National Groups to Announce Movement for Impeachment

On Saturday, November 11, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, just across from Independence Hall, where theU.S. Constitution was written and signed, a coalition of national organizations will announce plans to mobilize amovement to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

The mobilization will be called ImpeachForChange.

Speakers will include Elizabeth Holtzman, former Member ofCongress, served on the House panel that voted to impeach President Nixon, and author of "The Impeachment of George W.Bush: A Practical Guide for Concerned Citizens"; CindySheehan, Co-Founder of Gold Star Families for Peace; David Swanson, Co-Founder of AfterDowningStreet.org and WashingtonDirector of Democrats.com; Tim Carpenter, Director ofProgressive Democrats of America; Jodie Evans, Co-Founder of CODE PINK Women for Peace; Bill Perry, Veterans for Peace; and Bob Fertik, President of Democrats.com and ImpeachPAC.org. Representatives of other participating organizations will be present. Participating organizations include the National Organization for Women, the Hip Hop Caucus, Constitution Summer, and many of the 200 plus organizations in the After Downing Street Coalition.The speakers will be followed by a discussion of impeachment by prominent bloggers, including Sally Hemings (Sally Hemingsin Paris), Rob Kall (OpEdNews.com), Dave Lindorff(ThisCantBeHappening.net), Martin Longman (BoomanTribune.com),Susie Madrik (Suburban Guerilla), Liza Sabater (CultureKitchen), Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report), and Bob Fertik(Democrats.com).On October 21, the Newsweek poll found 51% of Americans supporting impeachment. On October 25, the USA Today/Gallup poll found 51% of Americans supporting "major investigations" by Democrats. Much of that support comes from books, internet journalism and organizing by the speakers who will participate.

WHEN:Saturday, November 11, 2006
1 - 2 p.m. Announcement of a Movement for Impeachment
2 -- 3 p.m. Bloggers forum
WHERE: Kirby Auditorium in the National Constitution Center on Independence Mall (across from Independence Hall),Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event is open to the media. A mult box will be available along with free wireless internet. Press/blog seats will bereserved in the front row. Please contact David Swanson 202-329-7847. The event is open to the public, but tickets are required(except for press/bloggers). Tickets can be purchased for $10 at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/impeach. This event will be followed by a Veterans Day Rally from 3:00- 5:30 p.m. sponsored by Delaware Valley Veterans for America. Participating will be the gold star parents of Sgt. Sherwood Baker, Lt. Seth Dvorin, and Casey Sheehan, all KIA 2004. Therally will take place outside Independence Hall, at 5th andMarket Streets.A private, nonprofit, and nonpartisan organization, theNational Constitution Center welcomes a broad diversity ofopinion and allows -- without endorsement -- press conferences by advocacy and political organizations as well as other types of groups.

Truth IS Stranger Than Fiction

This little gem may be urban legend. It may be true. I am hoping it is true. Either way it is a VERY funny story!

A news article from a Florida newspaper (the Sun Sentinel) read ...

"When Nathan Radlich's house was burgled, thieves left his TV, his VCR, and even left his watch. What they did take was "... generic white cardboard box filled with grayish-white powder." (That, at least, is the way the police described it.)

A spokesman for the Fort Lauderdale police said that "it looked similar to cocaine and they probably thought they'd hit the big time."

Then Nathan stood in front of the TV cameras and pleaded with the burglars: "Please return the cremated remains of my sister, Gertrude. She died three years ago.

"Well, the next morning, the bullet-riddled corpse of a drug dealer known as Hoochie Pevens was found on Nathan's doorstep. The cardboard box was there, too; about half of Gertrude's ashes remained. And there was this note. It said, "Hoochie sold us the bogus blow, so we wasted Hoochie. Sorry we snorted your sister. No hard feelings. Have a nice day."

Thank You Bartcop

More excellent with each passing day...

Happy Happy, Joy Joy!!

Donald Rumsfeld resigns.

Tester declared winner in Montana.

Bush looks like he has been crying.

Where is Cheney?

Republicans Take a Much Needed BATH

Well it's about time!

The dirty, dirty Republican Party took a much needed bath last night. Democrats are now firmly in control of the US House of Representatives, the Governorships, and looking pretty promising still is the Senate, where things are still up in the air.

A few things of note...
I am particularily proud that my Governor, Bill Richardson, won by almost 70% of the vote. He is trusted, he is loved. He is also probably going to run for the presidency and I say "GO BILL GO!" We need someone of his quality in the White House. I am also proud that Tom Udall (NM 03) won by such a huge margin, and Senator Jeff Bingaman won so resoundingly his reelection bid, not that any of those races were even close.

That said I am not surprised that NM 01 is still undecided, but I will say that had Madrid had better debate skills and was more prepared and hadn't said some of the STUPID STUPID STUPID things she said on live TV, and those STUPID STUPID STUPID things hadn't made it into two very effective ads for Heather Wilson that played ad nauseum (believe me it was sickening) then it wouldn't even be close. Madrid could have taken it handily, yet she has about as good a grip on her lips as George Bush, without a Karl Rove in the background whispering into her ear and fixing the votes.

I am sad that Harold Ford lost, I believe he was the better candidate. That said, I think certainly he has a bright future in the democratic party.

I am thrilled beyond all reason about Claire McCaskill. All you Missouri democrats who worked so hard to get her elected deserve a nice big box of goodies from Harry and David, but I am broke or I would send them on! Claire is a great lady, and good on you for getting her elected.
I am also pretty hopeful that Tester will prove out in Montana. That is HUGE.

I have immensely enjoyed, probably more than the actual vote returns, seeing the thunderstruck sadness in the faces of Republicans. On Faux News all of the bunnies are no longer perky. Tom Delay, I swear to God, said "The difference between the republicans and the democrats is the republicans get rid of their corrupt members." I think at the end of that he sort of saw the irony, he looked like he had been crying. Last night on MSNBC they had Dick Armey, and his jowls had lost all their spring from their step, hanging there limply as he shook his head slowly in stunned denial.

Talk about Shock and Awe!
Share your happiness here...

Updates 9:30 EST, 7:30 Local

Dick Armey on MSNBC and he is close to tears...

Latest AP projections

SENATE:
Bob Casey-D elected in Pennsylvania
Bernie Sanders-I elected in Vermont
Richard Lugar-R elected in Indiana
Robert Byrd-D elected in West Virginia
Olympia Snowe-R elected in Maine
Bill Nelson-D elected in Florida
Edward Kennedy-D elected in Massachusetts

GOVERNOR:
Ted Strickland-D elected in Ohio
Deval Patrick-D elected in Massachusetts
M. Jodi Rell-R elected in Connecticut
Ed Rendell-D elected in Pennsylvania
Phil Bredesen-D elected in Tennessee
John Lynch-D elected in New Hampshire
Rod Blagojevich-D elected in Illinois

8 pm Eastern, 6 local time

The children are eating the cake of democracy I made for election night, a red velvet cake with blue icing and red, white and blue jimmies. I used a supermajority of blue jimmies, for obvious reasons.

6:11 Local time (Mountain) The live blogging was interrupted by a code brown situation involving my son and a pair of pull ups. It has been resolved. There was also a bludgeoning offense, and that has been tried and a conviction and sentencing meted out. I bet they aren't having THIS much fun at Hotel Albuquerque!

Patrick wins Governor of Massachusettes, one for the Dems.

Webb is up with 43% but not by much.

Menendez wins in NJ.

Casey wins in Penn.

Pennsylvania is looking like a major bloodbath for the republicans, and exit polls are giving the senate to the democrats.

Evangelicals polled are stating in large margin that corruption is their key issue, and those that cited corruption said they voted democrat. There goes the base!

7 PM Eastern Time (5 local)

Projected winners...

according to CNN and MSNBC Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana and Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont are set to win their perspective elections. Sanders, a self-proclaimed Socialist, will caucus with the democrats.

I am watching the early returns and seeing a whole lotta blue!

7:16 EST Update

Olbermann just said that overwhelmingly white evangelicals polled said that corruption was very important to them and they turned to the democrats...

What a night!

LIVE BLOGGING TONIGHT ON LTS!

Vistit LTS for all the latest information on the elections tonight, with live blogging...

A Message from Michael Moore

Friends,

Tomorrow night, those who sent 2,800 of our soldiers to their deaths -- all because of a lie the president concocted -- will find out if America chooses to reward them -- or remove them. As good as things look for the Democrats, do not pop the corks and start the partying yet. Do not believe for a second that the Republicans plan on losing. They will fight like dogs for the next 24 hours -- relentless, unforgiving, nonstop action to squeeze every last conservative voter out of the house on election day.

While the rest of us go about our day today, tens of thousands of Republican volunteers are knocking on doors, making phone calls, and lining up rides to the polls. They're not sleeping, they're not eating, they're not even watching Fox News. A day without Fox News? That's right, that's how insanely dedicated they are. But the reason they have to work so hard is that, before they can get the vote out, they first have to completely turn around the massive public opinion against them.

Almost 60% disapprove of Bush. Over 60% are opposed to the war. Those are landslide numbers. And the American people are not going to turn pro-war or into Bush-lovers by tomorrow morning. So it should be easy for us, right? Yup. Just like it was when we won the popular vote in 2000 and when we were ahead in the exit polls all day long in 2004. You know the deal -- the other side takes no prisoners. And just when it seems like things are going our way, the Republicans suddenly, mysteriously win the election. Well, it's not really that mysterious. They're out there busting their asses this very minute, right down the street from you. What are YOU doing? You're on a computer reading my cranky letter! Stop reading this!

We have only a few hours left to wrestle control of the Congress away from these "representatives" who, if returned, will continue shipping our young men and women over there to die. Here's what I'm imploring you to do right now:

1. Go through your address book on your cell phone and computer and call/e-mail everyone you know. Tell them how much it would mean to you if they vote on Tuesday. If they don't know where to vote, help them find their polling place.

2. Contact MoveOn.org ASAP. They will connect you to the folks who need you to make calls.

3. Contact your local Democratic Party headquarters. There are close races in nearly every state. They'll put you to work -- on the ground or on the phones. Or go to the local HQ for the Dem candidate running for the House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate and say, "Put me to work!"

OK, turn off the computer -- and I will, too. There's serious work to do. The good news? There's more of us than there are of them. Let's prove that, once and for all. Is there anything more important that you have to do today? Nothing less than the rest of the world is depending on us.

Yours,

Michael Moore

www.michaelmoore. com

http://us.f312.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=mmflint%40aol.com

Governor Richardson/Senator Bingaman Statement on Election Fraud

After receiving sworn affidavits from voters who were deliberately and repeatedly given incorrect information on voting locations in Albuquerque by the Republican Party and related organizations, District Judge Vanzi is considering a temporary restraining order which would ban the Republican Party from contacting voters who are not registered Republicans. The evidence suggests an active strategy aimed at confusing and disenfranchising minority, Green, and Democratic voters. A hearing will be scheduled tomorrow in response to a Democratic complaint.
"If the Republican Party is seeking to make voting more difficult for the people of this state, they must immediately stop this action,' said Senator Jeff Bingaman.
"Americans cherish their right to vote, and this attempt to disenfranchise New Mexican voters is an affront to our Democracy. This political dirty trick violates the spirit of the American system as well as state and federal laws," said Governor Bill Richardson.
Senator Jeff Bingaman said, "Governor Richardson and I call on the U.S. Attorney to investigate these incidents to determine whether there has been a violation of federal election laws."
All voters should be warned that false information is being spread in an apparent desperate attempt to win the election through confusing and potentially illegal actions. There are other reports of similar calls to Democrats throughout Albuquerque.

Election Shenanigans

You know, I grew up political. My father was a conservative, my mother a liberal independent. I remember watching political conventions as a little girl. I was taught that the process was uniquely American, that we lived in the greatest country on earth. My father died in 1989 and I am grateful that he never had to see what his party and his country have become.

He would be horrifed by the latest tack the Republican party has taken. Here in New Mexico allegations are surfacing of Republican party calls (with caller ID verification and answering machine recordings) to democrats giving false polling information, telling democrats that they vote at polling places several miles from their actual polling place. This attempt at deception and disenfranchisment is pretty damn galling. In Tennessee republicans are calling black voters and telling them that if they voted for Harold Ford in the primary they don't have to vote a second time. Lies, damned lies.

Does anyone really believe that the manufacturers of electronic voting machines are incapable of producing a hacker-proof, reliable, extremely accurate voting machine that produces a paper trail? If Diebold couldn't do it there isn't a bank in the land that would use their ATM machines. And why in the world would we stick these poorly managed machines into polling places manned by octogenarians whose only computer experience in the real world was an abacus?

How long will Americans continue to blindly accept the outcomes of elections that are so staggeringly mismagaged? How far are they going to have to push the people before the people push back?

Share your election stories, mismanagement or fraud experiences here...

New Rules

He's smart, he's sexy, he's Bill Maher...host of HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher. For those of you unfamiliar with the show it is the equivalent of Face the Nation on steroids. Uncensored and irrepressible, Bill hits it out of the park with this one (oh it is too late in the fall for a baseball cliche?)

Enjoy...

New Rule: Controlling Congress is for closers.

Listen up, Democrats, it's as simple as ABC: Always Be Closing. First prize? Controlling congressional committees, with subpoena power. Second prize: set of steak knives. Third prize? You're fired.

The election is four days away, and I'm through dicking around with you. Here are your talking points:

1) When they say, "Democrats will raise taxes," you say, "We have to, because some asshole spent all the money in the world cutting Paris Hilton's taxes and not killing Osama bin Laden." In just six years the national debt has doubled. You can't keep spending money you don't take in, that's not even elementary economics, that's just called "Don't be Michael Jackson."

2) When they say, "The terrorists want the Democrats to win," you say, "Are you insane? George Bush has been a terrorist's wet dream, and nonpartisan commissions have confirmed that he's a recruiter's dream: theirs, not ours. And, he has exhausted our military without coming away with a win, the worst of both worlds." Bush inflames radical hatred against America and then runs on offering to protect us from it. It's like a guy throwing shit on you and then selling you relief from the flies.

3) When they say, "Cut and Run" or "Defeatocrat," you say, "Bush lost the war -- period." All this nonsense about "the violence is getting worse because they're trying to influence our election." No, it's getting worse because you drew up the postwar plans on the back of a cocktail napkin at Applebee's. And of course Democrats want to win, but that's impossible now that you've ethnically cleansed the place by making it unlivable, just like you did with New Orleans.

4) When they say that actual combat veterans like John Kerry are "denigrating" the troops, you say, "You're completely full of shit." Remember when Al Gore caught all that flak for sighing and moaning during that debate? Yeah, don't do that. Just say, "You're full of shit."

If I was a troop, the support I would want back home would mainly come in the form of people pressuring Washington to get me out of this pointless nightmare. That's how I would feel supported.

So when they say, "Democrats are obstructionists," you say, "You're welcome." Because with a bad administration that has bad ideas, obstruction is a good thing, just as it's a good thing to obstruct a drunk from getting his car keys. I would be happy to frame the debate as a fight between the Obstructionists and the Enablers. There's your talking point: "Vote Republican, and you vote to enable George Bush to keep ruling as an emperor." A retarded, child emperor, but an emperor.

Democrats, you've got two days to get out there and close. It's not about slogans this time. Although when it comes to slogans, accept no other from your opponent except this one: "The Republican Party: We're Sorry."

The Great Keith Olbermann

I don't like to just cut and paste other people's thoughts, words, or work. First it is lazy. Second it is someone else's. In this case, the great Keith Olbermann. But these words are worth reading by everyone. So I cut, and paste, with apologies and appreciation to Mr. Olbermann...

On the 22nd of May, 1856, as the deteriorating American political system veered toward the edge of the cliff, U.S. Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina shuffled into the Senate of this nation, his leg stiff from an old dueling injury, supported by a cane. And he looked for the familiar figure of the prominent senator from Massachusetts, Charles Sumner.

Brooks found Sumner at his desk, mailing out copies of a speech he had delivered three days earlier - a speech against slavery.

The congressman matter-of-factly raised his walking stick in midair and smashed its metal point across the senator's head.

Congressman Brooks hit his victim repeatedly. Sen. Sumner somehow got to his feet and tried to flee. Brooks chased him and delivered untold blows to Sumner's head. Even though Sumner lay unconscious and bleeding on the Senate floor, Brooks finally stopped beating him only because his cane finally broke.

Others will cite John Brown's attack on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry as the exact point after which the Civil War became inevitable.

In point of fact, it might have been the moment, not when Brooks broke his cane over the prostrate body of Sen. Sumner - but when voters in Brooks' district started sending him new canes.

Tonight, we almost wonder to whom President Bush will send the next new cane.

There is tonight no political division in this country that he and his party will not exploit, nor have not exploited; no anxiety that he and his party will not inflame.

There is no line this president has not crossed - nor will not cross - to keep one political party in power.

He has spread any and every fear among us in a desperate effort to avoid that which he most fears - some check, some balance against what has become not an imperial, but a unilateral presidency.

And now it is evident that it no longer matters to him whether that effort to avoid the judgment of the people is subtle and nuanced or laughably transparent.

Sen. John Kerry called him out Monday.

He did it two years too late.

He had been too cordial - just as Vice President Gore had been too cordial in 2000, just as millions of us have been too cordial ever since.

Sen. Kerry, as you well know, spoke at a college in Southern California. With bitter humor he told the students that he had been in Texas the day before, that President Bush used to live in that state, but that now he lives in the state of denial.

He said the trip had reminded him about the value of education - that "if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you can get stuck in Iraq."

The senator, in essence, called Mr. Bush stupid.

The context was unmistakable: Texas; the state of denial; stuck in Iraq. No interpretation required.

And Mr. Bush and his minions responded by appearing to be too stupid to realize that they had been called stupid.

They demanded Kerry apologize to the troops in Iraq.

And so he now has.

That phrase - "appearing to be too stupid" - is used deliberately, Mr. Bush.

Because there are only three possibilities here.

One, sir, is that you are far more stupid than the worst of your critics have suggested; that you could not follow the construction of a simple sentence; that you could not recognize your own life story when it was deftly summarized; that you could not perceive it was the sad ledger of your presidency that was being recounted.

This, of course, compliments you, Mr. Bush, because even those who do not "make the most of it," who do not "study hard," who do not "do their homework," and who do not "make an effort to be smart" might still just be stupid, but honest.

No, the first option, sir, is, at best, improbable. You are not honest.

The second option is that you and those who work for you deliberately twisted what Sen. Kerry said to fit your political template; that you decided to take advantage of it, to once again pretend that the attacks, solely about your own incompetence, were in fact attacks on the troops or even on the nation itself.

The third possibility is, obviously, the nightmare scenario: that the first two options are in some way conflated.

That it is both politically convenient for you and personally satisfying to you, to confuse yourself with the country for which, sir, you work.

A brief reminder, Mr. Bush: You are not the United States of America.

You are merely a politician whose entire legacy will have been a willingness to make anything political; to have, in this case, refused to acknowledge that the insult wasn't about the troops, and that the insult was not even truly about you either, that the insult, in fact, is you.

So now John Kerry has apologized to the troops; apologized for the Republicans' deliberate distortions.

Thus, the president will now begin the apologies he owes our troops, right?

This president must apologize to the troops for having suggested, six weeks ago, that the chaos in Iraq, the death and the carnage, the slaughtered Iraqi civilians and the dead American service personnel, will, to history, "look like just a comma."

This president must apologize to the troops because the intelligence he claims led us into Iraq proved to be undeniably and irredeemably wrong.

This president must apologize to the troops for having laughed about the failure of that intelligence at a banquet while our troops were in harm's way.

This president must apologize to the troops because the streets of Iraq were not strewn with flowers and its residents did not greet them as liberators.

This president must apologize to the troops because his administration ran out of "plan" after barely two months.

This president must apologize to the troops for getting 2,815 of them killed.

This president must apologize to the troops for getting this country into a war without a clue.

And Mr. Bush owes us an apology for this destructive and omnivorous presidency.

We will not receive them, of course.

This president never apologizes.

Not to the troops.

Not to the people.

Nor will those henchmen who have echoed him.

In calling him a "stuffed suit," Sen. Kerry was wrong about the press secretary.

Mr. Snow's words and conduct, falsely earnest and earnestly false, suggest he is not "stuffed," he is inflated.

And in leaving him out of the equation, Sen. Kerry gave an unwarranted pass to his old friend Sen. John McCain, who should be ashamed of himself tonight.

He rolled over and pretended Kerry had said what he obviously had not.

Only, the symbolic stick he broke over Kerry's head came in a context even more disturbing.

Mr. McCain demanded the apology while electioneering for a Republican congressional candidate in Illinois.

He was speaking of how often he had been to Walter Reed Hospital to see the wounded Iraq veterans, of how "many of them have lost limbs."

He said all this while demanding that the voters of Illinois reject a candidate who is not only a wounded Iraq veteran, but who lost two limbs there, Tammy Duckworth.

Support some of the wounded veterans. But bad-mouth the Democratic one.

And exploit all the veterans and all the still-serving personnel in a cheap and tawdry political trick to try to bury the truth: that John Kerry said the president had been stupid.

And to continue this slander as late as this morning - as biased or gullible or lazy newscasters nodded in sleep-walking assent.

Sen. McCain became a front man in a collective lie to break sticks over the heads of Democrats - one of them his friend, another his fellow veteran, legless, for whom he should weep and applaud or at minimum about whom he should stay quiet.

That was beneath the senator from Arizona.

And it was all because of an imaginary insult to the troops that his party cynically manufactured out of a desperation and a futility as deep as that of Congressman Brooks, when he went hunting for Sen. Sumner.

This is our beloved country now as you have redefined it, Mr. Bush.

Get a tortured Vietnam veteran to attack a decorated Vietnam veteran in defense of military personnel whom that decorated veteran did not insult.

Or, get your henchmen to take advantage of the evil lingering dregs of the fear of miscegenation in Tennessee, in your party's advertisements against Harold Ford.

Or, get the satellites who orbit around you, like Rush Limbaugh, to exploit the illness - and the bipartisanship - of Michael J. Fox. Yes, get someone to make fun of the cripple.

Oh, and sir, don't forget to drag your own wife into it.

"It's always easy," she said of Mr. Fox's commercials - and she used this phrase twice - "to manipulate people's feelings."

Where on earth might the first lady have gotten that idea, Mr. President?

From your endless manipulation of people's feelings about terrorism?

"However they put it," you said Monday of the Democrats, on the subject of Iraq, "their approach comes down to this: The terrorists win, and America loses."

No manipulation of feelings there.

No manipulation of the charlatans of your administration into the only truth-tellers.

No shocked outrage at the Kerry insult that wasn't; no subtle smile as the first lady silently sticks the knife in Michael J. Fox's back; no attempt on the campaign trail to bury the reality that you have already assured that the terrorists are winning.

Winning in Iraq, sir.

Winning in America, sir.

There we have chaos - joint U.S.-Iraqi checkpoints at Sadr City, the base of the radical Shiite militias, and the Americans have been ordered out by the prime minister of Iraq … and our secretary of defense doesn't even know about it!

And here we have deliberate, systematic, institutionalized lying and smearing and terrorizing - a code of deceit that somehow permits a president to say, "If you listen carefully for a Democrat plan for success, they don't have one."

Permits him to say this while his plan in Iraq has amounted to a twisted version of the advice once offered to Lyndon Johnson about his Iraq, called Vietnam.

Instead of "declare victory and get out" we now have "declare victory and stay indefinitely."

And also here - we have institutionalized the terrorizing of the opposition.

True domestic terror:

Critics of your administration in the media receive letters filled with fake anthrax.

Braying newspapers applaud or laugh or reveal details the FBI wished kept quiet, and thus impede or ruin the investigation.

A series of reactionary columnists encourages treason charges against a newspaper that published "national security information" that was openly available on the Internet.

One radio critic receives a letter threatening the revelation of as much personal information about her as can be obtained and expressing the hope that someone will then shoot her with an AK-47 machine gun.

And finally, a critic of an incumbent Republican senator, a critic armed with nothing but words, is attacked by the senator's supporters and thrown to the floor in full view of television cameras as if someone really did want to re-enact the intent - and the rage - of the day Preston Brooks found Sen. Charles Sumner.

Of course, Mr. President, you did none of these things.

You instructed no one to mail the fake anthrax, nor undermine the FBI's case, nor call for the execution of the editors of the New York Times, nor threaten to assassinate Stephanie Miller, nor beat up a man yelling at Sen. George Allen, nor have the first lady knife Michael J. Fox, nor tell John McCain to lie about John Kerry.

No, you did not.

And the genius of the thing is the same as in King Henry's rhetorical question about Archbishop Thomas Becket: "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

All you have to do sir, is hand out enough new canes.

I'm Keith Olbermann. Good night, and good luck.
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"Hands" Coulter Could Face Criminal Charges

An investigation has begun into the voting activities of Ann Coulter, to determine if she knowingly voted in the wrong pricinct. Coulter is refusing to comply with the investigation. It is said she could get 5 years in prison if convicted. It seems a stretch, but who among us wouldn't welcome the silence?

Also, could she be faced with solitary confinement? I would think being forced to be her cellmate could constitute cruel and inhuman punishment. Of course, if we sent her to one of Cheney's secret prisons it might slide under the torture rules.

On second thought, that is just going too hard on Al-Qaeda.

The Macaca Mafia

The George Allen v. Jim Webb celebrity grudgematch has already generated more interest than a Paris Hilton sex tape. This week's highlights...

George Allen has highlighted passages from Jim Webb's fictional novels in an attempt to portray Webb as a moral degenerate. This is silly. It is like assuming Stephen King is a murderer, Anne Rice a vampire, or Lynn Cheney a lesbian.

Webb is responding by reading reviews of his novels at campaign stumps. This is an interesting way of staying on message. Vote for me, critics LOVE my work.

Oh and Allen's staff, responding to a heckler asking, "Why did you spit on your first wife?" politely showed him the door. The poor man must have been quite drunk, because he kept falling down, and these gentlemen had a heck of a time holding him up. I think it must be hard to support a staggering body with a chokehold. Luckily cameras caught the whole thing...

To watch the video click HERE

This is a particularily nasty race, and as we come down to the final few days it will be one to watch closely, because you never know when one of them gets fed up and just sends his goons to take the other out.

My money is on Webb to win the race, but in a fight on Allen, because he has thugs to do the work for him.

RED HERRING ALERT: Six days to go...

...and we have another controversy. This time the White House is demonizing John Kerry again. Some democrats say this guy is the gift that keeps on giving. Others are rooting him on.

First Kerry, speaking to college students, made a gaffe when he said something to the effect of "stay in school, work hard, get good grades or you end up in Iraq." He has since said he botched a joke, that he was going to say "you end up like Bush and get us into Iraq." Frankly neither version is particularly funny or relevant, after all there is no draft. When Kerry was a young man it was true that if you didn't get good grades and into college you were probably headed for a jungle in Vietnam or a mad dash over the Canadian border. Today, not so much. But granted, an argument could be made that if you get good grades, get scholarships, and get into a good college then the merciless recruiters won't look so tempting when they come to buy your soul for the whopping sum of $20,000. Also, Bush DID go to college, and achieved a level of mediocrity rarely seen in the transcripts of future presidents.

That notwithstanding, Kerry blew a joke. Bush is blowing a war, and I was pleased that Kerry came back swinging, refusing to apologize to the right, making no excuses, and demanding an apology for the troops from Bush and Cheney. John Kerry is no more responsible for the failure of this war than you or I am, that blame rests squarely on the shoulders of this chickenhawkish administration.

What the republicans are trying to do is spin this to their advantage (I know! I was shocked too!) by making it look like WORDS are the reason we are failing in Iraq. They want us to believe that John Kerry, like John Murtha and Max Cleland before him, is a coward and hates America. They want you to forget that John Kerry, like John Murtha and Max Cleland before him, is a war HERO, who served his country voluntarily in a time of war, saw combat and was injured. They want you to forget that this brave man came home and fought again, this time for the truth, to end a war and save American lives. They want you to forget that George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Trent Lott, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, P.J. O'Rourke, John Ashcroft, Alan Keyes, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Pat Buchanan, George Will, Bill Bennett, Dan Quayle, Phil Gramm, Tom Delay, Dick Armey, and Dennis Hastert are just a few of the notable republicans who shirked their patriotic duty to go over to Vietnam and fight the bad fight. They want you to forget that on that list are several people who gleefully got us into this war, they want us to forget that they are unwilling to send their kids to fight it, they want us to forget that OUR kids are the ones going over, and dying, this month 100 of them.

They want you to remember that John Kerry, and by extension all liberals, HATE America, hate our troops, and want to give in to Al Qaeda. They want you to repeat this mantra all the way to the polls. They want to hold onto power, because they have too much at stake to lose.

Don't let them fool you, and don't let them fool anyone you know. It is critical that the democrats win this one, not for the party, but for America.

The Jerk Factor: What To Do When Your Candidate is a Nimrod

A friend of mine came to me recently, in a quandry about how to vote in her congressional race. She is an avowed liberal, just like me, and is desperate to see the house return to the hands of the democrats, but really emphatically dislikes the candidate the party has nominated on many levels. The race is a close one. She has asked me for some advice. Does she vote for this person she feels is terribly unqualified and ruthless? Or does she vote for the republican, who just rubber stamps whatever Bush puts forth? She is really disinclined to skip over that race, and would never miss an election, believe me. I have seen her get out of the hospital earlier than her doctors would have liked just to get to the polls...she is no shirker of civic duty. I could tell she was pretty troubled, and wanted to help her make a choice and feel better about it. I hope this helps!

Sometimes we are faced with a choice in politics that is pretty unsavory either way you go. I think this is a problem more often for republicans than democrats, because I have heard them over the years talk about voting for the lesser of two evils a lot more frequently than democrats, and, let's face some facts here, republicans have less appealing personalities, are more likely to be at the least jerks, and many times outright criminals. It has to be hard to be faced with the choices conservatives face in the voting booth. We on the left have much to be grateful for. Occasionally, however, we find a jerk in our midst. Normally the vetting process prevents them from making it onto a general election ballot, but every now in then one inexplicably comes through and we are forced to make a choice. Here is where I think we can learn a few lessons from our friends on the right.

Republicans have learned that sometimes issues are greater than personalities, and that to further their own agendas they must vote for people that they would much rather not. Just look at the re-election of Bush, whether there was vote tampering or not, Republicans toed the line, despite some pretty pathetic approval ratings, because they believed that the issues were more important than the personality. Republicans nail us time and again on the issues because they know how to push their agenda despite their jerk handicap.

This has to be true for us, too. Truthfully, on the issues, Americans tend to identify more closely with democrats, especially domestic issues. We need to be vigilant, vote the issues and overlook the personality, at least in the general election. It is just too important. So, my friend, vote democrat in this race, and know that there will be another primary election in 18 months.

Limbaugh's Pitiful Attempt to Backpeddle

Yesterday I called my conservative Mother-in-Law to give her a little trouble about her hero and his meanspirited at best, cruel is more like it, attack on Michael J. Fox. Of course, she defended Rush, after all he is a cuddly, lovable, sweet prankster. Predictably she said that his remarks were taken out of context, that she had listened to the whole show and he wasn't attacking Fox but rather praising him for his courage (yeah, this woman has had some advanced spin and denial training).

The conversation degenerated, I said something to the effect of Rush being a hillbilly heroin addict and criminal picking on a man with a terrible disease. Gwen defended him again saying he had a medical problem and those were prescription drugs. I never had to use my housekeeper to purchase my prescription drugs on the street, but then I don't have a housekeeper or a need for oxycontin. When she said he wasn't a criminal I told her that innocent people don't cop a plea, and she said he didn't! Oh the lies! I told her he plead guilty to charges, she said that he did that to protect himself from the expense of defending himself against the charges and that he was innocent, and the DA couldn't make the case. She said that pleading guity doesn't mean a conviction. Ok, she is a nice lady but not exactly Matlock.

So I decided to go to Rush Limbaugh's website and get his story on the scandal and this is what I found:

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_102506/content/america_s_anchorman.guest.html

Not exactly a stirring mea culpa. More like a "You people just twist my words, and attack my character, you whining liberal pinkos! Get over it!"

Poor Rush.

Nevada Governor's Race Gets Fugly

Republican Congressman (why is it that this label is now associated with the lowest in conduct and behavior?) and gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons can't seem to make it to the finish line without tripping over his own feet.

Last week he was accused of assaulting a woman in a parking lot.

This week THIS hit the news....

Best of luck in the private sector Mr. Gibbons.

Headlines and Commentary

Ok I have been up for three hours and I am finally getting to the business of reading the morning headlines and drinking my first cup of coffee. The coffee is very delicious, a bold "Thunderbolt" blend from Rio Grande Roasters, in my great big GOOD MORNING mug with three yellow packets and some milk. MMMMM. As usual the headlines range from pretty hilarious to pretty sad. Let's get going!

CNN:

White House Denies Dramatic Iraq Policy Shift Yeah right, Bush is denying using the "Stay the Course" line, and relabelling "Cut and Run" to "Walk and Talk." This wonk wonders if Bush has picked up some writers from The Daily Show. Seriously, though, it has got to be hard to be selling this disaster of a war to the public...and this is just putting a different shade of lipstick on the same old pig. I don't envy them. I do laugh at them.

Opponent Denies Knocking Sen. Clinton's Looks This guy has a lot of nerve. True, the 70's were not Hillary's best decade, truth be told they weren't kind to many. I would kill to see a picture of this old coot in 70's fashion. I will say though that Hillary's current look, while not bad at all, looks a little like Shirley Jones from the Partridge Family, but it works for her.

USA TODAY:

Officer struck by Bush's cousin dies Yep, ole Johnny Walker (I promise I didn't make that one up!) hits a cop and the cop dies, but he didn't get tested for DUI. I wonder how many other people could get away with that.

New York Times:

General May Increase U.S. Troop Levels in Baghdad See, this is where the electorate gets confused. Stay the course, timed withdrawl, more troops, less troops, cut and run, walk and talk...who knows what is real anymore?

PC problems have slowed down the blog process today, plus one sick kid and one just making a mess, but I will be back with the "Naptime Report".

Bill Richardson on Real Time with Bill Maher Video Link

Click here to watch the full interview!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdTDR4IZSMQ

Changes to Liberaltruthsayer

Good morning my friends. I have made a change to LTS and wanted to let you know about it and why.

I have enabled comment moderation on my blog. I have done this because I have had a particularily nasty troll hounding me for months. Initially I thought I would just keep his comments up because he was particularily ill informed and barely literate, and frankly I enjoyed making fun of him. Lately his comments have taken a very bad turn, and I don't like where this is going.

I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause any of you, but I refuse to let this person continue to insult me and my other posters. I welcome political discourse, I embrace other opinions, but personal attacks do not belong here.

lts

UN: 914,000 Have Fled Homes in Iraq

Yep, things are going well. Remarkably well.

We are bringing Iraq freedom.

Freedom from the burden of homeownership.

Freedom from the shackles of life.

Freedom from dignity.

Freedom from wealth.

Freedom from oil.

Don't tell me that this is about fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here, and don't tell me that Sadaam was a monster. He may have been a monster, but what we are doing is an abomination.

Of course, the right will say these numbers are meaningless. They will say, just like they did with the figure of 655,000 Iraqi's killed that came out last week that the numbers were fabricated. Interestingly the only thing proven to be fabricated was the evidence to support this invasion of a soveriegn nation and the ruthless killing and displacement of hundreds of thousands.

I play Scrabble online, at a marvelous site, www.isc.ro. It is just the coolest place to play if you are a WordFreak. Well our nice little community came unglued today. I was playing and not paying attention to the chatter in the main lobby when someone private messaged me, "Can you believe she enlisted???" Well there went my game. I immediately lost all interest in beating my friend in England and turned to the lobby and demanded an explanation...it is a young girl from Texas, who was training to be a dog groomer. Her father, another Scrabbler and helper on the site, is a military man, and this young girl was following in his footsteps.

I got really angry. I asked her why she was so willing to throw her young life away for a lie, for a bullshit war against a people that had never attacked us, for Bush's lies. I caught a lot of flack. I didn't care. Suddenly I was willing to be gagged in the forum. I was challenging them to gag me. Politics are forbidden from discussion, and swearing too, and I was at both with a fury. I told the girl that I am a patriot and I am against the war, and she told me that you can't be both, and if I didn't like the war I should maybe move to Mexico!

This is where I lost it. I told her that if she felt the need to defend this country with her life she should first learn something about it, like the fundamental principle that dissention is not apatriotic. She said that I should stop listenting to the lies of the media, they are not reporting how good we are doing in Iraq and how they are so glad we are occupying them. I felt like the world had shifted on its axis.

How in the hell do these kids get these ideas? From their friendly recruiters. Rah Rah! We rock! Might makes right!

I wanted to shake her. I wanted to shake her father. I wanted to strangle a few people, too.

It doesn't make any sense to me anymore.

MUST SEE TV!

Tonight on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher"... Governor Richardson!!!! Check your local listings!

What it really comes down to on election day...

What the republicans want you to think they are afraid of when you go to the polls...





What the republicans are REALLY afraid of...

Be a REAL patriot...Vote Democrat on November 7th.

Bring out the Boogeyman!

Be prepared, be very scared...here he comes!

The desperate cowards on the right will unleash a brand new attack ad, aimed directly at terrorizing you. They are dragging out the boogeyman and waving him in your face, and telling you that a vote for Democrats is a vote for Osama.

Don't you believe it for a minute.

Lets' show the republicans that we won't take their fearmongering anymore. Shame on them.

Kim So Sorry

Oops...my bad!

Guilty Pleasure: Continual F-Bomb Fallout

This morning I find myself feeling just a little (very little) bit guilty for taking so much pleasure in the fact that political gangrene is devouring the republicans limb by limb. I find myself chuckling as I write this, and alternately doubling over, knowing I should try to remain a little dignified and somber at the impending death of the beast, but I just can't help myself.

Heather Wilson is toast. Gone. No MAS. Some years ago investigative journalist Larry Barker of KOAT-TV revealed in an interview with Heather Wilson allegations that she had removed a family file (at the time she was head of the Children, Youth and Family Division) that was embarrassing, and Heather denied it, quickly abandoned the interview and while leaving was caught stealing Larry Barker's own file! (I would direct you to YouTube at this point to watch this hilarious video snippet for yourselves but KOAT has just asked YouTube to remove it because of "copyright infringement" (wink wink). I have seen it, and as funny as the caught in the act theft was, the confrontation between Barker and Wilson and ensuing admission of guilt is even funnier. Well the file has hit the fan peeps, and let me tell you, I thought it would probably not amount to too much, perhaps a report of a family disturbance gone bad, something that you could understand a loving wife wanting to keep private, but it is WAY bad.

The report was made by a teenage boy living in Hogares, a youth group home, and who was being represented by Heather's husband, a lawyer. Apparently Hone, aka Mr. Wilson, invited the kid over for pizza and a "movie" and grabbed his ass when the kid got up. Now Hone tried to play it off saying he was reaching for another slice of pizza, but the kid swears he wasn't keeping it in his pants.

Now this in itself would be bad enough, but combine it with the fact that Heather was on the page board and though the debate is raging about who knew what and when about Foley (oh yeah and probably some other reps...more to come!) was up to and why they didn't do anything about it, it looks worse. It looks worse still that she took fistfuls of cash from Foley. My prediction? Heather will take a page from the Republican handbook and enter "rehab".

Add that to the fact that Patsy Madrid is lapping her in the polls, and I have one thing to say to Heather Wilson...enjoy that pension, girlfriend, and good luck in the private sector!

Back to the dying beast...

So apparently, there is a lot of finger pointing in the ongoing F-Bomb Hearings, and it looks like while the republicans keep having to amputate limbs of the beast to keep the gangrene from spreading, the head of the beast, Hastert, may be a necessary sacrifice.

I have also heard from well placed sources that there is a new page scandal just about to break, and it involves an Illinois congressperson and a teenage girl. More as the news hits.

Frankly, I know from experience not to get my hopes up, after all we know how rigged the machines are, we know that the republicans will do anything to retain power, and we know that the democrats have a terrible reputation of just putting on the pink tutu's and refusing to engage in fisticuffs, but I find it difficult to imagine a scenario where these guys can find redemption and save themselves in time for the election.

Morning Must Read

This Morning Must Read comes to us from Scott...

OUR RIGGED ELECTIONS (PART II)
The GOP Playbook: How to Steal the Vote

Excerpt:

From the start, George W. Bush has pointedly refused to ask that we make any national sacrifice to help us win the "war on terror." Soon after 9/11 he urged us not to curb our appetites in any way, although to do so would have made much sense, and makes sense now. After all, it's oil, in part, that U.S. troops are fighting for, and oil that indirectly pays for all the guns and bombs now blowing those troops, and countless others, to shreds. The patriotic thing would therefore be to lessen our national dependency on fossil fuels, by driving less (or not at all), and turning off the air conditioners, by buying fewer disposables, and otherwise deferring to the greater good. Bush, however, will have none of that, asserting that the best thing we can do to help win this war is just go shopping.

Yet in one respect it's not exactly right to say that our president has asked nothing of us. Since 9/11, Bush has made astonishing demands on all his fellow citizens, asking us to swallow more baloney than the U.S. government has ever fed the people of this country. He and his team have asked us to believe that 9/11 came as a complete surprise, that Saddam Hussein was part of it, and that Iraq would soon be lobbing atom bombs, poison gas, and lethal pathogens at Tel Aviv and Disney World. They also asked us to believe that the Iraqi people would bestrew our troops with flowers, then that the "mission" had been "accomplished," then that those friendly natives had been overrun by "foreign terrorists" intent on wrecking the "democracy" that we were there to build. And now Bush asks us to believe that things aren't half as bad in Iraq (not to mention Afghanistan), as they appear, and that his team can win this war.

That most Americans do not believe a word of it, and therefore will not vote Republican, attests to the diffusive power of truth, which in this country still resonates despite the efforts of both government and media to bury it. Bush's big lies have prevailed not just because his regime has so doggedly promoted them. For too long, those howlers also had the benefit of a compliant press that simply echoed them.

But the truth about Iraq could not be spun away as more and more Americans encountered it, traumatically, in their own lives, and as the word spread ever further through the Internet and other unofficial channels—an arduous process of enlightenment that the press has only recently begun to help along. (The Democrats have mostly sat there mute.) And so the White House's claims about Iraq—and about 9/11, Afghanistan, Katrina, the economy, the public schools, the global climate and the GOP's respect for "family values"—strike millions of Americans as utter hooey.

MORE.....

Good stuff!

Smart Words from a Smart Man...

The real menace to American kids

We demonize Mark Foley but ignore the industries medicating children and making them fat, and even open our schools to people trying to kill them -- military recruiters.

By Bill Maher

Oct. 13, 2006 | If you think the worst thing Congress doesn't protect young people from is Mark Foley, wake up and smell the burning planet. The ice caps are cracking, the coral reefs are bleaching, and we're losing two species an hour. The birds have bird flu, the cows have mad cow, and our poisoned groundwater has turned spinach into a side dish of mass destruction. Our schools are shooting galleries, our beaches are cancer wards, and under George W. Bush -- for the first time in 45 years -- our country's infant mortality rate actually went up.

Read the labels on your food. It turns out the healthiest thing you can put in your body is Mark Foley's penis. He was probably the first fruit those pages ever came into contact with that wasn't drenched in pesticide.

But that's America for you -- a red herring culture, always scared of the wrong things. The fact is, there are a lot of creepy middle-aged men out there lusting for your kids. They work for MTV, the pharmaceutical industry, McDonald's, Marlboro and K Street. And recently, there's been a rash of strangers making their way onto school campuses and targeting our children for death. They're called military recruiters.

More young Americans were crippled in Iraq last month than in any month in the past three years. And the scandal is that Mark Foley wants to show them a good time before they go? When will our closeted gay congressmen learn? Our boys aren't for pleasure. They're for cannon fodder. They shouldn't be another notch on your bedpost. They should be a comma in Bush's war. If I hear a zipper, it had better be on a body bag.

Why aren't Democrats and the media hammering away every day about who we're supposed to be fighting for over there and what the plan is. Yes, Mark Foley was wrong to ask teenagers how long their penises were -- but at least someone on Capitol Hill was asking questions. We're the predators. Because we have an entire economy built on asking young people what they want, making the cheapest, sleaziest form of it they'll accept, and selling it to them until they choke on it and die.

You know who's grabbing your kids at too young an age? Merck, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, by convincing you they're depressed, hyperactive or suffering from attention-deficit disorder and so they must all get medicated. The drug dealers hooking your kids aren't in South America, they're in the halls of Congress handing out campaign donations to your congressmen. Mark Foley says he never slept with those kids, and I believe him, because American children are so hopped up on pills I doubt any of them could get it up.

From 1995 to 2002, the number of children prescribed antipsychotic drugs increased by over 400 percent. Either our children are going insane -- which we might look on as a problem -- or, more likely, we have, for profit, created a nation of little junkies. So stop already with the righteous moral indignation about predators -- this whole country is trying to get inside your kid's pants because that's where he keeps the money Daddy gave him to stay out of his hair.

I don't care if Mark Foley had been asking boys to describe their penises because I have some sad news for you: Your kid is so larded out on Cheetos and Yoo-hoo, he can't even see his penis. We live in a country where the ultimate consumer is an obese 16-year-old hooked up at one end to a Big Gulp and at the other to a PlayStation. So many of our kids today are fat drug addicts, it's almost as if Rush Limbaugh had puppies.

In conclusion, we can pretend that the biggest threat to "our children" is some creep on the Internet, or we can admit it's Mom and Dad. When your son can't find France on a map, or touch his toes with his hands, or understand that the ads on TV are lying -- including the one in which the Marine turns into Lancelot -- then the person fucking him is you.

-- By Bill Maher

3000

No Bush Left Behind

This BUSINESS WEEK article paints a lovely picture of the No Child Left Behind Act's most notable beneficiaries...

There is this guy...

Neil Bush, brother of the BOGUS POTUS

And THIS guy

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia

And my personal favorite white collar criminal...

Michael "Bilkin'" Milken
(you may not recognize him outside of his orange jumpsuit)

You simply must READ THIS ARTICLE, it's the SCAM of the century!

An Empowerment Wave of the Future Gets Its Due (thanks for the title Scott)

Few recipients of the Nobel Prize for Peace have so richly deserved their award. This year's recipient, Muhammed Yunus of Bangledesh, has helped many of his countrymen out of poverty through microloans over the last 30 years, empowering people to find their own way of earning a living.

Here's more...

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut, Sometimes You Don't

a scene from my hottest fantasy...

In what promises to be this season's MUST READ, former Deputy Director of Faith Based Initiatives, David Kuo, says that White House officials courted evangelicals for their votes and then ridiculed them behind their backs. Kuo quotes our very favorite republican operative, Karl "Goebbles" Rove, as calling evangelicals "nuts."

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Every day, in every way, this administration reveals its soul to us (or lack thereof).

America's Biggest Threat: The Axis of Ignorance

If it is true that, "there is nothing wrong with America that can't be cured by what is right with America," then we liberals have our work cut out for us.

A great many pundits and scholars have debated over the years what the greatest threat to America is. Some contend that threat is terrorism. Others blame Godless Liberals for pushing Jesus out of the classrooms and culture. Still others blame illegal aliens for bringing drugs and disease and crime over our borders, and stealing our jobs and feeding freely from the public trough.

I disagree. I believe that the greatest threat to America can be catagorized by what I like to refer to as the "Axis of Ignorance"...

At the top of this pyramid of shame is the current REPUBLICAN GUARD, not just the President and his kabal of liars and purveyors of homegrown terrorism and fear, but also the shameful trolls that lead the current congress, and the judiciary that behaves like a cloaked secret society, permitting injustices and abridgement of our documents of democracy. Today's Republican leadership have proven that they will stop at nothing to wrest every shred of power and control to further their own agenda. They will twist logic, warp values, and generate fear to get their people to the polls. They will create roadblocks to prevent the opposition from voting, they will fix the voting machines to falsely record votes, and when all else fails they will get the Supreme Court to rule that counting the votes impinges on their candidates' civil liberties.

The right side of the base of the pyramid are the RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISTS. These people, who predominantly are truly good and kind folk dedicated to living their lives in the path of Christ, have been duped by the top of the pyramid into supporting an agenda clearly contrary to thier own. What would Jesus do? Well, I don't know for sure, but somehow I doubt he would approve of bombing the crap out of people who never posed a threat to us. I don't think he would approve of the reckless disregard for the environment shown by the conservatives of today, nor the wasteful approach to our national resources and finances. I also don't believe he would approve of public health care money going to pay for Viagra and Cialis, but not for indigent care. The republicans have led religious fundamentalists to believe that a vote for them is a vote against homosexuality (how wrong could they be?) and abortion and for prayer in schools. The fundamentalist do us harm in one other way, and that is by setting the agenda in our schools and laboratories they are causing America to lose its scientific edge in the world, and that is not doing us any favors.

Now, there is no left side of the base of this pyramid, so physics majors please just entertain me here...

The other right side of the base of this pyramid is more nebulous. It is CULTURAL INTOLERANCE. This is best exemplified by the current raging debate over Border Security, which is a thinly veiled attempt to divide Americans over racial and cultural issues. Nothing has changed with regard to immigration in the past decade, but the administration wanted a nice, fiery issue with which to club liberals over for the midterm elections and they chose this one. With the assistance of media hacks like Lou Dobbs who shamelessly profit off of this big smelly red herring they have managed to give this non-starter oxygen for the past several months. How sad they must be that the fruit of their efforts, this heinous Border Security bill, brought them so little glory. Perhaps if one of their members (pardon the pun please) had been able to stop himself with the teenage pages it would have gotten a little more attention. But the real goal is to minimize the ability of Mexican people to become citizens and earn the right to vote, because the republicans cannot afford the change in demographics.

There you have it, the biggest threat to America today: The Axis of Ignorance. We liberals have a big job to do, but have faith, because we are smarter, we are capable, and we are right.

Iraq's Staggering Death Toll

Imagine the cities of Memphis or Austin vanishing. Imagine losing Alaska, or Vermont, or North Dakota. All of the people in any one of those cities or states killed.

Well those states and cities have roughly 650,000 people residing in them. According to a study conducted by Gilbert Burnham and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, and Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, Iraq, the death toll in Iraq is in the area of 655,000. They do not distinguish between soldiers and civilians.

Gee, I wonder why the insurgents are so damn mad.

Governor Richardson on Hannity and Colmes

Governor Richardson will be appearing on tonight's Hannity and Colmes, on the Faux News Network, consult your local listings. It will be interesting to hear the voice of a democrat on that show.

Governor Richardson on the Today Show

Governor Richardson, proving once again that in the theatre of American foreign policy he is the adult in the room, appeared today on The Today Show...

Click here to watch

PERVERTS AND LIARS AND CROOKS!!! OH MY!!!!

I am an army of one...

Oh yes! They have had their hands in the cookie jar! Oh yes! They have had their hands (well at least one hand) on the keyboard! Oh yes! They have had their secret meetings, their dirty dealings, their hushes, shooshes and cover-ups!
And now it is all on the table. Less than five weeks from the election people have looked behind the curtain and seen just how small, petty and pitiful the Great and Powerful Oz actually is, a weak, shrivelled man taking perverted delight in terrifying the masses with shock and awe techniques, color coded charts of terror, exploding liquids on planes, shoe bombers and anthrax. We know that while Oz was scaring us into submission the flying monkeys refused to stop him, refused to get involved, refused to do anything to harsh the gig of the "Great One".
Ladies and gentlemen, we are in need of new flying monkeys. We get our chance in four and a half weeks. Get out there and pick a new monkey, back the monkey and set it free.

Why this Foley Thang Feels Sooooooooo Good

It may seem a bit mean that this Foley scandal has brought us so much joy. I know I feel a little bit guilty when everytime it is mentiomed I giggle, wave my hands in the air and do a little happy dance...but it just feels so right. So I dance, and celebrate this beautiful, beautiful scandal.

But many may wonder why liberals are over the moon about the revelations about Congressman Foley and its aftermath. For those who are curious, let me shed some light.
First of all, eight years ago we had a marvelous president. He had worked wonders with our economy, we were at peace, people had jobs, things were sure looking up. Kenneth Starr, who had spent a fortune in government dollars trying to pin criminal charges on the President for a failed land deal in vain, instead went after the President for sexual activities. He was impeached, but an effort to remove him from office didn't work.

Following that national disgrace we had to endure years of puffed up republicans, claiming to be the bearers of all that is good, virtuous and holy. Democrats were incapable of leading, because they weren't MORAL enough. Republicans had "family values" and God liked them best.
Anytime there was a hint of impropriety in the ranks of the republicans they would get their loudmouth radio and tv personalities out there beating the Clinton/Monica drum. Democrats never once stood up to them because they are scared little spineless weenies. The democrats just let it slide, for eight years.

Well, after eight years of being shamed into silence and losing every single election since, we have a glimmer of hope. With each passing day this scandal weakens the republicans, not because democrats are tearing them down, but because they are cannibalizing themselves. It is a beautiful thing, because it brings the promise of a return to some balance in government, and perhaps some checks on this hideous Executive.

Perhaps most beautifully, though, it is bringing about the end of this false piety, revealing the dark smelly underbelly of conservatism, and negating years and years of righteous indignation served up by piggy right wingers. Oh you can still hear them try the old talking points, sputtering..."But! But! Bill Clinton did it! It was sex with a subordinate! It's the SAME THING!!!" through their tears, but anyone with a brain knows it isn't, it really isn't even close, and it is perverted just to try to equate the issues.

So I do my happy dance. I embrace the promise of a return to REAL decency, where perhaps we can see a light at the end of the Bush Presidency tunnel, a return to some balance, less slimy rhetoric from the right. These are all great things. It is high time for them.
Dance with me!

Photo of the Year

O'Reilly Labels Foley a Democrat

See anything wrong with this photo? That's right, Faux News, in its none too clever attempt to distance Foley from the mothership labled Mark (Taint) Foley as a DEMOCRAT. The graphic was used three times in two segments on the Bill O'Reilly show. Show your outrage, email O'Reilly, I am sure there is a link on the Faux News page but my eyes are dirty now from trying to find it for you. Tell him that he is a liar, and demand he set the record straight.

In Medical News Today...

Medical tubing manufacturers announced today an upgrade to the Foley Catheter. The new models will include a built in calibration system, to accurately measure penis size.

Manufacturers expect to have the new models available for use in hospitals nationwide November 8th.

New Developments in Masturgate

In breaking news...

TAINT

Taint Foley has entered Pervert Rehab.

In other news it looks like the smell of Taint is spreading throughout the Republican leadership. Already Hastert, Boehner, and Shimkus (these three guys all sound like euphemisms for kinky behavior) are reeking of Taint. Tony Snowjob is spinning out of control to keep Taint off of the White House. CNN is interviewing pages who don't even have first hand knowledge of Taint. Fox News is trying very hard to ignore it.

TAINT

Blood in the Water

Yes, folks, there is blood in the water. Republican blood, which I really thought would be neon green. It is time for democrats to be sharks. Nasty, biting, ruthless sharks. If you are a democrat running for congress (I am talking to you Patsy Madrid!!!!) you better find every photo of your opponent you can with Foley. They are out there, I saw them myself on the national news tonight (ABC). Get them. Use them. Make T-shirts and give them away.

It is time, be ruthless. Be like the shark.

Hume-ongous Blunder

Today on Faux News Sunday, Brit Hume argued, with regard to the Foley scandal, that there is a difference between republicans and democrats in matters such as these. He said that Gerry Sudds didn't lose his position for his improper relationship with a subordinate, that Barney Frank didn't lose his seat for his improper relationship with a subordinate, and that even Bill Clinton didn't lose his job for improper relationships with a subordinate.

Think about that.

Relationship with a subordinate???

Is that what we are calling teenage pages now? Subordinates?

How dare this man equate consensual sex between adults to the sexual stalking of a sixteen year old boy?

Why do republicans keep electing closet homosexuals? I will tell you why. They keep electing fundamentalist Christians, and you don't get much farther back in the closet than that. People who cannot be frank and honest about their natural sexual tendencies and identity tend to manifest this in very dark ways.

So if you are repressing your sexuality, do the world a favor. Go out and meet a nice person your own age, date them, and get laid. Keep your hands and instant messengers off the kids.

Does This Guy Make You "A Little Horny"?

"Sick, sick, sick..."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rep. Mark Foley "was not honest about his conduct," according to the chairman of the House Page Board, referring to e-mail exchanges between the former congressman and a teenage male page who has called the correspondences "sick, sick, sick."

After the e-mails were publicized, ABC News released text messages allegedly sent by the congressman to other teenage male pages.

In them, Foley allegedly said he wanted to take the teen's clothes off, and in another he allegedly asked a page if he made him "a little horny," ABC News reported, saying other exchanges were too graphic to make public.

Foley, a Republican served his district in Florida for six terms, abruptly resigned from Congress on Friday, apologizing "for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent."

MORE

Once again I am going to go on the record with my belief that the more sexually repressed a person is the freakier they act it out. This is one sick, sick, sick man. He has resigned the house, probably been thrown out of his home, and will likely go to prison as well. Hooray!

It's Not Exactly Snakes on a Plane But...

Rodent escapes after passenger sneaks it aboard Austrian plane

Sept 29, 2006
INNSBRUCK, Austria - It wasn't "Snakes on a Plane," but an Austrian Airlines jet made an unscheduled stop Friday after a passenger sneaked a hamster aboard and the rodent escaped.
The flight from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to the southern Austrian city of Graz made a stop in Innsbruck so officials could search for the hamster and make sure it didn't gnaw through any wiring, the airline said.
It said the flight was diverted after a passenger notified the crew that he had brought a hamster aboard and had lost track of it. Passengers were ordered off the plane, and some were taken by bus to Graz. It was not immediately clear how many people were aboard.
By midafternoon, a search of the aircraft still had not turned up any sign of the hamster, authorities said.
Austrian Airlines said the jet would remain grounded until the hamster was found "because it can't take off that way for safety reasons."
© 2006 The Associated Press.

House Passes Detainee Bill

The do-nothing House of Representatives, sensing that they are largely NOT going to be asked back to the dance in November, decided to actually pass some legislation. That is where the good news ends. What they have decided to pass is a bill defining the boundaries of detainee treatment, which excludes them access to the courts to challenge their imprisonment at Gitmo and other places of detention.

Read all about it, and weep with shame...

Bush Refuses to Release Full Intel Report

In this case, the ventriloquist and the dummy are one in the same.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House refused Wednesday to release the rest of a secret intelligence assessment that depicts a growing terrorist threat, as the Bush administration tried to quell election-season criticism that its anti-terror policies are seriously off track.

Press secretary Tony Snow said releasing the full report, portions of which President Bush declassified on Tuesday, would jeopardize the lives of agents who gathered the information.

It would also risk the nation's ability to work with foreign governments and to keep secret its U.S. intelligence-gathering methods, Snow said, and "compromise the independence of people doing intelligence analysis."

"If they think their work is constantly going to be released to the public they are going to pull their punches," Snow said.

MORE

More likely, the report reflects even more negatively than the encapsulated summary suggests, and is even more critical of the war in Iraq. Bush is refusing to release this until AFTER the elections, which leads me to believe that Snowjob is lying here. After all, the agents won't be any safer if the report is released in mid November.

Steamed Rice

I just love this photo of Condi, it really sums her up well...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has taken on former President Clinton, rejecting his statement that President Bush failed to carry out adequate anti-terror efforts before the September 11, 2001, attacks.
"What we did in the eight months [between Bush's inauguration and 9/11] was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years," Rice told the New York Post in comments published Tuesday.
"The notion that somehow for eight months the Bush administration sat there and didn't do that is just flatly false."
Rice's remarks followed Clinton's TV interview on "Fox News Sunday" in which the ex-president defended his efforts to track down and kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Clinton lashed out against "the right-wingers who are attacking me now," saying the same people had accused him of being "obsessed" with bin Laden.

MORE

Now these statements are contradicted by a memo released by "THE RAW STORY"...

Who is lying??? I think it has been established that Clinton doesn't lie about matters of national importance, but Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Condi have a long, dirty track record of lying, especially when it comes to national affairs.

My Daughter the Star

Little Madeline, aka Mad Mad Maddie, graces a billboard in St. Louis, Missouri....

Rumors of Boogeyman's Death

Does anyone really believe it? Not in my house. My two year old, when asked, replied with a big Bronx Cheer.

Editorial in Today's Denver Post

The Diplomacy of Bill Richardson

Bill Richardson has won international acclaim for his unique diplomatic efforts over the years.
He's won the release of Americans held captive in the most difficult global hot spots - a U.S. pilot shot down over North Korea, three Red Cross workers held hostage in Sudan, captives in Iraq and Cuba.
A few days ago, the governor of New Mexico pulled off a similar achievement that is quite outside his job description.
Richardson negotiated the release of three people from the war-torn region of Darfur, Sudan - a Chicago Tribune journalist on assignment for The National Geographic along with his driver and interpreter.

MORE

Mystery Object Delays Shuttle Landing

Apparently something accidentally escaped the cargo bay, and now they have to retrieve it. I understand, crap is always falling out of my van.

Thaiku

Man in the big tank

Why are you in such a rush

to get to Bangkok?

The World's Greatest Campaign Ad EVER

Someday I am going to figure out stills. But this ad by Governor Richardson for his reelection campaign is too funny. Please enjoy, and remember what a relief it would be to have an ethical, brilliant, and witty President!

If There is a Heaven....

This was the scene there yesterday.

Pardon My Blog

Apparently there is something going down with it. Template is askew. Details are missing from the top. I don't know nuttin, I just work here.

If you can help me fix it please email me at...

caracompton11@comcast.net.

Gracias.

Coming Soon to an Intestinal Tract Near You

Apparently this crap is spreading like wildfire. This morning CNN was reporting that it had spread to a ninth state, Ohio. Just now I got a breaking news alert from CNN saying that it was in 20 states.

Whatever you do, don't eat spinach.

I would lock my doors, too.

Today's Scared Sh!tless Report: America Embraces Government by Corporate Rule

According to an article in today's USA Today several newly created cities are foregoing the democratic process and turning to corporations to run their municipalities....

Click here for the horrible, horrible details....

Rep. Ney agrees to guilty plea in corruption probe

This hairstyle, popular among corrupt republicans, is called

"The Nattering NeyBob"