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.

What kind of God?

So, Tom Delay and assorted other Religous Zealots on the the Right Wing have said OUTRIGHT that Terri Schiavo is "a gift".

"One thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo to elevate the
visibility of what's going on in America," the Texan congressman told a meeting
of the Family Research Council.

Ok, so let's grant that GOD really grants the Christian Right gifts despite the fact that the majority of their agenda is very UnChristlike. (The whole helping the poor, throwing the money changers out, turn the other cheek, etc; is not part of the GOP platform statement nor practice).

So, God is granting Delay's wishes. My question, what kind of God liquifies a woman's brain and for 15 years allows her to lie in that state until the time is just right for Tom Delay et al to use her as his political pawn? Does this God Delay speaks of plan such things? Did God plan her bulimia, heart attack, vegetative state, so that one day in 2005 Terri would become a Martyr for the Theocratic Bushie cause?

REALLY? GOD DID THIS TO HER TO GIVE THE BUSHIES POLITICAL LEVERAGE?

Now, if that were true what kind of God would that be?

Let's look at a more likely scenario. God doesn't control every event on earth, or any for that matter as such God didn't put Terri into this state and he sure as "Heck" didn't give a big fat Easter Present to Tom Delay in the body of Terri Schiavo. Oh Yeah, and Tom Delay is an idiot. A right wing political hypocrite (who by the way suspended medical care from his father as he lay in a coma...didn't hear about that did you?)

Shameful

Delay's a hypocrite...AGAIN

So, when Delay’s father was on life support, they withheld medical treatment that would have prolonged his fathers life. Congress didn’t have to intervene in that case.

THEN, when they were all done letting his father die, they sued the company responsible for causing the injury to his father…something that Delay and the Bushie’s don’t want us regular citizens to be able to do.

So, with Tom Delay…double the hypocrisy.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-delay27mar27,0,5710023.story?coll=la-home-headlines



Just once, I’d like the new Theocratic wing of the GOP to not be hypocritical…JUST ONCE.

Schiavo

I haven't really said much about this, most of what I'm feeling has been said. Both by real conservatives and liberals. Although I haven't heard much from the Dems on this.

The irony of that 6 month old having his breathing tube removed last week and dying under court order despite the parents objections AND that this was authorized by Pres. "err on the side of life" Bush when he was governor is a sick joke. Shit, he could have stayed in Crawford and made an attempt to save that child if he was going to "err on the side of life".

Delay continues to make a fool of himself. Talking about how Terri's suffering and horrible condition is "good for the movement". The man should be in jail, not in COngress.

I don't know why, but I feel that Jeb Bush is doing what he's doing out of a real belief, not something political. I could be very wrong, but for some reason he seems like his efforts are not politically motivated, which would make him about the only person involved without that motivation.

The staunch defenders of the disabled who so lovingly execute the mentall handicapped also make me ill.

And any sick bastard who compares this with the Holocaust needs to reevaluate themselves.

No one is killing her, she is being allowed to die in accordance with her wishes that she expressed to her husband. 15 judges have ruled that is the case. No one will ever know, but if nothing it's is a marriage issue. If your spouse gets sick, do you want to make the decisions about your life or do you want Tom Delay?

This is NOT a government issue. This is a family issue and a really horrible thing to deal with. Michael doesn't want terri dead. He wishes she was still alive, but she's been gone for 15 years, yet for those first 4 years he was in denial himself. He didn't believe the doctors, but you imagine sitting at someone's bedside for 4 years with NOTHING coming back to you. YOu finally realize she's not coming back and you should honor her wishes.

He's turned down at least $11 million from political hacks who want to use Terri to further there own ends, but he hasn't...why? Because he wants to honor her wishes an make the most horrible decision that a spouse EVER has to make.

Lubbock

My brother was married in Lubbock this past weekend. Talk about your "Red" State/County/City. First, my bro lives in NYC with his now wife. They have many NYC actor friends that were in attendance. Included a gay couple or two, which goes over REAL big with the West Texas Church of Christ crowd let me tell ya. Anyway, that led to some interesting dynamics.

So, having partied down with a few gay men, it's my belief that ONLY gay people should get married. I don't want to stereotype (read: here I go stereotyping), but damn those gays are a good time. Dancing to Britney Spears, scaring the homophobes, it's just GOOD TIMES.

OK, we can let straight people marry, but they have to invite gay people.

ENough about that. I also saw the Buddy Holly museum...well worth the $5 just to see the glasses he was wearing when he died. Also the Buddy Holly statue and Lubbock wall of fame, with Waylon Jennings, Mac Davis, Tanya Tucker and other West Texas artists.

Also, in case you're worried. The Pancake House on Avenue Q is also serving "Freedom Fries" and "Freedom Toast" still in case you were worried West Texans had gotten over hating the French.

Let me chime in...a little late

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7254897/


I’m sure you’ve followed the GOP’s way-overreaching efforts this weekend to dissolve the rights of a husband to honor the wishes of his wife, so I’m sure that all of you are appalled that this gross abuse of Federal power to destroy the sanctity of marriage, right? Slate has some good stuff on this.

Oh, by the way. I saw Tom Delay talking about this subject on Sunday where he lied at least three times.

The Bushies have so lost their way. The Republicans need to go back and read their Barry Goldwater.

How's this for keeping Government out of our lives. HYPOCRITES

Disgusting.

But, I'm sure it's comforting that Congress knows what is best for my wife (and yours) moreso than I do . Oh yeah, this applies to all of us.

Shameful.

Castro would be proud

Bush likes illegal propaganda.

Un Freakin Believable

Castro would be proud

Bush love ILLEGAL propaganda.

Un FREAKIN believable

Rediscovering the "Shoegazers"

Right now, as I type I'm listening to Ride's masterpiece "Nowhere". Just got done with Lush's "Gala". [A band I saw at the Second Lollapolooza at Saratoga...boy were they out of place with Soundgarden, Ministry, Ice Cube and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (BEFORE THAT "UNDER THE BRIDGE CRAP")]. The other day was grooving to "Loveless" by MBV.

Anyway, recapturing my youth and recommending you do too.

Halliburton trading with the enemy...AGAIN

While my Bushie friend keep telling me to wait to find out how Russia and France wanted Saddam to stay in power to keep their business ties, we can read about how the Vice President’s company did/does the same thing with Iran …a country with real WMD capability.

The hypocrisy is delicious, maybe treasonous. (Shout out to Ann Coulter, who accuses people who speak out loud traitors, but those who actually supply the enemy are her heroes)


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7119752/

The media is LAZY

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/diet.fitness/03/07/milk.bones.reut/index.html

So, I read a couple of these stories and in only a couple did the article mention that this group that published these “results” is actually a Vegetarianism Advocacy group. Isn’t that somewhat important? Especially since most people don’t read beyond the headlines.

Goes along with the Big Scare about that carcinogenic Sudan-1 dye that has been found in food. I’ve YET to find an article that tells me it’s carcinogenic at WHAT LEVEL? How many PPM does it take? How long the exposure? That’s just lazy journalism.

The media is LAZY

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/diet.fitness/03/07/milk.bones.reut/index.html

So, I read a couple of these stories and in only a couple did the article mention that this group that published these “results” is actually a Vegetarianism Advocacy group. Isn’t that somewhat important? Especially since most people don’t read beyond the headlines.

Goes along with the Big Scare about that carcinogenic Sudan-1 dye that has been found in food. I’ve YET to find an article that tells me it’s carcinogenic at WHAT LEVEL? How many PPM does it take? How long the exposure? That’s just lazy journalism.

Bono as head of World Bank...are you kidding me?

First, what exactly makes a multi-millionaire Rock Star qualified to run anything, let alone the World Bank.

Granted, I like U2, but I think Bono is an idiot. He's the MOST pretentious rock star ever, which makes his attempts to pretend he is ironically not pretentious, even MORE IRONICALLY PRETENTIOUS. It's like double irony.

My letter to the editor

In response to this pathetic Bushie propaganda,
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/david_reinhard/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1109249871123290.xml

I wrote this to the Oregonian:

Dear Editor,
I was wondering if David Reinhard has any duties other than his column in order to earn his big salary. I hope so, because he hasn’t had an independent thought in a couple of years. The Oregonian would be just as well served by printing transcripts of Scott McClellan’s press briefings or WH position papers as it is running Reinhard’s column. Recently, Reinhard told us that he is not paid by the Bush WH to promote their ideas. I should hope not, because the Oregonian is paying him to do that. Accepting Administration money would be getting paid twice for the same work. Today’s column regarding Assisted Suicide was a truly pathetic attempt by someone who claims to be a Conservative abandoning principle in order to support the Bushie cause. Reinhard is a Bushie cheerleader, he’s not a Conservative. A Conservative would not have attempted such a feeble abandonment of State’s Right’s, but would have asked why are there “Federally” controlled substances in the first place. As he abandons Conservativism to be a good soldier in Karl Rove’s army, he gives NO attention to the fact the this is the will of the people of Oregon, and his effort to blame part of “Ashcroft vs. the People of Oregon” on Bill Clinton was another classic Bush tactic.
For the sake of business effeciency, you should replace Reinhard’s column with the daily talking points from the White House…no one will be able to tell the difference.

Washegon

http://www.kndo.com/article.src?ID=32261

I heard on the radio on the way home there is a bill in the Legislature to split WA into two states along the Cascades. Obviously this isn’t going to happen, but I think Eastern Oregon should get on board too and create one big new state along the Cascades to the Idaho Border from Canada to California/Nevada.

Washegon. Those Red Counties are always complaining about the major cities forcing their agenda, I say “have at it”. See what it’s like footing your own bill for once.

Where do I sign?

Why does Bush hate the will of the people AND States Rights?

High Court to Review Assisted Suicide Law

More Judicial activism

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7012932/

Remember when Conservatives “wanted to get the government out of our lives”? Now, the politician and judges know better than a husband.

I thought we didn't negotiate with Terrorists

Oh yeah, that's right, that's a proud GOP legacy of negotiating with terrorists...see Ronald Reagan for examples.

It's like their position on torture. Torture is bad unless we do it.

Phrases that drive me nuts

Mike Cleverly, a neighbor and longtime friend, spent Friday night watching a basketball game on TV with Thompson. He said Thompson was clearly hobbled by the broken leg. "Medically speaking, he's had a rotten year," he said.

But he added that "he's the last person in the world I would have expected to kill himself. I would have been less surprised if he had shot me."


Adding to the list of stupid things to say. Forgetting the fact that Hunter Thompson killing himself didn’t surprise me at all, it seems right in line, but really was he the “LAST PERSON” who would do that? What about some guy who heads up a Suicide Prevention group? Or a Priest who would believe it to be a mortal sin to kill oneself.

Also adding: “No one could have imagined” to this list. I heard that over the weekend. Really, “NO ONE”? meaning no person now or in the past. “Could” meaning not that they did, but “Could” have. And finally “imagined”….are humans so uncreative?

Someday, pigs might grow wings and fly. And someone will say on that day “No one could have imagined that pigs could fly”…well I just did.

This is added to list that already contains:

"Nothing could be further from the truth"...REALLY? NOTHING?

and of course people who say Samwich, when the mean SAND-WICH.

And the worst of all, and I heard John Feinstein say it this week on the radio, is people who say "LITERALLY" when the mean exactly the oppposite. For example, Mr. Feinstein, the Lakers did NOT LITERALLY implode. Neither individually or Collectively...NO IMPLOSION. So, what you meant to say, the "Virtually" imploded, but not LITERALLY.

OMG that kills me.

George Bush OPPOSES AMerican Heroes and sides with Saddam's torture...sickening

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-na-pow15feb15,0,3155150.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Can you imagine the “outrage” the Limbaugh’s of the world vent if Clinton sided against AMERICAN POW’s TORTURED by Saddam. Oh my GOD.

Truly, Truly shameful.

Why Any Veteran would have voted for President AWOL is beyond me.

W...he was on the Bus

W loved the ganja.

So, I await the Bushie hacks to condemn this horrible horrible crime just as they did to Clinton.

I won't hold my breath. Because the one thing you can't count on from the Bushies and the rest of the GOP hacks, is HYPOCRISY and LYING.

Classless ...as usual

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/02/18/specter/index.html

Dear Arlen,

Sorry about your cancer, but we have a radical right wing agenda to force upon America. You’d better confirm our judges or will hold back your chemo.

Love,
Your typical Conservative.



Classless as usual.

I love this "gannon" stuff

Here is a link to Olbermann's site. Can you imagine if these continuous lies and propaganda efforts happened during CLinton's WH? OMG, the world would have ended.

So, it's the hypocrisy that astounds. Also the fact that the lies happen day after day after day.



With quotes from Ari Fliescher :

I don't think that party organizations should have people in that room acting as reporters,” Fleischer continued. “They are advocates, not reporters and a line should be drawn." Fleischer nonetheless resumed taking Guckert's questions, he says, after the GOPUSA site owner, Bobby Eberle, phoned him and convinced him that it was not an 'official' Republican website.

Fleischer also said that as Press Secretary, he did not know "Jeff Gannon" was an alias — that he'd found out with the rest of us.

There are the two most alarming truths contained in the E&P interviewed with Fleischer. He "found out" that Guckert was from this GOP-USA website, and just recently he "found out" that Guckert was his real name, not Jeff Gannon. That means somebody other than the Press Secretary to the President got Guckert in there, vetted him, and cleared him through the Secret Service.

Rockin to the Old School

Now, if you knew me you'd know I've got a varied taste in music. Recent CD purchases include your current "alternative" chart toppers (Hives, Interpol, etc), but also the real country music (George Jones, Hank, Willie, Waylon, Cash, of course Dwight), so I 've got the new Loretta Lynn (mad props to Loretta and Jack White on the Grammy for country album). My most recent BMG order included Earth, Wind and Fire and The Staples Singers, along with Black Star.

But the music I grew up on, what is now know as the 70/80's classic rock has been ignored. Oh sure, still listen to the Stones from that era, Dylan, but the more AOR stuff I couldn't take, until recently. I just can't get enough of ELO, Boston, I even had Journey turned up to 11 the other day in my truck (it was on the radio, I don't own any Journey).

But, anyway, I go through the phases and right now that's what it is. Although, I can't get all the way back to Styx. I was a big fan, "Pieces of Eight" and all that. But still can't do that. Sorry Mr. DeYoung.

Reading

Finished up my second Tom Friedman book the other day. Had read "Lexus and the Olive Tree" a month or so ago and I just finished “Longitudes and Attitudes”. While I find Friedman’s rationalizations for invading Iraq, pretty lame, especially in hindsight, it was OK. “Lexus” was probably better. One thing I learned is that I HATE buying books that are simply reprints of columns. I know being a columnist is difficult, but charging me full price for a book for work you’ve already done seems like a rip off to me. A friend recommended “Beirut to Jerusalem” , give that a shot eventually.

Currently reading "The Professor and and the Madman". Which is a pretty quick pager turner. Needed to take a little break from the seriousness of my recent readings.

More screwing the little guy

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6947569/

YEAH, TEAM BUSH.

And some of you who used to be Conservatives should be outraged at 2 parts of this. That is limits market remedies for corporate wrongs and that it FEDERALIZES cases that have no Constitutional basis for being a Federal Case.

YEAH, TEAM BUSH.

Finish what you started

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/02/09/rice/index.html


As I read the first few lines of this a few thoughts come to mind.
1- Finish what you started in Afghanistan, a country where tribal
leaders who love bin Laden and the Taliban run 90% of the country (if Bush was really worried about terrorism, he's pay a lot more attention to this breeding ground)
2- Finish what you started in Iraq
3- What "next steps"? Does America have a secret army that it's
going to invade Iran with?
4- Why should we believe anything this administration says about
Middle Eastern countries possessing WMD?
5- I believe that the US is a little jealous of the success the
Europeans have had with diplomacy in Iran.
6- An invasion of Iran would be disastrous. Iranians like the
freedom and the West, more so than other Middle Eastern countries, they have a recent history of rising up against oppression and they don't like the religious leaders. An American invasion turns all that Iranian goodwill to a hatred of America in order to protect their country.
7- Does anyone in this administration have a freakin clue about
anything that happens outside of Crawford Texas?
8- The balls of America to suggest that other countries should live
up to Agreements re: nuclear weapons when it unilaterally withdrew from the ABM treaty.

Why Sportswriters are idiots reasons 126,127, 128

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6930823/

Sure, Brady will likely get there some day if only for these past four years, but PUH-LEEZE can we hold off on the Hall of Fame talk until he’s played 8-9 years?

And WHO CARES if the Patriots should be called a Dynasty or not, it’s not like they get a trophy. “Are they or aren’t they a Dynasty?” that’s all we’ve heard for 12 months…SHUT UP.

Also shut up about “FutureHallofFamerBrett Farve”. We know, but you don’t have to start every single sentence relating to football with his name (now FuturehalloffamerBrett). They did the same thing with the Lakers last year…everything was the Los Angeles Lakerswith4futurehalloffamers (and if Gary Payton belongs in the Hall of Fame, I’ll eat my hat…if I had a hat).

And I don’t care how cute he gets, I still don’t like Terry Bradshaw.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

BTW- The Ducks have USC, UW, Cal and Oregon State at home this year. A great year to be a season ticket holder. Although, I think the Ducks would have a better chance against the 49ers than they do against USC.

Why does W. love criminals?

Man, the country needs another Democrat like Clinton who will increase funding for police and still balance the budget. Hey, but we got our $300 tax cut….YEAH!

I guess all that 9/11 talk during the election was sloganeering. Because, “Hey, the Rich People gotta stop paying taxes”

http://kevxml2adsl.verizon.net/_1_KG5TO102IFNKHF__vzn.dsl/apnws/story.htm?kcfg=apart&sin=D882ONNO0&qcat=usnews&ran=7018&passqi=&feed=ap&top=1

WASHINGTON - President Bush's budget will propose slashing grants to local law enforcement agencies and cutting spending for environmental protection, American Indian schools and home-heating aid for the poor, The Associated Press learned Saturday.

…


According to figures obtained by the AP, Bush would slice a $600 million grant program for local police agencies to $60 million next year. Grants to local firefighters, for which Congress provided $715 million this year, would fall to $500 million.
He would eliminate the $300 million the government gives to states for incarcerating illegal aliens who commit crimes. It's a proposal he has made in the past and one that Congress has ignored. Also gone would be assistance for police departments to improve technology and their ability to communicate with other agencies.

Making us safer every day

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4204913.stm


Nope, this won’t create any terrorists. So, instead of hating Saddam, they’ll hate America who brought these clowns to power. And let’s not pretend this isn’t really happening. Remember some months ago, when US Soldiers tried to intervene when they saw Iraqi’s being tortured and abused by Iraqi police, they were told to stand down? So, America is aware of this and allows it.

Freedom is on the march (Not applicable in Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and another other country with a dictator on the US Payroll)

Old Bush Friend, Chalabi to be charged

Why no outrage for the man loved by Neo-Cons, is a crook and very likely an Iranian spy? Here he is sitting amongs Congressmen, Senators, Supreme Court Justices, and most of the Executive Branch.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/21/iraq.chalabi/index.html

And in case you forgot:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040120-5.html

And here's the picture:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/images/20040120-7_d012004-2-515h.html

Magic Elections

It's been a while. Busy with Holidays and playing too much Halo2 online.




Immediately following an essay by a member of the faculty of Hoover Institution about how drug regulation/approval should be more of a market approach than a more cautious FDA…this on that bastion of Liberal media, NPR. Imagine my surprise that NPR would give 5 minutes of uninterrupted comment without rebuttal to such a Conservative voice, can you see the Conservative Media Cabal providing some lefty the same opportunity? Methinks not. But I digress,

So, after this essay, I heard General Abazaid say that the elections on Jan 30 will be the death of the insurgency. Can I ask, does anyone REALLY think that on Feb. 1, these guys will lay down their arms and go home and live peaceably? It’s not even realistic. After the election, the violence will go on, especially that directed at police and the newly elected officials. To claim this magic power of elections seems quite naive. Especially, when you see that the PM is saying it’s not safe enough to have elections in the first place.

Bush III in 2008 campaign starts now

**“Powell and the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (search), who has experience with extensive hurricane damage in Florida, leave Sunday to visit coastal areas in the Indian Ocean ravaged by last Sunday's tsunami.”


Isn’t it nice to see the Rovians turn the death of 125,000 people into a political opportunity for little bro? Shameful.

Just like when Bush II, wasn’t going to campaign on 9/11, turns out that’s all he did. Just wait until Jebbie’s campaign videos in 2008, you’ll see Jeb unloading rice from army trucks and walking through flood ravaged streets.

**This is from Foxnews, so it’s plain to see why the qualification of Jeb Bush as the most qualified man to help in Asia because he’s walked among blown over houses in Florida.

The President's good friend

Russia gets Yukos unit
Acquisition called 'a blow for rule of law' in Russia
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo/story.asp?guid=%7BDFA5E6E0-EB25-4BD1-BB64-C918CE64CA0E%7D&siteid=myyahoo&dist=myyahoo

In related news...the President wants to reward the Russian Dictator with WTO membership. A true judge of character that President of ours. All while ignoring the very likely possibility that Putin knew of the assisination attempt on Yushchenko, haven't heard that in the Liberal media, but it seems like a very likely possibility considering his recent moves to re-establish Stalinesque control over Russia.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14889-2004Dec20.html

"Vladimir Putin and I have got a good personal relationship, starting with our meeting in Slovenia," Bush said during his year-end news conference. "I intend to keep it that way."

Another Neo-Con Piles on Rummy

With assorted Senators, former Generals held in high esteem and yesterday Bill Kristol and today someone from AEI jumping on Rummy, can he be long for his job?





Rumsfeld's War
Thu Dec 16, 9:21 AM ET
Tom Donnelly
Washington (The Daily Standard) - DEFENSE SECRETARY DONALD RUMSFELD'S meeting engagement with Army Specialist Thomas Wilson in Kuwait last week was not just a reality check for an arrogant and isolated Beltway bigwig. It was also, and perhaps more profoundly, an overdue reality check for what has proved in practice to be a terrible idea: military "transformation."



For the past 15 years, big thinkers and strategists have observed that the application of information technologies had made businesses more efficient and effective. Why couldn't similar efficiencies and increases in battlefield effectiveness be wrung from military forces which, after all, were troglodytic expressions of the Industrial Age? Heavily armored ground forces, in particular, were too ponderous and therefore vulnerable in the emerging age of "netwar" with al Qaeda and spectacularly "enabled" leaders like Osama bin Laden (news - web sites). And, as Rumsfeld told the troops in Kuwait, armored vehicles still get blown up anyway.Whatever genuine wisdom was resident in these observations was long ago smothered by two more traditional impulses: air-power theory and number-crunching systems analysis. In fact, these two schools of thought actively conspired to capture the flag of transformation. And so it turned out that transformation perfectly fit the programs that the Air Force already had on the books, most importantly and expensively the tactical fighter programs like the F-22 and the Joint Strike Fighter. And to pay for it, the green-eyeshade analysts at the Pentagon (news - web sites) looked to cut Army force structure. Like all good captains of industry, they looked to substitute capital for labor.Thus we have a Defense secretary more concerned about the Army and the force he'd like to have--the high-speed-low-drag transformed force of the future--than the force with which he actually has to fight today's wars. And, in fact, Rumsfeld and his lieutenants would also simply like to fight the wars they'd like to have rather than the war as it is. How else to explain the Pentagon's conduct of operations in Iraq (news - web sites)? The administration is still patting itself on the back for the initial invasion; this week's ceremony honoring retired General Tommy Franks, President Bush (news - web sites) acted as though the problems of the post-invasion period didn't exist: the invasion was "the fastest, longest armored advance in the history of American warfare" with "a force half the size of the force that won the Gulf War (news - web sites)" and "defeated Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime and reached Baghdad in less than a month."But the reality in Iraq today is Tommy Wilson's war, not Tommy Franks's war.Nor is it Donald Rumsfeld's war, or at least not the war he wants. Even longtime supporters and transformation advocates have begun to recognize that Rumsfeld is now a large part of the problem. Loren Thompson, head of the Lexington Institute, a defense think-tank long supportive of the secretary, told the Washington Post on Monday that Rumsfeld won't face reality: "He knows what the situation is, but he has been unready to change his plans." Rumsfeld has been most reluctant to change his plans about the size of U.S. land forces, and the Army in particular. It was, perhaps, a good idea to "go early and go ugly," as senior generals put it, to war in Iraq; waiting longer to build up forces in the spring of 2003 was not a risk-free proposition, and most of those now bemoaning the size of the invasion force are at heart still bemoaning the invasion itself. But the experience of the past 18 months must count for something in reconsidering the overall size of the Army.In agreeing to stay on as Defense secretary in the second Bush term, Rumsfeld has made it known that he wants to "complete the job of transformation" he has started. It would be far better if he would dedicate himself to winning the war he helped to start.Tom Donnelly is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a contributing writer to The Daily Standard.

Kerik tripped up by Nanny deal

I never cared about the Nanny thing when the Republicans used against Clinton's nominees a decade ago. So, I don't care about this now.

What FREAKS me out, is that the man that was to be our Director of Homeland Security "DIDN'T KNOW" he had an arrest warrant out for himself. This man can't keep his own house in order and he's going to protect America?

UnFREAKINbelievable

Not a matter of Physics...Apparently

Despite Rummy lame-ass attempts to defend not arming soldiers, it appears that it's not a matter of "physics" that they can't arm the HUmvees. It was the Pentagon's incompetence that puts soldiers in harms way.

ON a side note: The "Liberal media" didn't apparently catch this, but Rummy said you go to war with the army you have, not the one you want to have.

Well, actually Sec. Liar, this was a war the prosecution of which was entirely up to the WH. There was no imminent threat, no Iraqi troops massing on our borders and they apparently had a pretty good idea that there were no WMD. So, Rummy could have waited, gotten the soldier what they need and then invaded. NOT EVEN TO MENTION, that it's been nearly two years and they STILL, don't have enough armor.

Shameful.

Why do GI's hate America?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6676765/

Just yesterday I read a Heritage Foundation “report” complaining about how the “Media” is presenting a one sided picture of the situation in Iraq and that according to some of the soldiers they’ve talked to Iraq is really like Prague in the summer. About 10 minutes after that the CIA memo about how crappy things are in Iraq came across my Google News and now this.

Maybe if the Bushies in the Heritage Foundation stopped looking to blame the “media” for everything while forcing their agenda and looked at reality, everyone would have a better picture of what’s going on.

As we can only assume based on the fine work of Heritage and other Bush toadies, like Safire, that the “media” put these soldiers up to this. In fact, they are probably not even soldiers but members of the Red Cross or the conspiracy to make Donavan McNabb a good quarterback.

Random Sports Notes

Why is everyone pretending to be surprised and outraged about Barry Bonds took steriods. We all knew it. What's especially comical is Bond's contention he didn't know what was in the creams he used. Are you freakin kidding me? This guy is obsession about the amount of control he exerts in his life and career. Whether it be dealing with the media or saying he didn't trust MLB to test his body for steroids. Yet, we are supposed to believe he just trusted these guys at BALCO to put whatever it wanted on his body and he never asked what it was? Yeah, right. And Pete Rose didn't bet on baseball.

When will Rush apologize for being so very wrong about Donovan McNabb? Or were those 5 first half touchdowns the product of the media conspiracy to see McNabb do well? Is the media also responsible for Culpepper's season? Aaron Brooks?

the BCS proves itself a joke again this year. Now, I know Lee Corso has spoken and said Auburn doesn't even deserve a shot at the title, but he's been an idiot for years why would he stop now. As I watch Oregon's Linfield College march throw it's collegiate football tourney, I wonder how clowns like Corso can speak without being called an idiot by his peers. So, Auburn screwed(someone was going to of the Top 3). How about Cal? One loss, to the #1 team by 7 points on the road, but Texas's coach campaigned for votes. That's shameful and pathetic that a coach would do that. Have some pride man. Oh Yeah, Boise St...sorry, but until you get rid of the Blue Turf no one will take you serious.

DOn't tell me we can't have a 16 team tournament. The only arguement I've heard against this is, well what about the 17th best team. Are you kidding me. There is no way a 16th place team (or a 10th place) for that matter is going to beat a top 2 team, but wouldn't it be great to see Boise St go up against SC in the first round. And hell, if they win it, great. There is always someone that gets left out of the tournament, but in a 16 team scenario everyone who has a legitimate shot at it is in the tourney and can prove it on the field. The current two team playoff system is stupid and guess what...it doesn't even fix the problem it was supposed to fix (ONE UNDISPUTED NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP).

What a disaster.

"Activist Judges" oh the hypocrisy

Activist Judges may overturn the EXPRESSED will of half the country (geographically...more or less)

This is the ULTIMATE in activist judges. People in 11 states have voted clearly on this issue and now these clowns in Washington are going to make medical decisions for millions of Americans. CLEARLY denying the will of the people in their lame attempts to gain some leverage in the failed "war on drugs".

The hypocrisy astounds.

BTW - Do any of the Justices have MDs?

On a personal note: when I had back surgery earlier this year, I was given Oxycodone for the pain. Oxycodone is highly addictive (ISN'T IT RUSH...you hypocrite) didn't help my pain all that much and gave me horrible headaches and constipation. Shouldn't John Ashcroft be suing somebody, some Doctors or States, to stop Doctors from prescribing this?

REMEMBER, WHEN CONSERVATIVES WE'RE ALL ABOUT "STATES RIGHTS"?

Another man destroyed for telling the truth

FDA may reassign Vioxx whistleblower

How can anyone support what goes on in this Administration? Retrubition for trying to stop people from dying? APPALLING

I can’t wait to hear how this is good public policy from the Bushies.

(Timely sidenote: While getting some medicine for my sick kid today, noticed I had some Vioxx samples in the cupboard…I threw them out)

Washington Governor's Race...or Damn, I'm cynical these days

WSJ had an article about the WA Governor's race:

FUND ON THE TRAIL:
"Florida NorthwestWill Democrats steal the Washington
governorship?"
Monday, November 29, 2004 12:01 a.m.

Anyway a friend sent it to me and below is my response to the article:

The only thing I think this and the Florida race in 2000 and maybe even Ohio
this year prove is that your vote doesn’t really count. Each year we learn
that states CAN NOT physically count all the votes accurately. You’re vote
surely counts if you live in a jurisdiction with a large plurality toward one
side, but in the races where each vote is critical it’s been proven that we just
can’t count votes accurately.

I was up in Washington this weekend and watched a little TV and the most obvious statement (and troubling) was someone who pointed out that “you and I could count this stack of ballots today and agree on a number, tomorrow we would count them again and likely get different numbers”. So True.

Let’s say Gregoire gets her recount and she wins by 50 votes. Is Rossi supposed to let that stand? I would think not.

The only thing you can say about this election is that we will NEVER know the true count.

Since the "Liberal Media" ignored this

You may recall there was a Marine who apparently shot a wounded, unarmed Iraqi a few weeks ago. I don't know the details and the media apparently ignored it after the initial report...America's memory span is about the same as a Goldfish these days (remember Afghanistan?).

Anyway, this is a posting by Kevin Sites who took the pictures of the shooting.

Happy Thanksgiving

With recent events like the NBA brawl, the GOP's abandonment of any semblence of Principle with the Delay Rule and Congress proving how truly disfunctional it is with the ramming thru of the Omnibus Spending package that apparently NO ONE in Congress Write or EVEN reads, I figured I'd go to the in-laws for the weekend.

Happy holidays

Check you next week.

Stop defending Ron Artest et al

I'm so SICK of former sports guys and sportswriters defending the actions of Ron Artest and especially those of the others.

Here's part of an email I sent to Steve Kerr after he defended Artest.

Ron Artest is not a police officer. I wish you and everyone else would
stop defending his actions. The fan WAS MOST definitely at fault and
should have arrested by SECURITY. By your twisted logic, having a plastic
cup thrown on you on the street should result in full on beat down by the person
on the recieving end of the cup. Sorry, Steve, that's not how the real
world works. Maybe in the world of spoiled athletes it does, but out in
the real world, Police handle things like this. Artest could have killed
that guy he attacked. As a fan, I've been hit by things thrown by other
fans, so I have a free pass to try to kill whoever threw it? Methinks not,
and maybe those of you who have had to endure the taunts of fans for you
multi-millionare dollar contracts need to get some perspective.

John Saunders of ESPN, on Friday night, that any fan who stepped on the court "got what they deserved". Really? By that logic, Artest and Jackson who crossed that same line in the other direction got what he deserved. Hey John, where would "getting what you deserved" have ended. If Jermaine O'Neal had blindedsided that one guy in the temple instead of the jaw, would have have "gotten what he deserved" as he lie on the ground? The guy that Artest punched on the floor didn't swing at him, Artest made the first move.

Vigilante justice doesn't have a place in professional sports and getting hit with a plastic cup (ON THE CHEST, not the fact like every defender of Artest seems to be lieing about) doesn't give anyone on the street or in a basketball arena the opportunity or free pass to start trying to kill people.

In my mind, Artest shouldn't even get the worst fine. It should be Jackson and O'Neal, who didn't get hit with a cup until they decided that the Pacers were going to take on 10,000 fans.

And stop worrying about their punishment. The union will fight the fines, and the fines will amount to a couple of days pay, like a traffic ticket to a normal person. And these players will go on with their day jobs and suffer no real consequences. While the fans, maybe they get arrested and have to pay fines as well, my guess is those fines will be a hell of a lot more in percentage Income Dollars than those by the players.

Stop Calling Bushies "Conservative"

One of the main tenets of Conservativism is fiscal responsiblity, the Bushies and the GOP have proven for the third time in three years they are fiscally

Will the Missile Shield help us with this reality?

Missing tanker causing some concern...after 7 MONTHS.

Far Right still attacking Spector

National Review Online goes after Spector...again.

And rather than be honorable and let him respond to their criticism they act like a 14 year and just have to have the last word.

Are there any grown ups left on the Right?

Bill Buckley...what has become of your movement

Why does the Far Right HATE Constitutional Democracy?

Ashcroft says Judges should never question the President.

Frist says the Senate should approve all of the President's nominees.

Why the hell do these guys work in our Government if they have so much hatred for the Checks an Balances and three separate branches of Government?

If the Senate can't challenge the Executive's judicial choices and judiciary should never overturn the Executive's will all you have is a Monarchy/dictatorship.

Well, people, that's what you voted for...God have mercy.

The Glories of mass transit or why I love America

So, tonight I went to see David Sedaris in Portland. I decided to take light rail, because I didn't really want to drive into Portland during rush hour and I always feel good when I use the Mass Transit, even if it does take longer than driving.

Anyway, on the way down to the show, halfway to my stop, a hooker sits next to me. Red Leather skirt, black boots the whole nine. Behind me are these two 20's crunchy types ...who reak of living the hard life, but anyway they were pretty cool, because the girl asks the hooker if she's cold or wants something to eat...anyway just good people tryin to help out.

So, I see Sedaris, and he's great. His first reading, from an upcoming article in Esquire is the highlight, followed by his reading of diary entries.

So, that finishes up and I head back to the light rail. I'm sitting next to one clean cut guy, probably 25 with a HUGE shit-eatin' grin on his face. Appeared to be pretty hammered...all he did was smile and look at his transit map. Across from us are three girls, again probably in their 20's, obviously returning from a class at Portland St. So, I do a little listening. I hear the youngest of the trio, probably 24 or so offering advice on why shouldn't go back with her daughter's father because "he hasn't changed".

Didn't really get much more than that because I pick up today's Oregonian Business section and I'm reading about how Adidas has signed up David Beckham for there latest campaign, when this young girl, maybe 18-19 (I'm bad with ages, but I'll go with this) sits where the drunk guy was (I missed him getting off) and she leans over to say something to me. She speaks very quietly and with a slight accent. I figure she's just asking directions, because for some reason everywhere I go people think I look like the kind of guy who knows where stuff is and if you ask my wife, you'd know that's not true. (In fact when I got off the train in Portland a guy asked me where 5th street was, I guessed and said "down there" and I was right as I headed the wrong way toward the theater. Well, not the wrong way, but an ineffecient way...got off the train to the right ans should have gone left).

Anyway, back to the girl. She's got teenager's skin and long black hair in need of some conditioning. I say "excuse me" to which I get,
"Are you Christian, I'm a missionary". I immediatly reply "no thanks" very politely. I have to say "no thanks" 5 more times before she stops talking. She ends with "Jesus loves you". I wanted to respond with "well, then why should i worry", but I don't. She sits there for a little while longer before she talks to the trio across from (remember the girl with the daughter?). She talks to one who says she is also a Christian, born-again in fact. Then the two of them seem to not know what to say, but I did hear "Jesus loves you and he's coming soon". So, I get to thinking, is that only for Christians to know. How come I don't get that tidbit of info?

Eventually, the missionary leaves the seat and takes her show toward the front of the car, where right before she gets off she does talk to some guy for quite a while. He get literature, the whole deal, so maybe she saved a soul tonight.

After that drama, I turn my attention to my right where an older guy with a Michael Keaton from "Family Ties" kinda look is talking to two young techie dudes/skater guys about the new Canon Digital SLR he's going to buy. A 17 megapixel to replace the 11Megapixel he has now. Should run about $8000.

Then the techies get off the stop before me, then my stop. I get off, the guy with the camera gets off and the girl with the great body and sloped nose and her balding boyfriend get off too.

So, to recap. I travel on a money losing mass transit project and I feel good about it to see a gay American author who lives in France most of the time. While going I sit next to a prostitute, I watch my show, come back home, someone tries to Save me and I blow her off to listen to some excellent American consumerism.

Isn't America GREAT?

What happened to Conservatism and Federalism?

So, the Bushies, who hate activist judges when the go against the will of the people, are trying to circumvent the will of the people.

You see, in Oregon this exact law was put before the people. Not initaited by some "activist judge", but we all went to the polls and were asked this question and we resoundingly answered "Yes, terminally ill people should have the right to end their pain". Not only did we answer this question ONCE, but we answered it twice. The second time 60-40 in favor of the Death with Dignity act. 60-40.

The Bushies, who again, hate it when bureaucrats contradict the will of the people, don't care about the pain a terminally ill person feels. They will execute children and mentally handicapped, but if you're about to die and are in a lot of pain, you have to live until GOD says it's ok to go.

These hypocritical zealots. They don't give a shit about what people want (the will of the voters) or anything about States Rights (Classic Republican Ideals), they care about power for themselves wrapped up in bigotry, intolerance and discompassion. Could these clowns be any further from the ideals laid out by Jesus?

Don't let science get in the way of your zealot agenda

Amazing, that despite scientific evidence, it's the Scientists who are being political. So, Abortion doesn't cause cancer, but by law you have to say it does.

The money quote is here:

Joel Brind, a biochemist at Baruch College in New York who advises the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, noted that a woman's chances of getting breast cancer go down if she gives birth at a relatively young age. He reasons that those who opt for abortion are giving up a chance of reducing their breast cancer risk.

Therefore, he says, abortion increases the risk of cancer.

But this incredibly twisted logic, eating beans causes cancer. You see, Broccoli is very good for it's anti-cancer properties, so any meal that does not include Broccoli increases your risk of cancer, so by this quack's reasoning, Beans (and Doritos and Hot Dogs and Corn) cause cancer.

By the same reasoning, wouldn't the good doctor support every teenage girl get pregnant? Otherwise, she has a higher risk of Cancer sooooo, not being a teenage mother causes cancer.

In stores tomorrow

Toby Keith has a new Greatest Hits album coming out tomorrow…his third GH compilation. This from a guy with 8 albums, one of which is a Christmas album (required for Country artists…even my beloved Dwight has one)

Also on shelves tomorrow…Britney Spears Greatest Hits. Say wha’? She’s got four albums I believe and is there a single song that dosen’t use that horrible computerized effect to cover up her lame voice. Don’t get me wrong, I hope she stays hot and half naked for years to come, but please keep the singing to a minimum.

And don’t miss Shania Twain’s GH collection also tomorrow. AMG gave it 5 stars…again “say wha’?”.

I hate this about rating systems. Shania’s 5 stars is obviously different from the 5 stars Miles Davis or the Rolling Stones get, right. The reviewer must be comparing this album amongst other Shania work and other work in the genre of popified Country, right? I think 5 stars should mean five stars. So, if you give Rubber Soul or Pet Sounds 5 stars, a greatest hits albums by hot wives of hard rock producers could NEVER aspire beyond a four.

Josh Marshall on Prime Minister Bush

Surveying the scene today, one thing that occurs to me is that President Bush is remaking the government into something that is looking more and more like a parliamentary democracy. I don't mean in every specific, of course; the key feature of the
Bush presidency is an extremely powerful executive that to a great degree coopts and controls his own congressional majorities.
But the similarities are important and worth understanding. The key elements are extremely tight party discipline (something political scientists have lamented the absence of for years) and a sharp diminishment of rivalries between the branches of government which used to cut against unified party control.
Party discipline is simple enough. President Bush's first term was replete with examples. And an instructive comparison is how much President Bush was able to accomplish with thin majorities in 2001-02 compared to what President Clinton was able to do with much more substantial majorities in 1993-94.
Today I'm struck by this most recent example with Arlen Specter.
Fresh from his successful senate reelection campaign, Specter (heir apparent to the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee) suggested he'd hold the line against anti-Roe v. Wade judges President Bush might appoint.
Then no more than a day later he beat a hasty and shamefaced retreat.
“Contrary to press accounts, I did not warn the President about anything and was very respectful of his Constitutional authority on the appointment of federal judges.
“As the record shows, I have supported every one of President Bush’s nominees in the Judiciary Committee and on the Senate floor. I have never and would never apply any litmus test on the abortion issue and, as the record shows, I have voted to confirm Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice O’Connor, and Justice Kennedy and led the fight to confirm Justice Thomas.
“I have already sponsored a protocol calling for a Judiciary Committee hearing within thirty days of a nomination, a vote out of Committee thirty days later, and floor action thirty days after that. I am committed to such prompt action by the Committee on all of President Bush’s nominees.
“In light of the repeated filibusters by the Democrats in the last Senate session, I am concerned about a potential repetition of such filibusters. I expect to work well with President Bush in the judicial confirmation process in the years ahead.”
I assume the word came down from the White House to Sen. Specter that he simply wouldn't be Chairman if that were his attitude.
Then we have the incident we noted yesterday in which Sen. Frist may, at the president's say-so, change the cloture rules which require 60 votes to push through legislation.
Past presidents have usually had to deal with Majority Leaders who were much more solicitous of their chamber's independence and institutional preogatives. But then again, President Bush all but appointed Frist to his post. So this should not surprise us.
There's even an element of parliamentarism in President Bush's post-election comments about his mandate and his right to expect others to fall in line behind views because he won a majority, even if a small one, at the ballot box.
It's fine to bemoan this. And there's much to bemoan. But Democrats also need to learn how to live with it, at least for the next four years. And that means realizing that for at least the next two years, the President can get passed almost anything he wants to. His congressional majorities are now sufficiently padded that he can even afford a few Republican defections. He simply doesn't need Democrats for anything.
And that means approaching most legislative battles not with an eye toward preventing passage or significantly altering legislation, but placing alternatives on the table that the party will be able use as contrasts to frame the next two elections. In other words, their only remaining viable alternative is to be an actual party of opposition.
-- Josh Marshall

A "liberal Democratic Thelogian"?

Gary Hart (Hart holds law and divinity degrees from Yale University and completed his undergraduate studies, with emphasis in theology and philosophy, at Southern Nazarene University.) talks about the place of religion in politics

More accurate red/blue maps

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/

A collection of maps drawn along population/voting boundaries not geographical ones.

Here's what you Red States voted for

Apparently the Zealots are now running the Country. GOD help us.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of a leading conservative group said Sunday that Sen. Arlen Specter "is a big-time problem" and that his quest to serve as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee "must be derailed."
The comments from James Dobson, founder of the nonprofit Christian organization Focus on the Family, came four days after the moderate Republican from Pennsylvania told reporters that any Supreme Court nominee intent on overturning Roe v. Wade probably would not win Senate approval.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/07/specter.judiciary/

Predictions

Somewhere in the next few months, it will come out that the Diebold voting machines screwed up some of the counts in the election.

Colin Powell will resign before March 2005.

Dick Cheney will step down, officially for Health reasons, but the Halliburton contract is going to play large in the move.

The will be a fight in the GOP between the moderates and the Rovian Zealots (although I don't think Rove is a zealot, he'd do anything to get his candidate to win, a modern day Earl of Warwick).

The Democratic Party will regroup and start acting a little more like the GOP, no more Mr. Nice Guy. A little more Michael Moore swagger (without the hysteria).

I will continue to support the Libertarians as that's where I stand politically.

The Long National Nightmare will go on for four more years

Last night I was mad...shocked and Mad. How could America re-elect this guy? There's so much. Huge Deficits, tax breaks for corporations, a net loss in jobs, the disaster in post-war Iraq, bin Laden is still alive and making videos, Halliburton, etc. etc. etc.

This morning...heartbroken.

As the day wore on determined and rationalizing.

So, now I go back and forth between disgust and disbelief. The disgust is not just the Bush (I guess I shouldn't say "re-election" as he did come in 2nd last time...) "election", but that 11 states including my own are so homophobic that they won't allow gays to marry.

Yet, not one, NOT ONE, of these zealots has been able to tell me why they care if I'm married or if my neighbors are married or not married. I don't care if you're married or to whom you get married, I've still got to get up and go to work in the morning. Anyway that's another subject.

it looks like it's still two Americas...and I don't know what the hell is going on in Red America, but it ain't pretty.

The long national nightmare continues

So, it's not looking good here at 10PM PST. Another 4 years of Bush, unconstrained by the threat of re-election. Can you say Theocracy?

I weep for America.

But you idiots voted for him, you get what you deserve.

The time is Neigh

Just had a great post, but Blogger ate it.

So, forget all that crap...go Vote

More Lies...remember when he was going to restore integrity?

Propaganda machine in full effect...

WH to stop using fake photo..

Another Bushie hypocrite exposed

First, it was the arbiter of American Values with a little Gambling issue
Then Mr. Law and Order Radio host turns out to be a junky

And no Mr. No-Spin Zone turns out to be a perv.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6357736/


Tough couple of years to be a partisan hack for the Bushies

When will the Rovites began the destruction of this woman?

Halliburton objected to?

How soon before Drudge is running that this woman had a baby out of wedlock with a gay communist Frenchman?

Freedom on the March...but not for these folks

100,000 Dead in Iraq

Oops, we did it again

ANother set up ammunitions ungaurded:

Making America safer, one Rubik's cube at a time

From the Oregonian:

Feds create puzzle not found on toy shelf
The owner of Pufferbelly Toys in St. Helens worries when Homeland Security agents show up on official business
Thursday, October 28, 2004
ASHBEL S. GREEN
Nothing about running a small store called Pufferbelly Toys prepared Stephanie Cox for a cryptic phone call from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
"It's all very surreal, quite honestly," Cox said Wednesday. "I thought it was a prank when I first heard. I couldn't understand why Homeland Security would be investigating a tiny toy store in St. Helens."
The call came in late July or early August. A man identifying himself as a federal Homeland Security agent said he needed to talk to Cox at her store.
Cox asked what it was all about.
"He said he was not at liberty to discuss that," she said.
They agreed to meet in early August, but the agent later canceled. Cox thought the matter had blown over when the agent called back Sept. 9 to say he was coming out there.
"I was shaking in my shoes," said Cox, who has owned Pufferbelly Toys for more than four years. "My first thought was the government can shut your business down on a whim, in my opinion. If I'm closed even for a day that would cause undue stress."
The next day, two men arrived at the store and showed Cox their badges. The lead agent asked Cox whether she carried a toy called the Magic Cube. She said yes. The Magic Cube, he said, was an illegal copy of the Rubik's Cube, one of the most popular toys of all time. He told her to remove the Magic Cube from her shelves, and he watched to make sure she complied.
The whole thing took about 10 minutes.
After the agents left, Cox called the manufacturer of the Magic Cube, the Toysmith Group, which is based in Auburn, Wash. A representative told her that the Homeland Security agents had it wrong. The Rubik's Cube patent had expired, and the Magic Cube did not infringe on rival toy's trademark.
John Ryan, corporate counsel for the Toysmith Group, said Homeland Security, which includes Customs, routinely blocks shipments of products from overseas that violate intellectual property rights, such as patents, copyrights and trademarks.
"That's fine. That's not an outrageous federal act by any means," Ryan said. "But we certainly were surprised that a federal agent approached a toy store owner and frightened them."
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said agents went to Pufferbelly based on a trademark infringement complaint filed in the agency's intellectual property rights center in Washington, D.C.
Kice also said Homeland Security officials routinely investigate such complaints and follow up if they determine they are valid.
"One of the things that our agency's responsible for doing is protecting the integrity of the economy and our nation's financial systems and obviously trademark infringement does have significant economic implications," she said.
After gaining assurances from Toysmith officials, Cox put the Magic Cube back on the shelf soon after the agents left.
Six weeks after her brush with Homeland Security, Cox is still scratching her head.
"Aren't there any terrorists out there?" she said.