POLL: BUSH LOSING TFM SUPPORT!

Fellow Eschatonian, Litz, found this little tid-bit. If you have friends in the 30% please e-mail it to them. Hell just e-mail it to EVERYONE!

POLL: BUSH LOSING TFM SUPPORT

A nation divided?

WASHINGTON, May 11 - President Bush appears to be losing support among a key group of voters who had hitherto stood firmly with the president even as his poll numbers among other groups fell dramatically.

A new Gallup poll shows that, for the first time, Bush's approval rating has fallen below 50% among total f**ing morons, and now stands at 44%. This represents a dramatic drop compared to a poll taken just last December, when 62% of total f**ing morons expressed support for the president and his policies.

The current poll, conducted by phone with 1,409 total f**ing morons between May 4 and May 8, reveals that only 44% of those polled believe the president is doing a good job, while 27% believe he is doing a poor job and 29% don't understand the question. The December poll, conducted by phone with 1,530 total f**ing morons, showed 62% approved of the president, 7% disapproved and 31% didn't understand the question.

Faltering approval ratings for the president among a group once thought to be a reliable source of loyal support gives Republicans one more reason to be nervous about the upcoming mid-term elections. "If we can't depend on the support of total f**ing morons," says Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), "then we've got a big problem. They're a key factor in our electoral strategy, and an important part of today's Republican coalition."

"We've taken the total f**ing moron vote for granted," says Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), "and now we're paying for it. We've let the Democrats control the debate lately, and they've dragged discourse back into the realm of complex, nuanced issues. So your average total f**ing moron turns on his TV and sees his Republican Congressman arguing about Constitutional law or the complexities of state formation in the Middle East, and he tunes out. He wants to hear comforting, pandering, flattering bromides and he doesn't want to hear a logical argument more complex than what you'd find on a bumper sticker."

For Feeney, the poll is a dire warning that Republicans can ignore only at their peril. "This should send a signal that we have to regain control of the debate if we want the support of our key constituencies in the coming election and beyond. We need to bring public discourse back into the realm of stupidity and vacuity. We should be talking about homosexual illegal immigrants burning flags. We should be talking about the power of pride. We should be talking about freedom fries. These are the issues that resonate with total f**ing morons."

Katherine Harris Going Down In Flames!

Katherine's biggest opponent her own party.

Newsday.com
Poll: Harris Doesn't Have Much GOP Support
By BRENT KALLESTAD
Associated Press Writer
June 30, 2006, 11:20 AM EDT (Link)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris doesn't have overwhelming support among fellow Republicans in her bid to be their nominee for U.S. Senate, according to a poll released Friday, despite her reputation as being a party heroine for her role in the 2000 presidential recount.

Harris, of Sarasota, also still lags far behind in a general election matchup with incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Melbourne Democrat who still would beat any Republican in the race, according to the poll by Quinnipiac University. Nelson had 59 percent to 26 percent for Harris, virtually unchanged from a month ago.

Quote Of The Day

"Jesus was a nice guy, he didn't need this shit."
John Prine (1946)
Folksinger & Songwriter

Links
Official John Prine Website
Wikipedia Entry
John Prine at Amazon

Was This Really Necessary?

First off I am not a purveyor or probably the first person you would ask about pop culture. Shit when I was younger I was probably the wrong person to ask. but Jesbus Christmas man!

What the fig newton does Disney do to its child stars that makes them turn out like this:(For more)

Don't get me wrong I think pregnant woman are beautiful and DAMN sexy, but Crust on a Cheezit! Britany has tongue wrestled Madonna, droping kids like flies (take that how ya like, and now doing a Demi Moore.

Christina seems to be caught in a sado-masochistic rage that she takes out on the world by simply getting dressed! Then there is lovely Ann Hathaway who to dispense with her Disney image is showing her tits everywhere see Havocor or Brokeback Mountain. Oh and Justin Timberlake, outside of coping a feel of Janet a few years back, seems to be perfecting the street urchin/heroin bag man look.

Jus Sayin'

Bill Frist, Blames CNN For His Being An Jackass.

Y'know for a guy who enjoys gorilla surgery, killing cats, and diagnosing dead people as alive from over 800 miles away Bill Frist really shouldn't throw stones. In his continuing effort to undermine his own 2008 presidential run, he's a close second to Joe Biden in this category, Bill Frist blames the media! Yes like that MSTK classic "I Accuse My Parents", Billy blames the ever present media for exposing what a do-nothing, reactionary, fuckstick the current majority leader really is.

Raw Story June 28,2006
Frist blames CNN for low Republican poll numbers
David Edwards
Published: Wednesday June 28, 2006

Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) appeared on CNN's American Morning to explain why the Senate is spending time on issues like flag burning while polls indicate that the American people are more concerned about Iraq and the economy....

O'Brien went on to ask "Cat Killer" Frist that getting the Republican message out to the public is the majority leader's job. Frist's replied:

Well, you know, it's part of my job and your job and your whole coming into this was, again, saying [from] Harry Reid that we are spending all of our time on marriage -- which is important. That we're spending all of the time on flag without mentioning what we've done of the floor for six weeks. Iraq, the war on terror, making you safer... where's your coverage of that? What you do is concentrate on things that are spun to you from the other side of the aisle and that's why that message doesn't get out."

Is Frist referring to that bullshit resolution that he and his party coughed up like one of my cats hairballs. Maybe it was villifying the Democrats demanding a time table for withdrawal from Iraq? Which by the way Army command, less than 48hrs later, put out a similar withdrawal plan. The feed the wackos "Flag Amendment, and the whole gay marriage fiasco, was about as transparent as Britany Spears dress on Today. Jesus H Crumbles!

If one takes a look at the Senate calendar you might ask your self when are these rhubarbs IN SESSION.

Tentative Schedule,109th Congress, 2nd Session (LINK)

January 18 Senate Convenes

February 20 - 24 Senate not in session
February 27 (Monday) Senate reconvenes

March 20 - 24 Senate not in session
March 27 (Monday) Senate reconvenes

April 10 - 21 Senate not in session
April 24 (Monday) Senate reconvenes

May 29 - June 2 Senate not in session
May 29 Memorial Day (observed)

June 5 (Monday) Senate reconvenes

July 3 - 7 Senate not in session
July 4 Independence Day
July 10 (Monday) Senate reconvenes

August 7 - September 4 Senate not in session
September 4 Labor Day
September 5 (Tuesday) Senate reconvenes

October 6 Target Adjournment Date

The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!

Well this certainly complicates things and give the occupation another black eye, as if the first one had ever healed.

Putin orders 4 hostages' killers found
JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia's special services to hunt down and "destroy" the killers of four Russian diplomats in Iraq, the Kremlin said.

Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the Federal Security Service - the main successor to the Soviet KGB - later said that everything would be done to ensure that the killers "do not escape from responsibility," the Interfax news agency reported.

"The president has ordered the special forces to take all necessary measures to find and destroy the criminals who killed Russian diplomats in Iraq," the Kremlin press service said in a brief statement....

... The lower house of the Russian parliament passed a statement earlier Wednesday that decried the murders and said that "occupying" countries are losing control in Iraq.

Russia has strongly opposed the U.S.-led military campaign in Iraq.

The statement by the State Duma "deplores the death of our compatriots ... expresses profound indignation over the fact of their brutal murder and strongly denounces the criminals who committed that heinous crime."

It said the abduction and killing were possible because "of the deepening crisis in Iraq, while the occupying countries are losing control over the situation, and terror and violence are becoming the order of the day in that country."

Quote Of The Day

Freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of achieving a free society.
Felix Frankfurter (1882-1965)
Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States (1939-1962)

LINKS
Entry at Oyez (SCOTUS Multimedia)
Wikipedia Entry
Some major decisons

Rushbo Sex Show?

Pissed on Politcs and a commentor there have brought up a very interesting points:

Kenny's Bunk Port asks the musical question:

Why would a giant douche take Viagra to the Dominican Republic?
A sex vacation perhaps?
He took the Viagra with him to the Dominican.
The prescription was written in Florida.

With that said why would Kenny go in that direction, especially with a paragon of Chrisatian virtue like Rush??? Pollshifter informs us that:

Common sense dictates however that if you go on vacation and make sure to pack your Viagra, something is going to happen involving sex either with yourself or someone else.

The question is, where did Rush go?

I'm guessing Sinsation was his destination. (PARENTAL WARNING!)

Although Rush is kind of a dirty bastard so he may have preferred Black Beard's Adult Resort.(PARENTAL WARNING!)

A commentor at Pissed on Politcs disagreed, in part, about Rush's intentions while in the Dominican Republic:

telly belly said...
If you think Rush was looking for under-aged girls in the DR, well, you are half-right...

I think I will go throw up now.

Quote Of The Day

"Ice-cream is exquisite - what a pity it isn't illegal."
Voltaire (1694-1778)
Philosopher, Essayist, Deist

Links
Wikipedia Entry
Works of Voltaire (Project Guttenberg)
The Voltaire Society of America

SPIN BABY SPIN!

CNN REPORTS:

The 55-year-old radio commentator's luggage was examined by U.S. Customs and Border Protection after his private plane landed at the airport around 2 p.m. from the Dominican Republic, said Paul Miller, spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

Customs officials found in Limbaugh's luggage a prescription bottle labeled as Viagra, a prescription drug that treats erectile disfunction, Miller said.

"The problem was that on the bottle itself was not his name, but the name of two Florida doctors," Miller said...

However, the sheriff's office plans to file a report with the state attorney's office.

"We believe there may be a second degree misdemeanor violation, which is possession of certain drugs without a prescription, because the bottle does not have his name on it," Miller said.

A doctor had prescribed the drug, but it was "labeled as being issued to the physician rather than Mr. Limbaugh for privacy purposes," Roy Black, Limbaugh's attorney, said in a statement.

Um yeah.... well that makes sense.....Sure doesn't everyone's doctor do that. Not sure but that sounds like fraud as well as trafficking... but hey that's me.

Limbaugh Detained At Airport!

"What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use, too many whites are getting away with drug sales, too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too."
Rush Limbaugh. October 5, 1995

According to CBS4 (Miami-Ft Lauderdale) Rushbo has been detained at Plam Beach International, after returning from the Dominican Republic, for:
wait for it...

wait for it....

If you said ILLEGAL PERSCRIPTION DRUGS give that reader a cigar! Amongst his pharmaceutical purchases was unspecified amounts of VIAGRA! Gee maybe that Limpdick joke had some merit after all.

C&L has audio of Limbaugh's feelings about drug addicts... hmmmm....smell the irony! Click Here.

From SCOTUS

Justices: Defendants can hire own lawyers
6/26/2006, 2:53 p.m. ET
By TONI LOCY
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defendants are automatically entitled to new trials if their choices of attorneys are wrongly blocked by judges, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.

By a 5-4 vote, justices said Cuauhtemoc Gonzalez-Lopez has a constitutional right to the attorney of his choice under the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of assistance of counsel.

"It commands, not that a trial be fair, but that a particular guarantee of fairness be provided — to wit, that the accused be defended by the counsel he believes to be the best," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority.

In his first written dissent, Justice Samuel Alito accused Scalia of making "a subtle but important mistake" in interpreting the constitutional guarantee. Alito said "the focus of the right is the quality of the representation ... not the identity of the attorney who provides the representation."

But Scalia insisted the identity of defense counsel does matter. "Different attorneys will pursue different strategies," he wrote. "And the choice of attorney will affect whether and on what terms the defendant cooperates with the prosecution, plea bargains, or decides instead to go to trial."

Quote Of The Day

"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher."
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?)
Author, Humorist

Links
The Ambrose Bierce Society
Wikipedia Entry
The Devil's Dictionary Online
Bierce's Works (E-Text) and Bio

Brooklyn Marine killed in Iraq

June 24, 2006
On His 21st Birthday, a Marine Is Mourned
By SARAH GARLAND

Lance Cpl. Nicholas J. Whyte did not tell anyone he was signing up for the Marines, his father recalled yesterday. The war in Iraq had just begun, and he knew his family would be upset. They were.

But yesterday, as he stood outside the family's home in Marine Park, Brooklyn, mourning the death of his son on what would have been his 21st birthday, Andre Whyte, a captain with the city's Department of Correction, said, "He never did anything a father couldn't be proud of."

The last time his family spoke with Corporal Whyte was Sunday, when he called Captain Whyte to wish him a happy Father's Day. He promised to be back in time for his father's birthday in September.

Three days later, on Wednesday, marines arrived at the doorstep of the Whyte home to inform the family that Corporal Whyte had been killed that day by an enemy sniper in Ramadi, where he was stationed on his second tour in Iraq. He died from a gunshot wound to the neck that severed his spinal cord....

....Though he had reservations about his son going to war, Captain Whyte said he supported his decision. "He was a soldier," Captain Whyte said. "He did what he was told and he went where he was told."

But when he got back from his first tour of duty, in Falluja, he had changed, his father said. "He was glad it was behind him," he said.

Before Corporal Whyte, who was based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., left in January for his second tour, Captain Whyte said, his son expressed his own doubts about going back. "He thought he might get hurt this time," he said. "He said, 'Dad, I'm really nervous about going a second time,' and I said: 'I know. Me, too.' "

What is Flag Desecration

Of all the useless issues Republicans pull out of their backsides for election time, this is the most idiotic of them all. The biggest problem is defining what actually constitutes flag desecration. Here are some examples:



The major problem with this flag display is the shape. No not her shape! The heart shaped representation is obviously wrong. The flag of the United States is rectangular and, to be considered official, must be sewn to certain proportions.


In this shot the problem may not be as obvious. Look at the stars, see there are too many. While many obsolete flags have varrying numbers of stars they always matched the number of states in the Union.



For example in this picture we have a major no-no. The union is on the wrong side thus the flag is upside down indicating a state of siege. The flag on the bottom does not suffer from this problem.



In this display the stripes are no where to be seen. This may qualify as a bunting; but certainly not as a flag young lady!

In Other News

From The BBC:

Harriet the Tortoise dies at 175

Harriet the tortoise, one of the world's oldest known living creatures, has died in Australia aged about 175.

Senior vet Dr John Hangar told Australia's ABC that Harriet, a Giant Galapagos tortoise, had died of heart failure after a short illness.

"She had a very fairly acute heart attack and thankfully passed away quietly overnight," Dr Hangar said.

Last year staff at Australia Zoo, where Harriet had lived for 17 years, held a party to celebrate her 175th birthday.
Some people believe that Harriet was studied by British naturalist Charles Darwin.

Repealling The Estate Tax: Because Paris Hilton Needs More Money!

From The Hill Tip Sheet via E-mail:

House moves forward on repeal of estate tax 6/23/06

Partial repeal of the estate tax edged closer to legislative reality Thursday, as the House voted to approve a compromise plan from Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) that could reach the Senate floor by early next week.

The 269-156 vote came only after 10 Democrats voted with Republicans on a minority motion to recommit, which came with strong criticism of the House's decision to stave off a vote on increasing the minimum wage while fast-tracking an estate-tax break.

"Republicans are falling all over themselves to give the heirs of approximately 7,500 estates a tax cut — even as they ignore the needs of one hundred times more single mothers, 760,000 who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage," Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a statement.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Editorial Board probably puts it best:

Estate Tax: True cost of repeal
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

Please, for a moment, suspend your American sense of fair play.

Assume that you are in a microscopic community, a member of one of the most prosperous families in the nation. You will one day be assessed a tax before inheriting vast wealth. Pretend that you really have a stake in the U.S. Senate moving forward with a repeal of the tax and are eager to see it so.

Now answer this: How will the country replace over one decade the trillion dollars in revenues lost by repeal?

"A vote to repeal or virtually repeal the estate tax would continue Congress' dismaying record of lavishing costly tax breaks on the very wealthiest while cutting services for struggling families in the name of deficit reduction," says Nancy Duff Campbell, co-president of the National Women's Law Center. "The Senate is about to vote on repeal of the estate tax, while the House moves forward with a budget for next year that would force cuts in health care, education, job training, child care and other essential services."

Then, Americans' sense of fair play runs deep. That's why the repealing the estate tax to benefit 7,000 to 12,000 people a year is poor public policy. Any tax cut that adds to the federal debt is outright immoral.

Repeal of the "death tax" is, in fact, a "birth tax," says Diane Lim Rogers, a scholar at The Brookings Institution. "This 'birth tax' is a true cost imposed on all American babies. It cannot be repealed, no matter how upset Americans eventually get about it."

Citizens should demand an end to the birth tax.

Can I Get A Witness??.

Can We Say Mighty Convenient Boys and Girls?

Yesterday we have the House rejecting bringing the troops home. We have sphincter boy Tom Ridge telling us the "Terror War" (ooo, scary, isn't it?) will last another 30 years.

Now, we have this:

From Reuters:
7 men charged in alleged U.S. terror plot
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A group of young men seized in a Miami warehouse have been charged in a federal indictment with conspiring with al-Qaida to "levy war against the United States" by committing acts of violence including blowing up Chicago's Sears Tower.

The seven individuals indicted by a federal grand jury were taken into custody Thursday when authorities swarmed the warehouse in the Liberty City area, removing a metal door with a blow torch. The indictment also alleges plans to blow a federal building in Miami in conjunction with the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other top-level Bush administration officials scheduled a news conference for later Friday and a similar briefing was in Miami. The seven were expected to appear in court later Friday.

Boy, can we say right on time boys and girls? I mean, boy did they plan this good. If they planned the cleanup of Katrina this good, all of those people would be home right now.

Democrats in Mississippi? GO 50 STATES!

From The Mississippi Democratic Party via Democrats.org

I was so excited when Chairman Dean asked me to write to you about the real success that we have had in Mississippi because of the 50-state strategy. I know that the plan is working because I've seen the success first-hand.

I joined the Mississippi Democratic Party as a field organizer because I am concerned about our future. I just don't see the Republicans taking any real action on issues people in every state face, like access to affordable health care, education and jobs.

Our state has the highest unemployment rate in the country and no minimum wage requirements for the few jobs that people do have. Federal minimum wage legislation affects us as much in Mississippi as it does in any other state - no matter how "red" the state may be.

After Republicans in Washington killed the first minimum wage increase in nearly a decade this week, it's clear that this is a place where people need to hear about our party's values and our party's plans to make the changes that will improve people's lives.

Until now, Mississippi Democrats haven't had the resources to do that. I took this job to be part of the solution.

Before the 50-state strategy, the Mississippi Democratic Party had only one staff member. And though he worked tirelessly, he just wasn't enough. Now, our office has five staff members all dedicated to communicating with and organizing Democrats here. We're finally reaching those people who want to help, and we're expanding our support by getting the word out to everyone else that Democrats are ready to lead.

I've often heard people say, "Democrats can't win in the South." That's plain wrong. We can win in the South, and we are winning in the South. Last year, there were four open seats in the Mississippi Legislature. By organizing on the ground the way Democrats in Mississippi haven't had the resources to do in a generation, we swept all four elections. Now Gov. Barbour has four more Democrats holding appointments in his administration and the same number of Democrats sitting in the legislature.

We could not have done that without the grassroots network that the 50-state strategy has already put in place. Our program recruits and trains the precinct captains who were crucial to those victories, and who will be the core of the victories to come.

When people say, "We can't win in the South," that's pessimism and surrender. And we sure won't win if we give up before we even try. But the South is exactly where we need to be. Shame on us if we don't stand up for those most in need in this part of the country.

The 50-state strategy is the opposite of that pessimistic approach -- and it is giving us the tools and the hope it takes to win.

Sincerely,

Rita Royals
Field Organizer
Mississippi Democratic Party
http://www.msdemocrats.net/

GOTTA FLOG THIS NAG ONE MO' TIME!

From Wayne Madsen Report!:

June 19, 2006 -- American Media, which owns the tabloids National Enquirer, The Star, and The Globe, and which scooped the mainstream media on Gary Hart's affair with Donna Rice on "Monkey Business II"; Bill Clinton's affair with Gennifer Flowers and salacious details about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky; and Jesse Jackson's illegitimate child has published details of the George W. Bush-Condoleezza Rice relationship and his problems with First Lady Laura Bush in the current, June 26, 2006 issue of The Globe. WMR is quoted in the story.

Uh, where do YOU get off?

From The New York Post

I have absolutely NO LOVE for the Republican party, but where the hell do you get off criticizing their stance on the war.

Hillary, you can't even make up your mind to say. You just kept trying to wet your lips to plant on the first ass that needed kissing. I didn't vote for you the first time around (I did though-VL) when you were ran for the Senate the first time and I am DEFINITELY not voting for you this time.

Kudos to those two small Democratic clubs in NYC who had the spine and the balls (SPALLS?) NOT to endorse her nomination.

Like I really give a rat's ass about an estate tax

Ok, the last time I checked, i was lucky if I had more than two figures in my checking account at any time BEFORE and AFTER my bills were paid. These guys have nothing better to do than to debate this?

Oh, right I forgot. We are talking about republicans. Yeah those assholes who have no idea they will be clobbered in Novemeber if they keep this shit up.

What am I saying then? Go boys go!! Run your party into the ground!! Keep up the great job!

That and voting down our young men to come home after 4 more died today in Afghanistan.

You all deserve to rot and when you meet your maker (as you all call him) I hope he spits into your faces and sends you to the lowest place of hell.

Help Our Service People Call Home

Hopefully this will be a continuing feature. To help this worthy organizations by giving them more exposure, hopefully our troops can receive what they are not getting from the our government.

According to Any Soldier this is where to go to get phone cards usable by the US military.

The Military Exchange

We are in no way formally affiliated with either the Military Exchange or Any Soldier outside of sharing a desire to help.

Also visit

Why I Support The 50 State Strategy

Recieved this in a DNC e-mail today. If you support the idea make sure to show it $$$

Dear Fellow Democrat,

I want to let you know what the 50-state strategy has meant in my state.

When we leave the Republicans unopposed in places like Utah, it frees them up to concentrate on making inroads in marginal districts. Members of Congress in tough places deserve support, too. Representative Jim Matheson here in Utah, Representative Stephanie Herseth in South Dakota and even a potential pick-up like Congressional candidate Gary Trauner in Wyoming need a healthy, functioning Democratic Party in their states in order to survive. The 50-state strategy is making that happen.

"Win for today" is not a long-term strategy by itself, and it has left millions of Americans and vast areas of the country without a healthy political dialogue. When we don't show up for tough fights, they only get tougher the next time around.

We're changing that now. The April 29th canvass put a clear Democratic message and a call to volunteer on the doorsteps of 15,000 registered Democrats here.

That has never happened before.

A whole generation of Utahns have never seen a representative from the Democratic Party except on TV. Democrats had become outsiders who do things to us, not insiders who do things for us. The 50-state strategy has turned that around.

"Even in Utah" there are thoughtful Democrats elected to office like Congressman Matheson, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon. The DNC's investment here will make sure that they retain their seats. I expect the 50-state strategy efforts will help Mayor Corroon get a majority of Democrats to support his policies on the Salt Lake County Council. That will show Utahns for the first time in a decade that we have the ability to govern effectively.

The national party has starved places like Utah for a long time. Consequently, Utahns were starving for new leadership. But we are already on our way. Not only is the 50-state strategy laying the groundwork for long-term change in Utah, we have already seen the results.

Already, 2006 marks our best candidate recruitment in over 15 years. We have recruited candidates for every single State Senate race, and we have challengers running in ten State House races that went unopposed in 2004. The recruitment efforts, led by new staff deployed as part of the 50-state strategy, include not only life-long Democrats but also six Republicans who have switched parties.

The 50-state strategy is the future of our party here in Utah. With your support it can be the future of our party everywhere.

Thank you.

Wayne Holland, Jr.
Chairman
Utah Democratic Party

What Does One Say....

One could rant, or put on a bullshit patriotic "kill them all" persona, or blame the destructive initiators of this war in Washington; but I will do none of it. Not now. Not yet. First, we a collective whole, must mourn and grieve these unnecessary deaths.

The remains of the soldiers -- Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore. -- were recovered near a power plant in the town of Yusufiya, where they had been operating a vehicle checkpoint that came under attack Friday, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said in a briefing for reporters. A third soldier, Spec. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., died in the initial assault.

Hail The Canadian Eschatonian

Self described as looking like Woody but to hip just to go out like that!

DO DA HUMPTY CANUCK!

Cognative Dissonance: Which Is The Real Iraq?

From Edior and Publisher

Wash Post' Obtains Shocking Memo from U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
By Greg Mitchell
Published: June 18, 2006 6:20 PM ET (Click for full article)

NEW YORK The Washington Post has obtained a cable, marked "sensitive," that it says shows that just before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, "the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees."

This cable outlines, the Post reported Sunday, "the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees' constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government."

Among the other troubling reports:

-- "Personal safety depends on good relations with the 'neighborhood' governments, who barricade streets and ward off outsiders. The central government, our staff says, is not relevant; even local mukhtars have been displaced or coopted by militias. People no longer trust most neighbors."

-- Iraqi staff at the embassy, beginning in March and picking up in May, report "pervasive" harassment from Islamist and/or militia groups. Cuts in power and rising fuel prices "have diminished the quality of life." Conditions vary but even upscale neighborhoods "have visibly deteriorated" and one of them is now described as a "ghost town."

-- Embassy employees are held in such low esteem their work must remain a secret and they live with constant fear that their cover will be blown. Of nine staffers, only four have told their families where they work. They all plan for their possible abductions. No one takes home their cell phones as this gives them away. One employee said criticism of the U.S. had grown so severe that most of her family believes the U.S. "is punishing populations as Saddam did."

-- "More recently, we have begun shredding documents printed out that show local staff surnames. In March, a few staff members approached us to ask what provisions would we make for them if we evacuate."

The final line of the Cable is: KHALILZAD

So, either the US Ambassador to Iraq approved this cable's release or actually wrote it. Either way the administration's "Turning the corner/Stay the course" meme sounds more and more like bull.

Run: A bit of prose By Mike Amari

Run
By Mike Amari

In an instant he is eight
cool air blows through his hair,
last bit of warmth slightly spiking the air
as the onset of October loomed.
He chases a ball his father has thrown,
running & smiling across the back yard.
This moment remains yet passes. He will remember what it was like to be a child.

In an instant he is thirteen
Brisk air hits his face as he runs a cross pattern formation,
the pigskin hitting his gut right before being tackled.
Congregating in the park down the the street, him & his friends
hold onto the last days before winter buries the field.
This moment remains yet passes. He will remember what it was like to be a friend.

In an instant he is eighteen
Warm air rushes over him as he rushes to his parents, hugging them.
Beaming as the take pictures, displaying the diploma in each one.
Friends and teachers come and go for snapshots,
somenever to be seen again except in these paper portraits.
This moment remains yet passes. He will remember what it was like to be proud.

In an instant he is twenty five
light rain coats his tuxedo as he runs from the church, bride in arms
toward a car with cans tied to the back and people with rice.
An April shower to grant luck on young love, smiles & laughter filling the air.
This moment remains yet passes. He will remember what it's like to be happy.

In an instant he is thirty five.
Sterilized air moves about him as his wife runs alongside the gurney.
He glides along, a network of rubber & metal extending from his viens.
She looks worred.
He holds her hand, musters a smile & tells her it'll be alright.
She is scared of a word.
Malignant, the doctor said.
Still smiling he says, "be strong."
This moment remains yet passes. He will remember what it was like to be afraid.

In an instant he is fifty
cool air blows through his hair, the last bit of warmth slightly spiking the air
as the onset of October loomed.
He chases a ball thrown by his son, running and smiling across the backyard.
They play catch as he tells his son what it was like to be a child.
He tells his son what it was like to be a friend.
Amidst the slap of leather & rustle of leaves he tells his son what it was like to be proud.
Over a late dinner he tells his son what it was like to be happy.
In the small hours of the night he tells his son what it was like to be afraid.
This moment passes yet remains. His son will remember what it was like to be loved.

Happy fathers day, to all the good guys still out there.

WOW! Glad We Busted A.Q. Khan's Network!

From The London Times (Click for full article)

....A senior Pakistani official said that the US continued to press Islamabad for more information on Mr Khan’s network, "but we have told them in no uncertain terms that he is off-limits".

He insisted that Pakistan had shared all it knew with the US and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as well as putting questions to Mr Khan on behalf of US investigators. Pakistan should be trusted with the investigation and anything else would be violation of national sovereignty, he added.

Mr Khan has confessed to passing nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, claimed last month that his country was conducting research on a more advanced P-2 centrifuge. Mr Khan’s deputy, Buhary Seyed Abu Tahir, has told interrogators that the network probably supplied three samples of the P-2 centrifuges, even though Tehran insists it has only received drawings of the machines.

Documents discovered by the IAEA suggest the Khan network might also have given Iran information about how to make the hemispheres of uranium metal needed for nuclear weapons.

But Washington believes the Khan network may still be active. The US Congress has been told how Swiss police recently foiled a plot to ship 60 tons of specialised aluminum tubes — used for building parts of a centrifuge cascade to enrich uranium — through Europe to Pakistan.

According to Andrew Koch, a defence expert, this involved using a middleman in Britain who was not previously known to be a Khan associate. The tubes, which he said could have ultimately been sent to Khan network customers, were eventually seized in the UAE by government authorities.

The US State Department will not comment on the case but a senior Western diplomat said that while there was no formal request for direct access to Mr Khan, the US believed the case was far from over. "We still want to know more about his network. There are many questions which have remained unanswered," he said.

The renewed international attention on Mr Khan has put President Musharraf’s Government in an awkward situation because the scientist is still revered by Pakistanis as a national hero whose birthday is celebrated in mosques and whose portrait hangs in public places.

The Pakistani Senate recently backed unanimously a resolution appreciating the contribution of Mr Khan and his associates in developing the country’s nuclear programme and ruled out handing him over to the Americans.

Quote Of The Day

"Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers,
for each rage leaves him less than he had been before
- it takes something from him."
Louis L'Amour (1908-1988)
Author

LINKS
Louis L'Amour Webpage
Wikipedia Entry

Shrub Out Did Himself This Time!

Video and transcript available from Think Progress, click here

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Peter. Are you going to ask that question with shades on?

Q I can take them off.

THE PRESIDENT: I’m interested in the shade look, seriously.

Q All right, I’ll keep it, then.

THE PRESIDENT: For the viewers, there’s no sun. (Laughter.)

Q I guess it depends on your perspective. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Touche. (Laughter.)

Q Following up on the other Peter’s question about Karl Rove, you said that you were relieved with what happened yesterday. But the American public, over the course of this investigation, has learned a lot about what was going on in your White House that they didn’t know before, during that time, the way some people were trying to go after Joe Wilson, in some ways. I’m wondering if, over the course of this investigation, that you have learned anything that you didn’t know before about what was going on in your administration. And do you have any work to do to rebuild credibility that might have been lost?

THE PRESIDENT: I think that — first of all, the decision by the prosecutor speaks for itself. He had a full investigation. Karl Rove went in front of the grand jury like — I don’t — a lot of times. More times than — they took a hard look at his role.

Secondly, as I told the other Peter, I’m going to tell you, that there’s an ongoing trial, it’s a serious business. And I’ve made the comments I’m going to make about this incident, and I’m going to put this part of the situation behind us and move forward.

Wallsten suffers from a rare disorder that has made him legally blind. The glasses are necessary because the sun's UV rays accelerate his degenerative condition.

Walsten a perfect gentleman said about Shrub's comment, “I never advertised it to him. I’ve never told him.”

Maybe just fraking maybe Shrub's handlers could have informed him of Wallsten's condition?

Should Anyone Live Like This?

From The United Farm Workers:

The grape harvest has reached its peak in the Coachella area--28 miles from Palm Springs. We just received a report from our regional director, Joe Mota, who reports that the housing situation is critical. Hundreds of people--including seniors and children--are sleeping outside in the sweltering heat.

Alvaro Celeya, a grape worker for the last 20 years, told him, "We either sleep in our cars or sleep on the floor in a parking lot...[or] in a garage and you have to share it with 12-15 other farm workers who pay $30 a week...The mattresses stink and the bathrooms are dirty. Sometimes living in your car is much better."

Another vineyard worker, Marcelo Noriega, told Joe, "I am important to the grape company...but yet they don’t care how we live. They just care that their harvest is picked...They know how we live, because this has been happening for as long as I have been coming here which is more than 10 years...The more profit they can make, the happier they are and yet we are left living like animals on the floor and using the bathrooms behind trees and cooking our food out in the parking lot. Something needs to be done."

This shortage of housing will continue as workers follow the grape harvest as it moves north through the Central Valley. This summer, grape worker organizing is one of our top priorities. We need your help today to organize these farm workers. Your contribution can make a vast difference.

Howard Speak You Listen

Let me get this out of the way first, I believe in the 50 State strategy. Creating field offices in every state will do more good than all the Beltway prima donnas combined. This will allow local people find and support local candidates that best reflect that community. Democrats need to win back state houses, senates, and govenorships by running politicians that reflect the community they represent.

Does anyone honestly believe that the Republican "Revolution" was an instantaneous affair akin to the virgin birth? If you do I have a quit-claim deed for a semi-used bridge that connects Brooklyn to Manhattan. Ok Dr Dean lays it out for ya here:

I want to write to you today about a problem. I talk a lot about the successes of our 50-state strategy and ways you can get involved. But today I want to talk very frankly about the obstacles we still face.

We have seen so much rapid progress in so many places (sweeping four special elections in Mississippi, flipping three state legislature seats in New Hampshire that had been Republican-held for nearly 100 years) that it's easy to forget that the 50-state strategy is a controversial plan.

It boils down to this: participation politics. We're building an entirely new kind of political party -- one where every single person matters as much as the next, where each one of us has the power to take our future into our own hands. It's a new way of operating, but we know it will work because we believe in the extraordinary potential of millions of Americans united in common cause to make our country better.

We are at a crucial moment in our party's history, and it's up to us to show that the 50-state strategy has the financial backing of ordinary Democrats across the country. But we're going to do it in a new way -- we're going to count the number of people donating on our web site, and reveal the amount at the end.

Will you stand up and be counted? We're aiming for 5,000 donations for a 50-state strategy. Make a donation to support a 50-state strategy now, and watch the number grow as Democrats across the country join you:

http://www.democrats.org/peoplecount

This Isn't A Crime? No Wonder We Are Being Showered With Chocolates And Flowers!

From The Register-Guard (OR):
"The U.S. military has concluded its investigation into a video that appeared to show private security contractors shooting at civilian vehicles on highways in Iraq and determined that no one involved will be charged with a crime, a military spokesman in Baghdad said. The investigation, which officials have not released publicly, began after the video was posted on an Internet site purportedly run by employees of Aegis Defense Services, a London-based firm with a $293 million U.S. government security contract."

Crooks and Liars Has The Video: Click here

No Joementum

The impending car crash that is Joe Lieberman political career has a kind of Dead Zone feel to it. Can his crash be averted, and will displacing Joe as the parties candidate have unforeseen consequences. It is not that I have any great love for Senator Lieberman. I do believe however that he is a good man whose party has moved beyond him.

Its not that Lieberman could ever be confused with a liberal, he may be a tad progressive but certainly not a liberal. He has always been a moderate to conservative Democrat, but that breed seems to be about as viable a species as a moderate Republicans. Party politics in the House and the grassroots, for both parties, have been moving further towards the fringes, those fringes are starting to become the mainstream. The Republicans of old, the Thomas B. Reeds and the Dwight Eisenhowers have been supplanted by the religious right and the demogogery of the neo con agenda. The Democrats have pulled steadily left with the Trumans and Clintons giving way to a more doctrinaire liberalism.

The net effect is to make moderates like the Areln Specters and Joe Lieberman looking archaic, spineless, and road blocks, for the wider agendas, of the new mainstream in each party. The days of triangulation seem to be finished encapsulated in that paragon of impotence the erstwhile "Gang of Fourteen". While my views fall definitely and firmly left of center, I worry that the mainstreaming of the "radical" factions of our two political parties erodes our democracy in some fundamental way.

The allusions some make, of our present political situation, to the political and economic confusion that was the Weimar Republic are fair and I, for the most part appropriate. I hope that we can pull back from that point of no return, that chasm the threatens to engulf the dreams of all Americans.

I could go on, but I won't. I could talk of the friends I have lost because they chose unshaking political ideology to friendship. I could mention the new friends I have made because of my ideology. The sad part is I am conscious enough to realize that those occurrences are a symptom of the disease not a cure. While typing this little missive the words of the great W.B. Yeats came to mind:

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood dimm'd tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
W.B, YEATS

Monday's Snark Fest

From CNN.com

Gas Station Looks To A Gas Free Future
Not only is this interesting for the environmental angle, but also how this could translate to good business. Go for it guys!

More Uproar At The Hussein Trial
Oh boy! If this wasn't real it would be funny!

Violent Crime in the US Takes First Major Jump Since 1993
What was weird is that the major jump was mostly in the Midwestern states. Very interesting article.

A Disgrace To His Noble Profession.

This is just plain disgusting and an insult to anyone with one shred of decency and honor:

From CNN:
Admiral: Gitmo suicides an act of 'warfare'
First confirmed deaths follow hunger strikes at detention facility
Sunday, June 11, 2006 Posted: 1455 GMT (2255 HKT)

Three prisoners at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have hanged themselves in what the U.S. military is calling an act of "asymmetric warfare."

The men used their clothes and bed sheets, and left behind notes written in Arabic, the military said. They are the first confirmed deaths at the compound. Prisoners have attempted suicide in the past.

"Two Saudis and one Yemeni, each located in Camp 1, were found unresponsive and not breathing in their cells by guards," said a statement issued by Joint Task Force-Guantanamo on Saturday.

"Medical teams responded quickly and all three detainees were provided immediate emergency medical treatment in attempts to revive them. The three detainees were pronounced dead by a physician after all lifesaving measures had been exhausted," the statement said.

"This was clearly a planned event, not a spontaneous event," said Rear Adm. Harry Harris, commander of Joint Task Force-Guantanamo.

He described the men, whose names were not released, as committed jihadists captured on the battlefield. "I believe this was not an act of desperation, rather an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us," Harris said.

Sick.

And Might We Add, Good Riddence

A tid bit from The Hill 06/09/06

“Goodbye!”

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), responding Thursday to a reporter’s question about whether he had any parting words for retiring Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

Damn Dobson Is Such A Jackass

Media Matters Reports:

On the June 7 edition of the Focus on the Family radio show, Focus on the Family founder and CEO James Dobson and president Jim Daly lambasted opponents of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage....

Daly played an audio clip of Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE) discussing his opposition to the Marriage Protection Amendment:

BIDEN: You know, think about this -- the world's going to Hades in a handbasket; we are desperately concerned about the circumstance relating to avian flu, we don't have enough vaccines, we don't have enough police officers, and we're going to debate the next three weeks, I'm told, gay marriage, a flag amendment, and God only knows what else. I can't believe the American people can't see through this. We already have a law -- the Defense of Marriage Act -- we've all voted -- not that I voted, but other said, "Look, marriage is between a man and a woman, and states must respect that." Nobody's violated that law, there's been no challenge to that law. Why do we need a constitutional amendment?

Dobson and Daly responded:

DOBSON: There it is again, Jim. It's the same thought: "There's no threat, there's no challenge." And it's not true!

DALY: Politicians and the press are obviously trying to minimize what the American people think on this topic. They don't want us to think that the most important institution, more important than the war, more important than sickness -- it is marriage folks. If this goes, civilization goes down.

These sick mean spirited, and hateful bastards need to sit down and watch, The ACLU Freedom Files: Gay Rights ( Full Episode avaiable here). I doubt it will break though their blinding hate, but it would be worth a shot.

Reality Wins Again!

Okay let me get this out of the way first, I think Kent Hovnid is a nut. Which in some dialects is a synonym for a Young Earth Creationist. These are folks who disregard Physics, Chemistry, Biology and every other science to tell you that dinosuars and man co-existed, 6000 years ago, and that the Grand Canyon was formed by Noah's Flood on Wednesday during brunch.

















This is of course an artists interpretation of this period, or just a cheap shot, by me, to show Raquel Welch in animal hide. Which no one would mind if cave woman looked like Raquel Welch or even Wilma Flintstone, but unfortunately they probably looked more like this

OR THIS





So the erstwhile Dr. Dino wanted to open up a theme park which would show the Flinstone like, but very Christian, world in which dinosaurs and man walked the world together. For some reason DE LORD must not have liked that idea because:

From Pharyngula:
Science Blogs Reports:
On June 5th 2006, Hovind pled nolo contendere as charged to three counts: constructing a building without a permit, refusing to sign a citation and violating the county building code. Hovind was ordered to pay $225.00 per count. The plea brings to an end a 5-year battle over a $50.00 building permit. Hovind estimates he spent $40,000 in legal expenses on this case. Meanwhile, the property taxes for Dinosaur Adventure Land are in arrears in an amount of $10,338.36 ($4,955.23 for 2005 and 5,383.13 for 2003 and 2004).

Check out this list of things you are supposed to believe (From Wikipedia):

Below is an exact transcript from his uncopyrighted DVD, “Part 6, The Hovind Theory” giving a summarised account of his hypothesis:

• Noah and the animals got safely into the Ark
• A 300-degree below zero Fahrenheit ice meteor came flying toward the Earth and broke up in space
• As it was breaking up, some of the fragments got caught and became the rings around the planets. They made the craters on the moon, the craters on some of the planets and what was left over came down and splattered on top of the North and South Pole.
• The super-cold snow fell on the poles mostly, burying the Mammoths standing up. The dump of ice on the North and South pole cracked the crust of the earth releasing the fountains of the deep.
• The spreading ice caused the ice age effects, the glacier effects that we see. It buried the mammoths and made the earth wobble around for a few thousand years and it made the canopy collapse that used to protect the earth and opened up the fountains of the deep.
• During the first few months of the flood, the dead animals would settle out, and dead plants, and get buried. They would become coal if they’re plants and oil if they’re animals and those are still found today in huge grave yards – fossils found in grave yards, oil found in big pockets under the ground.
• During the last few months of the flood, the unstable plates of the earth would shift around – some places lift up, other places sink down - that’s going to form ocean basins and mountain ranges and the run off would cause incredible erosion like Grand Canyon in a couple of weeks.
• Over the next few hundred years, the ice caps would slowly melt back retreating to their current size. The added water from the ice melt would raise the ocean level creating what’s called a continental shelf
• It would also absorb carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere which allows more radiation to get in which is going to shorten people’s life spans and in the days of Peleg it finally took effect.
• The earth still today shows the effects of this devastating flood” ^[2]

Damn. Look just so you know I am not making this crap up here is Hovnid's website.

The Katherine Harris Comedy Road Show Continues! Woof!

"She has absolutely no chance of winning, seems to be detached from reality these days."

Joe Scarborough (R), former Rep and host of Scarborough Country.

With endorsements like this she has got to be a shoe in.... if this was a Hiaasen novel. For once I agree with Scarborough, that in itself is amazing. Joe also declined the party's desperate invitation to run against the one time Republican golden girl. Who can blame him. He has a nice well payed job at MSNBC, why enter the ring again especially when as recently as
March 10, 2006 he said:

The lack of leadership in Washington, D.C., is sickening. If you look at what Republicans did—promised to do in 1994, when they took control of Congress, and see,000 how they’ve been acting over the past three or four years, the biggest debt and deficit ever. They are irresponsible and reckless on so many levels. I’m embarrassed right now to be a Republican. It’s a disgrace because of the lack of leadership.

I respect him for having the honest to say that, I also respect him for not wanting to give up the platform that allows him to make statements like that.

Back to Harris....

With the wheels having frimly flown off this campaign and leisurly making their way down I-95, Harris seems to be trying to out nut herself.

Her response to the question, said spokesman Adam Goodman, was, ``I haven't worn blue eye shadow since the seventh grade when I was in the Girl Scouts.'' She didn't name a newspaper that showed blue eye shadow.
(Tampa Tribune, 08/3/2005 article here)

Ummm, the Girls Scouts? Oooookay... Forget Hiaasen, this has the makings of a Dorsey plot line.

When a supporter in a Venice veterans hall said he once witnessed Ms. Harris leave her vehicle to escort a turtle across a highway, she became gravely serious.

"All of my life I have stopped for turtles," she said firmly, even defensively, as if someone had challenged her commitment to turtle safety. NYTimes (06/07/06)

Oh but wait there is more. Not only does she love turtles, which might explain this orgasmic shell shakin' interview on Hannity & Colmes. (Video at C&L 08/9/2005).

Sean "Turlte head for Christ" Hannity was practically foaming at the mouth.

But lets not forget her love of dogs and her chronic case of foot in mouth disease!:

She is especially animated when the topic turns to animals, including the guide dog she plans to train starting in November. She will care for the dog for 18 months, spending nearly all her waking hours with it. "You can't let them sleep in bed with you," Ms. Harris said. "Which is going to be harder on me than the dog."

As Ms. Harris hugged and hand-shaked her way toward the hall exit, the song "Y.M.C.A." came on. The mostly empty dance floor filled with aging veterans and their wives, one of whom spotted Ms. Harris and summoned her. She obliged. And then commenced another unforgettable moment, Katherine Harris, arms over her head, dancing to "Y.M.C.A."

Oblivious to the irony suggested by his statement I present Florida state Representative. David Rivera:

“Katherine Harris is the horse we’re going to ride to the finish line and it’s time for us to saddle up”

WELL YEEEEEEHAAAAA!