In Memoriam

"The last full measure of their devotion..."

"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.

Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not have always. Take what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own.

And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind."

Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam
Listed as KIA February 7, 1978
The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall Page

Kenny and Georgie

Madison Capital Times

John Nichols: Bush and Ken Lay: partners in fraud

"The man who paid many of the biggest bills for George Bush's political ascent, Enron founder Kenneth Lay, has been found guilty of conspiracy and fraud almost five years after his dirty dealings created the greatest corporate scandal in what will be remembered as an era of corporate crime.

A Houston jury on Thursday found Lay guilty on six counts of fraud and conspiracy. In a separate decision, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake ruled that Lay was guilty of four counts of fraud and making false statements.

Lay, whom President Bush affectionately referred to as "Kenny boy" when the two forged an alliance in the 1990s to advance Bush's political ambitions and Lay's business prospects, contributed $122,500 to Bush's gubernatorial campaigns in Texas..."

WakeUpWalmart.com exposes Wal-mart's new health care plan for part-time workers

WakeUpWalmart.com

“Based on these new documents, either Wal-Mart falsely claimed it would offer its low cost plan to 50% of its Associates, or Wal-Mart has ‘transitioned’ many more workers to part-time than has been reported publicly. Either way, Wal-Mart’s rhetoric doesn’t match reality, and Wal-Mart workers are paying way too high a price,” said Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com.

Based on the two documents, it is obvious Wal-Mart’s “new health care changes” will do little to expand health care coverage for many of its 1.3 million employees. Rather, Wal-Mart’s health care changes are clearly structured to cut health care costs and minimize the public relations disaster from slashing over 200,000 full-time jobs and replacing or transitioning them with low paid part-time workers.

According to a JP Morgan report issued in January 2006, as well as the infamous internal health care memo authored by Wal-Mart Executive Vice President Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart publicly states it intends to shift hundreds of thousands of full-time workers to part-time status. In the two health care documents, Wal-Mart coldly refers to this shift as a “transition” and now describes part-time workers as “peak-time” employees.

What a complete and utter moron

This has GOT to be a crime in the U.K. If this happened here, I'd applaud his arrest and conviction. There is NO justification for calling for someone to be assassinated, especially by an act of terrorism (bombing).

U.K. Independent

The Respect MP George Galloway has said it would be morally justified for a suicide bomber to murder Tony Blair.

In an interview with GQ magazine, the reporter asked him: "Would the assassination of, say, Tony Blair by a suicide bomber - if there were no other casualties - be justified as revenge for the war on Iraq?"

The Media "Elites" War on Gore

Eric Boehlert writes...

"But this week, just as Gore's star rose with the release of his widely acclaimed movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," the press' utterly predictable backlash swung into action, proving that any attempt to erase 2000 from your memory is pointless because the Beltway press class' disdain for Gore knows no bounds and carries no expiration date. That's why one so-called liberal newspaper was busy this week publishing a right-wing attack against Gore over trivial matters like what exactly he did--and where he was--during the summer he turned 15. (I kid you not.) Chris Matthews was inviting guests on his show, and lauding them, for writing Gore "is one slice short of a loaf." PBS' Gwen Ifil was asking one Gore profiler if the former VP doesn't come off as "holier than thou." And MSNBC's Don Imus was ridiculing Gore as "the phoniest bastard on the planet--a horrid human being..."

One of the serious questions history has to answer is WHY the American Media became lapdogs to the Republican party. Was it media consolidation in the hands of pro-Republican corporations or did we just raise a generation of smug, know-it-all, "reality, WHAT reality?" wankers who came to inhabit the organs of official discourse?

History? We're waiting?

John Nichols: Rep. Jefferson hardly a Democrat

The DLC's man in Washington.

Madison Capital Times

Jefferson's has been one of the steadiest Democratic votes for the president's foreign policy agenda. He voted to authorize Bush to use force against Iraq, consistently supports emergency "supplemental" spending to maintain the occupation of that country, and favors deployment of the "Star Wars" Strategic Defense Initiative. He voted for the USA Patriot Act when it was rushed through Congress in 2001 and was a big backer of Vice President Cheney's national energy policy. And though his record on social issues is mixed, Jefferson has on a number of occasions cast his lot with the White House and its social-conservative allies to help enact restrictions on abortion, school prayer initiatives and a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage...

Site Upgrade

The site upgrade seems to have gone well. Only time will tell with these things. Thanks.

Update: It looks like I will have to work on the getting the comments to work properly.

"Not worth a bucket of warm spit."

Former Vice-President under FDR, Jack Garner once told Lyndon Johnson that the vice-presidency "wasn't worth a bucket of warm spit." We can now add four gutless wonders also know as Democratic Senators to the definition. Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory writes...

"Given the similarities, it sounds like Pat Roberts and John Rockefeller drafted their statements together, which is nice. Four Democrats -- Feinstein, Rockefeller, Levin and Mikulski -- voted for Hayden and then praised him lavishly. Three Democrats -- Feingold, Wyden and Bayh -- voted against him..."

The republicans make me crazy. These "Democrats" just suck the spirit right out of me.

And Mikulski is one of my senators. Damn.

The Radical Right: Stabbing America in the back

The June 2006 issue of Harper's Magazine has an excellent essay entitled STABBED IN THE BACK!: The past and future of a right-win myth by Kevin Baker (no link available yet). In it Mr. Baker writes...

"Every state must have its enemies. Great powers must have especially monstrous foes. Above all, these foes must arise from within, for national pride does not admit that a great nation can be defeated by any outside force. That is how, though its origins are elsewhere, the stab in the back has become the sustaining myth of modern American nationalism. Since the end of World War II it has been the device by which the American right wing has both revitalized itself and repeatedly avoided responsibility for its own worst blunders. Indeed, the right has distilled its tale of betrayal into a formula: Advocate some momentarily popular but reckless policy. Deny culpability when that policy is exposed as disastrous. Blame the disaster on internal enemies who hate America. Repeat, always making sure to increase the number of internal enemies..."

What is interesting about this process is, not so much that it has emerged after things have gone so terribly wrong in Iraq, but that it was built in to the Republican narrative since the terrorist attacks on September 11. From that day, every concern advanced by the Democrats about the build-up to war, every criticism of Bush and the Republican Congress handling of security issues and their relentless drive to undermine our constitutional protections has been met with hysterical claims that we Democrats and lefties HATE America and are joining with it's enemies to destroy it. This is the same narrative that was trotted out as eastern Europe fell to Communist regimes after WWII. The same bludgeon against the anti-war lefties as South Vietnam fell and the same now as Iraq and Afghanistan become a monstrous debacle.

Another word for it is scapegoating:

"In scapegoating, feelings of guilt, aggression, blame and suffering are transferred away from a person or group so as to fulfill an unconscious drive to resolve or avoid such bad feelings. This is done by the displacement of responsibility and blame to another who serves as a target for blame both for the scapegoater and his supporters. The scapegoating process can be understood as an example of the Drama Triangle concept [Karpman, 1968].

The perpetrator's drive to displace and transfer responsibility away from himself may not be experienced with full consciousness - self-deception is often a feature. The target's knowledge that he is being scapegoated builds slowly and follows events. The scapegoater's target experiences exclusion, ostracism or even expulsion.

In so far as the process is unconscious it is more likely to be denied by the perpetrator. In such cases, any bad feelings - such as the perpetrator's own shame and guilt - are also likely to be denied. Scapegoating frees the perpetrator from some self-dissatisfaction and provides some narcissistic gratification to him. It enables the self-righteous discharge of aggression. Scapegoaters tend to have extra-punitive characteristics [Kraupl-Taylor, 1953].

Scapegoating also can be seen as the perpetrator's defense mechanism against unacceptable emotions such as hostility and guilt. In Kleinian terms, scapegoating is an example of projective identification, with the primitive intent of splitting: separating the good from the bad [Scheidlinger, 1982]. On another view, scapegoaters are insecure people driven to raise their own status by lowering the status of their target [Carter, 1996]."

It's also interesting that George W. Bush is being fitted out for his goat suit by the radical right. One of the major attacks emerging against him from that quarter is that he is a LIBERAL and has betrayed the principals of conservatism. Every fawning peon to Bush from the last 5 years has been conveniently forgotten. His elevation to the godhead of the Conservative cause is now no longer applicable. Never mind that this idiot son was foisted on the country by a radical right slavering for absolute control of every aspect of the government. Never mind that the attack on governance and the resulting failures (9/11, Katrina, Iraq) can be laid on the doorstep of the RNC. No, it's the Liberals fault.

It's time we hammer home exactly who is to blame for everything that has gone wrong since President Gore was denied his office. America was not "stabbed in the back" by some crazed lefties. It was betrayed by the Radical Right of the Republican party who's hatred of New Deal protections and progressive government became a maniacal obsession. To them the Constitution of the United States was a convenient myth to be set aside when the chance came for Real Power.

It's time to put the blame for these Un-American activities exactly where it belongs: The Republican Party of the United States.

Republicanland

We don't live in America anymore. Land of the free and home of the brave? What's that? Free press keeping the people informed about their government? Are you kidding? 9/11! Boo!

Welcome to the Empire of the Republicans.

Yahoo News

Attorney Gen.: Reporters Can Be Prosecuted

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday he believes journalists can be prosecuted for publishing classified information, citing an obligation to national security.

The nation's top law enforcer also said the government will not hesitate to track telephone calls made by reporters as part of a criminal leak investigation, but officials would not do so routinely and randomly...

Bush on the job

Bush likes to dress himself up as men who are actually doing the job. President Photo-op. I guess that's why he requires photos like this one to be hidden away.

Congress is Corrupt.

Editor & Publisher

Gallup Finds Sudden Upsurge in Number of Americans Who Think Congress is Corrupt

The Gallup Poll reports today that "The percentage of Americans who say that most members of Congress are corrupt has increased significantly from the beginning of this year, and is now at the point at which slightly fewer than half of Americans believe most members are corrupt."

While it may be true that, comparatively, the Republicans are held in greater disregard, the Democrats only fare a little better. One can attribute this to the "rope-a-dope" strategy advocated by Democratic consultants but a fair share must be laid to the doorstep of "corporate-friendly" Dems who can't quite bring themselves to join the reformist bandwagon.

After all, if you came to office during the 90's and drunk the Republican "Kool-Aide For Getting Elected" by kowtowing to corporate and business interests, the last thing you can understand is a populist movement to liberate the political structure from the "culture of corruption".

Sadly, there is a small percentage of Dems who think the problem with the Republicans is, not that they are corrupt, but that they are too greedy.

Snakes in the grass

The people who brought you the Republican Culture of Corruption are more than willing to turn the Democratic Party to their devices.

TPM Cafe

As progressive Democrats from California to New Hampshire hold their traditional Jefferson-Jackson Day dinners, they must pause for a groan at ex-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin�s April ploy for re-lionizing himself as the party�s top economic thinker. It�s a Washington-based bit of pretentiousness called � of all things � the Hamilton Project.

Rubin, now Chairman of the Executive Committee of Citigroup, the world�s biggest bank, co-chairs the HP with fellow Wall Streeter Roger Altman, in thinly disguised pursuit of moving party policymaking from the grassroots of voter primaries and caucuses to the golden financial roots of Manhattan. Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, who loathed Federalist Alexander Hamilton and what he stood for � using government to support the monied classes � must be rolling over in their graves...

Comments

The site is getting "comment" spammed something fierce, so I had to shut down comments until I install a filter. I have to do a little research. Thanks - the fightingdem

I really hate Internet Explorer

Really.

Police State

At some point, probably after the November elections, we're finally going to have to take away the Administration and Congressional Republicans "Get out to jail free" card called the 9/11-Terrorist Excuse that gets hauled out at every revelation of criminal, malfeasance, misfeasance and just plain asshole behavior that these guys get caught at. Case in point: the massive intrusion into domestic privacy by the NSA and our phone records.

Protect the homefront, my ass.

According to Josh Marshall...

If that's true, then I think we can set aside any pretense that administration policy on all manner of electronic surveillance isn't being brought to bear on political opponents, media critics, the press, everybody.

Would you like a little cheese STFU with that whine?

International Herald Tribune

Howard Dean was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee on a promise: To send millions of dollars in contributions to build up state Democratic parties, even in states that vote solidly Republican. Fifteen months after taking office, he has done precisely that. But the policy that has come to define his tenure to date - while delighting state Democratic chairmen - has embroiled him in a battle with the two congressional Democrats leading the effort to retake Congress.

Dean is doing the job he was voted into the position to do: change the power structure of the Democratic party away from the Washington Insiders and move it to the state parties. The resulting whine is typical. First we heard from that pissant Begala earlier this week now Emanuel and Schumer pipe up.

We take back the country and we take back the party. There's no reason we can't do both at the same time.

SNL: If Al Gore were President

Crooks and Liars

Announcer: And now, a message from the President of the United States.

President Al Gore:

Good evening, my fellow Americans. In 2000 when you overwhelmingly made the decision to elect me as your 43rd president, I knew the road ahead would be difficult. We have accomplished so much yet challenges lie ahead.

In the last 6 years we have been able to stop global warming. No one could have predicted the negative results of this. Glaciers that once were melting are now on the attack. As you know, these renegade glaciers have already captured parts of upper Michigan and northern Maine, but I assure you: we will not let the glaciers win.

Right now, in the 2nd week of May 2006, we are facing perhaps the worst gas crisis in history. We have way too much gasoline. Gas is down to $0.19 a gallon and the oil companies are hurting. I know that I am partly to blame by insisting that cars run on trash.

I am therefore proposing a federal bailout to our oil companies because- hey if it were the other way around, you know the oil companies would help us...

Al Gore: Restoring the Rule of Law

"A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adament that they had established a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution-our system of checks and balances-was designed with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams said: "The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men."

An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the legitimate legislative directive of the Congress or to act free of the check of the judiciary becomes the central treat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution-an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whome they had broken free. In the words of James Madison, "the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and jusiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown

Jake Gittes: I just want to know what you're worth. Over ten million?
Noah Cross: Oh my, yes.
Jake Gittes: Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What can you buy that you can't already afford?
Noah Cross: The future, Mr. Gitts, the future.

Los Angeles Times

"All right, I'll come clean," she said, slumping in a chaise lounge that probably cost the average income of the bottom fifth. "I work for the Republican National Committee, and we're starting to get spooked by the president's poll numbers on the economy. We figured if we don't get a little trickle-down soon, it could hurt us in 2006, not to mention '08."

I kicked myself for not seeing it sooner. "So you don't give a damn about the structural factors driving the productivity/wage gap: the declining unions, low minimum wage, the profit squeeze, slack job creation and, most of all, the way globalization is sapping the bargaining clout of the American worker, blue and white collar alike."

"Why should I?" she said, finally showing her true colors. "Any intervention would just cuff the invisible hand, doing more harm than good." She was Milton Friedman with the body of Scarlett Johansson. I had to get outta there.

I guess I can stop feeling guilty now

I drive a Toyota Sienna.

Wall Street Journal

Few sports cars have captured the nation's imagination like the sleek Ford Mustang, a 21st-century reincarnation of an American classic. The Toyota Sienna minivan, by contrast, speaks to the utilitarian aesthetics of Japan: refined interiors, arm rests and lots and lots of cup holders.

Yet, by a crucial measure, the Sienna is far more American than the Mustang. Statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that were publicized in "Auto Industry Update: 2006," a presentation by Farmington Hills, Mich., research company CSM Worldwide, show only 65% of the content of a Ford Mustang comes from the U.S. or Canada. Ford Motor Co. buys the rest of the Mustang's parts abroad. By contrast, the Sienna, sold by Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., is assembled in Indiana with 90% local components.

Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Dinner

An edited transcript:

Wow, wow, what an honor. The White House Correspondents' Dinner. To just sit here, at the same table with my hero, George W. Bush, to be this close to the man. I feel like I'm dreaming. Somebody pinch me. You know what, I'm a pretty sound sleeper, that may not be enough. Somebody shoot me in the face.

Is he really not here tonight? The one guy who could have helped.

By the way, before I get started, if anybody needs anything at their tables, speak slowly and clearly into your table numbers and somebody from the NSA will be right over with a cocktail.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press corps, Mr. President and first lady, my name is Stephen Colbert and it's my privilege tonight to celebrate our president. He's not so different, he and I. We get it. We're not brainiacs on the nerd patrol. We're not members of the "fact-inista." We go straight from the gut, right sir? That's where the truth lies, right down here in the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. I know some of you are going to say "I did look it up," and that's not true. That's because you looked it up in a book. Next time look it up in your gut. I did. My gut tells me that's how our nervous system works.

Every night on my show, "The Colbert Report," I speak straight from the gut, OK? I give people the truth, unfiltered by rational argument. I call it the no-fact zone. Fox News, I own the copyright on that term.

I'm a simple man with a simple mind, with a simple set of beliefs that I live by.

Number one, I believe in America. I believe it exists. My gut tells me I live there. I feel that it extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and I strongly believe it has 50 states. And I cannot wait to see how the Washington Post spins that one tomorrow.

I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least. And by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.

I believe in pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. I believe it is possible -- I saw this guy do it once in Cirque du Soleil. It was magical.

And though I am a committed Christian, I believe everyone has the right to their own religion, be it Hindu, Jewish or Muslim. I believe there are infinite paths to accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior.

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe it's yogurt. But I refuse to believe it's not butter. Most of all I believe in this president. Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32 percent approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in "reality." And reality has a well-known liberal bias.

So, Mr. President, pay no attention to the people that say the glass is half full. Pay no attention to the people who say the glass is half empty, because 32 percent means it's 2/3 empty. There's still some liquid in that glass is my point, but I wouldn't drink it. The last third is usually backwash.

Folks, my point is that I don't believe this is a low point in this presidency. I believe it is just a lull, before a comeback. I mean, it's like the movie "Rocky." The president is Rocky and Apollo Creed is everything else in the world. It's the 10th round. He's bloodied, his corner man [is] Mick, who in this case would be the vice president, and he's yelling "Cut me, Dick, cut me," and every time he falls she says stay down! Does he stay down? No. Like Rocky, he gets back up and in the end he -- actually loses in the first movie. OK. It doesn't matter. The point is the heart-warming story of a man who was repeatedly punched in the face.

So don't pay attention to the approval ratings that say 68 percent of Americans disapprove of the job this man is doing. I ask you this, does that not also logically mean that 68 percent approve of the job he's not doing? Think about it. I haven't.

I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.

Now, there may be an energy crisis. This president has a very forward-thinking energy policy. Why do you think he's down on the ranch cutting that brush all the time? He's trying to create an alternative energy source. By 2008 we will have a mesquite-powered car.

And I just like the guy. He's a good joe. Obviously loves his wife, calls her his better half. And polls show America agrees. She's a true lady and a wonderful woman. But I just have one beef, ma'am. I'm sorry, but this reading initiative. I've never been a fan of books. I don't trust them. They're all fact, no heart. I mean, they're elitists telling us what is or isn't true, what did or didn't happen. What's Britannica to tell me the Panama Canal was built in 1914. If I want to say it was built in 1941, that's my right as an American. I'm with the president, let history decide what did or did not happen.

The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change, this man's beliefs never will.

And as excited as I am to be here with the president, I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America, with the exception of Fox News. Fox News gives you both sides of every story -- the President's side and the vice president's side. But the rest of you, what are you thinking, reporting on NSA wiretapping or secret prisons in Eastern Europe? Those things are secret for a very important reason -- they're super depressing. And if that's your goal, well, misery accomplished.

Over the last five years you people were so good over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn't want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out. Those were good times, as far as we knew.

But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The president makes decisions, he's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home.

Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know, fiction.

Security, White House Style

The incompetence is staggering but you already knew that.

WUSA

"It appears to be a White House staff schedule for the President's trip to Florida Tuesday. And a sanitation worker was alarmed to find in the trash long hours before Mr. Bush left for his trip.

It's the kind of thing you would expect would be shredded or burned, not thrown in the garbage.
Randy Hopkins could not believe what he was seeing.

There on the floor next to a big trash truck was a thick sheaf of papers with nearly every detail of the President's voyage.

�I saw locations and names and places where the President was going to be. I knew it was important. And it shouldn't have been in a trash hole like this,� he said.

Hopkins works in sanitation. He's an ex-con, and he's worried about fallout from talking to us, so he's asked us not to say exactly where he's employed. But he also felt it was his civic duty to tell somebody about what he'd found.

�We're going through a war, and if it would have fell into the wrong hands at the right time, it would have been something really messy for the President's sake,� he said..."

Sweet Jeebus

Every time Hillary opens her big fat mouth is one more reason I won't support her in the primary.

Yahoo News

"He is someone who has a lot of charm and charisma, and I think in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, I was very grateful to him for his support for New York," Clinton said Tuesday night during a talk at the National Archives about her life in politics.

Clinton, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, said that despite their "many disagreements about many, many issues," she has always had a good personal relationship with the president.

"He's been very willing to talk. He's been affable. He's been good company," said Clinton, D-N.Y..."

The Left has been beastly to Richard Cohen again

In which Richard Cohen stomps his little feet and yells, "Oh yeah! Well...so's you're old man!"

"Truth to tell, I peeked into only a few of the e-mails. I did this because I would sometimes recognize a name I thought I knew, which was almost always a mistake. When I guilelessly clicked on the name, I would get a bucket of raw, untreated and disease-laden verbal sewage right in the face..."

So welcome to the online world, Cohen. It's savage, raw and filled with people who say nasty things. Anybody who's run a blog, participated in an online forum or made the mistake of exercising an opinion and revealing their email address could tell you the same.

"Usually, the subject line said it all. Some were friendly and agreed that Colbert had not been funny. Most, though, were in what we shall call disagreement. Fine. I said the man wasn't funny and not funny has a bullying quality to it; others (including some of my friends) said he was funny. But because I held such a view, my attentive critics were convinced I had a political agenda. I was -- as was most of the press, I found out -- George W. Bush's lap dog. If this is the case, Bush had better check his lap..."

I not surprised you missed the point. What Colbert did, in the guise of his television character, is engage in a little "street theatre". He essentially told Bush he was a bully and a lying coward. He then turned to the Washington press and told them they were enabling whores, sitting down and breaking bread with Bush when they should have been out running down the evidence of his little criminal enterprise that he calls his administration. If Colbert was unfunny it is because Bush is not funny. The mainstream Press is not funny.

"What to make of all this? First, it's not about Colbert. His show has an audience of about 1 million -- not exactly "American Idol" numbers..."

Oooo, that had to hurt. I'm sure you have A MUCH WIDER AUDIENCE than Colbert. You sure put HIM in his place.

"The hatred is back. I know it's only words now appearing on my computer screen, but the words are so angry, so roiled with rage, that they are the functional equivalent of rocks once so furiously hurled during antiwar demonstrations. I can appreciate some of it. Institution after institution failed America -- the presidency, Congress and the press. They all endorsed a war to rid Iraq of what it did not have. Now, though, that gullibility is being matched by war critics who are so hyped on their own sanctimony that they will obliterate distinctions, punishing their friends for apostasy and, by so doing, aiding their enemies. If that's going to be the case, then Iraq is a war its critics will lose twice -- once because they couldn't stop it and once more at the polls."

What Cohen does here is advance the RED HERRING FALLACY. In Attacking Faulty Reasoning T. Edward Damer writes...

"The strange name of this fallacy comes from the sport of fox hunting. A herring is cooked to a brownish-red color and its strong smell is used to train dogs to follow the fox scent. Dogs that can be easily pulled off are not ready for the real hunt. People who oppose fox hunting also use herring to pull dogs off a scent. In argument, using a red herring means consciously or unconsciously steering a debate away from one issue to a different, perhaps related issue in such a way as to make it appear that the related issue is relevant to the issue at hand, but primarily as a means of avoiding the obligation of addressing the main issue or criticism."

In focusing on the bad language and "hatred" of his critics, Cohen plops down a big fat "red herring". In telling us that Colbert was "unfunny" and that his critics are "hateful" he avoids the main argument against Cohen himself: that what he writes is largely irrelevant and pointless and serves the purposes of those who are damaging this country.

Rather beastly of him, what?

Whorehouses

Molly Ivins says...

"You know me, no conspiracy theories here, but the Bush administration, which doesn�t seem to be able to run much, set out to retool the CIA after 9/11 and the Iraq war. Problem is, everything that worked at the CIA�that it warned about 9/11 and said the Iraq war was a bad idea�was on the hit list. The Bushies wanted to eliminate the people who were right and promote those who were wrong. This is no way to shape up an intelligence agency, not to mention the White House spit fit over Joe Wilson�s wife..."

Defraud and Deprive

Here you go...

Josh reports about the plea agreement worked out for Neil G. Volz, former top aide to Bob Ney (R-OH, I'm so screwed). I found this passage to be telling (my emphasis added)...

"9. From 1999 through 2004, in the District of Columbia, and elsewhere, the defendant, NEIL G. Volz, did knowingly conspire and agree with Abramoff, Scanlon, Rudy, and others to commit the following offenses against the United States:

a. to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud and deprive the citizens of the United States and the United States Congress of the right to the honest services of public officials, including the right to conscientious, loyal, faithful, disinterested and unbiased service to be performed free of deceit, undue influence, conflict of interest, self-enrichment, self-dealing and concealment, by corruptly accepting, while defendant VOLZ was a public official, and by corruptly offering to public officials, while defendant VOLZ was a lobbyist, a stream of things of value, with the intent to influence and reward official action and agreements to perform action, all contrary to..."

It looks like John Dean had it right when he wrote...

"What counts as "fraud" under the statute? Simply put, "any conspiracy for the purpose of impairing, obstructing, or defeating the lawful function of any department of government."

Now John Dean was commenting specifically about the outing of Valerie Plame but the law covers any criminal act or conspiracy that deprives the people of the United States from the proper, honest services of it's employees (including congressmen).

Listen carefully, hear that? That's the 8:15 Clusterfuck Express heading toward the Republican Congress and all who sail in her.

Couldn't happen to a bunch of nicer guys.

Having a bad day

Sometimes the bastards DO wear you down. I tried to write a couple of posts over the weekend but the bile kept rising in my throat and I couldn't bring myself to do it. Same this morning. Maybe I'll just get out and do a bunch of stuff and try again later.

The Black Hole of Hackery

PZ Myers points us to this delightful corner of the universe (and I mean that in a good way)...

Cosmic Variance

"...So in fact, Reynolds has managed to fit five units of wrongness into only four declarative statements! This is the hackular equivalent of crossing the Chandrasekhar Limit, at which point your blog cannot help but collapse in on itself. It is unknown at this point whether the resulting end state will be an intermediate neutron-blog phase, or whether the collapse will proceed all the way to a singularity surrounded by a black hole event horizon. We may have to wait for the neutrino signal to be sure."

Maintenance

I had to remove the "blog feeds" in the right column. While it was an incredibly cool feature, it slowed updating the site to a crawl and if there was the least problem with the feed it broke refreshing the page. I spent a lot of time getting the look and feel just right so it breaks my heart to have to let it go. I replaced it with the inestimable Smirking Chimp and Media Matters feeds.

Friday Cat Blogging

C'mon, you know you laughed.

Richard Manning: A conservatism that once conserved

Common Dreams

"During that time, I've gotten to know a few of my neighbors. Just a few; that's the way the world works now. Many of those encounters arose through heated conversations, all with the same theme. For example, once I politely complained to a man that his rotund and rottenly spoiled child was using his filthy, obnoxious dirt bike to cut furrows up the side of my land, and it was not their crookedness that upset me. The man said, "We moved out here so my boy could ride his dirt bike wherever he wanted."

The odd part is that this man and many of the rest of my neighbors call themselves conservative. I am not assuming; one only need read the stickers and flags covering their SUVs. Yet what is the foundation of this conservatism if it disregards what the neighbors might think, that is, ignores the community standard?

This is not a small matter. A misguided notion of freedom lies at the heart of the suburban cancer on the landscape. My neighbors will tell you they moved because in rural America you are free to do as you please. Where did they get this idea? Rural America, at least when there was a functioning rural America, never advertised any such freedom. Just the opposite..."

The face of what's wrong with the Democratic Party.

(Update Below)

He's also made news in recent days in his criticism of Stephen Colbert for his comments at the Washington Press Correspondents Dinner. Kos has a good take on it here.

I also know from acquaintances here in Maryland that Steny was adamantly opposed to the election of Howard Dean to the chairmanship of the DNC. He was calling in all his chits with voting DNC members before the vote for the Chair. You see, Hoyer hates lefties or anyone who remotely looks like a lefty. They smell up the party.

Now, I don't consider myself some kind of far left ideologue although I do consider myself a good liberal, progressive and environmentalist. You can see my allegiances if you glance to the left of the site. I'm a Dean Democrat. Which to me is defined as socially progressive/fiscally responsible. Howard Dean governed Vermont according to those values. He ticked off some in Vermont's liberal community because he didn't want to raise taxes to finance some of their projects. And yet, no one would mistake this man for a Republican and if there is any over-riding trait to his character it is his integrity and compassion. I don't agree with Dean in everything hs says, but I agree with him enough to wish there were more in the Democratic Party like him.

Steny Hoyer represents everything wrong in the Party today. Congressmen (and women) who have carved out their own little niche and have no loyalty to the Party as a whole. I have read that he likes to run any legislation he writes or co-sponsors by his K Street lobbyist donors and benefactors to get their approval before submitting it to Congress. He is loyal to Steny Hoyer first, his donors second, the constituency he's nurtured throughout his political life last. He has aligned himself with pro-Bush war party and stabbed House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi in the back over it.

The New Republic: "That was hardly a surprise. Even the Democrats at the microphones couldn't agree. Standing beside Pelosi was her deputy, the garrulous silver-haired Democratic whip, Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Only the week before, Pelosi and Hoyer had delivered starkly divergent responses to Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha's dramatic pre-Thanksgiving call for a rapid withdrawal from Iraq. Within days, Pelosi had endorsed Murtha's plan, while Hoyer released a statement warning of a national security "disaster" if U.S. troops exited too quickly. A just-published Washington Post story about how moderates like Hoyer were unhappy with Pelosi had everyone on edge. At a breakfast that very morning, Roll Call would later report, Hoyer had exchanged tense words with one of Pelosi's top confidantes, George Miller of California. Murtha, meanwhile, was making his irritation with Hoyer known to other members..."

In all likely hood, Hoyer will assume the second leadership position when the Democrats take back in Congress in 2006. He will assume power and a position of responsibility he has only dreamed about for years.

But he is up for re-election in 2008 and he is in for a surprise. A small army of Maryland progressives willing to hit the streets working for any decent progressive candidate who comes along to challenge him in the primary. The Lamont/Lieberman struggle is only the first act and I'm sure the Democratic powers-that-be won't be happy but they better get used to it.

We're taking back the Party, too.

Update: Visit and read David Sirota at mydd.com. Here's an excerpt...

"But then, we shouldn't be surprised by Hoyer's behavior. As I document in my new book Hostile Takeover, Hoyer has long led the charge to emasculate the Democratic Party. Whether on economic policy, on the war, on trade policy or on just generally selling out to Big Money interests, Hoyer has self-servingly gone out of his way to undermine his party. Put another way - if you are looking for one of the root causes of the Democratic Party's problems, look no further than Steny Hoyer..."

Carpet bombing our way to heaven

I was going to try to give my take on all this but Glenn Greenwald does it so much better than I ever could at his blog Unclaimed Territory

"Escalating the use of military force in Iraq by indiscriminately killing civilians and eradicating whole cities would contradict every single statement we have made about why we are there, what we want to achieve, and what our plan is in that region. We're not refraining from those acts because of white guilt or a fear of what European diplomats will say about us. We're refraining from them because the wholesale indiscriminate slaughter of thousands or tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis -- all because we have grown impatient and annoyed with our pet little democracy-building project and just want to bomb the whole place into submission -- would be both morally reprehensible and, from the perspective of our own interests, and indescribably stupid thing to do.

To sit and listen to people who have spent the last three years piously lecturing us on the need to stand with "the Iraqi people," who justified our invasion of that country on the grounds that we want to give them a better system of government because we must make Muslims like us more, now insist that what we need to do is bomb them with greater force and less precision is really rather vile -- but highly instructive. The masks are coming off. No more poetic tributes to democracy or all that sentimental whining about "hearts and minds." It's time to shed our unwarranted white guilt, really stretch our legs and let our hair down, and just keep bombing and bombing until we kill enough of them and win..."

The Second Bill of Rights

more info

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his product at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.