Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...injustice

OK, it's been said before, by people smarter than me, but COME ON...Black Sabbath needs to be in the RR HofF. If you're going to put Fleetwood Mac in there and these assorted 60's teeny bopper bands in there, Sabbath needs the nod.

Zeppelin gets credit for "inventing" metal all the time, and I am a huge Zep fan. When I was a kid there were 4 bands and everything else was crap. Zeppelin, Beatles, Stones and the Who and Zeppelin was my favorite. THAT said, Sabbath was more "metal".

Try to imagine, if possible, it's 1970 and you listen to Black Sabbath's first album...oh my God you were scared. There was nothing like that before them. Without Sabbath there is no Metallica, no Megadeth, no Anthrax, Slayer, etc, etc, etc.

For inventing what we've come to know as Metal...the class of 2006 should include Black Sabbath.

Tom DeLay...Criminal?...hypocrite and supporter of brutal regimes for SURE...here is the PHOTO evidence

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1054968,00.html?cnn=yes

CAN the GOP types go ONE freakin day without proving your hypocrisy?

More Hypocrisy

I was reading in BusinessWeek (and I can't access link w/o subscription...sorry) about how the Dems are going to try to apply the Schiavo Law to everyone. Their reasoning, if Schiavo has the Constitutional Right to State funded health care....EVERYONE else does too.

Most believe the law would be ruled Unconstitutional, but it's an interesting move by the Dems.

The sad part is that why Jeb Bush tried to move heaven and earth to involve himself in the Schiavo case, Bush has proposed a Hard Cap on what the state pays to keep someone alive. So, I guess you only get Jebs attention, if you can help him and his brother politically.

From the Right...why Private Accounts are bad

Read this in BusinessWeek (that liberal rag).

ANother critique of the split in the GOP

Garrett Epps, a Professor at University of Oregon Law School writes

American conservatism has not one but two hearts: one is libertarian, the
other authoritarian. One heart proclaims "government must not make me live like
others;" the other insists "government should make others live like me." The
first heart beats in old-style conservatives such as Danforth and John McCain;
the second burns within figures such as John Ashcroft and Antonin Scalia.
Conservatives have all the power

I gave the SCLM a week on this one...Freedom on the March...just seen leaving Pakistan

Apparently, our good friends (and nuclear secret selling) friends in Pakistan didn’t get the memo about Freedom being on the march.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/04/16/pakistan.zardari.update/

ON the other hand, this might give Tom DeLay some ideas on how to impose his theocracy on the whole of America.

Tom DeLay...stuck in the 1950s

“Absolutely. We’ve got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon
international law, not the Constitution of the United States? That’s just
outrageous,” DeLay told Fox News Radio. “And not only that, but he said in
session that he does his own research on the Internet? That is just incredibly
outrageous

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7550959/

1- I’m not sure how a former bug exterminator would know what the Supreme Court uses to make it’s decisions. And his recent and proven lack of basic understanding of the Constitution makes this assertion all the more laughable.

2- The second comment about the Internet…are you freaking kidding me? It’s not like he’s read Ann Coulter’s blog to make his decisions. Just because DeLay is still scared of the computer in his office doesn’t me the rest of the world should live in the 19th century.

How does this guy get a job bagging groceries, let alone US COngressman (I used to bag groceries, so I can say that)

Isn't that Convenient?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7579782/

Say something stupid (actually I had not heard it and probably believe Arnie on this) and then just blame it on poor English skills.

It’s what the Bushies have been doing for years, saying they misspoke, but they don’t really have the excuse of being born in non-English speaking countries.

I could see this: Bush: “I never really meant to say “Weapons of Mass Destruction”, I misspoke. I’m from Texas and Connecticut and Washington and Maine, and sometimes I get confused with words. “

I’m sure Rove has made note.

Good thing we Federalized this...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/19/tsa.waste/index.html


remember all that money we were going to save by the Union Busting and Centralizing the bureaucracy?



But then again, this is how Bushie run businesses (Enron, et al) so maybe we should have expected this…Oh yeah, I did.

Catching up on old news

You can't make this stuff up.

U.S. eliminates annual terrorism report

By Jonathan S. Landay

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered.

Can the GOP tell the truth about anything? Can they be unhypocritical?

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5364574.html

And some tidbits the Conservative Media Cabal doesn’t report. (Conservative Media Cabal = everything but Air America)


To end debate in the Senate and force a vote requires a successful motion for "cloture," which takes 60 yeas to pass. From the first days of the Senate, the principle of unlimited debate was the hallmark that set it apart from the House. Until 1917, Senate rules allowed no cloture of any kind on any issue.

And some more FACTS

In 1996, the Senate confirmed three of President Bill Clinton's nominees in January, but then Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott refused to schedule further votes. By June, 41 of Clinton's nominees were awaiting Senate floor action.

Money quote

Here's the question: Why was it appropriate for a single, powerful majority party senator (whether Lott or Hatch) to deny senators the right to vote yes or no on a nominee, but it is inappropriate for 41 senators in the minority to prevail in an actual up-or-down vote to reject a nominee?

Freedom on March...just seen leaving Pakistan.

Apparently, our good friends (and nuclear secret selling) friends in Pakistan didn’t get the memo about Freedom being on the march.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/04/16/pakistan.zardari.update/

ON the other hand, this might give Tom DeLay some ideas on how to impose his theocracy on the whole of America.

NYT on DeLay

Maybe they read my post from last night...see the last line.

Repulbicans need to take the GOP back from the Theocrats

Atrios has some excellent posts from religous and political leaders on the GOP's "if you're not with us you hate God" strategy of late.

Seriously, I know lots of Republicans and some that are just traditional Conservatives (make sure you don't confuse the two because these two groups have little in common with each other these days and ALMOST NOTHING in coming with the Bushies), and they don't buy this religious crap. They may like Bush, but it's more because they dislike Democrats out of habit. They no more what a Theocracy from Santorum/Frist/DeLay than they want their taxes to go up.

it's time the REAL CHristians in the GOP stand up and say "ENOUGH". These clowns sell their zealotry as Christianity when they are the most UNChristain people in their acts. They've forgotten most of what Jesus taught, they forget or ignore the paradigm shift that occurs in the New Testament from the Old.

Christians in the GOP need to stop this. Not liberals, not secularists, not anyone but real live Republican Christians...take your party back. And oh Yeah, remind these hypocrites mentioned above of the oath they took to uphold the Constitution (you know the document with the checks and balances?)

DeLay apologizes, but not too much

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,153401,00.html



And the Prez sees blood in the water: (Remember how Bush forget even the name of Ken Lay when he got in trouble?)

MONEY QUOTE:

DeLay backtracked as White House spokesman Scott McClellan said President Bush
considers the Texas Republican, who is battling ethics allegations, a friend,
but suggested that the majority leader is more of a business associate than a social pal.

The Poor Christian Right

Imagine if Atheists went around on Christmas handing out flyers that God is dead? This event represents exactly what the Right wants, SILENCE, yet they can’t do the Christian thing. (turn the other cheek…)

Oh, the poor poor “Christian” Right.

Bolton

OK, I hadn’t really thought of this too much until today as we all know the disdain that this WH feels for the UN. But, isn’t Bolton part of the disastrous Intelligence operation that oversaw the wrong assertions about WMD in Iraq? He was the Under Secretary, Arms Control and International Security at State, so all these reports that keep blaming the intelligence community and absolving the President would lead a real Leader to fire his sorry ass, not Promote him. AM I wrong? How about a little accountability?

Just askin’


Further:

Condi chimes in (and support yesterday’s testimony that Bolton “kisses up, and kicks down” )

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has taken issue with testimony by a former
State Department intelligence chief, Carl Ford Jr., that Bolton was a "serial
abuser" of lower-level officials who challenged his analyses of other countries'
weapons programs. "That is certainly not the John Bolton I know," she said at a
State Department news conference.

When papers in Nebraska are talking, it’s over.

Thanks to DS for this

---------------------------
Some are questioning whether DeLay has lost his political touch. DeLay helped pull Congress into the battle over Terri Schiavo, and then criticized "a judiciary run amok" and vowed that judges will "answer for their behavior."From his comments one might conclude that the judges were liberal activists taking law into their own hands. In reality, however, some of them were conservatives like Florida Appellate Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr., appointed to the bench by President George H.W. Bush, who were simply upholding the law as it is now. And polls showed that 80 percent of respondents opposed the attempt by Congress to intervene in the case.The most imperative reason the Republicans in Congress should renounce DeLay's leadership is not that he is guilty of political miscues, however. It's that his lack of respect for principles and ethics is showing. The Republicans can do much better.

A Hero to the Right?

For all the talk about how liberals hate America, how come it’s always the right wingers that do violence to Americans? I’ll bet Ann Coulter’s already got her Free Eric bumper sticker.

Remember when Hilary did this?

Remember when Hilary mentioned a vast right wing conspiracy to bring down Clinton. The GOP laughed and made fun of her, even though it turned out to be true. (Don’t believe me? Why did the US spend $40 to investigate Bill Clinton, but only $15 million on the 9/11 commission? And Read David Brock’s book).

Now, Tom is the victim…poor Tom.

Also, his continued mentioning of George Soros? Come on…”Soros” is theocrat code for Jewish.

That Delay would cry about partisan attacks is the HEIGHT of comedy. The man has been the most effective partisan attacker in Washington for the past decade. He who lives by the sword…and all that.

The other funny thing is that Democrats could be organized enough to do what Delay accuses them of. This is a party in such disarray that it lost a presidential election to a draft dodger who oversaw the worst terrorist attack in the history of the world, engaged in a war sold on lies and whose ties to big business have led us to the no-bid corruption of Halliburton and huge gifts to drug companies in the Medicare bill, cuts Veterans medical benefits and soldiers pay in a time of (unnecessary) war, and created the LARGEST Deficits in the history of the world, and so much else.

So, this same group that couldn’t defeat such an incompetent Executive, is now, 6 months later, waging a coordinated campaign to “Bring down DeLay”. That’s COM O DEE

Another man of Integrity in the Bush Administration

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7468275/

Is there anyone in a leadership position in the GOP that isn’t a criminal, liar, unethical, immoral or a hyocrite?

Boehlert in Salon

Isn’t it quite telling that someone so devoid of ethics and respect for the law is lecturing America on morality on behalf of the Theocratic wing of the GOP?

WWJD?



The roof collapses on Tom DeLay

If Tom DeLay can survive this, they'll have to change his nickname from "the Hammer" to "Houdini." This morning, the already besieged House majority leader, facing scores of allegations about unethical behavior and abuse of power, and grumbling among his nervous GOP troops, gets hit with a one-two punch, courtesy of the Washington Post and the New York Times. Their exposés only add more detail to a portrait of a politician who rarely let the rules get in the way of his own personal enrichment.
First, the Post: "A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements." It is against the law for a member of Congress to accept travel reimbursements from registered lobbyists and foreign agents.
At the time, DeLay reported that the $57,000 Moscow trip was paid for by a Beltway nonprofit outfit. "But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign," the Post reports.
This is now the third overseas trip taken by DeLay that appears to have been paid for by foreign agents. Making matters worse, the lobbyist at the center of DeLay's Moscow trip was the notorious Jack Abramoff, who is now at the center of a federal influence-peddling and corruption probe investigation.
Then there's the Times: "The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's political action and campaign committees." The paper notes the women's duties "were described in the disclosure forms as 'fund-raising fees,' 'campaign management' or 'payroll,' with no additional details about how they earned the money."
Over the last three years DeLay's wife and daughter have received, on average, monthly paychecks worth $4,000.
DeLay's political action and campaign committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, is already the target of a criminal investigation, with its executive director "indicted in Texas last year on charges of illegal fund-raising, and prosecutors there have refused to rule out the possibility of charges against Mr. DeLay in the continuing inquiry," notes the Times.
-- Eric Boehlert

More Throwing to the wolves

Are DeLay's days numbered?


Shays: DeLay Should Quit As House Leader

By LOU KESTEN Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Private GOP tensions over Tom DeLay's ethics controversy spilled
into public Sunday, as a Senate leader called on DeLay to explain his actions
and one House Republican demanded the majority leader's resignation.
"Tom's
conduct is hurting the Republican Party, is hurting this Republican majority and
it is hurting any Republican who is up for re-election," Rep. Chris Shays,
R-Conn., told The Associated Press in an interview, calling for DeLay to step
down as majority leader.
DeLay, R-Texas, who was admonished by the House
ethics committee last year, has been dogged in recent months by new reports
about his overseas travel funded by special interests, campaign payments to
family members and connections to a lobbyist who is under criminal
investigation.
A moderate Republican from Connecticut who has battled with
his party's leadership on a number of issues, Shays said efforts by the House
GOP members to change ethics rules to protect DeLay only make the party look
bad.
"My party is going to have to decide whether we are going to continue
to make excuses for Tom to the detriment of Republicans seeking election," Shays
said.
Rick Santorum, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said Sunday that
DeLay needs to explain his conduct to the public.
"I think he has to come
forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge
for themselves," Santorum told ABC's "This Week." "But from everything I've
heard, again, from the comments and responding to those, is everything he's done
was according to the law.
"Now you may not like some of the things he's
done," said Santorum, who is up for re-election next year in Pennsylvania.
"That's for the people of his district to decide, whether they want to approve
that kind of behavior or not."
DeLay's spokesman, Dan Allen, told AP that
the congressman "looks forward to the opportunity of sitting down with the
ethics committee chairman and ranking member to get the facts out and to dispel
the fiction and innuendo that's being launched at him by House Democrats and
their liberal allies."
Responding specifically to Shays' remarks later,
Allen added that DeLay's "effective leadership has helped to build and maintain
the Republican majority in the House and that's exactly why liberal groups
funded by George Soros have set their sights on him."
The majority leader
was admonished three times last year by that committee. The committee has been
in limbo since March, when its five Democrats balked at adopting
Republican-developed rules.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
said last week that the controversy was distracting DeLay from dealing with more
pressing problems before Congress.
Santorum, however, said DeLay is "very
effective in leading the House" and "to date, has not been compromised."
A
senior Democratic senator, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, had this advice for
the Republicans who control both the House and Senate: "Be careful about how
closely you embrace Mr. DeLay."
Dodd cited the new rules for the ethics
committee that House Republicans rammed through in the wake of DeLay's
difficulties. Those rules require a bipartisan vote before an investigation can
be launched. DeLay's office also helped mount a counterattack last fall against
Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., who was the ethics committee chairman when it came
down against DeLay.
"Unfortunately, in his particular case, there's a
process that he's tried to change so they could actually reach a determination
as to whether or not he's innocent or guilty of the things he's been charged
with," Dodd said. "But this is not going to go away."
DeLay "becomes the
poster child for a lot of the things the Democrats think are wrong about
Republican leadership. As long as he's there, he's going to become a pretty good
target," Dodd said on ABC.
DeLay, who took center stage in passing
legislation designed to keep alive Terri Schiavo, also has found that President
Bush and congressional colleagues are distancing themselves from his comments,
after her death, about the judges involved in her case.
"The time will come
for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," DeLay said,
raising the prospect of impeaching members of a separate and independent branch
of government. Later, he complained of "an arrogant and out of control judiciary
that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president."
Bush, declining to
endorse DeLay's comments, said Friday that he supports "an independent
judiciary." He added, "I believe in proper checks and balances."
Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said last week that the judges "handled
it in a fair and independent way," although he had hoped for a different result.
Democrats have said DeLay's remarks were tantamount to inciting violence
against judges.

GOP throwing DeLay to the wolves?

Santorum: DeLay Needs to Answer Questions

By LOU KESTEN Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The No. 3 Republican in the Senate said Sunday that
embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay needs to answer questions about his
ethics and "let the people then judge for themselves."
Sen. Rick Santorum's
comments seem to reflect the nervousness among congressional Republicans about
the fallout from the increased scrutiny into DeLay's way of doing business. One
of DeLay's GOP colleagues in the House called him an "absolute embarrassment"
and doubled DeLay would last as majority leader.
DeLay, R-Texas, has been
dogged in recent months by reports of possible ethics violations. There have
been questions about his overseas travel, campaign payments to family members
and his connections to lobbyists who are under investigation.
"I think he
has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people
then judge for themselves," said Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican
Conference.
"But from everything I've heard, again, from the comments and
responding to those, is everything he's done was according to the law," Santorum
told ABC's "This Week."
"Now you may not like some of the things he's done,"
Santorum said. "That's for the people of his district to decide, whether they
want to approve that kind of behavior or not."
DeLay's spokesman, Dan Allen,
told The Associated Press on Sunday that the congressman "looks forward to the
opportunity of sitting down with the ethics committee chairman and ranking
member to get the facts out and to dispel the fiction and innuendo that's being
launched at him by House Democrats and their liberal allies."
The majority
leader was admonished three times last year by that committee. The committee has
been in limbo since March, when its five Democrats balked at adopting
Republican-developed rules.
At a town hall meeting Saturday in Greenwich,
Conn., GOP Rep. Christopher Shays told constituents that he did not think DeLay
"is going to survive."
Shays, a moderate who has irked Republicans by
bucking party leaders on some prominent issues, described DeLay "as an absolute
embarrassment to me and to the Republican Party," according to the account
Sunday in The Advocate of Stamford.
In November, Shays protested a party
rule change that would allow DeLay to retain his leadership position even if he
was indicted in an ongoing Texas campaign finance investigation.
House
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said last week that the controversy
was distracting DeLay from dealing with more pressing problems before Congress.
Santorum, however, said DeLay is "very effective in leading the House" and
that "to date, has not been compromised."
A senior Democratic senator,
Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, had this advice for the Republicans who control
both the House and Senate: "Be careful about how closely you embrace Mr. DeLay."
Dodd cited the new rules for the ethics committee that House Republicans
rammed through in the wake of DeLay's difficulties. Those rules require a
bipartisan vote before an investigation can be launched. DeLay's office also
helped mount a counterattack last fall against Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., who
was the ethics committee chairman when it came down against DeLay.
"Unfortunately, in his particular case, there's a process that he's tried to
change so they could actually reach a determination as to whether or not he's
innocent or guilty of the things he's been charged with," Dodd said. "But this
is not going to go away."
DeLay "becomes the poster child for a lot of the
things the Democrats think are wrong about Republican leadership. As long as
he's there, he's going to become a pretty good target," Dodd said on ABC.
DeLay, who took center stage in passing legislation designed to keep alive
Terri Schiavo, also has found that President Bush and congressional colleagues
are distancing themselves from his comments, after her death, about the judges
involved in her case.
"The time will come for the men responsible for this
to answer for their behavior," DeLay said, raising the prospect of impeaching
members of a separate and independent branch of government. Later, he complained
of "an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress
and the president."
Bush, declining to endorse DeLay's comments, said Friday
that he supports "an independent judiciary." He added, "I believe in proper
checks and balances."
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said
last week that the judges "handled it in a fair and independent way," although
he had hoped for a different result.
Democrats have said DeLay's remarks
were tantamount to inciting violence against judges.
___
Associated
Press writer Suzanne Gamboa contributed to this report.

Houston Chronicle denounces Cronyn's justification of violence against Judges

If officials made similar statements professing understanding for the
motives of terrorists, they would be rightly denounced as unpatriotic. Yet
individuals who threaten or seek to harm members of this country's independent
judiciary are, like terrorists, striking at a fundamental principle of our
democratic system.

Cornyn attempts to excuse his remarks by saying he was only wondering
aloud. Even the junior senator from Texas should know that more is expected on
the floor of the world's greatest debating society. He said he was surprised at
the reaction, but that is less an apology than regret that he has been
criticized.

The Greatest Tournament in American Sport

The NCAA Basketball tournament does it again. A great tournament with underdogs and upsets and the top two teams in the country still end up playing for the title. What an event.

I know something about the pain of upsets, being a Syracuse fan, who watched my OrangeMEN (I deny the name change) get bounced by Vermont...VERMONT.

Anyway. Year after Year March Madness delivers. It's never anti-climatic like the SuperBowl where you have a boring game every other year. The Final Four and the Championship game is always close. The last blow out was in 1990 when UNLV (with it's roster of the finest professional college players) beat Duke by 30.

Even with the drain on college hoops by High Schoolers turning pro and even mediocre players leaving school early, the tournament is still the best month in American sports.

Why the NCAA doesn't see the GOLDMINE that a Football tournament would be...this country would stop for those games. Imagine a 16 team tournament where say Utah goes up against #1 USC. Not a person outside of Los Angeles wouldn't be a Utes fan on that day. I get excited just thinking about it.

The presidents can continue their lies about Student-Athletes, but a 16 team tournament could be set up to end on Jan 1. You limit the regular season games to 11 and start the playoffs after 2 weeks. The other teams could still go to their ridiculous unattended bowl games during that time, but would it really hurt if a 6-5 Wake Forest Team didn't play a 6-5 Iowa St team? Would America suffer? But, they could play if they wanted to keep the meaningless bowls.

Despite what people say, College Football does have a tournament, unfortunately the field is comprised of two often controversially selected teams. if you go to 16, no team with a legitimate claim to the title will be ignored. Sure, Bowling Green might be 12-0, but they are NOT going to beat Miami and USC on consecutive weekends. And if they do...how freaking great would that be????

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the tournament, even as 98% of you lost your pools and even more of you didn't see YOUR TEAM win.

Shins

As you know I love The Shins. They are my "America's greatest band" right now and have been in heavy rotation on my CD players for over a year (so NO, I didn't discover them). Anyway, going to see them at the Crystal in Portland on Thursday.

Can NOT wait.

"Underneath the power lines seeking shade"

"Liberal" media disproven again.

A Bushie friend of mine is always railing about the "liberal media" and how the hate Christians. This stuck me as pure bullshit after about the 10th hour of network coverage of the death of John Paul II today. The cable networks have been covering it non-stop for 3 days and most of the networks were wall to wall today.

It just shows how little evidence there is about this "liberal" media crap. BTW- I've asked him on numerous occasions to define this "liberal media" and I'll point out that Conservatives completely dominate radio, are extremely well-represented on the best seller list, have their own entire newspapers (WSJ, Washington Times, etc), a whole industry of Conservative magazines and their own cable channels. Even on the liberal outlets they always cry about there are tons of Conservatives there. Traitor Bob Novak has been on CNN forever, Pat Buchanan had a show there years. PBS has a show with the WSJ editorial board. The Washington Post employees George Will, etc, etc.

On the other side of the aisle, Fox News has the liberal lightweight Alan Colmes who gets bullied by Hannity for one hour per day.

So, as you're watching some more of the "liberal-Christian hating" networks cover the death of the head of the Catholic church and the election of his replacement over the next 10 days or so, just remember how much all the "liberal media" "hates" Christians.

My final thoughts...maybe

Here's hoping for peace for the Schiavo and Schindler families. And let's hope that Terri's name doesn't become a tool in the GOP Theocrat donation letters...

But I wish for too much.