generally less affluent than those at 4 year schools and will be better targets for the recruiters.
It's beginning to look like the bad old days are back.

Eleanor Roosevelt Dinner

The Kendall County Area Democratic Women invite you to the:

Seventh Annual
Eleanor Roosevelt Dinner

Saturday, October 22, at 6pm

Boerne Community Center

Suggested donation per person is $35.00

We will also be holding a silent auction.



Our special guest speaker is journalist and biographer Jan Jarboe Russell. You may recall that she wrote Lady Bird: A Biography of Mrs. Johnson. Russell is currently a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly magazine, and she lives in San Antonio with her husband and two children.


For reservations please call LaVerne Peterson at 830-249-8161 or Sarah White at 830-755-8794.

The death knell of the middle class

"The next shoe to drop will be the report of the Bush Advisory Commission on Tax Reform. The commission is scheduled to deliver its recommendations on November 1. We may have gotten a sneak peek in the past few days, as commission members have floated a few trial balloons. The chief option put forward is to eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), which would be a tax cut for relatively wealthy, and to replace the cut revenue by reducing or eliminating deductions for health insurance, home mortgage interest and state and local income tax." full article

This is the continuation of the Republican party's genocide of the middle class. Bush adds to it by saying he will quarantine cities for avian flu (although IMHO wouldn't it be better to plan for Tamiflu stockpiles, and medical treatment?). Well, you figure it....46% of us have no health insurance, so no access to medical care anyway, then you quarantine the rest of us, with no access to medical care, and poof! you can kill off a bunch of the middle class and poor with the flu. If that isn't enough, add to it the cold weather and a 50% increase in the cost of heating oil and natural gas, and plenty of poor and middle class and the elderly will freeze to death, thus eliminating more of those pesky folks. Oh, don't forget taxing the few of those who still have medical insurance, on their insurance, and it will make it too costly for them to carry insurance, and businesses will have an excuse to drop coverage for their employees. And don't forget that new bankruptcy bill....if you get sick, with perhaps the avian flu, and require expensive medical care, well you can't declare bankruptcy if your expenses are too much to bear. Therefore you will be stuck paying back every creditor, while being unable to afford food, housing or further medical care. Then there is also that dirty little secret...if you need surgery or a procedure of any kind, you have to put money down on the procedure BEFORE they will perform it. So, if you can't afford it, too bad for you.

Now, does this sound like the country you grew up in? Does this sound like America? Hardly. It sounds more like a third world country where only the rich can afford anything, where there is no middle class and the poor are treated with contempt.

Don't forget history has a lesson for us: In Bonn, Gottingen, Heidelberg, Munich, and other cities throughout Germany, Nazi youth performed similar ceremonies, mostly aimed at "cleansing" public, church, and other types of community lending libraries of books and journals thought to be "un-German." By the end of July 1933, Hitler was in complete control of the government, and the Nazis were the only legal political party in Germany. They had created the first concentration camps, restricted the freedoms of speech and of the press, enforced boycotts of Jewish-owned businesses, and had begun a sterilization campaign of citizens the new government considered genetically undesirable. Read more at this website, When Books Burn

Suggested reading: 1984 by George Orwell; The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Stop What You're Doing...

Please. Go to www.crooksandliars.com, then page down 'til you see Keith Olbermann. Then click on the video link of your choice.

The story he lays out, with great clarity, details the juxtaposition of bad news for the Bush administration, with the upping of securit threats by the Homeland Security Department. He lays out a very compelling case that the department has been used to politicize American safety issues.

After you've picked yourself up off the floor, send the link to your conservative friends and see if they have the nerve to watch it.

Cheney and Bush not so chummy anymore?

Read this article about their crumbling relationship.

Puffy McMoon Face Takes It On the Chin--Again!

Poor Scott McClellan. You have to feel sorry for the little fella. When defending Harriet today, he didn't have a prayer!

Bush hammers like a girlie man

To get maximum use of a hammer you don't 'choke up' toward the head of the hammer, if you do you have less leverage and it takes a lot more effort to hammer in a nail.
I may not be President, but I sure do know how to swing a hammer!

F is for Freddie

We needed to find something for the letter F, that was tonight's homework. Freddie (the dog) suited the bill. After all, he is Freddie From Fredericksburg!

A Snake Oil President
Timothy Karr
October 11, 2005

...in its zeal to promote sales of the Bush brand, this administration has crossed the line that separates honest brokers from snake oil salesmen.

Bush and company sold Americans defective goods in clear violation of federal law. Yet Attorney General Alberto Gonzales hasn’t budged. Instead, the man charged with enforcing our laws has tasked his army of lawyers to throw a legal shield around the White House, telling the administration to ignore investigations by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which repeatedly has blasted Team Bush for using taxpayer money to fund “covert propaganda.”

In its latest report, issued on Sept. 30, the GAO’s federal auditors scolded the White House for squandering American tax dollars to hire fake news reporters and unleash a pre-packaged new blitz in advance of the 2004 elections. The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 forbids the domestic dissemination of government-authored propaganda or "official news" deliberately designed to influence public opinion or policy. The law singles out materials that serve "a solely partisan purpose." The GAO has now found on at least four separate occasions that administration agencies violated this and other federal restrictions when they disseminated news written by the government or its contractors without disclosing the conflict of interest.

Justice says that all the government’s publicity is legal, because they have been fact-based...since the legal prohibition on propaganda does not apply to government-made television news segments that are "factual, politically neutral and useful to viewers." The GAO’s most recent investigation correctly shot down that sophistry, saying that pre-packaged government news is inherently false because "the essential fact of attribution is missing."

The ball is now back in Gonzales’ court. But if Bush’s sagging approval rating is any guide, Americans are no longer buying.
link

Bush's Fantasy Foreign Policy
Rami G. Khouri
October 11, 2005
Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune.

I heard then read President George Bush's speech on the war on terror last Thursday while my wife and I enjoyed a wonderful two-day, two-night train journey across most of the United States, from Chicago to San Francisco. But I only fully grasped the meaning of Bush's "global war on terror" when I arrived here and had a useful discussion with one of my sons on the fantasy football league that he and my other son in Beirut are deeply engaged in.

For readers who may not follow these things closely, fantasy football is a virtual world over the Internet in which individuals create their own teams by choosing real players from the existing rosters of the National Football League. Every week the performances of the real players are tallied to give the fantasy team a score, and the fantasy team with the highest score at the end of the season wins. The exciting week-to-week interaction between the actual and imagined worlds makes it hard to separate fantasy from realityŠ which brings me back to George Bush's speech and policy on terrorism.

My conclusion after this rich week of travel and conversation is that sensible middle class Americans get on with the hard work of making a living in challenging times, while their federal government in Washington conducts a fantasy foreign policy based more on make-believe perceptions and imagined realities. The latest public opinion poll figures here bear this out, showing that about one-third of Americans approve of Bush's handling of the Iraq war, while nearly two-thirds disapprove -- a sharp reversal of the situation two years ago.

The long train ride through the American heartland was an opportunity to visually see the varied beauty of this land and the socio-economic variety of its inhabitants, and to engage a small sample of ordinary Americans about the problem of terrorism and how they relate to it in their everyday lives. The Americans I spoke to -- a computer engineer from Denver, a train service employee from Chicago, a retired professor from Omaha, a seminary student from South Carolina, a young university engineering graduate from Alabama, among others -- expressed lingering anger about 9/11 and concern about a future attack. They also seemed perplexed about two important points: why this terror threat remains so vivid, and why so many people around the world criticize the United States.

I sensed a great disconnect in America today between the sentiments and perceptions of ordinary citizens and the rhetoric and foreign policies of their federal government, articulated again last week by Bush's cosmic speech about fighting the new global threat of Islamist jihadi terrorism. Bush and his ideological warhorses in Washington want to take this fight to the enemy in Iraq and elsewhere and keep fighting until freedom prevails everywhere. Ordinary Americans would settle for a more effective, productive policy that makes them feel safer at home and less opposed around the world. Bush's speech at the National Endowment for Democracy last week reaffirmed to me that Washington's policy to fight terrorism is a mishmash of faulty analysis, historical confusions, emotional anger, foreign policy frustrations, worldly ignorance, and political deception, all rolled into one. The fundamental flaw is that Bush confuses and conflates a range of separate issues that have very different causes and consequences. As a result, he formulates an ineffective or even counter-productive strategy on the basis of distorted analysis and a wrong reading of the symptoms and causes or terror.


He sees the Islamist jihadi movement of Osama Bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi as a global totalitarian threat in the same tradition as Communism and fascism, and sees all acts of terror, against American, Arab, European or Asian targets, as emanating from a single, common inspiration. This is nonsense taken to peculiarly Texan heights of intellectual contortion and confusion.


He completely ignores the impact of American, Israeli and other foreign policies on the mindsets of hundreds of millions of people in the Arab-Asian region, whose degraded political and economic environment eventually spawns the desperate and futile criminality of terrorism. This is willful political blindness that makes the analytical basis of American foreign policy a laughing stock around the world.

He correctly notes that more democratic, prosperous and free societies in the Arab-Asian region would spawn fewer terrorists, but he refuses to acknowledge that America's war-making, military-based approach to promoting democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq is more feared than admired in our troubled region, and creates more resistance to, than embrace of, America's rhetoric and policies.

He wildly exaggerates the capacity of Bin Laden-style jihadi terrorists to achieve their goals, which he correctly identifies as ejecting the U.S. and other foreign armies from the region, toppling Western-supported Arab regimes, and imposing their vision of Islamic rule. He also grossly misdiagnoses the relationship between the jihadi terrorists and regimes such as Syria and Iran, both of which have established records of political enmity and warfare against such Islamist movements.

Bush keeps making the same speech about fighting terror and promoting freedom around the world month after month, but with progressively less credibility with his own citizenry on every occasion. The cautious, sensible wisdom of ordinary Americans is challenging the emotional zealotry and reckless global militarism of the Bush foreign policy team. This is because Bush's policies have proved less effective than the rousing rhetoric of his speeches, and after a while Americans prefer genuine security to perpetual warfare, and reality to fantasy.

This was so good I had to post the entire article.

The Colbert Report

I love this guy! If you watch the Daily Show you'll need to watch this new show with correspondent Stephen Colbert, who has now been promoted to pompous anchor!

Obituary of a Good Democrat

Theodore Roosevelt Heller, 88, loving father of Charles (Joann) Heller; dear brother of the late Sonya (the late Jack) Steinberg. Ted was discharged from the U.S. Army during WWII due to service related injuries, and then forced his way back into the Illinois National Guard insisting no one tells him when to serve his country. Graveside services Tuesday 11 a.m. at Waldheim Jewish Cemetery (Ziditshover section), 1700 S. Harlem Ave., Chicago. In lieu of flowers, please send acerbic letters to Republicans. Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals, Douglas MacIsaac, funeral director 847-229-8822, www.cjfinfo.com.
Published in the Chicago Tribune on 10/10/2005.

This Week on the Daily Show

All shows this week are repeats:

Monday, 10/10: Viggo Mortensen, actor, A History of Violence

Tuesday, 10/11: Jeff Garlin, actor, Curb Your Enthusiasm

Wednesday, 10/12: Dr. Erwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness

Thursday, 10/13: George Clooney, director of Good Night, and Good Luck

na na na na

Randi Rhodes is speaking and the conservative, Janet Parshall, can't listen to the truth!
listen to this craziness!

Death toll rises for U.S. military reservists as their role grows in Iraq

by Robert Burns
By Robert Burns
ASSOCIATED PRESS

11:00 a.m. October 10, 2005

WASHINGTON – The National Guard and Reserves are suffering a strikingly higher share of U.S. casualties in Iraq, their portion of total American military deaths nearly doubling since last year.
Reservists have accounted for one-quarter of all U.S. deaths since the Iraq war began, but the proportion has grown over time. It was 10 percent for the five weeks it took to topple Baghdad in the spring of 2003, and 20 percent for 2004 as a whole.

The trend accelerated this year. For the first nine months of 2005 reservists accounted for 36 percent of U.S. deaths, and for August and September it was 56 percent, according to Pentagon figures.

Mier's helped cover up Bush's National Guard duty or lack thereof

While Miers was chairwoman of the commission, the former executive director filed suit, claiming that he was fired to ensure that allegations were not made public that then-Gov. Bush had gained acceptance into the Texas Air National Guard in 1968 as a result of political favors. At roughly the same time -- and also during her tenure as chairwoman -- Miers was paid by Bush's re-election campaign to investigate Bush's Guard record in order to deflect allegations that Bush received preferential treatment.
Of course the whole story is available at Media Matters

A Delusional Story for 30% of America--A Joke for the Rest of Us!

This is now going around the Internet. Is this not the most pathetic thing you've ever seen???!!! This comes on the heels of a president whose approval ratings are in the toilet.

Don't close your blinds

Don't close your blinds . . . . . and email a friend sent (this IS a forward)

The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war...My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our Country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation. My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window.

He said "Son, stand there and tell me what you see?"

"I see trees and cars and our neighbor's houses." he replied.

"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are President Bush."

Our son giggled and said "OK."

"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country" my husband said.

"OK Dad, I'm pretending."

"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and pretend you see Saddam coming out of his house with his wife, he has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are screaming and crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and they are afraid of their father. You see all of this, son....what do you do?"

"Dad?"

"What do you do son?"

"I'd call the police, Dad."

"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations. They take your call. They listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do then son?"

"Dad.......... but the police are supposed to help!" My son starts to whine.


"They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or your place to get involved and that you should stay out of it," my husband says.

"But Dad...he killed her!!" my son exclaims.

"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children."

"Daddy...he kills them?"


"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"

"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door neighbor to help me stop him." our son says.

"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him," my husband says.

"But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can't stop him by myself!!"

"WHAT DO YOU DO SON?" Our son starts to cry.

"OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?"

"What Daddy?"

"He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and then..he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in the window and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?"

"Daddy..."

"WHAT DO YOU DO?" Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I'd close the blinds, Daddy."

My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him. "Why?"

"Because Daddy.....the police are supposed to help people who needs them...and they won't help.... You always say that neighbors are supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either...they won't help me stop him...I'm afraid....I can't do it by myself Daddy.....I can't look out my window and just watch him do all these terrible things and...and.....do nothing...so....I'm just going to close the blinds.... so I can't see what he's doing........and I'm going to pretend that it is not happening."

I start to cry My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husband's questions and he says...

"Son"

"Yes, Daddy."

"Open the blinds because that man.... he's at your front door... "WHAT DO YOU DO?"

My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he says: "I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD!! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR MY SISTER, DAD!!! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!!!!!"

I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs our son to his chest and hugs him tight, and says... "It's too late to fight him, he's too strong and he's already at YOUR front door son.....you should have stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife, and his children and the old lady across the way. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone, before its too late." my husband whispers. THAT scenario I just gave you is WHY we are at war with Iraq. When good men stand by and let evil happen son, THAT is the greatest atrocities in the world won't affect him. "YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!" BE PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! BE PROUD OF OUR TROOPS!! SUPPORT THEM!!! SUPPORT AMERICA SO THAT IN THE FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL NEVER HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS..."

This should be printed in every newspaper and posted in every school in America. Of course that won't happen so we'll use the internet. If your blinds are closed do nothing with this email. If they are open I do not need to tell you what to do.

Wal-Mart Rats on Anti-Bush H.S. Student

The Secret Service was called in to investigate a photograph that a Wal-Mart employee found offensive. Selina Jarvis, chair of the social studies department at Currituck County High School in North Carolina, had assigned a project to senior class students using photos to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights. One of her bright young class members cut out a picture of our president, tacked it to a wall with a red thumbtack in his forehead, photographed his own thumb pointing down next to it, then took the film to Wal-Mart to be developed. An employee of the photo department called the police and they called the Secret Service. Read the whole story here.

Friday Night Critter Blogging

Howard and Speck deep in thought over the Plame investigation...
hopeful that Fitzgerald isn't pussyfootin' around!

Bush avian flu plan "madness"

Dr. Irwin Redlener, associate dean of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and director of its National Center for Disaster Preparedness, told The Associated Press the president's suggestion was dangerous.

Giving the military a law enforcement role would be an "extraordinarily Draconian measure" that would be unnecessary if the nation had built the capability for rapid vaccine production, ensured a large supply of anti-virals like Tamiflu and not allowed the degradation of the public health system.

"The translation of this is martial law in the United States," Redlener said.
Read on the dailykos.com.

Assisted-reproduction bill would bar singles, gays

"An interim legislative committee is considering a bill that would prohibit gays, lesbians and single people in Indiana from using medical science to assist them in having a child. [sponsor: Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis]

The bill defines assisted reproduction as causing pregnancy by means other than sexual intercourse, including intrauterine insemination, donation of an egg, donation of an embryo, in vitro fertilization and transfer of an embryo, and sperm injection. It would require "intended parents" to be married to each other and says a single person may not be an intended parent." They would have to undergo screening in order to get the required gestation certificate before the assisted reproductive procedure could be performed. Anyone attempting to have or performing assistive reproductive procedures would be subject to arrest, a fine and imprisonment. The required information includes the fertility history of the parents, education and employment information, personality descriptions, verification of marital status, child-care plans and criminal history checks. A description of the family lifestyle of the intended parents also would be required, including participation in faith-based or church activities.

boingboing says it best:

If the Virgin Mary had been born 2000 years later, she might have ended up in an Indiana State prison, if Republican lawmakers there get their way. A proposed bill hopes to make criminals out of unmarried women in Indiana who conceive "by means other than sexual intercourse."
Peter Svensson says: "Under the proposed Indiana law, if [Mary] willingly accepted the Holy Spirit's visitation, that would be a misdemeanor:

As it the draft of the new law reads now, an intended parent 'who knowingly or willingly participates in an artificial reproduction procedure' without court approval, 'commits unauthorized reproduction, a Class B misdemeanor.' The criminal charges will be the same for physicians who commit 'unauthorized practice of artificial reproduction.'
"Presumably, if the Holy Spirit didn't give her a choice in the matter, she would have been let off. But in either case, the Holy Spirit would be charged."

Subversive influence of money in politics

"Theodore Roosevelt warned a century ago of the subversive influence of money in politics. He said the central fact in his time was that big business had become so dominant it would chew up democracy and spit it out. The power of corporations, he said, had to be balanced with the interest of the general public. That warning was echoed by his cousin Franklin, who said a “government by organized money is as much to be feared as a government by organized mob.” Both Roosevelts rose to that challenge in their day. But 100 years later mighty corporations are once again the undisputed overlords of government."
Bill Moyers again speaks the truth loud and clear!

Southwest boots woman because of her politically charged T-shirt.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Lorrie Heasley, of Woodland, Wash., was asked to leave her flight from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore., Tuesday for wearing a T-shirt with pictures of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a phrase similar to the popular film title "Meet the Fockers."

Hmmmm....what shall I wear on my upcoming flight on Southwest? It's not like I have a shortage of politically charged T-shirts!

How Low Can You Go!

These are the latest poll numbers.

uhm, yeah...

"LONDON (AFP) - US
President George W. Bush allegedly said God told him to invade
Iraq and
Afghanistan, a new BBC documentary will reveal, according to details.


Bush made the claim when he met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and then foreign minister Nabil Shaath in June 2003, the ministers told the documentary series to be broadcast in Britain later this month.

The US leader also told them he had been ordered by God to create a Palestinian state, the ministers said."

Are We Really Surprised at the Hypocrisy?

This is about the Supreme Court case involving assisted suicide. It's a VERY interesting case.

Interpreting Harriet Miers
Robert Reich
October 06, 2005

Excerpts:

Before 1937, a majority of justices, saying they were "strictly interpreting" the Constitution, struck down as unconstitutional laws setting minimum wages and maximum hours, and barring child labor.

The economic values of those justices favored private property over community standards of fair play. To them, due process of law was mostly about freedom to contract and liberty was the ability to accumulate personal wealth.

Then, early in 1937, one of those justice switched sides (coincidentally, his last name was Roberts) and the court’s new majority chose community over property. They said they were still strictly interpreting the Constitution. But suddenly, due process was about making laws fairly, and liberty was about giving people opportunities to get ahead.

We no longer have a Great Depression to contend with, as we did then. But we’ve still got big questions of economic values. The U.S. economy has been growing at a healthy clip. But the typical household’s income has barely budged for years. Meanwhile, the number of poor Americans continues to grow. According to the Census Bureau, only the top 5 percent of households have been enjoying real economic gains. Almost all the economic growth has gone to the top.

This raises profound questions about American values. Not since the Gilded Age of the 1890s has this nation experienced anything like the inequality of income, wealth and opportunity we’re now witnessing.

Should we try to reverse this trend? Does the Constitution require that we provide all our citizens with an equal opportunity to get ahead? Is the widening gap evidence we’re failing at this?

If you see our society as a group of individuals for whom government exists mainly to protect property, you’d probably answer these questions with a "no." If you see America as a national community whose citizens have responsibilities for the well-being of one another, you’d say "yes."

source

I say YES! We have a responsibility for the well being of each other. Guess some of these right wingers should review the words of Jesus.

Here is the lesson right from the pages of the CBN: (Why don't these folks practice what they preach?).

"While Jesus was teaching he admonished an expert in knowing God’s law to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. `Look after him,' he said, `and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

Then Jesus asked, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."

Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." (Luke 10:30-37 NIV)"

Quarantined by the military?

WASHINGTON CNN -- "President Bush says the possibility of an avian flu pandemic is among the reasons he wants Congress to give him the power to use the nation's military in law enforcement roles in the United States.

"I'm concerned about what an avian flu outbreak could mean for the United States and the world," he told reporters during a Rose Garden news conference on Tuesday.

Such an event would raise difficult questions, such as how a quarantine might be enforced, he said."

Ok, this is pretty frightening. There is no mention of how hospital care, antibiotics and/or other supportive care would be implemented. What is he planning to do, quarantine an entire town, leaving those who can afford medical care and medications to get what they can, and leaving the poor to die? Will they just deport folks to "flu camps'? Will martial law be far behind? The Bush administration is more and more fascist all the time, and it's scary.

Snopes.com says this is actually real

How cool is this, it's not faked, it actually happened!

screw the poor in the gulf states some more...

Post-Katrina easing of labor laws stirs debate

Foreign workers may form a big part of Gulf Coast reconstruction.

read it here

This Week on the Daily Show

Monday, 10/3: David Rakoff, author of "Don't Get Too Comfortable"

Tuesday, 10/4: Cameron Diaz, actor, In Her Shoes

Wednesday, 10/5: Senator John Edwards, former senator D-NC

Thursday, 10/6: TBD

New Money Laundering Indictment against DeLay

A new grand jury just handed this down.

Congress and Katrina...one more blow to the victims

What perfect timing: the bankruptcy law set to go into effect Oct. 17 is arriving just in time to inflict more pain on Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas residents who have been hit by the gulf hurricanes. They lost their homes, businesses and even loved ones and now may face financial ruin without the protection of bankruptcy. for more

It amazes me how little play the screwing of Katrina victims makes the news. Since you can't show this in pictures, I guess it's not newsworthy. What a sick society, and a namby pamby media!

Conservatives jumping off the cliff over Miers nomination

Conservatives jumping off the cliff over Miers nomination

A round up from crooksandliars

It seems like another crony nomination to me. Keeping it in the family. A little "Clemenza" action. Ezra Klein has some of the reactions from the right wingers. Here's an example:

"ConfirmThem.com: Harriet Miers? Are you freakin’ kidding me?! Oh, and if any of you RNC staffers are reading, you can take my name off the mailing list. I am not giving the national Republican Party another dime."

Atrios:J-Pod Said All That Needs to be Said/Armando: Leap of Faith/ AmericaBlog: Conserv. Bloggers not happy/Think Progress-Right-Wing Peanut Gallery Hits Miers Hard/Michelle Malkin: UTTERLY UNDERWHELMED/ Ben Winkler: David Frum just deleted his post/ John Cole: I Don't Get it/ Hugh Hewitt wants them to trust the President/Booman Tribune: A "Pitbull in Size 6 Shoes"

No word from God's Own Circus yet...(send me anything from the Circus Clowns)

Rooney's 2 cents on the billions spent!

Rooney does a great job putting the Iraq War into perspective.

Conason Rips the Cat Killer cum Stock Trader

Read Joe Conason's latest column.

Biking for America

I'm seriously pondering this option!

A Fake Bad Guy warns us about the Real Bad Guy

Donald Sutherland has some pretty harsh words for dear old Prince George.

Blecch!!! Ptooey!!

I was very impressed with Giuliani's behavior after 9/11, but I've heard lots of stories that have dampened my fervor.

Judy, Judy, Judy

What an odd saga.

What an Arrogant SOB!

DeLay will be the Rove of the House of Representatives.

Late Saturday Night Critter Blogging

Little Specky says phooey to all those Republican criminals! Hey DeLay and Frist, I'm tawkin' to youse.