Governor Richardson on returning from North Korea

We are so lucky here in New Mexico to have this brilliant man, the good news for the rest of the country is Richardson is running for President!

Say Hey...Did I Drop Acid This Morning?

This commercial is just plain strange.

CNN Sucks

Breaking news! I get these alerts of breaking news from CNN in my email, because I am a hopeless news junkie. This is the garbage I have gotten this week...

BREAKING NEWS!
-- The local prosecutor who charged three Duke lacrosse players with raping a stripper apologizes to the athletes, The Associated Press reports.
(WOW!)

BREAKING NEWS!
-- An explosion has occurred in the cafeteria of Iraq's parliament building where members of parliament were having lunch and there are casualities, according to Iraqi state television.
(OK, that is real news...thanks for the information).

BREAKING NEWS!
-- Kurt Vonnegut, whose novels included "Slaughterhouse Five" and "Cat's Cradle," has died at 84, his wife tells The Associated Press.
(Sad, true, but at 84...hardly shocking, or breaking.)

BREAKING NEWS!
-- MSNBC is canceling its simulcast of Don Imus' radio show after he made racially charged remarks about Rutgers women's basketball team.
(Who really needs to know this???)

BREAKING NEWS!
-- David Evans, one of the three men exonerated today when the final charges in the Duke lacrosse sex case were dropped, said they went "to hell and back" and he hoped changes to the legal system would be made as a result of their case.
(Shocking!)

BREAKING NEWS!
-- Defense Secretary Robert Gates extends Army unit tours of duty to up to 15 months and says they will be given 12 months at home after a tour ends.
(Oh my goodness, some actual NEWS sneaked through the system!)

BREAKING NEWS!
-- North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper drops all sexual assault and kidnap charges against three men stemming from a Duke lacrosse team party.
(Ah nice, local news. I don't live in NC though!)

BREAKING NEWS!
-- Larry Birkhead is the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby, a court in the Bahamas rules. Birkhead said he hopes to have custody soon.
(All those sleepless nights I have spent worrying about this are over!)

BREAKING NEWS!
-- Controversial radio host Don Imus will be suspended for two weeks starting Monday April 16, NBC reports.
(Again, friggin wow.)

Does anyone care about the fact that the network news media has been almost singularly focused on Imus this week?

It seems to me there is plenty of real news going on without me needing alerts about Anna Nicole's baby or the Duke Lacrosse team.

Richardson's North Korean Breakthrough

The following is an email I got from Governor Bill Richardson today...lts...

After years of confrontation with virtually the entire world, the regime in North Korea yesterday took its first steps away from its policy of nuclear confrontation.
The North Koreans agreed to begin shutting down their Yongbyon atomic reactor, the facility that provides fuel for their nuclear weapons, and say they will allow UN weapons inspectors back into the country for the first time in five years.
The world is a safer place today, and I am proud to have played a role in securing this agreement.
I was in Pyongyang this week to secure the remains of six American servicemen who died during the Korean War.
This is a very positive gesture on the part of the North Korean government. Hopefully it will help heal the wounds from the Korean War and start a process to bring closure to the thousands of American families awaiting word about their loved ones who perished.
My years of experience dealing with North Korea and my knowledge of the region allowed me to help facilitate this new resolution to end their nuclear weapons program.
It will take a while for the media to understand the impact of this historic accord. NBC's Andrea Mitchell was the only network journalist in North Korea with us, and she has been leading the way with forward-looking coverage of this week's events.
Click here to watch MSNBC's coverage of North Korea's breakthrough announcement.
The bottom line is that diplomacy works - there is no other lesson to draw from this monumental breakthrough. And we desperately need someone in the White House who understands this and can restore American international leadership.
In today's world, we have to be willing to engage our adversaries in tough and direct talks that lead to resolution, not more confrontation and isolation. I don't have to tell you that there are trouble spots all over the world that could use some of this tough and smart American diplomacy.
I'm running for President, in part, to keep our country safe and secure. I'm proud that yesterday in North Korea I was able to make a contribution to real progress toward that goal.
Sincerely,
Governor Bill Richardson

Sweet Jesus! Get a Load of Those Milk Duds!!!

It's Sacri-licious!

Great article HERE

"Dear Easter Bunny....It would be so nice to find one of these in my basket this year. Also, come of those new orange creame Cadbury Eggs. Yum. Love, LTS"

Skankbeast Limpballs Slurs Edwards AGAIN!

Rush Limbaugh, the drug addled nazi gasbag, took Ann Coulter's penis out of his mouth long enough to unleash another attack on John Edwards today, this time to posit that The Edwards's announcement that Elizabeth's "incurable cancer" would not derail the campaign was staged to give the campaign a boost. Now, I am a Richardson girl, but this makes my blood boil.

How long is this asshole going to be given a forum?

Here is a transcript: (source Media Matters)

LIMBAUGH: We will get to your phone calls here in a jiffy, folks, but first, three sound bites here. Two from John Edwards and Elizabeth Edwards, and then one from [Newsweek chief political correspondent] Howard Fineman.
Now, I made mention mere moments ago that the new website Politico has broken two scoops this week, both proving to be untrue. The first was that [Attorney General] Alberto Gonzales is going to quit and that the White House had asked Republicans out there to find potential replacements. The second one was just this morning, that Edwards was going to suspend the campaign. And just the opposite happened.
Now, I'm going to play these two bites. Edwards and -- John Edwards and Elizabeth Edwards to set up Howard Fineman, who commented on this later, because it provides perhaps a little insight into what happened.
Ben Smith is the blogger at The Politico who broke the story this morning that Edwards is going to suspend the campaign. He's got egg all over his face, and he's just put a post on his blog. "Hey, look, I talked to a source really close to 'em, and the source said they were going to suspend the campaign. And, you know, we were astounded. We were shocked by this. We apologize for this, but I trust this source. I'm not going to reveal the source's identity, but this source has never gotten anything like this wrong."
So you'll hear Howard Fineman's bite, and it might give you some insight here into what went on. Here, first, is Senator Edwards himself responding to a question, "What does this mean for your campaign? Are you going to suspend any activities, fundraising, travel?"
[...]
LIMBAUGH: Now, Howard Fineman -- I played those two bites to set this up. This is Howard Fineman on PMSNBC [sic] after the announcement that Elizabeth Edwards' cancer has returned but that Senator Edwards will continue his presidential campaign. This is Howard Fineman to Chris Matthews [host of MSNBC's Hardball].
FINEMAN [audio clip]: I think this is somewhat of a surprise. I think there were some websites here in Washington that were predicting that he would suspend or even drop out. That turned out not to be the case. This is an ongoing story, and this is a metaphor for how they want to fight for the country. They're willing to take the public-relations risk of analogizing their own family situation and the bravery that they've shown and the guts that they've shown to the kind of leadership that they want to offer the county. That's pretty bold, but that's the world that we live in now, Chris, where people's personal lives are analogized to their political beings. And that's what we're seeing with the Edwardses. I thought that was -- looked at politically -- diagnosed, if you will, politically, that was a 10-strike of a press conference. They showed guts. It was nothing short of remarkable and somewhat unexpected, and it's always great when something unexpected happens around here.
LIMBAUGH: Yes, it is great when something unexpected -- it's fabulous when there's a surprise. Isn't it sort of boring when we find -- what, Mr. Snerdly? Of course I know how that sounds. Of course I know. It sounds slavish. It sounds absolutely slavish.
But lookit -- he's right. There's been a -- people are sharing -- in the old days, this announcement would not have been public, and it certainly wouldn't have been tied to a campaign. It's a different era now. This is -- I'm telling you, this is to jump-start the campaign. This is to see if it'll jump-start the campaign. And we'll find out the next three or four days or whatever, week, if that happens.
But this business about this being a surprise makes me think that the leak that was planted today was purposely wrong to create surprise, to make sure everybody thought, "Oh, we know what's coming." And then have it blown away. The campaign's -- "Ooh, the campaign's going to go on. Oh, well, we thought it was going to be suspended."
You know, we all get all these press releases in advance of the State of the Union address. We all know what's going to be said before it airs. There's no surprises. This was a surprise. May have been done on purpose.
[...]
LIMBAUGH: The whole crew on the other side of the glass, apoplectic at a comment I just made before the break. And the comment about which they are apoplectic is when I responded to Howard Fineman. Howard Fineman, talking about how everybody was expecting Edwards to announce his campaign was going to be suspended because of a report on the Politico website this morning that that was the case. And he went on to say, "This was a total surprise. It was a 100 percent, total surprise." And I, reacting to that, said, "Yeah, it was a total surprise. And I wouldn't be surprised if whoever the source is purposely leaked something not true to The Politico in order to set up the surprise."
Because Fineman's right -- what good's watching a press conference when you know what's going to happen? Every time there's a press conference of something -- be it a presidential press conference, State of the Union address -- there's always the text of the speech or whatever before it goes out. Other than a, you know, a news conference, which is ad-libbed, you don't know what the questions are going to be. But, you know, we all know what's going to happen before it happens. That's the way public relations works.
Then all of a sudden, they set this up. This was a giant surprise, and everybody in Washington -- Fineman was talking about it -- everybody, CBS. CBS broke into programming at 11 o'clock when the Politico thing hit to announce that the Edwards campaign was going to be suspended. Now everybody in Washington and in the drive-by media circles is wondering how the hell this happened. Because it's so unusual. When something leaks from a source close to the campaign about what's going to be at a press conference, that's generally what happens.
Now, I have here the latest blog from Ben Smith at The Politico. I'm going to read it to you. It's called "Getting It Wrong."
"A single, confident source close to John Edwards told me this morning that Edwards was suspending his campaign, and I posted it to the blog at 11:06. My source and I were wrong. The source, whose anonymity I agreed to respect, spoke of the kind of grim prognosis Elizabeth Edwards herself just described hearing before a second round of tests came back. I trusted the source, somebody I've known for several years, and who has always been reliable. And with less than an hour before Edwards was to announce, I unwisely wrote the item without getting a second source. When the campaign pushed back harder than I'd expected, I added that information to the original item, but didn't undo the damage. My apologies to our readers for passing on bad information."
Is it not reasonable to think that perhaps the source purposely passed on something just to set up the surprise that Howard Fineman, drive-by media extraordinaire, thinks is just jolly? Thinks this is great, that something that -- we love surprises in these things.
This is not a criticism. This is -- look, this is P.R. This is how you play the media. People on the other side of the glass -- "I can't believe it. The left-wing blogs are going to be all over this. Limbaugh said that the Edwards campaign lied to The Politico." [inaudible] You know, in public relations and politics, just what is a lie and what isn't? It's all a game.
I want to go back and I want you to listen to this Howard Fineman bit one more time, and I want to ax [sic] you as you listen to this if there's something about it -- and I referred to it as "slavish" -- but is there something else about this that strikes you?
Now, let me put this in context. This is Howard Fineman reacting to the news he's just learned in a press conference with John and Elizabeth Edwards that she has incurable cancer. It has spread to the bones. It is Stage Four. Life expectancy here -- survival rate of five years, 20 percent. Survivable rate of five years. She's got -- cancer's treatable, but -- we've all just heard this press conference, essentially saying that she's dying and Edwards is going to keep the campaign going. She's going to be part of it.
See if there's anything that jumps out about -- there's not a secret sentence here that will give it away. There's not a single -- I'm not asking you to listen for something specific. Just the whole bite, and the concept and the tone of it. Is there something here that sort of makes you curious, raises red flags or whatever? Here it is.

Media Matters lists a variety of places where you can vent your anger...and I will here too....

Contact: Rush Limbaugh
rush@eibnet.com
Contact: Premiere Radio Networks
Premiere Radio Networks Premiere Radio Networks, Inc. 15260 Ventura Blvd. 5th Floor Sherman Oaks, CA 91403 Main: (818)377-5300 Fax: (818)377-5333 Toll Free: (800)533-8686
Contact: The Rush Limbaugh Show
1-800-282-2882 rush@eibnet.com fax: 212-563-9166 The Rush Limbaugh Show 1270 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020

Sluts R Us Redux: Newtie Speaks

"Hey...it's not the size of the boat, its the motion of the ocean!"

Newt Gingrich, republican candidate for president, has said he doesn't think that candidates' personal lives should be brought into the debate.

Oh really?

That's pretty funny stuff coming from Gingrich, who lead the witch hunt against Bill Clinton. Clinton was on trial for being on the receiving end of the game "Head of State" and at the time old Newtie was banging more than just a gavel. He was engaged in an affair with a staffer while married.

Curiously, only the republicans on the field seem to have issues with infidelity and divorce (multiple for each candidate) but one of them will be sure to get the "Focus on the Family" award and endorsement.

Across the aisle all of the candidates for the democratic nomination have been married just once.

Bush to Congress: No Subpoenas

The rest of the story....

David Iglesias, Come to the Light!

rico.....suave....

Ok, so David Iglesias may be jobless at the moment, but I think that he will miss a HUGE opportunity if he doesn't come over to the left. We liberals will welcome with open arms this gorgeous hunk of special prosecutorness, am I right ladies?

Here is his side of the story...

Why I Was Fired by David C. Iglesias

With this week’s release of more than 3,000 Justice Department e-mail messages about the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors, it seems clear that politics played a role in the ousters.Of course, as one of the eight, I’ve felt this way for some time. But now that the record is out there in black and white for the rest of the country to see, the argument that we were fired for “performance related” reasons (in the words of Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty) is starting to look more than a little wobbly.

United States attorneys have a long history of being insulated from politics. Although we receive our appointments through the political process (I am a Republican who was recommended by Senator Pete Domenici), we are expected to be apolitical once we are in office. I will never forget John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, telling me during the summer of 2001 that politics should play no role during my tenure. I took that message to heart. Little did I know that I could be fired for not being political.

Politics entered my life with two phone calls that I received last fall, just before the November election. One came from Representative Heather Wilson and the other from Senator Domenici, both Republicans from my state, New Mexico.Ms. Wilson asked me about sealed indictments pertaining to a politically charged corruption case widely reported in the news media involving local Democrats. Her question instantly put me on guard. Prosecutors may not legally talk about indictments, so I was evasive. Shortly after speaking to Ms. Wilson, I received a call from Senator Domenici at my home. The senator wanted to know whether I was going to file corruption charges — the cases Ms. Wilson had been asking about — before November. When I told him that I didn’t think so, he said, “I am very sorry to hear that,” and the line went dead.

A few weeks after those phone calls, my name was added to a list of United States attorneys who would be asked to resign — even though I had excellent office evaluations, the biggest political corruption prosecutions in New Mexico history, a record number of overall prosecutions and a 95 percent conviction rate. (In one of the documents released this week, I was deemed a “diverse up and comer” in 2004. Two years later I was asked to resign with no reasons given.)When some of my fired colleagues — Daniel Bogden of Las Vegas; Paul Charlton of Phoenix; H. E. Cummins III of Little Rock, Ark.; Carol Lam of San Diego; and John McKay of Seattle — and I testified before Congress on March 6, a disturbing pattern began to emerge. Not only had we not been insulated from politics, we had apparently been singled out for political reasons. (Among the Justice Department’s released documents is one describing the office of Senator Domenici as being “happy as a clam” that I was fired.)

As this story has unfolded these last few weeks, much has been made of my decision to not prosecute alleged voter fraud in New Mexico. Without the benefit of reviewing evidence gleaned from F.B.I. investigative reports, party officials in my state have said that I should have begun a prosecution. What the critics, who don’t have any experience as prosecutors, have asserted is reprehensible — namely that I should have proceeded without having proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The public has a right to believe that prosecution decisions are made on legal, not political, grounds.

What’s more, their narrative has largely ignored that I was one of just two United States attorneys in the country to create a voter-fraud task force in 2004. Mine was bipartisan, and it included state and local law enforcement and election officials.After reviewing more than 100 complaints of voter fraud, I felt there was one possible case that should be prosecuted federally. I worked with the F.B.I. and the Justice Department’s public integrity section. As much as I wanted to prosecute the case, I could not overcome evidentiary problems. The Justice Department and the F.B.I. did not disagree with my decision in the end not to prosecute.

Good has already come from this scandal. Yesterday, the Senate voted to overturn a 2006 provision in the Patriot Act that allows the attorney general to appoint indefinite interim United States attorneys. The attorney general’s chief of staff has resigned and been replaced by a respected career federal prosecutor, Chuck Rosenberg. The president and attorney general have admitted that “mistakes were made,” and Mr. Domenici and Ms. Wilson have publicly acknowledged calling me.

President Bush addressed this scandal yesterday. I appreciate his gratitude for my service — this marks the first time I have been thanked. But only a written retraction by the Justice Department setting the record straight regarding my performance would settle the issue for me.

David C. Iglesias was United States attorney for the District of New Mexico from October 2001 through last month.

Richardson Calls for Withdrawl from Iraq

SANTA FE (AP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Richardson is again calling for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, says the troops have done all they can and it's time to bring them home.

His comments came the day before the fourth anniversary of the start of the US-led war in Iraq. Richardson also is asking Americans to say a prayer for U-S military personnel serving their country and for the family and friends of those Americans who have died in the conflict.

Richardson says President Bush is deaf to the will of the people. In his words, "This is not presidential greatness. This is a great tragedy."

Support Bill Richardson for President Website

There is a brand new website up in favor of Governor Richardson's candidacy for the White House...Support Bill Richardson for President. I received an email from its creator, Jonathan Strong in Washington, DC. today directing me to it. I love Jonathan's message, that Richardson has the "Experience, Brains and Guts" necessary to lead our great nation. He also has some great bumperstickers!

Be sure too put this great site in your favorites, and add it to your blogrolls!

Sluts "R" Us

One thing that we liberals have had to hear ad nauseum is how the conservatives have a lock on morality and marital fidelity and "family values" (the phrase that makes me most violently ill). How many of us heard our republican relatives admonish us for supporting Bill Clinton? "If his wife can't trust him, how can I?" was the talking point I heard time and again...

Well kids, the ho is on the other foot now. Three of the main contender for the republican nomination in 2008 are admitted, repeat offending, unrepentant adulterers. Let's review...

Rudy Guiliani, here doing his famous "Birdcage" act, was famously thrown out of the Mayor's residence for his very public affair, which has led to a very public estrangement from his children.

Here is why LTS adores politicians, they tend to talk with their hands a lot. Here Newt seems to be describing what he brings to the party. Sad.

Yes, friends, it is widely known that during the impeachment hearings against Bill Clinton for crimes involving an act known as "Head of State" Newtie was banging more than a gavel. He is also fondly remembered for serving his wife divorce papers in the hospital while she was suffering from cancer. What a wiener. A small, pathetic, limp little wiener.

Um, yeah. I don't think I even need to elaborate here...eeeewwww.

The other day I was chatting with a relative who had given me much crap during the Clinton years, and I must say when she was extolling the virtues of Newt to me, I just couldn't a resist the query...

"But if his wife can't trust him, then how can you?"

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I Don't Even Know What to File This Under....

...but I ran across the strangest website tonight while scoping out photos for the old blog. Here it is...

Patriot Portrait Collectibles

Indignico, Inc.'s website offers a variety of portraits of republicans and sad clowns (no, I am not being snarky, honestly!) and promises "Quality you can feel." I am going to take their word for this.

Here is Bush...hey, they caputured his suave, sexy side!

...and Unca Dick, looking especially snarly!

I told you there were clowns...

even SCARY CLOWNS!!!!

I once bought "The Pop-Up Book of Phobias" and they have a very nice section on coulrophobia, the fear of clowns. The pop-up effect was pretty cool stuff.

I thought that this site might have been snark, but it seems like a genuine merchant. I went to their eBay auctions (there is a link of course) and you can get your very own John Ashcroft for about $500 with the "Buy It Now" feature. Sweet.

Scariest Photo Ever

I was over at Wonkette the other day checking out her loverly site, and I happened on this photo.

I swear, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

I have walked alone on the mean streets of some of America's largest cities at night, St. Louis (now that is one scary town), San Francisco, Seattle, Albuquerque...and never felt frightened like I would if I were walking through a park in broad daylight and saw THIS.

This picture reminds me of the nightmare you have when you are a kid when you happen upon aliens who want to eat your brains, and they chase after you with jars for the harvest, chanting "Marshmallows! Marshmallows!" and you try to run but you are waist deep in sand.

Yikes.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson Signs Landmark Clean & Renewable Energy Bills

New independent poll cites Governor Richardson as a strong leader
on issue of global warming

SANTA FE, NM -- Governor Bill Richardson has signed two bills that enact major cornerstones of his clean energy agenda and make New Mexico one of the top two states for renewable energy requirements. The first law requires New Mexico utilities to produce 15% of their energy from renewable sources, such as wind, solar, or biomass, by 2015 and 20% by 2020. The second law creates a Renewable Energy Transmission Authority to develop clean energy resources and market them to other states.

“In the absence of federal leadership, I feel a real sense of urgency to take action at the state level to fight global warming and strengthen our energy security,” said Governor Richardson. “Ramping up our use of renewable energy and reducing carbon-based emissions is the first step. These strategies also help to protect the environment, create high-tech, high-wage jobs and grow our economy.”

The results of a new poll, conducted in New Mexico on behalf of the National Environmental Trust by Research & Polling, Inc.*, show a majority of respondents- 57% - say Governor Richardson is a strong leader on the issue of global warming. Governor Richardson is the only person perceived as a strong leader on this critically important issue by a majority of poll respondents.

59% of those polled believe global warming is a serious problem, and a large majority believes the new Democrat controlled US Congress should take the lead in addressing global warming, renewable energy, and environmental protection. In the absence of federal leadership on this issue, Governor Richardson has taken aggressive action to make New Mexico a leader in reducing carbon-based emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy.

In 2004 Governor Richardson signed New Mexico’s first Renewable Portfolio Standard into law. This mandated that 5% of New Mexico’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2006, increasing to 10% by 2011. The Governor’s initiative that he signed into law this week dramatically increases these requirements and continues New Mexico’s leadership in the area of renewable energy and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

In the past few weeks alone Governor Richardson has signed a major, five state climate change agreement, announced a new Tesla electric car plant for Albuquerque, and a biodiesel plant in Clovis, NM.

US Near the Bottom of World View

As you can see from the graph on the left the United States is viewed to have a mostly negative impact on the world, according to a poll conducted by the BBC World News Service.

The poll asked 28,000 people in 27 countries to rate a dozen countries plus the EU in terms of whether they have a positive or negative influence.

According to the graph, only Iran and Israel are believed to have a more negative impact on world affairs than the US, China is viewed to have a far more positive role in the world.

China.

I would have liked to see these numbers during the Clinton Administration. Bush and Company have done more damage to the US than any other administration. Worst president ever? Do we really even need to speculate anymore?

Scooter Libby Guilty on Four of Five

"Oh, shit. I'm going to the pokey!"

Today I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted on four out of five charges related to the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity. Libby, who lamentably is headed to prison with one of the worst bottom nicknames in the history of the federal prison system, is screaming appeal, of course.

The only thing that remains to be seen is how long he is sentenced to serve and how long before Bush pardons his sorry ass.

LYINSAXASHEET

Yep, Faux News has done it again. Why bother with revisionist history when you can revise the here and now?

A Letter to Hillary Rodham Clinton

Dear Hillary,

I am sad to be writing this, because I do so without any malice whatsoever. Frankly, I have been a fan of you since 1992, and have hated how you were smeared by journalists and right wing nutjobs and the truly crazed hatebags, like Ann Coulter. Not that I haven't disagreed with you from time to time, (read Iraq) but I have generally respected and admired you for standing up to the VRWC for so many years.

I am asking you to stop your campaign for the democratic nomination.

Ok, you are saying, Right. Who is this stupid LTS? telling ME that I need to withdraw. True, I am a lowly blogger, but I have literally dozens of readers! That's some serious street cred there. I also have been a campaign vet going back to the Dukakis era, ok yeah I am an idealist. I come to you with this plea from a very pragmatic place.

My fear is that if you get the democratic nomination you will put into motion two really disgusting and cataclysmic forces. First, the republican far right will go into full feces flinging smear and destroy mode. They will paint you as a flip-flopping, Marxist, murdering harlot. The Robertsons and Dobsons of the world will beseech God to eradicate the world of you. It will, in short, get very ugly. Now I know you are tough, I know you can handle that. Part two is even more odious, however.

Ralph Nader has already declared that if you are our party's nominee he will jump in and run. This is disastrous. Nader sucks the air from the room and enough of our loose leaves from our branches of liberalism over to the dark side. He will make a race that shouldn't even be close another electoral college nightmare (do you remember 2000 and 2004?)

I know you love America Hillary. I believe in my heart that you are a good, intelligent person (sidebar: but what is up with you hanging with Rupert and Newt? I hope you took a long hot shower!) so I implore you to do what is right for America. We cannot take a repeat of the past two elections. I, in turn, will teach my children about your great sacrifice for our country, and to honor you as you rise to greatness in our Senate.

Yours very truly,

Liberaltruthsayer

Coming soon....A Letter to Barak Obama!

I am Outraged, and You Should Be Too....

I received an email from long-time and highly recognized columnist Don Williams whose columns in the Knoxville News-Sentinel have been strongly critical of the Bush Administration for years. His column is no more. Following is the entire text, along with the content of the last column which the paper refused to publish. Please join me in expressing your opinion to the editors, Don was kind enough to include their email information!

LTS

The editors declined to publish this last column. It is available, however, at http://www.opednews.com/ , where lots of writers converge, www.moosemeals.com/oped.htm , where you may hear podcasts, and at http://www.newmillenniumwritings.com/ . If you’d like to write a letter to the editor, see instructions at the end of this. Or contact me at donwilliams7@charter.net . The column is no longer available at http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/opinion . The main number at the News-Sentinel is 865-523-3131.

My Last Column in the News-Sentinel
by Don Williams

Dear Reader,
Barring a change of heart on someone else’s part, this is my last column for the Knoxville News-Sentinel. Here’s what I know about the reasons why. On Monday, Editor Jack McElroy informed me he would be cutting my column to once every other week. On Tuesday I let him know I could not go along. It would mean letting too many people down, and waiting for the other shoe to drop, along with readership, would compromise my independence. So ends a 21-year association.
I won’t defend my record. Fan mail, awards and readership polls speak for themselves. My column draws more readers than most, as I can prove. This isn’t about quality or popularity.
Jack said he was trimming my sails because I don’t write enough on local issues. Some readers might remember this notion came up in 2004, after I wrote a series of columns opposed to the re-selection of George W. Bush, whom this paper endorsed. Shortly afterward, Jack asked me to begin writing about local issues.
In a widely read column that ran Feb. 4, 2005, I tried to put a smiley face on this development. Naively, I didn’t regard it as an attempt to “muzzle” me. I promised readers that, “should the time come that I can no longer go along with Jack’s request, I’ll recognize it and act according to my conscience.”
I believed then that going along would be easy. Most local issues worth writing about are tied to Washington. Our quality of air and water, the well-being of our soldiers and veterans, the role of Oak Ridge and TVA in nuclear weapons technology, healthcare of the disadvantaged, rights of people with alternative lifestyles, integrity of our elections, separation of church and state, health of public lands and much more around here are affected by national policies. I’ve tried to cite such local angles in about three-fourths of my articles since 2005. Even when I didn’t say so explicitly, I believe these issues were implicit, especially in columns my critics write off as “Bush bashing.”
Those are at the heart of my predicament, I believe. In 2001, months before 9/11, as Bush was rolling back environmental regulations, holding secret meetings with energy, religious and military strategists, busily appointing foxes to guard all the henhouses where treasured eggs are stored, I thought it should be obvious to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear that George W. Bush was a disaster for our world, our country, our communities. As I’ve written in several columns over the years, had Bush set out with a goal of destroying the world, he could hardly have done worse than he’s done. Sadly, history bears me out.
Name an issue I’ve been very wrong on. Name a prediction I didn’t nail since 2001. The list of things I got right is a long one, and I’ll put my record up against any columnist in the country, liberal or conservative. Loss of civil liberties, outright torture, electoral malfeasance, war-profiteering, use of depleted uranium, banned weapons, strip-mining, species decline, media manipulation, broken treaties, soaring deficits, efforts to hide the truth about global warming, Dick Cheney’s many conflicts of interest, and the sad decline of our nation’s reputation have been borne out by clouds of witnesses.
To downplay such disasters the way most media do is akin to complicity in the Holocaust, for the destruction of this good earth is an ongoing holocaust in which millions of people and fellow creatures suffer and die. History proves the silence of good people makes a culture complicit in its own destruction. So I leave you with a question that courageous women and men from ages past have asked:
What then must we do?
To obscure America's fingerprint on global warming, the death of maybe a million people in the Middle East, the creation of millions of refugees, the maiming of millions more, the possibility of a trumped up war with Iran, is simply wrong. I won’t be a party to it. I often wonder how Bush apologists sleep at night. That’s a problem I’ll never have.
In keeping with the promise I made in that Feb. 4, 2005, column, I’m ending my News-Sentinel career rather than “go along” this time around. Pardon me if I don’t get all teary-eyed. This is not a time for making nice, it’s a time for taking stands. I’ll sail my opinion out on the Internet. I’ll write for other publications. I’ll finish books. If you’d like to come along for the ride, get in touch.
Finally, I’ve loved writing a weekly column these 21 years, mostly from home the past 11, and I’m letting go with no bitterness and little regret. Rather, I feel the way I’ve come to feel when my name’s held up to ridicule on the Letters Page. Why, looky here, Mama, I made the honor roll.

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Don Williams is a prize-winning columnist and the founding editor and publisher of New Millennium Writings, an annual anthology of literary writing. His awards include a National
Endowment for the Humanities Michigan Journalism Fellowship, a Golden Presscard Award and the Malcolm Law Journalism Prize. He is finishing a novel, “Red State Blues,” set in his native Tennessee and Iraq. His book of selected journalism, “Heroes, Sheroes and Zeroes, the Best Writings About People” by Don Williams, is now available for ordering. For more information, email him at donwilliams7@charter.net. Or visit the NMW website at http://www.newmillenniumwritings.com/.

To write a letter to the editor follow these guidelines, which appear on the Letters Page:

* Letters must contain your street address and phone numbers, and if you have an online signature that would help, if emailing.
* Must be original material, or all sources cited.
* No more than 200 words.
* Mail to:
Letters to the Editor
News-Sentinel
PO Box 59038
Knoxville, TN 37950
* Email: letters@knews.com

Note: It's been my experience the NS does not typically run letters that have been copied to me, as I've been CC’d several others that never ran. Either way, I appreciate your support.

Thanks for reading. My editors' email addresses are letters@knews.com, editor@knews.com, canady@knews.com, and avent@knews.com . They've been having trouble receiving emails, however, so it may take several efforts should you try to reach them that way.

All my best,
Don

LTS NOTE/UPDATE:
In response to the comment by Jack, I have chosen to edit his email from this blog.
Jack, I am sorry for the error, and hope you have not been inundated by emails, and thank you for stopping by and pointing the error out to me.